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Here is a letter from a Father Sean Sheehy, an Irish priest who's homily against abortion went worldwide after he was criticisded for it in Irish media.God works in strange ways.
God has given us emotions so that we can handle all our feelings that are generated by our thoughts. Every time we interpret something – a look, a word, a scene, a touch, a stance, or a principle – feelings, positive or negative, follow from our interpretation. Strong feelings seek expression in action. Action expresses and defines our character – at least in that moment. Feelings never just happen. They’re always preceded by thoughts. Our thoughts lead us to feel good, sad, bad, joyful, happy, anxious, angry, fearful, guilty, responsible, numb, frustrated, etc. Our feelings identify how we want to relate to the world at any given situation. It’s silly to deny feelings. Instead we need to manage them lest they control us and lead us to behavior we regret. So how do we manage our feelings? We use our emotions.
Emotions and feelings are often confused. People who’re upset or crying are often labeled as “emotional.” But actually they are simply expressing their feelings. What matters is whether they are being controlled by their feelings or their feelings are being directed by their emotions. Emotions are gifts from God enabling us to decide the most effective way to express how we feel. Four basic emotions are anger, fear, guilt, and love. Anger and fear direct us to protect ourselves from threats to our safety. Guilt directs us to take responsibility for our sins. Love directs us to connect with others. We can use any emotion to direct any feeling, positive or negative. For example, I can have an angry feeling toward someone and express it through the emotion of anger, fear, guilt, or love. I can have an angry feeling toward someone and use my emotion of guilt to express it by taking personal responsibility for it and apologizing for it. I can also express it through the emotion of anger by constructively confronting the person toward whom I have the angry feeling. The relationship between feelings and emotions can be a whole study in itself. When we use emotions to direct our feelings we act rationally. When we let our feelings direct us we lose control and act irrationally. God wants us to be in control of ourselves so we can do His will. This week God speaks to us about anger and mercy.
As an emotion anger is a gift from God. But In the Book of Sirach (27:30-28:9), God tells us that, “Wrath and anger are hateful things …” Jesus’ Church lists anger as one of the seven deadly sins? How can anger be a gift and a sin at the same time? Wasn’t Jesus angry? “And He looked around at them with anger, grieved at the hardness of their heart …” (Mk 3:5). What are we to make of this?
God isn’t talking about the emotion of anger, which is a gift from Him. The emotion of anger is part of being human. It generates the energy we need to attack what threatens our security. But it’s how we attack that makes the difference. When we choose our emotion of anger to attack an enemy we’ll be in control of our action and God will be guiding us through His gift. When our angry feeling directs our attack we’ll not be in control and so will act destructively. Anger becomes a hateful thing when we attack destructively. Murder, revenge, self-harm, or wishing evil upon others are the result of angry feelings that are expressed in hateful actions towards others or toward oneself. It’s normal to feel anger when somebody wrongs us and threatens our safety. If we choose our emotion of anger to express our feelings God will lead us to act constructively. Angry feelings move us toward vengeance that blind us to God’s will. We must remember that, “The vengeful will suffer the Lord’s vengeance, for He remembers their sins in detail.”
Forgiveness restores our emotions to their rightful role in managing our feelings when we are wronged. God’s Word teaches us to, “Forgive your neighbor’s injustice; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven.” Too often we react to injustice with angry feelings and seek revenge. Vengeful behavior causes destruction, which can’t be healed except by repentance and reconciliation. Sirach asks a reasonable question: “How can you expect healing from the Lord if you nourish anger against another?” Unless we’re hypocritical, we can’t. We have to change our vengeful feelings by replacing our vengeful thoughts with thoughts of repentance, forgiveness, and reconciliation. To live peacefully we must forgive and let live. That doesn’t mean we don’t confront the wrongdoer; we do, but through our God-given emotions that direct our feelings in a positive manner. Sirach asks another reasonable question: “How can a person refuse to be merciful toward another and ask for mercy himself or herself?” Again, we can’t, if we’re honest. God will give us only what we are willing to give others.
Jesus tells us that in God’s mind forgiveness is reciprocal. To be forgiven we must be willing to forgive. Jesus made it part of the prayer He gave us: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” (Mt 6:12). He enshrined it in one of the Beatitudes (Mt 5:7) and instituted it as a special Sacrament of His Church (Jn 20:23). The condition for receiving God’s forgiveness is our willingness to forgive others. That calls for us to change our feelings by changing our thinking through God’s grace. We do that by replacing our thoughts with God’s thoughts. St. Peter asked Jesus if it was enough to forgive his brother who sinned against him seven times. Jєωs thought that four times was generous. Jesus shocked him by saying, “You must forgive your brother more than seventy-seven times seven times.” In other words, we must forgive every time someone offends us. It’s important to realize that forgiving those who hurt us must not depend on their repentance. Forgiveness is for our own freedom to live in peace in accord with God’s will.
A man met a monk as he passed a monastery. He asked him, “How often should I forgive my neighbor for slapping me?” The monk queried: “How many times did your neighbor slap you?” The man answered, “Once.” “Then,” said the monk, “forgive him once.” The man then asked, “If he slapped me fifty times, how often should I forgive him?” The monk answered, “You should forgive him forty nine times.” The man said, “But he slapped me fifty times, why shouldn’t I forgive fifty times?” The monk said, “The reason is that you deserved the 50th slap for allowing yourself to be slapped 49 times.” God doesn’t want us to remain in situations where we're being attacked.
Jesus reinforces God’s revelation through Sirach and emphasizes the reciprocity of forgiveness in the parable of the unjust steward (Mt 18:21-35). The steward begged his master to cancel his debt while he refused to cancel the debt of one who owed him. Upon hearing about this unforgiving steward whom he had previously forgiven, he ordered that he be handed over to “the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt.” Led by his angry feeling toward his debtor the steward lost everything. Jesus warned His listeners, “So my heavenly Father will do to you, unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart.”
St Paul reminds us that we don’t live for ourselves, rather we live for the Lord (Rom 14:7-9). In living for Christ we embrace His Beatitudes in which He blesses our emotions so we can direct our feelings in every situation toward him. The Christian life calls us to fully possess ourselves so that we can freely give ourselves to Christ. Thus we use our emotions to direct our feelings toward behavior that is sanctified by the Holy Spirit in the bosom of Jesus’ Church. That’s what makes Christians different from others. There we learn to forgive so we can live and let live using our emotions to direct our feelings toward free, just, loving, and peaceful behavior. (Fr Sean)
If any like it I can post others as they come in.
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The man then asked, “If he slapped me fifty times, how often should I forgive him?” The monk answered, “You should forgive him forty-nine times.” The man said, “But he slapped me fifty times, why shouldn’t I forgive fifty times?” The monk said, “The reason is that you deserved the 50th slap for allowing yourself to be slapped 49 times.” God doesn’t want us to remain in situations where we're being attacked.
:laugh1: Another reason why forgiveness can be so difficult. Very often it entails also forgiving oneself, which in turn entails owning up to personal faults and failings that in some way provided an opening for the affront to begin with. Hence the adage, "Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me." :fryingpan:
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Here is a letter from a Father Sean Sheehy, an Irish priest who's homily against abortion went worldwide after he was criticisded for it in Irish media.God works in strange ways.
God has given us emotions so that we can handle all our feelings that are generated by our thoughts. Every time we interpret something – a look, a word, a scene, a touch, a stance, or a principle – feelings, positive or negative, follow from our interpretation. Strong feelings seek expression in action. Action expresses and defines our character – at least in that moment. Feelings never just happen. They’re always preceded by thoughts. Our thoughts lead us to feel good, sad, bad, joyful, happy, anxious, angry, fearful, guilty, responsible, numb, frustrated, etc. Our feelings identify how we want to relate to the world at any given situation. It’s silly to deny feelings. Instead we need to manage them lest they control us and lead us to behavior we regret. So how do we manage our feelings? We use our emotions.
Emotions and feelings are often confused. People who’re upset or crying are often labeled as “emotional.” But actually they are simply expressing their feelings. What matters is whether they are being controlled by their feelings or their feelings are being directed by their emotions. Emotions are gifts from God enabling us to decide the most effective way to express how we feel. Four basic emotions are anger, fear, guilt, and love. Anger and fear direct us to protect ourselves from threats to our safety. Guilt directs us to take responsibility for our sins. Love directs us to connect with others. We can use any emotion to direct any feeling, positive or negative. For example, I can have an angry feeling toward someone and express it through the emotion of anger, fear, guilt, or love. I can have an angry feeling toward someone and use my emotion of guilt to express it by taking personal responsibility for it and apologizing for it. I can also express it through the emotion of anger by constructively confronting the person toward whom I have the angry feeling. The relationship between feelings and emotions can be a whole study in itself. When we use emotions to direct our feelings we act rationally. When we let our feelings direct us we lose control and act irrationally. God wants us to be in control of ourselves so we can do His will. This week God speaks to us about anger and mercy.
As an emotion anger is a gift from God. But In the Book of Sirach (27:30-28:9), God tells us that, “Wrath and anger are hateful things …” Jesus’ Church lists anger as one of the seven deadly sins? How can anger be a gift and a sin at the same time? Wasn’t Jesus angry? “And He looked around at them with anger, grieved at the hardness of their heart …” (Mk 3:5). What are we to make of this?
God isn’t talking about the emotion of anger, which is a gift from Him. The emotion of anger is part of being human. It generates the energy we need to attack what threatens our security. But it’s how we attack that makes the difference. When we choose our emotion of anger to attack an enemy we’ll be in control of our action and God will be guiding us through His gift. When our angry feeling directs our attack we’ll not be in control and so will act destructively. Anger becomes a hateful thing when we attack destructively. Murder, revenge, self-harm, or wishing evil upon others are the result of angry feelings that are expressed in hateful actions towards others or toward oneself. It’s normal to feel anger when somebody wrongs us and threatens our safety. If we choose our emotion of anger to express our feelings God will lead us to act constructively. Angry feelings move us toward vengeance that blind us to God’s will. We must remember that, “The vengeful will suffer the Lord’s vengeance, for He remembers their sins in detail.”
Forgiveness restores our emotions to their rightful role in managing our feelings when we are wronged. God’s Word teaches us to, “Forgive your neighbor’s injustice; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven.” Too often we react to injustice with angry feelings and seek revenge. Vengeful behavior causes destruction, which can’t be healed except by repentance and reconciliation. Sirach asks a reasonable question: “How can you expect healing from the Lord if you nourish anger against another?” Unless we’re hypocritical, we can’t. We have to change our vengeful feelings by replacing our vengeful thoughts with thoughts of repentance, forgiveness, and reconciliation. To live peacefully we must forgive and let live. That doesn’t mean we don’t confront the wrongdoer; we do, but through our God-given emotions that direct our feelings in a positive manner. Sirach asks another reasonable question: “How can a person refuse to be merciful toward another and ask for mercy himself or herself?” Again, we can’t, if we’re honest. God will give us only what we are willing to give others.
Jesus tells us that in God’s mind forgiveness is reciprocal. To be forgiven we must be willing to forgive. Jesus made it part of the prayer He gave us: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” (Mt 6:12). He enshrined it in one of the Beatitudes (Mt 5:7) and instituted it as a special Sacrament of His Church (Jn 20:23). The condition for receiving God’s forgiveness is our willingness to forgive others. That calls for us to change our feelings by changing our thinking through God’s grace. We do that by replacing our thoughts with God’s thoughts. St. Peter asked Jesus if it was enough to forgive his brother who sinned against him seven times. Jєωs thought that four times was generous. Jesus shocked him by saying, “You must forgive your brother more than seventy-seven times seven times.” In other words, we must forgive every time someone offends us. It’s important to realize that forgiving those who hurt us must not depend on their repentance. Forgiveness is for our own freedom to live in peace in accord with God’s will.
A man met a monk as he passed a monastery. He asked him, “How often should I forgive my neighbor for slapping me?” The monk queried: “How many times did your neighbor slap you?” The man answered, “Once.” “Then,” said the monk, “forgive him once.” The man then asked, “If he slapped me fifty times, how often should I forgive him?” The monk answered, “You should forgive him forty nine times.” The man said, “But he slapped me fifty times, why shouldn’t I forgive fifty times?” The monk said, “The reason is that you deserved the 50th slap for allowing yourself to be slapped 49 times.” God doesn’t want us to remain in situations where we're being attacked.
Jesus reinforces God’s revelation through Sirach and emphasizes the reciprocity of forgiveness in the parable of the unjust steward (Mt 18:21-35). The steward begged his master to cancel his debt while he refused to cancel the debt of one who owed him. Upon hearing about this unforgiving steward whom he had previously forgiven, he ordered that he be handed over to “the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt.” Led by his angry feeling toward his debtor the steward lost everything. Jesus warned His listeners, “So my heavenly Father will do to you, unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart.”
St Paul reminds us that we don’t live for ourselves, rather we live for the Lord (Rom 14:7-9). In living for Christ we embrace His Beatitudes in which He blesses our emotions so we can direct our feelings in every situation toward him. The Christian life calls us to fully possess ourselves so that we can freely give ourselves to Christ. Thus we use our emotions to direct our feelings toward behavior that is sanctified by the Holy Spirit in the bosom of Jesus’ Church. That’s what makes Christians different from others. There we learn to forgive so we can live and let live using our emotions to direct our feelings toward free, just, loving, and peaceful behavior. (Fr Sean)
If any like it I can post others as they come in.
What about family abuse and being abused as a child by your parent. How can the example of the monk be applied to that situation? Children aren't capable of removing themselves from abusive situations or defending themselves. So how do you approach forgiveness when you were mistreated as a child?
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What about family abuse and being abused as a child by your parent. How can the example of the monk be applied to that situation? Children aren't capable of removing themselves from abusive situations or defending themselves. So how do you approach forgiveness when you were mistreated as a child?
Other more able members here have dealt with the theology of permissive will, basically that The Lord indirectly allows things to happen which will eventually bring a greater good out of whatever evil occurred.
What I can say in practice is that first you pray, a lot. Once we slowly begin to get our own souls in order, then it becomes easier to see habitual abusers less as oppressors and more as the mistaken and broken creatures that they really are. It can be a two-steps-forward, one-step-back process for a long time, and the sense of bafflement does persist. But acceptance, forgiveness, and a definite sort of freedom do follow.
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Fr Sean again:
My Way or God’s Way?
A well-known singer told the world in a song, “I did it my way.” Should he be proud of that? I don’t think so because it was all a lie. People often claim to be living their way, when in fact they’re influenced by someone else. As God revealed in Ecclesiastes 1:9-10, none of us is original. “What has been, that will be; what has been done, that will be done. Nothing is new under the sun. Even the thing of which we say, ‘See, this is new!’ has already existed in the ages that preceded us.” The only two ways we do things in this world are either God’s way or Satan’s way. There’s no truly original way, despite those who think so. This is why the Holy Spirit speaks urgently through Isaiah (55:6-9) warning us to, “Seek the Lord while He may be found, call Him while He is near,” if we want to follow God’s way. If we don’t take full advantage of God where He said He could be found and where He is near to us, we won’t be able to benefit from His thoughts and Commandments that show us His way. He reminds us that, “As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways, and my thoughts above your thoughts.” Where has God enabled us to find Him? We find God in the Person of Jesus Christ who is present in His Church. Through His Church, Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit, teaches us God’s thoughts and leads us along His way, the Way of the Cross – the way to freedom, justice, love, peace, and joy.
The opposite to the Way of the Cross is the way of selfishness, which is the way of Satan – pride, envy, wrath, lust, greed, sloth, and gluttony. The Holy Spirit warns those following the evil way, “Let the scoundrel forsake his way, and the wicked his thoughts.” Since the Way of the Cross is the only way that leads to Heaven, God wants everyone to choose that way and abandon other ways we might be tempted to do things. Satan’s way is literally a dead end - eternal death - preceded by spiritual starvation, emptiness, and loneliness. God’s way, on the other hand, never leaves a person feeling disappointed because He is always true to His promise that all who embrace Him will experience joy and eternal happiness. Why can we believe in God? Because, “The Lord is just in all His ways and holy in all His works. The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth” (Ps 145: 2-18).
Having chosen God’s way, by embracing Jesus as His Lord and Saviour, St. Paul urges us to, “conduct yourselves in a way worthy of the Gospel” (Phil 1:20-27). Jesus spells out for us what that conduct entails in His parable about the labourers in the vineyard (Mt 20:1-16). By conducting ourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel we privately and publicly witness our faith in Jesus who gives us membership in God’s kingdom on earth, made visible in His Church. Jesus tells us that God is like the landowner who, in this story, calls people to work in his vineyard. He continuously searched for workers throughout the day, at 9.00 A.M, Noon, 3.00, and 5.00 P.M. At the end of the day he paid all the workers the same wage beginning with those hired last. Those who worked a full day complained thinking that they should get more. The owner said to one of them, “‘My friend, I do you no injustice. You agreed to the usual wage, did you not? … I am free to do as I please with my money, am I not? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ Thus the last shall be first and the first shall be last.” God is the “landowner” and the “workers” are sinners whom God wants to continually save whenever and wherever He can find them. Those who worked the full day are the Jєωs who thought their reward should be greater than others, and those hired late in the day are the Gentiles. Jesus’ message is that God’s way provides those who answer His call with what they need, not with what they want.
Here we see the difference between God’s ways and our ways. A just wage is one that meets the needs of the worker, which are to take care of his family. Those who were hired in the afternoon and evening wanted to work but didn’t have the opportunity. The landowner, in his generosity, gave them that opportunity so that they could feed, clothe, and house their family. God’s way is the way of generosity. On the other hand the selfish human way - the way of Satan - is to look out for ourselves and be envious of those whom we view as getting preferential treatment. It is called begrudgery. Jesus was highlighting what God revealed in Deuteronomy 15:4, namely that, “There should be no one of you in need.” Those who worked all day received a full wage that enabled them to take care of their needs. Those who weren’t hired couldn’t take care of their needs. The last hired were first to be paid so that the first hired could witness the generosity of the owner and face their own envy. Thus God confronts us with the difference between His way and thoughts and Satan’s ways and thoughts. God deals with us in accord with our needs while Satan’s way encourages us to deal with one another in accord with our wants.
God’s way provides for our needs through nature and through His Son. Our bodies need water, air, food, and light to live. Our soul also needs water, air, food, and light to be fully alive and magnify the Lord. God provides for our physical needs through creation. He provides for our spiritual needs through Jesus Christ, sacramentally present in His Church. Someone pointed out that in Jesus our soul finds Living Water, the Breath of Life, the Bread of Life, and the Light of the World. Our soul receives these necessities when we embrace Jesus in His Church. Through His Church Jesus continuously calls sinners whenever and wherever He can find them to embrace His thoughts and ways in their daily lives. There is no other way that leads us to become fully human and fully alive, physically and spiritually. Knowing the Gospel and striving to be worthy of it enables us to make sure that the way we do things isn’t Satan’s way but God’s way, the way of the Cross and to Way to Heaven. (fr sean)
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Other more able members here have dealt with the theology of permissive will, basically that The Lord indirectly allows things to happen which will eventually bring a greater good out of whatever evil occurred.
What I can say in practice is that first you pray, a lot. Once we slowly begin to get our own souls in order, then it becomes easier to see habitual abusers less as oppressors and more as the mistaken and broken creatures that they really are. It can be a two-steps-forward, one-step-back process for a long time, and the sense of bafflement does persist. But acceptance, forgiveness, and a definite sort of freedom do follow.
Thanks. Good answer.
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What about family abuse and being abused as a child by your parent. How can the example of the monk be applied to that situation? Children aren't capable of removing themselves from abusive situations or defending themselves. So how do you approach forgiveness when you were mistreated as a child?
Adults who were abused as children have a responsibility to protect other children. For example, if the predator could possibly have any access to children, the abuse must be reported to the authorities in order to protect present or future child victims of sɛҳuąƖ assault. This is an act of Charity, not only toward other potential victims, but also to the predator who may not repent until he or she is held accountable.
In regard to forgiveness, a traditional priest once said "Just because you forgive someone, that doesn't mean you have to have lunch with them." In terms of an unrepentant sinner, the act of forgiveness is between you and God. You are not required to socialize with an unrepentant perpetrator who abused you, nor are you required to be around the "silent perpetrators" that is, other persons who ignored or facilitated the abuse and are unrepentant.
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Fr Sean again:
26th Sunday A Cycle Our Actions Define Our Future
In a sermon in 1200 A.D, St Anthony of Padua gave us the proverb, “Actions speak louder than words.” In the film “Batman Begins” Rachel stops Batman from jumping back into the fight and asks him who he is behind the mask. He answers; “It’s not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me.” It’s what we do that defines us rather than what we say. It’s easy to talk the talk but quite another thing to walk it. In other words, what we do reflects what we value. Nowhere is this more applicable than in religion and politics where it’s easy to say what we believe but quite another thing to behave accordingly. We’re all prone to hypocrisy because we’re sinners and want to be liked. Hypocrisy is pretending to be what one is not. For example, a person identifies as a Catholic but breaks the first and third Commandments by not participating in the Holy Mass every Sunday. Persons who identify as members of the Church but support abortion, transgenderism, and reject Biblical and Church teaching on marriage are pretending to be what they are not, whether or not they realize it. What they do contradicts who they say they are. Their actions contradict their Christian Faith. That is hypocrisy. God hates hypocrisy. This is why Jesus confronted Pharisees and scribes and said to them, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you frauds! You are like whitewashed tombs, beautiful to look at on the outside but full of filth and dead men’s bones” (Mt 23:27). The opposite of hypocrisy is authenticity. To be authentic is to be real, to be true, which involves saying what you mean and meaning what you say through your actions. It’s our actions that define us as either Christian or non-Christian. Jesus revealed that, “Not everyone who says ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Mt 7:21-23). It is not enough to say “Lord, Lord,” we must do what He tells us.
God calls us to be authentic which means “let it be ‘Yes’ if you mean yes and ‘No’ if you mean no” (Jas 5:12). Because God created us to be like Him, and there’s no duplicity in Him, you and I are called to be genuine by making sure that our “yes” and “no” are backed up by our actions. God addresses this in the Book of Ezra (18:25-28). The Israelites complained that God was being unjust to them. He confronted them and asked, “Is it my way that is unfair, or rather, are not your ways unfair?” They thought that if a virtuous person turned to sin that his previous goodness should be enough to save him from its consequences, namely death – as if he had savings in a spiritual bank from which to draw and save him. God informed them that, “When someone virtuous turns away from virtue to commit sin, and dies, it is because of the sin he committed that he must die. But if he turns from the wickedness he has committed, and does what is right and just, he shall preserve his life.” God reveals here that He judges us on the basis of our actions, good or bad, in the present, not what we did in the past. In the eyes of God it is our actions now that define us and are subject to reward or punishment. This is spelled out clearly in Matthew chapter 25 where Jesus revealed that it’s what we do to others that defines us in relationship to Him, not what we say to Him. It’s not our prayers that matter to God but what we do as a result of our prayers.
God’s ways are always fair because He’s always authentic and just. Our ways aren’t always fair because our words and actions don’t always match and so we aren’t always authentic or just. The Holy Spirit speaking through the Psalmist (25: 4-9) reminds us that, “Good and upright is the Lord; thus He shows sinners the way. He guides the humble to justice, and teaches the humble His way.” God’s way was laid down by Jesus and received by the Apostles through the power of the Holy Spirit. This “way,” the only way to Heaven, is spelled out for us in the Holy Bible and the Church’s Apostolic and moral teaching. Thus the inspired St. Paul warns us: “Do nothing out of selfishness or vainglory; rather humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not just for his own interests, but also for those of others” (Phil 2;1-11). Jesus exemplified this when “He humbled Himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Though He was in the form of God he did not deem equality with God as something to be grasped at...” Jesus’ words and actions mirrored one another. Words without action are empty. “What good is it to profess faith without practising it? …So it is with faith that does nothing in practice. It is thoroughly lifeless” (Jas 2:14-17).
To emphasize the importance of actions, Jesus gives us the Parable of the Two Sons (Mt 21:28-32). A father asked the oldest son to work in his vineyard, to which he replied, “I am on my way, sir.” But he didn’t go. He asked the second son to work in the vineyard, but he refused. Later he “regretted it and went.” Jesus asked, “Which one did what the father wanted?” The answer was obvious. Jesus was sending a message to the Pharisees and scribes likening them to the eldest son who said “yes” to God’s request to bring His blessing to the world, but they reneged. He likened the Gentiles to the second son, who at first rebelled but then repented and did what God asked of them. This is why Jesus described the scribes and Pharisees as, “This people pays me lip-service but their heart is far from me” (Mt 15:8).
You and I will be judged on what we do with the Faith we have been given, and not on what we say about it. We cannot call ourselves Christian if we don’t practice the Tradition that Jesus handed on to His Apostles and continues to be handed down through the ages in and through His Church. At the moment of death we’ll be judged on whether or not we let God’s Word come alive in our life here on earth. Jesus warns us: “Whoever rejects me and does not accept my words already has his judge, namely the word I have spoken – it is that which will condemn him on the last day” (Jn 12:48). This is urgent because none of us knows when death will come. Jesus urges us to, “Stay awake, therefore! You cannot know the day your Lord is coming …Keep your eyes open, for you know not the day nor the hour” (Mt 24:42; 25:13). Staying awake means that we remain alert, making sure that we match our professed Faith with our actions each day because the good we have done yesterday isn’t sufficient if we sin today and die in that sin. The good we may have done in our past can be quickly erased if we decide to turn away from God at any moment in our life. Jesus gives us the Sacrament of Reconciliation as the antidote to hypocrisy to which none of us is immune. In the first Gospel to be written Jesus proclaimed: “This is the time of fulfilment. The reign of God is at hand! Reform your lives and believe in the Gospel” (Mk 1:15). The time is now for us to believe in the Gospel through letting our actions define us as Christians, faithful members of Jesus’ Church. Jesus stated clearly that, “Whoever acknowledges me before men I will acknowledge before my Father in heaven. Whoever disowns me before men I will disown before my Father in heaven” (Mt 10:32-33). Our actions define us and in them we decide our eternity. (frsos)
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Thank you, Father Sheehy. Thank you, Cassini.
, “Whoever acknowledges me before men I will acknowledge before my Father in heaven. Whoever disowns me before men I will disown before my Father in heaven” (Mt 10:32-33). Our actions define us and in them we decide our eternity. (frsos)
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Please keep posting.
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Please keep posting.
I will of course Viva. God bless.
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Fr Sean again:
The Urge to Control
Have you ever been a back-seat driver or tried to drive with a back-seat driver in the car? An American bus company’s slogan wisely said: “Leave the driving to us.” It’s frustrating to have someone else telling you how to drive, like Hyacinth with Richard in “Keeping Up Appearances.” There can only be one driver in a vehicle. The rest are passengers. Back-seat drivers have an overriding need to be in control. It has to be their way.
There’s nothing wrong or abnormal with wanting to be in control of our world. Self-control is a characteristic of maturity. Every human being, from conception until death, tries to control reality for himself or herself. The question is not whether we should be in control, rather it’s what and how we can control that will make us successful. Problems arise when we try to control what is beyond us. We fail.
The Gospel from Matthew (21:33-43) outlines a situation where people attempted to gain control over something unsuccessfully. Jesus illustrates this in the Parable of the Tenants. The tenants weren’t satisfied to rent the land to grow grapes, they wanted to possess it for themselves. They killed the owner’s servants when they came to collect his share of the grapes. Then they killed his son in the belief that his death would assure them of full ownership. Their attempt to get control over what wasn’t theirs caused them to lose the source of their livelihood.
