Ascension of the Lord – The Father’s Promise!

Posted on May 16, 2021May 16, 2021 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

6th Sunday of Easter – God is Love, Happy Mother’s Day!

Posted on May 8, 2021May 9, 2021 by Deacon Joe

Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48; Ps. 98:1-4; 1 Jn. 4:07-10; Jn. 15:9-17

God is love and what a more perfect moment to recognize the great love of motherhood beginning with our Blessed Mother Mary who gave her fiat to bring us the child Jesus for the redemption of the world. May is the month of Mary and Mother’s Day is in May uniting the motherhood of all moms to the Blessed Mother’s love for her son. What an advocate for moms who share a special bond to Mary as a mother who carries her child in the womb knowing it is born out of love.

Close to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is a shrine called the Milk Grotto. It is more of a cave where according to tradition Mary and Joseph stayed on their way to Egypt. Mary nursed baby Jesus and a drop of Mary’s milk fell upon the stone and it turned white. In our pilgrimage to Bethlehem on the West Bank we stopped at the Milk Grotto and saw the white walls of the cave listened to the stories of miracles attributed to the Mary at the Grotto especially for women who were having trouble to conceive and became pregnant.

An iconic image of Mary breastfeeding Jesus is a reminder that from the breast of Mary’s milk Jesus fed dependent upon her humanity as an infant. It is also a reminder of St. Joseph the protector guardian of the Holy Family. Jesus continues to look to our humanity and his church to provide his people with the food of heaven in the Eucharist and the spirit of truth in his Word as a shield of protection against the gods of fear and deception in the cultural war against the values and practices of the faith. This is love in action.

In the first reading from Acts we see how the Word of God is love and those who receive the word receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Word is not a voice from heaven but the voice of his apostles as Peter says, “I myself am also a human being” who bring his Word to “every nation”. In this reading we see how the Word alone has power to bring to the Gentiles the gift of the Holy Spirit before baptism that is why we speak of being baptized in the spirit already as children of God for the Spirit rests where love of God abounds. God is love and baptism is the new circumcision of our hearts to give us the sign of God’s love remaining with us.

Love is the seed of God himself and when we nurture our love, we come closer to the truth that God exists to know him and love him. God has come into the world through his Son Jesus “as expiation for our sins” that we may receive a greater love, a more perfect love for one another. The gospel reading continues Jesus’ kerygma to remain in him by remaining in his love. This is the “how to” remain in him that it comes through love and love come through keeping the commandments. Thus, love is not an emotional sensation but a covenant with God the Father to stay true to his commandments as the visible sign of true love.

Jesus discourse now takes on a more perfect sign of the commandments from obedience to the law of the Father to the act of love for one another in serving each other as he loves us in coming to serve us. Jesus gave testimony of his love by healing, teaching, expelling demons, sanctifying the waters for baptism, and suffering his passion of love for us in death to self with the power to rise again. Are we ready to suffer for one another? The Apostles did just that and many suffered martyrdom giving completely of themselves to bring the good news of Jesus to the world. Jesus lets his disciples know “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” and in his divinity he joined our humanity to be one with us and calls us his “friends”. In Jesus, love rises from the dead victorious.

Jesus lets his disciples know he calls them friends because he has shared everything he has heard from the Father. Then Jesus gives a formula to the disciples and for us to follow, “whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give to you”. Jesus places himself as our intercessor to the Father so that when we pray, we are to pray “in the name of Jesus” so his sacrifice of redemption for our sins may also be united to our prayers and not have our sins stand in the way. Thus, when we unite our imperfect love to Jesus’ perfect love we are transformed into the light of heaven with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Our prayers begin with the sign of the cross “In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit” calling upon the Trinity. When our prayer becomes our “ask” let us do so by calling out “in the name of Jesus” for he calls us friends and carries our prayers to the Father. Then we can turn to our Blessed Mother who reminds us “do whatever he (Jesus) tells you”.

Jesus calls us “friends” and we can then turn this word into an acronym, F.R.I.E.N.D.S. to recognize God is love in his friendship with us.

“F” is for “Faithful” and Jesus is faithful. He is faithful to his promises and his covenant of love as he continues to suffer for our unfaithfulness when we choose sin over his love. A friend of others is a friend of Jesus as he calls us to love one another. We live in a time when we have lost sight of our neighbor and we can even become strangers to each other in our home.

