9 days of Prayer

If you had the chance to view any part of Pope Francis' funeral this morning either on television or YouTube, one could not help be impressed by the combination of grand splendor and simplicity.  It says much about our late Holy Father for Jesus himself was both grand and simple. 

Now begins the nine days of mourning and prayer. Masses are said each day for our Holy Father as we will have here next Saturday.  Let's also pray for the Church at this time of listening and discernment as the Cardinals prepare their Conclave: the day(s) of electing a new Pope for the Church, probably next week some time.  I can't think of anything more crucial to the future of the Church and the world since the Pope in Rome is a key spiritual and moral force for the cause of peace, unity, and justice in our broken and dark times.  

They will be called to intense reflection, getting to know each other since so many of them are new and have never been in a Conclave, prayer and discernment as to where and to whom the Holy Spirit is guiding them.  So, we too as the Body of Christ, should join them in the same way.

We may not be among the "electors" but we do have an important role to place.  As clergy and laity we comprise the people of God and the body of Christ in this world. The Pope is the universal pastor of the Church and his influence can and does reach far and wide.  Can you think of a more awesome responsibility laid on your shoulders?

So, in these days of prayer, you're welcome to pray below: 

Prayer for the selection of the Supreme Pontiff

Lord, Jesus Christ by entrusting to St. Peter and his successors 

the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven, 

you established the office of the papacy.

Grant to your  Church, we pray, a pope who will seek

to govern the Church according

to the Deposit of Faith for the salvation of souls.  

One who will have the qualities of a loving pastor for his sheep.

Immaculate Mary, Mother of the Church and queen of Confessors, 

we consecrate to you the conclave and the election 

of the Holy Father. Blessed Mother we pray for the man of this time and a 

discernment of who the Church truly needs. 

Mother of the Church, look not upon our sinfulness

but upon the Church which is the Bride of your Son and upon a Shepherd 

who will guide the Church

for the glory and honor or your Son

and the common good of all humanity.

Amen

2nd Sunday of Easter: Mercy for all!

"My Lord and my God! 

John 20: 19-31

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/042725.cfm

Would there be a way we could compress the entire Gospel message into one small sound bite?  We’re very familiar with such abbreviated phrases. We see them in marketing for businesses and politics all the time. In fact, even more brevity are mere letters rather than whole words such as POTUS (President of the United States) or DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles), or the sports world which markets through brief symbols that speak for themselves such as the “swoosh mark” for a popular maker of sports clothing or the world’s largest coffee brand with a green circular figure of what appears to be a mermaid.

Beautifully, our passage from the Gospel of John this Sunday offers us a wonderful sound bite.  Upon seeing the risen Lord standing before him, and in response to Jesus’ invitation to touch his wounds, Thomas, overcome with emotion, proclaims: “My Lord and my God.”

The words of Thomas summarize not only this Easter season but where the Lord needs to be in our lives as well; he is our “Lord and God” and thereby the center of our faith lives and our life in general. If you are ever asked who Jesus is, simply state: “He is my Lord and God.”

These words of Thomas are a proclamation of the Gospel message.  If Jesus is Lord and God, that changes everything.  The resurrection changes everything about our perception of God, about how we live, who we are as human beings created in his image, and about the whole meaning and purpose of our lives.

If Christ is risen, we know we have a God who has the power to overcome the finality of death and sin through the death and resurrection of Christ. That our physical death is not the final word. A God of the living not of the dead.

We know we have a God who embraced humanity and forever joined it to divinity. When Jesus died for us, humanity died to sin with him and when he was raised, we rose with him to a new life.  Jesus died but was raised and transformed in his physical body and so will we. That as human beings, created in his image and likeness, male and female, we are baptized as his beloved sons and daughters and offered this new hope.

We know we have a God who has shown us the way to become what he has created us to be and that this dignity of persons extends to our connection with others in community, with the risen Lord in our midst. Through his offer of forgiveness, his “Shalom,” we are made whole in Christ.  In other words, the resurrection changes everything.

That the central purpose of our lives is to come to know him, to love him, and to be joined forever in happiness in eternity with him.  

This weekend we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday.  What greater act of mercy could there be from Jesus than the forgiveness of our sins?  The simple act of Jesus standing before the confused and frightened disciples on that Sunday evening must have put even greater fear and wonder in the hearts of these men.  Rather than shame them for their abandonment in his greatest time of need, he offers them his “shalom,” his peace – healing, well-being, forgiveness and reconciliation. In this tender act of forgives despite their unfaithfulness, the risen Lord brings them confidence in his mercy.

This profound and life changing act on the part of Jesus is of course the basis of our Sacrament of Reconciliation.  In essence that beautiful healing moment through the confession of sin should each time be met with a merciful response.  We priests, as ministers of the sacrament, have a humbling opportunity to convey this God like compassion to every penitent.

So, Jesus breathes on these startled disciples, shares his spirit then commissions them to be his ambassadors. He sends them as witnesses to go and offer his forgiveness and mercy to all who hear their message of peace. At the core mission of the Church is the proclamation of God’s mercy and what better Sunday than this one to recall that rich act of love on God’s part for humanity.

