March 04 2019 - St. Casimir - "To Serve is to Reign"

St. Casimir was born in 1458 and was the son of the King of Poland.  He was in line to be king himself, but he followed a higher calling. He gave away his possessions, lived simply, devoted hours to prayer and study and helping the poor and imprisoned.  Despite pressure to marry the Emperor’s daughter, Casimir vowed to remain celibate.  He died of tuberculosis in 1483 at the age of 23.  Casimir is the patron saint of Lithuania, Poland, and Russia.

The Collect Prayer begins with a powerful phrase: “Almighty God, to serve you is to reign”. Casimir could have ruled a kingdom, had his every whim satisfied. But he recognized this truth, to serve God is to reign. This echoes Paul’s words to Timothy: “If we died with Him, we will also live with Him; if we endure, we will also reign with Him”

The Son of God left heavenly majesty to make a humble servant, who came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. The heart of Christ the King is a servant’s heart, for Christ served the Father’s will on earth, and claimed no earthly power.  Mary, too, whose Immaculate Heart burns in union with Her Son’s, is the obedient heart of a handmaid, and it is she who is crowned Queen of Heaven.  Today’s saint, Casimir preferred to be counted among not the famous and powerful men of this world, but the meek and poor of spirit to whom are promised the kingdom of heaven.

In these final days of Ordinary Time before Lent, we do well to consider the Lenten practices which will help us to imitate Christ’s servant heart: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, that our hearts might become like His.

May St. Casimir help us to accept God’s invitation to radically transform our hearts, that we may serve God in holiness and justice, in union with the servant Son of God, to persevere in our Lenten commitments that we may reign with Christ eternally, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
 
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That the upcoming season of Lent may be a source of renewal and spiritual growth for the entire Christian Church.

For deliverance from any form of avarice or pride which has crept into the hearts of Church or government leaders.

That we may guard our hearts from all greed, and be free from everything which keeps us from loving and following Christ with undivided hearts.

Through the intercession of St. Casimir for the spiritual and temporal welfare of the people of Lithuania, Poland, and Russia and immigrants and their descendants in our country.

For all those who share in the sufferings of Christ—the sick, the sorrowful, and those who are afflicted or burdened in any way.  We pray to the Lord.

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, for the deceased clergy and religious of the diocese of Cleveland, for the poor souls in purgatory, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom. We pray to the Lord.

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.

8th Sunday in OT 2019 - Preparing for Lent

Before the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, the sundays before Lent would already have the priest already garbed in Lenten Penetential Purple.

These sundays served as a sort of front porch to Lent. . There was even an old tradition, three weeks prior to Lent, that the parish priest would take a scroll with the word “Alleluia” written on it, and bury it in the church yard, as Alleluia is not said or sung during Lent until we celebrate Jesus rising from the tomb. On the Old Calendar, the Sunday prior to Ash Wednesday was called Quinquegesima Sunday, as we are about 50 days from Easter. Even though Vatican II reformed the liturgical calendar, it is still important to prepare for Lent, which begins this wednesday with the solemn imposition of Ashes on our foreheads.

You may have read in the bulletin this week and last week how during Lent we are to engage in what are called the three traditional Lenten Penitential Practices. We show our commitment to ongoing Christian conversion through the three practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Before Wednesday, come up wit ha Lenten plan for yourself and for your family: what will your Lenten prayer consist of, what will your Lenten fasting consist of, what will your lenten almsgiving consist of. The three Lenten practices are of great importance; by them, the Holy Spirit prepares us for the new life of Easter.

St. Peter Chyrsologus, about 1600 years ago wrote of the importance of the three Lenten practices: He wrote: “Prayer, mercy and fasting: These three are one, and they give life to each other. Fasting is the soul of prayer; mercy is the lifeblood of fasting. Let no one try to separate them; they cannot be separated. If you have only one of them or not all together, you have nothing.”

Prepare well for Lent, that Lent may prepare you well for Easter. For, as Catholics we take preparation very seriously, don’t we? Periods of preparation precede the reception of the sacraments.  An adult preparing for baptism goes through a thorough process of learning the Church’s doctrine, learning about the prayer life of the Church, learning about our moral teachings before they are made members of the Church in the sacrament of baptism.

Hopefully, it isn’t too distant of a memory, but when you were preparing for your first holy communion, you learned about the Mass, you learned about how the Lord nourishes us with His body and blood in the eucharist. And as young people you also prepared for the sacrament of confirmation; you learned about the gifts of the holy spirit: wisdom, understanding, knowledge, piety, fortitude, which are strengthened in you in Confirmation.

