II Sunday of Lent

Posted on March 16, 2019March 16, 2019 by Deacon Joe

Gn. 15: 5-12, 17, 18; Ps. 27: 1, 7-9, 13, 14; Phil. 3:17-4:1; Lk. 9: 28b-36

God is pure spirit, a voice in the cloud of unknowing Peter, John, and James find themselves frightened. The voice of God in the cloud is the proclamation of today, “This is my chosen Son; listen to him”. Today’s gospel reading is the Transfiguration of the Lord. What does this mean? Is it simply the outer appearance of his face changing and his clothes becoming “dazzling white” or is it a manifestation of something more profound? Since we believe all scripture is a revelation of God, his Son and the Spirit we can discern meaning and truth about Jesus beginning with Abram.

Abram prefigured Jesus in “righteousness” obedient to the Lord in offering the sacrifice God requested. Abram received the covenant with descendants beyond the count of the stars. The transfiguration is the new sign of Jesus the righteous one whose kingdom will reign forever. With Jesus appear Moses as a sign of obedience to the law and Elijah as a sign of fulfilling prophesies. What do they speak of? They “spoke of his exodus.”

The exodus is the coming of the Lord’s passion, death and ascension. This is the sacrifice of himself in atonement for our sins in which he becomes fulfillment of the covenant promise. Christians, followers of Christ are the descendants of the new covenant beyond the number of stars we can count and “our citizenship is in heaven.” We too must experience our “exodus” from this world and be transformed by our conversion into the image of Christ.

In the transfiguration is the glorified body to come for those who “stand firm in the Lord”. We see the victory over death in Moses and Elijah already in their glorified state. We receive the promise and he will “bring all things into subjection to himself.” By the power of Jesus we share in his glory but first we must learn the lesson of Jonah in Nineveh. “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed.” So they repented, fasted, and they all prayed. Lent is our 40 days to repent, fast, and pray for conversion. It is a reminder sin has consequences. Forgiveness comes with conversion and God is merciful. “A heart contrite and humbled, O God you will not spurn.”

Our God is a God of mercy and justice. In mercy God grants us another chance at redemption if we turn away from our sinful ways and do what is right. Our sins are not who we were created to be but we own them by our decisions. We also have the opportunity to receive God’s grace if we seek forgiveness we will be cleansed and live. In justice we are responsible for our choices and if we turn away from God and do evil even our good works will not save us, we shall die.

For those who say “once saved always saved” read Ez. 18: 21-28 and receive the word of God. God does not “derive pleasure from the death of the wicked…but rather rejoice when he turns from his evil way that he may live”. Also true is “a virtuous man turns from the path of virtue to do evil…he has broken faith and committed sin…because of this, he shall die.” Salvation is not cheap grace, it is sacrificial love.

Our lent is our time to focus on our conversion of heart and lasting change. It transcends beyond obedience to the law of God. It discerns the intent of our hearts in our behavior seeking true love, sacrificial love. This is change that liberates us from our temptations, sinful behavior, self-defeating thoughts, poor judgment, and weakness. Turn to the power of the name that sets us free.

In the name of Jesus we claim our victory our sin, fear, and evil that “prowls around the world seeking the ruins of souls” damaging our relationships and wounding our souls. This does not have to be if we but “Listen to him!” Jesus is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets and he brings us the good news of eternal life. We were born to live “Listen to him!” I believe, I trust, I pray, and I go forth not in fear but in faith.

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Homily

Ash Wednesday

Posted on March 6, 2019March 6, 2019 by Deacon Joe

Jl. 2: 12-18; Ps. 51: 3-6ab, 14, 17; 2 Cor. 5:20-6:2; Mt 6: 1-6, 16-18

“In an acceptable time I heard you, and on the day of salvation I helped you.” This is the acceptable time for a soul to face the sin of their life. If we deny our sin we reject God’s mercy. If we say we have no sin what need is there for mercy from the cross. Jesus died for sinners. Denying sin is another fall from grace into the trap of the evil one.

