Here Comes the King of Glory

The Pharisees said, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” Jesus responded, “I tell you, if they keep silent, the stones will cry out!”  Jesus usually takes the humble approach, but in this instance he allows the people to praise Him.  The Pharisees do not like this, for the people are praising Him like they did King David, and praising Him more so actually, praising Him as the Messiah.  And yet, this praise, of waving our palms and singing, “Hosanna to the Lord.  Praise be to the one who comes in the name of the Lord” must not just be an empty shouting, but must come from the depths of our hearts.  Jesus enters through the gates of the city, but more so does He wish to enter through the gates of our hearts; during Lent and especially now as we enter Holy week Jesus desires to fill our hearts, but we must first open them wide to receive Him.

As I reflected and prayed throughout Lent I felt that the Lord wants many things for us but three kept coming back to me and that was freedom, happiness, and friendship.

A good and loving King wishes his people to have freedom, that they will have the freedom to move about, the freedom to have a sense of ownership within the kingdom, the ability to express themselves and even offer fraternal correction to the king, and that they are never oppressed.  The Israelites were shouting and signing that day because they saw Jesus as a new King David, but He was more than that, yes He wants us to be free in the political sense of the term, but more importantly He wants us to be free from sin and evil.  St. Paul tells us we are either slaves to sin or slaves to righteousness, but that freedom is complete, real, and holy only when we are slaves to Jesus, because in the surrendering to the Truth, to the Good, to our Lord is when we experience true freedom.

All of us wish to be happy and we wish it all the time, happiness not in the sense that I am always smiling, that would be forced and not real, but that our overall disposition is one of happiness.  When people describe us we desire that they would call us a “happy person.”  Happiness comes from inside, a feel of contentment.  What takes happiness away or diminishes it is sin.  Ironic how sin looks like happiness, disguises itself as such, but then comes the emptiness, the guilt, that “something is missing feeling.”  When we live virtuously instead of the guilty or empty feelings I just described, they are replaced with joy, sense of accomplishment, sense of belonging and purpose, a sense of relationship, all of which makes one happy.

And finally, friendship.  In the Gospel of John chapter 15 Jesus calls his Apostles his friends, they are no longer just simply his servants.  Friendship is based on trust, faith, and truly knowing the other.  If you are married obviously (and hopefully) your spouse is your greatest friend, but all of us need that friend outside of our immediate circle of family.  A person that knows us like the back of their hand who anticipates our feelings, someone who will listen, someone who will be there in dark hours but also in bright ones.  King David had Jonathan, Abraham had his nephew Lot, Moses had Aaron, Paul had Barnabas, and we have Jesus, who today wishes to enter into the city of hearts, into the very depths of our souls. 

Why are we holding out our palm branches, why are we signing, and carrying on like the Israelites of old?  Because Jesus is coming, our King and our God, pray that we all receive Him, Amen.

FJ

The Keys of the Church: In the Hands of Peter Until Christ's Return

Some time ago I was introduced to a work called “The Book of Truth” which is written by an anonymous visionary-seer self dubbed “Maria divine mercy.”  I was skeptical from the get go as I quickly learned that the book was steeped in millennialism which means, a one thousand year period in which Christ will reign after the Resurrection,” and along with that belief is a literal seven year tribulation, which also involves a pre-rapture, mid rapture or post rapture event (where Christ will come first and remove believers from the tribulation or after it).  The book also believes that the false prophet who teams up with the anti-Christ will be the next elected pope and that they keys of the kingdom have been removed from the Church by Christ.

The book is egregiously erroneous on just about everything it claims.  But, I will say this, the author\s are quite clever and use a common brainwashing technique that we see with many cults, e.g. Jesus is the one speaking with the seer and Jesus warns the seer that people will oppose her and that is a sure sign of its authenticity, very convenient indeed.  When discussing the work with someone who has already bought into is very difficult because as soon you voice opposition, what happens?  They see you as such; you are the opposition to Christ.

The book also claims that it is private revelation but it also claims the same for Sacred Scripture, that it too is only private revelation and that both are equal, and we know that cannot be.  One of the foremost teachings of our Catholic faith is that the Sacred Scriptures are the deposit of Faith and that they are Public Revelation, commissioned by Jesus via the authors of the letters and books of the New Testament.  The Church also believes that all Public Revelation ceased upon the death of John the Apostle, circa 95 A.D.

