the reason we have a culture of death, is that so many have forgotten or can't find the source of this living water of Christ's love.

Homily for the Rockford Diocese Monthly Mass for Pro-life.

"Then the angel showed me the river of life, rising from the throne of God and of the Lamb and flowing crystal-clear. Down the middle of the city street, on either bank of the river were trees of life, which bear twelve crops of fruit in a year, one each month, and the leaves of which are the cure for the nation" (Rev. 22:1-2)

Our First reading is the final vision of St. John, while exiled on the Island of Patmos. It is a vision of the indiscernible energy of the Most Blessed Trinity at the heart of the Messianic Jerusalem.
What is the Messianic Jerusalem? It is the Church of the last time. The Church which we are now living in.

This vision of St. John describes this energy of the inner love and life of the Blessed Trinity as a river of life flowing out into all of creation, both in the act of creating it and in the act of renewing, purifying it, and bringing it back to Himself.

This mysterious river of life is an outpouring of the love shared by the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity; it is the power of the fullness of life; it gives existence and offers eternal life, which is union with God forever.
From the beginning of time, this river of life flowed from the hidden depths of the bosom of Eternal Father through His only begotten Son. All was created through the Son, by Son and for the Son, by the power of the Spirit of life.

And so, this river is a river of life, but a life that does not come from man ;it is a river of love but a love that does not originate in the heart of man. It comes from God Himself, from the depths of His profound Love which is His very Being.
The prophet Ezekiel, describes this river as a torrent that would sweep a person away if he entered into it. Ezekiel, tells us that it's source was somewhere under the threshold of the temple, hidden from view. It fact, it would have remained hidden forever from us, if Jesus had not come to earth to show us the source.

This river is the outpouring of the created love of each person of the Holy Trinity,
a love that brought all of creation into existence; a love that brought and brings each human person into existence.

But in this river of life, there is also a current of God's energy, of God's great tenderness which attracts us, which calls us to itself in order to swept up into it in order to be carried away, back to the heart of God. The current of this river; ebbs and flows; it goes forth from the heart of Father, and then flows back again. By it God brings us forth, and by it He wishes to bring us back again to Himself.

This river of life, brings forth the energy of God's creative power; it is His love for the world, His Divine Word, His whole self poured out for his creation, especially man. He has in fact placed in man a desire, a thirst to can only be quench by drinking from this river of love, by allowing oneself to be swept away by it, but not to be destroyed, but gain to be taken up back to its source which is God.

For those who drink from this river of life, they become the trees that bear great fruit...the fruit of holiness, the fruit of divine life; fruit for the entire world-the fruit of holiness and joy, truth and life, justice and peace.

It is this living water that Jesus speaks of to the woman beside the well. She is a image of so many who have tried to quench their thirst with the "waters" of this world. She as in other words, looked for love in all the wrong places; she has in fact give up on love; which is the same as saying giving up on life. Jesus says he thirsts....not for water, but for her love. He wants her life; He wants her. He says to her, if only you knew who it was that was asking you for a drink, you would ask him for a drink of the living water.

She is the one who is really thirsty; and Jesus love is the living water which flows forth from the Father and gives the abundance of life to all who find its source and drink fully from it.

Using these beautiful and mystical images of these two beautiful reading, tonight I want to purpose to you that the reason we have a culture of death, is that so many have forgotten or can't find the source of this living water of Christ's love. Many in fact have abandoned the fountain of living water and have dug for themselves wells, cracked wells that can hold water. Men thirst and so look for water everywhere and anywhere they think they can find it. They try to dig their own wells, that give only water that never quenches their thirst.

Many others know the source but have forgotten how to drink from it.
It is beside the true well that Christ waits for us. He wishes to fill us with His living waters, which again is the water of his love, of his life. He is the very source of this living water. It flows forth from His pierce heart, gushes forth as water and blood; the river of love and life for the world.

In Jesus, God the Father has poured out his love, Himself, for men; both at the moment of creation and at the moment of the Crucifixion. At the crucifixion the Father, through the Son offers each of us His all, and He wishes to draw us, lift us up to himself; to become one with Him sharing in the union of His and His Son's love for one another. This is the true river of life. Separated from this river we have only death.

And so, how do we have contact with this river of life and drink from it. We do so through the Sacred Liturgy, offered according to the mind and intent of the Church, with reverence, love, devotion and entered into with great faith. It is the source of living water because it allows us to enter into to mystery of the life, death, resurrection and accession of our Lord, to experience the saving and healing power of them; and as a result, to have intimate contact with He who is the Living Water--Our Lord Jesus Christ.

