22nd Week in Ordinary Time 2023 - Tuesday - Nazareth vs. Capernaum

 For the first nine weeks of Ordinary Time, the weekday Gospel readings are taken from the Gospel of Mark. And then for about 12 more weeks, the Gospels are taken from Matthew. From now until the end of the liturgical year, we read from the Gospel of Luke. 

Yet, we don’t start with chapter one of Luke’s Gospel, for those are read throughout the advent and Christmas seasons. So we begin at the beginning of Our Lord’s public ministry, about 30 years after his birth, in Luke chapter 4.

And chapter 4 begins with the Lord in Nazareth, the place where he grew up, and he enters the synagogue on the sabbath, reads from the prophet Isaiah, basically claiming to be the fulfillment of the Messiah prophecy, and is then driven to the edge of the cliff by the townsfolk and almost killed. 

Today, the Lord comes to another synagogue, to the town of Capernaum, about 25 miles to the northeast. It’s the sabbath again, so perhaps only a week has gone by. 

And again he teaches. But, unlike the people of Nazareth who were filled with fury, the people of Capernaum were filled with astonishment. And then he performs an exorcism. 

In an atmosphere where Jesus is accepted and believed and listened to, demons are driven out. Where he is rejected, man allows the demons to remain in control, and push Jesus to the edge of their lives.

The task of the Christian is to bring Jesus into the lives of the peoples of our world, into their families, and homes. Will they reject him, like they did at Nazareth, or will they accept him and allow him to cast out their demons like in Capernaum? Well, we don’t find out until we are faithful to our task of bringing him into the synagogues of their lives. But we can’t be afraid to bring Jesus into someone’s life because the reaction might be a Nazareth and not a Capernaum. 

Nor can we give up on someone just because a demon shows up that is initially hostile. We must spend enough time with folks where we give Jesus the time to cast the demon out. 

There’s certainly some missionary instruction in today’s Gospel, and some of us are called to be missionaries. The missionary mustn’t be afraid of demons, rather, the manifestation of the demon is a sign that the Lord wants to cast it out. When the demon bares its teeth and calls for Jesus to be silenced, you don’t run away. You rebuke that demon in the name of Jesus, and pray for it to be cast out. Then the healing can begin, and the conversion to Christ.

And that’s true in our own life, when an old demon, an old temptation, bears its teeth, remain calm, and pray for the Lord to cast it out.

May our lives, our parish, our neighborhood be places where the Lord is encountered and believed, may his authority over the powers of darkness cast out demons and bring the light of faith, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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For a flourishing of spiritual gifts needed for the missionary work and evangelizing mission of the Church.

For all those afflicted with demons, those who are overwhelmed with the Spirit of the World, that, through the ministry of the Church, they may know the cleansing power and mercy of Christ.

For the sick and afflicted, the homebound, those in nursing homes and hospitals, for victims of natural disaster, those who suffer from war, violence, and terrorism, for the mentally ill, those with addictions, and the imprisoned, for those who struggle to practice Christian chastity, for the comfort of the dying and the consolation of their families. 

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, and all the poor souls in purgatory, for deceased priests and religious, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom; and for N….

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

3rd Week of Lent 2020 - Monday - How Ordinary!

Naaman, the Syrian army commander, afflicted with leprosy, was appalled at the suggestion that to cure his leprosy, all he had to do was to bathe in the Jordan River.  That river?  It’s so ordinary!

Jesus, after forty days in the desert, comes back to his home town and is rejected by its citizens.  They knew him as a young boy.  Perhaps they had heard some story about him being lost in Jerusalem for three days while Mary and Joseph looked for him. Or saw him working with Joseph in his carpenter’s shop. How could He be a prophet? How could he be the messiah? How could God be at work in Him?

So too, our sacraments: water, bread, wine, oil, confessing past faults, a man and a woman making promises to each other—ordinary things. One of the great difficulties that the very earliest Christians had was convincing their neighbors, accustomed to great religious spectacles, that baptism—just being washed with water—really did bring with it the promise of living forever.  “Washing in water?  Just ordinary water?”  The power of the sacraments comes not from the water or oil, but from God. God is so powerful he can work through ordinary things.

