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Homily

Pentecost Sunday “Jesus is Lord”

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Acts 2:1-11; Ps 104:1, 24, 29-31, 34; 1 Cor. 12:3b-7, 12-13; Jn. 20:19-23

“Jesus is Lord!”  The confirmation of Jesus is Lord came to the disciples through the Holy Spirit in a visible image of “tongues as of fire”.  The disciples were proclaiming in different languages “the mighty acts of God” in the person of Jesus.  They were being given their priesthood to speak and fulfill all that Jesus had commanded them to do.  Thus, by doing what Jesus commanded with power and authority there could be no doubt of the proclamation that Jesus is Lord. 

This Spirit given to the disciples though one Spirit came with different gifts that each may fulfill one part of the body of Christ yet each gift reveals the same truth “Jesus is Lord”.  By receiving different gifts, it would have been possible that each would have created a different vision of Jesus or a different theology of who Jesus is.  It is like the game where you whisper one statement in the ear of one person and each pass on the message to another but at the end the message is completely different.  To the contrary even though each disciple was different in their personality, their education, their experience of being with Jesus and in the gift from the Holy Spirit, their proclamation of “Jesus is Lord” was consistent in the one truth.

Today we continue to receive our inheritance of the Holy Spirit’s gifts through the sacramental life of the Church though many gifts, one Church, one faith, one Lord.  “The manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit”.  The benefit is a reciprocal blessing whereby placing the gift at the service of the Lord we become the blessing of the Lord and are blessed with even more graces to grow in holiness.  This is the law of reciprocity, we cannot outgive the giver of all that we are and offer of ourselves to our Lord and to our neighbor. 

For the world Jesus revelation of who he is was soon to be a major source of division.  Either accept his Lordship as God and the guilt of his crucifixion or deny him and everyone who proclaimed “Jesus is Lord” by persecution of his witnesses.  What was true then remains true today, the more we proclaim Jesus is Lord the more the world seeks to silence, cancel, and persecute those who stand for their belief even when Jesus comes offering peace, mercy, and redemption.

Jesus breathes on the disciples the power of his love and desire for mercy to the sinner but the sinner refuses to accept their sin.  How significant that upon his appearance to the disciples as a group we may even consider calling it the first “council” of the Church with Christ as Vicar, that the preeminent command given with the Holy Spirit was to forgive sins in the name of Jesus our Lord carrying forth the priesthood of Jesus. 

This is a tremendous gift of authority and responsibility to the priesthood to “forgive and to retain sins”.  It can only come through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  Sadly, even among believers who accept Jesus is Lord they reject this gift of mercy by confession on the lips remaining silent at the risk of retaining their sins by their will refusing the gift of mercy through confession.  It is not difficult to say the words “Lord be merciful to me a sinner” but greater is the mercy of the sacrament when we humble ourselves to God in the confessional. 

Jesus says, “As the Father has sent me, so I sent you” and he breathed on them the Holy Spirit.  Jesus came to bring us the Father’s mercy, now he waits for us to respond with an act of humility and obedience to receive this gift of mercy.  Mercy opens us up to all the other gifts of the Holy Spirit to be cleansed for the pure cannot enter the impure until it is washed clean. 

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Homily

The Ascension of the Lord – “The promise!”

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Acts 1:1-11; Ps 47:2-3, 6-9; Eph 1:17-23; Mt 28:16-20

“The promise of the Father” is the Holy Spirit.  Last week we celebrated the promise with the sacrament of confirmation for seventeen of our young community as bishop Mario Aviles placed the Chrism oil on their heads.  The disciples were to “wait for the promise” after the ascension of the Lord.  How long must they wait?  Here is a hint, “how long is a Novena?”  They waited in in prayer for nine days and on the tenth day came the promise to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.

 We will celebrate his coming in the Holy Spirit next Sunday as Pentecost Sunday.  Forty days after the resurrection day happened on Thursday but the Church allows for the celebration to be recognized on day forty or on the weekend.  Novena prayers commemorate a period of waiting for the Lord in prayer for his promise.  The promise is his coming to be with us until the end of time. 

As Jesus ascends to the Father in today’s reading “two men dressed in white garments” appear to the disciples with a question for all of us “why are you standing there looking at the sky?”.  When we seek God, we look to the heavens and sometimes think and feel God is far off from us” and we may even question “does God hear our prayer?  The promise of God is that he with us!  He is with us in the Holy Spirit, he is with us in the Eucharist, and he is with us as he comes to us in others in who he is also present.   

