August 6 2024 - Transfiguration and the Cross

 Today, August 6, is the feast of the transfiguration of the Lord. But why August 6? No where in scripture are there any hints regarding the date Jesus was transfigured.

This liturgical feast is not quite as ancient as others. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, was adopted in the liturgy in about the tenth century in many dioceses, and was celebrated mostly on 6 August. In 1456, Pope Callixtus III extended the feast to the Universal Church in memory of a victory over the Ottoman Turks in Belgrade on August 6, 1456.

Many have noted that August 6 is 40 days prior to the feast of the Exultation of the Cross, which is a much older feast, going back to Constantine’s dedication of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem in 335. 

And that explanation makes sense to me, as there is a very strong theological connection between the transfiguration and the cross. 

The Transfiguration occurs in Luke’s Gospel directly after Christ calls His followers to pick up their Cross and follow Him: “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake, he will save it.”

In St. Luke’s account of the Transfiguration, Jesus speaks with Moses and Elijah about the exodus—the deliverance—that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem, namely his saving death on the cross. 

The Transfiguration cannot really be understood apart from the cross. The liturgy itself makes this connection. In the Eucharistic preface, we will hear that Jesus “revealed his glory in the presence of chosen witnesses and filled with the greatest splendor his bodily form which he shares with all humanity, that the scandal of the Cross might be removed from the hearts of his disciples”.

Not long after the Transfiguration, Christ and His Apostles had to leave the mountain in order to endure the Cross. But he provided this glimpse of glory as a consolation, to strengthen them, for the dark road ahead. 

Likewise, God provides us with beautiful consolations—even the ability to come into a beautiful church like this every week—or every day if we want—is a consolation that strengthens us. We climb the summit of the altar—to be consoled with bread from heaven—so that we might have the strength to bear our own crosses, which again, the Lord teaches us, that each of us must take up our crosses daily, or we will lose the life God desires for us.

In our sufferings, challenges, crosses, temptations and trials of faith may the hope of glory, the hope of heavenly life, sustain us, that we may merit to become coheirs with the beloved Son of the Father, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

- - - -  

For the Church, that she may always be a beacon of Christ's light in the world, illuminating the path of faith for all believers. Let us pray to the Lord.

For all Christians, that we may have the courage to take up our crosses daily, inspired by the glimpse of glory revealed in Christ's Transfiguration. Let us pray to the Lord.

For our parish community, that our participation in the Eucharist may transfigure us, giving us the strength to bear witness to Christ in our daily lives. Let us pray to the Lord.

For those facing trials and sufferings, that they may find strength and consolation in the promise of Christ's glory, just as the apostles were strengthened for the journey ahead. Let us pray to the Lord.

For those who have died, that they may share in the fullness of Christ's glory in heaven, which was glimpsed on Mount Tabor, especially N, for whom this mass is offered. Let us pray to the Lord.

For our personal intentions, that we may offer them to God with trust, knowing that He who was transfigured before His disciples hears our prayers. (Pause for silent prayer) Let us pray to the Lord.

Heavenly Father, You revealed the glory of Your Son on Mount Tabor, strengthening the disciples for the journey ahead. As we bring these petitions before You, transfigure our hearts with Your grace, that we may faithfully bear our crosses and reflect Your light in the world.

Trinity Sunday 2022 - God revealed in Creation, Cross, & Church

 Throughout the Church year, the feasts and solemnities of the liturgical calendar celebrate different dimensions of our Catholic faith. We celebrate events from the life of Jesus: like his joyous birth at Christmas, his salvific death on Good Friday, his glorious Resurrection on Easter Sunday. We also celebrate the feast days of the saints, typically on the anniversaries of their martyrdoms or natural deaths – like the feast of St. Ignatius of Antioch on October 17.

But today, on this solemnity of the Holy Trinity, we don’t celebrate an event from the life of Jesus or one of his holy saints, we celebrate the nature of God, who God is, and what God has done.

And as a way of gently handling this most august and mysterious of topics, I’d like to reflect on three C’s. Three C’s. Creation, Crucifixion, and Church.

In the first reading, we heard of the glories of Creation: mountains, hills, fountains, fields, earth and dirt, the heavens and skies, sea and water. God Created all these things and therefore must have pre-existed all of these things. God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—has existed from all eternity—and the three divine persons, working together, have brought all aspects of creation into being. 

