Rom 6: 12-18; Lk 12:39-48
The first reading reminds me of the mind and heart of a small child. They know so well that their parents are an authority to be obedient and listen to. They also know so well that if some other adult tries to give commands they are quick to point out, “you are not the boss of me”. The idea that ultimately we will choose to be “obedient slaves” to either sin or righteousness, slaves none the less but there is a difference. The person who is a slave to sin becomes powerless in their free will and without free will become puppets to the passions of sin. There is a personality change and they will often say, “It wasn’t I anymore.” Thoughts, emotions, interests and behaviors become slaves to the sin and the person becomes dead to themselves. In contrast the person who is a slave to righteousness discovers their true identity through obedience but they must be the drivers of their free will. In sin you figuratively speaking “turn over the wheel” to be driven to death. In righteousness you discover greater responsibility and need to be vigilant. It also build’s our spiritual muscle because we invest all of ourselves, our senses both corporal and spiritual as we overcome life’s challenges and dangers. We gain the power of virtues through grace and experience the freedom of our true nature, our calling, our life in Christ.
The gospel lets us know that as slaves of righteousness our concern is not the hour or day when the Master will come. We are already doing the work of heaven. We welcome his coming because greater will be our freedom. Padre Pio and many other saints recognized their limitations as servants of God on earth and looked forward to the day of departure from this world because they would be able to do more from heaven. Death was a homecoming celebration. In contrast the person who is slave to sin is being warned that even a greater punishment is ahead after death of the flesh. Here the gospel draws a distinction between the sinner who know his Master’s will and the sinner who was “ignorant of his Master’s will, but acted in a way deserving of a severe beating”. Who are those in each of these groups? I am reminded of St. Paul. As Saul, he earned in ignorance a “severe beating” in persecuting the early Christians. In his conversion Paul still suffered a “beating” as the one persecuted and more was expected of him. In obedience to righteousness more was also given to him. Paul is recognized for the spread of the early church more than any of the other Apostles and he shares his hardships in his writings. The question to ask ourselves is “where am I in the Saul to Paul conversion?” What are my blind spots to the will of God in my life? Am I living under assumptions that as a good person I am obedience enough or is God asking more of me and I am resisting him. It can be said that in the life of the saints many resisted God’s call. They had to overcome their doubts, put aside their own thinking, listen to the will of God and even then tried God’s patience when there were clear signs and visions of God’s will. Truly if they found it difficult to say “yes” we too have much to overcome to know, love, and serve God. Our comfort is in the Comforter, the Holy Spirit to enlighten our spirit, to open the path to God’s mercy and to strengthen us in our resolve to make this day, God’s day in our life. For yesterday we pray for mercy, for today we pray for the strength to say “yes Lord”, and for tomorrow we seek the knowledge, and confirmation of being a servant of God. This we recognize in the fruits of God’s love and blessings we receive. In this we recognize our inheritance, a kingdom made for heaven ready to receive him at the moment of his coming. “Who is the boss of you?”
29th Week Ordinary Time Wednesday 25th
24th Sunday in Ordinary Time
1 Sir. 27:30-28:7; 2 Rom. 14:7-9; Mt. 18:21-35
Think twice! I love dogs. All our dogs have a special place in my heart but I am not one to kiss a dog. Some people do but I pass on that. Now if you said kissing a dog brought me freedom well I might think twice. I also love jalapenos but I would not want to eat 100 of them. If I was told eating 100 would bring me the grand prize then I might think twice. This Sunday’s message continues the Lord’s call for forgiveness. If you recall I started last week with the basic principle that God is a God of order. In the order of salvation history Jesus presents an analogy of God’s love and mercy in forgiveness of our sin in the form of a debt. We love to hear that. The order of forgiveness also has a mandate to forgive others and that his mercy also requires justice. We are not as eager to hear that justice requires something of us. It requires equal justice of our neighbor. His mercy depends on our acts of forgiveness for equal justice in the order of salvation to be perfected in salvation history. In short sin has consequences and forgiveness expectations.
The gospel reminds us of the consequence of sin but with hope. How many of us have hoped for purgatory? I suspect not many but think twice. We want to be forgiven with a straight ticket to heaven and no conditions. The hope of today’s gospel is that when we fail to be forgiving there is still the hope of settling the debt without eternal damnation. Purgatory is our hope. We don’t speak of purgatory or preach of purgatory very much, it makes people uncomfortable. It is like asking someone to kiss their dog. Why go there? For many our sins call for justice and purgatory is an assurance of heaven but not yet. What is purgatory?
The Catechism titles it “The Final Purification”. All our baptismal life we have been called to holiness, to be the light of Christ and to be sanctified by our faithfulness to God, Church, and God’s people. Sometimes the weakness of our human condition makes it difficult. Sometimes our readiness to respond is uncommitted. We desire to be holy but not yet. Heaven however requires holiness.
