What is God’s MMA fighting style?

 

13th Sunday of Ordinary Time

A deep, profound theological question

If God was in MMA what would his fighting style be?

Would it be Tae Kwon Do?  Karate?  Jujitsu?

No - it would be Judo.

Judo

A Judo move is where you use the power of your opponent against him.  Today the readings speak to us about how God is the ultimate judoka - he takes the power of the enemy and transforms it into the source of our salvation.

Baptism and Death - The first God Judo Move

Baptism is prefigured in the old testament by the flood

The flood destroys the world - yet out of the flood the world is saved.

The red sea saves the Israelites from the Egyptians - yet in the Red Sea the Egyptians are destroyed.

We are buried with Christ in the waters of Baptism so that we can be raised to new life through the waters of Baptism.

This is God Judo - He uses the weapons of the enemy - terror, death, destruction and turns it into the source of Salvation - through the Waters of Baptism we are saved for eternal life.  

God used Augustine’s desire to learn debate to save him.

Augustine the Hedonist

St. Augustine grew up a pagan and a hedonist - he started his life focused on himself.  He had a long-term relationship with a concubine with whom had had a son.  Augustine was a professor of debate (rhetoric), and as he was growing up heard that the governor of Milan was the best in the empire at debate - so Augustine went to study him there.

St. Ambrose the Brilliant

The Governor of Milan at the time was also the Bishop.  He was St. Ambrose.  To study Ambrose, Augustine would attend Mass.  He tuned out most of the liturgy but was most attentive when Ambrose would preach.  St. Ambrose befriended Augustine, as they were both experts at debate and a beautiful friendship sprung up.  

In his book Confessions Augustine speaks about their friendship - “[Ambrose] received me as a father, and showed me kindness on my coming. Thenceforth I  listened diligently to him preaching to the people, not with that intent I ought, but, as it were, trying his eloquence, whether it answered the fame thereof, or flowed fuller or lower than was reported; and I hung on his words attentively; but of the matter I was as a careless and scornful looker-on….  And while I opened my heart to admit “how eloquently he spake,” there also entered “how truly he spake”; but this by degrees. For first, these things also had now begun to appear to me capable of defense; and the Catholic faith””  

Augustine is Baptized

In the spring of 387 St. Augustine, 33 years old at the time, was Baptized by St. Ambrose during the Easter vigil and entered the church.  It was in His Baptism that Augustine realized that his life was not about him, or his family, but was all about encountering Christ.

The life of St. Augustine serves as a lens for us to reflect on the readings today through.  Prior to his Baptism Augustine was a hedonist - he lived a life that was firmly and fully rooted in the world.  After his baptism he had a profound conversion.  He came into relationship with God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit and realized what it cost God to save him from sin and welcome him into the Church.

God Judo with St. Ambrose and St. Augustine

God used Augustine’s love for debate, and his pride to draw him to Ambrose to learn how to be better at debate and ended up surrendering everything about his life that was self-centered in order to follow Christ.

The Cross - The God-Judo Super Move!

Here Paul invites us to see that our Baptism is into the death of Christ on the Cross.  This is the God Judo super-move.  Christ embraces the cross - an instrument of torture and death and through it destroys death and opens our way to eternal life.  Christ then has blood and water flow from his side on the Cross so that we can benefit from his work of salvation by being baptized - which conquers all sin in our life.

God Judo and You - the Gospel

What is greater?  My love for Sin or my love for God?

When I am tempted to Sin I need to recognize that my love for God is greater than my love for sin.  In a similar way I need God more than I need sin.  When you are next tempted to enter into Sin, God is inviting you to the Judo matt to see if you can allow him to practice some “God Judo” in your heart - to surrender to Him, and to choose Him over sin.  

What are the reasons to allow God to Judo in my life?

Think about what is coming up that you would miss because of Sin - “I have Mass on Sunday” or “I am going to pray tonight” or “I asked God for my sick aunt Kathy” etc.  Let God wrestle with you and for you.

How do we allow God to practice His judo in our lives?

First - recognize that you are a member of God’s Judo Dojo - we call it the Church.  Here we train to allow Christ to conquer sin and death in our lives.  Here we are strengthened by grace and invited to choose life with Christ over death to sin.

