5th Sunday of Easter – Like living stones!

Posted on May 8, 2023May 8, 2023 by Deacon Joe

Acts 6:1-7; Ps 33:1-2, 4-5, 18-19; 1 Pt 2:4-9; Jn 14:1-12

“Like living stones let yourselves be built into a spiritual house” by coming to him the living stone who is the foundation of the world. Jesus says, “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me” and we are now invited to be in Jesus. We are like living stones that build up the house of God when we come to offer our spiritual sacrifices from the priesthood of our baptism united to his body in the sacrament of the Mass. The sacrament of the Mass cannot exist without “a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ”. Jesus did not come to destroy the priesthood of the Jews but to transform it giving the apostles the living stone of his body and blood. The living church of God requires that there be a priesthood something to grasp for the many who desire to be called “church”.

In a world where many desire to create their own church, their theology, their form of worship, and their own rules for membership beware of the history of heresies, false teachers and prophets. Woe to those who would misguide the sheep from the church that Jesus established. For Catholics the word “church” comes from the “Geek ‘ekklesia’ meaning ‘the called out ones’. However, the English word ‘church’ does not come from ‘ekklesia’ but from the word ‘kuriakon’ which means ‘dedicated to the Lord’.” (google/definition of church in the bible) Words matter and the nuance changes everything. The apostles were the “called out ones” to be the priesthood commissioned by Jesus himself. The community was dedicated to the Lord under the authority given by Jesus to the apostles. The community dedicated to the Lord cannot be ekklesia without a priest.

The sheep need their Shepherd and scripture alone followers have chosen to bypass the priesthood and go directly to God through a church dedicated to the Lord without accepting the authority giving to the apostles. The result is the division we see today as more and more groups claim to be the church of God under their own authority. This is not the vision Jesus prayed for to God “that they may all be one just as you Father are in me and I in you” in John 17:21. Just before this gospel reading from John, Jesus tells his disciples at the last supper “Amen, amen, I say to you, no slave is greater than his master nor any messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it”. Unfortunately, history proves that many have come to believe they are better messengers establishing their own church as better dedicated to the Lord than the one Jesus established under the priesthood of the apostles.

Jesus is our cornerstone of faith, hope and love. He also established the church as the cornerstone of the sacramental life with Jesus as our high priest. It is interesting to note that the apostles did not avoid the synagogues on the sabbath but “took their seats” and were even invited to preach to their brothers “a word of exhortation” converting some to be followers of the faith. Then they devote themselves to “prayer and to the ministry of the word” on resurrection day.

Today we learn that as the community grew so did the needs of the community. Living stones need food, shelter, and all the basics of care for our mortal lives. “The Twelve called together the community of disciples” meaning the first Apostles after Judas had been replaced to fill the need of service and as we would say “by unanimous consent” the first seven Deacons were chosen.

Historically some deacons took care of the “widows” others of the treasury, some at the side of the bishop and others at the side of the hungry but always a calling of service. Since we are called to be the spiritual house of God and by baptism become the temple of the Holy Spirit then he lives as much as in the poor and the sick as he does in his ordained ministers. In the same way all who believe have the same calling to be priest, prophet and king through the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now if we want to see Jesus, we can begin by looking at the good of humanity created in his image.

Suppose I said, “if you want to see Jesus start by looking at your children, your parents, your spouse, even your in-laws, or how about your enemies.” It gets tougher sometimes to believe God is working in some people. Believe that he is also working in us so we can also begin to seek him from within to reveal his image to the world. What is a living stone? It is something visible that reflects the invisible grace of God. It carries within God himself reflecting what is good, beauty, truth, and love calling others to unity in faith, hope, and love. Let us be that living stone.

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Homily

4th Sunday of Easter – In his footsteps!

Posted on April 29, 2023April 28, 2023 by Deacon Joe

Acts 2:14a, 36-41; Ps. 23:1-3, 3b-6; 1 Pt 2:20b-25; Jn.10:1-10

In his footsteps “he guides me in right paths”. As baptized sons and daughters of Christ, we are being called to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, that is to take up our cross willing to “suffer for doing what is good”. He left us “an example that you should follow in his footsteps”. He who “committed no sin” then is calling us to avoid sin “so that free of sin we might live for righteousness.” In the footsteps of Jesus, we learn to walk by faith, listen to his voice, and recognize what is truth, goodness, beauty, and unity. We learn and experience the true meaning of love which is God himself. For this he sent his only begotten son, Jesus as true God to show us the way and to be the guardian of our souls.

“For the promise is made to you…and to whomever the Lord our God will call” says Peter. Peter was speaking to the Jews but recognizing Jesus came to call all to repentance opening the gate to Jew and Gentile alike. The call is an invitation to the wedding banquet but as we know from scripture many have not accepted the wedding invitation both Jew and Gentile alike. For those who have accepted the invite this promise is for you. It is the promise of forgiveness of sins, the promise to always lead us down right paths in this life, and the promise to the glory of heaven in the afterlife.

