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Homily

4th Sunday of Lent – Children of light!

Posted on 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

2nd Sunday of Lent – “Listen to him”

Posted on 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

1st Sunday of Lent – Get away, Satan! 

Posted on by Deacon Joe

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The Deacon Joe

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

Posted on by Deacon Joe

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

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

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

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

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

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6th Sunday Ordinary Time – If you choose!

Posted on by Deacon Joe

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Homily

5th Sunday Ordinary Time – The just man!

Posted on by Deacon Joe

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Homily

4th Sunday Ordinary Time – Boast in the Lord!

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Zep. 2:3; 3:12-13; Ps. 146:6-10; 1 Cor. 1:26-31; Mt.5:1-12a

“Boast in the Lord; rejoice and be glad; your reward will be great in heaven.”  A young child will hear their parents boast about them and learn to have pride in themselves but where does a child also learn humility?  I recall the jingle “anything you can do I can do better; I can do anything better than you”.  We boast in the Lord for coming to our salvation.  We boast in him who redeems us, sanctifies us, and justifies us for he fulfills what is lacking in us to be saved.  We see this in the father whose son is possessed by a demon in Mark 9:24 who cried out to Jesus, “I do believe, help my unbelief!”  God does not seek the perfect soul but to perfect us in himself. 

The world is in constant competition judging who is better and who is not good enough.  In the world we boast about our achievement, our creation of success, our multiplication of wealth greater than others but to boast about our humility is an oxymoron.  In humility we are to see Jesus in others and give honor to God in recognizing his image reflected in the person we meet.  In this is our humility to say, “thank you for being Christ to me by your love, your counsel, your forgiveness, your testimony.  He who gives himself up to the world will be lost in the world and suffer the misery of a world with empty promises.  The world will simply move on to the next person who claims to be “better than you.” 

How foolish to believe in the world view that it is all about “me”, my passion and my will be done. Imagine the contradiction to hear “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  To grow in faith is to grow in humility understanding that without God we perish.  Then in the poverty of our spirit we come to him to save us for his kingdom.  Our time in this world is for God and his passion for the eternal heavenly kingdom.  We are created in his image for something greater than ourselves and we are invited to come and join him.  It is our time to choose wisely. 

In the world of “me” it is all about my “safe space”, my choice, my rights, my kingdom.  In the world of God, it is all about the “other” doing the will of the Father who art in heaven who is our strength.  Our call is to be merciful, clean of heart, peacemakers, hungering for righteousness and willing to accept persecution if necessary. 

It is not surprising that even as believers we are slow to respond to the call to follow or boast in the Lord when our flesh is weak and our hearts are vain.  The temptation is to remain in ourselves and not look to the Lord as the mind tries to compromise with the idea of “yes but not yet”.  “Yes, I want to go to heaven but not yet ready to accept death.  Yes, I want to be a saint but not yet ready to forgive.  Yes, I believe in one Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic church but not yet ready to follow all the teaching of the church.”  Not yet at least until the moment we find ourselves in need and even then, we question God “why me, Lord, why now?”

The Lord desires our prayer to be “why not me Lord, let your will be done”.  Boast in the Lord what marvelous works he has done for us, through us, and despite our own weakness.  Jesus calls us to be in him.  In his space we receive righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.  There is nothing safe about the illusion of a safe space without God.  Outside of him there is evil, fear, despair, and a pit of darkness.  Jesus came to give us the light of truth, hope where there is doubt, courage when there is fear, and the peace that comes from his love that gives us joy.  Joy to boast in the Lord.  This we are to boast when we rise each day to be sanctified, when we labor through the day in righteousness, and when we retire each night in thanksgiving for being redeemed by his love. 

Being poor in spirit we recognize we need God, his forgiveness of sin, and to trust in him.  We are to mourn those times we have failed to do good, to respond to his call, and rejected his love by our sin.  Meekness in the Lord is not wimpiness as the world defines it but our recognition of our need for God and in humility turn to him who loves us.   To hunger for righteousness begins from within to remove the splinter from our own eye before we address the beam in others.  Mercy comes to those who live by the law of forgiveness, as we forgive others, we receive forgiveness.  To be clean of heart is to say what you mean and mean what you say that is with honesty, without deceit and desiring the good of the other.  Peacemakers are not meddlers but carry the peace of Christ within and by their presence bring the light of God’s truth to bear. 

