1^st Sunday of Lent – Get away, Satan!

Posted on February 25, 2023February 25, 2023 by Deacon Joe

Gen. 2:7-9, 3:1-7; Ps. 51:3-6, 12-14, 17; Rom. 5:12-19; Mt.4:1-11

Get away, Satan! The world denies the existence of Satan and he rejoices because he is free to do his works of temptation, celebrate our sins and bring down the fall of humanity. The problem for Satan is that the victory has been won for humanity through Christ on the cross for those who claim the cross of salvation. Thus, Christ died for all but not all have received him. Satan still prowls about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Satan is the fallen angel from heaven whose domain is the world for now. That is why Jesus who came into the world had to face Satan and call out to him “Get away, Satan!”

Satan has lost but he can still bring misery when we open ourselves up to his snares and web of evil. In our struggles with temptation, with living the commandments of God do we recognize the evil one at work and call out to him, “Get away, Satan” or do we fall into the illusion that Satan is a myth, an invention to scare people, or even if he does exist, he is not in the world. Satan is in the world, and we see that in the bible when Jesus calls demons out of people, even his most chosen disciple Peter. Jesus turns away from Peter and says to him, “Get behind me, Satan! (Mt. 16:23, Mk 8:33) after Peter tried to rebuke Jesus for his teaching on the Passion to come.

Satan is the king of lies. He lied to the woman “you certainly will not die!” and death entered the world. He lied to Jesus “All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me” and Jesus replied, “Get away, Satan!” Satan lies to us daily with the temptation to sacrifice ourselves to the world and the world will reward us with power, fame, and riches, only to discover for the world we will be a fading memory soon to be forgotten. Satan makes the same false promise “all these I shall give you” in this earthly kingdom whose destiny is death. Life in the glory of God comes when we turn to Jesus and offer ourselves and all we do, and all our love to worship God alone. The more we dedicate ourselves to God the more our minds, hearts, and soul say, “Get away, Satan!”

The more we open ourselves to the temptation of the world the more fire from hell we encounter. What is this fire? It is the fire from the temptation to “be like gods” who define for themselves what is good and what is evil. “The woman saw that the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom” and ignored the command of God. The temptation of evil is that if it feels good do it and keep doing it only to discover the pleasure turns into the fire of pain as it dominates the flesh. The temptation pleasing to the eyes says if you like it take it, take the goods, the property, the person and objectify it turning a blessing into the fire of a curse. “Be like gods” gaining your own wisdom and creating your own reality until the day comes when the true reality is revealed by the fire of death.

Are we ready to risk eternity for the short lifespan of being like gods? Death is the product of sin so let us begin to enter into eternity by overcoming our sin. The source of falling into sin is Satan so overcoming our sin cannot be our doing alone but “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” says Philippians 4:13. The “one righteous act” of Jesus on the cross gives us “acquittal and life”. Have we made that commitment to holiness? This is the purpose of this Lenten journey to “be made righteous” by coming to the cross in obedience to the commandments and love of Jesus. It comes through prayer, penance and almsgiving. Pray for the strength to overcome our weakness, do penance for our sins, and receive mercy by the mercy of charity to others. This is the formula the church gives us “and the Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.”

We are to pray, “Be merciful, O Lord for we have sinned” but mercy requires commitment to avoid sin and seek holiness. Mercy is a call to change, to be transformed from sinful to holy, and to be transfigured by the light of Christ. If mercy we seek what is going to change in our lives this Lenten season and beyond. Jesus forty days in the desert, fasting and being tempted was in preparation for his commitment to his eternal call, to still suffer this day for your sins and mine. We are given an eternal call from God to serve him with all our heart, mind and soul and Lent is the test and training ground to discover are we ready to respond to the call.

The response to the call comes from our freedom to love, to obey, and to follow. We are no longer slaves unless we choose to enter into the slavery of sin. Freedom is not the choice to do as we please but to decide our way or God’s way. In freedom we recognize the limits God has commanded from us and by our choice we accept to live according to those limits. This choice by act of the free will reveals then to us the blessings, beauty, and joy of God’s way. Lent is this opportunity to walk the walk with Jesus, to pick up the cross and invite him to transform us. We can live the discipline of Lent or we can comply with the discipline of Lent. One is transformative and the other simply following a tradition for another season while nothing changes from within.

The goal of Lent is transformation. What are we willing to leave behind to come closer to God and be perfect by holy? Some may say why give up candy, food, alcohol, viewing television if at the end we plan to return to the same pleasures. To deny ourselves a pleasure has merit in gaining the discipline of the flesh. If we can begin to deny ourselves small things, we can build greater spiritual muscle to face greater challenges. So, when the day comes and the doctor says you have diabetes and need to change your food habits you know that yes you can do it. When you come to realize certain habits are not good for your mental, physical and spiritual good you can have the discipline to change for the better.

