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 us our trespasses...

24th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Cycle A

A Boat ride on the Sea of Galiliee
We don’t know from scripture what led to the incident in the Gospel reading today.  St. Matthew does not say.  Following St. Ignatius I want us to use our active imagination and put ourselves into the situation with Peter and Jesus.  Imagine that Peter has offered to take Jesus out on his fishing boat in the late afternoon / early evening to escape the heat of the day and enjoy a cool breeze on the Sea of Galilee.  So, they go down to the boat to depart, and instead of finding everything in order, it is a total mess.  Peter knows instantly that it was his brother who left this mess. – Andrew!  He is steamed by his brother’s messiness and really annoyed.  After all Andrew has been a slob and his messiness has ruined what would have been a wonderful evening.

Yet at the same time Peter knows that Jesus is calling him to conversion, to forgiveness, even of his own annoying brother.  So with that in mind he turns to Jesus and asks him.  "Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him?  Seven Times?”  Perhaps forgiving Andrew seven seems to be a lot.

Jesus answered, "I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times. 

Oops, thinks Peter, I guess I need to work on my ability to forgive my brother…

But why Lord?  I don’t understand.  Look at this mess, Look at the impact it has on me as I need to take away from our time together to clean it up.  Look at how it ruined our evening!

Where is your heart looking - to yourself or to God?
The book of Sirach gives us some clues about why imitating the love of God is ultimately good for us.  It starts us where Peter is at – Look at how I suffer from Andrew’s sin!  It starts us at where our heart is at, and then leads us to where God’s heart is at.

Wrath and anger are hateful things,
yet the sinner hugs them tight.
The vengeful will suffer the LORD's vengeance,
for he remembers their sins in detail.

Injustice to the self?
When we are busy caught up in injustice it is often not a holy justice, but a selfish sense of justice.  And for the reason of the logic of the injustice, we can’t get beyond ourselves and the wrong to understand the injury from God’s perspective.  For this reason, we hug tightly to our sinfulness.

The backpack of Gruges?
Think of that image for a second.  It is like we wear a backpack of grudges, and every time we experience an injustice, instead of forgiving, and loving, we stuff the injustice into our grudge pack and keep on going.  And then the day comes when the grudge pack is full, and someone gives us another grudge, and gets a whole lot back in return!

Christ calls us to conversion
Yet Christ calls us to conversion.  To forgiveness.  Instead of holding onto those grudges, slights, injustices ourselves, he calls us to give them to God.  We surrender judgment to God who can judge justly, who judges with mercy.  Whose justice is his mercy and whose mercy is his justice because God’s justice is aimed at bringing about an authentic communion of love and relationship with himself and with one another.

God invites us into this relationship, but gives us the freedom to choose or reject it.

Forgive your neighbor's injustice;
then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven.
Could anyone nourish anger against another
and expect healing from the LORD?
Could anyone refuse mercy to another like himself,
can he seek pardon for his own sins?
If one who is but flesh cherishes wrath,
who will forgive his sins?

Forgive us…
This challenge is codified in the Our Father – Forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

IDEA:  Pray an Our Father each day for each person that you feel that you are angry / vengeful towards.  Do this on your way to work with them or when you recognize that you are avoiding them.  It is a way of keeping this idea from Sirach foremost in our hearts.

How to respond to Injustice
When we face those who treat us unjustly, who sin against us, or persecute us, then how do we respond?  With Mercy and forgiveness, with prayer and thanksgiving.  Jesus shows this in the parable he explains to Peter

That is why the kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants. When he began the accounting, a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount.Since he had no way of paying it back, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, his children, and all his property, in payment of the debt. At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.' Moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan. 

God is the King, we are the Servants
The King is God, and we are the servants.  We are in debt to God on account that he created us and invites us into a relationship of co-creation with himself, and we are called to witness the love of God to one another, and yet in our sin we destroy God’s gift.  This is the debt that we cannot repay.

How does the king respond to this debtor.
1. He listens!
2. He speaks the truth with love – he points out the reality of the debt.
3. He has a greater mercy than the debtor can even imagine.  The debtor pleads for time to repay and the King forgives.  This is extra-ordinary love!
4. The King’s response leads the servant to Freedom so he can choose to love God more fully – rather than imprisoning him.

This is important because the King teaches us how to be like Christ.

