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Homily The Deacon Joe

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Justice is undying

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Wis. 1:13-15; 2:23-24; Ps. 30:2, 4-6, 11-13; 2 Cor. 8:7,9, 13-15; Mk. 5:21-43

Justice is undying for we were created “wholesome…to be imperishable”.  We were created in the image of God eternal but death entered the world “by the envy of the devil”.  If we belong to God then we belong to the undying through his justice on the cross but if we belong to the company of the devil, we are already dying in spirit and truth and our bodies are becoming a fossilized shell of our true self.  The eternal justice of God is Jesus Christ, when we proclaim “Jesus is Lord” justice is with us.  When we deny him, we invite the enemy of justice and death follows.  Justice belongs to God. 

If we live by justice, we are in the domain of the undying for God is with us and we are in him “in the image of his own nature”.  The nature of God reflects beauty, goodness, truth, and unity that we may all be one in his love.  In his justice we then can proclaim we live by the beauty of love of God and neighbor, we practice the goodness of God’s charity to all, we proclaim the eternal truth God has given us, and we grow in the unity of fellowship as one church under one God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

If we live by justice, we praise the Lord for he rescues us from the snares of the devil who prowls around us in search of our weakness so we may once again fall into the pit of Adam and Eve.  Our praise of the Lord itself sends the devil away who cannot bear to hear God’s name and suffer the justice of his own destruction.  In good times and in bad give praise to the Lord and he will rescue us for his anger is “a moment; a lifetime his good will”.  Our God is a God of love whose justice is Jesus on the cross and we cannot deny him and live.

The Lord’s way of “equality” is not the world’s way.  In the world “equality and justice” are instruments to enforce change through authoritative structures and not by free will.  The world seeks equality by demanding retribution and justice by enforcing “an eye for an eye”.  The world’s heroes rise to be “Robin Hoods” who take from the rich and give to the poor.  The Lord’s way says, “as a matter of equality your abundance at the present time should supply their needs, so that their abundance may supply your needs, that there may be equality.”  The Lord’s way comes from the heart of free will to serve each other’s needs.  This is his call to equality and justice. 

The Lord’s way of justice has no lottery winners of excess but to each his cup is full so that “whoever had much did not have more, and whoever had little did not have less”.  Blessed be the Lord for he fills our cup according to his riches.  According to his divine providence, he fills our cups with what we are to plant and to harvest.  In receiving we are to give back as the poor woman who gave so little as an offering but gave the most because it was all she had.  In the end if we belong to God then all we have is his and we return it by the works of our love. 

This is our understanding when we proclaim “our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich”.  Jesus left his riches of heaven for the poverty of humanity to suffer the death of humanity and rise us up with him to the riches of his divinity.  Are we followers of Jesus willing to die to ourselves to freely bring about equality and justice?  Beware of those who wish to make Jesus into their image of human structures by labeling him as promoting socialism, Marxism, capitalism, communism or anything other than his way of Christianism.  Jesus’ way is not the world’s way.  Jesus operates within the free will of his own image.  The world crucified him for his way and it continues through its authoritative structures to have us deny him or be persecuted. 

This week we celebrated the feast of St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More on Tuesday.  Both were friends of King Henry VIII, St. John was his tutor as a child and bishop of the Church of England, and St. Tomas was chancellor of England both high powerful positions in England.  Both refused to approve the divorce King Henry wanted so he could marry a younger woman.  Both refused to sign the Oath of Supremacy declaring the king as head of the Catholic Church of England.  Both were beheaded for their faith. 

St. John tried to support the king without signing the Oath and St. Thomas quietly resigned his post yet both died for it was not enough to be silent.  The King wanted compliance as all social structures demand just as the present “cancel culture” demands.  When St. Thomas saw that the masked swordsman was nervous at his execution, he said “Be not afraid, for you send me to God.”  Then he said to the crowd, “I die the king’s good servant, but God’s first” (loyolapress.com).  St. Thomas understood his priorities and did not compromise.  No social structure accepts less than compliance and while we are to be good servants in this world there is a “red line” where God comes first.   Faith may not save us from the beheading of this world but it does send us to God. 

With the celebration of the feast of St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More, United States Catholic Conference of Bishops is also celebrating the beginning of Religious Freedom Week to “pray, reflect, and act to promote religious freedom…to live out our faith in public and to serve the good of all”.  Faith is more than a personal private act of the spirit with God, it is the freedom to live in fraternity as a community practicing our faith in the public square and to speak to those acts against the Lord’s way of equality and justice. 

Currently there is an attempt to create a law titled “The Equality Act”.  It is not to bring equality and justice to all but to a segment of the population by promoting a gender-neutral law against the law of God.  According to the USCCB its efforts are to “dismiss sexual differences as a social construct…requiring all Americans (regardless of religious beliefs) to speak and act as if there is no meaningful distinction between the sexes and as if gender has no connection to the body” (USCCB.org/The Equality Act). 

Brothers and sisters, language matters and the Word matters for Christianity to live in religious freedom.  We are to pray, reflect and act to defend our religious freedom and quiet disapproval will not be tolerated by a cancel culture.  A cancel culture does its beheading by forced indoctrination.  We are to only look at other nations where there is no religious freedom and the church has gone underground to exist in secrecy. 

If “The Equality Act” is passed, I imagine future birth certificates having no gender distinction as male or female because the demand will be for the child to grow up and self-identify as they choose.  From this law books that label a child by gender will be banned so when the bible says in Genesis 1:27 “God created mankind in his image; male and female he created them.” either the words of the bible must be changed for “inclusive language” or Bibles will no longer be allowed for publication or in the public discourse.  This does not serve the common good of equality and justice for all nor does it represent religious freedom for all. 

In the gospel Jesus says, “Do not be afraid; just have faith.”  Faith gave the woman courage to touch the clothes of Jesus and be healed. From her faith “power had gone out of him”.  With faith we can receive the power to “arise” from our dying sickness, from sin, from fear and be cured from the power of eternal death to receive the light of eternal glory.  When they ridiculed Jesus for saying the child was not dead, he “put them all out” separating those without faith from those whose hope remained in a miracle.  Unity and fellowship with humanity does not compromise our faith with God and there is a time to separate ourselves from those who seek to demand unity by compliance to the king of current political or social structures. 

Do we believe in faith when we come to receive the Eucharist in the power of Jesus to enter into us? Many people crowded Jesus but the gospel speaks of two who approached him with great faith. Today we approach the altar to receive communion and our faith will determine the power that Jesus will work within us. Let us approach him in prayer “Lord I believe, help my unbelief”.

St. Thomas Aquinas says, “To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary.  To one without faith, no explanation is possible.”  The process of seeking and questioning is not a lack of faith but a means of revelation to help us arrive at the truth and strengthen our faith.  We should not fear questioning the cultural mores being imposed on our religious freedom but pray and discern the will of God and act in justice to the truth we have received by his Word made flesh. 

