The Power of the Resurrection

Today - we celebrate the Feast of Divine Mercy… reminding us of God’s great love for us and His compassion for us in our suffering.  

People might think that God’s Mercy toward us is something quite easy for God… but – do not forget – It cost God His Son’s life – the horrible suffering and death of Jesus… meaning – we were purchased at such a great price… 

… to save us from our sinfulness, from the brokenness of our humanity …

As we ran away from the Father, we ran into the arms of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

… meaning, there is no place to escape the invitation of God’s Divine Mercy.

… As St. Paul said: Nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

The gospel story invites us to faith, to make a decision – to make a choice to believe in the Resurrection or not - like the doubting Thomas.

Bishop Barron said: “The Resurrection of Jesus is the be-all and the end-all of the Christian faith. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then all bishops, priests, and Christian ministers should go home and get honest jobs.”

In other words – simply put: If Jesus is not risen, we should all go home now instead of just wasting our time here.

But - if Jesus really did rise from the dead, then He must be the center of our life. As Thomas said: “My Lord and my God!” – the greatest and the most profound profession of faith.

St. Paul said: “If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain… we are the most pitiable of all people.” (1 Cor. 15:14-19).

Fr. Glenn, began his Easter Vigil homily with this question: “Does our Easter celebration have any connection with reality?” And so I prepared my homily and built on that in the light of our Gospel reading today and the Feast of God’s Divine Mercy.

Easter is about the resurrection of Jesus. You see - God’s love, grace and mercy will not really mean much for us if we do not respond in faith.

What is the essence of the Good News? How is it summed up?

John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

Reality check - admittedly, it is easy to be a person of faith when all is well and wonderful in our lives, when all is going right. But it is not as easy to have faith – it is not easy to feel the presence of God, the Risen Christ, when we are faced with really deep crises, when things go wrong, very wrong …. like when our loved one gets sick or dies, or when we are afflicted with a serious illness, or when our plans for our lives or our loved ones are shattered… when crisis tears at our hearts…

Too often we are like the disciples who are confused about matters of faith and we struggle with doubts, at times even anger at God and yet Jesus offered his disciples and continues to offer us his wonderful gift of mercy.

We will doubt to some extent or another, until the time when we see our God face to face.

But until then, what are we supposed to do?  Let us recognize and accept and embrace our humanity – that doubting is part of being human - and let us humbly ask God for his grace and mercy.  Doubting does not mean that we have lost our faith.  It simply means that we are being called to a deeper faith.

Let us pray that we might have a mature faith, able to grow even through crises… that we might all be included in that phrase the Lord said, "Blessed are those who have not seen but believe."

Let us continue to choose to believe and accept and always remember that God is always gentle, merciful and patient with us more than we can ever imagine…. Remember that we can be honest with God…. That He will never condemn us for questioning and remember always God loves us and that God understands our fears and our doubts… 

Let us continue to say: “Jesus, I trust in you!”

Again, Easter is about the resurrection of Jesus. Many people think that faith means believing in life after death…that we will go on living after we die, right? Of course, but that is only a part of it.

But – think about this - Eternal life as endless existence is not attractive to some people. There was an eager young minister who said: “I have good news for you. In Jesus Christ you can go on living forever and ever.” But - one elderly man said, “You call that good news?

“Listen”, he said, “I’ve had about enough of this business of living, and the last thing I want is an eternity of it.” (He’s tired of living and does not even want to exist anymore). “Someday, I want to just lie down, go to sleep, and never wake up.” The young minister went away baffled. It had never occurred to him that someone might not want to live forever – if that is all there is to it.

So – What is the Good News? Does the gospel have something better to offer?

The gospel of Jesus Christ offers us a quality of life. Christ came to give us, not endless duration of time, but a different quality of life. Easter faith is not about an unending quantity of what we have now. Easter faith has to do with a quality of BEING – our state of existence, a matter of the heart - that the boundaries of space and time cannot hold…Words are not enough to describe it because – just as the Scriptures say: “Eye has not seen, ear has not heard and it has not entered the human heart what God has prepared for those who love Him” … Meaning - It is just beyond our worldly human comprehension…

The late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI said: “Christianity is not an intellectual system, not a collection of dogmas, or a moralism. Christianity is instead a love story; it is an event, an encounter with a person, Jesus Christ – an encounter which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.”

In other words - Life in Christ means a life that stretches beyond this world… a life with new and higher purpose.

Eternal life begins now – on earth as it is in heaven – As Jesus said: “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” … now, even in the midst of earthly struggles.

Here’s another reality check - to ponder - While Easter faith refers to a different quality of life, this does not mean a life without suffering. What we often want is to be saved from suffering, from pain, from inconvenience.

But, the reality is - there is no problem-free existence in this world.

Jesus said, “In this world you will have troubles.” Following Jesus never meant walking away from trouble.  Actually, it more likely meant walking straight into trouble. Think of those people of faith – especially the saints - who knew persecution, poverty, and pain precisely because they were Christians. Easter faith does not mean having resurrection without a cross…. having Easter Sunday without Good Friday.

Jesus said, “In this world you will have troubles, BUT be of good cheer (take heart, do not be afraid), I have overcome the world.” (Jo 16:33)

Easter faith means believing in the power of resurrection. It means believing that it is out of death that God brings life. It means believing that in every human situation there is “a saving possibility.” Meaning – There is no situation is beyond the redemptive power of God’s love. And so, if you are in a “bad situation” in your life now, do not lose hope. Hold on to faith.

I will close with these excerpts from Pope Francis exhortation: “The Joy of the Gospel:

“We need to realize that Christ’s resurrection is not an event of the past. Where all seems to be dead - signs of the resurrection suddenly spring up. Often - it seems that God does not exist: all around us we see persistent injustice, evil, indifference and cruelty. But it is also true that in the midst of darkness something new always springs to life and sooner or later produces fruit.

However dark things are, goodness always re-emerges and spreads. Each day in our world - beauty is born anew.  Human beings have arisen time after time from situations that seemed doomed. Such is the power of the resurrection.

With a power that fills us with confidence and unshakeable hope, the Risen Christ tells us, “Behold, I make all things new.” (Rev 21:5).” (Unquote)

That is why it is “Good News” = “New”

To this I invite you, my brothers and sisters in Christ - to respond in faith. Jesus tells us: “Behold, I make all things new.” We respond in faith - Please repeat after me. “Jesus, I trust in you.”

God bless…

Our Blindness

In the first reading, David was the youngest son of a family of many sons. According to the custom of the time he would have been the last person to be chosen as leader.  However, as the Scriptures tell us so often, God’s thoughts are not our thoughts; God’s ways are not our ways.  God turns things upside down; God chooses the weak of the world to confound the strong – David, an insignificant shepherd was chosen and anointed as a leader.

Humans see and judge by appearances, but God looks into the heart and there God finds the real person.

God does not judge based on age, beauty, physical strength, social or financial position or status or religious role.

The question to us my brothers and sisters is:  By what criteria do we judge others?  Do we consider some people too insignificant for greatness?  Do we categorize people according to physical features, earning power or social status or academic achievement.

Today, we are invited to look carefully at how we perceive, how we look at others.  Do we look at people’s heart, as God does?

As a community, have we excluded people because they are different and they do not seem to fit? 

We are called to have the eyes of God. When you look at other people, do you see Jesus in them? Do you see Jesus Christ even in your enemy – even in the person you don't like?

Wisdom is seeing ourselves, seeing others, seeing our situations, seeing reality as God sees them.

Lent is the time we step back and examine our lives as to how closely we follow Jesus.  If we are not following Jesus, then who or what are we following?

Evaluation is the mother of improvement. The Greek philosopher Socrates said: “An un-examined life is not worth living.”

With all our Lenten reflections and fasting and prayers and alms-giving - Hopefully, by the grace of God - come Easter – it will really be spring time in our spiritual life - everything is us will be new – we will be a new creation.  Hopefully, we will see ourselves, others and all of creation as God sees them… or at least better than as how we used to.

The Gospel story illustrates the power of Jesus to heal not just the blindness of the eye but, above all, the blindness of the heart.

Let us look at the people in the Gospel story and see if we can see ourselves in them for reflection – if we can relate to their blindness.  I encourage you to read the full Gospel reading if you have not yet read it – John 9:1-41– I only read the short version of the story for our Gospel reading. Again, John 9:1-41… a magnificent story which is also our story.

First, the disciples – why are they blind – The disciples - believed the blindness to be the result of sin, the disciple asked Jesus, “Who sinned, this man or his parents?” - they were so pre-occupied with a theological discussion, rather than serving the man in need.   Rather than responding with passion to a person, they passively debated his predicament – they only talked about it but did not do anything.

