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Homily

22nd Sunday Ordinary Time – God wants you!

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Jer. 20:7-9; Ps 63:2-6, 8-9; Rom. 12:1-2; Mt. 16:21-27

God wants you!  God knows you and calls you by name, but it is not the name of our childbirth.  God has a name for us.  Do you know your name?  God wants you and I, mind, heart, and body, our whole being to be the sacrifice we offer up to him.  God does not settle for less but for the best of ourselves that we can be for his glory.  God is ready for us to “be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect”.  Are we ready for God?  Are we ready to surrender to his will, his vision for us, the calling that belongs to us?  The Father of life creates life with a divine purpose and he is waiting for us to receive him that he may “enlighten the eyes of our hearts and we may know what is the hope that belongs to our call.” 

God’s call for you and I is a personal call, he knows us by name and he desires us to discover that name.  What is in a God given name?  It is not the name of our childbirth but a God given name that comes with a divine purpose.  We should pray to know God’s name for us that we may respond to the call that comes with that name.  Abram’s name meant “high father” but Abraham means “father of many”.  Jacob’s name means ‘deceiver” having deceived his twin brother as heir to the birthright but changed to Israel meaning “one who struggles with God” because he overcame his struggle with God and with humans and was transformed into God’s faithful servant. 

When we bring a child for baptism we are asked “what name do you give your child?”  We often don’t consider a spiritual meaning to our child’s name.  In the past children were often given a name for the saint of the day as one of two names and many girls carried the name Mary as one of their two names.  This tradition has been forgotten in our times but we see it still in religious orders and when the Popes give to themselves a new name.  In the secular world people have no problem renaming themselves but it has nothing to do with God’s call and more for self-glorification.  Yet Jesus reminds us “what profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?” 

In every human soul there is a warrior spirit to carry the fight.  This warrior spirit comes from God with a divine purpose to love, serve, and sacrifice.  What we love we will sacrifice for and it will serve a greater purpose than ourselves.  We sacrifice for our family out of love and serve each other that all may be united as one.  This is God’s call that we may all be one in him.  Jesus however calls us to love, serve, and sacrifice beyond our family to the degree of self-denial to “take up his cross and follow me”. 

Today, Jeremiah is suffering an interior crisis in accepting his call to be a prophet for the Lord.  He calls out to God, “You duped me, O Lord, and I let myself be duped.”  Recall when a child comes about to ask for something there is a different pitch in their voice and so is in a spouse.  You know something is coming yet out of love of the person we accept being “duped” because we cannot resist their love.  This is Jeremiah’s reaction to God.  Jeremiah could not deny the Lord his calling knowing he would be persecuted.  In his weakness he wanted to remain silent but he could not contain himself what he knew was the truth God had revealed to him.  Even in weakness he understood there was only one right choice in serving God.  Do we recognize the choice God is asking of us this day?  In prayer we “discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect” obedience to his call. 

Suffering and dying to oneself will bring us to a crossroads where we will experience an interior crisis of faith, hope and love.  It presents in the many faces of suffering through sickness, death of a loved one, betrayal, persecution, rejection, even abandonment being forgotten as we age.  In the dark night where can we go, who can we turn to who truly knows us as we are but the one true God who brought us into this world and will come to take us with him.  A crisis of faith is a calling out to God to rescue us from our very selves, to see ourselves as he sees us, his love, mercy, and passion that died for us and will never abandon us. The God we trust more than ourselves.  God now and forever. 

Jesus is calling us to follow in his footsteps by being a warrior for what is good, pleasing, and perfect love of God.  When Peter takes Jesus aside and tries to rebuke him, he speaks as “human beings do”.  This is the same Peter who just before spoke through the Holy Spirit that Jesus was the “Christ, the son of the living God.”  How quickly he has returned to his human way of thinking.  How quickly we can lose focus of God’s call and will for us and become immersed in our own world unless we remain constantly coming to receive him in word, sacrament, and in prayer.  Peter reminds us that Satan never rests from being a distraction in the least and on the attack at worst. 

The universal church is under attack around the world.  In some places public worship is not allowed and the attack is from outside the church.  Most recently we had the Little Sister of the Poor having to defend their faith and practices all the way to the Supreme Court.  Traditional church values have been targeted as “extremist” and compared to “terroristic threats”.  Attack from the outside however is nothing new if we think back to the persecution of the early church.  The more it was persecuted the stronger and greater it grew.  This mystery is the fruit of sacrifice that came from the cross and martyrdom.  This calling remains today.  We are to not fear Satan from the outside. 

We are to be vigilant of Satan coming from the inside under the shadow of progressiveness.  Change can be good but it also can be the work of evil.  Jesus reminds us “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves; so be wise as serpents, and innocent as doves”.  Change that is self-serving is not the will of God.  The innocence of a warrior dove is that it delivers the “truth” as revealed by God and not by man.  A wise serpent recognizes the conduct of the evil serpent and is ready to be stand firm even at the cost of itself.  God wants you and I to stand firm and may our name be revealed with holy meaning that stands with and for Christ. 

God calls us by name so consider what God’s name for us is today.  God’s naming reflects his purpose and today he may be calling us “prayer warrior, voice of justice, fearless faith, comfort to the suffering, mercy to the unjust, hope in persecution”.  Most of all he calls us his own. 

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Homily

21st Sunday Ordinary Time – Key of the House

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Is. 22:19-23; Ps 138:1-3, 6, 8; Rom. 11:33-36; Mt. 16:13-20

Who has the key to God’s House?  “The key of the House” of God has been entrusted to his anointed from Abraham to David to Peter.  When Jesus gives Peter the keys to the kingdom of God this is nothing new.  Looking back in biblical history God has always called on someone to lead his people with great authority as we see today in the first reading “what he opens, no one shall shut, when he shuts, no one shall open”; and in the gospel “whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven”.  God is trusting humanity with the keys to the kingdom of heaven.  It begs the question “what were you thinking, God to give the key of the House to your servant?” 

