HOMILY
Rite of Election – February 22, 2026
Due to the uncertainty of weather conditions related to the anticipated winter storm making its way along the northeast coast of the United States, our much-anticipated Rite of Election and Call to Continuing Conversion, celebrated on the First Sunday of Lent every year in Saint Peter’s Cathedral, has been canceled. I’ve asked our Pastors to celebrate this cherished ritual within your parishes this weekend or next. While disappointed, we all have much for which to be grateful as we pray for well over three hundred catechumens and candidates from parishes throughout our eleven counties who have answered the Lord’s call to discipleship.
One evening a few weeks ago, I heard from a friend whom I had gotten to know when I served as pastor of her parish. She told me that her husband, whom I also knew well and who had been in failing health for some time, had been placed in hospice care. While that would be a difficult step for any family to face, my friend was excited to tell me that her husband had been baptized, confirmed and received the Holy Eucharist for the first time that very evening.
Having been born into a family that wasn’t particularly religious, this wonderful gentleman, who has been married to a devout Catholic woman for fifty-two years, never pursued a particular religious affiliation. That being said, he involved himself in his wife’s parish, helping at fund raisers, serving the poor, and talking about life and faith with most every pastor, including me. In fact, because of the obvious generosity of his heart and the goodness of his spirit, I never knew he wasn’t baptized until his wife told me, months into my tenure as pastor.
Who knows why it took so many years for this dear man to be baptized and received into our Church? I’m sure there was an ebb and flow to his journey. Perhaps it was the prodding and prayers of a faithful wife. Regardless, his story is a powerful reminder to me and hopefully to all of you of how God works, isn’t it? Sometimes God’s presence and his call to us are clear, unmistakable and deeply consoling. Sometimes God’s presence and call come into our lives in unexpected ways, over long periods of time and struggle. And sometimes, as the great Jesuit priest Teilhard de Chardin offered in a familiar prayer, we simply need to “trust in in the slow work of God.”
My friends, God speaks to us in so many ways, doesn’t he? Every one of the stories that have brought us to this day are unique. Yet, everyone of them assures us of one blessed reality: God is present in your lives! And God is speaking to the deepest recesses of our spirits, reminding us that yes, we are all given the opportunity to enter his life and love.
God is ever calling us to journey with him into the unknown – to forge with him a deeper and more intimate relationship of trust and love – and, in turn, to proclaim that relationship through the love and service of the lives that he gives to our care.
My sisters and brothers, and especially you, our catechumens and candidates, don’t discount for an instant the power of this moment in your lives. Jesus is speaking to you today, inviting you to a relationship with him – calling you by name to follow him. He is inviting you to walk a path that leads to a life of meaning, purpose and peace. He is saying, through his invitation, that your life – with all its struggles and joys, with all its blessings and challenges – has a unique place and role to play within his plan.
It’s possible that you see logic in the events along your journey that have brought you to this moment in your lives. But it’s just as possible that you can’t quite understand how or why God called you to participate in his life. Yet, amid such thoughts and questions, we hear the words of Jesus: “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain.”
The scriptures for the First Sunday of Lent, beginning with the first reading from the Book of Genesis, are filled with reminders of how God has worked in creation, always engaging a people, using them to touch others, calling them to himself, working through the events of their lives, never giving up on his children – ever faithful, ever present.
And in this moment, my friends, you are called by God. Your name will be spoken. Your name will be heard. And your name will be written in the Book of the Elect. My dear catechumens and candidates, God places his hand on your shoulders today and chooses you to participate in his Kingdom. Through the touch of your godparents and through the affirmation of the Church, God calls you forth to walk with him in faith. … The initiative is God’s. The response is yours.
In the Gospel passage from Saint Matthew, we hear of Jesus’ temptation by Satan in the desert. Implicit within it is the story of Jesus’ own life determining choices. Jesus confronts the temptations posed – says “Yes” to the call of his Father in Heaven – and immediately goes forth to proclaim the Kingdom of God.
