6th Week in OT 2020 - Wednesday - Hearers and Doers of the Word

Summing up the entire spiritual life, St. Francis de Sales said: “Simply Obey. God does not ask anything else of you.”

Obedience is the fundamental disposition of the Christian disciple. The word obedience comes from the latin – oboedire which means to listen to, to give ear to, to heed, to pay attention.

The Old Testament prophets constantly remind the Jewish people to listen to the Word of God. Standing at the steps of the Jerusalem Temple, the Prophet Jeremiah instructed: “Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the Lord.” Certainly we enter in through the doors of the Church, to hear the word of God, to incline our ear to God’s word. One of Israel’s most beloved Scripture passages, known as the Shema, is a command to listen: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord is God. Love God with your whole heart.” We find the same command on the lips of Jesus in the Gospels.

St. James is clear in our reading today, that Christians must not allowing God’s Word to go in one ear and out the other. Christian discipleship requires an obedience that hears and heeds, listens and acts.  “Be doers of the word and not hearers only”. What we hear in Church, what we read in the Scriptures must be put into practice.

One of my favorite parts of the Ordination Rites, is when the deacon kneels in front of the Bishop who hands him the Book of the Gospels and says, “receive the word of God whose herald you have become: believe what you read, teach what you believe, and practice what you teach.” All of us are to put into practice what we read in the Scriptures.

James explains too that in order for the Word of God to really take root in us, we must put away filth—the filth and the evil excesses of the world. A degenerate lifestyle, a love of sin, blocks our ability to hear the word, it hinders the transforming power of the word.

Rather, we must cultivate our souls to be rich soil, as the Lord teaches, that the word may take deep root in our souls so that it can bear fruit.

May we be not just hearers of the word but doers of the word, acting upon God’s word by striving for virtue and living in fraternal charity for the Glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That the Word of God may take ever deeper root in our hearts, minds, and souls.

That the Holy Spirit may direct the appointment of a new Bishop for the Church of Cleveland.

That young people may seek Christ amidst all the filth and evils of the world, and for the protection of innocent human life from evil.

For healing for all those suffering disease, especially diseases without known cures, for the people of China and all people afflicted by the Coronavirus, and all who are oppressed by any kind of need, that the Lord may graciously grant them relief, and For the Holy Father’s prayer intentions for this month: that the needs of migrants and victims of human trafficking may be heard and acted upon.

For the dead, for all of the souls in purgatory, and for X, for whom this Holy mass is offered.

O God, our refuge and our strength, hear the prayers of your Church, for you are the source of all goodness, and grant, we pray, that what we ask in faith, we may truly obtain. Through Christ our Lord.

Palm Sunday 2019 - Sights, Sounds, Silences, Smells, and Sentiments of Holy Week

Today, Palm Sunday, begins Holy Week.  This week is filled with many vivid moments—sights and sounds and silences, smells and sentiments. Today, we hear crowds singing praises to Jesus as he enters Jerusalem as Messiah, and how those praises all too quickly turn into jeering and mocking and calling for crucifixion. 

On Monday, you might even smell the fragrance of aromatic oil anointing the feet of Jesus and hear the spite in the betrayer’s voice, that to anoint Jesus is a waste.

On Tuesday, you might detect how the conviction in St. Peter’s voice to “follow the Lord” anywhere is sadly replaced with fear and denial. The whispers of conspirators and the sound of silver coins are heard on Wednesday.  And On Thursday, perhaps you’ll come to hear the quiet lapping of water, when the Master washes the feet of his disciples and the sound of breaking bread and pouring wine at the Last supper.

Throughout the week, IF you listen, you’ll hear the sounds of crying, whipping, hammering, the cries of crucifixion, prayers offered to the Father, the weeping of a sorrowful mother and the deafening silence of the tomb.

The sounds of Holy Week are piercing and thunderous. Jesus cries out in a loud voice as he gives up His spirit. The curtain of the sanctuary is ripped in two from top to bottom. The earth quaked, boulders split, tombs opened.

Since this  week is filled with so much sound, we are called to do a lot of listening.  Listening to the narratives of Jesus’ final days and hours and moments this week. In this week called “Holy”, grow quiet and Listen!

