Partners in the Passion

 

Deacon Dave · Partners in the Passion

Homily for the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 20, 2025. Scripture: Colossians 1:24-28. Theme: Partners in the Passion 

 Today’s second reading from St. Paul which mentions the role of suffering is a very important one for our times in which there is a growing disregard for the value and dignity of human life. In 1984, Pope St. John Paul II wrote a letter to all Christians called On Human Suffering. In it he emphasized the biblical concept of redemptive suffering, which means that we can share in the saving work of Jesus Christ and find deeper meaning in dealing with pain. The Holy Father reminded us in this letter that the bad news of suffering can be transformed into part of the Good News of Jesus Christ! 

 This is a very important concept to know about in our times in which there is a growing movement to respond to the problem of pain and suffering with the solution of murder or suicide. Of course, to make it sound better its promoters usually qualify it with words like “Physician Assisted” or simply call it “Mercy Killing”. But as William Shakespeare put it, “ a rose by any other name still smells as sweet.” And so, no amount of dressing it up should fool us as to the true horror and inhumanity of this contemporary movement to exterminate the terminally sick and suffering. And let’s not be blind to the fact that it’s already being applied beyond its original intention of eliminating pain and now also includes eliminating the feeble elderly, the mentally ill and the physically disabled. 

 While everyone agrees that pain and suffering are things to be avoided whenever possible, the response of death as the solution is really a response of “practical atheism”. And sadly this godless attitude can be found even among people of faith, including some who attend Mass regularly. It’s called “practical” because while such people might not formally declare atheism as their intellectual belief, they act as though it was. It leads them to deny the existence and dominion of God as the Lord of Life and puts themselves in His place. And so, such people say that if someone experiences suffering without any foreseeable possibility of improvement, then it’s better, even “merciful”, to just end it all. 

 This atheistic way of looking at life sees people as nothing more than animals. There is no room in it for the existence of an immortal spiritual soul in human beings. And so the solution is the same that they would come up with for their pets: just “put them down” when suffering gets to be too much and “put them out of their misery”. But we need to look at those countries which have already enacted this solution of legalized death and see that it easily becomes what many have called a ”slippery slope”. Their experience shows us that while the euthanasia movement begins by appealing to a sense of human compassion, it inevitably goes on to include the selective killing of the aged, the terminally ill, infants born with Down Syndrome (or some other abnormality), and actually ends up including any and all who are judged to be incapable of “living a good quality of life” as the government or some other entity might define it. 

 But the Christian understanding of how to respond to suffering is the polar opposite. We cherish every human life as a precious gift from the Creator. We acknowledge that He alone has the dominion and authority to give life or to take it away. And in the light of the Passion of Christ we have been shown how to deal with the inevitability of pain in a positive, proactive and powerful manner. We call it “redemptive suffering” and we find its Scriptural basis in today’s second reading where St. Paul says: “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” (Col. 1:24). 

 Now, many are surprised to hear St. Paul’s words about something “lacking” in the Passion of Christ, for how can anything be lacking in the Lord’s perfect sacrifice on the Cross? Pope St. John Paul II explained it quite simply by first pointing out that Jesus Himself lacked absolutely nothing in His sufferings for us. But then the Holy Father goes on to remind us that Christ intentionally made our participation in His Passion a component of its overall reality. In other words, our suffering is not isolated from the suffering of Jesus. When we are baptized we become members of the Mystical Body of Christ and as such, our sufferings in life become pieces of the “Passion Puzzle”, so to speak. And so this means that the one thing that can be lacking in the Passion of Christ is me! But if I join my sufferings to those of Christ, if I “fill up what is lacking” as St. Paul puts it, then I am making my contribution to the Passion and my suffering takes on a spiritual supernatural purpose. I am putting my piece into that Passion Puzzle. 

 This was why St. Paul wrote that he was rejoicing about suffering. You see, he knew that when we suffer and offer it in union with Jesus, we become part of the most beautiful and perfect love ever shown for God and man. When we suffer in unity with Jesus then He walks with us through that suffering, He upholds us and never leaves us alone. And so redemptive suffering is a positive, proactive and powerful to the pains that come our way. It is a way to draw closer to Christ, to become like Christ and to love like Christ! And it is also a way to join with Him in obtaining blessings for others. 

 “Redemptive" comes from the root word “redeem” which means to rescue, to set free, to ransom. By His Passion and Cross, Christ the Redeemer rescued us and set us free from the powers and kingdom of darkness. He ransomed us from living in slavery to sin and selfishness. And so by intentionally joining our personal passion to His, it becomes a form of intercessory prayer calling down those very same graces of rescue and ransom upon others. And so, for the Christian there is no such thing as “wasted pain” because Jesus never refuses anything given out of love and so He accepts our offering and makes us partners in the Passion!

Who is My Neighbor?

 

Deacon Dave · Who is My Neighbor?

Homily for the Liturgy of the 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time, July 13, 2025. Gospel of St. Luke 10:25-37. Theme: Who Is My Neighbor? 

 The scholar in today’s Gospel is a man who knows all the right answers. After all, that’s his job. You see, in Judaism a scribe was a professional in teaching others about the law of God. Putting it in contemporary Catholic terms we would say that the scribe was a canon lawyer. It seems like he must’ve been pretty darn sure of himself because St. Luke tells us that he is testing Jesus and not asking a sincere question. And the Gospel points out something else that would be a clue as to the scribe’s cocky attitude: it says he was standing before Jesus. Now, in ancient Jewish culture one sat in the presence of a rabbi or a teacher, as a sign of respect and to show openness to hearing what he has to say. 

 Notice that Jesus doesn't actually answer the question asked. Instead, he tells a parable that must’ve turned the scribe's smugness upside down! Because the hero of the story isn’t a Jewish scribe or Pharisee but a Samaritan, a member of a people who were despised by the Israelites. In the beginning, they had been but one people descended from Abraham and ruled by the great King David. Then, about 700 years before Jesus, Israel was invaded. The upper and middle classes were brought out of the country and kept as slaves in what is today called Iraq. The lower class that was left behind decided it was best to get along and so they began to intermarry with the occupying forces. Then about 70 years later the captive-but-now-freed Jews returned home and they were shocked to find out what those who had been left behind had done! They had polluted the People of God by marrying pagans and had even adopted some of their religious practices! These half-breed Jews were called Samaritans because they lived in a region of the Holy Land called Samaria. They were shunned as traitors, religious heretics, and political enemies of Israel and so there began a centuries-long family feud. This animosity was so bad that Jews traveling from one end of the nation to the other would add days to their journey by going around Samaria instead of taking a shortcut through it. 

 So, we can imagine the looks on the faces of the scribe and others when Jesus talks about a Good Samaritan! And to add insult to injury, Christ went even further by making two members of the Jewish clergy the moral cowards of His story. Both a priest and a Levite see a terribly injured and beaten man in need of help and yet they cross the street and keep going about their business. Most likely because Jewish law forbids them to come into contact with blood or death if they wished to remain ritually clean and lead the people in the worship that day. And so they put their religious laws above the divine law commanding love for one’s neighbor. They used religion as an excuse to withhold compassionate care compassion from a needy person. 

