The 17th century French philosopher Blaise Pascal said that most of us spend our lives seeking diversions in a desperate attempt to avoid the hard and simple questions: who am I? What  is the purpose of my life? What does God want of me?

These hard and simple questions have hard and simple answers. "Who am I?" I am a beloved, adopted son or daughter of the God, who gave his all for me. I am because of him. "What is the purpose of my life?" He created me, predestined me, redeemed and sanctified me, so that I could be with  him forever in eternity, sharing his glory and praising his name. "What does God want of me?" He calls me to love him and others in response to his gratuitous love for me. Simple, right? But in reality we struggle with each of these answers. Because of our sinful tendencies it is hard for us to accept that God could love us and it is hard for us to love God in the way he deserves. But hard doesn't mean impossible. Each day we need to remind ourselves of our true identity, our true purpose and destiny and our true way of life. If we never lose sight of our goal--union with God--we can more readily move in that direction. As a proverb says: The journey of a mile begins with the first step.

 

Homily: Fourteenth Sunday Year C

 

Reading 1: To a people who are returning to Jerusalem from their exile in Babylon, their initial reaction is disheartening. The city is in total destruction. It would be the feeling you would have if you came back home to find that your home has burned to the ground. You would not be in a state of joy but sadness.

 

Yet God says to the people to rejoice and exult and not to mourn. Why? God was going to restore the city to an even greater glory than it formerly enjoyed.  We know that God fulfilled his promise. Not only the city but the Temple was restored and became more beautiful than before.

 

This Jerusalem is a symbol of both the Church and of the heavenly Kingdom that we are called to be a part of. The old Jerusalem was a symbol of the Old Covenant and the old people of God. The Church is the New Jerusalem established by Christ through his death and resurrection. We are the new people of God chosen by him to live in the new Kingdom. But the Church is a foreshadowing of the final and eternal Jerusalem. It is where God’s elect will live in eternal glory with him.

 

The key is that God is doing something that is beyond us, but it is for us. “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you.” In God we find our security and comfort.

 

Reading 2: Paul was confronting those who came to the Galatians after him and said the people must first be circumcised before being baptized. This left the impression that following the Mosaic Law would save a person and not baptism. Paul insisted that it was the death and resurrection of Jesus which has brought eternal salvation.

 

It is baptism not circumcision that saves us, once we enter into that mystery of Jesus’ death and resurrection. That is why Paul glorified in the cross. Again, it is the work of God and not of human being which brings salvation.

 

For us baptism is the sign of the new Covenant and of the new people. As we sign ourselves with the sign of the cross we are reminding ourselves that we bear the marks of Jesus. By his wounds we have been saved and made a new people. We wear a cross, we place the cross in our homes so that we can remind ourselves of and embrace what God has done for us.

 

Gospel: The most important statement in the reading is the last: Rejoice that your names are written in the book of life. After all is said and done, after our life comes to an end, what matters is doing the will of God and being in the will of God, so that we may be with him forever in glory.

 

Jesus had sent the seventy-two disciples to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick. Some people responded, others did not. The most important thing was not the response of people, but the disciples doing the will of God. Yes, they saw the power of God in their ministry, but that was not the primary reason they were sent. Did they do what they were sent to do?

 

The same mission has been given to us who have been baptized and confirmed. We have a prophetic mission, namely, to spread the word of God and to share the message of truth, which is God’s love in the gift of salvation, manifested through and in the name of Jesus.

 

The urgency is greater today than it was in the day of Jesus. It is not results that will make the difference, but our faithful response to God’s call to each of us in our own state of life. While the disciples focused on the effects of their ministry, Jesus focused on the obedience to the plan of God for them. What do we focus on?

 

K. Chesterton once said, “A saint only means a man who really knows that he is a sinner.

"St. Anselm, the great medieval theologian who is often unfairly blamed for the cruel theology of satisfaction, was eminently clear on this score. We sinners are like diamonds that have fallen into the muck. Made in the image of God, we have soiled ourselves through violence and hatred. God, claimed Anselm, could have simply pronounced a word of forgiveness from heaven, but this would not have solved the problem. It would not have restored the diamonds to their original brilliance. Instead, in his passion to reestablish the beauty of creation, God came down into the muck of sin and death, brought the diamonds up, and then restored their brilliance."

How great is our God that he would allow us to know that we are sinners, who are called to be saints! How great is our God, who knew we couldn't make the transition without his grace of salvation! How great is our God, who pours out his love upon us so that we can remain in his love! Isn't this the difference between being a sinner and a saint? A sinner is not loving God in response to his love. A saint, knows he is unworthy, but chooses to love God in response to his love. A saint is a struggling sinner. Be the saint you are meant to be!

 Fourteenth Sunday Gospel C

At that time the Lord appointed seventy-two others whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit. 

· These seventy-two are disciples other than the twelve apostles who also are sent on mission. This number is significant because in the Old Testament Moses chose seventy men upon whom God poured out his Spirit and they prophesied. But there were two others who remained in the camp and they too received the same outpouring of the Spirit and manifested the same gift of prophesy.

