June 24, 2017

 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time A Jeremiah 20: 10-13; Romans 5: 12-15; Matthew 10: 26-33 Did you ever get mad at God? Somehow we feel we can’t do this. But at times in our life when everything seems to be going horribly we feel we are abandoned by God and are really mad. Where is He? Has He forgotten me? Doesn’t He love me anymore? What are we to do? Today’s readings bring up situations that can help us see God’s constant love and presence. Jeremiah is really upset. First he accuses God of seducing him and making him a laughingstock. Then he says he just isn’t gong to be God’s prophet and even mention God’s name anymore. These are Jeremiah’s words preceding today’s readings: “You duped me, O Lord and I let myself be duped…all the day I am an object of laughter; everyone mocks me…the word of the Lord has brought me derision and reproach all the day…..” Here, as we see frequently in his book, Jeremiah shares his personal reflections on the hardships he had to face as being God’s spokesman. Today he knows the people are speaking about him and plotting against him. Suddenly his outlook shifts from moaning and groaning to rejoicing. He seems to remember God’s promise of being with him, always protecting him. Now he knows that he has nothing to fear. He feels that God will avenge him. This vengeance is intended to transform the minds and the hearts of people who are persecuting Jeremiah. God is helping them in a dramatic way to see the evil of their ways. For Paul, Adam signifies the origin of sin in the world while Christ, who he describes as the new Adam, is the antidote. Paul refers to sin in the singular. This is because the devil, the spirit of evil, constantly wants to bring evil about in the world. He wants each person to bring evil to others thus showing that God has no power and does not care or love us. The devil’s job description is to cause humanity to constantly revolt against God. Paul is showing us the truth and love of God: He sent Jesus, His gift to us, to show us God’s constant love and intention that each person is chosen to be in heaven. We are in this constant struggle with the devil, with evil itself. The Spirit is constantly helping us to choose the path of love, the way to God. Today’s Gospel is taken from the section of Matthew that is known as the ‘mission discourse’; the entire tenth chapter of Matthew. It is interesting that Mark and Luke share a story on how Jesus choose His twelve apostles. Matthew does not do this, he assumes that his readers already know this story. In fact the first New Testament text to speak of the Twelve is in 1 Corinthians 15:5. The number probably is meant to refer to the twelve tribes of Israel and implies Jesus’ authority to call ALL Israel into the Kingdom. Also Luke and Mark distinguish between the Twelve and a larger group also termed disciples. Matthew tends to identify the disciples as the Twelve. This chapter starts where Jesus “summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness.” Then Matthew names the twelve Jesus has chosen. Then Jesus sends them out “…to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.” Jesus tells them point blank what to expect: they will be subject to hostility and ill treatment. They naturally don’t want to go this path, but this is what awaits every follower of Jesus. Then we come to today’s passage where Jesus is telling them and us, “Fear no one.” They are told not to fear any person or situation in which they find themselves. The Good News is to be proclaimed to everyone. Everything is now in the open. Live love because God is love and loves us. The same caveat is given to each of us: we are to walk in love and live love. I refer often to the beautiful instruction from St. John in 1 John 4:18, “There is not fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment, and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love. We love because He first loved us.” Matthew continues with Jesus’ instructions showing how precious and important the apostles are and each one of us is to God. “Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge. Even all the hairs of your head are counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before My heavenly Father. But whoever denies Me before others, I will deny before My heavenly Father.” Jesus is encouraging us as His messengers to be brave and strong because God is with us. Jesus is also assuring us that He knows how difficult and dangerous our mission work will be, so we are to TRUST. The early Church experienced in many areas the constant threat of persecution and even to the point of death. We are not really called to that path, but in reality we are. There are many areas in the world today where people are being persecuted for their faith. Many are being sold in slavery, many are being forced from their homes, many live in fear, many wonder where God is. What gifts has God given each us to somehow respond to our needs. Our own daily living poses many challenges. Loss of employment, fractured relationships, broken families, addictions, and personal compulsions are just a few. At these times we live our lives in dark areas. We wonder where God is. God is with us. The wonderful ‘Footprints in the Sand’ painting shows us this. The great spiritual writers share that when all seemed lost, when God seemed the most distant, He is really the closest. Can I be the person God has chosen to share this one point with someone in need? Why not? I’ve experienced these moments myself. We are never alone or abandoned. God is with us and loves us. So I reflect on: • How do I spread the Good News of God’s love? How do I live the Good News of God’s love? • Do I ever think that I am so unimportant that God sometimes loses track of me? Where do I go for help? • When someone thinks poorly of themselves it is easy to get ‘down in the dumps.’ How can being a member of a vibrant, faith-filled community help to remedy this state? Do I sit and watch or do I become involved? Sacred Space 2017 shares: “Father God, You have created me in Your image and likeness; every hair on my head You have counted. You know all my concerns and accompany me on all life’s journeys. Help me sense Your presence and resist fearfulness. For the Christian, the role model is Jesus Christ, who reveals to us what God is like. Lord Jesus, may I prove to be a true disciple of Yours by listening attentively to Your word and by caring for the poor, the weak, and the needy.”