How do we respond to this gift of Mercy?
When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a much smaller amount. He seized him and started to choke him, demanding, 'Pay back what you owe.'

Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him,
'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.' But he refused.  Instead, he had the fellow servant put in prison until he paid back the debt. 

Does the Servant Imitate the King?
When we are angry with others, when we are hurt by others do we choose to imitate the love of Christ?  Do we imitate the love and generosity and forgiveness of God?  This servant does not, and when the King hears how his forgiven servant responds, he has the servant suffer for failing to learn the lesson.

• The servant does not listen – he says Give me my Money!
• The servant does not forgive – he impressions
• The servant does not lead his brother to freedom, he insists on getting “His right”.

The servant does not imitate the generosity and mercy of God.  He is owed much less, and yet his response is less generous.  His heart is hard, his goal is the self and not God’s Plan

Baptism - we are called to imitate the mercy of the King as a sacrifice.
This is why we have the second reading – to help us to understand our mission as Christians in the world.

Brothers and sisters:
None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself.  

What is our orientation in life – for myself and the little debts that I am owed – debts of justice, debts of uncharity, debts of cruelty?  Or is my orientation to imitate Christ and his love?

For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord;

Baptism is a commission to be a source of forgiveness
To die is to suffer the injustice of another and then to offer it in prayer for the salvation of the other.  Remember that it is by our Baptism that we enter into the suffering and death of Jesus Christ.  In our Baptism we are called to share in the priestly ministry of offering sacrifice for those who cause us to suffer.  Jesus took our debts with him into the grave when he died on the Cross, and then he left them there and rose to eternal life with God the Father.

so then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.
For this is why Christ died and came to life,
that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

Are we watering the seed of eternal life we were given at Baptism with these opportunities for prayer, forgiveness and grace, or are we ignoring the invitations of the King?

Dogs with Faith!

20th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Cycle A

1 Kgs 19:9a, 11-13a; Psalm 85:9, 10, 11-12, 13-14; Rom 9:1-5; Gospel: Mt 14:22-33

Faith is the gift we receive at Baptism.
At the beginning of the baptismal rite, the Priest or Deacon asks those who are going to be baptized – “What do you ask of the Church?” The response to this question is – “Faith”. In baptism God gives the gift of his forgiveness that he poured out on the cross for us.

The gift of faith at Baptism is the gift of God’s love.
Jesus came as a man to open heaven for us. In a practical way, He came to invite us into relationship with God by removing the obstacles that we have placed between us by our sin. Jesus paid the price for sin to invite us into a loving relationship with God. This is what it means to ask for faith – we are asking to share our lives with God, and to be one of his beloved children.

Today’s Gospel humbles Christians – St. Peter vs Pagan Woman.
It is humbling then to be confronted with today’s Gospel. When those who ought to know (i.e. St. Peter, the first Pope) are rebuked for their weak faith, and those who are ignorant (The pagan woman in today’s Gospel) are extolled for her great faith.

Our lives of faith are a work in progress
At the same time, Jesus did not abandon Peter to the waves, but rather he continued to work with Peter to help him to see the totality of Gods’ love for him. He does the same with us. If we thought that we have done our part in loving God last week, that is good, because today Christ calls us to walk with Him in a deeper way, He calls us to deepen our faith and our love for Him.

Saints respond to Gods love and are beautified.
Recently Pope John Paul II was beatified, which is one of the steps on the way to becoming a saint. A saint is a man or woman who chose to allow Gods love to transform their lives. When we beatified Pope John Paul II we recognized that his life was beautiful because his life was filled with faith. One of our desires as humans is to want to become more beautiful, and accepting our faith is a certain path to beauty. It is through living out our faith completely that we become beautiful.

Embracing the fullness of the faith exposes our entire life to the light of God’s love.
A characteristic of saints is that they embrace the fullness of the faith. They do not pick and choose the easy parts, but they embrace the teachings of the Church in its entirety. When we have the courage to do this we bring the fullness of who we are into contact with the gift of faith that God has given us. This allows us to be purified because our selfishness is illuminated by Christ’s selfless love. When this happens have the opportunity to make a decision, to see good and evil in the light of Gods love and to choose the good and to reject the evil – which is the grace of our baptism.