For the disciples they were still thinking and wondering if Jesus was “going to restore the kingdom to Israel”.  Their vision of a kingdom was an earthly kingdom to the Jewish people.  They did not hear Jesus tell Pontius Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world” (Jn. 18:36).  Where then is this kingdom or what is it?  Thy kingdom come is what we pray for in the “Our Father”.  Thy kingdom comes as a “Spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of him” who we trust and believe in.  In the knowledge of him truth is revealed to us and we are given a vision of life, liberty and love in him.  We love living, we love freedom, we love to be loved then Jesus is the fullness of this desire.  In him we put on the mind of God and find meaning not only in our joys but also in our suffering.  In him we grow in virtue and sanctity as we respond to his call and do his will.

Jesus comes to restore his kingdom of saints for heaven.  Are we there yet?  What is holding us back from receiving the fullness of his grace through the Holy Spirit to be saints?  For some it is ignorance of him for not seeking him who is waiting on us. They include the unbaptized, un-catechized, the agnostics raised without faith in a God.  They fall into the category of “you don’t know what you don’t know” but in ignorance do the best they can.  In today’s world of communication however ignorance of truth is not a justified excuse for many.   “Go and teach all nations” has surrounded the globe in a missionary spirit. 

For some it is resistance knowing the God of our ancestors but still saying “not yet”.  I am not yet fully committed to God because I am still living for me.  They include the “lukewarm” baptized both in the Catholic church and in other separated Christian denominations that lack the fullness of truth.  The lukewarm still seek to build a kingdom in this world yet the world has never produced a kingdom that lasts forever.  When we focus on simply building our own kingdom it will come to an end and then what?  God provides hope to fulfill his promise of heaven and the road to it goes through purgatory for nothing impure can enter the kingdom of heaven.  Purgatory is our time to be purified by loving him as we have failed to love in this world. 

Tragically for others it is a rebellion against surrender to God to be their own god.  These take on the persona of their own sins not just falling into sin but become the sin they are attached to possessed by the demon of their sin.  It is a reminder of when Jesus says “not all” are going to enter the kingdom of heaven.  It is a tragedy by choice of the will and we pray for the conversion of sinners before it is too late.  The promise is for all to convert from sinner to saint while there is still time. 

The saint knows “his call” given from God.  We each have a calling to exercise our saintly purpose in this world.  The greater the knowledge of God the more our calling is revealed to us in which to serve him for our good and the good of others.  The saint receives the “riches of glory in his inheritance among the holy ones”.  An inheritance comes after the death of someone and Jesus died on the cross that we may receive the riches of our inheritance.  They come as gifts of the Holy Spirit and they come with “the surpassing greatness of his power”.  The gifts are like powerful tools but unless we allow them to serve their purpose, they are waisted opportunities sitting in storage and we become like seeds planted on poor soil failing to grow and give fruit. 

The eleven disciples did as Jesus asked going to Galilee.  They saw Jesus and worshiped him BUT “they doubted”.  What is wrong with this picture?  After all that Jesus did, miracles, exorcism of demons, healing, even raising the dead back to life and now seeing him resurrected and they doubted.  This is us in the fullness of our humanity.  Even when we know there is a God, when life happens and not all goes well, we find ourselves questioning and even doubting.  Has not God revealed himself to us during our life that we may see the hand of God in all and though all or have we not come to him and received him in all our daily walk of life? 

The gift of the Holy Spirit comes to us as it did to the first disciples with a commissioning to go out to all the world and tell the good news.  The good news is Jesus is alive and he comes to deliver the promise of the Father in our own journey of faith.  Live the journey as a daily walk with Jesus and when the evil one desires to create doubt in us we will respond with “there is no doubt” in the promise of God the Father, in the Son, and through the Holy Spirit.  So let us go out, let us live the promise with courage not fear, with faith not doubt, and with purpose to be all God is calling us to be.

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Homily

6th Sunday of Easter – Spirit of truth!

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Acts 8:5-8, 14-17; Ps 66:1-7, 16,20; 1 Pt 3:15-18; Jn 14:15-21

Spirit of truth is alive through the Holy Spirit.  It is our Advocate who remains with us if we keep his commandments.  If we keep the commandments, we validate our love for God.  Keeping the word of God is the key to unlocking the mysteries of faith.  Do we want to see God?  Keep his commandments and allow him to reveal himself to us for he desires to give even more of himself to us.  In our humanity we resist him who is the fulfillment of love itself not because we don’t desire him, in fact our hearts are restless because we were created for him.  We resist him because by our own free will we resist obedience to another but not all. 

