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Homily

11th Sunday Ordinary Time “Repent and believe”

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Ex 19:2-6a; Ps 100:1-2, 3, 5; Rom. 5:6-11; Mt. 9:36-10:8

“Repent and believe in the gospel” is the beginning of our salvation.  In order to repent we have to believe we are guilty of sin.  Sin is defined by the standards set by the law giver and not by our standards.  God reveals his way when we are in right relationship with him.  The first step to being in right relationship is repentance.  To repent we must recognize our sin in the eyes of God and not by our eyes that become blinded with self-justification.  We must have a relationship with our God to know how to live by his ways. The word of God cannot be simply a list of rules and commands to follow as lost sheep in ignorance of our God.  The word of God is his incarnation in Jesus to be in right relationship with him.    

To believe in the gospel is to believe in Jesus Christ the word made flesh.  The word of God is beyond a collection of books of people, places and historical events that speak to our faith in God.  The word of God is a revelation of God that requires study to understand the gospel in the history of salvation.  If the Mass is where we come to offer our worship of the Lord where is our instruction, our catechesis for right teaching and interpretation of the word?  Where do we begin then to learn the gospel that we may live the gospel and become better Christians of the faith we profess?  We begin by turning to the Church for proper instruction with endless resources.  For example, the bible and the Catechism of the Catholic Church work together to deepen our understanding of the gospel message.  The key is to begin and allow God to direct us to his next revelation of truth. 

Repent and believe in the gospel.  God is the just judge of what we have done and failed to do and his standards are based on perfection, “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect” we are remined in Mt. 5:48.  Who can say a day goes by in which we loved God perfectly, acted perfectly, forgave perfectly, and was perfectly charitable?  Clearly not I.  It is easy to say “I am a good person.  I have nothing to confess.” avoiding the reality that God knows our every thought and motive behind our actions.  God’s ways are not our way so we must come to know our God by way of God’s truth.  In a world that tries to deny there is a God, deny there is absolute truth, deny there is a day of judgment coming, “sin” is simply a personal sense of right and wrong at best and at worst nonexistent to the truth deniers. 

Every believer is called to seek God through prayer, word, fellowship and service.  Prayer is personal and intimate but it is also unitive. God says “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Mt. 18:20).  As Catholics we pray and we offer our prayers.  The disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray and he gave them the Lord’s prayer.  The Bible is filled with psalms of prayer to become our prayer.  In the Mass we unite our hearts as we respond to the prayers of the Church.  We also go into our inner chamber where only our soul and God can enter to reveal himself to us, awaken us to his loving presence, and give us his light to follow his way.  Without prayer we remain but lost sheep, a doubting Thomas, simply another truth denier.   

The word of God is a revelation of God himself.  It is a gift of knowledge to be studied with right interpretation.  To correctly understand the fullness of scripture it comes through a literal, moral, allegorical, and mystical synthesis within the context of salvation history.  It is too easy to be misguided and to misguide others if it is only viewed through the literal sense.  Even those who try to accept only a literal interpretation of the bible admit none dare to cut off their hand or pull out their eyes for committing sin.  Scripture is like a Rubik’s cube of four colors where all the sides must come together at the right place to complete the perfect picture.  Centuries have been devoted to giving us that perfect picture of God’s revelation through his word but unless we seek and search, we remain in the darkness with only our own ill informed and limited understanding of the word of God. 

We are called to be a community of faith.  In fellowship we gather to offer our worship bringing together our prayers, the word of God, and to offer our service to do his will.  Anyone who claims they don’t need church and rely on their own prayer to God is like someone seeking water from a dripping faucet on a hot day.  The water quickly evaporates in a dry mouth unable to quench the thirst.  Graces come from the one body by the authority Jesus gave to his disciples to “cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons.”  Jesus instituted his church so that through the sacramental life of the church his graces may be poured out on the harvest.  This is God’s way in Jesus with the Holy Spirit and through his church that we may “boast of God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

To believe in the gospel is to believe we have a calling to service.  For some it is to the priesthood but for most it is to be a witness of Jesus’ love and mercy by the way we lead our lives in service to others.  Is our work a blessing we offer up to God or a simply a duty to fulfill for pay?  To believe in the gospel is to believe that God can transform every act into a gift of service and a moment of grace in which he unites his people to be interdependent for a greater good.  We become one body in Christ not in silos between God and each person but as a communion of saintly people who believe, follow and live the gospel truth.  

In keeping God’s covenant, that is his promise to us by living his commandments we become his special possession.  In baptism we join his kingdom baptized priest, prophet and king as a member of his holy nation.  As members of his holy nation, we live the gospel message in service to each other.  Then again nothing happens until it happens that we repent and believe in the gospel. 

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Homily

Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Dt 8:2-3, 14b-16a; Ps 147:12-15, 19-20; 1 Cor. 10:16-17; Jn. 6:51-58

The Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist is the celebration of the summit of our Catholic faith.  We believe the Body and Blood of Christ remains with us in the Eucharist “For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink” to be received on the day of the Lord.  Believe it or miss the greatest gift from God we can receive in this world, Jesus himself the source of life.  Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross needed to be in order that we would continue to receive him in his body and blood, soul and divinity. 

The word of God already existed before the incarnation in the person of Jesus.  Jesus offers himself up that we may receive divine life “or you do not have life within you”.  Jesus says, “the one who feeds on me will have life”.  Was this to simply feed on his word or something greater beyond our understanding?  The summit of the Catholic faith is to receive the one true God in his body and blood in the Eucharist as the greatest act of worship. 

