Holy Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, Mother of the poor, pray for us, Help us to realize more fully that we can’t love God unless we also love our neighbor, for whatever we fail to do to the least of these we fail to do unto Jesus.

Luke 16 Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time. September 29th, 2013

Today we hear what lies at the very heart of being a faithful loving disciple of Jesus Christ; it can be summed up in the following: “What ever you did to the least of my brethren you did unto me and whatever you failed to do unto the least of my brethren you failed to do unto me.” This is also what is at the heart of the social justice message found in the Gospel. But how the social justice message has been misunderstood in the past 40 years or so! Today’s gospel helps us to see the message clearly.

The great sin of the rich man in today’s Gospel, was not that he was rich, for nowhere in the scriptures does Jesus condemn the mere possession of earthly goods as such. But the great sin of this man was that he failed to use his riches to help another in need. Jesus thus harshly condemns all those who use their earthly goods in a selfish way. The rich man was condemned then because he failed to even take notice, in justice, of the poor man Lazarus, who was definitely in need.

The rich man probably did nothing wrong as he amassed his fortune. He probably was not responsible for the wretched poverty of Lazarus, at least not in any direct way. And He probably did not take advantage of the situation to exploit Lazarus. Nevertheless, the rich man had a definite lifestyle. It might be summed up with the words, “he feasted magnificently.” In other words, He lived for solely for himself as if God did not exist, as if there was no judgment after death. He had completely forgotten the fact that we are not owners of what we have, but only administrators and we must look out for the needs of others-we are indeed our brother’s keeper.

The rich man in the Gospel did not know how, or better yet, did not care, to share what God had blessed him with. St. Augustine commenting on this parable, said that Lazarus was not received into heaven because he was poor, but because he was humble. And wealth itself was not what kept the rich man from eternal bliss after all who was Abraham? Abraham himself was the riches of all men while He was on earth. No, the rich man’s punishment was for his selfishness and disloyalty. The sadness of this story is even more increased when we realized that the rich man knew Lazarus by name, for he tells Abraham to send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue and begs Abraham to send Lazarus to his father's house and to his five brothers, so that Lazarus may warn them, lest they too come to his place of torment.

Each one of us needs to have this parable of the rich man and Lazarus present in our memory; it must form our conscience. When we are in need, when we are not living in luxury, faith and trust in God become paramount; people worry more about their eternal salvation. Yet, paradoxically, when we have enough and more than enough and are lying in our comfort, we can become as the book of Amos says, complacent. In our complacency the last thing on our mind is our eternal salvation, not to mention the salvation of our neighbor. Our hearts can then become hardened to the point that even someone rising from the dead will not convince us of the truth.

Christ however, demands openness to our brothers and sisters in need—openness from the rich, the affluent, the economically advantaged; openness to the poor, the underdeveloped and the disadvantaged, openness to those who are the most vulnerable in our society, not only those who are poor economically, but those who like the unborn, the disabled and the elderly are unable to protect themselves. But this openness also extends to those who are being treated unjustly among us, those who are being bullied, those who are the victims of gossip, rumors or unjust accusations. These too are the poor we are called to assist. How many there are who care for the physical poor but yet can turn a blind eye to other injustices in their own communities, families or even in our church family; even though they may work to fill the poor man’s belly, nevertheless they are still like the rich man; it is still all about them.

Mother Theresa, that great champion of the poor, said that the poorest country she had ever been in, even more so than Calcutta, was the United States. She said the reason that U.S. was so poor was not because it’s people lacked material goods, obviously we are the richest country in the world materially speaking, but that so many in our country do not know the Love and knowledge of Jesus Christ, and so are literally starving for His love. She saw ours as a land of great injustice made apparent in its legalization of killing the unborn. And as such there is no peace, no great joy. The person may die in Calcutta poor but he does so with joy.

The fact is, is that everyone is looking for love, looking for happiness, but billions are looking for it in all the wrong places. Our greatest mission as believing Catholics is to lead souls who are staving for love and happiness to Jesus Christ the source of all real love and true happiness. We ourselves are actually called to make up for the lack of love of God in the world; we must love others for love of God. We are called to stand up to all injustices if we want peace; and if we want peace we must stand up and defend the dignity and the life of all human persons no matter their condition; and if we want life we must proclaim the fullness of the truth of the Gospel as found in the Teachings of the Church, the truth that brings life (c.f. John Paul II). In this way we bring God’s love to our poor brothers and sisters, whether they be materially poor or rich, and in doing so we bring them to Jesus and to his truth which leads them to happiness. By our love, we remind them and ourselves that it is only faith in Jesus as the Son of Living God as shown by our faithful obedience to His Commandments out our love for Him and for neighbor that brings us true and abiding happiness.

But before we can be enabled, empowered, to do any of this, before we can bring Jesus’ love to the poor and lead the poor to Him, we must first recognize Jesus’ presence among us and go to Him. In other words, we just can’t bring Jesus and His love to other’s if we don’t recognize that Jesus is truly, corporally present in the Holy Eucharist. We can’t love others as Jesus loves us without coming into the God who is love present in the Holy Eucharist. The Eucharist is the source of all love and the source of all power to love. And so we can’t lead others to the love of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist unless in faith we ourselves first come adore and love Him present there, as the true and living God. Once we realize through faith that the Eucharist is really Jesus Himself—God among us, then we will realize as did Mother Theresa and all the saints, that the truly poor of this world, are those who do not know Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and so are apart from the very fount of the living water of God’s love and mercy poured out for them.

The rich man knew Lazarus by name, and yet he didn’t give Him food. We too know so many modern day Lazarus’ by name; they may even bear the name of our parents our brothers and sisters, children, coworkers and friends, Lazarus’ that do not know the truth that the food for which they are starving for is the food of the Holy Eucharist. We can’t be like the rich man and fail to give the Lazarus’ of our lives what they need most in this world, and that is the truth that the Eucharist is Jesus, God still among us, who in His unfathomable love for us, gives us Himself as our food in order to fill our hunger and quench our thirst for love. Without faith in this Heavenly food, there can be no true justice in our world, no true peace and no fullness of life nor any true happiness or joy.

A few years back, Pope Emeritus Benedict wrote a instruction about the Holy Eucharist as the Sacrament of Charity.” The instruction was entitled Sacramentum Caritatis and it was written to the to the bishops, clergy, consecrated persons and the lay faithful. I want to end share with you an important paragraph of this beautiful document. Close you eyes and ask the Holy Spirit to open your heart and mind to this great truth; in fact this section has the heading: “The food of truth.”

2. In the sacrament of the altar, the Lord meets us; men and women created in God's image and likeness (cf. Gen 1:27), and becomes our companion along the way. In this sacrament, the Lord truly becomes food for us, to satisfy our hunger for truth and freedom. Since only the truth can make us free (cf. Jn 8:32), Christ becomes for us the food of truth. With deep human insight, Saint Augustine clearly showed how we are moved spontaneously, and not by constraint, whenever we encounter something attractive and desirable. Asking himself what it is that can move us most deeply, the saintly Bishop went on to say: "What does our soul desire more passionately than truth?" (2) Each of us has an innate and irrepressible desire for ultimate and definitive truth. The Lord Jesus, "the way, and the truth, and the life" (Jn 14:6), speaks to our thirsting, pilgrim hearts, our hearts yearning for the source of life, our hearts longing for truth. Jesus Christ is the Truth in person, drawing the world to himself. "Jesus is the lodestar of human freedom: without him, freedom loses its focus, for without the knowledge of truth, freedom becomes debased, alienated and reduced to empty caprice. With him, freedom finds itself." (3) In the sacrament of the Eucharist, Jesus shows us in particular the truth about the love which is the very essence of God. It is this evangelical truth which challenges each of us and our whole being. For this reason, the Church, which finds in the Eucharist the very centre of her life, is constantly concerned to proclaim to all, opportune importune (cf. 2 Tim 4:2), that God is love.(4) Precisely because Christ has become for us the food of truth, the Church turns to every man and woman, inviting them freely to accept God's gift.