The seminarian preparing for Holy Orders, prepares 8 or 9 years for the life of ministry as an ordained priest.  And Christians preparing for the Sacrament of Marriage meet with a priest over several months prior to the wedding: they discuss healthy communication and conflict resolution, raising children, they attend a pre-Cana day, and examine the scriptural foundations for Christian marriage and the Church’s doctrine.

The two most important feasts of the Church year, Easter and Christmas, are both preceded by periods of preparation.  The season of Advent helps us to prepare for Jesus’ coming and the celebration of his birth at Christmas.  And the season of Lent helps us to prepare for the new life available to us through Jesus’ Passion Death and Resurrection celebrated at Easter.

We prepare for Easter by getting back to Christian basics: the prayer, fasting, and acts of charity, the repentance of sin, that should mark the entirety of the Christian life.

The word Lent comes from the Anglo-Saxon word Lencten, which is the lengthening of days as we approach springtime, the season of new Growth. And any good gardener knows that before the spring planting season can begin, you first need to clear away the clutter, the dead weeds.  Or just as our houses need spring cleaning, so that we can live more peacefully, happily, and blessedly, Lent is the time to clean up our souls.

I think this is what makes the Lenten practice of fasting so important. It's certainly not as pleasant as the other two. Most of us typically enjoy and find peace in spending quiet time with God in prayer. Most of us derive satisfaction in engaging in almsgiving and works of charity. The fasting though is the least enjoyable, but it is of the utmost importance.

Many of the great saints spoke of the importance of fasting. St. Thomas More said: “The scriptures are full of places that prove fasting to be not the invention of man but the institution of God...And that the fasting of one man may do good unto another. Even our savior proved this when he said that some kind of devils cannot be cast out without prayer and fasting.” In other words, there are many evils in our world and in our hearts that the Lord wishes to deliver us from, through fasting.

By fasting, I refer to of course, the abstaining from meat on ash wednesday, good friday, and the fridays of lent, and also the restricted food intake on ash wednesday and good friday. But I also mean the fasting of “giving something up for lent”. Something good, something you enjoy, something that makes your mouth water, or something that will free you up to engage more in prayer and charity.

These days, I challenge the kids over in the school to consider giving up for Lent video games and social media. And when I mention that, their groans are almost like those of an exorcism. “No, not that, anything but that.” To which I always respond, that which you least want to give up, is probably a sign of what the Holy Spirit wants you to give up.

For some of us it might be video games or social media or television or youtube. For some it might mean alcohol or snacking between meals, taking second helpings, dessert, junk food, or for the bravest among us, caffeine. Just be careful with that one. I knew a priest who gave up caffeine for Lent, and that first week you couldn’t talk to Father because he'd bite your head off.

Lenten fasting is not the same as dieting, for its primary aim is not the elimination of love handles, but to help us love God more than we love the things of the world, to help us to remember that it is not by bread alone that we subsist, but true human flourishing comes by making our lives into living sacrifices, obedient to God's will in all things.

In the Gospel, our Lord tells us the importance of removing the splinter from our own eye that we may judge rightly and of pruning all that does not bear good fruit in our life. Through Lenten prayer, almsgiving, and especially fasting, we prune that which so often bears rotten fruit, we remove that which keeps us from judging rightly and following rightly the ways of God, that we may live ever more fully and faithfully the new life God wants for us for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

7th Sunday in OT 2019 - Love of Enemies & Breaking Cycles of Violence

Last week we heard the beginning of Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain from Luke’s Gospel—Our Lord’s instruction on how to live a blessed life—not living for wealth, for sensual pleasure, but weeping for one’s sins and being willing to endure suffering for the spread of the Christian Gospel. This week’s Gospel continues his great sermon and contains one of the most sacred, inspiring, and perhaps annoying and puzzling texts in the whole new testament: “To you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” The Lord teaches not just tolerance for one’s enemy, not just vague acceptance, but love.

Who springs to mind when he gives that teaching: “your enemy” For some of us that might mean one of the great global enemies of history: perhaps the September 11 hijackers or Hitler, Stalin, or Mao Tse-Tung, or perhaps your most reviled politician. Perhaps it’s a bit more personal, someone in your life who you just don’t like, who annoys you to no end, or someone who betrayed your trust or caused you harm.