“R” is for “Respect” and Jesus respects our free will. In his gentleness Jesus waits for our response to his love respecting the choice we make will ultimately make us into his friend or a stranger. Respect is a sign of love so children show respect to your parents but also parents show respect to your children given by God and belonging to God. We live in a time of extreme child abuse beginning with abortion, child trafficking, and sex slave trade.

“I” is for “Interested” and Jesus is interested in every thought and feeling and act we do. He knows our every hair meaning he knows us even better than we know ourselves. Jesus is interested in us spending time with him behind closed doors in silence, in prayer, in adoration. He wants us to be interested in him and to look at him as he looks on us, to contemplate him on the cross for all of his suffering and in the Eucharist for all of his glory. We live in a time of mass distraction beginning with the phone and the internet and silence is a lost art. Jesus comes in the silence of the moment.

“E” is for “Enjoy” and Jesus enjoys loving us as friends. Friendship is a joy to share when we become open and vulnerable to another by sharing our hopes, fears, dreams and love. In a world of finite time when we make time to enjoy our time together a moment becomes an infinite joy and memory to ponder. We live in a time where the cultural war creates division fostering what divides us rather than what unites us stealing our joy in being one family, one nation, one world to enjoy under God.

“N” is for “Nurture” and Jesus does nurture his friends with his love. Just as a mother is instinctively nurturing to an infant, we have forgotten how to nurture each other. Men can be a bit clumsy in their nurturing skills that is why it is said “a dog is man’s best friend” because it is hard to trust a man with a baby but we are getting better waiting for them to grow up and play rough. Nurturing comes with touch and we live in a time where fear is avoiding touch and social distancing is becoming the norm. Let us not be afraid that we were made for touch and let it begin with Jesus touching our hearts.

“D” is for “Dialogue” and Jesus speaks to us in dialogue through prayer, through fellowship, through his Word in scripture and through the quieting of our souls. It is tempting to say our prayers, rush through a rosary, and never stop to quiet our souls and listen for the voice of God to dialogue with us. How do we know when it is God speaking and not our own deceiving thoughts? Some will say God spoke to me and gave me a word of knowledge. What does this mean? It means that it we could not have arrived at it on our own but came through inspiration of the Holy Spirit as a confirmation of faith, hope, and love. We live in a time when the discourse of “dialogue” has been replaced by shouting, monologues, constant interruptions and demands for “safe spaces” where only those who share common views may enter. If we cannot listen to others how will we listen to Jesus?

“S” is for “Sacrifice” and Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice of a friend to give up his life for our salvation. Mother’s begin to give life to a child through the sacrifice of their body beginning with the early signs of “Morning” sickness learning to understand the needs of their child before a word is spoken. The motherhood of a Mother is sacrifice and support. Jesus is there to support us when we turn to him and when we offer up our sacrifice of love for a greater good. Often, we look for support everywhere or nowhere thinking we have to do it ourselves but have we allowed Jesus into our lives to be our support? Jesus is there when we call upon him, when we pray to the Father in the name of Jesus, when we look to support each other we invite Jesus into our relationships.

Now is the time to rise above a culture of death and bring back the culture of friendship through the love of Jesus. Now is the time to be friends through the sacrifice of love. He calls us “friends” are we his friend? Happy Mother’s Day Blessed Mother and to all Moms and grandmas! Let us offer a prayer of love for our mothers who made many a sacrifice for us and are one of the reasons we are here in Mass in in this world today. Happy Blessed day to all of Jesus’ friends.

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Homily The Deacon Joe

5th Sunday of Easter – Remain in me

Posted on May 2, 2021May 2, 2021 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

4th Sunday of Easter – The Good Shepherd

Posted on April 24, 2021April 23, 2021 by Deacon Joe

Acts 4:8-12; Ps. 118:1, 8-9, 21-23, 26,28-29; 1 Jn. 3:1-2; Jn. 10:11-18

The good shepherd is Jesus Christ who laid down his life for us his sheep “by which we are to be saved.” The Catholic Church proclaims the primacy of Peter for the one Holy, Catholic and Apostolic church given to us by Jesus as the cornerstone of our faith. Jesus the good shepherd is the one under who our salvation is to be revealed to be like him, that is to be holy, catholic and apostolic as shepherds of our flock. We pray in faith “Jesus, I trust in you”. We are also given God’s grace to be like him as shepherds of the flock he has trusted us to lead. Will we stand with the courage to give of ourselves for our flock or will we be like the hired man who sees the danger of the “wolf” in today’s cultural war coming to attack and runs away, that is runs away with no ownership except for their own survival.

