The ‘Children of This World,’ the ‘Children of Light’—and the ‘Ungodly’

 

(Twenty-fifth Sunday of the Year (C): This homily was given on September 21, 2025 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani.  Read Amos 8:4-7; Psalm 113:1-8; 1 Timothy 2:1-8; Luke 16:1-13.)

[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Twenty-fifth Sunday 2025] 

Here we have a very strange parable from Luke 16—a parable that's extremely difficult to interpret.  And yet, I would say that this little story has a very important and timely message for all Americans of the early 21^st century—especially all Catholic Americans.  It concerns a corrupt steward who was guilty of squandering his master's property.  That means quite simply that he was an embezzler.  His boss had given him authority to manage his estate, and he had deceitfully taken his boss “to the cleaners” in the process.  (The thought occurred to me the other day: perhaps this guy was a first century ancestor of Bernie Madoff.  Remember him?  He’s the financier who got a 150 year prison sentence in 2009 for taking his clients to the cleaners to the tune of over $50 billion dollars!)

Anyway, this steward in the parable finally gets caught with his hand in the till, and he's given the proverbial “boot.”   But before the boss dismisses him, he tells the embezzler to render an account of his stewardship. Now at this point, the corrupt steward knows two things for certain: he knows that his present job is history, and he knows that he'll soon be out on the street without any friends.  (You see, in first century Palestine, stewards like this were deeply hated, because they normally charged their master's debtors HUGE amounts of interest.)  So the crafty steward makes a very prudent decision: he decides to dispense with his “commission” in order to make some new friends.  He calls in his master's debtors, and tells them to pay only the amount that they owe the master.  Well, to put it mildly, those debtors must have been ecstatic to hear this news!  They probably said to the steward, “Wow, you're a great guy.  Thanks so much!  If you ever need a favor, if you ever need a job, just come and see us.”  At that, the steward probably responded (under his breath), “That's just what I was hoping you'd say.  You'll all be hearing from me very soon.”

At that point, the master commends the steward for “acting prudently”.  Not for being dishonest and embezzling his money, but rather for being “prudent” and enterprising.  The steward had a worldly goal (settling affairs with his master and providing for his future), and he did what was necessary within the law to achieve it.  Then Jesus offers this biting comment on the whole story: “For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.”  In other words, “People with worldly ambitions will do almost anything to achieve their goals: they'll make sacrifices, they'll plan, they'll study, they'll work extremely hard like this steward did.  Wouldn't it be wonderful if people of faith had as much zeal for the things of God?  Wouldn't it be wonderful if people of faith had as much concern about moral righteousness and about getting to heaven?!”

I really believe that Jesus told this parable in order to shake us and wake us up!  And boy, do we need a wake-up call right now in the United States of America!  Because in our culture at the present time it's not only the “children of this world” who take more initiative than the “children of light”—it's also the UNGODLY who outdo the children of light in zeal and determination.  Think of the zeal of militant atheists like Richard Dawkins and Bill Maher; think of the shameless leaders of Planned Parenthood, who’ve turned baby-killing in the United States into a multi-million dollar industry in recent decades.  When they were exposed several years ago for selling fetal body parts, they should have been embarrassed and humiliated.  But they weren’t.  In fact, many of their leaders and supporters are more militant now than ever before!

Or how about the gay-rights activists in this country?  For the last 40 or so years, mostly through their willing accomplices in Hollywood and the media, they’ve effectively “de-sensitized” the majority of our citizens to the immorality of homosexual activity.  That took a lot of hard work—by a lot of people.  But they had the zeal and determination to do whatever needed to be done to change public opinion on the matter.  And for the most part, sad to say, they’ve succeeded.

The same thing is now happening with transgenderism.  Transgenderism used to be listed as a mental disorder by the American Psychiatric Association.  Then, late in 2012, it was suddenly removed from the list.  And what incredible, monumental scientific discovery led to this radical change, you ask?

Well the truth is there was none.  There was no science behind the change.  The guys and gals at the American Psychiatric Association simply bowed to social and political pressure from those who wanted to make what’s abnormal seem normal.