We were created body and soul and receive the breath of life from God and the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is good to begin with the discipline of the flesh to grow in our spiritual life. The discipline of the flesh opens up our soul to receive graces from God and ascend to the discipline of the spirit. The discipline of the spirit is rooted in prayer. Without the discipline of a prayer life God simply waits and watches our feeble efforts at life while the fruit of the spirit cannot mature to give greater bread from heaven. The bread of heaven is Jesus, and we are called to bring Jesus to others. We are called to bring “the gracious gift of the one man, Jesus Christ (to) overflow for the many”. It is not about where we’ve been but where God is leading us. Get away, Satan, we belong to God and the gates of hell belong to you.

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The Deacon Joe

7^th Sunday Ordinary Time – Be perfect, be holy!

Posted on February 21, 2023February 21, 2023 by Deacon Joe

Liv. 19:1-2, 17-18; Ps. 103:1-4, 8, 10, 12-13; 1 Cor. 3:16-23; Mt.5:38-48

Be perfect, be holy as our heavenly father is perfect and holy. This is our call in every state of life for if we have come and surrendered ourselves to him we become the temple of God and all our response to life good or evil, just or unjust is the love of a merciful God. Today, Jesus delivers the roadmap to “be perfect, be holy” which is to allow him to reside in us as his temple that he may manifest himself through us to the world.

We recall the once very popular letters “WWJD” meaning “what would Jesus do”. Today he is saying “if you love me do as I have revealed to you to do, do that!” Immediately we recognize if we are honest to ourselves our weakness to “do that!”. It also raises some important questions such as “are we to ignore evil?” or “are we to accept injustice?” or “or are we to let others take advantage of us?” What did Jesus do? In some situations, Jesus did this by remaining silent, in other situations he walked away, he also turned the tables on tax collectors, and in many situations, Jesus spoke up and delivered the truth. To be perfect, be holy is to discern the will of God and allow him to work through us to deliver God’s message of salvation.

The words “God works in mysterious ways” is to carry a missionary spirit knowing that in God there is no hate for he is love and his love is perfect and holy. The missionary spirit accepts that to be perfect be holy is going to constantly be tested by a world that lives for itself and rejects God. God works to turn the tables on the world through the sacrifice of his sons and daughters as he did in Jesus. In this world we may not know the good of our sacrifice but the day is coming when the reward will be revealed to us and the impact of our sacrifice.

There are many battles in the war against sin and not all are our calling but every day there is a battle before us in which we are being asked to be perfect in our response and bring God’s holiness into the moment by declaring our love of God by our love response to others. In this we will know God is with us until the end of the world.

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The Deacon Joe

6^th Sunday Ordinary Time – If you choose!

Posted on February 16, 2023February 16, 2023 by Deacon Joe

Sir. 15:15-20; Ps. 119:1-2, 4-5, 17-18, 33-34; 1 Cor. 2:6-10; Mt.5:17-37

“If you choose!” If you choose heaven is waiting but it comes with a call to obedience, not my will but your Lord. Created in the freedom to choose to obey or not, to choose good or evil, we either follow the law of God or choose to deny him. When we follow the law of the Lord, we discover true freedom from the fire of hell and come to the waters of salvation. The God of love “does not command to act unjustly” or “give a license to sin” thus we cannot come to God and say “the devil made me do it” as Adam and Eve tried to pass on the blame. It didn’t work for Adam and Eve and it won’t work for us. God “understands man’s every deed” meaning he knows our deepest motivation from the mind and heart that is leading us to commit our deeds by our choice. Where is the mercy of God? If you choose you can be free from sin and enter the kingdom of God.

Before we are tempted to ask as the disciples did “who then can enter the kingdom of God?” and judge that we are simply “all sinners and fall short of the glory of God” by our choice let us recall our God is a loving God full of mercy and forgiveness. The mercy of God sees beyond the act of sin to the source of sin. A misguided heart from childhood can undergo many trials in life that create a pattern and precondition to sin. Consider the child who undergoes abuse, how is he to learn to trust in a God after his trust in others was betrayed; or how is a poorly developed conscience that is formed to believe it is a “dog eat dog world” with winners and losers so whatever it takes to win is justified.

God does not abandon his own creation but will provide for that moment of conversion whereby if you choose mercy and redemption is given to the repentant thief, even at the hour of death. The choice from God’s love is ours, choose wisely for the hour is coming when we are put to the test. The test is to choose to “keep the commandments, they will save you.”

The obedience to God also comes through the church as Jesus declared “whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.” What a tremendous responsibility and trust he is placing on his disciples who are to be the foundation of his church. The takeaway for us is we cannot say, “I believe in God but not in his church”. This is not one of the choices. If we have a problem with the church then come and discover where does this teaching, doctrine, and church law has it’s basis otherwise we either get over it or we find ourselves stretching out hand out to the fire or the water.

Even less is the choice to say “I follow my conscience.” A conscience can be very well intentioned and very poorly informed. All we have to do is look to the world and how everyone feels entitled to their truth in choices of life, death, identity, and to deny the existence of sin. This hand is reaching for the fire.