Let us end with a prayer:

Holy Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, Mother of the poor, pray for us, Help us to realize more fully that we can’t love God unless we also love our neighbor, for whatever we fail to do to the least of these we fail to do unto Jesus. Helps us to see then, that Love of neighbor is a path that leads us to God, and that closing our eyes to our neighbor also blinds us to God.” (Pope Benedict, “Deus Caritas Est.”) Help us as well to accept more fully, in faith, God’s greatest gift and so our greatest treasure, His Gift of the Most Holy Eucharist. Help us to realize that because we have Jesus in the Holy Eucharist we are truly the richest of the rich. Feeding on this Sacrament of Charity at the Holy Mass, help us to then share our riches with the poor; in other words, help us to share the love of God we receive in this great Sacrament with the poor around us and lead them to feast as well at the Feast of God’s love—the Holy Eucharist, which is Jesus Himself who literally gives Himself as food for our soul. Amen.

Holy Mary, Mother of the servants of God, Mother of our True Happiness, Mother of Light because you are the Mother of He who is the Way, the Truth and the Life , Pray for us sinners who have recourse to thee. Amen.

Luke 16, 1-13 Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time September 22, 2013

We have had discipleship as a constant theme of our readings these past few weeks. Today is no exception; Jesus tells us a parable about a dishonest steward that has an ending we would not expect. We might think that the steward was a dishonest man, but the situation was not so cut and dry. The steward was very prudent in his dealings and Jesus praises him for it. Let’s take a closer look.

In the ancient Greco- Roman world, the rich man was most likely an absentee landowner, who owned the land as a business. He was most likely a foreigner from another country who had conquered the land he now owned. The foreign landowners would then rent the land to the people who actually used to own the land charging them outrageous rent. And then to rub their faces in it even more, when they couldn’t pay such high rent, the so-called “landowners” would then make loans to them, charging them exorbitant interest on their loans, such as measures of oil or wheat. So the steward’s job was to make as much money for the landowner as possible, no matter what it took. So probably this steward in our Gospel was really dealing very fairly with the local people, as usury, interest, was forbidden in the Jewish Law. In other words, he was probably charging them just the original amount of the loan without the interest.

This news would have of course, made it to the ears of the unjust landowner and infuriated him. In order to secure his profits, the landowner would come and remove the steward in order to replace him with someone who would maximize the profits by oppressing the poor borrowers. The steward would have known this, and so he went around discounting the amount owed. In this way he was prudent and wise- both for trying to not exact usury, which was unjust interest, and also for trying to gain friends when he knew he was about to lose his job.

The people in today’s Gospel would have understood Jesus well, as they were in the same situation as the people of the parable because they were conquered people, conquered by the Roman’s who occupied their country and taken procession of their land, only to unjustly rent it back to them. They would have sympathized with the steward because he was treated in an unjust way; after all he was just looking out for himself and his family. They would have understood why even the landowner recognized the shrewdness of the steward.

Jesus then addresses this crowd. He knew the thoughts of their hearts. It would seem that many of them would have actually liked to have been the landowners themselves, for they had avarice in their hearts, that is a sinful desire and love for wealth, a disordered desire for worldly riches instead of the riches of heaven. Perhaps there were some that were even trying to justify their own unjust dealings with others. They had their hearts set on wealth as an end in itself; they were about the business of the world but not of God. From this we see that money is not the root of all evil, but the disordered desire for it and for the power that comes from it, is certainly the root of all evil, and so it fails to bring any true lasting happiness.

Jesus reminds the people that to be happy they must serve God alone and then neighbor with the gifts that come from God. What do they possess, and what do we possess that has not come from God. Everything we have is really a gift from God, including our very being, our very existence. Jesus is reminding us all that God is the giver of all the good gifts we have in the first place. So we must love the giver of the gifts more than the gifts he gives. Jesus tells us rather directly, “No servant can have two masters. He will hate one and love the other or be devoted to one and despise the other.” The more we love God, the more we see that all we have, all that we possess is from Him and such, we don’t want to put anything before our love for God and His holy Will.

God has given us all so many gifts and He waits patiently to see what we will do with them. Will we treat them as ends or will we use them as means. In a sense, He has left the world uncreated to a certain degree, in order that we would take upon ourselves, with his help, to great task of finishing His work of creation. He has given others more so that they would help those who have less. He has given one a great talent, so that they would help some one who is not so talented. To one he has given wealth so that they might share with someone who is poor. And most all he has given some the greatest of all treasures-Faith, Hope and Love, so that they would be instruments of God’s mercy to those whose faith, hope and love have been weakened, damaged or even destroyed by sin, whether by their own sin or the sin of others.

This is what our current Holy Father Francis is telling us. Contrary to what some might think or say, it’s the exact same message of Pope Benedict, Blessed John Paul II and the others. It’s not a radical shift; He is not changing any of the Church’s moral teachings; He can’t do that and he won’t. In fact as he himself said, “The teaching of the Church is clear and I am a son of the Church.” And so, He is not saying that the Church’s teaching are not important or that we need to quit preaching them; they in fact, are the only way to authentic love and happiness. But what He is saying is that we must first and foremost be dispensers of God’s mercy. We must first and foremost bring the Love of God to those who are suffering either physically or most importantly spiritually. God died for all men so that all men might have the hope of salvation.

Francis knows that we are living in a world where so many people, in fact where all of us are wounded by the sin around us; so many are crying out in the darkness for the light of God’s love and yes, God’s truth, even if they don’t realize it. So many are longing for love, true and authentic love based on the truth; so many are longing to be loved even in their weakness, dysfunction and sinfulness—so many are seeking true happiness. Francis says:

I see clearly that the thing the Church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful; it needs nearness, proximity. I see the Church as a field hospital after battle. It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and about his level of blood sugars! You have to heal his wounds. Then we can talk about everything else. Heal the wounds, heal the wounds….and you have to start from the ground up.

But this is what the Church as always taught even if some have not always emphasized it; she is to be a "hostel for saints and hospital for sinners." In others words, using the example of the prodigal son and the merciful father from last weeks parable, before pointing out the moral errors that the son committed which got him into such trouble and led him to such unhappiness, the Father first ran to his son, threw his cloak around him, put rings on his fingers and covered him with kisses. The father didn’t say the sins didn’t matter because obviously they did; they were the very cause of the separation of son from the Father, the cause of so much misery; but first, the father showed the son Love so that he could then show the son Mercy.