He said to them, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest. 

· Notice he said to pray for more laborers. Is anything different today? The harvest is just as ripe today and the need for more workers in the vineyard of the Lord is equally as great. So what are we suppose to do? Are we?

Go on your way; behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves.  

· Besides asking them to pray, he also indicated that they were to do the work themselves. Is your call rooted in baptism and confirmation any different?  How are you responding?

Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals; and greet no one along the way.  

· There is a sense of urgency and dependency. Do you have the same sense? Look around your family. How many truly are on fire for God? Look around at the people you associate with at work or other places. Is their faith alive? What do you think God may be saying to you?

Into whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this household.’ If a peaceful person lives there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you. Stay in the same house and eat and drink what is offered to you, for the laborer deserves his payment.  Do not move about from one house to another. 

· The focus of not moving from house to house was to avoid the appearance that they were looking for the best accommodations and meals. The proclamation of the message of salvation was more important than their comfort or well being.

Whatever town you enter and they welcome you, eat what is set before you, cure the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God is at hand for you.’ 

· Here is the key to their missionary thrust: speak the truth and confirm it with signs and wonders. This was the same process Jesus used. To make sure that the people would believe the message he proclaimed, Jesus would follow it with some confirmation or use a sign or wonder and then give a teaching, so that the teaching would be better received.

· The sign and wonder were essential in the ministry of Jesus. Should it be less for us? If Jesus sets the pattern for us, should we not follow his plan?

Whatever town you enter and they do not receive you, go out into the streets and say, ‘The dust of your town that clings to our feet, even that we shake off against you.’ Yet know this: the kingdom of God is at hand.  I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom on that day than for that town.” 

· It was not the task of the disciples to make the people respond to their message, but just to proclaim the message with confirmation. The burden of acceptance was on those who heard. Sometimes we think that we have to make people act on the message we share with them rather than just be faithful to the call God gave us and leave the response up to the hearer.

The seventy-two returned rejoicing, and said, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us because of your name.”  

· Not only did they do signs and wonders, they also saw signs and wonders that God revealed.

Jesus said, “I have observed Satan fall like lightning from the sky.  Behold, I have given you the power to ‘tread upon serpents’ and scorpions and upon the full force of the enemy and nothing will harm you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”

 “As Jesus got into a boat, his disciples followed him. Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by waves; but he was asleep. They came and woke him, saying, ‘Lord, save us! We are perishing!’ He said to them, ‘Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?’ Then he got up, rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was great calm.”

We are like the disciples, in the midst of the various storms in our lives, we become self-focus, rather than remain focused on Jesus. Their going to Jesus was not concern for him but for themselves. Fear rather than faith was in charge. As long as Jesus is with us, nothing can separate us from him, as long as we keep our eyes and heart on him.  Whether or not he removes the personal storm of the moment is not the question. But whether  or not we place our lives in his will for us is the question. In the midst of our storms, he is with us. Learn to trust in him and remain in peace with him. Storms come and go. Jesus remains.

 

"And yet you hear people complaining about this present day and age because things were so much better in former times. I wonder what would happen if they could be taken back to the days of their ancestors—would we not still hear them complaining? You may think past ages were good, but it is only because you are not living in them.

 

How then can you think that past ages were better than your own? From the time of that first Adam to the time of his descendants today, man’s lot has been labor and sweat, thorns and thistles. Have we forgotten the flood and the calamitous times of famine and war whose history has been recorded precisely in order to keep us from complaining to God on account of our own times? Just think what those past ages were like! Is there one of us who does not shudder to hear or read of them? Far from justifying complaints about our own time, they teach us how much we have to be thankful for." (Anonymous)

It is easier in each age to complain about how terrible things are. We are like the Israelites during their forty year journey, they kept looking back at the good old days they had in Egypt. As a result they couldn't enjoy the present moment they were in nor could they be open to the future promise that God had made of a Promised Land. Longing for the past is like Lot's wife, frozen in time. Being in the present moment is a gift from God for us to be thankful as we await the fullness of his gifts to us in the future that will be the now present. The past we do not have, nor will it ever return. The future is not yet, nor can we hasten it. The grace of the present moment is given to us to enjoy and to get the most out of it. As they say: "Learn to smell the roses of the present moment."

 

St. Augustine gives the meaning of the feast of the Sacred Heart: “Let us return to the heart that we may find Him”  Pope Benedict XVI once said: “This Heart consists, not of self-preservation, but of self-abandonment. It saves the world by opening itself out. The crushing overturn of the opened Heart is the very content of the Easter mystery. The heart does save indeed; but it saves by giving itself away utterly. In the Heart of Jesus, therefore, we are face to face with the center of Christianity. In this Heart everything is said concerning that truly new overturn that takes place in the New Covenant. This Heart calls out to our heart. It invites us to forsake our vain attempts at self-preservation and to find, in an imitation of his love – in our giving ourselves away to him and with him – that fullness of love which alone is eternity and which alone sustains the world.”

