Carrying the Cross Together

Good Friday Homily

April 18, 2025

Good Friday is a solemn day that invites us to reflect on the crosses we carry in our own lives. Just as Christ bore His cross with love and perseverance, we are called to embrace our struggles with faith and trust in God’s plan.

The crosses we carry may come in many forms—pain, loss, uncertainty, or personal challenges. Yet, Good Friday reminds us that suffering is not the end of the story. Christ’s sacrifice on the cross was an act of love, showing us that even in our darkest moments, God is present, offering redemption and hope.

Scripture tells us that Simon of Cyrene helped Jesus carry His cross. In the same way, we are called to support one another in times of hardship. When we bear our burdens with love and allow others to help us, we better participate in the mystery of Christ’s Passion.

Believe it or not, this is my 8th Good Friday with you as your pastor. Coming from a simple background in Jersey City, I initially doubted if I could lead here at St. Teresa’s. I remember hearing stories about this great parish at Seton Hall, with its wealth and influential members.

In fact, our parish in Jersey City once borrowed money from St. Teresa’s to make ends meet. It didn’t take long for me to see that material blessings do not shield us from life’s crosses—pain and suffering affect us all, regardless of outward success.

Today, many struggle with illness and health issues, financial hardships, loneliness, grief, persecution, addiction, family conflicts, and spiritual questions. Each cross requires perseverance, faith, and often the support of others.

My personal cross is the pain of falling short of expectations and witnessing disappointments within our community. This Good Friday, I pray that, like Christ, we can find redemption in our hardships and show compassion towards one another.

With faith, perseverance, and support, our crosses can lead us to deeper spiritual growth and compassion. Let’s make this Good Friday truly meaningful by promising to be more like Christ, supporting each other every day.

Blessings!

RSM

Building Our Nativity: A Pilgrimage of Hope

Christmas 2024

Merry Christmas! It’s so great to have you all here with us as a parish and extended family to celebrate the birth of Jesus. How His birth has changed the world!

This Christmas, we have added blessings because earlier today in Rome, Pope Francis formally inaugurated the 2025 Holy Year, reviving an ancient Church tradition encouraging the faithful to make pilgrimages to Rome. At the start of his Christmas Eve Mass, Pope Francis pushed open the Holy Door on Saint Peter’s Basilica, which will now stay open throughout the year to allow an estimated 32 million pilgrims projected to visit Rome to pass through.

The Pope has designated this Jubilee Year, beginning today and lasting until January 6, 2026, with the theme, “Pilgrims of Hope.” This year, the Pope said, is a response to the world’s need for restorative peace and healing. In his message, he emphasized that the world is suffering from crises that have compounded division and conflict, and that the Jubilee Year of Hope is an invitation for the Church and the world to embrace God's love, mercy, and compassion.

At the beginning of the month, I was blessed to be able to travel to Rome, thanks to the generous gift of some friends, to celebrate my priesthood anniversary. My usual routine in Rome is to do two main things: visit Churches and eat, sometimes not in that order.

Having not been in Rome since my time as a student in the late 1980s, I had forgotten that the central activity that happens in early December every year is the building and setting up of the Presepe—the nativity scenes. This ancient tradition, which Italians proudly adhere to at Christmastime, is ever-present in every one of Rome’s more than 930 churches.

Tradition tells us that Saint Francis of Assisi is credited with staging the first nativity scene in 1223. The only historical account we have of Francis’ nativity scene comes from a biography of him by Saint Bonaventure. According to it, Francis got permission from Pope Honorius III to set up a manger with hay and two live animals—an ox and an ass—in a cave in the Italian village of Greccio. He then invited the villagers to come gaze upon the scene while he preached about “the Babe of Bethlehem.”

Bonaventure also claims that the hay used by Francis miraculously acquired the power to cure local cattle diseases and pestilences. And as they say, the rest is history.

Within a couple of centuries, nativity scenes had spread throughout Europe and the world. We don’t know if people played Mary and Joseph during Francis’ time, as our children do here and in many places, or whether they just imagined those figures’ presence. We do know that later scenes began incorporating dioramas, replicas of the scene, and that the cast of characters gradually expanded beyond Mary, Joseph, and sweet baby Jesus to sometimes include an entire village.

As I traveled around Rome, visiting, praying, and watching the nativity scenes being built, I was struck that despite the basics being the same in most every Church, many of the details were different. Some were large, others small; some had a few central figures, others many; some included the wise men, others not.

(Nativity buffs will know, however, that the familiar cast relied upon today—the three wise men and the shepherds—is not biblically accurate. Remember that only Matthew and Luke describe Jesus’ birth. Matthew mentions wise men, while Luke comments on shepherds. But nowhere in the Bible do shepherds and wise men appear together. And no one mentions donkeys, oxen, cattle, or other farmyard friends in conjunction with Jesus’ birth. But really, what would a nativity scene be without those?)