“I am the gate” says Jesus “leaving you a good example that you should follow in his footsteps” says 1^st Peter. Through the gate we enter into the kingdom of God. Jesus is the gate of our salvation as we pass through the waters of baptism, he opens our ears to hear his voice, our mouths to proclaim his truth and our hearts to follow in his footsteps by living his example. This is where the expression “the rubber meets the road” applies, where many of those who have been called leave the sheepfold.

The footsteps of Jesus include avoiding sin, deceit, insults, threats, and any other kind of malice, while bearing patiently when we suffer for doing good. “Easily said than done”. You might say, “come to my house and see if you can live up to the test” or do you say “not in my home, we are all very gentle and kind to each other, we respect our space, we honor each other by being of service to each other, and never get upset”. Right? Husbands are always ready to help wives with the dishes, children get to their chores without reminders, and wives don’t nag but are happy to remind everyone what needs to be done, again and again. Right? None of this is possible by our own strength but with the grace from God all things are possible. We truly can be holy and we are called to be holy.

In the footsteps of Jesus, we come to accept that we cannot change anyone but ourselves. It is in how we change that we influence others to change. When we follow the “good example of Jesus” others will question and wonder “how can you be so at peace, don’t you worry, do you care, do you realize” and on and on and on as if we were out of touch with the world. We are not out of touch with the world but out of step with the world in order to be instep with Jesus. Are we ready for this or are we still thinking, fighting, or even forcing others to do our will? If the devil himself cannot force us to do anything and his power lies in temptation and God himself will not force us to do anything but only call us to respond to the invite then how can we expect to be more powerful than others.

Jesus “handed himself over to the one who judges justly” and we hand ourselves over to Jesus our just judge who knows our hearts. Yes, we can surrender to God and trust Jesus. This does not mean we stand idle waiting for life to happen or for God to “fix it” whatever “it” is. It means we always move forward taking the right next step, doing what is in our capacity, our purpose to do good, and our commitment for what is right. Trust Jesus and when in doubt “let go and let God” trusting him even more to guide us in right paths.

Jesus is the “guardian of our souls” against “thieves and robbers” who are all around us. We look at the “culture of death” all around us and we wonder how to protect ourselves and our children from the influence of this culture. We also cannot misuse our faith and say “the world is corrupt there is nothing I do”. In fact, the world won’t let us stand as an idle bystander but will challenge us on where we stand by coming as thieves and robbers in every aspect of our lives, work, school, social, and even into our homes. How will we respond? Jesus is the guardian of our souls by following in his footsteps. He has given us “the way” and it comes through to us in his word, his church, and his good example to follow.

The good news is “The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want”. With the Lord we “come in and go out and find pasture”. Where do we go out? We go to do his will in the world with the armor of God. The weapon of Lord is his word which we live by walking in his footsteps. The weapon of the Lord is his body and blood as guardian of our soul providing a shield against every evil demon. The weapon of the Lord is his power of love to shine light into every darkness that seeks to destroy us. We graze on the blessings of life God provides us. We engage in the world to serve God not in fear but with faith, hope, and love. The good of the world is there as a pasture for us and that too can be of service to God.

In birth we receive the gift of life to live for the Lord. In baptism we receive the gift of the Lord himself to be the armor of our life. In the church we receive the sacraments as our defense shield against the attack of the enemy. In God we go forth to walk in his footsteps as the militant church on earth. Our mission is to conquer evil with good and overcome anger, despair, lies, and every kind of malice, with the love of truth, goodness, beauty and unity that we may all be one so that the world may believe.

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Homily

3rd Sunday of Easter – Road to Emmaus

Posted on April 22, 2023April 20, 2023 by Deacon Joe

Acts 2:14, 22-23; Ps. 16:1-2, 5, 7-11; 1 Pt 1:17-21; Lk.24:13-35

Road to Emmaus is seven miles from Jerusalem. It represents a lifetime journey of faith for us to encounter Jesus along the way that our eyes may be opened. For the baptized child faith comes as a gift of the Holy Spirit but a gift to be unwrapped and explored discovering all of our earthly days all that the gift can reveal about God, self, and others. A child is born with eyes open to believe what we feed their minds and hearts, what to follow, and where to go but we cannot give what we do not ourselves have. We must have God as our destination site or the world will quickly draw us away from our God given purpose but not only us but also all of our household.

Today we speak of having a “bucket list” with destination sites as places for special occasions, where memories are made, dreams come true and we get to live out our indulgence of this life. They are expensive and often last but a short time before returning to what we call “reality”, our daily commitments of life. Is heaven on our bucket list? Reality is life is short in this world before we enter into eternity and eternity has only two main destinations, heaven or hell.

Purgatory is a destination site along the way to heaven to cleanse us of our impurities. Let us try to take care of our impurities now so that purgatory is more of a pit stop than a layover of centuries. Did you know that heaven is outside of time but purgatory is not? Part of the suffering of purgatory is the sense of lasting time waiting to enter the glory of God. Something to ponder! Heaven should be number one on our bucket list and all the rest of our priorities need to be gauged on whether they help lead us there or distract us from God. The road to Emmaus is the road to have our eyes opened to God who draws near to us to be loved and to love us.

