We have to love what the Son loves, we have to love the Virgin, she will help us to Love her Son by giving our selves more fully and completely to Him.

Third Sunday in Easter. John 21; 1-19. April 10th, 2016

Today we read the wonderful account of Jesus’ appearance to the apostles at the shore of the Sea of Galilee. This account is a real turning point in the apostles’ love for Jesus. Even though they had seen the risen Jesus twice, they still didn’t seem to get it; and so as result, they return home to Galilee. Eventually, they would get it, and so come to understand fully their vocation or mission; however, this would come later on the day of Pentecost. But for now, in the mean time, they would go back to what was natural to them; in other words, they go fishing…sounds good to me???

Surprisingly though, in today’s Gospel we hear how these experienced fishermen after spending all night, didn’t catch a thing. There is an important message here that goes beyond their fishing ability. First they couldn’t really go back to a normal life after their true encounter with the Risen Jesus; they just were not the same men as they were before.

But an even more important message is that in their new mission, their natural abilities would just not be enough. If they needed Jesus to succeed even on a natural level of catching fish, how much more did they need Him to catch fish on a supernatural level, that is to catch the souls of men in order to lead them to love of Jesus and so salvation.

At dawn, we are told, Jesus appears on the shore, but interestingly the apostles do not notice him. They are in the midst of their ordinary routine and so don’t expect the Risen Christ to appear in the ordinary. Unrecognized, Jesus asks them if they had caught anything- even though proud fisherman, they have to admit their failure honestly- “No,” they yell back. And so, Jesus calls them to cast their nets off the right side of the boat. Naturally, they were unable to catch fish, but now at the command of Jesus, the apostles cast their nets into the deep. Perhaps they thought they had nothing to loose- but the power of God working through them, suddenly put 153 fish in the nets. With their success, the disciples began to learn that they had to rely on Jesus in everything, rather than merely on their own power.

Because he loves Jesus with a purer love it is St. John, who recognizes Jesus first. And so it is he who tells Peter, “It is the Lord.” At these words, Peter recognizes Jesus as well; and in great abandonment, jumps into the water and swims to Jesus.

Once on shore after finishing the breakfast Jesus had prepared for them, Jesus still next to the fire begins to question Peter, and in a way reminiscent to how Peter was questioned in Jerusalem when before another fire he denied Jesus. A three-fold denial at night, is now to be atoned for by a three fold profession of love in the day. There is even more going on here however, than meets the eye.

Our English translation of the Bible has missed an important element in this passage. If we could read it in the original Greek it would be much clearer. In Greek there are four different words for love. Two of these words are used here. The first word is philia, which is a brotherly love, or a natural human love. The second word is agape. Agape is more than natural human love, it is a sacrificial love, in which a man, is not only willing, by lays down his life for his brother or friend. The New Testament writers borrowed the Greek Agape in order to try and describe a natural human love, which in, through and with Jesus and His grace, is elevated to a Supernatural level.

With an agape love a man can actually love his brother and his God not merely with a human love, but also with the very love of God alive in his heart; in other words, with a divine love. Agape is human love infused, elevated and united to the supernatural level or to the divine level; this is known as Charity and it is the deepest longing of the human heart. Charity is to love God and to love one’s brother with both a human and a divine love...it is to love one’s friend not only for Love of Jesus but with the Love of Jesus, united to Jesus.

And so Jesus begins. “Peter, son of John, do you agape love me, do you love me with a supernatural divine love, in which your give me your all, even your life?” Now Peter, perhaps still with the image in his mind of that penetrating gaze of Jesus given to him after denying Jesus, was not about to make the same mistake twice. Remember Peter at the Last Supper impetuously said, “Lord I will follow you even to the death. And yet when it came down to it, Peter failed to even admit he knew Jesus (the other disciples didn’t do much better, they all ran in the Garden, only St. John returned to the foot of the cross—because when he ran, he ran to Mary). In his denial, Peter had learned the hard way that alone He could not love Jesus with an agape love. And so Peter responds reservedly, “Yes, Lord, you know that I philia love you, that is I love you with merely a natural human kind of love.”

And so Jesus asks Him again, “Peter son of John do you agape, love me?” Again Peter, again responds reservedly, “Yes, Lord you know that I philia, Love you.” And finally Jesus asks Peter, “Peter, Son of John, do you philia love me?” Do you even love me with a natural human love?” Peter was of course distressed, some translations say, “cut to the quick” because Jesus questions whether Peter even loved him with a natural human kind of love.

With this question Peter realizes that without Jesus, not only is it impossible for him to agape, that is to love supernaturally—divinely, but it is also impossible for him even to love with a natural human love. In other words, Peter learned that we need Jesus to help us love authentically, to love as we have been created to love.
We are made to be fully human, and to be fully human means to love not only with a natural human love alone, a philia love, but to love with an agape love, that is to love with God’s own love alive in us. We have been created for Divine love and to love divinely is to love fully human, to love the way for which we have been made. And so if we don’t love with God’s divine love alive in us, not only can we not love divinely, we cannot even love with a true human love, we cannot love fully human.

Our world thinks that it can somehow be fully human without Jesus Christ; it is sadly mistaken. We all have a fallen human nature and have lost the ability to love, as we ought, as we were created to love. And as a consequence, the more we turn from God, from His Church and from His commandments of love, the more we become less than human, and so the more we no longer love fully human. As a result, the more we become a culture of death. The more our society turns from God’s love the more we act inhumanly, the more we stop living authentically human lives.