And it’s only gotten worse since then.  In recent years we’ve even had drag queens reading stories to little children in public libraries all over the country.  Now isn’t that a great way to help young people to understand their identity as male or female?

Can you imagine something like this happening 50 or 40—or even 20—years ago?

I can’t.

Those of us who want to be numbered among the children of light need to get a healthy dose of prudence and zeal ourselves—and we need to get it quickly, because western culture is decaying all around us very quickly.

And this all has to begin, I believe, in Catholic and Christian families, with parents who have prudence and zeal and who are willing to discuss these difficult issues with their children—so that their children will develop prudence and zeal in their young lives and not be taken in by the lies of the world.  Don’t count on their schools or colleges to do it!  Even though we have many great teachers out there, all too many of them these days are among those who are promoting the lies (and that includes many who teach at Catholic institutions!).  St. Paul says in today’s second reading that God wants everyone to be saved and to come to know the truth.  That truth should be learned first in a person’s family, and then it should be reaffirmed and reinforced in a person’s church—which is what we try to do here at St. Pius.

“For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.” 

That was true when Jesus walked the face of this earth 2,000 years ago; unfortunately it’s still true today.  But it doesn’t have to be true in the future!

At least for us, as individuals, it doesn’t have to be true.  By the grace of God, if we choose we can be more prudent and zealous and passionate and have more initiative than those who oppose us.  And, if enough of us—enough “children of light”—make this same choice, the decay can be stopped and the culture can be turned around and saved.

Which means that we have to do our part as individuals and as families; and then, as Msgr. Struck used to say, we have to “pray, pray, pray”!

 

 

Our Two Newest Canonized Saints: Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis

 

St. Carlo Acutis (left) and St. Pier Giorgio Frassati

(Twenty-third Sunday of the Year (C): This homily was given on September 7, 2025 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani.  Read Wisdom 9:13-18b; Psalm 90:3-17; the Letter of St. Paul to Philemon; Luke 14:25-33.)

[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Twenty-third Sunday 2025]

As of today, the Church has two new canonized saints: St. Carlo Acutis and St. Pier Giorgio Frassati.  Both were young when they died.  Carlo Acutis was born in London in 1991, but grew up in Milan, Italy.  In many ways, he was an ordinary young person: he enjoyed spending time with his friends; he loved to play sports; he loved animals; he played a musical instrument.  But in the midst of all those ordinary things, he had a strong and unwavering faith in and love for Jesus Christ and the sacraments—which interestingly enough he did NOT get from his parents!  In fact, his mother says that when Carlo was born, she had only been to Mass 3 times in her entire life. Carlo evangelized her and her husband—mostly by asking them questions about God that they couldn’t answer!  In an article that appeared in the National Catholic Register his mother was quoted as saying:

“[Carlo] pushed me to do research and to read. I began to take theology courses and reflect on life. I discovered the beauty of my faith. We are all on a journey in the spiritual life, but because of Carlo, I was inspired to start that journey.  Carlo saved me.”  Later on she added, “He read the Bible every day as well as the Catechism put together by Pope John Paul II. Carlo would say that the Bible was his compass. By the age of 11, he was teaching catechism to younger children.”

Of course, what Carlo is most known for around the world is the skill he had working with computers.  Some have called him a computer genius. Computers, as we all know, can be used for good or they can be used for evil.  Carlo used them for good.  As it said in the Register article, “Once he mastered computer programming, Carlo began to use it to spread the Catholic faith. He developed a website on Eucharistic miracles, which he worked on for four years. The website has a compilation of 196 stories of Eucharistic miracles. It has been turned into an exhibit that has traveled the world.”

That exhibit has even traveled here to Rhode Island.  Many of us, I’m sure, have been blessed to see it.  No doubt it’s led many people all over the world to open their hearts to Jesus and the Catholic faith.

St. Carlo Acutis died at the age of 15 of leukemia in 2006.

St. Pier Giorgio Frassati was born in Turin, Italy in 1901 and died just 24 years later of polio—a disease that he probably contracted from the many sick people he visited and cared for during his relatively short life.  He came from a wealthy family (his father owned a newspaper), but he gave away most of what he had to the poor—even, sometimes, his bus money.  He was also a very athletic young man—a mountain climber, among other things.  And, of course, he was deeply devoted to prayer and the sacraments and his Catholic faith.

