Today we celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi. This feast explains to us to the point of everything. That’s right to the point of everything. When somebody is telling us something that we don’t understand or something in which we just don’t see the point, we respond with “What’s the point?” Well today we can ask the question, “what is the point of everything, everything that exists, everything that is, including you and me and life itself?” As I said, today’s feast actually answers this question, “What’s the Point of Everything?”
Let’s start by thinking about the answer to the following questions: I not going to call on anyone, but try to answer these questions to yourself in five words or less.
1. What is the deepest desire of the human heart?
2. What is the center, the point, the meaning of life?
3. How I can be truly happy?
4. What does it mean to be a woman?
5. What does it mean to be a man?
6. What does God look like?
7. How can we bring about peace in the Middle East and in the world?
8. How can we end world hunger?
9. How can we fix our seemingly insurmountable economic woes?
10. How can we know if there is life after death?
11. What is the greatest of the seven sacraments?
Were you able to answer all of these questions? Chances are you couldn’t give the answer to a lot of them, must less do it in five words or less… What would you think if I told you that not only can I give you the answer to each one of these questions, I can actually answer each one of them in one word; that’s right just one single word. There is a one-word answer for each of these above questions, and it's the same answer for each one. Can you guess it?
This past week I read an article by Bill Donaghy, a speaker for the Theology of the Body Institute. His article was the impetus for this Homily. In his article entitled “the Answer to Everything,” Mr. Donaghy said, that some scientists and philosophers have been trying for years to compile one overarching, all encompassing "Theory of Everything." He said, that, he believed that we have it already in our midst. Present in millions of places worldwide, nestled in golden boxes beneath glowing candles that never go out, for two thousand years the secret has been with us; the center, the point of everything, the Answer to our questions; the answer to all questions. You've guessed it... the Holy Eucharist.
Blessed Pope John Paul II, in his great encyclical on the Holy Eucharist entitled, “Ecclesia de Eucharistia,” or the “Church of the Eucharist,” said about the Holy Eucharist: "Here is the Church's treasure, the heart of the world, the pledge of the fulfillment for which each man and woman, even unconsciously, yearns."
Today is the day in which the Church around the whole world celebrates the Feast of Corpus Christi, the true Body and Blood of Christ. The Church has been celebrating this feast for millennia. Throughout these centuries the Church has been proclaiming the wonders of the Blessed Sacrament to everyone and anyone who would listen; anyone who would be open to the truth. She has been giving the secret to life; in fact the secret to eternal life; the true “fountain of youth” if you will. The Church tells us the Holy Eucharist is not a “theory of everything”; it is the Truth of everything; the Reality of everything; it is Truth Itself; Reality Itself; the Beginning and End of everything and everyone.
So as Mr. Donaghy says in his article, “So why don't people come a'runnin' to our churches and our adoration chapels? Why aren't the phones ringing off the hook asking for our daily and Sunday Mass schedules? I would add, “Why don’t we here at St. Patrick’s have to build a bigger Church to handle everyone? Why doesn’t every single person in a parish, in our parish partake
in the Eucharist Procession on Corpus Christi?” Mr Donaghy asks, “is it because of poor marketing skills?”
The following was supposedly overheard by a monsignor at a Papal Mass who was standing beside our beloved Blessed John Paul II (though it sounds a little pessimistic for him). Watching thousands come to Holy Communion in St. Peter's Square he is supposed to have whispered, "So many coming to Holy Communion, so little change."
Ouch! Oh we of little faith. Us Catholic’s have the answer, the only answer in fact, to all of the world’s mysteries; the answer to all the world’s dilemmas’; in fact, we have the answer to everything. And we have, without a question, the power to transform our world. The Eucharist is the Answer because it is Jesus Christ, the God-Man, the savior of the World among us; it is THE POWER.
Yet, Jesus can only transform our world through us. And this can only happen if we first allow Jesus to transform us; to transform us into saints, into His other selves. If the world is not being changed for the better the fault is that you and I, are not tapping into the most powerful reality in the entire universe; the power of Divine Love; the power of the Holy Eucharist, which is the power of God Himself. The same power that brought everything into existence out of nothing; the same power that keeps everything in existence.
Yet despite our great lack of faith, the power for transformation remains, and is available at our Catholic Churches; here at our Catholic Church of St. Patrick’s. The Eucharist is Power, the Source of all power. But it is only faith that unlocks this power; a living faith that not only believes, but adores, hopes and loves; and begs pardon for all of those who do not believe, adore, hope and love. A faith that in humility, reverence and awe, falls on its knees before this same Jesus truly present in the Holy Eucharist the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. For, “if at the name of Jesus every knee must bend in the heavens and on the earth…What about the before the very person of Jesus?” And the Holy Eucharist is the very Person of Jesus Christ!!!
When we think we have an answer to a question but it doesn’t quite come to us, we say, “You know It's on the tip of my tongue!" Well exactly. In the Eucharist, the Answer to our questions, all of our questions; all of life questions and problems; to all of our own individual questions and problems; to all of the questions of the universe; is literally in our midst and on our tongue.
The Answer has been given, it has been given in the form of a gift; it's just that we Catholics have yet to fully unwrap it! At least some of us Catholics, for the saints and mystics have unwrapped it, and they show us how. They opened wide the doors to Christ in the Holy Eucharist, the doors of their hearts, minds and whole lives and He filled them to capacity; in fact, He filled them with Himself—God filled them with Himself.