The journey that you begin will have its challenges. Jesus faced them and so will you. Yet, one thing is certain. The journey will lead you to discover meaning, hope and life if you trust in God’s plan for you – if you serve generously – and if you make the pattern of Jesus’ life your own.
My sisters and brothers who desire baptism – who seek full communion – we, the Church, pray with and for you and, above all, thank God for your presence among us. … Your “yes” to the Lord’s call reminds us that we are all responsible to lead lives rooted in the life and mission of Jesus. … Your presence among us is also a powerful reminder of just how much we need each other. Yes, God is calling you, just as he called me. And he is calling us to walk together within the Church – the community of believers – his body on earth.
May each of us give thanks to God for the gift of Jesus and his saving grace. … May you, our candidates for full communion, open your hearts to the Holy Spirit and to the power of Jesus who will fill your life through the Eucharist. … And may you, our catechumens, boldly proclaim your faith in Jesus as you inscribe your names in the Book of the Elect and take you place with all your sisters and brothers – young and old – rich and poor – saints and sinners … who have been called by God and chosen as his own this day.
HOMILY
Ash Wednesday – February 18, 2026
In just a few moments, we will conduct a strange ritual that has become synonymous with this day that begins the sacred season of Lent. Ashes – dust – will be placed on our foreheads in the shape of a cross and we will hear these sobering words, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Repent and believe in the Gospel.” On any other day, few of us could imagine participating in such a ritual. Today, we could not conceive of doing anything else.
For no matter our state in life, when pressed, we all understand the precariousness of this unique gift, don’t we? We all know how quickly life can pass and how our hearts so often wander from our center – from God. Pope Leo captured the reality of our lives best in his message to the Church for this sacred season. “Lent is a time in which the Church invites us to place the mystery of God back in the center of our lives, in order to find renewal in our faith and keep our hearts from being consumed by the anxieties and distractions of daily life.”
And so, with a bit of humility, we come to this place today and allow ourselves to be challenged – challenged to be vulnerable enough to acknowledge our need for a power bigger than ourselves – challenged to open our lives to God, to allow him to change our hearts and to walk more closely with him as we go forward from this place.
Recall the first words of scripture in today’s Liturgy of the Word shared a moment ago from the Old Testament prophet Joel. “Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping and mourning. Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord, your God.”
Joel sets the stage not only for the season of Lent but for our response to the Lord’s call to discipleship. And he does so by calling us to change our lives – not merely by performing religious gestures and practices – but by peering intensely into our hearts to insure that our spirit – the core of our being – is honest and pure and open to the transforming power and presence of God – a God who doesn’t demand perfection but simply asks for honesty. “For gracious and merciful is he, slow to anger, rich in kindness and relenting in punishment.”
Saint Matthew, in today’s gospel, reinforces the words of the prophet Joel, as he calls us to pray, fast, and to give alms in support of the poor – not because such behavior will make us righteous – but because such acts for the true disciple of Jesus reflect the core of his mission that we all seek to embrace in our lives.
In these challenging times in which so many of our brothers and sisters are suffering, may the message of the scriptures remind us that the love of God which we profess by our presence in this church and the ashes imposed on our foreheads, finds its greatest expression in our lives through the love and service that we, in turn, extend to our neighbor, whomever he or she may be.
In a few hours, brothers and sisters, the ashes placed on our foreheads will smudge. They will fade. And by tonight, they will be gone. What will matter then will be our openness to the power of God – our willingness to allow God to change our hearts – and our resolve, as Pope Leo shared, “to make our communities places where the cry of those who suffer finds welcome, making us ready and eager to contribute to building a civilization of love.”
HOMILY
Disabilities Mass –5th Sunday in Ordinary Time
February 8, 2026
“You are the salt of the earth. … You are the light of the world.” … Interesting words from Jesus that are referenced in various ways in three of the four gospels: Matthew, as we heard a moment ago, and Mark and Luke. Yet, what could Jesus possibly want us to consider in calling us to be salt and light?
Did you ever eat a handful of salt or swallow some ocean water? By itself, salt isn’t particularly appealing. It might even make you sick. … Or did you ever look directly at the sun or into a bright light bulb? If you have, chances are that you didn’t do so for too long. We know from anticipating the solar eclipse that took place a few years ago that even staring briefly at the sun can damage our eyes.