June 18, 2017

The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ Deuteronomy 8: 2-3, 14-16; 1 Corinthians 10: 16-17; John 6: 51-58 When we are going on a trip by car, we make sure all our bags are packed with everything we need, but most especially we make sure that the car is safe and ready for the trip. We are the ones who make sure that everything we need is OK. We rely on ourselves; then we set out. Our life is a journey to the Lord. It encompasses the time from birth to death. There are many stops along the way with numerous religious celebrations: Baptism, 1st Eucharist, 1st Reconciliation, Confirmation, Marriage, Holy Orders, and the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick. How often do we realize the importance of these sacraments in our journey? Do we look at the celebration part or do we see that these are ‘outside signs instituted by Christ to give grace?’ Do we realize that we need them all the time? Do we realize that these are God helping us? Do we realize that it is not about our strength and know-how getting us through our journey but God’s grace? Today we are celebrating the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. How often have we come to the Eucharist as observers? How often have we come in need? How often do we reflect on how the Lord has filled us, strengthened us and set us on our way to continue our journey with His love? We need to be reminded that it is all about God helping us, God’s grace. The readings bring focus to this today. Moses is talking to the tribes of Israel assembled on the shores of the Jordan River. They have been traveling for forty years. They have had numerous encounters with God. Many of them were based on their own whims and not trusting in God and wanting to do it their own way. Did they realize that God loved them? Not very often. Now Moses is reviewing for them God’s constant presence and love. He is reminding them that just because they have arrived at the Promised Land, this does not lessen their total dependence on God. If they neglected their relationship with God and think they can make it on their own, they run the risk of losing the wonderful gifts God provides for them. For the past forty years God has tested them. He constantly forgave them, but they fell back into their evil ways. The first generation failed the test, they refused to accept the ways of God. Now the second generation has hopefully learned from their ancestor’s failures and are ready to see that God is love. God has created them out of love and saved them from the horrors of Egypt and the desert. God has chosen them to be His Own. The same is true for us, God has chosen us to be His own. Moses states it succinctly: “Remember…how God has directed all your journeying in the desert…He let your be afflicted with hunger, and then fed you with manna, a food unknown to you and your fathers, in order to show you that not by bread alone does one live, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Do not forget the Lord your God…” God is a God who cares for me every minute of the day and helps me, do I let Him? Paul spells out the meaning of the Eucharist to the Corinthian community that struggled with living the life of Christ. They were surrounded by Gentile cultures and their former religious practices. Paul reminds them that the Eucharist binds them to Christ by saying when the community of faith drinks from the one cup that holds the blood of Christ they belong to the one Lord. When the community of faith partakes of the one bread, which is the body of Christ, this too means that they belong to the one Lord. This is the only religion whose believers realize that are part of the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 10:16). John shares Jesus’ words: “I AM the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” When we see Jesus saying I AM, He is referring to Exodus 3:14 when Moses asked God for His name. It is one of the most famous verses in the Torah. It is difficult to translate but most agree that the most comfortable translation is “ I am who I am.” THE JEWISH PEOPLE UNDERSTOOD THAT WHEN JESUS USED I AM, HE WAS SAYING HE IS GOD. A closer reflection on Jesus’ quote offers a deeper understanding of what happened when He miraculously fed five thousand with a few loaves and two fish. Also we can see this is the same God who fed the Israelites with manna in the desert (Exodus 16). The people who heard Jesus today could not and would not grasp what Jesus is telling them. It makes no sense to them. They want to hear what they want, they don't care if it is God telling them something else, they stay within themselves. What Jesus is saying that whoever eats His flesh and drinks His blood actually enters into a divine relationship with Him. This is the food, this is the bonding of the relationship that leads us into eternal life. • Do I realize that it is this important to receive Jesus into my life in the Eucharist? • Do we realize that God promises us each day strength for our journey? This strength comes in His love, His care, the Sacraments especially in the Eucharist? • Do we realize that God is guiding us on our journey through all the bumps and side roads and dangerous intersections that come up? • Do we realize that life is