Today we are to pray, reflect, and act in faith for religious freedom.  The power of Jesus can enter us to remain vigilant and separate ourselves from the ideologies that oppose our religious beliefs.  As Cardinal Dolan likes to say on his radio program, “freedom is not free” so that when the time comes to act let us not be afraid.  Let us stand in faith and pray for those who come to persecute us possessed by faulty beliefs for the kingdom of God is ours and it cannot be taken away when we pray for the undying justice of God and take a stand in faith. 

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The Deacon Joe

12th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Happy Father’s Day!

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Job 38:1, 8-11; Ps. 107:23-26, 28-31; 2 Cor. 5:14-17; Mk. 4:35-41

Happy Father’s Day!  This day we celebrate fatherhood in the image of God the Father.  We are blessed to have a Father in heaven who loved us so much he sacrificed his Son to save us from our sin.  A Father who once spoke to his people hidden by a vail reveals himself in his Son as a God of love, mercy, and justice.  This is our calling to love one another, be merciful, and just as fathers in our domestic church at home.  The love of fatherhood is perfect in sacrificial love “so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised”.  In Jesus, God has visited his people. 

For all boys who were told to be tough and not cry, hear this scripture “And Jesus wept” (Jn. 11:35).  There is a time to cry and a need for tears to comfort our souls.  In the movie The Passion when Jesus dies on the cross, at that moment a tear falls from heaven and strikes the earth creating an earthquake.  It is a beautiful scene of the love of a father for his son.  It is the tear of sacrifice thus to love one another is to sacrifice for the other.  The Father’s sacrifice remains active in suffering for our sins.  We are reminded in Jn. 15:13 “No one has greater love than this to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” 

Recalling how Abraham who in his old age had his young son Isaac carry the wood for the sacrifice to God.  Even though initially Isaac was unaware he would be the sacrifice to God once he understood what Abraham intended, he still remained obedient to his Father until a messenger from God stops Abraham.  We recognize the obedience of Abraham to God the Father but so did Isaac obey Abraham will to die as the sacrifice to God when he could have easily resisted being young and strong.  In godly love sacrifice is always a mutual cooperation between all parties whether it is the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit or Father, Mother, and child.  Love unites to be of one mind for the greater good. 

If we have the courage to lay down one’s life for the other then “Why are you terrified?”  We are to live by faith not by sight.  Our sight looks around at all the “wind” of danger from all sides and we may call out to God “do you not care that we are perishing?”  Death is circling around us from pandemics, natural disasters, and a culture of death and God is asking “Do you not yet have faith?”  If God is with us then who or what do we fear?  Fear of the unknown calls on faith in divine providence.  Fear of evil calls on faith in the name of Jesus to rebuke evil with good.  Fear of our weaknesses calls us to the strength of God who promises to remain with us.  Fear not and believe in the Father’s love. 

A father’s love gives witness to faith and without faith it cannot be fatherhood.  Call it by another name, caretaker, provider, or guardian but fatherhood comes from faith in God the source of fatherhood in creation and perfect love. 

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Homily The Deacon Joe

Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Ex. 24:3-8; Ps. 116:12-13, 15-18; Heb. 9:11-15; Mk. 14:12-16, 22-26

The Passover lamb is the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ shed for many obtaining eternal redemption for those who come to believe.  The blood and sacrifice of young bulls from the old covenant with God is now the most perfect blood and sacrifice of Jesus for the new covenant of salvation.  Jesus the “more perfect tabernacle” and high priest by his body and blood is the mediator for deliverance from transgressions under the new covenant. 

The first covenant coming from the Father through Moses is the law of “word and ordinances” but Jesus comes with the more perfect covenant of love of God and neighbor in the second covenant.  The word and the law are now incarnate in the person of Jesus for the mercy and love of Abba Father.  In the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ the word and law are incarnated into who we are not simply what we do, we are children of the Most-High God living the word in the Trinity, with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

When we take up the cup of salvation in Christ’s body and blood, we “bless the Lord God, and (we) ask him to make all your paths straight and to grant success to all your endeavors and plans” says Tobit 4:19.  Our God is a God engaged in our lives leading the way when we seek him, we will find him there with us.  Our souls proclaim the greatness of the Lord because we receive him body, blood, soul, and divinity in the Eucharist.  This is the promise he made to be with us until the end of time.  Praise be to God! 

When Jesus offers the Passover with his disciples in the large upper room instituting his body and blood as the new covenant, he is about to offer himself up “which will be shed for many” but there is one disciple, Judas who receives his body and blood in a spirit of unfaithfulness about to betray him.  Christ knows the heart of his disciples but allows it to happen in his sorrowful passion.  Judas then suffers the consequence of his betrayal as his conscience can no longer defend his own actions and death comes to the sinner. 

Today the church faces a similar dilemma about to be addressed by the USCCB (United States Catholic Conference of Bishops).  How is the church to respond to Catholics who openly stand against the teachings of the church in the public square but come to receive communion in the church?  The ethical and moral dilemma of receiving communion in a state of mortal sin has major consequences for the soul of the person who knowingly participates in communion in defiance of church teaching.  This dilemma extends into every Diocese and church. 

How is the church to respond is the question USCCB is about to address and there are arguments already being made by Bishops for and against denying communion to a person who openly stands against the teachings of the church.  In the early church beginnings, they faced many major dilemmas regarding the word and the law of the new covenant.  Decisions were needed regarding circumcision of the Gentiles, when someone committed a mortal sin, did they need to be rebaptized, and how to treat Christians who denied the faith in order to save their lives or agreed to worship other gods for the same reason.  These dilemmas were debated not with the spirit to punish but with the goal of sustaining a unified church. 

The Church has always come together to face these challenges as a unified voice recalling the Word “whose sins you forgive are forgiven and whose sins you retain are retained.”  We recall our confession of faith, the Church is one, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic church.  It carries the cross of Christ to bear fruit and shepherd it’s people.  Just as the people answered Moses, “We will do everything that the Lord has told us”, we are called to follow church teachings in the same spirit as coming from the Lord.  They did it through Moses the mediator for they did not hear the voice of God themselves but trusted in Moses speaking for God.  We are to look to the church for the answer to love and justice coming from God when receiving his body and blood in communion. 

We are living in a time of watered-down faith where many even within the church have lost the belief in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.  According to Pew Research “Just 31% of U.S. Catholics believe that the bread and wine used in Communion become the body and blood of Christ (www.pewresearch.org).  The majority of Catholics see the Eucharist as “symbols” of the body and blood of Christ.  Of course, 100% of people who identify as Catholic don’t come to Mass every Sunday otherwise we would have to build megachurches to hold everyone.   We have too many who come only for Christmas, Easter, and Ash Wednesday to receive any foundation of teaching worthy of a well-informed conscience. 

Jesus says, “Take it; this is my body” and again “This is my blood of the covenant”.  The definition of “is” is not ambiguous but clear and direct.  There is nothing in his word that indicates it is a sign or symbol as many want to believe.  In fact, it is the reason many left him because they understood clearly what he had said and found it difficult to accept his teaching.  Saint Ambrose reminds us that if God can create something from nothing, he can surely take a substance and transform it into his human flesh or as we say today “transubstantiate” it.  We have only to look at the many Eucharistic miracles to believe. 

