Was Blind But Now I See!

 

Deacon Dave · Was Blind But Now I See

Homily for the 4th Sunday in Lent (Laetare Sunday), March 30, 2025. Gospel of St. John 9:1-41. Theme: Was Blind But Now I See! 

 Today is “Laetare Sunday”, which translated from the Latin means “Rejoicing Sunday”, and so the usual Lenten color of penitential purple at Mass can be replaced with rosy pink, the color of joy. This custom began in the Middle Ages when the fasting of Lent was very severe and ordinary people didn’t use calendars to mark the passing of time. So the change in color was a visual message that Easter was drawing near. However, there were some who didn’t see it as a joyful sign that the extreme fasting was coming to an end. Instead, it reminded them that they still had three more weeks to go! So you see, as with so many things in life, it's all in how we choose to look at them! 

 And this same dynamic is very much apparent in today’s Gospel. Both the healed man and the Pharisees looked at the one and same Jesus, but they each saw two very different things! The man born blind sees the Son of God setting him free from darkness, while the Pharisees see a threat to their religious position which makes them blind to a divine miracle literally staring them in the face. They only see what they want to see because they have already closed their hearts and minds to the truth that Jesus of Nazareth is the long-hoped for, God-sent Messiah. Admitting this truth would dethrone them from their positions of prestige and authority. And so they remain in darkness. 

 This Gospel is illustrating that there are two kinds of blindness and that the worst is that which is self-chosen, self-inflicted. It’s a progressive spiritual disease suffered by those who focus on themselves, on their own needs, their own desires, and adhere to what they call “their own truth.” If left unchecked this condition gradually progresses into a soul-eating moral disease in which darkness obscures from our view the injustices and suffering of others going on all around us. In short, we lose sight not only of God, but of anything and everyone outside the scope of our self-interest and our self-concerns. This is the deep darkness of which Jesus spoke. 

 But Christ proclaims that He has come into our world as the Light of the world. He dispels this darkness, heals spiritual blindness and opens our eyes through the enlightening grace of Baptism. And this is really the subplot of today’s Gospel, conveyed to us by the story’s use of rich symbolism. The man’s blindness from birth stands for the spiritual darkness that afflicts all of us from the first moment of our lives due to original sin. The mud or clay and then the washing of the blind man’s eyes with water represents the action of Baptism through which we are sacramentally cleansed from the muck of sin and selfishness that muddies our spiritual vision. Through the grace of this Sacrament our eyes are opened and we receive the gift of faith by which we are able to see the deeper reality and the spiritual meaning of so many things that those without faith simply cannot see. For example… 

• We can see that the Church is not only an organized religion or a social institution as it appears on surface level, but is in its deeper reality the Mystical Body of the Risen Christ, an echo of his Voice and an instrument of his Presence in the world today. 
• We can see that the Mass is more than a formalized religious ceremony composed of repeated ritual actions, but is in actuality the saving Death and Resurrection of the Lord somehow transcending time and somehow being made present to us in our worship. 
• We can see that care and concern for the poor and sick is not just a humanitarian work as those without faith see it, but is truly a reaching out and touching of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is mystically present in those who suffer, for He Himself has said that what we do or do not do to them, we do or do not do to Him. 
• We can see that marriage is so much more than just a legal civil ceremony held in a beautiful venue as so many think of it today, but rather it’s a holy sacred union, by which God fuses a couple together into one new entity, forming between them a bond so tight that they become but one flesh that cannot be broken except by death. 
• We can see that the problem of acute chronic pain or of struggling with a severe disability does not have to be defined as meaningless suffering, but instead it can be intentionally united with Christ on the cross, transforming it by faith into a personal participation with Him in His Passion offered for the salvation of souls. 
• And we can see that death is not a gloomy chasm of unknown darkness that brings an end to our existence, but is actually a continuation of our lives, as we transition from our time into eternity, and continue on with our existence but in a new dimension, in a new way, a new mode of being. It's really more like moving and having a change of address. 

 And so you see because of the enlightening gift of faith, given to us at Baptism, we have real reason to rejoice today and every day! Christ our Light has opened the eyes of our souls, which peer so much more keenly into the realities of life than those of the body. We can see the truth and do not have to grope our way through darkness like those without faith. The Light of Christ now shines on us and so we can truly make our own the words of the beloved hymn, Amazing Grace, which proclaim: "I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.”

Streams of Living Water

 

Deacon Dave · Streams of Living Water

Homily for the Third Sunday of Lent, March 23. 2025. Gospel of St. John 4:5-42. Theme: Streams of Living Water 

 Today’s Gospel presents us with an account of the longest one-on-one conversation that Jesus had with another person during His public ministry. It’s the story of a deeply wounded woman coming to faith in Jesus, of receiving the gift of Living Water which is the grace of God that brings her new life in Christ, and then transforms her into an instrument for inviting others to discover and claim this gift for themselves. 

 The story opens with Jesus, who is tired and thirsty, encountering a woman of Samaria at a well where He is seeking some rest in the shade. She comes at noon because she knows that the other village women will not be there. They always carry out the heavy task of drawing water in the cool of the morning or the breeze of the evening. She was, you see, a woman marked with a scarlet letter due to her multi-amorous history. When Jesus starts up a chat with the lady at the well He is violating two huge cultural taboos of Judaism: Jews do not speak to Samaritans who were considered to be their sworn enemies. And Jewish men do not speak to strange women in public. Ever. By doing these things, Jesus is ignoring centuries of prejudice and discrimination. But then we know now that this is "vintage Jesus"! That was simply who He was and how He acted. 

 As the story unfolds, the woman gradually opens up to Jesus and He, in turn, gradually reveals His true identity to her. Notice that the various ways she addresses Jesus show that she is undergoing a deepening process in her understanding of who He is. Initially, she calls him “Sir’” as she would any man. Next, she thinks of Him as something more than an ordinary man and calls him a “prophet”. Finally, a light clicks on inside her and she hails Jesus as “the Christ”' (which means “the Messiah” in Greek). In response, Jesus goes one step further and reveals Himself as the source of a mysterious ‘Living Water’ (which is a symbol for God’s life-giving life-changing grace). He knows that this Living Water, this grace of God, is what she really needs. It’s what she has been unknowingly yearning and searching for in her multiple relationships with five different men. 

 As a brief aside, we can see at this point of the story that the Samaritan woman has been "looking for love in all the wrong places" (as a famous country-western song puts it.) I am sure we all know those who have done or are doing the same thing even now. And the wrong places where we so often look for love and happiness can be in many other things besides people and relationships. The accumulation of wealth and property, owning luxuriant houses, wearing only brand-name fashions, running ourselves ragged for professional successes, and feverishly exercising for a youthful and fit physique as an antidote to aging, are all things that that people run after in our quest for love and happiness. At first sight these things seem to be the answer, but after attaining some or many of these goals, our broken hearts remain wounded, our interior desires remain unsatisfied, and our deeper longings continue to cry out for fulfillment. And so, we keep on searching….that is, until we really meet Jesus up close and personal as did the Samaritan woman. 

