“He had the power of laying down his life; we by contrast cannot choose the length of our lives, and we die even if it is against our will. He, by dying, destroyed death in himself; we are freed from death only in his death. His body did not see corruption; our body will see corruption and only then be clothed through him in incorruption at the end of the world. He needed no help from us in saving us; without him we can do nothing. He gave himself to us as the vine to the branches; apart from him we cannot have life.”(St. Augustine) We can never equate love for love. We can only seek to imitate in an imperfect way seek to imitate perfect love. What we can do is to give continuous thanks for his gratuitous gift of his life for ours.

Easter Sunday: Gospel reflections  Year B

On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, "They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don't know where they put him."
· Because of the Sabbath she could not go to the tomb until after sunset. But before she did she probably went to buy some oil to properly anoint the body. As a result it was early in the morning before she arrived at the tomb.
· Seeing the stone removed from the entrance, she presumed that the body was removed.
· She knew where to find Peter and John. They were hiding out in the Upper Room.
· “The other disciple whom Jesus loved” This is the way that John refers to himself in his Gospel.
· Notice in this Gospel account Mary of Magdala is said to have gone to the tomb alone, while the other          Gospel indicate other women were with her. The fact that she says to Peter “we don’t know where                they put him” indicates others were with her.

So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in. 
· Why do you think the other disciple did not go in before Peter? Was it respect for age or was it that he recognized Peter’s role as leader of the 12 appointed by Jesus?

When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed.
· A major theme in John’s Gospel is that of faith in Jesus as Lord and Messiah.
· What has been your journey of faith in Jesus? Where did it actually begin? Where is it now? Is your faith journey completed yet or is there a deeper level of faith still ahead?
· Though faith is a grace and gift, what has faith called forth from you?
For they did not yet understand the scripture that he had to rise from the dead.
· What does it mean that John “saw and believed” if he still did not understand that Jesus had to rise from the dead?
· It wasn’t until the Easter appearance of Jesus did they began to understand.
· Place yourself in the scene. What would your reaction be, given the same circumstances?
· Even though we don’t understand everything about Jesus, is our faith in him still real?
· What experiences have you had that has strengthened your faith?
· What resolution should this Gospel narrative lead you to make?

"As they were looking on, so we too gaze on his wounds as he hangs. We see his blood as he dies. We see the price offered by the redeemer, touch the scars of his resurrection. He bows his head, as if to kiss you. His heart is made bare open, as it were, in love to you. His arms are extended that he may embrace you. His whole body is displayed for your redemption. Ponder how great these things are. Let all this be rightly weighed in your mind: as he was once fixed to the cross in every part of his body for you, so he may now be fixed in every part of your soul." (St. Augustine) To know that Jesus did all of this for me is beyond understanding. He loved me in spite of my continual sinfulness. He suffered this cruel death freely for me even if I would never turn back to him. How can I be so callous? I accept your love, Jesus. I give you my finite love for your agape love.

“He died, but he vanquished death; in himself he put an end to what we feared; he took it upon himself and he vanquished it, as a mighty hunter he captured and slew the lion.” (St. Augustine) Jesus physically died, so that we may in death live eternally. To die in sin, in separation from God, is the second death. But the fear of physical death will have no power over us, as long as we remember that Jesus took away the power of death when he died. What we should fear is that second death. But as long as we are united to Christ in his death, we have the assurance of faith that we will pass over the fact of death with him into the hope of eternal life and glory. Thank you, Jesus, for your gift of life and your freedom from the fear of death.

Pope Francis said: “The Word of God teaches us that “it is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). That is why the fifth Beatitude declares that the merciful are blessed. We know that the Lord loved us first. But we will be truly blessed and happy only when we enter into the divine ‘logic’ of gift and gracious love, when we discover that God has loved us infinitely in order to make us capable of loving like Him, without measure. Saint John says: ‘Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love... In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another’” (1 Jn 4:7-11). When we extend mercy to others we are reflecting our gratitude to God for his gratuitous mercy to us. We are only giving what we have personally received. And in doing so, we open ourselves to God’s further mercy.