Salt and light, of themselves, are not good for very much and can even be harmful. Their value is realized only when they interact with other things.
Just a few ounces of salt in our bodies enable our muscles to contract, our blood to circulate and our hearts to beat. Salt purifies, cleans and preserves. In these days, we appreciate that it is used for de-icing. And a handful of salt can bring out the natural flavor in every kind of food, from a piece of meat to a barrel of popcorn. … But by itself, salt does very little.
The same thing can be said of light. Its true value and beauty are realized only when we look away from its source toward what it illuminates. Light transforms the cold, uncertainty of night into the warm assurance of day. Light enables us to discover, to study, to discern, to behold the beauty of our world and the wonders of God’s creation. Light warms, nurtures, sustains and reveals.
Simply put, salt is the humblest of all chemicals; light is among the most generous of all physical properties. In calling us to be salt and light, Jesus asks us to embrace that same humility and generosity and to look beyond ourselves in a selfless manner.
In being the “salt of the earth,” Jesus calls us not merely to be virtuous ourselves but to bring out goodness and love in all those he places within our lives. He challenges us to bring forth the flavor of God in everyone and everything.
In being “light for the world,” Jesus invites us to illuminate our world with the presence of God and to see in the most unexpected places the richness and depth of God’s mercy and love.
Ultimately, my friends, what lies at the heart of these two familiar images in the scriptures that come to us from Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount is a focus on the very identity of Jesus’ followers. Essentially, Jesus reminds us, “If you seek to be my disciples, take the blessings of faith that have emerged in your lives through baptism and give them away as the surest means of growing the Kingdom of God and inviting others to recognize the power, the presence and the very life of God in their own lives.”
What a powerful message the Word of God offers for our consideration on this day in which we gather in prayer to celebrate the boundless love that God has imparted to each of us – a love that is seen most vividly in the lives of our sisters and brothers with developmental disabilities. More than you realize, my good friends, you teach us what it means to be “salt and light” for our world.
With humility and generosity, like salt, you have the miraculous ability to prod us to be more than we ever believed possible – to bring out goodness in our lives and love beyond imagining in our mutual service and care for one another.
You illuminate our world and our hearts in such ways that even the most cynical among us can see the presence of God in the simplest gestures and in the most unexpected places. Often with few words and with your infectious smiles, you teach us lessons of gratitude for the simplest of blessings. You remind us of the true treasures of life, of faith and of love.
Over the years, some of you have heard me talk about my cousin Jason. He relocated from the west coast back home to northeastern Pennsylvania with his mother around forty years ago and has lived at Saint Joseph’s Center for most of those years. Prior to their return to Pennsylvania, Jason’s mom would often say to me that he was “a powerhouse of love.” While I always appreciated her sentiments, they seemed to me to be much more words of affection that any mother would share about a child – especially one with some significant challenges. It was only when I got to know Jason when he moved to the area years ago that I realized just how true my cousin’s description of her son was. His life, in his own unique way, is filled with a depth of love, affection and an openness to everyone. There is never judgment – or criticism – or expectations. Just gratitude and love.
Pope Leo put it best when speaking recently about of those with disabilities. “The quality of human life is not dependent upon achievement. The quality of our lives is dependent upon love.” … And we surely learn about life and love best from my cousin Jason and from so, so many of our brothers and sisters whom we honor today, who are “salt and light” – hope and love for our world.
Thank you for serving us through your lives and for teaching us how to believe, to trust and to love with the generous, selfless spirit of Jesus.
HOMILY
Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord – January 4, 2026
For much of the world, Christmas is over for another year. Trees have been packed away or tossed in the trash. And Valentine’s Day cards can be found in most every store. But for us, as Christians, there is still more to come. Today, the Catholic Church in our land anticipates the great Christmas feast of the Epiphany of the Lord, traditionally celebrated on January 6.