Several years ago I shared an interesting story I came across about Kevin Becker, a young man who believes that he was helped and healed through the intercession of St. Pier Giorgio.  In the New Testament Letter of St. James, it says that the prayer of a holy person is very powerful.  This is why we ask beatified and canonized men and women like Pier Giorgio to pray for us: they’re the holiest people of all because they’re with the Lord in his eternal kingdom.  So their prayers are mega-powerful!  And sometimes God has interesting ways of letting us know that saints are actually interceding on our behalf.  That definitely was the case with Kevin Becker.

Back In 2011, Becker was a student at East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania.  At that time, he didn’t know anything about Pier Giorgio Frassati; he didn’t even know Pier Giorgio’s name.  Then came the terrible day that year when he fell from the second floor of the house he was renting with two friends, two fellow college students.  He fractured his skull in five places and his brain was severely injured.  The doctors did emergency surgery immediately, but for nine days afterward he was completely unresponsive.  The doctors thought he probably wouldn’t live; and if he did somehow recover they said that in all likelihood he’d be severely handicapped for the rest of his life. 

Well, one of Kevin’s cousins suggested that the family begin praying to Pier Giorgio, who at the time was Blessed Pier Giorgio, asking for his intercession, because, as she put it, “He needs one more miracle to be canonized a saint.”  So the family did, and Kevin’s mother placed a picture of Pier Giorgio by her son’s hospital bed.

The next day, much to the surprise of everyone, Kevin opened his eyes for the first time since the accident.  Shortly thereafter he began to stand, speak and walk normally.  When he left the hospital and began his physical rehab, he discovered that he was miles ahead of the other people who were there with brain injuries—including those who had been in recovery for six months to a year.  When he was given some cognitive tests to determine how much brain damage he had experienced, he passed with flying colors.  In fact, the doctors told him it was like he had never been injured.

On the day after he came home from the hospital, he decided to take a walk with his mother, and during the course of that walk he told her about a strange, dreamlike experience that he had during the time he was unconscious.  Kevin said that, during this “dream,” he woke up in the house he shared with his friends, and he heard someone moving downstairs.  Kevin said it was unusual for one of the other guys to be downstairs first in the morning, because he was normally the first one up.  So he went down to investigate, and in the living room he found a young man—a young man he didn’t know.  He said, “Who are you?”  The man said, “I’m Giorgio, your new roommate.”  Kevin said, “That can’t be.  I already have two roommates, Nick and Joe.”  The stranger said, “You don’t have to worry about them for now.”

Kevin then spent the “day” with Giorgio, who, he said did everything possible to keep him in the house.  And that was difficult for Kevin, because he was an athletic guy—an ardent soccer player—who hated to stay indoors.  But Kevin said that every time he tried to leave the house Giorgio would say to him, “You’re not ready to go out there yet.”

Kevin’s mother then said to her son, “Do you think you’d recognize this person if you saw a picture of him?”  Kevin said, “Yes.”  So she showed him the picture of Pier Giorgio that had been at his bedside (he hadn’t seen it in the hospital), and Kevin said, “Yes, that’s him.  That’s the guy in my dream.  That’s the guy who kept telling me not to leave the house.”

The prayer of a holy person is very powerful. Kevin Becker and his family certainly believe that.  Hopefully so do we.

Let me close today with something else Carlo Acutis’ mother said. In an interview on August 20^th she said, “Both Carlo and Pier Giorgio shared a love for the Eucharist, a love for the poor, and a love for the Virgin Mary. I think that these two are models that we need in this particular moment for the young people of today.”

Her words there remind us that Carlo and Pier Giorgio are important not only because they’re saints; they’re important because they’re YOUTHFUL SAINTS!  Pop culture gives young people the message today that holiness isn’t possible for them and that they can’t do great things for God and the Church in their young lives.  But that’s not true!  Saints Carlo and Pier Giorgo make it clear—they make it crystal clear—that holiness and doing the will of God are possible for anyone at any age.  We should therefore encourage the young people we know to have devotion to these two new saints.  And, while we’re at it, we should also develop a strong devotion to them ourselves.

