Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two
So they went off and preached repentance.

In one of the tracks from Juana Molina’s album Son, titled Las Culpas, she sings —I want to see everybody’s faults on the table but my own—.

That resonates with you doesn’t it. It certainly hit home with me. We love it, rubbernecking at the accidents in someone’s life, gawking at the carnage in a relationship, dwelling on the faults of others as a sort of buffer against dealing with our own issues.

It all comes down to how you view Jesus doesn’t it. Do you view Jesus as what He said He is, the way —“ the way to eternal life, a path to be followed throughout life? Do you view Him as the truth and the life —“ a life that is unlike our everyday existence? Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. This is something we have to adopt. It is a choice we all must make.

As you sit in those pews, as I stand here, have we made a conscious choice to throw off the worldly life and adopt Jesus’ life as our own?

Tough choice isn’t it? It is a choice between comfort and hardship, a choice between what I want and what I have been asked to do. It is giving up your self will for complete freedom. The freedom found not in today’s world or tomorrow’s world, but in the Kingdom of God. It is the choice the apostles made when they took up their walking sticks and sandals and went out without purse or food.

Repentance is the key. Repentance is the road. We have to get on that road and work hard everyday to achieve the Kingdom.

It starts with prayer when you wake, and a firm resolve to change your life, to be renewed each day, and to look on the new day as God’s gift for your conversion and repentance. You have received what you need to begin as Paul tells us:

In Him you also, who have heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation, and have believed in Him,
were sealed with the promised holy Spirit,
which is the first installment of our inheritance
toward redemption as God’s possession, to the praise of his glory.

As you pass that morning routine and go out into the world you must take on the mantle of Amos who told Amaziah:

“The LORD took me from following the flock, and said to me,
Go, prophesy to my people Israel.—

You are sent out as a disciple and prophet. You are to live your life in a state of conversion, repentance, and a resolve to follow the way, truth, and life. You are sent out like Amos and the apostles, to teach the Lord’s way. You are sent out to do this by your words, example, and by the change people will see in your heart.

In writing about spiritual rebirth Bishop Hodur said:

The reborn man also knows different joys and different sorrows.

The worldly man considers himself successful when he is able, in some degree, to satisfy his sensual drives and desires; when his ambitions are realized; when he acquires wealth; when he defeats his adversaries; when he enjoys good health; when his fellow men hold him in respect, even though this may have been gained by falsehood and hypocrisy. He grieves if he is deprived of one or more of these essentials of his existence.

How differently the truly religious, reborn man finds his happiness!

The basis of his happiness does not lie in the conditions and elements of his worldly life. It comes, rather, from within himself, from his soul, and especially. from his relationship with God, the first and final source of true and untroubled contentment.

At the end of your day consider those things. How did you treat the day, the people around you, and the world? Do a daily examination of conscience and resolve to begin the next day back on the road to God.

Prayer, resolve, action, and reflection.

It comes down to how you view Jesus: Jesus as the whip and battering ram, the foil with which you will enumerate the faults of others, or Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life by whom you will be changed, destroying your sins so that you may attain everlasting life.

Live by Jesus and you will be free. Live in Jesus and you will live forever.

[dels]homilies, sermons[/dels]

Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him,
turned around in the crowd and asked, —Who has touched my clothes?—

How many times have we heard magical stories, stories where a person is imbued with tremendous, mysterious, magical powers?

In those stories the magician or the genie reaches a point where their power is simply no more. They’ve expended what they had. The genies’ three wishes are gone —“ he can give no more. Harry Potter stands emptied of his power and couldn’t even conjure a candy bar after expending his energy. I’m sure you can fill in other stories from your memory.

In today’s Gospel we hear something that may cause us to leap to that conclusion, ‘[the] power had gone out from Him.’ Had Jesus been mysteriously reduced? Was his mojo gone? This is tragic, he’s on his way to cure a very sick little girl and this woman steals His power!

Look at the whole story. What do the story of Jarius’ daughter and the woman cured of a hemorrhage have in common?

They have acts of faith in common.

The woman with a hemorrhage stole nothing from Jesus. What she did was to give a gift. She gave her faith to Jesus and she showed her people what the gift of faith in Jesus can accomplish.

Jesus is God. He cannot be reduced in power or stature because He is, in Himself, everything.

