homily Oct 10th

 CCC 2544
Jesus enjoins his disciples to prefer him to everything and everyone, and bids them "renounce all that [they have]" for his sake and that of the Gospel.335 Shortly before his passion he gave them the example of the poor widow of Jerusalem who, out of her poverty, gave all that she had to live on.336 The precept of detachment from riches is obligatory for entrance into the Kingdom of heaven.
2545 All Christ's faithful are to "direct their affections rightly, lest they be hindered in their pursuit of perfect charity by the use of worldly things and by an adherence to riches which is contrary to the spirit of evangelical poverty."337
2546 "Blessed are the poor in spirit."338 The Beatitudes reveal an order of happiness and grace, of beauty and peace. Jesus celebrates the joy of the poor, to whom the Kingdom already belongs:339

The Word speaks of voluntary humility as "poverty in spirit"; the Apostle gives an example of God's poverty when he says: "For your sakes he became poor."340
2547 The Lord grieves over the rich, because they find their consolation in the abundance of goods.341 "Let the proud seek and love earthly kingdoms, but blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven."342 Abandonment to the providence of the Father in heaven frees us from anxiety about tomorrow.343 Trust in God is a preparation for the blessedness of the poor. They shall see God.

2557 "I want to see God" expresses the true desire of man. Thirst for God is quenched by the water of eternal life (cf. Jn 4:14).


Jesus looked on him with love, but his face fell. Our attention to stuff takes away our ability to see God’s love for us.
Self-justification vs reception of Christ’s redemption.

God loved us first. Then we respond back in love.

Idolatry with new names today.

homily - Oct. 31 - Priorities

Priorities.
The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.
Aka first things first. Second things second. Don’t confuse the two, and don’t lose any of it.

I am speaking to myself as much as to anyone else. We all of us have the tendency to get off track, and there is also an enemy who is trying to do the same for us.

Screwtape Letters - the devil’s goal is to conquer your heart. But he never starts there. One of his first strategies is to get us to lose our priorities.
If we have a good sense of then, he tries to distract us, to make us lose sense of what the main thing is. “I need to focus on this for just a few weeks, then I can get back to my priorities”
…Even if a particular train of thought can be twisted so as to end in our favour, you will find that you have been strengthening in your patient the fatal habit of attending to universal issues and withdrawing his attention from the stream of immediate sense experiences. Your business is to fix his attention on the stream. Teach him to call it “real life” and don't let him ask what he means by “real”.
Remember, he is not, like you, a pure spirit. Never having been a human (Oh that abominable advantage of the Enemy's!) you don't realise how enslaved they are to the pressure of the ordinary. I once had a patient, a sound atheist, who used to read in the British Museum. One day, as he sat reading, I saw a train of thought in his mind beginning to go the wrong way. The Enemy, of course, was at his elbow in a moment. Before I knew where I was I saw my twenty years' work beginning to totter. If I had lost my head and begun to attempt a defence by argument I should have been undone. But I was not such a fool. I struck instantly at the part of the man which I had best under my control and suggested that it was just about time he had some lunch. The Enemy presumably made the counter-suggestion (you know how one can never quite overhear What He says to them?) that this was more important than lunch. At least I think that must have been His line for when I said “Quite. In fact much too important to tackle it the end of a morning”, the patient brightened up considerably; and by the time I had added “Much better come back after lunch and go into it with a fresh mind”, he was already half way to the door. Once he was in the street the battle was won. I showed him a newsboy shouting the midday paper, and a No. 73 bus going past, and before he reached the bottom of the steps I had got into him an unalterable conviction that, whatever odd ideas might come into a man's head when he was shut up alone with his books, a healthy dose of “real life” (by which he meant the bus and the newsboy) was enough to show him that all “that sort of thing” just couldn't be true. … He is now safe in Our Father's house. (Hell)
You begin to see the point? Thanks to processes which we set at work in them centuries ago, they find it all but impossible to believe in the unfamiliar while the familiar is before their eyes. Keep pressing home on him the ordinariness of things…. don't let him get away from that invaluable “real life”. … Do remember you are there to fuddle him. From the way some of you young fiends talk, anyone would suppose it was our job to teach!

So we must keep God first. But how? Well, how about our time. If our daily / weekly routine shows our priorities, then what is the main thing for me? How about our calendar? Does our planner put God first?

How about our checkbook or budget? Does that show that God is first?

Here's an interesting one: how about our home? Does our house speak of God first and foremost? Do we have any space dedicated to God? or are we worshipers of "the screen" in all its various sizes.

Finally, what is going on in our heart? What are we worried about all the time? What is filling our head constantly? That is also a good indicator of what is our "main thing."

The monastic life is a great witness to the priority of God in our life. Their existence makes no sense to those who think in the ways of the world, because God is at the center of their life in every possible way, unless they are letting sin creep in.

If we were to compare their way of life with ours, it might seem like we don't care about God at all. but that isn't quite true, our vocation is different. However, the heart of our life should be the same as the heart of theirs. Or else we can be pretty confident that sin is creeping into us as well.

Their example of silence, of getting away from all the "noise" that the enemy throws at us, is perhaps a great starting point. You may try sitting in silent prayer for twenty minutes or so and paying attention to what comes out through that quiet. In that silence you will begin not only hear what is broiling in your own heart, but also what God is trying to say to you beyond that.

Let the Holy Spirit reveal to you one way that you can put God first more clearly in your life.

The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. And nothing could be more important than getting that right in our hearts.

homily Oct 3

The Catholic church has something to say about every aspect of human living and human freedom, because it has the whole truth about the human person. And today’s topic of marriage is hugely important. Marriage is the foundation of family. Family is the foundation of society. So marriage is the core of society, and as goes marriage, so goes society.

If you misunderstand what the human person is about, you are going to come to the wrong conclusions. Karl Marx thought it was all about class struggle and one group keeping another group down and out, ultimately leading to misunderstandings about many things, even directly attacking the institutions of marriage and family because they overvalue the importance of the collective. DesCartes popularized the perennial lie about the person being the soul trapped in a body and not associated with it, leading to many mistakes about what we can or should be doing with or to our bodies.

If you get the human person wrong, you will get his destiny wrong. If you have the destiny or goal wrong, you will spend your life headed in the wrong direction. This leads to misery, chaos, and dysfunction both now and in the future. If you are on the right road with the truth of the human person guiding you, you will find joy and peace and harmony. The human person, from Adam and Eve until now, is created out of love and for love by God who is love, yet also fallen, prone to selfishness, and fragile. The story of the Gospel and the truths God reveals in Christ allow us to know ourselves and our destiny truly and completely.

So the Church teaches many things about the person, our sexuality, and marriage, that are so essential because they flow from the truth of the human person, and thus when they are put into practice they lead to human flourishing. Some of these truths may not be popular, but truth has never been a matter of majority opinion. Truth is about what conforms to reality. The eye, working properly, receives the light from outside itself and makes a true image of what is beyond it. So too does the mind conform to the truth.

This is precisely what happens in the Gospel today when the Lord Jesus, against the culture of his time, teaches about the truth of the indissolubility of marriage. This teaching, continued in the Church to this day, is once again a point of discord with society.  G.K. Chesterton said “We do not really want a religion that is right where we are right. What we want is a religion that is right where we are wrong.” Our blind spots are the most dangerous things for us when we are driving, and going through life with all it’s danger and constant choices is a lot like driving, so it would be good to know where those blind spots are. The pains of divorce which our society tries both to deny and to mitigate, are evident especially in those who are younger, and this tragic reality only makes clearer the truth of Christ’s words.

