John 1, 35-42 Second Sunday in Ordinary Time January 18th, 2015
Last week we celebrated the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. Hopefully, then, we renewed the promises we made at our own baptism, to renounce satan, sin and anything that displeases the Lord; along with professing anew our faith in God, in His Catholic Church and in God’s teachings that come to us in their fullness through His Catholic Church. Renewing our baptism vows also renews our commitment to follow the Lord in thought, word and deed, and so grow in our love for Him and His Holy Church.
Like Samuel in today’s first reading, through our baptism we have been called by our Lord to be with Him, to be close to the Lord and to bring Him to others as well. But this calling demands, on our part, more and more a fuller response to the Lord. It is a response that is made in a deeper a commitment to a life in Christ and in His grace. It is a response that is made by living our lives more faithfully to God’s commandments; living a life in the body that avoids any immorality, a life that no longer belongs to us but to the Lord, for we truly have been purchased with a great price, the price of the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Himself.
Samuel was called; we too are called. But how do we more deeply follow the Lord so that He will truly be with us, so that we will be truly with Him, united to Him? How do we follow so that we may truly offer our lives to him in trusting love, so that we may be His prophets in order to bring His saving truth to the world around us; so that we may live in His Kingship, under His rule, truly living as His royal adopted sons and daughters?
First, in answering His personal call to each one of us, we discover that God’s calling can only continued to be heard by the lowly, the humble, by those who truly seek the Lord’s Will and not their own. This demands a holy desire for not just the “things” of the Lord, but for the Lord Himself. Do we truly desire the Lord…and not just things from the Lord…do we truly desire holiness, which is to become one with the Lord in love?
Second, since we do desire the Lord Himself, we try then with His help, to more attentively listen to the Lord. And so to listen to Him we spend time contemplating Him and hearing Him speak to us through His Holy Word; His Holy Word which comes to us through the Scriptures and His Holy Church who interprets the Scriptures for us so that we can hear the true voice of the Shepherd. We need to put away, on a daily basis, at least for a little while all other noises of the world and spent time before the Lord so that we can hear the Lord speaking to us in the Scriptures and in the Church’s teaching. We need to spend time with the Word, studying the Word, both in the Scriptures and in the Church’s teachings, in order to come to know Jesus who is the Word of the Father, to know Him more and so love Him more and be able share Him and love with others.
And so finally, hearing His Word in the Scriptures and in the Church’s teachings we can hear the Lord speak to our hearts. So we must spend time not only with His Holy Word, but spend time being with Him in prayer. Prayer is the breath of our soul; it is to turn our gaze to the One we Love and Who love us. In prayer we should not so much speak to the Lord but let Him speak to us…. Our attitude should be primarily one of, “Lord speak you servant is listening,” and not of, “Lord listen your servant is speaking.” In other words, “Lord Thy Will be done…not my will.”
And of course, no greater prayer is there, no more efficacious prayer is there, not better way is there for us to be with the Lord and for Him to be with us than prayer before Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. To spend time with the Holy Eucharist is to literally spend time with the Word of God become flesh…in the little white host. Yes, we do this primarily at Holy Mass, but we should also come and spend time before and with Jesus at other times, especially in silence, so we can, in faith, contemplate His holy face in the Holy Eucharist and hear Him speak to us in the depths of our soul; God is truly with us in all the tabernacles of the world.
Today, so many souls are looking for something….”What are looking for says the Lord to them?...sadly many are looking for “whats” instead of Who…Instead of seeking things, they should be seeking the Maker of all things—Jesus. When they realize their hunger for the Lord, they should say to Jesus… “Jesus where are you, where are you staying…. Today, Jesus says to them and to us, “come and see”…come and see me through faith in the Holy Eucharist and there you will find me truly present with you, not just in spirit but in my Human resurrected Body, with my pierced but now beating Sacred Heart alive and pouring out upon those who come, my Precious Blood, my grace, my mercy, and my Divine love.
My dear brothers and sisters, we know where Jesus is staying, we have found the Lord who is truly with us... We have found the Messiah: Jesus Christ, who in and through the Holy Eucharist, brings us His truth and grace. But for our part, we must come to Him and truly be with Him; we must be with the Holy Eucharist, which is not a “what,” but a “Who;”…that is, Jesus with us, God in the flesh….we must believe, adore, hope and love Him truly present there and beg pardon for those who don’t believe, adore, hope and love Him there.
The Holy Eucharist is literally, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” This is why the priest, echoing the words of John the Baptist holds and the Holy Eucharist at Mass and says these very words… “Behold the Lamb of God.” The Eucharist is He Who takes away the sins of the world, by pouring out His blood anew, by giving of His body anew on the altar of Sacrifice for our salvation.” And yes we are not worthy to be in His presence, much less receive Him under our roof; that is, into bodies which are the house of our souls. But He will, if we come to him in faith, hope and love, and offer Him our hearts, He will say the Word and come into us and heals us. He will make us worthy and He will make us one with Him in an unending and eternal union of love. He will then, as He used Simon Peter, He will use us as His instruments of Love and mercy for others…He will raise us up by His power, the power of the Holy Spirit and renew the face of the earth.
Raised up by His Divine power and Love—in other words by the Holy Spirit, we will be living members of His body. Our lives in the body will be faithful to our baptismal promises, not living lives of immorality in body, but lives of holiness…we will use our bodies to adore the Lord in worship and in our daily lives, thus becoming living proclamations of the Gospel…We will live our lives in our bodies, as St. Paul says, under the kingship of Christ…and call others into that same Kingship which is to live in the freedom of the sons and daughters of the Father….to have life and have it to the full….Holy Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, Mother of the Baptized…Pray for us. Amen
Saturday, January 17, 2015
Sunday, January 11, 2015
Blessed Mother, Queen of the Angels, Mother of all the baptized, please help us to become like children because children are poor and humble.
Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. Sunday January 11th, 2015
This Sunday, the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, marks the end of the Christmas season. It is also the last of the three feasts that celebrate three different manifestations of our Lord—Christmas, Epiphany and the Baptism of the Lord. All of these feasts celebrate three separate events in which Jesus is manifested to the world, revealing to us who Jesus was and is—He is God in the flesh. And, He is God still with us in the flesh in the Holy Eucharist.
On Christmas, Jesus the mighty One was made manifest when He became visible to the entire world as a humble, poor, defenseless little child. To the poor shepherds, the Angels testified; “for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Then on epiphany, this Messiah was revealed and manifested as the light of the nations by the coming of the three wise men, representing the entire gentile world. Now on this great feast day, we have the greatest manifestation of Jesus-the Baptism of the Lord. This is the greatest manifestation of Jesus because of Who testifies to the identity of Jesus. And who testifies is not an angel, nor wise men, but God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. Theirs’ is obviously the definitive testimony of the person of Jesus Christ because it is the definitive testimony of God Himself, Who cannot deceive nor be deceived.
At Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan, which is an intensely Trinitarian event, the Father and the Holy Spirit manifest that while Jesus is true Man, He is at the same time true God, because He is the Son of God, co-equal from all eternity to both the Father and the Holy Spirit. The Father by an audible voice and the Spirit by appearing visibly like a dove descending upon Him, both testify that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Son of Man in whom the Father is well pleased. Jesus is then anointed by the Holy Spirit as Priest, Prophet and King, the One who is to save the souls of men by offering Himself as an offering for the sins of all mankind to obtain for them the grace and the power to live His truth and so live as children of the heavenly Father. And so we are to listen to Him and do what He tells and commands us through the teachings of His Holy Church if we are to be saved and have eternal life and happiness with God.
But if Jesus is the Son of God--God Himself( and He truly is), why oh why did He have to be baptized? Obviously as true God, He could not have sinned. The simple answer is that Jesus did not have to be baptized; He did so for us. John the Baptist’s baptism only symbolized or signified what Jesus’ baptism of water and the Holy Spirit would later do in reality. By being baptized, Jesus literally sanctified the waters of baptism imparting them with the power not to just symbolize the washing of sin, but to actually do so. (A little aside, water from the Jordan river never has to be blessed because Jesus descended into it and blessed it, touch it by its coming into contact with His body and blood, with His very Person…blessing=to be touched by God). And so, through the washing of sin the waters of baptism also truly impart to souls the gift of eternal life and the means to reach it through the Theological Divine Gifts of Faith, Hope and Charity.
By his own immersion into the water Jesus literally place within the water of baptism the saving power of his death and resurrection. This was made apparent from the blood and water, which flowed from his pierced side as he hung on the cross. The water signifying the power of the waters of baptism to forgive sin and the blood signify the redemption of the world and the resurrection of his baptized faithful followers to new life in him.
However, Jesus’ baptism not only imparted to the waters of baptism the power to save us, it also gave it the power to rebirth, recreate, regenerate us into new creatures in Christ and become one with God. And so, Jesus baptism then not only manifest to the world who Jesus is, but who we are as well, we who have shared in His baptism. It’s not just about being saved, but being saved by becoming One with God.
By Jesus Christ coming as one of us, by His sanctifying the waters of baptism, both by His own baptism not only of water but by the blood of his passion and death, he reveals the truth about what we are called to be, what is our great destiny. Each one of us, through the waters of our baptism made holy by Jesus, have now become adopted Sons and daughters of the Father being able to call him Abba, or daddy. The baptism of Jesus manifest that we are children of God and so we are! We hear this so many times, we say the Our Father so many times, that we can easily become complacent to what it really means to be a Child of God-image we are children of the almighty and all-powerful God-Creator of all things!
Just as the Holy Spirit came upon Mary and produced in her the God-man-Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit now descends on the Church and produces in her maternal womb, which is the baptismal rite, the rebirth of the children of men into the children of God. By the waters of baptism God fills each one of us with his own supernatural love and by doing so he raises our human love to a divine level. We are not only reconciled to Him, we now have new life, which is a share in His own life. We become divinized, we become like God. We begin to share in His divine love and life, and so begin to share in His own eternal happiness. We are also empowered to share that same divine love and life with others around us through the faithful living out of our baptismal promises.
Through our baptism, we are also members of God’s family the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ. Our baptism opens up for us the sacramental graces we need to be nourished in order to grow and reach maturity. Fed by Jesus’ own body and blood in the Holy Eucharist, we begin to be transformed into His image, and thus begin to already here on earth share in His glory. We offer ourselves to Him at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass so that He may live again in us and so carry out in us His redemptive work for the salvation of souls. In our own bodies we then are to manifest to the world its one and only savior, He who is the only way to the Father, Jesus, in Whom we live and move and have our being. We are to be prophets of Jesus Truth by living the truth for all to see. And it is Holy Mother Church who provides us with the means to strengthen, to perfect and to bring to fruition the Faith, Hope and Charity that we were given in our baptism. We are to cooperate and use these gifts in order that we and others whom with we share these divine gifts, may reach eternity when God will be fully manifested, fully revealed to us to look upon forever—the ultimate and final manifestation.
