Are We Religious, But Not Faithful?

In spite of Jesus’ great proclamation of the kingdom of God and the miracles Jesus performed as we heard in the Gospel readings these past weeks like the calming of the sea, the healing the woman hemorrhaging for 12 years, raising the daughter of Jairus from the dead, driving out demons from those possessed, still - Jesus experienced rejection because of discrimination or prejudice because He was the carpenter and they know his family so well as we heard in the Gospel today. In short, he was just too ordinary.

The rejection Jesus experienced reminds us that Jesus shared our humanity in ordinary ways. … but He remained faithful and continued to trust in His Father…

What He cared most about - is to be pleasing to God… being faithful to His Father in heaven and doing the Father’s will.

As God called Ezekiel and Paul as we heard in our first and second readings, Jesus called his disciples, and us –His Church – not so much to succeed as the world defines success, but to be faithful and to trust in God.

St. Paul in our second reading was told when he asked to be healed: “My grace is sufficient or enough for you for my power is made perfect or more obvious in your weakness than in your strength.”

Whether strong or weak these days, remember the counsel of St. Theresa of Calcutta: “You will never know - Jesus is all you need - until the day - when Jesus is all you have.”

… And during the past year and a half many people realized that – hopefully. Reflecting on our experiences during the past year and a half during the pandemic: The question is – Did we learn anything at all from our experiences and are we now much better persons, are we now much better Christians – as individuals and as a community - as we were before the pandemic?

Do we now have a better perspective on who we are - what really matters in life… what life is all about …. particularly in terms of our relationship with God and with one another?

Our Gospel story actually calls us to self-examination – as individuals and as a community… to see if we are faithful to the mission Jesus has given to us - His Church. The purpose of the Church, our mission is to carry on the ministry of Jesus, to continue his work in the world.

Looking at St. Catherine of Siena faith community, is Jesus also going to be amazed at our lack of faith as we heard in the Gospel?

Yes, we are religious… but are we faithful? – in terms of downreach, outreach and upreach. Let me explain those three terms.

First – in terms of down-reach. … The word down in down reach does not mean we look down on the poor because we are the ones who help them. But - down reach in the sense of – being like Jesus who came down from heaven, so to speak. He humbled himself to share in our humanity so we can share in His divinity.

Jesus’ mission is to reveal God’s love to all people, to the greatest and to the least. No one was too lowly to be loved.

John the Baptist, from prison, sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you really the Messiah, or should do we start looking for someone else?” Jesus said, “Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.”

This was Jesus’ work. Jesus said that someday we will have to answer for whether or not we have fed the hungry; did we clothe the naked, have we visited the sick, and did we reach down to the needy. “Inasmuch as you have done it to one of the least of these, you have done it to me.” Jesus was not just interested in “saving souls.”

He was also interested in redeeming lives, making people whole here on earth. This is the work he left to his church... to us.

So, how is our down reach?

Second, how about in terms of out-reach. So what is out-reach?

Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth.” He said, “You are the light of the world.” Like Jesus, our mission is to gather and unite the People of God. The church of Jesus Christ is a family. We are a family here. It is not only that we are called to recognize each other as brothers and sisters, it is also that we are called to invite other people into this family… to reach out to others.

The “good news” of the gospel is that there is a place at God’s table for everyone… saints and sinners alike - all are invited to enter – to join the family. The church is to open its arms as widely as Christ himself does, and to be as inclusive as the love of Christ.

So – how has been our outreach?

Thirdly – how about in terms of up-reach…as in “we look up to heaven” - the worship of God.

Father Glenn mentioned at the start of the mass that the greatest way America can celebrate the Fourth of July is in thanksgiving and worship of God. In God we trust.

Although – I mentioned down reach and outreach first – actually our first mission is not down-reach, not out-reach. Our first priority is the worship of God.

Why? Because until we have met God in worship, we have nothing to bear witness to. Until we have experienced the Word of God in worship, we have nothing to say. Until we have received sacramental nourishment in worship especially in the sacrament of the Eucharist, we have no power to love or to serve.

That is why – as we re-open please invite your families, relatives and friends to come back – come home to the church to join us in the worship of God.

Jesus gave an important warning to His disciples – to us. He cautioned that if we ever attempted to live our Christian life apart from an intimate relationship with Him, even if we might exert great effort for the kingdom of God, we would discover that we would not produce any significant results. Jesus said that it is not our activity that produces fruit, it is our relationship with Him that matters.

We are always reminded – particularly the clergies - that if we are struggling in our ministries – we need to re-examine our prayer life… and it goes for all of us. If you are struggling in life, re-examine your prayer life.

Let us ask ourselves, do we have a relationship with Christ or relationship only with our religion. Do we personally know Christ or do we know only about our religious practices and what we are supposed to believe?

Is coming to mass still just an obligation for you – a Catholic thing to do – or is it rooted in your own personal relationship with God – to give thanks and praise and worship to` God.

There might be other ways to measure the faithfulness of a church to her mission in addition to down-reach, out-reach, and up-reach.

Pope Francis said: The Catholic Church must be reformed to create a more missionary and merciful church.”

Again - Our calling is not so much to succeed, certainly not by the world’s standards. Our calling is to be faithful, and the Lord who calls us goes with us every step of the way.

The Lord accepts us just as we are.

Jesus said: “Teach them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:20).

God bless… and God bless America.

Does God Care?

Someone texted me: “Happy Father’s Day” with a reminder that the rest of the year is “Mother’s Day”.

The Gospel reading pretty much captures our experience during the pandemic and I would guess – at least at some point particularly during the earlier months of the pandemic– many people asked: Why does it seem God is sleeping? Doesn’t God care that we are perishing?

Last year – March 27, 2020 - as the world grapples with the spread of the coronavirus, Pope Francis - in front of a rainy St. Peter’s Basilica, before an empty square - delivered a homily of hope - based on the same Gospel reading we have today - comparing the pandemic to a storm that can be overcome only by coming together in faith.

The Pope said: “Just as it happened with the disciples, we too are faced with a “darkness… Thick darkness has gathered over our squares, our streets and our cities; it has taken over our lives… We find ourselves afraid and lost.”

The Pope said that it is “a time of choosing” … as we are asked to stay at home and put social life on hold, people have a chance to “choose what matters and what passes away, a time to separate what is necessary from what is not,”

Today – the big question is: Are we better persons today; are we better Christians today than we were before the pandemic. Because - What a wasted experience if we did not learn anything at all or if we did not change for the better including in terms of our perspective on what really matters in life…. Especially in terms of our relationship with God and our relationship with one another.

Does God care? Do not be embarrassed by that question. In our Gospel reading, even the first followers of Christ had the same doubt… in the midst of the storm, in desperation, they shook Jesus awake and said: “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”

The most serious questions about God - come not from theory – or intellectual pursuit or discussions - but from tragedy… We can all relate especially thinking about how we felt during the early days of pandemic. When we are caught in a storm from which there seems to be no escape, then the question becomes real and relevant: Does God care? Does He even exist?

Do not avoid that question and do not be ashamed of it. Those disciples would never have become the men that we so greatly admire without that experience when they doubted but had the honesty to say so. That kind of struggle has always been a vital part of great living and of great faith.

Look at it this way: When a person raises that question – Does God care? – he is at least facing the realistic facts.

Just think of the pandemic, the violence, the natural disasters, wars, etc. that happened during this past year.

We live in such a tragic world, and that if we are going to believe in God at all, we must hold that faith in the midst of tragedy. Does God care? That question is not disrespectful to God.

I do not think there is such a kind of easygoing faith in God that never wonders, that never struggles, that never doubts.

We must recognize that faith has always risen to its height in times of adversity.

The unexpected storm, that almost sunk their ship, played a vital role in the lives of those early disciples. Without it, they would not have been driven to doubt. They would not have wondered if the Lord cared. They would not have learned that the Lord actually, really cares.

The reading ends with another kind of question, not a question of doubt, but a question of awe and wonder. The disciples were saying to one another, “Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?”

Today – we can relate in a way … as the world re-opens – this is the first weekend we have no more social distancing in the Church, people gathering again, travelling again, businesses opening again… “Who then is this – whom even Covid19 obey?”

But of course, COVID 19 still exists with all the new variants. Hatred and wars, violence, evil still exist.

Jesus said: “In this world, you will have troubles; but take heart, I have overcome the world”

We commonly think that people are most inclined to believe in God when life is beautiful and easy. But that is not supported by the experiences of the great believers. Look at our Lord himself. He saw His heavenly Father in the flowers of the field and the birds of the air. But that was not the place where his faith reached its height. That happened at Calvary where doubt was strong and faith was hard. It was at Calvary, on the cross that He wondered why God had forsaken him. But it was also there that He calmly spoke His final sentence, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”

As long as you and I live in this world, we will – at times - continue to find ourselves in darkness of the soul and we ask God: Where are you? Do you care? Do you hear me? We will probably never get finished with that question. But the very experiences that cause us to ask that question - will be the same place where we find our answer. It is a strange paradox, but faith reaches its height in the midst of adversity.

But - of course, we do not pray for adversity in our lives to deepen or strengthen our faith. The fact is – sooner of later – life will bring it to us - it is the reality.

Perhaps you are currently passing through some rough waters, fearful that conditions will get worse, and not knowing how you will manage if they do. Maybe you are even now at the end of your wits and your strength, and wondering if anybody cares that you are drowning, so to speak.

Our Gospel message today is a great continuation of last Sunday’s Gospel message - on trusting God – God is working although we do not know how.

God is more concerned with calming the storms inside of us - in our hearts – in our minds - where the demons really exist - than with changing things in the world around us….not so much in our external circumstances as in our interior worlds, in our hearts and minds.

Our first reaction to a crisis is to want God to change our external circumstances, but God seems to focus more on calming our inner seas. How we experience the world about us is largely determined by the condition of our souls.

Usually the change that matters is not the rearranging of the world outside of ourselves, but the transforming of our hearts.

… The calming of our inner seas, so to speak - comes primarily through our faith in the trustworthy nature of God’s love. When we know that nothing can separate us from God’s gracious, unconditional love - this is the most durable security there is. “Nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)

The experience we have of our earthly fathers really affects how we relate to our heavenly father.

Children see their parents, in general, their fathers, specifically, as what God is supposed to be like. Children can more easily relate to a loving heavenly Father if they experience the love – the unconditional love of an earthly father.

First of all, we want to commend all fathers who sacrifice so much for their family – for their children – for loving them so well with the love of Christ…..those who have sacrificed their desires, so that their children could go to school or to college – there are those who even work at least 2 jobs just to give their family the very best of everything, so that their kids can be the very best they can be.

As we continue with our celebration – let us pray also

- For those who have been alienated or hurt by their fathers

- For those who have never known their fathers

- For all kids who lost their fathers through divorce or death.

Let us pray – especially - for all fathers today that they may be more faithful to their duties in the family. Let us pray to God to give fathers the moral strength and the grace they need to become good role models whom their children can always look up to …. Just as we look up to Our Father in Heaven.

Happy Fathers’ Day! But remember, the rest of the year is Mothers’ Day.

(12 th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle B)

The Eternal God Lives In Us

One of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit is wisdom. Wisdom is seeing reality, ourselves, seeing others, seeing our current circumstances or situations as God sees them.

Our perception or how we see things is not always the correct perception of “true” reality… and it is important to have accurate perception because accuracy of perception leads to accuracy of response.

Let me share with you these two stories you might be familiar with and which I have shared before also but it is worth sharing again to illustrate the point - and for those who have not heard them just in case.

A man walking through the forest saw a fox that had lost its front legs for some reason and the man wondered how the fox managed to survive. Then he saw a tiger come in with game in its mouth. The tiger ate its fill and left the rest of the meat for the fox.

The next day God fed the fox by means of the same tiger. So, the man began to wonder at God's greatness and said to himself, "I too shall just rest in the
corner with full trust in the Lord and He will provide me with all I need."

He did this for many days but nothing happened, and he was dying, almost at death's door – so speak - dying - when he heard a voice say, "O you, who are in the path of error, open your eyes to the truth! Follow the example of the tiger and stop imitating the disabled fox.”

How we see ourselves – how we see reality - what we believe or think what life is all about - makes a whole world of difference… and so it is important to see reality as God sees them… the true reality… the Truth…

That is why we need to constantly discern God’s will for our lives… what we are called to be - and do… by listening to the Holy Spirit within us – by living a life of prayer, by our obedience to Jesus teachings, and faithfulness to the sacraments of the Church.

Today is Pentecost Sunday, Feast of the Holy Spirit – Who guides us to all truth, Who reminds us of who we are - Beloved Sons and Daughters of God, brothers and sisters of Christ, therefore, co-heirs to the Kingdom of God… We are the Body of Christ; we are His Church; we are the temples of the Holy Spirit. That is what and who we are.

Here's the other story:

There was this eagle’s egg that somehow ended up in a chicken farm. The chickens knew that they must protect and care for the eagle’s egg, so an old hen volunteered to nurture and raise the large egg.

One day, the egg hatched and a beautiful eagle was born. Sadly, however, the eagle was raised to be a chicken. Soon, the eagle believed he was nothing more than a chicken. The eagle loved his home and family, but his spirit cried out for more. While playing on the farm one day, the eagle looked to the skies above and noticed a group of mighty eagles soaring in the skies. "Oh," the eagle cried, "I wish I could soar like those birds."

The chickens roared with laughter, "You cannot soar with those birds. You are a chicken and chickens do not soar." That is what the eagle learned to believe. The eagle, after time, stopped dreaming and continued to live the rest of his life like a chicken.

