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Homily

6th Sunday of Easter – The Advocate

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Acts 15:1-2, 22-29; Ps. 67:2-3, 5,6,8; Rev. 21:10-14, 22-23; Jn. 14:23-29

“The Advocate, the Holy Spirit…will teach you everything”.  The Advocate is here to remind us that the Word made flesh in Jesus is to incarnate in us as the temple of the Holy Spirit.  Just as in Revelation, John sees no temple in the holy city of Jerusalem “for its temple is the Lord God almighty and the Lamb” is Jesus.  The word incarnate in us gives us the peace of Jesus “not as the world gives” peace but through the Holy Spirit as he comes to dwell in us.  Do we invoke the Holy Spirit regularly to be our Advocate in prayer?  The Holy Spirit is the gift received at baptism through who we receive the graces and virtues to know and understand the will of God in our lives.

Until the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost the disciples were sheep still failing to understand all that Jesus was instructing them.  Then came the Advocate and they became as one in the Spirit guided to make the right decision as apostles and shepherds to the Gentiles and to all the followers to come after the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus.  Pontius Pilate asked Jesus “what is truth?”  Jesus says to his disciples at the Last Supper discourse “I am the way and the truth and the life.”  Jesus is the truth being revealed to us through the Advocate in our daily encounter with life.  If we were to consider Jesus is the truth of theology then the Holy Spirit is the applied theology as the Advocate that makes all thing work for the greater good. 

In the first reading there is a dilemma as the early church is still struggling with the applied theology and some leaders were calling upon the Gentiles to be circumcised following the Jewish tradition and law going as far as to say, “Unless you are circumcised according to the Mosaic practice, you cannot be saved.”  By what authority were these leaders relying on?  It was the historical authority and practices of the people of God.  Everything that Jesus instructed had not been written down and in what is written down Jesus says nothing about circumcision.  To have unity authority matters.  The final human authority rested on the apostles whom Jesus appointed and called Peter to be the “rock” to build his church.  The divine authority as spoken by the apostles and elders “It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and of us not to place on you any burden beyond these necessities”. 

What a great gift given to the apostles and to us to receive the Holy Spirit as the Advocate in discerning “doing what is right”.  We cannot lose sight in recognizing that as we all share in the gift of the Holy Spirit there remains the wisdom of God in providing the church an authority for the applied theology that we may all be one in faith and practice.  We cannot be a church unto ourselves and each simply believe they are doing what is their “right” when it goes against the church authority, something to reflect on.  Through the centuries many have tried and failed from Arianism, the belief that Jesus was not fully divine one with the Father to Luther’s Reformation and the revolt into Protestantism, the church has prevailed by remaining faithful to the authority and working of the Holy Spirit. 

In our times, Protestantism is failing because it continues to divide itself into more and more denominations and they break from each other because there is not one authority in the applied theology of what is “right”.  Still, we cannot cast stones within the Catholic church for we share a history of schisms when some choose to break from authority.  In the past it was Luther and today the church in Germany is at risk of doing the same with what it is calling the “synodal way” to reintroduce ideas that church authority has already addressed like female priesthood and acceptance of homosexuality.    

Have a dilemma pray to God the Father to receive his glory, pray to Jesus to be our lamp and light the way and pray to the Holy Spirit to reveal the word of truth and understanding for the answer we need to receive.  Try to remember a moment when faced with a dilemma where a difficult decision needed to be made and finding ourselves unsure how to discern the right or best decision.  Who do we turn to our parents, a spouse, our friends, or even a priest?  Do we take it to prayer and do we call upon the Advocate? 

One day as a young adolescent, I had a dilemma and needed to make what was to me a major decision at the time.  The dilemma was whether to play football or take band in school since at the time you could not take both.  I wanted both but it was not allowed and could not make the choice.  I asked my mother for guidance expecting her to help me decide.  I was quite surprised when she quickly and simply said, “You will have to decide.”  Did not see that coming.  It was not the response I expected and only later came to understand that I had to take ownership of the decision that would impact my life for the next several years and longer.  So, I prayed and asked God that I was making the right choice and was at peace with my decision.  This is the working of the Holy Spirit.  God was going to use whatever decision to help me grow as a person and in my faith.  God works through our free will when we call upon the Advocate to remain with us and lead us to the will of the Father. 

Are we ready to trust God with our life choices?  When we offer our decisions up to the Father for his glory, trust in Jesus to open the way for us, and call upon the Advocate to give us the wisdom to be at peace we are truly entering into the providential life of the Spirit.  In the Trinity God works for those who love him.  The Advocate is coming and is already here from the day of our baptism if we only turn to call upon the Holy Spirit and pray then we will hear his voice and know God is with us. 

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Homily

5th Sunday of Easter – Love one another!

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Acts 14:21-27; Ps. 145:8-13; Rev. 21:1-5a; Jn. 13:31-33a, 34-35

“Love one another as I have loved you.”  Just ponder the significance of this commandment.  We are more ready to say “yes, but” than simply “yes, Lord”.  “Jesus, you loved us unto death itself and yes but I am not perfect as you are perfect.”  Do we turn away from this commandment and settle for some other teaching like “just be good” or “no one is perfect so try your best, God knows”.  God does know and recognizes a lukewarm heart with no passion for living his love.  As he loved us, he died for us.  Who are we willing to die for?  Who are we willing to sacrifice for?  Let’s begin here for in sacrifice we die to ourselves for something outside of ourselves.  Unfortunately, we sacrifice more for the dollar that for the “dolor de amor” the pain of love. 

Jesus loves us that he suffered and died for us giving us his perfect love.  Love is not a movement of emotion it is a movement to act.  We are moved to action even knowing that the cost may be our very self.  We act out of the spirit of generosity, kindness, sacrifice, and commitment for the good of the other.  This is the love we receive from Jesus, the witness he left us to follow.  Jesus’ love is transformative and we are to transform others through our love as we are being transformed by his love for us.  When love works, it works for the good of the other and it results in an interior change in us.  We recognize, “It changed me!”  Are we a changed person because we dare to love one another as God loves us? 

If our love is not growing then it is gradually slipping away.  The world is very good at keeping us so busy with a movement to act not out of love but out of pride.  It is the false pride that worries more of our own reflection than reflecting the love of God for one another.  We can drive ourselves to burnout, working longer, doing more, expecting more from ourselves and others not out of love but out of pride.  Driven to succeed we fail to love.  As the song “Cats in the Cradle” says, “When are you coming home dad?  I don’t know when but we’ll get together then, you know we’ll have a good time then.”  Then never came!  We are left to regret the lack of love that makes life meaningful and the kingdom of God is still waiting for our love. 