If the majority of Catholics treat the Eucharist as symbols then the Church has a greater dilemma that just a few persons who publicly receive communion and stand against the teachings of the Church.  It reflects the loss of “fear of the Lord”.  Fear of the Lord is the love of the Lord not wanting to grieve him by our sins of disobedience.  Jesus offers us his body and blood to unite us to the Holy Trinity in love of the Lord to fear causing grief to his sacrificial love.  In doing so we bring harm unto ourselves and to his body the church. 

Imagine who does harm to the love of a child, a spouse or a friend by actively and willingly causing them an act of abuse, neglect, or exploitation, and yet it happens. When it happens, there is an outcry by society and laws to protect the innocent.  When it happens within the church there is also Canon law to protect the body of the church.   It happens when we lose our fear of the Lord becoming our own god by creating our own rules and justifications according to our own conscience.  Our conscience can become grievously misinformed and misguided even by the majority view unless we trust in a higher authority. 

The “herd” mentality creates a shadow of false truth under which many are willing to follow just as Adam followed Eve in committing sin but his excuse did not spare him the consequence of his sin.  Let us recall 1 Timothy 4:2 “Through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared” many have fallen into sin with a herd mentality.  In the day of judgement there will be no herd to justify us but there will be a herd gathered “to be thrown into the hell of fire” (Matthew 18:9).

Moses was the mediator for the people to Abba Father.  Jesus is our mediator to Abba Father and the Holy Spirit is the mediator for the Church authority guiding the Church to bind and to loosen in heaven.  Without authority and left to our own conscience there is no church unity, no Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church to provide us the foundation of faith.  We become one sinful, divided and isolated church of one, a follower of self only. 

The Church has a long history of tradition in creating a well-informed conscience with guiding principles based on the Word of God and prayer through the Holy Spirit.  A key guiding principle is the salvation of souls.  When scripture tells us: “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” (James 4:17); “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23); “But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear” (Isaiah 59:2); “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 14:12); “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8); and finally “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that  will he also reap” (Galatians 6:7), take that to the “bank”.  What will we reap if all we have to say on the day of judgement is “I followed my conscience”?  Let us pray it is not Mathew 24:51 “And will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites.  In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 

The Word calls us to an accountability with love as Galatians 6:1 says, “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.  Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.”  What are we to be tempted by?  Could it be the temptation to appear more righteous in the law than in the love of God?  Whatever the USCCB decides one thing is certain, the spirit of God binds love with action.  To “look the other way” is to bear the sin of omission so we are to join in prayer for all souls who knowingly choose to ignore the teachings and precepts of the church and have an examination of conscience with an honest assessment of our own actions as well. 

We live in a culture where many identify as “spiritual” rather than religious where the spirituality of many claim “as long as my conscience is clear” such as “As long as my conscience is clear I can miss Mass, I can promote abortions, I can receive communion”.  The fallacy of this philosophy comes from 2 Corinthians 11:3 “But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ” his body and blood, soul and divinity.  Authority from Christ is what protects the Church from false teaching and guides his people in the way of truth.  There is not “my truth and your truth” as modern times promotes its relativism but the Truth handed down from the beginning of time.  The truth of his body and blood in the Eucharist is sacred.  Let us recall the words of prayer, “Lord I am not worthy but only say the Word and my soul shall be healed.”  We are on Holy ground, let us come and adore! 

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Homily The Deacon Joe

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity “Abba, Father!”

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Deut. 4:32-34, 39-40; Ps. 34:4-6, 9, 18-20, 22; Rom. 8:14-17; Mat. 28:16-20

Abba, Father is in the Son and the great “I Am” together with the Son proclaim, “I am with you always, until the end of the age” through the Holy Spirit.  The unknowable mystery of the Holy Trinity, God in three persons is knowable by the incarnation of Jesus the visible sign of God and the invisible but knowable Spirit that moves within our souls as children of God and “heirs with Christ if only we suffer with him”.  “Did anything so great ever happen before?”  It is the greatness of Abba Father coming to us in the incarnation of Jesus Christ with the fire of the Holy Spirit. 

“Ask now” how are we to suffer with him?  Moses says to his people to “Ask now” and question themselves if “anything so great ever happen before” that they have seen or heard from God who has been their Abba Father giving them victory over the powers of other nations.  For what they witnessed “by signs and wonders, by war, with strong hand and outstretched arm and by great terrors” they are to “keep his statutes and commandments”.  This is how we are to suffering with him.   When we keep his statutes and commandments, we suffer with him living a virtuous life in the face of the enemy who is ready to devour us with the powers of evil.  Ask now for the grace to suffer with Christ “that we may also be glorified with him.”

Something greater than Moses has entered into the world and remains with us in Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity.  He remains with us through the Eucharist to suffer with us if only we suffer with him for our sins and the sins of the world.  He remains with us through the Holy Spirit with the gifts of the Holy Spirit to be our compass of peace and direction when the signs of fear come to threaten our joy and salvation. 

There is a time to suffer in silence and prayer as we wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit as the disciples waited in the upper room in prayer after the ascension of Jesus.  Once the Holy Spirit descended upon them came the time to suffer by the act of proclaiming one God in three persons.  The means to suffer in silence is through prayer while the means to suffer in act is through the commandments.  Love one another is not a choice but a commandment in good times and in bad.  We are to pick up the cross of love and carry it as Jesus did even as he was being rejected and crucified, he prayed to Abba Father to forgive them.  Forgiving our enemies is an act of love of God and obedience to the commandments. 

We live in a nation that seeks to claim its headship in three coequal branches of government.  In the headship of government is an independence of disunity with a multiplicity of shades of truth, goodness for some but not others, beauty found in power not love and serving the purpose of special interest groups and not all.  It is an imperfect relationship with limits of authority.  In the Trinity we have a unity of three persons reflecting the one truth, one goodness, one beauty, and one love for the one purpose of our salvation that has no bounds.  As in the time of old nation rises against nation, people against people, and the power to rule by division is the work of evil breaking all the commandments.  This is not a promotion for antigovernment but a call to the reality of a broken world in need of the unity under the one triune God. 

Separation of church and state in our times is seen as the power of the state to silence the voice of the church in the public square yet it was in the public square where the apostles went forth to proclaim the truth of the Trinity.  It was a threat to both the ruling church and state yet they suffered for the cross by their voice in the public square.  Perfect love comes to those who accept the cross to suffer with our triune God not in secret but as witnesses to faith. 

We can grieve each person of the Trinity.  We grieve Abba Father when we welcome sin and fear not to grieve him or seek his mercy.  We grieve Jesus as friend when we seek him not by not coming to receive him body, blood, soul and divinity in the Eucharist.  We grieve the Holy Spirit when we seek him not in the sacraments of the Church through which we invite the gifts of the Holy Spirit to come into our lives. 

Perfect love is the unity of the Trinity as one God in three Persons each reflecting the love of the other.  The Holy Spirit in us reflects the love of Jesus as our savior.  Jesus reflects the love of Abba Father as the Word became flesh to be the visible God with us.  God the Father reflects the glory of his perfect love in Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Each give light to the other as we are called to give light to his love by our love.  There is the old expression “three is a company, four is a crowd”.  We are to live in communion as a “crowd” of believers in perfect love.  There cannot be simply “God and I” without the other who we are called to love. 