Today in our Easter joy, let us be encouraged by Peter. Peter, who had once in darkness failed so miserably to love, now by his repentance and confession, opened his heart to receive the very light and love of Christ and it slowly transformed him. Remember today’s Gospel ends with the prophecy of Peter’s martyrdom. In the end, Peter indeed would fully agape love Jesus- he would receive the grace to give his life in a sacrificial offering, in imitation of Jesus, truly becoming a fisher of men.

We too, like Peter are so weak. We fail so often in love. We are afraid to give Jesus everything. Nevertheless, like Peter, we have to tell Jesus we love Him, we have to confess the darkness; that is our failure to love Him totally. And we must confess our sins in the darkness of the confessional in the Sacrament of confession. But confess them in order to come into the light of Christ’s mercy and open our hearts more fully to Jesus and His unfathomable love for us.

The Easter season is here to say our failures do not have to have the last word; if we only repent and confess, Christ’s victorious love will have the last word in our lives. At Holy Mass we can literally receive this victorious love of the Risen Jesus who is truly present in the holy Eucharist, Body Blood Soul and Divinity; it is He who turns our darkness into day—it is He who can transform us as He did with Peter. The Holy Eucharist contains the depths of the very Love of God, for it is truly the God who is Love. With the Holy Eucharist, that is with Jesus we can do all things, provided we truly believe that the Holy Eucharist is the Risen Jesus, adore Him there as the true and living God, trust in Him completely in order to love Him enough to offering ourselves totally to Him.

With the Eucharist, and only with the Eucharist, we can agape love Jesus and others. The Eucharist is the means, the source for us to love fully human, to love with our love elevated and united to Jesus’ divine love, in order to be able to bring others to Jesus, so that they may be saved along with us. But we have to, like Peter, trust more and jump out of the boat and swim to our Risen Lord who waiting for us on the shore…that is to Jesus who is waiting for us at the sacred agape meal of the Holy Mass and in the tabernacle in order to transform us as He transformed Peter. Let us turn to the Blessed Mother for help, she was always faithful. We have to love what the Son loves, we have to love the Virgin, she will help us to Love her Son by giving our selves more fully and completely to Him.

This is the reason for our Easter Joy! A joy that is real, because the Eucharist is real.

There was a body in the grave. It was cold, it was definitely a dead corpse, it did not breath, and the heart did not pump; it was “brain dead.” You could see it; you could touch it and it was cold. It looked no different than any other corpse. For those of you who have had a realistic experience with a dead body, you know that it is profound experience.

The disciples of Jesus had such an experience with the dead body of Jesus. They saw it hanging on a tree. They saw the spear go deep into the side, and without a doubt it pierce the Sacred Heart. They saw the blood and water come forth. They saw the corpse laid into Mary’s arms. The women touch it as they prepared it for burial. What a profound experience then, it must have been to see the empty tomb on Easter Sunday.

But just as real and profound was their experience with the dead body of Jesus, so too, was their even more profound and real experience with His resurrected body. They would touch this body with their hands and it was warm, living. They would see it with their eyes, and it moved and breathed. There was not doubt that Jesus once dead in the body, now was truly alive again, in the Body.

Jesus is truly Risen! He is Risen indeed! He lives again, but not just spiritually, not just in the hearts and minds of His followers but in the flesh, with His true human body, with His human heart beating again for love of us, and His precious blood coursing through His veins. Christ once dead lives again forever. He has conquered death; and for those who accept the His gift of faith, they will share in His great victory over suffering and death and the cause of suffering and death, which is sin.

This gift of faith in the resurrection is what we as believing Catholic Christians are celebrating with great joy this day. Not just the Resurrection as a past event, but the Resurrection which occurs in our midst and makes present its power to renew the whole world. And so, the Resurrection points us to the great Mystery of the Holy Eucharist which makes truly present the Risen Lord, truly and really, with His living, breathing body.

The great joy of Easter is that Those believe, adore, hope and love Jesus, the risen Lord truly present in the Holy Eucharist, those who feed on Him in the Eucharist need not wait until the hereafter to receive eternal life: they already possess it on earth as the first fruits of that eternal life. For in the Eucharist we also receive the pledge of our bodily resurrection at the end of the world; “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day: This pledge of the future resurrection comes from the fact, that the flesh of the Son of Man, given as food, is his body in its glorious state after the resurrection. With the Eucharist we digest, as it were the “secret” of the resurrection. For this reason Saint Ignatius of Antioch, rightly defined the Eucharist as “a medicine for immortality and antidote to death.

The Joy of the Resurrection is more than just a pipe dream in your life and mine. It is a tangible and livable reality because Jesus, the crucified and the resurrection one is still in our midst. He is truly here, not just in our hearts, not just in the proclamation of the word, not just in our community gathered, Jesus Christ is still physical with us. Let me repeat it, Jesus Christ is still physical with us, in his resurrected body, a real body, albeit a glorified one. Jesus Christ Emmanuel, He who promised he would be with us until the end of the ages, becomes physically, sacramentally present, IN HIS BODY, BLOOD, SOUL, and DIVINITY at this very Mass and He comes into us at Holy Communion.

This is the reason for our Easter Joy! A joy that is real, because the Eucharist is real. A Joy that is obtainable in the midst of our sorrow, pain and death, because Jesus suffered sorrow, pain and death. But he has defeated death—He has risen! Jesus is truly, “The resurrection and the Life.” O Come let us adore His resurrected body at this Mass in the Holy Eucharist which I, acting in His person, am about to make present—physically—sacramentally—truly, on this altar of Sacrifice.

