5th Week of Easter 2026 - Wednesday (School Mass) - Belly Buttons, Vines & Branches

 

Why do you have a belly button? Do you know?

Your belly button is actually a scar, marking the spot where you were connected to your mother by a cord—called an umbilical cord, while you were still a tiny baby growing in your mother’s womb. Around the time you were 5-7 weeks old in your mother’s belly, so 33 weeks before you drew your first breath in the world, when you were just half an inch big, you were connected to her by this cord at your belly button. And through that cord, your tiny little body received from your mother oxygen, nutrients, blood. You were completely dependent upon her for life.

So make sure you thank your mother and thank God for the gift of your mother this weekend on Mother’s Day.

In the Gospel today, Jesus uses an image very much like that cord that connects us to our mothers for life. He says, “I am the vine, you are the branches… Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.” Just like you could not have physical life as a little baby unless you remained connected to your mother, you cannot have spiritual life unless you remain connected to Jesus.

“Without me, you can do nothing” he says.

Now, that does not mean you cannot do your math homework without Jesus, or eat your lunch without Jesus, or tie your shoes without Jesus. He means that without him, we cannot have the kind of life that matters most: the life of grace, the life of holiness that leads to heaven. We cannot become the saints God created us to be unless we remain connected to him.

And how do we stay connected to Jesus?

We stay connected to him by prayer. Every time you pray, even very simply, you are turning your heart toward Jesus.
We stay connected to him by listening to his word. When we hear Scripture, when we learn about the faith, when we pay attention at Mass, Jesus is speaking to us.
We stay connected to him by obeying him. When we choose honesty instead of lying, kindness instead of cruelty, purity instead of sin, forgiveness instead of revenge, we remain in his love.
And of course, we stay connected to him through the sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist, where Jesus gives us his very self, and Confession, where we become reconnected to Jesus when we sever ourselves from his life through serious sin.

A branch cut off from the vine may look fine for a little while. It may still look green. But it is already dying, because it is no longer connected to its source of life. That can happen to us spiritually too. A person can look fine on the outside, but if he stops praying, stops listening to God, stops going to Mass, stops receiving the sacraments, and chooses sin again and again, then the life of Jesus in the soul begins to weaken.

But the good news is that Jesus wants us close to him. He wants us to have his life in us. He wants us to bear fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and holiness.

So today Jesus gives us a very important reminder: stay connected to me. Remain in me. Do not drift away. Do not allow yourself to live without me, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

 

Trusting in Jesus Christ, the true vine, from whom we receive the life of grace, let us bring our prayers before our heavenly Father.

For the Church:  that she may always remain deeply united to Christ and help all people grow in faith, holiness, and love, let us pray to the Lord.

In anticipation of Mother’s Day, we pray for mothers, grandmothers, and all women who care for children with love and sacrifice: that God may bless them, strengthen them, and reward them for the gift of their love, let us pray to the Lord.

For our academy community: that our students, teachers, and families may stay connected to Jesus through prayer, obedience, and the sacraments, let us pray to the Lord.

For those who feel far from God: that they may hear the voice of Jesus calling them back to remain in his love and receive the life only he can give, let us pray to the Lord.

For the sick, the lonely, and those who are suffering: that remaining close to Christ, they may receive strength, peace, and hope, let us pray to the Lord.

For our beloved dead: that they may live forever with Christ in the joy of heaven, let us pray to the Lord.

Heavenly Father, you give us life through your Son, Jesus Christ, the true vine. Hear these prayers and keep us always united to him, who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.

 

5th Sunday of Easter 2026 - Jesus is the Way

 

“I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”  Imagine the apostles hearing these words for the first time.

For centuries, the apostles and their Jewish ancestors had been praying to God in the psalms “Teach me your way, O Lord” and here Jesus was saying, “I AM the way.” They like their ancestors had been imploring God in their daily and weekly prayers, “Teach me your decrees” that “I may walk in your truth,” and here Jesus was saying, “I AM the Truth.” They had been begging God in times of difficulty and oppression, “Show me the path of life,” and here Jesus was claiming, “I AM the Life.”

“I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. In this profound declaration, Jesus declared to the apostles to be the answer to their deepest and most insistent longing for God. Yet, these desires and prayers were not exclusively Jewish, of course. They are deepest religious desires every human soul.

I’d like to focus today on that first declaration, where Jesus says, “I am the Way.”

Have you ever lost your way? Many of us carry around sophisticated Global Positioning Devices and satellite-connected maps with us wherever we go at this point, to avoid losing our way, and showing us the way to our destination because being lost is destabilizing, terrifying. Many people avoid traveling because losing ones way in strange places with strange people is terribly unsettling.

But have you ever lost your way, in life? The loss of a job, the death of a spouse, a financial setback, perhaps even retirement, can lead us to question: “what’s the way forward. What am I to do now?” Being at the crossroads of life can be overwhelming. Seniors in high school often feel this: do I go to college, do I get a job, do I join military service, or volunteer with the peace corp, or do some missionary work. “Where do I go?”

Sometimes the way forward is unclear among the many ethical or moral decisions we face: what is the right thing to do? What is the right thing to do to be happy. What is the right thing to extend my health. What is the right thing to do with my money, with my time? Here we often face real temptation: a choice to follow the way of the world or the way of God—and the way of God is not always easy.

Well, what does it matter if I follow the right way? Well, for thousands and thousands of years, in nearly every culture, we find that the an awareness of the fact that the way that we follow in this life has eternal consequences.  What is the way the leads to the best possible afterlife. If I want to avoid eternal punishment, if I want to live in a way in which I can rejoin my ancestors, what is the way to the best possible outcome of my existence?

And as Christians, we believe we have the answer to all of these questions: Jesus is The Way. What is the best way to live. Look at Him, follow Him, listen to Him, learn from Him. What is the best way to endure your trials: Jesus Christ. What is the way to live forever and be happy in eternity? Jesus Christ.

His prayer life, his obedience to the father, his teachings, his example, his outpouring of his life, his sacraments, his Church, his Most Sacred Heart, his embrace of the sinner, his mercy, He has the words of everlasting life. “No one comes to the Father, except through Him.”

Now, many people don’t believe this simple truth. They think they can be happy without him. Why do people choose not to follow Jesus? His Way is not always easy, it’s certainly not popular. It’s a blow to one’s ego to admit you need God. Americans especially, we like to pretend we are so self-reliant, that we can build a life on our own. We don’t need anyone telling us how to live, “I’ll decide my own way” thank you very much.

But we know that not every path leads to happiness, not every avenue leads to human flourishing. Just look at our world. Look at what happens when God is replaced with drugs, with promiscuity, with the pursuit of internet celebrity, with wealth and power at the expense of the happiness and well-being of others. A life centered on the false gods of the world will always result in exhaustion and unhappiness—restless, lonely, confused, addicted, enslaved.

Sin always makes grand promises it cannot keep. It says, “Choose yourself, indulge yourself, define yourself apart from God, and you will be happy.” But it never works. A life built apart from God eventually collapses because the human heart was not made for lesser gods. It was made for the living God.

Which is why Christians proudly profess that we should not settle for anything less than the best way to live: Jesus Christ.

And notice: Jesus does not merely say, “I will show you the way,” though he does. He says, “I am the Way.” The Christian life is not simply about following a list of rules or adopting a philosophy. It is about communion with a person. To walk the right path is to walk with him. To remain on the right road is to remain close to him. We lose our way when we drift from Him. We wander in darkness when we separate from Him.

Are you following the Way? In your priorities? In your use of your time? In your moral decisions? In your speech? In the way that you treat people? In the way you handle suffering, frustration, and disappointment?