Sometimes our faith seems so ordinary.  Prayer, fasting, almsgiving, following rules, being patient, forgiving, it all seems so ordinary.

Many fallen away Catholics claim they don’t go to Mass because it’s boring and ordinary.  They don’t read the bible because, well, that’s so simple.  I’ve also talked to Catholics whose family members have fallen away from the Church and have fallen into to some pretty deadly sins.  They looked at me with surprise and doubt when I suggested they pray a rosary for their children.  A rosary, how ordinary!

I’ve talked to self-proclaimed atheists who claimed that they’d believe in God if He appeared to them in some great supernatural vision.  But when I tell them, God has appeared in ordinary flesh and begun His Church, they laugh.

During this time of this viral global pandemic, what should we do? Carry on and be faithful to the Gospel. Go to confession if you need to. Read the bible, pray the rosary, spend time in quiet meditation on the word of God, study the faith and the example of what the saints have done in time of pestilence and plague. Clothe the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, visit the lonely, pray for the living and the dead.

And keep your Lenten commitments. At this point in Lent you may be starting to be disillusioned with your Lenten penances, they might seem so ordinary now.  But I urge you to persevere, God is working through them.  Through them, God will bring about great conversion including your own, if you let him.  For the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That the season of Lent may bring the most hardened hearts to repentance and bring to all people purification of sin and selfishness.

For those preparing for baptism and the Easter sacraments, that they may continue to conform themselves to Christ through fervent prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

For the Holy Spirit to guide the appointment of our next Bishop—that he may be a man of true faith and courage.

That we may generously respond to all those in need: the sick, the suffering, the homeless, the imprisoned, and victims of violence. And for all victims of the coronavirus and their families.

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

Grant, we pray, O Lord, that your people may turn to you with all their heart, so that whatever they dare to ask in fitting prayer they may receive by your mercy. Through Christ our Lord.

4th Sunday in OT 2019 - Miracles and Christian Faith

One of my favorite subjects to talk about with the children over in the school is miracles of Jesus. I like to see how many of Jesus’ famous miracles the school kids can list off: changing water into wine, walking on the sea of galilee, bringing sight to the blind, calming storms, multiplying the loaves and fishes, raising Jairus’ daughter from the dead, raising his friend, Lazarus. Once, a school kid said that one of Jesus’ miracles was curing big cats. “Big cats”, I asked? Yeah, he cured the leopards. Never a dull moment in the priesthood.

Jesus was famous for performing miracles. “ But, why did Jesus perform miracles?” I ask the school kids. And they usually do a pretty good job with that too. Jesus performed miracles because he loves us, he and he wants people to know that He is God.

People from all around galilee came to know that Jesus could perform miracles. They would come to him in great crowds. And many came to believe in his Divinity, when they saw his signs and heard his teachings.

After the Ascension of the Lord into heaven, the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders, as they spread the Gospel in fidelity to their great commission.  There are stories of Saint Thomas performing miracles in India, Peter raised Tabitha from the dead, Paul healed the sick at Malta and raised the dead. Saint Jude the Apostle has been known throughout the centuries as the patron saint of hopeless causes—his prayerful intercession has brought countless miraculous cures.
And throughout the history of the Church many saints could perform miracles: Saint John Bosco, whose feast was on Thursday, performed so many miracles that Pope Pius XI said that in the life of Don Bosco, “the supernatural almost became natural, and the extraordinary, ordinary”.  Don Bosco performed many healings; he once even raised a young boy from the dead who died in a state of mortal sin so the boy could make a sacramental confession.   Countless miracles fill the lives of saints like Patrick, Catherine of Siena, St. Kevin, Benedict, and Clare.

I personally witnessed what I believe to be a miracle from a modern day saint.  I was attending world youth day in Toronto and we were all camped out in a field on Saturday night, as we were to celebrate Sunday Mass in the morning with Holy Father Pope John Paul II.  At about 5 a.m. it started to rain.  Everyone woke up and covered themselves in tarps and umbrellas, but it was pretty miserable as sprinkling quickly turned into downpour.  When Mass started it was raining harder than ever, and everyone was totally soaked. 

