Friday, March 30, 2018

March 29 - Holy Thursday


Holy Thursday – March 29, 2018


+ Tonight we begin the solemn Three Day observance of the Passion and Death and Resurrection of the Lord.  In this Mass we remember how the Lord Jesus designated his desire for all people of all time to not only remember, but also to be an actual witness of his unspeakable agony and torture and crucifixion, and also his glorious and astounding resurrection to newness of life! He did it by the events of his Last Supper with his closest friends, the Apostles. It was during that highly ritualistic Passover supper that Jesus added something new: he added an extra step to it: he took bread and wine that was already on the table and changes them into his own very real, substantial and tangible Body and Blood – really and truly -  a supernatural event that requires faith to make any sense. And then he told the Apostles to do this always in his memory!

What was contained in that new ritual, that new consecration, that new transubstantiation was all of the events that would follow that evening, up to not only his resurrection from the dead three days later, but also his ascension into heaven in forty days’ time, and the sending of the Spirit fifty days hence. Therefore, when anyone attends the Holy Event of the Mass from then on they would not just be a witness, but also a participant in its life-saving, sin-forgiving effects!

And then to punctuate the meaning of tonight’s service, Jesus tells us that it is not only necessary for us to be there at the Cross and Tomb with him, but we must also take the spiritual insight and strength taken from each new participation and allow it to make a difference in the way we live our everyday lives: in this way we resemble him all the more and the Father looks down on us and is very pleased.
For the Baptized Catholic Christian there must be evidence of putting the belief that all of this is real into the action of loving service. This is why Jesus, in the gospel passage tonight, washes the feet of his disciples; thus, demonstrating both the humility required a member of his Body the Church, and also the spirit and activity of service to those in need which is essential to the definition of a Catholic Christian! Christianity without loving service is like a body without a heart!

May our hearts beat with the very love of Jesus whom we will receive adoringly in this most special of all Eucharistic Celebrations – and lead us out into the highways and byways to make that all-inclusive love known everywhere!

I give you a new commandment, says the Lord: love one another as I have loved you.















RENEWAL OF COMMITMENT TO PRIESTLY SERVICE

Today we celebrate the memory of the First Eucharistic meal, at which our Lord Jesus Christ shared also with his Apostles his call to the priestly service of his Church. Now, in your presence, dear brothers and sisters, as representatives of all of the holy people of the Diocese of Richmond, I renew my own dedication to Christ, as a priest of his new covenant…

·       Out of love for the Lord Jesus and his Church, I, Father Bill Dinga, am resolved to unite myself more closely to Christ and to try to become more like him by joyfully sacrificing my own pleasure and ambition to bring his peace and love to the people of this Diocese of Richmond….

·       I am resolved to be a faithful minister of the mysteries of God, to celebrate the Eucharist and the other liturgical services with sincere devotion…

·       I am resolved to imitate Jesus Christ, the Head and Shepherd of the Church, by teaching the Christian faith without thinking of my own profit, solely for the well-being of the people I am sent to serve…

I ask the Lord’s blessing and the fullness of his love, so that, with his help, I may be a faithful minister of Christ the High Priest, and able to lead his flock safely to the fountain of salvation – Who is Christ our Lord!
AMEN.

Tuesday, March 27, 2018

March 27 - Tuesday of Holy Week


­­+ The drama of the great salvation events is beginning to unfold rapidly now: in the first reading we are reminded by Isaiah the prophet that a primary activity of the upcoming tragic events, when the God / Man will be killed by jealous, envious and frightened people, with darkened, closed, and self-seeking minds: it was to bring Light to this very cursed darkness that he went through with all of it.

And how great the darkness was: for thousands of years only those who were gifted with a glimmer of the forthcoming light, the chosen people of God – were the bearers true hope.

In the gospel passage on this Tuesday of Holy Week we see an example of two who wrestle, in the very presence of Jesus, while the salvific events were unfolding, with the darkness: one fatally so, and the other mercifully temporarily.

Judas Iscariot was destined to act as betrayer of Jesus, to hand him over to the Romans for “processing” – but he always had the preeminent choice of free-will. His life did not have to end tragically.

Peter on the other hand denied he even know Jesus, again as a predetermined part of the whole amazing drama – but once he play his part by saying what he said: so that we could hear that sometimes it is possible for us even now – to deny Jesus, by selfish choices to save our own skin – that we can change our minds, and even weep for our “hour in the darkness”!

Later Jesus would use the same three-part dynamic for Peter to affirm his love for Jesus, and to do what he intends for Peter to do: as the head of the apostles and the Church of Christ’s Mystical Body! "Feed my lambs, feed my lambs, feed my sheep!"

This is the Week when we slow down, pause, and in silence reflect on our real relationship with Jesus, and if there are any modifications to make deep in our hearts, then we make them, with tears and sighs and inexpressible remorse, sometimes, as we will look up at him, on Friday afternoon, of the One, our sins put there!

Hail to you, dear Jesus, our Lord and King, who has been led to your crucifixion like a gentle lamb to the slaughter.