 Now back to the story. The narrative is briefly interrupted when Jesus’ disciples return and discover Him talking with a Samaritan woman. They were very surprised and probably scandalized! But not one of them asks why because they have learned by now to expect the unexpected when it comes to Jesus! In the meantime, the woman who by then had begun to be filled with the streams of Living Water, races back to her village filled with excitement over the holy man whom she has met. She shouts out to her neighbors whom she had previously been avoiding, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have done. Could this be the Christ?” What a twist in the story! What a change of events! The once rejected and scorned woman has now become a bold messenger of God’s love to her village. Having been introduced to Jesus by the witness of the woman, her neighbors now come to believe in Him for themselves and acclaim Him to be the long-awaited Savior of the world. 

 Our Gospel today is a story full of hopefulness and joy. It’s like a preview for each one of us about the new life that can be ours through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. We just need to follow the example of that Samaritan woman by spending time with Jesus in honest and mutual dialogue speaking simply and clearly from our hearts. Like her, we need to humbly acknowledge our sinfulness and allow Christ to heal our woundedness. We need to thirst as she did for union with Him, which is made possible for us today through the Sacrament of the Eucharist. Holy Communion is our special one-on-one time with Christ and through our frequent and meaningful reception of this Blessed Sacrament we can experience a gradual and ever-growing personal transformation. Like the Samaritan woman, we can introduce Christ to those with whom we live, work and socialize, sharing with them who Jesus is and what a difference He has made in our lives. Then through our witness they, too, can receive the refreshing streams of Living Water by coming to know Christ for themselves, placing their trust in Him as the Savior of their souls!

Saint Joseph, The Man Closest to Jesus

 

Homily for the Solemnity of St. Joseph, March 19, 2025. Gospel of St. Luke 2:22-40. Theme:  Saint Joseph, The Man Closest to Jesus

 The fact that Saint Joseph was a vital figure in the story of our salvation is often overlooked.   Not on purpose, of course, but I suppose it's understandable at least on surface level. Jesus is, and must always be of course, the center and focus of our Faith.  And Mary is always close at hand, right there beside Him. But it seems to me that St. Joseph is too often treated as the "forgotten member of the Holy Family", so to speak. To some extent I guess this is not surprising given that from a theological point of view, he seems to be out-shined by a wife who is the all-holy Immaculate Conception and an adopted Child who is the very Son of God. But I think that if we look at it from a different point of view, from the practical instead of the theological, we might better appreciate St. Joseph, who was the man closest to God on planet Earth.

 Our Holy Father, Pope Francis, who has a strong devotion to St. Joseph, wants to bring him out of the shadows and so has written and spoken much about him.  He has asked us to deepen our understanding of this man whom God appointed to be husband and father, provider and protector of the Holy Family of Nazareth. To do so requires intentional determination  on our part because we know so very little about St. Joseph. Scripture doesn’t say much about him and not a single word of his is recorded for us in the Gospels. But we can learn some basic facts about his life and draw important conclusions about his character if we really just stop and reflect on the little information we do have.

 We are told that he was a descendant of the great King David of Jerusalem who had lived 500 years before him.  But by Joseph’s time the royal family had disintegrated socially and was mixed in among the common people. This didn’t, however, change the fact that Joseph was a branch on David’s family tree and the prophets of Israel foretold that the Messiah would be born from this House of David. But how would this apply to Jesus, who was only biologically born from Mary?  Well, this is where we need to know ancient Jewish law. You see, according to this law when a man officially held and named a child at the 8th Day circumcision ceremony, that baby became his very own son and legally inherited his family line. No questions asked. And so the boy whom Joseph officially named “Jesus” thus became like Joseph a member of the House of David.  So, St. Joseph made it possible for the prophecies of the Messiah's lineage to be fulfilled.

 The Holy Bible gives us only a brief two-word introduction to Joseph.  We find it in the Gospel of St. Matthew where he is described as a “just man”.  In our modern language, we would translate this as a righteous man, a holy man, a virtuous man, a man who always did the right thing even at personal cost. For example, when Joseph was informed of Mary’s inexplicable pregnancy, he could have made a big deal out of it. He could have played the victim. He could have embarrassed her and her family in order to save his reputation. But Joseph was willing to let it go and chose the option of a quiet divorce which would cast shadows on his personal integrity.  By taking this route, people would assume that he had “jumped the gun” to his wedding night and thus blame the out-of-order pregnancy on his lack of chaste self-control. They would assume that “poor Mary” had to submit to his desire. Now, if he had divorced Mary publicly he would be declaring that she had been unfaithful and guilty of adultery.  But Joseph wasn’t willing to do this to her and her family because he was a “just man”.  His self-forgetfulness and heartfelt compassion was rewarded with an angel dream in which he was assured that the Child was of God and reaffirmed his commitment to proceed with the bond of marriage.  This example of St. Joseph calls us to be people of integrity, people of our word, people who think of others and do the right thing no matter what the personal cost.

 Another thing that I notice about Joseph from the Gospel stories is his spirit of prayerfulness that allows him to hear and recognize God’s voice.  We are told how he was able to receive the Lord’s message in dreams and be so convinced that it was indeed God speaking that he did exactly what the dreams indicated. He took Mary as his wife because of a dream. He fled with the Mother and Child to Egypt because of a dream. Years later he returned to Israel with them because of a dream. It seems to me that the only way Joseph could awaken and immediately do what his dreams commanded was because he had trained himself to hear and recognize God’s voice through prayer. This tells me that he must have spent quality time in silent prayer of the heart which breeds a sensitivity to the Divine Presence and Voice.  Through this example, I see St. Joseph calling us to also become people of deep personal prayer and silent meditation, people who learn to hear and recognize the voice of God whispering within us.

 Finally, I am deeply moved by the self-sacrificing love that St. Joseph shows for Jesus and Mary which characterized his entire adult life. His plans for marriage took a turn he didn’t expect when Mary conceived Christ. He sacrificed his sexuality and biological fatherhood, two things deeply dear to every man, for the sake of Mary’s unique role as Mother of the Son of God. And amazingly, it was this ordinary and yet extraordinary Joseph of Nazareth, whom God himself chose to become his male role-model when he came to live in the flesh on planet Earth. The generous and selfless heart of St. Joseph invites us to learn from his example what it looks like to truly love and generously serve those who are entrusted to our care. He devoted his whole life to simply being the best provider and protector, the best husband and father for the Holy Family.

 So, as we celebrate the Solemnity of St Joseph, let's do our best to grow in our understanding and devotion to him. Let’s ask him to help us become virtuous people, prayerful people, people wholly dedicated to loving and serving those with whom we live, work and socialize.  Let’s form the habit of turning to St. Joseph in prayer in our own times of need and with the same confidence that Mary and Jesus had in him. And then just like them, I am sure that we will never ever be disappointed! 

