Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Sept. 26th, 2010
Today we hear what lies at the very heart of being a faithful loving disciple of Jesus Christ, “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.” In this we discover that 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 that the rich man failed to use his riches to help another in need. Jesus harshly condemns all those who use their earthly goods in a selfish way. And so, the rich man was condemned because he failed to even take notice of the poor man Lazarus, who was definitely in need.
The rich man probably did nothing wrong as he amassed his fortune. He most likely wasn’t responsible for the wretched poverty of Lazarus, at least not in any direct way. And as far as we know, he didn’t 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 a mediocre life, spiritually speaking, by living solely for himself as if there was no judgment after death, no heaven or hell. He had completely forgotten the fact that we are not owners of what we have, but only administrators.
The rich man in the Gospel did not know how to use and share what God had blessed him with. The great 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. His punishment was for selfishness and disloyalty.”
The sadness of this story is even more increased when we realized that the rich man knew Lazarus by name and still did nothing. We know he knew Lazarus by name for the rich man tells Abraham to send “Lazarus” to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool his tongue. And he 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. Too often, sadly, it is only when we are in need, that our faith and trust in God and concern about our eternal salvation become the most important things in our lives; 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…God himself becomes a mere afterthought. It seems the more we have, the more selfish we can become, and so the more our poor brother and sister become forgotten.
Christ however, doesn't call us to mediocrity; He wants our love, all of it. He wants us. And He demands from us, as a matter of love, openness to our brothers and sisters in need, whoever they may be. Whether they be materially rich or poor, economically advantaged or disadvantaged, whether they are the affluent of society or the most vulnerable in our society such as the unborn, the disabled, the sick and the elderly; no matter the case, we are to look to their needs in order to show our love for God and our faithfulness to Him. This brings up a most important point. There is a group of people that we are to care for even more than those just mentioned, people that we need to “feed” most of all. Who are they?
Mother Theresa, champion of the poor, gives us the answer. She said that the poorest souls she ever encountered, even more so than poor in Calcutta, were souls within the affluent countries of the world including these very United States. While most of these souls here don’t lack material goods (in fact most are quite wealthy materially speaking) what they do lack is something much greater and that is lack of knowledge of the Love of Jesus Christ. They have tried to replace the love of Jesus with love for the things of this world and so are starving for His love. For her, these are the poorest of the poor.
Everyone is looking for love, but so many don't know where to find the source of authentic love. The only source of Authentic love is Jesus Christ. Our greatest mission as believing Catholics is to bring Christ's love and so his truth, to those who are starving for it, many of whom don’t even know it. We must love them for love of God. We are to bring his love to all our poor brothers and sisters, whether they be materially poor or rich and in doing so bring them to Jesus. In this we really care for them and for their salvation and tend to our own salvation as well. Everything we are and everything we possess, even our very lives, are to be used to help others get to heaven that is if we ourselves are to make it.
But before we can bring Jesus’ love to the poor and lead the poor to Him, we must first discover the source of the living water of God's love and draw near in order to quench our own great thirst for God's love. And the source is of this living water is the Holy Eucharist-the very person of Jesus, who is the Love of the Father.
Mother Theresa once said to her sisters, “We can’t bring Jesus and His love to others if we don’t first recognize that Jesus is truly present among us in the Holy Eucharist.” And she told her sisters, that we can’t lead others to the love of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist unless we ourselves first come in contact with Him there—frequently, drawing from His Eucharistic Heart the living waters of His love, and returning to Him the gift of our love, the gift of our self. Once we realize through faith that the Eucharist is Jesus, is God the very source of all love, then we will realize as did Mother Theresa and all the saints, that the truly poor of this world, the poorest of the poor, are those who do not know the love of Jesus and that this love is available in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar.
The rich man knew Lazarus by name, and yet he did not give Him food. We too know so many modern day Lazarus’ by name; they may bear the name of our parents, our brothers and sisters, our children, co-workers 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 which is the very Love of God the Father.
The Eucharist is by far the greatest of all riches. Because we have the Eucharist, we are really the richest of rich men. As a result we just can’t allow ourselves to be like the rich man in the Gospel and live a mediocre live. We can't fail to give the Lazarus’ of our lives what they need most in this world the Love of God. We must bring them this Love of God, God Himself alive in our hearts because we have become one with Him through our Belief, adoration, hope and love of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. The truly poor of this world, those who don't know God's love, must experience Jesus and His love alive in us. We are called to be faithful disciples, that is...Ministers of God's Love.
Once again, this is why we must as faithful disciples of our Lord support our Parish family and its mission of not only leading its families to holiness and so to heaven. We begin to fulfill this great mission by our sacrificial gift of our time, talent and treasure. But not only for ourselves and families' own spiritual well being, but so that we can faithful to the other part of our mission as a Parish family, which is to bring the love and truth of Christ, we receive in the Holy Eucharist, out into our world, and share with others, through our holiness of life. We are to be other Christ's not only to one another but to all we come into contact with in our daily lives.
At this Holy Mass, which is the Sacrament of Charity, let us turn to our Mother Mary, who is Mother of all the poor, to pray for us and help us to more fully accept in faith, God’s gift of the Holy Eucharist. Blessed Mother, 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 first love Jesus over and above all things by offering ourselves fully and completely to Him. And then, being filled with the richness of His love, help us to share His love with the truly poor around us, whoever they may be, leading them to feed as well on the feast of God’s love, the Wedding feast of the Lamb, in which Jesus the Bridegroom gives Himself as our food in order to be one with us; He living in us and we in Him. Amen.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Saturday, September 18, 2010
We must do everything for God’s glory and for the salvation of souls—“Even in eating and drinking do everything for God’s glory.”
Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time. September 19th, 2010
Today, Jesus keeps on the theme of faithful discipleship. He tells us a very interesting parable about a dishonest steward; however the situation is not so cut and dry. Our Lord here isn’t necessarily condoning the steward’s behavior; He is however, emphasizing and praising the steward’s shrewdness and effort; the steward tries to derive maximum material advantage from his “soon to be” former position as steward.
Let’s take a closer look in order to see more clearly just how shrewd was this unfaithful steward.
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 a country who had conquered the land he now owned. These foreign landowners would make loans to the local conquered people in order to make money off of them, charging them exorbitant interest, such as large measures of oil or wheat. The people basically had to pay to work the very land that used to be their own, becoming debtors in the process.
The steward’s job then was to make as much money for the landowner as possible, no matter what it took. So this steward in our Gospel was probably guilty of not exacting a great enough interest on the people in order to maximize profits. Because usury, that is interest on loans, was forbidden in the Jewish Law, this steward was in reality actually dealing somewhat fairly with the local people; this is probably what got him trouble.
The news of his leniency 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 more effectively oppressing the poor borrowers with unjustifiably high interest. The steward knew then that he was about to lose his job and so he went around discounting even more the amount owed. In this way he was prudent and wise- both for trying to not exact high usury in the first place, and then for trying to gain even more friends who he would need when he was out of a job.
The people who listened to Jesus in today’s Gospel would have understood Him well; They were really in the same situation as the steward and the debtors of the parable, because they were a conquered people, conquered by the Roman’s who occupied their country. 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 also have understood why 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 have liked to be the rich landowner. In their desire, they had avarice in their hearts that is, a sinful desire and love for wealth. Perhaps, there were some that were even trying to justify their own unjust dealings with others. Either way, they had their hearts set on wealth as an end in itself; they thought the sole purpose in this life was to use one’s talents to obtain material goods and comforts. They wanted to be freed from Rome’s rule over them; however, not in order to serve God and neighbor more freely, but instead to be able to obtain more material goods and so live the good life of pleasure, comfort and ease. In other words, they wanted to use their freedom for themselves. In this, they were the dishonest servants because they failed to see that their refusal to serve God and neighbor in love, is the worst kind of slavery.
