Spiritual Bytes

By Deacon Richard Hay

“Bold shepherds…”

There are a few distinct themes in our readings on this Fourth Sunday of Easter – one of boldness on the part of the apostles after receiving the Holy Spirit, and then Christ as the cornerstone of our faith, and as our Good Shepherd.

So far, the mass readings since Easter have taken us on a journey of transformation among the apostles and disciples of Christ. We had that first weekend where in their continued confusion about what has happened concerning the Lord’s passion and death, we hear they are still fearful and have locked themselves in the upper room. A carryover of the fear and denial most of them experienced during the Lord’s passion and death on the cross.

However, despite that fear – despite their reaction to his passion and death, the resurrected Lord appears to the apostles and after breathing on them he says “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you. Receive the Holy Spirit.”

This is the pre-cursor to Pentecost – this is when the apostles receive the Holy Spirit that Jesus promised as an advocate. This is the cure for their fearfulness and confusion, and they break out of it in a very dramatic way.

Look at our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles as an example. It begins by stating that “Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit.” and then he goes on to proclaim that the crippled man was not healed in his name but in the name of “Jesus Christ the Nazorean”.

Here is Peter – right in the middle of the temple courtyard – boldly proclaiming the good news to all there including the people and the religious leaders of Jerusalem – that God raised Jesus from the dead for our salvation.

Peter doesn’t stop there. You know, we often think of Peter as being a little impulsive at times, but now he stands boldly and reminds those around him that Jesus is the cornerstone which they all rejected. He goes on to say that there is no salvation through anyone else and that there is no other name under heaven given to us for our salvation.

That doesn’t sound much like the fearful Peter that we heard denying Christ during his passion and death, does it?

So, what is the difference?

The Holy Spirit…

The Holy Spirit has changed everything for the apostles. They are now joyfully and willingly facing imprisonment and other consequences to proclaim the good news. They are doing this boldly despite being told by the authorities not to say the name of Jesus Christ publicly.

Our responsorial psalm emphasizes all of this by reminding us again that the stone rejected by the builders has in fact become the cornerstone. In construction, the cornerstone is a key aspect of any building and without a strong cornerstone, the building will not be as sturdy. It will have a weak foundation which means it will be a weak building. The same applies to all of us – our foundation must be in Christ and Christ alone.

This psalm of thanks and praise, recognizes the firm foundation Christ gives us as the cornerstone – that he is good, that his mercy endures forever, that we should always take refuge in him and not in man or things of this world.

There is nothing else in this world that can provide us with that kind of grace.

The question for all of us is this – do we fully trust in the Lord as our cornerstone? Can we be as bold as the apostles were after they received the Holy Spirit?

Of course we can because we all have that same Holy Spirit in each one of us – the same Holy Spirit that Jesus gave to the apostles in the upper room. We receive it through our baptisms and confirmations. We continue to receive the graces of the Holy Spirit through the other sacraments.

Are we prepared to speak boldly in the public square like Peter or maybe in this day and age to our family, friends, and co-workers about this good news?

Remember what Peter said in the first reading – salvation is not available through anyone else – not available through anyone or anything other than Jesus who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life? He is the only path to salvation.

Are we convicted of that truth and ready to carry that message out of this church and into the world? That is in fact our mission as a result of our baptism – because we are all called to be priest, prophet, and king.

This isn’t a mission we have to carry out alone either because we have a shepherd to guide us and protect us.

In the gospel today from John, Jesus tells us that he is “the Good Shepherd – a shepherd who willingly lays down his life for his sheep.”

A shepherd accompanies his sheep, he knows them, and they know his voice – there is relationship there between the shepherd and his sheep.

Because of this gospel, today is known as Good Shepherd Sunday across the church. Although we should always be praying for our priests, today is a special day to pray for and be thankful for their yes and their vocation to serve God and the people of Christ.

In conjunction with that, today is also World Day of Prayer for Vocations because of the connection between the sacraments and priests who bring them to us in the name of Christ the Good Shepherd. Many of you may not know this but right now in our parish, we currently have four men who are in formal discernment for the diaconate. I am sure there are others who might also be discerning a vocation to the diaconate, priesthood or religious life that we do not know about.

Today we are called to pray for each and every one of them.
Without vocations, the church could not exist. Nor could we have the sacraments and many other blessings we receive because of those who have answered a call from the Lord to serve His church. We also need to pray for new vocations, so these individuals are encouraged as they nurture the possibility of serving God in our church.

So here is our mission on this Fourth Sunday of Easter:

• Be bold and share the faith in those places where we might be hesitant to share it with others. Trust the Holy Spirit to be there with you like Peter did.

• Lean on the cornerstone that others rejected. Know that we are his and that his mercy and kindness endure forever. He is our one and only stronghold.

• Pray for those who serve our church in the role of deacon, priest, and religious. Pray for continued vocations so that we may be blessed to receive the graces of the sacraments and prayers so that our church can flourish and boldly proclaim the good news to everyone that Jesus Christ is the Lord and our Good Shepherd.

By Deacon Richard Hay

“A Perfect & Everlasting Covenant”

How is everyone doing with their Lenten observances? Has it been challenging? Is it going smoothly? Maybe you are somewhere in between those two ends of the spectrum?

Let me say this, wherever you are in your journey through Lent, it is OK to be in that very spot. For me, I am somewhere in the middle. A reminder – the goal is not perfection but improvement. I will talk more about achieving perfection later.

The key for all of us is to keep moving forward and know that it’s OK to give ourselves permission to make changes, adjust things a little bit to spend these final days of Lent in a real effort to continue deepening our relationship with the Lord.

