Faith = Trust

 

Deacon Dave · Faith = Trust

Homily for the 12th Sunday of Ordinary Time, June 23, 2024. Gospel of St. Mark 4:35-41. Theme: Faith = Trust 

 Not everything that Jesus said or did was recorded for us in each one of the four gospels. You see, each evangelist (gospel-writer) passed on the meaning and message of Jesus with a particular emphasis that spoke to the needs and and circumstances of his particular Christian community. 

• Matthew’s version, composed for Jewish converts to Christianity, makes significant reference to the Old Testament and includes a comparison of the Jewish Torah to the teachings of Jesus, As a teaching document it is the longest of the four. 
• Mark, on the other hand, is a fast-paced retelling of the story of Jesus. He omits the Lord’s birth and childhood, focusing instead on the adult Christ's power and divinity. He was writing for a Roman community that was on the move and under persecution and so his version is short and to the point. 
• Luke, a highly educated man, approached his gospel with the dedication of an investigative journalist and he tells us this right at the start. He was also the only Gentile evangelist and so he highlights how Jesus came as Savior for all people and not just as the Messiah for Israel. His beloved stories and parables feature those who were looked down upon in Judaism such shepherds, lepers, women, Samaritans and public sinners. 
• John composed his gospel long after the other three, finishing it towards the end of the first century AD. This gave him many decades during which to meditate on Jesus' words and miracles and so delve deeper into their message and meaning. And since he lived long enough to see the liturgy develop, his gospel teaches us about the spiritual gifts of Baptism, Eucharist and Confession. 

 And so it is that we find some teachings and stories about Jesus in this or that Gospel, and other words and miracles of his in another. Once in a while we find the same event in all four and when we do, it means we really need to pay attention and learn from it. And that’s exactly the case in today’s Liturgy which recounts for us the miracle of Jesus calming the stormy sea. Now, why was it that this story became of such great meaning and importance? Because at the time the gospels were written (60-90 AD) the fledgling Christian community was being harassed and persecuted in various ways. The deacon St. Stephen had been martyred by militant Jews and the apostle St. James the Greater had been beheaded by order of King Herod. The Jerusalem Christians were migrating to other parts of the Empire but then bloody persecution broke out in Rome itself and there were few safe places to hide or live. And so the various Church communities needed assurance that the Risen Lord Jesus was not “asleep in the boat” but still in charge and would rescue them from all the dangers swirling around them. 

 They found comfort and hope in the words that Jesus spoke to the frightened disciples in today’s Gospel, “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?” He is in effect asking them if they still do not yet recognize who he really is? And if they do, don’t they realize that they can trust in him? The disciples believed that Christ could do all sorts of amazing and powerful things for they had seen him expelling demons, cleansing lepers, restoring sight to the blind, and even raising the dead. And yet...they panic and falter. It hasn’t all really sunk in yet. They haven't opened their hearts to trust in him but only their minds to be amazed by him. Aren't we like that as well? Even though we have experienced how God powerfully has worked in our lives and helped us in so many ways don’t we too...panic and falter? Jesus is basically asking them - and through this story asking us as well - to make the transition from belief to faith. 

 Faith and Belief are related but not they are not identical. We have faith in a person based on how well we know them and the positive experiences we have had with them. We describe this kind of faith with the word, "trust". Belief, on the other hand, is not at all personal or relational. Rather, it’s the assent of our intellect to things that have been proven to be logical or at least simply accepted-as-true. So we can say that while belief is a matter of the mind, faith is a matter of the heart. But often we mistakenly use these words interchangeably. And doing so can mislead us into thinking that we have a faith-relationship with Christ when what we might really have is simply an intellectual assent to some basic facts about him. It's a matter of “knowing Jesus” (faith) or just “knowing about Jesus” (belief). 

 Let’s use the Creed at Mass for an example. When we stand to "profess our faith" by reciting a series of Christian doctrines we are vocalizing our belief in what we have been taught about Jesus and Christianity. If that is the extent to which the Creed makes an impression in our lives then we’re simply reciting religious statements and nothing more. Anyone can say those words. But, if the Creed flows from the conviction of our hearts that Jesus is indeed risen and alive, that he is active and present in our lives today, then these words become an outward expression of interior faith. And in such a case the Creed becomes a privileged moment when both our head and our heart embrace to give praise and worship to God. 