Moses said, “not by bread alone does one live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the Lord”.  God provided Moses and his people the word of God and manna to eat yet they still died in their sin.  Jesus affirms it “Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will life forever”. This is a much bigger contrast that Jesus brings us for our salvation.  Jesus comes to perfect what was imperfect among the people of God.  The Church of God cannot remain in Old Testament times as our separated believers from Jewish and Protestant faith teach.  The Church of God is a Eucharistic body of believers to eat and drink of the one body, the body of Christ. 

The word of God provides us a historical account of the history of salvation.  It provides us the truth, goodness, beauty and unity that comes from God.  It also provides us a teaching working through the prophets, apostles and Jesus himself.  The word however remains only a word until it becomes incarnated into our very being.  In Jesus we have the incarnation of the Word and he gives us his body and blood that we may become incarnated in him and the word in us.  This is the mystery of faith that the Word became flesh and by receiving his body and blood the word becomes our identity in Christ, our very being of who we were created to be.   

“The Jews quarreled among themselves, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat’”.  Jesus did not respond with “I misspoke” or “I only meant it in a figurative way”.  He defended his statement by reinforcing it “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you” as if to say “Am I clear!”  For this many abandoned him as many have left him today unable to recognize Jesus truly present in the Eucharist and in the Catholic church.  Why?  In the word of God, we can come to a conviction to choose God by way of reason but in the Eucharist, we must come to him by way of faith.  It is the greatest miracle on earth that Jesus has left us and yet we look for other miracles in order to believe.  There is none greater than Jesus truly present body and blood in the Eucharist. 

Jesus is the living bread that came down from heaven which we are to eat.  Old Testament sacrifice of animals for atonement of sin, sprinkling of blood on the people, and the eating of the meat were all part of the act of worship of the Lord, be it an imperfect act as it was it prefigured the one true act of sacrifice of the Lord Jesus to come.  Here we see the continuity of what was begun in the Old Testament being finalized in the New.  Jesus proclaimed he came to make all things new not by doing away with the old but by perfecting it in himself. 

Moses speaks to the Jewish people after forty years of wandering in the desert before he was to die unable to enter into the promise land.  What does her remind them to never forget as most important in his final discourse, how they were fed “with manna, a food unknown to your fathers.”  Then he adds “in order to show you that not by bread alone does one live, but by every word that comes for the from the mouth of the Lord.”  The Word was to become incarnate in Jesus, one leads to the other and Jesus in turn becomes the bread of life to be our food for the journey. 

When we come to Mass, we hear the word of God and receive a brief interpretation called biblical hermeneutics to grasp the meaning of scripture as it applies to our salvation.  It is the doorway to the soul of our humanity to open ourselves up to God in preparation to receive him in the fullness of knowledge and understanding of the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.  Scripture lifts our souls up so God can come and carry higher into the divine life.  It is a life within the Church to be church to others.  To be church is to belong to the body and blood of Christ and to be a sign of Christ to the world. 

When we come to Mass, we come to enter into the divine life of Jesus not for him to return to our humanity.  We come to offer our sacrifice of the day or week in thanksgiving for all that God is in our life.  We come to worship and praise God for the forgiveness of our sins and the salvation of our souls.  We come to hear and listen to his word seeking so we may enter into his word in spirit and in truth.  We come to receive his body and blood as food for the journey in this life to get us to eternal life.  This is our liturgy, this is our divine worship, this is the proclamation of work of Christ in our lives and this is our act of charity to come together to pray, give alms, and to go forth to do the will of the Father.  This promise comes to us as we humbly come forth to receive him body, blood, soul, and divinity in fulfillment of his command, “eat and drink, this is my body, this is my blood.” 

Amen. 

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Homily

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Ex 34:4b-6, 8-9; Dn:3:52-56; 2 Cor. 13:11-13; Jn. 3:16-18

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity and with it comes the revelation of God as the Father in the Son through the Holy Spirit.  Today God reveals himself as “Lord”.  What is in a name?  For God everything is in a name.  God comes to Moses and proclaims his name “Lord”.  John proclaims whoever “has not believed ‘in the name of the only Son of God’ has already been condemned”.  God changes the name of Abram to Abraham, and Saul becomes Paul.  In baptism a parent is asked “what name do you give your child” and in confirmation the person can take on a spiritual name.   Religious are given a spiritual name after the saints and the Blessed Mother Mary when taking vows and the Pope takes on a Fatherly name as Vicar of Christ.  Why such importance to a name? 

A name gives identity to a person as a child in the image of God in the Most Holy Trinity.  A name carries with it a charism in how we come to the Lord to offer our very being to be one with God united to him by the gift of self in order to know, love and serve God.  No mind can capture the totality of God but by our name we can respond to our call from God and enter in union with him.  A name can represent the doorway through which we come to love and to serve God. 

Here I am Lord, I Paul, Mary, John, Elizabeth and let us add our name to answering the call.  We are called by name to salvation “for God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him” through his name.  What name was he given as the Son of God?  Jesus!  Jesus saves!  The love and mercy of God comes to us through Jesus. 

Thus, condemnation is of our own making as it was for Lucifer and all the angels who fell from heaven.  Lucifer refused to bow to the Son of Man as the Word made flesh falling into eternal damnation.  Moses bowed down to the Lord and confessed his people were “indeed a stiff-necked people” as it is today full of wickedness and sins.  Moses prayed to the Lord to “receive us as your own” and the Lord sent his Son that we may be one with the Most Holy Trinity.  If we fail to place God first in our lives, we carry the sin of pride and break the first and greatest commandment. 

