25th Sunday Ordinary Time – Seek the Lord!

Posted on September 25, 2023September 25, 2023 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

17th Sunday Ordinary Time – Kingdom of Heaven

Posted on July 29, 2023July 27, 2023 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 The Deacon Joe

14th Sunday Ordinary Time – The Kingdom of God

Posted on July 3, 2022July 3, 2022 by Deacon Joe

Is. 66:10-14c; Ps. 66:1-3, 4-7, 16, 20; Gal. 6:14-18; Lk. 10:1-12, 17-20

“The Kingdom of God is at hand for you.” This promise given by Jesus is to those who welcome him and his “appointed seventy-two” into their home. Do we welcome his “appointed” servants, through the one Catholic and Apostolic Church into our home and do we rejoice in the heavenly Jerusalem? The Church is the heavenly Jerusalem on earth who provides us the “milk of her comfort that we may nurse with delight at her abundant breasts!” We nurse from the sacramental life of the Church as a mother to its people. As we welcome the church Christ is present in his body, blood, soul, and divinity.

The Kingdom of God is opened up to those who welcome the church into their hearts. How tremendous are the deeds of God in the church making of us a new creation through baptism, forgiving sins in reconciliation, curing the sick with anointing, exorcising demons, and confirming the faith to all who call upon the Lord. If we belong to Christ then we all share in his body called to be one in union with him and in his body. This is not some “spiritual thing” we feel but something tangible in the word of God, in the sacraments, in the Eucharist, and in the people. Jesus’ resurrection was a tangible body, not a spirit of illusion. He ate and drank and was touched. Let us welcome the kingdom of God in body, soul, and spirit. Are we not called to make of our bodies the temple of the Lord?

“The harvest is abundant” in our times as many leave the church and pews become empty. Others are simply raised not to believe but in themselves only. In an age of mass communication there are many competing voices making “connections” with the world around us and yet people find themselves more isolated, more in search of a purpose, and more confused on what to believe. They lack the one connection that matters most, God. Here is the dilemma, God works through others, through the church, through his messengers so we cannot be disconnected from others if we desire to get closer to him.

God works through a husband to his wife and through the wife to her husband. He works through parents for their children and through children to ponder the love of God when we gaze upon a child with love. God works through the stranger who is charitable to us and through us in our charity towards others. The kingdom of God is not a hardwired single line to heaven but even greater than an algorithm created by God to unite his kingdom from age to age, across generations, and when two or three are gathered together in his name.

“The laborers are few” as less respond to the call to the priesthood or religious life and the lay people simply say “I have no time…it is not for me to evangelize…it is not my business…I don’t feel comfortable”. If not us who? We all have a call to speak for the kingdom of God each according to the state of life we have chosen. It begins in our being, by being who we are that determines what we do. Our being is an authentic Christian centered faith, practitioners of what we believe, and a “naturalist” of the law of God. Our being is a manifestation of love for God. God is love and in his being we reside through the love of charity by giving of ourselves not just from what we have but from who we are. We are a child of God who is calling us to live in his love.

In each sacrifice of ourselves we bring God into the world. It is the testimony that Jesus left us on the cross. As he lived and died for us, we also live and die for love of God and others. This is the significance of this weekend for this country. It honors those who lived and died for freedom, the freedom we get to live this day. This is the significance of the lives of the saints who lived and died for Christ in serving others. This is the significance of bringing a child into this world who we live and sacrifice for because love makes the sacrifice meaningful.

The Kingdom of God brings us the “peace of Christ” as it takes possession of our hearts. This “peace” is the love of God who enters our hearts and dwells in us. Its control over our hearts is through the virtues we receive to strengthen our resolve to do good, to love our neighbor, and to labor in the kingdom of God not as “busy-bodies” but with a God-given purpose to “never grow weary of doing what is right” (2Thes. 3:13). Do all things with love and the kingdom is open to us this day.

When Jesus sent out the seventy-two to proclaim the kingdom of God they were to announce, “the kingdom of God is at hand”. He knew not all would welcome his messengers for he said, “I am sending you like lambs among wolves.” Evil exists in this world free to bring suffering, anger, jealousy, ridicule, and even death to the lambs of God but even death does not have the final word. It is in dying to ourselves that we are born into eternal life so fear not the evil that this world will bring upon us. God in his infinite mercy tells his disciples not to rejoice “because the spirits are subject to you but rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”

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Homily The Deacon Joe

Christmas is here! “Your God is King!”

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

Is. 52:7-10; Ps. 98:1-6; Heb. 1:1-6; Jn. 1:1-18

“Your God is King…sing joyfully to the Lord!” Sing joyfully to be born of God. For God in sending his only begotten Son, “full of grace and truth” and he opened the gates of heaven. “From his fullness we have all received, grace in place of grace”. What is this grace that replaces grace? It is Jesus himself who not only gave himself up to the Father but who in his fullness of grace gives of himself to us as we come to receive him body and blood in the Eucharist celebration of the Mass this day. To receive Jesus is the fullness of grace that bring together the law and the prophets into his one body as love incarnate that we may be saved. We sing joyfully to the Lord to be incarnated into his grace.

“Your God is King” from the grace of obedience to the grace of love. The grace of obedience to the law is the visible sign of being called to salvation. The grace of love is the invisible sign of being called “children of God”. As children his grace is transformative to be perfect as God is perfect by shedding the scales of sin from our humanity and rising up to his divinity. Pray that what we confess in our words we may not deny him in our actions. This is the day the Lord has made to sing joyfully for our salvation comes and “Your God is King” of salvation through Jesus Christ. Emmanuel, he is with us.

