Obeying God's Will

Reflections from the scripture readings for the 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time, found at http://usccb.org/bible/readings/092814.cfm

This reading from the gospel of St. Matthew, chapter 21:28-32, always reminds me of the challenge of raising children. Kids say and do things that drive us crazy! We ask them to do something, then they say no. Then they do it anyway. Or they say yes, and then don't do it! As a father of two children (now grown, thank God!), I can feel the frustration of the father in this parable of Jesus. We tell our kids to do their homework, then they respond, "no", only to think it over and do it anyway! Or they say yes, and end up not doing it. It is then that they realize (after getting in trouble with the teacher) that they find out that their parents were right all along!

It's the same with us and our relationship with God. The chief priests and elders are represented in this story as the ones saying "Yes" and not doing what God is commanding them to do! Outwardly they look like they are doing the Will of God, but inwardly they are filled with hate for those people who are considered the outcasts of society. They hate the tax collectors and prostitutes! The chief priests and elders are failing to show love and compassion to their neighbors!

The tax collectors and prostitutes are the ones that originally were telling "no" to God by how they lived their lives. They rejected God in their lives, only to later find that it is with God that they can find peace and happiness! They heard the preaching of John the Baptist, and went for repentance. They further heard the preaching of the Love of God from the mouth of Jesus. They turn their "no" to "yes"!

This parable applies to us today, too. There are times when we say "yes" to God, but then we see someone who is homeless and we judge him/her! Or we see an immigrant struggling to make a better live. Then we judge them and reject them. In so doing, we say "no" to God.

Then there are times when we say "no" to God when we hear of all these "rules and regulations" in the Church that are meant to help us come closer to God. We initially say no, but after some thought, we realize it's for the best, and we say "yes" to God.

Pray that we can always be "Yes" people in both words and actions towards God and those who need us!

Praise be Jesus Christ now and forever!

Solitude with Christ

Reflections from readings from the 25th Friday in Ordinary Time, found at http://usccb.org/bible/readings/092614.cfm

In today's gospel we see Christ praying alone, in solitude, with his disciples. They did this often in order to have time for each other and with God. It's what we would call today a "retreat". We all need that quality time alone with Jesus in order to have a better understanding of where God is calling us or leading us to in our lives. Further, we can have a better understanding of who Jesus is to us.

Jesus asked the apostles in today's gospel, "Who do the crowds say that I am?" (Luke 9:18) They respond with the usual answers: "John the Baptist! Elijah! One of the ancient prophets!" Peter gets it right, "The Christ of God." (Luke 9:20)

With his time alone with the Lord, Peter came to know who Christ was, and as a result was able to develop that close relationship with Christ. This allowed Peter to get closer to God. Did Peter get it right all the time? No! He even denies Jesus three times after Jesus' arrest on Holy Thursday.

But Peter, and the other apostles, developed that relationship with Christ when he was alive with them, and even after His death and resurrection. Today's gospel give example of how they were able to carry out their mission of sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ: time spent alone with God to grow and nurture that relationship with Him, in order to be able to bring the Good News of God to others.

We, too, are called to spend time alone with Christ, in solitude. It could be one hour a week before the Blessed Sacrament, or a weekend retreat at a retreat house. This is time over and above the time we spend on Sundays at Mass. Time alone with God in quiet prayer is time well spent. It allows us to know who we are in God's eyes, and we get to know who God is in our minds.

When you spend this time alone with God, I suggest that you bring along the scripture readings for Sunday's mass. Spend that hour reading it quietly and meditating on what it could mean to you. God will reach out to you and help you understand what he is trying to teach you.

Praise be Jesus Christ now and forever!!

The National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa

Yesterday my wife and I made a pilgrimage to The National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown, PA. It was a beautiful and spiritual day with Mass, the rosary, and time with God and Our Lady.

The shrine can trace it's history back to 1951 when Father Michael M. Zembrzuski, a priest in the Pauline Order from Poland, arrived on American soil. He was a missionary in America until 1953. On November 6, 1953, the Pauline Order received permission from the Holy See to establish a monastery in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.