The moral of the story: You become - what you believe you are… you become what you think you are.

Again, perception is not always reality because at times we are so blinded by our own pre-conceived prejudiced erroneous ideas or concepts. Wisdom is also to realize that to learn is also to unlearn our erroneous ideas and false concepts.

A fish asked her mother: “Mom, where is this ocean everyone is talking about? The mom said: “You silly child, you are in it!?

So - Where is God - everyone is searching for? We are IN God… like the fish in the water. God is not out there. God is even closer to us than the air we breathe.

Pentecost is not the commemoration of a historical event. Pentecost is the affirmation of the living reality of God in our lives… the presence of God’s Spirit within us.

A little girl was asked: “Is God big or small?” She replied: “God is so big that the entire universe cannot contain Him… but He is so small that He lives in my heart…” See - The little girl got it! … the Truth.

We have heard and have been taught and have spoken many times about this subject of the same Holy Spirit that filled St. Peter and the other apostles on first Pentecost Sunday is the same Holy Spirit poured unto us at our baptism… heard so often - that we no longer feel the impact of its meaning. But - think for a moment - what an awesome thing it is to say, “The eternal God lives in me.”

So - Please say with me: “The eternal God lives in me.” (Repeat) It think it will do us good to keep repeating this phrase to ourselves… and to continue to reflect on this reality… It will be great to remind ourselves of this everyday….

… May be – say the phrase at the beginning of each day… Because this is a life-changing realization, life-changing awareness - if we truly accept it and truly believe it…. “The eternal God lives in me.”

It is an incredible thought, but it is the unmistakable message of Pentecost.

Gifts come with a mission. The Spirit of Jesus has been given to us not just for ourselves but for a world that longs for love, that longs for meaning in life.

There are people out there – starting with our own family members - longing for an experience of God, longing for the Spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit. They are seeking people who know God… who know not just about Jesus... but who know Jesus - and who walk in His way.

They are looking for people who not only know about justice and compassion but they are looking for people who are just and compassionate.

We have the Spirit of Christ within us.

The great work that began on Pentecost Sunday continues through us.

Today and every day is Pentecost…just as every day is Advent – we live constantly in joyful hope for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; just as every day is Christmas Day – and the Word of God becoming flesh – in us every day; just as everyday day is Lent – because we need to have this ongoing conversion of hearts - dying to old self and constantly renewing our covenant with God….

Just as every day is Easter – Resurrected Christ living in us… We are Easter people… Alleluia is our song and we live in peace and joy regardless of the circumstances we find ourselves in – sharing in God’s divine life.

Today and every day is Pentecost. The Holy Spirit is NO less present today with us – within us – as He was with the Apostles on that first Pentecost.

Remember that the Holy Spirit is IN US. He will reveal his wisdom to you and me little bit at a time, allowing us to grow into holiness at just the right pace.

And so – we pray: “Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your people and enkindle in us the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and we shall be created and you shall renew the face of the earth, THROUGH US!!

AMEN.

God's Love And A Mother's Love

Today’s Gospel reading is a continuation of last Sunday’s Gospel.

Jesus said: "Whoever remains in Me, and I in him will bear much fruit ... by this - is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become My disciples" (Jn. 15:5,8).

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus gives us the formula for bearing much fruit –

“This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.
No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (Jn. 15:12-13).

It comes down to this: Obedience to God’s great commandment of love.

The word “love” has become one of the most frequently used and misused of words and people attach quite different meanings on the word love.

As we heard in the readings today, for St. John - true love is found not in the way humans usually love but in the way God loves.

To truly love is to give ourselves to what we love, to give ourselves to the people we love. Loving means more than being kind, more than being nice, more than being compassionate. Loving means giving one’s self. On the cross Christ - gave himself to the world - - utterly, completely… He emptied Himself.

That is why Jesus commanded: Love one another as I love you – “As the Father loves me, so I also love you” – and this commandment is much greater than – love others as you love yourself…

People often love because they want to receive something back, even as simple as simply feeling good in the other’s company. Often, before people love they ask themselves, “What is in it for me?”

I will be nice to you if you will be nice to me… I will be kind to you so that you will be kind and nice to me…I like you because you like me… because you say nice things about me and you do things for me… See, how selfish those sound!

The love of God is unconditional – has no boundaries – no limits – God’s love is constant and trustworthy.

Love is not just a commandment of God, love is not only what God does - Love is God Himself… God is love…. Where love is, God is.

We were created in the image and likeness of God who is love and so our very nature is to love… and that sums up the meaning and purpose of our life … to love.

There is one Tagalog song that captures this profound realization and it goes: “Kung hindi ako nagmamahal, sino ako?” – translated: “If I do not love, who am I?” “If I do not love, what am I?”

True love is more than a fleeting emotion towards other people. Jesus did not say, “love each other if you feel like it.” Love is a matter of the will. Love is not a feeling. To love is a choice. To love is a daily choice.

St. Theresa of Calcutta was often asked why she spent so much time and energy helping people who were going to die anyway, and most of them not even Christian. Her answer was that she had no choice. She was a Christian, committed to serving Jesus, because Jesus identified with the poorest of the poor.

Parents respond to their baby’s cries in the middle of the night… Not because they feel like it. They have no choice if they really love their child… and that choice takes sacrifice.

A teenager listens to a friend’s story of family difficulties because his friend needs an ear that understands. The teenager would much rather be listening to music, or playing video games, but has no choice but to be present for the suffering friend. Christianity demands it.

A retiree spends a few hours each day with an elderly neighbor. He’d rather be fishing or golfing, but he has no choice but to visit Christ’s presence in the homebound.

Our parish volunteers and ministers: They would rather be safe and comfortable at home with their families but the love of Christ calls them to serve and they chose to respond.

And on and on. Millions of little routine daily sacrifices - that make the greatest life there ever was - a reality in our world.

Love is sacrificial. When we look at the cross, we realize the life that we have been chosen to lead. We have been chosen to make Jesus’ life a reality. Jesus wants to live His life in us.

Jesus said in the Gospel: “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit…” It is a gift to be chosen by Jesus and be His friends.

We have been chosen for a mission. We can choose every day to respond to the gift of His friendship by trying to follow His footsteps.

You may not have heard the story of Princess Alice, the second daughter of Queen Victoria of England (1837-1901). The princess married and had a child, a baby boy. When the child was four he came down with a terrible disease at the time called black diphtheria. It was highly contagious. There was no cure and no hope. The doctors and nurses told the princess that she had to stay away from her son. Her own health was frail.

One day as she stood at the door of her little boy’s room, she heard him whispering to a nurse, “Why doesn’t my Mommy hold me and kiss me anymore?” That was more than Princess Alice could bear. She then did what any loving mother would do. She ran to her son’s bed, hugged him and kissed him. She had no choice. She had to show her love. He needed her. Within weeks she came down with the sickness. Both mother and child were buried together.

There is an old Jewish proverb that goes, “God could not be everywhere, and therefore he made mothers.” Mothers are the embodiment of God’s love.

A mother’s love is unconditional. Our mothers love us whether we are beautiful or ugly, smart or dull, able-bodied or handicapped; whether a success or a failure in society, whether we are grateful or ungrateful.

All these qualities of a mother’s love are for us a foretaste of God’s tender and untiring love for us. And this is what we are celebrating today.

We are celebrating mothers because through their hands God cares for us when we are in need; through their mouths God speaks to us words of consolation when we are heartbroken; through our mother’s heart God pours out to us his unconditional love that never gives up on us.

Today we acknowledge and appreciate them and we say, “God bless you mothers.”

Of course, we cannot and should not forget spiritual mothers and the fact that there are women who cannot be mothers – because of one reason or another… but they are so motherly in their own way.

Happy Mothers’ Day!

Divine Mercy and Trusting in Jesus

Deacon Bobby's Homily on April 11, 2021

Babe Ruth, the famous professional baseball player, drifted away from his faith during his career. One night he was very ill in a New York hospital, and a friend suggested that he make his peace with God. As a result, Babe Ruth asked to see a priest. After celebrating the sacrament of Reconciliation, Babe Ruth wrote:

“As I lay in bed that evening, I thought to myself - what a comfortable feeling to be free from fear and worries. I could simply turn them over to God.”

Wow! What an expression of Trust in God’s Love and Mercy.

The greatest message of Jesus in all of the Gospels is Mercy.

In the Gospel of John (3: 17) -"For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” God does not desire the destruction of sinners but their conversion.

The message of God’s Divine Mercy and forgiveness - that flows from God’s abundant love - is the very source of our hope… the hope that does not disappoint.

As written in her Diary - Jesus said to St. Faustina: “Mankind will not have peace until it turns with trust to My mercy" (Diary, 300).

If you were to take all of the sins ever committed on earth, they would not amount to a grain of sand in comparison to the ocean of the Divine Mercy of God.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation or Penance or Confession – is one of the greatest gift of God to His Church - through which we experience God’s mercy - through Christ – with Christ – in Christ…

But sad to say - unfortunately – people do not take advantage of such a great blessing – such a great gift. A gift is no good unless you unwrap and open it and use it.

Pope Francis said: “The greatest sin today is that people have lost the sense of sin.

As an example, using the biblical episode in which King David falls in love with Bathsheba and sends her husband, general Uriah, to fight in the front line and thus to certain death. It is in fact a murder.

King David, faced with a great sin, but he does not see it as a sin. He doesn't even think of asking for forgiveness. Instead, all he thinks about is: 'How can I resolve this?'

It can happen to all of us. I think we can all relate to this. We are all tempted and we fall into sin. It's part of life's normal struggle. But the problem - the most serious problem is not so much temptation and us falling into sin against God’s commandments, but the problem is our behavior and attitude towards sin.

With all due respect - we have become masters in justifying ourselves. We always find an alibi that explains our shortcomings. People think everything can now be explained away… or rationalized… People just want to have some psychotherapy - or it is always the other person’s fault… everyone is doing it. And so - people do not think in terms of sin anymore, they no longer feel sorry and repentant and therefore, in their mind, there is no need to change and that is why people do not go to confession anymore.

The truth is: Salvation will not come from our cunning, from our cleverness, from our intelligence. Salvation comes from God's grace and how we train every day of our Christian life cooperating with God’s grace.

In the midst of trials, violence and hatred in the world, in the midst of struggles in life, God wants the world He created and loved to know Him in a relationship of intimate trust.

The message of the Divine Mercy is simple. It is that God loves us — all of us. And, he wants us to recognize that His mercy is greater than our sins. “Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus”, so that we will call upon Him with trust, receive His mercy, and let it flow through us to others. Thus, all will come to share His joy.

The message of Divine Mercy is one we can call to mind simply by remembering ABC:

A - Ask for His Mercy. God wants us to approach Him in prayer constantly, repenting of our sins and asking Him to pour out His mercy upon us and upon the whole world.

Jesus told St. Faustina: What offends Jesus more than the sins people commit is people’s lack of trust in His mercy. Jesus told St. Faustina: “If you think you are a greater sinner than the others, the more you have a greater claim, greater right to My Mercy.”

Jesus said: “Let them come to me. Everyone who comes to seek my mercy, I will not disappoint them.” “I will grant them the remission of all their sins, even if they be as scarlet; even if they be more than the grains of sand on the seashore and the stars in the heavens.”

A - Ask for God’s mercy.

B - Be merciful. God wants us to receive His mercy and let it flow through us to others. He wants us to extend love and forgiveness to others just as He does to us. Our being forgiven of our sins depends on our being merciful ourselves also towards others. As in the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.”

The first step in being merciful with others is to reflect on and be aware of our own sinfulness and the countless times we have been forgiven instead of judging those who have sinned against us.

Think of the “baddest” person; think of the worst people you can think of. Have you ever thought that you are also capable of doing those bad things people did, and do, maybe even worse? – if you are given the opportunity or if you were put in the same situation. So, do not be too proud now.

A – Ask for God’s mercy.

B – Be merciful

C - Completely trust in Jesus. God wants us to know that the graces of His mercy are dependent upon our trust. The more we trust in Jesus, the more we will receive.

"Jesus, I trust in You!" This prayer clearly expresses the attitude with which we, too would like to abandon ourselves trustfully in the hands of our only Savior – Jesus Christ.

When we go to confession – if you still remember – with all due respect - we tell the priest – in essence – we tell Christ… - who is using the body of the priest – we start with: “Bless me Father for I have sinned.” Doesn’t it sound odd or strange? It seems there is some audacity or boldness or even arrogance in those words: “Bless me Father for I have sinned…” It seems more natural or more correct to say: “Give me punishment…” or “Spare me… for I have sinned.” But – to say “Bless me, for I have sinned? “

There is a profound truth there. Blessing is not deserving. Blessing is not payment for good deeds. Blessing is not earned. Quite the opposite, blessing is the gift one receives by pure grace and mercy. Grace is getting what we do not deserve. Mercy is not getting the punishment we deserve.

And - When one receives a blessing - it says more about the goodness of the one who blesses or the one who gives the blessing than the goodness of the one being blessed.

St Paul in his letter to the Romans (5:8) – “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Let me close with the Divine Mercy message from Pope Francis:

“God is waiting for us. Let us find the courage to return to His house, allowing ourselves to be loved by him, to dwell in his loving wounds, and to encounter his mercy in the sacraments. We will feel his wonderful tenderness, we will feel his embrace, and we too will become more capable of mercy, patience, forgiveness and love.”

God Bless

Dying to Self

Homily on “Dying to Self” based on the Gospel of John 12:20-33

In our gospel reading, Jesus is anticipating his impending death, being aware that he’s in serious trouble with the religious leaders, and even calls for his followers to be willing “to hate their life in this world” for the sake of the life eternal.

