Viva Cristo Rey! Long Live Christ the King!

 

Deacon Dave · Viva Cristo Rey! Long Live Christ the King!

Homily for the Solemnity of Christ the King, Nov. 23, 2025. Gospel of Luke 23:35-43. Theme: Viva Cristo Rey! Long Live Christ the King! 

 Ninety-eight years ago today, on Nov. 23, 1927 at 10 o'clock in the morning, a 36-year old Jesuit priest was taken from his death-row cell and marched across the prison yard. He had been surveillanced for years and was considered to be one of the most wanted men in Mexico. His capital death-penalty crime was simply that he was a Catholic priest who refused to stop ministering to the Mexican people. As he walked he held a crucifix in one hand and a rosary in the other. One of the guards approached him and with tears in his eyes begged forgiveness for what was about to happen. 

 Upon arrival at the wall of execution, the priest asked permission to pray. Kneeling before a wall that was stained with blood and riddled with bullet holes, he asked God for the grace to remain faithful to the end. Then, he stood up, extended his arms in the form of a cross and, facing the firing squad, exclaimed in a loud and steady voice: “¡Viva Cristo Rey!” “Long live Christ the King!” Shots rang out and the priest fell to the ground. To the surprise and humiliation of the government authorities - and despite the danger to themselves by forming an illegal assembly - 60,000 Catholics attended the heroic priest’s funeral in Mexico City. And throughout the ceremony the defiant but prayerful last words of the martyr were repeatedly shouted by the crowd: “¡Viva Cristo Rey!” “Long live Christ the King!” 

That priest was Father Miguel Pro, whom we now honor as a martyr and a saint. Born and raised during the bloody religious persecution of Catholics in Mexico in the early 20th century, he actually lived for a short time not too far from here down in Los Gatos. He was hunted down and unjustly condemned to death precisely because he believed with all his heart what we are celebrating in today's liturgy: that Christ the King is Lord of all peoples and Lord of all things including politics and public social life, and that no earthly government has the authority to deny people their religious liberty or to eject God from public civic life. 

He preached by his life and testified with his death that a person’s faith-relationship in Jesus Christ is not simply a private matter. It is not something to be reserved just for Sundays, or confined to the walls of a church, or kept politely within the parameters of one’s personal life. The light of Christ the King is meant to shine on everything, it’s meant to shine on everyone! It’s meant to transform people and thus also transform society. And it’s we Christians who are supposed to help to make this happen. We are called to be like “living candles” whose flame of faith enlightens those with whom we live, work and socialize. This means that our decisions and behavior must reflect our relationship with Jesus in all that we are and all that we do, both in private and in public, at home and at work, in all aspects of our lives no matter what that might be. This is how we do our part to enable the Kingship of Christ to have a real influence in our neighborhoods, in our schools, in our workplaces, in our laws and in society in general. 

 This social reign of Christ the King is truly the only sure solution to the rampant violence, drug deaths, confusion and division that plagues our nation and our world. Many people think that the answer to our social troubles lies in education and politics, but these things are not the final answer because they are utterly powerless to bring about real change by transforming the human person. You see, society is simply the reflection and sum total of those who live in it and so the only way to renew and change society and culture is to renew and change the people. And that begins with ourselves. This can only happen by the grace and power of God. Once he is freely welcomed and enthroned in the human heart, he can begin changing us from the inside out. 

 So we need to spread the Word and tell others the Good News. This is precisely what the Second Vatican Council called lay people to do in order to live as missionary disciples who strive to make the world a better place. We need to each become heralds of Christ the King, telling people that the happiness they desire with all their hearts, the happiness that they were created to enjoy, has a name and a face: it is Jesus of Nazareth.

The End Can Be The Beginning!

 

Homily for the 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Nov. 16, 2025. Gospel of Luke 21:5-19. Theme: The End Can Be The Beginning!