The purpose of control is to achieve an end, but the end, if it is obtainable, doesn’t justify the means, especially when the means upends the end. We cannot successfully control God, His Church, or one other. We can try to manipulate them, but we can’t control them. The only person we can have control over is ourselves. We can’t even do that successfully without God’s grace. Without Him we can’t successfully control our sinful nature or fulfill our deepest yearnings.
St. Paul explains what we need to do in order to gain control over our lives. God teaches through him that we must “Dismiss all anxiety from your minds. Present your needs to God in every form of prayer and in petitions full of gratitude. Then God’s own peace which is beyond all understanding, will stand guard over your hearts and minds, in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 4:6-9)
The vineyard tenants were anxious about their security and future. They didn’t want to have to rely on the willingness of the owner to rent his land. They wanted to secure their future. They were led by a spirit of fear and greed instead of a spirit of faith and generosity. They killed the proverbial goose that laid the golden egg because they wanted control over what wasn’t theirs. The irony is that they could have all the gold if they relied on the goose. By killing the goose they destroyed the source of gold.
Is this happening in the Church today with this so-called Synod on Synodality? Are there people in and outside the Church who are trying to wrest control over her from Jesus her Head? Are they, like the vineyard tenants, trying to possess her for themselves so that they can use her to endorse their agendas? They want to make the Church “more welcoming,” “inclusive,” “accompanying,” etc. Typical of controllers, in their urge to control, they use appealing language but give the words their own definition. They ignore that the Church belongs to Jesus. He’s her Head. Reason says that since Jesus is the founder of the Church He is the one to control her, not her leaders or members. It’s Jesus who forms and teaches through His Church and as the Teacher He calls us to listen – hear and heed what He says (Rev 2:29). The key question, ignored by those trying to control the Church, should be, “What does Jesus want His Church to be and do for mankind?” The controller’s question is, “How do we want the Church to endorse our agenda today?” Imagine a child attempting to tell the parent how to raise him or her. The controller always wants things on his terms, not on Jesus’ or His Church’s terms. Jesus and His Church includes, accompanies, and welcomes every man, woman, and child, not on their terms but on God’s terms. It doesn’t take a Synod to tell us what these terms are. Jesus spells them out for all and sundry in the Gospels: “Reform your life, repent and believe in the Gospel” (Mk 1:15) by living the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes. “If you love me,” He said, “keep my commandments” (Jn 14:15) and what will bring you blessings (Beatitudes). That’s what Jesus calls Church leaders to preach and teach because that is what each of us needs to hear and heed. The Synod’s working docuмent never mentions sin and rarely mentions Jesus. Those who try to control the Church simply impose their own sinfulness on her.
When we submit to Jesus, present in His Church, we do things on His terms, not ours. Thus we then gain control over our wayward, self-centered egos, and sinful world. We’re then changed for the better. How? “Your thoughts (become) wholly directed to what is true, all that deserves respect, all that is honest, pure, admirable, decent, virtuous, or worthy of praise.”
To gain control we must commit to the truth that alone sets us free from Satan’s lies. As Catholic Christians we know that Jesus Christ is the truth. Therefore, to be in control we must have a firm commitment to Him. With Christ we can do all things (Phil 4:13); without Him we can do nothing good. We must respect the Church as the means through which Jesus enables us to gain control over our sinfulness. Attempting to control the Church to suit our agendas makes the tenants’ fate our fate. We must be honest in our dealings with ourselves and others and recognize that it is us that must change, not Jesus or His Church. Purity of intention and action keeps us on the road that leads to freedom and security. It eliminates duplicity and arrogance, which are characteristics of Satan. Remember what Jesus said to Peter when Peter tried to control Jesus? “Get behind me, Satan” (Mk 8:33). That’s what He says to those who are trying to change the Church today.
We must continue to ask ourselves whether our intentions are admirable in the eyes of God. Are we committed to decency and virtue in the manner we have chosen to attain security? Is our approach worthy of praise in our home, parish, diocese, or place of work? These questions provide us with a test to see whether our attempts to gain control over our world will succeed or fail. The vineyard tenants didn’t reflect on the truth of what was or wasn’t theirs. Thus they acted disrespectfully, dishonestly, impurely, murderously, indecently, viciously, and unworthily of praise. Like those trying to make a name for themselves attempting to build the Tower of Babel, they ended up in failure.
In closing, Paul tells us that the surest way to success is to “Live according to what you have learned and accepted” about Christ from His Church’s Apostolic Tradition. Then God’s peace will reside in us. We must direct our urge to control by reforming our lives from sinners to saints through the power of the Holy Spirit who guides Jesus’ Church.
Jesus isn’t a back-seat driver – He is the Driver of His Church, not us, in which He teaches us how to drive our lives along the pathway outlined by His Church’s Tradition. He accompanies us if we travel His way. He includes us when we do His will. He welcomes us when we repent and seek His forgiveness. He shows us what we must do to control our life in a manner that doesn’t bring eternal death. Our urge to control must be disciplined with the humble awareness that we must submit to Jesus. In that submission we control events in a manner that brings happiness. A key question this week: "Am I trying to control things in a manner that brings blessings or curses?" (fr sean)
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Adults who were abused as children have a responsibility to protect other children. For example, if the predator could possibly have any access to children, the abuse must be reported to the authorities in order to protect present or future child victims of sɛҳuąƖ assault. This is an act of Charity, not only toward other potential victims, but also to the predator who may not repent until he or she is held accountable.
In regard to forgiveness, a traditional priest once said "Just because you forgive someone, that doesn't mean you have to have lunch with them." In terms of an unrepentant sinner, the act of forgiveness is between you and God. You are not required to socialize with an unrepentant perpetrator who abused you, nor are you required to be around the "silent perpetrators" that is, other persons who ignored or facilitated the abuse and are unrepentant.
How true! I used to tell my first graders, “You don’t like everyone, (being mostly Protestants, they’d gasp), it’s worse. You have to love everyone!” (Looks of dismay!) Then I’d explain by reading from I Corinthians, ch. 13. It tells us what “love” is. There are no “feelings” involved, only actions and character traits. I go on to do impromptu skits with volunteers, what that looks like in common children’s squabbles. The rest of the class watches, then I put them in pairs or triplets and everyone acts it out together.
Forgiveness is not a feeling; it’s an act of the will.
The same with making an apology. Put aside how you feel and decide to apologize. Ask for forgiveness. The offended party likewise puts aside his anger, hate, hurt and asks himself, “Which do I want? Peace in my heart from Jesus, or my feelings? If you want peace, say, “Yes, I forgive you.” Do this and you’ll see the bad feelings go away. Do it as often as needed. Jesus says up to 70 times seven every day.
Forgive each person 490 times a day.
When someone apologizes to you, say, “I forgive you.” Do not say, “It’s okay.” Chances are, whatever was done was NOT “okay.”
How is it possible to follow these instructions? Forgive 490 times every day? Only with much grace from Our Lord. As for the feelings part, ask Our Lady for help. She’s a good mother who is eager to help you clean your skeleton closet. She can reach that high shelf where you tucked your feelings out of sight behind the box old gloves, and dispose of the trash.
Daily, pray well her Rosary and you’ll save your soul.
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Fr Sean again:
You’re Invited to Heaven
Through the prophet Isaiah (25:6-10) God speaks about Heaven when He revealed Himself as “providing for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines.” Jesus likens Heaven to a wedding feast (Mt 22:1-14). A feast symbolizes an enjoyable time of nourishment, conviviality, laughter and friendship. But it is temporary. Heaven is a permanent banquet in God’s presence where you can feast your eyes on everything that’s real, true, good and beautiful. It is joyful because “The Lord will wipe away the tears from every face” (Is 25:8). We can’t fully grasp Heaven. The Holy Spirit reveals through St. Paul that, “Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it so much dawned on man what God has prepared for those who love Him.” (1 Cor 2:9). It is beyond our imagination. It can only be described metaphorically, like love. In the parable of the Wedding Feast (Mt 22:1-14), Jesus reveals that His Father invites everyone to Heaven. He also reveals that not everyone accepts God’s invitation. Even some who accept the invitation refuse to act properly and are thrown out.
Three times God sends out His invitations. The messengers were rejected by some, ignored by others and even killed. Why would an invitation to participate in such a happy event evoke such a rude and callous reaction? Selfish priorities do that. “One went to his farm, another to his business.” Other things were more important than honouring the king’s invitation. At the end of the parable Jesus said, “Many are invited, but few are chosen.”
What does all this have to do with us? God continues to invite everyone to join Him in Heaven. He does this through Jesus present in His Church until the end of time. Accepting the invitation means embracing Jesus because the only way to Heaven is through, with and in Him. Jesus reveals, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn 14:6). The way to God is the way to Heaven, which requires us to let God’s presence fill our consciousness with His truth. Jesus is God’s presence on earth. Why doesn’t everyone follow Jesus in order to reach Heaven? Jesus tells us that, “No one comes to me except the Father who sent me draws him.” (Jn 6:44) The reason people don’t follow Jesus is that they’re not listening to God. Their spirit is closed to God’s Spirit. They are listening to false gods. Because of our sinfulness we want to follow our way, which is why we get lost or take the wrong turn. Because of our sinfulness we want to accept Jesus’ invitation on our terms rather than on His. Look at how many, even within the Church, want to change Jesus’ and His Church’s Traditional Apostolic teaching to suit their agendas and endorse their immorality! Look at the many who want to normalize sin and even bless it! Those people want God and His Church to do their bidding. They will not enter Heaven unless they repent, recant, and seek forgiveness through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Jesus reminded Peter, when he recognized Him as Messiah, that “No mere man has revealed this to you, but my Heavenly Father.” (Mt 16:16) Those who embrace Jesus as the way to Heaven have allowed the Holy Spirit to guide, inspire, and strengthen their human spirit. God the Father calls everyone to follow Jesus as their Teacher, Leader, and Saviour. At Jesus' Transfiguration God spoke and told everyone who listened, “This is my Son, my beloved. Listen to Him.” (Mk 9:7)
God invites everyone to join His Son, but many ignore it because they have other priorities. Some mistreat and even kill the messengers because their false beliefs are threatened by the truth of the Gospel. By shutting out the messengers they avoid the message’s truth. The message, of course, as Pope Benedict said, is that there is no future without God. There is no Heaven without God. Since Jesus is God’s Son, and the perfect image of His Father, there is no true personal knowledge of God without knowing Jesus personally. Jesus said, “If you knew me you would know my Father too” (Jn 8:19). “Everything has been given over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son but the Father, and no one knows the Father but the Son – and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal Him” (Mt 11:27).
The consequence of accepting Jesus’ invitation to join Him forever in Heaven is evident in St. Paul. Here is a marvellous example of what it means to listen to Jesus and accept His invitation on His terms and not on the terms of sinful human nature. In his letter to the Philippians (4:12-20) St. Paul said that he was able to adapt to anything and “do all things in Him (Jesus) who strengthens me.” Jesus is not only the way to Heaven. He also provides the wherewithal we need to get there. Jesus has made Himself the food wherein His followers are loved, nourished, comforted, sustained, encouraged, offered forgiveness, and a joyful future to hope in. Jesus said, “I myself am the bread of life come down from Heaven for a man to eat and never die … the bread I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” (Jn 6:51) This is why the Church calls everyone to embrace Jesus Christ and requires all of His followers to meet Him in the Sacraments and unite with Him at Sunday Mass worshipping, praising, and thanking the Heavenly Father for all His blessing through the power of the Holy Spirit. Sunday Mass is a participation in the Heavenly Liturgy where God is adored by all the angels and saints. It signifies their acceptance of God’s invitation to listen to Jesus and participate in His sacrificial Supper. The chosen are those who have accepted Jesus’ invitation on His terms to worthily eat “my body and drink my blood … For my flesh is real food and my blood real drink … the man who feeds on me will have life because of me.” (Jn 6:54-57) You’re invited. Have you accepted the invitation to become one of the chosen? Remember, Jesus allows you into Heaven on His terms, not on yours. (fr sean)
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Fr Sean again:
I Have Called You by Your Name
Many people call you by your name, but do they really know you? Who is the person whom you think knows you the best? By “know” I mean someone who is really in touch with what makes you a unique individual and recognize your intrinsic qualities. Does the meaning of your name sum you up? Would you like to change it?
Many years ago upon arriving at a parish I met a little girl whose family lived across the street from the church. She asked if she could roller-skate in the parking lot. I told her she could. She had long blond hair and, since I didn’t know her name, I called her “blondie.” At first she didn’t say anything. One evening I was leaving the parish office and she crept up behind me. She said in a half shy voice, “My name isn’t blondie.” Then she told me her name. I asked her why she didn’t like being called “blondie.” She said simply, “But that’s not my real name.” I thanked her for correcting me. From then on I called her by her real name. She was happy about that.
In the first reading (Is 45:1.4-6) God reminds us that He calls each of us, believer and non-believer, by our name. “I have called you by your name, giving you a title, though you knew me not.” While some of us have difficulty remembering names, God doesn’t forget our name. Remembering a person’s name is an indication that he or she means something to us. An individual who makes a genuine effort to remember names is someone who considers relationships to be important. The first step in a relationship is to remember the person’s name. Imagine going on a date with someone who asks, “What’s your name again?” Imagine a father or mother coming home in the evening after work and asking the children, “Who are you?” God never asks “Who are you” because He knows us better than we know ourselves.
As with my little Church neighbour, the name and the person go together. Making an effort to know the person’s name indicates the person’s importance to us. Calling a person by his or her correct name is a mark of respect for the person’s uniqueness. When I was in National school the principal - we called him “the Master” - called the girls by their mother’s names. He taught their mothers. The girls wanted to be called by their own names. Those who had the same names as their mothers fared a little better, but they too were somewhat disgruntled since they felt he was recognizing their mothers rather than them.
When God tells us that he calls us by name we know that He doesn’t mistake us for someone else. Not only does God know us, but He wants us to know Him and to be in a personal relationship with Him. No two of us are the same. This is a reflection of God’s versatility. Have you ever heard God calling you by name? He called you by name on the day of your Baptism and Confirmation. He continually calls you through His Church, especially in her Sacraments and at every Holy Mass. He calls us by name in our prayer. Very often we’re so busy telling Him our problems that we don’t hear Him. Or else we’re too preoccupied with ourselves and become deaf to His gentle pronunciation of our name. Think about Mary Magdalene when Jesus called her by name, “Mary!” Just so He calls you!
Not only does God call us by our name, He also wants us to call Him by His Name. “I am the Lord, there is no other, there is no God besides Me.” Do we reverently call God by His proper Name? His second Commandment teaches us: “You shall not take the Name of the Lord your God in vain.” When we take God’s Name in vain - swearing, cursing, expressing anger, using the OMG, or “by God,” etc. - we also degrade our own names. When we disrespect and abuse God’s name we can’t help but disrespect and abuse what He has created in His Holy Name, namely you and me and all creation. Our attitude towards God is reflected in how we use His Holy Name.
The Pharisees refused to call Jesus by His proper name - Son of God. Instead they tried to name Him themselves. We didn’t name ourselves so how can we name God who created us. Our parents named us at birth and God named us as His adopted children the day we were baptized marking our soul indelibly as His gifted child. Hopefully the name our parents gave us will reflect that new identity. Our parents may have named us at birth. But it is we who give a reality to that name by the way we live. Remember what comes to mind when you hear a person’s name mentioned! The name evokes an image in your mind. The image reflects the person’s attitude, behavior, beliefs, demeanor, spirit, etc. The person communicates a particular image by the way he or she acts. In this sense we all name ourselves either as God’s friends or His enemies. He wants to be able to name all of us as His friends but He respects our freedom to say “Yes” or “No” to His call. Our name evokes an image of ourselves through what we do and say every day.
Jesus named the Pharisees as hypocrites because they tried to mis-name Him (Mt 22:15-21). They wanted to get rid of Jesus even though they said they loved God. They saw Jesus’ characteristics - “truthful, teach the way of God in accordance with the truth, not concerned with anyone’s opinion, not regard a person’s status” – as a means of entrapment. Knowing that He would give a clear answer, they asked, “Is it lawful to pay tax to Caesar?” If He said “Yes” He would be rejected by the Jєωs. If He said “no” He would be punished by the Romans. Jesus asked whose image was on their coins. They said, “Caesar’s.” Jesus then said, “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar but give to God what belongs to God.” What had Caesar’s image on it belonged to him. But since they had God’s image they belonged to Him Caesar owns the coins but God owns human beings. But while God owns us, unlike Caesar, He doesn’t impose His will on us. He calls us by name to freely do His will. In His utter humility God invites us to freely give Him permission to possess us so that He can perfect us and give us back to ourselves, freed from sin and equipped to overcome what pulls us down.
So when God calls us by name He reminds us that He has a legitimate claim on us because He created us in His image. The key question is that when He calls my name, as He does every day, do I honour His claim on me or do I reject it? Do I respond daily in the Biblical words, “Here I am, I have come to do Your will” (Heb 10:9). God is daily calling you and me by name to, “Worship the Lord in holy attire; tremble before Him, all the earth; say among the nations: The Lord is King, He governs the people with equity” (Ps 96:1-10). (fr sean)
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Fr Sean again:
Jesus’ Marching Orders
You’ve probably heard the phrase, “Follow the doctor’s orders,” in order to get well. But have you heard the phrase, “Follow Jesus’ orders,” to get saved from sin and be able to love? An order is a command by someone in authority requiring you to carry out some task. A parent orders a child to do something. A policeman orders a driver to move his vehicle that’s illegally parked. A boss orders an employee to do a particular job. Legitimate orders imply legitimate authority can legitimately. A child can’t give an order to a parent, even though he or she might try. Why? Because a child doesn’t have authority over the parent. So when we talk about obeying commandments or carrying out orders we recognize that the commander has the proper authority. Jesus gives His followers their marching orders because He received His authority from God the Father whose orders He carries out. He tells us that if we want to be His followers we will show it by obeying His commandments (Jn 14;15). In other words, He is telling us that if we love Him as our Saviour and benefit from His presence we’ll carry out His orders. Mary articulated this in her advice to the waiters at the wedding feast at Cana: “Do whatever He tells you” (Jn 2:5). What He orders us to do is to love God and our neighbour. That sounds easy but, because of our proneness to selfishness, it isn’t. The nature of love is self-sacrifice for the good of others, exemplified by Jesus on the cross.
A lawyer asked Jesus, "Teacher, which commandment of the law is the greatest?” (Mt 22:36). The Pharisees had divided the Law into 613 statutes. He was asking Jesus to prioritize them. The most important Commandment would be the one that called for the most obedience in order to be in God’s favour. The most important commandment would set the tone within which all the others would be viewed.
Jesus answered the lawyer: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, with your whole soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first Commandment. The second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments the whole law is based, and the prophets as well.” The lawyer was probably dumbfounded. To enter heaven it’s necessary to love God with all your heart (be emotionally committed to Him in a personal relationship), with your whole soul (allow God to be the center of your life), with all your mind (fill your mind with knowledge of Him). We do that by obeying the first 3 Commandments: Adore God alone; Revere His Holy Name; and Keep the Sabbath Holy. Jesus identifies a second Commandment which He connects to the first that orders us to love our neighbor as if he or she were us. Love of neighbour is spelled out in the last seven Commandments.
What does it mean to love your neighbor? What does it mean to love yourself? We need to understand love. Since God is love (1 Jn 4:16), to love is to be like God who cares wholeheartedly for His creation. The basic stuff of love is caring. To love is to care about yourself and others. We demonstrate love by c-a-r-i-n-g: concerned, accepting, affirming, affectionate, respectful, fostering integrity, nurturing, and generous towards others. Loving others as yourself means helping yourself and others to reach your and their fullest potential. Our fullest potential is achieved the more we become what God created us to be, namely His image and likeness. The Church tells us that we love our neighbor and ourselves by practicing the Spiritual and Corporal works of mercy through Admonish the Sinner -Luke 15:7; 17:3; Instructing the Ignorant-Matthew 28:19-20; Counseling the Doubtful -Matthew 13:18-23; Bearing Wrongs Patiently -Matthew 5:38-48; Forgiving Offenses Willingly - Matthew 6:14-15; 18:15-35; Comforting the Afflicted -Matthew 11:28-30; Praying for the Living and the Dead -2 Maccabees 38-46; Feeding the (physically and spiritually) Hungry -Matthew 14:15-21; 25:35; Giving Drink to the (physically and spiritually )Thirsty -Matthew 25:35; Clothing the (physically and spiritually) Naked -Matthew 25:36; Sheltering the (physically and spiritually) Homeless -Matthew 25:35; Visiting the (physically and spiritually) Sick -Matthew 25:36; Visiting the (physically and spiritually) Imprisoned -Matthew 25:36, Burying the Dead -Tobit 1:17-19. Thus we continually become our true selves, imaging and being like the caring God who created us. At death we need to be our true selves as much as possible so that Satan won’t cause us to lose our Faith in God’s love at the moment of death.
In loving God and our neighbour God gives us the grace to withstand Satan’s temptation to make our ego the centre of our life. Through Moses (Exodus 22:20-26) God ordered His people: “You shall not molest or oppress an alien ... You shall not wrong any widow or orphan ... If you lend money to one of your poor neighbors you shall not act like an extortioner toward them by demanding interest from him. If you take your neighbor's coat as a pledge, you shall return it to him before sunset because he needs it to keep the cold out that night.” In other words, our love of neighbor must reflect our love for God who is caring by obeying His order to be like Him and act compassionately towards the needy. Then we can pray from the heart: “I love you Lord, my strength, O Lord my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, … my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold …” (Ps 18: 2-4, 47, 51).
Sadly, we hear little of nothing about the necessity of obeying God’s marching orders today. This is why there is such disarray in the Church and in the world. We hear a lot about what we should do to save the planet, but little or nothing about what we must do in order to save our souls. Jesus commissioned His Apostles to “Go forth and teach all nations to observe all that I have commanded you …” (Mt 28-19-20). God’s orders to love Him with all we are and have and our neighbour as ourselves isn’t only necessary in order to enter Heaven, obeying them is also necessary for society to be mentally, emotionally, socially and morally healthy. Obeying them is necessary if we’re to be an orderly and civilized society. Nobody can be fully human without obeying God’s orders because they identify what we must do to build a just and caring community. If we don’t love God and neighbour we’re no better than the animals. Rejecting God’s orders is a rebellion against Him manifested in the deadly sins of pride, anger, greed, lust, sloth, envy, and an obtuse spirit. If you don't believe me just look around the world. The problems in the world and in the Church today reflect the disorder that follows from the refusal to carry out Jesus’ orders. (fr sean)
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Fr Sean again:
God Hates Hypocrisy
We all struggle with the conflict between integrity and hypocrisy. Integrity is defined as the faithful adherence to a code of behaviour. Our words and actions mirror one another. Integrity calls us to say and do what we mean and mean what we do and say. It ensures that we are who we say we are. Whether we agree or disagree with such a person we’re sure of what we’re agreeing or disagreeing with. People of integrity won’t change their beliefs and behaviour for the sake of popularity, possessions, power, or passion. There’s no hidden agenda. In private or public life they stand for what they believe. Hypocrisy is the opposite of integrity. It’s the pretence to be someone externally that we aren’t internally. Hypocrisy breeds distrust, disloyalty, and dishonesty. Actions and words belie one another. Its only concern is with personal popularity or power.
God expressed His hatred for hypocrisy and His call for integrity when He spoke to the priests through His prophet, Malachi (1:14-2:2-10). “And now, O priests, this commandment is for you: If you do not listen, if you do not lay it to heart, to give glory to my Name … I will send a curse upon you, and of your blessing I will make a curse. You have turned aside from the way, and have caused many to falter by your instruction … you show partiality in your decisions. Have we not all one Father? Has not the one God created us? Why then do we break faith with one another violating the covenant …?” When we act hypocritically we diminish our likeness to God and imitate Satan. There are bishops and priests today who took an oath to hand on the Church’s Apostolic Tradition that Jesus gave to the Apostles and ordered them to preach it “to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8) and now renege on that promise to suit the empty clamour of ideologies that promote the abnormal. Their blessings have become curses because they create the illusion that sin can be blessed thereby leading people to hell. They’re also causing division by substituting Jesus’ authority with their own. They give false instruction that contradicts the Church’s traditional teaching and violate the covenant that Jesus signed in His blood. They show partiality to ideologies that promote immorality and try to change the Church to suit their self-serving agendas. They speak with a forked tongue.
Jesus confronted hypocrisy and called for integrity in the religious leaders of His day. He ordered His listeners to, “do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice…. All their works are performed to be seen” (Mt 23: 3-5). Like the builders of the Tower of Babel, they wanted to make a name for themselves (Gen 11:4).They wanted to replace God. “They love places of honour at banquets and front seats in ѕуηαgσgυєs, getting marks of respect in public and of being called ‘Rabbi’” (Mt 23:6-7). They hobnob with the politicians and the so-called elites. Jesus criticized their use of titles to honour themselves, while ignoring God. Since the word ‘Rabbi’ meant ‘my master,’ Jesus reminds them of who the real “Master” is. “Avoid the title ‘Rabbi.’ One among you is your teacher, the rest are learners. Do not call anyone on earth your father. Only One is your Father, the One in Heaven. Avoid being called teachers. Only one is your Teacher, the Messiah...” (Mt 23:8-10). Jesus wasn’t ordering the elimination of these titles from the religious dictionary. He was simply saying these titles rightfully belong to God because they have their origin in Him and mustn’t be used for self-aggrandisement but to humbly serve the neighbour in God’s Name. Thus, Jesus declares, “The greatest among you must be the servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” (Mt 23:12) Integrity is the antidote to hypocrisy because it calls for an honest evaluation of oneself and one’s behaviour.
Is it only leaders who are prone to hypocrisy? No. Jesus is also confronting my hypocrisy and yours. None of us is immune. As Jesus said, we “… wash the outside of the cup while leaving the inside dirty” (Mt 23:25). We prefer show over substance. We want to be liked. That’s why Catholic teaching urges us to practice a monthly confession of sin. In Confession we recognize the dirt with which our hypocrisy stains our souls. In confession we accept that only God’s grace can heal our disloyalty to Him, to our neighbour, and to ourselves. We need humility to admit our hypocrisy and ask God and His Church for the grace to restore our integrity, our likeness to Jesus, so we can be credible Christians. To be credible Christians we must recognize that “in receiving the Word of God from hearing us “Church), you received not a human word, but, as it truly is, the word of God, which is now at work in you who believe” (1 Thess 2:7-9, 13). Therefore to avoid hypocrisy we must let God’s word take precedence over all other words we might hear in the world.
I don’t think we set out to be hypocrites. We’re weak and cave to Satan’s temptation to go along in order to get along by giving in to worldly pressure, convenience, pleasure, or fear. We abandon integrity by trying to please people instead of God. Jesus warns, “You cannot serve two masters” (Mt 76:24). Hypocrisy is always sinful and divisive because it involves ignoring the truth thereby lying to ourselves. This is often played out in the statement, “Personally I’m for … but publicly I’m against …” This split between my personal and public persona undermines the peace Jesus wants to give me. We see this hypocrisy in the following situations: parents who seek Baptism for their child but don’t raise him or her in the Faith; people who say they respect life but support the choice for abortion; people who say they love God but disobey His Commandments; people who say they are spiritual but not religious; people who want to be married but act as if single; people who identify as Catholic but reject the Church’s teaching; people who seek justice but behave unjustly themselves. Integrity says that if I want something I must do what is necessary to get it. If I want to be loved by God I must daily obey His Commandments. This is accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit who urges us to pray: “O Lord, my heart is not proud, nor are my eyes haughty … Hope in the Lord, both now and forever. In You, Lord, I have found my peace” (Ps 131:1-3). God hates hypocrisy because it makes us totally unlike Him and enslaves us to what’s false enshrined in atheistic and destructive ideologies. Integrity and humility make us more like Jesus Christ, enhance our freedom, and give us a peace that the world can’t give. (fr sean)
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Thank you. :pray:
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Fr Sean again:
What’s Your First Priority?