The evil one wants us to believe in the relative truth of each person. The lie of the evil one is what is “right and just” is self-defined. If each person identifies their truth then there is no sin, no need for forgiveness and no redemption from God. We must recall sin is the disobedience of God’s law and this includes the commandments and natural law of his creation. We recognize a supreme authority as creator and our dependence as creation to follow for the greater good in the law of God’s love.

Sin comes from our separation from God seeking our self-centric desires. It is based on our awareness of wrong-doing, our consent and disregard of God’s law. This is the age of mercy and the day of salvation. What action can we take as a sign of our return to Him? Often Lent represents a denial of self, in other words “what are you giving up this Lent?” Consider what is the “act” that fosters sin in our life? Often it is the act of indulgence from a lack of moderation of the human passion and desires. Other times the act itself is sinful by denying God, committing murder, adultery, stealing or other acts against humanity.

The first step to reconciliation is to target the “act” that separates us from the love of God. This “act” is a step in purging ourselves that leads to purification of spirit and soul. It is a first step in awakening us to our mortality, dying to self. Fasting is limiting our self in our intake while abstinence is the spirit of “giving up something”. We are asked to abstain from meat (and meat products) on Ash Wednesday and Fridays of Lent including Good Friday. This is our “penitential” sacrifice. In this act we acknowledge our weakness and need for God who is the bread of life.

There is a second step and it is what fosters God’s grace. The Gospel reminds us to give alms, meaning serve the poor in their needs with acts of charity. It calls us to a deeper prayer life spending time with God alone. These two are acts fulfill the commandments of love of God and neighbor. In this we serve the call to build God’s kingdom.

By our baptism we are children of the law and receive our calling. It can be neglected without the discipline to integrate our daily routine as a gift to God for his greater glory. All that we are and all that we have is a blessing from God. Let us offer it up this Lent to God with simple acts of awareness in our day and witness the miracle of multiplication of graces that come by it. Feast on God, “He who comes to me will never be hungry; he who believes in me will never thirst” (Jn. 6:35)

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Homily

Seventh Sunday Ordinary Time

Posted on February 23, 2019February 21, 2019 by Deacon Joe

1 Sm 26: 2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23; Ps. 103: 1-4, 8,10, 12-13; 1 Cor. 15: 45-49; Lk. 6: 27-38

“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful”. Mercy is love and love is God. “We have borne the image of the earthly one (first man, Adam, became a living being) we shall also bear the image of the heavenly one”. The image of the heavenly one is borne in the earthly life by the fruits of their love. The first man was tempted into taking the fruit to be like God and received mercy and judgment in the same act of fallen nature. Mercy and love from the “last Adam” Jesus Christ redeems us with the image of the “life giving spirit”. The fall of the first Adam came from disobedience. The second call for obedience is for mercy. “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful”.

“God has delivered your enemy into your grasp this day” David was told. It was the moment of decision for David. Saul had been tracking him down with the intent of killing David. David was filled with the life giving spirit to proclaim, “Do not harm him, for who can lay hands on the Lord’s anointed and remain unpunished?” Had David chosen to kill Saul at the moment he had the opportunity it is possible the other soldiers would have woken and obtained revenge. The “deep slumber” the soldiers were in as “a good measure” of a gift in return for the mercy of David. David’s mercy leads to Saul’s conversion of heart and a new brotherhood. David’s mercy brings about the future overflowing gifts inheriting the earthly kingdom of God.

We ask ourselves do we have that trust in God to love our enemies and do good to those who hate us or even bless those who curse us? Perhaps we may pray for those who mistreat us but how far does our mercy extend? We live in times where the vitriol in the public square calls for “hate” and “death”. It is hate to those who stand for values that are in opposition of one societal group over another. It calls for death of any ideology that is not in line with the secular views intent to leave God out of the public square. As Christians we are not outside the public square, we are members who participate and contribute to its growth. Christianity is lived in the public square.