Monday, March 26, 2018

March 26 - Monday of Holy Week


+ The subtlety in our first reading during Holy Week is remarkable. The scene is this: it is just days before Jesus knows that he will play out the final dramatic scene of his life: his Passion / Death / Resurrection. He has longed for this “hour” and he has yearned for it since that day his human consciousness began to take shape when he was just a toddler.

He is excited about the forgiveness of our sins, and the opening up of eternal life in the Kingdom of his Father for us, and the HOPE that would now be available to anyone who simply believed that he is who he said he was: Son of God / Son of Man – and that he could accomplish what he said he would accomplish: our salvation!

But how is he going to do this “earth-shattering” “turn everything upside down” kind of activity?: how is he going to “reverse the curse” the real curse of the Evil One?, how is he going to destroy death and restore to an unimagined kind of newness of life?:

will he be a political heroic figure? will he be a military heroic figure? will he be a teaching heroic figure? will he be a scientific heroic figure? – the answer is NO! NOT AT ALL! NOT ANY OF THESE HEROIC TYPES:

as Isaiah foretells: he will be a “suffering servant,” the least of the least, the most despised of all men,- but he shall bring for justice for the nations by NOT crying out, by NOT shouting, by NOT making his voice heard in the street, by not even “breaking an already bruised reed,” by not even quenching an smoldering wick” – yes he will bring forth a victory of justice, he will be a covenant for the people, he will be a light to the nations, he will open the eyes of the blind, he will bring prisoners out of confinement, and those living in the dungeons of darkness, he will bring them out into the open, into the sunlight!

HOW! will he do these things: by being silent, by living out his destiny as one flogged, stripped, nailed to a cross, and dying after offering a brief narration of the events: in seven last words, ending with the consummation of this life / death / resurrection event – by breathing his last breath!

Jesus words – his sermons, his interaction with others, will now take on a validity and significance that many will attempt to record now in writing for the ages, his light, true light, shining on true Truth will make real justice possible, and his never-ending compassion on others, leading them to the kingdom will take place through his Mystical Body – the Church, the One Church, the True Church – and many will end up in the kingdom – but many won’t because their own selfishness and self-seeking is just too ingrained even for God to disturb! It will pain the Father to lose these souls for eternity, but free will will be his greatest gift to mankind, and misuse of it will always have a price – in this case a very steep price.

The Lord is our light and our salvation! let us buy into his redeeming love – with all we have – by surrendering our lives completely to him – and begin to live a life of freedom we never thought possible as his sons and daughters! 

Saturday, March 24, 2018

March 24 - 5th Week of Lent - Saturday


­­+ The time for the dissolution of the Lord’s physical life on this earth is coming to its final “hour” and all seems to be configured for the final scenes. Soon both the Romans and Jesus own people – the family of God – the nation formed by God to be the locus of the Messiah’s entry into the world – will conspire heavily against him and by the end of this week he will be dead, murdered in fact, but then raised from the dead by the working of the Holy Spirit. The Romans and the people of Israel really don’t know who it is they are dealing with, at this time! “Or they would not have crucified the Lord of glory!”

Caiphas the high priest thickens the plot by telling his comrades that it would be better and easier for one man to die than for the nation, than to have their nation dissembled by the Romans. And so soon, false charges will be brought against Jesus – and the rest his history – salvation history!

May we on this last day of Lent 2018 bring ourselves now into the silence, the darkness and the entirely intense witnessing of the events of our salvation: yours and mine, and all who have ever lived or will live: Jesus did this for us: certainly not for himself – but from love of us – and he would have gone through the whole thing if there were in fact only one of us! So great is his love and that of his Father!

Let us purify ourselves mentally, spiritually and physically for the events: let us cast away from us all the crimes we have committed, and make for ourselves a new heart and a new spirit.


Friday, March 23, 2018

March 23 - 5th Week of Lent - Friday


­­+ Our readings today reflect the intensity that is picking up now in our observance of Lent: tomorrow, in fact, with be the last day of Lent for this Liturgical Year, with Sunday, Palm Sunday beginning the holiest week of the year culminating in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper and Washing of Feet on Thursday, The Passion of Death of the Lord on Friday, and then the Great Vigil of his Glorious Resurrection from the Dead to a fullness of human life on Saturday Night / Sunday Morning.

And so, the reading from the Prophet Jeremiah rightly captures what must have been going on inside the human mind of the most perfect human being who ever lived – who therefore thought as we think, reasoned as we reason, and felt what we feel emotionally. “Terror on every side!” Jesus must have instinctively felt now, as the forces of the power of the evil one closed in on him! He knew his “hour” was near now – and he yearned for it – yearned for it to be over with all the love his Sacred Heart could muster – for us, for you, for me – Jesus never did, thought, or said anything “of his own, on his own, or for himself” – it always reflected what the Father communicated to him, for our salvation.