In the reading from Acts, “Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit” declares Jesus the Nazorean is the only name that brings us salvation. What about the souls who have not received the name of Jesus as their Lord and savior? Jesus lets us know he has “other sheep that do not belong to this fold” who will hear his voice and be of the one flock under the one shepherd. Jesus came to his own, that is “all the people of Israel” yet his voice was received by Jew and by the other sheep, the Gentile alike who were converted and came to believe in the Son of God. His voice was to spread to the ends of the world to bring all to salvation. Do we have any ownership to witness to these sheep, the unchurched and bring them into the flock? God places others in our path, like today’s modern day “none” who claim no religious affiliation with an opportunity to share the gospel message of salvation as Catholics.

In the history of the world there is repeatedly a rise of wolves promoting a “Great evil done in the name of a great good”. The crucifixion was a great evil believing it was better for one to die in the name of a greater good to preserve the Jewish customs. The Holocaust was a great evil believing it was a great good to exterminate what was proclaimed as an inferior people. We have seen the great evil of abortion done in the name of a great good defending the “right to choose” life or death of a child. The evil of the death of a child in the womb seen in the sonograms is validated by modern science to be the killing of a beating heart. That is why the number of abortions continues to decline and a greater number of the young people stand for life. As one evil slowly gets defeated there is a rise of another wolf to follow. What is the new evil to rise up?

Gender selection is the new evil promoted as a “greater good” to a child as “questioning” their identity. A child before the age of mature cognitive development is promoted gender selection as a great good supported by the rise of medication assisted treatment to promote a gender change. Once indoctrinated to choose a gender opposed to the natural law of their genetic makeup then the child is victim to a life-long process of dependency on a medical system of care to sustain the big lie against the natural law. If any voice of contradiction should rise then it becomes imperative to be silenced by the “cancel culture”, which is the return of the past great evil that crucified Jesus Christ to silence him and his followers for speaking truth to power. The power that saves! These are the wolves of our time and will we stand to defend our sheep that is the children from being scattered by these wolves.

The rise of the great evil in “cancel culture” is to promote a belief in a greater good of inclusive language by canceling what is professed to be racist speech for any opposition raised to speak up for the natural law of creation. Mandatory cultural sensitivity is the new norm for indoctrination into the accepted culture in the cultural war of the new systemic bias towards inclusivity defined as an acceptance to any identity regardless of natural law. What is lost in the argument is that systemic bias is what is driving the cancel culture against the norms, values, and morals founded on religious beliefs and liberty.

First God was taken out of schools in the dogma of separation of church and state. It opened up the doors to secular rule as the only “truth” for all the sheep to hear. Now comes a pandemic crisis calling for the closure of church gatherings as a greater good and our children to stay home not only from school but from church catechesis of the faith. We hear of reaching herd immunity to a virus that kills by eliminating potential hosts when all have been vaccinated or survived the virus. The cultural war is seeking to create herd immunity to religious values with mandatory cultural sensitivity training as the vaccine against church teaching. Promoters of great evil always believe “never let a crisis go to waste”.

Who will shepherd the faith of our children and their understanding of their creation in the image of God and the natural law of God? Will we let them come back to the church and continue their journey of faith? Are we ready to teach the faith as the domestic church at home which we are called to shepherd and protect? Are we fulfilling our baptismal vows? Questions each of us must answer and take ownership as shepherds of our flock.

Where is God, faith, and traditional values and morals in this new cultural war? God is present in his church and his church stands opposed to abortion, homosexuality, gender neutral identity, euthanasia, assisted suicide, and more thus it is an abomination to the “new imagining” and a threat to the cancel culture. It is better to take refuge in the good shepherd rejected by the builders of this cancel culture than to trust in man or the princes who lead what is being called the “new imagining”. Will the “new imagining” bring us truth, goodness, beauty and unity or a return to the original lie of the serpent “you shall be like gods” by evolving into your own creation?