We must preach the fullness of the Gospel’s truth, unadulterated and not water down; but, as Blessed John Paul taught us, as Benedict taught us and now as Francis is teaching us, we must do it with Love, better yet with Charity, that is with God’s love and His TRUTH alive in our hearts. We must first show God’s love and life alive in us. And to be able to do this we must live the Gospel truth, which is the same thing as saying we must accept and live the fulness of the teachings of the Church, even the tough ones, with the help of God’s grace, in order that we become living Gospels sharing God’s love and then light of His truth with others. In this we become ministers of God’s mercy to all…Let’s listen to his Holiness, Pope Francis, once more:

The church’s ministers must be merciful, take responsibility for the people and accompany them like the good Samaritan, who washes, cleans and raises up his neighbor. This is pure Gospel. God is greater than sin. The structural and organizational reforms are secondary—that is, they come afterward. The first reform must be the attitude. The ministers of the Gospel must be people who can warm the hearts of the people, who walk through the dark night with them, who know how to dialogue and to descend themselves into their people’s night, into the darkness, but without getting lost.

“…Without getting lost….,” that is without being too rigid or too lax. To, as the Church as always taught, "to love the sinner but to hate the sin." To hate the sin which is causing the sinner so much pain, suffering, darkness, despair, and loneliness, the sin which causes separation from God and from others. Yes we must condemn the horrible sins of homosexual acts, contraceptive methods and the other moral sins. And yes, we must condemn in the strongest way the sin of abortion, which Francis blasts as being “part of a throw away culture.” But we must first be willing to sit in the night, in the darkness with a woman who has had an abortion or who is contemplating one, because only darkness could lead her to such a terrible horrible lifeless decision. And to sit with her not condemning her but bringing her the light and love of Christ and yes, then truth of Christ. As one writer put it,

The Good Shepherd knew that, first of all He had to bind the wounds of the lost sheep and place them on His shoulders, and then they would listen. He entered towns healing the sick, casting out demons, opening the eyes of the blind. And then He would share with them the Gospel, including the moral consequences of not heeding it. In this way, Jesus became a refuge for sinners. So too, the Church must be recognized again as a home for the hurting.

We can not be about the business of the world, which is not just about making money, but which is also about condemning others—it is the world that condemns not Jesus or His Catholic Church. We must be about the business of spreading God’s love and God’s healing to everyone, no matter who they are; believer or unbeliever, friend or enemy, rich or poor, saint or sinner. We must be willing to meet people where they are at in order to lift them up not tear them down; But, but, to meet them where they are at, not to leave them there, but to give them the truth, the truth which leads them to happiness, and not just the happiness that this world offers, but to Beatitude; that is, to share already on earth, out of this world heavenly happiness, which is union with God who is Love, Truth and Light Itself.

Let us then at this Holy Mass which makes present the God who is Love in our midst, let us be about this business, the business of love, the business of God. By the grace of Love Himself who is offered to us in the Holy Eucharist, let us be about the business of helping in the salvation of souls which is healing them and restoring them to God by restoring them to His Holy Catholic Church and her teachings, which are teachings of love, which alone lead us to true happiness and the fullness of life. “For the love of Christ impels us, once we have come to the conviction that One died for all; therefore, all have died. He indeed died for all, so that those who love might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised. (2 Cor 5:14-15). So let us all ask the Holy Spirit, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, to help us to be faithful disciples about the business of God:

Holy Mary, Mother of the servants of God, Mother of our True Happiness, Mother of Light because you are the Mother of He who is the Way, the Truth and the Life , Pray for us sinners who have recourse to thee. Amen.

Holy Mary, Mother of the lost and forsaken, and so Mother of sorrows, pray for us. Your hands were the very first paten on which the Son of God was offered to the Father, through the priest, in the temple at Jerusalem....

Luke 15;1-32 Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time September 15th, 2013

The parables of the Gospel today, the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the prodigal son, are all very familiar to us. The parables of the lost sheep and prodigal son are so popular that you can see in many people’s homes pictures of Jesus with a sheep on his shoulders or the Father receiving the prodigal son. We have read some fairly difficult Gospels the last few weeks on discipleship- topics like humility two weeks ago, and last week's taking up your cross each day, are not easy ones.

In light of the seriousness of these topics, certainly, many of us have tried to respond anew, and with greater intensity to Jesus’ call, and have started to put into practice what he asks-like giving God the first part of our day making an act of adoration and prayer the first thing we do in our day. Perhaps you made a firm resolution to do this, and low and behold, you missed a couple of mornings. It is certainly hard to develop new habits or virtues, and we can easily become discouraged and disheartened. Even though in our hearts we long to follow Christ fully and to do the right thing, we know we are very weak and live in world where it is so very difficult to do the right thing. And so, it’s really easy to become discouraged in our efforts and say, “Oh, what’s the use- I’ll never get this right!”

Well today, through the readings, God speaks to our discouragement. He desires to help us to be faithful in our desire to be good and faithful disciples. He wants us to know that He is merciful God, a God who is patient and kind. He is a generous and understanding God; quick to forgive those who are contrite of heart. He is a God who never keeps score or tallies our iniquities. No, He is not a scorekeeper but a promise keeper. Being well aware of our human weakness, He prefers not to condemn us; after all He has presented us with his greatest gift imaginable, the gift of His only Son, who he offers to us in and through all the Sacraments of the Church, especially the Holy Eucharist because it is Jesus in the flesh.

In each of the parables in the Gospel today, the central figure is then God Himself. He is God who is on a “search and rescue” mission. He is a God who does everything He can to recover those of His children who have succumbed to temptation and so have separated themselves from Him and His love for them.
God is in fact, the Good Shepherd who misses the sheep gone astray by sin, seeks it out in order to bring it back to the fold. Once he has found it, He carries it on His shoulder, since it is trembling and weak from its disobedience and the great burden of its sins. God also seeks us, similar to the actions of a woman who having lost a coin of great value, lights a lamp and searches the whole house diligently and patiently until it is found. As well, God is a loving father who longs for the return of His son, going out daily, scanning the horizon to see if His son is coming so that as a Father He can run to His returning son and throw His arms around him and cover him with kisses.

Yes, these beautiful images of God are given to us to encourage us in our daily struggles. But at the same time they are given to us as an example to follow in our discipleship. They let us know that discipleship involves nothing less than taking into our hearts the qualities of God Himself-we are called to be God-like through divine grace.

We are to have a merciful, forgiving heart like God, a heart that desires that none be lost, that all be found and saved. And if we are to take on the qualities of the Father's heart, our discipleship then, includes a sharing in God’s own mission, which again is a search and rescue mission. It is a sharing in the mission of the Father, through, with, and in the Sacred Heart of the Son, of finding the lost sheep and bringing them back into the one fold, His one true Church.

The Second Vatican council applies the image of the Good Shepherd, and so this search and rescue mission, especially to priests when it states: “They (the priest) should be mindful that by their daily conduct and solicitude they display the reality of a truly priestly and pastoral ministry both to believers and unbelievers alike, to Catholics and non-Catholics; that they are bound to bear witness before all men of the Truth and of the Life, and as good shepherds seek after those too who, whilst having been baptized in the Catholic Church, have given up the practice of the sacraments, or even fallen away from the faith.”