Let us put out into the deep of Jesus’ love by offering ourselves totally and with great trust, to Him, with Him, in Him, to the Father. Let us adore Jesus in the Holy Eucharist--beholding the face of Jesus with the eyes of faith, and through the eyes of the Virgin Mary, she who will be with us to help us in our offering of ourselves. For we are weak and we need a mother’s help. Let us pray, to Jesus through her, “Hail true body that was born of Mary, the Virgin, that truly suffered and was offered in sacrifice on the cross for man and that gave forth true blood from its pierced side. Be to us a foretaste of heaven…”
HAPPY EASTER to all of you and your families.

Mother of Mercy, obtain for us the grace we need to see our sinfulness and the humility we need to acknowledge and confess it in order to receive the forgiveness of the Father through Jesus Christ your Son, receiving His Mercy and so we can show mercy to others.

“I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” In our first reading, the prophet Isaiah foretells something new, something we would not have thought of- God Himself, like the Father of the prodigal son, comes…runs out to meet us in order to save us and bring us into a deeper union of love with Himself.

Our Father comes in love and mercy through His son, Jesus in order to forgive our sins in and through the Sacraments. By sacramental grace, He makes a road in the wilderness, paths of grace into the wilds of this sinful world. Jesus comes in the same Sacraments with the waters of grace and mercy into the desert, into the wilderness of a world gone mad with sin, and into the wretchedness of our personal sins.

And those who open their hearts to His mercy through their repentance, that is a truthful acknowledgment of their sinfulness and the confession of their sins; these literally are enabled to drink in these living waters. And through these living waters of His grace and love flowing from the Sacraments, the Father changes our actions from that of wild beasts into new actions, ones worthy of the Human persons that we are. We are Human persons made in the Father’s image and restored in His likeness, made free sons and daughters of the Father through baptism.

But sometimes, we do not perceive this, sometimes we are too discouraged by our failures and sins to even think that God would want to come and do something new in our lives. In our heart we really do desire to have a fresh start, but we despairingly think we are never going to have it. The opposite is sometimes true as well, we can be too proud, thinking that we have already arrived, that we are already righteous, that we are “those without sin,” so unlike others who are the sinners.

Both of these attitudes, shown very clearly in today’s Gospel, keep us from the mercy and forgiveness of Our Heavenly Father offered to us through Jesus Christ His Son. The woman justly condemned of a serious sin, a mortal sin, the sin of Adultery, can only see her fate as being already decided; she is to die justly for her sin…no hope for a new beginning now. The Scribes and Pharisees so convinced of their goodness, that they don’t see their own sin, and so their need for God’s mercy and forgiveness.

And so, as serious as her sin is, and it is serious, the sin of the Scribes and Pharisees is much worse. We can assume that the woman’s sin was at least guided by an attempt to find love. But these men are only evil, filled with hate, filled with a desire to destroy the very goodness in others. (This is the difference between a bad man and an evil man. The bad man does bad things, but the evil man tries to destroy the goodness in others. And so the evil man can be very nice, but he is not kind. He wants justice but doesn’t work for justice for others; he doesn’t see His need for mercy and so shows no mercy).

They (the Scribes and Pharisees) think that adultery is the worse sin, and so fail they to see that they are guilty of an even graver sin, that of Presumption. For presumption fails to see the horror of one’s own sinfulness, while at the same time demanding that others be punished justly and without mercy for their sins.

The scribes and Pharisees are blind with the sin of presumption; they actually believe that they have no sin that they are “those without sin,” (which was actually a title they took for themselves). And so, they think they have already achieved their salvation and are in no need of repentance and forgiveness. In their blindness, in their hardness of heart they reject outright the very mercy of God that is being offered to them in the Person of Jesus Christ standing right before their eyes. For you see, we can only receive the mercy of God to the extent we recognize our sinfulness and repent of it, seeking God’s forgiveness, especially through the Sacrament of confession. In Other words, we can’t receive mercy, if we don’t realize we’re a sinner, which of course we all are. In fact, only those who receive mercy through the confession of their sins can then show mercy to others.

This lent we need to throw off our old attitudes, we need throw off the old man, no longer recalling the past, no longer be shackled to what was done before; we need instead to put on the new man in Christ Jesus. We need to take on the attitude of St. Paul who in his weakness sought perfection not in his own power, but in the power that comes through faith in Christ and the reception of His Sacraments with faith. This is the power that comes from God, a power that has its source in the Holy Eucharist, which is God among us-Jesus.

However, This Divine power is accessible only through faith in the Eucharist as the true and living God in the flesh among us through the power of the Holy Spirit working through the ordained sacred Priesthood. It is literally, a power to imitate the master, sharing in His sufferings thus reproducing the pattern of His death in their lives becoming instruments of the renewing power of His resurrection, which is love and mercy, for those around them and for the world. So St. Paul says, “I can assure you my brothers, I am far from thinking that I have already won. All I can say is that I forget the past and I strain ahead for what is still to come; I am racing for the finish, for the prize to which God calls us upwards to receive in Christ Jesus.

It is not so much our sin that is the problem, but how we respond to it that counts. Either this Lent we deny our sinfulness and commit an even greater sin of presumption, like the scribes and Pharisees, and so in the blindness of our self-righteousness, walk away from the God who has come to meet us in our degraded state. Or instead, we imitate the woman caught in adultery who stays with Jesus without a denial or protestation on her lips about her sin. She is left alone with Jesus her Lord and God, just like one who is left alone in adoration with the same God, adoring Him truly present in the Blessed Sacrament on the Altar at Holy Mass and in the Tabernacle. Before His Eucharistic presence we too, can be alone with Jesus who in His love reminds us of His mercy and points us to healing power of the Father’s forgiveness in the Sacrament of confession, which enlarges our capacity for God’s love.

