Getting Ready for Lent

Every car or truck carries in the glove compartment a maintenance schedule.  Having your oil changed, your tires rotated and balanced, and the rest of the engine checked keeps your vehicle in excellent shape. 

This Wednesday, we begin one of the most practical times of the Catholic liturgical year.  Lent provides us an opportunity to open our personal maintenance schedule and take a close look at ourselves as we journey towards eternal life. 

The spiritual life is not an easy endeavor because of our wounded human nature.  True, Baptism washes away Original Sin, but we do not have complete control over ourselves.  Saint Paul brilliantly describes this continual battle. He portrays this conflict as an inward struggle (Romans 7: 14-25), a treasure in a vessel of clay (2 Corinthians 4: 7-18), and a thorn in the flesh (2 Corinthians 12: 7-10). 

Because of Original Sin, an inner force will always move us in the wrong direction.  Continual effort is necessary to control the inner movement of our ego, and allow the presence of grace to take control of our thoughts, desires and actions.

The battle of the spiritual life is like walking in a river against the current.  If we do not continue to walk or grab on to a rock, the current will carry us in the opposite direction.  Lent provides us with an excellent opportunity to strengthen ourselves so that we can keep walking against the current.

A successful Lent requires us to develop a serious plan of action.  Our program should consist of both the general practices that the Catholic Church requires of everyone, and our own particular Lenten program.

As a general practice for all Catholics, the Church requires that we fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.  We are also asked to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and all Fridays of Lent. 

Aside from what the Church law of fast and abstinence requires of us, we should come up with a personal program for spiritual growth.  This is our personal maintenance program.  I have always recommended that we come up with something negative and something positive.

By something negative, I mean that each person should commit themselves to giving up something or a number of things.  This sacrifice should be serious and demanding.  The self-control that we exercise in giving up a legitimate pleasure strengthens our will and curbs the inclinations of our passions.

By something positive, I mean that each one should also do some kind of act that we would not normally do on a regular basis.  Attending daily Mass, visiting the sick, volunteering time at the parish or praying a Sunday evening Rosary with the entire family are positive acts of virtue that have helped many people progress in their relationship with God.

Lenten practices of penance have great benefits for our spiritual lives.  A serious Lent will be like a spring cleaning which will purify the clutter that has accumulated in our souls.  A serious commitment to penance will also help us to conquer addictions, obsessions and compulsive behavior.  A serious Lent will purify our soul and allow us to experience a deeper interior freedom.

As we approach the beginning of another Lent, we should carefully examine our lives.  Usually we focus on carefully examining our sins, but do we ever consider the sins of omission?  Do we honestly consider what we are not doing? 

One way to break the cycle of apathy is to bring into your Lent an apostolic dimension. This can be done by making two firm commitments: pray the Rosary at your local abortion clinic and target one person that does not have a church home.  Invite that person to your parish.

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Moreover, it would be very powerful if we would offer up our fast, abstinence, Lenten sacrifices and our weekly Stations of the Cross to the Lord as of way of ending abortion and bringing souls back to the Church. 

Do not wait until Ash Wednesday to come up with your Lenten program.  Decide today what you are going to do.  Parents should sit down with their children and make sure that they too have come up with a serious plan of action.  Have a family meeting tonight and decide together to make this Lent the best Lent ever.  Meet as a family every Sunday during Lent and review your program.  Be accountable to each other.  If you make this a great Lent you will notice the difference on Easter Sunday.  

The audio podcast of this homily will be posted on Sunday afternoon.  

The Compassion of God

Many years ago a young Catholic priest from Mexico developed a very serious heart condition.   Pace makers were something quite new and the technology was not as developed as it is now. 

After receiving his first pace maker, Father was subject to other surgeries which were required to maintain the pace maker or to replace it all together. 

Despite the profound discomfort endured throughout the different surgeries, the priest always refused any pain medication when he awoke from surgery.  Instead, he would put on his bathrobe and go from room to room, visiting as many patients as he could. 

This Sunday’s Gospel passage gives us a glimpse into the compassion of God.  God is not distant.   He is not a stranger to us.  Our compassionate God is made visible to us in Jesus Christ. 