Being filled with God is our destiny, that for which we have been created. We are in fact all capax dei - "capable of God." Dr. Peter Kreeft, a Catholic philosopher and writer said it well, "Your heart is like an infinitely large hole, and only God is big enough to fill it." And in the Holy Eucharist He has become just small enough it fill it.
Do we believe this? Do I believe this? Or do we keep trying to stick cheap imitations in the hole in our hearts? C.S. Lewis called this the long, sad story of humanity, this vain attempt at seeking something other than God that will make us happy. Our hearts are made for greatness, for Infinite Greatness. Nothing else but God will accomplish this, because our hearts have been made for God who is Infinite Greatest; and the Holy Eucharist is this Infinite, Great and Awesome God. Our hearts have been made for the Eucharist Alone.
Psalm 81 says, “I am the LORD, your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. Open wide your mouth that I may fill it. But my people did not listen to my words; Israel did not obey me." The Church, you and me, we are the new Israel. Will we listen to the Lord and obey Him, or will be like Israel of old and die in the desert?
God has given us the answer to everything; He has given us the Answer to the deepest longing of our hearts, will we take Him at His Word? The Eucharist is the Answer, because it is, “The true Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ; The Eucharist is very simply GOD! It is the very Person of Jesus Christ in His physical resurrected body; it is Him; it is Him; it is Him.
Do we believe it? We better believe it, because it true; but we better do more than believe it, we better fall on our knees before the Eucharist and adore, hope and love our God truly present there in every tabernacle and on every altar at every Holy Mass and during Holy Hours of Adoration. Jesus is however not content to stay in the tabernacle and on the altar because out of love for you, He wants to come into you and dwell within you and use your heart as His pillow.
The Church doesn’t need a better media consultant; no, the Church needs you and me to be saints; and saints are mad in love with the Holy Eucharist; He is the Point of their everything, the Answer to their everything. So, let us open our hearts wide to Eucharist; let us open our hearts wide to Christ. He is the answer to everything, for He is the God who is Love Itself.
“Oh Jesus, Source of Joy, Filler of Hearts, Food of Angels, Drink for the Thirsty. Draw us to you, show us the way to this Table, this Banquet, this Feast of Love, the Wedding Feast of the Lamb. Let us respond in a new way at this great Feast of Your Body and Blood, a way of absolute surrender. Give us a hunger in the pit of our stomachs, a yearning for You alone to fill us. For You are "the Church's treasure, the heart of the world, the pledge of the fulfillment for which each man and woman, even unconsciously, yearns."
Join me this afternoon, my brother and sisters in Christ as we take Jesus in solemn procession out into our streets proclaiming to all…God is with us—the Eucharist is the Answer to Everything!!!
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Saturday, June 18, 2011
The Trinity is Love
Homily on John 3:16-18--Holy Trinity
Today brings the return to ordinary time in the liturgical calendar; we have finished Lent, Easter and Pentecost. Now the Church starts this so-called “ordinary” time with two celebrations central to our Catholic Faith: the Holy Trinity and Corpus Christi. Today, we celebrate the Holy Trinity, the mystery of one God in three Divine Persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
The liturgy of this great solemnity invites us to contemplate the central mystery of our faith. And the Trinity is a great mystery; in fact it is the Mystery of all mysteries. It is a mystery of God’s own inner, intimate life and the very source of all gifts and graces; the Trinity is the source of everything including our very selves. So you can see how important this mystery is to our lives-it is the mystery of what is most essential to us-He Who created us, Who brought us into Being.
To help us enter into the contemplation of this mystery, that is to try to turn our hearts souls and minds toward it and to even to become one with the Mystery of the Trinity (for that is the goal of contemplation), to do this, we must begin by first understanding that we can never fully understand this great mystery. Here below, our intelligence is just not simple, pure, enough to really enter into full contemplation of the Trinity. Here below, we walk by faith, not by sight, so we will always stand in awe of the three persons who are one in being.
Actually, it is the simplest of persons, that is the humble saints, that have come to the deepest understanding of this central mystery of our faith. In fact, sometimes the more theologians or the great intellectuals have tried to get their minds around the mystery, the more errors they made. Either the Trinity loses their personhood or their essential unity—we end up with just one personhood or more than one God. If even trained theologians can mess up, what are we, who are not theologians, to do?
Well, just because we cannot fully understand this great mystery, doesn’t mean we can’t understand it at all. The fundamental stance we take in front of so great a mystery is one of awe. It is analogous to looking at something beautiful in nature, such as a sunset. The quality of the colors in the sky, the light rays turning color- we stand and say “wow!” It just leaves us speechless. So too with contemplation of God- the first stance is awe. We stand before God in prayer, looking with our minds at the mystery of the Three in One- we are in awe, Wow!
Today the Church helps us to contemplate the mystery of the Holy Trinity by helping us enter into the very center of the mystery of the Trinity-the center which is--Love. This revelation of God, in which He reveals to us that He is Love, is as were, a secret help given and revealed to us from deep within the Trinity, Himself. Never in the Old Testament did God reveal this mystery to anyone. God loved the chosen people-Israel, but he was a God who was distant and remote, a Master not a intimate friend. So the ideal of a God who would actually draw close to us, so close that He actually become Incarnate, became a man like us, was beyond their wildest dreams.
This incarnate God is who today’s Gospel passage speaks of. We read that God so loved the world, that he sent His only Son. God sent Him not to condemn the world, but to save the world. This revelation of the true purpose of Jesus coming into our world reveals what is the motive of God. And by knowing God’s motive, we can better contemplate the mystery of the Most Blessed Trinity.