Jesus reminds the people and us, that we must serve God and neighbor with the gifts that come from God. He is pointing out that His gifts are not ends in themselves and that we are not to make them our end goal, or our gods. We are to use them primarily for God’s purposes in loving service to Him the giver of the gifts. This proper use of our gifts from God in service to Him has both a material and spiritual aspect. On the material side, we should use our resources to care for the poor, by working to bring about peace and justice in our society...this begins first of all in our parish family, for charity-love, begins at home and flows out to the wider community. On the spiritual side, we have to make a heroic effort to love and serve God totally and absolutely so that we can eventually be with Him for ever; then because we love God, we are to love and serve our neighbor, helping them to love God and be with Him forever as well...this too begins in our parish family, where we receive what we need to grow in holiness and love in order that we can be used to save others by leading them to God in the Holy Eucharist-Love in Person.
The Lord wants us to make as our primary concern, our growth in intimacy and friendship with him, better known as holiness and sanctity. And then in sanctity and holiness, living our lives in order to lead others to Him and His love, in order that they may be not only saved but enter into a loving union with Him as well, now and for all eternity. We engage in this service of love, with at least the same level of determination as that with which others engage in worldly concerns. And more, because, if you really think about, nothing on this earth is more important that saving our souls and being used to save the souls of others, both those we love and those of our enemies. All of our talents, all that the Lord as given to us, should be used primarily for this to lead others to the God who is Love.
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. “No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon." We must serve Him with all our heart, using all that He has given to us, whether it be our treasures, our talents or our time. We must direct everything toward Him: our work, our plans, our leisure, without holding anything back. Even the ordinary mundane duties of everyday life must be done for God, nothing is considered inconsequential.
The faithful steward is not one who lives with his head in the clouds, but the one who loves God and neighbor by struggling to be faithful in the little details of everyday life; it isn’t that He is perfect but that he is, with the help of God’s grace, striving for perfection, the perfection of love…to be perfect as Your Heavenly Father is perfect. Even little things if done for love of God become powerful and useful for our salvation and that of our neighbors; in fact, “The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones; and the person who is dishonest in very small matters is also dishonest in great ones.” We must do everything for God’s glory and for the salvation of souls—“Even in eating and drinking do everything for God’s glory.” Our every thought, word and action must be directed to the glory of God and the spread of his Kingdom.
Jesus asks us this week to take an honest look at what we do and how we use our time, talent and treasure. Do we hide them and hope that no one will notice us? Do we week after week keep our gifts to ourselves and use all we have selfishly. Do we think, “Well, I really do not have the time to do anything for God or for neighbor, but after all, I do show up for Mass.----And what about the Parish family? Let's examine this more closely. Do I really help out in making our parish family a strong, active and loving place? Or do I just think that it's up to someone else to do it? Do we just take from our parish and not give of ourselves in return.
Because of our parish, our children are baptized, becoming beloved Children of the Father; our Christian Families are born through Holy Matrimony, marriage; our dead are given a Holy Funeral Mass for the repose of their souls and then buried with Christian dignity through the rites of the Church; and, we are given the greatest gift of all, the Holy Mass, which is the source and the summit of all grace, for the Christian life and for the life of the whole world.
In the Holy Mass our God gives us the gift of Himself. How can we not, in return to such a loving God, offer the gift of ourselves to Him in return. Love demands a response; answering this response fulfills the deepest aspirations of the human heart. This gift of ourselves is offered here at Holy Mass by and interior act of our will, in which heart speaks to heart. But then we must live that offering by our lives for others for love of God. This life offering begins with the little things, how we offer ourselves in love for our families, but most especially our parish family. This is shown by our actions, it begins by being faithful to Jesus by being faithful to our parish even in the little things. "The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones; and the person who is dishonest in very small matters is also dishonest in great ones.
Let us then offer everything we have at this Mass, especially ourselves in order to adore and love God. Let us acknowledge our failure in the past to serve Him as we ought; let us thank Him for all the many blessings that He has given to us, especially the blessing of our parish family; and let us ask Him at this source of all graces-the Holy Mass, for the grace and the strength to serve Him single mindedly and faithfully all the days of our lives. Holy Mary, Mother of the servants of God, Pray for us sinners. Amen.
Today, Jesus keeps on the theme of faithful discipleship. He tells us a very interesting parable about a dishonest steward; however the situation is not so cut and dry. Our Lord here isn’t necessarily condoning the steward’s behavior; He is however, emphasizing and praising the steward’s shrewdness and effort; the steward tries to derive maximum material advantage from his “soon to be” former position as steward.
Let’s take a closer look in order to see more clearly just how shrewd was this unfaithful steward.
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 a country who had conquered the land he now owned. These foreign landowners would make loans to the local conquered people in order to make money off of them, charging them exorbitant interest, such as large measures of oil or wheat. The people basically had to pay to work the very land that used to be their own, becoming debtors in the process.
The steward’s job then was to make as much money for the landowner as possible, no matter what it took. So this steward in our Gospel was probably guilty of not exacting a great enough interest on the people in order to maximize profits. Because usury, that is interest on loans, was forbidden in the Jewish Law, this steward was in reality actually dealing somewhat fairly with the local people; this is probably what got him trouble.
The news of his leniency 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 more effectively oppressing the poor borrowers with unjustifiably high interest. The steward knew then that he was about to lose his job and so he went around discounting even more the amount owed. In this way he was prudent and wise- both for trying to not exact high usury in the first place, and then for trying to gain even more friends who he would need when he was out of a job.
The people who listened to Jesus in today’s Gospel would have understood Him well; They were really in the same situation as the steward and the debtors of the parable, because they were a conquered people, conquered by the Roman’s who occupied their country. 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 also have understood why 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 have liked to be the rich landowner. In their desire, they had avarice in their hearts that is, a sinful desire and love for wealth. Perhaps, there were some that were even trying to justify their own unjust dealings with others. Either way, they had their hearts set on wealth as an end in itself; they thought the sole purpose in this life was to use one’s talents to obtain material goods and comforts. They wanted to be freed from Rome’s rule over them; however, not in order to serve God and neighbor more freely, but instead to be able to obtain more material goods and so live the good life of pleasure, comfort and ease. In other words, they wanted to use their freedom for themselves. In this, they were the dishonest servants because they failed to see that their refusal to serve God and neighbor in love, is the worst kind of slavery.
Jesus reminds the people and us, that we must serve God and neighbor with the gifts that come from God. He is pointing out that His gifts are not ends in themselves and that we are not to make them our end goal, or our gods. We are to use them primarily for God’s purposes in loving service to Him the giver of the gifts. This proper use of our gifts from God in service to Him has both a material and spiritual aspect. On the material side, we should use our resources to care for the poor, by working to bring about peace and justice in our society...this begins first of all in our parish family, for charity-love, begins at home and flows out to the wider community. On the spiritual side, we have to make a heroic effort to love and serve God totally and absolutely so that we can eventually be with Him for ever; then because we love God, we are to love and serve our neighbor, helping them to love God and be with Him forever as well...this too begins in our parish family, where we receive what we need to grow in holiness and love in order that we can be used to save others by leading them to God in the Holy Eucharist-Love in Person.
