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In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Let us pray. O God, who did grant to Venerable Father McGivney a spirit of wisdom and service, graciously grant that, through his intercession, we may imitate his holy life. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. So I have a quote here from an article by Elizabeth Segrin published on FastCompany.com. It’s like a business website. Over the last few decades, sociologists and political scientists have found that American clubs of all stripes, from youth service clubs to bowling leagues, have experienced steep declines in their memberships. The Elks, a social club whose members include six presidents, has seen its membership drop from 1.6 million in 1980 to 803,000 in 2012. The Rotary Club only has 330,000 members now, and only 10% of them are under 40. This article later goes on to explain how these clubs are taking measures of getting an internet outreach and that sort of thing to help with their membership. Knights of Columbus are sort of facing that same sort of situation too. Membership dropping, membership getting older, young men not taking up the mantle. And we could do some kind of online outreach. I don’t think that would hurt anything, but we have advantages that, say, the Elks Club and the Rotary Club do not have advantages. We have the advantage of being a Christian organization, a Christian fraternal organization. We have the advantage of serving Christ primarily. And if we lean on that advantage, we’ll be able to bear more fruit than if we just used the internet or something like that. And I think that’s what Supreme Knight Anderson is going for with the changes to the uniform and the changes to the induction process. They probably did some studies and found that the things that most held people back were the uniforms and the secrecy around the first, second, and third degree ceremonies. And it’s like, you know, the secret societies, that was huge in the 19th century. Like, everybody wanted to be a part of a secret society. But it’s not really how things work now. It’s not the same thing that it used to be. And so that’s what the Supreme Knight has done. And we respect his decisions, but we have a role. We have a role if we want to have fresh vigor and fresh life in the Knights of Columbus. We have to make that real here, right? Because we can’t just expect the National Council to do everything. And I don’t mean to talk simply about recruitment. I think that the power of Christ should inform everything that a Christian fraternity does. And if the Knights in any given council dedicate themselves to Christ with generosity, there’d be no reason for God not to bless their work. You’re showing up, you’re dedicated to Christ, and you’re asking God to bless your actions, which are designed, you know, for multiple reasons, but ultimately to promote the Kingdom of God. I don’t see why God would hold back on you. He’s asking you shall receive, seeking you shall find. And anything that God is blessing is going to be easier to recruit. You notice every religious movement in history that had a real lasting impact, like the monastic movement in the early church, the Franciscan movement in the 1200s, and the renewal after the Council of Trent. Every single one of those were able to get people on board. They were able to get people on board because it was an authentic renewal in Christ Jesus. And there’s no reason why the God who rose from the dead can’t do the same thing for us. Now, I’m going to read to you from the Holy Gospel according to John, and it’s a bit of an older translation, but I really like it. I am the true vine, and it is my Father who tends it. The branch that yields no fruit in me, he cuts away. The branch that does yield fruit, he trims clean, so that it may yield more fruit. You through the message I have preached to you are clean already. You have only to live on in me, and I will live on in you. The branch that does not live on in the vine can yield no fruit of itself. No more can you if you do not live on in me. I am the vine, you are its branches. If a man lives on in me and I in him, then he will yield abundant fruit. If you are separated from me, you have no power to do anything. If a man does not live on in me, he can only be like the branch that is cut off, cast off, and withers away. Such a branch is picked up and thrown into the fire to burn there. As long as you live on in me and my words live on in you, you will be able to make what request you will and have it granted. My Father’s name has been glorified if you yield abundant fruit and prove yourselves my disciples. Believe me when I tell you this. The man who has learned to believe in me will be able to do what I do. Nay, he will be able to do greater things yet. That’s from the Holy Gospel according to John. That last line, I actually cut it from a different part of the Gospel and put it there, but it seems really relevant. Not only will we be able to have the spiritual impact that Christ had while he was walking on earth, he promises us that with the gift of the Holy Spirit, we can do greater works. It’s right there, plain in the Gospel. One writer who I’ve been reading recently, his name is Abbot Jean Baptiste Choutard, He wrote this little pamphlet called Soul of the Apostolate. In 1907 he published it and it was an instant best seller. They couldn’t keep the presses up fast enough to meet demand. Within a few years of its publication, it became Pope St. Pius X’s Bedtime Reading. He would pick up this pamphlet and read that before bedtime just to refocus him. It’s an excellent book, I’ve been reading it. He later added more chapters and fleshed out the thesis so it was a full book length. His thesis was that the true efficacy of any active work in the church comes from a disciple who has an active interior life. The branch that does not live on in the vine can yield no fruit of itself. No more can you if you do not live in me. It’s right there in the Gospel. We cannot be effective disciples of Christ unless we are living on in Christ, abiding in faith. I think of it this way as Jesus is able to use your soul as