 No matter who we are, where we live, or what our situation might be, stuff happens in life that threatens our happiness and can challenge our relationships. Situations arise that can cause us to panic and falter. And so we all need to know the love and power of Christ from lived-experience in order for our intellectual belief to mature into a trusting faith. Like those disciples we, too, need to personally rediscover and experience Jesus as alive and present to us NOW and he wants us to have this experience, but we need to first give him permission to do so in our lives. It is ours for the asking IF we truly want it. We just need to ask with expectation, which is another form of trust, and it will be ours, for Jesus himself said, "Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you..." (Mt 7:7)

The Seed of the Kingdom of God

 

Deacon Dave · The Seed of the Kingdom of God

Homily for the 11th Sunday of Ordinary Time, June 16, 2024. Gospel: Mark 4:26-34. Theme: The Seed of the Kingdom of God 

 In today’s gospel Jesus refers to the “Kingdom of God”, a phrase that’s used 122 times in the New Testament, with 90 of these coming from the lips of Jesus himself! I am not saying this just to throw out some kind of Bible-study stats but to emphasize and re-emphasize that the Kingdom of God was Jesus’ primary focus and theme in all of his preaching, teaching and miracles. And so it should also be extremely important to us who follow him and bear his name as Christians. 

 And so we need to ask: what is the "Kingdom of God''? It’s a concept rooted in the Old Testament that God’s royal authority, that is, his reign or rule of justice, peace and blessing for all people will one day be manifested on planet Earth. The prophets foretold that this would happen most powerfully and perfectly when the Messiah arrived. This is why the very first words out of Jesus’ mouth when he began his public mission were these, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mk 1:15) This was a way of declaring that he was indeed the Messiah, that the time had finally arrived for the prophecies to be fulfilled. Through him, God was personally breaking and bursting into human history, and inaugurating his Kingdom of love, peace and justice. 

 Jesus calls everyone he encounters to enter into this Kingdom. And in his words which I quoted above, he informs us that the way we do so is by first of all repenting of our sins. You see, our sins are tangible signs or proof that we are not living under the royal authority of God but according to our own authority. We have to dethrone ourselves so that God can have that primacy of place in our lives. The next step then is to believe or trust in the Gospel. Trust is a sign and fruit of a confident relationship, so believing in the Gospel means that we trust in Jesus because we believe he only wants what is good for us. 

 So you see, the phrase, “Kingdom of God'' doesn't refer to a place but to an attitude of loving submission to God and the acceptance of his reign within us and over us. To live in the Kingdom of God means to encounter Jesus Christ and receive from him a renewed and transformed inner state of being. This spiritual experience first happens for us at Baptism and is deepened at Confirmation. Jesus himself taught us this when he said, "No one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.” (Jn 3:5) Water and the Spirit. Baptism and Confirmation. And he called this spiritual rebirth in the Kingdom being “born again” because it gives us a new beginning. By the power of the Holy Spirit, the grace of God changes us from the inside out and transforms even the most wrecked and devastated of lives. This is because God doesn’t hold grudges nor keep us locked in the box of who and what we once were. God looks at what we are now and sees what we want to become. 

 So, if having been baptized and confirmed doesn’t seem to have made us any different from non-baptized people, does this mean that the seed of the Kingdom was not planted within us? Not, not at all. But what it might mean is that the seed has not received the proper care and feeding it needs to be activated and begin sprouting a noticeable Christian life. However, it is still there deep within us, waiting for the attention it needs. You see, most of us were baptized as infants and so Confirmation was our opportunity to reaffirm that Baptism and claim its grace in our lives. But it’s quite possible and probable that we went to our Confirmation without any awareness of or real desire for what it offered us. 

 But that can change and the seed of the Kingdom can still be activated! Once we realize that we truly need God and submit our hearts to his royal authority in our lives, the Kingdom-seed of new life planted within us can begin to germinate and grow. If we water it with prayer, fertilize it with the Word of God, and feed it with the Eucharist, it can become like the mustard seed mentioned by Jesus, which goes from being an almost insignificant seed to becoming a large impressive tree. 

 So anyone who has been baptized and confirmed can make a conscious and deliberate choice to activate this growth. At any time in their lives they can begin experiencing the spiritual joy of what it means to be born again! This experience will lead us to enthrone Jesus as King of our hearts and Master of our lives. It will allow and enable Christ to establish his reign of peace, his rule of love and his realm of justice within us, through us and to those around us.