1st Corinthians 3: 10-15 speaks of a building upon a foundation that is given to us, “namely Jesus Christ” but to be careful how we build upon this with our lives “because the work of each will come to light for the Day will disclose it. What day, Judgment Day. “It will be revealed with fire and the fire itself will test the quality of each one’s work. If the work stands…it will receive a wage. But if someone’s work is burned up, that one will suffer loss; the person will be saved, but only as through fire.” Purgatory is the cleansing fire. Many of our separated brothers like to ask the question, “Have you been saved?” The theology is that once your saved heaven is the next destination on some “jet” wings. We don’t hear the question, “Are you a saint, holy and purified? The assumption is that baptism took care of that for all eternity. The problem with the argument is that scripture speaks to the “elect” about correcting their sins and the consequence of the cleansing fire for our sins “for the Day will disclose it”.
Dante describes purgatory as a “place where we go to wash our baptismal robles” of those sins. It is a cleansing by fire. The white garment received at baptism is a sign of purity but life brings about the stain of sin. The stain is cleansed in confession. It is also cleansed in suffering, to carry the cross, to fight the good fight of faith, hope, and love. Cleansing does not need to wait for purgatory. The invitation is here and now every day of our lives. In contrast wrath is one of the capital sins found in Dante’s circles of hell.
I was listening to Catholic radio and they were speaking of death. The host mentioned the days when churches had their own cemetery on the same grounds as the church. It was a reminder of those who have died in Christ, to pray for them, and to celebrate life in the body and blood of Christ who conquered death and brings us new life. It was also a reminder of our mortality and to prepared by our receiving each day as a gift from above and making an offering up to God our good works and sacrifices.
We pray for the dead and offer up Masses to assist the “dead” in their purification through the sacrifice offering at the altar in atonement for their sins. The Catechism (1032) quotes St. John Chrysostom saying, “If Job’s sons were purified by their father’s sacrifice, why would we doubt that our offerings for the dead bring them some consolation? Let us not hesitate to help those who have died to offer our prayers for them.”
There are many stories in the lives of the saints where they have experience apparitions of a person who has died asking for prayer or an offering of a Mass. These include priests or religious who claim to suffer in purgatory waiting for freedom from the fire of purification. The soul is alive waiting the day it too will be reunited to a glorified body but not yet. The final beatific vision has not arrived.
Jesus raises the bars of justice when he says “You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, “you shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment. But I say to you whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment…liable to fiery Gehenna (Mt. 5:21-22). Gehenna is the “unquenchable fire…reserved for those who to the end of their lives refuse to believe and be converted, where both soul and body are lost” (CCC:1033). Thus we have in the first reading the admonition speaking that “Wrath and anger are hateful things, yet the sinner hugs them tight.” So let us just clarify. The emotion of anger of itself is not a sin. It is how we respond to this emotion. The thoughts that feed it to wrath and vengefulness leads to sin. It is the holding on to these emotions that becomes an act of the will for sin is an act of the free will. “Remember your last days, set enmity aside; remember death and decay and cease from sin!” says scripture today.
Mercy requires a merciful heart for healing of sin. “Pay back what you owe” is not from a vengeful God who was patient with us all our lives waiting for the good works of mercy from us and then strikes us dead. It is a consequence of the choices we made by our free will. It is like the old commercial from Midas, “pay me now or pay me later”. Purgatory is later. Mercy demands justice and justice demands acts of mercy. What we are to give is small compared to what we are being offered without comparison. The good news of today is that God is waiting for us to take that first step of mercy and he will take the ninety-nine steps to bring us he love and mercy. Dare we be so proud as to hold onto the anger and wrath or do we fulfill this day the commandment of “love one another as I have loved you.” Choose wisely but remember that heaven requires holiness and holiness is a process of purification and purification is something we can start this day in the celebration of the Mass. Purification begins with a confession of our sinfulness and an act of atonement that is accomplished by our good works of mercy and love for one another.
We had someone come and speak to our community here at St. Francis Xavier of her vision of heaven and hell after a death experience. Those are transformational events that bring life, death, and eternity into reality. We are to live each day as if it is our first, our last, our only day to live as a gift from above to love to forgive and to be the best God created us to be.
The lifespan of a dog is perhaps 10 -13 years but in human years is 60-74. Do we want to extend our time in purgatory in dog years or human years? The kiss of death is sin but for a kiss of freedom think twice the grand prize is waiting.
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Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows
Memorial to Our Lady of Sorrows
1 Tm 1:1-2, 12-14; Jn 19:25-27 or Lk 2:33-35
Our Memorial to Our Lady of Sorrow brings to mind the Stations of the Cross we pray here at St. Francis Xavier parish. They focus on Christ crucified through the eyes of Mary, her acceptance in a sorrowful heart for she “knew it had to be.”
There is a connection from last Sunday’s readings and this Sunday’s readings on forgiveness and Mary is at the center as a witness of a forgiving sorrowful heart At the moment of her greatest grief to see her son’s passion and death and before Jesus takes his last breath he calls to his mother to accept the disciple a sinner as a son. He calls the disciple a sinner and with him all of us disciples in faith to be sons and daughters of Mary. In the first reading we see the power of forgiveness in Paul. Paul testifies to his great sin and God’s great mercy. Paul a leader in the persecution of Jesus is transformed into a warrior for Christ and as an Apostle for the Church. The power of forgiveness is transforming and brings perfection of holiness. Want to be a saint, start with forgiving everyone and every evil in the name of Christ crucified and in Mary’s sorrow and we will not be far from the kingdom.