The Church does believe that private revelation occurs, i.e. Sr. Fuastina, but all private revelation must be scrutinized by the Church in order to make sure that Jesus does not contradict Himself or any part of Scripture is contradicted.  Upon careful study if private revelation compliments Public Revelation it will be approved by the Church, but again, it is not binding on the faithful, it never was or will be.  I myself favor private revelation if it is approved as it is a help to the faithful, but when private revelation tries to become more than what it is – is a sure sign of it being invalid. 

Maria divine mercy makes many claims that Christ told her personally, for instance Maria divine mercy claims that the keys of the kingdom have already been taken back by Jesus.  That is contrary to Scripture as we know that the Master of the House does not reclaim the keys until His return, c.f. Isaiah 22:20-22, Mt. 16:16-19.  Also, if the keys have already been returned or taken back by Jesus that means everything we now do is in vain as the Church would no longer have the authority to administer the sacraments, c.f. Jn. 20-22-23, but we know that is not the case because once Jesus returns it will be then that he takes back the keys and the sacraments will end since there will be no further need for them we will be partaking of the heavenly banquet in the presence of our Lord.

Maria also claims that her work is the completion of the Book of Revelation and that Jesus is telling her that the next pope will be the false prophet, that her work is equal Scripture, etc.  But listen to the words of Revelation, “I warn everyone who hears the prophetic words in this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words in this prophetic book, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city described in this book. (Rev. 22:18-19)

She also claims that the false prophet will be the next pope and that he will be the cause of the abomination.  That is CLEARLY FALSE and CONTRARY to SCRIPTURE.  Matthew 24:15 and Mark 13:14 refer to idolatrous worship, i.e. a statue or even the anti-christ himself, there is no mention of the false prophet.  Also, the abomination takes place in this holy place, ie. “This holy place” refers to The Temple in Jerusalem not the Vatican as maria divine mercy claims, you can see her poor understanding of Scripture.  Also, St. Paul tells us, “We ask you, brothers, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our assembling with him, not to be shaken out of your minds suddenly, or to be alarmed either by a “spirit,” or by an oral statement, or by a letter allegedly from us to the effect that the day of the Lord is at hand.  Let no one deceive you in any way. For unless the apostasy comes first and the lawless one is revealed, the one doomed to perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god and object of worship, so as to seat himself in the temple of God, claiming that he is a god— (2 Thess 2:1-4)

It is not the false prophet who does this, but the anti-christ himself.  The great thing about our Scriptures is that we can go back to them to the test the spirits to see if they are true, we also have the Sacred Tradition of the Church to fall back on when determining the Truth of the Gospel and in all instances maria divine mercy does not hold up, it is a different gospel, if not evil in its intentions.

If maria divine mercy is for real why doesn’t she show herself, but rather hides behind this pseudonym?  All prophets came forward with their message, they didn’t hide, even if meant their death, but yet, maria hides and we don’t know if she is a man, a woman, multiple persons, etc.?

To find a more detailed response to her book please see the following link: http://warningsecondcoming.blogspot.com/

God's Ways and Judgments: Surprise Surprise

I wonder how many times we have read, heard, and listened to homilies on the story of the Prodigal Son.  I would imagine that the number would be quite high indeed.  For us priests and deacons who preach sometimes these well known stories are actually tougher to preach than those Gospel readings that are more theological, obscure, or difficult to understand.  Anyway, I wanted to do something a little different today in regards to the Prodigal Son story.  I want to reflect on, “we may be in for a surprise in the next life.”

What do I mean by that?  When I was a seminarian our vice-Rector Brother Bill, actually a deacon, would often say, “We are going to be surprised by who we realize made it to heaven and who did not.”  That is exactly the message Jesus is trying to get across to the Pharisees and Scribes.

In the story, the Prodigal Son is the one who squanders his inheritance, the one who turns his back on God and the Law of Moses, he represents all the little folk, the sinner.  The Father represents God, and the other son – the older one represents the Pharisees and Scribes, the ones who are self-righteous..  If you notice when the Prodigal Son returns the older brother demands to know the reasoning and the justice behind the excellent treatment of a sinner compared to him who has always followed the law and been an obedient son.  Jesus was a radical at times, and it is clear that he is being such here.

There are two things that point to this, one) all that matters is love and forgiveness and two) God’s ways are not our ways.  The Prodigal Son returns to his father because he loves him, he realizes the errors \ sins he has committed and is truly sorry.  But the older brother doesn’t like this because he has followed the law meticulously and it’s just not fair.  How he is surprised!  He can’t believe it, he’s in shock really.