 But Jesus holds up a Samaritan of all people to be the one who correctly understands religion and comes to the rescue of his neighbor. He wants us to see that the kind of person whom we would least expect, the kind of guy everyone might just "write off" as being beyond God's reach, well... he just might be more righteous than even the religious leaders of Israel! This Samaritan reminds us that God looks at the heart of a person and that true religion involves actions that reflect love and compassion, rather than mere rituals or outward appearances. The parable of the Good Samaritan is teaching us that every person in need is our neighbor. Everyone without exception deserves our love and compassion in their suffering, no matter who they are or where they are from. Citizen status, political platforms, religious or ethnic differences are never an excuse in the eyes of God and in the heart of Christ to ignore the needs of another human being. 

 Jesus teaches us to look beyond those things which divide us and that set us at odds with one another. He calls us to honor the image and likeness of God in all human beings and treat them with the dignity they deserve. In today’s Gospel and every day, Jesus is calling us to become something far greater than we think we can become. He is asking us to go beyond ourselves, out of our comfort zones, and to love in a way that seems impossible if left to our own devices. But the awesome thing is that He doesn’t leave us to our own devices. He comes to us, comes to live inside us, comes to love within us and love others through us, by means of His Personal Presence in the Eucharist that we receive. In this way, through our intimate union with Him, He makes it possible for us to love God wholeheartedly and to love our neighbor because God loves them. And this transformation within ourselves should be as incredible and amazing to us as a Samaritan being called “good” was to the Jews!

We’ve Got Good News!

 

Deacon Dave · 250705_001

Homily for the 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time. July 6, 2025. Gospel of St. Luke 10:1-12, 17-20. Theme: We’ve Got Good News! 

 Today's Liturgy is all about evangelization, a word that means, "spreading the Gospel". It comes from the Latin word for Gospel which is evangelion and quite simply means "good news." The crafters of Christian vocabulary in the early Church thought this was an excellent word to describe the message from and about Jesus. After all, the Gospel is the very best of Good News! But if we are going to be its messengers then obviously we need to know what this Good News is. St. John has helped us out here because in his Gospel he has given us a one sentence summary of the Good News that is utterly easy to memorize. It goes like this: “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (Jn 3:16). 

 So, that’s a short summary of what we mean by Good News. But there’s more to our mission of evangelization than just knowing about it. We are supposed to share it with others, especially those who have never heard it. And this is why our Liturgy today presents us with the Gospel story of Jesus sending out teams of missionary disciples. Notice that the reading says Jesus chose 72 others, meaning that those missionaries were distinct from the Twelve Apostles. This shows us that Jesus works through all of His followers and not just the leaders of the Church. Everyone who is baptized has a share in this mission of evangelization. And everyone who receives the Sacrament of Confirmation is further equipped by the Holy Spirit to carry it out. 

 St. Luke wants us to learn from this passage that we are like those "72 others" whom Jesus sent out to evangelize. Just as they went out to prepare people for Christ's arrival, so we are to go ahead of Jesus who wants to arrive in the hearts of those with whom we live, work and socialize. But in doing so we have to be messengers whose manner and words do not destroy the message! This means that to share the Good News most effectively, we need to follow some directives that Jesus gave to His missionary disciples in our Gospel reading today. 

 First, Jesus said, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few.” By these words He invites us to actively and positively take up our mission and become laborers for the Gospel. There are many people suffering, struggling and seeking answers in life. They are ready to receive the Good News of Christ if only someone (that is, you and me!) would share it with them. So we need to commit to being missionary disciples, laborers in the harvest, who share with others what Jesus and the Faith has done for us in our lives and what He can do in theirs. This is called being a “witness” or sharing your “testimony”. 

 Second, as Christians we live in what is best described as a post-Christian society. This means that the faith and values of Christianity that formed the foundation of Western Civilization are no longer a significant moral force. Sometimes we will agree with our culture and many other times we will not, which can make us feel vulnerable, or as Jesus put it, to “be like lambs among wolves.” But as missionary disciples we must be prepared and ready to face opposition in order to remain faithful to Jesus. Christ calls us to be counter-cultural which means to live and think according to God’s Word. 

 Third, as evangelizers, we are to trust completely in the Lord and not in ourselves. That is one reason why Jesus instructed the missionary disciples to “carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals.” These 72 others were to rely on God to provide for their needs and we are meant to do the same. We trust in a Power greater than ourselves (the Holy Spirit) to equip us with what we need to spread the Good News. We know that if we keep the Kingdom of God as first in our lives then all that we truly need will be provided in one way or another. And this includes giving us the words that we need to say and the intuition on how to say them to each person in their need. 

 Fourth, the line about "shaking off the dust" reminds us that while we are called to share Christ with everyone, we cannot force anyone to convert. Jesus never ever coerced anyone to follow Him or believe in Him. He simply invited and made it possible. Bringing Christ to others and sharing the Good News with them is a great privilege and honor, but we have to remember that it is a person’s free choice whether or not to receive the Good News. There are many natural and non-confrontational ways to share Christ in our daily conversations and interactions, but if someone rejects the message, then we simply move on and never force the issue. When it becomes apparent that we cannot “speak Christ” to someone, then we just focus on “being Christ” to them by our behavior. Quite often, this in itself is the most powerful form of evangelization that there is because it is done by the example of one’s life, by someone who not just “talks the talk” but “walks the walk”.

Being Changed From The Inside Out!

 

Deacon Dave · Being Changed From the Inside Out

Homily for the Solemnity of the Holy Apostles Peter & Paul, June 29, 2025. Theme: Being Changed From the Inside Out! 

 Saints Peter and Paul, whom we are commemorating in today’s Liturgy, are two of the most important figures in the history of Christianity. Peter, whose name was originally Simon, was a typical working class Jewish fisherman with only a most basic understanding of Judaism. Paul, on the other hand, came from an upper class Jewish family that had the rare privilege of Roman citizenship. In addition, he was a well-educated rabbi. By nature, Peter was impetuous and volatile, while Paul was arrogant and conceited. And yet here we are today, venerating them and celebrating their memory. How so? What happened to change them into the saintly men that they became? Well, we need to have a little backstory to answer that question. 

 Both Peter and Paul were devout Israelites, which meant that their religious practice was all about carefully observing laws and rituals. From the time they woke up until they went back to bed at night, there were rules governing just about every possible human action or behavior! As we can imagine, this tended to foster in them the idea that one’s devotion to God was measured according to how well the law was being kept and how accurately the rituals were being carried out. The danger of defining religion in this way is that it misleads us into thinking we’re all good with God simply based on external compliance regardless of interior attitude. 

