Is Jesus Your Solid Cornerstone?

 

Deacon Dave · Is Jesus Your Solid Cornerstone?

Homily for the 4th Sunday of Easter, April 21, 2024. Book of Acts 4:8-12. Theme: Is Jesus the Cornerstone of Your Life? 

 Twice in this Sunday’s Scriptures we hear Jesus called the cornerstone. Both Psalm 118 and our reading from the Book of Acts praise him saying, “the stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone.” But, what does that mean? Perhaps it’s not immediately clear to us because we live in a time and place where stone buildings are not the architectural norm and so, unless you’re a stone mason, the analogy may be easily missed. 

 But the people of biblical times didn’t miss it. They knew firsthand that a cornerstone was the most important part of any structure because of the three vital things that it does: it provides a solid foundation; it acts as a reference point for the entire construction project; and it supports the weight of a building no matter what comes its way. With this in mind, let’s take a look at how these three factors can help us build a solid relationship with Jesus Christ who wants to be the Chief Cornerstone of our lives. 

 First, the cornerstone is laid down before anything can be built. The soundness and durability of a structure’s foundation depends upon the cornerstone being securely and properly put into place. If so, then the building will be solid; but if not, then the structure is doomed to eventually fall. If we build our lives on such unpredictable things as relationships, money, occupation, personal appearance or politics, then it’s the same thing as choosing a less-than-ideal foundation stone. We have countless examples in the news all the time of how building one’s life on material success, personal appearance, acclaim from others and social popularity fail to bring deep-down authentic happiness and security. Just look at the many celebrity lives that appear to be ideal but, more often than not, are really broken on the inside and so often end in tragedy. 

 And so, we need to honestly ask ourselves, “Is my knowledge about Jesus and my relationship with him solid? Is it built upon a proper and secure understanding of just who he is and why I can trust him? In today’s first reading, St. Peter helps us out here by reminding us that Jesus of Nazareth is the only one chosen by God to bring salvation to the human race; that there is no one else, no other Name (which means no other person) in whom we can find the forgiveness, healing and stability we need for our lives. 

 Second, the cornerstone provides the reference point for everything else. The whole structure is laid out in relation to that vital stone and out according to the blueprint designed for it. You know, so often people’s life-decisions and moral standards are based upon current popular opinion or on whatever propaganda is being promoted by social media. But as Christians, we’re called to make Jesus our Cornerstone and his teachings our reference point. This means that in building our lives we look to the blueprint that he has laid out for us in the Gospels and that are further explained for us in the various writings of the New Testament. These are the reference points that give us the balance and bearings we need to stand strong against the ups and downs that are sure to come our way. So, if we want to build and maintain a truly happy and meaningful life then we must begin by taking on Jesus’ manner of thinking, Jesus’ example of acting, Jesus’ rules for happy living and Jesus’ way of loving, which means God-first, others-second, and ourselves-last. 

 Finally, the cornerstone supports the entire structure. As construction progresses, the cornerstone not only provides strength to the walls, but it also holds everything else together. The total weight of a building rests completely on this particular stone, without which it would utterly collapse! This is precisely how our lives must be: founded upon a rock-solid faith relationship with Jesus that is firmly grounded in trust. When the burdens of health, the worry of finances or the stresses of relationships weigh upon us, there's only one Cornerstone capable of handling the pressure without cracking. When we are pulled one way or the other with the many cares and demands of work and family, there's only one Cornerstone that can keep our hope solid and our love strong. And that one and only sure foundation is, of course, Jesus Christ. 

 Just as construction workers need to have the proper equipment to get the job done, so we need to ask the Holy Spirit to help us skillfully use the tools of the spiritual trade that have been given for this very purpose. These include such things as developing a habit of personal prayer from the heart; of reading the Word of God and applying it to our lives; of receiving the Risen Christ in the Eucharist with faith and mindfulness and not simply out of routine or habit; and in trying to live as best we can guided by his Gospel teachings. Let’s ask for the grace and blessing to make Jesus the Cornerstone of our lives, to look to him as our Reference Point in all that we do, and to trust in him alone to be the Foundation we need to build a life that is both holy and happy, pleasing to God, to others, and to ourselves.

Wounds & Witness

 

Deacon Dave · Wounds & Witnesses

Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Easter, April 14, 2024. The Gospel of St. Luke 24:35-48. Theme: Wounds and Witnesses 

 In today’s Gospel we are brought back in time to Jerusalem where a small band of brothers, called the disciples of the Lord, find themselves struggling with doubt, disappointment and confusion. The One with whom they had lived and learned from over the past few years had been suddenly and violently snatched out of their lives. He in whom they had placed all their hopes for a better future had been arrested, tortured, crucified and buried. 

 But that very morning they began to hear strange stories about him. First, some women in their group who had gone to anoint his body came rushing back with talk about glorious angels at his empty tomb. One of them, Mary Magdalene, even asserted that she had actually seen and spoken with him. And then two other disciples arrived from a journey to Emmaus declaring that they had spent the morning in the company of Jesus, risen and alive. These stories only increased their confusion and toyed with their minds. 

 Then, suddenly, just as the Emmaus disciples were wrapping up their story, Jesus appeared right in the room! He bestowed a blessing of peace upon them and spoke words of reassurance to their incredulous minds. A growing joy begins to enter their hearts and they reach out to touch their beloved Lord and Master. The once horrible and bloody wounds of his hands, feet and side now seem glorious and radiant. These signs of his torture and death now stand out to them as five trophies of victory, five sources grace and blessing that fill them with confidence and restores their hope! 

 And it’s no coincidence that this revelation happened simultaneously with the Emmaus travelers saying how they recognized Jesus in “the breaking of the bread", which was the original name for the Eucharist. I think this reminds us that the Risen Jesus in that room and the Risen Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament are one and the same Lord, it is only the mode of his Presence that differentiates them. Before his death he was limited by the physicality of his humanity which confined him to the Holy Land in the first century. But his Resurrection into glory freed him from this limitation, freed him from the restrictions of earthly life and enabled him to become personally present and available to everyone of every time and in every place, of every century and every culture. 