What is great about Church teaching is it knows where to be firm and where to allow for personal choice or preference. It is clear and precise when it should be, such as when Jesus makes it clear what God’s plan for marriage is; and has leeway and openness at other times, not over-reaching those divine rules, such as the Church supporting the separation of couples that cannot live in healthy ways for their good (or that of their children), and also the annulment process which can establish whether a marriage presumed valid was in fact not so due to missing an essential element at the outset in the ceremony and exchange of vows.

But Jesus does not want his disciples to focus purely on this negation of divorce. He wishes to turn their hearts to the truth that is much deeper: the kingdom of God. “Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it." Sometimes Jesus’ teachings do not fit with our moods, our way of thinking, or our culture. Chesterton says further: One word that tells us what we do not know outweighs a thousand words that tell us what we do know. And the thing is all the more striking if we not only did not know it but could not believe it. It may seem a paradox to say that the truth teaches us more by the words we reject than by the words we receive. So when we naturally want to reject what the Lord is teaching us, it behooves us all the more to receive it like a child. A child trusts their parents even when they don’t understand, when they don’t see the point, when it appears purely arbitrary or domineering. At those moments they must not fear the lie that their parents want to dominate them and make them suffer; they must trust that their parents love them and want what’s best for them. This is indeed what it means for us to accept the kingdom of God like a child. And as often with children, so too with us: in time, after we do it, the things begin to make sense as they lead to our flourishing.

Whether you are married or not, don’t be afraid of following God’s ways when His will is clear, even and especially when it is hard.

8-22-21 Ephesians 5

 Many go away sad in the Gospel today. And in our world today, we are still seeing this happening. Many go away sad for various reasons, some very understandable even if not objectionable.

There is a battle going on in our world about what it means to be a woman, and what it means to be a man. The first is more explicit, as we have for decades dealt with it at the forefront of a cultural rift over the silent holocaust that has swept through our communities since Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton. The battle for what it means to be a man is not so explicit in our culture, but is in the ever-present undertones and whispers of how men are portrayed in film and television and novels, and in what we see as expectations or assumptions for how men are going to live in this day and age. Much of this is not very exalted or uplifting, but before we can see the response the church offers to these world-views, we must outline briefly the women’s movement.

Feminism – had something right in it, but also got muddled with lots of evil stuff. Book: Subverted by Sue Ellen Browder describes her story as summarized in the subtitle, “How I helped the Sexual Revolution Hijack the Women’s Movement” (I meaning her, not Fr. Terry - I wasn’t around to do so at the time).

They saw something right: that men and women have equal dignity and it isn’t being lived out well in the social norms of the day, especially voting, workplace, and civic life. But they also eventually lost the other side of the truth, that men and women are not the same but are rather distinct, different, and complementary. Equal in dignity, but not the same, not identical, rather complementary.

Ephesians 5 – Saint Paul lays out a beautiful exposition of the relationship between husbands and wives. Mind you, he is not talking about how men treat women in public life, but rather within the context of marriage, although it has consequences for all human interaction. And St. Paul ties this sacrament to the most common theme in the bible and the most important mystery of our existence: that God wishes to “marry” us; that he “espouses” Himself to us as His bride in Christ Jesus the bridegroom.

In his masterpiece letter to women titled Mulieris Dignitatem, (“on the dignity of women”) Pope John Paul II describes well how husbands and wives are called to live this mystery…:

as real women and men. It [St. Paul’s letter] reminds them of the "ethos" of spousal love which goes back to the divine institution of marriage from the "beginning". Corresponding to the truth of this institution is the exhortation: "Husbands, love your wives", love them because of that special and unique bond whereby in marriage a man and a woman become "one flesh" (Gen 2:24; Eph 5:31). In this love there is a fundamental affirmation of the woman as a person. This affirmation makes it possible for the female personality to develop fully and be enriched. This is precisely the way Christ acts as the bridegroom of the Church; he desires that she be "in splendour, without spot or wrinkle" (Eph 5:27). One can say that this fully captures the whole "style" of Christ in dealing with women. Husbands should make their own the elements of this style in regard to their wives; analogously, all men should do the same in regard to women in every situation. In this way both men and women bring about "the sincere gift of self".

The author of the Letter to the Ephesians sees no contradiction between an exhortation formulated in this way and the words: "Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife" (5:22-23). The author knows that this way of speaking, so profoundly rooted in the customs and religious tradition of the time, is to be understood and carried out in a new way: as a "mutual subjection out of reverence for Christ" (cf. Eph 5:21). This is especially true because the husband is called the "head" of the wife as Christ is the head of the Church; he is so in order to give "himself up for her" (Eph 5:25), and giving himself up for her means giving up even his own life. However, whereas in the relationship between Christ and the Church the subjection is only on the part of the Church, in the relationship between husband and wife the "subjection" is not one-sided but mutual.

That is the dignity that women deserve, that the movement of the 70s and beyond was seeking to bring about, albeit with mistaken conclusions or methods.

Then John Paul II transitions in his letter immediately to the Eucharist, the mystery we hear Jesus speak about so firmly in the Gospel today as we once again hear from John 6.

The "sincere gift" contained in the Sacrifice of the Cross gives definitive prominence to the spousal meaning of God's love. As the Redeemer of the world, Christ is the Bridegroom of the Church. The Eucharist is the Sacrament of our Redemption. It is the Sacrament of the Bridegroom and of the Bride. The Eucharist makes present and realizes anew in a sacramental manner the redemptive act of Christ, who "creates" the Church, his body. Christ is united with this "body" as the bridegroom with the bride. All this is contained in the Letter to the Ephesians. The perennial "unity of the two" that exists between man and woman from the very "beginning" is introduced into this "great mystery" of Christ and of the Church.

Because, as St. JPII described, the Eucharist and marriage are deeply interconnected, we are trying this fall to emphasize the importance of the Eucharist through a couple initiatives. There’s an adult bible study on the Mass. And we are also hoping to have an exhibit on Eucharistic miracles and even perhaps a speaker on the same topic. When we lessen the dignity of the Eucharist and what it means, we also lessen the dignity of the marriage. And vice-versa, if we denigrate marriage, the mystery of the Eucharist loses its power. “If human love, even in its purest and most exalted form, is so broken and imperfect, then how can God’s love for me truly last?”

Mutual submission brothers and sisters, in full respect for the dignity of women and men as created equal but different – that lived reality is the witness the world needs to see if the battle for the meaning of the human person is going to be won. Truth and goodness have a power that is greater than any crafty lies or abuses of power could ever muster. But if we don’t live it, many will go away sad. Let us ask, in this year of St. Joseph, for His intercession on all husbands to live well their marriage promises. And for Blessed Mary to remind women of their true dignity as daughters of God. So that we may be Holy Families that are shelters for Christ Jesus to dwell anew.

19th Sun. in Ord. Time - Eat to compete

The Christian life is a long and tough road. We all need food for the journey.

My brother is a good runner. He ran in high school and college, and is still very good at mid to long distances, including qualifying for the Boston marathon. But I'd like to tell you about the time when the dream of every little brother actually became a reality: the time when the little brother got the upper hand and outmatched his big brother. Once in my life I beat my brother, and it was glorious.