Our first reading contains a pair of enemies, Saul and David. Saul had become deeply jealous of David and sought to kill him. Saul led his vast army to hunt down David and kill him. But in today’s reading, the tide is turned: David has snuck into Saul’s camp, and finds Saul asleep, unprotected, and at his most vulnerable. With a single thrust of his spear, David could kill Saul easily—this mad tyrant who was trying to kill him, unjustly, aggressively, out of insane jealousy. David has every right, you’d say, to kill Saul.

What would you if your greatest enemy was delivered into your hands? Someone you hated, someone that hurt you, someone who has mocked you and made you feel inferior. What would you do if the tables were turned? David finds himself in this position. Now he was the one with the power, he was the one with the blade at his enemies throat. But he chooses not to strike, he breaks the cycle, he foreshadows the love of one’s enemy which Jesus teaches.

And Jesus’ admonition to love our enemies is central to his teaching. It is the great test. And when he says love, he’s not talking about an emotion or a feeling. Love is not a sentiment. Love is an act of the will, a choice to will the good of another, to work for the good of another. A parent loves their child when they work and sacrifice so that the child may grow and learn and become the person they are meant to be. Spouses love each other when they make sacrifices for the good of each other. A priest or religious loves the church when we sacrifice ourselves for the good.

To love one’s enemy is to will their good, and that is not easy.  Why? Why is that hard? Sacrifice is hard, forgiveness is hard. Lending to those who cannot or will not pay you back is hard. Love makes one vulnerable and that is dangerous, that is scary.

Sometimes we find our enemies so threatening because they reveal truths about ourselves that are uncomfortable to face: that we’ve been hurt and want vengeance for our suffering. Or we see in them some hardness that exists also in ourselves. Why did the Pharisees hate Jesus? He revealed their hardness of heart. They sought to put to death the innocent one because his innocence exposed their corruption. He revealed their need to control, their addiction to fame.  Our hatred of an enemy sometimes comes from our fear of having our own hypocrisy exposed. Our enemy is not fooled by our acting.

But if that’s the case, but if they reveal something unholy in us, learning to love one’s enemy is essential for becoming the people God made us to be. God wants to heal our brokenness and liberate us from our hardness of heart by teaching us to love our enemies. If someone, anyone exposes a lie that we tell ourselves, thanks be to God for them.

Another reason why love of enemies is central to the Christian way of life is that through love and patience and understanding and empathy we might win them back. By lending to someone who has no ability to pay us back we teach them something about God—we reflect the love of Jesus who died for sinners. Through our own act of mercy, we show that that mercy and love are possible—we show them the mercy of the Father.

For, as Christians, our task is to draw people in to the mystical body of Christ, to lead them to God. And if we write someone off, we judge them as irredeemable, if we say, they are too far gone, they are my enemy, and unworthy of my effort, then we are unfaithful to the mission of drawing all men to Christ.

It’s difficult to resist that tendency to become irrational with the irrational, to fight fire with fire, to meet short tempers with even shorter tempers, to write people off. But Christians are to break the cycle of hostility through patience, gentleness, and understanding. Our patience and generosity will often be the road on which God wishes to meet souls, to help them to know His goodness and love.
In just a week and a half we will begin the great season of Lent, the season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Consider offering up your Lenten penances for someone who you consider an enemy: perhaps someone who has hurt you, or someone who you think is bringing ruin to the Church or to the world, and pray for them daily, fast for their conversion, beseech God for the ability to forgive them. Pray for the ability to love them with the gentle and patient heart of Jesus, that when you speak to them, you may do so with the utmost understanding, and that you may learn from them what God wants to teach you through them. Every day bring them to God. I guarantee, to do so will change you for the better.

Jesus deliver us from the unwillingness to love. Help us to pray, to fast, to do penance, to will the good in everyone, to do good to those who hate us, to bless those who curse us, to pray for those who mistreat us, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

February 22 2019 - Chair of St. Peter - More than a piece of furniture

Reading through the parish histories, I came to discover that for its beauty and grand architecture St. Ignatius of Antioch is sometimes called the “Cathedral of West Blvd.”, I even had that printed on my business cards. And yet, there is only one cathedral in the diocese, in any diocese. For the cathedral is the church in which can be found the “cathedra” the seat of the bishop, symbolizing his authority as chief shepherd of the diocese. Bishop Perez has authority to teach, govern, and sanctify in this diocese because he is a successor of the Twelve Apostles, and has been appointed to sit in the cathedra of Cleveland by the one who sits in the Cathedra of Rome—the Chair of Peter.

