3rd Sunday of Advent – Rejoice in the Lord

Posted on December 14, 2024December 14, 2024 by Deacon Joe

Zep.3: 14-18a; Ps.12:2-6; Phil. 4:4-7; Lk. 3:10-18

Rejoice in the Lord who comes with the good news of salvation. This is the 3^rd week of Advent and the color of the candle is pink to represent the joy of the Lord’s coming. It also signifies the joy of the Shepherds when the angel told them that Christ was to be born. We are to come to the Lord in a spirit of thanksgiving in our prayer and petition knowing that we belong to God and our peace rests in him.

Anxiety, stress, worries then is a sign that we lack the peace of God and our minds and hearts are restless not with fear of the Lord but with fear of the world. Fear and worry not only steal our joy but it can lead to despair and darkness separate from the light of Christ. We cannot rejoice in the Lord simply by hearing the good news but by living the good news. This is the message of John the Baptist who gives to each the answer to “What should we do?” We rejoice in the Lord by doing what is right, just, charitable, and loving.

We rejoice in the Lord because the “great and Holy one” is among us and “the Lord has removed the judgment against you”. The Lord comes with glad tidings of his mercy to wipe away our sins. He restores us to wholeness in recovery of our brokenness. It is up to us however to avoid sin and the near temptation to sin. This is not easy but we can begin by avoiding people, places, and things as much as possible that tempt us to sin.

The people ask, “What are we to do?” Treat others as you would like to be treated and know when to engage and when to walk away. Two young seminarians were walking through the mall on a summer day where there were young women lightly dressed in shorts and tops. One could not avoid staring while the other simply tried to look away. One said to the other, “I think its time to leave and go to the car and say a rosary.” Which of the two made the request to leave speaks to the faithful heart. It could have been the one who had had enough temptation or the one who simply felt no need to be in that environment.

“What are we to do?” We rejoice in the Lord, trust in the Lord, pray to the Lord and give thanks to the Lord for the answer to our prayer that his will be done. We rejoice in the Lord when we pray “Blessed be God, blessed be his Holy name, all glory and honor is yours almighty Father”. We rejoice in the name of Jesus that we have been redeemed, forgiven of our sins, and restored to holiness. This is why we rejoice in the holy cross of Jesus and carry it on us as a sign that we belong to him and he is our savior.

What are we to do with anxiety? We read that we are to “have no anxiety at all” but anxiety and worries are not the same thing. Worries come from our thoughts and we can change our thinking about a situation. Our thought can lead us to action to face our worries and resolve our concerns. We also can surely pray and petition to the Lord all our concerns. Anxiety however goes beyond our thoughts as an attack on the body.

First of all, as someone who has suffered with anxiety it can be a very debilitating cross. It is the evil one’s thorn at my side that remains despite all prayer and learning how not to feed into it. It does not come from my thoughts or else I would long have changed my thinking. It comes suddenly as an autonomic nervous system response of the body. The body is broken and gradually begins to fail us. Our soul however can also be injured from anxiety but it can be healed and learn to be free from the attack of anxiety even if the autonomic response of the body remains. We must prepare for the death of the body but rejoice in the freedom it will bring to the soul for we will be given a new body that will not perish and body and soul will be eternal. This is our joy in the Lord that our God comes to renew us and set us free from sin, sickness, and the death of this body.

Advent is our time to rejoice in the Lord for his coming is our freedom.

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Homily

2nd Sunday of Advent – A work in progress

Posted on December 7, 2024December 7, 2024 by Deacon Joe

Bar.5: 1-9; Ps.126:1-6; Phil. 1:4-6, 8-11; Lk. 3:1-6

The Lord has begun the good work in us and will bring it to completion but as any good work in progress it takes two, God and our response to God. We are not passive participants in the work of our conversion but required to be joined to the Lord through the grace and gifts we are given. The Lord saves but he will not save us without us. We must desire his glory and be prepared for his calling in the way that we are to follow.

The Lord does great things for us who are open to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We cannot just go about our like and expect great things to happen simply because God is good. Great things include the work in progress for our salvation. It is not enough to just say “Lord, Lord” in a moment of need and ignore our Lord for most of our days. The work that has begun in us is for a divine purpose “to discern what is of value” for our souls to be “pure and blameless”. The work in progress for the conversion of sinners to saints.

