Thursday Eleventh Week Ordinary Time, 1

The Our Father

Just like us, the people in Jesus' time desired to know how to pray. They diligently and faithfully offered sacrifices, stopped throiughout the day and prayed, visited the Temple - they did a lot of stuff trying to find favor with God.

We are no different. We too desire to be found favorable with God so we 'say our prayers', go to mass, do acts of charity and whatever else we find time to do. There is nothing wrong with any ofthese, for we need to do these things - but, Christ teaches us something in the Our Father that we cannot forget.

When the disciples ask Him how they are to pray, Jesus gives them, not a technique or formula, He gives them a short 55 word prayer. Within these mere 55 words though is the essence of what prayer is and needs to be.

We come to realize in the Our Father that we are totally dependent on the Father. Without the Father, we do not have our daily bread. Without the Father, we are prone to temptations and evils that pull us away from a life of faith. Without the Father, we do not have forgiveness of our sins nor do we have the ability to forgive others. We are totally dependent of God the Father adn without Him, we are nothing.

The Our Father teaches us that prayer has to be us becoming little. We are not capable of anything without God. We are little children who needs our Father to give us life, to give us safety and to forgive us of all our sins.

In praying, we need to 'say our prayers' as the saying goes, we need to maintain a sacramental life and do acts of charity and self sacrifice. It all needs to happen though with the undercurrent of our total dependence on the Father and that without this life of prayer, we are nothing.

Pentecost Sunday

What an amazing 50 days. 50 days ago we celebrated the great feast of Easter where Christ, after suffering crucifixion and death, rose from the grave and defeated death. He won for us eternal life through his ultimate sacrifice. Now, today, we celebrate the last promise he made to us while he was on earth: He will send us the Paraclete, the advocate, the spirit of truth, The Holy Spirit!

The Acts of the Apostles gives us an account of a dramatic scene where tongues of fire fell upon the heads of the apostles. I don't know what that must have looked like, but I imagine it was shocking and amazing. Upon receiving this fire of the Spirit, they were changed. Their physical bodies were the same; they didn't look different. These ordinary individuals were transformed and changed in who they were, in their spiritual self. In receiving the spirit, they had a knowledge of God that allowed them to now see their oneness - they were the Body of Christ. They were one and in this new body they all knew and understood one another. It did not matter what geographic, political, social, or ethnic boundary the world and marked out for us - we were made one and the gospel was for everyone, no matter what.

Recognizing they were one body and now being imbued with a knowledge of God that gave them new faith and a fiery zeal for Christ and his message - they went out to every corner of the known world and baptized, preached, witnessed and gave their lives to this truth they now possessed. And, you know what, it worked! By all counts, it should have failed. These were just ordinary people who went out and proclaimed something contrary to what was popular. In their zeal, though, they baptized and converted countless people and those people did the same and almost 2000 years later we are here in Pennsylvania - the children of those first apostles. It worked because they were not operating out of worldly power, authority or statistics - they were working hand in hand with God himself through His spirit.

Today is not just another feast we celebrate, no, it is the celebration of who we are - the church! Today is the celebration of the beginning of the spreading of the gospel and the body of the church. It all started with this event and the Spirit has been working in and through the memebrs of the church ever since; now it is working through us. We too have received that same spirit through our baptism, confirmation, and in our worship and spiritual life. We too have within our selves that same fire that fell upon the apostles in that upper room. We too have that same commission to preach, witness, and sacrifice ourselves for the gospel. We need to allow that fire to kindle; we need to fuel it so that it blazes within us. When we recognize and feel the flames of the Spirit within us, then we too will live our call and be the church for this generation.

The fire is within us. Let it burn. Let us set the world on fire!

Tuesday Seventh Week of Easter

"I did not shrink in proclaiming the plan of God"

We are hearing from two 'farewell discourses', one from Jesus and on from Paul. The words of Jesus this afternoon are the same words from the gospel this past Sunday where he is praying to the Father on the eve of his crucifixion and death. Paul is speaking to the priests of Ephesus telling them that he will no longer be a physical presence in their lives for he is going on and he is sure to run into much persecution.

This allows us to get a glimpse into the undercurrent of Paul's whole personality and ministry. Paul was a man who was quite aware of the people he was ministering to and proclaiming the gospel to. He knew that these people were not going to easily understand his message or willingly allow him to convert not only them, but their fellow man. Two chapters later in Acts, Paul will find himself arrested in Rome and, from there, the rest is history.

Within the content of Paul's speech to the priests, he makes it clear that he never shrunk in proclaiming the truth of the gospel; he never shrunk in proclaiming Jesus Christ to all people and to be his witness.

Paul's words here need to be a meditation and a point of reflection for us. We too need to be as Paul and not shrink in our witness to the gospel. This is not easy though in our lives. We all have family and friends who are not as strong in the faith as we or do not believe at all and we desire to please them by not being the witness we are called to be. We are often afraid to rock the boat and cause waves; we cannot let these fears rule us. We have been called to be the voice of God and this is a task that cannot be shrunk at any cost.

May the words of Paul be in our minds and hearts. May we slowly gain the courage of Paul and never allow anything to keep us from proclaiming God to all people.