As we celebrate the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we are called to give thanks to him who has loved us unconditionally and totally. At the same time, we are called to respond to his gratuitous, divine love with our limited, human love. As he emptied himself, giving his all, we are called to empty ourselves in love to him and to others. Impossible? Not for one who truly knows how to love and who makes love the center of one's life.

 Today, as we celebrate the birth of John the Baptist, we are reminded that he was a prophet of the Most High God. He was called to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah through a prophetic word of  repentance. He was also called to prophetically point the Christ out when he came. A prophet is called to be a spokesperson of God. In baptism, we were anointed with the Oil of Chrism and were told that we share in the ministry of Jesus, as priest, prophet and king. Each of us is called and anointed as a prophet of God, to proclaim the word of God. 

Many of us may be uncomfortable with this reality in God's plan for each of us. Instead of making excuses like Jeremiah, we need to be ready to respond to our  prophetic call like Isaiah, who said, "Send me" or like Samuel, who responded to God, "Speak, Lord, your servant listens."  As the song says, "The Spirit moves", but we must learn how to be attentive and responsive to the move of the Spirit, when he gives us a word to share with others. Test to make sure it is a word from the Lord; then speak the word. The prophet is not responsible for whether the word is acted on or not, just to say what God tells him to say. My prayer is that of Moses, "Would that all would prophesize" in accord with the gift given to us by God in baptism.

 

Homily: 13^th Sunday Year C

 

Reading 1: Elijah is a prophet of God who served God faithfully. Now, he is called by God to pass the baton, the torch of prophecy to another, namely Elisha, whom God had chosen. By throwing his cloak over Elisha, Elijah was symbolizing a call to share in the prophetic ministry by becoming a disciple. But Elijah made it clear. This is not my calling but God’s.

 

Elisha, in his turn, realized that he had to make a decision. So he slaughtered the oxen, on which he was depending on for livelihood and now must depend on the Lord. He realized that the commitment was to be complete by separating himself from his family so as to fully serve the Lord. To follow means to become totally dependent upon God. In following Elijah as his attendant, Elisha was going to learn the way of a prophet.

 

When we became sons and daughters of God in baptism, we were anointed with the oil of chrism and a white garment was draped over us. We were told that now we share in the life of Jesus as priest, prophet and king. It was an invitation to follow Jesus as a disciple, to learn the way of the Lord.

 

What has happened since that symbolic moment in our life? To what extent have we followed the Lord in our role as priest, prophet and king? To what extent are the words of the responsorial psalm a fact in our lives? “You are our inheritance, O Lord.”

 

Reading 2: In baptism we were set free from the life of alienation from God because of Original sin. But we have fallen into sin time and again in spite of sharing in the divine life of God. We have gone to the Sacrament of Reconciliation to be set free again. But failed. What is the freedom that Paul is talking about?

 

He acknowledges that though we have become sons and daughters of God, we still struggle with the temptations of life, which he lumps into the one word, flesh. The flesh stands for anything that draws us away from fully living our true identity as sons and daughters of God in the flesh. On the other hand, anything that enables us to embrace the life of sons and daughters of God is called spirit.

 

He reminds us of the daily struggles we face within us and outside of us. He knew the struggle well and faced it, coming to the conclusion that he was helpless on his own. He found his answer in Jesus who can save us from this cycle. Knowing that he has set us free, what shall be our response? Simple but difficult—love. Love of God and others enables us to be guided by the Spirit and not the flesh.

 

Gospel: We come back to the theme of the first reading—the importance of following Jesus. First, it is not initiated by me. It is God who invites me to follow him. Second, to accept means to understand the consequences, namely, total dependency upon God. Third, it means to embrace the mission of a disciple, namely, to proclaim the Kingdom of God, nothing else is a priority. Fourth, there will be times we will try to take things in our own hands, like the disciples who wanted to cast fire on the Samaritan town. But Jesus reminds them they were not seeking the will of God in this matter, but giving way to the human response of rejection, namely retaliation, the way of the flesh and not of the spirit.

 

God is calling us to follow him into the fuller life of love and intimacy, so that we can do the work of the kingdom, proclaiming God’s love and freedom, his lie and plan for us. Does that mean we have to leave everything? No, we are called to do this in our present state of life. It is the response of desiring to fall in love with God, the response of consciously dealing with the struggles of the flesh, so that we may live more freely in the spirit. It is the response of making love our response by sharing with others what God is doing in our lives and helping them to see the joy of a life in union with God.

 

 As Catholics, we focus more on Jesus than the Holy Spirit. But the two work hand in hand. Father Cantalamessa explains it this way: "It was the Holy Spirit who gave force to the words pronounced in life by Christ, as he himself declared on one occasion to his enemies (Mt 1:28). It is in the Holy Spirit that, in his Passion, he offered himself to God and it is in that same Spirit that he renews his offering sacramentally at every Mass." In the words of St. Gregory of Nyssa: "It is the sanctification of the Holy Spirit that confers to the bread and the chalice the energy that renders them body and blood of Christ." This is affirmed by St. Augustine: "The gift is sanctified to become this great sacrament by the operation of the Spirit of God.

