Month: May 2017

Today I had the wonderful opportunity to lead a communion service. Here is a copy of my homily from this morning. Peace!

Wednesday 31, 2017

Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Mass Readings

Reading 1 – Zephaniah 3:14-18A
Psalm – Isaiah 12:2-3, 4BCD, 5-6
Gospel – Luke 1:39-56

What a beautiful Gospel today! This Gospel story has inspired the Church probably from the beginning. So much Christian art has been inspired by the Visitation. In fact this beautiful story became the central devotion of St. Francis de Sales. The Magnificat is part of the prayer or the Church, part of the Liturgy of the Hours. Every evening, every bishop, priest and deacon, all the consecrated religious brothers and sisters and many lay people pray this as part of Evening prayer. St. Bede of England said it is good that the Church prays this every evening. Hopefully while meditating on this mystery, we will deepen our devotion and as we reflect on our day we deepen our resolve to live a virtuous life.

But when we come to listen to the Gospel proclaimed, we are not tourists. We do not come simply to admire and remark, “Isn’t that a lovely story!” No! Jesus proclaimed the Gospel to us including this story to challenge the way we live our lives, not to entertain us! In what ways do we proclaim God’s greatness for the blessings in our lives?

How many of us or how many of our family and friends waste a lot of time thinking about what they don’t have? Wouldn’t it be nice to drive a car like that! Or wouldn’t it be nice to have a house like theirs? Or wouldn’t it be nice to travel like they do? These types of questions could be a sign that we are experiencing non-spiritual desolation to be more specific. We might feel down or a little depressed or anxious. There’s no shame in experiencing desolation. It’s a normal part of life, but we are most vulnerable when we experience desolation. We are most vulnerable when we are down. That’s when the enemy will strike! He will kick us when we are down.

The enemy will amplify these thoughts and if we’re not careful, we will act on these thoughts. These feelings might drive people to have affairs or cheat at business. You might try to convince yourself that what you’ve done is not so bad. There are people who do worse out there. But what separates these acts of desolation from “those people” out there is only as thick as a veil.

You see, it was out of this kind of desolation that a man accosted a young girl on a train in Oregon simply because she was Muslim. Three non-Muslim men stood up to defend her and it was this same desolation that drove the man to pull a knife killing two of these men and sending a third to the hospital. It is out of this same desolation that causes terrorists to pervert the name of God and plant that bomb at a concert in Manchester killing and wounding innocent people. This same desolation is at the heart of recent terrorist attacks against Coptic Christians in Egypt a couple of days ago and against innocent Muslims in Baghdad in yesterday who were gathered at a popular ice cream parlor.

Desolation is marked by an emptiness; a dryness. This not of God. How do we overcome it? How can we protect ourselves from acting out of desolation?

We can overcome desolation by reflecting on God’s blessings in our lives. One of the beautiful gifts that St. Ignatius gave us was the Daily Examen Prayer. It is a form of the examination of conscience. St. Ignatius encourages us to pray the Examen Prayer every day! But unlike the examination of conscience, you don’t just consider the things you’ve done wrong every day. Of course we all need to reflect on our lives. How can we call ourselves disciples if we don’t reflect on our lives and commit to do better? But in the Examen Prayer you also look for ways that God blessed you that day.

Before St. Ignatius was a saint, as he was recovering from injuries after a battle, he read the lives of the saints because it was one of the only books his sister-in-law had in the house. As he read the lives of the saints, he was struck by a saint, I can’t remember who it was – maybe it was St. Francis, who on a walk one day stopped to look at a dormant tree. He knew by spring that tree would explode with new life and he thought how marvelous the Lord is! St. Ignatius was struck by this idea and came to understand that the blessings most of us receive will never be as extraordinary as Mary, but rather, our blessings will come out of the ordinary and the mundane.

When we do the Daily Examen Prayer, we try to think about those moments in our lives when God blessed us. Our blessing might simply be appreciating God’s creation all around us especially this time of year! Everything looks so lush and green because of all the rain we’ve had this month! Can you imagine? I wonder how different this world would be if we all stopped each night before bed and thought about the little ways God blessed us and we asked forgiveness the little ways we messed up.

Maybe if we stopped each day to think about how truly blessed we all really are, then we too would cry out for the greatness God in all our languages – in Arabic, allahu akbar, or Hebrew, Elohim gadol, or in English, my soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord!

Home work!

1. After you receive the Eucharist or a blessing, first, thank God for the gift of Jesus Christ. Then I would like you to think about all the ways God has touched your life – how God has blessed your life, maybe through your family or friends, your career, etc. How has God blessed your life.
2. In these days leading up to Pentecost, I want you to pray thanks to God for all the blessings in your lives!

Got it? Get it? Are you going to do it? Good! Through the intercession of our Blessed Virgin Mary, may we come to know the mercy and the love of Jesus! In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. +Amen!