God loved the world-this is His motive and this motive reveals who God really is--God is love. Yet, this Love did not just stay in heaven, it dwelt on this earth, and then this Love was sent into the hearts of all of those who would believe. So love is not just a quality of God, like we would say of us humans—we have love; so we could say that those two persons, that husband and wife really love each other, just like God really loves us. But the problem with this is that God doesn’t love like us—God doesn’t just love—God is Love Itself, or we should say God is Love Himself. In other words, we are not pure love, God is pure love; love is not our essence; but it is God’s. While the bond of marriage is deep, and we can say that two persons in marriage love each other, that a man loves his wife and vice versa, but love is not who the man is or who the woman is. Only in the Holy Trinity do we find Persons who do not just love each other, but are Love Himself.
Here is the heart of the mystery and here is where we enter in- we enter into the essential love the Father has with the Son and the Holy Spirit. The very life of the Divine Trinity is love and we, through our prayer and through our worthy and proper celebration of the Sacraments, being of humble and pure heart, can enter directly in. We are then caught up, as it were, in the loving gaze of the Father to the Son and Holy Spirit, the loving gaze of Jesus to the Father and the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit’s loving gaze to the Father and the Son. This love changes everything in our lives-it goes beyond mere emotions and feelings. Through faith, using our minds and our hearts, we are able to return to the source of Love in order to be loved, by Love, so we can in turn love one another and become one in Love.
So you see, the mystery of the Trinity is not an extraneous believe of our Catholic faith. WE can’t just ignore it and say it’s a mystery and leave it at that. The mystery of the Trinity is the starting point of all revealed truth, it is the source of our existence, the fountain from which proceeds our supernatural life, and it is the goal toward which we are headed and hope to attain; it is a Mystery to experience to enter into to and become one with in love; We are children of the Father, brother’s and co-heirs with the Son, and we are continually sanctified, made holy, by the Holy Spirit to make us ever more resemble Christ.
The more through study and intense prayer we deepen our understanding of this truth of our relationship with each of the persons of the Trinity, the more we, ourselves become living temples of this same Blessed Trinity. The more we adore the Blessed Trinity the more He comes to make His abode in our souls and the more we become like Love itself-Love reveals Himself to us and makes us His Own.
We hear the Blessed Trinity constantly invoked in the Holy Mass and all the Sacraments, because it is the central mystery of our faith. We were baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; and in their name also are our sins forgiven, in Their Name we became God’s Children. We begin and end many prayers by invoking the Father, through Jesus Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit. Often during the day we should say the prayer of adoration to the Trinity, “All Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be, world without end Amen.
God is my Father! If you meditate on it, you will never let go of this consoling thought!
Jesus is my Lord and Savior who has come not to condemn me but to save me.
The Holy Spirit is my Consoler, who guides my every step along the road.
Consider this often: you are God’s and God is
yours.
Dear Soul, remember you have been created by the Father, redeemed by the Son and sanctified by the Holy Spirit. You are a child of God, you belong to God and you are called to return to this God from whence you came. What Love you have given—Love Himself.
Holy Mary, Daughter of the Father, Mother of the Son, and Spouse of the Holy Spirit, pray for us that we may be worthy of the promises of Christ and return to that Love from whence we came—the Most Blessed Trinity. Amen.
Today brings the return to ordinary time in the liturgical calendar; we have finished Lent, Easter and Pentecost. Now the Church starts this so-called “ordinary” time with two celebrations central to our Catholic Faith: the Holy Trinity and Corpus Christi. Today, we celebrate the Holy Trinity, the mystery of one God in three Divine Persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
The liturgy of this great solemnity invites us to contemplate the central mystery of our faith. And the Trinity is a great mystery; in fact it is the Mystery of all mysteries. It is a mystery of God’s own inner, intimate life and the very source of all gifts and graces; the Trinity is the source of everything including our very selves. So you can see how important this mystery is to our lives-it is the mystery of what is most essential to us-He Who created us, Who brought us into Being.
To help us enter into the contemplation of this mystery, that is to try to turn our hearts souls and minds toward it and to even to become one with the Mystery of the Trinity (for that is the goal of contemplation), to do this, we must begin by first understanding that we can never fully understand this great mystery. Here below, our intelligence is just not simple, pure, enough to really enter into full contemplation of the Trinity. Here below, we walk by faith, not by sight, so we will always stand in awe of the three persons who are one in being.
Actually, it is the simplest of persons, that is the humble saints, that have come to the deepest understanding of this central mystery of our faith. In fact, sometimes the more theologians or the great intellectuals have tried to get their minds around the mystery, the more errors they made. Either the Trinity loses their personhood or their essential unity—we end up with just one personhood or more than one God. If even trained theologians can mess up, what are we, who are not theologians, to do?
Well, just because we cannot fully understand this great mystery, doesn’t mean we can’t understand it at all. The fundamental stance we take in front of so great a mystery is one of awe. It is analogous to looking at something beautiful in nature, such as a sunset. The quality of the colors in the sky, the light rays turning color- we stand and say “wow!” It just leaves us speechless. So too with contemplation of God- the first stance is awe. We stand before God in prayer, looking with our minds at the mystery of the Three in One- we are in awe, Wow!
Today the Church helps us to contemplate the mystery of the Holy Trinity by helping us enter into the very center of the mystery of the Trinity-the center which is--Love. This revelation of God, in which He reveals to us that He is Love, is as were, a secret help given and revealed to us from deep within the Trinity, Himself. Never in the Old Testament did God reveal this mystery to anyone. God loved the chosen people-Israel, but he was a God who was distant and remote, a Master not a intimate friend. So the ideal of a God who would actually draw close to us, so close that He actually become Incarnate, became a man like us, was beyond their wildest dreams.
