Adopted into God's Family

 

Deacon David Previtali · Adopted into God's Family

Homily for Trinity Sunday, May 30, 2021. Readings: Romans 8:14-17, Gospel of St. Matthew 28:16-20. Theme: Adopted into God’s Family 

Today’s liturgy reminds us that as Christians we profess a key fundamental truth of faith that sets us apart us from all other world religions. I am referring, of course, to the mystery that we call the Most Blessed Trinity; the mystery of the One True God being a plurality of persons - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And yet, somehow, this doesn’t mean that we have three gods who are intimately related, but only One Divinity who is three distinct Persons. How can this be? We’ll never really know because it’s something that our human minds simply cannot comprehend. And so, we call it a mystery, that is, a truth that has been revealed to us, but which is far beyond our finite understanding. We only know of it because it was revealed to us by God the Son himself, when he came down from Heaven and was made flesh. And so, we accept it and we profess it by faith alone, trusting in the fact that Jesus does not lie and cannot deceive us. 

And no matter how much time we spend thumbing through the pages of the Bible, we will never find any explanation of HOW God can be a Trinity of Persons…but what we will find is a reason WHY this can be true. You see, once we accept the word of Scripture that says, “God is love” (1 John 4:8) then it can begin to make a bit of sense to us that there must be more than just one Person who is Divine. The reason being that love is relational; it only happens within a communion or fellowship of persons. And so, our Faith teaches us that the Father loves the Son, and the Son loves the Father, and that this mutual love is so perfect and so powerful that it brings forth yet another Divine Person, the Holy Spirit. And that’s pretty much all that we can say with confidence about the Trinity. Anything else would simply be theorizing and speculating. 

But you know, there’s something even more wonderful, almost unbelievable about God that Scripture tells us and it’s this: the divine love relationship of the Trinity is not kept just among themselves, but it spills out on to and over all of creation! This awesome mysterious God who is love reaches out to us, to each one of us individually and personally, inviting us to enter into this threefold love relationship and share in it. Imagine that! The dynamic love of God, once it pulls us into itself and makes us part of the divine relationship, completely changes who we are and what we become. It makes us - as the Bible teaches - a spiritually new creation, a new type of being, transformed from the inside out. It elevates us from being simply creatures of God and makes us the very children of God. 

We see this beautifully proclaimed in today’s second reading from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans. "For those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons and daughters of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a Spirit of adoption, through whom we cry, "Abba, my Father!" The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God our Father and joint heirs with Christ.” (Romans 8:14-16) I don’t think that we fully realize what this passage is really saying to us. 

You see, in the culture that the Letter to the Romans was written, to be adopted meant to be as much a part of the Father as were his natural children. There was absolutely no distinction made or permitted. As a matter of fact, it was easier to disinherit your natural child than it was your adopted child. The rationale behind this was that a Father personally chose the adopted child, while the natural one was simply given to him. And here’s another very interesting fact from that culture that sheds more light on what St. Paul is saying in our second reading. Ancient Romans were not typically adopted as infants but as adults and they were issued two certificates. First, a death certificate listing their old name. Then they received a birth certificate bearing their new name. The idea was that their old lives, their old selves were dead and gone. Now they had a new life, a new family, a new identity, a new beginning. 

This is precisely what was in the minds of those first Roman Christians when they heard the words St. Paul had written to them. They rightfully understood that he was telling them that the very same things about adoption happen to them, but from a spiritual point of view. Those Christians heard the very same words that we heard today and they thought to themselves, “My old life before knowing Christ is dead and gone. My old way of thinking and acting is over. This is the beginning of a new life. I have a new family now which is the Church, the community of God’s people. I am now a child of God the Father, a sibling of Christ the Son, and a temple of the Divine Spirit. All that rightfully belongs to Christ now also belongs to me and this includes Heaven, which is my birthright and my inheritance.” 

And the Good News is that our spiritual adoption is not just wishful thinking! It’s as true about us as the mystery of the Trinity is true about God. This opportunity for us human beings to live in such an intimate divine relationship is the great gift and beauty of Christianity. God has not done this for any other religion that exists or ever existed on planet Earth. Purely out of love and on no merit whatsoever of our own, has such an awesome gift of grace been given to us Christians. This is precisely why we begin and end all of our prayers, and hopefully every one of our days, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Fired Up for the Message!