Of course, our thinking is not the mind of God.  In fact, we are to put on the mind of God, to see with the eyes of faith, to trust with the heart of love, to be an imitation of Christ by dying to oneself that he may live in us.  I was listening to catholic radio and a caller this week said the priest at the church she attended said Jesus had made a mistake with the Canaanite woman and she corrected him when she said “even dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters”.  If Jesus is God and that we profess then God is perfect in his divinity and the ones who make mistakes are his people.  This is the perfect example of Jesus responding “Get behind me, Satan, you do not think as God does but as man” as he said to Peter who he gave the keys to the kingdom of heaven.  Again, “what were you thinking, God to give the key of the House to your servant?” 

Consider for a moment “who do we trust with the keys to our house?”  We may trust our kids, a servant that does our housekeeping, a family member who does not live with us, even a neighbor who has gained our trust.  We are by nature in need to trust others in order to function, to live in harmony, to ensure in an emergency someone can enter the house and take action.  We are in need of interdependence to be at peace.  Some say they don’t need church, just God and themselves.  How foolish to believe God operates by our rules and not his.  God instituted “Church” as his way and we are wise to follow his way. 

You and I, deacons, priests, religious in our humanity are imperfect but God chooses the imperfect to demonstrate his perfection when we surrender to his will.  Salvation comes through Christ and we come to Christ by coming to his house of prayer.  The Church holds the keys of the kingdom of heaven.  It is the Church that gave us the books of the Bible bound in heaven and earth as sacred scripture, the Word of God.   It is the Church that gives us the channel of grace through which Christ makes himself present to us in the sacraments.  It is the Church that guides the people of God to discern the will of the Father in our times as we deal with the issues of society.  It is the will of God to institute a Church governed by his anointed to whom he gives the keys to his house and through his house to the kingdom of heaven. 

God’s way is not our way as we read “For who has known the mind of the Lord” but the Lord’s way comes to us by revelation as we come to accept “how unsearchable his ways”.  The Lord reveals himself to his people where two or three are gathered in his name.  This is a truth that the Lord calls us all to be in fellowship coming to his house of prayer to receive him.  The Lord’s will is to come from him to us in the Eucharist, through him in the Holy Spirit, and for him by our worship in God’s house as one body of Christ. 

When Peter responds to Jesus saying “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”, Jesus confirms “For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father”.  We come to God’s house of prayer to receive from the Trinity God’s inspiration, the revelation and confirmation of truth that cuts to the heart of a person and sets us free.  This freedom of the soul allows to face all our trials, all that God may be asking of us this day with confidence as solid as a rock, the rock of the Church. 

Some have said and continue to say “I do not agree with everything the Church teaches”.  There is a litany of issues people object to from celibacy of the priesthood, ordination of men only as priest, the church position on abortion, euthanasia, death penalty, confession to a priest, even the requirements for the sacraments.  The Church is an institution of authority instituted by Christ for his people.  The Church however is its people in which we all share responsibility for building up the kingdom of God. 

Some say the Church is not a democracy and we do not all get to vote.  The Pope is selected by vote from the Cardinals.  There have been many Councils in Church history called by Popes that gather together to address matters of church governance approved by vote.  The conference of bishops comes together to establish some policies and norms for the Church in its region or territory by vote.  What about the voice of the laity?  The Church is also called to listen to the people of God and calls together Synods in which the people are called to contribute as members of the body of Christ. 

Synodality is a process by which laity and bishops share in collaboration and discernment as part of the body of Christ.  Synodality means a “journeying together as a People of God” to listen to each other how God speaks through the one and the many.  Pope Francis describes synodality as “an ecclesial journey that has a soul that is the Holy Spirit”.  Synodality is a shared responsibility to walk together as baptized Christians for the life and mission of the Church. 

Some confuse synodality as God coming to listen to us, our judgments, our wants, our intent to “fix” what we see is wrong in the Church.  Synodality is us coming to listen to God through prayer, reflection, and discernment of God’s will for us guided by the Holy Spirit.  The guiding principle of synodality is that it is not about us, it is about God’s will for us.  Not only are we called to walk together but God walks with us so that our hearts may burn with his Spirit just as it did to the two disciples who walked with Jesus on the road to Emmus. 

The key of the house of God is like a jigsaw puzzle in which all the people of God hold a piece of the key through baptism but it is when we come together to worship as one body that the mystery of faith is opened to unlock and set free the gifts of the Spirit upon all the body.  We each hold and share in opening the house of God to all his people.  The key of the house of God is the way into the kingdom of God.  Blessed are we that God finds us in his House.  The key to the house of God begins in the heart of a Christian.  Together we care for God’s House and together we build up the kingdom of God. 

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Homily

20th Sunday Ordinary Time – “A house of prayer”

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Is. 56:1, 6-7; Ps 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8; Rom. 11:13-15, 29-32; Mt. 15:21-28

The Lord provides a “house of prayer for all peoples” who “observe what is right, do what is just”.  This is that house of prayer that Jesus instituted as he poured down the Holy Spirit upon his people on Pentecost.  Pentecost is considered the birth of the Church with Jesus as our High Priest and the disciples as the new Apostolic priesthood for the world.  The Lord makes joyful this house of prayer uniting our worship of the one true God with all the angels and saints in the Eucharistic celebration of the body and blood of Jesus.  It is the presence of Jesus in his house of prayer that is welcoming all people calling us to observe all that he taught. 

St. Paul calls himself “the apostle to the Gentiles”.  The other apostles were going out to minister to the Jews in the synagogues that had spread throughout the ancient territory during several periods of exile called the Diaspora.  While the Jewish population was significant it was also small compared to the rest of the Gentile world.  Paul saw his calling was to the Gentiles who were pagan and followed many gods.  In the end, Paul became the greatest evangelizer of the world.  Paul desires “to make his race jealous” that they may see the face of God shine upon the Gentiles and come to conversion and “thus save some of them”. 

Years ago, in the 1970’s when I was going to college in California, I went to a Native American festival.  People kept asking me what tribe did I belong to.  They saw in me what I did not recognize in myself.  More recently I had a DNA test done and found out that I was 53% Native American.  It makes me wonder without St. Paul being called by Jesus which tribe would I belong to today?  St. Paul takes Jews and Gentiles and binds us all together as God’s creation for we all belong to the one human race God created in his image. 

