Apr 28 - 2nd Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy)

+ Today the Church continues rejoicing in the celebration of Easter Day! We have reached the Octave (Eighth) Day and the Solemn Celebration is now complete! But, could we really stop celebrating Easter? for seven weeks more we will celebrate the season of Easter, and then of course, we know that every Day of the Sun for the remainder of the Church calendar year is a continuation of the celebration of this one Easter Day! 

On this octave day then, we still bask in the radiance of Jesus come back to life – but this time to a newness of life, a fullness, a richness that we are all invited to share in and participate in. Jesus demonstrated it again in the gospel passage today: “on the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus (just suddenly appeared) and stood in their midst!” We too – will be able to use preternatural gifts of appearing suddenly here and there, in heaven.

Then Jesus said to them: Peace be with you! and then he showed them his hands and his sides! Why would he do that? Why did Jesus choose to keep his scars and wounds visible? it is because they were his trophies! they were his proof positive that he loves each and every one of us that much – to be able to suffer the horrible death of crucifixion for us – so that our sins could be forgiven, and that we would live forever after what is now just a mere formality of physical death!

Then to inaugurate the concrete and very real sacramental distribution of his forgiveness, Jesus breathes on the Eleven and says: receive the Holy Spirit – whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained. He did three things at this point: he sent the Holy Spirit into their beings in an unprecedented sort of way: he empowered them to forgive sins in his name and person, and he made them true and authentic judges of each situation: only those who show contrition and sorrow for true sin and have a purpose of amendment will be forgiven: and he gives these, his first priests, the faculties to make the call!

The Divine Mercy of God is now available to be poured out on mankind in a most powerful way, like the blood and water that poured forth from his pierced heart! This is the mercy that forgave Adam and Eve, it is the mercy that reestablished friendship between God and mankind, this is the mercy that even the most hardened sinner can rely on and call upon – and this day’s secondary title: Divine Mercy Sunday – ties it all together!

It only makes sense that the mirror image, end celebration of the Easter Octave be spelled out as a Mercy Sunday, just as Easter Sunday spells out irrevocably that everything now is completely different than it was before the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth! Now, it is Jesus who is undisputed Lord, King and Savior of the world; and sooner or later everyone will come to understand that and have the opportunity to believe it and thus access all the benefits of it – and its chief benefit is MERCY!

Thomas, however, needed proof that it was really Jesus who was alive; and he got his proof a week after Easter as we read in the gospel passage: and what he ought to be more remembered for than his doubt, is the magnificent act of faith that he made in all of its stark simplicity: and then Thomas answered: My Lord and my God! Jesus then said: Thomas there will be some who believe because I will reveal myself to them in special ways, but the greater majority will not really see me, but they will believe in me, and your words just spoken here, will help them! Once they believe that I am their Lord, and I am their God! I am their Savior, then their lives will never be the same! Thank you Thomas for being the first of a long line of people who will love me enough to adore me and serve me with all their hearts!

Yes, the stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. By the Lord has this been done; it is wonderful in our eyes!

Alleluia! Amen! Alleluia!

Apr 24 - Easter Wednesday

+ This is the day the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it.

We have two beautiful readings today! In the first reading we see how the Apostle Peter, with John, offers a lifelong crippled man a gift that is beyond silver or gold: having the man look at them, Peter said: we do not have silver or gold but we do have the amazing and dynamic power of the Risen Jesus to give you: and we give it – and in his name we command you to rise and walk. And the man arose and walked! In fact, he jumped around for joy and then walked into the temple with the two Apostles praising God. All who saw this were amazed because they knew this to be the man who had been handicapped since he was a baby!

The Church offers us the same amazing and dynamic power of the Risen Jesus in its sacraments and activity of self-sacrificial giving and charity – so that we can be healed of what cripples and handicaps us. All we need do is believe in the One whose power is at work: Jesus the Risen Lord of Glory, his Father and their Spirit. There is not enough silver or gold in the whole world that can buy what our simple response of faith can attain for us!