It was a half marathon in southern Ohio when we were in seminary. I trained enough to be ready, but my brother was in the zone and was looking to complete an impressive race at a crazy pace. I remember seeing him loop back nearly a mile ahead of me at one point. I continued to work hard at my pace and around mile 11 I was shocked to see my brother lying in the grass... "Are you okay?" He says he's fine but just couldn't keep up that pace and decided to rest for a bit since he wasn't going to make his goal time. So, since I knew he was alright, what is the next thing a compassionate brother would do? I say "Okay, great, see you at the finish line!" and I keep running. He wasn't mad; he knew I was trying for a goal as well.

But the reason his body hit the wall and made him stop was that his breakfast was a granola bar and a banana. And then he hoped to run 13.1 miles. Bad idea. That is where my one super-power comes into play, I can eat and run and not get too bothered by it. So, I won that race because I had the fuel I needed.

Because our bodies need to eat to compete. When I was in HS playing soccer or basketball every day, I needed a lot of food to keep working. I couldn't have survived the season if I was malnourished all the time.

Souls also need to eat to compete. We are all born into a spiritual battle, and you can't take a neutral side in the middle of a battlefield. You are either on one side or the other, and you will find it a real battle as soon as you begin.

Or to use the analogy from the first reading today, the Christian life is a long journey, like a half-marathon, and you aren't going to get to the end if you aren't being fed. That Christian journey is really outlined well in today's second reading: All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice. And be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ. So be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love.

You are what you eat, in a quite literal sense, physically. The same goes for your soul: so what are you filling your spirit with? If it isn't the Lord Jesus, day after day in prayer and week after week in the Eucharist, you may not finish the race. We all need food for our spiritual journey.

18TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (last week)

 

1.     God is not a vending machine. * really hard in our culture of instant response

2.     God never says a flat “no” to us.

a.     “Yes. Here you go!” For example – Jesus help me to love this person. Holy Spirit, give me the right words to say. Or even the classic Catholic prayer, St. Anthony, ask God to let me to find my car keys ‘cuz it seems that He’s not hearing me right now!

b.     “Not right now.” For example – God, please let me know my vocation. God, make me a saint. Lord, please fix this serious problem I’m going through. (a lot of the times that happens gradually or seems to get nowhere before something moves)

c.      “I’ve got something better for you.” For example – God, make me an NBA all-star, or a genius, or super popular. Or even asking for the wrong things, such as God let me finally get revenge on that person so they look bad or things go bad for them. (not a good prayer at all!)

3.     Jesus tells us to pray with boldness. To tell God what we want, like children. But just like children, we will very often ask for the wrong things. We don’t fully know what we want/need. Or even when we do, we have our fallen human nature that can so often get in the way and steer us down the wrong path. But still, God wants us to talk to Him with all of it.

4.     In the Gospel, God gives us the greatest thing we could ever ask for. No matter what you pray for, God is giving you the best thing you could ever ask for. The Eucharist, which Jesus stresses with the clarity and hardness of a diamond, is the Light of the Christian life. “I Am the Bread of Life” Jesus says. These are words to build a life upon. They are spiritual gold. And wait, what do you know, look at that, They are printed in gold above the tabernacle! What a coincidence that they got painted gold just in time for this reading! Or not. Honestly it was the easiest decision I’ve made in a while after I prayed with this Gospel. Now actually painting them, not so easy, but worth it. It’s been a while since I use a paintbrush, like… 5^th grade or something...! Luckily any real artists don’t have to get too close to be grossed out by what they would find.

5.     Back to the point of those words. The Eucharist is the ultimate response to our prayers, the greatest moment in history where when all of humanity is crying out for so many things, some petty, some more important, some temporary, some eternal, God says to us:  “I’ve got something better for you.”  I don’t want to give you something, I want you give you someone. And not someone else, but myself. I created you for me. Your heart and soul, your entire existence hungers for this food. Nothing else will satisfy. This is why you exist: to be one with me. This is the beginning of heaven. This is everything.

Jesus, thank you for the gift of gifts. As we continue to cry out to you with the boldness of children, help us to build our lives around this one thing that truly satisfies.

Eucharist - Are you being fed?

 

DIDACHE – Alexandria, Egypt  ~125AD - On the Lord’s day, when you have been gathered together, break bread and celebrate the Eucharist. But first confess your sins so that your offering may be pure. If anyone has a quarrel with his neighbor, that person should not join you until he has been reconciled. Your sacrifice must not be defiled. In this regard, the Lord has said: In every place and time offer me a pure sacrifice. I am a great king, says the Lord, and my name is great among the nations.

Celebrate the Eucharist as follows: Say over the cup: “we give you thanks, Father, for the holy vine of David, your servant, which you made known to us through Jesus your servant. To you be glory for ever”.  Over the broken bread say: “we give you thanks, Father, for the life and the knowledge which you have revealed to us through Jesus your servant. To you be glory for ever. As this broken bread scattered on the mountains was gathered and became one, so too, may your Church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into your kingdom. For glory and power are yours through Jesus Christ for ever.”

ARE YOU BEING FED? One of the main reasons people drift away from the church and/or their faith is that they are spiritually malnourished: they aren’t “being fed.” If you have family or friends who have wandered from the Church, an important part of their distance is that they didn’t have strong ties keeping them alive and healthy in their faith.

Certainly questions, problems, negative experiences, and other specific things can be watershed moments, but they aren’t the whole story. Look at a similar situation: relationships between people. How do relationships weaken? How do relationships get severed? These questions are related, but not the same. Like with others, our faith weakens when we aren’t investing in it and letting it “feed” us, so to speak. If that relationship is not being a benefit to us, helping us grow, filling us with joy and peace, supporting us when we are down, making our joyful times even greater, etc., then we are perhaps going to be tempted to wander away from that relationship.

Andy Dufresne, a Christ-like figure in the famous movie Shawshank Redemption, summarized it well: I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy living or get busy dying. So, Are you being fed?

To be spiritually fed by God can come in so many ways. Mass if of course so important, and it is tragic, even if necessary, that so many aren’t attending often for the past year. Certainly every encounter with God in prayer of any form (and there are so many!), reading Scripture, participating in the Sacraments are the most important ways, but I wrote about some others in the bulletin for this week: reading, film, lectures/testimonies. Also retreats, good conversations with spiritual mentors or companions. You need to find ways that work for you. It may take time, but as T of A says: God withholds Himself from no one who perseveres. The crowd today is an example of that. They chased Jesus down, who was in a sense running away from them, but looked on them with pity for their pursuit of Him.

It is important for you to find ways for God to feed your soul – not only for yourself, but for others.

As someone in struggling in their faith, they will be asking the question in their hearts, “why should I stay?” And they may or may not actually say it to you, but they are probably looking at Catholics and asking, “why do they stay? What is keeping them going?”

Your life has to be the answer to that question. But you have to be ready to give an answer as well, to verbalize it. You need to be ready to say why going to Mass is helpful for you. What is it? Do you love the community – worshipping God together and knowing that you are part of something larger than yourself that is ultimately doing good in our world? Or is it the beauty of the liturgy – praying in a way that unites us to the Church over the centuries, collapsing time and space so that we are there with Jesus on Calvary where He offered His life to save us? Or would you say that it is the readings at Mass (or even the homily) that helps you to remember who you are and where you are headed, inspiring and challenging you to something greater? Or is it, above all, the gift of the Lord Jesus in the Eucharist, where you are united to Him in a way that cannot compare with anything else on this earth or in this life?