Sharing in the Experience of the Transfiguration

Homily for the Second Sunday of Lent, March 16, 2025. The Gospel of St. Luke 9:28-36. Theme: Sharing in the Experience of the Transfiguration  

The Transfiguration of Jesus was a manifestation of who Christ really was and what his mission as the Messiah was meant to be.  Not only did Peter, James and his brother John catch a glimpse of divinity brilliantly radiating from the Lord, but they also heard the voice of God the Father confirming this divinity, declaring that Jesus was his Chosen Son to Whom they must listen, Whose words they must embrace. The Transfiguration sheds light upon two of the most important doctrines of Christianity: that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God Who lived among us as a man (which we call the “Incarnation”) and that He is the Messiah-Savior who set us free from sin and death (which we call the “Redemption”).

Standing next to Jesus in this mystical vision were two great figures of the Old Testament: Moses and Elijah. They were not there as silent witnesses or simply ornamental adornments.  They appeared as living spirits who spoke with Jesus about the things they themselves had foretold concerning Him long before He came to earth. Moses stood with Christ on that mountain as the spiritual leader of the Covenant People of the Promise. Elijah was there as the representative of all the prophets of ancient Israel whose messages kept the hope of a Messiah alive in the hearts of an oppressed people. The three of them were discussing the upcoming “exodus” of Christ which means His approaching Passion and Resurrection. 

St. Luke uses the word “exodus” to intentionally connect the miraculous liberation of the Hebrews out of Egypt with the Redemption Jesus would “accomplish in Jerusalem” by His Cross and Resurrection. This is a very important detail of today’s Gospel because the disciples, like most of the Jews of their time, had some very erroneous ideas about the Messiah and His mission of liberation. You see, the prophets of Israel had foretold that the Messiah would be a Great Hero who would bring the Chosen People to glory and happiness.  Most Jews interpreted this to mean that He would be a great political Warrior-King. They expected the Messiah to overcome their Roman oppressors and re-establish in their place the righteous Kingdom of Israel.  They clung to this idea because it was what they wanted. It was what they thought that God ought to do. But in hindsight we see that they had misinterpreted the Word of God as spoken through the prophets. They had developed mistaken ideas about God, liberation and glory.

And like them, I think we all run the risk of developing false ideas about who God is and how he should act in our lives. And I’m sure that we all have our own expectations of what God intervening into our lives should look like.  Our default expectation is that God will grant us all our wishes and make our lives happy and perfect, according to how we ourselves  define “happy and perfect”.  And in doing this we become like those Israelites.  We create an unrealistic god for ourselves, a god fashioned according to our own making, a god of our own imagining and hoping. In other words, we are constructing a “magic genie-in-a-bottle” kind of God, so to speak, and we expect Him to make what we want to happen come about  in our lives.  And when this doesn’t happen according to our preconceived plans, we can easily turn on Him. 

This is very much the same as the Jewish people forming a false idea of the Messiah and then rejecting Him because He was not what they expected Him to be.  Peter, James and John had their erroneous notions shaken up on that mount of the Transfiguration and it’s important that we, too, leave our preconceived ideas and unrealistic expectations behind.  And the best way for us to do this is by heeding the words that God the Father spoke at the Transfiguration when He said about Jesus: “This is my chosen Son, listen to him.” 

The dynamics of the disciples at the Transfiguration can teach us how to “listen to Jesus” through the practice of prayer.  First, like them going away to the mountain, we need to go to a place where we can be alone and undisturbed. We need to get away from our daily routine and from the many distractions that life throws at us, so that we can devote quality time to our relationship with God.   Then, just as they contemplated Christ, we can turn to Him in a story from the Gospels and take our time with it.  We ponder it, we reflect on what Chriost is doing and saying in the story we have chosen to read.  We reflect on it thoughtfully, ruminating over it, thinking about how it can relate to us.  We permit the words and images of the story to penetrate our minds and we ask ourselves what it means for my life.  

In this practice of prayer, we can be like those three apostles looking at the transfigured Jesus and taking it all in.  Like Peter speaking to his transfigured Lord, we can ask Jesus to show us what He wants us to learn from this experience. And then we remain interiorly still and  listen for the voice of the 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 can respond back to Jesus sharing with Him our thoughts, feelings and insights into what we have encountered in our prayer. Finally, after our meditation time, we return to our daily duties, treasuring this prayerful experience of Jesus in our hearts, just as Peter, James and John did when they came down off that mountain.  If we practice this type of prayer regularly, we will become more and more aware of the presence of God living within us by grace. We will become more sensitive to the voice of the Lord speaking to us.  We will find that we ourselves are becoming more and more spiritually and interiorly transfigured into the image of Christ, the Chosen Son.

In Solidarity with Jesus

 

Deacon Dave · In Solidarity with Jesus

Homily for the First Sunday of Lent, March 9, 2025. Gospel of St. Luke 4:1-13. Theme: In Solidarity with Jesus 

 Not everything that Jesus said and did is recorded for us in all 4 versions of the Gospel. We might find a particular story in Mark and a different one in Luke, and then maybe something totally unique will pop up in John. But when something in the life of Christ is considered to be of the utmost importance it tends to be found in all four Gospels. The Temptation or Testing of Christ by Satan in today’s Gospel is one of these “must-tell” stories because it teaches us two fundamental things, one about Jesus and another about dealing with temptations. 

 First, it conveys to us the stark reality of Jesus’ full and sinless humanity. He was not God play-acting the role of a human being but became like us in every way except for our propensity towards sin. What this means is that Jesus of Nazareth, in addition to maintaining His divinity, had both a body and soul as we all do. And like each one of us his physicality was subject to the debilitating effects caused by original sin which are suffering, sickness and death. But as God the Son, Christ did not suffer from the wound of original sin that is within each one of us. So when it came to temptation, He did not experience the struggle to do good and avoid evil that originates within us, rather, his encounters with temptation came from outside of Himself. 

 And this is why Satan tempted Jesus at the end of his 40 day fast. The evil one surmised that his only chance of possible success (though he didn’t know he didn't really have a chance) was to attack Jesus at His weakest external moment. He would strike at the opportune time, when Christ was utterly worn out by His extreme fast and probably suffering headaches and blurry vision as well. The fact that Jesus stood up strong to the devil in His diminished condition was proof of His inner sinlessness that remained firm and intact. He was fortified by the Word of God which He had on His lips and in His heart, as St. Paul counsels us in today's Second Reading. Jesus engaged in the spiritual battle of temptation by quoting Scripture. He answered each invitation to sin with the Word of God because it contains great spiritual power. As the Letter to the Hebrews tells us, “The Word of God is alive and active, sharper than any two-edged sword…” (Heb 4:12). And this is exactly the weapon we need when faced with temptation. 

 And that brings us to the second lesson we can learn from this story and that is how we can best deal with temptations. The fact is that all temptations, no matter what they are specifically about, are all aimed at one thing: enticing us to waver in our relationship with God. Because once we begin to waver, we become much easier prey. Every temptation, whether it comes from within us or outside of us, is aimed at causing us to lose trust in God and to fall for the lie that He is simply trying to ruin our fun and limit our freedom. Temptation turns our attention to the messed up and unbalanced desires that are welled up within us and before we know it, we so easily find ourselves caught up in the enticements of greed or gluttony or lust or any other allurement that falsely promise us happiness and fulfillment. And even though we have fallen for these lies over and over in our lives, and have experienced for ourselves that they don't bring us those false promises, we so easily give into them yet again. This is the dynamic of the wound of original sin at work within us but was not at work within Jesus. 