We say “I believe” by responding to the trial of faith with love.
When we recognize the love that God has shown us we need to make a decision – will I love God in return? The way that I love God in return is to imitate his love for me. This is why Christian’s are called to love those who hurt them rather than to hate them by seeking revenge. When we choose to love then we are free because we are not allowing our persecutors to control our behavior.

Saints know the love of God because they are humble.
Another way that the saints see the greatness of God’s love is through the gift and their own powerlessness. They are all beggars because they recognize the truth of their own weakness, how easy it is to allow sin to rule their lives rather than to depend on God’s mercy and grace. In this sense they too became more loving and forgiving of those around them, while at the same time encouraging those trapped in sin to seek the grace and forgiveness of God. If we find that we are trapped by sin, a way of live that is contrary to the Gospel, then we are encouraged to seek forgiveness in the sacrament of confession. To be cleansed of our sin and purified so we can experience God’s love more fully.

What are we going to do about it?
In the Gospel today a pagan woman comes to Christ as an annoying beggar and says “Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is tormented by a demon.” At first Jesus simply ignores her, but because she is so annoying he finally says “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” Pause a moment and think about what Jesus just said. He was rude, he called this poor women a dog. This woman has determination because she sees in Christ the abundance of God’s love and knows that it must overflow beyond the Jews. She knows that God’s love is so great that it must overflow to all people and so she responds. “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.” Jesus responds to her witness of God’s love by saying “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.”

Is our life of faith recognizable?
Do we recognize Gods love for us in our lives? More importantly – are we living lives that allow our faith to form us so that our family, friends and co-workers can see the greatness of Gods love in our lives, and share in this great blessing that God has given us?

For whom the bell tolls…

4th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Cycle B

Dt 18:15-20 Psalm Ps 95:1-2, 6-7, 7-9 1 Cor 7:32-35 Mk 1:21-28

Eastern Europe
A Cardinal who grew up in Eastern Europe once shared with a group of young people why church bells were so important to him. “They remind me of my Baptism, of my faith and my mission in life” he said. In his country the Church bells were rung every morning at sunrise to remind the people to begin their day with a prayer of thanksgiving to God. The job of ringing the bells belonged to the altar boys who had to get up before dawn, and walk down to the Church in the dark in order to ring the bells at sunrise.

When the communists took over Eastern Europe they wanted to destroy the Church, so they imposed a curfew until dawn to try to prevent the ringing of the church bells. This cardinal, and his boyhood friend were committed to serving God, and so they would get up early in the morning and sneak over to the Church to ring the bells. One morning when it was his friend’s turn to ring the bells, he was shot for violating the curfew. This tragedy devastated the village, but every day, the bells of the Church still spoke out…

Ringing Bells make a Joyful Noise
At St. Anthony’s we begin every Mass with the ringing of the Church bells. Our bells have always made a joyful noise to the Lord because they call us to open our hearts to God so that we can receive His love. In a certain way our bells are the voice of our Church, because when we hear them, we are reminded of God, our faith and our Baptism.

It takes two to ring the bells
There are two people involved in the ringing of the bells, the one pulling the rope, and the ones listening to the sound. All of us who are baptized have this dual vocation in our lives; we have a responsibility to listen to the sound of the bells (to listen to Christ) and to be a bell for Christ by living our witness to the Gospel before our friends and family.

Listening to Christ
The first reading today contains a stern warning to those of us with this dual responsibility. In it, God warns Moses and all of the prophets (That is us sisters and brothers) that we need to hear the truth – that is the whole truth, and not just the parts of the Truth that we are comfortable with. It is not enough for me to simply hear the Churches teachings on abortion and not hear her teachings on immigration or war, or to hear the Churches teaching on the liturgy and not hear her teachings on the care for the poor or the sick. If we want to be faithful listeners, then we need to hear the whole truth.

How do we listen to Christ?
The response for the responsorial psalm today says, “If today you hear his voice harden not your hearts”. This means that we have an obligation to listen to Christ each day. We listen to Christ through attentive prayer. God has created each one of us with a specific mission in mind, a specific vocation, a calling. If we never listen to Christ, then we can only become aware of our vocation when God sneaks up behind us and whacks us over the head with the spiritual 2x4 (two by four).

Christian Life is Baptism flowing out into the world
The word Vocation means “one who is called”. There are two different connotations of the word vocation that I would like to address today; our baptismal vocation, and the vocations of service that we might be called to in Marriage or Holy orders.

