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Homily The Deacon Joe

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity “Abba, Father!”

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Deut. 4:32-34, 39-40; Ps. 34:4-6, 9, 18-20, 22; Rom. 8:14-17; Mat. 28:16-20

Abba, Father is in the Son and the great “I Am” together with the Son proclaim, “I am with you always, until the end of the age” through the Holy Spirit.  The unknowable mystery of the Holy Trinity, God in three persons is knowable by the incarnation of Jesus the visible sign of God and the invisible but knowable Spirit that moves within our souls as children of God and “heirs with Christ if only we suffer with him”.  “Did anything so great ever happen before?”  It is the greatness of Abba Father coming to us in the incarnation of Jesus Christ with the fire of the Holy Spirit. 

“Ask now” how are we to suffer with him?  Moses says to his people to “Ask now” and question themselves if “anything so great ever happen before” that they have seen or heard from God who has been their Abba Father giving them victory over the powers of other nations.  For what they witnessed “by signs and wonders, by war, with strong hand and outstretched arm and by great terrors” they are to “keep his statutes and commandments”.  This is how we are to suffering with him.   When we keep his statutes and commandments, we suffer with him living a virtuous life in the face of the enemy who is ready to devour us with the powers of evil.  Ask now for the grace to suffer with Christ “that we may also be glorified with him.”

Something greater than Moses has entered into the world and remains with us in Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity.  He remains with us through the Eucharist to suffer with us if only we suffer with him for our sins and the sins of the world.  He remains with us through the Holy Spirit with the gifts of the Holy Spirit to be our compass of peace and direction when the signs of fear come to threaten our joy and salvation. 

There is a time to suffer in silence and prayer as we wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit as the disciples waited in the upper room in prayer after the ascension of Jesus.  Once the Holy Spirit descended upon them came the time to suffer by the act of proclaiming one God in three persons.  The means to suffer in silence is through prayer while the means to suffer in act is through the commandments.  Love one another is not a choice but a commandment in good times and in bad.  We are to pick up the cross of love and carry it as Jesus did even as he was being rejected and crucified, he prayed to Abba Father to forgive them.  Forgiving our enemies is an act of love of God and obedience to the commandments. 

We live in a nation that seeks to claim its headship in three coequal branches of government.  In the headship of government is an independence of disunity with a multiplicity of shades of truth, goodness for some but not others, beauty found in power not love and serving the purpose of special interest groups and not all.  It is an imperfect relationship with limits of authority.  In the Trinity we have a unity of three persons reflecting the one truth, one goodness, one beauty, and one love for the one purpose of our salvation that has no bounds.  As in the time of old nation rises against nation, people against people, and the power to rule by division is the work of evil breaking all the commandments.  This is not a promotion for antigovernment but a call to the reality of a broken world in need of the unity under the one triune God. 

Separation of church and state in our times is seen as the power of the state to silence the voice of the church in the public square yet it was in the public square where the apostles went forth to proclaim the truth of the Trinity.  It was a threat to both the ruling church and state yet they suffered for the cross by their voice in the public square.  Perfect love comes to those who accept the cross to suffer with our triune God not in secret but as witnesses to faith. 

We can grieve each person of the Trinity.  We grieve Abba Father when we welcome sin and fear not to grieve him or seek his mercy.  We grieve Jesus as friend when we seek him not by not coming to receive him body, blood, soul and divinity in the Eucharist.  We grieve the Holy Spirit when we seek him not in the sacraments of the Church through which we invite the gifts of the Holy Spirit to come into our lives. 

Perfect love is the unity of the Trinity as one God in three Persons each reflecting the love of the other.  The Holy Spirit in us reflects the love of Jesus as our savior.  Jesus reflects the love of Abba Father as the Word became flesh to be the visible God with us.  God the Father reflects the glory of his perfect love in Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Each give light to the other as we are called to give light to his love by our love.  There is the old expression “three is a company, four is a crowd”.  We are to live in communion as a “crowd” of believers in perfect love.  There cannot be simply “God and I” without the other who we are called to love. 