All in the Family

 

Deacon Dave · All in the Family

Homily for the 10th Sunday of Ordinary Time, June 9, 2024. Gospel of St. Mark 3:20-35. Theme: All in The Family 

 Quite often when people start reading the Gospels on a regular basis they come upon today’s passage about Jesus’ family conflict and it makes them stop and think. Perhaps they have never really reflected on the fact that Jesus was part of a regular ordinary everyday extended family and that just like the rest of us, his was made up of all kinds of characters and personalities. They had their own firm set of ideas and their own preconceived judgments. The Gospels make it very clear in a few places that Jesus’ relatives (called brothers, and we’ll get to that in a minute) were definitely not members of his fan club! With the known exception of his mother, Mary, they pretty much thought that he was out of his mind. I feel sorry for what the Blessed Mother must’ve had to hear from her kinfolk concerning what they thought about her Son. 

 The mention of Jesus' brothers often confuses people because we are taught that Mary was ever-virgin and that Jesus didn’t have any blood-siblings. Yet, St. Mark and other gospel-writers mention his brothers and sisters…so, what’s up with that? The answer is actually quite simple if we step out of our 21st century American mindset and go back to ancient Palestine. You see, in that culture there was no strict designation made between various degrees of kinship. Apart from parents and grandparents, basically all relatives were simply referred to as one’s brothers and sisters. And this is how Christians have always understood that verse of Scripture. However, as a result of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, those who sought to contest all Catholic teaching also tried to undermine this ancient belief about the perpetual virginity of Mary. Sadly, their efforts persist to this day and cause confusion for some people. 

 But going back to Jesus’ family conflict, I bet many of us can relate to this in our own lives in one way or another. Quite often when we find ourselves being among the few, or maybe even the only one, in our extended family who has a real faith in Jesus, it can become rough going. Our commitment to daily prayer, to reading the Scriptures, to going to Confession when needed, and to faithfully attending Mass can be met with misunderstanding. Our refusal to participate in gossip or other immoral behaviors can become an occasion for ridicule. At times like that we need to think of how Jesus was hurt by his family’s words and actions and ask him for the strength to follow his example of returning only kindness towards those who misunderstand us. 

 Because Jesus’ relatives and villagers were the people he grew up with, they simply could not believe that he was who and what he said he was. They had closed their hearts and minds to the possibility that Jesus, the son of Mary, the village carpenter, their cousin, the guy they grew up with, was the long-awaited much-promised Messiah of God. They just could not perceive that he could be anything more than they were. I think it’s a witness to the truth of the saying that “familiarity breeds contempt”...and if not contempt, then I would certainly say that at least, familiarity breeds apathy. And this is where I think we arrive at a very important and personal question that today’s Gospel is asking each one of us to honestly ponder. 

 Have we, perhaps even unintentionally, become infected with some of that apathetic familiarity virus? Are we so used to hearing and talking about Jesus that he has become kind of like the guy-next-door? What I mean is…when we hear a Gospel story at Mass do we run ahead of it in our minds and finish the story without giving it a chance to really sink in? Are we no longer impressed by the miracle stories because we’ve heard them so many times? Does the drama and intrigue of the Passion no longer move us because we know how it all ends? Has Jesus and the Gospel become an all-too-familiar matter for us? 

 If so, then we need to nip it in the bud and ask the Holy Spirit to reignite the flame of love within us. You know, Jesus called the Holy Spirit the “power from on high” and in its original Greek this is the same word that we use for dynamite! We need to ask the Spirit of the Living God to blow our apathy out of the water and cause an explosion of faith to erupt within us once again. We need to make time to re-personalize and rekindle our relationship with Jesus, like two friends who make a point of getting together regularly to keep the friendship growing. If we are faithful to intentionally re-discovering the specialness of Jesus, he will bless our efforts, deepen our faith and work many mighty wonders in our lives. 

 Oh, and don’t ever give up hope over any family members who may be in conflict with you about faith in Jesus. James and Simeon, two of the Lord’s relatives who originally tried to stop him from making a fool of himself and the family, ended up becoming disciples and saints. Both of them became in succession the first two bishops of Jerusalem and each gave up their very lives in martyrdom for their cousin, Jesus. Just another reminder of what Jesus used to say…”nothing is impossible to God!”