Today’s feast celebrates that the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church founded by Jesus Christ has a chair in which Christ’s Vicar will sit until Our Lord returns. The Bishop who sits on the “cathedra” of Rome has a very important mission, not only to the Christians of the city of Rome, but to the entire People of God. He is the successor of the Apostle Peter to whom the Lord entrusted the keys to the kingdom of heaven.

He has the power to bind and loose, to enact laws for the good of the People of God to which they will be held accountable on judgment day.

A lot of people think that they can have Jesus without His Church. But the earliest Christians attest to Our Lord’s desire for his disciples look to the authority of the Pope. Peter the Rock is to be a source of unity for the Church--a remedy for the division toward which we always tend.

So, this feast day, is less about furniture, and more about the grace of God that helps us to remain united to Christ and to love each other, so that we can know the healing that comes from Christ, the strength to withstand temptation, the grace of repentance, and the courage to work always for the spread of the Gospel for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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For the Successor of St. Peter, our Holy Father Pope Francis, that he be strong in his mission and strengthen the whole Church in faith, we pray to the Lord...

For all bishops, that they grow in union with Peter, share the zeal of Paul, and lead us by the grace of the Holy Spirit, we pray to the Lord...

For those preparing for baptism and the Easter sacraments, that they may continue to conform themselves to Christ through Faith taught by St. Peter and his successors.

For the conversion of all people to Christ, for those who reject the Faith, for those who have fallen away from the Church, for those who mock and persecute Christians, for hardened and unrepentant sinners, we pray to the Lord.

For the sick and the dying, the poor and the oppressed, and all victims of war, violence, and the selfishness of their fellow man, that they may experience the peace and presence of Christ, we pray to the Lord.

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

Father, We rejoice in the call to belong to the Church, to believe in the Gospel, and to be united with the successors of your Apostles. Answer our prayers and increase our fidelity to the Gospel. Through Christ our Lord.

6th Week in OT 2019 - Wednesday - Gradual Healing of Spiritual Blindness

Yesterday, we heard how the apostles failed to understand Jesus’ identity. They feared because they forgot to take bread with them, not understanding, blind to the fact that the One who feeds—the living bread Himself—was with them. The account of the apostle’s spiritual blindness is followed by this morning’s passage of a miraculous healing.

And, this healing miracle i is unique among the miracles recorded in the Gospels as the only healing that takes place in two stages. After laying his hands on the man the first time, the man only achieve partial recovery. He couldn’t tell the difference between people and trees. It’s only after the second time that Jesus touches the man that his sight is restored.

The man’s gradual recovery symbolizes the slow and difficult process in Mark’s Gospel of opening the disciples’ eyes to understanding Jesus’ identity and mission. This blind man at first couldn’t tell the difference between peoples and trees. Well, it will not be until they see Jesus on a tree, on a cross, that the disciples will fully understand who he is: the faithful Son who undergoes suffering and death to save us from our sins.

Spiritual blindness is often overcome in stages. It often takes multiple encounters with God’s mercy, maybe even a lifetime, to overcome a particular sin. Perhaps that’s because seeing the real identity of a person is often accomplished in stages.  First, we see someone’s outward appearance, the color of their hair, the shape of their face.  But it usually takes time to see them at a deeper level—time spent in their presence, time in conversations, time working along-side of them—we come to know each other gradually.  Saint Paul even tell us this in I Corinthians: “At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.”

Our true sight is not regained by staring at a television or computer screen for several hours a day.  Spiritual sight is regained, like in the Gospel today, by the encounter with Christ himself.  This occurs predominately in prayer—the Sacraments and in daily meditation and in serving Christ in the poor.
And as our sight is gradually restored, we see Christ more clearly and begin to see ourselves more clearly, how God sees us. May we be open to the encounters with Christ God wants for us today: in prayer and service for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
 
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That the bishops of the Church will act as true prophets through their faithful teaching, their courageous witness, and their self-sacrificing love. We pray to the Lord.
That government leaders around the world may carry out their duties with justice, honesty, and respect for freedom and the dignity of human life.  We pray to the Lord.
For the lifting of the veil from our eyes and hearts to be more attentive to the needs of the poor in our midst. We pray to the Lord.
For all those who share in the sufferings of Christ—the sick, the sorrowful, and those who are afflicted or burdened in any way.  We pray to the Lord.
For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, for the deceased clergy and religious of the diocese of Cleveland, for the poor souls in purgatory, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom. We pray to the Lord.
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.