I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy living or get busy dying. If you aren’t pursuing spiritual growth, you are going to be drifting slowly but surely away from God. Let God feed you. Chase him down like the crowd did. He will not let you down if you persevere.

Corpus Christi

 SAINT FRANCIS: “Love is not loved!”

Eucharist - Mass - is the most important thing that we do. All our life is meant to be engaged in what happens at Mass. Everything we do and are should flow from the Mass, and everything we do and are should lead back to the Mass and be something we can offer to God in the Mass. Ultimately we human beings are created to worship God or worship something else. Whatever our lives are centered around is what we worship. May it be LOVE that we in fact love, and nothing less than that.

As we heard in the 1st and 2nd reading today, worship was messy in the old testament: blood everywhere. smelly animal. blood. roasted flesh (grilled meat). Lots going on. Lot of work for us. Nowadays, not so messy. Today’s ordination Mass anointing is the messiest it gets. Sacred Chrism on the palms of the hands of the priests which are meant to “offer sacrifice to God and to bless His people” as the prayer says.

In the Gospel today we see that Jesus prepares the Passover for us. Unlike the OT, now God has done all the work, and we only have to cooperate with it. No longer a bloody sacrifice, but the fulfillment of what it foreshadowed, we have to come, with our full selves, and offer that sacrifice that no one else can: our heart and soul. The priest, in the person of Jesus, does the rest. He takes our gifts, brings them to the father.

St. Mother Teresa of Kolkata - In the cross you see how much Jesus loved you in the past. In the Eucharist you see how much Jesus loves you now.

HOW DO YOU RESPOND TO THAT LOVE?

In Sinu Iesu - visits to the blessed Sacrament.
I want to visit to the blessed sacrament to become once again a part of ordinary catholic life, and instinct of the believing heart, an expression of gratitude in reparation to me who am forsaken and spurned in so many places. Let my priests set the example and the faithful will follow it.
The priest who approaches me and remains with me in the sacrament of my love is not losing his time; he is at the very source of every good thing, and I will bless his priesthood with a wonderful apostolic fruitfulness. This was the secret of so many of my saints.

sign of cross passing a church. short prayer to Jesus: O Sacrament most holy, O Sacrament Divine, all praise and all thanksgiving, be every moment Thine.
Notice this prayer speaks to the Eucharist as a person.

Pentecost - Holy Spirit is the Author!

 We have color-coordinated tape through the church this weekend in honor of Pentecost. This church decoration, which won’t be here next weekend, is required this weekend for the final time. In the next days we will have carpet down and we will be ready to roam free once again, and we can hopefully say farewell to all of the dust for good!

The Holy Spirit is the sanctifier. This is the one who makes us into saints. Thus we can say that the whole work of the Trinity is summarized well in this phrase: The Father sends His Son to give us the Spirit. The gift of the Holy Spirit is the goal of God’s work, and the beginning of our journey home. Our mission, which started at Baptism when the Holy Spirit was poured into our hearts, is quite an adventure when we embrace it.
Imagine if you tried to write a book about your own life all by yourself: You the author and you’re the main character. Depending on your abilities it might be bad, might be tolerable, or even quite enjoyable.
But what if the best writer in the world was also your close friend, and that person helped you to write the story? Do you think you would like it better? I imagine you might not only because it has better structure, literary style, and powerful imagery, but perhaps above all because of the fact that many of those ideas were not your own. The fact that you could sit back and admire at how things went in directions you didn’t plan or expect - that appreciation for the beauty of the story of your own life would make it more beautiful, and thus you would like it much more.
The Christian life is precisely that: letting the Holy Spirit, who knows us better than we know ourselves, be the co-author, and indeed primary author, of our stories.
To appreciate this, I ask you to consider finding online and reading J.R.R. Tolkien’s short story: Leaf by Niggle. I don’t want to spoil it, but I will simply say that it is one of the most beautiful short stories I have ever heard. I pray you enjoy it.
Don’t be afraid of letting the Holy Spirit lead and guide your life. He will make you a saint. He will lead you to heaven. He will write a beautiful story.

sunday homily - 6th Sun. of Easter

 Peter baptizes "gentiles" (non-Jews), because "the Lord has revealed to the nations His saving power." Throughout the Old Testament this promise has waited, for God to bless all peoples through Israel, through the Jewish people. Now in Christianity, this is true. 

Baptized into Christ, we are transformed by His gift of love. We die to this world, we enter the tomb with Him and come out with Him transformed. Thus we have a "new" commandment: to love as He loves us. In keeping this commandment, we are friends of Jesus and He begins to live in us. Baptism allows this process to begin for us, and the only requirement for us to be open to the salvation God has given us is to truly live this new commandment. "No greater love than to lay down your life for one's friends." Jesus thought we were worth dying for. We are His friends. Will we show Him the same love back? What way do you need to "lay down your life" for Jesus? 

Your king loves you deeply. All He wants is your love. Will you deny him?

4th Easter

 This Sunday, known as Good Shepherd Sunday, points out the unique role of Jesus in salvation, because He is the one true shepherd, as God come in the flesh.  Saint Peter said today in the first reading that "there is no other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved." Jesus is the one and only savior we have, and we can only be saved through Him, whether we are aware of it or not.

G.K. Chesterton, an adult convert to Catholicism after being an atheist in his college years, and one of the sharpest minds of his day in early 20th century England, eventually came to profess the Christian faith because, as he simply put it, he believed it all to be true. Indeed it is. Our faith is ultimately a faith about the person of Jesus, about who He is and what God has revealed and established through Him and through the Church he founded. In The Everlasting Man, Chesterton describes the faith as a key, that transforms human history.

 The creed was like a key in three respects. First, a key is above all things a thing with a shape. It is a thing that depends entirely upon keeping its shape. The Christian creed is above all things the philosophy of shapes and the enemy of shapelessness…
Second, the shape of a key is in itself a rather fantastic shape. Someone who has never seen a key before would have no idea what this thing was about until they saw it put to use.  It either fits the lock and opens the door, or it does not…

And thirdly, as the key is necessarily a thing with a pattern, so this was one having in some ways a rather elaborate pattern. ...because the world had not only got into a hole, but had got into a whole maze of holes and corners…

The Early Christian (really every one of us) was very precisely a person carrying about a key, or what be said was a key. The whole Christian movement consisted in claiming to possess that key. It definitely asserted that there was a key and that it possessed that key and that no other key was like it; in that sense it was as narrow as you please. Only it happened to be the key that could unlock the prison of the whole world; and let in the white daylight of liberty. (not so narrow after all)

The only way to understand history is to understand the deepest human questions, and this faith we own is the key to unlocking the questions in our hearts.

About a month ago I was at someone's house for my day off and I went for a long run. It felt great to be out exercising but by the end of it (over an hour), I was totally worn out. The big problem I then discovered was that I had locked myself out of their house. No one was around. Huge problems immediately arose: 1 - My body needed food. 2 - I needed a shower. and 3 - All my stuff was inside. Luckily a neighbor was able to get me in: they had the key, the one answer to all the longings I had at that moment.

Every longing in our heart is answered and fulfilled by God in Christ Jesus and our Catholic faith. Jesus' resurrection is the most mysterious, peculiar, but absolutely right answer to the questions of human existence. Why do I have a longing for things that this world never fully satisfies? Why do I feel like I am my own worst enemy at times, and carry around inside me a voice that calls me to something greater than myself? Why do I feel like I can't get out of this myself and need someone to draw me further?

