tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78411217599217642772024-03-19T03:35:30.715-07:00Spiritual RuminationsFr. Steven Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12248831829078417061noreply@blogger.comBlogger405125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7841121759921764277.post-66488639388771366282020-04-13T21:16:00.001-07:002020-04-13T21:16:37.166-07:00As the Church's great celebration of Easter was made possible by the passion and death of Jesus, our share in its healing, transforming, and saving power is made possible by the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Easter Sunday 2020<br />
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There was a body in the grave. It was cold; it was definitely a dead corpse, it did not take a breath, and the heart did not pump. You could see it; you could touch it. 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 a profound experience. When one sees a genuinely dead body, a corpse, there is no doubt that it is dead. <br />
In my training as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) for working on a volunteer rescue squad, I was instructed over and over how to check to see if a body was dead. Check the breathing, check the pulse, recheck. However, when my first opportunity during Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) on a real body came, there was no doubt the person was dead. It was obvious.<br />
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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, pierce the 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.<br />
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What a profound experience then, it must have been to see the empty tomb. What vivid realism it must have impressed on Peter as he saw where the body was laid. This was the place without a doubt that the soldiers were guarding. These professionals would never let their guard down for fear of the punishment, which was the punishment of death.<br />
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St. John's Gospels is filled with words to describe this profound experience of Peter. The whole scene in the tomb paints a picture of the resurrection. However, elements of this are lost in the translation, which is more apparent in the Greek language. In the phrase "The linen cloths lying there" the Greek indicates that the clothes were flattened, deflated as if they were emptied when the body of Jesus rose—as if it had come out of the clothes and bandages without their being taken off, passing right through them (just as Jesus entered the upper room when the doors were locked). The Greek says the clothes were fallen, flat, lying, after Jesus' body—which had filled them—left them. One can readily understand the amazement and realism that this conveyed on the witnesses to it. <br />
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The language to describe the shroud that wrapped Jesus' head, says that it was not on the top of the clothes but to one side. It was like the clothes stilled rolled up, but unlike them, it still had a certain volume, like a container, possibly due to the stiffness given it by the ointments. It reminds me of paper mâché formed around a balloon, and then the balloon popped. <br />
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These details point to a body being raised in a heavenly manner, which transcended the laws of nature. It was not just a body being reanimated as happened in the case of Lazarus, who, by the way, had to be unbound before he could walk and who would later die again. Because of this unique experience of the state of the linens left behind the two Apostles realized that it was not a question of a robbery, which is what Mary Magdalene had thought. <br />
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This realistic experience of the empty tomb left many facts perceptible to the human senses. However, the resurrection still requires faith to be accepted. Christ's resurrection is a real, historical fact: there was a dead body, and it came back to life, literally. It was a real physical body that had its soul reunited to it. This physicality was apparent because Thomas could touch it-he put his hands into the nail holes and into the pierced side, "My Lord and my God." But yet, there was something also different about the body. It now had spiritual properties as well; it could pass through the burial cloth and walls. It could no longer suffer damage, decay, pain; it could no longer change or be separated from the soul. <br />
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The resurrection of Jesus, although historical, is also a supernatural event; that is, it is far beyond our capacity in this life to totally understand. It transcends sense experience, it requires a special gift of God to accept it as a fact with certainty, and that gift is the gift of faith. As St. Thomas Aquinas says in his great work the Summa Theologica, "the individual arguments taken alone are not sufficient proof of Christ's resurrection but taken together, in a cumulative way, they manifest it perfectly. Particularly important in this regard are the spiritual proofs, especially the angelic testimony and Christ's own post-resurrection words confirmed by miracles” (cf Jn3:13,; Mt 16:21; 17:22; 20:18). <br />
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This gift of faith in the resurrection is what we as believing Catholic Christians are celebrating with great joy this day. The apostles' faith is strengthened through the Holy Triduum, the time from Thursday evening to Sunday morning. We, too, have just passed through this time, symbolically, in the Church's celebration of this Holy time. But Christ has left us something even more remarkable to strengthen our faith and joy in the resurrection. He has left us the great mystery of the Holy Eucharist. <br />
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"At every celebration of the Eucharist, we are spiritually brought back to the pascal Triduum: to the events of the evening of Holy Thursday, to the Last Supper and to what followed it. We return to Good Friday, the hour of our redemption. In spirit and through the power and authority of the Holy priesthood, as the priest who acts in the person of Jesus Christ, we are all able to be present at the foot of the Cross, present alongside St. John and the Blessed Virgin Mary. "This is the wood of the Cross on which hung the Savior of the World, come let us adore! And we are present too at the empty tomb and are able to proclaim, "The Lord is risen from the tomb; for our sake, he hung on the Cross, Alleluia."<br />
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The Holy Mass makes present the Sacrifice of the Cross; it does not add to that sacrifice; it does not multiply it. It makes Christ's one definitive sacrifice present in our time. But, the Holy Mass not only makes truly present the mystery of Christ's passion and death but also the mystery of the resurrection which crowned his sacrifice (EE:14). <br />
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As the Church's great celebration of Easter was made possible by the passion and death of Jesus, our share in its healing, transforming, and saving power is made possible by the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. <br />
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At every Mass, we are enabled to be present at all of these events, not in mind, but in reality. And not only are we able to be present sacramentally, truly—we are able to share, here on earth already, in the Joy of that eternal Easter in heaven. The Holy Mass makes truly present, not only the saving events of our salvation but makes truly, sacramentally present the one who is our salvation—Jesus Christ and his self-emptying sacrifice of love for us. And so, at Mass, we, by our baptism, are enabled to offer ourselves as priest-victims in a loving oblation of a gift of self to the Father through Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit by willingly uniting ourselves to Jesus' one and only Sacrifice of Love. We are called with our reserve to place our heart on the paten-for love has no reserve. To the extent that we give the gift of our self, we are enabled to receive Him into our bodies and souls and be transformed into His Body, into Love incarnate to become other "christs" for our world. <br />
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Those who feed on Christ in the Eucharist need not wait until the hereafter to receive eternal life. In essence, they already begin to 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 "the medicine for immortality and antidote to death." <br />
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I took the last few sentences from an Encyclical on the Holy Eucharist released on Holy Thursday in 2003 by St. John Paul the Second. I recommend all of you to read this incredible Letter. In this encyclical, St. John Paul points out that 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. <br />
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He is truly here, not just in our hearts, not only in the proclamation of the word, not just in our community gathered, Jesus Christ is still physically 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. For this reason, we know the grave is empty; there are no bones of Jesus in the ground anywhere. He lives again in His body, which is present in its entirety in the Holy Eucharist. <br />
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Do not go looking for him when someone says he is here or there, for we know where our Lord is; He is in the Holy Eucharist, the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. And He is available to us, along with the power of his divinity and victory of his resurrection at every Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. This truth 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 the resurrection and the Life. Every Holy Mass is an Easter because At every Holy Mass, we can truly encounter the Risen Lord, Jesus in the Holy Eucharist…This is a real encounter with Him in His resurrected and now living body. If we have faith, if we offer ourselves and all we have entirely to Him, He will transform us more and more into His other-self. We will become instruments of His love and mercy for the world… Our senses fail to see the Risen one, but faith alone rooted in the words of Christ handed down to us by the Apostle is sufficient. <br />
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O Come let us adore His resurrected body at this Mass in the Holy Eucharist which I, acting in His person, or better yet, which He acting in my person is about to make present—physically—sacramentally—truly, on this altar of true Sacrifice. <br />
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Let us, as St. John Paul the Second has taught at the beginning of this new millennium, put out into the deep of Jesus' love by offering ourselves totally to Him, with Him, in Him, to the Father. Let us adore Jesus--beholding the face of Jesus 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…" We give our hearts totally to you; Help us give our hearts totally to him at Holy Mass. <br />
HAPPY EASTER to all of you. Christus resurrexit! Resurrexit vere! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!<br />
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Fr. Steven Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12248831829078417061noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7841121759921764277.post-80090022874662136922020-01-05T20:21:00.001-08:002020-01-05T20:21:34.073-08:00How many souls are troubled by doubt because God does not show Himself in the way they expected. Epiphany January 5th, 2020<br />
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Today the Church celebrates the Epiphany or manifestation of the God Child. Jesus, the Eternal Son of God become Man, is manifested and made known to the whole world. Jesus, true God and true Man, the savior of all souls, is revealed, not only to the Jews but to the gentiles as well. <br />
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There is much for us to learn from these events. The kings representing the peoples of the entire world go forth to adore the King of all kings. When they saw the star we are told that they were glad beyond measure—is this not a supernatural joy. It is a joy that is beyond what can be measured by human means, which means it is a joy beyond all earthly understanding. <br />
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The star led them to a simple little house in a small obscure village, insignificance in the eyes of the world. Three powerful kings, rich beyond compare are filled with such incredible joy when they see the manifestation of their King, their savior, revealed in simplicity and humility. What lessons there are for us in their example. These three kings are also called the three wise men, but why were they wise? It was because they used their natural wisdom to discover supernatural wisdom and joy. True wisdom and our natural common sense lead us to the adoration of God. Aristotle, a pagan, used his human wisdom and common sense to find the truth of the Ten Commandments, including that greatest of all commandments, to Love the Lord your God with your whole soul, mind, body and all of your might, which means to adore Him, to give yourself and all you have in response to what God has given to you, which is everything. <br />
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There is a spirit of our present age which is antithetical to the Spirit of God, an anti-spirit if you will, that tries to sell wisdom apart from God. It tries to convince us, that what is important is manifested only in great glamour and noise, only in technological wonders, feats, and riches. It is a spirit that lies and proclaims that God has come to give his peace to all men on earth. <br />
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However, the Spirit of God teaches us instead, that God comes only to those who are poor in spirit, to the humble of heart and He manifests Himself in simplicity and silence. God’s Spirit points to the Truth, who is Jesus Christ and who has come to give his peace, not to all men but only to men who are of goodwill; that is right, “peace on earth to men of goodwill!” The Holy Spirit of God teaches that earthly wisdom apart from God and adoration of Him in Spirit and in Truth is a false empty wisdom void of supernatural hope and joy. <br />
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This is an important lesson for us moderns who can too easily miss what is the most important among so much glitter and show. Just as the majority of the world missed the incarnation of God--God Himself come into the world in the flesh, as a man and a baby man at that, so too in our day far too many are missing our incredible closeness to this same Jesus. <br />
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This is what St John Paul the Second reminded all Catholics during the Year of the Holy Eucharist which he proclaimed during his pontificate. Jesus has not left us alone; He is still here on earth in His true body—He is truly Emmanuel—God with us. As believing Catholics, we can not say, “When Jesus dwelt on earth, for the true faith by the Spirit of God tells us that Jesus, Who is the Truth, still dwells on earth. And by this, I don’t mean in the hearts and minds of believers, but He still dwells on earth in a physical, albeit resurrected, body in the Blessed Sacrament-This is THE great mystery of our faith. <br />
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God presents Himself to us under the insignificant appearance of a piece of bread. Perhaps we are in danger of not realizing fully how close Our Lord is to our lives because He doesn’t reveal Himself in His glory, because he does not impose Himself irresistibly, because He slips into our lives in such hidden simplicity and poverty. Instead of wowing us with the riches of His divinity and power Jesus comes hidden to all except those who have the eyes of faith, trust in His words, and love Him with all their hearts by desiring to give their all to Him. How many souls are troubled by doubt because God does not show Himself in the way they expected. <br />
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Many of the people in Bethlehem (which by the way means “house of bread”), many of the people in Bethlehem saw in Jesus a child like any other. But the wise kings knew how to see Him as THE CHILD, who from then on would be adored forever by all “men of goodwill.” The kings’ openness to the truth of the Spirit and to the gift of true faith gave them a privileged opportunity, to be the first among the gentile world to adore God become Man. It was not their great learning, or their great riches or even the gifts that they gave, that made them wise, no, it was instead their humble act of adoring God made man, Jesus who really is God Himself. It was their adoration of the unseen God now visible in this child-- it was this act that made them truly wise. <br />
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What incredible joy these three wise men must have experience the extraordinary, now manifested in the appearance of an ordinary child. No, the babe did not have a halo around his head; He looked and acted like an ordinary babe, for He was like us in all things except sin. How careful we must be and how easy it is for us to miss the extraordinary in the ordinary of everyday life. And going into the dwelling, they found the child there, with His Mother, Mary, and fell down to worship and adore Him.<br />
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Bethlehem itself was a tabernacle of sorts. If every Catholic would come with a strong belief that in just a few moments, Jesus the Son of God who came to be among us, Immanuel, will be reborn on this very Altar during the words of consecration, -would not our churches be bulging at the seams, every single weekend? We can adore Him just like the three wise men, becoming wise ourselves, for Christ is our wisdom. We also kneel down before Jesus, God is hidden in His humanity in our Catholic churches. Jesus present in the tabernacle, the house of the Bread of Life” is the same Jesus the wise men found in Mary’s arms. <br />
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Perhaps in light of this wisdom, we should examine ourselves to see how we adore him when he is present on our altar or hidden in our tabernacle in our churches. With what devotion and reverence do we kneel in the moments indicated in the Holy Mass, or each time we pass by those places where the Blessed Sacrament is reserved? We, you and me, are called in a new way at this feast of the Epiphany to manifest Christ to our world by dying to ourselves in order to allow Him to live anew in us and in our lives, this is what adoration means, and those who do so are wise, no others. <br />
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The three kings had their star, we have ours-Mary. She is the true star, more brilliant and more beautiful than any other, which lights the way in safety to her Son—Jesus. Let us ask her to help us at this Holy Mass to adore the Father in the Holy Spirit united to Jesus the Truth. She will help us as she helped the three wise men, to offer to our God the gifts of our lives to the Father in union with Jesus’ body, blood, soul, and divinity. Instead of offering God gold, she will help us offer to Him our detachment to all the riches of this world so we can cling to the greatest of all riches, the Gift of His only begotten Son. Instead of offering Him the perfume of costly incense, she will help us to offer as incense our desire to live a noble and virtuous life, one which gives off the ‘aroma of Christ’ as hope to the world. Instead of the myrrh which tries to escape and avoid sacrifice, the Holy Virgin will help us to offer to God in adoration and in true love, the sacrifice of our very lives in union with the sacrifice of Jesus on this altar for our salvation and the salvation of all souls. Stella Maria, Stella Orientis, Sedes sapientiae, Star of the Sea, Star of the East, Seat of Wisdom, pray for us who pray to thee. Amen.<br />
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Fr. Steven Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12248831829078417061noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7841121759921764277.post-61408900879615331202019-11-24T12:43:00.001-08:002019-11-24T12:43:37.925-08:00Luke 23:35-43 November 24th, 2019 Solemnity of Christ the King. <br />
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Today, in the Sacred Liturgy we celebrate the great feast of Christ the King. Our Lord is King and ruler of heaven and earth; and today, in this solemn Liturgy, we acknowledge this fact with our whole heart, mind, soul, strength, with our bodies and with our voices as we with great effort struggle to enter into full, actual, conscious and fruitful participation in this Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in which the King becomes present not only spiritual in our midst, but sacramentally, physically present. <br />
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Over the centuries devotion to Jesus has taken many forms. In the early centuries of the Church, we see this devotion very much directed to Jesus as the King of Kings. However, with the revelations of Jesus to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in the 1800’s devotion to Christ became centered less on his Kingship and more on his Sacred Heart. With the Divine Mercy Revelations, this trend continues, but one could say with a more universal emphasis on the individual begging God’s Mercy not just on himself but one the whole world. With these two beautiful devotions, the Sacred Heart and Divine Mercy, which are surely mutually enhancive of one another and both of which point to heart of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist beating in love there for all men and woman, one could argue that devotion to Jesus as King of the Universe seems, at least in practice, to have been set aside for a more personal devotion. But when we look at the history of devotion to Jesus within the Sacred Liturgy we find it is always center on Christ as King, as the King, no matter the liturgical season. <br />
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Unfortunately, us moderns have a hard time with the notion of kingship; especially us Americans, we can understand it only in light of tyranny and the loss of our freedom. After all, our own independence as a country was from the monarchical rule of England. Jesus, however, is not a political King, nor is He a president. He is not a Democrat or Republican nor is He an Independent; in fact, His visible Kingdom on Earth--the Catholic Church, from which He rules, is not a democracy at all; it is a strict monarchy with only one King, Jesus Himself, with full dominion and power. <br />
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Jesus the King, therefore, is not a military or revolutionary leader; He is not a socialist or totalitarian. He is not a king of material wealth or worldly power. In fact, He came to the earth as King not to be served but to serve. He wants subjects, not of forced loyalty but subjects who follow him in the freedom of authentic love and truth <br />
The Kingdom of God then does not mean food and drink, or economic prosperity, but instead righteousness and true peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For Jesus’ kingdom is “the kingdom of Truth and Life, the kingdom of holiness and grace, the kingdom of Justice, love and Peace. The Kingdom of Jesus is a kingdom of true love, the essence of which is a man laying down his life for love of his friends. <br />
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In this, we discover that true love must be through Jesus, in Him, and with Him or else it is not true, for Jesus is the Truth. Love apart from Jesus and His truth results in our ideas quickly taking charge and then we end up creating our own version of a kingdom, the kingdom of man without reference to the kingdom of God. Consequently, it becomes just our made-up kingdom with a puppet on the throne—with an idiot king of our desire and making. What results is the dictatorship of relativism which our pope emeritus Pope Benedict continual warned against, for in this pseudo kingdom, the false kings will turn against the very people who put them in power and in the end they themselves will be destroyed by their own ideology—but not until the good themselves will have much to suffer. <br />
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Jesus’ loyal subjects, show their acceptance of Christ’s rule over them and His Father’s will for them and so accept God’s love and mercy for the world. Jesus became man to make this truth about the Father's love for man known and to enable men to accept it and live it, through the grace He won through his death on the cross and his subsequent victory over death in his resurrection. <br />
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Those who recognize Christ’s kingship and sovereignty, accept his authority given to His One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. By doing so, they allow Jesus to reign over them in His eternal and universal. And these faithful subjects live their lives on this earth by following His Way, the only true way, which is the royal way of the cross, which is the way of self-denial and sacrificial love, loving and serving God above all things and their neighbor as themselves for love of God. <br />
The Solemnity of Christ the King ends ordinary time and thus the liturgical year. We now enter into the Season of hope--advent. Our readings take on the tone of the last things, death, judgment, heaven, and hell, topics that don’t at first appear to be hopeful. But the Holy Spirit wants us to be ready, not only for the coming of Christ at Christmas but for His Second Coming in glory at the end of the world. “Behold Jesus is coming amid the clouds and every eye will see Him even those who pierced Him.” <br />
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But the Holy Spirit reminds today not to think this event as happening somewhere off in the distance future. Behold He is coming soon!!. This is the theme of Advent. For those souls who die this day, the second coming will happen today, and for each of us, our death is the second coming, for on that day we shall see the King face to face and He will question us about our love…<br />
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However, think about it, for you and me He comes even sooner; he comes this very day, on this very altar in the Holy Eucharist, sacrificing Himself anew, in order to totally and completely offer himself to us in love. He longs to enter fully into our hearts at our Holy Communion with Him if we but open our self to allow him to reign over us, for he will not stay by force. <br />
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Beginning today, let us as the Holy Spirit to help us more deeply acknowledge Christ as our King; let us start by offering our Hearts in an act of true thanksgiving at this Holy Mass, which makes the King Himself, His royal throne of the cross, His crucifixion, resurrection and ascension and His Kingdom truly present on earth, right here in this Church and in every Catholic Church around the world. <br />
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As we prepare to receive the fruit of the Crucifixion and Resurrection at this Holy Mass--Jesus Christ our King in the Holy Eucharist, the Kingdom of God personified, let us ask Him for the grace to hear His voice and to heed his words in testimony that we are committed to the truth of His Kingdom with every fiber of our being. <br />
Let us ask Him through His Holy Mother to help us keep His Authority and the Holy Will of His heavenly Father and our Father, as the driving force of our life. Holy Mary, Queen of the Kingdom of Christ, Queen of our hearts, pray for us helps us to give our heart totally in love and fidelity to Jesus the King. <br />
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To Gain a Plenary Indulgence for the Feast of Christ the King<br />
• Be in a state of grace<br />
• Receive Holy Communion (should be easy, since this is Sunday, but you can receive within a few days so if you already received at Saturday vigil you can use that one)<br />
• Go to Confession within 20 days before or after today<br />
• Pray (out loud) for the intentions of the Holy Father (one Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be is sufficient)<br />
• Be free from all attachment to sin (just do the best you can there)<br />
And Publicly Recite the following prayer. It is sufficient if you read it out loud softly in a church open to the public.<br />
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Act of Consecration of the Human Race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus<br />
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<i>Most Sweet Jesus, Redeemer of the human race, look down upon us humbly prostrate before Thine altar. We are Thine, and Thine we wish to be; but to be more surely united to Thee, behold each one of us freely consecrates ourselves today to Thy Most Sacred Heart.<br />
Many indeed have never known Thee; many too, despising Thy precepts, have rejected Thee. Have mercy on them all, most merciful Jesus, and draw them to Thy Sacred Heart. Be Thou King, O Lord, not only of the faithful children, who have never forsaken Thee but also of the prodigal children, who have abandoned Thee; Grant that they may quickly return to their Father’s house lest they die of wretchedness and hunger.<br />
Be Thou King of those who are deceived by erroneous opinions, or whom discord keeps aloof, and call them back to the harbor of truth and unity of faith, so that there may be but one flock and one Shepherd. <br />
Be Thou King of all those who are still involved in the darkness of idolatry or of Islamism, and refuse not to draw them into the light and kingdom of God. Turn Thine eyes of mercy towards the children of the race, once Thy chosen people: of old they called down upon themselves the Blood of the Savior; may it now descend upon them a laver of redemption and of life.<br />
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Grant, O Lord, to Thy Church assurance of freedom and immunity from harm; give peace and order to all nations, and make the earth resound from pole to pole with one cry; praise to the Divine Heart that wrought our salvation; To it be glory and honor forever. R. Amen.</i><br />
Fr. Steven Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12248831829078417061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7841121759921764277.post-29409259359930444232019-11-10T11:44:00.003-08:002019-11-10T11:44:32.733-08:00 Death is not only the passage of our souls back to God, but one day our bodies will be reunited with our soulsLuke 20;20-28. Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time. November 10th, 2019 <br />
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As we approach the end of our liturgical year, our readings are changing. We have heard Jesus talk about prayer over the last few months and all of a sudden now Jesus is teaching about the resurrection of the dead. Last week we celebrated All Saints Day-the Church triumph in heaven, and All Souls Day-the Church suffering in purgatory. All of these feasts and readings from the Sacred Scriptures remind us of the serious topic of death. <br />
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Death is a hard topic to talk about; as it can make us feel fearful- it is normal to fear death, it is normal to fear death because death is not natural for us human persons. <br />
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Yet death is a reality for us which nobody can deny. And so, we all need to face the fact that one day each and every one of us is going to die. Our age is in denial of death. In fact, in our modern world, when someone dies we don't want to face it; so instead, we celebrate their life, as if we can somehow just pass over the sadness and reality of their death. Why do we want to avoid dealing properly with death? Is it because death reminds us of sin, for death is the result of sin, of our sin…this, is why we must die? God did not create death; he does not delight in the death of his creatures—we creatures created death by our sin, not God. <br />