“A leper came to Jesus and kneeling down begged him and said, ‘If you wish, you can make me clean.’  Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, ‘I do will it.  Be made clean.’  The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean” (Mark 1: 40-42).

The words moved with pity appear throughout the gospels and they help us to understand the compassion of the Lord.  Moved with pity expresses a movement of the heart much more profound than simply a feeling sorry for someone.  Instead, what is being expressed here, is a movement of the heart that goes to the very depths of one’s being. 

“When Jesus was moved to compassion, the source of all life trembled, the ground of all love burst open, and the abyss of God’s immense, inexhaustible, and unfathomable tenderness revealed itself” (Henri Nouwen, Compassion, page 15). 

Jesus raises from the dead the only son of the widow of Nain because of this profound movement of his heart (Luke 7: 11-17).  The Good Samaritan stops and takes care of a man in need because he was moved with compassion (Luke 10: 29-37).  This same movement of the heart drives the father to run toward his returning prodigal son, embracing and kissing him (Luke 15: 11-32). 

“As soon as we call God, ‘God-with-us,’ we enter into a new relationship of intimacy.  By calling God Immanuel, we recognize God’s commitment to live in solidarity with us, to share our joys and pains, to defend and protect us, and to suffer all of life with us.  The God-with-us is a close God, a God whom we call our refuge, our stronghold, our wisdom, and even, more intimately, our helper, our shepherd, our love.  We will never really know God as a compassionate God if we do not understand with our heart and mind that ‘the Word became flesh and lived among us’” (Henri Nouwen, Compassion, page 13). 

This is why we need to meditate over and over again on the mystery of the Incarnation until all of its consequences penetrate our entire being.

We must be convinced, existentially, that Jesus is real and that I can have a personal relationship with him. 

As Saint Augustine so beautifully affirms, “To fall in love with God is the greatest of all romances; to seek him, the greatest adventure; to find him, the greatest human achievement.”

When Jesus is just as real to us as he was to the leper that he cured, our frustrations, discouragements, fears and loneliness will vanish.  We are never alone, because our God is a God of unconditional compassion.  Our God is a God who is always with us. 

The compassion of Jesus calls us to live our lives in the same way. 

Something in our modern society is causing us to be broken and separated from one another.  Neighborhoods filled with cheerful children playing in the streets have been replaced by the silence of isolation.  Perhaps the on-going exposure to every crisis in the world has caused many to become numb and angry.  “Massive exposure to human misery often leads to psychic numbness” (Henri Nouwen, Compassion, page 51). 

Community is the answer.  Left alone, modern man remains powerless.  Wherever the Christian community is formed and developed, compassion should be the result. 

“Jesus Christ is and remains the most radical manifestation of God’s compassion” (Henri Nouwen, Compassion, page 50). 

Throughout the history of the Church, visible reminders are given to us in the lives of the saints who strove to imitate the Lord within the daily circumstances of their practical existence.

Contemporary man is moved more by witness than by argumentation.  Such is the case of Mikhail Gorbachev who made a private visit to Assisi in order to pray at the tomb of Saint Francis.  According to a March 19, 2008 article in The Telegraph, Gorbachev said,   "St Francis is, for me, the alter Christus, the other Christ.  His story fascinates me and has played a fundamental role in my life.”

"It was through St Francis that I arrived at the Church, so it was important that I came to visit his tomb.  I feel very emotional to be here at such an important place not only for the Catholic faith, but for all humanity."

Both Jesus and Francis embraced a man afflicted with leprosy.  Perhaps we will never have an opportunity to do the same thing. 

Nevertheless, we are surrounded with people with all sorts of needs.  Our family members, our co-workers, our friends at school, our neighbors and our parishioners; these are the people that are in need and these are the people that need our compassion each and every day.  

The audio podcast of this homily will be posted on Sunday afternoon.  

Jesus Gives Meaning to Suffering

A young newly ordained priest was assigned by his superior as the chaplain of a large Catholic high school.  The priest, enthusiastic and engaging, was very endeared by the students.  He was so well liked, that the parents of the students would call him, instead of the local parish priest, for all of their pastoral needs, including sick calls to the local hospitals and funerals. 

