The Hard Sayings of Jesus

 

Deacon Dave · The Hard Sayings of Jesus

Homily for the 23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Sept. 7, 20225. Gospel of St. Luke 14:25-43. Philemon 9-10, 12-17. Theme: The Hard Sayings of Jesus 

 I want to focus on our Second Reading, but I can't pass on explaining some potentially confusing words of Jesus that we hear in the Gospel today. So let me touch briefly on that first and then we’ll dive into the unusual and powerful Letter to Philemon. 

 When Christ talks about hating one's family and hating one's life, he is using a common idiom in his culture that means “to love less than”. He does not mean hate as we understand it as “detest” or “despise”. What Jesus is emphasizing is that our love and allegiance must be given to him first and above all of our other relationships. And when he talks of “renouncing” ones’ possessions, it’s another way of saying that we must be detached from the money we have and indifferent to the material goods we have accumulated. In other words, should our wealth and personal goods be taken away, it would not change our attachment to him. So, “hating” and “renouncing” are other ways of saying that we stand in need of conversion of heart, renewal of mind, and reorientation of priorities with Jesus as the Center. 

 We see these “hard sayings of Jesus” (as they have come to be called) lived out in a powerful way in the Letter to Philemon from which our Second Reading is taken. There are three main characters involved in the story: the Apostle Paul (the letter-writer), Philemon (the letter’s primary recipient) and Onesimus (the subject of the letter). Another thing we need to know in order to understand the full impact of our Second Reading is the backstory that leads up to the passage read at Mass. Philemon is such a short letter (it fits on one side of a sheet of paper) that I strongly recommend reading the whole thing so as to put today's passage in its proper perspective. 

 Ok so on to the backstory. Philemon was a well-respected Christian leader. We know he was extremely wealthy and prominent because the Christian community in his city gathered for Mass in his spacious home (there were no churches in early Christianity due to persecution). We also know of his upper class status because he had slaves and one of them, a pagan named Onesimus, seems to have done him some serious wrong and then hightailed it out of town! But the runaway eventually got arrested and was thrown into prison where he met Paul, who converted him to Christianity. The two of them formed a tight bond with one another. 

 It’s at this point that we come into the story in our Second Reading. Paul calls Philemon to have mercy on Onesimus and gives him accountability by making sure the letter is not private. It is also addressed to Apphia (Mrs. Philemon) and Archippus (his pastor) as well as to the entire parish! So everyone knows what is going on and is watching to see if Philemon will rise to the occasion and do the right thing. Paul urges him to reorient his relationship with Onesiumus now that the two of them had been made one in Christ by Baptism. Philemon was to see that they were equals and Onesimus was to be treated as a brother and not a slave. This might all sound pretty neat and clean to us but in 1st century Roman culture it was radical and revolutionary! 

 Paul was calling Philemon to a radical revamping of his attitudes based on Christ’s hard sayings in today’s Gospel. As a disciple of the Lord, Philemon was to love God more than his role as church-leader, more than his reputation, and more than himself. He was being asked to carry the cross of possible social humiliation by being a master who sees himself as equal to his slave. He was being called by Paul to give a real life example to his home-church parish of Jesus’ teaching about detachment and renunciation for the sake of the Kingdom of God! 

 The Letter to Philemon is a summons for all of us to reexamine our lives, our relationships, and our attitudes in the light of the hard sayings of Jesus. This means that we probably will need to reform and revamp our relationships with people and possessions as well as how we see ourselves. But like Philemon, we can find hope and help to do so in our parish community. For it is there that we celebrate and receive the Eucharist that gives us the supernatural strength to actually live these (and other) hard sayings of Jesus. And in our parish community we should be able to meet like-minded Christians whose example and spiritual support help us along this difficult pathway. A parish should be more than just where we show up on the weekend for Mass. 

 Oh! Do you wonder what happened to Philemon and Onesimus? Did they do as Paul said or did they have a bigger falling out? Well, Philemon was so deeply changed by Paul’s words that he sent copies of the letter to all of the Christian churches so that they, too, could learn that all the baptized are equal in God’s eyes and all are to live at-oneness with each other: rich or poor, slave or free, man or woman. As for Onesimus, he became a missionary of the Gospel and later in life was made the Bishop of Ephesus in Turkey, eventually becoming a martyr for Jesus Christ. Isn’t it amazing what God's grace can do to change hearts and transform lives once we choose to lower our pride and humbly set out to put the hard sayings of Jesus into practice?

Grounded in Truth, Living in Reality

 

Deacon Dave · Grounded in Truth, Living in Reality

Homily for the 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, August 31, 2025. Gospel of Luke 14:1-14. Theme: Grounded in Truth, Living in Reality 

 Considering Jesus’ typically uneasy relationship with most of the Jewish leaders, it’s a bit surprising to hear in today’s Gospel that He was a guest at a Pharisee Sabbath dinner. However, St. Luke tells us that he was being “observed carefully” by those in attendance, which makes the invite look like it was a possible set-up for potential entrapment. You see, the religious leaders were always on the lookout for ways to discredit Jesus because he was a threat to their power and prestige. The humble honesty of Christ exalted him in the eyes of the people while at the same time the arrogant pride of the Pharisees cast them down into an unfavorable position. And it’s this interplay between pride and humility that is at the heart of the parable in today's Gospel. 

 Pride fools us into having an over-exaggerated opinion of ourselves. It makes us constantly seek recognition. It makes us compare ourselves to others, always wanting the best seat at the table as Jesus put it in today’s parable. What he means by this is that pride is an insatiable hunger for more praise and a greater share of attention. It makes us measure ourselves against others and puts nagging questions into our minds such as: “Am I smarter? More successful? Better liked?” But pride is never satisfied and if left unchecked it can grow into such an immense distortion of our self-importance that we end up dethroning God as Lord of our lives and setting ourselves up in that place of honor. 

 The Scriptures teach us that this is precisely what happened when because of pride the once-glorious angel of light named Lucifer became Satan, the devil and adversary of all that is good. And that it was because of pride that the once-holy and innocent Adam and Eve became the doorways through which sin and death entered into our human experience. In both cases, pride cunningly fooled them - and can still fool us - into thinking that we know better than our Creator. Pride whispers to us the ancient lie that we can find happiness apart from God and this lie plants the seed of distrust towards him in our hearts. 

 But humility, on the other hand, sets us free from pre-occupation with self. It’s the virtue of self-honesty that grounds us in truth and has us living firmly in reality. Humility prevents us from fooling ourselves by giving us a proper persepctive of who God is and who we are. Contrary to what people often think, humility isn’t weakness nor is it a matter of putting oneself down. It doesn’t mean thinking less of ourselves, but rather it means thinking of ourselves less. It means recognizing that everything we are and have is a gift from God and so it moves us to live in gratitude. Being humble doesn’t mean refusing to acknowledge our talents or to deflect praise for a job well done. Rather, it enables us to own our achievements and accomplishments while reminding us that they were made possible in the first place only by the free and gracious gift of God and so we give him the glory! 