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I would argue we also see this practical denial of death, even in our modern funeral liturgy, we no longer have black vestments which remind us of the horror of the wages of our sin, and its sorrow, which is our death. We are told that we wear white at funerals because we are people of the resurrection. Yes, we are truly people of the resurrection, but we can't just pass over the reality of death, and jump into the resurrection. Why? Because First, we must face reality of our sin and its horrible consequence—death; first, there must be morning, wailing, and sorrow for our sin, because sin is a refusal to love, obey and serve God who is all good and deserving of all our love; first, their needs to be confession for our grave offenses against God’s infinite goodness, and then an acceptance of our just punishment—death; First, all of this, only then the resurrection.<br />
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In our Gospel today, Jesus confronts all of the errors of death in his day, which are the same as in ours, just with different wrapping paper. Jesus confronts the myths about death held by the Sadducees. The Sadducees believed in the soul, but they denied the bodily resurrection of the dead. In other words, they denied that someday God will raise our bodies from the grave in order to be reunited with our souls; and in these resurrected bodies, we will be present body and soul at the final judgment before Jesus, who will come then not as merciful redeemer but as Just Judge. The Sadducees denied that we would spend eternity for better or worse in our bodies. <br />
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For the Sadducees death consisted of just the soul returning to the bosom of Abraham- the body simply was ignored. So what does it matter? Well, the practical result of this is, is that the body just isn’t important, and if the body isn’t important, then it doesn’t matter what you do or don’t do in or with your body. You can sin in your body, but not with your soul. At the heart of the Sadducee's error, then, is that it separates the body and soul of the human person.<br />
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But, we are creatures who are body and soul; we are not a body with a soul or a soul with a body, but we are a body and soul composite, we are our body and we are our soul. This is one of the great terrors of death, our body and soul are not made to be separated, and it is sin that is the cause of this unnatural separation…if you want to know how bad sin is, look at the mystery and horror of death…the wages of sin is death.<br />
How does this error of the Sadducees look in our day: We see it when someone gets caught in the act and gives an apology that consists of admission, not a confession, similar to the following: “Yes I did this bad thing, but that is not who I am.” But it is how you are. Our acts define who we are, what type of person we are. This is why there needs to be repentance and healing and forgiveness and transformation from Christ through his representative, the priest. <br />
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We also see this separation of the body and soul in our day, the idea that the body can be a different gender than the soul. And so, a person wrongly believes, I must mutilate my body to conform to what I think is the gender of my soul. And for your part, you must—or you will be forced, not only accept it but approve of it, thus, denying the truth of the human person as God has created, male and female he created them. (There is push to force even catholic hospitals to have to perform the “transitional mutilation…surgery” <br />
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We also see this error in everything from extreme body piercing, tattooing, to all forms of immodest dress. We see it in all forms of promiscuity, fornication and debauchery all carried out in the body… St. Paul reminds us, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.” We are to use our bodies to adore God both here at Mass, keeping them pure and undefiled by, with the grace of the Sacraments, living according to His Commandments and the teachings of His Holy Catholic Church. <br />
After death too, we see the Sadducee’s error in a lack of respect of the body as a former temple of the Holy Spirit, by not burying the ashes of one cremated, placing them instead on the mantel of the fireplace or spreading them on the ocean or even making them into jewelry. St. Augustine, said that after their death we are so careful with the personal effects of our loved ones so that they are not lost, we should have the same care with regards to their body. The body should be buried with respect…this is one of the seven corporal works of mercy by which we will be judged…to bury the dead (by the way when the body is cremated what is left should never be called cremains, but instead called a cremated body, and it should be treated as such, a temple of the Holy Spirit and buried properly in sacred ground). <br />
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In our Gospel, Jesus points out that the Sadducees were wrong. And as we read in the book of Maccabees, the Scriptures do point out clearly the bodily resurrection of the dead and an eternity spent again in our bodies. In his condemnation, Jesus is pointing out as well all of the errors of death in our day and reveals to us the truth. Our faith tells us with certainty that the body is created as good and will be reunited with our souls after our death, at the end of the world. Jesus confirms this by answering the questions concerning marriage after the resurrection. <br />
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Death is not only the passage of our souls back to God, but one day our bodies will be reunited with our souls. So those who have already died are awaiting the resurrection of their bodies. Even the souls of the just that are now with God are not totally complete; they await the last day when their bodies will be reunited with their souls. <br />
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The truth is, is that on that last day we will be judged according to the works we performed while in the body. And this last judgment will be given to us after our souls have been reunited with our bodies—at the Last Judgment, all souls will be united to their body. For those who have done evil, their bodies will be horribly disfigured and they will suffer in those bodies eternally separated from God in hell. <br />
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But for those who have used their bodies to glorify God, they will receive a renewed body, a glorified beautiful body—the unimaginable beauty of their soul will shine through their bodies. This glorified body will have no need for food or drink or even marriage. Instead of the pleasures of food and drink and earthly marriage, there will be much, much greater pleasure. Earthly pleasures in the body are only a small hint to what pleasures God has in store for us. <br />
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Because at the end of our life, God will judge all of our deeds, all that we have done and all that we have failed to do, it is easy for us to be afraid of death and especially in the judgment that follows our death. However, St. Paul gives us encouragement in today’s second reading. He tells us that Grace is given to us in order to “encourage our hearts and strengthen them in every good deed and word.” <br />
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With faith and confidence in God’s grace, we can face our sins and ask God to help us each day to live this life on earth using our bodies and souls in a way that we will be ready to die and meet him. But we strive with the to use our bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit. We must not only treat our bodies as holy and sacred temples, but we must also use them assisted by God’s grace (again which comes to us through the Sacraments) to live holy lives, holy lives lived out in the body. Then we will be able to share in the joy of the resurrection, and live out eternity in heaven not only in our souls but in our bodies as well. If we are ready, meaning if we are holy, if we have taken care of our souls by confessing our sins and amending our lives, if we have been striving to by God grace live out God’s Holy Will in our body on earth, then far from fearing death, we will long for it so we can be with God forever and see Him face to face. <br />
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The Holy Eucharist is the key to the Resurrection of our bodies to the eternal glory of the Father, for the Holy Eucharist is the resurrected human body and blood of Jesus reunited to his human soul, along with the fullness of His divinity. It is through our Holy Communion with Him if we have faith, that gives us the grace to transform our earthly bodies into glorified bodies like Jesus in order to share in the happiness of all the angels and saints in the resurrection of the body in heaven. We become what we eat and we come to share more and more fully in the victory of Jesus until our communion with Him is consummated in an eternal union with the blessed Trinity, along with all of the angels and the Saint, whose bodies and souls together, like ours, will be glorified with the splendor of the Father love.<br />
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We live and move and have our being in Christ, and through the Sacraments, we are members of His Mystical Body, the Church, and children of Our Heavenly Father. Let us ask Jesus to help us deepen our faith, hope and charity and so be prepared to meet him face to face one day not with fear but with hearts full of joy. Even now, our bodies are being transformed into glory. Let us also continue to pray for our dead, all of the Holy Souls in purgatory. Holy Mary, Mother of God, Mother of the living not the dead, pray for us sinners, now and especially at the hour of our death. Holy Mary, we know you will honor all of the Hail Mary's we say in our life and you will be there for us at the hour of our death. Amen. God Bless you all. <br />
Fr. Steven Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12248831829078417061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7841121759921764277.post-25856361105939473432019-05-26T16:55:00.002-07:002019-05-26T16:55:39.658-07:00If you truly want peace, come in silence before the Holy Eucharist and in faith adore and love the living resurrected Jesus silently but really present there.John 14: 23-29. Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time. May 26th, 2019. <br />
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The last few weeks in the Gospel readings we have been hearing Jesus calling us to the deepest form of love. It is a love that surpasses anything that man is capable of on his own power. Unfortunately, our English translations almost always use the word “love” to describe it. However, “love” is certainly not the best of words, for the love that Jesus calls us to is Charity. Charity is human love elevated and united, through grace, to divine love—elevated and united to the God who is Charity.<br />
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Charity is only possible in a human heart to the degree that that human heart trustingly offers itself in totally self-giving love to the God who loved us first- this begins at our baptism and grows through worthy reception of the Holy Mass and the other Sacraments, along with intimate daily prayer and the living out of our beautiful Catholic Faith through the human virtues animated with the theological virtues of Faith, Hope, and of course, Charity.<br />
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Our Gospel today shows us how God loved us first. Our Lord here is preparing to enter into His passion and death in which he would prove his love for us with the greatest act of love the world has ever seen. Jesus in divine love, in Charity, would totally pour Himself out sacrificially for love of each one of us on the Cross-God would die on the cross for us. And He would do so, not just to save us, but in order to be able to give himself has a gift to us in the Holy Eucharist. In this sacrificial offering we discover that the God who has given us the very gift of existence, isn’t content to stop there, he offers us the gift of himself in the Person of Jesus, His Son present in Risen Body in the Holy Eucharist. <br />
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And so, it is in the preparation for His passion that Jesus says to us, “If a man loves me, he will keep my word and my Father will love him and we shall come to him and make our home with him.” Loving Jesus first and foremost and above all else is the key to receiving the Father’s Love in its fullness. It is an act of gratitude to the God who has given us everything, and this gratitude can only be expressed in the offering of our self to the Father through Jesus in order to be united to God in Charity, to the God who is Charity. <br />
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But this love for Jesus must be shown and expressed through virtuous action. After all, love—charity is shown in deeds, not in sweet words. And so, as Jesus says, love for Him is shown in obedience to God's Holy Word. Obeying God’s Holy Word means keeping His commandments and living according to His teachings, which come to us through His Holy Catholic Church. It is in and through the Church that we have been promised the Holy Spirit to help us understand this truth and to be our Diving Helper in living it in our lives. If we do our part, the Holy Spirit, which he leaves with us, will help us to learn and understand the Church’s teaching so we can apply them in everyday life. <br />
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It is this obedience to the truth in our lives that bring us the peace that the world cannot give. Because the world rejects this truth and refuses to live in obedience to God’s Truth, the world has no peace. Rejection of the truth is ultimately a refusal to love God, by refusing to live one’s life in obedience to the truth that comes from God to the truth that leads to God. The result is a lack of peace. And if there is one thing that defines our world today, it is a lack of peace; not just exterior peace but most especially inner peace, peace of soul. <br />
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I think it was Pope VI that once said; “Peace is much more than just a lack of conflict or war.” Many people in the world mistakenly think that all of our advancements in technology are going to give us peace and make us happy. In fact, these technological advancements have led, at least partially, to the ideal that man can live a moral life, a good life, a flourishing life, apart from God and His Commandments, and especially apart from God’s first commandment which is to love Him above all else and adore and worship him according to His dictates, not our own. Our generation even seeks to use its technological advancements to overcome death apart from the power of the Resurrection of Jesus, which is the power of the divine and human love known as Charity, which is stronger than death. But even if he were to succeed, which he will not, to live forever without God and his love is not paradise but hell. <br />
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The result of this pride of man-this self-exaltation of man is nothing but an astronomical increase in the amount of crime, violence, and moral degradation in our society, which have surpassed what many of us never dreamed possible, not to mention the fear of terrorism and war. Peace is more elusive than ever. And what takes its place is a general feeling of insecurity and outright fear. <br />
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All of this has led to a degradation of man himself, who fails to see that his greatest lies in his relationship with His Creator. As result, we see a fear of giving oneself in love to the other, especially to God-this fear is manifested either in outright atheism or at least a practical atheism in which one speaks of God but lives one’s life contrary to God’s truth. We see this manifested in fear of making lifelong commitments to one’s vocation, whether in marriage or the religious life, fear of bringing new life into the world, and above all, fear of not being loved. Psychiatrists and other therapist are literally swamped with clients, depression is rampant, and suicide is epidemic. <br />
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And what is the remedy that most turn to in order to alleviate this fear, fear which stems from a lack of peace? Diversion; noise, lots of noise, TV, music, sex, computer games, pornography, drugs- baseless entertainment and amusement, the list is long. Our generation craves diversion through noise, because it lacks peace; it hates silence; it is afraid of silence. <br />
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In his book, The Power of Silence over the Dictatorship of Noise, Cardinal Sarah, who is the head of the office in the Vatican that oversees the liturgy, including how the Holy Mass is celebrated, speaks of this atheism and noisiness: <br />
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<i>“Postmodern man seeks to anesthetize his own atheism. Noises are screens that betray a fear of the divine, a fear of real life and of death. But “what man can live and never see death? Who can deliver his soul from the power of Sheol?” (Ps 89:48). The Western world ends up disguising death so as to make it acceptable and joyful. The moment of demise becomes a noisy moment in which true silence is lost in weak, useless words expressing compassion.”</i><br />
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What is the solution? The solution is to turn back to the love of God. This begins by setting the diversions aside, especially the diversion of noise and returning in silence to the One who speaks in silence…the living and true God. In silence, alone with oneself and alone with God, we can hear the voice of God who speaks in the silence to our heart; and we can respond to Him still small voice with ours through intimate prayer, heart speaking to heart; heart giving itself to heart. <br />
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A few years ago, you may remember there was an interesting movie that was all about silence before God. It was actually entitled, “Into the Great Silence.” This three-hour movie about the lives of Carthusian monks in the French Alps had hardly any spoken words at all, and yet, the movie was a surprise hit. What is it that made this movie about silence so appealing to such a noisy world? <br />
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One of the comments about the monks in the movie is that they live in no fear…they live with peace, the peace that they have acquired through the years of silently nurturing their relationship with God. They have deepened their faith that they are indeed sons of a loving Father who loves them, each of them with a unique unfathomable love. If we only knew what it means to be a beloved son and daughter of God, we would have no fear, only trust. <br />
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In their faith in Jesus Christ and their striving to live in obedience to His words found in Sacred Scripture and interpreted by the Holy Spirit speaking through the Church, the monks have found that solace that the human heart looks for, the solace that comes from living the world behind and living for love of God alone. And this is really the test in this life isn't it?; whether we turn to human beings and to the things of this world for our solace, or turn to God alone. <br />
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Now, I am not suggesting we all become Carthusian monks, but we do need to enter more into silence in the presence of God, and we have to have the living obedient faith of Carthusian monks. In other words, we need show our love for Jesus by obeying His words, His commandments, and teachings and trusting in Him alone, and the power to this comes through silence, spending intimate time with him apart from the dictatorship of the noise that this world offers. <br />
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Again, Cardinal Sarah:<br />
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<i>“It is necessary to protect precious silence from all parasitical noise. The noise of our “ego”, which never stops claiming its rights, plunging us into an excessive preoccupation with ourselves. The noise of our memory, which draws us toward the past, that of our recollections or of our sins. The noise of temptations or of acedia (sloth), the spirit of gluttony, lust, avarice, anger, sadness, vanity, pride—in short: everything that makes up the spiritual combat that man must wage every day. In order to silence these parasitical noises, in order to consume everything in the sweet flame of the Holy Spirit, silence is the supreme antidote.” </i><br />
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And so like the Carthusian monks, we need to come in contact whenever and however much we can with God in silent prayer before God, in the silence of our inner room, that is our heart and listen. And especially we need to come in silent faith before the Holy Eucharist both at Holy Mass and whenever we can before His physical presence in the tabernacle. The Holy Mass is the Sacrament instituted by Christ in order to bring the world peace because it makes truly present in the Holy Eucharist the One who is the King of Peace, along with His sacrifice of love for us, which made visible the love…no, which made visible the Charity that God has for us.* <br />
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In reality, the more that faith in the Holy Mass and the Holy Eucharist is lost, the more the Mass is ignored or treated as a time for feel-good noisy entertainment, instead of a time for a silent intimate reverential encounter with the living God in adoration and worship, the more we will lack peace and live in fear. This is why the Church has reminded us over and over again to make ample time for periods of sacred silence during Mass. But so sadly us moderns too often try to fill every moment of the Holy Mass with noise. <br />
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Thomas Merton summed this all up nicely when he wrote: <br />
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<i>Silence is not a virtue, noise is not a sin, it is true, but the turmoil and confusion and constant noise of modern society are the expressions of the ambiance of its greatest sins—its godlessness, its despair. A world of propaganda, of endless argument, vituperation, criticism, or simply of chatter is a world without anything to live for…Mass becomes racket and confusion; prayers—an exterior or interior noise” (Thomas Merton, The Sign of Jonas). </i><br />
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Cardinal Sarah put it this way: <br />
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<i>“Why are men so noisy during the liturgies while Christ's prayer was silent? The words of the Son of God come from the heart, and the heart is silent. Why do we not know how to speak with a silent heart? The heart of Jesus does not speak. It radiates with love because its language comes from the divine depths." </i><br />
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Therefore if you truly want peace, come in silence before the Holy Eucharist and in faith adore and love the living resurrected Jesus silently but really present there. It’s hard for us to do this because of the silence, I didn’t say silence is easy. The Eucharist makes no earthly noise, it is true, but it is in that sacred silence before the living God truly present in the Holy Eucharist that we will find the peace that we are looking for, the peace that the world cannot give because it is in the Holy Eucharist that we will find the strength to love God with deeds, in obedience to His truth. And then, then we will be able to give ourselves to him entirely, and He and the Father will come and make their Home in us and place His own love alive in our souls and in our hearts; then and only then will we truly have peace.<br />
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I want to end with a saying from Mother Theresa of Calcutta. She learned to love in adoration, in silent contemplation before the Eucharist. There she learned to see the true face of God in every suffering human being and showed her love for God by obedience to His word which resulted in her life of peace, lived in service to God and neighbor; and others experienced the Charity of God through her. Mother of Theresa said… <br />
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The fruit of silence is PRAYER.<br />
The fruit of prayer is FAITH.<br />
The fruit of faith is LOVE.<br />
The fruit of love is SERVICE.<br />
The fruit of service is PEACE.<br />
And I would dare to add: the fruit of peace is complete trust in and abandonment to God by offering ourselves to God through Charity !!<br />
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Fr. Steven Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12248831829078417061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7841121759921764277.post-87877881928942188002019-03-10T13:26:00.001-07:002019-03-10T13:27:47.793-07:00Like the Israelites, God calls us too, out into the desert.Luke 4:1-3. First Sunday in Lent. March 10th, 2019<br />
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Lent is our time to imitate our Blessed Lord and to allow the Holy Spirit to lead us into the desert. <br />
But why the desert? Time in the desert signifies a time away from our normal cares, a turning away from the distractions of the world and worldly things which do not last, and a turning more fully toward that which last forever, the one thing in which we can truly trust--the eternal God and His unfathomable love for us. <br />
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In the Old Testament, God called Israelites out of Egypt, which represents the spirit of the world, and calls them into the desert. Why? So that apart from the distractions of Egypt, and all of its idols and false worship, He could teach them again to recognize His sovereign rights as their one True God. All so they could offer Him proper worship and adoration, not for God's sake but for their own. <br />
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In their struggles and hunger, they would see their complete dependency on God and then turn to worship Him and adoring Him alone and doing so according to His dictates. He for His part would reveal His great Love for them. He would provide for their every need, give them water from the rock of salvation, feed them with bread from heaven and lead them to the promised land flowing with milk and honey; but most of all He would take them to Himself; He would be their God and they would be His people; He would share Himself totally to Him and make them one with Him lavishing them with His divine Love, that for which they truly hungered and thirsted; He would give them life. <br />
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Like the Israelites, God calls us too, out into the desert. In the desert, filled with silence, we too can hear the small, still, voice of God speaking to us, teaching us, revealing His love to us. Apart from the distractions and noise of this world, we can come face to face with God in prayer, the God who draws near to us. It is then that we are able to honestly recognize the Creator’s sovereign rights over us. He is our Creator, the source of our existence and the loving and caring Father to whom we are called to return. We are poor creatures, completely dependent on Him and so need to reach out to Him by worshiping and adoring Him, and doing so properly. We must have an attitude of poverty because the truth is we are absolutely nothing, have nothing without God; but with Him, we have everything. <br />
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The more we come to this realization of the sovereign rights of God over us, the more we see the many ways we have replaced our dependency on God with our idols, that is, those things that we have put in the place of God and so have worshiped and adored instead of him. True religion always, if it is true, consists of adoring God. It is our supreme duty to do so; it is a matter of justice. But this duty is a duty of love, better yet a response of love that comes from the fact that God has first loved us; He has created us and wants us to return to Him. <br />
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As a result, in our effort to return to Him, we must necessarily deny ourselves of those things that have taken us or prevented us from a deeper relationship with Him. We must deny our self of those things we have loved before Him and so have, in a sense, “worshiped” before Him, especially, our love of comfort before service, pleasure before self-denial, power over others, and sinful amusements before adoration. Our inordinate attachments to these “idols” prevent us from offering proper worship and adoration of God. <br />
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And so, in order to help rid ourselves of these inordinate attachments, we are asked in Lent to take on a spirit of penance and repentance, this leads us to self-denial; in other words, to the cross—which is the way of Love of Jesus and others before ourselves. We deny ourselves by giving up comforts and delights, such as abstinence from meat or other food or drink. This sacrificing and denying of ourselves leads us to discover that nothing, nothing on this earth can fulfill our dependency and our longing for God. Think about the things people give up for love- things like meals, sleep; we sacrifice because we want to be closer to the one we love—this is what Lent is all about. <br />
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During this time of Lent when we begin to discipline ourselves so we can convert and draw closer to our God, it is then that we will experience many temptations from satan. The devil always promises more than he can give. He doesn't want our happiness; anything he tempts us with is a miserable deception. In order to test us, the devil takes advantage of our own ambitions, of our desire to be the center of attention and to seek ourselves in everything we do or plan. This self-centeredness is at the heart of wanting material things so much that we end up turning to them before God and so worshiping them. We then give God lip service if even at all. Material things then cease to be good because they separate us from God and from our fellow man. As a result, we fail to serve God and our neighbor for love of God and end up only serving ourselves, and this leads to our destruction. But Jesus tells us that we should seek only His glory. He tells us, "You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve. <br />
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Ultimately God, allows these temptations from the devil to help purify us, to make us holy, to detach ourselves from the things of the earth, to lead us to where He is and by the route He wants us to take, so as to make us happy (even in a life which may not be comfortable), to make us flourish; He allows them in order to help us to grow in Christian maturity and understanding, and virtue, so as to become more effective in our apostolic work for the salvation of souls. He allows temptations above all to make us humble, very humble. <br />
