Homily from Father Chas Canoy
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In this homily, Fr. reflects on the powerful words of Scripture: “God wills everyone to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.” He connects this message of God’s unconditional love and mercy to recent national events, the life and witness of Charlie Kirk, and our parish’s new rally cry: Joyfully accompanying our young families. It’s a call to hope, healing, and belonging — reminding us that God’s saving love is offered to every person, without exception.
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Father Chas: Well, today I want to focus on the message of our second reading right here. God wills everyone to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. That’s everyone, right? Good or bad, saint or sinner, Wolverines or Buckeyes. God wants you to know that he desires everyone to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, the truth that saves us from the hell to which humanity sends itself when we separate ourselves from God.
Father Chas: By definition, heaven is the place of God’s dwelling. Why, everyone? Why does God want the bad, not just the good? Because God’s love for humanity comes first. Sometimes we can close ourselves to God’s love because we think we have to earn it. No, his love is offered to us freely and unconditionally before we can even receive or reject it.
Father Chas: I mean, parents get this, right? Parents love their children. They desire their good, whether they have a good history or a bad history. And so to apply that to this hurting time, God wants not only the victims of the violence at Annunciation School and Evergreen High School to be saved, but God wants the ones who actually committed those atrocities to be saved as well.
Father Chas: God wants the Ukrainian refugee Irina Zerutska to be saved. And he wants her assailant, DeCarlos Brown, to be saved. And if God’s love and truth are offered not just to Charlie Kirk, but likewise to Tyler Robinson, they are most certainly offered to you and to me. Unlike us, God’s love doesn’t discriminate. And because God’s love is pure gift, it’s not forced upon us.
Father Chas: It must be received by the one to whom it is offered. And that love is offered to everyone without exception, no matter their background, race, gender, religion, or lifestyle. I’ve noticed just this last week, last week like last week, there are those this week who are new to St. John for the first time. I know these recent aforementioned events have moved people to seek God and his consolation. If you are one of those, you are most welcome. Amen.
Father Chas: We’re happy that you’re here. And the assassination of Charlie Kirk in particular has become this watershed moment for our country as there have been spontaneous prayer vigils all throughout the nation, many of them organized by young people.
Father Chas: In fact, there will be one on Monday at 5.30 p.m. at Lumen Christi, if you’re interested. Lumen Christi’s chaplain, Father Miguel, will be a part of those prayers. And there is, of course, Charlie Kirk’s memorial service shortly after this Mass at 2 p.m. that will be broadcast, streamed by all the major networks. For perhaps the few of you that have not heard of Charlie Kirk or why he’s well-known,
Father Chas: Charlie was known for these big gatherings that he would have on college campuses all around the country where he would invite anyone but especially those who would disagree with him to come forward and one by one and have respectful dialogue. And a major reason why Charlie had them was to try to avoid the very thing that claimed his life — violence.
Father Chas: He believed that when people of varying beliefs stop talking to each other and instead go into their virtual echo chambers where people are so frequently libeled and demonized, that’s when violence happens. And that’s exacerbated by how our attention span is so short that we can only listen to little clips. We can make Jesus sound like Satan if we did that, right? Right?
Father Chas: So he dedicated his life then to open and respectful dialogue, especially with those who vehemently disagreed with him. At these campus events attended by hundreds and even thousands, similar to the one that he did in Utah, he didn’t silence the opposition at all costs. He invited them to cut in line and put them in the very front, gave them a mic and…
Father Chas: Perhaps like some of you all, I think I’ve watched more footage of Charlie Kirk since his death than when he was alive. I’m certainly no Charlie Kirk expert, but I invite you, before believing the horrible labels that some have thrown at him, to listen not to the pundits, but actual footage of him at these gatherings, to hear it directly from the horse’s mouth, and simply judge for yourself.
Father Chas: Perhaps the most surprising thing I noticed was his incredible level of patience and graciousness, even with people who were so rude and full of vitriol for him. And granted, that wasn’t always the case, but I could only hope to be as patient and as gracious as he was in those situations. But what I don’t want to focus on is Charlie’s politics. I instead want to highlight the part of his message that was much bigger, that transcended mere politics.
Father Chas: Charlie made clear that what ultimately drove him was his faith and proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so I would encourage you to put the politics aside. I myself do not share all his views, right? And guess what, folks? That’s okay. Satan would want us to focus on what would divide us. But God wants for us to focus on what unites us.
Father Chas: So let’s remember Charlie Kirk as a fellow human being, as the faithful husband he was to his Catholic wife, Erica, and the proud father that he was to his three-year-old daughter and one-year-old son who don’t have their dad anymore. Let’s remember him for the passionate disciple of Jesus Christ that he was, with whom, God willing, we will celebrate the eternal wedding feast of the Lamb when all of these earthly matters that we bicker about disappear.
Father Chas: We’ll just be totally forgotten. You know, when Charlie was asked, if you died, how would you want to be remembered? And Charlie responded, I want to be remembered for courage for my faith. That would be the most important thing, he said. Would we respond in a similar way to have the courage of our Christian convictions?
Father Chas: And Charlie actually walked the walk. The Archbishop of New York, Timothy Cardinal Dolan, likened him to a modern-day St. Paul as a missionary and evangelist, traveling throughout the country, not just to talk about societal issues, but to encourage people into an actual life of faith in Jesus Christ. And Charlie himself was growing in the knowledge of that saving truth of the gospel. His faith was evolving as well.