One of Father’s closest friends at the high school was a doctor who taught mathematics in the morning and worked at his medical practice after school hours.  The doctor, so immersed in human suffering, noticed that the young priest was becoming overwhelmed by the numerous sick calls and funerals that were becoming part of his ministry. 

One day, as the priest was rushing off to take care of the dying grandmother of one his students, the doctor yelled out to him, “Father, let them suffer.”  Astonished, the priest stopped, and went back to his office.  “What do you mean?” asked the priest.  “Suffering is a part of life.  People need to experience suffering.  Don’t take that away from them,” the teacher affirmed. 

In this Sunday’s Old Testament reading, Job struggles with the meaning of suffering. “Is not man’s life on earth a drudgery?  Are not his days those of hirelings?  He is a slave who longs for the shade, a hireling who waits for his wages” (Job 7: 1- 2). 

Only with Jesus, the fulfillment of the Old Testament, can the human person find meaning in suffering. 

“As a result of Christ's salvific work, man exists on earth with the hope of eternal life and holiness. And even though the victory over sin and death achieved by Christ in his Cross and Resurrection does not abolish temporal suffering from human life, nor free from suffering the whole historical dimension of human existence, it nevertheless throws a new light upon this dimension and upon every suffering: the light of salvation” (Blessed Pope John Paul II, Salvifici Dolores, 15). 

Jesus does not take away human suffering; rather he transforms it and gives it new meaning. 

In his book Compassion, Henri Nouwen, no stranger to sorrow and pain,  expresses this idea with these words:  “The mystery of God’s love is not that our pain is taken away, but that God first wants to share that pain with us.  Out of this divine solidarity comes new life.  Jesus’ being moved in the center of his being by human pain is indeed a movement toward new life.  God is our God, the God of the living.  In the divine womb of God, life is always born again.  The great mystery is not the cures, but the infinite compassion which is their source” (page 16). 

In this Sunday’s gospel passage, Jesus immerses himself into the world of human suffering.  “When it was evening, after sunset, they brought to him all were ill or possessed by demons” (Mark 1: 32). 

“Christ drew close above all to the world of human suffering through the fact of having taken this suffering upon his very self. During his public activity, he experienced not only fatigue, homelessness, misunderstanding even on the part of those closest to him, but, more than anything, he became progressively more isolated, encircled by hostility and the preparations being made for putting him to death. Christ was aware of this, and often spoke to his disciples of the sufferings and death that await him, ‘Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him to the Gentiles; and they will mock him, and spit upon him, and scourge him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise.’

Christ goes toward his Passion and death fully aware that his mission would be fulfilled in precisely this way. Precisely by means of this suffering he must bring it about ‘that man should not perish, but have eternal life.’  Precisely by means of his Cross, he must strike at the roots of evil, planted in the history of man and in human souls. Precisely by means of his Cross, he must accomplish the work of salvation. This work, in the plan of eternal Love, has a redemptive character” (Blessed Pope John Paul II, Salvifici Dolores, 16).

The second reading from this Sunday’s liturgy reminds us that we carry out the apostolate of Jesus Christ by immersing ourselves into the world of human need.  “To the weak I became weak, to win over the weak.  I have become all things to all, to save at least some” (1 Corinthians 9: 22).

The Italian photographer Arturo Mari was the Vatican photographer during the entire twenty-seven year pontificate of Blessed Pope John Paul II.  At any Vatican function and all of his apostolic journeys around the world, Mari was always present with his camera. 

During his 1984 apostolic journey to Korea, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Thailand, Blessed Pope John Paul II visited the Sorokdo Leprosarium on May 4, 1984.  Arturo Mari testifies that “he touched them with his hands, caressed them, kissed each one.  Eight hundred lepers, one by one. One by one!” 

The audio podcast of this homily will be posted on Sunday afternoon.  

The Healing Power of Jesus

Satan has deceived the world to believe that he does not exist, that there is no sin and that there is no hell.  Nevertheless, Jesus tells us something to the contrary.

