July 3, 2011
Posted in Homilies
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Fourteenth Sunday, Year A, July 3rd, 2011 – By Father Tim McCauley
When I was on retreat at Mundelein Seminary near Chicago two weeks ago, I took a walk around their lake (an hour walk), trying to pray instead of worrying about the tremendous challenges facing me in leaving Russell and taking on 2 new jobs, etc . . . I was feeling rather inadequate, anxious and weak before the majesty of God, the mystery of His will, His seemingly impossible demands . .. All of a sudden I saw a path turn off from the main road that circled the lake. Curious, I followed it. In five minutes, it led out into an open space and a building . . . it was a Church, or a shrine of some kind.
I went inside, there was a twenty-foot high altar with a tabernacle topped by a golden monstrance (perpetual adoration) and there in the deep blue of the dome above the sanctuary was a tremendous painting of a Miraculous Medal. Amazing, isn’t it? If you were in a foreign country and stumbled across a Marian shrine with a link to the Miraculous Medal, would you not take this as some sign from God? (I had actually been there once last year. It’s the shrine of Marytown, Illinois. But I had never walked there through the words . . . I was adding to the drama just a bit.)
You see how God answered my prayer in all my worries, anxieties and weaknesses? Where do we go in all our needs? To Jesus, yes, but to Jesus with Mary. Every time I face difficulties in life that surpass my strength, the Mother of God and our Mother is there to teach me, as we heard in today’s Gospel, to be like a child (Mt 11:25), to be gentle and humble in heart (Mt 11:29), to trust in God.
I remember back in 2007, I visited the location in Paris where the Miraculous Medal was revealed to St. Catherine Laboure. I heard this story of a parish priest in Paris at Notre-Dame de Victoire who was discouraged by the lack of results in his priestly ministry. Just when he had decided to quit the parish, he heard a voice during Mass repeat twice, “Consecrate your parish to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.” He did so, and almost immediately his Church was filled to overflowing. Inspired by this story, I came back to Russell and we consecrated our parish to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on the first Saturday of May, 2007. Since (today/yesterday) is the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I would like to renew this consecration after Communion today.
After the first consecration, the change was not immediate, but change did come. I am convinced that the gifts of the Holy Spirit that our parish received this past year, through the life in the Spirit seminar and our small Christian communities, came through Mary’s intercession. To be consecrated to Mary means to imitate her life and virtues, to be a vessel for the Holy Spirit. Mary always prepares the way for us to receive the Holy Spirit, to be better conformed to the meek and humble heart of Jesus Christ.
Mary is one of the gifts I would like to leave you as I depart from this parish (though I know you are devoted to her already, I am hoping that some of you will go through with the personal consecration). She is one of the gifts that Jesus left us before He died when He said from the Cross, “Behold your Mother” (Jn 19:27). Leaving this parish is a sort of death for me, as I must say goodbye to a people and place I have known and loved these past 7 years. They say that when people are dying, they become prophets, that the Holy Spirit inspires their last words. Do you think that could happen here and now? (By the way, I also that you will start praying now for me and Fr. Paul during our times of transition).
In a beautiful and inspiring book on the Catherine Doherty’s devotion to Mary, Fr. Dennis Lemieux writes, “Our whole life of Christian effort and struggle . . . is for this alone – to allow Christ to cleanse us of our fear of pain so that we can abandon our efforts to limit our love, to manipulate and control our world” (156).
We might add our whole life of Christian effort should also lead us to have a heart like that of Jesus, a gentle and humble heart. On Friday, the Church celebrated the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and (today/ yesterday), the Immaculate Heart of Mary, two hearts that can never be separated. Any devotion to Mary always leads us more quickly, easily and deeply into the heart of Jesus.
She will help us so that we can be cleansed of our fear of pain so that we can abandon our efforts to limit our love, to manipulate and control our world.
I don’t know about you, but I encounter so many people who have surrounded themselves with massive brick walls (prop of a brick) to protect themselves from pain, which unfortunately cut themselves off from loving and being loved. There are even some of you listening to me now who seem to have built a brick wall around their hearts. Why? These are the people who don’t smile at Mass, who don’t pray much or sing, who come forward in the Communion line
to receive the gift of infinite love with bored faces, who don’t even bother to say “Amen.”