We want our children to succeed but in ways that reflect success in the world not success to be the best God created them to be.  We are created to know, love, and serve God with the gifts he has given us.  This is greater than any title, position, or status in this world.  Growing in love with God fulfills the promise, “Behold, I make all things new” in us.  We are then both the same person and not the same person, changed by love.  Are we still holding on to the old self remembering how it use to be when we were younger trying to hold on to the past illusion of vanities?  Those good old days when we eat, drink, stay out late and indulged in our passions thinking we are “it”.  It is time to awaken from the slumber and recognize it is not about “me”, never was yet how long will we keep trying to make God in our image than to be transformed into his? 

Love is a transformation into the image of God.  Love is a reflection of God himself.  The highest form of expression of love is self-sacrifice coming to us in the sacrifice of Jesus to save us.  This is love described in Christianity as “agape” which represents unconditional love not just coming from God to us but being offered by us to God.  Is our love for God unconditional yet?  Each day we are to die more to ourselves to love God the greater and it comes when we love one another for God dwells in one another thus what we do to the least we do to God himself says the word of God.   

Jesus in his humanity demonstrated “philia” that is brotherly love to his disciples teaching them in all things. Jesus in his divinity demonstrated “agape” the unconditional love of his sacrifice for us on the cross.  By our baptism we enter into the divine life called to this unconditional agape love.  There are many good people in this world who share in brotherly love for others willing to offer support when they recognize a need for help and in this we have a common bond of humanity.  Even people of no faith can act out of the goodness of humanity but are we prepared to go beyond our humanity and enter into the divinity Christ opened up for us on the cross?  Are we willing to make it a sacrifice and grow in divine love?

We are born for “philautia” that is self-love but true self-love is a calling to love God in self by guarding ourselves from sin, taking care of our mind, body, and spirit from the temptations of the evil one.  We honor God beginning with how we guard ourselves, guard our dignity and respect our own life for we are his creation.  He has given us ourselves but what we do with ourselves is how we honor God as a gift of ourselves to him.  Temperance is an infused virtue to be in right balance with our physical, psychological, and spiritual needs.  In our mortality and as the temples of the Holy Spirit we are to govern ourselves first before we can be a true witness of God in our love for one another.  How we eat, sleep, work, play and pray all signs of philautia, a true self-love. 

We can then ascend to share with others in “philia” that is as brothers and sisters in Christ being in fellowship, sharing in the one faith and in the care of each other.  Many people will claim “I am a good person” meaning that is good enough.  That is not where God is calling us in the love for one another.  He is calling us to see in Jesus the higher good of divine love through his sacrifice.  Have we gone there yet?  The Lord is calling us to do his divine works in the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.  We are living in the age of mercy.  When there is great evil rising in the world, God comes with great mercy.  Jesus recognized that God was being glorified in him.  God desires to be glorified in us.  When we turn from our sin to God, he will glorify himself in us “at once” for is love is perfect.   

What are the Lord’s works that give him thanks?  We are the works of the Lord when we invite him that we may be instruments of his love.  He works through us to fulfill his works.  God dwells with us and works in us through the indwelling gift of the Holy Spirit.  He comes to us as we approach the table of the Lord and receive him in the Eucharist.  God’s word never ends, always at work, seeking souls to work through.  Will we receive him this day as he has loved us? 

 [JG1]And

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Homily

4th Sunday of Easter Voice of God; Happy Mother’s Day!

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Acts 13:14, 43-52; Ps. 100:1-2, 3, 5; Rev. 7:9, 14b-17; Jn. 10:27-30

The voice of God is always present, do we hear it?  Happy Mother’s Day to all the women who gave life to a child either by birth or by upbringing.  As moms you accepted to give of yourself so that a child could also receive the gift of love and hear the voice of God through you and all of God’s creation.  As mothers you also bring the love of our Blessed Mother Mary to her son in your faith to accept this awesome calling to serve God as moms.  Blessed are you for your fiat to serve as the voice of God to a child. 

The voice of God is to flow through Mothers both with the authority of God but also through the sensibilities of tenderness, patience, and mercy.  Ask a little child, “who’s the boss of you?”  They will most likely identify their mothers as being in charge.  Women hold onto your motherhood and don’t be deceived by the currents of politically correct culture who try to simply label women as “birthing persons” as if women are asexual and only different because they have a womb.  Women are much more than a body part; you are gifted to be mothers. 

“We are his people” who hear his voice says the Lord.  In times of distress, we may question God “Does God hear our prayers?”  The question for us however needs to be “Do we hear his voice?”  The voice of God is always present to us when we turn to the scriptures as the “gold standard” of knowledge and the “diamond” of wisdom.  The voice of God comes to us through his appointed ministers guided by the Holy Spirit to shepherd his people.  The voice of God comes to us in prayer when we become still in silence and wait upon the Lord. 

If we desire to hear the Lord, we are to open up the scriptures and spend time with the Lord reflecting on his word.  If we desire to hear the Lord, we come to receive the sacraments through the hands of the priesthood and the indwelling spirit will speak to us.  If we desire to hear the Lord, prayer is our daily constant in all its forms, the prayer of the Mass, the prayer before the blessed sacrament in adoration, the prayer of the family, and the silent prayer of the heart that calls out to God as we invite him into the moment of our day.  

We are to ask ourselves, “Is our desire to hear the Lord?”  A quick examination of conscience gives us the answer to the extent we study the scriptures, celebrate the sacraments and pray.  How long will we keep the Lord waiting for us to come to him, desire his presence, be in dialogue with him?  Last Sunday, Jesus asks Simon Peter “Do you love me?”.  We say we love God and yet how much is he a part of our day? 

We say we love our family but if we only see them in the morning before we all leave home and at night to check in on them then how strong is that love that will stand united when troubles come?  Time together is the bond of love that strengthens all relationships and God desires a relationship not simply an act of worship.  If today we hear his voice, it is because our love for the Lord brings us here to celebrate his presence in our life, our relationship with him.  Otherwise, we are simply living by tradition, a ritual of life on top of all the other rituals and habits that may have lost their meaning. 

The voice of the Lord makes our hearts burn within us as he speaks to us and opens the scriptures to us.  If you recall the movie “City Slickers” the three men went out to find that “one” thing in life they needed.  The one thing we need is to hear the voice of the Lord to give us peace, consolation, hope, mercy, all wrapped together in his love.  The voice of the Lord is the key that opens up the mystery of faith in tangible ways for us to follow.  This one thing makes everything else come to order in our priorities.  If we are not hearing the voice of the Lord then are we going in the wrong direction?  