Those who reject us find fault in Christianity for taking a stand on moral principles, values and God’s commandments. The charge is we are not inclusive, not tolerant, and not open to alternative views or life-styles. Ultimately, we are condemned as hypocrites for not “loving”. It is not enough to love the sinner if we cannot accept the sin. Who are we to judge is the claim? The image of Christ brought condemnation to the sin not the sinner. The image of Christ brought the call to conversion for the sinner not tolerance for the sin. The image of Christ brought the call to a unity of truth not inclusiveness to a diversity of truth. In the end we believe in one Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.

In times of hate, death, cursing and the festering of evil it can tempt a good soul to fall once again into “an eye for an eye” judgment. If this remains the standard then “For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you” and we bring judgment upon ourselves. This is the last attempt of the evil one to grab souls for itself before to final coming of Christ, the Parousia. Our Father is merciful, may this be our prayer, “Lord in your mercy give me the grace to be merciful”.

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The Deacon Joe

Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Posted on February 17, 2019February 17, 2019 by Deacon Joe

Jer. 17: 5-8; Ps. 1: 1-4, 6; 1Cor. 15: 12, 16-20; Lk. 6: 17, 20-26

Freedom of religion is not free. Recently in a number of judicial appointments we have witnessed Congress take the adversarial position to appointees who profess to be Catholic. In one case the appointee’s history as a member of a group in support of the Catholic Church was compared to a secret suspicious cult. The group he belonged to was the Knights of Columbus with a long history of supporting many worthy causes of charity locally, nationally, and internationally for the Catholic Church. Woe to you from the secular view who dare to represent causes that pose an existential threat to the mainstream view of the times.

The struggle of today is for the soul of the person to put their “trusts in human beings”. Humans claim the right to choose the appropriate social norms and the freedom to be ever changing. “Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord” who is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. This is the “tree planted beside the waters…in the year of drought it shows no distress but still bears fruit.”

The seed besides restful waters is given at the waters of baptism. The tree is to grow in the image of God always fruitful. The fruit comes in a variety of types, feeding the hungry, sheltering the poor, giving alms, visiting the sick and many more endless ways of caring for others. It also comes when we stand as a witness for truth knowing “people will hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man” we rejoice because it is the fruit of the “Blessed”.

To be in this world is a journey constantly wandering though the stages of life in search of itself. “Woe to you who are rich” seeking “strength in the flesh” and “all speak well of you”. This is the fruit that poisons the soul to reject the “I Am” for an identity of slavery in the image of this world. I am created in the image of God where my identity and freedom lie. Woe to you who choose slavery to the “politically correct” norms for you “laugh now, for you will grieve and weep” when they betray you left behind to “experience an empty earth”.

The human search of itself is discovered in the one raised from the dead. The reward of the “Blessed” is the joy of eternal life in Christ. Often the focus of faith in some believers is limited to the nirvana of an earthly kingdom of social justice and an elimination of all disparities. “If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all.” Christ came and gave witness “the kingdom of God is at hand”. It is now with us and does not belong to this world. It resides in the souls of his children to live out the kingdom as brothers and sisters of the King who is raised from the dead.

“Blessed are they who hope in the Lord…the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep”. Many have “fallen” into the “weeping of an empty earth…hungry as salt”. It is seen in actions that reflect faith in the flesh “for this life only.” If your soul is for this life only, “your faith is vain; you are still in your sins.” Seek first the kingdom of the resurrected Christ. Where will you spend eternity?

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Homily

Friday 4th Week of Ordinary Time

Posted on February 8, 2019February 8, 2019 by Deacon Joe

Heb. 13: 1-8; Mk. 6: 14-29

“It is John whom I beheaded. He has been raised up”. With these words King Herod demonstrates he was a man of faith, misguided believer but a man of faith. Herod was ministered to by John and “he liked to listen to him” though he “feared John, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man”. The people were saying of Jesus he is John, he is Elijah, or a prophet. Herod understood in his heart the sin he had committed. He confessed it by claiming it was John whom he beheaded.

Herod was misguided because he had not had an encounter with Jesus yet he believed him to be John. He believed “He has been raised up” from the dead. Perhaps John preached to him of the resurrection of the dead and the one to come. This lead him to make such a bold statement. Herod “feared John” a wanderer in the desert who had no army, no wealth, no recognition only the power of the “word”. The word from John against the sin of Herod marrying his brother’s wife was understood as a violation of the “law” of God.