What is the most beautiful place you’ve ever visited? A mountain top, the grand canyon, the ocean, a lush forest, a secluded lake? I’ve been blessed to have been able to travel to a lot of different locals. I remember vacationing in Canada one year, up in the Kawartha Lakes of Northern Ontario and waking up one early morn and seeing the first glimmers of sunlight on the glassy lake, the morning mist just gently hovering over the waters, the calm ever-green forest lining the shores of the lake, just being moved to tears at how grateful I was to take in the beauty of Creation.

Creation is beautiful-- because God—the Creator—is infinitely beautiful—and He has made creation very good. Pope Pius XII back in 1955 reflected upon how finite Creation hints at God’s infinite beauty. He said, Creation, “which offers itself to the inspection of the attentive observer, reveals an inexhaustible wealth of goodness and beauty, reflecting back with transparent sincerity the infinite superabundance of the perfection and beauty of nature's Creator.”

“Sometimes one is enchanted and overcome by the majesty of towering mountains, at other times by the irresistible fury of the ocean tempest, the solitude of polar glaciers, the vast stretch of virgin forests, the melancholy of the desert sands, the loveliness of flowers, the limpid quality of water, the violent rush of waterfalls, the distinctive beauty of the Northern Lights... Greater astonishment and wealth of knowledge are offered by... the secrets of the animal kingdom... in forests and in inhospitable deserts, on rivers and in the depths of the sea. What a testimony to the richness and manifold variety of nature... to soothe, recreate and refresh the spirit."

So, on this Trinity Sunday, reflect, perhaps on the beauty of nature, tell someone about the most beautiful place you’ve ever visited. Thank God for his beautiful creation. And endeavor to be a good steward of that creation.

The first C—Creation. The Second C--The Cross. The Cross too reveals something about God to us, it reveals God’s love. On the Cross we see the love of God made visible. The Father so loved the world, that he sent his Son to suffer and die to redeem us. God is love, and there is no greater love than one who lays down his life for others. Creation was a labor of love, well, so was the cross, the greatest labor of love: the labor that saved us from the grasp of hell. 

And through the Cross, through the Crucifixion, the Holy Trinity has transformed the ugliness of suffering into an instrument of human sanctification and redemption. Suffering now has meaning and redemptive power, so much so that we can say with St. Paul in our second reading: “we are able, now to boast of our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope, and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”

On this Trinity Sunday, turn to a crucifix, contemplate the love of God for you, in suffering for you, dying for you, you a sinner, loved with love beyond all telling. Ask the Father to help you to love as much as he does, Ask the Son to help you to love as much as he does, as the Holy Spirit to help you love as much as He does.

Creation, Cross, and finally, Church. The Church also reveals something about God—she reveals that God is still at work. The Church’s very existence is willed by God, she is sustained by God, animated by God, taught by God, directed toward God, protected by God, ordered by God, sent out by God. The Church reveals that God involves us in His work—to save souls. 

Also, St. Basil the Great, the fourth century doctor of the Church, taught that the Church has the duty to reflect God’s nature. The world is to know that God is a Trinity—a Communion of Love—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—through the way we worship and treat each other.

The Trinitarian nature of God is certainly seen in the way we worship. In the celebration of Mass, we unite ourselves to the Son, who offers Himself to the Father, that the grace of salvation may redeem the human race through the power of the Holy Spirit. Our sacred hymns today especially invoke, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We baptized in the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit. Sins are absolved in Sacramental Confession in the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit. The dying are comforted and the sick are brought healing and strength in the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit.

But the nature of the Triune God is not just revealed by the Church’s worship and sacramental life, but the Church acts in his name out in the world. We seek to be faithful to the Commands of the Father, as Christ was obedient. We seek to imitate Christ’s goodness, his self-sacrifice, his self-donation, his endurance, his love for sinners. And we seek to be animated by the gifts of the holy spirit and the fruits of the holy spirit for the building up of the church and the mission of spreading the Gospel. Just like the beauty of God can be detected in creation, just like the love of God was revealed on the cross, the truth, goodness, and beauty of the living God—Father, Son, and Spirit, are to be manifest in the life of the Church.

So, on this great Solemnity consider how your life is called to mirror, reflect, make manifest, make known the Triune God—His Truth, Goodness, Beauty, and Love for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Holy Week 2021 - Good Friday - "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do"

 

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”

While we did not read those words from St. Luke’s Gospel either on Palm Sunday or Good Friday this year, this plea for mercy for others uttered by our Lord from the cross have been echoing in my heart today.