I ask these people, “Who hurt you? Or what are you afraid of, that you would be build a wall around your heart and be bored at Mass in the presence of infinite love?” You may feel that you have to protect yourself from some people who have hurt you, but why would you have to protect your heart from Jesus Christ, who assures us in today’s Gospel: “I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Why would you have to protect your heart from the gentle and humble heart of Jesus?
When we are hurt by other people or by life in general, if we are humble and trust in God, we turn to prayer, and/or a Christian friend, and we find the consolation we need. If we are proud, when someone hurts us we take out another brick (usually unconsciously) and build the wall higher. Jesus and Mary are deeply grieved when they see us build the wall that will put us to death. Yes, the wall that will kill us, because we are created by Love for Love, and without love we cannot live. Sometimes, with our wounded nature, and in our pride, we try to live without love and we destroy ourselves.
Take a moment to think of a person or a situation that has hurt you. Don’t be afraid to call it to mind. Imagine yourself taking out a brick(prop) and thinking, “I am not going to let this person (or any person) hurt me again.” But then imagine a Mother’s hand reaching out so delicately to touch your hand. You look up into the face of Mary, with tears in her eyes, saying, “My son, my daughter, you don’t have to do that. Let it go. Come to Jesus who is gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your soul.”
Mary always leads us closer to Jesus and helps us receive Him in Holy Communion with her own heart, with ever-growing faith, trust and love. After receiving Holy Communion today, we can say in silence, in the words ending the litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, “Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make our hearts like unto thine.” And in the words we use in our weekly Holy Hour on Tuesday night, we can pray, “Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, burning with love for us, set our hearts on fire with love for you. Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, may your kingdom come through the Immaculate Heart of Mary.”
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June 26, 2011
Posted in Homilies
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Corpus Christi, Year A, June 26th, 2011 – By Deacon Thomas Stephenson
Recently, a Catholic priest attended a wedding reception where he met one of the guests, an Anglican seminarian. The young student approached the priest and asked why he, although a Christian, was not allowed to receive Holy Communion at the wedding Mass. After a friendly conversation about transubstantiation, consubstantiation, transignification, and other interesting points of theology, the seminarian maintained that there was really no difference between the Eucharistic beliefs of Catholics and Anglicans. The priest then posed this question to him: “When you are ordained, and you celebrate the Lord’s Supper for the first time, will you adore the Host with the same adoration that you give to God alone?” After a pause, the seminarian answered “No, I suppose not”, to which the priest responded, “That’s the difference.” (1)
That is the difference; as Catholics, we can adore the validly consecrated Host because we recognize who that Host has become: Jesus Himself, completely present, body, blood, soul, and divinity, under the appearance of a wafer of bread. The children here today to receive their First Communion have learned that in their preparation. In a homily he gave on Thursday, Pope Benedict said: “The beautiful and eloquent expression “receive communion” refers to the act of eating the bread of the Eucharist. In fact, when we carry out this act, we enter into communion with the very life of Jesus, in the dynamism of this life which is given to us and for us.” As Jesus tells us in the Gospel, this bread is truly His flesh, which He is giving for the life of the world. Jesus is not in the bread and the wine; the bread and wine are Jesus.
Presumably, all Catholics believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. But, most of our protestant brothers and sisters do not share our conviction, and the differences in belief are part of the reason that they are not able to receive communion with us. This is not done to exclude them – we welcome them to come to Mass, and here at our church, to come up in the communion line with their arms crossed for a blessing. Because the Host truly is the Lord, the person receiving is required to be united in faith, to be in communion with the Church, in order to receive.
The children have been taught the basics, just as we were. However, teaching only gives us the beginnings of what we need for understanding. Our greatest knowledge of the Real Presence doesn’t come from classes; it comes to us and grows from our experience of receiving the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Our Lord in communion; and it comes from having faith, faith that helps us to grasp, however incompletely, what is otherwise incomprehensible. Our faith and our experience of the Eucharist help us go beyond what we are taught to what we know.
