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Homily

8th Sunday Ordinary Time –   The sting of death!

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Sir. 27:4-7; Ps. 92:2-3, 13-16; 1 Cor. 15:54-58; Lk. 6:39-45

“The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law.”  Where is the law?  “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God” (Jn. 1:1).  The law is the word of God.  It is given to us in the ten Commandments, in the teaching of Jesus, in the natural law of creation, planted into the heart of the believer by God.  The law is always present to give power in order to produce the good fruit through obedience to the law but sin came into the world through disobedience and the world is filled with rotten fruit. 

“For every tree is known by its own fruit.” What is in the heart is revealed in the tongue clothed in either corruptibility or incorruptibility, in the sting of death through sin or “swallowed up in victory’ for immortality.  Guard the tongue from sin that remains in the heart until the sin of vice is conquered by the virtue of the law.  Pride is conquered by humility, lust by chastity, wrath with kindness, gluttony with temperance, sloth with diligence, greed with charity, and envy with patience.  This is what we believe is our life journey of purification from sin to take this opportunity and be cleansed of our sins for the greater victory of immortality. 

Old age has a way of creeping up on life like a “sieve” shaken and revealing if our husk is good fruit “vigorous and sturdy” or rotten at the core from a life of sin.  God in his mercy allows for the soul who has rotted from sin to receive forgiveness but forgiveness is the beginning of the purification process that if not gained in this life comes from the state of purgatory with its fire and justice as the potter molds us in the furnace.  For the one who says, “God will forgive me and I will go to heaven” don’t be surprised if at death when all truth is revealed that God’s forgiveness in his promise of heaven comes through his mercy by way of purgatory.  The justice of the Lord is the cleansing of any stain of sin for heaven is for the pure of heart, perfect in love, and fruitful in service.  Are we there yet or is God still working on us? 

We have a small dog who loves to go outside and roll in the grass.  He also likes to chase birds and if he could we would run into the lake behind our house.  No matter how much we love Trigger he is not allowed into the house dirty and smelly.  He has to be cleaned first.  In the same way we cannot enter into the house of the Lord dirty from sin.  Our cleansing must come first in this life or in purgatory for nothing impure can be with the purity of love and God is love. 

“Tribulation is the test of the just” and this day the world is in tribulation.  The sins of the world in a culture of death have risen from death to the unborn; death to religion in the public square; death to the biology of the body in sexual identity; death to free speech against the mantra of public opinion; death to humanity in genetic manipulation to create life in a test tube.  While the culture war battles itself there are those who seek to gain power by violence in the streets, violence in the name of religion, and violence by weapons of destruction.  As one nation rises against another the test of the just will be a reminder that when one part of the body suffers the whole body suffers. 

The voice of freedom must respond for the just.  From the call of Pope Francis for prayer and fasting for peace to the action of leaders to recognize evil and not be weak but stand for truth and justice by the authority entrusted to them.  We all have the power of prayer.  We all can make a sacrifice as an offering for peace.  Lent is coming upon us and this is the moment to make an offering of sacrifice for an end to war, an end to hate, a victory for peace before it spirals out of control.  The evil one has unleased his power taken possession of the souls of the weak who are filled with vices. 

Every soul has power and strength grows in times of tribulation as we sacrifice for a greater good and the sting of “death is swallowed up in victory”.  Victory comes “through our lord Jesus Christ” as we dedicate ourselves to “the work of the Lord” in whatever state of life we have been called to serve.  The work of the Lord is for everyone beginning with prayer that leads to action.  Pray and God will reveal the action needed of each of us and we need not to fear for God is with us and who can be against us.  Part of our mission is to be ready for the attack to come.  We are to prepare our children not just with an understanding of evil but with the faith, hope and love to fear not and be ready for the Lord comes.  He is our consolation and this world is but a passing moment in God’s plan of salvation. 

In war there are many casualties but also many martyrs who do not fear death but believe in a just cause.  Jesus is the just cause in who we must believe and trust.  He died for us that we may live for immortality.  The early church suffered many martyrs and persecution but with each death the number of followers only grew and we have received the inheritance of faith and freedom.  May we have the same love to live for the just cause our Lord has given us to fulfill the law of love, the law of the Word, the natural law, and the law of freedom.  Freedom is not free and without casualty but the victory has been won by Jesus and we are called to follow him. 

Freedom begins in the mind of the believer where the battlefield is fought against the enemy.  The natural law is in the science of truth as a creation of God.  The law of the Word is in the incarnation born to set us free from slavery where we are invited to join him by baptism.  The law of love is in the heart with the generosity to respond to the call to be the best God created us to be.  This is how we clothe ourselves with incorruptibility and the sting of death is “swallowed up in victory”. 

Tribulation reveals who is “planted in the house of the Lord” and who languishes in the world.  In tribulation “the just one…shall bear fruit even in old age; vigorous and sturdy…declaring how just is the Lord, my rock”.  Our justice is from the Lord so be not afraid when tribulation comes and the roaring waves of war, disease, and destruction is all around us.  Keep bearing fruit and trust in the Lord for even the sting of death is not the end but the beginning of a greater glory. 

Tribulation in life reveals what is in the heart of a person.  The gospel today reminds us how easy it is to be blinded by tribulation and begin to notice the splinter in everyone’s eyes.  It is easier to blame than to accept responsibility or recognize how did we contribute to the problem.  God’s reminder to remove the sin of our lives before we look into the sin of others is so we may see clearly and recognize the fruit we are consuming that is good and not rotten.  There is a lot of rotten fruit the world that is feeding us.  “Fake news”, half-truth, justified behavior for killing are all part of the menu.  Pontius Pilate asked Jesus what is truth?  Jesus says by their fruit you shall know.  Jesus was killed to protect the institution that felt threatened by his ministry even as he preached the love of God.  Today there are many institutions who would rather enter into the culture of death than into the dialogue for life.  The fruit of the means does not justify the end and if the fruit is rotten and evil then it comes from the heart of an evil person. 

The fruit of the evil one creates division, confusion and the sting of death.  The fruit of “a good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good” with right thoughts, right speech, and right action.  Let us keep in mind that “one’s speech disclose(s) the bent of one’s mind” and our mind must be well trained in the way of the Lord.  Speak the word of God with faith, hope, and love.  Pray for those who belong to the culture of death and are waging war against humanity.  Let us stay focused on the work of the Lord.  Let us be ready and recall the sacrifice of love by Jesus, by his disciples, and it is our turn now.  Lord may your love be in our hearts and word on our lips that we may proclaim your glory for ever and ever, Amen. 