But the Second Vatican council doesn’t limit this rescue mission merely to priests. It reminds us that we have all been the lost sheep at some time in our lives. And because we have all been searched for and found by the Mercy of our God, we are now all call to imitate God in His search and rescue mission by answering the call to faithful discipleship from our Lord. With full, active, conscious and fruitful participation we are to seek out the lost, and rescue them by our lives of holiness bringing them the light, love and life of Christ alive in us.

Our sharing in God's search and rescue mission for lost souls is known as the apostolate. This is what Vatican II said is the true role of the laity, the role of the apostolate. And this role of yours begins and has its source and summit here at Holy Mass. All of us are called to take a full, active, conscious, fruitful participation in the Sacred Liturgy of the Holy Mass. What does this mean?

Well it doesn’t mean just to sing or say the responses louder, although we should do that. It doesn’t mean that we have to become Extra-ordinary ministers of Holy Communion or to bring up the gifts more often. But what it really means, is that we are to participate with full mind, heart, body and soul, and with our whole strength and being in the once and for all sacrificial offering of Jesus Christ the High Priest to the Father which is made truly present here on the sacred altar through the Sacred Priesthood.

In other words, we are to participate in the perfect act of adoration of Jesus to His Father, which is perfect because it is the adoration of God by God. How do we do this type of participation? By an act of our will in which we place our self as a victim of love on the paten, as an offering to God the Father; so that along with the bread that will be change in to the Divine Victim of Love, the very Person of Jesus, His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, we too can be offered and so transformed, changed through holiness, into another Christ for the renewal and salvation of the world.

Here at Holy Mass all of us are to understand (conscious participation) that we are to offer our whole self, both as individuals and as a parish family (full participation) by an interior act of our will (active participation), to the Father, in union with the Son, by the Power of the Holy Spirit. In this act of sacrificing of ourselves to God, (not to be destroyed, but to be one with Christ, the body united to the head), we offer the Father perfect praise and adoration in Christ through the Holy Spirit. We then become more and more in union with God, one with God, and are transformed more and more into His image and likeness and become, not just channels of grace for the world, but reservoirs overflowing with grace for the world and so for souls (fruitful participation), to bring them to the Father and His love for them. In other words, by our actual participation at each Mass we become more and more divinized; we become more fully "other Christ's, active and full members of His mystical body," who are empowered take what we have been given, literally the love of God, God Himself alive in our hearts through Holy Communion, out into our sinful world to the lost and forsaken sheep.

The truth is, is that it is only the Holy Mass offered properly according to God’s ordinance, which can save the world and the souls in it. Because the Holy Mass is first and foremost the action of the Head, Jesus Christ offering perfect adoration, through the once again offering of His life to the Father for us, the Mass is the primary source of all the grace that comes into this world. In fact no grace, none, comes into the world except through the Holy Mass. But this infinite grace, the grace of each and ever Holy Mass by God’s ordinance, can only flow out into the world through the Mystical body of Christ, that is through us, if we are open to it by joining fully, actively, consciously in this same self-offering of Jesus Christ to the Father. This is the universal call to holiness. Holiness is not just for ourselves, but it is to be fruitful that is, our personal holiness, brought about by our true participation at the Holy Mass, is to be the very means by which God desires to seek and rescue and so to save lost souls and renew our world which is being destroyed by the sins of mankind.

In the Holy Mass, through the Son in the Holy Eucharist, the Father embraces each of us in love and covers us with His kisses; but then He calls us to go out and bring other sheep to Him here at the Holy Mass, so He can embrace them as well with His divine Love and Life. The result will be great joy, because our brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and now has been found.'" We will be with him celebrating and rejoicing here, in praise and adoration of our God, at this sacred feast, the Holy Mass where heaven and earth unite, eternity breaks into time, and Man begins to share already in that for which he was created, sharing in the Oneness, in the Love, in the very Being of the Blessed Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is the glory of God, man fully alive.

Let us turn to the Blessed Mother for help:

Holy Mary, Mother of the lost and forsaken, and so Mother of sorrows, pray for us. Your hands were the very first paten on which the Son of God was offered to the Father, through the priest, in the temple at Jerusalem. Today may your hands present us as well, at this Holy Mass and every Holy Mass, placing our hearts on the paten to offered up by the priest to the Father in union with the Son for the salvation of the world. Help us to make this sacrificial offering of ourselves fully in love and so without fear; obtain for us the grace to be empowered to live this life-offering out in all aspects of our daily life, so that we may glorify our Father by being fully alive, thus becoming the means for others to live in the Joy of His Holy Will which is love and mercy itself. Amen.

Our Lady, mother of the faithful disciples of the Lord, today is your birthday, we give you our hearts, pray for us. Amen.

Luke 14, 25-33 Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time. August 8th, 2013

Last week’s readings were very much about the virtue of Humility; and so were also about it’s opposite vice—pride. A good concise definition of pride is, “doing your own will." We don’t have to feel prideful in order to be prideful; if we do our own will, very simply we are prideful. However, if pride is doing our own will, then, Humility is simply doing God's will.

Today’s Gospel reminds us that each day when we wake up, if we listen closely and humbly, we can hear Jesus asking us to be his faithful disciples to a greater degree than we were yesterday. Are we willing to put our love and obedience to Him before anything or anyone? For example, will we love Jesus today even more than our closest loved ones, our father, mother, wife, brothers and sisters, children and even ourselves? This brings up three important points of what it entails to be a faithful disciple of Christ in our everyday life.

First, being a faithful disciple of Jesus entails a daily struggle. Practically, this struggle begins the very first thing in the morning when we wake up. Do we put our love for God first in our day? We struggle with getting out of bed and we struggle even more to do that first act of adoration of our day. Our minds can quickly turn to other things- like “I’ve got to get everyone else up and breakfast prepared.” “What time is that first appointment of the day?—augh, better to hit the snooze alarm just one more time...at least!

How quickly our minds can become filled with the preoccupations of our day. These things are important, but in spite of them, will we love God first and put Him first in our day? Instead of these things, the very first thing our minds can focus upon, immediately when awakening, is on God. We can then make the sign of the cross and get out of bed quickly, falling on our knees in order to make the first act of our day an act of adoring God saying, “O God Creator of my soul, Father of my soul, I adore Thee and I love Thee, please help me to adore Thee and love Thee more this day.” We have to start off each day right by putting God first if we are to keep Him first throughout our day—first things first. This first act of our day, which only takes a few minutes, can end by quickly praying a prayer to our Lady and our Guardian Angel before we get up and get physically ready for the day.

We can then end our day as we began it, humbly on our knees. There we ask the Holy Spirit to help us for just a few minutes each night to truthfully examine our day, to examine those times in which we failed to put God first by fulfilling His Holy Will, namely our sins; and also to examine those times in which we carried out, albeit in our poor way, God’s Holy Will, so that we can thank Him and give Him the glory for the good work He has accomplished through us. We ask the Holy Spirit then to point out for us what specific thing He wants us to work harder on tomorrow, with His assistance of course. We follow by making an act of contrition, saying a night prayer to our Lady; and then, as the very last thing done before climbing into bed, we humbly bow our selves in body and souls before God with another act of adoration, saying a prayer such as the Glory Be or the adoration prayer we started our day with…God Creator of my Soul, Father of My Soul, I adore You.