How we reflect the love of God and humanity in our personhood brings us closer to the perfect love we are called to live.  We behold the glory of God and enter into heaven according to the measure of our love.  What glory is there for as parent to wake up in the middle of the night to change a crying baby’s diaper unless the act comes out of love for the child.  In the same way what glory is there for spending one-third of the day at work investing in the success of the owner if the purpose is simply to receive a check.  Or what glory is there for the athlete to train for hours knowing the main prize will only go to the one who comes in first if not for the act of training itself being a reward to glory in.  Glory comes in the act of love the moment in which we recognize God is present and our act gives glory to him.  This is our unity and walk to heaven. 

Again, we behold the glory of God and enter into heaven according to the measure of our love.  In Abba Father’s house there are many mansions but not all reflect the same measure of love coming from us for God.  How we reflect our love of God in this world matters how we will view the glory of God in the next.  The treasure we build for God will transcend this world with the measure of glory to come.  All things matter for God and what we do for the least we are doing for Abba Father. 

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Homily The Deacon Joe

Pentecost – Solemnity “Jesus is Lord”

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Acts 2:1-11; Ps. 104:1, 24, 29-30, 31, 34; 1 Cor. 12:3b-7,12-13; Jn. 20:19-23

“Jesus is Lord” is spoken by the believer as a confirmation of faith through the Holy Spirit with the grace to be proclaimed to the world.  Those possessed by evil cannot make this claim for it is an anathema to Satan.  “Jesus is Lord” is a proclamation of the Trinity as three persons in one God from the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit.  Just as we are to pray “In the name of Jesus” we are to proclaim “Jesus is Lord” as children of the highest God creator of all, there is no other.

Before Easter we enter into the time of Lent for forty days to fulfill the sacrifice that brings us Jesus our Lord through his passion, death, and resurrection.  Now is the time to fulfill the coming of Pentecost through the nine days after Jesus ascension and fifty days after Easter.  It is the coming of the Holy Spirit to give birth to the Church who is to forgive and retain sins.  The Church through the Holy Spirit works to discern the moral, ethical, and spiritual practices of the people of God as both an institution and through the body of Jesus our Lord.  Jesus is Lord of his bride the church and all who come to receive him in the Eucharist as one body in one Spirit though many parts. It is the same Spirit.

We see in the first reading the gift of the Holy Spirit as “tongues as of fire” coming to rest on now the apostles giving them the power to speak in different languages to all gathered in Jerusalem from the ends of the “world”.  This Spirit comes to us with “different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit…for some benefit.”  What is our gift and are we in service of our gift “for some benefit” of God’s greater good?  It is a treasure to do the labor of love. 

We are to reflect on the “benefit” coming from our gifts.  Who benefits?  Is our life lived for simply our benefit, our treasure, our glory or are we serving someone greater than ourselves?  That is the question where the answer will bring us to salvation where the only true answer is “Jesus is Lord” of my life.  If Jesus is Lord of my life then we offer up ourselves as a sacrifice for the benefit God wants to deliver through us in all our encounters this day.  It is in the encounter where the Lord makes his presence known beginning with the encounter in Mass and as we go forth to encounter the world. 

In a world of sin, we need the fire of the Holy Spirit to raise us up with the gifts of fortitude, justice, prudence, and temperance known as the Cardinal Virtues to go into battle as the militant church on earth.  After Jesus “breathes” on the disciples and ascends into heaven, they pray their “novena” that is their nine days in wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit to bring them the confirmation of their call to go forth as Apostles and proclaim the good news. 

In the Charismatic movement the gift of tongues is a spiritual gift of loving God with all our hearts, minds, and souls in worship often described as “slain in the spirit”.  It is the joy and fire coming to the poor in spirit who die to self to be raised in Jesus our Lord.  The poor in spirit are predisposed to receive the gift by virtue of their humility.  Humility is the gateway to all the spiritual gifts.  Just as Jesus is the cornerstone of salvation through the church the Holy Spirit is the cornerstone of the spiritual gifts through humility in dying to self that Jesus may rise in us. 

In the gospel Jesus appears to the disciples after the resurrection and breathes on them giving them the authority to forgive or retain sins through the gift of the Holy Spirit.  It is a ministerial gift set aside for the church priesthood.  It is not the gift of tongues but the same Spirit belonging to the one body of Christ.   In our confirmation within the Church the spirit comes to us giving us the gift that will serve God for some benefit.  Do we recognize our gift given to us for the benefit of a greater good?  Let the fruit of our gifts be multiplied by each act of service coming from the gifts. 

We are to discern the gifts of the Holy Spirit that lights our fire our joy and brings us peace.  It is our calling and we are not to set it aside or we will wander in the desert in search of the promise land already waiting for us.  Let us stay in the Spirit with Jesus our Lord and neither wonder nor wander but move in the Spirit for the benefit of our salvation and of the whole world.  “Peace be with you…and with your Spirit” who comes to us this day announcing “Jesus is Lord”. The time has come, now is the time to enter into the Spirit and take up our gift to Jesus our Lord. 

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Homily The Deacon Joe

Ascension of the Lord – The Father’s Promise!

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Acts 1:1-11; Ps. 47:2-3, 6-9; Eph. 1:17-23; Mk. 16:15-20

 The Father’s promise is “I will be with you through the baptism of the Holy Spirit”.  The Father’s promise is to be with us as he has through salvation history as we read in Genesis 26:3 “I will be with you and bless you”; Genesis 31:3 “Then the Lord said to Jacob: Return to the land of your ancestors, where you were born, and I will be with you”; Exodus 3:12 “God answered “I will be with you and this will be your sign”; Joshua 1:5 “As I was with Moses, I will be with you I will not leave not leave you or forsake you”; “Isaiah 43:2 “When you pass through waters, I will be with you through the rivers you shall not be swept away”.   The Father’s promise has a major “If” in 1 Kings 11:38 “If, then you heed all that I command you, walking in my ways, and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statutes and my commandments like David my servant, I will be with you.”  The Father’s promise is for those who surrender to the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit he is with us. 

The Father’s promise is a Spirit of wisdom and revelation given to those who believe and are baptized to “go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel” while the Lord continues to work with us “through accompanying signs.”  Jesus appearance to the disciples for forty days after his resurrection and before his Ascension bringing about the transformation of his disciples into apostles to lead his church with the promise of the Holy Spirit.  The Father’s promise is one of a “surpassing greatness of his power” and protection in the name above all names that in the name of Jesus comes the authority to face the evil of our times. 

The evil of our times comes is a cultural war for the souls of people.  Just as the Lord continues to work with us and through us so does the evil one continues to work against us and through others in our battle for the souls of God’s people.  The signs of our time drive out demons through the waters of baptism and the Holy Spirit for those who believe the Word of God and follow his commandments.  Demonic spirits work though others to create chaos claiming evil in the streets is justified for injustice in the world, lies are justified for a cause while others who speak truth must be silenced, even death is claimed as justified for the right to choose self over others beginning with the unborn. 