For more information on the shrine, you can go to http://www.czestochowa.us/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/

Taking up Your Cross

Reflections on the scripture readings for the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time. Scripture can be found at http://usccb.org/bible/readings/083114.cfm

A nun was explaining the Stations of the Cross to her class. When they got to the fourth station where Jesus, on the road to Calvary, meets his mother, the nun explained that, even though they could not talk to each other, mother and son simply used their eyes. "What do you think they said to each other?" she asked the pupils. The students gave many different answers. One child suggested that she said, "This is unfair." Another child suggested that she said, "Why me?" Finally, a sickly little girl raised her hand, got up and said, "Sister, I know what the Blessed Mother told Jesus. She said to him, "Keep on going, Jesus!" Why would a mother encourage her only son on the way to crucifixion to keep on going? Because a mother understands the Christian principle of "no cross, no crown."

The gospel of Christ is a coin with two sides: the cross and the crown. If we try to embrace the glorious side and reject the suffering side, we falsify the gospel. The same Jesus who said "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28) also said, "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." (Matthew 16:24-25)

Following God and choosing to do His will is never easy. Jeremiah in our first reading found this out the hard way. He had to endure real hardship. In the verses just before the selection we read for today, a priest of Jerusalem temple had Jeremiah confined to the stocks. Those hearing the words of Jeremiah did not like much of his warnings that the kingdom will collapse. They regarded Jeremiah's words as treasonous and demoralizing. They could not see that Jeremiah was speaking for the true King of Israel; therefore his words were anything but treasonous. Though Jeremiah sounds frustrated in this reading, he comes to realize that he had to speak the word of God, even if it led to personal discomfort.

In the gospel for today, our Lord is teaching us the importance of carrying our crosses, in imitation of Him. We can't escape the crosses that God places in our lives. What we need to do is to move beyond anger with ourselves or depression, so that we can arrive at where the cross is meant to lead us all the time - grace.

Place your trust in God and ask him to carry the cross with you. The crucified, glorified Jesus comes to us in the Eucharist. It is here especially that we can receive the grace, the strength, to carry our cross. It is here that we grow in faith, hope, and love. The cross will lead us to new life in Christ.

Praise be Jesus Christ, now and forever!

St. Monica

Today the Church commemorates the mother of St. Augustine, St. Monica. In a biography of her it says, "She was born at Thagaste in Africa of a Christian family. She was married young, to Patricius, and among her children was Augustine. He had a brilliant intellect and uncertain morals and his wayward spiritual career saw him at one time a Manichee and then a Neoplatonist."

Monica is an example of what it truly means to be a Christian in the world, a follower of Christ. Her husband was an "unbeliever" and her children were not much better. Augustine, though being brought up a Christian, left his Christian faith behind to lead a life full of self absorption and selfishness. He lived with a woman without being married, had a child with her, a son, named, Adeodatus. He had a successful legal and academic career. But this was all leaving him feeling empty and unsatisfied. The prayers of Monica were starting to work.

As a result of her prayers, he returned to the Church and devoted his whole life to the knowledge and love of God. This was all thanks to the prayers of his mother, Monica. In her words to him, just before she passed from this world to the next, she said to Augustine, "For my part, my son, I no longer find pleasure in anything that this life holds. What I am doing here still, or why I am still here, I do not know, for worldly hope has withered away for me. One thing only there was for which I desired to linger in this life: to see you a Catholic Christian before I died. And my God has granted this to me more lavishly than I could have hoped, letting me see even you spurning earthly happiness to be his servant. What am I still doing here?”

As a result of her constant prayers and concern for Augustine, and his eventual conversion to the Catholic faith, she is considered to be the patron saint of mothers. Once converted, he is quoted as saying to God, "Late have I loved you, Beauty so ancient and so new, late have I loved you!" What beautiful words!