Yes, the forces were watching for any misstep of his, to trap him and take vengeance on him. But he knew that the Lord, like a mighty champion would resuce him, and cast that sorry lot into a sea of confusion, from which they would never recover. And so, in his Heart and Soul, he continued to sing songs of praise to God his Father who would see him through to the end. What is so very important to note here – is that God the Father, is also our Father, and he see us through our trials in we but utterly abandon ourselves to him in love and trust! He is our loving, tender, doting, protective Father!

Jesus in the gospel passage, attempts to reason with his persecutors – although he knew it would not work – “if you don’t believe in me, that I am from God, because of the words I am saying: (words of irreproachable truth – then at least look at the works I am doing: the miracles I am performing and deduce that only one who is from God – could do these” – there is simply no other explanation for the transformations and restorations.

But they were too blinded in their fear of threat to their authority and their puffed-up opinions of themselves to hear a thing he was saying: they were hell-bent (at least for themselves for sure) on getting rid of this menace to their false sense of peace in their religious sham.

May we enter into the events of Holy Week, trying to put ourselves in Jesus place, because he was absolutely putting himself in ours – as we rest assured our distresses, trials and tribulations can be overcome with HOPE, and TRUST and PRAYER – and GOOD WORKS DONE FOR LOVE OF HIM – as we watch and see how that whole ashes to Easter dynamic got its life giving effect.

In my distress I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice.


Thursday, March 22, 2018

March 22 - 5th Week of Lent - Thursday


­­+ Today we have seminal readings from the gospel: for contemplating them are the seeds to growth as a disciple of Christ, a follower of one who actually dwells within, and a child of God. This last phrase “child of God” is often times glossed over way too lightly – think of it, my dear friends, a disciple, a follower, is also a CHILD    OF    GOD! the God of Creation, the God of Salvation, the GOD OF LIFE, both temporal and SANCTIFYING LIFE ETERNAL.

The way this is spelled out clearly, yet subtly, is this: God spoke to Abram who prostrated himself on the ground – the one true and proper posture when communicating with God (if at least mentally) – and because he was already preselected for the job – God changes his name to Abra-HAM because he would now be father of a host of nations who would (and here’s the subtle nuance) be God’s children, and Abraham’s only indirectly in a sense (in that they would be a tangible physical descent) but it is the spiritual descendancy that would include all people of every nation under the sun.

This was then covenanted, sealed and deliverable to any who would simply BELIEVE that all this is real, can apply to them, and actually live like it does apply.

And from this people of children in faith, would come the one, ultimate, also predetermined King and redeemer of them all: Christ the Lord, who would spring from Abraham and Jesse’s stock, and flower through the House of David through to the begetting of Joseph, husband of Mary, and Mary herself who would give birth to the Messiah, Lord, God, Savior and Brother of all the other children of his Father.

And this Jesus would be both, born in time, as a man, but eternal and existing before time began as true and only begotten Son of God! This is why he could say that he himself knew Abram / Abraham – knew him quite well as a matter of fact. And he was delighted to be a part of his spiritual and physical ancestry. Jesus has Abraham’s very DNA.

May we rejoice today, that because of our or our parent’s/god parents decision to join us to this wonderful Mystical Body of believers and disciples and followers and children by Baptism – we can count ourselves among the elect – among those who are on this earth for also a predetermined amount of time for one purpose and one purpose only: to further the Kingdom by populating it and by helping those we bring in to the world to attain life when bodily death does occur for a short while. Or to do this, if marriage is not our vocation, and a single person dedicated to the same task: such as a bachelor, a priest, or a religious.

We are thrilled to be a member of GOD’S OWN FAMILY! Let us cherish, love and help all the brothers and sisters that God will place in our path this day: let us bring them into the silence, and darkness of the brilliance of the LIGHT OF CHRIST who is always shining that light on that path!


Wednesday, March 21, 2018

March 21 - 5th Week in Lent - Wednesday


­­+ The readings today are dramatic, vivacious and vital to our spiritual growth and maturity. They challenge us to be willing to be “put into the white-hot furnace heated seven times its normal capacity” – as an attempt to sear out, blast out, and burn out the relationship of the faithful with their “God” – the One God of Creation, the God of Salvation, the God who offers us a blessed bliss in eternal pastures forever.

The three young men are classic in their response to the King, “we will not serve your god or worship the golden statue that you have set up.” And so, they were tossed into the furnace – but were unscathed, untouched by the lapping flames – in fact they were observed to be walking and talking in the depts of the inferno to “one who looked like a “son of God” – yes, it no doubt was THE SON OF GOD! – before he was even conceived or born!

Jesus gives us the power to withstand any Passion that might come our way during the course of our lives.  Even more than one – maybe even seven – the seven-times heated furnace. But through it all Jesus will be in the depths of our souls, our beings, our mind and hearts that cannot be disturbed by anything that can happen to the body – and we will never be tried beyond our limits. He is there, he will console us, soothe us, instruct us, and even entertain us – to distract us from the whirring fires and firestorms that are all around us.