Because the Host truly is Jesus, we show it the respect and adoration due to the Lord. That is why we genuflect toward the tabernacle. That is why the sanctuary lamp burns all the time. And, that is why there is a difference between our church and other places. This is not a theatre, or an auditorium. A Catholic church is a sacred place, and a sacred space, primarily because of the Presence of the Lord in the consecrated Hosts reserved in the tabernacle. We can become so accustomed to being here that we may lose the sense of this sacredness. Our behaviour is affected by our awareness of the space we are in, and our behaviour during, and especially after Mass, should reflect this. Should we all file silently out of church at the end of mass, heads down and not looking at each other? Of course not! One of the wonderful things about this parish is the feeling of community that is so evident, that so many people speak with each other and visit after Mass. Being at Mass is a joyous occasion, and it’s natural for us to want to share that joy with those around us. And it’s great to exchange greetings and catch up with each other on what’s happening in our lives – as we exit the church and either head downstairs to socialise, or perhaps outside when the weather is good. Today, celebrating the joy of First Communion, people may want to remain in the church a little longer, and perhaps take a few pictures. Usually, though, out of respect for the Lord, the proper place for our extended conversations is outside the main part of the church. Of course, extended conversations with Jesus are encouraged, and are more easily accomplished in an atmosphere of relative tranquility.
As long as there are consecrated Hosts in the tabernacle, Jesus is physically present here. He is just as present as we are. Not just in spirit, but in body. Each Host, even each fragment of a Host no matter how small, is the Lord. And we get to receive Him, to let His body give nourishment to our bodies and our souls. Bishop Sheen reminds us that all living things on earth consume something in order to live. So it is fitting that Jesus should give us Himself to consume in order that we may live, that we may be nourished on the divine and the human levels.
When we are given Holy Communion, the priest, deacon, or Extraordinary Minister says “the body of Christ” or, in the case of the Precious Blood “the blood of Christ”, to which we reply “Amen.” This is our agreement that we believe that what we are receiving is truly the body or blood of Jesus. As Saint Augustine said, “To say Amen is to add your signature.”
To those children making their First Communion, this is a special day, one that calls for celebration, and a day that you should remember for the rest of your life. It is a great privilege to be able to partake of Holy Communion, a privilege that no one should ever take lightly. This occasion helps the rest of us to recall when we made our own First Communion, and also to remind us, in the words of Saint John to Saint Peter: “It is the Lord!”
(1) Adapted from Homiletic & Pastoral Review, Volume CXI, No. 8, Fr. Stephen Bartlett Reynolds, p. 39
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June 12, 2011
Posted in Homilies
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June 12th, 2011 – By Father Tim McCauley
These pictures (one of me talking to the kids we sponsor) capture one of the most joyful moments of my life in the past few years, a Pentecost moment when the Holy Spirit descended. These children are some of the 40 children that we sponsor. I was asking them in my simple Spanish what were the names of their “godparents” in Canada. I would hear them stumble over the names in bad English . . . Yoonay Pare . . . who? Oh June Pare I know her!
For me, it was a miracle to hear your names B the names of parishioners of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal in Russell, Ontario, Canada — on the lips of these children a thousand miles away. You are like angels from heaven to these children who have no idea who you are or why you are helping them go to school, giving them life and hope for the future. What he could possess these strangers from the Great White North to help people they have never met? It must be love, love for God and for human beings. Love that is a sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and our world. Alleluia!
Mark and I want to share with you some photos and experiences of our mission trip to Honduras, mainly to thank you for your support. But first, I must give a brief homily on Pentecost. I could easily speak for an hour on this theme, since our parish has been living a real Pentecost this past year, with the Life in the Spirit seminar, our small Christian communities, and so on.
The Holy Spirit inspires us to surrender control of our lives to Jesus Christ, to be missionaries in our daily lives, and to receive the gift of joy.
The Holy Spirit has been teaching me a lot about surrender this year. I don=t think we would have even hosted a life in the Spirit seminar without the willingness of many people to take a risk and to surrender. This is a necessary pre-requisite to receive any gift of the Holy Spirit. By they way, if at Mass we find ourselves lacking joy and a spirit of praise and worship, it might be because we are trying to control you lives instead of surrendering to Jesus Christ. The apostles had already given their lives. And thus they were open to receiving the Holy Spirit and his charismatic gifts such as speaking in tongues (as we heard in the first reading).
