2nd Week of Easter 2023 - Tuesday - Easter knowledge vs. Gnosticism

 

Last week, throughout the Easter Octave, we read from each of the four Gospel writers, their accounts of Jesus' resurrection, and Jesus' post-resurrection appearances to his disciples.

For the rest of the Easter Season, we will be reading from the Gospel of John—the discussion with Nicodemus this week from chapter 3, and onto chapter 6—the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and the great Bread of Life discourse next week.

Early on in his public ministry, in his first visit to Jerusalem, recorded by John, the Lord encountered the Pharisee Nicodemus. The Lord’s ensuing conversation with Nicodemus is quite different from the later encounters with the Pharisees, especially those of Holy Week. Nicodemus, though he is a “teacher of Israel” as Jesus calls him, takes the position of the student. Unlike the other Pharisees, Nicodemus possesses and displays a genuine openness to be taught by Jesus. 

Nicodemus approaches Jesus at night time, symbolic of Nicodemus’ ignorance. But in this case, it is an ignorance that is open to illumination, the light of the truth of the Gospel.

We must be open to be taught by God, taught by Jesus. 5 years ago, Holy Father Pope Francis issued an apostolic Exultation called “Gaudete et Exsultate” Rejoice and be Glad. Rejoice and be Glad: On the universal call to holiness. In it, the holy Father exhorts us to openness to be taught by Jesus.

But he also warns against one of the perennial enemies of discipleship, that of Gnosticism. The Pope defines Gnosticism as “a purely subjective faith whose only interest is a certain experience or a set of ideas and bits of information which are meant to console and enlighten, but which ultimately keep one imprisoned in his or her own thoughts and feelings”.

So many of the Pharisees in the Scriptures only entertain Jesus as Long as he confirms their old ideas. Similarly, in our own day, there are Christians who only listen to the Church when it suits them, only turn to the words of Jesus when they seek consolation. There is no attempt to understand difficult moral teachings or grow in knowledge of the beautiful and timeless truths of our faith. This is what Pope Francis calls, “superficial” Christianity. “I’m only a Christian as long as it makes me feel good—when Church teaching conforms to my subjective ideas about reality.”

Nicodemus shows us what genuine openness to Jesus looks like. He questions Jesus, but with an openness to be genuinely taught. He unfurls the sail of his understanding, and allows God’s Spirit, God’s knowledge, to fill and direct his life. 

The Christian is perpetually a disciple, a student. And we must perpetually be open to the teaching God wants to teach us. And I’m not just talking about doctrine. But a genuine openness is always need in learning how to be generous, learning how to be kind, learning how to be patient, learning how to break sinful habits, learning how to share the Gospel in our own simple way, learning how to discern our gifts and put those gifts into practice for the building up of the Church for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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God the Father was glorified in the death and resurrection of his Son. Let us pray to him with confidence.

God the Father bathed the world in splendor when Christ rose again in glory, may our minds be filled with the light of true faith.

Through the resurrection of His Son, the Father opened for us the way to eternal life, may we be sustained today in our work with the hope of glory.

Through His risen Son, the Father sent the Holy Spirit into the world, may our hearts be set on fire with spiritual love.

May Jesus Christ, who was crucified to set us free, be the salvation of all those who suffer, particularly those who suffer from physical or mental illness, addiction, and grief.

That all of our beloved dead and all the souls in purgatory may come to the glory of the Resurrection.

O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the desires of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our lord.

10th Sunday in OT 2018 - The Good God is in the details... (farewell Mass)

There is an idiom you hear from time to time, that “the devil is in the details.” The phrase is usually meant to describe how it is often the small details of a task which make it difficult or challenging. The great violinist Itzhak Perlman might use the phrase “the devil is in the details” to describe the challenge of getting a piece of music just right, through hours and hours of practice. What separates an amateur from a professional or a great artist is oftentimes that painstaking attention to detail.