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It is then very clear why we need to spend these forty days in the desert very close to our blessed Lord, fasting with Him, praying with Him and giving alms, three things which weaken the power of Satan over us. And above all, we need to stay close to Him by making use of the Sacraments, especially Holy Mass and confession, (you can’t really love or flourish without confession), all so that we may have the grace and the power to persevere in the battle and so share in Jesus’ victory over the devil and his temptations. Additionally, as well, we need to take in the Lenten devotions offered to us, like walking with Jesus along the way of His via Dolorosa, His way to Calvary in the Stations of the Cross on Fridays; also, by experiencing all the Holy Week Masses and services, like Holy Thursday and Good Friday. And especially, by spending time in adoration where we can really experience the silence of the desert but above experience the bodily presence of Jesus alongside us in our struggles. <br />
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In the temptations of Christ, we discover that Jesus has allowed Himself to be tempted for our sakes. He was tempted as one of us, having laid aside His divine power. Christ, true God and true man-made Himself like us in all things except sin and voluntarily underwent temptation. He was tempted in order to give us an example and a model of what we are to do when we too are tempted by satan and to give us hope that we too can share in His victory. St. John Vinney, the Cure of Ars, said:<br />
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<i>“How fortunate we are, how lucky to have a God as our model. Are we poor? We have a God who is born in a stable, who lies in a manger. Are we despised? We have a God who led the way, who was crowned with thorns, dressed in a filthy red cloak and treated as a madman. Are tormented by pain and suffering? Before our eyes we have a God covered with wounds, dying in unimaginable pain. Are we being persecuted? How can we dare complain when we have a God who is being put to death by executioners? Finally, are we being tempted by the demon? We have a lovable Redeemer; he also was tempted by the demon and was twice taken up by the hellish spirit: therefore, no matter what sufferings, pains or temptations we are experiencing, we always have, everywhere, our God leading the way for us and assuring us of victory as long as we genuinely desire it.”</i> <br />
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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, mortifcation, and penance for our sin. A temptation that saythe s that essence of love is personal gratification and not sacrifice, a temptation that says love is not that of laying down one’s life for a friend. Our Lady can teach us how to adore Jesus, how to give ourselves entirely to him without fear in complete trust; 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 to 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, through our proper adoration at Holy Mass, we are called as his little children to return. Amen.<br />
Fr. Steven Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12248831829078417061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7841121759921764277.post-32123017826174991002018-12-23T20:38:00.002-08:002018-12-23T20:38:20.848-08:00Fourth Sunday in Advent. December 23rd., 2018<br />
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Who am I that the Mother of my Lord should come to Me? These are profound words coming from The Virgin Mary’s cousin Elizabeth. They not only point to the great reverence that Elizabeth had for the Blessed Mother but even more, to the reverence she had for the One of whom Mary was the mother. Elizabeth tells us, in fact, cries this out to us in her own words, words which are some of the most familiar in all of history, “Blessed art thou amongst Women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb--Jesus. <br />
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Elizabeth’s words reflect the profound adoration she had when she came into the presence of the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the True God, truly, physically present in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Additionally, Elizabeth’s own child in her womb—John the Baptist, was sanctified by being in the presence of this incarnate God, which caused the infant John to leap for Joy. What an incredible mystery, one given to us in today’s Gospel to prepare us for the coming of the Christ Child at Christ-mas. <br />
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This experience of Elizabeth, and of her child in the womb, was also experienced in some way by all who came into the stable at Bethlehem on beholding the newborn King--God Himself in the flesh, Emmanual come into the world to die in order to save men from their sin. However, before that little divine child, unlike the encounter in today’s Gospel, no words were spoken, all in the stable gazed silently at the little Divine baby in deep adoration. Probably one of the songs that best captures the image and feeling of this tranquil adoration is the song Silent Night. Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright. <br />
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I am always amazed how if one truly listens with one’s heart on Christmas Eve, there is always a profound stillness that seems to be manifested in all of creation. Even amidst the greetings and the noisiness of Christmas celebrations, if you just take a few moments to listen, the whole of created reality seems to be in a type of hushed reverential awe. When I was in a parish, after I would offer Midnight Mass, as I walked back to the rectory, I would always be struck by this, and I would take some time to stop and listen to the “silence;” it seemed as if all of creation was on it’s “knees” so to speak, bowed down in adoration at the very thought of its Creator being born into the flesh as one of His own creatures. Yet, in all of creation, the only one of God’s creatures that is stirring against this manifest silence and referential awe before the incarnate God born into the world is God’s creature man. <br />
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Our age is surely an age of great noise. It is as if man is afraid of silence, afraid of what or Whom, he or she might encounter in the silence. In his book, “The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise,” Robert Cardinal Sarah, says: <br />
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<i>“Noise is a deceptive, addictive, and false tranquilizer. The tragedy of our world is never better summed up than in the fury of senseless noise that stubbornly hates silence. This age detests the things that silence brings us to: encounter, wonder, and kneeling before God” (p. 74). He says, “Without silence, God disappears in the noise. And this noise becomes all the more obsessive because God is absent. Unless the world rediscovers silence, it is lost. The earth then rushes into nothingness” (p.80).</i> <br />
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A few weeks ago, I made the statement, that we will never be able to keep Christ in Chriwithoutith out keeping the Mass in Christmas. The name Christmas literally means “Christ’s Mass.” Today, in the same Spirit that made Elizabeth cry out, I would also like to cry out, proclaiming that we will never be able to keep the Mass in Christmas, and so, not only keep Christ in Christmas but in our world and in our hearts, unless we recover the profound importance of Sacred Silence in our Catholic Churches.<br />
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Every Holy Mass is a Christ---Mass, for at every Holy Mass we truly celebrate “Christmas” when Jesus says through the priest, “this is My Body and this is My Blood. At God’s Words, Jesus the Eternal Word of the Father, becomes truly and physically present on this altar, no less present than He was in the crib at Bethlehem 2000 years ago. Jesus, God literally in the flesh, is reborn again on the Altar at the words of consecration and then elevated for us to adore in silent and profound reverence and adoration.<br />
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What reverence we should have; in what profound “silence” we should approach such a mystery as this. This is a priviledged time for us to be literally with Jesus in silence and let Him, as he did with John the Baptist, sanctify us in the womb of our hearts, especially as he comes sacramentally, truly, into our bodies and souls. Every Holy Mass is truly a silent night, a holy night. <br />
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In fact, every time we come into, or are present in a Catholic Church, we are like Elizabeth coming into the presence of Jesus in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We can look at the tabernacle as a type of womb, in which Jesus is contain, no less than He was in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Or we can look at it this way. Every Catholic Church is a stable, every tabernacle a crib, in which is contain that poor babe that was truly present in the stable of Bethlehem-the God-man come into the world in bodily flesh. <br />
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How did the Angels and Shepherds, how did the three wisemen act in the stable before the newborn King? How did all of those act, even the animals, who came into his true presence? Did they speak, or they did they kneel in silent adoration before their God and Creator? I think it was the latter. <i>“This is a reminder that we should never infantalize the Babe of Bethlehem for, while He may whimper in the manager, this is the voice that made all things and judges all at the end of time” </i>(Fr. George Rutler, Bulletin Article for this Sunday). <br />
When we are in a Catholic Church, we are in the presence of Jesus through whom an by whom all that is was created—He is present for us, no less than he was present to those who came to adore Him in the crib at Bethlehem—this is the Mystery of our Faith. Just think of the truth of it—“And how does this happen to us, that our Lord should come to us?” (cf. Lk 1:39-45). <i>Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled”</i> (Lk. 1:45).<br />
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A few years back, the bishop for Peoria said “that the reverence we show during Mass, expressed in words, gestures, music and surroundings, inspires reverence for all of the Catholic faith and ultimately for God himself. The bishop went on to say, <i>“reverence at Mass starts with actions such as dressing appropriately and arriving on time; praying and reflecting on the readings of the Mass; observing the one-hour fast before Communion; repenting of one’s sins; going to confession frequently; performing acts of self denial; and showing Christian charity to others.”</i> All of these things, he said, have been somewhat neglected in the past 50 years since the Second Vatican council and this neglect as contributed to a loss of the sense of mystery and sacredness of the Holy Mass and a loss of the realization of the holiness of the sacred space which contains the True Presence of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. <br />
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But I would argue, what has been neglected more than anything else is appropriate times of referential silence at the Holy Mass. It is as if, we have brought the noiseness of the world into the Sacred Liturgy. This as caused a profound lessening of the understanding of the mystery of the Holy Mass. St John Paul II, reminded us how necessary is silence in order to bring about reverence and a sense of mystery in the presence of Jesus, when St. John Paul said, <i>“An aspect which must be cultivated with greater commitment in our communities is the experience of Silence…When people’s daily lives are frantic and full of noise, rediscovering the value of silence is vital.”</i> He went on to say that, rediscovering the value of silence is vital to understanding the Holy Mass and entering into its profound mystery. Cardinal Sarah, who I quoted earlier, said, <i>“Silence is an acoustic veil that protects the mystery…a sort of sonic iconastasis</i> (a window into heaven).” On this earth veils are necessary for us to help us keep a sense of sacredness so as not to profane the things of God; this especially so with regards to the true presence of God in the Holy Eucharist. <br />
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In the General Instruction to the Roman Missal (explain), the Holy Spirit speaking through the Church gives us these recommondations on silence at Holy Mass: <br />
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First, in the Advent part of the Mass beginning with the penitential Rite, silence is to help us call to mind our sins and express interior sorrow for them. <br />
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After the Scripture readings and the homily, silence is to help us meditate on what we have heard and bring it into our hearts and minds. <br />
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After Christ has been born on our altars and has come Sacramentally into our bodies, at Holy Communion-Silence is a privileged time for us to pray to our God, to spend time in silent adoration with Him now substantially present in our souls. The time after Holy Communion is the most intimate time we have with our Lord. It should not be a time when we watch others going up to communion, or watch Father purify the chalice and remove the vessels from the altar; or even worse receive Him as did Judas, and immediately go off into the night. <br />
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And finally, before Holy Mass begins and after Holy Mass is over, silence is to be strictly observed in the Church to help us prepare for Holy Mass and to help us with prayerful Thanksgiving after Mass, thanking God for the privilege of attending Mass, and being in His true presence in the tabernacle. A privilege that is equal to that of Elizabeth and all those who came into the stable of Bethlehem. <br />
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Pope Francis Himself has said <i>“At church, Catholics should spend their time in silence before Mass, preparing "to meet with Jesus" instead of engaging in "chitchat." </i><br />
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Times of silence far from being dead time can very much be alive, active times when we allow God to touch us, to talk to us and sanctify us in deep intimacy with Him. Silence is absolutely necessary in our prayer if we are to hear the Lord speak to us. “Silence has the capacity to open a space in our inner being, a space in which God can dwell, which can ensure that His Word remains within us, and that love for Him is rooted in our minds and hearts, and animates our lives" (Pope Emeritus Benedict).<br />
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In this time before this coming of our Lord again into our world, on this Altar and into our bodies at this Christ Mass, let us turn to the Mother of Jesus to help us prepare to adore Him in the silence of our hearts , so we can bear the fruit of the Christ Child alive in the womb of our soul, thus being able by the Holy Spirit to cry out with our very lives to the mercy and love of this God for this World and for all human persons, and to do so for their eternal salvation and ours. Hail, “Full of Grace,” the Lord is with Thee….Blessed are thou amougst Women, and bless is the fruit of thy womb—the Holy Eucharist. Amen. <br />
Fr. Steven Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12248831829078417061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7841121759921764277.post-37431332603867006962018-11-10T20:00:00.001-08:002018-11-10T20:00:50.028-08:00Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time. November 11th, 2018. St. Anthony's Hospital Chapel.<br />
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Today in our Gospel, St Mark continues the theme of the Gospels of the last quite a few weeks, that of giving all of our wealth to the Lord. And so, today we hear the tale of two widows, one from the Old Testament times and one from the time of the Gospel. In both times, Old and New, there was not too many other people that were more destitute than a widow. Remember, before Christianity, and the rise of Western Christian Civilization, the dignity of woman was understood as being less than that of the household slave. So, in both of these cases the action of these two women point out something much deeper than just their great generosity, it points to the women’s motivation behind their actions. <br />
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The first widow by giving to this man of God, the great prophet Elijah, what little food she has, results in her being incredibly rewarded; in fact, her entire family is blessed through her. Same too with the widow in our gospel, by giving what little money she had in the temple, Jesus says of her, that her contribution though seemingly of insignificant value was actually worth more in the eyes of God than all those who gave of their surplus wealth, for she contributed all she had, her whole livelihood. <br />
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But what was it about both of these woman’s contribution that made them so acceptable in the eyes of the Lord? It surely wasn’t the amount or the worth of the gift! What was it that these women were actually contributing? <br />
Isn’t it true that, each of these women’s gift represented much more than the gift of a thing, that what they were really giving was worth much more than a thing? For the gift that each of them really gave was the gift of their self to the Lord. <br />
As a result, these women are blessed not by the value of the material gift, but by the value of the gift it signified, the gift of everything they had, and are, back to God. In the case of the woman in our first reading shown by giving food to the man of God, Elijah; in other words, by giving everything to the one who represented God on earth she was indeed giving everything to God. And the woman in the Gospel, her gift given to God in the temple, which was the symbol of Jesus on earth, she was giving everything to God. <br />
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God does not desire things from us. When, He says, as he did to the rich young man, that he desires that we sell everything we have and give it to the poor, his words are not about things per say. God is not about things, but about person. And so strictly speaking, He doesn’t want things from us; he doesn’t even want good works from us, for the sake of the good works, but instead, he wants what those goods works of donation, of time, talent and treasure should represent, our interior motives behind them, which is to love Him, and to love others for love of him; in other words, to show by our actions that we wish to give to God ourselves in an act of self-donation, freely given, acts of self-giving Love, to show our motive to give our self to God, totally. <br />
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Perhaps to even understand this in a deeper way we need to look at the very nature of God, Who God is. God is pure act. He is always acting as who He is. And who He is, is Pure Love. Love is an act of self-donation, and so God is always acting in self-donation for the sake of the other. This is the love between the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity, their love is always in Pure Act. Always acting in an act of totally self-donation of love to the other. And this Act of God, this Love of God is what we are all called to enter into, beginning here on earth. With the help of God’s grace we are call to live our entire life, using everything we have, everything we do, think and say, according to the will of God in act of self-donating love. Even we give unto others, even if it be all that we possess—even if we lay down our life for them, the motive behind this act must be--giving this, doing that, as exterior act in order to express our interior motivation of total self-donation to God, total self-gift to God.<br />
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Another important aspect of the loving self-gift of these woman to God, was that it occurring precisely during great hardship and suffering in their life; in others words, at a time in their life when they were encountering the cross. Their actions also show that they were saying yes, to the cross and yes to the sacrifice of love that it represents. <br />
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By His own accepting of the cross, by suffering and dying on the cross, as one of us, Jesus shows us perfect love--offering one’s entire self for sake of his friends—Us. This is why the crucifixion of Christ points to the gift of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. Jesus died on the cross in order to give us Himself in love, for God to give Himself to us in the holy Eucharist; in this He gives us everything He has. In this, Jesus makes present the Trinitarian eternal Act of Love, of self-donation that occurs between each of the three divine Persons of the Blessed Trinity. And because this act of Jesus on the cross is an act of one of those Three Persons—namely Jesus, this sacrifice of Jesus can become actualized in our midst, truly present in our midst on this altar at this Holy Mass. <br />
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And through this Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, by our full and actual participation in it; that is our interior motivation to offer our self in union with Jesus to the Father, we can literally share in the power of God’s pure eternal Act of Love, and actualize this love in our life, experience it on a daily basis and share it with others—this goes beyond emotion and feeling, because we live this most especially in midst of suffering, in the midst of the passion, in the midst of the cross…in fact, nothing good comes to us but by way of the cross in our lives, that is if we say yes to it. And if we do open our self, by our act of faith and of trust, we open ourselves up to the grace that God wishes to give us through the cross, and we become truly blessed, and others are blessed through us, for we truly become Christ-like. <br />
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And this brings us to our motives at Holy Mass, and our motives for how actions in everything we think, say or do in our life. The Second Vatican two said, Man cannot find himself except through a sincere gift of self-donation. This gift of self begins at Holy Mass, if we choose to freely say yes, and offer our self on the Altar. This act of self-donating is made possible by the Grace of the Holy Mass and it can only come to completion in perfection in our lives, through the Holy Mass. <br />
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In light of this great truth of our faith, and in light of the actions of the widow in today’s readings, let us examine our motives for being here? and Let us examine our motives behind the way we live our life. Why are we here today at Holy Mass? Is it because of an establish routine of our life, out of habit alone? Is because we feel bad, as we say, if we don’t get to Holy Mass on Sunday? Is it merely that? Is it chiefly because we adhere to a tradition rooted in our ancestry or ethnic background or family habits? Why are we here; why do we participate? And what are our motives behind how we participate? It is merely to express our self-righteousness? After all, “I am not like the others who don’t go to church on Sundays!!!” Additionally, why do I do the good deeds that I do in my life, give to the Church, or give to the poor? Is it for the same types of motivation? It is not sacrifice and oblation that the Lord wants, but the gift of pure heart, one that desires to do God’s Holy Will. And I said, “I have come to do your will Oh Lord, as a way to show love, as a way to answer in love to You—You who are Love, as a way to offer myself back to You, who as Pure Love, has offer to me, and continues to offer to me everything, including your very self. <br />
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Prayer to Our Lady of Hope<br />
O Mary, my Mother, I kneel before you with heavy heart. The burden of my sins oppresses me. The knowledge of my weakness discourages me. I am beset by fears and temptations of every sort (especially fear of the cross). Yet I am so attached to the things of this world that instead of longing for Heaven I am filled with dread at the thought of death.<br />
O Mother of Mercy, have pity on me in my distress. You are all-powerful with your Divine Son. He can refuse no request of your Immaculate Heart. Show yourself a true Mother to me by being my advocate before His throne. O Refuge of Sinners and Hope of the Hopeless, to whom shall I turn if not you?<br />
Obtain for me, then, O Mother of Hope, the grace of true sorrow for my sins, the gift of perfect resignation to God's Holy Will, and the courage to take up my cross and follow Jesus. <br />
But above all I pray, O dearest Mother, that through your most powerful intercession my heart may be filled with Holy Hope, so that in life's darkest hour I may never fail to trust in God my Savior, but by walking in the way of His commandments I may merit to be united with Him, and with you in the eternal joys of Heaven. Amen.<br />
Mary, our Hope, have pity on us.<br />
Hope of the Hopeless, pray for us.<br />
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Fr. Steven Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12248831829078417061noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7841121759921764277.post-10458832437978066752018-10-29T20:22:00.003-07:002018-10-29T20:22:30.356-07:00Homily for Mark 10:46-52<br />
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time<br />
October 27th, 2018<br />
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For the last couple of weeks, Our Lord has passionately challenged us. A couple of weeks ago, we were asked along with the rich young man, to give up everything and follow Jesus; in other words, we were asked to live our lives in imitation of Jesus, not paying attention to anything that doesn’t draw us closer to God. Last week, we were told to give up our pride and our desire for power and domination over others in order to serve them as if we were slaves of love, slaves of Christ. Today, Jesus again challenges us to believe and be converted more fully.<br />
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But again, we can say, I have already been converted; I am already a good person. Yet, today’s Gospel continues to call for a more intense daily conversion by allowing God to transform our life more completely to the way things really are—to God’s way. And so, the story of a physical healing of blindness in the Gospel manifests to us a spiritual conversion and healing it brings about. <br />
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Bartimaeus was blind and so he couldn’t “see” Jesus. But he heard the truth about Him from others and as a consequence, Bartimaeus begins to beg along the road that Jesus is coming on; this begging is a sign of his opening his heart to the gift of faith. Consequently, when Bartimaeus hears that Jesus is near, he cries out to Jesus. <br />
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Bartimaeus acts in a bold way; however, the others viewed it as nothing but rude behavior so they tell him to be quiet. Here in these others, we see manifested to us the difficulty of conversion and the resistance of the human heart to it. Contrastingly, however, it is in seeing his own sinfulness and his own great need for Jesus, followed by crying out from the depths of his heart for help, that Bartimaeus is able to break through the resistance of his own heart. Bartimaeus accepts the reality of his situation, accepts that he is totally dependent on Jesus; and in his utter poverty Bartimaeus cries out with great trust and with a great profession of Faith in Jesus, “Jesus, Son of David have pity on Me.” <br />
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Bartimaeus accepts in humility the truth and reality that he is a poor sinner. (Recall at the time of Jesus, people believed that illness was a direct result of personal sin. Bartimaeus may not have been directly culpable for his blindness, but he, like all of us sinners, was not without guilt). Yet, even so, Jesus stops and commands his disciples to: “Call him, call Bartimaeus.” It is always this way with the mercy of God; God in His Divine Mercy always reaches out to the sinner who humbly calls upon His Mercy, and he always opposes the rich, that is those who in their self-righteousness, think their own goodness is sufficient. For Bartimaeus then, Jesus rewards his humble trust and faith by saying, “What do you want me to do for you?”<br />
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It’s interesting that we are told that Bartimaeus’ faith is so great, that in response to Jesus, Bartimaeus literally “throws aside his cloak.” This seemingly minor detail is one that we could easily miss; it is however very significant. Here Bartimaeus, willingly and even with joy, gives up his most prized possession—his cloak, in order to be with Jesus. <br />
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To understand this fully, we have to “see” that the cloak of a poor person was his sole source of warmth, his sole source of protection from the elements, and of bedding for night’s sleep—it was usually their only physical possession. Bartimaeus’ jumping up and running to Jesus indicates that he seeks all his strength, security and solace in nothing but the Lord (in other words, not in any so-called security blanket of the world). Bartimaeus believes from his heart that Jesus will provide everything, everything he needs-and so he gives Jesus everything. <br />
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Every Christian, every human being, whether they know it or not, longs to hear the question that Jesus puts to Bartimaeus next, “What do you want me to do for you?” We would think that Bartimaeus would ask for money and for material possessions, for a way out of his poverty, to win the lottery, or even to overcome his enemies. But instead, all Bartimaeus ask of Jesus is to be able to “see”. At first, we might think that request is all about Bartimaeus and about his wish to see physically, but it isn’t. <br />
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Bartimaeus asks for his sight, but only so that he could “see” through the eyes of faith, in order to follow Jesus truly. Note well here that as Jesus heals him, Jesus also gives him a free choice. Our Lord says, “Go on your way.” Bartimaeus is now free to do as he pleases. Jesus doesn’t command Bartimaeus to follow Him, as was Jesus’ custom (Remember the rich young man). Unlike the rich young man, however, here the poor man, has thrown aside everything already, and so when given the choice, follows Jesus naturally. He has a healing that goes far beyond the physical and so he truly sees in faith what he is to do- He knows this from the heart- a heart full of faith and trust. The healing of his physical sight manifests the inner conversion of his heart and the healing of his spiritual blindness. And so now, being able to see Jesus with faith, Bartimaeus follows Jesus up the road…<br />
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Paradoxically, in the end, Bartimaeus who is blind comes to have faith—to see and believe the Truth, while the crowd around him, although physically able to see, nonetheless will not “see,” that is, will not believe and accept that they need radical conversion--they thought they were the good people, but they were the blind ones-they did not see who Jesus really was—the true and living God in the flesh. <br />
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The point for us here today in this beautiful story of Divine Mercy, is that we too, like Bartimaeus need Jesus to heal us of our blindness so that we can toss our cloak away; that is, toss away all those riches that we cling to besides Jesus; again, not only material riches but to throw away the cloak of pride and self-righteousness that has spiritually blinded us to our sinfulness and so blinded us to our great need for Jesus and his continual healing and forgiveness available to us in the Sacraments of the Catholic Church. <br />