Our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles today pictures for us how we come to know this risen Lord as we see and touch the Lord Jesus under the signs of bread and wine - the breaking of the bread and the prayers." Through the preaching of the Apostles many came to believe.  Today, we continue to hear and believe as we live out our lives in the community of the Church. Despite all the negativity, the threats, the distortion and anti-Christian and Catholic rhetoric, the presence of the risen Christ remains.  We as his disciples must come to know him and to touch him through our sacramental life and the mercy we bring to others. 

And so, as we contemplate the implications of Jesus’ resurrection, we know that God has revealed to us his desire. That we are to live our life according to the Gospel values fleshed out in the person of Jesus, that we hear his call to conversion, that we should be people of joy, hope and optimism knowing that nothing is impossible with God and that no evil, including death, is greater than his mercy.

The Lord is risen, Alleluia!

Alleluia, the Lord is risen indeed!

 

(Phillipine Catholic Churches: blogspot)

"If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above)

John 20: 1-9

The living Word: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/042025.cfm

At the end of our Catholic funeral liturgy, referred to as the prayer of commendation, the priest stands before the remains of the deceased and prays: “Merciful Lord turn toward us and listen to our prayers. Open the gates of paradise to your servant and help us who remain to comfort one another with the assurances of our faith . . .”  I have always been struck by the words asking God to “open the gates of paradise to your servant . . . “We can only say those words because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Today we proclaim what is called the core of the Gospel message, the Kerygma” – that Christ has died and risen and therefore we are no longer held tight by sin and death, but we have the promise for those who believe and live by the Gospel, the “gates of paradise” will be open for us.  St. Paul, the great missionary to the Gentiles, constantly preached that message wherever he went.  That Jesus Christ who died on a cross, rose from the dead and thereby rescued us from the finality of death.  Death no longer has power over us but rather has become a passage to eternal life with God.  Sin is forgiveable

What ever happened early that Sunday morning, and whoever they met along the way, had a profound impact upon their lives. Something happened to them that they would risk everything – go out to hostile unbelieving crowds and boldly preach to all who would listen, the truth that Christ is risen!

So, this Easter day we gather and claim to be his followers. 

Here we go beyond science and reason to the realm of the supernatural and miraculous.  The Church proclaims that we speak of the miraculous.  God's direct intervention in our space and time as he goes beyond the laws of nature and logic. There would be no other way to describe the resurrection of Jesus as a truth. Whether it be the New Testament, the preaching of Paul, the lives of the Saints, the mission of the Church, all is done because of the resurrection of the Lord and due to the promise, he made.

In other words, without the truth of the resurrection, there would be no Christian faith.  That is how central to our claims this event becomes. No other founder of a religion in history as ever claimed to rise from the dead, nor his followers have claimed such, except Christians. So, it either makes us lunatics, liars, or disciples of the risen one.

But we cannot prove the resurrection – it defies reason, logic and every conceivable law of nature. Dead bodies do not come back to life. But Jesus now assumes some mysterious, touchable, visible form which combines spirit and– a form yet to be seen and experienced in eternity.

 We will hear this Easter season of the reaction of the Apostles, of Mary Magdalene, of Thomas who doubted, of talking angels who questioned visitors at the empty tomb that early morning, “Why do you seek the living one among the dead?” (Lk 24: 1-10). We will hear of disciples whose lives were instantly transformed from fear to overwhelming joy, wonder, and bold courage. So convicted were they that Jesus was alive and eternally present again that no force or threat on earth could change their minds. When they saw the risen Lord it became a transforming experience and changed them forever. So, through this event, God invites us to believe and to be transformed to deeper discipleship and more courageous faith.

The rising of Christ from the dead gives hope to those who have died. And if the dead have hope, then the living also have hope. If we the living have hope, then the death and resurrection of Christ is true.

The great witness we have today in our Gospel story is that of the empty tomb. Women, named Mary Magdalene and Joanna and men named Peter and John who could hardly contain their joy and wonder once they came to conviction – because of an empty tomb. But that alone would not be enough. It was not a onetime event meant to be recalled through history books but the beginning of a transforming experience for all believers.  It was an invitation to see Christ alive and present right up to our day and beyond.

We no longer look in empty tombs but in His Church, His Body – Jesus baptizes, confirms, becomes our food of liberation in the Eucharist as he will for our newest Elect and candidates this season. Christ unites in marriage, comforts the dying, forgives sin, chooses and calls in the priesthood. In those holy sacraments the risen Christ continues his work.

And, in our world today, where there is far too much agony and not enough ecstasy, many are confused, lost, abandoned, hurt, empty, despairing, and fearful.  Many people are dead in spirit and mind or numbed by a world which presents promises that cannot fulfil; that the answer to every problem can be found only in science, technology, money, or fame. And the war rages in Ukraine as they confront an ominous and hate-filled dictator who will come to no good end.