Jesus uses this story to “shock” the Pharisees into realizing that God judges differently than they do.  God sees the human heart, He alone can judge it.  We see the human heart only partially and our judgments are not perfect.  As Catholics and especially us priests we need to be careful in regards to how we judge.  I will often times hear or read, that a person has to do such and such or this and that before they can enter the kingdom of God and some hold to this is in a very strict and black and white sense.  Please do not misunderstand me as Catholics we have obligations but those obligations must spring from a desire of love and not just from duty, otherwise like the Pharisees and Scribes we will become the judge of our brothers and sisters or like the older son who believes he is entitled.

We are entitled to nothing.  I will leave you with two things, the words of my former Vice-rector Brother Bill, God rest his soul, “We are gonna be surprised to see who made and who didn’t,” and finally the words of Christ which teach us humility, “So should it be with you. When you have done all you have been commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.’” (Lk 17:10)  If we are ever feeling like the older brother remember Jesus’ call to humility.  We are owed nothing by God.  If we do not humble ourselves then we will stand before Him with prideful hearts and it is so much better to stand before Jesus with a contrite and humbled heart.  Amen.

Prayer with Yahweh

In today’s first reading from Exodus God declares that He always desires to be remembered as Yahweh (“I Am who Am” or simply “I Am”).  God is existence itself, He is, “Is.”  We can go into endless theological conversation about God’s nature, eternity, His attributes, etc., but we will leave that for another day.  I think a simple reflection on this great reading is that God is willing to know us on a first name basis and to also be in face to face conversation with us.

Moses went towards God’s voice and the burning bush.  It was not Moses who sought God, but it was God who sought Moses, interesting indeed, that it is not we who call on God, but rather God who calls us.  In our sinful selves we do not have the ability to start the conversation, any and all movement towards God is always a free gift and always initiated by God, “for it is by grace that you have been saved, this is not of yourselves, but from God, so that no one may boast.” (See Eph. 2:8)  Simply put, God makes the first move.

The beauty of all the bible stories in which someone speaks with God is that God knows them by name, they speak face-to-face (meaning: in His presence, not the literal beatific vision), and conversation takes place.  You and I have this same conversation with God, we have it all the time.

Every single time we listen to the Scriptures read at mass or in our own personal reading of Scripture God speaks to us in His Word.  I cannot stress enough how important it is to listen to God from His holy Word.  It is the story of us, but also a story in which God reveals Himself to us, through signs and wonders, through song, through poetry, through prophecy and his prophets, through the saints, and most especially through His Son, Jesus.

We also enter into conversation with God in our prayer.  One of the three virtues of Lent is prayer, the other two being almsgiving and fasting.  Much of what I have reflected on here has been theological, but there is “the stuff” that makes prayer and that is what pours out of our hearts to God.

We pray when we are worried, scared, hurt, lost, struggling, guilty, but also when happy, joyful, and content.  Often time’s people will wonder, “Is it ok to ask God for healing or to take something away or to even be mad at God?”  Well, if you are at mad at God that means that there is relationship; if we were indifferent then we would not be in relationship with Him.  Sometimes life can be dark and the moments of darkness can be overwhelming, someone we love may be very ill, dying in fact, or we can be on the verge of despair and there is God, always there, listening and giving comfort.  The problem is that we sometimes think that our difficulties are too big or that God has abandoned us.  But He has not.  No matter what we are going through, if we respond to God’s grace in His call, then we can be assured of at least this, though it may not work out as I wished, but that my friend, in this case God Himself was always there, face to face, step by step, tear by tear, with me all the way.

FJ

2nd Sunday of Lent: The Light Never Goes Out!

This week’s Gospel on the Transfiguration of Christ calls to mind for me, one word, “encouragement.”  Though we believe that everything God made was very good, we nevertheless live in a very hard world, this place can at times be bitter, harsh, painful, scary and downright awful.  I don’t mean to paint a terrible picture, but you know that in life we deal with pain, suffering, and loss.  The greatest thing is that Jesus gives us the grace before hand, during and afterwards to get through anything.

Jesus realized that it would be difficult for His Apostles when the time would come for his arrest, that like us, they too would be frightened, lose hope, and hide.  So, in order to give them light and the reminder of hope, he let them receive a piece of heaven as well as showing Himself to them in His glory.  That was the reason for the Transfiguration.