How do you know if you are? Do you seek him? Do you include Him? Do you start every endeavor and end every endeavor pleading his help and thanking Him for his help? Do you draw near to Him? Are you still open to learning from Him? Are you growing in his grace? Are you rooting out the attitudes and behaviors that are inconsistent with His life? Are you being refreshed by Him near the restful waters of prayer every day? Are you seeking to decrease that He may increase? Are you committed to leading others to Him, so that they may too, walk in his ways?

Today the Lord places before us once again this beautiful, comforting, but demanding truth: “I am the Way.” If you want to know how to live, look to him. If you want to know how to love, look to him. If you want to know how to suffer, look to him. If you want to know how to be saved, look to him.

And so let us ask for the grace not merely to admire the way from a distance, but to walk it. Lord Jesus Christ, you are the Way. Lead us. Keep us close to you. Do not let us wander. Bring us through the confusion of this life into the joy of the Father’s house for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3rd Week of Easter 2026 - Friday - Eucharist and Supernatural Life

Last week, remember, we read through the Lord’s conversation with Nicodemus in which Jesus speaks of supernatural and spiritual rebirth. Through baptism, we are born again through water and the spirit. What is spiritually dead in us is brought to new life, and not only that, but God’s supernatural grace raises—elevates—our human nature. The intellect is elevated by grace to know God not merely by natural reason, but by faith. The will is elevated enabling us to love God with charity, which is far beyond merely natural love or moral goodwill. 

Through baptismal grace we share in God’s own life and are now capable of acting in a way ordered to the ultimate supernatural end: union with the Trinity. Human nature, left to itself, cannot attain the beatific vision. No amount of natural intelligence, moral discipline, or sheer human effort can reach it. But through baptism, our earthly life can culminate in heavenly life.

But, in the Gospel today, Jesus explains that for the supernatural life to be sustained in us, we must eat supernatural food. “Unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood, you do not have life within you.” The Eucharist sustains the supernatural life begun at baptism. 

When the body is deprived of food it languishes and dies; and it is the same with the soul. The Eucharist does not merely symbolize supernatural life; it actually communicates it, because it is not ordinary bread but the living Christ himself. “I am the bread of life”, says the Lord. 

The Eucharist nurtures the deepening of supernatural life. Every time we receive the Eucharist, we are offered a greater share and participation in the life of God, for the Eucharist strengthens the theological virtues. It nourishes faith, because in Holy Communion we entrust ourselves to Christ’s word and presence even when hidden under sacramental signs. It nourishes hope, because the Eucharist is a pledge of future glory, a foretaste of heaven. It nourishes charity, because the life of God is one of love—self-sacrificial love, and in the Eucharist, we become what we receive, says St. Augustine—the very Christ who gave himself as a ransom for many.

Like medicine that strengthens the body weakened by illness, the Eucharist strengthens the soul against spiritual disease—enabling us to withstand the assaults, temptations, and lies of the enemy.

 St. Cyprian, writing in the early third century, says Christians imprisoned and tortured for the name of Christ received from the hand of the Bishop the sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Lord, so they would not yield to a Roman prosecutor and deny their faith. Before going on trial, they pleaded, “Give me Communion, so I’ll be able to resist.” From the very beginning of the Church, this was the reason Holy Communion was brought to the Christians in prison, that they could be strengthened in their persecution and temptations.

Whenever you present yourself to receive the Eucharist, do so with openness to be strengthened in the Christian life, fortified against sin, desiring to grow in the life of the spirit, in faith, hope, and charity, in the gifts and fruits of the Spirit, for the mission of the Church, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. 

- - - -  

By offering His Body and Blood for us, Jesus reconciles the world to the Father. Therefore, we present our needs to God with confidence.

That the outpouring of charity in Christ’s Eucharistic Self-Sacrifice will become manifest in all of the Church’s activity in the world, in all marriages, in all of our business relations, family relationships and  daily encounters, in our care for the downtrodden and most vulnerable; among friends, strangers, and enemies.  

For Catholics who have fallen away from the Eucharist, that they may know the grace of sincere repentance and return to the table of the Lord.

That all of God's children may have sufficient bread for their physical life and the Bread of Life for their spiritual life. 

That those who have died may share the eternal life that Jesus promised to those who feed on the Bread from Heaven. 

Gracious Father, hear our prayers. Nourish us continually with your Son’s presence in the Eucharist, and grant us the grace to lead others to this divine source of eternal life. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

5th Week of Lent 2026 - Tuesday - Remedy for the serpent's poison

 

For forty years, God had provided for his people as they wandered the desert, giving them manna from heaven. God had fed them, God had sustained them. And yet, as we heard in the reading from the book of numbers today, “the people complained against God and Moses: We are disgusted with this wretched food!”

With their hearts hardened against God, the Israelites became subject to the deadly poison of serpents.

There is a bit of a parallel to Adam and Eve in the garden. God had provided food aplenty for Adam and Eve. But they were discontented with the food God provided, and looked to the fruit of the forbidden tree. They too became subject to the deadly poison of the serpent at the forbidden tree. They were poisoned by the serpent’s bite, and that poison brought death, not only for them, but for the entire human race.

The story from the Book of Numbers looks back to Adam and Eve and the consequences of sin, but it also foreshadows the victory of the New Adam in the Gospel.

The bronze serpent, mounted on a pole, becoming a source of life for the poisoned Israelites, foreshadows the saving death of Jesus Christ, mounted on the cross, which becomes a source of eternal life for all who believe in Him.

The drama of Adam and Eve, the drama of sin, the drama of the Israelites in the desert, plays over and over again in our lives.  We allow trust, love, and gratitude to God to die in our hearts whenever we turn to sin. We allow ourselves to grow discontent with the good food God has provided for us and seek to satisfy our hunger for God in so many artificial substitutes. We allow the serpent to whisper to us, that we should grasp for more than what God has provided. The story warns us of the folly of turning our hearts from God and the consequences that inevitably ensue.

For us and for all people, Jesus is the remedy for this cycle of sin and death. Lifted up on the Cross, He becomes the healing we could never provide for ourselves. To break the cycle, we must turn our ears away from the poisonous words of the serpent, but to turn our eyes to Christ with faith.

Lent teaches us to recognize the poison of sin in our lives and to turn again to the Crucified One. If we look to Him with repentance and trust, He will heal what sin has wounded and lead us from death to life for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

- - - -  

Trusting in the mercy of God, and turning our eyes to Christ lifted up for our salvation, let us bring before the Father our prayers and petitions.

For the Church, that she may faithfully proclaim Christ crucified as the true remedy for sin and death, and lead many souls to repentance and healing.

For the defense of our nation from all threats foreign and domestic; for a quick and peaceful resolution to all violent conflict and safety for all first responders.

For those preparing to receive the Easter Sacraments, that by God’s grace they may be protected from evil and drawn ever more deeply into the saving mystery of Christ’s Cross and Resurrection.

For those whose hearts have grown hardened through sin, complaint, or ingratitude, that the Lord may soften their hearts and restore in them trust, love, and gratitude, let us pray to the Lord. Lord hear our prayer.

For the sick, the suffering, and those burdened by illness of body, mind, or spirit, that the healing power of Christ may strengthen them and give them peace, let us pray to the Lord. Lord hear our prayer.

For the faithful departed, that having looked to Christ in faith during this life, they may now behold Him face to face in the glory of heaven, let us pray to the Lord. Lord hear our prayer.

Heavenly Father, you sent your Son into the world to heal us from the poison of sin and lead us from death to life. Hear the prayers we place before you, and grant them according to your holy will. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

 

1st Week in Ordinary Time 2025 - Wednesday - Healing for the body, light for the mind, deliverance from evil

 After the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord this last Sunday, our weekday readings this week all through Lent, take us through a sequential reading through the beginning chapters of St. Mark’s Gospel. Monday, we read of Jesus beginning his public ministry preaching “This is the time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel.” He then called the fishermen, peter, james, Andrew, and john, to be his first followers.