The times in which we live are indeed filling fast with the whirring sounds of threatened nuclear weapons, bombs exploding, children being murdered, a worldly government system in place that defies even superlative comments these days – based on a presidency that has run amuck since the first moment of its launching.
We need to decide, my friends “Do we want to be free,(free as the guys in the furnace) really free by having truth set us free, BUT, the truth that can be none other than the PERSON of Jesus Christ – who walks with us in the flames of life – God’s very speech – which can neither deceive nor be deceived – become flesh?

Subjective truth will strangle, suffocate and kill this type of believer. “My truth” will lead this believer to the real fiery pit, in a fire that is heated infinitely more hot than normal – where this believer will reside totally alone and roasted– forever.

The choice the decision is yours: Love Jesus, love his Father, love all your brothers and sisters, help them, forgive them, lay down your life for them: and you will be free, really and truly FREE!

Blessed are they who have kept the word with a generous heart and yield a harvest through perseverance.


Tuesday, March 20, 2018

March 20 - 5th Week in Lent - Tuesday


­­+ The readings today tell of a very profound secret, direct from God, hidden in plain sight, very plain sight! And it has to do with speech, our speech, our daily calling upon words to convey the ideas and sentiments that come from our minds and our heart. If they come from the mind only, then we are in trouble, as well as those who deal with us; if they come from the heart only, we are also in trouble, as well as those who deal with us, drowning as we might become is sentiment, wish-y wash-y and gelatinous.

I am going to tell you the secret! Yes, I am! Yes, that’s it, I am! I AM is the secret – the only reason at all that we can say “I am” – “I am this” – I am that! I am going here! I am doing this – Is the proof positive that we are created “in God’s image and likeness.” Now think about this really slowly! God told Moses to tell the people of Israel who demanded to know his name: tell them it is “I AM.” Say “I AM” sent me to you!

I AM – is the same thing as “BE-ING” Being equals I AM equal GOD. “We are” would be the collective way to include any number of “I am’s” – all existing in the ONE BEING, THE GREAT IAM – which is God! This alone, is proof of the existence of God the Father Creator, if we make the leap of will (the heart) and join it to our minds, forming our souls in being – and there you have it – Person to Person – God to me, me to God – God to us, us to God!” And he we have the reality of private and public prayer, meditation, and worship!

So, in the gospel passage, it is getting time now for “I AM” – I am Jesus – to be plotted against, falsely charged, “mocked-ly” tried, and then crucified worse than anyone before him. Simply because he was equating himself with God the Father and rightly so – because they both, with the Holy Spirit form intrinsically and essentially the ONE dynamic and living loving GOD! – and rightly so because he was. But he was playing out this human drama – imagine God becoming a human so he could die as a human to save us as humans who were destined for hell eternally. Wow! What a great God we have! What love! What sacrifice! What joy and peace!

And so when we look up at an image of Christ Crucified, as it was forecast and foretold of by the mounting of poisonous (representing the sin of humanity) seraph snakes which became healing to those who looked up: the Great I AM – did accomplish our salvation, our sin is forgiven, the gates of heaven are now open – and so long as we treat ourselves with great respect and listen to how we use the term “I am” today – knowing it is a participation in God’s own life – maybe the way we treat ourselves and others – all others – even those on TV – will be much different that it would have been if you had not heard this homily!

The seed is the word of God, Christ (I AM) is the sower; all “I am’s” – ordinary people, us, who decidedly and trustingly come to him will live forever.


Sunday, March 18, 2018

March 18 - 5th Sunday of Lent


5th Sunday of Lent – March 18, 2018

I –I will make a new covenant and remember their sin no more.
R –Create a clean heart in me, O God.
II – Christ learned obedience and became the source of eternal salvation.
A – Whoever serve me must follow me, says the Lord; and where I am, there also will my servant be.
G –If a grain of what falls to the ground and dies, it produces much fruit.

+ We are now moving into the heart of the Lenten seasonthe gospel passage shows Jesus focusing in on the seriousness and the gloriously redemptive value of his upcoming suffering and death, and subsequent resurrection from the dead. He beautifully describes the life that comes from death in the analogy of the grain of wheat falling to the earth to die in order to change and grow and become something very useful as a full grown plant. Just as he must take that exact same route, so must we if we want to be counted among his followers: if we want to share in the life of resurrection that comes from the suffering and the dying to self.

It is a very challenging thing for us to hear, but there is something truthful about it - something that seems to have been put there deep inside of us, in our hearts - and it somehow makes us think that we can really do it – die to one kind of life, to be born to a new fullness - and we can because this lesson is written in our hearts by God, and He provides the grace to do what we need to do; all we need do is to choose to cooperate, and to keep choosing this same thing each and every day!

This obedient choosing, over and over again – summarizes the life of Jesus – he always did what his Father wanted – even to the point of death, he obeyed him absolutely – and everything worked out just fine for him – and fine for us because of him! As we enter more deeply these next two weeks into the thoughts and words and deeds of Jesus which demonstrates his incredible love for us – let us respond by believing in him more and more and by proving our belief by simpler and more frequent “random acts of kindness and love, done because we love him and his Father!”

A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me!



