Romans Series #1 - Paul's "Gospel"

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          Romans - intro? "Gospel" or "the Gospel" as news of a victory that establishes peace and order as it should be.

Today’s passage: Adam is faced with a choice, he chose poorly.  Jesus heals that wound by choosing rightly.  And coupled with the Gospel, we see that we are faced every day with a choice in our lives as well, and it won’t always be easy.

For any of us it can seem that life stinks at times. Life is tough. Life's not fair. Etc. these are all common sayings we know and they bounce off of us so easily.

For the Christian it can be even more difficult since we can often suffer for our faith, precisely for doing what is right - like Jeremiah the prophet had to endure. 

But if we have a big enough perspective, life is always good. Life is great. If we live it properly - and I'm not talking about $ or stuff or power or prestige or pleasure, but about holiness - If we live it properly, life is a bit of heaven already. 

It's all about perspective. Saint John of the Cross was unjustly imprisoned by the fellow religious brothers he professed his life to be a member of, starved, beaten regularly, alone, and still he found a happiness and peace the world cannot give. Jeremiah Denton did the same in a Vietnam POW camp. Suffering, which is there for all of us, doesn't have to mean life is without joy and peace.

Did Jesus solve all the little problems of our lives? The answer is no and yes. No because, as we all know, the world is full of the mess of sin, the same sin that Jeremiah had to endure and that we have to endure. But yes because at the deeper level of things, the world is changed, restores to the way things were meant to be. This is why the Lord tells us not to be afraid even when we face those who truly do have the power to destroy the body. 

          If we reduce Jesus to a mere nice guy or social worker or political revolutionary, the Gospel isn't powerful anymore.  The Gospel is much bigger than that, even if it operates on a level deeper than the human eye.  Jesus himself emphasizes this point in today's Gospel: be afraid of those who can kill body and soul – this is something bigger than human beings we are talking about here!

         

"Second death" (Revelation and Saint Francis)

Spiritual warfare is real, and is one of the things that makes the Gospel truly to be Good News that makes an impact on my life. The other is that Jesus isn't just some guy, but that He is the Son of God.  "Some man died 2,000 years ago because he loved you" is not the most amazing news, even if it might be touching. Odds are that won't be enough to change my life.  Julius Caesar dying for you would be one thing. God dying for you is something totally different.

But Paul knows that those reductions of Jesus to a simple nice guy or socialist or politician are simply too small for what God actually did in Christ Jesus.  Rather than just offer a social critique or a positive example, Jesus shook the foundations of the universe, fighting at the deepest and most important level of reality.  And where Adam lost, Jesus won.  That is the point.  That is our Gospel.  Let us not be afraid, for the victory is Christ’s, and we are united with Him in Baptism.

Homily - Our (heavenly) mansion is secured by our (earthly) mission.

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“Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky?”  This question is for all of us.  For we also can at times get caught with little motion in our spiritual lives.  And this is dangerous, as dangerous as putting your car into neutral and revving the engine.  What’s going to happen when you do that?  Bad things, really bad car-things are going to happen!

So, too, for us today, we must have a double-focus, never forgetting heaven while also not resting on our laurels, but putting things into gear.

What Jesus reminds us of today is that our focus must be where His focus is, and that is on the work of bringing the Good News to others.  While the disciples are focused on the end-result, Jesus is focused on the process that gets us there.  So also we must keep our eyes on the goal of heaven, but at the same time we cannot let ourselves be duped into thinking that we don’t have anything to do.  The reality is that, although the Kingdom of God can only be brought about through the Lord, for some great mysterious reason He chooses to bring it about through you and me and what we do throughout our daily lives.

So when the disciples say “are you establishing the kingdom now?” Jesus says, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." He turns their eyes to the mission.  Although heaven is where our heart should reside, the only way to get there is how we live here on earth.  If we want the mansion, we must live the mission.

And the great mystery is that the two are not in opposition with each other.  This mystery is described by C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity: If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next... It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth "thrown in": aim at earth and you will get neither.  The more we put our faith into practice, getting our hands dirty washing the feet of those around us and witnessing to the Lord Jesus in the way we love each other and with our proclamation of the Gospel, then we find the more we are truly happy, truly experiencing a foretaste of heaven.  Because the road to heaven already is heaven.  This is ultimately what we heard last week in the Gospel: “If you love me (heavenly mansion), keep my commandments (earthly mission).”  The road to the mansion is the mission.