 And this was very much the way Peter and Paul were until each had a life-changing personal spiritual experience of Jesus Christ! Their encounters with the Lord were total game-changers that freed them from seeing religion as primarily all about rule-keeping and introduced them to the liberating truth that right religion is about a personal relationship with the Living God who loved them. Their spiritual experiences brought about within them a radical readjustment of the mind which then allowed them to have a radical change of heart. And once their eyes were opened to see old things in a new way they were well on the road to becoming the transformed men and great saints that we're honoring today! 

 Peter’s first spiritual experience of Christ came to him during a miraculous catch of fish which opened his eyes to recognizing Jesus as the Messiah. It enabled him to see himself as he truly was apart from observing the law. It moved him to throw himself on his knees and confess his sinfulness to the Lord right then and there on the shore of Lake Galilee. He would go on to have other spiritual awakenings such as those we heard about in today’s readings, when Jesus declared him to be the rock on which His Church would be built and when he was miraculously freed from prison by an angel. These spiritual experiences changed Peter to such an extent that, he who once denied even knowing Christ in order to save his own skin, became a courageous martyr for the Lord, which happened when he was crucified upside down in Rome about the year 64 AD. 

 And now for Paul. He had his first spiritual experience of Christ on the road to Damascus when the Risen Lord appeared to him. He was then known as Saul of Tarsus, a fierce and bloody persecutor of Christians. His first encounter with Jesus literally knocked him off his feet and resulted in physical blindness. And then he was given another spiritual experience when a Christian prayed over him, laid hands upon him and restored his sight. These events radically altered his way of thinking and transformed Saul into the Apostle Paul. a dynamic missionary of the faith he was once trying to destroy! He who used to be all about observing the ritual laws of Israel was now preaching that the law kills while the Spirit gives life! Like Peter, he would also die in Rome, where he was martyred by being beheaded on the same day that Peter was crucified. And we have venerated them together in the Liturgy just about ever since. 

 You know the saints are all examples for us to follow and learn from. And it seems to me that one thing the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul teach us is that if we want a faith that is vibrant and meaningful, and if we want our practice of religion to be more than just going through the motions, then we each need need to have a personal spiritual experience of Jesus Christ at some time in our lives. And so we might wonder…what is a spiritual experience? How can we define it? Well, it’s hard to describe supernatural things but I guess we can say that it’s like an “aha moment” so to speak, during which we become convinced that Jesus is not a dead and long-gone Savior, but is in fact the Risen Lord who is very much alive and present to us. It’s an enlightenment through which our faith becomes more important in our lives. It’s an awareness that alters our way of thinking, that touches our hearts, bringing about a change in our attitude and behavior. And it’s something that God offers to us throughout our lives because we are always in need of conversion and growth in holiness. 

 Now, such spiritual experiences don't have to be spectacular or dramatic or sensational as we saw in the stories about Peter and Paul. As a matter of fact, they are usually quite simple and ordinary. They can be anything God so chooses and can happen anywhere God so pleases. They can come to us while we are praying in our homes or out enjoying nature. They may spring into our hearts at the birth of a child or upon the passing of a loved one. We might experience an “aha moment” of encountering Christ while serving the sick and needy or while listening to the readings or the prayers or the music of the Liturgy. Who knows, it might even be possible to have a spiritual experience while listening to a homily! 

 But the bottom line is that it really doesn’t matter what spiritual experiences consist of or how they come to us. What matters, you see, is how open we are to receiving them and how we respond to the graces God gives us through them. But the one thing that they all have in common is that they change us from the inside out. Because of them God becomes more real and important. Because of them religion becomes a way of being in a personal relationship with Him. And because of them, we treasure our faith in Jesus as something worth living for and if needs be, even worth dying for, as we see in the lives of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul.

The Living Bread!

 

Deacon Dave · The Living Bread!

Homily for Corpus Christi Sunday, June 22, 2025. 1 Cor. 11:23-26; Gospel of St. Luke 9:11-17. Theme: The Living Bread! 

 Today's Gospel story about the multiplication of loaves has always been seen by Christians as directly connected with the Eucharist. This is because both deal with Jesus providing miraculous bread that nourishes people in an incredible way. In the Gospel story the meager supply of bread never runs out so that there is more than enough to feed everyone. In the Eucharist the bread is transformed into the very Body and Blood of Christ to satisfy our spiritual hunger. And so, both deal with something that is beyond human explanation and baffles our understanding. 

 But you know, that’s not surprising because the reality of Jesus Himself was baffling! What I mean is, when the people in that crowd encountered Jesus in person, what they saw and smelled and touched and heard was to all appearances just an ordinary Jewish man. He was a carpenter from the obscure village of Nazareth and as such He spoke with a heavy Galilean accent (which culturally for us would be how we would classify a southern redneck accent). He was in his 30’s, fit and strong from his work as a laborer, and was covered with the dust of the road. But that wasn’t the whole story as to who this miracle-working Man really was. Their senses could not identify the fact that standing right there before them was Adonai, the Lord, their glorious and mighty God! 

That reality was there, but it was hidden from them by the ordinary physicality of His flesh and bone. The Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist is very much the same and puts us in a similar situation. We don’t grasp the full truth of what is happening in our presence, before our very eyes. And yet, a genuine miracle takes place at every Mass. What was simply bread and wine become the Sacred Body and Saving Blood of our Risen Lord Jesus Christ. Though they continue to look and taste the same, Christ our God is in fact really and truly present in every morsel of what was once bread and in every drop of what was previously ordinary wine. 

 God knows that this is a hard teaching to believe and accept and so every once in a while he gives us tangible evidence that what we believe is true. Every so often God has changed not just the inner reality but also the actual physicality of the bread and wine of the Eucharist. There are over 100 of these documented Eucharistic miracles affirming for us that what we worship, what we receive and what we adore is truly the Flesh and Blood of Christ the Lord. I want to mention just two of them. 

 The first and most famous of these took place in Lanciano, Italy in the year 750 AD. A priest celebrating Mass was having doubts about the Real Presence of Jesus in Holy Communion. During the words of consecration, the host he was holding began to literally turn into flesh right in his hands, and the few drops of wine in the chalice were transformed into globules of blood. And most amazingly they have remained so over the past 1300 years! In 1971, Pope St. Paul VI permitted carefully guarded scientific studies to be carried out and it was discovered that the flesh was from the heart of a male and the content of the chalice was human blood type AB. 

 Jumping ahead to the 20th century, a host also turned into bloody flesh in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1996. The bishop at that time was the future Pope Francis. He sent samples under careful guard to a reputable lab in New York for reserach into this phenomenon. Those who tested it were not told what it was nor where it came from. The man in charge of the study was Dr. Frederic Zugibe, a world-famous cardiologist and forensic pathologist. The findings revealed it to be part of a male heart muscle with blood type AB. This meant that Eucharistic miracles of Buenos Aires and Lanciano were a perfect match! 

 But the examination of the Argentinian host resulted in an even more astounding and inexplicable fact. When the lab samples were put under a microscope, Dr. Zugibe saw that the cells were actually moving, pulsating and beating, like a normal human heart! The host was somehow and inexplicably living cardiac flesh! He declared it to be a mystery beyond the capability of science to explain. However, our Faith supports this incredible finding because it tells us that the Eucharist we receive is the Body and Blood of our risen and Living Lord and not that of a dead and long-gone Savior. We proclaimed this mystery at the Alleluia acclamation today which said: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven…”. The Living Bread! 

