Sermon by Fr. Paul Check, Rector of St. John Fisher Seminary, Stamford, CT
Given at St. Mary Church Norwalk, 9:30 Mass, October 14, 2018

I am not a good student of popular “culture”—if we can still call it that—like your last pastor. Fr Cipolla might be distressed to learn that cancelling the seminary’s subscription to the New York Times was among the first things I did in January 2017 when I arrived at St John Fisher. In “ordering the goods,” we can read other things…because we have not yet read all the good books Fr Cipolla has read. Anyway, men of good will can differ in their prudential judgments. I can take this easy way out: There is nothing new under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 1:9)

Of great interest to me, however, is the human heart: both in its tangle (Jeremiah, What is more tortuous than the human heart, who can understand it? 17:9) and in its nobility, especially the human heart that welcomes grace and fruitfully translates that grace into a holy and virtuous life…as we see in the Communion of Saints.

And so I do notice something in the world, of special interest to me, particularly given my work as a priest and formator: we find a tremendous market for self-help material of all kinds. People want to improve their incomes, their education, their skills, their lives…and they want to improve themselves, their characters. They, we, want to be better people…they want, we want, to realize our potential.

Now there are different motivations for this interest in self-help books, videos, et al: some worldly, some financial or practical…but some more noble and generous. A moral or spiritual sense exists that I can be something more than I am. There remains yet a gap. The examination of conscience tells us that. The virtue of humility confirms it. Parents, friends, teachers, coaches, seminary rectors encourage us…in the language of metaphysics, potency has not yet become act, in some measure. This heart can be stretched a bit more, purified a little more, ultimately so that it can be more Christlike…more like the Sacred Heart.

So, the next question: what is the best motivation, the strongest reason to want to improve oneself and to persevere? What will sustain that desire to realize one’s potential in a moral, or better, spiritual sense, over the long term, amid failure, disappointment and pain …indeed, over a lifetime in a fallen world, that tempts us away from what is true and good?

St Paul answers that question in his second letter to the Corinthians: Caritas Christi urget nos. (II Cor 5:14) Here is what he says:

For the love of Christ controls us, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

Here’s what makes the human heart not just good or noble, but holy. Here is how saints are made, in and for our mother, the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ: it is the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, as St Paul said to the Romans. (8:39) And what is the love of God? To live for Christ, and for His image in others, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

In the epistle for today’s Mass, (Eph 6:10-17) St Paul tells us why this matters, why conforming the heart to Christ is urgent, why, indeed, it is everything.

For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day… [Gird] your loins with truth…put on the breastplate of righteousness…[shod] your feet with the equipment of the gospel of peace… above all taking the shield of faith, with which you can quench all the flaming darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

St Paul describes what Fr Edward Leen called, “the clash of the ultimates.” Life and death contending for final, eternal victory.

A few final thoughts: Many are the reasons for good-hearted people to lament the ills that beset the family, society, and the Church today. It would do violence to reason to ignore them. But I return to my patron saint once more: “Now is the acceptable time. Now is the day of salvation.” (II Cor 6:2) Now is the time to recommit ourselves to Christ according to the wisdom of Paul as he shared it with the Ephesians: the armor of God in the grace of the Eucharist and confession; the powerful intercession of Our Lady in the Rosary; the shield of devotion to the guardian angels and St Michael; deepening our understanding of the truth of doctrine and moral teaching through study and edifying conversation; the righteousness of humility, self-forgetfulness, and charity; putting Sacred Scripture in my lap or hands daily to be fortified by the Word of God, the sword of the spirit that will enlighten dark corners of the soul that have not yet realized their potential in the Lord.

And perhaps most important of all: the trusting surrender to the Cross of Christ, the measure of all things. (cf. Jn 12:32) The human heart is best stretched and purified through sacrifice and suffering, often acutely so, as many of you know.

The light shines brightly in the darkness (cf. Jn 1:5), through teachers of the one, true faith who are also witnesses to the love of God. Some may struggle with making commitments today to a vocation or to marriage, but the human heart is made to bind itself in promises or vows to what is virtuous and holy, so that it will not live for itself but for another, and thus find happiness. And the Christian heart knows such commitments are worth everything, because they mark the narrow path to life eternal. (cf. Mt 7:13) “Shod your feet with the equipment of the Gospel of peace,” St Paul urges us, as grace will help us to fulfill our potential for sanctity in the love of Christ Jesus, Our Lord.

St. John Fisher seminarians visit St. Mary Church Norwalk, CT, graciously serving at the Solemn Traditional Mass. Fr. Paul Check, their rector, was the celebrant. It’s encouraging the see these fine young men, future priests of the Diocese of Bridgeport.

This Sunday, October 14,  Fr. Paul Check, rector of the St. John Fisher Seminary Residence in Stamford, Connecticut will offer the 9:30 AM Solemn Traditional  Mass  at St. Mary’s, Norwalk, Connecticut, with the seminarians from Fisher House present in choro.   Fr. Check and seminarians then will attend the coffee hour after Mass.    Anyone interested in speaking with Fr. Check or the seminarians is encouraged to attend this Mass and coffee hour.    Fr. Check was in residence at St. Mary’s for a number of years before becoming rector of the seminary.