 Humble people walk in the light of Jesus’ Great Commandment to love and serve God and neighbor. And in doing so they reorient their outlook from self-centeredness to God-centeredness and other-centeredness. You see, while pride tells us to put ourselves above others, humility moves us to walk beside them. While pride says, “I must be served”, humility says, “I must be of service.” Pride turns our gaze inward, while humility opens our eyes wide open to the needs of our neighbor. And so the humble place their freedom at the service of love, accepting even inconvenience to themselves for the sake of bringing convenience to another. 

 A very beautiful thing about humility is that it brings us benefits on both the natural and supernatural levels. On the natural level it allows us to be known and loved for who we really are, and this is something that every single human being, every one of us, deeply desires with all our hearts. Humility does this for us because the gut-honesty that it requires means that we can take off the masks that we wear. We can drop our defenses, we can stop hiding behind facades, and we can discard all pretenses as we allow others to know and accept and love the real us as God created us to be. 

 And on the supernatural level humility enables us to see and accept our spiritual poverty, a quality that Jesus praises and calls “littleness” or “lowliness”. From beginning to end the Sacred Scriptures tell us that God finds this attitude precious and irresistible. Spiritual poverty opens our hearts to the grace of God and moves us to reach out to him because we know that without God’s help we simply cannot do what is right and good. And so the saints all tell us that humility is the starting point for living a life on planet Earth that is destined to end up in Paradise. This is why the very first beatitude that Jesus spoke at the beginning of his ministry was in praise of humility when he said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.”

The Cost of Discipleship

 

Deacon Dave · 250816_001

Homily for the 20th Sunday of Ordinary Time, August 17, 2025. The Gospel of St. Luke 2:49-53. Theme: The Cost of Discipleship 

 This Sunday’s Gospel presents us with an unexpected image of Jesus that seems like an “about face” change in personality. Most people tend to think of him as a gentle spiritual preacher of universal love, and of course, there’s some truth to that image. But the Gospels also present us with a Jesus who is bold and demanding, such as when he proclaimed that loving and following him must come first among our many relationships (see Matthew 10:37). This is the fiery-spirited Jesus that St. Luke is showing us in today’s Gospel. Like Jeremiah in our first reading, Christ is speaking the truth to us even if it makes us uncomfortable. 

 I’m sure it sounds quite shocking to hear that our friendship with Christ can alienate us from loved ones and even give rise to the destruction of relationships. And yet that’s exactly what happened to so many converts, especially but not exclusively, in the first few centuries of Christianity. Before the Church became a legal religion of the Roman Empire in the 4th century, following Jesus was often a heart-wrenching decision that tore families apart. For example, the young brave virgin-martyrs, Saints Barabra and Dymphna, were beheaded by their own fathers because they refused to deny Christ! Professing faith in Christ often meant being cut off from the social safety nets of family, income and protection. 

 And so, the early Church made converts pass through a testing-time that was several years long before being baptized! They had to be convinced of who and what Jesus was and prove that they were not simply giving in to a passing fascination. And because the stakes can still be high when choosing to become a Christian we still require that the unbaptized go through a time of intense focus and personal examination through the OCIA (formerly called RCIA). It’s not as long as it was in ancient times but it still has the exact same purpose: to help them discern if they truly want to follow Christ even at the cost of potentially disrupting some of their relationships. 

 But you know, this upset in relationships wasn’t just confined to the early Christians. St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American-born saint, was related to the Roosevelts and came from among the most upper class families of colonial New York. George Washington and some of the Founding Fathers of our nation were not just names to her but actual social acquaintances. Even though newly widowed and in dire need, she was shunned by family and friends when she became Catholic, leaving her with only a handful of relationships still intact. But this cross of suffering which she embraced for her fidelity to Christ brought about many blessings. Some of her relatives and friends were later drawn to Catholicism and with a couple of them she founded the first religious sisterhood in the brand new USA. They were called the Sisters of Charity and started the Catholic parochial school system which spread throughout the nation. 

 But you know, being harassed or even facing death because of our Faith happens today in many nations and cultures. And it can even happen right here in the USA, in Marin County because people today do not like to hear that they are being wayward in their moral behavior anymore than they did way back in Jeremiah’s or Jesus' times. When the Gospel of Christ conflicts with popular cultural thought there is bound to be friction. And when the teachings of our deeply cherished faith oppose the moral standards of our family, friends, or co-workers the sword of division can become very sharp. Our serious personal fidelity to the Word of God can make others uneasy and cause a torrent of hurtful accusations to rain down upon us. But the witness of our unswerving fidelity to Jesus, even above our most precious relationships, is powerful and can cause others to pause and ponder. Many have been brought to Christ by just such an example. 

 At those times when we find ourselves thinking that it would be so much easier to just go along to get along, we need to take time out and pray from the heart. We need to re-energize our love for Jesus by warming ourselves at the fire of faith that He came to set ablaze on planet Earth, the fire He talks about in today’s Gospel. It’s a spiritual fire, a holy fire, that will invigorate us. It’s the fire of God’s Love that engulfed the heart of Jesus and motivated Him in all that He did. It’s the fire of the Holy Spirit burning within us so that through us the light of truth and goodness can shine upon a very dark and confused world.

Have No Fear Little Flock...

 

Deacon Dave · 250809_002

Homily for the 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time, August 10, 2025. The Gospel of St. Luke 12:32-48. Theme: Have No Fear Little Flock… 

Jesus says a lot of important things in just a few words in this Sunday’s Gospel. We don’t have to go any further than the opening line that says, “Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.” This short little sentence from Jesus contains a treasure-trove of hopeful promises that can totally transform the quality of our lives if we just take them to heart and do our best to live them. 

The first promise is that we never need to live in fear. You know, I think it’s very interesting that Scripture scholars have said that the hopeful message to “fear not” is found in the Bible 365 times. It’s as if God doesn’t want us to go through a single day of the year without hearing His words of comfort! The rejection of fear has always been connected with Jesus, from His birth when the angel told the shepherds to “fear not” (Luke 2:10) to His Resurrection when the holy women were advised to “not be afraid” (Matthew 28:5), So we see that Jesus’ message is rooted in peace, in the call to reject fear. And since God never asks the impossible of us, we can put our trust in Him and lay claim to this promise by the help of his grace. 

The second promise is hidden in Jesus calling us his “little flock”. These words of ownership and endearment reveal the intimacy of His gentle and compassionate heart. Nothing was more precious to a shepherd than his flock. He watched over every sheep within it even to the point of defending them with his own life. He will walk with us as our Good Shepherd, seeing to the proper care and protection of each one of us. There are so many things these days that can invade and disturb peace of heart and mind. Worry, panic, anxiety and the like can become so paralyzing that it robs us of the inner serenity and interior joy that God wishes us to experience and possess. But if we learn to trust and grow in the love that our Divine Shepherd has for us, we can more confidently reject fear because, as the Scriptures tell us, “perfect love casts out all fear.” (1 John 4:18) 

The third promise is that we can find shelter and comfort in the Kingdom of God. Jesus once said that “the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:21) You see, a kingdom is where the King lives, and so through our reception of Christ in the Eucharist and by our abiding in God’s Word, Jesus the King lives within us. He assured us of this promise when He said, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.” (John 14:23) This awesome reality should help drive out all fear from our hearts because we carry within us the Creator and Lord of all the universe! 

