Monthly Newspaper • DIOCESE OF BRIDGEPORT

The following is a transcript of Bishop Caggiano’s Blue Mass homily, given Sunday morning, November 17, at St. Augustine

My dear sisters and brothers in the Lord,

I think it is safe to say that among the topics that are in the modern world considered socially unacceptable to talk about, on that list, surely there is the question the reality, the mystery of death itself, a topic that few people ever want to talk about. And of course, in our secular world, there’s a reason for that, because in fact, in our secular world where there is no place for a God, death is a problem. And so you hear that people pass away. Of course, no one asks, Where did they pass to? We hear about celebrations of life when a person’s life has ended, not asking the question to what is that celebration about?

We have a culture, my friends, where youth is idolized, as if there was no dignity for those of us who are growing older and frailer each day. Death has a very troubled place in our modern secular world, but not here. For as we come to the closing Sunday days of the Pascal year, you and I are being asked by the church to contemplate this great mystery, not because it should cause fear and trembling and anxiety, but because you I who believe see it in a different way with a different set of eyes.

And today in the gospel, we hear that Jesus says, Heaven and Earth will pass away, but My Word will not pass away. And what is that word that will not pass away? But the very words of the Lord that said, he who eats My flesh and drinks My blood will remain in Me and live forever. What is the word that will not pass away? I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will never die.

Of course, for all of us, myself included, consider the day when we will enter the mystery of death does leave many questions in my mind, a bit of apprehension. But we need not truly fear, because you and I know that death is not the end, but death is a passage to a greater life of glory. Perhaps that is a good context for us to come here today and to pray for those men and women who are not afraid courageously to face the mystery of death or to risk their lives for others that they might have life and escape the mystery of death.

Today, we gather to honor all of our police officers, our firefighters, our technicians, our emergency medical technicians, because my friends, oftentimes as a society and individuals, we forget the sacrificial work they do every single day.

For many times, they find themselves in circumstances where they themselves must risk their lives for others. Oftentimes, they face the mystery of the death of those whom they serve, and they don’t They don’t recoil. They don’t run away. They are not afraid to face whatever the situation is, but with courage and generosity and self-sacrifice, they lift the the lives of those whom they serve, protect them from harm, save them in times of great turmoil, in fire, in chaos, in their moments of suffering, you, me, all of us.

So it is a great gift in a society that wants to run away from the mystery of death that we have these noble men and women who every single day do whatever is required so that others may have life, protection, healing, and peace. They are not afraid of the mystery of death.

And that is why we come here to pray for them, to pray for all of you, my friends, who have taken the time to join us, for which I am most grateful that you are here, to pray for every single one of you, that God will protect in your noble work, will keep you safe with the love and protection of the angels, most especially Michael, the great Archangel, the Guardian of the gates of heaven itself. That the Lord will grant you whatever courage you need so that you may continue to be faithful in the noble work that God has chosen for you, and that God will always keep you safe in His love.

And to come here today for all of us to say thank you for what you do, to serve others in their greatest need, even at the cost of risking your own life. I can think of no greater and more noble work. And we are all grateful. And I promise to continue to pray for all of you each day. And you know what, boys and girls? As you grow older, you are going to have many opportunities to consider what you would like to do in life. And really, the sky is the limit.

But I do want you to remember today, because as you consider a vocation, what you would like to do, consider the possibility of becoming a police officer or a firefighter, or a nurse, or an ambulance driver, because you know what, boys and girls? That work is beautiful. It’s courageous. It’s noble. It is one of the most important vocations you can embrace. Something to think about as you continue growing in wisdom and grace.

And so, my dear friends, on this 33rd Sunday of ordinary time, as we prepare to conclude our pastoral year next Sunday with the solemnity of Christ, the King, the King of all things, the Church asks us to pause and to look at the mystery of death straight on with the eyes of faith. The men and women we are praying for and we honor today do that every single day, standing firm with courage, conviction, confidence, and grace. They do whatever love requires. I ask you for the rest of us who are here praying together as sisters and brothers, before that same great mystery, how will you and I respond?

The following is a transcript of Bishop Caggiano’s Sunday homily, November 3 at St. Augustine Cathedral

My dear sisters and brothers in the Lord,

Because they were in great hast, having been summoned to go forth into freedom, to escape the clutches of Pharaoh, to walk through the waters of the Red Sea, the ancient Israelites did not have time to prepare their bread. And so they ran with unleavened dough, a sign of a new life given them, promised them in the covenant.

And so the Passover meal is born. A meal our Jewish brothers and sisters have celebrated for countless generations, a sign of their own liberation and blessing from the Father. The Lord Jesus took that meal, as you and I know, and allowed it to become a means of a far greater liberation, not just a liberation from the tyranny of this world, but from the clutches of the evil one himself. For it became the sacrament of our salvation and freedom from the chains of sin and death itself.

You and I entering into the mystery of our redemption in his one unrepeatable, perfect sacrifice on the cross. And each time we gather to celebrate this great sacrifice, we received unleavened bread that is the sacrament of our salvation and hope.

St Augustine, who is the patron of this parish and this great church, says, “We receive this sacrament not solely as the invitation to our own redemption, but to strengthen the bond that we form because”, he said, “We receive the body of Christ to become the body of Christ.” Which means, my friends, that we are all in our different vocations, lives, and states. We form one living body that brings the life and message of Christ out into the world.

But allow me to suggest this morning as we gather to celebrate the guild, the creation of the Guild of the most Blessed Sacrament, that this bread is leavened unlike this great sacrament, which is not. And what are we leavened with? Ourselves as temples of the Holy Ghost, the Holy spirit, the power and grace of God’s own life.

For you see, my friends, you and I have been given the grace so that we might animate, move, stir this body to greater Holiness, to greater service, to greater dedication, to greater witness of this offer of salvation in Jesus Christ. Each of us in a different way, each of us with our own gifts and talents, each of us with our own prayer life and our own struggles and challenges, all of us called to be leavened so that this bread, this living body of Christ, may continue to grow and multiply until it includes the whole world.