This incarnate God is who today’s Gospel passage speaks of. We read that God so loved the world, that he sent His only Son. God sent Him not to condemn the world, but to save the world. This revelation of the true purpose of Jesus coming into our world reveals what is the motive of God. And by knowing God’s motive, we can better contemplate the mystery of the Most Blessed Trinity.
God loved the world-this is His motive and this motive reveals who God really is--God is love. Yet, this Love did not just stay in heaven, it dwelt on this earth, and then this Love was sent into the hearts of all of those who would believe. So love is not just a quality of God, like we would say of us humans—we have love; so we could say that those two persons, that husband and wife really love each other, just like God really loves us. But the problem with this is that God doesn’t love like us—God doesn’t just love—God is Love Itself, or we should say God is Love Himself. In other words, we are not pure love, God is pure love; love is not our essence; but it is God’s. While the bond of marriage is deep, and we can say that two persons in marriage love each other, that a man loves his wife and vice versa, but love is not who the man is or who the woman is. Only in the Holy Trinity do we find Persons who do not just love each other, but are Love Himself.
Here is the heart of the mystery and here is where we enter in- we enter into the essential love the Father has with the Son and the Holy Spirit. The very life of the Divine Trinity is love and we, through our prayer and through our worthy and proper celebration of the Sacraments, being of humble and pure heart, can enter directly in. We are then caught up, as it were, in the loving gaze of the Father to the Son and Holy Spirit, the loving gaze of Jesus to the Father and the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit’s loving gaze to the Father and the Son. This love changes everything in our lives-it goes beyond mere emotions and feelings. Through faith, using our minds and our hearts, we are able to return to the source of Love in order to be loved, by Love, so we can in turn love one another and become one in Love.
So you see, the mystery of the Trinity is not an extraneous believe of our Catholic faith. WE can’t just ignore it and say it’s a mystery and leave it at that. The mystery of the Trinity is the starting point of all revealed truth, it is the source of our existence, the fountain from which proceeds our supernatural life, and it is the goal toward which we are headed and hope to attain; it is a Mystery to experience to enter into to and become one with in love; We are children of the Father, brother’s and co-heirs with the Son, and we are continually sanctified, made holy, by the Holy Spirit to make us ever more resemble Christ.
The more through study and intense prayer we deepen our understanding of this truth of our relationship with each of the persons of the Trinity, the more we, ourselves become living temples of this same Blessed Trinity. The more we adore the Blessed Trinity the more He comes to make His abode in our souls and the more we become like Love itself-Love reveals Himself to us and makes us His Own.
We hear the Blessed Trinity constantly invoked in the Holy Mass and all the Sacraments, because it is the central mystery of our faith. We were baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; and in their name also are our sins forgiven, in Their Name we became God’s Children. We begin and end many prayers by invoking the Father, through Jesus Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit. Often during the day we should say the prayer of adoration to the Trinity, “All Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be, world without end Amen.
God is my Father! If you meditate on it, you will never let go of this consoling thought!
Jesus is my Lord and Savior who has come not to condemn me but to save me.
The Holy Spirit is my Consoler, who guides my every step along the road.
Consider this often: you are God’s and God is
yours.
Dear Soul, remember you have been created by the Father, redeemed by the Son and sanctified by the Holy Spirit. You are a child of God, you belong to God and you are called to return to this God from whence you came. What Love you have given—Love Himself.
Holy Mary, Daughter of the Father, Mother of the Son, and Spouse of the Holy Spirit, pray for us that we may be worthy of the promises of Christ and return to that Love from whence we came—the Most Blessed Trinity. Amen.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Come Holy Spirit Come!
Today we end the Easter Season with the celebration of Pentecost and the coming of the promised Holy Spirit upon the Church. It’s really the celebration of the beginning of the Church. The eleven apostles, along with the Virgin Mary are in the cenacle, the Upper Room, united in mind, heart and voice, praying for the coming of the Spirit. And as a result, they receive Him in a most dramatic manifestation, as we just heard from the book of Acts. With the coming of the Holy Spirit and His sweet anointing from above the apostles are transformed from men cowering with fear to bold men proclaiming salvation by forgiveness of sins through the Lord Jesus Christ.
So many times, our Holy Father, Pope Benedict has asked that each one of us become more effective witnesses of hope. He has stressed that the world, so mired in despair and hopelessness, needs a strong witness from each and every Catholic. However, when we hear these words of our Holy Father, words that challenge us, we too can cower with fear just like the apostles did before that miraculous event occurred in the upper room.
I am sure if we try, we can make a long list from our daily lives of times when we have been called by God to give witness to Christ and our faith in Him and His Catholic Church, but failed in fear. Fear is that emotion which causes us to cower and so “go with the flow”, saying, “I am just plain afraid of what following Christ unreservedly might cost me!” Fear is what causes us to make excuses like, “everyone is doing it” “who I am to judge;” and so we can mediocre Catholics, becoming lukewarm and indifferent to what is really important in our life.
And what is most important in our life? It is our faith in and relationship with Our Loving God shown by our worship and adoration of Him in the Sacred Liturgy; that is, the Holy Mass and the other Sacraments. Additionally, flowing from this faithful and proper worship is our concern and love for the salvation of our neighbor; that is concern for whether or not those we know and love make it to heaven; especially the members of our family and parish family.