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

6^th Week of Easter

Mass Readings

Reading 1 – Acts 16:22-34
Psalm – Ps 138:1-2AB, 2C DE-3, 7C-8
Gospel – John 16:5-11

Today we hear that Jesus talks about the coming of the Holy Spirit. He is preparing his apostles and his disciples for this great moment, this great Pentecost that’s about to happen. And he is trying to tell them to calm down, trying to tell them not to be afraid and that they are not alone. It is really an important message for all of us. How many of us or how many of our family and friends often go through life feeling that we’re all alone? That we have no one who could possibly relate to what we have done, to the sin in our life. We believe we cannot relate to anybody and no one can relate to the things we have done wrong. We think we are the only one who have done that particular sin. And then we beat ourselves up about it. So we do not ask for help. But Jesus says, “I am going to send the Advocate to you. I am going to send the Holy Spirit to you.” The Holy Spirit is going to do three things in particular. He is he to point out sin, righteousness and condemnation.

Now the sin the is the easiest part for us to figure out. It is that nudge we feel when we do the things we are not supposed to do. It is that push or voice that says, “you really should go to confession.” It is that sense of right and wrong that we feel. Like it says in Scripture, God wrote his Law on our hearts, so the Spirit that calls our attention to His Word, to His Law in our hearts. That is how the Spirit works.

With righteousness, the reality that Jesus is trying to explain to them then and to us now is that He is not going to physically walk with us. He will not journey with us physically. We cannot just look over and ask for his advice whether this or that is the right thing to do. But the Jesus says that the Spirit will be there for us and help us encounter Jesus. For example, in mass or a communion service, we will hopefully encounter Christ through God’s Word proclaimed, or through the homily or through the Eucharist. Outside of church, we can hopefully encounter Christ through our prayer life. The Spirit helps us understand God’s charity, mercy and justice in our own lives.

But we may also encounter Christ through our own acts of charity, mercy and justice. When we go out into the world and minister to others in the name of Jesus Christ. Whether we are ministering to people in our own family or among our friends who no longer come to church, or bringing the Eucharist to someone who cannot come to church anymore, or its reaching out someone like through the homeless ministry or to someone of another faith and saying, “you are welcome here.” There are opportunities for us to encounter Jesus Christ through these people out there, what Pope Francis describes as those on the margins. So we have to be sensitive to that. We have to be aware of the different ways the Spirit might present Christ to us.

The last is condemnation. Now condemnation is not against us. The Spirit is not coming to judge. He says condemnation because, “the ruler of the world has been condemned.” So the Spirit comes to condemn that evil spirit. Now we all have talked before that most of us will probably never encounter the physical manifestation of evil in our world, which is good. You know, the big demon we see on TV shows that we need to battle and  vanquish. That is also bad because if we actually saw that physical manifestation of evil in our world, it would be easier for us to recognize evil and to prepare ourselves for battle – to be physically and mentally ready for it. No, no, the evil we encounter is much more cunning. We have discussed in the past as we reflected upon that story from Genesis about that ancient evil voice that spoke to the first humans in the garden. That ancient evil voice who said, “Good? You are not good. If you want to be good, then you need to be like God. If you want to be God, then you need to eat the fruit of this tree.” It is that little voice.

If that is not a good image for you, then think of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, who developed the spiritual exercises. Those exercises are really about trying to recognize that little, evil voice, as well as the good voice within. St. Ignatius tells us that there is this dynamic that happens inside all of us.

How do you know if the voice you hear is the Spirit or the enemy? St. Ignatius says, if after reflecting on the thought, the vision, the dream you had, you feel uplifted, happy, or at peace, then it was probably from the Spirit. But if after your dream, vision, delusion of grandeur, you feel dry, empty, St. Ignatius uses the word desolate, then that was probably the voice of the enemy.

St. Ignatius says to us that is very important to be aware. His big thing is awareness. So if you become aware of the Spirit in your life as well as the enemy, then it is easier to ask the Spirit to condemn the enemy. The Spirit cannot condemn without you doing your part? Why? Human freedom. God is not going to directly interfere in the choices you make in life. For example, it is all too easy for us to flip over to a channel we should not watch, or surf to a web page after everyone goes to bed that we should not be on. And sometimes we think there is nothing wrong in that because no one is getting hurt.

The reality is that you are getting hurt. The enemy might say, “see, that was not so bad.” Or, “you did that again! You got to the bottom of the ice cream container. You cannot be like that friend of yours that is healthy. So why bother? It is more fun to do this or that.” Of course, you are not feeling like you are having fun. You probably feel miserable. St. Ignatius tells us to be aware of those different voices so that you can call on the Spirit to condemn the enemy.