In this real encounter with Jesus in Eucharist at this Holy Mass, Jesus doesn’t leave us on our own power to sin no more, instead with our hearts being now purified by confession, He is able to fill us with His own Love, with His own Divine power. Then with Jesus, through Him and in Him, the Father can do something NEW in us, spreading the Living waters of God’s Love throughout the world, leading others through us to His Divine Mercy and forgiveness—this is the power of the Resurrection, which renews the whole World. Let us turn to Our Lady for her help and Intercession. Mother of Mercy, obtain for us the grace we need to see our sinfulness and the humility we need to acknowledge and confess it in order to experience the forgiveness of the Father through Jesus Christ your Son, receiving His mercy so that we can show mercy to others. Amen

In this we discover while Mercy is free, it ain’t cheap.

We have all heard someone say, “You know, they got what they deserved.”? Sometimes this is meant as way of speaking of justice. The criminal gets caught and is sent to jail and so we think they got what they deserve. It is a common way to think and in way it does acknowledge justice; but at the same time, it can be said without mercy.

Sometimes as well, you hear the same phrase used when referring to someone’s relationship with God. It is not unusual to hear fundamentalist preachers say things like “They have obviously sinned and God is punishing them for it, or they didn’t have enough faith. Actually, this kind of thinking can creep into the mindset of many religious people. This as well, justice without any mercy?

In today’s Gospel, we hear the same thing. People were standing around and talking about some horrible incidents where people had suffered and died. We don’t know a lot about the two events mention by Jesus in today’s Gospel, but we think that those who died were thought to have been guilty of cooperating with the enemy, in this case Pilate, -and because of this, it was assumed that God had punished them for their unfaithfulness--for their sins. Jesus, for His part, knew that the people were thinking in their hearts, “These people in justice got what they deserved, that will teach them to cooperate with sinners like Pilate,.” With this attitude we discover that these people had no mercy.

These terrible events in the Gospel make us think of events in our own day. We’ve had so many terrible tragedies, tornados, so many terrorist attacks and violent shootings. So many are suffering, some from loneness, mental illness, bad marriages or horrible diseases such as cancer. These events rightly cause us to be distressed. We question God about all of this, how do I make sense of all of this? Some even believe that the sufferings they, or others, are experiencing are a punishment from God for not living the life they should. Now it is easy to accept when our enemies or bad people suffer, after all they deserve it, but what about when someone who is good and seemingly innocent suffers or is killed. Is God punishing them too? And another survives where another dies, does that mean the survivor was more righteous than the victim.

Jesus enters this conversation with his listeners in the Gospel and with us. Jesus does not steer around the issue but speaks directly to the people. His words are hard to hear, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners that all other Galileans? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did.”

Jesus repeats the same words when referring to the people of Siloam and ultimately to us. Jesus tells us that, “yes all suffering and death is the result of sin. He tells us plain truth- we are all sinners and suffering and death is, as matter of justice, a natural consequence of sin-not only death of the body, but death of the soul.

Jesus explains that when someone suffers however, it is not necessarily a direct result of his or her personal sin--After all, even the greatest of saints who were right with God still suffered and suffered greatly, even Jesus Himself suffered-but still Jesus says suffering is the result of sin in general. In Jesus case he suffered for our sins. In this we discover a great truth, while at the same time a great mystery. While God may in His infinite wisdom allow one to suffer in justice as a result of his or her own personal sin, at the same time, He may allow that same one or another in mercy to suffer for the sins of another. Ultimately, we can’t know what is the case, so we can’t judge one way or another.

This is all included in God mysterious plan of salvation. There are no pat answers. But like all the mysteries of our faith we can have some understanding. Suffering no matter what the cause is allowed as part of the care that God gives to each soul-it is a way of turning the soul back to God, if the soul lets it. It is like the gardener pruning the fig tree. The pruning hurts, but it causes the tree to produce much fruit. In this we discover that God’s Justice is also His Mercy; in God the two are united.

Not only can suffering purify and atone for sin in Justice, but in mercy, it can also bring the soul who is suffering closer to God. And the soul who is suffering can be used as well, in mercy, to bring others back to and closer to God. Just like Jesus’ own suffering and death was used by the Father to bring salvation to all of those who would accept it. So too our sufferings in this life and even our deaths, united to the cross of Christ-to Jesus’ own sufferings, our sufferings can be used to bring other souls back to God-this is the fruit the fig tree is asked to bear. And to offer one’s suffering for sinners, this, is the ultimate form of mercy.

But for all this to happen, we need to repent of our own sins in order to accept the fruits of Jesus’ own suffering. If we don’t repent, our sin blinds us and we can only see suffering and struggles as a punishment from a vengeful God. We then can see only the justice without the mercy (like those in today’s Gospel). Or the reverse, we can see mercy only as way of God letting us off the hook as regard to the punishment due to our sins, seeing only the mercy without the justice. Through our personal repentance and with God’s grace from prayer and the Sacraments, we can see that the suffering he allows in our lives is not so much a punishment for our sin, but is a way to show our love for Him and others. We can then see that our suffering can actually be a share in Jesus’ own great work of redemption, his own great work of the salvation of souls. We, through our sufferings, if united to the sufferings of Christ for the sake of His Body the church, we can help Jesus save souls; he can use our sufferings and struggles in this life to bring others His mercy, bring others to him, saving them from eternal damnation and saving them for an eternity with God for ever.

In the parable of the fig tree, Jesus tells that an owner desired to cut it down because it was not producing fruit. The gardener pleads with the owner of the tree to allow him to cultivate it for one more year. He’ll break up the dirt and fertilize the tree. The gardener is Jesus and He desires to come into our life and cultivate our hearts. Jesus desires to produce good fruit in our souls. He allows suffering to prune us if we allow it to. Again, He does not do this to hurt us but to give us a share in his own redemptive work so that we may atone for our sins and the sins of others and so come to love like Him. Yes, to love like Him—He who loved us to the end, unto death on the Cross. In this we discover while Mercy is free, it ain’t cheap.