The cultural war of our times is a battle of pride over which group is entitled to be first.  One race over another, one social class over another, one gender identity over another, a woman before the unborn child, the trans before natural birth identity and yet the Lord says “whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me” in speaking of the final judgment. (Mt. 25:45) In the end the first shall be last because we did not respond to God in our midst.  The final judgment begins at the moment of death.  We prepare for that moment by the way we choose to live each moment.  Each moment is an opportunity to dedicate ourselves to the will of God that we may not be caught by surprise. 

In the Most Holy Trinity we receive grace, love and fellowship to live the moment with the joy and peace of the Lord.  Grace comes with the Lord’s favor to be a child of God, love comes with mercy to forgive us of our sins, and fellowship comes with the gifts of the Holy Spirit to build up the kingdom of God by the sharing of those gifts.  It is not a formula but a way to live our lives.  This is what we rejoice in that the one true God has called us to be his chosen people. 

The Lord has called us by name.  He knows us better than we know ourselves because he created us with an identity that is God given.  The world claims that identity is in the mind.  A person can choose to identify by any gender or sexual orientation and free to change their mind as if the mind was separate from the body. 

We were created for the Lord in mind, body, and spirit.  Otherwise, the body becomes simply an object of the mind to be treated as a canvas for art, mutilated to reflect another gender, sold as an object for sexual pleasure, and intoxicated with substance abuse to an early grave.  When we claim we belong to God, we belong to him in body, soul, and spirit in which we become the temple for him to remain in us.  What impacts the body impacts the soul and the body is to be given the same honor with which we value our mind. 

We come to honor our identity in God through the virtue of chastity.  Chastity allows us to not to fall into the sins of indulgence but to govern our mind and body through discipline.  The work of discipline sets us free to raise our souls to God.  Discipline of the mind to stay focused on God and discipline of the flesh to remain chaste for God for the impure cannot contain the pure and holiness of God.  Only in his name can we discover our true self, our calling and purpose that reveals the identity for which we were born and the doorway to heaven. 

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Homily

Pentecost Sunday “Jesus is Lord”

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Acts 2:1-11; Ps 104:1, 24, 29-31, 34; 1 Cor. 12:3b-7, 12-13; Jn. 20:19-23

“Jesus is Lord!”  The confirmation of Jesus is Lord came to the disciples through the Holy Spirit in a visible image of “tongues as of fire”.  The disciples were proclaiming in different languages “the mighty acts of God” in the person of Jesus.  They were being given their priesthood to speak and fulfill all that Jesus had commanded them to do.  Thus, by doing what Jesus commanded with power and authority there could be no doubt of the proclamation that Jesus is Lord. 

This Spirit given to the disciples though one Spirit came with different gifts that each may fulfill one part of the body of Christ yet each gift reveals the same truth “Jesus is Lord”.  By receiving different gifts, it would have been possible that each would have created a different vision of Jesus or a different theology of who Jesus is.  It is like the game where you whisper one statement in the ear of one person and each pass on the message to another but at the end the message is completely different.  To the contrary even though each disciple was different in their personality, their education, their experience of being with Jesus and in the gift from the Holy Spirit, their proclamation of “Jesus is Lord” was consistent in the one truth.

Today we continue to receive our inheritance of the Holy Spirit’s gifts through the sacramental life of the Church though many gifts, one Church, one faith, one Lord.  “The manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit”.  The benefit is a reciprocal blessing whereby placing the gift at the service of the Lord we become the blessing of the Lord and are blessed with even more graces to grow in holiness.  This is the law of reciprocity, we cannot outgive the giver of all that we are and offer of ourselves to our Lord and to our neighbor. 

For the world Jesus revelation of who he is was soon to be a major source of division.  Either accept his Lordship as God and the guilt of his crucifixion or deny him and everyone who proclaimed “Jesus is Lord” by persecution of his witnesses.  What was true then remains true today, the more we proclaim Jesus is Lord the more the world seeks to silence, cancel, and persecute those who stand for their belief even when Jesus comes offering peace, mercy, and redemption.

Jesus breathes on the disciples the power of his love and desire for mercy to the sinner but the sinner refuses to accept their sin.  How significant that upon his appearance to the disciples as a group we may even consider calling it the first “council” of the Church with Christ as Vicar, that the preeminent command given with the Holy Spirit was to forgive sins in the name of Jesus our Lord carrying forth the priesthood of Jesus. 

This is a tremendous gift of authority and responsibility to the priesthood to “forgive and to retain sins”.  It can only come through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  Sadly, even among believers who accept Jesus is Lord they reject this gift of mercy by confession on the lips remaining silent at the risk of retaining their sins by their will refusing the gift of mercy through confession.  It is not difficult to say the words “Lord be merciful to me a sinner” but greater is the mercy of the sacrament when we humble ourselves to God in the confessional. 

Jesus says, “As the Father has sent me, so I sent you” and he breathed on them the Holy Spirit.  Jesus came to bring us the Father’s mercy, now he waits for us to respond with an act of humility and obedience to receive this gift of mercy.  Mercy opens us up to all the other gifts of the Holy Spirit to be cleansed for the pure cannot enter the impure until it is washed clean. 

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Homily

The Ascension of the Lord – “The promise!”

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Acts 1:1-11; Ps 47:2-3, 6-9; Eph 1:17-23; Mt 28:16-20

“The promise of the Father” is the Holy Spirit.  Last week we celebrated the promise with the sacrament of confirmation for seventeen of our young community as bishop Mario Aviles placed the Chrism oil on their heads.  The disciples were to “wait for the promise” after the ascension of the Lord.  How long must they wait?  Here is a hint, “how long is a Novena?”  They waited in in prayer for nine days and on the tenth day came the promise to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.