Last month, back on the 1^st Sunday of Lent, my homily was about the covenant relationship that God offers us through Jesus’s passion, death, and resurrection.

In today’s scriptures, we hear more about that covenant relationship as we prepare for Palm Sunday next week and then the Easter Triduum of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday.

I am going to go out of order here as I dive into the scriptures today because I want to talk about Jeremiah last, so let’s begin with Psalm 51 – our responsorial psalm. This is a psalm we pray regularly in the Liturgy of the Hours and it centers around the Holy Spirit and King David’s request for forgiveness – much like our Lenten observance and asking God’s forgiveness as we prepare our hearts for Easter.

• He asks for mercy even though he is guilty, just like us, and has offended God, just like us…
• He asks for a steadfast spirit – and asks that it be renewed…
• He asks not to be cast out of the presence of God…
• He asks to not have the Holy Spirit taken from him…
• He asks to be given the joy of God’s salvation…
• He asks that a willing spirit be sustained in him…

This is a beautiful psalm we can all pray. It will help us approach God with humbleness to acknowledge our sinfulness and in turn ask for forgiveness, but to also asks God that we be filled and sustained with His Holy Spirit.

The second reading from Hebrews, is considered by scholars to be a description of Jesus’s evening in the Garden of Gethsemane after the Last Supper – the beginning of his passion. We know that Jesus prayed in the garden to his Father, asking to have this cup pass from him – but he said not his will but that the Fathers will be done.”

However, like it also says in our reading from Hebrews – “he learned obedience from what he suffered.” That obedience delivered to us this new covenant in his precious blood and it’s the “source of salvation for all who obey him” which also includes each one of us.

In John, Chapter 12, our gospel today, we begin to focus on Jesus’s passion.

Jesus tells the apostles that the hour has come for his Father to be glorified and he tells the parable about the grain of wheat which must die to produce fruit – describing exactly what will happen when he dies on the cross for our sins – the result of which gives us the fruit of faith that we have seen over the more than two thousand years since his passion, death and resurrection.

Jesus then adds that he is troubled and wonders if he should ask the Father to save him from this hour – his passion – but he then makes it clear why he came to this hour – to glorify his Father’s name. In response, the Father, in a voice from heaven that sounds like thunder to the crowd, states, “I have glorified it and will glorify it again.”

All of this should give us great hope of what this covenantal gift will afford us – eternity in heaven with our Father – and in heaven it will be a perfect covenant relationship which brings me back to the first reading from the prophet Jeremiah.

There are three key details in these words of the prophet that bring us hope of the promises of heaven and eternity.

First – this covenant is not like the earlier covenants God made with His people through prophets like Moses and Noah. All of those covenants were violated by the people and resulted in a broken relationship with God. In this new covenant there will be no separation from it – no sin. Instead, when it is perfected in heaven, sin will cease to exist. While it is not perfect here on earth because sin still exists, we are learning how to live life without sin through the regular reception of the sacraments and receiving the graces they provide.

Second – Why will sin cease to exist in heaven? It will be because God’s law will be written on our hearts and not external to us on stone tablets or in scrolls. Written in our hearts so it is inside of us – personal and intimate – so that we will “know” God. In Hebrew, the word for “know” refers to a “personal knowledge” of someone. A relationship so deep, that we do not need external references or instructions to understand it.

Third – in heaven we will be taught by God himself – now here on earth we have others, those we share this faith with, those who teach us and guide us, who help us in our earthly journey so we can try and “know” God as best we can but ultimately, it is God who will lead us, guide us, and speak to our hearts. Sin will not only be forgiven and forgotten like it is now, but it will be abolished.

These things will come true in heaven, and we are already beginning to grow towards that now through the sacraments and their graces.

Right now, it is all a seed within us – a seed that needs to continuously die – as it first died through Christ on the Cross – and now we need to die to our own selves – through this journey in Lent and beyond – so that the seed within us can grow and bear fruit as we, imperfect as we are, wait for our perfect eternal reward in heaven.

By Deacon Richard Hay

“Covenant Relationship”

I want you all to know that I was watching as each of you entered the church. Based on all the clean foreheads, everyone has had the opportunity to at least wash their faces in the last few days since receiving ashes on Ash Wednesday.

Apparently, we have a very hygienic group of parishioners.

In all seriousness though, think about the story of the Ninevites – you remember Jonah and the whale story, right from last month? The people of Nineveh repented by putting on sack cloth and covering themselves in ashes – and I don’t think it was just something on their forehead either.

Today we don’t put on the sack cloth and cover ourselves completely with ashes, but those ashes we received are a representation of offering that type of penance.

Remember, that no matter how long we wore those ashes – our intent this Lenten season is to always be “wearing” those ashes.

Whether your ashes were a smudge, a perfect cross, or anything in between – picture those ashes on your forehead and remember why we received them and why they are so important – as symbols of our repentance and conversion.

As each of us received those ashes, we heard one of two phrases:

“Repent and believe in the Gospel.”

“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

When we hear “Repent and believe in the Gospel” we acknowledge that we are all sinners and imperfect and need God’s forgiveness. We seek forgiveness through the sacrament of reconciliation because we believe in the Gospel and know that forgiveness and the cleansing of our souls only comes from God – a gift of grace instituted by Jesus through the Apostles. Lent gives us a focused time to prepare for Easter through the disciplines of Lent – prayer, fasting and almsgiving – so that we can understand where we sometimes fall short and pray to improve in those areas.

The other phrase you may have heard, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return” is a reminder that we are not of this world – that we are intended for much more – that is to spend eternity in joyful praise with God in heaven. No matter how big our house is, how shiny our car might be, or how many other possessions we might have, we will all ultimately return to dust.