Because Christ has sent us the advocate we need no longer be afraid to witness to the truth; the Holy Spirit will strengthen us and console us; if we ask Him, if we call upon Him to help. Today He offers to each of us the very same supernatural gifts that transformed the apostles. These gifts, which we received at our personal Pentecost, that is at our Confirmation, these gifts have the divine power to transform us, to make us holy so we can live holy lives; and holiness of life is that universal language which speaks to the hearts of all men regardless of their tongue.
If we open our hearts and minds to the gifts of the Holy Spirit, these sublime gifts will enable and transform us to be bold witnesses to the hope and joy that we hold in our hearts…to be bold witnesses to the Risen Christ, just like the apostles in our reading today; we can lead others to Jesus and His love for them. The question for us today is however, “How do we more fully open our hearts and minds to the Holy Spirit in order to use, in our daily lives, His gifts that we received at our confirmation.
To begin with, we must be more docile to the Holy Spirit workings within our soul. It is He who directs our thoughts to the good, to the only one who is good and that is God. He directs us to carry out all that God expects of us for love of Him and love of neighbor for love of Him. Those inspirations you have to goodness and holiness are from Him, not from you but from Him.
And so it is He who leads us to be open to Christ’s teachings and commandments and accept them with our whole minds. It is He who gives us the strength to accept them with our whole will in order to live them in our lives, thus proclaiming by our lives the truth of Christ which alone gives authentic freedom and life and so which alone gives the hope that doesn’t disappoint.
Second, we must pray to the Holy Spirit. Prayer to Him opens us up to his working in our soul. Christian life in fact, requires a constant dialogue with God, One in three Persons, and it is to this intimacy that the Holy Spirit leads us. In our live of prayer we discover that because of our baptism and confirmation, the Holy Spirit and His divine power and love is present and moves in us. Only by Him can the praise and adoration of God grow within our hearts, fill our minds and come off of our lips. Through prayer, especially the prayer of the Holy Mass, we are able give ourselves to the Holy Spirit in the obedience of love and the meekness of love and become united with Him and become transformed by Him in love.
Finally, the Holy Spirit leads us to union with the cross, because in the life of Christ, the Resurrection, Ascension and Pentecost were preceded by Calvary. This order must be followed in the life of any Christian…The Holy Spirit comes to us as a result of the Cross—that is as a result of our total abandonment to the Will of God and His truth, of seeking only His glory and of renouncing ourselves and our wills completely.
The Holy Spirit leads us to accept the fruits of Christ cross in our lives by helping to offer ourselves unreservedly at the Altar and by leading us gently to the Sacrament of Penance, to confess our sins there, to raise our heart to God throughout the day and to carry out some particular work well. It is He who suggests to us and gives us the strength to live the Holy Mass by accepting all of the crosses in our daily lives, including doing our daily work well and by making some small sacrifice or accepting some discomfort, irritation or inconvenience as and act of love for God and sorrow for our sins and the sins of others.
Let us ask today for a renewal of the gifts of the Holy Spirit we received at confirmation; if you have been confirmed see me. Because you need, we all need these seven-fold gifts of grace to help us transform our lives and to help those around us to have faith and hope in Jesus Christ. It is impossible to lead an authentic Christian life without the Sacrament of Confirmation.
If we are docile to the Holy Spirit we can grow in the intimacy of our prayer and union with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit will transform us into other Christs by helping us to die to self so that Christ may live and love in us. We will then participate in His work of Redemption, bringing the hope of Christ to the world around us by the power of the same Spirit who through the apostles first brought to the world the light of faith, the promise of hope and the fire of God’s love! (pause)
If we want to have a deeper friendship with the Holy Spirit, nothing is so effective as a close friendship with Mary. She it was who was opened, followed and obeyed, as no other creature ever did, the inspirations of the Holy Spirit. The Apostles, before the day of Pentecost, with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together with the woman and Mary, the Mother of Jesus, Let us do the same at this Holy Mass and every Holy Mass as the Holy Spirit through the Sacred Priesthood makes present Heaven on earth in the Holy Eucharist, which is our only hope on earth. Come Holy Spirit come, come by means of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Thy well-beloved spouse. (x3) Amen.
So many times, our Holy Father, Pope Benedict has asked that each one of us become more effective witnesses of hope. He has stressed that the world, so mired in despair and hopelessness, needs a strong witness from each and every Catholic. However, when we hear these words of our Holy Father, words that challenge us, we too can cower with fear just like the apostles did before that miraculous event occurred in the upper room.
I am sure if we try, we can make a long list from our daily lives of times when we have been called by God to give witness to Christ and our faith in Him and His Catholic Church, but failed in fear. Fear is that emotion which causes us to cower and so “go with the flow”, saying, “I am just plain afraid of what following Christ unreservedly might cost me!” Fear is what causes us to make excuses like, “everyone is doing it” “who I am to judge;” and so we can mediocre Catholics, becoming lukewarm and indifferent to what is really important in our life.
And what is most important in our life? It is our faith in and relationship with Our Loving God shown by our worship and adoration of Him in the Sacred Liturgy; that is, the Holy Mass and the other Sacraments. Additionally, flowing from this faithful and proper worship is our concern and love for the salvation of our neighbor; that is concern for whether or not those we know and love make it to heaven; especially the members of our family and parish family.
Because Christ has sent us the advocate we need no longer be afraid to witness to the truth; the Holy Spirit will strengthen us and console us; if we ask Him, if we call upon Him to help. Today He offers to each of us the very same supernatural gifts that transformed the apostles. These gifts, which we received at our personal Pentecost, that is at our Confirmation, these gifts have the divine power to transform us, to make us holy so we can live holy lives; and holiness of life is that universal language which speaks to the hearts of all men regardless of their tongue.