It is really important for us to be aware of this dynamic in our lives. When we become aware of how the enemy works in our lives, then we can all upon the Spirit to condemn the enemy. When we are aware of the sin in our lives and we take that to confession, then we are fully living the Gospel that Jesus talked about today – about really engaging the Holy Spirit. That is important. If we do not do that, then we miss out a beautiful gift that God of the Holy Spirit that God has given us. Do not try to walk this path alone. Jesus tells the apostles, “you are not alone, you do not have to do it alone.” I hope that makes sense.

Home work! There are two things I ask you to do as you prepare for Pentecost.

1. After you receive the Eucharist or a blessing, pray, let us all pray that beautiful prayer of St. Faustina, “Jesus, I trust in you.” You go back to your pew and you say to God, “look, Lord, I don’t know what is going on or where my kids are because they are not in mass, but Jesus, I trust in you.
2. I want you to ask God in what ways are you open to the Spirit in your life. What ways have you become aware of the Spirit. Just have that little dialogue over the next couple of days as you prepare for Pentecost to see if you can pick out times where you can see the Spirit at work in your life. I think that would be a great exercise to put is in the right frame of mind to welcome the Holy Spirit on Pentecost?

Does that make sense? Got it? Get it? Good! Through the intercession of our Blessed Virgin Mary, may we come to know the mercy and the love of Jesus! In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. +Amen!

 

Friday, May 19, 2017

5^th Week of Easter

Mass Readings

Reading 1 – Acts 15:22-31
Psalm – Ps 57:8-9, 10 and 12
Gospel – John 15:12-17

In our first reading, we heard that the early Church was sending messengers to Antioch. You see, other preachers, these judaizers, had gone there and tried to impose Jewish requirements before conversion, such as circumcision. Why was that? Remember at this early stage in the life of the Church, Christians were still part of Judaism, hence the insistence upon compliance with the Law. I suspect the reason they wrote to Antioch is not just because of this contrary message to the Good News, but also because some people were complying with that message of the judaizers. It must have divided the community of believers: those who embraced the requirements for Jewish conversion and those who did not.

Think about those who went along with the elements of Jewish conversion for a minute. Why do think there were people complying with the requests of the judaizers? What must they have thought? Perhaps they didn’t think they were good enough. Maybe they felt they needed the elements of Jewish conversion to be saved. Maybe they thought the Good News was too easy. You see, going through the process of conversion was action. It was doing something – something concrete. Maybe they needed to do something to help themselves feel worthy.

I wonder how many times in our own lives or the lives of our family and friends we’ve believed we weren’t worthy-that we’re not good enough-that we have to do something before Jesus will smile upon us. Have you ever felt like that? Do you know people who feel like that?

I think it’s all too easy, I think, to give in and listen to that ancient evil voice, the same voice that tempted the first humans in the Garden. It was that voice that said to them, “Good? How can you be good? You’re so human. Look at yourselves! You’re filthy! If you want to be good, then you need to be like God. And if you eat the fruit of this tree and you will be God!

That same evil voice must have convinced some of the people in Antioch that they couldn’t be good enough unless they did something tangible – unless the followed the prescriptions of the Law – unless they loaded up their holy roller dance card. Now that doesn’t mean that evil was interested in their salvation. No. But evil wanted them to get bogged down. Evil wanted them to get so busy doing stuff because in the busyness of their they become distracted. Boy, doesn’t that sound familiar?

In the Gospel today, Jesus tells his disciples, “I have called you friends…It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you…” He doesn’t say I chose you after you jumped through all these hoops. He chose them, he chose you and me just as we are. Isn’t that amazing! Wouldn’t it be something if we could see ourselves through Jesus’ eyes as good enough just the way we are? I suspect there would instantly be an end to anxiety and depression in the world. Neither we nor those around us would ever see ourselves with self-doubt or with a negative body image. We wouldn’t be so eager to engage seemingly magical internet cures or late night TV schemes or engage in superstitious religious practices. I think the entire world would change if we could see ourselves through Jesus’ eyes!

Why do you think the leaders of the Church decided to send Judas and Silas to Antioch? They sent them to preach the Good News. What is the Good News? That salvation is offered to all through Christ Jesus, who was born man, who died and rose from the dead, by the grace and the love of God. The Good News is that salvation is offered to all through Jesus by the grace and love of God. You see, faith in God is not about loading up your holy roller dance card. It’s not about doing anything. There is nothing you and I can do to merit salvation. Salvation is offered to us through Jesus solely by the grace and the love of God – not by anything we do!

Maybe if we saw ourselves the way Jesus sees us, we would accept the Good News-we would accept the message that my belief in Jesus Christ, my acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, I can be saved and so can those around me.

Home work!

1. After you receive the Eucharist or a blessing, pray, “Jesus I love you. Give me the grace to see myself as you see me.”
2. Share that news with other people: that they need to see themselves through the eyes of Jesus. After all, that’s what missionary discipleship is all about – going outside our comfort zone to tell others that they are loved and they are special no matter what!

Does that make sense? Got it? Get it? Good! Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother, Mary, may we come to know the mercy and the love of Jesus! In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. +Amen!