 We will celebrate his coming in the Holy Spirit next Sunday as Pentecost Sunday.  Forty days after the resurrection day happened on Thursday but the Church allows for the celebration to be recognized on day forty or on the weekend.  Novena prayers commemorate a period of waiting for the Lord in prayer for his promise.  The promise is his coming to be with us until the end of time. 

As Jesus ascends to the Father in today’s reading “two men dressed in white garments” appear to the disciples with a question for all of us “why are you standing there looking at the sky?”.  When we seek God, we look to the heavens and sometimes think and feel God is far off from us” and we may even question “does God hear our prayer?  The promise of God is that he with us!  He is with us in the Holy Spirit, he is with us in the Eucharist, and he is with us as he comes to us in others in who he is also present.   

For the disciples they were still thinking and wondering if Jesus was “going to restore the kingdom to Israel”.  Their vision of a kingdom was an earthly kingdom to the Jewish people.  They did not hear Jesus tell Pontius Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world” (Jn. 18:36).  Where then is this kingdom or what is it?  Thy kingdom come is what we pray for in the “Our Father”.  Thy kingdom comes as a “Spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of him” who we trust and believe in.  In the knowledge of him truth is revealed to us and we are given a vision of life, liberty and love in him.  We love living, we love freedom, we love to be loved then Jesus is the fullness of this desire.  In him we put on the mind of God and find meaning not only in our joys but also in our suffering.  In him we grow in virtue and sanctity as we respond to his call and do his will.

Jesus comes to restore his kingdom of saints for heaven.  Are we there yet?  What is holding us back from receiving the fullness of his grace through the Holy Spirit to be saints?  For some it is ignorance of him for not seeking him who is waiting on us. They include the unbaptized, un-catechized, the agnostics raised without faith in a God.  They fall into the category of “you don’t know what you don’t know” but in ignorance do the best they can.  In today’s world of communication however ignorance of truth is not a justified excuse for many.   “Go and teach all nations” has surrounded the globe in a missionary spirit. 

For some it is resistance knowing the God of our ancestors but still saying “not yet”.  I am not yet fully committed to God because I am still living for me.  They include the “lukewarm” baptized both in the Catholic church and in other separated Christian denominations that lack the fullness of truth.  The lukewarm still seek to build a kingdom in this world yet the world has never produced a kingdom that lasts forever.  When we focus on simply building our own kingdom it will come to an end and then what?  God provides hope to fulfill his promise of heaven and the road to it goes through purgatory for nothing impure can enter the kingdom of heaven.  Purgatory is our time to be purified by loving him as we have failed to love in this world. 

Tragically for others it is a rebellion against surrender to God to be their own god.  These take on the persona of their own sins not just falling into sin but become the sin they are attached to possessed by the demon of their sin.  It is a reminder of when Jesus says “not all” are going to enter the kingdom of heaven.  It is a tragedy by choice of the will and we pray for the conversion of sinners before it is too late.  The promise is for all to convert from sinner to saint while there is still time. 

The saint knows “his call” given from God.  We each have a calling to exercise our saintly purpose in this world.  The greater the knowledge of God the more our calling is revealed to us in which to serve him for our good and the good of others.  The saint receives the “riches of glory in his inheritance among the holy ones”.  An inheritance comes after the death of someone and Jesus died on the cross that we may receive the riches of our inheritance.  They come as gifts of the Holy Spirit and they come with “the surpassing greatness of his power”.  The gifts are like powerful tools but unless we allow them to serve their purpose, they are waisted opportunities sitting in storage and we become like seeds planted on poor soil failing to grow and give fruit. 

The eleven disciples did as Jesus asked going to Galilee.  They saw Jesus and worshiped him BUT “they doubted”.  What is wrong with this picture?  After all that Jesus did, miracles, exorcism of demons, healing, even raising the dead back to life and now seeing him resurrected and they doubted.  This is us in the fullness of our humanity.  Even when we know there is a God, when life happens and not all goes well, we find ourselves questioning and even doubting.  Has not God revealed himself to us during our life that we may see the hand of God in all and though all or have we not come to him and received him in all our daily walk of life? 

The gift of the Holy Spirit comes to us as it did to the first disciples with a commissioning to go out to all the world and tell the good news.  The good news is Jesus is alive and he comes to deliver the promise of the Father in our own journey of faith.  Live the journey as a daily walk with Jesus and when the evil one desires to create doubt in us we will respond with “there is no doubt” in the promise of God the Father, in the Son, and through the Holy Spirit.  So let us go out, let us live the promise with courage not fear, with faith not doubt, and with purpose to be all God is calling us to be.

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Homily

6th Sunday of Easter – Spirit of truth!

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Acts 8:5-8, 14-17; Ps 66:1-7, 16,20; 1 Pt 3:15-18; Jn 14:15-21

Spirit of truth is alive through the Holy Spirit.  It is our Advocate who remains with us if we keep his commandments.  If we keep the commandments, we validate our love for God.  Keeping the word of God is the key to unlocking the mysteries of faith.  Do we want to see God?  Keep his commandments and allow him to reveal himself to us for he desires to give even more of himself to us.  In our humanity we resist him who is the fulfillment of love itself not because we don’t desire him, in fact our hearts are restless because we were created for him.  We resist him because by our own free will we resist obedience to another but not all. 

History gives us many a witness that it is possible to live and die for another.  This is the witness of Jesus on the cross. This is the witness of many saints who fulfilled the call to “Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts”.  They did it though obedience to God’s will.  Just as Jesus was obedient to the Father through the cross many saints sanctify Christ as Lord through their obedience to be servants of the Lord or even slaves to his love.

