bg-image

Homily

4th Sunday Ordinary Time – Boast in the Lord!

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Zep. 2:3; 3:12-13; Ps. 146:6-10; 1 Cor. 1:26-31; Mt.5:1-12a

“Boast in the Lord; rejoice and be glad; your reward will be great in heaven.”  A young child will hear their parents boast about them and learn to have pride in themselves but where does a child also learn humility?  I recall the jingle “anything you can do I can do better; I can do anything better than you”.  We boast in the Lord for coming to our salvation.  We boast in him who redeems us, sanctifies us, and justifies us for he fulfills what is lacking in us to be saved.  We see this in the father whose son is possessed by a demon in Mark 9:24 who cried out to Jesus, “I do believe, help my unbelief!”  God does not seek the perfect soul but to perfect us in himself. 

The world is in constant competition judging who is better and who is not good enough.  In the world we boast about our achievement, our creation of success, our multiplication of wealth greater than others but to boast about our humility is an oxymoron.  In humility we are to see Jesus in others and give honor to God in recognizing his image reflected in the person we meet.  In this is our humility to say, “thank you for being Christ to me by your love, your counsel, your forgiveness, your testimony.  He who gives himself up to the world will be lost in the world and suffer the misery of a world with empty promises.  The world will simply move on to the next person who claims to be “better than you.” 

How foolish to believe in the world view that it is all about “me”, my passion and my will be done. Imagine the contradiction to hear “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  To grow in faith is to grow in humility understanding that without God we perish.  Then in the poverty of our spirit we come to him to save us for his kingdom.  Our time in this world is for God and his passion for the eternal heavenly kingdom.  We are created in his image for something greater than ourselves and we are invited to come and join him.  It is our time to choose wisely. 

In the world of “me” it is all about my “safe space”, my choice, my rights, my kingdom.  In the world of God, it is all about the “other” doing the will of the Father who art in heaven who is our strength.  Our call is to be merciful, clean of heart, peacemakers, hungering for righteousness and willing to accept persecution if necessary. 

It is not surprising that even as believers we are slow to respond to the call to follow or boast in the Lord when our flesh is weak and our hearts are vain.  The temptation is to remain in ourselves and not look to the Lord as the mind tries to compromise with the idea of “yes but not yet”.  “Yes, I want to go to heaven but not yet ready to accept death.  Yes, I want to be a saint but not yet ready to forgive.  Yes, I believe in one Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic church but not yet ready to follow all the teaching of the church.”  Not yet at least until the moment we find ourselves in need and even then, we question God “why me, Lord, why now?”

The Lord desires our prayer to be “why not me Lord, let your will be done”.  Boast in the Lord what marvelous works he has done for us, through us, and despite our own weakness.  Jesus calls us to be in him.  In his space we receive righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.  There is nothing safe about the illusion of a safe space without God.  Outside of him there is evil, fear, despair, and a pit of darkness.  Jesus came to give us the light of truth, hope where there is doubt, courage when there is fear, and the peace that comes from his love that gives us joy.  Joy to boast in the Lord.  This we are to boast when we rise each day to be sanctified, when we labor through the day in righteousness, and when we retire each night in thanksgiving for being redeemed by his love. 

Being poor in spirit we recognize we need God, his forgiveness of sin, and to trust in him.  We are to mourn those times we have failed to do good, to respond to his call, and rejected his love by our sin.  Meekness in the Lord is not wimpiness as the world defines it but our recognition of our need for God and in humility turn to him who loves us.   To hunger for righteousness begins from within to remove the splinter from our own eye before we address the beam in others.  Mercy comes to those who live by the law of forgiveness, as we forgive others, we receive forgiveness.  To be clean of heart is to say what you mean and mean what you say that is with honesty, without deceit and desiring the good of the other.  Peacemakers are not meddlers but carry the peace of Christ within and by their presence bring the light of God’s truth to bear. 

We live in a time where there is a rise in persecution for the sake of righteousness anytime the truth is spoken that abortion is killing the unborn person, that we are born male and female by God not by choice, that assisted suicide is murder, that same sex relations is a sin and anything else the social and cultural trends claim to be justified then be ready.  Immediately the insults and persecution are felt with all the “phobia” labels and racist claims that can be used to silence and cancel the voices that dare speak of God.  Living the beatitudes is not for wimps but for people of courage and endurance. 