Jesus confirms the gift of healing bestowed on the woman by stopping and allowing her to publicly profess her faith. She took Jesus up on his offer and stood forth among all the people of that community, who certainly thought she was cursed, and she professed her faith.

Now if you were Jarius what would you be thinking? Get this woman out of our way? Jesus, she’s cured, let’s hurry up. Jesus, my daughter!!!

As Jarius is standing there, maybe a little relieved that Jesus is almost done with this woman’s problem, his householders appear. They were pretty matter-of-fact:

—Your daughter has died; why trouble the teacher any longer?—

Jarius is devastated, Jesus, undiminished and not fazed in the least says, ignore them, let’s go, have faith.

Again we see a profession of faith. We see the gift of faith Jarius is giving to Jesus. Jarius is saying that death does not diminish my faith in what You can do Lord.

Jarius had a lot to loose in showing faith in Jesus. He was a synagogue official, most likely part of the Pharisee party. As you know, they didn’t get along with Jesus. Jarius also had stature before the public and in his household. Yet he was able to give all of that up in an instant. Maybe he remembered the passage from Wisdom:

God did not make death,
nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living.

If I go to God in faith all will be well. If I trust in Jesus, even death can be overcome.

Fr. Phil Bloom, in a homily on the same subject, drew an interesting observation about Snow White and her prince. We understand and love this story. Good and evil, life and death, and overcoming death through love, it is all there. The dwarves who are symbols of faith, who endured the death of their princess, await her savior.

If the story of Snow White can be so endearing, if this story can engender so much hope and joy in us, how much more will we experience when we embrace the reality of Jesus.

If I go to God in faith all will be well. If I trust in Jesus, even death can be overcome.

[dels]blogs4god/sermons[/dels]

Huw Raphael had two very interesting posts in regard to —Gay Pride Day— which took place this past Sunday (see What to do for Gay Pride Day and Question: Political Rights).

Huw Raphael asks some serious and probing questions about our Christian response to those who engage in the ‘gay’ lifestyle. I fully agree with the questions he posts and the spirit in which they are intended. Having read his questions, I hope to form a serious response.

In his first post What to do for Gay Pride Day he asks how we as Christians reach out to those who classify themselves as ‘gay’ and who engage in the homosexual lifestyle. Given one chance, what is our witness?

Here is mine:

Look to the love of Christ.

The body of Christ is one. Indeed, the body needs all its parts as St. Paul tells us:

Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

Needing every part makes it incumbent on each of us to reach out regardless of where a person is on their path to God. Further, simple Christian humility, and Jesus’ condemnation of ‘accusers’, tells us that we must not act as judges but should rather be focused on our own journey away from where we are and to heaven.

Jesus looked at the person. He saw them for who they were and where they were. He saw their humanity in proportion to the faith and love within them. He looked for the kind of faith and love that overcomes deficiency and sinfulness. Of course He required them to give up sin in order to reach perfection, but not only. He expected rather that their faith and love shine forth, a clear indication of intent and willingness to come to God’s kingdom.

Jesus fully understood that sin is a component part of every person life in the world, and he severely chastised those who thought themselves to be without sin —“ the Pharisees, the other elites and the hypocrites. He knew that the path to perfection, to wholeness and completeness, requires that those who come to Him focus on love and faith. With that willingness to live in love and faith, to live in full cooperation with God’s grace, to follow the path of prayer and right living shown by Jesus, He promises that we will be brought to perfection.

Are there those who intentionally cut themselves off from the Body of Christ due to serious sinfulness, who reject perfection? Most certainly! Their serious sinfulness is based on intent coupled with chosen separation all the while knowing better.

Being here puts us in a different ballpark. Being here in Church tells the world that we are not choosing separation. Being here shows that we believe in a unity, a love, a joining together that goes beyond what occurs out on the street. We have made the choice to be part of the Body of Christ.

The Church offers the only thing that matters. The Church offers wholeness, completeness, and a road to getting there. The Orthodox call it Theosis, unity with God. Others may call it perfection. Regardless, it is heaven —“ the totality of being all you were meant to be in unity with God.

The Church has more than something to offer. Having something to offer makes us a store and we Christians just salesmen. Rather the Church offers the only thing that matters. The thing being offered is the love of God in life everlasting.