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Homily

7th Sunday Ordinary Time –   The Golden Rule

Posted on by Deacon Joe

1 Sam. 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23; Ps. 103:1-4, 8, 10, 12-13; 1 Cor. 15:45-49; Lk. 6:27-38

The Golden Rule “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”  In the first reading David has the opportunity to strike Saul dead.  Saul is in search of David to kill him and instead of David having the mindset of “the first Adam”, to do to Saul as he would do to you, he takes the mindset of the “last Adam” with a “life-giving spirit” and spares Saul with a clear sign of mercy by taking Saul’s “spear and water jug” while he slept.  David acted in the spirit of Christ doing to Saul what he would have Saul do in return, spare his life.  This is the new commandment “to love one another” as he loves us under the Golden Rule and the Lord will spare us for eternity. 

Otherwise, what good is that!  “That” is to live in the flesh as the “first Adam” with “earthy” beliefs giving to those who give you, good only to those who are good to you, and lending expecting a return.  We are to put on the mind of God and today Jesus lays out this spiritual mindset to love the sinner despite the sins and pray for them.  God is not done with them and he is not done with us either in our conversion to “bear the image of the heavenly one…the last Adam” to be perfect by doing to others as we would have them do to us. 

God calls us to be perfect knowing that all perfection comes from him through his grace when we seek him.  If only for this moment our prayer is to be “I will be perfect with the help your grace as called to be in the perfection of this moment”.  In this moment we choose to respond to his grace within us to be perfect in our treatment of the “other” before us.  Even if the last moment was far from perfect this moment is what I have to respond to.  If in this moment through the grace of God we are perfect in our love, in our charity, in our mercy then the next moment may build upon it for now we enter into the kingdom of God where grace abounds.  Let us bury the earthy Adam in us and rise with the last Adam into his kingdom this moment, this hour, in this circumstance that we are in.  The Golden Rule is the response to the call to be perfect. 

With perfection comes generosity.  Spinoza the philosopher says, “If love is the goal generosity is the road to it.”  God is love and we desire true love we desire God and God loves a cheerful giver.  This is the meaning of today’s gospel, blessing those who curse you, doing good to all, giving of ourselves, being merciful and forgiving and the Lord cannot be outgiven in what he will “pour into our lap”. 

The wisdom of David was to not commit sin to save his earthy flesh but to convert the heart of Saul from committing sin.  Consider how our acts can be a source of conversion even for those who oppose us and desire our “death” in a cancel culture.  Many tried to silence the apostles, imprison them and even have them put to death but their love and sacrifice only made for the conversion of many by their courage to not fear but love by the Golden Rule.  David was a warrior taught to fight and defeat his enemy or lose in battle with his honor, his pride, his valor.  The words humble, forgiving, and loving do not come from training on the earthy battle field.  He did not learn the Golden rule from the world but from the spirit of God that lived within him. 

The battlefield of our life is fought in the mind and in the spirit of truth.  The mind is the battlefield leading us to act for good or evil, for righteousness or abuse, for justice or injustice.  Even in its sleep it is processing creating dreams of its struggle to overcome the conflict of life.   We can only come to rest our mind in thee, O Lord as we enter into the temple of the spirit of God within the holy ground of our soul.  The soul of David was filled with the holy ground of the spirit from where the Golden Rule lived and went forth to conquer in the spiritual warfare of the world. 

Saul was anointed by God and David was anointed by God yet one was overcome in the warfare of the mind for an earthy kingdom and the other chose the greater kingdom of the spirit of God.  We have been anointed by God in our baptism and continue to receive God in the sacraments of the church, but the warfare of Saul and David remains within our soul.  One will decrease and the other increase by our faith, hope, and love as we place our trust in the eternal God or in our own limited earthy power.

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Homily

5th Sunday Ordinary Time – Here I am…send me! 

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Is. 6:1-2a, 3-8; Ps. 138:1-5, 7-8; 1 Cor. 15:1-11; Lk. 5:1-11

“Here I am…send me!”  The Lord reveals himself to Isaiah in a vision and Isaiah’s reaction is “I am a man of unclean lips…Woe is me, I am doomed!”  Jesus reveals his glory before Simon with the “great number of fish” caught in the net and “astonishment…seized him”.  Simon’s reaction is “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”  We cannot stand before the light of truth in our sin and live but the God of mercy is ready to purge us and cleanse us at our confession of truth.  With our confession comes his mercy of forgiveness and then our call.  Are we ready for what and where he will lead us?  Readiness begins with our confession.

Just as the seraphim angel purged the sin of Isaiah with an ember, Jesus comes to purge us of our sins with his Word made flesh cleansing us through baptism and the ember on our lips is our confession.  Each Mass before we can receive communion. our lips confess our sinfulness to be purged as we pray “I confess to you…that I have sinned through my fault…my most grievous fault.”  It is the beginning of being called and sent forth as a disciple of Jesus Christ.    If our sin is always before us, we must examine our conscience daily and pray for mercy and healing.  “Here I am…send me” is our call at the end of Mass ready to proclaim what we have received, God’s love and mercy. 

St. Paul identifies himself “as to one born abnormally…not fit to be called an apostle”.  Many have speculated on what was his abnormality.  Was it physical, mental, or simply his sin for he “persecuted the church of God”?  Theologically we are born with original sin to be cleansed by water and spirit in baptism but was Paul recognizing this fallen nature of humanity?  This is our time to ask ourselves what abnormality of sin do we carry since birth?  The church speaks of the seven capital or deadly sins.  They include pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth. They come with our fallen nature to be disciplined or allowed to foster into sin.  They are dispositions that lead to behavior of mortal sin, our separation from God. 

Readiness for God is a call to perfection.  God forgives us of our sins but his love is beyond forgiveness, he works to bring us to perfection as we are purged with the ember of fire.  He invites us take up our cross and follow him.  When we go forth in him then life itself is our shedding of the dead cells of our sin that have no life and growing in the new cells with a divine nature towards holiness. 

The fire of life is a battlefield and the enemy is in search of our weakness to deny us our claim for heaven.  His most persistent attack is from within us to our thoughts, emotions, and will.  It is a battlefield within the soul to take possession of us but he cannot possess what we have already offered to God as a temple to abide in us and we receive him in communion.  This is our defense and there is no greater act of preparedness than to come to Mass and receive him.  The church offers us our weapons for life.  They come in the sacraments of the church, in the prayer life of the church, in the Word of God, in the fellowship of the people of God and in the most holy communion.  This is the life of the church that prepares us to say “Here I am…send me!” 