The Lord wants us to make as our primary concern, our growth in intimacy and friendship with him, better known as holiness and sanctity. And then in sanctity and holiness, living our lives in order to lead others to Him and His love, in order that they may be not only saved but enter into a loving union with Him as well, now and for all eternity. We engage in this service of love, with at least the same level of determination as that with which others engage in worldly concerns. And more, because, if you really think about, nothing on this earth is more important that saving our souls and being used to save the souls of others, both those we love and those of our enemies. All of our talents, all that the Lord as given to us, should be used primarily for this to lead others to the God who is Love.
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. “No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon." We must serve Him with all our heart, using all that He has given to us, whether it be our treasures, our talents or our time. We must direct everything toward Him: our work, our plans, our leisure, without holding anything back. Even the ordinary mundane duties of everyday life must be done for God, nothing is considered inconsequential.
The faithful steward is not one who lives with his head in the clouds, but the one who loves God and neighbor by struggling to be faithful in the little details of everyday life; it isn’t that He is perfect but that he is, with the help of God’s grace, striving for perfection, the perfection of love…to be perfect as Your Heavenly Father is perfect. Even little things if done for love of God become powerful and useful for our salvation and that of our neighbors; in fact, “The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones; and the person who is dishonest in very small matters is also dishonest in great ones.” We must do everything for God’s glory and for the salvation of souls—“Even in eating and drinking do everything for God’s glory.” Our every thought, word and action must be directed to the glory of God and the spread of his Kingdom.
Jesus asks us this week to take an honest look at what we do and how we use our time, talent and treasure. Do we hide them and hope that no one will notice us? Do we week after week keep our gifts to ourselves and use all we have selfishly. Do we think, “Well, I really do not have the time to do anything for God or for neighbor, but after all, I do show up for Mass.----And what about the Parish family? Let's examine this more closely. Do I really help out in making our parish family a strong, active and loving place? Or do I just think that it's up to someone else to do it? Do we just take from our parish and not give of ourselves in return.
Because of our parish, our children are baptized, becoming beloved Children of the Father; our Christian Families are born through Holy Matrimony, marriage; our dead are given a Holy Funeral Mass for the repose of their souls and then buried with Christian dignity through the rites of the Church; and, we are given the greatest gift of all, the Holy Mass, which is the source and the summit of all grace, for the Christian life and for the life of the whole world.
In the Holy Mass our God gives us the gift of Himself. How can we not, in return to such a loving God, offer the gift of ourselves to Him in return. Love demands a response; answering this response fulfills the deepest aspirations of the human heart. This gift of ourselves is offered here at Holy Mass by and interior act of our will, in which heart speaks to heart. But then we must live that offering by our lives for others for love of God. This life offering begins with the little things, how we offer ourselves in love for our families, but most especially our parish family. This is shown by our actions, it begins by being faithful to Jesus by being faithful to our parish even in the little things. "The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones; and the person who is dishonest in very small matters is also dishonest in great ones.
Let us then offer everything we have at this Mass, especially ourselves in order to adore and love God. Let us acknowledge our failure in the past to serve Him as we ought; let us thank Him for all the many blessings that He has given to us, especially the blessing of our parish family; and let us ask Him at this source of all graces-the Holy Mass, for the grace and the strength to serve Him single mindedly and faithfully all the days of our lives. Holy Mary, Mother of the servants of God, Pray for us sinners. Amen.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Our sharing in God's search and rescue mission for lost souls is known as the apostolate.
Luke 15: 1-32. Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Sept 12th, 2010
The Parable of the Prodigal Son
The parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the prodigal son are all very familiar to us. The parable 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.
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 and making an act of adoration the first thing we do in our day. Perhaps you made a 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. 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 for forgiveness of our sins. Our reception of this forgiveness by our repentance and the sincere confession of our sins is the cause of true freedom and the cause of great rejoicing in heaven.
In each of the parables in the Gospel today, the central figure is God Himself. He is God who is on a search and rescue mission. A God who does everything He can to recover those of His children who have succumbed to temptation and so separated themselves from Him.
God is the Good Shepherd who misses the sheep gone astray by sin, seeks him out in order to bring him 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 seen as 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 son and throw His arms around him and cover him with kisses.
These beautiful images of God are given to us to encourage us in our 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 taking into our hearts the qualities of God himself. We are to have a merciful, forgiving heart who like God desires that none be lost, that all be found and saved.
If we are to take on the qualities of the Father's heart, true discipleship then, includes a sharing in God’s own mission, which is a search and rescue mission. It is a sharing in the mission through the Sacred Heart of the Son in finding the lost sheep and bringing them back into the one fold.
The second Vatican council applies the image of the Good Shepherd especially to priest when it states: “They 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 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 live 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. 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 these mean? We are to participate with mind, heart, body and soul, with our whole being in the once and for all offering of Jesus Christ the High Priest to the Father made truly present here. How do we do this? By placing our self as a victim 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, the very Person of Jesus, His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, we too will be transformed, changed through holiness into another Christ for the renewal of the world.
Here at Mass all of us are to understand (conscious participation) that we are to offer ourselves, both as individuals and as a parish family, by an interior act of our will, to the Father, in union with the Son, by the Power of the Holy Spirit. In this act of sacrificing of ourselves to God, (again 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. 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.
In other words, we become divinized, we become "other Christ's, active and full members of His mystical body," who take what we have been given, literally the love of God, God Himself alive in our hearts, out into our world to the lost and forsaken sheep.
The truth is, is that it is only the Holy Mass, which is the action of the Head, Jesus Christ in union with His body, all of us and the Church around the world, that can save our world and the souls in it. The Holy Mass is the source of all, all the graces which come into the world. But this grace must flow out into the world through us, through our lives of holiness and faithful discipleship. This is the universal call to holiness. Holiness is not just for ourselves, but it is the means by which God desires to seek and rescue and so to save lost souls.
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. And then, because our brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.'" we will with him celebrate and rejoice here, in praise of our God, at this sacred feast, the Holy Mass in which heaven and earth unite, eternity breaks into time, and Man begins to share already in that for which he was created, 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 and man fully alive.
Holy Mary, Mother of the lost and forsaken, pray for us who have recourse to thee. Help us to become one with your Son and lead others to share in the oneness of love.
The Parable of the Prodigal Son
The parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the prodigal son are all very familiar to us. The parable 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.
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 and making an act of adoration the first thing we do in our day. Perhaps you made a 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. 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 for forgiveness of our sins. Our reception of this forgiveness by our repentance and the sincere confession of our sins is the cause of true freedom and the cause of great rejoicing in heaven.
In each of the parables in the Gospel today, the central figure is God Himself. He is God who is on a search and rescue mission. A God who does everything He can to recover those of His children who have succumbed to temptation and so separated themselves from Him.
God is the Good Shepherd who misses the sheep gone astray by sin, seeks him out in order to bring him 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 seen as 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 son and throw His arms around him and cover him with kisses.
These beautiful images of God are given to us to encourage us in our 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 taking into our hearts the qualities of God himself. We are to have a merciful, forgiving heart who like God desires that none be lost, that all be found and saved.
If we are to take on the qualities of the Father's heart, true discipleship then, includes a sharing in God’s own mission, which is a search and rescue mission. It is a sharing in the mission through the Sacred Heart of the Son in finding the lost sheep and bringing them back into the one fold.
The second Vatican council applies the image of the Good Shepherd especially to priest when it states: “They 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 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 live 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. 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 these mean? We are to participate with mind, heart, body and soul, with our whole being in the once and for all offering of Jesus Christ the High Priest to the Father made truly present here. How do we do this? By placing our self as a victim 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, the very Person of Jesus, His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, we too will be transformed, changed through holiness into another Christ for the renewal of the world.