What did he mean when he said that one must hate himself? The expression to hate something often meant to prefer less. Jesus says that nothing should get in the way of our preferring him; nothing should be more important than doing the will of our Father in heaven.

With the pandemic this past year - For most of us - our sense of self-preservation is very strong, to say the least. We strictly obeyed the safety protocols from authorities, rules on wearing masks, social distancing, washing of hands. We cancelled our travel plans, avoided gathering even with family members, stayed away from dangerous areas, etc. – Nothing wrong with them.

But – Is it possible that we have fallen into the idea that self-preservation is the highest value of life? While it is prudent and wise to learn to be careful, we can be too careful. When self-preservation isolates us from the world, keeps us from making friends with people different from us, and turns into inward-focused isolationists, we have become too careful.

When there is nothing in this world or beyond - that is big enough to die for, we have become too careful. When we love our lives more than we love God, this life more than eternal life, we have become too careful. Jesus teaches us that life is not measured in the number of breaths, but by those moments that take our breath away.

Life is meant to be lived, not just protected and prolonged.

Paraphrasing the Gospel - If we try to hoard life, we lose it. Holding on or gripping life too tightly – we end up missing the whole point of life.

Jesus gave up his life on the cross because he loved God even more than he loved life. So - Is there anything you love more than life itself? Is there anything or anyone for which you would sacrifice your next heartbeat? If not, you may have made a god of your heartbeat. You are gripping life too tight. And ironically, that grip - too tight - makes you lose life after all.

For Jesus, the path to the cross was a decision, a choice, a commitment. He could see that moment of destiny coming His way before anyone else saw it. He could have chosen another way, a safer path, an easier life, if his highest goal had been self-preservation.

But the point of life, the fullness and joy of life, for Jesus was not just longer life, it was deeper life, life with meaning, with significance and contribution and obedience and love. And those values led him to the cross. He loved God, and he loved us, even more than he loved his own life.

And so we find in Christ and in his example something in life that is big enough to live for, and precious enough to die for. When you do that, then and only then, you are truly alive.

St. Iranaeus said: The glory of God is a man or woman fully alive.

That is why during Lent – we have this call for praying, fasting and abstinence.

Self-denial leads to health and wholeness.

When are you at your best? When are you most well, most fit, most whole? When are you full of health? Isn’t it when, instead of being inwardly focused on yourself, you are outwardly focused on something or someone else? Isn’t it when you are not looking at yourself or thinking about yourself at all?

Meaning - We are most healthy - - physically, psychologically, spiritually - - when our minds are off ourselves in the pursuit of some other concern. Jesus calls us away from ourselves… to die to self.

Jesus knows, we must love ourselves. How is that possible, for you and me to love ourselves? It is possible only when we truly believe and truly realize and accept that God truly loves us -you and me. Otherwise – We cannot truly love ourselves and therefore cannot love others.

Jesus knew that God loved him. What Jesus did with this knowledge was to take the way of self-denial, and it turned out to be the way to greater life. It is like a grain of wheat that falls into the ground, as though finished, only to produce a harvest of new life.

We must see that our life is a gift from God, that this gift is God’s beautiful and good creation. We must see it is a gift worth giving as an act of love. When we do, we experience the most mysterious paradox. It is a genuine miracle. When we give our self away, when we lose our self for something or for someone else, this is when we find our true self. This is the witness of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. This is the way we are invited to follow.

In the Gospel, Jesus compares his impending death on the cross to a grain of wheat that falls to the ground in order to produce new life,

This is the essence of our being – the meaning of life - of our existence – of our calling or mission as individuals and as a community, as Church. - Jesus’ life as the perfect example.

With the vaccines now - somehow – we begin to get even a little sense of a kind of normalcy, and so - the clergies, our parish leadership team including the youth and young adult leaders in our parish are exploring programs to spark renewed longing for intimacy with God - to help people get back to church and be more active in the parish life to help them get closer to God and experience deeper conversion…

With all due respect, people are now more comfortable to travel and gather and eat at restaurants but they are still using COVID 19 as reason for not coming physically to mass in the church.

With Easter Sunday in two weeks – with the Risen Christ – With lessons learned, hopefully - during this pandemic - with new awareness and appreciation of what life is all about and what really matters in life:

We are therefore inviting everyone to be part of this new beginning, new normal so to speak. With Christ, everything is new. Let us all pray also for new Pentecost.

Of course, the pandemic is not over yet – but we ask you to help us – please start inviting your families, relatives and friends to come back to Church... maybe even if not ready physically yet – but at least encourage them to stay in touch with the church… in one way or another. We miss all of our families.

Let me end with this story: Back in the old west, one of the major methods of transportation was the stagecoach. There were three kinds of tickets—first class, second class and third class. If you had a first class ticket that meant you could remain seated during the entire trip, no matter what.

If the stagecoach got stuck in the mud, or had trouble going up a steep hill, or even if the wheel came off you could remain seated—you had a first class ticket!

If you had a second class ticket you could remain seated until there was a problem. In case of problems the second class ticket holders would have to get off until the problem was solved. They did not have to help solve the problem but they could not remain seated in the coach. They did not have to get their hands dirty, but they could not stay on the stagecoach.

If you had a third class ticket there was no way you could stay on the coach. Why? Because you had the responsibility to help solve the problem. You had to help push out of the mud or up a steep hill. You had to help lift up the stagecoach to fix a broken wheel, or whatever else was necessary to get the stage back on the road.

As members of the Church, of our parish or faith community, what kind of ticket do you have? First class, second class or third class tickets?

With all due respect - I believe that one of the greatest problems facing the Church today is that too many people think they have first class tickets. Too many people are just expecting to be ministered to, to be waited on, and catered to, to be served.

Most people want to serve God, but only in an advisory position.

But the truth is - We are the Church – We the Body of Christ – We are all parts of the same Body of Christ – Jesus’ Church exists to continue Jesus’s mission. Our very being – individually and as a community - Our very Being is Mission – the reason why we exist - to proclaim the Good News of God’s love, grace and mercy.

God bless…

“It Is Okay To Be Angry"

Deacon Bobby's Homily on Sunday, March 7 (10am)

Like the desert (as we heard on 1 st Sunday of Lent) and the mountain (we heard Last Sunday), the Temple is a place of special encounter with God. But today, we do not see the glorious face of Jesus; we see his angry face. Jesus is not happy with what he sees - precisely because - the way the Temple worship has been organized - no longer reflects God’s original idea of a worshipping community.

Some people have a hard time with our gospel reading today. They have difficulty reconciling the Jesus who drove the money changers from the temple with the Jesus who said: “Turn the other cheek and Love your enemies.

Jesus is God and all holy and without sin. How could He get so angry?

Some knowledge of the design of the Temple will help us here. The Temple had five sections or courts: (1) holy of holies where the Ark of the Covenant was (2) court of priests (3) court of Israel (4) court of women (5) court of Gentiles. The design made room for everybody in the house of God. It was a universal house of God “for all the nations” where every man or woman on earth would find a place in which to pray.

But the Jewish leaders forgot that and thought that it was meant only for them. So, they decided to turn the court of the Gentiles into a “holy” market place for selling the animals required for sacrifice and for exchanging money.

You could bring Roman money as far as the court of the Gentiles but not into the other four courts. The court of Gentiles was no longer regarded as part and parcel of the house of God, and so it had become a market place, pure and simple. Now it was this court of Gentiles that Jesus cleansed.

In so doing - he was making the point that the Gentile section was just as holy as the Jewish sections. God is God of all and not God of a select group. Like the Jews of the time of Jesus, some Christians today still think that God belongs to them alone and not to others as well.

Jesus was mad with the religious establishment of his day because the religious leaders had put religiosity over morality, and they had put particularity over universality; exclusiveness over inclusiveness.

Our text today brings us face to face with the truth that there is such a thing as a healthy anger. There is no disputing the fact that Jesus was angry when he cleansed the temple.

What we need to understand is that anger itself is neither good nor bad, neither moral nor immoral. Its moral quality depends on the reason behind it – meaning - what drove the person to be angry and the way it is expressed. It is possible to be thoroughly angry and thoroughly Christian at the same time. In fact, there are times and circumstances in which it would be utterly inappropriate, even unchristian, not to be angry.

Anger itself is not a sin. Be angry but do not sin in your anger. Do not let your anger turn into resentment and bitterness. Do not let negative thinking take over. Change the negative into positive. Think of anger as a red flag God is waving to get your attention. Pray for the people and situations that make you angry. In the words of the serenity prayer: Accept the things you cannot change. Change the things you can. Pray for wisdom to know the difference.

What is the difference between right anger and wrong anger? The critical factor is – self- interest. Do not be angry just because your ego was hurt. The most evident about the anger of Jesus is that it was never motivated by self-interest. He got deeply angry at the mistreatment of other people. .. abuse of other people.

There were merchants in the temple selling sacrificial birds and animals, but the purchases had to be made with temple money. So the people had to exchange their money for temple money.

This was the business of money changers… and the rate of exchange was almost always to the advantage of the money changers… a religious rip-off, so to speak.

People were coming to the temple with broken hearts and lives. They came seeking understanding, comfort, forgiveness. At such times people can be highly vulnerable. The temple merchants knew that and took advantage of the situation to make unfair profits for themselves.

And so - when Jesus saw what was happening, He got angry. It was then that he made a whip out of ropes and drove the animals and merchants from the temple.

Jesus got angry at man’s inhumanity to man.

Today, we also hear about bullying or a dictator enslaving his subjects and about abuse of the human rights of people.

When people take unfair advantage of other people, it is time for Christian people to get mad.

• That presupposes that we care about people. Jesus’ anger was an emotional reaction to the abuse of people whom he loved.

Just think of this - Let someone mistreat a member of your family – a scam artist cheating elderly parents out of their life’s savings; a pusher getting your son or daughter hooked on drugs; people disrespecting your family. How would you react to that kind of thing?

Your anger would be because of your love for the people who had been hurt or being abused. That is what Jesus experienced. He loved those people who were being ripped off in the name of religion, and he simply could not stand by and watch it happen.

If you and I are not angry about some of the injustices occurring in our world today, that probably says more about our lack of love than anything else.

The Gospel calls us to develop or grow in our spiritual muscle so to speak and build character that will enable us to forget about ourselves and care about others.

Someone has said: “You can measure a person by the size of the things that make him or her mad.” Again, “You can measure a person by the size of the things that make him or her mad.”

Let us hope and pray that in our life, in your life and mine, those things that make us mad – are not petty things – but that those things that make us mad are big things, unselfish things and let us hope and pray to learn to make a healthy use of our capacity for anger.

Please always remember – keep this in mind: It is okay to be angry but do not sin in your anger.

God bless…

3 rd Sunday of Lent

John 2:13-25

After Mass, Then What?

It’s hard not to be struck by the heavy-heartedness of Job’s words. He complains that life is a "drudgery"... that his eyes "will never see happiness again". We can understand that – Job lost his children, his possessions and property, even his health. Many people nowadays can easily relate to this – to his situation – to his sentiments.

Job teaches us an important lesson when we’re going through tough times difficult: keep talking to God. Tell God your frustrations. Tell him about the unfairness of life. Tell God exactly how you feel. Then listen for his answer.

Job did not get an immediate explanation of why he lost everything. But he did, over time, come to a deeper understanding of God’s greatness - he accepted it in faith.

Let us pray that may our trials and sufferings help us to open our hearts more deeply and honestly to God.

Sickness, sufferings, death were never a part of God’s plan for humanity. Jesus healing the sick is a sign that God’s work of “re-creation” is underway. The kingdom of God is at hand. God’s kingdom is at work among us. In Jesus, God has set us free.

That is why St. Paul said in the second reading: Woe to us if we do not preach the Gospel.

Meaning – our blessings, our healings, come with a mission… “an obligation has been imposed on us…” not as a burden but a privilege to share – to participate in the Divine Life of God – in the redeeming action of God… by sharing with others the Good News of God’s love, grace and mercy – that we ourselves experienced.

St. Teresa of Avila beautifully said: “Christ has no body now on earth but yours…”

Now it is our turn. We are the disciples who must bring the good news to the brokenhearted, to those who are enslaved, to those who are weak.

In the Gospel of Luke (4:16), “Jesus went to the synagogue, as was his custom, on the sabbath day.”

Most of us - are here today - for that same reason. We have formed the custom or we can say the habit of going to Mass on Sundays. That is good - but we must take care not to allow this practice to become an end in itself. Participation in any service of public worship or Mass is a useless exercise, if it is all there is to it. The real test of its value is what happens when the service or when our Mass is over.

Last Sunday’s Gospel, Mark tells us that Jesus went to the synagogue on the

Sabbath.

Today’s reading deals with what happened after. Our Gospel reading today begins with the phrase: “On leaving the synagogue…”

Meaning - The prayers had been prayed. The songs had been sung. The Scripture had been read. The sermon had been preached. The blessings had been pronounced, and everyone left the synagogue. Then what? That is the very important question. We face that same question week after week, and in a few minutes, we will be facing that questiont again. Again - Whether or not a service of public worship has any true value depends, in large measure, on what happens after our Eucharistic celebration service has ended.

We know what happened with Jesus when the worship service ended. He immediately moved into practical service. He entered the house of Simon and Andrew, where Simon’s mother-in-law was sick with a fever. Jesus healed her, and then she began to serve him.

We do not have to do something big and dramatic. We could start by simply being nice. Simple and easy as it may sound, but in many homes, that would make a dramatic difference.