 

Deacon David Previtali · Fired Up for the Message!

Homily for Pentecost Sunday, May 23, 2021. Reading: Acts 2:1-11. Theme: Fired Up for the Message! 

Today, Pentecost Sunday is called the birthday of the Catholic Church. Up to that day the Church existed of course, but in a kind of unseen way, much like a child in the womb. Jesus had spent a few years gathering his disciples and nurturing them in his Gospel way of life and teachings. But with the sending of the Holy Spirit, this Church-in-the-womb burst forth out into the world, preaching the message that Jesus is Savior and Lord of all people. It was and remains a pivotal point in human history.  

We can easily imagine the scene of that first Pentecost Sunday that was described for us in today’s first reading from the Book of Acts. The apostles and other disciples were gathered together in a large room in Jerusalem. United with Mary the Mother of Jesus, about 120 of them were praying for the Promised Gift of the Father, the all-powerful and truth-bearing Holy Spirit! And suddenly, without warning, that Spirit came upon them, transforming them from the inside out and empowering them to live as witnesses to the Person and Message of Jesus. 

The Scriptures today speak about three powerful and even strange symbols of the Holy Spirit: Wind. Fire. Tongues. 

Wind...is a symbol of the invisible presence of the Spirit who urges us on to share in Christ’s mission us and keeps us going even in difficulty so that we do not tire of spreading the Message of Jesus. 

Fire...is the symbol of the zeal and devotion that should burn within our hearts urging us on to know, love and serve God better and to demonstrate this love by living the Message of Jesus in our daily lives. Tongues...is the symbol of our Spirit-supported ability to speak about God’s Word and explain the Message of Jesus to others, especially when they ask what it is that gives meaning and purpose to our lives. 

There’s a lot of talk in the Book of Acts about the Message of Jesus so that might make us ask: What exactly is this Message that those newly energized apostles proclaimed with these signs and wonders? What was that Message of Jesus that they taught the people on that first Pentecost that was so powerful that the Bible tells us that over 3,000 were converted to Christianity that very day? 

It’s a Message that we have come to call the Good News or Gospel, and here is a short easy 4-step way to recall it, memorize it, and share it with others... 

1. God is love, unconditional love, who desires to live in an intimate personal relationship with every human being. 

2. At the beginning of our history, we humans rejected this offer of a relationship with God and as a result, we are all born into this world with a spiritual hole in our hearts, a void where God should be. 

3. But this God who is love freely chose to become human in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, so that he could personally and in the flesh, fix this relationship. His teachings show us how to live and death and Resurrection have healed the rupture caused by our sins.  

4. Anyone who wishes to live in this healed relationship with God can do so by believing and trusting in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Following Jesus begins with baptism and is expressed in our lives by living his Gospel. For those who choose this pathway in life, death no longer has the last word over them and sin can no longer hold them captive. 

This is the Message of Jesus. This is the message of Pentecost. It’s the message of Christianity. It’s the Message each one of us are called to proclaim by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit within us. 

The Book of Acts shows the Holy Spirit coming down in a rush upon the disciples with power and force. It seems like his strong invisible hands are pushing them out of the room and into the streets! And you know, sometimes it still happens that way and we find ourselves witnessing to Jesus and serving others in ways we thought we could never do. But I think that many of us the Holy Spirit nudges more than pushes. Maybe we get an idea to do something or to say something to someone, and it turns out to be what they really needed to experience or hear. Or perhaps the thought comes to us to pray intensely for a person or a situation and later we find out that there was truly a need to do so. 

So, let’s ask this Holy Spirit to make today - and every day really - become our own new personal Pentecosts! Let’s form the habit pf praying to him daily saying, “Come, Holy Spirit! Fill me with the fire of your love! Lead me. Guide me.” Let’s beg him to come upon us like wind and fire so that we can give witness by our tongues - and even more so by actions - that Jesus is Lord. It’s a Message everyone needs to hear!

Promise, Power & Pentecost!

 

Deacon David Previtali · Promise, Power & Pentecost!

Homily for Ascension Sunday, May 16, 2021. Acts 1:1-11, Mk 16:15-20. Theme: Promise, Power & Pentecost! 