Here at Mass all of us are to understand (conscious participation) that we are to offer ourselves, both as individuals and as a parish family, by an interior act of our will, to the Father, in union with the Son, by the Power of the Holy Spirit. In this act of sacrificing of ourselves to God, (again 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. 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.
In other words, we become divinized, we become "other Christ's, active and full members of His mystical body," who take what we have been given, literally the love of God, God Himself alive in our hearts, out into our world to the lost and forsaken sheep.
The truth is, is that it is only the Holy Mass, which is the action of the Head, Jesus Christ in union with His body, all of us and the Church around the world, that can save our world and the souls in it. The Holy Mass is the source of all, all the graces which come into the world. But this grace must flow out into the world through us, through our lives of holiness and faithful discipleship. This is the universal call to holiness. Holiness is not just for ourselves, but it is the means by which God desires to seek and rescue and so to save lost souls.
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. And then, because our brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.'" we will with him celebrate and rejoice here, in praise of our God, at this sacred feast, the Holy Mass in which heaven and earth unite, eternity breaks into time, and Man begins to share already in that for which he was created, 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 and man fully alive.
Holy Mary, Mother of the lost and forsaken, pray for us who have recourse to thee. Help us to become one with your Son and lead others to share in the oneness of love.
Friday, August 27, 2010
"Humility is being aware of your self worth but not your self importance"
22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time August 29th, 2010
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. 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"
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 to our correct relationship to others. It is knowing the truth about yourself 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, His human representatives and His 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 Laws, and to those He has placed in authority over us. We can think ourselves above God, that we know better than God.
In pride, we then place ourselves above the teachings of Jesus, which He gives to us without through the Church He founded to proclaim His truth. Pride denies the truth that Jesus gave the Catholic Church His authority and promise to be with Her till the end of time so that we could be sure Her teachings were indeed His teachings, “and the gates of Hell will not destroy her.” Without the Church the "self" becomes the determinant of the truth. Then each person, not God, decides what’s true. In the end this is an act of pride, because it’s a lie. This was the really the temptation in the garden, the devil told the first humans, “you will know the difference between good and evil; in other words, you will be able to choose for yourself what is true and what is false, what is good and evil. Pride leads to disobedience to the truth, so disobedience to God. This is the same temptation the devil still uses against us.
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. He personally founded the Catholic Church on the apostles with Peter as their head to be His audible voice throughout the ages; Jesus gave the truth to the twelve and the authority to teach it; Guided by the Holy Spirit which leads them into all truth, they then passed Jesus’ teachings down through the centuries through their successors, the Bishops.
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. Can we question them? Yes. But not question them in the way of denial, but in the way of 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 ourselves 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 them.
In contrast, true 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; 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. He 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 and make 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 sources 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 to meet personally with John Paul II; they were walking the streets waiting for the time of their own person 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 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 place the purple stole around ……the neck of the homeless priest, knelt down before him, and the Holy Father said, “bless me father for I have sinned.” And then in a moving display of humility and obedience to the priesthood, which the homeless priest later shared with the two brothers, 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. One of the greatest acts of humility we 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 truthfully confess our sins, confess that in our pride 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 claim 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 so that we may be united to Him more fully in love.
Pride in all of us can be very strong. Just when we think we are not prideful, it is then when 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...There is a God and we are not Him!
(((Humility is actually an internal choice we make in the silence of our hearts by 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, her teachings and her representatives all with the help of His grace. )))
Let us turn to the Virgin to help us to be humble. We pray for an increase in the virtue of Humility when we meditate on the First Joyful Mystery, The Annunciation. We see the humility of Our Lady when she gives 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 or even bow down before His true Presence? Through Mary may we like her strive to imitate the divine humility of her Son. Amen.
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. 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"
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 to our correct relationship to others. It is knowing the truth about yourself 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, His human representatives and His 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 Laws, and to those He has placed in authority over us. We can think ourselves above God, that we know better than God.
In pride, we then place ourselves above the teachings of Jesus, which He gives to us without through the Church He founded to proclaim His truth. Pride denies the truth that Jesus gave the Catholic Church His authority and promise to be with Her till the end of time so that we could be sure Her teachings were indeed His teachings, “and the gates of Hell will not destroy her.” Without the Church the "self" becomes the determinant of the truth. Then each person, not God, decides what’s true. In the end this is an act of pride, because it’s a lie. This was the really the temptation in the garden, the devil told the first humans, “you will know the difference between good and evil; in other words, you will be able to choose for yourself what is true and what is false, what is good and evil. Pride leads to disobedience to the truth, so disobedience to God. This is the same temptation the devil still uses against us.
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. He personally founded the Catholic Church on the apostles with Peter as their head to be His audible voice throughout the ages; Jesus gave the truth to the twelve and the authority to teach it; Guided by the Holy Spirit which leads them into all truth, they then passed Jesus’ teachings down through the centuries through their successors, the Bishops.
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. Can we question them? Yes. But not question them in the way of denial, but in the way of 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 ourselves 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 them.
In contrast, true 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; 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. He 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 and make 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 sources 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 to meet personally with John Paul II; they were walking the streets waiting for the time of their own person 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 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 place the purple stole around ……the neck of the homeless priest, knelt down before him, and the Holy Father said, “bless me father for I have sinned.” And then in a moving display of humility and obedience to the priesthood, which the homeless priest later shared with the two brothers, 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. One of the greatest acts of humility we 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 truthfully confess our sins, confess that in our pride 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 claim 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 so that we may be united to Him more fully in love.
Pride in all of us can be very strong. Just when we think we are not prideful, it is then when 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...There is a God and we are not Him!
(((Humility is actually an internal choice we make in the silence of our hearts by 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, her teachings and her representatives all with the help of His grace. )))
Let us turn to the Virgin to help us to be humble. We pray for an increase in the virtue of Humility when we meditate on the First Joyful Mystery, The Annunciation. We see the humility of Our Lady when she gives 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 or even bow down before His true Presence? Through Mary may we like her strive to imitate the divine humility of her Son. Amen.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Only the Truth gives peace; only the Truth gives life!
21st Sunday in Ordinary Time. August 22nd, 2010
Today, Jesus seems to be saying to us some very divisive and even intolerant words. He tells us to strive to enter through the narrow gate, for 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!” and “Then there will be weeping and grinding of teeth…” Jesus words seem like swords to our modern age of tolerance, disrupting to our apparent peace; after all can't we just get along. But here again, Jesus speaks the truth, the hard truth and yes the sometimes divisive truth.
When hearing the tough truth of the Gospel, we can have the tendency to want to soften it, to remove those things that seem to us to be difficult--divisive or intolerant. Like parents who don’t want to destroy the peace by correcting their children, we can begin to think that to bring people together in peace and unity we should just drop the teachings of the Church that seem to lead to division and a lack of peace. But it never works trying to preserve the peace by denying the truth; Peace is always the fruit of truth.
A good example of this false notion of the preserving the peace and so preserving a false perception of unity has also been seen in the last forty years in the Ecumenical dialogue trying to reunite Christian communities and Churches. After many early successes in ecumenical dialogue after Vatican II, the “spirit of the age” has rendered it for the most part uninspiring and unfruitful. Why? Because too many Christians, especially Catholics involved in the discussions are afraid of offending. “Better to get along.” And so, much of the effort has been 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, many of our significance differences are ironed over and ignored, the fullness of the truth is set aside. Many of our separated brothers and sisters, not to mention Catholics, even priests and religious, have frankly abandoned the full truth of the Gospel for a political correctness, teaching incorrectly for example that abortion and contraception are morally correct or that traditional marriage should be abandoned, and divorce and remarriage, or even so-called homosexual "marriage" should be allowed. More and more Christians are abandoning faith in the Gospels. To try to cover up these grave errors under the umbrella of “getting along, tolerance or inclusivity,” does nothing but lead to a false unity and peace and eventually chaos and destruction...just look at history.