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Spiritual blindness is far worse than physical blindness, because spiritual blindness blinds us to reality, blinds us to the way things really are; it blinds us to the way we really are. It’s clear then, we all, in humility, need to ask, as poor beggars, for Jesus to open our spiritual eyes in order to see ourselves as we are, to see reality as it is, not as we would like it to be or feel it is.<br />
With our spiritual eyes open, we see, if we are honest, that one of the most, if not the most common trait of every one of us fallen human beings is an ever-present and all-encompassing egocentrism. This trait is very connected with the lust for power in order to have others serve us and fall at our feet; it’s the all about Me attitude- the “going my own way, doing it my own way” attitude of so many. But each of us must also admit to some degree, “Yes, my thoughts and desires and inclinations are spontaneously focused not on God or others for love of God, but on myself; my conveniences, my pleasures, my preferences, my possessions, my prospects, my plans, my sufferings, my desires, my aspirations, my reputation, my freedom.” Anyone who reflects a bit, who is honest, knows this to be true. All too often, we want to see things our way and not the way of Jesus. <br />
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One writer said that in this concentration on “me” many times we stubbornly cling to how we view things even in the face of strong evidence to the contrary. When someone confronts us with the truth, with strong evidence on how reality really is we say, “I am right because this is my preference and so I don’t need to consider your reasons and arguments seriously.” <br />
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It is at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, however, that we can confidently “approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.” It is here, that Jesus asks each one of us, “What is that you want from me?” Jesus, I want you to heal my blindness so I can to see that you are the One that I really seek, for you alone can heal me and fulfill the deepest longing of our human heart. Help me to see not only my sins but to see you and to see the goodness that you have placed within me. And help me to see through the eyes of faith that soon, on this Sacred Altar you and your once and for all Sacrifice will become truly present before me for the sins of the whole world.<br />
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Through your heavenly mother we throw away our cloak, all that we have placed before you our God, including the false front with which we so often present ourselves before you, and in trust, we offer everything to you so that you would present it before the Face of Your Heavenly Father and ours. Jesus, You have given your everything for us in order to be able to come into us in the Holy Eucharist at Holy Communion, help us to receive you fully so as to possess you and be possessed by you fully. Give us your Holy Spirit so that we may follow you on your way, telling others about you--and not about ourselves, saying to them “Take courage, get up. Jesus is calling you? Go to him and tell him what you want him to do for you.” Finally, Jesus, son of David, Have Mercy on Me, a poor miserable sinner. That I may see. Amen.<br />
Fr. Steven Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12248831829078417061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7841121759921764277.post-13396817136364065312018-10-07T09:32:00.001-07:002018-10-07T09:32:27.080-07:00Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time. October, 7th, 2018<br />
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If today, October 7th, hadn’t fallen on a Sunday we would be celebrating the Solemnity of “Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary." Considering the focus of the Gospel today is Marriage, and so also the family and life, I think it would be good to speak about the Holy Rosary, for the Holy Rosary is truly The Marriage and Family Prayer. The original title of this feast day of Our Lady of the Rosary was actually, “Our Lady of Victory;” the title was changed after Vatican II. <br />
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The feast of Our Lady of Victory was inaugurated to commemorate the miraculous naval victory of the fleet of the Holy Roman Empire’s, led by Don Juan, over the vastly superior fleet of the Ottoman Empire. It is a critically important historical event, one that we need to be aware of, particularly in light of current events. For if the battle of Lepanto had been lost, your life and mine, and our society, our country, would be very different today. <br />
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The battle of Lepanto took place on October 7th, 1571, and involved over 400 ships the largest in history till that time. The Christian fleet was outnumbered three to one, and any chance of victory was impossible by mere human strategic maneuvers. The stakes couldn’t have been higher as one of the Turkish leaders boasted that after the conquest, the first thing he would do would be to turn St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome into a mosque. And it wasn’t an empty boast, for his forebears had done this exact thing with the “St. Peter’s” of the Eastern Church—the Great Hagia Sophia. Hagia Sophia was located in what was the “Rome” of the Eastern Church, the great Christian City of Constantinople. Christian Constantinople is now present-day Islamic Istanbul, and Hagia Sophia is indeed a Mosque and all Christian symbols have been removed and defaced (remind them of this Church that they have all seen in movies etc). <br />
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So clearly, if the Battle of Lepanto had been lost, not only would this boast have most certainly become a reality—St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome being turned into a mosque, but all of Europe, then and even to the present day, including all of us in America, would be speaking Aramaic; in fact, American would not exist. Western Civilization would most likely have been wiped out, along with all its positive achievements, for which so many fail to give it credit and take for granted; for example, the founding of hospitals and the great advancements in healthcare; the creation of the university system; orphanages; the equality of women through the Indissolvability of Marriage, woman who before were treated worse than the household slave; the understanding of the dignity of the human person and the sanctity of life, made in the image and likeness of God and redeemed by the Precious Blood of Christ; the notion of a justice system that sees every person innocent until proven guilty (not guilty until they prove themselves innocent), along with justice tempered with mercy and love even toward our enemies, all of this would have been gone, along with all the intellectual achievements of Judeo-Christian Western Civilization.<br />
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Thank God, that at the time of the Battle of Lepanto, a great Dominican Pope, Pope Pius V, saw the seriousness of the situation clearly and so instructed all the Churches of Italy to pray the rosary as the battle began. The people responded. And through the faithfulness of so many Christians praying, from their heart and on their knees, the most powerful of all weapons—the weapon of the Rosary, a true miracle occurred, one which allowed the Christian fleet to win a miraculous battle against an almost invincible army, which was on the verge of subduing and oppressing all of Europe. <br />
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I think it is easy for us moderns to underestimate the power of the Rosary. Surely none of us here, but many other Catholics dismiss the Rosary as some outdated pious devotion which was done away with by Vatican II—thank God!” They say-we’re beyond that sort of thing. Those with this erroneous idea have never read the documents of Vatican II; and even more so, they have no faith. <br />
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Some other non-Catholic Christians can see the rosary as not scriptural but as an idolatrous addition to the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ. Actually, however, as you know, the Rosary is entirely Scriptural; it consists of the Salutation of the Angel Gabriel to the Virgin of Nazareth, whom the Angel address not as Mary, but by the title, “Full of Grace;” and as well, of the greeting of Elizabeth, “Blessed is the fruit of thy Womb!” In the prayer of the Holy Rosary, let us not forget with whom we are dealing; we are dealing with the Great Mother of God, Mary most holy, whom we address directly as, “Holy Mary, Mother of God.<br />
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In the “Song of Song,” in the Old Testament, the question is asked, “Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array?” Who is she? <br />
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She is the Woman that is mentioned in the Proto-Evangelium—the Pre-Gospel found in Genesis 3:15. Here, after Adam and Eve fell and were both expelled from Paradise, their relationship between God and each other having been severely ruptured, God gives satan his punishment, “I will put enmity between you and the Woman, between her seed and yours; you will lie in wait for her heal, and she will crush your head.” The only way there could be enmity between this Woman and satan is for the Woman to be “Immaculate, that is without sin from the first moment of her conception, never under satan’s power; another way to say this is, “Full of Grace.” <br />
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It is the Virgin Mary who will crush satan’s head; her humility will overcome his pride and his power over the earth and its inhabitants. This is why so many Statues of the Virgin depict her foot on the serpent’s head. This is not just pious imagery but soon to be historical fact. Jesus has defeated Satan, the death sentence has been pronounced, but not yet carried out; it will be carried out by Jesus own mother. <br />
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How much we need the Rosary in the great struggle that we are facing in our world today. The battle we are facing in our times is many many times greater and more important than the People of God and the world faced during the Battle of Lepanto-it is a battle for eternal life. <br />
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St. John Paul II, while he was still a cardinal, Karol Wojtyla, visited the United States back in 1976, in Philadelphia on the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of independence. At that moment, the future pope and saint prophetically said, <br />
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“We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has gone through. I do not think that wide circles of the American society or wide circles of the Christian community realize this fully. We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel versus the anti-Gospel. This confrontation lies within the plans of divine Providence; it is trial which the whole Church, and the Polish Church, in particular, must take up. It is a trial of not only our nation and the Church, but, in a sense, a test of 2,000 years of culture and Christian civilization with all of its consequences for human dignity, individual rights, human rights and the rights of nations.”<br />
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We see this battle even within the Church. We see it not only in the crimes of the predator homosexual priests but in those bishops who not only covered up their crimes but in those who are homosexual predators themselves, and then as foxes in the hen house, deflect the attention from their own crimes by removing good innocent priests. And doing so without due process, destroying the priest's reputations and even their lives. At least supreme justice, Kavanagh, who too was judged guilty without due process, got to defend himself publically, these priests are denied that human right. We see it as well in the prelates around the world who are trying to change the Church’s teachings on Marriage and the family; for instance, calling for those who are living in adulterous unions to be allowed to receive our Blessed Lord through Holy Communion, the very Lord who in today’s Gospels called their unions, “Adulterous.” We see it in the leaders of the Church who emphasize the protection of the environment more than the salvation of souls. <br />
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We, our families, and our world, need the Rosary now more than ever. This is why Our Lady came to Fatima; she came to give us the secret to winning the battle of all battles that is raging right now in our country, in our world and our Church and family. Our Lady of Fatima asked us to pray the Rosary daily-she said it had the power to end wars. At Fatima, along with the <br />
Rosary, she also offered us the Brown Scapular, worn as a sign of our total Consecration to her. These two indispensable spiritual weapons are actually the most powerful weapons in the world, they are means to an end, and that end is full, actual, conscious, and fruitful participation in the Holy Mass. <br />
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The Scapular worn with faith is a symbol of our consecration to Jesus through Mary. By wearing it, we ask the Blessed Mother to help us give our hearts totally to Jesus. We can do this anytime spiritually, but it is at the Holy Mass that we are called to do it definitively, by placing it, offering it, on the altar through the Immaculate Heart of Mary in union with St. Joseph. And by the prayers of the Holy Rosary, we ask Mary to help us and obtain for the grace we need to live out this self-offering in all the many aspects of our daily life, in everything we think, say or do. Then, all that we do will be done with Jesus, in Jesus and for love of Jesus, and for the love and salvation of our neighbor. This is to be the fruit of our Holy Communion, becoming one with Jesus, one with God and one with one another in God. This, and not politics or other human endeavors or weapons is how the world will be renewed, division ended, relationships mended, peace restored in our hearts, in our families, parishes, in our nation, and among nations, and most importantly, this is how souls will be saved and reunited with God forever and ever. <br />
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If we are not doing so already, let us commit today, October 7th, 2018, the Anniversary of the Victory of the Christian Fleet at Lepanto and the feast of Our Lady of Victory, to pray the rosary daily, as individuals, and also as families--"for the family that prays the rosary together stays together." Let us as well return to wearing the Brown Scapular as a sign of our consecration to Jesus through Mary. <br />
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I want to share with you quickly, something that I mentioned to many of the patient and families I serve in the Hospital. I ask, “Where is the Rosary explicitly mentioned in the Bible?” I then give them my theory, which by the way, if it is right, it has been mentioned before, but if it is wrong, then I am wrong…but I don’t think I am wrong. I say, the Rosary is mentioned in the last book of the bible which tells us that in the end Satan will be chained in hell. Satan is an angel, fallen, but still an angel. Angels are pure spirits, so that means they have no physicality, that is no body. So, if Satan has no body, what kind of chain are they going to use? <br />
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I say it is the Chain of the Holy Rosary. In other words, it will be the prayers of those little ones who accept the Kingdom of God as a child and who don’t “poo-poo” such things as the Holy Rosary. But instead, pray the Rosary daily while meditating on its mysteries, the mysteries of the life of Christ, so as to imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise—Jesus Christ, the Son of Mary, and the Son of God, truly Present on earth in the Holy Eucharist, and eternally possessing Him forever. It will be these little ones, who also wear the scapular as a sign of giving their heart totally and with complete trust, to Jesus through Mary. It is these true children of Mary, that she will use as her cohort, her army, to chain satan up in their families, in the Church, and in the world, bringing an end to satan and all the evil spirits prowling about the world seeking the ruin of souls. <br />
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In this great battle being waged in our midst against souls, it is only our faithfulness and steadfastness to the Lord that will decide the outcome. I don't mean will decide the outcome of this battle, for eventually, Mary’s Immaculate Heart will triumph as she promised, but our faithfulness will decide the outcome of our own eternal salvation, as well as the eternal salvation of millions of other souls. The stakes could not be higher, but we have hope for we have the secret to Victory-the Secret of the Most Holy Rosary and the Brown Scapular of Mount Carmel. <br />
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Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary, Our Lady of Victory, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Cause of our Joy, Gate of heaven, Hope for the hopeless, pray for us sinners who have recourse to thee. Totus Tuus! Amen. <br />
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Fr. Steven Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12248831829078417061noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7841121759921764277.post-64511879834508530552018-09-30T14:34:00.002-07:002018-09-30T14:34:46.242-07:00Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time. October 30, 2018<br />
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October is quickly upon us. I mention this because, in October, we celebrate Pro-life month. We celebrate the gift of life given to us by God through Jesus—the image of the Father. Indeed, then Life is something to celebrate. <br />
When we think of Pro-life, when we are called to promote life, we can, however, easily slip into the tendency to think of all the things the Church is against. Many there are who today speak of the current pro-life movement, not a “pro,” but as an “anti-movement,” i.e., anti-choice, anti-abortion, movement, etc., etc., etc. <br />
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Now, it is essential to know all the things the Church is against - we are against the evils of abortion, we are against in-vitro fertilization, experiments on human embryos, embryonic stem cell research, we are against euthanasia, artificial contraception, abuse of any kind, and against any sin against the life of the human person. By why are we against these things? The reasons have to do with so much more than prohibitions or thou shall not’s. In fact, when one understands the Church’s teachings correctly, one actually desires to follow them, for they are Spirit and Life.<br />
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I remembered a beautiful pro-life talk given by Pope Emeritus, Benedict, when he celebrated a family life conference in Spain, shortly after being named Pope. In this talk, Benedict never once spoke of prohibitions, the things that the Church is against. Instead, he spoke of the beautiful love of family life, which is the beginning of life for the whole human race. He was asked by the reporters why at the conference he was not speaking of those things the Church condemns, the evils she speaks out against? Pope Benedict responded by saying that he desired to put the conversation on, the wonderful riches of family life. <br />
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Pope Benedict back then was reminding us all that we have much to say in the wealth of our teachings about life and the family, and not just the negative restrictions-Pope Frances does the same. Actually, if we cannot understand the beauty of the life of the family—the domestic Church, which is called to be a school of love, then we cannot understand why the Universal Church is against certain things, certain things which actually destroy the family, as intended by God, and leads to a destruction of the abundant life that God wishes to bestow on all human persons. <br />
So Today, on the threshold of the month dedicated to family and life, I’d like to again stress the wonderful good news of family life. Even though this message is often neglected in our world, today the Church wants to give us the good news of life—the Gospel of Life! <br />
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The first good news about life is that we have been created by Love, in Love, and for Love. In the beginning, Adam was created alone. This being alone did not only mean that Adam was alone without eve, but that the human being (both male and female) was alone amongst all the other creatures of the earth. The Human being was alone because he was different from the animals. Only the human being was made in God’s image and likeness, and so only the human being was and is given freedom. But what is this freedom of the human person? <br />
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It is the freedom to choose to the good and not the evil, the truth and not lies, life and not death, the freedom to choose to love and not hate, the freedom to offer oneself as a gift to the other—which is the fundamental truth about love. In this freedom, man is self-determining, in other words, he can choose to love or to sin, and by his free choice he actually creates or determines who he becomes and whether he will live a truly authentic human life in happiness, not only in heaven but beginning here on earth.<br />
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Here we discover that choice is what defines Man. To love is to freely choose our friend, to live for the other more than our self-to freely choose to give our self as a gift to our friend! This choice to love our friend begins with our relationship with God; Our Lord said in the Gospel of St. John- (15:15-16), “…I have called you friends, ...You did not choose me, I have chosen you.” I want here to emphasize the word choose or choice. <br />
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Each one of us through the grace of baptism has entered into friendship with the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit. We are grafted into the Life and Love of the Most Holy Trinity, because this God, out of love, chose us while we were still sinners; as a result, the Blessed Trinity at our baptism actually began to live within us. For us humans then, the greatest act of freedom for us is not only to choose our friend-but to choose our highest friend, who is God. We choose him by giving Him the gift of our self, in and through all of the actions of our life, freely chosen. St. Pope John Paul II, stressed this over and over again in His teaching on family life. He never wanted us to relinquish our stance as pro-choice but understood in this correct way. <br />
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So, for us then, we Catholics are anything but anti-Choice. But we must use our choice correctly, because it is possible for us to chose wrongly, to chose things knowingly or unknowingly that actually destroy our freedom, happiness, and even our eternal life. We must always use our freedom of choice, to choose the truth in love. We must use our freedom to choose the path of life, not death; this is what pro-choice really means. <br />
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Choice is a word we as Catholics do not want to surrender to the modern culture, which chooses “self” over the other, which chooses death over life. It elevates selfish “choice” above everything else. And by doing this we are really elevating ourselves--the one who makes the choice, and putting ourselves as equals with God. Then we apart from God, begin deciding what is good and what is evil-true & false, what is a good choice and what is a bad choice. We then deny that we can make bad Choices, choices which on the surface appear good but which are bad because they go against reality, against God’s original design and purpose for life <br />
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We, as Catholics, want to tell the world that the choice for love is the greatest act of freedom for the human person. We are only truly free when we freely choose to love by choosing life. However, we destroy human freedom when we make bad choices such as to kill the unborn child, the mentally or physically disabled, the sick or elderly person. But I would argue, these bad choices can be the result of a misunderstanding of Human life at its very source, the sexual embrace. <br />
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The most visible human choice of love is that of a friend- to choose a lifelong spouse. The Church considers this choice of love between a man and woman, a Sacrament. The spouses promise to love, honor and obey each other freely for the rest of their lives, to freely give of themselves as a gift to each other, to lay down their lives for the sake of the other. They then carry out this oath before God and His Church by consummating it in a Sacramental marital embrace where the two literally become one flesh. In this act, God Himself wants to be present so much so, that in this act of love, a new, unique and unrepeatable life is conceived. The Church therefore, is not against sex, it is pro-sex; it has raised sex the level of the Sacred, to the level of a Sacrament. But just like anything sacred it must be used in a sacred way, that is in accordance with God’s design and God’s plan or otherwise it becomes profane, secular and dirty. <br />
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This choice of love within marriage is a covenant, which means it symbolizes the very love that Christ the bridegroom has for His bride the Church. This a love in which Christ offers Himself, His life, totally to each member of the Church. And just as mysteriously, married love somehow reflects the very love and union between the members of the Holy Trinity-Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who eternally give of themselves totally one to the other. <br />
The married couple, of course, struggles to live out this love-it entails much self-sacrifice. The great fruit of this work however, is their children, conceived in the physical act, yes, but an act which expresses their intimate love for one another (but by the way does not cause it). The husband and wife welcome new life into the world as a blessing, not as a curse. <br />
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As a priest, I have had the privilege to observe families as they welcome a new life into this world. As they asked me to bless this new life, my heart was filled with joy at seeing the new mom and dad absolutely amazed at the miracle of their baby. All of their self-sacrifice, their self-denying, for love of one another, as born fruit in life-a new creation, made in God’s own image and likeness. <br />
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I have also seen this love in couples unable to have their own children. In the face of such suffering, these couples had a difficult choice to make. In reflection and prayer, they decide to follow the wisdom of the Church by adopting children. They decide they do not want to use their choice to conceive children in a way that goes against God’s beautiful plan for the sexual embrace; they refuse to allow misdirected science to replace a child conceived within the sacramental, loving, self-giving marital embrace of a man and women. <br />
The adopting couple know that to go outside of this Marital embrace, even if done so with the best intentions, removes conceiving a child from the act of a free choice between the husband and wife expressed in the self-giving act of love where two become one flesh. They know, with the Church, that new life can never be separated from the gift of self-giving expressed in the marital sexual act. <br />
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The sorrow of not being able to have their own child gives way to the joy of true parenthood. The joy and love of taking a child, who might have had a lonely or abusive life, and bringing that child into their home is wonderful. I have seen these adopted children drink in, soak in the love of their parents, truly becoming a son or a daughter who realize their adopted parents as their real, true parents, all of them together becoming a true family. <br />
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I have also seen the great gift of love in long married grandparents, even in their last days that are filled with sickness and sorrow. I recall reading about a man who cared for his wife during her long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. This man cared for his wife at home with the help of some family and friends. Towards the end of her life, the poor wife even forgot who her husband of more than 60 years was. Yet, the man said that he loved his wife in her pitiable state even more than the day they married. She was still the apple of his eye, his beloved wife. She later died in his arms, gently falling into the sleep of death. What a beautiful testimony of the choice of love, the choice of life. <br />
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Today the Church recalls us to the greatness of the love of family life. How beautiful the love of the family is, how many riches it holds; that is, the family lived in imitation of the family of the Blessed Trinity, always choosing to love, always choosing to be open to life, the members always struggle with the help of God’s grace to offer themselves as gift to the other. Truly, authentic Christian family life gives life to the world! <br />
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The Church too, in celebrating life, wants to speak to the hearts of those who have used their choice wrongly, whether intentionally or unknowingly. For those who have made mistakes and failed in the choice for love and for life, the Mercy of God is available to you! God’s mercy is always greater than any of our sins, if we but only seek it through sincere repentance. The redemptive power of Christ, who came not to condemn but to give life, is available to all of us in the Sacrament of Confession. In the Sacrament, there is healing for your pain and sorrow… Behold, in Christ, all things are made new.<br />
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Beginning today, and throughout the coming month of October, let us pray, in a special way, that family life would be strengthened and sanctified. The bonds of love lived out in authentic choice have been attacked in our culture of death; it is a culture of anti-life; but we are not, we are pro-life and pro-choice, we stand for the beauty and life-giving love of the family, we stand for and defend love, and offer ourselves as gift for the life of every human Person, from conception to natural death. Let us turn to the Holy Family for help. <br />
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Let us pray: Jesus Mary and Joseph of mercy on our families. Jesus Mary and Joseph, heal our families. Jesus Mary and Joseph, save our families! Amen.<br />
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Fr. Steven Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12248831829078417061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7841121759921764277.post-64955398410665244332018-09-15T20:28:00.000-07:002018-09-15T20:28:17.493-07:00Who do YOU say that the Son of Man is?Twenty Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 16th, 2018<br />
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This past Friday we celebrated the feast day of the Exultation of the Holy Cross. It reminds us that it is by the Holy Cross of Jesus that we are saved. Jesus, true God from True God, begotten, not made, one in being with the father, from Whom, in Whom and through Whom, the Eternal Father created the heavens and the earth and all that is in them, reached down to earth as one of us, in all things but sin, yet still remaining Who is He was, is and always will be, the Second Person of the Most Blessed Trinity—The true and Living God. This Divine Person, allowed Himself to be betrayed by His own, suffer His Passion, and be crucified. He died and was buried, but on the third day rose again in the body in order to be present in the body in the Holy Eucharist as our Heavenly Food, our only Food, for eternal life. <br />