Second point: When we realize that being a faithful disciple of Jesus entails daily struggle, we also understand that we must pick up the cross that Jesus gives us each day. Jesus never promised us Christians a rose garden, especially one without thorns. All of us have some sort of suffering in our lives and these are our cross that we must carry daily. Some crosses are big, many are small; perhaps, ours is an illness, or an illness in the family. Maybe it’s troubles in the family- the children are misbehaving, a relative in trouble. Or maybe it’s the daily troubles at work- that bothersome coworker, a heavy workload. Perhaps it’s being out of work, or maybe just the humdrum and contradictions of everyday life.

Whatever our sufferings may be, they are something that God has allowed in our life in order to make us into great saints, that is great friends, faithful disciples of Jesus. We can carry any cross if we do so for love of Jesus and for the salvation of souls; he will help us if we daily pray to Him…we can then say, not, why me? But rather, Why not me?”.

And the third point, when we understand being a faithful disciple of Jesus means daily carrying our cross, we also discover that we must also daily renounce all of our possessions if we are to follow Him. However, before we can do so, we must first understand what it means to renounce all of our possessions. Not that we give up everything we own, but that we don't put any of it before God and His Holy Will; and that we detach our heart from anything that does. Humility of soul is what we are talking about rather than a lack of worldly goods.

And so, possessions are anything, anyone that might separate us from God. The list can be long. We immediately think of material goods. The question we can ask ourselves to see whether or not something posses us is, “do I possess this thing or does it possess me?” Does it possess me to the point that my heart is more attached to it than to God? Our world is so full of materialism and consumerism that it is a struggle to not be possessed by the things of this world.

But possessions are more than just material things. We especially need to get rid of our greatest of all possessions, as I said before, the possession of our own will. We cannot do the any of the three points I just mentioned until we sacrifice our will; again this is at the essence of what it means to carry one's own cross. We love to have things our own way in the many events of everyday life. Interiorly, we can all sometimes act like spoiled children; “It’s my way or the highway.” Instead, we sacrifice my way for God’s way, by making daily sacrifices for love of God and others, for our family, for our parish family, and for our larger family the Church. In this we discover, that what really counts in this life, the path to true fulfillment, security and joy, is not the fulfillment of our personal desires, but he fulfillment of God's will. Fulfilling God's will in our life is only that which will fulfill our personal desires fully.

So to review the three points to following Jesus more faithfully: First each and everyday, we must make an act of adoration to God, in which we give to Him all that we are and all that we have. And in those things, which are most difficult to let go of, those things that hold possession over our hearts, we ask the Holy Spirit to slowly help us to renounce them. And finally we accept and carry our cross with great love for Jesus and for our neighbor out of our love for Jesus..

These three points can be summed up with this fact, that ultimately, being a true discipleship of Christ involves sacrifice; that is, surrendering ourselves fully to Christ. This is what love does it sacrifices, surrenders it's will, itself, for the sake of the other, for love of the other, in order to be one with the other!!! When we surrender ourselves in sacrificial love to Christ we are not destroy.

Unfortunately the world today really only understands sacrifice in a negative way, as a way of destruction. Not at all. As Pope emeritus Benedict tells us, Sacrifice to God doesn't entail destruction or non being; its not throwing ourselves or our being thrown into a volcano in order to appease the gods. No, sacrifice to God is rather, self surrender; or better yet, it is total abandonment to an all-good and all-loving Father. It entails a way of being. We give ourselves totally to God, freely and with trust, so that we are no longer separated from Him; we no longer live for ourselves, but for Him alone, for His Holy Will which is Love and Mercy itself!

Only when we lose ourselves for God, is it possible to find ourselves. True sacrifice transforms us; when we freely surrender ourselves to God, far from losing anything, we become like God, one with God, we share in God's own nature, which is the nature of love; far from being destroyed, we become fully who we are meant to be and desire to be

It goes without saying then that the supernatural help we need to carry these three points out in our lives comes only from frequent and worthy reception of the Sacraments and through intimate daily prayer. And so do we seek the strength of His grace frequently through the Sacraments of the Church, especially the Holy Eucharist and Confession? Do we spend intimate time with Him in prayer daily, especially that most efficacious of prayer, which is prayer before His truly presence in the Holy Eucharist either at Holy Mass or outside of Mass before the tabernacle or during times of Eucharistic adoration?

Let us turn to the most perfect of all the Disciples of Christ for help, the Blessed Virgin Mary. Our sacrifice of self is offered here at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. She will help us to surrender ourselves to God and to His Holy Will, all in union with the Sacrifice of Her Divine Son, which becomes truly present here on this sacred altar. She will, if we ask her, obtain from Him the grace we need to live our life offering, each and every day in all areas of our lives, thus becoming like her, a faithful disciples of the Lord, bringing God's healing love into the midst of our broken world.

Our Lady, mother of the faithful disciples of the Lord, today is your birthday, we give you our hearts, pray for us. Amen.

Today, let us ever more, turn to the Virgin to help us to be truly humble.

The readings today speak to us about a very important virtue-the virtue of humility. It seems humility is not a very popular thing these days. In fact, I wonder if many view humility more as a vice, that is as a type of weakness; in other words, the more humble we are, the more others will take advantage of us.

Now, while it’s true there are many in our world trying to take advantage of us, true humility is not this. Humility is not being a floor mat allowing others to walk all over us; Humility is not a weakness. No, humility is a strength. One priest summed up Humility in this way, "Humility is being aware of your self worth but not your self importance" One saint said, the most important things in the spiritual life are number 1-humility; number 2-humility; and number 3-humility.

Humility is of course, the virtue that opposes pride in our hearts. Humility comes first and foremost with our correct relationship with God and then flows out to our correct relationship with others. It is knowing the truth about ourself and about God. Humility recognizes that God is our Creator and Lord, and we not only depend on Him, but we must, if we are to be happy, obey Him by obeying His human representatives and His Teachings and Laws.

Perhaps to better understand humility we can compare it with its opposite vice, Pride. While humility is the truth, pride is a lie. Pride is disobedience to God, to His teachings and Laws, and disobedience to those He has placed in authority over us. Pride makes us think ourselves above God, that we know better than God; and this mindset is carried out in personal actions that oppose Him and His Church.

In pride, we then place ourselves above the teachings of Jesus, which He gives to us through the Church that He personally founded in order to proclaim His truth in all of its fullness. Pride then denies the fact that Jesus gave the Catholic Church His own authority so that the Church’s teachings would indeed be His own teachings. Without the Church the “prideful self" then becomes the sole determinant of the truth. Then each person, not God, decides what’s true. In the end all of this is an act of pride, because it’s a lie. This in fact, was the essence of the temptation in the garden when the devil told the first humans, “you will know the difference between good and evil; that is, you yourselves will be able to choose for yourself what is true and what is false, what is good and evil. This is the same temptation the devil still uses against us. Pride leads to disobedience to the truth, so disobedience to God.

Humility, however, recognizes the truth that God is the only one who determines truth and He has revealed it to us in its fullness through His Son Jesus Christ who is Himself the Truth; that He personally founded the Catholic Church on the apostles with Peter as their head to be His audible voice throughout the ages; that Jesus gave the truth to the twelve and the authority to teach it. Humility recognizes the truth that Guided by the Holy Spirit they would be led into all truth, thus passing the fullness of Jesus teachings down through the centuries through their successors, the pope and the Bishops in union with Him.

