13th Sunday of Ordinary Time 2024 - Death, Life, and Interruptions

 Interruptions. Most of us hate to be interrupted. We’re in the middle of preparing a meal, and the phone rings; in the middle of our prayer time, and there’s a knock on the door; making good time in our commute to work or to a vacation locale, and there’s a traffic jam; we finally have time to relax after a long day or a long week, and there’s an emergency we need to attend to. Interruptions. They are so frequently inconvenient, it’s almost comical. 

Did you notice that our Lord was interrupted in our Gospel this weekend. The Lord is on his way to heal the sick daughter of Jairus when he is interrupted by the woman with a hemorrhage. This is a common feature in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus is constantly being interrupted. But one might say that the intertwining of the two miracle stories, one story of Jesus being interrupted to perform a miracle, teaches us that even interruptions are part of God’s wise providential plan for our lives, even when we are interrupted by good and holy things like prayer or caregiving.

The interruption by the woman with the hemorrhage delayed the Lord’s trip to heal Jairus’ daughter. And because of the interruption it appears Jesus arrives too late. But there is never a “too late” for God. What was originally going to be a miracle of healing became something much more—a miracle of raising the dead. The interruption became an opportunity for God’s glory to shine even brighter. 

So too with the interruptions we face. In response to those forces that are beyond our control, we need to remind ourselves of the one that IS in control, and to seek God’s will in the present, without worrying so much about the future. Interruptions of our plans are part of God’s providential plan. So, we should teach ourselves to say the essential prayer, “thy will be done” to those many little interruptions we so naturally resent and even to the big ones.

For, God does not ask us to succeed in finishing and accomplishing our enterprises, only to do our duty of being faithful to him at each present moment. Our plans and God’s plan coincide only sometimes—perhaps, rarely. As one comedian put it, if you want to give God a good laugh, tell him your plans.

Our job is to give ourselves over more and more to God’s plan—to surrender in times when we face even tragedy and death. Death, we heard about death in our first reading today. Scripture often tackles the reality of death. 

But if the resurrection of Jesus teaches us anything, it’s that God is in control and can bring about a greater good even from something as terrible as death. 

And death is a reality that each of us grapples with. Our lives are measured by time, in the course of which we change, grow old and, as with all living beings on earth, we die. Mindfulness of the limited time we have on earth lends urgency to our lives. Remembering our mortality helps us realize that we have only a limited time in which to bring our lives to fulfillment. We are to make use of the time we have been given in this earthly life to work out our salvation and to seek the perfection for which we were made.

But where did death come from? Death is a consequence of sin. As we heard in our first reading today, “God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living…For God formed man to be imperishable” We would have been immune from death had Adam and Eve not sinned. God, in whose image we are made is the God and author of life. He is the Creator. He made us for living communion with Himself. Human death entered the world by our choosing death. God wanted life for us. God is pro-life. But we chose death, introducing death into creation. But, with the time we have on earth, we must choose life. For ourselves and others. 

You might say, “well if God didn’t make death” why do plants and animals die. Even nonliving things come to an end: rocks become sand after millennia of wind and waves. Even after eons stars and galaxies die. 

But human death is different than all other death. God did not make it. He made man to live forever. Death is a consequence of the fall of man, not a consequence of the creation of God. 

The first reading said, it was by the envy of the devil, that death entered the world. It was the plan of the devil to obscure the plans of God for us. And we bought into it. The sinful misuse of our God-given ability of choice brought death into the world to the delight of the devil. 

But again, God is greater than our plans and even the plans of the devil. For through Jesus Christ, death is transformed. Jesus, the Son of God, himself suffered the death that is part of the human condition. Yet, despite his anguish as he faced death, he accepted it in an act of complete and free submission to his Father's will. By his death he has conquered death, and so opened the possibility of salvation to all men.

Death is the end of man's earthly pilgrimage, of the time of grace and mercy which God offers us so as to work out our eternal destiny. Will we pursue eternal life through Christ or eternal death by turning away from Him. But again, through Jesus death is transformed. For those who die in friendship with Christ, death is a simple closing of our physical eyes, that the eyes of our soul can come to behold the face of God in eternity. 

 When we have made our peace with God, and have faith that the love of Christ is greater than death, it becomes easier to remain peaceful and trusting in God in the face of those smaller interruptions. The traffic jams, the inconvenient social calls become opportunities to turn to God, to trust God in those circumstances which are beyond our control, to deepen our conviction to pursue God over our own selfish aims, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

5th Sunday of Lent 2023 - Jesus Wept and Raised the Dead

 You may have noticed something unique about the prayers at Mass during these last weeks of Lent. 

After the offertory prayer, the priest offers a prayer called the Eucharistic preface. You know the one. The priest standing at the altar prepared with the gifts of bread and wine, prays, the lord be with you, and you respond “and with your spirit”, lift up your hearts, we lift them up to the Lord, let us give thanks to the Lord our God, it is right and just.

And the prayer that follows that little dialogue is called the Eucharistic preface, the preface to the Eucharistic prayer. And normally, the Eucharistic preface is unique to the season—there are eucharistic prefaces for ordinary time, and advent, and lent, nuptial masses, and funerals. But there are a few Eucharistic prefaces that can be used only once a year, on a particular Sunday or feast.