St. Paul reminds us that “God delivered all to disobedience” meaning we were all born with the original sin of disobedience from Adam and Eve.  We all fall short of the glory of God.  We all sin and are in need of forgiveness.  We are also all called to conversion that we may all receive the mercy of God.  Within the Christian world of this day there is a misconception among some that profess they have been saved and thus are no longer sinners claiming to belong to the righteous people.  They then are forced to project the illusion of perfection while hiding the secret of their sinfulness within the passions of the flesh. 

There is a joke which I will modify out of respect to our separated Christian faithful.  It says, “Catholics drink their beer in the front porch of the house while other denominations drink theirs on the back porch where no one can see them.”  This so called “joke” gives the impression that Catholics seem to accept being sinners without desire to change while other denominations hide their struggle to change for the better.  This is a sad duality to live in for it denies God the opportunity to pour out his mercy on his people when we fail to recognize our sinfulness and confess our sins. 

The Catholic Church in its wisdom by the gift of the Spirit recognizes that if we are to give worship to God in his house of prayer we first must come and admit our sins to be forgiven and for our sacrifice of worship to be acceptable to the Lord.  This is why our Mass begins with the Confiteor.  It is the visible testimony of our need for God to fill us with his grace and strengthen our resolve to be a better Christian, to live more holy lives, and to seek his perfection that his face may shine upon us as a visible sign of God’s mercy upon us.    

 It is in the Lord’s house of prayer that we come to plead “Lord, help me”.  The Lord hears the cry of the poor and humble.    In the gospel the Canaanite woman pleads to Jesus for healing for her daughter.  Jesus speaks to the truth of his coming “to the lost sheep of Israel” but as we discover the lost sheep not only did not accept him but crucified him.  Jesus in his divinity understood what was to come yet he spoke to fulfill the law and then he acted to perfect the law through the Canaanite woman, the law of love, mercy and grace. 

Jesus spoke harshly to the Canaanite woman for she represented a culture that was polytheistic, worshiping many gods who were condemned in the Old Testament.  Canaanites were inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed by fire directly by God.  They were hostile to the Israelites as God gives to Abraham in Genesis the land of Canaan.  In this context we can say that the “enemy” of the Israelites is now asking for a favor from Jesus and he makes the comparison between children and dogs.  The woman however has the great comeback “even dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters”. 

A child comes into this world through the womb of a mother.  She gives life to this child, blood of her blood and through the womb a mother knows sacrificial love.  When a child becomes sick a mother’s desire is to wish the sickness on herself if it would heal her child rather than see her child suffer.  It is humbling to see a child suffer and from deep within the sincerity of prayer comes to life our nothingness if we don’t have God.  The Canaanite woman was both humbled by Jesus and filled with faith from her love of a daughter. 

I have a small inside dog and I feed him before sitting down to eat.  He knows to not be asking for food from the table and sits just watching.  He also has a great nose to smell and if anything falls on the floor, he is quick to walk around and snap it up.  He is a canine vacuum cleaner when it comes to food on the floor.  In this woman Jesus discovers the sincerity of her heart and her persistence in pleading to the Lord.  She gives witness to his disciples of great faith granting her petition and extending his mercy and love beyond the people of Israel.  If he can heal a Canaanite child then his law of love is now for all who come to him with great sincerity of heart. 

As we come to Mass today let us come with the same sincerity of heart as the Canaanite woman not acting out of the law of compliance but out of the law of love.  Let our prayer speak to our minds and reach deep into our hearts.  It is easy to fall into repetition of prayer and never truly pray.  Prayer comes from deep within, an honest expression of our very being, thoughts, feelings and experience of life as an offering of ourselves to God in this his house of prayer. 

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Homily The Deacon Joe

19th Sunday Ordinary Time – Tiny whispering sound

Posted on by Deacon Joe

1 Kgs. 19:9a, 11-13a; Ps 85:9-14; Rom. 9:1-5; Mt. 14:22-33

The Lord came to Elijah in “a tiny whispering sound”.  We live in a time with great focus on “climate change” and preserving the environment.  For centuries people have been waiting for the final coming of the Lord and the “end times” also called Eschatology “the study of the last things to come”.  When major tragedies of events happen in the world many question “could this be the end times?”  Today we hear of records being broken for high temperatures, major fires from Canada, the melting icebergs, record flooding in some areas while others have major droughts and again many ask “could this be the end times?”    Elijah the great prophet teaches us today that the Lord is not in the crushing wind, or the earthquake, or the fire but in the tiny whispering sound. 

The Lord speaks to us in the silence but we must be very still to hear his whispering in our hearts.  There is a retreat center not far from us along the King Ranch area called Leb Shomea where the rule of the center is “silence”.  You arrive in silence and you leave in silence and you determine how long you wish to stay.  The goal is captured in the Greek word “Prautes” meaning “with a still heart”.  If we really desire to prepare ourselves for the coming of the Lord then we must find time to be still and silent to hear his tiny whispering sound speak to us and enlighten us to his presence already with us.  The Lord comes to those who wait upon the Lord having prepared themselves for his coming.  Are we prepared today that he would come to us this day and reveal to us his love, his mercy, his presence through the Holy Spirit?  Have we prepared to receive him body, blood, soul and divinity in the Eucharist, with prayer, sacrifice, charity, and love?

The end times comes every day, sometimes suddenly and unexpected to the individual who takes his last breath of mortal life and passes on to his day of judgment.  The end times has come to every civilization that has existed in the past most having only a few centuries of history before collapsing.  The end of an age has come from prehistoric, to ice age, Bronze age, Middle Ages and so on all coming to an end and passing on to a “new world order”.  For the world it is about the existence of the planet and the people who inhabit it.  For God it is about the Kingdom of God that has come to those who call upon the Lord to receive it.  When we pray “thy Kingdom come” we pray not for the end times to come but for the present kingdom of God that is with us.  We pray to be in his kingdom this day guided by the Holy Spirit, received by the Father and brothers in Christ Jesus. 

We pray to let thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.  It does not come in the thunder of the world but in the silence of the heart as a whispering sound.  We pray “let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation” this day from every evil and temptation we face.  Save us from the snares of the devil, save us from sin of the flesh, and save us from the pride of the heart. The Lord saves us in the whispering sound of his truth that speaks to our hearts, in his justice looking down from heaven that convicts us when we stray from the truth, and in the blessings that increase when we walk before him in the “way of his steps”.  God has given us his footsteps to follow.  It is in his word, in his sacrifice on the cross, in his food we receive in the Eucharist, and in his mercy and kindness we experience from his love.  That is why we say “the kingdom of heaven is at hand” because it is here, if only we open our hearts and listen for his voice in the whispering sound. 

