733 James I. Harrison Jr. Parkway East - Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35405

Browsing Father Michael Deering's Sunday Homilies

Being Catholic … with zeal!

Homily originally presented May 31, 2020

 

Being Catholic … with zeal!

 

Some years ago the Diocese of Birmingham started the Catholic Businessmen’s Luncheon that was held at the beautiful restaurant called The Club high atop Red Mountain.     It was a quarterly gathering of Catholic men to build fraternity

    and be spiritually renewed by the insights of a Guest Speaker.

 

It grew quickly and soon some 200 men from around the Birmingham area,

both Catholics and non-Catholics were coming to these Luncheons.

 

One of the Guest speakers was the convert and avid evangelist ... Steve Ray.

 

How I wish that every man and woman in our parish could have heard this man speak … he was truly on fire for Jesus and the Catholic church.

 

Steve Ray continues to be a popular speaker, who is a frequent host and guest on EWTN TV & Radio.      Steve has a great love and proficiency for Biblical Studies.

He wrote the book, “Crossing the Tiber” ...

to share his journey into the Catholic Church.

 

With his opening words, Steve got our attention right away. He said, “I’m 14 years old!” … and we just stared at this man who looked a whole lot closer to age 40!

 

Then he pointed to a guy seated at his table and he said,

That’s Bill; he’s 16 years old.” … a man who appeared to be 50.

 

Then Steve went on to clarify, “That’s how many years we’ve been in the Catholic Church and we measure our lives now in terms of the dates of our conversion!”

You see, Steve converted from being Protestant to being Catholic 14 yrs ago!

 

As an Evangelical Protestant, Steve always had a great love for the Bible, for God’s word, and for sharing that word with the world.

He was a teacher of the Bible.

 

But because of his upbringing, Steve had no use for Catholics; he thought we were all going to hell and took delight in convincing Catholics to become Protestants!

 

Then one day a good friend of his, Al Cresta, a major Evangelical voice on WMUZ radio told Steve that he was becoming Catholic.

This really rocked Steve, because he respected Al so very much.

 

It moved Steve to start searching through not just modern-day commentaries on

Scripture that have been written in the last 100 years,

but to go way back

and find out what the Fathers of the Church had to say about things.

 

Steve used a great image to describe why he went back to the Fathers ...

 “The water is always clearer the closer you get to the source!”

 

In other words, the farther you go back in time ... and the nearer you get to

the immediate followers of Jesus Christ ...  the clearer will be the message

that Jesus, the Source, wanted all of us to have.

 

So Steve started reading the Early Church Fathers,

the men who lived in the first hundred years after Christ died,

men like Athanasius, Cyprian, Origen, Clement of Rome and Ignatius of Antioch.

 

He could not find one Protestant teaching in the writings of the Early Church Fathers!

 

So after many months of studying and praying for clarity, he described the day that he was sitting on his living room floor with the writings of the Church Fathers

all around him and he started to cry and he said to his wife, “I’m Catholic.”

 

He had found the truth … it was in the Holy Catholic Church!

 

Not long after that, he made a Profession of Faith in the Catholic Church and entered the worldwide household of God, the one that Jesus started, the one built on Peter.

 

In doing so, Steve was confirmed by the Bishop of Detroit Michigan

and he received the full outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

 

And there was no denying this! Here it was, 14 years after his conversion to the Catholic faith and Steve was still visibly on fire for the truths of the faith.

He said more than once, “I love being Catholic!”

 

He said, “Becoming Catholic was the greatest decision I ever made in my life!”

Later he said “It ranked right alongside his decision to marry his wife!”

 

Can you say those things?

Do you love being Catholic?

 Is the fact that you became Catholic or remain Catholic ...

one of the greatest decisions you ever made in your life?

 

If so, then being Catholic should fill you with excitement and energy?

 

It sure made the Apostles feel that way.

In our First Reading from the Acts of the Apostles,

we hear that on the Day the Apostles received the Holy Spirit

they were visibly transformed!

 

 

Tongues as of fire came to rest on each of them.

 

And the Apostles were transformed from being timid men,

who were hiding from the Jews in the Upper Room,

into courageous proclaimers of God’s word,

who went out into the streets to speak the Good News to others!

 

That same Holy Spirit comes to all people who are confirmed in the Holy Spirit!

 

Yesterday afternoon, at the 5 PM Mass here at Holy Spirit Church ... 

I bestowed the Sacrament of Confirmation on 17 people ...

enabling them to receive the fire of God’s love,

the very same Holy Spirit that the Apostles received 2000 years ago!

 

It’s the same Holy Spirit that Paul spoke of in our Second Reading today

describing how the Holy Spirit can produce a wide variety of different gifts

in different people, according to God’s design.

 

Consider how we have one source of power coming into this church building.

We have electricity from Alabama Power ... and how does it show up?

As air-conditioning, as light, as sound as hot and cold water!

 

It’s the same power ... that shows up in different ways!

 

And so it is with God’s Holy Spirit!

 

In Confirmation, all of us receive the samePower” ... God’s Holy Spirit.

But He can show up in many different ways.

 

He shows up as:    Preacher, teacher, apologist, prayer warrior, care-giver, counselor, consoler, mediator, defender, etc.

 

The same source of power, but a variety of manifestations of that power,

 given according to God’s design and pleasure.

 

Do you realize that you received power on your Confirmation Day?

 

That’s when you received the full outpouring of the 7 Gifts of the Holy Spirit ...

Wisdom, Understanding, Council, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, Fear of the Lord.

 

Do you realize that you have these Gifts?

Are you happy to have them?             Are you using them?

 

If not, that would be like being unaware carrying a $100 bill in your back pocket!

 

 

Are you happy to be Catholic?

 

Steve Ray said something that day that I found very troubling.

He said, “Not one Catholic ever tried to guide me into the Catholic Church!”

 

He said that the Catholics he knew were the reason

 he did not want to become Catholic!

 

They were lukewarm in their faith, people without passion or zeal or conviction!

 

We Catholics can learn a lot from converts to the Catholic faith.

 

They have searched for the truth and in finding it they are filled with zeal.

We can do the same thing … but we have to realize the gifts that we’ve been given.

 

Realize that in Confirmation, God breathes on us!

 

That’s what John said in our Gospel today

as he described what Jesus did when he appeared to His Apostles in the Upper Room,

He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

 

Well, God has breathed on all of us and He left the fire of His love within us.

 

Recognize that we have the indwelling of God’s Holy Spirit in our souls.

 

Ray Rumanek would say every day ... I’m so happy to be Catholic!

 

He cherished the gift and he let it shine!

 

It looked so good on him and it can look so good on us

 

Let’s treasure the gift of God’s love ... and share the gift with all who will listen.

 

Let’s live our lives ... on fire for the Lord.

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