 

In today’s Gospel, Jesus foretells the destruction of Jerusalem and its Sacred Temple about 40 years before it took place in the year 70AD.  It was a building so magnificent that people couldn’t help but marvel at it. It was the pride of Israel, a symbol of God’s presence, a structure that seemed immovable, eternal. Jesus’ words must have shocked everyone when he said: “All these things you are admiring—the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another.”

But you know, even the end of something we hold as precious can actually become the beginning of something greater and better. For example, from the ruins of Jerusalem there emerged the spread of the Christian Church. The Old Testament and the Old Law of Moses with its ineffectual Passover animal sacrifices for sin, gave way to the New Testament and the New Covenant of Christ, sealed with the atoning Blood of the cross and perpetually celebrated in the Eucharist. On the practical level how did this happen? Well, you see, heeding Jesus’ warning signs that we heard in today’s Gospel, the Jewish Christians escaped Jerusalem before its attack and collapse. Then afterwards, since there was no Jerusalem to return to, they became migrants and missionaries carrying the Light of Christ throughout the known world.  So what looked like the end of something good turned out to be the beginning of something even better.

And this wasn’t just the case for Judaism and destruction of Jerusalem. It was also the case for Catholicism and the destruction of Rome in the 7th century. Pope Gregory the First (now known as St. Gregory the Great!) saw the disintegration of society and government happening all around him. The ancient glorious Empire was gone, having been overrun by marauding barbarians from without and decimated by moral corruption from within. Law and order virtually disappeared. Its great monuments were in ruins.  Even the civil rulers abandoned the Eternal City leaving the remnant population in poverty and defenseless.  Gregory was the sole figure of authority left in the city and as such he rose to the occasion.

He refused to throw his hands up in despair and see the end as THE END.  Together with the clergy who remained with him, they put their hands and heads to work.  They took the debris and rubble and used it to rebuild. They started food distribution centers and opened up shelters for the homeless. The sick were cared for with mercy and the dead were given proper burials. Monks transformed their monasteries into schools so as to pass on the torch of education to new generations. Gregory and the Church became involved in politics and government administration because there was no one else left to do it.  And while it was a long and hard run, out of the old city’s total collapse came New Rome, which showed the indisputable ability of the Catholic Faith to be a spiritual and cultural force for good and which rebuilt and improved what we call Western Civilization.  What seemed like the end of something wonderful actually turned out to be the beginning of something greater and better.

This same dynamic of ending and beginning happens in our own lives. We all have a figurative “temple” or an “empire” that we cherish as sacred and that we cling to for security.  It could be a relationship, a career, our health or our wealth. Such things that seem solid and we think we can count on…things that we place our hopes in and deem unshakable can fall apart and come crumbling down like the Jerusalem Temple or the Roman Empire. And when this happens we are faced with the same choices as those Jewish Christians of Jerusalem or Pope Gregory and his clergy.  Will we give in to despondency and despair over what is ending? Or will we look to see the possibility of something better and greater beginning?  

We will each have to face this kind of a situation at some point in our lives and many of us have most likely already done so.  Christianity is not an escape from life’s troubles but it gives us the opportunity to walk through them with Christ at our side.  It reminds us that even if we are powerless in a particular situation we are never helpless. With Christ who strengthens us we can begin again and like Pope St. Gregory the Great, start laying the foundations for something better and greater that will be built up out of the rubble that now lies before us. 

What does that mean? It means that nothing can take away the hope and the help that God promises us. The world can shake, but our foundation is Christ. The world can threaten, but our trust is secure in Him. Even when everything else falls, God holds us up. The sure hope we have that the ending of one thing can become the beginning of something better rests upon the fact that the life-giving and life-changing power of our Risen Lord has not been depleted over the past 2,000 years. It is inexhaustible and available in every generation and to any one who surrenders their life to him. 