 Walls cannot stop him now nor can distances curtail his Presence. Even when the Blessed Sacrament is placed in a tabernacle, the Risen Lord is not restrained by its golden doors nor limited by the walls of a parish church. The Power of his Presence bursts forth from wherever the Eucharist is reserved and shines out upon each one of us wherever we might be, as well as upon our neighborhoods and cities. I think this all-pervasive all-encompassing radiating Presence of Christ is what St. Padre Pio meant, when he said one day, “It would be easier for the earth to exist without the sun than without the Eucharist.” 

 An important lesson from this story is that just as the wounds of Jesus were a witness to the reality of his passing through death, so are we meant to be witnesses to the reality that he is now risen and alive. He clearly says this to us in the Gospel and gives us a mission of outreach to others. When we look around our parish church and see so many empty pews we shouldn’t just complain about it but rather ask ourselves if we have been doing what Jesus commanded. In other words, have we been willing to tell others what Jesus has done for humanity in general and what a difference he has made in our own lives in particular? And when we interact with non-believing or non-practicing family or friends, do we look for a natural chance to share faith or, if they are not open to speaking about Christ, have we been doing our best to reflect what Jesus is like by “being Christ” to them? 

 This personal witness is how the Faith has always been most powerfully spread ever since those first days in Jerusalem. St. Luke is reminding us today that as Christians we are meant to be, as Pope Francis puts it, “missionary disciples”. In the closing verses of his Gospel and in his Book of Acts he will tell us how we become empowered and enabled to carry out this great commission of witnessing to Jesus. We will be reading and hearing more about this as the Liturgies of the Easter Season bring us closer and closer to Pentecost Sunday, the feast of the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Mercy From the Fountain of Life

 

Deacon Dave · Mercy From the Fountain of Life

Homily for the Octave of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday, April 17, 2024. The Gospel of St. John 20:19-31. Theme: Mercy From the Fountain of Life 

 In the year 2000, Pope St. John Paul II declared the Second Sunday of Easter to be celebrated as “Divine Mercy Sunday”. He did this to fulfill a request made by Jesus through the spiritual experiences of St. Faustina Kowalska, a 20th century Polish nun and mystic. And so the Scriptures and prayers of our liturgy today align beautifully with the devotion to the merciful love of Jesus which is symbolized for us in the image of Divine Mercy that he asked to be painted and distributed. The fundamental purpose of this image is to help us truly live the words that are inscribed upon it, “Jesus, I trust in you”. 

 In this painting, Jesus gazes at us with a look of deep compassion. His posture is shown as if he is walking towards us, indicating that he wants to come into our lives spiritually through the instrumentality of this image. One hand is raised in blessing us while the other touches his chest from which two rays shine forth, a pale one and a red one. These symbolize the blood and water that gushed forth from his heart when it was pierced by the soldier’s lance. 

 Our second reading speaks about these two streams of mercy as witnesses to the Lord’s saving death on the cross. This means that on the natural level they are proof that he died. They give testimony that his heart was pierced causing the very lifeblood and cardiac water to pour out in testimony to the fact. But on the mystical supernatural level they are the streams of grace and mercy that flow to us from the Heart of Christ as the Fountain of Life. Through this Blood and Water we are washed spiritually clean of sin and put into a right relationship of love and union with God. 

 But Jesus knows us and that we often stray from this path and leave the ways of righteousness. He calls us back, again and again, to the Fountain of Life. Through the Divine Mercy devotion, which echoes his Gospel, He assures us that forgiveness is ours for the asking whenever we repent and turn back to him with contrite hearts. He even makes the bold promise that the greater our sin, the greater right we have to his mercy! He reminds us of something we too often forget: that God’s mercy is like a huge immense ocean and our sins are only a tiny drop that gets dissolved in that healing water. So often, too often actually, we are tempted to turn that around and fall for the lie that our darkest sins are beyond God’s reach and we allow them to haunt us even after we’ve asked forgiveness. 

 Perhaps most amazing of all Christ’s words to St. Faustina was the promise he made about Mercy Sunday. He declared that, “whoever approaches the Fountain of Life on this day (Mercy Sunday) will be granted complete remission of sins and punishment." This means that not only are all our sins taken away, but so is any punishment our sins deserve in this world or the next! That’s totally amazing! Could it be true? Well, the Divine Mercy events are only “private revelation” which means that even after the Church had investigated and approved them, we are still totally free to accept or reject them as authentic. But I think that we can easily admit their legitimacy because of the many astounding miracles that have taken place through the Divine Mercy devotion and the intercession of St. Faustina. So on Divine Mercy Sunday we can confidently approach the Fountain of Life, which is the Pierced but Risen Heart of Jesus, and with great trust we can confess our sins. With sincere devotion we can receive Holy Communion with solid hope in the promises of Jesus. 

 But Our Lord wants this devotion to His Divine Mercy to be something more in our daily lives than just a picture and a promise. He wants it to transform us so that we can live and act as people who both claim his mercy for ourselves and allow it to flow through us to others. The message and mission of mercy to which he calls each one of us, is literally as simple and easy to remember as A, B and C. 

 A — Ask. Ask for His mercy. We can invoke God’s mercy for ourselves, our family and friends, as well as for our nation and the whole world, especially by praying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. 

 B — Become. Become a merciful person to others. Jesus said in the Gospels that the merciful are blessed and that we will receive mercy to the same extent that we choose to show mercy to others. He’s telling us that we each individually set the limit as to how much of God’s mercy we will be ours. And finally, 

C. Confidence. Completely trust in Jesus. This is the heart of the message of Divine Mercy, just as it is the very heart of the Gospel itself. What this means is that no matter who we are, no matter what choices we may have made, no matter where we find ourselves today, Jesus has his arms out, wide open to receive and embrace us. Just gaze upon a crucifix to see what this unconditional open-armed love looks like. And while looking at that crucifix notice his pierced side from which the Blood and Water flowed as witnesses to his life-saving, life-giving and life-changing mercy,

The Mystery of the Empty Tomb

 

Deacon Dave · The Mystery of the Empty Tomb

Homily for Easter Sunday, March 31, 2024. Theme: The Mystery of the Empty Tomb 

 As we just heard in the Gospel, two thousand years ago in Jerusalem, early in the morning of the first Easter Sunday, Mary Magdalene unexpectedly discovered an Empty Tomb. And in every age and century since then, people have been intrigued by the mystery of her find. They read and ponder the eye-witness evidence recorded in the Gospels as they seek answers to the questions that the Empty Tomb raises: What happened to the body of Jesus of Nazareth? And is it really possible that he has risen from the dead? 