The end of the year is in sight. November is here accompanied by falling leaves and cooler breezes, shorter days and longer nights. The time change gave us extra light in the morning but more darkness in the evening. The Church uses the seasons of Autumn and Winter to call her members’ attention to the reality of dying and death, the time and place of which we don’t know. This is something that many of us would rather not think about. But that would be foolish, since we can’t escape dying and death. Jesus notifies us that we “know not the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming” (Mt 25:13). Shouldn’t we make preparation for this eternity defining event in our life our first priority?
In his book “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” Stephen Covey advocates that to be effective we must “work with the end in sight.” Thus, we keep our focus sharp and don’t lose sight of what we want to accomplish. St. Peter (1:8-9) points out to us that the goal of our Faith is the salvation of our soul. Since death is the end of our life on earth shouldn’t we make it our first priority to die in the arms of Jesus? Effective preparation always involves prioritizing what’s of primary importance in order to achieve the goal. If our goal is to go to Heaven, then it’s of primary importance to develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, present in His Church, who alone can enable us to achieve it.
This weekend Jesus’ Church proclaims the parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins (Mt 25:1-13). Jesus uses the story to stress the importance of personal preparation for the coming of the Lord. He is the only way to Heaven (Jn 14:6). He founded His Church wherein He calls us to join Him in and through her Sacraments, beginning with Baptism. Jesus enables us to meet Him sacramentally in each of the seven Sacraments where He graces us with repentance and forgiveness of sin, and is especially and uniquely present to us in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as our Shepherd who leads and nourishes us. St. Paul explains that, “We see now as through a glass’ darkly; then we shall see face to face: now I know in part, but then I shall know even as also I am known” ( 1 Cor 12:13). In death everything that we are and will be is revealed in the ever-penetrating light of Jesus glorified, who is the “Light of the world” (Jn 8:12). Preparing for death is preparation for eternity and makes us appreciate life’s opportunities to deepen our relationship with Jesus without whom we face eternal damnation because we can’t free ourselves from our sins.
The parable instills in us that the wise are those who are prepared for all eventualities while the foolish aren’t. The lamp is supernatural faith and the oil is prayer without which the light of faith will go out. The wise bridesmaids refused to share their oil with the unwise ones. Were they being uncharitable? The responsibility of bridesmaids was to keep the light on in welcome for newlyweds to the bridegroom’s home after the wedding. To keep their lamps lit for a longer period of time than normal there was only enough oil for five lamps, not ten. Sharing the oil would have been irresponsible because then all would be in darkness when the newlyweds arrived. God teaches us in the Book of Wisdom (6:12-16) that wisdom, which is putting knowledge of the truth into action, is the key to adequate preparation. So knowing that they are going to die, wise people act on that knowledge and prepare for death. Knowing that Jesus is the only Saviour, wise people make Him the centre of their life. Jesus tells us in the New Testament, authentically interpreted for us by His Church, what we need to do to be prepared for His coming and so we have no excuse. The bridegroom’s words to the foolish bridesmaids, “Go away. I don’t know you,” are crushing, but they only have themselves to blame. At the end of the parable Jesus warns us: “The moral is: keep your eyes open, for you know not the day nor the hour.” In other words, make preparation for Jesus’ coming your first priority by getting to know Him while here on earth. We cannot know Jesus without making our relationship with Him the first priority in our life.
There are some things we can and must do for ourselves that no one else can do for us. Preparing for that face-to-face meeting with Jesus is one of those things that no one else can do for us. Others can assist us but we must meet the Lord on our own, accompanied by our Guardian Angel who will testify to our behavior. Nobody can pray another person into heaven. Each person is judged on the basis of his or her own conduct. God has given each of us the lamp of Faith and it is up to us to keep it lit with the oil of prayer and worship by being receptive to the Holy Spirit and a faithful member of Jesus’ Church.
Do people die without prioritizing an adequate preparation for death? Yes. Just because we’re baptized doesn’t assure us of salvation. Jesus Himself lamented, “But when the Son of Man comes, will He find any Faith on the earth?” (Lk 18:8). Why aren't people prepared? Because they’re busy with other things, or else they rationalize that God will give them a free pass. But God shows no partiality because He is just and has the same expectations for everyone. God is merciful but only to the repentant who seek forgiveness and commit to amending their life to one of virtue rather than vice. Yes, God will understand that they didn't bother to take the time and make the effort to follow Jesus, for which He, in justice, will hold them accountable. And so He will say, “Go away. I don’t know you!”
We give priority to what’s most important to us. Is Jesus the most important Person in your life? If He is, you’ll prepare to meet Him every day of your life. Making this your first priority means that your heart, filled with wisdom, cries out, “O God, You are my God whom I seek; for You my flesh pines and my soul thirsts like the earth, parched, lifeless and without water” (Ps 63: 2-8). The Lord will then say to you at the moment of death: “Come, you good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Master! (Mt 25:23). The unwise and unprepared will hear Jesus’ damning words: “Out of my sight, you condemned, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Mt 25:41). Whether we’re welcomed or condemned by Jesus is determined by what we prioritize each day. It’s our choice! (fr sean)
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Fr Sean again:
To Invest or not to Invest: Success or Failure
To Invest or not to Invest: Success or Failure
When you die what do you want God to say to you? Will He say that you lived a successful life by the difference you made in the world? What would you like to hear others say when you die? There’s something about us that seeks recognition, acceptance, affirmation, and affection. We want to feel that someone will miss us when we go. Sometimes we hear people say - or maybe we’ve said it ourselves - when they’re leaving to go somewhere, “Will you miss me?” Then when the answer is “Yes,” the other person often responds with, “Oh, no you won’t!” How successfully we lived and we’re remembered depends on what we did with what God gave us. If we don’t invest what we have we gain nothing and can’t be successful.
What’s successful living? It’s the achievement of goals. It’s about having a positive impact on others. We’re successful when our contribution improves humanity and the world. Success is the experience of getting a good return on our investment. Success always implies investment whether it’s of time, treasure, or effort. In turn, investment assumes we have something to invest which will enrich us and others in some way. There’s no one as pitiful as a person who thinks he or she has nothing to invest. Such an individual has no hope of enrichment and has nothing for which to look forward. Bishop Fulton Sheen noted that the greatest insult anyone could heap on another was to label him or her as useless. But the person who doesn’t believe he or she has anything to invest renders himself or herself useless. Feelings of uselessness are expressed in low self-esteem and a sense of self-loathing.
Do people feel useless? Yes. Why? They don’t know God. If they did, they would realize that He didn’t create anyone to be useless since He has given talents to each person to be discerned, developed, and shared with others. If a person doesn’t believe he or she has talents or gifts to share with others then a genuine loving relationship is impossible. To love means to share - to invest in another. If there’s nothing to share, love dies. When people feel they have nothing to share, the only other option is to try and take what others have. Perhaps the reason so many relationships break up is because those involved in them don’t believe they have anything to invest in each other and simply concentrate on taking from each other. The end is a feeling of being used. Love, on the other hand, emphasizes the mutual investment of gifts in each other where the emphasis is on giving rather than on taking. Love is so enriching because each person invests his or her gift in the other thereby making their relationship successful due to the interest gained on investment.
God emphasizes the importance of investment of talents in the Book of Proverbs (31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31). “A worthy wife has value beyond pearls. Her husband has an unfailing prize.” What makes her worthy - the same goes for a husband, indeed for each of us – is the fact that she invests her gifts in her family and in charitable outreach. “She brings good, not evil … works with loving hands … reaches her hands out to the poor … the needy.” God then tells us that, “The woman who fears the Lord is to be praised … Her works praise her.” Her investment made her a success as a person. She was a God-fearing woman who served him by investing what He gave her for the benefit of others and through that investment enriched herself in God’s eyes and in the eyes of her family and neighbors. God tells us through the Psalmist: “Blessed are those who fear the Lord, who walk in His ways! For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork; blessed shall you be and favored” (Ps 128:1-5). Fear of the Lord, fear of losing or disappointing Him, is the motivation for investing what He has given us for the good of others just as He invested Himself in the Person of Jesus for our good. This is the investment that makes us a success in life. This is the investment that brings God’s blessing as it did with the worthy wife in Proverbs because through it we become successful people – givers rather than takers.
In the Gospel (Mt 15:14-30) Jesus calls His listeners to invest and not bury their God-given talents. A man “entrusted his possessions” to three servants, giving each an amount that he was capable of handling. Revealed here is the fact that God shares His possessions, graces, gifts with each of us in accord with our ability to use them. Everything we have is on loan from God. What has He given you? God gives us talents to be invested not just for our personal enrichment but also for the enrichment of others. He doesn’t want the talents back. But when He settles accounts with us at death we’ll have to show what we did with what He gave us. Jesus tells us that if we don’t invest we’ll lose everything. It’s by refusing to invest that we live unsuccessful lives.
When we die God will ask us what we did with His talent. What will our answer be? “I had no talent!” “I didn’t know You gave me a gift!” “I just kept it for myself!” “I was too lazy to do anything with it!” “I didn’t believe my gift was important enough!” “I used it for my own glory!” “You gave all the good gifts to others and the most insignificant to me, so I didn’t think it was worth sharing with anyone!”
Every one of us has received talents from God. He gave them to us so that we could make our unique contribution to the betterment of humanity and promote His glory. The return on our investment of what God gave us is what makes us successful in this world. This is the success for which God will reward us and for which we’ll be remembered. So how you want to be remembered is determined by whether or not you’re investing what you have been given. How are you investing your gift? Those who fear the Lord are happy because their fear of losing God’s friendship caused them to put their total trust in Him and invest themselves in the service of others.
If you haven’t been investing the talents God gave you, now is the time to start before it’s too late. “The Day of the Lord shall come like a thief in the night … therefore let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay alert and sober” (1 Thess 5:1-6). Remember how Jesus’ parable taught that the investors received more while the non-investor lost everything? What will you have to show when the Lord calls you to settle accounts with Him and asks: “What did you do with my talents? Will He say to you, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Mt 25:23) or “Throw this useless servant into the darkness outside, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth” (Mt 25:30). You will either be remembered and blessed for investing God’s gifts or cursed for burying them. (fr. sean)
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Fr Sean again:
Meeting Christ the King: Our Final Examiner
Jesus’ Church ends this year of grace with the celebration of Jesus as King of kings, our Saviour and our Judge. As the Lover of Justice He’ll hold each of us accountable for our words and deeds. Christ as King is the Lord of creation. Every person’s history on earth begins and ends with Jesus as the “Judge of the living and the dead.” (2 Tim 4:1; 1 Peter 4:1-8). Jesus warns us, “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and, when He does, He will reward each one according to his behaviour” (Mt 16: 27). It’s appropriate that the Church ends her year reminding us that Jesus is King and will judge us as to whether we chose His Kingdom or Satan’s through our choices while on earth. The consequences are eternal. His Church teaches that there are two judgments: the particular judgment of each of us at death and a general judgment at the end of time demonstrating that love conquered hate, freedom conquered slavery to sin, good conquered evil, truth conquered falsehood, and beauty conquered ugliness. Heaven is the eternal enjoyment of love, freedom, goodness, truth, and beauty. Hell is the eternal experience of hate, slavery, evil, lies, and ugliness. Jesus is the final examiner who gives us our final exam that determines our entry into Heaven, hell, or Purgatory. He appeals to our reason by asking, “What, then, will a man gain if he wins the whole world (seeking popularity, pleasure, possessions, or power) and ruins himself? Or what has a man to offer in exchange for himself” (Mt 16:26)? Are our daily choices leading us to Heaven or hell?
St. John Henry Newman noted the following concerning our particular judgment: “Each of us must come to the evening of life. Each of us must enter on eternity. Each of us must come to that quiet, awful time, when we will appear before the Lord of the vineyard, and answer for the deeds done in the body, whether they be good or bad. That, my dear brethren, you will have to undergo. … It will be the dreadful moment of expectation when your fate for eternity is in the balance, and when you are about to be sent forth as the companion of either saints or devils, without possibility of change. There can be no change; there can be no reversal. As that judgment decides it, so it will be for ever and ever. Such is the particular judgment…When we find ourselves by ourselves, one by one, in His presence, and have brought before us most vividly all the thoughts, words, and deeds of this past life. Who will be able to bear the sight of himself?” (A Year with the Saints, p 101). The only witnesses to testify at our trial will be the Word of God and our Guardian Angel. Jesus warns us that, “Whoever rejects me and does not accept my words already has his judge, namely the word I have spoken – it is that which will condemn him on the last day” (Jn 12:8). For each of us the “last day” is when we die.
God told His people through Moses, “See, I set before you today … a blessing, if you obey the commandments of Yahweh your God … a curse, if you disobey the commandments of your God and leave the way I have marked out for you today, by going after other gods …” (Deut 11:26-27). God blesses those who obey Him lovingly. The disobedient bring a curse on themselves. Heaven is the blessing. Hell is the curse. The choice is ours. We hold our destiny in our own hands. Do we want to hear Jesus’ invitation, “Come, you whom my Father has blessed, take for your heritage the Kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world” (Mt 25:34) OR His dismissal, “Out of my sight, you accursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Mt 25:41). Our final exam will show whether we lived an egocentric or Christocentric life?
God is a loving Father endowing each of us with the capacity to say “Yes” to a happy union with Him and with one another. He wants to be personally involved in our life as our Provider and Protector. “I myself will look after and tend my sheep … I will rescue them … I will pasture them … I will give them rest … The lost I will seek out, the strayed I will bring back, the injured I will bind up, the sick I will heal, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy … I will judge between one sheep and another, between rams and goats” (Ez 34:11-12, 15-17). But He cannot save us unless we freely choose to follow Jesus. That means acknowledging Him in the Psalmist’s words: “The Lord is my Shepherd, three is nothing I shall want…” (Ps 23:1). God's promises in Ezekiel are fulfilled in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, our Good Shepherd. Jesus assured the continuity of God’s pastoral providence when He founded His Church on Peter whom He commissioned to “Feed my lambs … Look after my sheep … Feed my sheep” (Jn 21:15-17). This mission is primarily the responsibility of the Pope, Bishops, and clergy. But we all must participate according to our gifts in spiritually looking after Jesus’ lambs and sheep, especially the most vulnerable. He provides us with the wherewithal to do this in and through His Church that calls us to obey the Ten Commandments, live the Beatitudes, and carry out the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy. St. Paul assures us that “In Him who is the source of my strength I have strength for everything” (Phil 4:13). This is what faith in Jesus does for us so that we can live joyfully looking forward to meeting Jesus our King face-to-face.
Jesus has given us a preview of His exam in Matthew 25:31-46). Since the Examiner is Himself the Truth, we’ll have to be honest in our answers. God gives us every opportunity on earth to prepare for this test so we’ve no excuses. We’ll have to answer each question with a Yes or a No.
1. Did I make Jesus the centre of my daily life? Yes No
2. Did I help to feed those who were physically or spiritually hungry? Yes No
3. Did I help meet the needs of those who were physically or spiritually thirsty? Yes No
4. Did I help to show hospitality to the physical or spiritual stranger? Yes No
5. Did I help to clothe those who were physically or spiritually naked? Yes No
6. Did I reach out to those who were physically or spiritually sick? Yes No
7. Did I reach out to those who were physically or spiritually imprisoned? Yes No
On the basis of your answers, where would you be if you died now – Heaven, Hell, or Purgatory? Start answering these questions today so you can receive your desired result (All Yeses= Heaven; All Nos = Hell; 3 Yeses and 4 Nos = Purgatory). Remember, the final exam has no repeat, results are final. (fr sean)
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Fr Sean again:
Advent: Watching for Jesus or Santa?
The Irish playwright, Samuel Beckett, wrote a tragicomedy titled “Waiting for Godot.” Two homeless men interact as they wait in vain for someone who is supposed to make life better but never shows up. It highlights the anticipation of what never materializes. One person who’s coming to make things better will definitely materialize is Jesus Christ. Anticipating Santa’s coming will materialize for a relative few but for many it won’t happen. This Sunday Jesus’ Church begins another year of grace with the Advent season. The liturgical colour changes to purple symbolizing Jesus’ royalty as our King and our need for repentance in preparation to welcome Him. It also brings a new cycle of Bible readings to nourish our faith and our soul. It’s a period during which the Church alerts the world to celebrate Jesus’ humble birth in a stable in Bethlehem, refocus on His real presence in His Church, especially in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and to prepare for His second coming as the Judge of the living and the dead. We can make full use of this time of spiritual preparation to make Christmas a real celebration of Jesus’ coming to save us, or we can become caught up in the world’s false thinking that Santa can make us happy.
Advent is a set time to deepen our reflection on what God has done, is doing, and will do in and for us. Preparation is an essential step in achieving any goal. There are three kinds of people in the world: those who make things happen, those who watch things happening, and those who wonder what happened. Advent is a time to make things happen in collaboration with the Holy Spirit who brings us to Jesus and who in turn brings us to His Father. Passive people watch things happening. Losers wonder what happened. I often saw students waiting until the night before an exam to study and then wonder why they received a bad grade. Preparation is about making sure that what we want to happen actually happens. A person who doesn’t prepare for what’s important in life will be caught unprepared and suffer the deprivation of lost opportunities. That causes deep regret. It’s like Aesop’s fable about the ant and the cricket. The ant worked all summer gathering food for the winter while the cricket sang the days away. When winter came the cricket starved while the ant was well fed. Sloth is a deadly sin. If we fail to prepare we prepare to fail.
Since nothing is more important than that face-to-face meeting with Jesus Christ that determines our eternal state, why don’t people prepare themselves for it? Satan tempts us to procrastinate. We excuse ourselves by promising that we’ll “do it tomorrow.” Actually there’s no tomorrow – it’s simply a figment of our imagination where we try to extend the present beyond its boundaries. Tomorrow never comes; all we have is today. So if we don’t do what we need to do today it will add to the burden of what we need to do tomorrow when it becomes today – if we live for it. The problem is that, as Jesus points out to us (Mt 6:34), tomorrow will bring its own realities that call for our attention and carryovers from yesterday become overwhelming. That’s poor time management. Procrastination is often a form of avoiding responsibility for not doing now what we should be doing now. A procrastinator puts wants before needs and so loses out on the essentials of life. The most essential thing for the creature is to be led by the Creator. Deepening our faith and love for God isn’t something we put off until tomorrow, but something essential we must do today. Jesus stresses the urgency of this when He warns us to, “Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come…whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning” (Mk 13:33-37). In other words, don’t postpone for tomorrow what you should do today because it may be your last day on earth.
Will you spend this Advent preparing for Jesus’ or for Santa’ coming? The world has made Santa the centre of Christmas at the expense of shutting out Jesus Christ. The world ignores that “santa” means saint, which means holy, which means being like God who is All Holy. Why is that? Because the world replaces Jesus with ‘Santa’ to create the illusion that material things make us happy; the illusion of love by emphasizing the giving of material gifts rather than the gift of self. Christmas – Christ’s Mass – celebrates God’s gift of His Son to free us from our sins – the greatest gift of all. When we prepare for the worldly ‘santa’ we focus on what we get. When we prepare for Jesus we focus on how we can give ourselves as a gift to others as He has made a gift of Himself to us. Preparing to celebrate Jesus’ coming motivates us to approach the Infant Jesus by making our self as spiritually and physically presentable as possible to Him. This motivates us to spend Advent getting rid of our sinfulness and other obstacles to the Holy Spirit that might dishonour Jesus and His Heavenly Father. Like those waiting for Godot, when we prepare for ‘santa’ we wait for someone who doesn’t materialize or make our life better.
When we celebrate Jesus’ birth and prepare for His second coming we’ll not be disappointed. He has come; He’s here now in His Church and in the heart of Christians. He definitely will come again as our Judge rewarding or punishing us “according to our deeds” (Rom 2:6). We must pray with Isaiah: “O Lord, hold not back, You, Lord, are our Father, our redeemer … no ear has heard, no eye ever seen, any God but You doing such deeds for those who wait for Him … we are the clay, You are the potter: we are all the work of Your hands” (Is 63:16; 64:3, 7). When we see God as our Father and Redeemer we know who alone brings us a happiness that’s consistent. Yearning for this happiness moves us to get rid of everything that might deprive us of that joy. He has made us and therefore knows our true purpose and what we need. He guarantees the continuity and enrichment of our life. So we pray with the Psalmist, “O Shepherd of Israel … rouse Your power and come to save us … Give us new life, and we shall call upon Your Name … Let us see Your face and we shall be safe.” (Ps 80:2-4, 16, 19)
God has come to save us and keeps us spiritually safe by sending His Son to deliver us from all evil. Safety is one of our basic human needs. If we don’t feel safe in our home, neighbourhood, or nation the quality of life deteriorates. Feeling safe is essential if we’re going to be able to enjoy life and live it to the full. God gives us that sense of safety by enabling us to unite with Jesus in His Church. Jesus comforts us when He says, “Do not fear those who deprive the body of life but cannot destroy the soul. Rather, fear Him who can destroy both body and soul in Gehenna” (Mt 10: 28). The Holy Spirit assures us that, “God bestowed His grace on you in Christ Jesus , that in Him you were enriched in every way… so that you lack nothing in every spiritual gift as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 1:3-9). We pray with Isaiah (Is 63:16-17, 19; 64:2-7): “Behold You are angry and we are sinful … unclean …our deeds like polluted rags… we are the clay and You are the potter: we are all the work of your hands”. May we let God mould us into the beautiful pot that He wants us to give as a gift to others this Christmas?
Now is the time to prepare to be moulded by the Holy Spirit in readiness to welcome Jesus. With Isaiah we pray, “Would that you might meet us doing right, that we are mindful of You in our ways!” This is why Jesus warns us, “What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!’” (Mk 13:37). Santa without Jesus is superficial and leaves us disappointed. So let’s spend Advent letting the Holy Spirit prepare us to make a gift of our self to others as God has made a gift of His Beloved Son to us. Then our days coming up to Christmas will be joyful rather than stressful. (fr sean)
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Fr Sean again:
Advent 2 B: How Are You Awaiting the Lord’s Coming?
There’s a saying that “He who hesitates is lost!” To hesitate when tempted may lead to losing salvation If we don’t take advantage of a good opportunity it may not come our way again. Opportunity knocks but once, says the sage. On the other hand, there’s another saying: “Look before you leap!” A good decision means that we gain more than we lose, especially in the long term. Not everything is as good as it looks. The wrapping paper may be beautiful but the package may contain trash. We’re told not to judge the book by its cover. An unattractive cover may hide very attractive content. An attractive cover might hide poisonous material. Don’t let hesitation deprive you of God’s guidance.
Advent is a special opportunity to prepare for the celebration of Jesus’ coming – prepping ourselves to celebrate God’s love for us by coming among us as our Savior to free us from sin. Jesus’ Church uses this time to reflect on His first coming two thousand years ago, His coming to us now sacramentally, especially in the Holy Mass, and His coming again as the Judge when the world ends. The issue I want to raise during this 2nd week of Advent is: How are you and I taking advantage of this grace-filled opportunity to prepare for His coming? Are we using this designated and blessed time before Christmas to celebrate His birth, joyfully welcome His presence in and through His Church, and when we meet Him face-to-face in death? Do we give daily private and public witness to His presence in our hearts? Remember Jesus’ words to us: “Whoever acknowledges me before men I will acknowledge before my Father in heaven. Whoever disowns me before men I will disown before my Father in heaven” (Mt 10:32-33). If we don’t welcome the Son in our heart neither do we welcome the Father nor the Holy Spirit! We need to remember that, “No one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal Him” (Mt 11:27). We cannot enter Heaven except through Jesus. He’s the only way, and there’s no other since He alone has “the words of eternal life” (Jn 6:68) and “No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn 14:6). What must we do to welcome Jesus’ coming with our whole being?
Clear Him a Straight Path
John the Baptizer urges us, quoting from Isaiah: “Make ready the way of the Lord, clear Him a straight path” (Mk 1:3). How can we clear a straight path for the Lord to come into our world? What kind of society are we building now? How are we identifying ourselves, privately and publicly? How are we living our lives – is Jesus central in our heart, or do we treasure someone or something else more? To what or whom do we look as the source of our power and meaning? Let’s look at our decisions concerning the use of our time, talent, and treasure. This provides us with a good lens through which we can identify what’s most important to us. Let’s face it, what’s most important to us is what we think will make us happy. Only the God of the Bible can satisfy this deepest yearning.
What the Use of Our Time Tells Us
How we use our time tells us what our life is about. As time ticks away our life gets shorter and so does our time to do anything. Is the way we’re living and using our time now a good preparation for receiving Jesus? Are we using our time to establish a personal relationship with our Lord as a member of His Church? How much of our time do we give to prayer and worship (Mass)? How much of our time do we give to others - carrying out the spiritual and corporal works of mercy? Am I collaborating with God in His mission to save the world and being saved myself in the process? This is how we clear a straight path for the Lord to come to us.
Using Our Gifts and Talents
Are we using our gifts and talents for altruistic or selfish purposes? Are we wasting our gifts and talents because of laziness, lack of motivation, escapism, or ignorance? God gives us abilities according to our capacity to use them for our God and that of His Church. By investing these gifts in a manner that demonstrates love for God and neighbor, we’re preparing the way for the coming of the Lord to us and through us to the world at large. In the words of the Psalmist (Ps 85:9-14), thus the “Lord, let(s) us see (His) kindness, and grant(s) us (His) salvation.” God lets us and the world see His kindness when you and I commit ourselves to Him in prayer: “I will hear what God proclaims – for He proclaims peace to His people.” We prepare the path for the Lord to come to us when we take the time to hear what He proclaims through His Word preached by His Church.
How We Spend our Money
How we spend our money tells us what’s important to us? The best way to discover our participation in God’s mission is to examine the stubs of our checkbook or credit card bill. God’s mission is to shepherd His people. “Like a shepherd He feeds His flock; in His arms He gathers the lambs, carrying them in His bosom and leading the ewes with care” (Is 40:1-11). Through Peter (2 Pt 3:8-14) the Holy Spirit reveals that God “is patient with you, not wishing that anyone should perish but that all should come to repentance … Be eager to be found without spot or blemish before Him, at peace.” Are we using our money to help God shepherd our brothers and sisters who’re less fortunate, sick, or too young to take care of themselves? How do we use our money to help Jesus in “gathering the lambs and carrying them in His bosom”? Are we as patient with others as God is patient with us in giving us every chance to welcome His Son, particularly by asking Him to cleanse our soul from sin in the Sacrament of Reconciliation and promising to amend our life?
The Reward of Our Preparation or Lack Thereof
When you and I die will God say to us, “Come, my friend, you used what I gave you to show your love for me and your brothers and sisters. Thus, you demonstrated your willingness to be loved by me and to be led by my Spirit to embrace my Son. You couldn’t love another without my love for you first. Your love for others was a visible sign of my love for you and for them through you.”
Will God say to you and to me in death: “You selfishly used what I gave you, thereby demonstrating your rejection of my love for you? Because you rejected My Spirit of love you focused only on yourself and your own wants. Instead of making me the center of your life you made your ego the center. Now you have doomed yourself to be loveless for all eternity.”
To prepare for Jesus’ coming is to “await … new heavens and a new earth, where according to His promise, the justice of God will reside” (Pt 3:8-14). Fr. Richard J. Neuhaus, a convert to Jesus in the Catholic Church, wrote, when commenting on the Pope John Paul II’s Gospel of Life, “The third Millennium will witness a flowering of the culture of life or a continual descent into the abyss of the culture of death ... We Christians have the great privilege and responsibility of persuading the world to choose life - for God’s sake, for our sake, for the sake of humanity” (The Church’s Love Letter to the World). We contribute to the culture of life and stop the culture of death through continually welcoming Jesus into our life.(fr sean)
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Beautiful sermons! Thank you :pray:
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Fr Sean again:
Advent III: Are You Joyful?