For the two disciples on the road to Emmaus “Jesus himself drew near and walked with them but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him”. One may think that Jesus prevented them from recognizing him but we should also consider the state of mind of the two disciples “downcast, conversing and debating” looking back at all that had happened. Their own state of mind in disbelief and their walk was out of step with faith. When we walk out of step with faith our eyes are prevented from seeing Jesus, who draws near to us to be at our side.

When bad things happen in life it is easier to ask “why”, why me, why now, why did this happen? The more we question the more we walk out of step with faith looking back as the disciples did and failing to see God who is always present. Rather than begin with why, ask God to reveal himself. God help me to see you, the work of your grace, your hand in my hand with the eyes of faith that I may be an instrument of faith trusting in your divine providence. This is walking in step with Jesus recognizing it is all about God and God is all about our salvation.

Bad things happen not by the will of God but by the freedom he has given us, but his mercy is everlasting when we repent and come back to him. When we ask God to reveal himself, we will come to understand better why bad things happen and how God brings us good out of evil. We will recognize the power of his love transforming us with his sacred heart as a father of love. We have only to look at the cross as evidence of his power of transformation. Yet we a “slow of heart to believe” to come to him in search of the divine truth.

The disciples were “slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!”. We can say that they spent three years in formation walking with Jesus, receiving his teaching, and even telling them of his own death and resurrection. We are disciples also and for many considered life-long cradle Catholics. We have in all of history more access than at any other time to all the writings from the beginning of Christianity, from the canon of the Bible, from early Church Fathers, from church encyclicals, compendiums to interpret for us, documentaries, spiritual writings, and yet let us be our own judge where our interests lay and to who do we give our time to. If we are slow of heart to come to the well of life-giving water, we will be “slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke”.

The disciples’ eyes were opened not by seeing Jesus but as he vanished from their sight. Their hearts were burning but they needed the miracle to believe. We receive the miracle of the breaking of the bread each time we come to Mass. The road back to Jerusalem is our journey back to the Church to come and celebrate what we have received from Jesus. We encounter him again in his Word not only all that the prophets taught but what he himself is saying to us this day by his word before receiving him in the Eucharist. What does this mean?

The word of God and his body and blood is incarnated into our flesh to be Christ to the world. This was the transformation of the disciples into apostles after the resurrection having received the gift and power of the Holy Spirit. This is the power of Jesus to transform us as we come to receive him in the Mass. Having received him in the Eucharist, we can say Jesus is truly flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone and spirit of my soul.

This is the time of our “sojourning” and the gift of life is to be treated with “reverence” because we are being called to holiness. We think of coming to Mass and showing reverence as a holy place and so it is. Let us also go out from Mass as temples of the Holy Spirit with the same reverence because Jesus not only draws near to us but now remains in us. Let us give reverence to the holiness we carry within by the way we talk, the way we act, the choices we make. It will draw us near to the one we love and we will never be alone.

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Homily

2nd Sunday of Easter – His Divine Mercy

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

Acts 2:42-47; Ps. 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24; 1 Pt 1:3-9; Jn.20:19-31

Rejoice for his Divine Mercy endures forever! We rejoice and give thanks to the Lord for he is faithful to his promises. Easter is a celebration of Jesus’ resurrection raising us from our own death from sin through his Divine Mercy. Jesus loves you so much he came to die on the cross to rescue us from the sins of our fallen nature.

Even when we are prodigal children wasteful of the inheritance of heaven with our time, talent and treasure God is faithful to his divine mercy as a loving father. His divine mercy brings “the salvation of your souls”. For some of us we wander in the desert for years “doing our own thing” until we “hit bottom” and realize we need God in our lives but it does not have to be this way. The good news is that we have only to turn back to him, repent, and believe in his divine mercy. Will Jesus appear to us as he did to the apostles for us to believe? If we seek him with the eyes of faith, we will recognize his presence in our life. We don’t have to wait to hit bottom, we have only to pray to open our minds to his truth and see with the eyes of faith.

The apostle Thomas was not present when the Lord first appeared to the apostles and perhaps Jesus desired to use Thomas to show us how we can be much like Thomas that is until we have our own personal encounter with Jesus. Once Thomas joined them however, he was there not only to see and touch but to receive “the breath” of God and the gift of the Holy Spirit. These apostles are now commissioned by Jesus Christ to go out and preach the good news. Thomas not only became a believer but an evangelizer who ended up in India where he died.

In one of the ancient texts called “The Passing of Mary”, St. Thomas is mentioned as “the only apostle who witnessed the Assumption of Mary” though physically in India “he was transported to her tomb and he saw her bodily assumption into heaven, while her girdle was left behind”. A traditional version of the story includes that the “other apostles doubted Thomas until Mary’s tomb was discovered to be empty with the exception of her girdle” (catholic.org/stthomas). Perhaps someone wanted to show us that the other apostles were no different than Thomas. They needed to see with the eyes of humanity to believe with the eyes of faith. In this way it reminds us that we are more alike than different.

