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September 30, 2009

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Fr. Joe's Cycle C

Homily Book

September 30, 2009

                Every gift is also a burden

                God calls us to deliver people — He gave us all these messages —
                        lead them to Church
                        tell them about baptism
                        tell them about the Eucharist, Confession
                        tell them about the Sacraments

                Walk the journey — the Lord has planned for us —
                Walk by His Plan — live by His will —
                Our life here is so short
                Focus on God's will —

                Do not be distracted by what others try to
                    get you to do 

Prayer for Union with Jesus

Come to me, Lord, and possess my soul. Come into my heart and permeate my soul. Help me to sit in silence with You and let You work in my heart.

    I am Yours to possess. I am Yours to use. I want to be selfless and only exist in You. Help me to spoon out all that is me and be an empty vessel ready to be filled by You. Help me to die to myself and live only for You. Use me as You will. Let me never draw my attention back to myself. I only want to operate as You do, dwelling within me.

    I am Yours, Lord. I want to have my life in You. I want to do the will of the Father. Give me the strength to put aside the world and let You operate my very being. Help me to act as You desire. Strengthen me against the distractions of the devil to take me from Your work.

    When I worry, I have taken my focus off of You and placed it on myself. Help me not to give in to the promptings of others to change what in my heart You are making very clear to me. I worship You, I adore You and I love You. Come and dwell in me now.

-God's Blue Book, January 17, 1994

                Staying focused on God
                Not giving into inordinate attachments

                Mastery of self — that is living according to God's
                    will  — disciplining ourselves —
                    not giving into tendencies from our fallen
                        human nature —

                Purity — we are more one with God, the more pure we
                    are.

                Rebellion against God's will - makes us miserable —
                    we give into disorder because of our
                    wounded human nature

                God chose barren women to bring special people
                    into the world, leaders, chosen ones
                    Sarah and Abraham had Isaac
                    Elizabeth and Zechariah had St. John the Baptist

                A person can provoke others in secret and then they
                    look like they didn't do anything
                    wrong

                A person of peace is called to straighten
                    out their impure ways of provoking
                    and causing anger and discord —

                Like this:
                    one preaches love

                    - another tries to force something
                    - wrong timing
                    - disobedience
                    - darkness
                    - anger

                another begins a fire and runs away to
                    leave others to put out the fire —
                    which hurts unity and love

                The fire is burning, people were provoked —
                    anger has now entered where once peaceful
                    ways may have brought unity and love —

                An evil root, vices —

                Or working from undisciplined ways
                    unlearned in social skills of building bridges and
                        families — giving and taking to have far more
                        than selfishness, but unity, love,                       

strength — working                         in God's time                         in God's way                         in peace                         in justice                         in harmony

working to build the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of love

                Selfishness because of tendencies of the
                    wounded human nature brings discord —
                    hatefulness, and lack of love

                Samson slew the lion to protect Delilah

                God has all the Power
                God is love

                We build the Kingdom of God by His hand and with
                    love
   

                But we must obey God
                Live by the will of God and
                Not rebel against God —

                    God keeps us in existence
                    God is Almighty

                    Feed my soul — my God —
                    Outpour Your grace to me
                    That I may be a strong soldier in Your army

                Samson had such strength

                God will bless us if we fight unselfishly for
                    Him — if we live to master our evil
                    tendencies, jealousy, pride, envy, control,
                    lust, greed — seeking dominance for
                    dominance sake, slothfulness, gluttony —

                    God is all powerful
                    God has shown us His Might —
                    God has given miracles
                    We are to recognize God's gifts
                    Not try to compete with God's Power —

                Whose side are we on

                If we follow Jesus — we don't rebel against God — 

                Working to build the Kingdom of God
                Not working to build a selfish kingdom for ourselves —
                    controlling, jealous, prideful —

                The devil wants us to be selfish

                WE HAVE A FREE WILL
                ACCOUNTABILITY — TO DO GOOD
                                                    NOT TO DO EVIL