Secondly, the parents of the man born blind – why are they blind? - because when they were asked about the healing of their son – they refused to answer because they are more concerned with their own security – they were afraid of the Jews because the Jews agreed that whoever acknowledges Jesus as the Christ would be expelled from the synagogue.

St. Paul said that we must be willing to bear our share of hardship for the gospel.  Not only must we put away our prejudices, our indifference, our blindness to the needs of others – but we must be ready to suffer for our choice for the love of God.  We must choose – Will it be the standards of the world or the power of God in Jesus Christ?

Thirdly – the neighbors - the neighbors argued about whether this was the same blind man who once sat and begged.  They could not recognize the man because they probably turned their heads away, they did not look at him every time they approached him before.  Beggars, the poor are somehow transformed into people when we look into their eyes. 

People think that it is both emotionally and financially safer if they avoid contact particularly eye contact with the poor.  It is apparent that the neighbors did not care enough to get a good look at the blind man before; otherwise, they could have easily recognized him – The neighbors were blinded by indifference. They didn’t care.

Fourth – the Pharisees -- the blindest of the blind, because there was Christ, the Messiah, in front of them, the very presence of God and they missed Him.  They missed God.  They were so concerned with their Sabbath rules.

The Pharisees were also blind to everyone’s needs but their own.  They used people in the pursuit of their own objectives.

The Pharisees were so closed minded and they were so set on what they think to be true and so they saw only what they wanted to see.

Meaning – actually – this is true for all of us – at times we cling so tightly to what we think is true that when the truth comes, which we deeply desire, and stands before us, we refuse to see… because our mind is so set.

So - Who’s not blind in the story? – Jesus - Jesus saw the man born blind for who Jesus was – a person to be loved.  Here’s the irony - the man born blind saw Jesus for who Jesus was.   In our Gospel story, the blind man’s understanding of Jesus gradually became clear; he went from seeing him as only a man at the beginning, to seeing him as a prophet, and finally, as the Lord.  He was given a perfect 20/20 vision, so to speak, both physically and spiritually.

The story of the blind man is also our story. To learn from Jesus, we must first admit our ignorance of the truth, to be healed we must first acknowledge our blindness, to be forgiven we must confess our sins. 

On that note, the renowned archbishop Fulton J. Sheen used to say that in the past Catholics believed in the Immaculate Conception, but today, sadly, people think they were also immaculately conceived - meaning, they think that they are also sinless – without sin… and that is why they do not go to confession anymore.

So - When was the last time you went to confession?

In the Gospel, Jesus said, "I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind." Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, "Surely we are not blind, are we?"

Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would not have sinned. But now that you say, 'We see,' your sin remains." (John 9:39-41)

Meaning - In other words, if you say: “I do not have sin to confess”, then you are blind and your sin remains.  The sacrament of Reconciliation offers us continual opportunity for healing our blindness and for us to find peace for our soul. 

When we go to confession, as in the other Sacraments, we encounter Christ so intensely and intimately.  Jesus listens to our humble confession of our sins that burden us and when the priest gives us absolution – it is actually Christ who absolves us of our sins and it is Christ who heals us of our blindness to our sinful behavior and therefore it is Christ who opens our eyes to God’s love, grace, mercy and peace.

Do not miss out on the grace waiting for us in confession.

Christ is always there waiting for us to humbly confess our sins, to acknowledge our need of His love, grace, mercy and peace and to heal us of our blindness… It is the best way to prepare for our Easter celebration and share in Christ’s resurrection.

Again, please go to confession. Do not deprive of yourself of God’s awesome gift of His mercy and peace.

God bless… Be at peace…

A Matter of the Heart

For our Gospel reading, we continue to read from the Sermon on the Mount. Lent will begin in two weeks - I strongly encourage you to make as part of your Lenten activity - to read and reflect on Matthew’s Gospel - Chapters 5, 6, 7 - the Sermon on the Mount - Jesus’ basic teachings - in which Jesus lays out for us the guiding principles for life.

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 given to Moses on Mount Sinai.   

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.

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. Their rabbis, for the most part – Pharisees, unfortunately, put all the emphasis on the letter of the law and on its external observance.

Jesus taught his followers that their attitude 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 attitude and lifestyle of a Christian must reflect living the law. That is why Jesus began His Sermon on the Mount with the Beatitudes… we heard two Sundays ago.

Instead of giving a list of do’s and don’ts like the Ten Commandments, Jesus gave a list of what we are called to be:

- To be Peacemakers, Merciful, Pure in Heart, Hungry for Righteousness.

- To be the Salt of the Earth and the Light of the World as we heard last Sunday.

Jesus taught his audience to understand that obedience is not the ultimate purpose of observing the law. You see, it is not in the action itself but it is in the motivation behind the action - why we do what we do - where the person's true identity is found and formed.  People see our actions but God sees our intentions. We can never deceive God who is able to look into our hearts and God knows what lies there in our hearts.

We are all called to be other Christs in the world.  We are called to be selfless givers.  We are called to be eternal lovers of the Father. 

On the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus explains that our external actions must be a reflection of what we really are like because 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 again to describe the Pharisees.

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

Jesus said, "You have heard it said - that murder is wrong, but harboring hatred in your heart is also wrong even if you do not physically kill someone because murder is conceived by hatred in one’s heart.

The person who hates but does not murder is actually NOT a good person.  He is just a person who has followed the social norms perhaps to avoid punishment.

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

Jesus said: “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 - When you look at a person with lust in your heart; when you watch pornography – you turn the person into an object for your personal pleasure -  … instead of seeing the person as a beloved daughter or son of God.

To think and entertain evil thoughts is the same as actually committing the sinful act. So do not entertain the evil thoughts that cross your mind. It is not a sin to be tempted but it becomes a sin when you act on the wrong desire. 

You may not have committed murder or adultery, but maybe, if given the opportunity and if you think that you will not be caught, maybe you might have done it… because it is already in your heart.

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

Free will. It is 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. We need to remember this:  God respects our choice. We are free to choose but we are not free from the consequences of our choices.

So - How can our righteousness then exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees? The Good News is - We have what they did not have: By virtue of our baptism - We have the Spirit of Jesus dwelling in us. By our own merits and strength, admittedly - we cannot keep the commandments; but Jesus is with us, in us and so by the power of the Holy Spirit - we already have in us the strength and understanding and the power to live a whole new life of obedience to the Father. 

We actually do not need anymore the extra reminder or commandment of the written law because we already observe the law naturally within our hearts.

From the book of the prophet Jeremiah 31:31-34)

“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant. I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts…”

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 of the law.

But - 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 actually comes from our personal relationship with Jesus and Jesus’ free gift of love.

I am saying this with all due respect – unfortunately, there are people who have relationship with religious practices but they do not have personal relationship with God.  This is very important - we do good works 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 you think about it - if we can earn our way to heaven by good works, or by reciting long formulas of prayers, that would be trying to save ourselves through our own merits and efforts - meaning - if we can earn our own way to heaven – then we do not need Jesus.

The truth is – Everything is Grace - We cannot do anything enough, we cannot pray long enough to earn our way to heaven. We cannot save ourselves. We need a Savior… Jesus.

So – you might ask: What then – why do we pray – what do we hope to gain by our good works and avoiding violating the ten commandments?  For example - Why are you here in the church? You have to ask yourself - Why do you come to mass? Hopefully, your reason is more than just to fulfill an obligation – so to speak – and more than just out of fear of hell or out of fear of not going to heaven you need to get to the point in your spiritual life that you are beyond that reasoning.

We must move from the external actions to interior worship. Going through the motions alone is pointless. We must allow God to act on us and within us as we participate in the external celebration of the Eucharist. Doing good works and avoiding evil - is how we say thank you to God. 

We love God and we love others because that is how we respond to the fact that God loves us. He loved us first.

Christianity – to follow Christ - is extremely, to say the least, demanding upon us all because it calls us to be 100% committed to living in the presence of   Jesus every day… not only in our behavior – but also deep within our hearts…

The question is:  Is it worth it to follow Jesus?  It is not easy. 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.

In other words: Is it worth it to follow Jesus? Definitely… You can bet your life on it – so to speak - beyond what we can ever imagine. We are IN for a glorious surprise! 

God Bless

Beatitudes: Guiding Principles for True Happiness

Homily on “Beatitudes – Guiding Principles for True Happiness – based on the Gospel of Matthew 5:1-12a:

Today's gospel reading is the well-known Beatitudes – which many consider as the core of Jesus’ teaching, the essence of the gospel, the guiding principles for Christians to live by – how to live and how to have true and lasting happiness and peace which the world cannot give and which the world cannot take away.