Saturday, March 17, 2018

March 17 - St. Patrick


­­+ Patrick was born into a wealthy Roman-British family probably in Wales in the year 390. Around the age of 16 he was kidnapped from the British mainland and shipped to Ireland as a slave. He was sent to the mountains as a shepherd; there he spent his time in the fields in prayer. After six years of this life, he had a dream which commanded him to return to Britain; seeing this as a sign he escaped from his duties to the sheep in the pastures. But he was always being prepared to become a shepherd of another kind of sheep. Having left Ireland, he studied in several monasteries in Europe.

Patrick became a priest and then a bishop. He was sent by Pope Celestine to evangelize England and then Ireland (he became the second bishop of Armagh). In 33 years he effectively converted all of Ireland (this being associated to the legend of his “driving out of the snakes” of the land therein). He spoke the language of his new poor flock and taught them using symbols such as the three-leafed shamrock to describe the Trinitarian life of God in Himself. In the Middle Ages, Ireland became known as the Land of Saints, and during the Dark Ages its monasteries were the great repositories of learning in Europe, all a consequence of Patrick’s ministry.

Patrick died in 464 in County Down of natural causes. There is just something about the life and ministry of St. Patrick that makes him irresistible even to this day and one of the most popular saints in all of Church history both to Catholics and non-Catholics alike. Everyone is Irish on March 17.

The gospel passage today tells of the overflowing and abundant ministry of those who trust in God and follow his commands as far as bringing in wandering sheep from all over God’s creation; our churches ought to be full to overflowing – and to the extent that they are not perhaps it is a matter of focusing not so much on the machinery set in place to do the hauling, the diocesan structure of the world, with all its sometimes all too human personnel, as in the generosity of the hearts of those who are called to bring the very person of Jesus – living and breathing, within us – to people who are still eligible to have “the devil driven out of them” – like the snakes from Ireland! – and that would be you, and you and you, and me – this day – this glorious St. Patrick’s Day!

Proclaim God’s marvelous deeds to all the nations.


Friday, March 16, 2018

March 16 - 4th Sunday of Lent - Thursday


­­+ Our readings today explain a lot about the reason that people were “out to get” Jesus -  and actually to plot to kill him. It is prophesied in the Book of Wisdom: “let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us; he sets himself up against our doings, ‘he yells at us because we break the laws of God’, he professes to have knowledge of God and styles himself a child of God……Hey, let’s condemn him to a shameful death, ‘and just see if God takes care of him.’

This certainly was played out when Jesus came and did nothing but good works and speak truthful maxims, laws, and guidelines: his source: the only true source: THE WISDOM OF GOD HIMSELF! (hmmm actually Jesus is “God’s own Word” made into a human being, he is God’s WISDOM and TRUTH and JUSTICE likewise made flesh! Those utilizing the gift of faith that God gives anyone to use, for the asking, know this for certain as a simple fact that can be depended upon.

In the gospel passage, and at this time of our Lenten observance, the storm clouds are gathering against the most purely peaceful, truthful, joyful, happy, just, forgiving, merciful, compassionate, self-sacrificing human being who ever lived: who was also at the same time God, Jesus Christ, who would soon play out the sweet dramatic conclusion of his earthly life, by being murdered simply for being himself, the Man/God, come to open the gates of heaven, for any who choose to enter, by belief in him.

Two things to summarize: from afar we observe these events and say wow, Jesus was willing to go through all of this for me! Well, yes, for you, for each individual you who ever lived, lives, or will live.

But also, secondly, when we are apparent disciples of his, who want to get into those open gates of paradise, are ridiculed, mocked, shunned, ostracized and persecuted in a variety of way, up to and including be put to death – and we thus actually experience what he experienced with the conspiracy against him – then he tells us to REJOICE – to accept gladly and cheerfully any and all of the words and actions against us – the bullying and the rest – because Jesus himself will give us the grace and power to “get through it all” and “happily follow him all the way through life, and across the Bridge and into the Kingdom, where bullies, buffoons and self-seeking, self-gratifying, self-glorified buttheads and not allowed.

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.  


Thursday, March 15, 2018

March 15 - 4th Week of Lent - Thursday


­­+ Our readings today are about the necessity of and efficacious power of prayer to God the Father, Creator.  The reason this story is included in Scripture is that it demonstrates not that God’s mind can be changed, but that sometimes we can, in effect, by our “spouting off to him” with our opinions, perspective and insights, steer him back to his original plan and proposals.

So, in this reading, we see Moses reminding God that his original purpose was to form a people, a nation, a family – for his own present and future purposes - and that now destroying them because of their infidelity, disobedience and sin, would be easy enough for him, but it would wipe out also his own plan and love for them, and the coming of the future Messiah.

God listens to Moses and goes back to his original scheme.

Now would God, one way or another, gone back anyway? of course he would, but this story, as it plays out, tells us that our prayers, our reminders to God, based on our human care and concern for others, and ourselves, can influence the mind of God: perhaps God included our prayer to him in his original plan, if we don’t pray, then we are upsetting the whole applecart.