How we reflect the love of God and humanity in our personhood brings us closer to the perfect love we are called to live.  We behold the glory of God and enter into heaven according to the measure of our love.  What glory is there for as parent to wake up in the middle of the night to change a crying baby’s diaper unless the act comes out of love for the child.  In the same way what glory is there for spending one-third of the day at work investing in the success of the owner if the purpose is simply to receive a check.  Or what glory is there for the athlete to train for hours knowing the main prize will only go to the one who comes in first if not for the act of training itself being a reward to glory in.  Glory comes in the act of love the moment in which we recognize God is present and our act gives glory to him.  This is our unity and walk to heaven. 

Again, we behold the glory of God and enter into heaven according to the measure of our love.  In Abba Father’s house there are many mansions but not all reflect the same measure of love coming from us for God.  How we reflect our love of God in this world matters how we will view the glory of God in the next.  The treasure we build for God will transcend this world with the measure of glory to come.  All things matter for God and what we do for the least we are doing for Abba Father. 

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Homily The Deacon Joe

Pentecost – Solemnity “Jesus is Lord”

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Acts 2:1-11; Ps. 104:1, 24, 29-30, 31, 34; 1 Cor. 12:3b-7,12-13; Jn. 20:19-23

“Jesus is Lord” is spoken by the believer as a confirmation of faith through the Holy Spirit with the grace to be proclaimed to the world.  Those possessed by evil cannot make this claim for it is an anathema to Satan.  “Jesus is Lord” is a proclamation of the Trinity as three persons in one God from the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit.  Just as we are to pray “In the name of Jesus” we are to proclaim “Jesus is Lord” as children of the highest God creator of all, there is no other.

Before Easter we enter into the time of Lent for forty days to fulfill the sacrifice that brings us Jesus our Lord through his passion, death, and resurrection.  Now is the time to fulfill the coming of Pentecost through the nine days after Jesus ascension and fifty days after Easter.  It is the coming of the Holy Spirit to give birth to the Church who is to forgive and retain sins.  The Church through the Holy Spirit works to discern the moral, ethical, and spiritual practices of the people of God as both an institution and through the body of Jesus our Lord.  Jesus is Lord of his bride the church and all who come to receive him in the Eucharist as one body in one Spirit though many parts. It is the same Spirit.

We see in the first reading the gift of the Holy Spirit as “tongues as of fire” coming to rest on now the apostles giving them the power to speak in different languages to all gathered in Jerusalem from the ends of the “world”.  This Spirit comes to us with “different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit…for some benefit.”  What is our gift and are we in service of our gift “for some benefit” of God’s greater good?  It is a treasure to do the labor of love. 

We are to reflect on the “benefit” coming from our gifts.  Who benefits?  Is our life lived for simply our benefit, our treasure, our glory or are we serving someone greater than ourselves?  That is the question where the answer will bring us to salvation where the only true answer is “Jesus is Lord” of my life.  If Jesus is Lord of my life then we offer up ourselves as a sacrifice for the benefit God wants to deliver through us in all our encounters this day.  It is in the encounter where the Lord makes his presence known beginning with the encounter in Mass and as we go forth to encounter the world. 

In a world of sin, we need the fire of the Holy Spirit to raise us up with the gifts of fortitude, justice, prudence, and temperance known as the Cardinal Virtues to go into battle as the militant church on earth.  After Jesus “breathes” on the disciples and ascends into heaven, they pray their “novena” that is their nine days in wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit to bring them the confirmation of their call to go forth as Apostles and proclaim the good news. 

In the Charismatic movement the gift of tongues is a spiritual gift of loving God with all our hearts, minds, and souls in worship often described as “slain in the spirit”.  It is the joy and fire coming to the poor in spirit who die to self to be raised in Jesus our Lord.  The poor in spirit are predisposed to receive the gift by virtue of their humility.  Humility is the gateway to all the spiritual gifts.  Just as Jesus is the cornerstone of salvation through the church the Holy Spirit is the cornerstone of the spiritual gifts through humility in dying to self that Jesus may rise in us. 

