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Homily

25th Sunday Ordinary Time – Seek the Lord!

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Is. 55:6-9; Ps 145:2-3, 8-9, 17-18; Phil. 1:20c-24, 27a; Mt. 20:1-16a

“Seek the Lord while he may be found, call him while he is near” is both an invitation and a warning.  The invitation is to recognize God in his infinite love and mercy calling us back to him.  He is with us even as we live in the flesh that our labor may be fruitful.  God is a generous God to those who serve him in his kingdom.  The invitation also includes a warning that our day is passing quickly and soon this life will come to an end and with it our opportunity to seek the Lord while he may be found.  If we but call out to him he is near to us seeking us in our hearts. 

The hope of the gospel is that we can come to God whether it is the first hour of our life or the last hour of our life while in the flesh.  The story of the landowner who goes out to hire workers throughout the day giving each the same wage at the end of the day has a parallel to the story of the prodigal son.  The son who remained with the father working all his life felt cheated by his father who received his brother back with great love and mercy after his brother spent his share of the inheritance.  In both parables, the landowner and the father demonstrate a generous heart.  The love of God is the love of a Father.  

Recall what we tell our children when they are little, “I love to the moon and back.”  They grow up and realize we can now travel to the moon and back so compared to God’s love of “infinity and beyond”, no comparison.  It wasn’t that long ago when our kids couldn’t wait to move out of their parent’s house and be independent and we were “helicopter parents” trying to follow them.  Now many are in no rush to leave the nest and we can’t wait for them to go get a job and have their own life.  The moon is college and they went there and have come back home.  The Lord reminds us, “my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways”. 

Those who come into his kingdom and serve God all the days of our lives receive the promise of heaven.  Those who are to come later in life can also receive the promise of the Father.  Some are faithful from the cradle to the grave but many of us have veered through our life separating ourselves from God, Church, even from our family falling into sin.  The love of God is mercy and justice.  In mercy God desires all to enter heaven and in justice he provides the path of purification we call purgatory to “wash our baptismal robes” as Dante claims. 

Purgatory is the promise of heaven but not yet and can be the joy of suffering in redemption for our sins already forgiven.  We can liken this to going to receive the sacrament of reconciliation.  When we go to confession the priest gives us the absolution and our sins are forgiven.  He then gives us our penance which we are to joyfully fulfill in thanksgiving to God for his love and mercy.  Purgatory is the heavenly penance we owe our Lord for his justice in final preparation for heaven. 

God desires all to be saved and today he gives us all hope that it is never too late to seek the Lord, turn from our ways and follow his call to salvation. 

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Homily

24th Sunday Ordinary Time – Law of reciprocity!

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Sir. 27:30-28:7; Ps 103:1-4, 9-12; Rom. 14:7-9; Mt. 18:21-35

The law of reciprocity is based on the golden rule to treat others as you would wish to be treated.  Jesus is calling us to live by the law of reciprocity as Jesus lived and died for us, we are to live and die for him.  God forgives us infinitely of our sins but he also calls us to live by the law of reciprocity forgiving others infinitely their “debt” as he forgives us ours.  Jesus places himself at the center of forgiveness of sins between humanity. 

Generally, we think of the law of reciprocity as an “equal give-and-take”.  When we receive a gift, we feel obliged to offer something in return as a mutual exchange.  When we have gift exchanges during the holidays, we set a gift limit dollar amount to ensure equity in the gift exchange.  When someone commits a crime the justice system sets limits on the punishment phase as a just punishment for the crime.  We act out of a sense of fairness that underlies the law of reciprocity. 

When Peter asks Jesus “how often must I forgive”, he is thinking between human relationships.  Our world however is not just between us humans, it is between us and God.  Jesus binds the debt of forgiveness between humans to himself and his sacrifice for us.  We owe it to Jesus to forgive others as he has forgiven us infinitely.  In this we die to ourselves when we come to realize it is not about us but how we are called to serve him with all our heart, mind and soul.  Jesus gave himself completely on the cross for us and we are to respond to this sacrifice in like manner giving ourselves completely to him.

Often young couples go into marriage with the idea that marriage follows the law of reciprocity as an equal 50-50 give-and-take.  It does not take long to realize there is something wrong with that picture.  The first few years are a battle trying to get to 50/50 and it is not working.  They may even come to marriage counseling to get their spouse to live up to their expectations.  Find a couple that has been married for 50 years and the “secret” is you give without counting, you forgive without recalling, and you sacrifice from your heart.  Its not 50/50 but 100/100%.

One of the blessings of having children is the lesson of sacrificial love we learn from them.  A child comes into a couple’s life and now both are covered with a binding sacrificial love for the child that transforms their hearts not only for the child but for each other.  The mistake some will make however is placing the love of a child above the love of a spouse.  Sacrificial love does not minimize nor is divided between each other and each child that is born.  Sacrificial love multiples the gift of self with greater graces in that the more we give the more we receive in return. 

Love humanizes us to a greater degree.  Love does not imply we never get angry.  Do we have a right to be angry?  Yes, anger has a just purpose in life.  Anger is like a fever in that the problem is not the fever but what underlies the cause of the fever.  Anger is a symptom and we need to examine the cause on its merit.  It moves us to speak and right action.  Jesus became angry in the temple with the money exchangers.  He was moved to action. 

We learn that “The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion.”  The Lord forgives us infinitely when we come to confession and seek his forgiveness but he calls us to go forth and do the same to our neighbor following the law of reciprocity what we owe to God for his mercy and forgiveness.  In imitation of Christ, we too are called to be “slow to anger” recalling the Lord’s mercy on us.  We are to pray, “Lord I forgive as you have forgiven me, please heal my injured heart.”  He will heal us and lead us to right action. 