We are reminded “The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.” The cancel culture of the world is not a new phenomenon. History proves that all the great evils done were done in the name of a great good. The world will continue to reimagine itself into the culture of bringing about great evil for the purpose of the power that comes from it as a sheep in wolves clothing. They hear not the voice of the Lord but their own voice of tyranny seeking to tear down in order to create a new world order. When will the new imagining recognize there remains a heaven and hell that cannot be reimagined at the end of this life and all these visions being imagined failed to see beyond itself to the true greater good of the kingdom of God?

The good shepherd says “I know my sheep, and mine know me.” If we don’t have that knowledge of the good shepherd then we are invited to come to the sanctuary of salvation while there is still time. “What we shall be has not yet been revealed” but it is not something we can reimagine. To be “like him” is to persevere in the sacrifice of faith, hope and love for the one true good, that is for the good shepherd. `

We are called to be one Holy, Catholic and Apostolic church. Given the Holy Spirit at baptism we have entered into the kingdom of God to be like him, holy by seeking our identity in Jesus Christ the holy one, catholic by being united into the one body of Christ and apostolic by giving testimony of our faith by the witness of our lives. Holiness is a gift of grace we seek in prayer to overcome the sin of our fallen nature. It is not something we hope for after death but something we sacrifice for as disciples of the good shepherd. We are Catholic in being united to the body of Christ when we come to receive his body and blood in the Eucharist. Apostolic when we go forth transformed as sheep into shepherds in the image of Christ to spread to good news of Easter, Jesus is alive! He lives in us and with us to spread the good news through us.

Let us listen to the voice of the shepherd and be transformed into shepherds of the gifts and blessing we have been given and let us go forth to multiply the kingdom for the true greater good of salvation.

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Homily

3rd Sunday of Easter – Jesus Christ, Advocate!

Posted on April 17, 2021April 16, 2021 by Deacon Joe

Acts 3:13-15, 17-19; Ps. 4:2, 4, 7-9; 1 Jn. 2:1-5; Lk. 24:35-48

Jesus Christ, Advocate to the Father who is “expiation for our sins” that we may keep his word and “truly be perfected in him”. We are perfected in him when we “keep his commandments”. We are perfected in him when the Scriptures are opened to us to make our hearts “burn” in transformation to avoid the near temptation to sin. We are perfected in him when Jesus is made known to us “in the breaking of bread” as we celebrate his coming in the Eucharist. This is our Advocate who suffered, died, and rose again in victory.

As Jesus appears once again to the disciples he asks “Have you anything here to eat?”. Jesus not only rose from the dead but he has “flesh and bones” and an appetite. The sting of death is transformed into the glory of the resurrected human body perfected in love. The greatest hunger of the Lord is for souls to repent, to be converted and to return to holiness. He is waiting for us to take that first step and seek that we should find our Advocate. Why is it difficult for us to “ask” of him what he is waiting to give us? Perhaps we know not how to ask. Could it be that we ask for the wrong thing or that we simply cannot put aside our pride and have yet to repent?

“Ask” for the Lord to reveal to us what we are to seek and to reveal if we ask wrongly. We are to approach him with prayers and supplications. Jesus performed many miracles of healing to those who approached him in supplication. If those who were lost knew to seek, find, and ask how much more has the path been opened to the believers to approach our Advocate to God the Father who cannot be denied. It is time for us to rise up as believers and come to the table of the Lord in supplication for our needs and the needs of the world. We come not with wishful thinking but with the faith to believe our Advocate can do all things in us and in the world for his glory.

As baptized children of God we have received the gift of the Holy Spirit with the infusion of spiritual virtues of holiness to know to ask. It begins with faith, hope, and love to unite us to the Advocate. Ask our Advocate to increase our faith to believe in the mystery of our salvation, our hope to expect a revelation of truth, and our love to make an offering our ourselves. “Ask” for an increase in the gift of the moral virtues of justice for right judgment, fortitude for the courage to act rightly, prudence to choose wisely and temperance to live in moderation and abstinence according to his commands of life with all its temptations. The Lord is waiting for our “Ask”.