                Judas was a traitor

                Peter was not perfect and was made vicar of
                    the Church

                Battles have gone on all through salvation
                    history —

                The fight to get to the Promised Land —

                Jesus gave us the Church
                Jesus gave Fr. Carter this message — 

                We who are baptized, have been called —

                We are to be strong members of the
                    mystical body of Christ —

                We are to die to our selfish ways —
                Mary said at Fatima to — CONVERSION —

                Jesus speaks:

                    Die to your selfish ways —
                    Do not give into your wounded human
                        nature — 

From The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, 
    by Louis J. Puhl, S.J. 

p.11

21.                     SPIRITUAL EXERCISES

    Which have as their purpose the conquest of self
    and the regulation of one's life in such a way that
    no decision is made under the influence of any
    inordinate attachment

   

                R. We see the jealousy of Joseph's brothers
                We see jealousy, power, lust —
                Seeking of power for one's honor and glory —

                The just man waits on the Lord

                It is God he serves, but those that are jealous
                    look on with jealous eyes to serve themselves —

                Jesus died for all men —
                Jesus, the Savior
                Jesus, the Son of God, took flesh — doing
                    the will of God —

                Those who betray God and His work will
                    suffer in the end if they do not repent —

                God calls us to make Him the King and Center of Our
                    hearts —

                    This is the mission of the Shepherds of Christ

                    But the devil tempts man to be out for
                        himself —
                        He sits on the throne meant for God —

                Making Jesus the King and Center of our hearts
                    means — we honor Him first
                                we do His will —
                                we don't rebel against Him for
                                    our foolish pride and
                                    wants for ourselves
                                    opposed to God's will —

                Man because of his wounded human nature seeks
                    dominance for himself for the sake of
                    dominance —

                The man who is just bows to God
                The man who obeys God's will does not seek vain
                    control, possessiveness of others,
                    but bends to serve the Master —

                May the Sacred Heart of Jesus reign in our
                    hearts —
                    so we don't give into false pride —
                    vain glory, dominance for ourselves —

                God has called us the mighty army of His
                    Sacred Heart —

                To teach the world — He is to Reign in
                    our hearts and our lives

                We are to not worship false gods —
                     including ourselves — with pride and
                                                    vain glory

                All through the bible we see people worshipping
                    false gods —

                Look at Moses after he received the 10 Commandments

                They had made a golden calf when Moses came from the
                    mountain —

                Look at the false gods today

                    Discern the spirits —
                    Who is on my throne — the Holy Spirit
                                                        the Sacred Heart

                    Is God my Father 1st in my life?

                    Am I the child obedient
                        to God's will

                    Or am I the one putting myself rebelliously
                        first, above God's Plan —
                        above God's will —
                        with envy and jealousy, pride, control,
                        slothfulness, secrets, gluttony, lust etc, —

                Where my heart is — is where I will be —

                Put your heart in the Heart of the Sacred Heart

                Make Jesus the King of your hearts
                Make Mary the Queen of your hearts

                Let God rule your lives
                Do all things for God's honor and glory —
                We are to fight for our faith —
                God gives us the Church —
                We are soldiers of the Sacred Heart —
                Jesus told us what to do 

Tell My People click

                We follow God in love —
                We obey the commandments —
                God is to be first in our lives — 

                We seek to see with clearer vision —
                    through the eyes of God —
                    we seek grace —
                    we want to be healed
                    not see with distorted vision —

                We want to be more and more one in Him
                    saturated with His grace —

                CLEARWATER

                We are to do God's will —
                Don't abandon His will for us because
                    of wanting our will — rebellious
                    of God's will —

Religious Life
 
and life in the Shepherds of Christ Movement for Servants, Handmaids and Apostles

                September 30, 2009

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Genesis 3: 9-15, 20

But Yahweh God called to the man. 'Where are you?' he asked. 'I heard the sound of you in the garden,' he replied. 'I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.' 'Who told you that you were naked?' he asked. 'Have you been eating from the tree I forbade you to eat?' The man replied, 'It was the woman you put with me; she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.' Then Yahweh God said to the woman, 'Why did you do that?' The woman replied, 'The snake tempted me and I ate.'