 We cannot comprehend or explain how this miraculous transformation of the Eucharist happens. But I think we can see why God chose to have its physicality remain as bread and wine in taste and appearance. For who of us would actually go to Holy Communion if it looked and tasted like what it really is: the living Flesh and Blood of Christ? And yet, that is the awesome reality. And so, with faith we must look beyond the appearance of the consecrated Host held up before us and remember that Jesus said, “This is my body given for you…”. We must look beyond the consecrated Wine in the chalice and remember the words of Christ at the Last Supper: “This is my blood, poured out for you.”

Trinity is Another Word for Love!

 

Deacon Dave · Trinity is Another Word for Love!

Homily for Trinity Sunday, June 15, 2025. Readings: Letter to the Romans 5:1-5; Gospel of St. John 16:12-15. Theme: Trinity is Another Word for Love! 

 Today’s Liturgy reminds us that we Christians have received knowledge from God and about God that sets us totally apart from all other world religions. I am talking, of course, about what we have come to call the “Mystery of the Most Holy and Blessed Trinity”. Now, the word “mystery” in Catholic vocabulary doesn't mean something that needs to be figured out or solved as in an intriguing detective novel or a “who-done-it” movie. When we say “mystery” we affirm that we’re dealing with a truth that is far beyond our reckoning powers. This doesn't mean that we can’t know anything about it. It simply means we can’t know everything. 

 So, no matter how smart we are it’s impossible to wrap our minds around the fact that the One True God is a plurality or communion of persons - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And equally mysterious is that fact that this doesn’t mean that there are three gods who are intimately related, rather, it tries to describe in limited human words that the One Divine Being is (somehow) existent as three distinct Persons. So, no matter how much time we spend thumbing through the pages of the Bible, we will never find any explanation whatsoever as to HOW this can be true…but what we WILL find is a hint as to WHY it can be true! It’s in one of the shortest but most powerful statements about God that is recorded in the entire Bible and is composed of only three words: “God is love.” (1 John 4:8) 

 So, by knowing that God is love we can venture out into the mystery of the Trinity and see how it can make a bit of sense to us. How so? Because we know that love is not a solitary affair. It requires at least two persons: a Lover and the Beloved. And then we can move on from there by looking at marriage, the ultimate human love-bond which the Church teaches is a reflection of God’s threefold relationship. And we see in marriage that the fruit of a Lover and the Beloved coming together is another person. So now there are three. And so, as limited and imperfect as this example might be, it can help us reach a point of at least imagining the possibility of the Trinity. But we are not left just imagining. Jesus’ words enlighten us like a beam of a lighthouse piercing through dense fog, and assure us that there is indeed this Third Party in the Divine Relationship. And Christ called Him the Holy Spirit. 

 But that’s pretty much all that we can say with some confidence about the Trinity. Anything else would simply be theorizing and speculating. So then why did God reveal it if we cannot truly grasp it? Well, first of all, perhaps it’s because God really wants to be known by us. He doesn’t want us to think of Him as simply some faraway Creator who glances down upon us now and then, checking in to see how we’re doing but otherwise leaves us to ourselves. No, by revealing Who and What He is, God wants us to know Him and by knowing Him better, to love Him more and more. In other words, God wants to be in a meaningful personal relationship with us. Second, knowing more about God can tell us something about ourselves as well, because we are made in His image and likeness. And this “something” that God shows us about ourselves by revealing Himself as a Trinity of Persons, is that we came from Love and are meant to return to Love. We were each made for the sake of love and are each given a share in a mission of love. As the awesome St. Therese of the Child Jesus put it upon discovering the meaning of the Trinity in her life, “At last I have found my vocation: it is to love!” 

 You see, as Christians we are baptized (which means “immersed”) into the Divine Relationship of Love that is the Trinity. We are given both the privilege and the obligation to be instruments of God’s love in all that we are, in all that we do. This is a big mission but we are not left to our own devices in order to accomplish it. Today’s second reading reminds us that this love of God is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit Who is our connecting bond with the Blessed Trinity. The more we open our hearts to the Spirit of the Father and the Son the more will this Divine Love spillover from us and flow to others. And thus the importance of cultivating a vibrant living devotion to Him! 

 Through us the Trinity’s transforming love can gradually spread out into our troubled, divided, confused and violence-torn world. Now, of course, we can’t each directly influence all of the world but we can each certainly influence that part of it in which we live, work and socialize. So, consider this: if the whole Mystical Body of Christ, that is, we who are the Church, commit to this mission of love each within our own little slice of life, then as a worldwide body we can indeed influence the entire planet! This is not an impossibility but can indeed become a reality, but only IF we Christians each take our mission to be living reflections of the Trinity seriously.

As If By A New Pentecost!

 

Deacon Dave · As If By A New Pentecost

Homily for Pentecost Sunday, June 8, 2025. Reading: Acts 2:1-11. Theme: As If By A New Pentecost 

 The first Pentecost Sunday was such a significant turning point in the story of Jesus and His disciples that it is celebrated as the birthday of the Catholic Church. Up to that day the Church existed of course, but in a kind of hidden way, very much like an unborn child growing quietly in the womb. But with the dramatic outpouring of the Spirit as we just heard from the Book of Acts, this Church-in-the-womb burst forth into the world kicking and screaming like a newborn baby! The apostles and disciples of the Lord made a lot of noise in Jerusalem on that first Christian Pentecost, boldly proclaiming the truth about the Risen Christ and baptizing 3,000 people! 

 But this Pentecost experience was never intended to be just a one-day event. It is meant to be spiritually repeated in every generation through the Sacrament of Confirmation. And actually, during the first few centuries of Christianity, the Spirit’s presence was manifested among the newly confirmed by tangible outward signs and dramatic changes of lifestyle. However, once Christianity became the status quo religion of Western Culture these notable manifestations seemed to lessen and even stop. How come? What happened? Well, quite often it was because the Faith was forced upon people by their rulers or embraced out of family expectations or even sought after for social status. In other words, the vital element of personal conviction of faith in Christ as Savior along with a heartfelt desire to live a Christian life was missing. And so without this indispensable personal desire for the Spirit, Confirmation became for most people a kind of “conveyor-belt” Sacrament that that everyone went through as a kind of religious rite of passage and nothing more. 

 I know that was true about me. If you were like me when I was confirmed, there was no real interest in being set on fire for Jesus nor any enthusiasm in wanting to receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit. Instead, the Sacred Fire of Pentecost passed on to me in that Sacrament was more like a dim pilot light in the back burner of my life and sometimes it very nearly went out! However, the good news is that it’s never too late to turn things around! The spark of the Spirit that was placed there at Confirmation can always be relit no matter how long it's been. And this is precisely what a conscious devotion to the Holy Spirit can do for us. It can turn up the burner on that pilot light of faith, making our love for God and neighbor both grow and glow. 