In Jesus name we are to pick up these “serpents” of ideologues that prowl about the world for the souls of the innocent with our “hands” of the truth of the gospel and fear not.  The poison we are fed to drink are the ideologies that create division raising the power of the state over the rights of the church. These will not harm us when we hold to the truth of the gospel message.  Today many have fallen “sick” to the secular normalization to degenderize male and female, to separate church from state, to divide faith from science, and to raise one race above another as racist from birth.  All these poisons cannot stand when the people of God go forth to speak the truth of the gospel message.  It is a message of the love of God and a promise to be with us until the end of the world.

The Father’s promise is to be with us as he works through us in the fight for souls against the powers of darkness with the light of truth.  Today our children are being taught to see the world through the lens of racial bias simply based on the color of a person’s skin regardless of individual views and it falls under the title of “Critical Race Theory” which is no more than an attempt to gain power of one group over another.  Any attempt to voice opposition is quickly labeled “microaggression” for speaking out with an opposing view meant to silence dialogue not engage in dialogue but we are called to go out with the right to speak the gospel message trusting in the Father’s promise, united to Jesus’ Word and with the power of the Holy Spirit. 

The Father’s promise to be with us, to navigate our path does not promise the “easy road”.  Just by looking back to all the martyrs who suffered and died for the faith we know we must pick up our cross and follow the “road less traveled” of which many have chosen to fall away.  Who will remain standing with the Lord?  What other promise can we look for?  The promise of the evil one was “you will be like gods” proven to be the greatest lie and yet it is the path this world continues to seek to be your own god, have your own “truth”, identify yourself in whatever gender of choice, and live your life for yourself above others.  In the end it comes down to these two choices, the Father’s promise or the promise of the Evil one. 

The Father sent the Son who left us with these words, “My children, I will be with you only a little while longer.  You will look for me, and as I told the Jews, ‘Where I go you cannot come,’ so now I say it to you.  I give you a new commandment: love one another.  As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.  This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  Jesus does not leave us with a critical race theory but with the commandment of love, truth, unity and goodness for one another.  This is the truth of inclusiveness that brings us the promise of the Father. 

The Father’s promise is not a theory of humanity but the essence of life coming from our creator, redeemer, and sanctifier.  Let us remain in him and in his promise this day until the day we will see him face to face.  Let us pray for the promise of the Father’s mercy for those who do not believe, do not accept, and do not follow the only promise that brings us salvation and heaven.

We celebrate the Ascension of the Lord after “He presented himself alive to them by many proofs…appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God”.  The biggest proof is he is alive!  Had he not presented himself alive the world would be reading about one more prophet still waiting for the messiah to come.  Instead, Jesus is the cornerstone of salvation and the promise has arrived for those who believe and accept God is with us. 

As the disciples were to be transformed into apostles with the coming of the Holy Spirit, they waited in Jerusalem for nine days in prayer.  Tradition now waits in prayer for nine days when we do a novena for the promise to come in answer to our prayers.  Let this day be the beginning of a novena for us in our homes and in our personal prayer life.  Let us pray for the Lord to come with the power of the Holy Spirit with the grace we need to go forth “to the ends of the earth” without fear. 

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Homily The Deacon Joe

5th Sunday of Easter – Remain in me

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Acts 9:26-31; Ps. 22:26-28, 30-32; 1 Jn. 3:18-24; Jn. 15:1-8

“Remain in me, as I remain in you.”  In Jesus we can do all things and bear fruit for whatever we ask.   Jesus reminds us, “because without me we can do nothing”.  This bears the question, “how much are we doing to bear fruit for the kingdom of God?”  Does it cross our mind or even a concern of ours that God has a purpose for us?  We did not come into the world to be our own God as the secular world leads us to believe.  It is not all about “Me” it is about “Him”.  Jesus did not come into the world to be served but to serve and be one with the Father.  This is how we remain in him when we allow him to be one with us.  Why would we not desire his oneness in us and in all who we love? 

The power of God’s grace is there for us to take up on the road to holiness.  Remaining in Jesus is an act of the will to keep his commandments, an act of faith to believe in the name of Jesus Christ, and an act of love for each other in our charity.  In Jesus we see the fruit of our every day blessings those we bring to each other when we remain in him.  Apart from him only darkness and sin remain with death as the companion. 

Spiritual formation calls for pruning the spirit to grow straight towards the “Son”.  The first pruning is in baptism for the removal of original sin.  It does not end there it is just beginning.  In the first reading Barnabas takes charge of Saul and brought him to the apostles because they feared him.  In life we don’t get to heaven “figuring it out” by ourselves.  Parents take charge of their children to bring them to the waters of baptism, to send them to catechesis and to bring them to Mass.  Parents who say let them grow up and “figure it out” if they want baptism or what faith to follow, are not taking charge of the faith of their children as stewards of their flock.  There is a reason for children to be called “kids” like goats because they need the pruning of discipline and guidance not just for behavior but for spiritual development. 

If we reflect back on our faith, we will recognize a “Barnabas” in our lives who took charge of bringing us to Jesus.  Often it is our parents who read us bible stories, shared their faith and taught us to come to church but not all.  Unfortunately, there are many stories by adults who grew up with no faith development and yet along the path a “Barnabas” came into their lives and invited them to church or shared their conversion story, or just by the fruit of their faith demonstrated a peace and joy that attracted others to seek that peace.  Who was “Barnabas” to you that has you here this day instead of “out there” trying to figure it out on your own? 

In my own story, I identify my mother as the “Barnabas” who took charge of me bringing me as an infant to be baptized to receive not only the gift of the Holy Spirit but for Jesus to remain in me as I struggled with my own faith growing up.  She taught me to seek him in scripture and made sure I prayed each morning before going to school and each evening kneeling down by my bed before going to sleep.  That alone remained with me during my wandering days as a youth and young adult.  We should say a prayer of thanksgiving for our “Barnabas”. 

Sometimes it is the one who brought us back to give the church an opportunity for hope and direction in our lives.  It can happen in a retreat, in a confession or even in the workplace.  It can be our spouse, a sponsor for our sacraments, our grandparents, or simply a friend but the miracle of conversion comes through relationship.  Saul’s conversion began with Jesus appearance speaking to him.  Jesus sent Ananias to open the eyes of Saul in his conversion after being blinded by Jesus appearance. Then Barnabas took charge of him to bring him to the apostles as the visible church of Christ.  In Saul’s conversion it was a series of people who took charge to fulfill on step in his journey.  We too can look back to how in each step of our faith development it may not have been just one person but a number of people that kept us going in the right direction. 

God not only puts others in our path of faith but he is also calling us to be instruments of his love in the faith of others.  Who do we claim to have served as an instrument of God in bringing them one step closer to their conversion?  Ultimately it is God who does the miracle but by remaining in Jesus we will “bear much fruit”.  In the end God will reveal to us the fruit we have produced and it may surprise us…all the lives we impacted for his glory.  He will also reveal the fruit we were to produce and did not and what we will bear in our purgatory for in the end justice belongs to God. 