A few years ago there was an instruction that came out from Rome regarding defects in the other Churches. Afterwards, commentators in the news and some Christians condemned Pope Benedict for being divisive and hurting the efforts to “get along” with other Christians. Surprisingly, some of the harshest critics of the Holy Father were so-called Catholic Theologians. However, the Holy Father far from condemning the other Christian communities and Churches was merely stating the truth; that as Catholics we believe that the Fullness of the Truth that Jesus Christ came to bring to the world for our salvation subsist fully only in the Catholic Church and her teachings. He is 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 is only saying that they are missing some of the vital necessary truth that Jesus Christ came to give us in order for us to enter into life. The Holy Father is the universal spiritual father of all souls on earth, Catholic or not; like a good father he is speaking the truth that all God's children need, not only for unity, but for salvation.
To help understand what our Holy Father is saying, and since we have the Eucharistic miracle display in the parish center this weekend after the this Mass, let’s look at another example of one of the teachings that divides us from the other Christian communities, really the main teaching that divides us—the 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, but not the true flesh of Jesus and the fullness of His human nature along with the fullness of His divinity.
The Catholic Church however, believes that the Eucharist is not symbolic or spiritual or some kind of co-mingling of Jesus with the bread and wine, but that it is truly Jesus Christ still physically present on earth in His human resurrected body. 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 Eucharist in this way. Why? Because only the Catholic and Orthodox Churches have and can claim to have apostolic succession.
The divine power to confect the Eucharist was given to the twelve apostles at the Last Supper when Jesus laid His hands on them and ordained them priests and bishops, telling 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 apostle successors also by the Laying on of the hands, known as ordination. Only the Catholic Church and orthodox churches have keep intact Apostolic Succession and so have transmitted through out the centuries that same divine power Jesus gave to his apostles.
Why is this truth important for unity and salvation? 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, that 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 Eucharist can anyone, anyone possibly be saved, “Unless you eat my body and drink my blood, you will not have life within you.”
You see the truth matters with regards to our eternal salvation, especially the truth of the Eucharist. Only the Person of Christ can save us and, the Eucharist IS the Person of Christ. So, how can we as Catholics possibly say that other Christian faiths 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 life?
Only through an honest and straightforward dialogue with other Christian communities about our differences can we ever hope to have unity and peace. Even more, if we love other Christians and even people of other non-Christian faiths, our own children and family members who have left the Church, how can we not want them to have the truth of the Church's moral teachings which give life, how can we not want them to have the truth of the Eucharist, which is not only necessary for salvation, but which is Jesus Christ, God in the flesh still among us, Love itself still among us...
Today, Jesus tells us that only through our acceptance and living the truth will we finally enter into the Kingdom of God in heaven. Jesus makes it clear however, that to accept the full truth of the Gospel is hard, and to conform our lives to it is even harder; it is the narrow way…this is especially the case with regard to the truth of the Church's moral teachings and the truth of the Eucharist. Only by the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, and its acceptance in our hearts and living our lives in conformity to the truth with love, will we have unity and peace, within our families, in our parish and with all the other faiths as well. Only the truth will give us life. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few (Mt 7:14). Holy Mary Mother of all Christians and all people and nations, pray for us. Sweet Heart of Mary be our salvation. Amen.
Today, Jesus seems to be saying to us some very divisive and even intolerant words. He tells us to strive to enter through the narrow gate, for 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!” and “Then there will be weeping and grinding of teeth…” Jesus words seem like swords to our modern age of tolerance, disrupting to our apparent peace; after all can't we just get along. But here again, Jesus speaks the truth, the hard truth and yes the sometimes divisive truth.
When hearing the tough truth of the Gospel, we can have the tendency to want to soften it, to remove those things that seem to us to be difficult--divisive or intolerant. Like parents who don’t want to destroy the peace by correcting their children, we can begin to think that to bring people together in peace and unity we should just drop the teachings of the Church that seem to lead to division and a lack of peace. But it never works trying to preserve the peace by denying the truth; Peace is always the fruit of truth.
A good example of this false notion of the preserving the peace and so preserving a false perception of unity has also been seen in the last forty years in the Ecumenical dialogue trying to reunite Christian communities and Churches. After many early successes in ecumenical dialogue after Vatican II, the “spirit of the age” has rendered it for the most part uninspiring and unfruitful. Why? Because too many Christians, especially Catholics involved in the discussions are afraid of offending. “Better to get along.” And so, much of the effort has been 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, many of our significance differences are ironed over and ignored, the fullness of the truth is set aside. Many of our separated brothers and sisters, not to mention Catholics, even priests and religious, have frankly abandoned the full truth of the Gospel for a political correctness, teaching incorrectly for example that abortion and contraception are morally correct or that traditional marriage should be abandoned, and divorce and remarriage, or even so-called homosexual "marriage" should be allowed. More and more Christians are abandoning faith in the Gospels. To try to cover up these grave errors under the umbrella of “getting along, tolerance or inclusivity,” does nothing but lead to a false unity and peace and eventually chaos and destruction...just look at history.
A few years ago there was an instruction that came out from Rome regarding defects in the other Churches. Afterwards, commentators in the news and some Christians condemned Pope Benedict for being divisive and hurting the efforts to “get along” with other Christians. Surprisingly, some of the harshest critics of the Holy Father were so-called Catholic Theologians. However, the Holy Father far from condemning the other Christian communities and Churches was merely stating the truth; that as Catholics we believe that the Fullness of the Truth that Jesus Christ came to bring to the world for our salvation subsist fully only in the Catholic Church and her teachings. He is 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 is only saying that they are missing some of the vital necessary truth that Jesus Christ came to give us in order for us to enter into life. The Holy Father is the universal spiritual father of all souls on earth, Catholic or not; like a good father he is speaking the truth that all God's children need, not only for unity, but for salvation.
To help understand what our Holy Father is saying, and since we have the Eucharistic miracle display in the parish center this weekend after the this Mass, let’s look at another example of one of the teachings that divides us from the other Christian communities, really the main teaching that divides us—the 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, but not the true flesh of Jesus and the fullness of His human nature along with the fullness of His divinity.
The Catholic Church however, believes that the Eucharist is not symbolic or spiritual or some kind of co-mingling of Jesus with the bread and wine, but that it is truly Jesus Christ still physically present on earth in His human resurrected body. 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 Eucharist in this way. Why? Because only the Catholic and Orthodox Churches have and can claim to have apostolic succession.
The divine power to confect the Eucharist was given to the twelve apostles at the Last Supper when Jesus laid His hands on them and ordained them priests and bishops, telling 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 apostle successors also by the Laying on of the hands, known as ordination. Only the Catholic Church and orthodox churches have keep intact Apostolic Succession and so have transmitted through out the centuries that same divine power Jesus gave to his apostles.
Why is this truth important for unity and salvation? 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, that 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 Eucharist can anyone, anyone possibly be saved, “Unless you eat my body and drink my blood, you will not have life within you.”
You see the truth matters with regards to our eternal salvation, especially the truth of the Eucharist. Only the Person of Christ can save us and, the Eucharist IS the Person of Christ. So, how can we as Catholics possibly say that other Christian faiths 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 life?