In the gospel Jesus appears to the disciples after the resurrection and breathes on them giving them the authority to forgive or retain sins through the gift of the Holy Spirit.  It is a ministerial gift set aside for the church priesthood.  It is not the gift of tongues but the same Spirit belonging to the one body of Christ.   In our confirmation within the Church the spirit comes to us giving us the gift that will serve God for some benefit.  Do we recognize our gift given to us for the benefit of a greater good?  Let the fruit of our gifts be multiplied by each act of service coming from the gifts. 

We are to discern the gifts of the Holy Spirit that lights our fire our joy and brings us peace.  It is our calling and we are not to set it aside or we will wander in the desert in search of the promise land already waiting for us.  Let us stay in the Spirit with Jesus our Lord and neither wonder nor wander but move in the Spirit for the benefit of our salvation and of the whole world.  “Peace be with you…and with your Spirit” who comes to us this day announcing “Jesus is Lord”. The time has come, now is the time to enter into the Spirit and take up our gift to Jesus our Lord. 

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Homily The Deacon Joe

Ascension of the Lord – The Father’s Promise!

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Acts 1:1-11; Ps. 47:2-3, 6-9; Eph. 1:17-23; Mk. 16:15-20

 The Father’s promise is “I will be with you through the baptism of the Holy Spirit”.  The Father’s promise is to be with us as he has through salvation history as we read in Genesis 26:3 “I will be with you and bless you”; Genesis 31:3 “Then the Lord said to Jacob: Return to the land of your ancestors, where you were born, and I will be with you”; Exodus 3:12 “God answered “I will be with you and this will be your sign”; Joshua 1:5 “As I was with Moses, I will be with you I will not leave not leave you or forsake you”; “Isaiah 43:2 “When you pass through waters, I will be with you through the rivers you shall not be swept away”.   The Father’s promise has a major “If” in 1 Kings 11:38 “If, then you heed all that I command you, walking in my ways, and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statutes and my commandments like David my servant, I will be with you.”  The Father’s promise is for those who surrender to the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit he is with us. 

The Father’s promise is a Spirit of wisdom and revelation given to those who believe and are baptized to “go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel” while the Lord continues to work with us “through accompanying signs.”  Jesus appearance to the disciples for forty days after his resurrection and before his Ascension bringing about the transformation of his disciples into apostles to lead his church with the promise of the Holy Spirit.  The Father’s promise is one of a “surpassing greatness of his power” and protection in the name above all names that in the name of Jesus comes the authority to face the evil of our times. 

The evil of our times comes is a cultural war for the souls of people.  Just as the Lord continues to work with us and through us so does the evil one continues to work against us and through others in our battle for the souls of God’s people.  The signs of our time drive out demons through the waters of baptism and the Holy Spirit for those who believe the Word of God and follow his commandments.  Demonic spirits work though others to create chaos claiming evil in the streets is justified for injustice in the world, lies are justified for a cause while others who speak truth must be silenced, even death is claimed as justified for the right to choose self over others beginning with the unborn. 

In Jesus name we are to pick up these “serpents” of ideologues that prowl about the world for the souls of the innocent with our “hands” of the truth of the gospel and fear not.  The poison we are fed to drink are the ideologies that create division raising the power of the state over the rights of the church. These will not harm us when we hold to the truth of the gospel message.  Today many have fallen “sick” to the secular normalization to degenderize male and female, to separate church from state, to divide faith from science, and to raise one race above another as racist from birth.  All these poisons cannot stand when the people of God go forth to speak the truth of the gospel message.  It is a message of the love of God and a promise to be with us until the end of the world.

The Father’s promise is to be with us as he works through us in the fight for souls against the powers of darkness with the light of truth.  Today our children are being taught to see the world through the lens of racial bias simply based on the color of a person’s skin regardless of individual views and it falls under the title of “Critical Race Theory” which is no more than an attempt to gain power of one group over another.  Any attempt to voice opposition is quickly labeled “microaggression” for speaking out with an opposing view meant to silence dialogue not engage in dialogue but we are called to go out with the right to speak the gospel message trusting in the Father’s promise, united to Jesus’ Word and with the power of the Holy Spirit. 