Then Yahweh God said to the snake, 'Because you have done this,

    Accursed be you
    of all animals wild and tame!
    On your belly you will go
    and on dust you will feed
    as long as you live.
    I shall put enmity
    between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and hers;
    it will bruise your head
    and you will strike its heel.'

The man named his wife 'Eve' because she was the mother of all those who live.

 

Ephesians 1: 3-6, 11-12 

Blessed be God 
    the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
who has blessed us 
    with all the spiritual blessings of heaven 
        in Christ. 
Thus he chose us in Christ 
    before the world was made 
to be holy and faultless 
    before him in love, 
marking us out for himself beforehand, 
    to be adopted sons, 
        through Jesus Christ. 
Such was his purpose and good pleasure, 
to the praise of the glory of his grace, 
his free gift to us in the Beloved,

And it is in him 
    that we have received our heritage, 
marked out beforehand as we were, 
under the plan of the One 
    who guides all things 
as he decides by his own will, 
chosen to be, 
for the praise of his glory, 
the people who 
    would put their hopes in Christ 
        before he came.  

 

  Luke 1: 26-38

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the House of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. He went in and said to her, ‘Rejoice, you who enjoy God’s favour! The Lord is with you.’ She was deeply disturbed by these words and asked herself what this greeting could mean, but the angel said to her, ‘Mary, do not be afraid; you have won God’s favour. Look! You are to conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you must name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David; he will rule over the House of Jacob for ever and his reign will have no end.’ Mary said to the angel, ‘But how can this come about, since I have no knowledge of man?’ The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God. And I tell you this too: your cousin Elizabeth also, in her old age, has conceived a son, and she whom people called barren is now in her sixth month, for nothing is impossible to God.’ Mary said, ‘You see before you the Lord’s servant, let it happen to me as you have said.’ And the angel left her.

Feast of the Immaculate Conception

December 8, 2007 

The feast today is about Mary’s conception, that from the instant she began to exist on this earth, indeed from her very conception, she was holy, without sin and filled with God's grace. The gospel today can confuse us somewhat because it tells us about Jesus’ conception.  It was read, however, because of the greeting the angel used in appearing to her: “Hail, full of grace.”  Our feast celebrates that there was no moment in Mary’s life when there was sin, no moment when God’s grace did not fill her. 

 

As we listen in on this conversation between Mary and the Angel, we learn both about Mary and about the child she will give birth to.  Mary’s child would be Son of the Most High and king forever.  He will be called “holy, the Son of God.” 

 

This is why Mary was “full of grace,” so she could give birth to God’s own Son, who would be the source of all holiness.  We need to know this, not so that we can put Jesus and Mary on a pedestal and admire them from afar.  Jesus, the holy one of God came to us so that we too can become holy.  This is what St. Paul tells us in today’s second reading: “God chose us in him to be holy and blameless in his sight.” 

 

Most of us do not think of our vocation as a call to holiness.  We all want to get to heaven, but most of us think of holiness as reserved for other people, like St. Francis or Mother Teresa.  Most of us are content to leave holiness for someone else.  We just want to get through heaven’s doors.  But no one will get to heaven unless they are holy, for holiness means being close to God and sharing God’s life.  And that’s what God’s grace does for us: it unites us with God and allows us to share in God’s life.  If we are in God’s grace, then, we are holy people.

 

Two stories we heard today tell us of our vocation to be holy:

The story in our first reading is about Adam and Eve, our first parents, who originally were very close to God and in their union with God, they were very happy.  That was the symbol of the Garden of Eden.  But they got greedy!  They wanted to be equal to God.  The evil one knew how to manipulate them and lead them to ignore God’s command.  As a result they lost all they had. 

 

The second story in the gospel illustrates Mary’s constant attitude of being willing to say “yes” to God, an openness that prepared the way for the Son of God to come to us. 

 

When we were baptized we were filled with God’s life, we were born again in God’s grace.  The very same grace that filled Mary at the moment of her conception, filled us when we were baptized.  None of us will ever be as holy as Mary was.  She got a head start on all of us.  But if we follow the example of Mary, always ready to say “yes” to God, that will lead us to holiness and to the joy and peace and love that comes with it. 

