Come to Believe and Be Unbound!

 

Deacon Dave · Come to Believe and Be Unbound!

Homily for the 5th Sunday of Lent, March 26, 2023. Gospel of John 11:1-45. Theme: Come to Believe and Be Unbound! 

The Raising of Lazarus was Jesus’ premiere miracle but it was also His most expensive one because it cost Him His very life! You see, it was the “straw that broke the camel’s back” as far as the Pharisees were concerned. From that day forward, they became more determined than ever to put an end to this mysterious man from Nazareth Who lowered their prestige in the eyes of the people and threatened their position of power. In addition, Jesus’ opponents had to deal with the problem of Lazarus himself because he was literally living proof of Who Jesus was and What He could do. And so, they decided to also silence him permanently. 

Today’s Gospel makes a point of telling us that Jesus intentionally permitted his good friend Lazarus to fall into the sleep of death so that this miracle could take place. Christ saw it as an unforgettable opportunity to deepen people’s faith in Him and in his mission. But He also intended that the raising and unbinding of Lazarus should convey a two-part message. First, that physical death is not an end to our existence, but only a kind of sleep from which we will awaken to live a glorious eternal life. And second, that Jesus has the power to set us free to live a new life, not just at our future resurrection from the dead, but right here and right now. It all depends upon our faith, our trust, in Him. Which is precisely why He gave us the miracle of Lazarus. 

The Scriptures proclaim that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. So what this means for us is that if Jesus can unbind and set Lazarus free in the past, then He is also able to do the same for us here and now in the present. He can liberate us from any and all kinds of death, not just the physical. I think many people forget, and perhaps some have never been told, that there is more to us than just our mortal bodies. We also possess spiritual souls and so there is the real possibility of suffering spiritual death. We can look and feel great physically with a strong beating heart, healthy lungs and vibrant blood coursing through our veins…and yet we can be spiritually dead inside, really only half-alive. 

We can walk this earth as part of the “living dead”, that is, as people who are enclosed in tombs, not made of stone but built of our own making. We can be all bound up like a mummy because of destructive choices we have made and buried in such spiritual graves as losing our direction in life, being trapped in habits of sinful behavior, shackled by various addictions, struggling with obsessions or being consumed by the lure of materialism. And if we wonder how Christ reacts to seeing us trapped in these self-made tombs, all we have to do is look at today’s Gospel and see that He is deeply distressed and weeps over our condition as He did for Lazarus. 

But He says to us the same powerful words that He spoke to Lazarus, “Come forth! Be unbound!" He calls us to come forth from the tomb of sinful behavior and be unbound from spiritual slavery. To come forth from the tomb of materialism and be unbound from the deception that we are only worth what we look like and what we possess. To come forth from the tomb of isolation and be unbound from loneliness. To come forth from the tomb of anger and grudges and be unbound from broken relationships. To come forth from the tomb of anxiety and panic and be unbound from fear and worry. To come forth from the tomb of addiction and codependency and be unbound from self- destruction. 

 

Now, if we’re not totally sure that we have the faith it takes for us to come forth from our tomb and be unbound, we can draw hope from the example of Lazarus’ sister, Martha. Did you notice that St. John tells us that she had to “come to believe” that Jesus was Who He said He was? Those three words “come to believe '' should give us great encouragement! They tell us that Martha was still growing, open to Jesus and willing to trust him, but yet not quite there. And I am sure the same can be said of us. Perhaps we are “not quite there” yet. Perhaps some of us have more to absorb, more to experience about Christ so that we can “come to believe”. But that doesn’t mean we lack any faith or any hope whatsoever. It simply means we’re not quite there but we’re on the way. And Jesus can and will work with wherever we are in our relationship with Him. 

Martha shows us that we can begin to trust in Jesus’ power even before understanding fully who he is; even before really grasping the extent of what he wishes to do for us. She demonstrates that faith grows as our experience of Jesus grows. She shows us that our relationship with Christ, like all relationships, is a dynamic ever-deepening reality. She never gave up growing in her understanding of Jesus and she reached the goal. She was able to finally proclaim, “Yes, Lord, I have come to believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God.” 

And now through this gospel she invites each one of us to come to believe as well. She invites each one of us to reach out to Jesus and trust in Him. All we need to do to come forth from our tomb and be unbound is to acknowledge our need, ask Him for this grace and then take the first steps forward in faith. And as we emerge from the cold darkness of our tombs, the trappings holding us bound will become loosened and begin to fall off one-by-one. Gradually, grace will flood our lives and we’ll discover that we are beginning to live a new life, free and reborn from the inside out.