Christian Life is our Baptismal Vocation flowing out into the world.
Fix in your minds the idea that at the moment of your Baptism God placed into your soul a rich spring, welling up with the purest, sweetest, cleanest water. Our Baptismal vocation is not a split instant in our life, but rather the water from this spring welling up within us and flowing out into the world over the course of our entire life. The grace that we received at Baptism remains effective for all eternity – and it desires to permeate into all of our relationships and interactions, washing them clean through the grace of God. Sadly, many Catholics receive this spring at Baptism and then seldom turn again to listen to the voice of God resonating in their souls. Some of us gathered here today may share this experience. For all of us, the readings today call us to listen anew to the bells of the Church!

Have a Conversation with God
I want to encourage all of us gathered here today to make time in our lives to listen to God. Specifically, we can take 10 minutes in the morning as we begin our days to reflect quietly with God about the people that God is calling us to be the bell of the Church for today. This is what God and Moses were doing in the first reading. They were reflecting together over the people that God had entrusted to Moses. Listening to God in prayer this way helps us to become aware of the ways that the grace that God has given us at baptism is flowing through our lives and into the world. It is also a way to become aware of when God is calling us into a more specific vocation – a vocation of service.

All are called to listen and dialog today
In the Church there are two sacramental vocations of service, marriage and holy orders. As a married Deacon, I need to be attentive to both of these calls, but all of us have a need to listen to God about both of the sacraments because all of us experience these sacraments in our lives. Those of us who are single, or young are called to listen and dialog with God about where He is calling us to serve and how he is calling us to serve. If we are ordained, or married, then we too have an obligation to dialog with God about how he is calling us to live out our sacraments today.

This means that like Christ, the prophet that Moses and God spoke about in the first reading, we have an obligation to listen to the whole truth of God in our sacramental life and not to shy away from the teachings of the Church that we find difficult or inconvenient. In this sense all of us need to hear the bells, and all of us need to be bell ringers…

Don’t be anxious about the things of the World.
St. Paul warns us today not to be anxious about the things of the world, but rather to trust in God. The reason why St. Paul warns us about this is because anxiety strangles our ability to listen to God and prevents us from trusting God.

Married People – Trust in the Lord
When it comes to marriage, do we choose to listen to Christ about contraception, or be anxious about the burden of children and so we contracept? Do we place other things above our vocation to serve one another out of love? Where in our marriage do we need to invite in the healing love of God. How can we allow him to enter into the wounds of our love and redeem them, heal them? In what ways are our marriages thirsty for the flowing, cleansing, refreshing, life-giving waters of baptism?

[[PAUSE]]

Bishops, Priests and Deacons – Trust in the Lord
For those of us in Holy Orders, are we faithful to the vows we made at our ordinations? Are we humble to His Will readily following the promptings of the Holy Spirit in our ministry? Does our life of prayer continue to grow and deepen? Are we holding fast to the faith of the Church – the whole faith? Are we obedient to our Bishop, listening to him as good sons ought to? Do we continue to conform our lives to the example of Christ?

[[PAUSE]]

Pray for Vocations – Pray for our married couples
All of us experience the sacrament of marriage – either as husbands and wives or as sons and daughters, and so all of us are affected by the fidelity of those married couples in our community who are called by God to live out this sacrament. Let us pray then sisters and brothers for the married couples of our parish that God may give them the grace to live out their sacrament faithfully, and fruitfully.

Pray for Vocations – pray for our Bishop, Priests and Deacons
Likewise all of us here experience the sacrament of Holy Orders. Without it we could not gather week after week to receive the Eucharist and to celebrate the Mass. Let us take some time this week to pray in a special way for those in Holy Orders and those living the religious life. That they might be faithful to their vows taken at ordination and so reflect the love of God to the World.

Listen and Trust in God and you will discover your vocation
All of us here are called to a vocation in life. The way that we begin to discover this vocation is to listen to God and to trust in God.

To those of us here today that have not yet received either of these two sacraments I want to offer you this reassurance. The decision to enter the seminary to study for the priesthood or diaconate is a serious decision, however, it is not the final decision to be a priest or deacon but rather the next level of listening and trusting in God to see if He is calling you to Holy Orders. In the same way becoming engaged is a serious decision but it does not mean that you are married, but rather that you are going to spend some time considering marriage seriously. Engagement and entering the seminary means that we are willing to listen to God and to trust that He will make his will known to us.