2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time
January 14, 2007

INTRODUCTION: Five hundred thirty years before Christ the Jews were exiles in Babylon. You’ve heard me mention this many, many times. Today’s first reading is an announcement from the prophet that the Persians, who had conquered the Babylonians, were going to let God’s people go home. Their cities and homes were in ruins during the time of their exile and the Persians were even willing to give them some material help to rebuild. God said he would forgive the sins of his people, their sins that brought on their exile, and God would take them back. God would make Jerusalem and Judea his spouse. The image of God marrying his people is an important biblical image and is the best symbol from our human experience that can be used to describe the love and intimacy God desires to have with his people. The image prepares the way for gospel account of the marriage feast of Cana.


HOMILY: I want to encourage you to make sure you have truly invited Christ into your homes and into your relationships, especially your marriage relationship if you are married.

Several years ago I read the story about a couple who bought a new home and spent a lot of money on interior decoration. The wife, who wrote the article, had a husband who wanted to hang a large picture of the Sacred Heart in a prominent place in their living room and the lady objected. It did not fit with the décor of their new home. But he insisted and reminded her of Jesus’ words: “Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.” (Mt. 10,32) Being a religious person, she gave in to his wishes and hung the picture. In her article she told about a few incidents that happened because the picture was there. One visitor, who kept glancing at the picture, eventually commented that “Jesus doesn’t look at you, he looks right through you.” Another friend commented, “I always feel so peaceful in your home.” She said one of the most striking things she noticed was that inevitably the conversation with friends and relatives was drawn to a higher plane. She felt overall the picture had a good effect on their family. Her article concluded with the statement: “This much I know, when you invite Jesus into your home, you are never the same again.”

I’m sure the couple in today’s gospel would agree. Wedding receptions were major celebrations in the culture and time of Jesus. They went on for several days and planning for one would have been difficult, but running out of wine would have been a long remembered embarrassment for the bride and groom. So Jesus came to their rescue, with a little prompting from his mother. And he rescued them big time.

Others we hear about in the gospel had their lives changed significantly for the better by inviting Jesus into their home. Peter brought Jesus to his home and Jesus healed his mother-in-law. A little girl died who was the daughter of a synagogue official named Jairus. Jairus went to find Jesus and Jesus came to his home and raised his daughter to life. He healed a man of dropsy one evening while having dinner at the home of a leading Pharisee. He became good friends with Martha, Mary and Lazarus and visited them when he came to Jerusalem. When Lazarus died Jesus brought him back to life. This is not to mention how people’s lives were changed in other ways because they opened their doors to Jesus.

Certainly, inviting Jesus into our lives begins by opening our hearts to him. But what if we lived in a country where it is illegal to be a Christian and the police came to our home, would there be enough evidence there to convict us? Do we have religious books or periodicals, any religious articles that remind us of our Lord or Mary or one of the saints, is there a bible somewhere within reach or is it on a shelf covered with dust? If our houses were bugged by the police, would we ever get caught praying with other family members?

When Jesus sent his disciples out he always told them to say “Peace to this house” whenever they entered a house. It is his desire to bring peace wherever he goes. In the book of Revelation Jesus makes this promise to us: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, (then) I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me.” He will not invade our space. He wants to be invited in.

That goes doubly in marriage. St. John tells us “God is love.” If people want love in their marriage, they need to have God as the foundation of their relationship. I always have major concerns about couples who call up and want to have their marriage at St. Boniface, but they’ve not been going to Church. They are missing the essential ingredient for a loving and successful life ahead. I always challenge them that if they want me to have their wedding, then I want to see them become serious enough about their faith that they start practicing it.

St. John tells us today this was the first of Jesus’ signs. As a sign it shows Jesus’ high regard for marriage. But it shows much more. It tells us Jesus was interested in more than just keeping the party going, that he came to bring abundant blessings to those who believe in him. Today he works greater miracle for us by changing bread and wine into his own body and blood. May we be filled with his love as we receive the food and drink he gives us. Amen.