Anger can become weaponized to turn the law of reciprocity as a right for revenge, an eye for an eye.  “You hurt me thus I have a right to hurt you back”.  Recall Jesus teaching, “So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgive your brother from your heart.”  When anger becomes wrath, it turns into poison that injures three, ourselves, the one we are angry at and our relationship with God.  When anger becomes wrath, it turns one sinner into two wounding the hearts not just of the two but of many affected by the two.  The injury is now carried by others who share the suffering. 

In the law of reciprocity, the forgiveness of one also becomes multiplied by the many allowing others to share in the healing and mercy given as a gift.  It spreads the love of God and his compassion helping us all become more faithful to God and his teaching.  This is the work of the Spirit in the kingdom of God we are all called to serve.  Justice and mercy are both acts of love of God and one remains united to the other.  The Lord suffers his justice for our sins to bring us also his mercy but it cannot be without us fulfilling his commandment “to love another as I have loved you.” 

 Today Jesus comes fulfilling his duty to warn us, we carry a debt to God for our sins.  This debt can be completely forgiven but it requires a transformation of our heart.  In the mercy of God heaven will still be waiting “until we should pay back the whole debt”, a sign of purgatory for our hardness of heart or we can begin to receive the freedom of forgiveness and the glory of his kingdom now and forever.  There is a choice, choose wisely. 

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Homily

23rd Sunday Ordinary Time – Love fulfills the law

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Ez. 33:7-9; Ps 95:1-2, 6-9; Rom. 13:8-10; Mt. 18:15-20

Love fulfills the law!  The law of love is the practice of truth, Godly truth.  Today we hear that the law of love also carries a responsibility not only for our actions but to address the actions of the one we love.  God says “I will hold you responsible” not for the sins of another but for having remained silent and not warned “the wicked from his ways”.  God did not come to be a god of convenience but went about speaking truth to power.  He backed up what he said with the power of his word. 

In God’s world there is no “safe space” to practice sin and we are all called to be a voice for righteousness.  It is our sacramental duty to speak up against sin, to evangelize for Godly truth, to be a witness of faith by our very actions and yes, there will be repercussions, rejection, attack, and persecutions of every kind “but you shall save yourself”.  The voice of Godly truth is spoken with and through love that fulfills the law without compromise to the truth.   

The practice of the law of love comes with the duty to warn and it begins in the home called to be a domestic church.  The duty to warn however also requires the duty to love.  We are to hold onto the principle that the means does not justify the ends.  We cannot yell, threaten, or impose unjust punishment to gain compliance against the will of the other.  The Lord invites us to come to him and receive from him what is good, pleasing and perfect in his kingdom.  To inherit the kingdom of God is not an entitlement where all get to go to heaven.  We should never assume or take for granted God’s love, his mercy, or ignore his justice.   To be a law there must be truth and justice that underlies all love of God. 

The duty to warn must also reflect Godly love as well as Godly truth.  How often do we come to church knowing one of the family remained at home with no interest in giving to God of themselves an act of thanksgiving, with no desire to receive God’s body and blood and gain his holiness, with no sense of guilt for having offended God by rejecting him in the sacramental life of the church?  What are we to do?  We love, we pray and we invite not once but always. 

Godly truth and Godly love are both one and the same reflection of God.  It is better to say, “I pray that you will join me in going to church” than to keep repeating “missing church is a sin” when the baptized Christian already knows the truth.  It is better to speak of how we can “love them both” when speaking of abortion than to argue about the legality of personhood where we are able to do something about the former and not simply debate the latter.  Godly love is an invitation to dialogue in Godly truth and not to turn Godly truth into a weapon against the sinner. 

The duty to warn is an act of love delivered with God’s love and mercy.  This is how we are to love others as we love ourselves with the same sensitivity as a child of God.  This is how we witness to others when we avoid sin in our own lives and humbly acknowledge when we have failed to love.  We want others to desire what we have “Oh that you would hear his voice” and “harden not your hearts”.  The sign of God’s love in us is joy and peace in the midst of hardship, still giving of ourselves from the goodness we have received.  The cheerful giver is not one without troubles but one whose troubles don’t define their state of being grateful to God. 

In the gospel today, Jesus is speaking to his disciples giving them instructions on how to be a servant leader.  Jesus describes a process of gradual intervention we often refer to as subsidiarity where matters are handled beginning at the lowest level before progressing to higher authority. 

The principle of subsidiarity is that individuals should have the courage to face each other and speak to the issue that divides them.  It is so tempting to avoid the person or the issue directly with the one involved and go to our friend, family, or neighbor to complain about them.  The excuse given is “I tried but they won’t listen” so we give up.  We never take the next step which is to seek support from someone else who sees what you see or maybe even experiences the same issues and can both speak to the problem.  Instead, we remain silent even feeling isolated with our own dilemma. 

Today, Jesus is reminding us “where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”  When we come together in prayer and deed the power of the word is granted by Jesus as he promised “there am I in the midst of them.”  If Jesus is with us who can be against us?    Jesus also comes to us through his church who has been given authority to “bind” and to “loosen”.  Jesus was entrusting his disciples to remain united as one Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. 

The Church is in the midst of a Synodal process coming together as a universal church around the world.  Its mission is to pray and listen to the call of God in the Son and through the Holy Spirit with the power to bind and to loosen.  Some are fearful that it may unleash a “pandora’s box” fearful of deviating from Catholic doctrine while others are hopeful for change within the church. 

Pope Francis keeps calling for “dialogue”.  When love fulfills the law, it stands for truth and justice not according to our will but to the will of God.  The law of love must then be attentive to the voice of God not with any new revelation but with the confirmation that love is an organic process that deepens us in God’s truth and does not contradict itself.  God is not a contradiction and neither is the law of love.

Jesus reminds us that love binds and loosens the spirit of the law as we discern what is good, pleasing, and prefect for the will of God.  God’s will is to fill us with his graces that we may be in his glory for all eternity.  The duty to warn is simply the opposite side of the same coin calling others into God’s loving hands.  Those we love we warn and we embrace with our prayers for even greater conversion for both them and us. 

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Homily

22nd Sunday Ordinary Time – God wants you!