 The good news of Easter bring a time of hope to us. The invitation to every one of us is to have hope and to share in the life of His Church. God has no limits. We bring this good news to a world that is empty; to replace the agony of meaninglessness, or science and technology alone, of loneliness and rejection, of poverty and sadness with the ecstasy of faith and hope. Let’s pray together that God will bring a healing to humanity and prove himself once again to be our Lord and our God.

Christ is risen indeed !

O God, who on this day, 

through your Only Begotten Son, 

have conquered death and unlocked for us the path to eternity,

grant that we who keep the solemnity of the Lord's 

Resurrection may , through the renewal brought by your Spirit,

rise up in the light of life.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, 

who lives and reigns with you in the unity

of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever/

Amen, Alleluia!

(Collect of Mass)

 

Christ is risen indeed, Alleluia, Alleluia!

4th Sunday in Lent: "He was lost and has been found"

 

(gospelimages.com)

"Father I have sinned against heaven and against you"

Luke 15: 11-32

The Word: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/033025-YearC.cfm

Parables are brilliant stories, using real life images in order to teach a moral about what God is like, Christian living, and many other important lessons that Jesus gave us.  Our parable this Sunday is Jesus' longest story and is richly filled with beauty about God's mercy, love for us despite our waywardness and about the danger of jealousy and pride. But first, let's look at our second reading.

Our second reading this Sunday and the stunning Gospel story which Jesus tells, reveals the very heart of God and the Good News which Jesus preached. At the base of our sacrament of reconciliation is this truth. Paul, speaking to his Christian converts at Corinth reminds them: “Whoever is in Christ Jesus is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold new things have come . . . Christ has given us the ministry of reconciliation . . .” (2 Cor 5: 17-18).

Paul gives us a theological explanation. We are called to build bridges, as God has done for us between himself and humanity, which is one image of reconciliation. Reconciliation is a process of conversion and the great sacrament of healing, or confession, invites us to walk into that process before a merciful God. Any priest should be there not as judge and jury but in the person of Christ, the divine physician who heals the wounded.

This leads to our Gospel from Luke 15 which makes that process a deeply personal one. For me, and I know for many, many more the story of the “Prodigal Son” or the “Forgiving Father” or any other variation on that title you may want to offer, is not only a brilliant cast of characters but deeply moving on a faith level.  It is rich with character development and questions our own view of God and our ultimate response to God’s almost over the top mercy. And while the selfish, ungrateful son risks not only his reputation but places himself in a position where the Jewish father is so dishonored that he may simply be banished from the family, the center piece of this story it strikes me is more the father than the son.  We may also call is, the parable of the generous father. The tender Rembrandt painting is rich with this symbolism.

In telling this story, Jesus deliberately, I suspect, left the end hanging with the father’s challenging statement to the jealous older brother: “My son . . . everything I have is yours. But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.” (Lk 15: 32).  How the older son reacted to this statement is left unanswered. Did he come around and join the party? Did he walk away in disgust?  Did he ask his father to forgive him for his petty jealousy? It invites us to our own self-examination. How would I feel and what would I do? With which son do I most identify?

Further, the setting in which Jesus told this story is significant to our understanding.  Luke reminds us: “Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus, but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.’” (Lk 15: 1). Jesus was constantly berated for his association with the undesirables; the great unclean sinners among the more prideful “clean.”  And among his worst critics were, of course, those so hardened in their own self-righteousness, that they had closed their minds to God’s mercy, like the older brother.

Regardless, Jesus invites specifically this crowd, who are invited to see themselves in the older son, to open their hearts and minds. The real block by the older brother was likely jealousy and the unwillingness to accept the younger brother back from a life of wastefulness.  The jealously lies not in what the younger brother did, but in how he was treated by the father after coming home. Are we jealous of the good fortune of others or do we resent it? If life is all about me, then any lucky break or deserved accomplishment by another would be bring jealously. How does your parable end?

It invites every one of us to ask ourselves the same question about which of the two sons do I find in myself.  The answer for most of us is that I see both sons in me. Our God is like the father in the story who waits for us to come home with open arms. He longs for our return with love and mercy, not judgment and condemnation. Clearly, he had been waiting for the return of his son for on first sight he ran to meet him. What caused him to be so repentant – desperation and guilt: “Coming to his senses,” Jesus teaches. However imperfect his repentance was, at least it motivated him to return.

The greater value is the person, most especially one who repents.  (Have you gotten the point Pharisees that Jesus may be thinking of you?) This is why our Lord reached out constantly to those who were branded as “sinners.” Everyone has a chance with God. The younger son is changed, not the same person he was.  Like an almost Ebenezer Scrooge kind of transformation, it is cause to give thanks.

Then the story ends: "He was lost and has been found!" Again, I imagine Jesus looked more intently than before at his listeners who likely were stunned by the father’s behavior.  Hopefully, though, also moved so deeply that they saw themselves in the two sons and in particular the most stubborn among them began to soften their own pride which blinded them to see the expansive nature of God. We find it in the sacrament of reconciliation, the holy Eucharist, the scriptures, our shared faith and prayer. But we must become the father in our daily encounter with each other.

In the middle of this rich journey through Lent we may have found our personal need to return to the Father.  Go to be reconciled with the Father in sacramental confession.  He is waiting for you .