 But for various reasons not everybody bothers to ask these questions. To some the very idea of the Resurrection seems ridiculous, and so they don’t even consider it. Others don’t ask because they don’t want to know the answer. Perhaps they have a sense that it will turn their lives upside down if it turns out to be true? And there are those who do ask, but not from the motive of truth-seeking. Instead they are set upon debunking the Easter Story and discrediting Christianity. But even they find out that no one can deny the documented historical fact of the Empty Tomb and the Missing Body. And so, since they must accept the reality of Mary Magdalen’s discovery, they try instead to refute the Resurrection itself usually by appealing to one or more of the following objections to it. 

 First, they propose that the Gospels were written by biased believers and thus are not real history. In other words, they say that the claim of Resurrection is not based on historically reliable documented eye-witness events. However, scholars and historians of various backgrounds, including both believers and unbelievers, disagree with that position. They point out that the Gospels meet strict scholarly criteria for authenticity and that some of the things that they say about Christ are corroborated in ancient non-Christian sources. Their academic research and expertise concludes that on the purely historical level, the Gospels reliably pass on to us what the disciples of Jesus really saw and experienced. 

 Second, there are those who claim that the body of Jesus was stolen and the thieves then claimed a fake Resurrection. In other words, it was all a lie; an ancient conspiracy theory. Ok, if so then we have to ask: who would have had motive to do so? The Romans? They had no reason whatsoever. At the request of the Jewish leadership, they stationed armed guards at the tomb precisely to prevent such a potential theft and lie from happening. The Jewish Leaders? They had even less reason. They considered Christ an insult and blasphemy to their religion and so, if they were the culprits, they could have produced the corpse and put an end to Christianity once and for all right at its beginning. 

 Well then, that leaves us with the disciples of Jesus. Could they have done it? This idea totally ignores the fact that they were cowards locked away in hiding because they were sure that they were next on the death list. Besides, they were no match for the armed Roman soldiers standing guard at the tomb. And as far as the disciples making up a lie about Resurrection goes, it’s important to realize that people usually make up such elaborate stories to elevate their status in the eyes of others and earn perks. So, what kind of perks did the story of an Empty Tomb and Resurrection bring them? Hatred, persecution, imprisonment, torture, and such martyrdoms as being crucified, beheaded and beaten to death. Yet while enduring these sufferings not one of them confessed that they were lying or even admitted to the possibility that they could have been mistaken. 

 Finally, there have been those who claim that the disciples were so emotionally traumatized by the Passion of Christ that they hallucinated the Risen Jesus. Individual hallucinations are indeed possible, but we have documented testimony that on one occasion about 500 saw the Risen Lord among them at the same time and in the same place. Psychologists tell us that it’s completely impossible for everyone in that crowd to have had the same hallucination. Besides, many of the eye-witnesses testified that the One whom they saw and touched, whom they ate with and spoke to, was not a ghost or a phantom, not a figment of their imagination nor a hallucination. He was flesh and bone, mysteriously transformed and awesomely glorious, but still the same Jesus whom they knew and loved. 

 But you know, coming to believe in the Resurrection requires much more than seeing the truth in these solid responses to such objections. This is because our intelligence can only bring us so far. It can inform us that the historical evidence is reliable, reasonable and credible but it cannot make us believe. That is something that only God can do by bestowing the supernatural gift of faith, which he does for whoever sincerely asks. But as I said earlier, there are many today who don't ]seek and ask and so they remain in the darkness. For them, Easter is nothing more than a Spring-time holiday that they perhaps observe out of custom or culture. Sadly, this void leaves them still bound in their sins and still stalked by the gloomy fear of death that haunts every human being. And as a result they expend so much time and so much energy, and in some cases even so much money, trying to escape the inescapable reality of their own mortality. 

 But then there are others who do seek and ask. They ponder the personal testimonies of the eye-witnesses and sense that something amazing happened even if they don’t understand how. They are open to the possibility of the supernatural which enables them to make that all-important step from logic to mystery, from doubt to faith. And as a result, they begin to experience the movements of transformative change within themselves. They find peace of heart because they have come to believe in Jesus Christ as their Crucified Savior who offers them total forgiveness for their sins, no matter what they may have been. They are filled with spiritual joy because they have come to believe in the Risen Lord who now shares with them his victory over the grave, dispelling the fear of death and offering them eternal life as their destiny. The light of Christ shines brightly on them, leading them through life and giving them real hope for the future. 

 So, the bottom line of Easter is this: the experiences of those who encountered the Risen Christ and which have been handed down to us through the Gospels, present to every human being an invitation to seek and to ask, an opportunity to believe or to persist in doubt, a chance to break free from the grip of death or to remain captive in its grasp. The path each person decides to take all depends upon how they choose to respond to the undeniable fact that two thousand years ago in Jerusalem, early in the morning of the first Easter Sunday, Mary Magdalene unexpectedly discovered an Empty Tomb.

Ecce Agnus Dei…Ave Crucis Spes Nostra!

 

Deacon Dave · Ecce Agnus Dei…Ave Crucis Spes Nostra!

GOOD FRIDAY HOMILY Theme: Ecce Agnus Dei…Ave Crucis Spes Nostra! 

 Of all the titles we have for Jesus, there’s one that I think is least understood by many of us even though we hear it and say it several times at every Mass. And today, it’s even written on the wood of the cross that we will venerate in a few minutes. You’ll see it just below the figure of Jesus and it says in Latin, “Ecce Agnus Dei”, which means, “Behold the Lamb of God.” So, why do we call Jesus the Lamb of God? What does it mean and what’s its connection with Good Friday? 

 Well, to answer these questions, we need to recall the religious rituals of the Hebrews. Animal sacrifices were central to their worship (and it was done, by the way, in a much more humane manner than our slaughterhouses do today). Their purpose was to seek forgiveness from God. The Jewish priests would symbolically transfer a person’s sins to the animal as a kind of a proxy or a substitute, and then its sacrifice was considered to be the death, so to speak, of the person’s sins. Get the idea? The most important of these ritual sacrifices were those of the Passover lambs in the Temple of Jerusalem. 