With each generation the interest in responding to the call to the priesthood decreases[JG1] [JG2] .  Many religious vocations continue to lose members and for those who do respond there is an underlying culture of “professionalism” that looks for “advancement” in the ranks than for sacrifice.  With each generation the interest in parenthood decreases with the rise of abortion, children in foster care, and marriages having less children if any at all by choice seeking to live the culture of professionalism for self-actualization and recognition by the world.  With each generation our youth perceive a godless world as the norm and in order to be accepted in this world they are to live as if there is no god.  It is beyond separation of church and state for the rise in a “cancel” culture that desires an end to religion.  Who is willing to rise up in these times and be the voice to say, “Here I am Lord…send me”? 

If not now, when will we return to a culture of life in the Spirit of God?  If not us then who will speak these words of courage to be sent?  It is our time and it must begin with us who profess our faith in God.  He will do the work when we begin to say, “Here I am Lord…send me”. 

 [JG1]an

 [JG2]

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Homily The Deacon Joe

4th Sunday Ordinary Time – Love is it!

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Jer. 1:4-5, 17-19; Ps. 71:1-6, 15, 17; 1 Cor. 12:31—13:13; Lk. 4:21-30

Love is it! It is “a still more excellent way” to truth, knowledge, prophesy, and all the mysteries of the greatest spiritual gifts.  “If I give everything I own and if I hand my body over so that I may boast” that is pride not love, and “I gain nothing”.   Love is it, “when the perfect comes”.  If all is lost and all that remains is love, we will live on with our faith and hope in something greater than ourselves and renew the spirit.  If we have everything of our desires but do not have love we will surely live with death at our side. 

Love it is!  It “bring(s) glad tidings to the poor to proclaim liberty to the captives.”  When Jesus enters the synagogue and reads from the book of Isaiah the Jews understood this reading as speaking of them as the “suffering servant of God” receiving liberty during the Exile and were poor, captive by the Babylonians, and even blind in need of healing.  Jesus changes their meaning of this prophesy to indicate the “poor” who had “no grace” lacking in union with God, “captive” to sin and not the Roman empire, and blind from the “truth” and without the light of God. 

We are all poor that is lacking the fullness of love and held captive by our sins.  The question is often asked, “Do you see the cup half full or half empty?”  To see the cup half empty is to deny the love of God that is present and can lead to despair and “why try for more”.  To see the cup half full can lead to hopefulness but can also lead to complacency as “good enough” and “why try for more”.  Either way there is risk of settling for less that God’s plan for us.  Love calls for more from each other and of each other in relationship.  There is something greater here than this.  God’s love is greater than our circumstances, greater than our comforts, greater than our struggles, greater than us.  Love is it and God is love.  Deal with it and be set free.  Until then we continue to live the proverb, “Physician, cure yourself.” 

When Jesus quoted the proverb “Physician, cure yourself”, he pointed to the day when those of little faith would see him on the cross and question how he could cure others but he could not come off the cross.   He also pointed to them though they “were amazed at his gracious words” they quickly became “filled with fury” and drove him out because the reflection he gave of them was of little faith and doubt for lack of love.  Without love there is this doubt, fear, jealousy, and anger directed at Jesus as they became “fully known” by the revelation of Jesus.  We become fully known by the measure of our love recognized as a son or daughter of God or a child of the world. 

At present we not only know partially but are partially known in the darkness of our sins.  The day is coming when we “shall know fully” and we will be “fully known” in judgment coming “face to face” with the light of truth something to be grasped.  Our mercy will be fully known by our love for what we have done and failed to do.  Are we ready for the light of truth to shine on us and fully reveal our lives before God?  If not, what are we doing about it?  Love is it and now is the time for greater love in our world, the love of charity, the love of mercy, the love of sacrifice, the love of God.  Love and be set free!  God is always ready to give of his love, are we ready to receive?  

Love is it!  It never fails to reveal to us the goodness, beauty, truth and unity of God.  If “we see indistinctly, as in a mirror” our vision is clouded with our own interests leading to our impatience, rudeness, quick-tempered reactions, and jealousy.  Love is not about us but of the other who we love.  When we were but a child, it was about us thinking as a child what we wanted and reasoning as a child our privileged entitlement talking as a child asking “why not?”  This is the culture of death of our times to remain as a child sacrificing the other for our own self interests in abortion, euthanasia, genetic programming, embryonic stem cell research, and denial of procreation.  For the world it is all about “us” and what about God?  God is being denied because God is about the “other” in our lives.  God is the “other” that makes all things possible.

The culture of death even proposes that we remain as a child and allow governance to determine our sustenance even now by proposing that some get paid to stay at home.  If we accept these “childish things” we surrender to remain a child to those in power and not a child of God who calls us to go forth with a greater purpose than ourselves.  Love is it and it comes with sacrifice.  If there is sacrifice love is present strengthening our perseverance with faith and hope in something greater. 

The author Gary Chapman became well known for his book on the “5 Love Languages”.  They include “words of affirmation, physical touch, quality time, acts of service, and receiving gifts”.  This interpretation of love is identified by the behavioral aspect of demonstrating love.  The Greeks identify up to twelve types of love more than behavioral but in the essence of love.  C.S. Lewis describes four of these types in Agape, Eros, Philia, and Storge from a Christian perspective. 

Agape being the unconditional “God” love regardless of circumstances is selfless in charity centered on the other in its perfection to give rather than to receive.  Eros for Lewis is the sense of “being in love” not as an emotion but as rational being in a bond of love as in matrimony each giving of oneself to the other.  It may also be Eros of passion whereby we gaze upon God his majesty and he gazes upon us his creation.  Do we have passion for our God or is he simply treated as an acquaintance? 

Philia being the “friendship” coming from shared values, interests, and activities that create a freely chosen bond as Christ called his disciples “friends” to be of one mind, heart, and soul.  Storge is the “dependency-based love” of a child to their parent with the need for affection to thrive and without which it would withdraw and die.  It is both need-based and gift-giving.  In God the Father we recognize our need for God and his gift giving graces to overcome sin and thrive in holiness. 

There are three other types of love identified by the Greeks to include for the perfect number of seven.  These are Ludus, Philautia, and Pragma.  Ludus is translated as “play” the natural desire seen in all species of animals.  In the child play is the beginning of exploration at the wonderment of life and as we age play is keeping a sense of humor that lifts our spirit in the comedy of life to be challenging without fear of harm.  What a beautiful thing, we begin with play and we return to play as we see that God is it.  Play is an expression of love that is why sports play can be very unifying in spirit. 

Philautia is “self-love” the love of self-respect for our own dignity created in the image of God guarding our mind, heart, soul, and body from the danger of the evil one prowling about the world seeking the ruin of souls.  Self-love avoids the near temptation and consequence of sin that damage our soul and relationship to God.  