about God’s love and care but it is also about the crosses that appear so often and distract us? Do we realize that these crosses are like the Israelite’s crosses in their journey in the desert? Do we realize that Jesus told us the He will help us carry our crosses if we let Him? Do I let Him or do I feel I can handle everything on my own? • Do we realize that one of the many ways that the devil tempts us is to put doubt into our minds about what Jesus has told us repeatedly in His life and teachings? • Do I realize that the Eucharist is my strength for the journey? Jesus filling me with Himself enables me to live my life in His love and to be His love to those He places in my life today. And by responding to each person in love is the journey Jesus needs each of us to be on. Sunday Homily Helps states very simply: “a) We need the spiritual food of the Eucharist to successfully complete our life journey. b) We need to trust in the Lord’s care for us in our spiritual hunger. c) But we are not to be self-centered regarding this food. d) It is given to strengthen us so that we, in turn, can reach out to others in their needs.” Sacred Space 2017 states: “In Hebrew, the expressions ‘flesh and blood’ means the whole being. The reality of Christ’s presence at the Eucharist is beyond our comprehension. We are asked not to understand it but to experience it. Jesus leads me to appreciate the closeness to which He calls me. Eat, live, and abide are words that belong to the home. Jesus invites me to bring anything in my life that is unsettled or out of place, that it may find its home in Him.”

June 11, 2017

June 11, 2017 Feast of the Most Holy Trinity Exodus 34: 4-6, 8-9; 2 Corinthians 13: 11-13; John 3: 16-18 Today we are celebrating the feast of the Most Holy Trinity. It is a mystery. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines mystery as: “a religious truth known by revelation alone; something not understood or beyond understanding.” I went to the Catechism of the Catholic Church and under Mystery it lists nine topics: “of Christ; of the Church; of the Church’s unity; of creation; of the existence of evil; of faith; of God; of man; of man’s salvation.” It states that all our human words always fall short of describing the mystery of God. So if we always come up limping what can we take away from this feast? Perhaps the best way to say what does the Trinity tell us or mean to us is to say that it is all about God’s love. This helps us to put our arms around this mystery. We all know about love. We can say in one voice that we understand love but in another frame of mind we can say that love is a mystery. We are constantly discovering its depth which changes our understanding of love. I’ve been privileged to be the minister at many weddings. I’ve talked to each of the couples before they're wedding day and see their ‘love’. Years later I can see their ‘love’ in a much deeper way. Love has brought them closer. Many have said that in seeing each other’s love they come to an understanding of God’s love. This is what the Trinity is about—God’s love. Today’s words from John’s Gospel, perhaps the most often quoted in all of the Bible, says, “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal live.” So the Trinity is about love…the Trinity is about sharing their love. Love among humans is about sharing love: the triple command of Jesus found in Luke 10:27 tells us to, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.” God is love…the Trinity is about love…discovering and living love is what each person is about. God is about relationship. The Trinity is about relationship. Living is about relationship. We all search for a deep, rewarding, intimate relationship based on honesty, trust and love. Many find this…some still search. One writer said,, “Marriage would be so much easier if there wasn’t another person involved, but then it would be meaningless, too.” These are the words of William Paul Young the author of The Shack in his introduction to Richard Rohr’s The Divine Dance, the Trinity and your Transformation. Mr. Young continues: “Bad theology is not a victimless crime. It dehumanizes God and turns the wound and the messy mystery of intimate relationship into a centerfold to be used and discarded… Richard Rohr and Mike Morrell call us forward and invite us to actively change what we let into our hearts, calling us to consciously participate in this divine dance of loving and being loved…Divine Dance is a celebration of Relationship… God, You have never had a low view of Humanity.” In urging us to read this book he says, “May we feel within us the eternal life of Jesus reaching through our hands—to heal, to hold, to hug—and celebrate the bread of our Humanity, the sanctity of the Ordinary and Participation in the Trinity.” I have found a tremendous amount of insight into a proper thinking of God, the Trinity in both the book, The Shack, written in 2007 and the movie, The Shack, that was released earlier this year. I have found the clearest understanding and deeper insights into the Trinity from Fr. Richard Rohr and Mike Morrell’s book, The Divine Dance. I totally recommend both of these works. What it all comes down to is John 3:16, which in itself is misunderstood. The passage is telling us that