If we open our hearts and minds to the gifts of the Holy Spirit, these sublime gifts will enable and transform us to be bold witnesses to the hope and joy that we hold in our hearts…to be bold witnesses to the Risen Christ, just like the apostles in our reading today; we can lead others to Jesus and His love for them. The question for us today is however, “How do we more fully open our hearts and minds to the Holy Spirit in order to use, in our daily lives, His gifts that we received at our confirmation.
To begin with, we must be more docile to the Holy Spirit workings within our soul. It is He who directs our thoughts to the good, to the only one who is good and that is God. He directs us to carry out all that God expects of us for love of Him and love of neighbor for love of Him. Those inspirations you have to goodness and holiness are from Him, not from you but from Him.
And so it is He who leads us to be open to Christ’s teachings and commandments and accept them with our whole minds. It is He who gives us the strength to accept them with our whole will in order to live them in our lives, thus proclaiming by our lives the truth of Christ which alone gives authentic freedom and life and so which alone gives the hope that doesn’t disappoint.
Second, we must pray to the Holy Spirit. Prayer to Him opens us up to his working in our soul. Christian life in fact, requires a constant dialogue with God, One in three Persons, and it is to this intimacy that the Holy Spirit leads us. In our live of prayer we discover that because of our baptism and confirmation, the Holy Spirit and His divine power and love is present and moves in us. Only by Him can the praise and adoration of God grow within our hearts, fill our minds and come off of our lips. Through prayer, especially the prayer of the Holy Mass, we are able give ourselves to the Holy Spirit in the obedience of love and the meekness of love and become united with Him and become transformed by Him in love.
Finally, the Holy Spirit leads us to union with the cross, because in the life of Christ, the Resurrection, Ascension and Pentecost were preceded by Calvary. This order must be followed in the life of any Christian…The Holy Spirit comes to us as a result of the Cross—that is as a result of our total abandonment to the Will of God and His truth, of seeking only His glory and of renouncing ourselves and our wills completely.
The Holy Spirit leads us to accept the fruits of Christ cross in our lives by helping to offer ourselves unreservedly at the Altar and by leading us gently to the Sacrament of Penance, to confess our sins there, to raise our heart to God throughout the day and to carry out some particular work well. It is He who suggests to us and gives us the strength to live the Holy Mass by accepting all of the crosses in our daily lives, including doing our daily work well and by making some small sacrifice or accepting some discomfort, irritation or inconvenience as and act of love for God and sorrow for our sins and the sins of others.
Let us ask today for a renewal of the gifts of the Holy Spirit we received at confirmation; if you have been confirmed see me. Because you need, we all need these seven-fold gifts of grace to help us transform our lives and to help those around us to have faith and hope in Jesus Christ. It is impossible to lead an authentic Christian life without the Sacrament of Confirmation.
If we are docile to the Holy Spirit we can grow in the intimacy of our prayer and union with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit will transform us into other Christs by helping us to die to self so that Christ may live and love in us. We will then participate in His work of Redemption, bringing the hope of Christ to the world around us by the power of the same Spirit who through the apostles first brought to the world the light of faith, the promise of hope and the fire of God’s love! (pause)
If we want to have a deeper friendship with the Holy Spirit, nothing is so effective as a close friendship with Mary. She it was who was opened, followed and obeyed, as no other creature ever did, the inspirations of the Holy Spirit. The Apostles, before the day of Pentecost, with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together with the woman and Mary, the Mother of Jesus, Let us do the same at this Holy Mass and every Holy Mass as the Holy Spirit through the Sacred Priesthood makes present Heaven on earth in the Holy Eucharist, which is our only hope on earth. Come Holy Spirit come, come by means of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Thy well-beloved spouse. (x3) Amen.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
The Eucharist is our resurrected and ascended Lord. The Eucharist is Jesus and where Jesus is there is our hope, there is Heaven on earth.
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Ascension of the Risen Lord Jesus, to the right hand of His Father in Glory. Yet, if you think about it, this seems to be a contradiction. After all, Jesus said in the Gospel we just read, “And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” So, if Jesus ascends into heaven, how can he be with us until the end of time? If Jesus wanted to be with us until the end of the world, how come he didn’t just stay in Jerusalem and be available to everyone there? If he truly loved us, wouldn’t he have stayed so that we could encounter him, personally, just like his disciples, so that we too could see him, touch him--hear him? These are good questions. How can we answer them?
In our own lives, we can certainly feel as if Jesus has left us alone, especially when we experience bad things, like the death of a loved one, a personal tragedy; but also we can seem abandoned by Jesus our God even in just the everyday struggles of life. In ordinary life we can often experience sadness or loneliness, or sometimes even incredible anguish. I believe the apostles and disciples of Jesus felt many of these things, especially after Jesus was cruelly crucified—he left them alone through the stark reality of his death and then later apparently, through his ascension into heaven. How did they overcome their anguish and how do we overcome our own? Where lies our hope in this life?..... Well, the answer is simple, yet hard; but the ascension gives us the answer. The ascension points to our hope.
At the Ascension the Disciples believed in Jesus’ promise. So we, like them, also must believe in His promise. They believed in faith that even though Jesus was with the Father in heaven, and at the same time He was with them; and not just in their memory or in their heart. They believed that Jesus was still on earth physically with them, in His resurrected and now glorified body.