All of this is answered in the fact that God looks upon our fallen state with mercy, comes to us, and dies and rises for us, so that we may be raised from the dead and brought into the eternal life of heaven.

Our world doesn't like absolutes, and claims to truth. But Our Catholic faith is the one key answer to the mystery of our life. Other religions may have part of the naswer, but we are the ones with the whole answer. We hold this not in arrogance, but in humble submission to the truth.

Scott Hahn (who was here in the are this weekend) has a new book It is Right and Just that emphasizes the importance of worshipping God.

I've seen a lot of momentum in my lifetime and in recent years of meditation, "mindfulness" and other eastern spirituality avenues that may have some good things in them, but ultimately lack a hugely important thing: they do not put Jesus at the center, and thus they truly to not worship God as we truly should.

However, there is a solution to this that can allow you to incorporate these practices in a Christian context: The Hallow app.

homily

 Jesus doesn’t look appealing unless we realize that we need Him. The joy of Easter doesn’t mean as much unless we realize the situation we are in.

About a year ago I was worried about my heart. I was experiencing some tightness after exercise but only every once in a while. I had known in the past that I needed to be exercising regularly, but I had wondered if I was doing it right or if I was setting myself up for some kind of tragedy. Ultimately, after a couple stress tests, the doctors said things looked fine, which gave me great joy as I can go back to the wild ride of coffee once again.

But if I never experienced these symptoms and got them checked out, both eight years ago and this past year, then I would never have thought to look into it. It could have meant something very different, and I don’t think I would like the end of that story as much.

Our world sometimes looks over the fact of our weakness and brokenness. While it isn’t good to dwell only on our problems, it also doesn’t help to ignore them or to pass all the blame onto things outside of us.

Saint Peter’s message of the Good News must include the reality of what the people did to Jesus. But we should not think that being born in a different time and place means that we have nothing to regret in our lives and are just peachy-keen with Jesus. Our consciences are always tuned to tell us to do good and avoid evil, even if they are malformed and get some things wrong, and even if we try to rationalize away our culpability.

But getting back to the start of this homily: if we don’t realize we need a savior, then why look to Jesus? If he is just a self-help guru, then we can run to many others for self-fulfillment and self-actualization. There’s all kinds of life¬-coaches out there.

No, the only point of talking about Jesus is because we need a savior, and that means we need to be saved from something. Let’s not fall into the trap of the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable with the tax collector, who thinks the only thing he needs to be saved from is this fallen world of messed up people. When you can face something, you can deal with something. We need to face our sinfulness and let Jesus deal with it as he desires so much, like we heard last week on Divine Mercy Sunday.

A popular mentality in our world today is to affirm our entire selves along the lines of “I’m okay, your okay… It’s all good… Nothing wrong here, nothing to see…” whereas the reality is “I’m not okay, and you’re not okay, but that’s okay.” The reason it’s okay is because Jesus chases into our lives as He did in the upper room and brings His mercy and peace. He will help us to heal. We just need to admit our brokenness. He will forgive us. We just need to face our sins and repent.

Jesus doesn’t look appealing unless we realize that we need Him. The joy of Easter doesn’t mean as much unless we realize the situation we are in.

Living in real freedom is available to us. It’s not easy; it’s scary a lot of the time; but it is worth it.

If you haven’t been to Confession in a long time or have been holding back something from the Lord, ask the Holy Spirit for the courage to show your wounds to Jesus, so He can show you His and set you free.

Divine Mercy

 As we conclude the Easter octave today with Divine Mercy Sunday, the message of mercy that was revealed trough St. Faustina about 100 yrs ago in a very particular way, the image she had painted to her approval (of how Jesus appeared to her) is a reminder to us of this day.

We continue our Easter joy, unfolding the mystery of the Lord Jesus’ resurrection and what it means for all of us.

One thing it shows us is how different God is from all of us. If one of us were in Jesus shoes, we may come back very different than Jesus did; unjustly condemned, horrifically murdered and shamed, betrayed by your disciples. You may come back a little angry. We all can sense the temptation in our hearts to return with vengeance and wrath. But what does Jesus do? He returns with mercy, to put an end to evil, pain, suffering, scapegoating, and sin. To put an end to death.

This is the g greatest message of mercy that we can receive. We are also called to live this as well. We are called to put this into practice.

Jesus speaking to the apostles to day says “receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven. Whose sins are retained are retained.” This is certainly first and foremost a sign of the sacrament of Confession where through the priest we can receive the forgiveness and mercy of the Lord Jesus through the priest. I the words of absolution, we know it is the Lord Jesus saying “your sins are forgiven, go and sin no more.” But also, as Jesus gives that spirit not only to the apostles but to every single one of us through baptism and Confirmation, we are called as well in some way to participate in that ministry of mercy, of reconciliation, of restoring the unity of the human family under Christ the king.

In the 1st reading we see the early christians doing this and living this in a very concrete way. They were “of one heart and mind” the reading tells us, and they had “everything in common” to take care of each other, to support and lift up each other. In order to be of one heart and mind among sinful people, that means being people of mercy and forgiveness.

So we must do the same in our world today. How do we live this out? Jesus never says forgiveness is easy, but he does say we must do it. When we pray the Our Father, that is one of the most important things that we pray for: that we may be forgiven in the same way that we forgive others. It is a challenge and a great demand that is renewed every single time we come to Mass and pray the Our Father, and receive the Lord Jesus i the Eucharist and profess to be like Him, and promise to be worthy vessels of His body blood soul and divinity.

If we think that forgiveness is something that we must do solely on our own, we will certainly fall short. But if we rely on the Lord, on His Holy Spirit to help us, then we will be able to be people that, along with Jesus, put an end to the cycle of pain, of hurting others with sin and evil.

For us to be able to do so, we must follow the example of the apostles today. They were terrified but transformed by Jesus. The only reason they are able to witness to the world is because they have met Jesus, alive and full of mercy.

Today, Thomas, the week after Easter, meets Christ. Jesus invites him to put his fingers in the nail marks and hand into His side. We will find, brothers and sister, the healing that we need to strengthen us to forgive and reconcile, through the blood of Jesus and encountering His wounds. Imagine yourself in Thomas’ shoes, imagine yourself encountering Christ, meeting him alive and still bearing his wounds. Imagine placing your fingers into His nail marks and putting your hand into His side. Remembering not only what happened, but why it happened, and what it means, what came from that for all of us.

Jesus died for us when we were sinners, not when we were perfected by our own powers.

After we encounter the living Jesus, and let His blood wash over us, then we will be ready to forgive, ready to be vessels of Jesus’ mercy in our world, which everyone needs.

We all of us, have someone in our life that we need to forgive. We all have a relationship that needs deeper reconciliation. Think right now what relationship(s) right now in your life needs that, and bring it to the Lord Jesus in this Mass, asking for His merciful healing and strengthening of your own heart, so that you can go forth in the power of the Holy Spirit that He breathes upon, to be an instrument of that mercy in our world today. That transformation of your own heart and in your own actions, is how the world will know that Jesus is very much alive today.