Father Chas: He has been very clear in the past that he was not a Catholic, but an evangelical Christian. But over the last few years, he entered more and more into dialogue, allowing that dialogue to change him. He’s spoken with Catholic figures, like has a relationship with his local Catholic priest in Arizona, with his good friend and our vice president, J.D. Vance, who had also become Catholic himself in 2019. Right?
Father Chas: And with Bishop Robert Barron, on whose podcast show Charlie was scheduled to appear 10 days after the date of his death. And as we found out just this weekend, actually, the Bishop of the Diocese of Fresno, California, Bishop Joseph Brennan, had a personal conversation with Charlie at a prayer breakfast about a week before he was assassinated.
Father Chas: During which Charlie shared with him about how he would attend Mass with his wife Erica and their children, and that he was about this close, this close to becoming a Catholic himself. I myself wondered about that when I saw a recent video he did in which Charlie said, quote, I think we as Protestant evangelicals under-venerate Mary. She was very important to,
Father Chas: I think we as evangelicals don’t talk about her enough. We don’t venerate her enough. We need to do a better job of studying, talking about, and pointing towards Mary because she was a vessel chosen by God Almighty. Not bad for an evangelical. And so I bring up Charlie Kirk, not only because he’s in the mind of so many Americans on this day of his memorial service, but because he was good at proclaiming the truth of this very verse right here from our second reading. God wills everyone to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.
Father Chas: Just like Paul, he’d travel all over the place to converse with all kinds of folks and offer them the saving message of the gospel. And he did that especially with our youth.
Father Chas: And so what are we doing? Imperfect as we are as well, right? What are we doing as a parish to live this verse out? We pray in the Our Father that God’s will be done. Well, there’s God’s will. That everyone be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. What can we do here at St. John as the local body of Christ here in Jackson to fulfill God’s will and join in his rescue mission?
Father Chas: Many of you know that our parish has a thematic goal, a rally cry, if you will, that changes about once a year, depending on what the parish leadership discerns is most important right now, and fulfilling the work of the gospel and Christ’s great commission. And the thematic goal we just concluded was discipleship deeply rooted in prayer, based on the belief that if our missionary outreach in Jackson is going to be effective, its foundation must be laid in prayer. Right?
Father Chas: As the psalmist says, if the Lord does not build a house, in vain do its builders labor.
Father Chas: And so, when discerning the next rally cry, our hearts were drawn to the immense challenges parents have in raising children in today’s world that is so full of distractions and confusion sown by ideologies that have attacked God’s plan for marriage and the family. Amen.
Father Chas: And so we want to support our young families as best we can with all that God wants to bless them. And that led to our new thematic goal, our rally cry from this point through 2026 is joyfully accompanying our young families. Joyfully accompanying our young families. We want to be at the service of our young families and to support them in their struggles.
Father Chas: In a society that fosters dysfunction, addiction, and despair, we want to give our young families the Holy Spirit’s grace and power to live healthy, joyful, and balanced lives.
Father Chas: And we want to entrust them with the legacy of St. John that you parishioners have been sustaining all these 169 years. And we want this church to continue to be full in this next generation and the generation after that. One of the biggest heartaches that so many of our seniors express to me is the pain and the sadness that they have from the falling away of their children and grandchildren from the faith.
Father Chas: That is what we hope to change with this rally cry. We want to draw families back into the vibrant life of faith, hope, and love. And to be successful, that effort will require all of us, men and women, young and old, right? And we’ve identified five defining objectives by which we hope to joyfully accompany our young families. Going into detail with these five will be for another day.
Father Chas: But we simply want to mention those five so that you can begin praying about which one of these you would want to help make happen. So first, continuing with our former thematic goal, pray and intercede for our young families. We want to continue to lean onto the foundation of God’s power that’s necessary for any fruitful initiative of the gospel.
Father Chas: Number two, identify and form disciple makers as parish representatives. The harvest is plenty, folks, but the laborers are few. And so we want to call forth our disciples who want to accompany our young families and we’ll offer them the formation to be able to do so. Number three, cultivate and form small faith-sharing groups among young families.
Father Chas: As Father Randy mentioned in a recent homily last month, in order to keep a fire going, you need to get those hot coals together to keep it from dying out. We need one another if we are going to live out the counter-cultural life Jesus calls us to live. Number four, implement missional pathways by which our families can come back into the sacramental life of the church.
Father Chas: This is about how the preparation for our sacraments of initiation can be profound moments of grace, opportunities by which people can truly experience the healing power of God and his life. And then finally, number five, deepen the Catholic identity and culture of our school. Our school is a place where so many people of goodwill interact, and many of our young families spend time.
Father Chas: And we have such a wonderful school with terrific teachers. So many good things are happening there with Catechesis of the Good Shepherds, our Grandparents Club. You don’t even have to have a kid to be a part of the Grandparents Club. And we want to lean into all those things and invest in them all the more. So that’s a preview of what’s to come. And which of these initiatives might you like to be involved?
Father Chas: You know, one thing Charlie really tapped into is believing that in our youth and that empowered by God’s grace, our young people can overcome the cultural challenges that are before them. That’s what we want to get behind in our rally cry of joyfully accompanying our young families, that they may be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.
Father Chas: So in conclusion, especially if you’re here for the first time or are fairly new, that’s the message I hope you take with you. God desires for you to be saved from all this violence and division and the road that violence and division puts humanity on. God desires for you to know the truth that sets you free. And that truth is ultimately a person, Jesus Christ, who says to each of us, I am the truth,
Father Chas: the way and the life. Come to me. You heard that cry in your heart and you were drawn here. And here in the church, you will find him in this hospital for sinners like you and me, where Jesus offers his healing grace and his own divine life. You belong here.