 Now, how this might happen differs for each one of us, but quite often it comes about when we have a personal realization that the faith should have an important place in our lives. And this can look different for different people. For some, life-challenging circumstances might show them how much they need to turn their lives and wills over to the care of God. For others it can come about when a self-revelation makes it crystal clear that they need to surrender their stubbornness and pride to the Holy Spirit, allowing Him to burn away all the trash that they have accumulated within themselves. And then there are those who as they mature come to see that faith and eternal life are precious gifts to pass on to their children. The Gospels call this change of heart being “baptized with the Holy Spirit”. The Apostle St. Paul referred to it as “living by the Spirit”. Many of us today might know it better as a “conversion experience” or having a “spiritual awakening”. But whatever we call it, it means that the Pentecostal fire within us has been relit and Jesus becomes for us, in a much more real way, the Lord and Savior of our lives! 

 So, where do we go from there? Well, the first thing is to get to know the Holy Spirit better. I think many often find this to be a bit challenging because we often mistakenly think of Him in an impersonal way, much like the Force in Star Wars. But He’s not just some sort of supernatural energy or spiritual influence. He’s a Divine Person who loves us and wants to be in a relationship with us. So, then how do we get to know Him? Well, of course, the first thing to do is pray, speak with Him and ask Him to come, visit and fill your heart. And then get to recognize Him. The Bible tells us that the Spirit makes Himself known through symbols that describe how He acts in our lives. For example, He came down upon Jesus at His baptism in the form of a Dove, the sign of gentleness and peace. Jesus described the Spirit as both Living Water and the Breath of God both of which give spiritual and eternal life. At the Last Supper Christ called Him our Paraclete which means Advocate, Defender and Comforter. He also spoke of Him as the Spirit of Truth who enables us to recognize and reject the lies that our culture tries to sell us. And in our First Reading today, the Spirit manifested Himself as a Mighty Wind which speaks of invisible power and as Fiery Flames that purify and energize. His miracle of Tongues shows us that He is a unifier of people no matter who they are or where they come from. 

 So, when we choose to truly live our faith in the power of the Spirit, how might we recognize Him acting within us? Well, it seems to me that the Dove of the Spirit will guide us to live in peace and harmony with others. The Fire of the Spirit will burn within us so that we become enthusiastic and committed to doing what is right and just in God’s sight. The powerful Wind of the Spirit will push us out of our comfort zones so that we can be of service to others. His Living Water will refresh us spiritually through prayer and meditation and the Life-giving Breath of the Spirit will enable us to forgive those who have hurt us. Finally, I think that we will be participating in His Gift of Tongues whenever we use our speech to say the good things that people need to hear, things that will really help them. So, no matter how the Holy Spirit may choose to act in and through us, we can be confident that He will do so in such a way that His Presence and Power be manifested according to our own particular needs and situations. And if we do our best to grow in a genuine devotion to the Holy Spirit, then we can rightfully and hopefully expect Him to inflame our hearts with His love and renew us from the inside out as if by a New Pentecost in our lives today!

A Promise and a Power from the King of Glory!

 

Deacon Dave · A Promise and a Power from the King of Glory!

Homily for Ascension Sunday, June 1, 2025. Acts 1:1-11. Theme: A Promise and a Power from the King of Glory! 

 Today we celebrate the Ascension of the Lord which honors His triumphant return to Heaven. But have you ever noticed that when the Ascension is mentioned in the Creed that we profess every Sunday, it’s combined with Jesus being “seated at the right hand of the Father”? In making this connection, the ancient Creed-writers united these two truths into one sentence about Jesus because both are really just two sides of the same one coin that we call Christ’s glorification. In other words they are saying that upon His return to Heaven, the Savior could now just sit down because His earthly job was over. He had successfully completed the mission for which He was sent into our world. Sin had been forgiven. Death had been conquered. The pathway to Heaven had been reopened to the human race. 

 Through the Passion and Cross Jesus has made atonement to God on behalf of all humanity. And He did so as our perfect representative and spokesman. In other words, He did it in our name and in our place. He did it as one of us! Jesus brought us back into a relationship of "at-one-ness” with God (which is what the word "atonement" means) and so He was welcomed back into Heaven as a Hero and Champion. He was given the seat of honor, so to speak, right there next to God the Father. Upon His return to Heaven Jesus resumed the divine prerogatives that He gave up upon becoming human, but He still remains forever a Man. 

 Many Christians mistakenly think that Jesus' humanity was only for His time on earth. And so they assume that once He was "back home", so to speak, God the Son took off his humanity and remained solely a Divine Being. But this is incorrect. The Risen and Glorious Christ is a 100% human being Who now shares fully in the authority and glory of God Himself, which is what “sitting at the right hand” means in symbolic biblical language! And even more astounding is the truth that each one of us, if we remain faithful to our union with Jesus by Baptism, are destined to share in this same glory of Christ! This means that our potential is something even greater than that of the angels! 

 But let’s get back to planet Earth, where the disciples had been left behind after the Lord ascended into Heaven. Before leaving, Jesus instructed them that it was now their responsibility to carry on His mission in the world. It was now the time for His Church, that is both you and me, to proclaim the Kingdom of God, to spread the Gospel, and so pass on the offer of salvation to future generations. But the Lord didn’t leave us to our own poor resources in this regard! He made a Promise to us and spoke of a Power that would be given to us to make all this possible for us; to make it actually happen. So, what was the Promise and what is Power? 

 First, let’s look at the Promise. Jesus said to the disciples, “…you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 1:5) To be “baptized with the Holy Spirit” is not the same as to be sacramentally baptized with water, although they are intimately related. While it’s true that we first receive the Spirit in the Sacrament of Baptism, this does not mean that all who do so will fully claim this Promise and live it out by putting their faith into action. But this “putting into action” is precisely what baptism in the Holy Spirit means! It’s like having a supernatural match touched to the fuel of faith that has been placed within us that sets our hearts on fire with love for God and neighbor. This supernatural spark drives us to share the Good News of and about Jesus with others. This is why the Holy Spirit symbolically manifested Himself at Pentecost as flames of fire. 

 Secondly, Jesus speaks about receiving Power. He said, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses…” (Acts 1:8) We all know that power means the ability to do something beyond our natural capabilities. Another word for this spiritual “Power-from-on-high” is Love, which is the outstanding characteristic of the Holy Spirit. He is the love of the Father and the Son personified. Love is His very nature and motivation. We might say that love is the name of His game! This is why the New Testament calls the Spirit “the love of God that is poured out into our hearts” (Romans 5:5) and it is also why St. Paul declares that love is the greatest gift, the greatest power given to us by this same Spirit. This Power of Divine Love enables us to become credible witnesses to Jesus, testifying to Who He is and what He means in our lives. This Power enables us to become and to do so much more than we ever thought we could be or accomplish! Jesus said that it would even enable us to do signs and wonders such as He did when He lived on planet Earth! And we see the truth of this promise being realized in the healings and miracles of the disciples in the Book of Acts as well as in the lives of saints and faith-filled Christians of every era. 