Perhaps then in asking for our Advocate to reveal his will for us we discover we have yet to repent of our sin out of our pride. We have judged incorrectly, having failed to respond courageously in the face of the attack from the enemy, and have to admit we have “acted out of ignorance” in our choices. We are now living the instability of our intemperance through the indulgence of our natural appetites and falling into the pit of darkness. Why wait for the casualty of death to come because we have held on to our pride and denied the Lord his place as Advocate for our sins. He stands at our side ready to give us forgiveness as he did to the thief on the cross by his side.

Jesus Christ, Advocate of mercy on the cross amends for our sins and
those of the whole world” if we but believe and repent. “If” is the barrier between our sins and his mercy. If first we “believe” what we profess that is that Jesus Christ is present to us and not a “ghost” of spiritualism. He is physically present in the Eucharist! This is a stumbling block to many, even those who profess to be believers of Christianity. He is the food of salvation we are to hunger for as he hungers for us. He multiplies himself to feed the world but the world does not accept him. His mercy returns to him for it finds few places to make its dwelling place a home in the souls of the professed believers and nonbelievers also known as “None”. Who are these who profess to be “None”?

“None” is the modern-day identity of those who follow no religious affiliation. They walk a journey of faith in themselves, as their own advocate of right and wrong professing their own righteousness. Their righteousness stands while things remain in control but when a power greater than themselves shakes their foundation of faith in themselves, they crumble and fall in despair alone to suffer in their own body and soul the weakness of a godless existence. There is “none” to advocate for them in their sins because they reach out to none. If the “None” cannot accept our mother Church as the visible sign of Jesus Christ how can they welcome him in the invisible mystery of his presence?

Jesus Christ, Advocate is a reminder we were created to be in unity and not in isolation. We don’t reach out to none we reach out to Jesus Christ, King of glory. We require the human touch to confirm our belief and strengthen our faith. Our seven sacraments provide us the physical presence of the invisible grace being manifested in our lives. Unity in physical presence is a “game changer” as it was when Jesus physically appeared to the disciples. Imagine having only a vision of a loved one but without the ability to touch and experience the warmth and nature of another in our presence. The sacramental life provides us a physical unity to be transformative. Without touch, unity becomes an exercise of mental exchange short of perfection.

In baptism the child is touched with the sign of the cross by the priest, parents, and godparents. The child is touched by the waters of baptism. The child is touched in the Ephphetha on the ears to receive the word of God and on the lips to proclaim their faith as believers and they are to see in the light of the candle the light of Christ which they receive and is held before them. The human touch is the sign and validation of unity.

Jesus Christ, Advocate is present for our touch. The world fears a pandemic from spreading by the closeness of our physical presence and our touch. It seeks to create the isolation that is worse than the disease separated by clear barriers and virtual worlds. Those who turn to the Advocate have the virtues to not fall prey to fears of the enemy under the guise of a “greater good” but moved by the spirit of the Advocate embrace each other with love and charity. Just as a vaccine is created to protect against a virus so is the Advocate there to protect against the near occasion of sin.

Recently having traveled into another diocese it was announced in Sunday Mass that the bishop of this diocese had earlier in the week issued a letter stating the Church of the Diocese would continue with maintaining the mask and social distancing mandates even if the State no longer was enforcing them. Then later in the week a new letter was issued stating the Church of this Diocese would no long require any mandates and each person and family was free to determine what measures to take. The only request was to respect the decisions of each parishioner. The day is coming when each bishop will issue a similar letter to the faithful and we are to trust in our Advocate to guide us in spirit and truth.

We live in times where “shaming” is a powerful weapon in the identified “cancel culture” which comes from the evil one. It is time to rise from the dead of “cancel culture” to the truth of the “Resurrected Culture” of everlasting life. It is time to fear not and determine personal risk factors with prudence in our decisions. Jesus Christ, Advocate is the source of life in our “Resurrected Culture”. There is a Spanish saying “El respeto al derercho ajeno es la paz” meaning the respect to others rights is the peace. Jesus was, is and always will be the truth, the way, and the life to the peace he brings us as faithful servants.