Through the Lenten disciplines we can come to realize that we need to do more for others in this life though when it comes to fulfilling God’s commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves.

This first week of Lent can also be pretty daunting as we each decide what our Lent might look like. What we will do differently within the disciplines of Lent. What we might give up or add to our faith lives to grow closer to God in these forty days – to not only build new habits that bring us closer to God but those that will help us to keep building that relationship even after Lent is over.

That brings us to the readings on this first Sunday of Lent and there is plenty of reason to have hope as we enter this penitential season.

Let’s begin with the first reading from Genesis – this is the story of where God establishes a covenant with Noah, his descendants, and every living creature after the flood. In this covenant, God promises to never destroy the earth again with a flood. Ever since, we often see the rainbow in the sky after it rains to remind us of that covenant with Noah.

The flood served its purpose because it cleansed the earth and made all things new again. It overcame the sinfulness that prompted God to bring the flood, but he also had mercy to not end all of humanity – thus He makes the covenant with Noah – the flood waters being like the Holy Spirit that flows into us through our baptisms and all the other sacraments we receive.

Our responsorial psalm today reminds us of the relationship that is part of our covenant with God. It reminds us that the Lord is “love and truth” to those of us who keep that covenant. We hear a call asking the Lord to “make known his paths and to remember us in His kindness”; and an acknowledgement that He “teaches the humble His ways”.

Lent is an opportunity for us to be humble and to learn how our prayer, fasting, and almsgiving can help us grow closer to God and not just assume we are already in a perfect relationship with God. Lent takes work because relationships take work and Lent gives us the opportunity to proclaim that God “is our Savior” in our lives and in that relationship we have with Him.

In the second reading from First Peter, we hear a reference back to the time of Noah and the flood, but now the flood is replaced by our baptism which “saves us” as Peter says. The Holy Spirit poured out for all of us through all the sacraments – which begins of course at baptism.

In Mark’s gospel today there are two distinct story lines – both very short.
First, right after Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, he went out into the desert for 40 days and was tempted by Satan before he began His public ministry. Those three years of ministry would eventually lead to the new covenant in the blood of Christ which was shed on the cross for all of us. This is also a part of the hope we have in this season of Lent – leading to Easter.

Then, in the second part, after John the Baptist has been arrested, Jesus proclaims the gospel of God when he says:

“This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

With that last line, we come back full circle to Ash Wednesday and the beginning of this season of Lent – once again a reminder that we must repent and believe in the Gospel to grow in our relationship with God.

Otherwise, all our efforts during Lent are just checking items off a list. While I am a fan of a good to do list and checking items off of it, that is not how we should approach our faith.

Faith requires relationship and Lent gives us a perfect season to improve our relationship with our God.

By Deacon Richard Hay

“Surrendering…”

In all our readings today, there is a theme of “surrendering”. I don’t know about you, but most of the time when I hear the word “surrendering or surrender” it does not invoke a positive connotation, but it tends to take on a negative meaning along the lines of “giving up” or “losing”. Of course, we never want to “give up” because that is usually seen as an indicator of failure.

However, the theme of “surrendering” in today’s readings and the gospel is not about giving up or losing. It is about receiving the precious gift of eternal life by surrendering our will to God’s will.

That is a winning form of surrender because when we surrender to God’s will for our lives, it will result in our being blessed beyond measure because nothing makes God happier than when we hand our lives over to him completely.

With that said, it is still not an easy undertaking to surrender to God’s will because we as humans tend to want to be in control of all things in our lives.

Blessed Carlo Acutis, the young man who died of Lukemia at the age of 15 and offered all his suffering for the church was beatified about four years ago in Assissi, described this type of surrender to God in one of his journals.

He wrote:

“If we consider ourselves to be passing through this world, if we act as though we are temporary, if we aspire to what is Up Above, if we set our lives up based on the Beyond, if we base our existence on the Afterlife, then everything comes into order, everything becomes balanced, everything is oriented, everything is fed by hope.”

Take for example the story of Jonah in our first reading, Jonah is going to Nineveh. Jonah is instructed by God to go and preach to the Ninevites. When he refused, we all know what happens – he ends up in the belly of a whale for three days. However, God is persistent, and Jonah ends up on the shores of Nineveh despite his reluctance to obey God. He then willingly submits to God’s will even though Jonah himself is imperfect. In fact, Jonah doesn’t even get across the entire city preaching before the word spreads and the hearts of the Ninevites are changed and they repent and conformed to God’s will and God chooses not to destroy them.

The second reading is a little tougher to follow because we have St. Paul telling the Corinthians that if they have wives then they should act like they don’t have wives; that if they are weeping then they should act like they are not weeping; those rejoicing as if they are not rejoicing and so on. Paul is speaking rhetorically in this letter and does not literally mean the people of Corinth should not be married, or weeping, rejoicing, and otherwise living their lives,  but he is reminding them that even though we need to live today and do these various things as we live in this world, we should always keep our mind on doing God’s will and that like Blessed Carlo wrote, this world is just a temporary part of our journey to eternal life. That means we must surrender to God’s will and change our lives like the Ninevites did so that we can one day stand in front of the throne of our Lord for judgement and show how we fulfilled that line in the Lord’s Prayer that reads “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”.

In the gospel, we hear Jesus’s reaction to the arrest of John the Baptist as he proclaims that “This is the time of fulfillment…” and that the “Kingdom of God is at hand…” and then he tells everyone to “Repent and believe in the gospel…”.