We live in a time where there is a rise in persecution for the sake of righteousness anytime the truth is spoken that abortion is killing the unborn person, that we are born male and female by God not by choice, that assisted suicide is murder, that same sex relations is a sin and anything else the social and cultural trends claim to be justified then be ready.  Immediately the insults and persecution are felt with all the “phobia” labels and racist claims that can be used to silence and cancel the voices that dare speak of God.  Living the beatitudes is not for wimps but for people of courage and endurance. 

Each day we are to fight the good fight in our daily encounters with others.  The voice in the desert is now our voice speaking to the person you encounter who will question and challenge you and may even turn against you.  This person may even be living in our home.  Will we stand or will we fall?  Boast in the Lord who will always stand by us when we stand for his truth. 

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Homily

3rd Sunday Ordinary Time – “Light has arisen!”

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Is. 8:23-9:3; Ps. 27:1, 4, 13-14; 1 Cor. 1:10-13,17; Mt.4:12-23

“Light has arisen!”  This is the light that consumes ordinary humanity and transforms it into something greater than ourselves.  Light has arisen and this light is Jesus Christ.  Jesus comes into the darkness of the world “curing every disease and illness”, the disease of sin, death, and the illness of body, mind and spirit.  The light has arisen but only upon those who respond to the call “Come after me”.  Apart from Jesus life is driven by emotions, reason, and our will not God’s will.  God’s will that we receive the infused virtues of light to know truth, righteousness, and peace.  The darkness of humanity is a vessel without the sail of faith in the one true God.  Peter, Andrew, James and John saw in Jesus the risen light and believed.   

Jesus saw in Peter, Andrew, James, John and the other apostles his church, his priestly descendancy with authority, his infallible teaching to be handed over to them to be taught before the whole world with the risen light of his gospel word made flesh as he institutes his church at the last supper, Holy Thursday.  Thus, today is more of the apologetics of the Catholic church in the world called to be one, holy, universal, and apostolic church for the meaning of Catholic is “universal”.  This is not to create separation from us and other believers who do not follow us but to remind us of the call to unity in the one body of Christ.  Recall the “Jesus’ prayer” for unity, John 17:21 “I pray…so that they may all be one, as you Father, are in me and I in you…that the world may believe that you sent me.” 

Jesus comes proclaiming “the Gospel of the kingdom”.  It is one “Gospel” that holds the totality of his word and it begins with the word made flesh.  Jesus is the “Gospel”, the good news and “Gospel” is the revelation of absolute truth.  Jesus reveals to us the absolute truth of God the Father in his Son through the Spirit.   The Spirit is within the Son and the Father and all give witness to being one.  Without fulfilling the Jesus’ prayer for unity the world has not come to believe and a divided house cannot stand.  What is the world to believe if even among believers there is such great disunity?  It can only conclude what Pontius Pilates asked Jesus, “What is truth?”. 

The call for unity is the preaching of St. Paul this day “that there be no divisions among you” Christians “but that you be united in the same mind and in the same purpose.”  Even in the early church history there are signs of division creating factions of different mindsets.  History is the great “fact checker” that is given to us to discern the one true church.  History has no partiality but records in itself and reveals to us Jesus’ kingdom coming through the call of his disciples.  History tells us the will of Jesus was to ensure unity in his church by proclaiming Peter as the “rock” of authority, by recognizing in the early church priests, bishops, deacons, and respect for the chair of Peter in Rome. 

Protestantism by its very name is a protest and rebellion against the chair of Peter and his appointed apostles.  Protestantism follows the belief in “Sola scriptura” by scripture alone do we discover the truth and the Bible is the sole infallible source of authority for Christian faith and practice.  Thus, each person should be able to pick up a bible and receive the risen light of truth and understanding without error.  Vanity of vanities to presume each person’s interpretation of the bible by reason is absolute truth and if not absolute truth at least to hold it as “my truth” from the light of reason.  This is the false truth of moral relativism leading those who follow to be their own God. 