These first apostles established the order in which we would celebrate the good news guided by the Holy Spirit. The communal life became the Mass incorporating all that Jesus had taught them recognizing in the breaking of bread to be Jesus himself “transubstantial” in the bread and wine. This is how Jesus would remain with them most fully present giving them the graces to persevere “though tested by fire” this time willing to die for him. This time because before the resurrection Peter denied him and the others hid in fear but after he appeared to them, breathed on them the power of the Holy Spirit transformed them into warriors for Christ. This is the fullness of his divine mercy coming not only to wash us clean of our sins but to transform us into warriors for Christ.

The breath of Jesus upon the apostles and the fire of the Holy Spirit came with authority to act in the person of Christ “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them and whose sins you retain are retained.” Do we believe? In the world of Christianity many do not believe. Many question why should we have to go to a priest to confess our sins when we can go directly to Jesus?” First it is always good to go directly to Jesus with all our heart, mind and soul. Second the priest is in the person of Christ doing the work of Christ as he was commissioned. The answer to the “why” question is because this is how Jesus commanded it to be so if we ask Jesus “why” we may discover a lesson on humility as the Blessed Mother said at the wedding of Cana, “do whatever he says”. If we have a problem with it take it to Jesus but remain obedient to Jesus.

The Catholic church follows all the commands Jesus gave the apostles and because they are commands. It recognizes in them the work of Jesus himself still present as sacraments. A sacrament is something sacred coming from God. It more than the work of the Church or of priests who act in the person of Christ. It is the work of Jesus himself through his church. The sacraments are God’s work of his divine mercy, the visible signs of his invisible grace coming to heal, forgive, set us free, and make us holy.

Many of other faith denominations are left with baptism as the only sacrament they follow. Meaning everything else is negotiable but not with Christ. The last supper becomes simply a “remembrance” of the past that anyone can do with crackers and juice not sacred. Marriage is still under the law of Moses and a divorce decree is acceptable. The priesthood handed down by Jesus and with him as our high priest during the Last Supper as Holy Orders out the window. Now anyone can pick up a bible and decide they will preach with authority. The altar of sacrifice gone replaced by the stage with focus on the preacher. This is not following the teaching of Christ which he commanded.

No wonders the “church” as an institution is in decline. What are people to believe? More importantly, what do we believe? Do we hold onto all the teaching given to the apostles by Jesus or have we too fallen into being selective and relative to our personal preferences? We live in a culture that holds the freedom to choose as sacred and God himself created mankind with free will. This does not mean that our choices are right before God. God gave us Thomas to see ourselves in him and recognize our need for his divine mercy. When Thomas answers Jesus “My Lord and my God!” he is now professing publicly his faith in the divinity of Jesus and in the resurrection. Thomas becomes obedient to his calling.

To say, “I am a Christian” is to devote ourselves “to the teaching of the apostles…to the breaking of bread and to the prayers”. This is the Mass where we gather to celebrate our “communal life” as believers. Here we receive his Divine Mercy.

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Homily

Easter Sunday “He is risen!”

Posted on April 9, 2023April 9, 2023 by Deacon Joe

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

“He is risen!” He is not only risen but in Christ “we were raised with Christ”. We have entered into his kingship that is why we are in this world but not of this world. Holy Week is a reminder not only of the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ but our own death, “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God”. We have died to the flesh and to remain with him and in him through the Holy Spirit. Just as “God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and power”, we too have received the anointing and power of the Holy Spirit to overcome the darkness of this world. Thus, Easter is a celebration that we have been raised for the kingdom of God is at hand and his kingship is in Christ Jesus.

In the gospel of John, we see in Mary of Magdala, Peter and “the other disciple” who is believed to be John a very human reaction to the empty tomb. It is the assumption that if the body was missing someone had taken it from the tomb. Jesus had the power to raise Lazarus from the dead would he not have the power to come back from the dead, “this man God” as Peter calls him? They saw with the eyes of humanity and did not understand until Jesus appears to them and “ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead”. “He is risen” but do we see the hand of God in our lives or are we still contemplating with only our human eyes what is happening around us?

“He is risen” that we may see and understand with the eyes of faith first not last. This is what it means to be in the world but not of the world. We are to rise with Christ each morning and declare “I shall not die (this day) but live”. We live in the glory of the Lord and even if we should die a mortal death, we remain alive in Christ freed from the bondage of sin for all eternity. We enter into the greater life to come. Sin is death thus we only die when we allow sin into our life. From sin into death is the original fall of Adam and Eve and remains to this day the enemy to overcome. We overcome it with the grace of God when we remain focused on our faith as God reveals himself to us each day becoming stronger witnesses that he is risen and we are in him.