O’ Christian soul realize you dignity, realize your great worth and realize you great responsibility to live like the child of God that you are. Through the waters of baptism an indelible sign as been place permanently on your soul, a sign that you belong now to Christ Jesus and through Him belong to the Heavenly Father. The day we were baptized was the most important day of our life. We must realize this great gift. In fact, Pope Francis once recommended that we should celebrate the day of our baptism with greater joy than the day of our birth; our birth was merely the beginning of our earthly life, but our baptism was the beginning of our eternal life. Do we know the day of our baptism?
We must become like humble children, pure of heart and poor, realizing we must ask God to help us remain faithful to what our baptism demands. It is possible for us to lose the graces of our baptism and so lose our friendship and eternal life with God. If we are children of God we must with God’s help not commit any acts that go against our adopted divine nature. When we purposely, intentionally and with full knowledge commit serious sin, mortal sin, the divine life within us actually dies. God has chosen us and so we must choose Him by our love for Him by avoiding anything that offends Him.
And so, those who are children who really love God will show this love by striving to keep His Commandments which are a summation of the whole Gospel. And these commandments are summed up in the greatest commandment, which is a commandment to Adore God with our entire being, in other words to Love, with our actions, the Lord your God with your whole heart, soul and mind so that he may fill us with His very love and His very divine life. This begins with adoring the Holy Eucharist as the True and living God truly present in the Flesh in order to be empowered to adore God with our lives by following His truth as found in the teachings of God’s Church, all of which are necessary if we are truly to love God and love neighbor. This is what it means to do whatever He tells us.
At our baptism we were given an incredible gift, but one in seed form. It is up to us whether that seed, the seed of eternal life and happiness dies within us or whether it grows to the maturity of holiness and eternal life forever in union with God and the saints. Lets us ask God for forgiveness for our failures to live our baptismal promises. Let us implore the mercy of God by making frequent use of the Sacrament of Confession, which both restores us to our original state of baptismal purity if we have lost it through mortal sin and strengthen us to live more deeply our baptismal promises.
Let us turn to our Blessed Mother for help. Blessed Mother, Queen of the Angels, Mother of all the baptized, please help us to become like children because children are poor and humble. And when we are poor and humble we can then truly adore and love Jesus, the Poor and Humble God in the Holy Eucharist in order to love our neighbor as ourselves for love of Jesus. O God, creator of our souls, Father of our soul, we adore you we love you, help us to love you and adore you more, fill us with your Divine love; we are your children, help us to be one with you both now and forever. Amen.
This Sunday, the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, marks the end of the Christmas season. It is also the last of the three feasts that celebrate three different manifestations of our Lord—Christmas, Epiphany and the Baptism of the Lord. All of these feasts celebrate three separate events in which Jesus is manifested to the world, revealing to us who Jesus was and is—He is God in the flesh. And, He is God still with us in the flesh in the Holy Eucharist.
On Christmas, Jesus the mighty One was made manifest when He became visible to the entire world as a humble, poor, defenseless little child. To the poor shepherds, the Angels testified; “for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Then on epiphany, this Messiah was revealed and manifested as the light of the nations by the coming of the three wise men, representing the entire gentile world. Now on this great feast day, we have the greatest manifestation of Jesus-the Baptism of the Lord. This is the greatest manifestation of Jesus because of Who testifies to the identity of Jesus. And who testifies is not an angel, nor wise men, but God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. Theirs’ is obviously the definitive testimony of the person of Jesus Christ because it is the definitive testimony of God Himself, Who cannot deceive nor be deceived.
At Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan, which is an intensely Trinitarian event, the Father and the Holy Spirit manifest that while Jesus is true Man, He is at the same time true God, because He is the Son of God, co-equal from all eternity to both the Father and the Holy Spirit. The Father by an audible voice and the Spirit by appearing visibly like a dove descending upon Him, both testify that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Son of Man in whom the Father is well pleased. Jesus is then anointed by the Holy Spirit as Priest, Prophet and King, the One who is to save the souls of men by offering Himself as an offering for the sins of all mankind to obtain for them the grace and the power to live His truth and so live as children of the heavenly Father. And so we are to listen to Him and do what He tells and commands us through the teachings of His Holy Church if we are to be saved and have eternal life and happiness with God.
But if Jesus is the Son of God--God Himself( and He truly is), why oh why did He have to be baptized? Obviously as true God, He could not have sinned. The simple answer is that Jesus did not have to be baptized; He did so for us. John the Baptist’s baptism only symbolized or signified what Jesus’ baptism of water and the Holy Spirit would later do in reality. By being baptized, Jesus literally sanctified the waters of baptism imparting them with the power not to just symbolize the washing of sin, but to actually do so. (A little aside, water from the Jordan river never has to be blessed because Jesus descended into it and blessed it, touch it by its coming into contact with His body and blood, with His very Person…blessing=to be touched by God). And so, through the washing of sin the waters of baptism also truly impart to souls the gift of eternal life and the means to reach it through the Theological Divine Gifts of Faith, Hope and Charity.
By his own immersion into the water Jesus literally place within the water of baptism the saving power of his death and resurrection. This was made apparent from the blood and water, which flowed from his pierced side as he hung on the cross. The water signifying the power of the waters of baptism to forgive sin and the blood signify the redemption of the world and the resurrection of his baptized faithful followers to new life in him.
However, Jesus’ baptism not only imparted to the waters of baptism the power to save us, it also gave it the power to rebirth, recreate, regenerate us into new creatures in Christ and become one with God. And so, Jesus baptism then not only manifest to the world who Jesus is, but who we are as well, we who have shared in His baptism. It’s not just about being saved, but being saved by becoming One with God.
By Jesus Christ coming as one of us, by His sanctifying the waters of baptism, both by His own baptism not only of water but by the blood of his passion and death, he reveals the truth about what we are called to be, what is our great destiny. Each one of us, through the waters of our baptism made holy by Jesus, have now become adopted Sons and daughters of the Father being able to call him Abba, or daddy. The baptism of Jesus manifest that we are children of God and so we are! We hear this so many times, we say the Our Father so many times, that we can easily become complacent to what it really means to be a Child of God-image we are children of the almighty and all-powerful God-Creator of all things!
Just as the Holy Spirit came upon Mary and produced in her the God-man-Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit now descends on the Church and produces in her maternal womb, which is the baptismal rite, the rebirth of the children of men into the children of God. By the waters of baptism God fills each one of us with his own supernatural love and by doing so he raises our human love to a divine level. We are not only reconciled to Him, we now have new life, which is a share in His own life. We become divinized, we become like God. We begin to share in His divine love and life, and so begin to share in His own eternal happiness. We are also empowered to share that same divine love and life with others around us through the faithful living out of our baptismal promises.
Through our baptism, we are also members of God’s family the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ. Our baptism opens up for us the sacramental graces we need to be nourished in order to grow and reach maturity. Fed by Jesus’ own body and blood in the Holy Eucharist, we begin to be transformed into His image, and thus begin to already here on earth share in His glory. We offer ourselves to Him at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass so that He may live again in us and so carry out in us His redemptive work for the salvation of souls. In our own bodies we then are to manifest to the world its one and only savior, He who is the only way to the Father, Jesus, in Whom we live and move and have our being. We are to be prophets of Jesus Truth by living the truth for all to see. And it is Holy Mother Church who provides us with the means to strengthen, to perfect and to bring to fruition the Faith, Hope and Charity that we were given in our baptism. We are to cooperate and use these gifts in order that we and others whom with we share these divine gifts, may reach eternity when God will be fully manifested, fully revealed to us to look upon forever—the ultimate and final manifestation.
O’ Christian soul realize you dignity, realize your great worth and realize you great responsibility to live like the child of God that you are. Through the waters of baptism an indelible sign as been place permanently on your soul, a sign that you belong now to Christ Jesus and through Him belong to the Heavenly Father. The day we were baptized was the most important day of our life. We must realize this great gift. In fact, Pope Francis once recommended that we should celebrate the day of our baptism with greater joy than the day of our birth; our birth was merely the beginning of our earthly life, but our baptism was the beginning of our eternal life. Do we know the day of our baptism?
We must become like humble children, pure of heart and poor, realizing we must ask God to help us remain faithful to what our baptism demands. It is possible for us to lose the graces of our baptism and so lose our friendship and eternal life with God. If we are children of God we must with God’s help not commit any acts that go against our adopted divine nature. When we purposely, intentionally and with full knowledge commit serious sin, mortal sin, the divine life within us actually dies. God has chosen us and so we must choose Him by our love for Him by avoiding anything that offends Him.
And so, those who are children who really love God will show this love by striving to keep His Commandments which are a summation of the whole Gospel. And these commandments are summed up in the greatest commandment, which is a commandment to Adore God with our entire being, in other words to Love, with our actions, the Lord your God with your whole heart, soul and mind so that he may fill us with His very love and His very divine life. This begins with adoring the Holy Eucharist as the True and living God truly present in the Flesh in order to be empowered to adore God with our lives by following His truth as found in the teachings of God’s Church, all of which are necessary if we are truly to love God and love neighbor. This is what it means to do whatever He tells us.
At our baptism we were given an incredible gift, but one in seed form. It is up to us whether that seed, the seed of eternal life and happiness dies within us or whether it grows to the maturity of holiness and eternal life forever in union with God and the saints. Lets us ask God for forgiveness for our failures to live our baptismal promises. Let us implore the mercy of God by making frequent use of the Sacrament of Confession, which both restores us to our original state of baptismal purity if we have lost it through mortal sin and strengthen us to live more deeply our baptismal promises.
Let us turn to our Blessed Mother for help. Blessed Mother, Queen of the Angels, Mother of all the baptized, please help us to become like children because children are poor and humble. And when we are poor and humble we can then truly adore and love Jesus, the Poor and Humble God in the Holy Eucharist in order to love our neighbor as ourselves for love of Jesus. O God, creator of our souls, Father of our soul, we adore you we love you, help us to love you and adore you more, fill us with your Divine love; we are your children, help us to be one with you both now and forever. Amen.
Saturday, January 3, 2015
Holy Mary, stella Maris, stella orientis—Holy Mary, star of the sea, star of the east pray for us, lead us safely to Jesus
As we continue in our great Celebration of Christmas, we come to today’s feast. Today we celebrate the feast of Epiphany. Epiphany, the day the three wise men came from a far to Bethlehem to adore the newborn King.
We know the Wisemen or Magi were probably astrologers, philosophers or maybe even Magicians before they were converted to the Christ Child. Their gifts are symbols to tell-reveal to the whole world both who this newborn child really is and what is His mission. But the gifts also reveal to us what we are to do before this newborn king as well, that is how we are to act and what we are to offer to Him.