This is another reminder that the ways of men and this world are not the ways of God. He calls us to surrender to His will and live out the gospel life without any variations, modifications, or hesitation because as Jesus says in Matthew about His second coming, “but of that day and hour no one knows” and He wants us to be ready for that day through his will so that He can then at the final judgement tell us – “Well done, good and faithful servant”. The way we get ready for that moment during our earthly lives is by turning ourselves over completely to God’s will.

The second part of today’s gospel shows us examples of complete surrender to God’s will when he calls His first apostles at the Sea of Galilee.

He first calls out to Simon and Andrew, and we see that they “abandoned their nets and followed him”.

A little further down the shore he sees James and John with their father Zebedee in their fishing boat. Jesus calls them and they “left their father in the boat and followed him”.

No hesitation – just complete surrender to God’s will and call.

Now, I have sat out there in those pews for nearly 40 years since I professed the Catholic faith and entered the church in 1987. I have listened to many homilies over those years where I heard similar messages as I have shared with you today. So, I have a pretty good sense of what might be running through some of your minds right now as you hear me say this because I had those same thoughts and that was “Well, easy for you to say…”

I would agree – it is easier said than done – but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t persevere in surrendering to God in our lives each and every day and God is always going to be there waiting for us to open the door to Him. I can also attest to the easier said than done statement as well in my own vocation.

See, I began hearing a calling to ordained ministry shortly after I was received into the church. I thought it was just excitement about finally being able to participate in the full communion of the church after RCIA.

Little did I know that those promptings, which I did not respond to, would last for 20 years. It wasn’t until I was in front of the Most Blessed Sacrament during adoration, that I finally said yes to God’s call. Even after that, it was still another 13 years before I was ordained to the diaconate.

Whatever our vocation is, and we are all each called to some vocation in our lives – such as being married and raising a family, professing as a religious sister, brother or maybe as a member of a secular religious fraternity like the Franciscans, or even a deacon or priest – it does require discernment and putting ourselves in the presence of God.

I encourage all of us to spend that time with the Lord – spend it in quiet reflection and listen for the voice of God because his presence is in us and all around us if we but slow down and listen for his voice in the quiet of our hearts.

By the way, a wonderful opportunity is coming up in just a few weeks here at our parish mission which will focus on the presence of God in our lives.

You have likely seen the signs in the narthex, outside as you come in from the parking lot, and info in the bulletin. That mission, which is being presented by three Dominican Friars of the Angelicum in Rome, Italy, will be all about the presence of God. Confession and Eucharistic Adoration will be available during every mission talk and on the last day a powerful Eucharistic Healing Service will be available to bless all our parishioners and any visitors who attend the mission.

If you have any questions about the mission just let me know. We hope and pray all of you will choose to join us.

By Deacon Richard Hay

“Preparing for the good news…”

Last week, I had the opportunity to preach for the Third Sunday in Advent about being able to rejoice and be joyful about the first coming of Christ at Christmas while in the midst of our Advent preparations.

The Fourth Sunday of Advent is now here and as we talked about last week, in less than a day, we will begin our celebration of Christ’s birth as the Christmas season begins.

We are truly blessed to have had the time to focus on preparing our minds and souls for the Nativity of our Lord. I also know that excitement about Christmas has continued to build within our hearts, around our families, and here in our local church.

Whether Advent is a full four weeks long, or just three weeks as it is this year, no matter what is on the calendar, the final seven days of Advent, from December 17th until Christmas Eve on the 24th, always shifts into a very particular sequence of gospel readings in the daily mass along with the use of what are called the “O” antiphons which are said prior to the proclamation of the gospels and during the prayers of the Liturgy of the Hours. These “O” antiphons have two key elements, first is a title that refers to Jesus and a role in our lives as our Savior. The second half comes from the prophet Isaiah to help us recall the life and ministry of Christ and how he lived out that role. As I share these antiphons in my homily, I encourage you to listen for those two elements in each one.

We begin back on Monday of this week where we hear the first of three annunciations. The first one is when Joseph learned that Mary was pregnant and rather than exposing her to shame, had decided to divorce her quietly. It is after that when he is visited by an angel of the Lord in a dream and told to not be afraid to take Mary as his wife because she had conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and that son would be holy and he was to be named Jesus. After the dream, Joseph did as he had been told by the angel and took Mary into his home. After the annunciation to Joseph by the angel, he said yes to his role in salvation history as the foster father of Jesus.

The “O” antiphon for this day was “O leader of the House of Israel, giver of the law to Moses on Sinai; come to rescue us with your mighty power.”

On Tuesday, we hear the second of our three annunciations – this one was to Zechariah, the husband of Elizabeth, and he would be the father of John the Baptist. He was also visited by an angel of the Lord. Once Zechariah was given the message about John’s birth, he replied by asking – “How shall I know this?” – despite having just been told by the angel what would happen. As a result, his voice was taken away and he was made speechless.

The “O” antiphon on this day was “O root of Jesse’s stem, sign of God’s love for all his people: come to save us without delay!”

Then on Wednesday, just as we heard in today’s gospel, we hear Gabriel’s announcement to Mary and how she found favor with God and would conceive and bear a son who was to be named Jesus. This is the annunciation we are more familiar with compared to those received by Joseph and Zechariah. She also replied with a question – “How can this be?” and the angel went on to explain how Jesus would be conceived through the Holy Spirit and the power of the Most High which would overshadow her.

After this, Mary replied with her Yes to being chosen – to being set aside as the Mother of God. “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”

Two yes’s and one no, at least initially, in these three annunciations to Mary, Joseph, and Zechariah. Ever wonder why Zechariah was made mute in his response though?