You might know that during the Easter Season it is common to use The Rite of Sprinkling: the priest sprinkles the congregation with Holy Water to recall the saving waters of Baptism. At Mass that morning, Pope John Paul II looked out at the crowd in the pouring rain and declared, "Today we will have the Rite of Sprinkling by natural means!" He then said, “May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins and bring us to everlasting life.” And within seconds…seconds, the rain stopped and the sun came out, and Mass continued with the Gloria.

Speaking of miracles, February 3rd is the feast of Saint Blaise. Saint Blaise was a bishop and martyr from the 4th century who miraculously cured a young boy who was choking to death. St. Blaise is invoked as the patron saint of throat ailments, and so we will bestow the blessing of throats at the end of Mass today.

In the Gospel today, Jesus had come to Nazareth, into the synagogue of his youth, and read from the scroll a passage of how the messiah would come performing miracles: the blind would see, the deaf would hear, and a time of favor from the Lord would be inaugurated.  Jesus explained how this prophecy was being fulfilled in their hearing.

The people had already heard of some of the healing miracles Jesus had performed.  So what was their response to his radical claim—the claim that he was the long-awaited for Messiah?
Well, initially they were favorable toward him.  They thought, hey, this is the son of Joseph, the carpenter.  If this guy is really the Messiah, we are his home-town boys, this is going to be favorable for us.  He’s been performing miracles, I could definitely use one of those.  A miracle-working messiah, and I’m his next door neighbor.

But, Jesus knew their hearts, and he detected a problem—a stumbling-block.  They wanted the miracles without discipleship.  They wanted the fame without the hard work.  They wanted the glory without the responsibility.  They wanted resurrection without the cross. 

Detecting this problem, Jesus tells two stories from the Old testament, one about the widow of Zarapheth, and the other about Naaman the Syrian. These two people were non-Jews, non-Jews who received healing and blessing and miracles from the God of the Jews, while Jews were passed up and deprived of blessing and miracle because of their lack of faith.

In relating these stories what is Jesus saying here, first to the people of Nazareth and secondly to us? Just because you are from Nazareth doesn’t mean you will inherit the kingdom. Salvation requires faith, it requires discipleship.

Jesus’ miracles, as our school kids point out, are to help us know and follow Jesus. Sometimes I think we are deprived of miracles for good reason, because God knows that we’ll receive the miracle and then go right back to the life of sin and unbelief.

Incited by Jesus’ insinuations, the townsfolk rose up, and drove him to the edge of a cliff to kill him. A few minutes ago they were saying how great he was, praising the gracious words coming from his lips; now they were filled with murderous fury? Why?  Jesus exposed some darkness in them, some hard-heartedness. And some people are not willing to change.   Jesus did not come to satisfy selfish requests. But rather, to help us, once and for all to overcome all selfishness, and to show us that it is the path of self-sacrifice and Christian belief which leads to heaven. 

This has everything to do with who we are as members of the Christian Church in this 21st century.  For we can easily fall into the same trap as the people of Nazareth, we can start to take Jesus for granted, or we can become bitter or angry when God doesn’t grant us miracles on our terms. We, like the citizens of Nazareth, all too easily driven Jesus to the fringes to throw Jesus off the cliff, so we didn’t have to think about him, so he wouldn’t prick our consciences, so we wouldn’t have to change our life, so we wouldn’t have to get off the couch.

The saints and the Christians you know have not driven Jesus to the fringes. Rather, through lives of  prayer, lives of service, they live in grateful response to have received salvation in Jesus Christ.  For the thrust of the Christian life is gratitude for already having received the miracle, the only miracle, that in the end truly matters: the gift of new life through baptism, the second chance at heaven. That’s the miracle. The most important miracle. The revivification of souls dead in sin brought about by Jesus’ own self-sacrifice, his suffering and death on the cross.