The liturgical color changes this Sunday from purple to rose pink that reflects a call to rejoice. One might ask, given today’s atheistic, irreligious, materialistic, culture, what’s there to rejoice about? Governments legislate against Christian morality and freedom of speech. Church leaders publicly oppose the very teaching they swore to uphold. Thousands of unborn children are sacrificed on the altar of egotism every day. Children in schools are being groomed to accept sɛҳuąƖ perversion as normal. Life is no longer viewed as sacred and a gift from God who holds every individual accountable for his or her attitude toward that gift. People are helped to commit ѕυιcιdє. Adhering to the Church’s Apostolic Tradition is labeled as being “backwardism.” Jesus’ Church is now being called a “Synodal Church.” Marxism is rearing its ugly head, embraced by people who have never been taught to think critically and learn from history about the spiritual disaster left behind by that ideology. This is a world where more children are born outside marriage than from within that sacred covenant. The differences between man and women are so blurred that adolescence is made more traumatic for teenagers and young adults. This is the age of self-created truth, self-created gender, and self-salvation. It’s a time of irrationality and stupidity where ego, instead of God, is the determiner of what’s real, true, good, and beautiful. But, in the words of Katy Perry’s song, “Fireworks,” it is all “Like a house of cards, one blow from caving in.” So what is there to be joyful about?
Joyfulness
The notion of joy is directly associated with good fortune. When a person’s fortune changes from bad to good he or she has a reason to be joyful. When something good happens to us or when we accomplish a difficult task, joy is a natural response. Happiness is a feeling. Joy is a spirit. Feelings come and go but a spirit lasts. Joyful people realize something good is happening in their life. They have something to celebrate. People who have no joy in their hearts and souls can’t cope with failure and so try to escape through the use of man-made fads and chemicals. Into this dark and self-absorbed world comes God with good news bringing joy to people of good will.
Christianity is the only religion that gives us the hope of resurrection. It provides us with a spirit of joy that comes from experiencing the “light that shines in the darkness and the darkness does not overcome it” (Jn 1:5-7). The Christian is the one who recognizes the presence of a Redeemer that conquered suffering and death. The Christian is the person who knows the source of joy and receives His spirit. The Christian is the one who hears Jesus’ declaration: “I have come that you might have life and have it in its fullness” (Jn 10:10). This lifts up the individual from the darkness and absurdities of the fallen world in which he or she lives. This spirit of joy leads the person to embrace suffering and death as opportunities to grow closer to Jesus as He gives him or her knowledge of salvation “through the forgiveness of sins” (Lk 1:77-79). The true Christian is able to rejoice because he or she experiences good fortune in knowing that Christ has come to redeem him or her and pave the way to Heaven.
The Call to Be Joyful
God, through Jesus’ Church, calls us to rejoice this third Sunday of Advent. God is joy personified. Heaven is the state of being eternally joyful in God’s presence. Christians are those on the way to Heaven in the company of Jesus, God’s Word-made-man, who has come, is here now in His Church, and will come again to judge the world, when according to Him “we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells” (1 Peter 3:13). This knowledge makes our journey a joyful one, despite the obstacles and evils we might encounter on the way. This 3rd Sunday of Advent the Church reminds us that as we prepare to celebrate Christmas and the joy it’s meant to bring, we’re coming nearer to our death when, hopefully, our joy will be complete. But not everyone has this joy. Some people get more miserable the closer Christmas comes, like Scrooge. Others get more miserable when they realize their time on earth is passing with each day. Miserable people lack a spirit of joy - a spirit of generosity -generated by God’s gift of Himself in the Person of Jesus Christ. The fact that death is a stark reminder that we’re not in control or that we are poor or that we are ignored doesn’t matter because the One who makes us joyful is in control and wants to wrap us in His loving arms.
The Bible Readings
Let’s look at the Scriptures for this Sunday. In the first reading (Is 61:1-2, 10-11) God anoints Isaiah to bring joy to His people who’re struggling. Called by God, Isaiah declares, “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and release to prisoners … a day of vindication by our God! I rejoice heartily in the Lord, in my God is the joy of my soul … God will make justice and praise spring up before all the nations.” Knowing that God has anointed you in Baptism and sends you His spirit to lift up your spirit when you’re brokenhearted or enslaved by sin is the basis for joy. We can be joyful because Jesus has come to save us from our sins. He is a just judge who brought justice to the world. With His grace we can overcome our imperfections, weaknesses, and disordered desires.
The Lord comes to bring good news to you and me when we’re feeling lowly, grieving or sad, and encourages you to: “yoke yourself to me … and I will refresh you” (Mt 11:29). He comes to rescue us from addictions. He will vindicate us when we’re rejected or mocked for your faith and good works. He constantly blesses us if we’re receptive. Thus Jesus gives us His spirit that makes our life a joyful experience despite suffering or misfortune. Mary expressed this joy when she visited Elizabeth to share the good news God brought her. Through His Church, the Holy Spirit enables us to proclaim with Mary: “My soul magnifies the Lord. My spirit finds joy in God my Savior. He who is mighty has done great things for me. (Lk 1:46-54).
Through second reading (1 Thess 5:16-24) the Holy Spirit reveals what God wills for us. He wants us to: 1. Rejoice always. 2. Never cease praying. 3. Render constant thanks. 4. Do not stifle the Spirit. 5. Do not despise prophecies (catechesis). 6. Test everything to verify it. 7. Retain what is good. 8. Avoid any semblance of evil. 9. Let God make you perfect in holiness. 10. Be preserved whole and entire in spirit, soul, and body. 11. Be irreproachable when the Lord comes. 12. Be trustworthy and you will be made perfect. This is the formula for us as Christians that gives us every reason to rejoice.
Joy of Forgiveness
Finally in the Gospel (Jn 1:6-8, 19-28), Jesus’ Church is taking the place of John in the world today as the “voice in the desert, crying out: Make straight the way of the Lord!” To receive the joy that God wants us to have we must make straight the way for His coming to us by repenting of our sins and seeking forgiveness. John told those who came to see Him at the Jordan: “I baptize you with water, but there is one among you whom you do not recognize, the one who is coming after me, whose sandal-strap I am unworthy to untie.” John announced the coming of Jesus who would add to the grace of forgiveness to the grace of repentance. We cannot help but feel joyful when we repent and receive God’s forgiveness and that of His Church in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Sadly, though, the denial of sin or the refusal to repent deprives people of the joy they look for in the world but which the world cannot provide. The sinner who repents and seeks forgiveness is blessed with a joyful spirit despite the recognition of being a sinner and the unworthiness of being forgiven. This we and for the rest of your life, be what God wants you to be, namely a joyful Christian. (Fr. Sean.)
The Real 12 Days of Christmas
From 1558 until 1829 the Catholics of England were forbidden by law to practice their Catholic Faith. As a result of this ban they devised secretive and symbolic songs to teach their children the truths of their Faith. The Twelve Days of Christmas was one of these songs.
The “Twelve Days” stood for the Christmas Season, Dec. 25 - Jan 6th). The “True Love” in the carol is God Himself, who gives true Christians special gifts on each of the 12 days.
1st gift: A Partridge in a pear tree. The partridge stands for Christ, who gathers His children under His wings. The tree reflects back to the tree of life in Paradise, which Adam and Eve lost through their sin and God promised to restore through Christ Jesus. God’s first gift, therefore, is His own Son, Jesus – His Word-made-man.
2nd gift: Two turtle doves. The doves represent the sacrifice which a Hebrew family had to make upon the birth of a son. Our sacrifice is the Holy Mass.
3rd gift: Three French hens. These symbolized the three gifts of Faith, Hope, and Charity, which were realized in the birth of the Savior.
4th gift: Four calling (collie) birds. They symbolize the four Evangelists (Sts. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) whose four Gospels call us all to the Bethlehem manger of the Redeemer.
5th gift: Five golden rings. They symbolize the first five books of the Old Testament - the Law, Torah, Pentateuch - which Jesus came to fulfill and complete.
6th gift: Six geese a-laying. These symbolize the six days of the week when people labor and bring forth the fruit of the land.
7th gift: Seven swans a-swimming. They symbolize the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit necessary for living the True Faith.
8th gift: Eight maids a-milking. They symbolize the 8 beatitudes which bring God’s blessings on His people.
9th gift: Nine ladies dancing: They symbolize the 9 choirs of angels and the 9 fruits of the Holy Spirit (Gal 5:22-23)
10th gift: Ten Lords a-leaping. Recall the 10 Commandments.
11th gift: Eleven pipers piping. This recalls the 11 Apostles, minus Judas, proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ to the whole world.
12th gift: Twelve drummers drumming. This symbolizes the 12 articles of Faith contained in the Nicene Creed proclaimed at Mass.
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Dear Friends in the Lord, I wish you all a joyful Christmas and a spiritually profitable 2024. I will remember you in the celebration of the Holy Mass this Christmas and may the Prince of Peace bestow His peace on you, a peace that the world can’t give.
Sincerely in Christ, Fr. Sean
Prayer at the Crib
Lord Jesus, You left Your throne and glory in Heaven and came to earth to become a little baby, born in a stable and lay in a manger with no pillow for Your Sacred Head. The only heating on that cold winter’s night to help Mary keep You warm was the breath of the animals. The people in the Inn had no room for You.
You came to bring us joy, to lead us through the darkness of pain, failure, and even death itself. You are our light leading us through life. You offer us life that never ends. I want to welcome You into my heart as Mary and Joseph welcomed You on that first Christmas night. I love You, Lord Jesus and I know that You love me. I offer this prayer to our Heavenly Father through You, Infant Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Infant Jesus, bless my family and the families of all whose paths I cross each day. Amen.
Infant Jesus, pray for all infants, those born and unborn. Amen.
Holy Mary, Virgin and Mother of Jesus, Pray for my mother and all mothers. Amen
St. Joseph, foster father of Jesus, pray for my father and all fathers. Amen.
Mary and Joseph, pray for all couples married in the Lord. Amen
A Christmas Love Story: The “M” in Christmas (Anon)
Each December, I vowed to make Christmas a calm and peaceful experience. I had cut back on nonessential obligations - extensive card writing, endless baking, decorating, and even overspending. Yet still, I found myself exhausted, unable to appreciate the precious family moments, and of course, the true meaning of Christmas.
My son, Nicholas, was in kindergarten that year. It was an exciting season for a six year old. For weeks, he'd been memorizing songs for his school's "Winter Pageant." I didn't have the heart to tell him I'd be working the night of the production. Unwilling to miss his shining moment, I spoke with his teacher. She assured me there'd be a dress rehearsal the morning of the presentation. All parents unable to attend that evening were welcome to come then. Fortunately, Nicholas seemed happy with the compromise. So, the morning of the dress rehearsal, I filed in ten minutes early, found a spot on the cafeteria floor and sat down. Around the room, I saw several other parents quietly scampering to their seats. As I waited, the students were led into the room. Each class, accompanied by their teacher, sat cross-legged on the floor. Then, each group, one by one, rose to perform their song.
Because the public school system had long stopped referring to the holiday as "Christmas," I didn't expect anything other than fun, commercial entertainment - songs of reindeer, Santa Claus, snowflakes and good cheer. So, when my son's class rose to sing, "Christmas Love," I was slightly taken aback by its bold title. Nicholas was aglow, as were all of his classmates, adorned in fuzzy mittens, red sweaters, and bright snow-caps upon their heads.
Those in my son’s grade in the front row- centre stage - held up large letters, one by one, to spell out the title of the song they would sing.
The first child held up C is for Christmas … the 2nd H is for Happy, and on and on until we noticed a small, quiet, girl in the front row holding the letter "M" upside down - totally unaware that her letter "M" appeared as a "W".
The audience of 1st through 6th graders snickered at the child’s one mistake. But she had no idea they were laughing at her, so she stood tall, proudly holding her "W".
Although many teachers tried to shush the children, the laughter continued until the last letter was raised, and we all saw it together. A hush came over the audience and eyes began to widen.
In that instant, we understood the reason we were there, why we celebrated the holiday in the first place, why even in the chaos, there was a purpose for our festivities.
For when the last letter was held high, the message read loud and clear: C H R I S T W A S L O V E
And, I believe, He was, is, and will be God’s love for us – He is Immanuel, God-with-us, present in His Holy Church, and uniquely so in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, until the end of the world! Jesus uses everything to get His Message across. Have you received it?
Nollaig Shonna Dhaoibh Go Leir!
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What about family abuse and being abused as a child by your parent. How can the example of the monk be applied to that situation? Children aren't capable of removing themselves from abusive situations or defending themselves. So how do you approach forgiveness when you were mistreated as a child?
I am old and speak from experience. Both of my parents are passed. One died with conditional last rites, having lived in dubious circuмstances, and the other died in a state of witchcraft. I won't go into detail as to what kind of parents they were but you can guess.
Despite my childhood circuмstances, the only thought in my mind when they each passed was pity for their eternity. And I am no saintly person either. But their death made me fear my own judgment even more.
Meditate for one single minute on the eternity of your abusers and see how you feel about it then. I believe it will change your perspective.
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Fr Sean again:
The Holy Family: God’s Blessing on Family Life
Back in the 1980’ A Catholic educator, Dolores Curran, released a study on family strengths (Traits of a Healthy Family) in which she identified the following characteristics of a healthy family: The members “communicate and listen to each other; affirm and support one another; teach respect for others; develop a sense of trust in one another; know how to play and enjoy good humour; have a sense of shared responsibility; teach the difference between right and wrong; develop family traditions; enjoy balanced interaction with each other; value service to others; foster communication; share leisure time; and admit failings while seeking help for problems.” A healthy Christian family places at the top of this list faith in Christ Jesus present in His Church where the family members adore and worship Him. The family is the first school of life for the child where the husband and wife model by their example and teach the children how to become well-adjusted and how to be a close-knit community in order to lead a physically and spiritually productive life.
To celebrate the gift of the Holy Family, Jesus Church calls us to reflect this Sunday on God’s Word from Genesis (15:1-6; 21:1-3), Psalm 105 (1-9), Hebrews (11:8-19,) and St. Luke (2:22-40). The main focus in each of these lections is faith in God which is the key to all healthy relationships, especially within the family. Sadly, broken families are more prevalent today than the normal traditional family of husband and wife and children united with one another. The family is the basic cell of both society and the Church. When the cell is diseased the body suffers. Children are left to raise themselves and suffer the consequences of a lack of well-adjusted models of what it means to be a joyful man or woman. This should raise the Church’s consciousness of the need to promote faith in God and receptivity to the Holy Spirit on the part of families. How does the Church do this? By bringing Jesus to them.
Mary and Joseph were privileged to meet Jesus in the flesh. Mary was highly privileged to carry Him in her womb. Joseph was so privileged to be Jesus’ foster-father. You and I aren’t so privileged to be able to physically, emotionally share Jesus’ company as the Apostles were. However we’re privileged to know that Jesus has made it possible for us to be in His company in and through His Church. He assured us of His presence when He said, “Know that I am with you always, until the end of the world!” (Mt 28:20) St. Paul reminds us that having faith in Jesus’s presence in His Church mustn’t depend on what we see with our senses. The Holy Spirit informs us through Paul that in our journey with Jesus here on earth, “We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor 5:7). This calls for humility because walking by faith requires us to rely on Jesus to show us the way rather than trying to figure out our own way. Our ego moves us toward doing things our own way rather than God’s way. Even as adults we’re like rebellious children wanting to do things our own way. Putting faith in Jesus and His teaching requires humility, which is the realization and admission that we don’t know what’s best for us in the long term, and we don’t know the true way to live and achieve happiness, and therefore we need someone to guide us, like a seeing-eye dog guiding a physically blind person. The person has to trust the dog’s movements rather than relying on his or her own sense of direction.
This faith is exhibited in Abraham. God began forming His family by calling Abraham as their first father. He responded to God’s call by faith, not by sight. “Abraham put his faith in the Lord, who credited it to him as an act of righteousness” (Gen 15:6). The author of Hebrews explains, “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; he went out, not knowing where he was to go … ” (Heb 11:8). He trusted in God to lead him. Mary walked by faith and not by sight when she accepted the angel’s message from God that she was to be the mother of Jesus while remaining a virgin. Her response, “Let it be done to me as you have said” (Lk 1:38), reflects her faith not her sight. She acted on faith because she could neither see nor understand what was being asked of her. Her faith enabled her to put her trust in what was beyond her senses to observe.
Faith unites us with God who calls us to look beyond what we can see or understand. Faith connects us to God while our senses connect us to earth. This is why the Psalmist proclaimed, “Glory in God’s holy Name; Rejoice, O hearts that seek the Lord! Look to the Lord in His strength; constantly seek His face... He, the Lord, is our God; throughout the earth His judgments prevail. He remembers forever His covenant which He entered into with Abraham…” (Ps 105:3-9). Joseph’s faith in God enabled him to look beyond Mary pregnant by someone other than him. His faith overrode his senses. Mary and Joseph’s faith helped them to trust in God despite what they heard Simeon say about the infant Jesus in the Temple: “Behold, this Child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted – and you yourself a sword shall pierce ...” (Lk 2:34-35). Jesus’ faith in His Father enabled Him to look beyond His terrible death when He cried out, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” (Mt 27:46), only to trust Himself to His Father with the words, “Into Your hands, O God, I commend my spirit” (Lk 23:46).
Genuine faith is not easy because we tend to rely so much on our senses. This is why we constantly need the Holy Spirit to guide us and strengthen our faith. If we don’t see beyond what we observe we miss the bigger picture and the riches it contains. This is why people of faith are so resilient, hopeful, and loving. It’s supernatural faith, a gift from God that enables us to see Jesus in His Church’s Sacraments, and in a special and most loving way in the Holy Mass. It’s walking by faith in Jesus that husbands and wives and children develop and sustain the traits of a spiritually healthy family where the husband and wife in their love for one another model for the children the relationship wherein God created man and woman to complement one another and in which to procreate and raise children. They cannot do this without God. What we observe with our senses on earth isn’t enough to achieve what God created us to be. As you enter 2024 may the Holy Family be the model for your family with Christ Jesus being the centre of your attention and trust. (fr sean)
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'You and I aren’t so privileged to be able to physically, emotionally share Jesus’ company as the Apostles were' writes Fr Sean.
Can you imagine if we were alive at the time and place Jesus chose to enter the Earth.
Would we have recognised Him for what He was? I know we think we would, so what an experience it would have been. What would we have asked Him? What's Heaven like? Will we meet our loved ones in heaven again?What would you have asked Jesus?
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Fr Sean again:
Jesus’ Baptism: Come to the Water!
This Sunday Jesus’ Church commemorates His Baptism. St. Mark gives us an account of the event. “It happened in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John. On coming up out of the water He saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon Him. And a voice came from the heavens, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased’” (Mk 1:7-11). John was calling everyone to receive a water baptism of repentance for their sins. Jesus, who was pure, came forward to receive John’s baptism to which He would add the Holy Spirit making Baptism not only a sign of repentance but also a sign of forgiveness. To be baptized is to be cleansed of all sin and be restored to the likeness of God, which was lost by Adam and Eve. Jesus made Baptism a crucial sacrament for entry into Heaven. He clearly stated its necessity when He said: “I solemnly assure you, no one can enter into God’s Kingdom without being born of water and the Holy Spirit” (Jn 3:5). This is why the Sacrament of Baptism is the door to entering Jesus’ Church, the visible sign of His Kingdom on earth.
God prepared His people for this sacrament in the Old Testament. He revealed through Isaiah, “Thus says the Lord: All you who are thirsty, come to the water … come to me heedfully, listen, that you may have life …. Seek the Lord while He may be found, call Him while He is near. Let the scoundrel forsake his way, and the wicked man his thoughts; let him turn to the Lord for mercy; to our God who is generous in forgiving!” (Is 55:1-11). Every man, woman, and child, beginning in the womb, thirsts for God either consciously or unconsciously. As God’s creation our soul yearns to be with Him as our Creator. No creature is competent or secure without instructions from the Creator. Machines come with manuals written by those who built them filled with instructions as to how to use them properly and effectively. So also with us as humans, we need God’s instructions as to how to life joyfully and effectively. God urges everyone to “seek the Lord where He may be found.” He urges the scoundrel and the wicked man, those who treat others harshly and have no moral principles, to change their ways and thoughts, turning instead “to the Lord for mercy.” That means the sinful creature must stop following his or her own evil ways and thoughts and embrace God’s ways and thoughts if he or she wants to enter Heaven.
John’s water baptism marked the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. John, whose ministry was to prepare the way for Jesus’ coming, on seeing Him at the Jordan, now introduced Him publicly, “Behold! There is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn 1:29). John, at that moment probably remembered the twelfth Psalm, “God indeed is my Saviour; I am confident and unafraid. My strength and my courage is the Lord, and He has been my Saviour … Give thanks to the Lord, acclaim His Name, among the nations make known His deeds … Sing praise to the Lord for His glorious achievement … Great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel” (Ps 12: 2-6). Baptism enables each of us to make these words of the Psalmist our own. Because the day you and I were baptized was the day that Jesus became our Saviour by bring us to His Heavenly Father to adopt us making us members of His Family, the Church on earth, the souls in Purgatory, and the saints in Heaven, through the power of the Holy Spirit. That was the day when God made us confident and unafraid by making Himself the source of our strength and courage. That was the day God made it possible for us to live in such a way that His words to Jesus would be His words to us when we met Him at the moment of death: “You are my beloved son/daughter; with you I am well pleased.”
How do we prepare ourselves in hopes of hearing these words the day we die? St. John answers our question by telling us to be receptive to God’s love. “For the love of God is this, that we keep His Commandments. And His Commandments are not burdensome, for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world. And the victory that conquers the world is our faith. Who indeed is the victor over the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God” (1 Jn 5:1-9). To beget is to bring into existence. In Baptism God brought you and me into existence as His gifted children. He has given us the Commandants, not as rules to limit or restrict our freedom, but as essential ways that free us to love Him and our neighbour. These instructions show us how to embrace what is real, true, good, and beautiful so that we can be more fully human and fully alive.
Sadly, in too many instances parents and even some clergy treat Baptism as no more than empty ritual, completely missing the loving action of God putting His stamp on the child or adult. Baptism transforms the person from being a child of the world doomed to eternal misery to being a child of God blessed with the hope of eternal happiness and the means to achieve it. Parents and Godparents who request their child’s Baptism need a deep catechesis to understand its implications. Why? Because the first question the Church asks of the parents of the child is: What do you ask of God’s Church for your child? If they answer, “Baptism,” the priest or deacon reminds them of their responsibility: “You are accepting the responsibility of training your child in the practice of the Faith. It will be your duty to bring him/her to keep God’s Commandments as Christ taught us, by loving God and our neighbour. Do you clearly understand what you are undertaking?” The expected answer from the parents in the presence of God and His Church is, “We do.” Since this is a promise made to God and His Church, God will hold parents and Godparents accountable for carrying out that promise.
If people are just going through the motions and saying what they are supposed to say without meaning it in their hearts they are committing a serious sin. Therefore an evangelical and catechetical preparation of parents and Godparents is essential so that they fully understand the seriousness of what God calls for in the Sacrament. I believe that one of the great opportunities for evangelizing parents, Godparents, whole families to learn how awesome and miraculous the love God makes visible in the Baptism is, and how the Church is necessary for fruitful and joyful living in which God unites us with Himself, is missed because of a lack of preparation. Every Sacrament has its own specific faith requirement. Therefore people requesting the reception of a Sacrament need to be made aware of the faith that is required of them for its proper celebration. Grace builds on nature and if nature isn't prepared grace can’t help the individual.
As you reflect on Jesus’ Baptism remember your own Baptism and what God did for you that day. If you died today, would the Lord be able to say to you, “You are my believed child; I am well pleased with you?” May 2024 be a spiritually productive year for you as God’s obedient child. (fr sean)
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Fr Sean again:
Are You Listening to God Calling You?
Having entered this New Year it would be good for us to ask, “Am I listening to God calling me?” God, as the loving Father who provides for us, the Redeemer who died to save us, and the Holy Spirit who makes us holy, continuously calls each of His children to some service. Therefore, in the words of the psalm (40:2 -10), if we listen, you and I learn that “…the Lord is attentive to me. He heard my prayers and brought me out of the pit of misery and the mire of dregs … He directed my steps and He put a new song into my mouth, a hymn to our God… Blessed is the man whose trust is in the Name of the Lord; and who has no regard for vanities and lying follies …to do Your will, O God, is my delight, and Your law is within my heart! I announced Your justice in the vast assemblies; I do not restrain my lips as You, O Lord, know.” What God calls us to be and do He also gives us the wherewithal to accomplish.
The purpose of listening is to learn. God talks to us in our conscience, in Holy Scripture and His Church’s Tradition, but if we don’t listen we won’t learn and so remain dullards in our ignorance of what He calls us to be. The Holy Spirit urges us to, “Act on this Word. If all you do is hear it, you are deceiving yourselves. There is, on the other hand, the person who looks into freedom’s ideal law and abides by it. That person is no forgetful hearer, but one who carries out the law in practice. Blest will this person be in whatever he or she does” (Jas 1:22, 25). Ignorance and forgetfulness are the root of all evil, particularly regarding how much we need God, hear and listen to Him and follow His ways. Hearing and listening aren’t the same. They are two stages in the process of understanding. We must hear with a listening ear. Too often we hear without listening and so we receive only the content but not the intent. It’s the intent that’s most important. Content can be misunderstood but intent cannot. What we think we hear isn’t always what is intended. Listening requires presence, empathy, and reflection. This is how understanding comes about.
This Sunday the Church proclaims God’s call to Samuel (1 Sam 3:3-10, 19) to be His prophet, Jesus’ call to His first Apostles (Jn 3:35-42), and St. Paul’s call to focus on the purity of the body ( 1 Cor 6:13-20).
Samuel was awakened one night by a voice calling his name. He thought it was the prophet Eli. Eli advised Samuel it might be God and so to say, if he heard the voice again, “Speak Lord, for Your servant is listening.” This prayer prepared Samuel to hear and listen to what God wanted. Thus “Samuel grew up and the Lord was with him, not permitting any word of his to be without effect.” Listening leads to understanding what we’re being called to do.
Our daily prayer each day must be, “Speak Lord, Your servant is listening,” if we want to understand what God is telling us. We have to develop our ability to listen because we’re not automatically good listeners. We have to learn listening skills. Listening requires the following ingredients: be respectful toward and have faith in the speaker; empathize with the speaker, ask true questions to deepen our understanding, and give good feedback to make sure we’re grasping the speaker’s intent. These apply in every relationship including with God. In the absence of these qualities we’re not listening and so we miss the message and abort the communication.
Every sin signifies a refusal to listen to God. When we don’t listen we become “forgetful hearers.” Listening calls for an investment of oneself in the speaker. Merely hearing the person doesn’t. When I invest myself in a speaker I allow myself to be influenced and to learn from him or her. When God speaks to us and we listen we cannot help but be influenced by Him. We can hear Jesus, but because we don’t listen we’ll walk away and remain untouched. Where there’s no investment there’s no change.
Samuel listened and invested Himself in God. So did Andrew and Peter. The Holy Spirit empowered John the Baptizer to recognize Jesus with the words, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” These words have rung continuously down through the generations in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass at Holy Communion time. Having listened to John, Andrew asked Jesus where he lived. He replied, “Come and see!” Having listened to Jesus, Andrew was so influenced that he went and told his brother, Simon, “We have found the Messiah” and brought him to Jesus who named him “Cephas – Peter.”
