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…”

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?

Stewards

14th Wednesday of Ordinary Time – Cycle B

Gn 41:55-57; 42:5-7a, 17-24a, Ps 33:2-3, 10-11, 18-19, Gospel: Mt 10:1-7

God gave Joeseph the Gift of Prudence
In the first reading, we see that God has given Joseph the gift of interpreting dreams so that he could help Pharaoh be a good ruler of Egypt. Joseph is made the steward of the graineries of Egypt to help the people; in fact all of the world endure this great famine. Joseph is Prudent – he uses that gift of wisdom to expand the graineries in Egypt and to store up the food so that when the famine hits, people are still provided for.

Spiritual Starvation – An understanding of man’s role in the world
Our world today is suffering from a famine of forgiveness, a famine of people’s ability to receive God’s grace. Many people are spiritually starved, but are unaware of the hunger for God that exists in their souls. To that feed that hunger God is pouring out His gifts of grace into the world through the Church.

It is our actions of love and forgiveness that proclaim the kingdom of God
In the Gospel today Jesus calls the twelve to become stewards of the sacramental gifts of the Church. The twelve are called to be apostles, to be his special disciples to steward the grace of God to the world. Christ’s commandment to them, is his commandment to us – “Go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and make this proclamation – The Kingdom of God is at Hand”. The way that the Church makes this proclamation is in the lives of the community of believers.

Let us allow the grace that Christ gives us in the “bread of angels” to work in our lives so that our relationships are healed – and the kingdom of God is proclaimed.
God used Joseph to steward his gift of bread to the Egyptians, and through the Egyptians to the world. God uses the Church, you and I to steward his gift of “The bread of angels” to his disciples. It is our relationship with Christ in the Eucharist that we share that God is commanding us to us to steward. As we reflect with Christ after receiving Him in Holy communion, let us bring to Him all of our relationships – especially those in need of healing. Let us invite Christ into our actions and words this day so that He can use these relationships with our families and friends to give witness to the coming of the Kingdom of God.