“I watched Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (Luke 10: 18).  He was a murderer from the start; he was never grounded in the truth; there is no truth in him at all: when he lies he is drawing on his own store, because he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8: 44). 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains the reality of Satan with these words:  “The power of Satan is, nonetheless, not infinite.  He is only a creature, powerful from the fact that he is pure spirit, but still a creature.  He cannot prevent the building up of God’s reign.  Although Satan may act in the world out of hatred for God and his  kingdom in Christ Jesus, and although his action may cause grave injuries – of a spiritual nature and, indirectly, even of a physical nature – to each man and to society, the action is permitted by divine providence which with strength and gentleness guides human and cosmic history.  It is a great mystery that providence should permit diabolical activity, but we know that in everything God works for good with those who love him” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 395)

This Sunday’s Gospel passage is one of numerous examples where Jesus not only confronts Satan, but he is victorious over him. 

“In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit; he cried out, ‘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 rebuked him and said, ‘Quiet!  Come out of him!’  The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him” (Mark 1: 23-26).

Our personal struggle with Satan and with evil is very real indeed.  Saint Paul tells us in his letter to the Ephesians how we are to fight this battle.

“Put God’s armor on so as to be able to resist the devil’s tactics.  For it is not against human enemies that we have to struggle, but against the Sovereignties and the Powers who originate the darkness of this world, the spiritual army of evil in the heavens.  That is why you must rely on God’s armor, or you will not be able to put up any resistance when the worst happens, or have enough resources to hold your ground” (Ephesians 6: 1-13).

And what is God’s armor for you?  We have to develop a very serious spiritual life and make frequent use of the Sacrament of Confession.  We have to avoid moral relativism when it comes to the formation of our conscience and we have to remove from our soul any manifestation of sloth and spiritual tepidity. 

Only by putting on God’s armor will we be able to persevere.

Aside from the real spiritual warfare that we experience with Satan, he can also make havoc on our weaknesses and wounds.

The damage that dysfunctional families make on the individual is astounding. 

Modern psychology recognizes that traumatic events that are too agonizing to deal with can be buried deep in our soul as a way of coping with the pain that the event or events may cause us.

It is true that these buried emotions will affect our behavior unless we deal with them properly. 

Bitterness, anger, resentment and discouragement can be healed.  Jesus will heal us if we turn to him.  If we want to experience peace and happiness in our lives we need to turn to the Lord. 

However, too many times we escape from the pain caused by our wounds, weaknesses and addictions by turning to sexual sin, drugs, excessive alcohol and over eating.  Sometimes we seek escapes in excessive work, sports, entertainment and even shopping. 

Jesus will bring about profound healing in our lives if we were to do three things every day: 1) spend 20 – 30 minutes each day in silent  meditative prayer at home or in front of the Blessed Sacrament; 2) go to Mass every day or as often as possible; and 3) pray the Rosary every day.  These three moments of peaceful prayer will allow the Holy Spirit to enter into the deep recesses of our soul and heal us with his loving presence.

“If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts” (Psalm 95: 8). 

Accompanied by a deep spiritual life where we experience God on an intimate level, spiritual guidance by a qualified spiritual director is an important tool in our journey towards inner healing.  Sometimes it may be useful for spiritual direction to be accompanied by therapy from a qualified psychologist who can complement the work of the spiritual director for an adequate period of time. 

Openness is essential.  It is important that we do not live in denial or find relief by simply complaining to our friends about our personal problems.  We need to deal with the things that cause us suffering and pain. 

“In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit; he cried out, ‘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 rebuked him and said, ‘Quiet!  Come out of him!’  The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him” (Mark 1: 23-26).

The audio podcast will be posted on Sunday afternoon. 

Building the Culture of Life

Most people are appalled by the continuous slaughter of innocent children through the horrible scourge of abortion.  Abortion is a horrendous menace and tragedy, but it is the manifestation of an anti-child, contraceptive mentality.  Contraception is the gateway to the culture of death. 