That’s a pretty powerful thing —“ and that is really, when all is said and done, the only thing that matters. You’re not taking your lover, your stuff, or your lifestyle with you when you die. You are only taking one thing —“ the thing —“ your relationship with God.

The Church offers a path from wherever we are to perfection, to heaven, to being complete.

Churchy people tend to have a bent for self righteousness, and a false perfection. Many of us tend to be short on humility. How many people walk out of church on Sunday beating their breast and thanking the Lord even though unworthy, like the publican?

Certainly some more than others —“ but that depends on where they are on the path to wholeness and completeness. Each of us, after being renewed on Sunday morning, goes home and falls into sin. Some can’t even get out of the parking lot before expressing anger.

In humility we need to acknowledge that we are all deficient in some way. We all lack and none of us is whole. While acknowledging my deficiency and sin I tell you very clearly, that regardless of deficiency the Church has the thing needed to cure it. That thing is a person, and that person is Jesus.

When we sin we take a path away from completeness, a sort of degradation of ourselves. When we get on the road to heaven, and decide to work with God and follow Jesus, we make the only choice that has everlasting implications. We choose to put our faith in God and to become who He always intended us to be, we allow our faith and love to shine.

People search for the thing that is all-in-all. They are looking for the holistic —“ the totality of being. They search for a means to treat every problem in as many ways and as naturally as possible. Look at holistic medicine or any other endeavor that has latched on to the word holistic.

The fact is Jesus is the only person that offers genuine totality. He offers natural and perfect freedom from what makes us sick, and He tells us that He is the way to perfection.

He tells us not to worry about the entrapments and ways of the world, not even our own bodies, for none of those things compares to everlasting life. He also shows us by His own example that suffering and death is redemptive. We can be changed, and the world can be changed, by our acts that are in unity with Christ’s redemptive sacrifice.

Each of us wants, desires, and needs. Each of us falls to our urges. The question is what happens afterward. Can we get back on the holistic path —“ the path of Christ, or will wants, desires, needs, and urges control us.

No one can find fulfillment in themselves. No one can fill emptiness with dust. Emptiness can only be filled by what is total and complete —“ God.

Look to the love of Christ. Look to taking your life and putting it on the road to fulfillment. Look to becoming what is perfect. Look to making sense of your life and to filling your life with meaning.

Each of us here is part of the Body of Christ. Your life and the sacrifice and effort you make on the road to God have real meaning —“ they have meaning because they cooperate in the redemption of all.

[dels]blogs4god/sermons[/dels]

He indeed died for all,
so that those who live might no longer live for themselves
but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

What kind of choices do we make when we think we are the definers of faith —“ that is, when we become the source of all revelation and truth?

When we think and act in a way that indicates that we know better than the Church, that tells the world that we are God’s personal interpreters, or that shows a basic lack of humility, we are simply saying that we are the Messiah.

Instead, shouldn’t we focus on minimizing ourselves, and our self revelation, and make choices that are the best from Jesus’ perspective. We need to fall into step with the truth of our Catholic faith as handed down to us through the ages. The truth which repeats the words of Paul: Do not live for yourselves but for him who for your sake died and was raised.

Jesus knew what was in His disciples’ hearts and minds. He knows what is in our hearts and minds as well.

Then he asked them, —Why are you terrified?
Do you not yet have faith?—

When we live for ourselves rather than in unity with Jesus Christ’s teaching, with His Church, we show a lack of faith. When we think we are right and when we neglect to set ourselves aside through prayer and humble compliance, we show our lack of faith.

Would the boat have been destroyed? Would the apostles have perished?

Jesus slept through the whole thing. If they acknowledged the fact that He is the Messiah they would have let Him sleep. They would have had confidence in the truth.

Do you think Jesus is sleeping now, resting on a cushion in the back of the church? Do you think He doesn’t know what’s going on with you and with all His people? Do you lack confidence? Do you lack the faith that is necessary?

Job had a lot of questions for God. Today’s first reading from the Book of Job contains part of God’s response.

The Lord addressed Job out of the storm.

He certainly did, and he said a lot more to Job. Chapter 38 begins as follows:

Then the LORD said:
Who is this that obscures divine plans with words of ignorance?
Gird up your loins now, like a man; I will question you, and you tell me the answers!
Where were you when I founded the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.
Who determined its size; do you know? Who stretched out the measuring line for it?
Into what were its pedestals sunk, and who laid the cornerstone,
While the morning stars sang in chorus and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
And who shut within doors the sea, when it burst forth from the womb;

Who indeed! Who can fathom the mind of God or know His purposes? Who can define what God has created and the purpose behind every event that occurs? Certainly not us!