The Holy Spirit who inspires us to surrender also leads us to be missionaries, as Jesus says in today’s Gospel, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (Jn 20:21). It was not easy for Mark or myself to go to Honduras. It was a risk, a real act of trust in God. The Holy Spirit of joy does not visit the self-centered; He (the Spirit) did not come upon us while we were at home watching TV. He descended that day we met the children, because we first responded to the invitation of the Spirit to try, for a day, for a week, to forget ourselves, to think of others, to be missionaries of God=s love.
You can do the same thing even without leaving paradise (and believe me, Russell is paradise in comparison with Tegucigalpa). Do you want to receive joy and experience the Holy Spirit? To receive the Paraclete or Comforter, as Jesus calls Him, we must be willing to leave our comfort zone, take a risk, surrender. One simple way is to share your faith in Jesus Christ with someone in your family, a friend, neighbour, co-worker B someone!
The same Holy Spirit that sends a person on a mission to help the poor is the same Spirit that sends us to the rich who have no faith. If we care about educating poor children in the global South, we must also care about rich adults in the North who have an education and a house and a car, but do not know Jesus Christ or the purpose of life. The same deep joy and satisfaction that fills us when we realize that we are helping to save the lives of poor children in a place like Honduras is the same deep joy that we will receive when we proclaim Jesus Christ in places like Russell and Ottawa.
Thanks to all those who sponsor a child in Honduras.
Here more pictures are shown and explained.
Consider also sponsoring a rich adult in Canada who does not know Jesus Christ. Sponsor them by your prayers, your witness, your love, and your verbal proclamation of the name of Jesus, and your invitation to Mass, so that they too may receive the joy of the Holy Spirit.
show you how your $250 a year is literally saving souls. For a child to go to school is the only way to escape poverty B not only material poverty, but the mental and spiritual poverty that contributes to despair, alcoholism, drug addictions, gangs, violence, murder, family and social disintegration and so on. Helping these children go to school literally helps save their lives, their souls. Thank you.
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June 5, 2011
Posted in Homilies
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(And First Holy Communion) Year A, June 5th, 2011 – By Father Tim McCauley
In 1958, a man named Jean Hoerni was thinking about his company’s problem trying to design a better high speed transistor for smaller and more reliable computer micro-chips (to make technology smaller such as in cell phones, computers, etc). One day he was taking a shower, and he noticed the way the water flowed over his hands, and it gave him an idea. If the transistors could be coated in the right substance, then they could be protected from the damaging effects of dust and moisture that would just flow right over them. He then thought of silicon dioxide, the perfect material for the job. His solution eventually led to the the silicon chip (www.neatorama.com /tag/jean-hoerni) on which all our modern computer technology is based.
Isn’t it amazing that human beings are so intelligent that we can put so many gigabites of information into such a small space? If we can do it, why can’t God do it? Why can’t God put even more information into an even smaller space? Why can’t God put even Himself into the smallest space possible, such as a host, a little piece of bread?
God first made Himself small in the womb of the Virgin Mary and was born into our world as a little child. We know the rest of the story. Jesus died on the Cross on Good Friday to take away our sins. He rose from the dead on Easter Sunday. In the first reading today, we read how “after his suffering (and Resurrection from the dead), he presented himself alive to (the disciples) by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking to them about the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3). Then, on this day, the feast of the Ascension, he was lifted up into heaven and the disciples no longer saw him with their bodily eyes, but Jesus was actually closer to them than ever before, as we will discuss.
The night before Jesus died, He gave the apostles bread and said, “This is my Body” and a cup of wine and said, “This is my Blood.” Jesus found a way to make himself small enough for us to receive Him. The same God that came down from heaven into the womb of Mary is the God who comes down from heaven in the Mass under the appearance of bread and wine. He makes Himself small out of love for us, so that we can better understand Him, love Him, receive Him.