Well, the third, fourth, and fifth Sundays of Lent are such days. And if you remember from the last two weeks, and as you’ll hear later in this mass, the beautiful Eucharistic prefaces correspond to the Lenten Gospels readings. 

So, two weeks ago, when we heard the Gospel of the Samaritan woman at the well, the Eucharistic Preface referenced that reading. Listen again to the beautiful preface. “For when Jesus asked the Samaritan woman for water to drink , he had already created the gift of faith within her; and so ardently did he thirst for her faith, that he kindled in her the fire of divine love.” So many profound theological insights packed into one simple prayer. Jesus thirsts for our faith, and even before we come to faith, God is at work, kindling in our hearts, love for God. This certainly makes us think of the catechumens, in whom God has been at work there whole lives to bring them here, to bring them to faith.

Then last week, when heard the Gospel of Jesus commanding the man born blind to go down into the pool of Bethesda to be healed. And then the Eucharistic Preface spoke of those waters by which we are healed of darkness and spiritual blindness. Listen to last week’s preface. It goes: “By the mystery of the Incarnation, Christ has led the human race that walked in darkness into the radiance of the faith and has brought those born in slavery to ancient sin through the waters of regeneration to make them God’s adopted children.”

Again, notice the connection with the Gospel and the rich and profound theological insights the Eucharistic Preface brings to mind. Like the man born blind, the human race without Christ walks in darkness, but sight is restored, it is regenerated through baptism, when we are made adopted children of God. Restored relationship with God brings healing, brings spiritual sight. 

In our Gospel for this fifth Sunday of Lent, we just heard the raising of Lazarus. And we are given the third of these special Eucharistic prefaces which correspond to the Lenten Gospel. Listen to these words: “For as true man, [Jesus] wept for Lazarus his friend and as eternal God raised him from the tomb, just as, taking pity on the human race, he leads us by sacred mysteries to new life.”

Again, how beautiful and theologically rich! We are given this reminder that Jesus was truly human. He wept. He had a heart that experienced human emotion. Sadness. Grief at the death of friend. He knows what it is like to grieve like we grieve. God, who is infinite and inaccessible light, took on human flesh and experienced pain, emotional and physical. 

And this is an important truth for us to ponder as we near holy week. Next week, as we read the Lord’s passion, we keep in mind, that Jesus’ suffering isn’t just for show, it wasn’t theater, he was moved by real love to undergo real suffering for us, the weight and penalty of every sin which warranted eternal separation from God, the venial and mortal of our lives, out of love for us.

But then, the Eucharistic preface, after reminding us of Jesus’ real humanity, then reminds us of Jesus’ real divinity. As a human like us, he wept, then as God, he raised the dead. 

Resurrection. It is the natural course of dead things to stay dead. Forever. To die and rot. That’s natural. Dead things and dead people cannot come back to life on their own. We only come back to life by the power of God. Science and medical technology can resuscitate things that aren’t really fully dead yet. Only “mostly dead” to quote the classic film. But once fully dead, a person or an animal is dead, beyond science and medical technology. Death is an absolute limit to our human capabilities. Lazarus was dead. He was rotting. There was stench.

And as eternal God, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. No religious leader, in any world religion, at any time, in human history, raised anyone from the dead, save Jesus. Because every religious leader, of any world religion, at any time, save one, was merely human. Even the Jewish prophets, through whom God worked a lot of marvelous things, never raised anyone from the dead. 

Why follow Jesus Christ? Why seek baptism and faithfulness to him? The promise of being raised from the dead is a pretty and living forever in God’s kingdom of peace is a pretty good reason. And it’s not just an empty promise. The promise of some delusional cult leader. Jesus shows us what God is capable of, what God longs to do. He’s done it before. And at Easter, we celebrate that Jesus Himself was raised from the dead. No other religious leader can make that claim either.

Resurrection: it’s really the ultimate argument against anyone who says all religions are the same. No. They aren’t. Show me a member of another religion who not only raised the dead but also rose from the dead. And then maybe we’ll talk.

But again, this beautiful reading and eucharistic preface about resurrection prepares us for Holy Week. Death doesn’t get the last word. And so as people of faith we willingly follow the Lord all the way to the cross. Because we know that the cross isn’t the end of the story. 

But it really makes you wonder, doesn’t it, why Peter and the other apostles fled in fear. They had witnessed the raising of Lazarus. They had been given this glimpse into who Jesus is. What were they afraid of? Well, we know that too, don’t we. Because, even though we’ve been baptized, and we have faith in the resurrection, we still flee from suffering for the kingdom; we flee into myriad sins because sin is the old comfort zone, the ingrained habit, the weakness of man that has yet to be brought to God to be healed.

But that’s why the last part of that Eucharistic preface is so important: God, taking pity on us, leads us by the sacred mysteries to new life. Yes we are sinners. Yes, we are works in progress. And we recognize that as sinners we are being led to eternal life. And we so return week after week to the sacred mysteries, to the Eucharist, because the Eucharist is our pledge of eternal life. Christ promises that those who eat his flesh and drink his blood shall be raised on the last day. The Eucharist is the remedy for mortality, as our dear Patron St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote nearly 2000 years ago. Ignatius writes, “Assemble yourselves together in common; breaking one bread, which is the medicine of immortality and the antidote that we should not die but live forever in Jesus Christ.” 