But, the catching point is this: it is always for GOD’S WILL AND WAY TO CARRY IT OUT, that we ought to be praying for: always, and not our own. We can only, at best, see a sliver of the total picture that any of our prayers can actually contribute to; so it is best to say, as Jesus taught us: THY WILL BE DONE, ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.

That way everything just simply works out for the best for all involved.

In the gospel passage Jesus is complaining because the Jewish people at the close of his life understand none of this, and so he tells them, even if they believed a fraction of what Moses said and did in the formation of them as a people, they would know how to act, when to act and what to pray for, and it wouldn’t be their own will and way!

Don’t worry God knows everything about everything, he knows how every bit of our daily lives is constructed and how its all supposed to fit together: TRUST HIM WITH WORKING OUT THE DETAILS INSTEAD OF YOURSELF: you will be much happier, much more peaceful, and a whole lot more of good, right, beautiful, just, and merciful action will be performed and the Kingdom of God will be that more visible, attractive and the fulfillment of which will seem to be our true end goal.

I will place my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people, says the Lord.


Wednesday, March 14, 2018

March 14 - 4th Week of Lent - Wednesday


­­+ Our gospel passage today is a powerhouse of essential, vital and pertinent information about just what is what, and where is where, and why is why and who is whom!

Point 1 – Jesus replied to those who accused him of making himself equal to God (the Father), now look, the Father and I are one – really truly one and the same identity though two separate manifestations: therefore what you hear me and see me do, is not my own idea at all, it is the Father: for I only do and say what I see and hear the Father doing and saying! This is not that difficult to understand.

Point 2 – Therefore, whoever does not honor the Son, does not honor the Father and vice versa. This is simple human logic in formulation.

Point 3 – And, whoever believes in me, believes in the one who sent me, the Father – and they will have my life, eternal life, unimagined experience, that there are not even many human categories to describe it – for it is truly time-less, and eternal, and it just simply is what it is! And that would be astounding to the maximum!

Point 4 – Also, a time is coming, when time will run out – and then those living at that time, plus all the dead from ages past having been called forth from their earthly graves, tombs and ashes, will all together take their place in a new heavens and new earth, where Jesus will be all in all: King Triumphant who will reign down his Peace, Joy, Bliss and Inexpressible Happiness forever.

Point 5 – This, for those who have tried the best they can to LISTEN to what was revealed by the Son of God made Flesh – Jesus Christ – and to put it in to practice: which is to LOVE, self-sacrificially, not counting the cost: this is all there is to it, really, but it is so very difficult to do.

Conclusion: what an amazing reality: this is not just some fairy tale – or pie in the sky! this is the way things are and can be for anyone at all.

Action: so how today can we fully participate in this unfolding love-drama: we can do, like Jesus did, the actions that Isaiah foretold would be the sign of divine action that anyone at all can do: saying to prisoners, come out; saying to those in darkness, show yourselves; by making sure the sheep have food and water, by making straight highways for the Lord to come and go for his people; by singing out songs of rejoicing along with those in heaven who sing them; by comforting God’s people, our neighbors, and showing them mercy; by assuring everyone, every single person we meet that God the Father loves them more tenderly than a mother who loves her child of her womb – and that is pretty amazing love!

The gospel Acclamations sums it nicely: I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord; whoever believes in me will never die.

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

March 13 - 4th Week of Lent - Tuesday


­­+ Our readings today are quite interesting, they are about water! And not just any water, but the holy source of all water, the holy source of all that gives life and sustains life and preserves life. All living things need water to survive an earthly existence. All supernatural beings need the spiritual water of grace flowing from the heavenly Temple of the Lord, through the Pierced Heart of Christ which gushed forth water (and blood) after the Death of King of the Universe of the Cross, onto us on the day of our holy Baptisms – when we were irrevocably birthed into this eternal, glorious, supernatural “family of God’s children!” - that’s quite the procession of water! we are thus blessed!

The waters of the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem of the Gospel passage today, is symbolic of this water-shed of grace available to all who submerge themselves both literally and figuratively: the waters of healing, strength and resolution and determination to be a disciple of the Christ, from whose Life comes, our life, through whose Death, comes our death, through whose Resurrection to a newness of Life, comes our resurrection to a like newness of life – if we believe that it is so.

We should have a container of Holy Water in our monasteries, homes, and other places of residence – we should bless ourselves with it at least once during the day – and then sprinkle our residences with it before we take our rest at night – it just can remind us of all of the above in this homily, and how protected our dwellings will be when we call to mind to awesome power, strength, and LOVE that God wants to shower on us at any given moment of the day or night!

God bless!

Sunday, March 11, 2018

March 11 - Fourth Sunday of Lent


4th Sunday of Lent – March 11, 2018

I –The wrath and the mercy of the Lord are revealed in the exile and liberation of his people.
R –Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
II – Though dead in your transgressions, by grace you have been saved.
A – God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might have eternal life.
G –God sent his Son so that the world might be saved through him.

