26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A (Stewardship Sunday)

As we approach the end of our month of stewardship, I thought I would devote a homily to the history of the parish and how stewardship built the building we pray in. Hopefully you will find it as interesting as I did.This church was founded in the spring of 1895, responding to the request from a number of German-speaking people in the area for a new parish. A number of lots, 17.5 in fact, and a building known as the Murdoch mansion were purchased and the first mass was celebrated in the home on July 28th, 1895. 

About two years later, a wood frame church was completed and consecrated. It was located behind this present church, somewhere around where the parking lot gate and gym are now. The name was finalized as St. Michael the Archangel, although Corpus Christi had been the first choice. The new church of 1897 held about 160 people and cost about $1800.

St. Michael continued to grow through the years, and by 1910, a transept or wing was added to the church so that it could now hold 320 people. The school continued to grow from 46 students in 1895 to nearly 250 when a decision was made to build a new church. In 1939, Fr. Preuss moved to build this current church that we are sitting in. He had already been pastor for some 30 years, but he was confident that the beautiful new building would be supported by the people and benefit them for generations to come.  At the time of construction, there were 350 registered families in the parish. The new church cost around $91,000, which would be equivalent to about $1.4 million dollars in today’s market. 

Allow me to highlight a few of the beautiful details of this church, which is now approaching its 75th year. 

Windows: Most of the stained glass in the church was crafted by the Emil Frei company. They still operate from their shop in Kirkwood and one of the family is a member of this parish. The Frei company did Stained glass for many churches throughout St. Louis, both catholic and non-catholic. To give you a perspective on the treasure that we have here, the center window above the altar, the image of St. Michael is about 12 sq. ft. If this was built today, it would cost about $1400 a sq. ft. or about $18,000. Such a window, full of detail and skill would take about 3 months to complete. The other windows on either side of the sanctuary, which depict the four gospel writers would cost about $950 a sq. ft. and take about a month each. The other windows in the church, while less elaborate and valuable, still add to the beauty and presence of this wonderful space.

Wood: the exposed beams of the ceiling are made of solid wood timber and fitted together with bolts and pins. On the front of each wood truss is a hand carved face of an angel, perhaps the friends of St. Michael. If you look closely, you might see little variations between each cherub as the craftsman, Alfred Hagemann, labored to complete them. 

Arches: There are 24 stone arches and also stone columns throughout the church. They are not facades covering steel or wood supports. They are made of solid Indiana Limestone.

Entry doors: These doors you enter each week are made of solid oak. The front doors lack traditional hinges and are mounted with hand-wrought brackets integrated into the masonry. They each weigh hundreds of pounds. 

Altars: the side altars of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and the Sacred heart were imported from Italy and are made from Red Verona Marble. The main altar uses St. Genevieve rose marble, which comes from St. Genevieve, MO and was considered the best american marble at the time.

Finally, we have the reredos. Hand-carved in Germany, it has statues of the apostles as well as the depiction of the crucifixion. Angels and other beautiful embellishments can be found throughout. We can only imagine the skill and time involved in carving and assembling this masterpiece that we enjoy every time we gather here to pray. 

Although it seems like a bargain today, the sum for this church would have been intimidating. The Great depression had ravaged the economy and people’s savings about 10 years prior. Hostilities among nations was increasing and World War II was already beginning in Europe. It would have been very safe and easy to settle for the old frame church of 1897. But the parishioners and pastor of St. Michael wanted to do more for God and each other than what was strictly required or practical. They wanted a beautiful church that would glorify God and proclaim their faith. They wanted a building that would not only help them grow closer to the Lord, but would also be well-built and beautiful for generations to come, so that many others could be blessed by their sacrifice and foresight. 

This, in a nutshell, is stewardship. Taking a piece of the best of what we have been blessed with and consecrating it back to God. A true steward does this as a way of thanking God for the gifts that have been received. It is not about tax deductions, or status, or even getting something named after us. Those are all bonus items. Stewardship realizes that everything we have is a gift from God; each day of our life, each talent and ability that we have discovered and refined, each dollar and material thing we own, all of them gifts. Stewardship says, “I am going to give a small portion of those blessings back to the Lord” Not the leftovers or things that I really don’t don’t want or need. No, a portion of the best; that is what we give to God.

We see this reflected in this church. Everything is beautiful, well-built from the best materials, and made to last. We have received this church as a gift from the parishioners that went before us. Now this is our time to be stewards, to care for the church, to further her mission, to give a portion of the best of ourselves: our time, our talents, and yes, our treasure. We need to give all three, in the measure God shows us, so that this parish can continue to feed and foster the faith of generations to come. My prayer for you and for me, is that we become better stewards every time we walk in these doors and that generations from now, our faith will be apparent to those who are still praying in this place!