To whom was the Lord addressing that prayer for mercy? In Luke’s Passion narrative, the Lord’s petition for forgiveness immediately follow’s the description of his crucifixion: When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him and the criminals there, one on his right, the other on his left. Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Jesus no doubt offered this prayer on behalf of the Roman soldiers who literally nailed him to the cross. They knew not what they did, they were just following orders. They hadn’t heard him preach, they didn’t know his identity. They were treating Jesus just like they would any criminal, though maybe a bit more severely, due to his reputation as King of the Jews. They certainly did not know that he truly was a King, though his Kingdom was not of this world. If they would have known his true identity, writes St. Paul to the Corinthians, “they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (I Cor 2:8).

So certainly Jesus’s plea was for his actual executioners, who though they treated him with cruelty and harshness, did not know they were committing deicide—putting to death the innocent lamb of God. And yet, did Jesus not also offer that merciful plea to his Father on behalf of the Jews who conspired to put him on the cross? The scribes, pharisees, Sadducees, annas and Caiaphas: those who interpreted his teachings as blasphemy—those who saw him as a threat to their own religious authority—those who he threw out of the temple for turning God’s house into a den of thievery. Those who called for the release of Barabbas. Those who literally called for his crucifixion. They showed that they misunderstood his teachings and actions at every step, so wasn’t he also praying for them? Not just for his executioners, but those who conspired against him? 

But the Lord’s prayer was not simply just for his executions, or the Jewish conspirators, was it? We know who that prayer was for. It was for us. It was for me. It was for you. It was for Moses. It was for Adam and Eve. It was for us all. All people of all time. As St. Peter writes in his first epistle: “Christ suffered for sins, the Righteous One for the sake of the Unrighteous Ones (that’s us), that he might lead us to God. (I Peter 3:18)

Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. None of us can really understand the gravity of our sins. Human sin, after all, is an afront to the infinite God. And can we really ever truly grasp God’s infinite goodness and love, which sin offends. We can’t even really comprehend how our sins wound and hurt our neighbor, or our family members, let alone the infinite God. “Those who do not know what they do” that’s us. 

But just because we don’t understand the gravity of our sins, doesn’t mean they aren’t sins and an abomination to God, just the same. Just because we don’t understand the impact, the severity, the wounds that we cause, doesn’t mean we’re in the clear. 

The reason today is called Good Friday, is as St. Paul writes: “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8). “Father forgive them” for we needed forgiveness.

Throughout the ages the martyrs have echoed the Lord’s prayer for mercy. St. James, the first of the apostles to be martyred, knelt and prayed as he was being stoned by the scribes and Pharisees: “Lord, God, Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” St. Stephen, too, condemned to death by Paul, prayed, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”

Even our own patron, Ignatius to the Church of Ephesus, recommended that as they underwent persecution, they too should pray. Ignatius writes, “Offer prayers in response to their blasphemies…be gentle in response to their cruelty and do not be eager to imitate them in return…Let us eagerly be imitators of the Lord.” This, coming from a man who was being marched in chains to be torn apart by lions.

As each of us comes forward to adore the holy cross today, let us come with the same prayer upon our lips. We pray for the world. We pray for those who do not believe in Christ. We pray for members of the Church who love and believe imperfectly. Pray for those who have hurt you or who might hurt you in the future. Pray for those who bring ruin to our nation, to our diocese.  Pray for your pastor, as he prays for you. “Father, forgive them for they no not what they do. Father, forgive me, for I, so often know not what I do.” For the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Holy Week 2021 - Good Friday Morning Prayer - Sanctifying the Hours

 Following the Lord’s Supper, he went to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane, where after a period of agonizing prayer, he was approached by Judas who kissed him as a sign of betrayal. Likely around 4 to 6am he was arrested and brought before Annas and Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin who brought him up on trumped up charges. Around the time most of us were getting up this morning, between 6 and 8am, the Gospels are not clear about the exact timeline, Jesus was brought before the governor Pontius Pilate who found no reason to condemn Him, but sent him to the puppet-king Herod, who also failed to find a crime. Now with the crowd stirred up by the Sanhedrin, Pilate has Jesus scourged and then agrees to have him crucified, out of fear of a rebellion. Around 8am, Jesus begins to carry his cross through the streets of Jerusalem, and probably around the time you were starting your rosary, around 8:30am, Simon of Cyrene is tasked to help this stranger with the heavy burden.