Is my love for God primary in my life?

I need to recognize that the love that God has for me should be primary in my life.  If I can’t do that then I am going to suck at spiritual judo - because I am trying to use my own power rather than allow the grace of God to flow through me.

This is why in the Gospel Jesus says, “whoever loves Father or Mother or Son or Daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”

It is not that loving Father or Mother or Son or Daughter is bad - but that love is nothing compared to the Love fo God and yet how rarely do we truly understand that.

St. Augustine put it this way.

Augustine responded to this - “Isn’t what they are asking for just?  Shouldn’t I give back what I have received?  The father says “I fathered you”, the mother says “I bore you”.  The Father says “I educated you”, the mother says “I fed you”... Let us answer our father and mother when they justly say “Love us”.  Let us answer, I will love you in Christ not instead of Christ.  You will be with me in him, but I will not be with you without him.“ 

Essentially what St. Augustine is saying to think about the nature of love and how we live it out.  The love from God is like the light from the Sun.  The love for our parents, or children or siblings is like a 120W bulb - bright, but nothing when compared to the love that we receive from God.  Let us then allow our lives to be illuminated first and foremost by His love.

Right after this the Lord challenges us more profoundly - he challenges our love of self - and in doing so comes right back to the challenge of Sin, that Christ died to save us from.  The Lord says “whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.”

The cross is the place in our life where God invites us to learn to love Him as His Son loves Him.  The cross is the school of love.  The cross is a suffering in our life we would not wish on our worst enemy, and is not due to our own sinfulness or doing, yet it is unavoidable in our life.  Christ invites us to take it up, to embrace it and in embracing the cross to learn to love as He loves.

In a way the ultimate love we often put before that of God is love for self.  Christ invites us to even put love of self after love of God and he shows us that this is true when he embraces the cross to follow the will of the Father.

In a similar way he invites us to share in that grace, a grace that involves true suffering so we can learn to love as God loves.  

Be a Judoka with God - the Prophet / Righteous / Disciple

Finally, Christ ends his preaching with what appears to be a set of moralisms - The Prophet, the Righteous and the Disciple.  If we look at these in reverse we see that this part of his teaching is an invitation for us, his disciples to Grow in Holiness.

Disciple - St. Ambrose’s Friendship

Disciple - This is the simplest - a cold glass of water - one who desires to share the love of God with others.  This is how St. Ambrose first befriended Augustine in Milan.

The reward of one who receives a disciple is to take on discipleship.  This is what St. Augustine did when he encountered St. Ambrose.

Righteous - St. Ambrose’s actions

The righteous man - in order to be one that sees righteousness one needs to be righteous.  We live in a world today where our leaders are seldom righteous.  They seldom speak the truth and they rarely seek the good of others over themselves.  We as Christians are called to be the counter-example to that.

The reward of one who receives righteousness is to become righteous.  St. Augustine saw that St. Ambrose was first concerned about giving his fellow man his due, and began to appreciate and imitate him.

The Holy Spirit - St. Ambrose’s speech.

Finally, the Prophet is the one who speaks God’s truth.  In order to be one that welcomes a prophet we need to recognize that the Holy Spirit is speaking through the heart of the one who is with us, and then we will receive our reward - that is the Holy Spirit will come to dwell in our hearts.

Golden Nugget: As Christians, we are called to be “little Christs” in the world. As we become more like him, we share in his sufferings, rejections, and humiliations, but also in his glories and his joys. May we be more conformed to him so that, when others see us, they encounter Jesus Christ.

Be a Judoka with God - the Prophet / Righteous / Disciple

I want to invite you to live your life this week as a Catholic Judoka.  As the Lord used St. Ambrose as a Judoka to reach the heart of St. Augustine, through his friendship, treatment of others and life of prayer - How will you let the Lord use your life this week - to be a friend to others, to treat them with justice and to pray for your persecutors?

Living Faith

Feast of the Holy Trinity

Baptism Class - What does “True and Living Faith” mean?