Moral relativism proclaims that there is no one truth.  It allows each to live their truth based on their own reason without God?  Thus, where two or three come together with their agreed upon conclusion they now proclaim it to be gospel truth and they establish their own church.   However, if two or three disagree they can each go their own way with their own theology and doctrine, divided not united.  This is what St. Paul is warning his people about and what we see in our world today.  This is how the world operates with the view of “to each his own” and we can easily fall into the same false belief unless we believe that Jesus established his church and gave it authority, the keys to the kingdom to “bind and to loosen” in earth and in heaven.  (Mt. 16:19, Mt. 18:19)

I have my truth from scripture and you have yours.  If there are multiple truths from God then why the incarnation of Jesus and his sacrifice if in the end who are we really following?  “Is Christ divided?” asks St. Paul, then why are we divided?  History proves by evidence of all the denominations that the same gospel can arrive in many minds at many different doctrines unless there is one authority coming to us from the beginning of Jesus’ proclamation of the gospel.  A divided church St. Paul warns results in the cross of Christ being “emptied of its meaning[JG1] ”. 

In Jesus the light is risen from the darkness but like a virus each time it is divided and mutates into another version of itself it becomes weaker and darker and dies.  Denominations rise and denominations fall but the fullness of truth of the gospel remains in the hands of the Catholic church and history proves who came first and remains with us to this day. 

In Jesus the light is risen to be a new covenant with his people.  But wait, does not the Lord speak of this new covenant stating, “I will put my laws in their minds and I will write them upon their hearts, I will be their God, and they shall be my people”.  Is it not the same law that comes to each of us as believers then why the division?  Why appoint twelve apostles designated to go out and teach what they have received?  Humanity needs the visible guiding light to understand the call to the divine life.  Just as a child needs his parents to become a mature adult the faithful need their earthly shepherd to enter into the Father’s house. 

Once baptized the spirit of the law is received in the gift of the Holy Spirit, planted in our hearts but it cannot mature without the body of the law to guide it in this pilgrimage.  This body is the Church, these apostles are the new priestly order, and through this order Christ reveals himself in the sacramental life of the church. 

To follow Jesus through the church is a great gift for humanity because the church bears the cross of shepherding the faithful in the truth.  “The Lord is my light and my salvation” received in the sacraments of the church to be the risen light to the world.  Jesus also left us the law of the gift.  The law of the gift says that it is in giving of ourselves that we find our true self.  Jesus gave himself up on the cross for us and in dying he rose to the visible fullness of himself and appeared to many.  The law of the gift is our calling, so let us remember it’s not about self but about self-giving that sets us free to become our true self, a child of God, a visible image of the light now risen in us. 

 [JG1]

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Homily

2nd Sunday Ordinary Time – Here am I, Lord!

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Is. 49:3, 5-6; Ps. 40:2, 7-10; 1 Cor. 1:1-3; Jn.1:29-34

“Here am I, Lord…who formed me as his servant from the womb” to do his will.  We are created to love, know and serve God, not generally as a human race but individually in a personal relationship with Christ from the moment of conception until death, from the womb to the tomb and beyond.  From the womb God is already granting us his love with the gift of the soul to be in union with him.  Life has meaning and purpose and God wants to reveal to us what that is for each of us.  We have a calling in this world and each day we are to discover and uncover more and more how we have been formed to love and serve the Lord. 

Some may ask, “If all are formed in the womb to be servants of God then why so much evil, division and chaos in this world?”  This question is more frequently asked as “If God is good why is there evil in this world?”  Formed to be servant recognizes the freedom to choose good or evil, right or wrong, obedience or rebellion.  Thus, the history of the world and of salvation history is filled with story upon story of who responded according to God’s will and who rejected his command to do his will, deceived by the evil one and by our own free will.  “Here am I Lord, I come to do your will is to be obedient whether convenient or inconvenient because you call upon me and you will it.  This is where the expression “the rubber meets the road” becomes our test.  Do we will to do his will or our own? 