If the Lord came calling for us today, would we meet him with a “clear conscience” for having kept his commandments or would we hide our face for having offended him by our sins.  Praise God for his sacramental gift of confession to wipe away our sins for I suspect we would literally die before the face of God without it.  We sanctify Christ as Lord in our hearts by keeping his commandments.  This is the Spirit of truth Christ came to once again make clear to us. 

Keeping his commandments is not new, from Adam and Eve and the forbidden fruit, to Moses and the Ten Commandments, and then the Jewish laws, in all of salvation history obedience to God’s law is the road to salvation.  Yet in all salvation history we see the resistance to obedience and many are lost by the same rebellion of Lucifer whose pride desired to be his own god.  Is our pride still desire to be our own god, have our own kingdom, conquer the world or do we surrender it all to the true God creator of all? 

There is a new birth in the family and everyone is drawn to the innocence and tenderness of a child who desires to be held and nurtured.  How long before the child grows and by his own free will begins to rebel?   Resistance to being dressed, to being fed vegetables, having a sleep schedule, and that is just the beginning.  Then comes “concupiscense” from the Latin “concupiscentia” meaning ‘with intense desire’”.  What are our intense desires?  They begin with the desire to satisfy the flesh but also grow into the desire of the mind for power, prestige, and profit or as the common expression says, “what is in it for me”.  This is our sin as we rebel against God and the devil knows how to play on it to tempt us to fall just as he did Adam and Eve. 

The Spirit of truth cannot be deceived.  Recall the adage “you can fool some of the people some of the time but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time”.  Well, you can never fool the Spirit of truth at any time and keep a conscience clear.  When the Spirit of truth resides in us then we can still try to deceive others by our concupiscense but we cannot deceive ourselves and believe it.  The truth that resides in us will not rest until we bring reconciliation with God and others.  This is a blessing though some may consider it a curse, the moral conscience to do right.  A moral conscience comes from God’s law of serving a greater good. 

Keeping his commandments gets tested not only from within but also from without by a world that does not know him and lives not by a Spirit justified by God’s truth but by the spirit of self-justification.  The spirit of self-justification follows the principle that “it’s all about me”.  Because it is all about me then if you disagree with me, you are the enemy that must be eliminated.  That is the lesson seen in the crucified Christ and the experience we live with in a culture of cancellation and death.  If they could crucify Christ who walked doing what is good and spoke of Godly truth then we can see how easily the world can finds ways to silence, cancel, and if needed destroy a person for holding onto their faith in practice.  From bakers to Little Sisters of the Poor no one is exempt from the evil one. 

Thus, “it is better to suffer for doing good” than to follow in the “evil” that this world calls its good.  Self-justification lives by the false teaching under the title “my truth”.  Someone’s truth no matter how justified if it is in opposition to God, to his commandments, his revelation of truth in Jesus Christ is the danger of self-condemnation.  It is a slippery road of darkness of the soul caught in the trap of lies to justify the past.  Having to say “I’m sorry for my sins” is an act of humility and the first right step to forgiveness and healing. 

It is a false teaching when some say your freedom of religion means you can keep your faith as long as you don’t act on your faith.  Faith is a practice of daily living to be expressed “with gentleness and reverence keeping your conscience clear”.  Faith lives, walks, talks, and acts out of obedience to God convenient or inconvenient, within the walls of worship and outside the walls in the public square.  It is more than something we do it is who we are as Christians.  Faith and love are one bound together by our actions.  Love is not a feeling but an act of the will for the one we love. 

We love God, then we unite our will to the will of God by obedience to his commandments.  We love the other, family, friend, stranger then we will to do for the good of the other.  We love ourselves well, then we will to take care of our mind, body, and soul by listening to the interior life coming from the spirit of truth.  This is God’s will that we may all be one.  This is the purpose of the incarnation, Jesus coming from the Father to be one with us that we may receive him in body, blood, soul and divinity in order to go forth alive in the spirit of truth, without fear, trusting God by our obedience to his will.  His will is our good that we may enter the gates of heaven.  

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Homily

5th Sunday of Easter – Like living stones!

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Acts 6:1-7; Ps 33:1-2, 4-5, 18-19; 1 Pt 2:4-9; Jn 14:1-12

“Like living stones let yourselves be built into a spiritual house” by coming to him the living stone who is the foundation of the world.  Jesus says, “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me” and we are now invited to be in Jesus. We are like living stones that build up the house of God when we come to offer our spiritual sacrifices from the priesthood of our baptism united to his body in the sacrament of the Mass.  The sacrament of the Mass cannot exist without “a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ”.  Jesus did not come to destroy the priesthood of the Jews but to transform it giving the apostles the living stone of his body and blood.  The living church of God requires that there be a priesthood something to grasp for the many who desire to be called “church”. 

In a world where many desire to create their own church, their theology, their form of worship, and their own rules for membership beware of the history of heresies, false teachers and prophets.  Woe to those who would misguide the sheep from the church that Jesus established.  For Catholics the word “church” comes from the “Geek ‘ekklesia’ meaning ‘the called out ones’.  However, the English word ‘church’ does not come from ‘ekklesia’ but from the word ‘kuriakon’ which means ‘dedicated to the Lord’.” (google/definition of church in the bible) Words matter and the nuance changes everything.  The apostles were the “called out ones” to be the priesthood commissioned by Jesus himself.  The community was dedicated to the Lord under the authority given by Jesus to the apostles.  The community dedicated to the Lord cannot be ekklesia without a priest. 