Yesterday, we read of Jesus coming to Capernaum and commanding and casting out the unclean spirit.

Today, continuing still through chapter 1 of the Gospel of Mark, Jesus brings physical healing to Simon Peter’s mother-in-law, and then many people, and drove out many demons, and then goes on to preach throughout Galilee. 

Throughout Mark's Gospel, Jesus is portrayed as the Messiah who brings about the Kingdom of God through his words and deeds. He is a man-of-action who backs up his teachings with miraculous work.

He brings life to the body, light to the mind, deliverance from the powers of evil. Those of us who follow him now, recognize that he continues to do these things in our lives and in our world.  

He brings life to our bodies. Even though we continue to experience physical illness, the ailments of age, we are not discouraged by these things. United to Christ, our physical struggles bring about an increase in trust in God, and reminder that this passing earthly life is an anticipation of the resurrection.

He gives light to our minds through the truth of his teachings which guide us, they help us to know our purpose, they help us discern between right and wrong, they help us to recognize the futility of living only for the things of the world, they help us to cooperate with God’s grace which enables us to become the people God made us to be.

And, he delivers us from the powers of evil. He helps us to be free from the bondage of sin, he helps us to be faithful to God in times of temptation, he helps us destroy the works of the devil in our society. 

And doing all these things for us personally, he transforms us to be instruments in his hands, to encourage the afflicted, to instruct the ignorant, to preach his Gospel, to help other break the bonds of sin in their own lives.

What we see Jesus doing in the Scriptures, we see him doing in our own lives, and he sends us out to be his instruments in the world. “Very truly I tell you,” he says in John’s Gospel, “whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these.”

As we read through the Scriptures during Ordinary Time, may we come not only to a deeper understanding of who Jesus is, and appreciation for what he has done for us, but come to a deeper cooperation with Him, in who we are called to be, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

- - -  

With confidence in Jesus Christ, who proclaims the Kingdom of God and brings healing, light, and deliverance, let us offer our prayers to the Father:

For the Church, that she may faithfully proclaim the nearness of the Kingdom of God in both word and deed, and that through her ministry many may come to repentance, healing, and new life in Christ, let us pray to the Lord.

For those who suffer in body, especially the sick, the elderly, and those burdened by chronic illness, that united to Christ they may find strength, hope, and trust in God’s promise of resurrection and eternal life, let us pray to the Lord.

For those struggling against sin and temptation, that Christ, who drives out the powers of evil, may grant them freedom, perseverance, and the grace to live as faithful disciples, let us pray to the Lord.

For our society, that the works of the devil—violence, deception, injustice, and division—may be overcome by the transforming power of the Gospel, and that we may be instruments of peace, truth, and mercy, let us pray to the Lord.

For the faithful departed, that having shared in Christ’s sufferings in this life, they may now share fully in His resurrection and glory, let us pray to the Lord.

For the prayers we voice in our hearts, and for X, for whom this mass is offered.

Heavenly Father, you sent your Son to proclaim the Kingdom and to heal your people. Hear the prayers we offer in faith, and make us willing instruments of your saving love, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

5th Sunday of Lent 2025 - (Third Scrutiny) - Raising of Lazarus

 

Two weeks ago, we heard the story of the woman at the well.  She encountered the Lord Jesus, who said to her, “I will give you living water, which alone can satisfy”.  She represents all of us, all thirsting for God. Jesus invites all people of all time to drink deeply of the living waters of God through Him.

Last week we heard of the man born blind.  Again, he is all of us, born in the blindness of sin.  We desire to do good and avoid evil, but it’s not always easy to see clearly. Sometimes our egos and our sinful attachments are so great, they blind us to seeing how God wants us to live rightly. Jesus says to the man born blind and to all of us, “I am the light of the world.”  If you want to see rightly, let the light of Christ and His teachings enlighten you.

These stories in John’s Gospel move toward a sort of crescendo. I am living water which quenches thirst. I am the light by which you see. And today Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life.” He’s not just water, He’s not just light. He is Life itself. And he desire that His life might animate us in this life, that it might sustain us through death, and animate us in all eternity, including the resurrection.

One of my favorite quotations from the early Church fathers is from St. Ireneus of Lyons, who said, Gloria Dei Homo Vivens, “the glory of God is Man fully alive.”  Jesus himself said, I came that they might have life, and have it to abundance. Christ died, that we may live, free from sin, full of divine life.  God’s glory, what gives God happiness, is that we are fully alive.  Conversely, what saddens the heart of God is when we allow death to reign in us at any level: physically, emotionally, or spiritually.  Sin diminishes us, God restores life.

Next, week, on Palm Sunday, we’ll come to understand the price the Lord pays to defeat the powers of death in us. But on this fifth Sunday of Lent, we’re invited to consider how the Lord commands us to live.

Today, our three catechumens present themselves for the last of the three scrutinies. They do so because they want to live and they recognize that Jesus is the resurrection and the life. So, you’ll notice in the scrutiny prayers many references to life, being restored to life and raised to life, like Lazarus in our Gospel today.

We heard in our first reading about God’s desire to free us from the powers of the grave: “I will open your graves and have you rise from them…I will put my spirit in you that you may live, and I will settle you upon your land” we heard in our first reading.

Our three Catechumens will receive the gift of new life in Baptism this Easter Vigil. They have heard that same promise that God made to Israel all those centuries ago, the promise of life, and through prayer and fasting and study have opened themselves to the fulfillment of that promise in them. Thanks be to God. They have heard the Lord calling them to come out of their tombs, like Lazarus. Thanks be to God.

Why follow Jesus Christ? Why seek baptism and faithfulness to him? The promise of being raised from the dead is a pretty good reason. Living forever in God’s kingdom of peace is a pretty good reason. And it’s not just an empty promise--the promise of some delusional California cult leader.

Resurrection: it’s really the ultimate argument against anyone who says all religions are the same. No. They aren’t. Show me a member of another religion who not only raised the dead but also rose from the dead.

“I will open your graves and have you rise from them. Here the Lord is not just speaking of the promise of rising from our graves on the last day, when he returns. The grave is also wherever the powers of sin and evil and death reign in us still: an addiction, a habitual sin, an inability or unwillingness to forgive, anger and bitterness, perversion, fear of leaving behind the comfortable to follow Christ more devoutly, lack of fervor for the spiritual life…the grave is whatever limits the life of God in you. Think of laying in a grave, there is no place to move, you are constricted, unable to move, tied up, and God says, from your graves, I will have you rise up.” 

In the Gospels, we have not one story, but three stories of Jesus raising the dead. We just heard the story of Lazarus; can you think of the other two? The first one is the daughter of Jairus. Remember the little girl who died in her home when Jesus was on the way to heal her?  The second is the son of the widow of Naim.  Jesus sees the widow weeping as they brought out the body of her son, and Jesus is moved to raise him from the dead.

St. Augustine offered a spiritual reading of these three encounters with the dead.

Because Jairus’ daughter dies inside her house, St. Augustine says that her death symbolizes the sort of spiritual death that remains locked up in us—the sort of sins that poisons us from the inside: the resentments, the old grudges.  They aren’t necessarily expressed in words or actions, they just sort of fester within us, poisoning our thoughts, and our wills, and our imagination.  These are the sins we do in private—though no sin is private to God, of course. Jesus raises this little girl, just as he wants to heal us from all of our interior sinful attitudes.

Secondly, the son of the widow of Naim.  He had died and was being carried outside the house to the cemetery. St. Augustine says, he symbolizes the sins that have begun to express themselves in action.  When the interior anger and resentment, selfishness and lust bubble over in words of actions. But Jesus forgives these too.