a reservoir of grace. The great thing about a reservoir is you’ve always got water, unless there’s some kind of a severe drought, but that’s not really a reservoir anymore. You’ve always got water there and you can let it out when you need it. So the true disciple of Christ, you can look at somebody like St. John Paul II or Mother Teresa of Calcutta, their hearts are like this reservoir and God can just open up the gates whenever he needs to. It’s something for all of us to strive after. Moreover we need that Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God to show us the right move. You will live on in my love, Jesus says, if you keep my commandments just as it is by keeping my Father’s commandments that I live on in his love. So what can often happen with Christians who have zeal and who have a desire to serve the Lord, what can often happen is that they waste energy going down the wrong path because they’re not fully attentive to what the Spirit is guiding them to and so they’ll work and work and work and they won’t see results. It’s that lack of interior life. They’re not filling the reservoir and they’re not directing it, their natural energies in the place that God wants to. Now God, I think, is able to use us in spite of us and situations rather than because of us. So I can think of, let’s say, people who I suspect don’t have a very active interior life and they’re trying to do ministry and God can use them but he’s not able to use them because of their lack of interior life but rather in spite of their lack of interior life. So you can have some results but you’re mostly moving on human energies. You’re not moving on that divine energy. So the scene from the Acts of the Apostles that really shows this to me is in Acts chapter 2, after the descent of the Holy Spirit, when Peter goes out and speaks his homily, right? He gives a homily to whoever is standing around and he was a rough fisherman. I don’t even know if he knew how to read. He just knew how to do nets and he knew how to do boats and fish and all that kind of stuff. But 3,000 people, on hearing that homily, turned to Christ and were baptized that day and they all began to live the Christian life. And I really don’t think St. Peter had that kind of power. The Holy Spirit does. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, can do that. And we got a story here from our friend Abbot John Baptiste. Shortly after being made a deacon, he was sent by his superior on a very important mission to Paris to save the community from financial ruin. His eloquence and knowledge of economics proved useless in this undertaking. He was forced to have recourse at a nearby shrine where he threw himself at the feet of Our Lady of Victory. 30 minutes later, he emerged from the shrine to be greeted by a total stranger. Are you a Trappist? the man asked. Can I be of any assistance? The rest of the story can be guessed. The monastery was saved and John Baptiste learned another valuable lesson he would later utilize in forming his unique ministry. So while he was working on his own efforts as a young monk, while he was working on his own efforts, it’s like he was stuck in the mud and the wheels were just spinning. He wasn’t going anywhere. And then the second he spends 30 minutes in honest prayer to Our Lady, it’s like the Holy Spirit comes and toes him all the way to the destination. That’s the kind of power, that’s the kind of results that I think the church needs today because we’re having declining membership, you know, not enough priests. I think we need that reliance on the power of the Holy Spirit rather than focusing our efforts on natural remedies. So that’s what I think the whole church needs, but this is part of the church right here. Now, I want to talk to you about how I think a man in a night of Columbus should relate to Jesus and I’m going to be perfectly honest here. I’m just going to grind an axe right now and I think it needs to be ground. So a few years back I was doing a summer assignment at another parish and we, with the youth, attended a rather large youth gathering. And there was at one point there was a men’s talk, right, and they had these guys come up and they’re going to give the men’s talk, right? Okay, men’s talk. I get into that, right, because there’s a difference between men and women. And these guys went up there and were just all like, open your heart to Jesus. Let him feel your love, man. You could feel his love too. And I was just sitting there and I’m like, you got 2,000 young men here between the ages of 14 and 18 and you’re going to try and get them in by that? And then they pulled out their guitars and they did this praise and worship music, you know, Jesus, you are my boyfriend, oh Jesus. That’s not literally one of the songs, but it’s like that’s basically the way they’re talking about it, right? And I’m like, Jesus is not your boyfriend, fellas. And that is not the kind of presentation that I want to give to you. Now there’s a place for understanding Christ as the bridegroom and the church as the bride. And in the earliest part of the church, in the early days of the church, that was always understood collectively, right? So that’s pretty easy for most of us to grasp. And then in the 11th century, St. Bernard of Clairvaux started talking about it on a one-to-one level, right? And he’s a doctor of the church, so that kind of language has a place in theology, but you know, maybe it belongs better in a monastery? That’s kind of my thought. So you know, maybe relating to Jesus as the bridegroom is like a great spiritual practice for you. Great, I’ll just stand out of the way of that. But there are other legitimate ways that you can conceptualize your relationship to Jesus. And the one I think that is really helpful is Jesus as a captain in a squad, right? So literally Knights of Columbus, right? That’s not that hard. Now there are some people who are upset by military imagery, which is odd, but Monsignor Pope, a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. says, to me, military imagery evokes things like discipline, honor, duty, self-sacrifice, laying down one’s life for one’s friends. Now Paul, while using military