 Of course, these sacrifices were insufficient for the purpose. And they gave rise to the false idea that humans can obtain forgiveness from God by saying the right words and performing certain actions. This attitude is why the Pharisees, for example, cling so tenaciously to the exact observance of the Torah, the Law. But to set us straight, Jesus taught us that the forgiveness of sins is not something that we can buy or earn or achieve by our own power. Rather, it's a totally free gift that God offers us for no other reason than love. And Jesus didn't just talk about it, he showed us what this sin-forgiving love looks like in action. He took upon himself the totality of our sins, freely, intentionally and deliberately out of love for us and for our salvation. 

 After the Resurrection, the disciples reflected on the death of Jesus and that it took place on the very same day and at the very same time that the lambs were being sacrificed in the temple. They saw a definite relationship between the two, especially as they recalled the words of the prophet Isaiah that we heard in our first reading that said, “It was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured…he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins…and the Lord laid upon him the guilt of us all…like a lamb he was led to the slaughter.” So they made the connection between Jesus’ sacrifice and that of the Jewish rituals. They knew that it was much more than a coincidence that he died on the very same day and at the very same time that the Passover lambs were being sacrificed in the temple. Putting all these things together, they began to refer to Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. 

 But there was a real and unique difference between the old rituals and the new sacrifice. In the old sacrifice sinful men were making a sin-offering to God. But in the new it was now God himself, who had become the sinless Man, Jesus of Nazareth, who made the sin-offering. And there’s a couple of pretty awesome things about that. First, being God who sees and knows all things meant that Jesus’ sacrifice covered all of humanity’s sins - past, present, and future, including yours and mine personally. And second, since he was not just human but also divine the love with which he offered himself was infinite love, totally pure love, utterly unselfish love, in short it was perfect love. And the power of this perfect love far outweighed that of our offenses, making his sacrifice on the cross the perfect apology for sin on behalf of the entire human race in general, and of each and every one of us individually. 

 But here’s the thing: even though Jesus did his part to save us, its effects are not automatically applied to us. In other words, we have to want to be saved. We have to do our part to claim it because God never forces his gifts upon us, not even the awesome gift of his total forgiveness. He respects our freedom and so waits for each one of us to ask for it, to acknowledge our wrong-doings and receive forgiveness in return. This gift of immense mercy was made possible for us through the Holy Cross which was the instrument of our salvation. And so this is why we have the ritual of honoring it today. This is also why you’ll see on our cross today another Latin inscription written on its horizontal bar that says, “Ave Crucis, Spes Nostra” which means, “Hail to the Cross our Hope.” 

 So, in a few minutes when we come forward to venerate the Holy Cross, let’s praise and thank the Lamb of God for sacrificing himself upon it for our sins. And let’s make our veneration of the Holy Cross an expression of repentance which opens up our hearts to be cleansed by the blood of that Lamb. In this way we can spiritually prepare ourselves to celebrate a joyous Easter, rejoicing in the fact that our sins, which were crucified with him on the cross and then buried with him in the tomb, remained behind when he rose from the grave…which means that they are dead and gone forever.

The Triple-Message of Palm Sunday

 

Deacon Dave · Triple-Message of Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion, March 24, 2024. Theme: The Triple-Message of Palm Sunday 

This Sunday is unique among our liturgies for two reasons, one of which is that the Gospel is proclaimed twice instead of just once. And in addition to having a double Gospel, today’s commemoration has a double-name as well as: Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion. This intentionally reminds us that the palms we carry in procession today lead us to Good Friday. They can also teach us three things about ourselves as we enter upon this Most Holy of Weeks. 

 First, Palm Sunday shows us that we can be fickle, so often living as “fair-weather friends” of God. It’s so very easy for us to judge and condemn the cheering crowds of Palm Sunday who then turned on Jesus just a few days later, calling for his crucifixion. They wanted a Messiah who would defeat the Romans and bring autonomy to Israel. So when Jesus was arrested and taken captive by their oppressors, they saw they had been mistaken and their hopes trashed. So they turned on Him because He wasn’t the kind of Savior they wanted. And yet…before we point a finger at them…we have to stop and examine our own attitudes towards Jesus. Have I ever shaken a fist at God, like the people in that crowd, because he wasn’t acting like the kind of Savior I expected and wanted Him to be in my life? And so, we have to ask ourselves quite honestly if we also see in Him only what we want to see for our personal benefit? 

 Second, Palm Sunday highlights our role in the Passion. The Liturgy helps us to see that the participants in the Passion were not just the historical figures of the past but also includes us! This is why everyone has a part in the Gospel proclamation today. And like the crowd in Jerusalem on that first Good Friday, we have also called for the crucifixion of Christ, perhaps not with our lips but certainly by the choices we have made in our lives. The history of each one of us shows that there have been times when we have betrayed Jesus with Judas; that we have denied Him with Peter; and that we have abandoned Him along with the other disciples. Every one of us can relate to Pilate’s cowardice in caving into social pressure and choosing popularity over doing what was right. Palm Sunday reminds us that we are indeed participants in the Passion and our sins have contributed to the suffering and death of the Lord. 

 Third, palms are a sign of Jesus’ victory. Despite the fickleness of our hearts and the litany of our sins, Christ died for us. And not just for “us” as in the cumulative sense of the human race. But individually and personally, for each one of us, as if you or I were the only ones in the whole universe who were in need of salvation! And on top of all that, while struggling to breathe on the cross, He asked God the Father to forgive us because we truly do not realize what we are doing when we choose to sin. And so the palms we hold in our hands and carry in procession today are a sign of the victory of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. His is a triumphant victory of love over hatred; of grace over sin; of forgiveness over condemnation; of eternal life over everlasting death. 

 So when we bring our palms home and put them behind our crucifixes - or wherever you display yours during the Easter Season- let them be a silent but powerful reminder about the triple-message they convey. Let them assure us that despite our fickleness and our failures; despite our part in contributing to His Passion, Jesus shows us in an unmistakable way that He loves us beyond measure. He calls each one of us to believe this and trust in Him with total confidence. To withhold this trust wounds His Heart which was pierced through for us by the soldier’s lance. Holding our blessed palms let’s go forward into the bittersweet days of Holy Thursday and Good Friday, never forgetting that it brought Him - and will bring us - to the victory, glory and eternal life of Resurrection!