By these sacred mysteries, may we be strengthened in faith and love, healed of sin and selfishness, and live in firm and unshakeable hope in the resurrection through Christ for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time 2022 - My soul is prepared, how's yours?

 

The conversation in today’s Gospel between Jesus and his apostles occurs during the last week of Jesus’ earthly life.  He and his followers had gone to Jerusalem to consummation of his mission—the end, for which he took our flesh. 

And that last week, Each day between Palm Sunday and Holy Thursday, the Lord Jesus went with his Twelve Apostles to the Temple, to teach and preach about God’s saving love and that the kingdom of God was at hand.  Today, we hear the Lord, standing at the temple, and the crowds are commenting on the magnificent marble Temple with its stones glittering in the afternoon sun, the Christ uttered a stark prophecy: “All that you see here—the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone.”  

Now for the Jews, remember, the Temple was the center of religious and civic life. To foretell the end of the temple to the Jews, would mean an end to life as they knew it, the end of the world. 

Why do we meditate upon this scene today? Well, we, too, have come to the end of things: the end of the liturgical year is just a week away. So, we consider the end, so that we may prepared for our earthly end, and the end of time. 

I think I’ve used this image before, but one of my favorite action movie heroes is Indiana Jones—the archaeologist college professor who dons his fedora and leather whip to track down lost artifacts in foreign lands. And of course he has to fight through waves of Nazis and cultists in order to do so. Before I ever considered a vocation to the priesthood, I thought that would be a pretty interesting job.

One of my favorite scenes is from the third installment of the movie series Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.  Indiana Jones’ father had been kidnapped, and he is pursuing who he thinks are the kidnappers on a boat chase through the water ways of Venice Italy.  Finally, Indiana and the kidnapper are in a boat being drawn towards the propeller of this huge steam ship, and the propeller starts to chop up the boat they are in.  The kidnapper says, if you don’t let me go, Doctor Jones, we’ll both die.  He reveals a cross around his neck and says, My soul is prepared Doctor Jones, how is yours?” What a powerful line. My soul is prepared, how’s yours? 

The Christian must live with his soul prepared always. The coast guard of these United States has a great motto: semper paratus. Always prepared. Well, every human being does well to consider, is your soul prepared. Prepared for what’s next. 

Holy Mother Church very wisely, reminds us of the need to be prepared, every year, at the end of the liturgical year. We know when that day will come. The last day of the liturgical year is the Saturday prior to the first day of Advent. But, we do not know the day, when the the end is coming, either for each of us, individually, or collectively, for the human race. We know neither the day nor the hour when the Lord will return, but he will, just as he said. 

Will it be soon? We don’t know. He mentions the signs that will proceed his return in the Gospel today: earthquakes, hurricanes, war, rampant immorality, famine, and plagues. These dangers to mortal life are reason enough to ensure our souls are prepared. Walking around as if we shall never face our judge is foolishness. 

Rather, we are to wisely prepare by following the Lord’s own teaching. He says, “By your perseverance you will secure your lives.” Perseverance in what?  In faith, of course. Faith, hope, and love. Perseverance in following Christ’s teachings, keeping God’s commands, repenting of sin; engaging in works of mercy, forgiving our enemies, and spreading the Gospel. Perseverance in using the time we have been given to pursue the will of the heavenly Father, like Jesus. 

I heard a story this week about a millionaire who visited a holy mystic, who told him that in 10 days he would die. So the millionaire books a flight to paris, and for the next few days, he drinks wine, and dines, spends a night on the riviera, he gambles, and seeks after thrills, but after a few days, he finds himself empty and deeply depressed. So he goes to his family, whom he had neglected in the pursuit of his wealth, and tries to rekindle things with them; he has a coffee with his brother, takes his nieces to the park, seeks and asks forgiveness from his estranged wife and children, and senses something beginning to stir in him. On the tenth day, he goes into church, kneels down and asks God what he is to do with his final hours. He gets no answer, but his gaze kept returning to the crucifix. Stepping out of church, he sees a young boy crossing the street, and sees a large truck barreling down toward the child. He runs into the street and pushes the boy out of the way, but is struck by the truck. Months later, he awakes from a coma, surprised to be alive. He undergoes therapy, is thanked profusely by the child’s mother, and is named a hero. But he is confused, he thought he was going to die in 10 days from his encounter with the mystic.  So he returns to the holy figure, and seeks an answer: “holy one, I thought you said I would die in 10 days.” To which the mystic responded: “you did die. You died to worldliness, recognizing the emptiness in wealth and worldly pleasure. You died to pride, seeking reconciliation and forgiveness with your estranged family members. And you died to fear and selfishness, putting your own life at risk to save another. The old you is dead, see to it that he stays that way.”

A nice little story illustrating the a great lesson of our faith. In baptism, we have died to the old way of life, to worldliness, pride, and selfishness, so that we may live a new life for God. And with God's help, we are to see to it that we stay dead to those things, persevering in faith, hope, and charity. In this way, our soul becomes prepared for the end, for judgment. Detachment to the old way of life, death to sinfulness, enables us to be filled with the life of God, and the fruits of the Spirit--with peace, joy, gentleness, and so on...