History gives us many a witness that it is possible to live and die for another.  This is the witness of Jesus on the cross. This is the witness of many saints who fulfilled the call to “Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts”.  They did it though obedience to God’s will.  Just as Jesus was obedient to the Father through the cross many saints sanctify Christ as Lord through their obedience to be servants of the Lord or even slaves to his love.

If the Lord came calling for us today, would we meet him with a “clear conscience” for having kept his commandments or would we hide our face for having offended him by our sins.  Praise God for his sacramental gift of confession to wipe away our sins for I suspect we would literally die before the face of God without it.  We sanctify Christ as Lord in our hearts by keeping his commandments.  This is the Spirit of truth Christ came to once again make clear to us. 

Keeping his commandments is not new, from Adam and Eve and the forbidden fruit, to Moses and the Ten Commandments, and then the Jewish laws, in all of salvation history obedience to God’s law is the road to salvation.  Yet in all salvation history we see the resistance to obedience and many are lost by the same rebellion of Lucifer whose pride desired to be his own god.  Is our pride still desire to be our own god, have our own kingdom, conquer the world or do we surrender it all to the true God creator of all? 

There is a new birth in the family and everyone is drawn to the innocence and tenderness of a child who desires to be held and nurtured.  How long before the child grows and by his own free will begins to rebel?   Resistance to being dressed, to being fed vegetables, having a sleep schedule, and that is just the beginning.  Then comes “concupiscense” from the Latin “concupiscentia” meaning ‘with intense desire’”.  What are our intense desires?  They begin with the desire to satisfy the flesh but also grow into the desire of the mind for power, prestige, and profit or as the common expression says, “what is in it for me”.  This is our sin as we rebel against God and the devil knows how to play on it to tempt us to fall just as he did Adam and Eve. 

The Spirit of truth cannot be deceived.  Recall the adage “you can fool some of the people some of the time but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time”.  Well, you can never fool the Spirit of truth at any time and keep a conscience clear.  When the Spirit of truth resides in us then we can still try to deceive others by our concupiscense but we cannot deceive ourselves and believe it.  The truth that resides in us will not rest until we bring reconciliation with God and others.  This is a blessing though some may consider it a curse, the moral conscience to do right.  A moral conscience comes from God’s law of serving a greater good. 

Keeping his commandments gets tested not only from within but also from without by a world that does not know him and lives not by a Spirit justified by God’s truth but by the spirit of self-justification.  The spirit of self-justification follows the principle that “it’s all about me”.  Because it is all about me then if you disagree with me, you are the enemy that must be eliminated.  That is the lesson seen in the crucified Christ and the experience we live with in a culture of cancellation and death.  If they could crucify Christ who walked doing what is good and spoke of Godly truth then we can see how easily the world can finds ways to silence, cancel, and if needed destroy a person for holding onto their faith in practice.  From bakers to Little Sisters of the Poor no one is exempt from the evil one. 

Thus, “it is better to suffer for doing good” than to follow in the “evil” that this world calls its good.  Self-justification lives by the false teaching under the title “my truth”.  Someone’s truth no matter how justified if it is in opposition to God, to his commandments, his revelation of truth in Jesus Christ is the danger of self-condemnation.  It is a slippery road of darkness of the soul caught in the trap of lies to justify the past.  Having to say “I’m sorry for my sins” is an act of humility and the first right step to forgiveness and healing. 

It is a false teaching when some say your freedom of religion means you can keep your faith as long as you don’t act on your faith.  Faith is a practice of daily living to be expressed “with gentleness and reverence keeping your conscience clear”.  Faith lives, walks, talks, and acts out of obedience to God convenient or inconvenient, within the walls of worship and outside the walls in the public square.  It is more than something we do it is who we are as Christians.  Faith and love are one bound together by our actions.  Love is not a feeling but an act of the will for the one we love. 

We love God, then we unite our will to the will of God by obedience to his commandments.  We love the other, family, friend, stranger then we will to do for the good of the other.  We love ourselves well, then we will to take care of our mind, body, and soul by listening to the interior life coming from the spirit of truth.  This is God’s will that we may all be one.  This is the purpose of the incarnation, Jesus coming from the Father to be one with us that we may receive him in body, blood, soul and divinity in order to go forth alive in the spirit of truth, without fear, trusting God by our obedience to his will.  His will is our good that we may enter the gates of heaven.  

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Homily

5th Sunday of Easter – Like living stones!

Posted on 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 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 1st 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 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 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 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 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

5th Sunday of Lent – And Jesus wept.

Posted on 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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