The sheep need their Shepherd and scripture alone followers have chosen to bypass the priesthood and go directly to God through a church dedicated to the Lord without accepting the authority giving to the apostles.  The result is the division we see today as more and more groups claim to be the church of God under their own authority.  This is not the vision Jesus prayed for to God “that they may all be one just as you Father are in me and I in you” in John 17:21. Just before this gospel reading from John, Jesus tells his disciples at the last supper “Amen, amen, I say to you, no slave is greater than his master nor any messenger greater than the one who sent him.  If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it”.  Unfortunately, history proves that many have come to believe they are better messengers establishing their own church as better dedicated to the Lord than the one Jesus established under the priesthood of the apostles. 

Jesus is our cornerstone of faith, hope and love.  He also established the church as the cornerstone of the sacramental life with Jesus as our high priest.  It is interesting to note that the apostles did not avoid the synagogues on the sabbath but “took their seats” and were even invited to preach to their brothers “a word of exhortation” converting some to be followers of the faith.  Then they devote themselves to “prayer and to the ministry of the word” on resurrection day. 

Today we learn that as the community grew so did the needs of the community.  Living stones need food, shelter, and all the basics of care for our mortal lives.  “The Twelve called together the community of disciples” meaning the first Apostles after Judas had been replaced to fill the need of service and as we would say “by unanimous consent” the first seven Deacons were chosen. 

Historically some deacons took care of the “widows” others of the treasury, some at the side of the bishop and others at the side of the hungry but always a calling of service.  Since we are called to be the spiritual house of God and by baptism become the temple of the Holy Spirit then he lives as much as in the poor and the sick as he does in his ordained ministers.  In the same way all who believe have the same calling to be priest, prophet and king through the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Now if we want to see Jesus, we can begin by looking at the good of humanity created in his image.

Suppose I said, “if you want to see Jesus start by looking at your children, your parents, your spouse, even your in-laws, or how about your enemies.”  It gets tougher sometimes to believe God is working in some people.  Believe that he is also working in us so we can also begin to seek him from within to reveal his image to the world.  What is a living stone?  It is something visible that reflects the invisible grace of God.  It carries within God himself reflecting what is good, beauty, truth, and love calling others to unity in faith, hope, and love.  Let us be that living stone.                                            

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Homily

4th Sunday of Easter – In his footsteps!

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Acts 2:14a, 36-41; Ps. 23:1-3, 3b-6; 1 Pt 2:20b-25; Jn.10:1-10

In his footsteps “he guides me in right paths”.  As baptized sons and daughters of Christ, we are being called to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, that is to take up our cross willing to “suffer for doing what is good”.  He left us “an example that you should follow in his footsteps”.  He who “committed no sin” then is calling us to avoid sin “so that free of sin we might live for righteousness.”  In the footsteps of Jesus, we learn to walk by faith, listen to his voice, and recognize what is truth, goodness, beauty, and unity.  We learn and experience the true meaning of love which is God himself.  For this he sent his only begotten son, Jesus as true God to show us the way and to be the guardian of our souls. 

“For the promise is made to you…and to whomever the Lord our God will call” says Peter.  Peter was speaking to the Jews but recognizing Jesus came to call all to repentance opening the gate to Jew and Gentile alike.  The call is an invitation to the wedding banquet but as we know from scripture many have not accepted the wedding invitation both Jew and Gentile alike.  For those who have accepted the invite this promise is for you.  It is the promise of forgiveness of sins, the promise to always lead us down right paths in this life, and the promise to the glory of heaven in the afterlife. 

“I am the gate” says Jesus “leaving you a good example that you should follow in his footsteps” says 1st Peter.  Through the gate we enter into the kingdom of God.  Jesus is the gate of our salvation as we pass through the waters of baptism, he opens our ears to hear his voice, our mouths to proclaim his truth and our hearts to follow in his footsteps by living his example.  This is where the expression “the rubber meets the road” applies, where many of those who have been called leave the sheepfold. 

The footsteps of Jesus include avoiding sin, deceit, insults, threats, and any other kind of malice, while bearing patiently when we suffer for doing good.  “Easily said than done”.  You might say, “come to my house and see if you can live up to the test” or do you say “not in my home, we are all very gentle and kind to each other, we respect our space, we honor each other by being of service to each other, and never get upset”.  Right?  Husbands are always ready to help wives with the dishes, children get to their chores without reminders, and wives don’t nag but are happy to remind everyone what needs to be done, again and again.  Right?  None of this is possible by our own strength but with the grace from God all things are possible.  We truly can be holy and we are called to be holy. 

In the footsteps of Jesus, we come to accept that we cannot change anyone but ourselves.  It is in how we change that we influence others to change.  When we follow the “good example of Jesus” others will question and wonder “how can you be so at peace, don’t you worry, do you care, do you realize” and on and on and on as if we were out of touch with the world.  We are not out of touch with the world but out of step with the world in order to be instep with Jesus.  Are we ready for this or are we still thinking, fighting, or even forcing others to do our will?  If the devil himself cannot force us to do anything and his power lies in temptation and God himself will not force us to do anything but only call us to respond to the invite then how can we expect to be more powerful than others. 

Jesus “handed himself over to the one who judges justly” and we hand ourselves over to Jesus our just judge who knows our hearts.  Yes, we can surrender to God and trust Jesus.   This does not mean we stand idle waiting for life to happen or for God to “fix it” whatever “it” is.  It means we always move forward taking the right next step, doing what is in our capacity, our purpose to do good, and our commitment for what is right.  Trust Jesus and when in doubt “let go and let God” trusting him even more to guide us in right paths.   