The two optional gospel readings make us aware that the Memorial to Our Lady of Sorrows represents her whole journey of motherhood beginning with Simeon’s prophetic voice, “you yourself a sword will pierce so that the thought of many hearts may be revealed”. That prophecy can be seen at the crucifixion when Jesus is pierced by the sword to confirm his death and Simeon’s prophecy of Mary’s sorrow. Her sorrow begins to take on a mission and purpose and continues to the foot of the cross. It does not stop there, it remains today as Mother of sinners whose sins pierce her heart and scourge her Son. She too must bear her own cross. What is revealed in the hearts of many? It is our sinfulness. It lays bare for the final purification. It lays bare so that we may come to the cross and seek forgiveness and reconciliation. It lays bare so we can achieve eternal glory.
The sorrows of life can begin to weigh heavy on our minds and souls. They can challenge our faith. Without God they can become despair and depression. We can also unite them to the cross and to Mary’s sorrowful heart. They can be signs of a deeper call to prayer, to pray always and to be in the reals presence of our Lord in the silence of our hearts. It is an invitation to surrender ourselves knowing we can’t bear our sorrows alone. Here we find grace waiting to manifest in our lives. Grace heals and strengthens us not simply to bear the cross but to receive sanctification, to enter into holiness. Our sorrow purifies for it is in our weakness that we too can be transformed. It does not end there. It is a new beginning as disciples called to go forth, to share the mission of mercy to “love one another as I have loved you.”
In suffering there is not only purification but the manifestation of virtues. Faith, hope and love blossom. Prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude become our foundation. Who we are and why we are here becomes our light and our salvation. As a song says, “We live, we love, we forgive and we never give up cause the days we are given are gifts from above and today we remember to live and to love” (Chorus by Super Chicks)
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23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time
Today’s principle message is of reconciliation. To arrive at reconciliation we need to take a step back to the 1st principle of God. God is a God of order. In God we have a need for order and unity. It can be said that if God is a God of order and science is the study of an ordered universe then science is the study of God revealed in his order. Science is however subordinate to the highest order of truth, a lower order of truth. What does all this philosophy have to do with reconciliation?
To be in unity with God we must be reconciled with each other. We must restore order to our relationships. In contrast disunity is the poison of disorder. We must begin with ourselves. “if today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” Our hearts must be open to reconciliation to be in unity of mind, body, and spirit. Perhaps our struggle of relationships is a deeper struggle of self. Our own restlessness and disunity promotes disorder in our relationships.
The first reading is God’s call to reconciliation with Him, to hear his voice and be in right relationship with the God of love while the second mandate is to be in reconciliation with our neighbor. With God we have a sacrament of reconciliation to renew the bond of love. With neighbor we have a calling to dialogue but dialogue requires the desire for unity and free will cannot force unity in a hardened heart. Thus as the gospel reading makes clear our obligation is limited by the heart of the other. We can directly seek reconciliation and extend peace, we can seek unity through others and we can turn to the church as a voice of truth. We then must let go and let God in God’s time work in the hearts of others.
The order of unity is love where two or three agree on anything through prayer it shall be granted for the greater good. In the first reading God testifies that we are to proclaim the Word of God when we hear him speak. God speaks in scripture all the time but there are those moments in time when it speaks directly to us. It is when the person in the pew feels “that is coming towards me”. It enters our soul to awaken us to his truth in our particular situation and to reconcile us in our relationships.
The Word also takes flesh in our flesh when we witness evil, sin, injustice, abuse, and neglect to awaken our duty to respond to the danger of eternal death. There is a cultural paradigm shift going on in our society to silence speech whether by so called “safe zones” or by outright inflammatory speech and violence. Billy Graham started his ministry on a street corner preaching the Word of God’s love, mercy and call for reconciliation. Today, I fear he would be stoned to death, persecuted or injured for offending a group of people in the pubic square.
God seeks to reconcile the world to himself and we are called to be the voice of dialogue beginning at home, in our communities, and in our engagement on world issues. The consequence of sin is death. How many souls remain resentful and unforgiving? Malachy McCourt states, “Resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die.” Many souls are dying with resentful hearts. They feel justified in their resentment. They see forgiving as a sign of weakness, giving into the other person or giving up their cause The cause is never given up if it seeks truth, not my truth or your truth but God’s truth.
What are we to do? Rev. Dr. William Mitchell says, “Forgiving is a gift given in the face of a moral wrong, without denying the wrong itself.” Give the gift don’t dney the harm that can eat us up alive inside. We give the gift and let God take care of the rest. This comes from a heart of love greater than the wrong done. It is a voluntary decision to give up the desire for revenge and release a person from any interpersonal debt incurred by wronging you. This comes from a mind that is willing to make an act of forgiveness, perhaps by going to confession to invite God to help us release the pain and receive his grace. Forgiveness is a process both emotional in dealing with the anger, hurt, and disappointment and of the mind in understanding the behavior, the person, and having empathy.
What are we not to do? We don’t minimize the reality of what happened. We don’t forget or repress the memory we learn to let it go. Sometimes memory has its own sense of humor. We stop talking to someone for years and we don’t remember why but we remember the anger. Forgiving is not making excuses for the other or oneself. Forgiving is not tolerating negative behavior that only keeps us angry. Forgiving is not something we do after we “get even”, two wrong don’t make it right. I remember a woman who came in for counseling for depression and anger management. She was very remorseful for hitting her husband with a 2X4 piece of stud saying, “he made me mad”. Anger is not a sin it is what we do with our anger that becomes a poison.