Well, in his new apostolic exhortation, Gaudete et Exsultate, Pope Francis wrote about how attention to detail is part of the universal call to holiness. Holiness often involves paying attention to the details and needs of people’s lives. “Let us not forget” the Popes writes, “that Jesus asked his disciples to pay attention to details. The little detail that wine was running out at a party. The little detail that one sheep was missing. The little detail of noticing the widow who offered her two small coins. The little detail of having spare oil for the lamps, should the bridegroom delay. The little detail of asking the disciples how many loaves of bread they had. The little detail of having a fire burning and a fish cooking as he waited for the disciples at daybreak.”

When I first read that passage, I immediately thought of our pastor, Fr. Klasinski. Father, if you didn’t know, is detail-oriented. “A place for everything, and everything in its place”, whether it be the sacristy, the church, or the rectory. If you’ve ever attended the easter vigil, you know that Father is practicing with his elite team of servers right until we light the easter fire, to get their movements and maneuvers just right for that most sacred of all nights.  Hopefully these last four years over in the rectory weren’t too much like a four year long episode of the Odd Couple: you can guess who the clean one and who the not-so-clean one was.

But, I believe Father’s attention to detail, is a lot like Jesus’. His care for the church, for liturgy, for the rectory, is because he cares, he loves. “A community that cherishes the little details of love,” the Pope writes, “whose members care for one another and create an open and evangelizing environment, is a place where the risen Lord is present, sanctifying it in accordance with the Father’s plan.”

Many of us can relate to the Holy Father’s words. When it comes time for the holidays, or having house guests, we pay attention to the little details, out of respect, out of love, for our guests and family. It takes a lot of attention to detail to make relationships work, to make marriages work, to make parishes work.

The phrase the “devil is in the details” actually derives from an earlier French phrase, “Le bon Dieu est dans le detail”—"the good God is in the details.” Christian charity isn’t simply a vague sense of love for all of humanity, it’s about making God’s love present in the concrete details of people’s lives.

And, I think the Pope points to Our Lord’s own attention to detail, to show us that holiness is found in loving attention to other people. For the Lord’s love for us is not just this vague sense of love for humanity as a whole; God’s love reaches the details of the concrete difficulties and challenges of every human life. God knows every obstacle we face, every joy we celebrate, every hair on our head, every yearning in our heart, and he wants us to know that he is with us, in every detail.

Jesus in the Gospel today speaks of the divided house of Satan, of unclean spirits, and there really is something unclean, isn’t there, of the ego-centric attitudes which lead us to ignore the details of the lives and burdens of others. So many of our own divided houses and divisions in our nation, would be healed if we were ego-centrism was replaced with other-centeredness.

I think that is one of the great blessings of priesthood. Priests get to share in the details of your lives. They are not always pretty: the details of the confessional, the details of grief and suffering and illness which afflict the body of Christ. They aren’t always pretty, but they are important, for God is present in them, inviting us to discover him there. And so many of the details are beautiful and edifying.

I’d like to take the opportunity to say that, after four years here at St Clare, I’ve been edified by your dedication to making St. Clare a vibrant parish. I’ve been edified by all of your generosity, especially the hard work I’ve witnessed in running the parish festival, the school and academy and psr programs, and celebrating such beautiful liturgies.

I ask for your prayers as I begin my new assignment this week at Holy Family Parish in Parma. Please always pray for your priests, daily, for Fr. Klasinski and for Fr. Cosgrove, as they seek to serve you with hearts of our Good Shepherd, Christ the Lord.

And one more request, one I’ve made before and I make again: parents and grandparents, encourage the young people in your lives often to prayerfully consider God’s call to the priesthood or consecrated religious life. Help them to be courageous in discerning God’s call, and to turn away from the voices and vices that obscure that call. The religious vocation offers the happiness I know you want for the young people in your lives—joy and fulfillment, a sense of closeness to the Lord and to his people, that nothing else can imitate. Our world needs young people willing to hear and answer the call, and when we do that, we’ll never be disappointed.

As Fr. Klasinski and the bulletin have mentioned these past few weeks, there will be a reception after the noon mass in the academy gym. Please join us if you can. I’d love the opportunity to say farewell to you face-to-face.

Thank you to all those who have dropped-off delicious pastry for us to share, and to the pastoral council for organizing the reception.