I think children understand this better than adults. We see what the eleven adult disciples did in today’s Gospel – some doubted! We heard in today’s Gospel that“they worshiped him, but some doubted” (Mt ) – even though they saw Him risen from the dead! It’s sad when people doubt the existence of God and His love, the Resurrection of Jesus and eternal life, the real Presence of Jesus in Holy Communion. I believe every child is given the gift of strong faith in our baptism, but sometimes, the noise of the world, the pain of life, and the poison of sin can weaken our faith.
I’ll share with you one little story from my own life. I remember once when I was your age, on vacation with my family on Prince Edward Island. During a week at a campground, I became good friends with a boy from another family. Back then we didn’t have email, so I didn’t know how we could realistically keep in touch. So when I was climbing into our family car to say goodbye, I saw him across the way and said, “See you in heaven!” My father was surprised and asked, “what did you say to him?” “See you in heaven!” My father sort of laughed but didn’t say anything. Even though I was only a little boy, I knew it was true. Everyone on earth we have ever met, who believes in Jesus risen from the dead and lives a good life, we will see again in heaven. Children know this, right? Children usually have more faith than adults.
Children, guard the faith of your baptism and pray that it will grow. All of you children here to receive your First Communion have been baptized, meaning you have become children of God, and the Holy Trinity (the Father, Son and Holy Spirit) has come to live in your soul. If you pray, receive Holy Communion on a regular basis, and live a good life, God’s life will continue to grow in you and you will be happy. I beg you not to do what I did. I lost the faith I had as a child – partly because of the world around me, and partly because of my own decision to follow my own desires instead of God’s loving plan. You have been given a great gift in your baptism and in your First Communion. Don’t waste it.
Jesus has risen from the dead and ascended into heaven so that He can be even closer to us. In today’s Gospel, Jesus promises, “I will be with you always, until the end of the world” (Mt 28:20). One way Jesus is with us is through the Holy Spirit, which we will discuss next week. Another is through Holy Communion. Look at the tabernacle containing the host that is the Body of Christ. Look at the vigil light, the candle, that burns day and night proclaiming, “I am with you always, even until the end of the world.”
Jesus can be present in Holy Communion only because He has risen from the dead. Jesus now seated at the right hand of the Father, has a spiritual body which can be present anywhere at anytime. If people doubt this mystery of our faith, it might be because they are trying to fit God into a neat and tidy box Just because we can put a lot of information into a small space does not mean that our peanut brains can understand the infinite and almighty Creator of the universe.
Adults who doubt need to become more like children who trust! I am reminded of two phrases from Catherine Doherty who spoke of “folding the wings of our intellect” and thinking with “our heads in our hearts.” I challenge anyone here who has doubts about God or the teaching of the Church. Think with your head in your heart. Trust. Take a risk. Surrender. Do not be afraid. Live as if God is real, as if God is love, as if everything that the Catholic Church teaches is true. You will see it will make a difference in your lives, not because you are telling yourself a beautiful lie, but because you will be living the deepest truth of your being.
Can you imagine, if before people were married, they expected to understand each other perfectly? “Well, I really love this girl but I want to wait until I understand her perfectly before I marry her.” What? No one would ever get married! Instead, when people get married, although they know something of each other (you don’t marry a stranger) they give themselves to each other in love, then they understand each other better – with their hearts, not their heads.
It’s the same with God. We give ourselves to Him in love and trust, then we will understand Him much better. Jesus alludes to this in his words in the first reading, “it is not for you to know the times and season that the Father has appointed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses . . .” (Acts 1:7-8). It is not for us to know and understand everything about God. But even without fully understanding, we can receive the power of the Holy Spirit and be witnesses of Christ risen from the dead. It will make perfect sense to us that a perfect and loving God would suffer and die and rise for love of us, that He would remain close to us and make Himself as small as a host in Holy Communion, in order to live in us and give us eternal life.
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May 29, 2011
Posted in Homilies
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Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year A, May 29th, 2011 – By Deacon Thomas Stephenson
We are taught from an early age to distinguish right from wrong, good from evil. Development of our conscience usually starts with our parents letting us know when we have done something we shouldn’t have, and sometimes warning us ahead of time that certain actions are not acceptable. Before too long, though, we learn a more formal reference for determining how we should behave: the Ten Commandments. We memorized them as children, and probably most of us probably still refer to them as the primary basis for examining our consciences before going to confession. But, there is more to this than just obeying the laws. In addition to the Ten Commandments, we also have the answer that Jesus gave to the question of which is the great commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, this is the great and first commandment. And the second is like it, you shall love your neighbour as yourself”.