The last is Pragma the love of commitment as God’s covenant love for his people.  It is beyond any mere legalistic agreement.  It is the love coming from a sacramental bond of love in each of the seven sacraments.  It is God’s love committed for our salvation as he has ordained it and we freely receive and by our fiat we enter into it.  Let us always and in every moment say “yes, Lord” to this invitation. 

What do all these various forms of love have in common?  They all are based on relationship for even “self-love” requires of us to have self-awareness of the other to have meaning otherwise it is simply narcissistic sickness.  Relationship gives meaning to existence and purpose for being in Pragma that is in a committed love willing to sacrifice in the image of Christ our savior.  Love is it with the many faces of love but the same source of love which is God himself. 

There is a story of a child who went to his mother and asked “If God is real, why don’t we see him?”  The mother quickly said “Go ask your dad.”  The child went to his dad and asked “Dad, if God is real why don’t we see him?”  The dad quickly said, “Go ask your mom.”  The child felt ignored and began to question “Is God real?”  That weekend, his grandfather took him fishing out on his boat.  As they sat quietly waiting for the “bite” the boy turned and asked one more time “Grandpa, if God is real why don’t we see him?”  The grandpa sat quietly looking at the water and said nothing.  The body felt again ignored and discouraged wondering if there was a God.  Then the grandpa turned to him and said, “Son, at my age God is all I see.”  It is time for us to think, see, and be the adult who can see God and share the love that is God. 

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Homily The Deacon Joe

2nd Sunday Ordinary Time – “Proclaim his marvelous deeds”

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Is. 62:1-5; Ps. 96:1-3, 7-10; 1 Cor. 12:4-11; Jn. 2:1-11

“Proclaim his marvelous deeds to all the nations” and do it by the “different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit” we have received.  The glory of Jesus is once again revealed after the baptism of the Lord in the wedding at Cana transforming water into wine.  The epiphany of this day is that God is revealing himself in Jesus by the transforming of water into wine for yet the greater transformation to come from wine into his blood.  What marvelous deeds are to come from Jesus not to end in him but to continue in us as God is with us in the visible spiritual gifts we receive and put to use for the greater good. 

God also desires to reveal himself through us in the working of the Holy Spirit by the spiritual gifts we receive to proclaim the glory of the Lord each according to our spiritual gifts.  These gifts by their design are for the purpose of coming together in unity to share and build up the kingdom of God in his one body the church.  Where there is God there is unity, communion, and grace abounds.  Grace indicating “gratis” from Latin, a free gift of “God’s unmerited favor”.  The power of this gift comes from coming together to build up the kingdom of God and “you shall be called by a new name pronounced by the mouth of the Lord.” 

Who is “you”?  Who does the Lord “rejoice” in and where is this “land” no longer “forsaken” or “desolate” but the “delight of God spoken of by Isaiah?  For some it is still to come but for those who have accepted Jesus Christ the “Builder” has arrived and “you” the church coming together to build up the kingdom in the heavenly Jerusalem is “Espoused” as the bride of Christ.  There cannot be a church of “one” between God and “I”.  “For where two or three are gathered in my name there am I” (Mt. 18:20) is where God is. 

God is in our home when we gather to pray, to give thanks for our meal, to offer a Rosary he joins us and rejoices in calling us his own.  He is in our church in the freedom to gather and to worship in sharing our faith we serve as a channel of grace that brings joy, comfort, healing, and peace to our hearts.  We cannot make ourselves “happy” by ourselves.  It is not how we are wired even in our DNA one synapse has to transfer to another synapse the information needed to live.   God’s creation is for unity.  We have to be linked together to bring all the spiritual graces to form a stronger body in Christ. 

In the same way our soul is not disconnected from our body.  How we treat our body lifts our soul up to God or can injure our soul and our faith.  All the evils that injure our body can separate us from God, drugs, abortion, prostitution, gluttony, and any other form of bodily abuse.  It is often easy to ask “where is God?” when life spirals into despair.  We would never think of asking ourselves “What have I done to God with myself?”  A good examination of conscience and act of contrition can reveal to us more of ourselves and God’s love and mercy.  “O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended You…”  When we were born God gave us a gift.  It was the gift of ourselves.  When we were baptized, we received another gift.  It was the gift of God himself.  What we do with ourselves is our gift back to God.  When we injure ourselves with sin, we injure God who is with us.  The enemy works as much from within as through others. 

 We should guard against the enemy who has eroded God in the public square, from schools and seeks to “cancel” or “transform” what the church does in its schools, hospitals, and charity programs.  To be clear the enemy is not government.  It is not government against the church for that in itself is divisive and not the unity God desires.  Every civil society has a means of governance including the church.  The enemy is the spirit of evil that is working in the souls of those who seek to be the gods of this world.  They hunger for their own power willing to sacrifice truth, goodness, beauty, and unity that is all that God is to be their gods at the cost of others. 

We are not to be silent but to proclaim his marvelous deeds in recognizing and giving praise to God for the gifts we receive, how God is working in us and the truth of the gospel alive in us.  Have we been blessed today?  Have we expressed to each other the blessings we have received this day?  How easy is it to express what is wrong in our day than what is right and to give thanks for what this day has provided for us?  A conversion is a transformation of the heart to the mystery of God allowing us to see with the eyes of faith.  So how does this work in the “real” world? 

You may be familiar with the warning “children should not play with scissors they can poke their eyes out.”  Accidents happen every day or we would not call them an accident.  This week I accidently poked my eyeball with the tip of the scissors I was using to trim my eyebrow.  My eye immediately started bleeding like a gory movie scene.  I needed urgent care to examine and treat it. In the past the mind would have immediately indulged in negative thinking, “I could go blind”, “why God?”, “how this disrupts my day”, “what did I do to deserve this?”, all the standard reactions.  That is not the mind of a believer. 

As my wife came to pick me up to take me to the get medical care, she shared how there had been an accident on the expressway and had to avoid passing by it.  My thought was how I may have been on the road at that moment where the accident occurred and my accident kept me it.  I also took the day in which all my planning changed to be at rest and consider what I needed to do differently for my own well-being because of my monovision, I don’t see close up with my right eye.  “Speak Lord your servant is listening”.  It was also a time to give thanks that I did not injure myself permanently.  God works in the world beyond our reality but he invites us to seek him, trust him and love him.  Perhaps in sharing this story the lessons learned can serve others. 

Since we all receive different gifts in order to be one in Christ we are called to come together and allow our gifts to be of service to each other.  I am always amazed by persons who receive the gift of faith in abundance and don’t question God.  It is a love without question.  This faith leads to joyful trust in the Lord.  I am always looking for understanding the mystery of faith knowing I am but this small limited brain.   I benefit much from just being around someone “full of faith” as we all do.  The same Spirit is living and acting in each of us and we are to proclaim God through our works of the Spirit.  This same Spirit is calling us to “do whatever he tells you”. 