The Mystery of the Cross: Dying Gives Life!

 

Deacon Dave · The Mystery of the Cross: Dying Gives Life!

Homily for the 5th Sunday of Lent, March 17, 2024. Gospel of St. John 12:20-33. Theme: The Mystery of the Cross: Dying Gives Life! 

 Today's Gospel is about an ordinary encounter between Jesus and some Greeks who have come to see him, most likely because they have heard about his wondrous powers. But it turns into an occasion for Christ to teach them what it means to follow him as a disciple. I think that their simple request, "We would like to see Jesus," expresses a desire or at least a curiosity that is within all of us. For who among us doesn’t want to seek and then find the awesome presence of the miracle-working Christ in our lives? 

 These Gentile seekers, like so many others, were most likely hoping for a miracle or an answer to some perplexing question in their lives. We do not know any details whatsoever about their meeting with him, but I am guessing that the Lord’s words about death, burial and new life were not what they expected to hear. Perhaps like them, you have heard things about Jesus that have both intrigued you and perplexed you at the same time? Perhaps, like these Greeks, his words about dying and rising repel you but at the same time mysteriously attract you and you want to know more? What does he really mean? 

 Jesus speaks of a grain of wheat falling to the ground and dying in order to bear much fruit. That illustration would have made sense to his listeners whose daily lives were intimately tied to the earth and its natural cycles. But then he continues on and seems to start talking in riddles. He uses this growth process of wheat as a metaphor about following him, about hating one’s life in order to end up really finding it and living it into eternity! In other words, Jesus was saying that just as the grain-seed must undergo a process of death and burial in order to bring forth new life, so too we, his disciples, must let go of our old ways and bury them as dead and gone if we want to become more fully alive and transformed in Christ. 

 This “death of the ego” is what “hating one’s life” means in biblical language. It doesn’t mean despising our human existence as we might think it means in modern English! This on-going process of “hating one’s life”, that is, of eradicating selfishness and following Jesus’ example, is not easy but neither is it optional for the person who seeks to be a Christian in truth and just not in name. And just as the seed, once buried in the earth, eventually bursts forth into new life, so will we also begin to burst forth with new life in Christ as we put ourselves aside and humbly surrender to the teachings of his Gospel. 

 Following Jesus requires this radical reordering of our priorities. We must “fall to the ground and die”, so to speak, to our self-focused plans and our stubborn insistence in living life on our own terms. Our innermost desire to see Jesus and be with him overrides our lesser desires and gives us the willingness to let go of anything that is an obstacle to developing and cherishing our relationship with Christ. When we die to self and bury the grain-seed of our pretenses and pride (which so often are really ways of hiding fear and insecurity) it brings something new and beautiful to life within us. 

 It breaks open our hard outer shell and releases new life in the Holy Spirit, whom we first received at Baptism and in a deeper outpouring at Confirmation. The Spirit waters the buried seed and soon enough signs of budding life begin to slowly blossom and bloom into Christian virtue and holiness. We won’t see this development happening right away, but our growth will be steady so long as we keep tilling the soil of our lives with humility, surrender and trust in Christ. 

 Ultimately, when all is said and done, Jesus' words to the Greeks and to us today point to the cross, which is always at the center of Christian life and spirituality. He speaks of his own impending death as the culmination of his mission on earth, of it being the ultimate act of sacrificial love. As we continue our journey through this season of Lent, we are called to walk with Jesus on the road to Calvary. He asks us to embrace the cross out of love and not to run away from it, for it is the instrument of God’s transforming grace. 

 So, let’s respond wholeheartedly to the invitation to follow him that Jesus offers us today. Let’s be willing to let go of our old selves, to die to our old desires, and to embrace a new life that God offers us in Christ. He promises to be with us every step of the way and assures us that, in exchange for losing our lives for his sake, he will transform them into lives that exist with him forever.

Rejoice! You Are Saved by Grace Through Faith!

 

Deacon Dave · Rejoice! You Are Saved by Grace Through Faith!

Homily for the 4th Sunday of Lent, March 10, 2024. Reading: Ephesians 2:4-10/ Theme: Rejoice! You Are Saved by Grace Through Faith! 

 One short 8-word-phrase from today’s second reading was a hot button issue back in the 16th century. It caused a volatile, and at times even violent, conflict among Catholics and the new phenomenon of emerging Protestantism. I suppose such a passionate debate shouldn’t be all that surprising because those 8 words ,“by grace you have been saved through faith”, deal with one of the most vital questions of Christianity: how are human beings saved? In other words, how is a person freed from the spiritual alienation from God that is caused by sin and leads to eternal death and put into a right relationship with God that leads to eternal life? 

 The Protestant reformers erroneously argued that the Church had corrupted the meaning of this verse by teaching that people could earn salvation by doing religious works. In response, Catholic leadership condemned the Protestant position as heretical, pointing out that Jesus called for a personal response to His invitation to salvation. Both sides were so adamant on proving the others wrong that neither stopped to really listen to what the other was saying. And sadly this led to the scandal of a hostile division of Christianity that caused a bleeding rupture in the Mystical Body of Christ which is still an open wound in the Church today. 

 Fortunately, by the mid-20th century both sides of the conflict began to walk together on a pathway towards reconciliation. For the first time in nearly 400 years, the Catholic hierarchy was willing to listen instead of argue and because of this openness prompted by Vatican II many Protestant leaders became willing to engage in mutual dialogue. Both sides sent representatives to theological meetings and it was discovered that, while differences remained, there was a significant amount of common ground on this fundamental Christian teaching after all. In an extremely simplified form here is what that all-important 8-word-phrase “by grace you have been saved through faith” means: 

By grace... means that salvation is a totally free and unmerited gift from God. And while we cannot and do not earn it in any way, shape or form, we obviously do have to respond to God’s invitation to accept salvation in one way or another. How we respond is still a matter of debate, but all agree that even our response is made possible by the grace of God because we cannot save ourselves. It is something beyond our limited finite human capabilities. 