How good it is to know “Your God is King” to rule by love our lives. He rules with the staff of mercy that we may come to know his love by forgiveness of our sins. Who dares to deny him this gift of mercy is to deny God himself at our own peril choosing the unforgiveable sin of rejecting forgiveness out of self pride. This pride says, “God cannot forgive me when I do not forgive myself” causing our own damnation. “Your God is King” of perfect love in the act of mercy. We are then to be merciful in our lives with each other, slow to anger and quick to reconcile.

If “Your God is King” then why is there such suffering in life? Suffering is the grace to join Christ on the cross and hear him speak those words to us, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” (Lk. 23:43) Suffering unites us to Christ and his love for us on the cross. It confirms our love and acceptance of his will for us. He is king of suffering and invites us to share the cross that we may overcome the test and remain faithful to our proclamation of faith. Job understood well the cross of suffering and perseverance trusting that by acceptance a greater good would be revealed. It was revealed in Jesus Christ.

Today our God is King, he has come to us in Jesus Christ and we share in his kingdom when we come to receive him body and blood, soul, and divinity in the Eucharist. Let us celebrate our king and the joy of fellowship with all our kinsmen who have entered the kingdom through the waters of baptism. No earthly suffering can conquer his kingship and our victory over death as we walk in the light of truth and justice. Believe and be saved that your God and my God is king of our lives. Merry Christmas and more of Christ.

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Homily

17th Sunday Ordinary Time

Posted on July 27, 2019July 26, 2019 by Deacon Joe

Gn. 18: 20-32; Ps. 138: 12-3, 6-8; Col. 2: 12-14; Lk. 11: 1-13

“Will you sweep away the innocent with the guilty?” “For the sake of those ten (innocent), I will not destroy it.” Thus history has proven the great mercy of God. Generation after generation each lives with the corruption of its time. Where is God, we ask? He is attentive to the outcry against the sins of this world that rise up to him and has sent us his son to spread his mercy. Jesus Christ comes to nail our sins to his cross that we be raised with him in glory. His mercy however must be won one soul at a time. The good harvest must remain among the weeds for now. Abraham of old spoke for the innocent as Jesus now speaks for those who turn to him.

The Lord is attentive to those who cry out to him for help but often we look to take things into our own hands before seeking the Lord’s justice and guidance in spirit and truth. We can be following our own truth and be truthfully in error. Turn to any news channel and you hear opposite positions from individual recognized for their knowledge and each holds to be true. Colossians reminds us we can be living a life of death in our transgressions and he will bring us back to life in him if we first recognize our sinfulness and in contrition turn back to him with a resolution to avoid the sin in our lives. As long as we hold onto our truth and not ask, seek, or knock on the door of God’s mercy we remain at risk of the grave sins of Sodom and Gomorrah. A godless nation cannot survive but its destruction will come from its own doing not God.

How are we to turn back to him? We are to say the prayer he gave us and then live it and proclaim it. Live the holiness of God’s name by seeking holy lives. Alone it cannot happen. It happens when we are in communion with God. We remain in communion when we come to Mass, we pray, we ask, seek, and knock in search of God’s will in our lives.

Call on the kingdom of righteousness to be lived in our actions. Being in the kingdom does not offer an easy road. The kingdom is a place of love and peace where we come to rest knowing we are not alone in this world. The world remains a Sodom and Gomorrah and evil brings about tragedy in the living dead who are far from the glory of God. God is with us in every moment we seek him, not simply because we are Christian but because we are Christ centered. The kingdom is a spiritual compass pointing the way to God.

Receive the daily bread in the Eucharist, in the Word of God, and in the Holy Spirit. Pray for forgiveness of our sins to the God of mercy with a contrite heart. Hope that we may overcome the daily test of battle for our souls from the evil one so that the final test at the hour of our death to a mortal life will have long been won in dying to ourselves and rising to Christ in our daily living. The victory will have been won as we pass into the eternal kingdom. Who desires not a peaceful death after a long journey of life? Those prepared will express the confidence of readiness to enter into life beyond this world. Can we say if death came like a thief in the night this day I am at peace and ready to meet my creator?

Finally, pray for the grace of perseverance. Persist in prayer and let prayer guide your perseverance along the way of the Lord. The Father is ready to give us the gift of the Holy Spirit in abundance to a soul well prepared to receive it. Are we prepared? Do we rise to prayer and does our prayer lead to right judgment in doing the will of God? Words are not enough. A well prepared soul has nailed their sins to the cross and is a new creation.

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The Deacon Joe

Thy Kingdom come, and so it has!

Posted on April 5, 2017April 5, 2017 by Deacon Joe

The Kingdom of God is at hand in the “multiplication” of the sacraments as parents, sponsors, and children prepare for 1^st Communion at St. Francis Xavier in La Feria, Texas, and it is already at hand. The gift of the kingdom we hold as a treasure unlike the treasure of the world is everlasting. Earthly treasure makes a poor man rich and a rich man poor because it is limited and in the exchange some gain and others lose within limited resources. Heavenly treasure is seen in the multiplication of the loaves, as Jesus makes visible the miracle of his creation as a gift in the lives of those who come to receive the sacred now transformed into temples of the sacred kingdom. Faith is in action, in obedience, and in the joy to be called children of the Most High.

The Kingdom is celebrated in the Universal Church and in the domestic church at home when we gather together to pray, share a meal of thanksgiving, and celebrate life.

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