Today, at this Holy Mass let us offer ourselves with Jesus to the Father. Let us lift up our hearts as an offering to Him in love. Let us unite our pains, sorrows and sufferings in this life with His suffering and death being re-presented, that is being made truly present, on this Holy Altar of sacrifice. Let us do this to make atonement for our sins, for the sins of the living and of the dead and the sins of the whole world. This is what it really means to participate in the Holy Mass; for it is the Holy Mass that makes it possible for us to unite our sufferings to Christ for the sake of His Body the Church.

Let us pray. Jesus I give you my heart and my soul, I offer to you all the sufferings of this life as an offering for my sins and for my failure to love you with all my being. Please turn my heart to you and fill it with your love, allow me to share in the Joy of Your resurrection at this Holy Communion so that I may become another you and lead others to You in my daily life, especially in & through sufferings you allow me to experience which are a share in your own passion and death, so that when the lent of this life is over, I and many others through me, may share in the Joys of that eternal Easter which is Heaven. Amen. Mary refuge of sinners pray for us. God Bless You!

Man will never find true happiness in bread alone, but in Me alone!!!

As we begin our Lenten observance, the Church gives us the account of Jesus’ temptation in the desert by the devil. We need to start by saying, and this can’t be said enough, the devil definitely exists and is a real person; this is an article of our Catholic Faith. In the desert, the devil presents Jesus with a shortcut from the cross; it is the same temptation satan still uses on us. It’s a temptation to try and do away with the cross and to seek only what we want instead of what we need or better yet, what our neighbor needs-it is a temptation to selfishness versus self-denial for the sake of love, for the sake of the other.

Translating the temptations into modern terms, satan told Jesus that he could win us over by filling our bellies with the bread of earthly desires-- wealth, pleasure, power and honor. The Devil said, Jesus you can make them follow you by giving them power to solve their own problems through politics so they can be released from being dependant on a tyrannical Father God, and true worship of Him. Satan said Jesus; you can win them over by amazing them with great feats and unbelievable technological marvels. But Jesus, you can’t win them over with the cross, give them instead a nice guy Jesus without the cross. Put a resurrected Jesus on the cross but not a crucified one who paid a price for their sins and then who calls them to return that love by bearing their own cross along with Him sharing in his redemptive work of love for the salvation of souls

The devil indeed loves to give half-truths. If we look at each one of the temptations more closely we can discover that the truth is, is that Jesus actually desires to give us what the devil said would win us over, but not in the way or in the manner that the devil suggested.

And so in the first temptation, the devil tempts Jesus to change stones into bread. Jesus responds, “Man shall not live by bread alone.” The fact is, is that Jesus wants to give us bread, but not earthly bread, the things of this world which never totally satisfy our hunger, but the Bread of Life, His very self, his whole self in the Holy Eucharist. This is the bread that fills every desire of man, including the desire for eternal life; it is the bread that a man may eat of and never die. And so Jesus says to the devil, I won’t bribe the people into following me, for man’s heart was not made for material things, man will never find true happiness in bread alone, but in Me alone! And I am in the Holy Eucharist as their true food and drink.

In the second temptation, the devil tempts Jesus with all of the kingdoms of the earth, which are under satan domain, if Jesus would but just fall down and worship him. Jesus responds with the first commandment- You shall worship God alone. Here again, Jesus wants to give us power to solve our problems but not through earthly power and honor which corrupts and fades away, but through the power of his divine Love and mercy which becomes available to us through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the other Sacraments which flow from the Holy Mass. And coming in touch with God’s love and mercy in the Sacraments and being transformed into the image of Jesus, Jesus wishes to use us to bring His mercy and love into our world thus transforming it. And so Jesus says to satan, man can not save himself, man cannot build the kingdom of man without reference to the Kingdom of God…there is truly no “state” without the Church…without the Church the state collapses in on itself…

The third temptation: Here the devil tempts Jesus with presumption and vanity- cast yourself from the Temple and the angels will catch you. Jesus says, “you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” Again, Jesus wanted to give us great marvels and feats, but not the kind Satan suggests. Jesus didn’t want to win us over with the latest technology, which in a short while becomes obsolete as soon as the next best thing comes along.

No, Jesus wanted to give us the greatest feat and marvel of all, and so as God He humble Himself putting His divine power aside and became one of us, like us in all things but sin. The all powerful God became one of us so that he could lay down his life on a cross for us in order to save us from our sins, not only giving us an example, but earning us the grace we need in order to have the strength to follow in imitation of Him, so we too could lay down our lives for love of our friend, first of whom is Jesus, and then our neighbor. No greater love is there than this, than for a man to lay down his life for his friends. And so Jesus tells the devil, no I won’t win them over with sensationalism and be just a nine day wonder, sensationalism never lasts, I want to win them over forever by my sacrificial love, the same love that I share with my Father, the love that I call each one of them to share in as well.

During this time of Lent we will experience many temptations when we begin to discipline ourselves so we can more fully repent and believe the Good News, leaving our selfishness behind and so live more perfectly in the freedom of God’s truth as His beloved sons and daughters. And so, we are invited to spend these forty days in the desert close to our blessed Lord through our prayer, fasting, and alms giving, the three things, which weaken the power of Satan over us.

Our prayer must include the Sacraments, especially the Holy Mass and Confession so that we may have the grace and the power to share in Jesus’ victory over the devil and his temptations. Important as well in our prayer are all Lenten devotions offered to us, like walking with Jesus along the way of Calvary in the Stations of the Cross on Fridays, spending time in adoration, and experiencing all the Holy week services and Masses, like Holy Thursday and Good Friday.