Today the word speaks to our hearts not only from the gospel word but from our baptism through the Holy Spirit. This word is planted into our hearts. The word resonates when we sin against the law of God. The moral conscience stands guard and watchful of our actions. It is protected by an army of virtues given by the Holy Spirit. From our baptism we not only receive faith, hope, and love but also fortitude, justice, prudence, and temperance.

It is one thing to know what is right and another to have the fortitude to stand for what is right. This is a world that claims to have the entitlement to dictate what is right. Do we have the courage to be a voice in the desert. It is one thing to believe in justice and another to act justly when confronted with injustice. It is one thing to make the best judgement under the circumstances and another to be prudent in God’s right judgment. It is one thing to seek right balance in our life and another to live in temperance with God’s call this day being the best God created us to be.

The word now resides within but not for all. Like Herod some are drawn only from the outside. They hear the word and are “very much perplexed” but have not had an encounter with the word made flesh, Jesus. They have listened to many prophets, philosophers, ideologist and come away with their own eclectic views of the world. Some misguided by their love for one person have called for the head of another. Others for the pride of their word have sworn to deliver the head of the innocent.

Today we are reminded “not to neglect hospitality, for through it some have unknowingly entertained angels.” We are not alone in the kingdom of God. The angels of God are with us and they come to guide us to God’s perfection in an encounter with the suffering, imprisoned, and the stranger. The words, “Let your life be free from love of money” can be extended to love of any attachment that separates us from the love of God. We become attached to money, alcohol, drugs, television, social media, the internet and even food or any number of bad habits. The number one attachment we all suffer from today is our phone and our youth are beginning early in life conditioned to this lifestyle.

By trying to stay connected to the world we become disconnected to the present moment around us and miss the presence of Christ with us. We must learn to step aside from the bondage we create for ourselves and trust “The Lord is my helper, and I will not be afraid.” Christ is the one constant in this world. He will not abandon or forsake us when we turn back to him. Are we ready to encounter Jesus or will we fear a righteous and holy man? We must first listen “for him” before we can listen to him and then follow.

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Homily The Deacon Joe

Fourth Week in Ordinary Time “God’s way”

Posted on February 1, 2019February 4, 2019 by Deacon Joe

Jer. 1:4-5, 17-19; Ps. 71: 1-6, 15, 17; 1 Cor. 12: 31 – 13:13; Lk. 4: 21-30

God’s way is a “still more excellent way.” God’s way is not the way of a fallen nature but one that offers the gift of God himself, the gift of love. Jesus on the cross came to show us the more excellent way that lasts for an eternity, God’s way. God’s way is not simply from the womb to the tomb but “before I formed you in the womb I knew you”. God fashioned who he is sending into this world with a divine purpose and “before you were born I dedicated you”. We are not just a unique creation of our DNA we are an inspired creation of the divine creator. The “Right to choose” belongs to God who dedicated us to come into this world for a greater purpose.

“The Right to choose” in a fallen nature separates oneself from the divine purpose for the personal freedom to choose sin, death, and destruction. The battle for life of the unborn child is once again making news with recent developments of laws that allow late term abortions with the option now to decide after birth the fate of a child. The wolf in sheep’s clothing covers itself with the veil of “compassion” while the evil within is revealed as “infanticide”. In abortion not only does the infant die but what is revealed in the soul of the woman is that with the death of the child a part of her dies with it. It is a slow death, the death of love within of our own humanity. We become objectified not humanized, less compassionate and merciful, and more restless and isolated separated from the peace only God can offer.

God’s way is “a still more excellent way”, the way of forgiveness, redemption, and salvation. God’s way is the way back to freedom from the bondage of sin, death, and destruction. God is love and love is patient and kind, not jealous but generous, not pompous or rude but humble and meek, not seeking its own interests but the good of other from the womb to the tomb. Love does not brood over injury but is merciful in forgiveness of self and others bearing the wounds of our sins and the injury of others and never fails to trust in the divine purpose often veiled but never lost. Who can be God? Jesus came to show us the more excellent way and lead us into his image.