Looking Beyond the Senses

 

Deacon Dave · Looking Beyond the Senses

Homily for Corpus Christi Sunday, June 2, 2024. Gospel of St. Mark 14:12-26. Theme: Looking Beyond the Senses 

 Today’s celebration of Corpus Christi, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, became a special liturgy in the Church in a very unusual way back in the 13th century. At that time, a priest from the Czech Republic, known today only as Fr. Peter was on a pilgrimage to Rome. Along the way he stopped in Bolsena, Italy, to celebrate Mass. He had been struggling with questions about the Eucharist, debating within himself as to whether it was simply specially blessed bread and wine or in fact the Flesh and Blood of Christ. Such thoughts as these were troubling his mind as he began Mass that morning. Then during the consecration when he repeated Jesus’ words from the Last Supper, crimson red blood started dripping from the Consecrated Host in his hands and fell upon the altar cloth! 

 Fr. Peter wrapped the Host in the blood-stained linen and, along with those who had witnessed the miracle, brought it to Pope Urban IV who happened to be in the nearby town of Orvieto. After a detailed investigation into the alleged miracle the Holy Father concluded that it was genuine and had the sacred altar cloth enshrined in the cathedral of Orvieto (where it can still be seen and venerated). He established the Solemnity of Corpus Christi in thanksgiving for the gift of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist and he commissioned the great St. Thomas Aquinas to compose prayers and Eucharistic hymns for its celebration that we still use today. 

 But this Eucharistic Miracle of Bolsena was not an isolated event in Church history. There have been about 130 documented and scientifically examined similar experiences, all of which point to the fact that what our senses tell us about the Eucharist is not the whole story. Or to put it more simply, when it comes to the Blessed Sacrament what we see is not what we get! The most recent and amazing of these eucharistic miracles happened in Buenos Aires in 1996 and the bishop who investigated it is now Pope Francis. In that particular case, the Host did not just bleed as in Bolsena but part of it actually turned into tangible human flesh while the remainder of it retained its usual appearance. 

 Without revealing anything of its backstory, Church authorities sent a specimen of this transformed host to the most well-respected and state-of-the-art research lab in New York. The forensic results concluded that it contained blood type AB+, which is the same blood type that has been discovered in lab tests of other eucharistic miracles. Curiously, it is also the same blood type that was found on the famous Shroud of Turin. In addition, the tissue sample was assessed as coming from the heart of a Middle-Eastern male, which shouldn’t surprise us because Jesus was a Galilean Jew and the Eucharist is often referred to as a gift of love from his Sacred Heart. But most astounding is that even though the specimen was 3 years old at the time of its examination, the researchers concluded that it was taken from a living person because of the microscopic presence and behavior of active white blood cells. This discovery reminds us that in Holy Communion we do not receive the Body and Blood of a dead and long-gone Savior but rather that of a Risen and Living Lord. This is why our cantor today sang Jesus’ words during the Alleluia that proclaim: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven…”. 

The Living Bread. I think most of us can honestly admit that at one time or another we have had our own questions about the Eucharist. After all, it's only natural that such thoughts should eventually come to mind. And we may have also wondered why Jesus didn't just do it differently so that the full reality of this Sacrament could be beyond any question or doubt. But when you really think about it, it makes sense that the externals of bread and wine remain unchanged, because who of us would want to receive Holy Communion if they visibly became what they really are? Who among us would approach this Holy Sacrament if the reality of flesh and blood was tangible to our senses? 

 The tension that exists between what our human senses perceive and what our faith tells us is really nothing new about Jesus. After all, when he lived on planet Earth the full reality of who he really was couldn’t be experienced by the senses either. What I mean is that when people looked at the man they called Jesus of Nazareth, what they saw and smelled and touched and heard was an ordinary Jewish man, in his 30’s, fit and strong from his work as a laborer, speaking with a heavy Galilean accent, and having the smell of many days on the road without a bath. However, what their senses could not tell them was that the Eternal Son of God, the Lord of Glory, was standing right there in front of them! This truth was hidden from them by the outward appearances of flesh and bone just as the truth about the Eucharist is hidden from us by the outward appearances of bread and wine. 

 And so, recalling the words of Jesus and reaffirming what the Catholic Church has always taught about the Eucharist, we have to look beyond what our senses tell us. We have to admit that there is so much more to reality than only what we can see and touch and understand. We need to trust, to make an act of faith, knowing that God would not and could not deceive us. And so we must look beyond the appearance of the Consecrated Host held up before our eyes at Holy Communion and remember that Jesus said, “This is my body given for you…”. We must look beyond the Consecrated Wine in the chalice and remember the words of Christ at the Last Supper: “This is my blood, poured out for you.”

Photos of Some Authenticated Eucharistic Miracles 

where the Host turned to Flesh & Blood.