God wishes to reveal himself through Christ in us in the gifts given to us.  Now is not the time to be doubtful and wait for another gift or moment, or revelation to come or something spectacular to happen in our lives before we proclaim the goodness of the Lord.  The spectacular is that we alive filled with someone greater than us and his name is Jesus. 

We are it, the ones called to proclaim his marvelous deeds.  In the domestic home we are it, to lift each other up.  In the local parish, we are it, to have fellowship welcoming the stranger to our faith.  In our neighborhood and community, we are it evangelizing by the service to our neighbor and the stranger.  Does everyone need to walk the streets?  No unless that is your particular gift.  Some are very good speaking to the youth and others working with the elderly, some have a voice to sing on the mountain top and others only in the shower.  We get it, now let’s go about doing it.  Do whatever he tells you and proclaim it to the world then the “you” becomes the “we” in body of Christ and his church. 

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Homily The Deacon Joe

Christmas is here! “Your God is King!”

Posted on by Deacon Joe

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Homily The Deacon Joe

Heaven or hell – 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Dan. 12:1-3; Ps. 16:5, 8-11; Heb. 10:11-14, 18; Mk. 13:24-32

Heaven or hell that is the question.  As we come to the end of the church calendar year the readings have focused on the end times, the last four things to come; death, judgement, heaven or hell.  The study of the last four things is called Eschatology.  The time of tribulation is upon us.  It began as soon as Jesus was lifted on the cross but now its our turn to pass through the tribulation of our times and answer the question for ourselves, heaven or hell.  Will we rise or will we fall?  Will we be found “written in the book” to live forever or fall into the everlasting horror of disgrace?  One way to answer the question is whether we are we among those who “lead many to justice” or whether we contributed to the sin of others. 

Often, we fail to ask ourselves if we have lead others to sin or to justice.  Wisdom from Daniel today is asking us to examine our lives based on the impact we have made in the lives of others.  It is not just about my responsibility to myself but also my responsibility to others and it begins in the home.  For example, the moral compass we teach our children to follow.  Does the commandment “you shall not kill” apply to the unborn?  Does hate speech lead others to justice or to sin?  Does “male and female he created them” allow someone to change their sexual identity?  Have we led others to love God or to just love themselves without awareness of their creation in the image of God?  Our action or inaction has a lasting consequence for the good of justice or for the sin of injustice.  It is the ripple effect from generation to generation that keeps on giving or sinning.

We have a tendency to judge ourselves based on a simple attitude that “I am a good person”.  Let us recall the words of Jesus, “Why do you call me good, only God is good.”  We are sinners and we have a tendency to overlook our sins.  We might assume that if we have not committed a grave sin we are headed straight to heaven.  Thank God for purgatory for the sins we have overlooked.  We may be surprised of all the sins of omission we committed in not responding to the call to serve God in every moment and opportunity we had to “go forth” and live the gospel. 

The good news is that “by one offering he has made perfect forever those who are being consecrated”.  The baptized are being consecrated to live the gospel.  When we come seeking forgiveness “there is no longer offering for sin”, his sacrifice has atoned for our sin on the path to heaven and yet there is still a judgment day to come.  Now then the question is “have we come seeking forgiveness” or are we in the delusion that being a good person there is no need to seek forgiveness and remain in our sin till the day of judgment.  “But the wise shall shine brightly” for in their humility they have come seeking forgiveness as often as they fall and “rise like the stars”.  Heaven not hell is the just reward for the penitent.  “Lord have mercy on me a sinner.”

“But of that day or hour” be vigilant.  Recently a servant of the Lord came knocking on my door.  He had recently been baptized in his protestant faith and was sharing his views on the end times.  He believed we were living the end times in our generation and the Lord would come soon.  I could not agree with him more with the exception that he understood it would be in his lifetime.  “There is no time with God: a thousand years, a single day, it is all one (2 Peter 3:8)”.  Jesus says, “Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place”.  The disciples heard this and believed it represented “the Son of Man coming in the clouds” in their lifetime.  But in the absence of time with God the “day or hour” is simply the moment he has established for “all these things (to) have taken place”.  God’s time is always in the present thus we are to look at the last four things as always happening in the current moment.  Each day many come face to face with their last four things their death, their particular judgment, and heaven or hell.  That moment could be our moment on any day. 

Who is in hell?  The Church is silent and we won’t know for sure till until we pass through the last four things but in Dante’s “Divine Comedy” (c.1320) there are nine circles of hell and he places three Popes there.  We might have our own list of who we consider having gained the judgment of hell but as the sinner hung on the cross next to Jesus and asked to be remembered Jesus gave him the gift of mercy.  Hell is real and Jesus proclaims it in Mathew 25:45-46 “He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of the least ones, you did not do for me.’ And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”  “Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. (Mt. 25:41)” Eternal punishment is hell for there no more hope of salvation from this suffering.  The path to heaven or hell is clearly laid out for us by Jesus. 

The world is filled with many who are among the least who hunger, thirst, are a stranger, locked up within the cells of sinners and have no one to bring them the care from heaven.  They are the golden path for us to bring them the kingdom of God we carry within us and minister to their needs.  This is the path of righteousness Jesus is calling us to follow.  If we claim to be “a good person” are we a good person to the least or just good to those we love?  If God came calling this day and placed us in front of a mirror, what do we see?  Do we simply see ourselves or do we see the image of Christ in us, or is the reflection darkened by our sins that we cannot make out the image in front of us?    If we see the image of Christ then heaven not hell is waiting.  If we simply see ourselves then the “good person” we believe we are may need to the path of purgatory to wash clean their baptismal robes.  But, if we cannot see an image through the darkness of sin hell not heaven may be coming soon. 

We are to learn to seek, go, and do.  We are to seek daily the mercy of God, go to confession when we knowingly have committed mortal sin, and do acts of penance and reparation.  Like children we want to be forgiven and the sin forgotten and let Jesus’ suffering once atone for our sins.  Is there a need for us to do our reparation to atone for our sins?  Repentance comes with doing an act of love for the wrong we have committed.  Let us never ignore, forget, or discount the value of doing reparation for our sins.  Just like those “small” sins add up so do our small acts of love to bring us the grace of God from heaven.  To love God with all our heart, mind and soul is to join him in his suffering for our sins and the sins of the world with the love of atonement.  The love of prayer is atonement, the love of the Mass is atonement, and the love of serving the least is also atonement.  Heaven or hell waits but not for long. 

