Father Chris Looby

  Chrism Mass Homily – Bishop Terry R. LaValley Jubilee Year of Hope – 2025 “May the power of this sacrifice, O Lord, we pray, mercifully wipe away what is old in us and increase in us grace of salvation and newness of life through Christ our Lord.” My sisters and brothers in Christ, It seems to me that this prayer over the offerings that I will soon address to our Lord offers a helpful recipe for hope—for hope in this Jubilee Year and beyond. Know—and believe in your hearts—that through the power of this Chrism Mass, the Lord is going to do some pretty heavy lifting. If we let Him. We pray that God will mercifully wipe away what is old in us. And we know what we hang on to—the habit-forming behaviors that keep us comfortable, even unchallenged. Anything that makes me say, “My way, not Yours, Lord,” smacks of the old in us. Spiritual growth and a closer relationship with Jesus Christ are stifled when the old in us goes unchallenged. It can evolve into a stale spirituali...

  If you’ve ever seen Star Wars , you might remember one of the most dramatic cliffhangers in movie history.  At the end of The Empire Strikes Back , one of the main characters—Han Solo—is captured and frozen in a block of carbonite.  He’s alive, but completely stuck. Trapped. He can’t speak, can’t move. He’s frozen in darkness.  And for the next three years, fans were left wondering: Is that it for Han? Will he ever come back? Even if you’ve never seen the movie, you can picture the scene: someone suspended between life and death.  That image—of being stuck, frozen, unable to move—can hit close to home for any of us who have ever felt spiritually or emotionally buried. Now imagine Lazarus. Four days in the tomb. Wrapped in burial cloths. His sisters are heartbroken. The crowd is confused. It looks like the end. And then… Jesus comes. And everything begins to change. Before He works the miracle, Jesus does something surprising. He weeps. He sees Mary and Martha ...