Most of us are quite familiar with the legendary presence of the wise men from manger scenes in our churches and homes. We can sing the words of the popular hymn “We Three Kings” from memory. We know the gifts they brought as they followed the Christmas star to the place of the Nativity: gold, frankincense and myrrh. While the scriptures don’t claim that there were, in fact, three kings, we know the names that tradition has customarily given to them: Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar. And many of us are so enamored by the arrival of the magi to worship the newborn Christ, that we reenact their journey and move their images from room to room in our homes until they finally arrive at the stable in Bethlehem on today’s feast.
What is it that we find so appealing about this Solemnity? Why do we know the story so well?
A few years before his passing, Pope Francis reflected upon the Solemnity of the Epiphany. With his typical penchant for practical wisdom and insight, Francis noted that while the magi raised their eyes to the heavens and the star that beckoned them to follow, their feet were firmly planted on the earth for the journey they had undertaken.
You see, the magi were individuals who, despite their great wealth and power, were unfulfilled – like so many of us. As such, knowing well that their desire to experience a life of meaning, purpose and peace would hardly be fulfilled in possessions, power and prestige, they were willing to open their lives and hearts to whatever it was that might be able to provided them with the fulfillment that they sought so desperately. They were even open to looking to the heavens – to a power bigger than themselves that we know as God – to discover a way forward.
And they found that “way.” They stepped out in faith to follow a star, not knowing where it would take them or what it would reveal. But they would soon discover, much to their surprise, that all that they sought in life would be found in something quite unexpected: a child born in a stable, of all places – born to bring the life, love and mercy of God to our world.
The real blessing of the magi for us, however, is discovered not only in the risk that they took in searching the stars and opening their hearts to the grace of God. The relationship that began with their willingness to set aside their own sense of sufficiency and to trust in the power of God as they looked to the heavens for strength and direction only deepened as they encountered the Christ-child. And that relationship, as it grew, yielded to something more. They soon understood that it was not enough for them to simply entertain some vague idea about God. In their own way, they discovered the need to submit themselves to the ever-present call to discipleship that God speaks to every heart that is open and seeks a way forward in life.
In so many respects, brothers and sisters, the true gift of the magi for us is discovered in the risk that they took to open their hearts to the grace of God. While their spirits were undoubtedly lifted through their encounter with the living God, they quickly understood that they were given a responsibility to bring the light of the star that they followed into the darkness of their world experience.
Pope Francis put it best, “Let us keep our feet journeying in this earth! The gift of faith was given to us not to keep gazing at the heavens, but to journey along the roads of the world as witnesses to the Gospel. The light that illumines our life, the Lord Jesus, was given to us not to warm our nights, but to let rays of light break through the dark shadows that envelop so many situations in our societies. We find the God who comes down to visit us, not by basking in some elegant religious theory, but by setting out on a journey, seeking the signs of his presence in everyday life, and above all in encountering and touching the flesh of our brothers and sisters. Contemplating God is beautiful, but it is only fruitful if we take a risk, the risk of serving the lives that God brings to us.”
My friends, the message of this great feast of Epiphany – which is at once both consoling and challenging – reminds us that Jesus did not remain in Bethlehem forever. He went forth to embrace the work given to him by his Father – a mission grounded in humble service – unconditional, sacrificial love – and unlimited forgiveness and compassion – regardless of race, language, societal status or cultural background. Every life is worthy and valued because of the incarnation of Jesus.
That mission is our mission, as disciples of Jesus – a mission that demands that we move outside of ourselves to serve not only those who worship with us today with reverence and devotion – but also the suffering poor who are unable to find their way to a church – refugees and immigrants seeking a better life – victims of violence, terrorism and war throughout our world, even in our own land – and the magi of our time: every soul who seeks meaning, purpose and a way forward in life through an encounter with the living God – including you and me.
So many of you from around our diocese who join us for this Mass understand well the mission that we have been given by Jesus. Through your generosity, you enable this local Church to serve the many lives that God places within our care. But more importantly, you powerfully give witness to the very faith that the magi sought in your service of your brothers and sisters.
May God continue to fill our hearts with gratitude for all we have been given and may we come to know the peace that is promised to every soul who seeks the Lord and follows his star in wonder and with hope.