Beatitude is another word for true or authentic and lasting happiness or "blessedness".  The state of blessedness by living the Beatitudes is what Jesus calls being in the "kingdom of God", the “kingdom of heaven”. 

The fundamental message of the Beatitudes is simply this – simply put in other words – plain language:  Happy are those who work for the coming of the Kingdom of our heavenly Father; happy are those who by their lives reflect the love and goodness and mercy of the Father; happy are those who serve their fellow human beings in Jesus’ name; happy are those who put up with difficulty, trouble, confusion, - those who bear with frustration, disappointments, conflict, weariness, exhaustion in the service of God and others.

Yes, the beatitudes seem contrary to common sense.  They are actually in conflict with the values of the society we live in – they are in fact counter-cultural.  They are paradoxical just as the Cross of Christ is paradoxical.

And so you might think: What is blessed or fortunate about being poor in anything?  Or what is fortunate about being meek?  What is blessed about being sorrowful or in mourning? Or what is to be happy about being insulted and persecuted and having every kind of evil uttered against you? So, what is blessed about that, you might think.

For many – it would make more sense to say "Blessed or Happy are the rich."  "Blessed are those having fun; blessed are those experiencing worldly pleasures."  "Blessed are the powerful."

But you see – being rich, or powerful or having worldly pleasures – does not necessarily mean being in the state of blessedness or authentic lasting happiness.

In trying to come up with an illustration – what came to mind was Mother Mary – As her cousin Elizabeth greeted her at the visitation: “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.”

Mary’s life with Christ was not easy – giving birth in a shelter for animals, being exiled to Egypt, standing at the foot of the cross of your child, being tortured and crucified.  They do not sound being blessed.  But Mary lived with Christ and IS NOW with Christ in heaven.  She is now the Queen of Heaven and Earth… Our Lady of Peace.  She is the Cause of Our Joy.

Mary said in her Magnificat…. “The Almighty has scattered the proud in their conceit.  He has cast down the mighty from their thrones but has lifted up the lowly. The hungry - He has filled with good things; the rich - He has sent away empty.”

From our Second Reading II  -  1 Corinthians 1:26-31 -  It is the weak, not the strong - It is the lowly, not the exalted – whom God chose. God chose those who count for nothing in the eyes of the world – God chose them to show the world the things that really count… what really matters in life.

The Beatitudes or blessedness - speak of having faith in God – Faith that is deep enough to find something good in every circumstance, whatever it may be – good or bad.  The Beatitudes speak of a JOY which pain, sorrow, grief, loss – and even death itself cannot steal from us.

You see - Jesus’ teaching – His Way – is really revolutionary.  Jesus said: “Be in the world but not of it.” – meaning – we should not be attached to the world or follow the values of the world.

Jesus said: “My kingdom is not of this world.”

Of course, Jesus does not demand that we abandon the world or hate the world. The world is good. At creation, God saw them good. Jesus is basically saying – a person is wise and blessed if he or she realizes that material possessions, worldly pleasures and power cannot provide a lasting happiness… everything is fleeting.

The person who has built his happiness – or sense of security - on the size of his bank account or investment portfolio, on career advancement or social or political recognition, on the love and affection of others, on comforts, or on indulgence of physical pleasure – that person has built his house on sand… so to speak.

These worldly success and possessions may give us pleasure and thrills, but they cannot satisfy the deepest longings of our heart—nor will they endure. 

For Christians, the key to happiness is putting God first in our lives, placing all our trust in God because only God can guarantee the true happiness and peace that our hearts really deeply long for.

St. Augustine said: "You have made us for yourself, Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you." … only God can satisfy the deepest longing of our hearts for happiness and peace.

Sadly, on the contrary - the world says that mature humanity does not need God to run its affairs… The way of the world is - no more God.  No more God in school, no more God in government, no more God in marriage, no more God in family, no more God in the bedroom.

The world says that we have the science, the knowledge, the power and the technology, we can now decide when and how to create life even in a test tube or dish; we can even clone life and so now - we decide when life begins and when life ends.  The world’s attitude towards God is independence from God.

The truth is – the world has a false sense of self-sufficiency; false sense of greatness.  That is why the world is abusive towards God and that is why the world is abusive towards human beings – the world is abusive towards God’s creation.

The truth is – as simple as this - the greatest in the kingdom of God is a child. Jesus said, "Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like a child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Mt 18:3-4)

Being a child means - being poor, being helpless, being humble before God – knowing what we are before God - being dependent on God… NOT being independent from God, but being dependent on God for wisdom… for guidance… for everything… acknowledging that without the Lord, we are nothing - we cannot do anything.  In God, we live, we move and we have our being.

Greatness in the kingdom of God is measured according to one’s capacity to need God… Again, greatness in the kingdom of God is measured according to one’s capacity to need God - being like a child in one’s attitude towards God – being child-like but NOT childish… but being child-like.

So - Let us live the Beatitudes – so that like Mary – like Christ – being  Eucharistic people - we will be truly blessed – truly happy - that even in the midst of our brokenness – in the midst of life’s struggles and pains - we will continue to celebrate and give thanks and therefore continue to share our blessedness – continue to be blessings also to others – living a life of true and lasting peace and happiness.

On that note…God bless…

In Christ, There is No Ordinary Life

We now enter into Ordinary Time. But, any Sunday in Ordinary Time is no less important than the other liturgical seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter. The word Ordinary as used here comes from the word “ordinal” or “numbered” simply to mark our Sundays and in that sense we are in ordinary time, but there is never anything ordinary about the message of the Gospel.

In fact, Sundays in Ordinary Time - are devoted to the mystery of Christ in its fullness – for us to become more familiar with the Person of Jesus and His way of living…

 - Today’s Gospel (John 1:29-34) is actually another Epiphany - another revelation of who Christ is – as John the Baptist said: “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” – which we hear before Holy Communion at every Mass.  Jesus is the perfect expression of God’s sacrificial love for the world.

On these Sundays in Ordinary Time - we focus more on various aspects of our faith, especially the mission of the church, our mission in the world…what it really means to be a Christian.

From our First Reading today: “I will make you a light to the nations; that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”

Are these words speaking to you? Are they speaking to your heart? If so, are you “up for it”?  Is there anything that demands a response from you? Like Mary, ponder it in your hearts.

From our Second Reading (1 Cor.: 1:1-3) – we heard St. Paul addressed the Church in Corinth - To the church of God that is in Corinth -  We can phrase it to say:  To the church of God in Vallejo - To St. Catherine of Siena faith community - you who have been baptized and sanctified in Christ Jesus, you are called to be holy, with all those everywhere who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

“Holy” means – to be set apart for a unique purpose - called out of this world, set apart for God… Being in this world but not of it…

The universal call to holiness is a teaching of the Roman Catholic Church that all people are called to be holy – not only priests and religious – but also all lay people living an everyday life and doing ordinary work: There is something holy, something divine, hidden in the most ordinary situations, and it is up to each one of us to discover it.

All of us – no exception - are called to share in the mission of Christ in the world… so that through us – other people will also be transformed and also experience having Christ in their lives….

Jesus did not merely “appoint” the twelve apostles, but He actually transformed  those ordinary men into apostles.  Jesus transformed very ordinary and unpromising persons into active vessels or instruments of divine grace…into living Sacraments through whom God can pour out His love, grace and mercy. 

You see – God uses ordinary people, to do the extraordinary. God did this with the apostles. He did this with His saints.  He can and will do this with us.  God makes us, ordinary people, extraordinary….  The truth is - “In Christ, there is no such thing as an ordinary life.”

At our baptism, we were all - in effect – in essence - commissioned as “workers in the vineyard of the Lord” – as laborers to help with God’s harvest… because “the laborers are few”.  Again, the call to share in the mission of Christ is not only for the priests and the religious. 

When we come to the table of the Lord to receive Holy Communion – as we receive the Body of Christ - we renew our own baptismal commitment to witness to our faith.

That is why at the end of the Mass – having received the Body of Christ - we are sent to proclaim the Good News of God’s love – to glorify the Lord by our lives - to be in the world - what we have become – the Body of Christ - to be the presence of Jesus in our world—in our homes and workplaces and neighborhoods, our schools, starting with our own families.

We are all called and sent to proclaim how really good the Good News is!

What I just said and about to say have been preached to us - so many times - in so many ways.  If we have not really given this a lot of thought, maybe it’s time we did… because this is what life is all about… Life is not just about getting the most out of this earthly life. Life is not just about being comfortable.

Part of our mission is “to comfort the afflicted; to afflict the comfortable.”

- to wake people up to reality… to the truth… to shake them out of their complacency and indifference.

But of course – we cannot give what we do not have.