We often simply look at the sin of Adam and Eve as a sin of disobedience but to God the Father disobedience is a failure of love. Jesus asks Peter after the resurrection three time “Do you love me?” After Peter responds then Jesus gives him a command “feed my sheep”. As parents, haven’t we not said to our children “If you love me then listen to me?” Sin at the core is failure to love the other. Just as the fear of God is not being scared of a person. Husbands do you fear your wife? Wives do you fear your husband? I hope not. We fear not the person but a broken relationship with them because we love them.

It is love that binds us to each other and to God and when we fail to act in love we sin against each other and against God. Fear of God is fear of breaking the love bond we have received to enter his glory and the fear of eternal separation from him by our sins which we have already created by sinning. The God of justice does not come to condemn us but to reveal to us what we have already done to ourselves. He is risen not to condemn but to set us free while there is still time.

Christ is the “judge of the living and the dead”. Let us recognize that “the dead” may represent those among us who are walking in death because of sin already judged. He is resin to bring us salvation and free us of the judgment of eternal separation from love. Christ’s judgment is ever in the present for he is outside of time. Jesus says to us today, “If you love me listen to me”, risen today to be with you and call you for in this day I came to sacrifice myself for you and the whole world.

Peter no longer speaks for himself in today’s first reading, he now speaks for the Church. He and the disciples are now commissioned to go forth and preach the good news of the resurrection and the hope for all humanity. Together then the Church speaks for Christ to testify to the truth that brings us eternal freedom. When Jesus tells Peter, “feed my sheep” he is bringing together this command with Holy Thursday and the Last Supper when he said “Do this in remembrance of me”. Thus, the disciples devoted themselves to prayer and the breaking of bread. They assigned others to take care of the physical needs of the people. Today we live on this command through the priesthood that Jesus gave his disciples. We receive the risen Lord, body, blood, soul and divinity in the Eucharist. We also receive him when we listen to him in his word. We are feed with his word and with his body, the two parts of the Mass.

He is truly risen and lives in us. He has chosen us to be his temple and to remain in us always. Happy resurrection day!

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Homily

Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion

Posted on April 1, 2023March 29, 2023 by Deacon Joe

Mt. 21:1-11; Is. 50:4-7; Ps. 22:8-9, 17-20, 23-24; Phil. 2:6-11; Mt.26:14-27:66

“From now on you will see ‘the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power’ and ‘coming on the clouds of heaven.” To the high priest who tore his robes this was “blasphemy” for which Jesus is crucified. To the believer this is the highest truth that Jesus Christ is Lord! The hour has come to enter into the passion, death and resurrection with the Lord not simply “of” the Lord but with the Lord. Our Lenten journey is to taste and see the goodness of the Lord in his suffering for us that we may live.

This week is our time to “keep watch and pray that you may not undergo the test”. What is this test? It is the test of faith. Peter’s faith was tested and he denied the Lord three times. “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Holy week is Jesus invite to us to keep watch with him in this Easter Triduum. Will we join him for the last supper and washing of our feet on Holy Thursday, for the passion of his death on Good Friday, for the vigil as he lays in the tomb on Holy Saturday and for the resurrection on Easter Sunday?

The salvation of the world centers on two hinge moments in history. One is the incarnation of Jesus as he enters this world as one person with two natures, a divine nature and a human nature. The other is Holy Week as he does the will of the Father and gives his life up for our salvation. The rest of history either looks forward to the Incarnation or back to the resurrection to understand our own identity as a child of God, our purpose for living as a divine call and the way to heaven as Christ laid it out for us to follow.

The rest of history is our struggle to reintegrate ourselves into God’s divine will by separating ourselves from sin. This we cannot do by our own will but by our call up to a God of love and mercy who forgives all our transgressions. In salvation history everything matters and nothing is without consequence in God’s plan. What have we learned this Lenten season helping us to see rightly God’s truth and our purpose in his plan of salvation? If we have truly entered into God’s plan then our eyes are opened to do his will with right action. Since God is outside of time then not only does everything matter to God but every moment matters as if it was the first time, the last time and the only time we have to respond and say “Yes, Lord”.

In the Lord’s Passion comes the climax of good and evil. Jesus manifests the incredible love of God in his sacrifice of self for the other, the other being our humanity, each and every one of us. Through Jesus we recognize God’s creation is good to give himself up for us. How does the power of evil even exist to have crucified the Lord? According to Augustine “evil is a rejection of self that leads self to evil”. It brings death to self and others having failed to realize by choice what God had intended for humanity, humanity brings death upon itself taking with it whoever it can capture. The rejection of God is the rejection of goodness with a shear persistence to be bad.

This day the Lord gives us an important lesson. If we are going to die and we will all see this mortal life end then make it count for something greater than ourselves. This is what Jesus does for us not only captured in time and history as we remember that fateful event but, he does it every moment of our life in the perpetual sacrifice of the Mass, Jesus is crucified for our sins. When we sin, our sins cry out “crucify him”. When we come to seek forgiveness in confession our souls cry out “heal me” and our disordered relations between our soul and our flesh is reconciled. When we receive him in the Eucharist our body and soul taste and see the goodness of the Lord as he is in us and we are in him. Praise be to God.