Easter

 At the Easter Vigil last night, the Church celebrates the most joyous and solemn of all celebrations.  At the Easter Vigil we spend over an hour reading from Sacred Scripture, beginning with creation, and the faith of Abraham, and the deliverance from Egypt through the Red Sea, and the words of the prophets that foretell of Jesus the bridegroom, the abundant life he offers in living springs of water, the new covenant He will write on our hearts when He sprinkles clean water upon us. We reflect on all God has done since the beginning, because this is a cosmic event. Today something has happened that transforms everything.
Last November I went on a retreat and watched the sun rise I think every day. It was a thrilling experience. The world seems to completely transform. At first all I could see were the beautiful stars over the desert of Arizona. Then as the anticipation grew, the light became stronger and stronger. But never does it get anywhere close to the power and splendor of the light that shines from that sun when it finally comes over the horizon. It’s power is unmatched, and our eyes cannot even bear to take it in - we must look at it through a veil or shadow, or special sunglasses - lest we go blind. And while the desert was freezing at 6am, it is scorching by noon and beyond. Every day the desert is transformed by the sunrise.

The Easter Vigil liturgy is meant to keep us up late into the night, for sometime before dawn the Lord Jesus rose from the dead. The Incarnate Son of God triumphed over death and sin in the silence and darkness of the early morning. For the Jewish people, a new day begins (theologically) when the sun sets, as we hear repeated over and again in the story of creation: “evening came and morning followed, the first day / second day, / third, etc.” The new day of creation for us Christians is this day, which is a reprise of creation at a higher pitch. Today God’s words “Let there be light,” ring out anew, not simply in the natural light of sunrise or the flames of our candles that burn in this church: but rather in the deeper spiritual light that these lights symbolize.

At the Easter Vigil we continue the tradition we have practice from the earliest centuries of baptizing new adults into the faith. It is only in this cosmic dimension of the liturgy that our baptism takes on its full meaning. It is worth attending to remind us each year of what our Baptism means as we see it lived out so radically in the newly baptized.

In the newly baptized, we witness the truth: our Lord’s Resurrection has transformed our life’s destiny as radically as when the sun rises over a world covered in darkness. Everything changes. Everything takes on a new brilliance in the radiance of that light. The warmth of that sun transforms us.

I’m reading a book that speaks about Things worth dying for. The author, a bishop in his seventies, is contemplating the deepest questions that we humans must face, especially as our mortality becomes a daily companion - something we are all familiar with.
One of the most important messages of the book is what stems from the central events of our faith which we have just celebrated: God thinks you are worth dying for. He is happy to give Himself for you.

Discovering what is truly worth dying for actually determines how we should live: we find in them the things worth living for. Thus our daily lives then take on a direction and a measure, a gauge or a test by which we can decide how to live and what to say “no” to, and what to say “yes” to.

We cannot domesticate Jesus and his gospel. He bursts out of the tomb. The stone and the soldiers cannot hold Him in. “Comfortable Jesus” is not the real Jesus. Along with this fake version of Jesus as something easy to live with and control, we also witness among us the corollary perversion of the Gospel into self-help and private pursuit. Neither of these things are worth dying for.

Holy Thursday

 6-8 March 1941 (Concerning marriage and discovering one’s spouse) Out of the darkness of my life so much frustrated, I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament. … There you will find romance, glory, honor, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves upon earth, and more than that: Death: by the divine paradox, that which ends life, and demands the surrender of all, and yet by the tease (or foretaste of which alone can what you seek in your earthly relationships (love, faithfulness, joy) be maintained, or take on that complexion of reality, of eternal endurance, which every man’s heart desires.

romance - for it is the bridegroom who pursues the bride and pledges Himself to her forever. glory - for it is the God who is so great that He can accomplish the ultimate victory by apparent defeat. honor - for no honor is greater than to be the precious spouse of the greatest king. fidelity - for in this sacrament Jesus’ promise is fulfilled that He “will be with us, even until the end of the ages.” true way of our loves upon earth - for any real human love is measured not by feeling nor by results, but by whether it matches the gift of Christ and His Cross. death - because love on earth, even God’s love revealed in Jesus, means dying.

The essence of fallen world is that the best cannot be attained by free enjoyment, or by way is called ‘self-realization’ (usually a nice name for self-indulgence, wholly inimical to the realization of other selves); but by denial, by suffering.

The Eucharist makes demands on us. The Latin word MANDATUM (“Maundy” Thursday) means commandment, for by a “new commandment” the Lord Jesus demands something big from us: specifically, to foretaste death, which is what love means in this life. The new commandment is simple to say but hard to live: love one another as Jesus loved us, and in fact as He still loves us, for His cross is not simply a thing of the past for us, but breaks into our lives through the Eucharist. God who is beyond all time brought all of our lives, our past present and future, all into the present of the person of Jesus Christ. His entire life is present to all of us, always.

Thus the mandate from the Eucharist comes directly from the lips of Jesus at every Mass: love one another.

When he gives this commandment, Jesus is speaking specifically to the twelve, and thus especially to the priests whose ordination finds its source in the words “Do this in memory of me," and to His disciples. They must love each other with that profound love. But beyond that even, we do not close the circle of Christ’s love within ourselves. We follow the example of Him who loved sinners, who welcomed anyone who would “repent and believe in the Gospel” and “take up their cross and follow after Him.” Furthermore, we cannot ignore His charge to “love our enemies” and “pray for those who persecute us.” Thus we wash the feet of all, but even more so for the family of faith, just as the early Christians were known to others by the way they loved one another.

Perhaps the two most important ways of living the Christian life are found in these two questions: Do I give my entire self to Jesus in the Eucharist, laying down my life for Him? and Do I give my entire self to Jesus in the poor and broken, the “least of these” that He identifies Himself with? If I lose one of these, then I lose the power of the Gospel, which only transforms the world by the deep relationship of love that we have with Jesus in the Sacraments, represented by these holy oils and above all in the Eucharist.

This is why the washing of feet so important to us: Because it is the best symbol of “the greatest thing to love upon earth: the Blessed Sacrament.” The Eucharist, being the true presence of Our Lord, makes present to us His entire Paschal Mystery that we begin to embark upon with this evening when He is betrayed and arrested. In the Eucharist we have Jesus dying for us as the sacrificial lamb, and at the same time we meet Jesus arisen, revealing the wounds in his hands, his feet, and his side that have conquered death and open eternal life to us. This is why we give our entire lives to the gift of gifts, God Himself truly present.

The washing of feet helps us to remember what Jesus did for us: that one so great would stoop to do something so lowly, to enter into our mess and purify it, to make clean the filth that covers us from our sins. May every Christian cherish the memory of this ritual that helps us to see the full beauty of our greatest love. May all of us, priests and faithful, who have all been configured to Christ by baptism, live from our true identity seen in this Mass, and fulfill the new commandment that Jesus reveals in His Paschal Mystery.

Homily - Palm Sunday

I want to keep it slightly shorter today. Two songs of my growing up days listening to Christian music for your reflection today. Just a little more meditation that fit well alongside the Passion narrative we just heard. If you can do it without falling asleep, it may benefit to close your eyes.

 1. Memoirs of St. Peter - we all ran away - denied him - “surely not I Lord”

  - Everyman (Rich Mullins)

2. A man at the end of his days may look back at all the pains, sorrows, the joys and the blessings, and say "I wouldn't change anything. I would have it just as God gave it." In the same way, God, who is outside of time and sees all of it at a glance, chose this death before He said Let there be Light. He chose this for you before you were born, knowing you would need it, knowing I would need it, knowing everything, and still loving you perfectly. You have never been, and never will be, unloved.