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Jer. 20:7-9; Ps 63:2-6, 8-9; Rom. 12:1-2; Mt. 16:21-27

God wants you!  God knows you and calls you by name, but it is not the name of our childbirth.  God has a name for us.  Do you know your name?  God wants you and I, mind, heart, and body, our whole being to be the sacrifice we offer up to him.  God does not settle for less but for the best of ourselves that we can be for his glory.  God is ready for us to “be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect”.  Are we ready for God?  Are we ready to surrender to his will, his vision for us, the calling that belongs to us?  The Father of life creates life with a divine purpose and he is waiting for us to receive him that he may “enlighten the eyes of our hearts and we may know what is the hope that belongs to our call.” 

God’s call for you and I is a personal call, he knows us by name and he desires us to discover that name.  What is in a God given name?  It is not the name of our childbirth but a God given name that comes with a divine purpose.  We should pray to know God’s name for us that we may respond to the call that comes with that name.  Abram’s name meant “high father” but Abraham means “father of many”.  Jacob’s name means ‘deceiver” having deceived his twin brother as heir to the birthright but changed to Israel meaning “one who struggles with God” because he overcame his struggle with God and with humans and was transformed into God’s faithful servant. 

When we bring a child for baptism we are asked “what name do you give your child?”  We often don’t consider a spiritual meaning to our child’s name.  In the past children were often given a name for the saint of the day as one of two names and many girls carried the name Mary as one of their two names.  This tradition has been forgotten in our times but we see it still in religious orders and when the Popes give to themselves a new name.  In the secular world people have no problem renaming themselves but it has nothing to do with God’s call and more for self-glorification.  Yet Jesus reminds us “what profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?” 

In every human soul there is a warrior spirit to carry the fight.  This warrior spirit comes from God with a divine purpose to love, serve, and sacrifice.  What we love we will sacrifice for and it will serve a greater purpose than ourselves.  We sacrifice for our family out of love and serve each other that all may be united as one.  This is God’s call that we may all be one in him.  Jesus however calls us to love, serve, and sacrifice beyond our family to the degree of self-denial to “take up his cross and follow me”. 

Today, Jeremiah is suffering an interior crisis in accepting his call to be a prophet for the Lord.  He calls out to God, “You duped me, O Lord, and I let myself be duped.”  Recall when a child comes about to ask for something there is a different pitch in their voice and so is in a spouse.  You know something is coming yet out of love of the person we accept being “duped” because we cannot resist their love.  This is Jeremiah’s reaction to God.  Jeremiah could not deny the Lord his calling knowing he would be persecuted.  In his weakness he wanted to remain silent but he could not contain himself what he knew was the truth God had revealed to him.  Even in weakness he understood there was only one right choice in serving God.  Do we recognize the choice God is asking of us this day?  In prayer we “discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect” obedience to his call. 

Suffering and dying to oneself will bring us to a crossroads where we will experience an interior crisis of faith, hope and love.  It presents in the many faces of suffering through sickness, death of a loved one, betrayal, persecution, rejection, even abandonment being forgotten as we age.  In the dark night where can we go, who can we turn to who truly knows us as we are but the one true God who brought us into this world and will come to take us with him.  A crisis of faith is a calling out to God to rescue us from our very selves, to see ourselves as he sees us, his love, mercy, and passion that died for us and will never abandon us. The God we trust more than ourselves.  God now and forever. 

Jesus is calling us to follow in his footsteps by being a warrior for what is good, pleasing, and perfect love of God.  When Peter takes Jesus aside and tries to rebuke him, he speaks as “human beings do”.  This is the same Peter who just before spoke through the Holy Spirit that Jesus was the “Christ, the son of the living God.”  How quickly he has returned to his human way of thinking.  How quickly we can lose focus of God’s call and will for us and become immersed in our own world unless we remain constantly coming to receive him in word, sacrament, and in prayer.  Peter reminds us that Satan never rests from being a distraction in the least and on the attack at worst. 

The universal church is under attack around the world.  In some places public worship is not allowed and the attack is from outside the church.  Most recently we had the Little Sister of the Poor having to defend their faith and practices all the way to the Supreme Court.  Traditional church values have been targeted as “extremist” and compared to “terroristic threats”.  Attack from the outside however is nothing new if we think back to the persecution of the early church.  The more it was persecuted the stronger and greater it grew.  This mystery is the fruit of sacrifice that came from the cross and martyrdom.  This calling remains today.  We are to not fear Satan from the outside. 

We are to be vigilant of Satan coming from the inside under the shadow of progressiveness.  Change can be good but it also can be the work of evil.  Jesus reminds us “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves; so be wise as serpents, and innocent as doves”.  Change that is self-serving is not the will of God.  The innocence of a warrior dove is that it delivers the “truth” as revealed by God and not by man.  A wise serpent recognizes the conduct of the evil serpent and is ready to be stand firm even at the cost of itself.  God wants you and I to stand firm and may our name be revealed with holy meaning that stands with and for Christ. 

God calls us by name so consider what God’s name for us is today.  God’s naming reflects his purpose and today he may be calling us “prayer warrior, voice of justice, fearless faith, comfort to the suffering, mercy to the unjust, hope in persecution”.  Most of all he calls us his own. 

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Homily

21st Sunday Ordinary Time – Key of the House

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Is. 22:19-23; Ps 138:1-3, 6, 8; Rom. 11:33-36; Mt. 16:13-20

Who has the key to God’s House?  “The key of the House” of God has been entrusted to his anointed from Abraham to David to Peter.  When Jesus gives Peter the keys to the kingdom of God this is nothing new.  Looking back in biblical history God has always called on someone to lead his people with great authority as we see today in the first reading “what he opens, no one shall shut, when he shuts, no one shall open”; and in the gospel “whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven”.  God is trusting humanity with the keys to the kingdom of heaven.  It begs the question “what were you thinking, God to give the key of the House to your servant?” 