What do we see here? Andrew listened to Jesus and invested himself in Him with the result that he felt compelled to share the experience with his brother. This is what happens when we listen to Jesus and invest ourselves in Him. We can’t keep the good news to ourselves. If we don’t listen we won’t let Jesus influence us and so we’ve no good news to share. Perhaps that’s why so many say, “I get nothing out of going to Church.” Jesus calls each of us to listen, invest ourselves in Him, and respond, “Here I am, Lord, I come to do Thy will” (Ps 40). Then Jesus invests in us and we’re able to proclaim with the Psalmist, “To do Your will, O God, is my delight, and Your law is written on my heart. I announced Your justice in the vast assembly; I didn’t restrain my lips, as You, O Lord, know.” Thus we have great news to share.
We invest ourselves in God’s call not just spiritually but also bodily. Therefore we must use our body in accord with His word. The Holy Spirit warns us through St. Paul to “avoid immorality/fornication” (1 Cor 6: 13-20). “The body is not for fornication, but for the Lord … You know that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I, then, take the members of Christ, and make them members of a prostitute? God forbid … He who is joined to a prostitute is made one body ... Flee from fornication. Every sin that a man commits is outside his body, but he that commits fornication, sins against his own body. Do you know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God; and you are not your own. You are bought with a great price, therefore glorify God in your body.”
God calls us to unite with Him as body-soul creatures. If we use our body selfishly we separate ourselves from God. We cannot be united with God spiritually without being united with Him bodily. We listen to God with our whole self – body and soul. If we use our body for immoral purposes we insult our Creator by investing in evil rather than in Him. None of us is immune to sɛҳuąƖ urges which can overpower us if we stop listening to God.
In the listening process our whole self must be involved if we’re to understand and be influenced by what we’re hearing. Therefore we must use our body in such a way that we give glory to God as our Creator and redeemer. Immorality or fornication, adultery, sex abuse, desecrate our body that became a temple of the Holy Spirit the day we were baptized. What we do with our body affects our soul and vice versa. So to fully listen to God, answer His call, and be transformed by Him we must be united with Him both in body and soul in order to receive His blessing and be a blessing to others. Our bodies aren’t our own to do what we want with them. We must use them to serve God and not our disordered desires. That means avoiding sins of the flesh that pollute the body and soul. Immorality impedes us from carrying out God’s call to live as His gifted children destined for eternal happiness. May we be willing listeners, in body and soul, to God’s daily call each day of our life. (fr sean)
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Thank you, Father Sean.
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Fr Sean again:
Are You Seeking Fulfilment?
Erik Erickson identified eight stages of psychosocial development from infancy to old age. Each stage involves a choice between a positive or negative approach to life, such as choosing to trust or mistrust the world in infancy. The last stage in old age involves the choice between facing the end of life with integrity or despair. Choosing integrity would reflect the belief that one lived a fulfilled life and have no regrets. Facing the end of life in despair would reflect the opposite. A life well lived would give a person a sense of fulfilment as he or she approaches death. A life well lived is a life of integrity. It’s one that is lived honestly, principled, and to the best of one’s ability. It is a life wherein a person has fulfilled his or her hopes and dreams.
The dictionary defines fulfilment as the achievement of what we long for? So what do we long for? There are as many answers as there are people. As creatures we consciously or unconsciously long for the Creator. Why? Because we need to understand ourselves and get answers to questions about ourselves and our world that we cannot answer on our own. Also we have yearnings that we cannot satisfy on our own. Because we haven’t created ourselves we need our Creator to show us what our potential is and how to achieve it. Can we achieve this on our own? No. We need God’s wisdom to guide us. This is why the Holy Spirit tells us that, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Ps 14:1). The fool is the person who thinks he or she can function independently of God. Sadly, the majority of people in the world today are infected by such foolhardiness and so doom themselves to despair. We see the results in the drastic increase in ѕυιcιdє, euthanasia, abortion, transgenderism, and Malthusianism. The root cause is the rejection of God and the vain attempt at self-fulfillment and self-salvation. This is the legacy of Adam and Eve which they created by letting Satan tempt them into thinking that they didn’t need God. To expose this delusion, this sin, Jesus to show and tell us what we need to do to avoid despair and achieve the fulfillment for which we yearn. It takes the Creator to enable us as His creatures to achieve our true purpose, namely to know, love and serve Him here on earth and after death to be with Him forever in Heaven. This is why God sent Jonah to call the Ninevites (Jon 3:1-5, 10) to repent and turn to Him so that they could realize their true purpose in life.
In the first chapter of the Gospel of St. Mark (1:14-20), Jesus speaks about fulfillment. “This is the time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel.” In Jesus, God has fulfilled His promises to bring us back to Him by saving us from our sinfulness and hopelessness. He shows us how to be free, just, love, and at peace. He shows us how to integrate body and soul and live a fulfilled life so we don’t have regrets at the end. Having requested John’s baptism of water, Jesus started forming His community that He would designate as the visible sign of God’s Kingdom on earth wherein people would unite with Him through the power of the Holy Spirit. Simon and Andrew were the first members of His Church calling them to, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
Imagine the looks on their faces when He told them they would become “fishers of men.” Later on He said something similar to James and John, who immediately left their father and their boats to follow Him. They were all fishermen fishing for fish. How did Jesus mean them to be “fishers of men”? Their culture had steeped them in expectation of a Messiah whom God would send to liberate them. They hoped that Jesus would be the promised Messiah. This whole episode is connected to the notion of human “fulfillment,” namely to be free. The freedom Jesus would offer was not political or economic, but spiritual – freedom from sin. Jesus’ formula for achieving fulfillment was through repentance and belief in the Gospel. Worldly people, fools, laugh at this. But does the world provide human fulfilment? The world’s news is that the worst is ahead so we have to save the planet. Jesus’ news is that the best is ahead and He will save us. We attain it by repenting and believing the Gospel. The Psalmist knew the best was ahead when he proclaimed, “Your ways, O Lord, make known to me… Guide me in Your truth … For You are God my Savior … Good and upright is the Lord; He shows sinners the way. He guides the humble to justice and teaches the humble His way” (Ps 25:4-19). His way calls us to be humble, repent and have faith in the Gospel.
St. Augustine wrote, “You have created us for Yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.” The heart of every person is restless since it cannot find fulfillment in any created thing. Only the Infinite can perfect the finite. Our jobs cannot provide us with the level of satisfaction or achievement sought by our soul. Our relationships cannot completely satisfy us because we’re all imperfect. Our education, degrees, wealth, popularity, etc., cannot make us permanently happy unless they lead us to God. Only God can do this. And the great obstacle that prevents our hearts from resting in God is our sinfulness. So the first step on the path toward fulfilment is the recognition of our sinfulness and our need for the grace of repentance which comes from God.
It’s sad today, despite all our scientific knowledge and material progress, to see the amount of energy and effort being put into an attempt to eliminate God from the world. It’s a perfect example of people shooting themselves in the foot. Why are people so intent in making despair inevitable? Instead of emphasizing the importance of God’s presence in society as the only effective means to overcome restlessness, violence, depression, and disrespect for human life, immorality, and the insane blurring of the differences between man and woman. Why? Because sin is the root cause of all of them. The world’s cure focuses on offering more material things, more antidepressants, more physical pleasure, more egotism, and less responsibility, which actually makes things worse. When are we going to heed the message that humanity has to be saved from sin before it can be perfected? Man and woman need God for their fulfillment. The time to start on the path to fulfilment is now. The Kingdom of God is here, visible in Jesus’ Church announcing His revelation that if you want to live a fulfilled life, a life of integrity rather than despair, then accept that “The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel.” This is the formula for happiness. (fr sean)
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Fr Sean again:
Jesus Spoke with Authority
The Church opens this week by proclaiming Jesus as the One who speaks with authority. “The people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes” (Mk 1:21-28). What is authority? The dictionary defines authority as “the power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience.” Where does that power or right come from? It comes from the one who is all-powerful and who determines what is right and, by default, what is wrong, namely God. All authority comes from God who shares His power with men and women for the benefit of His creation.
The purpose of power is to change and improve ourselves and creation according to God’s will. That means eliminating what’s sinful so we can grow in God’s image and likeness thereby achieving our true purpose and the fullness of our potential. To show us how to do this God sent His Word to take on our nature in the womb of a virgin and become man. This man is Jesus whose coming was prophesied hundreds of years earlier in the Old Testament. Moses told God’s people, “A prophet like me will the Lord, your God, raise up for you from among your own kin; to Him you will listen” (Deut 18: 15-20). Listening to Jesus is crucial because He shows us that God shares His power with us and how to use it in service to Him and to our neighbor. The Psalmist emphasizes the urgency of listening to Jesus when he proclaims, “Come, let us sing joyfully to the Lord; let us acclaim the Rock of our salvation,,, Come, let us bow down in worship; let us kneel before the Lord who made us. For He is our God and we are … the flock He guides. If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts” (Ps 95:1-9).
The fact that all authority comes from God is a reminder that whoever is in a position of authority in this world will be held accountable by Him for the way they use it. No person or institution has authority or power independently of God. The notion that a person or the State authorizes itself and uses power for its own agenda leads to dictatorship and abuse that destroys humanity and creation. The State receives her authority from the people and the people receive it from God. Since the State can’t exist without the people, and people can’t exist without God neither entity has authority apart from God. When the State attempts to deprive the people of the power God has given them it abuses its authority. Such use of authority translates into dictatorship, oligarchy, or some such absolutist form of authoritarian government. Such a government has no authority in the eyes of God and mustn’t be obeyed.
Parents are given authority over their children by God in the Sacrament of Matrimony. From that authority flows the power to raise their children in accord with the teaching of Jesus and His Church. That means listening to Jesus and following in His footsteps as faithful members of His Church. The purpose of this authority is to serve the children by teaching them, through word and example, how to unite with God as their Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier, and Guarantor of eternal happiness. To use their authority and power to deprive the children of the knowledge and grace of God, parents abuse their authority for which God will hold them accountable.
The people were impressed with Jesus because He spoke what He believed, namely the truth of which He is the Author, and what He wanted for every man and woman to know, namely that He would make it possible for them to be saved from their sins and enter Heaven. They saw Him use the power that came from His authority to conquer evil and death. The demons recognized His authority and power over them. “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are – the Holy One of God!” Jesus silenced them: “Be quiet! Come out of the man!” In amazement the onlookers said to one another, “What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the evil spirits and they obey Him.” Jesus demonstrated how God means for authority and power to be used, namely to conquer evil in all its manifestations.
To continue demonstrating God’s authority and power Jesus founded His Church on Peter and authorized him to be the keeper of the keys of God’s Kingdom empowering him to teach the truth. The truth being Jesus Himself. Jesus gave the Apostles, and through them His Church, the authority to speak in His Name. “Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; and whoever rejects me rejects the One who sent me” (Lk 10:16). He shared His power with them when He said, “Whose sins you shall forgive they are for-given; whose sins you shall retain, they are retained. Whatsoever you bind on earth is bound in Heaven, and whatever you loose on earth is loosed in Heaven” (Jn 10:23).
The Apostles, in turn in the Name of Jesus, handed on to the whole Church the authority Jesus had personally given them to continue to bring that deposit of faith to all generations, undiluted. Jesus has authorized His One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church to preach and teach His Gospel in His Name guided by the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised, “I will be with my Church all days until the end of the world” (Mt 28:20). The Church in which Jesus is present is the Church to which He has given the authority to speak authentically in His Name under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
The authenticity of authority is judged by whether power is being used to facilitate obedience to the Ten Commandments and living the Beatitudes, or it’s being used for egotistical glorification. The Church’s proper use of her authority and power is determined by her emphasis on fidelity to preaching the Gospel. God created the universe as an expression of His love. He created men and women to be stewards of the earth and use it for their benefit. We are stewards of the earth, not saviors of the planet. As its stewards, God authorizes us to use the earth in a manner that unites us with Him. The authority Jesus gave the Apostles and they in turn handed on to the whole Church is authentic only when it’s used to call and enable men and women to convert from sin and receive God’s grace.
Sadly, the Church is made up of sinful human beings and therefore her Apostolic-given authority from Christ has often been abused by her ordained leaders and lay members. That is why Christ instituted the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We’re all sinners, prone to egotism and temptation. The greatest temptation is to try and appropriate authority and power for our own selfish purposes. There is something in our fallen nature that has difficulty trusting in God and doing things His way. We would rather be gods ourselves and create our own truth which is a disguise for the lies we tell ourselves and others. False gods always wield authority and power as weapons for dominating others rather than as instruments of service. Let us pray that we may use the authority Jesus has given us in Baptism and Confirmation to speak and live the Gospel with the power of conviction that will astonish the Woke-infected world and quieten its demons. (fr sean)
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Fr Sean again:
Everybody Is Looking for Jesus
How do you feel when a lot of people call on you for help? Do you become irritated and wish they would go away? Jesus had gone to “a lonely place in the desert; there He was absorbed in prayer” spending time alone with His Father when the Apostles interrupted Him. They said, “Everybody was looking for you!” The people kept chasing Him. Why? He offered them freedom from their physical and spiritual diseases and maladies. We all want to be healthy. No one wants to be sick because illness implies pain, weakness, and the reality of death. But we can’t always avoid it. Everyone suffers in one way or another. We can empathize with Job (Jb 7:1-7) when he asked, “Is not man’s life a drudgery? I am filled with restlessness … my life is like the wind; I shall not see happiness again …” He recognized his need for help to cope with his misery that he couldn’t give himself. We need God to rescue us. The Psalmist, inspired by the Holy Spirit, reveals that in our misery we should, “Praise the Lord for He is good … He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds … To his wisdom there is no limit. The Lord sustains the lowly; the wicked He casts to the ground.” Jesus came to fulfil what the Holy Spirit revealed.
In the Gospel of St. Mark (1:29-39) people witnessed Jesus freeing those suffering from physical and spiritual sickness. Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering with a fever when Jesus visited. He took her hand and helped her up from her sickbed. She was down but He raised her up. The word about Jesus’ miracle spread. By that night several people suffering physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental illnesses were brought to Jesus in the hope of being lifted up from them. Jesus helped helpless people to regain their strength and freedom. Was it any wonder that the Apostles located Him as He prayed and said, “Everybody is looking for you”?
Jesus said: “I have come that you might have life and have it to the full” (Jn 10:10). He came to restore fallen human nature to its original state by re-uniting it with God. Thus He empowers all who believe in Him to turn their life of drudgery into an exciting and productive one where they’re no longer bored living meaningless lives. The creature needs a positive relationship with the Creator in order to know what his or her potential is. The creature needs to be constantly in the company of the Creator in order to know what is natural or unnatural for him or her. The Creator energizes the creature to be creative and fulfil his or her potential.
Is everybody looking for Jesus today? Yes, even though many don’t know it and look for fulfillment in all the wrong places. As creatures we’re looking for our Creator who alone can fulfil us. Jesus is the only one who can tell us who the Creator is and what His directions are. Without Jesus we can’t have a personal relationship with God and so are easily tempted to follow false gods. When I know my Creator He enables me to know my true identity and purpose as His creature. The Creator creates the creature and gives it its nature. That nature has a built-in law directing it to its true goal or destiny. That is called the Natural Law. When nature goes against that law it behaves unnaturally. Unnatural behavior does an injustice to the integrity of the creature, turning it into something it was never meant to be. The result is disorder, confusion, and destruction. When we act in a manner that contradicts our nature we become disordered internally and externally. We twist our soul into a grotesque shape by feeding it with what is poisonous. Our human nature has a built-in law that acts like the white lines on the road. When we cross these lines we leave the safety zone and endanger our life as well as the life of others. The law of nature isn’t there to limit us, but to keep us on track as we confidently move forward to our true destiny. Thus we have order in our life and are able to be fully present to ourselves and to all of God’s creation. The moment we reject the law of our human nature is also the moment we ignore the laws built into the natures of other parts of creation. When we ignore the law of our human nature, because we’re the high-point of earthly creation, we automatically cause disorder in the rest of the universe. As we go, so goes the world. If we lead the world away from God by rebelling against the law He instilled in our human nature the result will be chaos since we’ll try to redefine our own purpose and the purpose of creation as we want it, not as the Creator ordained it.
The more we deny or ignore the law of human nature the more we’ll enact laws that promote what’s unnatural to humanity. The legalization of abortion is a perfect example of a law enacted by men who have rejected the built-in law of human nature to continue our species. It’s unnatural to kill one’s young. Margaret Mead, noted anthropologist, said that any species that kills its young dooms itself to extinction. Attempts to enact laws legitimizing assisted ѕυιcιdє are examples of man acting against his nature, which is to live. Death is unnatural because God didn’t create us to die but to live eternally. Promoting the legalization and blessing of ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖ unions exemplifies the attempt to reject the natural law that God created man and a woman to naturally complement one another and use their sɛҳuąƖity to transmit life. Due to Adam and Eve’s sin we suffer from a fallen nature. Jesus redeemed it so that we don’t fall into the trap of trying to make a behavior that flows from fallen human nature into an accepted behavior of redeemed human nature. That would be an aberration. The natural law is always bolstered by the revealed will of God expressed in Jesus’ teaching. It doesn’t change.
Man-made laws must always reflect the natural law if they are to promote the common good of all men and women. What’s legal isn’t always what’s moral. The morality of a law is always judged by whether or not it reflects the natural law. If it doesn’t - as in the case of abortion, same-sex unions, transgenderism, euthanasia, etc. - it is immoral and fuels disorder in the world. We need Jesus to help us put order into our disordered lives.
Everybody needs Jesus because He alone enables fallen human nature to obey the law instilled in it by His Father. He came to cure and make whole those who suffered disorders, of one kind or another, namely sin. He called everyone to become holy. Holiness is attained through walking in the company of God. This walk automatically leads to wholeness, which involves adherence to nature’s laws.
Jesus reminds us that He came to bring order to a disordered humanity through hearing and living in accord with His word of truth. He said to His Apostles, “Let us go to the nearby villages so that I may preach there also. For this purpose I have come.” St Paul (1 Cor 9:16-23), inspired by the Holy Spirit, felt the urgency to introduce Jesus to the world. “Woe to me if I do not preach it (Gospel) …I have become all things to all, to save at least some. All this I do for the sake of the Gospel, so that I too may have a share in it.” Jesus handed the task of preaching His Gospel to His Apostles as the first leaders of His Church and they in turn handed it on to their successors down to today. He said, “Go forth and make disciples of all the nations… Teach them to carry out everything I have commanded you” (Mt 28:18-20). What He commanded them to do was preach the Gospel that called everyone to know that “The reign of God is at hand! Reform your lives and believe in the Gospel” (Mk 1:15). This is how order is restored. Everyone is seeking, in one way or another, to improve their life and that requires putting Jesus first in our life. Since only Jesus can help people do that, everyone needs to find Him. Hence the urgency to evangelize. (fr sean).
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Fr Sean again:
Humility and Faith Bring Jesus’ Cleansing Touch
A leper approached Jesus, expressed his faith in Him, and pleaded to be cured. St. Mark relates that Jesus felt pity for the man. Pity is defined as “sympathetic sorrow for one suffering, distressed, or unhappy.” Leprosy was a dreaded disease. It brought much pain, distress, and unhappiness to the sufferer since it meant isolation from family and community. It caused the person’s bodily extremities to rot, creating a bad smell. Jєωιѕн law banned lepers from any interaction with their families and friends to prevent contagion. Out of fear of contagion and an attempt at containment the Mosaic Law stipulated that, “The one who bears the sore of leprosy … shall declare himself unclean … he shall dwell apart making his abode outside the camp.” (Lv 13:1-2, 44-46).
Jesus, acting out of faith rather than obedience to a man-made law, “stretched out His hand and touched him” (Mk 1:41). Jesus sees no one as untouchable, except those who choose to reject Him. The leper had two qualities going for him, namely faith and humility. By “Kneeling down as he addressed Him” (Mk 1:40) the man humbly requested Jesus’ power to restore him to health and family. He displayed His faith in Jesus when he said, “If you will to do so, you can cure me” (Mk 1:40). Jesus responded to the man’s humble prayer of faith: “I do will it. Be made clean.” (Mk 1:40-41). Then He told the man, “Go off and present yourself to the priest and offer for your cure what Moses prescribed. That should be proof for them” (Mk 1:44). Only the priest had the authority to declare a leper cleansed from his disease and reunited with his family. Similarly, only a priest of the Church has the authority to declare a penitent to be cleansed of his or her sin and be reunited with God’s family.
Humility and faith are essential qualities in our requests for God’s help to cope with our infirmities and receive forgiveness for our sins. The Psalmist exemplifies these virtues when he proclaimed, “I turn to You, Lord, in time of trouble. You fill me with the joy of salvation. Blessed is he whose fault is taken away, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputes not guilt, in whose spirit there is no guile” (Ps 32:1, 2, 5, 11). Humility and Faith force us to admit that we cannot save ourselves. The leper knew he couldn’t save himself. He was receptive to the Holy Spirit of truth who enabled him to see Jesus as his Saviour. This is the challenge to each of us. Am I receptive to the Holy Spirit who alone is able to enlighten my spirit with the truth of who I am and what I need to be free, to belong, to be powerful, and to enjoy myself as God’s creation? This is why we should begin each day inviting the Holy Spirit to fill our heart and enkindle in us the fire of His divine love so that we may be created in accord with God’s will, be truly wise, share in His consolations, and with His help renew the face of the earth. That’s our vocation.
None of us is immune to physical disease. Neither are we immune to spiritual disease - sin. We can’t cleanse our soul from the stain of sin. We can clean our body but we can’t clean our soul. We need the Holy Spirit to cleanse our soul. Since God is the Creator of our soul, our self, only He can cleanse it of its diseases. The soul becomes sick through sin. Like leprosy, sin deforms us, making our soul ugly, which is reflected in our spirit, causing us to alienate one another. Only the love of God binds us together and purifies our soul that’s reflected in a positive spirit. Sin – taking for ourselves - is the opposite of love – giving to others. Since we inherit a sin-stained nature due to Original Sin we come into the world prone to selfishness. Jesus didn’t come to cleanse us from bodily leprosy, but He did come to cleanse us from spiritual leprosy, namely the sinfulness that disfigures who God created us to be, namely His image and likeness. “Jesus said to them, ‘The healthy do not need a doctor; sick people do. I have not come to invite the self-righteous to a change of heart, but sinners’” (Lk 5:31). Self-righteous people don’t recognize their spiritual disfigurement. Sinners do. They’re the ones who, in faith, recognize Jesus as the Cleanser, the Saviour, and, like the leper, humbly kneel and ask to be made clean and restored to the community, Jesus’ Church. This is what happens in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Coming to call sinners, Jesus knew that spiritual cleansing would be an ongoing human need. This is why He delegated His power of forgiveness to Peter and the other Apostles which they handed on through the ordained priests of His Church. Thus Jesus made cleansing from sin available to the repentant sinner until the end of time. He does so through His Church’s Sacraments. In Baptism He frees us from Satan’s grip on our soul and from our disordered bodily desires. In Reconciliation He washes away our personal sins, especially those that are serious or mortal. In the Holy Mass He cleanses us from our venial sins. In the Anointing of the Sick He cleanses those who’re too weak to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Jas 5:13ff). But, like the leper, to be cured, cleansed of our spiritual diseases we need humility and faith. Just like the leper who wanted to follow Him, Jesus told him to go back home and tell his family what happened to him, he wants us to do the same. In the words of St. Paul (1 Cor 10:31-11:1), “Do everything for the glory of God.” Then we’ll hear Jesus’ words through His Church when we ask Him to cleanse us: “I do will it. Be cured, clean, forgiven, made whole, and reconciled to God’s family!”
Jesus’ Church provides us with a special season during which God’s cleansing graces flow in a special way. This period of time is known as Lent. It begins this coming Wednesday – Ash Wednesday. Interestingly, Wednesday is also the feast of St. Valentine, a priest, who ministered to persecuted Christians, is the patron of chaste love and those suffering from epilepsy. He was martyred for his Catholic Faith. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent calling us to “repent and believe in the Gospel” as people whose bodies will become dust one day. Valentine believed in the Gospel so much that He gave his life for it because it brought him to Jesus. Following in the footsteps of Valentine Lent is a time to become purified from our sins by practicing humility, deepening our faith in Jesus Christ, and living chaste lives. The Lord wants to touch us with His healing hand but, like the leper and St. Valentine, we must humbly request His help and completely trust in Him. Through humble and faithful fasting, prayer, and generosity may each of us be restored to full spiritual health and be reunited to Jesus’ Church as the leper was after Jesus restored him to his health and family. May the joy of God’s cleansing grace be yours this holy Lenten season (fr sean)
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Fr Sean again:
Lent: Lead Us not Into Temptation
Beginning with Ash Wednesday Jesus’ Church devotes the following six weeks to emphasizing the need for us to more deeply embed prayer, fasting, and almsgiving in our daily routine so that we can be purified from our sinfulness and experience the joy of Easter Resurrection. These activities open our minds to be seeded by God’s thoughts, so they can take root in our soul, influence our heart, and strengthen us against evil. This is essential if we want to give witness to the world that Jesus Christ is the only true Saviour of mankind. As members of Jesus’ Church we’re called to be His witnesses in the world displaying His powerful presence within us. This requires training and exercise, which involves humble prayer, fasting, and the practise of generosity. Lent is the Church’s yearly retreat when she helps us to stop and ask our self “Am I as Christian and faithful to Jesus as I ought to be” It’s a time when we stop and ask “If I were to die today would God say to me, ‘Welcome, good and faithful servant’ or ‘Depart from me, I don’t know you’”? The somber Biblical words uttered by the priest on Ash Wednesday as he makes the Sign of the Cross on our foreheads with blessed ashes, “Remember, man, that you are dust and into dust you will return,” (Ps103) are a stark reminder that our meeting with God gets nearer every day. The priest then follows with Jesus’ command: “Repent and believe in the Gospel” (Mk 1:15), which spells out what we must do if we want that meeting to be joyful. The ashes remind us that this body of ours, whose desires demand instant gratification that takes up so much of our time and energy, will one day be reduced to dust. Then what? Every day we live is one day closer to the grave. Our body’s desire is for pleasure. Our soul’s desire is for God. Do you and I give equal time to both? The purpose of the body is to serve the soul, not vice versa. This is why God reminds us, especially during Lent, to focus on nurturing what survives death and doesn’t become ashes, namely our soul, whose destiny is either Heaven or hell, depending on our choices here on earth. The Holy Spirit warns us that, “If a man sows in the field of the flesh he will reap a harvest of corruption; but if his seed-ground is the spirit, he will reap everlasting life” (Gal 6:8).
It makes sense to invest in what gives us the best and most long-lasting return. The more we focus on our soul the more we realize our need for God because the soul cries out for His love. We need God if we want to be with Him in Heaven because only He can make that possible. Therefore, we need to discipline our body and use material things in a manner that makes us more conscious that only the things of Heaven really fulfil us. The things of this earth will pass away; but the things of Heaven never pass away - they are eternal (Mt 6:33).
Jesus spent forty days in the desert fasting and praying in preparation for His public ministry (Mk 1:12-15). There Satan tempted Him to abandon God’s will promising power, populsarity, pleasure, and possessions. Jesus countered the temptations with God’s word of truth. After His desert experience Jesus announced that, “This is a time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel.” Jesus showed God to be faithful to His Old Testament promises. We must ask ourselves if we’re faithful to our promises to God in the way we live. Do we pay more attention to what others say and do than to what Jesus says and does? As Christians we’re in a difficult position because we live in the world that’s Satan’s kingdom, but through Baptism we belong to Jesus’ Kingdom. Jesus tells us clearly that His Kingdom doesn’t belong to this world (Jn 18:36). We need to reflect on this to make sure we’re not living in Satan’s Kingdom while saying we belong to God’s Kingdom. Jesus warns us: “But because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spew you out of my mouth!” (Rev 3:16).