images, is not calling for violent action. Rather, he is saying that, like a soldier equipped for battle, a Christian should realize too that he is in a spiritual battle, which requires the weaponry of truth, righteousness, faith, serenity, confidence of salvation, and the word of God for his sword. So I’m not calling on you to become some kind of Catholic jihadi. That’s not what we’re about. But you know, understand Christ is the captain, captain of the squad, and he’s given the orders, and you’ve got to go carry him out, right? The scripture has this all over the place. So in St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians, I think it is necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, co-worker, and fellow soldier. So St. Paul had no trouble referring to somebody he was working with as a fellow soldier. And then again, in the second letter of Timothy, take your share of suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier on service gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to satisfy the one who enlisted him. And then we just got a little bit of hardcore stuff from the book of Revelation. And the rest of the wicked were slain by the sword of Jesus. The sword that issues from his mouth. And all the birds were gorged with the flesh of the wicked. So hardcore stuff from the book of Revelation. So obviously, I think there are great benefits to understanding our relationship to Jesus in this way. We’ve got a chain of command, right? Jesus is the captain, and he’s setting the mission, and he’s providing everything we need to do for the mission. And our job is like obedient soldiers to carry it out. The good news is, is he’s a perfect captain, right? So he’s never going to tell you to charge right at a machine gun nest. And I think also, there’s a sense of closeness, right? You’ve got a squad of, I don’t know, eight guys. And then the captain, you know, if he’s going to be a good captain, he’s going to be listening to you. He’s going to be following the situation closely. And you can develop an intimacy of a band of brothers. So now we get to the hard part. I hope I’ve sold you on a desire to renew the works of the Knights of Columbus continually. And now we’ve got practical ways that I think a knight can live this out. So one thing I’m just assuming is that all of you are able to attend weekly Mass as a rule and are avoiding grave sin. And if you do happen to fall into grave sin, confessing that as soon as possible before receiving the Holy Eucharist. That’s assumed. That’s like, you know, C minus level Christianity right there. But prayer. Prayer is absolutely essential way to have that communication with the man you’re following. You know, I’m sure when you’ve got some men in military service, you can tell the difference between a good officer and a not so good officer if they were able to keep lines of communication open, right? And I remember reading a book by Jocko Willink, former Navy SEAL, and you know, these guys crazy well trained, but the thing they had to continually work on was that communication, right? And, you know, no matter how good you were at busting down doors, how good a sniper you were, the communication always has to be polished or it falls apart. And that’s why daily prayer is so powerfully important. To polish that communication, to make sure that you and Jesus are on the same page, or more accurately that you’re on the same page that Jesus is on. Now certainly hold up the rosary, and since the first degree is no longer a secret, I can share freely that it’s no secret that when you become inducted into the Knights of Columbus, they give you a rosary, right? And that’s always been a prayer of the Knights. It’s like the weapon you have at your side as a Knight. So I think every man would be able to, if they made it a priority, be able to pray the rosary every day, like Father Osak was telling us about. He can make that a priority. I think you can find 20 minutes to pray the rosary, right? I’m usually able to do that. If you’ve got to do it on the road, you know, if you’ve got like a CD that’s got the rosary on it, fine, just try and stay with it. And remember, just a reminder, that rosary is not mouthing empty words, the movement of your mouth and your lips and your fingers with the beads. That the intention of that is to create kind of a psychological platform where you can be lifted up into contemplation of the mysteries of the rosary. So that’s important. And the second major prayer that I think is for everybody is to pray with scripture. And it’s an ancient practice. It’s called Lexio Divina. And I actually made up these little pamphlets here. You can go ahead and pass them around. I’ll walk you through it. You can stick it in your Bible or someplace convenient for you. And if you’ve got any questions, you know, I’m around. I’m not overworked, so you can go over that. So one of the Vatican II documents, Sacrosanctum Concilium, talked about the place of sacred scripture in the liturgy, but it applies here too. To accomplish so great a work, Christ is always present in his church, especially in her liturgical celebrations. He is present in his word, since it is he himself who speaks when the holy scriptures are read in the church. So what’s the difference between Jesus, the word of God, and the word of God in the scriptures? Very little. Very thin distinction. It says Christ himself, it is, who speaks when the holy scriptures are read in the church. So even if you’re alone and you’re not in the midst of a liturgical celebration, you’re still part of the church. And if you’re reading it in faith, that gives God an opportunity to speak to you. It’s a direct communication of our soul with God when we approach him in faith. Now the second pillar of practical ways to live this out is fasting. So from Matthew, the Gospel according to Matthew, then the disciples of John came to him saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast? And Jesus said to them, Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. So Jesus just assumes we’re going to fast. It’s not even a question. He doesn’t ever give the order directly. Fast, you know, even in another