The Church is given to us to “prepare the way of the Lord”. It is the Church that determined which books belong to the canon in the Bible. It is the Church that Jesus instituted to continue to consecrate bread and wine to bring us his body and blood. It is the Church who Jesus gave authority to bring us the sacraments including the forgiveness of sins. Many claim to believe in God but not in his church. The devil also believes in God but not in obedience to God. We can all say that every day we are all a work in progress but we are not all headed in the same direction. Not everyone who says “Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom of God.

We are told “all flesh shall see the salvation of God” but it will be little consolation if he simply slips passed us. The gospel reveals to us how in the time of Jesus, John went about preparing the way with a call to repentance. Repentance is more than just our sins that we can confess. Repentance is also to make straight our path by the way we live our lives, the values we hold onto, and our priorities in life. For example, a good question to ask ourselves is what time, talent and treasure to we give to God through prayer, charity, and service? How we spend our time is a good measure of what we really value in life.

The first step on the way to Jesus is to acknowledge not only our sins but also our failure to come to Jesus. Jesus desires our hearts and he offers us his heart of love yet our indifference towards God is the sin of what we have failed to do in response to God’s love. Jesus came in the flesh and yet most of the world denied him or cried out “crucify him”. We too can deny him with our indifference of his presence in this world.

When our thoughts center on us and God is given lip service we return to the days of the Pharisees and Sadducees who stood in the temple only to be noticed but their hearts were far from God. If God is seen as simply being far above in the heavens we miss out on his revelation in our lives. Jesus is alive! He lives to live in us and for us to live in him. This is what we celebrate with the “splendor of God forever”. We rejoice not only in a person but in a relationship that saves. We rejoice because we see the hand of God guiding us, and the greater he reveals himself to us the greater our desire for him to open our minds and hearts to his will. A restless heart can only find rest in Jesus’ plan for our lives.

Doing the will of God is our peace. God’s will is not a promise of an easy road. It is a promise of victory in the transformation of our lives that the work he has begun in us we will see revealed in his glory for all eternity.

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Homily

1st Sunday of Advent – Live with the end in mind

Posted on November 30, 2024November 29, 2024 by Deacon Joe

Jer.33: 14-16; Ps.25:4-5, 8-10, 14; 1 Thes. 3:12—4:2; Lk. 21:25-28, 34-36

The Lord is coming, the Lord has come, and will come again. Today begins the new liturgical year in anticipation of the coming of the Lord just as we have completed the celebration of the Lord King of the Universe. The Lord’s kingdom is before us but are we before the Lord ready for his coming “blameless in holiness before our God and Father”? Advent brings on a somber reality that we are to live with the end in mind. Living with the end in mind will not find us unprepared or distracted by all that the world brings on.

Since the Lord fulfilled his promise to the house of Israel and Judah with the coming of Jesus we have been living in the end times. All that was prophesized with signs “in the sun, the moon and the stars” as well as the earth has been happening in each generation from natural disasters to world wars but it is not the final coming yet. The blessed Mother Mary has appeared multiple times and around the world calling us to repentance while there is still time but most of the world has ignored her signs. The world continues to live for itself unprepared for the “tribulations that are imminent”.

We hear it said “We are in the world but not of the world.” This means that we have been set apart by our faith and even if death should come it is only a death to this mortal body but our soul is eternal and we will be given a new body. We are not to fear an end to this world but be prepared “to stand erect…because your redemption is at hand”. We are to pray for strength to endure the final test with faith not fear. This can only be our reality if we live our lives with the end in mind.

Often when we experience a major event in life, marriage, the birth of a child, a new job, a tragedy or even death of a loved one, we come to recognize what is most important in life, what is our priority, and even ask ourselves “who do we serve?” Every day we are tempted to make life all about ourselves, my wants, my choice, my pleasures, and my will be done. In the end life becomes out of balance and we lose sight of the end to come. As one man said to me as we stood at a funeral, he had made no arrangements for death because he felt he would live forever. The funeral was a hard reminder mortal death is imminent and he didn’t want to think about it. This is not living with the end in mind but living an illusion about to become a shock.