Satan loves lukewarm people because he can easily manipulate them. This is why Jesus’s prayer calls us to ask God our Father to “lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil” (Mt 6:13). Why is temptation so tempting? Because Satan makes what’s bad for us look good and pleasurable. We all want what’s good and pleasurable. But looks can be deceiving. We need Jesus, who is the truth, to help us see that Satan’s promises are always false by exposing him as “a liar and the father of lies” (Jn 8:44). We give in to temptation because we don’t listen to Jesus who tells us through the Holy Scriptures what’s good and bad for us. If we don’t know Jesus and hear His teaching we have no one to expose Satan’s lies until it’s too late for us. The devil is sly, he paints evil to look desirable, just like he did with Eve. We therefore must be wise to his wiles and ways. Thus we need to examine everything through the eyes of Jesus to see what’s true or false. He gives us the grace to see what’s of God and what isn’t. On our own we’re no match for Satan’s manipulation. Hence the need to sharpen our spiritual radar through prayer, fasting, and acts of generosity, good catechesis and Christian conscience formation.
Each of us is fair game for Satan’s take-down when we give him the opportunity. He attracts us to the seven deadly sins. He never presents anything that looks bad. He covers his lies with attractive wrapping. Because our will is attracted only to the good we choose only what looks good. The reason we give in to temptation is because we see it as desirable and fulfilling. We need the Holy Spirit to show us what’s good and what only looks good but isn’t. Our human spirit is either influenced by the Spirit of God or the spirit of evil. We would have no problem rejecting evil if we saw its real ugliness. Hence the need for sound moral teaching and self-discipline. The problem is we don't always think or ask or discuss, or pray about our decisions until it’s too late. Were it not for our God-given emotion of guilt and His grace of repentance we would all be doomed to hell. We need to pray daily with the Psalmist, “Your ways, O Lord, make known to me; teach me Your paths. Guide me in Your truth and teach me, for You are God my Saviour… Good and upright is the Lord, thus He shows sinners the way. He guides the humble to justice, and He teaches the humble His way” (Ps 25:4-9).
Only God can fulfill us; the world cannot. We must reject the false promise of an earthly utopia, which is tempting because we all want perfection. Since God created the world only He can save and perfect it. We can neither save ourselves nor the planet. We have to be humble and wise enough to admit that perfection is impossible without God and can only be fully realized in Heaven with Him. Because Jesus knew the power of Satan and the gullibility of human beings He knew we would fall victim to temptation. This is why He gave His Church the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
St. Peter reminds us that, “Christ suffered for sins once, the just for the sake of the unjust, that He might lead you to God” (1 Peter 3:18-22). One of the conditions to be a disciple of Jesus and live in His Kingdom is to “repent and believe in the Gospel.” God speaks to us through Jesus’ Church this Lent asking us to flavor our daily routine with prayer, fasting, almsgiving, Bible reading, and acts of repentance. Thus we prepare ourselves to resist temptation to gratify our body rather than our soul and so live in God’s Kingdom rather than Satan’s. Have a Spirit-filled Lent. (fr sean sheehy)
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Fr Sean again:
Passing The Test
Often when offering a catechetical course to adults the first question asked is, “Will there be tests?” Both teachers and students are known to opine that school would be great if it weren’t for tests. Wouldn’t life be cozy if it weren’t for tests? Testing is the bane of so many things. Love, peace, relationships, friendships, faith would be a breeze if they weren’t tested? Mechanical things look so good and capable until they’re tested and found to be not as good as they looked. Why are we so uncomfortable with tests? Probably it’s because we fear the results might not be as good as we would like. We don’t like being put in a situation where we risk finding out that something isn’t what we hoped for. Someone said that the test is the thing that makes us weep or causes us to sing.
But we need tests in order to determine where we’re successful or failing. It lets us see whether or not we’re achieving what we want to achieve. We don’t look for tests, but we need them. At work an evaluation lets us know whether or not we’re being productive. In school we need tests to let us know if we are or aren’t mastering the subject. In religious life temptation tests our love for God and others. To be tempted is to be tested on how strong is our commitment to our beliefs, values, and truths. Do we really value this or that, or are we just pretending? Are we simply virtue signalers? The test separates the believers from the hypocrites, saints from sinners, life-givers from life-takers, the real from the phony, the Christian from the humanist. The test clarifies for us what we’ve mastered or what masters us. The test is also a reminder that nothing worthwhile is easy. Inspiration is useless without perspiration.
Jesus’ Church uses Lent to test our willingness to make prayer, fasting, and generosity part and parcel of our daily life as Christians. During this holy season is an opportunity to see whether we’re taking our relationship with God seriously or whether convenience and self-gratification are the guiding principles of our daily life.
God introduces us to Abraham’s test in Genesis (22:1-18). God loved Abraham, so much so that He blessed him and Sarah with a son, Isaac, in their old age. He was their pride and joy and the hope of the family’s continuity. God wanted to test Abraham’s priorities. Perhaps now Abraham loved his son more than he loved God! God told Abraham that He wanted him to offer up his only son, Isaac, as a sacrifice in a place He would show him. Try to imagine yourself in Abraham’s place. What would you do? God continually gives us opportunities to test whether our love for Him takes precedence over the things in our life we deem important.
Would Abraham’s love for God take precedence over his love for his only son? By getting everything ready to kill his son, Abraham demonstrated that he passed the test. Today the Church calls Abraham “our Father in Faith.” Why? He showed that no matter what God asked of him, regardless of the pain, he would obey. He totally trusted in God’s plan for him. The angel ordered Abraham, “Do not lay a hand on the boy.” Abraham, I’m sure was relieved and gladly killed the ram God provided for him to sacrifice in place of Isaac. In this action God also taught Abraham that child sacrifice would have no place in the people’s worship of Him. Abraham lived among people who practiced child sacrifice to their gods. So the ritual killing of children wasn’t unheard of. God revealed that human life is precious to Him and must always be treated with dignity and respect. When God is ignored, replaced by human egos, the sanctity of human life is forgotten and people are sacrificed on the altar of convenience and selfishness. The culture of death is upheld in abortion, assisted ѕυιcιdє, and euthanasia demonstrating society’s choice of convenience and self-gratification over God. The killing of human life is a direct result of the rejection of God as its Creator and Sanctifier. Many have failed the test of whether love of God and trust in Him take precedence over self-love. Where is God in our daily priorities?
St. Paul (Rom 8:31-34) follows up this theme regarding putting God first. He says, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” There’s no doubt that God is for us - despite our sinfulness. “He who did not spare His own Son but handed Him over for us all, how will He not give us everything else along with Him?” The problem is that we aren’t always for God. If we were, we wouldn’t focus on satisfying ourselves. Abraham could have become totally absorbed with his son and, since he now had what he wanted, could conclude that he didn’t need God anymore. That happens to us sometimes. We cry to God when we need something and when we get it we forget Him. We become absorbed with what we have and forget who the source of all good things is. We become obsessed with some individual or ideology and forget that only God can save us from hell. When that happens we lose our sense of direction and end up lost, hurt, and betrayed. Love without God is lust. Any time we put another human being at the center of our life we push God out. Then we’re disappointed because we find out that no human being can meet our needs. Only the Creator can fully satisfy the creature. A human being didn’t create our soul, which makes us human, therefore no human being can fulfill or satisfy us. We’re truly free only when we put God first and are willing to give up everything for the love of Him. Without God we can’t be free. Sin is slavery.
In St. Mark’s Gospel (Mk 9:2-10) Jesus passed the test posed by those who questioned or doubted whether He really was the Son of God? St. Mark records Jesus’ transfiguration. Peter, James and John were privileged to hear God the Father identify Jesus: “This is My Son, My beloved. Listen to Him.” They experienced Jesus as the Son of God and it was so awesome that Peter wanted to keep the experience forever. He couldn’t. Jesus passed the test of the Messiah. What did that mean? It meant that He came to fulfil God’s Old Testament covenantal promises identified in the Law and the Prophets, represented by Moses and Elijah. He brought the good news that God was now making it possible for men and women to overcome their sinfulness and once again, as it was in the beginning. How? By becoming obedient to God’s rule, order would be restored to one’s life despite living in a disordered world.
Where does this leave us? First of all, the test of our Faith is an everyday experience – choose God or fulfil our own desires. Every decision we make is a choice between obeying Jesus or becoming our own god (a false god). Do we support a culture of life or a culture of death? Who we listen to makes the difference in our decisions. What do we sow in our mind? Our decisions, in turn, show clearly whom we’re trusting. Jesus confronts us at this time: “If you trust me, then do what I am telling you?” We say we listen to Jesus; we say we trust in Him; but do we really? The test is whether we’re willing to let Him be our Master and Savior. Do we pray daily with the Psalmist (116:10-19), “O Lord, I am Your servant … You have loosed my bonds. To You will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving, and I will call upon the Name of the Lord”?
The test during Lent is to witness our love for Jesus as our first priority by taking the time to pray, fast, and be generous towards others with our time, talent, and treasure – that is Jesus’ way - the Way of the Cross. Thus we become transformed and pass the test. (fr. sean)
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Fr Sean again:
What’s in Your Heart?
On this 3rd Sunday of Lent we hear the Jesus’ Church proclaiming God’s word from Exodus 20: 1-17, Psalm 19:8-11, 1 Cor 1:22-25, and John 2: 13-25. God speaks to us about His Commandments and the purpose of the Temple. We hear from St. Paul how Jesus’ crucifixion was a stumbling block to the Jєωs and foolishness to the Gentiles.
Because autonomy is so important to us we don’t like to be told what to do. We want to govern ourselves. So we’re very quick to demand our rights but slow to carry out our duties. Knowing this, God gave us commandments that identify our duties to Him and to our neighbor. A commandment isn’t the same as a suggestion. We’re free to accept or reject a suggestion but a commandment requires obedience. When you issue a command it means you’re specifying something that’s essential for either the good of the individual or the society or both. Commandments identify what’s necessary for order, harmony and progress in one’s life as a member of the community. Commandments are to be obeyed whether or not we feel like it. They provide a level playing field that regulates actions of a community’s members and carry with them penalties for disobeying them. In the absence of commandments or law there’s only anarchy and chaos that bring severe suffering to the innocent. God wants His people to live harmoniously so He has revealed Ten Commandments to ensure that freedom, justice, peace, and truth reign in the hearts of His people.
For God’s people to live harmoniously it’s essential to obey His will. The first thing we must do is recognize that He is the only true God and there are no others. Anyone else or thing that’s adored is a false god and false gods are impotent. The true God demands that we reverence His Name and worship Him especially on the Sabbath. Reverencing His Name demonstrates that we recognize Him as all holy and the source of our holiness. We recognize God as Our Creator through love of our father and mother, protecting human life, upholding marriage as a sacred covenant between a man and a woman whose purpose is to use their sɛҳuąƖity to transmit life, respect other people’s property, being truthful, avoiding being envious and jealous. The violation of any of these commands is a rejection of God and creates disharmony, alienation and abuse of our humanity.
God issued 10 Commandments – 10 “Words” - to let us know what’s needed in order to be fully human and fully alive. They point us to eternal life that Christ made possible. The Holy Spirit inspired the Psalmist to proclaim, “Lord, You have the words of everlasting life” (Ps 19). If we believe that God has the words of everlasting life, and we want to live eternally, our reason says that we should be more than willing to accept God’s words? So why does God command us to accept His words? Does it make sense to have to be commanded to receive something we want more than anything, namely eternal happiness? He knew that, because of our fallen nature, we would try to live according to our way rather than His and ruin ourselves in the process.
Through the Psalmist God tells us that His Law is “perfect, refreshing the soul.” If you want to achieve perfection and refresh your soul, you must obey God’s law. His Law will never lead you in the wrong direction. It is “trustworthy … gives wisdom to the simple … it’s right… rejoices the heart…it’s clear…enlightening the eye… it’s pure… enduring… true… just… precious…and sweet.” This Law is fulfilled and personified in Jesus who makes all these qualities possible for us to enjoy. Given all this, why would the crucified Christ be a “stumbling block for the Jєωs, and an absurdity to the Gentiles...” (1 Cor. 1:22-25). Is it because we focus only on what we see rather than on what God tells us? Jesus tells us that laying down one’s life for one’s friends is the greatest display of love (Jn 15:13).
We tend to use the things of God for our own purposes rather than for why He has given them to us. An example of this is the use of the Temple as a place for commerce rather than a place for worshipping God. Jesus gets very angry when He sees the Temple being abused (John 2:13-25). We see that today when the sacred space is used for holding concerts. Clergy try to justify it by framing it as a fundraiser. It’s still using God’s house of prayer for commercial purposes. Using the Church building for something other than worship is a desecration of sacred space. Jesus became angry at the abuse of the “house of prayer” and drove the worldly abusers out. St. John tells us that, “He needed no one to give Him testimony about human nature. He was well aware of what was in man’s heart.”
So what’s in man’s heart? What’s in our heart is what we’ve planted in our soul; what’s growing in our soul are the thoughts we’ve freely sown in our mind. This is what supplies the contents of our heart. Our behavior shows whether what’s in our heart is or isn’t compatible with God’s Law and Jesus’ teaching. In many instances our heart and God’s will are diametrically opposed. What’s in our heart reflects a culture of life or a culture of death. Because of our fallen nature we’ve an unconscious death wish placed there by Satan. There’s something inside us that’s basically destructive. The thing we want most, namely life, we’ll end up destroying if we don’t obey God’s Law.
The materialistic culture rejects God or tries to use Him for its selfish purposes. I saw an ad in a magazine which showed a woman wearing a T-shirt on which was written: “Good girls go to heaven. Bad girls go everywhere!” As I read it I thought how stupid. They go everywhere but where they need to go. The notion was that the “bad girls” who go “everywhere” are really living free and enjoying themselves, while the “good girls” who “go to heaven” don’t live at all. The good girls go to heaven while the bad girls try to escape their emptiness and dead-end relationships with drugs, promiscuity, and ѕυιcιdє. What they consider to be a “good time” leads to a bad time not just temporarily but also eternally.
Jesus revealed that what makes a man or woman impure is what comes from the heart. “Whatever comes out of the mouth comes from the heart and this is what defiles or dishonours a man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts and plans, murders, adulteries, sɛҳuąƖ immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, slanders, verbal abuse, irreverent speech, blaspheming” (Mt 15:18-19). What influences the heart begins with the thoughts we sow in our mind.
This Lent we must examine what kind of thoughts we’re sowing in our mind, planting in our soul, that provide the contents of our heart. What’s in our heart makes us the kind of people we are – either promoters of life or death. We need to fill our mind with God’s thoughts that give us supernatural Faith, Hope, and Love. Let’s fill our minds with God’s Ten Commandments so that we may live a harmonious and ordered life sustained by practicing faith, hope, and charity. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life. Only Jesus can give us life. Jesus said, “If you love me keep my Commandments” (Jn 14:15). If we don’t then we so not love Him without Whom we are doomed
Fasting, prayer, and generosity prepare our mind for sowing thoughts in it about God’s Law that’s already written in our heart (Rom 2:15). Thus we need to take the time to meditate on God’s perfect law that leads us to a perfect life made possible by loving Jesus which we demonstrate by keeping His commandments as faithful members of His Church. May our hearts be refreshed by lovingly obeying God’s Law. Then our life will be lively and joyful. Following any other law will lead us to where we don’t want to be.
(fr sean)
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Thank you, Father Sean. A rosary for Father Sean and Cassini. We will pray for them.
(Please pray for friends/family in County Donegal.)
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Fr Sean again:
Is God Inclusive?
As we enter the middle of Lent during which God calls us to fast, pray, and give alms He also calls us to deepen our relationship with Him. We have been taught by the Church, reflecting the Holy Scriptures, that God loves everyone and calls everyone to belong to His Kingdom. But does that mean that everyone is included in His Kingdom? We hear a lot today about inclusivity both politically and religiously. In relation to that we also hear about diversity and equity. What do these words mean for Christians? Does God want to include everyone? Does God want diversity? Does He want equity which is understood today as equality of output? God wants to include everyone but being included is conditional. God doesn’t want diversity, rather He wants unity. God doesn’t want equity of output, rather He wants equality of opportunity base on meritocracy and on entitlement based on gender, race, or culture.
Is God inclusive? What does it mean to be inclusive? Generally it means to respect, value, and act justly towards every human being regardless of race, nationality, colour, or creed. While we must act justly and respect every person, that doesn’t mean that we will want to include everyone in our home, work, leisure activities, etc. Why? We don’t include in our circles anyone who demeans us, is violent towards us, or insults us. Inclusivity is conditional. Even God’s inclusivity is conditional. God doesn’t give us a blank sheet and tell us to fill in the conditions upon which we expect Him to include us in His Kingdom. He lays down the conditions that we must meet if we want Him to include us in His family. He provides those conditions in the Holy Scriptures and in the Apostolic Tradition of Jesus’ Church. Jesus is very clear in revealing that belonging to His Church is conditional: “I assure you, unless you change and become like little children, you will not enter the Kingdom of God” (Mt 18:2-4). Witness Jesus’ Parable of the Net (Mt 13:47-50) where the fishermen haul all kinds of fish in their net but keep the good fish and throw away the bad. We have to stop being apathetic and take God’s word seriously because He says what He means and means what He says. We must remember what God said to Moses and His people: “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, BUT who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation” (Ex 34:6-7). God wants to stop the rot of sin in us but if we don’t cooperate with Him the rottenness will continue down through the generations. What kind of a legacy do we want to hand on to our children?
God’s people in the Old Testament found out that if they didn’t meet God’s conditions they would be excluded from His protection and so were overcome by their enemies. “The God of their fathers sent His messengers to them. But they mocked the messengers … despised God’s warnings and scoffed at His prophets, until the anger of the Lord against His people became so inflamed that there was no remedy” (2 Chron 36:14-23). The Babylonians conquered the Israelites and enslaved them. Seventy years later, after much suffering, the Israelites received another chance to obey God’s conditions for inclusivity in His company. He inspired Cyrus, the pagan king of Persia, to liberate them and let them return to Jerusalem, rebuild the Temple, and renew their commitment to be faithful to the covenant requirements. God, in His mercy, gave them another chance to get it right, to repent of their rebelliousness, and humbly consent to obey His rules. The required change of attitude is summed up by the Psalmist: “May my tongue cleave to my palate if I remember You not, if I place not Jerusalem ahead of my joy” (Ps 137:1-6). The Jerusalem Temple symbolized God's presence.
This is the God revealed by Jesus in John’s Gospel (3:14-21): “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life… whoever believes in Him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he did not believe in God’s only Son.” St. Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, highlighted God’s mercy, in his letter to the Ephesians (2:4-10): “God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love He has for us, even when we were dead in our sins, brought us to life in Christ.” The Holy Spirit reveals here that if we want to be saved by God we must believe in Jesus Christ, not just in our words but more importantly in our actions. If we don’t we’ll be excluded from Heaven. Death will be an enormous shock for so many who think they lived a good life according to the world’s standard but it wasn’t good according to Jesus’ standard.
What we have to realize here is that while God loves and calls everyone to belong to Him we must meet His conditions in order to benefit from His love and invitation. Jesus Himself stated clearly that, “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will acknowledge before my Father in Heaven. Whoever disowns me before men I will disown before my Father in Heaven” (Mt 10:32-33). This is He why revealed Himself to be “the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn 14:6). There are no diverse ways to Heaven. Universalism is common today, namely the false notion that all religions are equal and direct ways to Heaven. Sadly, this heresy is promoted even by some leaders within Jesus’ Church. But nothing could be farther from the truth. Jesus is the one and only way. Therefore to enter Heaven every person will have to acknowledge that Jesus is God’s only Son (Jn 17:3), the Redeemer of the world, and is the only means of entry. That requires supernatural Faith, which in turn requires us to be receptive to the Holy Spirit so that He can convert our human spirit to obey God’s will. Very often our human spirit is a rebellious one and we don’t like to be told what to do. This is why Jesus warned us to realize immediately that, “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel” (Mk 1:12-15). That means in the words of |St. Peter, “Reform your lives! Turn to God, that your sins may be wiped away! Thus may a season of refreshment be granted you by the Lord when He sends you Jesus, already designated as your Messiah” (Acts 3:19-20).
Let us not be tricked by Satan into thinking that God accepts us as we are and so we don’t need to change. God meets us where we are in order to bring us to where we need to be and do what we need to do in order to be included in His Kingdom and benefit from His love. God’s inclusivity is conditional. Jesus said, “If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in His love, just as I love my Father and keep His commandments” (Jn 15:10). Let’s remember that if we don’t keep His commandments we don’t remain in His love. To be included we must obey God’s rules and we skirt them to our own eternal hell. (fr sean)
The Litany of Preparation for Confession of Sin
This is a prayer asking for God’s mercy, forgiveness, and aid in turning from sin. It invokes Jesus Christ, recalling His mercy and forgiveness shown to many sinners and outcasts in the Bible – from Adam to Zacchaeus. It asks for the grace to judge ourselves and produce worthy fruits of penance so that sin does not reign in me. The prayer seeks pardon, peace, cleansing from offenses, and the ability to serve God with a quiet mind.
The Litany of Penance
Lord, have mercy on me.
Christ, have mercy on me.
Lord, have mercy on me.
Christ, hear me.
Christ, graciously hear me.
God the Father of Heaven, have mercy on me.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on me.
God the Holy Ghost, have mercy on me.
Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on me.
Incarnate Lord, have mercy on me.
Lover of souls, have mercy on me.
Saviour of sinners, have mercy on me.
Who came to seek those that were lost, have mercy on me.
Who fasted for them forty days and nights, have mercy on me.
By Thy tenderness towards Adam when he fell, have mercy on me.
By Thy faithfulness to Noah in the ark, have mercy on me.
By Thy remembrance of Lot in the midst of sinners, have mercy on me.
By Thy mercy on the Israelites in the desert, have mercy on me.
By Thy forgiveness of David after his confession, have mercy on me.
By Thy patience with wicked Ahab on his humiliation, have mercy on me.
By Thy restoration of the penitent Manasseh, have mercy on me.
By Thy long suffering towards the Ninevites, when they went in sackcloth and ashes, have mercy on me.
By Thy blessing on the Maccabees, who fasted before the battle, have mercy on me.
By Thy choice of John to go before Thee as the preacher of repentance, have mercy on me.
By Thy testimony to the Publican, who hung his head and smote his breast, have mercy on me.
By Thy welcome given to the returning Prodigal, have mercy on me.
By Thy gentleness with the woman of Samaria, have mercy on me.
By Thy condescension towards Zacchaeus, persuading him to restitution, have mercy on me.
By Thy pity upon the woman taken in adultery, have mercy on me.
By Thy love of Magdalen, who loved much, have mercy on me.
By Thy converting look, at which Peter wept, have mercy on me.
By Thy gracious words to the thief upon the cross, have mercy on me.
I am a sinner, I beseech Thee, hear me.
That I may judge myself, as to escape Thy judgment, I beseech Thee, hear me.
That I may bring forth worthy fruits of penance, I beseech Thee, hear me.
That sin may not reign in my mortal body, I beseech Thee, hear me.
That I may work out my salvation with fear and trembling, I beseech Thee, hear me.
Son of God, I beseech Thee, hear me.
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, spare me, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, graciously hear me, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on me.
Christ, hear me.
Christ, graciously hear me.
O Lord, hear my prayer.
And let my cry come unto Thee.
Closing prayer
Grant, I beseech Thee, O Lord, to Thy faithful, pardon and peace, that they may be cleansed from all their offenses, and also serve Thee with a quiet mind, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
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Fr Sean again:
Cleanse Your Heart
Traditionally the heart symbolizes love and compassion. In Biblical times, the heart referred to the core of a person; the centre of his or her self. It indicated a person’s mental, emotional, spiritual, and moral substance. A heart pierced with an arrow symbolized failed relationships or betrayed love. We’re all familiar with the terms ‘broken heart,’ ‘sweetheart,’ ‘lonely heart,’ ‘hard heart,’ ‘heartless,’ ‘brave heart,’ ‘heartily,’ ‘heartfelt.’ Jesus described those who rejected Him as “Sluggish indeed is this people’s heart.” (Mt 13:15). He accused the Pharisees of being hypocrites, quoting God’s word from Isaiah: “This people pays me lip service but their heart is far from me” (Mk 7:6). What we say must be backed up by actions. If we say we’re Catholic then we must practice being Catholic in our thoughts, words, and actions witnessing our faith in Jesus Christ at home, at work, and at play.
The heart reflects the state of the soul, and the state of the soul reflects the mind. Our mind, soul, and heart all interact in the expression of who we are. The thoughts we sow in our mind become planted in our soul, which influences our heart. What’s in our heart is the reflection of the thoughts we freely choose and plant in our soul. What happens to our soul – our self – shapes our heart and is reflected in our thinking and our choosing that becomes visible in our spirit, our attitude, our ways? Lent is a time when we need to examine our heart to purify it. Why? Because God tells us through His prophet, “I, the Lord, probe the mind and test the heart, to reward everyone according to his ways, according to the merits of his deeds.” (Jer 17:10) What we put in our mind takes root in our soul and determines the contents of our heart. God urgently calls us to, “Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord, your God. For gracious and merciful is He, slow to anger, rich in kindness, and relenting in punishment” (Joel 2:13).
The prayer of the Psalmist must be our prayer: “A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me. Cast me not out of Your presence, and Your Holy Spirit take not from me” (Ps 51:12-13). Jesus makes us aware that “It is not what goes into a man’s mouth that makes him unclean; it is what comes out of his mouth …what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart” (Mt 15:11-18). A clean heart is a heart without sin. To clean our hearts we must face the fact that we’re sinners, even the best of us need to repent and seek forgiveness. The Holy Spirit of Truth warns us that, “If we say ‘we have no sin,’ we deceive ourselves; the truth is not to be found in us” (1 Jn 1:8). In the words of the Psalmist, every one of us must pray from our heart, “Have mercy on me, O God, in Your goodness; in the greatness of Your compassion wipe out my offense. Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and of my sin cleanse me” (Ps 51:3-4). Sin, the bad thoughts with which we sow our mind, stains our soul that leads to hard heartedness. We see that exhibited in those who support abortion, euthanasia, and degrade motherhood, undermine the traditional marriage between a man and a woman as the essential environment for the proper transmission of life. This hardness of heart comes from Satanic thoughts with which people seed their minds, plant in their souls, and harbour in their hearts. Despite this hardheartedness, God is ever merciful to those who repent, seek forgiveness, and strive to amend their ways in accord with His will. He promises the repentant, “I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your hearts of stone and give you a heart of flesh instead. I shall put my Spirit in you, and make you keep my laws and sincerely respect my observances” (Ezek 36:26-27). Since God has written His law upon the heart of everyone it’s essential to free the heart from everything that might blur that law or prevent our obedience to it. (Jer 31:33)
Jesus offers us the grace to cleanse our heart especially during this season of Lent. We experience the fulfilment of God’s promise of a clean heart in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Through that Sacrament God removes the filth of sin. There we experience a refreshed and sweet-smelling heart through Jesus who “became the source of eternal life for all who obey Him” (Heb 7:9).
