Ascension Sunday 2018 - The divine stamp of gaurentee

Years ago, a Catholic missionary was preaching in the open square of a village in North India.
As he finished, a Muslim man approached him and said: "You must admit: we Muslims have one thing you Christians have not, and it is better than anything you have." The missionary smiled and said, "I should be pleased to hear what it is." The Muslim went on, "You know, that when Muslims make pilgrimage to Mecca, to the burial place of Muhammed, we have our founder’s coffin, his body to venerate to embolden us. But when you Christians go to Jerusalem, your Mecca, you find nothing but an empty grave."

The Missionary replied, "Ah ha! But that's just it, and it makes all the difference. Mohammad, the founder of Islam, is dead, and he is in his coffin. But our Leader has risen from the dead and returned to heaven."

As Christians, we don't just believe in a philosophy or a theology, we believe in a person, a Savior, a God who is alive and who has brought our own human nature into heaven.

There is however an ancient monument on the Mount of Olives. When Christ Ascended into heaven, he left his footprints in the rock of Mount Olivet. You can visit this spot, or see an image of Christ’s footprints on the internet. Our faith isn’t based on wishful thinking, but on real events which we have received from the apostolic tradition.

The reconciliation of humanity and divinity was pleaded for and longed for in ancient Israel. From the Old Testament we know of an ancient Jewish practice which foreshadowed the Ascension.  Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest would enter into the Holy of Holies in the Jerusalem Temple. He would pass through a huge, thick, ancient curtain into the Holy of Holies symbolizing the throne of God in heaven. There the High Priest would offer the sacrifice of atonement, pleading to God to forgive the sins of humanity which separates man from God.

In his Ascension, Christ goes to the true eternal Holy of Holies, the inner chamber of the universe, heaven itself. Christ, who is both the atoning sacrifice and the priest, He has brought fallen, and now, redeemed humanity to heaven.

The Ascension is the stamp of guarantee that humanity is redeemed, and has a place in heaven. And no other religion makes that claim. And this is why we are bold as we go out into the world to proclaim the Gospel. The Gospel isn’t based in wishful thinking. It isn’t based in fairy tales.
Christianity isn’t man’s best attempt at religion. It isn’t man’s word about God, it’s God’s word about man. God Himself offers the Divine Guarantee, that following Christ leads to everlasting life.
And so bearing witness to Christ, to his message and the power of his goodness: this is our primary mission on earth. Before he ascended, Jesus didn't say, “Enjoy yourselves. And if you have time, go to church once and a while.”  No! He said, "Go be my witnesses to all the nations."

We are each called to witness in different ways. God calls some to witness as priests. He calls some to consecrate their lives as full-time missionaries. Others are called to be leaven in the world, transforming culture from within, either as humble workers or as great leaders. But each of us God tasks to bear witness to Him by allowing the Christian faith to permeate every dimension of our life, ever relationship. And, until this mission becomes our highest priority in life, until it becomes more important than sports, than bank accounts and stock markets, more important that receiving the adulation of our neighbors for a fine-kept lawn or a new car, until the Gospel is our highest priority we will experience an interior restlessness that nothing will cure.

For, we were created to live in friendship with God, and that means sharing in God's projects. And his project in this fallen world is "that repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be preached in Jesus’ name to all the nations". May we grow in our faithfulness to this mission.

On this Ascension Sunday we also honor our mothers on this Mother’s Day. We thank our Mothers for all of their sacrifices, with flowers and chocolates, cards and kind words, praises and prayers. But we acknowledge that the best way of honoring them is by becoming the people God made us to be; for they bore us in their wombs, that we may become bearers of God’s Word to all nations, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

4th Week of Easter 2018 - Friday - The One and Only Way

On Tuesday, we read from the Acts of the Apostles, that it was in Antioch that the followers of Jesus were first called ‘Christians’. And that was about nine or ten years after the death of Jesus. For that first decade, Jesus’ disciples referred to themselves as followers of “The Way”

Jesus refers to himself as “The Way” in today’s Gospel. The Greek word he uses here in John chapter 14 is “hodos”. The word had many meanings, as it does today. A “hodos” was a path used for traveling from one place to another: a road or a highway. It was also a course of behavior, as in the “way to build a house” or “the way bake a cake”. Also, it was used to describe a moral or spiritual viewpoint, a set of teachings, the doctrine of a philosophical school.

Jesus gathers all those meanings into one, and adds something brand new to it. Jesus teaches the way from one place to another, from earth to heaven. Jesus offers a course of behavior, a way to a fulfilled life, a life in which our deepest yearnings are fulfilled. Jesus instructs us with a set of teachings by which we are to direct our life.

And yet, “the way” is not a some-thing, but a some-body. “The Way” is a person. Jesus says “I AM the way”, he claims to be that which no one had ever dared to claim before. He’s not a signpost, he’s the destination. The point of life, the reason for our existence, IS HIM, to be in right relationship to Him, to become united to Him, to enter into communion with Him, to conform our minds, our hearts, our lives to Him.

Throughout history, we’ve had spiritual thinkers like Krishna, Muhammed, Buddha, even Moses, each of them offering teachings to help point people to the “right way” of living, the right way to achieve the end or goal of human flourishing. In a sense, each of them point away from themselves.