The third person Jesus raises from the dead, his friend Lazarus.  Lazarus had been carried out of the house and placed in a tomb.  By the time Jesus gets there, Lazarus has been in the tomb for four days.  His sister, famously says, when Jesus instructs them to roll away the stone that blocks the tomb, “but Lord, surely, there will be a stench.”

St. Augustine says that Lazarus in his grave, symbolizes that evil, that spiritual death, that not only has come out of the heart in words and actions, but has established itself as a habitual.  Now, the anger, the hatred, the violence, the lust, have taken root, and have become such a part of my life and my activity, that, like Lazarus in the tomb, there is a stench, and it’s affecting the people around me.  That anger, addiction, selfishness or lust now affects the well-being of the family. Neighbors begin to avoid us because of our stench.

Jesus is of course able to heal those sins too, but like the others, there must be confession, there must be acknowledgement that these sins exist in me, and that I need a savior.

May we have the humility and honesty to recognize the need to be raised by Jesus, healed by Jesus, that we may truly live with him for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2024 - The bread of supernatural life

 Last week we began a five-week liturgical cycle of reading from chapter 6 of St. John’s Gospel beginning with the account of the miraculous feeding of the 5000. 

This crowd of people must have been tremendously excited after witnessing and benefiting from Jesus’ miracle. They had already followed Jesus out into the wilderness because of his reputation as a great preacher and his ability to cure the sick. But feeding five thousand people with a few loaves was a miracle on a whole other level—levels of magnitude greater than the miracle working prophets of the Old Testament. 

In response to the miraculous feeding, the crowd, as we heard last week, wanted to make Jesus their king. After all, he would be able to satisfy all their material needs—that’s a pretty good quality for a king to possess.  

But Jesus doesn’t stick around for a coronation; he retreats, for his kingdom is not of this world. Nonetheless, the crowd follows him—they want more from him. And to their delight, Jesus explains that he does intend to feed them. As God fed their ancestors in the desert, as we heard in our first reading, Jesus promises that whoever comes to him will never be hungry. He will provide for their hunger, he will provide for their thirst.

What a promise! And yet, six chapters into John’s Gospel, we know that there must be something else coming because a pattern has already emerged in John’s Gospel. While the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke record many miracles, John records only six. The miracle of multiplication in John’s Gospel is the 4th miracle, the first three being the changing of water into wine at the Wedding at Cana, the healing of the Royal Official’s son, also at Cana, and the healing of the crippled man at the pool of Bethesda. And following those miracles, Jesus gives some sort of teaching, a teaching of who He is—and why He is here—and His mission, is about much more than gaining popular adulation in order to claim earthly kingship.

After the Wedding at Cana, Jesus teaches that he’s not just another party goer who enjoys a jug or two of wine. Rather, he is the beloved Son of the Heavenly Father sent by the Father to speak words of everlasting life. “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him.” He’s on a mission where the stakes are not about temporal pleasures and frivolity—this mission is about life and death—eternal life or death.

After the second and third miracles, Jesus gives another teaching. He teaches again about his relationship with His Father, and that he has been sent to do the work of the Heavenly Father which is a matter of life and death. And then he echoes the teaching he gave after the first miracle, “whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not come to condemnation, but has passed from death to life.”

So, following the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves, the attentive reader of John’s Gospel will intuit that there is going to be another teaching—and likely one about some very serious eternal realities. In fact, in the original Greek of St. John’s Gospel, this is absolutely clear. 

For the Greek New Testament has two different words for “life”. Bios and Zoe. Bios is natural life, biological life, the physical life of plants, animals, and humans. But Zoe—Zoe is the word for supernatural life—the life of God, the life of the spirit. In today’s passage, when Jesus says, I am the bread of life, which word do you think he uses? Zoe, of course. Εγω ειμι ο αρτος της ζωης. I am the bread of supernatural life. 

Just like he did after the first three miracles, Jesus identifies himself with the life of God. He is sent by the Father to be food for us—and not just food that keeps our bodies alive—food that will keep our souls alive. 

Yes, of course, God is concerned with our physical needs—and if the world were a little more in conformity with the God’s kingdom—there would be a lot less physical hardship on everybody. But in the Bread of Life discourse, Jesus teaches about a reality more vital than even our physical needs. 

Now most people in our modern world say, there IS NOTHING more important than our physical life. Food, drink, shelter, medicine, without these, our frail bodies cannot survive. But Jesus teaches that there IS something more important than even physical life.  For it’s one thing for your body to die, it’s another thing for your souls to be separated from God for eternity. 

Now even a lot of Christians, these days, have fallen into some serious error. They claim that since God is all-loving everybody goes to heaven. So it doesn’t matter if you pray, or if you go to church, or get baptized or confess your sins, or receive the eucharist. But these are grievous errors that keep us from the life God desires for us—the life he sent us Son to be offered up as a sacrifice in order to obtain.

Rather, Christians must witness to the reality of man’s need for the bread of eternal life no matter what our foolish culture posits. This is why St. Paul writes in our second reading, “I declare and testify in the Lord that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds; darkened in understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance, because of their hardness of heart, they have become callous.”

St. Paul is saying that the corruption of a non-Christian society is the result of shallowness in their thinking—futility of mind. One translation puts it, “empty headed thinking”. The depravity, corruption, and disorder in our surrounding culture comes from ignorance—often willful ignorance, hardened hearts and callousness—regarding the things of God. There is a lot of empty-headed thinking about God these days, even among members of the Church.

But our task in the Lord, is to witness by word and deed—through formal teaching and by good example and charitable works—that God calls us to a new way of life in Christ. God feeds us with the Bread of Life that we may have new life in Christ for eternity, and that is to be evident in how we speak and act and how we treat people.  Through the Bread of Life we are brought into Communion with the One who is life, the one who desires the flourishment of humanity and provides the means for that flourishment, in this life and the life to come, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

13th Sunday of Ordinary Time 2024 - Death, Life, and Interruptions

 Interruptions. Most of us hate to be interrupted. We’re in the middle of preparing a meal, and the phone rings; in the middle of our prayer time, and there’s a knock on the door; making good time in our commute to work or to a vacation locale, and there’s a traffic jam; we finally have time to relax after a long day or a long week, and there’s an emergency we need to attend to. Interruptions. They are so frequently inconvenient, it’s almost comical. 

Did you notice that our Lord was interrupted in our Gospel this weekend. The Lord is on his way to heal the sick daughter of Jairus when he is interrupted by the woman with a hemorrhage. This is a common feature in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus is constantly being interrupted. But one might say that the intertwining of the two miracle stories, one story of Jesus being interrupted to perform a miracle, teaches us that even interruptions are part of God’s wise providential plan for our lives, even when we are interrupted by good and holy things like prayer or caregiving.

The interruption by the woman with the hemorrhage delayed the Lord’s trip to heal Jairus’ daughter. And because of the interruption it appears Jesus arrives too late. But there is never a “too late” for God. What was originally going to be a miracle of healing became something much more—a miracle of raising the dead. The interruption became an opportunity for God’s glory to shine even brighter. 

So too with the interruptions we face. In response to those forces that are beyond our control, we need to remind ourselves of the one that IS in control, and to seek God’s will in the present, without worrying so much about the future. Interruptions of our plans are part of God’s providential plan. So, we should teach ourselves to say the essential prayer, “thy will be done” to those many little interruptions we so naturally resent and even to the big ones.

For, God does not ask us to succeed in finishing and accomplishing our enterprises, only to do our duty of being faithful to him at each present moment. Our plans and God’s plan coincide only sometimes—perhaps, rarely. As one comedian put it, if you want to give God a good laugh, tell him your plans.