With regards to who Jesus is; the Gold they offered signifies their tribute to Him as King of kings. The incense shows us their faith that this seemingly ordinary child was indeed true God Himself, and thus worthy of our worship and adoration...incense is only offered to God. And the Myrrh, which was used to embalm dead bodies reveals to us Jesus' mission. It reveals to us that now God, the second person of the Blessed Trinity has become Man. Jesus, the God-Man born into this world not to live but to die, so that each of us might life; this is His mission.
And so in faith, the Magi come to adore the God King become man, who was before them in silence as a little child; in silence as well, they not only kneel down in adoration but they prostrate, on their faces in adoration before their King and their God.
The three Wisemen are led to their God by a star. We discover that the star of the epiphany over the crib is Bethlehem is an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the star of the east who always points the way to Christ’s Mass and the true presence there of God still in the flesh. There in the modern stable of the Church we, as sons and daughters of the Most High, are to imitate the Wisemen and come before the newborn king reborn on the crib of the altar of sacrifice. And so the actions of the Wisemen reveal to us as well, what we are to do before the newborn King born a new on the sacred altar at every sacrifice of the Mass and always present in the tabernacle for us to come and adore.
Before the Eucharistic newborn King, we just like the Wisemen, are to adore the newborn King in great reverence and silence; we too should kneel and dare I say, even prostrate before the Lord our God. And there with great faith, we too are to offer our gifts of gold, incense, and Myrrh:
In our case, our gold is the treasure of our heart, all the love of our heart, offered to Jesus' Sacred Heart made truly present and alive for us in the Holy Eucharist;
The Incense we are to offer is the sweat fragrance of our good works, of our little acts of love done each day to show our Love of God and those acts done to others for love of God...all that we say and do for God alone;
And what of the Myrrh? The myrrh is the very sacrifice of our will, of our heats, of ourselves, on this altar of sacrifice in loving response to the God who sacrifices Himself for us. In union with sacrifice of Jesus made truly present before by the power of the Holy Spirit and the gift of the Sacred Priesthood, we offer all that we have and all to the Heavenly Father as a living oblation of love, in union with the sacrifice of His only Son made actually and truly present before us.
But the sacrifice of our gifts, of ourselves isn’t the end. When we leave our gifts before Jesus newly born on the altar, He, never being outdone in generosity or love, repays the sacrifice of our gift of self with something not even the Wisemen were able to experience. Jesus leaves the crib and offers us the true gift of Christmas, the gift Himself in the flesh in Holy Communion. And through our Holy Communion with Him, He will possess our hearts and consume us in love, staying within us in Spirit even after we return home. But he can only remain within our hearts, if we leave all our earthly treasures behind and open our hearts, offer our hearts as true gifts of Christmas to the Christ Child, just as did the three Wisemen, which is why they were wise.
As result with our Communion with the God-King, newly born at every Holy Mass, how can we not allow ourselves to be changed by Jesus when we receive Him? We are told that after the three kings experienced Jesus they left and return to their country by another way. This "other way signifies" that once we have an encounter with the incarnate God in the Eucharist we too must leave by another way…that is we must leave this Church changed by the encounter, we must leave the old behind and begin to live anew in Christ and with Christ. Now that we have been lead to Him and found Him, we must, absolutely must allow ourselves to be changed by this real encounter with the Christ Child, truly, personally and physically present in the Holy Eucharist. We must live another way than we have in the past. By our lives we ourselves must now manifest, reveal Jesus to the world.
We like the Wisemen need to turn to the Star of the East, Mary and ask her to help deepen our own faith and to lead others to Jesus in the Eucharist. We absolutely need Mary to draw closer in faith to Her Son, her Son in the Holy Eucharist. Jesus, in the little white Host, is the antidote for all our anxieties and fears, including pain and death. He is the Bread of Angels that removes our pains, our cares, our worries; He alone brings joy and peace to our soul, he alone satisfies our intense craving for love.
Holy Mary, stella Maris, stella orientis—Holy Mary, star of the sea, star of the east pray for us, lead us safely to Jesus; To Jesus born anew on our Altars and who awaits night and day, and so many times alone, for adorers to come and adore Him in all the tabernacles of the world, so He can fill them with His love, with the gift of His very self, He who is love itself, help us to become those true adorers for whom the Father is searching, those who will adore Him in Spirit and in Truth, that is, in the truth of the Person of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist and in the obedience of Holy Spirit of True Love lived out in their lives . Amen.
We know the Wisemen or Magi were probably astrologers, philosophers or maybe even Magicians before they were converted to the Christ Child. Their gifts are symbols to tell-reveal to the whole world both who this newborn child really is and what is His mission. But the gifts also reveal to us what we are to do before this newborn king as well, that is how we are to act and what we are to offer to Him.
With regards to who Jesus is; the Gold they offered signifies their tribute to Him as King of kings. The incense shows us their faith that this seemingly ordinary child was indeed true God Himself, and thus worthy of our worship and adoration...incense is only offered to God. And the Myrrh, which was used to embalm dead bodies reveals to us Jesus' mission. It reveals to us that now God, the second person of the Blessed Trinity has become Man. Jesus, the God-Man born into this world not to live but to die, so that each of us might life; this is His mission.
And so in faith, the Magi come to adore the God King become man, who was before them in silence as a little child; in silence as well, they not only kneel down in adoration but they prostrate, on their faces in adoration before their King and their God.
The three Wisemen are led to their God by a star. We discover that the star of the epiphany over the crib is Bethlehem is an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the star of the east who always points the way to Christ’s Mass and the true presence there of God still in the flesh. There in the modern stable of the Church we, as sons and daughters of the Most High, are to imitate the Wisemen and come before the newborn king reborn on the crib of the altar of sacrifice. And so the actions of the Wisemen reveal to us as well, what we are to do before the newborn King born a new on the sacred altar at every sacrifice of the Mass and always present in the tabernacle for us to come and adore.
Before the Eucharistic newborn King, we just like the Wisemen, are to adore the newborn King in great reverence and silence; we too should kneel and dare I say, even prostrate before the Lord our God. And there with great faith, we too are to offer our gifts of gold, incense, and Myrrh:
In our case, our gold is the treasure of our heart, all the love of our heart, offered to Jesus' Sacred Heart made truly present and alive for us in the Holy Eucharist;
The Incense we are to offer is the sweat fragrance of our good works, of our little acts of love done each day to show our Love of God and those acts done to others for love of God...all that we say and do for God alone;
And what of the Myrrh? The myrrh is the very sacrifice of our will, of our heats, of ourselves, on this altar of sacrifice in loving response to the God who sacrifices Himself for us. In union with sacrifice of Jesus made truly present before by the power of the Holy Spirit and the gift of the Sacred Priesthood, we offer all that we have and all to the Heavenly Father as a living oblation of love, in union with the sacrifice of His only Son made actually and truly present before us.
But the sacrifice of our gifts, of ourselves isn’t the end. When we leave our gifts before Jesus newly born on the altar, He, never being outdone in generosity or love, repays the sacrifice of our gift of self with something not even the Wisemen were able to experience. Jesus leaves the crib and offers us the true gift of Christmas, the gift Himself in the flesh in Holy Communion. And through our Holy Communion with Him, He will possess our hearts and consume us in love, staying within us in Spirit even after we return home. But he can only remain within our hearts, if we leave all our earthly treasures behind and open our hearts, offer our hearts as true gifts of Christmas to the Christ Child, just as did the three Wisemen, which is why they were wise.
As result with our Communion with the God-King, newly born at every Holy Mass, how can we not allow ourselves to be changed by Jesus when we receive Him? We are told that after the three kings experienced Jesus they left and return to their country by another way. This "other way signifies" that once we have an encounter with the incarnate God in the Eucharist we too must leave by another way…that is we must leave this Church changed by the encounter, we must leave the old behind and begin to live anew in Christ and with Christ. Now that we have been lead to Him and found Him, we must, absolutely must allow ourselves to be changed by this real encounter with the Christ Child, truly, personally and physically present in the Holy Eucharist. We must live another way than we have in the past. By our lives we ourselves must now manifest, reveal Jesus to the world.
We like the Wisemen need to turn to the Star of the East, Mary and ask her to help deepen our own faith and to lead others to Jesus in the Eucharist. We absolutely need Mary to draw closer in faith to Her Son, her Son in the Holy Eucharist. Jesus, in the little white Host, is the antidote for all our anxieties and fears, including pain and death. He is the Bread of Angels that removes our pains, our cares, our worries; He alone brings joy and peace to our soul, he alone satisfies our intense craving for love.
Holy Mary, stella Maris, stella orientis—Holy Mary, star of the sea, star of the east pray for us, lead us safely to Jesus; To Jesus born anew on our Altars and who awaits night and day, and so many times alone, for adorers to come and adore Him in all the tabernacles of the world, so He can fill them with His love, with the gift of His very self, He who is love itself, help us to become those true adorers for whom the Father is searching, those who will adore Him in Spirit and in Truth, that is, in the truth of the Person of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist and in the obedience of Holy Spirit of True Love lived out in their lives . Amen.
Saturday, December 27, 2014
Mary and Joseph lead our families to deeper faith, adoration, trust and intimate love for your Divine Son Jesus really and truly present, physically, corporally, in the flesh in the Holy Eucharist; so that, our families may one day enter into the Holy Eucharist unveiled in the Holy Family of Heaven—the Blessed Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, along with all the angels and saints. Amen.
The Solemnity of the Holy Family. Sunday December 28th, 2014
Merry Christmas! Yes, we are or still should be, celebrating Christmas, Christmas is far from over! The Solemn celebration of Christmas ends with the Baptism of the Lord. Today, within the Octave of Christmas, eight days of solemn celebration, we celebrate family, and the Holy family in particular. The Holy family is the model and image of what our families should strive to be. Now before you begin thinking that this is unreasonable, impracticable or impossible, let us take a closer look at the Holy Family; God doesn’t give us a model to follow without providing the means to imitate it in our own lives and family.
In the thirty hidden years of Nazareth we discover that the Holy Family was in a sense an Ordinary family. There was nothing out of the “ordinary” in the life of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. The Holy Family even had turmoil, as seen in the flight to Egypt, and when Joseph and Mary “lost” Jesus for three days.
Mary, even though the Mother of God, lived her life as a traditional Jewish homemaker providing for the needs of her family. She loved Joseph, She was submissive to her husband in the true sense of that word. She sacrificed and worked hard to make her house a home. Most of all, she loved Jesus with her whole heart, and so loved God above all things, in words and most importantantly in deeds. She was the most faithful disciple of the Lord.
Joseph was an ordinary skilled labor who provided for his family. Jesus was known as the son of this carpenter. Joseph loved his wife as he loved his own body, and so lived a manly life of chastity. Most importantly, St Joseph, was the spiritual provider, “head” of the family. He loved God above all; and in his home and in his work, Joseph served the Lord. And so, as he held and cradled Jesus the son of God in His arms, St Joseph also held the Child Jesus close, intimately, to His Heart (this is a hint to the relationship all fathers should have to Jesus, they need to receive in Him and hold Him closed to their heart…true men are men of Christ for Christ was the True- the Full Man).