The Lord comes to us in his body and blood in communion, in fellowship, and in sacrifice.  Today we see in the first reading Paul and Barnabas coming into the synagogue on the sabbath as Jews that those gathered may hear the voice of the Lord in the word of God revealed by the apostles.  This is their evangelization to bridge the old with the new.  Then on Sundays they gathered as believers to break bread as followers of Christ, that is as Christians.  The early church was attempting to bring about a reformation of the Jewish tradition and have Gentiles follow Jewish law but the more the Jews rejected and persecuted the Christians the more they recognized the voice of the Lord was making all things new for the Church and guided them in a new direction.  Not our will but thy will be done Lord. 

Paul and Barnabas were happy “they shook the dust from their feet in protest”, a sign they accepted it was not their fight to convert anyone.  They spoke “boldly” but only to urge them “to remain faithful to the grace of God.”  The lesson from Paul and Barnabas is that no one condemns us but those who reject the word of God “condemn yourselves as unworthy of eternal life”. 

Oh, how we desire to convert the world to the truth of the gospel but sometimes we struggle to convert our own household.  We have fallen away siblings, children, even parents.  It is not our fight it belongs to the Lord.  We are to pray for conversion to begin with us to witness to the truth by the testimony of how we live our lives and pray “Jesus I trust in you” for others to seek you and hear your voice.  The closer we get to holiness the greater the voice of God will resonate through us to others.  We worry and have anxiety about so many things and people but this only resonates fear and control to others and nobody is drawn to fear and control.  The voice of fear and control keeps the voice of God silent next to ours.  Let us resonate the voice of God through love and mercy. 

The world remains in a time of great distress in the voices of war, death, violence, and persecution in order to gain power over others.  We wash our robes white with the blood of the lamb.  This blood comes to us by remaining faithful to the voice of the Lord and in the body and blood of Christ who we join with in the suffering for our sins and those of this world.  Revelation does not say we will not have tears in this world but “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” and lead us “to springs of life-giving water.”  Marian apparitions call us to “pray for the conversion of sinners”.  The power of prayer is not our power but the power of the one sent to us.  In the name of Jesus, the apostles demonstrated his power to heal, bring about conversion and other miracles.

If today you hear his voice know that you belong to the Lord.  If we cannot hear his voice then we are to turn back to the path he provided for us to follow and we will know the “good shepherd” is with us and no one can take us out of his hands. 

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Homily

3rd Sunday of Easter – “Do you love me?”

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Acts 5:27-32, 40b-41; Ps. 30:2, 4, 5-6, 11-13; Rev. 5:11-14; Jn. 21:1-19

“Do you love me?” is the question we are asked this day from the Lord.  Today we recognize St. Joseph the Worker who without a spoken word in scripture never denied the Lord but in every act of love for the Lord, for Mary, and the child Jesus spoke loudly “I love the Lord” and followed where the Lord guided him.

Simon Peter is asked three times the same question perhaps to reconcile the three times Peter denied Jesus before his death.  The first time Simon Peter is asked Jesus says, “Do you love me more than these?”  Jesus had provided for Simon Peter a huge catch of fish after being out all night and not catching anything.  Jesus had already appeared to him and the other disciples twice commissioning them with the gift of the Holy Spirit to go out into the world and what does Jesus find them doing?  They return to what is their trade as fishermen.  On their own there is no catch of fish by returning to “these” worldly ways of life but with Jesus the catch is great if they do what he commands, “Follow me.” 

How do we respond to the question Jesus asks of us, “Do you love me?”  If we love him then we will follow him by living our lives in the service of the “sheep” we are given to feed and tend to and it begins in the home.  The food we are to provide is beyond the belly, it is the spiritual food of heaven coming to us in the word of God and in his body and blood of the Eucharist.  The home is the domestic church where it begins in the language of love by the way we speak, pray, and act as believers.  The home is where the sacraments of the church take root starting with Holy Matrimony to have Christ at the center of our faith and bring up our children in this sacramental journey not simply as a tradition but as the cornerstone of our faith.  Do we love him?  Live the sacramental life he gave us. 

Believers radiate the light of faith and draw others to them because this light offers hope, truth, goodness and beauty.  The word of God must live in us and be visible in the world.  This does not mean we go house to house knocking on doors to share our faith.  It is visible in our being that draws others to us.  This is the transformative power of the Holy Spirit that lives in us and allows Jesus to do the work through us.  To follow Jesus is to imitate his life, his way not our way.  Jesus reminds us in John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth and the life”. Do we love him?  Live the way of truth to holiness. 

We are to follow Jesus’ way not seek to have him follow our way.  In his way the path is open to us the way to follow.  In his truth we discover what is truth, the natural law and the law of holiness and avoid the pit of holding onto a false truth with the misconception that “my truth is the only truth that matters.”  In his life we can grow into the divine life otherwise we cannot grow beyond our mortality ending in the dust of death.  There is one book that comes second only to the bible in the number of copies sold around the world greater than all the classics we learn in grade school.  That book is “The Imitation of Jesus”.  Do we love him?  Imitate Jesus! 

Underlying any imitation of Jesus is a genuine love of him who gives us the graces in order to imitate him.  Jesus’ questioning of Simon Peter “Do you love me?” is the only way to begin to follow a life in Jesus.  As we begin to see Simon Peter and the other disciples imitating Jesus, that is doing the same miracles of healing and forgiving the sins of others in the name of Jesus people came to them with the same hope they had come to Jesus.  Baptized priest, prophet and king comes with the gift of the Holy Spirit to be Jesus to each other and to the whole world.  Does our family enjoy our presence, seek us out, and experience the love of Christ through us?  Jesus is calling us to “Feed my sheep” with the Lord’s presence coming through us if we love him.  Does our home reflect a domestic church where we have fellowship united as one family under God or do we find our home resembling more of a bus terminal where we simply pass through and grab a meal while we wait until our next outing?  If it is the latter then we need to examine who or what is it that we are following that is not centered on our calling to follow him. 

Do we love him in our interaction with the world?  I remember playing football in school and praying as a team before every game.  Today if a coach does any public act of prayer, they risk losing their job.  In the first reading the Sanhedrin ordered the apostles to stop speaking in the name of Jesus in the public square.  The Sanhedrin was the authority on the streets, the local priests with civil authority, while the Romans were more of the army to govern the territory.  The Sanhedrin could have you arrested and thrown into jail and they did to the apostles and early church Fathers. 

Silencing and cancelling Jesus is nothing new in our day, it has always been a part of our history.  The apostles rejoiced “that they had been found worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name.”  Our calling is not to proselytize the world but to love Jesus who we encounter in every man, woman and child and let the Holy Spirit be the advocate of conversion.   Be Jesus so that what people see they will want to ask and seek and if invited to share then share what we believe.   Do we love Jesus?   Speak his name with love in season and out of season, that is in church and out in our daily walk with life. 