Of course, our thinking is not the mind of God.  In fact, we are to put on the mind of God, to see with the eyes of faith, to trust with the heart of love, to be an imitation of Christ by dying to oneself that he may live in us.  I was listening to catholic radio and a caller this week said the priest at the church she attended said Jesus had made a mistake with the Canaanite woman and she corrected him when she said “even dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters”.  If Jesus is God and that we profess then God is perfect in his divinity and the ones who make mistakes are his people.  This is the perfect example of Jesus responding “Get behind me, Satan, you do not think as God does but as man” as he said to Peter who he gave the keys to the kingdom of heaven.  Again, “what were you thinking, God to give the key of the House to your servant?” 

Consider for a moment “who do we trust with the keys to our house?”  We may trust our kids, a servant that does our housekeeping, a family member who does not live with us, even a neighbor who has gained our trust.  We are by nature in need to trust others in order to function, to live in harmony, to ensure in an emergency someone can enter the house and take action.  We are in need of interdependence to be at peace.  Some say they don’t need church, just God and themselves.  How foolish to believe God operates by our rules and not his.  God instituted “Church” as his way and we are wise to follow his way. 

You and I, deacons, priests, religious in our humanity are imperfect but God chooses the imperfect to demonstrate his perfection when we surrender to his will.  Salvation comes through Christ and we come to Christ by coming to his house of prayer.  The Church holds the keys of the kingdom of heaven.  It is the Church that gave us the books of the Bible bound in heaven and earth as sacred scripture, the Word of God.   It is the Church that gives us the channel of grace through which Christ makes himself present to us in the sacraments.  It is the Church that guides the people of God to discern the will of the Father in our times as we deal with the issues of society.  It is the will of God to institute a Church governed by his anointed to whom he gives the keys to his house and through his house to the kingdom of heaven. 

God’s way is not our way as we read “For who has known the mind of the Lord” but the Lord’s way comes to us by revelation as we come to accept “how unsearchable his ways”.  The Lord reveals himself to his people where two or three are gathered in his name.  This is a truth that the Lord calls us all to be in fellowship coming to his house of prayer to receive him.  The Lord’s will is to come from him to us in the Eucharist, through him in the Holy Spirit, and for him by our worship in God’s house as one body of Christ. 

When Peter responds to Jesus saying “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”, Jesus confirms “For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father”.  We come to God’s house of prayer to receive from the Trinity God’s inspiration, the revelation and confirmation of truth that cuts to the heart of a person and sets us free.  This freedom of the soul allows to face all our trials, all that God may be asking of us this day with confidence as solid as a rock, the rock of the Church. 

Some have said and continue to say “I do not agree with everything the Church teaches”.  There is a litany of issues people object to from celibacy of the priesthood, ordination of men only as priest, the church position on abortion, euthanasia, death penalty, confession to a priest, even the requirements for the sacraments.  The Church is an institution of authority instituted by Christ for his people.  The Church however is its people in which we all share responsibility for building up the kingdom of God. 

Some say the Church is not a democracy and we do not all get to vote.  The Pope is selected by vote from the Cardinals.  There have been many Councils in Church history called by Popes that gather together to address matters of church governance approved by vote.  The conference of bishops comes together to establish some policies and norms for the Church in its region or territory by vote.  What about the voice of the laity?  The Church is also called to listen to the people of God and calls together Synods in which the people are called to contribute as members of the body of Christ. 

Synodality is a process by which laity and bishops share in collaboration and discernment as part of the body of Christ.  Synodality means a “journeying together as a People of God” to listen to each other how God speaks through the one and the many.  Pope Francis describes synodality as “an ecclesial journey that has a soul that is the Holy Spirit”.  Synodality is a shared responsibility to walk together as baptized Christians for the life and mission of the Church. 

Some confuse synodality as God coming to listen to us, our judgments, our wants, our intent to “fix” what we see is wrong in the Church.  Synodality is us coming to listen to God through prayer, reflection, and discernment of God’s will for us guided by the Holy Spirit.  The guiding principle of synodality is that it is not about us, it is about God’s will for us.  Not only are we called to walk together but God walks with us so that our hearts may burn with his Spirit just as it did to the two disciples who walked with Jesus on the road to Emmus. 

The key of the house of God is like a jigsaw puzzle in which all the people of God hold a piece of the key through baptism but it is when we come together to worship as one body that the mystery of faith is opened to unlock and set free the gifts of the Spirit upon all the body.  We each hold and share in opening the house of God to all his people.  The key of the house of God is the way into the kingdom of God.  Blessed are we that God finds us in his House.  The key to the house of God begins in the heart of a Christian.  Together we care for God’s House and together we build up the kingdom of God. 

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Homily

20th Sunday Ordinary Time – “A house of prayer”

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Is. 56:1, 6-7; Ps 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8; Rom. 11:13-15, 29-32; Mt. 15:21-28

The Lord provides a “house of prayer for all peoples” who “observe what is right, do what is just”.  This is that house of prayer that Jesus instituted as he poured down the Holy Spirit upon his people on Pentecost.  Pentecost is considered the birth of the Church with Jesus as our High Priest and the disciples as the new Apostolic priesthood for the world.  The Lord makes joyful this house of prayer uniting our worship of the one true God with all the angels and saints in the Eucharistic celebration of the body and blood of Jesus.  It is the presence of Jesus in his house of prayer that is welcoming all people calling us to observe all that he taught. 

St. Paul calls himself “the apostle to the Gentiles”.  The other apostles were going out to minister to the Jews in the synagogues that had spread throughout the ancient territory during several periods of exile called the Diaspora.  While the Jewish population was significant it was also small compared to the rest of the Gentile world.  Paul saw his calling was to the Gentiles who were pagan and followed many gods.  In the end, Paul became the greatest evangelizer of the world.  Paul desires “to make his race jealous” that they may see the face of God shine upon the Gentiles and come to conversion and “thus save some of them”. 