You have been saved...in Biblical language, the word "salvation" has the same root word as "healing". To be saved means to be healed. Healed of what? Of sin and its effects on us, such as a tendency towards selfishness and its ultimate consequence of spiritual death. So the words "you have been saved" can also be understood as "you have been healed from your terminal sin-sickness and can live a spiritually healthy life here and hereafter." Both Catholics and Protestants agree that this healing is only possible through Christ and that it is a necessary supernatural remedy for our sin-affected human condition. 

Through faith...whenever we encounter the word "faith" in the Bible it can and should be understood as "trust" because they are both the same word in biblical language. To trust (or believe) in Christ means to wholeheartedly turn to Him as Savior and to have confidence both in what He has said (the Gospel) and what He has done for us (the Passion and Resurrection). A difference that remains between the two sides is that we Catholics hold that the ministry of the Church established by Jesus Christ is a non-negotiable part of our relationship with Him. Protestants, on the other hand, vary on this role of the Church depending upon their denomination’s particular interpretation of Christianity. 

 But when all is said and done, does salvation-grace “work”? Or to put it better, can we see tangible evidence that salvation-grace truly overrides the selfishness of sick-sickness in the human person and enables them to become more like Jesus Christ? Well as we say, the “proof is in the pudding”! All we need to do is look at the lives of those who “by grace have been saved through faith” and have embraced Jesus and his Gospel wholeheartedly. They can be found in all branches of Christianity. We can see in their lives how sin and its influence becomes neutralized and the grace of God takes its place through their deep relationship with Jesus Christ. 

 By grace through faith these heroic Christians put their own well-being on the back burner, so to speak, and modeled their lives after the pattern of Jesus in so many different ways. They cared for the sick despite danger to themselves even in the midst of contagious epidemics. They stood up for the rights and dignity of the poor and oppressed in the face of death-threats and violent opposition. They proclaimed the primacy of God and His Law in civic life above the tyrannical rule of politics and economics. And many of them gave the ultimate witness to the transforming power of salvation-grace-by-faith in the shedding of their blood, the offering up of their lives for the sake of Christ and on behalf of others. 

 This inner transformation of the human person, which is the fruit of being saved by grace through faith, is precisely what the Gospel is about today. Jesus is reminding us that He, the Crucified Savior, is the remedy for sin-sickness and that the salvation-grace He won for us by His Cross and Resurrection is the only sure cure. He assures us that He comes to each one of us out of a motivation of love as our merciful Savior not as a condemning Judge. He gives eternal life in place of spiritual death to anyone who will turn to Him in faith, that is, in trust. Today’s Gospel contains such a consoling and comforting message that it’s no wonder a passage from it has become the most quoted verse of the New Testament, if not of the entire Bible: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

Cleansing Our Temples

 

Deacon Dave · Cleansing our Temples

Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Lent, March 3, 2024. Gospel of St. John 2:13-25. Theme: Cleansing Our Temples 

 In today’s Gospel we see that Jesus, like tens of thousands of other Jews, has come to the Holy City of Jerusalem to celebrate Passover, the greatest of all holy days in the Jewish Liturgical Year. You see, every Jewish family that was able to make this pilgrimage was obligated to offer an animal to the priests of the Temple as a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God. But since the pilgrims came from long distances it was impractical to bring animals with them so they needed to buy them once they arrived in the Holy City. And since they came from all over the Roman Empire, their money had to be exchanged for acceptable local currency. So, they became a captive market for both the animal merchants and the bankers, providing both groups with a lucrative business opportunity! 

 The vast majority of the pilgrims were poor but they had carefully set aside whatever they could spare, sometimes for years, in order to fulfill their religious duty and make this special journey. However, their precious funds were quickly used up due to inflated exchange rates and exorbitant animal purchase prices. Their sincere piety and religious devotion made them easy prey for the buyers and the sellers of the Temple. It might help us better appreciate their predicament by putting it into a scenario we can relate to as Catholics. 

 Imagine for a moment that you arrive at the parish for Christmas or Easter Mass and there are "sacramental merchants" all set up in the plaza in front of the church. They inform you that if you would like to receive Holy Communion you’ll need to buy a host and since Holy Communion is at the heart of your worship you go ahead and make the purchase. But because the sellers have a captive market, the price soars to $10 a host instead of its value of less than a penny! Then, after you make your way through the front doors you encounter "missalette merchants" selling worship aids and song books in the vestibule. So you fork over some more cash and then begin to look for a seat. That’s when the ushers rush up and inform you that you can stand in the back for free or purchase a seat in a pew. Get the idea? God’s House had become a den of greed and was being used to take advantage of their religious observances. 

 It was this abuse of faith and of the poor that made righteous anger swell up within the heart of Jesus. He acted with a whirlwind of zeal for the glory of His Father and marched straight to the check-out desks with a whip in hand. He flipped over the tables and coins jingled and rolled all over the floor. Dove cages toppled. Feathers flew in the air. And the noise of frightened farm animals echoed off the walls. The Gospel tells us that the Lord’s motivation for this reaction is found in the Old Testament prophecy about the Messiah which said, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” 

 The temple-cleansing that Christ carried out was not only a condemnation of corrupt religion, but it also speaks to the corruption of religion in a way that strikes much closer to home. The cleansing of the Temple should remind us that we ourselves have become temples of God by Baptism and that we, too, stand in need of purification. We need to ask ourselves if zeal for God’s House, which we are, consumes us as it consumed Jesus? Zeal means a burning motivation or a dynamic desire and so I think this Gospel ask us to consider if we are willing to be like Jesus and cast out the merchants of sin and the money-changers of selfishness, so to speak, that we have allowed to invade our temples, lessening our dignity and spiritual beauty as God’s dwelling places. 

 Like the buyers and the sellers in the temple, have we given other things and priorities the primacy of place that rightfully belongs to God? Have we overextended ourselves and our daily schedules to such a degree that we have little to no time remaining for prayer, or spiritual reading or service to those in need? Have we allowed things into the temple of our lives that diminish God’s Presence within us or work against our growing in true religious devotion? Perhaps there are sinful behaviors or negative tendencies that we have always known needed to go, but have put off doing so? Maybe there are resentments that need to be healed or grudges that need the cleansing power of forgiveness so that God’s Presence can more fully shine through us? And if our missteps have been serious, have we brought these things to Jesus in the Sacrament of Reconciliation so that we can be put back into a right relationship with God and others? 