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Homily The Deacon Joe

“Do not be afraid” – 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Posted on by Deacon Joe

1Kg. 17:10-16; Ps. 146:7-10; Heb. 9:24-28; Mk. 12:38-44

“Do not be afraid” of the sacrifice we may be called to make for the Lord.  If we belong to the Lord then all we are and all we have is of the Lord. Do not be afraid if we are called to offer our “whole livelihood” for the Lord.  This is the testimony of Elijah who calls the widow to trust in the Lord and “make a little cake” for him so that in the end “the jar of flour did not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry”.  This is also the testimony of Jesus who recognizes the poor widow who from her poverty “has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood”.  Do not be afraid to leave it all on the field of love for love is what endures and returns multiplied to fill the need. 

“The Lord loves the just.”  Is it justice when Elijah asks the widow to give the last bit of food and take care of him first before taking care of her hunger and her child?  The world would cry out the injustice of the request of Elijah a stranger to this woman.  Elijah however was prepared to offer the widow the promise of the Lord and “gives food to the hungry” not just for that day but “until the day when the LORD sends rain upon the earth”.  Lord let your justice rain down from heaven to feed the souls who hunger for your righteousness and let us respond with love to the needs of the poor. 

Is it justice that a poor widow gives “from her poverty…all she had, her whole livelihood” to the scribes who “devour the houses of widows” while they sit in “seats of honor in synagogues”?  Clearly Jesus is pointing out the injustice of the scribes who receive from the poor to live their riches and “recite lengthy prayers” but offer nothing in return to feed those who are hungry.  “They will receive a severe condemnation” from the Lord of justice. Do not be afraid to stand for justice.

The Lord of justice enters the sanctuary of the Mass as our high priest who offered his blood once “to take away sin by his sacrifice…Not that he might offer himself repeatedly…but now once for all.”  There is a misconception among some non-Catholics that the Mass is a repeated sacrifice of Jesus on the altar.  This is wrong at two levels, first it is Jesus who offered himself as our high priest, we cannot make another sacrifice of him.  Second, the Mass is a commemoration of the one sacrifice that remains with us for our sins. 

Why does God allow some of his servants to receive the stigmata, the wounds of Christ?  If he is the one who was crucified and died once for our sins what is the meaning of the stigmata in the lives of the saints?  Is it not a reminder of the same suffering of Christ that remains with us for our sins that we continue to commit?  The justice of the Lord suffers today for our sins until the day of his return. Do not be afraid of the sacrifice for justice we may be asked to make for the Lord.

The sacrifice of the Mass is the sacrifice “offered once to take away the sins of many” but not all.  The God of mercy will “bring salvation to those who eagerly await him”.  Like the scribes there are many who “will receive a very severe condemnation.”  For those who believe there is no hell hear these words from the Lord while there is still time for conversion for “human beings die once and after this the judgement”.  Mercy comes to those who seek and justice to those who find.  Justice is what purgatory is all about to be purified in the fire of justice with the promise of eternal glory.  “Condemnation” is what hell is all about for those whose sins remain not by God’s choice but by our own. 

We live in a world that is ready to offer “blood that is not his own” in the sacrifice of abortion for the choice of sexual freedom, in the sacrifice of stem cells from aborted fetuses for research, in the sacrifice of education of children for social reform, in the sacrifice of the poor for economic prosperity, in the sacrifice of the sick for the right to die by choice, in the sacrifice always of the “other” for the good of the self.  This is the right to choose our own condemnation when we follow the teachings of the world because the good of the self always comes at the sacrifice of the “other”. 

Heaven comes at the sacrifice of the self for the other.  We see in the lives of the saints, the martyrs, the souls who quietly give of themselves for us, our parents and grandparents.  We see it in the stories of those who risk their lives every day to protect our peace, to rescue the stranger from a fire, to tend to the sick in hospitals, nursing homes, and during those final days with palliative care.  We see it in Jesus who appeared “to take away our sin by his sacrifice…at the end of the ages”.  This is love, Godly love.  Do not be afraid of being called to offer ourselves for Godly love.  It is the path of justice to heaven. 

It would be a misconception to think that only priests are called to give up their “whole livelihood” for the Lord and follow him.  It is true that the consecration of the priesthood to the church is a call to abandonment of self for the other.  Just like God cannot save us without us neither can the priest.  We each are called to make the same sacrifice in our daily lives.  We can offer up all our daily struggles and sacrifices for atonement of our sin.  We can offer up our work to serve a greater mission of love as we give testimony of our faith by our works.  We can be generous in trusting the Lord by returning to him from the little or the greater of our abundant riches most especially the richness of our love for him.  If it is worth doing it is worth doing for the Lord. 

I heard a story of a poor woman who entered a butcher store and asked for a gift to eat.  The butcher looked at her and said “What will you give me in return for my gift?”  The woman answered, “I have no money to give you but I can go to Mass for you and offer to be there for your soul.”  The butcher was not pleased since he was of little faith but he said, “Ok, go and offer yourself for me at your Mass and I will give you something.”  The woman left and went to the nearby Church, attended a Mass for the butcher and came back to the store.  The butcher was surprised to see her return. 

She said to him, “I have attended a Mass for your soul can I receive something to eat?”  The butcher thought quickly and wrote on a piece of paper “one Mass in exchange for something to eat.”  He placed the paper on the scale and the paper slowly caused the scale to weight down a little.  He took out a small piece of prime meat and placed it on the scale expecting the scale to tilt over.  Nothing happened.  Surprised he grabbed a large piece of ham and laid it on the scale.  Instead of the weight of the ham causing the scale to tip over the paper caused the scale to tip more in its favor.  Shocked he went to the freezer and came out with a quarter leg of beef and hung it on the scale hook.  The scale then went all the way down on the side of the paper.  With no words to say he gave the woman the meat and asked her to remember him in her prayers. 

The value of the sacrifice of the Mass cannot be measured.  It is a sacrifice of love that can transform us, save us and free the souls in purgatory.  It is the gift of love we make for Christ when we come to love him in the Mass.  Do not be afraid to love him by offering our whole being, all that we have and all that we are for our salvation and that of the whole world.  It is the gift that keeps on giving more than we can imagine.  Do not be afraid to love more.

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Homily The Deacon Joe

You shall love! – 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Deut. 6:2-6; Ps. 18:2-4, 47, 51; Heb. 7:23-28; Mk. 12:28b-34

You shall love!  “You shall love with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength” the Lord our God.  How does God recognize true love?  When we keep his word, live by his commandments, and love our neighbor as ourself. His word is love.