The Father’s promise to be with us, to navigate our path does not promise the “easy road”.  Just by looking back to all the martyrs who suffered and died for the faith we know we must pick up our cross and follow the “road less traveled” of which many have chosen to fall away.  Who will remain standing with the Lord?  What other promise can we look for?  The promise of the evil one was “you will be like gods” proven to be the greatest lie and yet it is the path this world continues to seek to be your own god, have your own “truth”, identify yourself in whatever gender of choice, and live your life for yourself above others.  In the end it comes down to these two choices, the Father’s promise or the promise of the Evil one. 

The Father sent the Son who left us with these words, “My children, I will be with you only a little while longer.  You will look for me, and as I told the Jews, ‘Where I go you cannot come,’ so now I say it to you.  I give you a new commandment: love one another.  As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.  This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  Jesus does not leave us with a critical race theory but with the commandment of love, truth, unity and goodness for one another.  This is the truth of inclusiveness that brings us the promise of the Father. 

The Father’s promise is not a theory of humanity but the essence of life coming from our creator, redeemer, and sanctifier.  Let us remain in him and in his promise this day until the day we will see him face to face.  Let us pray for the promise of the Father’s mercy for those who do not believe, do not accept, and do not follow the only promise that brings us salvation and heaven.

We celebrate the Ascension of the Lord after “He presented himself alive to them by many proofs…appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God”.  The biggest proof is he is alive!  Had he not presented himself alive the world would be reading about one more prophet still waiting for the messiah to come.  Instead, Jesus is the cornerstone of salvation and the promise has arrived for those who believe and accept God is with us. 

As the disciples were to be transformed into apostles with the coming of the Holy Spirit, they waited in Jerusalem for nine days in prayer.  Tradition now waits in prayer for nine days when we do a novena for the promise to come in answer to our prayers.  Let this day be the beginning of a novena for us in our homes and in our personal prayer life.  Let us pray for the Lord to come with the power of the Holy Spirit with the grace we need to go forth “to the ends of the earth” without fear. 

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Homily

6th Sunday of Easter – God is Love, Happy Mother’s Day!

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48; Ps. 98:1-4; 1 Jn. 4:07-10; Jn. 15:9-17

God is love and what a more perfect moment to recognize the great love of motherhood beginning with our Blessed Mother Mary who gave her fiat to bring us the child Jesus for the redemption of the world.  May is the month of Mary and Mother’s Day is in May uniting the motherhood of all moms to the Blessed Mother’s love for her son.  What an advocate for moms who share a special bond to Mary as a mother who carries her child in the womb knowing it is born out of love. 

Close to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is a shrine called the Milk Grotto.  It is more of a cave where according to tradition Mary and Joseph stayed on their way to Egypt.  Mary nursed baby Jesus and a drop of Mary’s milk fell upon the stone and it turned white.  In our pilgrimage to Bethlehem on the West Bank we stopped at the Milk Grotto and saw the white walls of the cave listened to the stories of miracles attributed to the Mary at the Grotto especially for women who were having trouble to conceive and became pregnant. 

An iconic image of Mary breastfeeding Jesus is a reminder that from the breast of Mary’s milk Jesus fed dependent upon her humanity as an infant.  It is also a reminder of St. Joseph the protector guardian of the Holy Family.   Jesus continues to look to our humanity and his church to provide his people with the food of heaven in the Eucharist and the spirit of truth in his Word as a shield of protection against the gods of fear and deception in the cultural war against the values and practices of the faith.  This is love in action. 

In the first reading from Acts we see how the Word of God is love and those who receive the word receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  The Word is not a voice from heaven but the voice of his apostles as Peter says, “I myself am also a human being” who bring his Word to “every nation”.  In this reading we see how the Word alone has power to bring to the Gentiles the gift of the Holy Spirit before baptism that is why we speak of being baptized in the spirit already as children of God for the Spirit rests where love of God abounds. God is love and baptism is the new circumcision of our hearts to give us the sign of God’s love remaining with us. 

Love is the seed of God himself and when we nurture our love, we come closer to the truth that God exists to know him and love him.  God has come into the world through his Son Jesus “as expiation for our sins” that we may receive a greater love, a more perfect love for one another.   The gospel reading continues Jesus’ kerygma to remain in him by remaining in his love.  This is the “how to” remain in him that it comes through love and love come through keeping the commandments.  Thus, love is not an emotional sensation but a covenant with God the Father to stay true to his commandments as the visible sign of true love.