So – the question to us is this: How does our ordinary daily life reflect or show our faith in the Incarnation of Christ – what we celebrate at Christmas - God becoming flesh – the Word – the Love of God becoming flesh in us?

How does our life reflect our faith in the Risen Christ who conquered sin and death?  Are we truly Easter people…

This life in Christ – who lived His life in total surrender and obedience to the will of His Father - is the key to fullness of life, sense of fulfillment, true peace, true happiness, true joy, life filled with hope.

… The goal of all the baptized… is making the relationship with God as the focus of our lives – living our lives centered on Jesus Christ… doing God’s will.

Again – if you want to be truly happy - true joy and lasting happiness, fullness of life, eternal life – which we all want – they come from doing the will of God in our lives… by being what God created us to be.

You know what? The only real sadness is not to find God’s will for your life – not to find your own unique vocation – not to find God’s unique plan for your life and therefore failing to do God’s will. Failing to live your life according to will of God brings about the real sadness… more than all the other sadness you might experience in life.

We have to realize that no one – no one can take our unique place in God’s plan of salvation – to reach those people God uniquely placed in our life.  As Saint Francis of Assisi said: "You may be the only gospel a person will ever read."

The saints – who were ordinary people as we are – they became saints not because they were perfect; but because they allowed God to transform their imperfections.  We are all called to be saints. That’s our vocation.  Saints do not mean only those saints the church canonized publicly and recognized with feast days.  Saints are those who lived faithfully their ordinary lives.

In its most basic sense, a saint is a “holy one,” someone who is set apart for God's special purpose. As a result, every follower of Jesus is a saint. All of us are called to be saints.

To be a saint does not mean that we need to run away from the demands of family and profession and escape to a monastery, to a convent or to the desert to become a saint…. God expects us to be saints in the ordinary concrete situations of our personal, family and business or professional lives.

We have to remember this - St. Therese of Lisieux said: You cannot be half a saint. You must be a whole saint or no saint at all.

There is a wonderful statement by St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta which we should all take to heart and which we should remind ourselves of - everyday…

She said: “Each time anyone comes into contact with us, they must become different and better people because of having met us. We must radiate God’s love.”

Meaning - If we have the Spirit of Christ in us, naturally - we ourselves become Good News also to others. Our words and actions become signs of God's loving presence in the world. “And the Word became flesh.”

…And that is our vocation…

Amen.

God bless…

Ponder in Our Hearts as Mary Did

In the words of Pope Francis, at the beginning of this new year, let us entrust this year and ourselves to Mary, the Mother of God.

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God.

Non-Catholics question why we Catholics have so much devotion to Mary instead of just focusing on Jesus… why not go straight to Jesus.

Well – as St. Louis de Montfort said beautifully – Mary is the safest, easiest, shortest and most perfect way of approaching Jesus…

All proper and true devotion to Mary leads to a greater understanding of Jesus, her Son.

What we celebrate today is a great example.  You see, actually, this feast of the Solemnity of Mary as the Mother of God, one of the oldest in the Church, goes back to the first centuries of the Church, when the Church was trying to explain and express in words - the reality of who and what Jesus is – in defense against heresies in the Church…

….because there were all sorts of heretics who denied either the divinity or humanity of Jesus – meaning there were groups who claimed Jesus was only a man and not God and there were groups who claimed Jesus was only God and not really a human being like us… that Jesus only appeared like one.

So, the Church tried to explain and express who Jesus is and what he is.   Who is Jesus?  Jesus is the eternal son of God the Father, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.  What is Jesus? Is he by nature God or man or both? The Council of Chalcedon clarified that when the Second Person of the Trinity became man, he was both totally human and totally divine at the same time… admittedly, this dogma is beyond what our human mind can grasp… so we are called to faith… to deep supernatural mystery of our faith.

Our faith tells us that Jesus Christ is truly human, with a human mind, will and body.  Jesus Christ at the same time is also truly God.  His two natures, human and divine, are united in the one person of Jesus, the Son of God.

In the fullness of time, God who is outside of time and space entered into our world through a human mother.

…And Mary is the mother of the human nature of Jesus….and since the total person of who Jesus is cannot be separated from what he is… both fully man and fully God at the same time... therefore, Mary is truly the Mother of God… because Jesus IS God.

Our celebration is actually a bold proclamation that Jesus IS God.

That is the theology behind the feast we celebrate today.  It is important for us to be aware of this dogma of our faith. We have been entrusted with a rich tradition. We should understand the basic elements of our tradition.

Now…what does this feast of Mary, Mother of God, say to you and me, or what does it mean for us, right here and now, not as theologians, but – on a practical level - as individuals and as a faith community struggling to follow Christ, struggling to be true Christians, to serve God in our lives every day.

From our second reading from St. Paul's letter to the Galatians: God's plan was that his Son be born of a woman so that we might become God’s adopted sons and daughters. The Son of God became one of us… God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, and as God’s beloved children, now – awesomely - we can call God “Abba, Father”.

God is our Father. Jesus is our brother. The Holy Spirit, the Advocate - is in our hearts.  Mary is our Mother.  Wow!!!  That is the truth. So, we should be indescribably joyful about that!

We have heard this many times, but do we really understand/truly grasp this truth, this reality - what it means… and therefore, are we living our lives accordingly, as beloved sons and daughters of God?

We really need to ponder this in our hearts like Mary did.

God is Our Father and so, when we are troubled with the struggles of life, when we have doubts and when our faith becomes weak, we must continue to be confident that God, who is always near to us, really hears our prayers.

We have to remember this truth – because of Mary’s cooperation with God’s plan, we are now beloved children of God - God who is not an unapproachable ruler, not someone out there in outer space but God who is with us… Emmanuel…God who cares about us… and God who truly knows and understands our human struggles and pains and sufferings…because He became one of us in the flesh.

That is what our feast, Mary being the Mother of God, means for us.

Again, true and proper devotion to Mary leads to Jesus… just as Mama Mary said at the wedding feast at Cana: “Do whatever Jesus tells you.” The question is: Are we listening to what Jesus is telling us?

I think it was Thomas Merton who said: “The root of people’s problems is actually the lack of contemplation.”

Today, we honor Mary - not adore Mary as the Protestants accuse us of – but we honor her as our Mother, as the model of contemplation.

Mary reflected or pondered the word of God in order to discern what God was saying to her at every stage in her life as the handmaid of God… a great example for us.

God constantly reveals Himself to us.  He speaks to us through divine revelation.  He speaks to us through the Bible, the teaching and preaching of the Church - as well as through our personal experiences, if only we made time to reflect on them as Mary did…until they sink into our hearts…

As we start the New Year – As our new year’s resolution - let us resolve to listen more to the voice of God, and ponder it in our hearts as Mary did. 

Let us make reading the Scriptures daily as one of our goals.

We do not know what this coming year holds for us…Only God knows… Let us pray with Mary for deeper and stronger faith in our ever-faithful God, who is and will be with us in bad times as well as in good times.  Mary continued to say “yes” to God all her life although there were things, there were times she could not understand.

Let us pray today to the Holy Spirit, the Spouse of Mary – for His gift of understanding…for us to realize that God, God’s love is far greater than what our intelligence can comprehend…

Usually this time of the year, we also look back into the past, so, let us pray/proclaim as Mary did: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my Spirit rejoices in God my savior…He has looked with favor on His lowly servant…”  This Magnificat should be part of our prayer every day.

Let us pray for humble grateful hearts for all the blessings God has showered upon us and let us pray for generous hearts to share our blessings with those less fortunate; with those to whom life has not been so kind.

January 1st is also the World Day of Peace. Mary is our Queen of Peace, our Lady of Peace…. The beginning of the year is also a great time to pray for the blessings of peace in this troubled world in these trying times beginning within ourselves and in our own families.

Let us pray that we will always remember and trust that no matter what our past may have been, no matter what we have done, there is always God’s mercy and forgiveness…

…God is always ready to forgive us; no matter what the world has done to us, no matter what we have done - there is always the grace of beginning again, new year, fresh start.

Let us take time today and examine our hearts to see if there are any relationships especially within our own families that need healing; any relationships that need to be reconciled. Start now.

Let us try our best to forgive.   Our Lord, the Son of Mary, the Prince of Peace, calls us to love not only those who love us but also those who do not love us, who do not like us.

Let us pray that we be living instruments of Christ’s peace.

My brothers and sisters in Christ – As God has made Mary full of grace, let us pray - may God fill us and our loved ones with His grace this New Year and in the years ahead.   Amen….

Wishing you all and all your loved ones: Blessed Grace-filled Holy New Year!!!