The day is coming for all of us but for some it is already here, the day when we grow old.  Being young the world is open to us to “go where you want(ed)”.  As we age the options decrease as we set upon a path of commitment, sacrifice, and love.  Those we love we commit to and sacrifice for as an offering of ourselves for the greater good.  It includes our family, friends, maybe even those we work with but “do you love me?” asks Jesus.  Even nonbelievers will do the same for their family and friends. 

What separates us from the love of God is ourselves when we don’t respond to his love of us.  Being young there is not enough time for us and everything needed or demanded of us but being old time becomes all that is left for us to appreciate what God has done in our lives by our “yes” to him.  Being young it is all about ourselves like a high sugar drink or a caffeine rush to do more from our bucket list that has no bottom.  Aging like a good glass of wine we experience the love of the moment and the flavor of life with another and the best moments are when we invite him into the moment to reveal himself to us.   Breathe in the breath of Jesus and contemplate the wonder of his gift to us. 

Let us not be deceived that when we are young, we are living the best of years in the rush for more and at the end our years lose purpose and meaning.  To the contrary, when we are young it seems the search for meaning keeps evading us like the carrot on the stick but with age we grasp the truth in the one we love so that when we stretch out our hands and someone else will dress us and lead us even that will be a blessing because we never stopped saying, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” 

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Homily

2nd Sunday of Easter – Divine Mercy Sunday

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Acts 5:12-16; Ps. 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24; Rev. 1:911a, 12-13, 17-19; Jn. 20:19-31

Divine Mercy Sunday proclaims the Lord’s “mercy endures forever” open to all but received by those who share in the “distress, the kingdom, and the endurance we have in Jesus”.  We all like to receive gifts but if the gift comes with an expectation, then we become hesitant to receive the gift and fail to recognize the value of the gift.  We can understand why even something as important as the gift of mercy is not sought after because the expectation is that something in us is expected to change and we resist change of self more than perhaps anything else. 

The expectation of the Lord is that we share in the “distress, the kingdom, the endurance we have in Jesus”.   This “distress…kingdom, and endurance” is the call to come and follow the path of perfection through the love of God and neighbor, and the sacrifice of mercy to forgive and be forgiven and to persevere in our faith, hope and love.  Simply stated the gift of mercy is by sharing in the sacrifice of the Lord to live and die for each other.  It is a covenant of mercy to be merciful for the mercy we have received by passing it on in a world known more for its “dog eat dog” mentality than for the lion to lay next to the lamb.   

Do we share in this struggle for the sake of the kingdom or have we become habitual in religion showing up on Sundays and special celebrations and lost throughout the week in ourselves?  Before the Lord we proclaim we believe but outside of the Mass our lives are lived as St. Tomas doubting his presence is with us.  St. Tomas hesitancy to believe lives on in us when we fail to recognize the hand of God in our lives, when faith does not overcome the test of distress, and when we trust ourselves more than trust in God. 

The reflection of how we live our lives outside of Mass speaks louder of how we keep our baptismal promises.  It is not a heavy yoke but a joyful sacrifice of love for God.  The struggle for the kingdom is because evil remains in this world seeking to ruin our souls, tempting us to deny what we believe in practice and persecuting the faithful for rejecting the teaching norms of the world.   The gift of divine mercy is also the power of endurance that we will not be overcome by the world but overcome the world with mercy. 

We hear, see, and experience a world filled with evil, distress, and fear of persecution and the Lord is calling us to his mercy through repentance of our sins and acts of mercy.  Just this week there is an intent to remove “conscience objection on religious grounds” from medical/health practice intended to force health professionals to perform legal medical procedures such as abortion, euthanasia, body mutilation for gender change or risk losing their right to their practice of medicine and/or health care.  Mercy is not about “going along to get along” or “not rock the boat” as is commonly described.  Mercy is about giving testimony to the truth of the gospel by giving the warning of Jonah to Nineveh to repent while there is still time and proclaiming the mercy of God when we turn to him. 

Mercy is not for the weak in faith but for the courage to stand for what we believe for the good of the other even when we know we will be rejected as Jesus was rejected.  This is sharing in the distress for the kingdom with endurance. The power to endure comes from the word of Jesus “Peace be with you.”  It is his peace that lives in us that can look at the world not in fear but with the love of Christ is us.  

The resurrection of Jesus brings us God’s reconciliation of love.  Forgiveness takes on the dimension of mercy.  In forgiveness there is the cancelation of debt that “you owe me” but in mercy there is a reconciliation of love.  When a child does wrong and is corrected there is a need for justice often equal to the wrong done such as “because you hit your little sister you have to say you’re sorry (seek forgiveness) and be nice to her (justice) and give her a hug and tell her you love her (mercy)”.  Mercy is beyond forgiveness and restorative justice it is reconciliation of love.  Are we ready to love our enemies?  We pray “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive”.  Divine mercy is recalling the Lord’s call to forgive is to reconcile with love. 

The resurrection of Jesus brings about the great commissioning of now his apostles “Peace be with you.  As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”  The Father sent Jesus to bring his gift of mercy through forgiveness of sins and Jesus now commissions the apostles to “Receive the Holy Spirit.  Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”  This gift of mercy comes to us through the sacramental act of Reconciliation in our confession of sin to a priest to be absolved by the mercy of God.  Think of the penance a priest gives in the confessional and consider the alternative of restorative justice in purgatory, which would you desire most? Fear not the confessional but believe and be healed.  The mercy of God comes to us through the authority given to the priesthood to forgive sins that we may hear the words of absolution and believe. 

John was told by Jesus “Do not be afraid” and Jesus told Tomas “…do not be unbelieving, but believe”.  Are we a believing people unafraid to come to Jesus for mercy or simply following a religious cultural practice out of habit?  This Jesus who was once crucified and died is now “alive forever and ever…and hold(s) the keys to death and the netherworld.”  Let us believe in his divine mercy and be healed of our sins in confession.

Let us not be afraid of what we have seen and is happening in this world but be ready for “what will happen afterwards”.  Jesus is coming for us and he makes all things new. 

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Homily

Easter – The Resurrection of the Lord 

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Acts 10:34a, 37-43; Ps. 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23; Col. 3:1-4; Jn. 20:1-9

The Resurrection of the Lord is the confirmation of our faith in Jesus Christ.  Without the resurrection Jesus of Nazareth would have remained a historical figure that the world would have said grew into a mythological god.  The Resurrection of Jesus and his appearance to the disciples “who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead” and then to others is our confirmation to believe in him, believe his teaching, and believe he is the “one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead”.  The power to rise again to life after death with a resurrected body is our hope for the eternal life to come.  “This is the day the Lord has made” to believe in the resurrection of the dead and life everlasting “let us rejoice and be glad.” 