 Jesus kept His Promise and bestowed this Power upon His disciples on the day of Pentecost, a little more than a week after his Ascension. Traditionally, we consider that event to be the first Confirmation in the Church and we will hear all about it at next Sunday’s Pentecost liturgy. But for now the thing to remember is that the Holy Spirit was given to us at Baptism and His Presence was deepened in us at Confirmation. But since most of us received these Sacraments as children, we often tended to take them for granted as we grew up. And so for many of us, the Promise and the Power have remained dormant and inactive within us. But the Good News is that these gifts of God are still there within us just waiting to be unwrapped and used! So, let’s change that! Through today’s liturgy, let’s hear Jesus telling us what He told His disciples about preparing to be baptized in the Holy Spirit! Let’s do our best to spend the coming days between Ascension and Pentecost Sunday praying for the grace to claim this Promise and to experience this Power as if by a New Pentecost in our lives!

The Gift of Divine Indwelling

 

Deacon Dave · The Gift of Divine Indwelling

Homily for the 6th Sunday of Easter, May 25, 2025. Gospel of St. John 14:23-29. Theme: The Gift of Divine Indwelling 

 In today’s Gospel we read part of the final conversation that Jesus had with His Apostles at the Last Supper just a short time before He was arrested and began His Passion. The Church always treasured these parting words of Christ because they form what we might call His last will and testament. Knowing that His death was imminent, He took time to prepare the Apostles for the difficulties that lay ahead and to help them face the crisis of faith that He knew would soon be upon them. 

 Now we can imagine that as Jesus looked into the faces of His closest companions His heart was overcome with deep compassion. We can tell this from the tender way He spoke and from all of the assurances that He gave them. He knew that they would soon have to figure out what life was going to be like without Him physically present. He was well aware that fear would grip them and that confusion would engulf them, and so He promised them - and by extension promised us - three things to help navigate through any troubles that may come into our lives. These are the grace of what we call the Divine Indwelling, the advocacy of the Holy Spirit and the blessing of interior peace. Together these three things really form but one packaged gift. 

 In speaking about peace Jesus said, “Not as the world gives do I give it to you.” So, what did he mean by saying, “not as the world gives…” ? Well, first of all, it helps to know that whenever the Bible uses the phrase “the world” it means “a way of thinking and living that is not in harmony with God”. The way “the world” offers peace is by focusing on things outside of ourselves that seem to promise security and happiness. such as wealth and possessions, physical beauty and good health, professional success and social popularity. But these things in and of themselves are transitory, unstable, undependable. Like the flowers of a field they are here today and then gone tomorrow. And most importantly, these things cannot reach deep down inside the human person to deal with the wounds that reside there. They cannot soothe the disturbances within us that cry out for the healing balm of Christ’s peace. If they could, then the power-brokers and celebrities of society would be among the most peace-filled and happiest people on planet Earth! And yet we hear of their broken selves, their revolving-door relationships and their sad tragedies almost daily. 

 But the peace that Jesus offers is unique and unlike any other because it’s something that only God can give us. Its origin is in what we call the Divine Indwelling, which means that the Persons of the Blessed Trinity come to make their dwelling within us by grace. Jesus said this quite clearly in today’s Gospel. And this great and wonderful mystery of God-living-within-us is also taught throughout the New Testament. It's amazing! It means that for us Christians, God is not some impersonal Supreme Being who lives far away from us up in the vast heavens. Nor is He some kind of detached God who looks down at us as we try our best to figure out how to live our lives. Rather, He’s as close as close can possibly be, by making His dwelling place right within us! This is not simply a matter of wishful thinking nor of poetic religious imagery but it’s the truth. By grace we become living temples of God, living shrines of His Divine Presence! Imagine that! Now this doesn’t take away our struggles nor free us from difficulties, but it enables us to go through them with inner serenity and with the confident assurance that all will be well. And this is why it is called the peace that the world cannot give. 

 However, it’s not enough to simply know that the Living God dwells within us. We have to deepen our awareness of this reality which in turn deepens our capacity to receive and benefit from the gift of Christ’s peace. For this reason the saints tell us that personal prayer is so very important and by this they don’t mean just reciting memorized words, which have their place in our spiritual lives, but it's not what they mean. They mean that we need to take time out, time away from our daily schedule, even if it’s just 5 minutes, and spend it in quiet solitude, alone with the God Who dwells within us. This is a time for prayer from the heart, for using our own words or even for praying without words and simply with our thoughts, as we look inside ourselves, so to speak, and get in touch with this Great Mystery dwelling within us. And the saints tell us that from time to time the Lord will bless us by allowing His Divine Presence to be tangibly felt within us so as to boost our faith, increase our hope and deepen our love and keep us going, so to speak. This is a great grace, a supernatural gift that no one and nothing can take away from us as long as, like we just heard Jesus tell us, we strive to be faithful in loving Him by cherishing His word and doing our best to live it in our daily lives. 

 None of us know what lays ahead in the trajectory of our lives. But each one of us can be reasonably sure that we will have to face one crisis or another. However, through it all if we remain faithful to God then He will remain within us. We have Christ’s solemn word about this!. And so we don’t allow our hearts to become troubled over the present nor fearful of the future because we trust that this precious promise of Christ remains as valid and as powerful for us today as it was when He first spoke it to His Apostles two thousand years ago at the Last Supper.

I Heard the Voice of Jesus…

 

Deacon Dave · I Heard the Voice of Jesus…

Homily for Good Shepherd Sunday, the 4th Sunday of Easter, May 11, 2025. Gospel – John 10:27-30. Theme: I Heard the Voice of Jesus… 

 Today is called “Good Shepherd Sunday”. It gets this name because the Liturgy for this 4th Sunday of the Easter Season invites us to reflect on one of the most beautiful images of Jesus in the Gospels: Christ as the Good Shepherd. In the few short verses that make up today’s Gospel, we are given a message of comfort and are taught some very consoling truths. So let’s go back and ponder them for a moment. 

 It begins with Jesus’ words: “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” Think about that image: sheep following the voice of a shepherd. In the ancient world, sheep didn’t follow whistles or herding dogs such as they do today. They followed the shepherd’s voice. They knew his voice and followed its sound for they had learned to trust it for their own well-being. And it was quite common for the shepherd to personalize his care by naming each one of his sheep, the way we name our pets today. Jesus is telling us something deeply personal here: He knows each one of us. Not in some distant, impersonal way, but in an intimate and loving way. He knows us by name. He knows our burdens. He knows our joys and our struggles. And He calls us to follow Him as the beloved sheep of His flock. 

 But following our Good Shepherd isn’t always easy because in our noisy world it can be hard to hear his voice. There are so many other voices competing for our attention—voices of anxiety and fear, voices of greed and materialism, even voices of despair when things look bleak. The voice of Jesus, however, is always there: quiet, steady, loving. We just need to learn to listen and recognize it. Once we do this we can hear Him speaking to us in Scripture and in the silence that accompanies our prayer from the heart. We will hear him speaking deep within us when we receive him in Holy Communion or are quietly before him in adoration of the Eucharist. 