May this Eucharist help us to keep our heart in heaven while we do God’s work on earth.

Mothers Day! (5-14)

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Baptism and Confirmation - United in the HOLY SPIRIT

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 Today we see clearly the connection between Baptism and Confirmation.  In our first reading, it is clear that Baptism has a second sacrament that goes right along with it: Confirmation.

Why? Christ wants to give us the Spirit: “And I will ask the Father,  and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth.”

Christians bear hidden within them a great power, not of their own making or earning or deserving, but a free gift of God.  A spirit by which we can do amazing things, both in our lives and the lives of others, if we are faithful to it.  If we want the Holy Spirit to work in our lives, Jesus says today, we must be obedient to His commandments:

Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him. (This revelation is only made possible by the Holy Spirit)

Sometimes following the Commandments is difficult, even extremely difficult.  We may have our personality get in the way, or our family, or our job, or our culture with all its attempts at intimidating us otherwise.  Because of any or all of these things influencing us, at times we  would prefer to underline certain parts of the Bible, or certain parts of the Catechism, and cross out (or ignore) other parts.  But Jesus didn’t ask us to keep some of His commandments, or to simply treasure them in our private or personal lives.  No, he wants us to live them, to go and be missionary witnesses of the Resurrection to our world.  So we embrace the Lord’s commands even when they mean discomfort to us.  For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that be the will of God, than for doing evil.  And luckily, we don’t have to do this alone.  I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.  The Holy Spirit is not a replacement for Jesus.  The Holy Spirit brings Jesus to us (or us to Jesus).  It is through Him alone that we are able to connect with Jesus and any of the saints that are in Jesus.  Remember, John the Baptist said “I baptize with water; the One who is coming will baptize with the Holy Spirit and Fire.”  That is the baptism we have received, and that is why it is powerful and effective.

Through this great gift of Baptism, we are now united with the same Spirit that empowered the Apostles, the prophets of Old Testament times, the saints and martyrs, and even overshadowed Our Lady that she might conceive of the Holy Spirit.  Let us pray that just as the one Spirit of God comes down upon these gifts of bread and wine and transforms them into Christ, he too may do the same in our lives.

Homily - Shepherd Gospel

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Good Shepherd Sunday – World Day ofPrayer for Vocations – Ordained ministry (priests & deacons),Religious Life in all its forms, Missionary life, societies ofapostolic life, secular institutes.

I am sure that many of us in thischurch have grown to appreciate dark or semi-sweet chocolate. Iremember as a kid, when mom would make chocolate chip cookies, shealways used toll house semi-sweet chocolate chips, and I whenever Ifound an open package in the cabinet, I would sneak a few into myhand and enjoy them. I guess that's how I became a fan of thebittersweet type of treat. Well, maybe it's a loose connection, butit seems to me that the Gospel always carries a tinge of bitternessthat ultimately is swallowed up in sweetness. Today brothers andsisters, we have a summary of the Gospel message in Saint Peter'sspeech in the first reading. The bitterness of the Gospel is that wehave sinned. Peter, speaking to the Jews of Jerusalem on the day ofPentecost, says “you crucified the Lord of Life!” The sweetnessthat overpowers it is the Jesus, the Lord of Life, has conquered sinand death and we can be freed from our slavery by repentance. Likethe flotation device on the rope that is thrown out to one caught inthe river above a cliff, salvation is offered to us, and we mustchoose it if we are going to escape our terrible plight.

The image given us today from our Psalmand Gospel (and alluded to Peter's letter) is a powerful summary ofthe Gospel. God is a shepherd. King David, who wrote Psalm 23, washimself a shepherd., and Jesus, most likely a carpenter by tradebefore he turned 30 and was baptized by John to begin his preaching,calls Himself the Good Shepherd – a shepherd of souls not of fluffyanimals.