We may not think of that as an expression of genuine Christianity. But - If our faith in Christ has not, at least, made us nice or kind or gentle, then it probably has not made much difference in any that matters.

You just never know how far a simple act of kindness can go toward bringing someone closer to God.

After Church, after Mass, then what? As a start, why not go home and just be nice?

But we cannot stop there… but that is a good start. Jesus did not limit his practical service to family and friends. He recognized and accepted a responsibility to the larger community.

People from everywhere came to Jesus and most of them came with problems but Jesus did not hesitate to deal with them as though they were his brothers and sisters.

With most of us, our interests and concerns are quite localized, so to speak. We care about ourselves and the people immediately around us, especially our families and friends. We care about our jobs. We care about our neighborhoods, and our parish.

All of those are understandable. We should care about them. But the true follower of Christ is required to care about more than these.

In the Gospel reading today, the next morning, after that busy evening, his disciples found Jesus in a quiet place, absorbed in prayer.

Repeatedly in the Gospels, we find references to the Lord Jesus at prayer. From the first day of His ministry to the last -- Jesus needed to be at prayer.

Meaning - Jesus’ life – his ministry or at work or even at rest – His life is

rooted in His communion with the Father, in His loving relationship with the Father… for the love of God.

When they told him that everyone was looking for him. Jesus replied: “"Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come."

Meaning - To be a true follower of Christ is to live in an ever-expanding world.

Meaning – We need to go out and live in a bigger world. We are called to enlarge our definition or concept of family, enlarge the circle of our love to include at least a few more people. Make their concerns our concerns, and allow their needs to become our needs.

From the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World – Gaudium Et Spes:

“The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the people of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these, too are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ. Indeed, nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in their hearts.”

Soon our mass will be over, and we will go our separate ways. We will have done all of the things that we do here every week. Has it been worthwhile? That depends on what happens once the mass has ended. Again - after mass, then what?

St. Augustine said "Believe what you see, see what you believe and become what you are: the Body of Christ." Meaning – when we come to the table of the Lord – wen we receive communion - when we say "Amen", we are saying "Yes! I believe this is the Body of Christ and that I will be the Body of Christ to others."

As one Life Teen Program pastor usually says at the end of the Mass: The Mass never ends, it must be lived.

So, my brothers and sisters in Christ, after Mass today, THEN WHAT?

God bless…

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

Job 7:1-4,6-7; Psalm 147:1-6; I Corinthians 9:16-19,22-23; Mark 1:29-39

Our Enemy is Not God's Enemy

Deacon Bobby's Homily on January 24, 2021

“Our Enemy Is Not God’s Enemy”

Our Scripture readings today simply tell us that we must believe in the Gospel, we must repent and change our bad attitudes and our actions NOW and not wait until a more convenient time that may never come. Life is so fragile especially nowadays during this time of pandemic. Death is all around us. We are also called to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to all peoples. – this is Jesus’ missionary objective in a nutshell.

Each Sunday at Mass as we hear the readings from Sacred Scripture - we are called to renew our promise to follow Christ, the true Word of God, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Unfortunately, some people - when they leave the church, they don’t even remember what was said during Mass…as if the Word of God proclaimed was not important to them. Some hear the Word but do not act on it. To describe their attitude – with all due respect, using the language we often hear people say especially from the young ones – they seem to say: “WHATEVER..”

My brothers and sisters - The kingdom of God is at hand. Eternal life begins now… we must not live as if we are saying to God’s call to us: Whatever…

We must show, by the way we live out our lives, that, like the apostles, we have heard the call of the Lord and have decided to follow Him to the end.

To each one of us the Lord says, “follow me” every day, not only on Sundays. He asks us to do so with the same eagerness and generosity that Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John showed… as we heard in the Gospel.

The Lord knows that as we live in this world, we have so many other obligations to meet. But our primary obligation should be - our own conversion… conversion of our minds and hearts.

Conversion comes in different ways to different people but let me just use our first reading from the Book of Jonah as an illustration of God’s call for our own conversion.

In our first reading, we heard a short part from the Book of Jonah. The book of Jonah is a story intended primarily to teach a moral lesson. Like the parables of Jesus, it sounds like a story about someone else - but it is really about us.

The whole story is very interesting… you should read it, very short, only two pages… God told Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach to the people about repentance.

Just to give you a background to help you realize how difficult this calling was for Jonah.

Jonah was a Hebrew and the Hebrews despised the Assyrians because they conquered and destroyed Israel. The Assyrians tortured the people… they are immoral as far as the Hebrews are concerned.

Of all the places, God called Jonah to go and preach to Nineveh, the capital city of Assyria.

So, Jonah, instead of going east to Nineveh, Jonah went west. I’m sure we can all relate with this part of the story. God tells us to go one direction, so we go the other direction.

Jonah hoped that if he ran away from the Lord, the Lord would look for someone else for this difficult mission.

Running out of land as he headed away from Nineveh, Jonah took a boat out into the Mediterranean Sea. A storm came and the crew found out that Jonah was trying to avoid the mission that God had called him to… they tossed him overboard, a large fish came and gobbled Jonah up whole…. Eventually he ended up back on the shore…

This time, Jonah realized that he had no choice but to journey to Nineveh and tell the people there that God's wrath is going to come upon them due to their immorality. Now, the reading says, Nineveh is a large city, it took three days to walk through it. But after only one day, the people heard Jonah's message and repented, even the king, and prayed that God would have mercy on them. The Lord wanted their conversion. God did not want their death. So, God did not carry out his plans.

Now this really infuriated Jonah. He told the people that they were all going to die, just as God told him to proclaim, and it seemed God changed his mind.

Angrily, Jonah went into the desert east of the city, built a hut for himself and waited to see if God would change his mind again and, this time, destroy Nineveh… which Jonah wanted or preferred to happen.

The miracle in the book of Jonah is not Jonah's surviving for three days in the belly of the big fish. The miracle is that God sent a Hebrew prophet to preach repentance and forgiveness to the pagan city of Nineveh, the capital city of the much-hated Assyrians… showing that Israel's God is everyone's God!

Practical application - It is a very difficult thing for most of us to learn that God is not the enemy of our enemy. So, think of the people you do not like, your own enemies, your own Assyrians, your Ninevites…the people you cannot stand. God wants us to learn that He loves our enemies as much as He loves you and me.

The story of Jonah is also more than the story of God’s attempt to convert the city of Nineveh. It is also the story of God’s attempt to convert the prophet Jonah himself, and all of us. This is a story of God’s effort to change Jonah’s mind and heart, to challenge him beyond his prejudice, to widen his narrow view of God’s grace, and to move him outside of his own comfort zone.

And so, if we listen, it is the story of God’s effort to convert us in the same way…

• to challenge us beyond our prejudice, beyond our preconceived ideas of what reality is, of who and what God is.

• to widen our narrow view of God’s grace

• and to move us outside of our own comfort zone; to change our bad habits and bad attitudes.

Just as God would not give up on Assyria, despite their stubborn evil, God would not give up on Jonah, despite his stubborn narrowness and anger. In the end, the Ninevites repented. In fact, very ironic,as the story concludes, only one person is left unconverted—the prophet Jonah himself.

The book of Jonah ends with God attempting to invite Jonah to join the city in the joy of God’s grace and mercy. Like Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son, which ends with the father outside the house begging the older son to join the party, because his younger brother was lost but was found… We do not know if older brother eventually went inside the house to join his Father in celebration.

Similarly - Jonah’s story ends without a clear resolution. Did Jonah convert? Did he learn his lesson? Did he come down into the city to dance in joy for the grace of God that had come to them all, or did Jonah remain on the hillside fuming, refusing the love of God if it included people like the Assyrians, he hated?

Perhaps the story ends unfinished because God wants us to finish it for ourselves. Like the story of the older brother of the prodigal son, so, which way will we choose? There is a party of God’s grace going on, and it includes people whom we think do not deserve it, such as people we do not like. And the question, the invitation, is for us. Will we join the party? Well, will we?

God bless…

What Does Divine Favor Mean?

Deacon Bobby's Homily on January 10, 2021

“What Does Divine Favor Mean?”

If I were to tell you of a man who enjoys the special favor of God… heaven smiles at him, whose life is pleasing to God – what kind of story would you expect to hear about that man’s life?

You might think or expect to hear an unqualified success story – good health, great wealth, a loving wife, obedient children, public esteem, loyal friends, an exciting future, long years of life, everything that the human heart could possibly desire.

On the day of Jesus baptism, a voice from the heavens said: “You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased.” In other translations – “On you my favor rests.” And if we study Jesus’ life, we can learn what the favor of God really means… signs that God is pleased with you.

The first and most evident fact is that it does NOT mean a life of ease and luxury.

Jesus was born in a stable and died on a cross at a young age. He made a living as a carpenter, which means hard work. We can imagine his hands being calloused.

Then when he left the carpenter’s shop, he became an itinerant preacher, travelling the length and breadth of Palestine on foot. Many nights, he slept outdoors. The ground was his bed, and the sky was his roof. There were days when he was hungry and had nothing to eat but the grain that he could get from the heads of unharvested wheat. As far as we know, he owned no property and, for the last few years of his life, he had no steady income. By our modern standards, he would have been considered a poor man.

Not only was he poor, he was also misunderstood. His own people rejected him. Some of them even thought he was out of his mind, and others accused him of conspiring with the devil. Then - came the day when his country-men cried in unison for his blood; and in that most critical hour, his closest friends ran away and left him to stand alone. So - Where is God’s favor in that?

The same with Mary - When the angel Gabriel announced to the Virgin Mary that she would conceive a son by the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:26–38), the angel said: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.”

And yet we know what Mary experienced. Joseph almost divorced her; she gave birth to her son in a stable; they had to escape to Egypt away from family; became a widow, witnessed her son tortured and crucified. So - Where is God’s favor in that?

So - Where did we get the idea that divine favor has anything to do with a life of ease and luxury? But somehow people think that if we have the right kind of faith in God, then all of our illnesses will be cured, all of our bills will be paid, and all of our relationships will be happy and harmonious.

It did not work for Jesus and Mary. They trusted the Father with their whole heart and were deeply devoted to doing God’s will… but their lives were a life of hard work, poverty, social conflict and finally a cross. If we take them as our example, we can dismiss forever the notion that divine favor has anything to do with easy and luxurious living.

Unfortunately - many people are deceived by what is called the “prosperity gospel.” Many people like to listen to preachers - who live luxurious lives – who falsely teach “prosperity theology” that in essence says, "If I am a Christian, God promises to bless me with great health, wealth, and prosperity."

This teaching is a great danger to those who believe it. What happens is people come to God for what God can give them. The problem is God never promised a life of riches, comfort and abundant prosperity, so when people experience suffering, they feel as though God has failed them.

False teachers teach what people want to hear to please them – so they get more donations - rather than share truths that may be hard to hear, yet are needed for true freedom and salvation. (2 Pet. 2:17-20, 2 Tim 4:3-4)

In the letter to the Hebrews 13:9

“Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teaching.”

So - What then does divine favor mean?

It primarily means a chance – actually a privilege – to share in God’s Divine Life - to participate in the great redemptive work of God. When Jesus spoke of himself, it was always in terms of a serving and saving mission… the great redemptive work of God… leading people back to God.

Scripture says that belief in Jesus means we receive the spirit and every spiritual blessing.

Jesus said: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (John 14:27)

Jesus said: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

That is how St. Paul could say: “Rejoice always, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

- meaning – rejoicing, giving thanks to God … even when things are not going well with us. (1 Thessalonians 5:16)

St Paul said: “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all these through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:11-13)

The statement: “I am a baptized person; I am a Christian.” When you say that: What do you mean?

When we ask people about their concept of baptism, many are quick to say “baptism takes away original sin”. While that is true, it is only one part of the sacrament and often a misunderstood part.

We are not just individuals who came for washing, to be cleansed of our sin, and remain as individuals living for ourselves after baptism - but – we become a member of the Body of Christ – His Church – with responsibility to and for one another.

To say: “I am a baptized person; I am a Christian” - means – that I have freely decided or willed – that I am committed wholeheartedly to follow Jesus… by living a truly self-giving – unselfish - servant life…a life of holiness and service to God and others…

You and I want to change this world for the better. This is not new. We are no different than the people of Jesus' time. People were sick of a world full of cruelty, persecution, and war. They wanted a change and they wanted to do something about it immediately. And do you know what they did? They repented of their own sins because they recognized that the world is not going to change unless they themselves first change.

If you want your spouse to change, you change first. If you want someone to change, you change first.

Admittedly - on our own – we cannot discern and do God’s will and fulfill our mission – but the Good News is - just as the Holy Spirit descended upon the Lord at His baptism to empower Him for His mission – the same Holy Spirit has been poured unto us at our own baptism.

As Jesus said: “Do not be afraid… Behold, I am with you always until the end of time…” Emmanuel – God with us even in our struggles.

So – DO NOT BE AFRAID TO BE A CHRISTIAN!

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI: “The world offers you comfort, but you were not made for comfort; you were made for greatness.”

Being a Christian is not easy but the retirement plan is amazing; more than what we can even ever imagine.

God bless…

Striving to Make Our Families Holy

“Striving to Make Our Families Holy”

Today, we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph – a model for us – as we strive to make our own families – also holy.

We need families like Joseph’s and Mary's -- grounded in faith, sustained by love, nourished by tradition.

God Almighty, who created us in love, chose to come to us in a family setting. It was in this family setting that Jesus first experienced the presence of God. It was within family that Our Lord first knew the joy of being loved. It was in the family setting that Jesus learned His first lessons in how to love.