Years ago, in the 1970’s when I was going to college in California, I went to a Native American festival.  People kept asking me what tribe did I belong to.  They saw in me what I did not recognize in myself.  More recently I had a DNA test done and found out that I was 53% Native American.  It makes me wonder without St. Paul being called by Jesus which tribe would I belong to today?  St. Paul takes Jews and Gentiles and binds us all together as God’s creation for we all belong to the one human race God created in his image. 

St. Paul reminds us that “God delivered all to disobedience” meaning we were all born with the original sin of disobedience from Adam and Eve.  We all fall short of the glory of God.  We all sin and are in need of forgiveness.  We are also all called to conversion that we may all receive the mercy of God.  Within the Christian world of this day there is a misconception among some that profess they have been saved and thus are no longer sinners claiming to belong to the righteous people.  They then are forced to project the illusion of perfection while hiding the secret of their sinfulness within the passions of the flesh. 

There is a joke which I will modify out of respect to our separated Christian faithful.  It says, “Catholics drink their beer in the front porch of the house while other denominations drink theirs on the back porch where no one can see them.”  This so called “joke” gives the impression that Catholics seem to accept being sinners without desire to change while other denominations hide their struggle to change for the better.  This is a sad duality to live in for it denies God the opportunity to pour out his mercy on his people when we fail to recognize our sinfulness and confess our sins. 

The Catholic Church in its wisdom by the gift of the Spirit recognizes that if we are to give worship to God in his house of prayer we first must come and admit our sins to be forgiven and for our sacrifice of worship to be acceptable to the Lord.  This is why our Mass begins with the Confiteor.  It is the visible testimony of our need for God to fill us with his grace and strengthen our resolve to be a better Christian, to live more holy lives, and to seek his perfection that his face may shine upon us as a visible sign of God’s mercy upon us.    

 It is in the Lord’s house of prayer that we come to plead “Lord, help me”.  The Lord hears the cry of the poor and humble.    In the gospel the Canaanite woman pleads to Jesus for healing for her daughter.  Jesus speaks to the truth of his coming “to the lost sheep of Israel” but as we discover the lost sheep not only did not accept him but crucified him.  Jesus in his divinity understood what was to come yet he spoke to fulfill the law and then he acted to perfect the law through the Canaanite woman, the law of love, mercy and grace. 

Jesus spoke harshly to the Canaanite woman for she represented a culture that was polytheistic, worshiping many gods who were condemned in the Old Testament.  Canaanites were inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed by fire directly by God.  They were hostile to the Israelites as God gives to Abraham in Genesis the land of Canaan.  In this context we can say that the “enemy” of the Israelites is now asking for a favor from Jesus and he makes the comparison between children and dogs.  The woman however has the great comeback “even dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters”. 

A child comes into this world through the womb of a mother.  She gives life to this child, blood of her blood and through the womb a mother knows sacrificial love.  When a child becomes sick a mother’s desire is to wish the sickness on herself if it would heal her child rather than see her child suffer.  It is humbling to see a child suffer and from deep within the sincerity of prayer comes to life our nothingness if we don’t have God.  The Canaanite woman was both humbled by Jesus and filled with faith from her love of a daughter. 

I have a small inside dog and I feed him before sitting down to eat.  He knows to not be asking for food from the table and sits just watching.  He also has a great nose to smell and if anything falls on the floor, he is quick to walk around and snap it up.  He is a canine vacuum cleaner when it comes to food on the floor.  In this woman Jesus discovers the sincerity of her heart and her persistence in pleading to the Lord.  She gives witness to his disciples of great faith granting her petition and extending his mercy and love beyond the people of Israel.  If he can heal a Canaanite child then his law of love is now for all who come to him with great sincerity of heart. 

As we come to Mass today let us come with the same sincerity of heart as the Canaanite woman not acting out of the law of compliance but out of the law of love.  Let our prayer speak to our minds and reach deep into our hearts.  It is easy to fall into repetition of prayer and never truly pray.  Prayer comes from deep within, an honest expression of our very being, thoughts, feelings and experience of life as an offering of ourselves to God in this his house of prayer. 

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Homily The Deacon Joe

19th Sunday Ordinary Time – Tiny whispering sound

Posted on by Deacon Joe

1 Kgs. 19:9a, 11-13a; Ps 85:9-14; Rom. 9:1-5; Mt. 14:22-33

The Lord came to Elijah in “a tiny whispering sound”.  We live in a time with great focus on “climate change” and preserving the environment.  For centuries people have been waiting for the final coming of the Lord and the “end times” also called Eschatology “the study of the last things to come”.  When major tragedies of events happen in the world many question “could this be the end times?”  Today we hear of records being broken for high temperatures, major fires from Canada, the melting icebergs, record flooding in some areas while others have major droughts and again many ask “could this be the end times?”    Elijah the great prophet teaches us today that the Lord is not in the crushing wind, or the earthquake, or the fire but in the tiny whispering sound. 

The Lord speaks to us in the silence but we must be very still to hear his whispering in our hearts.  There is a retreat center not far from us along the King Ranch area called Leb Shomea where the rule of the center is “silence”.  You arrive in silence and you leave in silence and you determine how long you wish to stay.  The goal is captured in the Greek word “Prautes” meaning “with a still heart”.  If we really desire to prepare ourselves for the coming of the Lord then we must find time to be still and silent to hear his tiny whispering sound speak to us and enlighten us to his presence already with us.  The Lord comes to those who wait upon the Lord having prepared themselves for his coming.  Are we prepared today that he would come to us this day and reveal to us his love, his mercy, his presence through the Holy Spirit?  Have we prepared to receive him body, blood, soul and divinity in the Eucharist, with prayer, sacrifice, charity, and love?