Each day we are to fight the good fight in our daily encounters with others.  The voice in the desert is now our voice speaking to the person you encounter who will question and challenge you and may even turn against you.  This person may even be living in our home.  Will we stand or will we fall?  Boast in the Lord who will always stand by us when we stand for his truth. 

Tags
Shared this
Views

147 views


The Deacon

Accompanied by ..
Copyright by TagleStar 2016
Powered by TagleStar Website Development

bg-image

Homily

3rd Sunday Ordinary Time – “Light has arisen!”

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Is. 8:23-9:3; Ps. 27:1, 4, 13-14; 1 Cor. 1:10-13,17; Mt.4:12-23

“Light has arisen!”  This is the light that consumes ordinary humanity and transforms it into something greater than ourselves.  Light has arisen and this light is Jesus Christ.  Jesus comes into the darkness of the world “curing every disease and illness”, the disease of sin, death, and the illness of body, mind and spirit.  The light has arisen but only upon those who respond to the call “Come after me”.  Apart from Jesus life is driven by emotions, reason, and our will not God’s will.  God’s will that we receive the infused virtues of light to know truth, righteousness, and peace.  The darkness of humanity is a vessel without the sail of faith in the one true God.  Peter, Andrew, James and John saw in Jesus the risen light and believed.   

Jesus saw in Peter, Andrew, James, John and the other apostles his church, his priestly descendancy with authority, his infallible teaching to be handed over to them to be taught before the whole world with the risen light of his gospel word made flesh as he institutes his church at the last supper, Holy Thursday.  Thus, today is more of the apologetics of the Catholic church in the world called to be one, holy, universal, and apostolic church for the meaning of Catholic is “universal”.  This is not to create separation from us and other believers who do not follow us but to remind us of the call to unity in the one body of Christ.  Recall the “Jesus’ prayer” for unity, John 17:21 “I pray…so that they may all be one, as you Father, are in me and I in you…that the world may believe that you sent me.” 

Jesus comes proclaiming “the Gospel of the kingdom”.  It is one “Gospel” that holds the totality of his word and it begins with the word made flesh.  Jesus is the “Gospel”, the good news and “Gospel” is the revelation of absolute truth.  Jesus reveals to us the absolute truth of God the Father in his Son through the Spirit.   The Spirit is within the Son and the Father and all give witness to being one.  Without fulfilling the Jesus’ prayer for unity the world has not come to believe and a divided house cannot stand.  What is the world to believe if even among believers there is such great disunity?  It can only conclude what Pontius Pilates asked Jesus, “What is truth?”. 

The call for unity is the preaching of St. Paul this day “that there be no divisions among you” Christians “but that you be united in the same mind and in the same purpose.”  Even in the early church history there are signs of division creating factions of different mindsets.  History is the great “fact checker” that is given to us to discern the one true church.  History has no partiality but records in itself and reveals to us Jesus’ kingdom coming through the call of his disciples.  History tells us the will of Jesus was to ensure unity in his church by proclaiming Peter as the “rock” of authority, by recognizing in the early church priests, bishops, deacons, and respect for the chair of Peter in Rome. 

Protestantism by its very name is a protest and rebellion against the chair of Peter and his appointed apostles.  Protestantism follows the belief in “Sola scriptura” by scripture alone do we discover the truth and the Bible is the sole infallible source of authority for Christian faith and practice.  Thus, each person should be able to pick up a bible and receive the risen light of truth and understanding without error.  Vanity of vanities to presume each person’s interpretation of the bible by reason is absolute truth and if not absolute truth at least to hold it as “my truth” from the light of reason.  This is the false truth of moral relativism leading those who follow to be their own God. 