Life is not Fair! (25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A)

How many of you in church this morning happen to be the oldest child in your family? Go ahead and raise your hand, so I can see how many sympathizers I have! As a matter of fact, those of you who are higher up in the birth order might also agree with me. I believe, as a general rule, and I am being completely biased here, that the oldest child has life a little bit harder than the youngest. Why? Well, our parents were experiencing parenthood for the first time and they wanted to do everything just right. Prior to our arrival, many of them read books and listened to experts explain about how to dialogue with baby, how to prepare him or her for a bright future from the instant of birth, and what procedures to put in place so that this bundle of joy could be healthy, wealthy, and wise. The truth is, most of our parents learned on the fly and we essentially served as very talkative and often irritating guinea pigs. By the time, our younger siblings came along, they had things somewhat figured out, important things like “don’t sweat the small stuff” and “they will be fine.”  

I still watch in disbelief at the liberties of my younger siblings. Did you know that you can get your driving permit before the age of 17? I can’t imagine having Facebook in grade-school? Or my own room! Or cable TV in the house! Only in my dreams would I have asked about staying out with friends past midnight! Having a cell phone to begin high school wasn’t even an option! These things, which would have been grounds for capital punishment in my youth are now tolerated and even approved by my parents! One of the first reactions that comes to my mind often as the oldest is: “That’s not fair! I had to work a lot harder and wait longer for those same privileges!”

But you don’t have to be high in the birth order to feel that life isn’t fair. We humans have a pretty good sense of that. We see good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people. We see some people labour for hours for a morsel of bread, and others make hundreds of thousands of dollars with a simple phone call. We see some who are physically fit and look after themselves die suddenly and others who abuse their health and still live to a ripe old age. We could go on and on with examples, but the simple truth is: “Life is often unfair.”

At first glance, the gospel appears to be one more example of this truth. Jesus describes the kingdom of God with a parable, a story where a landowner hires workers to toil in his vineyard. Some he hires early in the morning, others, around noon, and even a group at the end of the day. To all of them he promises to pay them what is just. At the end of the day, when all of the workers are lined up to receive compensation, the master starts with the last to arrive. He gives them a full day’s wage for their hour’s work. When the laborers, who toiled the entire day are paid the same amount, they grumble in disappointment. 

I don’t know about you, but I tend to sympathize with the guys who put in a whole day’s work. Something about the whole thing just doesn’t sit right. How can a person who worked an hour receive the same amount as one who worked the whole day? And this is what the kingdom of heaven is supposed to be like?  

But if we take a moment to shed our indignation and outrage, if we humbly reflect on the final words words of the master, then we see that this parable is not about fairness at all. No, it is all about generosity! The same Divine generosity that moved Christ to eat with tax collectors, and hang around with prostitutes and known criminals, and heal people on the Sabbath day, and tell sinners that they were forgiven simply because they had faith in him, simply because they repented and trusted him. If we choose to see life only in terms of fair or unfair, if we view God’s generous love and forgiveness as something to be earned, we will quickly be upset at how merciful He is and how freely He shares his life with the sinful and imperfect. It won’t be long before this mindset makes us blind to our own need for God’s grace and how imperfect we ourselves truly are. This is the attitude that led the Scribes and Pharisees to reject Christ. This is the attitude that blinded them to their own need for salvation. This is the attitude that prevented them from receiving the many good things Jesus desired to give them.

As we reflect on this parable today, this story which teaches us so much about the kingdom of God and how He loves us, we should thank God that he doesn’t deal with us according to what we believe is fair and unfair. No, even though we have a God who is infinitely fair and just, he doesn’t deal with us simply in those terms. If he did, we would not be forgiven, we would not have the sacraments, we would not be capable of eternal life. Thankfully, we have a God who always treats us with overwhelming generosity and mercy. All of us, even the best of us, has received immeasurably more than we earned from God, the master of the vineyard. 

So let us thank God, right here and right now in this Eucharist, for his extravagant generosity. Let us show him our gratitude for the countless ways he enriches our lives, even though we have done nothing to deserve such kindness. Let us be joyful when we see God pouring his love and blessing on others rather than focusing on whether or not it is fair or deserved. We are all his children and we all need his love; we all need his forgiveness. And praise God, that is what we receive when we turn to God, when we receive Christ into our lives and do the work that he has set before us to do.