Jesus Himself says that the shepherdlays down his life for the sheep, and this is more than just ametaphor. In ancient times in Israel, and probably often stilltoday, shepherd guide their sheep through the countrysides, leavingtheir family and friends behind, and devoting themselves completelyto their sheep. Often they would bunker down for safety in caves,and this is (by the way) exactly how the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. If needed, the cave protected from the rain (and lightning) as wellas the blistering heat of the day. But most importantly, it was away of guarding and protecting the flanks of the sheepfold. You see,in a field, a shepherd cannot protect the sheep from every directionat the same time. Wolves, who often attack in multiple directions atonce, are difficult to keep away no matter how long your shepherdstaff is. But in a cave, all a shepherd needs to do is protect thegate, the cave entrance. And at night, or when it is time for thatever-savory afternoon siesta during a hot day, what does the shepherddo? He lays down in front of the cave entrance. He says, with thissimple gesture, “if you want to get to the sheep, you gotta gothrough me.” And didn't Jesus do exactly that? He placed Himselfbetween us and the evil that came for us. The Cross is not ametaphor – it is the Good Shepherd dying for His Sheep. The Lambof God (to turn flip our image around) takes away our sins by freelyoffering His life for us. And then, in the Resurrection, he returnsalive to claim us for Life eternally. Thus the bitterness isswallowed up in sweetness and joy.

However, we must not forget the wordsof Saint Peter: Repentance is essential. Baptism is a testament to alife of repentance, and as Christians we are never finished growingin our role as disciples of Jesus – learning from Him what our lifeis to look like.

“I came so that they might have lifeand have it more abundantly.” This is life abundant: to know Jesusintimately – most especially in a pure heart and in the Eucharist.

Amen.

Emmaus connecting the Mass and the Resurrection

Audio: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bx8IQkJZZ39KWTFqNzE1SDNNbVU The Mass only makes sense because of the Risen Jesus.
During the Easter Season, brothers and sisters, we have the joy of returning to the core of our faith to be renewed in why this stuff matters, and be reminded what it is all about.
The story audio: of Emmaus is a story about how the Mass only makes sense because of the Risen Jesus. And by connection, the Eucharist only makes sense because of the Risen Jesus.
It’s Easter Sunday, and two of Jesus’ disciples (former?) are moving away from Jerusalem.  This is actually the point of the title of my homily blog: TwoDisciplesOnTheRoad.BlogSpot.Com.  They are leaving the place of their only hope, because they feel there is no more hope.  They are not aware of what has happened yet, and so they are somewhat understandably distraught and ready to despair of their late master and teacher: Jesus Christ, crucified and finished.  But the story is remembered and told precisely because Jesus is risen, meets them, and changes everything.  This story wouldn’t be remembered otherwise.
But what is interesting about this story is that it has a structure that clearly outlines the Mass.  It is almost as if the author (and the Christian community itself at the time) was using code-language to express their prayer in the details and expression of this event.  First, they gather together on their journey and begin (in the presence of the Lord) to recall all that had happened.  Then, Jesus explains to them how the Christ had to suffer and come to his glory: he interprets the scriptures for them.  Next they beg the stranger to remain with them (the Lord who at His Ascension will say “I will remain with you always, even to the end of the age.”) and they finally recognize Him as Jesus in the broken bread, recalling that less than a week earlier He told them “this is my Body, given up for you.” Then as His presence remains in the Eucharist, they take their burning hearts out to share the Good News that Jesus is alive and present to them.  This a story about the Mass, and it only makes sense within the context of the Risen Jesus.
It’s also a story about changing directions: by the end the story, remember, these disciples run back to the upper room and recount what has happened to them, when at first their lives were heading in a totally different direction.  So too for us: without Jesus’ rising from the dead, our lives would be heading in a different direction as well.  As we continue through this Easter Season, we also rejoice more fully in the sacraments that flow from our Easter faith, especially the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist, by which we are made a new creation in our Risen Lord.  We must thank Him for the new direction He gives us.  And that is exactly what the Mass is: Thanksgiving, the actual definition of the word Eucharist.
So it is good, brothers and sisters, that we reflect more deeply on what is happening in the Mass – both as a parish and as individuals – for it is here in the Mass that the risen Lord Jesus is present to us in three symbolic ways and one true and real way: in the altar of sacrifice by which we are reconciled to God; in the Word of God by which we hear Jesus speak to us anew; in the ministerial priest who stands in the person of Christ; in the Eucharist, which is Jesus Himself, risen and victoriously reigning, offering us peace and life to the full.
Now that the Lord Jesus has opened up the scriptures to us in our weekly Emmaus journey, let us beg Him to stay with us and be present to us once again in this Eucharist, so that we can be sent forth and joyfully share this Good News to the world.

Faith & Doubt with Thomas and the Early Church

Faith  & Doubt

I typed most of this out but apparently didn't save it anywhere.  So... AUDIO - CLICK HERE! =)