And those of you, my friends, who are becoming members of the Guild of the Most blessed Sacrament, you are being called to be the heralds of this great mystery. You are to be leaven within leaven, not by you perhaps may preach or teach, but by the integrity of your life, so that people may see in you a joyful, faithful, dedicated, generous, a kind and forgiving woman or man who proclaims that the Eucharist is alive in your heart and in it, the presence of Christ. And by that attractive witness, invite guide others to seek what you kneel before as often as you can in adoration.

For you see, my friends, the world is blind to this, and much of the church is asleep before this great sacrament. And it is time to arouse the giant to new life. To energize God’s people, to proclaim this offer that is given to everyone who comes to faith in Him. And so for those of you joining the guild, I am deeply grateful and delighted to initiate you. I hope and pray that there will be many more following in your footsteps so that the body of Christ may be leavened and energized and the world come to see that there is one road to salvation, one road to joy and hope, one road to everlasting glory, and it begins here.

The following is a transcript of Bishop Caggiano’s homily from All Souls Day Mass, November 2 at St. Peter Cemetery

My dear sisters and brothers in the Lord,

He finally came to visit. It was 12 minutes past four o’clock. On the eighth day of January, 2012, it was a Saturday. I knew he was not far away because my mother was struggling for a few days, I, intuiting her life was coming to an end. And so the angel of death came to visit. My family was preparing for this day for a long time, for she had been diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer 13 months prior.

But we have all been in that place Have we not? Someone we love dearly. Perhaps we are preparing ourselves. Perhaps it comes suddenly. Whenever the moment does come, nothing can prepare us for that experience. Because our minds are immediately filled with memories of the past, fears for the future, tremendous sorrow for the loss of the person who is so much a part of our lives, and, if we were honest, tears as much for ourselves as for those whom we have lost. And for a priest to say this is extraordinary. But I was at a loss for words, completely at a loss for words.

And at the time, I was the pastor of St. Dominic’s in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. And so the next day was Sunday Mass. And with all of this swirling in my mind, I remember right before I was going to pick up the consecrated host, when the priest fractures it as a sign of that which the Lord has done for us. My mind heard with a voice that was not my own. “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood shall live in me”. And in that moment was the beginning of a healing that has taken years to move forward. Same for all of us in this place.

On this All Soul’s Day, we come here to pray for all the dead, those known to you, those who are buried here in this cemetery, neighbors, friends, relatives, all those who have passed away in all the centuries of human life. We pray for those who died in Valencia, in Spain. Suddenly, death came to visit them on a day they did not expect. No different than those who died in North Carolina in so many different times and places in our lives. We lift them all as the Holy souls to ask God’s mercy upon them and to remember the words of our savior, He who eats my flesh or drinks my blood will have life in Me. He or she will never die.

On this Old Soul’s Day, we end our Eucharistic Pilgrimage today at this very celebration and the procession to follow. For Jesus has visited the living, now He comes to visit the dead. For He is master of both, and He calls both to life. Consider, my friends, all those who are buried here, how often they receive the bread of life, drank from the cup of eternal salvation. All who are buried here who believe deeply in their hearts that the Lord can be trusted and believed because He is God made man, the one who could deliver what He promises, the one who never lies and never fails.

You see, we come here not to mourn, but to celebrate all of us despite our broken hearts, despite the tears we may continue to shed for those whom we have lost. It could be decades. Perhaps there will be moments we will still shed a tear. Nonetheless, my friends, we come here to celebrate that our Lord is victor over death. You and I, and those buried in this cemetery, and all who believed in Him received the seeds of eternal life on this altar.

How awesome a mystery, a mystery for which there are no words to describe. My friends, when we come here to the altar of God, we come in grace through the power of the Holy Spirit to Calvary. We come here and we enter into the one mystery of the Lord’s death and resurrection in which our deaths have hope, and those who have died have the promise of eternal life. We come here so that we may share in the victory of the Lord over death in His resurrection. What happened seemingly 2,000 years ago is alive and real here in our midst.

Each time we come to pray and each time we receive His sacred body, blood, soul, and divinity, we are given that share of everlasting life. There are no words to describe it, nor should there be, for we are describing the very life of God in us.

When mass ends, for those of you who are able, we will have two processions. The first, I invite all of you to join, which is a simple procession around the circle. Here, it will last no more than six or seven minutes. But for those of you who have the strength and the willingness, I invite you to join me as we will bring the Eucharistic Lord throughout this entire cemetery for about 45 minutes. We will walk all four of its corners.

And if you can come, my friends, join me in song, for the Lord is walking in the garden of life. He is reminding those who sleep in this place that He has given them the seeds of eternal life, that the day will come when they will hear His voice, and they will rise from these graves, and they will have the fullness of the promise of life. Body, soul, and spirit, healed, glorified, risen to take their place in the glory of everlasting life in heaven.

We will walk among the dead to whisper to them that they are dead for a time. They sleep for just a season, but they will live. Why? Because they ate of his body and drank of his blood, and know that He will keep His promise that they shall never die forever. May the Lord, may the risen Lord, may the crucified Lord, may the Lord of the Eucharist be praised now and forever. Amen.

The following is a transcript of Bishop Caggiano’s homily, given Tuesday Evening, October 29, at St. Rose of Lima

My dear sisters and brothers in the Lord,

The mere glance at it usually had the effect of making my legs queezy and my stomach even more so. If it wasn’t more than a glance, the smelling salt needed to be found. Okay, of course, as a little boy, the sight of blood was something I did not ever want to see. You could imagine one of the vocations I took off my list from the beginning was surgeon, out it went, off the list. I’m happy to report that now that I’m much older, that no longer happens.

I even have the courage to watch when they draw blood. The last time I did at Quest, a thought crossed my mind. How precious blood really is for you and me. For our lives would not be – it’s impossible without it. It is the liquid of life. For it carries nutrients, carries oxygen, and allows us to live our lives. Unseen, most of the time. Unseen seen.