It is the same Holy Spirit that brings about the spiritual transformation within us as we consume the Body and Blood of Christ. We are to become more like Christ by the working of the Holy Spirit. The more we cooperate with the grace of the Spirit, the more effective will this transformation become. God always has more for us. But he waits for our receptivity to give us this more of himself.

 Thirteenth Sunday Gospel C

When the days for Jesus’ being taken up were fulfilled, he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem, and he sent messengers ahead of him.  

· Jesus’ ministry in Galilee has been completed. Now, Jesus looks towards Jerusalem where he will suffer, die, rise and ascend back to the Father.

· Sending messengers ahead of him was the norm that Jesus used. It was a way of preparing the people for his teaching and ministry.

On the way they entered a Samaritan village to prepare for his reception there, but they would not welcome him because the destination of his journey was Jerusalem. 

· Samaria was a territory between Galilee and Judea. The inhabitants were a mixed-breed of Gentiles and Jews who intermarried after the earlier deportation of the Israelites in 721 BC.

· When Jesus began his Galilean ministry, he experienced rejection by the people of his own town. Now, as he begins his ministry in Judea, he is at once rejected.  In each case Jesus does not retaliate. He just moves on to the places that are open to him. This is the same thing that happens when an individual doesn’t welcome Jesus into one’s heart. Jesus moves on.

· The reason why the Samaritans reject Jesus is because the Jews and the Samaritans were not on speaking terms. Jews considered the Samaritans as Jews who intermarried with non-Jews and who diluted the covenant. To the orthodox Jew, the Samaritans were ritually unclean. Recall the attitude of the Samaritan woman at the well when Jesus asked for a cup of water.

When the disciples James and John saw this they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?”  Jesus turned and rebuked them, and they journeyed to another village.

             This thinking of James and John may be the basis why Jesus called them the “sons of               thunder.      

· The disciples act from human motives of retaliation. Jesus expects a disciple to act with the same motivation as the Master: forgiveness and mercy, rather than condemnation and destruction. Can we see ourselves in this situation?

As they were proceeding on their journey someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”  Jesus answered him, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.” 

· Discipleship under Jesus involves not only following him but embracing the life of total dependency upon the Father for everything. Discipleship involves total dedication.  How easy is that for us?

And to another he said, “Follow me.”  But he replied, “Lord, let me go first and bury my father.”  But he answered him, “Let the dead bury their dead.  But you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”  And another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family at home.”  To him Jesus said, “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God.”

· To both Jesus reminds those called that their primary focus must be the Kingdom of God above all else, including family ties. Why would Jesus say this? The Kingdom of God—eternal life—is of greater value than even family ties. Is God first in your life or is something or someone more important to you than God in fact?

· As you reflect on this passage what do you think God is asking you to do in response?  What needs to change in your life?

 "Take care above all things, most honored lady, not to insult God’s boundless loving kindness; you would certainly do this if you mourned as dead one living face to face with God, one whose prayers can bring you in your troubles more powerful aid than they ever could on earth. And our parting will not be for long; we shall see each other again in heaven; we shall be united with our Savior; there we shall praise him with heart and soul, sing of his mercies for ever, and enjoy eternal happiness. When he takes away what he once lent us, his purpose is to store our treasure elsewhere more safely and bestow on us those very blessings that we ourselves would most choose to have." (St. Aloysius of Gonzaga)

As the young Jesuit was dying he wrote a final letter to his mother, asking her not to mourn his death but to celebrate his new life in Christ. He reminds us that each of us should keep our eyes not on this life, which is passing, but on the life that is eternal with God, our true home and fulfilment. He affirms that the prayers of those in heaven are more efficacious than those on earth, because of the former's union with God. He affirms that death will separate us only for a short period of time, but we will be and see each other forever in God's presence. What an attitude to have when one is dying! What an attitude to  have when families go through the process of laying a loved one to rest!  Only one who has God as the focus of one's existence can maintain this attitude. That's our goal as we too journey to the Lord. "Our hearts are restless, until they rest in you, my God."

 If we are not to lie when we call ourselves "Christians," we must bear witness to it by our way of living."(St. Gregory of Nyssa)

This quote puts our lives into perspective. Be who we are not just say who we are. To be a Christian is to believe in, commit to, follow and live as Christ as shown us. This is a daily decision, even from situation to situation in our lives. If we remember who we are and whose we are, then we have a better chance of being that person. Like St. Paul we need to come to the realization: "It is no longer I who live: it is Christ who lives in me." Do we try to reflect this reality in all we do, even though not perfectly?  What is the greatest sign of Christ within us? "They will know you are my disciples, by the love you have for one another." Christ's life and love in us must be reflected through  us to others. This is the light that we are called to show forth in a world that is darkness. 

St. Ambrose wrote:
The bread is bread before the sacramental words are pronounced. . . Which words make the consecration effective and whose words are they? They belong to the Lord Jesus! Everything said before that moment is said by the priest who praises God, prays for the people, for the king and others. But when it is time for the vener¬able sacrament to be effected, the priest no longer uses his own words, but Christ’s. Therefore, it is the words that work (conficit) the sacrament. . . . See how efficacious (operatorius) are Christ’s words. The body of Christ was not present before the consecration but after it the body of Christ is present. For he spoke and it came to be, he commanded and it stood forth (cf. Ps 33:9).