Jesus discourse now takes on a more perfect sign of the commandments from obedience to the law of the Father to the act of love for one another in serving each other as he loves us in coming to serve us.  Jesus gave testimony of his love by healing, teaching, expelling demons, sanctifying the waters for baptism, and suffering his passion of love for us in death to self with the power to rise again.  Are we ready to suffer for one another?  The Apostles did just that and many suffered martyrdom giving completely of themselves to bring the good news of Jesus to the world.  Jesus lets his disciples know “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” and in his divinity he joined our humanity to be one with us and calls us his “friends”.  In Jesus, love rises from the dead victorious. 

Jesus lets his disciples know he calls them friends because he has shared everything he has heard from the Father.  Then Jesus gives a formula to the disciples and for us to follow, “whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give to you”.  Jesus places himself as our intercessor to the Father so that when we pray, we are to pray “in the name of Jesus” so his sacrifice of redemption for our sins may also be united to our prayers and not have our sins stand in the way.  Thus, when we unite our imperfect love to Jesus’ perfect love we are transformed into the light of heaven with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 

Our prayers begin with the sign of the cross “In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit” calling upon the Trinity.  When our prayer becomes our “ask” let us do so by calling out “in the name of Jesus” for he calls us friends and carries our prayers to the Father.  Then we can turn to our Blessed Mother who reminds us “do whatever he (Jesus) tells you”.

Jesus calls us “friends” and we can then turn this word into an acronym, F.R.I.E.N.D.S. to recognize God is love in his friendship with us.

“F” is for “Faithful” and Jesus is faithful.  He is faithful to his promises and his covenant of love as he continues to suffer for our unfaithfulness when we choose sin over his love. A friend of others is a friend of Jesus as he calls us to love one another.  We live in a time when we have lost sight of our neighbor and we can even become strangers to each other in our home. 

“R” is for “Respect” and Jesus respects our free will.  In his gentleness Jesus waits for our response to his love respecting the choice we make will ultimately make us into his friend or a stranger.  Respect is a sign of love so children show respect to your parents but also parents show respect to your children given by God and belonging to God.  We live in a time of extreme child abuse beginning with abortion, child trafficking, and sex slave trade. 

“I” is for “Interested” and Jesus is interested in every thought and feeling and act we do.  He knows our every hair meaning he knows us even better than we know ourselves.  Jesus is interested in us spending time with him behind closed doors in silence, in prayer, in adoration.  He wants us to be interested in him and to look at him as he looks on us, to contemplate him on the cross for all of his suffering and in the Eucharist for all of his glory.  We live in a time of mass distraction beginning with the phone and the internet and silence is a lost art.  Jesus comes in the silence of the moment. 

“E” is for “Enjoy” and Jesus enjoys loving us as friends.  Friendship is a joy to share when we become open and vulnerable to another by sharing our hopes, fears, dreams and love.  In a world of finite time when we make time to enjoy our time together a moment becomes an infinite joy and memory to ponder.  We live in a time where the cultural war creates division fostering what divides us rather than what unites us stealing our joy in being one family, one nation, one world to enjoy under God. 

“N” is for “Nurture” and Jesus does nurture his friends with his love.  Just as a mother is instinctively nurturing to an infant, we have forgotten how to nurture each other.  Men can be a bit clumsy in their nurturing skills that is why it is said “a dog is man’s best friend” because it is hard to trust a man with a baby but we are getting better waiting for them to grow up and play rough.  Nurturing comes with touch and we live in a time where fear is avoiding touch and social distancing is becoming the norm.  Let us not be afraid that we were made for touch and let it begin with Jesus touching our hearts. 