The message of Jesus today is not meant to frighten us. It is meant to free us. If we stand on Christ, we can walk through anything. If we trust Christ, we can survive anything. If we cling to Christ, we will endure through everything. A better future does not belong to those who keep looking back and weeping over what once was.  It belongs to those who move forward with confidence in God, who depend upon his Providence for their daily needs, and who seek first his Kingdom above all things. 

The Church as Building and the Church as People

 

Deacon Dave · “The Church as Building and the Church as People”

Homily for the Feast of the Dedication of St. John Lateran Basilica, Nov. 9, 2025. Ezekiel 47:1-2, 8-9, 12; 1 Corinthians 3:9-11, 16-17; Gospel of St. John 2:13-22. Theme: The Church as Building and the Church as People

 What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word “church”? Most Catholics would reply, “it’s where we go to Mass on Sundays”. But this is not what “church” means in both the New Testament and in Catholic teaching. When the Bible or the Catechism use the word “Church” what they have in mind is the community of God’s people and not temples designed for worship. 

 As a matter of fact there were originally no such buildings at all in ancient Christianity. The reason being that it was a forbidden religion whose members had to worship in secret before the Roman Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity in 313 AD. And so it wasn’t until 324AD that the very first public church structure was erected in Rome. It was built on land donated by the prominent Laterani family and dedicated to the two most famous Johns in the Bible: St. John the Apostle and St. John the Baptist. In honor of the patron saints as well as the donors, the church was named St. John Lateran. 

 The main reason we are celebrating its dedication in today’s Liturgy is precisely because it was the first and thus the oldest of all Catholic churches in the world. But in addition, it holds the distinction of being intimately connected with the pope because it’s his cathedral as the Bishop of Rome. This surprises many people because most think that St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City is his special church. While it’s true that that’s where the Holy Father makes most of his official appearances, it is St. John Lateran which is honored as the mother-church of all Catholic places of worship throughout the world. 

 Today’s feast of the Dedication of St. John Lateran is a reminder that all church buildings throughout the world, be they famous and grandiose or poor and simple, stand as signs that the Kingdom of God has come among us. They are each a public proclamation that God exists, that God is with us. And so in every culture and in every part of the world there can be found temples and shrines to the homage to God. We need these manifestations of faith. We need these visible monuments of our invisible God. We need these tangible reminders that God dwells among us and with us. These sacred sanctuaries are where we gather as God’s consecrated priestly people to worship through, with and in his Son, Jesus. This is why they are specially “dedicated” in a way that is not done for any other kind of building. 

 But still, as important as they are, these physical structures are not absolutely necessary for us to live and grow as the Church. Persecutions throughout history and the assault of natural disasters have shown this to be true time after time. Even in our own day when the government closed-down our churches during the pandemic and when the raging California fires turned many of them into ashes, the “Church as people” continued its ministry, its worship and its works of mercy for the needy. You see, nothing can stop the Church of God from existing, from acting and from growing. 

 The words of Jesus in today's Gospel, “Destroy this temple and I will raise it up again!” were spoken about his physical body, but they can also be applied to his Mystical Body that is the Church. Throughout history hostile governments have tried to destroy it but have failed. Even when it looked as if they had succeeded and all visible signs of faith were demolished (such as in many Communist-controlled nations) the Church remained present. Like the corpse of Christ in the tomb, it often went underground and seemed silent but it was simply awaiting resurrection. And time after time throughout history, once the persecutors were toppled from political power, the Church emerged from that tomb full of life and grace, because as Jesus promised, it is indestructible. 

 The reason for our spiritual indestructibility is found in our Second Reading. St. Paul reminds us that just as God dwelt in Jesus of Nazareth making him his holy temple, so God dwells within each one of us through grace and faith, making us his holy temples. We are fortified by the Divine Presence which dwells within us through Word and Sacrament. This means that nothing on planet Earth, and nothing in the whole universe, nothing whatsoever, can truly destroy us!

We All Survive Our Physical Deaths!

 

Deacon Dave · We All Survive Our Physical Deaths!