Humility recognizes the teachings of the Church come from God, not from man, and so man is not free to pick and chose, or change them. Is it prideful for us to question them? No; as long as we don’t question them in the way of denial, but in the way of humbly trying to understand them more deeply, to understand why and how they are true in order that we can live them obediently in our life and so be happy both in this life and in the life to come.

Another manifestation or type of pride is the opposite of the above; it is when we judge ourselves to be below the dignity that God has given to us as His beloved child. This pride is called false humility and it leads us to give up in the struggle to love and follow God by obeying His commands, His human representatives and His teachings. Here again we play God, because just as we are not to judge where another’s soul stands before God, so too we are also not to judge where our own soul is before God. This type of pride can come out like this, “how could God ever love me, I did this terrible thing and he could never forgive me.” or “The teachings of the Church are too hard, so why even try.” With false humility we look at our weakness more than we look to God for strength to over come our weakness and so it is pride.

Here in contrast, Humility recognizes that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God in our thoughts and in our words, in what we have done and what we have failed to do; that we are all indeed too weak on our own power to live God’s commands; but indeed, we are still loved by God more than we can imagine. Humility recognizes that God desires to forgive us of any or our failure to live the truth—our sins, if we but truthfully and sorrowfully and humbly ask for His forgiveness by confessing them before His personal representative in the Sacrament of confession along with making a firm purpose of amendment to sin no more. God is always ready to give us the strength we need to humbly follow Him if we but, in humility call upon His name through prayer and the Sacraments of His Church, the source of grace for us.

Speaking of confession. I want to share with you a very special story, which I think is a very good example of humility. Two religious brothers were in Rome once to meet personally with the then pope, John Paul II; they were walking the streets waiting for the time of their own personal meeting with his holiness, when they happened upon a homeless man. After talking with this man and sharing with a holy card with him the man revealed to them that he was actually an ex-priest who left the priesthood and was now homeless. The brothers quite saddened by this priest’s plight left the man and met with the Holy Father. They immediately share with him the fact that they had met this homeless priest.

The Holy Father commanded them to immediately go back into the streets, find this man and bring him back to him. They obediently did as they were told and brought this homeless man to the Holy Father. The Holy Father spoke to this man ever so lovingly, ascertaining that he was indeed an ex-priest.
The Holy Father then told the two religious brothers to wait, while he took this priest into another room to talk to him in private. The Holy Father took the man into the room and reached into a pocket of his white cassock and pulled from it a purple stole. He then place the purple stole around…. ……the neck of the homeless priest and knelt down before him; and then while on is knees, the Holy Father said to this downtrodden priest, “bless me father for I have sinned.” And then in a moving display of humility and obedience to the divine authority of the priesthood the Holy father, John Paul the second, the vicar of Christ on earth, proceeded to give his confession to this priest of God, who although homeless still maintained his dignity as a child of God, and priest of the Most High, Jesus Christ. Once a priest, always a priest.

The Holy Father showed us, by example, true humility. In fact, one of the greatest acts of humility we ourselves can perform is when we go to confession in obedience to Jesus command to confess our sins to a priest. There the priest who is acting with the authority and in the person of almighty God, we can, humbly on our knees, truthfully confess our sins, confess that in our pride there have been times when we have been disobedient to His teachings, the teachings of His Church and disobedient to those he as place in authority over us. We can confess the many times we have failed to give the glory to Him for all our gifts and so steal His glory for our own. In our humility we will then be able to accept His infinite mercy and forgiveness and with the help of His grace amend our lives by living in obedience to His truth ever more, so that we may be united to Him more fully in love.

The truth is, is that Pride in all of us can be very strong. And just when we think we are not prideful, it is then that pride can be the most powerful in us. Humility is the only antidote to pride. Humility is truth, it is being truthful about ourselves, not only about those things we do wrong, our sins, but also in what we do good through God’s grace. Again, Humility is the truth about God and about ourselves...that there is a God and we are not definitely not Him!

Humility is actually an internal choice we make in the silence of our hearts by falling down and adoring God. In the act of adoration, by the help of His grace, we choose to bow ourselves humbly under the hand of the Creator, we choose to submit our wills to His, we choose to die to our self, which is to our self-will, our self-reliance and to our own ideas and opinions; we submit ourselves to God's truth in humility. We are his and we acknowledge our complete dependence upon him. In other words, God helps, not those who help themselves, but only those who realize they absolutely need God’s help and so take the posture of a beggar before Him; but a beggar who is loved infinitely by Him.

In Adoration we bow our hearts, minds, and yes even our bodies, bowing and kneeling before the majesty of the Almighty, all Powerful, and ever-living God. Then, in this position of humility, we offer to God everything we are and everything we have, and entrust it to Our Heavenly Father to take care of it all for us…what could be better than this?

The deeper our adoration of God, the more we realize the truth of our complete dependence on God, the more deeply we grow in our relationship with God & so the more deeply we grow in humility. He who exalts himself shall be humbled, he who humbles himself shall be exalted. In humility we open our hearts more fully to His truth and so live in humble obedience to His Church, to her teachings and to her representatives, all with the help of God’s grace.

Today, let us ever more, turn to the Virgin to help us to be truly humble. We pray for an increase in the virtue of Humility when ever we meditate on the First Joyful Mystery, The Annunciation. We see there the humility of Our Lady when she gives her fiat, her yes to God. But even more we see the humility of our God when He condescends Himself to come down from heaven in order to be Conceived in the womb of the Virgin and become man.
In His divine Humility Jesus the God-Man is still with us in the Holy Eucharist. Are we too prideful to kneel before His true Presence? If at the name of Jesus every knee shall bend, what about before the very person of Jesus? Through Mary may we like her strive to imitate the divine humility of her Son. Amen.

Let us end with a prayer from Cardinal Merry del Val who wrote one the best prayers we can offer to help us in our humility. The prayer is called the Litany of humility. Let us kneel down and pray it together…

O Jesus, meek and humble of heart, hear me.

From the desire of being esteemed,
deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being loved,
From the desire of being extolled,
From the desire of being honored,
From the desire of being praised,
From the desire of being preferred to others,
From the desire of being consulted,
From the desire of being approved,

From the fear of being humiliated,
deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being despised,
From the fear of suffering rebukes,
From the fear of being calumniated,
From the fear of being forgotten,
From the fear of being ridiculed,
From the fear of being wronged,
From the fear of being suspected,

That others may be loved more than I,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be esteemed more than I,
That in the opinion of the world,
others may increase, and I may decrease,
That others may be chosen and I set aside,
That others may be praised and I unnoticed,
That others may be preferred to me in everything,
That others may become holier than I,
provided that I may become as holy as I should. Amen.

Love itself still among us beating within a human heart…Truth itself in the flesh; truth is a matter of love!!!

Luke 13, 22-30 Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 25th, 2013.

Last week we heard Jesus say, “Do you suppose that I am here to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” Jesus’ teachings and the teachings of his Church will sadly cause division, even in our families, between those who accept them and those who don’t. Again, it is not Jesus or the truth of the Gospel that is at fault of course or the person that proclaims them, but at fault is the rejection of the truth in the hearts and the minds of some men. The Gospel last week taught us that in the end, only those who open their hearts and wills to the truth of God and of His Holy Church will have the peace that leads to unity; only the truth and its acceptance in our hearts and our living it out with our wills in our lives, no matter how difficult, with the help of God’s grace of course, only this will bring us the unity and peace, not to mention, the happiness we all desire.

