Praise be the name of Jesus and holy is his name!

During the holy week liturgical celebrations we are offered the opportunity to “fine-tune” our walk with the Lord and then to call to mind the example Jesus set before us as a model of holiness for which we ALL are called to emulate.

God came to us as a human being: A man! Since God acts not for his own good but for ours we must use his gift of faith to see his divine plan for our “human” life.

Holy Thursday begins this plan by giving us an example of service and sacrifice! One can not serve God and his people without the sacrifices necessary to accomplish such a lofty goal. Jesus reminds us in John’s version of the Last Supper that he came not to be a “T.O” (you know, the Me, Myself, and I ideology which is concerned only about those 3 people alone: sorry T.O I thought you had gotten better at this!) for God but to serve God first and foremost with every fiber of his being (Human AND Divine!).

This service is marked by self-sacrifice: God gets on his hands and knees and serves those he chose for apostolic ministry and washes their feet! God did that! If we don’t then, we are really fooling ourselves!

Holiness is a spiritual virtue of understanding that says the setting aside one’s own desires for another person (priest for Christ’s bride the Church; Husband for wife; Wife for husband; Parents for children; Children for parents; people of God for their neighbor…..). To be set aside for another purpose other than our own is holiness (we can look at sin another time….): a purpose for which we all have been created in the image of God in order to accomplish!

Wow! Don’t we have a great God?! Doesn’t God have great confidence in each of us?! Why can’t we trust him with this fulfilling plan for our life?

Let us pray for the grace this day, to offer our lives to God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! Let us grasp onto this opportunity to lift our life in holiness!  

Read  Peter’s first letter chapter 2 
. 

May we become ”a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises” of God this holy week by the holiness for which we live following Christ!

In today’s mass the gospel of St. John (10:31-42) records the dialogue between Jesus and those who want to kill him. As a matter of fact they pick up stones and are taking aim….

This struck me quite profoundly! And I began to remember the times I loaded up the stones of my unbelief, ready to take aim at the way Jesus has taught us through the Church how to follow him.

I know when I was younger my stones were marked with unbelief that the Church has a purpose designed by God (St.. Paul speaks of this truth and uses the term church 66 times in his letters!).

I can recall the stones at another time were marked with my unbelief in the sacrament of marriage as a sign of Christ’s mysterious love for his Church (Eph 5:21-32).

At other times my stones were loaded for bear because of my unbelief in the Church’s teaching about love, sex, and marriage (a theme that runs throughout the Holy Bible).

Quite often my stones were loaded and aimed at our Lord because I did not believe the sacraments were of any use or had any power, much less be a living encounter with the person of Christ. I could continue my litany of unbelief (much to my own chagrin) and it would become redundant very quickly! 

Interesting enough I must admit that my stones of unbelief were always centered on what “I” believed. Hmmm…. 

Yet I submit that we must all admit we have loaded up our ammunition of stones of unbelief and have taken aim at the Lord who loves us: Jesus! We want to blame everyone else as to why we can’t believe. We don’t want to think of ourselves as responsible for our lack of belief.

When are we going to cry out “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief!” That’s the reply of a believer. That’s the reply of a friend of Jesus. That’s the humble reply of someone who really want’s God to teach us the truth.

Are you getting ready to throw your stones of unbelief at Jesus?

One can not watch the Passion of the Christ without experiencing the pain inflicted upon our Savior in this movie. I also acknowledge that many folks struggle to watch it due to the graphic portrayal of the “scourging” scene. BUT, if one can get past that (and I suggest one HAS to get past it to really appreciate this movie) God will really speak to you as he did me during this scene.

First, I can not ignore the fact that our life when lived according to Jesus’ teachings without mortal sin on our conscience and fighting our venial sins can be compared to being white as snow (Psalm 51 comes to mind). When living a life of grace we are without blemish and our consciences are free! But as sin enters the picture suddenly the purity begins to receive lash marks which mars the soul. If I continue to allow sin to reign the lashes of the sins completely distort the soul where it becomes unrecognizable. So it is very difficult to not recognize the destruction that sin does to our soul if we continue to live without reconciling them. Praise God we have recourse to the sacraments of Reconciliation and Eucharist! These very necessary tools restore the lost purity and help us to try harder not to sin in the future.

Secondly, I really personalized that scene much to my own chagrin. And it wasn’t to feel guilt or to beat myself up about my weaknesses, but to acknowledge the fact that every time I sin I inflict a lash upon the purity of my soul just as Christ took the lashing of our sins for our salvation! What a God we have…. What a loving Savior our Lord really is And man does he love me!  can hardly wrap my brain around this truth: Jesus loves me more than I will ever know.