So, we have great reason to have hope! When we find ourselves giving in to worry and we feel the old grip of fear beginning to tighten its hold on us, we can reach out for help, hope and strength in the words of our compassionate Lord Jesus: “Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.” (Luke 12:32)

Jesus reaches out to us to pull us up out of the

 threatening waters of fear and worry!

The Parable of the Boat

 

Deacon Dave · Parable of the Boat

Homily for the 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time, July 27, 2025. Gospel of St. Luke 11:1-13. Theme: The Parable of the Boat 

 In the time of Jesus, it was expected that a rabbi would give his student-disciples a simple prayer that expressed his approach to God. That’s why St. Luke tells us that John the Baptist gave his followers a prayer and it’s precisely why Jesus’ disciples asked him to do the same for them. And so as a result, we received the Lord’s Prayer from the lips of the Son of God Himself. But what I would like to focus on is the remainder of today’s Gospel in which Jesus gives a teaching on prayer. He reminds us that God is a good Father who hears us and answers in the way He knows best. Christ encourages us to persevere in our praying and to not lose heart even when it seems as if we are not being heard. 

 And this is what can be so challenging for us when it comes to intercessory prayer. I mean, who among us hasn’t prayed for someone repeatedly and intensely, perhaps even for many years, and yet hasn’t seen any sign of having been heard? Maybe we’re interceding for someone who has drifted from the faith or from the family. Or perhaps we’ve been praying for the healing of a strained relationship or for a loved one who is trapped in the bonds of addiction? And as we pray we keep looking for any indication that our prayers have an impact. But often nothing seems to have changed. Sometimes we might feel like we should just give up and move on. We may even be tempted to doubt Jesus' words that “everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and the one who knocks, will have the door opened to them.” (Luke 11:10) 

 But at times like that what helps me to keep on keeping on in my intercession for others is a lesson that I learned from a story called the Parable of the Boat. I don't remember where I first heard it or read it, because it was a long time ago. And quite honestly I don’t even recall enough to repeat the whole story to you in detail. But I have never forgotten what it teaches and that’s the whole point of a parable anyway. Now, in this story a boat is the symbol for the person for whom we are praying. And the waves of water symbolize our prayers and God’s grace. The parable starts off by telling us that there was a boat that looked just fine to the eye and seemed to be very sea-worthy. But appearances can be deceiving and in actuality it had little cracks and tiny fissures in its hull that were caused by years of neglect. And so, whether it was docked in the harbor or out at sea, wave after wave would continually splash up against it and water slowly made its way into those tiny cracks and unseen fissures. Over time this continual slapping movement of the waves enlarged the crevices enough to allow water to slowly begin to seep into the interior, putting it in danger of sinking. Finally, the day came when the owner could no longer ignore its poor condition. He had to repair his boat if he wanted to preserve it. 

 Now, what does this parable have to do with praying for the ones we love? Well, like that boat, they too may look just fine on the outside and their lives might seem great and even successful. But in reality they have unseen cracks in the heart and spiritual fissures in the soul that are the inevitable result of years of neglecting their relationship with God. And our persistent prayers for them are like those never-ending ripples and waves of water. They continually slap against the boat of their lives, so to speak, and weaken their resistance, allowing God’s grace to find its way in. And so this is precisely why we keep on asking, why we keep on seeking and why we keep on knocking. We want to keep that spiritual water splashing against them, confident that it’s only a matter of time until it penetrates to the heart and they realize that they need to repair the boat of their lives. 

 There are countless real life stories that show the truth of this parable. But perhaps the most classic of them all is that of St. Monica, Her pagan husband forbade infant baptism for their 3 children, so Monica did the best she could to share her faith in Jesus with them. Two became Christian, but the oldest boy, Augustine, would have nothing to do with it! He grew into a very handsome, extremely brilliant and terribly arrogant young man. Throughout his 20’s he belonged to an esoteric cult, lived with his long-time girlfriend and had a son. He ignored his mother’s continual pleas for conversion and wanted to hear no more from her about being baptized. St. Ambrose, who was Monica’s bishop, told her to cease and desist with nagging her son! It was ineffective and simply kept backfiring. Instead, he advised her to double down on her prayers and to be assured that a child of her many tears would not be lost. 

 And so, St. Monica followed this advice and persevered in prayer. Even though she saw no signs of change for many more years to come, she refused to give up. Through all that time she kept splashing the spiritual waters against the boat of Augustine’s heart, confident that they would find the cracks and grace would begin to seep in. Ultimately her petition was visibly granted and she received so much more than she had ever hoped for or imagined. When Augustine was in his early 30’s, he not only joyfully received Baptism, but went on to become a holy bishop and theologian whose writings still strongly influence Christianity today. As a matter of fact, our Holy Father Pope Leo, calls himself a “spiritual son of St. Augustine” and he looks to him as a model and inspiration. 

 And so I hope that the Parable of the Boat and the example of Sts. Monica and Augustine will encourage us to embrace Jesus’ teaching to keep on praying and not lose heart. God has the time and circumstances of our loved one’s conversion already in mind. So, all we have to do is what St. Monica did…keep on asking…keep on seeking…and keep on knocking on the door of Heaven… confident that the waters of our prayer will eventually push their way through the cracks in the boat of our loved ones’ lives and flood their hearts with God’s life-saving and life-changing grace.

Partners in the Passion

 

Deacon Dave · Partners in the Passion

Homily for the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 20, 2025. Scripture: Colossians 1:24-28. Theme: Partners in the Passion 

 Today’s second reading from St. Paul which mentions the role of suffering is a very important one for our times in which there is a growing disregard for the value and dignity of human life. In 1984, Pope St. John Paul II wrote a letter to all Christians called On Human Suffering. In it he emphasized the biblical concept of redemptive suffering, which means that we can share in the saving work of Jesus Christ and find deeper meaning in dealing with pain. The Holy Father reminded us in this letter that the bad news of suffering can be transformed into part of the Good News of Jesus Christ! 

 This is a very important concept to know about in our times in which there is a growing movement to respond to the problem of pain and suffering with the solution of murder or suicide. Of course, to make it sound better its promoters usually qualify it with words like “Physician Assisted” or simply call it “Mercy Killing”. But as William Shakespeare put it, “ a rose by any other name still smells as sweet.” And so, no amount of dressing it up should fool us as to the true horror and inhumanity of this contemporary movement to exterminate the terminally sick and suffering. And let’s not be blind to the fact that it’s already being applied beyond its original intention of eliminating pain and now also includes eliminating the feeble elderly, the mentally ill and the physically disabled. 