'Twas Blind But Now I See!

 

Deacon Dave · 'Twas Blind But Now I See

Homily for the 4th Sunday in Lent (Laetare Sunday), March 19, 2023. Gospel of St. John 9:1-41. Theme: ‘Twas Blind But Now I See! 

Last Sunday St. John took us to Samaria to learn about thirsting for God’s. In today’s Gospel he takes us south of Samaria, to the holy city of Jerusalem, where he will teach us about spiritual blindness and coming to know Jesus in stages. He will show us that our understanding of who Jesus is deepens each time that we give witness to Him. St. John will bring us from Sight to Insight to Faith. 

At first the Man Born Blind is simply going by Sight and describes Jesus as “that man”. He says that he was healed by “that man called Jesus”, and he reports on his healing in a short and simple re-telling of the events: “he put mud on my eyes, told me to wash and now I can see.” His understanding of Jesus is very basic and incomplete. Is this where we are at in our own personal understanding of Jesus? Are we at this basic “what-you-see-is-what-you-get” level? Perhaps we know the basic facts about Christ from Bible stories, but is that pretty much the extent of our knowledge and faith-relationship with him? Are we looking at Him only with ordinary Sight, much the same way we would think about the admirable hero of history? 

Then the Man Born Blind is brought before the Jewish leaders and for the first time he faces social pressure and rejection for his association with Jesus. He has to make a conscious choice to stand up for Christ and this leads him to look deeper and he somehow begins to see his Healer as more than just an ordinary man. He now says about Jesus, “He is a prophet…he is devout…he does God’s will…God is with him!” He is progressing from Sight to Insight, the light is getting a bit brighter but there’s still some cloudiness in his spiritual vision of Christ. Does this level describe our relationship with and understanding of Jesus? Have we gone from Sight to Insight, realizing that He radiates the Power and Presence of God? Can we see that He may be more than just that, but that He just might be God come among us in the flesh? 

Finally, the Man Born Blind goes from Insight to Faith. As a blessing for his courage to stand up for Christ, he receives the gift of faith and comes to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, Son of God and Savior. His faith and his loyalty are under pressure and persecution has cost him something, but in return Jesus Himself seeks the man out for a deeper personal encounter. The light is shining so brilliantly now that the Man Born Blind now exclaims, “I do believe, Lord!” and he worships Jesus right then and there. His spiritual journey, reflected in his physical healing, has brought him out of the darkness and into the light that gives eternal life. Have we reached this level of solid personal friendship with Jesus in our own lives? Have we decided once for all to become intentional disciples no matter what the cost? Are we willing to embrace life as authentic Christians and be done with half-baked, half-hearted attempts to have one foot in each world? 

Along with the Man Born Blind, St. John also wants us to learn a lesson from the Pharisee leaders. They saw the same Jesus that the Man Born Blind saw, but their spiritual blindness prevents them from seeing Him in the same way. I think that the Pharisees can stand for those today who find themselves in the presence of the divine but are totally unable to recognize it. I have encountered many who cannot let go of their “own truth” (as people like to say these days) in order to see the stark reality before them. Quite often such people declare that they have open minds and are tolerant of various ideas, but in reality their minds are quite closed and their vision extremely near-sighted. They reject the miraculous that is clear and present for them to see. 

For example, I have discussed with them that there is no explicable way that the photographic-negative image on the Shroud of Turin could have been made before the era of photography with totally accurate anatomy. And that scientists cannot discover or explain how that image remains for centuries on the Shroud without being integrated into its fibers. Yet they remain unmoved and spiritually blind. I have told them of x-rays that document missing body parts that were suddenly found to exist on a previously disabled person after emerging from the miraculous waters of Lourdes. Yet they still remain unmoved and spiritually blind. I have shared with them the laboratory findings of Eucharistic Hosts transformed into physical flesh and blood, confirmed as fact by scientists. Yet they still remain unmoved and spiritually blind like the Pharisees. 

But, you know, that really shouldn’t surprise me because facts cannot bring about an act of faith or restore spiritual vision. This can only be done by God alone. We have proof of this in today’s Gospel. A man has been blind his whole life long. Then Jesus comes along and suddenly he can see. Yet the Pharisees remain unmoved in their convictions and spiritually blind in their stubbornness of mind. St. John is telling us that what makes us come to real faith is experiencing the touch of Jesus Christ in our life, whatever that may look like and however we may need it. And when that happens then like the Man born Blind we will find ourselves saying, “I do believe” and we will fall down and worship the Lord.