And the ancients understood that principle, my friends, the importance of blood being the bearer of life. And so our Jewish sisters and brothers in the ancient, the ancient world, understood that blood was an essential piece of the sacrifice that needed to be made in remission of sins.

They understood what we understand in our own age, that the penalty for serious sin is death. It is its natural consequence. And so when sin occurs or is committed, there needs to be an atonement. There needs to be a forgiveness. And so in the ancient practice, animals were sacrificed so that their blood could pay the penalty and make atonement for the sins of God’s people. They would not endure it.

But an animal that was innocent and without sin, as are all animals, would do so. And blood once again became the vehicle not simply of life, but an invitation to a greater life.

We gather here tonight to begin this extraordinary period of prayer, this Eucharistic Pilgrimage, entering into the mystery of a divine sacrifice. We call it the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. What we are celebrating in grace, in a re-presentation in grace of the one act freely given where Christ became the Pascal lamb, where He took the place of the animals of the old covenant, and He freely shed His life and His blood so that our sins might be remitted, the penalty paid for us, for you and for me, and the effects of our sins be atoned.

You see, my friends, this sacrifice has liberated us from the penalty that would naturally be ours, and it is the doorway into a greater life, a life of glory, an eternal life. And we gather in prayer because He offered His life in sacrifice for us.

But there is more at work here, my friends. For Christ freely gave His life, shed His blood in sacrifice, not simply to atone for our sins, to pay the penalty for us so we could be freed and healed and forgiven. But He also revealed to the world the great power of love that is self-sacrificing.

You see, my friends, as we depicted here on the cross, in the sacrifice on the cross, this is the greatest act of love the world has ever seen. And it is so precisely because it was total self-gift, not because we merit it, not because we’re worthy of it, not because we’ve earned it, but simply for sheer grace. Christ offered all an imperfect love was unleashing that love and its power in you and me.

So we come here not simply to enter into the mystery of His death and resurrection and to be freed, to have the opportunity to be freed from the penalties that are ours. But we also come here to be fed so that we might love as He did. To love in total self-gift. To love in perfect sacrifice. To love so that there is nothing else to give, and in return, we have everything and a hundredfold more back.

That, my friends, is the mystery of discipleship, because we are all on the road trying to live that love, some days better than other days. But that is why He feeds us, His body, blood, soul, and divinity. For He knows our weakness. He has mercy upon us all and gives us the food that will ever make us more able to love as he loved and to unleash the power of Calvary upon the whole world.

To summarize, blood gives life. Blood allows life to exist. The divine blood of Jesus Christ allows us to hope for eternal life in Him. St. Thomas has taught that it only required one drop, one drop of the precious blood of Jesus to redeem all creation. One drop. In these days to come, let us come forward and adore Him.

The following is a transcript of Bishop Caggiano’s homily, given Sunday morning, October 20, at St. Augustine

My friends, let’s give our brothers a round of applause, shall we? Why don’t you sit?

My dear brothers, my dear friends in the Lord, it was an audacious request to ask for a place at the right or the left in the glory of eternal life to their Lord who had no interest in power, money, wealth, or status, was certainly audacious, to say the least. But when you consider, my friends, that the portion of the gospel we do not hear today, immediately preceding what we did hear, claimed, when we hear that the Lord, right before James and John, opened their mouth, He revealed to them that He was to suffer and die and give His life over as ransom for the many.

When you consider, those were the last words Jesus said before they said, Oh, yeah, and by the way, I want a place in glory. It’s more than audacious. One could ask, what did they not understand? What did not register in their minds? But the truth is, my friends, for all the Apostles, they were only beginning to glimpse what the Lord was trying to teach them, and perhaps glimpse it in their minds But their hearts still had a long journey to walk, to understand what the Lord was truly trying to teach them.

And the lesson became clear at the foot of the cross, at which all but one ran. For you see, my friends, what the Lord was trying to teach them, and you and me, is the great mystery of the type of love He is asking us to offer to the world. For you have often heard me say in my homilies that the world out there understands love simply as an emotion, a feeling, a pleasure, and perhaps all of that is somewhat true.

But Jesus did not come to teach us a love that seeks gratification or pleasure. In His entire life, the Lord offered Himself to those around him in self-sacrifice, choosing to do it each day to those who accepted Him and those who did not, those who followed Him and those who turned their back on Him, those who would ultimately understand and accept the good news that that He was the savior and redeemer, and those who’s cried out, Crucify Him, and watched the Romans put Him to death. In every place, in every circumstance, to every person, the Lord was teaching those who followed Him and those who came after them the true meaning of love.

It is a choice you and I make every day, hundreds lots of times a day, to do what’s good for our neighbor, our friend, our coworker, our spouse, our children, our grandchildren, and those we don’t like, and even those we could claim to be our enemies. It’s a choice that does not always feel good and never seeks something in return. It is self-gift. I have come not to be served, but to serve and give my life as ransom for the many.

My dear friends, if discipleship has a hallmark, it is that. It is the one characteristic above all else that should mock us as followers of Jesus Christ. And how sad it is that there are so many who bear His name but do not do what He asks. And we become part of the woodwork of the modern world.

You three, my brothers, have come here because you have heard a call in your heart not to be served, but to serve. You have lived lives of discipleship already with your spouses and children, and you have learned here and here what the Lord is asking. You have struggled with it as I have.

You have not always loved freely, selflessly, nor have I. But you understand what the Lord is asking from all of us. And in the mystery of His love for you, He is calling you into the sacrament that will be assigned to all of us of what we are all called to do every day. For as a deacon of the church, you will serve His word. You will become lectors today. And what will you proclaim? You will proclaim the good news of God’s merciful, forgiving, liberated love in the world. You will serve the altar, but you will also be a minister of charity, a minister of that which James and John, at this point in their life, could not see. How many of your brothers and sisters cannot see it.