St. Carlo Acutis and St. Pier Giorgio Frassati, pray for us.

The Irony of Humility

 

(Twenty-second Sunday of the Year (C): This homily was given on August 31, 2025 St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani.  Read Sirach 3:17-29; Psalm 68:4-11; Hebrews 5:18-24A; Luke 14:1, 7-14.)

[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Twenty-second Sunday 2025]

You could call it “the irony of humility” or “the irony about humility”.  The irony of humility is this:

• The more you consider yourself to be humble, the less humble you actually are.
• The more you think that you've mastered the virtue of humility in your life, the less humility you actually have in your heart. 

Thinking that you’re humble, my brothers and sisters, is really a manifestation of pride (which, of course, is one of the seven deadly sins!).  You might say that the person who thinks he’s humble is merely proud of his humility—although he misunderstands what humility actually is.

Pride, incidentally, is a very subtle sin.  Many people are not aware of that.  In fact, every sin that we commit in this life is in some way a manifestation of pride.  I once heard a priest describe it in this way: When we’re about to sin what we say to God in our pride is, “Lord, I know what you say—I know what you say is right in this situation—but, at this moment, I will do what I want to do, and I will say whether it’s good or evil.”

I will do what I want to do and I will say whether it’s good or evil.  That was the mentality, was it not, of Robert/Robin Westman, the 23-year-old biological male who murdered those 2 Catholic schoolchildren and injured many others at Annunciation Church in Minneapolis this past week?

“I will do this—I will kill these innocent people—because I want to do this, and I say it’s a good thing, so it is.”  That’s pride—at its worst!

Jesus makes the importance of humility crystal clear in this gospel text we just heard from Luke 14, as does Sirach in our first reading when he says, “My child, conduct your affairs with humility, and you will be loved more than a giver of gifts.  Humble yourself the more, the greater you are, and you will find favor with God.”

Now, contrary to popular belief, the genuinely humble person does not think less of himself than he should.  That’s a very common misunderstanding.  Thinking less of yourself than you should is called “having a poor self-image”—and that’s not what the Lord wants for us.  Quite oppositely, the genuinely humble person DOES think of himself as he should—because he knows and accepts the full truth about himself!  The genuinely humble person knows, for example, that he’s created in the image and likeness of God, and as such has a dignity and value beyond anything else in the material universe.  He also understands that God loves him just as he is—but too much to let him stay that way!

The genuinely humble person knows that he’s been given gifts—that he’s been blessed in special and unique ways by God—and that everything that’s truly good in his life and in his heart comes ultimately from the Lord.  So he gives God (and not himself) the glory for all of it.  And, at the very same time, the genuinely humble person sees himself as a wretched sinner: a sinner who needs reconciliation with God every single day!  He knows that he can’t save himself by his good deeds; he knows that he can’t earn God’s forgiveness by his own power; and so every day he makes the tax collector’s prayer his own: “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.” 

Thus the truly humble person would never make the mistake of taking the place of prominence at the banquet table that Jesus talks about in this gospel text.  He’d know better.

Here’s a great quote from Mother Teresa about humility.  Mother Teresa said, “If you are humble nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are. If you are blamed you will not be discouraged. If they call you a saint you will not put yourself on a pedestal.”

Whenever I read a quote like that, I realize how far I have to go to achieve genuine humility in my own life.  But that’s to be expected, because growing in humility is a lifelong process: a process which will only stop when we go before the Lord at the end of our earthly lives and see ourselves in God’s perfect light. Then, and only then, will we see his greatness and our weakness with perfect clarity.

Now if ever, in the future, you are tempted to think otherwise; if ever, in the future, you are tempted to think that you no longer need to be part of this process—that you no longer need to grow in the virtue of humility in your life—my suggestion is to get yourself a copy of the Litany of Humility and read it.  Read it slowly; read it carefully; think about what you’re saying.  That should help to cure you of your pride very quickly.