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Homily

5^th Sunday of Lent – And Jesus wept.

Posted on March 25, 2023March 24, 2023 by Deacon Joe

Ez. 37:12-14; Ps. 130:1-8; Rom. 8:8-11; Jn.11:1-45

“And Jesus wept.” Jesus wept “perturbed and deeply troubled” not for the death of Lazarus but for the lack of faith and belief in him as he tells Martha, “Whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live.” Jesus’ purpose and desire for his disciples and all his followers is for us to believe in him. Do we believe? And if we say, “we believe” is our faith built on a strong foundation based on his revelation of truth or does it rest only on a God as we define him by our choice or his will?

Notice that it is Thomas who will later after the death of Jesus refuse to believe in his resurrection. In the gospel today, it is Thomas who speaks to the disciples and says, “Let us go to die with him.” Thomas believed in only the mortal death to come and Jesus is preparing his disciples for the resurrection to come by raising Lazarus from the dead. Having been present to see Lazarus rise from the dead, Thomas would still refuse to believe in the resurrection of Jesus unless he put his finger into his side. This is the hardness of heart of humanity for which Jesus wept and weeps to this day.

In contrast to Thomas is the faith of Martha. Martha knows her brother has died but still believes in Jesus to say “whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” Martha had total trust in Jesus and in the “resurrection on the last day”. What separates Thomas from Martha is love. Thomas was ready to go die with Jesus but this came from his pride. He was part of the team that as men we bond together ready to fight for the team but do we understand the greater cause? Our battle is not for this world but for the one to come. Martha was humbled by her love of Jesus. Her hopes rested on the resurrection to come but Martha already believed in the Son of God as the Christ who has come into the world. Thomas is ready to die for the honor of the good fight.

God bless women, where would we men be without them. This week we had our parish mission with Fa. Joe Villalon leading us. Women outnumbered men at least three to one. Have a boxing match or wrestling on prime time and men outnumber women at least ten to one. Fa. Joe contrasted the difference between “ego drama and Theo drama”. Ego drama is life centered on ourselves and how everything going around us impacts us. Theo drama is God centered life and how everything going on around us impacts the salvation of the world as we are invited to enter into this Theo drama and be a part of salvation history. We have been born for this with a God given purpose and too many are missing the call stuck in their own ego drama.

Men of God there is a battle going on in this world that we are called to fight and it is for the souls of those we love. Are we ready to die to ourselves for them? Men cannot be sitting at camp back home while the women show up to training camp at Church ready to grow spiritual muscle, to learn how the enemy comes to attack us and how we as Church do battle with the power of the Holy Spirit to guard those we love and to call others to join us. Ignorance of Christ is no excuse if we say we believe. Jesus is revealing himself to us in scripture, in the Eucharist, in the teachings of the Church every day but we must answer the call when he says to us “come follow me”.

The Jews who were with Martha remember how Jesus opened the eyes of the blind man. They questioned the power of Jesus to have prevented Lazarus from dying. And Jesus wept “perturbed again” by their lack of faith and he prayed “that they may believe that you (God) sent me”. “Lazarus, come out!” Now remove Lazarus name and place our own name in his place. Tom, Joe, Carmen, Jane come out of the darkness of our unbelief and receive the fullness of the gospel.

Any time and anything we have denied of the gospel, of confession, the sacraments, the Eucharist, even denial of the devil himself is leading us into darkness and death and Jesus wept. We remain in this ego drama of our minds and hearts and in the blindness of sin when we begin to say “I don’t believe in confession, in going to Church, in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist”. Today sadly there are more Catholics in the world who say “I don’t believe” than say “I do believe”. Why?

There are many reasons for lack of faith and while we can look at the world and see how the world seeks to remove God from society we must also look at ourselves and what are we doing in this fight for salvation in our own home. Catechism and evangelization begins in the home if the church is to succeed in the world and today we are losing that fight. Only an examination of conscience can reveal to us not only where we have failed but where God is calling us but we don’t like to go there. We are content with ourselves and the control we mistakenly feel we have over life until we have separated ourselves so far from the Father of life that our lives become unmanageable and we have nowhere to turn but back to the one who gave us the breath of life.

This world is a graveyard of walking dead full of mortality that is in a state of being subject to death by sin “and Jesus wept”. Sin in our lives leads to premature death without the spirit of God. Some are already in the grave of death from mortal sin but not without hope for “with the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption”. It is the Spirit that gives life to our mortal bodies and today we come to receive of this life-giving Spirit through the body and blood of Jesus in the Eucharist. The Church is seeking a Eucharistic revival because only one in three Catholics now believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist and Jesus weeps.

Just as no one had ever witnessed a man born blind regain his sight no one had witnessed a dead man return to life. Jesus’ miracles give witness to the power of faith for those who believe. Where are the miracles of today? Miracles must follow faith and they happen every day “if only the Spirit of God dwells in you”. For those who believe and respond in faith we are alive in Christ and even when we die and depart this mortal body we will never die. We enter the glory of God. Though we were born in sin we have been redeemed by our faith in the cross. We have received the Spirit of righteousness and Jesus rejoices. Let us rejoice in Jesus.