We heard in the Gospel: “The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom…” within a family setting. It is within family life that new generation receive the precious gift of faith.

This raises the question for all Christian parents: How to provide a family environment that makes it possible for our children to grow in faith and to grow in wisdom? How to provide a family environment which encourages, uplifts, and supports one another. And the answer, of course, is to follow the example of the Holy Family; to become a holy family by loving one another in the radical new way of the Lord Jesus; to speak love to one another in the sense of “How can I help to bring out the best in you?”

Husbands, you're called to serve your wives. Wives, you're called to serve your husbands. Children, you're called to serve your parents. Parents, you're called to serve your children… Jesus said "I came not to be served but to serve."

As Christians, we are all called to serve. The first place we have to serve in - is at home.

So, let us ask ourselves: Are we in our family to serve them or to be served?

Holy families don’t just happen. They are something we all consciously create – that every member of the family create – by working together and persevering – even in tough times.

This last Sunday of the calendar year – as we prepare to face the New Year – it is a wonderful time to celebrate the feast of the Holy Family…an ideal time to ask ourselves: How is my own family doing? Is there peace at home? Is there understanding? Forgiveness? Love? Do we place God above all?

Our world desperately needs families - well-formed families whose children can grow and go on to form new, also well-formed, families… The family is the hope of our society. Unfortunately, it is being attacked in so many ways.

Side note: I would like to take this opportunity to extend invitation to couples, living together but not married, to consider getting married in the Church and to those who are married only civilly but not married in the Church, we invite you to have your marriage blessed by the Church. Take this as an invitation.

Getting married in the Church, inviting Christ to your wedding is a great way to start a family – a holy family. Let us help you.

From the first reading from prophet Sirach: “Children…honor and respect your parents… Take care of your parents when they are old. You see - children learn respect for their parents from the respect they see their parents give each other and the respect their parents have for their grandparents…

…There is truth in the statement that the way you treat your parents will be the way your children will treat you. So, remember that.

From our second reading – “Put on heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience… bear with one another and forgive one another…

These are practical - helpful - good advise – to be a happier functional family – But - the question is – are those enough to make us a Holy Family?.… because even non-faithful people or non-believers subscribe to these principles or “common sense” values… The atheists say “goodness without God is good enough…”… “so be good for goodness sake.” …. Unfortunately there is even a Christmas song with that that has that phrase – but no.

Unfortunately, even among the religious and the faithful – we hear people say: As a husband, I am OK compared to that guy I know…I am not such a bad parent compared to others… so – I am OK - or my family is OK compared to that family….

Comparing our families with other families - is NOT JUST, it is NOT WISE - Yet, many of us do this. "I wish my marriage was as happy as theirs. I wish my children were like theirs. I wish my husband is like her husband or I wish my wife is like his wife. I wish our family was as strong as theirs."

That is wrong because every family is a unique relationship of unique individuals…. No two families are the same… and, every family has challenges which envious neighbors usually do not see. We do not really know everything that happens inside other people’s homes… once they close their doors.

If we want to compare ourselves as individuals and as a family – let us look at the Holy Family.

You might think: “Jesus is God, Mary was born without original sin, and Joseph had to be a saint to be able to deal with everything that happened. How can we possibly be like them?”

We forget that the three of them, including Jesus, were just as human as we are. Theirs was a real family who experienced many of the same challenges each of us experience. At the beginning of their family life, there was talk of divorce when Joseph found out that Mary was pregnant even before they lived together. Joseph must have felt so terrible when he had to bring his wife to a stable to have the child. After Jesus’ birth, they had to escape from Herod’s murderous intention, so they lived in a foreign country, Egypt, away from family.

When Jesus was twelve, His parents searched for him everywhere for three days. You see, just like any family – they had their share of struggles and occasional tensions and misunderstandings.

Still, the Holy Family made it through the difficulties of their family life – How? - They had great faith and obedience to God’s will. God was at the center of their family life.

What makes them holy - Jesus, Mary and Joseph – loved each other – out of obedience to God the Father… they all – each one and as a family - trusted the Heavenly Father – They placed their love for each other – for their neighbors – within the wider, broader and deeper context of their love for God the Father… within the framework of their love of God.

Meaning - If we love God first, then we can love our families more than we can ever love them. We can forgive them more than we can ever possibly forgive them - because it is now the love of God that loves them. It is now the love of God that forgives them. That makes us holy.

As we continue our Eucharistic celebration, let us pray to the Holy Family - of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, that all our families be Holy Families.

Let us pray especially for those families who have problems of any kind…

Let us pray especially pray for families who are mourning because this is their first Christmas without the presence of someone they dearly loved who died this past year.

Grace-filled Holy Covid19-free New Year to Everyone!!!

God bless…

(Based on Sirach 3:2-6,12-14 Colossians 3:12-21 Luke 2:22-40)

Preparing for Christmas

Let me begin with this prayer of Psalm 32 which captures powerfully the mood and the atmosphere of this beautiful season of Advent – even in the midst of this pandemic and the darkness of one kind or another in our world:

The Lord delights on those who revere him,

on those who wait on His love,

To rescue their souls from death,

To keep them alive in famine.

Our soul is waiting for the Lord;

The Lord is our help and our shield.

In Him our hearts find joy,

We trust in His holy name.

May your love be upon us, O Lord

As we place all our hope in you.

Amen.

John preached repentance as a way of preparing for the coming of the Lord.

Christ has already come in Jesus of Nazareth. Christ will come again at the end of the world which we refer to as His second coming.

And during this in-between time – between the first and second coming - we watch, we wait and we prepare for Christ to come more fully in our lives and into our world… that His saving presence might become more manifested in our lives today… so that like Christ – we become the instruments of God’s love, grace and mercy.

The truth is – Jesus lives – and continues to be present among us – in us - He is with us but not yet visible. He is with us but not yet tangible. His presence is real but still an object of hope. He is with us but not yet experienced by our senses. And so - He is with us but still yet to come … like the embryo in the womb – we know it is there - but not yet showing.

And so – in that sense – as Christians – we are a people who recognize Jesus among us but hidden or concealed. We are waiting for Jesus to be fully present in our lives so that hopefully – eventually - we can say what St. Paul said: “It is no longer I who live but it is Christ who lives in me.

Could there be any better way to prepare for the coming of Christ – whenever and however that might be - than to open the doors of our hearts to Christ? Christ is knocking, asking to be allowed inside our hearts and mind so he can heal us and make us whole again and restore us to full friendship with him.

Jesus proclaimed: The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand or has come near. Repent and believe in the Good News.

Jesus calls everyone to conversion. Conversion is more than turning away from sin but it is a process by which we gradually turn our hearts to God through repentance of our sins. Conversion is a daily struggle to become more Christlike in our attitudes towards others, in our thoughts, desires and choices.

… expressed in the change of our way of living… way of being.

Sad to say - People - live life - their own way. They turn to Christ for an hour, an hour on Sundays. That’s why they find Christianity so hard, because they really have not totally changed their lives or totally turned to God. They have not totally repented. They try to fit Christ into the way they live their life.

You see - If we turn to Christ only every once in a while, Christian life will be a difficult life. What Christ calls us to - is repentance – metanoia - for us to completely surrender to His love.

Repentance simply means honesty before God and with ourselves. Repentance is a proper assessment of oneself. It involves taking responsibility for one’s life… not making excuses… AND it is realizing that we are sinners and that we cannot save ourselves. … and so we need a Savior… a Messiah.

In St. Paul’s letter to the Romans (7:19): For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want… In other words, he realized that he was helpless to do the good he wanted to do and he ended up doing the bad things he did not want to do. We can all relate to that.

But did St. Paul give up? NO. What did he do? He knew he was helpless and that he needed a power - greater than any he had - to overcome evil - and live a good life - and that power came from Jesus Christ.

St. Paul wrote: “Miserable one that I am! Who will deliver me from this mortal body? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

That’s something we can all say: “I am miserable if I try to rely on my own will power but thanks be to God, we have a savior and His name is Jesus!

That’s why during Advent, we all sing the familiar hymn:

O come, O come, Emmanuel

And ransom captive Israel

That mourns in lonely exile here

Until the Son of God appear.

Such a powerful language… let it sink into our hearts.

“Advent” means “coming.” During Advent, full of hope, we wait and prepare for Christmas when we celebrate the Incarnation – God becoming one of us in the flesh. Therefore, Incarnation means the coming of help from beyond ourselves… We are helpless and we are lost in the journey of life without Christ. Gospel means Good News and the Good News is about Jesus through whom God saves. The name Jesus means God saves. Jesus has come to lead a rescue mission, so to speak.

We are like captives held in ransom… meaning we are helpless and so, all we can say is: “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”, the name which means God is with us, … “and ransom captive Israel” … and realize we are sinners and we stand in need of grace… to save us from slavery to sin which separates us from God… and that is the real death… separation from God.

The good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that we are loved sinners. You have to see yourself as both – loved by God and at the same time humbly admitting that we are sinners… and at the same time realizing that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

God accepts us and loves us - as we are, even in our failures and sin. God’s love is greater than our sin. God offers forgiveness and new life.

Pope Francis said of himself: “I am a sinner whom the Lord has looked upon.”

Our salvation lies in accepting God’s forgiveness. God created us without our cooperation but God will not save us without our cooperation.

Jesus told St. Faustina as written in her diary: What offends God more than the actual sin we commit is our lack of trust in His Divine Mercy.

Like the crowds who asked John the Baptist, we ask: “What, then, should we do?”

We have received God’s grace as a gift. The only proper response to a gift is gratitude. We express our gratitude by doing for others what God in Christ has done for us… by being loving, being gracious and merciful to others, in other words, by living out the grace of God within us. It is not complicated.

In our Eucharistic celebration – Eucharist literally means thanksgiving - we receive the mercy of God and we are nourished with His Word and with His Body and in turn at the end of the Mass – we are sent to be the Bread of Life, to be the living sacrament of God’s love, grace and mercy for others. We have become what we have received.

We have the greatest of all gifts. We possess Jesus Christ… And Nothing else matters.

We need to keep this in mind. We are not made for this world alone. Our hearts will be restless until we are with God forever. So, in our life plans, we need to continue to watch and be on guard for things that would separate us from our communion with God, we need to continue to seek the will of God for us and prepare for Christ to become more alive in our lives and to keep heaven as our ultimate goal.

This Advent, as we prepare our homes for Christmas, let us remember that Jesus Christ, the Messiah, is preparing a place in his home for you and me.

God bless…

Last Judgment Based On Compassion” (Given on the Solemnity of Christ the King)

Last Judgment Based on Compassion

Our Gospel reading deals with the last judgment, when all people will be examined by the kinds of lives they have lived.

We tend to think people will be judged by whether or not they are righteous or religious, or by what religion they happen to be. Jesus indicates that judgment would be on the basis of our relationships. Jesus makes it clear that we will be judged by whether or not we are compassionate.

The king will say to those on his right,

For I was hungry and you gave me food,

Then, the righteous will answer him and say,

'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you,

Which means, the people on the right cannot even remember doing any of those things. It was a natural thing for them to do - which means they did them humbly. Those deeds were not done to gain any reward or to achieve any recognition. These people had acted simply out of a sense of compassion for their fellow human beings. It could mean also mean that the deeds were so simple…. No big deal – in human eyes. A hungry person was given a meal. A stranger was treated hospitably. A sick person was comforted by a visit, a pat on the shoulder, and perhaps a prayer. All of these things are so small. But to Jesus, they were the ultimate test of life.

Compassion is not really a simple matter. A man who writes a large check for charity, but still treat his wife and children harshly cannot use his donation to compensate for his unkindness. We cannot pay for our sins with our money.

Compassion is not something that we occasionally do. It is what - which - we consistently are. Character is not revealed by our righteous deeds, but by our inner motives. People see our actions. God sees our intentions. A truly kind person will be kind… to his family, to his neighbors, to a stranger, to a dog, even to his enemy. Jesus talked about the inwardness of character. Jesus said: “A good person, out of the store of goodness in his own heart, produces good.”

When the Son of Man comes, he will sit on his royal throne. On that day, one question will be asked: “Did you care, did you really care?” On that day - we will be measured by one standard – compassion. According to Jesus, that is the ultimate test of life – compassion.

Now, let me ask you a question: Where do you see yourself in the story? What person or group of persons do you most identify with? Do you belong with those on the right who help or those on the left who do not help?

If you really think about it - Most of us would have difficulty completely identifying with either group, and yet we probably feel some kinship with both. There have been times when we helped – we have given to charity, to the Church, to the poor, visited the sick in the hospital and more.

But we have to admit that there have been times when we turned our backs and walked away. We have seen someone who needed our help and somehow have excused ourselves from giving that help.

Thus – the real truth is that we cannot totally identify with either group. We sort of have one foot in each camp. All of us are a little of both.

So – where does that leave us? What is Jesus really telling us?

Actually, there were not only two groups of people in the story, there were three. There were the people who helped, and there were the people who refused to help, and the third group were the people who needed help which is the group we have been overlooking and these are the people with whom Jesus chose to identify Himself. He said that to help them was to help him, and to neglect them was to neglect Him.

The true meaning of compassion is contained in that powerful sentence: “As often as you did it for one of my least brothers (and sisters), you did it for me.” Jesus so completely identified with people in need that their pain was his pain. And any kindness done to them was kindness done to him.

Like Jesus, we are to put ourselves in the place of those who are the weakest and most vulnerable. We are to walk in their shoes, so to speak. We are to try to feel what they are feeling.