Our job is to give ourselves over more and more to God’s plan—to surrender in times when we face even tragedy and death. Death, we heard about death in our first reading today. Scripture often tackles the reality of death. 

But if the resurrection of Jesus teaches us anything, it’s that God is in control and can bring about a greater good even from something as terrible as death. 

And death is a reality that each of us grapples with. Our lives are measured by time, in the course of which we change, grow old and, as with all living beings on earth, we die. Mindfulness of the limited time we have on earth lends urgency to our lives. Remembering our mortality helps us realize that we have only a limited time in which to bring our lives to fulfillment. We are to make use of the time we have been given in this earthly life to work out our salvation and to seek the perfection for which we were made.

But where did death come from? Death is a consequence of sin. As we heard in our first reading today, “God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living…For God formed man to be imperishable” We would have been immune from death had Adam and Eve not sinned. God, in whose image we are made is the God and author of life. He is the Creator. He made us for living communion with Himself. Human death entered the world by our choosing death. God wanted life for us. God is pro-life. But we chose death, introducing death into creation. But, with the time we have on earth, we must choose life. For ourselves and others. 

You might say, “well if God didn’t make death” why do plants and animals die. Even nonliving things come to an end: rocks become sand after millennia of wind and waves. Even after eons stars and galaxies die. 

But human death is different than all other death. God did not make it. He made man to live forever. Death is a consequence of the fall of man, not a consequence of the creation of God. 

The first reading said, it was by the envy of the devil, that death entered the world. It was the plan of the devil to obscure the plans of God for us. And we bought into it. The sinful misuse of our God-given ability of choice brought death into the world to the delight of the devil. 

But again, God is greater than our plans and even the plans of the devil. For through Jesus Christ, death is transformed. Jesus, the Son of God, himself suffered the death that is part of the human condition. Yet, despite his anguish as he faced death, he accepted it in an act of complete and free submission to his Father's will. By his death he has conquered death, and so opened the possibility of salvation to all men.

Death is the end of man's earthly pilgrimage, of the time of grace and mercy which God offers us so as to work out our eternal destiny. Will we pursue eternal life through Christ or eternal death by turning away from Him. But again, through Jesus death is transformed. For those who die in friendship with Christ, death is a simple closing of our physical eyes, that the eyes of our soul can come to behold the face of God in eternity. 

 When we have made our peace with God, and have faith that the love of Christ is greater than death, it becomes easier to remain peaceful and trusting in God in the face of those smaller interruptions. The traffic jams, the inconvenient social calls become opportunities to turn to God, to trust God in those circumstances which are beyond our control, to deepen our conviction to pursue God over our own selfish aims, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

4th Week of Lent 2024 - Tuesday - Jesus the Water of Life

Yesterday, I mentioned how the 4th Sunday of Lent was a sort of dividing line in the Lenten season. During the first half of Lent, the scripture readings focus on penance, repentance, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving which help us to bring our passions under control. 

This second half of Lenten assumes that we still continue to practice Lenten penances, of course, but the scripture readings and mass orations speak a lot more about grace, life, healing, and purification. 

In scripture and tradition, these spiritual realities are symbolized often by water. We hear of water in both of our readings today: water flowing out of the temple, water with healing properties at the pool of Bethesda.

Water is essential for physical life; nothing can live without it. In many biblical stories, water is a source of life and growth. Just as water nourishes, cleanses, and sustains physical life, grace, healing, and spiritual life are the divine nourishment and sustenance for the soul. This parallel makes water a natural symbol for the life-giving grace of God. Water quenches the thirst of our bodies--God quenches the thirst of our soul--we were made for him.

Water is a means of cleansing. We wash our cars, we wash our houses, we wash our bodies, with water. Water washes away dirt, impurity, and contagions. So too, it is used sacramentally, to symbolize the washing away of sin in the baptism, and we even use blessed water to purify objects and places exposed to the contagion of evil. 

That water is needed by all people, in all places, and all times, reminds us of how God is needed by all people, in all places, and at all times. 

Water has the power to change landscapes, erode rock, nourish dry land, and create channels of new life. Just as water can lead to dramatic changes in the physical world, God’s grace leads to significant changes in our spiritual lives and personal circumstances.

Water flows, moves, and follows a path. This dynamic quality of water makes it a symbol for the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit in a believer's life. Just as a river follows its path, so does the Spirit guide us to the sea of God’s infinite goodness. 

Water flows from the Temple in the first reading today, foreshadowing how the water will flow from the side of Christ at his crucifixion and how the waters of baptism flow from the Church to all corners of the world, but recall that it is not water in itself that has the power to save us. Water, in fact, is shown to be insufficient in the Gospel today; it is Jesus who heals, it is Jesus who saves: A reminder that the saving waters of baptism are only capable of bringing new spiritual life, because of Christ. He is the living water--whoever comes to him shall never thirst, He is the one that causes a deep well of grace within our souls to spring up to eternal life. Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

- - - - -  

As the Solemnity of Easter approaches, dear brethren, let our prayer to the Lord be all the more insistent:

That God may be pleased to increase faith and understanding in the catechumens and those to be fully initiated in the coming Paschal Solemnity

For Peace throughout the nations of the world most threatened by hatred, division, and violence, for the protection of the unborn and the safety of the men and women in our armed forces.  

That all families will commit themselves to fervent prayer this Lent so as to grow in greater love and holiness.  

For the physical, emotional, and spiritual healing of all people, especially the spiritually blind and hard of heart.  

For all those who have died, for all the poor souls in purgatory, for those who have fought and died for our country’s freedom, and for…  

Have mercy, O Lord, on the prayers of your Church and turn with compassion to the hearts that bow before you, that those you make sharers in the divine mystery may never be left without your assistance. Through Christ our Lord.

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2023 - Salt of the earth

 I remember as a kid, my dad telling stories about working in the salt mines under Lake Erie when he was a younger man.  Morton Salt has about 3 miles of salt mines 2000 feet underneath our great lake.  This salt is an important source of revenue for the State of Ohio, and the salt is utilized in a number of ways: particularly as a seasoning for our food and on our roads during the winter.

Immediately following the Lord’s teaching on the beatitudes, which we heard last Sunday. The Lord says that his disciples must be salt. Talk about bringing us down to earth. In order to attain heaven, you must become salt. 

Salt was used in a number of ways in Jesus’ time, just as it does for us. 

First salt is used as a seasoning. So, too, Christians are to be a sort of seasoning to an otherwise bland world.  There is nothing more interesting—no one more full of life than a true Christian saint filled with the life of Christ. 

This week we celebrated Catholic Schools week, and daily over in the school, the students learned about some of the patron saints of Christian Education, saints like Thomas Aquinas, John Neuman, Angela Merici, Elizabeth Ann Seton, holy men and women who bristled with energy and joy and charity. The saltiness of the saints has changed human history. So become salty—using your unique gifts and talents to serve the Lord.

How else is salt used? Salt is necessary for life. Even the most stringent nutritionists have to admit that salt is a necessary component of the human diet. The ancients, too, understood, salt was necessary for good health.  Similarly, Christians need to be salt in this way. The health, the survival of a society depends on Christians—doing what Christians do, infusing societal life with the life and goodness and truth and beauty of God. Our mission isn’t just to come to Church, our mission is to infuse this neighborhood with the saltiness of Christ for its own survival. Salt helps regulate a body’s heart rate, digestion, respiration, brain activity, and blood pressure—and without Christians living out the mission in a particular area, the society’s ability to pump blood, think, breath, digest will soon fail.

Salt is also a Preservative: In the days before refrigeration, salt made preserving food possible for times of famine. Christians will have the job of preserving what is good and holy in creation, opposing spiritual decay. Seeing many of the strong Christian values in our country begin to fade, Christians need to take up again this call to preserve. Christians must preserve the nation, marriage, family, the young from spiritual rot. 