Our nature fails us but God’s grace is greater than our nature for “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Phil. 4:13) In humility and meekness we surrender to Him to receive his grace and his grace works to fulfill our dedicated purpose. In today’s gospel, Jesus returns to “his native place” and the expectation is that if he is the messiah he should do for his people what he has done for other people. The Jewish people looked to a messiah who would elevate his people above others in a new kingdom. To perform great wonders for Gentiles raised jealousy, seeking its own interests and quick-tempered reactions. He reminded them Elijah was sent to the widow in the land of Sidon not the widows in Israel and Elisha cured Naaman the Syrian a Gentile among the many lepers. How could this be a messiah coming to save Gentiles? This did not fit into the vision of a Jewish messiah and was worthy of death, driving him onto “the brow of the hill” at the edge of the cliff.

Having visited Nazareth in the Holy Land and stood at the brow of the cliff of rock formation one can sense the anger and threat Jesus created when his compassion was revealed as a universal love. He revealed a God of all the people, Jews and Gentiles, children and widows, sinners and righteous with unbounded love. This God was something to rejoice in but the fallen nature of humanity rejected this love in search of a God of death, destruction, and division.

When we speak for life from the womb to the tomb there is an anger brewing that wishes to chase us away to the brow of the cliff to hurl us down headlong and silence our voices. If God is with us who can be against us? Stand firm and pass through their midst. Today we are fulfilling the scripture passage “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me (us), because he has anointed me (us) to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me (us) to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.” God’s way is to be our way and we are now the ones sent. Amen.

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Homily The Deacon Joe

Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul

Posted on January 25, 2019January 25, 2019 by Deacon Joe

Acts 22: 3-16; Ps. 117: 1bc, 2; Mk. 16: 15-18

St. Paul as Saul persecuted “this way” of Christianity to death until his conversion. Saul did not act out of his own power alone. He exercised legitimate power with the “letters” of authority from the high priest in a culture of death. He had coercive power to bind in chains all followers of the “way”. Saul had expert power “strictly educated in the ancestral law” and he had referent power as a Jew “zealous for God”. By all means he could claim righteousness in his persecution of the “way” of Christianity except he was unrighteous in error before the eyes of God.

In Saul’s conversion, Ananias reveals to him the “God of our ancestors”. This is the same God in who he believed to be acting righteously who now allowed Saul “to see the Righteous One and to hear the sound of his voice”. Saul has a complete conversion to be Paul a witness and Apostle. Paul’s new legitimate power comes from Jesus to be a witness of what he has seen and heard. Paul now in baptism has coercive power to bind in chains the spirit of demons. Paul’s expert power now is given through the power of the Holy Spirit. He also had referent power through his encounter with Jesus the Nazorean to “know his will” as the one designated as Apostle. There is power in the name of Jesus and we receive the inheritance of this power in our baptism. Saul’s conversion to Paul was a conversion from a culture of death to a culture of life.

This past week we had the annual March for Life and the Women’s March in D.C. Both stand before the righteousness of their beliefs and in opposition from each other but there can only be one righteous truth before God. One stands for life from conception to death for all the other for defense of women’s right to choose life or death for the unborn. One accepts the sacrifice of self for other and the other promotes the sacrifice of other for self. One represents actions made in the image of God while the other represents actions made in the original sin of humanity. One fulfills the ancestral law of commandment to love God and neighbor while the other fulfills the ancestral law of relativity governed by gods made by humanity. If numbers reflect any significance in history the March for Life began as a small demonstration in 1973 and has grown to hundreds of thousands. The Women’s March began in in 2017 with hundreds of thousands and has quickly dropped in attendance to the tens of thousands. The battle for rights is a war on culture and the dignity of human life as “one nation under God with liberty and justice for ALL”.

The “Way” is not about us and our righteousness. It is about Jesus who we persecute when we make it about us. Saul’s blindness made it about himself in his zealousness but God’s mercy made him blind by the light of truth to see his sin and bring him to conversion. Where does our righteousness come from “my way” or the “way” Jesus left us?