This is why weekly mass is essential for Christians. Without weekly mass we begin to take that miracle for granted, Our Lord’s self-sacrifice, his suffering and death for granted. And then we know how easily worldly preoccupations can creep in, Christian devotion are set aside, Christian service is left for others. Soon, the things of the world take on greater importance than the things of God. And our souls begin to separate from the source of life and goodness.

When we receive the Lord in faith, we begin to become our best-selves. We begin to see the amazing miracles God is working in the world now. May we make the choice to believe in the miracle of new life through Jesus, and change our lives accordingly, that he might make us his instruments of bringing sight to the blind, liberty to captives, and good news to the poor for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

3rd Sunday in OT 2019 - Jesus brings us God

Over in the school these past two weeks, I’ve finally had the opportunity to do a little teaching. I’ve visited each of the grades now, and I taught a lesson for each of them on the liturgical year: how the seasons of the Church year celebrate the different seasons of Jesus’ life so we can follow Jesus more faithfully. So I reviewed with them how Advent and Christmas helps us to prepare our hearts to believe in Jesus and love Him, and how now in Ordinary Time we hear about many of the wonderful miracles Jesus performed and his preaching and teaching about the Kingdom of God. Again, Ordinary Time helps us to put the lessons of Jesus’ miracles and preaching into practice into the ordinary events of our life.

Last Sunday, those who braved the snow and cold, heard of Jesus’ first miracle: his miracle at the Wedding at Cana—how Jesus changed water into wine at the urging of his mother. We, like the servants at the wedding, should, as Jesus’ mother teaches us, to do whatever he tells us. And like the disciples who witnessed the miracle, we are to glorify God for the amazing things Jesus does in our lives.

And now this weekend, we hear Jesus’ very first homily recorded in Luke’s Gospel. Emerging from the desert, having fasted and prayed for 40 days and having faced the temptations of the devil, Jesus goes to the synogogue in his native place, Nazareth. There Jesus reads from the scripture and teaches people what God is doing in their midst. Jesus explained how those ancient prophecies of Isaiah were being fulfilled in their midst. God promised that He would bring glad tidings to the poor, liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind. And Jesus make the amazing claim that those promises were being fulfilled in Him.

Well, what does this event in the life of Jesus mean for our Ordinary day to day lives?

In his book Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict XVI asks this question another way. He asks “What did Jesus actually bring us?” We still have wars. We still have famine. People still suffer. People still get sick and die. So what did Jesus actually bring? And Pope Benedict answers the question by saying: “Jesus brought us God. Jesus brings us God.”

Jesus is much more than a social worker. He’s not just a nice guy who came to teach us a few useful things about living together in harmony. He’s not just a philosopher who gives us a theory about life, the universe, and everything. He’s not just a politician who promises to fulfill every wish we could ever have.

Jesus brings us something that nothing else and no one else on earth can give: the gift of God Himself. Jesus is God, and Jesus is God’s gift of Himself to Us who need Him. Only God can give us the liberty we need to truly be free. Only God can forgive sins. Only God can give us the gift of eternal life. Only God can give us the good news that changes our life from the core. Jesus shows us the face of God. Jesus reveals the heart of God. Jesus brings us God. For He is Truly God who gives Himself that we may have life.

One of the errors of our modern day is that we think we can save ourselves, that we don’t need God, we can do it on our own. If we just elect the right politicians. If just enact the right law. If we just force everyone to adopt the right set of public policies, if we just get the right sized house or the right amount of cash in the savings account, if we just outlaw certain “triggering” words, then we’ll be free…then we’ll be happy.

This attempt to save ourselves—this belief that we can live rightly without God—is a symptom of the deepest soul sickness, going all the way back to the garden of eden, when adam and eve grasped at a reality divorced from God. They chose to ignore God’s command, to ignore God’s plan for humanity. And each one of us does the same when we choose sin over faithfulness.

