PARISH MISSION at HOLY FAMILY

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

This weekend and running through Wednesday we will have Fr. Lee Havey, C.P., giving us our annual mission talk.  I encourage you to come out each day if you can as Fr. Lee’s talks will center on, “Awareness of God’s Presence,” “Lord, I Want to See,” “Personal Call to Holiness,” and finally ending with a Reconciliation Service.

All of us need that reaffirmation that God is with us, that we can sense Him, feel Him, and know in our hearts that we are loved.  Being aware of God’s presence in us, in others and all around us should give us great hope and a great desire to love God and neighbor.

The blind man told Jesus, “I want to see.”  He asked for his physical sight.  You cannot blame the man for such a request.  However, even those of us who can see (physically) ask Jesus, “I want to see.”  It is a statement of faith.

The personal call to holiness is nothing new; it has been our mantra since Adam and Eve.  The personal call to holiness is to build up virtue, especially the virtues of faith, hope and charity.

We will close with a Reconciliation Service; I cannot stress enough the importance of Confession.  As Pope Francis recently tweeted, “Do not be afraid of confession.”  It is that place and moment when we do become aware of God’s presence, when we can see Him clearly and it is a means of building up holiness.

I will leave the rest to Fr. Lee.  Looking forward to seeing you all

over the next few days and I pray we will all be blessed with many

graces as we journey along in our Parish Mission. 

  

     God bless you,

   Father John

The Woman at the Well

The Gospel of John is my favorite Gospel, if not my favorite work of the entire New Testament.  It is a very well written Gospel and it is much different than the other three, Matthew, Mark and Luke.  In the Gospel of John the victory is the Cross and not so much the Resurrection. John uses a lot of imagery, allegory and metaphors to describe a story or character, especially Jesus, i.e. He is the gate, the Shepherd, the light, etc.  He also will show us levels of faith, those who don’t get it, those who are in the-in-between, and finally those who understand and are faithful.

Today’s Gospel with the woman at the well is someone who is in the-in-between, a person who has some faith but is still thinking in an earthly way.  People with no faith are always viewed as being in the dark or of the night, for instance, Judas leaves the last Supper early because he does not have faith, and when he leaves he leaves into the night.  When the Pharisees, Sadducees or Scribes test Jesus they are often referred to as being in the dark, stubborn, or of little faith.  When Nicodemus comes to Jesus he comes in the night because he does not believe yet, but as he continues his conversation he begins to leave the darkness entering twilight and eventually entering the light when he comes to believe.  Our Blessed Mother when mentioned in chapter two is an example of full faith as she shares a beautiful conversation with Jesus and those present at the Wedding Feast of Cana.  The Samaritan woman at the well is a person who is in the-in-between of faith.

The conversation Jesus had with her is quite amazing indeed.  First of all a Jew is never supposed to talk to a Samaritan, and she was also a woman, which would have been enough for Him not to talk to her.  But Jesus could think outside of the box, thank God and He continued His conversation with her.  Anyway, the conversation is not simply a conversation with her, but with all of us.  Jesus is the Savior, the one who can give life giving water; we are the woman who has lived in continual sin.

For a moment let us return to the conversation she had with Jesus.  Jesus asks for a drink of water.  She replies that He should not be talking to her.  Jesus continues and they go into the whole conversation about rightful worship and Jesus concludes that “God is Spirit” not a human being or a place or a thing, like a mountain for instance.  Jesus takes it a little higher by letting her know He can give her life giving water, Jesus is speaking spiritually and this can only be understood if someone has full faith.  She responds in an earthly way and in a way of partial faith, “Sir, you do not even have a bucket how will you draw the water from the well?”  Jesus is not talking about the water in the well.  He remains patient with her.  If you recall Nicodemus made this same mistake when Jesus said, “You must be born again.”  Nicodemus asks, “How can a person enter his mother’s womb a second time?”  He was thinking earthly and not spiritually, that being born again means baptism not entering your mother’s womb.

The Samaritan woman goes further, “give me this water so I don’t have to keep coming back to fill my bucket.”  She still doesn’t get it fully, but she is getting closer.  Jesus then goes into how many husbands she has had and the man she is with now is not her husband, so adultery after adultery and now fornication and yet Jesus does not give up on this woman, He doesn’t give up on us even when we keep going back to the earthly, the twilight, and the darkness.

Finally she understands and calls Him a great prophet and eventually the Messiah.  She ran back into town and evangelized bringing others to Jesus.  What are the points of the story for us?  I think the first is that Jesus does not give up on us.  When He spoke to that woman He was speaking to me, He was speaking to you.  How often like the woman at the well do we continue in the same sins and yet God loves us and calls us to repentance.  Sometimes we respond like the woman in earthly ways, in ways that are mixed with darkness and night, not understanding, because we get caught up into the darkness and actually like it, it is comfortable and pleasurable, my own bliss.  For the Samaritan woman it was having five husbands and living with a man who was not her husband, what is it for us.  Are we willing to let it go, the sin that binds us and keeps us searching for water in a well that only satisfies for a moment when we have access to the Lord of glory Who will offer us life giving water that never dries up or runs out?  AMEN.  FJ

The Strength to Follow God's Will

The beginning of faith is listening to what God has to tell us.  Abraham one of my favorite characters in the Bible is such a great example of faith, known to us as “the father of faith.”  He was not the first to ever believe in the One God, Yahweh, but He was definitely one of the first and one of the very few who listened to God and acted on God’s will no matter what God asked.  We are called to do the same during our lives and especially so during Lent.