 In our Gospel today, Jesus gave us a promise that should fill our hearts with peace. He said : “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can snatch them out of my hand.” What powerful and hopeful words! In a world where so much can be lost—jobs, health, relationships—Jesus is telling us that there is something no one can take from us and that is our place in His heart. He holds us in His hands, hands that are scarred with love because they were pierced on the Cross for our sake. In other words Jesus is saying, “You are safe with me. No suffering, no failure, no enemy—not even death itself—can take you out of my hand so remain close to me and follow me. This isn’t just a reassurance—it’s a revelation, a divine revelation. Jesus is not just a messenger of God’s love—He is the God of love who became flesh to live among us, to share our experiences, and to die for us. He wants us to know real happiness both in this life and in the next. 

 To truly claim these promises of Christ the Good Shepherd as our own, we need to set aside quality time each day to be with him and listen to His voice. We need to pray in an atmosphere of quiet, of solitude, free from all the noises that will drown Christ out and make his voice more difficult to hear. We need to trust our Shepherd and believe in His promise. When life is difficult, when we feel lost or afraid, when we might be unsure of where the help we need will come from…we have to remember that we are in His hands. This isn’t escapism but reality. We can be assured of his care and protection because we have his word that no one and nothing can take us from Him.

Fake It Til You Make It!

 

Deacon Dave · Fake It Til You Make It!

Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Easter, May 1, 2022. Gospel – John 21:1-19. Theme: Fake It Til You Make It! 

 In today’s Gospel we see seven of the apostles trying to process the traumatizing events that happened over the first Easter weekend. Confused and depressed by the Passion of Christ, they try to go back to how they lived their lives before they had been deeply touched and changed by Him. They were probably just trying to forget and defaulted to trying to find comfort and security in what they knew to be “life as normal”, But inside each one of them I think there was a nagging suspicion that things would never, could never, ever be the same again. 

 So often we can be just like them. We have positive religious experiences, moments of uplifting spiritual awareness, which fan our faith in Christ and increase our devotion. But then we also have times of spiritual difficulty or confusion especially when suffering enters our lives and the Lord seems so far away. And like those apostles we try to make sense of it all. We may even wonder if our faith ever really mattered or question if it really made a significant difference in our lives.  And so, like Simon-Peter and his companions, we might be tempted to go back to how we were before Christ changed our hearts and lives. 

 However, also like those Apostles there persists deep down within us a nagging feeling and the recurring thought that things can never ever be the same again. We just can’t let go of Jesus. Even when what is happening within us or around us is troubling, we can’t stop thinking about Him. We’ve been deeply touched and something keeps calling us back. Even in the shadows of doubt we want to reach out for the light of faith and find a way to return to where we were in the happier days of our walk with Jesus. 

 Well, just as Christ knew the spiritual and emotional struggle that was going within the apostles, so he also knows what might be going on within some of us. Moved by His compassionate love, He comes to us just as He came to them and holds out to us a way to move forward, just as He did for them. He offers us a pathway out of our predicament and assures us that joyful hope can again be ours after passing through the challenges of faith. One way to describe this difficult spiritual and emotional journey in traditional religious terms is to say that the Cross always leads to the Resurrection. Another way of saying this comes from the experiences of those in 12-Step Recovery who have made it through the deep dark gloom of suffering and struggles. They tell us to “fake it til you make it”. T

his means that we do what we know ought to be done, even if we don’t feel very much like doing it. We turn to those vital aspects of a healthy spiritual life that will bring us back to where we want to be with Jesus. We can learn what these are from the experiences of the saints. Like us they had ups and downs in their relationship with Christ and they came out on the other side whole and happy. And they all tell us that when our faith falters and our devotion grows cold we need to do our best to reclaim our initial attraction to Jesus. We need to remember - and not run away from -the difference He made to our lives. And in doing so we need to consciously renew our commitment to trust in Him even if we don’t much feel like doing so at the time. We might have to just “fake it til we make it” in doing these things, but we can see from the testimony of their lived experiences that this simple but challenging advice works! 

 We see this dynamic of faith-renewal at work in the interaction between Jesus and Simon-Peter in today’s Gospel. The first thing Jesus does to help Simon is to bring him back to how they were when they first met. You might recall that when Jesus first called him to be a disciple, Simon was having a bad fishing day so Jesus arranged a miraculous catch of fish for him. And He did the exact same thing for him now. He renews within Simon his initial attraction to Jesus after that original miraculous catch of fish and he reignites within him the devotion that compelled him to throw himself at the feet of Christ saying, “Depart from my Lord for I am a sinful man.” (Lk 5:8) The memory of that unforgettable day opened Peter’s eyes, healed his wounded heart, and caused him to jump into the sea to swim as fast as he could to his Risen Lord! 

 After reclaiming this reacquainting experience Peter and Jesus sit around a charcoal fire. This scene should make us recall that the last time they were together near a charcoal fire was during the Passion when Simon denied knowing Jesus three times. He must've been searching for words to apologize for his triple denial but Jesus speaks before Peter has the chance to do so. Christ gives him an opportunity to make amends and allows Simon to express his love three times. He then renews Peter’s office as leader of the Christian community and confirms him in his role as the earthly shepherd of the Church. See how thoughtful, how gentle and tender the mercy of Jesus is! 

 Like Peter and his fishing companions, we too can encounter the Risen Christ who will reach out to us to reaffirm our relationship with Him and reignite our faith. He makes Himself known to us today in many ways, but most especially by His Gospel and Abiding Real Presence in the Eucharist. Through our encounters with Him in Word and Sacrament our faith can be strengthened, our trust in him can be deepened, and our love for him can grow. Yeah, we might need to “fake it til we make it” but Jesus will bless our efforts and our perseverance. He will enable us to see through any foggy confusion in our lives and bring us into the safe harbor of a renewed faith with increased devotion.

Jesus, I Trust in You!

 

Deacon Dave · Jesus. I Trust in You!

Homily for the Octave of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday, April 27, 2025. Gospel of St. John 20:19-31. Theme: Jesus I Trust in You! 

 In our 2,000 year Catholic heritage, many prayers and devotions have come to us through the spiritual experiences of the saints. But few, very few, ever reach the highest level of actually becoming part of our Liturgy. However, Divine Mercy Sunday, which we are celebrating this weekend, has this distinction after having been studied, approved and promoted by popes. The Divine Mercy devotion was given to us by Jesus Himself through the spiritual experiences of St. Faustina Kowalska, a Polish nun and mystic of the early 20th century. 