“D” is for “Dialogue” and Jesus speaks to us in dialogue through prayer, through fellowship, through his Word in scripture and through the quieting of our souls.  It is tempting to say our prayers, rush through a rosary, and never stop to quiet our souls and listen for the voice of God to dialogue with us.  How do we know when it is God speaking and not our own deceiving thoughts?  Some will say God spoke to me and gave me a word of knowledge.  What does this mean?  It means that it we could not have arrived at it on our own but came through inspiration of the Holy Spirit as a confirmation of faith, hope, and love.  We live in a time when the discourse of “dialogue” has been replaced by shouting, monologues, constant interruptions and demands for “safe spaces” where only those who share common views may enter.  If we cannot listen to others how will we listen to Jesus? 

“S” is for “Sacrifice” and Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice of a friend to give up his life for our salvation. Mother’s begin to give life to a child through the sacrifice of their body beginning with the early signs of “Morning” sickness learning to understand the needs of their child before a word is spoken. The motherhood of a Mother is sacrifice and support. Jesus is there to support us when we turn to him and when we offer up our sacrifice of love for a greater good.  Often, we look for support everywhere or nowhere thinking we have to do it ourselves but have we allowed Jesus into our lives to be our support?  Jesus is there when we call upon him, when we pray to the Father in the name of Jesus, when we look to support each other we invite Jesus into our relationships. 

Now is the time to rise above a culture of death and bring back the culture of friendship through the love of Jesus.  Now is the time to be friends through the sacrifice of love. He calls us “friends” are we his friend?  Happy Mother’s Day Blessed Mother and to all Moms and grandmas!  Let us offer a prayer of love for our mothers who made many a sacrifice for us and are one of the reasons we are here in Mass in in this world today. Happy Blessed day to all of Jesus’ friends.

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Homily The Deacon Joe

5th Sunday of Easter – Remain in me

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Acts 9:26-31; Ps. 22:26-28, 30-32; 1 Jn. 3:18-24; Jn. 15:1-8

“Remain in me, as I remain in you.”  In Jesus we can do all things and bear fruit for whatever we ask.   Jesus reminds us, “because without me we can do nothing”.  This bears the question, “how much are we doing to bear fruit for the kingdom of God?”  Does it cross our mind or even a concern of ours that God has a purpose for us?  We did not come into the world to be our own God as the secular world leads us to believe.  It is not all about “Me” it is about “Him”.  Jesus did not come into the world to be served but to serve and be one with the Father.  This is how we remain in him when we allow him to be one with us.  Why would we not desire his oneness in us and in all who we love? 

The power of God’s grace is there for us to take up on the road to holiness.  Remaining in Jesus is an act of the will to keep his commandments, an act of faith to believe in the name of Jesus Christ, and an act of love for each other in our charity.  In Jesus we see the fruit of our every day blessings those we bring to each other when we remain in him.  Apart from him only darkness and sin remain with death as the companion. 

Spiritual formation calls for pruning the spirit to grow straight towards the “Son”.  The first pruning is in baptism for the removal of original sin.  It does not end there it is just beginning.  In the first reading Barnabas takes charge of Saul and brought him to the apostles because they feared him.  In life we don’t get to heaven “figuring it out” by ourselves.  Parents take charge of their children to bring them to the waters of baptism, to send them to catechesis and to bring them to Mass.  Parents who say let them grow up and “figure it out” if they want baptism or what faith to follow, are not taking charge of the faith of their children as stewards of their flock.  There is a reason for children to be called “kids” like goats because they need the pruning of discipline and guidance not just for behavior but for spiritual development. 

If we reflect back on our faith, we will recognize a “Barnabas” in our lives who took charge of bringing us to Jesus.  Often it is our parents who read us bible stories, shared their faith and taught us to come to church but not all.  Unfortunately, there are many stories by adults who grew up with no faith development and yet along the path a “Barnabas” came into their lives and invited them to church or shared their conversion story, or just by the fruit of their faith demonstrated a peace and joy that attracted others to seek that peace.  Who was “Barnabas” to you that has you here this day instead of “out there” trying to figure it out on your own? 

In my own story, I identify my mother as the “Barnabas” who took charge of me bringing me as an infant to be baptized to receive not only the gift of the Holy Spirit but for Jesus to remain in me as I struggled with my own faith growing up.  She taught me to seek him in scripture and made sure I prayed each morning before going to school and each evening kneeling down by my bed before going to sleep.  That alone remained with me during my wandering days as a youth and young adult.  We should say a prayer of thanksgiving for our “Barnabas”. 