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In light of this Eternal Truth, today, Jesus ask us, as he asked his disciples, “Who do men say that I am?” Each of us can come up with our own answers to this question? But today Jesus also is asking us the next question that he posed to his disciples, “Who do YOU say that I am?<br />
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The answer to this question may require deeper reflection than we may at first suppose. We, who believe the above-mentioned statement—that Jesus was and is the Son of the Eternal Father, who died for us, can quickly reply with the words of Peter, “You are the Christ!” <br />
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I would like to suggest that today, Jesus is asking these same questions to you and me in a different way, precisely to get us to reflect more deeply. In a different way, yes, but yet, the answers to these questions posed differently are inseparable to our answer to, “who Jesus really is?” <br />
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And so, in a different way, the first question; Who do men say is the Catholic Church? Now, we could answer; “Some say, merely a human institution, created by men, to be the opium of the people and keep them down; others, it is an institution from which sprang Western Civilization, which is and has been the cause of all the atrocities in the last two thousand years and which has and is preventing the building up of the Kingdom of men, and so peace on earth;” Others, say, an organization, that though it has done some good things in the past, nevertheless, its time has come and gone?” And finally, others, “it is a corrupt, evil organization, filled with sexually perverted priests, and the bishops who cover for them, and it needs to be wiped off the face of the earth and done away with once and for all!”<br />
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And now the Second Question posed to us today, in a different way; Who do YOU say is the Catholic Church? The answer to this question as I said, is intricately connected to the answer to, “who is the Person of Jesus Christ?” And Jesus requires that each of us give him an answer. Today, has as always been the case in the Last two thousand years, it is impossible to be indifferent to his question personally posed to each of us. <br />
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For my part, today, I answer, “The Catholic Church is truly the Mystical Body of Christ on earth, inseparable from Her Head, Jesus Christ, the Son of the Eternal Father. She is the Immaculate Bride of Christ, spotless and undefiled; She came forth from the pierced side of Jesus as He hung on the Cross, as Eve was brought forth from the side of Adam; And so, She is a Divine Institution, but made up of human children, who though sinners, some great, some small, have come forth from her maternal womb, the baptismal font, by being immersed in the blood and water still flowing from the Living Sacred Heart of Her Divine Spouse. <br />
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And so, She is our true Mother on earth. And Her faithful children love her no matter what evil some of her sinful members may be guilty of, for She is our Mother who from Her own breasts feeds and nourishes us through Her Sacraments of salvation, especially the most Blessed of which is Jesus, Her Risen Head, in the flesh, and so still present on earth in His body. <br />
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These same Sacraments were instituted by Christ Himself, and are administered by Him, to us her children, through the hands of sinful instruments like me; that is, through the men that He Himself has mysteriously chosen, and ordained and consecrated to be His Alter Christi on earth—His other selves, the priests and the bishops. The first twelve of whom, He posed the questions we heard in the Gospel today. And to the one who answer, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Eternal Father,” Jesus chose him to be the head of the rest, the first Pope, St. Peter, who though he would go on to deny Jesus publically, nonetheless repented and followed where his master trod, himself being hung on a cross, albeit upside down. But also from whom, these first twelve bishops and priests, sadly, came Judas-a bishop and a priest and the one who would betray Jesus in secret, and with a kiss, abandoned Him up to the those who would crucify Him. <br />
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Today, Jesus begins to teach us anew, that like Him, <br />
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the Catholic Church must suffer greatly<br />
and be rejected even by the elders, the bishops, and the priests,<br />
and be killed, and rise after three days. <br />
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He speaks this today openly to all of us. <br />
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As His Mystical Body, The Catholic Church and her faithful members, especially Her faithful priests and bishops, will surely go where He Himself as trod. She too, and her faithful members, especially her faithful priests and bishops, like Her head, will be abandoned by their own, rejected by their own, betrayed by their own. She and her faithful members, especially her faithful priests and bishops, will enter into Her passion, and be crucified; for, Where I am there, surely there will my Disciples be. Jesus, as the Head, has suffered His passion and crucifixion, so too, the Holy Church. <br />
But then, She, appearing to be dead to all the world, will rise again in glory and then through Her, as never before, Jesus, will draw all men to Himself, in and through the Holy Eucharist in which He is contain in all the fullness of His Humanity and in all the fullness of His Divinity. <br />
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The Church in these recent years has been truly been suffering her passion, and now it intensifies as never before, for Her crucifixion is near. She is, right now, truly being betrayed from within, from her own members, not only Her clergy but Her laity alike. But woe to whom the Holy Church, the bride of Christ is betrayed, “it would be better for them if they had never been born,” for betrayal of Her, is betrayal of Him (cf. Mt. 26;24). Being ransacked are Her sacred altars on which Jesus continues to pour out His precious blood as an offering to the Eternal Father for the sins of the whole world; Her tabernacles in which He waits day and night as a prisoner of love for souls to come to Him, are being abandoned….I ask you, “has there ever been a greater betrayal of love, of He who is Love, than this! <br />
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May we not be like Peter, and take Jesus aside and rebuke him: “Heaven forbid Lord that this happen to your Mystical Body. For Jesus will turn to us and rebuke us and say, "Get thee behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as men do." <br />
In this light, if we are to remain faithful, Jesus summons us and tell us, <br />
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"Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,<br />
take up his cross, and follow me. <br />
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,<br />
but whoever loses his life for my sake<br />
and that of the gospel will save it."<br />
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It is impossible to love the Head without loving His Body, the Church. And he who does not have the Church for his Mother cannot have God for his Father (cf. Cyprian of Carthage, 258AD). Consequently, He who is not willing to give his life for his Mother is surely is not willing to give his life for Her Spouse--Jesus. And so, in persona Christi et capitis—acting in the Person of Jesus the Head, I ask you again, “Who do you say is the Catholic Church?” <br />
Fr. Steven Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12248831829078417061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7841121759921764277.post-62821288065219146482018-08-18T20:25:00.000-07:002018-08-18T20:25:12.812-07:00John 6;51-58. Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time. August 19th, 2018<br />
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Today in our first reading from Proverbs we are told that “Wisdom has built a house, she has set up her seven columns…(Prv 9;1) The House that Wisdom has built is the Holy Catholic Church. In Her, we can receive all the instruction we need on how to live a virtuous life, a life of faith that leads to happiness, to flourishing and so to salvation and eternal life. In Her we receive as well, the strength we need in order to life this abundant life through Her Seven Columns, that is, through the Seven Sacraments in which we receive not only the gifts of the Holy Spirit but also the very Person of the Holy Spirit in order to lead us into Divine Love. <br />
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In this Household, uncreated Wisdom-who is Jesus Himself, has taken flesh by created wisdom-the Blessed Virgin Mary. And Jesus has set forth Bread and Wine in order to become a sacred feast, in which ordinary bread and the wine become His true flesh and His true blood that He took from the same Virgin Mary. <br />
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At this Sacred Feast is present as well the Martyrs whose blood is mingled with the Precious Blood of Jesus through their faithful witness of Him and His Household-the Church, as well as their faithful witness to her Seven Columns and Sacred Feast, even unto the shedding of their own blood—this is the wine that Wisdom has mixed. <br />
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The Seven Columns of the Household rest upon 12 foundational Pillars; and by these Foundational Pillars which are, better yet, who are the 12 Apostles and their successors, that is the bishops and priests, the invitation from mouth of Divine Wisdom goes out over the city, that is out over the city of mankind; it is an invitation to come into the House of God and share in the Sacred Feast. <br />
Through the Pastors of the Household of the Church this invitation to “come, eat of my food and drink of the wine I have mixed,” is sent forth to the ends of the earth, so that no one might plead ignorance by not “forsaking foolishness that you may live; (and) advance in the way of understanding.” <br />
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Only the children can come, that is only the childlike, who live not in the foolishness of the pleasures of this world alone, but instead live as children of God, innocent and pure, with ordered lives: lives lived with integrity of faith; that is, lived with faithfulness to the all the Commandments and teachings of God Himself contained in their fullness in this same Household of Wisdom—the Holy Church, in and through which all men can still be taught by God Himself. <br />
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Here, in this Household of faith, we do not receive ordinary food, we do not receive ordinary bread and wine which is merely assimilated into man, into our flesh and blood. No, here we receive at Holy Communion the true Food from Heaven in which man is assimilated into the Bread of Life, into Jesus, that is into God Himself. <br />
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Consequently, if we do not feed on the bread of life, if we do not in faith, while adoring trusting and loving Him, feed on His flesh, if we do not feed on Jesus, then even though we may be alive physically, we do not have life in us and we are deader than dead. <br />
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The Holy Eucharist can only be understood in the knowledge of Love; in the knowledge of the love that God has for each of us; in the knowledge that He, who is Love itself, has truly come in the flesh, and has suffered, died and resurrected in order to be able to continue to come in the flesh and give us Himself as our true food so that we may live intimately in Him, now and forever. It is consuming this God who is Love truly present in the flesh in the Holy Eucharist, that we can be consumed and become united in love with Him, but again not before we truly Believe, Adore, Hope and love Him in the Holy Eucharist and offer ourselves and our all to Him in return. Only Love can understand how it is possible that Jesus gives us himself as our true Food and our true Drink. <br />
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In the light of this great truth-the Mystery of our Faith, may our faith in the Catholic Church, the Household made by Wisdom, and our faith in her Seven Sacraments, especially the Most Blessed of these Sacraments which is the Holy Eucharist who is Divine Wisdom Himself-Jesus, may our faith lead others to the Sacred Banquet, the Holy Mass, may our faithful witness lead all the little Children to Jesus in the Holy Eucharist where He waits for them as a prisoner of Love. <br />
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Jesus in the Holy Eucharist says, let the little Children come unto me, do not hinder them. In order to not hinder them, in order for us not to be a stumbling block for them, let us turn to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Let us ask her as well to help us to increase our faith, hope, and love so that we will not let anyone or anything take us away from the Holy Eucharist, away from Jesus. Wrapped in Her heavenly mantle (as symbolized by wearing of the Brown Scapular) we will be able to not let any scandal, any Judas priest or bishop or any other unfaithful member of the Household, or any unbeliever outside of It, take us away from the Bread of Life and so away from His Sacred Feast which is the Holy Sacrificed of the Mass; for unless they repent, it would be better that they would never have been born (cf. Mt. 26:24). <br />
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In the Household of God, the Holy Catholic Church there has been and always will be scandals, great and small, but woe to those by whom scandal comes to this Household built by Wisdom. For those who hurt the little ones through these scandals, through these grave mortal sins, and so cause any of these same little ones to leave the Household of faith, to leave the Holy Eucharist, who is Jesus still among us in the flesh for our Food, it would be better for them to have a great millstone fastened around their neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea (Mt. 8;6). <br />
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Fr. Steven Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12248831829078417061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7841121759921764277.post-10917487143827732602018-07-08T17:48:00.000-07:002018-07-08T17:48:00.993-07:00Mark 6;1-4. Fourthteen Sunday in Ordinary Time. July 8th, 2018<br />
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Today, again, as throughout his Gospel, St. Mark wants to teach us to have faith in Jesus, a living and active faith. As our soul vivifies our body, so too our faith life has to vivify, permeate our daily life, in all that we say, think and do. And so, our readings speak to us of a serious obstacle to true faith-the obstacle of complacency. The dictionary defines complacency as being satisfied in one’s self in an unreflective way and without being aware of the possible dangers this smugness causes. It is a form of self-righteousness in which one doesn’t even bother to see areas where he or she needs to improve. <br />
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This message of lack of faith caused by complacency is clearly given both in our first reading and our Gospel. In our reading from the book of Ezekiel, we find the Israelites have been sent into exile because of their unfaithfulness to God, because of their complacency. Before their exile from their homeland, they had the great temple and the presence of the Word of God in it and so life was good. They had a strong walled city &God was with them, what could possibly go wrong. <br />
What went wrong was they fell into complacency because they failed to allow their faith in God to permeate their lives, and so began to become blind and even to turn away from their love of God; they turned to love of things and self instead. In their prosperity and luxury, they had become complacent and self-righteous. They were like a husband who becomes complacent with the love of his life and so in his complacency fails to see his relationship with his wife slipping away.<br />
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God in His mercy, however, wanted to show Israel how far their hearts had strayed from a correct relationship with Him, in order that they could repent and turn back to Him. So, He sent prophet after prophet to turn the hearts of the people back—but the people still, were content with their lack luster relationship with the True God—they instead wanted to love and follow God on their own terms, without any discomfort or sacrifice…they wanted to worshiped God only to feel good and even to be entertained and so they failed to adore Him in Spirit and in Truth, yet all the while thinking they were “good people.” <br />
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So they find themselves in exile; but even worse, they are exiled from the Word of God, the presence of God in the temple. They have lost not only the great temple, but that special presence of God available to them in the temple. Still, they fail to see their faults. They didn’t have a living faith in God in good times and now that the bad times have arrived, they lose any faith they might have had—“how could God allow this to happen to us.” They failed to see that their exile was a trial that God was allowing to shake them out of their complacency. But still their hearts continue to rebel against God and so they ignore the words of His prophet Ezekial, so Ezekial says to them, Thus says the Lord God! “And whether they heed or resist, for they are a rebellious house- they shall know that a prophet has been among them.” <br />
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St. Mark reports to us the account of Jesus’ return to His home in Nazareth. A similar situation existed there as in the time of Ezekiel-complacency. The extended family of Jesus was there along with his townsfolk. These cousins and townsfolks of Jesus knew Him only in a human way. They knew his mother Mary and believed Jesus was just an ordinary carpenter, just an ordinary cousin and neighbor- so they were thinking, “who does he think he is doing all of these miracles and teaching with such wisdom? We know him, we have Him all figured out. They just could not, would not, believe it was Jesus who was doing and teaching such divine things. Because they themselves had grown complacent, they failed to see His divinity. God was standing right before them and they were completely unaware of it and so Jesus was astounded at their lack of faith. <br />
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In these two lessons today, complacency is the common obstacle to the people’s faith, both the Israelites in exile and the extended family of Jesus had grown complacent in their faith. The routine of daily life, coupled with a weak faith produced this complacency. This is always a temptation for the People of God. Complacency then, can be a problem for us today as well, both as individuals and as a church family. We can say to ourselves, “I go to Church on Sundays, my life is comfortable.” And so, we can fail to see that we need to believe more deeply- we can fail to see that we are becoming too attached and too comfortable with the things of the world, with the way things are now. We can take the attitude of the Israelites and say, “I have peace and prosperity now, I don’t care what will happen tomorrow.” We can say, we have the Church and her priests to give us the sacraments and we can attend Mass any time we wish and so our faith life is comfortable. We can wind up falling into a heartless routine and so fail to believe in God fully, fail to love Him with our whole hearts, minds and wills; we can begin to think it doesn’t even matter if I go to Holy Mass every Sunday, God still loves me regardless. <br />
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With regards to the Holy Eucharist, we too can become complacent and like Jesus relatives, fail to see God literally standing before us! We can think we have the Eucharist and so our faith life is comfortable, and like the Israelites who had the temple, begin to think there is no chance of losing this presence of the Word of God among us. Complacency here again, is an obstacle to our faith in the divinity of Jesus and that this divine Jesus is still present among us with His human body and blood, his human heart in the Eucharist—<br />
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What people have their god as close to Him as Our God, the True God is to us in the Holy Eucharist! Complacency leads to a lack of faith that the Eucharist is Jesus, true God and true man still among us. If we, His own People, don’t believe and love Jesus in the Eucharist, He is a prefect gentleman and will not stay where He is not worshiped and adore. Like the Israelites, He will allow His people to be exiled from His Eucharistic Presence available the temple of the Church. <br />
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The cure for complacency is to make an all-out effort to grow in our faith. There are two ways we can grow in our faith. The first and most common way is by study. Study is a sure way we can grow stronger in our faith- maybe it is only studying a paragraph in the Holy Scriptures or the Catechism, but we must make the effort to expand our knowledge of the faith. To grow in knowledge of our faith actually helps us in the second way we can grow in our faith, and that way is through trials.<br />
Accepting the trials, the crosses in our lives with the help of God’s grace is one of the greatest ways for us to grow in our faith. God in His mercy actually allows us to be tested with these crosses in order to awaken us from our complacency. Sometimes He even allows us to feel like He is distant from us and has abandoned us. This is also true in our trials in believing Jesus is really in the Eucharist. <br />
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The difficulty and struggle to believe that He is really there in the little white host, far from being detrimental, can actually increase our faith if we turn to God for strength, “God I believe, help my unbelief.” In our reading from St. Paul, we read where St. Paul prayed for the trials in his life be taken away. God’s response is clear, “my grace is sufficient for you.” Trials, both in our daily lives and in our lives of faith have a way of strengthening our faith. Again, the relationship between faith life and daily life is like the relationship between body and soul both are intimately and substantially connected.<br />
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As we approach the Holy Altar to receive Jesus, let us beg Him to strengthen our faith that the little white host we receive is really Him. Let us beg Him to shake us from our complacency and so receive Him in manner that expresses our belief that, “it is the Lord that we are dealing with,” in order that we don’t lose this true presence of the Word of God become flesh among us. With our faith strong in Him we will love him and believe in him whether we are in good times or in bad, easy times or times of trial and even in our great weakness! Let us turn to our Lady for her help as well. Hail Mary, Mother of our Faith, Pray for us. Amen. <br />
Fr. Steven Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12248831829078417061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7841121759921764277.post-51555879420151585362018-05-19T20:55:00.000-07:002018-05-19T20:55:24.914-07:00Today, let us ask the Holy Spirit, that intimate Divine Guest of our soul, to come and help us with all of his giftsJohn 20: 19-23. Pentecost Sunday, May 20th, 2018<br />
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Today we celebrate the birth of the Church. It is the day when the Holy Spirit came upon the Twelve Apostles in the upper room; but not before they had spent the previous nine days in intense prayer with the Blessed Virgin Mary. In that upper room, the Holy Spirit first came upon the Virgin, and then from her proceeded to fall upon the twelve. The Holy Spirit first came upon the Virgin for she is His spouse, as Jesus was conceived in her womb by the Holy Spirit. <br />
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In the Gospel today, we read of the apparition of Jesus on Easter day. The disciples were locked in the upper room for fear of the hostile people who had just crucified their master. The twelve were full of anxiety and outright fear; and it was a real fear, they weren’t being paranoid, for people were truly out to kill them. <br />
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A similar fear is experienced by many who desire to give themselves to Christ fully and unreservedly; however, it can be fear that stems not just from the prospect of dying for Jesus physically, but of dying totally to self for love of Him, of offering Him everything, for fear He just might take it. This is fear that originates from an imperfect love—for perfect love cast out all fear! <br />
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Perfect love never counts the cost, it never fears to give the one it loves the gift of its whole self, especially the gift of its whole self to Jesus…“ for no greater love has a man than this, for him to lay down his life for his Friend…”, the greatest of which is Jesus. <br />
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Knowing their fear then, knowing their imperfect love, Jesus’ first words to Twelve were of peace, “peace be with you” or simply in Hebrew, Shalom!” This is the peace that Christ alone can give, a peace that goes beyond the peace of this world. It is a peace that emanates not from the absence of conflict or even the absence of suffering, but from the secret depths of the Pierced Heart of Jesus. Then Jesus tells them, “As the Father sent me, so I send you.” Then Jesus makes an interesting gesture, He breathes on them, and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” I would like to concentrate today on this profound gesture of Jesus- breathing on the apostles; and then his words, “receive the Holy Spirit.” <br />
Jesus first breaths on His apostles. It is a curious gesture, but indeed significant. Breathing is absolutely necessary for human life- it is most fundamental. Until the invention of artificial respirators, when a person stopped breathing, they died. Breathing, therefore, means life, no breath means death. <br />
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Before Jesus breathed on the apostles, they in a sense were dead. They hadn’t believed the words of Jesus about his passion, death, and resurrection. They were full of sorrow over their betrayal of Jesus--over their great weakness, they were afraid of the cost and demands of love of Jesus; their love was in sense very much in need of “life support.” And so Jesus, the Divine Physician, breaths life into them, the true Life that comes from the Divine Respirator—the Holy Spirit; He Who is the Perfect Love between the Father and the Son. The Love between the Father and the Son, the total gift of the Father to the Son and the Son to the Father, is so perfect it is another Divine Person. <br />
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Today at this Holy Mass, Jesus again comes to us, no less as He did to the Twelve in the upper room. By the power of the Holy Spirit first coming upon the person of the priest, Jesus comes again in order to lay down His life anew for love of us. He comes again truly present in His resurrected and glorified body in the Holy Eucharist which also contains His Pierced Sacred Heart from which all grace and mercy flow, from which flows the Living Water which, if we drink of it deeply, gives us Life and through us gives life to the world. <br />
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We receive the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist at Holy Communion but we can drink in the living water flowing from it only if we have first received Jesus’ peace through the forgiveness of our sins before His representative the priest to whom Jesus alone has given the Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of sins, when he said, to the apostles the first priests, receive the Holy Spirit whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, whose sins you retain are retained. And we drink deeply of the living water only to the extent we have first offered on this altar the complete gift of ourself in a loving sacrifice of adoration to the Father through the Son. <br />
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After having received Him thus, Jesus stays with us for only a little while in an intimacy that even the angels cannot comprehend. But before He leaves us in His Sacramental presence, “for it is better for us that He goes,” He desires to breathe on us anew the Holy Spirit, the advocate. <br />
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The Holy Spirit brings with Him, His sevenfold gifts, of Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety and Holy Fear of the Lord along with His sevenfold Gifts. With these gifts from on High, the Holy Spirit takes away all our fear by perfecting us in Divine Love. This perfecting us in divine love is no less than the Holy Spirit conceiving in our souls Jesus, in the order of divine grace, making us into other “Christs” so that we might not to just imitate the life of Christ, but live the life Christ, thus becoming His witness throughout all the whole world, taking Jesus and his love out into the world and leading many souls along with us into the intmacy of a divine union with God, the Father, and the Son, in the unity and love of the Holy Ghost, thus living out Jesus promise, “as the Father has sent me, so I send you.” <br />
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Today, let us ask the Holy Spirit, that intimate Divine Guest of our soul, to come and help us with all of his gifts. How we need these gifts so very much, for we are so very weak and afraid. Let us ask the Virgin Mary, Spouse of the Holy Spirit, to help us be always docile to the Spirit’s Divine inspirations, putting them into action in our life. Veni Creator Spiritus! (Come) Holy Spirit! I ask you for the gift of Wisdom to better know You and your Divine perfections; for the gift of Understanding to clearly discern the spirit of the mysteries of the holy Faith; for the gift of Counsel that I may live according to the principles of this Faith; for the gift of Knowledge that I may look for counsel in You and that I may always find it in You; for the gift of Fortitude that no fear or earthly preoccupations would ever separate me from You; for the gift of Piety that I may always serve Your Majesty with a filial love; for the gift of the Fear of the Lord that I may dread sin, which offends you, O my God. Amen.<br />
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Come Holy Spirit come by means of the powerful intercession of the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Thy well-beloved spouse. (3x). Amen.<br />
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Fr. Steven Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12248831829078417061noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7841121759921764277.post-7748404753123453602018-05-16T12:37:00.000-07:002018-05-16T12:37:20.202-07:00The ascensions of Jesus was necessary at the level of love.Solemnity of the Ascension of Our Blessed Lord<br />
May 13, 2018<br />