The end times comes every day, sometimes suddenly and unexpected to the individual who takes his last breath of mortal life and passes on to his day of judgment.  The end times has come to every civilization that has existed in the past most having only a few centuries of history before collapsing.  The end of an age has come from prehistoric, to ice age, Bronze age, Middle Ages and so on all coming to an end and passing on to a “new world order”.  For the world it is about the existence of the planet and the people who inhabit it.  For God it is about the Kingdom of God that has come to those who call upon the Lord to receive it.  When we pray “thy Kingdom come” we pray not for the end times to come but for the present kingdom of God that is with us.  We pray to be in his kingdom this day guided by the Holy Spirit, received by the Father and brothers in Christ Jesus. 

We pray to let thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.  It does not come in the thunder of the world but in the silence of the heart as a whispering sound.  We pray “let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation” this day from every evil and temptation we face.  Save us from the snares of the devil, save us from sin of the flesh, and save us from the pride of the heart. The Lord saves us in the whispering sound of his truth that speaks to our hearts, in his justice looking down from heaven that convicts us when we stray from the truth, and in the blessings that increase when we walk before him in the “way of his steps”.  God has given us his footsteps to follow.  It is in his word, in his sacrifice on the cross, in his food we receive in the Eucharist, and in his mercy and kindness we experience from his love.  That is why we say “the kingdom of heaven is at hand” because it is here, if only we open our hearts and listen for his voice in the whispering sound. 

In the gospel today, Jesus goes up on the mountain to pray by himself, seeking silence to listen to his own heart and be in union with the Father.  The disciples however are “a few miles offshore” on a boat when Jesus appears to them walking on the sea towards them.  These are grown men yet they cry out in fear like little children.  Jesus reassures them to “take courage, it is I; do not be afraid”.  Peter’s courage is short lived at first asking to go to Jesus on the water and then as soon as he does fear and doubt take over and he begins to sink calling out “Lord, save me!”  When the Lord call on us, he desires us to get out of our comfort zone, to walk in faith with courage called to make a leap of faith.  Most people are like the disciples who would not even think of trying to walk on water.  Peter dared to ask and was granted this blessing but like the seed that fell on rock soil his faith soon died and he sank into the water.  The Lord said to Peter as he says to us “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” 

This reading came to my mind a few years ago when I was at a conference.  One of the conference evening activities included the opportunity to do the “fire walk”.  They laid out burning wood creating a path of about ten yards and people who wanted to experience the fire walk were invited to participate.  The instructor first gave us the demonstration and slowly some chose to walk on fire and others not.  This reminded me of Peter who climbed out of the boat and discovered he could walk on water.  As I saw other people do it, I realized fear was the only thing stopping me and so I decided that even though I did not know how it was possible, my eyes saw that it was possible and so I did it.  What is God calling us to step out of the boat and onto the water for him?  What is the fire that makes us fearful and avoid becoming even a stronger person of faith?

I just read a short book by Mathew Kelly called “Everybody Evangelizes About Something”.  When we become excited about something we almost can’t keep it to ourselves.  If we get excited about something new, we bought, we tell others how we are enjoying it.  This is not only free marketing but a form of evangelizing a product.  If we are excited about a sports team, we love talking about it and promoting the team.  The question then is why do we fear evangelizing about our faith in God, as Catholic Christians?  Letting others know our identity as a Catholic Christian is an open invitation to dialogue about our faith.  Perhaps the next time someone asks, “what do you do?” instead of answering with what work you do consider first responding with “I practice my Catholic faith in order to serve God first.  I try to do it in everything I do”.   How is that for a segway to evangelization. 

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Homily

Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Dn. 7:9-10, 13-14; Ps 97:1-2, 5-6, 9; 2 Pt. 1:16-19; Mt. 17:1-9

The Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord is a reminder of the “prophetic message” of what waits for those who trust in the Lord.  The gospel truth that Peter, James, and John witnessed was the window into the prophesy of life after death.  It is a confirmation of the word from God as Jesus says “He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”  When someone we know dies, we pray for the dead, we offer Masses, and we can even pray to them to ask for their intercession for us all because we believe they remain alive waiting for the Lord’s final return when our souls will be reunited to our body. 

In the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus, Moses and Elijah appeared beside him meaning they were recognizable, alive and conversing with Jesus.  At the same time something was different in Jesus with his face shining like the sun and his clothes as white as light.  The transfiguration of the Lord is a sign of holiness we are all called seek in order to see the face of God and live.  Sin cannot exist before the presence of the Lord.  The Lord hidden within the cloud proclaims “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”  The Lord is pleased with Jesus fulfilling the divine purpose for his coming into the world.  The Lord is pleased with us when we follow his commands fulfilling our calling for the greater good. 

In the prophetic vision of Daniel, the “Ancient One” who is God the Father is with “One like the Son of man” who is Jesus receiving “dominion, glory, and kingship”.  They however are not alone because of the “thousands and myriads” ministering and attending to him.  Who are these who minister and attend to the Lord?  We know the choir of angels are before the Lord but we also believe in the resurrection of the dead who responded to the call to holiness and are in communion with God as saints in heaven.  Heaven is waiting but not all have accepted the call. 

Some believe there is no life after death.  They believe without the brain the human person ceases to exist.  It is a false materialistic view of what it means to be a person.  Modern science keeps making progress in identifying aspects of the brain associated with cognition and emotion which if damaged ceases to sustain the identity of a person.  In the extreme circumstances It has been called “brain dead” even as the rest of the body remains able to sustain life. 

The theory is that the “self” requires a body to exist.  Science however falls short of being able to capture the nature of self-awareness, the essence of having “experience” and the process of reasoning to produce creativity.  The soul is the essence of life united to the body as a visible image through which it manifests itself.  The body decays and dies but the soul remains alive.

Some try to resolve the conflict of life after death by claiming life eternal is process of “reincarnation” into another human person living in this earth as a soul that gained a new body.  The problem is that this would then be another person and not the same person.  This is not what the disciple saw in the transfiguration when they witnessed Moses and Elijah next to Jesus.  What this group tries to create and explain away is that there can be no after life outside of this world.  To this we say, did not Jesus appear to the twelve disciples and then to many in his resurrection?  He was not only recognizable but also came in body to be touched and to join in a meal and yet something was different.  For one his body was not limited by matter as he passed through the door to enter the house where the disciples were gathered.  This was not a vision but the real presence of Jesus with his disciples. 