Only through an honest and straightforward dialogue with other Christian communities about our differences can we ever hope to have unity and peace. Even more, if we love other Christians and even people of other non-Christian faiths, our own children and family members who have left the Church, how can we not want them to have the truth of the Church's moral teachings which give life, how can we not want them to have the truth of the Eucharist, which is not only necessary for salvation, but which is Jesus Christ, God in the flesh still among us, Love itself still among us...
Today, Jesus tells us that only through our acceptance and living the truth will we finally enter into the Kingdom of God in heaven. Jesus makes it clear however, that to accept the full truth of the Gospel is hard, and to conform our lives to it is even harder; it is the narrow way…this is especially the case with regard to the truth of the Church's moral teachings and the truth of the Eucharist. Only by the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, and its acceptance in our hearts and living our lives in conformity to the truth with love, will we have unity and peace, within our families, in our parish and with all the other faiths as well. Only the truth will give us life. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few (Mt 7:14). Holy Mary Mother of all Christians and all people and nations, pray for us. Sweet Heart of Mary be our salvation. Amen.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
We continue today with our theme of prayer and it’s urgency for our lives. Last week a man approached Jesus to settle an argument he was having over the inheritance. Jesus pointed them to what was most important- an intimate relationship with God; nothing is more important than possessing and being possess by the God who is Love. And so, Jesus makes it even clearer to us in our Gospel today- “sell your belongings- for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Jesus tells a couple of parables to give this a true sense of urgency. We are only here on earth to learn how to love, to learn how to love as God loves us so that we might be intimately united with Him here on earth and forever with Him in Heaven. Live is very short, and so is our heart set on Jesus and on an intimate self-sacrificing relationship with Him more than on anything or anyone else? Is our heart set on Him alone or is it divided?
Jesus knows us well and so He starts His words to His disciples and to us with “Do not be afraid.” There is a great temptation- to withdraw from God because we are inordinately afraid, afraid of the unknown, afraid of what it may cost us, afraid of love. And so Jesus asks us a very important question today- 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 now to want to spend an eternity intimately united with Him, and so if He came to us tonight would we really want and desire to go with Him?
Sadly, most souls live their lives in denial of the reality of death, after all how seldom we hear of the four last things, that is death, judgment, heaven and hell, in our day. Some even naively and ignorantly believe that everyone goes to heaven, even though many there are who do not love Jesus with their whole heart, soul and mind. How can anyone possibly spend forever intimately united with Jesus in love, if they have not have not had an intimate relationship with Him here on earth. Is their denial of death really a type of fear resulting from their failure to love Jesus?
Last week I shared with you a story a priest I know told me. This same priest told me a story of a man in his parish who happened to be rather obnoxious during Mass one Sunday. During his homily, which was about being prepared for death by loving God now, this person caught the priest attention because he talked with his neighbor throughout the whole homily and laughed in mockery at the message of the priest as he did so. He came up to receive Jesus at Holy Communion with the same mocking attitude smiling, really more like sneering at the priest. That night the priest was called to anoint this person. He had electrocuted himself with a hair dryer. He was dead. Was this person ready to die?
Another priest friend told me the story of another man. This man tried to live his Christian life with much fervor out of love for Jesus. Two of his sons became priests. After the death of his wife, he joined his sons in the monastery. On Christmas day, he was at Mass. He received Holy Communion and returned to his pew for his thanksgiving prayer to tell the Jesus truly present in soul how much he loved Him. He died right in the pew with Jesus still bodily present in his soul. Who of these two was really ready to die? )
So then how do we know that we are ready? Well, Jesus gives us clues to the answer to this question in the first part of the Gospel today. First, Jesus tells us we should not be afraid, fear is a sign that we are not ready. We heard these words of Jesus repeated by our last Holy Father immediately after he was elected Pope—“Be not afraid!” John Paul knew then and we too know now that we truly live in a world of fear. We have much to fear in our day and with good reason. Everything from crime to war, economic woes to terrorist attacks blanket the newspapers and television today. 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, our children?” It is very easy to fall into despair, overwhelmed by feeling afraid. It is true that we need to be cautious because of the very real danger we face, yet we cannot have the dread of this fear dominate and control our lives and take our trust in God away.
So too when we hear the seriousness of the words of Jesus spoken directly to each one of us today, they are serious words, words warning us to be ready to meet him. Upon hearing these words we can become even more fearful. We fear not being ready to met Christ--We fear the judgment day. Fear of Judgment can actually be 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.” Some don’t want to face this fear so they never think about our death, after all they think it’s along time down the road, we have plenty of time. And so they refuse to repent, refuse to rid their lives of those actions or things that keep them from an intimate relationship with Christ. Others develop an irrational fear, one that takes them away from God who they think is ready to strike them with a lighting bolt from heaven.
A good fear of judgment however, 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. He wants us to fear, not so much hell, but instead fear offending him because we love Him more than we love ourselves…I am sorry most of all because by my sins I have crucified you my loving savior and offend Thy infinite mercy.
Jesus desires our salvation because he loves us so much, he wants us to fear hell, but only because it would be an eternity away from intimacy with Him. 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; with Jesus there is no fear only love, without Jesus fear dominates and controls our lives. For this very reason Jesus comes to us in the Eucharist.
In the Eucharist He is intimately with us to ease our fears by helping us to become prepared for anything this world has to offer by growing in our love for Him and for our neighbor. But we for our part must receive Him with faith, with trust and with great love for Him to be able to work in our hearts, to rid our hearts of our hearts of all fear and fill them with His love instead. And so to the degree we love and believe in Jesus in the Holy Eucharist is the degree we will be ready to meet Him when He comes for us. The more we love and believe in His true present there the less we will fear.
Through the grace of the Eucharist, which comes to us through our faith and love in Him, we will live in union with God’s Holy Will, trusting in His divine mercy by actively seeking his forgiveness for our sins, especially in confession. We will no longer live lives of dreadful fear, but lives of Holy fear, fear in which we love our God so much, we would never purposely chose anything, anything that would displease him. Then instead of being full of fear of death, we will actually begin to long for our last day on this earth in order that we can finally be with our beloved Jesus, united fully to Him, and with Him to the Father and the Holy Spirit.
Let us ask in today’s Mass ask 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 Jesus. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to slowly but surely, take away all the other treasures we hold on to, particularly the treasure of our own wills and sin so that for us our only treasure is to by one with Jesus and His Sacred Heart truly present in the Holy Eucharist. And where our treasure is, so to will our heart be. Amen. God Bless you.
Jesus knows us well and so He starts His words to His disciples and to us with “Do not be afraid.” There is a great temptation- to withdraw from God because we are inordinately afraid, afraid of the unknown, afraid of what it may cost us, afraid of love. And so Jesus asks us a very important question today- 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 now to want to spend an eternity intimately united with Him, and so if He came to us tonight would we really want and desire to go with Him?
Sadly, most souls live their lives in denial of the reality of death, after all how seldom we hear of the four last things, that is death, judgment, heaven and hell, in our day. Some even naively and ignorantly believe that everyone goes to heaven, even though many there are who do not love Jesus with their whole heart, soul and mind. How can anyone possibly spend forever intimately united with Jesus in love, if they have not have not had an intimate relationship with Him here on earth. Is their denial of death really a type of fear resulting from their failure to love Jesus?
Last week I shared with you a story a priest I know told me. This same priest told me a story of a man in his parish who happened to be rather obnoxious during Mass one Sunday. During his homily, which was about being prepared for death by loving God now, this person caught the priest attention because he talked with his neighbor throughout the whole homily and laughed in mockery at the message of the priest as he did so. He came up to receive Jesus at Holy Communion with the same mocking attitude smiling, really more like sneering at the priest. That night the priest was called to anoint this person. He had electrocuted himself with a hair dryer. He was dead. Was this person ready to die?