We must proceed on faith. We must resolve to have the faith that the apostles in the boat lacked. We have to proceed with the faith of Paul and not live for ourselves. We must live in faith, making the choices that the Church teaches are the best. You shouldn’t wait for the sea to be rushing over the boat before you run to Jesus.

In Chapter 40 of the Book of Job the Lord speaks very clearly

The LORD then said to Job:
Will we have arguing with the Almighty by the critic? Let him who would correct God give answer!

Then Job answered the LORD and said:
Behold, I am of little account; what can I answer you? I put my hand over my mouth.

Behold, we are of little account.

We must reconnect with the humility that fits our state as God’s creatures. We must end the doing, the talking, the debating, and the criticism. We must set aside faith in ourselves and our own motivations and step forward to provide what we ourselves and the world so desperately need. We must provide Jesus.

We must seek Him and relate to Him in pure and simple faith, faith that will stand up to any challenge or fear, even to the power of the sea, even to the ways of the world.

Live for Him, for Jesus who died and was raised up for your sake. He holds you in the palm of His hand. He has made you a member of His body. He has saved you. Yes, you and I, we of little faith, who would run to the back of the boat crying out ‘Jesus save us.’

[dels]blogs4god/sermons[/dels]

Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord.

The verse from today’s psalm speaks volumes to us. Our comfort is in the Lord, and that comfort is only fulfilled if we hope in Him.

Jesus focused His discourse from today’s Gospel on the hypocrites, the flashy and the out-there. They did not hope in the Lord, nor did they have any need for Him. What they needed and desired was the acclaim of the world.

If you hope in the world, if you wish to go the way of the world, you will need to seek your comfort there. Guess what, you will not find it. Oh, you may find momentary pleasures, a great meal, an engrossing film, a beautiful vacation, a night of passion. But when it is all over you are left with a need to find the next best thing.

Jesus offers us the eternal best thing —“ heaven. He offers us an eternity in the magnificent presence of the Holy Trinity. All we need to do is find our comfort in Him, in the Lord, in Jesus. There’s no need to look for it, He is always before you.

There are those out there, other so-called Churches, that are seeking to redefine scripture, the Trinity, morality, the sacraments, and the truth of Jesus Christ as the means to salvation.

What they seek has been before them all the while, but they have put their hope in the world, in the current trend, in the moment. They have confused themselves so much that they have become like blind men.

Why did Jesus heal the blind? Was it because he was a nice guy who liked to dabble in healing? No, he healed those who came to Him in faith. He told them, —Your faith has healed you.—

Have faith in the Lord, resolve to follow His ways, repent, bear your cross, and let your hearts take comfort because you have placed your hope in the Lord.

“This is the blood of the covenant
that the LORD has made with you
in accordance with all these words of his.”

In an Essay carried by National Public Radio Marion Winik discussed the process of helping her aged mother clean out her attic. The essay, Cleaning House, and Cherishing Memories started off with the following statement:

Housecleaning is a necessary evil. But at what point do mementoes become clutter — and when should the memories of a home be taken out to the curb?

I listened as Ms. Winik described the things she was getting rid of. She noted that one of the items she was getting rid of was her deceased brother-in-law’s art portfolio.

I had to ask myself why I was shocked by this particular statement. Perhaps it was the fact that the statement was an oxymoron. Here you have an author, an artist of words discarding pieces of art. Maybe I was shocked because art probably represented a lot of this man’s heart and soul —“ art can be the very expression of ones deepest feelings. I felt unsettled and slightly angry. It was in some ways personal. I can imagine people taking what I hold dear —“ for me my writing, and throwing it out as so much trash.

In the end I was most disturbed because I am a Catholic/Christian.

My brothers and sisters,

Today Jesus Christ Himself will re-enact the very sacrifice of Calvary on this altar. Through the hands of the priest and in the priest’s voice Jesus will repeat the very same words found in today’s gospel:

While they were eating,
he took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, gave it to them, and said,
“Take it; this is my body.”
Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them,
and they all drank from it.
He said to them,
“This is my blood of the covenant,
which will be shed for many.
Amen, I say to you,
I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine
until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”

What is ancient will be new. The perpetual memorial will occur right before our eyes as we kneel in adoration. By His sacrifice we will be renewed and cleansed of what is old and dead in us – our sinfulness.