When I teach baptism classes I always begin with a question from the instruction for the rite of Baptism.  “What does it mean to have a true and living faith?”  This is a challenging question for the parents and god-parents to be.  They often respond with “Be kind” or “Believe in God etc.  I ask this question because when parents bring their children to the Church for the sacrament of Baptism, they are asking that the Church baptize their children based on their relationship with God.  If we don’t have a clear understanding of who God is and our relationship to Him, then passing on our faith to our children is a huge challenge.  It is a wake up call.

How do I know my faith is True?  Living?

I think it is a great question for all of us - what does it mean to have a True and Living Faith?  How do I know that I have faith that is true?  How do I know that I have faith that is living?

True Faith / Living Faith

To have a true faith means that what I believe is consistent with what the Church teaches about God.  To have a living faith means that I actually put my beliefs into actions - that my beliefs shape who I am and how I live.  I have an active relationship with God.

St. Paul teaches True and Living Faith

The readings today for the Feast of the Holy Trinity teach us how to have a true and living faith.  It starts with the nature of God as 3 persons.  St. Paul says this the best at the end of the 2nd reading today when he says - “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.”  

A True and Living Faith is a Relational Faith

Put this in our own words - The Welcome of Christ, the Love of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you.  Each of these words are relational.  Do they reflect our relationship with God?  If we treat God as an idea and not a person then these words make no sense - however, if we are in relationship with the fullness of God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit then we desire the welcome of Christ, we treasure the love of the Father and we live in dialog with the Holy Spirit as we go about our lives.  This is the goal of a True and Living Faith.

God is not an abstract idea to understand but a relationship to enter. To have faith in God is not mere belief, but a dynamic and living relationship that demands a response out of us. Every time we pray the Sign of the Cross, we are stepping into the living relationship of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Rejoice

I love the order of things from St. Paul’s letter that is our second reading - he says “Brothers and sisters, rejoice. Mend your ways, encourage one another, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.”

If we want to have a true and living faith then we need to begin from a place of joy - “Rejoice!”  We rejoice in the realization that the Father loved us first - and out of His love for us we are created.  This is the central point of today’s Gospel - John 3:16 which we see at the Football games - “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son”.  Is the foundation of our relationship with God one of Joy or Fear or Duty or some other motivation?  St. Paul's guides us to begin in Joy - which is the response to Love.

Sign of the Cross begins with Joy

When we pray the sign of the Cross we ought to begin with joy [PLACE HAND ON FOREHEAD] at the realization that God loves me deeply, fully, completely - [MOVE HAND TO THE HEART] - so much so that He sent His Son out of love to save us, redeem us, welcome us.  His son gives us the Holy Spirit [COMPLETE THE SIGN OF THE CROSS] who lives and binds the Church together today. 

“Mend your Ways”

To have a true and living faith that is rooted in the joy of the Love of All of God, we start with an examination of the ways that our hearts are distorted by sin and selfishness, and in-spite of that we are called to begin with joy.  

In his encounter with God, Moses learns of God’s nature:  “the LORD, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich (full) in kindness (love) and fidelity." Moses at once bowed down to the ground in worship. Then he said, "If I find favor with you, O Lord, do come along in our company. This is indeed a stiff-necked people; yet pardon our wickedness and sins, and receive us as your own."  God does not impose Himself on Moses but waits for Moses to invite Him into relationship.  As Moses encounters God he realizes that He and the Israelites (and you and I) are a stiff-necked people - and so we ought to “Mend our ways”

In case you are thinking [PUT HAND ON NECK AND ROLL HEAD] - Thank God I am not a stiff-necked person today then think - stubborn, or obstinate or willful…

God has given us the trait of stubbornness - not to be used to remain enslaved by sin, but rather that we are stubborn in avoiding sin.  In addition to being a trinitarian prayer [MAKE THE SIGN OF THE CROSS] the sign of the cross is a reminder to us of God’s love for us - in that the Father sent his only Son to die on the cross and to heal our stiff-necked nature. 

Practical ways to live your Trinitarian Faith

“Encourage one another, agree with one another, live in peace”

The fruit of the Holy Spirit - that is the Spirit of Christ is that once we have mended our ways we start to live our lives so as to reflect the witness of Christ. This is the Living part of faith - we allow the love of Christ to govern our relationships.  

“Encourage one another”

Encourage one another - when we are tempted this week, take a moment and ask the Holy Spirit for words of encouragement rather than criticism.  Each day this next week as you go about your day think of one person to encourage - it could be your spouse, your kids or parents or siblings or a co-worker.  