Jesus is the “guardian of our souls” against “thieves and robbers” who are all around us.  We look at the “culture of death” all around us and we wonder how to protect ourselves and our children from the influence of this culture.  We also cannot misuse our faith and say “the world is corrupt there is nothing I do”.  In fact, the world won’t let us stand as an idle bystander but will challenge us on where we stand by coming as thieves and robbers in every aspect of our lives, work, school, social, and even into our homes.  How will we respond?  Jesus is the guardian of our souls by following in his footsteps.  He has given us “the way” and it comes through to us in his word, his church, and his good example to follow. 

The good news is “The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want”.  With the Lord we “come in and go out and find pasture”.  Where do we go out?  We go to do his will in the world with the armor of God.  The weapon of Lord is his word which we live by walking in his footsteps.  The weapon of the Lord is his body and blood as guardian of our soul providing a shield against every evil demon.  The weapon of the Lord is his power of love to shine light into every darkness that seeks to destroy us.  We graze on the blessings of life God provides us.  We engage in the world to serve God not in fear but with faith, hope, and love.  The good of the world is there as a pasture for us and that too can be of service to God. 

In birth we receive the gift of life to live for the Lord.  In baptism we receive the gift of the Lord himself to be the armor of our life.  In the church we receive the sacraments as our defense shield against the attack of the enemy.  In God we go forth to walk in his footsteps as the militant church on earth.   Our mission is to conquer evil with good and overcome anger, despair, lies, and every kind of malice, with the love of truth, goodness, beauty and unity that we may all be one so that the world may believe. 

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Homily

3rd Sunday of Easter – Road to Emmaus

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Acts 2:14, 22-23; Ps. 16:1-2, 5, 7-11; 1 Pt 1:17-21; Lk.24:13-35

Road to Emmaus is seven miles from Jerusalem.  It represents a lifetime journey of faith for us to encounter Jesus along the way that our eyes may be opened.  For the baptized child faith comes as a gift of the Holy Spirit but a gift to be unwrapped and explored discovering all of our earthly days all that the gift can reveal about God, self, and others.  A child is born with eyes open to believe what we feed their minds and hearts, what to follow, and where to go but we cannot give what we do not ourselves have.  We must have God as our destination site or the world will quickly draw us away from our God given purpose but not only us but also all of our household. 

Today we speak of having a “bucket list” with destination sites as places for special occasions, where memories are made, dreams come true and we get to live out our indulgence of this life.  They are expensive and often last but a short time before returning to what we call “reality”, our daily commitments of life.  Is heaven on our bucket list?  Reality is life is short in this world before we enter into eternity and eternity has only two main destinations, heaven or hell. 

Purgatory is a destination site along the way to heaven to cleanse us of our impurities.  Let us try to take care of our impurities now so that purgatory is more of a pit stop than a layover of centuries.  Did you know that heaven is outside of time but purgatory is not?   Part of the suffering of purgatory is the sense of lasting time waiting to enter the glory of God.  Something to ponder!  Heaven should be number one on our bucket list and all the rest of our priorities need to be gauged on whether they help lead us there or distract us from God.  The road to Emmaus is the road to have our eyes opened to God who draws near to us to be loved and to love us.    

For the two disciples on the road to Emmaus “Jesus himself drew near and walked with them but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him”.  One may think that Jesus prevented them from recognizing him but we should also consider the state of mind of the two disciples “downcast, conversing and debating” looking back at all that had happened.  Their own state of mind in disbelief and their walk was out of step with faith.  When we walk out of step with faith our eyes are prevented from seeing Jesus, who draws near to us to be at our side. 

When bad things happen in life it is easier to ask “why”, why me, why now, why did this happen?  The more we question the more we walk out of step with faith looking back as the disciples did and failing to see God who is always present.  Rather than begin with why, ask God to reveal himself.  God help me to see you, the work of your grace, your hand in my hand with the eyes of faith that I may be an instrument of faith trusting in your divine providence.  This is walking in step with Jesus recognizing it is all about God and God is all about our salvation. 

Bad things happen not by the will of God but by the freedom he has given us, but his mercy is everlasting when we repent and come back to him.  When we ask God to reveal himself, we will come to understand better why bad things happen and how God brings us good out of evil.  We will recognize the power of his love transforming us with his sacred heart as a father of love.  We have only to look at the cross as evidence of his power of transformation.  Yet we a “slow of heart to believe” to come to him in search of the divine truth. 

The disciples were “slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!”.  We can say that they spent three years in formation walking with Jesus, receiving his teaching, and even telling them of his own death and resurrection.  We are disciples also and for many considered life-long cradle Catholics.  We have in all of history more access than at any other time to all the writings from the beginning of Christianity, from the canon of the Bible, from early Church Fathers, from church encyclicals, compendiums to interpret for us, documentaries, spiritual writings, and yet let us be our own judge where our interests lay and to who do we give our time to.  If we are slow of heart to come to the well of life-giving water, we will be “slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke”. 

The disciples’ eyes were opened not by seeing Jesus but as he vanished from their sight.  Their hearts were burning but they needed the miracle to believe.  We receive the miracle of the breaking of the bread each time we come to Mass.  The road back to Jerusalem is our journey back to the Church to come and celebrate what we have received from Jesus. We encounter him again in his Word not only all that the prophets taught but what he himself is saying to us this day by his word before receiving him in the Eucharist.  What does this mean? 

The word of God and his body and blood is incarnated into our flesh to be Christ to the world.  This was the transformation of the disciples into apostles after the resurrection having received the gift and power of the Holy Spirit.  This is the power of Jesus to transform us as we come to receive him in the Mass.  Having received him in the Eucharist, we can say Jesus is truly flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone and spirit of my soul. 