Forgiveness, reconciliation, mercy is seeing Jesus on the cross and accepting his love is open to all sinners and we can be an instrument of his love. The world is in need of more and more reconciliation. The path to destruction begins with the silencing of the voice of the other leading to disunity, then disorder and finally destruction. Even if we disagree we need to be at least willing to agree to disagree in dialogue. God works where two or three are gathered in his name.
Who is our model for forgiveness and reconciliation? The one called “full of grace”, Blessed Mother Mary a model of humility. The Mother who stood at the cross of her Son’s persecution remained in perfect love and did not sin. Did she feel all the human emotions of anger, grief, pain and suffering? Yes, she did. She overcame them with love. In Jesus, God became more like man to bring us to reconciliation. In Mary humanity became more like God to be perfect as God is perfect. God entrusts in us the message of reconciliation to be more like Christ. This too takes great courage.
Literature speaks of four great themes of life. There is a “comedy” where anything that can go wrong does go wrong but in the end all ends well. There is a “romance” where life has its passion and challenges that seek a higher unity of life. There is a “tragedy” with a sad ending, a sense of loss and emptiness. There is also an “irony” where we are left with no understanding and confusion. So how does this play out with reconciliation?
“Comedy”: Why did it take so long to make up? I don’t know but you started it. You also held onto it for so long but now together we end it.
“Romance”: I was so angry because I love you so much. I wish it had never happened but we are much closer now and understanding of each other.
“Tragedy”: What happened cannot be undone and letting go is not easy. I still love you but life goes on without you now and I can accept it.
“Irony”: Though I will never completely understand I trust in God and accept his will for my life.
In each of these themes of life we can find God’s peace and reconciliation. Let us harden not our hearts to his voice calling us back to his love and mercy. Forgiving all injuries is a spiritual work of mercy. “Love one another” and we will receive God’s peace of heart.
Let us pray an act of love and reconciliation. “O my God, I love you above all things with my whole heart and soul, because you are all-good and worthy of all my love. I love my neighbor as myself for the love of you. I forgive all who have injured me, and I ask pardon of all whom I have injured. Amen.” (Handbook for Catholics, Loyola Press 1995, pg. 8)
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Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
1 Kgs 3: 5, 7-12; Rom. 8: 28-30; Mt. 13: 44-52
How many lives do you impact? We seldom stop to recognize the impact we are making in the world. The lives that we encounter daily at home raising a family, at work serving a purpose, in our gatherings of celebration expressing our joy, in funerals expressing our compassion, and in the streets with the stranger, the store clerk, server, child, or elderly. We impact many lives and make a difference in this world.
Solomon was a youth who understood the impact his life would have on thousands of lives and he wanted to serve with an understanding heart to judge, distinguish right from wrong. We too participate in the kingdom of God making an impact on many lives in the seen and unseen. Until heaven will it be revealed to us completely. We journey in the ordinary of life faithful to our state. The ordinary does not imply insignificance. To the contrary, if God is with us everything is significant. We are here to make a difference in the history of salvation. We must remain open to the work of the Spirit.
One of the sad statistics of today is the rising suicide rates among the general population but especially among youth where it has doubled and even tripled in some areas in the last ten years. One testimony of a father whose son named Will a talented boy, good grades, played sports, wrote lyrics for a band, successful in every aspect of his life, dead at 15 from suicide. Like Solomon this boy felt all the pressure to be perfect. He took serious his responsibilities. He also knew that if he made a mistake everyone would know about it by lunch time with all the social media at the fingertips of everyone’s phone. Solomon desired to judge rightly. Will feared being judged wrongly. Will’s dad was thinking “everything is great!” Today his message to youth is “Wow, this is really hard.” The challenges of this world require faith, hope, and love, they require God in our lives.
There is a desert experience we must all pass through. There is also a promised land. The Old Testament daily readings this week have been from Exodus. Moses leading the people through the desert and each hardship is a test of faith. Our focus is on the Promised Land. The Kingdom, the Promised land starts here in the present, in the ordinary, in Mass, in his body and blood, and in our struggles blessed to carry the cross.
Even when there is a shared struggle in life like the loss of a loved one each experiences their own unique grief. “Wow, this is really hard. No kidding!” Are we prepared to face the desert experience when it comes? Solomon’s prayer to God is a servant’s prayer. He understood who he was serving in all he would be called to do. His prayer was for what he needed to be a good servant, not to grow rich or rule with power. His desire was to build a kingdom for God, a treasure buried in a field unseen to others but discovered in his heart; a kingdom of fine pearls of wisdom, and a net that catches souls of every kind.
“We know all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” Do we walk in the steps we are predestined responding to the call, justified by conforming to the image of Jesus, glorified by the love of God? How do we know? When we walk in his steps says St. Paul in Galatians we gain the fruits of the Spirit. We have and share our “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. (Gal. 5:22-23). That is nine gifts which we can recall as, in the power of the Spirit he strengthens our faithfulness, gentleness and self-control to become the image of the Son in patience, kindness, and generosity and arrive at the Father’s love with joy and peace in our hearts.