And our fasting must be more than just giving up things, but giving them up in order to become less attached to the good things of
this world and more attached to Jesus who gives us these things to lead us to Himself, so we can become better—become holy; that is, dearest of friends of Jesus, Mary and Joseph and all the angel and saints.

And our alms giving must include serving others through practicing the Corporal and spiritual works of mercy. Feeding the physically hungry, yes, but most importantly feeding the spiritually hungry who can sometimes be very rich and powerful, giving drink to those thirsting for water, but most importantly giving the drink of God’s love for those who are dying of thirst for it; burying the dead but also bury resentment and un-forgiveness by forgiving wrongs against us (just to name a few). Our Holy Father Francis said as much in his Lenten Message to us in this Jubilee “Year of Mercy,” in which He pointed out that, “God’s mercy transforms human hearts; it enables us, through the experience of a faithful love, to become merciful in turn.

This lent let us ask Our Lady for help to enter into lent more deeply. Let us ask her to help us avoid the temptation of Satan, a temptation that puts personal pleasure first, and does away with personal guilt and sin and the need for redemption, satisfaction, expiation, mortification and penance for our sin. A temptation that says that essence of love is personal gratification and not sacrifice, not that of laying down one’s life for a friend. Our Lady can teach us how to adore Jesus; all we need to do is to ask her. Let us pray, that the Blessed Mother, who while adoring Jesus on the Cross was given John as her son and by this gift was given all of us as her sons and daughters as well, that she may help us to enter the desert this lent and there learn how to adore the unseen God from whom we came and to whom we are called as His beloved little children to return. Amen.

In today's Gospel, have some the saddest words in all of scripture, “He went away.”

Luke 4;21-30. Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time. January 31st, 2016

Today we read the conclusion to the Gospel we read last week. Last week we heard that Jesus was highly praised in the surrounding villages because of the great deeds He performed, like the changing of the water into wine at Cana. We read too that the people in Nazareth were astonished by His claim that He was the fulfillment of the ancient prophecies concerning the Messiah. This is where we pick up the account today. But today we hear of the rejection of Jesus from the same people who at first accepted Him.

Acceptance then rejection, so what happened? It would seem that the people of His own town would be proud of Jesus and accept Him as a favored Son. This is not the case. They had heard of Jesus’ miracles and were intrigued by His wisdom; however they were very superficial and narrow-minded. In their pride they felt hurt that Jesus, one their own townsmen, had not performed miracles in Nazareth as He did elsewhere. They presumed that they should receive special “favor” and so they insolently demand that He perform miracles, not to change their heart and lead them to deeper faith, but merely to satisfy their vanity. And so Jesus, knowing their hearts, performs no miracles; instead He reproaches them and uses examples from the Old Testament in order to show that one needs to be well-disposed if miracles are going to lead to faith. His attitude so wounds their pride that they are ready to kill him by throwing Him off a cliff. Then we have some the saddest words in all of scripture, “He went away.”

Jesus proclaimed the truth His whole life, He came bring us the Truth. For this, Jesus was rejected and crucified. The beginning of the rejection of Jesus as Truth itself, began here in His native Nazareth. This whole episode is a good lesson about understanding Jesus and His teachings, which He gives to us through His Catholic Church, the Church He founded. We can only understand Him and His teachings if we are humble and are genuinely resolved to make ourselves available fully to Him.

The problem is that the teachings of Jesus, the teachings of the Church are sometimes very tough. So tough in fact that many times there can be a false belief that the teachings of the Church are somehow different or other than the teachings of the Jesus. The Church however, carries on these teachings, which she receives from Christ through the Apostles, prophetically preaching them in all ages, without change, whether acceptable or unacceptable. And she calls all her children, especially her bishops and priests to preach and teach the doctrines of the Church, which are the Gospel—the very word of Christ, without apology and without compromise. If we are to live the type of Love which St. Paul speaks about in our second reading we need to hear the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, not water down, but in its fullness and splendor.

A few years back, when he was still the archbishop of Milwaukee, Cardinal Archbishop, Timothy Dolan, in and article printed in the Observer--our diocesan newspaper, said this:

Catholics need solid preaching about Jesus, the cross and the Church, and not “feel-good” spiritual advice that demands no sacrifice.
Preaching well means challenging people’s complacency and, like Christ, occasionally “shaking things up.” This cannot happen if preachers soft-pedal the cross.
He went on, “Maybe the greatest threat to the Church is not heresy, not dissent, not secularism, not even moral relativism, but this sanitized, feel-good, boutique, therapeutic spirituality that makes not demands, calls for no sacrifice, asks for no conversion, entails no battle against sin, but only soothes and affirms,” Speaking to future priests he said, “Our preaching can then become cotton candyish: a lot of fluff, air and sugar, but no substance.

Even though he was focusing on priests, Bishop Dolan reminded that preaching the Gospel is a mandate shared by ALL Christians, not just priests.

The problem is of course, no one likes to be a prophet; no one wants to get thrown off a cliff; no one wants to be crucified. And too often a priest or deacon who teaches something clearly and forthrightly will catch flak for it. Sadly, in our age where everyone is an expert and all truth is subjective, many people don’t want to hear uncomfortable teachings expounded. And so it becomes very easy for a preacher, to fall back on a feel-good approach to the homily, light on content, long on uplifting anecdotes and the power of positive thinking.