And of course the gospel passage is the beloved story of the walk of Jesus with two dejected disciples on the road to Emmaus on Easter Sunday afternoon. These two are among the vast majority who are scratching their heads and hanging them heavy as it seems that their hopes in Jesus had been dashed to the ground. He said he would rise on the third day. What happened? We do not see anyone! But then Jesus himself – in his Risen presence – comes and walks right along with them – and he engages with them in a dialogue in which he could refresh their memories about the fulfillment of the Law and Prophets that Jesus was supposed to be (still not revealing himself to them as the one to whom they referred); and then when they invited him into their house for supper, and when he took bread and broke it and gave it to them – thus truly revealing who he was – they did recognize him – at which point he vanished from their sight!

Then comes one of the most beautiful lines in all of scripture: Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us? They knew without a doubt that the man who walked and ate with them was Jesus, Risen from the dead. And they left at once and went to Jerusalem to tell everyone what had happened: and how they recognized him in the breaking of the bread! This of course, is the very pattern of our Mass: from that Easter Sunday afternoon we get the framework for what we do here: read and reflect on Jesus (as he is present in the words of the ministers and priest) who opens the Scriptures and interprets them for us; and in the breaking of the bread: where the priest – in the very person of Jesus – once again feeds us with his own risen and real Body and Blood – so that we can grow more and more daily to resemble him, so that the Father will see him in us, and will welcome us to heaven to spend eternity in a forever of joy and glory!

Let us give thanks to the Lord, and invoke his name today; and make known among the nations (including our own) his saving deeds!       Alleluia! Alleluia!

Apr 22 - Easter Monday

+ This is the day the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it. We celebrate today the first day within the octave of Easter! An octave celebration, we recall, is a continuation of the original celebration as if it were still going on: and so for the Catholic world every day this week will be a re-presentation of Easter Sunday!

If this is the case, then why will all of our first readings this week be of Pentecost Day and the events thereof?

For two reasons: 1) the proclamation of Easter is very short, poignant and earth-shattering: JESUS – who was put to death – HAS BEEN RAISED FROM THE DEAD! HE LIVES A NEWNESS OF LIFE - NEVERMORE TO DIE AGAIN! and this changes everything!

2) But in his wisdom Jesus took another 50 days to prepare his Apostles – the Eleven (now) - to go out and proclaim this very astounding, powerful, yet simple truth. And PENTECOST was the day when finally they understood it all (when the Spirit came upon them) – and they began to preach and teach this gospel message regarding Jesus – the Risen Lord – who indeed was the long awaited Messiah – to the ends of the earth as they had been instructed by him to do.

This is why, the Easter fact and the Pentecost message are intimately linked; this is also where we come in – we who have responded to the apostolic mission and have chosen to believe in the message, to enter into an interpersonal human/divine friendship with Jesus and to be plugged into the life and sacramental system of the Church he established on Pentecost.

And so, we rejoice today that God can truly be our hope, our joy and our peace! – and that he empowers us to bring these to others, all others, for he has poured out upon us the promised gift of the Holy Spirit!

Amen! Alleluia!

Apr 19 - Good Friday

Good Friday – April 19, 2019

+ Let us reflect for a few minutes today on the staggering significance of what we are remembering and celebrating:

·       the God who became Man – Jesus Christ – came to earth on Christmas Day – we cannot separate the Crib and the Cross -

and he began to live his entire life in the shadow of that Cross – the Cross that would await him at the end of the journey of his life among us.

·       no matter who tried to deter him from his heaven-sent mission (the Devil, the Scribes, the Pharisees, unbelieving sight-seers and n’er-do-wells) Jesus always kept he entire focus on that Cross – because it meant our salvation, it meant the forgiveness of our sins, it meant the opening of the gates of heaven to us, which would otherwise remain closed forever

·       the mechanism, if you will that would win salvation, was the absolute obedience and trust of a human being (who was also God at the same time) to overturn the disobedience and grave act of mistrust in God displayed by our first parents: this is the SIN OF ADAM.