 While everyone agrees that pain and suffering are things to be avoided whenever possible, the response of death as the solution is really a response of “practical atheism”. And sadly this godless attitude can be found even among people of faith, including some who attend Mass regularly. It’s called “practical” because while such people might not formally declare atheism as their intellectual belief, they act as though it was. It leads them to deny the existence and dominion of God as the Lord of Life and puts themselves in His place. And so, such people say that if someone experiences suffering without any foreseeable possibility of improvement, then it’s better, even “merciful”, to just end it all. 

 This atheistic way of looking at life sees people as nothing more than animals. There is no room in it for the existence of an immortal spiritual soul in human beings. And so the solution is the same that they would come up with for their pets: just “put them down” when suffering gets to be too much and “put them out of their misery”. But we need to look at those countries which have already enacted this solution of legalized death and see that it easily becomes what many have called a ”slippery slope”. Their experience shows us that while the euthanasia movement begins by appealing to a sense of human compassion, it inevitably goes on to include the selective killing of the aged, the terminally ill, infants born with Down Syndrome (or some other abnormality), and actually ends up including any and all who are judged to be incapable of “living a good quality of life” as the government or some other entity might define it. 

 But the Christian understanding of how to respond to suffering is the polar opposite. We cherish every human life as a precious gift from the Creator. We acknowledge that He alone has the dominion and authority to give life or to take it away. And in the light of the Passion of Christ we have been shown how to deal with the inevitability of pain in a positive, proactive and powerful manner. We call it “redemptive suffering” and we find its Scriptural basis in today’s second reading where St. Paul says: “I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church” (Col. 1:24). 

 Now, many are surprised to hear St. Paul’s words about something “lacking” in the Passion of Christ, for how can anything be lacking in the Lord’s perfect sacrifice on the Cross? Pope St. John Paul II explained it quite simply by first pointing out that Jesus Himself lacked absolutely nothing in His sufferings for us. But then the Holy Father goes on to remind us that Christ intentionally made our participation in His Passion a component of its overall reality. In other words, our suffering is not isolated from the suffering of Jesus. When we are baptized we become members of the Mystical Body of Christ and as such, our sufferings in life become pieces of the “Passion Puzzle”, so to speak. And so this means that the one thing that can be lacking in the Passion of Christ is me! But if I join my sufferings to those of Christ, if I “fill up what is lacking” as St. Paul puts it, then I am making my contribution to the Passion and my suffering takes on a spiritual supernatural purpose. I am putting my piece into that Passion Puzzle. 

 This was why St. Paul wrote that he was rejoicing about suffering. You see, he knew that when we suffer and offer it in union with Jesus, we become part of the most beautiful and perfect love ever shown for God and man. When we suffer in unity with Jesus then He walks with us through that suffering, He upholds us and never leaves us alone. And so redemptive suffering is a positive, proactive and powerful to the pains that come our way. It is a way to draw closer to Christ, to become like Christ and to love like Christ! And it is also a way to join with Him in obtaining blessings for others. 

 “Redemptive" comes from the root word “redeem” which means to rescue, to set free, to ransom. By His Passion and Cross, Christ the Redeemer rescued us and set us free from the powers and kingdom of darkness. He ransomed us from living in slavery to sin and selfishness. And so by intentionally joining our personal passion to His, it becomes a form of intercessory prayer calling down those very same graces of rescue and ransom upon others. And so, for the Christian there is no such thing as “wasted pain” because Jesus never refuses anything given out of love and so He accepts our offering and makes us partners in the Passion!

Who is My Neighbor?

 

Deacon Dave · Who is My Neighbor?

Homily for the Liturgy of the 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time, July 13, 2025. Gospel of St. Luke 10:25-37. Theme: Who Is My Neighbor? 

 The scholar in today’s Gospel is a man who knows all the right answers. After all, that’s his job. You see, in Judaism a scribe was a professional in teaching others about the law of God. Putting it in contemporary Catholic terms we would say that the scribe was a canon lawyer. It seems like he must’ve been pretty darn sure of himself because St. Luke tells us that he is testing Jesus and not asking a sincere question. And the Gospel points out something else that would be a clue as to the scribe’s cocky attitude: it says he was standing before Jesus. Now, in ancient Jewish culture one sat in the presence of a rabbi or a teacher, as a sign of respect and to show openness to hearing what he has to say. 

 Notice that Jesus doesn't actually answer the question asked. Instead, he tells a parable that must’ve turned the scribe's smugness upside down! Because the hero of the story isn’t a Jewish scribe or Pharisee but a Samaritan, a member of a people who were despised by the Israelites. In the beginning, they had been but one people descended from Abraham and ruled by the great King David. Then, about 700 years before Jesus, Israel was invaded. The upper and middle classes were brought out of the country and kept as slaves in what is today called Iraq. The lower class that was left behind decided it was best to get along and so they began to intermarry with the occupying forces. Then about 70 years later the captive-but-now-freed Jews returned home and they were shocked to find out what those who had been left behind had done! They had polluted the People of God by marrying pagans and had even adopted some of their religious practices! These half-breed Jews were called Samaritans because they lived in a region of the Holy Land called Samaria. They were shunned as traitors, religious heretics, and political enemies of Israel and so there began a centuries-long family feud. This animosity was so bad that Jews traveling from one end of the nation to the other would add days to their journey by going around Samaria instead of taking a shortcut through it. 

 So, we can imagine the looks on the faces of the scribe and others when Jesus talks about a Good Samaritan! And to add insult to injury, Christ went even further by making two members of the Jewish clergy the moral cowards of His story. Both a priest and a Levite see a terribly injured and beaten man in need of help and yet they cross the street and keep going about their business. Most likely because Jewish law forbids them to come into contact with blood or death if they wished to remain ritually clean and lead the people in the worship that day. And so they put their religious laws above the divine law commanding love for one’s neighbor. They used religion as an excuse to withhold compassionate care compassion from a needy person. 

 But Jesus holds up a Samaritan of all people to be the one who correctly understands religion and comes to the rescue of his neighbor. He wants us to see that the kind of person whom we would least expect, the kind of guy everyone might just "write off" as being beyond God's reach, well... he just might be more righteous than even the religious leaders of Israel! This Samaritan reminds us that God looks at the heart of a person and that true religion involves actions that reflect love and compassion, rather than mere rituals or outward appearances. The parable of the Good Samaritan is teaching us that every person in need is our neighbor. Everyone without exception deserves our love and compassion in their suffering, no matter who they are or where they are from. Citizen status, political platforms, religious or ethnic differences are never an excuse in the eyes of God and in the heart of Christ to ignore the needs of another human being. 