To live with the end in mind is to always be aware of “who do we serve”. Jesus came to serve and not to be served. This advent is our opportunity to “reset” our priorities and keep Jesus at the center of our life. Thanksgiving was a good reminder of what are we doing for the others in life and in our world. We are given life in order to give life to others by our love, our charity, and our sacrifice. Christ in Christmas is all about our giving of what matters. A material gift is a good sign of our love but giving of ourselves, our time and our love is the gift that lasts more than an object.

Living our life with end in mind is doing that which lasts till the end. For example, what new memories are we creating that we will be sharing years from now? What service have we done that will stand the test of time as a blessing to others? What act of love is God receiving from us in our prayer, our worship, and our even our confession that is freeing us from all sin and building the kingdom of God for others to follow.

Let this be our testimony this Advent that what other see in us they will seek to follow in imitation of Christ.

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Homily

The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

Posted on November 23, 2024November 22, 2024 by Deacon Joe

Dn. 7: 13-14; Ps. 93:1-2, 5; Rev. 1:5-8; Jn. 18:33b-37

Our Lord Jesus Christ has come and is coming again. The Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end of all things is calling us into his kingdom while there is still time. The majesty of the Lord surrounds us in all of creation. We are to contemplate the beauty of creation from the heavens above to all of nature on earth, and the miracle of life that reveals the God who is with us. Creation is not an accident but an act of love from the King of the Universe who was from all time, remains with his elect, and keeps coming until the end of time. Praise the King of glory!

This act of love from God speaks to each of us that we are not an accident of humanity but an act of love from God who has given us the breath of life for a God given purpose. Are we living our purpose for being here? Our purpose is fulfilled only when we unite ourselves to his love. Only then that our individual talents, the work that we do, and our state of life become a blessing from God and for God turning to gold, the gold of heaven that lasts for eternity. This is the manifestation of God revealed to us and through us to be his disciples and witnesses that Jesus Christ is King in our hearts and that we belong to him in his kingdom.

The alternative is what we see in this world that has rejected the God of all creation to become a god unto themselves. It carries the mantra of “my choice my will”. It denies the power that is greater than itself from which all creation exists to become the center of power for itself that no one else cares for. It leads to a lonely world filled with darkness of soul, a sequence of disappointments with short-lived pleasures of the flesh. It has rejected the grace of life for a culture of death. The irony is that while it seeks to run away from death it is in reality running to it dying from within. This is not the will of God but the free choice of those will it.

The King of glory comes in the majesty of his love. Jesus Christ joined our humanity that we may encounter him in a personal intimate bond of love. We are called to love with all our heart, mind, and soul that our whole being may be an act of love to God and with God to others. This is our communion of faith to join together in this act of love we call the Mass. Here we offer ourselves up to him in his sacrifice for us to God the Father.

The Mass is not an institution the Church created but a gift that Jesus Christ instituted for the Church, that is for the body of Christ in which we come to love him and to serve him. The Mass is not about us and what we receive or as we sometimes comment as what we “get out of the Mass”. Yes, we receive the Word and Jesus Christ in the Eucharist and sometimes the homily will speak to us with a word of knowledge but the Mass is foremost Jesus Christ going to the Father in his sacrifice for our sins. Jesus is the lamb suffering on the cross as an offering to wash away our sins we confess as we begin the Mass. He is worthy to be king of the universe.

When we hear that “his kingship shall not be destroyed” we are reminded how Jesus spoke that his kingdom was not of this world. The kingship of the Lord is his reign over his elect and we will not be destroyed but live for all eternity with the King of kings. For this we not only bear the cross of this world but celebrate that the Lord is asking us to carry the cross of fidelity, the cross of love, the cross suffering but only for this brief time on earth. This world is the extraordinary time of suffering before we enter into the ordinary time of eternal love in heaven. Sin came into the world and took us out of the ordinary creation God desired for us. Jesus Christ came into the world to take us back from this period of life that is outside of God’s perfection and bring us into his perfection. Jesus Christ reigns!

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Homily

33rd Sunday Ordinary Time – In those days

Posted on November 16, 2024November 16, 2024 by Deacon Joe

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

“In those days after the tribulation” now becomes our days, the end times in which we live. As we come to the end of ordinary time the readings speak of what is to come in the “end times” or Eschatology. Traditionally this is taken as futuristic, something to come along the historical clock that marks human time. We should however also consider the end of ordinary time in the context of the end of our earthly time and the beginning of the divine life, the glorified state of coming face to face with our Lord and our particular judgement day.