Moral relativism proclaims that there is no one truth.  It allows each to live their truth based on their own reason without God?  Thus, where two or three come together with their agreed upon conclusion they now proclaim it to be gospel truth and they establish their own church.   However, if two or three disagree they can each go their own way with their own theology and doctrine, divided not united.  This is what St. Paul is warning his people about and what we see in our world today.  This is how the world operates with the view of “to each his own” and we can easily fall into the same false belief unless we believe that Jesus established his church and gave it authority, the keys to the kingdom to “bind and to loosen” in earth and in heaven.  (Mt. 16:19, Mt. 18:19)

I have my truth from scripture and you have yours.  If there are multiple truths from God then why the incarnation of Jesus and his sacrifice if in the end who are we really following?  “Is Christ divided?” asks St. Paul, then why are we divided?  History proves by evidence of all the denominations that the same gospel can arrive in many minds at many different doctrines unless there is one authority coming to us from the beginning of Jesus’ proclamation of the gospel.  A divided church St. Paul warns results in the cross of Christ being “emptied of its meaning[JG1] ”. 

In Jesus the light is risen from the darkness but like a virus each time it is divided and mutates into another version of itself it becomes weaker and darker and dies.  Denominations rise and denominations fall but the fullness of truth of the gospel remains in the hands of the Catholic church and history proves who came first and remains with us to this day. 

In Jesus the light is risen to be a new covenant with his people.  But wait, does not the Lord speak of this new covenant stating, “I will put my laws in their minds and I will write them upon their hearts, I will be their God, and they shall be my people”.  Is it not the same law that comes to each of us as believers then why the division?  Why appoint twelve apostles designated to go out and teach what they have received?  Humanity needs the visible guiding light to understand the call to the divine life.  Just as a child needs his parents to become a mature adult the faithful need their earthly shepherd to enter into the Father’s house. 

Once baptized the spirit of the law is received in the gift of the Holy Spirit, planted in our hearts but it cannot mature without the body of the law to guide it in this pilgrimage.  This body is the Church, these apostles are the new priestly order, and through this order Christ reveals himself in the sacramental life of the church. 

To follow Jesus through the church is a great gift for humanity because the church bears the cross of shepherding the faithful in the truth.  “The Lord is my light and my salvation” received in the sacraments of the church to be the risen light to the world.  Jesus also left us the law of the gift.  The law of the gift says that it is in giving of ourselves that we find our true self.  Jesus gave himself up on the cross for us and in dying he rose to the visible fullness of himself and appeared to many.  The law of the gift is our calling, so let us remember it’s not about self but about self-giving that sets us free to become our true self, a child of God, a visible image of the light now risen in us. 

 [JG1]

Tags
Shared this
Views

145 views


The Deacon

Accompanied by ..
Copyright by TagleStar 2016
Powered by TagleStar Website Development

bg-image

Homily

2nd Sunday Ordinary Time – Here am I, Lord!

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Is. 49:3, 5-6; Ps. 40:2, 7-10; 1 Cor. 1:1-3; Jn.1:29-34

“Here am I, Lord…who formed me as his servant from the womb” to do his will.  We are created to love, know and serve God, not generally as a human race but individually in a personal relationship with Christ from the moment of conception until death, from the womb to the tomb and beyond.  From the womb God is already granting us his love with the gift of the soul to be in union with him.  Life has meaning and purpose and God wants to reveal to us what that is for each of us.  We have a calling in this world and each day we are to discover and uncover more and more how we have been formed to love and serve the Lord. 

Some may ask, “If all are formed in the womb to be servants of God then why so much evil, division and chaos in this world?”  This question is more frequently asked as “If God is good why is there evil in this world?”  Formed to be servant recognizes the freedom to choose good or evil, right or wrong, obedience or rebellion.  Thus, the history of the world and of salvation history is filled with story upon story of who responded according to God’s will and who rejected his command to do his will, deceived by the evil one and by our own free will.  “Here am I Lord, I come to do your will is to be obedient whether convenient or inconvenient because you call upon me and you will it.  This is where the expression “the rubber meets the road” becomes our test.  Do we will to do his will or our own? 

To do God’s will is beyond obedience simply because he is God and we are not.   Obedience to God’s will does not make us slaves as puppets on a string.  Obedience to God is freedom, joy, peace, and love because the blessings, graces, and gifts from God are multiplied and continue to form us according to his image to be great saints.  When we obey and follow God’s commandments our lives are guided and protected and we grow in sanctity becoming our true self, perfected by his love we are free indeed. 