May the Lord in his kindness bless all of you and your families in all the details of your lives, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

3rd Week of Easter 2018 - Monday - Working for Spiritual Food

Last week we read the portion of John chapter 6 in which Jesus feeds five thousand through a miracle of multiplying the loaves and fishes. Today, the Gospel sets the stage for Jesus’ great Bread of Life discourse.

Those that had been fed by Jesus cross the sea are looking for him. Why? They are hungry again and they want more bread and fish! Jesus, the great teacher is going to use their physical hunger to talk about a deeper hunger, a spiritual hunger.

They are coming to Jesus because he gave them bread and fish. Jesus will reveal that He is the source of this spiritual bread that only God can satisfy, and that bread is his flesh: the Eucharist. We’ll hear about that later this week.

But in this little prologue, Jesus talks about work: we spend a lot of time working for the physical food our bodies need, and little time working for the spiritual food our souls need. We feed the body, while neglecting the spirit.

The crowd, like many people today, believe the most important thing in life is to keep alive, to be healthy, strong and economically sufficient. Jesus is speaking of a deeper purpose here.

The purpose of life isn’t simply to satisfy our physical desires. There is a human hunger, a restlessness, for more, a spiritual hunger for doing the will of God. Man does not live on bread alone, but by following the divine vocation, the call to holiness.

In his new, apostolic exhortation, Pope Francis speaks of these dual hungers:  “Hunger and thirst are intense experiences, since they involve basic needs and our instinct for survival.” But there is a deeper hunger, the Holy Father, says, one, which Jesus praises in his beatitudes when he says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled”…the deeper hunger, is for true justice and holiness.

This includes seeking to be faithful to God’s will in every aspect of our life and also seeking justice for those who are most vulnerable, as Isaiah teaches: “Seek justice, correct oppression; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.”

Jesus feeds us with his body and blood, that we, like Him, might become abandoned to the will of the Father, to work for justice, for the glory of God, and the salvation of souls.

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That the Church will deepen in her devotion to the Eucharistic sacrifice which is the source and summit of our Christian life.  We pray to the Lord.

That the redemptive power of Christ’s Eucharistic sacrifice will extend to the hearts and minds of all those who govern peoples and nations.  We pray to the Lord.

That the Eucharist will be for priests the source of their joy and their deeper configuration to Jesus Christ.  We pray to the Lord.

That the Real Presence of Jesus will be experienced in all marriages, in all business relations, in all daily encounters, and in our friendships.  We pray to the Lord.

For those who live in want: that Jesus the Bread of Life will be their sustenance, and that Christians may bring the justice and mercy of Christ to all those in need.  We pray to the Lord.

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

2nd Week of Easter 2018 - Thursday - Life and the call to holiness

In John’s Gospel, Jesus speaks about “life” 41 times: nearly as many times as Matthew, Mark, and Luke combined. Jesus says to the Samaritan woman, “the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life”.  We will hear next week Jesus say “I am the bread of life”.  And later, after raising Lazarus, he says, “I am the resurrection and the life.” And he speaks to Nicodemus about the importance of believing in HIM that we may have eternal life.

Through sin, we had lost the gift of eternal life; we were “dead in our transgressions” as Paul says.  We were alienated from God who Himself is the only source of life.

St. John Cantius spoke of how the world is busy indulging in its own madness. It is wearing itself out. It cannot endure. It passes like a shadow. It’s growing old and decrepit

Jesus by his life, death and resurrection shows that his mission from the Father is to restore us to life: “I have come that they might have life, and have it in abundance.” He has come to save us from the powers of death and selfishness, greed and lust, which are so evident in the world.

The saints, who have turned away from the world are so attractive to us because the life of Christ is flourishing within them. They have become purified of the ugliness of worldliness, and therefore magnify the beauty of the life of Christ.

Through their lives of prayer, fasting, charity, penance, they show us how to nurture, fertilize, and protect the spiritual life that comes from God.