God desires us to be difference makers, the one he calls to be the difference.  We can be as much of a difference for good and righteous as for evil and injustice.  In the end it will be one or the other.  Good and righteous does not just happen.  We take up our cross daily and prepare ourselves to respond one way or the other but nothing is neutral including the choice to not respond is an act of omission.  Better to try and do poorly than to avoid and fail completely.  If we say, I don’t want to try and fail then we have already failed by failing to try.  God rewards the effort and is in charge of the outcome. 

As Jesus remains in us, we are being pruned by our response to our daily struggles, joys, offerings and sacrifices.  In his divine providence no day goes without how we have responded to him down to even our thoughts and feelings.  Do we let go and let God work through us as we trust in him?  Problems don’t go away.  How we respond to them is what makes for holiness.  The best response begins with prayer and leads us to follow a path guided by the Holy
Spirit.  It helps when we also call upon God’s saints, our Blessed Mother Mary and our guardian angel to intercede for us.  In fact, this is the year of St. Joseph and recall St. Joseph is the terror of demons so we can make a consecration to him to be at our side as we overcome our trials and tribulations.  But nothing will happen with all the heavenly hosts unless we place our trust in God.  Here then is the stumbling block. 

How are we to learn to trust when our lives have already felt the sting of being hurt, betrayed, rejected, and even abandoned?  Jesus lived through all of this and more in his passion and death.  In the passion of Jesus, he remains in us to overcome our suffering with us.  He is the power to live through anything and everything when he remains in us and we remain in him.  In his death he surrenders to God his spirit and gives us his spirit to fear not.  In his victory over death, he makes all things new.  We can be made new in our faith, hope, and love through the resurrection of Jesus.  He lives and remains in us.  In the resurrection we learn to trust as we focus on the risen Lord, his power to rise up in the fullness of his divinity and humanity.   The light of new hope is Jesus resurrected.  This is our Easter time to celebrate Jesus rose from the dead to remain with us. 

At the end of the diaconate program there was a celebration with the Bishop and I was given the opportunity to speak on behalf of the candidates.  I gave the Bishop a gift.  The gift was pruning shears and asked him to be gentle as we move into our call as deacons.  Jesus is the gentle shepherd who does his shearing of us that our wool will serve to make great blessings in the lives of others and then as sheep we grow new wool that is even greater graces coming from God. 

Psychology teaches that our temperament is inherited at 60% and our character is learned at 40% and together that makes our personality.  That 40% that we learn in our character is the pruning we gain in our life experiences to grow straight as we allow God to remain in us.  In God we gain the wisdom to see his hand in our lives and take each moment to be the best we were created to be making it a God moment. 

Remaining in Jesus is placing our trust in him and this is where the pruning is a true sacrifice.  Let Jesus be our voice and the Holy Spirit our heart and the Father’s will our action.  That is grace at work. 

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Homily The Deacon Joe

Easter Triduum – A Proclamation of love

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Easter Triduum is a proclamation of love in the person of Jesus Christ who through his sacrifice of love brings us salvation and passage into heaven.  Above we see three faces but one God in Jesus Christ as they all completely overlap to represent the same face. Each face represents the face of his passion as Veronica wipes his face on the road to Calvary followed by the face of his death wrapped on the Shroud of Turin, but then there is the face at the moment of the resurrection on the cloth covering his head, all available for us to see and believe in the relics of the Church.

Holy Thursday seen as the institution of the priesthood comes with the words “Do this!”  Good Friday, the only day without the celebration of the Mass is the paradox of being “Good” when at the same time the Lord is being crucified and proclaims on the cross “It is finished!”  Holy Saturday is the “Proclamation of the Exultet” from darkness to light with the lighting of the Easter candle, a sign of the Lord’s resurrection and the conquering of death concluding with Easter Sunday.  Thus, Easter is not a day or a moment but a living out of life through a process of love that begins with a command “Do this!” and so by doing it we enter into the life of Christ, his sacrifice, death, and resurrection. 

“Do this!”  The command of the disciples to follow “the way” of Jesus before his death was to take his high priesthood as son of God and bestow to his disciples the call to his royal priesthood.  This was not a public proclamation but a solemn event to those he called to be his disciples in order to give them a mandate of love through an act of charity by washing their feet.  This was “the way” of continuing to multiply the “loaves” of bread to feed his sheep and tend to his sheep through his body and blood in the Eucharist.  Jesus taught publicly many lessons but he reserved to these disciples a call to a life apart, a sacramental life, and a sacrificial life for the stranger making disciples of all nations. 

How is it that on a day when “sin” tries to claim its victory over God in the crucifixion of Jesus we recall it as a “Good Friday”?  Is there anything more of a paradox in life than to see Jesus crucified and call it “good”?  It is good that Jesus remained obedient to the Father through all his suffering even till death on a cross.  It is good that “it is finished” in bringing us the final victory over sin so that at the name of Jesus sin can have no power over us.  It is good that we never forget this day in the life of faith so we may endure our own suffering knowing grace and patience until the day of our deliverance.  Yes, it is good to recall “God doesn’t give us what we can handle, God helps us handle what we are given” by our “cries and supplications” to the God of deliverance. 

Exult for we have come from darkness to light, from death to life, and from sin to holiness.  Exult for the history of salvation is revealed to us in order to give us wisdom and understanding of the mysteries of faith.  Exult because now is the time of deliverance from the power of evil from the days of Adam and Eve to a new creation in Jesus Christ.  Let us exult for we now are transformed into the creation of the temple God longs to live in when we surrender into the waters of our baptism to rise again as he did from the darkness of death.  This is the “Proclamation of the Exultet” to rise again from our darkness. 

Rejoice children of God in Easter Sunday as the temple is raised again as promised in three days.  Rejoice because in rising from the dead he appeared to his disciples with a new command to forgive sins with the power of the Holy Spirit that is to come into them.  Rejoice children of God for our Shepherd is with us as we listen for his voice.  From the day of birth of mother church in the institution of the priesthood to the rising of the Son of God we rejoice for we are not alone, never abandoned nor forsaken by the Lord who suffered his passion in order to remain with us until the end of time.

Easter, a Triduum of love has been called the “silent times” in which we have offered our sacrifice of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving during our Lenten season in order to experience the resurrection of the Lord in our own mind, body, and spirit.  In these silent times God speaks and his words are both universal to the world as they come also to each of us to say “Do this for love of me.”  In the quiet of our hearts, we now come to Lord to receive his glory and to celebrate our own victory as we pass through from death to life in Christ.  Happy Easter!  Happy Resurrection Day! 

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Homily The Deacon Joe

Palm Sunday – It has begun, the final journey!

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Palm Sunday, it has begun!  The final journey to “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?”  “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Death is a human experience of being “forsaken”, a fear of total separation “abandonment” to suffer the final battle for the soul at the hour of death with the evil one, the final test of faith.  Jesus walked the walk of death in his humanity though not in his divinity to leave us with the hope of salvation when the final hour comes calling for our souls may we be faithful to the end.  Palm Sunday is our remembrance not simply of his passion and death for our salvation but also of our readiness to undergo the test, the final battle and finish the good fight. 