 Jesus teaches us to look beyond those things which divide us and that set us at odds with one another. He calls us to honor the image and likeness of God in all human beings and treat them with the dignity they deserve. In today’s Gospel and every day, Jesus is calling us to become something far greater than we think we can become. He is asking us to go beyond ourselves, out of our comfort zones, and to love in a way that seems impossible if left to our own devices. But the awesome thing is that He doesn’t leave us to our own devices. He comes to us, comes to live inside us, comes to love within us and love others through us, by means of His Personal Presence in the Eucharist that we receive. In this way, through our intimate union with Him, He makes it possible for us to love God wholeheartedly and to love our neighbor because God loves them. And this transformation within ourselves should be as incredible and amazing to us as a Samaritan being called “good” was to the Jews!

We’ve Got Good News!

 

Deacon Dave · 250705_001

Homily for the 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time. July 6, 2025. Gospel of St. Luke 10:1-12, 17-20. Theme: We’ve Got Good News! 

 Today's Liturgy is all about evangelization, a word that means, "spreading the Gospel". It comes from the Latin word for Gospel which is evangelion and quite simply means "good news." The crafters of Christian vocabulary in the early Church thought this was an excellent word to describe the message from and about Jesus. After all, the Gospel is the very best of Good News! But if we are going to be its messengers then obviously we need to know what this Good News is. St. John has helped us out here because in his Gospel he has given us a one sentence summary of the Good News that is utterly easy to memorize. It goes like this: “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (Jn 3:16). 

 So, that’s a short summary of what we mean by Good News. But there’s more to our mission of evangelization than just knowing about it. We are supposed to share it with others, especially those who have never heard it. And this is why our Liturgy today presents us with the Gospel story of Jesus sending out teams of missionary disciples. Notice that the reading says Jesus chose 72 others, meaning that those missionaries were distinct from the Twelve Apostles. This shows us that Jesus works through all of His followers and not just the leaders of the Church. Everyone who is baptized has a share in this mission of evangelization. And everyone who receives the Sacrament of Confirmation is further equipped by the Holy Spirit to carry it out. 

 St. Luke wants us to learn from this passage that we are like those "72 others" whom Jesus sent out to evangelize. Just as they went out to prepare people for Christ's arrival, so we are to go ahead of Jesus who wants to arrive in the hearts of those with whom we live, work and socialize. But in doing so we have to be messengers whose manner and words do not destroy the message! This means that to share the Good News most effectively, we need to follow some directives that Jesus gave to His missionary disciples in our Gospel reading today. 

 First, Jesus said, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few.” By these words He invites us to actively and positively take up our mission and become laborers for the Gospel. There are many people suffering, struggling and seeking answers in life. They are ready to receive the Good News of Christ if only someone (that is, you and me!) would share it with them. So we need to commit to being missionary disciples, laborers in the harvest, who share with others what Jesus and the Faith has done for us in our lives and what He can do in theirs. This is called being a “witness” or sharing your “testimony”. 

 Second, as Christians we live in what is best described as a post-Christian society. This means that the faith and values of Christianity that formed the foundation of Western Civilization are no longer a significant moral force. Sometimes we will agree with our culture and many other times we will not, which can make us feel vulnerable, or as Jesus put it, to “be like lambs among wolves.” But as missionary disciples we must be prepared and ready to face opposition in order to remain faithful to Jesus. Christ calls us to be counter-cultural which means to live and think according to God’s Word. 

 Third, as evangelizers, we are to trust completely in the Lord and not in ourselves. That is one reason why Jesus instructed the missionary disciples to “carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals.” These 72 others were to rely on God to provide for their needs and we are meant to do the same. We trust in a Power greater than ourselves (the Holy Spirit) to equip us with what we need to spread the Good News. We know that if we keep the Kingdom of God as first in our lives then all that we truly need will be provided in one way or another. And this includes giving us the words that we need to say and the intuition on how to say them to each person in their need. 

 Fourth, the line about "shaking off the dust" reminds us that while we are called to share Christ with everyone, we cannot force anyone to convert. Jesus never ever coerced anyone to follow Him or believe in Him. He simply invited and made it possible. Bringing Christ to others and sharing the Good News with them is a great privilege and honor, but we have to remember that it is a person’s free choice whether or not to receive the Good News. There are many natural and non-confrontational ways to share Christ in our daily conversations and interactions, but if someone rejects the message, then we simply move on and never force the issue. When it becomes apparent that we cannot “speak Christ” to someone, then we just focus on “being Christ” to them by our behavior. Quite often, this in itself is the most powerful form of evangelization that there is because it is done by the example of one’s life, by someone who not just “talks the talk” but “walks the walk”.

Being Changed From The Inside Out!

 

Deacon Dave · Being Changed From the Inside Out

Homily for the Solemnity of the Holy Apostles Peter & Paul, June 29, 2025. Theme: Being Changed From the Inside Out! 

 Saints Peter and Paul, whom we are commemorating in today’s Liturgy, are two of the most important figures in the history of Christianity. Peter, whose name was originally Simon, was a typical working class Jewish fisherman with only a most basic understanding of Judaism. Paul, on the other hand, came from an upper class Jewish family that had the rare privilege of Roman citizenship. In addition, he was a well-educated rabbi. By nature, Peter was impetuous and volatile, while Paul was arrogant and conceited. And yet here we are today, venerating them and celebrating their memory. How so? What happened to change them into the saintly men that they became? Well, we need to have a little backstory to answer that question. 

 Both Peter and Paul were devout Israelites, which meant that their religious practice was all about carefully observing laws and rituals. From the time they woke up until they went back to bed at night, there were rules governing just about every possible human action or behavior! As we can imagine, this tended to foster in them the idea that one’s devotion to God was measured according to how well the law was being kept and how accurately the rituals were being carried out. The danger of defining religion in this way is that it misleads us into thinking we’re all good with God simply based on external compliance regardless of interior attitude. 

 And this was very much the way Peter and Paul were until each had a life-changing personal spiritual experience of Jesus Christ! Their encounters with the Lord were total game-changers that freed them from seeing religion as primarily all about rule-keeping and introduced them to the liberating truth that right religion is about a personal relationship with the Living God who loved them. Their spiritual experiences brought about within them a radical readjustment of the mind which then allowed them to have a radical change of heart. And once their eyes were opened to see old things in a new way they were well on the road to becoming the transformed men and great saints that we're honoring today! 

 Peter’s first spiritual experience of Christ came to him during a miraculous catch of fish which opened his eyes to recognizing Jesus as the Messiah. It enabled him to see himself as he truly was apart from observing the law. It moved him to throw himself on his knees and confess his sinfulness to the Lord right then and there on the shore of Lake Galilee. He would go on to have other spiritual awakenings such as those we heard about in today’s readings, when Jesus declared him to be the rock on which His Church would be built and when he was miraculously freed from prison by an angel. These spiritual experiences changed Peter to such an extent that, he who once denied even knowing Christ in order to save his own skin, became a courageous martyr for the Lord, which happened when he was crucified upside down in Rome about the year 64 AD. 