In the gospel today, Jesus goes up on the mountain to pray by himself, seeking silence to listen to his own heart and be in union with the Father.  The disciples however are “a few miles offshore” on a boat when Jesus appears to them walking on the sea towards them.  These are grown men yet they cry out in fear like little children.  Jesus reassures them to “take courage, it is I; do not be afraid”.  Peter’s courage is short lived at first asking to go to Jesus on the water and then as soon as he does fear and doubt take over and he begins to sink calling out “Lord, save me!”  When the Lord call on us, he desires us to get out of our comfort zone, to walk in faith with courage called to make a leap of faith.  Most people are like the disciples who would not even think of trying to walk on water.  Peter dared to ask and was granted this blessing but like the seed that fell on rock soil his faith soon died and he sank into the water.  The Lord said to Peter as he says to us “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” 

This reading came to my mind a few years ago when I was at a conference.  One of the conference evening activities included the opportunity to do the “fire walk”.  They laid out burning wood creating a path of about ten yards and people who wanted to experience the fire walk were invited to participate.  The instructor first gave us the demonstration and slowly some chose to walk on fire and others not.  This reminded me of Peter who climbed out of the boat and discovered he could walk on water.  As I saw other people do it, I realized fear was the only thing stopping me and so I decided that even though I did not know how it was possible, my eyes saw that it was possible and so I did it.  What is God calling us to step out of the boat and onto the water for him?  What is the fire that makes us fearful and avoid becoming even a stronger person of faith?

I just read a short book by Mathew Kelly called “Everybody Evangelizes About Something”.  When we become excited about something we almost can’t keep it to ourselves.  If we get excited about something new, we bought, we tell others how we are enjoying it.  This is not only free marketing but a form of evangelizing a product.  If we are excited about a sports team, we love talking about it and promoting the team.  The question then is why do we fear evangelizing about our faith in God, as Catholic Christians?  Letting others know our identity as a Catholic Christian is an open invitation to dialogue about our faith.  Perhaps the next time someone asks, “what do you do?” instead of answering with what work you do consider first responding with “I practice my Catholic faith in order to serve God first.  I try to do it in everything I do”.   How is that for a segway to evangelization. 

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Homily

Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Dn. 7:9-10, 13-14; Ps 97:1-2, 5-6, 9; 2 Pt. 1:16-19; Mt. 17:1-9

The Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord is a reminder of the “prophetic message” of what waits for those who trust in the Lord.  The gospel truth that Peter, James, and John witnessed was the window into the prophesy of life after death.  It is a confirmation of the word from God as Jesus says “He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”  When someone we know dies, we pray for the dead, we offer Masses, and we can even pray to them to ask for their intercession for us all because we believe they remain alive waiting for the Lord’s final return when our souls will be reunited to our body. 

In the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus, Moses and Elijah appeared beside him meaning they were recognizable, alive and conversing with Jesus.  At the same time something was different in Jesus with his face shining like the sun and his clothes as white as light.  The transfiguration of the Lord is a sign of holiness we are all called seek in order to see the face of God and live.  Sin cannot exist before the presence of the Lord.  The Lord hidden within the cloud proclaims “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”  The Lord is pleased with Jesus fulfilling the divine purpose for his coming into the world.  The Lord is pleased with us when we follow his commands fulfilling our calling for the greater good. 

In the prophetic vision of Daniel, the “Ancient One” who is God the Father is with “One like the Son of man” who is Jesus receiving “dominion, glory, and kingship”.  They however are not alone because of the “thousands and myriads” ministering and attending to him.  Who are these who minister and attend to the Lord?  We know the choir of angels are before the Lord but we also believe in the resurrection of the dead who responded to the call to holiness and are in communion with God as saints in heaven.  Heaven is waiting but not all have accepted the call. 

Some believe there is no life after death.  They believe without the brain the human person ceases to exist.  It is a false materialistic view of what it means to be a person.  Modern science keeps making progress in identifying aspects of the brain associated with cognition and emotion which if damaged ceases to sustain the identity of a person.  In the extreme circumstances It has been called “brain dead” even as the rest of the body remains able to sustain life. 

The theory is that the “self” requires a body to exist.  Science however falls short of being able to capture the nature of self-awareness, the essence of having “experience” and the process of reasoning to produce creativity.  The soul is the essence of life united to the body as a visible image through which it manifests itself.  The body decays and dies but the soul remains alive.

Some try to resolve the conflict of life after death by claiming life eternal is process of “reincarnation” into another human person living in this earth as a soul that gained a new body.  The problem is that this would then be another person and not the same person.  This is not what the disciple saw in the transfiguration when they witnessed Moses and Elijah next to Jesus.  What this group tries to create and explain away is that there can be no after life outside of this world.  To this we say, did not Jesus appear to the twelve disciples and then to many in his resurrection?  He was not only recognizable but also came in body to be touched and to join in a meal and yet something was different.  For one his body was not limited by matter as he passed through the door to enter the house where the disciples were gathered.  This was not a vision but the real presence of Jesus with his disciples. 

The Catholic Christian view is in the resurrected body to come and in the life of the person continuing at the moment of mortal death.  Many try to make an argument that it is unknown when personhood begins after conception, thus the defense for abortion is that “it” is not a person with equal rights.  This argument of lack of personhood is even pushed beyond the moment of birth. It feeds off the belief that it takes a material body at some stage of development to be a person.  The Catholic view is that life begins at conception with a God given soul, a created identity of a person and one that remains alive after mortal death of the body.  The soul does not depend on the body but the body does require a soul to be a person. 

The soul has a God given identity with the capacity for self-awareness, a free will to make conscious and moral decisions even in sacrifice of self.  Artificial intelligence is ultimately a programming process of information creating a product that is produced through a linkage of data points with known probabilities of the expected outcome yet no self-awareness, no conscience of right or wrong, and no moral capacity to experience what love is.  The soul is created in the image of God that sets us free to be aware of a God outside of ourselves, beyond the world as we know it, with the capacity to love and share our experience because we were created in his image.