The Catholic Christian view is in the resurrected body to come and in the life of the person continuing at the moment of mortal death.  Many try to make an argument that it is unknown when personhood begins after conception, thus the defense for abortion is that “it” is not a person with equal rights.  This argument of lack of personhood is even pushed beyond the moment of birth. It feeds off the belief that it takes a material body at some stage of development to be a person.  The Catholic view is that life begins at conception with a God given soul, a created identity of a person and one that remains alive after mortal death of the body.  The soul does not depend on the body but the body does require a soul to be a person. 

The soul has a God given identity with the capacity for self-awareness, a free will to make conscious and moral decisions even in sacrifice of self.  Artificial intelligence is ultimately a programming process of information creating a product that is produced through a linkage of data points with known probabilities of the expected outcome yet no self-awareness, no conscience of right or wrong, and no moral capacity to experience what love is.  The soul is created in the image of God that sets us free to be aware of a God outside of ourselves, beyond the world as we know it, with the capacity to love and share our experience because we were created in his image.

The Transfiguration of the Lord is our hope and our window to the afterlife.  Let us believe and prepare for this glorious day. 

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Homily

17th Sunday Ordinary Time – Kingdom of Heaven

Posted on by Deacon Joe

1 Kgs. 3:5, 7-12; Ps 119:57, 72, 76-77, 127-130; Rom. 8:28-30; Mt. 13:44-52

Jesus compares the Kingdom of heaven to a treasure we can hold, fine pearls to appeal to the eyes, and a great catch to appeal to the appetite and yet it is none of this.  Jesus has a way of drawing us in appealing to our interests yet taking us to a place we cannot imagine.  That is because the kingdom of heaven is not a “thing” we hold but a way of being.  Being in the kingdom of God is something that is lived.  We cannot grasp it with our hands but we can know we are there by living it and by the fruit of our lives where we can see the hand of God at work to sanctify us, save us and answer our prayers. 

There is the story of an atheist teacher who said to the class “There is no God.  Has anyone ever seen God?”  One student then asked the teacher, “Have you ever seen your brain?”  The teacher said “no”.  Then the student replied “then you have no brain”.  The kingdom of God come to us through invisible grace seen at work through visible signs.  We hear in the Old Testament how no one can see the face of God and live and yet God reveals himself indirectly through visible signs, the burning bush, the voice in the clouds, the angels as messengers.  It is the will of God to reveal himself to us but we have to seek him.  That requires our time to be in prayer, receiving the sacraments, and responding to the movement of the spirit in us. 

The Kingdom of God is reflected in what Solomon asked of God.  He asked for understanding as a way of being able to see, hear, and know how to lead his people.  The inspiration of understanding produced the fruit of a good leader.  The kingdom of heaven comes to us through the spiritual gifts from God while we are in this world.  They allow us to see him in our world and to serve him by our very being in this world.  The kingdom of God is transformative of our humanity into his divinity. 

God plants his law into the heart of a person to live in freedom within his kingdom.  It is a kingdom where two hearts are united as one.  The sacred heart of Jesus united to the sacred heart of Mary, the giving of self in the sacramental love of a man and a woman in holy matrimony, the call to Holy Orders for a priest consecrated to the Church and our baptismal vows for every Christian to be one with Jesus all reflect the real kingdom of God.  It is a kingdom of love in the giving of ourselves to the other.  This was the request of Solomon to receive the gift of understanding in order to give of himself to his people as a wise leader and servant of God. 

How do we reflect the kingdom of God in our lives?  Perhaps we don’t realize the great miracle of how God is working in and through us each day simply because from within the kingdom we have been sheltered by his grace not having lived outside of his mercy and love.  Recall the story of what is commonly known as the prodigal son who left his father and went outside the kingdom to live his own life.  How soon he discovered the consequences of mortal sin coming from being outside of the kingdom.  At the same time the other son who always stayed within the kingdom of the father did not appreciate all that was his and felt resentful of the father for his mercy to his brother.  The kingdom of God “revealed to little ones the mysteries of the kingdom” and in baptism we are all his little ones.  Sometimes we simply don’t know what to ask for that God is ready to grant us. 

The Lord’s desire is to enrich us with the gifts of the Spirit that we may all be saints.  This cannot be unless we ourselves come to him with the desire to serve and not be served as Solomon did.  Solomon was the prototype of Jesus who was to come to serve the Father for our salvation.  The love of God is the love of his commands.  It is to see in his commands the good seed of his word given to us in order to serve him by our lives.  Service is at the heart of being Christian. 

There is an expression in Spanish “cada cabeza es un mundo”, every head is its own world.  It implies that we are all a unique individual, and in many ways different than any other individual that has walked this earth.  Thus, we often focus on our differences and what separates us.  We should also recognize what unites us is that we are all created in the image of God.  Jesus prayed to the Father that we may all be one.  It is a prayer that we may all find our identity in Christ and follow in his footsteps.

In baptism we then all carry a new beginning with a Christ centered image and purpose.  Christ is the sower of the field and the field is our heart.  In our hearts he places his law to come to him, to know him and to love him.  The seed is his word that is to bloom in our hearts and the fruit of the bloom is our love for God and others.   The pearl of life then is our identity in Christ to know ourselves not only as a child of God but as a saint in the kingdom of God reflecting the image of Christ by the gifts we have received and live by. 

This all seems great until we recognize his image includes the wood of the cross, love through sacrifice and justice through mercy.  Can we really love our enemies?  How can this be?  It can only be in the heart of the one who knows “all things work for good for those who love God.”  Our God is a transformative God.  Recall those toys called “Transformers” of the 1980s, how they transform objects to come to life as action heroes and villains.  God is the ultimate transformer of lives from what is to what we are called to be. 