The habitual sinner deserves the wrath of God. Instead, through the death and resurrection of Jesus, the repentant sinner experiences the gratuitous mercy of God. The criminal crucified with Jesus expressed remorse for his crimes, acknowledged Jesus’ innocence, and asked for mercy. This he received.

The parable of the owner who hires workers at various times during the day. At the end of the day, he gives the first hired the agreed upon wage. This is what is just. But he chooses to give the one last hired, who worked only a short time a full days wage. This was a sign of mercy.

God treats us with mercy and not justice when he forgives our sins. Justice would demand condemnation and eternal alienation from him. Instead, he casts our sins deep into the ocean. This is mercy.

There is a story told about a mother who came to Napoleon on behalf of her son who was about to be executed. The mother asked the ruler to issue a pardon on behalf of her son, but Napoleon pointed out that it was the man's second offense, and justice demanded death. "I don't ask for justice," the woman replied. "I plead for mercy." The emperor objected, "But your son doesn't deserve mercy." "Sir," the mother replied, "it would not be mercy if he deserved it, and mercy is all I ask." Her son was granted the pardon.

There is a time and place for justice and mercy. Micah 6:8 "He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." I believe that acting justly and being merciful are going to flow from us walking humbly with God. There is a time for justice and a time for mercy. When we are humbly walking with God we will know the difference.

Palm Sunday: Gospel B

When they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples and said to them, "Go into the village opposite you, and immediately on entering it, you will find a colt tethered on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone should say to you, 'Why are you doing this?' reply, 'The Master has need of it and will send it back here at once.'"

· How did Jesus know this? One of the gifts of the Spirit, which Jesus exercised at times, is the gift of word of knowledge.  Another time Jesus used this gift was the time he told Peter to go fishing and the first fish he will catch will have a coin in its mouth. This coin was to pay the temple tax for Jesus and Peter. Jesus knew this through insight from the Spirit.
· Have you ever experienced this in your life?

So they went off and found a colt tethered at a gate outside on the street, and they untied it. Some of the bystanders said to them, "What are you doing, untying the colt?" They answered them just as Jesus had told them to, and they permitted them to do it. So they brought the colt to Jesus and put their cloaks over it. And he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. Those preceding him as well as those following kept crying out: "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is to come! Hosanna in the highest!" 

· If you were a bystander on the road, what would you have thought? If you were someone familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures, what would you have thought? If you were a disciple of Jesus, what would you have thought? The response of each would be different, why?
· Mark refrains from identifying Jesus as the Messiah until after his death and resurrection.  He pictures Jesus as a prophet from God who comes in the name of the Lord.
· This week—Holy Week—is an important grace moment for all of us. How will you enter into the different liturgical celebrations beginning with the Lord’s Supper on Thursday, the Lord’s Passion on Friday, his burial and resurrection? Will this be a business-as-usual-week or will it truly be a Holy Week in your life?
· Will your focus on Good Friday by Jesus’ suffering and death or on others?
· Looking back over these weeks of Lent, did we accomplish what we set out to do? Has it been a spiritually fruitful Lent?

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” In saying this, Jesus invites us to embrace a life of mercy, reflecting the Father’s mercy to us. We are reminded of the words of Pope Francis. Having received mercy in abundance, we are called to show similar mercy to others. He said that we are “to be a sign and an instrument of the Father’s mercy” (Homily at First Vespers of Divine Mercy Sunday, 11 April 2015). We deserve justice for our sins, but “God, rich in mercy,” gives what we do not deserve, his loving mercy. The other person who hurts us needs to be treated, not with justice—an eye for an eye—,but with the same mercy as we have received. Then we will show that we are sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father.

“There is a general rule concerning all special graces granted to any human being. Whenever the divine favor chooses someone to receive a special grace, or to accept a lofty vocation, God adorns the person chosen with all the gifts of the Spirit needed to fulfill the task at hand.” ( St. Bernadine of Siena) This is especially true of St. Joseph. God chose him to be the protector and provider for Mary and the child, Jesus, without the full right of husband and father. It is also true of each of us, no matter our vocation in life. God equips those he calls with all that is needed to fulfill the call, not only with natural gifts but also with the special gifts of the Holy Spirit. For our vocation is not only a natural call but a spiritual one as well, leading to holiness of life and union with God. Thank you, Lord, for my vocation and the many accompanying gifts.