“Agree with one another”

Think about what you believe - is it in accord with the Church or is it different?  Where are the places in our lives that we are taking exceptions to our Catholic Faith?  These are areas for conversion.  For example, What are the areas of strife in my life?  What is behind those?  Is it that I am a “Stiff Necked Person”?  Is it something that I can find a way forward with?  This is especially true with spouses, and children.  The value of living in accord with one another and with the Church is that we invite God into our relationships rather than reject Him or close Him out.

“Live in Peace”  

During the Last Supper Christ says to his Apostles “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid”.  When we live a Trinitarian life, our hearts are anchored in the the love of God and that allows us to look at all of the trials and tribulations of life as an opportunity to grow closer to Christ - even in the challenging things like a life-altering illness Christ invites us to abide in him, to not be anxious and to let his peace reign in us.  As we go to prayer this week - what anxiety or struggle do we need to surrender to Christ?

An Invitation to Immersion

The Gospel ends with a challenging Admonition:  “Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”  

Self Belief = isolation / death, Entrust Christ = Life

The word for belief in the Greek for this passage is πιστεύω (pisteúo) which means to entrust ones existence to God.  Jesus warns us that when we trust in ourselves, or in things, we will not have life.  Conversely when we entrust our lives completely to Him then we have eternal life.  When we immerse ourselves into this relationship with God, who is the source of life, our life is filled with his presence, his grace.  Christ invites us to entrust ourselves fully to the Trinity.  This is what it means to have a True and Living Faith; that I immerse myself [MAKE THE SIGN OF THE CROSS] in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen

Forgive one another as I forgive you…

 Easter Test!

Father Sean loves to teach the Greek word for the day, so I thought it would be fun for (me) to see how well you are doing at retaining your Greek lessons from Father Sean!  Are you ready?

Christos Anesti / Alithos (Aleythos) Anesti

Christ is Risen / Indeed He is Risen!

This is the greeting of the early Church to the reality of the resurrection - to the reality that God brings good out of evil - which is what we as a Church will spend the next 7 weeks living out in our faith lives what that actually means.

The first encounter in the Upper Room

St. John recounts for us what happened that very first day of the week when the disciples encountered the Risen Christ - He greets them with words of peace and forgiveness - Peace be with you!  Then He shows them His hands and his side - the glorified wounds of Christ are fundamental to our witness this Easter.

From Christ’s wounds flow His Mercy

St. Faustina Kowalska had this image of Easter in 1931 - when the Lord showed her his mercy flowing from his heart in two streams - red - symbolizing the eucharist and white - symbolizing the purity we acquire at our baptism.  These are the streams of love that God is pouring into our world. 

Our world needs a witness of Mercy

Brothers and Sisters, our world is in great need to encounter the divine mercy of God’s love.  We live in a world torn by hatred, judgement and the misuse of power.   

Golden Nugget: We live in a culture where everything is permitted but nothing is forgiven. Jesus Christ, however, boldly proclaims the opposite: not everything is allowed, but absolutely any sin can be forgiven. Nothing is more powerful than the mercy of God.

Peace Be with You / Mission / Forgiveness / Holy Spirit

The Disciples rejoice when they see the Lord, so He doubles down on his greeting.

The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”

In the upper room, at the end of the day Jesus offers the disciples 

• Mercy (Peace be with you)

• Mission (As the Father has sent me…)

• with Support (Receive the Holy Spirit)

• to Forgive (Whose sins you forgive)

Today, in this “upper room” Christ does the same.

• He invites us to be rooted in His love

• He gives us the same mission - As the Father has sent me)

• And the same Spirit

• To be men and women of forgiveness

Bridge to Acts - How do we live Divine Mercy?

The Acts of the Apostles guides us on how we respond to this mission.  

First the Church was a community of believers.  

Challenge - If you are sitting next to someone who did not come to church with you - take a moment and introduce yourselves to one another and share one hobby you have with your neighbor.  This is a huge parish and we don’t often take time to know one another.  If per-chance you find something in common I want to invite you to take time to get to know one another better.