It has begun with Palm Sunday, the beginning of the end not just of Holy Week in which we recognize the time has come to “walk” in the steps of the Lord’s Passion but of our own test of faith.  Do we walk the walk or do we deny?  From the agony of “tears and supplications” to the final breath Jesus taught us the way of faithfulness and obedience to the Father.  Jesus taught us there is suffering in which we feel alone and forsaken in order to testify to our faith.  We are greater than our feelings and our weaknesses.  We are being made perfect as we are transformed into the divine nature through death to self but not all.  “Not all” we shall consider later. 

It has begun are we ready to follow?  Jesus requested his disciples to go and bring him a “colt tethered on which no one has ever sat.”  Jesus has walked for years and has the strength to bear the weight of the cross to come but now he desires a colt to ride on.  What does this mean?  In short it means obedience to the Father in all of the smallest details foretold of his coming.  A king does not come into his kingdom on foot “see your king comes, seated upon an ass’s colt”.  As Saint Leo the Great pope wrote “Lowliness is assured by majesty, weakness by power, mortality by eternity.  To pay the debt of our sinful state, a nature that was incapable of suffering was joined to one that could suffer…was able to die in one nature, and unable to die in the other.”   He humbled himself in our human nature to bring us into his divine nature out of love. 

Jesus was not only fulfilling the prophesies of centuries past that pointed to his coming, he was fulfilling the law and the prophets the Father’s way while making all things new in himself.  The Father’s way is one of surrender to the divine will to become a new creation.  The Father’s way of obedience is not to create pawns out of humanity as puppets on a string.  Jesus came “taking the form of a slave…obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” to deliver us from the slavery of sin into the freedom of God’s glory.  The Father’s way is to bring about a new creation in us perfect in his image with power and love beyond all understanding in order to go forth and make disciples of all nations.  Not our way but the Father’s way of humble service.  For this reason, the world cannot accept the Father’s way. 

The world looks to create its own power and define its own love, a temptation from the evil one from the beginning of time.  It was the free will of the angels that produced the fall of Satan and his dominion of angels.  It was the free will of Adam and Eve that allowed temptation to overcome them.  It is the free will of even Jesus’ followers to complain “Why has there been this waste of perfumed oil?  It could have been sold for more than three hundred days’ wages and the money given to the poor.  They were infuriated with her.”  “They” how quickly even one act of love from the “woman” with the costly jar of alabaster oil turned future saints into sinners and into a movement spreading anger, lack of understanding, and one of them, Judas Iscariot into a traitor to hand him over to the chief priests.  Let us consider how the evil one is quick to turn good upside down into evil.  Why “not all will enter the kingdom of heaven”. 

First, have you noticed how the Catholic church is criticized by some of the faithful for all the beauty of art it possesses in its shrines, cathedrals, and museums?  The criticism is that “it could be sold to help the poor.”  Sound familiar?  God granted a few a gift of grace to create a masterpiece not to be auctioned to the highest bidder but to serve as a gift of spiritual awakening accessible to all who come with an open heart of love.  We are blessed by those he has blessed so that the temples of our hearts may be enriched with faith, hope, and love. 

Second, consider how social justice in the “woke” culture.  What is “woke”?  “Woke” is slang for “awake” that is to awaken to social awareness of injustice.  The “woke” world of today’s culture has found a powerful weapon in social media to bring awareness to issues of racial injustice.  This has quickly been captured by some to weaponize with hate speech in order to shame others into silence.  When we listen to those who proclaim justice for some and not for all, when some lives matter more than others, when hate is seen as justice in the hands of some who desire to “woke” others into shame then the evil one is prowling about seeking the ruin of souls.  This is not the means sought by Martin Luther King, Jr., or Cesar Chavez, or Mahatma Gandhi who understood awareness does not come through hate, violence or oppression.  These are the weapons to gain power not unity and peace. 

If the goal of “woke” culture is to awaken us then let us be also awaken to the evil means that seek its own ends in a culture of death.  The world is quick to reject good for evil and create a “herd” mentality of rebellion.  “They” did it to Jesus then “they” can quickly become “us”.  Let us all become “woke” to the kingdom of heaven like the five prudent virgins in the gospel of Mathew (Mt. 25:1-13) who were prepared waiting for the bridegroom.  Stay awake!  Stay awake because the battle is raging institutionally in education, health care, in the church, and its coming home to divide Father against son, brother against sister.  But sin cannot hide in its darkness because the light of Easter has come into the world and we follow the light of truth. 

It is our free will that leads us to consider “not all” will be transformed and made perfect into a new creation.  Death separates the souls who died with the stain of sin waiting a final cleansing in purgatory.  Death also separates the “grain from the weeds”, that is those destined for the fire of cleansing from those destined to the fire of damnation.  Who will we follow, the Father’s way humbled as Jesus did unto death or the way of the past world that is the way of a fallen nature?  The freedom to choose is now before us before it is too late.  Are we ready to bend our knees and confess “Jesus Christ is Lord” of my life?

This Passover will be different not from the big “T” of Tradition but from the little “t” traditions of how we celebrate this coming week as directed by our Bishop, Daniel Flores.  It has already begun with the manner we entered without a procession to receive our palms.  Holy Thursday there will not be any washing of the feet and Good Friday we will not be touching or venerating the cross with a kiss, and Holy Saturday the darkness will not be lighted by candles but the light of Jesus will shine even brighter.  In the midst of all the darkness this world has endured this year faith, hope, and love never dies. 

This is our Passover from death to life. This is our calling to rise above the earthly pilgrimage and enter the kingdom of heaven in the “Via Dolorosa” and shed our sins before the mercy of God. How will it end?

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Homily The Deacon Joe

5th Sunday of Lent – Prayers and Supplications!

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Jer. 31:31-34; Ps: 51:3-4, 12-15; Heb. 5:7-9; Jn.12:20-33

Prayers and supplications create a clean heart to know the Lord and “cleanse us from our sin”.  Jesus the Christ offered prayers and supplications with “loud cries and tears” in his troubled heart and he “learned obedience from what he suffered”.  Suffering is a great teacher.  It reminds us of our mortality, it brings about a need for “other” recognizing we cannot do it alone.  It humbles in order to learn something greater outside of ourselves.  Suffering may even be a gift of grace from God to unite us to his suffering when we offer it up to him for a greater good. 

Suffering to the world is an evil against self-indulgence.  It prevents us from the freedom of our human inclinations to do more, have more, risk more.  Without suffering we would continue our habits not realizing the harm our actions may be causing.  Suffering has a purpose for the soul just as pain has a purpose for the body.  The pain of a fever serves as a messenger in the natural law warning us something is attacking our body and we must act before it becomes worse.  Suffering is a messenger to the soul as a call to action, a call to prayers and supplications and a call to learn obedience to the natural and spiritual laws of God. 