·       and so it happened as it was foretold – all of the prophecies were fulfilled – and Jesus died a human death on that Friday we call Good – because it snatched up all that was bad and cast it away forever.

·       and we became free – free to form and use our consciences properly, free to make good and right, helpful and just decisions, free to choose to love Jesus and his Father – and to opt for living with them forever in heaven by accepting their invitation to do so…

·       what a wondrous day this is: what an astounding drama that was played out, what a price that was paid for sin, what a cause for our never-ceasing acclamations of thanks, praise, worship and glory to GOD who loves us each so very, very much as to insist that it all be played out this exact way

·       O Saving Cross of Christ WE ADORE YOU!

Apr 18 - Holy Thursday

Holy Thursday – March 24, 2016

+ 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.

Apr 17 - Holy Week - Wednesday

+ We are on the threshold of the three holiest days of the church year. Tomorrow we celebrate the Institution of the Priesthood and the Perpetual Memorial of the Lord’s Last Supper which we know of as “The Mass”; on Friday we commemorate his life-giving Passion and Death (which was anticipated at that supper); and Saturday evening (and Easter Sunday) we rejoice with the Church as we proclaim Jesus Risen from the dead, and we welcome new members into the Mystical Body of the Church.

Our attitude ought to be one of solemn yet joyful anticipation and reflection on such a wondrous display of God’s love and mercy and forgiveness. He did not have to create us in the first place; and he did not have to redeem us when we miserably failed the simple test of loyalty that he gave us in the second place: but he did both: BECAUSE HE LOVES US! May we love him back then, and thank him profusely by lives of giving to others, all others, after the example of his own beloved Son, Jesus! – simply because he loves them no more and no less than he loves us – for he loves us each totally and completely according to our capacity to be loved! – which we have control of totally and completely!

Hail to you Jesus:

Lord, King and Savior of the world!        

April 14 - Palm Sunday

+ We are now at the end of our Lenten observance and we begin the observance of the holiest week of the Church year.  Though we have been here many times before, we are invited to make this year different from the rest because we have a deeper interest in the events, because we have both a better understanding of them and because they pertain to us very personally and really: all of the things that Jesus did, he did for us and for our salvation!

On this day when we recall the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, let us see it for what it was: he was now finished with eluding the crowds of Jews who were out to get him, he is no longer in hiding: he is very much visible, marching into his city, to claim his position as King: King of the Jews; as Lord of all lords and Savior of all mankind.

The crowds of people who lined his route were inspired by the Holy Spirit himself to make a magnificent spectacle out of this entry, waving palm branches – HOSANNA TO THE SON OF DAVID they shouted: BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD – for this is who he truly was.

May we take from this celebration today these three titles of Jesus to ponder during the coming days of Holy Week: 1)JESUS IS LORD, Jesus is Lord (not Caesar, not any governor, not any president, not any prime minister) Jesus is the one and true Lord of lords; 2) JESUS IS KING – Jesus is King of the Jews, he is king of all nations – and his kingdom will have no end – and all – sooner or later – all the kings of the earth will one day obey him; and lastly, 3) JESUS IS SAVIOR. JESUS IS SAVIOR OF THE WORLD – no one else in human history was qualified to do what he did: reconcile God and Man – because he was both True God and True Man at the same time, in the same Person: everything that Jesus said and did then, he did NOT FOR HIMSELF – but FOR US AND FOR OUR SALVATION!

This is why it is only right and just that we take the time, a lot of time this coming week to think about these things, to reflect on them, and to adore and worship the One to whom they refer: Jesus of Nazareth, Son of Mary, Foster-son of Joseph and Son of God! LORD, KING, SAVIOR!

HOSANNA TO THE SON OF DAVID!