You shall love the Lord our God.  Our love for the Lord is through the love of his son, Jesus Christ “who has been made perfect forever”, “when he offered himself” for our sins.  Love of God is love of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Love of God is not to love an idea or an ideology but the love of a person.   You shall love the person of God who we encounter and grow with in a relationship of mutual love. 

You shall love with all your heart is the love of his passion, the love of the cross seen in the giving of ourselves taking our own cross and uniting it to him for his sacrifice for us.  A love from the heart is a merciful love that recognizes this is the day our love can save us.  The love of the heart groans for the one we love in its agony to be with our loved one.  Imagine where does a beautiful voice that can sing come from?  It does not come from the throat but from deep inside the lungs that groan to give out the sound of love in word and harmony with the one we love. 

You shall love with all your soul is the love of understanding to see the hand of God in our lives.  People hear not what you said but what they understand you said, the perceived intent from how you express your understanding of them.  If we don’t express our understanding of others then they never hear what we say.  Will God hear us if we have no understanding of him or will he say I never heard your heart speak? 

You shall love with all your strength is the love coming from the will to love in our weakness, in good times and in bad.  It is great to hear “I love you”, to make the sign of the heart with your hands, or sign language the letters of “I”, “L”, and “Y” with one hand but is our love strong enough to endure in our weakness when we are criticized, held accountable, offended or treated unfairly?  This is where we dig deep in search of humility to remain faithful to our love of other.   

You shall love your neighbor as yourself is to see God in every child, adult, and stranger.  King David in one occasion came into a town and was being cursed by Shimeia of the house of Saul.  His soldier said to the King, “why should this dead dog curse my lord the King?  Let me go over and take off his head.”  But the King replied, “What business is it of mine or yours…that he curses?  Suppose the Lord has told him to curse David”.  (2 Sam. 16:5-14) If we were in King David’s position, would we take the position of the soldier or of King David and accept the cursing?  Would it even occur to us that God could be calling us out for something or someone we have wronged? 

In today’s “cancel culture” we would be justified to cancel them as the current culture dictates.  If the criticism came from a subordinate employee, would we take it into consideration or respond “Your fired” and justify ourselves?  Our pride does not take criticism well and we often react with “who do you think you are?”  This is where our love is put to the test not only for who we see but for the God we don’t see calling us out to become what we were created to be in his love which is to manifest his love. This takes even more courage to remain humble in the midst of the offense we are faced with. 

If every person is made in the image of God, then why is there so much evil in this world? 
Evil is from the evil one who enters the heart and soul with temptation to sin and weaken the will to commit the wrong we desire not rather than the good we were created for.  What are we to do when we are faced with evil?  We are to pray always for the will of God in the midst of the darkness to send us the comforter and give us the courage not only to persevere but to pray God’s will be done.  God’s will be done for the soul of the one who allowed the evil to take possession of them.  God’s will be done for the good of salvation. 

When our Blessed Mother was at the foot of the cross in the midst of the evil she was witnessing the agony and death of a son. It would have been expected for a mother’s love to call out to God the Father to “save him” from this hour.  Where would salvation be if God had heard and answered that prayer.  That is not the prayer of faith or of perfect love.  Perfect love and faith is to prayer for the will of the Father.  We are reminded in Romans 8:26 “the Spirit too comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought”.  Too often we pray that our will be done. We pray for the miracle we want not for the miracle God is seeking in our lives.  This type of prayer I heard a priest on Relevant radio, a Catholic station describe it as the “pagan prayer”. 

He called it the “pagan prayer” because we want to have our will be the answer and not God’s will.  We pray, “God save me from this hour”, “God heal my loved one from this sickness”, “God take this cross away”.  In other words, “God do as I want and not as you desire.”  Yet Romans 8:27 tells us “And the one who searches hearts knows what is the intention of the Spirit, because it intercedes for the holy ones according to God’s will”, not according to our will. 

Then what is the purpose of intercessory prayer if we are to pray for the sick and suffering or even for our hopes and dreams?  Intercessory prayer is to unite our will to God’s will and “the Spirit itself intercedes with inexpressible groanings”.  God wills in some cases to give someone a near death experience, sometimes already clinically dead and bring them back to serve his will.  In other times, God wills that the soul pass from this life into eternity even when that soul is but a child for their mission is in heaven and not earth. God wills our salvation and the Spirit will intercede to bring our prayer in line with our salvation and that of others.  God wills that we desire his will for he cannot save us without us.  This is the fulfillment of love to love our neighbor as ourselves that all may be saved. 

This Sunday we begin what can be considered the “Tridium of the dead”.    We can look to Halloween as the beginning of the celebration of the death to death. Oh, death where is your sting?  “Hallow” mean “to honor as holy” and so it is the eve of All Saints Day, the holy souls in heaven.  Jesus came to bring an end to death that all may rise again and live.  November 1st then is the rise of all saints already having obtained the glory of God in heaven putting to death their own death by their love, faith and works of their lives.  You shall love your neighbors the saints in heaven united to us in the one body of Jesus Christ. Pray for their intercession for us to assist us in loving our God with all our hearts, souls and strength for by the grace of God they’re there. 

The last who are awaiting to put to death all suffering are the souls in purgatory who we are to pray for and visit their graves on November 2nd, All Souls Day.  This week was the showing of the movie “Purgatory” at the Cinema.  It is based on the Church teachings on purgatory created in a documentary style.  It includes stories of people who have been given visions of purgatory and apparitions of souls in purgatory seeking prayer.  The mercy of God’s love was to allow for justice for sinners to enter heaven by their cleansing in purgatory. The souls in purgatory are cleansing their baptismal robes from the stain of sin assured of heaven but not yet there.  You shall love your neighbors the souls in purgatory as yourself who we may one day be joining them on our way to heaven.

Often as Catholics we misinterpret the forgiveness of sins in confession as the “get out jail pass” straight to heaven.  What the movie highlighted for me was the message that heaven is for the souls made perfect and we should get on about the business of our perfection in this life in order shorten our time in purgatory.  There is much we can do for atonement of our sins and for the souls in purgatory from minor mortifications to offering our suffering up but what the souls in purgatory seek most is prayer and the greatest prayer to offer is the Mass.

Let us pray that when our time comes to put an end to our death and pass into eternity we shall be loved and remembered by the prayers of the Church and those we can call “friends” as Jesus calls us “friends”. 

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Homily The Deacon Joe

God save us! – 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Jer. 31:7-9; Ps. 126:1-6; Heb. 5:1-6; Mk. 10:46-52

“God save us!”  We call out to God to save us but the salvation we seek is of the flesh.  God comes to save us from the greater sin of our flesh.  Like the blind man who says “Master, I want to see” he desires to recover his sight.  Jesus’ response is “Your faith has saved you” saved his soul and given him the vision to see with his eyes so that to “go your way” was to “follow him on the way”.  Yes, the blind man wanted to see with the eyes of the flesh but he also was given the eyes of faith to call out to Jesus.  Faith opens the spiritual eyes for salvation.