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"O precious and wonderful banquet that brings us salvation and contains all sweetness! Could anything be of more intrinsic value? Under the old law it was the flesh of calves and goats that was offered, but here Christ himself, the true God, is set before us as our food. What could be more wonderful than this? No other sacrament has greater healing power; through it sins are purged away, virtues are increased, and the soul is enriched with an abundance of every spiritual gift. It is offered in the Church for the living and the dead, so that what was instituted for the salvation of all may be for the benefit of all. Yet, in the end, no one can fully express the sweetness of this sacrament, in which spiritual delight is tasted at its very source, and in which we renew the memory of that surpassing love for us which Christ revealed in his passion." (St Thomas Aquinas)

What we receive needs to be received with the reverence and awe that the Body and Blood of Jesus deserves. It is so easy for us to approach the Eucharist with a sense of ordinariness, as we do when we eat our meals. But this is not just an ordinary meal. It is a sacred banquet to which we must come aware of our unworthiness but conscious of our need for this Gift from God. Like the parable of the wedding banquet, we must come with our garment given to us in baptism, a sharing of his divine life. We must understand when we receive this gift of the Body and Blood of Christ that we are of ourselves unworthy, but he makes us worthy by his love. For so great a guest, who comes into us to transform us to himself, we need to prepare the house of our heart to receive him and give him the place of honor, the throne of love. This disposition should continue even after we leave the church, for we carry Jesus with us as he remains in us.

 

 

Homily: Feast of Corpus Christi Year C

 

Reading 1: We know very little about the person Melchizedek. He was King of Jerusalem and priest of God. He recognized that Abraham was a man of God and that God was with Abraham. For it was God who enabled Abram to defeat his enemies. May God be blessed! Abram, in his turn, gave a tithe of what he had taken from his enemies in thanksgiving.

 

What are we here for? We have come to recognize what God has done for us in our lives. He brought us to salvation through the death and resurrection of his Son. We come to give thanks. We have come to acknowledge the blessings we have received this past week and to give thanks. We have come to offer our tithe as part of that thanksgiving, knowing that God enabled us to so work and earn a living. For this we return thanks to God through the gifts of bread and wine. These will be transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ.

 

Reading 2: Paul was not at the Last Supper but the Lord in revelation showed him what he did and wanted done. The specific insight Paul adds is the statement: “As often as you eat the bread and drink the cup you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.

 

Two Things: This is not a remembrance of a past event but a participation, of being present, making present Jesus’ death on the cross and all that it means in this moment and place for us. We are just as present at the Last Supper and on Calgary as were the Apostles and the women. Different times and different people but the same reality, the offering of Jesus to the Father for our salvation. To do this in remembrance of Jesus is not re-acting but making present the same event which will always be a present event because Jesus is the same Yesterday, today and forever.

 

The second point is that as we celebrate in the present moment the mystery of Jesus’ death and life, we are anticipating his coming again in glory. Jesus lives and we shall live eternally because of this Eucharistic gift to the Father.

 

Gospel: Three action are present. First, Jesus taught about the Kingdom of God, revealing God’s plan and message. Second, he cured those who were sick. This confirmed his word. Third, he gave them a foretaste, a foreshadowing of the great event to come, the Eucharistic banquet. He did this by taking care of their present hunger through the miracle of the multiplication of bread and fish, enough to feed five thousand with twelve large baskets of left overs.

 

The teaching, the healing and the feeding were a preparation for the Paschal mystery of love: the gift of his Body and Blood, the gift of salvation through his death on the cross, the gift of eternal life through his resurrection.

 

The Feast of Corpus Christi was instituted as a public witness of Jesus’ victory over our greatest enemy, death. “At its very heart, the Eucharist is the answer to the question of death, for it is the encounter with that love which is stronger than death. Corpus Christi is the response to this central Eucharistic mystery.”

 

Like Abraham, who is blessed by Melchizedek, we are blessed to hear God’s word, to be given the bread of life and the cup of salvation as our offering. In response, we are to act on the Word of God, to offer with Jesus ourselves to the Father and to become more like Christ as we share his divine life.

 "When you approach the tabernacle remember that he has been waiting for you for twenty centuries." (St. Josemaria Escriva)

How blessed are we to have the presence of Jesus in our day, in our midst in the tabernacle of our Church! But how often the church is empty with people passing by or nearby without stopping. God has and continues to do great things for us, how do we respond? God desires to remain with and in us. He gives us his Body and Blood to be in us. He remains present in the tabernacle to be with us. We are a priority for him. Is he a priority for us? He doesn't need us, but we are totally dependent upon him even to exist. Yet, how do we respond to him? Going before the tabernacle is one way we can express our gratitude. We make time for those we want to be with. We can make time to be with him, if we want, even if it is only for a few minutes a week. 