The Transfiguration of the Lord is our hope and our window to the afterlife.  Let us believe and prepare for this glorious day. 

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Homily

17th Sunday Ordinary Time – Kingdom of Heaven

Posted on by Deacon Joe

1 Kgs. 3:5, 7-12; Ps 119:57, 72, 76-77, 127-130; Rom. 8:28-30; Mt. 13:44-52

Jesus compares the Kingdom of heaven to a treasure we can hold, fine pearls to appeal to the eyes, and a great catch to appeal to the appetite and yet it is none of this.  Jesus has a way of drawing us in appealing to our interests yet taking us to a place we cannot imagine.  That is because the kingdom of heaven is not a “thing” we hold but a way of being.  Being in the kingdom of God is something that is lived.  We cannot grasp it with our hands but we can know we are there by living it and by the fruit of our lives where we can see the hand of God at work to sanctify us, save us and answer our prayers. 

There is the story of an atheist teacher who said to the class “There is no God.  Has anyone ever seen God?”  One student then asked the teacher, “Have you ever seen your brain?”  The teacher said “no”.  Then the student replied “then you have no brain”.  The kingdom of God come to us through invisible grace seen at work through visible signs.  We hear in the Old Testament how no one can see the face of God and live and yet God reveals himself indirectly through visible signs, the burning bush, the voice in the clouds, the angels as messengers.  It is the will of God to reveal himself to us but we have to seek him.  That requires our time to be in prayer, receiving the sacraments, and responding to the movement of the spirit in us. 

The Kingdom of God is reflected in what Solomon asked of God.  He asked for understanding as a way of being able to see, hear, and know how to lead his people.  The inspiration of understanding produced the fruit of a good leader.  The kingdom of heaven comes to us through the spiritual gifts from God while we are in this world.  They allow us to see him in our world and to serve him by our very being in this world.  The kingdom of God is transformative of our humanity into his divinity. 

God plants his law into the heart of a person to live in freedom within his kingdom.  It is a kingdom where two hearts are united as one.  The sacred heart of Jesus united to the sacred heart of Mary, the giving of self in the sacramental love of a man and a woman in holy matrimony, the call to Holy Orders for a priest consecrated to the Church and our baptismal vows for every Christian to be one with Jesus all reflect the real kingdom of God.  It is a kingdom of love in the giving of ourselves to the other.  This was the request of Solomon to receive the gift of understanding in order to give of himself to his people as a wise leader and servant of God. 

How do we reflect the kingdom of God in our lives?  Perhaps we don’t realize the great miracle of how God is working in and through us each day simply because from within the kingdom we have been sheltered by his grace not having lived outside of his mercy and love.  Recall the story of what is commonly known as the prodigal son who left his father and went outside the kingdom to live his own life.  How soon he discovered the consequences of mortal sin coming from being outside of the kingdom.  At the same time the other son who always stayed within the kingdom of the father did not appreciate all that was his and felt resentful of the father for his mercy to his brother.  The kingdom of God “revealed to little ones the mysteries of the kingdom” and in baptism we are all his little ones.  Sometimes we simply don’t know what to ask for that God is ready to grant us. 

The Lord’s desire is to enrich us with the gifts of the Spirit that we may all be saints.  This cannot be unless we ourselves come to him with the desire to serve and not be served as Solomon did.  Solomon was the prototype of Jesus who was to come to serve the Father for our salvation.  The love of God is the love of his commands.  It is to see in his commands the good seed of his word given to us in order to serve him by our lives.  Service is at the heart of being Christian. 

There is an expression in Spanish “cada cabeza es un mundo”, every head is its own world.  It implies that we are all a unique individual, and in many ways different than any other individual that has walked this earth.  Thus, we often focus on our differences and what separates us.  We should also recognize what unites us is that we are all created in the image of God.  Jesus prayed to the Father that we may all be one.  It is a prayer that we may all find our identity in Christ and follow in his footsteps.

In baptism we then all carry a new beginning with a Christ centered image and purpose.  Christ is the sower of the field and the field is our heart.  In our hearts he places his law to come to him, to know him and to love him.  The seed is his word that is to bloom in our hearts and the fruit of the bloom is our love for God and others.   The pearl of life then is our identity in Christ to know ourselves not only as a child of God but as a saint in the kingdom of God reflecting the image of Christ by the gifts we have received and live by. 

This all seems great until we recognize his image includes the wood of the cross, love through sacrifice and justice through mercy.  Can we really love our enemies?  How can this be?  It can only be in the heart of the one who knows “all things work for good for those who love God.”  Our God is a transformative God.  Recall those toys called “Transformers” of the 1980s, how they transform objects to come to life as action heroes and villains.  God is the ultimate transformer of lives from what is to what we are called to be. 

Whether in life or death, God promises “those he called he also justified; and those he justified he also glorified”.  In the end it is not whether we live or die in this life but how we lived and died for the eternal promises of the kingdom of heaven. 

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Homily

16th Sunday Ordinary Time “Master of might”

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Wis. 12:13, 16-19; Ps 65:10-14; Rom. 8:18-23; Mt. 13:1-23

The “Master of might…comes to judge with clemency”.  God is the Master of might who is all knowing and all powerful.   He comes through the Spirit “to the aid of our weakness”.  The Spirit within reaches to the heavens to “intercede with inexpressible groanings” uniting our will to the will of God.  God’s will is for all to seek forgiveness and receive clemency for our sins to enter the kingdom of heaven.  God’s care is for all but not all care to receive it. 

The kingdom of heaven lies within the soul having come through Jesus himself in baptism.  He is the gift of the kingdom for eternal life.  Today Jesus explains the parable of the good seed and the weeds in the context of salvation history.  The baptized have become the “good seed the children of the kingdom” and the “weeds are the children of the evil one” sown by the devil and the battle is waged for the souls of humanity. 

Our world then is divided into the “haves and the have nots”, those who have God in their life and those who God is seeking because they have not received him, for he desires all to be saved.  However, before we become naïve into assuming salvation is ours and we own it as an entitlement while the weeds are lost forever consider that for the Master of might all things are possible “for your might is the source of justice”.  The lost can be converted while the righteous can become perverted. 