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These past seven weeks of Easter have been a time for us to enter into the secrets of the Heart of Jesus. We have listened to Jesus words given to us by St. John, words which communicate the truths of our beautiful Catholic faith, truths which revealed to us the very secrets of the interior life of the Blessed Trinity-God. Jesus has revealed to us that God is Love and God has created us to share in that love--to share in God’s own nature. And this brings us to the secret of love, which is the Ascension.<br />
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The ascensions of Jesus was necessary at the level of love. Love by its very nature moves toward unity. Think about this in your own life—when you love someone, really love them for their sake not your own, you want to be one with them, so much so, you desire to be of one heart and mind. This is symbolized in marriage between a man and a woman; they express their desire for oneness the night of their wedding in the marital act in which the two become one flesh. In the light of love, we can then begin to understand why the humanity of Jesus at the Ascension, necessarily moved toward oneness with the Father, toward the right hand of the Father in Glory. <br />
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Jesus, as Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, was, is and always will be at the right Hand of the Father, that is equal to the Father in Majesty. But now, the human nature, the body and blood that Jesus took from the Virgin Mary, along with His human soul, is now present as well at the right hand of the Father. Because of the ascension of Jesus’ human nature, a nature He shares with all men, now gives all human nature, including you and me, the possibility of sharing intimately and eternally in this perfect unity of Love between Jesus and the Father. Christ, still bearing the marks of his passion, which brought about our redemption, has gone before us to prepare a place for us, so that where He is, we may also be. <br />
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If we truly love God, we too necessarily will move to union with Him, necessarily will move to return to the Father. Love for Christ then, desire for Christ, who is the only way to the Father, is the greatest good anyone could ever desire. We all should desire that which is the greatest Good, namely Christ; He is our true End. A person who does not to love Him and desire unity-friendship with Him is missing out on the One thing that matters. As the great orator and radio and television star, Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen taught, this is why the saints, far from being the abnormal persons that the world likes to portray them, were actually the most normal and content people the world has ever seen. Why? Because he said, normalcy works for a goal, a purpose, and a end. Abnormalcy looks for an escape mechanism, excuses or rationalizations in order to avoid discovering our true human end, which is Christ.<br />
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Bishop Sheen said, A normal person sets for himself a target, goals for this life, his vocation what he has been created for, his vocation in this life. But there is more beyond this. Suppose his vocation is to become a doctor, and then to get married, and then to have children and then to give money to his children and then. The normal person sees that there is an end to “and then, ” Sheen said. He knows that He has been created for something, someone beyond just the goals of this life. He realizes in the end that the goals in this life are really just meant to obtain our ultimate, “and then” which is heaven. <br />
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The abnormal person is just the opposite. The abnormal person is locked up inside of himself, within his ego, said the bishop. He is like an egg that has never been hatched; he refuses to submit to a certain amount of divine incubation in order to arrive at a different life than he has, so he has to escape from reality—this is how he spends his time. If he wants to go from Chicago to New York, he is not concern about getting to New York but with giving excuses about why he doesn’t go to New York. In other words, he has lost his goal, his end, his destiny and he refuses to look at the roadmap and take the necessary actions to get there. He goes in circles<br />
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Our society too has become abnormal. It has lost its true end, its true purpose. Many either don’t realize or know they are created by God, for God or they just aren’t concerned. Some want to go to God, but they don’t want to look at the map and make the necessary changes and actions in their life to get there. In other words, they refuse to submit to the divine roadmap, which is the Will of God and His Commandments. They become like ships without a port, lost at sea, adrift—yet they desire never to found, desire never to reach the port but only to stay forever on the ship. <br />
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Our society’s loss of its true purpose, its true end is shown in many abnormal ways. Our society has many escape mechanism and rationalizations to avoid the truth. One of the symptoms of this loss of an end, is our love for excessive speed. A lot of people don’t know where they are going, but they certainly are in a hurry to get there. Another symptom is the rise of suicide, especially among the young, but not only among them. Suicide is at a level never before seen the annual of human history—is is epidemic. Life with out an end is hopeless. So many people have an unconscious or half-conscious desire to end life because it is without purpose, without meaning. Surely this is also what is behind the push for physician-assisted suicide. We moderns try to fill in this loss of desire for our True End, our desire for God, with immoral sex, alcohol and drug abuse, materialism or just plain death. <br />
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Additionally, Many people throw themselves into their jobs or business in an abnormal way. This is where many people are today, they have become slaves to efficiency. They look upon the other and are looked upon only in relation to how well they can perform and produce, how well they can make money and be an asset to the economically minded business world. This is not a true human end.<br />
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People are alone today, they are losing hope. They are working, working. Where are we humans going? Who is going to give to us and our society an end-a true human end? Is it a true human end to just earn money? Of course not, but yet that’s the only end that so many want to achieve. <br />
The great Greek philosopher Aristotle said that the goal that People are the most seeking after on earth is Human glory or fame-to be somebody. He said to reach it you need two wings, money and power. When you have money you have power. And with both you can reach human glory and that is what people are aiming at if they don’t know Christ their true end. But this is totally abnormal. The world must leave this notion of efficiency, this perpetual pace, this crazy pace going nowhere, there is no end. <br />
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There is no end because quantitatively I spend a lot of time working. But qualitatively where is my life going, what is the end. The end gives the quality if the end is human. But money cannot give any quality to my life. Power cannot give any quality to my life. Human glory is vain=it is passing I can die today- Sic transit gloria mundi-so passes the glory of the world. So, all this false trinity of power, money, and fame condemns human beings to nothingness, we want to discover the true Trinity through Christ. through the Son and the Holy Spirit to go to the Father, yet there is so much in our society today that is an oppressing power that prevents us from discovering our true Father (our true end). But all is not hopeless!<br />
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The truth of the Ascension that we celebrate today renews our hope because it again gives us our true End. It points us to our true purpose in this life, which is to love God, to love our neighbor for love of God and after giving ourselves totally in a sacrifice of love, for love, to return to Love--God Himself, for God is Love. <br />
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But because our Christian Hope is not just a, “I hope so,” or a, maybe someday,” friends of Jesus, that is those who keep His Commandments can begin to possess now, already while still in the valley of tears, that for which they hope. It is the Holy Mass that makes it possible to us. <br />
At the Holy Mass God continues to love us first, through His Son in the Holy Eucharist. In fact, the Holy Eucharist is the Risen and Ascended Lord sitting at the Right Hand of the Father in Glory; the Holy Eucharist is our true End because it is Jesus in His Human Nature, risen and ascended, and so when we are before the Holy Eucharist we are already in Heaven. In the Holy Eucharist, Jesus fulfills His promise of hope, “Behold I am with you even until the end of the world!” The Holy Eucharist is our only way to the Father because it is the door to heaven because it is Jesus, who is our heaven. <br />
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At Holy Communion Jesus continues to draw near to us in love by offering us His complete self on this altar. This love necessarily demands a response on our part, will we rise up and draw near to Him our true End by offering Him our complete self, all we possess, all our love so He can take us to where HE is, One with the Father, in the unity and love of the Holy Spirit. Let us the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Hope to help us. Let us pray:<br />
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Prayer to Our Lady of Hope<br />
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O Mary, my Mother, I kneel before you with a heavy heart. The burden of my sins oppresses me. The knowledge of my weakness discourages me. I am beset by fears and temptations of every sort. Yet I am so attached to the things of this world that instead of longing for Heaven I am filled with dread at the thought of death.<br />
O Mother of Mercy, have pity on me in my distress. You are all-powerful with your Divine Son. He can refuse no request of your Immaculate Heart. Show yourself a true Mother to me by being my advocate before His throne. O Refuge of Sinners and Hope of the Hopeless, to whom shall I turn if not you?<br />
Obtain for me, then, O Mother of Hope, the grace of true sorrow for my sins, the gift of perfect resignation to God's Holy Will, and the courage to take up my cross and follow Jesus. Above all I pray, O dearest Mother, that through your most powerful intercession my heart may be filled with Holy Hope, so that in life's darkest hour I may never fail to trust in God my Savior, but by walking in the way of His commandments I may merit to be united with Him, and with you in the eternal joys of Heaven. Amen.<br />
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Mary, our Hope, have pity on us.<br />
Hope of the Hopeless, pray for us.<br />
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Fr. Steven Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12248831829078417061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7841121759921764277.post-61388038090417712382018-05-06T14:02:00.004-07:002018-05-06T14:02:49.229-07:00John 15; 9-17, Sixth Sunday in Easter. May 6, 2018<br />
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It is has been said that the whole of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, can be explained in the following words—“It is all about love!” And so it is! Yet, in our day “love” is a very broad notion. And because it is used so broadly, and one could say in many cases so carelessly (for example, I love ice cream, I love flowers, I love fishing), the word “love,” seems to have become devoid of its deeper meaning. Yet, each one of us and every human being has been created by Love—for Love. We can truly say, “Love is our only happiness!”<br />
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Today Gospel from St. John, along with the second reading from the First Epistle, also from John, reminds us what love really is, and what is the deepest meaning of the expression, “to love.” We are told that, “In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His son as expiation for our sins. In this we discover that Christ’s love for Christians is a reflection of the love that the divine Persons have for one another and for all men (Navarre bible, commentary on John pg 196). <br />
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This profound truth, “that God Loves you,” is the source of Christian Joy, but it is also something which calls for a fruitful response on our part. This response should take the form of a fervent desire to do God’s Holy Will in everything, that is, to keep His Commandments in imitation of Jesus Christ, who always did the Will of His Father (pg 197). Therefore, those who keep the Commandments of God, are Friends of Jesus--friends of God Himself. They are no longer slaves, but instead beloved sons and daughters of God Himself, Children who love others as Jesus has first loved them. <br />
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In light of this profound truth what does this love look like in action? And how do we respond to this love and put it into action in our own lives? To answer these questions, we first examine the actions of Christ, and then the actions of the saints. <br />
How has Christ loved us? We look to the crucifix to see. He has loved us to the very end! He has loved us by sacrificing His own life for our sake, so that we may have life and have it more abundantly. He has become an expiation for our sins, to free us from sin and the result of sin, which is death, all so that we could have the possibility of entering into an eternal union with Love Itself—The Blessed Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. <br />
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Jesus’ whole life on earth was in a sense a crucifixion that merely culminated on the cross. He, who was true God from true God, begotten not made, one in being with the Father, took on the nature of the very creatures He created—he became true man while setting aside the power of His divinity. He became like us in all things but sin. And He lived His entire life on this earth entirely for us, so much so, that there was not one ounce of selfishness, self-interest or self-seeking in anything He ever did. His entire life, every action no matter how seemingly insignificant, was carried out in a spirit of total dedication for each one of us, carried out in loving sacrifice of Himself for you and for me, and for all men. <br />
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By His entire life, Jesus, showed us what the greatest of all love is, for a man to lay down his life for his friends. And because of His Resurrection from the dead, Jesus continues to show us this love by sacrificing Himself anew at the Holy Mass and in the gift of the Holy Eucharist, in which He offers and gives Himself totally to us as the Food of Love. <br />
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Also, to discover love we look to the actions, the lives of the Saints. The closest friends of Jesus—the saints, show us that it is possible for each one of us to live the life of Jesus in our own lives, to love as Jesus commands, to love like Him for Love of God and love of neighbor for love of God. The martyrs immediately come to mind here, those men, woman and even children who gave their live for love of Jesus and for His Church and Her members. Take for instance Father Maximillian Kolbe, who in a Nazi concentration camp voluntarily stepped forward to take the place of a fellow inmate-a husband and father who was about to be starved to death. <br />
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Taking the place of the husband in the starvation bunker, Father Kolbe lead the other condemned prisoners in joyful songs and praise to God as each one of them slowly and agonizingly died. Father Kolbe the last to be still alive, and his captured being perturbed with his joy and failure to die, was finally injected in the neck with acid, his dead body being thrown in one of the ovens of Auschwitz to be incinerated (we don’t have any first class relics (bones) of Kolbe). <br />
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Also, one thinks of the martyrs like St. Isaac Jogues, and the other North American Martyrs, who gave their lives to bring Christ, His Church and His Gospel of truth and love, to the Americas. Father Jogues, friend of the Huron Indians was eventually captured by their enemies the Iroquois. He was tortured by first flaying strips of his skin off, then by having his priestly sacred digits, thumb and forefinger, cut off so that he couldn’t celebrate Holy Mass. As they cut off His fingers he began to praise God out loud in front of his tormentors until one of the men suffering with him told him to stop because the Iroquois were known to make their victims eat the parts that were cut off. <br />
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Father Jogues later escaped and was able to flee to France to recuperate. He was offered a life of retirement by his superiors but refused. For love of Christ and neighbor he wanted to go back to the Indians who Christ loved and who Jogues loved, not only for the Huron but also for the Iroquois from who Christ die for as well. Shortly after arriving, as he walked out of a tent, Fr. Jogues was bludgeoned over the head by the same Iroquois, thus giving His life in love and as a witness to Love. <br />
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Although we may not be called to witness to love in this extraordinary way, we are all nonetheless called to that greatest of all loves—"for a man to lay down his life for his friends.” For us, this can be done by what is known as crucifixion by pinpricks; that is, by living our daily lives in total dedication to Christ, to His Church and to others. We do this through our faithfulness to the duties of our state in life—this includes for example, doing our jobs well; being obedient to our parents; treating others fairly, as we would like to be treated; standing up against and trying to correct injustices; and fulfilling our spiritual duties of daily prayer and study. Along with fulfilling our daily duties, living the Commandments and the teachings of the Church; setting aside what we “feel” is true and right, and instead accepting the truth that comes not from us, not from any man, but from God, the truth that ensures us the freedom to love. In all of these way and countless other little ways, we are witnesses to this truth of love, at our jobs, in our families or even during our times of play and entertainment. This may give us the opportunity to, like Christ and His saints, bear the ridicule of the godless in this world who have created their own truth and reality, and to bear it all for love of them, so that they too may not be lost but may become friends of Christ and so obtain eternal life and union with the God who is Love. <br />
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To illustrate this “ordinary witness,” I think of the example in this country of a seemingly ordinary life of St. Pierre Toussaint. He was a former slave who having obtained his freedom opened a hairdressing salon in Old Manhattan. Yet, coming to this salon in order to be close to this true friend of Christ the socially elite would gather, in order to hear Pierre’s wisdom and to receive his direction in their lives. After work, Pierre would not go home, but would spend the night nursing the sick and dying, feeding the hungry, counseling the confused, teaching the ignorant and admonishing sinners to repent of their sins and turn their lives more and more to Christ—their truest friend, by following His commandments. Totally dedicated to Christ and to others, Pierre Toussaint, hardly ever thought of Himself—He was a slave to Christ, a slave of Love for love, totally free from the worst bondage, the bondage of sin; he was indeed a true friend of Christ. <br />
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A life of laying down one’s life for the sake of one’s friends begins for us at the Holy Mass. Jesus is truly our dearest friend who has lay down His life for each one of us, and Who continues to lay down His life for us on this sacred altar. The only appropriate response on our part is to lay down our lives for Him. <br />
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We do this beginning at Holy Mass by laying down our heart, our lives, our everything on this altar for love of Jesus. Not to be outdone in generosity and love, Jesus leaves the altar and gives us His own Sacred Heart at Holy Communion in order for us to be able to love with. This is the fruit of the Resurrection, to be able to love the Father with the Heart of Christ beating alive in us. And with this same Heart of Christ in us, loving those to whom we come in contact with on a daily basis. Most of the time, as we have said, this is carried out in the ordinary acts, but ordinary acts which now become acts of divine love, for we are truly able to carry out Jesus’ command to, “love one other as He has loved us,” for it is Jesus Himself who loves others and serves others through us. Let us ask the Virgin Mary, spouse of the Holy Spirit, to help us, like the saints, to dedicate our lives totally to Jesus and to live out this self- dedication by our faithfulness to all of the Commandments and to the Fathers Holy Will. <br />
Fr. Steven Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12248831829078417061noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7841121759921764277.post-24118691838085952612018-02-18T19:22:00.001-08:002018-02-18T19:32:21.742-08:00But the devil will come. He will lie to us He will tempt us with the things of this world—to seek happiness in this world alone. He will tempt us with fear, tempt us with the fear of what it will cost to follow Jesus fully, tempt us with the fear of giving up, of offering up everything to Jesus.Mark 1; 12-15. First Sunday in Lent. February 18th, 2018<br />
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“Repent and Believe in the Gospel, for the Kingdom of God is at Hand.” These words of our Blessed Lords that are found in today’s Gospel are at the very heart of our Lenten Observance. In fact, they are at the very heart of the entire Gospel. <br />
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Repent, that is turn away from those things that are keeping you from fully embracing Jesus, for He is the Kingdom of God Personified. Repent---turn away from sin and selfishness, from pride and error and turn to--embrace the Truth of the Gospel expounding fully in the Teachings of the Church. Live this Truth, so that give yourself more completely to Jesus—He who is the Truth, and be more perfectly and intimately united with Him in His Kingdom. <br />
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Repentance therefore, is more than just a turning away from Sin, it is even more than merely changing our lives for the better. Repentance is first a foremost a turning to Jesus more fully, giving ourselves and our lives to Him more completely, so as to live the Will of God already on earth as it is in the Kingdom of Heaven. <br />
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This is what is at the heart of our “giving up” something during Lent. We give up something we desire, some good, in order to increase our desire, our spiritual desire for the only One that is truly Good—Jesus. Jesus is the only One that can satisfy our true Hunger and thirst. And so, our fasting during Lent, is only successful if leads us closer to Jesus. <br />
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At the end of Lent, we can say, I succeeded in giving up chocolate or coffee for Lent, look how “good” I am. But can we say that being successful in giving up chocolate or coffee for Lent has changed me? Or did it just cause me to become grumpy with my family while I was trying to go without these things to prove how good I am. Will we be able to say, that our Lenten sacrifice has lead us to a deeper repentance from sin and to a turning more fully and offering our heart, our life and all that we are and have more trustfully and more completely to God, from Whom all good things come? <br />
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A truly successfully Lent then, as well as a truly successfully life with Christ, always begins and ends with Holy Mass. The Mass is that one place, like no other, where we can truly encounter the Kingdom of God in Person in the Holy Eucharist. It is here, where after we have repented of our sins and confessed them in the Sacrament of Confession before a priest, that we can turn more fully toward the Lord who comes to us in the Holy Eucharist, through His Passion, death and Resurrection. The Holy Eucharist is our Heavenly Food, because it is truly Jesus; therefore, the Holy Eucharist alone can satisfy our hungry heart. <br />
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But before we can grow in our desire for the Holy Eucharist and receive it more fruitfully-so it can transform us in to other Christs, we must, like in Lent, “give up” something--namely Ourselves and offer all we have on the altar with Jesus to the Father. We must give up everything, placing it on the Altar in a loving and trusting sacrifice to the Lord. <br />
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But we must not only give up to Him our whole heart and all that we have and possess, but we must also give up to Him our sins as well—we must place all our sins on the altar. <br />
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There too on that altar, we must place our failure to Love Him above all else, and give up to Him those areas of our lives that we love too much and are reluctant to offer up to Him right now, or are too scared to give up to Him because we are afraid He might take them from us in this life. We must give up to Him our petty grudges, our refusals to forgive, our cherished ways of doing things, our fixed perceptions of others, our stubborn refusal to change, or even to admit, those aspects of our lives that are displeasing to the Lord. We must give up to Him all of our fears as well, placing them on the paten at Holy Mass and totally surrendering ourselves in complete abandonment to His Holy Will; His Holy Will which is Love and Mercy Itself. <br />
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Speaking of fear. The Liturgical time of Lent reminds us that soon there won’t be anything to be scared of, because Easter is Coming. At Easter Jesus has conquered our fear. He has conquered sin and that greatest of all fears death; not just the fear of earthly death, but of eternal death, of eternal separation from God.<br />
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Jesus has triumph over the grave. And through the sacraments He has left us, we too can share in His victory; through the power of Holy Mass, which is the power of Divine Love, we too can conquer sin and so conquer fear and death. All provided we give up all to Jesus. <br />
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But the devil will come. He will lie to us He will tempt us with the things of this world—to seek happiness in this world alone. He will tempt us with fear, tempt us with the fear of what it will cost to follow Jesus fully, tempt us with the fear of giving up, of offering up everything to Jesus. To those who fall into his temptations and try to hang on only to the things of earth, afraid to lose their lives for Jesus, they will lose both earth and heaven and eternal life besides. <br />
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But for those who give up the things of this world, for those who give up their life to Jesus, they will gain heaven and earth, and eternal life besides, because they will obtain Jesus, and through Him, they will obtain the Father and the Holy Ghost and so the fulfillment of all their hopes and desires. And then all that they have given up to the Lord, all that they have entrust to His safe keeping, will be return to them a hundredth fold besides. <br />
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Let us turn to the virgin for help, she is our Lady of Perpetual help. She will help us to overcome the temptation of the devil. She will help us to overcome all of our fear. If you look at the image of our Lady of Perpetual help closely, you will notice that the sandal of the child Jesus in her lap is hanging on to Jesus foot only by a strap. You see, Jesus was out playing in the yard and two angels appeared holding the instruments of the passion—the cross, the nails, the crown of thorns. Little Jesus is so scared, and He runs so fast to His mother that his sandal slips off his foot and dangles as He jumps into the waiting outstretched arms of the Blessed Virgin Mary. <br />
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Her arms are outstretched for us as well. Let us run to her as fast as did Jesus. There in her loving and safe embrace, let us ask her to help us overcome fear and through her Immaculate Heart, give up everything, EVERYTHING on this altar at this and at every Holy Mass, trusting it all to the Lord God from Whom it all came anyway. Let us ask the Mother of God, to help us to cut the strings, to undo the knots that bind us from loving Jesus above all things and living for Him alone. Our Lady of Perpetual Help; Our Lady undoer of knots, pray for us who have recourse to thee. Amen.<br />
Fr. Steven Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12248831829078417061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7841121759921764277.post-78726957014527831852018-02-03T13:23:00.002-08:002018-02-04T08:26:56.768-08:00It is the Lord who heals the brokenhearted. It is He who lifts up the lowly. And how does He do it? just as He healed Peter’s Mother-in-law in today’s Gospel. He does through the touch of His Healing Hand.Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time. February 4th, 2018<br />
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In our first reading today, we hear of the great trial of Job. Job who was the most faithful to the Lord, has now it seems, fallen out of favor with the Lord and even incurred His wrath. Job is experiencing almost every type of suffering there is. He has lost his great fortune and his home; he has lost his prestige and has become a mockery to his neighbors; he is enduring a horrible illness and is suffering on a bed of misery and pain. And even worse, He has lost loved ones—close family members. Job is at the brink of total despair: He says, “I will never see happiness again.” <br />
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There are many in our world today that are like modern day "Jobs." They have lost jobs, savings and homes. So many, like Job are facing or experiencing serious illness or declining health, and are facing death. In the last few years so many have faced unbelievable suffering, misery and loss through natural disasters and wars…How many there are who are in bondage and slavery, physical slavery yes, but even more so, how many are suffering of the bondage of the greatest of all slavery-sin and its effects. So many there are who are broken in spirit and are at the “end of their rope,” so to speak. They are at the verge of or have already fallen into despair. From where will come their deliverance, from where will come their hope—who will heal the brokenhearted in our world today. …<br />
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Our psalm today gives us the answer…It is the Lord who heals the brokenhearted. It is He who lifts up the lowly. And how does He do it? just as He healed Peter’s Mother-in-law in today’s Gospel. He does through the touch of His <b>Healing Hand</b>.<br />
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For those who humble themselves before the Lord, the Lord grasps them by the hand and helps them up, heals them and saves them. It can never be said enough that the Lord saves through healing, the healing of the spirit, the healing of the whole person, the healing of the soul and yes even the healing of the body, (if not in this world, certainly in the next).<br />