 Feast of Corpus Christi  Gospel C

Jesus spoke to the crowds about the kingdom of God, and he healed those who needed to be cured. 

· Notice Jesus confirmed his teaching by healing those in need. There seems to be two different processes used by Jesus. He taught and then he would perform some extraordinary sign to confirm the teaching; or he exercised one of the gifts of the Spirit and then gave a teaching to verify what he did.

As the day was drawing to a close, the Twelve approached him and said, "Dismiss the crowd so that they can go to the surrounding villages and farms and find lodging and provisions; for we are in a deserted place here." 

· Though they were concerned about the needs of the people, the Twelve did not realize that Jesus had a greater concern for them. They are approaching a problem from the human perspective. Jesus wants to teach them that the same problem needs to be approached from God’s perspective. Do we see how we do the same thing?

He said to them, "Give them some food yourselves." They replied, "Five loaves and two fish are all we have, unless we ourselves go and buy food for all these people." 

· In saying what he said, Jesus was testing the disciples to see how they would respond. Even though they had seen many miracles and even though they knew Jesus was a man of God, they still responded humanly. Do we act any differently?

· They had not yet gotten to the point of asking what God would want them to do in this situation.

Now the men there numbered about five thousand. 

· The number is significant since it indicates the extent of the miracle that Jesus would bring about. It is not a matter of stretching what is at hand but of a true miraculous multiplication of the little that is there.

Then he said to his disciples, "Have them sit down in groups of about fifty." They did so and made them all sit down. Then taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing over them, broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. They all ate and were satisfied. 

· There is a sense of confidence shown by Jesus.

· These are the ritual actions that Jesus will used at the Last Supper when he instituted the Eucharist.

· This miracle is a foreshadowing of the greater miracle of changing bread and wine into Jesus’ Body and Blood.

And when the leftover fragments were picked up, they filled twelve wicker baskets.

· Imagine yourself there. What would be your reaction first to know that Jesus performed a miracle to feed the crowd and second that there was this abundance even when all had been satisfied?

· What does it say about God’s love for the people?

· When Jesus shares his own Body and Blood with you, what does it say about his love for you?

 

“I am the bread of life….I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world” (John 6:48, 51).

Bread is a basic staple of life. It is no wonder that Jesus would choose bread and wine to be the elements he would change in substance to be his own Body and Blood to communicate a share of his own divine life with us. What a marvelous mystery of divine love!

 

God sustained the Israelites for 40 years in the desert with manna, bread from heaven. Jesus sustains us with himself, the bread of life, so that we may live eternally with him. Reflect on this mystery of love and life as you prepare to receive Jesus, the Bread of life this Sunday.

 "Actions speak louder than words; let your words teach and your actions speak. We are full of words but empty of actions, and therefore are cursed by the Lord, since he himself cursed the fig tree when he found no fruit but only leaves." (St. Anthony of Padua)

Each of us needs to reflect on these words regularly to insure that we are not falling short of the bar set by Jesus for his disciples. Like Paul we know what is right and we profess what is right but we do not always do what is right. We profess to be disciples of Jesus but sometimes our actions say otherwise. A good tree bears good fruit but a bad tree bears bad fruit. We say we love God but we do not do the works of love always. Those who are parents, those who are leaders, those of us who are priests, have a major responsibility because those under us are learning from us how to live their lives. May our lives proclaim the truth of God to others.

 "Joy is not the same as happiness. We can be unhappy about many things, but joy can still be there because it comes from the knowledge of God’s love for us. . . . Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day. It is a choice based on the knowledge that we belong to God and have found in God our refuge and our safety and that nothing, not even death, can take God away from us." (Henri Nouwen)

Do we have that inner conviction that God loves us for who we are and because we are his creation in whom he delights? If so, then the grace of joy is there for us to embrace. If we keep in mind the love God has for us and shares with us, then his joy should radiate in and through us. But when we fail to find our center in God and his love for us, then we look for something else to fulfill us. Yet nothing but God can. We are reminded to return and remain in our first, true love, so that his joy in us may come to fulfillment. It is a process.

 

Homily Solemnity of the Blessed Trinity

 

Reading 1: We say God is All-wise. The Holy Spirit is personified as Wisdom. The Old Testament people were not able to grasp the mystery of God, let alone the reality of a triune but one God. At first, they struggled with the human perception that there were many gods and one had to placate these different entities.

 

God revealed to Abraham that there is only one God and no other. It took generations for this revelation to take root in the hearts and minds of the Old Testament people. If God would have revealed there is One God but three divine persons, they would have understood this to be three gods. So God continued to formed them in the truth of the One, True God, who is the I AM. At the same time God was laying the foundation through the prophets and other writings for the fuller revelation of the mystery of the Trinity.

 

Here in the first reading we have a glimpse of it. It speaks of the Wisdom of God, who was with God before time, namely all eternity. Today, we understand this to be the Holy Spirit. As we acknowledge Jesus as the only begotten Son of the Father, as the first born of all creation, so we acknowledge that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.