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Homily

4^th Sunday of Lent – Children of light!

Posted on March 18, 2023March 16, 2023 by Deacon Joe

1 Sm. 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a; Ps. 23:1-3a, 3b-6; Eph. 5:8-14; Jn.9:1-14

Children of light! By our baptism we have received the light of Christ called to be children of the light. Children of the light not only avoid the darkness of sin but also bring the light of truth into the world through the gospel message. The gospel message begins with the question Jesus asks the blind man, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” By the darkness of sin in this world, we see that many still do not believe in the Son of Man. The greater danger to the soul is even when we say “I believe” but nothing changes in our lives then we become like the Pharisees who say “We see” but Jesus responds “so your sin remains”.

In our world some remain blind and have yet to encounter the Son of Man but for the children of the light who do “see” Christ who is the light of the world and remain in their sin this Lent is our calling to repent, to seek forgiveness and to remain in the light by living according to the word of God. How are the children of the light to be the evangelizers if there is no transformation going on in our lives? Seeking holiness is a process of change from within that today we both the same person and a new creation, closer to God, stronger in our practice of faith, strengthened by God able to better live out our Christian virtues. This is the light that will be visible to others and lead them to come to believe. We have shed our blindness and come to see someone, Christ Jesus that others will desire to also encounter.

In the story of the blind man in today’s gospel, Jesus “made clay with the saliva, and smeared the clay on his eyes” and sent him to wash in the Pool of Siloam “which means Sent”. The Pool of Siloam is fed by the Gihon River mentioned in Genesis issuing out of the Garden of Eden. Jesus is giving us the sign that as God created humanity from the ground without sin in the Garden, he is not only from the ground making clay and giving the man eyes to see but also giving humanity a new creation through water and the spirit to believe. The Pool of Siloam means sent thus Jesus is the one sent to us, the chosen one that the Jews were waiting for and we in response to our washing through baptism are the ones sent into the world to bring the good news that today we have received salvation through Christ our Lord. Our mission now is to live as children of the light.

What is our light? The fruit of light is “every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth”. This does not begin with us and our ideas of goodness, or our sense of righteousness, or how we define our truth. This begins when we “try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord”. God first! We can go about doing all of what we desire that is pleasing to us, to our work, to our friends but have we asked God what is pleasing to him? We can easily become a “sleeper” doing all that is pleasing to the flesh, the world, and living only those religious practices we pick and choose. Soon we will become asleep at the wheel driving our lives in darkness without the headlights of Christ to keep on the road to salvation. It is like driving at night on the road without headlights in darkness trusting only on the GPS of the world to lead us. The world’s GPS cannot warn us if ahead lies a dead animal, a fallen branch, or a walking human in danger of being run over. The headlight of Christ is there to see the truth of the world and know how to steer around the dangers of sin.

Learn from the shepherd what is pleasing to him and our lives will be at peace proclaiming “there is nothing I shall want” for he “guides us in right paths”. Children of the light remain in Christ, fear no evil, and in Christ “only goodness and kindness follow me all the days of my life”. Today the Lord spreads the table before us at the banquet of the Lord to receive him in the Eucharist. In his own body and blood, he refreshes our souls. In baptism we have been anointed as David was anointed and from that day the spirit of the Lord rushed upon us to help us grow as David did in holiness.

The lesson of David is that he was the chosen to be anointed king and “the spirit of the Lord rushed upon David” to be a child of the light growing in knowledge and wisdom as a great king but he too fell into the darkness of sin by the temptation of the flesh. King David conquered the world and then the world came tempting him to abuse his power. The more we gain of the world the greater the temptation to fall into “more of me and less of God in me”. Have we fallen back into complacency with the Lord accepting the status quo? Unless we continuously strive to seek God, we will soon find ourselves moving from the light of Christ to the shadows of complacency to the darkness of sin. There is no status quo with Jesus. His call is “come follow me”, keep moving closer to his heart and into the kingdom prepared for us before the foundation of the world.

The light of Christ not only opens our eyes to see but our hearts to love. He who loves finds joy and peace close by and rejoices for God is good and he is our shepherd always by our side. I confess to be a thinker more than a feeler so I come to love by opening my eyes to God to see him and know him through the Word of God and through the revelation of salvation history in his Church. Some come to the truth as lovers of all God has created as the hand of God working through each other. God created us all different with different gifts but all of his creation calls out to him through our gifts and today we know the road to Zion is in the cross Jesus carried for our salvation. This is why we love, we sacrifice, and we trust in Jesus. This is why we dare to say we are Children of the light.