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This healing of the Lord is not just some quaint metaphor or analogy. His Healing Hand can take the form of a very tangible touch. It is still possible for the lowly, for those who humble themselves before the Lord to experience the touch of the human healing hand of Christ in ordered to be lifted up (for those who humble themselves shall be exalted…). <br />
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I remember a young woman, with whom I was very closed, who was suffering from a terminal illness--cancer. At her diagnoses, she was only 23. She was terrified, not only afraid to die, but afraid of the great physical suffering that would come along with her disease and eventual death. Her days, like Job’s, were truly “swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, they were coming to an end, and it seemed without hope.” It was then that I myself, experienced the Lord come to her and grasped her by the hand and lift her up and heal her. <br />
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How did the Lord come to her…how did He touch her? How did He heal her? It was through the great Sacraments of the Church known as Confession and the Anointing of the Sick and especially and substantially in the Holy Eucharist. <br />
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Like in all the Sacraments, it is truly the Lord who we are dealing with. In the person of priest, Jesus came to her, truly and really, lovingly and mercifully. For her part, this young woman lowered herself before the Lord, and placed her trust in His Divine mercy by humbly, truthfully and contritely confessing her sins to Jesus, through His priest. And through the hands of that same priest, Jesus forgave this dying young woman with His own hands in the absolution, laid His own hands upon her head to heal her, anointed her brow with the oil of His tenderness and compassion, grasped her trembling hands and anointed them as well, healing her broken heartedness and healing her soul. <br />
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From that moment on, I saw in this young woman an incredible change. She went from a fearful and hopeless “Job,” to a young woman strong in the Fear and Love of Lord. She began not only to embrace her sufferings but even to offer them joyfully for the sake of others, for the salvation of others, especially her family. Like St. Paul, in her weakness she became strong. <br />
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After, when friends would come to visit her in order to cheer her and lift her up, she instead would lift them up and give them hope…In the end, I am totally convinced she beat her cancer…maybe not physically but she most certainly beat it spiritually. It may have destroyed her body in this life, but it did not destroy her soul. And in her sufferings and even in her death, she became for others a way to the Healing Hands of Jesus by preaching the Gospel with her life and even with her death. Jesus lifted her up in soul to Himself, and on the last day, I have no doubt, He will also lift up her healed body as well at the resurrection of the dead…Praise the Lord!!! <br />
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Interestingly, has he did when he first visited this young girl, whenever this priest would visit her during her illness he would always grasp her hand and hold it has he talked to her about the Lord, the cross and redemptive suffering, and as he prayed with her and for her. And as he would go to leave, she would always say the same thing, “Thank you for coming Father, you go ahead and go, just leave me your hand!” After her death, I heard this same priest give the funeral homily for her…He mentioned this, about her wanting him to leave his hand with her when he left. And He said to all those present at this now 24-year old’s funeral…”it was not my hand she wanted me to leave, but it was the Lord’s Hand…It was Jesus hand—His healing hand!” Praise the Lord!!! <br />
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Now as a priest, whenever I have the great privilege to visit the sick here in the hospital and administer the Sacrament of the anointing…I am always well aware, and I always remind those present, that it is not my hand that is about to touch you, but it is the Healing Hand of the Lord that is about to touch you. <br />
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I have I seen, God be praised and not this sinner, I have seen the faith of the humble before the healing hand of the Lord, and I have seen Him lift them up and heal them, giving them hope, giving them health and giving them life. In the Sacraments, it is the Lord we are dealing with, the priest is merely His burro, unworthy, so many times not very faithful and himself beset with weakness and fear. But nonetheless, it is this burro that the Lord uses to come to the soul—the ways of the Lord are not our ways. <br />
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In confession, the Lord comes to the humble and contrite heart, to the brokenhearted and offers His healing hand—this is why confession is an integral and necessary part of the anointing of the sick (unless the person is physically unable to confess-only then does the anointing take away serious sin without confession)…. Do you know that more miraculous healings take place in the confessional than anywhere else, even more than occur at Lourdes or other religious shrines? Spiritual healings yes, but even sometimes miraculous physical healings—more in the confessional than anywhere else!!!—when the soul is healed sometimes the Body follows, if it be God’s Holy Will. <br />
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And at the Holy Mass the Lord comes in His resurrected and glorified—healed body, which once was dead but now lives again. He comes to each of us and if we humbly open our hearts to Him, He lifts us up as He is lifted up in the Holy Eucharist. He wishes to come to us, not only to heal us and save us, but He wishes to transform us, so that each of our hands can become his healing hands to others…<br />
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Yes, the Lords healing powers come through the priestly ministry, firstly and primarily. But from there, this Power can also work through you and through your hands as you go forth from this Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and strive with His help and His Blessed Mother’s help, to live the Gospel with your very life—with your life, whether in health or sickness, in suffering and even in your death. <br />
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He wishes through you, with you and in you, to come and "touch" to those who are brokenhearted, who may be in your own family, at your work or school, and even at your places of recreation and sport…Not all of the poor, that is the brokenhearted, are in the shape of the material poor (which is the error of secular humanism), some of the poorest of the poor may be very rich material speaking but very poor spiritually speaking (how many of the rich and famous commit suicide). The Lord may place some of the most brokenhearted in this world in your path this very day to offer them His healing touch so HE can begin to mend their brokenheart; He wants to use you to bring them into the fold of Holy Church so He can touch them in the Great Healing Sacraments of His Merciful Healing Sacred Heart. <br />
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But before you go to them, before we go to them, first we must come to Jesus, and we ourselves must receive His Healing Touch frequently, both in the confessional accepting His Divine Mercy through the confession of our sins. And then we must come to Him in the Holy Eucharist and ask the Virgin, by placing our heart in her Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, to place our brokenheart into the Pierced Eucharistic Heart of Her Son. Before we can be used to console others, we must first be consoled by the Lord in the Sacraments and then we will be empowered to console others with the same consolation we have received from Him. <br />
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Let us pray: O God in Whom Mercy is endless and the treasury of compassion inexhaustible, look kindly upon us and increase Your Mercy in us, so that in difficult moments we might not despair nor become despondent, but with great confidence submit ourselves to Your Holy Will, which is Love and Mercy Itself. Jesus, I trust in You! Jesus, I trust in You! Jesus, I trust in You! Our Lady of Perpetual Help pray for us! Amen.<br />
Fr. Steven Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12248831829078417061noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7841121759921764277.post-29583080643246963722018-01-18T08:49:00.002-08:002018-01-18T08:49:50.620-08:00we are not souls held captive in the body, seeking to escape the confines of the evil body forever. We are body and soul, substantially united in one person and we will be for all eternity.Second Sunday in Ordinary Time. January 14th, 2018<br />
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“Behold the Lamb of God.” With these words, John the Baptist announces the coming of Jesus, as he—Jesus, begins his public ministry, and begins to call disciples to Himself. I want to stop and reflect on these words- “Lamb of God,” and how they related to the Body of Christ and our own body.<br />
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We have just celebrated the mystery of the coming of the Lamb of God—Jesus. Jesus, the invisible God, second Person of the Most Blessed Trinity, Creator and Sustainer of everything, comes into the world in the flesh, in a human body. And, it is through His body that He offered himself, and continues to offer Himself, to His Heavenly Father, as the true Lamb of Sacrifice, for the salvation of mankind. God has become incarnate and everything, EVERYTHING has changed. <br />
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It is important to remember that the incarnation of Jesus did not end with the death of Jesus. Jesus resurrected and He did so in the flesh. His resurrection was a bodily resurrection, a physical resurrection—He said: “touch me Thomas, see I am not a ghost!” He ate and drank after His resurrection. Jesus still has a fully human nature united to His divine nature—He is still true God and true Man; He still has a human body, albeit a resurrected body. <br />
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This is why Jesus came to earth as a little baby in Bethlehem, He came so that He could die in His body, in order that He would be able to give us this body as our True Food to save us. The resurrection makes it possible for Jesus at Holy Mass, to continue to offer His body in order to continue to give us His Body. This is the Body, that before we receive It, the priest holds up and proclaims, “Behold this is the Lamb of God. Jesus is still in a body and it is this sacred body of Jesus that will save us, if we believe, adore, hope and love Jesus in His Sacred Incarnated Body. <br />
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It is also through the Incarnation, God coming in the flesh, then that Jesus also reveals to us who we are. We too are called to live out our lives in holiness in the flesh—in a body, just as Jesus did. In fact, because of Jesus, our bodies can now actually become real temples for the living and true God to dwell in. As St. Paul says to us today, our bodies are Temples of the Holy Spirit- In Baptism, as our bodies were immersed into the life giving waters, we died with Jesus and rose with Him; we are reborn—regenerated from above, and we actually became living temples of the living God. <br />
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This image is not just a spiritual one- we are reunited to the Father and become children of God, literally this means to have the Life of God alive in our souls—it means to actually share in God’s own Divine Nature. This has huge consequences, not only for our souls but for our bodies as well. We are indeed true sons and daughters of God- this is truly who we are. And so, as sons and daughters of God we are to live our lives in a way which shows forth this great truth to all around us—we are to live the life of Christ in our own flesh for the life of the world. <br />
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This brings us three important considerations all having to do with the body as temple of the Holy Spirit. And how a failure to understand the holiness of the body leads to all sorts of desecrations and one could even de-sacrilization of the body. First, the subject of married love, second how do we take care of the building of the temple and thirdly, how do we treat the body after death. <br />
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In the sacrament of marriage our physical bodies reach their finality, meaning what they were designed for, when they are united to another body of the opposite sex. When they are used properly our bodies will be fruitful, and the fruit will be children who are one of the greatest gifts of God and who are destined to become sons and daughters of God as well. Our culture degrades the body, especially in this area, in the area of sexual morality. <br />
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Next, the second point, how we dress our bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament, holy and sacred objects were always, always, veiled. The veil reminded the view that that which lies behind or under the veil was sacred, only and belonged to God. And because it was holy it could not be looked upon with ordinary eyes and a casual glance. IN other words, it could not be look upon as ordinary or secular but as something holy and sacred to the Lord God or else it would be profaned. An example from Holy Scripture: The holies of holies containing the Ark of the Covenant was hidden always behind a veil and no one could look behind the veil except one appointed by god, the priest. Later in the New Testament, the chalice and paten which would hold the Body and blood of Christ would be veiled until the appropriate time during Holy Mass; and the Tabernacle was always veiled to remind us that what it contained was not just Holy, But HOLY, HOLY, HOLY (the Holiest of holies, Jesus, in His Body). <br />
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The human body itself was veiled (by clothing) as well, because it was holy and Sacred. This by the way is the where the ideal of veiling woman came from at Holy Mass. It was not that the woman was less, but that she was more. The woman’s body is holy and sacred and one was not to look upon it with eyes of lust and filth. Only the husband who body belongs to the woman because he consecrated himself by a sacred oath to her and she to Him, only he could remove the veil and see the sacredness and beauty behind (in fact it was her father on the day of her wedding, who acting in the place of the heavenly Father, symbolic showed permission by lifting her wedding veil before he gave her hand to her soon to be husband.. <br />
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Because our modern society as too often removed the veil outside the marital bond the body as become something dirty and filthy. Why is there the modern attempt to piece, tattoo and surgical alter the body? Is not this a sign that body is now hated so much that it is mutilated and changed, in order to try to make it more sexually desirable. <br />
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Let’s move to the third point, the end of life. Never before have we seen the sacredness of the body more disregarded at death than in our day. The Church and society informed and formed by the Church and her teachings, has always in the past seen to it that the human body received a proper burial. In fact, one of the corporal works of mercy (on which we will be judged) is to bury the dead. This practice presupposed a belief in the sacredness of the body as a temple of the Holy Spirit; and as well, a belief in the bodily resurrection of the dead on the day of Judgment. <br />
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While Today the Church allows cremation, it will not permit a Catholic funeral it if the person is being cremated because he doesn’t believe in the resurrection of the body or if the cremated body is not going to be buried. It must be said that Church certainly doesn’t prefer cremation, it merely puts up with it so to speak. The Church would rather have the body intact at burial and for sure, the body present and intact at the funeral Mass. The main problem with cremation in our day is not so much because of the outright denial of the Body as a temple of the Holy Spirit, but because families are not burying the body. They are dumping the cremated body at sea, keeping it on their fire place mantel, and even making it into jewelry. This is really, knowingly or unknowingly, a denial of the sacredness of the body. A cremated body must be treated as it is, a former temple of the Holy Spirit; and so, the body in cremated form needs to be buried, not kept in the home for any reason (we just don’t keep dead bodies in our house!)or scattered somewhere. To Bury the Dead is one of the 7 Corporal Works of Mercy which along with the 7 Spiritual Works of Mercy we will be judged at the Last Judgment!<br />
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To sum it all up, we are not souls held captive in the body, seeking to escape the confines of the evil body forever. We are body and soul, substantially united in one person and we will be for all eternity. What we do in our bodies affects our souls-what we do in the body determines who we are as persons. For example, one can say (as many in our modern age of sexual scandals say), “What I did wrong is not a reflection of who I am as a person”…in other words, “what I did in the body doesn’t show who I am in my soul.” But this is not so, for if in our bodies, we commit theft we are a thief, that is who we are; if we gossip then we are a gossiper, if we commit abuse, then we are abusers. Yes, we can repent, but then we are a repentant thief, a repentant abuser etc. Because of our Baptism, our bodies are now temples of the Holy Spirit, holy and sacred instruments, never to be desecrated by unholy acts or in other ways that are displeasing to God.<br />
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And so what we do in the body also determines our eternal destiny.. At the end of the world, at the resurrection of the dead, our souls will be reunited with our bodies, our bodies will rise from the grave. We will then be judged for the acts we did, both bad and good in and through our bodies, as well as for acts we fail to do, in and through our bodies. And depending on the outcome of that judgment we will spend eternity in our bodies in one of two places, either in eternal bliss of heaven united with God forever, or eternal misery of hell separated from God forever. So, St. Paul states very emphatically, because our bodies are holy, temples of the Holy Spirit, our bodies are not to be instruments of sins-our bodies are not for fornication, but sacred instruments whereby God wishes to use us for holiness, for His honor and glory and for the sanctification and salvation of souls. <br />
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We need to change our attitudes and behaviors to reflect the reality to which we have been baptized into- we are all uniquely children of God. With this confidence, we can then use our bodies always and in all ways to glorify God. This includes especially in using our body in the worship and adoration of God at Holy Mass. <br />
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We use our bodies to genuflect, kneel and bow in order to show the interior desire of our soul to adore God. This use of our body should also be reflected in how we dress our bodies. We should dress modesty, always wearing our Sunday best, always dressed for the weddings of all Weddings which is the Holy Mass, the place where our souls are called to be wedded to the Lord through the offering of ourselves. And because we receive Jesus in His Body and Soul in to our Body and Soul at Holy Communion which is the marital act of the Wedding Feast of the Lamb, in order for the consummation to be fruitful, our souls must be dress in the proper wedding attire as well, made pure white by a good Sacramental Confession in which we confessed those sins, those things we have done and have failed to do in body and soul. <br />
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But we are also to adore God in our bodies outside of Mass by living upright, moral and holy lives, not only by not sinning in the body as St. Paul says, but also by respecting and veiling the Body through proper modest dress, never desecrating it by using it for fornication or by putting graffiti on it, and by always burying the Body when dead as to honor it as a former temple of the Holy Spirit.<br />
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In a just few moments, we will begin the Eucharistic prayer. In the Communion Rite, I will elevate the True Sacred Body and Blood of Christ and say again, “Behold—Look upon the Lamb of God. When we receive this Body of Christ- it is truly the Flesh and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus—His whole Person, we can be transformed in body and soul. <br />
The Holy Eucharist, the Body of Christ will give us the power we need to live lives of purity and holiness in the body. By receiving Jesus, if we surrender to Him He will transform us into living members of His Mystical Body, images of Himself for the sake of the whole world. May we be open to the graces we need to live out this high calling as disciples of our Lord, not only in the soul, but in the body as well, so that at the resurrection of the dead, our bodies along with our souls, will be with us in heaven for eternity, reflecting the Vision of the Glory of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen. <br />
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Hail true Body, Holy Body, born of the Virgin Mary, who truly suffered and was sacrificed on the cross for men. From your pierced side, streamed blood and water. Be a foretaste of heaven to us in our death agony. O dear Jesus! O kind Jesus! O Jesus, Son of Mary. Amen <br />
Fr. Steven Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12248831829078417061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7841121759921764277.post-37373852783021674542017-12-23T13:30:00.004-08:002017-12-24T18:05:49.501-08:00Let us ask the Virgin to help us adore in a deeper way the Christ Child this Christmas.Fourth Sunday in Advent December 23rd, 2017<br />
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In the past three Sundays of Advent we have heard differing themes about Staying awake, preparing the way for the Lord, and the Joy that can only come from being close to Jesus. And now, we come to the last of the four Advent Themes, “Jesus desires to be born again, not in a crib in Bethlehem but in us, through the “Obedience of Faith, that is living out the truths of our beautiful Catholic faith.”<br />
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Around the turn of the 20th century, that is around the year 1900, many in the Church began to notice that the world was beginning a great downward spiraling of morality and a departing from the protection and mercy of God through disobedience to His Commands. They saw already the beginning of the current evils that are beseeching us in our own times. They saw already the loss of authentic fatherhood and Christian family life, they saw great and terrible wars, unlike any in history on the horizon, they saw as well, great new ideological errors, such as totalitarianism, fascism, socialism and communism. In response, they begin to ask the following questions, “If we Catholics have the Holy Mass—the Sacred Liturgy, which is very source of all grace and mercy and all goodness and love in this world, what is going on? If one Holy Mass offered makes present the power to save the whole world past, present and future, because it is the work of the Head—Christ, Himself, why is the balance between good and evil becoming so grossly unbalanced? <br />
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Through the great prophets of the day, the Holy Spirit began to answer for us these and other such questions. Men such as St. Pope Pius X, Dom Prosper Gueranger and later Pope Pius the twelve and others, began to point out that the problem was not with the Sacred Liturgy or with how it was being offered, in what language it was said in, or even in what direction the priest was facing. They rightly taught the Sacred Liturgy and how it was being offered at the time, had been received by Moses from God on Mount Sinai (along with the Ten Commandments), it had been fulfilled by Christ at the Last Supper and the Crucifixion, it had been developed and perfected throughout the 1900 years since. So no, the problem was not with how the Liturgy was being offered (excepting for abuses in the Liturgy). No, the problem was somehow with the Mystical Body of Christ and how its members were attending the Sacred Liturgy—the Holy Mass. <br />
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This was brought out very nicely in 1943, in an encyclical letter by Pope Pius the XII entitled, “The Mystical Body of Christ.” In this encyclical, the Pope again said that the Sacred Liturgy, because it is primarily the work of Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, and because it makes His once and for all Sacrifice of love on Calvary present in time wherever and whenever it is being offered, and because it is God-Jesus adoring God the Father on our behalf, one single Mass makes present, truly and really, unlimited grace and an ocean of infinite mercy. However, the Pope said, God in His divine providence has declared that none of the mercy and grace goes forth from the Holy Mass into the world except through the members of the Mystical Body of Christ, that is through members of the Baptized participating in the Holy Mass. And so, if the world is spiraling downward toward hell, the reason is that not enough members of the Church understand the true nature of the Holy Mass, and so no longer know how to participate in it with full, actual, conscious, participation, (which he pointed out is primarily an interior participation in which we offer our hearts—our everything, totally and completely on the paten). And so, they longer bear and bring the fruit of the Holy Mass into the world because they are not being transformed by the Mass into another Christs for the world. <br />
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And this brings us to our theme in this fourth Sunday of Advent…for another way of saying being transformed into other Christ’s is to say allowing Christ to be born anew in us in order to live anew in us. And this new birth of Jesus into the minds, hearts, souls, bodies and lives of the Faithful in order to live anew in them reveals to us as well the true meaning of Christmas… <br />
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Two thousand years ago Jesus Christ the Eternal Son of the Father and the Second Person of the Most Blessed Trinity was born into this world according to the flesh, as true Man, as one of us, like us in all things except sin, yet still remaining true God. At this Holy Mass and at every Holy Mass He is reborn again in the flesh on this and every sacred Altar and present in every Tabernacle of the world. But He is not content to stay there. Jesus wants to be born anew in us, He wants to live again in us, suffer in us and die in us in order to show the world, through our lives, His love and His Infinite Mercy, in order to bring his redemption to the souls in the world today through us…in this way and only through this way are souls brought to Christ so that He may redeem them, heal them, save them and bring them into intimacy with Him so they may also share in the joy that is ours. <br />
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This brings up another important meaning of Christmas than can easily be overlooked. Celebrating Christmas means then a dying to ourselves so that Jesus may live in us and we may live solely for Him and for others. This is the basis of the JOY of Christmas—Jesus, Others, and then Ourselves.<br />
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Immediately after Christmas, on the 26th we have the feast day of St. Stephen the first Christian Martyr, then feast of The Holy Innocents, and St Thomas Beckett—all Martyrs—all who gave their lives for the love of God and to give testimony to the truth of the Gospel. In light of these feasts, at Christmas we can easily say very Martyr Christmas. <br />
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The Martyrs show us in their deaths, that Love is an exchange of the gift of Oneself to the beloved—the meaning of exchanging gifts at Christmas. The gifts symbolizing the offering of our love, the offering of ourselves to the ones we love, they show of our desire to sacrifice our self-interest for their sake, to live for the sake of them, the ones that we love. However, the deeper meaning of the giving of gifts to one another is they symbolize or should symbolize our desire to give ourselves in love to the (number) One we Love (capital O) -Jesus. <br />
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The first ever gift of Christmas was Jesus giving us the gift of Himself by becoming Man…He gives up everything for love of us, by coming to earth as one of us and by offering His life for us even to the shedding of His blood. The only appropriate response on our part is one of love…offering our everything to Him in return. Hence, the only really necessary gift this Christmas, and at every Christmas and at every Christ Mass, is the one we give to Jesus—the gift of ourselves. In fact, it is only to the degree that we give ourselves to Jesus that He can be born again in us, and take His grace and mercy through us out into the world.. <br />
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This is why we must turn to the Mother of God for help and why Advent is time to spend close to Mary who bore Jesus in her womb that first advent. Before she gave birth to Jesus, even before she conceived Him in her womb by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, by the Same Holy Spirit she conceived Jesus in her soul and gave birth to Him in her life. <br />
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And so, the rebirthing of Jesus in our souls and in our life can only occur in the same way through the work of the human and the divine, through the Virgin Mary and the Holy Spirit….the Bride and Her spouse will help us to offering ourselves to the Divine babe in a new way and deeper way this Christmas and at every Holy Mass. Mary and the Holy Spirit will help then help us to do the hard work of birthing Him fully in our lives by ridding ourselves of selfishness and sin, of dying to our wills in order to do the will of God, which includes living our lives according to the truths, to all of the teachings of our beautiful Catholic Faith. <br />
Let us ask the Virgin to help us adore in a deeper way the Christ Child this Christmas season. Amen.<br />
Fr. Steven Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12248831829078417061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7841121759921764277.post-59351295430536258262017-12-20T16:58:00.000-08:002017-12-20T16:58:07.833-08:00Pray without ceasing to Jesus who is the One who has come, who is coming and who will come again.John 1; 6-8,19-28. Third Sunday in Advent. December 17th, 2017<br />
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Already we have come to the third week in Advent, how quickly time flies; and our quickly the advent of our life flies… “soon it will be night and we will be questioned about our love!”<br />