 Inspired by today’s Gospel story, the ancient desert fathers and mothers, who were the first monks and nuns of Christianity, went into the wilderness of Egypt and the Middle East where they engaged in combat with temptation. They taught that every Chrtistian should build up an arsenal of spiritual weapons precisely to combat the attacks of the devil. We can do this by becoming familiar with Scriptures that particularly speak to our personal struggles and temptations. These Bible verses should be short enough to memorize and go straight to the point. The Psalms of the Old Testament and the Beatitudes of Jesus provide us with many of these short and powerful swords of the Word of God that can be directed towards temptations. 

 Another powerful spiritual weapon that these monks and nuns strongly recommend is the Holy Name of Jesus, particularly in the custom of reciting what is called the "Jesus Prayer”. It is easy to memorize and goes like this, "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me, a sinner.” When faced with temptation we can serenely repeat this prayer to ourselves over and over again and it will bring us to a place of interior calm and strength. The desert fathers and mothers found this devotion to be so effective in dealing with temptation that they popularized using a string of beads upon which to repeat the Jesus Prayer and it is still used very much by Christians today. 

 Because temptation is something that every human being must wrestle with until death, all four of the evangelists made a point of including this story in their Gospels. They wanted us to know that Jesus Himself experienced such things and that He is in solidarity with us as we struggle to do good and avoid evil. Their message is that we need never be alone as we face our own personal temptations but can call upon the Lord in our weakness and depend upon Him for strength. But for this to happen, we must choose to intentionally live in solidarity with Him, just as He intentionally chose to live in solidarity with us even in our weakness. This means that we must arm ourselves with the Word of God and call upon the Holy Name of Jesus, both of which are full of power. We must strengthen ourselves with the Sacrament of the Eucharist which is His holy and life-giving Body and Blood, and so deepen our union with Jesus Who will bring His power into our powerlessness and give us victory over temptation.

Fresh Starts & Second Chances

 

Deacon Dave · Fresh Starts & Second Chances

Homily for Ash Wednesday, March 5, 2025. Book of the Prophet Joel 2:12-13. Theme: Fresh Starts & Second Chances 

 Of all the special days within the Church Year, Ash Wednesday seems to draw the largest number of people. Why is that? It’s not a holy day of obligation and it’s always midweek of course…so why do people flock to churches in such great numbers? I think it might be because the Holy Season of Lent, which gets its kick-off on Ash Wednesday, is all about second chances and fresh starts. And who among us doesn’t want a second chance? Who wouldn’t want the opportunity for a fresh start? 

 Our first reading today from the prophet Joel tells us that our hope for second chances and new beginnings is based on the fact that God is “gracious and merciful…slow to anger, rich in kindness and relenting in punishment.” As we begin the spiritual journey of Lent, the prophet encourages us to return to the Lord with all our hearts and to work on our ongoing interior conversion through a commitment to spiritual practices. 

And in today’s Gospel, Jesus echoes this message of the prophet Joel and gives us His teaching on three spiritual practices that are known as the “three pillars of Lent”. These are prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Notice that Jesus’s words assume that we will be carrying out these spiritual practices. For He did not say “IF” you do them but instead He used the more certain terminology of “WHEN” you do them. This clearly tells us that they are not optional for us, His disciples. So as we put together our personal spiritual programs for Lent, let’s be sure to include something from each one of these pillars so that in some way, shape or form prayer, fasting and almsgiving will each find a place in our preparations for Easter. 

 But before moving on to thinking about what we will do for Lent, let’s stay here at Ash Wednesday and consider for a moment the words we hear upon receiving the blessed ashes on our foreheads. They set the tone for the 40 days ahead of us and can give us a clue as to what each one of us needs to do in order to deepen our relationship with God, strengthen our commitment to Christ, and be of better service to our brothers and sisters in need. 

 There are two short Scripture verses that can be said when imposing ashes. The first is, “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.” This verse is from Genesis 3:19. The ashes help us to recall that death came into our human experience as a result of the free choice of Adam and Eve to commit the original sin and that we can choose a different path than they did by our own free decision to leave sin behind. These words also summon us to never forget that our lives on planet Earth are temporary. Our immortal souls, that is the part of us that is really who we are as persons, survive our physical deaths. Our time here is just the first stage of the overall story of our personal eternal existence. Where we are going to spend our eternity is up to each one of us and Lent allows us to reorganize our priorities with this in mind. Ash Wednesday, then, is meant to be the kick-off to a new and improved lifestyle that will lead us to eternal happiness. 

 The second Ash distribution verse is this, “Repent and believe in the Gospel.” This is a direct quote from the lips of Jesus Christ that has been recorded for us in the Gospels. These words formed the very heart and soul of His teachings and summarized His message of salvation. So a good and helpful spiritual practice for us during this holy season would be to simply memorize these three words - Repent… Believe… Gospel - because they set the tone and give us direction for the fresh start and the second chance that we are hoping for during Lent. 

 “Repent” means to make a 180 degree turn in our attitudes and behavior. It means to make a genuine commitment of concrete change in how we think, how we speak and how we act. It reminds us that “talk is cheap” and that we prove our new outlook by the solid evidence of changed behavior. 

 “Believe” means to trust. When we say that we “believe in someone” it means that we have confidence in them. So, where are we to place our trust? In Jesus Christ, our Merciful Savior. Trust is the fruit of a relationship that is rooted in love and Jesus has earned this trust from us by loving us even to the point of dying for our sake. 

 “Gospel” means “good news”. And the good news is this: that “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16). In dying for us, Jesus destroyed the power of sin to control us and our destiny. And by His rising from the grave, He conquered the dark gloominess and finality of death, transforming it into the pathway to eternal life for those who trust in Him. 

 So, there we have our foundation for a fresh start and our hope for a second chance. No matter how we have been living up to now, Ash Wednesday and the Season of Lent are a reminder that we can make a fresh start and have a second chance; that we can always pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin following Jesus all over again.

Time for A Spiritual Vision Checkup!

 

Deacon Dave · 250301_002

Homily for the 8th Sunday in Ordinary Time, March 1, 2025. Gospel of St. Luke 6:39-45. Theme: Time for A Spiritual Vision Checkup! 

 The three major world religions each have a particular passage taken from their holy books which expresses the central teaching of their faith and who they are as a people. One could say it’s a kind of “mission statement” as to how they live out the faith that they profess with their lips. And each of them also have a special time of year particularly devoted to entering deeper into their faith by prayer and repentance, renewing their commitment to God as they understand Him. 

 The mission statement of Judaism, for example, is expressed in the Shema, a prayer that begins with: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone…” and then it goes on to remind the Jews of their obligations to God. And every year - from Rosh Shanna to Yom Kippur - the Jewish people observe 10 days of reflection on how they have lived out their relationship with God. 

 Islam’s mission statement is called the Shahada, which is a very short profession of faith that declares: “There is only one God and only one prophet of God, Mohammed.” Their penitential time of year is the month-long Fast of Ramadan, which calls the Muslim people to submit themselves to spiritual purification. 