This brings up one of the mistakes that many can make in their understanding about Christ’s ascension into heaven. The mistake is to think that Jesus is no longer with us here on earth. When we think of the ascension, we can wrongly picture Jesus standing before the apostles and then floating up into the clouds disappearing from their sight. This is not what the language of the Gospel means. We have to understand the words of today's Gospel mystically; because they are speaking of great mysteries.
Mystically speaking what does it mean, as we are told in today's Gospel, "and he was taken up into heaven."? Well first of all Heaven is not a place up in the sky somewhere beyond the clouds or beyond the stars at the edge of the universe; nor is heaven some type of other dimension or parallel universe, talk of which is so in vogue now a days; heaven is not the stuff of science fiction. Heaven is all around us because God is all around us. There is however, a veil that separates heaven from us. Heaven goes beyond our senses; even though it is all around, it transcends our ability to see it, touch it, taste it, hear it or smell it. Yet is more a reality around us than that which we can sense….we believe in what is invisible…
To be taken up into heaven means then to enter through that veil that separates heaven and earth; it is to go beyond our sense perception and behold that which we can only see now through the eyes of faith. To be taken up into heaven is to behold that reality above all other realities which no eye as seen, no ear has heard nor has never even entered into the mind of man. It is to behold that God who is all around as He truly is, to behold Him face to face, which means to become One with Him in an eternal union of unending Love. Heaven is the ultimate reality all around us, more real than what we can experience with our senses.
At His ascension then, Jesus in His human body enters through that veil and becomes the way, in fact the only way for us to enter through as well. And so Jesus' humanity has become a type of doorway, if you will, from earth to heaven. And so where He has gone in His human nature we can also now go with Him, in Him and through Him-He is the Way. By the way, we can do this not only at our death but beginning already here on earth; this is our hope.
Hang with me here... Because of the ascension, and the sending of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost to the Apostles, who were the first priests (which we will celebrated liturgically next week), Jesus' Human body can now be present both on earth and in heaven at the very same time. And so, in His Human nature, in His human body, blood, and soul--heaven and earth become one. In Jesus, heaven and earth unite.
The fact of the matter is, and this is very, very important to understand....the fact of the matter is, Jesus is also still on earth as He is in heaven. Not just spiritually, not just in the minds and hearts of the faithful, not just mystically in His Body the Church. Jesus is still present on earth in his human, corporal, physical and resurrected body. His human body, with all that makes up a human body: His hands and feet, His bones and blood and yes, His Human Heart alive and beating and His eyes looking lovingly at us, and ears with which to hear us, our pleading and our words of love.
The ascension was merely the end of His visible presence on earth, not the end of His physical presence on earth. Don't ever say, "when Jesus was on earth; and if you hear someone else say that correct them immediately. To say when Jesus was on earth is heresy. Jesus is still on earth, He is still on earth; He is still on earth.
But where, where is Jesus on earth as He is in heaven? At the Holy Mass, and only at the Holy Mass. It is at the Holy Mass that heaven and earth unite. At Holy Mass the veil is lifted and we entered into eternity and experience the resurrected and ascended Jesus sitting at His Throne at the Right Hand of the Father. The Heavenly Liturgy and the Earthly Liturgy literally become one; we worship and adore our God with all the angels and saints.
When we are in the presence of the Holy Eucharist we are at the same time both on earth and in heaven; in fact more in heaven than we are on earth. Where Jesus is there is heaven. Whether we encounter the Holy Eucharist, which is Jesus in His resurrected and ascended body, at Mass or outside of Mass in the tabernacle or at hours of adoration through Jesus in the Holy Eucharist we enter already through that veil that separates heaven and earth; we begin to process already that which we hope in; being embrace in the love of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Yes we can't see with our human eyes the body of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist because we can't see Heaven. Yet, through faith we can know with certainty that He is really there and we can touch Him. "In faith God present in the Holy Eucharist can come to us, and show himself to the eyes of our heart." How we must present our self, before the throne of God at Holy Mass. Exteriorly, how we must act, how we must dress, even during the summer months, always wearing our Sunday best; dressed for the wedding feast of the Lamb not for a day at the park or the beach. Interiorly how we must present ourselves, how souls cleansed and made pure by confession,
Because Jesus is still on earth in the Holy Eucharist we discover that this, "The Mystery of Our Faith," is our hope in the present life of struggle and fear. But we must believe with our whole hearts and minds that He is really there in the tabernacle and on our altars after the words of consecration are spoken; and we must, we must, if we are to possess hope, live out that belief by adoring Him in the Holy Eucharist, falling on our knees and crying out in love, "Oh my God I believe, please help my unbelief. We must allow our encounter with the Eucharist, Jesus, to transform us.
The Eucharist is our resurrected and ascended Lord. The Eucharist is Jesus and where Jesus is there is our hope, there is Heaven on earth. …we go to heaven to the extent we go to Jesus Christ and enter into him… (Pope Benedict) Let us turn to Our Lady for help…Holy Mary, Mother of our hope, Queen of Peace, pray for us. Come Holy Spirit, Come by means of the powerful intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Your well-beloved spouse. Amen.
In our own lives, we can certainly feel as if Jesus has left us alone, especially when we experience bad things, like the death of a loved one, a personal tragedy; but also we can seem abandoned by Jesus our God even in just the everyday struggles of life. In ordinary life we can often experience sadness or loneliness, or sometimes even incredible anguish. I believe the apostles and disciples of Jesus felt many of these things, especially after Jesus was cruelly crucified—he left them alone through the stark reality of his death and then later apparently, through his ascension into heaven. How did they overcome their anguish and how do we overcome our own? Where lies our hope in this life?..... Well, the answer is simple, yet hard; but the ascension gives us the answer. The ascension points to our hope.