And so that is why Jesus follows last week’s words with this week’s teaching, the teaching of the Narrow way; which again seems very divisive. He tells us to strive to enter through the narrow gate, many will try to enter and will not succeed.” He says, “I do not know where you come from. Away from me, all you wicked men!” “Then there will be weeping and grinding of teeth…” Jesus’ words seem like so many swords to our modern age of so-called “tolerance.” But here again, because he loves us so very much, Jesus speaks the truth, the hard truth and yes, the sometimes-divisive truth, the truth that even sometimes tears inside of us.

And so, when hearing the tough truths of the Gospel, we can have the tendency to want to soften them, to remove those things that seem to us to be divisive, those things we don’t like or that we think others won’t like—to take the easy way—to just go along, to get along. It’s easy for us to think that in order to bring people together in peace and unity we should just drop those teachings of the Church, which seem to lead to division and a lack of peace.

Over the last forty years, this false notion of preserving the peace and unity by trying to drop controversial teachings has been seen in many areas. One such area has been in the Ecumenical dialogue trying to reunite Christian communities and Churches. After many early successes in the ecumenical dialogue after Vatican II, the “spirit of the age” has sadly rendered this dialogue for the most part uninspiring and unfruitful. Why? One commentator said its because too many Christians, especially Catholics, involved in the discussions are afraid of offending, “Better to get along;” As a result, much of the effort has been spent in trying to reach the goal of “getting along”.

Now, it’s good for us to want to get along, of course, however, the trouble is when getting along is the main goal instead of truth, many of our significance differences are ironed over and ignored and the fullness of the truth is set aside. The truth is, is that many of our separated brothers and sisters have frankly abandoned the full truth of the Gospel for a political correctness, teaching incorrectly for example, that abortion and artificial contraception are morally permissible or that traditional marriage should be abandoned and divorce and remarriage should be allowed. In the end, the attempt to try to “cover up” these errors under the umbrella of “getting along,” does nothing but lead to a false sense of unity and peace; in the end, it actually creates more division.

A few years ago there was an important instruction that came out from Rome regarding certain defects in other Christians communities. Afterwards, commentators in the news and some Christians condemned the then Pope Benedict for being divisive and for hurting the efforts to “get along” with other Christians. However the Holy Father, far from condemning the other Christian communities, was merely stating the truth; that as Catholics we believe that the fullness of the truth that Jesus Christ came to bring into the world for our salvation subsists fully only in the Catholic Church. He was not saying that other Christians are evil or that they have no truth or that there is no way they can get into heaven; he was saying however, that they are missing some of the vital truth that Jesus Christ came to give in order for us to enter into life. We have to remember that the popes are the universal spiritual fathers of all souls on earth, Catholic or not; like a good parent the pope speaks the truth in love that the children need to be happy both in this life and in the life to come. No true happiness without the truth and discipline in that truth.

To help understand even more, let’s look at one of the essential truths the other Christians faiths are missing. And it is really the main truth or teaching that divides us—this is the true teaching of the Holy Eucharist. Only the Catholic Church and the orthodox churches claim to have the true Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus; all the other Christian communities believe the Eucharist is merely symbolic or spiritual, or a commingling of bread and body, but not the true flesh of Jesus and the fullness of His human nature. The Catholic Church however, believes that the Eucharist is not symbolic or spiritual, but that it is truly Jesus Christ still physically present on earth in the flesh, in His resurrected and glorified human body, that after the consecration there is no bread, no wine, but only Jesus.

Even if other Christians claim to believe in the Eucharist in this way, according to Catholic teaching it would not be possible for them to have the true Eucharist. Why? Because they don’t possess apostolic succession. Only the Catholic and Orthodox Churches have, and can claim to have, apostolic succession.
Apostolic succession means this, that the divine power to confect the Holy Eucharist, to change bread and wine into Jesus Himself, was given only to the twelve apostles at the Last Supper when Jesus laid His hands on them and ordained them as priests and bishops, commanding them to, “do this in commemoration of me.” This divine power to make present the sacrifice of Calvary and the true Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity was then passed on to the apostles’ successors, the bishops (and through them to priests), also by the Laying on of the hands, known as ordination. Only the Catholic Church and orthodox churches have kept intact Apostolic Succession, and so only they have transmitted through out the centuries that same divine power that Jesus gave to his apostles; that is why we are the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church

Why is this truth so important for unity and salvation, not to mention for our daily lives? Because the only way we can reach the Father is through the Son, and particularly through the human nature of the Son, that is through His Human Body, Blood and Soul. Jesus Human nature is the bridge, the only bridge, which spans the infinite gulf between God and man. The Eucharist is this Human Body, Blood, and Soul of Jesus, united to His divinity. And so, only through the Eucharist can anyone, anyone possibly be saved, “Unless you eat my body and drink my blood, you will not have life within you.”

So if anyone is to be saved, he or she can be saved only through the Eucharist. If no one is saved apart from Jesus, and the Eucharist is Jesus, then no one is saved apart from the Eucharist (“For there is no other name under the heavens and the earth through which men can be saved”). In fact, all the grace that comes from the Father comes through the Son, and any prayers from us also return to the Father through the Son, and the Eucharist is the Son in His fullness. So if someone is to be saved who is not a Catholic, the grace He needs for salvation only comes through the merits of the Holy Sacrifice the Mass, which makes present the Holy Eucharist by the power of Jesus Christ given to the priest by the laying on of the hands of the bishop, successor of the apostles; Grace then flows out into the world only through the hearts of those who believe truly and participate actually, fully, consciously and so fruitfully in the Holy Eucharist.

You see the truth matters, especially the truth of the Eucharist. How can we as Catholics say that other Christians communities who do not have the Eucharist are not defective; how can we in order to “just get along,” say they are not missing something vital to their life and Happiness. Only through an honest and straightforward dialogue with other Christian communities about our differences can we ever hope to have peace and unity. Even more, if we love other Christians and people of other non-Christian faiths, and people in our own family who have left the faith, how can we not want them to have the Eucharist, which is not only necessary for salvation, but which, WHO is Jesus Christ, God in the flesh still among us, Love itself still among us beating within a human heart…Truth itself in the flesh; truth is a matter of love!!!

Faith in the teaching of the Eucharist is part of the narrow way, but according to Jesus, it is the only way to enter into life because it is Him—When Jesus first gave the teaching of the Holy Eucharist as recorded in the Gospel of St. John, the crowds found His words impossible to accept-“how can he give us his body to eat or his blood to drink?” Many walked away, but that did not keep Jesus from, in love, proclaiming the truth needed for them and for us to reach heaven.

As our Gospel of the last two weeks have taught us, only by the truth and its acceptance in our hearts, especially the truth of the Holy Eucharist, and living our lives in conformity to the truth, only then, will we ever have true unity and peace, within our families, in our parish and with all the other faiths as well, not to mention in our world. Peace is not just the absence of conflict, peace only comes by proclaiming the truth and by struggling to accept, live and proclaim it against all evil, against all error, no matter what the cost, even to the cross.