 And now for Paul. He had his first spiritual experience of Christ on the road to Damascus when the Risen Lord appeared to him. He was then known as Saul of Tarsus, a fierce and bloody persecutor of Christians. His first encounter with Jesus literally knocked him off his feet and resulted in physical blindness. And then he was given another spiritual experience when a Christian prayed over him, laid hands upon him and restored his sight. These events radically altered his way of thinking and transformed Saul into the Apostle Paul. a dynamic missionary of the faith he was once trying to destroy! He who used to be all about observing the ritual laws of Israel was now preaching that the law kills while the Spirit gives life! Like Peter, he would also die in Rome, where he was martyred by being beheaded on the same day that Peter was crucified. And we have venerated them together in the Liturgy just about ever since. 

 You know the saints are all examples for us to follow and learn from. And it seems to me that one thing the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul teach us is that if we want a faith that is vibrant and meaningful, and if we want our practice of religion to be more than just going through the motions, then we each need need to have a personal spiritual experience of Jesus Christ at some time in our lives. And so we might wonder…what is a spiritual experience? How can we define it? Well, it’s hard to describe supernatural things but I guess we can say that it’s like an “aha moment” so to speak, during which we become convinced that Jesus is not a dead and long-gone Savior, but is in fact the Risen Lord who is very much alive and present to us. It’s an enlightenment through which our faith becomes more important in our lives. It’s an awareness that alters our way of thinking, that touches our hearts, bringing about a change in our attitude and behavior. And it’s something that God offers to us throughout our lives because we are always in need of conversion and growth in holiness. 

 Now, such spiritual experiences don't have to be spectacular or dramatic or sensational as we saw in the stories about Peter and Paul. As a matter of fact, they are usually quite simple and ordinary. They can be anything God so chooses and can happen anywhere God so pleases. They can come to us while we are praying in our homes or out enjoying nature. They may spring into our hearts at the birth of a child or upon the passing of a loved one. We might experience an “aha moment” of encountering Christ while serving the sick and needy or while listening to the readings or the prayers or the music of the Liturgy. Who knows, it might even be possible to have a spiritual experience while listening to a homily! 

 But the bottom line is that it really doesn’t matter what spiritual experiences consist of or how they come to us. What matters, you see, is how open we are to receiving them and how we respond to the graces God gives us through them. But the one thing that they all have in common is that they change us from the inside out. Because of them God becomes more real and important. Because of them religion becomes a way of being in a personal relationship with Him. And because of them, we treasure our faith in Jesus as something worth living for and if needs be, even worth dying for, as we see in the lives of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul.

The Living Bread!

 

Deacon Dave · The Living Bread!

Homily for Corpus Christi Sunday, June 22, 2025. 1 Cor. 11:23-26; Gospel of St. Luke 9:11-17. Theme: The Living Bread! 

 Today's Gospel story about the multiplication of loaves has always been seen by Christians as directly connected with the Eucharist. This is because both deal with Jesus providing miraculous bread that nourishes people in an incredible way. In the Gospel story the meager supply of bread never runs out so that there is more than enough to feed everyone. In the Eucharist the bread is transformed into the very Body and Blood of Christ to satisfy our spiritual hunger. And so, both deal with something that is beyond human explanation and baffles our understanding. 

 But you know, that’s not surprising because the reality of Jesus Himself was baffling! What I mean is, when the people in that crowd encountered Jesus in person, what they saw and smelled and touched and heard was to all appearances just an ordinary Jewish man. He was a carpenter from the obscure village of Nazareth and as such He spoke with a heavy Galilean accent (which culturally for us would be how we would classify a southern redneck accent). He was in his 30’s, fit and strong from his work as a laborer, and was covered with the dust of the road. But that wasn’t the whole story as to who this miracle-working Man really was. Their senses could not identify the fact that standing right there before them was Adonai, the Lord, their glorious and mighty God! 

That reality was there, but it was hidden from them by the ordinary physicality of His flesh and bone. The Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist is very much the same and puts us in a similar situation. We don’t grasp the full truth of what is happening in our presence, before our very eyes. And yet, a genuine miracle takes place at every Mass. What was simply bread and wine become the Sacred Body and Saving Blood of our Risen Lord Jesus Christ. Though they continue to look and taste the same, Christ our God is in fact really and truly present in every morsel of what was once bread and in every drop of what was previously ordinary wine. 

 God knows that this is a hard teaching to believe and accept and so every once in a while he gives us tangible evidence that what we believe is true. Every so often God has changed not just the inner reality but also the actual physicality of the bread and wine of the Eucharist. There are over 100 of these documented Eucharistic miracles affirming for us that what we worship, what we receive and what we adore is truly the Flesh and Blood of Christ the Lord. I want to mention just two of them. 

 The first and most famous of these took place in Lanciano, Italy in the year 750 AD. A priest celebrating Mass was having doubts about the Real Presence of Jesus in Holy Communion. During the words of consecration, the host he was holding began to literally turn into flesh right in his hands, and the few drops of wine in the chalice were transformed into globules of blood. And most amazingly they have remained so over the past 1300 years! In 1971, Pope St. Paul VI permitted carefully guarded scientific studies to be carried out and it was discovered that the flesh was from the heart of a male and the content of the chalice was human blood type AB. 

 Jumping ahead to the 20th century, a host also turned into bloody flesh in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1996. The bishop at that time was the future Pope Francis. He sent samples under careful guard to a reputable lab in New York for reserach into this phenomenon. Those who tested it were not told what it was nor where it came from. The man in charge of the study was Dr. Frederic Zugibe, a world-famous cardiologist and forensic pathologist. The findings revealed it to be part of a male heart muscle with blood type AB. This meant that Eucharistic miracles of Buenos Aires and Lanciano were a perfect match! 

 But the examination of the Argentinian host resulted in an even more astounding and inexplicable fact. When the lab samples were put under a microscope, Dr. Zugibe saw that the cells were actually moving, pulsating and beating, like a normal human heart! The host was somehow and inexplicably living cardiac flesh! He declared it to be a mystery beyond the capability of science to explain. However, our Faith supports this incredible finding because it tells us that the Eucharist we receive is the Body and Blood of our risen and Living Lord and not that of a dead and long-gone Savior. We proclaimed this mystery at the Alleluia acclamation today which said: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven…”. The Living Bread! 

 We cannot comprehend or explain how this miraculous transformation of the Eucharist happens. But I think we can see why God chose to have its physicality remain as bread and wine in taste and appearance. For who of us would actually go to Holy Communion if it looked and tasted like what it really is: the living Flesh and Blood of Christ? And yet, that is the awesome reality. And so, with faith we must look beyond the appearance of the consecrated Host held up before us 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.”

Trinity is Another Word for Love!

 

Deacon Dave · Trinity is Another Word for Love!

Homily for Trinity Sunday, June 15, 2025. Readings: Letter to the Romans 5:1-5; Gospel of St. John 16:12-15. Theme: Trinity is Another Word for Love! 