I use Monica as an example in my daily prayers to God. Not only do I pray for my own concerns and service to God as a deacon, I pray to God for my children. I pray that God guides them, as He once guided Augustine, through the prayers of Monica.

We are all called to pray as Monica did for those people in our lives that need to have God in the center of all they do. They can be our children, spouses, relatives, or friends. We are to pray for them to come to know God and to be in relationship with Jesus. Use Monica as an example to pray for those in your life that need God's love and care.

Praise be Jesus Christ now and forever!

Assumption vs: Ascension

Assumption vs: Ascension

“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior.” Luke 1:46-47

Every year on August 15th the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven. The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us in paragraph 966 "Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death." In the Orthodox Church it’s called The Feast of the Dormition of Our Most Holy Lady, the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary. The Feast commemorates the repose (dormition and in the Greek kimisis) or "falling-asleep" of the Mother of Jesus Christ, our Lord. The Feast also commemorates the translation or assumption into heaven of the body of the Theotokos.

Our Lady’s whole life was centered on doing the Will of God. His Will was central in all she did. Look at how she responded to God, through the Angel Gabriel, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38)
As a result of whom she is and how she lived her life, God chose to take her up to heaven, body and soul. Whether she “fell asleep” and was taken up to heaven, as the Orthodox teach, or was just taken up to heaven as we so often see depicted in artwork, surrounded by angels, on a cloud, she was taken up to heaven by the power of God. Not by her own power. Further, we as Catholics are required to believe this. In 1854, with the Bull Ineffabilis, Pius IX solemnly proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. As a dogma, we, as Catholics are required to believe and accept it.

Regarding the Ascension of Our Lord, this occurred 40 days after He rose from the dead on Easter, and is the final act of our redemption that Christ began on Good Friday. On this day, the risen Christ, in the sight of His apostles, ascended bodily into Heaven (Luke 24:51; Mark 16:19; Acts 1:9-11). It was through His own power that He ascended into heaven. This is another central belief that we have as Catholics.

So, as you see, the difference between the Assumption of Our Lady and the Ascension of Our Lord is this: it was through the power of God that Mary was assumed into heaven, and it was through His own power that Jesus ascended into heaven.

Let us, like Mary, have God always in the center of all we do in our lives. Let us, like Mary, say, “Behold, I am the handmaid (servant) of the Lord.”

Love of God and Neighbor

I recently heard a Buddhist proverb. It goes like this, "When we decry the suffering and pain around us, caused by other humans, Buddhist spirituality also reminds us of the suffering and pain borne by our actions, thoughts and speech. While I can't liberate the entire world from suffering even if I wanted to, I can do my part by trying to be mindful of the suffering I am causing or might cause. If all do likewise, then Buddhist spirituality says, we address the suffering in the world borne by human greed, hate and injustice." Reflecting on this proverb I was thinking of how we, as Christians, can live out this in our daily lives.

It very much reminds me of the teachings of Christ and how we are to love God and to love our neighbor. In Matthew 22:36-40 (New International Version NIV) we read, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

We, as Christians, are called to show love and respect to all around us. We are to be sensitive to how we treat others and how our actions may adversely effect those in our lives. There are those in our lives that we naturally are attracted to and find easy to love and to treat well. Then there are those in our lives that we find it uncomfortable to be with. We may even have people in our lives that we hate for some harm done to us or arguments we may have had. We hold on to those resentments that we have towards those people and grow to hate them.

We are called to love and forgive all those people in our lives, as God loves and forgives us. By letting go of hatred and resentment towards those in our lives, we are making the world a better place. It takes one person at a time to make the world better for those around us. We may not be able to resolve the hatred that is happening in the far reaches of the world, for example, between Israel and Palestine. But we can remove the hatred we have for those in our lives that we hold a grudge.

Further, we can offer our prayers to God for peace and mutual respect among all those in the world that hate each other. They may feel that their hatred is justified. But in order to have peace in the world, we must encourage mutual love, understanding, and forgiveness. It is only then that peace can start coming into the world.

And it starts with each one of us and with those that God has placed in our live.