The task before you is to grow ever more wholly in life, ever more selfless in your love of the Lord Jesus, that your sisters and brothers will see it in you. Seeing it in you, they may have the courage to live it in their own lives as well. I’m very grateful that you have said yes to your vocation and that you will be a minister of love, the only love that truly gives us joy and hope, peace and destiny in this life.

In a world that seeks self-gratification, self-absorption, one that is distracted in so many ways, I pray that as you continue your formation, and if it is God’s will that you be ordained the deacon, and please God, I will see it and be the one to ordain you. When that that comes, may you be a deaconal apostle in the world to remind them of what the Lord is asking of us, to be women and men of love, to choose the other over us, to sacrifice so that others may have life, to learn to forgive and have mercy in a world that seeks revenge and vengeance, to be able to look upon our neighbor and seek to know their name and to choose to do what is good for them, even if they walk away from us. That, my brothers, and that, my friends, is the task before us. So allow me to ask you, are you seeking a place of glory at His right side? If you are, He will will not give it to you now. Are you seeking a seat on the left side of power and privilege? If you are, the Lord will not grant it to you now.

He has something far more important to give you in a life to come. But if you are truly, you, I, us, and you, my three brothers, are truly committed to walk in His footsteps, to bear His name worthily, and to be those who will not be served, but to serve and love others, then I invite you to look upon the seat He will give you, all of us in this church, a seat from which we will learn evermore each day what it is to love as He loved. And from that place, my sisters and brothers, with the grace of the Holy spirit, call the nations to peace, and we will allow the world to see the path you and I have glimpsed, which is the road to glory.

The following is a transcript of Bishop Caggiano’s homily, given Sunday morning, October 6, at St. Augustine

Boys and girls, why don’t you come up? Come on up. Come on up. Oh, Lord. No, come all the way up. Come on, come. We’re going to sit here. Come, come. The carpet’s very small, though, so many of you are going to have to sit on the marble, which is going to be a little bit cool. Sit, sit, relax. Now, aren’t these children Good. Not a single one sat on the carpet. They were all around. Boys and girls, good morning to you. Good morning. Are you excited? Yeah. Yeah, good. Because I’m going to need your help to help me and everyone here understand what Jesus was talking about today. Is that okay? Okay, so I have to ask you a question. Have you ever made a promise in your life? Raise your hand. What about everybody else? Nice. Thank you. Now, if you’re comfortable, can you tell me what type of promise you made? Tell me. To be good in life. To be good in life. How many of you made a promise to be good? Great. What else? What other type of promise? Tell me. To not? To not do any drugs. Yeah, that’s an excellent promise.

You want to keep that your whole life. What else? Tell me, what did you promise? Never to drink alcohol. Never to drink alcohol. An excellent promise. You’re going to keep that your whole life, right? Or at least That’s not in excess. But who haven’t made the promise not to fight with your brother and sister? Raise your hand. How many of you ever made a promise not to talk back to your mother and father? How many of you ever made a promise to do your homework every day when you get home. Now, let me ask you a question. How many of you kept your promises? Oh, the numbers are fewer. I’m not asking out there at all. We How can you keep that to yourselves. For you see, boys and girls, promises are very important in life because they either can help us to do what is good or to stop us from doing things that are not good, that can even be sinful. We pray that when we make promises, that we’ll have the strength to continue to live those promises because it’s not easy. You and I have discovered that. Let me I’ll tell you a secret.

Last year, I went to my doctor, and my doctor said to me, You have to lose 10 pounds. I said, I promise I will do that. Boys and girls, this is the bad news. I didn’t lose 10 pounds. I gained 10 pounds. I see him in two weeks. You must pray for me. Pray for me. You see, boys and girls, some promises we make for of time. Like in Lent, we make promises to do something special or to make a sacrifice so we could grow in Holiness. Some promises are for your whole life. Like, for example, when a man and a woman fall in love and they want to marry, they make promises that should last their whole life. When you were a little child, someone made a promise for you at your baptism, and you were baptized into Jesus, His life, and you were given the Holy Spirit. That promise lasts for your whole life. That promise lasts for all eternity. When you are confirmed, you’ll have the opportunity to make those promises for yourselves. So promises are important. And for those people who have made promises for their whole life, those who are priests, bishops or deacons, those who are sisters and brothers, those who are married, please pray for all of us that we will be able to live our promises well with the grace and power of the Holy spirit.

But there’s someone else who makes a promise. When He makes a promise, He keeps it always, forever. Who do you think that is? Tell me. God himself, excellence. Thousands of years ago, God made the promise to the Jewish people that one day He would come and save them and us, that He would come to give them and us new life and new grace, that He would send a Messiah. And who is that Messiah, boys and girls? Jesus, the Lord. And then Jesus made promises, did he not? On the day When He died, He turned to one of the thief and promised him that he would be in paradise, in heaven, forever. And Jesus kept that promise for him. And Jesus also promised that He would send the Holy Spirit, and the Holy spirit is alive in you because God always keeps His promises. And why does He keep His promises? Why does He keep His promises? Tell me. Because He loves us. That’s the greatest promise of all. Because boys and girls, God has promised you that He will always love you. Always. No matter what you do, no matter even whatever mistakes or sins you commit, God will always love you.

And He promised always to be there for you so that when you do commit sin, He’s here to forgive you through the sacrum of reconciliation. He’s here to feed you when you’re old enough with the Holy Communion, which is the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus. That He’s always there when you pray every single day. He will never stop loving you. And He asks that we promise to love one another as He loves us. That is not always easy, but that’s a promise worth trying to live every day of your life.

And the same is true, my friends, for you and me. So boys and girls, who here likes to do homework? Raise your hands. Oh, good. Good. Because I have homework for you. What do you think? What do you mean no? Yes, of course. We have to do homework. And for those who are a bit older, feel free to do this homework. Is there something that you are doing, boys and girls, that you know you should not be doing? Is there something that people who love you, your parents, your teachers, your catechists, maybe your grandparents are saying, You know what?