 Today’s Liturgy reminds us that we Christians have received knowledge from God and about God that sets us totally apart from all other world religions. I am talking, of course, about what we have come to call the “Mystery of the Most Holy and Blessed Trinity”. Now, the word “mystery” in Catholic vocabulary doesn't mean something that needs to be figured out or solved as in an intriguing detective novel or a “who-done-it” movie. When we say “mystery” we affirm that we’re dealing with a truth that is far beyond our reckoning powers. This doesn't mean that we can’t know anything about it. It simply means we can’t know everything. 

 So, no matter how smart we are it’s impossible to wrap our minds around the fact that the One True God is a plurality or communion of persons - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And equally mysterious is that fact that this doesn’t mean that there are three gods who are intimately related, rather, it tries to describe in limited human words that the One Divine Being is (somehow) existent as three distinct Persons. So, no matter how much time we spend thumbing through the pages of the Bible, we will never find any explanation whatsoever as to HOW this can be true…but what we WILL find is a hint as to WHY it can be true! It’s in one of the shortest but most powerful statements about God that is recorded in the entire Bible and is composed of only three words: “God is love.” (1 John 4:8) 

 So, by knowing that God is love we can venture out into the mystery of the Trinity and see how it can make a bit of sense to us. How so? Because we know that love is not a solitary affair. It requires at least two persons: a Lover and the Beloved. And then we can move on from there by looking at marriage, the ultimate human love-bond which the Church teaches is a reflection of God’s threefold relationship. And we see in marriage that the fruit of a Lover and the Beloved coming together is another person. So now there are three. And so, as limited and imperfect as this example might be, it can help us reach a point of at least imagining the possibility of the Trinity. But we are not left just imagining. Jesus’ words enlighten us like a beam of a lighthouse piercing through dense fog, and assure us that there is indeed this Third Party in the Divine Relationship. And Christ called Him the Holy Spirit. 

 But that’s pretty much all that we can say with some confidence about the Trinity. Anything else would simply be theorizing and speculating. So then why did God reveal it if we cannot truly grasp it? Well, first of all, perhaps it’s because God really wants to be known by us. He doesn’t want us to think of Him as simply some faraway Creator who glances down upon us now and then, checking in to see how we’re doing but otherwise leaves us to ourselves. No, by revealing Who and What He is, God wants us to know Him and by knowing Him better, to love Him more and more. In other words, God wants to be in a meaningful personal relationship with us. Second, knowing more about God can tell us something about ourselves as well, because we are made in His image and likeness. And this “something” that God shows us about ourselves by revealing Himself as a Trinity of Persons, is that we came from Love and are meant to return to Love. We were each made for the sake of love and are each given a share in a mission of love. As the awesome St. Therese of the Child Jesus put it upon discovering the meaning of the Trinity in her life, “At last I have found my vocation: it is to love!” 

 You see, as Christians we are baptized (which means “immersed”) into the Divine Relationship of Love that is the Trinity. We are given both the privilege and the obligation to be instruments of God’s love in all that we are, in all that we do. This is a big mission but we are not left to our own devices in order to accomplish it. Today’s second reading reminds us that this love of God is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit Who is our connecting bond with the Blessed Trinity. The more we open our hearts to the Spirit of the Father and the Son the more will this Divine Love spillover from us and flow to others. And thus the importance of cultivating a vibrant living devotion to Him! 

 Through us the Trinity’s transforming love can gradually spread out into our troubled, divided, confused and violence-torn world. Now, of course, we can’t each directly influence all of the world but we can each certainly influence that part of it in which we live, work and socialize. So, consider this: if the whole Mystical Body of Christ, that is, we who are the Church, commit to this mission of love each within our own little slice of life, then as a worldwide body we can indeed influence the entire planet! This is not an impossibility but can indeed become a reality, but only IF we Christians each take our mission to be living reflections of the Trinity seriously.

As If By A New Pentecost!

 

Deacon Dave · As If By A New Pentecost

Homily for Pentecost Sunday, June 8, 2025. Reading: Acts 2:1-11. Theme: As If By A New Pentecost 

 The first Pentecost Sunday was such a significant turning point in the story of Jesus and His disciples that it is celebrated as the birthday of the Catholic Church. Up to that day the Church existed of course, but in a kind of hidden way, very much like an unborn child growing quietly in the womb. But with the dramatic outpouring of the Spirit as we just heard from the Book of Acts, this Church-in-the-womb burst forth into the world kicking and screaming like a newborn baby! The apostles and disciples of the Lord made a lot of noise in Jerusalem on that first Christian Pentecost, boldly proclaiming the truth about the Risen Christ and baptizing 3,000 people! 

 But this Pentecost experience was never intended to be just a one-day event. It is meant to be spiritually repeated in every generation through the Sacrament of Confirmation. And actually, during the first few centuries of Christianity, the Spirit’s presence was manifested among the newly confirmed by tangible outward signs and dramatic changes of lifestyle. However, once Christianity became the status quo religion of Western Culture these notable manifestations seemed to lessen and even stop. How come? What happened? Well, quite often it was because the Faith was forced upon people by their rulers or embraced out of family expectations or even sought after for social status. In other words, the vital element of personal conviction of faith in Christ as Savior along with a heartfelt desire to live a Christian life was missing. And so without this indispensable personal desire for the Spirit, Confirmation became for most people a kind of “conveyor-belt” Sacrament that that everyone went through as a kind of religious rite of passage and nothing more. 

 I know that was true about me. If you were like me when I was confirmed, there was no real interest in being set on fire for Jesus nor any enthusiasm in wanting to receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit. Instead, the Sacred Fire of Pentecost passed on to me in that Sacrament was more like a dim pilot light in the back burner of my life and sometimes it very nearly went out! However, the good news is that it’s never too late to turn things around! The spark of the Spirit that was placed there at Confirmation can always be relit no matter how long it's been. And this is precisely what a conscious devotion to the Holy Spirit can do for us. It can turn up the burner on that pilot light of faith, making our love for God and neighbor both grow and glow. 

 Now, how this might happen differs for each one of us, but quite often it comes about when we have a personal realization that the faith should have an important place in our lives. And this can look different for different people. For some, life-challenging circumstances might show them how much they need to turn their lives and wills over to the care of God. For others it can come about when a self-revelation makes it crystal clear that they need to surrender their stubbornness and pride to the Holy Spirit, allowing Him to burn away all the trash that they have accumulated within themselves. And then there are those who as they mature come to see that faith and eternal life are precious gifts to pass on to their children. The Gospels call this change of heart being “baptized with the Holy Spirit”. The Apostle St. Paul referred to it as “living by the Spirit”. Many of us today might know it better as a “conversion experience” or having a “spiritual awakening”. But whatever we call it, it means that the Pentecostal fire within us has been relit and Jesus becomes for us, in a much more real way, the Lord and Savior of our lives! 