As I prayed and reflected on these two parts of Luke’s scripture, I heard Zechariah’s response as more of a challenge to the angel, while Mary’s was open, accepting, asking for understanding. Maybe the difference was that Mary was immaculately conceived without original sin while Zechariah had to live with the effects of original sin and therefore had doubts.

The blessing we are graced with in our lives is that through our baptisms, no matter what age we were baptized at, we are made clean from original sin so that we can be more open to God when he calls us to fulfill our own vocations.

“O Key of David, opening the gates of God’s eternal kingdom: come and free the prisoners of darkness!” was the “O” Antiphon that preceded this gospel.

Moving into Thursday, we heard the next stage of Mary’s journey toward giving birth to Jesus when she travels to the hill country to visit her cousin Elizabeth who is pregnant with John the Baptist. In this gospel, we hear Elizabeth exclaim at the sound of Mary’s greeting – “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” Elizabeth goes on to share that the infant in her own womb leaped for joy when she heard that greeting from the mother of her Lord.

This gospel was preceded by the antiphon “O Emmanuel, our King and Giver of Law: come to save us, Lord our God!”

As we reached Friday of this past week, we head into the gospel proclaiming, “O King of all nations, and keystone of the Church: come and save man, whom you formed from the dust!”.

The Gospel is part of that beautiful exchange between Mary and Elizabeth we know as the Magnificat. It states all these different ways that God not only blesses Mary but how he will and has kept his promise of mercy to all of us, his children forever.

On Saturday, we heard the gospel about the birth of John the Baptist and how Zechariah did get his voice back after John’s birth, once he declared that the name of his son would be John – once he accepted the calling of God which came through the angel Gabriel. Zechariah’s challenge became belief and God rewarded him.

Our last “O” antiphon of these final days of our Advent preparations is the same one from Friday – “O King of all nations and keystone of the Church: come and save man whom you formed from the dust!”

On this Fourth Sunday of Advent, our gospel is once again the annunciation to Mary about the birth of Jesus. We have returned nearly full circle to Mary’s yes and her trust in the Lord in these final days of Advent.

As we move into the Christmas season from our Advent preparations, I hope and pray every one of our souls’ will leap for joy each time we approach and receive Jesus’s body, blood, soul, and divinity in the Most Holy Eucharist – his True Presence – which came about because he was first born and became man as an infant laying in a manger.

I also encourage all of us to carry Mary’s yes with us into the Christmas season and beyond as we fulfill that special and unique vocation the Lord has for each of us.

“O King of all nations, and keystone of the Church: come and save man, whom you formed from the dust!”.

By Deacon Richard Hay

“Rejoice – Rejoice!”

I am sure all of us here can remember a time where we experienced the excitement that happens in anticipation of some life event? Maybe it was a family vacation trip to Disney, the start of a new school year, a birthday – well for at least the younger members of our congregation, purchasing a new home, waiting for a wedding date to arrive, or awaiting the birth of a new member of the family. Many times, the excitement will be right there with us as the event happens and afterwards.

At this time of the year, a lot of excitement exists around the arrival of Christmas and our Christmas traditions. Of course, here in the Church, we try to strike a balance of not getting into Christmas too early when it comes to all the outward signs of Christmas because it is important to be very deliberate and patient in these weeks of Advent as we prepare ourselves spiritually for Christmas and the arrival of Jesus as a baby in a manger.

It can be a very tough balancing act though, because even before Thanksgiving, many retailers were already making the shift to Christmas and of course we are also surrounded by all the decorations, shopping, and other events that lead up to Christmas. The reality is that we must strike that balance between these final weeks of preparation in Advent so that we are ready in our hearts and souls for the Christmas season so that we can celebrate Christ’s presence in our lives and the gifts of grace we receive through his birth, life, passion, and resurrection.

That is why the season of Advent exists – to help us with this journey of preparation despite all the distractions.

The four-week period of Advent this year is also one of the shortest possible based on the calendar because the Fourth Sunday of Advent is on the 24th of December and then that evening, we begin the Christmas Season with the Christmas Eve vigil masses. Normally, we have another week in between these two days on the liturgical calendar.

So our period of preparation in the Church is shorter but the Church still wants us to take a day out of the work of preparing ourselves through the Advent liturgies to remember that we can be joyful and rejoice as the birth of Jesus Christ approaches.

Remember when Fr. Marek gave his homily for the first Sunday of Advent, he reminded us that each week of Advent has a theme. Today’s theme is rejoice on what the church calls Gaudete Sunday – Gaudete is Latin for “rejoice”.

This is why we shift out of the purple vestments, and while we normally associate purple with penance and sacrifice, during Advent the color more appropriately refers to waiting and preparing – the waiting and preparing we are doing for Christmas.

Instead, on Gaudete Sunday we wear rose colored vestments. As a liturgical color, rose represents joy. We are encouraged to rejoice at this point in Advent, because just like the excitement we have felt as certain life events were approaching, we rejoice as we are joyfully anticipating Christ’s first coming – His birth in a manger at Christmas.

We have good reason to rejoice about His arrival at Christmas because we know that eventually he will bring us the gifts of His Fathers love and grace through the sacraments and ultimately sacrifice His own human life to save each one of us through the cross. We also look forward to his second coming at the end of time when he will call the righteous into heaven.

Everything about this Third Sunday in Advent reminds us that is OK to be joyful and rejoice in our Advent journey. The rose-colored vestments I have already mentioned, plus you see that the rose-colored candle is now lit on the Advent wreath. Our readings this weekend are also full of reasons to rejoice.