 What about Christianity? Our mission statement is taken directly from the lips of Christ and we call it the Great Commandment because that’s what Jesus called it: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. And you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself.” The Great Commandment expresses the very core teaching of the Lord and therefore, it should be enshrined in the heart of every Christian. 

 The collection of short sayings of Jesus in today’s Gospel summon us to refocus our spiritual vision; to examine our interactions with others to see how authentically we are living our mission statement of observing the Great Commandment of Love. 

 Jesus says the bind cannot lead the blind…how is our spiritual eyesight? Are we trying to see life from God’s point of view by reading the Scriptures and pondering them in our hearts? Try reading the Word of God a bit more this Lent to refocus your spiritual vision. 

 Jesus says to remove the beam from our own eye …do we know what constitutes that beam in our eye? That is, are we aware of what behavior or attitude is blocking us from loving God with all that we are and from loving our neighbor as ourselves? Start making a review of the day before you go to sleep. Evaluate where you succeeded and where you need to improve in living as a Christian. 

 Jesus says that what we cherish in our hearts is what will really guide our decisions and actions…So, let’s ask ourselves with gut-honesty: do we hold the Great Commandment of Love as the treasure of our hearts? Is it guiding our relationships? 

Try doing the following simple spiritual practice this Lent: Memorize the Great Commandment and recite it twice a day throughout Lent, so as to enshrine it in your heart. Recite it first thing in the morning to remind you to make choices consistent with your faith. Then repeat it at night as a way to review your day to see where it was lived well and where improvement is needed by God’s grace. 

 This simple program of recalling and repeating the Great Commandment can help keep our mission in mind and remind us to put concrete acts of love into practice throughout the day. This is particularly challenging for us when dealing with people who are regulars in our everyday lives as St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta once said: “It is easy to love the people who are far away. It is not always easy to love those close to us. It is easier to give food to relieve the hunger of a stranger, than it is to relieve the loneliness and pain of someone unloved among our own family. Bring love into your home for this is where our love for each other must start.”

Do I Smell Like a Rose or a Cattlefield?

 

Deacon Dave · Do I Smell Like a Rose or a Cattlefield?

Homily for the 7th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Feb. 23, 2025. Gospel of St. Luke 6:27-38. Topic: Do I Smell Like a Rose or a Cattlefield? 

 During his college years in England, the famous Hindu activist, Mahatma Gandhi, began reading the New Testament simply out of curiosity. Jesus’ teachings made an unexpected and deeply positive impression upon him. He was especially moved by the Gospel passage that we heard today which says: “...love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you…” These words revealed to him that in Christianity there was no room for revenge, retaliation, or “getting even”. Instead, Christians were to intentionally act as peacemakers who choose to break the cycle of violence and aggression when it enters their lives. After reading the Gospels Gandhi exclaimed to a friend, “If you Christians truly believed and lived these teachings of your Master, you would be a powerful force of change throughout the whole world.” 

 He was so impressed by Christ that he began to seriously explore the possibility of becoming a Christian himself. So, one Sunday he decided to attend services at a local Episcopalian church. But as he reached the doors, his entrance was immediately blocked by a minister who greeted him with a racist insult and then laid into him saying, “There’s no room for your kind in this church. Get out of here or I’ll have my ushers throw you down these steps”. Gandhi’s path to Christ had sadly been derailed by the scandalous behavior of someone who claimed the name of Christian but certainly didn’t choose to act like one. Gandhi himself later said, “I would’ve become a Christian myself, if it wasn’t for the Christians.“ However, he never lost his admiration for Christ. 

 He was once asked which means of social communications media he thought would be the most effective way for Christians to spread the teachings of Jesus in the world? He replied: “None of them, for a rose does not need to preach and proclaim itself. It simply spreads its aroma and its attractive fragrance is its own powerful sermon.” I think that this poetic response can be a good opportunity for each of us to ask ourselves: Does my Christianity smell like a rose, attracting others by its fragrance to Jesus? Or does it smell more like a drive down HWY 5 past the cattle-fields of Harris Ranch? 

 I would imagine that while most of us would like to think that we smell like a rose, the truth is that all too often, we reek with the muck of the cattle-fields. The reason for this isn’t because we don’t know the teachings of Jesus or how we should act as Christians. We all know that to love someone in a concrete, tangible fashion means to treat them with kindness no matter who they are or how they treat us. And we all know that we are to forgive those who offend us even when it’s tough to do. And when it comes to judging others, we are well aware that we cannot make a true assessment of anyone’s behavior since we cannot know their minds nor peer into their hearts. And yet…we continue to be rude and to gossip; we continue to judge and condemn people anyway. Why? How come? 

 The Bible tells us that the reason is because the wound of original sin resides within all of us and acts like a spiritual disability that makes us tend towards selfishness. And this is true for everyone because it attaches itself to our human nature from the first moment that we are conceived. But this isn’t a valid excuse for our ongoing unChristian behavior, because Christ has made it possible for this wound to be healed and for the disability it causes to be gradually overcome. He began this healing process for each one of us at our Baptism and continues applying the spiritual medicine of His grace to us throughout our lives IF, and this is a BIG IF…IF we desire it, IF we ask for it and IF we open our hearts to receive it. 

 And we’re not left in the dark as to how this can happen for us. At the Last Supper, Jesus Himself told us that the Word and the Eucharist are two special ways by which He would come to live within us, healing us from the inside out. He promised to make His dwelling place within those who love Him and are obedient to His Word and He also said that He would abide within those who eat His Flesh and drink His Blood, filling them with His Divine Presence and Power. And so it’s through Jesus-living-in-us and strengthening us by Word and Sacrament, that we can gradually become like those roses Gandhi was talking about that exude the sweet aroma of Christ to those around us. By our intentional Christian behavior we can draw others to the Lord or at least give them reason to pause and rethink their ideas about Christ and Christianity. 

 Lent, which will be here very soon, is a time to refocus and renew our relationship with Christ. And at the top of our list of “things to do for Lent” should be an increased devotion to both the Word and the Eucharist. We should ask ourselves how we can make them a more fruitful part of our personal spiritual program. Attending an extra Mass during the week would be an excellent decision because nothing can take the place of actually becoming one with the Risen Lord Jesus in Holy Communion. And in addition to the Liturgy it would be extremely beneficial to spend some quality time with the Word of God every day, for it too brings the Divine Presence and Power of Christ into our hearts. Jesus Himself told us so! And it’s quite simple to do because all you need to bring to this beautiful devotion to the Word of God is yourself and a Bible, so it’s a spiritual practice that can be done by anyone, anytime, anywhere. 

 We each have the duty to work on our relationship with Christ if we want to claim the name of “Christian”. And in claiming this name, we must be sure to act in such a way that we do not become one of those roadblocks to Jesus, such as Gandhi experienced. Instead, we need to become that fragrant rose that preaches Christ simply by its aroma, that is, by the example of authentic Christianity. You see, we each have a great social responsibility in this regard because, as the late Pope Benedict XVI once said, “...people today need to know that the happiness they are seeking, the happiness they have a right to enjoy, has a name and a face: and it is Jesus of Nazareth.”