In one of the gospel readings from this past week from the book of John, chapter 5 there was a man who had been “ill for thirty-eight years” at the “Sheep Gate” by the “pool called in Hebrew Bethesda”.  It reads, “When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to be well?’”  Imagine what kind of a question is this for someone who has been ill thirty-eight years waiting in hopes of getting into a pool believed to bring healing to the sick.  I picture today going to the waters of Lourdes, seeing the long lines of people waiting to get into the water that started with the appearance of our Blessed Mother in Lourdes to Bernadette and her digging with her hands to drink of the water coming out of the dirt that today brings millions from around the world in pilgrimage. 

Is Jesus asking a rhetorical question or does he mean what he says and says what he means.  When it comes to sin, do we want to be well?  Have we become so normalized in our own sin that we don’t even see the sin in our lives and live with our suffering from sin separating the suffering from the source?  Do we want to be well?  In my work in the field of addictions half of the people who come to treatment are not seeking to “get well”.  Many come with other motivations under pressure from family, the court, an employer.  When it comes to “getting well” they are in a pre-contemplative state of motivation with no intent of stopping their favorite drug of choice.  They want to continue their lifestyle and avoid the consequences of their actions.  What is our “drug” that binds us in sickness and suffering?  Is it money, work, power, control, greed, lust, food, alcohol, narcotics?  We can turn anything into a “drug” of choice even a sinful relationship when we allow it to become our obsession.

Jesus heals the man by the pool and later tells him “Look, you are well; do not sin any more, so that nothing worse may happen to you.”  What could be worse than thirty-eight years of lying on a mat in sickness unable to care for yourself?  The answer is the death that comes from sin.  While there is suffering and sickness there is hope of healing our mind, body and soul.  Death from sin is hell.  Jesus is asking us “Do you want to be well?”  Prayers and supplications create a clean heart to clean us from our sin. 

When we pray, do we believe we are being heard or are we left wondering does God hear our prayers?  God hears our every word and thought coming from our reverence.  It is sometimes said prayer is like “having a conversation with a friend”.  Do we revere our friends, do we give them high respect by being transparently honest and lovingly compassionate?  Then yes it can be like having a conversation with a friend.  It can also lack in reverence when we want to make our point and have it our way with selective memory and self-justification.  Then we are not giving reverence or being a friend.  We have a friend in Jesus who calls us his friends meaning he gives us his great love.  We must give him our reverence with deep devotion and love. 

It is always interesting to me to see the reverence given to a funeral procession in silence as cars pull over to give respect to the dead but see an ambulance with its sirens blasting and nobody wants to slows down for the living.  The Mass is a call for reverence to the mystery of faith, a profound love of Jesus before us.  It is not the memory but the living presence of Jesus.  Reverence is beyond simply respect for, it goes from veneration to worship and adore.  We will venerate the cross on Good Friday for all it represents as a sign of our worship and adoration of Jesus Christ.  Our reverence, that is our outward gestures give witness to our inward faith and God sees and listens to our prayers coming from the heart. 

How is Jesus the God-man “made perfect” when God is perfect?  It was through his obedience for the purpose he came into the world to be “lifted up from the earth” that is to be hung on a cross that he glorified the Father and was made perfect in obedience to the divine will.  This is how we are to be made perfect when our cries and tears lead us to walk in faith knowing God has heard us and now, we must go forth trusting in his divine will to his promise to be with us until the end of the world.  We are made perfect in obedience to his Word as the Holy Spirit speaks to our heart and mind.  Our works that give glory and honor to God make perfect our faith. 

In the celebration of the Mass our Lord is lifted up in the body and blood of the Eucharist having been made perfect for us to receive him in reverence with prayers and supplications.  The Mass is a unity of prayer to glorify the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and our prayers are heard when our hearts are ready to receive his word.  If our hearts are ready then his word becomes incarnated into our hearts as he promised “I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts” and he will be our God.  God is with us.

When we are troubled our prayer is often more of “save me from this hour”.  Jesus prayer was “Father, glorify your name.”  It is not about us.  We are to serve a purpose in changing hearts, minds, and lives when we pray “Father, glorify your name”.  These four words are an invitation that we may be made perfect transformed into a channel of grace through which the Lord wishes to reveal himself, his power and love.  Jesus did not glory in being a victim but in the power of God so that “the ruler of this world will be driven out.”  Today we are drawn to Jesus by the cross he suffered for us to serve the greater purpose of our call to holiness.  That purpose begins with reverence. 

Do we give each other the reverence of our love?  Do we listen with deep respect to understand what is in each other’s hearts?  Do we give ourselves the reverence of being created in the image of God in order to defend the sanctity of our own life?  Without reverence we objectify ourselves and others as a means to an end.  (V1) “O, honey!”  (V2) “What do you want?”  (V1) “Can you get me something?”  (V2) “Why can’t you get it yourself?”  Words matter!  A home without reverence becomes a place of shared space, cold, indifferent, until the moment suffering becomes the uninvited guest.  Then we recognize our need for the other.  Imagine the heart of Jesus getting that response.  It happens!  When?  When we treat others without reverence, we treat Jesus this way. 

What about our children and the deep love and respect we give God by our love and respect for them?  “They are only kids!”  God says, “Let the children come to me.”  When someone has power, we give honor to them for the power they have but when they no longer have power our respect wavers.  We respect our parents as children and then we grow in rebellion seeking our own way and when they age no longer responsible for our care, do we return to give them the honor of our love and respect?  Then, there is the poor, the sick, and the abandoned with no one to care for them worthy of our deep respect for their suffering.  If not by the grace of God that may be us if not now someday “from the least to the greatest” shall know God.  Reverence is always in season with God and so in honor. 

“The Father will honor whoever serves me” says Jesus.  We serve Jesus when we become the “grain of wheat” and die to ourselves to produce the fruit of love through sacrifice.  It is not one death but a daily collection of deathly moments we endure as we sacrifice for each other.  Age has a way of being the “wake-up call” that adds to the cross of suffering.  As we age, we uncover new sources of pain from years that take their toll on the body and from the sin of our lives.  I like to remind myself, “I go to bed feeling well and wake up to discover new aches and pain before I even face the cross of the day.” 

As we age, we also gain a deeper understanding of our sin.   We may suffer the memory of our past, the consequences we cannot change, the loss of relationship broken by neglect or abuse, even the death of being separated from God for some time.  This is the time for our “cries and tears” for mercy to a compassionate God.  This is the time to recover the joy of God’s salvation and come back stronger in faith with his spirit to sustain us. This is the power of one confession with a contrite spirit to cleanse us from our sin and set us free. 

A clean heart is a heart of love, a heart of forgiveness, a heart born of mercy knowing that regardless of our past, our sin, and the grave of death we dug for ourselves our bodies will not lie in waste but are given new life and hope because the Lord says, “I have promised, and I will do it.” 

The cross however does not have to be to suffer without meaning.  The cross is to love with purpose and meaning even if it hurts.  Love gives great joy to the heart to overcome suffering that our “cries and tears” may turn to joy and peace. 

Lent is a call to healing with prayers and supplications. Jesus is waiting to cleanse us from our sin in the waters of baptism, in the confessional and he is in the Eucharist so we may receive a clean heart this day.  Do we want to be well?  Then come and offer your prayers and supplications to the Lord who makes all things new again. 

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