Another priest friend told me the story of another man. This man tried to live his Christian life with much fervor out of love for Jesus. Two of his sons became priests. After the death of his wife, he joined his sons in the monastery. On Christmas day, he was at Mass. He received Holy Communion and returned to his pew for his thanksgiving prayer to tell the Jesus truly present in soul how much he loved Him. He died right in the pew with Jesus still bodily present in his soul. Who of these two was really ready to die? )
So then how do we know that we are ready? Well, Jesus gives us clues to the answer to this question in the first part of the Gospel today. First, Jesus tells us we should not be afraid, fear is a sign that we are not ready. We heard these words of Jesus repeated by our last Holy Father immediately after he was elected Pope—“Be not afraid!” John Paul knew then and we too know now that we truly live in a world of fear. We have much to fear in our day and with good reason. Everything from crime to war, economic woes to terrorist attacks blanket the newspapers and television today. 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, our children?” It is very easy to fall into despair, overwhelmed by feeling afraid. It is true that we need to be cautious because of the very real danger we face, yet we cannot have the dread of this fear dominate and control our lives and take our trust in God away.
So too when we hear the seriousness of the words of Jesus spoken directly to each one of us today, they are serious words, words warning us to be ready to meet him. Upon hearing these words we can become even more fearful. We fear not being ready to met Christ--We fear the judgment day. Fear of Judgment can actually be 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.” Some don’t want to face this fear so they never think about our death, after all they think it’s along time down the road, we have plenty of time. And so they refuse to repent, refuse to rid their lives of those actions or things that keep them from an intimate relationship with Christ. Others develop an irrational fear, one that takes them away from God who they think is ready to strike them with a lighting bolt from heaven.
A good fear of judgment however, 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. He wants us to fear, not so much hell, but instead fear offending him because we love Him more than we love ourselves…I am sorry most of all because by my sins I have crucified you my loving savior and offend Thy infinite mercy.
Jesus desires our salvation because he loves us so much, he wants us to fear hell, but only because it would be an eternity away from intimacy with Him. 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; with Jesus there is no fear only love, without Jesus fear dominates and controls our lives. For this very reason Jesus comes to us in the Eucharist.
In the Eucharist He is intimately with us to ease our fears by helping us to become prepared for anything this world has to offer by growing in our love for Him and for our neighbor. But we for our part must receive Him with faith, with trust and with great love for Him to be able to work in our hearts, to rid our hearts of our hearts of all fear and fill them with His love instead. And so to the degree we love and believe in Jesus in the Holy Eucharist is the degree we will be ready to meet Him when He comes for us. The more we love and believe in His true present there the less we will fear.
Through the grace of the Eucharist, which comes to us through our faith and love in Him, we will live in union with God’s Holy Will, trusting in His divine mercy by actively seeking his forgiveness for our sins, especially in confession. We will no longer live lives of dreadful fear, but lives of Holy fear, fear in which we love our God so much, we would never purposely chose anything, anything that would displease him. Then instead of being full of fear of death, we will actually begin to long for our last day on this earth in order that we can finally be with our beloved Jesus, united fully to Him, and with Him to the Father and the Holy Spirit.
Let us ask in today’s Mass ask 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 Jesus. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to slowly but surely, take away all the other treasures we hold on to, particularly the treasure of our own wills and sin so that for us our only treasure is to by one with Jesus and His Sacred Heart truly present in the Holy Eucharist. And where our treasure is, so to will our heart be. Amen. God Bless you.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Homily for Luke 12:13-21 Eighteenth Sunday
Last week we began speaking of prayer as the spiritual food of our soul; if we need to eat to keep our bodies alive and healthy, how much more do we need to pray in order to feed our souls and to keep them healthy and alive. We also discussed the need to pray with persistence and trust, trust that our heavenly Father loves us as His Children. The Father already knows what we need and so will only give us the good things we need, but not necessarily the things we want. For our prayers to be answered we need to forgive one another and to pray correctly (with the proper disposition of heart). We ended by revealing the secret of the prayer of the saints, a secret that sadly most Catholics will not put into action. That secret is prayer in front of the tabernacle, prayer in front of the Holy Eucharist. The Eucharist is literally Jesus in His human body with His human heart, and the Human heart of Jesus is the only way to the Father’s heart.
Today the Holy Spirit wants to slap us out of our complacency. In the words that He inspired, we hear that all things in this world are vanity. The wise man writing in our first reading, inspired by the Holy Spirit, is confronting the evils of this life- in particular suffering and death. It makes no sense to him. He has long observed that both the good and the evil man will face suffering and death. This is why he can conclude that the pursuit of earthly things is vane. All is vanity.
What he is really trying to point out is that all the things of this earth which takes us away from an intimate relationship with God are worthless. All the things in this world will have to be left behind including those people we love—so why do we strive to make this world our permanent dwelling especially when it is such a vale of tears…in this life all must suffer both the good and the bad, all must die leaving behind everything.
In this life then, we must strive for the higher things, the things of the Spirit—seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Our earthly desires and passions will take us away from our heavenly calling if we seek to fill our desires and passions with created things instead of God. Comfort and pleasure, not to mention sinful pleasure, are obstacles for us to reach God if we set our hearts on them. Our hearts are made for God, not for things of this world, whether it be the riches of this world or the comfort and pleasures of this world. Only God can fulfill the deepest desires of our hearts. And so our hearts will never rest until they rest in our God alone.
It is this wisdom of our first readings that Jesus in our Gospel today, uses in his advice to the man who approached him. The death of a father had just taken place and the two sons are arguing over, of all things, the inheritance. The reality of death confronts them, not only their father’s death but their own, (for whenever we face the death of a loved one, we also face the inevitability of our own death) and yet the one wants more of the inheritance than what he has received. He appeals to Jesus to intervene on his behalf- after all it’s only fair…This is, of course, a familiar situation. How many families are torn apart by fighting over the inheritance after a funeral?
Jesus reads this man’s heart- and finds there…greed. In the face of his suffering, this man thinks that more material goods will fill the void in his heart. And so Jesus responds to the request by telling him a parable. “Where is your treasure?” Jesus asks. Is it in the things of this world…or the things of heaven?… Are you too worried and anxious about obtaining more possessions to be concerned about your eternal salvation…are you more worried about obtaining money, than obtaining the greatest of all treasures, Jesus Himself?
Jesus here want us to seriously reflect that this life is short and the next life is long, eternally long; are our hearts then really set on obtaining heaven...are we really taking our conversion and salvation seriously enough? Jesus is reminding us of our mortality and warns against greed and the reliance on riches. He tells us that death will come quickly and unexpectedly. Death comes for us all sooner or later (sometimes sooner), then judgment, then heaven or hell. Are we ready for death today?
Let me share with you a story I just heard, a priest I know once gave a homily on today’s gospel. He asked the congregation. What if today was your last Mass? Your last homily? Your last Holy Communion? How would you attend, how would you pay attention and listen? Would you open your heart? (In other words he was asking, “are you taking your salvation seriously enough.)
He said this homily and these questions were made very unforgettable when the ushers came forward at this very same Mass to take up the collection. As one of them genuflected before the altar he suffered a heart attack and dropped dead as he did so. It was his last Mass and his last homily. I am sure that nobody in church that day ever forgot it either. Are we willing to risk living an eternity separated from the Love of our heavenly Father by taken it all for granted, by assuming we’ve already made it or thinking there is plenty of time?