This is the time of our “sojourning” and the gift of life is to be treated with “reverence” because we are being called to holiness.  We think of coming to Mass and showing reverence as a holy place and so it is.  Let us also go out from Mass as temples of the Holy Spirit with the same reverence because Jesus not only draws near to us but now remains in us.  Let us give reverence to the holiness we carry within by the way we talk, the way we act, the choices we make.  It will draw us near to the one we love and we will never be alone. 

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Homily

2nd Sunday of Easter – His Divine Mercy

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Acts 2:42-47; Ps. 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24; 1 Pt 1:3-9; Jn.20:19-31

Rejoice for his Divine Mercy endures forever!  We rejoice and give thanks to the Lord for he is faithful to his promises.  Easter is a celebration of Jesus’ resurrection raising us from our own death from sin through his Divine Mercy.  Jesus loves you so much he came to die on the cross to rescue us from the sins of our fallen nature.

Even when we are prodigal children wasteful of the inheritance of heaven with our time, talent and treasure God is faithful to his divine mercy as a loving father.  His divine mercy brings “the salvation of your souls”.  For some of us we wander in the desert for years “doing our own thing” until we “hit bottom” and realize we need God in our lives but it does not have to be this way.  The good news is that we have only to turn back to him, repent, and believe in his divine mercy.  Will Jesus appear to us as he did to the apostles for us to believe?  If we seek him with the eyes of faith, we will recognize his presence in our life.  We don’t have to wait to hit bottom, we have only to pray to open our minds to his truth and see with the eyes of faith. 

The apostle Thomas was not present when the Lord first appeared to the apostles and perhaps Jesus desired to use Thomas to show us how we can be much like Thomas that is until we have our own personal encounter with Jesus.  Once Thomas joined them however, he was there not only to see and touch but to receive “the breath” of God and the gift of the Holy Spirit.  These apostles are now commissioned by Jesus Christ to go out and preach the good news.  Thomas not only became a believer but an evangelizer who ended up in India where he died. 

In one of the ancient texts called “The Passing of Mary”, St. Thomas is mentioned as “the only apostle who witnessed the Assumption of Mary” though physically in India “he was transported to her tomb and he saw her bodily assumption into heaven, while her girdle was left behind”.  A traditional version of the story includes that the “other apostles doubted Thomas until Mary’s tomb was discovered to be empty with the exception of her girdle” (catholic.org/stthomas).  Perhaps someone wanted to show us that the other apostles were no different than Thomas.  They needed to see with the eyes of humanity to believe with the eyes of faith.  In this way it reminds us that we are more alike than different. 

These first apostles established the order in which we would celebrate the good news guided by the Holy Spirit.  The communal life became the Mass incorporating all that Jesus had taught them recognizing in the breaking of bread to be Jesus himself “transubstantial” in the bread and wine.  This is how Jesus would remain with them most fully present giving them the graces to persevere “though tested by fire” this time willing to die for him.  This time because before the resurrection Peter denied him and the others hid in fear but after he appeared to them, breathed on them the power of the Holy Spirit transformed them into warriors for Christ.  This is the fullness of his divine mercy coming not only to wash us clean of our sins but to transform us into warriors for Christ. 

The breath of Jesus upon the apostles and the fire of the Holy Spirit came with authority to act in the person of Christ “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them and whose sins you retain are retained.”  Do we believe?  In the world of Christianity many do not believe.  Many question why should we have to go to a priest to confess our sins when we can go directly to Jesus?”  First it is always good to go directly to Jesus with all our heart, mind and soul.  Second the priest is in the person of Christ doing the work of Christ as he was commissioned.  The answer to the “why” question is because this is how Jesus commanded it to be so if we ask Jesus “why” we may discover a lesson on humility as the Blessed Mother said at the wedding of Cana, “do whatever he says”.  If we have a problem with it take it to Jesus but remain obedient to Jesus. 

The Catholic church follows all the commands Jesus gave the apostles and because they are commands. It recognizes in them the work of Jesus himself still present as sacraments.  A sacrament is something sacred coming from God.  It more than the work of the Church or of priests who act in the person of Christ.  It is the work of Jesus himself through his church.  The sacraments are God’s work of his divine mercy, the visible signs of his invisible grace coming to heal, forgive, set us free, and make us holy. 

Many of other faith denominations are left with baptism as the only sacrament they follow.  Meaning everything else is negotiable but not with Christ.  The last supper becomes simply a “remembrance” of the past that anyone can do with crackers and juice not sacred.  Marriage is still under the law of Moses and a divorce decree is acceptable.  The priesthood handed down by Jesus and with him as our high priest during the Last Supper as Holy Orders out the window.  Now anyone can pick up a bible and decide they will preach with authority.  The altar of sacrifice gone replaced by the stage with focus on the preacher.  This is not following the teaching of Christ which he commanded. 

No wonders the “church” as an institution is in decline.  What are people to believe?  More importantly, what do we believe?  Do we hold onto all the teaching given to the apostles by Jesus or have we too fallen into being selective and relative to our personal preferences?  We live in a culture that holds the freedom to choose as sacred and God himself created mankind with free will.  This does not mean that our choices are right before God.  God gave us Thomas to see ourselves in him and recognize our need for his divine mercy.  When Thomas answers Jesus “My Lord and my God!” he is now professing publicly his faith in the divinity of Jesus and in the resurrection.  Thomas becomes obedient to his calling. 

To say, “I am a Christian” is to devote ourselves “to the teaching of the apostles…to the breaking of bread and to the prayers”.  This is the Mass where we gather to celebrate our “communal life” as believers.  Here we receive his Divine Mercy. 

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