You should stop doing that. If there is, are you willing to go home, talk to your mother, father, both of them, and see if you can make a promise to stop doing it and to ask God to help you to stop doing it? Or is there something that you’ve always wanted to do that you know is a good thing to do? And you say, Well, you know what? I’m too busy. I’d much rather play this video game. I’d much rather spend time with my friends. I’ll do it tomorrow. I’ll do it next week. I’ll do when Father or the Bishop tells me to do it. I’ll do it Christmas time. Is there something you know that’s good, that you can do, but you haven’t yet done it? Can you make that promise after talking to your parents? Make that promise, and with that help, try to live that promise. Because promises are important. And promises that we make to one another and to God will help us to get to where we really want to be. And where is that, boys and girls? Where does God promise us one day to be together when we’re joyful, happy, no suffering, no pain, no death?

Where is that? Heaven, which is where, please God, we will all go. Boys and girls, you were great today. Tremendous. Weren’t they great? Let’s give them a round of applause. I promise you that the next time I come to Mass here, which is in two weeks, if you are here, I’m going to invite you up to come so we can have another talk. That time, hopefully, I’ll have a bigger carpet for you to sit on. Okay? Off you go. Back to your places.

The following is a transcript of Bishop Caggiano’s homily, given Sunday morning, September 29, at St. Augustine

My dear sisters and brothers in the Lord, today in our second reading, St. James wastes no time to be quite courageous and quite direct in calling to task the landowners and merchants of his own age, who, because of the unjust practices that they ascribed to, caused many, most especially their own workers, to live in poverty while they grew rich. And we recall what he told them. He warned them of the judgment that awaits them, for all their possessions will be like corrosion.

And when you consider, my friends, that St. James was writing to Christians, could you imagine the horror he felt when those who claimed faith in Jesus Christ, savior and redeemer, the one who came to have mercy, to love all, especially those who are poor, how they quickly betrayed their faith for money.

Two thousand years have passed, my friends. Not much has changed. For we still live in a world that, unfortunately, is held in many ways in the group of the ‘sites’ and the ‘sites’ of the tiny kinds, where those who are poor struggle to have just the basic necessities of life. And sadly, in many countries, including our own, there are more and more becoming poor, whereas there are those who are becoming more and more rich.

What do we do about it? For St. James is also speaking to you and me.

Now, of course, my friends, the natural response would simply to be to say what we are trying to do, I presume in our own individual lives, and that is to help those who are poor by our generosity and our time and our volunteerism. And all of that is a work of the Holy spirit, and all of that is very good. You and I are called to be the hands and the feet and the heart of Jesus in the world. And so each time we live in charity and mercy, each time we reach out to a brother or sister, neighbor or friend, or even stranger to help them in their material need, we are fulfilling the will of God. We are helping to build the Kingdom of God.

But my friends, allow me to offer one other possible bit of homework for you and I to do. And this will not be easy to do. This will make you uncomfortable. And quite frankly, I will offer it because it will make me uncomfortable as well. But why is there so much material poverty? Why, after all these centuries, is the world still facing so much injustice? Why?

Perhaps part of the answer, my friends, is simply this. Spiritual poverty in large part creates material poverty. To put it another way, when those who are in leadership and those who follow Jesus are spiritually poor, when they do not embrace that which the Lord asks of us wholeheartedly, without compromise, without mediocrity, when those who follow in the footsteps of Jesus do not cast out the sins that always threaten us, including the sins of avarice and jealousy, the sins of complacency and mediocrity. When you and I do not attend to our spirits and allow them to become poor, then there is little hope that injustice in all its forms can be truly addressed by all of us, not just some of us.

So my friends, I ask you, where are you poor in your spirit? Where in your life, in mine, in our spiritual lives, do we need to convert, repent, or simply grow? Is it the fact that we have just accepted the situation and have come to the conclusion nothing can be done of it? Are you and I just simply content of reaching out and helping those around us and not speaking a prophetic voice to the world as we heard the Book of Numbers, to be able to speak the truth to power, even when power does not want to hear the truth?

We will be voting in a few weeks. How much time will you and I take to truly reflect on that important act and to discern, perhaps with some trouble, who it is that can lead us on every level of government to help build the Kingdom of God, one brick at a time. Jesus says in the gospel, If your hand, your feet, your eye bother you, they prevent you from becoming faithful Look, cut them off. Please don’t cut anything off. Except our sins. What sin do you and I have that’s entslaving us, that does not allow us to speak the truth, that does not allow us in our own way to rise up to ask for a better world. What is that sin?

And my friends, cut that out for you and for me. Jesus said in the gospel, You will always have the poor. And I always imagined to myself He was talking about the materially poor. But I wonder if He was not, in fact, reminding us that there’s another poverty that we will always have if we do not submit to the grace of the Holy spirit, ask for the courage to, one step at a time, become ever more faithful to what he’s asking, to be prophets in the modern world.

For the material poor need those who are spiritually rich to help them to find the dignity God to drive them, the solidarity that unites us as one family, and to allow them the opportunities you and I have to exercise their freedom for their own good and the good of their families. That is the world the Lord asks us to build. And we can. We can. If we leave this church committed to ask the question in the mirror, what part of my life is spiritually poor? And Lord, help it to be healed.

The following is a transcript of Bishop Caggiano’s homily, given Saturday afternoon, September 21, at St. Matthew

My dear friends, I think it is fair to say that paying taxes has never been popular in any nation, time, or culture. Unfortunately, those who beautifully do their work to collect taxes oftentimes get the ire and anger of those who may not wish to pay as much as they are asked to pay. I think that’s universal.

But in the time of Jesus, those who were tax collectors were particularly disliked for two other reasons. The first is that the entity, the state for which they were collecting taxes, was the oppressor. Matthew collected taxes for the Roman Empire Empire, the Roman Empire, which had robbed the Jews of their liberty and occupied their land. Those who collected taxes for Rome were considered to be traitors.