God bless…

Rejoice Always Even in Suffering

We heard in the Gospel: "the poor have the Good News preached to them."  How do you feel when you hear good news? Of course, rejoicing.  Joy. Today is Gaudete or Rejoice Sunday.

What is the essence of the Good News? How is it summed up? Everyone should know this. It's in the ever-popular John 3:16…we used to see it in sports events. "For God so loved the world that He sent His only Son, that whoever believes in Him may not die, but have everlasting life."  Meaning – in Christ, we are going to live forever in the glorious presence of the One who is LOVE… not only after our physical earthly death, but even in the here and now… as both John the Baptist and Jesus said: The kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Christmas is about joy. The angel said to the shepherds, “Behold, I bring you good news of great joy . . .” Whatever other enjoyments we may have during this season, the true joy of Christmas comes from the realization that our deepest longings have been met in the divine gift of God’s own self in Jesus Christ… and so – We Rejoice in the Lord!

The Old Testament expresses the joyful EXPECTATION of the great significant thing God will do… as we heard in the First Reading from Isaiah.

The New Testament is full of joyful RESPONSE for the significant thing God has done… Promise has already been fulfilled.  Jesus said: “Go and tell John what you hear and see:  the blind regained their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.”

As Christians, we celebrate the “event” Christmas commemorates. Christmas is about a birth, a birth in this very real world of time and space.  

Meaning -  God, although He is outside of time and space, has come within reach. God is not remote, not out there somewhere. God is “Emmanuel” - - “God with us.” Flesh and blood. One of us.

This good news is the true basis of Christmas joy.  God makes Himself available to us in this desperate troubled world.

Perhaps – as some of you might say: “I really would like to be joyful, but I am hurting too badly.” Maybe you lost a job, lost your home, lost your health or broke a relationship, lost a loved one and this might be the first Christmas without your loved one, … and so you might say: As much as I want to, I really cannot bring myself to be joyful this Christmas.

With all due respect, if that is how you feel, there is something very important – hopefully for you to realize and see – that Christmas joy is not the absence of suffering. The world may define joy this way, but not the gospel. Christmas joy is a mysterious joy in suffering, joy through suffering, joy in spite of suffering. The complete Christmas story involves a cross. Actually, Christmas points to Good Friday and Easter.

Instead of yearning for a problem-free life, let us rejoice that troubles can actually bring us into deeper awareness of God’s presence in our lives.

What we celebrate at Christmas is true every day of the year. God is always coming to us. God is present in all things, even in our suffering. God is at work in all things to bring some unforeseen good even out of sufferings and trials. This is what we see clearly as Christians at Christmas, and this is the source of a very special joy.

As we heard from our first reading - The prophet Isaiah speaks of what God can do with our desolation: “…They will see the glory of the LORD, the splendor of our God. They will meet with joy and gladness, sorrow and mourning will flee. The desert and the parched land will bloom with abundant flowers, and rejoice with joyful song.”

So – Are you in a kind of desert of life, so to speak, right now? Where is your desert, your wilderness? It is there in every person’s life. No one’s life is all rosy and trouble-free. Every life has desert places. The great prophet Isaiah declares that God brings life out of death. God does not just give life. God brings life out of death.  

The desert is a graphic metaphor of what life can become.  Some people are living in a seemingly hopeless situation, where they find nothing but emptiness and an unrelieved dryness and so, they may not respond to sermons or words of encouragement no matter how good they may sound… Admittedly, even the most eloquent words are not enough to console a sorrowful heart.

But - as Christians, we need to continue to proclaim and share the Good News of God’s love, grace and mercy/the Joy of the Gospel… and we are all called to be the prophets of our time.  As Christians, Jesus invites us to follow Him into the desert places of people’s lives and to invest ourselves there… meaning, we are called to share in Jesus’ mission of proclaiming the Good News of God’s love, grace and mercy not only in words but by our very lives. St. Francis of Assissi said: “Preach the Gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words.” The power of love can give hope to those in despair.

So – if you are hurting, facing difficulties in life, trust God, for someday, you will discover little streams of water running through your desert… so to speak.  This hope is the source of our joy… joyful hope. And hope in God reminds us that in the end, because everything passes, God will bring all things to joy.

Remember, we have an eternity of trouble-free living awaiting us in heaven.

… something to look forward to… to be excited about.

There is this song – J   O   Y

J  for Jesus; O for Others; Y for You…that’s all the lyrics plus “she bee do bee do” … sang repeatedly in 1950’s dance music.

J  for Jesus – meaning - we need to have Jesus first – as the center of our life… we need to surrender our lives to God; love God first… and discern and follow His will for us.

O for Others… meaning, let us focus on helping others who are in their desert, so to speak.

Lastly, Y for Yourself.  In other words, in plain language, if you want to be happy, make other people happy.

You will discover that those who practice J-O-Y, in that sequence, are the ones who enjoy peace and joy, and that those who practice “me first”, "self first" are always the unhappy and miserable ones.

Jesus, Others and then Yourself… just as Jesus emptied Himself out of obedience to God our Father in order to save us. If we follow Christ, and share in His mission and carry our own cross daily, then we will share in His joyful and glorious resurrection.

Meaning - If we get our priorities right, we will experience true and lasting joy and happiness every day of our life…regardless of any situations we might find ourselves in.

What brought joy and hope in the midst of horrible stories that came out of the Covid 19 pandemic and all the tragedies this past year - are stories of people selflessly forgetting themselves, forgetting their own safety and misery in order to save lives… to help others.

We heard stories of faith and hope…. that God is in control …. That God will bring good out of what seem to be a horrible situation… and it this hope – in God - that allows us to endure challenging crises in our lives.

Advent is all about looking forward – waiting in joyful hope (not wishful thinking) – but joyful expectation – Joyful Waiting - for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in our lives.

On this Gaudete or Rejoice Sunday, let us focus on the joy we have that the Lord has come into the world and will continue to come into our lives to help in all our needs.

Jesus said: Amen, I say to you, among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John.”  My brothers and sisters in Christ, then who is the least in the kingdom of heaven yet greater than John the Baptist?  The Good News is – He is talking about US! You and Me! We are greater than John … because we have Christ IN us.

So – Let us all rejoice always.

Joy to the World and Joy in Our Hearts.  Amen.

God bless…

1st Sunday of Advent: Wake Up, Stay Awake, Be Alert Be On Guard

In Jesus’ time, the problem Jesus faced was NOT that no one was waiting for the Messiah; NOT that NO one was looking for a savior, but the problem was that Jesus turned out to be a different Messiah from what the people were waiting for… therefore, not only that they did not recognize the Messiah, right in front of them; they killed Him.

Similarly – our own concepts of what or who God is could be our own obstacle to knowing and encountering God. We could be blinded by our own concepts and prejudiced ideas of what God is – of Who Jesus is; of how God would come into our lives; of how God works in our lives. The truth of the matter is that people did not recognize Jesus then and they do not recognize Him now. Just as John the Baptist declared: “There is one among you whom you do not recognize (Jn 1:26).

As one author wrote: The world did not recognize Jesus then because:

They were looking for a Lion, He came as a Lamb.

They were looking for a Warrior, He came as a Peace maker.

They were looking for a King, He came as a Servant.

They were looking for their temporal needs to be met. He came to meet their eternal needs.

They were looking for someone to liberate them from Rome, He submitted to the Roman Cross.

AND - It is NOT ONLY in terms of WHAT the Messiah will be like but there were and even in our time, there are still misconceptions as to WHEN and HOW the Lord will come.

The admonition for this first Sunday of the church’s new year is: Stay awake! Keep alert! Be on guard! What does that mean?

Sometimes the Second Coming of Christ is spoken of in the New Testament as a grand, cosmic event in which Jesus will descend on clouds from heaven. Trumpets will sound, the dead will be raised, and Christ will return in glory.

But - Today we have another image of Christ’s coming. In our Gospel, we hear Jesus say that the Lord will come like “a thief in the night.”

Meaning - God comes to us in unexpected, surprising ways. This is actually what we celebrate during Advent and at Christmas.

What the incarnation means for us, God becoming one of us in the flesh, and what we celebrate throughout this holy season, is that God is with us… Emmanuel.

The challenge for us is to be spiritually alert and watchful which is the true meaning of Advent but unfortunately Advent has become an almost routine commercialized season – just a time for parties and shopping for Christmas gifts.

So – How do we “Stay awake! Keep alert! Be on guard!”

That’s the challenge for all of us: Our real worry should not be that the world might suddenly end or that we might unexpectedly die, but our concern must be that we might live and die, ASLEEP, so to speak.

Father Anthony DeMello, a Jesuit priest said: Spirituality means waking up. Most people, even though they do not know it, are asleep, so to speak. They're born asleep, they live asleep, they marry in their sleep, they raise children in their sleep, they die still in their sleep without ever waking up.