My friends - we don't earn God's love; we respond to it. God loves you.  End of story. God loves you. Beginning of brand new story. May we live that new story.  May we come to God in gratitude for what he has done for us, and in thanksgiving for what he does for everyone who turns to him.  

Triumph of the Holy Cross

Perhaps many of you know how important a figure was a man named Constantine. He was the first Christian ruler of the Roman Empire, who ruled early in the 4th century. In 313, He issued the Edict of Milan, which made Christianity legal, and from there, our Faith grew by leaps and bounds. His rule brought a unity between the Eastern and Western kingdoms and his seat of power became the city of Constantinople. As important as Constantine was, his mother was equally important in the history of Christianity. Her name was Helena and she was a strong woman. One of her missions was to find the cross that Jesus died on. She tore down a pagan temple and began digging for the true cross. Tradition holds that she found three crosses and had to figure out which one belonged to Christ. There was a sick woman, near death, who was brought to the site. When she was placed on the first two crosses, her condition didn't improve. When she touched the third cross, she was healed instantly. At that moment, St. Helena knew she had found the cross that redeemed the world from its sins. The cross was cut into tiny pieces and sent all over the world. The Cathedral basilica has a one of these pieces of the true cross and you can venerate it on Good Friday.

Thanks to St. Helena, we can see and touch the Holy Cross, which as Catholics, probably doesn’t seem all that strange or unusual. But take another look up at the altar, look at the crucifixion scene where Christ hangs above his Mother Mary and the Apostle John. If we stop and think about it, at least in human terms, celebrating the cross is not only unusual; it is downright illogical. By modern standards, Jesus was a total failure. He had no college degree - in fact, he had very little formal education at all. He had no career - in fact, for the last three years of his life he had no paying job at all. He had very little money - in fact, he had to live entirely from donations and begging. He didn't have a fancy house or chariot - he slept outside most of the time, and traveled by foot. He had no friends among the elite - in fact, they considered him a lunatic and a criminal. He wasn't even popular among the people of his hometown - when he preached in their synagogue, they tried to throw him off a cliff. By all the standards according to which success is usually measured, Jesus was a total failure and this failure would be most powerfully seen in his death on the cross, which was considered the most painful and humiliating way to die.

And yet, St Paul is able to write in today's Second Reading that God the Father has given him "the name that is above every name," and he is the Lord before whom "every knee must bend." Why did God the Father raise Jesus to the eternal throne of glory, exalting him so thoroughly, if his life was a failure?

     This happened because God's standards are different than this world's standards. According to God's standards, Jesus triumphed in the one category that really matters and that is humble service. As we just heard in St Paul's Letter to the Philippians, Jesus "emptied himself, taking the form of a slave... "...he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. "Because of this, God greatly exalted him..."

This is what the Church is celebrating on today's Feast of the Exaltation the Cross; the victory of Christ's humility over the pride of the devil. God is training us to have a humble heart like his, a heart that St John described beautifully in today's Gospel: "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life."

              Christ shows us a humble God, more interested in us and our needs than in himself. That's why Christ's self-sacrificial death on the cross won an eternal victory over the self-centered indulgence of sin.

              We all can appreciate the beauty and value of humility. It frees us from anxiously worrying about what other people think of us. It also frees us from the paralyzing fear of failure and allows us to maximize our human potential. Humility transforms us from self-centered individuals into people that care for others and put them first.

We would all like to be humble. Yet, few of us like to be humbled, which is the only way to grow in humility. Luckily, God has given us a shortcut. If we want, we can grow steadily and deeply in humility. This shortcut is something within easy reach for all; it's called the sacrament of reconciliation.

This sacrament fosters true humility for two reasons. First, when we go to confession, we aren't being humiliated; rather we are actively humbling ourselves. Every time we receive this sacrament worthily, we are growing in humility because we kneel before God's representative and admit our failings, our sins, and need for God's grace.

But secondly, since confession is a sacrament, it actually increases the grace of God in our soul, pouring grace onto the wounds of sin, so that they heal with supernatural speed and effectiveness. The Pope understands this, that's why he goes to confession every week. All of the saints of our church have known this and often made use of this great sacrament.

Look again at the crucifix. See in Christ the perfection of humility and the fullness of greatness. Resist the temptation of our society to view humility as a weakness or failure. Oftentimes our world doesn’t value humility because it doesn’t value the cross.  But for God, humility matters most, as he will demonstrate by giving himself to us in the Eucharist. On this feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross let us pray for the grace to value the cross as we experience it in our own lives. If we do so, we can be sure that humility will follow and we will be exalted forever as friends of God in the life to come.