Springs of Life-giving Water!

 

Deacon Dave · Streams of Life-Giving Water!

Homily for the Third Sunday of Lent. March 12, 2023, Gospel of St. John 4:5-42. Theme: Springs of Living Water!

In today’s gospel St. John takes us to a section of Israel called Samaria, a place inhabited by a people who were considered to be heretics and traitors to the Covenant God made with Moses. The Jewish people despised the Samaritans as morally unclean and spiritually unworthy of God’s blessings. And it’s there in that godforsaken land that we meet a woman who is considered to be unclean and unworthy even by her own townsfolk. She is an outcast among a people who are themselves considered outcasts. You cannot get much lower than that in the mind of the 1st century Jews who first heard this gospel story. And this is precisely what St. John wants us to keep in mind as the story unfolds. 

We are told that the woman went to Jacob’s well at noon. Now, this would strike the hearers of the story as extremely odd because they all knew that women go to wells at dawn or dusk so that they can escape the intense heat of the desert sun. There is only one reason why this outcast woman would go to the well at noon: to avoid the condemning stares and shunning silence of her peers. But what made her such an outcast? It was her reputation. She was living with a man who was 5th in a string of lovers who had replaced her original husband and so she is considered by the village women to be someone who is beyond the reach of God. It seems that St. John wants us to understand that her life was as empty and dry as the water-jug she was carrying; that she was desperately thirsty for love and acceptance. Her spiritual poverty and her emotional needs were so great that she was willing to compromise herself into situations which she knew were morally wrong. Who among us can’t relate to that in one way or another in our lives? 

And this is where St. John wants us to “connect the dots”, so to speak, and realize that this Samaritan woman represents each one of us, both you and me. She stands for all who sense an emptiness inside themselves that only God can fill. She represents each person who, perhaps even without realizing it, is looking for love in all the wrong places. She is a symbol of each person who stands in need of inner healing and real wholeness, the kind that brings us true inner peace and serenity. St. John wants us to put ourselves in her place and know that just as Jesus reached out to her, so also He reaches out to us. Just as Jesus knew all the details of her past, so He knows all of ours as well. And as with the Samaritan woman, He doesn’t care what we were or what we have been. He is interested in what we can become. He wants to free us from whatever it is that is holding us bound in mind, body or spirit because He is the Savior who has come to set us free. 

St. John wants us to know that a real transformation of our hearts and lives is possible if we follow the example of the Samaritan woman. If we are willing to face the truth about ourselves, acknowledge our wrong-doings and bring our inner wounds to Jesus for healing then we, too, can drink His Living Water and experience a renewal of our hearts. This Living Water is a symbol of the love of God that has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us, as St. Paul says in our second reading. And when we become consciously aware of this unconditional love God that has for us and trust in Jesus as our Merciful Savior, then the floodgates of Living Water are opened up and the grace of the Holy Spirit can flow freely within us, carrying out His work of transformation. 

We see this wonderful change happening to the Samaritan woman. As she comes to understand more clearly who Jesus really is and sincerely asks Him for the Living Water, it starts to gush through her and transform her. Recall that before she encountered Jesus she went to the well at noon in order to avoid her neighbors. But after experiencing the personal love that Christ has for her she is filled with joy and runs off to go to the very same people whom she had been avoiding! She is no longer bound and defined by her sins. She is no longer preoccupied with what others might think about her. She no longer treats herself as an outcast because she has tasted the Living Water of God’s love and it has begun to change her. She now becomes an apostle, a missionary, an evangelizer for Christ, eager to share with her neighbors the Good News that she has found the Messiah who can make life worth living again! 

St. John wants us to connect this Gospel story with our Baptism because that is when we were first given the Living Water of the Holy Spirit. But Baptism was just the start and our whole Christian lives are meant to be watered by the grace of God through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us! So we need to consciously deepen our devotion to Him and open our hearts more fully to the Spirit Who has been given to us. And then the flow of Living Water can start gushing through us and we, too, like the Samaritan woman, will come to discover that we no longer need to quench our thirst in the old ways that we had been doing. Instead, we will find ourselves more and more drawn by an inner desire to satisfy our thirst and find our joy in the bottomless Fountain of God’s love which springs forth from the Heart of Jesus.