If you choose to follow the law of the Lord then “your way is blameless” because Jesus Christ has taken up our sins on the cross. We are now followers of the way of truth, goodness, justice, and charity. In the waters of baptism, he comes through the Holy Spirit into the deepest recesses of our hearts and will give us wisdom to discern the will of God. We are to pray “Incline my heart according to your will, O God”, then go forth and trust in the Lord. The mind of humanity will never capture the fullness of the Lord but it can receive his love in the fullness of our capacity to love him. St. Thomas Aquinas after years as a priest, after thousands of pages of writing and deep thought had a vision of the Lord that caused him such an impact he never had another word written down. We don’t have to be the smartest mind. We need to be the humblest of creatures.

Having grown up with parents who only had a first-grade education their reading and writing was very limited and yet what filled them with the wisdom of God came “through the Spirit” baptized in the faith there was a maturity of faith by choosing to follow the law of the Lord. It gave them the gifts of the Spirit not only faith, hope and love but also the virtues of justice, prudence, strength and temperance. This is the blessing of the Spirit to enter into the deepest recesses of our heart and guide a well-formed conscience. They simply choose to follow the law of the Lord, keep it simple and the Spirit came with divine teaching to guide them on the way to salvation.

If you choose to follow in the way of the Lord the Spirit comes to light the way. We often do not speak of the Spirit enough. Our hearts center on God the Father and Jesus the Son and miss out on the power of the Spirit. It is the Spirit that “scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God”. If the Spirit scrutinizes everything then it reveals the whole truth of our being. It is given to us to be our advocate to the Father for it is the Spirit that is the indwelling gift within us and knows our very essence for what we choose to be and to act. We are to always pray “come Holy Spirit take possession of my heart and strengthen me by your grace”.

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Homily

5^th Sunday Ordinary Time – The just man!

Posted on February 3, 2023January 31, 2023 by Deacon Joe

Is. 58:7-10; Ps. 112:4-9; 1 Cor. 2:1-5; Mt.5:13-16

The just man is a light producing the fruit of good deeds that glorify our heavenly Father. The acts of a just man is from the light of Christ coming to serve the needs of the poor and our poverty is both corporal and spiritual. Born of both body and soul our bodies hunger to be nurtured and sustained but our soul hungers for a greater need, for the truth of God. Our justice comes from the Lord as we bring our gift of self to serve him in our spiritual and corporal works of mercy.

It is in giving that we receive the “vindication” before God who will guard our going and our coming. Ever wonder “does the Lord hear my prayer?” At death will we come before the Lord and hear those dreadful words, “who are you?” And he will say to us either “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did it to me” or “Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me”. What is our gift to the Lord this day? The just man is ready to see God coming in the stranger. Our gift to the Lord is how we respond to the messenger of God before us for we do not know when it may be an angel of God who is testing our love of him. Have you ever encountered an angel of God?

Years ago, in the 1980’s, when as a youth group sponsor, we took a group of youth to Garner State Park as a retreat experience. On the way back home, I was down to the last ten dollars for gas and no credit card for backup. I was worried with the gas left and ten dollars we would not make it home to the Rio Grande Valley, another 250 miles to go. We had stopped at the Alamo in San Antonio so the kids could tour. Looking for bathrooms my son and I walked to a plaza close by and found some bathrooms. As each of us went into a stall he said, “Dad, I found a penny.” Looking down at my feet I noticed an old wallet. When I opened it there was no identification and it was pretty much empty except for a hundred dollar bill. I said to my son, “I found a hundred dollars!” The place was empty so we left back to the group.

Returning to the group, I was sitting on the wall with the group and the area was packed with people walking the streets. I then notice an old man come out of the crowd. He was dressed in worn faded clothes, had a beard and his face was filled with wrinkles. He walked directly to me and just extended his hand without saying a word. At that moment I thought, God you answered my prayer but now you are asking for me to share your blessings with this man. I opened my wallet and gave him my ten dollars, thinking this is my tithe in return. The old man turned without a word and walked back into the crowd. I tied to keep my eye on him but he just seemed to vanish and my heart and soul felt like I had just encountered an angel of God. We arrived home safely but to this day the impression of that experience remains as a reminder of Hebrews 13:1 “Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect hospitality, for through it some have unknowingly entertained angels.”

The just man’s justice comes from love of God and love of neighbor. Self is regarded as an instrument of this love from who the light comes in darkness. The light brings us the Spirit and power to do marvelous deeds for the Lord and the Lord is ready to say “Here I am!” Turn to the Lord for his love and mercy endures forever and in weakness we shall see the light of life. It is then that we become the salt of the earth and a beacon of light for others.

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1^st Sunday of Lent – Get away, Satan!

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7^th Sunday Ordinary Time – Be perfect, be holy!

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6^th Sunday Ordinary Time – If you choose!

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5^th Sunday Ordinary Time – The just man!

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