Salt is also a Purifier: The salt in the oceans of the world act as a natural cleaning agent, and most water purification systems use salt as a "purifier." Christians are to be the world’s purifiers: opposing the corrupting powers of malice and perversion and greed. Each of us too need to seek the constant purifying of our minds from the world’s corrupting influence. We purify our minds through study of God’s word, interiorizing the doctrines of our faith, the example of the saints.

Salt also has a destructive power.  As a kid, I’d run to the kitchen to get a salt shaker when I found a slug in the garden…a little morbid, yes…you surprised?  In the ancient world, when an army would conquer their enemy, they’d knock down the walls, raise the city to the ground, then really to rub it in sometimes they would cast salt upon the earth so that nothing would ever grow there again. Are Christians to be a destructive power in society? In a sense we are! We are to be a force against the powers of evil, the manifestations of the Antichrist.

You see, the antichrist is like that slug, and he is powerless when Christians really get salty. So all the ways in which human life is violated and discounted, all forms of hatred and violence, we are meant to interrupt them and get in their way.

Another use for salt: as we know all too well, living here in Cleveland, Salt is used for the melting of ice. Salt makes things flow that are frozen.   The Church’s task is to loosen up a world frozen in its own self-regard, frozen in violent and perverted ways.  When we are faithful to Christ, we have a melting influence.   Think of the power of one saint, how he can melt hearts that have been frozen against Christ. Many souls have been converted to Christ because they saw Christians selflessly engaged in acts of charity. When the Church is faithful, we can have that melting influence in a neighborhood or state or country to get things flowing in the right direction again.

Finally, just like it’s used on our roads, in ancient times salt was also used to prevent people from slipping on slippery paths.  Christians are called to help souls from slipping into damnation—promoting the teachings of Christ on a societal level which give stability to civilization, pointing out when fellow Christians begin down slippery paths away from God. We call them fallen Catholics because they have slipped. 

You and I are called to be salt. But the Lord warns that salt can lose its flavor. Perhaps maybe you have lost a bit of enthusiasm for the Christian life. Perhaps Christ is not the vital force in your marriage, that he should be, or the reason you get up in the morning. Maybe you don’t feel like you are having a positive influence on your neighbors, or the fallen away members of your family.  

The solution: Pray, pray, pray.  You cannot be salt without constant prayer.  A priest who does not pray is worthless, husbands and wives who do not pray will not have the strength and power to faithfully live out the Christian responsibilities of the marriage sacrament.  Young people who do not pray will not have the strength to withstand the nearly unending torrent of evil from our culture.  

Salt: an ordinary substance with tremendous potential, many uses, vital to life and civilization. We must become salt by bringing Christ into our workplaces, into our conversations, into our civic life, in our family life. Be salt, my friends, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

4th Sunday of Easter 2022 - Holy Mother Church

 Last week after the 11am Mass, we celebrated our annual May Crowning. The statue of Our Lady, here on the side of the sanctuary, was crowned with flowers, to commemorate Blessed Mary as our Queen. She is the queen of the Church, she is the queen of heaven, she is queen of angels.  She is our spiritual queen and she is our spiritual mother. For Our Blessed Lord, at the crucifixion turned to his disciple and said, “behold your mother”. All Christians have Mary as our Spiritual Mother.

And on this Mother’s Day weekend, it is good for us to renew our love for both our biological mothers, the women who reared us and raised us, and also our spiritual mother given to us by Christ the Lord. Today is a perfect day for praying the rosary—offering the roses of our prayers to heaven for our mothers, in honor of our mothers, out of love and gratitude for our mothers.

Throughout the centuries, Christians have also referred to the Church as our Mother. Holy Mother Church. A few years ago, Pope Francis reflected on what that means. And I’m going to quote extensively from the Holy Father here, because his reflections are wonderful. He said, “Among the images that the Second Vatican Council chose to help us understand the nature of the Church better, is that of “mother”: the Church is our mother in faith, in supernatural life. It is one of the images most used by the Fathers of the Church in the first centuries…For me,” the Pope says, “it is one of the most beautiful images of the Church: Mother Church! In what sense and in what way is the Church mother? We start with the human reality of motherhood: what makes a mother?

“First of all,” the Pope says, “a mother generates life, she carries her child in her womb for 9 months and then delivers him to life, giving birth to him. The Church is like this: she bears us in the faith, through the work of the Holy Spirit who makes her fertile, like the Virgin Mary. The Church and the Virgin Mary are mothers, both of them; what is said of the Church can be said also of Our Lady and what is said of Our Lady can also be said of the Church! Certainly faith is a personal act: “I believe”, I personally respond to God who makes himself known and wants to enter into friendship with me . But the faith I receive from others, within a family, within a community that teaches me to say “I believe”, “we believe”. A Christian is not an island! We do not become Christians in a laboratory, we do not become Christians alone and by our own effort, since the faith is a gift, it is a gift from God given to us in the Church and through the Church. 

And the Church gives us the life of faith in Baptism: that is the moment in which she gives birth to us as children of God, the moment she gives us the life of God, she engenders us as a mother would. 

If you go to the Baptistery of St John Lateran, beside the Pope's Cathedral, inside it there is an inscription in Latin which reads more or less: “Here is born a people of divine lineage, generated by the Holy Spirit who makes these waters life-giving; Mother Church gives birth to her children within these waves”. This makes us understand something important: our taking part in the Church is not an exterior or formal fact, it is not filling out a form they give us; it is an interior and vital act; one does not belong to the Church as one belongs to a society, to a party or to any other organization. The bond is vital, like the bond you have with your mother, because, as St Augustine says, “The Church is truly the mother of Christians” Let us ask ourselves: how do I see the Church? As I am grateful to my parents for giving me life, am I grateful to the Church for generating me in the faith through Baptism? 

Do we love the Church as we love our mothers, also taking into account her defects? All mothers have defects, we all have defects, but when we speak of our mother's defects we gloss over them, we love her as she is. And the Church also has her defects: but we love her just as a mother. Do we help her to be more beautiful, more authentic, more in harmony with the Lord?” 

Then the Holy Father goes on to describe the second way the Church is mother. He says, “A mother does not stop at just giving life; with great care she helps her children grow, gives them milk, feeds them, teaches them the way of life, accompanies them always with her care, with her affection, with her love, even when they are grown up. And in this she also knows to correct them, to forgive them and understand them. She knows how to be close to them in sickness and in suffering. In a word, a good mother helps her children to come of themselves, and not to remain comfortably under her motherly wings, like a brood of chicks under the wings of the broody hen. The Church like a good mother does the same thing: she accompanies our development by transmitting to us the Word of God, which is a light that directs the path of Christian life; she administers the Sacraments. She nourishes us with the Eucharist, she brings us the forgiveness of God through the Sacrament of Penance, she helps us in moments of sickness with the Anointing of the sick. The Church accompanies us throughout our entire life of faith, throughout the whole of our Christian life. We can then ask ourselves other questions: what is my relationship with the Church? Do I feel like she is my mother who helps me grow as a Christian? Do I participate in the life of the Church, do I feel part of it? Is my relationship a formal or a vital relationship?”

So Mother Church, gives us spiritual birth, and she rears us, that we may become the people God made us to be. But for what? Well, our second reading this weekend from the book of Revelation answers that question. Why?

We heard in John’s vision, this weekend, Mother Church’s children having reached their eternal destination. The “great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue” stand before the throne of God. These are the souls who have been born by mother Church, who have been nurtured by mother Church, who have walked as faithful sons and daughters of Mother Church, and who now have reached the maturity, the end, for which they were created, reconciliation with God in eternity. As the Early Church Fathers would say, we cannot have God as Father without the Church as our mother.