Today we celebrate the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven 40 days after his Resurrection. But his return to where he came from was so very different than when he first came down 33 years before. At that time he, who from all eternity had been solely God, now returns to Heaven also as Man. It’s so very important for us to remember that Jesus didn’t take on our human nature just to get a job done on planet Earth, and then discard his humanity once the mission was accomplished! He became human to totally elevate and transform what it means to be human from the inside out! This healing of our humanity from sin and the joining of it to divinity is what we call “salvation”. And because this, we human beings are now able to become what we never were before. This is why Scripture calls us Christians a “new creation”. 

Because of the coming down of the Son of God from Heaven our humanity has the potential to be forever changed. And because of the going back up of the Son of God into Heaven, it has been blessed every further and given a share in the very power and glory of God. Imagine that! The Ascension shows us that Heaven is our destiny and a place is waiting there for those who live their lives in Christ! He became human so that our entire existence in both its phases, earthly and heavenly, in time and in eternity, could be transformed! 

But here’s the thing: this isn’t something that automatically happens to us just because we’re human. In order for all this to become a reality in our own individual lives, we need receive the Promised Gift and open ourselves up to the Power of the Spirit that we hear about in today’s first reading. While those words were first spoken to the disciples they are not meant for them alone. They are also spoken to each one of us. This Word of God invites us to hear Jesus, to accept what he is saying, to trust in his Promise, and to pray that it be fulfilled in our own lives. I find it helpful to remember all this by simply keeping in mind three “P” words: Promise, Power, and Pentecost.   

The first word is PROMISE.  In the Old Testament God promised that one day, through his Messiah, he would pour out and immerse his people in the Holy Spirit. This is what Jesus was referring to when he said, “you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”  The word ‘baptized’ means “to be immersed in something”. This immersion or baptism in the Holy Spirit transforms us from the inside out, giving us a new way of looking at life, a new way of thinking, a new way of living and of loving. The baptism in the Holy Spirit makes our relationship with Christ come alive and exist as something that we cherish as the treasure of our hearts. 

The second word Jesus spoke was of POWER. We all know what power means. It’s the ability, energy and strength to do something beyond our normal capacities. So, why will the Holy Spirit give us this power? What are we supposed to do with it?  We find the answer in Jesus’ words that we are to be His witnesses. By the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus gives those who trust in Him the ability to do wonderful things in His Name. It’s the power to change our lives in unbelievable ways and the power to love even when it is difficult and seems next to impossible. It’s the power to live for Christ and even, if needs be, to die for him as so many martyrs have done in the past and even today. 

And finally, we come to the last “P” word: PENTECOST. The Promise of the Father and the Power foretold by the Son, was first given on the day we call Pentecost which we will celebrate next Sunday. Just as the original Christians had the transforming experience of that first Pentecost, so Christ intends the same for each one of us. This is what the Sacrament of Confirmation is supposed to be: a personal Pentecost for each one of us in which God’s Promise is fulfilled and the Power is given. The first Christians in Jerusalem experienced this baptism in the Holy Spirit through the symbols of wind and fire, while we do sacramentally by chrism and the laying on of hands. But even though the symbols are different, it is the same Promise fulfilled, the same Power given. 

But I think in all honesty, we must admit that many of us leave the Promised Gift of the Father wrapped up, so to speak. Perhaps we even put it away in the back closet of our lives where it remains only a memory of our Confirmation that gathers dust as the years go by. But the Good News is that once given, the Gift is always available to be opened and used. The baptism of the Holy Spirit can be activated at any time in our lives, whenever we choose to turn ourselves over to Jesus and begin really living with him and in him as Christians in fact and no just in name. 

Through today’s liturgy Jesus calls us to spend the coming week - these days between Ascension Sunday and next week’s Pentecost Sunday - in focused intentional prayer. Like the original disciples, we need to pray from the heart that this baptism of the Holy Spirit becomes something tangible and real in our lives. Let’s ask for the grace to truly believe the Promise and activate the Power, so that our own personal Pentecost will change us from the inside out, helping us to make our lives something beautiful for God and enabling us to become witnesses to Jesus among those with whom we live, work and socialize.

O Father, through Jesus your Servant and Son, 

baptize me in the Holy Spirit!

Are You Half or Whole?

 

Deacon David Previtali · Are You Half or Whole?