In the Gospel today, Jesus tells us: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Our love for Him is revealed through our obedience to His word, in the way that we live our lives. So, does the fact that we don’t always keep His commandments mean that we don’t love Him? And, will He, therefore, not love us?
When we fail to follow the commandments, when we commit sin, it is an offence against God, and it damages our relationship with Him. It works in a similar, but of course not identical way, with our other loving relationships. We love our spouses, but do we never, ever do anything to offend them or hurt them? For one reason or another, we sometimes do or say things that we shouldn’t. That doesn’t mean that we don’t love our spouse, or that she or he will stop loving us. We are not perfect, and we sometimes fail. But, because we love our spouses, our sincere desire is that we will not hurt them. We are moved by our love, not by a requirement to follow a set of rules. In the same way, because we love God, our sincere desire is that we will keep His commandments.
We do recognize that there is a connection between our behaviour and our love of Christ. As Catholics, as Christians, we are called to live up to a certain standard. It should be our love of Christ that motivates us to strive to attain this standard. Father Jacques Philippe writes: “What the law tells us to do is good. But taking the law as the foundation for our relationship to God contradicts the truth that salvation is freely given, and ends up killing love.” The law is necessary, but it’s not enough; it’s only the starting point. The Pharisees scrupulously obeyed the all the Jewish laws, but only for the sake of the law. Keeping the commandments means more than just obedience; it goes deeper, into our hearts, so that we follow the law, not for it’s own sake, but for the sake of Christ.
This applies not just to our actions in refraining from sin, but also in following His command to love one another, including the various good works we perform. Our faith must be expressed in concrete actions, for each us in different ways according to what we are able to do. We have many people in this parish doing great things for others, motivated by their love of Christ, and keeping His commandment to love our neighbour as ourselves. A great example of this is the mission trip to Honduras that Father Tim and Marc Lalonde just returned from. Now, we can’t all go on mission trips, but we are all called to show our love for Christ through our care for others.
Jesus outlines a natural progression of events: our love for Jesus leads to faithful obedience; faithful obedience leads to Jesus’ asking the Father to send another Advocate. The sending and presence of this Advocate, the Spirit, is directly related to the love we have for Jesus, and our striving to obey Him.
At the end of the Gospel, Jesus says: “I will love them and reveal myself to them”. Our love for Jesus will be rewarded, not only by His love for us, but by Him revealing Himself to us. Through this, we will be given a greater understanding of Christ, and will enter more deeply into our relationship with Him. The more we keep God’s commands because we love Him, the more we can remove the obstacles that hinder the growth of our faith, and become closer to Him. It is that true love we have for Christ, that genuine desire to be with Him, that will lead us to eternal life in His presence.
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May 22, 2011
Posted in Homilies
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Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year A, May 22nd, 2011 – By Father Allan MacDonald
Introduction
Introduce myself – CC newsletters – Last here with you in July, 2005! – Fully 6 years ago and Fr. Tim tells me you are still saying, “Thanks be to God” at the end of Mass with enthusiasm!
Well, keep it up! – You may have heard that there are some Mass prayers & responses that will be changing beginning on the 1st Sunday of Advent when the new English translation is started to be used – But, “Thanks be to God” (“Deo Gratias”) will stay the same.
There is an “App” you can get on the “New Mass”.
One new prayer wording will be the embolism prayer after the Our Father:
Here’s the new translation:
“Deliver us, Lord, we pray, from every evil, graciously grant peace in our days, that, by the help of your mercy, we may be always free from sin and safe from all distress, as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.”
The one petition in this prayer that strikes me is: “protect us from all anxiety” (current translation) or “… be always … safe from all distress” (new translation) – I try to verbally emphasis this point.
Is this not Jesus’ admonition to us in today’s Gospel = “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” (G) or “Do not be worried or upset” (Good News translation)
In other words, “Don’t be anxious!”