Around the time we began morning prayer, with the words, “God come to my assistance”, “at the third hour of the day” as St. Mark puts it, Jesus was nailed to the cross, and experienced those first excruciating agonies as we prayed the penitential psalm 51 calling for God to have mercy on us in our offenses. Considering our own responsibility for the crucifixion of Our Lord, this prayer, psalm 51, is certainly an appropriate response.

Following morning prayer we will depart in silence and return to Church at the hour of the Lord’s final breath—“the ninth hour of the day” as Matthew calls it for the Good Friday liturgy of the Lord’s Passion. 

Today is a powerful day for pleading God’s mercy, for ourselves, for all mankind, for priests and religious, for those who reject God, for those who seem to be stuck in cycles of sin, for those who have become lukewarm, for those who near death, and the souls in purgatory. Today also begins The Divine Mercy Novena, which is prayed from Good Friday until Divine Mercy Saturday.

There is a tradition that  the Penitential Psalms, Psalm 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, and 143 are prayed until we gather again at 3pm, sanctifying the hours with recollection of what the Lord is suffering. We do well to fast and pray, pleading to God for the purifying and washing that only he can accomplish, that he does accomplish, through the passion and death of His Son, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

September 14, 2020 - Exaltation of the Holy Cross - Holy Stigmata of St. Francis of Assisi

IN 1224, St. Francis of Assisi traveled with about a dozen of his fellow friars, a hundred or so miles from Rome to an isolated mountaintop called La Verna to make a spiritual retreat. Eating little and praying constantly, it is said that at La Verna Francis did great spiritual battle with the powers of evil, encountering great hostility from the devil, as did the old desert fathers like St. Anthony. But Francis also experienced intense moments of communion with God, even levitating far above the ground in raptured prayer. 

On September 14, 1224, just before sunrise, Francis was kneeling in prayer pleaded, “O Lord, I beg of you two graces before I die: to experience in myself in all possible fullness the pains of your cruel passion and to feel for you the same love that made you sacrifice yourself for us.” Suddenly, from the heights of heaven came a seraph with six wings bearing the likeness of the Crucified One. Staring at Francis, he imprinted on the saint’s flesh the marks of crucifixion, the holy Stigmata.

In this powerful story, St. Francis teaches us something quite profound about today’s liturgical feast and really for the Christian life. On this feast, we pray that the cross may be exalted, literally meaning, brought out into the light, that it may be seen and adored and glorified. The Church exalts the cross, that others may come to know, believe in, and love, the one whom upon the cross brought forth our salvation. 

It is said that when St. Francis contemplated the Crucifixion he used to weep, lamenting that, “Love is not loved.” That the love of Jesus Christ shown forth for us on the cross, is ignored by so many. And so he sought, didn’t he, to conform his life as much as possible—through radical poverty, obedience, chastity, preaching, and fasting, and embracing the sufferings of the cross. St. Francis saw in the Cross the humble, self-emptying love of God for us, and so his one great desire was that in everything, he would be conformed to the cross.

The holy stigmata was certainly a sign that Francis conformed himself to the cross: in experiencing the suffering of the cross, and also experiencing the love Christ showed upon the cross. And here is the lesson: we are called to do the same.

This Feast is to remind us that by our lives, we are meant to do the same: to willingly accept the sufferings that come from God, our share in the cross of Christ, in order to make Christ known, and to be animated by the love that Jesus showed on the cross for all, and to hate everything that keeps us from this purpose.

May we strive to live with this depth of faith, hope, and love in the cross and in the crucified one, that we may make him known in all we do, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

 

Let us pray with confidence to Christ who endured the cross to redeem us.

That Pope Francis and all of the ordained may seek to conform themselves to Christ Crucified in all of their ministerial efforts, especially Bishop Edward Malesic, who will be installed as the Bishop of Cleveland today.

That politicians and government officials will protect religious freedom, promote virtue, and look to the to the example of our Crucified Lord to guide their work for the good of nations and the human race.

That as Our Lord emptied himself upon the cross, we may follow his example of humility in concrete acts of Christian service.

Through the cross, may God grant fortitude and patience to all who through sickness or hardship have a share in Christ’s passion.

That we may all be led through the Lord’s Passion and Cross to the Glory of the Resurrection, especially N. for whom this Mass is offered.