[[PAUSE]]

Excellent.  Often we Catholics get the bad rap of being an impersonal church - we all come here to worship God and sometimes neglect one another in the Pews.  St. Luke tells us that one of the witnesses of Divine Mercy was the community - that they were of one accord and that they took care of the needs of the community.  Sometimes those needs are financial or material.  Other times those needs are for community, companionship or caring.

Breaking of the Bread - Check!

The second aspect of the Church was that they gathered for the breaking of the bread.  Check!  We are here for the celebration of the Eucharist.

Life of Prayer - Double down with Grace

The third aspect of the Church was a life of prayer.  I know - we just survived a long Lent but seriously - did you adopt a spiritual discipline that drew you closer to God - especially in prayer?  Don’t give up - double down in this season of grace.

Second Reading Bridge (Peter) - Teaching of the Apostles

The fourth aspect of the Church that St. Luke speaks of?  The Church listened to the teaching of the Apostles - Which St. Peter shared with us in the second reading.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you who by the power of God…”

Peter reminds the Church to rejoice in a new birth, to a living hope - that God brings life after death - that God brings good out of evil.

We have an inheritance - that is a gift from one who has died that cannot be taken away.  That inheritance is a gift - a salvation ready to be revealed - that is after Christ conquered Sin and Death he came back and gave us the mission to be witnesses to God’s forgiveness - by becoming a Church of Forgiveness.

Seeing is Believing - the problem of St. Thomas

There was a problem in the Gospel today - he did not witness the resurrected Christ - and so he made his famous statement - until I can put my fingers in the nail marks and my hand in His side, I will not believe!

We see in this Gospel the first failure of the early Church - the Apostles tried but failed to convince St. Thomas of the reality of the resurrection.  The proof that St. Thomas needed was to touch the wounds and understand the suffering and pain that he caused Christ by running away so that he could understand the passion and love that Christ has in his forgiveness of St. Thomas.

It is a powerful thing to witness forgiving wounds

What stands out to me in the Gospel today is the prominence of the wounds of Christ as a testament to his suffering, death and resurrection.  

• It is those wounds that are the witness to Christ’s forgiveness.  

• Out of those wounds flow His Divine Mercy.  

• Through those wounds we receive forgiveness.  

• From those wounds we receive the mission to be witnesses that God brings good out of evil, life from death.

The Church is to be a witness of God’s mercy

We fulfill that mission by being women and men of forgiveness.  By being men and women who give witness to the love of God.  We are called as the disciples of Christ to give witness to His resurrection through our forgiveness of sins - through our willingness to bear the wounds that we have suffered and to forgive others.

Show them your hands and side - peace be with you

What does this mean?  Culturally we think forgiveness is to say it does not matter, we will forget a slight.  This is not forgiveness - this is lying about our wounds - which Christ wants to glorify.  Forgiveness is surrendering judgement to God - entrusting in his Mercy and Justice.  To ask for forgiveness or to apologize is to recognize that I have done wrong.  To offer forgiveness is to recognize that I have been wounded, injured and hurt - and to let it go and learn to love as Christ loves.  Brothers and Sisters, when we say that we forgive one another we are imitating Christ in the upper room and showing one another our hands and our side - and then saying “Peace be with you…”

Conduit of Grace

 Ash Wednesday’s readings teach us about Lent and how God works with us;  

Today’s readings teach us how God uses our sacrifices this Lent.

The readings for Ash Wednesday teach us what to do for Lent, and how God works with us during Lent.  Today’s readings point us to how God uses this season of Lent to help others to grow in holiness.  St. Paul in his letter to Timothy makes the purpose of Lent clear.

Beloved:  Bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God.

He saved us and called us to a holy life, not according to our works but according to his own design and the grace bestowed on us in Christ Jesus before time began,

Lent -> Life :  Penance is the conduit for God’s grace

We are called to live a holy life during Lent - not by our own works, but that the grace of God might pour through us this Lent.  

As Catholics we have this season of Lent not just for 40 days - but to change the rest of our lives so that we might become more open to letting God use us as a conduit of His grace.

Let that sink in…

What is God doing?  Genesis

God Promises then God does - this is how we grow in Faith

God tells Abram what he is going to do and then invites him to participate.  He does the same with us - He invites us to let Him use us to bless other people.  This is in essence the mission of the Christian - that our life would become a blessing for others.