At the Ascension the Disciples believed in Jesus’ promise. So we, like them, also must believe in His promise. They believed in faith that even though Jesus was with the Father in heaven, and at the same time He was with them; and not just in their memory or in their heart. They believed that Jesus was still on earth physically with them, in His resurrected and now glorified body.
This brings up one of the mistakes that many can make in their understanding about Christ’s ascension into heaven. The mistake is to think that Jesus is no longer with us here on earth. When we think of the ascension, we can wrongly picture Jesus standing before the apostles and then floating up into the clouds disappearing from their sight. This is not what the language of the Gospel means. We have to understand the words of today's Gospel mystically; because they are speaking of great mysteries.
Mystically speaking what does it mean, as we are told in today's Gospel, "and he was taken up into heaven."? Well first of all Heaven is not a place up in the sky somewhere beyond the clouds or beyond the stars at the edge of the universe; nor is heaven some type of other dimension or parallel universe, talk of which is so in vogue now a days; heaven is not the stuff of science fiction. Heaven is all around us because God is all around us. There is however, a veil that separates heaven from us. Heaven goes beyond our senses; even though it is all around, it transcends our ability to see it, touch it, taste it, hear it or smell it. Yet is more a reality around us than that which we can sense….we believe in what is invisible…
To be taken up into heaven means then to enter through that veil that separates heaven and earth; it is to go beyond our sense perception and behold that which we can only see now through the eyes of faith. To be taken up into heaven is to behold that reality above all other realities which no eye as seen, no ear has heard nor has never even entered into the mind of man. It is to behold that God who is all around as He truly is, to behold Him face to face, which means to become One with Him in an eternal union of unending Love. Heaven is the ultimate reality all around us, more real than what we can experience with our senses.
At His ascension then, Jesus in His human body enters through that veil and becomes the way, in fact the only way for us to enter through as well. And so Jesus' humanity has become a type of doorway, if you will, from earth to heaven. And so where He has gone in His human nature we can also now go with Him, in Him and through Him-He is the Way. By the way, we can do this not only at our death but beginning already here on earth; this is our hope.
Hang with me here... Because of the ascension, and the sending of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost to the Apostles, who were the first priests (which we will celebrated liturgically next week), Jesus' Human body can now be present both on earth and in heaven at the very same time. And so, in His Human nature, in His human body, blood, and soul--heaven and earth become one. In Jesus, heaven and earth unite.
The fact of the matter is, and this is very, very important to understand....the fact of the matter is, Jesus is also still on earth as He is in heaven. Not just spiritually, not just in the minds and hearts of the faithful, not just mystically in His Body the Church. Jesus is still present on earth in his human, corporal, physical and resurrected body. His human body, with all that makes up a human body: His hands and feet, His bones and blood and yes, His Human Heart alive and beating and His eyes looking lovingly at us, and ears with which to hear us, our pleading and our words of love.
The ascension was merely the end of His visible presence on earth, not the end of His physical presence on earth. Don't ever say, "when Jesus was on earth; and if you hear someone else say that correct them immediately. To say when Jesus was on earth is heresy. Jesus is still on earth, He is still on earth; He is still on earth.
But where, where is Jesus on earth as He is in heaven? At the Holy Mass, and only at the Holy Mass. It is at the Holy Mass that heaven and earth unite. At Holy Mass the veil is lifted and we entered into eternity and experience the resurrected and ascended Jesus sitting at His Throne at the Right Hand of the Father. The Heavenly Liturgy and the Earthly Liturgy literally become one; we worship and adore our God with all the angels and saints.
When we are in the presence of the Holy Eucharist we are at the same time both on earth and in heaven; in fact more in heaven than we are on earth. Where Jesus is there is heaven. Whether we encounter the Holy Eucharist, which is Jesus in His resurrected and ascended body, at Mass or outside of Mass in the tabernacle or at hours of adoration through Jesus in the Holy Eucharist we enter already through that veil that separates heaven and earth; we begin to process already that which we hope in; being embrace in the love of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Yes we can't see with our human eyes the body of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist because we can't see Heaven. Yet, through faith we can know with certainty that He is really there and we can touch Him. "In faith God present in the Holy Eucharist can come to us, and show himself to the eyes of our heart." How we must present our self, before the throne of God at Holy Mass. Exteriorly, how we must act, how we must dress, even during the summer months, always wearing our Sunday best; dressed for the wedding feast of the Lamb not for a day at the park or the beach. Interiorly how we must present ourselves, how souls cleansed and made pure by confession,
Because Jesus is still on earth in the Holy Eucharist we discover that this, "The Mystery of Our Faith," is our hope in the present life of struggle and fear. But we must believe with our whole hearts and minds that He is really there in the tabernacle and on our altars after the words of consecration are spoken; and we must, we must, if we are to possess hope, live out that belief by adoring Him in the Holy Eucharist, falling on our knees and crying out in love, "Oh my God I believe, please help my unbelief. We must allow our encounter with the Eucharist, Jesus, to transform us.
The Eucharist is our resurrected and ascended Lord. The Eucharist is Jesus and where Jesus is there is our hope, there is Heaven on earth. …we go to heaven to the extent we go to Jesus Christ and enter into him… (Pope Benedict) Let us turn to Our Lady for help…Holy Mary, Mother of our hope, Queen of Peace, pray for us. Come Holy Spirit, Come by means of the powerful intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Your well-beloved spouse. Amen.
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