What are the effects of a clean heart? A clean heart is united with the Sacred Heart of Jesus and displays a spirit of heartfelt generosity. In union with Jesus we’ll follow His lead, inspired by the Holy Spirit, in the bosom of His Church. Where does Jesus lead us? He tells us, “Whoever serves me will follow me, and wherever I am, there will my servant be” (Jn 12:26). Where is Jesus? He is present in His One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. He is dwelling in each member of His Church. He touches the heart of each practising member through His Church’s Sacraments, especially in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass where we praise and worship Him. He is with us when we pray and carry out the spiritual and corporal works of mercy, namely being just, charitable, merciful, respecting the preciousness of human life by sheltering the homeless, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, burying the dead, giving alms to the poor, teaching the Gospel, counselling the doubtful, admonishing the sinner, consoling the sorrowful, comforting the afflicted, forgiving hurts, and bearing wrongs patiently. In these words and actions the Sacred Heart of Jesus radiates through our heart.
A clean heart expresses itself above all in a spirit of joy that springs from a mind in which Christ’s thoughts are sown, and planted in the soul. Such a heart gives witness to God’s love, justice, mercy, peace, and freedom. When our heart is clean our attitude is positive, loving, faithful, and hopeful. This 5th week of Lent is another opportunity to take advantage of what Jesus provides through His heart-cleansing power mediated through His Church. You can feel God saving you when He cleanses your repentant heart in the words of Absolution spoken by the priest in the confessional. It’s in the forgiveness of sins that God is saving you and me and cleansing our hearts. Let us comfort Mary as she brokenheartedly followed her Son’s sorrowful way of the cross through cleansing our heart from sin that caused His crucifixion. (fr sean)
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Fr Sean again:
Holy Week: Why Every Knee Must Bend
Lent officially ends with the celebration of the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday evening commemorating the institution of the Holy Eucharist and the Sacrament of Holy Orders. Historically, we refer to this final week of Lent, which culminates in the Triduum celebration of Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday, as “Holy Week.” Why do we call this week “holy”?
The word “holy” comes from an Old English word, which means “whole.” Usually the word holy refers to God and what’s Godly. Only God is holy, whole and complete within Himself. God alone is perfect and those whom He makes perfect, all who are faithful to Him. When we describe something as holy, we imply that it’s from God. Human holiness, our likeness to God, was lost by Adam and Eve’s disobedience. With the loss of holiness came the loss of wholeness which is reflected in a darkened intellect and a weak will making every human, except Mary, prone to sin. Thankfully, God restores that holiness and wholeness through Baptism into Jesus’ Church.
Palm Sunday begins holy week with the blessing of palms commemorating Jesus’ entry to Jerusalem. The palms that were used to greet Jesus and create a welcoming mat for Him in on Sunday morning were used by some to point accusingly at Him in the afternoon. Satan was active in the hearts of the accusers. God revealed in the Old Testament that His Messiah would be a Suffering Servant. This revelation was fulfilled in Jesus who “emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness” (Phil 2:6-11). We see His humility in the Passion narrative from Mark’s Gospel depicting His agony, trial, sentencing, crucifixion, and burial. There we see Jesus’ real suffering, which didn’t deter Him because of His humble and obedient faith in His Father. He was like a lamb led to the slaughter in order to save the very sinners who slaughtered Him.
What’s holy about this week? The Church focuses on Jesus, the Son of God, and the total sacrifice of Himself in order to save mankind from sin. The focus isn’t simply on God as He exists in Heaven, but on God as He lived and loved here on earth in the Person of Jesus Christ, confronting Satan who owned mankind. He came to call sinners to repentance and holiness by breaking the grip of Satan. On Holy Thursday Jesus left us a visible sign that He would continue His mission to save mankind until the end of time. This sign of His saving life and death is the Holy Eucharist which He instituted and ordained His apostles to continue by changing unleavened bread into His body and wine into His blood with the words, “Do this in memory of me.” Thus began the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as the visible sign of Jesus’ real presence calling everyone to get on bended knee and confess with their tongue that He is their Lord and Savior.
Good Friday reminds us what redemption cost Jesus. It cost Him His life through crucifixion to free us from our sins. No greater love has the world ever seen. On Easter Sunday we’re reminded that Jesus was raised from the dead in a glorified human body, paving the way for His followers to rise from the dead with glorified bodies. He helps us to benefit from what He accomplished through “a well-trained tongue to speak to the weary a rousing word … (and) a face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame” (Is 50:4-7). The weary are all who’re weighed down with sin, suffering, and the fear of death. Jesus in His human nature reflected the depth of human weariness when He cried out on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” (Ps 22). Have you ever felt that God had abandoned you? Jesus encourages us in such moments to pray with Him: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” He empowers us to put ourselves into His Father’s hands every day but especially in times of trial as He did.
Sin is our downfall – a personal put-down. Instead of putting our spirit into God’s hands we put our spirit into Satan’s hands. Sin is idolatry in which we put ourselves down by worshipping something that’s inferior to us. When we sin, we withdraw our loyalty to God and, as a result, create a false god. Only the true God can sustain us, give us life, and lead us to happiness. A false god is impotent. Why? A false god is something we create; and we can’t create anything that can sustain us since we didn’t create ourselves. Neither can we create anything that can give us life since we didn’t give ourselves life. We can’t create anything that leads us to happiness since happiness is the result of being fulfilled, and only the Creator can fulfil the creature. Sin, then, is totally unreasonable and an act that lacks intelligence. Sin is without equal when it comes to duping oneself. In sinning, we’re our own greatest con artists. The “good” in Good Friday is the fact that God’s love, evident in Jesus’ sacrifice, conquered selfishness and freed us from Satan’s grip on humanity. By being obedient to His Father Jesus, in His humanity, enables us to freely obey God once again. Obeying God, rather than pleasing ourselves, always leads us to holiness and wholeness which are always good for us.
At the Easter Vigil we celebrate Jesus as the “Light of the world” (Jn 8:12). He dispels the darkness of sin by exposing Satan’s lies. Through the Apostolic and moral teaching of His Church Jesus continually calls us to holiness and wholeness. He empowers us to live in the supernatural that’s full of power for good, and strong in its purpose of becoming holy. The “fear of the Lord” (fear of losing our relationship with Him) motivates us to… praise Him, give Him glory, and revere Him” (Ps 22) in all dangers, temptations, and afflictions. Thus we let Him make us holy and whole. We cannot do this on our own because we cannot free ourselves from our sinfulness. The Catechumens give witness to this as they become full members of His One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church during the Easter Vigil.
The real test of leadership is to be willing to die for the cause. Jesus exhibited true leadership. Jesus has given us the example of what it means to be a Christian, namely to be willing to die for the Faith, which is about loyalty to Him as our Savior. In Baptism He made us His partners in carrying out the mission of His Father, which is to make us His children. Jesus has shown us the way. Now we must lead. Just as we depended on Jesus leading the way to the Father, the whole world depends on us, His followers, leading it to Jesus really present in His Church. But we must lead on bended knees, informing everyone, “that at the Name of Jesus, every knee should bend, of those in Heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:6-11).
Let’s celebrate Holy Week where God offers us the opportunity to be both holy and whole by bending our knee at the Name of Jesus and using our tongue to confess that He is our Lord and the only Life-Giver. May you have a supernatural Holy Week and a truly happy Easter. (fr sean)
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Amen! It’s about the Lamb. (Not the bunny). May we all stop abandoning Jesus)
Jesus Christ- Now and Forever!
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Fr Sean again:
Easter Sunday: And the winner is … Life
The highpoint of the Church liturgical year is Easter. It’s connected with Passover – passing from the slavery of sin and death to the grace of freedom and life eternal. This is the culmination of everything for which Jesus Christ stood. He stood for everlasting life – not just a little bit of life, but life to the fullest. He came into a world doomed by death and riddled with suffering – mental, emotional, spiritual, moral, social, economic, and physical. Jesus’ message focused on repentance, forgiveness, amendment of lifestyle, wholeness, holiness, and life lived joyfully because it now had hope. This message was good news to the ears of repentant sinners, the marginalized, the suffering and the dying.
Two thousand years later here we are in a world where the culture of death dominates the culture of life established by Jesus here on earth. The destruction of human life is enshrined in national legislation, even declared as a constitutional right in France and promoted in most western countries. Human life has been cheapened by those who possess it. Its destruction is legal – abortion, euthanasia, unjust war. More human life is being destroyed today than ever before in our recorded history. Its wanton destruction is evident in abortion mills, IVF labs where embryos are destroyed, abortifacient pills in the post, artificial contraception, murder, assisted ѕυιcιdє, has rapidly increased over the past few decades. Why has life become so cheap and so flippantly disposable? How has human life lost its sense of sacredness and preciousness? Could it be that human life has lost its excitement and preciousness because Christians have forgotten or don’t proclaim the message of Easter? God considered human life to be so precious that He sent His Son to suffer and die the cruelest form of death in order to conquer the power that sin and death had over mankind. The sacredness of human life is directly connected to God who is Life itself and who creates every person in His image and likeness. Every time a human being is killed, humanity numbs itself to God’s loving and life-giving presence. Killing cheapens life and creates the illusion that human beings have control over it and can do what they want with it. That illusion ends in disillusionment when God holds everyone accountable for the way they lived the life He gave them. If we choose death in this world we prepare for eternal death in the next world.
The Easter event is the sign par excellence that life belongs to God and He holds it in the highest esteem. God is the Life-giver. Satan is the life-taker. Easter celebrates the victory of life over death, good over evil, and the success of the spirit over the disordered desires of the flesh. In celebrating Easter, we celebrate the power of spiritual gentleness, which Jesus demonstrated on the Way of the Cross, over the physical violence of evil men who crucified Him. It’s proof that the concern for the welfare and the wellbeing of others shown by Jesus, even on the Cross, pays off while self-centeredness and the culture of death loses. Suffering is an opportunity to deepen our appreciation of life that makes us participants in the life of God. To understand and appreciate the message and meaning of the Easter event we need to see what it completes.
Easter is the final act in a three-act drama depicting the struggle for power between life and death, Jesus and Satan. The first act of the drama takes place on Holy Thursday when Jesus celebrated the Passover with His Apostles. Here Jesus shared His wisdom of service and exemplified true Servant Leadership. Service reflects a consciousness of people’s relationship with each other and the need to help one another. Underlying the attitude of service is the awareness that we’re all brothers and sisters sharing the same humanity with an innate investment in each other. In serving, Jesus in the Holy Eucharist gave Himself totally to His Apostles in the most intimate manner. When washing His apostles’ feet He told them: “I have set you an example: As I have done so you must do” (Jn 13:15). Do what? Promote the culture of life as God’s greatest gift.
Perhaps we can find the locus of our problem here. The sense of interconnectedness, interdependence, complementarity, between and among men and women today is missing. Everything is considered relative. Universal obligations and principles seem to be rejected. We’ve become more disconnected from each other? We’ve become less responsible and less accountable to one another? We’ve become more concerned with our own welfare and less concerned with what happens to our fellow men and women at home and abroad? There’s a lot of virtue signaling through protests, etc., but very little virtuous living. Like the crowd calling for Jesus’ crucifixion, many protest about something they know little about and which they have been fed false information by atheistic ideologues.
The second act of this great drama depicting God’s presence to His people is celebrated on Good Friday when Jesus teaches us about genuine love tested and purified by suffering. True love is tough. True love demands sacrifices. Love without a willingness to sacrifice isn’t love at all. On Good Friday, we see Jesus making the ultimate sacrifice which reflected His genuine love for all men and women. “No greater love does anyone have than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (Jn 15:13). We come as Jesus’ community on Good Friday to venerate the cross and reflect on the great sacrifice He made for us. This in turn reminds us of the great sacrifice we’re called to make in genuinely loving Him and living joyfully, sharing with the needy.
Perhaps one of the reasons why our world is as it is with its disrespectful attitude toward human life is that it lacks genuine love. Without God love is false. What the Godless world calls love is simply lust. Lust has no room for sacrifice. It’s all about pleasing oneself and using others to attain one’s selfish end. Perhaps what we need in our world is a redefining of “love” and what it calls for. Real love is epitomized in the Crucifix. Love always wishes good and looks out for the good of the other person. Jesus epitomized love when, on the cross, He asked His Father to forgive His executioners. We need to truly reflect on the events of Good Friday and tune into Jesus’ commitment to love, no matter what. By making the necessary sacrifices called for by His love for human life Jesus came to Easter.
Easter is the final act in this drama. Jesus conquered Satan’s power over humanity and gave every person the opportunity to choose eternal happiness Therefore we cannot fully appreciate Easter Sunday and its implication for humanity without understanding what Jesus did for us on Holy Thursday and Good Friday. Jesus’ accepted suffering and death in order to bring God’s love to others and raise up a fallen world. Through receiving Jesus in the Holy Eucharist and sacrificing ourselves with Him on Good Friday His Father will raise us up with Him on Easter Sunday.
The winner in the drama is Life because of Jesus’ commitment to serve and love in the face of all odds. To be Christian is to be an Easter person – one who looks forward to Resurrection from suffering and death. There’s no Easter Sunday without a Holy Thursday and a Good Friday. To keep us on the road to Resurrection we must allow ourselves to benefit from Jesus’ gift of His Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist and His unconditional love on the Cross. Have a happy Easter and enjoy life. (Fr. Sean)
The Plenary Indulgences of Holy Week, Easter Octave and Divine Mercy Sunday for Everyone
From Holy Week through Divine Mercy Sunday — and beyond — we should try not to miss out on these indulgences for ourselves or for any soul in purgatory.
Holy Week and Divine Mercy Sunday, present everyone with particular plenary indulgences that everyone has the opportunity to receive. Here’s how to gain them for yourselves, your loved ones in purgatory, and possibly even for some forgotten soul there.
The plenary indulgences that we can receive on every day of Holy Week actually are of two kinds. Certain ones are specific to Holy Week itself. Certain ones we can actually gain anytime, including the Easter Octave.
They’re listed in the Norms and Grants in the official Manual of Indulgences, fourth edition (English edition 2006) the latest and most up-to-date edition of the Manual, or Enchiridion Indulgentiarum, the one that replaces all others.
Holy Week Plenary Indulgences
These are the specific works listed in the Grants in the Manual of Indulgences:
Holy Thursday. “A plenary indulgence is granted to the faithful who piously recite the verses of the Tantum ergo after the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday during the solemn reposition of the Most Blessed Sacrament.”
Good Friday brings two opportunities. “A plenary indulgence is granted to the faithful who
1. Devoutly assist at the adoration of the Cross in the solemn liturgical action of Good Friday; or
2. Personally make the pious Way of the Cross, or devoutly unite themselves to the Way of the Cross while it is being led by the Supreme Pontiff and broadcast live on television or radio.”
Most every parish conducts Stations of the Cross for parishioners on Good Friday.
On Holy Saturday, Easter Vigil brings another opportunity. “A plenary indulgence is granted to the faithful who, at the celebration of the Easter Vigil (or on the anniversary of their own Baptism), renew their baptismal vows in any legitimately approved formula.” The Easter Vigil includes renewal of baptismal vows.
Early in Holy Week
On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of Holy Week we should try to make Mass and receive Holy Communion. That is a “must” because receiving Holy Communion is one of the basic conditions for any plenary indulgence. Here, we consider those certain plenary indulgences which can be gained all year. These are the ones we can obtain on Monday through Wednesday as long as we fulfil the basic conditions (more on them later) and also perform the work required.
The Manual of Indulgences makes this very clear to us: “Deserving of special mention are grants pertaining to these works by any one of which the faithful can obtain a plenary indulgence each day of the year,” always remembering “a plenary indulgence can be acquired no more than once a day.” The Manual lists them as four:
— Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament for at least one half hour
—The pious exercise of the Way of the Cross
— Recitation of the Marian rosary or of the hymn Akathistos, in church or an oratory; or in a family, a religious community, or a sodality of the faithful or, in general, when several of the faithful are gathered for any good purpose
— The devout reading or listening to the Sacred Scriptures for at least a half an hour
Any one of these per day, Monday through Wednesday — plus Palm Sunday too — can obtain a plenary indulgence for us for ourselves or to apply to a soul in purgatory.
Basic Mandatory Conditions
“In general, the gaining of indulgences requires certain prescribed conditions and the performance of certain prescribed works,” reminded the Apostolic Penitentiary in 2000. The conditions are not many and are not at all difficult.
First, though, the office initially repeated the definition. “An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church…” The office explained, “Indulgences can always be applied either to oneself or to the souls of the deceased, but they cannot be applied to other persons living on earth.”
The Manual of Indulgences gives these basics conditions for any indulgence, plenary or partial. The person seeking the indulgence must be baptized, not excommunicated, and in the state of grace at least at the time the prescribed work is completed.
The Norms remind of another simple essential: we need to have the general intention of wanting to gain the indulgence as well as carrying out the specific works required, according to the sense of the Grant. That’s simple enough.
This next is important. The Norm states, “To gain a plenary indulgence, in addition to excluding all attachment to sin, even venial sin, it is necessary to perform the indulgenced work and fulfill the following three conditions: sacramental confession, Eucharistic Communion, and prayer for the intention of the Sovereign Pontiff.”
For simplicity sake, let’s review these simple essentials are presented by the office of the Apostolic Penitentiary in their words:
“To gain indulgences, whether plenary or partial, it is necessary that the faithful be in the state of grace at least at the time the indulgenced work is completed.”
“A plenary indulgence can be gained only once a day. In order to obtain it, the faithful must, in addition to being in the state of grace:
— have the interior disposition of complete detachment from sin, even venial sin;
— have sacramentally confessed their sins;
— receive the Holy Eucharist (it is certainly better to receive it while participating in Holy Mass, but for the indulgence only Holy Communion is required);
— pray for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff.”
The Apostolic Penitentiary in 2000 clarified that One Our Father and one Hail Mary is suggested for the Holy Father’s intentions thought the faithful can chose what prayer, and one sacramental Confession suffices for several plenary indulgences.
As for the Stations of the Cross for a plenary indulgence, the manual details, “The pious exercise must be made before stations of the Way of the Cross legitimately erected…According to the common custom, the pious exercise consists of 14 devotional readings, to which some vocal prayers are added. To make the Way of the Cross, however, it is sufficient to meditate devoutly on the Lord’s Passion and Death, and therefore reflection on the particular mysteries of the individual stations in not necessary…Progression from one station to the next is required.” But if we’re making it publicly such as done for a parish, only the one conducting it has to move while we remain in our place.
Extras and Divine Mercy Sunday
We should not stop after Holy Week. Why not continue during the Easter Octave, from Easter Sunday through Divine Mercy Sunday? Monday through Saturday we have those four everyday possibilities for a plenary indulgence. Go to Mass, receive Communion. Then spend time in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. Pray the Rosary in church. Or with family or as listed above. Read Sacred Scripture for at least half an hour. Your choice.
Divine Mercy Sunday has a plenary indulgence of its own.
Through private revelation to St. Faustina, Jesus revealed, I want to grant a complete pardon to the souls that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion on the Feast of My mercy (1109). The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion will obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment (699). And we must trust in Divine Mercy.
“The most special grace promised by our Lord for Mercy Sunday is nothing less than the equivalent of a complete renewal of baptismal grace in the soul: "complete forgiveness (remission) of sins and punishment.”
St. John Paul II not only declared Divine Mercy Sunday a universal feast of the Church, but in 2002 he also attached a plenary indulgence to it. This made private revelation’s promise “official” as “the Holy See institutionalized the Promise in the form of an Indulgence.”
First there are the usual or standard three conditions of sacramental confession, Eucharistic Communion, and prayer for the intentions of Supreme Pontiff.
Next, the specific conditions or “work” required: “On Divine Mercy Sunday
· in any church or chapel, in a spirit that is completely detached from the affection for a sin, even a venial sin, take part in the prayers and devotions held in honour of Divine Mercy or, in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament exposed or reserved in the tabernacle, recite the Our Father and the Creed, adding a devout prayer to the merciful Lord Jesus (e.g. “Merciful Jesus, I trust in you!”).”
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And then Pentecost. Divine Mercy Sunday is no for me. ( I can see why it was initially banned.) The fact that Pope John Paul II was friends with McCarick lacks spiritual discernment.
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Fr Sean again:
Jesus’ Final Words: Be Converted
Jesus confirmed to His apostles and disciples that, indeed, He had arisen from the dead. On this occasion in Luke’s Gospel (24:35-48) they thought He was a ghost. Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures (Old Testament), and reminded them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in His Name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”
These were Jesus’ final words to His Apostles and disciples before He ascended to His Father. He wanted His disciples to remember and carry them out for the good of all who believed in Him. These were the words that summed up the purpose of His mission and the mission of His Church, namely to preach repentance and forgiveness in His Name to all nations. Sadly, today many of the Church’s bishops and priests seem to ignore this. Today especially, we need to recognize what part of His ministry Jesus chose to emphasize with these final words. He didn’t tell them to save the planet or be concerned about global warming, but rather to be concerned with saving men and women from sin.
If He hadn’t spoken these words we might have assumed that His final message to His disciples would be, “Love one another!” Love was certainly central to Jesus’ teaching and the central ethic of life. But that wasn’t what He revealed in His last instructions. Love in itself isn’t the complete message of Jesus, though it may be central. There’s something more. A focus on love alone without understanding that it involves repentance and forgiveness of sin turns Christianity into a kind of touchy-feely religion where everybody is supposed to be nice and have a warm fuzzy feeling about everybody else – a religion based on feeling alone without bringing about any real change in people’s lives.
The main task and essential gift of Jesus’ Church is to “preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins in His Name to all nations.” This is the message that every Pope, bishop, priest, and deacon along with every lay member must proclaim and practice in the world. The central task of the Church is to say to the world: “Repent of your sins and be converted to Jesus Christ if you want happiness after death!” Jesus came specifically to call sinners (Mk 2:17). He didn’t come to make us feel good, although we’ll definitely feel good when we repent and receive the forgiveness of God and His Church in Confession.
What does it mean to repent? It literally means “to feel regret” or “feel sorry.” It means that we recognize our negative or selfish attitude and replace our sinful ways with graceful ways. It means turning our life around, converting to Jesus and heading in the direction that leads to where God wants to be and where we need to be if we want to be truly happy and fulfilled.
Everybody is headed somewhere. The key question is, “Will where I’m headed bring me happiness or misery?” Ultimately there are only two destinations, namely Heaven or for hell.
The mission Jesus gave His Church is to call everyone to embrace Him as their Savior. That requires asking for the grace of repentance so that He can forgive us and reconcile us with Him and with one another. The Church’s mission, then, is to say to everyone, “Turn your life around before it’s too late. Repent and be converted! God wants to save you from what pulls you down through the forgiveness of sins. God gives “His people a knowledge of salvation in freedom from their sins” (Lk 1:77). Jesus founded His Church to be His instrument through which He constantly addresses the world: “For your own spiritual welfare and the wellbeing of your immortal soul, turn around while you can and before it’s too late. Repent and be converted to Jesus Christ!”
Every one of us needs to examine our lives from time to time and ask the questions, “Where am I headed in life? Will the direction I am taking lead me to where God wants me to be?”
Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe, ran away from home as a teenager and went to sea, much to the distress of his parents. He wanted to do his own thing. On his first voyage the ship was wrecked and he barely escaped drowning. He saw his foolishness and the bad choices he had made, but he was afraid to go back home because he knew his friends would make fun of him and he’d have to admit to his parents that he took the wrong direction in life. Defoe came to the conclusion that people are less ashamed of sinning than they are of admitting their sin and repenting. People are more ashamed to repent – admitting they were wrong and needing to turn their life around – than they are of continuing in their sinfulness. Pride, Satan’s weapon and one of the deadly sins, is often the killer here. Our pride distorts our thinking and we become blind to the stupidity of our sinful ways. It deafens us to God’s call and blocks God’s merciful grace. We would rather fight than switch – even when we know that what we’re doing is evil and stupid beyond belief.
You and I, as members of Jesus’ Church, are obligated to bring Jesus’ words to the world and say, even when we’re ignored or turned off, “Brother/sister, turn around. Please, for your own sake and for the sake of those who love you most, turn around. Repent and be converted!” We might be told to mind our own business and keep our nose of other people’s affairs. But Jesus tells us that we are our brothers and sisters keepers (Gen 4:8-10; 1 Peter 3:8), and it’s our business, our obligation, to show our love for them by calling them to change their direction when they’re headed for misery, pain, and self-destruction. Out of love Jesus says to every man and woman, “Repent and turn your life around.”
Jesus’ Church must preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins to all nations so they can experience God actually saving them. The Church embraces everyone who accepts Jesus’ conditions, not on the conditions of those who want to be admitted into her world. Most of us have some regrets in life – something we did, didn’t do, or sinned against others. Now we wish we could erase that part of our life or handle a relationship differently. But if we repent God will forgive us and we can make restitution.
It’s interesting to observe that people have a need to confess the wrong things they have done as is witnessed in phone-in confession lines, etc. Unresolved guilt is one of the great problems in people’s lives. It emerges in physical disorders, sleeplessness, depression, and numerous problems in building relationships. Many people aren’t even aware that it’s a problem. Because people are confused about the nature of sin, or because they don’t realize they are sinners, they aren’t aware of their need for the grace of repentance and the gift of forgiveness. The nature of sin is that we put ourselves at the center of the world and push God and others out. We sin when we use others for our own ends. We sin when we don’t live up to our potential as God’s children. We sin when we become takers rather than givers. We sin when we ignore God’s commandments. Sin creates division, distrust, disrespect whether in thought, word or action. Sin makes us less human and less alive as God’s people.
We read in St. John’s Letter (1 Jn 2:1-5; 1 Jn 1:8-10)): “Those who say, ‘I know Him,’ but do not keep His commandments are liars, and the truth is not in them.” “Any man who says he has no sin is a liar.” At every Mass we begin by acknowledging ourselves as sinners “in what we have done and in what we have failed to do.” We all need to repent and seek forgiveness. This is why the Mass is the ordinary means of forgiveness for our venial sins and the sacrament of Reconciliation is the Sacrament is the visible sign in which Jesus offers us forgiveness when we repent of our grave and mortal sins.
Turning our life around and receiving God’s forgiveness in the Name of Christ is what Jesus empowers us in and through His Church. This is why we need the Church so desperately in today’s world where sin abounds and people seem too proud to seek forgiveness or fool themselves into thinking they have no sin. The lack of repentance and forgiveness dooms us to eternal suffering and deprives humanity of the grace of salvation which Jesus won on the Cross and makes available through His Church. The greatest thing anyone can do for himself or herself is to repent, seek forgiveness and be converted to Jesus Christ as a member of His Church where He offers forgiveness to the repentant soul. This is what Jesus made possible through His Passion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension. (fr. sean)
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Fr Sean again:
There’s only One Saviour and One Church
One of the worst illusions is the belief that we can save ourselves from sin and make ourselves happy. Adam and Eve bought into this lie in the Garden of Eden. Another form of that lie prevalent today, even espoused by some Church leaders, is called universalism. This is the belief that every human being will eventually be saved regardless of their religion. That belief contradicts Jesus who stated unequivocally: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn 14:6), and “Whoever acknowledges me before men I will acknowledge before my Father in heaven. Whoever disowns me before men I will disown before my Father in Heaven” (Mt 10:32-33). He didn’t say, “I’m only one way, truth, and life among many.” Jesus is the only One who can save us from our sins. Outside His Church there’s no salvation and those who don’t belong to His Church depend on the merits of His One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church for their salvation. Jesus revealed to Peter and the other apostles as His Church’s leaders, “He who hears you hears me. He who rejects you rejects me. And he who rejects me, rejects Him who sent me” (Lk 10:16). Neither Buddha, Mahomet, nor Confucius, nor anyone else can save us from eternal death except Jesus because He alone was raised from the dead by His Father and now sits at the right hand of God as the judge of the living and the dead (Col 3:1). Only those who die believing in Him and embracing His Church, His Bride on earth, will be saved. This is why Jesus urgently commissioned His disciples: “Full authority has been given to me both in heaven and on earth; go, therefore and make disciples of all the nations. Baptize that in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Teach them to carry out everything I have commanded you. And know that I am with you always, until the end of the world!” (Mt 28:18-20). He ordered them to teach what He taught them, not their own opinions or some synodal way. This is why Catholics are obligated out of love for others to bring them the truth that Jesus is the only Saviour.