Daniel also speaks of what is to come in those days which is now our inheritance. In other word, Jesus died for us and he is our inheritance here to remain with us when we choose the path of salvation. Jesus is the “path of life”. Jesus is the turnkey of what was predicted and is now with us in our times for the “wise” to shine brightly and the foolish in “horror and disgrace”. As we come to the end of the Church calendar year we are reminded to “remain vigilant at all times” because we never know the hour when our own ordinary time on this earth can [JG1] come to an end.

Who can say they are living the perfect life of holiness ready to “stand before the Son of Man”? We are weak and only through God do we gain the strength to stand before him by remaining faithful to his will. The flesh is weak and often settles for being minimalist when it comes to God. The common sentiment is “I go to Church and I am a good person” and that is enough. I once had someone say to me “I know I am sinning but as long as I go to confession before I die God will forgive me.” Do we really want to be gambling with God? We have a poor understanding of judgment.

Judgment is for everyone. We will all be judged and suffer the pain of our sins and it starts at the moment of our death with purgatory. Purgatory is purifying our souls from the stains of sin that we may be perfect as God calls us to be. We are called to holiness and nothing impure can enter into the glory of God. How long we will suffer in purgatory is being determined today by how little or how much we are dedicated to loving God. God isn’t interested in a “part-time” Christian or a cultural Christian who simply follows the social norms of society. We are to remain in him, to pray always, to offer ourselves up to him in all, through all and with all of our being that our judgment will come to pass quickly. The Mass is the prayer in which we offer ourselves up to him and seek his mercy.

Jesus also speaks of his second coming “in the clouds with great power and glory” to gather his elect. By our baptism we have joined the elect but we remain with our free will to choose to remain in him or go our own way. It only makes sense that what we do with our lives matters to God. As some protestant theology preaches “once saved always saved” is a false teaching. There is a “work” in salvation that we are called to be and do and not everyone is committed to doing the work. The elect comes by being consecrated to him as a daily commitment to the divine will. This is the cross we are to take up daily focused on his coming into our lives. It is a work of joy and celebration done with love.

We are the post resurrection generation that will not pass away until all that he promised is fulfilled. How long will this “generation” last is not ours to know. What matters is the lesson of the fig tree applied to our own lives. God will look to see the fruit of our lives and the growth of our souls. We may appear withered and dying away by our sins, spiritually dead with no life to give. The Lord approaches our “gate” to call us to account for ourselves and we are living in those times. What we call ordinary time we will look back as the extraordinary suffering of our sins and the new ordinary will be the glorious for all eternity.

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Homily

32nd Sunday Ordinary Time – Once for all

Posted on November 10, 2024November 10, 2024 by Deacon Joe

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

Once for all, Jesus has come to take away our sins by his sacrifice. Though he came for all not have received him. He offered himself up once, not repeatedly as our high priest “that he might now appear before God on our behalf”. The Mass is that sacrifice of his death the priest offers up for all in our world. Some question why as Catholics we continue to represent Jesus on the cross when he has already risen from the dead. He is risen indeed but he also remains with us in his suffering for our sins which have not ended. Jesus is present to take away our sins but we must turn away from sin and receive his mercy.

We are living “at the end of the ages” awaiting the second coming in which he will “bring salvation” not to all but “those who eagerly await him”. The signs that we eagerly await Jesus is our love of God put into practice. The practice of our worship is to build our relationship with God not to fulfill a social-cultural tradition of simply coming to church. The practice of our charity is to give of ourselves, our poverty as sinners, not as a token of our abundance. The practice of our sacrifice for the greater good for the salvation of our souls and the souls of others reveals our true heart and priorities. God first, in all and through all we do and say to be ever present in our heart, mind and will. This is love.

When Elijah asks the widow to bring him “a bit of bread” she responds with the truth of her condition ready to eat her last meal with her son and die. Elijah promises her that the Lord will fill her jar with flour and jug with oil. She does as he asks of her showing her faith and trust in the Lord and the Lord answered. “She was able to eat for a year and he and her son as well.” Notice that it says all three ate for a year, meaning Elijah remained with her giving of himself as well. He stayed not to burden her but to serve her in spirit and in truth. This is what the Lord is asking of us to “stay” with those who are in need. We do this remembering to call, pay a visit, stay in contact and to journey with others. This is the love of charity, not just adding to the jar and continuing on our way.