The Great Paradox of Christianity

 

Deacon Dave · OT6C Beatitudes

Homily for the 6th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Feb. 16, 2025. The Gospel of St. Luke 6:17-26. Topic: The Great Paradox of Christianity 

 Struggle, sacrifice, self-denial…. These are all a part of our lives and not just when things go wrong or are difficult. Oftentimes, we intentionally embrace a challenge when we want to better ourselves or our situation. For example: If we want to advance at work we put in extra effort and time to prove our dedication. If we want to improve our appearance and health we'll take up a strict diet and commit to a program of physical fitness. In other words, if we want something bad enough, we’ll do whatever it takes to get there, 

 In today’s Gospel, Jesus presents us with the challenge of four Beatitudes, a word that means “Blessings” and four “Woe-itudes” (If I may call them that). These teachings are called “paradoxes of Christianity” because they take experiences or situations which seem either ideal or to be avoided and flip them on their backs. Jesus takes things that we would label as blessings and shows that they can also result in a curse. In a similar manner He speaks of difficult situations and shows how they can be turned around to our ultimate benefit. These teachings of the Lord were consoling and hopeful to the people who heard Him. 

We have to remember that most of those who followed Jesus were not the elite and the nobles. Quite the contrary, they were primarily the ones who had absolutely no voice and no status in the world of the Roman Empire. In that culture, if you were a widow or an orphan or a slave or a disabled person or a beggar you were despised and had no recourse or advocate to plead your cause. So when news spread of a man named Jesus, who had great power from God and who declared that the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven would open wide to people like you…well, these downtrodden people treasured His every word and followed Him wherever he went. This is the backdrop to today’s teachings. 

 Christ was telling those who counted for nothing in the eyes of the rich and powerful that their social condition and struggles are not the sum total of who they are. And furthermore, they are actually blessed because their situation in life puts them in a place where, unlike the well-off, they well know that they depend upon God for their daily needs. His words assure them that the justice of God will make right all that was wrong and reward them for remaining faithful even in the most difficult of times. So, he is not counseling them to just stay put and accept their lot in life as if this is the end of their story. Rather, He is lifting up their hearts and assuring them that better times are to come, perhaps here and now but if not, then for sure in the hereafter. 

 On the other hand, Jesus is reminding those who think they have it made in life to stop and think again. He is warning them that a life of abundance can so easily become a trap that leads to woe in the next life. How so? Because, if in their wealth and plenty they did not provide for the needy and the outcast, then their riches will rise up and condemn them at their judgment. It’s an eternal woe to have been so blessed by God but to have been unmindful of others and to not pass it on and pay it forward. However, it’s never too late for them to hear Jesus speaking to their hearts and to repent of their ways. Then they, too, can begin to walk the pathway to the Kingdom of Heaven. 

 To all of His disciples, be they rich and poor, the Lord closes His discourse in today’s Gospel by saying that they will be blessed if people hate them… and cursed with woe if people speak well of them. Why? Because if “worldly people” hate us it means that we must be doing something right as far as living as a Christian goes. It means that we must be reflecting Jesus and his Gospel because He, too, was maltreated for standing up for justice and truth. On the other hand, if those who hate Christ are speaking well of us it’s a pretty good indicator that we are failing in our mission as Christians. You see, an authentic Christian life should be like a “living examination of conscience” in the world. The good that we do and the love that we bear even for those who oppose us should make people stop and make a moral inventory of their lives. But, if our words and behavior do not upset the status quo they will like us or at least leave us alone. However, "playing it safe" by "going along to get along" is in no way, shape or form a viable option for a faithful follower of Jesus. And it definitely does not lead us to the Kingdom of God. 

 So, for our own sake and for the sake of our neighbor, let’s take to heart the words that Jesus speaks to us in today’s Gospel: Blessed are you who struggle. Blessed are you who sacrifice. Blessed are you who embrace self-denial for love of God and others, for you shall be forever rewarded in the Kingdom of Heaven. But woe to you who have served and pampered yourselves in this life. Woe to you who have lived without thought for your needy brothers and sisters. By choosing to have your consolation and your comforts here and now, you have forfeited enjoying them forever in eternity. This is the great paradox of Christianity.

Turning Our Lives Over to God

 

Deacon Dave · Turning Our Lives Over to God

Homily for the 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time, February 9, 2025. Readings: Isaiah 6:1-8; 1 Corinthians 15: 1-11; Gospel of St. Luke 5:1-11. Theme: Turning Our Lives Over to God 

 When we hear the words, “I surrender” or “I give up” we tend to think of the humiliation of defeat, the loss of power and control over our lives. Most of us fight hard against saying these words because we want to avoid being thought of as weak, incompetent or incapable. And yet, one of the many paradoxes in the teachings of Jesus is that we can only become spiritually strong when we admit that we are interiorly weak; we can only be lifted up to greatness after we acknowledge our utter nothingness before God. This is precisely the lesson that all three of the holy men in today's Scriptures teach us. Each one had an up-close-and-personal experience of God which totally transformed their lives. Each one had a life-changing encounter with God that moved them to surrender their own self-image and ideas in order to become what God wanted them to be. 

 In our first reading the prophet Isaiah experienced a profound vision of God in all His glory. Isaiah was hesitant to take up the prophet's mission of calling the people to repentance because he was aware of his own sinfulness. In addition, he knew that saying “yes” to God’s call would bring opposition, rejection and ridicule into his life. And so fear made him hesitant to do what needed to be done. But in beholding the Lord’s glory and being cleansed by the Divine Touch, he surrendered to God saying, “Here I am Lord, send me.” And as a result of his surrender, Isaiah became the greatest prophet of the Messiah in the entire Old Testament. And to this day, almost 3,000 years later we still repeat at every Mass the words that he heard chanted by angels around God’s throne, “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts, heaven and earth are full of your glory…” 

 Our second reading presents us with the experience of St. Paul. In our reading he doesn’t go into the details of how he was called by the Lord (we learn about that from his other writings) but he makes reference to it. Before the Risen Christ appeared to him he was full of himself, cocky, stubborn and arrogant. He was convinced that he was God’s agent and solution to the problem of an annoying little branch of Judaism called The Way, whose members believed Jesus of Nazareth to be the promised Messiah. Surrendering was the very last thing this self-sure Israelite was likely to ever do, so God had to literally knock him to the ground and temporarily blind him so that he could see clearly and exactly the kind of arrogant man he had become. Long story short, Paul did surrender and was transformed into a tireless missionary for Christ, an inspired author of the New Testament, and the Apostle to Gentile Christians. 

 Lastly, our Gospel tells us about the conversion experience of Simon-Peter, which happened while he was having a real bad fishing day. As we know from so many other stories about him, Simon was headstrong, impetuous, and self-sufficient; a totally “alpha” kind of guy. He knew the fishing business like no one else and wasn’t about to be told how to do it more effectively by a carpenter from the backwoods village of Nazareth. But for some reason, perhaps it was the look in Christ’s eyes or the authority in his voice, or maybe cocky Simon thought he would teach this carpenter a lesson, so he decided to give in, to surrender. And lo and behold! He hit the jackpot and ended up with the biggest catch of fish in his career! Simon then surrendered to Christ with as much passion and gusto as he had at first resisted Him, saying, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” The strong-man facade he has built around himself crumbled as he acknowledged who and what he truly was at heart. His dropping of pretenses and self-sufficiency freed him to become Peter, the first pope, the rock upon which Jesus built His Church. 