Fidelity to the word made flesh nurtures us into the gentleness of a child of faith to be obedient in self-control. Patience is also self-restraint with kindness giving of ourselves in generosity. The heart of understanding comes to know the will of the Father and celebrates the truth of knowledge with joy and peace resting in the Father’s heart.
All this lead us to an extraordinary life in the ordinary of life. Here we are called to be the best we can be in his image. Who shared in our humanity a fidelity to the ordinary and was called to the extraordinary? It was our Blessed Mother Mary. Until the angel appears Mary was faithful to her ordinary daily life. It is from this faithfulness that God sees the fruit of the Spirit and called her and many other Saints to an extraordinary life of greater sanctity.
Today we have the “new and the old”, the completion of the Word in the Old Testament and the New Testament, in the law of obedience and in the law of the Spirit of fidelity, our love in action. Each life leaves it legacy for generations to come. It is the legacy of love that endures.
Come to the Promise Land. The invitation requires no RSVP, No Regrets, only Mary’s fiat, “let it be done according to your will” Lord.
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Ascension of the Lord
Where does a nine day Novena come from? That was the question posed to me one day. Nine days represent the time of prayer between the Ascension of the Lord and the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples. In prayer a Novena is a longing for the coming of the Lord, the anticipation and a realization of his return. The power of the Holy Spirit gives witness to his coming “to the ends of the earth”. Each baptized faithful is a temple of the Holy Spirit. The “two men dressed in white garments …said,…’men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.” (Acts 1:10-11) We are to look not up to the sky for him but look ahead to where he wants us to take him in our love, our actions, our kerygma, proclaiming the kingdom of God.
“The Father of glory…gave him as head over all things to the church which is his body the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.” (Eph. 1:17, 22-23) His body given to the church which we receive in the Eucharist is in communion the fullness of all things from Jesus. His is the authority, power, and dominion above all things and in Him it is now our authority, power, and dominion called to go forth. This is the witness of disciples transformed into Apostles to go forth and heal the sick, cast out demons, have authority to forgive and be renewed in the sacramental life through his body, blood, soul, and divinity.
We long to belong. It is God’s creation, in our DNA to belong. Where we belong is a choice of daily life. We choose to belong to a family, to a community, to a house of worship. When we say “yes” to the invitation to belong to God it comes with a promise and a shared responsibility. The church says “welcome” and “go forth”. Welcome to the love of Jesus and go forth to spread God’s love to others.
Go forth into a world where there is much suffering, a world in need of the proclamation of the Kingdom of God. Where does suffering go to die? It dies where we find joy, purpose, and meaning in the calling. The calling comes from God. The calling is rooted in living our core values. Those values are in our Christian heritage, passed on by our practice of faith, our traditions, and our sacramental life. It is our inheritance to pass on and our responsibility.
There is a story of an American researcher who went to study the customs of a Japanese education system. As he sat at the back of the class doing his observation and taking notes, the teacher asked the students to draw a cube. He went around the class and found one child who had drawn it incorrectly. He asked, “Hiroshi would you like to come up to the board and draw a cube?” The boy said “yes” with excitement. After attempting to draw the cube he asked the class, “Class, did Hiroshi draw the cube correctly?” They all said “no”. The researcher felt bad for the child. The teacher asked Hiroshi, “Would you like to try again to draw a cube?” He said, “yes” and made a second attempt. The teacher asked the class, “Did Hiroshi draw the cube correctly?” The class said “no” all together. The researcher not only started to feel bad for the child but felt the anxiety and projected feelings of humiliation for the “poor” child. The teacher asked Hiroshi again, “Would you like to try again to draw a cube?” The child said, “yes” and again he did it wrong, and again he asked the class and all said “no”. By now the researcher was feeling the physical pain of this stressful activity wondering “why, put this child through this?” Once again the child was asked if he wanted to try again and he said “yes”. This time he drew it correctly. The teacher asked the class, “Did Hiroshi draw the cube correctly?” The all said “yes!” and began to clap. The ones who drew it correctly did not have a lesson to learn but the child who went through the struggle and persevered learned a life lesson beyond how to draw a cube.
Brother and sisters, the calling is to, “proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching…be possessed in all circumstances; put up with hardship; perform the work of an evangelist; fulfill your ministry.” (2 Tim 4: 2, 5) Those called before us have finished their race and kept the faith, now it is our turn “for all who have longed for his appearance”. (2 Tim 4: 8) Go forth the Kingdom of God is at hand.
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5th Week of Lent
Lazarus come out! That was this Sunday’s call from Jesus. As we approach Holy Week our scriptures have us reflect more on death and God’s power over death. We saw it on Sunday’s gospel in the death of Lazarus and Jesus announcing, “I am the resurrection and the life, whoever believes in me, even if he dies will live and everyone who believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” That is the question we need to answer for ourselves in facing death. Fear of death is a powerful force for the evil one to use on us.
This week King Nebuchadnezzar in his “utter rage” has Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego bound and thrown into the furnace but four appear to be walking in the fire, unfazed by it, and the “fourth looks like the son of God”. How is it that Nebuchadnezzar recognizes the fourth as the “son of God” but the Jews don’t recognize the son of God before them fulfilling the scriptures? The great sign is victory over death. Soon we will be celebrating the passion of the Lord and Jesus victory over death. “Do you believe this?” Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, Martha, and Mary believed.