Meaning - They never understand the loveliness and the beauty of this thing that we call human existence… never understanding how to be fully alive.

Meaning – People live and die without really loving, without properly expressing their love, and without tasting deeply the real joy of living because they are so consumed by the worldliness, business and busy pressures of living that they never quite get around to fully living.

St. Irenaeus said: “The glory of God is a man fully alive.”

That is why Jesus said: “I have come that they might have life and have it abundantly (in other translation) – to have life to its fullest.” (John 10:10)

You see - being alert, awake, and being vigilant in the biblical sense is not a matter of living in fear of the world ending or of our personal lives ending.

Rather, being awake is a matter of having love and reconciliation as our chief concerns. It is a matter of always being grateful, thanking, appreciating, affirming, forgiving, apologizing, and being more mindful of the joys of living in human community and within the sure embrace of God…every day – meaning – Christ’s ongoing coming by grace into our lives every day… not just at the first coming; not just at the second coming but coming into our lives every day.

We need to be awake spiritually. Again, the end of the world should NOT concern us, nor should we worry excessively about when we will die. What we should worry about is: IN WHAT STATE our dying will find us… meaning – in what state our hearts and our souls will be when we die.

We are called not only to wake up to life, but called also to stay awake, so to speak. We are being reminded of how easy it is to become lazy in our life of faith. We are being reminded that our hearts can become drowsy from “carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life.”

A simple practical illustration - This is also the season of holiday parties especially now that people can gather together again, people are excited… You can pretty much imagine some people standing in front of their closets – anguishing - with the silent cry, looking at all the clothes: “Which one am I going to wear?”

From our Second Reading today, St. Paul also mentioned: “It is the hour now for you to awake from sleep.” He urges the Romans to find a renewed intimacy with Christ. St. Paul – using metaphor drawn from the closet - asks his readers to “put on Christ.”

To “Put on Christ” means to dress our inner being/person, not the outer body, and “to put on Christ” is thus a call to place priority on our relationship with God more than our relationships with the world.

St. Paul encourages us to dress our inner being, our character, our soul with more attention than we give to dressing up our bodies.

St. Paul is telling us to strive to please God, the One who looks upon the heart rather than the face, to dress the soul more carefully than the body. As Thomas Merton observed, “the very desire to please God, already pleases God.” It is our highest calling and purpose.

How do we please God? What are the “garments” – so to speak - of the well-dressed soul? Remember, we cannot serve God or love God without also serving and loving our neighbor. If we would put on Christ, we must “behave properly”.

Meaning - We are to enjoy life but in moderation (“not in orgies and drunkenness”);

We are to enjoy relationships of intimacy but within God’s plan for marriage (“not in sexual immorality or lust”);

We are to enjoy honest and real friendships with companions, with our family members and co-workers (“not in rivalry or jealousy”).

So, what are we going to wear, so to speak, this Advent season? Today is the beginning of our season of introspection, going deep within, of examining our conscience, of renewing our covenant relationship with God and season of spiritual preparation for the coming of Christ whenever and however that might be.

St. Pope John XXIII said that if we live according to God’s will, in communion with Christ, then any day is a good day to die even if death comes like “a thief in the night” because our true home is in heaven – living our lives with eternity in view – recognizing that we are just passing through in this earthly life.

Let us dress appropriately spiritually.

Let us clothe our minds with thoughts of repentance.

Let us wrap our hearts in hope for God’s coming. Let us gird our souls - in glad service of the poor and powerless - for the love of God.

So, my brothers and sisters in Christ, when we stand before our packed closets, filled with clothes, instead of asking “Which of these clothes should I wear?”, may the Christ who was born in a borrowed cave, wrapped only in a few strips of cloth; may Christ who died on a cross wearing even less, - May Christ call us to ask the more important question, “Which of these clothes can I give away?”

God bless…

Learn from the Tragedies, Everything is Passing.

Cycle C - 33rd ORDINARY - NOVEMBER 13, 2022
(based on the Sunday Gospel reading from Luke 21:5-19).

“By your perseverance you will secure your lives.”

We live in such troubled times:

• Thank God – we survived the COVID 19 Pandemic, although it is not totally over yet. 

• We heard about various terrorist attacks which killed at least a hundred people, including many children.

• Many young people died in Seoul, South Korea as a tragic consequence of a sudden crowd surge.

• We hear of heart-breaking news of destructions and the sufferings of countless innocent victims because of the war in Ukraine which has serious global consequences including shortage of food supply for poor countries.

• We hear of natural calamities (hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, fires) during the past few months.

People lost everything they had – including their loved ones.

Having said that - these tragedies, calamities, disasters - point up to one truth: the transient or passing nature of things in this world.  Meaning - Nothing lasts.

Jesus spoke of this in today's Gospel. The disciples were celebrating the beauty of the temple. And Jesus said: "These things which you see shall not be left one stone upon another that will not be thrown down." He was referring to the temple… The truth that Jesus spoke applies to all worldly things . They may last a long time, but eventually, they will all be gone.

Actually, reality check – not to be morbid - not only material things – but everyone – all of us – including our loved ones – are all passing.  We are all just passing through in this journey of life on earth.

And - This realization causes a certain amount of anxiety about the future and it is natural and understandable. The future is full of uncertainty and if we are not careful, we can get so preoccupied with questions about the future, and therefore be filled with anxiety.

The Good News is - Through the Incarnation of God – which we will celebrate next month - God becoming One of us in Jesus Christ, God has entered time and history. Christ sheds light on the future. Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end… and this sets the future in its proper context.  Meaning – we now have this great hope because – in Christ - All things move toward the fulfillment of the plans and purposes of God. The end of our life story and of history belongs to God.

We cannot see very far into the future. Abraham Lincoln said “the best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.” Twelve-Step programs for alcoholics prescribe “one day at a time” as the best way to managing the challenges of life. Similarly - Faith must be lived one day at a time.

Jesus’ instruction was that the disciples should live each day fully prepared for the coming of God’s kingdom.  Each day is a gift from God, and we are to live each day to the fullest in service to the world in Christ’s name.

We are not guaranteed years or months or even days… Tomorrow may never come. What we have is one moment in time. It is a treasure because it will never come again. So - what we do with each moment of time is our gift to God.

When people asked Jesus for some reassurance from Him about their future, Jesus gave them one simple response.  Live faithfully now and you will be prepared for whatever the future brings!

Simple practical example – Yes – you are here physically at mass - yet your mind is already pre-occupied thinking about so many other things instead of focusing on the awesome loving presence of God among us and being faithfully present before God.

Again - Live faithfully now in the present moment and you will be prepared for whatever the future brings!

Faithfulness means that we must persevere through the good and the bad, the easy and the difficult times.  Living our daily life in a faithful way means that we choose to embrace whatever comes our way.  We live in each moment without backing away.  It is that faithfulness that will prepare us for the coming events of our lives.

Faith is not a matter of speculating about the future but living faithfully in the present moment reality. We are to live wisely and responsibly, being faithful stewards of our days, our gifts, and our opportunities. We don’t know how much time any one of us has left.

The more important question is this - Have you done your best with the gifts you’ve been given by God?  If not - Then here is good news - You are still alive and therefore – it is no time for idleness. It is time to do the work of God’s kingdom.

The purpose of life – of living - is to find faithful, redemptive, loving ways to give - what we have been given - back to God. And God will make us adequate or prepared for all that lies ahead - - - until the very end.

Jesus is clear and consistent about the future.  He says that it will include the good and the bad.  We will have suffering and gladness.  At times, we will feel extremely full and blessed, and at times we will feel so empty and abandoned.  Jesus is very clear that we will not be able to predict any more than that.  Fear is useless.  All we need is trust… faith in God.

Admittedly, this is much easier said than done. It is easy for us to be overwhelmed by the evils of this world and so we miss the presence of God… and therefore forget that God is in control.  But - Remember – God loves you - God is in control – God is in charge of everything.

Jesus said: “In this world, you will have troubles, but take heart (Do not be afraid), I have overcome the world.  The victory over sin and death and victory over evil has already been won.  We just have to proclaim it. God already sees us in our glorious state.

Think about this - Think of something that you are worried about that might happen in the future… that you are concerned about. Okay – Remember this – If and when that happens – God will be right there and then with you.  So – why worry. Worrying about the future robs us of the grace of the present moment reality.

Again - Only if we live faithfully - in the NOW - will we be ready for whatever the future brings.

We cannot put our trust in wealth, health, possessions, beautiful buildings, in power, in weapons, etc.  Our perseverance in faith, to God and one another, is what will be our saving grace. As we heard in the Gospel, “by your perseverance, you will secure your lives.”