Heavenly Father, look upon my weak efforts to follow you and pour your healing balm of love on all the wounds that I have inflicted on my soul. Allow me the grace sufficient for me to grow from my failures and to help those who struggle in following you. May my efforts to serve always bring about your glory! Amen.

Last evening I was blessed with the opportunity to give a talk to parents of children who will celebrate their First Reconciliation (layman’s terms: confession!) about the sacrament and how, when properly applied to our daily living, can be a way of life that will draw the family closer to God and one another.

I read in an article in the Florida Catholic several moons ago an intriguing article about forgiveness. It stated that our culture accepted capitol punishment because of its lack of mercy within the core cell of society: the family.

Hmm…. Now I can get a little carried away at times and paint with a broad brush colors of judgment on the canvas of evangelization and my first reaction was “Don’t jump to conclusions!” It is a far reach to state that since there is little forgiveness within the family’s jurisdiction that it would overflow to other areas of its life?

Well, I began to look at my own experience. I revisited the years of days gone past of my childhood. I remembered vividly my parents and their very volatile relationship. I examined, through the process of my own memory, how they interacted with each other and also how discipline was distributed when we (my 5 brothers and I) circumvented the “rules of the home.” I was not surprised to realize that we surely had moments where we did not meet Christ’s standards of mercy and love.

As a result of this upbringing (and I harbor NO ill will towards my parents – they did the best they could and inevitably they divorced) my adult life has mirrored many of the behaviors that I saw as an impressionable young boy; an insolent teen; and finally a man who knew little about love and mercy.

I was also struck by the fact that as a result of my hardened heart I had put before me so many barriers of protection that to this very day I am still uncomfortable with social settings (which is not a positive attribute to have in my line of work!).

Jesus taught us the prime example of how we are to forgive: Luke Chapter 15! As a response to the scribes and Pharisees charge that Jesus would dare to eat with sinners he gave us 3 parables that help to describe God’s heart. He showed the learned of Judaism that God’s heart is so full of mercy, love, and compassion that we human beings can’t wrap our little brains around how loving a Father we have in heaven!

God constantly seeks our reconciliation with him. He looks at the horizon of our sinfulness and gets just a glimpse our our return and He bolts towards us on the path of mercy and love! He embraces us, as mother’s do their newborns, and whispers in our ears that he loves us so much that he wants to throw a party to celebrate our reconciliation! He even goes takes this above and beyond the call of duty and dispels any thoughts and doubts that we have about his heart: His heart is about love!

Brothers and sisters, let us fall upon God’s throne of mercy. Do not be afraid (remember in scripture every time this phrase is used God is about to do something extraordinary in the life of the believer!)! Come home. Bring all your troubles to him. Share your inner most thoughts and feelings with him.

He’s looking for you right now!

Blessings to all!

“Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church, of which I am a minister in accordance with God’s stewardship given to me to bring to completion for you the word of God, the mystery hidden from ages and from generations past. But now it has been manifested to his holy ones, to whom God chose to make known the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; it is Christ in you, the hope for glory. It is he whom we proclaim, admonishing everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. For this I labor and struggle, in accord with the exercise of his power working within me.”

This passage from St. Paul’s letter to the Colossians (1:24-27) has renewed my mind about my ministry of service. Yesterday Fr. Ben and I visited Gulf Correctional Institute where we celebrated mass with the Catholic residents of these two facilities (main complex and annex). The inmates were blessed to be able to participate and we were blessed to proclaim “liberty to the captives!”

God is indeed alive and wanting to continue His work through all of his children. He doesn’t look for the qualified: God qualifies those He has called! I am completely amazed that he can work through the likes of me and I give Him the glory for everything he accomplishes as a result of my fiat!

I pray that God will inspire you to be there for him where ever he has you and that whatever you do brings glory and honor to Him!

Today in our daily mass readings we read from St. Matthew’s gospel, chapter six, the way we are to live as people who follow Jesus. He states that to follow him we will need to pray, fast, and give alms. Not only that but he very clearly shows us the models that we are not to follow: those who like to show everyone else how pious they are. He then calls them hypocrites, from the Greek which means “pretenders”.

I couldn’t help but think of that song of which I have the melody playing in my head but can’t seem to find the words to. Anyhow, I digress!

Jesus asks each one of us to be motivated by one thing only: communion with God. It is this desire that sustains our prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Minus communion with our Creator our efforts are meaningless. That means that love of God will move us from selfishness to selflessness. Hmm…. I wonder if anyone is listening? I know I need to!

The reality of many Christians and I mean all Christians alike is that we have become too concerned with what we do for God and not what God has done for us. We try to impress people with our knowledge of God’s word but yet we call others who don’t agree with our interpretation damned! I believe Jesus poignantly pointed out to the “sola scriptura” (the law alone, sorry modern day Protestants– no offense intended) advocates of his time, the scribes and Pharisee’s that they were misled in their understanding of the scriptures and who Jesus is.