May we love our Mother the Church, allow ourselves to be nurtured and taught by her always, for she is Mater et Magistra--Mother and Teacher. May we be the best of children of Our Holy Mother the Church, that we may receive the eternal life the Lord suffered and died to obtain for us, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

3rd Week of Easter 2021 - Monday - Working for that which endures

 “Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life”  The word used for “work” in this passage is the Greek word, ergon, a word that denotes hard labor and physical exertion.  Here Jesus is saying that belief in him, and following him, is no easy matter; belief requires more than merely emotional or intellectual assent.  Daily we are called to the ergon—the hard work—of turning away from our sins and embracing Jesus' commands.  Daily, we are called to the hard work of bringing our hearts, which so love independence and self-reliance, before the throne of God to submit to his will.

Jesus speaks these words here in chapter 6 of John's Gospel as a sort of prelude to his Bread of Life Discourse, his teaching on the Eucharist.  The newly initiated are taught that it will be hard work to come to the altar week after week, every Sunday, to come to receive the Bread of Life, but it must be done. It will be hard work to preserve the state of grace which allows us to receive the Eucharist worthily. But it must be done: for the sake of our souls. 

Even though Jesus has done the hardest work of all, carrying our sins to the cross for our eternal salvation, we must engage in the hard work of following him in everything.  But of all the things and distractions vying for our attention in our busy secular world—He alone is worthy of our lives.  We often work so hard for things that will not bring us eternal life, let alone real, deep satisfaction in this life.  We settle for so much less than for the greatness for which we've been created. Why? Often fear.  

We often shy away from work—even work for God—because we fear becoming exhausted and unhappy. But I’ve never regretted working for God? Have you? Fear is often a trick of the devil: a mental image of sore muscles, of sadness from missing out on satisfying our earthly appetites. But again, it’s just a trick the enemy uses to tempt us away from working for God. For, working with all of our hearts to serve God does not bring exhaustion and unhappiness, rather it brings new life and joy. Want proof? Look at the saints! In pouring themselves out in God’s service, they do not die of exhaustion, rather they radiate with life. They are more vibrant than a spring garden!

May we work today for that which endures, and come to receive the eternal fruits of laboring for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

- - - - - - -  

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

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

That the goodness of the Lord will be experienced in all marriages, in all business relations, in all daily encounters, and in our friendships.  Let us pray to the Lord.

For those who live in want: that Jesus the Bread of Life will be their sustenance, and that Christians will work for justice and mercy for all those in need.  Let us 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 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.

- - - - - - -
 
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.

1st Week of Lent 2018 - Friday - Repentance is a matter of Life and Death

Lent is a powerful call to repentance, and repentance is a matter of life and death. As we heard from the prophet Ezekiel this morning: "If the wicked man turns away from all the sins he committed, if he keeps all my statutes and does what is right and just, he shall surely live, he shall not die."

Recalling the story of Adam and Eve, we recognize the spiritual death, the separation of God, which sin brings between God and man. Sin, which says, I’m going to choose another path, a path separate from the ways of God.

We certainly offer up our Lenten penances, our sacrifices—we pray for the conversion of those trapped in cycles of mortal sin, those who have so corrupted their moral compass that the course of their life is leading them to eternal separation from God.

But notice, Ezekiel says, that the wicked man must turn from “all” the sins he committed. Each of us has an obligation to strive to be free from “all” of our sins: mortal and venial sins. We should not be content with habitual or sporadic venial sins in our life.

St. Augustine remarks that those who want to walk in the love of God and in his mercy cannot be content with ridding themselves simply of grave and mortal sins. “Even less grave sins” Augustine said, “if they are ignored, proliferate and produce death.”

The good news is, the Lord is ready to forgive us. The Lord does not grow as tired of forgiving us our venial sins as we do of confessing them. It’s when we stop confessing them, when we stop seeking to overcome them through God’s grace, that they will fester and “proliferate” as Augustine says.

“Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven.” This sounds like an impossibly high standard. And it is, humanly impossible. But it is not impossible for God to lead us in the ways of surpassing holiness. It is up to us, with the help of grace, to identity those sin, to repent of them, and to surrender to the grace that gives us strength to amend our life.

Lent is a desert experience in which we separate ourselves from the things that hinder our growth in grace, and it is also a time of new spiritual life, as we open ourselves to God’s mercy and life-giving grace, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

- - - - - - -
 
For the whole Christian people, that in this sacred Lenten season, they may be more abundantly nourished by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

For the whole world, that in lasting tranquility and peace our days may truly become the acceptable time of grace and salvation.

For sinners and those who neglect right religion, that in this time of reconciliation they may return wholeheartedly to Christ.

For ourselves, that God may at last stir up in our hearts aversion for our sins and conviction for the Gospel.

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.

December 21 2017 - Winter is past!

On this darkest day of the year, the first day of winter, we hear a surprising message from the Song of Songs: “winter is past, the rains are over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth”.  Those of us who live in Northeastern Ohio know that the snows are just beginning, the flowers won’t be seen for several months. Yet, the Church proclaims that because the Lord is near, it is a day of spiritual springtime, a time of new growth, a time where light begins to appear again.

The Gospel reading as well is full of life and vibrancy: the pregnant Virgin Mother going in haste to visit her once barren cousin Elizabeth, the baby John the Baptist leaping in his mother’s. There is singing, there is the joyful expectancy of the two mothers, there is praising of God.

These readings remind us of the importance of walking by faith. Naturally, it may be cold and the darkest day of the year.
Supernaturally, however, our hearts can be burning, on fire with love for God  as the light of Advent shines ever more brightly. Some people experience a deep depression this time of year, as the sun is seen less and less. Christians, though are called to rejoice in spite of the darkness of the world. We turn our faces to the light of the true sun. The O Antiphon speaks of Jesus as the Radiant Dawn, Splendor of eternal life, and Sun of Justice.. Christ is our light precisely because he saves us from the cause of our most crippling depression, sin, which brought darkness to our minds, and separation from God.

Today, may we bask in the light of our coming savior through our prayer and charity towards those in need, may we bring his light into the dark corners of the world, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

- - - - - - - - - -

We raise up our prayers of petitions, as we await with longing the Advent of Christ the Lord.

That those in the darkness of error and faithlessness may be enlightened by the light of Christ through the witness of the Church

For the protection of the unborn, and the overturning of all laws lacking respect for the dignity of human life.

That those struggling with winter depression or addiction may find peace and joy in Christ.

That Christ may banish disease, drive out hunger, ward off every affliction, and strengthen all who suffer persecution for the sake of the Gospel.

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.

December 12 2017 - Our Lady of Guadalupe - The Holy Protection of the Mother of God

In 1531, Mary appeared to St. Juan Diego as Our Lady of Guadalupe. In the image imprinted on his tilma, Our Lady wears a black band around her waste, showing herself to be with child. To the pagan nation of Mexico, Mary revealed herself as a mother: the mother of Christ and their mother as well. Mary would help them break the bond of a false religion which involved the abominable practice of human sacrifice.

For this reason Our Lady of Gaudalupe is invoked as patroness and protector of human life.
The protection Mary offers to those who call her “mother” runs through this feast. The collect spoke of how God has placed us under the protection of the the Blessed Virgin of Guadalupe. For nine months, the Christ child grew in the protective womb of Our Lady. From the cross, Jesus taught us to call Mary “Mother”, to seek her maternal protection.

The Vatican II Constitution on the Church, speaks of the ancient devotion to Mary’s protection: “Clearly from earliest times the Blessed Virgin is honored under the title of Mother of God, under whose protection the faithful took refuge in all their dangers and necessities.”