“I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse  you. All the communities of the earth shall find blessing in you.”

God makes 3 promises to Abram at the start of his journey:

• To be the Father of a great nation

• This is fulfilled at Mt. Sinai when the descendents of Abram enter into a covenant with God.

• To have a royal dynasty

• This is fulfilled in the Davidic line of Kings that comes from Abram.

• To be a Universal Blessing for ALL people

• This is fulfilled when Christ establishes the covenant for Jews and Gentiles.

God goes on to fulfill His promises to Abram throughout the rest of his life.  He invites Abram to be part of His story, and when Abram says yes, God blesses him.

The mission of the Christian - be a conduit for blessing

The third blessing to Abram is significant for us - let us dwell there for a moment.  Christian lives mirror in a way the life of Abram.  We start by being immersed in the waters of Baptism through which we are clothed with Christ.  It is through our Baptism, which is completed with our Confirmation that we are invited to become a blessing to others.  God gave us these gifts of Baptism and Confirmation to use us to bless others.

Between the 1st and 2nd predictions of the Passion

Today’s Gospel, the Transfiguration occurs right between the first and second prediction of the Passion, where Christ begins to share the heart of His mission with the Apostles.  Jesus invites Peter, James and John into the story.  He takes them up the Mountain where they see who He truly is, to strengthen them for the way of the Cross.  

Christ reveals the fullness of who He is

In this reading Jesus shows Peter, James, and John - and through them Us, who He truly is.  It terrifies them!  This is the reality of God that we often blind ourselves too - and yet Jesus did not hold back - he allowed the Apostles to experience the fullness of who He is through that encounter with Him and the Father.  When that experience had overwhelmed them it was by touch - the simplest and most primitive way to communicate love to a Human that Christ calls them out of their fear and instills in them the confidence to follow him on the road ahead.

The Transfiguration in St. Peter’s life.

An important tool for our own faith life is to understand where we are with Christ on the Journey.  When we look at the experience of the Transfiguration in the life of St. Peter we see that this occurs in the midst of a journey that still has many ups and downs ahead.  

Let me show you

• Jesus asks Peter who He is (Matt 16) - You are the Christ the Messiah of God - to you I give the keys to the kingdom…

• Jesus speaks of the Passion - Peter pulls Him aside and then Christ rebukes him.

• Then we have the Transfiguration - where Christ shows Peter what that means…

• This is in the larger context of Christ’s Passion, Peter’s denial, the Resurrection and then the encounter after Easter with the Lord on the sea shore (Peter do you love me)

• This is followed with Pentecost, and culminates with Peter’s own crucifixion in Rome…

How does that work out in your life or my life?

Where have we been challenged to grow in Faith by God?

How have we responded?

What is God doing?  My Life?

I want to share with you how I have experienced God building my faith over the course of my life:

I perceive that God Invites, I respond, then I see…

God is not yet done with me (like Peter).

Let me share an example - My vocation as a Deacon

Discernment for the Diaconate - having the powerful, visceral experience that God is calling me to be a Deacon, to see Him deliver on the promise then to be challenged in my belief and then to have God confirm his promise.

• 1996 - Serving God in retreat ministry and caring for those placed before me.

• 1998 - Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius - I want you to be my Deacon - Telling my wife

• 2000 - World Youth Day - flying home from Rome

• 2003 - The formation committee - realizing that God doesn’t just work with me but with the entire Church.

• 2007 Ordained a Deacon

• 2009 Embraced the cross of a divorce

• 2026 Still following Christ

Reflect on the story of your friendship with God.

I share this example to invite you to reflect on and understand your own story - your own Journey with God.  He invites all of us along the path of relationship that we have with Him - and each path is unique and different. 

The Transfiguration is light given in advance of darkness, reassurance before sacrifice. On the mountain Jesus reveals his glory before his passion. Lent is our mountain moment: a chance to see clearly who Christ is, so that when the road turns toward Calvary, we will follow not in fear, but in trust. 

Your story becomes a source of blessing for others.

The story of your friendship with God is not done - it still has ups and downs ahead.  This Lent, let us embrace the cross that God might use us to pour out His blessings on others that we encounter.