If that is not bad enough, Roman law was very strange. Can you imagine that the law said the minimum tax, that is, the minimum amount the tax collector had to hand over to authorities. But the law would not prosecute that person if they tried to collect more than the law prescribed, and they kept the difference. We call that extortion in the modern world. They called it ordinary life. You could imagine Matthew sitting at his post would have had many people walk by, muttering things under their breath that I could not possibly say in church today.

And yet Jesus did not walk by. Jesus refused to cast him away. Jesus refused to cancel him out. Jesus saw not only what he was, but what he could become in His power and grace. And to imagine that he chose Matthew as one of the Apostles must have caused turmoil, to say the least, among the people who heard of it.

For you see, my friends, every Sunday we gather to worship the Lord, who is a forgiving and merciful Lord, who never gives up on any of His children, no matter how astray they are, no matter far they have wandered. No one is junk before God. No one is lost before God, and God gives up on no one.

And today is the proof from the hand of the Savior and Redeemer. So now the challenge for us is an obvious one. You and I gather here to ask for the grace of the Holy spirit and to receive the body, blood, soul, divinity of Jesus the Lord, so that we might not pass by those who otherwise the world tells us, Just don’t bother. They’re extortionists, only interested in their selves and their self-interest.

They’re traitors to the things we believe in and the values we hold. They may disagree with us in the things we believe or the lifestyle they live or whatever else it may be. And we’re tempted in a world that wants to divide us to simply say, Write them off. What the Lord says is, No, take another look.

For you, I, we in this church, live, move, breathe in His name. We are his living presence in the world. You and I are called to imitate His holy example, even when it is difficult to do. And so the challenge the Lord is giving us tonight is to say, We pass by no one. We ride off no one. Not easy to do.

But if that were not enough, my friends, allow me to go one step deeper. And this is where it may hurt. Certainly for me, it will hurt. But allow me to ask all of us in this church, who is the tax collector in your life? Who is the one that you have or I have just simply written off? We’re not talking about theory. We’re not talking about society. We’re talking about a living, breathing person that we have walked by and said, I am done.

Can you picture that person in your mind today? Perhaps that person is the tax collector for you and me because they really have betrayed us. They really have hurt us. Their gossip has destroyed our reputation. Or perhaps they have taken that which rightfully belongs to us. Or they’ve hurt the people we love, and sometimes that’s harder than when they hurt us. Perhaps that person is someone who has bitterly disappointed us or has made life choices that we fundamentally disagree with, and they refuse to listen to the reason we wish to give them.

Or simply, it is someone who has extorted us and our goodness and our patience and our forgiveness. We’ve forgiven, and we’ve forgiven, and we’ve forgiven, and we’ve forgiven again and again, and they come back again and again. Finally, what we can say to ourselves, enough is enough, enough is enough.

Is there such a person in your life and mine? Because if there is, the challenge of tonight’s gospel is to ask the Holy spirit for the grace to do what our humanity would not do by itself. To ask for the grace of the Lord so that we might one day stop at his or her table and to reach out to that person, and to allow that person an opportunity to not simply be a person in our eyes for that which he or she has already done, but to dare to imagine that we could walk with them to become the person that they were meant to be.

If you’re sitting there, my friend, saying, The Bishop needs his head examined, if he thinks, I’m going to do this. The truth is, I may need my head examined, but that’s a different story. Truth is, None of us in this church could do that alone. But with the power and grace of the Holy spirit, who will dwell here in just a few moments and dwells in you and me every moment of every day, with His power and grace, we can.

St. Matthew was chosen and gave his life for Jesus. My friends, who is it in our lives that perhaps unbeknownst to them is waiting for us to stop at their table and call them to follow Jesus?

The following is a transcript of Bishop Caggiano’s homily, given Sunday morning, September 15, at St. Augustine

My dear sisters and brothers in the Lord,

As you know, the last World Youth Day was held in Portugal, in Lisbon, and I had the privilege to attend and serve as a bishop catechist. But this World Youth Day was different because the dicastery that ran it instructed all the bishops to keep their remarks to 12 minutes. I could guarantee you there were some bishops who did not do that. But I tried my best. I tried.

The first topic that we explored was ecological stewardship, the proper care of all creation. My job was to listen to what the young adults were saying, and I tried to do that. At the very end, when they reported all that they had discussed, they I came up with wonderful ideas. The need to recycle, the need for education, the need for political advocacy, all the stuff, all good things. They are all good things. Then it was my turn to get up. Twelve minutes. I had to say something that made a difference. Quite frankly, it was a question that has been burning in my heart for a very long time. This is what I basically began my remarks by saying, I said, My dear friends, all these ideas you presented are great, but can one person in this church, there were about 200 and some odd, 19 countries, all English-speaking.

Is there one person in this church who could explain to me why any of what you are saying is Catholic? They all looked me. I said, I could be Jewish and recycle. I could be an atheist and do political advocacy. So tell me, what makes all of these things Catholic, Christian? Well, you could imagine they all began to murmur among themselves, and that was my hope, to raise a question that perhaps they had never asked themselves. But it is a question, my friends, that the apostle James, 2,000 years before, through the inspiration of the Holy spirit, asked and answered for them, for you, and for me.

We hear it in the second reading today. When James tells us that we who have faith in Jesus Christ are called to have that faith express itself in works, perhaps a better word than works is acts of goodness. Acts of charity, acts of mercy, acts of forgiveness. This faith cannot be held within itself, but it needs to manifest itself in the way we live, in our relations with each other. And the connection is the answer to my question. For you and I, my friends, as disciples of Jesus Christ, are called to do acts of goodness each day, as often as we we can, as sacrificial as we can, for two reasons: to give honor and glory to the One who is our savior and redeemer, and to build His kingdom brick by brick. To give honor and glory to Jesus Christ.