To do God’s will is beyond obedience simply because he is God and we are not.   Obedience to God’s will does not make us slaves as puppets on a string.  Obedience to God is freedom, joy, peace, and love because the blessings, graces, and gifts from God are multiplied and continue to form us according to his image to be great saints.  When we obey and follow God’s commandments our lives are guided and protected and we grow in sanctity becoming our true self, perfected by his love we are free indeed. 

In Exodus, Moses asks God, “Who am I?  What do I tell them?”  God replies “I AM has sent me to you”.  The I AM is calling us to respond “Here am I, Lord” but often we remain doubtful still wondering “who am I to accept the call?”  “I AM” in Hebrew meaning is “I will be” as in becoming for the God of creation who is seeking us to become according to his will.  He becomes in us what is needed for us to be his servant and fulfill a divine purpose if we open ourselves to his becoming in us, with us, and for us.  God is waiting for our response “Here am I, Lord” for a transformation to go forth from our humanity to his divine calling yet we are more ready to question “Who am I?  Not I, Lord.”   

Last week was the Epiphany of the Lord marking the end of the Christmas liturgical season and the beginning of Ordinary Time with the celebration of the baptism of the Lord.  Little history is revealed to us of the life of Jesus over a period of thirty years.  Was the Lord simply living and growing in his humanity or was something else happening to prepare himself for the purpose he had come into the world.   In the finding of Jesus in the temple he tells his parents in Luke 2:49 “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?  He…was obedient to them; and Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man.”  This was not idle time this was formation time in his divine call.  There is a time to plant, a time to grow and a time to harvest yet every moment is also a time to respond “Here am I, Lord” open to your call. 

God is planting and growing in us his Word but he also calls on his harvest at the right time.  We are to be vigilant so that in every moment we are called we are ready to say, “Here am I, Lord”.  This is not about me feeling ready, worthy, or strong enough for the challenge.  “God is now my strength!”  To do the will of the Lord is beyond our strength.  He is the strength we need, he alone parts the waters, and raises the dead.  We are to trust in him to receive power “to become children of God” and do the ordinary will of God that is extraordinary for our being. 

When the church makes the call for volunteers to be involved in music ministry, lectors, extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist, catechism teachers or support fellowship activities do we ask “who am I” or do we say “here am I”?  The Church is not waiting for professionals to step up but for faithful servants to respond and contribute as a sign of love of God and love of neighbor.  John the Baptist in the gospel of Mathew tries to tell Jesus “Who am, I” to baptize Jesus with the words, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?”  Jesus’ response was “Allow it now”.  God’s call is not about our readiness but about his will calling us to “allow it now”. 

The Lord has spoken who formed Jesus as his servant from the womb of Mary.  We are born into this world from the womb of a woman but in the waters of baptism we are reborn in spirit from the womb of Mary to be our mother. 

John the Baptist recognizes Jesus as the man to come who “existed before me” and to testify “he is the Son of God.”  John’s testimony came from the spirit himself to reveal himself upon Jesus coming down “like a dove from heaven”.  The Spirit is the one who sent John to baptize with water in order to reveal himself upon Jesus and testify Jesus is the Son of God.  For this John came to be into this world, to grow and to become a servant of the Lord in life and in death. 

The story is also true for you and I, we are born to be and become in the image of God, to wait upon the call of the Lord and to respond to the call as his servant “Here am I, Lord.  Do with me according to your will.”  It is a call to surrender in order to be free, to be weak in order to be given power, to trust in order to see, to love in order to serve.  “Allow it now!” 

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Homily

The Epiphany of the Lord

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Is. 60:1-6; Ps. 72:1-2, 7-8, 10-13; Eph. 3:2-3a, 5-6; Mt.2:1-12

The Epiphany of the Lord is the manifestation of Jesus to the world marked by the appearance of the three magi or as we often refer to them as the “three Kings or wise men”.  “On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me” the Epiphany of Jesus in all his humanity and divinity.  “On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me” the manifestation of the Christ for all the world to see.  Christmas is Jesus pouring out himself onto the world, through his graces, his answered prayers, his miracles of life and his everyday presence to us in spirit and in the Eucharist.  While the season of Christmas ends, Jesus offers us Christmas every day because he is the gift that keeps on giving. 