 It seems to me that all three of these holy men speak to us about our need to get rid of any false self-images and give up the many self-serving plans that we have in mind. They call us to open our hearts in humility and step forward with trust in what God has in mind for us instead. While it is true that all three of them were already connected with God in some way, it was on their own terms. But their stories show us that letting go of the personas we project and the plans that we have in mind for ourselves are nothing compared to what God has in mind for us. The transformation of ourselves into something beautiful for God is indeed possible and the Lord wants to do this for each one of us. But it requires that we turn our lives and our wills over to the care of God every day in a spirit of surrender, willing to give up our own ideas and plans to embrace those of the Lord as did Isaiah, Paul and Simon-Peter.

Jesus the Light of the World

 

Deacon Dave · Jesus the Light of the World

Homily for the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, Feb. 2, 2025. Gospel of St. Luke 2:22-40. Theme: Jesus the Light of the World 

 Today we observe the Presentation of the Infant Jesus, a liturgical celebration that dates all the way back to the Third Century. In times past, the Presentation of the Lord marked the end of the then much-longer Christmas Season because it is the last time in the Bible that we are told about Jesus as a baby. Today’s feast was also known by a secondary title, the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, because along with the baby-dedication ceremony there was also a mandatory Jewish ritual of cleansing a woman spiritually after childbirth. 

 On the surface level, the Presentation of the Lord recalls the time when the Blessed Mother and St. Joseph took their 40-day old Child to the Jerusalem Temple to dedicate Him to God. But it was also the fulfilment of God’s Promise to Israel that His Glory (which means His Presence) would one day return to the Temple to purify it and rededicate it to true worship. To understand this, we need to know a little bit about the backstory. You see, at the time of King Solomon, which was about a thousand years before the birth of Christ, God’s Glory first entered the Temple. The people saw this happen when fire descended from the sky and entered into the sanctuary. This manifestation of the Lord's Presence remained there for centuries but left the Temple after the Jews persisted in worshiping idols instead of the One True God. At that time, the prophet Ezekiel saw the Glory depart from the temple. This leaving and returning of the Divine Presence is what the prophet Malachi is referring to in today’s First Reading. S

o that’s the liturgical and historical background of today’s feast in Judaism. But it also has an additional spiritual meaning for us Christians. This can be found in the words which the elderly Simeon proclaimed as he took the Baby Jesus into his arms, and inspired by the Holy Spirit, called Him the light of revelation to the Gentiles. This meant that Jesus the Messiah had come for all people and not just for Israel. To better appreciate what this title of Christ as the “Light” meant to the people of his time, we have to recall that they did not live in an artificially and constantly illuminated world as we do. 

 There were no street lights nor home electrical systems in those days. We take light for granted in our times and only feel the vulnerability of darkness when we have to endure long-term power outages. But they lived much of their time in darkness dependent upon fires, torches and candles. And so they knew from experience that darkness meant the threat of harm because danger loomed potentially around any corner. So to such people light was a very positive symbol! It was a huge blessing and a welcomed advantage! It meant safety because you could see who was around you and where you were going without losing direction. Light meant safety because criminals would not act up when they could be so easily seen. 

 Jesus is the spiritual Light of the world. His words and actions show us the clear way to live and act. His teachings scatter the darkness of error, dispel the clouds of confusion and lift the fog of superstition. The Light of Christ reveals the real inner truth of things that might look good and desirable to us on the outside, such as some lifestyles that are presented as beautiful, affirming and life giving. But in reality they inject spiritual poison into those who embrace them and shroud them in spiritual darkness. If we turn away Christ and extinguish the light of Faith in our lives we are in danger of harming ourselves because we have chosen to stumble through life on our own, trying to find our way through the darkness. 

 Because the Presentation hails Christ as the Light of the world, the use of candles to celebrate it arose in Jerusalem in the Fourth century. We know this from the journal of a Spanish pilgrim named Egeria, who attended a Presentation Procession in Jerusalem in the year 380 AD. Then during the early Middle Ages the custom arose of blessing candles on today’s feast, carrying them in procession at Mass, and then taking them home to use in personal devotion. This gave rise to nicknaming today’s feast Candlemas, which means Mass of theCandles. 

 Candles are a powerful symbol for the Presence of Christ. They spread warm light in a darkened room. They glow with a gentle light that can bring calmness to the soul and when scented they fill the air with a pleasant aroma. In power outages a candle can become the place where we gather with one another in safety. All of these attributes of a candle can also be applied to Jesus. He enables us to focus on what is important and true; His Presence brings calmness to the soul and His goodness is like a fragrant scent that gets our attention and attracts us to follow Him. Even the physical composition of a candle can speak to us about Christ if we look upon the wax as correlating to His body, the wick to His soul, and the flame as a reminder of His divinity. 

 When we were baptized we received a blessed candle to symbolize the spiritual light of Christ. We were invited to keep this spiritual flame burning brightly and to walk by its light. We were told to allow it to guide our choices and steps through life until the day when the Lord would come to bring us home to Heaven. How have we been doing with this? Are our baptismal lights still shining brightly?

A Jubilee of Hope!

 

Deacon Dave · A Jubilee of Hope!

Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Jan. 26, 2025. Gospel of St. Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21. Theme: A Jubilee of Hope! 

 The Holy Father, Pope Francis, has declared 2025 to be a special Holy Year called the Jubilee of Hope. How appropriate it is, then, that in our Gospel today Jesus also announced the start of a Jubilee when He told the congregation in the Nazareth synagogue that He was initiating “a year acceptable to the Lord”. In ancient Judaism, a Jubilee was a special year and a joyful occasion when slaves were to be set free, debts were to be forgiven, and confiscated lands were to be returned to their rightful owners. 

 However, Jesus was transforming it into a new kind of Jubilee. It wouldn’t be about the restoration of land but rather about the restoration of sight to the blind and health to the sick. It wouldn’t be concerned with eliminating financial loans but on the forgiveness of the debt of sin. And Jesus’ Jubilee would not focus on the return of property but rather on the return of people back to a right relationship with God and one another. In addition, Jesus’ New Jubilee wouldn’t be confined to any particular time or people or place. It would be for anyone anywhere who desires peace of heart on earth and eternal life in Heaven. 

In declaring the Jubilee of 2025, Pope Francis wants us to realize that the Lord can and will do for us today these very same wonderful things that He did for others during His public ministry. The only thing that can stop this from happening in our own lives is us, that is, our own lack of trust in Him. You might recall that in the Gospels whenever Jesus works a miracle and heals someone He always praises their faith, that is, the expectant hope that they have in His power and willingness to help them. It is this kind of faith that is born of hope which brings about their cure. And so for the very reason of building up our confidence in Jesus, the Holy Father has dedicated this special year to the virtue of hope. Hope is a spiritual power that is infused into us at our Baptism along with the virtues of faith and charity. These three divine gifts form a kind of packaged deal, so to speak, that are given to us so that we can live a truly Christian life as God’s adopted children. 