We can neither save ourselves from selfishness and sin, nor perfect ourselves. If we could save ourselves we certainly wouldn’t suffer, let alone die. Why, as intelligent creatures, do people think and behave so unintelligently? Instead of embracing Jesus as the Truth people make up their own truth which is founded on their opinion that are as flawed as they are. Jesus is the only person in history who conquered death through His Resurrection. Therefore, He’s the only one who can show us how to rise from death. He alone shows us the only path to joy, peace, and a happiness that lasts forever. Peter, the head of the Apostles, “filled with the Holy Spirit”, reminds us that, “There is no salvation in anyone else, nor is there any name under Heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved” (Acts 4:10-12), apart from Jesus. Knowing that He was the only means of entry into Heaven, Jesus commissioned and commanded His Apostles to bring this good news to the whole world. St. Paul reiterated Jesus’ command when he said, “Now you must realize that this salvation of God has been transmitted to the gentiles – who will heed it” (Acts 28:28).
How does Jesus save us? Through uniting us with Him in His One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. He prayed that His followers, and through their witness, that all peoples would be united with Him in His Church. “I do not pray for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their word, that all may be one as You, Father, are in me, and I in You; I pray that they may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent me” (Jn 17:20-21). Jesus saves us by making us His adopted brothers and sisters through baptism into His Church where He’s present to each member in the preaching of His Word and in the Sacraments. There He intimately nourishes our soul by giving us the gift of Himself especially in the Holy Mass which is the re-presentation of His sacrifice on the Cross. There we are privileged to receive the “… love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called children of God… we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 Jn 3:1-2). Have you received that love as He unites your suffering to His and asks His Father to bless you in your suffering?
If love is the essence of Christianity - the glue of togetherness through repentance and forgiveness - why are there divisions among those who call themselves Christian? How can we love God if we don’t love one another? We can’t. Jesus identified Himself as the “Good Shepherd” (Jn 10:11) who has an intimate relationship with His flock and also cares for those who are not yet members. “I know my sheep, and mine know me in the same way that the Father knows me and I know the Father. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must lead them too, and they shall hear my voice. There shall be one flock then, one shepherd” (Jn 10:16). Jesus shows clearly that there can only be “one fold,” one universal Church, led by “one shepherd,” the Vicar of Christ, Peter and his successors. This is Jesus’ visible community to which those outside it are invited to join, not on their conditions but on Jesus’ conditions, namely by obeying His commandments. Jesus’ Church, under the leadership of the Apostles’ successors, re-sounds His voice calling all people to be saved through entering and participating in His “one fold” as His “one flock” shepherded by Him until the end of time. Anybody who tries to build a fold and collect a flock outside of the Church founded by Jesus on Peter causes division. Division is always a sign of Satan’s activity generating confusion and dissension. As Christians we need to keep our eyes on Jesus and pray daily with the Psalmist: “Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, for His mercy endures forever. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes.” (Ps 118:1)
Division among Christians weakens the Church’s effectiveness as Jesus’ visible sign of His saving presence in the world. It’s an absurdity for Christians not to be united in one family. The Holy Spirit revealed that “There is one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all, and works through all, and is in all” (Eph 4:5-6). To heal division and restore unity, Jesus empowered His Church to administer the Sacrament of Reconciliation so that her members may repent of their sins, be forgiven, and reconciled to God and to one another in order to witness His mission of supernatural and unconditional love. The human love with which we naturally love must be nourished with God’s supernatural love if we’re to mirror Jesus’ love, truthfully, mercifully, and justly. God’s spirit of love - the Holy Spirit - decries division since He leads everyone into the loving union enjoyed by Jesus and His Father. There’s only one Saviour and only one Church. This is God’s will for us to be done on earth as it is in Heaven. (fr sean)
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Fr Sean again.
Are You Well-Connected?
Bishop Fulton Sheen noted that the greatest insult you could heap on someone is to say he or she is useless. No one is useless. God creates everyone at the moment of conception with the ability to make a positive difference in the world. A reporter asked a businessman how he got to be so wealthy. He said that when he and his wife married they had only five cents between them. “I bought an apple, polished it and sold it for ten cents. Then I bought two apples for ten cents and sold them for twenty.” The reporter asked, “Then what?” The man smiled, “My relative died and left us twenty million!” Good connections make all the difference. To be successful in life we must have good connections. It’s not what we know but who we know that we can rely upon for help to achieve our goals. It is not what we know about Heaven that will get us there but who we know.
In a book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey identified the key habits that enable people to be successful. He showed that effective people are proactive instead of reactive; they begin with the end in sight, put first things first, think win-win, seek to understand before seeking to be understood, synergize, and continue improving their skills. Habits, good or bad, are actions that we do repeatedly until they become embedded in our unconsciousness so that they become second nature to us. Our actions flow from our intellect and will, both of which are faculties of our soul. To develop good habits we need to seed our minds with the kind of thoughts that when planted in our soul shape us into effective people. To be effective Christians we must seed our minds with God’s thoughts and plant them in our soul. As God’s creatures our effectiveness depends on our adherence to the purpose which He gives us. Connection to the Creator assures us of achieving our purpose which is to know, love, and serve Him here on earth and after death to be with Him forever in Heaven.
How do we connect with God? By letting God connect with us first. “It was not you who chose me, it was I who chose you to go forth and bear fruit” (Jn 15:16). How does God connect with us? He initiates His connection with us through Jesus’ presence in His Church in the Sacrament of Baptism. There Jesus enables us to “put on the new nature created in God’s image, whose justice and holiness are born of truth” (Eph 4:24), giving us a new identity, a new nature, and a new destiny as His adopted brother or sister. We can’t be effective if our sinful nature isn’t replaced by a new loving, life-respecting nature. The highly effective Christian, as is evidenced in the saints, is the man or woman who thinks and acts humbly, justly, mercifully, gracefully, and truthfully. Faith, hope, charity, humility, prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance, peace-making, prayerfulness, worship, and service are the habits of an effective Christian.
To be an effective Christian community or parish or diocese we need to be continually connected to Jesus. That’s why He founded His Church on Peter to be His Bride, His Body on earthHe is the source of Christian fruitfulness. “I am the true vine and my Father is the vine-grower … Live on in me, as I do in you… I am the vine, you are the branches. He who lives in me and I in him, will produce abundantly, for apart from me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:4-5). Effective Christianity is impossible without Jesus since He is the vine and we are the branches. When we try to be effective while ignoring Jesus we, like branches cut off from the vine, wither and die. This is why so many baptized people have rendered themselves ineffective workers in the vineyard of the Lord.
How does Jesus make us effective Christians? Through His Church’s Sacraments, especially in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass where we hear His Word, celebrate His real Presence in the Holy Eucharist, the re-presentation of His sacrifice on the Cross, and receive Him in Holy Communion. In that action of His, through the ordained priest, Jesus visibly inserts us into Himself as the branch is connected to the vine, and energizes our soul so that we can go out and effectively promote life, love, and enthusiasm in a world wallowing in death, hate, and apathy. This is a real connection with Jesus, not a symbolic gesture, as He Himself revealed. “Let me solemnly assure you, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. He who feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has life eternal, and I will raise him up on the last day” (Jn 6:53-54). Jesus isn’t speaking symbolically but literally. He makes the reception of Him in Holy Communion the essential and effective nourishment for our soul: “For my flesh is real food and my blood real drink. The man who feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in Him” (Jn 6:56). No one can be in Christ unless Christ is in him or her. Thus Jesus guarantees a continual connection with Him since we need on-going spiritual nourishment to be effective witnesses to what is real, true, good, and beautiful. This is why He commanded His Apostles on Holy Thursday when He instituted the Holy Eucharist and ordained the Apostles to the priesthood to “Do this in memory of me!” (Lk 22:19).
Jesus is the best connection we can ever have since He is the only one who has risen from the dead and has the power to raise us up from suffering and death. We couldn’t be better connected because He alone enables us to achieve the fullness of our potential. Look at the difference in Paul when Jesus connected him to Himself. He alone enables us to “love not in word and speech but in deed and in truth …and love one another just as He commanded us” (1 Jn 3:18-24). Actions speak louder than words. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit obeying the Ten Commandments assures us that God has connected us to Him. “Those who keep His commandments remain in Him, and He in them, and the way you know that He remains in us is from the Spirit He gave us.” The Holy Spirit urges us to “let the coming generations be told of the Lord that they may proclaim to a people yet to be born the justice he has shown” (Ps 22:26-32). If we’re not connected to Jesus we can’t hand on the Faith to our children. And since only Jesus can make human beings effective persons in a fallen world, if our children aren’t connected to Him they’re doomed to failure in eternal death. Is this the legacy we want to hand on to them? Wouldn’t that be an act of injustice to them? Don’t they deserve the best from their bishops, priests, and parents? Jesus acts justly towards us in His Church where He makes it possible to be connected to Him and thus achieve the fullness of our potential, namely to be God’s image and likeness and be co-heirs with Him (Rom 8:17) to His Kingdom. There is no connection with anyone that’s more important than being connected to Christ Jesus. Without that connection we wither and die and leave the world a worse place. (fr sean
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Fr Sean again.
Love Is Command, Not a Feeling
The singer, Tina Turner, sang, “Oh what’s love got to do with it? / What’s love but a second class emotion? / Who needs a heart/ When a heart can be broken?” The fact is that love’s got everything to do with everything that’s real, true, good, and beautiful. Since the word ‘love’ is too often used superficially to express what’s basically selfish, its true meaning is distorted. A meaningless description of love is to say “love is love.” In the area of human sɛҳuąƖity most of what’s called love is simply lust because it degrades chastity. A more descriptive word for love is ‘charity’. To be charitable is to be caring. Charity comes from Old English and means “service to the poor” or the “Christian love in its highest manifestation.” To be charitable is to hold someone or something dear to us. It’s love in its highest and broadest sense. To love is to wish good to another and contribute to his or her wellness and integrity. Love, for Christians, and indeed for anyone who wants to enter Heaven, isn’t simply a feeling or a second class emotion. It’s a command from Jesus. Christians, if they want to be faithful to Jesus, have no option when it comes to being charitable. Christians are commanded to love one another and indeed everyone else as well. We must love our enemies. Real love is difficult because it demands sacrifice and forgiveness. Perhaps this is the reason why so many turn away from Jesus Christ and His Church. They want to define love on their terms rather than on Jesus’ terms. When we define love on our terms it isn’t love at all.
Love is of God because He is love (1 Jn 4:7). God’s nature is to love. Love must reflect God if it is to be true. It’s one of the three divine virtues, along with faith and hope. As a supernatural virtue, love is a gift from God which we cannot create on our own. Therefore for love to be real, it must reflect what God wants for us. Otherwise what’s called love is purely selfishness. This is what breaks hearts and betrays trust. What looks like love on the surface is self-serving underneath. Real love is by its nature self-giving, sacrificial, Godly. Jesus reveals that, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (Jn 15:13). To love means to serve the good of others. Jesus told His Apostles that, “The greatest among you will be the one who serves the rest” (Mt. 23:11). The greatest, in Jesus’ eyes, is the one who sacrifices the most, namely the one who gives without seeking a reward; the one who makes another’s integrity and wellbeing his or her first priority. This is what counteracts egotism and sinfulness. It makes the good of others my concern rather than my own desires. The more I’m concerned with the wellbeing of others the less tempted I’ll be to become self-obsessed. In today’s world we seem to be more self-obsessed than ever before as is evidenced in the popularity of so-called “selfies” and the need to be “liked.” Are we starved for attention? Are we afraid that no one notices us? We forget that the best way to get attention or be noticed is to attend to and notice others. A prayer has St. Francis reminding us that “It’s in pardoning that we are pardoned; in giving to all men that we receive. And in dying that we’re born to eternal life.” That makes us channels of God’s peace comforting others.
The pop culture’s shallow humanistic understanding sees love as self-gratification. Human love fades as is evidenced in the proliferation of broken relationships. Only God’s love lasts because it’s real and is freely chosen. Jesus tells us that true love isn’t love if God’s Commandments are disobeyed. Jesus demonstrated love and showed us what it entails in His life on earth. “As the Father loves me, so I love you … If you keep my commandments you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in His love” (Jn 15:9). We don’t love God if we disobey His Commandments. Missing Holy Mass on Sunday through our own fault is a rejection of the 1st and 3rd Commandments and it demonstrates a refusal to love God. This is a mortal sin and requires repentance and Confession in order to get back in God’s good graces. In obedience to His Father’s commandments Jesus showed His love for us by freely reaching out to us to save us from our sinfulness and enabling us to be productive men and women. “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain” (Jn 15:16). In freely choosing us, Jesus put us before Himself. He chose to save everyone who wanted to be saved from their sinfulness. St. Peter told the first members of Jesus’ Church, “In truth, I see that God shows no partiality. Rather, in every nation whoever fears Him and acts uprightly is acceptable to Him” (Acts 10:34). To fear God is to make sure that we don’t lose our relationship with Him because our eternal happiness totally depends on His love. To act uprightly means humbly obeying God’s commandments that keep us on the path that leads to Heaven. If God, who is love, shows no partiality then we must practise a love that’s impartial. A loving parent loves each child impartially. He or she doesn’t discriminate but is equally just and merciful in service to each child. Since Jesus wants everyone to be saved from sin, which can only be achieved by living charitably, He commands His followers to love. “This I command you: love one another” (Jn 15:17). That means we must be willing to repent of our sins, seek forgiveness and be willing to forgive one another. Forgiveness is loving as God loves. Sin is the loss of friendship with God and renders us as unloving creatures.
Jesus didn’t command us to love when we feel like it but rather to choose to love continually. We cannot do this without the aid of the Holy Spirit who purifies our human spirit and helps us develop a charitable attitude. What does love or charity look like in our relationships? A newsletter called “Vision” pictures love as a choice rather than a feeling: “It’s silence when your words would hurt; it’s patience when another is curt; it’s deafness when some gossip flows; it’s compassion for another’s woes; it’s courage when misfortune falls; it’s firmness when one’s duty calls; it’s restitution made when due; it’s forgiving when asked of you.” This is charity in action. How do I know when I am loving? Your answers to the following questions tell you: Am I concerned for the other’s good? Do I acknowledge and affirm the other’s accomplishments? Do I have deep respect and reverence for the other? Do I contribute to the other’s integrity? Do I nurture the other’s gifts? Am I generous towards the other? A caring person answers “Yes” to each of these questions. No one cares more about us than Jesus Christ. We will choose to act lovingly when we let God’s charity toward us fill our hearts. Jesus expresses the greatest act of charity towards us in the Holy Mass where He lays down His life for us. Imagine a world where charity reigns! It is possible through, with, and in Jesus Christ truly present in His Church. (fr sean)
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Fr Sean again.
Heaven’s Door Is Opened
The Ascension of Jesus marked the end of His mission on earth, namely to open Heaven’s door to mankind that had been closed since Adam and Eve sinned. For the first time, humanity entered Heaven in the Person of Jesus who brought His glorified human body into Heaven. It signified the new hope that man and woman could enjoy eternal happiness through following Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life. God originally created man and woman to enjoy perfect happiness in Paradise. Their only requirement was to “Fill the earth and subdue it… (and) not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Gn 1: 28; 2:17). But Satan tempted them into thinking that they could be equal to God. In eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil Satan tricked them into thinking that they could determine what was good and evil themselves without having to rely on God’s wisdom. Thus they were led to think they could be gods and be independent of God. Satan lied. Mankind, destined by God for a life of happiness, now doomed themselves to a life of suffering and death because without God, who alone is good (Mk 10:18), they wouldn't be able to distinguish good from evil and so became subject to Satan’s lies. They lost their joyful life in Eden. “The Lord God therefore banished him from the garden of Eden” (Gn 3:23). Man and woman lost God’s protection and guidance and couldn’t redeem themselves from Satan’s grip that brought eternal suffering and death. Heaven was closed to them. All that awaited them was toil and hopelessness. As Dante wrote in his Divine Comedy, the sign over the gate to hell read: “Abandon hope all ye who enter here.”
Jesus’ ascension into Heaven restored the hope of Heavenly happiness. This is why Jesus’ Ascension, as an article of Christian faith enshrined in the Nicene Creed, is worthy of joyful celebration. This is what sets the Christian Faith apart from all other religions. Christianity is the cake and Heaven is the icing. Christianity is the only religion that can assure its followers of entry to Heaven because its founder, Jesus Christ, is the only way to Heaven (Jn 10:9-16). The opportunity to go to Heaven makes life worth living despite suffering and death. To enter Heaven as the dot on our horizon fills us with hope and gives us a reason to begin each day with Faith in Jesus as He leads us to His heavenly home and into the arms of His loving Father. Jesus’ Ascension set the foundation for that hope. As St. Paul assures us, “This hope will not leave us disappointed, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Rom 5:5). His prayer for us is, “May the eyes of your heart be enlightened that you may know the hope that belongs to His call” (Eph 1:18).
Jesus commissioned Peter and the other Apostles, as the first priests of His Church, to “Go out into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature … teach them everything that I taught you” (Mk 16:15). We detect a sense of urgency in Jesus’ command. Why? God creates everyone to enjoy His love, so He wants to save everyone from hell which is a loveless eternity. Therefore He wants everyone to hear and live the Good News that He taught, lived, and fulfilled in His Ascension. He promised Peter and the other apostles that He would ask His Father to send the Holy Spirit to His Church. The Holy Spirit would provide the wisdom and energy required to embrace Jesus, obey His commandments, and enter Heaven with Him. He promised His Apostles that, “John baptized with water, but within a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:5). To be baptized is to be cleansed spiritually, which means to be free from the grip of Satan and save our soul from corruption by sinful actions. The Holy Spirit’s truth exposes Satan’s lies and makes us wise to his wiles and ways so we can identify and resist his false promises. Jesus promised them: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes down on you; then you are to be my witnesses … to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)
Jesus was referring to Pentecost when the Holy Spirit would transform them into His courageous witnesses willing to die for their Faith in Him. What would they witness? The fact that God is their Father-Provider, Jesus their Redeemer, the Holy Spirit their Sanctifier, good conquers evil and the promise of a joyful life after death. Heaven’s door is now opened and God welcomes all who are judged worthy of entering. How does one enter? By freely embracing Jesus as Lord and Saviour in the Sacrament of Baptism making us members of His Church, and obeying His commandments under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Baptism is the beginning of the journey that’s completed in Heaven. Jesus told His Apostles that acceptance or rejection of His Gospel determines our salvation or damnation. “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned” (Mk 16:16). Jesus has opened the door to Heaven but everyone has a choice to either accept or reject what’s necessary to gain entry. The difference in consequences is drastic. That’s why Jesus tells us, “Enter through the narrow gate. The gate that leads to damnation is wide, the road is clear, and many choose to travel it. But how narrow is the road that leads to life, how rough the road, and how few there are who find it!” (Mt 7:13- 15); “Try to come in through the narrow door. Many, I tell you, will try to enter and be unable” (Lk 13:24).
The power of the Holy Spirit was visible in the Apostles as “They went forth and preached everywhere while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through accompanying signs” (Mk 16:20). The signs were both miraculous and sacramental. The greatest sign of all that Jesus was with them through the power of His Spirit was the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Sacrament of Reconciliation. As Jesus has ascended into Heaven, so can you and me by entering His company, which begins here on earth in His Church. Jesus’ Ascension calls us, in the words of the Psalmist, to proclaim to the world, “God mounts His throne amid should of joy … sing praise to our King, sing praise” (Ps 472-9). We need to pray each day that the Lord judges us fit for Heaven. “Lord, teach us goodness, discipline, and wisdom, and these gifts will keep us from becoming hardened by evil, weakened by laziness, or ignorant because of foolishness” (Liturgy of the Hours). The Ascension reminds us that for believers the best is still ahead. (fr sean)
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Fr Sean again.
Pentecost: Jesus’ Church in Action
Jєωs from all over the world were in Jerusalem to celebrate God’s gift of the 10 Commandments through Moses (Ex 20) and the Feast of Weeks (Acts 2:1-11). The Babylonians dispersed their ancestors 500 years earlier when they conquered the Kingdom of Judah. On Pentecost, they came together to remember their history, their Charter (Commandments), and give thanks to Yahweh for His blessings.
A much smaller group of Jєωs also gathered in Jerusalem, but for different reasons. Peter, the other apostles and disciples were huddled together in prayer waiting expectantly for the Holy Spirit promised by Jesus. They were anxious about their future. Jerusalem was the scene of the brutal death of Jesus. His enemies were their enemies. While in prayer something marvelous happened to this little anxious but faithful band. Suddenly their fear was replaced by a spirit of courage and a zeal that was unimaginable. They left the security of the upper room and took to the streets led by Peter publicly proclaiming their faith in Jesus as the risen Lord and Messiah sent by God to save the world from sin.
What happened to Peter and the others? They received the Holy Spirit who empowered them to show that the goodness of God is stronger than man’s worst inhumanity and stupidity. The Spirit of Truth spoke through Peter and was heard by all despite their different languages. Truth and Faith transcend language. Babel was reversed. The Holy Spirit influences and guides every human spirit that is receptive to Him. He is the Spirit of Truth. There is only one Truth, namely Jesus Christ. Everyone who embraces that Truth is free to speak it. Why? Because the Truth frees us from the lies that we shouldn’t speak it lest it offend or hurt others. The truth hurts or offends only when we try to deny our sin. People who are guided by the Spirit of Truth can’t help but recognize Jesus Christ as the one who gives us the grace of repentance and the gift of forgiveness.
Since the Spirit fully reflects God, and God is a Community of Persons, the Spirit automatically creates community among all who receive Him. When people say they are “spirit-filled” but promote or contribute to disunity they’re led by the spirit of evil, not the Spirit of God.
St. Paul highlights the Spirit as the power that enables people to recognize Jesus as Lord (1 Cor 12:3) so that all may unite with Him and with one another in Jesus’ Church. He uses the metaphor of the human body to show how the Spirit works in everyone for the good of the whole (1 Cor 12:12-13). He explains that every organ in the body performs its own unique task to keep the whole body healthy. If an organ refused its task, the body would become diseased. The body needs all of its organs to function fully for the sake of its overall health. Each member of the Church is an organ of Jesus’ body on earth. Since “to each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit,” St. Paul points out that the Holy Spirit equips every member of the Church with gifts to be used for the health, wealth, happiness, and efficiency of the whole Church body. Just as non-functioning body parts damage a person’s health, so also non-functioning members of the Church damage the Body of Christ on earth. Listen to St. Paul’s inspired words: “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jєωs or Greeks, slaves or free persons, we were all given to drink of one Spirit.” The Holy Spirit, when embraced, generates unity among Jesus’ followers that gives credibility to His saving presence before a fallen world. Those who call themselves Christian but aren’t active participants in the Church haven’t embraced the Holy Spirit and, as a result, haven’t accept Jesus as Lord and the Church as His body, His Bride.
1054 was a sad day for Christ’s body when the Patriarch of Constantinople declared the Church in the East to be no longer united under the leadership of the Successor of Peter and so caused a rupture in Christ’s body. It was a sad day for the Body of Christ when Martin Luther declared that the Bible was so self-evident and clear that men and women didn’t need any teaching authority to tell them how it should be correctly interpreted thereby creating Protestantism. He was not guided by the Holy Spirit. He called the Pope, Leo X, the antichrist. It’s interesting that there’s never been unity in Protestantism. The Truth never creates division except between those who embrace it and those who don’t. It doesn’t make sense for people to say they adhere to the same Truth, Jesus Christ, and don’t worship together. This is a scandal and weakens the Church’s ability to witness Jesus’ saving presence in the world.
One of the reasons the Church on that first Pentecost was so powerful was because Peter and all the others, including Jesus’ Mother, were united in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. They presented a united front to all in Jerusalem. Their unity with Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit and their willingness to die for that unity raised more than the eyebrows of the bystanders who heard Peter explain what was happening. It raised their curiosity and spurred their conversion. The strength of the Church down through the ages has been her adherence to what Peter and the other apostles experienced on Pentecost under the guidance of the Spirit of Truth expressed in her unity of governance, sacramental system, prayer and worship, theology, and service. The Mass is the ultimate expression of her unity with Jesus where the people identify themselves as sons and daughters of God, brothers and sisters of Jesus, celebrating His New Covenant and entering into a Holy Communion with Him empowered by the Holy Spirit. The Mass has been the constant and consistent sign of the Church’s unity with Her Lord and Redeemer under the guidance of His Spirit of Truth assuring her of His presence and the continuity of His teaching until the end of time. The Church herself declares, “The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life” and “the font from which she draws her energy and the center toward which she draws all her members.” The Mass has been, is now, and will continue to be the sign of Jesus’ one true Church in action in the world. In the Mass, we constantly identify ourselves as sinners and, as such, a people in constant need of forgiveness of venial sin made available in the Mass itself and grave and mortal sin in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. This Sunday, when you participate in the Holy Mass, remember you’re part of the Church, which Jesus and His Father has empowered through Their gift of the Holy Spirit. We cannot know Jesus without the Holy Spirit who came to us in Baptism and Confirmation and whom we invite every day to guide, purify, strengthen and inspire our human spirit. Let our prayer be, “Come, Holy Spirit, fill our hearts with Your divine love and unite us with Jesus and His heavenly Father and with one another. Amen!” (fr sean)
Act of Consecration to the Holy Spirit
On my knees / before the great multitude of heavenly witnesses / I offer myself, soul and body / to Thee O Eternal Spirit of God. / I adore the brightness of Thy purity / the unerring keenness of Thy justice / and the might of Thy love. Thou art the Strength / and Light of my soul. / In Thee I live and move and am. / I desire never to grieve Thee by unfaithfulness to grace, and I pray with all my heart to be kept from the smallest sin against Thee. / Mercifully guard my every thought / and grant that I may always watch for Thy light / and listen to Thy voice / and follow Thy gracious inspirations. / I cling to Thee / and give myself to Thee / and ask Thee / by Thy compassion / to watch over me in my weakness. / Holding the pierced feet of Jesus / and looking at His five Wounds / and trusting in His Precious Blood / and adoring His opened side and stricken Heart / I implore Thee / Adorable Spirit / Helper of my infirmity, / so to keep me in Thy grace / that I may never sin against Thee. / Give me grace / O Holy Ghost, / Spirit of the Father and of the Son / to say to Thee always and everywhere / “Speak, Lord / for Thy servant is listening.”
Prayer for the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit
O Lord Jesus Christ / Who, before ascending into heaven / did promise to send the Holy Ghost / to finish Thy work / in the souls of Thine Apostles and Disciples / deign to grant the same Holy Spirit to me / that He may perfect in my soul / the work of Thy grace and Thy love. / Grant me the Spirit of Wisdom / that I may despise the perishable things of this world / and aspire only after the things / that are eternal, / the Spirit of Understanding, to enlighten my mind with the light of Your divine truth, / the Spirit of Counsel / that I may choose / the surest way of pleasing God / and gaining heaven, / the Spirit of Fortitude / that I may bear my cross with Thee / and that I may overcome with courage all the obstacles that oppose my salvation, / the Spirit of Knowledge that I may know God and know myself / and grow perfect in the science of the Saints, / the Spirit of Piety / that I may find the service of God sweet and amiable, / the Spirit of Fear of the Lord / that I may be filled with a loving reverence towards God, and may dread in any way to displease Him. / Mark me, dear Lord, / with the sign of Thy true disciples / and animate me in all things with Thy Spirit. / Amen.