Nehemiah 8: 2-4a, 5-6, 8-10

Accordingly, on the first day of the seventh month, the priest Ezra brought the Law before the assembly, consisting of men, women and all those old enough to understand. In the square in front of the Water Gate, in the presence of the men and women, and of those old enough to understand, he read from the book from dawn till noon; all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law.

    The scribe Ezra stood on a wooden dais erected for the purpose;

In full view of all the people — since he stood higher than them all — Ezra opened the book; and when he opened it, all the people stood up. Then Ezra blessed Yahweh, the great God, and all the people raised their hands and answered, 'Amen! Amen!'; then they bowed down and, face to the ground, prostrated themselves before Yahweh.

Ezra read from the book of the Law of God, translating and giving the sense; so the reading was understood. Then His Excellency Nehemiah and the priest-scribe Ezra and the Levites who were instructing the people said to all the people, 'Today is sacred to Yahweh your God. Do not be mournful, do not weep.' For the people were all in tears as they listened to the words of the Law. He then said, 'You may go; eat what is rich, drink what is sweet and send a helping to the man who has nothing prepared. For today is sacred to our Lord. Do not be sad: the joy of Yahweh is your stronghold.'

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
January 21, 2007 

INTRODUCTION – You’ve heard frequently of the Babylonian exile and how the Persians conquered the Babylonians fifty years later and allowed the Jews to return home. Many of the Jews in Babylon had become rather comfortable there and they did not return to Israel all at once. Little by little they came. Even a hundred years after they began to return they were still struggling to rebuild their cities and their civilization. The Persians were still in control of the entire Middle East which included Israel. Nehemiah, a Jew, had been a high level servant to the king of Persia and he asked his king to allow him to return to Israel to help his people rebuild. So the king of Persia appointed him to be governor of Israel. In Nehemiah’s efforts to rebuild the nation, he had to start with what was most important and that was to remind the people that God had to take first place in their lives. He realized much of the trauma his people had gone through at the time of their exile was because they had forgotten their God. In today’s first reading Nehemiah called for a general assembly of the people and the priest Ezra read God's word to them. Remember, ordinary people did not have books in those days. Books were very rare and very expensive, since each one had to be individually written word by word. So, if the ordinary person were ever to know God's word, someone had to read it or preach it to them. Ezra, thus, read God's word to the people and interpreted it for them. The reading was most probably from the first five books of the bible. Notice that there was active participation on the part of God’s people as they heard the word, possibly for the first time: raising their hands, answering “amen,” bowing to the ground, listening attentively, weeping and rejoicing.


HOMILY - The central theme of today’s liturgy is God's word. The people were saddened by God's word in today’s first reading. Perhaps they recognized how they had failed to live up to it. But Ezra and Nehemiah told the people God's word should bring us joy. Even if they had not been living by God’s word, on hearing it they could learn from it and start living as God instructed them. When we break the laws of our society, we may get thrown into jail. God doesn’t send the police around when we break his laws, but when we ignore his word, it’s going to catch up with us in the long run. So many people rationalize bad behavior by saying Jesus is a good guy. He won’t punish me for this or that. But they forget, Jesus didn’t come to punish us. He came to show us the way to happiness and eternal life. When we choose a way contrary to his teaching we bring unhappiness upon ourselves.

One of my favorite psalm verses is: “Your word is a lamp for my steps and a light for my path.” (Ps 119, 105) If you have to go somewhere in the dark, it’s nice to have a flashlight to help you see where you’re going. You can walk in the dark if you wish, but that would not be very smart and you might be likely to end up hurting yourself. When we try to make it through life without God's word, we’re walking in the dark. We can’t say God is punishing us if, while we’re walking in the dark, we run into something or we fall. We did it to ourselves.

Nehemiah knew the people needed God's light if they were ever going to succeed in getting back on their feet. Jesus knows we need God's light. In today’s gospel, Jesus is beginning his public ministry and he uses the Scriptures to describe the work he will do. People were impressed at first, but unfortunately, as we will hear next week, they rejected him.