Paul makes this very clear:

For if the blood of goats and bulls
and the sprinkling of a heifer’s ashes
can sanctify those who are defiled
so that their flesh is cleansed,
how much more will the blood of Christ,
who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God,
cleanse our consciences from dead works
to worship the living God.

Once we have received Jesus into our very bodies we will gather as a community to carry out another ancient and holy action. We will place the body of Jesus into the monstrance that has been part of this parish for many years. We will place Him into this artwork, trying as best as we can with our feeble human abilities, to worship, praise, and glorify the living God.

We will sing songs and process with His body. We will go out through the doors of the church and under the open sky, for the entire world to see, we will carry Him, sing to Him, pray to Him, and glorify Him.

The Church in its prayers, devotions, pious actions, processions, and most especially in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass carries out what Christ has commanded us to do.

He told us to pray —“ we do.
He told us to re-enact what He has done —“ we do.
He told us to bear witness before the world —“ and we do.

Our life as Catholic/Christians is completely bound up with our faith and our actions. We come to God in faith. We are regenerated through an act of faith, and we put that faith to work in perpetuity through what we do.

When Ms. Winik threw out a part of her deceased brother-in-law she committed a sin. It is the same sin as anyone who neglects the reality before them in favor of self revelation and symbolic memories.

Ms. Winik not only threw out his memory, she put into action the philosophy of a society that only values the pleasure of the moment. She forgot that man is not just the here and now. She neglected the fact that man is not just a moment. Rather, man is eternal. She forgot that her brother-in-law presented himself in his art. He left something that he intended to last, something that would give his family a glimpse into his soul.

Things are not just things. Some things mean more then what they appear to be. Today we remember in a very special way that this piece of bread is not bread at all. It is the Body of our Lord and God, Jesus Christ. It is God ever before us. It is God among us. It is God united to this world because the world, you and I, are worth saving. It is God with us forever. It cannot be discarded. Jesus left us His body and blood as something that will last. As Catholic/Christians we believe that and we are commanded to teach it.

Take your faith and reclaim the world with it. Tell everyone you know —“ look, here is Jesus in all His reality, look in the Church and find God’s love for us. Every moment of every day He offers us eternity through the body and blood of His Son. It is neither a symbol nor an intellectual exercise; it is what is forever.

[dels]blogs4god/sermons[/dels]

This is why you must now know,
and fix in your heart, that the LORD is God
in the heavens above and on earth below,
and that there is no other.

The world is a changing place. Fortunately God and the Church are not. They remain constant in both their action and in their demands on us.

The first reading from Deuteronomy recounts all the Lord God did for the Jewish people. Moses is telling them to consider what has occurred. He is telling them to remember what they and their ancestors have seen and experienced.

He tells them to remember, worship, and praise God.

Guess what, it didn’t happen.

As soon as the Jewish people had a modicum of security they forgot God. They built altars to Baal. They erected Asherah poles. You know, God did not provide cheap proof of his power. Yet the people still forgot Him.

Take one of the judges, Gideon for example. The Judges came to the forefront when the Jewish people needed help. God called them up to the front to help.

Israel, having forsaken God had been plagued for seven years by incursions of the Madianites and other Eastern tribes. The people were humbled by the invaders. They finally turned to God who sent them a deliverer in the person of Gideon.

Gideon was first called by God while he was threshing wheat. Gideon received the difficult mission of freeing his people. He then built an altar to the Lord. In his second encounter with God on the following night, he was directed to destroy the village altar to Baal, and to erect one to Yahweh. After doing this the people, fresh from calling upon the help of the true God, screamed for Gideon’s death. They wanted to avenge their false god.

Gideon’s father saved his son’s life by a witty taunt, “Let Baal revenge himself!” As an aside, that similar to the story of St. Boniface who chopped down a tree that some people were worshipping as a god. After cutting down the tree he asked the people how their god felt.

Gideon took the lead of Israel against Madian, Amalec, and the other Eastern tribes who had crossed the Jordan, and encamped in the valley of Jezrael. Gideon was accompanied by 32,000 troops from throughout Israel and took up his position not far from the enemy.