In Exodus, Moses asks God, “Who am I?  What do I tell them?”  God replies “I AM has sent me to you”.  The I AM is calling us to respond “Here am I, Lord” but often we remain doubtful still wondering “who am I to accept the call?”  “I AM” in Hebrew meaning is “I will be” as in becoming for the God of creation who is seeking us to become according to his will.  He becomes in us what is needed for us to be his servant and fulfill a divine purpose if we open ourselves to his becoming in us, with us, and for us.  God is waiting for our response “Here am I, Lord” for a transformation to go forth from our humanity to his divine calling yet we are more ready to question “Who am I?  Not I, Lord.”   

Last week was the Epiphany of the Lord marking the end of the Christmas liturgical season and the beginning of Ordinary Time with the celebration of the baptism of the Lord.  Little history is revealed to us of the life of Jesus over a period of thirty years.  Was the Lord simply living and growing in his humanity or was something else happening to prepare himself for the purpose he had come into the world.   In the finding of Jesus in the temple he tells his parents in Luke 2:49 “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?  He…was obedient to them; and Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man.”  This was not idle time this was formation time in his divine call.  There is a time to plant, a time to grow and a time to harvest yet every moment is also a time to respond “Here am I, Lord” open to your call. 

God is planting and growing in us his Word but he also calls on his harvest at the right time.  We are to be vigilant so that in every moment we are called we are ready to say, “Here am I, Lord”.  This is not about me feeling ready, worthy, or strong enough for the challenge.  “God is now my strength!”  To do the will of the Lord is beyond our strength.  He is the strength we need, he alone parts the waters, and raises the dead.  We are to trust in him to receive power “to become children of God” and do the ordinary will of God that is extraordinary for our being. 

When the church makes the call for volunteers to be involved in music ministry, lectors, extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist, catechism teachers or support fellowship activities do we ask “who am I” or do we say “here am I”?  The Church is not waiting for professionals to step up but for faithful servants to respond and contribute as a sign of love of God and love of neighbor.  John the Baptist in the gospel of Mathew tries to tell Jesus “Who am, I” to baptize Jesus with the words, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?”  Jesus’ response was “Allow it now”.  God’s call is not about our readiness but about his will calling us to “allow it now”. 

The Lord has spoken who formed Jesus as his servant from the womb of Mary.  We are born into this world from the womb of a woman but in the waters of baptism we are reborn in spirit from the womb of Mary to be our mother. 

John the Baptist recognizes Jesus as the man to come who “existed before me” and to testify “he is the Son of God.”  John’s testimony came from the spirit himself to reveal himself upon Jesus coming down “like a dove from heaven”.  The Spirit is the one who sent John to baptize with water in order to reveal himself upon Jesus and testify Jesus is the Son of God.  For this John came to be into this world, to grow and to become a servant of the Lord in life and in death. 

The story is also true for you and I, we are born to be and become in the image of God, to wait upon the call of the Lord and to respond to the call as his servant “Here am I, Lord.  Do with me according to your will.”  It is a call to surrender in order to be free, to be weak in order to be given power, to trust in order to see, to love in order to serve.  “Allow it now!” 

Tags
Shared this
Views

142 views


The Deacon

Accompanied by ..
Copyright by TagleStar 2016
Powered by TagleStar Website Development

bg-image

Homily

The Epiphany of the Lord

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Is. 60:1-6; Ps. 72:1-2, 7-8, 10-13; Eph. 3:2-3a, 5-6; Mt.2:1-12

The Epiphany of the Lord is the manifestation of Jesus to the world marked by the appearance of the three magi or as we often refer to them as the “three Kings or wise men”.  “On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me” the Epiphany of Jesus in all his humanity and divinity.  “On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me” the manifestation of the Christ for all the world to see.  Christmas is Jesus pouring out himself onto the world, through his graces, his answered prayers, his miracles of life and his everyday presence to us in spirit and in the Eucharist.  While the season of Christmas ends, Jesus offers us Christmas every day because he is the gift that keeps on giving. 