 During Lent the liturgy intentionally places today’s Gospel before us so that we might be encouraged to open up our hearts to the cleansing action of Jesus Christ. Lent is a time for us to be zealous and eager to overturn the tables of sin and chase out the merchants of selfishness that we have allowed to set up shop within us. It’s a time to be dramatic and decisive in becoming more serious about our relationship with Christ, allowing Him to purify us and restore us so that we can shine once again as holy temples of God and ultimately receive His Easter gift of resurrection and eternal life.

Learning Transfiguration Prayer

 

Deacon Dave · Learning Transfiguration Prayer

Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Lent, February 25, 2024. Gospel: Mark 9:2-10. Theme: Learning Transfiguration Prayer 

 In our 2,000-year heritage of Christian spirituality, the Transfiguration of Jesus, which we hear in today’s gospel, has often been considered as a lesson in what it means to have a prayerful experience of God. Spending time in prayer is all about personal intimacy with Jesus, about coming to know Him as He really is, and in the process getting to know ourselves as we really are. This is something that Peter, James and John experienced. They went away with Jesus up the mountain and gazed upon His true glory, resting in His divinely transformed presence. 

 During this experience, Jesus’ true inner self, His divinity, began to shine through the flesh of His humanity. It changed His appearance; it revealed His secret identity so to speak. The disciples were caught up in this awesome revelation and when it was over, the Father’s voice directed them to listen to Jesus because He is the Beloved Son. They returned to regular life re-energized in their relationship with Christ which had been deepened, personalized, strengthened by this experience. 

 The Transfiguration story gives us a very good description of the type of Christian prayer that is called meditation. It’s also known by other names such as prayer of the heart, contemplation or sometimes just pondering. And it’s very different, worlds apart really, from the types of meditation we often hear about today such as yoga-mindfulness or Hindu transcendentalism. These eastern forms of meditation encourage us to empty our minds, to get in touch with our inner-energy and to focus on ourselves. 

 But Christian meditation is the polar opposite. It’s not about focusing on oneself or trying to be empty inside. It’s all about focusing on God and growing in our love and awareness of Him in our lives. It’s not about being empty, but about being filled up with grace, with the light, truth and peace of Christ. Christian meditation is an important way for God to become more present, more real, more meaningful and more personal in our everyday lives. By reflecting on the Transfiguration experience of Peter, James and John, we can learn the three basic steps that make-up the prayer form of meditation. 

 The first step is solitude. We see that Jesus brought the disciples up a mountain, away from the hustle and bustle of daily life. This teaches us that we need to intentionally take time to find someplace where we can be alone and undisturbed for prayer. We need to get away from the many distractions that life throws at us, so that we can devote quality time to our relationship with God. 

 The second step is to be with Jesus. We do not go to our isolated place alone. We go with Jesus and we can do this by taking up the gospels through which he is always present for us. We chose a story and imagine Jesus and the details which the story presents to our minds. We take our time with it. We ponder it. In this step, we are like those three apostles looking at the transfigured Jesus and taking it all in. We permit the image of Christ it presents to us to penetrate our minds and hearts. 

 Lastly, the third step is speaking with Jesus. We ask him to show us what he wants us to learn from this experience. We obey the words of God the Father and listen to his Beloved Son speaking to the ears of our heart. His words might come to us as an idea or an image that enters into our minds. We respond to Jesus like Peter did, sharing with Him our thoughts, feelings and insights into what we have encountered in our time of solitude with him. 

 Then, after our meditation, we return to our daily duties, treasuring this prayerful experience of Jesus in our hearts, just as Peter, James and John did when coming down off that mountain. If we practice meditation regularly, we will become more aware of the presence of God living within us by grace and faith. We will become more aware of the beautiful truth that we are called to a divine romance, so to speak, with God who is love. This will lead us to experience a personal transfiguration in our own lives as we gradually grow, day by day, to become the beloved sons and daughters of God that we were created to be.

Hope Beyond All Hope

 

Deacon Dave · Hope Beyond All Hope

Homily for the First Sunday of Lent, February 18, 2024. Readings: Genesis 9:8-15; 2 Peter 3:18-22; Gospel of St. Mark 1:12-15. Theme: Hope Beyond All Hope 

 All three of today’s readings carry the hopeful theme of receiving a second chance, making a fresh start, turning our lives around. We heard the Old Testament story of Noah and his family escaping the Great Flood and receiving a second chance at life on planet Earth. Then in the second reading from St. Peter we are told that baptism connects us with Christ’s death and resurrection, and like the wood of Noah’s Ark, the wood of the cross gives us a second chance at living right with God. Lastly, Jesus proclaims the time of fulfillment, meaning he is going to open the gates to the Kingdom of God for all who repent and believe in the gospel. 

 “Repenting” means turning our lives around, turning away from ourselves and towards God. “Believing in the gospel” means trusting in Christ as the one and only Savior, who can make us brand new persons from the inside out. This sounds almost too good to be true for a lot of people, especially to those who think that what they have done in the past cannot be repaired and what they have made out of their lives is beyond redemption. But in the second reading St. Peter assures us that anyone who truly turns to Christ can claim a clear conscience and live a new life. This hope-filled truth of Scripture was the inspiration behind the unbelievable story of the Dominican Sisters of Bethany. They are living proof that repenting and believing in the gospel is a sure way to a fresh start, a second chance, a turning around of one’s life. 

 In 1864, a young Dominican priest named Fr. Lataste was send to give a series of religious talks in a notorious women’s prison in France. He accepted this assignment admitting that he shared in the social attitude and prejudices towards these female prisoners, and thinking it was a useless endeavor to preach a retreat to over 400 inmates who had been prostitutes, drug addicts, thieves and murderers. But something came over him soon after he stepped past the gates and began to really look at the women in their poverty and reality. The words of Christ began to ring in the ears of his heart and echo in his mind, “Now is the time…now if the fulfillment...repent…believe ... I have come to heal the sick, to restore the sinners…” 

 As the retreat moved on Fr. Lataste found himself deeply moved with compassion and mercy, and began calling the inmates his sisters. He told them that the moment they freely chose to claim a clean conscience through confession and then embrace the grace of their baptism with a new spirit, their lives, even as prisoners, would assume a new value. He concluded his several days of retreat with these words, “Whatever may have been your past, do not any longer consider yourselves inmates. You can choose to be people consecrated to God just like the Sisters are...” He assured them that they could turn their lives over to the service and praise God even in prison, just as much as nuns do in the seclusion of their monasteries, because what God looks at is the love and sincerity of the heart, not our external surroundings. 