  - never been unloved (MWS)
 

Rich Mullins - Everyman
"Well he was out on a limb he was sitting in the shade
He'd led a hundred men and lived alone among the graves
He had a thousand questions and a million heartaches
He was everyman he was everyman
She was caught in a sin she knew the well was so deep
She threw her last pennies in and poured oil upon His feet
She touched the garment's hem she had only been asleep
She was everyman she was everyman
And the Lord looks down and He understands
The world draws up it's lines
But at the foot of the cross there's room for everyone
And love that is not blind
It can look at who we are and still see beyond
The differences we find
But with thorns in His brow and a spear in His side
Nails in His hand He died for you and I
For you and I and everyman
He had nets to mend he gave his fish and his loaves
He had to wash his hands and ran away without his robe
He couldn't understand until on Damascus road
He was everyman he was everyman
She brought the world a lamb and took warning from a dream
From an empty tomb she ran for her children she would weep
In her womb a baby danced she'd been waiting for a King
She was everyman she was everyman
And the Lord looks down and He understands
The world draws up it's lines
But at the foot of the cross there's room for everyone
And love that is not blind
It can look at who we are and still see beyond
The differences we find
But with thorns in His brow and a spear in His side
Nails in His hand He died for you and I
For you and I and everyman

Michael W Smith - Never Been Unloved
I have been unfaithful
I have been unworthy
I have been unrighteous
And I have been unmerciful
I have been unreachable
I have been unteachable
I have been unwilling
And I have been undesirable
Sometimes, I have been unwise
I've been undone by what I'm unsure of
But because of you, and all that you went through
I know that I have never been unloved
I have been unbroken
I have been unmended
I have been uneasy
And I've been unapproachable
I've been unemotional
I've been unexceptional
I've been undecided
And I have been unqualified
Unaware, I have been unfair
I've been unfit for blessings from above
But even I can see the sacrifice you made for me
To show that I have never been unloved

homily 3-21-2021

 

Jeremiah: “I will place my law within them and write it on their hearts.”

Ps. 51 – “A clean heart create for me, O God.”

Hebrews: “He learned obedience through what he suffered.”

Jesus (Jn. 12): “Father, glorify thy name!” (Lord, may You be glorified by my life. May every part of my life – my words, my actions, my thoughts, my plans, my choices, my dreams and goals, my relationships, my free time, my work, my play – may all of it give glory to you.)

2563 The heart is the dwelling-place where I am, where I live; according to the Semitic or Biblical expression, the heart is the place "to which I withdraw." The heart is our hidden center, beyond the grasp of our reason and of others; only the Spirit of God can fathom the human heart and know it fully. The heart is the place of decision, deeper than our psychic drives. It is the place of truth, where we choose life or death. It is the place of encounter, because as image of God we live in relation: it is the place of covenant.

2562 Where does prayer come from? Whether prayer is expressed in words or gestures, it is the whole man who prays. But in naming the source of prayer, Scripture speaks sometimes of the soul or the spirit, but most often of the heart (more than a thousand times). According to Scripture, it is the heart that prays. If our heart is far from God, the words of prayer are in vain.

1431 Interior repentance is a radical reorientation of our whole life, a return, a conversion to God with all our heart, an end of sin, a turning away from evil, with repugnance toward the evil actions we have committed. At the same time it entails the desire and resolution to change one's life, with hope in God's mercy and trust in the help of his grace. This conversion of heart is accompanied by a salutary pain and sadness which the Fathers called animi cruciatus (affliction of spirit) and compunctio cordis (repentance of heart).24

1432 The human heart is heavy and hardened. God must give man a new heart. Conversion is first of all a work of the grace of God who makes our hearts return to him: "Restore us to thyself, O LORD, that we may be restored!" God gives us the strength to begin anew. It is in discovering the greatness of God's love that our heart is shaken by the horror and weight of sin and begins to fear offending God by sin and being separated from him. The human heart is converted by looking upon him whom our sins have pierced:

Let us fix our eyes on Christ's blood and understand how precious it is to his Father, for, poured out for our salvation it has brought to the whole world the grace of repentance.

Jesus says everything from the Cross and from the tabernacle. He still speaks to you, personally. Do you hear Him? You must sit in the classroom of silence.

Father glorify your name!

Ask God what He wants to do for your heart this Holy Week. Ask Him every day this week.

He wants to create a clean heart, to write His law there, so you can say “glorify your name.”

homily - 3/7

 
In the first reading we heard the Ten Commandments, which are so important for us. It's a reminder of the fact that our Christian faith grew out of the Jewish faith and they are not in contradiction, at least not in the deepest sense.  There are certainly some things that are new and there are some changes (we do get to eat pork), but at the core they are still the same.  We do well to look at these 10 Commandments during the season of Lent.
GK Chesterton used a very helpful image describing the commandments and the laws of the church as a fence around a beautiful amazing playground full of life and happiness - that is the life of the church,  the life of faith. But on the other side of that fence is a dangerous precipice, a cliff that leads to perdition to destruction. The point is that the Commandments are not meant to restrict us but to protect us from destruction. God is giving us the law in the OT for a reason that remains until heaven, and so its fulfillment in Christ doesn't abrogate the past laws and throw them out. The Church gives us all of these and we have them so that we can play on the playground of this beautiful life that we have in this world.
They're always trying to give us joy by pointing out for us the potholes of human living.  If you're driving thesis time of year without watching the road, your car will be messed up pretty bad. If you live life without paying attention to those potential spiritual potholes, your soul will be really beat up.
The ten commandments are often rejections (but not all of them). These rejections of various things are mysteriously already written in our hearts and speak to us in our consciences (we know to do good avoid evil). These rejections are a way that God is trying to invite us to a deeper yes. As Jesus cleanses the temple today, the most scandalous action and probably the thing that most caused so many of the Jewish religious leaders to seek his crucifixion, b/c no because He is saying no no no but rather because there's a yes - yes first and foremost, as He says this is my fathers house. This is the deeper yes. The relationship. That is why he does what he does today.

There is always a deeper yes behind the no's.
This can be done with all the teachings of the Church.
So when we examine all the laws about life saying no to euthanasia and abortion, the laws about chastity saying no to contraception and other issues, even why we say no to meat on Fridays of Lent (except in a couple weeks for St. Joseph’s solemnity!) and see the deeper yes then we will
mission statement (Jn 10:10) abundant life.
Not “90% of life where we miss a lot of good stuff.”
The only things He denies of us are the things that destroy us. He wants you keep you on this side of the cliff. And he will fight for you as he did today.
If we can remember that, then Commandments are not burdensome, but lessons, gifts - because GOd is setting us free, or keeping us free. Abundant Life.

Jesus describes His body as a temple today. His is the new place of worship. In Him we meet the Father.
1. We are also a temple.
2. We are the body of Christ, united with each other in Jesus.
When we sin, we affect both our personal temple, and the corporate temple of Jesus.

Every sin has ripple effects we heard about in the first reading, where God says sins will affect generations. Our sins do not only mess up ourselves, but all of us.

Confession is given for us o heal both of these. In Him we are healed in our hearts and souls to we can restore what we have list.
But also the whole body of Christ is cleansed in the sacrament of Jesus.
Reminds me of seminary, cleaning bathrooms with T$.
We keep our parts clean and the whole space is clean. Everyone had a responsibility. 1 - their own room. 2 - the whole building.
Confession is one way we do that work of cleansing here and now, and not
Let us ask the Lord for the grace to see the commandments not as burdens, but as a yes to the abundant life that is offered us.
May Jesus come into our hearts and purify them more and more so that we can truly be a house of prayer that gives worship to God alone.

homily 2-28-2021

This story is more than just God's way of making it abundantly clear that He will never demand the taking of human life to please Him. If so, we wouldn't really focus on it much, since that is pretty apparent to us and is not something we are tempted to reinstate, at least not right here right now.