Again – we live in these times of trials and struggles… but we are assured that they, too will all come to pass.  What is being tried is our willingness to be faithful children of God.  So - can we be a sign and source of hope in these times of troubles and trials and uncertainties?  Can we hope, not in the signs of power or material possessions or wealth or health, but can we hope – not wishful thinking – but expectant hope -and can we be signs of faithfulness and love?

Our God is a loving Father.  He has showered us with blessings beyond our perceptions and understanding.  God loves us beyond our wildest imagination.

So - As we get closer to the end of the liturgical year – Feast of Christ the King next Sunday - we are challenged and asked to examine our own lives.  Do we really spend enough time thanking God with our words and actions.  How much time each day do we spend in prayer, how much time do we spend helping others? … instead of being so pre-occupied with self-centered things.

As we come to the table of the Lord – to receive the Body of Christ - to enter into communion with Him and with one another, let us continue to reflect and give real thought to what is happening in the world – particularly those areas where people are suffering.  Let us learn from the tragedies.

May the Lord grant us the grace to set our hearts to what is eternal and everlasting. Amen.

God bless…

Being Prudent, Shrewd and Wise

In our Gospel reading, this is without a question the most puzzling story that Jesus ever told. And the part that makes it so puzzling is the conclusion. If Jesus had ended the story by sternly rebuking the dishonest steward or manager, that would have made it easy for us to understand but Jesus did the exact opposite. He ended the story by commending the manager and even urged his disciples to learn from the man’s example.

The question therefore is: What was it about this man that Jesus found commendable? Obviously, Jesus was not commending the steward for his dishonesty or his selfishness. What then was it?

It is his being Prudent. According to Google or dictionary - To be prudent means – to show care and thought for the future… “looking ahead.” - in other translation: being shrewd (Luke 16:8). – being smart.

The man looked ahead and saw that he was soon to lose his job. Then on the basis of that foresight, he took decisive action and made provision for his future.

That is commendable. Most of us do the same thing. We use our foresight to plan our education, to get good jobs, to make money and to secure our financial future. We save for the rainy days – so to speak. We plan for our retirement. We do our best to prepare ourselves in case of sickness, accident and untimely death. We make every efforts to get ready for them and that is being prudent and wise.

The parable invites us to wonder why we do not apply the same prudence – shrewdness or smartness to the most important areas of life – our spiritual life.

Jesus summarized his appeal with these words: “No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon."

In other words - You cannot give yourself totally to God and at the same time being so attached to the money you have or attached to the desire for the more money you wish you had.

The man in our Gospel story recognized the truth of that. His focus in life was unfortunately money, which became his master so he gave himself wholeheartedly to it. But for us - our goal is godliness, so we should give ourselves wholeheartedly to God… loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.

Here's a story: A young man proudly told his elder: I am going to study in the best college and graduate with highest honor.

The elder asked: Then what?

I am going to be successful and make a lot of money.

Then what? - asked the elder.

I am going to buy a big house, get married and have children.

Then what? - inquired the elder.

Well – said the young man: I am going to grow old.

Then what?

Well – (by this time his ego kind of deflated) – the young man said: I guess I am going to die.

Finally – the elder asked: Then what?

The young man was quiet. His vision did not take him beyond death.

Someone said: “All I want to know is where I’m going to die, so I will never go there.”

Today’s parable challenges us to be smart in the pursuit of the kingdom of God just as godless people are smart in their pursuit of selfish goals and ambitions. Jesus uses the example of the smart manager in his master’s business to teach us the need to be smart in the Lord’s service… because that is what life is all about.

Sooner or later we shall all be called upon to render an account of how we have done – how we have managed the blessings we have been given… what we have done with what we have… be it much or be it little.

We should likewise use or apply all our temporal and spiritual resources to gain the only thing that matters in the end: the kingdom of God… to be with God eternally in heaven… our true home… our eternal destiny.

Wisdom is seeing people, seeing ourselves, seeing things, events, reality – as God sees them… seeing ourselves as who we truly are – beloved sons and daughters of God – seeing that our lives here on earth are limited – we are just passing through - and that our true home is in heaven.

We need to pray for wisdom everyday –

• Otherwise, without Godly wisdom, we will not know what to do with our money, power, knowledge, whatever we have. Therefore, we will still find ourselves feeling empty.,, not fulfilled and not truly happy.

We all pray for a long healthy life. So, if God were to give you a long healthy prosperous life – the question is – what then are you going to do with your long healthy life?

The question is: Have we lived our lives totally loving God, with all our heart, with all our being, with all our strength? Above all?

Yes, money, possessions, pleasures are good but pursue them for what they are – fleeting, temporary; they will not last.

Let us not be like the foolish rich man in the Gospel of Luke 12:16-21 – Jesus told another parable about the rich man who planned to build a bigger barn and told himself that he has ample goods laid up for many years; so, he told himself - take it easy, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

So – let us ask ourselves: Have we treated everybody we’ve met with love, care, and compassion – for the love of God?

Have we been working harder to store up treasure in heaven than storing up treasure here on earth? OR

Have we put ourselves, or anything or anybody else ahead of following Jesus in our lives?

The best athletes in the world, who personify perfection, made a lot of sacrifices to be what they are; to win the gold medal or the championship. They lived a very disciplined life, they gave up certain pleasures. For many months and years, they made up the time to exercise and practice because that is how badly they want to win the gold medal or the championship…it is pretty much their life.

The question to us is: Similarly, how much or how badly do you really want to go to heaven? … which is infinitely much more valuable than winning the gold medal or the championship.

The goal of living in God's presence on earth as it is in heaven, demands sacrifice and much discipline… just as what athletes go through – that is how they make it look so easy – after much training and discipline to prepare… and overcoming obstacles and challenges and staying focused on the goal.

At the end of our life, let us hope and pray that we can say what St. Paul told Timothy (2 Timothy 4:7) – “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness - which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing. (2 Timothy 4:7-8)

1 Corinthians 2:9 - “Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for those who love Him.” We are in for big pleasant surprise if we love God.

How blessed we all are, through Christ, to be the beloved sons and daughters of such a loving God!

Always remember – God loves us beyond our wildest imagination. As Bishop Barron said: God is crazy in love with you – with me – God is crazy in love with us.

And so – let us love the Lord our God above all - with all our hearts, mind, soul – with all our strength. Amen. (so be it).

God bless…

(Cycle C – 25th Sunday – Sept. 18, 2022)

Oh Yeah? So What?

As I have mentioned in my previous homily, someone has suggested that people who listen to sermons, either consciously or subconsciously, respond on two levels. One is: “Oh yeah? and the other is: So what?

The first question: Oh Yeah? means: I am not really sure that what you are saying is true; so convince me.

The second question: “So what?” means: All right, I accept this as truth, as doctrine but what, if anything, does it have to do with my life?

The great Easter message: As Mary Magdalene proclaimed and as the apostles told Thomas: The Lord is Risen! He is Risen indeed.

There is something about our human nature that finds it difficult to believe in the good. We find it fairly easy to believe in the bad. For us, the bad is readily believable. It is easy to believe in bad news, but the good is almost unbelievable. This tendency is of course not a new thing.

In our Gospel reading today, Thomas pretty much displayed the same attitude. The apostles tried to convince him of the reality of the resurrection but he would not believe them because in the scheme of things, such an event was simply too good to be true. If you think about it, we never hear people say “It is to bad too be true.” – we know how bad people can really be… in the news all the time.

Just think of what man did to Jesus; think of the Holocaust, of WWII and just think of the horrific things happening in Ukraine.

In man’s world, especially when someone is trying to sell you something or trying to convince you to buy into an idea, we really have to be very careful, because “if it sounds too good to be true, then most likely it is too good to be true.”

This is a brutal world – to say the least - and living in this world is a risky business. I am not denying that. But I am reminding you and reminding myself that this is God’s world; God is in control and God is active in it. If we keep that in mind, we will face the future, not with despair, but with hope, because in God’s world nothing is too good to be true.

By human standards, Christianity does not make sense. By human standards, it does not make sense that God would become a man; that he would die so that we, you and I, might have eternal life. By human standards, it does not make sense that we can eat his flesh at every Mass; that we can share in his life right now and that we can live in peace, joy and love – forever, regardless of the circumstances; it is just too good to be true by human standards.

So - The continuing challenge for the church is how to encourage people in the faith 20 centuries later, so far removed from being able to see or hear or touch the Risen Christ in the flesh. Our doubts have to be greater than that of Thomas.

Being a true Christian; being a true follower of Christ - is not something that you can "catch" by just hanging around other Christians or by simply attending Catholic school or listening to lectures. So, how do we get this true faith – first hand faith, so to speak, since we were not there to actually see and touch Jesus?

