34th Week in Ordinary Time 2024 - Friday - On the threshhold of Advent

As we gather on the second-to-last day of the liturgical year and on the threshold of Advent, our readings lead us to consider some profound truths about the culmination of history and the promise of new beginnings. Revelation’s dramatic vision of the binding of Satan, the last judgment, and the establishment of the new heaven and earth, paired with Jesus’ parable of the fig tree in the Gospel, invites us to reflect on God’s ultimate plan for the world and our role within it.

First, the binding of Satan affirms that evil has a definitive end. The dragon, the ancient serpent, is cast into the abyss, unable to deceive the nations. This is not just a promise for the future but a reminder that Christ has already defeated sin and death through His cross and resurrection. Though evil still operates in the world, its power is limited and its days are numbered.

Second, the last judgment is a moment of accountability. The dead are judged according to their deeds, as written in the scrolls of the apocalypse. Here is a reminder that, in the end, our choices, our actions, our witness to Christ all bear eternal weight. 

Finally, we read of the new heaven and new earth, the culmination of God’s redemptive plan. The holy city, the new Jerusalem, descends adorned like a bride. This is the promise of renewal, where all things are made new and where God dwells fully with His people. It is a vision of hope, reminding us that the end is not destruction but transformation.

As we stand on the threshold of Advent, these readings prepare our hearts for the season of preparation and anticipation. Just as we prepare for the celebration the birth of the Savior, we also prepare for the fulfillment of the Kingdom of God.

The Gospel parable of the fig tree Jesus reminds us to stay awake, to discern His presence in our lives and in the world, and to prepare for His coming.

Like the fig tree, the signs of God’s Kingdom are all around us. In moments of grace, in the beauty of creation, and even in the trials we face, God is at work. So, take time during Advent to pause, reflect, and recognize His presence.

But also, use this Advent to align your life more closely with God’s will. Seek reconciliation, perform acts of charity, and deepen your prayer life.

Let Advent be a season where you nurture hope in your heart, trusting in God’s promise to make all things new.

May we live as witnesses to the Kingdom of God, ready for Christ’s coming, and confident in the promise of a new heaven and a new earth. Amen.

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Trusting in God’s promise of renewal and justice, let us bring our prayers to the Lord, who reigns over all creation and prepares us for the coming of His Kingdom.

For the Church, that she may guide the faithful to live with vigilance and hope, proclaiming the coming of God’s Kingdom with courage and love

For world leaders, that they may work for justice, peace, and the dignity of all people.

For our community, that we may discern the signs of God’s presence in our lives and live each day in preparation for Christ’s coming.

For those who suffer from illness or injustice, that they may stand firm in faith and find strength in God’s promise of ultimate victory over evil.

For those who have died, that their names may be found written in the book of life and that they may share in the joy of the new heaven and new earth.

Almighty and merciful God, , hear our prayers as we await the coming of your Son, and guide us to live as faithful witnesses to your Kingdom. We ask this through Christ our Lord.

June 12 2023 (EF) - St. John of San Facundo, confessor - The victory of Truth

ST JOHN OF ST FACUNDO was a Spanish Augustinian friar and priest. He was known as a peacemaker and reconciler of enemies among the nobles and factions of Salamanca. He was a model religious and was entrusted with important offices in his Order — master of novices, definitor for the province, and prior of the convent of the city of Salamanca.

He is remembered especially for his preaching which produced a great reformation of morals in Salamanca. Yet, the boldness shown by Saint John in reproving vice several times endangered his life. 

On one occasion, a powerful nobleman, having been corrected by the Saint for oppressing his vassals, sent two assassins to slay him; but the remarkable holiness of the Saint struck such awe into their minds that they were repelled and humbly begged his forgiveness. The nobleman himself, falling sick, was brought to repentance, and recovered his health by the prayers of the Saint whom he had endeavored to murder.

Saint John was especially zealous in denouncing the vices of impurity, and it was in defense of holy purity that he met his death. A noblewoman poisoned St. John after her companion in sin converted and broke off the sinful relationship. After several months of terrible suffering from the poison, St. John went to his eternal reward. This painful death and the cause for which he suffered it have caused several of his historians to say that he won a martyr's crown.

Vice, particularly impurity, seems to be enshrined and enthroned in our culture right now. But here is a saint who emboldens us to stand firmly in the truth against the moral evils of our day, regardless of the hostility that will result.