the Trinity is not a thing, it is a Divine Relationship. So often I hear people quote this passage and say that…'God SENT’… The passage says that “God so loved the world that He GAVE His only Son……” This emphasizes the nature of this gesture as a GIFT. God is giving us a GIFT…His Son… He loves us that much. This shows that God’s love is about a RELATIONSHIP. Moses had a tremendous amount of closeness with God. He describes this in his writing of the creation accounts and tell us they are about the RELATIONSHIP of our first parents with God. It doesn’t take a neuroscientist to see that the words used are deeply loaded with love and care and concern. Later in John’s gospel, Jesus promises His disciples the gift of the Spirit/Paraclete which then completes the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Continuing with John’s Gospel we see that Jesus is not condemning the world, He came to SAVE each one of us. Our SAVING comes with how we respond to God’s invitation and be people who continue to love, care, forgive, and respond to the needy and hurting. So each person is in a relationship and again it is to be a relationship of love. Everything is rooted in God’s love for the world. Perhaps one of the worst things we have done is to make the Trinity such a formality that has no relationship with each created person. Saying that God created and stays up in heaven and doesn’t care about us is a total untruth. Saying that God is distant to us and lets us solve our own problems and just waits so that we can goof it up so that He can lower the boom on us shows a God that doesn’t care and is even irrelevant to us. The reality is that God wants to be close to us AND is close to each one. We are the ones that push God away. The bottom line question: am I grateful to God for my life, for the lives of my loved ones and special people who touch me? Am I grateful to God for being present and caring about me? Am I grateful for the gift of my faith that tells me God loves me? Am I grateful for God’s grace to help me though the difficulties of each day and the mindless things too? Am I grateful? Sunday Homily Helps says, “We would not be celebrating an annual feast in honor of the Blessed Trinity if the doctrine were only an unsolvable riddle. The Trinity is a mystery, yes but a mystery of God’s unfathomable knowledge and love.” So I reflect on: • How have I experienced God’s love in these last few days? Did I express my gratitude or did I take God for granted? • What gets in the way of being merciful, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity? • What gets in the way of my gratitude? • We are in a loving relationship with Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Am I? Sacred Space 2017 shares: “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son”! This is the heart of the good news, and I must be eternally grateful of it. There are no strings or strings attached to God’s loving. Nor must there be any strings or strings in the quality of my loving. We believe that God intervened in human history and gave His only Son to show that His attitude to us is that of a loving parent. Prayer may be compared to a time of opening ourselves to the light of God, like sunning ourselves in the warmth of the sun, the gentle and bright light that illuminates us completely. “

June 4, 2017

Pentecost Sunday Acts 2: 1-11; 1 Corinthians 12; 3-7, 12-13; John 20: 19-23 Today is the feast of Pentecost. It’s an amazing feast in the Church. Scripture writers depict it as an awesome verbal and visual event that had never been witnessed before. Events like this charge people up. Can you remember a time when such an awesome event happened in your life. Let’s us examine what happened. The apostles were gathered in the Upper Room. They had disappeared from sight after Jesus’ crucifixion and were hiding. The upper room is not that big a room. It could easily accommodate those gathered for the Last Supper. But to stay and live in this place would make it very difficult since it was above the site of the tomb of David, a frequent visiting site for the Jewish people. The apostles had barricaded themselves behind locked doors. Their fear was very real. Since Jesus had been killed, they felt they were next on the list. They had just learned that Jesus had Risen AND NOW JESUS APPEARED…it was totally scary to them. Jesus said, “Peace be with you.” This couldn’t have been very calming since they had a ton of questions that were cascading in their minds. Jesus showed them His horrible wounds and again said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, so I send you.” Then He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sin you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained?’” So without any hesitation, Jesus moves from granting His peace to commissioning them to continue to do the same work that He was doing: showing the world that God is love, loves everyone and needs everyone to love. This would have been enough to paralyze many people saying ‘well let me think about this…I have to check with my wife and family…I can’t just leave my full-time job, how will I provide for my family…I’m not a public speaker…my gifts are definitely not in this area…let me go on a retreat and get some more training…’ They