We might be asking, “Why can’t I receive a moment like that?”  Well, we do, maybe not identically, but Jesus shines light into our hearts to give us encouragement.  He does this through His Word from Scripture, His Word as it is preached both liturgically and our sharing of that Word with one another, through the Sacraments, and through prayer and fellowship.

Think of the moments in your life that were painful that were tough to get through, and lo and behold here you are having come through them.  When we are in the difficult moments, in our dark moments, it is difficult to see light.  When Jesus died and was buried the Apostles saw no light, they were defeated, much like we feel when a loved one dies, and we feel defeat in its fullest sense.  The Apostles slowly began to recall the Light, the Truth, as the women starting relaying the stories of the Risen Lord after they had returned from the empty tomb.  I am sure the Apostles remembered the Transfiguration, the miracles, and their time with Jesus, giving them hope that all was not lost.

Where are your right now in your life?  What are your struggles and what is your darkness?  Remember that no matter how difficult life becomes Jesus always gives us hope; do not forget all the blessings you have already received, the moments of transfiguration, when the Lord revealed Himself to you in whatever manner it was, let that be your light.  For it is a Light that never goes out!  Amen! FJ

The Lenten Virtues: Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving

         

  

       

       As we have just begun the season of Lent a few days ago, on Ash Wednesday, we too like our Lord have now entered into the desert for forty days and nights.  Our Lord entered into the desert to prepare Himself for His public ministry.  It was a time in which He emptied Himself of things and needs of this world and opened Himself up to His heavenly Father.  He did what we all do when we want to prepare ourselves well for something that we care about deeply.  Just like the athlete trains his or her body to the ultimate point of physicality, like the actor who goes over his or her script hundreds of times until they become the character they play, or the good student who studies hours each and every day to procure an “A,” so too do we as Christians, we strive for the imperishable crown, to be shaped into Christ, and receive an “A” from our Heavenly Father in the life of virtue we all strive to live.

          But, virtue comes with practice and Lent is that time of practice.  However, in order to prepare ourselves we need to know how and what to practice.  I will let you know now what is we ought to practice.  There are three things that the early Church Fathers saw as pivotal in the shaping of our Christian lives, especially during the season of Lent, which is fasting, almsgiving, and prayer.

          Let’s begin with fasting.  Why do we fast and how should we fast?  We fast not to lose weight, though I am sure I can stand to lose some if not more than some.  We fast in order to remind ourselves that we rely on God to get us through difficulty, and more importantly to be aware of God’s presence.  When we fast, you see, we feel hunger pangs; our stomachs let us know that we are hungry.  Whenever we feel those pangs they are to be gentle reminders, “Dear Lord I need you.”  This puts us into God’s care and in His presence, it helps empty us of everything else around us that may distract us, it is basically a form of practice, like a practice drill in football or soccer, which reminds the athlete of a particular move or game like situation, readying our minds and bodies.

          In terms of how we should fast, we follow the prescripts of the Church, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are days of fast and abstinence, meaning only one regular meal with two very small meals throughout day, and no meat.  Every Friday in Lent is also a day of fast, simply no meat.  We are also encouraged to take up some form of penance or the practice of a virtue, which is left up to the individual believer.  I would encourage adults to take up something meaningful, like working on patience, compassion, justice.  It’s nice to give up sugar, soda, cookies, but St. Paul encourages us to grow in our faith, “Get off the spiritual milk,” and become mature.

          Almsgiving, all of us can always give more and not simply out of abundance but out of our very need.  I am well aware that people are thinking, “Ok, here we go again, the priest asking us for more money.”  I hardly ever ask the Parishioners for more money or any money at all.  Yet, sometimes we need to be reminded of this, “giving,” not only to the parish but to the poor.  We resist this sometimes because we justify our not giving, for example, “I will not give to the poor because they should be working,” or “I don’t have enough to give,” or “I have given enough.”  I don’t know how much you give or if that poor person is legitimately poor or not, but Christ will not ask us if we knew those things, He will only ask, “Did you do for the least of my brothers and sisters, because you know that was me?”