At the Sacred Liturgy, which includes all the Sacraments, the Divine office, but especially at their source the Holy Mass, the Father through Son again pours out the river of His love for each one of us. For our part, do we recognize our great need for it, our thirst, in order to allow ourselves to be filled and swept away in the mystery of what is really happening at Mass; or do we merely stand by the side of the river, failing to enter in fully?

Maybe we enter into our ankles, maybe to our knees, or even our waist. But this is not enough, be not afraid, we must dive into the deep which is Christ. At the Liturgy Jesus comes to the well, and offers Himself to us; we for our part must offer ourselves to Him, so that we can feast on the river of His love, which really means on Him. Jesus is the river of life flowing from the bosom of the Father for the life of the world; and He is the way back to the Father who calls us to Himself.

By the way, this is what Vatican II meant by it's desire to lead the faithful to an active, full, participation in the Liturgy. But Vatican II didn't just say a active and full participation; no, it said and active, fully, conscious and fruitful participation. Vatican II took this phrase from Pope Pius X who first said it in 1903. He was at the beginning of a great Liturgical Movement, that wished to renew the Liturgy in the hearts and minds of the faithful so that they could partake fully of its power to transform and unite them to the God who is Love and who is Life.

He and others asked, if we have the source of living waters for the world, the Sacred Liturgy, why is the world falling into moral decay. The only answer was that the faithful, were not fully drinking from the well of the Liturgy, of the Living Waters. In other words, they weren't attending or if attending, they allowing themselves, for whatever reason, to filled with the life of Christ, in order to be transformed by the life of Christ, so they could become holy, to be come one with God (divinized). And then in their Holiness, take Christ united to them, and His love and life now alive in them, out into the world in order for Christ to renew it and transform it through them.

Is it any different today? The evil in the world is increasing, the culture of death is still with us, great storm clouds are gathering. The answer is the same, we have the source of living waters for the world; It is the Sacred Liturgy. This water flows out from the Sacraments, but in order to get out into the world, it must flow through us. We must drink deeply from the well, in order to allow the living water, which flows from the Father, through the Son, to allow it to flow through us out into the world, transforming it through our holiness of life. This is the only way our culture death will be converted into a culture of life. Without this, all of our efforts to transform our world become just a useless form of activism. It is not that we need to become solitary mystics separated from the world, but that our work out in the world needs to become the work Jesus alive in us.

We need to do all things with him, through Him and in. All our work to promote, defend and protect life, to give life, eternal life, must be done with union with Jesus-the Living Water of the Father, the God who is life. And this source of this living water is only the Sacred Liturgy. Actively, fully, conciousely, fruitfully drinking form this well, we can live our lives in imitation of Christ, pouring them out in sacrificial love for God and for others for love of Him. And this is what Pope Benedict recently said, is our vocation and our identity as creatures created in the Image and Likeness of God.

Our identity and vocation, according to our Holy Father, is to love sacrificially for the other. In fact He said this is the Key to our entire existence. And then he reminded us that “our hearts can easily be hardened by selfishness, envy and pride,” and that “pure and generous love is the fruit of a daily decision.” Every day, he reminded us, “we have to choose to love.” In our homes, schools, workplaces, and in public, if we constantly witness to the inestimable worth and dignity of each human life through a loving concern for the good of others, if we allow the dignity of every human life to guide the decisions we make as voters and public policy advocates, we can surely succeed in creating a more just and humane society. The liturgy is the source of the energy, the energy of the love and life of the Blessed Trinity, that we absolutely need, to daily make the choice to love.

Let us end, by doing that most pro-life action that we humans can do, that is fully, actively, consciously and fruitfully offering ourselves at this Holy Mass to the source of all Life--the Most Blessed Trinity. What this really means is to offer our hearts to the Blessed Virgin so that she will place them along with all that we have and are, on the paten, and along with sacrifice of the Priest, help us to offer offer ourselves and one another as the Mystical Body of Christ, to the Father in union with the Sacrifice of the Son through the Power and Love of the Holy Spirit. Then let us her to help us, as members of the messianic temple, the Church of the last times, take what we receive, the very Life of the Father--Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, alive in our bodies and our hearts, out into our dying world; and through our lives of holiness bring to others the Love of Jesus alive in us, thus transforming our culture of death, into a culture of life and love!!!...Amen!