For His part, Jesus, lived like any other inhabitant of Nazareth, working the same trade as St. Joseph and earning his living by the sweat of his brow. He worked hard and even became tired…imagine! God became tired! Speaking of Jesus’ life at Nazareth the Gospel sums it up by telling us, “He was obedient to Joseph and Mary.” Even though He was God in the flesh, Jesus lived as an obedient child, obedient to the fourth Commandment, to honor thy Father and Mother, thus showing his love for his parents on earth. Jesus has given the perfect example of how all children should treat their parents, and of how all spiritual children should treat their spiritual fathers in Christ.
So even though having lived an ordinary life, what are the great secrets of the Holy Families’ hidden life at Nazareth? Secrets we can discover to help us to imitate their true and happy family life. Secrets we can follow in our own lives with the Holy Families help.
First, is the secret of its silence. Nazareth was a place of peaceful rest from the noise of the outside world. It was a womb so to speak, where the members of the family could grow in love for one another and in love for God. Our families should be the same; they should be a place of peace, of place of respite from the noise and clamor of the outside world that is always trying to distract our attention from the things that really matter—love of God and love of family. Frequently, we need as a families to shut the T.V. off, turn the internet off, and put the cell phones and Ipads away and spent quality time in each other’s company before the Lord.
In this, we discover the secret that Nazareth was the perfect place for the rearing of Children. Nazareth as we have said is the perfect model of what family life should be. Jesus, Mary and Joseph loved another, they always deferred to one another out of loved, putting the needs of the other before their own. It was a mutual submissiveness for the good of the family. We need the grace to to the same. In our family life, we should always ask ourselves in: “Is what I am thinking, saying and doing, is what I want, truly for the good of the family and for the salvation of souls.” By the way, what I say for our families goes equally as well for our parish families and why we need to be part of and take an active part in Parish family life.
The family should be a community of true love and sharing, a place for perfecting all of the human virtues such as patience, kindness, responsibility, magnanimity, honesty, respect and trust to name but a few. And on of the most important virtue, the virtue of forgiveness. This is the basic holy and enduring function of family in society, to be unit or cell of love in the wider community, a “Domestic Church.”
The family is, in fact, known as the seedbed of the virtues because it is in the family that they can grow the most. However, this doesn’t mean it’s easy to practice the virtues in the family. In fact, as we all know, the family is where it is actually the hardest to practice the virtues; it takes tremendous effort, self-control and self-denial, and patience and so grace. But remember, where it is the hardest to practice the virtues, that is where they can grow the most. I like the saying of Blessed Matt Talbot, “When in company guard your tongue; when alone guard your thoughts, and when in the family Guard your temper.”
And finally, the Holy Family’s secret was that it was centered not just around the life of a child and the activities of the child, but around and on the life of the Child who was God-Jesus. Mary and Joseph loved Jesus more than anything, and so they loved God more than anything. Their love for one another had in fact, it’s very source in Jesus. The Sacred Heart of Jesus was the center of their family. And so the Holy Family was a family of prayer, a family that drew its life blood from Jesus- who was God and was truly present in the flesh, bodily and physically in their midst.
Like the Holy Family, the source of the love between the members of our families must be Jesus and His Sacred Heart; that is, if we are truly to be enabled to love another as we ought as we truly desire; it is impossible otherwise. The Sacred Heart of Jesus truly present in the Holy Eucharist, is the very source of the love we absolutely need in order to love one another in our families.
Our families like the Holy Family then need to love Jesus and draw close to His Loving Heart more than anything, and so love God more than anything. So, like the Holy Family, spending time in our homes with Jesus in prayer be at the center of our family life. And spending time with Jesus in the temple, in the house of God must be the most important event in our family. Prayer in the True Presence of Jesus and His Sacred Heart in the Holy Eucharist, must be at the heart of our family life…And so, as families we need to work hard at making the most important event in our family participating actively, fully, consciously and fruitfully in the most perfect of all prayers--the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. (and attending the Sacrament of Confession as a family in order to be made worthy to attend the Holy Mass with pure souls).
It is at the Holy Mass that we too just like the Holy Family have Jesus, Emanuel, truly in our midst…not just spiritually but corporally physically present in the Holy Eucharist…no less present to us than to the Mary and Joseph. It is at the Holy Mass, that we can give our heart fully to the Christ Child in order to receive His Heart fully at Holy Communion. Faith in the Holy Eucharist as Jesus truly Present in His human body still with us, trusting that He is there and that He love us more than we can imagine is exactly how we keep Jesus, and His Love for us, at the center and the focus of our entire family life.
Come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord! Let us not lose hope for joy and peace and greater unity and love in our families. Let us ask, the entire Holy Family to help us imitate their love and their holiness. Jesus, Mary and Joseph we love you. Jesus, Mary and Joseph help our families to be holy, peaceful, loving families like your own. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, save the souls of the members of our families. Mary and Joseph lead our families to deeper faith, adoration, trust and intimate love for your Divine Son Jesus really and truly present, physically, corporally, in the flesh in the Holy Eucharist; so that, our families may one day enter into the Holy Eucharist unveiled in the Holy Family of Heaven—the Blessed Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, along with all the angels and saints. Amen.
Merry Christmas! Yes, we are or still should be, celebrating Christmas, Christmas is far from over! The Solemn celebration of Christmas ends with the Baptism of the Lord. Today, within the Octave of Christmas, eight days of solemn celebration, we celebrate family, and the Holy family in particular. The Holy family is the model and image of what our families should strive to be. Now before you begin thinking that this is unreasonable, impracticable or impossible, let us take a closer look at the Holy Family; God doesn’t give us a model to follow without providing the means to imitate it in our own lives and family.
In the thirty hidden years of Nazareth we discover that the Holy Family was in a sense an Ordinary family. There was nothing out of the “ordinary” in the life of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. The Holy Family even had turmoil, as seen in the flight to Egypt, and when Joseph and Mary “lost” Jesus for three days.
Mary, even though the Mother of God, lived her life as a traditional Jewish homemaker providing for the needs of her family. She loved Joseph, She was submissive to her husband in the true sense of that word. She sacrificed and worked hard to make her house a home. Most of all, she loved Jesus with her whole heart, and so loved God above all things, in words and most importantantly in deeds. She was the most faithful disciple of the Lord.
Joseph was an ordinary skilled labor who provided for his family. Jesus was known as the son of this carpenter. Joseph loved his wife as he loved his own body, and so lived a manly life of chastity. Most importantly, St Joseph, was the spiritual provider, “head” of the family. He loved God above all; and in his home and in his work, Joseph served the Lord. And so, as he held and cradled Jesus the son of God in His arms, St Joseph also held the Child Jesus close, intimately, to His Heart (this is a hint to the relationship all fathers should have to Jesus, they need to receive in Him and hold Him closed to their heart…true men are men of Christ for Christ was the True- the Full Man).
For His part, Jesus, lived like any other inhabitant of Nazareth, working the same trade as St. Joseph and earning his living by the sweat of his brow. He worked hard and even became tired…imagine! God became tired! Speaking of Jesus’ life at Nazareth the Gospel sums it up by telling us, “He was obedient to Joseph and Mary.” Even though He was God in the flesh, Jesus lived as an obedient child, obedient to the fourth Commandment, to honor thy Father and Mother, thus showing his love for his parents on earth. Jesus has given the perfect example of how all children should treat their parents, and of how all spiritual children should treat their spiritual fathers in Christ.
So even though having lived an ordinary life, what are the great secrets of the Holy Families’ hidden life at Nazareth? Secrets we can discover to help us to imitate their true and happy family life. Secrets we can follow in our own lives with the Holy Families help.
First, is the secret of its silence. Nazareth was a place of peaceful rest from the noise of the outside world. It was a womb so to speak, where the members of the family could grow in love for one another and in love for God. Our families should be the same; they should be a place of peace, of place of respite from the noise and clamor of the outside world that is always trying to distract our attention from the things that really matter—love of God and love of family. Frequently, we need as a families to shut the T.V. off, turn the internet off, and put the cell phones and Ipads away and spent quality time in each other’s company before the Lord.
In this, we discover the secret that Nazareth was the perfect place for the rearing of Children. Nazareth as we have said is the perfect model of what family life should be. Jesus, Mary and Joseph loved another, they always deferred to one another out of loved, putting the needs of the other before their own. It was a mutual submissiveness for the good of the family. We need the grace to to the same. In our family life, we should always ask ourselves in: “Is what I am thinking, saying and doing, is what I want, truly for the good of the family and for the salvation of souls.” By the way, what I say for our families goes equally as well for our parish families and why we need to be part of and take an active part in Parish family life.
The family should be a community of true love and sharing, a place for perfecting all of the human virtues such as patience, kindness, responsibility, magnanimity, honesty, respect and trust to name but a few. And on of the most important virtue, the virtue of forgiveness. This is the basic holy and enduring function of family in society, to be unit or cell of love in the wider community, a “Domestic Church.”
The family is, in fact, known as the seedbed of the virtues because it is in the family that they can grow the most. However, this doesn’t mean it’s easy to practice the virtues in the family. In fact, as we all know, the family is where it is actually the hardest to practice the virtues; it takes tremendous effort, self-control and self-denial, and patience and so grace. But remember, where it is the hardest to practice the virtues, that is where they can grow the most. I like the saying of Blessed Matt Talbot, “When in company guard your tongue; when alone guard your thoughts, and when in the family Guard your temper.”
And finally, the Holy Family’s secret was that it was centered not just around the life of a child and the activities of the child, but around and on the life of the Child who was God-Jesus. Mary and Joseph loved Jesus more than anything, and so they loved God more than anything. Their love for one another had in fact, it’s very source in Jesus. The Sacred Heart of Jesus was the center of their family. And so the Holy Family was a family of prayer, a family that drew its life blood from Jesus- who was God and was truly present in the flesh, bodily and physically in their midst.
Like the Holy Family, the source of the love between the members of our families must be Jesus and His Sacred Heart; that is, if we are truly to be enabled to love another as we ought as we truly desire; it is impossible otherwise. The Sacred Heart of Jesus truly present in the Holy Eucharist, is the very source of the love we absolutely need in order to love one another in our families.
Our families like the Holy Family then need to love Jesus and draw close to His Loving Heart more than anything, and so love God more than anything. So, like the Holy Family, spending time in our homes with Jesus in prayer be at the center of our family life. And spending time with Jesus in the temple, in the house of God must be the most important event in our family. Prayer in the True Presence of Jesus and His Sacred Heart in the Holy Eucharist, must be at the heart of our family life…And so, as families we need to work hard at making the most important event in our family participating actively, fully, consciously and fruitfully in the most perfect of all prayers--the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. (and attending the Sacrament of Confession as a family in order to be made worthy to attend the Holy Mass with pure souls).
