Be Back Soon

Dear Friends, New reflections will resume after Labor Day.  I did not have a chance for a reflection this week, Deacon has the homily and life's busy(ness) got in the way.  The next two weekends I will be away on vacation.  So stay holy my friends, and when you don't get to confession :) Peace and God blessings, Fr. John

Body and Soul

Today we celebrate not only a great feast in honor of our Blessed Mother, but a promise and a future that awaits all of those who hope in God.  This hope and this future Mary has already experienced in her glorious Assumption into heaven, body and soul.

She is not the first to experience this great gift as there is Scriptural evidence that Enoch “walked with God and then God took him and he was no more.” (Gn. 5:21-24)  It is also possible that Moses was also taken body and soul into heaven, Elijah was taken up in a fiery chariot (2 Kings 2:11), and when Jesus’ sacrifice was finished, “the graves were opened and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.” (c.f. Mt. 27:51-53)  There is no Scriptural proof of Mary being assumed into heaven, but there are writings from the Church fathers that attest to this, and logic would dictate and actually be very convincing that Jesus who raised some of the patriarchs would also do the same for his own mother, who shared with him even in his very suffering, “and a sword shall pierce your own heart.” (Lk. 2:35)  So, yes, Jesus gave her this gift, to experience heaven in body and soul, a gift for the Theotokos (the God-bearer).

We honor this most holy of women, who is “the fairest honor of our race.”  As Catholics we know Mary’s place in our church and in our lives, a great mother to us indeed.  But, we do not only celebrate her assumption, but also and eventually ours.  Where Mary is, she too wants us to be, like Jesus promises in the Gospel of John, “Where I am I also wish you to be and I will come back and take you to myself.” (c.f. Jn. chapter 14) 

I would like to believe that Mary prays for us to one day be with her in heaven and to also be there whole and completely, both body and soul.  Reflect on that, that we will be made whole and perfect, no more pain, sorrow, growing old, or being bored, or tired, but always vigorous, happy, and content in the presence of the Lord and all his angels and saints. 

The Assumption only has meaning for us if we desire the same, it cannot just be what was done for someone else, yes, we do give honor and remember Mary, but to truly honor her is to do like she did, follow her Son in every way, fully, completely, and without reservation.  Great rewards are only given to those who give great effort that is why Mary is blessed with the greatest gifts.  So, “Let us strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts,” (1 Cor. 12:31), so that the Assumption or its end result will also be ours.  Our holy mother Mary was given this gift and as a good mother she also wants to share it with us.  God bless you and may Mary, Queen of heaven, pray for us, Amen!

FJ

You are Good!

This 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time continues with the Bread of Life Discourse and will continue over the next two weeks. I wanted to move from that and pick up on it next week. I pray you don’t mind.

It was the 2nd reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians that caught my attention, especially when he says, “So be imitators of God…” What does that mean to be an imitator of God? He answers this in what we today call the famous wedding reading, St. Paul’s 1st letter to the Corinthians chapter 13. “Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, [love] is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.

St. Paul knows that love in its essence is God, so he could have easily substituted the word love with God, which would have looked or sounded like this, “God is patient, God is kind, He is not jealous, God is not pompous, He is not inflated, He is not rude, He does not seek His own interests, He is not quick tempered, (you get the point).

St. Paul exhorts us to be imitators of God and therefore we should since not only does St. Paul do so, but Christ as well when He says, “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

In my observation of people I would like to think, or if I may be so bold as to conclude, that most people do strive to be like God, even with all of our shortcomings. We can think of people in two ways, as genuinely good or genuinely evil or no good. I like to think of people as good, though we are all a little messed up due to our faults, weaknesses, and sins. Nevertheless, Jesus had to see some good otherwise He would have given up on us, so you see there is hope for all of us.

Some may object, “Where have you seen this good, surely not in Colorado with the recent shooting spree at a local theater, where twelve died and many more were injured; surely not at the Sikh temple where another gunman opened fire; surely not in all the wars around the world?” That is the worst of man and the worst sometimes happens, but other times we see God in man, when firemen run up burning buildings to save strangers, when police officers jump into freezing waters to save a life, when parents devote every spare minute to a sickly child, when Mother Teresa picked up (literally) out of the sewers people who needed help, when we spend time with those who grieve, when we look to others instead of ourselves, when we say a kind word to another even when they are not kind to us, when we lend without seeking a return, and we can go on and on.

Take a good hard look at yourself today, yes you are wounded – like everyone, but you are precious and good, for God made you so through His love and grace. You have the ability to be a saint and a great one, and in some ways you already are! Do you believe it? If not, then do so, because God loves the cheerful heart and the cheerful giver, and you are both! Praise God and give Him glory, Amen!

FJ

For Free

In life we all look for that easy break or the big break, if I could only get the higher paying job, the better house, hit the lottery, and our wishes go on and on.  Everyone looks for that free ride.  In today’s Gospel our Jewish brothers and sisters also looked for that handout, for their big break.  “Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled.”

We ate our loaves and were filled, since it was free; why not look for some more?  Jesus is asking us to remember the signs that were manifested, i.e. multiplication of loaves and fishes.  More importantly he wants to get across through our thick skulls is that he wants to feed us, but that we should begin looking towards the heavenly food that leads to eternal life.  Earthly food sustains this human body but not the soul.  Jesus feeds both, but he is setting up the latter as more important.  The people are not listening; they keep on thinking of what they can get for free.  Jesus must be a little forceful and let them know their searching for a hand out is not happening and that it is wrong to do so.  He begins to move slowly towards his point, that He is the bread of life and whoever comes to him will never hunger or thirst, i.e. never be wanting in any way since Jesus will be all and in all.

Yet, like our Jewish brothers and sisters we revert back to things of this world, not just free bread, but more money, bigger and better homes, better vacations, better jobs, fancier restaurants, up to date electronics – yesterday is too old already.  To better oneself is not the issue, the issue or question is for what purpose?  Along the way I look for hand outs, sometimes even handouts from God.  But life doesn’t work that way.  The order is wrong.  We must seek God first, then everything else second.  God provides Himself as the means for what we need and that is in the Bread of Life, Jesus in the Eucharist.  If we do not seek Him in the Eucharist then we will seek other things instead, i.e. everything this world offers but him, we will reduce him to our means, to our justifications, to our beliefs, to the little man in the corner whom I pull out when I need some free bread and some free fish.

All of us are guilty to some degree of looking for a handout, it is in our weak human nature and that is why Jesus was so patient in his ministry, he was dealing with stubbornness, weakness, and sinfulness.  Thank goodness for his patience, but more importantly he wanted to give himself completely so that we would have the means to become holy and good, he left us himself.  How in the world could we ever refuse such a gift?  I did for a while before my conversion and looking back now I realized I was empty though I had just about everything I wanted, I was just missing the most important thing, my Lord and my God in the Eucharist.  Never again!