part of Matthew he says, When you fast, you know, it’s like he never had to give that order. He just assumed, yeah, you’re going to do it. From Mark, we have another passage, And one of the crowd answered him, Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a dumb spirit. And whenever it seizes him, it dashes him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. And I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able. And they brought the boy to him. And when the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying, You dumb and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him, and never enter him again. And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out. And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could we not cast it out? And he said to them, This kind cannot be driven by anything but prayer and fasting. Yeah. So there are some problems that you can’t solve without suffering. That’s just how, and that applies not only to supernatural life, that’s spiritual problems. I think it applies to problems you face every day, too. Some problems you can’t deal with unless you’re willing to embrace a little bit of suffering. So I’ll tell you about my experience fasting this past six months. So I was up at about 250 pounds, and I wasn’t losing weight, I was gaining weight. So I’m like, Okay, I got to start watching what I’m eating, right? And so my fasting began as just downloading the MyFitnessPal app and sticking to 2,000 calories a day. And that’s where my fasting began. I’m like, Okay, I know this is technically a diet, but it can also be a fast, right? And I’m getting a lot closer to my goals now. And now I’m going to have to step up my game and probably do a little more hardcore fasting since I’ve gotten pretty used to going on this diet. So you can even do something like a diet, and you can supercharge that for your health and say, I’m also doing this for you. And when I see that tray of brownies and I want to go to town, I’m just going to hold off, right? And that’s a little bit of suffering, you know? But a little bit of suffering, God will take whatever he can get, I’m pretty sure. And God doesn’t need extreme penances. So I remember reading the life of St. John Vianney, 19th century French priest, and he was doing these crazy fastings when he was a young priest. He was like living on two potatoes a week or something like that. It was really, really frightening to me, frankly. And as he started getting older, he became a very popular confessor, right? And he was sought out by hundreds and hundreds of people to go to confession to him because of his power in the confessional. And his bishop heard about his penances that he was doing, and he ordered him to go on a diet that he set. And you know, even reading the description of the diet, it’s like that guy wasn’t eating more than 800 calories or so a day, but he was like complaining about feeling like a glutton. God doesn’t need that. God doesn’t need that. As long as it’s just pinching a little and you’re not whining about it constantly and you’re offering it up to God, that’s good enough. And then almsgiving. A lot of your work is some form of almsgiving or another, right? The Knights of Columbus have always been a charitable institution. And you know, I think the word almsgiving, it’s a very old word, obviously. I think there was a time when you could do genuine charity just by giving people money and food, right? And that was highly effective because they didn’t have money and they didn’t have food. They were just in abject poverty. In the United States, we don’t have a whole lot of abject poverty. Abuse people who are homeless have either a substance abuse problem or some kind of psychological problem. That’s a heck of a lot harder to deal with than just giving a guy a five, you know? So our almsgiving has to become more than just giving stuff to people who don’t have stuff. It’s a different context. So whatever it is you’re doing, you can ask God to direct it and bless it. It’s really important that you remember to do that because one of the troubles with God is that he’s invisible. We don’t see God float into the room and it’s like, okay, it looks like it’s time to talk. God can only give you reminders in little ways, in little subtle ways. It’s very easy to forget about God. That’s kind of one of the goals I have now is, okay, I had my prayer in the morning and that’s good, but how do I keep that spirit moving on through the day? So making it a point, okay, we’re having a pancake breakfast, you know? Pancake breakfasts are fine. They are something like an almsgiving sort of thing. Well, if you’re going to be flipping pancakes, just remember to say, God, I’m trying to flip pancakes for you. I could be sitting on my couch watching ESPN right now, but I’m here flipping pancakes. We’re having a good time with the guys, but I’m still doing this for you. So I think it’s good to see your almsgiving as a sacrifice rather than seeing it merely as a chore. So we’ve got prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Those are our weapons, our tools for sanctity. And if you don’t commit your life to God, you won’t get these benefits. So it’s up to you. I can’t live your life for you. If you’re going to really embrace this, it has to be your decision. So let’s conclude with a prayer. God our Father, protector of the poor and defender of the widow and orphan, you called your priest, Father Michael J. McGivney, to be an apostle of Christian family life and to lead the young to the generous service of their neighbor. Through the example of his life and virtue, may we follow your son, Jesus Christ, more closely, fulfilling his commandment of charity and building up his body, which is the church. Let the inspiration of your servant prompt us to greater confidence in your love so that we may continue his work of caring for the needy and the outcast. We humbly ask that you glorify your servant, venerable Father Michael J. McGivney on earth according to the design of your holy will. We ask all of this with the words our Savior taught us. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Venerable Father McGivney, pray for us.