Jesus said “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” “Today” is the important word here. It tells us God is speaking to us whenever we hear the Scriptures. Those who heard Ezra read the word of God and interpret it were hearing about things that happened almost a thousand years before, the stories of Abraham, Moses and the Exodus. But they saw its relevance for them that day. Jesus read from the book of Isaiah, written centuries before he was born, but he told his audience it had great meaning for them that day. “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” God's word always speaks to us because God is a living God and his Spirit continues to communicate to us through that word.

In our second reading today, Paul reminds us of the importance of community. He tells us we can’t say I don’t need a church, I don’t need to come to Mass, I don’t need to pray with all those other people. We do need to because we are part of the body of Christ and we can’t say we do not need one another. When we separate ourselves from one another, we are denying the spiritual gifts God has given to others to help us and we are denying to others the spiritual gifts God has given us to help them. We need each other. We need to share our faith with each other, even if it is a matter of praying with one another. To sum everything up, we need God's word and we need each other to make it through this life to the joys of eternal life.

Jeremiah 17: 5-8

A group of wisdom sayings

Yahweh says this,
Accursed be anyone
     who trusts in human beings,
who relies on human strength
and whose heart turns from Yahweh.
Such a person is like scrub
    in the wastelands:
when good comes, it does not affect him
since he lives in the parched places
    of the desert,
uninhabited, salt land.

‘Blessed is anyone who trusts in Yahweh,
with Yahweh to rely on.
Such a person is like a tree by the waterside
that thrusts its roots to the stream:
when the heat comes it has nothing to fear,
its foliage stays green;
untroubled in a year of drought,
it never stops bearing fruit.

   

1 Corinthians 15: 12, 16-20

Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you be saying that there is no resurrection of the dead?

For, if the dead are not raised, neither is Christ; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is pointless and you have not, after all, been released from your sins. In addition, those who have fallen asleep in Christ are utterly lost. If our hope in Christ has been for this life only, we are of all people the most pitiable.

 

Luke 6: 17, 20-26  

He then came down with them and stopped at a piece of level ground where there was a large gathering of his disciples, with a great crowd of people from all parts of Judaea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon Then fixing his eyes on his disciples he said: 

    How blessed are you who are poor: 
        the kingdom of God is yours. 
    Blessed are you who are hungry now: 
        you shall have your fill. 
    Blessed are you who are weeping now: 
        you shall laugh. 

    ‘Blessed are you when people hate you, drive you out, abuse you, denounce your name as criminal, on account of the Son of man. Rejoice when that day comes and dance for joy, look!—your reward will be great in heaven. This was the way their ancestors treated the prophets.

    But alas for you who are rich: 
        you are having your consolation now. 
    Alas for you who have plenty to eat now: 
        you shall go hungry. 
    Alas for you who are laughing now: 
        you shall mourn and weep. 

    ‘Alas for you when everyone speaks well of you! This was the way their ancestors treated the false prophets.

6^th Sunday of Ordinary Time
February 11, 2007

INTRODUCTION:

Life is full of options for people in the world today, but the Bible tells us that all our options ultimately will be reduced to two.  We either make God the center of our lives or we don’t.  Choosing to make God the center of our lives will lead to true happiness, making any other choice may satisfy us temporarily, but it will in the end leave us disappointed and unhappy.  This was crystal clear to Jeremiah the prophet who lived at the time of the Babylonian exile.  His way of expressing this truth is crystal clear too.

HOMILY

We are more familiar with St. Matthew’s beatitudes.  They tend to be more spiritualized than St. Luke’s version which we just heard.  St. Luke’s version is a little more puzzling and perhaps unsettling.  The Greek word which is translated here as blessed also means happy.  Jesus is saying some of the most unlikely people are happy while the ones you would suppose should be happy are in deep trouble.  He is saying happy are you who are poor, you who are hungry, you who are weeping, happy are you when people hate you.  He goes on to say it’s bad news for those who are rich, the well fed, those who are laughing and having fun and those who are well liked.  They face great sorrow and disaster.  Pretty strong, isn’t it! 