The question for us is “what is our gift to him this year?”  On the day we depart this world and judgment comes did we give ourselves to him with loving sacrifice?  Pope Benedict Emeritus died this week leaving us a legacy of his body of work as a theologian, scholar, priest and Father.  Some have already referred to him as a “doctor” of the church with a small “d” since that title has not been officially given.  In some ways it reminds us of the death of Pope John Paul II who quickly began being referred as a Saint.  Titles aside what where the last words of Pope Benedict as he died?  It was, “I love you, Jesus.”   This was his last gift to the Lord to testify his giving of himself, his love, his heart, his all.

We hear in the second reading “the stewardship of God’s grace…has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit”.  This Spirit we have received in baptism as priest, prophet and king to share as “coheirs, members of the same body” alleluia, alleluia!  It is a gift and we have a choice to make, to give Jesus the homage of thanksgiving by how we live our lives or to squander it by following the illusion of this world that denies God his rights to our lives.  We are called to be good stewards of his gifts, to multiply the good they are designed to produce, to reflect the love of Jesus in our souls and in our acts.  We are called to be Jesus in a world that does not recognize him. 

Today there are many in the image of Herod who speak of doing homage to the Lord calling themselves a follower of the faith but whose actions resemble the evil intent of Herod seeking to be their own king and authority above all.  It happens within the church and from without because ideology is their god.  Words like “conservative, liberal, or activist” are used not just in the political environment but within the church to oppose each other with different personal ideology.  Where is our homage to the one true God, to the one truth, to the Word made flesh that came to us over 2000 years ago to bring unity by declaring to Peter “you are the rock” and placed his trust in his Church?  History is a sign that Herod still lives with the desire to kill truth and unity seen in the Reformation, seen in secularism, seen in a culture of death and relativism. 

Ideology is about a system of self governing based on ideas and ideals of secularism where God and faith can only exist for the private life with no bearing on public governance.  Remembering Pope Benedict XVI’s view of our times he called it a “dictatorship of relativism”.  You have your God and I have mine or no god at all but regardless it has no place in governance.  This movement of relativism now feels empowered to dictate and to “cancel” anyone who disagrees with their ideology where there is no good, not truth beyond a personal one, no faith except in the power of oneself.  This is the dictatorship of relativism.  What now?

Pope Benedict is quoted, “To have Christian hope means to know about evil and yet to go to meet the future with confidence.”  Evil is from the evil one and it can be very deceptive, the wolf in sheep’s clothing is often the most dangerous because it prowls about the world seeking the ruin of souls quietly before revealing itself to claim to be the standard, normalized by a culture that hungers for “what’s in it for me?”.  The Epiphany of the Lord is the arrival of the ever-present future, Emmanuel, God is with us and we fear not to face this world with confidence. 

When someone dies, we reflect not only on the life of the person but also their legacy.  Pope Benedict wrote 66 books, 3 Encyclicals, 4 Exhortations, and innumerable homilies but this is not the essence of his legacy.  The essence of his legacy is how he lived his final words in his humility, his obedience, and his call to shepherd the people of God with his love of Christ.  Some look at legacy as a summary of accomplishments but Jesus looks at us as a sum total of our love, love of God and love of neighbor. 

So, if love had a scale of 1-10, one being “not very loving”, characterized by “what’s in it for me” and 10 being “divine love” reflective of “all for the glory of God”, where do we see our love rating?  If we are honest with ourselves, we will see that we have our work cut out for ourselves in our spiritual growth.  If we find it hard to judge ourselves then just ask someone you live with and don’t get offended if your rated lower than you expected.  We are all working to build the kingdom of God by one act of love at a time.  The Epiphany of the Lord is now how you and I manifest Christ to the world. 

How do we manifest Christ to the world?  It begins by receiving the Word through the gospel, through the body and blood of Christ and though the Spirit as a revelation of Christ himself.  It is fulfilled by the incarnation of the Word in our very being.  It is no longer the “I” that lives in me but the Epiphany of Christ that lives revealing his love, his mercy, his justice.  The celebration of the Epiphany of the Lord is Christ before me, Christ beside me and Christ within me. Amen. 

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