With the help of the Holy Spirit, may we prepare our souls by confessing our sins and persevering in Christ for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Ash Wednesday 2022 - Remember that you are dust

 “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return”. These words, spoken for the first time by God to Adam after he had committed sin, are repeated today by the Church to each of us, as ashes are imposed on our foreheads.

“Remember you are dust”, here is a truth that is difficult for us to grasp. Our inflated egos, our pride, our arrogance hate these words. For we spend an awful lot of time and energy trying to prove to others we are anything but dust. We want people to see how creative we are, how smart we are, how strong we are, how popular we are, how rich we are, how powerful we are. And today, the Church says, forget about all of that, “remember you are dust.”

Dust, the ashes which are placed on our foreheads, they are anything but powerful and significant. They can be dispersed with the lightest breath, brushed off absentmindedly. It’s the most invaluable of earthly substances. Less valuable than air. We need air to breath, we don’t need dust for anything.

“Remember you are dust” is a humbling reality and reminder of our past, present, and future.

It’s a reminder of our past, our creation. For Genesis tells us, that God made Adam from the dust of the earth. We wouldn’t even have life if God had not given it to us. Here is a reminder to not take our life for granted. Lots of people walking around as if their life belongs to them. No. You exist because God made you. And we have the utmost responsibility to make sure that we use that life according to God’s plans, and not just our own. And to be grateful for the life that we’ve been given.

Remember you are dust, is a reminder of our future. Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return. Here is a reminder of our mortality. We will die. Our earthly bodies will return to the earth. And immortal souls we will face God as our judge. We get into a lot of trouble, we fall into a lot of sins, perhaps all of them, because we forget this fact, the fact that our actions have consequences, and that we will be judged for our sins.

And remember you are dust, is a reminder, that in the present we are to not allow ourselves to become inflated with sin. Ashes today are a pinprick to burst the balloons for our inflated egos. We were made from nothing, our finite lives and intellects are as nothing compared to the omniscience and omnipotence of God, the number of likes we received on social media are nothing.

But are nothingness is a good and holy thing to contemplate King David contemplated his nothingness before God in Psalm 38, when he wrote, “O Lord, my substance is as nothing before Thee.”  

Remember, too St. John the Baptist says, I must decrease, so that Christ may increase.

This imposition of ashes, in the end, is about Christ. The humility of Ashes helps us to become more like Christ, which is the aim of Lent, the purpose of Lent. We seek repentance and purification of our sins, so that we can become like Christ. We engage in prayer, fasting, and almsgiving so that we can become like Christ. We turn away from earthly vanity so that we can become like Christ. So that we can decrease in order for the life of Christ to increase in us. “God despises nothing that He has Made” and desires our salvation.

So, “remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return” for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That this season of Lent may be a time of profound renewal for our parish and the Church as we engage in the penitential practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

For “an immediate end to the hostilities in Ukraine, for a restoration of peace and for the safety of all Ukrainian citizens. And for the Ukrainian community in Northeast Ohio, that their friends and family members in their beloved homeland be kept out of harm’s way.”

That God will rescue all those who live at a distance from him because of self-absorption or sin.  We pray to the Lord.

That all families will recommit themselves to fervent prayer this Lent so as to grow in greater love and holiness.  

That this Lent we will be faithful to fasting and to all the ways that the Lord sanctifies us.  We pray to the Lord.

For those preparing to enter the Church at Easter: that they will be profoundly blessed in their preparation for full initiation into the Body of Christ. 

For the needs of the poor, the hungry, the homeless, those who are sick, unemployed, or suffering from addiction, mental, or physical illness, and those most in need: that the Lord in his goodness will be close to them in their trials.  

For all those who have died, for all the poor souls in purgatory, for those who have fought and died for our country’s freedom, and for [intention below], for whom this Mass is offered.  

Mercifully hear, O Lord, the prayers of your Church and turn with compassion to the hearts that bow before you, that those you make sharers in the divine mystery may never be left without your assistance. Through Christ our Lord.

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.

5th Week of Lent 2021 - Tuesday - The Remedy for Death

 Discontent with the food God has provided. An encounter with a serpent. Certain aspects of the story from the Book of Numbers this morning have certain parallels with the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

God had provided food aplenty for Adam and Eve. They could eat from any of the fruit trees in the Garden of Eden.  But they were discontented with the food God provided, and looked to the fruit of the forbidden tree.

Similarly, the Israelites in the desert: God had provided manna from heaven. But they were discontented. They wanted more. Their complaining was a sure sign that they were failing to trust God and be grateful to God.

Like the Israelites, who are bit and poisoned by serpents, Adam and Eve allowed themselves to be proverbially bit by the serpent at the forbidden tree. They are poisoned by the serpent’s bite, and that poison brings death, not only for them, but for the entire human race.

The story from the Book of Numbers not only looks back to Adam and Eve, but foreshadows the victory of the New Adam, in the Gospel. The bronze serpent, mounted on a pole, becoming a source of life for the poisoned Israelites, foreshadows the saving death of Jesus Christ, mounted on the cross, which becomes a source of eternal life for all who believe in Him.