This is our Easter to rejoice and be glad. We belong to him, we belong to the “Resurrected Culture” and it is time to rise again in faith, hope, and love and go forth to live in the kingdom of God!

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Homily

2nd Sunday of Easter – Water and Blood!

Posted on April 10, 2021April 9, 2021 by Deacon Joe

Acts 4:32-35; Ps. 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24; 1 Jn. 5:1-6; Jn. 20:19-31

Water and blood testified “Peace be with you” in the Spirit of truth. What did the disciples experience in the witness of the resurrected Christ? They first experienced the calming of their fears in his greeting of peace at the shock of seeing the resurrected Christ. They experienced Jesus physical presence marked by the wounds of his hands and side. They experienced the breath of Jesus coming into them as the Holy Spirit with power. They experience a command to go forth to forgive and retain sins in the same Spirit of truth as the moral compass in this world.

The water from the side of Jesus Christ is baptizing in spirit and truth. The blood from his side is the sacrifice of the lamb in atonement for our sins. They work together to bring us salvation for those “who have not seen and have believed.” The disciples saw “many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written”. In Jesus, the disciples saw the glory of the resurrected body transcending the natural law, the glory to come for those who believe and die in the faith of Jesus Christ.

St. Tomas Aquinas wrote of the seven qualities of the resurrected body to come for those who believe. These qualities the disciples saw in Jesus resurrected and are listed as “identity, integrity, quality, impassability, sotility, agility, and clarity. This is our hope and God’s promise to those who believe.

Beginning with “identity” they recognized Jesus though he was transfigured by the divine light in his identity yet coming in his divinity. We are created with our original identity perfect yet stained by sin and humanity’s weaknesses. When he breathed on his disciples with the gift of the Holy Spirit then their hearts, minds, and souls received his perfect identity to go forth and minister to this perfect love to the world. These were the same disciples who in fear ran and denied Jesus now are given the power to stand and testify to the resurrection. Alleluia!

To this identity we are given our “integrity” of body without any further decay and our senses with perfect vision, mobility, without handicap or disabilities. No more suffering or sickness but the fullness of health in mind, body, and spirit. Alleluia!

Perfect integrity comes with perfect “quality” of life. What is this “prime” of quality of life in the resurrection? It is not a number in sequence of aging in which we return to be 21 again or 33 again. It is a state of life in the spiritual maturity to know God, love God, and serve God. It is being the best God created us to be with the gifts of grace he pours into us. Alleluia!

Having entered into the divine life there is an “impassability” of returning to a mortal state where disease, injury, or death return. Death has been defeated by Jesus resurrection and with it the power of evil. When the dead rise again, they receive the resurrected body with the impassability to return to a “reincarnation” of a fallen nature. Alleluia!

Jesus appears to the disciples “when the doors were locked” both times demonstrating his “sotility” to pass through material nature. Jesus tells Thomas “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side” shows us Jesus presence in body not as a spiritual image but full in body yet not restricted by the material doors. Before Star Track came up with “beam me up Scotty” came Jesus by his own sotility with the power to be both tangible and unrestricted. Alleluia!

In his divinity with both body and spirit Jesus demonstrates his power of “agility” to move through space at the speed of thought as the soul obeys the will to be agile as a spark of light. In a world where we take for granted the speed of communication in technology we remain in our humanity as slow as a turtle. Jesus “agility” demonstrates we will receive this same agility in our resurrection to be present where the will desires. Alleluia!

Finally, Jesus demonstrates his “clarity” free from imperfections to the degree of “charity” meaning no signs of the scourging he endured yet he remained with the perfect sign of his charity with the nail marks and scar on his side. How is this perfect “clarity” if marked by the sign of his crucifixion? Jesus wounds remained for Thomas to see and believe as the crucifix remains as a reminder of his suffering for our sins. This clarity of charity is perfect love until the day of his return in glory. Alleluia!

Jesus was perfect in love, knowledge and understanding when he calls out Thomas “do not be unbelieving, but believe.” Even though Jesus was not present when Thomas declared “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into into his side, I will not believe” Jesus had full knowledge of Thomas and in his love of Thomas welcomed him to believe as he invites us to believe and be blessed this Easter season. Alleluia! Alleluia!