Certainly our Lord is not advocating that poverty, hunger, grieving and being rejected by our friends and neighbors is virtuous.  As a matter of fact Jesus encouraged people to care for the poor, even to the point of promising eternal reward to those who feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, visit the sick, etc.  And he even invited some people to give everything they had to the poor.  He also had some friends who had to have been fairly financially well off.  He is simply warning us with forceful language, we better not build our happiness on partying, being well off and well liked.  Life goes deeper than that and so does our happiness.  Like a tree that sinks its roots deep into the earth to receive water and nourishment, we have to have our lives rooted in God, which means obeying the Commandments, taking time for prayer and having an active love for others.

This past Friday I was driving down the expressway from Dayton and as the wind gusts kept pushing my car into the left lane, I had to keep turning the steering wheel to the right just so I could keep going straight ahead.  That’s what I think our Lord is doing here in St. Luke as he preaches to the people of his day.  Like a strong wind, the values of this world keep pushing us to invest fully in the pleasures of this life.  Our Lord is trying to pull us back so our lives do not end up in great sorrow and disaster.  We face many options in our lives, but in the end only one will really count, whether we have made Christ and his law of love for God and for each other the central value in our life.  If we haven’t, we will be sorry and it will be too late. 

Anthony De Mello in one of his many inspiring books gives us a parable of life to ponder. There were a group of tourists riding in their tour bus.  The shades on the windows were pulled down and they were busy arguing about what to watch on TV, who had the cutest outfit, who got to sit where and with whom, where they were going to eat lunch and they were totally unaware that they were passing through beautiful countryside: lakes, mountains, green fields and rivers.  Some people go through life and miss the best parts.  The human race started out on the wrong foot, looking for happiness in the wrong place and we still do.  The God who created us and who knows us best of all is trying to tell us where we will find it. 

This week we commemorate, as we do every year, four chaplains who were on a ship that got torpedoed in the Second World War.  As the ship was going down, they helped to hand out life jackets to the men on the ship.  When they came to the end of their supply, each of them took off their own life jacket and gave it away.  They went down with the ship praying together and encouraging each other.  They are a beautiful example of Jesus’ words, “greater love than this no one has, than that he lay down his life for his friends.”  (Jn 15, 13).  They are also a powerful example of hope in the resurrection and the next life which St. Paul tells us about today.

When we’re young this life seems very long, but the longer we live the more aware we become of how short it is. There’s another life beyond this one.  God wants us to be with him, so he can share his happiness with us.  But we have to follow the way he’s shown us. Jesus would not have bothered to come to us, to teach us, and to die for us if it didn’t matter how we live our life.  Too many people in society today adopted a credit card mentality in their spiritual life.  You know the credit card mentality: buy now and pay later.  About their spiritual life they say “I’m not going to worry about it until pay-off time.”  I can say that for a variety of reasons that usually doesn’t work.  If we don’t live our faith now, it may not be there to help us at the end of life.

Fourth Sunday of Lent
March 18, 2007

We just heard the story of a young boy whose life was misdirected by love of riches and pleasure. After his so called friends abandoned him and he suffered hunger and want for a period of time, he came to his senses and returned to his father. He returned a changed person. Fortunately, he had a loving and forgiving father who accepted him unconditionally. The point of the story is abundantly clear when we consider the relationship between the father and his younger son. As regards the relationship between the father and the older son, Jesus leaves the conclusion open-ended. We have to reflect on what might have happened, whether the older son gave in to his father’s pleading to be forgiving or whether he refused. How we end the story will tell us a lot about ourselves.