I remember reading a report last year of seven Iraqi Catholic women who claimed Mary protected them from ISIS terrorists. When ISIS soldiers stormed their shelter, they prayed to Our Lady as the hid under beds which were being used by the soldiers. They said, “When ISIS entered our room, they didn’t see us, we feel that the Virgin Mary closed their eyes from seeing us.”

Sometimes it seems that the powers of evil which surround us and conspire against the Church are so cunning and pervasive. Yet, God has not left us unprotected. He has given us such a powerful advocate and protector in Our Lady.

She who was guarded from sin from the moment of her Immaculate Conception throughout her whole life guards her sons and daughters from sin and evil as well. The theologian Richard of St. Lawrence writes: “Mary protects us under the mantle of Her humility.”

And of course, the Memorare written by St. Bernard implores Our Lady’s protection, praying “REMEMBER, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession was left unaided.”

St. Bernard also said: Mary “recognizes and loves those who love Her. And She is ready to help all that call on Her, especially those who resemble Her in chastity and humility.”

May we place ourselves under the protection and guidance of Our Lady of Guadalupe, who helps us in remaining faithful to her Son in all things, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

- - - - - - - - -
 
We bring our prayers to God through Mary.

Please respond to the petitions: “Mother of the Redeemer, intercede for us”

That Our Lady may protect the Church from all evil, and aid us in the mission of the Gospel.

That all government leaders may be awakened to the supreme dignity of each human life, and that all people of our nation may work together for and end to the culture of death.

For all mothers, that they may find in Mary the example and strength to carry out their
vocation.

For all refugees forced to flee from their homes, that God bring peace to them and their country of origin.

That the sick may draw strength, consolation, and healing by turning to Our Lady, who
intercedes for us from her place in heaven.

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

We pray, O Lord our God, that the Virgin Mary, who merited to bear God and man in her chaste womb, may commend the prayers of your faithful in your sight. Through Christ our Lord.

Friday - 3rd Week of Easter 2017 - Life-giving effects of the Eucharist

Last week, remember, we read through the Lord’s conversation with Nicodemus in which Jesus speaks of supernatural birth for his followers, a second birth, in which we are born anew to the supernatural life of the Spirit.

This week, we’ve read through the Bread of Life discourse in which Jesus teaches us not of supernatural rebirth, but supernatural food—food that will sustain the life of the spirit

The Eucharist truly is the bread of life; the Eucharist produces life in us because the Eucharist IS Jesus Christ who is Our Life. The Eucharist truly is superabundant in life it effects in our souls.

The Eucharist sustains the supernatural life begun at baptism. When the body is deprived of food it languishes and dies; and it is the same with the soul, the Eucharist sustains supernatural life in us, as Jesus says, “unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you do not have life within you.”

The Eucharist is our pledge of eternal life and resurrection: He who receives Eucharist, Christ will “raise up on the last day”. St. Ignatius of Antioch said is “the food that makes us live forever in Jesus Christ”

The Eucharist restores the soul which has become weakened by venial sin. St. Ambrose said Holy Communion “is a remedy for our daily infirmities”. The damage we do to our souls through venial sin is restored through Holy Communion.

The Eucharist is also a “spiritual vaccine” protecting the soul from the assaults of temptation. St. Cyprian, writing in the early third century, says Christians imprisoned and tortured for the name of Christ received from the hand of the Bishop the sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Lord, so they would not yield to a Roman prosecutor and deny their faith. Before going on trial, they pleaded, “Give me Communion, so I’ll be able to resist.” From the very beginning of the Church, this was the reason Holy Communion was brought to the Christians in prison, that they could be strengthened in their persecution and temptations.

The Eucharist helps us to persevere in faith at the hour of our death. This is why the Eucharist is brought to the dying.

And the Eucharist increases sanctifying grace in our souls: helping us to love with the heart of Christ, making our lives more pleasing to God.

As the Catechism teaches: “The Eucharist is "the source and summit of the Christian life." "The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself”

Through the Eucharist, may the life of Christ in us continue to be sustained, nourished, strengthened, and increased for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

- - - - - - -

By offering His Body and Blood for us, Jesus reconciles the world to the Father. Therefore, we can present our needs to God with confidence.

That the Church, which draws her life from the Eucharist, may worship this mystery with ever deeper faith and devotion, we pray to the Lord...

That Christians may always approach the Eucharist worthily, in full communion with the teachings and practices of the Church, we pray to the Lord...

For Catholics who have fallen away from the Eucharist, that they may know the grace of sincere repentance and return to the table of the Lord.

That all God's children may have sufficient bread for their physical life and the Bread of Life for their spiritual life, we pray to the Lord...

That those who have died may share the eternal life that Jesus promised to those who feed on the Bread from Heaven, we pray to the Lord...

Homily: Thursday - 5th Week of Lent 2017 - "Whoever keeps my word will never see death"

Jesus assures us that those who keep his word will never see death. What a promise! Those who follow Christ will be preserved from the spiritual death which comes through disobeying God. Remember, in the Garden, God desired to preserve Adam and Eve from death, he warned them to avoid the forbidden fruit or else they would die. The devil, contradicting God, claimed, “You will not die.” But they did. Spiritual death came through sin. As St. Paul says, the wages of sin is death.

Through Jesus Christ, fallen man is reconciled to God, lost life is restored, and Christians are to remain connected to God through Christ as a branch to a vine. But, Many people today attempt to have a relationship with God without Jesus Christ. They attempt to be “spiritual”, engaging in esoteric practices like reiki, yoga, westerners flirt with buddhist or transcendental meditation, or once in a while they turn to God in great emergencies, but when the emergency ends, so does their prayer.

Jesus does not promise happiness, peace, salvation or life through these so-called “spiritual, but not religious practices”. They might bring some temporary results, but so did forbidden fruit.

In his exhortation “Evangelii Gaudium” Pope Francis gives expression to this dimension of our faith. He writes “The joy of the Gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who accept his offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness and loneliness. Whist Christ, joy is constantly born anew.” Only through Christ do we receive the life God wants for us.

Or some claim to have some sort of special deal worked out with God, where they claim to believe in Jesus but have nothing to do with His Church. But Pope Francis also said rightly, a few years ago: “It is not possible to find Jesus outside the Church…it is 'an absurd dichotomy' to want to live with Jesus without the Church, to follow Jesus outside the Church, to love Jesus without the Church.”

Jesus founded a Catholic church…meaning everything we need for salvation and for sanctification, joy and peace, can be found within the Church…the Holy Scriptures entrusted to her, the Sacraments, Sacred Tradition which rightly guides our lives and moral decisions, the saints who teach us how to pray and how to love.

Lent should deepen our conviction for spreading the saving truths of Christ, and continues to challenge us personally and spiritually. Which of the Lord’s teachings do we do well to take to heart? Which word have we been ignoring or glossing over? The call to forgive? The call to purity? The call to selflessness? The call to trust God in our trials?

May we continue to incline our ears to our Savior, and if today we hear his word, may we not harden our hearts, but receive his life giving word with trust and obedience for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

- - - - - - - 

That the Church will experience the graces of profound renewal during this season of Lent.  That we may grow in our eagerness in spreading the Gospel of Christ.

For those who have fallen away from the Church, who have fallen into serious sin, those who have lost their faith, or whose faith has been poisoned by error or heresy, for their reconciliation with God and the conversion of all minds and hearts.

For those preparing to enter the Church at Easter: that they will be profoundly blessed in their preparation for full initiation into the Body of Christ.  We pray to the Lord.

For the needs of the poor, the hungry, the homeless, those who are sick, unemployed, or suffering from addiction, mental, or physical illness, imprisoned, for victims of terrorism, those affected by severe weather, and those most in need: that the Lord in his goodness will be close to them in their trials.  We pray to the Lord.