But God was out to prove His power. God commanded Gideon to reduce his troop size. From an original army of 32,000 only 300 were left at the end, 300 troops against all the enemies of Israel. Gideon and 300 from the armies of Israel triumphed through the work of God alone. And, what did Israel wish to do? Grateful for their glorious deliverance, Gideon’s countrymen offered to make him a hereditary king.

Gideon declined with these words:

“I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you, but Yahweh shall rule over you.”

Gideon remembered, praised, and worshipped God. Israel already had forgotten who had saved them.

So here we sit on this Solemnity of the Holy Trinity. We sit in this church surrounded by godliness and all that is holy. We sit in the very presence of Jesus Christ in this tabernacle. And we must decide. Who, what, and where is our god? Is God your Lord and master? What about the Baal you keep at home or the office? What about the Asherah pole you have fashioned and set up?

The Jewish people kept their fascination with the Asherah pole right through the Old Testament. God told the people through Moses:

“Do not set up any wooden Asherah pole beside the altar you build to the LORD your God,”

Yet we hear of the people doing that very thing right through the time of the prophet Jeremiah. A pole set up to a false god right next to God’s altar. A pole set up to praise a god who feasted on the sacrifice of children. I guess the people thought that they needed some kind of extra boost the Lord God was not giving them.

So where does your faith lie? Where does your power come from? Moses successor Joshua put it very plainly:

“Now therefore revere the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. Now if you are unwilling to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

St. Paul goes on to tell us that we are co-heirs with Christ.

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit
that we are children of God,
and if children, then heirs,
heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ,

Then he tells us what is required:

if only we suffer with him
so that we may also be glorified with him.

Giving up your false gods and your comforts is not easy —“ but making that change —“ changing your very heart is required. God will not change His mind. God will not go back on His promises to you.

The command of Jesus is constant:

“All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

And He assures us that He is with us always.

That is the God I remember, worship, praise, and adore. That is the God who is constant. That is the God this Church proclaims and serves.

Praise Him today and every day. Love Him with all your heart, mind, soul, and body. Sacrifice and glory in your sufferings if they be for Christ. You are His adopted sons and daughters. There is no greater honor. There is no greater challenge.

When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled,
they were all in one place together.

What does it mean to be a Christian? What is required of you and me in order to be truly Christian?

Today’s readings and gospel give us a whole series of requirements for the Christian life. Let’s look at these requirements.

They were all in one place together.

Coming together in worship, in a community of believers, is indicative of our Christian faith. Christian history is filled with the examples of individuals who excelled in the faith. Yet none lived alone and apart. Even the dessert hermits came together in prayer and for spiritual direction.

Sometimes the struggle of faith seems like such a lonely journey. We think we are like Jacob, in a one-on-one wrestling match with the Almighty. We focus inward and forget the fact that the Holy Spirit was sent to the community, to the group gathered together in one place.

When you seem most alone in your journey, take a moment to reflect on your Christian community, here in this Church. Remember the words that are part of the Canon of the Holy Mass —“ the Eucharistic Prayer:

Remember Your people, Lord, especially our brothers and sisters for whom we now pray. Remember all of us who are present here who truly believe and are devoted to You.

We pray as a community and as Christians, whether living or deceased, we are never alone or outside of the community.

We are to come together as community and as community we are to proclaim God’s mighty acts.

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit
and began to speak in different tongues,
as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.
…of the mighty acts of God.—

We are to proclaim, as a community, and in our individual lives, the things the Spirit prompts us to proclaim. We are to proclaim the truth of Jesus Christ. God’s mighty act of love for our salvation was the giving of His very Son for our salvation.

It is a truth the world likes hearing about less and less. It is an uncomfortable truth, because it is a truth that calls people to do something abhorrent to society. It calls them to sacrifice.

The truth of the Spirit is stronger than the world and we are to have no fear of the world. Even if the world were to kill the body, the truth perseveres. The martyrs attest to that. The martyrs attest to the primacy of self sacrifice.

The world needs to hear us speaking in many tongues and in many ways. The world needs to hear us on television, radio, and the internet. It needs to hear us one-on-one and as a community. It needs ministers, bishops, priests, and deacons who will stand in the forefront and witness to the truth of Jesus Christ. It needs each and every one of you to live and to proclaim the greatness of the Catholic/Christian faith —“ a faith prompted by the Holy Spirit —“ a faith to be proclaimed.