As the Lord remains with us, one way we remain with him is by the way we remain attentive to the needs of others. The Lord provides by asking of us to be his hands and feet that brings faith, justice, and food to the hungry. Jesus called his disciples not only for the purpose of continuing his teaching but to serve the needs of his people in body and soul.

The Lord gives us the example of two widows in today’s reading who give of their poverty as a true sacrifice of faith. We give in gratitude for what we have received. We give in sacrifice as a testimony of our faith. We give in thanksgiving for the sacrifice of the Lord once for all of our sins that we may be forgiven and be welcome to the table of the Lord.

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Homily

31st Sunday Ordinary Time – I love you

Posted on October 30, 2024October 30, 2024 by Deacon Joe

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

“I love you” are three of the most spoken words we hear in any relationship and three of the hardest to live up to. The Lord is calling us to love him with all your heart…soul…mind…and with all your strength” and “your neighbor as yourself”. The Father then sends his son as the perfect embodiment of this love “when he offered himself.” Praise the Lord our God who is slow to anger, patient in love, and enduring in mercy waiting for us to grow in that perfect love.

To love the Lord starts with fulfilling his statutes and commandments and is made perfect in offering ourselves up to do his will. To love a spouse is to fulfill your marriage vows at all times. To love your children is to bring them up in the love of the Lord that they may inherit the promises of eternal life. Love is active. An act of love opens the heart to all the emotions that reflect the giving of self but love is not the emotion.

Love is guided by Godly principles, spiritual virtues, and wise morals and ethics. Love is truth. Truth is true to the law of God who keeps his promises. Love is goodness. Goodness speaks to the good of the other and the goodness of all of God’s creation. Love is unity. Unity recognizes the one body of God we belong to where sin entered into the world through the union of one couple and redemption through the sacrifice of one for all in Jesus Christ. Jesus says, “he is always able to save those who approach God through him.” Love is sacrifice. Sacrificial love is godly love to die to oneself as Jesus died for us.

We find the word “love” endless times in scriptures but how often do we find the words “I love you” in scripture? In the Old Testament it appears 12 times. Judges asks “how can you say “I love you when your heart is not with me?” Samuel asks “Don’t I love you more than any…”. Psalm 116 “I love you, Lord!” Psalm 123 “The way I love you is like…”. Proverbs 7:4 “Say to Wisdom, I love you…”. Song of Solomon “My darling, I love you” and “My sister, I love you!” Isaiah 43:1 “That’s how much I love you” and “Because you are precious…I love you”. Jeremiah “But Lord, you know me, you see…how I love you” and “Don’t I love you best of all?” Three questions, one description, one command, four times in reference to a person, once to a virtue, once pleading with the Lord, and only once directly to the Lord. In other words, love is more about what we are doing that what we are saying.

In the New Testament the words “I love you” appear 12 times. Eight of those are from St. Paul to the different communities in his letters. Three times it is from Peter in response to Jesus when asked “Do you love me?” Jesus then directs Peter to put his love into action. Once from the 2^nd Letter of John “I love you because of the truth”. As many different books in the bible, love is mostly about love in action or failing to act. Love is about being a witness to Christ not by what we say but by what we do.

How often do we say “I love you, Lord”. It is probably more common to say, “I love THE Lord” that to say it directly to him. Love is active participation both in prayer and in doing his will. The Lord desires intimacy with us in a personal relationship and intimacy can be intimidating. When we come in prayer to the Lord we enter into intimacy with him. The Mass is our prayer to the Lord in which we actively participate to deepen our relationship with him, otherwise we are on the sidelines more as witnesses than participants symbolically making “burnt offerings and sacrifices” but our hearts are far from the Lord.

Doing the will of the Lord is active participation in salvation. Some people say, “I can’t serve at the altar because I don’t feel worthy”. To be in love with the Lord is to desire to serve him not out of worthiness but because he is there in the altar, in poor who come to the foodbank, in the children who come to catechism, in the sick and homebound who need to be visited by Christ who dwells in the Christian. We actively love him by being in union with him and through him with our neighbors.

The Lord is calling us to deepen our love with him. All that we are and all that we have is from the Lord. Love is what widens the narrow gate to heaven. Love takes everything out of us and then it returns stronger than before as a blessing from God.