The drama of Adam and Eve, the drama of sin, the drama of the Israelites in the desert, plays over and over again in our lives.  We allow trust, love, and gratitude to God to die in our hearts whenever we turn to sin. We allow ourselves to grow discontent with the good food God has provided for us and seek to satisfy our hunger for God in so many artificial substitutes. We allow the serpent to whisper to us, that we should grasp for more than what God has provided. And then the serpent strikes. We yield to sinful temptation. 

Even a venial sin would bring eternal death, if not for the saving grace of Christ. For the poison of sin is eternally lethal if left untreated. But thanks be to God, the divine physician has become the remedy of sin through his death.

There are many that refuse to turn their gaze to the saving cross of Christ out of stubbornness, ignorance, or attachment to sin. Yet, we are called to lift him up for all to see nonetheless, in our speech, in our liturgical life, and good Christian example.

As Holy Week and the Sacred Triduum near, let us look to the cross and lift high the cross that the Lord may bring healing and deliverance to those who love him. May the poison of sin which continues to linger in us in the form of selfishness, mistrust of God, or disordered attachment to earthly goods and activities, be eradicated in us through the grace of the Savior for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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For an increase in faith for the catechumens and candidates who approach the sacraments of initiation in the coming Paschal Solemnity. And That the Church might be delivered and protected from all spirits of error, heresy, schism, and unbelief. Let us pray to the Lord.

That during this Year of St. Joseph, the Church may discover a deeper devotion to our Universal Patron. That through St. Joseph’s intercession families may be strengthened, priestly and religious vocations may increase, demons may be scattered, and the sick and dying may know the peace of Jesus. Let us pray to the Lord.

For those experiencing any kind of hardship or sorrow, isolation, addiction, or illness: may they experience the healing graces of Christ. Let us pray to the Lord.

For all those who have died, for all the poor souls in purgatory, for those who have fought and died for our country’s freedom, and for [intention below], for whom this Mass is offered.  Let us pray to the Lord. Let us pray to the Lord.

Mercifully hear, O Lord, the prayers of your Church and turn with compassion to the hearts that bow before you, that those you make sharers in your divine mystery may always benefit from your assistance.

5th Sunday of Lent 2021 - Jesus raises the dead to new life

Two weeks ago we heard the story of the woman at the well.  She encountered the Lord Jesus, who said to her, “I will give you living water, which alone can satisfy”.  She represents all of us, all thirsting for God. Jesus invites all people of all time to drink deeply of the living waters of God through Him.

Last week we heard of the man born blind.  Again, he is all of us, born in the blindness of sin.  We desire to do good and avoid evil, but it’s not always easy to see clearly. Sometimes our egos, our sinful attachments are so great, they blind us to seeing how God wants us to live rightly. Jesus says to the man born blind and to all of us, “I am the light of the world.”  If you want to see rightly, let the light of my life and my teachings enlighten you. 

These stories in John’s Gospel move toward a sort of crescendo. I am living water which quenches thirst. I am the light by which you see. And today Jesus speaks the greatest of the “I am” statements.  He says, “I am the resurrection and the life” without which you are not fully alive nor will you experience the life of the resurrection. 

What is our God interested in?  Life!  One of my favorite quotations from the early Church fathers is from St. Ireneus of Lyons, who said, Gloria Dei Homo Vivens, “the glory of God is Man fully alive.”  Jesus himself said, I came that they might have life, and have it to abundance. Christ died, that we may live, free from sin, full of divine life.  

God’s glory, what gives God happiness, is that we are fully alive.  Conversely, what saddens the heart of God is when we continue to allow death to reign in us at any level, physically, emotionally, spiritually.  

God speaking through in Ezekiel in the first reading says, “I will open your graves and have you rise from them.”  He’s not just speaking of our final resting place here.  Whatever grave you are in: perhaps an inability to forgive someone, perhaps a jealousy, an inability to grieve the loss of a loved one, or an addiction, or habitual sin, whatever is limiting your life.  Think of laying in a grave, there is no place to move, you are constricted, unable to move, tied up, and God says, from your graves, I will have you rise up.”  God wants life for us.  Jesus , the incarnate Word of God speaks this truth, “I AM the resurrection and the life.”  We are made to have His life in us.

There are three people raised from the dead, given to life, by Jesus in the Gospels.  The first one is the daughter of Jairus. Remember the little girl who died in her home when Jesus was on the way to heal her?  The daughter of Jairus. The second is the son of the widow of Naim.  Jesus sees the widow weeping as they brought out the body of her son, and Jesus is moved to raise him from the dead.  The third is of course, Lazarus.

St. Augustine offered a reflection on these three raisings.  Augustine says these three raisings stand for three types of spiritual death from which we can be raised by Jesus’ love and mercy.

Because Jairus’ daughter dies in her house, St. Augustine says that her death symbolizes the sort of spiritual death that remains locked up in us, the sort of sins that poisons us from the inside: the resentments, the old grudges.  They aren’t necessarily expressed in words or actions, they just sort of fester within us, poisoning our thoughts, isolating us from others 

The soul suffering from this sort of spiritual death might say, “Lord, I’m a good person, I don’t do a lot of evil things, so I must be fine”.  All the while there is anger and resentment and impatience stewing within. In this persons life you’ll see some broken, unmended relationships, and a lot of missed opportunities to go out in the life of the Spirit. Jesus raises the daughter of Jairus, dead in her house, , just as he wants to heal us from all of our interior sinful attitudes to increase in us the life of generosity and compassion.