Graciously hear, O God, the prayers of your Church and turn with compassion to the hearts that bow before you, that those you make sharers in the cross of Christ may never be left without your assistance. Through the same Christ Our Lord.

July 22 2020 - St. Mary Magdalene - Ardent love for Christ

It can be argued, that Mary Magdalene is the second-most important woman in the New Testament. Throughout the four Gospels, she is named 14 times, more than most of the apostles.  Yet, there is a lot of confusion about some of Mary Magdalene’s biographical information.

There is no scriptural evidence that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute.  Nor is she the woman to have washed the feet of Jesus, that was Mary of Bethany in John’s Gospel; St. Mark and Luke do tell us that the Lord had cast out of her “seven demons”.

Movies like The Last Temptation of Christ and Jesus Christ Superstar portray Mary of Magdala as young, beautiful and as having…romantic interest…in Jesus, and we won’t even go into what Dan Brown, author of The Davinci Code has to say about her.

Mary Magdalene was a woman of deep faith and ardent love for the Lord. Everything we know about her speaks of her love for Jesus. St. Luke tells us that she helped provide for the needs of Jesus and His apostles out of her resources (Lk 8:3).

She, unlike many of the apostles, followed the Lord all the way to Calvary, and stood at the foot of the cross with Jesus (Jn 19:25). On Easter Sunday, she went to the tomb, found it empty and began to weep, believing the Lord's body to have been stolen.  But the Lord had risen, as he said he would, and spoke her name, "Mary".  Faith and Love then impelled her to bring the news of the resurrection to the apostles.

That is the last we read of her in the Scriptures.

Though we can’t take everything in pious legend as historical fact, there is something of her spirituality that we do well to consider. There is a legend that Mary Magdalene who was present at the crucifixion meditated on the Lord’s sufferings every day for the rest of her life. Faith and love for her meant contemplating the depths of the Lord’s sufferings, his wounds, his “stripes by which we are healed” as Isaiah says.

Why did she do this? So that she might not take his suffering for granted. To love a person is to value what they suffer, especially what they suffer on our behalf. This is one of the most important lessons in all of Christianity. We cannot overvalue the sufferings of Our Lord—what he suffered for us poor sinners who did not deserve salvation. Love itself suffered immeasurably for the unlovable.

By coming to deeper appreciation for what he suffered, we seek to conform our lives to his, that our lives may reflect the gratitude his sufferings deserve for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

- - - - - - -

That all Christians may seek to imitate the examples of the saints and grow in the virtues of faith, hope, and love.

For the demon-possessed and those hardened in sin, that they, through the intercession of St. Mary Magdalene, may know true deliverance and that young people  may be preserved from evil, and discover the great joy of loving and being loved by Christ.

That Christians may imitate the generosity of Mary Magdalene in providing for the needs of the mission of the Church.

For all the needs of the sick and the suffering, the homebound, those in nursing homes and hospitals, the underemployed and unemployed, immigrants and refugees, victims of human trafficking, natural disaster, war, and terrorism, for the unborn, for all those who grieve the loss of a loved one, and those who will die today, for their comfort, and the consolation of their families.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Hear Our Prayers, O Lord, and through the intercession of St. Mary Magdalene, free us from all that keeps us from the love of Christ. Through the same Christ Our Lord.

Sacred Heart 2018 - The Flesh of His Heart

In 1996 in the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, then under the care of Archbishop Jorge Bergolio, now Pope Francis, an investigation was conducted of a possible Eucharistic miracle. A consecrated Host was found on the ground and soon placed in a glass of water to dissolve. Days later, the Eucharist hadn’t dissolved at all — it had turned into bloody Flesh. It was stored in the tabernacle for three years, and when it did not dissolve, Archbishop Bergolio summoned a neurophysiologist to have samples from the Host examined in a laboratory environment.

The scientist brought the sample to San Francisco without telling anyone there what it was or where it came from. Blind testing revealed the samples were constituted of human heart muscle, specifically from the myocardium of the left ventricle. Further, the tests showed the blood was human, with human DNA, and of the rare AB-positive type — the same as found on the Shroud of Turin.

A similar miracle was recently confirmed as authentic in Poland. In this case too, a Host had fallen to the ground, so it was placed in water to dissolve. Not long afterward, the Eucharist began turning red, as if bloody.