This story is about faith. Abraham is asked to trust in God's plan. This is the hardest example in all of the Old Testament of trusting in that plan, which was tied to the life of his son Isaac, whom he is now being asked to sacrifice.

 

We don't see God's designs. We only see random facts, small pieces.

An ant, if he had a mind to understand, could not appreciate Michelangelo's David when he is walking on it. His perspective is too narrow.

Lent is a time to get up the mountain of the Lord to achieve a higher perspective. To see things from a more heavenly vantage-point. And thus to see them more truly.

A RETREAT is a great way to practice this, but even this is not a guarantee of a sublime vision.

Sometimes in prayer, or on retreat, or sometimes even in the midst of ordinary life as we reflect on what has been happening, God gives glimpses into the glory of His designs.

 We must treasure those glimpses for the hard times. (The transfiguration was meant to prepare the disciples for the scandal of the cross).

Our PERCEPTION of God will define our RECEPTION of God's commands.

PERCEPTION defines RECEPTION.

Abraham trusted in God's love. We are called to do the same.

Those transfigured moments help us perceive God as He truly is.

homily - Lent 1

 You may have heard something similar to this: “The Gospel is comfort for the afflicted, and affliction for the comforted”

God doesn’t want you to be comfortable all the time.

LENT IS A TIME OF “DISCOMFORT” – FOR THE SAKE OF SOMETHING BETTER.

Spe Salvi - Man was created for greatness—for God himself; he was created to be filled by God. But his heart is too small for the greatness to which it is destined. It must be stretched…

Christianity is not focused on comfort. In fact, sometimes comfort really gets in the way of Christianity.

It is uncomfortable for me to treat that other person as equal or even more important than myself.

Culture of comfort.

Athletes understand this. If I was only comfortable, I could never succeed or improve.

THE COMFORT IS ULTIMATELY NOT BEING ALONE.

The people who followed Him, the disciples who followed Him, were poor wretches like you and me. All the newness of hope. The absolutely new certainty and the new reality that they were, was that Presence. The contemporaneousness of that Presence with me, with my children, with those who will come after us in a hundred million years: this is the  victory that conquers the world. This is the absolute newness. This is the divine in history. I remain the same poor beggar, but with Christ, I am certain, I am rich. The attractiveness of my person, that is, what makes it possible to love my person, is the existence of this Presence. Indeed it is only in a companionship with Him that a person loves himself. Only a person who carries this message can claim an affection for himself, can love himself and therefore love others.

Don’t hide from your faith but fleeing to the comfortable all the time. Stay in the desert and know the presence of the one who frees you to love.

homily - 6th Sun of Ord. Time

 I’m captivated by this novel I’m reading right now, titled Theophilus. The story is about the person to whom the Luke addressed his Gospel (see verse one of the Gospel) and Theophilus’ journey through the land of Israel meeting people who were eye-witnesses of Jesus and his Resurrection. In Nazareth he meets one old former-leper who represents the man we hear so little about in today’s Gospel. It’s beautiful to consider how much of a story is contained in these few verses that we almost pass over. This was a real person, who had a full life, a story of layers of pain and suffering, and we barely know anything about him nowadays. But back then people could walk up to him and ask him, and he would tell them what Jesus did that day (and maybe other days since they perhaps knew each other more closely either before his leprosy or after the healing). Books like this are worth reading because they make us remember how relatable the Gospels are, and what it really means that God became flesh and restored us right in the midst of our mess, healed us right where we were hurting.

Leprosy stinks -  literally and figuratively. Besides smelling rotting flesh, it’s like having COVID for the rest of your life. – painful, yes, but above all the isolation! Separation from everyone, before internet, telephones, and even before books. This is a heavy cross. We were made to be with each other. It is hard to love when you can never get within a stone’s throw of people.

So this leper breaks the rules.

Why? He knew Jesus’ heart.

LENT - I THIRST

 

One last thing: In fact, his leprosy could have been the reason he was drawn to Jesus. We don’t know if they knew each other.

Perhaps God allows you to have wounds and suffer so that you can draw near to Jesus too, and find more than just healing, but love, and a fountain of life that quenches your deepest thirst.

 

Homily - 5th week in Ord. Time (last Sunday)

Doctors need honesty. If I don’t tell my doctor what’s going on, he can’t help me out.

If I lie, it could be even worse.

 

Jesus, the spiritual doctor, needs honesty. Don’t hide your pains, wounds, and needs from God. Even though He already knows them, He does not force you to tell Him, and He will only heal you when you invite Him.

 

JOB is brutally honest. (Does anyone else think it’s a weird spot to end the 1^st reading? – not because it doesn’t make sense, but because right after he says “…” we say “thanks be to God!”)

But in some way what Job shows us today is a type of “good news.” It reminds us that Christians don’t have to pretend that life isn’t hard, painful, and downright bleak at times… at least when we look at it from the perspective of wordly happiness. Just this past week we celebrated various martyrs from different times and places, and for none of them did following Jesus mean “easy street” and luxurious living, especially at their ending.

 

And so we as Christians do not need to sugar-coat the suffering we endure on this earth. But we also know that there is something deeper, much deeper and fuller, than earthly delights. God wants to give us those true things, those spiritual rewards, more than we can ever desire them ourselves.

 

Homily (notes) - 3rd Sunday of O.T.

 

TWO OF OUR CORE VALUES - Joyful Receptivity: God’s dreams are bigger than my own dreams.

Sacrificial generosity: Letting God interrupt my plans.

Two movie scenes where someone is hanging off a ledge being held by another: INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE – LORD OF THE RINGS: RETURN OF THE KING.

In both scenes, a person has to let go of something in order to be saved.

This is Jesus’ command for repentance. In order for us to be saved, we must let God change our plans and realize that we are not meant to be in control of our life.

JONAH, after resisting the hard call to go and help his enemies and then seeing how futile it was to resist God, had to let his plans change. He had to give over control.

SIMON (PETER) & ANDREW, JAMES & JOHN had to let their plans change. They had to let go.

IF OUR HANDS ARE FULL, WE MUST EMPTY THEM. If our hearts are attached to a dream, a plan, a goal, we must constantly put that goal into God’s hands. Surrendering is so difficult.

“give me the remote.” “give me the phone.” “Get off the computer.”

But surrendering is so rewarding. You don’t have to be in charge! You get to receive instead of feeling like life is only your own creation.

And God might drop a present into your hands. He might give you exactly what you gave Him. He might not.

Prayer of Thomas Merton – My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going….

Prayer of Abandonment, Charles de Foucauld – emphasizes our identity as adopted sons and daughters.

Father, 
I abandon myself into your hands; 
do with me what you will. 
Whatever you may do, I thank you: 
I am ready for all, I accept all.

Let only your will be done in me, 
and in all your creatures -
I wish no more than this, O Lord.

Into your hands I commend my soul: 
I offer it to you with all the love of my heart, 
for I love you, Lord, and so need to give myself, 
to surrender myself into your hands without reserve, 
and with boundless confidence, 
for you are my Father.