I think this fear of preaching the truth, prophetically is especially so in regards to the Church’s teaching on marriage, sexuality and life. Many Catholics have never even heard some of the teachings of the Church in these areas, or if they have, only heard them in a negative light, with regards to how the Church is out of step with the times and needs to get with. Well, of course Jesus is not out of step with the times, He owns time and all in it, and His teachings are always with it, because He is Truth itself.

Let me give you an example of such a teaching. And know that I bring this one up not to condemn anyone, but because if I love you and need to give you the truth, the truth that will not only make you happy, but prevent you from being hurt. I could not talk about this, but then that wouldn’t be true love, but only the selfishness that St. Paul speaks about. The teaching is the Church’s position on In Vitro Fertilization or IVF, better known as test tube babies.

I would guess that most Catholics are only vaguely aware of the Church’s position on making test tube babies. How many have used IVF without knowing that it is wrong or why? When asked why IVF might be immoral, people will usually mention the extra embryos that are frozen or discarded. Such embryos are certainly a serious concern--they are after all truly children, but they are not the primary reason the Church insists the procedure is immoral. Even if IVF were done without making any extra embryos at all, this way of making babies would still be morally objectionable, because the procedure strikes at the very core and meaning of the marital act.

When a couple comes before the altar to profess the vows of love, the Church prays that nothing should come between them- “what God has joined, let no man separate. In our world, sadly, separation in marriage does not happen at the time of a divorce, but much earlier- something is allowed to separate the spouses. The separation starts with withholding all of the love for the spouse- it often starts with artificial birth control. But any act that would separation the full gift of the spouses to each other is for our faith an evil. In IVF, the marital act is substituted by an act of laboratory manipulation for the loving act of bodily union between spouses. It turns procreation into production. Instead of the two become one flesh, IVF divides and puts a Lab technician in between; this can only hurt the union. IVF is really the flip-side of contraception: rather than trying to have sex without babies, we try to have babies without sex. There is a separation of love from the act of procreation.

That being said it is very important that we understand, that the wrongness of IVF does not in any way reflect upon the child, who is innocent. It is not the baby’s fault in any way. The child has no control over how he or she got here. Regardless of how a baby comes into the world, whether by IVF, whether by adultery, by pre-marital sex, by rape or incest or even by cloning, that baby is always a gift and blessing from God. Let me emphasize this point- each and every child is a gift from God. The problem with IVF is not with the child, but with a decision made by the parents, many times not through but ill will but through ignorance, concerning how to pursue the satisfaction of their own desire for a child. In other words, babies, even when very much desired, should not be brought into the world by making use of disordered means such as adultery, pre-marital sex, IVF, or cloning. They should be brought into the world only within that intimate love-giving moment of the marital embrace, where the two become one flesh. Children are entitled, have the right to come into being as the fruit of a singular parental love that is uniquely manifested in the spousal moment of bodily surrender to each other.

Through the incredibly rich language of the parents’ bodies, through their body to body contact, the new body of the child is engendered. In their one-flesh union, they en-flesh new life. The intimate bodily embrace is a sacred action that only spouses may share, and it represents the unique and privileged locus, by God’s design, in which human love is translated into new life. IVF violates this design by replacing that love-giving act with an act of production, whereby we manufacture our own children in Petri dishes and test tubes, as if they were products or objects to be manhandled at will. When we take this immoral step, others quickly follow, including the freezing or even the discarding of our own children, as if they were a form of medical waste. By making test tube babies, we first violate the sacred human act by which we hand on life. It is then but a short step to go further and violate the very life itself that we produce in the laboratory.

Is it not reasonable and right to insist, as the Church does, that new human life should be the fruit of married love, carried out through bodily self-giving between spouses, this act which allows each partner to enrich the other with the total gift of himself or herself? The marital act embodies spousal love directly, exclusively and authentically. Can we say the same for IVF, where the woman upsets her normal cycles and subjects herself to repetitive injections with powerful drugs to make her body produce unnaturally large numbers of eggs, not to mention what the man must do? Can we really say that IVF embodies spousal love in an authentic and exclusive way when a lab technician ends up being the causal agent of the pregnancy, instead of the spouses themselves through a sacred act proper to their married love? By any stretch, can we honestly believe that IVF is faithful to God's design for marriage?

Last week we spoke of pro-life. This week again we are speaking of pro-life. If we are pro-life we must protect not only life, but the way in which God intended life to come into being. If we do not, well we have already seen first results of if we do not, at least 54 million babies killed. Worse is yet to come, if we don’t accept the truth. I tell you this difficult teaching of the Church because I love you and don’t want any of you to be hurt and IVF definitely hurts individuals and couples. I also challenge all of you to learn more about the Churches true teachings in regard to IVF as well as other tough issues. These are teachings we just can not live without.

As we continue to celebrate this year of Mercy as proclaimed by Pope Francis let us realize that mercy only makes sense if we realize our need for God’s Mercy. And We need God’s mercy for our failure to not only accept fully but to live fully the truth that comes from God…this failure is of course known as our sin. God forgives our sins, if we acknowledge them and confess them and make a firm purpose of amendment to sin no more and live our live according to the teachings of the Church.

God loves and wants only what is best for us, this is why He sent his only Son Jesus to give us the truth that sets us free, to give us the truth that gives us life. And has hard as it can sometimes be, let us embrace His truth, the teachings of His Church, humbly and with open minds and hearts. Let us pray for those who need reconciliation and healing in the delicate matters regarding the Church’s unchanging teachings, for Christ’s healing truth is the remedy for this, because Jesus Is Truth and an so His truth which comes to us through His One, Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, will never let us down.

NOTE: The material on IVF in this homily was taken from a priest who writes for the National Catholic Bioethics Center on Health Care and Life Sciences

This is why we must do more than just show up for Holy Mass. We must participate actively, fully, consciously, and fruitfully at the Holy Mass.