When we read the story of Abraham we realize that here is a man who is pretty well set up living with his family in a fruitful land.  The family is rich and well off, life is comfortable.  Yet, when God calls and tells Abraham to pick up his things and leave his father’s house he does just that, but he does so without getting any directions.  He has no idea where he is to go; he is simply told, “Leave your father’s house.”  I wonder if I would have been able to do that.

The season of Lent is that time to practice our faith, to make it stronger, to become holy.  Holy does not simply mean to be pious, but to listen to the will of God and then to do it.  This is not always easy.  Even though the Scriptures tell us a story of Abraham who packed his things and left without question may not be the full story.  I do not want to place words into the story or make Abraham someone he was not, but I think (this is my opinion) he probably wondered, “wow I wonder where I am going, I know this voice and recognize it as God, but this is all quite amazing, what about all the people I will be leading, they will be following me, what if something goes wrong, someone gets sick, we meet up with marauders.”  Abraham was a human being and even though he was and is the father of faith, I believe he still thought things out in his mind, but even so he packed his things and left, a leap of faith.

God asks us throughout our lives to follow His will.  Half the times we follow it right away, the other half we follow our own will.  Lent is that Season when we try to follow God’s will 100% of the time.  One may ask, “Where will I ever get the strength to do that?”  That strength comes from Jesus.  The Apostles, all except Judas, were saints and yet they too struggled with following God’s will, especially the night Jesus was arrested.  Knowing this Jesus gave them strength before hand and that strength came in the form of the Transfiguration.

This same strength is given to us to face any and all of life’s challenges.  For some that challenge may come in the form of changing jobs or careers and to do so is very difficult.  Like Abraham, our Lord may be guiding you in a different direction.  There is a sense of being uncomfortable in that; there is the whole thing of the unknown and the pressure of taking a risk.  For young people it comes in the form of choosing a school, especially in making a decision on college.  They feel great pressure since the pressure comes from all angles, their counselors, their parents, their friends, their teachers, and even from their very selves.  Those are just two examples of trying to follow God’s will and there are many others.

What do we learn from Abraham and the Apostles?  That when we are making tough decisions we understand God’s will for us and that while we are making that choice like Abraham to walk out that door even though we don’t have all the answers, we do so with faith.  It all comes down to trust and sometimes that is hard to do.  I will leave you with one thing to reflect on.  No matter how difficult it may seem to follow God’s will and if we lack the trust that it will all workout all we need to do is remind ourselves of the Cross.  If we have a God that loves us that much that He would be willing to spread His arms on the Cross for us does He not have the power and love to make things work out in our lives.  Abraham believed and trusted in God’s love, no matter what God asked, it’s what gave him the strength to take that first step out of his door when he left his father’s house.  I pray that we too realize and believe that God does the same for us.  He transfigures for us every Sunday, which will happen soon as we celebrate the Eucharist, Christ transfigured for us.  It’s all we need to take that first step out of the door.  Amen.

FJ

1st Sunday of Lent: Good vs. evil

All sin is based on a lie.  In today’s first reading from Genesis chapters two and three, this lie is quite evident as it rolls off the lips of the servant, “But the serpent said to the woman: “You certainly will not die!  No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is evil.”  The lie is that they can be gods on their own, that they are gods.  They will know good and evil apart from God, the focus is on themselves and not on the Creator.

We often wonder how Adam and Eve fell for Satan’s trick; the truth is all of us would have, because in our own lives we have fallen for the lies.  As I said all sin is based on a lie.  We can see this with any sin.

Sometimes people will drink too much and become drunk.  Before a person becomes drunk they will usually justify to themselves that they deserve the feeling, that they have earned it, that it makes them feel good, that there is really nothing wrong with it, there are worse things than getting drunk.  Sometimes people will steal things from their workplace, usually small, little things, like pens, paper, etc., and it is justified, the company is rich, what is one pen, etc.  The lie also works with grave sin as well, for example, my body is my own, no one can tell me what to do with my body, hence we even justify abortion through lies.

However, Jesus is the Truth so if we examine the lies through Jesus we will see that the lies fall apart.  The Truth tells us to be drunk is a vice because we lose our reason and put ourselves in harm, the Truth tells us that stealing is wrong even if it is just a pencil because the pencil is not mine, and finally to believe I have this radical freedom over my own body is lie since, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. (1 Cor. 6:19-20)  The Lord owns our very bodies and our decisions over them must be made with the Lord in mind.

Make no mistake about it, sin is serious because it moves us further away from the Truth, the truth about who we are and also who God is.  Lent is that season when we face Truth and ask Him to enter into us so that we may defeat sin and to live in the Truth.

The Gospel shows that sin can be defeated, but it is not easy, because to do so means that we enter into the desert and we battle not only our own weaknesses but the temptations of the devil.  Yet, we should take courage because Jesus never lets us enter the desert alone.  He is there with us, that is why He entered it alone so that we never would have to.

Lent is not just about giving up candies that is a great start for children, rather it is about a serious reflection on self and coming face to face with the Truth so that we may become holy and perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect.  We can become so; it takes hard work, brutal honesty, and perseverance.  Alone it is impossible, but if we help each other during the Lenten journey and rely on our Lord Jesus we will come to that place of happiness which is filled with Truth and Goodness.  God bless you, FJ

Picture is from "The Passion of the Christ" fighting off the devil's temptation in the Garden, overcoming where Adam and Eve failed.