To those of us here today who are living in Holy Orders or Marriage – we too have the same challenge: to listen to God in the context of our vocation and to trust that God will provide for the needs of our ministry. If we do this we will become better wives, better husbands, better priests and better deacons.

Brothers and Sisters when we listen to God we hear the peal of the bells. When we trust in God, we are the ones who are ringing the bells. Go and make joyful noise to the Lord this week!

The way of the cross - the way of life

Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Nm 21:4b-9 Psalm Ps 78:1bc-2, 34-35, 36-37, 38 Phil 2:6-11 Jn 3:13-17

In the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Exaltation of the Holy Cross
Today the Church celebrates the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. This feast celebrates both the discovery of the Cross by St. Helena in 320 and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem over the site of where Jesus was crucified in 335.

This feast occurs every year on the 14th of September, and when it falls on a Sunday we celebrate it instead of Ordinary time. This is the day when we as the Church reflect on the transforming power of the Cross.

The Cross Defines our Lives as Christians
If you think about it the cross defines our lives as Christians. Action without understanding leads to superstition. So the Church gives us this feast to call us to reflect on the way of prayer that is defined by the sign of the Cross. It is not simply the opening motions of prayer, but rather a physical reminder to our own life and destination.

In Baptism
Last weekend I had the opportunity to baptize a baby boy and girl into the Church. The Rite of Baptism begins with claiming a soul for Christ by tracing the sign of the cross on our foreheads. We are reminded of this every time we enter or leave a church when we dip our fingers in holy water and sign ourselves with the Sign of the Cross. It is this action that reminds us of our birth into the Church – the community of faith.

As Christians we imitate Christ by allowing the Cross to transform us
It is suitable that the Cross defines our lives as Christians, just in the same way that the Cross defined the life of Christ himself. To be a Christian means that we are to follow and imitate the example of Christ. In the Gospel today we see that Christ was speaking to Nicodemus in the early part of John’s Gospel about the end of John’s Gospel. So very early in His own ministry Christ was looking to the Cross as the means of showing God’s love to us.

Christianity does not mean an end to suffering, but a transformation in suffering
So if you became a Christian because you thought it would end suffering in your life you came to the wrong place. Christ did not climb up on the cross to end suffering, but rather to transform it into a sign of God’s love for us. When we begin our prayer, our day, or our meal with the sign of the Cross, we are inviting Christ to transform our lives so that we can be united with God.

The Cross allows our suffering to be transformed into love
Suffering is hard, unpleasant and difficult. Christ took the experience of suffering and transformed it to an experience of love. Love for one another and love for God. The witness of Christ on the cross compels all Christians to look at the way in which he approached suffering. He allowed us to abuse him, ridicule him, torture him and kill him. Why? Because he was guilty? No Because he enjoyed it? No? Because he was showing us how to love the father. He was showing us the desire of the Father to have authentic relationship with us.

How did Christ transform suffering?
The figure of Christ on the Cross transforms our understanding of suffering, from one of fear to one of Love. Christ stands on the cross looking out at the world, and inviting the world into relationship with God.

The Cross formed Christ’s humanity into the image of love that pours out itself for the other.

In this way the cross undid the sin of Adam, where the image and likeness of God was disfigured by sin.

The way of the Cross leads us to imitate the Love of God. To be open, in a radical way, in a loving way to our brothers and sisters in community.

Our lives are called to be transformed by imitating Christ, by allowing our lives to be configured to that of Christ Crucified.

Blood and Water
As Catholics we have a special opportunity to share in the life of Christ on the Cross, because Blood and Water flowed from the side of Christ as he hung upon the Cross – Water symbolizing our baptism into his death and resurrection. Blood symbolizing the Holy Eucharist that we share today. Baptism that brings us into the community of the Church, and the Eucharist that brings us into communion with Christ and through Christ with one another.

My prayer for all of us today is that on this feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross that we allow our lives to be transformed. The next time that we have the opportunity to make the sign of the Cross, we ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to us the area of our lives that needs to be transformed to more closely imitate the Love of Christ on the Cross.

In the Name of the Father…

Dear Holy Mother Church

Tuesday the 2nd Week of Easter

Acts 4:32-37 Psalm 93:1ab, 1cd-2, 5, Jn 3:7b-15

Who is the Church?