6th Week in OT 2019 - Be on guard against leaven

Throughout Mark’s Gospel, the disciples are consistently misunderstanding Jesus’ teachings, they are slow to understand who He is, and the implications of His presence with them.

St. Mark records the disciples failure to understand Jesus’ parable of the sower. After Jesus calms the storm on the sea of Galilee, they question “Who is this guy, who even commands storms”? They were completely baffled by Jesus when he later walks toward them on the water. And Jesus lumps the disciples in with the Pharisees who do not understand his teaching about purity and the tradition of the elders.

Today, Jesus is aware of their anxiety over only having one loaf of bread. Jesus then warns them to guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod. The Pharisees consistently are filled with doubt, hardheartedness, failure to fully believe in Jesus. All these things, Jesus warns will cause you to be spiritually blind, like the Pharisees, to His true identity, to His mission, to His power. And Herod? We heard of Herod’s adultery, his ego, and permission to murder John the Baptist. The leaven of Herod is the moral cowardice, the violation of the moral law which blinds us to the truth of Jesus’ law of Love.

Jesus says we must guard against these things. We must guard against the things that cause us doubt and hard-heartedness toward the Gospel, and also the breaking of the moral law. Popular culture bombards the senses with error and examples of moral error. Whenever we turn on the television or go on the internet we must guard ourselves from anything that will cause hardness in us toward the Gospel. Whenever we have conversations with non-believers or Christians of weak or compromised faith, we need to be on guard toward error.

How many Catholics live together before marriage because that’s what the culture expects? How many don’t go to Mass because of the culture’s attitude toward religion? How many young Catholic college students lose their faith because of the errors and morals of the college campus? How many parents fail to teach their children to pray, to confess their sins because of prevailing culture attitudes?

Be on guard! We guard our minds and hearts from the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod by studying the faith, studying the word of God, studying what the Church teaches and why she teaches it. And by coming to Mass and recommitting to Jesus that our faith may be strong, that we may be courageous in the face of hostility and temptation, that we may keep the word of the Lord in all things, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That the bishops of the Church will act as true prophets through their faithful teaching, their courageous witness, and their self-sacrificing love. We pray to the Lord.

That government leaders around the world may carry out their duties with justice, honesty, and respect for freedom and the dignity of human life.  We pray to the Lord.

For the grace to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, to love our neighbors and enemies and those who persecute us, and to share the truth of the Gospel with all.  We pray to the Lord.

For all those who share in the sufferings of Christ—the sick, the sorrowful, and those who are afflicted or burdened in any way, especially those effected by hurricanes and storms.  We pray to the Lord.

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, for the deceased clergy and religious of the diocese of Cleveland, for the poor souls in purgatory, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom. We pray to the Lord.

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.

6th Sunday in OT 2019 - Sermon on the Plain

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus gives his most famous sermon on top of a mountain. For Matthew depicts Jesus like Moses who atop Mt. Sinai received the Law of the Old Covenant from God. Jesus—the New Moses gives the teachings of the new law—the law of the new covenant that he came to form between God and Man. In Matthew’s Gospel, atop what is now called the Mount of Beatitudes, Jesus taught about holiness and eternal life, about salt and light, about anger, adultery, and divorce, and the love of enemies, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, about judging others and casting pearls before swine, and the imperative of building your life on the solid foundations of his teachings.

In Luke, Jesus gives his first major sermon, not from the top of a mountain. In fact, St. Luke tells us that Jesus came down from the mountain, and taught his disciples and this large group of people on a stretch of level ground. This passage of Luke’s Gospel is known as Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain, and is delivered immediately after spending a night in prayer and naming the 12 apostles.

Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount and Luke’s Sermon on the Plain contain much of the same content, in fact, Luke’s version is a bit more down-to-earth, clearer and direct.
“Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours.
Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man."

Just four beatitudes compared to Matthew’s eight. And on the surface…this is a pretty strange teaching. Blessed are your when you are poor? Well, no one wants to poor. Everyone tries to get out of poverty. Blessed are you who are hungry? In Jesus’ day, to go hungry was a sign that you were cursed by God. Know one likes to be hungry. Blessed are you who weep? This is getting more masochistic as it goes on. Poor, hungry, now sad? We seek to escape sadness, depression, and grief. And the last one is even more dramatic. You are blessed when you are hated, persecuted, condemned as evil for being a follower of Jesus. Well…where do I sign up?