Secondly, the son of the widow of Naim.  He had died and was being carried outside the house to the cemetery. St. Augustine says, the widow’s son symbolizes that spiritual death, that sin, that comes out from the heart and the mind and has begun to express itself in action.  Anger, resentment, impatience expressed in words and actions and gestures.  Jesus approaches this person too, and offers new life, a new way of interacting with others. 

The third person Jesus raises from the dead is our friend Lazarus.  Lazarus has been carried out of the house and placed in a tomb.  By the time Jesus gets there, Lazarus has been in the tomb for four days.  When the Lord instructs them to roll away the stone that blocks the tomb, his sister, famously says, “but Lord, surely,  there will be a stench.”

St. Augustine says that Lazarus in his grave, stinking and rotting, symbolizes that evil, that spiritual death, that not only has come out of the heart in words and actions, but has established itself as a habitual part of one’s life.  Now, the anger and the hatred and the violence and the lust and the greed, have come out, and have become such a part of my life and my activity, that, I have begun to stink, and it’s affecting the people around me—one’s family, one’s community, one’s nation or the world—depending on one’s position of influence. I think of the Hollywood Elites, Popular Musicians, and politiians..who, well, just stink, who set such bad example, especially for children. But Jesus offers new life to these souls as well. 

So we have these three types of sin, the interior, the exterior, and that…well…stinkiest, ugliest sort of sin.  I remember reading that Saint Christina, whose relics are stored at our diocesan Cathedral, by the way, would become nauseated when she was in the presence of people whose souls were dead and rotting because of mortal sin.

But, at the heart of today’s Gospel, is that Jesus does come, even to the grave of Lazarus, and he brings him back to life.  Jesus goes even into the furthest, smelliest, ugliest souls and invites us back to life.  

From time to time, a priest hears someone say, “Father, believe me, what I’ve done is so bad, even God can’t forgive me.  Don’t talk to me about confession because that won’t help.”  Not true. Nobody, not even those who are entrenched in evil are beyond the reach of the forgiving power of Christ.

Now looking at our own life, we might not be Lazarus, but it is highly unlikely that any of us are without a bit of grave rot. For those powers of death are always seeking to reclaim territory lost to Jesus. So the saints recommend frequent Sacramental Confession, to claim our lives for Christ once again.

This Wednesday, a guest priest and I will offer confessions from 5 to 8 here in the Church. If it’s been more than a year since your last confession, you are over due. 

Notice, too, that Martha and Mary, lead Jesus to the tomb of Lazarus. There are likely souls, who are dead and rotting, who we must lead Jesus to by our prayers and penances. We should never pretend, that just because it’s 2021, that some sins are now okay. And souls can live without a living relationship with Jesus Christ. It cannot be done. I know, it’s unpleasant to think that some souls are in danger of hell. But that should motivate us all the more to pray and evangelize.

For the Lord is willing to go to the deepest darkest places in order to bring forgiveness and healing and new life, but sometimes he wants us to lead him there.

May our conviction that he is the resurrection of life spurn us on in our Lenten journey to Easter, in the journey from sin and selfishness to new life, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Holy Saturday 2019 - Hell trembles with fear

The ancient homily on Holy Saturday states: “there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.”

In the Apostle’s Creed we profess that after Christ was crucified, died and buried, “He descended into Hell.” Christ was not condemned to Hell, like the rest of humanity. Rather he descended; he went willingly and with purpose.
From the time of Adam, all who died, whether evil or righteous were deprived of the vision of God. And Christ went to those who souls who awaited their Savior. The ancient homily says, “he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve…the Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory.”

Holy Saturday is a quiet day. Yet, in the quiet, if we listen, and If we grow silent enough, and listen well, we hear hell trembling, and the voice of the Lord, victorious through the cross, proclaiming a word of life, a word of freedom. The Catechism says, “Christ went down into the depths of death so that "the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live."

In the Canticle from morning prayer this morning from Isaiah chapter 38, one of God’s faithful ones ponders how, though he shall come to the gates of the netherworld, the pit of destruction, because of his sins, God will save him, his sins will be put behind him, death will not get the final word. “Fathers will pass on to their children the truth of your faithfulness”. This is the truth that is passed on through the generations by the Christian faithful. The truth that salvation is found in Jesus Christ, mercy and forgiveness, freedom from sin and death is found in Jesus Christ: through His death, burial, and resurrection.

Yes, there is a great silence on earth today. But we incline our ear passed the silence, to a Word which cannot be silenced. Not by the world, not by the powers of corruption and selfishness, sin, evil or malice.

Though much evil still fills the world, and the powers of death seek to swallow us whole, we open our hearts to the new life-giving Word, to the one who holds the keys of death and of hell, and opens the doors of heaven, resurrection and eternal life to those who would follow Him, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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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.

32nd Sunday in OT 2017 - Wake Up! Not all the glitters is gold!