In his new apostolic exhortation Pope Francis emphasizes how even the great saints who were drawn more to contemplation, mental prayer, silence, and meditation upon scripture were also passionately committed to the love of neighbor. Authentic spiritual life becomes evident and life giving for others.
The Holy Father echoes our Lord at the last supper who teaches how “Eternal life” consists in knowing the Father, knowing the Son, loving them, and allowing that love to lead us to the washing of feet, to self-sacrifice on the cross, to laying down your life for a friend.

May we zealously seek out Jesus, the fount of life, drink of his waters, that the fruits of his life may be evident in our own life, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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God the Father was glorified in the death and resurrection of his Son. Let us pray to him with confidence.

God the Father bathed the world in splendor when Christ rose again in glory, may our minds be filled with the light of faith.

Through the resurrection of His Son, the Father opened for us the way to eternal life, may we be sustained today in our work with the hope of glory.

Through His risen Son, the Father sent the Holy Spirit into the world, may our hearts be set on fire with spiritual love.

May Jesus Christ, who was crucified to set us free, be the salvation of all those who suffer, particularly those who suffer from physical or mental illness, addiction, and grief.

That all of our beloved dead and all the souls in purgatory may come to the glory of the Resurrection.
O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the desires of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our lord.

2nd Week of Easter 2018 - Tuesday - Easter Illumination

Last week, throughout the Easter Octave, we read from each of the four Gospel writers, their accounts of Jesus' resurrection, and Jesus' post-resurrection appearances to his disciples.

For the rest of the Easter Season, we will be reading from the Gospel of John—the discussion with Nicodemus this week from chapter 3, and onto chapter 6—the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and the great Bread of Life discourse next week.

In his first visit to Jerusalem during his public ministry, Jesus encounters the Pharisee Nicodemus. This encounter is quite different from the later encounters with the Pharisees, especially those of Holy Week. Nicodemus, though he is a “teacher of Israel” as Jesus calls him, takes the position of the student. Nicodemus is unlike the other Pharisees who are blinded by pride, rather Nicodemus seeks to understand who Jesus is and why he has come.

Nicodemus approaches Jesus at night time, symbolic of Nicodemus’ ignorance. But, again, it is an ignorance that is open to illumination, the light of the truth of the Gospel.

Jesus explains, in the Gospel passage today, the need for spiritual rebirth which is made possible through his death. The whole easter season, in a sense, involves a constant reflection on this great mystery: the healing, the rebirth, the illumination that comes from Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection, and how Christians enter into this mystery through baptism and the sacraments.

Yesterday, the Holy Father, Pope Francis, issued a new apostolic exhortation titled, “Gaudete et Exsultate”, Rejoice and be Glad, on the universal call to holiness. He opens the exhortation with these words: “The Lord asks everything of us, and in return he offers us true life, the happiness for which we were created. He wants us to be saints and not to settle for a bland and mediocre existence.”

Easter is an opportunity for us, like Nicodemus, to learn about the new life, the true life, God wants for us, for us not to settle for mediocre faith, but the sanctity for which we were made.

I encourage you to read through the Holy Father’s new exhortation: reflect upon it, ask the Lord what it means for your life.

To quote the Holy Father: May you come to realize what that word is, the message of Jesus that God wants to speak to the world by your life. Let yourself be transformed. Let yourself be renewed by the Spirit, so that this can happen, lest you fail in your precious mission. The Lord will bring it to fulfillment despite your mistakes and missteps, provided that you do not abandon the path of love but remain ever open to his supernatural grace, which purifies and enlightens. (Gaudete et Exsultate, 24)” for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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God the Father was glorified in the death and resurrection of his Son. Let us pray to him with confidence.

God the Father bathed the world in splendor when Christ rose again in glory, may our minds be filled with the light of faith.

Through the resurrection of His Son, the Father opened for us the way to eternal life, may we be sustained today in our work with the hope of glory.

Through His risen Son, the Father sent the Holy Spirit into the world, may our hearts be set on fire with spiritual love.

May Jesus Christ, who was crucified to set us free, be the salvation of all those who suffer, particularly those who suffer from physical or mental illness, addiction, and grief.

That all of our beloved dead and all the souls in purgatory may come to the glory of the Resurrection.
O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the desires of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our lord.