The Latin root word for compassion is pati, which means to suffer, and the prefix com- means with. So, compassion, originating from compati, literally means - to suffer with – which is much different from just helping people who are suffering.

… And that connection with another person who is suffering brings compassion beyond sympathy into the realm of empathy.

Admittedly, that will be a very difficult thing to do, but with God it is possible - because most of us have never been there. Just think of the people in the Philippines who are suffering because their homes were recently destroyed by super- typhoons and floods in the midst of the pandemic with no means of supporting themselves and they have lost everything even the little they have and even lost their loved ones. You probably know many more stories of people suffering and struggling even here in our society because of this pandemic.

Maybe - some of us can relate but most of us have not known what it is like to weep with no one to hear, to want with no one to care, to need with no one to help. But Jesus knew what that was like. He never forgot it, and he will not let us forget it either.

Jesus took his stand with the needy people of this world and said in effect: “This is where I live. These are my people. I belong to them, and they belong to me.” Do you see the significance of that? Jesus not only cared about the needy and sought to help the needy– but Jesus completely identified himself with the needy. For Jesus, they were not only another group, separate and apart. They were his brothers and sisters. Their hunger was his hunger. Their loneliness was his loneliness. Their need was his need. He himself belonged to the fellowship of the needy.

And let’s face it, that’s where you and I belong as well. It is not as if the needy people of this world were another group over there somewhere. It is not as if they are the people who need help, and we are the people who give help. Not that at all. We are all linked together; we are all members of the same family. We all belong to the fellowship of the needy.

None of us is self-sufficient. We need each other, whether we admit it or not. Meaning – those who help, even those who refuse to help and those who need help are all linked together.

So - Who are the needy? I am; you are; everyone is. Today I may help you, but tomorrow, I may need you to help me. We are all members of the same family, sharing our love, sharing our resources, sharing our needs… and that is the kinship of all humanity – of all creation.

We are all brothers and sisters of Christ our King, sons and daughters of one loving gracious merciful Father.

And I close with this – From the opening statement of the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World– Gaudium Et Spes – Promulgated by St. Pope Paul VI.

You see – We are the Church in the world. We are the People of God. We are the Body of Christ.

“The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ.”

And so, are they yours, too? Do you really care? At the end of our lives, we will be judged based on our compassion, our self-giving love.

God bless…

Make Gaining Wisdom A Priority

Reflection on “Make Gaining Wisdom A Priority” based on the Gospel of Matthew 25:1-13 and Wisdom 6:12-16 (32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time):

If you could be granted your biggest wishes, what would they be? Would you ask for wealth, or long life, or good health? Would you ask for blessings for your children, or for happiness, or for world peace? Of course, all of these are noble and wonderful wishes.

But what if you were given only one wish. Just one. What would it be?

From the Book of Kings: One night, God appeared to Solomon in a dream and gave the young king the chance to ask for any wish he wanted, but only one wish (1 Kings 3:5). Wealth, pleasure, health, power—all of these must have occurred to Solomon. But he asked for none of these, important as they were. Solomon asked only for wisdom.

And so, along with wisdom, God granted also wealth and health and power and children and fame to Solomon. It was wisdom that allowed Solomon to handle all of these other gifts with grace. In other words, without wisdom, you will not know how to handle your wealth and health and power accordingly… and you will still be miserable.

We pray to stay healthy especially in this pandemic and to have a long life…. The question is - if God were to give you a long healthy and prosperous life – what will you do with your life?

Most people think of Jesus’ teachings in terms of moral and ethical values – things are either good or bad – right or wrong – about goodness, righteousness and love. That’s true but Jesus taught something equally as important, and that is wisdom. Jesus wants people to be good – that is obvious, but he also wants people to be wise.

Wisdom is more than cleverness, or book-learning. It is about deep understanding, discerning. Wisdom is basically seeing ourselves, others, seeing our current circumstances, seeing reality as God sees them – from God’s perspective.

An American tourist visited a Polish Rabbi, who was looked upon by the people of his time as a sage and saintly person. On his arrival at the rabbi's residence, the tourist was astonished to discover that it was only one simple room. The walls were lined with books; a table and a chair were the only furnishings. "But rabbi," the tourist asked, "Where is your furniture?" To which the rabbi replied, "How about you, where is yours?" "Where is mine?" said the puzzled tourist, "I'm only a tourist here. I am just passing through." "So am I" answered the Rabbi, "so am I."

Living wisely means "staying awake", so to speak. Living wisely means looking ahead. Living wisely means acknowledging that we are only "tourists" on God's earth, that we are only "passing through." Living wisely means pointing oneself in the direction of the very Source of life. Living wisely means acknowledging one's dependence on God not only for life but also for the way of life. Living wisely means developing a lifestyle of faith in God's promise of ultimate, total fulfillment -- when the "tourist" season of life is over.

And so, as we draw close to the end of the liturgical year, the church, through the gospel, invites us to contemplate the end – the end of our lives and the end of the world. The way to prepare for the end is not to live in fear and anxiety, or to go after prophets and visionaries who claim to know how and when the world will end.

How and when that will be, only God knows. How then are we to prepare for the end-times? Today’s parable gives us the answer: The best way to prepare for the end is to follow the example of the wise virgins. The wise virgins took enough oil to keep their lamps burning. In the same way we should continue to engage and persevere in prayers and good works, the oil of our faith, to keep our faith alive. That is the best way to make ourselves ready and prepared for the Lord, no matter how and when the Lord chooses to come.

Admittedly, life is full of surprises. Most of us know that, and those who don’t will surely learn it. Some of life’s surprises are pleasant and some of them are painful, to say the least. We would prefer the pleasant. They are so much more fun, so much easier to handle. But we had better prepare for the painful surprises, because some of them are sure to come.

Some of you might be thinking, “Isn’t that a bit morbid?” No, it is only sensible. Life is not made up entirely only of happy events. Life also includes some challenges, some emergencies. If you and I are wise, we will make preparation for such occasions before they come.

How are we to do that? Build spiritual reserves now. Learn to pray daily, learn to get in touch with God and draw upon His power. Listen to God daily. The time is sure to come when our own human strength will not be enough to last us through the night. If we know that, then we should get ready for it now. That is just common sense.

Time and time again, Jesus appeals to us not only to be good, but to be wise. This is the emphasis of today’s Gospel reading. How do we become wise? OR How do we find wisdom? It is found in God Himself. From the letter of St. James, “Does any of you lack wisdom? Let him seek it from God, who gives it liberally to all who ask.” (James 1:5).

As we heard in the first reading from the Book of Wisdom:

“She is readily perceived by those who love her,
and found by those who seek her.”

Meaning - we must decide to pursue wisdom intentionally. We must make gaining wisdom our priority. Wisdom does not just come naturally as we go through life. There are people in their 60’s 70’s and even 80’s who still don’t get it. Have you noticed that some people keep repeating the same mistakes, as if they are not paying attention to life at all, not heeding its lessons? Just living will not automatically impart wisdom. In fact, wisdom is not even just learned by life’s struggles, “school of hard knocks” so to speak, though that is certainly one of her classrooms.

Wisdom can be gained by learning from our good and poor decisions, and those of others.

Wisdom is not the same as intelligence nor talent. Wisdom is not just knowing how to speak cleverly. It is not the same as being knowledgeable. Wisdom is knowing what to do with what you know. Wisdom is knowing what to do with what you have, be it much or little. Wisdom is knowing what to say, or when to remain silent.

It is also possible to gain wisdom by observing the lives of others.

We can be inspired by the example of another person including the saints we have devotion to.

But – this is very important to keep this in mind - the really important things in life are non-transferrable… regardless of how you are to that person.

The parable of the ten virgins from our Gospel reading - Some people have criticized this parable as a picture of selfishness because the five who had oil would not share with the five who had not. But that is missing the point of the story. Jesus was not talking about lamps and oil. He was talking about people and life. And the plain truth is that there are some things in this life that cannot be transferred from one person to another, regardless of how much you desire to do it.

Think of a gifted artist in the later years of life and think how wonderful it would be if he could transfer that genius to the mind and the hands of a younger person. And yet we know that can never happen. The only way a younger person can ever have that genius is to find it and build it for himself.

That is how it is with all of life.

This is what Jesus is saying. Faith, hope, courage are intensely personal virtues. When the crisis comes in our lives, you do not have the time any more to go and get them, and there is no way to borrow them from someone else. So, you had better build them on your own, store up some spiritual reserves, and carry them with you along the way of life – so you will be ready however, whenever the Son of Man will come.

God bless…

32nd SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME—CYCLE A

November 7/8, 2020

The Text: Matthew 25:1-13; Wisdom 6:12-16

Trust God Do Not Be Anxious”

At every Mass – After we pray the Our Father, the priest prays: “Deliver us, Lord, we pray, from every evil, graciously grant us peace in our days, that, by the help of your mercy, we may be always free from sin and safe from all distress, as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.”

We pray to be safe from all distress or anxiety because we live in a world where many people are anxious and stressed… To say to people – “Do not to be anxious.” - admittedly – is much easier said than done.

We are bombarded with experiences and news about violence, environmental disasters of one form or another, COVID19 and new kinds of viruses and illnesses, etc. There seems to be much to be worried about.

In the Gospels - anxiety is presented as lack of faith…  So - to pray for protection from anxiety, to pray to have no anxiety - means to pray for an increase in faith. 

To say we have faith in Christ – means - that we truly believe Jesus is Lord, and that He rules over all and He comes in triumph to banish all that is evil. So - when confronted with fears and dangers, the Christian response is a response of faith – not running away from problems and challenges – but he faces them - precisely because in Christ - they must be overcome.

There is a saying: “If you pray, why worry? If you worry, why pray?

Jesus said to His disciples: “I have told you this so that you might have peace in me. In this world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world." (John 16:33)

Our faith or lack of faith affects how we face the problems of life. People who have no faith or who lack faith usually respond to life's problems with worry and even anxiety. People of faith respond to life's problems with prayer. In prayer, we raise our hands to our all-loving and all-powerful Father, who is able to save us, even if it should take a miracle to do so.

And that is why, as believers, “we await the blessed hope” - because our faith tells us that Christ DOES overcome all that threaten us. That is why we respond: “For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours, now and for ever.”

With that faith – we find ourselves even grateful.

As we heard in the second reading from St. Paul’s letter: “Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God.” 
 – Being grateful in all circumstances is an acknowledgement that God is in control and therefore we become more confident, for we know that God is still going to care for us… even when times are tough… even when circumstances are sodiscouraging – with grateful heart instead of fearful heart.

That is why and how St. Paul can write this letter of encouragement to the Philippians even while he was in prison. 

In our Gospel reading, the message is pretty much the same.

What does Jesus' parable tell us about God?  It tells us of God's providence and generosity.  The vineyard is well equipped with everything the tenants need.  The owner went away and left the vineyard in the hands of the tenants… meaning…  God, trusts us, the tenants, enough to give us freedom to live our lives as we choose. 

This parable also tells us of God's patience and justice.  Not once, but many times he forgives the tenants for their abuses and violence.  But while the tenants take advantage of the owner's patience, the parable tells us also that - in the end - God’s judgment and justice prevail.

What does the parable tell us about us?  We are stewards of God’s creation – what a privilege to be thankful for!

But the problem is our wrongful attitude… which is the cause of our anxiety – the problem is in how we see ourselves - forgetting who we are – forgetting that we are only tenants, we are not the owners; forgetting that we are not in control and forgetting and not trusting in the love and care and power of God.

One especially critical question – we need to ask ourselves - Do we see ourselves as “owners” or “tenants” in the world... which makes a whole world of difference.

For some strange reason we live our lives as if these earthly possessions are ours forever.  We devote our time and energy to accumulate and protect worldly things. We cling to the things of this world as if they are ours forever.

The parable in today’s Gospel is a great reminder - First, that we are only tenant farmers and we just share in the fruit of the land.  Not one thing in this vineyard really belongs to us.  Everything that we see around us is ours only to use for a short time.   Ultimately - it all belongs to God.

If we fail to recognize this truth, we are not fooling anyone but only ourselves.

Secondly, Jesus is reminding us that our privilege of being stewards of creation carries with it responsibilities.  We are responsible to God for what we do with what we have… be it much or be it little.

The word responsibility is not a very popular word in our modern world.  We much prefer to think and speak of such things as rights, and privileges and freedom – “my body and therefore my choice – I can do whatever I want with my body.”  But we must remind ourselves that all of these things we cherish are based upon responsibility, and if we neglect our responsibility, eventually we will lose our rights, privileges, and freedoms… That is the bottom line… let us not fool ourselves.

St. Francis of Assissi, whose Feast Day we also celebrate today, realized that humanity’s relationship with the rest of creation goes even beyond dominion, even beyond stewardship but in terms of “kinship” with the rest of creation. That’s why he used words such as Brother Sun, Sister Moon and even Sister Death and Mother Earth to care for and to love.

We have every opportunity to live life at its best.  What we do with these blessings and opportunities is up to us.  The grace of God is free, but the responsibilities of privilege are real.  We are accountable for the things that we have.

We are the tenants even to our bodies, to our lives, to ourselves, to our money, to our property, to everything we have.  All belongs to God.

We – Christians – the New Tenants, so to speak - are called to give God the produce at the proper times…

Therefore, we must have a personal relationship with Christ to be good tenants – and we must build everything – our lives, our career, our families, etc. - on Christ and that Christ thus becomes the cornerstone on which everything else is built…because everything belongs to Christ. 

The question is - Is Jesus Christ the cornerstone of your life?