A. What is Anxiety?
i. An emotion (which can have physiological affects) leading to nervousness, fear, worry, distress, mental pre-occupation, etc. over a real or imagined threat, danger or consequence.
ii. It’s greatest cause? = FEAR! – But 90% of what we worry about never happens!
“F.E.A.R.” = “Forget Everything And Run” or “Face Everything And Recover”
iii. Why do we get anxious, or have hearts that are “troubled” (G)? =
We try to do too many things on our own.
We take too many burdens upon ourselves.
We think we’re indispensable and can’t say, “No!”
In the (1st) the Apostles were busy about many things and they were becoming anxious – So … they prayed for guidance and instituted deacons to help them so they would not be overwhelmed!
Anxiety is an emotion – Emotions are amoral – It’s how we deal/react that determines whether we are growing in virtue, or not.
B. What are We Anxious About?
i. Some level of anxiety is good for us – i.e. being nervous before a musical performance helps keep us in shape and on our game.
From a purely human point of view, Jesus would have experienced anxiety = He did in the Garden of Gethsemane (He sweated blood).
ii. What are we anxious about?
Am I going to keep my job and pay my bills.
Wondering if a summer job can be obtained.
Maybe there are health problems in our familes.
Determining one’s vocation.
Whatever …..
iii. What is that one person/place/thing that causes us to have hearts that are troubled (G)?
Invite Jesus to come into that area and let Him be with us! = “Let your love be upon us, Lord, even as we hope in you.” (Resp. Ps.)
To hope, is to turn it all over to Jesus!
C. Turn it Over to Jesus
i. Take Jesus at His word – When we pray, “… protect us from all anxiety”, or (in the new translation), “… safe from all distress” … He hears this prayer!
ii. What can change for the better by being anxious about it? – Why do we let people/places/things occupy a space of anxiety in our heads/hearts – They are taking up space in our heads and are not even paying rent = Kick them out! – Evict them!
iii. This will involve making a decision to cooperate with the grace of God = We need to cooperate … because faith without works is dead!
The work is turning our will and our life over to the care of God = Letting go, trusting, surrendering, stepping out knowing that Jesus is here to catch us if we fall!
It won’t happen miraculously without our effort!
The Lord wouldn’t inspire the Church to pray a prayer to Him only to sit back and laugh at its futility!
Conclusions
i. We are called – and entitled – to be a joyful people – not an anxious, troubled, worried or distressed people!
ii. Why? – We have a Father who loves us and has prepared a “dwelling place” (G) for us! – A Saviour who died to pay the price of our sins and shows us the “Way” (G) – A Holy Spirit who infuses us with courage and zeal and gives us, “Life” (G)
iii. God is not so transcendent as to be unknowable or unapproachable – He is very immanent and close = “Come to the Lord ….” (2nd)
He is only as far away as a prayer, or His voice spoken to us through a piece of prose that He inspires in the human heart.
One such piece of prose that has indeed helped me to turn over anxiety in my life to Him is called, “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” = It has helped me (and I hope it helps you) when our hearts are troubled, to instead have hearts that are serene:
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
There are two days in every week we should not worry about, two days that should be kept free from fear and apprehension.
One of these days is yesterday, with its mistakes and cares, its faults and blunders, its aches and pains.
Yesterday has passed forever beyond our control. All the money in the world cannot bring back yesterday. We cannot undo a single act we performed. Nor can we erase a single word we’ve said. Yesterday is gone.
The other day we shouldn’t worry about is tomorrow, with its possible adversities, its burdens, its large promise and poor performance.
Tomorrow is also beyond our control.
Tomorrow’s sun will rise either in splendour or behind a mask of clouds but it will rise.
Until it does, we have no stake in tomorrow, for it is yet unborn.
This leaves only one day – today.
Any person can fight the battles of just one day. It is only when we add the burdens of yesterday and tomorrow that we break down.
It is not the experience of today that drives people mad – it is the remorse or bitterness for something that happened yesterday, and the dread of what tomorrow may bring.
Let us, therefore, live one day at a time!