How do we begin to understand these odd teachings? Jesus certainly shakes-up the expectations of his audience. Christians are to view and treat the world differently. We aren’t to trust in the same things the worldly-minded trust in, we aren’t to hunger or crave or seek the same things as the worldly-minded because we recognize that nothing in the world can satisfy our deepest hunger for God. We get in trouble when we attach that deepest spiritual hunger to the things and ways of the world; we end up frustrated, exhausted, spiritually depleted, and even lost in sin.

This odd teaching requires we go a bit deeper though. Jesus uses this phrase “blessed are you” in each of these sayings. The Greek word for “blessed” is “Makarios”, the same as in Matthew’s Gospel. “Makarios” is often translated as blessed, happy, fortunate, or divinely joyful. The Greeks used to call the island of Cyprus “makaria” the Island of Joy. The Greeks felt Cyprus was like a high-end resort: so fertile, beautiful, pleasant, safe, peaceful, and rich in minerals and natural resources, that its inhabitants were completely self-sufficient. They had no need to travel or trade in order to live in perfect physical comfort. Maybe, Luke had this in mind in writing “Makarios”, that following Jesus’ teaching, you receive what is sufficient for making your way to the heavenly paradise.

Blessed, fortunate, divinely joyful, in possession of what is necessary for eternal life, are you when you are poor, that is, when you are not attached to or controlled by material things, but rather, when God is your greatest possession, when you do not allow the material things of the world to keep you from knowing, loving, and serving God.

So much of our sadness comes from allowing the things of the world to control us and distract us from what is most important in life. The world tells us that joy and happiness are obtained by amassing houses, cars, mobile devices, clothes and shoes, grander and more luxurious vacations. The devil loves to convince us to work harder and harder for these things, which may bring some temporary gratification, but in the end leaves us exhausted. The devil loves using worldly allurement to draw us away from that which truly gives us life--prayer, service, devotion, worship, and communion—that is genuine encounter with God, and genuine authentic human contact. So how blessed are you when you are poor, detached, dispassionate about the worldly and rich in the things of God.

Okay. Blessed, fortunate, divinely joyful are you when you are hungry. Hunger is linked to the sensual. So, how fortunate when you are not addicted to sensual pleasure. Food and drink and sex are good, and the ability to enjoy them in their proper context is good. Catholics are not puritanical. God pronounced these created things good. But good, in their proper context, moderated by reason. Pleasure is good, but not God. What sinful man tends to do, is to make them into gods. We attach our infinite desire for God to these created things and bend our wills to obtain them inordinately. But because these things do not satisfy our deepest desire for God, it’s no surprise that addictions emerge around these things: food addiction, drug and alcohol addiction, sex and pornography addiction—Addictions which cause great damage to the psyche, to families, and to souls.

But blessed are you when hunger, when you are detached from these sensual pleasures, when you don’t let the pursuit of physical pleasure control your life. Jesus came to set us free from slavery to the sensual.

Thirdly, Blessed, fortunate are you who now weep. The weeping of the righteous in scripture is often linked to the acknowledgement of sin. Isaiah cried out and wept: Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips” Isaiah wept because he was unable to come into the presence of God because of his sins. And so, blessed are you when your recognize your sinfulness and weep for your sins and seek conversion.

What does the world weep over? Certainly not over offending God! One can’t help but think of the recent legalization of abortion up to and including the birth of the child in several states for any reason. As a kid, in popular culture there was at least some acknowledging that abortion was not ideal. The slogan was “make abortion safe, legal, and rare”. In 2019 we hear slogans like “shout your abortion” or “abortion on demand without apology”. People not weeping but reveling in the fact that innocent life is murdered. The world weeps not for the destruction of its moral compass. 

Rather, Christians blessed are you when you weep over sin. We do well to make spiritual reparation through prayer and fasting for sins that cry out to heaven and for the conversion of those who revel over and celebrate sin.

And those who weep over sin, the Lord says, will one day laugh; those who acknowledge and repent of sin in this life will rejoice in the world to come.

And finally, blessed are you when you are persecuted for Christ. “Rejoice and leap for joy on that day!” The world wants to silence the Christian Gospel, wants us to compromise the moral teachings of Jesus, to water down the content of the faith, to change what has been received from Christ and the apostles. And we will face resistance when we trust in Jesus.

But Jesus promises blessedness, eternal life, and joy to those who persevere in the truth, who are willing to undergo suffering to courageously defend, patiently explain, clearly articulate, and unambiguously live the Christian faith in the face of error and confusion and persecution. We proclaim the Gospel of Life in the midst of a culture of death, but we do so joyfully, knowing that our efforts are made for the glory of God and salvation of souls.