If He is, then the Good News is – as St. Paul wrote to the Philippians and addressed also to us: “The peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

… and if we say Amen, it means “So be it” – and so we all say: Amen!

God’s Generosity and Invitation to Love

Reflection on “God’s Generosity and Invitation to Love” based on the Gospel of Matthew 20:1-16 (25th Sunday in Ordinary Time):

In the kingdom of God, there is family, community – not just as a society or group of individuals.  In a society – there is this “we-and-them”, there is rivalry - survival of the fittest.  But, in a family, there is only “all - we – us” - and NO them. There is the spirit of co-operation rather than competition.  

In the Gospel parable, the workers in the vineyard complained because they saw each other not as family members but as rivals, as competitors.  If the latecomers in the vineyard were seen as family members of the early workers, the early workers would have rejoiced with them at their good fortune rather than grumbling.  There is one popular “oldies” song that goes: “He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother.”

We need to expand our concept of family beyond our blood relatives - because we are all members of the same Body of Christ, of one Spirit, with one heavenly Father… who is so generous … who sees all of us as His sons and daughters… and so we are brothers and sisters.

You see - The Gospel parable is really about God’s generosity, His grace, His goodness and mercy and His invitation to us into a more intimate relationship and not so much about fairness- but about relationship.

The problem is we often get caught up on issues of fairness – comparing ourselves with others, with one another.

We often feel discontented - because we often compare our lives with those who are doing better, with those who have more.  You see - there will always be someone richer, healthier, more talented, or better looking than we are.….

So, when it seems life is unfair - we need to take a fresh look at the good things in our lives – the things we often take for granted.  When we “feel cheated in life”, let us just think of those with less – the less fortunate - and not those with more.

The workers in the parable did not feel they were mistreated when they were hired - first.  It is only when the owner extended his generosity to the workers hired late in the day.  You see - We usually do not have problems with people’s generosity, with God’s generosity to us - when we are the ones receiving it – when others are envious of us - because we feel special.

In a way – it is like - when we come before God for our sins, we ask for Mercy but when it comes to other people’s sins or faults particularly against us, we demand justice.

All of us are like the workers in the parable who were hired later in the day… and so, we can say that we are all “latecomers.” 

If we want to compare ourselves with others – let us compare ourselves with the saints who are as ordinary people as we are. Compared to the saints who served God faithfully and who gave up their lives for the sake of the Gospel, serving others - St. Paul, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Teresa of Calcutta, St. Francis of Assissi, countless martyrs and saints, how do you think we are - compared to them?  - But God is equally generous and compassionate with the saints as He is with us.  He loves us, offers us His divine life – No Less… Everything is by the grace of God.

So, when we feel cheated in life, treated unfairly; when it seems life is so unfair – when bad things happen even to good people and the bad people seem to be the ones enjoying life and the ones prospering – we need to continue to trust God – his goodness, that He is just…that He is in control….even when things do not make any sense and even when we cannot understand.

In the grand scheme of things, we can see only a very tiny portion of the big picture… of God’s plan… 

We need to be in a relationship of love and trust with our God instead of on the basis of what is in it for me.

Here’s the big question for all of us:  Why do we follow Jesus, why do we obey his teachings? Why do we obey the Ten Commandments? Why are we here – why do we come to Mass?

– Is it because we want to go to heaven – and because we are afraid to go to hell?

Do we follow Jesus so He will bless us? … so that he'll make our family happy? So that bad things will not happen to us?  Do we pray the rosary or the novenas or go to pilgrimages or first Fridays or First Saturdays because of the promises - that no misfortune will come to us… that we will receive all the “indulgences”.

I am not saying those are bad motivations.  But we need to go beyond those motives.  Because – in a way we can say – with all due respect – those motives are the same as saying: “What is in it for me, Lord, if I do all those things?

When we go to confession – one of the versions of the Act of Contrition – we say: “I detest all my sins because I fear the loss of heaven and the pains of hell – (and here’s the most important part) - but most of all - because I offended thee my God who are all good and deserving of all my love…”… out of love…relationship of love….We cannot earn our way to heaven. Again, everything is grace.

All of the parables that Jesus told - always have - as the core purpose - to teach us something about our relationship with God. 

From this perspective - we can understand Paul’s letter to Philippians (1:21) – we heard from our second reading. Paul is not focusing on himself but on his relationship with Christ – with God.

Basically - St. Paul was saying: "For me life means Christ. Even if I die, it doesn't matter.  If I live – thanks be to God! - there' so much more I want to give. If I die - thanks be to God! – that means I will be with God!  If I live, I can continue to bring others to God. I am not going to live for what I can get out of life.”

That is how he found contentment in whatever circumstances he found himself in – even in prison… where he wrote this letter of encouragement.

… And so – for us - What happens now if after doing all our devotions – God forbid – what if bad things would happen to us? – What happens when we feel cheated by life?  Unfortunately, that is when people lose faith.  They no longer see God as good but unfair.  God does not seem to be real anymore.

Salvation is really when following Christ is no longer about us – no longer about ME, MY, OURS…  Salvation is about Jesus and our love for our neighbor and the life that we give – the life that we share… Jesus said:  “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake (for the sake of the Gospel) will find it.”  (Matthew 16:25)

So, my brothers and sisters in Christ, let us examine our reasons why we do what we do, why we follow Christ.  Let us be honest with ourselves.  Let us continue to pray for the Lord to purify our intentions, to increase our love for God and our neighbor….

…Let us pray that we may serve God and our neighbors - with joyful, grateful and generous hearts, not looking for how much we can get - but rather looking for how much we can give, how deep we can love.

At the end of our lives, that is all we can take with us – how much we have given of ourselves – how much we have loved, what we carry in our hearts.

(Homily for 25th Sunday of Ordinary Time Cycle A 
Readings: Isaiah 55:6-9 Philippian 1:20-24,27 Matthew 20:1-16)

Loving and Forgiving Instead of Judging

Generally - When someone hurts us, we immediately draw a vision or image of that person. You kind of paint a picture in your mind of the kind of person he or she is….you kind of judge the person based on what you think in terms of the hurt – “she is mean, he’s so arrogant, insensitive, heartless, etc.” and when you talk to other people, they might even add to your growing prejudice…. So, if you were to draw a picture, you might even draw a monster, even with horns, etc.

But - Remember, your perception or what you think is not always reality.  We react to what we think which – maybe - is not the reality… meaning, there is a possibility that you could be wrong or that you could have misunderstood and therefore you could have been quick to judge.

Assuming you were right to feel offended, the only way to heal ourselves of those hurts is through forgiveness. It is not enough to be right, and yet you are so unloving, unforgiving.

Forgiving begins when we give up the horrible image we have in our mind of that person who hurt us. Meaning - We must come to a new vision of that person, not simply as the person who hurt us, but as a weak and sinful faulty person who also has needs and hurts, and so we try to understand what caused him or her to behave in that way or to say such a thing or why he failed to do what you expected.

At the cross, Jesus said: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” …meaning – why would you condemn someone who does not know any better…

You might say: “But he is already an adult, he should know better”… but you see – there are people –even adults in their 60’s 70’s and 80’s - who still don’t get it. 

You see - the problem is: when we come before God for our sins, we ask for Mercy but when it comes to other people’s sins or faults particularly against us, we demand justice.

Again - Forgiving begins when we give up the horrible image we have in our mind of that person who hurt us and coming up with a new image. And so - With that new image - Consequently, there is a new feeling towards the person. The new vision brings a new feeling because now you see this person more realistically.

And then – the next stage, so to speak is - there must be a surrendering of the right to get even. We simply give it up. Yes – you might think you have every right to get even as you might think, but we simply give it up or let it go.

An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, results to both parties – ending up both being blind and toothless.

On our own, we cannot forgive but by the grace of God we can, and with the grace of God we can even go beyond giving up our right to get even, we can even begin to wish that person who hurt us well… which is really a miracle.

As has been said: “To err is human, to forgive is divine.” (Alexander Pope)

The process of forgiving is fulfilled when you can want good for the person who has wronged you instead of wishing evil to fall upon him or her… The good of the person then will be your intention for approaching that person, as we heard in our first reading and in our Gospel reading, to help the person grow and become a better person… not to get even.

Then you can say you fulfilled the commandment “Love your enemy”.. “Love your neighbor as you love yourself” because love – true love is willing the good of the other… even if the person is unloveable.

Jesus died for us even while we were still sinners.

St. Pope Gregory the Great whose Feast Day we celebrated last Thursday wrote this on Praying for Enemies and Forgiveness:

Quote: “How frequently we offer a prayer for our enemies but we do it because we are commanded to and not out of love for them.

The judge of our souls consider our hearts rather than our words.  Jesus included a condition in the prayer: Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Sometimes we say those words without carrying them out.  We must not allow any malice at all to remain in our own hearts.

Remember what Jesus taught us: Forgive and you will be forgiven.  Let us forgive others then - so that we, too may be forgiven.” (Unquote)

If you have been hurt - Do yourself a favor, forgive… to free yourself of the toxicity that can poison your soul. Of course, it is much easier said than done.

If the saints, who are as ordinary people as we are, can do it, by the grace of God, we can do it.

Judgment belongs to God.

If you cannot forgive, maybe you need to examine your own relationship with God and your own experience of forgiveness, of being forgiven.

As Thomas Merton said: “We are not at peace with others because we are not at peace with ourselves, and we are not at peace with ourselves because we are not at peace with God.

If you think about it: Who are we to cast off someone whom Jesus has seen fit to redeem? Who are we to condemn someone whom Jesus has died for? Jesus died for all of us… for people of all times.

Think of the person you have a hard time forgiving and imagine Jesus telling you: “I already paid for his or her sins.” and so, “Be Merciful”.

Forgiving someone falling short of our expectations does not mean glossing over sin, but it does mean always trying to treat people with the respect and honor they deserve as beloved children of God – as brothers and sisters who have great dignity in God's eyes.

Mercy is not about pretending that something has not happened, that sin doesn't matter. Mercy is about accepting to love as one is.

St. Mother Teresa said: “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”

As we heard in the second reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans:

“Brothers and sisters:  Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another”.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, over time – if we persevere – like the Saints – we can become more like Jesus. And that’s the challenge for us. And so the question is: Will we stand fast in our ways, our ways of thinking or will we let the Holy Spirit continue to mold us and to shape us?

The next time you find yourself ready to judge someone, ask yourself this, “How would Jesus react in this situation?” What is the most loving thing to do? … and then you “Pause” and let the Spirit give you His insight. You’ll be amazed by how much peace and wisdom He can give you!

God bless…

Homily for the 23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time Year A
Readings:Ezekiel 33:7-9 Romans 13:8-10 Matthew 18:15-20

God Provides Through Us

There is a profound liturgical action that takes place at the ordination of a deacon. After the bishop lays his hands on the candidate and says the prayer of ordination, and after the deacon is vested, the bishop hands the new deacon the Book of the Gospels and says, “Receive the Gospel of Christ, whose herald you now are.  Believe what you read, teach what you believe, and practice what you teach.”  “Believe what you read, teach what you believe, and practice what you teach.”  

Meaning - No one can proclaim the gospel unless he believes in the gospel and unless he lives these gospel beliefs.  This is fundamental to all Christians – the message is for all of us – not just for the clergies.

“Believe what you read” – meaning - believe the Gospel – but of course – first of all – we need to spend time reading the Scriptures through which God communicates to us in a personal way.  Second Vatican Council document put it this way: “In the Sacred Scriptures, the Father who is in heaven meets His children with great love and talks with them about His great love fulfilled in Christ.  In reading the Scriptures, we therefore encounter Christ who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

“Believe what you read” - “Teach what you believe” - Everyone is called by Christ to proclaim His Gospel.  All of us are empowered for this mission.  We have the gifts of the Eucharist to sustain us.  We have the power of the Holy Spirit poured unto all of us at our baptism and confirmation.  We have the guidance of our Mother Mary…

“Teach what you believe” “Practice what you teach.” – Walk the Talk.

A father was giving a sermon to his teenage son.  The teenager replied: “What you are speaks so loudly I cannot hear what you are saying.”

Let us hope and pray that our children or anyone will not say or even think of saying that to us.

There is a phrase that goes, “You cannot give what you do not have.” It applies to all Christians.

When we live our lives in relationship and in communion with God, who gives of Himself to us, we become conformed to God’s grace and so we become channels or instruments of God’s grace and we ourselves become grace and when we in turn give what we receive, we find it multiplied beyond what we can imagine.  

We are all called to give ourselves in loving service of God and others as a continuation of Christ. The word Christ means Anointed and we were all Anointed at our baptism and confirmation – We are the Body of Christ.

In our Christian service, others must discover Christ in us because if we are not giving Christ to others – if we are filled with our ego and self-centeredness and our own agenda; if those whom we serve are not encountering Jesus in us, then our service is simply not true Christian service. It might be considered only as good charitable work, a philanthropy, it might be empathy; but it falls short of genuine Christian service if those whom we serve do not discover Christ – if they do not encounter Christ through us.

Like John the Baptist, we must decrease so that Jesus can increase in us, so that our brothers and sisters are not cheated out of encountering Christ whom they secretly long to discover in each of us.

We need to realize that the presence of the Lord is not ours to keep for ourselves and for our own benefit and salvation.  He is given to us so that we can bring His Love to others.

A lot of people nowadays, young and not so young are hungry and thirsty, so to speak, and have even lost sense of what life is all about.