Well, to begin, we need to realize that faith does not come from absolute proof or it would not be faith-it would be 'fact'. In addition, faith does not require actual seeing or touching or anything else for evidence… No!

In the letter to the Hebrews: Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)

- Faith is the personal choice that we make whether to completely believe and trust in God or not.

We have to make a choice and the choices are simple - yes or no. There is no middle ground. By not making a choice, you have already made a choice – meaning – it is the same as answering “no” to God. It is either - yes or no – not maybe. So - Make the correct choice. Your eternity depends on it.

People say or think that they need to see proof or signs to believe. In matters of faith - Believe – then you will see… Believe – then you will understand. First, you have to make that leap of faith… so to speak.

The strongest evidence for the resurrection of Jesus is in the lives of those who saw and believed as we can read in the Scriptures: The apostles said: We are witnesses… We ate and drank with Jesus after His resurrection… As we heard in the gospel today: “These are written that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name.”

How about us – who were not there at that time?

You see - We do not have to know how it happened to believe that Jesus was raised from the dead by the power of God. We do not believe in Jesus because of his resurrection. We believe in his resurrection because of what we have come to believe about Jesus.

Meaning – for us - The strongest evidence for the resurrection of Jesus is also in the lives of those who did not see, yet believed.

Across the ages - those who have trusted in the living Christ have experienced for themselves the power of His resurrection… just read the lives and writings of the Saints and Martyrs and contemporary Christians we know and admire.

Meaning – as we live our lives trusting Jesus – in the process - we discover the power of his resurrection. We hear – in our hearts - the word of grace, forgiveness, and new life. We hear of God’s suffering love, love that accepts us in spite of what we are and have done; love that has the power to change us. Through trusting Christ - Enough to follow him - we begin to discover the transforming power of such love in our own lives.

Therefore, when we ourselves say: “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed.” – It is not merely a historical claim. It is actually our testimony to what we have discovered for ourselves in our own lives. We – are - “the blessed who have not seen, yet believe”. We have learned that this is “the miracle of Jesus’ resurrection: out of the grave and into our hearts.

Today is Divine Mercy Sunday. The rays that come from the heart of Jesus remind us of the blood and water that came from His heart. The blood destroys the power that evil has over us. The water revives us – gives us new life in Christ - through baptism.

Yes, it is human to be afraid. And it is human to doubt. Perhaps we feel horrible at times for doubting Jesus - but you see - His mercy and compassion are stronger than our doubts. Jesus sees, He knows, He understands.

So, I say to you, “Christ is risen! Jesus is risen indeed”. If your response is “Oh yeah?, my answer is: I cannot prove it; you must make that discovery for yourself.

But if your response is: “So what? What now?”, my answer is: Now, if you truly believe; then follow Jesus, the Risen Lord; give yourself wholeheartedly to his way of peace and love, because this is what life really means; this is what life is all about. Jesus is the key to everything.

So, no matter what we are facing in life today, or will face tomorrow, joy or challenge, we look to Jesus; we remember His mercy and compassion, and we join Thomas in saying, “My Lord and My God.” We join St. Faustina in saying: “Jesus, I trust in You.”

Amen.

2nd Sunday of Easter – April 24, 2022 – John 20:19-31

Christ Redeems and Not Rescue

[“Why?” Why, since you loved this man, did you not come to save him from death? Why is it that God seems absent when bad things happen to good people? Why doesn’t God rescue his loved ones and save them from pain and death?

Jesus doesn’t offer any apology or theoretical response. Instead, he asks where they have laid the body, lets them take him there,]

(Audio recording starts here) - sees the burial site, weeps in sorrow, and then raises his dead friend back to life. So why didn’t Jesus rush down to save Lazarus since he loved him?

The answer to that question teaches a very important lesson about Jesus, God, and faith, namely, that God is not a God who ordinarily rescues us, but is rather a God who redeems us. God doesn’t ordinarily intervene to save us from humiliation, pain, and death; rather God redeems humiliation, pain, and death after the fact.

Simply put, Jesus treats Lazarus exactly the same way as God, the Father, treats Jesus: Jesus is deeply and intimately loved by his Father and yet his Father does not rescue him from humiliation, pain, and death. God raises him up only after his death.

This is one of the key revelations inside the resurrection: We have a redeeming, not a rescuing, God.

It took the early Christians some time to grasp that Jesus doesn’t ordinarily give special exemptions to his friends, no more than God gave special exemptions to Jesus. So, like us, they struggled with the fact that someone can have a deep, genuine faith, be deeply loved by God, and still have to suffer humiliation, pain, and death like everyone else. God didn’t spare Jesus from suffering and death, and Jesus doesn’t spare us from them… but He is with us through them.

The Gospel of John, according to scripture scholars was probably written around 90 A.D. – after the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem around 66-70 A.D., when Jerusalem fell and was destroyed by the Romans because of the Jewish Revolt

Christians were being persecuted and the people for whom John’s Gospel was written were in essence saying: “Where is the Lord?”

So, to help his audience realize that God’s ways were not their ways and that the risen Christ was in their midst, John, in his Gospel, then tells the story of the raising of Lazarus – which is not only about Jesus’ presence to Martha, Mary and Lazarus, but it is also about the presence of the risen Christ to John’s audience and to us today.

Of all the miracles Jesus did, the raising of Lazarus was the most astonishing to the people of his time. The Jews traditionally believed that the soul of a dead person somehow remains with the body for three days. After three days the soul departs finally from the body, and that is when corruption sets in.

When Martha objected to the opening of the tomb and said, "Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days" (John 11:39), she was expressing the common view that it was already a hopeless situation. For the Jews - bringing back to life a person who was dead for four days and decaying was just unthinkable.

In a way, we can say that that was why Jesus delayed his coming, to let the situation become "impossible"… before acting on it.

Jesus said that Lazarus’sickness would not end in death, but was for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.

The most important message of the Gospel is that our sickness does not end in death, nor does our death end in death, because Jesus Christ has conquered death.

Jesus said to Martha: “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, though he should die, will come to life; and whoever is alive and believes in me will never die.”

Jesus is referring not to physical death, but to spiritual death. Lazarus died again physically later. But Jesus raising Lazarus meant that Jesus has the power over death and that he has power to give life.

With Jesus in our lives, resurrection begins in the here and now, in our life of faith here on earth. For us - Christians, eternal life begins now – in Christ. That belief affects the quality of our life, our perspective in life, our perspective of life – how we see all of creation, how we see ourselves, how we see others.

The great Easter truth is not that we are to live newly after death - - that is not the great thing - - but the great Easter truth is that we are to be new here and now by the power of the resurrection.” With Christ, everything is new. Resurrection is not “everlasting life”. It is not an endless quantity of life. Resurrection is a quality of life that begins in the present… in the here and now.

Our faith tells us that Christ dwells in every member of His body, the Church, that we can find him in the people who gather with us here every Sunday. That is the deepest reason why we need to be hospitable to one another as we assemble for the Eucharist. Having a welcoming attitude towards one another, greeting one another, can help us to connect with one another as One Body, One Spirit in Christ.

As we gather around the table - we encounter Jesus and each other. You see, our Eucharistic table – like our dining tables at home - is the place of intimacy - where all who belong to the household gather – saints and sinners alike – rich and poor – male and female – no distinction - where family, community, friendship, hospitality, and true generosity can be expressed and made real.

When we come to receive Communion, we say “Amen” to the words “The Body of Christ” – which means we believe that we receive Christ himself – body, soul and divinity - the perfect being of Christ….That is true, but our Amen also means we accept the imperfect Body of Christ – we accept each one of us – as sinful as we are - the Body of Believers, the Church – we accept one another – with each others’ faults.

That is why – before Communion - we give or offer each other the sign of peace.

-That is why it is called Holy Communion – Holy = we are set apart – consecrated to be Christs in the World, but not of it - being One with Christ and with one another as the Body of Christ. It was said that at Mass, heaven touches the earth and that we experience a foretaste of the heavenly banquet.

If only people can grasp that. You will be in awe. You will not be bored. You will not leave early.

As one of my favorite song goes – “Surely, the presence of the Lord is in this place. I can feel His mighty power and His grace. I can hear the brush of angels’ wings, I see glory on each face…Surely, the presence of the Lord is in this place.”

As we continue with our celebration, we pray -
“Ever-present Lord, God of life and love – please bless our gathering. Pour out your Spirit on us. Open our eyes to your presence in each one of us; in each and every event of our lives. We ask this as we ask all things, through Jesus Christ, Our Lord, Our Savior. Amen.

Cycle A – Fifth Sunday of Lent 2022