I want to tell you about another young man whose story is somewhat similar. He was Catholic to start with but admits that he was not a very good one. His father was a government official and this young man enjoyed the comforts of those who were well off. He described himself at sixteen as a scatterbrained youth who had “turned away from God and did not keep his commandments.” As his story goes, he was kidnapped and sold as a slave and made to labor on a farm for six years. Like the prodigal son who was without friends and who suffered without adequate food or shelter, this young man came to his senses and he learned obedience through what he suffered. He discovered (and we quote) ”God showed me how to have faith in him forever, as one who is never to be doubted.” After six years God spoke to him in a way that he heard with his own ears. He would escape and God audibly told him when to leave and what direction to go in order to accomplish his escape. Miraculously God protected him along the way until he arrived back home. Like the prodigal son, he came home a new person. Although his parents wanted to keep him at home with them, his love for God led him to want to serve God as a priest. Even more than serving as a priest, his love for others led him to want to return to the people who captured and enslaved him and teach them about God. And that he did. After overcoming many obstacles, including rejection by the hierarchy, a breach of confidence by a friend to whom he entrusted a confession of his past life, his lack of education and social graces, he returned as a bishop to the people who had enslaved him. Once he arrived he wasn’t greeted with open arms. Again, in his own words, he said “daily I expect either murder, or robbery, or enslavement.” He writes elsewhere “they seized me with my companions. And on that day they most eagerly desired to kill me; but my time had not yet come. And everything they found with us they plundered, and myself they bound in chains.” He feared nothing, for even if he were to be put to death, he felt that would have been the supreme act of love for his God. But God had other intentions than that he should be a martyr. For 30 years he served God and the people who once enslaved him and his work was blessed. He ordained many bishops and priests, established convents, monasteries and schools and in thirty years saw the conversion of almost all of Ireland. And of course you all know I’ve been talking about St. Patrick, who is one of our patronal saints and whose statue is under the choir loft. His work was so successful that in a short time Ireland was sending out missionaries to revitalize the faith of Europe which had fallen into decline. Irish missionaries have been a blessing to the Church ever since.

For those who are Irish and who honor Patrick, the best way to truly honor him is not by drinking a Guinness. We should respond to his example and his call to holiness. Again quoting Patrick, he asks those who believe in him and love him to “strengthen and confirm your faith…That will be my glory, for a wise son is the glory of his father.”

And for those who are not Irish and who think too much is made of St. Patrick on March 17th, I would like you to think of how our faith has been strengthened by the witness of many Irish saints and how our civilization has been preserved by the scholarship of the Irish during the days when mainland Europe was being overrun by barbarians. The great heritage of western civilization, from the Greek and Roman classics to Jewish and Christian works, would have been utterly lost were it not for the holy men and women of unconquered Ireland. These Irish recorded the great works of western civilization in their monasteries and convents (remember all books had to be written by hand). They brought this learning back to Europe after it began to stabilize in the eighth century under Charlemagne. Whether you’re Irish or not, we all owe a great debt to the Irish and we pray that our patron, St. Patrick, blesses our parish and our families.

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Immaculate Heart of Mary w/glass	18"	$300
Immaculate Heart - Ivory w/glass	18"	$300
Sacred Heart of Jesus w/glass	18"	$300
Our Lady of Lourdes w/glass	18"	$300
Our Lady of Grace w/glass	18"	$300
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel w/glass	18"	$300
Our Lady of Guadalupe w/glass	12"	$200
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July 31, 1994

Words of Jesus to Members of
Shepherds of Christ Associates:

"My beloved priest-companion, I intend to use the priestly newsletter, Shepherds of Christ, and the movement, Shepherds of Christ Associates, in a powerful way for the renewal of My Church and the world.

"I will use the newsletter and the chapters of Shepherds of Christ Associates as a powerful instrument for spreading devotion to My Heart and My Mother's Heart.

"I am calling many to become members of Shepherds of Christ Associates. To all of them I will give great blessings. I will use them as instruments to help bring about the triumph of the Immaculate Heart and the reign of My Sacred Heart. I will give great graces to the members of Shepherds of Christ Associates. I will call them to be deeply united to My Heart and to Mary's Heart as I lead them ever closer to My Father in the Holy Spirit."

- Message from Jesus to Father Edward J. Carter, S.J., Founder, as given on July 31, 1994,
feast of Saint Ignatius Loyola, Founder of the Society of Jesus (The Jesuits)

 

  

 

  

 

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