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Homily

Called by God

Posted on October 26, 2024October 23, 2024 by Deacon Joe

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

“Every high priest is taken from among men…but only when called by God”. Jesus did not glorify himself but is called “my son: this day I have begotten you” to be our great high priest “forever”. Even the blind man recognizes Jesus as “son of David” coming from the priestly lineage. The priestly call did not end with Jesus as many Christian denominations have given over to only pastors of the flock. Today the Church recognizes a shortage of priests and many are calling for change in who is called to the priesthood including for women and married men. The Church however is governed by Jesus our high priest who has established his law of governance.

As the Synod on Synodality progresses in Rome the one thing that does not change is that all calling is from God and not a people’s call. The Church is an institution established by God for God’s purpose and some things are not negotiable. Even as the Synod dialogues about the process of Synodality there continues to be circles that raise the topics of female priesthood, women deaconesses, and married priests. Were there married priests in the early church? Yes. Where their female deaconesses in the early church? Yes, but they were not ordained clergy. Were there female priests in the early church? Never. What the Lord declares is not for humanity to change.

All Christians by baptism are called by God to live as priest, prophet and king through our sacramental vows. In this way we carry our unique calling by God to share in the Lord’s priesthood in our domestic church that is the family. Humanity was created male and female to be the institution of family in which we live out our calling to love of God and neighbor. If the institution of the family fails then the pews will become empty and we won’t have a need for more priests.

The shortage of priesthood is not a lack of God’s call to men. It is a lack of formation of faith that begins in the home. If we don’t talk about God at home, we deny he exists by our silence. If we don’t pray to God at home, we set him aside to live our lives as we choose. If we are not growing in our own formation as adults and parents then we have little more to share about our faith to motivate our children in their faith. The answer to the shortage of priests is not women priests or married priests but building up the domestic church at home, that is the active participation of the family in what we believe.

The Synod on Synodality is more about the process of governance than hot topic issues. It looks to the leadership of the laity and women in the church. Hot topic issues have been set aside for continued “study” according to Catholic news reports coming out of the Synod. If we look to leadership in the Church then rather than looking simply at who is called to clerical life, we can look to the call to be saints. The Church has women, men and even children who have risen to sainthood. There are great women as Doctors of the Church. The great saints did not seek clericalism but holiness and they remain a great witness for us to learn from and follow.

While the priest is “made their representative before God” he is also “beset by weakness” in need of forgiveness called to serve the will of God as we all are in our own state of life. It is the Lord who does “great things for us” when we turn to him and accept our personal call to serve him in all states of life. Our joy is complete in him and he comes to each of us when we call out to him “Master, I want to see” you and follow your will. Let us come to him as we are and allow him to work in us and be our God.

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Homily

29th Sunday Ordinary Time – Called to serve

Posted on October 21, 2024October 21, 2024 by Deacon Joe

Is. 53: 10-11; Ps. 33:4-5, 18-20, 22; Heb. 4:14-16; Mk. 10:35-45

Jesus came to serve by giving his very life “as a ransom for many”. We too are called to serve by the way we live our lives in imitation of Christ. Who is the “servant” spoken of in Isaiah who “gives his life as an offering for sin”? It is Jesus. We are “justified by his suffering” not to boast for his cross but to pick up our cross and follow his call to serve. We go forth in Jesus and call upon him in our time of trial knowing how he suffered and died for us. With confidence we cry out “Jesus, I trust in you!”

When we approach the “throne of grace” we receive both uncreated grace and created grace. Grace represents the free gift of Jesus and from Jesus. In the sacramental life of the Church Jesus gives of himself to us, his uncreated grace that is transformative of our very being. Simply said, receive the sacrament and receive Jesus himself. He is the throne of grace from whom we receive from Jesus, mercy and timely help through his created grace working through humanity who is created and called to serve the greater good. This is Jesus’ prayer of unity to God that we may all be one in him.

James and John come to Jesus in a spirit of a child, “do for us whatever we ask of you”. This is what a child wants from his parents before the “ask” question is given, to agree unconditionally. A wise parent can only agree unconditionally to their love of child, otherwise there is no “blank check”. James and John’s request to be first is put to the test “Can you drink of the cup”. Even though they do not know what they are accepting, Jesus accepts their openness to the “cup”. It is a cup of sacrifice, suffering and even death. Jesus however also gives us a sense that there is a plan at work, the plan of salvation that has a place at his right and left “for those whom it has been prepared.” What are we to think then when it comes to us?