Homily for the 5th Sunday of Easter, May 19, 2019. Readings: 1 John 4:7-10; Gospel of St. John 15:9-17. Theme: Are You Half or Whole? 

In today’s Gospel, Jesus says to us, “I give you a NEW commandment…” so that might make us ask ourselves: what was the old commandment? Well, you might recall that the prior commandment concerning love was this, “love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus taught this to his disciples up until the night when he “tweaked it”, we might say or, better yet, until he raised the bar so much higher! 

The new commandment calls us to love others as Jesus loves, and the context in which he which he spoke these words shows us what he means. He spoke them at the Last Supper, right after he had instituted the Eucharist, the Gift of his Body and Blood, the sacramental pouring out of himself for the Father’s glory and for our spiritual healing. He spoke them in conjunction with washing his disciples’ feet, an act of humility that only a lowly slave would do. And then after giving us the words and examples of this new commandment of love, he went out and put it into action it by embracing his Passion, freely offering up his life for each one of us. 

So, to love as Jesus loves means, yes, to observe the prior commandment but not to stop there. It pushes us to go beyond it. It urges us on to love others MORE than we love ourselves and to prove it by the way we act. This is what is unique to Christianity. It is really what we are supposed to be all about. To be able to put it all together, we need to know both the what and the why of this commandment. Otherwise we run the risk of just going through the motions. So, let’s ponder that for a moment… 

The “what” of the new commandment is really obvious because we just heard it: “love one another as I have loved you”. This means that we strive for having a Christ-like love that is self-emptying, self-forgetful, self-giving without concern as to what it will cost the lover, the giver. And to be honest, this is a way of loving that is not easily understood by many. From our naturally and all too often selfish point of view, God’s love seems like crazy love, foolish love. And yes, I would agree with such people that Christ-like love is indeed “crazy stupid love” if we are looking at life with selfish eyes and living life with a “me-centered” heart. 

And this brings us to the why” of the new commandment. As Christians, baptized into interpersonal union with Christ and anointed with the gift of the Holy Spirit as he was, we are called to spread his message and continue in his mission. Each one of us, no matter what our state or vocation in life, is called to become like Jesus. But we can’t do this of our own power or ability of course. This is why we have the new commandment. There could be no grater commandment that to love as the Lord loves, because he is the God of love came to us in the flesh. Everything he did and said was out of love. We cannot image him or become like him in any other meaningful way. Loving is the greatest and most unmistakable witness to Jesus that we could possibly give. 

So, it seems to me we have a choice to make: are we going to be, what I like to call, a half-Christian or a whole-Christian? A half-Christian only relates to the first part of being linked with Jesus, the sacramental part. I guess we could say that a half-Christian is mostly a “taker”, satisfied with having been baptized and confirmed but pretty much drawing the line right there. A whole-Christian on the other hand embraces the entire package of Christianity, and is a “giver”. These disciples know both the what and the why, and so they strive to live out their baptism and confirmation by spreading the message and participating in the mission of the Risen Christ. 

The whole-Christian knows full well that he or she will not always love as Christ loves, but that doesn’t stop them from trying. They know that they depend utterly upon their relationship with Christ in order to keep on loving, and so they nurture it daily by prayer from the heart. They ponder the Word of God - and especially the Gospels - so that they can better know and spread the message. They faithfully receive the Eucharist so that Jesus-living-in-them can love others through them. And when they fail to love as they should, they go humbly to Confession, knowing that Jesus will heal the wounds of their selfishness and teach them to be both patient with themselves and compassionate with others. 

The whole-Christian knows that opportunities to love are all around us if we just open the eyes of our hearts to see them. And so, they are sensitive and mindful of the needs of those with whom they live, work and socialize. They know that the beautiful thing about real love, about Jesus-love, about being a whole-Christian is that it lifts us up out of ourselves, and raises us up to higher realms of living. And they find joy and deep meaning in what St. John wrote in our second reading today, that loving puts us in direct contact with God, because God is love, and those who live in love live in God and God in them.

To Jesus Through Mary

 

Deacon David Previtali · To Jesus Through Mary

Homily for the 5th Sunday of Easter, May 2, 2021. Acts of the Apostles 9:26-31; 1 John 3:18-24; Gospel of St. John 15:1-8. Theme: To Jesus Through Mary 

In our Liturgy of the Word today the first reading speaks of conversion of heart and its fruit of a new life. The second reminds us that we must show the reality of this new life by how we live and not just by what we say. And the Gospel uses a very Springtime example from agriculture, urging us to stay connected with Jesus the True Vine so that our lives can become something beautiful for God and others. 