In their 2001 revision of the Pastoral Plan for Pro-Life Activities A Campaign in Support of Life, the United States Catholic Bishops speak of the connection between abortion and contraception when they write: "It is noteworthy that as acceptance and use of contraception have increased in our society, so have acceptance and use of abortion. Couples who unintentionally conceive a child while using contraception are far more likely to resort to abortion than others. Tragically, our society has fallen into a mentality that views children as a burden and invites many to consider abortion as a 'backup' to contraceptive failure. This is most obvious in efforts to promote as 'emergency contraception' drugs that really act as early abortifacients".

The practice of abortion is a destructive force.  This practice countenances the murder of innocent children and destroys the lives of the women who succumb to abortion.

Blessed Mother Teresa once said: "But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child - a direct killing of the innocent child - murder by the mother herself.  

And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?

How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love, and we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts. Jesus gave even his life to love us. So the mother who is thinking of abortion, should be helped to love - that is, to give until it hurts her plans, or her free time, to respect the life of her child. The father of that child, whoever he is, must also give until it hurts.

By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems. And by abortion, the father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world. That father is likely to put other women into the same trouble. So abortion just leads to more abortion.

Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching the people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. That is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion. "

More than 53,908,072 children have been murdered through abortion since January 22, 1973.  

If we can kill inside of the womb, what is to keep us from killing outside of the womb? If abortion does not shock us, nothing will. 

There is a direct connection between the civil rights movement and the pro-life movement.  Unborn babies have civil rights too because they are persons with equal protection of the law as guaranteed by the 14^th amendment of the United States Constitution. 

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

If laws are permitted to exist that do not give equal protection to all citizens, what will keep the worse kind of tyranny from trying to emerge in our country?

"The moment a positive law deprives a category of human beings of the protection which civil legislation ought to accord them, the state is denying the equality of all before the law.  When the state does not place its power at the service of the rights of each citizen, and in particular of the more vulnerable, the very foundations of a state based on law are undermined.  As a consequence of the respect and protection which must be ensured for the unborn child from the moment of conception, the law must provide appropriate penal sanctions for every deliberate violation of the child's rights" (Catechism of the Catholic Church #2273).

It is important that we commemorate the life, legacy and struggle of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Since the civil rights movement of the 1960's much has been accomplished in order to guarantee civil liberties for all Americans.  Unfortunately, there is still much to be done. 

Nevertheless, the noble desire for true civil rights for all will never occur until we understand the fundamental right to life that all human beings have from the moment of conception until the moment of natural death. 

Alveda King, Martin Luther King’s niece and pro-life advocate stated in a recent LifeNews.com article by Andrew Bair, that her uncle was strongly pro-life.  “Were he alive today, he would be working to secure peace and justice for those in the womb and healing for a nation that is still pained by over 53 million missing lives,” King says.  “The toll abortion has taken on the African American community is enough to shock the conscience of every American.”

Bair reports that “according to the US Census Bureau, African Americans comprise 12.4% of the American population; however, over 30% of the nation’s abortions are done on black women. Recently released data from the New York City Department of Health shows the Big Apple hitting a 40% abortion rate. 

As if that number wasn’t appalling enough, when the data is broken down all racial lines, around 60% percent of New York City’s abortions are done on black women. In other words, 1,448 African American babies are aborted for every 1,000 born. Among black teens in New York City, that number jumps to a staggering 72% abortion rate or 2,360 abortions for every 1,000 babies born.”

Bair also reports that “the Department of Health has reported that in the city of Philadelphia nearly half of all black babies are aborted.”

Blessed John Paul II warned us when he said, "A nation that kills its own children has no future."

As we mark another sad anniversary of the legalization of abortion in our nation, let us not be discouraged.  Look at those who gather at pro-life rallies all around the country; the majority of the participants are young people.

According to an article from LifeNews.com, a 2011 poll “finds a majority of Americans still consider themselves pro-life when it comes to the issue of abortion compared to those who say they’re pro-choice.”

In his encyclical letter Evangelium Vitae, Blessed Pope John Paul II urged us to build a culture of life.  Parents and the clergy need to teach young people about chastity.  The intimate sexual life of a man and woman, which is a beautiful gift from God, only takes place within the beauty and sacredness of the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony.  The Church is right when it declares that contraception is intrinsically evil and that it is gateway to the culture of death. 