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The Deacon Joe

Friday 1st Week of Ordinary Time 2019

Posted on January 24, 2019January 25, 2019 by Deacon Joe

Heb. 4: 1-5, 11; Mk. 2: 10-12

Jesus delivers “The Works”. “Do not forget the works of the Lord!” How do we know Jesus is Lord? The Works! There is an expression when ordering a burger and you get asked “how would you like it?” The response “the works” implies with everything. Jesus delivers everything in completeness. It is a totality of healing the heart in forgiveness of sins, healing the mind in driving out demons, healing the body from sickness, and healing the soul in freedom from death. Jesus delivers “the works”. Then he does one better, he delivers himself for us that we may possess him and continue “the works” of redemption with reconciliation, with corporal works of mercy, and with spiritual works of mercy.

The power lies in Jesus working in us. How do we access the power? It is the faith of the paralytic. In the paralytic’s helplessness we recognize our own helplessness and need for God. Through faith we call upon the Lord to answer our prayer so as to fulfill our calling by delivering the works which are his works. Jesus is the source and summit of power in the world. What is easier to say, “Lord take care of your people” or “In the Name of Jesus I’ve come to do your will”? We are called to take up our cross and to follow him and we receive through grace the power needed to do his will.

The door to enter into the Lord’s rest is found in the unity of faith that “profits” the believer that is he who delivers the works of the Lord. His works are accomplished as set “at the foundation of the world”. The works will be fulfilled. What remains is who will enter into that rest by fulfilling those works we are called to deliver. If not us, others will and we may be left in unrest from disobedience.

The beginning of ordinary time in the readings finds Jesus going about doing the works he came to fulfill and the crowds kept growing. He also found his balance getting away to pray in solitude. Temperance is finding our balance of spiritual rest in God and the works we respond to with God and through God. The key to holiness comes by committing to doing the next right step and in time all the little steps are transformative and arrive at holiness. Jesus did not come announcing “I am the messiah”. He came and began delivering salvation one person at a time. In three years he turned the world upside down and it has never been the same. That is our faith and our hope and we arrive there in charity. Let us turn our world upside down with one act of holiness at a time.

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Homily The Deacon Joe

Friday January 4th of Christmas Time

Posted on January 4, 2019January 2, 2019 by Deacon Joe

1 Jn. 3: 7-10; Ps. 98: 1, 7-9; Jn. 1: 35-42

A new year brings us the sense of new beginnings with new opportunities as Christians to live our lives in acts of righteousness. Our prayer this day is that we see the saving power of God. How are we to see his saving power? It begins with an act of faith, with songs of praise, shouts of joy, and trust in God’s rule over the world.

The gospel reading today is the beginning of Christ’s mission after his coming through the womb of Mary in his humanity to bring us his divinity. He calls us as he called his disciples to follow. “Come, and you will see.” This is our message of today. Take an act of faith and come to the Lord. Come as you are. Come as a sinner, poor, hungry, sick and weak in need of a savior. We come through prayer, in confession in our celebration of the Mass. We come by reaching out to others and giving of ourselves. We come by offering our day, this moment to God with thanksgiving and praise. Often we must take the act of faith in the darkness of life by taking the next right step he has placed in our hearts which leads to the light. If we always saw the light we simply would need to do an act of the will and follow. The disciples we told “Behold the Lamb of God” and in an act of the will followed. We can behold the Lamb of God in the Eucharist truly present and follow him through our sacraments.

When we are in the darkness, let us give praise to God for he is with us in our darkness waiting on us to open ourselves up to Him. In the darkness we are to pray, “Here I am Lord, I offer you my intellect, my will, and my emotions, this body and soul let it be done to me according to your will. I offer you my darkness with an act of hope for your divine providence. I offer you my praise as an act of love. I offer you my actions as an act of faith in your guiding love. I come to you, come to me with a word of truth to my mind. I come to you, come to me in a consolation of peace in my heart. I come to you, come to me with a sign of hope through the action of others. I come to you, come to me that I may see your saving power that I may follow in your love.”