+ It is part of the “comfort culture” that we live in - the quicker, easier, softer way that most everyone looks for these days - to dismiss a very important part of the reality of God the Father that ought not to be overlooked: and that is his complete justice! We are quick to jump on the compassion and mercy bandwagon with God; but mercy and compassion and forgiveness come as a result of transgression: it was the devastating sin of our first parents that demanded an enormous act of justice that involved a horrifying death of a human being; but not just any human being: it required the human death of God’s own Son: Jesus the Christ.

All throughout the pages of the Old Testament we see over and over again how – in trying to form Abraham’s descendants in faith into a real and cohesive family, God had to be strict with them, he had to show them the hand of his displeasure, the hand of his anger many times – because nothing else seemed to work. Sending prophets and spokesmen and kings just left the people in even more disarray – and so we see in the first reading today that God has to send his people away from the land and home that he gave them, and to punish them: to have them be ruled over by their enemies, the Babylonians. This was a very humiliating thing for the Jews: but it was necessary so that God could convince the people of his MERCY, of his willingness to FORGIVE, once they came to realize their error, to establish true and LIBERATING JUSTICE between himself and them for LOVE OF THEM.

Yes, God sent them away, but then he had mercy and called them back from exile, and he told King Cyrus to begin rebuilding the temple to his honor in Jerusalem. Both for the Jewish people and for us, the lesson to learn is to not ever again forget God’s words and his acts of compassion and his acts of love done for our salvation. It displeases God very much to have to discipline his children, but as any parent would, he does it, and always will do it, when needed.  It’s his justice!

The second reading today wonderfully tells us of our full restoration in Christ – the grace Christ bought for us on Calvary gives us immeasurable riches and elevates us to a kind of existence that makes us almost float above all the silliness and nonsense that always seems to be going on in the world!

Yes, Jesus was raised up for us – so that we could be free of our sins, and heirs of everlasting life deep in the heart of God – may we always look up and see the face of Christ in the Crucifix and know that we are loved beyond all telling! With this image as our guide we will always walk in light, we will always know where we are going, and we will always know how to get there!

Let us rejoice this day, not only because Lent is more than half-way over, but because our transformation into the image of Christ is much more apparent than it was at the beginning of Lent! We are more loved, we are more forgiven, and we are more exalted because of our poverty and lowliness than ever before!

Amen!

Friday, March 9, 2018

March 9 - 3rd Week of Lent - Friday


­­+ What amazing readings we have on this third Friday of Lent.  Fridays in Lent are always geared remotely to the events that take place on Good Friday – which will be three weeks from today! This particular Friday we see the inner workings of the very heart of God the Father – the Fatherly tenderness that yearns for his people’s return and repentance. He is always poised like a mother lion to come quickly to the aid of her errant children – but they must make the first move because they have free will. If they freely chose to walk away from her (Him in this case, God the Father), then it is they who must of their own free-will and desire turn a face the other way: the way that leads back to him: but he is there in a flash to aid them and welcome them every step of the way:
and so the book of Hosea tells us:

It is God who speaks:
Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God; you have collapsed because of your guilt. Take with you words (of repentance) and return to the Lord. ….. Then, later, I will heal their defection, says the Lord, I will love them freely; for my wrath is turned away from them. I will be like the dew(fall) for Israel, he shall blossom like the likely; He shall strike root like the Lebanon cedar, and put forth his shoots.

What an amazing story, a love-story unparalleled.

In the gospel passage we have enumerated the life-style of those who truly “get it,” get the message and meaning of being a disciple of Christ, a member of the new people of God, a partaker in the redemption wrought and available to those who to this day pause, reflect on the direction of their lives, and who choose to follow the standard of the Cross, rather than the deceptive and dangerous standard of the world – based on lies, and perjury and chaos, and start marching in the correct direction: to the Bridge that leads across the River Chaos and Catastrophe, and into the new Promised Land of Joy and Peace.

Yes, the Kingdom is to come, yet it is already here – and it dwells primarily for us, deep inside of us – who are members of his Mystical Life, his Mystical Kingdom, his very real, risen, glorified Mystical Body!

Amen.


Thursday, March 8, 2018

March 8 - 3rd Week of Lent - Thursday


­­+ Our readings for mass today cast a somber tone: and rightly so they should: the first reading is about a nation who says one thing and then does the exact opposite: reminiscent of a nation founded not on a state religion, but on religious values and supernatural principles that cross all religious lines, which in the course of its young and hot shot sort of existence has all but turned away from true values, morals, conscience bearing principles and decisions that are helpful to the global village.

And the first reading goes on to say that such nations will pay dearly in the end for such disobedience, and literal disregard for God and his will and ways: they just do not understand that God’s will is God’s will is God’s will: and whatever he wills will be done – period. And it is his will one day for a new heavens and earth and universe to replace this one: and only those who tried their best to begin to build such a transformed kingdom now, will be admitted to it then. Justice, harmony, peace, joy, beauty, goodness and love are the hallmarks of that kingdom, and if what we do this day does not contribute to these on the family, community, state, national, global level – then the day will be darker that it could be!