I think we all know that the virtue of faith means that we believe in God and all that He has revealed to us. And I think we would all agree that the virtue of charity is what empowers us to love God and express this love by the way we treat others. But what about Christian hope? What exactly is it? Coming up with the answer tends to be a challenge for many people. I think the best way to define it is to first of all say that it is not the kind of hope that we usually talk about in our everyday language. You see, we use hope as an expression for something that we would like to happen, that we wish would happen, but aren’t really sure if it will or not. This kind of hope is full of uncertainty. It gives us no assurance whatsoever but leaves us wondering, hanging in mid air. 

 But Christian hope, on the other hand, is quite the opposite! It’s the firm conviction that God will always be faithful to His Word. And so we expect, and not simply just wish, that what He says will happen because we know Him to be a Father Who always keeps His promises. Christian hope then can be defined as confident expectation and trust in the Word of God. And the ultimate promise that we confidently expect to be kept is that of our eternal salvation, that is, an existence marked by joy and glory with God and one another in Heaven. 

 But even before then, while we still journey through life here on planet Earth, the virtue of hope comes to our aid. It enables us to persevere through thick and thin, confident in God’s Word which says that all things will ultimately work out for the good of those who trust in Him. Hope buoys us up with the promise of Jesus Who said that He would be with us always and this can help us to not give into worry, temptation and discouragement. So, even if the world around us seems increasingly evil. Even if some of the leadership of the Church seems rampant with corruption. Even if our personal lives are experiencing some sort of turmoil in the present or uncertainty about the future, Christian hope can still continue to shine brightly within us! It assures us that life is worth living and that what we may be going through right now is temporary and will pass. 

 Now, this kind of hope isn’t at all the same thing as being optimistic or exercising “the power of positive thinking”. Those things are based on undependable and fallible human effort. Christian hope, on the other hand, is firmly rooted in God and is an actual supernatural power that always resides within us. We already possess it. We just need to remember this and that it can be activated at any time by faith and prayer. And so to this end, Pope Francis urges us to say to ourselves, “I have hope, because God walks with me and holds my hand. God does not leave me to myself. The Lord Jesus has conquered evil and has opened the path of life for me.” 

 Just as the cross is the symbol for faith and a heart is the symbol of love, so the anchor has become the symbol for hope. This is because God’s Word in the Letter to the Hebrews says, “We have been given hope as a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls.” (Heb. 6:19) This means that just as an anchor safely holds a ship secure during a violent storm, so our trust in Christ can give us stability in times of turbulence and difficulty. With this anchor of hope to ground us, we can face any adversity because another passage of the Word of God from the Letter to the Philippians says, “I have learned that anywhere and at any time I can be content…for I have the strength to face all things by the power of Christ living in me.” (Phil. 4:12-13)

Changing So Much More Than Just Water!

 

Deacon Dave · Changing So Much More Than Just Water!

Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Jan. 19, 2025. Gospel of St. John 2:1-11. Theme: Changing So Much More Than Just Water! 

 The Church’s Liturgy has spent the last two Sundays gradually moving us out of the Christmas Season and back into Ordinary Time. In each step along the way, the Gospels of those Sundays unveil Jesus’ true identity. The first of these was 2 weeks ago on the Solemnity of the Epiphany wherein Jesus was manifested as King of Kings to the Magi. The second revelation took place at last Sunday’s Baptism of the Lord, when Jesus was affirmed by the Father’s voice and the Spirit’s visible manifestation as the Anointed Savior of mankind. And now this Sunday’s Gospel with its demonstration of the Lord’s power over the elements brings us a third revelation of Jesus as Lord and Master of Creation, that is, God come in the flesh. 

 On the surface level of factual history, this event is a recounting of the Lord’s first public miracle. But everything that Christ said and did goes so much deeper than surface level. His words and actions have meaning and application to people of all times and places. And so the story of the wedding at Cana isn’t just about the miraculous transformation of elements. It was just the attention-getting opening act, so to speak, that jump-started Christ’s 3-year long public ministry and turned people’s attention to this previously unknown carpenter from Nazareth. 

This miracle is really about more than changing water into wine. It’s also a sign that Jesus can change people, can change each one of us, from what we are into what we want to become as His disciples. It’s a sign and a promise that we can experience a personal transformation if we listen to Mary’s words to “do whatever He tells you.” Our Lady at Cana encourages us to turn to Jesus, Who will open up whole new possibilities in our lives. Faith, which is another word for trust, is the foundation of this transformational spiritual experience and if we truly place our trust in Jesus then we will see miracles of grace starting to take place within us as the Lord begins to gradually change us from the inside out. 

The first reading in today’s Liturgy sets us up to receive the transformational story of Cana. In it the prophet Isaiah speaks to the people of Israel who are suffering the humiliation of defeat and exile at the hands of their enemies. He tells them that if they trust in God they will be changed from being “Forsaken” and “Abandoned” into being “Chosen” and “Blessed”. To put this into modern day vocabulary, we can say that they will go from being “Failures” and “Losers” into becoming “Champions” and “Winners” by the grace of God. Isaiah’s prophecy is telling us that the negative and hurtful things we have experienced in life are not the last word and that our present - as well as our future - can be free of what we have suffered in our past. He is encouraging us to be faithful to God Who can and will bring good out of bad if we allow His grace to touch and change the trajectory of our lives. It all depends upon our decision to have confidence in God’s love no matter how things might seem in the present and boldly move forward trusting in His Word. Jesus can change our past into a very different and hopeful future, just as He changed ordinary water into fine and expensive wine. 

 Another example of transformation culled from this story can be seen in Cana itself. Before the Lord’s miracle there, it was just another out-of-the-way backwoods village. Which, like Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth, was so insignificant that it wasn’t even on the map. But ever since that unforgettable wedding reception, it has become a place of pilgrimage, a shrine of faith, a sign of hope. So even the transformation of that little town itself teaches us that we don’t have to be awesome and spectacular to attract the attention and miracles of Christ. We don’t have to be great and amazing in the estimation of others to become “somebody” in the eyes of God. He can and will transform our ordinary and often-times humdrum lives by His extraordinary grace if we just trust in Him and follow Mary’s advice to “do whatever He tells you”. 

 And that brings us to another very important lesson of today’s Gospel that we cannot overlook: the presence and role of Mary. St. John emphasizes that she is not just there as one of the wedding guests nor as a witness to her Son’s first miracle. Rather, she is actually the one who brings it about and thus initiates the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. It was at a word from His mother at Cana that Christ recognized that the time had come to reveal Himself and begin the process that would transform His reputation from that of a village carpenter into of the long-awaited Messiah of Israel. The Gospel is showing us that Mary is likewise willing and ready to intercede with Jesus on our behalf about the changes we need in our lives. And it shows that we can be confident that Jesus will be touched by His mother’s concern for us and our needs and work a miracle of grace for us just as He did for her and the Cana newlyweds.