There is also a different way we could interpret the parable of the good seed and weeds.   The good seed can also be Jesus and the gifts of the Holy Spirit while the weeds are the sin we carry still with us.  The mercy of God allows us as children of the kingdom to exist waiting for us to pull out the weeds of sin we carry by coming to receive him in the sacramental life of the Church.  The evil one always seeks to plant more weeds in our soul tempting us to feed the weeds by our indulgence in sin.   Sin however cannot remain when we call on the Spirit to grow stronger and deeper in our souls.  This is our time to purge ourselves of our sins with the power, love and mercy of God. 

There is among some in the Christian world outside of the Catholic faith who believe “once saved always saved”.  Salvation comes from God and the day of judgment awaits us all. This is why we hear today in the book of wisdom “you gave your children good ground of hope that you would permit repentance for their sins.”  Repentance is not a “one and done” act of faith that we put in our back pocket and then go on to live our lives.  Repentance is a daily act of seeking forgiveness for the sins we have done and what we have failed to do in our call to serve God. 

I recall my mother telling me the story of going to visit her friend when I was but 3.  Her friend had a son with lots of toys to play with and so we played together.  When we returned home, she noticed I was acting different so she began questioning me.  I started to walk backwards to where the bed was and under the pillow I hid a little toy taken from the friend’s house.  She made me return it.  Some say children don’t sin.  Did I know it was wrong?  Clearly my behavior said “guilty”.  Did I do it intentionally knowing it was wrong?  Again “guilty”!  Did I have to make amends?  My punishment for doing wrong was always going to kneel down and pray by my bed.  Do children sin, take candy from the store and hide it in their pocket?  

Since we are all children of God what have we stolen from him to whom everything belongs beginning with ourselves?  We can be guilty of taking our time, talent and treasure for our own indulgence never offering anything of ourselves for him.  We can also fail to love others as he has loved us without giving from his charity, we have received from him.  All we have and all we are is to serve his greater purpose. 

Sin is a constant condition of humanity in the weaknesses of the flesh, the mind and the will.  This is why we must call on the Spirit to come to the aid of our weaknesses that are multiple.  As St. Augustine said, “the spirit” speaking of our own spirit “is willing but the flesh is weak”.  We are weak to the many sins we must overcome in a lifelong battle till the end.  Our hope lies in the mercy of God who in his mighty power makes him “lenient to all”.  Hope is for all to come to the Master of might for our salvation. 

The Master comes with his power to empower the children of the kingdom.  We are empowered through the Spirit with the gifts of the Spirit to be warriors against evil.  Therefore, he will “rebuke temerity” if we deny him before others.  We deny him when we remain silent in the face of injustice.  We deny him when he comes to us in the poor, the sick, and the hungry.  We deny him when we fail to pray as we ought and become indifferent in our prayer life.  We must look to the gift of the Holy Spirit to intercede for us and overcome our indifference to God’s presence or we dare to one day hear from the Master of might “I do not know you”. 

Children of God are not timid in their faith.  We may appear as timid by remaining humble but humble people have the strength of spirit to remain faithful, enduring hardship, persevering not by might but by love of God and willing to deny themselves for the greater good.  God “rebukes timidity” as a sign of lack of faith.  The God of might gives us of his power for every encounter in life to stand firm with him.  Timidity reveals a superficial “skin deep” commitment to God and a fool’s religion to the world that sees only weakness to be exploited. 

Children of God are called to be battle ready.  The battle will come from the enemy, the evil one who looks for our weaknesses and knows how to bring on the attack.  Are we ready for the spiritual battle?  With every victory over evil, we become like the mustard seed growing bigger and stronger in our faith.  Others come like birds seeking to receive cover, nourishment and a blessing from the holiness of a child of God.  We want to be that person who shares in the cross of Jesus and is not afraid. 

The kingdom of God comes through Jesus the “unleavened bread” who we receive in the Eucharist.  He comes to take our mere mortal existence and raise it up like yeast to become part of his body in the divine life.  We in turn offer ourselves up to him to be the source of bread to the world not alone but with Jesus who transforms us.  In our love we become partakers in the bread of life for eternal salvation. 

The Lord is good and forgiving, not once or twice but constantly looking to build up the kingdom of God through his people.  The plan of salvation calls for the people of God to be faithful and the Master of might will provide the strength and power in our weakness.  We are his people called to come and receive Jesus, body, blood, soul, and divinity; called to take up the cross and go forth to be the difference this world needs. 

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Homily

15th Sunday Ordinary Time “Parable of the Sower”

Posted on by Deacon Joe

The parable of the Sower is the revelation of Christ himself, the word made flesh revealing God’s truth to his people.  It is a revelation also of the heart of mankind at all stages of faith and desire for the mysteries of God.  It begs the question “how much does it matter to see, to listen and to understand what God desires to reveal to us?”  Jesus is the seed that comes to us in baptism with hope to grow strong within the soul of a person and reveal himself in all his love and splendor.  The seed of baptism is the beginning of the gift of Jesus himself but it is up to us now to attend to this gift by our priorities.  Where our time, energy, and focus is spent reveals what really matters in our lives and God knows it. 

It could be that it really doesn’t matter that much to the one who does not understand the reality of God’s presence in the world and dismisses it as mythology.  We are all born ignorant and must be taught the “how to” of life, how to speak, read, walk and even how to understand our roles as a child, student, parent, and worker.  We all know that the first teachers of our children are the parents.  We love it when they begin to talk their first words and learn their ABCs.  Ignorance is replaced with knowledge, and knowledge with understanding and understanding with wisdom.  For many the sins of the parents is having failed to bring their child in the knowledge of God teaching them all about survival in the world and little about salvation from the world. 

Even the agnostic can attain wisdom since that person too is a child of God but without God it is a limited wisdom of the world.  The atheist however has heard of God and rejected God to be their own god.  Without the seed of Christ their hour of salvation is quickly coming to an end as they sink deeper into the quicksand of death.  Did they ever have anyone to teach them there is a God who loves them?  Ignorance of God is death. 