And we receive the gifts necessary for our particular mission.

There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit;
there are different forms of service but the same Lord;
there are different workings but the same God
who produces all of them in everyone.
To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit
is given for some benefit.

We gather as a community to proclaim the Word and as members we are given the gifts fitting to the increase of not only our own faith, but that of the entire world.

The gifts we have received are not without purpose or meaning. God doesn’t do anything that is pointless. He doesn’t give any unnecessary gifts. Therefore, look inward and take stock of your gifts. Use them mightily for the building up of God’s Church.

Remember that God has blessed us greatly. He has given us the commission to go forth and baptize all nations. He has given us the warrant and the gifts necessary to proclaim Him. He has gathered us as a people into one community of faith. One community, one faith, proclaiming the one Lord, Jesus Christ, with the gifts given to each of us, the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, for the establishment of the Kingdom of God.

The Holy Spirit is the most beautiful and most powerful force —“ a gift given to us to fulfill Christ’s command. The Holy Spirit is the gift that is necessary for our faith and for our lives as Christians. Do not forget to give thanks for His gifts and to act.

—For it is written in the Book of Psalms:
May another take his office.

How many could have been Judas? That’s an interesting question isn’t it? Could Peter have betrayed Jesus? How about the Sons of Thunder, James and John, could they have betrayed Jesus? What about the others, the twelve, the seventy-two?

Peter was always quick to jump the gun. He had all sorts of plans laid out for Jesus —“ and expectations too. Jesus even called him Satan:

Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”

James and John wanted to sit at Jesus’ right and left hand in His glory and they didn’t get what they wanted:

Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.”
—What do you want me to do for you?” he asked.
They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”
“You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”
“We can,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.”

The other ten were mad at James and John when this happened.

Couldn’t any of the disciples or Apostles have been Judas? Why was one so maddened with rage while the others, who could have been just as angry, learned a little bit about subduing their expectations?

Perhaps they learned that Jesus did not come to make life comfortable for anyone. He did not come to fulfill our expectations, but to call us to fulfill God’s expectations.

Jesus certainly opened the doors to heaven. He certainly reconciled us to the Father. He certainly showed us what being truly human was all about. He was able to do this because He, in His unity, is God and man. He is fully both.

The key is that Jesus is the way. He is the way to God, the way to heaven, the way we must follow to become fully human, to become so human that we may come to the Father in truth. He did so much for us, but we have to act. John tells us:

Moreover, we have seen and testify
that the Father sent his Son as savior of the world.
Whoever acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God,
God remains in him and he in God.

Listen again,

Whoever acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God,
God remains in him and he in God.

Amazing stuff, but you have to focus on acknowledging. Acknowledging is more than the occasional nod toward God at Christmas and Easter. Acknowledging God is more than the weekly trek to the parish church. Acknowledging means we must fully commit and act.

Jesus calls us to reach beyond our complacency and comfort. First, we must fall in sorrow for our sins. Then, we must repent, and in the act of repentance, commit to change. The constant struggle is the fight against temptation and the call of the world: ‘hey it’s easy, just do it, it feels good, and it’s what I want’

But Jesus tells us:

“I gave them your word, and the world hated them,
because they do not belong to the world
any more than I belong to the world.”

We have the word of Jesus. We have His command and His way of life.

We, have a lot to do.

Bishop Hodur told us that very few will reach perfection on the road toward Christ —“ at least in this earthly life. What is most important is that we commit to that road, that we take the first step in a journey of a thousand miles. The tests along the road and the pitfalls are many, and if met with Christ within us and at our side, will make us stronger. The body and blood of Jesus Christ is our food for this journey.

I tell you then, be a disciple of Christ. Be His followers and His doers. Do not let anger or despair turn you into a Judas, a man or woman of broken expectations. Keep your eyes here, front and center. Raise your eyes up to heaven and put your minds and bodies to work.

Any one of us can be Judas. Therefore, consider carefully and place yourselves on the road, walking in the footsteps of the faithful, the communion of saints. Take the place of the one who went his own way, as so many do today, because Jesus told us:

—I consecrate myself for them,
so that they also may be consecrated in truth.—

Jesus Christ has consecrated you in truth. Acknowledge Him and act on it.

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