Chastity; sacramental marriage; openness to life:  these are the key components of the culture of life and the key elements that we must teach, cherish and protect in our homes, in our schools and in our parishes. 

Let us continue to stand together at local abortion clinics with love.  Yes, it is true that our God is an awesome God and that people do change.  Let us continue to witness and to pray.  Let us also continue our work at the homes for unwed mothers and the crisis pregnancy centers.  Let us be witnesses of hope and joy. 

There is never a need for abortion.  There are plenty of people that will adopt any child. 

The souls of more than 53,908,072 aborted children in this country alone since January 22, 1973, cry out to you never to cease with your efforts to end the horrors of abortion in our nation.  Let us not forget.  Let us not be discouraged.  

The audio podcast will be posted on Sunday afternoon.  

The Greatest Romance

The Christmas season has come to an end.  The liturgical season of Ordinary Time allows us to contemplate the public ministry of Our Lord. 

The simplicity and peacefulness of the hidden life of Jesus has ended. It is replaced by intense apostolic activity.

The quiet of the carpenter shop, the conversations with Mary and Joseph, and the comfort of long intervals of prayer will soon be only cherished memories.  Every word he utters will bring a response.

As we make our way to another Ash Wednesday and the austerity of Lent, the liturgy will help us to understand what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

“So often today man does not know what is within him, in the depths of his mind and heart. So often he is uncertain about the meaning of his life on this earth. He is assailed by doubt, a doubt which turns into despair.  We ask you therefore, we beg you with humility and trust, let Christ speak to man. He alone has words of life, yes, of eternal life” (Blessed Pope John Paul, homily, October 22, 1978).

Had Jesus of Nazareth been a Roman or a Greek, certainly his contemporaries would have left behind statues in his honor.  However, because the Jews had a strict understanding of idolatry, their interpretation of the Mosaic Law did not allow them to make any images whatsoever of any human person.  It would have been interesting if we had been left something that would illustrate the physical attributes of the Lord. 

Throughout the centuries, there has been much discussion on the subject.  The Shroud of Turin and Veronica’s veil tell us a lot about his Middle Eastern features; however, our faith is best served by depending on the one authenticated source, the Gospels.

 

The accounts written by the Evangelists depict Our Lord's great capacity for physical activity.  The long hours spent at hard work in the carpenter shop had prepared him well for the grueling task of his public ministry.

He walked many miles under the blazing Middle Eastern sun in order to preach the Kingdom of God.  He slept many nights under the stars, and he spent much of that time in the bliss of silent prayer.  He found little time to eat because of the multitudes seeking his healing touch, and yet when he did find time to rest, he slept so profoundly that not even a terrible storm could awaken him. 

His body was strong and so was his soul.  During the hours of tribulation in Gethsemane, he persevered in profound prayer while the apostles slept.  When Joseph of Arimathea requested his body for burial, Pilate was surprised to discover that Jesus had died so quickly.  Pilate knew that he had encountered a strong Galilean.

Jesus did not display his divinity in the manner of the mythical figures of Greek and Roman literature.  He did not fly from place to place as though he were some sort of superman. Amazingly, in him the supernatural and the natural were interwoven.  His divinity seemed so simple and normal. 

No mysterious beams of light, flashes of lightning, or peals of thunder occurred as he performed his miracles.  Instead, it was enough for him to touch, or be touched. 

Only once did he show the magnificence of his divinity before a select group of apostles.  Even then, during the transfiguration, the experience was brief, simple, and discreet. 

Aside from his physical attributes, Jesus knew exactly what he wanted.  He was one with his mission.  Everything that he did proceeded from his passionate desire to fulfill the will of the Father. 

Unlike the complicated discourse of many philosophers and religious leaders, Our Lord’s teaching is simple and easy enough for everyone to understand.  However, the message is so clear and precise that his words are irresistible to all those who listen. 

Who is this man that has divided history into two parts?  Who is this man that has divided nations?  Who is this man for whom many of his followers have given their lives rather than deny him?  

What do we need to do in order to truly know Christ Jesus?  Above all, we must be open. We need to listen.