We also must be taught to know ourselves as a child of God.  Do we rejoice by teaching our children the “Our Father” in the same way as reciting the ABCs?  In baptism class, I often ask parents if they know the prayer to their guardian angel.  Not surprising few were taught the prayer as children themselves.  We cannot live a faith we have not learned how to live.  If we wait for them to grow and learn later in life the evil one will have the advantage like a bird that comes to eat up any signs of faith in God.   The evil one is the master of denial, deception, and doubt to bring confusion of faith and loss of hope in a God. 

It could be that God revealing himself to us matters only when it comes to the wonders and gifts God brings us like a mythical Santa Claus to the world but the heart quickly loses interest in the gift when it requires commitment, practice, or sacrifice. Now the road becomes rocky even facing tribulation.  We can quickly lose heart in pursuing the things of God.  The seed on rocky ground lacks maturity of discipline and perseverance.  It is excited to go to retreats, Christian concerts, and even enter into different religious movements but soon the excitement wanes never taking root in any commitment to the faith.  

We all live in a culture full of thorny ground.  Common sense understanding of life such as such as male or female is no longer accepted as a reality but a state of mind.  Christian values are under attack and the concept of go along to get along no longer works in segments of society.  The thorns of a culture of death are here to choke out any life of faith in a God.  Then there is the weakness of the flesh exposed to sin where sin is now a freedom to be honored not just with tolerance but with reverence in society. Compliance is demanded in order to be accepted in a thorny world.  It becomes easy to lose focus on living an active spiritual life by trying to “fit in”.   This is the test of our times no longer able to remain silent but expected to participate in the sins of this world.  Whose fruit will we bear and which god do we serve?  The God of heaven or the god of the world waiting to devour us.

Finally, is the one who has eyes to see the hand of God working in his creation, has ears to hear his call to do his will as an instrument of God’s love, and whose heart understands the truth of the mystery of redemption not in theory but in practice bearing fruit in all seasons.  We become “that one” the person of faith in the one true God who reveals himself within his kingdom where we are called to enter and see, experience and love, and live our God-given purpose.  We not only have to live it but it becomes our identity as a child of God.  Christianity is not something we do it is who we are. 

Some people will say “I don’t do religion I am just spiritual”.  Translation is they don’t belong to a God they are their own god as they meditate on themselves.  We respond “I don’t do religion either, I am of God”.  Religion is not something you do it is something God does and gave us to bring us to him.  A person of God comes to church so God can do his mystery of love in the sacraments and give of himself to us.  

We are call called to be that person but to be that person we must also be “shrewd as serpents and simple as doves” says Jesus to his Apostles “as sheep in the midst of wolves”.  As we often hear “ignorance is no excuse”.  We must not only walk by faith but know our faith and follow the teachings that comes through Jesus to his Apostles, his church, and his people as a community of believers.  Jesus is with us to help us navigate through what Saint John Paul II called a “culture of death”.  We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us otherwise it is a battle of the wolves seeking to prey on the weak that is “p-r-e-y” not “p-r-a-y”. 

Every day can turn into a day when the ground beneath us will tremble, the sun will be overshadowed and darkness can cover us.  It is then that we will discover what really matters and our readiness to walk without fear in the light of Christ.  If we desire to be and to remain as the person of faith, hope, and love in all seasons, then let us remain close to Jesus, receive his body and blood in the Eucharist, spend time with his Word making every day an offering of ourselves as we do the work before us.  Jesus comes to the humble heart that is that person of prayer who knows “I am of God”. 

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Homily

14th Sunday Ordinary Time “Life in the Spirit”

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Zec. 9:9-10; Ps 1451-2, 8-11, 13-14; Rom. 8:9, 11-13; Mt. 11:25-30

The Lord says, “Come to me…and I will give you rest” by living life in the Spirit.  The Lord invites us to bring him our burdens and learn from him.  The Lord says, “come to me” and he will teach us how to live and never die when “the Spirit of God dwells in you.”  The Spirit of God comes to us from the moment of baptism to be at our side, to lift our burdens and dominate our flesh.  Then we ask, “why do we suffer, why is life burdensome, why do we give into the temptation of the flesh and do what we know not to do and avoid what we need to do?”  We remain a student of the teacher and not always a good student of living life in the Spirit. 

When Jesus appears to his disciples in the upper room his greeting to them is “peace be with you”.  I imagine they were startled, not sure if they were seeing a ghost or a reality and fearful of how to respond.  His greeting however was more than just an effort to calm them down.  It was a gift of peace they were going to need in order to carry forth the mission to come.  The future was not a kingdom of luxury, royalty, or peace as the world defines it.  It was a future of hardship, persecution, hunger, and martyrdom for many.  Few would survive it but none could endure it without having the peace of Christ to trust in the Lord what was to be the “big picture” of salvation. 

The disciples were willing to be instruments of God’s love and focus on doing what Jesus taught them and sent them out to do.  They were obedient to the Lord even unto death unwilling to deny him to the powers of this world.  They received the gift of peace that comes with life in the Spirit. 

I was at a training and the trainer asked us to answer three questions and discuss them at our table.   One of the questions was “what makes you happy?”  As you can imagine and even among your family there are going to be a variety of responses.  We don’t all agree with what makes us happy and answers can vary from “a cold beer on a hot day” to “family, friends, or going on vacation”.  When we look to happiness, we look to tangible things we can touch, see, feel, taste.  We seek happiness in the exterior life where it tends not to last forever.  Even family and friends pass away and then what?  

When it was my turn to respond to the “happiness” question I said “to be at peace”.  We all know the famous quote from St. Augustine who said, “we are restless until we rest in Thee oh God”.   This restlessness is more than an uneasiness, it is a search for purpose and peace.  It drives us to keep searching.  The disciple knew their purpose and so they were at peace even in the midst of hardship.  We find both in God but we often seek it in the exterior life where it is transitory and we can never hold on to it.  Not money, fame, or power brings peace, not to our lives or to this world.  It comes as a gift from God that opens us up to life in the Spirit so that all things are then for his glory and our eternal peace, joy, and love. 

To live life in the Spirit is not this automated artificial intelligence as robots or puppets where God pulls all the strings and we respond without freedom.  Life in the Spirit is freedom as we grow in the spirit of God.  The Sacramental life is there to teach us from the moment of baptism with the coming of the Holy Spirit but it is only a beginning.  We must be fed from the body and blood of Christ through Holy Communion.  We must accept the invitation by our own free will in confirmation and we must continue to grow in faith, hope and love and all the Cardinal virtues in living life in the Spirit of God.  Most of all we must come to him in a loving relationship to be his own children. 