Apr - 12 - 5th Week of Lent - Friday

+ The Prophet Jeremiah has in his own life the experience of being denounced and stalked by his own friends: “all those who were my friends are on the watch for any misstep of mine; perhaps he will be trapped; then we can prevail, and take our vengeance on him!” This is a sure prophecy of what would happen to Jesus at a later time: in the gospel passage today we see the Jews trying to trip Jesus up because they fail to understand his unique and real relationship with his heavenly Father: the one sent by him into the world to reconcile us, the one who has the right to be called true Son of God (because that is exactly what he is). Jesus tells them then if they do not believe what he says about himself as Son of God – they should at least believe that he is unique and from God because of the quality of the works that he does: his spiritually revolutionary preaching, and his miracles that have no other explanation than originating in God himself.

But these prejudiced and stiff-necked people reject any claim that Jesus makes on being in a special relationship with the very God of their fathers: and they try to arrest him – but as it was not yet his exact hour to finally be handed over, he escaped from their power and went back across the Jordan to the place where John first baptized, and there he remained. There many came to believe in him for they realized that everything John said about this man was true.

We have a unique and special invitation to listen to Jesus speak at this Mass and to witness his greatest sign of all: the changing of bread and wine by the priest into his Real and True Body and Blood as supernatural nourishment for our spiritual lives for which we are responsible for growth and maturity! May we appreciate what happens here to the maximum – for it is astounding as it is breathtaking!

We love you, O Lord, our strength, O Lord, our rock, our fortress, our deliverer.

Apr 10 - 5th Week of 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! – the CHRIST of the Universe, 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.

And the very hierarchical structure of the Church cannot be excused either for the collective, calculated and conspiratorial efforts to move the Church in a wrong and morally intrepid direction.

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.

Apr 7 - 5th Sunday of Lent

+ Today is the Fifth and final Sunday of Lent, the last before Palm Sunday and Holy Week which follows that. The gospel today, which concludes the Lenten Sundays, ends fittingly with the narration of the woman caught in adultery and Jesus’ defense of her, and the forgiveness of her sins by him! This is precisely what his upcoming Death and Resurrection would be all about: the forgiveness of all sins and the opportunity for any who are repentant – of any generation – to have their sins forgiven (through the ministry of the Church) – and to hope for a place in the heavenly homeland – which to that point was blocked off.

In the first reading from the Prophet Isaiah we see an imagery of water in the desert – an obvious reference to Jesus, whose total reality and message is a life giving drink in the midst of the desert wasteland of secular evils, misgivings, and what is worse, indifference - that many find themselves entangled in. Jesus, in his Church, is meant to be a never-ending fountain, source, of strength, hope and grace!

It is an emphatic point that the doors to forgiveness are always open to those who see the light, who repent of their past misdeeds and who turn to the Lord, walk through that door and ask his compassionate love and forgiveness – which he immediately pours out like an ocean of soothing, balming ointment and grace.

May we ourselves be among the repentant, the forgiven and the redeemed, and may we pray earnestly and unceasingly for those who are still astray, who still are grazing in dangerous meadows, who are still away from the true love of their lives. And our prayer for them will make a difference – it will make a difference.

The Lord has done great things for us: we are filled with joy! – May we share that joy with all we meet! oHoHH

Apr 1 - 4th Week of Lent - Monday

+ As we progress more rapidly now in our Lenten observance, today we pick up the theme of an increased sense of joy in the readings: the joy that comes from belief, the joy that comes from letting God have his way, the way of saving us. If we ever think that God’s ways would be unacceptable or irksome to us we are sadly mistaken, because all God wants is our happiness and our salvation: our qualification to spend eternity with him in a grand and glorious place where we will have fun beyond our wildest imaginations.

And so Isaiah speaks of the new heavens and the new earth that God wills to make for his people; and the gospel passage shows how health and well-being will be a part of that creation: and that the entrance key to this magnificent reality is simply faith, belief, trust and consequent loving deeds done to others!

Let us seek what is true, beautiful and good always and not the opposite, so that we may live bountifully and have the Lord always with us!