Seventh Sunday of Easter, Year A

A favorite author of mine is C.S Lewis. He is the author of many books, including the Chronicles of Narnia. He is also credited with many famous and not so famous quotes. If you are like me, you truly enjoy reading quotes and getting little bits of insight from people of all walks of life. One quote in particular of his that I really like captures the essence of today's scripture passages. The quotes is this "You do not have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body". This is a great bit of insight from a very devout and wise mind. This quote captures the essence of today's readings because all three passages are showing for us the need for prayer - not just saying our prayers, but being people of prayer. What does this mean?

I think we see this concretely in the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles. The eleven of them, remember that Judas is gone, are gathering in the upper room to pray. It may be easy to overlook this as perhaps a throw away line, but it is showing us something profound. The apostles started out as just ordinary men, like you and me, until Jesus came along and called them to follow him. With not knowing this man or who or what he was, they gave up family, jobs, friends and their life as they knew it to follow Christ. For three years, the gospels tell us, they traveled with him and listened to all he had to teach and preach. They became a close group of friends that gave all of themselves to Christ. Until one day, Jesus was arrested and killed. The apostles were beside themselves! They didn't know what to do, if they were going to be next in being killed or where to turn to - They were scared. In their fear and confusion, they ran and hid in the upper room.

Easter, Jesus rose from the dead and was with them for 40 more days. They were joyful and still a little confused. But, then the Ascension. On Thursday we celebrated the Ascension of Jesus when he rose; body, blood, soul and divinity; to heaven to sit at the right hand of God. in this great act of Jesus, he showed them everything and they now knew that he was indeed Jesus, the son of God. They had seen the Father, they came to realize that they were in the son and the son was in them. They knew that Jesus promised them an advocate. They now got it! This time, when Jesus was no longer with them, they did not go run and hide, but they went to that same upper room and prayed.

With this new awareness of God, with this new awareness that they were created to be with God, with this new found faith - the only thing that made sense for them to do was pray.

This needs to be an example for us. We need to become so aware of the presence of God, that we can do what St Peter tells us i the second reading. In the face of every trial and difficulty - we do not become separtaed from God or run from Him, but we are united more to him. Experiences of extreme pain and difficulty allows us to cling more to God and thus, even in these hard times, we can continue to give glory to God. Living as such allows us to live a life of prayer. Living a life of prayer means that we are so aware and connected to God that our life, no matter what we are doing, is a prayerful act because our mind is tuned into the reality of God.

Jesus, in the gospel, is praying to his Father the night before his death. He knew the horrible pain he was to endure, but instead of running in fear or denying his Father, he prays to him. He is giving thanks for what he has been given and is praying for the fruits of his earthly ministry - us.

So, as we are in this in-between period, this period between the Ascension of Christ and the feast of Pentecost, we need to, I challenge you, to become more aware of God in all our surroundings and relationships and interactions. As we gradually do this, we become more aware of our full participation in the Trinity and that the life we live out here on earth is directed to eternal life with God. Once we can see this and know this, then when the Holy Spirit comes upon us - anything will be possible. We will have life and have it most abundantly, for we are living out who we are and what we were created for.

Ascension Thursday, Year A

When I was in the 4th grade, I remember that I wanted to be an explorer! I can recall vividly my 4th grade teacher asking us what we wanted to be when we grew up, and I enthusiastically knew that I wanted to be just like the great explorers of history.

I had gotten to admire the great names of Magellan, Ericson, de Soto, de Leon, Joliet, Champlain, Cortez and so forth. St Brandon, who was an Irish abbot, was a sailor. Legend has it that he was indeed the first one to have discovered North America, not Christopher Columbus. It is also told that on one of his voyages, he celebrated mass on the back of a whale!

I wanted to be just like them. I wanted to see lands that were never seen before. I wanted to feel wind blowing through my hair that had never blown through the hair of man. I wanted to be shaded by trees that never offered shade to a soul before. I wanted. I wanted to taste foods that never passed by the lips of man before. I wanted to shake hands with natives that had never shook a hand before. I wanted to find great kingdoms where kings ruled in peaceful harmony.

I wanted to make every unknown a known

I wanted to break all barriers to all treasures, glory, joy, happiness and peace

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Ascension.

Today we celebrate perhaps the greatest discovery - The Heavenly Glory.

Christ, in ascending into Heaven in body, soul and divinity broke the barrier of heaven and earth. In His ascension, we see now that heaven in for us and we are for heaven! No more is the reality of life after death a dismal Sheol, but now we know that life is eternal and it is eternal in heaven with the Father whom we now see, with the Holy Spirit who will come to us at Pentecost and with Christ who is in us and whom we are in.

Jesus Christ is showing us every possible treasure and joy that we could possibly discover and enjoy. The Ascension is showing us what our ultimate destination is - Heaven to live with God glorified. The earthly journey, thus, is that indeed, a journey. We need to live our lives with that end in sight, not living as if this world is all there is. This is not an easy task, that why Jesus promised us that after He was not going to be with us any longer in human form, He was going to send us an Advocate to show us and guide us in ways that are true.

Our life on earth needs be a a constant journey of exploration to see what has been revealed to us by the Ascended Christ. Christ has shown us a reality that is beyond any human achievement or discovery.

My homilies

I wish to post my weekly and daily homilies on the blog.

In sharing with you my homilies, I wish to assist anyone reading in either their homily preparation, or in their daily pursuit to see the Face of God.

If what I preach can help you in your spiritual life, then my purpose is complete.