“On the first day of the week” after the Sabbath is Sunday, resurrection day and a new beginning for believers in Jesus who are about to discover in the resurrected Jesus a new call commissioning them with the authority to forgive sins, cast out demons, bring healing, feed and tend to the people, and keep holy the resurrection day with prayer and the breaking of the bread.  Sunday is the new beginning of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.  The early church in its infant state of development was not left alone to discover the “what’s next” for them.  Jesus appeared and instructed them until the day of his ascension and sent them the Holy Spirit to guide them in the faith and formation of this new evangelization with the promise to be with us until the end of time. 

The end of time is the end of this earthly pilgrimage before the eternal life that has no end but wait this is the first day of the week and Mary of Magdala discovers the empty tomb and in her humanity believes “They have taken the Lord from the tomb”.  Even Peter and the other disciple who ran faster to the tomb arrived and saw the empty tomb and “believed”.  Believed what?  Believed they had taken the Lord from the tomb “For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.”  Belief came to them in the appearance of the resurrected Christ.  As St. Tomas represents our humanity to doubt unless we can see and touch.  For us this day in the mystery of faith Christ is present in the visible sign of the Eucharist we can taste and see the invisible presence of his body and blood. 

This day marks the end of the Easter Triduum and a new beginning having celebrated Holy Thursday as the institution of the Eucharist, Good Friday as the passion of the Lord, Easter Vigil on Saturday as the coming of the light into the world in exultation and Easter Sunday the resurrection of the Lord and our new beginning in Christ to live, to love, and to serve what brings us into unity, goodness, beauty, and truth in the one resurrected Lord.  This Easter season we sing the praises of the Lord so that Christ may reign in us, and we may live in him in the surety of salvation. 

In the mystery of faith through our baptism we are “raised with Christ (to) seek what is above” in our daily walk with Jesus, in all we do, we do it for the Lord as an offering of ourselves “then you too will appear with him in glory.”  Alleluia!  Alleluia! 

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Homily

Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Lk. 19:28-40; Is. 50:4-7; Ps. 22:8-9, 17-20, 23-24; Phil. 2:6-11; Lk. 22:14—23:56  

The Lord’s Passion is a cry “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”  The Lord cries out the beginning of King David’s prayer, Psalm 22 as his dying prayer of an innocent person.  He is the fulfillment of this prophesy and in this psalm, we are given how his suffering will end in victory, “May your hearts enjoy life forever!”  and “All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord…that they may proclaim to a people yet unborn the deliverance you have brought.”  Today this prophesy of the Lord is fulfilled in our presence.  His death is our deliverance as we gather to enjoy life forever baptized in the Lord as we bend our knees to him.  The Lord’s Passion is a cry out from death to victory. 

This day we begin our procession outside of the temple of God for his victory over death “to give praise to God aloud and with joy” for being transformed into his temple with rejoicing hearts.  The temple he rebuilt in three days is his body and he has given us a body to be a temple of the Lord.  We should reflect as our Lenten journey comes to an end how the Lord has done great things for us transforming us into a body purified by grace to be a temple of the Lord.   His mighty deeds remain in the midst of a world that cries out “crucify him” with the evil of war, abortion, gender dysphoria, and the silencing and cancelling of God in the public square.   Satan is waging war on God’s people with the same temptations he lured Adam and Eve and used against Jesus in the desert leading us to sin.  Do our sins cry out “crucify him”?  Lent is our invitation to turn back from our sins to the path of righteousness. 

Even as the world tries to silence God the stones cry out for mercy, justice, peace, and love.  These stones have the word of God engraved not to stone people to death but to liberate them from sin.  These stones are to cornerstones of the church, the canon of scripture, the sacraments, the magisterium of the church, and the people of God.  Stony hearts not to strike Jesus with our sins but to strengthen our resolve and pass over the power of darkness.  We pray that we may not undergo the test but if it should come then in the name of Jesus, we will claim our victory. 

This day we have been given “a well-trained tongue” to speak the word of faith, hope and love to the weary from all that comes about from a culture of death.  When will the Lord answer us in our time of need?  The Lord answered us at the cross and we are not disgraced.  The discipline of Lent is that we may have a well-trained mind, body, and soul to carry our own cross and set our face like “flint” without fear of persecution.  The Lord took the form of a slave knowing that we may be taken as slaves in times of persecution by a world that seeks to cancel God denying us our freedom of religion to proclaim our faith, practice what we believe and “confess that Jesus Christ is Lord”.   

From the time of the early church and the Roman Empire to this day the church, that is the people of God have suffered the cross but a “well-trained tongue” gains the wisdom of how to respond to the enemy.  We respond with prayer, thanksgiving, and praise for the mighty things God is doing in us and through us even as we carry our cross and especially because we dared to lift the cross of Jesus as Simon of Cyrene did.  We dare to lift the cross of the Lord’s Passion for others who are suffering the horrors of war, poverty, homelessness, violence, disease, and death on the streets.  In memory of our Lord, we lift up the cross and follow him. 

In memory of the Lord’s Passion, we receive the bread and wine of the “new covenant’” of his body and blood broken and shed for us.  The Lord said to his disciples “I confer a kingdom on you”?  Where is this kingdom?  The kingdom comes through Jesus in the Eucharist and the Eucharist through the Church to fulfill “that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom”.  The kingdom is at hand and the kingdom is with us when we gather together to eat and drink of this covenant, we carry the kingdom with us.  This is our inheritance not to be hidden but to be multiplied. 

Scripture was fulfilled in Jesus not as an ending of all things prophesied but as the beginning of the kingdom so that the word made flesh may also be made flesh in us.  Are we the living word of God doing even greater things in his name?  It is too tempting to simply look upon Jesus on the cross as a love of his sacrifice and not be willing to enter into the sacrifice ourselves.  Lent is calling us to fasting, penance, and almsgiving as the way into the sacrifice of the Lord as flesh of his flesh.  We cannot say “Praise God” for his sacrifice and not accept the cross ourselves.   We must discern the will of God pray “may this cup pass me by but let it be done according to your will”.   May the Lord’s Passion make all things new in us when we enter into his Passion. 

