Fr. Brian Soliven Sermons

Have you ever heard this before –All religions are really the same: different paths up the same mountain, different languages describing the same God?  It sounds tolerant, fashionable, enlightened, hip and even cool. It is also false.Religions make claims about reality, and those claims contradict one another. Christianity does not merely say that God exists or that God wants us to be good. It makes a far more astonishing claim: God has come for us.This is why Christianity cannot be reduced to “being nice.” If Christianity were simply a lesson in kindness, we would hardly need an Incarnation, a Cross, a Resurrection—or the Eucharist. Christianity is not a program for making kind people. It is an invitation into something much more dramatic; it’s ultimately about union with God.Nor is it enough to say, “I’m a Christian because I love Jesus.” Of course we must love Jesus. But love cannot mean choosing which parts of Him we find agreeable. If we love Him, we must take seriously what He says, what He commands, and what He gives. And what does He give? He gives Himself.This is where the Catholic faith becomes startlingly more astonishing and hard hitting. Look at the Holy Mass, this ancient ritual that is the heart of Catholic life. This Eucharist must be understood in the light of Jesus’ repeated teaching about the wedding banquet. In the Gospel, the Kingdom of God is like a king who gives a wedding feast for his son. Jesus constantly speaks as the Bridegroom coming for His bride.Why a wedding?Because salvation is not merely forgiveness. It is communion. A wedding is the union of two who give themselves completely to one another. And Christianity says that God desires something analogous—indeed, something infinitely greater: the union of humanity with God.The Eucharist is therefore not a religious accessory, nor merely a reminder of Jesus. It is the sacramental sign and reality of the Bridegroom giving Himself to His people.The Christian life is not fundamentally about being nice. It is not even merely about having warm feelings toward Jesus. It is about being invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.And the shocking thing is that Christ does not invite us merely to watch the Bridegroom like a mere spectator at a wedding.He invites us to be united to Him.    --- Help Spread the Good News --- Father Brian’s homilies are shared freely thanks to generous listeners like you. If his words have blessed you, consider supporting this volunteer effort. Every gift helps us continue recording and sharing the hope of Jesus—one homily at a time. Give Here: https://frbriansoliven.org/give

The rosary is a powerful tool to build the Church.  --- Help Spread the Good News --- Father Brian’s homilies are shared freely thanks to generous listeners like you. If his words have blessed you, consider supporting this volunteer effort. Every gift helps us continue recording and sharing the hope of Jesus—one homily at a time. Give Here: https://frbriansoliven.org/give

There is something wonderfully persistent about the Bible’s picture of God’s people as a vineyard. One might have expected Scripture to choose an image more impressive: an army marching beneath its banners, perhaps, or a mighty city rising toward heaven. Instead, again and again, we are given vines, branches, fruit, soil, pruning, and harvest. Perhaps this is because a vineyard teaches us something we are very reluctant to learn: life cannot be hurried, and fruit cannot be manufactured. The vineyard belongs to God. He plants it, tends it, waters it, protects it, and looks for fruit from it. Israel is described as the vine God brought out of Egypt and planted in the land. The prophets then speak with painful honesty about what became of that vineyard when it ceased to bear the fruit its Owner desired.And then Christ comes and takes the image upon Himself. He does not merely say that He is a worker in the vineyard. He says, “I am the true vine.” The old image finds its fulfillment in Him. The people of God are no longer understood apart from their living connection to the Son. We are branches, drawing our life from Him. This also gives us a picture of the Kingdom of God. A vineyard is not built in a single afternoon. The work is patient. There is planting before harvesting, pruning before abundance, and seasons in which very little seems to be happening at all. Yet beneath the apparent stillness, the life of the vine continues.We often wish God would build His Kingdom in the manner of an architect—quickly, visibly, and according to our timetable. But He seems to prefer the patience of a gardener. He grows His Kingdom through ordinary people, ordinary faithfulness, ordinary acts of love and obedience. Much of the work is hidden from our eyes. And this is perhaps the great comfort of the vineyard: the harvest belongs to God. The branch does not create the sap. The soil does not create the seed. The servant does not create the life within the vine. We work, certainly; we prune and plant and tend. But we are participating in a life that was God's before it was ever ours. The Kingdom is His vineyard. Christ is the true Vine. And we are branches, invited not to possess the vineyard, but to abide in the One through whom its life flows—and, in His time, to bear fruit.   --- Help Spread the Good News --- Father Brian’s homilies are shared freely thanks to generous listeners like you. If his words have blessed you, consider supporting this volunteer effort. Every gift helps us continue recording and sharing the hope of Jesus—one homily at a time. Give Here: https://frbriansoliven.org/give

The moment we were conceived in mother's womb, a spiritual being was assigned to watch over us.  --- Help Spread the Good News --- Father Brian’s homilies are shared freely thanks to generous listeners like you. If his words have blessed you, consider supporting this volunteer effort. Every gift helps us continue recording and sharing the hope of Jesus—one homily at a time. Give Here: https://frbriansoliven.org/give

We are never alone. An entire spiritual realm exists around us. Watch what happens when the archangels break through.  --- Help Spread the Good News --- Father Brian’s homilies are shared freely thanks to generous listeners like you. If his words have blessed you, consider supporting this volunteer effort. Every gift helps us continue recording and sharing the hope of Jesus—one homily at a time. Give Here: https://frbriansoliven.org/give