You know, my friends, we live in a world that wants goodness to be anonymous. But you and I will not do that. There’s an entire world waiting to answer Jesus’s question, who do you say this Jesus of Nazareth is? And we are the ones who, by our actions, will point them to the answer of that question. And we cannot do it unless we give glory to Christ in all that we do in His name. We should never forget that when we feed someone, we’re doing as Christ’s ambassador. Then when we clothe someone, we’re doing it because the Lord asked us to do it and to utter His name while doing it. In all the things that you and I are called to do, the spiritual and corporal works of mercy, we are there because Christ called us, Christ asked us, Christ graced us, Christ sent us out to proclaim His Holy name. You and I do not do goodness anonymously. We do it to give Him glory and to name who He really is. And as Jesus says in the gospel, it will require much sacrifice, and quite frankly, for us to truly do the works of goodness.

Only He can ask us to give until it hurts, until there’s nothing else to give, because we know in the end, He will give us a hundredfold a share in everlasting glory. We also do the things we do in goodness because we’re building the Kingdom of God one brick at a time, just ecological stewardship. I mean, my friends, even if the whole world converted, we have already created great damage to the creation God had given us as a great gift. Perhaps there may be a way to reverse it. I am not a scientist, I do not know.

But the truth is, for every problem and challenge in our world and all the sufferings they create, our job is not to go out there and think we can solve it permanently and make up for all its effects, because in our broken world, that is not what the Lord is asking. He will do that when He comes in glory. But what He does ask us to do is rebuild the world into His kingdom, one living brick at a time. For you and I to go into the lives of our neighbors and friends and coworkers and those who have offended us and may say, even our enemies, and to proclaim that we are there for their good because Jesus has asked us to love them. And in His name, we will to the end.

And even though you and I cannot make up for all of the effects of sin, we can begin to build in our midst a kingdom, His kingdom, with His grace, and show the world what it was meant to be from the garden of paradise. I have no idea, my friends, after my time with those young people, if they actually came to terms with my question because I only gave them a hint of the answer. The reason I did that is simply because they don’t need to hear it from my lips. They need to hear it from their hearts because that’s where they will find the Lord Jesus.

But I pray for them every day that they that answer as I pray for you and for me in the rough and tumble of our lives when we are called to do that which is good, that we will also remember the answer to that question.

The following is a transcript of Bishop Caggiano’s homily, given Sunday morning, September 8, at St. Augustine

My dear sisters and brothers in the Lord,

I’m sure in our travels, we have often heard an exasperated mother or father turn to his or her child and say, Are you listening to me? Growing up, I heard that many times from my mother. In her less delicate moments, she would add by saying, Are you deaf? Now, of course, my mother knew I wasn’t physically deaf, but she also knew I was not listening for a lot of reasons. Growing up, myself, and I guess a lot of young people, but myself in particular, I was lost in my own world and my own thoughts, preoccupied with what I was interested in. Quite frankly, sometimes I knew that what my mother was going to tell me, I did not want to hear, and so I simply did not listen. And you could imagine the consequences. We won’t talk about those in church. It’s interesting the importance of listening. Today in the gospel, we hear of a miracle that the Lord performed to a man who was physically deaf. And interestingly, when the Lord, through the agency of His own body, He literally was touching him with spittle. What happens?

He hears for the first time. And what does he hear is the key. He hears a single word from the mouth of the one who is the word of God. You see, my friends, that is the point. You and I know that Jesus performed miracles as signs of the kingdom. They benefited the individual who may have been healed, but it was also as a sign and a lesson for everyone else. Jesus, in his many miracles, was teaching us that there is a life to come where the deaf will hear and the blind will see, that the lame will walk and those who have their hearts broken will sing and rejoice. A life where there would be no suffering and pain, a life of perfect glory, a life that He won for us in His death and resurrection that we will celebrate here in just a few moments in the sacred Eucharist. For the man to be healed of deafness, the very first thing he heard was the most important in his life. For the first time he was able to listen to the words of God. Allow me to ask you, how deaf are you and I to the words of God?

Do we listen? And not just listen like a little child, Yeah, I’m listening. I heard you. But listen in such a way that the word of God penetrates our mind, pierces our heart, convicts our behavior. We allow the word of God to transform us and to challenge us and to change us. It’s like planting a seed. Do we allow the word of God to be planted as a seed in our hearts so that it could grow as the days and weeks go by? And the Lord continues to speak to us in the quiet of our hearts as to what it is that His will be for you or me and what he expects of you and me. The word of God is living. It is Christ’s presence. Forgive me for asking this question, but even when the readings were complained today, were you listening? Was I listening? Was I really listening? Was I really listening to allow that word to dwell in my heart well beyond the ending of this sacred celebration? And if we were not, and if we do not as well as we can, this week, I’m going to ask you, my friends, to take some time in your life, as I will in mine, and ask the reason why.

Why do I not take the time to listen and pray over the word of God? Why, when it is claimed, do I not, in fact, allow it to be planted in my heart as a seed to grow? What is it in your life and mind that are the impediments? Perhaps it’s fear, perhaps it’s anxiety. Forgive me, perhaps it’s laziness. Perhaps the choices you and I make are not the right choices in the way we use our time. We are all busy. But who is so busy that they would not invite Jesus to come to their table and sit with us in his Holy word of God? My friends, you and I are working on the renewal of the whole church, and that renewal is not possible unless you and I break open the power and grace that comes from the words spoken by God himself. First in ourselves, then amongst ourselves. It was interesting when I was chatting with the deacons in the sacracy. Today is September eighth, is it not? Today is the birthday of Mary. If our math is correct, our lady is 2,040 years old today. Does she look great for that?