When we celebrate the New Year, we traditionally make a New Year’s resolution.  Our resolutions are all about us, losing weight, exercising more, having more time to ourselves, meeting our pleasures.  When we begin Lent, we also make a resolution for the season but this time it is for us to make it all about him, our prayer, penance, and almsgiving for him.  A Lenten resolution should unite us more to Jesus, to each other, and to the Church.  Lent is to bring truth, goodness, unity, and beauty into our lives.  In making a sacrifice for him it is in giving that we receive the graces and blessings he desires to pour into us.  What we do for him he multiplies for us because God is love and his love is everlasting. 

The early Christians understood well the call of discipleship was a call to sacrifice, a risk of persecution, and the danger of death itself.  In the gospel of Luke, Jesus tells his disciples he sent them to proclaim the word without “a money bag or sack, or sandals…But now one who has a money bag should take it, and likewise a sack, and one who does not have a sword should sell his cloak and buy one.”  What is happening now?  Is Jesus calling his disciples to prepare for battle?  Yes, but not the battle to defend him against the Pharisees or Romans but to defend the faith in a spiritual battle for their souls beginning by the attack on the flesh.  The sword is the word of God we purchase with the blood of the lamb in the giving of ourselves to the one who has purchased us for himself. 

The battle is on for our souls and Jesus prayed “that your own faith may not fail” for “Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat”.  Satan having lost the war over death is left to battle only for souls and sift out the weak, the lukewarm, untrained for spiritual battle.  We are weak when we trust in ourselves before we come to trust in the Lord.  We are lukewarm when we compromise the teaching of the church for the teaching of the world choosing a culture of death over life.  Most of all we have an untrained soul for spiritual battle when we follow the minimalist path to be called Christian by title and not by the practice and discipline of the faith.  Satan does not know our thoughts but he clearly sees our actions and judges us and our vulnerabilities to know from where to attack. 

As Lent comes to an end and we enter into the Easter season we ask ourselves “am I prepared to die for him or to deny him?”  Have I entered into the Lord’s Passion this Lent and offered myself up to him that the works of our day may be multiplied by grace as a sacrifice of love?  Peter thought he was prepared to die for Jesus until the moment of truth revealed the reality of his soul.  Jesus said, “Pray that you may not undergo the test”.  Pray that the Father’s will be done in us.  Pray that the hour of darkness will Passover us and the light of Jesus will come to carry us up into his kingdom.  The Lord’s Passion is upon us. 

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Homily

5th Sunday of Lent – God’s upward calling

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Is. 43:16-21; Ps. 126:1-6; Phil. 3:8-14; Jn. 8:1-11        

“God’s upward calling, in Christ Jesus” brings us to the prize that lies ahead.  To St. Paul everything else he considered a “loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus”.  When we come to know Christ Jesus as our Lord and savior, we attain the prize and fulfill the first and greatest commandment to love God above all things.  When we respond to God’s upward calling the gates of heaven open up to us and the Lord does great things for us.             God’s upward calling is a call to repentance of our sins.  God desire’s not to “condemn you” but for us to sin no more.  God’s love is “gracious and merciful” and in Christ Jesus he is “doing something new” and wonderful, we have become his sons and daughters, partakers of the divine life.            

“Even now, says the Lord” regardless of the sins we have committed, regardless of the scars we carry from the past life, regardless of our weakness to fall back into our temptations his upward calling is “return to me with your whole heart”.  Here lies the dilemma, are we ready to give our whole heart to Jesus as St. Paul does that we may be taken “possession of by Christ Jesus”?  What is holding us back, is it fear of surrender, not being in control, not ready to give up our self-centeredness?   Our upward calling to come to Jesus is a rediscovery of who we were created to be, our true self in him.  Imagine the freedom of being our true self without fear of anything in this world.  Christ’s possession of us will transform us into a new creation to be holy as he is holy. 

In the gospel a woman is brought to Jesus to test him but instead Jesus turned it into the moment to test the Pharisees, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”  This was the “come to Jesus, moment” for them and for the woman. Though they were ready to condemn her no one threw a stone but walked away.   They turned away from Jesus but she remained that her sins may be forgiven.  Have we had our “come to Jesus” moment recognizing our own sinfulness and need for forgiveness? 

We are the Pharisees when we claim by our own doing our self-righteousness whether we follow the law of God or the law of our conscience we try to call ourselves upward in our own eyes by our merits.  How foolish!  We are to call on Jesus who opens up the path upward for us.  We are also the woman conscience of our own sinfulness but remaining in our lifestyle not ready to repent and convert through the mercy of God.  We need our “come to Jesus” moment and in his mercy it will come.  Let us hope we are ready to respond with our whole heart and ready to receive the gracious love of Christ and be filled with joy.  The joy of the great things the Lord has done for us.

The “great things” the Lord did for his people written by Isaiah is when he “opens a way in the sea and a path in the mighty waters” of the Red Sea to save his people from the “chariots and horsemen”.  The Lord can save us as he opens the way out of sin that we may “remember not the events of the past” but spring forth by the miracles of our life for the Lord is “doing something new” in us when we offer ourselves up in surrender to him.  We are the offering he desires, the self-sacrifice of love. Love defeats the enemy in all its faces be it fear, anxiety, trauma, sickness and even death has no power over us.  The Lord is doing great things for us this day to rescue us from the evil one and to make us a people his own.  This is what St. Paul lived for and died for, that Christ may take possession of him. 

Often, we may pray for a miracle and wonder if God hears us and/or why does he delay in answering our prayers.  Is this a test of faith or perseverance or could it be that we seek the miracle without the giving of ourselves as the offering of thanksgiving?    We want the waters to be opened up for us but are afraid to walk through the path in fear of being swallowed up by the mighty sea and the “Jesus’ moment” comes like a wave only to return to itself as an undercurrent without us being washed by the waters of salvation.  We failed to respond by making an offering ourselves first.  The good news is that Jesus keeps coming calling us upward as another wave to the shore of salvation to be cleansed of our sin.  

Today is the day to respond with all our heart, strength, and faith.  Today the Lord is doing something new in our lives when we come to receive him, his body and blood in the sacrament of the Mass.  You have heard it said by many of our Protestant separated brothers and sisters of having a “born again experience”.  It represents a moment of conversion in their lives.  Jesus says in John 3:5 “no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit”.  We are born again by the waters and coming of the Holy Spirit in baptism but each day is also a rebirth into the life of Christ. 

Jesus is doing something new in our lives as baptized children of the Lord.  Still there is a “come to Jesus” moment that can change one’s way of life called in Greek “metanoia”.  A metanoia moment can be considered a “born again experience”.  This is what we search for through our Lenten journey coming from our penitence for a spiritual conversion to free us from sin and renew us in spirit and truth.  Have we had a metanoia moment this Lent?    Pray for revelation to know, love, and see God more clearly and the God who knows our hearts will provide us a metanoia moment to strengthen our bond of love of God and neighbor. 