Jesus took Simon, son of John and called him “Cephas” translated as Peter and “rock”. Jesus wanted Simon as a rock of faith but this required many trials for Peter to become the rock for Christians. Jesus is calling us also by name. What name may he be giving us as his followers? Do we need to be “rock” in leading our domestic church at home or “grace” in testimony of holiness, or “joy” in thanksgiving? We too have a name to represent our call to service but we start by coming to see as disciples before we are sent forth as apostles. In taking his name as Peter he passed through his darkness before he became the light of “rock”. This is taking up our cross daily and following Him. Trust in the Lord he has given us a purpose to follow, each according to God’s plan but all as Christians, that is followers of Christ.

Today is also the Memorial of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, a Religious who in many ways lived a traditional Christian life with periods of darkness as when she lost her mother as a child of 3 years and periods of light when she entered the Catholic faith to begin her calling to set up a school for girls and later the order of Sisters of Charity. Through this she was also a mother, a wife, and a widow in her earthly pilgrimage. She is the first American born canonized Saint by the Church. It is in the ordinary life that God’s call is to do extraordinary virtue with our lives.

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The Deacon Joe

3rd Sunday of Advent Year

Posted on December 16, 2018December 16, 2018 by Deacon Joe

Zep 3: 4-18a; Is. 12: 2-6; Phil. 4: 4-7; Lk. 3: 10-18

Our Advent has reached a spiritual “fever pitch” of rejoicing. Regardless of our circumstances “Fear not…be not discouraged”, God is with us. It is the message of hope in a loving God who knows us personally as his own, not slaves but brothers and sisters in Christ his only begotten Son. How can we rejoice in the midst of suffering, troubles, and broken hearts? We respond in humility and meekness relying on the mystery of God’s plan.

It is easier for the poor to respond in humility and meekness in the simplicity of life than for the rich in the pride of their pride, prestige, and power. When we detach from all that perishes we enter into the simplicity of love, to be with the one we love. The one we love begins with God in the Trinity, our Blessed Mother Mary, our special devotions to our saints, and those who journey with us in this life as family and friends. In realization of our own poverty we then have fellowship and extend our love to our neighbor, the stranger, widow and the orphan. This is loves perfect journey.

Again rejoice always, “The Lord is near” nearer than we realize. Have no anxiety it is the evil one’s temptation striking at our pride, self-image and sense of control. A lie to be reckoned with though “prayer and petition, with thanksgiving” we trust in Jesus. In prayer we confess God is with us, in petition we let go trusting in divine providence and with thanksgiving we demonstrate our faith that no harm can come to us and rest in God’s peace “that surpasses all understanding”. It is the human condition to search for understanding where the answer lies that we can take back control of the outcome. Our control lies in taking the next step of righteousness doing the next right thing while trusting God in the outcome according to his will.

“What should we do?” is asked of John the Baptist. Take the next right step of righteousness guided by the Holy Spirit in prayer, petition, and thanksgiving. Share from the gifts we have received, follow the commandments, and find satisfaction with our state in life economically “wages” we receive working to improve our state with discipline and courage with the opportunities to advance giving of ourselves as servants of the Lord. This is our Advent to rejoice with expectation for a greater sharing in the life of Christ, in imitation of Christ, and in kindness to all.

I confess, this week I was reading an article of a megachurch pastor who purchased a Lamborghini for $200,000 for his wife. My first reaction from the headline was judgmental and concern for the followers. The article reported the pastor was receiving much criticism from social media and as I suspect from those around him. The pastor offered his testimony of not having spent any of the church funds or his salary from the church to purchase the vehicle. How did he do it since that is substantial money? He used his gift as a pastor to create resources from outside of the church community. Others found those resources of value to invest in them. This is the discipline of dedication to his trade as the Apostle Paul wrote he did not want to burden the community for his personal needs but chose to work at his trade to meet his needs. Who has not wanted to write a book and improve their state in life while contributing a greater good to this world? Let us rejoice then together for the prosperity that comes from God to his faithful followers is a gift for God’s glory.

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