In the first reading from Isaiah, we hear of them rejoicing in God because the people of Judah have received salvation and justice from God just like we have all received it in our lives. Isaiah is a book which focuses a lot on the destruction of the Kingdom of Judah because of the peoples transgressions against God. So, it is a beautiful passage because amongst all that destruction and turmoil, they still realize and understand the gifts they have received from God. They rejoice and proclaim their joy despite the turmoil in their lives.

Do we give time and space for our own rejoicing and expressing joy for the gifts and grace that God places in our lives through the sacraments and life of the church or do we get too busy and forget to offer those joyful prayers of thanksgiving? Do we try and rejoice even when there are challenges in life?

The responsorial psalm – “My soul rejoices in my God.” comes from the first chapter of Luke – what we know as the Magnificat. It is a beautiful and joyful exchange between Mary and Elizabeth when they greet each other when Mary visits.

Do we rejoice in our souls for God? Do we show joy in our actions of being welcoming and kind to others as we interact in our daily lives?

Then in our second reading from St. Paul to the Thessalonians, he gives us a beautiful list of things we should be doing to rejoice and share our joy in God.
Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; give thanks in all circumstances; do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances; test everything; retain what is good; and refrain from every kind of evil. All very good and powerful ways to rejoice.

Finally, in the gospel, we hear about John the Baptist and his mission to be the herald of Christ, to prepare the path of the Lord. He was very successful at it and drew many to the Jordan River to be baptized in water for the forgiveness of sins. There was a lot of rejoicing on the banks of the Jordan, but John confirms to the priests and Levites that he is not the Christ but is the “voice of one crying out in the desert preparing the way for Him.

This humbleness on the part of John the Baptist, is something we can emulate ourselves amid our rejoicing and joyfulness about the coming of the Lord.
John the Baptist shows us that it is possible to be humble while also sharing our joy and rejoicing in the Lord.

I would like to close by drawing attention to this beautiful icon of St. Joseph here in the sanctuary. St Joseph as we know played a very important role in the life of Jesus. He was a humble man but one who heard the call of the Lord and rejoiced in fulfilling His role in salvation history. This icon comes to us through the Knights of Columbus and travels from council to council to encourage devotion to St. Joseph and praying for his continued intercession for us to the Lord.

I encourage everyone to take the time to pray for St. Joseph’s intercession as we continue preparing for Christmas in this season of Advent.

By Deacon Richard Hay

“Well done good and faithful servant…”

I was blessed to live in Italy for 18 of my 30 years in the U.S. Navy. The Italians have many traditions but one I found most unique happened on New Years Eve each year when some took the phrase “Out with the old and in with the new” very seriously.

Literally, people tossed out “the old” stuff from their windows into the street below to make room for “the new” that would replace it. 

If the crazy number of fireworks were not enough to keep you off the streets that night, then the potential of something falling on your head would be a good catalyst to stay indoors.

I bring up the new year’s reference because here in the Church, we have also arrived at the end of our liturgical year with today’s Solemnity of Christ the King. We end our church year on a very high note about the kingship of Christ and next week we enter the season of Advent leading towards Christmas.

Pope Pius XI instituted the Feast of Christ the King in 1925 to respond to growing secularism and atheism.  There were attempts even then to push Jesus Christ and his teachings out of public life. Today’s solemnity is intended as a reminder to all of us that while governments come and go, Christ reigns as King forever and His church is still here after over 2,000 years.

With today’s readings and gospel, we reach a crescendo that has been building up over the last few weeks through the weekday and Sunday readings.

Many of those readings have been about being prepared for Christ’s second coming at the end of time. Over the last two Sundays alone, we have heard the parable of the ten virgins who were waiting for the bridegroom which was about always being prepared because we know not the time or the hour that Christ will return. Last week we heard the parable of the talents about sharing the gifts and blessings Jesus gives us with others to multiply the fruit of those gifts.

Today on the Solemnity of Christ the King, we have reached the point where we are reminded that Christ is our King – always has been and always will be. It is no longer about being prepared – those cautionary parables have been told – we should all now know and understand what is expected of us so that we can be ready for Christ’s return – and that is love – first to “Love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength” and then to “Love our neighbors as ourself”.

 Today we hear in the gospel what to expect when Christ returns in His second coming for what is called “The Great Judgment”.  The opportunity to fill our lamps or share the fruits of Christ’s love with others is gone forever – we now stand in front of the throne to be judged according to how we loved Christ and how we loved His presence in others.

Are we ready for that day? That can be a very difficult question to answer because I think, as humans, we tend to want to give ourselves the “benefit of the doubt”. However, if we are unable to be truthful with ourselves about this, that can lead us to a state of being “comfortable” with where we are in life and in faith – the status quo.

What we must do here is examine our lives, all aspects of our lives, and understand whether or not we are truly loving in the way in which God calls us to do.

Here is the blessing of being here today and hearing this very gospel – we can still go forth from here and choose to love as Christ has loved us. By listening to what Christ says in judgement to the sheep, those are the righteous ones, and to the goats, those who are condemned, we can understand some of the expectations that Christ has for all of us as we live our earthly lives.

He is talking about what we know today as the seven Corporal Works of Mercy:

• Feeding the hungry
• Giving drink to the thirsty
• Sheltering the homeless
• Visiting the sick and prisoners
• Burying the dead
• Giving alms to the poor

Notice he doesn’t say to the sheep and the goats – “you all tried to do these things” so come on into your eternal reward with me in heaven. No, he tells the righteous that they did do all these things for him when they did it “for the least of His brothers” and He welcomes them into heaven. For the condemned, it is the exact opposite – when they failed to do these things for those in need – they failed to do it for Christ who is present in every human being – those choices – those omissions in their lives result in eternal punishment.