Let us pray, “I do believe in God in who I trust, help my unbelief, my weakness, my troubled heart and bring my soul to conversion by your upward calling my Lord Jesus Christ.” 

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Homily

4th Sunday of Lent – Taste and see!

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Josh. 5:9a, 10-13; Ps. 34:2-7; 2Cor. 5:17-21; Lk. 15:11-32

“Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.”  In Christ we are a “new creation; the old things have passed away” and we are called to be “ambassadors for Christ”. As baptized Christians we all have a calling to reconciliation.  From the ministry of the priesthood and the sacrament of reconciliation to the baptized faithful we carry a message from Christ “as if God were appealing through us”.  The message is to seek reconciliation with God and with each other so we may taste and see, through reconciliation the goodness of the Lord.  We are to pray for our enemies, bring peace into our homes, and spread the good news of reconciliation to our neighbors.

“Taste and see the goodness of the Lord” in our neighbor.  It is not that hard to love thy neighbor in the abstract until they move into our neighborhood living close enough, we hear their music outdoors, their dog poops in our yard, and their yard starts to look like a jungle.  We’re suppose to love “that”?  We’re suppose to love “them” not “that”.  We’re suppose to seek reconciliation to support the peace and the God of peace will work through us so we may taste and see how something negative can be transformed into the goodness of the Lord.  Ambassadors speak for the one they represent and we represent Christ first before it becomes about “us” and not all about us.

Our Protestant brothers and sisters are much more accustomed to asking others “are you a Christian?”  In asking it seeks to find common ground as a believer with what unites us before we ever look at what separates us.  Then as ambassadors for Christ they will refer to bible passages to share their faith and their love of God as an invite to join in a faith discussion.  If you have ever been asked the question what was the response?  Hopefully it was “yes, I am Catholic” and able to speak for the faith we carry as One, Catholic and Apostolic Church.  We are ambassadors of the Church and we can bring reconciliation to our separated brothers and sisters by the message we deliver of faith, hope, and love through an understanding of our Catholic faith with others.  We want others to taste and see the goodness of the Lord by spreading the faith in God under his church. 

One of the blessings out of media resources is Catholic programming in radio, television, podcasts, social media, internet, and even audio books.  Programs specifically targeting either a return to the Catholic church or the apologetics of the church in understanding our faith are having a great impact.  I hear callers say they are not Catholic but enjoy listening in or by “chance” they tuned in and began to listen.  Often it is Catholics who are being catechized further in understanding our faith through media.  Every week I post the Sunday homily to the webpage www.thedeacon.net to share the gospel message because it may be the word that someone needed to hear to “taste and see the goodness of the Lord”.   

Catholic media can be a bridge to spiritual direction.  The Church supports and believes in the value of a spiritual director but how many of us have a spiritual director?  I suspect not many and one reason is there are few available to provide that one-on-one guidance on a regular basis.  Pastors are generally “fire fighters” for crisis situations.  I met with a priest for spiritual direction recently and he informed me he would probably be leaving the diocese.  Given the reality that there are few priests available to meet with he suggested using Catholic reading material as a form of reflection, prayer, and guidance.  If you give me a book, I’m good and happy.  We need to grow deeper roots into our faith and media resources is one form of feeding the soul so we can have a well-informed conscience. 

Taste and see the healing power of God.  In the gospel, Jesus gives us a parable of the mercy of God in the Father and the fallen nature of humanity in the two sons.  The son who squanders his inheritance in a life of corruption “was dead” says his father, an indication of living in mortal sin.  By his return to his father, he “has come to life again”.  In our day we have many sons and daughters being lost in corruption of addictions of all types, alcohol, drugs, sex, money, even to power.  They live in the culture of death dependent on what is evil and separated by mortal sin rejecting the love of God.  Their inheritance of heaven has been lost but hope is the last to die for their return home through the mercy of God.  God’s love heals the broken, sick, and lost when our senses recognize only a power greater than us can heal us, lift us from the pit of sin, and restore us in right relationship with our God, our family, and our friends.

Taste and see in the “older son” the danger of the sin of self-righteousness.  When we judge ourselves better than others, more deserving, and entitled we fall into the pit of pride slowly eroding the image of God by the denial of all our venial sins creating separation not unity.  What is the “taste” the older son had?  It was a taste of “bitterness”, bitter that his brother had returned and was being welcomed back with love by his father.  The bitterness of pride creates a false sense of self-righteousness. 

The older son believed by his obedience he had earned his entitlement and was never even given “a young goat to feast” with his friends.  His error in judgment was in comparing himself to his brother and expecting a reward based on his merits.  Perhaps the older son may have even felt there was favoritism by the father if you recall the story of Cain and Abel.  The jealousy of Cain for his brother Abel caused him to shed the blood of his brother, just like the jealousy of Joseph’s brothers caused them to want to kill him.  Do we celebrate the success and blessings of others or do we taste and see with bitterness their joy? 

Let us compare ourself to no one else but if we are tempted to compare ourself then let us look to Jesus and ask ourself “are we living the life example and message he gave us?”  We take a tea cup and fill it to the top and we take a beer mug and fill it to the top, both are 100% full but each has a different capacity and purpose for what it is capable of holding.  Each of us is given a gift and possibly more than one gift that we can taste and see what good our gift can produce.  For example, my gift as a deacon is a great blessing but it is not the gift of priesthood.  So much more is expected from a priest that is not my calling.   Pray for our priests because they will give account of all the lives they served or failed to serve.  Let us be humble and thankful for what God is asking of us in our state of life for to who more is given more will be demanded.  We may only have one talent but one talent can move mountains when it comes from God. 

This Lent let us “taste and see the goodness of the Lord…in the land of the living” by faith and action to our calling.  Let us be among the living in the presence of God and pray for those among the dead in the darkness of sin.  This is our time to bring reconciliation into our lives by taking the first step towards mercy…that is to God himself in the act of penance for our sins. 

“Taste and see the goodness of the Lord” in the Holy Father’s consecration of Russia and the Ukraine and of all humanity this week on the day of “The Annunciation of the Lord” what miracles the Lord can bring to these nations and for all of us as we pray for peace and an end to war.  It is our calling to join in with our prayers asking God to reveal to us his goodness and by his mercy and love bring also our conversion.  Amen.

