April 17, 2022 – Life on the Chrism Trail

Homily for Easter Sunday, The Resurrection of the Lord

April 17, 2022
St. Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, TX

Acts 10:34a, 37-43
Psalm 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23
Colossians 3:1-4
John 20:1-9

“Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed. For they did not yet understand the Scripture that He had to rise from the dead.” While many converts to the Catholic faith describe coming to an awareness of the integrity of Catholic doctrine with the Gospel and sound reason as the only way for them to find God, it is important that we understand that we cannot read or study our way into conversion as a Catholic. It is not a decision that we make independently of God. Conversion and the virtue of faith is entirely a matter of grace and not acquired by our own initiative.

Homily for Easter Sunday, the Resurrection of the Lord

At the Easter Vigil in the Holy Night of Easter

April 16, 2022
St. Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, TX

Genesis 1:1-2:2
Psalm 104:1-2, 5-6, 10, 12, 13-14, 24, 35
Exodus 14:15-15:1
Isaiah 55:1-11
Romans 6:3-11
Luke 24:1-12

The created light we read of in tonight’s reading from the Book of Genesis is good because God created it and separated it from the darkness. The subsequent lights that He creates separate the day from the night in governance and right order for the beauty and wisdom of His creation. Then, sin enters the world through human disobedience. Human beings through an abuse of free will attempt to blend light and darkness believing the lie of the serpent that seduces them with the falsehood that to be like unto God means to exert power and dominance arbitrarily over creation — that light and darkness are relatively the same thing.