didn’t even have time because the Spirit came on each one. St. Luke describes it a little differently in today’s first reading from Acts of the Apostle. He describes the event this way, “And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.” This is a powerful event showing us the reality of the Holy Spirit and what the Spirit does. The Apostles immediately leave the Upper Room and go out probably to the Temple area and Acts tells us they spoke to a gathered large crowd, people from all over the known world and everyone could understand them, “speaking in our own tongues of the mighty acts of God.” There is no communication problem. Everyone understands. Can we project and say that everyone understands this as the language of God, the language of love? Definitely, this is God’s message delivered through Jesus. Pentecost didn’t just come two thousand years ago. Receiving the Holy Spirit didn’t just happen at our Confirmation. The Spirit is with us in every sacrament we receive. The Spirit is with us every moment encouraging us, pleading with us, filling us with an enormous bag of gifts so that each can share God’s love. The Spirit is God’s continual and perpetual gift to each person each day to be unwrapped and used. The devil continues to break into our lives and reminds us that we are no good…we are sinners..we don’t have any gifts to do this…Notice these are similar to the questions bombarding the apostles when Jesus came and gave His peace. The Spirit gives the Lord’s peace always. It is true that we are all sinners, and will be until the day we die and go to the Lord. But we are forgiven sinners. Jesus has redeemed each believer and opened heaven and promised heaven to each of us if we believe in Him and follow His commandments. So we are redeemed, forgiven sinners. Now can we share what we have received? This is what it is all about. Like the apostles, our Baptism has commissioned us to be Jesus. The Spirit gives us GRACE and help to live and to love so that we can we untie the hurts that we hold too tightly. Can we let go of our prejudices and realize that each person is loved by God? Can we let our pride be drowned by God’s gifts and love and realize that it is all about Him and not about us? The Word Among Us has a beautiful little reflection for today: “At his son’s twenty-first birthday party, the proud father began a toast by recalling the day his boy was born. ‘What a wonderful day it was!’ he said. ‘Your mother and I are so glad you came into our lives—although we don’t care much for what you have done since then!’ he was joking, of course, and his son knew it. He knew his father loved him and treasured every day they had spent together. We’re celebrating a birthday today as well: the day the Church was born. But as that father’s joke showed, there’s more to a birthday than remembering the day it all began. So today, let’s thank the Holy Spirit for ‘what He has done since then!’ Think about it: without the Spirit’s inspiration, Christian men and women would not have handed down the gospel message from generation to generation until it reached you. But the Holy Spirit doesn’t just live in our great saints whether past or present. He is also in you, helping you live a holy life. Have you ever felt inspired to reach out to someone in need? That’s the Holy Spirit. Have you ever felt inspired to share you faith with someone? That’s the Holy Spirit. Have you ever fought hard against temptation and won? That’s the Spirit. Have you ever left Mass or come out of a prayer time feeling refreshed and closer to God? That, too, is the Holy Spirit! So thank Him! Think of some small way you can celebrate what He has done and what He is still doing today. Maybe look online to see the different ways Pentecost is marked across the world. Maybe spend a few extra minutes in prayer reading about the gifts of the Spirit. Or maybe treat yourself and your loved ones to a special dessert. After all, it is a birthday! ‘Holy Spirit, I am so grateful that You came to be with Your Church and, even more so, that You are with me today!’” So I reflect on: • Do I share the “mighty acts of God’ with the people God has placed in my life? Or do I keep them private not letting others know about God’s love to me? • We must ask ourselves the question, ‘What do I feel my role in the Church is today?’ • The message of Pentecost is not restrictive it is for all. Do I see my mission as one of embracing the entire family of earth? • Who are the people in my life that I need to bring peace, that I have to be at peace with? • Sacred Space 2017 states: “In the book of Genesis, God breathes on human beings to bring them life. Now Jesus breathes His spirit into His disciples to give them new life They will have power over sin, which otherwise deadens the human heart. Holy Spirit, I welcome you now into my small heart. Let today be ‘the first day of the week’ for me, which means the first day of my renewed creation Let us celebrate this together. I listen to Jesus speak to me: ‘Peace be with you.’ I bring before Him those aspects of my life most in need of peace and hear Him say again, ‘Peace be with you.’ Jesus speaks of peace but shows His hands and His feet. He reminds me that there is a cost to being a presence of peace in the world.