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Homily

3rd Sunday of Lent – “Here I am”

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Ex. 3:1-8a, 13-15; Ps. 103:1-4, 6-8, 11; 1Cor. 10:1-6, 10:12; Lk. 13:1-9

“Here I am” called by the great “I Am”.  God reveals himself to Moses as “I am the God of your fathers.”  God is “I am who am” the God of all creation.  God is in the spiritual rock and spiritual food the Israelites ate and drank from “and the rock was the Christ”.  Here I am this day coming to receive him as we eat and drink from the bread and wine of the Eucharist and the rock is the same Christ.  This Lent is our call to respond “Here I am” as we tend to the flock of our daily lives.  The place we stand in our church is holy ground and we give reverence not by removing our “sandals” but by removing our sins.  Lent is our call to say “Here I am ready to remove my sins with the help of your grace and the love of your kindness and mercy”. 

Sin is the “destroyer” as it destroyed a generation of Israelites in the desert.  It is far more common for our generation to identify as “being good” than as a sinner as the world defines what is “good”.  If we accept the world’s view of “good” then we are standing on shaky ground.     “Therefore, whoever thinks he is standing secure should take care not to fall” as St. Paul reminds us in his letter to the Corinthians. 

Lent is a time to put ourselves to the test by identifying with the discipline of Lent in the spiritual battle with the flesh.  Too often the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak and we fall back into our sins.  If we cannot succeed in the small battles of Lent, how will we survive the major attack from the destroyer?  “Here I am” to take on the battle of what I can control this Lent in order to build up the spiritual muscle for the battle of what I may not have control over in a world where the evil one “prowls about the world seeking the ruin of souls”. 

In overcoming ourselves in the spirit of Lent we become open to receive the graces to overcome the enemy.  In the gospel, Jesus reminds the people and us that tragedy is not a sign of our sins “By no means!” We are not greater sinners when tragedy comes our way and in the same manner, we are no less a sinner justified by our good fortune.  Tragedy is not a punishment from God.  Evil comes upon the just and unjust just as the rain fall upon all.  Our purpose is to be ready and repent of our sins so that we may not perish “as they (Galileans) did”.  Lent is our call to redemption by our confession as sinners and the mercy of God.  Here I am ready to repent and be saved! 

The Israelites were “baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea”.  We are baptized into Jesus by water and the Holy Spirit.  The Israelites wandered in the desert for forty years coming to the promise land a journey that only required eleven days to make but by their sins a generation died in the desert.  We are called not to wander but to carry the discipline of the cross for forty days to arrive at the promise land of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus that in Jesus we may never die but live for all eternity.  Here I am ready to believe and be saved!

St. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians warns his followers of the things that happened to the Israelites as examples “so that we might not desire evil things”.  What evil things do we desire that compare to the Israelites?  We desire to make of this world our God, our idolatry from the worship of power, profit, prestige.  We desire the power to control not only our lives but often the lives of others.  Try this Lenten exercise for one day, try to accept the freedom of will of another person, husband, wife, your adult child and realize just how much we desire control.  We desire the profit beyond our needs to have the pleasure of indulgence.  The indulgence of our bellies ready to supersize our orders; the indulgence of our eyes stuck to the screen of our phone, television, and computer; the indulgence of our passions because “its all about me” and make it all about the other.  We desire the prestige of being “first” not “least”, leader not servant, and proud not humble.  Here I am ready to be challenged in our desire for power, profit and prestige by learning to let go, abstain, and be among the least this Lent. 

Lent is call to enter into the passion of Christ, to take each day as a walk through the Stations of the Cross in all our struggles without the “grumble” of the Israelites and not perish.  We are to look on the parable of the fig tree as a sign of our own life.  We are the fig tree and God has planted us for a time on this earth to give fruit.  “Three years” for the fig tree represents our fullness of time on this earth and God is waiting to receive the fruit we were destined to produce.  If by our own freewill we seek another path and wander in our own desert, the day is coming when we will be on the receiving of the word “cut it down”. 

We have however our redeemer ready to cultivate the ground of our souls and fertilize it with the word of truth that we may repent and begin to produce the fruit for the purpose we came into this world.  The gardener of our souls and redeemer is Jesus Christ.  Lent is our renewal of this personal relationship with Jesus.  It is an invitation to say “Jesus, I trust in you” and let go and let God work to change our hearts, mind and will according to his love, a love that is everlasting.  Here I am ready to be cultivated by faith, hope, and love and we shall be saved.

“The Lord is kind and merciful…slow to anger and abounding in kindness.”  We look at the world and see darkness, war, violence, and death.  This is not from God but from the sin within the heart of humanity.  It is our self-destruction while the Lord suffers the pain of our sinfulness.  We pray for a miracle to end this madness but evil has entered into the world to do its damage.  Once God is removed from our institutions the structure of society will collapse from within.  The last institution to fall is the family and it begins by removing the “father” from the home through separation, divorce or even by conception without a father. 

Recently a caller on Catholic radio asked the host why do Catholics call a priest “Father” if the bible says to call no one “Father” except our heavenly Father.  The host asked “Do you sin with your eyes?”  She responded “yes”.  He then asked “have you plucked your eyes out since the bible says if you sin with your eyes pluck them out?”  She responded “Ok, I get it!” and went on to imply that the church will turn things into however it chooses and hung up.  The host by his response implied not everything said in scripture is taken literally. 

In reflecting on the caller’s question and the response by the host two thoughts came to me.  The first was that if our eyes sin then we are to “pluck them out” by removing the sin from our eyes and receive the vision of God through the eyes of holiness.  Sin is what we “pluck out, cut off, take out” of our lives.  The second was the understanding that we call a priest “Father” from the authority given by Jesus to Peter and the church to be in the person of Christ as Father to his people.  As “Father” a priest is given the authority of our Father in heaven to provide us the sacraments that we may come to receive forgiveness, healing, virtues and graces to live holy lives and resist the temptation to sin.  “Father” implies the authority of God to shepherd his people. 

In the same way we also have by our calling as fathers in the home a divine purpose with authority to be Fathers of God’s love just as women have their divine purpose to be Mothers of God’s love each a complement of the other.  If we surrender our children to be “children of the state” by allowing other institutions to determine what is right and wrong, when should the right to life begin and end, who determines sexual identity God or self then the last standing hope for truth will end and confusion, chaos, and tyranny will prevail.  Let us not surrender our God given authority to proclaim the word of God with freedom, to teach our children the truth of our faith, and to be witnesses to our faith when challenged to deny or be cancelled by the voices of anger and hate.  Here I am Lord ready to profess what we believe and to proclaim it that is to claim it by our actions. 

Here I am Lord, ready to be a warrior in the battle for truth, goodness, beauty, and unity in the one body of Christ.  Here I am ready to carry the cross that comes from the sacrificial gift of love of God, neighbor, and self.  Here I am come to do your will.  Amen.

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