It is at the Holy Mass that we too just like the Holy Family have Jesus, Emanuel, truly in our midst…not just spiritually but corporally physically present in the Holy Eucharist…no less present to us than to the Mary and Joseph. It is at the Holy Mass, that we can give our heart fully to the Christ Child in order to receive His Heart fully at Holy Communion. Faith in the Holy Eucharist as Jesus truly Present in His human body still with us, trusting that He is there and that He love us more than we can imagine is exactly how we keep Jesus, and His Love for us, at the center and the focus of our entire family life.
Come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord! Let us not lose hope for joy and peace and greater unity and love in our families. Let us ask, the entire Holy Family to help us imitate their love and their holiness. Jesus, Mary and Joseph we love you. Jesus, Mary and Joseph help our families to be holy, peaceful, loving families like your own. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, save the souls of the members of our families. Mary and Joseph lead our families to deeper faith, adoration, trust and intimate love for your Divine Son Jesus really and truly present, physically, corporally, in the flesh in the Holy Eucharist; so that, our families may one day enter into the Holy Eucharist unveiled in the Holy Family of Heaven—the Blessed Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, along with all the angels and saints. Amen.
Saturday, December 13, 2014
Our Lady of the New Advent, through your intercession obtain for us the grace of the Holy Spirit to help us to open the gates of hearts fully at this Holy Mass in order that the Heart of Christ, the Holy Eucharist, may come fully in, in order to heal us, free us, save us. Amen.
John 1; 6-28 Third Sunday in Advent. Gaudete Sunday. December 13, 2014
We rejoice and are glad as we await the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is what we proclaim today as we celebrate this Third Sunday of Advent, known as Gaudate Sunday. We await Jesus coming just like His herald, John the Baptist. John himself shows us the way to Christ and how to wait with patient, but joyful expectant hope…with excitement.
During the first century in Israel, the Romans controlled the entire political and religious life. Many people at the time of John were looking for political answers to their oppression by the Romans. Now, most of us have never had to live under foreign occupation in this country so it’s hard to image how terrible it must have been for the Israelites. So we can understand their questions. “Who would ever come to free them, who could possibly grant them liberty? The people who went out to see John the Baptist-had these same questions, “They asked John, “Are you the one, like Moses or David or Elijah that will lead a glorious and powerful army to victory over the Romans. Unfortunately, in their questions we see all too clearly that their hope was solely in human power, in human solutions, such as politics or even war.
John knew all too well the state of affairs in the country of Israel. Yet he saw hope not in human solutions, a political party or war, but in divine solutions. John saw the greatest enemy was the people’s own infidelity to the Lord. So, he preached boldly about the need for repentance, about turning from the real oppressor-sin. He knew that the real problem of the day was the hardness of people hearts, their refusal to give their total yes to God as shown by their following faithfully God’s commandments and teachings. John called them all to task, no exceptions; he called everyone even Kings and religious leaders to repentance.
But John not only preached repentance, he lived it. Listen to his humility in the responses he gave. “I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness.” Not worthily to unloosen his sandal strap.’ John saw who he was in relation to God, that he, himself was totally dependant on God for everything. “I am not the one, Jesus is the one.” John knew the truth, he knew he himself needed a savior; he knew he could not fix his own problems, he hoped in God alone--God alone can save.
John pointed the world to the One who would come and who alone could fix the world—Jesus is the one. He is the one who will bring Glad tidings to the lowly, healing to the sick & liberty to the captives. What glad tidings these are and they make up the Good News of Jesus, the Gospel. This Gospel is not just a message, not just a holy book, it is a Person, a Divine Person, Jesus Christ-who is still truly, physically present among us in the Holy Eucharist—Jesus in the Holy Eucharist is the Message. He is THE friend to the lowly, the poor, the sick and oppressed. Jesus through His true presence in the Holy Eucharist will bring a victory, a victory much greater than any military victory over any enemy of this world.
Jesus shows us His definitive victory. One of the greatest military powers the world has ever seen threw everything that it had at him, even their greatest torture--crucifixion. The power of hell itself, threw everything it had at Him, even its greatest torture, the very power of death itself. And Jesus in return showed them and us an even greater power, the very power of God Himself. And because Jesus was God it was His own power, and He used it to defeat the power of hell itself by His glorious resurrection. The Resurrection shows us definitively that God’s power can swallow up anything the power of this world has to offer; anything the power of hell as to offer…This is indeed THE GOOD NEWS.
Jesus side is the winning side, the battle as already been won! If we are truly on His side, we will be victorious as well. But Jesus will lead us primarily to a spiritual victory just like His. Jesus will not necessarily take all our troubles away, we still have to, like Him, suffer and die, but He will give us His own Power in order, not only to prevail and to persevere, but to do so with Joy and peace. If we are with Jesus, no power in this world can defeat us; not death, not even the devil himself can take away our victory, our goal, which is heaven and a share in the eternal life and family of God.
Along with His victory, Jesus brings with Him as well the power to heal the broken hearted, He saves by healing. The heart in the bible always stands for the whole person, the very core of the person, all that we have and are. Jesus has the power to heal our heart, but we have to give it to Him, better yet, to freely offer it to Him so that He can heal it. We try to offer our heart fully at Holy Mass, no strings attached. To lift up our heart, means to offer it fully to the one who is the King of hearts in order to make Him the Lord of our life and become one with Him in Love.
When God is not the Lord of our heart, our heart becomes broken, shattered, divided. When God is not number One in our life, over and above all else, the very organizing principal of life is missing. Our life becomes divided, shattered, we run to and fro, following this impulse and that impulse, but never finding peace or meaning in our lives. We try this self help program, we listen to this guru on T.V. and then that one, we try to grab this created thing, this new technological marvel or that one, but never do we ever find fulfillment or peace, not to mention joy. Jesus is our only meaning in this life.
Jesus heals the broken hearted by coming to live in our hearts but only if we open the gates to them. O come Emmanuel, come live in our heart. This is the very mission of the Church to heal broken hearts by the power of Jesus resurrection which comes to us in and through the Sacraments. We too live in a broken hearted world, one which is marked with conflict- wars, divisions, and a general disregard for God and the things of God. We too want to see the solutions to all of our problems apart from God. We too think we can save ourselves; we can solve all of our problems and we don’t want to conform our lives to God’s truth in order to do it. Yet, this is so far from the truth. We are helpless and cannot save ourselves nor solve all of our problems apart from God and His truth.
Jesus victory brings with it as well the power to bring liberty to the captives. But again, Jesus freedom is not a physical freedom from the problems or powers of this world, but it is a true freedom, the freedom from sin. Israel wanted freedom from the worldly power of the Romans, Jesus showed them that their captivity to the Romans was really a result of their sin. Sin is the ultimate slavery. Sin is addictive. It is very addictive, very oppressive and there are many in our day, that are captive to its power. O Come, O Come Emmanuel and Ransom captive, Israel. Israel, is a symbol here of our souls captive to sin.
We know that we so much want to do good, and to live the life God calls us to live. But there is a war inside of us, a war in which we know the good to do, that which God wants us to do, but many times we just can’t seem to bring ourselves to do it. Pride, anger, lust, sloth, envy, avarice, gluttony, these deadly sins have us in their grip, they can hold us for ransom and keep us from doing God’s Holy Will. The Good News is Jesus comes to give liberty to the captives, liberty to us, to free us from these sins & to win the battle that wages within us. And how does He do it. HE does it by giving to us a share in His own redemptive work. HE gives us a mission to help others held ransom.
This is our mission, our apostolate. He wants us to get off ourselves, off our self-centeredness, to let go of our petty obsessions and bring the Good news of His coming in the Holy Eucharist, of His Divine Power in the Holy Eucharist to others. Jesus gives each of us our own mission to take His divine love out into the daily world in which we live, to love others for love of Him. He says to each of us, “Show others my love so that I can heal them, free them, save them thru you. “Take what you received at this Holy Mass, namely, the Eucharist, which is my Heart, my Divine Love, my whole self and go out into the world and live for God alone and love others with my own Love alive in your heart. Do it for love of me.
Let us pray. St. John the Baptist, through your intercession, help us to have your same attitude, help us to have a humble submission to God and to live for Him alone. Help us with our lives to point out to others, the true Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world. The one alone who has the power to free, to heal, and to save. Our Lady of the New Advent, through your intercession obtain for us the grace of the Holy Spirit to help us to open the gates of hearts fully at this Holy Mass in order that the Heart of Christ, the Holy Eucharist, may come fully in, in order to heal us, free us, save us. Amen.
We rejoice and are glad as we await the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is what we proclaim today as we celebrate this Third Sunday of Advent, known as Gaudate Sunday. We await Jesus coming just like His herald, John the Baptist. John himself shows us the way to Christ and how to wait with patient, but joyful expectant hope…with excitement.
During the first century in Israel, the Romans controlled the entire political and religious life. Many people at the time of John were looking for political answers to their oppression by the Romans. Now, most of us have never had to live under foreign occupation in this country so it’s hard to image how terrible it must have been for the Israelites. So we can understand their questions. “Who would ever come to free them, who could possibly grant them liberty? The people who went out to see John the Baptist-had these same questions, “They asked John, “Are you the one, like Moses or David or Elijah that will lead a glorious and powerful army to victory over the Romans. Unfortunately, in their questions we see all too clearly that their hope was solely in human power, in human solutions, such as politics or even war.
John knew all too well the state of affairs in the country of Israel. Yet he saw hope not in human solutions, a political party or war, but in divine solutions. John saw the greatest enemy was the people’s own infidelity to the Lord. So, he preached boldly about the need for repentance, about turning from the real oppressor-sin. He knew that the real problem of the day was the hardness of people hearts, their refusal to give their total yes to God as shown by their following faithfully God’s commandments and teachings. John called them all to task, no exceptions; he called everyone even Kings and religious leaders to repentance.
But John not only preached repentance, he lived it. Listen to his humility in the responses he gave. “I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness.” Not worthily to unloosen his sandal strap.’ John saw who he was in relation to God, that he, himself was totally dependant on God for everything. “I am not the one, Jesus is the one.” John knew the truth, he knew he himself needed a savior; he knew he could not fix his own problems, he hoped in God alone--God alone can save.
John pointed the world to the One who would come and who alone could fix the world—Jesus is the one. He is the one who will bring Glad tidings to the lowly, healing to the sick & liberty to the captives. What glad tidings these are and they make up the Good News of Jesus, the Gospel. This Gospel is not just a message, not just a holy book, it is a Person, a Divine Person, Jesus Christ-who is still truly, physically present among us in the Holy Eucharist—Jesus in the Holy Eucharist is the Message. He is THE friend to the lowly, the poor, the sick and oppressed. Jesus through His true presence in the Holy Eucharist will bring a victory, a victory much greater than any military victory over any enemy of this world.