And so, Jesus again speaks of the necessity of prayer, the necessity of forming that intimate union with our God and doing it now—one’s life does not consist of possessions, but in obtaining and possessing God (the one thing that Matters).” If we instead, make the object of this life the values and things of this world our relationship with Christ and our lives will lose meaning. With our hearts set on things we slowly become stupefied in the sleep of indifference. And in this indifference we will no longer be able to realize that the greatest gift in this life is the Holy Eucharist which is Jesus, the only way to the Father.
If we don’t center our lives on Jesus in the tabernacle we may think that we are living good Christian lives, but we are not. We will take our eternal salvation for granted; we will presume every one goes to heaven when they do not. Away from the Eucharist we will become slave to our senses—wanting only comfort and pleasure; we will think only of the things of earth and not of the things of heaven, we will become complacent. We will want only for material things and so will become attached to the created things of this world instead of the Creator of the world.
In the end, all will be vanity, for we will have sought in created things that which they can not give. What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and suffers the loss of his own soul? Eternity is forever! Work out your salvation with fear and trembling!!! If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts.
Let us realized that if we are not going to take our salvation for granted, if we are going to bear fruit in our lives, the fruit of salvation for ourselves and others, then we must place our hearts often next to the tabernacle, which is under the cross. The Eucharist is Divine; it is Jesus; it is God. The Eucharist is not only the secret of prayer, it is the one and only door way to heaven; it is heaven. There alone will we find the consolation we desire and the strength in the Lord we need to survive the trials of this life. There alone will we find fulfillment to the deepest desires of the human heart, our heart, and reach a union forever with the God who is love. May we pray today for the grace of heeding the words of Jesus and doing so now. Let us pray for the grace to discover that our hearts will only be satisfied with union with our Lord. May our Holy Communion today be an occasion where we discover more deeply the true importance of our relationship with our Eucharist Lord and so may it lead us to the communion with Him forever.
Last week we began speaking of prayer as the spiritual food of our soul; if we need to eat to keep our bodies alive and healthy, how much more do we need to pray in order to feed our souls and to keep them healthy and alive. We also discussed the need to pray with persistence and trust, trust that our heavenly Father loves us as His Children. The Father already knows what we need and so will only give us the good things we need, but not necessarily the things we want. For our prayers to be answered we need to forgive one another and to pray correctly (with the proper disposition of heart). We ended by revealing the secret of the prayer of the saints, a secret that sadly most Catholics will not put into action. That secret is prayer in front of the tabernacle, prayer in front of the Holy Eucharist. The Eucharist is literally Jesus in His human body with His human heart, and the Human heart of Jesus is the only way to the Father’s heart.
Today the Holy Spirit wants to slap us out of our complacency. In the words that He inspired, we hear that all things in this world are vanity. The wise man writing in our first reading, inspired by the Holy Spirit, is confronting the evils of this life- in particular suffering and death. It makes no sense to him. He has long observed that both the good and the evil man will face suffering and death. This is why he can conclude that the pursuit of earthly things is vane. All is vanity.
What he is really trying to point out is that all the things of this earth which takes us away from an intimate relationship with God are worthless. All the things in this world will have to be left behind including those people we love—so why do we strive to make this world our permanent dwelling especially when it is such a vale of tears…in this life all must suffer both the good and the bad, all must die leaving behind everything.
In this life then, we must strive for the higher things, the things of the Spirit—seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Our earthly desires and passions will take us away from our heavenly calling if we seek to fill our desires and passions with created things instead of God. Comfort and pleasure, not to mention sinful pleasure, are obstacles for us to reach God if we set our hearts on them. Our hearts are made for God, not for things of this world, whether it be the riches of this world or the comfort and pleasures of this world. Only God can fulfill the deepest desires of our hearts. And so our hearts will never rest until they rest in our God alone.
It is this wisdom of our first readings that Jesus in our Gospel today, uses in his advice to the man who approached him. The death of a father had just taken place and the two sons are arguing over, of all things, the inheritance. The reality of death confronts them, not only their father’s death but their own, (for whenever we face the death of a loved one, we also face the inevitability of our own death) and yet the one wants more of the inheritance than what he has received. He appeals to Jesus to intervene on his behalf- after all it’s only fair…This is, of course, a familiar situation. How many families are torn apart by fighting over the inheritance after a funeral?
Jesus reads this man’s heart- and finds there…greed. In the face of his suffering, this man thinks that more material goods will fill the void in his heart. And so Jesus responds to the request by telling him a parable. “Where is your treasure?” Jesus asks. Is it in the things of this world…or the things of heaven?… Are you too worried and anxious about obtaining more possessions to be concerned about your eternal salvation…are you more worried about obtaining money, than obtaining the greatest of all treasures, Jesus Himself?
Jesus here want us to seriously reflect that this life is short and the next life is long, eternally long; are our hearts then really set on obtaining heaven...are we really taking our conversion and salvation seriously enough? Jesus is reminding us of our mortality and warns against greed and the reliance on riches. He tells us that death will come quickly and unexpectedly. Death comes for us all sooner or later (sometimes sooner), then judgment, then heaven or hell. Are we ready for death today?
Let me share with you a story I just heard, a priest I know once gave a homily on today’s gospel. He asked the congregation. What if today was your last Mass? Your last homily? Your last Holy Communion? How would you attend, how would you pay attention and listen? Would you open your heart? (In other words he was asking, “are you taking your salvation seriously enough.)
He said this homily and these questions were made very unforgettable when the ushers came forward at this very same Mass to take up the collection. As one of them genuflected before the altar he suffered a heart attack and dropped dead as he did so. It was his last Mass and his last homily. I am sure that nobody in church that day ever forgot it either. Are we willing to risk living an eternity separated from the Love of our heavenly Father by taken it all for granted, by assuming we’ve already made it or thinking there is plenty of time?
And so, Jesus again speaks of the necessity of prayer, the necessity of forming that intimate union with our God and doing it now—one’s life does not consist of possessions, but in obtaining and possessing God (the one thing that Matters).” If we instead, make the object of this life the values and things of this world our relationship with Christ and our lives will lose meaning. With our hearts set on things we slowly become stupefied in the sleep of indifference. And in this indifference we will no longer be able to realize that the greatest gift in this life is the Holy Eucharist which is Jesus, the only way to the Father.
If we don’t center our lives on Jesus in the tabernacle we may think that we are living good Christian lives, but we are not. We will take our eternal salvation for granted; we will presume every one goes to heaven when they do not. Away from the Eucharist we will become slave to our senses—wanting only comfort and pleasure; we will think only of the things of earth and not of the things of heaven, we will become complacent. We will want only for material things and so will become attached to the created things of this world instead of the Creator of the world.
In the end, all will be vanity, for we will have sought in created things that which they can not give. What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and suffers the loss of his own soul? Eternity is forever! Work out your salvation with fear and trembling!!! If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts.
Let us realized that if we are not going to take our salvation for granted, if we are going to bear fruit in our lives, the fruit of salvation for ourselves and others, then we must place our hearts often next to the tabernacle, which is under the cross. The Eucharist is Divine; it is Jesus; it is God. The Eucharist is not only the secret of prayer, it is the one and only door way to heaven; it is heaven. There alone will we find the consolation we desire and the strength in the Lord we need to survive the trials of this life. There alone will we find fulfillment to the deepest desires of the human heart, our heart, and reach a union forever with the God who is love. May we pray today for the grace of heeding the words of Jesus and doing so now. Let us pray for the grace to discover that our hearts will only be satisfied with union with our Lord. May our Holy Communion today be an occasion where we discover more deeply the true importance of our relationship with our Eucharist Lord and so may it lead us to the communion with Him forever.
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