At the end of every liturgical year, as the trees grow bare, the wind becomes colder, and daylight is seen less and less, the Sunday readings too become increasingly foreboding, darker and starker. They begin to focus on the last things: the end of the world, judgment, the afterlife, heaven, hell, purgatory.  We return to these readings every year, that we might not be “caught unaware” of these ultimate realities.

Our second reading today comes from the very earliest of the Christian Scriptures. St. Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians was written in the early 50s of the first century, about a dozen years before the first of the Gospels.  And what we find is that from these earliest days of the Church, Christians were concerned with what happens after death. 

The fear-of-death has plagued mankind since its beginning, and man has turned to many different remedies for this fear. 17th century Catholic philosopher and theologian, Blaise Pascal , said, “most of us, spend most of our time, diverting ourselves from facing the inevitability of our mortality”. 

Seeing death as an inevitable end, some adopt the philosophy of the Ancient Epicureans: “eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we shall die!” Believing that this life is all there is, they fill their days with as much pleasure as possible. 

Others live in constant dread of death, and they develop numerous neuroses, like hypochondria, or other phobias and addictions because of their fear. The end always seems looming, and they don’t know how to deal with it.

Both of those approaches contain some truth, but they also lack the most important truth. On the one hand, yes, death is inevitable, and we do need to make the most of our life. And, on the other hand, yes, death is inevitable. But the truth that is missing from both of these approaches, the truth that St. Paul wants the Church to remember, is Jesus Christ.

It struck the first Christians, Paul especially, that the resurrection of Jesus changed everything. Death on a cross was not the end for Jesus, and so earthly death will not be the end for the baptized. Paul wants us to have a firm conviction that God’s grace will carry us through the terrible experience of death into the experience of eternal life.

Listen again to St. Paul’s teaching here: “We do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, about those who have fallen asleep, so that you may not grieve like the rest, who have no hope.  For if we believe that Jesus, died and rose, so too will God, through Jesus, bring with him those who have fallen asleep.” 

Our hope in eternal life isn’t merely wishful thinking, a story we tell ourselves to make our peace with the inevitability of death. The resurrection of Jesus is our proof that death is not the end.

The fear of death is not to keep Christians from living life to the fullest. But, for Christians, living-life-to-the-fullest does not mean giving-in to every worldly desire and impulse of the flesh, like the Epicureans. Living-life-to-the-fullest is found by ordering our passions to the truth of Christ, and finding joy in being instruments of God’s grace. We make our peace with death by acknowledging its inevitability, and then preparing rightly for it through the repentance of sin and seeking to live a life of charity and grace in imitation of Jesus.

In the Gospel we heard of the five foolish virgins and the five wise virgins. The wise virgins kept their lamps burning brightly for the return of the bridegroom, the foolish virgins fell asleep, and allowed their lamps to become extinguished. Again, here is a teaching from our Lord, of how we are to use the time we have been given in this life.

Do use your time wisely or foolishly? Well, how can you tell? Why are the wise virgins wise? They remain attentive, vigiliant. They do not allow themselves to fall asleep, but they keep watching and waiting on the Lord. The Christian life can be described as a constant struggle to remain awake, to resist the anesthetizing effects of worldly distractions.

As we know, all too well, many of our contemporaries have fallen asleep, like the foolish virgins. They are inattentive to the spiritual realities of this life and busy themselves with all the non-essentials of the world, instead of focusing on the one thing that matters most, our eternal soul.

J.R.R. Tolkien wrote how “not all that glitters is gold”. So many worldly endeavors are like enchanted gold from a fairy story. Pursuing them, they cause us to fall asleep in a potentially eternal slumber. That is certainly one of the dangers of having digital entertainment on demand, there is always something to distract us from the spiritual life. Yes, sometimes we do need to rest our tired minds and bodies, and just relax a bit, but if we are not careful, we can easily succumb to spiritual sloth, in which the flame and fervor of faith slowly diminishes one Netflix show, one iphone app, at a time.

Christian vigilance requires us to be very cautious toward the pleasures of the world. Christian Asceticism trains our bodies, minds, and spirits. We seek to always be growing in our spiritual lives, our prayer lives, our charitable service, to keep the flame of faith burning brightly.

As the Bridegroom comes to us in this holy Mass under the appearance of bread and wine, let us joyfully great Him with joyful hearts, and allow Him to rouse us from spiritual slumber, and ignite in us the fire of charity for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

All Souls' Day 2017 - Praying for the Dead

Yesterday, All Saints' Day, we praised God for his masterpieces: the saints, those Christians who reached spiritual maturity in this life, and so entered heaven immediately after death.

Today Catholics join in praying for the eternal repose of our many brothers and sisters who died in friendship with Christ, but who hadn't yet reached spiritual maturity. Instead of entering heaven immediately, these souls were taken by God to the spiritual hospital called purgatory.

Even though there is firm scriptural basis for the practice of praying for the dead, many Catholics are uncomfortable with this doctrine. But from the very beginning the Church has engaged in this practice. The saints urge us to pray for the dead. St. John Vianney said, "We must say many prayers for the souls of the faithful departed, for one must be so pure to enter heaven."

St. John Chrysostom, over 1200 years before John Vianney even recommended to every Christian family that they have a box at some convenient place in their home where they put coins which would be used to have masses said for the Poor Souls.