In my office, over in the rectory, I have a quote from the Augustinian rule hanging on my wall, perhaps it also inspired today’s saint: “nam non vincit nisi veritas: Victoria ceritatis est caritas. For nothing conquers but truth: the victory of truth is love.” The true Church faces many pressures to compromise the truth of the Gospel, but love for God and love for souls emboldens us to remain solid in the Truth, and souls will be saved through the Church’s witness. The victory of standing in the truth is to bring souls to encounter God’s love.

And yet, recall that so many of our contemporaries are totally without faith. They were raised without faith. Their education made no reference to the faith. Great victories can be won by simply teaching the faithless how to make the sign of the cross, teaching them about God who loves them and desires holy relationship with them, sharing with them a simple Gospel parable, giving them reasons to believe by our good works.

May this wonderful Saint embolden us to confess the faith in our own day and help others do the same, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

EF READINGS

 A reading from the book of Sirach

Happy the rich person found without fault, who does not turn aside after wealth. Who is he, that we may praise him? For he has done wonders among his people. Who has been tested by gold and been found perfect? Let it be for him his glory; Who could have sinned but did not, and could have done evil but did not? So his good fortune is secure, and the assembly will recount his praises.

A continuation of the holy Gospel according to St. Luke

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples: Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival. Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself, have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them. And should he come in the second or third watch and find them prepared in this way, blessed are those servants. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”

Holy Week 2021 - Holy Saturday Morning Prayer - Death and Victory

 As soon as Jesus expired, “the veil of the Temple was torn in two…the earth quaked, the rocks were rent. And the graves were opened: and many bodies…arose,” so that those who were present were seized with a great fear and said: “Indeed this was the Son of God”. Jesus willed to die in complete disgrace, accepting to the very end the mocking challenges of the soldiers, “If you are Christ, save yourself”. But scarcely had He drawn his last breath, when His divinity revealed itself in such a powerful manner that it impressed even those who, up to that moment, had been jeering at Him. Christ’s death began to show itself for what it really was, that is, not a defeat, but a victory: the greatest victory that the world would ever witness, the victory over sin, the victory over death, which was the consequence of sin, the victory which restored to man the life of grace.

Today the Church observes a day of silence, for though his victory was revealed in many signs—the earthquake, the rending of the temple veil—the sacred Body of Jesus, after so many tortures and sufferings, was laid in a silent tomb. 

Together with Our Lady, who received the lacerated Body of her divine Son into her arms, let us draw near today to gaze upon the wounds, the bruises on his body, and his blood, all of which speak so eloquently of Jesus’ love for us. It is true that these wounds are no longer painful, but glorious; and tomorrow, at Easter dawn, we shall celebrate the great victory which they have won. 

Today, we recall, too, that tomb is also meant for us. We too must die with him, if we are to live with him, we too must be buried with him, if we are to rise with him. We, like the catechumens who will be baptized at the Easter Vigil, who will go down into the waters as Christ went down into the tomb, must bury the old sinful way of doing things and treating people, the earthly way, the way devoid of love of God and neighbor. 

May this Holy Saturday, a day of recollection on the sacred wounds of Christ and the Sacred Burial of Christ, prepare us for the glory of Easter Sunday, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Collect: All-powerful and ever-living God, your only Son went down among the dead and rose again in glory. In your goodness raise up your faithful people, buried with him in baptism, to be one with him in the everlasting life of heaven, where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Easter Sunday 2019 - Christ's Triumph over Death

He is Risen, Indeed He is Risen! Alleluia!

On Good Friday, the world was darkened by an eclipse of the sun. Evil was so tangible that even the earth shuddered with an earthquake. It was a day that lies and conspiracies and plotting seemed to conquer truth, when darkness seemed to eclipse light, when death seemed to have been victorious over life, when Satan seemed to have gotten the upper hand on God.

But enough of that. For now we celebrate a morning when the tomb was empty, a morning when light was so bright it blinded roman soldiers and burnt an image into a burial cloth, a morning when life triumphed over death, where truth trumped falsehood, when hope was victorious over despair, when faith championed doubt, when God put Satan in his place. For He is Risen, Indeed He is Risen! Alleluia!

The extraordinary news of Easter morning is that not only did Jesus Christ conquer death for himself. The good news is that he shares that victory over death and sin and despair and darkness and sin and evil with us. His victory is ours. He invites us to share in his triumph. If that is not extraordinarily Good News, I don’t know what is.