 

Gospel: We have seen the Holy Spirit called the Wisdom of God and the Spirit of love. Now, Jesus identifies the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Truth, who will guide us to all truth. What truth?  God’s plan for us. The truth that will set us free. The truth that reminds me that only in God does my life have meaning and purpose. I am a son/daughter of God.  Again, Jesus speaks of himself, the Father and the Spirit.

 

What does all this mean to us? How blessed are we to have been given the revelation of the Trinity! How blessed are we to have been created in God’s own image and likeness! To have been reconciled and justified by the death and resurrection of Jesus! To have been anointed by the Holy Spirit, who is the love of the Father in our hearts. We have been given the gift of wisdom to know the mind of God for us, the gift of knowledge to come to the truth revealed by God. We have received the gift of understanding to comprehend the truth in light of God’s plan for us; the gift of right judgement to make the decisions that will enable us to live in the will of God for us. We have received the gifts of God through the Holy Spirit to enable us to come into that fuller, intimate relationship with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, so that our daily life in in the Lord, our peace is steady, our love is reflective of God’s love for us.

 

 

Reading 2: Here we have Paul’s attempt to teach about the Trinity to the early Christian believers in Rome. Nowhere in the New Testament is the word Trinity used in reference to God. The term is a later understanding of the Church. But the reality of the Trinity is present. Paul says we are at peace with God through Our Lord Jesus Christ. We are at peace with the Father through the death and resurrection of the Son who is Lord.

 

Then he says that the love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. The love of God is another way of saying the Spirit of Love. When we try to explain the Trinity in human terms, we talk about the Father perfectly loves the Son and the Son perfectly returns love to the Father and this Love is the person of the Holy Spirit. When God loves us, he pours out his Spirit upon us, so that we can in turn love God, not just with our human love, but with his own divine love. It is this love of God for us in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which enables us to turn our afflictions into the strength of endurance. This in turn places our hope in God throughout our afflictions.

 In today's Gospel we hear Jesus say to his disciples: "Unless your righteousness surpasses the Scribes and Pharisees you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven." What was the righteousness of the religious leaders of Jesus' day? It was a righteousness based on an extreme observance of the letter of the Law. What is our righteousness based on? Jesus and obedience to the Commandment out of love. If love is our rule of life, then we cannot remain in anger and un-forgiveness. We cannot remain aloof and distant on seeing the man half dead on the side of the road like the Levite and Priest in the parable. Rather our righteousness must be impelled by the love of Christ so that whatever we do whether in word or deed we do for the glory of God. 

 Eleventh Sunday  Gospel C

A Pharisee invited Jesus to dine with him, and he entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table.  Now there was a sinful woman in the city who learned that he was at table in the house of the Pharisee. Bringing an alabaster flask of ointment, she stood behind him at his feet weeping and began to bathe his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and anointed them with the ointment. 

· We are not given any indication of what had happened to the woman before this for her to do such an unusual deed. Had Jesus already encountered her with a message of forgiveness and now she was showing her gratitude? We don’t know.

When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner.” 

· Do we too judge people from their past or from their outside appearances?

Jesus said to him in reply, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said. “Two people were in debt to a certain creditor; one owed five hundred days’ wages and the other owed fifty. Since they were unable to repay the debt, he forgave it for both. Which of them will love him more?” Simon said in reply, “The one, I suppose, whose larger debt was forgiven.”

· Jesus teaches through the use of parables.

He said to him, “You have judged rightly.” Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? When I entered your house, you did not give me water for my feet, but she has bathed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but she has not ceased kissing my feet since the time I entered. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she anointed my feet with ointment.

· It was the normal oriental customs for the host to greet his guest with a kiss, to have the servants wash his feet before reclining on the couches, and to anoint the head with oil as a sign of respect. If the Pharisee really saw Jesus as a prophet, he would have done these deeds.

· But the woman acknowledges both who Jesus is and her debt to him for his merciful forgiveness.

· How has Jesus shown his love for us and how have we responded to his love?

 So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven because she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.” He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” 

· Jesus confirms again to her that her sins have been forgiven out of love and that her love response is received by Jesus as a sign of her gratitude.

The others at table said to themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” But he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” 

· Jesus doesn’t justify his statement. He doesn’t focus on those who do not believe but only on the one who sincerely believes in him.

· The faith of the woman who believed she was forgiven was evidenced by her gift of love shown to Jesus.

· Is our faith so evidenced by our love of Jesus?

Afterward he journeyed from one town and village to another, preaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. Accompanying him were the Twelve and some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, Susanna, and many others who provided for them out of their resources.

· Some traditions identify Mary, called Magdalene, with the woman in the Gospel narrative above.

· What is God saying to you through this event in the Gospel? What response is he looking for from you?

 "Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls." (1 Pet 1_8-9)

What should bring us this "inexpressible and glorious joy"? Knowing, loving and believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. When we first encountered Jesus in a way that he became real to us and not someone we heard of, was there not an new, inner joy? As we come to a deeper love for Jesus, is not joy the fruit of this love? As our faith in seeing God face to face and being with God eternally becomes stronger, is not a sense of joy present with us?  This joy is a mere shadow of the joy that awaits us in the eternal presence of God with all the angels and saints. As long as we keep our eyes on the prize, union with God, our joy will be renewed within us. Hold on to this joy!