The readings today help us recognize the gifts we have been given and the responsibility we have to give them to others.  From our first reading from the book of the Prophet Isaiah: “Come to the water, you who are thirsty.  Come eat - you who are hungry. “

The second reading, from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans, tells us that no one and nothing can take the Source of Life from us. “What can separate us from the love of Christ? Anguish, or persecution, or nakedness, or famine or the sword or Covid19 pandemic?  NO.  Not even death.  Nothing can take Christ from us – But - We can reject Him. We are free to choose.

Our responsibility to stay united to the Lord has a deeper dimension than our own personal needs.   We need to be united to the Lord out of a responsibility to the spiritual lives of others – so we can bring Christ to them and them to Christ.

People think of Christianity only in terms of good works to be done or service to be rendered… but that is not all.  Yes - we are called to pick up our cross daily and follow Christ – which is not easy – to say the least… because to follow Christ requires our whole being.

But - as Christians - we are called to follow the highest ethic – the highest standard - that the world has ever heard… and, trying to do that in our own strength is like trying to feed five thousand people with fives loaves and two fish.  We cannot do that and so, the Gospel offers us help. 

We need to realize and experience the need of others.  We need to recognize our own limitations and emptiness, our inability to help.  And so - We need to go to the Lord, and He gives us the ability to provide. This is the Good News, the Gospel…for nothing can prevent us from being united to the One who provides for us.

How beautifully positive the readings are for today.  God will always provide. 

We have only to go to Him, stay united to Him, and we will receive bread for His people… meaning, we will receive blessings – the grace we need – not only for ourselves but for His people.

So – my brothers and sisters in Christ - Let us give Jesus whatever we have and He will multiply them for the good of others.

In Luke 4:16-20: Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to bring glad tidings to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives

and recovery of sight to the blind,

to let the oppressed go free…”

Then Jesus said: “Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Meaning – And the Word became flesh.

That is a call for all of us as the Body of Christ.

St. Teresa of Avila said it so beautifully:  “Christ has no body now on earth but yours; yours are the eyes with which He looks with compassion on this world; yours are the feet with which He walks to do good; yours are the hands with which He blesses the world. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”

Like Jesus, the Bread of Life; like the Eucharist, our lives must be blessed, broken and shared and poured out in loving service of God and others.

Amen.

Aug. 2, 2020

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time  -  Cycle A

Wheat and Weeds

Homily on “Wheat and Weeds in Our Lives” based on the Gospel reading (Matthew 13: 24-43):

Like many of you, one of my favorite hobbies is gardening. In fact, I even have a worm compost bin and I use the worm castings to fertilize the plants and trees. 

I try my best to have a really nice garden.  But, I also accept the reality that my garden will never look as beautiful as what you can see in Gardens magazines and the ads.

That is the reality of life as well.  Jesus tells us also that we can expect weeds along with our good plants throughout our lives.  He tells his disciples that in this world the good will exist along with the evil and it is going to be that way to the end of time. That's life and we have to expect to deal with that reality. 

It is a fact of our society and a fact in our own personal lives.  All of us experience good and bad in ourselves.  We strive to be good, to do good and to live a life pleasing to God the best we can, but we all fail at times and we sin.  We all have weeds in the garden of our life.  So, what do we do about it?

Let us start with the bigger picture - Where our society is concerned, Jesus gives us the answer.  We have to be the yeast of our society.  It is our task as followers of Christ to be active in our society to eventually leaven the whole batch.  I know its easy to say, "What can one person do?"  But that is exactly it.  Change has to start with one person, with one act, with one idea. 

Let me tell you a true story – just recently

Overseas Filipina Worker in Dubai - Feby Dela Peña offers 200 free meals a day to Dubai’s hungry jobless migrants- hit hard by the Corona virus shutdown.

Febi, who is also unemployed herself, said: “We’re poor, to be honest, but it’s not a reason for me not to help.  She relies on her husband’s modest income from a sales job.

She was able to buy about $130 worth of groceries, including 30 frozen chickens and sacks of rice, to startwith…and she began to cook.

Like most migrant workers in Dubai, the family lives in a shared flat.  When her 11 housemates found out about her plan –– those who could - chipped in - as well. That is how Feby, age 34, launched the project she calls Ayuda – which means help. 

She said: “Life is so hard and people don’t have anyone to depend on,”

“It’s a big thing if you can help even 10 people not to sleep hungry,”

And when word of her efforts spread on social media, people began dropping off cartons of eggs and bags of rice. In fact, an influential Emirati blogger gave her 10,000 dirhams = about $2,700 US dollars.

Meaning - Feby’s single act grew and grew.  More and more people became involved in the work… like the mustard seed which starts very small and grows large.

It all happened because one woman had an idea and felt a need to help her fellow human beings who are in need. 

People, even believers ask: With all the troubles in the world, it seems God is not doing anything?  You see- God is doing something.

The question to you and me is this: What am I doing – what are you doing?  We have so many problems facing us today that may seem so overwhelming.  Where do we start?  What problem is most important?  What can we do?

We can all follow the example of Feby and start doing something, no matter how small… and we can start with our families.

There is this belief in our society that you can fix anything by throwing money at it.  That's not the answer here.  It takes personal involvement to be yeast.   That is what it takes.  We have to become personally involved in our world to make this world a better place.  To be true followers of Jesus, we have to pick up our own cross. 

Not everyone is not called to be a Mother Theresa or be like Feby.

We do not have to look far.  Let us start with our own families, our own circle of friends.. There are so many people in need not only of material things, but also emotionally, psychologically, spiritually.

Here at St. Catherine’s, we have such indescribably amazing volunteers and ministers who help Fr. Glenn adapt to the ever new and changing challenges to continue to shepherd the faithful in these troubling times and to lead our faith community in worship.

Let us pray that God will make our hearts more and more attentive to the needs of others.  As we heard in the Gospel, “Those who have hears, ought to hear.”

Pope Francis said: “Do not be afraid to devote your life to God and to others; it pays! For life is a gift we receive only when we give ourselves away, and our deepest joy comes from saying yes to love, without ifs and buts.”

Now - How about when it comes to our personal life? We all have good plants and weeds in our personal life.  Most of us like to think of ourselves as essentially good people. And there is truth in that image of ourselves, but we all know there is another side to every one of us. 

At times, for seemingly no reason, we are in a bad mood or ill temper, irritable, and at times we get angry so easily… at times we can become so selfish and downright mean… and so, we recognize the duplicity of our nature.  Within the individual human heart there is a capacity for both good and evil. In every one of us, there is a strange mixture between the wheat and the weeds, so to speak.

Every person is a sinner; that - we cannot deny. But - every person is a potential saint; this we need to believe.

Jesus understood the dark side of human nature better than anyone else. He knew what it could do.  It nailed him to the cross.  But he kept believing that people were redeemable, and believed it - so deeply - that he bet his life on it. 

As Father Robert Barron said: “God’s purpose is not to destroy the enemy but to change him…. Not to destroy the enemy culture but to convert it.  Why does God not just eliminate his enemies? … just get rid of them - because God loves His enemies… and so the Church’s purpose, and so our purpose is not so much to destroy our enemies but to convert them…”

So, when we are tempted to lose faith in people including ourselves, all we need to do is look to Christ.  Jesus keeps believing in the human race.  He keeps believing in our world.  But most of all, Jesus keeps us believing in ourselves.

Our job as followers of Christ is to try – to aim - for that perfect holy life,   Our job is to recognize the fact that there will always be weeds of sin cropping up in our life.  And so - we need to cultivate, nurture - to mulch – so to speak - with the Sacraments; we need to fertilize with prayer and we need to weed with the Sacrament of Penance. 

Our personal life will never be perfect, just as our society will never be perfect… But - that does not mean that we stop trying to make it so.  We all need to plant that mustard seed of Faith and nourish it so that it can grow and grow towards perfection. 

As we go forth from this Eucharistic celebration today, let us all resolve to take on the task of doing something about a problem in our society – starting with our own families - no matter how small - and to do something in our own personal life to draw us all closer to Jesus.

Amen… which means - So be it.

July 19, 2020

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Homily on “Sermon on the Mount: A Matter of the Heart” based on the Gospel of Matthew 5:17-37 (Cycle A – Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time):

 In the Old Testament, God revealed Himself and gave directions to His people through the law and the prophets. The law began with the Ten commandments that were given to Moses on Mount Sinai.  These ten commandments became 613 commandments in the Jewish tradition. 

 Just as Moses went up Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments, Jesus climbs the mountain of the Beatitudes to present the New Law to the people… called the Sermon on the Mount.

 In our Gospel reading, Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.  I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.  In the Gospel, the word “fulfill” does not mean – to do away with – but it means to make complete, or to supply what is lacking – to make perfect something that is imperfect. 

 Matthew's Gospel was written primarily for Christians who were Jews who knew the commandments, but they knew them as their rabbis had taught them. The rabbis, for the most part Pharisees, put all the emphasis on the letter of the law and on its external observance.

 Jesus taught that that the attitude of his followers towards the commandments must be different, and must surpass the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees… because merely fulfilling the  law was not enough.  The attitudes and lifestyles of the Christian must reflect living the law. That is why Jesus began with the Beatitudes…

….Instead of giving a list of do’s and don’ts, Jesus gave a list of what we are to become:

• Peacemaker, Merciful, Pure in Heart, Hungry for Righteousness,

 Jesus, by His teachings and His life, showed the true purpose behind the law… the Spirit of the Law.  Jesus taught his audience to understand that obedience is not the ultimate purpose but becoming more like God…a matter of Being.

 People see our actions but God sees our intentions. We can never deceive God who is able to look into our hearts and know what lies there.

 Again, Christ is not abolishing the ten commandments, but He intensifies them and He is directing his followers – us – to go deeper to perfection – to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect.  Journey to perfection can seem impossible to achieve… but perfection is actually not so much our current state – but more of a movement to the right direction – to become whole and complete. 

 The law, understood correctly, guides people in right relationships with God and others – the two greatest commandments – love of God and love of neighbor.

 Jesus explains that our external actions must be a reflection of what we really are like.  If what we do is not a reflection of who we are, then we are hypocrites.  Hypocrite, that’s the word that Jesus used over and over to describe the Pharisees.

 To demonstrate his point, Jesus contrasts the written law of the Torah with the new Christian attitude. 

 For example Jesus says, "You have heard it said that murder is wrong, but harboring hatred is also wrong even if you don't physically kill someone.  Why?  Because murder is conceived by hatred.  The person who hates but does not murder is not a good person.  He is just a person who has followed the social norms perhaps to avoid punishment.

 Instead of feeling self-satisfied because we are not murderers, let us examine our hearts to see the angers or resentments we may have towards others.

 “You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery, but I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 

 Meaning - To think and entertain evil thoughts is the same as actually committing the act. So do not entertain the evil thoughts that cross your mind. It is funny that someone said: “But I do not entertain the evil thoughts.  They entertain me.”

 We may not have committed murder or adultery, but maybe, if given the opportunity, we might have done it.

 Jesus said: You have heard that it was said to your ancestors: “Do not take a false oath, but make good to the Lord all that you vow.”

But I say to you, do not swear at all.  Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’

 Meaning - Our trustworthiness should be so great that it would NOT be necessary to invoke God’s name or to take oaths. Other people, especially those close to us, need to be able to depend on us and believe that what we say is what we mean and what we will do.

 So - How can our righteousness then exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees? We have what they did not have: We have Jesus dwelling in us through the power of the Holy Spirit. By our own merits, we are unable to keep the commandments; but Jesus is with us, we have the strength and understanding to obey.  Through faith and by virtue of our baptism into Jesus’ death and resurrection, we are given the power to live a whole new life of obedience to the Father.

 If we are living the Spirit of the Law with the help of God’s grace, then we do not actually need the extra reminder or commandment of the written law because we already observe the law naturally with our heart…

 St. Paul was a Pharisee and a strict observer of the following of the law of Moses as such he believed he was working out his salvation by his careful observance… Once St. Paul was converted, after encountering Christ, he began to realize that even perfect observance and following every precept of the law did not lead to salvation because salvation comes from our personal relationship with Jesus and Jesus’ free gift of love.

 Meaning – this is very important - we do good deeds or avoid evil as an expression of faith – rooted in our personal relationship with God - and not to earn or merit our salvation because if we can earn our way to heaven by our good deeds, or asceticism and long formulas of prayers, etc. - that would be trying to save ourselves through our own merits, therefore, we do not need Christ. 

 The truth is – Everything is Grace - We cannot do anything enough to earn our way to heaven. We cannot save ourselves. We need a Savior.

 What – then - do we hope to gain by our good works and avoiding violating the ten commandments. Why?  Why are we here in the church? Why do we come to mass? 

Why? It is how we say thank you to God.  We love God and others because that is how we respond to the fact that God loves us. He loved us first.

We love and respond to being loved = in this we are called to be gracious and merciful as God is…and do what Jesus asks of us – to love one another as He loves us… 

In the first reading - God gives us a choice: choose Him or reject Him. If we reject Him, we die. If we choose Him, we live. Before man are life and death, . . . whichever he chooses shall be given him. (Sirach 15:17)

 Free will. It’s God’s greatest gift to us. Of course, our heavenly Father longs for us to choose life in him, but he will never force himself on us. While God honors our choices, he also respects the consequences of our choices.

 So, is it easier to be a modern Christian than an ancient Jew?  Absolutely not. Christianity is extremely demanding upon us all because it calls us to be 100% committed to living in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.

 Is it worth it?  The answer - From our second reading today:

 What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard,

 and what has not entered the human heart,

 what God has prepared for those who love him.

 Is it worth it? Definitely… beyond what we can ever imagine.

We’re in for a glorious surprise!