It’s very significant that these teachings from Scripture are proclaimed to us as we start off the month of May, the month of motherhood, 31 days specially dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. She has everything to do with connection to Christ, both in history and in spirituality. In history, of course, because it was she and she alone who made it possible for the Son of God to become human, to enter into our world as our Savior. And in spirituality, because the experience of the saints has been that authentic devotion to Mary always leads us to a life-giving connection with her Son, the True Vine. 

And as I was pondering all this in preparation for our liturgy, I couldn’t help but think of a man, a saint, in whom we see all of this come together in a totally marvelous and miraculous way! His name is Bartolo Longo and he lived in Italy about 100 years ago. In addition, I think his story is very relevant for us today because Pope Francs has asked us to join in on a world-wide rosary-marathon every day of May 2021 to pray for an end to pandemic. The rosary played a huge role in Bartolo’s conversion and subsequent life. He was a lawyer, who became an ordained satanic priest, but returned to the Catholic faith, dedicating his life to spreading devotion to the rosary and to caring for the poor and orphans. 

Bartolo came from a wealthy practicing Catholic family and attended law school at the University of Naples. While a student there he began doing something that all Catholic parents fear for their children away from home: he started missing Mass regularly and soon enough this growing disconnect from Christ the Vine would make things go south rather quickly. He started listening to the anti-Catholic propaganda of his professors and got mixed up with the wrong crowd. He began dabbling in witchcraft and attending séances. Being cut off more and more from any connection with Jesus and the Church, Bartolo was eventually ordained a priest of Satan as the result of some occult spiritual experiences. He then entered into a period of his life that he says was marked by the dark and gloomy clouds of depression, anxiety, paranoia and suicidal temptations. He remained in this condition for many years, until the age of 30. 

This was when he got reacquainted with an old hometown friend who urged him to abandon he darkness and return to Christ. Bartolo was so desperate for relief that he was willing to try anything. The friend took him for counseling to a priest who belonged to the Dominican Order. You see, the Dominican religious order has the special mission of spreading devotion to the rosary and the priest told Bartolo that the rosary has a proven track record of being a powerful against evil and darkness. By means of it, Mary would use it to bring him the freedom, joy and light in Christ. 

Bartolo took the advice and this is where today’s readings start to make a flesh and blood appearance in his life! He began praying the rosary daily as best he could. Light began to dawn in his life. Joy slowly returned to his heart. The clouds of gloom parted and he was becoming a new man with a new life. He experienced a real conversion of heart, confessing his sins and taking up a new way of life. He returned to attending Mass and reconnecting with Christ in Holy Communion. Like Saul in today’s first reading, there were those who doubted the authenticity of his conversion, but he persevered and won the support of his bishop and parish community. Since his satanic ways had been known publicly, he made public acts of atonement and even went to a gathering of mediums where he stood among them, held up a rosary, and emotionally denounced the occult as false and evil. 

Bartolo cherished his union with Christ the True Vine every day of his life right up to the day he died at age 85 in 1926. Following the advice of our second reading today, he showed the truth of his love by deeds and not just by words, never missing an opportunity to spread the rosary or help the poor in whatever ways he could. He and his wives (he had two and was a widower twice over) used their immense wealth to build a magnificent Shrine to Our Lady of the Rosary in Pompeii; to build and endow schools and orphanages; and to establish a Dominican Sisterhood devoted to teaching and the care of poor children. 

I think Bartolo’s life, seen in the light of today’s readings, might make us stop and ask ourselves: Does Mary have a significant place in my spiritual journey? What parts of my life still need to be converted to Christ? Where are my susceptible weak spots in living as a Christian? On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest, what number best represents my present commitment to union with Christ the Vine? What number do I want it to be? Am I willing to devote a few minutes each day to asking Mary’s help in all this through the devotion of the rosary?

To help you put a face to the story, here are some photos of Blessed Bartolo Longo...

At age 22, the beginning of his dark days...

At age 35, after his conversion to Jesus through Mary

The shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary in Pompeii