 Our Lord asked St. Faustina to devote her life to increasing awareness about His tender compassion and healing love for all people. He told her that He was saddened that so many think that their sins are an obstacle to drawing close to Him. But he told her that, quite the contrary, the greater a sinner a person is, the greater is that person’s right to approach Him as Savior and claim His mercy. He said that He is drawn to wounded and struggling hearts the way iron shavings are attracted to a magnet. And that when anyone comes to Him with repentance and humble trust in their hearts, He finds them irresistible and pours out His mercy upon them. Now doesn’t that sound just like the Jesus that we learn about in the Gospels? 

Jesus gave us through St. Faustina a few special spiritual gifts to help deepen our trust in His compassionate love for us. These are: 

• The celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday as a special way to close our 8-day long Easter feast. He said on this day He would especially open wide the floodgates of His mercy upon all who turn to Him with trust as their Savior, no matter who they are or what they may have done. 
• A prayer called the Chaplet of Mercy, in which we ask God to have mercy upon us and on the whole world; 
• And a special picture of Himself which is called the Image of Divine Mercy. And it’s the Image of Divine Mercy that I want to focus on because Jesus made some beautiful promises about it. 

 He said that this image was meant to be a vessel of mercy to be placed in our churches and homes as a visual reminder of His love. And He wanted every copy of it to have the words, 'Jesus, I trust in you’ printed on them. He called these words His signature. He told St. Faustina, "By means of this image I shall grant many graces to souls; so let everyone have access to it." We want everyone in the parish to have access to it and so we have copies of it for you at both entrances to the church. And finally, Jesus promised that many great blessings and even miracles would come to people who prayerfully seek His intercession through this image. Not because it’s magical but because it inspires trust and confidence in the Lord. And this promise has been confirmed by countless healings and conversions of life granted to those who have turned to Christ with confidence through this image! 

 Allow me to share one with you that I myself personally witnessed many years ago. It made me a total life-long believer and promoter of this devotion. 

 (I tell the story here in the audio version) 

 True stories like this should fill us with confidence and encourage us to trust in Jesus. This is the whole point of the Divine Mercy devotion. Inspired by the spiritual experiences of St. Faustina and following the example of St. Thomas the Apostle in today’s Gospel, let’s come into the Lord’s Presence in the Eucharist and venerate him through the Image and with deep faith say to Him from the depths of our hearts, “My Lord and my God, I believe in you. Jesus, I trust in you!”

The Transforming Power of the Holy Cross

 

Deacon Dave · The Transforming Power of the Holy Cross

Good Friday Homily: The Transforming Power of the Holy Cross 

 At the Last Supper, Jesus gave us what He called a new commandment when He said, “love one another as I have loved you.” And then on the next day, the first Good Friday, He showed us what loving like Him looks like. He chose to forgive those who were mocking Him and to extend mercy to the repentant thief next to Him even in the midst of physical and mental agony. Christ gave a new kind of purpose to the experience of human suffering by transforming the Cross into an opportunity to bestow life-saving grace and forgiveness to others. 

 And He enables us to do the same when suffering enters our lives. Because of our relationship with Jesus we can become partners in the Passion, so to speak, so that our struggles and pains and frustrations become a sharing in His Cross. All we have to do is to unite ourselves in spirit with Christ crucified and make the choice to love and to forgive and to think of others no matter what we may be going through. Down through the centuries ever since that first Good Friday there have been many devout Christians who have embraced this transformational way of the Cross and given purpose to their otherwise meaningless suffering. 

St. Mark Ji was one of these outstanding partners of the Passion. His is a marvelous example of embracing the cross of suffering as an opportunity for loving as Jesus loves. He was a Chinese physician and a very active member of his parish. He was married with children and was known for his kindness and generosity in treating patients. However, easy access to medical drugs was the beginning of his own personal way of the Cross. He gradually went from using opiates as medication into becoming a full-blown addict. And as his addiction spiraled downward his fellow parishioners shunned him until the once popular doctor became a social outcast in his own village. And because Mark kept giving into his addiction his pastor refused to hear his confessions and began denying him Holy Communion. Finally, he was even refused admittance into the parish church itself. And so for 3o years Mark remained an struggling addict exiled from both church and sacraments. But fortunately, not exiled from Jesus Christ. 

 You see, the pastor and villagers of course knew nothing about the dynamics of addiction as we do today. They either didn’t know or didn’t understand that the Church teaches that the compulsion of addiction takes away the freedom of choice needed for someone to be personally guilty of mortal sin. And so they saw Mark’s on-going addiction as a simple matter of choice and falsely judged him to be an obstinate and unrepentant sinner. Fortunately, God sees into the heart and knows the real truth about our struggles. 

 Amazingly, despite how his pastor and parish treated him, Mark did not hold this against them nor isolate himself from them. Every Sunday he could be found outside the church, humbly kneeling at its door, begging for prayers as the people arrived for Mass. And he would remain there, joining in their worship from afar. This went on without fail, Sunday after Sunday, for 30 years. Inspired by the example of Jesus during His Passion, Mark forgave those who ignored him and stepped around him as they entered the parish church. He harbored no hatred. 

 In the midst of all he was going through, Mark did his best to maintain his relationship with Christ in whatever ways he could. He knew that his faith and love for Christ was genuine, even if his addiction hid this fact from the others. He had moments, even stretches at a time, of recovery but these were quickly followed by relapse. He just couldn't seem to beat the cycle of addiction. But he never stopped trying. Through it all, he kept consciously uniting his pain, his struggles, his public humiliation and even his falls from sobriety to the Passion of Christ, for he knew that Jesus accepts all that is offered with sincerity of heart. He simply kept trusting in God, clinging to the hope that someday, somehow, he would be set free by the power of the Holy Cross. 

 Well, that day of freedom finally arrived but in a way he could have never imagined. The Chinese government had begun a fierce persecution of Catholics and the parishioners of Mark's village were all summoned to the church, where they were arrested and condemned to death, But of course the outcast Mark was not among them. However, despite the danger he eventually made his way to the parish church and finally gained admittance to it after 30 years of exile. He approached the officer in charge of execution and declared, “I am one of them.” 

 And then amazingly, he asked for and received permission to die last of all. Why did he make this request? According to surviving witnesses, it was so that he could make sure that no one would die without him at their side, comforting and encouraging them. Even during those horrible final moments, Mark thought of loving others and reminded them that they were on their way to Heaven. He prayed with them and sang hymns to the Blessed Mother to uplift their hearts. No matter how he had been treated for half of his life, he did not want those he loved to face death alone and afraid. Like his Lord Jesus on the cross, Mark offered himself up for the good of others and loved them to the very end. 

 Who would have ever thought that the parish outcast and village drug addict would turn out to be the most authentic reflection of Jesus Christ from among them all? Now that’s the transforming power of the Holy Cross! That’s the never-ending always-available grace of Good Friday that is possible for us all. So in a few minutes when we venerate the Holy Cross let our touching of it be a sign that we, too, want to unite our personal sufferings with those of the Lord and become partners in the Passion of Christ. Let’s embrace the power and grace of the Cross and allow it to transform us into Christians who strive to love as Jesus loves and by doing so make 0ourselves and whatever we have to deal with into something beautiful for God and for others.