Sometimes it is the one who brought us back to give the church an opportunity for hope and direction in our lives.  It can happen in a retreat, in a confession or even in the workplace.  It can be our spouse, a sponsor for our sacraments, our grandparents, or simply a friend but the miracle of conversion comes through relationship.  Saul’s conversion began with Jesus appearance speaking to him.  Jesus sent Ananias to open the eyes of Saul in his conversion after being blinded by Jesus appearance. Then Barnabas took charge of him to bring him to the apostles as the visible church of Christ.  In Saul’s conversion it was a series of people who took charge to fulfill on step in his journey.  We too can look back to how in each step of our faith development it may not have been just one person but a number of people that kept us going in the right direction. 

God not only puts others in our path of faith but he is also calling us to be instruments of his love in the faith of others.  Who do we claim to have served as an instrument of God in bringing them one step closer to their conversion?  Ultimately it is God who does the miracle but by remaining in Jesus we will “bear much fruit”.  In the end God will reveal to us the fruit we have produced and it may surprise us…all the lives we impacted for his glory.  He will also reveal the fruit we were to produce and did not and what we will bear in our purgatory for in the end justice belongs to God. 

God desires us to be difference makers, the one he calls to be the difference.  We can be as much of a difference for good and righteous as for evil and injustice.  In the end it will be one or the other.  Good and righteous does not just happen.  We take up our cross daily and prepare ourselves to respond one way or the other but nothing is neutral including the choice to not respond is an act of omission.  Better to try and do poorly than to avoid and fail completely.  If we say, I don’t want to try and fail then we have already failed by failing to try.  God rewards the effort and is in charge of the outcome. 

As Jesus remains in us, we are being pruned by our response to our daily struggles, joys, offerings and sacrifices.  In his divine providence no day goes without how we have responded to him down to even our thoughts and feelings.  Do we let go and let God work through us as we trust in him?  Problems don’t go away.  How we respond to them is what makes for holiness.  The best response begins with prayer and leads us to follow a path guided by the Holy
Spirit.  It helps when we also call upon God’s saints, our Blessed Mother Mary and our guardian angel to intercede for us.  In fact, this is the year of St. Joseph and recall St. Joseph is the terror of demons so we can make a consecration to him to be at our side as we overcome our trials and tribulations.  But nothing will happen with all the heavenly hosts unless we place our trust in God.  Here then is the stumbling block. 

How are we to learn to trust when our lives have already felt the sting of being hurt, betrayed, rejected, and even abandoned?  Jesus lived through all of this and more in his passion and death.  In the passion of Jesus, he remains in us to overcome our suffering with us.  He is the power to live through anything and everything when he remains in us and we remain in him.  In his death he surrenders to God his spirit and gives us his spirit to fear not.  In his victory over death, he makes all things new.  We can be made new in our faith, hope, and love through the resurrection of Jesus.  He lives and remains in us.  In the resurrection we learn to trust as we focus on the risen Lord, his power to rise up in the fullness of his divinity and humanity.   The light of new hope is Jesus resurrected.  This is our Easter time to celebrate Jesus rose from the dead to remain with us. 

At the end of the diaconate program there was a celebration with the Bishop and I was given the opportunity to speak on behalf of the candidates.  I gave the Bishop a gift.  The gift was pruning shears and asked him to be gentle as we move into our call as deacons.  Jesus is the gentle shepherd who does his shearing of us that our wool will serve to make great blessings in the lives of others and then as sheep we grow new wool that is even greater graces coming from God. 

Psychology teaches that our temperament is inherited at 60% and our character is learned at 40% and together that makes our personality.  That 40% that we learn in our character is the pruning we gain in our life experiences to grow straight as we allow God to remain in us.  In God we gain the wisdom to see his hand in our lives and take each moment to be the best we were created to be making it a God moment. 

Remaining in Jesus is placing our trust in him and this is where the pruning is a true sacrifice.  Let Jesus be our voice and the Holy Spirit our heart and the Father’s will our action.  That is grace at work. 

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