How is our relationship with our God, King of kings, and Lord of lords this day?  When was the last time we invited God to come to us and be “my Lord and my God”?  It is to be a daily invitation to God that he remains in us and reveal himself to us as we go about doing and living our God given purpose.  Life in the Spirit is an active life of love of God and love of neighbor.  It is a life filled with decisions to make.  The decision to come to Mass or not, to be patient or get upset, to seek righteousness or allow injustice, to be a peacemaker or a rebel rouser.  Life is filled with choices but we are remined that the choice we make, makes us who we are.  We desire to be better then come to the Lord to find the choice that comes from God. 

When I was going into middle school, I had a major decision to make that would determine my future for the next six years.  It was going to be football or band because in those days both were not allowed in school.  I turned to my mother for advice hoping to get some guidance.  I considered my mother a woman of wisdom, always giving advice to people and many of my cousins referred to her as “mama Chela” for her motherly ways.  The last thing I expected was for her to look at me and say “You will have to decide.”  That was it, that was all she said.  I was going to have to make this decision, own it and live with it.  Her job was to help me grow and prepare me to make difficult decisions and this was going to be one of them.  In life a parent prepares their children to make choices, especially because as a parent we are not always there when our children have to make a choice in life. 

Jesus was often referred to as “teacher”.  He prepared his disciples with many lessons for three years knowing the day was coming when he would leave them and they would have to look back and remember the lessons learned and follow his teaching.  Jesus also promised them and us he would send the Holy Spirit to discern the will of God and unite our will to his that we may be one with him.  This is our comforter but we too in the end have to make the choice to accept the teaching, to follow, or to go our way.  Life in the Spirit is the way. 

I saw a picture on Facebook of a little girl looking very stern and pointing a finger out.  On top are the words “Don’t worry about dying, you will live forever.”  Then on the bottom it says, “All you have to worry about is Location, Location, Location.”  Heaven, purgatory or hell and purgatory is the final cleansing of our souls to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect.  You will have to decide the road you take but in the end the road you choose makes your destination.  Life is a choice, choose wisely!  The Lord’s love is for us to be in heaven.  

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Homily

13th Sunday Ordinary Time “Died with Christ”

Posted on by Deacon Joe

2 Kgs. 4:8-11, 14-16a; Ps 89:2-3, 16-19; Rom. 6:3-4, 8-11; Mt. 10:37-42

Worthy is the one who had died with Christ.  In baptism we have entered in death to sin and risen into life with Christ.  Life with Christ is a surrender into living the life of Christ, imitators of his passion, worthy of the cross, and recipients of the eternal gifts.  We died with Christ to be a royal priesthood, a holy nation.  If we have died with Christ in baptism then death has no power over us.  We surrender our mortal bodies in order to receive the eternal rewards of heaven each according to the fruit of our love for Christ.  This reward is according to how we received him in this life, how we served him in righteousness, how we cared for the “little ones” most in need. 

Elisha, a holy man of God personifies the image of God whose generosity is beyond our imagination.  The woman in the first reading is not mentioned by name yet she is recognized for her generosity to Elisha.  She, a childness woman could not have imagined Elisha would have intervened with God to grant her “a baby son”.  This is not the only time God comes to grant a childless woman a baby in scripture and yet we know that all Old Testament scripture points to the child Jesus who is to come into the world, the greatest of gifts.  When we give in generosity God’s blessings are multiplied in our life. 

Spinoza the philosopher says, “If love is the goal, then generosity is the road to it”.  We all search for love, need to feel loved, and desire to love.  Love is the spiritual bond that unites us to God, to each other, and to creation.  Recall the lyrics from the movie Urban Cowboy “searching for love in all the wrong places”.  The problem is the approach, the more you search the harder to find however the more you give the more it is revealed to you.  Generosity begins with a generous God who teaches us how to love and discover love.  If we seek love without God we will be greatly mislead.  In generosity we discover our true friends who love us at all times and prove themselves in adversity to be faithful.  God is faithful and generous and his love is everlasting.   Seek God first and true love will be revealed through God as he makes all things possible. 

This is why Jesus says “Whoever loves father or mother…son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me”.  This seems a hard teaching unless we recognize that we only have a father, mother, son or daughter because of God.  Our purpose for living cannot be a parent or a child realizing that one day one will die and the other move away and it is not always the parent who dies and then what?  Our purpose for being is God who in his generosity has given us earthly parents and children but even they belong to God first.  They help us fulfill our purpose before God for our good and the good of others.  God first and all things will work for his greater glory. 

Our parents, our children are a gift from God that will return to him some day as we will.  Then we will realize how much we died with Christ in this life or failed to receive him in all his “little ones”.  Worthy is the lamb of God who is calling us to give our lives and follow him.  Jesus came into the world and carried his cross faithful to the Father.  He came to show us the way of the cross.  It is foolish to believe that we can escape the cross that is to come in this life.  The offering of the cross comes daily in all the ways we can endure the challenges we face.  We then must choose how we will respond to the cross.  Will God recognize us by our love response or deny us for having denied the cross.  We deny the cross each time we respond with “not me” let another or “why me” take it away.  A warrior for Christ embraces the cross with “let me” thanks be to God.  This is the way he sent his disciples as sheep to face the serpent.  This is the path to holiness and heaven.  Are we ready for heaven yet?  It begins with taking up our cross having died with Christ and in generosity to his love responding with “let me, Lord”. 

The Lord recognizes in his people their imitation of Christ and gives a just reward.  For Christ his justice is unbound and his reward is eternal.  The Lord hears the cry of his people and is attentive to our needs.  Let us forever sing the goodness of the Lord.  How?  Begin and end the day counting your blessings.  We are so quick to overlook all the goodness of the Lord when things are going well and so quick to lose heart when things go wrong.  We love the Lord?   Let it then be on our lips as we recognize all the goodness of this day.  We sometimes sarcastically say, “It is a good day when I wake up and know I’m still alive”.  No joke!  Let us be grateful we have one more day to get right with the Lord.  Make it count! 

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