 The retreat, which Fr. Lataste had originally thought would be “useless and a waste of time”, was an extraordinary success! The inmates, until then rejected and despised women, had suddenly discovered how precious they were in the eyes of God. They had been rehabilitated by his tender mercy. And as a result, several women, after they were released from prison, came to see him. Together, they started a now worldwide religious community called the “Dominican Sisters of Bethany”. It was the first time ever that a religious community was started by ex-convicts and Fr. Lataste had to fight long and hard for its right to exist. 

 To give them a real chance for a totally fresh start, Fr. Lataste made a rule that the membership would include both women who had been in prison and those who had not. This would allow those “with a past” to truly blend in and leave the details of their former lives behind them. If you go today to a monastery of these Sisters, you’ll have no clue as to who is who. Last names are not used in Bethany nor is one’s past ever discussed for good reason. Everything about their community life is structured to assure privacy and support fresh starts, remembering that Fr. Lataste had said, “God does not ask us what we have been; he looks only at what we are today.” 

 This is the very same message of hope that Jesus proclaims to us today. He is calling us seemingly respectable people out of other types of prisons besides those made of brick and mortar. These are the prisons of addiction, of a life of selfishness, lust and greed. The prison of a destructive existence that seems to spiral into hopelessness but which looks so good and normal to others from the outside. Anyone and everyone, no matter who they are, what they are, or where they are, can experience liberation from the inside out by having their slate wiped clean through the mercy of Jesus. And in Christ, anyone and everyone can find hope beyond all hope, simply by starting with the words of the Gospel that we heard proclaimed to each one of us today, “The time of fulfillment is at hand. The Kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe in the Gospel.”

A Community of Dominican Sisters of Bethany Today

We Are All Fixer-Uppers

 

No audio version of my homily is available this week. Only printed form below.

Homily for the 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Feb. 4, 2024. Gospel of St. Mark 1:29-39.  Theme: We’re All Fixer-Uppers 

 

I have to confess that I am a big fan of the many fixer-upper shows on TV these days.  It always amazes me how someone can look beyond the mess and destruction of a totally run-down house and see its future possibility. I enjoy watching the transformation through the various stages of renovation – demolition day, re-wiring, reinforcing weak foundations to make them sound and solid again. And then in the end I marvel at a house that has been totally renewed and restored to the beauty it originally possessed.

 

You know, it seems to me that this can be a good way to look at the healing mission of Jesus, because the truth is that we’re all fixer-uppers. We may not all be in the same dilapidated condition but we all need saving and restoring. Some of us might be like rundown shacks that need our relationship with God and others completely rebuilt from the foundation up. Others might require extensive structural repair due to having been so terribly mistreated and neglected. And then there are those who simply need some spiritual cleaning and refurbishing to make them shine.  But all of us, without exception, need some kind of work to be done so that we can be made new, transformed from the inside out.

 

Jesus looks beyond the mess and even destruction we may have made in our lives and sees the possibilities within us.  He has a burning desire to restore us to what we were always meant to be: holy and happy children of God. That’s why He came into our world as one of us: to heal what is sick, to drive out what is evil, and to fix what is broken. That’s what our Gospel today is all about. That’s why we call it Good News!  So, I think the big question would be:  How do we cooperate with Jesus in this task of repairing and restoring us? Well, like any fixer-upper job we need two fundamental things: a plan or blueprint to follow, and the right tools to get the job done. And Jesus provides both of these for us.

 

We find the blueprint in the example of Jesus himself. His words, his attitude, his actions, his relationships… are all what we are meant to be like as Christians.  This is why frequent and thoughtful reading of the gospels is so vital for us. We simply cannot get to know Jesus and absorb his attitude and behavior in any other way.  This is precisely what St. Paul did in his many letters in the New Testament.  He explains and applies Christ-like living to our everyday situations, so his writings should also be part of our regular spiritual reading and reflection.

But head knowledge is not enough to bring about a change in us. No matter how many times a contractor looks at a blueprint, the house is going to remain in its sorry state until he gets going with the actual work of making the blueprint become a reality. The same is true for us. We need to allow Jesus, the Master Carpenter from Nazareth, to get on with the job of rebuilding us. We have to permit Him to work on us by letting go of our self-sufficiency and by ceasing to cling to our usual ways of thinking and acting. We have to open up the door of our lives to Him, allow Him to enter and grant Him access to every part of us.  

And once we let Him in, the first spiritual tool we need to use is that of repentance. Through our sincere sorrow for selfishness and sin in our lives we can allow His grace to haul away the spiritual junk and debris that has accumulated within us. Then as trash gets cleared away the renovation can begin. We can move forward with the hard task of rebuilding by using such additional tools as prayer, practicing the Beatitudes, spiritual reading, acts of self-denial, and works of mercy for the sake of others.

 

But the most powerful spiritual tool we have at our disposal is our relationship with Christ in the Eucharist.  Holy Communion received with a real desire to become one with Jesus will shore up the weak spots in the foundation of our relationship with God and our neighbor.  Frequent and faith-filled reception of the Lord's Body and Blood will make the framework of our lives more sound and solid.  The more we open our hearts to the power of His Presence within us, the more we will persevere in taking on a new way of thinking, a new way of looking at life, a new way of loving that shows we are being restored, renewed and transformed.

 

It was precisely with all this in mind that we decided to offer the parish  Lent With The Chosen as a spiritual program for Lent. If we spend this Lent seriously following the blueprint of Jesus that we see in the episodes of The Chosen and reflect on in the 40 Days With Jesus book that goes along with it, then when Easter comes around we just might be in for a pleasant surprise. We just might begin to see that what was once an old fixer-upper has been refurbished and restored,  repaired and transformed into a Living Temple of God.  The joy of Easter will be ours as we hope to see fulfilled in us the glorious promise of becoming what we were originally meant to be.