In this Sunday’s gospel narrative, two individuals heard the proclamation of John the Baptist: “Behold, the Lamb of God.  The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus” (John 1: 36-37). 

In order to follow, we need to listen. 

Far too many people attempt to live Christianity based upon their own terms.  They do not come to the Lord with open minds and hearts.  Far too many remove pages from the Scriptures and reduce Christianity to their own comfort level.  When we are completely open, the Holy Spirit floods our souls with his loving and peaceful presence.  He cannot enter locked doors and windows that he cannot open.  God respects our freedom.      

Only the open can believe and see.  Only those who listen can follow. 

At our own Baptism, the priest touched our ears and said Ephphetha, be open.  There is something about the modern world that is preventing us from listening to God.  Some even listen, only to reject what they hear. 

The narrow road of the Gospel is difficult to live.  Nevertheless, it is the only road that leads to eternal life in heaven.

Jesus wants you to have life.  He wants you to be happy.  He wants you to have the best possible life here on earth.  He wants to fill you with his divine life, sanctifying grace, so that you may enter into his joy.  He wants you to experience his peace.  He wants you to be with him in eternal life in heaven.  He only wants the best for you.  This is why he wants you to open your hearts to him and let him enter in.

Have no fear of allowing Jesus to enter into your life.  Do not fear the most exciting, most joyful, and the most powerful relationship known to the human person. 

“Jesus turned and saw them following him and said to them, ‘What are you looking for?’  They said to him, ‘Rabbi’ – which translated means Teacher – ‘where are you staying?’  He said to them, ‘Come and you will see.’  So they went and saw where Jesus was staying, and they stayed with him that day” (John 1: 38-39).

Our relationship with Jesus is a personal relationship; a love relationship of two persons.  Yes, we are a community of believers; but better yet, we are a community of people who are in love. 

"The man who wishes to understand himself thoroughly - and not just in accordance with immediate, partial, often superficial, and even illusory standards and measures of his being – he must with his unrest, uncertainty and even his weakness and sinfulness, with his life and death, draw near to Christ.  He must, so to speak, enter into him with all his own self, he must 'appropriate' and assimilate the whole reality of the Incarnation and Redemption in order to find himself"  (Blessed Pope John Paul II, The Redeemer of Man).

Break open the Scriptures.  Immerse yourself in the Word of God.  Spend time with our Eucharistic Lord every day: daily Mass and adoration.  Be a part of the people who are always in love. 

“To fall in love with God is the greatest of all romances; to seek him, the greatest adventure; to find him, the greatest human achievement” (Saint Augustine). 

The audio podcast will be posted on Sunday afternoon.  

The Epiphany

Every human person will find meaning in life by being open to God.  The Three Kings, were not Jewish, they came from the Orient.  Some scholars believe that they began their travels together from Persia, while others believe that they came from three different regions of the Orient, one of them maybe even being China.

Obviously, the Magi were not part of the chosen people.  They were not Jews.  They were part of the vast populace of people extended throughout the known world at that time who were called pagans, or gentiles. 

The Three Kings of this Sunday’s gospel narrative are men who are left unsatisfied by their possessions of wealth, fame and power, and search for the only one who can satisfy the deepest aspirations of the human heart.  They longed to find the very meaning of their existence.  

After a long and difficult search, they discover the place where he lays, and they encounter the One who has come to redeem us and fulfill our intense longings.  They know who he is because they bring him the most appropriate gifts:  gold for a king, frankincense for a priest, and myrrh for a victim.  They know that he is the Messiah, Jesus the Christ, the only one through whom salvation can be found.

Because the Three Kings were open, they were given the gift of faith.  Through this gift they searched, they found, and they believed.      

Certainly today, one of the most blinding obstacles to the search for meaning and truth is secularism. 

Secularism only concerns itself with the here and now.  It has no use for matters regarding the existence of God, the immortality of soul, or the eternal destiny of man.   

Not all secularists are atheists, but many are, while others are agnostics.  Without a doubt, secularism is only one-step away from complete atheism.

The secularist passionately seeks human progress without any reference to the spiritual dimension of the human person.  The secularist is only concerned with this life and has no concern with religion.  In fact, the secularist attempts to experience human satisfaction through involvement in seemingly noble enterprises that are in essence missing the total picture of man’s true needs. 