And the wars, the violence, the hostility between men and women, the brokenness in families,  the addictions, the penchant for self-destruction is a result of this attempt to build a life and build a world without God. Who will save us from this? Who will save us from the tendency of “not doing the good we want to do, and doing the evil we don’t want to do” as St. paul says? Who will give us the strength to be able to love one another as deeply as we yearn to do? Who will teach us what humanity is meant to be? Who will reconcile us? Who will bring us peace? Jesus “Jesus brought us God. Jesus brings us God.”

In our first reading, we heard a foreshadowing of this amazing truth. From the book of Nehemiah we heard how the Jews fell face-down and wept when the priest read to them from God’s Word. 70 years they had been captive in Babylon. An entire generation did not know God, they did not know the promises of God, they did not know the commandments of God that help us to live a holy life. And they wept when they discovered what God wanted for them, they wept when they discovered that they were not created to be captives to the powers of the world, they wept when they learned they were created to be God’s chosen people, chosen by God to manifest His goodness, his truth, his beauty, his light.

And the Jewish people had this reaction simply from reading from the first five books of the Old Testament. What should our reaction be, how immense should our gratitude be, to come here, and to receive the very gift of God, the body and blood of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior in the Eucharist. I have known Catholics, similarly to break down and weep in gratitude after encountering Jesus in the confessional, they weep to discover that their sins are forgiven.

This, too, is why daily prayer and daily reading of the Word of God is so important. Because daily we, God’s chosen people are meant to encounter him, to open our hearts and minds to him. We are meant to prayerfully encounter the God who desires to free us, to illuminate us, to guide us in being his holy people, members of his mystical body tasked at manifesting his goodness, his life, his beauty, his truth in the ordinary circumstances of our lives, and bringing sight, freedom, good tiding to those in need of it, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

1st Week of OT 2019 - Tuesday - Binding Evil Spirits and Liberating Captives

On the first weekday of Ordinary Time yesterday, we heard the call of the disciples.  Jesus’ call of his first followers is followed by his first miraculous work in Mark’s Gospel: an exorcism—reminding us that Christ has come to do battle with Satan, to dismantle the powers of darkness, and to unbind those who are bound by evil.

This whole drama takes place while Jesus is teaching in a synagogue. And this demon begins to disrupt Jesus, the works of the devil disrupt, hinder, thwart the work of God. The demon is called an “unclean spirit”. Why are they called “unclean”? “Unclean” is an Old Testament term for a person or thing that is ritually defiled and therefore prohibited from taking part in worship. A demon is an angel that has been cast out of heaven due to its refusal to worship God. And the unclean spirits seek to separate us eternally from the worship of God as well.

“I know who you are–the Holy One of God!” The unclean spirit claims hidden knowledge of Jesus’ identity, a frequent tactic of the demons in the Gospel. But if it intends to catch Jesus off guard, or to gain some control over him, their attempt is futile. For Christ commands them ”Quiet!, phimōthēti” one of the coolest Greek words, literally, “be muzzled”. Imagine leather straps binding, muzzling, the mouth of an ox. Having been muzzled, the unclean spirit shows one last act of defiance by convulsing the man, but helpless before Jesus’ word of command, the demon departs.

Day two of Ordinary Time, and we get a glimpse of the battlefield. Jesus has come to drive out the unclean from our lives, all that defiles human dignity and to restore us to the right worship of God, that we may worship and live “in spirit and in truth”. We do well to study God’s word and study  our catechism: so much uncleanness is cast out when we are exposed to and believe God’s truth. And most likely the undisciplined parts of our egos need to be muzzled, in order to be brought under the direction of the Holy Spirit.

The Lord also desire to use us as his instruments for binding evil in the world, for setting captives free. May we be ambassadors of his truth, his goodness, his power, and his love today for all we meet, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
 
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That the preaching and teachings of the Pope, Bishops, and clergy may be a source of strength and guidance for the Holy Church.

That those in civic authority may submit their minds and hearts to the rule of Christ, the Prince of Peace and Hope of the nations.

For the liberation of those bound by evil, those committed to sin an error, those oppressed or possessed by evil spirits, and for the conversion of the hardest hearts.

That the March for Life in Washington D.C. this Friday will help to transform our culture and inspire many to adhere to the Gospel of Life.

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