 Where do you find your true joy, the joy that is not just a feeling, but an inner realization of fulfillment? The prophet Isaiah gives us the answer. "I rejoice heartily in the Lord, in my God is the joy of my soul; For he has clothed me with a robe of salvation, and wrapped me in a mantle of justice, like a bride bedecked with her jewels." (Is 61:10) Relationship with God, the source of all that is good in my life, is the reason for the presence of joy within  us. This is the joy that Jesus said we would have to the fullness. "“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete." (Jn 15:11) The more we focus on our relationship with God, the more we spend time with him in the solitude of prayer, the more we live the commandment of love and service, the more will the joy of the Lord remain and deepen in us. This joy is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit, whose presence we are blessed to experience as we share and grow in the divine life as adopted sons and daughters of the Father.

" It is a question of an inner strength, rooted in love (cf. Eph 3:17), which St. Paul writes about to the faithful of Ephesus: may the Father "grant you in accord with the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self" (Eph 3:16). Paul prays to the Father to give this higher power to those to whom he is writing. Christian tradition lists this power among the "gifts of the Holy Spirit," deriving them from the text of Isaiah which lists them as the characteristics of the Messiah (cf. Is 11:2 ff.). Among the gifts with which Christ's most holy soul is filled, the Holy Spirit also gives to Christ's followers the fortitude which he was champion of in his life and death. One can say that the Christian who is involved in the "spiritual combat" has a share in the strength of the cross!" (St. John Paul I I)

Who among us does not need the gift of fortitude in living the full life as a disciple/witness of the Lord Jesus Christ? True there is a natural fortitude which is part of our life as a human being. This fortitude enables to face the natural fears of existence. But the gift of the Spirit enables us to confront the spiritual evils along our journey to the Lord and to remain faithful to our life in Christ. The greatest evils come from the Evil One in forms of temptations. Humanly, we are weak against this onslaught. But John reminds us that "He who is in us is greater than he who is outside of us."  We have received the "Spirit who enables us to cry out Abba, Father"  and to proclaim Jesus as Lord in times of temptation. This strength and conviction comes from the Holy Spirit who is with us and in us as our helper and provider.  This gift of fortitude is not a one time event, but is available to us in a fresh new way each time we ask for it or any other gifts of the Spirit. Come, Holy Spirit, come. Give me a fresh outpouring of all your gifts that I need each day to  remain a faithful son of the Father, servant of the Lord and anointed by you.

 The Blessed Virgin Mary was filled with the Holy Spirit from the moment she was conceived in her mother's womb. For she was conceived by God's grace from from Original Sin and sharing in the divine life of God. That is what the Angel confirmed at the Annunciation. He called her "full of grace."  At that event, she was told that she would conceive the Savior of the world by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. 'And the Word became flesh." In turn, Mary became the first evangelizer, going to her cousin Elizabeth and bringing the blessing of the child in her womb to the child in Elizabeth's womb. And Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit confirms the motherhood of Mary and that the child was the Lord. Mary with great joy then praises God for all he has done for her and through her.

Mary was at the foot of the cross when Jesus handed over his Spirit to the Father and Jesus' side was pierced from which blood and water flowed. Mary was with the Apostles and the hundred and twenty in the Upper Room on Pentecost when she received a fresh outpouring of the Spirit, now as the Mother of the Church. Her role was to walk with the early Church, sharing with them her memories of Jesus' early life. She acts as a witness of what  it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit as an icon of holiness and a witness to the Risen Lord. As our Mother, she leads us to a deeper relationship with Jesus in the Spirit to the Father. As we prepare for the celebration of Pentecost, we too pray through the intercession of our Lady for a greater openness and response to the fresh outpouring of the Spirit at this time of our lives. Come, Holy Spirit, come.

 Yesterday, we reflected on the power and role of the Holy Spirit in the conception of the Son of God as Man with the consent of Mary. We reflected on the first "epiclesis" or invocation of the Holy Spirit during the Eucharistic Prayer. The elements of bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit and the words of Jesus. 

There is a second "epiclesis" after the consecration takes place in which we acknowledge that only through the power of the Holy Spirit and the death and resurrection of Jesus can we, the Body of Christ, can be transformed into the same Christ that is offered to the Father as a sacrifice of thanksgiving. Here is what one person has said about these two invocations of the Holy Spirit. "The epiclesis, in which, by means of particular invocations, the Church implores the power of the Holy Spirit that the gifts offered by human hands be consecrated, that is, become Christ’s Body and Blood, and that the unblemished sacrificial Victim to be consumed in Communion may be for the salvation of those who will partake of it."

The Word became Flesh, when the Holy Spirit,  together with Mary's consent to the will of God, overshadowed her. Similarly,  the Holy Spirit will transform us only with our consent and submission to his power.  The full effect of our communion with God depends upon our response to the power of the Holy Spirit, as we share in the divine life of God.