Jesus shows us His definitive victory. One of the greatest military powers the world has ever seen threw everything that it had at him, even their greatest torture--crucifixion. The power of hell itself, threw everything it had at Him, even its greatest torture, the very power of death itself. And Jesus in return showed them and us an even greater power, the very power of God Himself. And because Jesus was God it was His own power, and He used it to defeat the power of hell itself by His glorious resurrection. The Resurrection shows us definitively that God’s power can swallow up anything the power of this world has to offer; anything the power of hell as to offer…This is indeed THE GOOD NEWS.
Jesus side is the winning side, the battle as already been won! If we are truly on His side, we will be victorious as well. But Jesus will lead us primarily to a spiritual victory just like His. Jesus will not necessarily take all our troubles away, we still have to, like Him, suffer and die, but He will give us His own Power in order, not only to prevail and to persevere, but to do so with Joy and peace. If we are with Jesus, no power in this world can defeat us; not death, not even the devil himself can take away our victory, our goal, which is heaven and a share in the eternal life and family of God.
Along with His victory, Jesus brings with Him as well the power to heal the broken hearted, He saves by healing. The heart in the bible always stands for the whole person, the very core of the person, all that we have and are. Jesus has the power to heal our heart, but we have to give it to Him, better yet, to freely offer it to Him so that He can heal it. We try to offer our heart fully at Holy Mass, no strings attached. To lift up our heart, means to offer it fully to the one who is the King of hearts in order to make Him the Lord of our life and become one with Him in Love.
When God is not the Lord of our heart, our heart becomes broken, shattered, divided. When God is not number One in our life, over and above all else, the very organizing principal of life is missing. Our life becomes divided, shattered, we run to and fro, following this impulse and that impulse, but never finding peace or meaning in our lives. We try this self help program, we listen to this guru on T.V. and then that one, we try to grab this created thing, this new technological marvel or that one, but never do we ever find fulfillment or peace, not to mention joy. Jesus is our only meaning in this life.
Jesus heals the broken hearted by coming to live in our hearts but only if we open the gates to them. O come Emmanuel, come live in our heart. This is the very mission of the Church to heal broken hearts by the power of Jesus resurrection which comes to us in and through the Sacraments. We too live in a broken hearted world, one which is marked with conflict- wars, divisions, and a general disregard for God and the things of God. We too want to see the solutions to all of our problems apart from God. We too think we can save ourselves; we can solve all of our problems and we don’t want to conform our lives to God’s truth in order to do it. Yet, this is so far from the truth. We are helpless and cannot save ourselves nor solve all of our problems apart from God and His truth.
Jesus victory brings with it as well the power to bring liberty to the captives. But again, Jesus freedom is not a physical freedom from the problems or powers of this world, but it is a true freedom, the freedom from sin. Israel wanted freedom from the worldly power of the Romans, Jesus showed them that their captivity to the Romans was really a result of their sin. Sin is the ultimate slavery. Sin is addictive. It is very addictive, very oppressive and there are many in our day, that are captive to its power. O Come, O Come Emmanuel and Ransom captive, Israel. Israel, is a symbol here of our souls captive to sin.
We know that we so much want to do good, and to live the life God calls us to live. But there is a war inside of us, a war in which we know the good to do, that which God wants us to do, but many times we just can’t seem to bring ourselves to do it. Pride, anger, lust, sloth, envy, avarice, gluttony, these deadly sins have us in their grip, they can hold us for ransom and keep us from doing God’s Holy Will. The Good News is Jesus comes to give liberty to the captives, liberty to us, to free us from these sins & to win the battle that wages within us. And how does He do it. HE does it by giving to us a share in His own redemptive work. HE gives us a mission to help others held ransom.
This is our mission, our apostolate. He wants us to get off ourselves, off our self-centeredness, to let go of our petty obsessions and bring the Good news of His coming in the Holy Eucharist, of His Divine Power in the Holy Eucharist to others. Jesus gives each of us our own mission to take His divine love out into the daily world in which we live, to love others for love of Him. He says to each of us, “Show others my love so that I can heal them, free them, save them thru you. “Take what you received at this Holy Mass, namely, the Eucharist, which is my Heart, my Divine Love, my whole self and go out into the world and live for God alone and love others with my own Love alive in your heart. Do it for love of me.
Let us pray. St. John the Baptist, through your intercession, help us to have your same attitude, help us to have a humble submission to God and to live for Him alone. Help us with our lives to point out to others, the true Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world. The one alone who has the power to free, to heal, and to save. Our Lady of the New Advent, through your intercession obtain for us the grace of the Holy Spirit to help us to open the gates of hearts fully at this Holy Mass in order that the Heart of Christ, the Holy Eucharist, may come fully in, in order to heal us, free us, save us. Amen.
Sunday, November 30, 2014
let us at this Mass turn to Our Lady of the New Advent to help us in our struggle to live, not only during this time of Advent, but always with our eyes focus primarily on Christ, and not on the things of this earth.
1st Sunday in Advent. Matthew 13;33-37. November 30th, 2014
Happy New Year! Today begins the Church’s New Year and a new Liturgical Year. Like January 1st, it can be a time of new beginnings, a time of new resolutions…but resolutions that with the help of the Holy Spirit we can really and truly keep. Today can be the beginning of a new and deeper relationship with Jesus, a day to resolve to make more fully Jesus and His coming through His Holy Church the most important thing in our life.
There are in this life and in this world so many other seemingly more important concerns and so many other attractions, or should I say distractions, that can take our minds and hearts off of Jesus and His coming. Advent then, should be a wakeup call for each of us to remember that in our short journey of life; Jesus is the one thing that we cannot live without. His coming should always, always be our main concern. He should always be our main attraction. Anything that takes our eyes off of Jesus is a really a distraction. Our attention should always be on Jesus, because He is the end and the goal and we must never presume to be ready for His coming.
Advent, as with all time in this life, is primarily for preparing our souls for the coming of Jesus Advent really has a three-fold character: First it is a period of preparation for the coming of Our Savior by remembering and celebrating liturgically His birth in Bethlehem; second, it is a joyful and expectant preparation for His Second Coming at the end of the world or at the end or our lives whichever comes first. And third, it is a diligent and urgent preparation for Jesus’ coming again in the flesh at this Holy Mass, so that He can come more deeply, more intimately into our souls and become one with us in love as a fruit of Holy Communion.
As a result, Advent is sort of like a mini-Lent during which time we try to get our spiritual house in order for the coming of Christ. It is a time for self-reflection when we look deep into ourselves and try to identify and repent and confess, in a good sacramental confession, those sinful things, attitudes and behaviors that are keeping us from a deeper intimacy with God and love of our neighbor for love of God. Then, freed from sin we will be filled with joyful hopeful expectation and be ready to meet the Lord when He finally arrives or should I say when we arrive and stand before Him. Our whole existence is really only about this one thing, preparing our self so that we may see God as our trip on this earth comes to its end, and this end is a lot closer than it was yesterday. This could be the very last Advent of our lives-there are some here who may not be here next year.
We have to work hard and struggled hard at our spiritual life; that is, preparing our self in order to grow in our life of intimacy with Jesus in the depths of our soul. We should work harder at this than anything else. Our gift buying for others is good, preparing materially for Christmas is good (if we don’t over do it and spend beyond our means), decorating our house is good, but our spiritual preparation is better and most important, preparing the house of our soul for our Divine Guest is paramount.
When this Christmas arrives our Lord should find us with everything in order. In other words, we should already have struggled to grow in our intimacy with Christ before Christmas arrives; he should already dwell more intensely in the tabernacle of our souls, we should be more deeply united with Him. This is the true reason for Advent, preparation for the comings of Christ-liturgically, at the end the world and at Holy Mass in the Holy Eucharist.
Advent is a really a time of great hope. Even though we celebrate liturgical the preparation for Jesus’ coming at Christmas, we must always remember that Jesus our hope, has already come in the flesh. In the Sacrament of Confession; He has provided us with His strength with His grace to be able to become better, to remove those distractions in our lives, namely our sins, that are keeping us from a deeper relationship with Him. And, we must also remember that Jesus, Who is our hope, comes to us as well at every Holy Mass in Person and with His grace.
In reality, every Mass is Christ Mass, and with it comes the Holy Eucharist which is Jesus coming now to us here and now. He is the source of grace, the source of love that can, without a doubt, empower us to keep our “New Church Year resolutions” and enable us to live lives of holiness and love, which are lives lived in union with Jesus-Jesus living alive in us as his living tabernacles of love. And so, we can never be prepared for Jesus’ second coming if we have not celebrated his first coming by acknowledge His true presence and His self-emptying Sacrifice, still among us in the Holy Eucharist at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. For this reason intimate prayer and fruitful communion with the Holy Eucharist who is God among us, is our only hope, our only salvation and the only hope and salvation of the world; the Eucharist is our Hope and our Joy for it is Jesus still among us in the flesh. For this reason the Eucharist is the only way linking heaven and earth. “Ego sum via—I am the way.”
“Jesus Christ the very Jesus who was alive yesterday for his Apostles and the people who sought him out; this same Jesus lives today for us, and will live forever. Yet, at times, we poor men fail to recognize his ever-present features, because our eyes are tired and our vision clouded. Now, as we begin this time of (Advent, this time of) prayer close to the tabernacle, ask him, like the blind man in the Gospel did, Domine, ut videam! Lord, that I may see! Enlighten my intelligence and let Christ's words penetrate deep into my mind. Strengthen his life in my soul so that I may be transformed in readiness for eternal Glory."
St. Josemaria Escriva
Friends of God, no. 127
So, let us at this Mass turn to Our Lady of the New Advent to help us in our struggle to live, not only during this time of Advent, but always with our eyes focus primarily on Christ, and not on the things of this earth. Let us ask her to obtain for us the grace to purify and open our hearts, which far too often have been darkened by gluttony and drunkenness and the cares of this life. With her help and the help of St. Joseph, if we ask them, it will be easy for us to dispose our souls in such a way that the arrival of Jesus will not find us distracted by other “things” which have little or no importance in the light of the coming of God. Through the intercession of Mary and Joseph, may we obtain the grace to be firm to the end, irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, so that at the end of our journey in this life when we stand before Him face to face, He may welcome us into the eternal Christmas, with Him and all the Saints and Angels forever-our true goal, the very reason for our existence.. Jesus have mercy, Mary and Joseph pray for us. Amen
Happy New Year! Today begins the Church’s New Year and a new Liturgical Year. Like January 1st, it can be a time of new beginnings, a time of new resolutions…but resolutions that with the help of the Holy Spirit we can really and truly keep. Today can be the beginning of a new and deeper relationship with Jesus, a day to resolve to make more fully Jesus and His coming through His Holy Church the most important thing in our life.