Like I said earlier, making an examination of actions in our own lives against these expectations can be challenging and one of the toughest things we can ever do but it can also be life changing. It can make an eternal impact on our souls and is something we should do – sooner rather than later – because we are not guaranteed another day or our next breath.

In the Book of James, in Chapter 4, we are reminded of this in scripture where it is written – “…you have no idea what your life will be like tomorrow. You are a puff of smoke that appears briefly and then disappears. Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills it, we shall live to do this or that.”

The “this or that” James is referring to is that we love the Lord and our neighbor. Out of that love, we will be drawn to perform these works of mercy because we would be doing them for Christ the King who dwells in each and every one of us.

The judgement we will all face is real. Just as described in the gospel, each one of us will stand before the throne of Christ the King at the end of this world’s existence. We will be told to stand with either the sheep or with the goats.  In that moment, what we did in our lives on this earth will be judged by the only one who can judge us – Jesus Christ the King of the Universe.

I ask all of us again – “Are we ready for that day?”

It may seem overwhelming to think about, but it is important to consider where we are in this life and whether or not we will be told we did all those works of mercy for Christ in others or whether nor not we failed to do so.

There are consequences for these decisions. However, in His great love for us, Christ brings us something through His Church to help us reach that day and be counted among the righteous – the sacraments and the graces we receive from them.

Imagine this mighty King of the Universe who humbled himself to take on our human nature and be born into this world as an infant in a manger, fleeing persecutions, and depending upon the care of His mother and father just like all of us did in our lives.

Imagine the humbleness of how Christ the King comes to us in the Most Blessed Sacrament – the Eucharist – right here at this and every mass that is celebrated around the world. The simple substances of bread and wine are offered for His glory and through the power of the Holy Spirit, in the words of Jesus, spoken in the person of Christ our King by the priest, become the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ our Lord and King.

Then, as we receive the Eucharist, we each become a tabernacle, just like the tabernacle here in the church, because Jesus our King is now physically present inside of us through our reception of Holy Communion.

It is His presence we carry out of the church with us to go out into the world to love Him and our neighbors so that we can have works with our faith.

If we keep this in our minds and hearts as we carry Christ out into the world as His blessed tabernacles, then one day we will stand in front of His throne and hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”  

By Deacon Richard Hay

“Repay to God what is God’s.”

The principal of a Christian elementary school became concerned about her student’s behavior at lunchtime. She observed that instead of just taking one apple each, some students were taking two or more and then the apples would run out before every student had a chance to get one.

She decided to apply some divine assistance to the situation and left a note with the basket of apples for the students to see. The note read – “Take only one apple, God is watching.”

She was quite pleased in the following days that the note seemed to work and with the students complying, there were finally enough apples for everyone.

However, not long after that was solved, one of the cafeteria workers told the principal that they were now running out of cookies and many of the students were not getting one during lunch.

The principal went to check things out and noticed a note that had been written by one of the students and was placed near the cookies.

It read – “Take as many cookies as you want, God is watching the apples.”

We often put boundaries on God and believe that God is only present where we choose to have him in our lives. I mean, if God is watching the apples, there is no way he could be watching the cookies too – right?

Or in other words, what we do at work, school, or outside of church is only known to God if we choose for Him to know that part of our lives.

Of course, this is not the case. We all know this in our heart of hearts, but I suspect many of us have approached our lives in a similar manner at some point. It is simply not possible for us to pigeonhole God into certain places or restrict what parts of our lives He sees because he is all-knowing and all-seeing. He doesn’t do this to spy on us – it is out of his unconditional love for us that he wants us to include Him in every part of our lives.

In the gospel today, the Pharisees and Herodians partner together to get Jesus to make a statement that taxes should not be paid to the Romans. They are looking to create a controversy.

Of course, He knows their hearts, remember what I said earlier – all-knowing/all-seeing – and he knows their intent is to trap him. Knowing this, he first calls them on their subterfuge and then asks to see the coin that is used to pay taxes to the Romans.

When asked whose image is on the coin,  the Pharisees and Herodians confirms that it’s Caesar’s. Then, Jesus surprises them when He says, “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”

But wait, earlier didn’t I say that we can’t partition off parts of our lives from God because he is all-knowing and all-seeing?

What does Jesus mean by “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”?

In telling the Pharisees and Herodians that the taxes should be paid, Jesus affirms that we, then and today, are intended to be good citizens of our community, our city, our state, and our country. We do that by paying our taxes, obeying just laws, and contributing to society in a Christian manner. All these secular taxes help keep the infrastructure in place that in turn helps us get out in the world to assist others and do things like get here to church. There is value in our society and what it provides all of us.

In the same sentence and in the same breath, he also tells us that we are to give to God what belongs to God. Well – what belongs to God? It gets back to Jesus’s reply when He was asked what the greatest commandment is in an earlier encounter with the religious authorities.

He said – “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’” The answer is us – we belong to God and he wants us to experience His grace in every part of us.

He didn’t say just in certain parts of our lives, or just with the apples and not the cookies – he said with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, and all our strength.

Remember in the book of Exodus  when God was telling the Israelites that they should have no other God before Him? He told them that he is a jealous God and that there are consequences for having other God’s before Him.

However, in the next verse he adds that he will “show love down to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

For those of us who “repay to God what is God’s” – when we choose to give all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, and all our strength to God, then the reward for that dedication and love will be un-ending. There is nothing in this world which can match that gift.