Turn off the televisions, the iphones, and computers. Log off, and open the book of books. Read and enter into the most important drama. If you can, join us for daily Mass to hear the drama unfold.
It was the practice of many homes to turn off all the radios and televisions, especially on Good Friday, as a way of saying this is not a day for entertainment, but a day of turning my heart to what matters most: sincere repentance and reflection upon the savior’s redemptive self-sacrifice.

If you’ve never attended the liturgies of Holy Thursday, Good Friday or the Easter Vigil, consider attending this year.  The Church’s morning prayer will be prayed during the Triduum at 10am. In such a noisy world, with so many distractions we need these moments to listen to the Word.

If all we listen to are the sounds of the world: the bitterness, the resentment, the violence, and political argument, our lives will soon only echo the values of the world.  We listen to God’s Word—the sound of outpoured love, so that our lives may echo and resound with his beating Sacred Heart.

This week, I encourage you to make time to read through the passion narratives again.  Perhaps pick the part of the passion that resonates with you most. Perhaps, return to that moment, of Simon carrying the heavy cross at Jesus' side, or the hope of the good thief, pleading with Jesus to remember Him, as he comes into His kingdom.  A day shouldn’t go by during this Holiest Week of the Church year, without spending quality time in prayerful reflection upon Jesus’ Passion.

Where will you incline your ear this week?  To the sounds of the world, or, like St. John at the Last Supper, to the savior’s breast,  to the beating heart of the Word made flesh?
 
During the first Holy Week, two thousand years ago, Jesus achieved victory over sin and evil.  During this Holy Week, he wants to extend that victory ever more deeply into our hearts. May we bring our hearts to him in our participation in liturgy, or personal prayer and meditation on Scripture, in fasting, and good works this Holy Week, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

5th Week in OT 2019 - Friday - Open our hearts to listen

The first chapters of the book of Genesis reveal God’s magnificent plan for creation. In the first chapter, the days of creation follow the divine logic: the light, the earth, the heavens, dry land, sea, vegetation, stars, the fish, the birds, the animals, and finally mankind.

In chapter two, we read of God’s plan for humanity. Humanity is to tend to creation and to marry.

Sadly, in chapter 3, we read of Adam and Eve stepping out of God’s plan, man’s rebellion. Instead of surrendering to the plan, trusting in God, obeying God’s commands, man and women choose to believe in a lie: that they can grasp at a future divorced from God and still live, that they can do anything they want without consequence, they can have their sin and their souls will remain intact, they can close their ears to the Word of God and still be able to hear correctly.

In the Gospel, the effects of Adam and Eve’s Original Sin are on display: a man deaf with a speech impediment. He cannot hear the words of his loved ones, he cannot communicate rightly as man was created to do, as we are created in the image of one who Speaks—who speaks creation into being, who created through the Word, who communicates his love between the three divine persons, who made us to be communicators of His own truth, goodness, and beauty.

But, in the Gospel, God’s plan of salvation is also on display. Through Jesus Christ the impediments to wholeness are healed, right relationship with God and neighbor is restored.

Jesus looking up into heaven and groaning before this particular healing reminds us that the ultimate healing took place when he looked up to heaven and groaned his last upon the cross.

Through the disobedience of Adam and Eve, we have inherited a world polluted with sin and death, our own human nature is marred so we do not hear God as we should, we do not see as we should, we do not speak as we should. But in Jesus, spiritual sight, hearing, and speech are restored, communion and communication are restored, and we renter God’s plan for our souls.

We face many times a day the same choice the Adam and Eve will face in the garden, will we listen to God or listen to the serpent. One choice will bring us life, the other will take it from us. As we just sang in the Gospel acclamation: “Open our hearts, O Lord, to listen to the words of your Son” for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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For the Holy Church of God, that the Lord may graciously watch over her and care for her.

For the peoples of all the world, that the Lord may graciously preserve harmony among them.

For all who are oppressed by any kind of need, that the Lord may graciously grant them relief.

For ourselves and our parish, that the Lord may graciously receive us as a sacrifice acceptable to himself.

For the dead, for all of the souls in purgatory, and for X, for whom this Holy mass is offered.

Incline your merciful ear to our prayers we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to those who call on you in supplication.