There are in this life and in this world so many other seemingly more important concerns and so many other attractions, or should I say distractions, that can take our minds and hearts off of Jesus and His coming. Advent then, should be a wakeup call for each of us to remember that in our short journey of life; Jesus is the one thing that we cannot live without. His coming should always, always be our main concern. He should always be our main attraction. Anything that takes our eyes off of Jesus is a really a distraction. Our attention should always be on Jesus, because He is the end and the goal and we must never presume to be ready for His coming.
Advent, as with all time in this life, is primarily for preparing our souls for the coming of Jesus Advent really has a three-fold character: First it is a period of preparation for the coming of Our Savior by remembering and celebrating liturgically His birth in Bethlehem; second, it is a joyful and expectant preparation for His Second Coming at the end of the world or at the end or our lives whichever comes first. And third, it is a diligent and urgent preparation for Jesus’ coming again in the flesh at this Holy Mass, so that He can come more deeply, more intimately into our souls and become one with us in love as a fruit of Holy Communion.
As a result, Advent is sort of like a mini-Lent during which time we try to get our spiritual house in order for the coming of Christ. It is a time for self-reflection when we look deep into ourselves and try to identify and repent and confess, in a good sacramental confession, those sinful things, attitudes and behaviors that are keeping us from a deeper intimacy with God and love of our neighbor for love of God. Then, freed from sin we will be filled with joyful hopeful expectation and be ready to meet the Lord when He finally arrives or should I say when we arrive and stand before Him. Our whole existence is really only about this one thing, preparing our self so that we may see God as our trip on this earth comes to its end, and this end is a lot closer than it was yesterday. This could be the very last Advent of our lives-there are some here who may not be here next year.
We have to work hard and struggled hard at our spiritual life; that is, preparing our self in order to grow in our life of intimacy with Jesus in the depths of our soul. We should work harder at this than anything else. Our gift buying for others is good, preparing materially for Christmas is good (if we don’t over do it and spend beyond our means), decorating our house is good, but our spiritual preparation is better and most important, preparing the house of our soul for our Divine Guest is paramount.
When this Christmas arrives our Lord should find us with everything in order. In other words, we should already have struggled to grow in our intimacy with Christ before Christmas arrives; he should already dwell more intensely in the tabernacle of our souls, we should be more deeply united with Him. This is the true reason for Advent, preparation for the comings of Christ-liturgically, at the end the world and at Holy Mass in the Holy Eucharist.
Advent is a really a time of great hope. Even though we celebrate liturgical the preparation for Jesus’ coming at Christmas, we must always remember that Jesus our hope, has already come in the flesh. In the Sacrament of Confession; He has provided us with His strength with His grace to be able to become better, to remove those distractions in our lives, namely our sins, that are keeping us from a deeper relationship with Him. And, we must also remember that Jesus, Who is our hope, comes to us as well at every Holy Mass in Person and with His grace.
In reality, every Mass is Christ Mass, and with it comes the Holy Eucharist which is Jesus coming now to us here and now. He is the source of grace, the source of love that can, without a doubt, empower us to keep our “New Church Year resolutions” and enable us to live lives of holiness and love, which are lives lived in union with Jesus-Jesus living alive in us as his living tabernacles of love. And so, we can never be prepared for Jesus’ second coming if we have not celebrated his first coming by acknowledge His true presence and His self-emptying Sacrifice, still among us in the Holy Eucharist at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. For this reason intimate prayer and fruitful communion with the Holy Eucharist who is God among us, is our only hope, our only salvation and the only hope and salvation of the world; the Eucharist is our Hope and our Joy for it is Jesus still among us in the flesh. For this reason the Eucharist is the only way linking heaven and earth. “Ego sum via—I am the way.”
“Jesus Christ the very Jesus who was alive yesterday for his Apostles and the people who sought him out; this same Jesus lives today for us, and will live forever. Yet, at times, we poor men fail to recognize his ever-present features, because our eyes are tired and our vision clouded. Now, as we begin this time of (Advent, this time of) prayer close to the tabernacle, ask him, like the blind man in the Gospel did, Domine, ut videam! Lord, that I may see! Enlighten my intelligence and let Christ's words penetrate deep into my mind. Strengthen his life in my soul so that I may be transformed in readiness for eternal Glory."
St. Josemaria Escriva
Friends of God, no. 127
So, let us at this Mass turn to Our Lady of the New Advent to help us in our struggle to live, not only during this time of Advent, but always with our eyes focus primarily on Christ, and not on the things of this earth. Let us ask her to obtain for us the grace to purify and open our hearts, which far too often have been darkened by gluttony and drunkenness and the cares of this life. With her help and the help of St. Joseph, if we ask them, it will be easy for us to dispose our souls in such a way that the arrival of Jesus will not find us distracted by other “things” which have little or no importance in the light of the coming of God. Through the intercession of Mary and Joseph, may we obtain the grace to be firm to the end, irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, so that at the end of our journey in this life when we stand before Him face to face, He may welcome us into the eternal Christmas, with Him and all the Saints and Angels forever-our true goal, the very reason for our existence.. Jesus have mercy, Mary and Joseph pray for us. Amen
Saturday, November 22, 2014
May our Heavenly Queen obtain for us the grace of final perseverance so that she herself may be by our side pleading our cause when the King, comes again in all His glory to judge the living and the dead. Amen.
Today we celebrate the end of the liturgical year with the Feast of Jesus Christ our sovereign Lord and King. So it is most fitting that we read of the great last judgment of Christ on humanity. This Gospel passage from St. Matthew has inspired many great works of art-like Michelangelo’s Last Judgment in the Sistine chapel. In that image, Christ has his arms raised, inviting the beloved to his right side and casting those who reject Him, to the left. When I saw this painting for the first time in person, it invoked in me an awesome sense of the majesty of Christ; He is truly the King of kings, even if there are some who don’t want to believe it. But at the end of the world all-willing and unwilling-will acknowledge Him as King and Lord.
The focus of readings for the last few weeks has actually been the Last Judgment. They remind us of the Four Last things…death, judgment, then heaven or hell. These last things should wake us up and remind us just how important our relationship to Jesus is, not only with regards to our final goal and destination that is our happiness in the next life, but also with regards to our happiness in this life. In fact, we can never and will never find meaning in our lives apart from Jesus Christ the King.
More than any other, the fundamental question on the heart of every human being is, ‘Why am I here? What is it that I’m really looking for in this life?” In fact, Jesus himself many times in the Gospels asks this same question to those with whom he came in contact. “What is it you want?” When people met Christ, they very quickly realized that they were having an encounter with someone who was corresponding to the deepest needs of their heart.
For us today with this Feast (and at this Holy Mass), Jesus answers His own question, “What is you want?”, by saying that, “Everything you are looking for, everything you seek, even the very meaning of your existence can be found only in…Me! What you really want and desire is me and my love for you, for I am the God who is Love. Only when you allow me to reign completely over your lives, only when you totally give me yourself in love and take the sweet yoke of my truth and the light burden of my rule over you and your life through my Church, only then will you find what you are looking for and begin to fulfill your deepest longings and desires. If you keep trying to quench your thirst for me with things of this world, even with human loves, you will only be thirsty and unfulfilled.”
When Pope Pius XI instituted this great feast day on December 11, 1925, he was saying this same thing not only to individuals, but also to all peoples and all nations of the world. Pius XI said that the manifold evils in the world were due to the fact that the majority of men had thrust Jesus Christ and His holy law out of their lives; that Jesus and His truth no longer had a place in private affairs or in politics. Pius warned that as long as individuals and states refused to submit to the rule of Our Savior, there would be no really hopeful prospect of a lasting peace among nations. Men must look for the peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ and that Kingdom subsists fully in His, One, Holy, Catholic & Apostolic Church because it contains the Holy Eucharist, Who is the King in the flesh still on earth.
Allow me to read a quote from this beautiful letter of Pope Pius:
If the kingdom of Christ, then, receives, as it should, all nations under its way, there seems no reason why we should despair of seeing that peace which the King of Peace came to bring on earth—he who came to reconcile all things, who came not to be ministered unto but to minister, who, though Lord of all, gave himself to us as a model of humility, and with his principal law united the precept of charity; who said also: "My yoke is sweet and my burden light." Oh, what happiness would be ours if all men, individuals, families, and nations, would but let themselves be governed by Christ! "Then at length…will many evils be cured; then will the law regain its former authority; peace with all its blessings be restored. Men will sheathe their swords and lay down their arms when all freely acknowledge and obey the authority of Christ, and every tongue confesses that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father."
The kingdom of Christ is a kingdom of love. He is not a tyrant or a despot; He will not impose His Will on His subjects--that is on us. He is a King who has come to serve, not to be served. And we must do the same in imitation of Him.
We must serve Christ by serving His Catholic Church and others for love of Him. If fact this is how we would show our love for Him. In order to manifest the Kingdom of God in this world more fully, we must love others for love of Jesus; we must give of ourselves, yes, we must even sacrifice ourselves for the Church and for love of others. Of course what better modern day example could I use to illustrate better this service and love of others for love of Christ, than the example of St. Mother Theresa of Calcutta?
Mother loved the Church and others not just for their own sakes, but because in faith she saw Jesus in them. How many times she quoted Jesus, “Whatsoever you do to the least of these you do unto me!” Jesus loves them, so she would love them for Jesus. And Jesus for His part, through the power of the Sacraments, would give her the strength and courage to love them with His own love alive in her heart and mind.
Mother observed that the poorest ones were ones who had no love, that is those who did not know or who were indifferent to the sweet yoke and reign of the King of all hearts. In this, Mother’s love went beyond those who were just materially poor. Yes, she would love them as well, but more importantly she would also feed those who were utterly starving for the love of Christ; and these as she said, were many times very rich, materially speaking. She once said that the United States was so much poorer than the slums of Calcutta, because so many in the U.S., as rich as they were, were very poor spiritually speaking because they did not know the love of Jesus and show that love by taking upon themselves the sweet yoke of that love by serving Him in obedience to His Catholic Church and Her teachings. And this is the primary meaning of today’s Gospel. When Jesus comes again in Glory, He will question us individually about our love; that is, about our love for God, a love that is carried out by our love for the Church and for our neighbor shown in our service to the Church and our neighbor.
Jesus will ask us in the Last Judgment about this- how have we loved Him? In other words, Did we show our love for Jesus by not only feeding those who are physically hungry, but most of all by feeding those who are spiritually hungry, hungry for Christ in the Holy Eucharist and for the food of His truth… Did we show our love for Jesus, not only by giving water to the thirsty, but giving the love of Christ alive in us to those who thirst for it… Did we show our love for Jesus, not only by visiting those who are imprisoned, but by visiting with our admonition, those who are slaves to their sins?… Did we show our love for Jesus, not only by caring for those who are physically ill but by showing our care for those who are spiritually ill through their ignorance, by giving them the medicine of God’s truth, the teachings of His Church?… and not only by welcoming the stranger, but by welcoming back those who have offended us by offering them our forgiveness and mercy and leading those who have separated themselves from God and His Church to the Sacrament of Confession and so to Jesus the King in the Holy Eucharist?…and finally, not only by praying for the bodily dead, but by praying for the spiritually dead through mortal sin, offering our suffering and doing penance for them and offering Holy Mass for them?