St. Paul in his letter to the Thessalonians affirms this for us when he writes about giving ourselves totally to Christ. “We give thanks to God always for all of you, remembering you in our prayers, unceasingly calling to mind your work of faith and labor of love and endurance in hope of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This is also beautifully described In 1^st Peter, when Peter tells us to “Enthrone Christ as Lord in our hearts.”

Today’s gospel is about being all in for God – not 25% – not 50% – but 100%.

All our heart, all our soul, all our mind, and all our strength. There is nothing lukewarm about this expectation and we should approach it with total joy and commitment.

I follow quite a few priests, deacons and other religious on social media. This past week one of them, Fr. Joseph Krupp from Michigan, shared something he prayed to the Lord, and it perfectly encapsulates today’s gospel, and with his permission, I would like to close my homily with it:

I have no secrets that I can keep from You, Lord;
nothing inside me is invisible to You.

You see into the deepest part of me;
even that which I am not aware of myself.

You see it and you wait, ready to heal, to restore, to strengthen.

You do not wait passively, You wait patiently.

You do not wait so that You can love me,
You wait because You love me.

And so here, in the quiet of this moment,
I give it all to You.

I give You all that is within me, good and bad.

I give You the lies I believed that bent me and
the truths I’ve embraced that free me.

I give it to You, Oh Lord. Take it and transform it.

Change it all into the beauty, truth and light that You intend.

Then, place it back within me, so that I can be a clearer vessel of You.

Amen

By Deacon Richard Hay

“Forgiveness”

Many of you may have seen the Milky Way candy bar commercial that shows a series of mishaps including a couch being dropped on top of someone, a very crooked white line on a road causing traffic issues, and a “No Regrets” tattoo that much to the shock of the man being tattooed is spelled incorrectly and reads “No Regerts”.

After each mishap the offending individual says “Sorry, I was eating a Milky Way” to excuse their behavior and responsibility for the incident.

Now a made for TV commercial is nothing like real life – they are intended to grab our attention about the product.

However, with that said, there are times we often quickly offer ”Sorry” for something like bumping into someone in the grocery store, or stepping on someone’s toe, or maybe dropping a glass and breaking it.

In those situations, that quick “sorry” is not so much asking for forgiveness but rather “excuse me” and is appropriate in most situations like that, but what about those times that involve much bigger needs for forgiveness in our relationships with family, friends, co-workers, or even God?

Is a quick sorry the right response?

Well, in today’s gospel, we hear Peter ask Jesus about how often to forgive someone. To understand the scope of Jesus’s response to Peter, we need to understand the teachings of the day when it comes to forgiving others.

I learned this week that many Jewish scholars have said that in Jesus’s day, the acceptable number of times to forgive someone for the same thing was three times. So, when we hear Peter ask Jesus about how often he should forgive his brother, he adds on a second part to the question to ask if it should be “as many as seven times?” There is even a different translation that says it is seventy times seven.

Basically, Peter more than doubles the expectation of the day. He was trying to be very generous as he asked this question to the Lord.

The Lord’s response probably caught Peter and everyone else off guard when he said:

“I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.”

That is of course an astronomical number of times in Jesus’s day compared to the expected norm of just three times.

The lesson from Jesus that we can take away is that forgiveness should not have any bounds – no limits. That is how vast our forgiveness is supposed to be in the eyes of the Lord.

Think about the cross and the sacrifice Jesus made for us. It is why he became man – to shed His blood on the cross to forgive our sins. The ultimate display of forgiveness, love, and salvation. That is our example to try and follow.

We have also have many other examples of what is expected of us when it comes to forgiveness.

In the Lord’s Prayer we pray “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” In other words, we must forgive others to receive forgiveness.

During the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus reminds those gathered with him that if they are bringing a gift to the altar and then remember that their brother has something against them – then Jesus said they should leave the gift at the altar – abandon their own offering for forgiveness – and go to be reconciled with their brother first.

Reconciliation with their brother was necessary before seeking forgiveness for themselves. Another reminder for all of us…

Of course, we all know the unconditional love of the father in the story of the Prodigal Son. The first words out of the wayward son’s mouth as he comes home from squandering his inheritance, was “Father, I have sinned against heaven and you.” He asked for forgiveness for his actions against his father and was granted that through his father’s unconditional love – just like the forgiveness we receive from our Father in heaven.

St. John Paul II, while riding to the hospital in an ambulance after an assassination attempt in St. Peters Square, is said to have commented that he had already forgiven the shooter. A couple of years later, he went to the prison where his would-be assassin was being held and forgave him face to face.

From our own parish and diocese, we have a beautiful example of forgiveness in Fr. Rene Robert. Some of you may remember him when he was an associate here at Sacred Heart. He was also active at the school for the deaf and the blind in St. Augustine.

He was tragically kidnapped and murdered seven years ago by someone he was trying to help. A letter Fr. Rene left behind made it clear that his wishes were that if something like this was to happen to him, that he did not want the death penalty sought out by the courts. Imagine being prepared to forgive the actions of someone for such a transgression even before it ever happened.

For us – forgiveness must come from our hearts – it must come from our inner most being – forgiveness is not an intellectual activity otherwise it becomes just a quick “sorry” with no substance.

We should also remember that forgiving someone is not the same as excusing behavior – it simply means we sincerely offer forgiveness to the other person – no conditions – no blame – no expectations – just forgiveness.

Our forgiveness is also not tied to the other person accepting it – they may not yet be in a place where they can do that – but we offer our forgiveness anyway and pray for them.

Our homework for this week is to reflect on the forgiveness we have received from the Lord and others. Offer a prayer of thanksgiving for the blessings that come from that forgiveness. Forgiveness is not easy, and we should always be grateful when it is received.

Remember – forgive others so that our Lord in heaven may then forgive us.