In a world with so much suffering, disease, anxiety, trauma, tragedy, and restlessness we long to receive the same peace given to the disciples and the breath of Jesus. Jesus also longs to give us the same gift he gave to the disciples so where is the disconnect? It begins with failing to live out the commandments even when the “are not burdensome”. Love of God is faith in action! We claim to have faith but our will is directed inward, not seeking the will of the Father. Active love of God is constantly seeking “Lord what is your will?” Resurrection comes with the death of the “old” self, opening up the soul to the inpouring of the Spirit to do the will of the Father. This is a great step of faith. Whoever is ready for this total surrender comes to the water and blood to rest in the peace of Christ. The journey is a work in progress towards spiritual maturity and we all fall short along the path but Jesus remains present and waiting to lift us up and continue fighting the good fight. Never give in to the spirit of defeat from the evil one. In the darkest moments we will be made new again.

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Homily The Deacon Joe

Easter Triduum – A Proclamation of love

Posted on April 1, 2021April 1, 2021 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 March 27, 2021March 26, 2021 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 March 20, 2021March 19, 2021 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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Homily The Deacon Joe

4th Sunday of Lent – Rejoice, O Jerusalem!

Posted on March 13, 2021March 13, 2021 by Deacon Joe

2 Chron. 36:14-16, 19-23; Ps: 137:1-6; Eph. 2:4-10; Jn. 3:14-21

“Rejoice, O Jerusalem” “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” John 3:16 is printed in posters, cups, shirts, billboards and proclaimed by all Christian people. It stands as a foundation of faith in Jesus Christ and unity for his people and we rejoice in Laetare Sunday to be children of God. In the darkness of sin comes the light of faith bring hope into the world.

Faith and works unite as one when we act in faith and allow the works of God to be his love through us. We live in it we rejoice in it and we fulfill the works of God in it. It is in the ministry of the priesthood that accomplishes the works of God in the church. It is the works of God seen in the service of the laity coming from our baptism and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Faith and works are not to be divided any more than our soul is to be separated from our body for we are given both to serve as one in this world.

John 3:16 is one of the most quoted verses of the bible by Christians of all denominations. Human nature being what it is has in the same way created disunity among Christian people when it comes to salvation between those who profess “saved by faith alone and not by works” and Catholic faith in salvation by grace in unity with works. James 2:26 reminds us “For just as a body without a spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead”.

Today Ephesians makes a strong argument for faith, “For by grace you have been saved though faith, and this is not from you; it is a gift of God; it is not from works so no one may boast”. Saved by grace and rich in mercy is our God who desires us to recognize how great is his love that he gave us his only Son to save us. It is clear salvation is a gift of grace from God who is “rich in mercy.” We may ask how one confession wipes away all my sins if not by the rich mercy of God. How can any of our works be considered justification for salvation since we believe in John 3:16, Jesus died in atonement for our sins that we “might not perish”? The simple answer is we don’t. An act of faith opens the gates of salvation to receive the grace of mercy from God. So where does “works” stand in salvation?

“Works” are the visible signs of God’s work in us “so no one may boast” as their achievement but give God the glory who is at work to bring salvation to the world. Salvation is a gift “though faith” visible in the works of the faithful. Anyone who claims to have “faith” gives light to their faith in the visible works of God as we surrender to him. Consider the works of Moses, Elijah, and all the great prophets and all that God accomplished through their faith and trust in God and became the “handiwork” of God “for the good works that God has prepared in advance” for them. It is our turn now as a people of faith to be the handiwork of God for the works he has prepared in advance for us “that we should live in them”.

If we live in God’s works prepared for us then we live in the light of salvation but if we turn to the “infidelity” of our own works then we live in darkness of a faith that is dead. “Infidelity to infidelity practicing all the abominations…until there was no remedy.” Does this sound like ancient medieval times or modern times? We live in a time of infidelity practicing all the abominations going from good to evil, from the sovereignty of human life to calling for the rights of abortion to end life, from made in the image of God to made in the image of genetic manipulation to create an alternative life, from God’s natural law of sexual identity to human law of identity preference, from the right to life until the end of life to the right to die at the time of my choice. Works that stand for death stand against the fidelity to God as an abomination.

