Deacon Michael Sean Patrick Irving began serving Holy Spirit Catholic Parish during the Spring of 2019. The Most Reverend Bishop Robert Coerver assigned Deacon Michael, AKA Deacon Mick, to HSCP upon receiving a Letter of Good Standing from the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. Deacon Michael most recently served at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Los Alamos New Mexico; June 2011 – 2018.  

 

Deacon Mick discerned his vocation with inspiration from Our Blessed Mother, Saint Polycarp, and Pope Saint John Paul the Great. He was ordained at the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi in Santa Fe, New Mexico on June 25th, 2011. In addition to his diaconate formation, Deacon Michael has degrees in Security Management BA, Police Science/Criminal Justice AA, and 17 Theological Education Courses.  

 

Deacon Mick and his wife, Geri Elizabeth Mary Irving have retired from their professional positions. They have four adult children; Benjamin, David, Daniel, and Mary, and grandchildren. A couple ministries Deacon Michael finds most fulfilling are serving Mass and visiting the sick. He likes to recreate and enjoys hobbies; include gardening, golf, traveling, and is a sports fan. 

Homily for November 17 2019 – The End Times

+ Mark Twain said:  “When the end of the world comes I want to be in Kentucky – they are always 20 years behind everything!”

+ In the Gospel reading Jesus speaks of the “end times”

  • Jesus is condemning Jerusalem’s pagan ways and foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem, which as history reflects, occurred in 70 A.D.
  • Jesus Himself spoke emphatically about the end.
  • How much thought do you give to the end of the world?
    • The Bible has much to say on the subject.
  • One extreme to be avoided is a dreadful surety that the end will occur in our own lifetimes –
    • it might, but then again, it might not.
    • The first generations of Christians expected the end in their own lifetimes, but God had other plans (for which we are all thankful!).
    • Another extreme to be avoided is the smug certainty that we needn’t be personally concerned with the end of the world, since that won’t occur for billions of years.
    • That is not necessarily God’s plan.
  • Since Jesus spoke about the end, we should listen, and learn, and live what He taught!
  • There is something we know is certain and that is that our own life is limited. 
    • A former pastor of mine emphasized on a number of occasions, that:
      • “we all know we are going to die, we just don’t believe it”.
      • And because of that, we do not prepare effectively.

+ One way to do so is to contemplate this question:

  • “What do I want on my tombstone”? Here are a few possibilities:
    • “HERE LIES my wife, I bid her goodbye. She rests in peace and now so do I.”
    • On another headstone: “Bill Wilson, R.I.P., I told you I was sick!”
    • In Ruidoso, New Mexico: “Here lies Johnny Yeast. Pardon me for not rising.”
    • “Anna Wallace. The children of Israel wanted bread, and the Lord sent them manna. Old clerk Wallace wanted a wife, and the devil sent him Anna.”
    • Boot Hill, Arizona, “Here lies Lester Moore, took 4 slugs from a 44. No Les, No More.”
  • Joking aside, we should keep our focus on what comes next.  How about one of the following?
    • “She was faithful to the end”
    • Or, “He loved and served the Lord”
  • What do you want on your tombstone? 

+ Dr. Psychiatrist Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, in her book Death and Dying, and working with the terminally ill, she wrote:

  • “They saw in the final analysis that only two things matter: the service you render others and love.  All those things we think are important, like fame, money, prestige and power, are insignificant.”

+ What would you do if you knew the world was going to end soon?

  • I suspect that some of us would say—that
    •  we would immediately go to Confession,
    • start attending Mass more often,
    • to pray the Rosary,
    • and act more charitably. 
    • Well, the implication is that many of us are unprepared for the end times, let alone our own death.
    • Such a reply points to a pressing need for greater preparedness.

+ First and foremost we are encouraged to stay faithful.

  • How do we do that in a world of so many false prophets? 
    • We need to know our faith and to be able to recognize false prophets.
  • The Catechism of the Catholic Church speaks very boldly about what to expect in the end times. It states (CCC 675-677):
    • “Before Christ’s second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers.
    • The persecution…will unveil the “mystery of iniquity”
      • in the form of a religious deception
      • offering men an apparent solution to their problems
      • at the price of apostasy (falling away from religious truth).”
  • Saint Paul said:  “But even if we (meaning Apostles or bishops), or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we preached to you, let him be accursed.”
    • So, if you ever hear someone say that
      • Jesus was not God during His life on earth—that He was only man,
      • or that when He rose from the dead, He was only a spirit,
      • or that Satan is not real, he is just a symbol, or that Hell doesn’t exist,
      • or that Jesus is not really present in the Blessed Sacrament, it is only a symbol,
      • remember those words from Saint Paul.
  • Saint John the Evangelist writes in his epistle:   
    • “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
    • By this you know the Spirit of God:
      • every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God,
      • and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God…
      • They are of the world, therefore what they say is of the world, and the world listens to them.”
  • How do we test the spirits?  We check:
    • The Catechism,
    • The conclusions of the Councils of the Church,
    • and we verify the constant, timeless teaching of the Church.
  • Then we will not fall away or lose faith.

+ Referring to the end times, the Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen said:

  • “From now on the struggle will be… for the souls of men.”. People…will… begin dividing into two religions — One “the God Who became man” and two…” the man who makes himself God”…
  • “The AntiChrist …will come disguised as the Great Humanitarian; he will talk peace, prosperity and plenty not as means to lead us to God, but as ends in themselves,”
  • “He will write books on the new idea of God to suit the way people live;
    • …He will…make men shrink in shame if their fellowmen say they are not broadminded and liberal;
    • he will be so broadminded as to…equate…tolerance with indifference to right and wrong;
    • he will spread the lie that men will never be better until they make society better…;
    • he will foster more divorces under the disguise that another partner is ‘vital’;
    • he will invoke religion to destroy religion.”

+ The Pew Research Institute [website] reported, just recently, some very disturbing survey results–that

  • 33% of those surveyed who identified generally as Catholics (understood to be both practicing and not practicing) believed in astrology,
  • 36% in reincarnation,
  • 46% in psychics,
  • 46% said they want Christ’s Church to recognize same-sex marriages,
  • 76% of Catholics want the Church to accept artificial contraception,
  • 62% to allow those divorced and remarried without an annulment (and without reconciliation) to receive Communion,
  • 61% want cohabitating couples to receive Communion (without reconciliation)
  • Which obviously relates to the most recent and most disturbing survey that revealed 69% of Catholics don’t believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
    • In fact, this very study was noted with great concern by our country’s bishops in their annual conference in Baltimore this past week.
  • I suspect that they didn’t survey those in West Texas, or the results would have been much more positive!
  • Are we in one of those categories?
    • If so, we have succumbed to the spirit of the world,
    • we don’t understand the Faith,
    • and we are not prepared for death or the end times.
    • It cannot and must not be that way with us – the followers of Jesus Christ.
    • Referring to the End Times, Christ said in Luke:  “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?”
    • Our response: “Yes, beloved Lord, you will with us”.

+ The World may appear to be out of control: but God is in charge!

  • God is coming!
    • not to frighten or scare us
    • but to alert us to this inevitability
    • Therefore, it would be wise of us to:
      • stand in perpetual readiness,
      • support and sustain the Faith,
      • keep our lamps filled as in the parable of the wise virgins,
        • May our lamps be filled with prayer, acts of charity and knowledge of His teaching.

+ Let us pray in the words of Saint Francis of Assisi:

  • “All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Death, from whose embrace no mortal can escape. …Happy those She finds doing your will! The second death can do no harm to them.”