The Church is the community founded by Christ with the mission to show humanity how to live reconciled with one another through Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.


Let us break that apart a little bit.

The Church is a community founded by Christ
During Easter the Church reflects on her birth from the side of Christ as he hung upon the cross in the sleep of death. Just as Adam was put into a deep sleep so that Eve could be born from him, Christ was put into a deep sleep so that Holy Mother Church could spring from Him when His side was pierced by the soldiers lance – and blood and water flowed forth.

We’re on a Mission from God

The Church has a mission – We don’t meet in order to plan meetings we do not exist so that we can continue to exist. The Church has a mission, a very important purpose in the world - To show humanity how to be reconciled to one another through Christ by the Power of the Holy Spirit.

How can we be reconciled through Christ?

Our community is founded on the Sacrament of Baptism – which we hear a little about in today’s Gospel. We call one another Brother and Sister because we have been born anew in Baptism through Water and the Holy Spirit – We become Brothers and Sisters because we are all united to Christ. The mission of the Church calls us to become reconciled to one another by allowing Christ to be at the center of our relationship. When we do this we invite His presence into our relationships as the source of healing, wholeness and communion.

Two Practical Ways that we can do this

In Marriage

In sacramental marriage Christ expresses His love to me in a unique way through my spouse. Christ also calls me to express His love to my spouse by unconditional love and service to her. In marriage we can strive to begin each day with this thought about what our vocation is, and how we are to love our beloved – As Christ loved the Church, or as the Church loves Christ..

In Baptism

In Baptism we are united to Christ through His Death and Resurrection that destroys sin. Christ conquers Sin and Death so that we can live free of their evil effects. When we are reconciled through Christ we allow our Baptism to take root in our lives; we allow ourselves to be healed of division and that we give thanks to God for His transforming grace in our lives. This means that we recognize that the greatest stumbling block in our relationship to one another is our own sin, and not the sin of our Brothers or Sisters.

The Holy Spirit moves where he wills!

Ask the Holy Spirit – who moves according to the will of the Father to point out to you one relationship of your life that is in need of the light of Christ, so that you can be reconciled by the Holy Spirit.

[PAUSE]

Dear Holy Mother Church

You are the community founded by Christ with the mission to show humanity how to live reconciled with one another through Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit

[PAUSE]

May your Savior guide you in carrying out your mission today!

Speak the Truth

Baptism of the Lord, Cycle A

Is 42:1-4, 6-7 – Ps 29:1-2, 3-4, 3, 9-10 - Acts 10:34-38 - Mt 3:13-17

Conscience allows us to speak the Truth and to recognize the Plan of God

John the Baptist is shocked today to discover that Jesus is the next one to receive the baptism of repentance. He speaks the truth to Jesus and he says “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?”

John’s Conscience prompts him to speak the Truth

John’s conscience is prompting him to speak the Truth – because that is what a conscience does – it witnesses to us about the truth of God. At the same time, John’s conscience witnesses to his own sinfulness and shortcomings – his need for the Baptism of the Christ

Because of this John and Jesus have an argument, which ends with Jesus convincing John to go along with God’s plan and to baptize Jesus.

Conscience is not Opinion or Emotion

Each one of us has a conscience - but many of us are confused about what a conscience truly is - how it works and how we are to use it. Our culture confuses conscience with opinion mingled with emotion. If it feels right, then I must do it. This is not true.

• The human conscience is grounded in Truth – It prompts us to do good and avoid evil.
• it recognizes the difference between good and evil (especially in our own actions – it is by our conscience that we recognize when we have done good or evil).
• and always bears witness to the Truth – Our conscience remembers what we have done in the light of the Truth of God.

Human Conscience is the truth of Gods Love etched on our hearts by God himself. The Catechism teaches that our conscience always calls us to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil. It is the most secret core of our being, and it is there that we are alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths.

Like John, Christ invites us to participate in His mission – we start this with Baptism.

One of the ways we cooperate and participate in the plan of God is to be Baptized, we enter into the Body of Christ. Christ chose to be baptized so that we could be united to Him – we could become His brothers. Our Baptism is more than membership in the Church – it is our joining Christ in His mission to show the Father’s love to the world.