Homily for the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed on All Souls Day, Nov. 2, 2025. The Gospel of St. John 6:37-40. Theme: We All Survive Our Physical Deaths! 

Throughout world history there has always been a recognition that human beings survive physical death and pass on to another life. This universal belief has been found in every culture no matter how primitive or advanced it was. In other words, there has always been a deeply pervasive sense among human beings that there’s a much bigger picture to our existence than only the time spent here on planet Earth. There is a sense built into us that we are something more than just our minds and bodies. And this “something more” is what survives our physical deaths. 

This “something more” is what we call the immortal soul. Our souls empower us to do so many wonderful things that the rest of physical creation simply cannot do, such as thinking and choosing, loving and laughing, pondering lofty thoughts and exploring the unknown. And most importantly, because the soul is spiritual it’s immortal because spiritual things cannot and do not deteriorate or die like those of the material world. And this is why we can say with confidence that human beings survive physical death. 

 The Catholic Church, like every ancient community and culture, has developed its own rites for honoring the dead and expressing belief in the afterlife. Very early on, even before Christianity emerged from the Roman catacombs, prayers for the repose of the faithful departed were etched on tombstones and written into the liturgical books. There was always a conviction that we are not separated from those who have passed, but continue on with our relationships even if in a different way. As the Church calendar developed, November 2 was set apart as the annual day of commemoration of the dead and soon after this, the entire month of November was dedicated to that same intention. All Souls Day reminds us of three important Christian teachings about death and the afterlife. 

 First, All Souls Day reminds us that our relationships continue after physical death . Our Catholic funeral ritual tells us that when it comes to death, “life is changed and not ended”. This means that we continue on, that our existence is not concluded by death but simply moves into its next way of being. And so the deceased do not really leave us behind, it's just that we are no longer visibly present to one another. All Souls Day is an annual reminder that we are still connected and that we can keep up the relationship on a spiritual level. We pray for them because, even though they left this world with love in their hearts, they were still holding some of it back from God. And so before entering into the Direct Presence of God who is Absolute Love they are purified of this residual selfishness through the process of refinement that we call Purgatory. And we can walk with them and help them through this by the offering of our thoughts, prayers and Masses. 

 Second, All Souls Day reminds us that we Christians do not belong to death. Because of our baptismal relationship, a Christian does not merely die. A Christian dies in Christ. And those two words, “in Christ” make all the difference in the world! They mean that we do not belong to death; we belong to Christ who is the Resurrection and the Life! So, for those who live and die in Christ, death is not a black-hole of nothingness. Instead, it’s a doorway to a fuller experience of life filled with glory, joy and all that is good. And so, we Christians are not confused or silent in the face of death, as are those who do not have faith. We respond to it with the cry of “Alleluia!” because we believe in the resurrection of the dead and in the life of the world to come. 

 Third, All Souls Day reminds us that death is the Great Equalizer. The social status we had on planet Earth is no indication whatsoever of what our status will be in eternity. When you walk through a cemetery you can see huge ornate monuments elaborately proclaiming the prominence of those buried beneath or within. And you will also come across many simple crosses and metal markers that identify the resting places of the vast majority who were just us ordinary people. But underneath both kinds of monuments all of the deceased are one and the same. Death puts every human being on the same level. Our financial portfolio, our impressive work resume, our roster of friends and social contacts, our physical appearance and fitness will mean nothing at all. Those things will all be gone and we will turn into dust. The only thing that will matter is how sincerely we sought to love God and neighbor in this life. 

 And so, All Souls Day, and really the entire month of November, is a chance for us to not just remember our loved ones and pray for those who have died. It’s also a time to reflect on our own deaths, not in a morbid way but with a healthy dose of Christian realism. It's a time to put into practice the old proverb that says, “don’t put off until tomorrow what you should do today” because we do not have forever to come to know Christ better; we do not have forever to learn to love God and neighbor better; and we do not have forever to finally make those changes in our lives that we know need to be made in the remaining years given to each one of us.