The point of Islam isn’t to be in right relationship with Muhammed. The point of Moses’ teaching in the Torah isn’t to enter into a mystical and intimate relationship with Moses. So, to those who say that all religions are the same, we say, “no”. Jesus’ claim is unique among the world religions, it’s different.

Jesus Himself is making the claim that there aren’t multiple roads to human fulfillment, nor are all roads imperfect attempts at perfection. He IS the road, He IS the perfect way, who all of humanity is called to follow.

May our easter celebrations deepen our conviction of this truth, and help us to enter more deeply, and walk more faithfully, and to proclaim more boldly, the way of the Lord Jesus, 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.

For the 9 men who will be ordained transitional deacons this evening at the Cathedral, that their road to ordination may bring them to encounter more deeply the life and heart of Christ the Good Shepherd.

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.

Trinity Sunday 2017: Are all religions the same?

It is common in today's world to run into people who believe that all religions are basically the same. In fact, it is even becoming common to run into Catholics who have adopted this viewpoint. It is considered the “tolerant, open-minded” point-of-view.

But in reality, it is just the opposite: to claim that all religions are the same is the most close-minded and intolerant viewpoint someone could have in regards to religion.

Sure, every religion tries to address our basic desire for happiness.  Most religions try to answer the great question about life after death, and address the difference between right and wrong, each makes assertions concerning man’s relationship with and understanding of the spiritual realm.

But study the religions for more than 15 minutes and it’s clear that they deal with those ultimate questions in different ways and even come up with vastly different answers.

Atheistic religions say there is no God at all. Pantheistic religions say that everything in the universe is a part of god or identical to god. Polytheistic religions say that the divine realm is full of numerous, competing gods. Monotheistic religions, like Christianity, believe in one, all-powerful, eternal God.
But the differences don't stop there. Inside each of those groups are different explanations of the nature of God, the nature of salvation and happiness, and how eternal life can be achieved.

It is a sign of close-mindedness or laziness to simply say that all religions are the same: it's a refusal to show respect for what religious people really believe.

When a Christian discusses the nature of God with a Muslim, one of the first issues that arises is the mystery of the Holy Trinity.

Muslims, like Jews and Christians, believe there is one God, all-powerful and transcendent. Their concept of God somewhat resembles what is revealed about God in the Old Testament. Mohammed, the founder of Islam lived in the Middle East in the sixth and seventh centuries, grew up among Jews and Christians, and inherited Monotheism from us.

One of the factors in his rejection of the Trinity, that God is Three Person, was that at the time, Christians in the middle east were scandalously seeking to resolve their theological differences in violent ways, and rejecting the authority of Rome. Muhammad was exposed to the Arian, Nestorian, and Monophysite heresies from an early age. And these heresies, denials of Jesus’ divinity, play out in the Koran, which portrays Jesus not as God, not as the Second Person of Trinity incarnate, but simply a man.

So this divided Christianity was the environment in which Mohammed adopted and popularized the Muslim, non-Christian idea of God. He rejected what Jesus and the New Testament revealed about the Holy Trinity, that God is three divine persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

It is true that the Trinity is hard to understand: How can God be both one and three? How can the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit be fully God, and yet distinct persons? Our minds cannot grasp this completely.

And yet, that very fact makes the doctrine of the Trinity ring true. It shows that no merely human mind would have been able to come up with it. And it also shows that God, the Creator of the universe, exists in a way that we, mere creatures, cannot fully understand - and that makes perfect sense. God should exceed our ability to understand him; if he didn't, he wouldn't be much of a God.
Saint Augustine, who is one of the most profound Trinitarian Theologians said, “Si comprehendis, non est Deus” which means, “If you understand, it’s not God.”  The minute you say, yes, I got it now, I fully understand it: that’s not God, says Augustine.  The Trinity is greater than human understanding.

But that doesn’t mean he is totally unknowable or unapproachable. God invites us into a living, vibrant relationship with Himself. He has revealed that he is a Trinity. He has revealed that He is a loving Communion and desires to share His life with us.

He invites us to become the people He made us to be by placing faith in what He has revealed, and to grow in union with Him through His Church—through the practices of our faith, the sacraments, the reading of Scripture, and prayer.

The world claims there are many paths to eternity: Our faith claims there is One: through the One who says, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.” Christianity is not simply a religious system among many; it is The Way, it is the relationship that God Himself established that we might become the people he made us to be, for the forgiveness of sins and the granting of eternal life.

No, Catholics don’t believe in some generic idea of God, or the god of the philosophers, some faceless, nameless divine force. No, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are real, and we can know them, and have an intimate relationship with them, and become their instruments in the world.

Just as you get to know someone by spending time with them and doing work with them, so too, we come to know Father, Son, and Holy Spirit spending time with them, by working alongside them, by along them to work in us, by reading what the Scriptures reveal about Them, what the great Church Fathers have written about them, and by spending time in their service.

God has revealed to us that He is Trinity because he wants us to know Him and he wants us to share His love.

Today, as we profess our faith in God, One and Three, may we be ever more transformed into His instruments, that we may spread the True Faith, that he may draw souls to Himself through us, for His glory and the salvation of souls.