What is the mission of Christ? – The 5 ways of the Prophet Isaiah

Isaiah speaks of this in the first reading today – He prophesies that the Messiah will do 5 distinct things – Isaiah is prophesying our mission, defining for us the our Goals as the Church.

Baptism makes us the covenant people that Isaiah speaks of in his reading today – Baptism makes the Church.

Our Mission is to be a covenant for the People – This is the mission of the Church. As the People of God, our covenant is the Eucharist – the Body and Blood of Jesus. In a similar way, we are the Body of Christ – We (the Church) are the way that God has chosen to show His love to the people!

How do I represent the Love of God to those whom I live with? Why or Why not?


A light for the nations - Forming your Conscience

In order to be a light to the nations we need a well-formed conscience. Conscience is like a plant – it needs the light of God’s word to grow properly. When someone justifies sin by saying that they are listening to their conscience then either they are lying, or they are negligent in the formation of their conscience. The Catechism says that the conscience must be informed and moral judgment enlightened. A well-formed conscience is upright and truthful. It judges according to reason and conforms itself to the will of God. Forming our conscience is needed because we are subjected to negative influences and tempted by sin that makes it easy for us to rationalize our actions.

Our actions witness to our relationship with God

By the witness of our actions we shed the light of Christ into peoples lives. We do this by not joining in the sinfulness of the world, but by being like Christ - which is what it means to be a Christian. Christ lived with the sinners not as a sinner himself, but as the one who offers them healing and hope by the sharing of His relationship with God. Baptism strengthens us for this witness by washing away sin, and giving us a profound relationship with God – The Holy Trinity dwells in us, to illumine our conscience and lead us into the depths of His love. How do I share my relationship with God, the grace of my sacrament of Baptism with others through my actions?

Isaiah calls us To Open the eyes of the Blind

People are blind today as to what sin is – They do not seem to understand the difference between right and wrong. They use rationalization to justify their behavior. Be it pornography on the internet or your cell phone, or our addiction to violence in our entertainment, or our insensitivity to our neighbor.

Our conscience is formed by absorbing the word of God and putting it into practice.

To form our conscience we must absorb the Word of God in faith put into practice. We are assisted by the gifts of the Holy Spirit who speaks through us and the advice of others guided by the teaching authority of the Church.

Where does the Light of Christ need to come into my life?

Again, we need to answer the question - What sin am I blind to that God’s love illuminates? What situation exists in my life that needs the light of God’s love? How is Christ calling me to reflect His love into that situation so that the blind can see? As a corollary to this, consider that the blind always came to Christ for healing – not the other way around.

To Bring Prisoners out of confinement

A well-formed conscience leads us to freedom. Because of this we need to have a life long habit of forming our conscience, through action and reflection. A Well formed conscience gives us confidence in the goodness of our action, and it leads us to live lives that are filled with Joy and Peace, frees us from the confinement. This is part of the brilliance of God’s plan, as we are freed from slavery to sin and death our lives become attractive to others – they inherently recognize the goodness that we live, and they are drawn to Christ like a magnet.

Thanksgiving helps us to give the reason for our joy!

When people ask us about the reason for our joy and happiness– we need to be ready and able to respond to them about the great things that God has done, or is doing for us.

If we are not there yet, then we are called to begin with thanksgiving – to make a daily habit of giving thanks to God for one thing each day, and then branch out – make a breakfast, lunch and dinner thanksgiving and so on. Thanksgiving opens us up to be aware and grateful for the gifts that God has given us, and so prepares us to be able to give the reason for the joy we experience.

To free those who live in darkness from their dungeons

The Church (means us – the Body of Christ) has a mission to free those trapped in darkness and dungeons. The world is enslaved to sin. It is our mission to the underground railroad – to free those trapped in slavery and help them to find the freedom of truth. To be shining witnesses to the world of God’s radical love.

CONCLUSION

Today’s feast of the Baptism of the Lord celebrates the end of Christmas and the beginning of Ordinary Time. In this feast today we celebrate the start of Christ’s Mission.

To be a light for the nations,
to open the eyes of the blind,
and to bring out prisoners from confinement,

Because of our Baptism, we share in the Lord’s Baptism, which means that we share in his mission. It is time for us

To be a light for the nations,
to open the eyes of the blind,
and to bring out prisoners from confinement,

Ordinary time begins tomorrow – and Christ has given us work to do this year!