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If you remember, the theme for the First week in Advent was, Be Watchful! Be Alert! Watch for the Lord; don’t fall into slumber! That is, don’t’ fall into the temptations of the, “lust of the flesh”, “the lust of the eyes” and “pride of life.” In other words, don’t be so focused and fascinated on the passing things of this world, so as to be blinded and unprepared and miss His coming. <br />
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The Second Week of Advent was Prepare the Way for the Lord, for He will come quickly as Divine Judge, so now is the time to draw closer to Him as Merciful Redeemer-for God promises us mercy not tomorrow, examine your life and your conscience in order to see those things which you have done or fail to do which are displeasing to the Lord, namely your sins and make a good Sacramental confession to prepare for His coming. <br />
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And the theme for this Third week in Advent is, “Pray without ceasing.” Pray without ceasing to Jesus who is the One who has come, who is coming and who will come again. Pray always so has to grow in our intimacy and friendship with Jesus, so as to desire Him above all things and become one with Him in love. <br />
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This third week of Advent is also known as Gaudete Sunday, or “Rejoice Sunday!” St. Paul tells us to Rejoice in the Lord Always! Saint Catherine of Siena said that all the way to Heaven is already Heaven for those who love the Lord. To keep Advent is to peek into Heaven especially on “Gaudete (Rejoice) Sunday,” <br />
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The Rose Color Vestments, Rose being a symbol of Joy, remind us of why we Christians rejoice, why we should always be joyful. And the reason is, is that the Lord is near to us. Yes, He came as a man two thousand years ago and we long for Him to come again at the end of time, but through the Sacraments of the Holy Church He has found a way to be with us still, to remain with us always as Emmanuel—God is truly with us, not just in our mind, not just in our hearts, and not just spiritually, but He is with us substantially, physically, in the same body born of the Virgin Mary in the crib at Bethlehem. <br />
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For this reason, Advent as we have said is a time of hope; it is a time of rejoicing and happiness. Yes, we are preparing for the coming of Jesus liturgically at Christmas, but our hope lies in the fact that He comes at this Holy Mass and every Holy Mass in the Holy Eucharist and pours out a new His Unfathomable Love and Infinite Mercy for us on the Altar. Every Mass is therefore Christ Mass—Don’t miss is coming here! <br />
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From this center, which is the Heart of Christ offered for us and to us, all grace and mercy flows out to all of the other Sacraments. If we receive the Sacraments with the proper disposition, they will strengthen our Closeness to Jesus, and lead us more and more into a perfect union of love with Him, and through Him to the Father. But we for our part must prepare ourselves and try to offer ourselves in love totally to the One, Jesus who in the Sacraments, especially in the Holy Eucharist, offers Himself and His love totally to us. <br />
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The Truth is, is that Joy and Happiness come from being close to Jesus, and it is the Sacraments that make this closeness possible. Sadness on the other hand is to be away from Jesus and so away from His Sacraments. Jesus does not wish us harm or sorrow, but only His peace and Joy—the sorrow in this world comes from us, not God; it comes from thinking we are self-sufficient apart from God, from thinking we can love and serve our neighbor without first worshiping and adoring God; it comes from doing our own self-will instead of God’s Holy Will; in a word, all the sorrow and unhappiness in this world comes from sin.<br />
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In this season of advent, and in the advent of our lives, we may be more or less comfortable or more or less fill with suffering and difficulties, but Jesus promises a joy that no one and nothing can take from us, that is, as long as we cling to Jesus with faith in and through the Sacraments of the Church, especially the Most Blessed of Sacraments the Holy Eucharist. There we will find the antidote to Sadness. There will find the strength to become better, to overcome our self-centeredness, which only leads to despondency and despair. There we will find the strength to break out of seeking only our self-interest in order to Love and serve God above else and to love and serve our neighbor for Love of God. <br />
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Through the power of the Sacraments we will then be enable, empowered to live our daily life only for Jesus, all of our daily duties will be done for Him primarily, we will do all things well for Him, we will become like Him. And as other Christs for the world, we will serve others and even bear their burdens. This is how we will pray constantly and rejoice always for all we do, no matter how small will be done for love of Jesus, with Jesus, in Jesus and through Jesus. Then others will be attracted to the joy they see within us and they will trace the source of our Joy back to Jesus. And they too will discover the definition of Joy…J.O.Y. ---to put Jesus first, then Others and then finally Ourselves. <br />
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At this and every Holy Mass, Jesus comes anew to give us peace, to give us Joy, by giving us Himself in the Holy Eucharist, let us rejoice and lovingly and joyfully and through the Virgin Mary, offer ourselves to Him in return. <br />
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Fr. Steven Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12248831829078417061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7841121759921764277.post-45196297839893312812017-12-03T20:30:00.000-08:002017-12-03T20:30:38.778-08:00the four main themes of each of the Four Weeks of AdventMark 13; 33-37. First Sunday in Advent. December 3rd, 2017<br />
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Today with this First Sunday in Advent, we celebrate New Year’s Day in the Church’s Liturgical Calendar. A New Year is a time of Renewed Hope and Advent is at its heart a season of Hope. It is a season for Joyful Preparation for the reason of our Hope, the Coming of the Lord.<br />
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And so, Advent culminates in the Feast of the Coming of the Lord which is Christmas. At Christmas, we celebrate the historical Fact that Jesus the Lord God, has come in the flesh already some 2,000 years ago. But Advent reminds us that He desires to come again spiritually anew into our hearts, and through our hearts anew into our families and out into our world. <br />
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And so, in order to help to ring in the New Year right, let us look closer at our Advent Preparation for Christmas. Christmas is so important that we are giving four full Weeks to prepare for it. And since our most important preparation for Christmas, is not a material preparation but a spiritual preparation, I thought it would be helpful to mention ahead of time the four main themes of each of the Four Weeks of Advent. <br />
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The theme for this first Sunday in Advent is, “Be Watchful! Be Alert! Watch for the Lord. Don’t slumber, skipping your preparation and so as to miss the Lord’s coming as so many did that first Christmas. <br />
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And so, the Next Week, the Second Sunday in Advent’s theme is, “Prepare the Way for the Lord…While it seems He is delayed, He is not…He will come as a “thief” in the night…God promises us mercy but not necessarily tomorrow, so now is the time to accept Him into our hearts by accepting His Mercy by truly confessing our sins; that is, confessing truthfully and fully those things we have done and those things we have not done which have displeased the Lord and so have prevented His deeper coming into our lives. <br />
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The theme for the Third week of Advent is, “Pray without ceasing.” Pray without ceasing to Jesus who is the One who has come, who is coming and who will come again. Pray always so has to grow in our intimacy and friendship with Jesus so as to desire Him above all things and become one with Him in love. <br />
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And so, the theme for the fourth and final week of Advent is Jesus desires to be born again, not in a crib in Bethlehem but in us, through the “Obedience of Faith!” That is, born in us through not just believing in Jesus, but believing in everything He has revealed to us about God and Man which is contained in its fullness in the Teachings of the Catholic Church, and then living out those teachings with the Grace that comes to us primarily through that Same Church in Her Sacraments, especially in the Holy Eucharist and Confession. <br />
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Those are the four main themes of the season of Advent. They are the main themes of the Advent of our entire life. Now let’s quickly look closer at the Theme for this First Week in Advent. Be watchful…Be Awake. Don’t Slumber. How do we fall into slumber and avoid being prepared? We can do so as St. John tells us, through the “Lust of the flesh,” and the “Lust of the eyes,” and the “Pride of life.”<br />
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Lust has to do with so much more than just desiring something of a bodily nature that we shouldn’t… Lust of the flesh has to do with an inordinate love of comfort, to not even want to stir ourselves in order to be Watchful. It is the tendency within all of us to take the easy way out, to not even want to make the effort to do the necessary and many times difficult things to Love God first and foremost by putting Him and His holy will first in our life. It is in a nut shell to want Christianity without the cross. <br />
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And, “Lust of the eyes,” is a greed that desires to possess only the beautiful things of this world. Then enamored by our possessions, our desire and great need for God becomes more and more dulled. In our blindness, we become more and more self-sufficient no longer seeing our need for the grace of the Sacraments in order to live our life pleasing to God. We begin more and more to reject with our intellect the Truth of the Gospel which is given to us in its fullness in the teachings of the Catholic Church. We ourselves then become the determiners of what is true and what is false, what is good and what is evil (which was the original sin of Adam and Eve in the garden—you shall be as God). As a result, the teachings of the Church, which come from Jesus, become burdensome and out dated; we see them and all of the Commandments of God as oppressive and as threats to our freedom instead of protections to our freedom and the way to Life.<br />
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With our heart set only on this present world, and in our self-sufficiency we fall into the third and worst way that we are tempted to slumber and so fail to be awake and prepared for the coming of the Lord, and that is by “Pride of the life.” We then become the center of the universe and our self-love overtakes Love of God and love of neighbor; we desire to be serve instead of to serve. Instead of “Thy Will be done,” it becomes only, “My will be done.” <br />
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Again, Next week our theme is, “Prepare the way for the Lord…we best do this by making a good Sacramental Confession. Perhaps we could us this week to prepare ourselves to do so by making an in-depth examination of conscience. According the Catechism of the Catholic Church, an examination of conscience is a “prayerful self-reflection on our words and deeds in the light of the Gospel to determine how we may have sinned against God” There are so many guides available on the internet to help us examine our conscience. I recommend the one available on E.W.T.N.—The “Eternal Word Television Network,”…the website is ewtn.com. and in the search box type in “Examination of Conscience.”<br />
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Let us turn to the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, to help us in our advent preparation. She was the one who was fully ready for the coming of the Lord, He Who was Born of Her in the Crib at Bethlehem that first Christmas. She is then the Mother of our Hope. She will help us keep our eyes open, fixed on her divine Son alone. With her we can overcome the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and pride of life. Through her we can be fully awake, and so fully prepared for the coming of her Son, who comes to us as Merciful redeemer in Confession, to us spiritually as the divine child through the liturgy this Christmas, to us physically as our Savior at this Holy Mass in the Holy Eucharist, and finally who will come to us as our Divine Judge, at the end of our advent time in this world. <br />
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Our Lady Mother of the New Advent, Mother of Our Hope, Pray for us! Amen!<br />
Fr. Steven Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12248831829078417061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7841121759921764277.post-79596848807593887032017-11-05T20:55:00.001-08:002017-11-05T20:55:23.969-08:00To not know and understand God as a Father who cares for us intimately and not to invoke Him for His help is to become orphans without hope.Matthew 23; 1-12Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time. November 5th, 2017<br />
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One of the lines in the Gospel today is used by Bible Fundamentalist to try and prove the Catholic Church is “unbiblical.” “Call no man on earth thy Father, for thou hast only one Father, who art in Heaven.” Sadly, many of these folks are ex-Catholics. But I would argue, Ex-Catholics who left a Church and her teachings that they never really knew, even though they may think they know them. But this passage nevertheless does seem to support a “anti Catholic” position on the part of many Christians.<br />
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For if the bible said what it says, how can we as Catholics, call the priest, “Father?” Before we take closer look at this verse, its important to state a very important rule when reading, praying and studying the Bible--Sacred Scripture, and that is, you can’t take a few verses out of the bible without looking at the whole. Our fundamentalist bible friends may seem to know the bible, but what they usually know is just a handful of verses taken out of context, and mostly of which seemed to go against the Catholic Church. Anyone can, in fact, make the bible say anything that want when it is read it apart from the Catholic Church from whence it came.<br />
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A good question to ask those who use this verse in a decidedly anti-Catholic way is, “Don’t you call the man who is the biological source of your being, dad. Isn’t that the same thing as “Father.”? Or don’t you call the person at school who helps you to learn, “teacher,” for Jesus also said, “Call no man on earth your teacher.” So obviously, Jesus did not and could not mean that you could not call someone on earth your father or your teacher. And as a matter of fact, we hear St. Paul in 1st Corinthians 4:14-16. St. Paul writing to the Christians in Corinth, addresses them as “my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then to be imitators of me.” Does this mean that St. Paul sinned by claiming to be a “Father in Christ?” Of course not, because St. Paul himself was a Catholic Priest, in fact, a bishop. And as such, he, Father Paul, was actually the origin of their spiritual childhood. In other words, when Bishop Paul preached the Gospel and baptized them, he literally became their spiritual father, a father in a greater and deeper sense than their own biological fathers—for he is the source of their eternal life, the way they were birthed into eternal life.<br />
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This leads us to the deeper meaning of this Gospel text and others like it. Matthew uses the word Father to describe God 44 times, and St John uses it 115 times. Jesus is really reminding those present when he spoke these words of today’s Gospel that God the Father is the source and origin of all fatherhood. All fatherhood and all authority have their source in God the father, just as all of life has its source in Him. Consequently, all true fatherhood and all true authority must keep God the Father as its origin and guide or it becomes corrupted. Authentic Fatherhood comes from God, who the Son revealed as, “Our Father.”<br />
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Jesus tells this to the people because the Pharisees lived a life of false piety, meaning that they lived piety on the outside but not on the inside, on the inside their hearts were far, far from God. They were full of pride, they were rich, that is, self-sufficient. In other words, they were full of themselves, not humble before the Lord—Consequently, They did not know the Father! Consequently, they didn’t realize that their spiritual fatherhood and authority over the people, both to rule and to teach, stemmed from God the Father.<br />
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So much could be learned from these words of Jesus, which are also addressed to the world today, which is really in a crisis of “Fatherhood.” They (Jesus’ words that is) speak of the interior life, that we must be connected to the God the Father not only by appearances or in name, but we must be united to Him on the inside, our hearts must be converted to Him in and through Christ Jesus. <br />
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And so, through today’s Scripture passage, Jesus speaks to all Christians today and warns us about being hypocritical. He warns us that to be Christian means more than just being born into a faith or claiming the name, but that the inward person must be more and more deeply renewed and converted to God, God who is not only a father, but THE FATHER. A faithful child of God the Father must struggle to carry out in heart, mind and deeds what he says and claims to be. And a faithful child of God must humbly realize that the source of their divine filiation, that is their divine childhood, has it source and origin in the source of all paternity--God the Father. <br />
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While God enjoys the fullness of Paternity, earthly fathers can too participate in this Paternity when they are open and contribute to new life. Similarly, the Church teaches us that all of those who foster the true faith through baptism and preaching should also been seen as parents in faith. Anyone who helps to foster true faith and love of God, by words and most especially in deed (i.e. love of neighbor) can participate in this paternity, by begetting others in the faith. However, one can only participate in this divine paternity of God to the degree that they have allowed themselves to be converted to the love of God the Father through Christ Jesus His Son. <br />
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In a world where half of the child born today have a chance of not having a father at home by the time the reach their 18th birthday, we are truly in a crisis of fatherhood. It is hard to know God our Father if we do not know an earthly father. And earthly fathers will only be as successful in fathering their children to the decree they have allowed themselves by the power of the Holy Spirit, to be converted to Christ Jesus who reveals to us the Heavenly Father. Bad fathers will give children a wrong notion of the Fatherhood of God. If a father tells his child to forgive others, does him himself forgive? If he tells a child not to steal or to lie, does he himself steal or lie? If he tells his child to be kind is he himself kind to others. And if he tells the child to love God, does he himself love God with his whole heart, soul and mind. The same goes for mothers, of course.<br />
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Just as earthly fathers can only give what they have, spiritual parents can only give to others what they themselves have received, they can only give what they themselves live—this goes as well for us spiritual Fathers—us priests. Words only or piety only, cannot do it today any more than they could for the Pharisees. Our hearts must be converted on the inside, if our words are going to have any effect they must be followed by deeds flowing from a true conversion to the truth of Jesus Christ and taught by His Church, through our spiritual fathers in Christ, the pope, bishops and priests.<br />
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We all must grow in our faith and realization that God is truly our Father and we are truly His children. A small child totally trusts his father. He follows him around all day and constantly asks him for his help. A child lets nothing keep him from his father, not even his mistakes. We too must trust our Father God like this—we must be as a child. We must humbly follow Our Father around all day long. And when we make mistakes, namely sins, we must immediately without hesitation run into the Father’s arms and there in the confessional, tell Him the truth about what we have done-no excuses, and that we are truly sorry and that we will try to do better with His help of course. <br />
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To not know and understand God as a Father who cares for us intimately and not to invoke Him for His help is to become orphans without hope. Denial of the Fatherhood of God is to create a culture of death. It is by the Fatherhood of God that all fathers and all families, biological and spiritual are understood. Even if we have been hurt by fathers, biological or spiritual, we must seek to forgive them and know that Our Father in heaven is not like that, He loves us even when no one else does-He is ever faithful. <br />
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Let us turn to the intercession of St. Joseph to help us. He is the perfect example of earthly fatherhood for all fathers and those in authority. HE was the humble servant, who used his authority and father in service to others. He will help lead us to Jesus, asleep in his arms. Jesus lead Joseph to perfect union with the Heavenly Father, hence he could be a father to Jesus and an example and source of help to all Christians who are called to share in the paternity of God the Father by leading others to Him, thus begetting spiritual child in Christ Jesus. <br />
Fr. Steven Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12248831829078417061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7841121759921764277.post-69456175054677996512017-10-22T19:44:00.001-07:002017-10-22T19:44:15.758-07:00“Render to God the things of God…” and the human person belongs to God!Matthew 22; 15-21. Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time. October 22nd, 2017<br />
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Today’s Gospel brings out the darkness of the hearts of those who opposed Jesus intrusion into their lives—they were religious in only appearance, but in their hearts they sought to live a life far apart from God—they refused to give to God what belong to Him, namely their lives, their hearts, their everything in joyful thanksgiving and adoration.<br />
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And so, these so-called religious folks try to trap Jesus in catch 22. They pose a very clever question. If Jesus would answer “that the tax should be paid, they would accuse Him to the people of collaborating with the Romans. Because the people saw paying taxes as nothing less than financing Rome’s continual domination of the nation of Israel, the people would then turn against Jesus and no longer follow Him. If Jesus would answer not to pay the taxes, then the ill willed Herodians would have grounds to turn Jesus over to the Romans for His opposition to the state, for his, “Trying to stir up rebellion among the people.”<br />
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For His part, Jesus however, gives His enemies a very clever and profound response, a response which goes far beyond their twisted expectations. He doesn’t just give them a yes or no answer; He gives them the true perspective and so thwarts their cunning words—“Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s. In other words, Jesus teaches them and us the correct relationship between the Church and the state, and of our obligation to support both the Church and the state, but in proper order. <br />
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We are to give to the state what is due to it…namely, the payment of legitimate taxes necessary for legitimate state expenses; and obedience to just laws (and the key word here is “just”)…but nothing more, for we are to also, and first and foremost, to give to God what belongs to God. Jesus thus puts back into order what was out of order. First and foremost, Jesus taught the Herodians and all those who were listening, that God is always first. <br />
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Jesus teaches us as well then, that the state does not enjoy absolute power and dominion. Yes, it has its own dominion; however, the rights of the state cannot usurp the rights of God and the rights of the human person created in the image and likeness of God. God has revealed what is right and wrong; the government is called to uphold this order. The laws of the state should not contradict the Laws of God: the principles of God should guide the laws of state. By the way, the political debate should be the means, the method, we use to ensure God’s law is respected. And this is why we are obliged, even from the pulpit, to oppose unjust laws-laws which go against the common good of all (yes, politics from the pulpit). <br />
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Christians do indeed have a duty to give to the state whatever material and personal services they can in order to support the common good. But the state then has the corresponding responsibility to enact laws and govern with the greatest respect for the common good of all people including, and most especially, the most vulnerable of society. This includes the protection of human life from the moment of conception, the defense of the family and consequently the protection of marriage between one man and one woman, the protection of religious liberty, the rights of parents to be the primary educators of their children, along with their right to provide for their children, including: receiving a just wage; to keep what they earn from their labors-and so, just taxes; along with the right to private ownership of land, privacy and the right to protect their family even with arms.<br />
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So, while we must support the state so it can fulfill its earthly natural purpose or end, which is domestic peace and harmony, Jesus also points out our higher obligation to support the Church so that it may carry out its supernatural purpose or end: which is to bring about eternal peace and harmony-better known as the Kingdom of God. One aspect of this support of the Church is that Christ’s faithful have the obligation to provide for the temporal needs of the Church, so that the Church has available to It, those things which are necessary for the prescribed Divine Worship, for the works of the apostolate and of charity, and for the worthy support of priests.<br />
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However, this duty goes far beyond just the gift of treasure or tax to the support of Christ’s Church. We must always remember that the collection at the offertory is meant to represent the offering of ourselves to the Father in union with Christ’s Sacrifice on the Altar. This is why the priest says, “Pray brethren that our sacrifice, mine and yours, may be acceptable to God our Father.” We are not asking the Father to accept the Sacrifice of the Mass, that is Jesus’ sacrifice, of course that’s acceptable. We are asking Him to accept our individual sacrifice, not just our money but more importantly what the gift of our money should stand for, that is, the gift of ourselves, all that we have and are, especially our will. <br />
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This brings up what Christ does not mean by this verse, “give to Caesar what belong to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” Christ doesn’t, does not, mean that we relegate our service to God, that is our faith only to the private sphere. Christ did not intend to relegate religion to a private affair only carried out in the temple, but not in daily life in the world, as if the world could somehow develop apart from God’s law and Christian law and morality. Of course, that is an illusion; the world trying to go along without God’s law is doomed to failure and collapse—God is God, he pervades the entire world—it is His and He gave us organized religion.<br />
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Every Christian, each one of us is called and challenged to be light and salt in the middle of the world. We are called to be witnesses. We are all called to go live our mission…Ite missa est!!! Go live your mission, take what you have received in the Holy Eucharist, namely Jesus, and through Him, with Him and in Him, transform the world in which you live and work. We are, each one of us called to transform the world and all men by our holiness of life, thus making the world more humane, more human. <br />
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We are called to live as children of God in the halls of our schools, of our governments, our jobs as well as in the living rooms of our friends. We truly do have the answer for our modern age’s terrible moral and religious void and consequently its spiritual darkness. We are the ones called to transform the world we live in, to stand up in defense of human life from its conception, and the marriage between man and women in which every child has a right to be conceived, to speak out against experimentation on human life, poverty or anything else which degrades the human person… “Render to God the things of God…” and the human person belongs to God. <br />
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The Lord is the life of every human person from the moment of conception. The Lord sanctified family life in Nazareth and later taught us to respect the sanctity of marriage, its indissolubility and it continual openness to life. Jesus brought the light of these truths to the people of His time even though many did not want to hear them, and now He expects us to bring them to the people of our time even though many don’t want to hear them and may oppose us and even persecute us. <br />
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We Christians have so much to give for the good of our society. But we must ourselves believe more firmly and show others more clearly that the teachings of God and His Holy Catholic Church are not an obstacle to human welfare or scientific progress. They are rather a sure guide for the realization of those worthy goals. We Christians must be absolutely convinced that we have a most precious and necessary light to offer amidst so much darkness-the only Light that can penetrate the darkness, Jesus Christ the Light of the World. <br />
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Let us with the help of the blessed Virgin Mary mother of all nations, give unto God what belongs to God, our entire life and everything in it, for His honor and glory and for the sanctification and salvation of souls, let us trustingly offer our lives on this sacred altar, for we are His and to Him we belong and are called to return. Amen.<br />
Fr. Steven Langehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12248831829078417061noreply@blogger.com0