If there ever was a person who listened to the word of God, it was our lady. Her whole life, from when she over the words of the prophets and the law. When she dwelled in the deepest part of her heart to find the will of God, when the angel Gabriel came, she knew the answer was yes. And to have the privilege to hear the word spoken by the word of God who was her Son as a little boy, as a teenager, as the itinerant preacher who is our savior and redeemer. And what is the scripture says? She treasured all of it in her heart. Can we dare to believe that you and I can do the same thing? For there will come a day when you and I are standing before God Himself, and he will ask you and He will ask me, Were you listening to Me? And on that day, what shall we say?

The following homily was given by Bishop Caggiano at the Permanent Diaconate Ordination, June 29, 2024.

Please be seated and relax.

My dear friends, what a joyful morning it is for you and I, all of us here, sisters and brothers in faith, to gather around our three brothers whom God, in his loving providence and mercy, has called them to this moment in the journey of their life, supported by the love of their wives and their children and their grandchildren and all those who have walked with you, brothers, in this adventure that is your life, we all gather here with great gratitude to God, for he has called you into a great mystery. To to become living sacruments of self-sacrificing love, and to remind all of us by our baptism what we are to do, you will now dedicate your life to that, both in your ministry and, quite frankly, in every moment of every day that you will live. You know very well what it is the Lord is asking of you. And all of us in this church as well know know what this great sacrament of the Achanit is. Certainly, it is to be a servant. And so you are being called to join your brothers already ordained to be a servant of the word.

And as we said last night when we gathered for that beautiful dinner, so too, you are a servant of the word by the words you speak, but by the living testimony of your life. You are to become a living gospel. And from what I have heard last night, you are already doing that. You are very well prepared to be the herald of the good news of salvation, even in the moment or perhaps most effectively in the moments of great suffering, of great loss, of great pain, of great uncertainty. And then, of course, you are going to be the servant of the altar, not simply assisting the priest or deacon in the manners so that liturgy can be celebrated reverently. But remember, you are the sacrum of charity, and so you will bring to the altar all that the people of God share with you their hopes, their dreams, their challenges, their pains. You will be there interceding for them, praying for them, and bringing the Holy Eucharist to them, the sacred body, blood, soul, and divinity, the food of everlasting life. And then, of course, to be called not to be served, but to serve, to be a man of charity to your spouse, to your children and grandchildren, to your family and friends, to your coworkers, to your fellow parishioners, and wherever God takes you.

As I said before, you are already doing this well. And with the of God, you will do it in ways that you will be able to sit back and wonder at what God can do through frail human lives like yours and mine. But today, we gather, my friends, on a beautiful and singular feast day. We gather to join our voices with believers throughout the world and believers through all the ages. To honor the two great princes of the Apostles, the Fisherman and the rabbi, the one who was educated and the one who was a simple laborer, the one who was called the rock by Christ, as we heard in the gospel, upon which the entire church was built, and the one with the fiery sword and fiery tongue who went where others feared to go among the Gentiles. Together, you and I stand on their shoulders in this great symphony of faith whose first notes were sung in the empty tomb. For me to have the privilege to ordain you on the feast of Peter and Paul, the Apostles, reminds me of the great gift you will be to me and my successors. For like all your brothers in the deaconet, The relationship between the bishop and his deacons is a special one, a unique one.

May I dare say, a beautiful fraternal one. For you will become the marines of charity to go where I may ask, my successes may ask, and to follow in the footsteps of the fearless ones, Peter and Paul. But both have a lesson, and may I suggest that it is true for you and all of us in this church. For Paul was the one who said, When I am weak, then I am strong. He is the one who said, But for me, life is Christ and death is gain. For Paul was zealous for the law. He boasted of it. He was single minded in his devotion to what he believed Yahweh was asking him to do, even to persec the early church. And yet when he encountered Christ, his entire life changed. And that same zeal, single mindedness, then propelled him to do things which you and I, my friends, chances are, would not have the strength to do, to even be saved from the lion’s mouth, as we heard in second reading. And so today on your ordination day, Paul, from his celestial place, is reminding you, brothers, of single-mindedness. Your life now must be all about Christ, who is the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega, the Lord of the living and the dead.

And by doing that, it will free you to love your wives in a whole new, more beautiful way, your children and grandchildren in a whole new way, and God’s people in a whole new way. Because by giving up everything for Christ, we gain everything back and more. It is all about not about you, not about me, but about Christ. And Paul teaches us that. Then, of course, Peter, we heard today, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. He gives the first testimony of who Christ really is as our savior and redeem. And yet was he not also the one who said, I do not know him. I do not know him. I do not know him. And yet Peter was a man of great conviction. He was stubborn in the best sense of the word, and he recognized his frailty. He recognized his sinfulness. He recognized his faults and failings. And when Christ rose from the dead, you remember, Christ asked him, Do you love me? And three times made up for his betrayal, Yes, Lord, you know I love you. Then feed my sheep. Brothers, you have been called to something you are not worthy of, nor am I.

That you will look yourself in the mirror every day and realize there are a thousand reasons why someone else perhaps has better gifts and talents than you. And you will also always, like I do every morning and every night, confront my own sinfulness as you do yours. Remember the example of Peter. For Peter was chosen not because he was perfect, but because he was humble of heart, Because even in his stubbornness, he knew the voice of the shepherd, and he learned how to truly love. And so may Peter guide you. May Peter help you to unlock the true depths of your heart in humility of life so that you will love, you will love sacrificially, recklessly, generously, everyone you meet, and teach the world what service really means in Jesus Christ. Allow me to end by simply saying this, There was one who consol both Peter and Paul, one who was their advocate and guide, one who was their hidden strength. You know to whom I am referring, it is the great mother of God, the mother of the savior, and your mother, our mother as well. As you prepare to prostrate yourself here before us and to rise up to be ordained into this great sacrament, feel her love, her mantle, guiding you, wrapping you, protecting you, always, every time, all the days of your life.

For if you ever find yourself confused or doubting or discouraged, turn to her with the example of the Apostles, you, brothers, and you, brothers, and you, brothers and sisters, all of us have nothing to fear. Congratulations. And may God bless you all the days of your life through Christ, our Lord. Amen.