Not only have we lost the commandment to keep holy the “Sabbaths” but all the other commandments are no longer the tradition of the public square. They are being held captive to remain within the walls of the church not to be seen in public not even on the walls of anything considered a wall of the State lest we be canceled for infringement on the rights of the anti-commandment culture of death. Where does freedom come from? Is it by authority of the State or by authority of God through his command of life?

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (Jn. 1:1) We are reminded in the gospel of John that “all things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be through him was life”. Our lifeline is God and without God we are already the walking dead “in our transgressions”. If the State by the authority granted unto itself chooses the darkness of death then let us stand apart as “the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it” (Jn. 1:5) Take courage in that our kingdom is not of this world as children of God.

What is the remedy? Perhaps the critical question is “what is the remedy God will bring upon this world? Perhaps it has already begun as we see the hand of God amid all the crisis in the world “until the land has retrieved all its lost sabbaths.” The remedy is Jesus Christ! The remedy is a call to repentance and retrieve the “lost sabbaths” by returning to the commandments of God. The remedy is a contrite heart in confession for the times we failed to answer the call to holiness and purity of heart. The remedy is the courage to give witness to our faith in the works God desires to work through us. The remedy is more than being “called” children of God, the remedy is to be children of God by the testimony we give every day in every way as the visible sign of his work in us. As Catholics the remedy is the sacrifice of the Mass in atonement for our sins and the sins of the world.

Salvation is a gift of grace “through faith”. The gift is there but it requires action on our part and the first act is an act of faith to believe followed by the natural works that respond to our beliefs that give life to our faith and glory to God. The mystery of faith is Jesus Christ and the works of faith are the children of God who radiate the light of faith in a world of darkness. The works of faith, that is the children of God is the treasure he came to save and raise up from death into everlasting life and glory. The train has left the station since over two thousand years ago and it is making its journey calling the faithful to come aboard. The ticket to ride is an act of faith but there is work to do on the train of salvation to reach our journey’s end. The one who does not work does not eat of the bread of life.

We are reminded that the harvest is ready but the workers are few, not a good sign for this world. The faithful are becoming the silent minority as less people return to the pews. We are reminded that “Early and often did the Lord, the God of their faithers, send his messengers to them, for he had compassion on his people and his dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God, despised his warnings, and scoffed at his prophets, until the anger of the Lord against his people was so inflamed that there was no remedy.” Jesus is the messenger mocked, despised for his warnings, and scoffed as a prophet then and now when we dare to speak for the truth of God.

It is not personal it is the universal battle between good and evil taking place in our times. We are called to battle for our faith, we are called to be the remedy. If not us then who? Jesus has already come to give us life and to bring about his works through us. If not now when? Are we going to witness the enemy “burn the house of God”? It is already happening in other parts of the world as Christian temples are destroyed. The “walls of Jerusalem” the city of God is being torn down because those city walls are the walls of our heart that bind us to the heart of Jesus. All “its precious objects” are the lives of the unborn, the sick, and the poor destroyed in a culture of death.

“All the kingdoms of the earth” have been given to us as an inheritance and we are his people called to go up to the city of God. Let us sing to the Lord a new song of love and devotion and give him our troubled hearts. “Laetare Jerusalem” “Rejoice, O Jerusalem” and be glad while there is still time. Mother church rejoices in the children of God and we rejoice in Mother Church to bring us the miracle of the body and blood of Jesus in the Eucharist. The heavens rejoice with us united to our Blessed Mother Mary, St. Joseph and all the angels and saints.

Let us remember that the Church has declared this the year of St. Joseph to be with us as our intercessor. He who was the defender of the Holy Family may have been silent in the scriptures but not in his fatherhood to Jesus and spouse of Mary. Just this week in the news a Christian school is promoting that the children no longer refer to their parents as mother and father. The attack against faith enters through the back door in the form of language to change behavior only to fall into the pit of abominations. Destroy the family unity and you destroy faith.

Today in Mass is our portion of the city of God and may our “tongue” never be silenced, may we never forget the giver of life, and may our God be with us all the days of our life until we too are lifted up into eternal life. The “verdict” is in for those who live the truth “so that his works may be clearly seen as done from God.” Let us rejoice as family!

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