          Finally, prayer our life line with God.  In the Church we have many forms of prayer, set prayers, petitionary prayer, intercessory prayer, Divine Office, rosary, novenas, meditative and reflective prayer, Charismatic prayer, prayer off the cuff for lack of a better term, simply tons of different prayers and prayer styles.  I cannot impress upon you enough the importance prayer and any form which you use is good.  I do recommend along with your prayer in order to keep focus or follow a theme is to accompany your prayer with a good spiritual book or reading.  There are many good books out there, the bible being one of them.  But there are books such as “The Confessions” from St. Augustine, “Mere Christianity,” from C.S. Lewis, “Life is Worth Living,” by Bishop Fulton Sheen, “Walking the Little Way with St. Therese of Lisieux,” and many others.  Spiritual reading helps us to reflect deeply on our interior lives as well as motivating us towards prayer.

          Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving, the three virtues of Lent.  To become Saints these virtues should be practiced because even though the Mass is the central point, the foundation of Christian faith, Mass only lasts one hour, there still remain 167 hours in the week, what are we doing in those 167 hours, all of which belong to the Lord?  Lent reminds us, that each moment, each hour, and every day is the Lord’s.  Let’s make this Lent a great one, one in which we truly pray, fast, and give to the poor, all of which the Lord has already in abundance in His earthly life and even now from heaven. Amen

By FJ

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Mind Your Words

This is our Last Sunday in Ordinary Time, hard to believe really, the turnaround from the end of the Christmas season to the beginning of Lent which will begin in just a few days was quick indeed, with Easter coming quite early, March 31^st to be exact.  This Sunday’s readings are a good closing to the end of Ordinary Time as the readings help us to “self reflect.”  Isaiah sees himself as a man of unclean lips living among people with unclean lips.  St. Peter in the Gospel from Luke tells Jesus, “Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man.”  Both Isaiah and St. Peter are speaking a truth about themselves, and in so doing they are also speaking a truth about us, that at times we are a people of unclean lips and just like St. Peter, we too, say to the Lord, “Depart from us for we are sinful.”  The Lord in His goodness does not let us end in despair or evil, rather just like He told Isaiah and St. Peter, “I will make you fishers of men,” and “the Lord will touch our mouths with embers from His altar.”

Before we get to the blessing part of the story, there is always a passion part, and for us, part of that passion is accepting the truth about ourselves, though we are good, we still remain flawed, sinful even.  “If we say, ‘we are without sin,’ we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8).  St. Peter recognized this truth about himself and in doing so cannot even stand before the Lord and yet, Jesus raises him up, because Peter is humble and seeks forgiveness.  But, to get to that part of being lifted up we go through the fire so to speak and it is here that I want to look at Isaiah’s claim about himself being a man of unclean lips.

When Isaiah felt the presence of the Lord he was convicted in his heart and knew his lips were unclean.  He does not specify what he meant by that but we can deduce what he meant by looking at ourselves.  How are we sometimes people of unclean lips?

We are people of unclean lips each and every time we gossip, speak ill of others, defame another’s character which is a serious offense against our neighbor and God, each and every curse word that we utter, when we make fun of others, when we curse another human being.  It is amazing that with the same mouth we utter praise to God and then speak ill of someone. 

Words, also, once they are out of our mouths can never go back.  I want to share a story with you about St. Philip Neri, known for being a great confessor, and many sought him out for confession.  A person went to Philip Neri for confession and confessed that they gossiped quite often and sometimes uncharitably so.  Fr. Neri gave the penitent a twofold penance, the first part was the person was to take a one pound bag of feathers and walk through the streets of Rome releasing the feathers as they walked along.  Once they finished they were to report back to Fr. Neri the next day.  The person did as Fr. Neri requested and returned the following day.  “Fr Neri, I did as you asked, I have released all the feathers from the bag.”  Fr. Neri said, “Good my child, now for the second part of your penance I want you to take the empty bag go back to the same streets were you released the feathers, pick and gather them up, place them in the bag and bring it all back to me.”  The person looked at Fr. Neri strangely and said, “Father, that is impossible, the feathers are out of the bag and have flown everywhere.”  Fr. Neri simply replied, “And so too with your words.”

A nice little lesson from Fr. Neri, but one that is true.  How our words can never be retrieved!  There are times that we are like Isaiah and St. Peter, realizing that we are people of unclean lips or we wish for the Lord to depart from us, but Jesus loves us too much to let us go away that easily and He is always placing the burning embers in our mouth so that we can praise and glorify the Lord and spread His love to everyone.  Jesus looks at us with love, even when we stand in front of Him ashamed, He can still say, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”  AMEN! FJ