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Homily

2^nd Sunday of Lent – “Listen to him”

Posted on March 4, 2023March 3, 2023 by Deacon Joe

Gen. 12:1-4a; Ps. 33:4-5, 18-20, 22; 2 Tm. 1:8b-10; Mt.17:1-9

“Listen to him!” This Lent when God speaks to us in his word, in our prayer, and in our relationships, we listen to him in order to respond to his call. When we listen to him with our heart and mind, he tells us to “rise, and do not be afraid” to take the right next step in our faith journey. That step is rooted in the love of God and other. It is rooted in mercy and forgiveness. God is calling us to a conversion of greater love and mercy. “Listen to him” forgive and you will be forgiven, give and it shall be given to you, be humble and you will be lifted up. To listen is to desire something greater in our lives, more of God and less of this world.

When the Lord called on Abram, he asked him to leave behind his homeland, his comforts and “go forth” to a land he will show him. He did not promise it would be easy, without sacrifice, but he would bless him and a great nation would come from him. God never promises the easy road, and Jesus chose the via dolorosa, the way of suffering to make of us a great nation of followers of the way of salvation.

Thus, we are reminded to “bear your share of hardship for the gospel.” Alone it is unbearable but our strength comes from God when we listen to him and live according to his own design. His design is for a life of holiness and holiness destroys death and gives life immortal. We ask ourselves this Lent to bear our share of the gospel through prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Our prayer is efficacious, it makes a difference but we out to know how to pray.

Recall the acronym of prayer ACTS, adoration, contrition, thanksgiving and supplication? Adoration is our worship of God, contrition our desire for mercy for our sins, thanksgiving recognizes the blessings we have received, and supplication is for our needs and the needs of others by the will of God not our will. “God if it be your will let it be done.” This is prayer that is efficacious for our good, the good of others and of this world.

Fasting is not only good for the soul but good for the body. Our bodies are filled with toxins that build up from our indulgence. The reality is that we consume more than we need and all that consumption creates inflammation, brain fog, and by chronic consumption leads to early disease and death. We are out of balance in our consumption and fasting helps to detox our bodies, restore our mind-body control, and open our soul to listen to him.

I propose to you a different kind of fasting than what we normally think of with food. Try fasting from what consumes our time outside of our commitments to work, school or family. Is it television, social media, talking on the phone, or try putting down that golf club, fishing pole or rushing to the bingo hall. Discover the withdrawal for all those activities that have become our addiction to this world and left so very little time for God. Imagine your world without the novela, without the news channel, without tik-tok, without gaming, without gossip, without that obsession that is taking over our time. Now we’re talking, now were fasting the mind and body.

Almsgiving is going beyond our pocket change to the person on the street. Almsgiving is taking from what we have and letting go from our feeling of dependency on having more. Do we really need that many pairs of shoes, hats, tools, coats, blankets, or whatever clutters our drawers and closets. Ask a man and you can never have enough screw drivers; ask a woman and you can never have enough shoes; or ask a child these days and you can never have enough memory for all their gaming toys. Almsgiving is also about letting go and giving to those who have not.

In many ways the message does not change. What changes is our readiness to listen to him and to respond “Here I am, Lord ready to do your will.” Lent is this invitation for us to face the enemy of our salvation. The enemy is threefold, the flesh, the world, and Satan. They do not operate separately but are always at work together for what we experience in one area is an opportunity for the participation from the enemy in other areas.

The flesh is our appetite from within as the mind seeks to satisfy the flesh in all its passions, physical, sexual, and psychological. The flesh triggers the mind to crave self indulgence to the degree that whatever the flesh desires then become the god of the flesh, destroying the body and corrupting the soul. The person becomes the slave of the flesh.

The world is its own god seeking to finds its slaves. Its temptation is to all the riches and beauty the world has to be conquered but this is a false illusion. The world will not be conquered by becoming part of the world. We are in the world but not of the world meaning we serve our God in the world and the world can be of service to us but not our quest. We learn, work, and participate in the world in order to bring to the world the gospel message by the way we live our lives.

The evil one is the least powerful in our lives because by the cross we have been redeemed unless we open ourselves up to him and sadly many unwittingly have done just that. From taking up astrology to the Ouija board, from palm readers to “curanderas”, it is all part of the culture of death. The evil one desires our death, and he relies on the world to be its weapon of destruction to bring about hopelessness. “See how good the world is, indulge and be lost in the world” or Satan can just as quickly turn it around and say, “See how bad the world is today, there is no god that can save it” and lead us to hopelessness. Satan is the master of lies but Jesus is revealing to us the eternal truth this day.

The secret is out in the transfiguration today. The vision of Moses and Elijah next to Jesus is a vision of immortality. They are alive and they share in the light of God. The secret of the vision is the divinity of Jesus “true God and true man”. This is our faith that Jesus is one divine person with two natures. The sign of Moses and Elijah is that we too are invited to rise above our human nature into the divine life through the waters of baptism. This is a great hope, and many have come to listen to him, some with the red robe of martyrdom and others with the white robe of perfection, through blood and water. The secret is out “the Son of Man has been raised from the dead” and we are invited to enter into the divine life.

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Homily The Deacon Joe

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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