The idea that Jesus is working on the side of the enemy is laughable – but the presentation of the idea reflects the state of affairs with a people who are greatly influenced by that same enemy.

My friends, flee the enemy before it is too late: the answers already lie deep within your heart and soul – seek and find them there – seek and find HIM there, the Lord of our Life, the King of all Creation, the Savior of the Universe!
Shake off all your sins – and make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.


Tuesday, March 6, 2018

March 6 - 3rd Week of Lent - Tuesday


+ Today we see portrayed in the readings for mass the true dynamic of salvation history: it speaks of what it means to be a nation of human beings who are all too human, all to fickle, all to gung-ho and then heave-ho, sinful to the core and repentant to the heavens, a people of the past, a people of the here and now who know they are screwed up, but also know how to fix it: just simply stop, take a deep breath, consider their wrong-doings and conscience laden rightful guilt –

and then turn the other way, turn 180 degrees to what their soul tells them is the correct and life-giving direction: which our liturgy today tells us is the one that has the Cross of Christ Crucified at the end of it: large or small – depending on how much we need to face ourselves and make changes that will lead us to it, and the Bridge that is guards and is, which we all must one day cross over to be judged for our works in life!

And, lo and behold, we experience what it means to be guided now by God – as the responsorial psalm reveals – who will guide us henceforth to valid and authentic justice, as we humble ourselves, yes naked to the core, seeking his ways and his FACE!

The verse before the gospel once more summarizes all this by saying from the Prophet Joel: Even now says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart; for I am gracious and merciful!

Sunday, March 4, 2018

March 4 - 3rd Sunday of Lent


3rd Sunday of Lent – March3, 2018

I –The law was given through Moses.
RLord, you have the words of everlasting life.
II – We proclaim Christ crucified a stumbling block to many, but to those who are called, the wisdom of God.
A – God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might have eternal life.
G –Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.

+ Our readings today have to do with the spiritual dynamic of “law which leads to freedom.” It is true that God created his people in love, to be his friends, to spend an eternity of bliss with him in an amazing union of glory! But in our fallen state (due to the sin of our first parents), we were forced into seeking the freedom, which God always had and has in mind for us, by a roundabout route: to be free, we must obey law, his law that he instituted for the very purpose of freeing us as total persons from what separates us from him and one another! And so we read in the Book of Exodus today that God gives Ten Commandments, laws, rules for those who wish to enter into a relationship with him: why? not to restrict them, but to offer them the freedom to make their own choice of whether to trust God enough to go along with these dictates (which they cannot help but sense are for their own good), or to choose their own standards and rules that will just never go well, or feel completely right – and end in a lot of chaos and confusion!

The point of the law, then, was to liberate and lead to freedom and not to enslave, by any means. Law, as our Psalm today (19) tells us, ought to be trusted as a source of wisdom: it says this so gently and beautifully, “the law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul; the decree of the Lord is trustworthy, giving wisdom to the simple: it is more precious than gold, than a heap of purest gold; sweeter also than syrup or honey from the comb.”

Jesus, who is a sign of the power and the wisdom of God, in the gospel passage, speaks to us of the ultimate freedom to be won for us by his being raised up: he does this in a very dramatic way as he, who is consumed with zeal for the house of his Father, quite angrily and with a great show of displeasure overturns the tables of the moneychangers who made a spectacle of themselves as they translated the money brought by the poor people to pay for their sacrificial offerings to the Lord in the temple! It was not because they were there that Jesus was so angry, but it was because they were not paying attention to what was really going on in the temple and with the people: they were there to line their own pockets, to make a sideshow of things and to distract the people from their true purpose in being there!

Jesus also takes this dramatic moment to turn the entire validity of the temple itself topsy-turvy (which needed to be done sooner or later): from now on, Jesus proclaims, you must put all your focus and attention on ME, for I AM THE NEW TEMPLE, and when it is destroyed by Crucifixion, in THREE DAYS I WILL RAISE IT UP! This was not only an unheard of agenda, but Jesus most clearly establishes himself as the new temple, the new worship, the new ark, the new law and most importantly of all, the one who has the authority to do these things: HE ESTABLISHES HIMSELF UNDENIABLY AS GOD HIMSELF!

Jesus was certainly irrevocably in line for the Cross now, he has ramped up the stakes against him a hundredfold: and he does it in a very profound, radical, determined and unforgettable way! Everything is now different because of Jesus: and this is what we hear about, ponder, reflect on and celebrate each time we come to this place: the new temple of the new people of God (of which we are a part); with reverence, and awe, with undivided attention and devotion we engage in the marvelous program of worship that has come down to us throughout the ages, (which has recently been reformed in language), which is the cause of our joy, our hope and our peace! Let us continue now our Lenten journey with even more praise, thanksgiving and love for God who does so very much for us!

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might have eternal life.



Happy New Year 202

  A Happy New Year to you all! I hope and pray I am able to keep this blog up to date now that we are entering into the New Year! I would li...