Common sense, the testimony of the saints, and the Bible all agree: purgatory is real; many if not most of us will need to be purified from the vestiges of sin and selfishness after we die, so that we can fully experience the joys of heaven.

This is not a complicated doctrine. Though, the Church has made no definitive statements about what exactly this purification is like or exactly how long it takes, three things for certain: that a purification after death exists, that it is not entirely pleasant, it involves suffering, but the church on earth can assist those souls in purgatory with our prayers.

Knowing this motivates us to do two things.

First, it certainly motivates us to prepare our souls, while here on earth. Doing penance for our sins during our earthly life is preferable to the pains suffered in purgatory.

Second, we can alleviate the suffering of our brothers and sisters who have died and are now in purgatory by praying for them, offering Masses for them, obtaining indulgences for them...God has generously connected our lives to theirs.

And so, we who are members of the Church Militant here on earth, can help the members of the Church Suffering in purgatory, arrive more quickly to their eternal destination: the Church Triumphant in heaven.

May we be generous in our prayers and acts of charity toward our beloved dead, that with them, we may come to see God face to face in heaven, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
 
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May all those baptized into Christ’s saving passion, death, and resurrection, and nourished at the Eucharistic table of the Lord, be welcomed into the halls of the heavenly banquet.

For all those who suffer from violence, war, famine, extreme poverty, addiction, and those who are alienated from their families.  May they know God’s mercy and be gathered to the eternal kingdom of peace. 

That God may send his angel of consolation and comfort to all those for whom death draws near, and all those who grieve the death of a loved one might find peace in the promises of Christ.

For all those who despair of eternal life because they do not know God, may they receive faith in the saving resurrection of Jesus Christ.

For all of the holy souls in purgatory, especially those forgotten by time and have no one else to pray for them, that they may know the constant aid of the Church on earth, especially the deceased members of our family, friends, and parish, for deceased clergy and religious, and those who have fought and died for our freedom.

Heavenly Father, grant to our beloved dead your mercy and forgiveness, hear and answer all of our prayers according to your gracious will, through Christ our Lord.

Homily: Thursday - 5th Week of Lent 2017 - "Whoever keeps my word will never see death"

Jesus assures us that those who keep his word will never see death. What a promise! Those who follow Christ will be preserved from the spiritual death which comes through disobeying God. Remember, in the Garden, God desired to preserve Adam and Eve from death, he warned them to avoid the forbidden fruit or else they would die. The devil, contradicting God, claimed, “You will not die.” But they did. Spiritual death came through sin. As St. Paul says, the wages of sin is death.

Through Jesus Christ, fallen man is reconciled to God, lost life is restored, and Christians are to remain connected to God through Christ as a branch to a vine. But, Many people today attempt to have a relationship with God without Jesus Christ. They attempt to be “spiritual”, engaging in esoteric practices like reiki, yoga, westerners flirt with buddhist or transcendental meditation, or once in a while they turn to God in great emergencies, but when the emergency ends, so does their prayer.

Jesus does not promise happiness, peace, salvation or life through these so-called “spiritual, but not religious practices”. They might bring some temporary results, but so did forbidden fruit.

In his exhortation “Evangelii Gaudium” Pope Francis gives expression to this dimension of our faith. He writes “The joy of the Gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who accept his offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness and loneliness. Whist Christ, joy is constantly born anew.” Only through Christ do we receive the life God wants for us.

Or some claim to have some sort of special deal worked out with God, where they claim to believe in Jesus but have nothing to do with His Church. But Pope Francis also said rightly, a few years ago: “It is not possible to find Jesus outside the Church…it is 'an absurd dichotomy' to want to live with Jesus without the Church, to follow Jesus outside the Church, to love Jesus without the Church.”

Jesus founded a Catholic church…meaning everything we need for salvation and for sanctification, joy and peace, can be found within the Church…the Holy Scriptures entrusted to her, the Sacraments, Sacred Tradition which rightly guides our lives and moral decisions, the saints who teach us how to pray and how to love.

Lent should deepen our conviction for spreading the saving truths of Christ, and continues to challenge us personally and spiritually. Which of the Lord’s teachings do we do well to take to heart? Which word have we been ignoring or glossing over? The call to forgive? The call to purity? The call to selflessness? The call to trust God in our trials?

May we continue to incline our ears to our Savior, and if today we hear his word, may we not harden our hearts, but receive his life giving word with trust and obedience for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That the Church will experience the graces of profound renewal during this season of Lent.  That we may grow in our eagerness in spreading the Gospel of Christ.

For those who have fallen away from the Church, who have fallen into serious sin, those who have lost their faith, or whose faith has been poisoned by error or heresy, for their reconciliation with God and the conversion of all minds and hearts.

For those preparing to enter the Church at Easter: that they will be profoundly blessed in their preparation for full initiation into the Body of Christ.  We pray to the Lord.

For the needs of the poor, the hungry, the homeless, those who are sick, unemployed, or suffering from addiction, mental, or physical illness, imprisoned, for victims of terrorism, those affected by severe weather, and those most in need: that the Lord in his goodness will be close to them in their trials.  We pray to the Lord.