On the High Holy Days, many of us come to Church for a lot of different reasons: perhaps you are here today because it’s simply family tradition, perhaps you’re here because it just seemed like the right thing to do, perhaps you are a life-long Catholic, and there was never a doubt that you’d be at Church on Easter Sunday. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure everybody in this Church could raise their hands in agreement, that there are periods in life that seem more like Good Friday than Easter Sunday. Periods of life filled with death and darkness. Periods of life when we wonder about life’s meaning, when we struggle with sickness or the death of someone near to us, periods of life when we seem stuck on a cross, or overwhelmed, like life has buried us in a tomb, when we struggle to find God amidst all the chaos and violence and evil in the world.

The message of course today is that Good Friday does not get the last word. Easter morning does. Our faith in Jesus Christ allows us to be confident that evil and death do not get the last word, that there is truly nothing that can keep us from the love and life God wants for us. That his mercy endures forever and that God will always have the last word over Satan. So, if there is a part of your life, that still seems to be stuck in Good Friday, I invite you to ask Jesus very sincerely today, to enter that part of your life, to transform it. Ask him to come into that Good Friday broken relationship, that Good Friday doubt or confusion, that Good Friday sense of defeat. And to allow him to bring Easter Victory to your Good Friday sufferings.

A few years ago Pope Francis offered these words on Easter: “Let the risen Jesus enter your life, welcome him as a friend, with trust: he is life! If up till now you have kept him at a distance, step forward. He will receive you with open arms. If you have been indifferent, take a risk: you won’t be disappointed. If following him seems difficult, don’t be afraid, trust him, be confident that he is close to you, he is with you and he will give you the peace you are looking for and the strength to live as he would have you do.”

In just a few moments we will renew our baptismal promises. From time to time I meet a college student or older adult who, though baptized as an infant has left the practice of the Catholic faith: they aren’t coming to mass and they don’t accept the truth behind particular Church teachings.  I ask them why they’ve left the practice of the faith in which they were raised.   And they often say, “well, I was baptized as a baby, so I didn’t get a choice to become Catholic or not.”

Well, to all of you, who didn’t get a choice as infants, today, and every Easter, we renew the promises of our baptism, we renew our faith that Jesus rose, we renew our belief in all the Church teaches in his name.  You will then be sprinkled with the Easter waters, that the Lord may breath new life into your religious commitments.

The Early Christians, in fact, celebrated every Sunday as a “little Easter”. They knew that without this little Easter every week, they’d be allowing those forces which conspired against Christ on Good Friday to have power over them. So renew your faith in him today, renew your commitment to seek that life, seek that joy that he wants to give you through a living relationship with Him.

So today, the priest will ask every one of you here six questions for the renewal of your baptismal promises.  The first three have to do with Sin.  Christ’s Easter victory was a victory over sin, so the Christian is to seek to be rid of anything that has to do with sin.  So the priest will ask, “Do you renounce sin, so as to live in the freedom of the children of God. Do you renounce the lure of evil, so that sin may have no mastery over you? Do you renounce Satan, the author and prince of Sin?”

What are we saying, when we say “I do” to these questions?  I’m promising to do everything in my power, with the help of the power of Easter, to put an end to sin in my life, to put an end to all self-absorption and all selfishness. I’m promising to do everything in my own power to change my life, to alter my daily and weekly routines, that they can better reflect the Christian faith as taught by the Catholic Church.  I’m renouncing all of those excuses of laziness which hinder the power of Easter becoming more manifest in me. We readily turn away from these things, for those excuses, those sins, are the most likely culprits for not enjoying the peace and joy God wants for us.

The last three questions of the baptismal promises concern the doctrines of the Faith.  Do you believe in God the Father, do you believe that Jesus Christ suffered and died and rose again, do you believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church.

These are teachings the Church professes every Sunday when we profess the Creed.  These are the truths upon which our religious life rests.  These are the truths that give us strength in the face of temptation, they are the light of truth in the darkness of the world’s confusion and error. Amidst all of the nonsense in the world, all of the error perpetuated through modern media, all the fake news out there, the Christian can say, I know these things to be true.

We renew our baptismal promises today, and by doing so open ourselves to the power of Christ’s Easter Victory. Through them, we become heirs of the promises of Christ, that we, like him, shall be risen from the dead, and live forever. For he risen from the dead, indeed he is risen, alleluia, alleluia.