Secularism keeps us from searching for God; it keeps us from finding true meaning in life.  Historically, the Catholic Church has never had to deal with secularism until the arrival of our modern age.  Secularism and paganism are very different indeed.

The pagan believes in the transcendent.  The pagan has an understanding that there is an afterlife and the soul is immortal.  The pagan also lives by a moral code that has its roots in divine law.  Nevertheless, for the secularist, there is no God, no eternal life, and morality is arbitrarily contrived without any reference to God. 

The mission of the Church in the secularist world is very difficult indeed simply because the pagan is much more open to truth and can be easily converted, whereas the secularist is usually as hard as a rock. 

Catholics need to be aware of secularism and not allow it to affect their lives.  However, many Catholics have been poisoned by this pervasive system of thought. 

Sometimes the secularist opens up to the true meaning of life through some terrible tragedy such as a dreadful sickness or even death itself.  However, many times the secularist is so closed off to the transcendent that no movement toward God is even possible.

Interestingly, it is noteworthy to observe the pervasive apathy among so many people, even Catholics who attend church on a regular basis.  Could apathy be a practical fruit of secularism?

If our focus is only on the here and now, it is very easy to look upon anything spiritual with a big “so what.”

USA TODAY addressed this problem around Christmas time with a very interesting article about the spirit of apathy in our modern society. 

According to the article, “44% told the 2011 Baylor University Religion Survey they spend no time seeking ‘eternal wisdom,’ and 19% said ‘it's useless to search for meaning.’

46% told a 2011 survey by Nashville-based evangelical research agency, LifeWay Research, they never wonder whether they will go to heaven.

28% told LifeWay ‘it's not a major priority in my life to find my deeper purpose.’  And 18% scoffed at the idea that God has a purpose or plan for everyone.

6.3% of Americans turned up on Pew Forum's 2007 Religious Landscape Survey as totally secular — unconnected to God or a higher power or any religious identity and willing to say religion is not important in their lives.”

When Jewish psychiatrist Victor Frankl was arrested by the Nazis in World War II, he was stripped of all of his personal possessions.  He had spent years researching and writing a book on the importance of finding meaning in life--concepts that would later  become known as logotherapy. When he arrived in Auschwitz, the infamous death camp, even the manuscript hidden in the lining of his coat was taken away.

"I had to undergo and overcome the loss of my spiritual child,” Frankl wrote. "Now it seemed as if nothing and no one would survive me; neither a physical nor a spiritual child of my own! I found myself confronted with the question of whether under such circumstances my life was ultimately void of any meaning."

He was still wrestling with that question a few days later when the Nazis forced the prisoners to give up their clothes.

"I had to surrender my clothes and in turn inherited the worn-out rags of an inmate who had been sent to the gas chamber," said Frankl. "Instead of the many pages of my manuscript, I found in the pocket of the newly acquired coat a single page torn out of a Hebrew prayer book, which contained the main Jewish prayer, Shema Yisrael (Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one God. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.)

"How should I have interpreted such a 'coincidence' other than as a challenge to live my thoughts instead of merely putting them on paper?"

Later, as Frankl reflected on his ordeal, he wrote in his book, Man's Search for Meaning, "There is nothing in the world that would so effectively help one to survive even the worst conditions, as the knowledge that there is a meaning in one's life . . .'He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.'"

Thornton Wilder’s famous novel, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, ends with these words: “There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.”

Love is the why. 

And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them, until it came and stopped over the place where the child was.  They were overjoyed at seeing the star, and on entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother” (Matthew 2: 10-11). 

The quest of the Magi reminds us that God is truly with us.  Sometimes during our journey, clarity disappears and we begin to doubt.  Let us remember that Jesus is always with us.  He is Emmanuel, God with us.  Like the shining star, he is present in the tabernacle, just as he was present in the manger of Bethlehem. 

The Solemnity of the Epiphany is not only about three wise men that visited the manger.  Instead, this Biblical event speaks to us about the plan of God for the entire human race.  “Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.”  

The audio podcast will be posted Sunday afternoon.