The blind man had a spiritual vision of Jesus when called out to him, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.”  He could have looked with only the eyes of the flesh and called out to Jesus, “Jesus, son of Mary and Joseph” or “Jesus of Nazareth” claiming only what others believed that Jesus was only this human prophet.  His blindness gave him the vision of faith to see someone greater than a prophet. God save us from the eyes of the flesh and give us the spiritual vision to seek what is above and to pray “God save us and grant us your salvation”.

What we seek is to meet the needs of the flesh.  The blind man wants to see, the leper to be healed, the people in the desert seek water to drink.  Humanity seeks the needs of the flesh.  It is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs describing a “Theory of Human Motivation”.  We are motivated by the flesh beginning from the bottom up seeking our physiological needs first for food, water, and shelter, then followed by safety, a sense of belonging, our esteem from others, our aesthetic pleasure in our own creation, our self-actualization by our work, in other words it is all about ourselves before we look to the transcendence to become what we were made to be outside of ourselves. 

We were made to be someone beyond ourselves with meaning and purpose for God’s greater good.  We were made to be in the image of God, revealed in Jesus, and guided by the Holy Spirit to seek first what is above, the greater need and he will provide for humanity the essential needs.  Our God provides for all of his creation not only the essential needs but the essential purpose for salvation. We find our freedom not in the flesh that keeps us captive but in the transcendent that unites us to God and saves us. 

We call out “God save us” from our sickness, from danger, our fears, even from ourselves our thoughts, emotions, and impulses.  God’s answers us as he did the blind man with a salvation that is greater than the flesh that perishes.  God saves us for himself for all eternity.  God comes to “save us” from the temptation of sin, from the evil one, from the fire of hell but he cannot save us without us.  We are to call out to God to save us and defend us from our weaknesses, from falling into mortal sin, and from eternal death. 

God the Father sends us Jesus the Son to teach us the most essential need is “the way” of salvation.  Motivated for salvation is the transcendent need and the other needs become less demanding upon the flesh.  You hear how many saints lived a very ascetic lifestyle requiring very little food while maintaining a very rigorous life.  Padre Pio was one of those saints who ate little but did enjoy a little wine with supper. 

While our lives don’t live a priestly vocation, our vocation becomes less about the needs of the flesh and more about the need for God in our lives.  Our vocation does not come from the world, from what the market is seeking to feed itself with workers, or from the passions of the flesh.  Our vocation comes from God and we serve God with our vocation in the world with the works of salvation.  Our works begin at home building up the kingdom of God by increasing our faith in all we do as a blessing coming from God.  We are to be the channels of grace he desires to pour into us. 

We are to pray to see with the eyes of faith the work of God in our lives.  When our Protestant friends ask “have you been saved?”.  Our response can be “every day I am saved”.  The battle for our souls is not a “one and done” but a constant struggle of life to fight the good fight.  Adam and Eve fell from grace that is going from a state of obedience to God to one of disobedience thus so can we and we do.  Who can say they are 100% obedient to the will of God?  This is the call to “be perfect” and we are not there yet.  Yet every day we are saved from the accident of sin when we call out to God to save us. 

Our sin is a separation from the grace of God and our faith will help restore our favor with God.  The blind man called to Jesus with faith and Jesus not only restored his sight but he recognized his salvation.  We are to work on our faith daily to receive the graces and virtues to live holy lives.  We are also to know and be prepared for God’s way is not our way.  Just because we pray for healing of the flesh and that healing does not happen “our way” does not mean that we lack faith or that God did not hear our prayer.  God hears every word that is spoken and unspoken from the heart.  Thus, even in death it may be God’s way on answering a prayer for something greater than the flesh.  Did not our Lord have to suffer and die to bring about the resurrection of the body the greater good for the soul of humanity. 

Do we have faith?  We all have faith but our faith can be misplaced trusting only in ourselves, trusting only in science, trusting only on the eyes of the flesh.  Do we have a brain?  Has anyone ever seen their brain?  Unlikely, yet, we all believe it is there even when we have never opened our cranium to see our brain.  That is faith but there is a greater faith than the eyes of the flesh can see.  There is a faith that comes from grace given freely by God to lift us up from the sorrow, pain, or agony of the flesh, or from the stain of sin, or from the despair of the soul.  This faith we must seek and once we find it, we must not separate from it, become complacent with it, or fail to exercise our faith for even greater faith. 

We separate from our faith in God through sin.  Sin is the greatest enemy of faith because it denies us the grace to stand for what we believe.  Sin not only weakens our faith but it invites death to the flesh, death to the soul, and death to faith beyond what our eyes can see.  Sin will always undermine faith like a house built on sand.  No sooner that the test comes to survive the storm and it collapses and is ruined. 

We become complacent with faith when we only call upon it when the going gets tough and we find ourselves unable to have the control over life that we want.  We believe we have faith in good times expecting it to remain ready for us.  However, without the exercise of faith daily when the time comes for the “test” we are like Peter on the water, “Lord save me!”.  Complacency is the slow death of faith. 

We fail to exercise our faith when our prayer life becomes a ritual for compliance, or we end any prayer life in our day.  An exercise of faith comes when we “go forth” with the armor of God to overcome the test of life through acts of faith.  It is in the encounter with life that we discover the strength of our faith and help it grow.  The exercise of faith is the connection of what we believe with what we practice.  If we believe in God as we say we do then there is a practice of prayer to receive him in our daily encounter with life. 

We refer to a mystery of faith to believe in God in three persons however, the evidence for God has been proven by science such as the need for a prime mover for creation to exist.  The probabilities that creation is simply an “accident” is debunked.  It has been proven by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus more than any of the miracles he performed.  It has also been proven in our experience of faith through prayer when our faith brings about a conversion from within.  We have been touched by God’s grace and we know that we know it was not us but something greater than us that we received. 

We are to pray “Lord increase my faith for your salvation”.  God save us from a culture of death seeking to deny God, suppress the freedom of religion, and cancel the voice of faith in the public square.  God save us from the sin of the flesh when “I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want” says Romans 7:19.  God save us from the blindness of our own sin when we fail to recognize evil and call it good in abortion, euthanasia, and gender neutrality.  God save us from the fires of hell for our mortal sin through his mercy and love coming from our confession of faith.  God save us, but he cannot save us without us.  This is the day of salvation when we accept to be followers of the way he left us.  This is the day to transcend ourselves and become what we were made to be, the children of God.  This is the day that our faith can save us. 

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