Sharing the Message of the Transfiguration Today

 

Deacon Dave · Sharing the Message of the Transfiguration Today

Homily for the Second Sunday in Lent, March 5, 2023. Gospel of St. Matthew 17:1-9. Theme: Sharing the Message of the Transfiguration 

Today In today’s gospel, we find ourselves at the Transfiguration of Jesus. For a brief moment, the humanity of Jesus is lifted and the disciples get a dazzling glimpse of Who He really is: the Beloved Son of God. The fact that this event happened on Mt. Tabor was in no way an accident. It was an important sacred place to the Jews because it was the site of a great military victory where God showed Himself to be their protector and savior. So this was the perfect place - and a perfect time coming shortly before his Passion - for Jesus to straighten out his disciples about their mistaken idea of how the Messiah would save Israel and indeed all people. 

You see, many Jews of the time believed that the Messiah promised by God was to be a great Warrior-King who would free them from Roman tyranny. They believed that the Messiah would give Israel another military victory, even greater than the one made famous on Mt. Tabor about one thousand years before the time of Christ. That this divinely sent National-Hero would be arrested and put to death by the Romans was the polar opposite of their expectations! That the liberation which he would bring to them would be spiritual and not political didn't even enter their minds. Neither of these things fit in with their pre-conceptions of what the Messiah would be or do. 

Like their peers, the disciples were also expecting a political Warrior-King. On Mt. Tabor, Jesus showed them that he was, indeed, the promised Hero but not in the way that they had thought him to be. To better illustrate this lesson, two other national heroes of Israel appeared with Christ on Mt. Tabor. But they were not political-military figures such as Joshua, Deborah, King Saul or King David. Rather, they were the spiritual warriors of Israel. There was Moses, who received the Ten Commandments and led the Hebrew Exodus out of slavery in Egypt. And with him stood Elijah the Great Prophet of the Living God. Moses and Elijah were there to show that the Law and the Prophets of the Old Testament were being brought to their intended fulfillment through Jesus the Christ. 

Through the Transfiguration, Jesus was visually telling his disciples that yes, he was the Messiah, but no, not in the way that they had imagined. He was God come-in-the-flesh and his victory would not be military but spiritual. This triumph would come about through the Exodus of the Messiah, which means his passing from death to life. He would claim victory in the spiritual battle over Satan, sin and death through the power of the Cross and the triumph of His Resurrection. And as Messiah, the Anointed Savior, He would bestow this freedom from sin and death upon all who trust in Him as the One sent by God. It would be an eternal victory! 

When they came down from that mountain, Jesus told Peter, James and John that after His Resurrection they could share what they had personally experienced. You see, the Transfiguration with its message of hope and victory over evil was not something they were to keep privately to themselves. And it’s a good thing for us that they spoke out! Their testimony helped to form the very foundation of the Church and to produce the Gospels that have given witness to Jesus to billions of people ever since. By not keeping quiet about it, they literally did their part in bringing hope to others and changing countless lives and cultures throughout the centuries. And each one of us is called to become an active part of this on-going message of the Transfiguration. 

There are times when God has somehow allowed us to see Jesus, with spiritual vision, with greater clarity and deeper understanding. These brief grace-filled moments that can come to us in prayer or during times of reflection are like having our own mini-transfigurations. We somehow come to understand a bit better just who Jesus is and what He wishes to do with us and for us. Afterwards, like those disciples we are not meant to keep this spiritual treasure to ourselves. Like them, we are also to let people know that God loves them and invites them to share life with Him in His Kingdom. By being open about what Jesus means to us and how our faith-relationship with him helps us, we can assist others in discovering Christ as the ultimate Hero and Liberator of their own lives. 

There are many ways and opportunities for us to do this. But it doesn’t mean that we are going around preaching to people at work or at home - although this might be necessary every now and then. The best way we can evangelize, which means witnessing to Jesus, is in our normal everyday activities. Quite often this happens organically, naturally, by simply being open in our conversations about our experience of Jesus through prayer and in Holy Communion. We can share with them how wounded relationships have been healed or healthy relationships strengthened by speaking with Christ and trusting in Him. 

Our honesty and openness can bring hope to those who are struggling, which means everyone. Perhaps by our personal testimony they will be encouraged to give it a try themselves and listen for the voice of the Beloved Son speaking to them. Perhaps by our personal witnessing we can help reveal to them the true Jesus, the real Jesus, in whom they will find the love, the acceptance and the peace of heart that they have been seeking.