The question for us is “what is our gift to him this year?”  On the day we depart this world and judgment comes did we give ourselves to him with loving sacrifice?  Pope Benedict Emeritus died this week leaving us a legacy of his body of work as a theologian, scholar, priest and Father.  Some have already referred to him as a “doctor” of the church with a small “d” since that title has not been officially given.  In some ways it reminds us of the death of Pope John Paul II who quickly began being referred as a Saint.  Titles aside what where the last words of Pope Benedict as he died?  It was, “I love you, Jesus.”   This was his last gift to the Lord to testify his giving of himself, his love, his heart, his all.

We hear in the second reading “the stewardship of God’s grace…has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit”.  This Spirit we have received in baptism as priest, prophet and king to share as “coheirs, members of the same body” alleluia, alleluia!  It is a gift and we have a choice to make, to give Jesus the homage of thanksgiving by how we live our lives or to squander it by following the illusion of this world that denies God his rights to our lives.  We are called to be good stewards of his gifts, to multiply the good they are designed to produce, to reflect the love of Jesus in our souls and in our acts.  We are called to be Jesus in a world that does not recognize him. 

Today there are many in the image of Herod who speak of doing homage to the Lord calling themselves a follower of the faith but whose actions resemble the evil intent of Herod seeking to be their own king and authority above all.  It happens within the church and from without because ideology is their god.  Words like “conservative, liberal, or activist” are used not just in the political environment but within the church to oppose each other with different personal ideology.  Where is our homage to the one true God, to the one truth, to the Word made flesh that came to us over 2000 years ago to bring unity by declaring to Peter “you are the rock” and placed his trust in his Church?  History is a sign that Herod still lives with the desire to kill truth and unity seen in the Reformation, seen in secularism, seen in a culture of death and relativism. 

Ideology is about a system of self governing based on ideas and ideals of secularism where God and faith can only exist for the private life with no bearing on public governance.  Remembering Pope Benedict XVI’s view of our times he called it a “dictatorship of relativism”.  You have your God and I have mine or no god at all but regardless it has no place in governance.  This movement of relativism now feels empowered to dictate and to “cancel” anyone who disagrees with their ideology where there is no good, not truth beyond a personal one, no faith except in the power of oneself.  This is the dictatorship of relativism.  What now?

Pope Benedict is quoted, “To have Christian hope means to know about evil and yet to go to meet the future with confidence.”  Evil is from the evil one and it can be very deceptive, the wolf in sheep’s clothing is often the most dangerous because it prowls about the world seeking the ruin of souls quietly before revealing itself to claim to be the standard, normalized by a culture that hungers for “what’s in it for me?”.  The Epiphany of the Lord is the arrival of the ever-present future, Emmanuel, God is with us and we fear not to face this world with confidence. 

When someone dies, we reflect not only on the life of the person but also their legacy.  Pope Benedict wrote 66 books, 3 Encyclicals, 4 Exhortations, and innumerable homilies but this is not the essence of his legacy.  The essence of his legacy is how he lived his final words in his humility, his obedience, and his call to shepherd the people of God with his love of Christ.  Some look at legacy as a summary of accomplishments but Jesus looks at us as a sum total of our love, love of God and love of neighbor. 

So, if love had a scale of 1-10, one being “not very loving”, characterized by “what’s in it for me” and 10 being “divine love” reflective of “all for the glory of God”, where do we see our love rating?  If we are honest with ourselves, we will see that we have our work cut out for ourselves in our spiritual growth.  If we find it hard to judge ourselves then just ask someone you live with and don’t get offended if your rated lower than you expected.  We are all working to build the kingdom of God by one act of love at a time.  The Epiphany of the Lord is now how you and I manifest Christ to the world. 

How do we manifest Christ to the world?  It begins by receiving the Word through the gospel, through the body and blood of Christ and though the Spirit as a revelation of Christ himself.  It is fulfilled by the incarnation of the Word in our very being.  It is no longer the “I” that lives in me but the Epiphany of Christ that lives revealing his love, his mercy, his justice.  The celebration of the Epiphany of the Lord is Christ before me, Christ beside me and Christ within me. Amen. 

Tags
Shared this
Views

145 views


The Deacon

Accompanied by ..
Copyright by TagleStar 2016
Powered by TagleStar Website Development