Without a doubt, this is one of the most difficult and challenging prayers that’s ever been written.  In all honesty, because of my own pride, I have a very hard time praying it from my heart.  Interestingly enough, it was written in the early 20^th century by Cardinal Merry del Val—who was the Vatican Secretary of State under Pope St. Pius X.  I’ll conclude my homily today by reading the prayer to you.  Some of you know it, I’m sure.  By the way, if you do know it, I would respectfully ask you not to pray it out loud along with me today.  Just listen.  Just listen carefully to the words:

 

O Jesus, meek and humble of heart, hear me.

 

From the desire of being esteemed, deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being loved, deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being extolled, deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being honored, deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being praised, deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being preferred to others, deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being consulted, deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being approved, deliver me, Jesus.

 

From the fear of being humiliated, deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of being despised, deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of suffering rebukes, deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of being calumniated, deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of being forgotten, deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of being ridiculed, deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of being wronged, deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of being suspected, deliver me, Jesus.

That others may be loved more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be esteemed more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That, in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be chosen and I set aside, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be praised and I unnoticed, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be preferred to me in everything, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

If you can say that prayer—and truly mean it!—it’s a sign that you’re on the right road in your life.  And that’s great!  Praise God for his grace at work within you!  But then don’t make the mistake—the catastrophic mistake—of thinking you’ve reached the goal of becoming a genuinely humble person, because (as I said at the beginning of my homily) the minute—the second—you think you’re humble, you’re not! 

That’s the irony of humility.  It’s also the truth.

 

Mary, the Conqueror

(Solemnity of the Assumption: This homily was given on August 15, 2025 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani.  Read Revelation 11:19a; 12:1-10; Psalm 45:10-16; 1 Corinthians 15:20-27; Luke 1: 39-56.)

[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Assumption 2025]

 

William I was king of England way back in the eleventh century.  He’s known to most people in the modern world as “William, the Conqueror.”  Today, on this Solemnity of the Assumption, the Church proclaims Mary to be “the Conqueror”—although her conquering is far more important than William’s was, and it has nothing to do with his or any other earthly kingdom. 

What does the dogma of the Assumption say about the Blessed Mother?  (I mention this because many Catholics and non-Catholics alike are unclear about it.)  The dogma does not say that Mary saved herself.  Mary was a human person, who received salvation as a free gift from her divine Son.  As we heard her say today in the Magnificat, God was her Savior.  The dogma says (and here I quote), “ . . . the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death.”

Mary conquered because her Son conquered!  And it didn’t start when she left this life and was assumed into heaven; Mary’s conquering began here, on this earth—which is really good news for all of us!  For example, she conquered fear and confusion with faith: “Be it done unto me, O Lord, according to your word!” (Luke 1:38)  She conquered lust with perfect purity of mind and heart.  She conquered anger and hatred with love: love even for the people who murdered her only Son!  She conquered greed and pride with humility: “I am the handmaid of the Lord. (Luke 1:38). . . He has looked with favor upon his lowly servant (Luke 1:48).”  In a certain sense you could say that Mary conquered Eve’s “No” with her own, lifelong “Yes!”  Along these lines, St. John says toward the end of his first letter, “Who, then, is the conqueror of the world?  The one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”  To “believe” in Jesus biblically means to “live for Jesus.”  Mary lived for her Son more completely than anyone else, therefore she has conquered death through her Son and now lives with him in eternal glory, body and soul.

St. Paul said, “I can do all things in [Christ] who strengthens me.”  Paul knew that he could conquer temptation and the forces of evil by the same power through which Mary conquered.  So can we, if we want to.  And if temptation and sin ever do conquer us, we can receive forgiveness through the very same power of Christ, if we simply have the good sense to humble ourselves and get to Confession as soon as possible. 

Let’s remember: at the end of time, there will be only two groups of people in all of creation, “the conquered,” and “the conquerors.”  Those who have been conquered by Satan and have not repented, will live forever in his kingdom under his diabolical rule; those who have conquered sin and death through the power of Jesus Christ will live forever with him—and with Mary, the Conqueror—in the glories of heaven.  Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, that we, too, will be conquerors.