23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle A)

Being from a large family, one of the things we looked forward to was going to the movie theatre together once or twice a year. Since we so seldom went to the movies, it was a big deal for us and we would be very excited to see something playing on the big screen, even if it was the dollar show. There was one instance that is burned into my memory. We were preparing to go to this movie but we were waiting on two things; we needed my dad to return from work and my brother to do his homework. My dad arrived on time but my brother still hadn’t completed his work. As a matter of fact, he decided he really didn't need to finish it because he figured my parents would give in and let him go anyway. It became clear that this was a battle of wills between my parents and my brother. We older children had already found out how these sorts of things ended; my brother was about to. When my brother was unable to produce his finished assignments, my dad loaded all of us into the van, all of us except my brother, and we went to the movie. My mom stayed home with my brother and he finished his homework with a biblical dose of wailing and grinding of teeth. It was a classic example of tough love, the kind of unpleasant but necessary experience that parents have at some point with their children. While my brother resented this tough love at the time, it taught him an invaluable lesson in getting his work done and he was better off because of it.

            Today, Jesus speaks to his followers about how they are to correct one another when there has been wrongdoing. It is a biblical lesson in tough love and something we need to hear. Jesus makes it clear that correcting a fellow Christian is not something to be considered as optional or just a nice idea. No, he gives very specific guidelines on how to approach the person who has done wrong and we would do well to learn them.

            The first thing we should take note of is who initiates the correction. Jesus tells us, “ if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.”  This, in and of itself, is difficult. Our instincts tell us that the one who caused the injury should be the one who initiates the healing process, usually by making some sort of apology. But our Lord tells us that the one who has been offended should get the ball rolling. He doesn’t say to wait until they have apologized, he doesn’t tell us to make sure they are sorry, and he certainly doesn’t want us to wait for the person to approach us and ask for forgiveness. Loving and forgiving like Christ is not passive; it actively seeks out those who have separated themselves from others by their sins and offenses. Christ is calling you and me to have this type of love for sinners. And we live this kind of love by the way we deal with those who have hurt us.

           Secondly, Jesus instructs his disciples to tell the fault to the one who has hurt them and that person alone. I think this is one of the hardest parts of our gospel !! How many times have we been hurt and offended by someone and then gone and broadcast this offense to our friends, family and anyone else who would listen. Far too often, the last person we consider speaking to is the one who offended us. It can be so tempting to talk to others about how we were wronged and who hurt us. We look for sympathy, which is understandable, but we miss an opportunity to resolve the conflict and bring one of our brothers or sisters back to the fold. In our gospel today, Christ is teaching us a fundamental truth; Christians are to live lives defined by love. And oftentimes, this love needs to be “tough love”, a love that doesn’t feel good at the moment but bears fruit in the future.

           Most of our conflicts can be solved by the one-on-one correction, but some folks are hard-headed; I know because I am one of them. And sometimes, when approached by another about something they have done wrong, they will deny it, rationalize it, or make excuses. When this happens, Jesus tells us to take one or two others with us to establish the facts and give credence to our correction. If we think about it, this makes a lot of sense; this is the method used in the case of an intervention with someone who is in denial about a dependence on alcohol, drugs, or any other substance.

            Finally, if the first two attempts fail to correct a wayward brother or sister, Jesus tells us to go to the Church. This is the last and most serious action to be taken but it also has eternal consequences. If a person fails to listen even to the Church, Jesus himself tells us to treat them as a tax-collector or a gentile. What he is describing here is excommunication. That’s tough love and it’s coming from our Lord!! But it is not done so the Church can blatantly exercise her authority or punish a wayward member. Rather this course of action is done in order to alert the offender to the seriousness of their actions and to hopefully bring about reconciliation to prevent that soul from suffering eternal punishment.

            The words of Jesus in the gospel today are challenging for us and they will never be popular. It is far easier for us to feel sorry for ourselves when we have been hurt and commiserate with others. But Christ is calling you and me from our natural way of doing things to a supernatural way of living. This Christian lifestyle involves tough love at times and it calls us to initiate forgiveness and healing, even when we are the ones who have been hurt. This Christ-like lifestyle is not easy but it is the way to salvation and it is far more rewarding and joyful than a life spent in self-pity and shallow grievances. May you and I live the words of St. Paul in the second reading to “owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another; Love does no evil to the neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the law.”