Pope John Paul II affirmed the truth about hungering and thirsting for righteousness which will give true meaning in our life ““It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; He is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; He is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is He who provoked you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is He who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is He who reads in your heart your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle.

“It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be ground down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal.” When we go to the fountain of life-giving waters, we will be satisfied.

To hunger and thirst for righteousness, then, means we should urgently pursue righteousness. The ultimate righteousness is God himself. Thus to hunger and thirst for righteousness is to hunger and thirst for God. No one else nor anything else will ultimately and totally fulfill the inner longing in each person. God out of love created us in his own image and likeness so that in him we may find complete happiness.

Pope Leo the Great : “This hunger is not for bodily food, this thirst is not for any earthly drink: it is a longing to be blessed with righteousness, and, by penetrating the secret of all mysteries, to be filled with the Lord himself. Happy is the soul that longs for the food of righteousness and thirsts for this kind of drink; it would not seek such things if it had not already savored their delight. When the soul hears the voice of the Spirit saying to it through the prophet: Taste and see that the Lord is good [Ps. 34:9], it has already received a portion of God’s goodness, and is on fire with love, the love that gives joy of the utmost purity.”

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” Listen to St. Augustine’s own spiritual journey how he discovered the answer to his inner quest of hunger and thirst. “Late have I loved you, Beauty so ancient and so new, late have I loved you! Lo, you were within, but I outside, seeking there for you, and upon the shapely things you have made I rushed headlong – I, misshapen. You were with me, but I was not with you. They held me back far from you, those things which would have no being, were they not in you. You called, shouted, broke through my deafness; you flared, blazed, banished my blindness; you lavished your fragrance, I gasped; and now I pant for you; I tasted you, and now I hunger and thirst; you touched me, and I burned for your peace.” Does our journey sound similar? Have we not grasped at things rather than God?

Fifth Sunday of Lent: Gospel B

Now there were some Greeks among those who had come up to worship at the feast. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, "Sir, we would like to see Jesus." Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 
· How strong of a desire do we have to see Jesus? What are we doing to make that desire known to Jesus?
· For Jesus, his glory would be made known through his death and resurrection. The cross, though an instrument of human cruelty, would be the throne of glory for Jesus.

Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. 
· Where is this mystery of death and life happening in your spiritual life? What area of sin needs to die so that new life may come? What are we afraid to give up in order to live?

Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be. The Father will honor whoever serves me.
· As you reflect on these words, what is the response welling up in your heart? What is your struggle?

 I am troubled now. Yet what should I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name." 
· By doing the will of the Father even to the death of the cross, Jesus glorified the name of the Father. How are you called to glorify God’s name?

Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it and will glorify it again." 
· What are the two times have we already seen where God has glorified Jesus? His Baptism and his Transfiguration. What will be the next time the Father will glorify Jesus?

The crowd there heard it and said it was thunder; but others said, "An angel has spoken to him." Jesus answered and said, "This voice did not come for my sake but for yours. 
· This was another confirmation of who Jesus was and what he was doing was of God.

Now is the time of judgment on this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself." He said this indicating the kind of death he would die. 
· Spend some time viewing the crucified Jesus. Through this sign of love he seeks to draw you closer in relationship with him. Listen to him as he speaks to you from this pulpit and altar.
· What is your response? If you are keeping a journal, write your response in it.
·    The season of Lent is drawing to an end? Are we still persevering in our commitments to turn away from sin and to return to God?

Once we are justified and made righteous by God, we are called by God to be holy as he is holy. While God is Holy in his being, we must strive with the grace of God to become holier as a person. This is what it means to hunger and thirst for righteousness. St Augustine captured this well when he wrote: “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you, my God.” Someone has likened this inner hunger and thirst to a hole in our heart which only God himself can fill. C. S. Lewis stated the same notion in this way: “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” Do you have that desire in your heart, the desire for the more?