 So, where do we go from there? Well, the first thing is to get to know the Holy Spirit better. I think many often find this to be a bit challenging because we often mistakenly think of Him in an impersonal way, much like the Force in Star Wars. But He’s not just some sort of supernatural energy or spiritual influence. He’s a Divine Person who loves us and wants to be in a relationship with us. So, then how do we get to know Him? Well, of course, the first thing to do is pray, speak with Him and ask Him to come, visit and fill your heart. And then get to recognize Him. The Bible tells us that the Spirit makes Himself known through symbols that describe how He acts in our lives. For example, He came down upon Jesus at His baptism in the form of a Dove, the sign of gentleness and peace. Jesus described the Spirit as both Living Water and the Breath of God both of which give spiritual and eternal life. At the Last Supper Christ called Him our Paraclete which means Advocate, Defender and Comforter. He also spoke of Him as the Spirit of Truth who enables us to recognize and reject the lies that our culture tries to sell us. And in our First Reading today, the Spirit manifested Himself as a Mighty Wind which speaks of invisible power and as Fiery Flames that purify and energize. His miracle of Tongues shows us that He is a unifier of people no matter who they are or where they come from. 

 So, when we choose to truly live our faith in the power of the Spirit, how might we recognize Him acting within us? Well, it seems to me that the Dove of the Spirit will guide us to live in peace and harmony with others. The Fire of the Spirit will burn within us so that we become enthusiastic and committed to doing what is right and just in God’s sight. The powerful Wind of the Spirit will push us out of our comfort zones so that we can be of service to others. His Living Water will refresh us spiritually through prayer and meditation and the Life-giving Breath of the Spirit will enable us to forgive those who have hurt us. Finally, I think that we will be participating in His Gift of Tongues whenever we use our speech to say the good things that people need to hear, things that will really help them. So, no matter how the Holy Spirit may choose to act in and through us, we can be confident that He will do so in such a way that His Presence and Power be manifested according to our own particular needs and situations. And if we do our best to grow in a genuine devotion to the Holy Spirit, then we can rightfully and hopefully expect Him to inflame our hearts with His love and renew us from the inside out as if by a New Pentecost in our lives today!

A Promise and a Power from the King of Glory!

 

Deacon Dave · A Promise and a Power from the King of Glory!

Homily for Ascension Sunday, June 1, 2025. Acts 1:1-11. Theme: A Promise and a Power from the King of Glory! 

 Today we celebrate the Ascension of the Lord which honors His triumphant return to Heaven. But have you ever noticed that when the Ascension is mentioned in the Creed that we profess every Sunday, it’s combined with Jesus being “seated at the right hand of the Father”? In making this connection, the ancient Creed-writers united these two truths into one sentence about Jesus because both are really just two sides of the same one coin that we call Christ’s glorification. In other words they are saying that upon His return to Heaven, the Savior could now just sit down because His earthly job was over. He had successfully completed the mission for which He was sent into our world. Sin had been forgiven. Death had been conquered. The pathway to Heaven had been reopened to the human race. 

 Through the Passion and Cross Jesus has made atonement to God on behalf of all humanity. And He did so as our perfect representative and spokesman. In other words, He did it in our name and in our place. He did it as one of us! Jesus brought us back into a relationship of "at-one-ness” with God (which is what the word "atonement" means) and so He was welcomed back into Heaven as a Hero and Champion. He was given the seat of honor, so to speak, right there next to God the Father. Upon His return to Heaven Jesus resumed the divine prerogatives that He gave up upon becoming human, but He still remains forever a Man. 

 Many Christians mistakenly think that Jesus' humanity was only for His time on earth. And so they assume that once He was "back home", so to speak, God the Son took off his humanity and remained solely a Divine Being. But this is incorrect. The Risen and Glorious Christ is a 100% human being Who now shares fully in the authority and glory of God Himself, which is what “sitting at the right hand” means in symbolic biblical language! And even more astounding is the truth that each one of us, if we remain faithful to our union with Jesus by Baptism, are destined to share in this same glory of Christ! This means that our potential is something even greater than that of the angels! 

 But let’s get back to planet Earth, where the disciples had been left behind after the Lord ascended into Heaven. Before leaving, Jesus instructed them that it was now their responsibility to carry on His mission in the world. It was now the time for His Church, that is both you and me, to proclaim the Kingdom of God, to spread the Gospel, and so pass on the offer of salvation to future generations. But the Lord didn’t leave us to our own poor resources in this regard! He made a Promise to us and spoke of a Power that would be given to us to make all this possible for us; to make it actually happen. So, what was the Promise and what is Power? 

 First, let’s look at the Promise. Jesus said to the disciples, “…you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 1:5) To be “baptized with the Holy Spirit” is not the same as to be sacramentally baptized with water, although they are intimately related. While it’s true that we first receive the Spirit in the Sacrament of Baptism, this does not mean that all who do so will fully claim this Promise and live it out by putting their faith into action. But this “putting into action” is precisely what baptism in the Holy Spirit means! It’s like having a supernatural match touched to the fuel of faith that has been placed within us that sets our hearts on fire with love for God and neighbor. This supernatural spark drives us to share the Good News of and about Jesus with others. This is why the Holy Spirit symbolically manifested Himself at Pentecost as flames of fire. 

 Secondly, Jesus speaks about receiving Power. He said, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses…” (Acts 1:8) We all know that power means the ability to do something beyond our natural capabilities. Another word for this spiritual “Power-from-on-high” is Love, which is the outstanding characteristic of the Holy Spirit. He is the love of the Father and the Son personified. Love is His very nature and motivation. We might say that love is the name of His game! This is why the New Testament calls the Spirit “the love of God that is poured out into our hearts” (Romans 5:5) and it is also why St. Paul declares that love is the greatest gift, the greatest power given to us by this same Spirit. This Power of Divine Love enables us to become credible witnesses to Jesus, testifying to Who He is and what He means in our lives. This Power enables us to become and to do so much more than we ever thought we could be or accomplish! Jesus said that it would even enable us to do signs and wonders such as He did when He lived on planet Earth! And we see the truth of this promise being realized in the healings and miracles of the disciples in the Book of Acts as well as in the lives of saints and faith-filled Christians of every era. 

 Jesus kept His Promise and bestowed this Power upon His disciples on the day of Pentecost, a little more than a week after his Ascension. Traditionally, we consider that event to be the first Confirmation in the Church and we will hear all about it at next Sunday’s Pentecost liturgy. But for now the thing to remember is that the Holy Spirit was given to us at Baptism and His Presence was deepened in us at Confirmation. But since most of us received these Sacraments as children, we often tended to take them for granted as we grew up. And so for many of us, the Promise and the Power have remained dormant and inactive within us. But the Good News is that these gifts of God are still there within us just waiting to be unwrapped and used! So, let’s change that! Through today’s liturgy, let’s hear Jesus telling us what He told His disciples about preparing to be baptized in the Holy Spirit! Let’s do our best to spend the coming days between Ascension and Pentecost Sunday praying for the grace to claim this Promise and to experience this Power as if by a New Pentecost in our lives!