Recently Our Holy Father said to the youth of world at World Youth Day, “don’t water-down the faith! God back to your dioceses and stir things up.” The media reported this as a call for the youth to oppose the Church and her teachings and oppose bishops and priests. But what the Holy Father was really saying to the youth, is for them and for all of us not to be content with a watered down faith; that if we open ourself up to the fullness of the truth of Gospels contained in the teachings of the Church we will stir things up, we will upset the “peace.” By living the truth in our lives we will upset others, not just in society but even in the Church, who are not living the truth; we will upset even those priests and bishops that aren’t speaking the fullness of the truth anymore for fear of upsetting the people and stirring things up.” But ultimately acceptance of the truth will lead to peace and unity amongst Christians, in our dioceses, our parishes our families and in our world.

Let us turn to our Lady for help. Holy Mary Mother of all Christians and of all people and nations, pray for us lead us closer to your Son who is the truth, and to adore Him as the True God bodily present in the Holy Eucharist, the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. Help us to be faithful to the truth even to the cross in order to spread His love and mercy throughout our world. Amen.

Let us ask in today’s Mass, for our Blessed Mother to obtain for us from the Holy Spirit the gift of Holy fear to move us to a stronger love for and trust in Jesus, in order not to be afraid to put out into the deep of God's Love.

Luke 12, 32-48. August 11, 2013 Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

We continue today with the same theme that we heard in the Gospel readings of last few weeks; namely, prayer and its urgency for our lives. Remember, last week a man approached Jesus to settle an argument over the inheritance of his father. And Jesus pointed out what was most important- an intimate relationship with God; nothing is more important than possessing and being possess by God Who is Love Itself. And so, Jesus makes it even clearer to us in our Gospel today- “sell all your belongings- for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Then, Jesus tells a couple of parables to emphasize this sense of urgency.

One of the main truths of our existence is that we are only here on earth in order to learn how to love. And not just any love, but to learn how to love as God loves, so that we might be intimately united with Him here on earth and forever with Him in His Heavenly Kingdom. Life is very short, and so more than anyone or anything else, is our heart set on the One thing that matters…that is, on Jesus and on an intimate, self-sacrificing relationship of love with Him, and through Him, with the Most Blessed Trinity? Is our heart set on God alone or is it divided among many things?

Jesus knows us well, and so today He starts His words to His disciples and to us with “Be not afraid!” There is a great temptation- to withdraw from God because we are inordinately afraid, afraid of the unknown, afraid of the future and what it might hold for us, afraid of what an all out sacrificial love of God may cost us. And so today Jesus, again, is asking us a very important question - are we ready? Have we really taken the time to examine our readiness? Are we truly, truly ready to meet Him when we die? Do we love Him enough to want to, even right now, spend an eternity intimately united with Him and with the Father and the Holy Spirit? If He came to us tonight or even at this Holy Mass, would we really want and even desire to go with Him?

Sadly, most souls today, I think, live their lives in denial of the reality of death, either from fear, presumption or just plain indifference. As a result, they fail to take seriously the most important four last things, that is: death, judgment, heaven and hell. Some even naively and ignorantly believe that everyone goes to heaven, even though there are many who do not love Jesus with their whole heart, soul, mind and all of their strength and do not spend anytime whatsoever contemplating the in-dwelling Trinity presence within their soul.

But, how can anyone possibly expect to spend forever intimately united with Jesus, and His Father in a marital embrace of Love (the Holy Spirit), if they have not have not striven to have an intimate relationship with Him here on earth. And so, isn’t it because so many are not ready to meet Jesus, because they fail to love Him fully, that they have to deny the reality of death or to believe that everybody goes to heaven regardless; even though, Jesus Himself says otherwise?

So then how do we know that we are ready? Well, Jesus gives us clues to the answer of this question in the first part of the Gospel today. Jesus tells us we should not be afraid, for fear is actually a sign that we are not ready. We heard these words of Jesus repeated by our last Holy Father John Paul II, immediately after he was elected Pope—“Be not afraid!” Blessed John Paul knew then and we too know now that we truly live in a world filled with fear.

We have so much to fear in our day and with good reason. Everything from crime and great violence, to serious economic woes and terrorist attacks blanket the newspapers and television. And we hear of so many young people dying, even children being murdered. What will happen next? This fear touches our lives very deeply, whether we want to admit it or not—“what will happen to our families, to our children?” And so, it is very easy to fall into despair, overwhelmed by feeling afraid; or worse, just to turn it all out and go into denial. It is true that we need to be cautious because of the very real dangers we face, yet we cannot have the dread of this fear dominate and control our lives and take our trust in God away or have it cause us to go off and bury our head in the sand.

It can be the same way, when we hear the seriousness of the words of Jesus spoken directly to each one of us today, serious words, words warning us to be ready to meet him. Upon hearing these words, unless we are totally indifferent, we can become even more fearful. We fear not being ready to meet Christ--We fear the judgment day. While this can sometimes lead to an irrational fear, fear of Judgment is normally a good thing because it can knock souls out of their complacency and turn them back to God saying, “I am sorry because I fear the loss of heaven and the pains of hell.” A good fear of judgment John Paul II writes:

is a sincere and reverential feeling that a person experiences before the tremendous majesty of God, especially when he reflects upon his own infidelity and the danger of being "found wanting" (Dan 5:27) at the eternal judgment which no one can escape. The believer goes and places himself before God with a "contrite spirit" and a "humbled heart" (cf. Ps 50 [51] :19), knowing well that he must await his own salvation "with fear and trembling.”

Jesus however desires us to even rise above this type of reverential fear of God and His divine Judgment. He wants us to fear, not so much hell, but instead fear offending the Father because we love Him even more than we love ourselves…”I am sorry most of all because by my sins I have crucified you my loving savior and offended Thy (the Father’s), infinite mercy.”

Jesus desires our salvation because he loves us so much, he wants us to fear hell; yes, but only, only because it would be an eternity away from intimacy with Him and His Father in the Love of the Holy Spirit—the eternal union for which we have been created. Jesus wants us to know that united with Him in Love we have nothing to fear in this life or in the life to come, for nothing can separate from the love of Christ.

Without Jesus however, sin and fear dominates and controls our lives, but again with Jesus there is no fear only love; without Jesus indifference invades our daily lives and makes our hearts cold; but with Jesus, we do all things, no matter how great or small, with our set hearts on fire for Love of God and love of neighbor for love of Him. It is for this very reason Jesus comes to us in the Eucharist, which is the fullness of the Kingdom the Father is please to give us. The Eucharist is the Blessed Sacrament of “Be Not Afraid!!!”

In the Eucharist Jesus our Lord and God in His Human nature is intimately with us to ease our fears by helping us to grow in our love for Him, for His Church and for our neighbor. By our faithful prayer in front of the Eucharistic Jesus we fall ever more deeply in love with Him and learn to trust in Him fully. We become prepared for anything this world has to offer, even death, for we become filled with God’s own love. We then no longer live lives of indifference or lives of dreadful fear; but instead, live lives of Holy zeal and Holy fear in which we love our God so much, that we never, never purposely chose anything, anything that displeases him but only that which He desires. In this way our very lives become a prayer of love offered to God, not only are we prepared and unafraid, but the Kingdom is ours, for tfe Father is pleased to give It to us because where our treasure is, there will our heart be.

Our Lady, Mother of the Holy Eucharist, help us to pray. Give us more fully the Heart of Your Eucharistic Son. Amen.