The fear of death is powerful among the earthly living? Why, a lack of faith? Perhaps one reason is we are taught the definition of death is “the end of life…a permanent and irreversible cessation of all vital functions” in Webster’s Dictionary. This is a contradiction to God’s spirit in us for everlasting life. If this humanity was the true “end of life” then Jesus coming is a myth for the weak and vulnerable and his miracles an illusion.
Science will attest that in human development all our cell structure dies and is renewed about every five years; thus an infant dies to itself to become a child, and a child dies to become a teen…in more ways than one…and a teen passes on to become an adult and the adult an elderly person with the same spirit and soul given to the infant. We are not in the custom of saying each dies to itself into the next stage of life, we say we grow and develop. We also grow and develop into the divine life and image of our creator. Jesus calls us to die to oneself and be transformed into his image.
The final transformation is to leave this body for a spiritual state and then the final coming when we will have an incorruptible body reunited to our soul. Two more stages to grow into. Recall the transfiguration of Jesus when he appears with Moses and Elijah, they are all alive.
So what is death? Sin is death and death is a permanent and irreversible separation from God. We fear mortal death and don’t fear sin to the pleasure of the evil one who desires our permanent and irreversible separation from God. Human decay is the stench of sin. Death where is your sting? It is in sin. Jesus victory over death is not a mortal victory over the body, it is the victory over sin for our humanity that we may believe.
Catechism has clear teaching on death. In #1105 we read, we must “be away from the body and at home with the Lord. In that ‘departure’ which is death the soul is separated from the body. It will be reunited with the body on the day of the resurrection of the dead. #1006 say, “Death is in fact ‘the wages of sin.” #1007 says, “Death is the end of earthly life.” #1008 says, “Death is a consequence of sin.” And, #1009 says, “Death is transformed by Christ.”
It also reminds us to die in a state of Christ’s grace is to participate in the Lord’s death so we can also share his Resurrection (#1006). This participation we will be celebrating liturgically this coming Holy Week but we live it daily. Thus as scripture says, “not all will die” but all share Christ’s death. Let us remain among the living for all eternity. Prepare to live on!
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Third Sunday of Lent 2017
Ex 17:3-7; Rom 5:1-2, 5-8; Jn 4:5-42
Where you focus your heart will follow. This week I had the blessing and honor of baptizing two children and in the celebration after there were some newborn infants among the extended family. The joy of being able to hold an infant was seen in the gazing eyes upon each child, both in a tangible sense of growing love in the eyes and warmth in the arms as each person took turns carrying a child. At the moment a focused heart on that child was all that was important.
Lent is that invitation to have a focused heart for “the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” and it does not disappoint. Jesus is focused on our salvation waiting our response. This Lenten journey is an invitation to refocus from distractions and temptations through a discipline of abstinence, fasting, and “other forms of penance, especially works of charity and exercises of piety” (Canon 1253). Focus on the face of God on the cross for our sins, on the face of God in the poor, homeless, orphan, widow and the greater sense of suffering in the world with love that leads to acts of charity.
Focus on the deeper sense of sinfulness in the silence of our hearts revealed through scripture study, in prayer, and in communion. In the Lenten discipline we can enter into the Exodus experience of the people who hunger and thirst and are tempted in weakness to harden their hearts away from God. Our awareness of suffering is a challenge of faith but also an opportunity to turn to God in repentance, humility, and trust in God’s mercy. Do you believe?
In contrast the Samaritan woman living in sin had faith to believe. The encounter is with a stranger, a Jew who does not follow the cultural norms of avoiding a Samaritan but engages her. Jesus’ thirst for water is both an act of humanity and divinity as he prepares her heart for living water after confessing her sinful lifestyle. Jesus arouses her faith as she responds, “Are you greater than our father Jacob?” How often we encounter someone of a different faith but share a belief in one God. Is not our search for the same living water and our encounter an opportunity to draw water from the well of faith in the other? In dialogue a Christian, a Jew, and a Muslim is an encounter with “a spring of water welling up to eternal life”. The faith of our ancestors meets at the mountain of God to do the will of the Father.
Our mountain is the altar of sacrifice in the Eucharist where we offer our sacrifice of worship and thanksgiving in spirit and truth to “acclaim the rock of our salvation”. With joyful praise our hope and focus is to turn to the one who says, “I have called you friends” (John 15:15) and invite him to stay with us. St. Thomas calls friendship a virtue which is an excellence of attention to love of God and love of neighbor.
In the celebration event following the baptisms there was plenty of deserts to eat. One young man asked his mother if it was ok to cheat a little and have some desert. Apparently he had given up sweats for Lent. The mother responded, “that’s between you and God.” His focus shifted to a conversation and he passed on the temptation. Let us keep our focus on him in trials and temptation and listen to the voice in our hearts where the spirit dwells ready to well up our souls with spiritual food for eternity.
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Third Sunday of Ordinary Time 2017
Is. 8: 23-9; 1 Cor. 1:10-13, 17; Mt. 4:12-23
To the universal church, wherever you go God is there. Have you received a warm embrace from heaven today? Perhaps it came through the hug of a spouse, a child, a parent or perhaps in a word that reaches into the heart. Perhaps it is simply an act of kindness when it reaches into the interior as a gift of grace from the Holy Spirit.