We are included in this plan of salvation and there is a place prepared for us at the table of the Lord but the invitation includes the call to “come and follow” him. We are called to serve in his footsteps what has been prepared for us to fulfill. The Lord places us in position to do his will but we have to respond to the call. When we do we open the gates of heaven to receive his grace. When we deny him, he will not deny himself but we have denied ourselves the grace and blessing he desired to pour into us. This is when we shall ask when did we see him hungry and suffering and denied to serve him.

Our call is always to love God and love neighbor. It is an act of being filled with his love and acting in charity through his love. We give because we have received and it is just and right to do God’s will. This is why we can say we receive uncreated grace from Jesus in giving of himself to us who is uncreated but we also participate in created grace in the call to serve through the gift of charity in the giving of ourselves as created beings. This is why the Church strongly defended that Jesus is true God and true man that we too may come to be one with him. The divine has taken on flesh that the flesh may now enter into the divine as a new creation.

For this reason, receiving the word is only the beginning of the salvation plan. The word must take on flesh, be incarnated into our being through the sacraments and produce the charity that gives life in return.

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Homily

28th Sunday Ordinary Time – All things are possible

Posted on October 15, 2024October 15, 2024 by Deacon Joe

Wis. 7: 7-11; Ps. 90:12-17; Heb. 4:12-13; Mk. 10:17-30

“All things are possible for God”. Praise be to God for his mercy is everlasting. The man who ran up to Jesus seeking eternal life walked away “sad, for he had many possessions”. He was put to the test that asks of him and us to place God first in our lives. God is first asking of us to have a spirit of self-denial, sacrifice, and detachment. Even when blessed with many resources our focus is on Jesus and not our material wealth. We are to carry a spirit of poverty in the flesh for we are both soul and body with a fallen nature in need of healing.

The living word is Jesus able to discern the heart of the man who remained attached to his possessions. Is Jesus calling everyone to go and sell all their possessions if we want eternal life? Jesus is seeking a heart of detachment from our possessions recognizing the limited purpose of material things compared to the greater reward of eternal life. It is a message he repeats when he says “What profit is it for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?” (Mt. 16:26). What is our priority, what or who are we living for?

The riches of heaven are the gifts of the Spirit that make all things possible. Prudence and wisdom are given to make Godly choices. The commandments are given as foundation stones of love to build a holy temple for the Lord, the temple within our very being. The commandments are also the guardrails against sin. They are the clear markers of obedience to the law of God. As the man points out his obedience to the commandments, Jesus points him to something greater waiting for him. The man chose to walk away. He is the arch-type of each of us who says “yes” but with limitations. “Yes Lord, but only this far.” God’s redemptive love on the cross was complete surrender and this is what he seeks from us.

Thus, the question from Jesus disciples, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus’ response, “All things are possible for God.” As Jesus revealed to St. Faustina there is “an ocean of mercy” ready to be released to those who seek him and he reveals the prayer called the “Chaplet of the Divine Mercy” as a means of seeking his mercy. We also receive the love and mercy of God when we go to confession and sacramentally are forgiven of our sins. Our spiritual and corporal works of mercy are spiritual treasures for the sake of the gospel in which we will receive “a hundred times more now in this present age…and eternal life in the age to come.” Jesus comes to save us but he cannot save us without us. He provides the way but we must follow him.

When the man called Jesus “Good teacher”, Jesus’ response includes saying “No one is good but God alone.” Jesus wants us to recognize him in his divine nature. He also is making it clear our human fallen nature is marked by sin. God is the fullness of good and in his goodness, he has come to save us. All salvation history is God’s divine intervention in humanity to rescue his people. One thing we can learn from the Bible is how often we fail and fall short of God’s divine plan but with God all things are possible.

Even in death for the sinner who believes the possibility of purgatory awaits, for a final cleansing of sin. This is our hope. The imperfect is to be perfected in the image of Christ. The image is by way of the cross. Let us take up our cross and begin to offer it up as a sacrifice for our sin and that of the whole world. This is the redemptive power that makes all things possible coming from the love of God. Glory to God in the highest! He makes the impossible not just possible but a promise.

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