Whether in life or death, God promises “those he called he also justified; and those he justified he also glorified”.  In the end it is not whether we live or die in this life but how we lived and died for the eternal promises of the kingdom of heaven. 

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Homily

16th Sunday Ordinary Time “Master of might”

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Wis. 12:13, 16-19; Ps 65:10-14; Rom. 8:18-23; Mt. 13:1-23

The “Master of might…comes to judge with clemency”.  God is the Master of might who is all knowing and all powerful.   He comes through the Spirit “to the aid of our weakness”.  The Spirit within reaches to the heavens to “intercede with inexpressible groanings” uniting our will to the will of God.  God’s will is for all to seek forgiveness and receive clemency for our sins to enter the kingdom of heaven.  God’s care is for all but not all care to receive it. 

The kingdom of heaven lies within the soul having come through Jesus himself in baptism.  He is the gift of the kingdom for eternal life.  Today Jesus explains the parable of the good seed and the weeds in the context of salvation history.  The baptized have become the “good seed the children of the kingdom” and the “weeds are the children of the evil one” sown by the devil and the battle is waged for the souls of humanity. 

Our world then is divided into the “haves and the have nots”, those who have God in their life and those who God is seeking because they have not received him, for he desires all to be saved.  However, before we become naïve into assuming salvation is ours and we own it as an entitlement while the weeds are lost forever consider that for the Master of might all things are possible “for your might is the source of justice”.  The lost can be converted while the righteous can become perverted. 

There is also a different way we could interpret the parable of the good seed and weeds.   The good seed can also be Jesus and the gifts of the Holy Spirit while the weeds are the sin we carry still with us.  The mercy of God allows us as children of the kingdom to exist waiting for us to pull out the weeds of sin we carry by coming to receive him in the sacramental life of the Church.  The evil one always seeks to plant more weeds in our soul tempting us to feed the weeds by our indulgence in sin.   Sin however cannot remain when we call on the Spirit to grow stronger and deeper in our souls.  This is our time to purge ourselves of our sins with the power, love and mercy of God. 

There is among some in the Christian world outside of the Catholic faith who believe “once saved always saved”.  Salvation comes from God and the day of judgment awaits us all. This is why we hear today in the book of wisdom “you gave your children good ground of hope that you would permit repentance for their sins.”  Repentance is not a “one and done” act of faith that we put in our back pocket and then go on to live our lives.  Repentance is a daily act of seeking forgiveness for the sins we have done and what we have failed to do in our call to serve God. 

I recall my mother telling me the story of going to visit her friend when I was but 3.  Her friend had a son with lots of toys to play with and so we played together.  When we returned home, she noticed I was acting different so she began questioning me.  I started to walk backwards to where the bed was and under the pillow I hid a little toy taken from the friend’s house.  She made me return it.  Some say children don’t sin.  Did I know it was wrong?  Clearly my behavior said “guilty”.  Did I do it intentionally knowing it was wrong?  Again “guilty”!  Did I have to make amends?  My punishment for doing wrong was always going to kneel down and pray by my bed.  Do children sin, take candy from the store and hide it in their pocket?  

Since we are all children of God what have we stolen from him to whom everything belongs beginning with ourselves?  We can be guilty of taking our time, talent and treasure for our own indulgence never offering anything of ourselves for him.  We can also fail to love others as he has loved us without giving from his charity, we have received from him.  All we have and all we are is to serve his greater purpose. 

Sin is a constant condition of humanity in the weaknesses of the flesh, the mind and the will.  This is why we must call on the Spirit to come to the aid of our weaknesses that are multiple.  As St. Augustine said, “the spirit” speaking of our own spirit “is willing but the flesh is weak”.  We are weak to the many sins we must overcome in a lifelong battle till the end.  Our hope lies in the mercy of God who in his mighty power makes him “lenient to all”.  Hope is for all to come to the Master of might for our salvation. 

The Master comes with his power to empower the children of the kingdom.  We are empowered through the Spirit with the gifts of the Spirit to be warriors against evil.  Therefore, he will “rebuke temerity” if we deny him before others.  We deny him when we remain silent in the face of injustice.  We deny him when he comes to us in the poor, the sick, and the hungry.  We deny him when we fail to pray as we ought and become indifferent in our prayer life.  We must look to the gift of the Holy Spirit to intercede for us and overcome our indifference to God’s presence or we dare to one day hear from the Master of might “I do not know you”. 

Children of God are not timid in their faith.  We may appear as timid by remaining humble but humble people have the strength of spirit to remain faithful, enduring hardship, persevering not by might but by love of God and willing to deny themselves for the greater good.  God “rebukes timidity” as a sign of lack of faith.  The God of might gives us of his power for every encounter in life to stand firm with him.  Timidity reveals a superficial “skin deep” commitment to God and a fool’s religion to the world that sees only weakness to be exploited. 

Children of God are called to be battle ready.  The battle will come from the enemy, the evil one who looks for our weaknesses and knows how to bring on the attack.  Are we ready for the spiritual battle?  With every victory over evil, we become like the mustard seed growing bigger and stronger in our faith.  Others come like birds seeking to receive cover, nourishment and a blessing from the holiness of a child of God.  We want to be that person who shares in the cross of Jesus and is not afraid. 

The kingdom of God comes through Jesus the “unleavened bread” who we receive in the Eucharist.  He comes to take our mere mortal existence and raise it up like yeast to become part of his body in the divine life.  We in turn offer ourselves up to him to be the source of bread to the world not alone but with Jesus who transforms us.  In our love we become partakers in the bread of life for eternal salvation. 

The Lord is good and forgiving, not once or twice but constantly looking to build up the kingdom of God through his people.  The plan of salvation calls for the people of God to be faithful and the Master of might will provide the strength and power in our weakness.  We are his people called to come and receive Jesus, body, blood, soul, and divinity; called to take up the cross and go forth to be the difference this world needs. 

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