Having attended the Deacon’s retreat for deacons and their wives at the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle in San Juan, Texas this past weekend, our retreat master was Fa. Greg Labus. Fa. Greg focused on the kerygma, which is the apostolic “proclamation” of salvation through Jesus Christ, coming into our lives. It is founded as the simple but profound message, “Do I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ?” This is a common calling from our separated brothers and sisters from other denominations but somewhere between the call and the summit, Jesus Christ in the Eucharistic celebration of the Mass we have not dispelled the darkness that hovers over the “land west of the Jordan” our land in a culture of death. Is “The Lord my light and my salvation”?
The Catholic call for a “New Evangelization” began with (Saint) Pope John Paul II, continued with Benedict XVI (Emeritus), and now Pope Francis challenges us to be witnesses to the light. The challenge is not anything new but a return to a process of evangelization that begins with that embrace from heaven in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
We also reflect in today’s readings from 1 Corinthians that what is current among Christianity is not new. We could place ourselves back in time and say, “I belong to Paul the Evangelicals;” or “I belong to Apollos the Baptists” or “I belong the Cephas the rock of the Catholic church” or simply “I belong to Christ in the Mega churches, no sacraments just Christ and me. Yes what is new is not new. It remains a struggle for unity of faith when we separate Christ into pieces and claim to have Him for ourselves. We want to hold onto Him when it is He who holds us in his embrace.
Paul’s writing to the Corinthians does not resolve the potential division when he says, “Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel”. Is Paul minimizing the sacrament of baptism and potentially all the other sacraments in favor of the Kerygma? Is he the founder of proclaiming the Word as “scripture only” authority? A definite “No”! Paul is understood in the historical contextual meaning of the Word in place and time. Corinthians was known for its sea side “C’est la vie” such is life filled with sin and corruption as a major hub of commerce. Baptism was the opening of the heart to Christ to allow the gift of the Holy Spirit after repentance of our sins. Thus the soul was then receptive to the kerygma through the gifts of the Holy Spirit, those infused virtues to grow in faith, hope, and love. Paul understood the baptized as a “child” of faith in need of catechesis in order to grow in the word or division would prevail among the community.
What was then is now as more and more people claim to be atheist according to gallop polls and as a culture of death rises in genocide of the unborn, and as science races to be the first in man’s search to clone himself as his own God. Meanwhile, the essential core of human goodness, truth, beauty, and love is shattered and replaced by a core value in separation of church and state. The new evangelization is a need to go forth into the world with the kerygma, the “proclamation of the word” to the unbaptized and the baptized to grow in their faith, hope, and love through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
The kerygma is a call to conversion in which we evangelize before the mind is prepared to be catechized to live a life sacramentalized least we become scandalized when faith and reason don’t meet with truth, goodness, beauty, and love. The process of conversion, the kerygma is to be a voice in our times for truth, goodness, beauty and love comes in the person of Jesus Christ. The witness of the “sacramentalized” is beyond any preaching as pastors, parents, or friends. It is being the light of Jesus to others, to know Him and to bring others into an encounter with Him. Then our sacraments in how we “deal” with Him become how we allow Him to deal with us.
As fishers of souls we must begin anew with our evangelization, not in the practice of “catch and release” but in the call to “come home”. If we catch and baptize only to release to a culture of death our institutions will continue to decrease in faith in souls who do not hunger for Him. Christ himself in the church, the sacraments, and the faithful is always present. Wherever you go He is there. Catch and release becomes baptized paganism for souls who appear for baptisms, weddings, and funerals, but whose lifestyle and values appear more secular than a testimony of faith and life in Jesus Christ.
It has become a tradition to attribute to St. Francis of Assisi the expression, “Preach always, and speak when necessary” but there appears to be no official record to verify this. Still in the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi I would say, “Preach always by your witness and proclaim the kerygma”, that is the whole life and ministry of Jesus Christ by your faith in action.
As we reached the second day of our retreat we were “sent forth” with a message from our bishop, Daniel Flores. He reminded us of the three pillars of the church, preach, worship, and charity. We preach the Word that leads to the summit of worship in the Mass with our acts of charity. Today as yesterday we have many poor in our churches, homes, and among the homeless. Yes that includes those without the means of food, clothing, and shelter but we also face the greatest poverty in our community, that of spiritual poverty who have not accepted the embrace of heaven.
That today we hear his voice and feel his embrace. Come home to holiness in Jesus Christ. Come home to the fullness of truth, goodness, beauty, and love. Come home to the universal church in his body, his sacrifice, his love, always present. Come home to Jesus Christ. Wherever you are, He is there.
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Solemnity of Mary, The Holy Mother of God January 1, 2017
Happy New Year to the redeemed in Christ! Renewed in Christ we give thanks because the gift of God’s son fills us with his blessings. Because he has come we can say “Our Father”, not slaves of the world but heirs to his kingdom.