My Christmas challenge is simply this: in this Jubilee Year, where we are all called to be pilgrims of hope, let’s commit to build our presepe and celebrate the joy of Christmas every day…

• What will yours look like?

• Will it be large and inviting or small and selective?

• Will it contain only the usual people, or will you invite more?

• Will it be inclusive and expansive, or not?

• What message will it send?

  
  

Just as we celebrate our children’s birthdays every year, it’s entirely appropriate for us to celebrate the birth of God’s own Son, Jesus Christ, every year. But we should never celebrate Jesus’ birth only at Christmastime—and then forget Him the rest of the year. After all, just because we celebrate our children’s birthdays doesn’t mean we forget them or ignore them the rest of the year! They are an important part of our lives, and our relationship with them should continue to grow every day. To ignore them is unimaginable.

We pray that Christmas this year is more than only presents and parties, and that we take some time to focus on Jesus and build our personal nativity scene in our hearts, in our homes, and in our world. Let the wonder of that first Christmas fill our lives today—and every day.

RSM

Advent: A Season of Spiritual Reset

Homily for the First Sunday of Advent

12.1.2024

I bet that there are probably very few among us, at any age, who do not have a smartphone, laptop, tablet, or whatever device we use in ordinary life. And I also bet that, at some point, we have utilized the “reset” function. This function sets the device back to its original state, of course. Additionally, we can also use it to give our devices a fresh start, without all the digital junk and clutter we’ve accumulated over the years.

The full reset remains a useful troubleshooting tool not only if we’re having problems with a gadget, but it’s also an essential step to take before we sell or recycle a device. With cloud syncing and media streaming now the norm, you’ll agree that getting everything back up and running is easier than it’s ever been.

In so many ways, that’s what Advent allows for our spiritual lives—it gives us the opportunity to “reset,” to get a fresh start, and to remove all the junk and baggage that we’ve accumulated this year. It’s essential if we want to fully experience the true joy of Christmas. But how?

Each year, it seems that Advent sneaks up on us—especially because we live in an automated and rushed age. To be intentional this Advent and reset our spiritual lives, God isn’t necessarily calling us to make lofty commitments consisting of grand gestures like monastic-level prayer or giving away everything we own.

God’s heart supports sustainable rhythms for us, and He desires to enter into our everyday life in gentle ways—just like how He came into the world: no fanfare, no elaborate process, just gentle intentionality.

It seems to me that it’s the little ways we can align our lives to God and build small moments of daily conversion into our busy schedules.

Just as in Lent, in Advent, the Church encourages prayer, fasting, and almsgiving throughout this season. Here are a few simple and easy ways to enter into the powerful and prayerful season of Advent:

1. Pray with an Advent devotional. It is easy for the Christmas story to feel far away from our lives—like a fairy tale that starts with, “Once upon a time in a faraway land.” By using a guided Advent journal or program, we can be guided with meditations and prayers that will provide a manageable portion to pray through each day. There are plenty of sample devotionals on the internet.

   
   

2. Pray one chapter of the Gospel of Luke each day. To prepare for Christmas, we can read one chapter of the Gospel of Luke each day through December 24th. There are 24 chapters in Luke, and by Christmas Eve, we will have read the entire account of the birth, ministry, sacrifice on the cross, and resurrection of Jesus.

   
   

3. Use Christmas cards as prayer reminders. As Christmas cards arrive during December, place them in a basket in a noticeable area of your home. Once a day, pull out one card and pray for that person or family. You can also write the person a note signed by your family or send them a text that says, “We prayed for you today as we prepare for Christmas.” Remember those people when you come to Advent and Christmas Mass, too.

   
   

4. Fast. In our society, it is very difficult to fast from all treats during Advent, since anticipatory Christmas goodies are served everywhere you go—I’m living proof of it! The most effective fasting during this season might be to fast from noise, franticness, and media. As we try to cut back on news, sports, entertainment, politics, frantic errands, and other avoidable distractions, we can open up more space in our schedules for prayer and reflection.

   
   

5. Visit the lonely. Mother Teresa said, “Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.” Reach out to someone who is lonely in your neighborhood, church, or extended family. Ask them to coffee, invite them for dinner, drop off some cookies, or have a phone conversation. Ask them questions about their lives. This type of simple connection is a tremendously powerful way to see Jesus in another person and help them realize the dignity within themselves.

   
   

6. Make a good confession—don’t wait until the last minute! The sacrament of confession reunites us with the God who made us. How generously Our Lord lavishes us with grace in the sacrament of reconciliation! He calls us back to Himself, gives us a fresh slate, washes us clean, and resets us.

   
   

Friends, no doubt we spend a lot of time in our lives ensuring that our devices work optimally, are up to date, and are free from viruses. Advent gives us the same opportunity to do so for our souls.

Blessings!

RSM