The bishop allowed scientific tests to be conducted, which indicated that the host had become human tissue, specifically heart muscle, and more specifically heart muscle, under great strain, as if it were undergoing great agony.

We celebrated last Sunday, the great gift of the Eucharist, how the Lord left us the Eucharist as the memorial of his suffering and death. These miracles in a sense link last Sunday’s feast with today’s feast of the Sacred Heart: that the Eucharist comes from the heart of Christ. The Eucharistic Preface today, in fact, calls the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the wellspring of the Church’s Sacraments. The Sacraments are born of the love of Christ, the heart of Christ, who willingly undergoes the excruciating agony of crucifixion, that we might be redeemed from our sinful rejection of God, of which all men are guilty.

His love encompasses all. Salvation is offered to all. The Gospel is preached to all. And the Sacraments are offered to all who will humble themselves to acknowledge and confess their sins and to profess the Christian faith of Christ’s one true Church. No one is excluded from the invitation to repent and believe.

Now some people want salvation without repentance, and some want it without belief, some people want it without engaging in the Sacramental life of the Church. So we pray for them, we do reparation for them, and we share the truth of the Gospel with them, that all may come to drink from the wellspring of Charity, the heart of Christ, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
 
- - - - - - - - -

That the Church may be continually cleansed and sanctified by the blood and water that gave us new birth.

For all who have fallen away from the Church, for those who lack faith, and in reparation to the Sacred Heart for all sin and all blasphemy.

For all those who are sick or burdened in any way, may come to know and experience the refreshment of Christ’s love.

For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, for all of the poor souls in purgatory, for the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, for the deceased priests and religious of the diocese of Cleveland, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom.

Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ our Lord

February 6 2018 - St. Paul Miki - Hands stretched forth toward heaven

When invited to pray, many modern people close their eyes, bow their head, and fold their hands. We find this posture helps us to speak words of the heart to God. Another common posture of prayer, was to kneel down in worship of God, as the Psalmist says, “Let us worship and bow down, let us kneel down before the Lord our Maker.”

Another very common posture of prayer described in the Old Testament, was to spread out the hands toward heaven in a gesture of surrender and openness. The priest adopts this gesture—of hands extended toward heaven—throughout the mass, particularly when he is praying on behalf of the whole Church.

This posture is adopted by Solomon: with the Temple complete, Solomon, stood on the steps of the Temple, and offered a very priestly prayer, with hands extended to heaven, he prayed that the Temple be a place where heaven and earth would meet: a place where God was honored, a place where God would hear the petitions offered by his people.

In the Gospel, Our Lord condemns a certain posture of prayer, one that was taken by the Pharisees. And this was an internal posture, of honoring God with their lips, while their hearts are far from Him. The Pharisees adopted grand gestures, but their hearts were hardened.

On the cross, Jesus unites word, gesture, and heart: with arms and hands outstretched in perfect surrender to the will of the Father, Jesus prays and offers his life for us. We adopt the gesture of kneeling, bowing, stretching our arms to heaven in prayer, that our whole lives might become a prayer of surrender to God, like Christ’s.

The martyrs of the Church, like St. Paul Miki and his companions honored today, imitate our Lord in his self-sacrificial prayerful offering. They assume, in their martyrdom, the posture of surrender, offering their lives, in union with Jesus, for souls and the good of the Church.

Paul Miki and his companions were marched, processed to the hill of execution at Nagasaki, Japan. And there, they were hung on crosses. With arms outstretched, St. Paul Miki prayed for his persecutors. He said, “The only reason for my being killed”, he said, “is that I have taught the doctrine of Christ… I thank God it is for this reason I die… After Christ’s example I forgive my persecutors. I do not hate them. I ask God to have pity on all, and I hope my blood will fall on my fellow men as a fruitful rain.”

May our prayer today, our Eucharistic celebration, enable us to offer out lives in complete and humble offering for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

- - - - - -
 
For the Holy Father’s prayer intention for the month of February, that those who have material, political or spiritual power may resist any lure of corruption. We pray to the Lord.

For Christians who are persecuted throughout the world, especially those who face martyrdom, that they may have a faith that is constant and pure.

For all the needs of the sick and the suffering, the homebound, those in nursing homes and hospitals, the underemployed and unemployed, immigrants and refugees, victims of natural disaster, war, and terrorism, for all those who grieve the loss of a loved one, and those who will die today, for their comfort, and the consolation of their families.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ our Lord