John 2;1-11 Second Sunday in Ordinary Time. January 17th, 2016

In today’s Gospel we hear of the Mystery of the Second Luminous
mystery of the Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary—the Wedding Feast of Cana. Every mystery of the Holy Rosary has a grace assigned to it. And so, the grace we ask for while contemplating of this new mystery of the Holy Rosary, is the grace to more fully offer ourselves—all that have, do, think and are, to Jesus through Mary. We entrust ourselves to Jesus Mother so that she can help us to offer ourselves in Faith, Hope and Love to the God who has given us everything, even to our very existence, all in order that we can become One with God-the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and for all eternity. This is the purpose for which each of us as been created—to be one with God in a union of love.

You may not have thought about this before, but what is that God really wants from you? What He really wants from you is simply “you.” In other words, we can say that God desires to wed you soul, to bring you to Himself and make you one with Him in the ultimate of all weddings…and the two shall become one. A Sacramental marriage between a man and woman symbolizes and points to this Wedding of all weddings.

And so, one of most used imagery God uses throughout the bible to describe what sort of relationship He wants with each of us is wedding imagery. We hear it in our first reading from the book of Isaiah: As a young man marries a virgin, your Builder (capital B) shall marry you; and as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride so shall your God rejoice in you. In other words, “Your Creator God shall marry you!” So it is no coincidence that Jesus begins His public ministry, His ministry to heal and save souls bring them to union with God, at a wedding feast.

Now for the men listening to this, the ideal of God wedding your soul may seem somewhat foreign. But we mustn’t think of this in a carnal way, but in a spiritual way. The purpose and end of all love is union—to be close and even one with the one we love and who loves us. And there is no one who loves us more than God Himself; in fact it is His love that keeps us in existence; His love has given us everything we have, including those we love. And in His love for us, He wishes us to love Him in return, and so to be close to Him; and in fact, One with Him.
How and where does this union with God begin to take place? Well it begins with our baptism. In our baptism our soul was given the capacity to become One with God. And then through the other Sacraments, if we receive them with a proper disposition, this union is nourished, grows and becomes perfected. That is, as long as we continue to give our yes and cooperate with this plan of God by keeping His Commandments with the help of His grace and offering our hearts to Him more and more completely.

And the primary place where we come to give our yes and cooperate with this plan of God and offer ourselves to Him is at the Holy Mass, each and every week. This is why the Holy Mass is called the “wedding feast of the Lamb.” It is the place were Jesus, the Bridegroom, literally comes down from Heaven anew in the flesh, in the Holy Eucharist and gives His yes, His “I Do” to His bride the Church, that is to each one of us when He says, “This is my Body, given up for you.” “This is my blood given up for you.” Jesus is here saying, I love you so much that not only do I give you my “I do” but I offer you my total self, all that I am and have, the fullness of my love, my complete self-Body, Blood, and Soul. And because Jesus is God, this means He is saying as well, I give you even the fullness of my Divinity.

But in order for this union of our soul to God to take placed at the Wedding Feast of all wedding feast, which is the Holy Mass, we--you and I must give our “I do” in response to Jesus’ “I do.” Think about it this way, what happens if at wedding between a man and woman, one or more of them refuses to say “I do,” or says “I do,” and really doesn’t mean it. In this case, does a wedding occur, is the marriage real or valid? Or is it a wedding if one of the two doesn’t show up or shows up but doesn’t participate? Of course not. Both man and the woman must freely, in love, give their “I Do” to each other, which means offer their complete self to one another. In other words, each one must say in a sense, “This is my body given up for you; in love, I give myself to you forever in order to become one with you in union of unending love.”

A man and wife, if they say these most beautiful of words, and if they mean these words, then the two of them will become one in love. And then these beautiful wedding vows are consummated; which means they become one forever until death do them part, not only in words but also in the flesh, during the marital act the night of the wedding. The fruit of this union is life and joy, not only for the couple themselves, but also for another person who is conceived and born as a fruit of this union of love.

So too, and even in more perfect way at the Holy Mass. If we give our “I do” to God, offering to Him at the Altar our complete “yes” our complete self in love we to can become one with God, not only until death do us part but for ever. In fact, at the Holy Mass our “I do” our wedding vows with God also become consummated at the martial act of the Holy Mass. And the Marital act of the Holy Mass is Holy Communion where we become “one flesh” with Jesus when we consume His Body into ours, His blood into ours. The fruit of this union is eternal life and joy, not only for ourselves, but also for other souls who will through our living communion and union with God, come to be born again in the spirit and so share in this eternal union of love with God as well.

This is why we must do more than just show up for Holy Mass. We must participate actively, fully, consciously, and fruitfully at the Holy Mass. For the marriage of our souls to God to occur at Holy Mass, we too, like a husband and wife must more and more completely give ourselves to God, Who comes again and gives himself to Us. In fact, our Holy Communion with God at Holy Communion only bears fruit in our lives, in our families and in our world to the extent we give our selves to God in love—In other words, communion only turns to union with the two say “I do” and mean it. And in our cause, live out our “I do” faithfully in our daily lives for Love of God and for love of neighbor for love of God.

And,this is why we need the help of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She was the one who most perfectly gave her yes, her “I do,” the gift of our complete self to God. She will help us at each and every Holy Mass we attend to more and more trustingly give ourselves to God. She will obtain for us the grace to live our life, like she did, faithful to our yes to God by doing whatever He tells us and giving our self to Him completely at Holy Mass thus bearing great fruit in our life—the fruit of holiness—oneness with God. She will then use us to lead others to the “Wedding Feast of the Lamb” and so come to share in the consummation of love for all of eternity.





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