We offer prayer after prayer and recieve man’s applause: we certainly have recieved our reward! Pretenders love the attention of others and love to hear how great they are. Pretenders look and appear to be pious and holy yet inwardly they are cold and heartless to the poor, the downtrodden, the afflicted, the hurting, the lonely, the aged, the unborn, and so on and so forth.

If our love of God does not blossom in love for neighbor we are like clanging symbols! If our love our God moves us to be concerned only with our own problems we are doomed to loneliness and despair.

Jesus says to follow him. If we have eyes to see we should see Jesus in our neighbor, our wife, husband, children, parents, the unlovable, the marginalized, and everyone else God places in our lives. May the Spirit convict our hearts to review our spirituality to see what really motivates our walk with the Lord.

Are we pretenders or are we Christians?

This past Sunday we read from the book of Dueteronomy the promise made by God to the Israelites: not by bread alone shall you eat… Not even the manna given them in the desert as a result of their lack of trust was God going to bring Israel to salvation. It was through the Bread of Life, Jesus Son of God, who is the bread come down from heaven for which we will all be saved.

In St. John’s gospel we read precisely what the manna of the desert is NOT: Jesus Christ! Scandalous was the response by most of those who heard this declaration in Chapter 6 right after two other miracles to announce to the people who Jesus really is. And so troubling was this announcement to those who heard it that many returned to their former life and STOPPED following Jesus because of it.

Interestingly enough Jesus never states that he meant this teaching metaphorically or symbolically, or even spiritually. He meant it literally and they could not believe: “this is a hard saying, who can listen to it?”

Today many Christians tell Catholics, Orthodox Christians (I mention the two oldest Christian religions because it is only the “man-made” denominations that seem to struggle with this teaching. One must wonder why?) and the like that we worship wafers, cookies, lifeless bread. Many Christians believe Jesus meant this only symbolically. So when they witness such things they too ask, “What is it? (Hebrew for manna).

May Catholic’s never cease to proclaim Jesus as the bread come down form heaven. It is the Bread of Life who will sustain our spiritual lives. As a matter of fact, it is because of the Bread of Life that we live life in the Spirit for it is he who is Spirit and Life. What greater God than to have a God who wants to be completely consumed by us so that we may become what we eat!

Amen, the Body of Christ, Amen,  the Blood of the Lord, eating your body, drinking your blood, we become what we recieve, Amen! Amen! (excerp from a song tiltled “AMEN, EL Cuerpo De Cristo”, copyright 1996 By John Schiavone. Sacred. Octavo. Published by OCP)

I find it disheartening when I hear people taking great pride in the fact that Christianity is divided. It makes me reflect on John 17 all the more and the Spirit within me weeps at the message we send to all people of goodwill: The body of Christ is divided!

But I would like to assert that the mystery of Christ’s body can not take pride in this sad reality because of one important fact noted by the Second Vatican Council document on ecumenism: Christ’s body is not divided. He never intended for the body of Christ to be divided into numerous smaller bodies. It makes no sense and it contradicts John’s 17th chapter of his gospel.

When are we going to get it? When is the Spirit of GOD going to prevail upon us that divisions among God’s people is the poorest witness (Greek derivative: martyr) to the Gospel of love? When are we going to figure it out that one can not divide God into separate parts and one should not divide Christ’s body likewise. It makes NO sense. And I find this pride of those who perpetuate division as quite troublesome!

Spirit of the living God fall afresh on us. Mold us, melt us, form us, use us. Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on us!

The entire week we read from St. John’s holy gospel about the Holy Spirit as described by Jesus. One only has to wonder what the conversation must have been like as Jesus speaks (chapter 14 – 16). It is not  coincidence that it is the beloved disciple who writes this in detail. Wasn’t it the beloved disciple who rested his head on the chest of Jesus? Wasn’t it the same disciple who had to have heard the heart of Jesus beating within his holy and sacred body while he rested upon his heart? And who else would it be to describe for us the “true” Spirit that Jesus wants all of us to encounter in our own lives?

Go to these chapters of John’s gospel and ask the same Holy Spirit who inspired John to write, to illuminate for you these words of the most powerful part of John’s gospel.

Lord, send your Spirit anew on each one of us that we may come to know you more intimately, more personally, more profoundly. Then may the Spirit that is Jesus within us compel us to share this good news with others! Amen.

Just a note to ask all those who fall upon this blog to pray for our Holy Father as he visits our country. I find it truly amazing that at 81 years young his eyes reflect the Spirit of a much younger man (could it be the Spirit of our Lord Jesus maybe?). May God in his infinite mercy and compassion bestow upon him and all of us grace, mercy, and love!