Jesus born of a woman is in the heart of the believer. Jesus fully human and fully divine we call God, and Mary the Mother of God in the mystery of the Trinity. Today among many Christian denominations it is scandalous to call Mary the Mother of God. God is the creator of all without beginning, the uncreated. How can Catholics say she is the mother of an uncreated God? We say it because the uncreated God came to us as a child through Mary. God the son has always been with the Father and the Spirit and now he comes to be with us. To deny Mary as the Mother of God is to deny Jesus as God incarnate, a blasphemy.
This truth was a struggle for the early church believers since his coming and remains hidden behind the veil for some Christian denominations. Some tried to make him half human and half God, others lower than God the Father but higher than humanity, an in between God. Even today there are many who cannot deny the reality of his history on earth and accept him as another great prophet in the world.
The resistance to Mary as Mother of God is the resistance of Jesus as God fully human and fully divine. To be renewed in Jesus is to cast away all doubt that in his coming he forgives our sins, heals the sick, and gives life to the dead. He opens the way to salvation and brings comfort to all our trials in life. Believe and have faith that he is with us and in our repentance he gives us his blessing. It is the blessing to have courage, to trust, to go forth filled with his grace.
Mary was full of grace preserved without sin since her conception to be the perfect vessel for his coming. This week I was listening to a television evangelist who asked the question, “who has cheated death?” He boldly claimed he knew of only one and that is Jesus Christ in the resurrection. We proclaim Jesus suffered death and rose again and is seated at the Father’s right hand. That is our creed but I suspect there is someone else who is next to Him also, Mary. What we believe from Mary’s perfect fiat of love is that she also defied death and was assumed into heaven. Many Protestants don’t have a Mariology belief. For many she is just “the woman” who gave birth to Jesus. Mary’s perfection in Christ conquered death and we can too, that is our hope. Mary is the model of humanity to be perfect as God is perfect. In this we are to avoid sin and the near temptation to sin and be children of the light to the world. When we sin we are to seek forgiveness and reconciliation, and he will “cleanse us from every wrongdoing”. Perfect faith, perfect hope, and perfect love rest in Jesus who came to show us the way.
Even as we celebrate this Christmas season in the church we are reminded of the empty tomb, the purpose of his coming. The sacrifice of the Mass is the sacrifice he still suffers for our sins and his coming again to redeem us. Jesus expiation is “not for our sins only but for those of the whole world”. Just as in times past the forces of evil in the world appear to be gaining strength against the forces of good. The evil one believes in Jesus as a sign of contradiction against his limited powers and every day in the Eucharist he is being overthrown by Jesus sacrifice of the Mass.
As soon as the child Jesus is born the angel warns Joseph to take Mary and the child and flee into Egypt. King Herod in his paranoia and fear understood and believed at least in part in the power of the lowly rising up in revolt against him. He understood that this child was a “sign of contradiction” against his kingdom.
Herod is the embodiment of evil at that time in history. He had no trouble ordering the massacre of those Holy Innocent children who were under two years of age. Why? He had already committed the sin of killing his own children to preserve his power. The next step came easy in killing the children of others.
This is one reason we have become a culture of death. Once a society accepts as good what is evil in the freedom to kill the unborn the next step is easy. The elderly, the mentally ill, the disabled will follow because they are the “other” unlike those in power. Today there are reports on the increase of children being killed in the home and Child Protective Services keep increasing their caseloads of child abuse.
The evil one continues to seek and find new souls who will carry his evil and destruction as we see in Aleppo where there continues to be a massacre of innocents while the world watches from afar. We must pray for the sins of the world. We need more than a conversion of souls we need a cultural revolution against the powers of darkness. We need to return to “In God We Trust”.
Let us learn from the shepherds who found Mary, Joseph and the infant in the manger. They believed and received the light of Jesus and immediately became a vessel of the light and went forth to make known the message. They also returned to glorify and praise God.
On Friday we celebrated the solemnity of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Jesus sanctifies and establishes the family and the center of faith. Recall that in the Old Testament what carried importance was what tribe the person belonged to, like the tribe of Judah. Jesus comes and makes our families the center of his presence to sanctify others.
Fathers when was the last time you gave your blessing to your children, was it when the priest asked you to at their baptism? Before it was the practice of the parents to give your children a blessing before they left the house in the morning. It was also the practice when someone was dying to have the family come and receive a blessing before the person died. Let us not wait until death is knocking at the door to give our children a blessing. You may be surprised at how it improves behavior because it is a sign of love, acceptance, and encouragement to go forth into the world knowing God loves them and you love them.
Mothers are you a contradiction to the world? The world expects mothers to serve the world’s labor shortage. Many mothers work two jobs, one full time and one part-time while the average number of children per family continues to decline. It is considered “irresponsible” to have many children in these times. We raise children to expect to live their own lives and we don’t want to be a burden to them as we age. It is the mother who is the teacher of learning how to care for others as Mary cared for baby Jesus. In the home the child learns to be helpful, share his time, talent and treasure with his siblings. Mothers have the gift in their voice to be strong yet gentle, firm yet compassionate, an authority and yet a friend. Just ask the children “who’s the boss at home” and most say “mom”.
Jesus came into the world to be a contradiction and bring the fullness of righteous change. He is the change agent to make a better world but he is working through us as he did through the disciples who became Apostles and it begins in the home.
May the Lord bless you, his face shine upon you, be gracious to you, and in his kindness give us his peace. Amen.
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