“Tradition has yielded another image of mourning that brings salvation: Mary standing under the Cross with her sister, the wife of Clopas, with Mary Magdalene, and with John (Jn 19:25ff.). We encounter here the small band of people who remain true in a world full of cruelty and cynicism or else with fearful conformity. They cannot avert the disaster, but by ‘suffering with’ the one condemned (by their com-passion in the etymological sense) they place themselves on his side, and by their ‘loving with’ they are on the side of God, who is love. This ‘com-passion’ reminds us of the magnificent saying in Saint Bernard of Clairvaux’s commentary on the Song of Songs (sermon 26, no. 5): God cannot suffer, but he can ‘suffer with.’” (Pope Benedict XVI) Mary probably said nothing. She join in the sufferings of her son, with full understanding of why. As much as she did want him to suffer, she chose to mourn with him over the sins of the world for which he was suffering. Like Mary, we are called to be there in silent ‘com-passion’.

“Blessed are those who mourn, they shall be comforted.” Jesus, though innocent, mourned for the sins of the people of his own nation. He had preached a message of repentance leading to openness to the message of mercy and love. Some people heard and responded. However, the religious leaders and many others refused to believe that he was sent from God as the promised Messiah. So, Jesus wept over Jerusalem. “And when he drew near, seeing the city, he wept over it, saying: ‘If only you had known, indeed even in this your day, which things are for your peace. But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will overtake you. And your enemies will encircle you with a valley. And they will surround you and hem you in on every side. And they will knock you down to the ground, with your sons who are in you. And they will not leave stone upon stone within you, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.’” (Luke 19:41-44) He was weeping for their sin of rejection and hardness of heart to the word of God for them. He also was mourning the future destruction of the nation because of their sin. In this he was modeling for us how this Beatitude is to be lived today in our lives. Is our nation following the Word of God or rejecting that Word? Are we acting on the Word of God or another word?

Peter denied Jesus three times out of fear and weakness, not wanting to suffer with Jesus. St. Luke tells us in Chapter 22:61-62 “And the Lord turned around and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord that he had said: ‘For before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.’ And going out, Peter wept bitterly.” Peter recognized immediately his sin of fear and weakness, repented and wept uncontrollably. This prepared the fisherman to profess his triple love for the Lord after the Resurrection. Without weeping for his sinful acts of denial Peter would not been ready to express his love and commitment to Jesus. The continual love of The Master for his disciple brought sustained comfort to Peter. How can we come to a deeper love for God if we do not repent and weep interiorly for our sins? We can never make up for the non-love we expressed in sin, but we can choose to love more fully rather than sin.

We continue our reflections on the Beatitudes. What does Jesus mean when he says, “Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.”(Mt 5:5)? We are called to mourn over our sins and the sins of others. Sin separates us from experiencing God’s love in a transforming way. Even though we repent of our sins, they have left a scar on us. It is out of a realized love of God’s mercy for us and a conscious response on our part to love that we remember and anguish over our past sins. We do this not in a negative way, but to pray for God’s grace to remain faithful. We don't want ever again to become complacent or comfortable with sin. The comfort God gives us is the strength of his promise to give us the grace we need in time of temptation.

Information
Monthly Mass
Bishop's House
107 Albany Dr., Houma, La.
Men's Mass
March 3, 2018
7:30 am
Women's Mass
March 17, 2018
8 am
Bring a friend.
Coffee and Continental breakfast

Jesus, who was like us in all things but sin, invites us to learn from him, "who was meek and humble of heart." In his meekness, Jesus was not weak but strong. When abused in word or action, thought hurtful, Jesus did not respond with equal venom, but with silence and forgiveness. He knew who he was. He was not what others thought or said of him. He was the beloved Son of the Father. His identity was in his relationship with the Father. Nothing people could say or do, even condemning him to the cruel death of crucifixion as a criminal, could not take away his identity. In meekness and humility, Jesus cried to the father: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Our true identity is in our relationship with God. In all circumstances to remain in this relationship is to be meek and humble of heart.