Mother Theresa lived her service to the King caring for the poor in these ways just mentioned. But, where did she receive the power to do so? She received it from Jesus her King, truly present in the Holy Eucharist. She said so many times, “My sisters and I could never do what I do without the Eucharist, both receiving Jesus at Mass and adoring Him outside of Mass.” As Jesus once said, “For without Me you can do nothing.” In other words, without the Holy Eucharist, believing, adoring, hoping and loving Jesus present there we can do nothing. Pius XI said the same thing when He instituted this feast day of Christ the King, he said the faithful would grow in the love for Christ and receive the power to bring His reign over the earth, through love, when the faithful of every diocese, district nation and of the whole world, would be given every opportunity to come together to venerate and adore Christ the King hidden under the sacramental species. …By public adoration of the Blessed Sacrament exposed, and by solemn processions, men united in paying homage to Christ whom the Father has given for their king.
Pope Pius went on to say, Christ must reign in our minds, which should assent with perfect submission and firm belief to revealed truths and to the doctrines of Christ found in the teachings of His Holy Catholic Church, which is the fullness of His Kingdom on earth. Jesus must reign in our wills, which should obey the laws and precepts of God (and His Church). He must reign in our hearts, which should spurn natural desires and love God above all things, and cleave to him alone. He must reign in our bodies and in our members, which should serve as instruments for the interior sanctification of our souls. Pius ended with:
“It is Our fervent desire, Venerable Brethren, that those who are outside of the fold may seek after and accept the sweet yoke of Christ, and that we, who by the mercy of God are of the household of the faith, may bear that yoke, not as a burden but with joy, with love, with devotion; that having lived our lives in accordance with the laws of God's kingdom, we may receive full measure of good fruit, and counted by Christ good and faithful servants, we may be rendered partakers of eternal bliss and glory with him in his heavenly kingdom.”
I would propose to each one of us that the most important question each one of us must ask ourselves on this great feast of Christ the King, is not whether Christ does or does not reign in the world, but does He or does He not reign in me? We should ask not if His royalty is recognized by states and governments, but is it recognized and lived by me? In other words, is Jesus Christ truly King and Lord of my life? Who reigns in me, who sets the objectives and establishes the priorities in my life: Christ or another? Is it really Jesus that I serve? Do I serve and Love Him by serving and loving His Kingdom on Earth, the Holy Catholic Church. May our Heavenly Queen obtain for us the grace of final perseverance so that she herself may be by our side pleading our cause when the King, comes again in all His glory to judge the living and the dead. Amen.
The focus of readings for the last few weeks has actually been the Last Judgment. They remind us of the Four Last things…death, judgment, then heaven or hell. These last things should wake us up and remind us just how important our relationship to Jesus is, not only with regards to our final goal and destination that is our happiness in the next life, but also with regards to our happiness in this life. In fact, we can never and will never find meaning in our lives apart from Jesus Christ the King.
More than any other, the fundamental question on the heart of every human being is, ‘Why am I here? What is it that I’m really looking for in this life?” In fact, Jesus himself many times in the Gospels asks this same question to those with whom he came in contact. “What is it you want?” When people met Christ, they very quickly realized that they were having an encounter with someone who was corresponding to the deepest needs of their heart.
For us today with this Feast (and at this Holy Mass), Jesus answers His own question, “What is you want?”, by saying that, “Everything you are looking for, everything you seek, even the very meaning of your existence can be found only in…Me! What you really want and desire is me and my love for you, for I am the God who is Love. Only when you allow me to reign completely over your lives, only when you totally give me yourself in love and take the sweet yoke of my truth and the light burden of my rule over you and your life through my Church, only then will you find what you are looking for and begin to fulfill your deepest longings and desires. If you keep trying to quench your thirst for me with things of this world, even with human loves, you will only be thirsty and unfulfilled.”
When Pope Pius XI instituted this great feast day on December 11, 1925, he was saying this same thing not only to individuals, but also to all peoples and all nations of the world. Pius XI said that the manifold evils in the world were due to the fact that the majority of men had thrust Jesus Christ and His holy law out of their lives; that Jesus and His truth no longer had a place in private affairs or in politics. Pius warned that as long as individuals and states refused to submit to the rule of Our Savior, there would be no really hopeful prospect of a lasting peace among nations. Men must look for the peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ and that Kingdom subsists fully in His, One, Holy, Catholic & Apostolic Church because it contains the Holy Eucharist, Who is the King in the flesh still on earth.
Allow me to read a quote from this beautiful letter of Pope Pius:
If the kingdom of Christ, then, receives, as it should, all nations under its way, there seems no reason why we should despair of seeing that peace which the King of Peace came to bring on earth—he who came to reconcile all things, who came not to be ministered unto but to minister, who, though Lord of all, gave himself to us as a model of humility, and with his principal law united the precept of charity; who said also: "My yoke is sweet and my burden light." Oh, what happiness would be ours if all men, individuals, families, and nations, would but let themselves be governed by Christ! "Then at length…will many evils be cured; then will the law regain its former authority; peace with all its blessings be restored. Men will sheathe their swords and lay down their arms when all freely acknowledge and obey the authority of Christ, and every tongue confesses that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father."
The kingdom of Christ is a kingdom of love. He is not a tyrant or a despot; He will not impose His Will on His subjects--that is on us. He is a King who has come to serve, not to be served. And we must do the same in imitation of Him.
We must serve Christ by serving His Catholic Church and others for love of Him. If fact this is how we would show our love for Him. In order to manifest the Kingdom of God in this world more fully, we must love others for love of Jesus; we must give of ourselves, yes, we must even sacrifice ourselves for the Church and for love of others. Of course what better modern day example could I use to illustrate better this service and love of others for love of Christ, than the example of St. Mother Theresa of Calcutta?
Mother loved the Church and others not just for their own sakes, but because in faith she saw Jesus in them. How many times she quoted Jesus, “Whatsoever you do to the least of these you do unto me!” Jesus loves them, so she would love them for Jesus. And Jesus for His part, through the power of the Sacraments, would give her the strength and courage to love them with His own love alive in her heart and mind.
Mother observed that the poorest ones were ones who had no love, that is those who did not know or who were indifferent to the sweet yoke and reign of the King of all hearts. In this, Mother’s love went beyond those who were just materially poor. Yes, she would love them as well, but more importantly she would also feed those who were utterly starving for the love of Christ; and these as she said, were many times very rich, materially speaking. She once said that the United States was so much poorer than the slums of Calcutta, because so many in the U.S., as rich as they were, were very poor spiritually speaking because they did not know the love of Jesus and show that love by taking upon themselves the sweet yoke of that love by serving Him in obedience to His Catholic Church and Her teachings. And this is the primary meaning of today’s Gospel. When Jesus comes again in Glory, He will question us individually about our love; that is, about our love for God, a love that is carried out by our love for the Church and for our neighbor shown in our service to the Church and our neighbor.
Jesus will ask us in the Last Judgment about this- how have we loved Him? In other words, Did we show our love for Jesus by not only feeding those who are physically hungry, but most of all by feeding those who are spiritually hungry, hungry for Christ in the Holy Eucharist and for the food of His truth… Did we show our love for Jesus, not only by giving water to the thirsty, but giving the love of Christ alive in us to those who thirst for it… Did we show our love for Jesus, not only by visiting those who are imprisoned, but by visiting with our admonition, those who are slaves to their sins?… Did we show our love for Jesus, not only by caring for those who are physically ill but by showing our care for those who are spiritually ill through their ignorance, by giving them the medicine of God’s truth, the teachings of His Church?… and not only by welcoming the stranger, but by welcoming back those who have offended us by offering them our forgiveness and mercy and leading those who have separated themselves from God and His Church to the Sacrament of Confession and so to Jesus the King in the Holy Eucharist?…and finally, not only by praying for the bodily dead, but by praying for the spiritually dead through mortal sin, offering our suffering and doing penance for them and offering Holy Mass for them?
Mother Theresa lived her service to the King caring for the poor in these ways just mentioned. But, where did she receive the power to do so? She received it from Jesus her King, truly present in the Holy Eucharist. She said so many times, “My sisters and I could never do what I do without the Eucharist, both receiving Jesus at Mass and adoring Him outside of Mass.” As Jesus once said, “For without Me you can do nothing.” In other words, without the Holy Eucharist, believing, adoring, hoping and loving Jesus present there we can do nothing. Pius XI said the same thing when He instituted this feast day of Christ the King, he said the faithful would grow in the love for Christ and receive the power to bring His reign over the earth, through love, when the faithful of every diocese, district nation and of the whole world, would be given every opportunity to come together to venerate and adore Christ the King hidden under the sacramental species. …By public adoration of the Blessed Sacrament exposed, and by solemn processions, men united in paying homage to Christ whom the Father has given for their king.
Pope Pius went on to say, Christ must reign in our minds, which should assent with perfect submission and firm belief to revealed truths and to the doctrines of Christ found in the teachings of His Holy Catholic Church, which is the fullness of His Kingdom on earth. Jesus must reign in our wills, which should obey the laws and precepts of God (and His Church). He must reign in our hearts, which should spurn natural desires and love God above all things, and cleave to him alone. He must reign in our bodies and in our members, which should serve as instruments for the interior sanctification of our souls. Pius ended with:
“It is Our fervent desire, Venerable Brethren, that those who are outside of the fold may seek after and accept the sweet yoke of Christ, and that we, who by the mercy of God are of the household of the faith, may bear that yoke, not as a burden but with joy, with love, with devotion; that having lived our lives in accordance with the laws of God's kingdom, we may receive full measure of good fruit, and counted by Christ good and faithful servants, we may be rendered partakers of eternal bliss and glory with him in his heavenly kingdom.”
I would propose to each one of us that the most important question each one of us must ask ourselves on this great feast of Christ the King, is not whether Christ does or does not reign in the world, but does He or does He not reign in me? We should ask not if His royalty is recognized by states and governments, but is it recognized and lived by me? In other words, is Jesus Christ truly King and Lord of my life? Who reigns in me, who sets the objectives and establishes the priorities in my life: Christ or another? Is it really Jesus that I serve? Do I serve and Love Him by serving and loving His Kingdom on Earth, the Holy Catholic Church. May our Heavenly Queen obtain for us the grace of final perseverance so that she herself may be by our side pleading our cause when the King, comes again in all His glory to judge the living and the dead. Amen.
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