***
“Do not let your hearts be troubled.” (G)
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May 15, 2011
Posted in Homilies
at 1:55 pm
Fourth Sunday of Easter, Year A, May 15th, 2011 – By Father Tim McCauley
Good shepherds don’t grow on trees. That may seem like an obvious statement, but for the past 50 years or so, the Catholic Church in the West has been acting like good shepherds, good priests, do grow on trees. Because of this complacency on the part of bishops, priests and lay people, the Church has been suffering from a lack of good shepherds, contributing, in more than a few cases, to half-dead parishes and a near total absence of evangelization.
Today is “Good Shepherd” Sunday, and the World Day of Prayer for Vocations, an opportune time to remember that good shepherds don’t grow on trees; they come from strong, healthy and holy flocks of sheep. The good shepherd is first a lamb of the flock of the parish; the priest is first a man, a Christian, and a brother. Only after does he become a shepherd capable of following the example of Christ the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for the sheep (John 10:11)
Recent scandals in the local Church have brought to mind again the question of good shepherds. I need not repeat the details here; the Ottawa Citizen and the Ottawa Sun gives us all the details we need, and more. Sometimes good Catholic people can become discouraged by such media reports, wondering if there is anything at all you can do to improve the Church, which necessarily includes renewing the priesthood. I am here to tell you that there is so much you can do, not only by your prayers, but in your role of support and accountability of the shepherds of the Church.
In this Easter season we are filled with great hope for the Church and the world, as I mentioned last week. Christ is risen! The Church in every age and every place participates in the death and Resurrection of Christ. In our own diocese, there are a very hopeful signs of spring and resurrection in the priesthood and the Church.
I was chatting with some of the priests of Madonna House recently about renewal in the priesthood and the Church. One asked, “What is God blessing? Where is the Holy Spirit at work?” The answer? In the new ecclesial movements.
This refers to movements within the Church since Vatican II in the 60′s, movements like CCO, Net ministries, the neo-Cathecumenal way, Madonna House, and Opus Dei, Marie-Jeunesse and Miriam Bethlehem in Quebec, and many more.
In our own parish, we have one of these ecclesial movements – the small Christian communities or cell groups.
I have learned much from these movements about where good shepherds come from – healthy flocks. In neo-Cathecumenal way, for instance, all of the priests were first members of the community as laymen, and after their ordination, they remain a member of their “small Christian community” in which they also listen as a disciple to the Word of God, and share their faith with their brothers and sisters in the community. In this model, the priest and people strengthen the faith of one another.
Imagine for a moment that every parish in Ottawa had to produce its own priests. That would get us thinking and praying, wouldn’t it? There are men in this parish that God is calling to the priesthood. It is the duty of the whole community to pray, discern and look around and ask, “who could we send to the Seminary? Good shepherds don’t grow on trees. They come from healthy flocks.” The community might point to a young man, “you go to the Seminary for us! We need someone to celebrate Mass for us and forgive our sins in the name of Jesus!” He might say, “No, not me! I can’t do that!” But it might be fear speaking. With the real and on-going support of the community, he can be helped to discern and respond to the call.
If a parish community is actively involved in producing and promoting vocations to the priesthood, it changes our awareness of the source of the priesthood, and the lay people’s relationship with the priest sent to the parish by the bishop. Let’s say a young man from this parish went to the seminary, was ordained, then sent to another lively parish in Ottawa. Someone from another parish in Ottawa (or even from another country), is sent here. When he arrives here, instead of saying, “we do not know where this man is from. Why should we listen to him?” You will say, “We know where this man is from. He is from a parish like ours. He is first of all a man, a Christian, a brother, who listens with us to the Word of God.” (Don’t forget that I also began discerning my vocation at my first Catholic parish of St. Francis Xavier in Brooklyn, NY).
This knowledge of where good shepherds come from will make every parish aware of a crucial fact in the renewal of the priesthood and the Church – the priest remains a man, a Christian, a brother, in need of both support and accountability.
After almost 9 years as a priest (on May 18th – please say a prayer for me), I am absolutely convinced that there can be no renewal of the priesthood nor a successful New Evangelization apart from greater support and accountability for priests from bishops, brother priests and lay people.
For too long in parishes in the Catholic Church, we have assumed that a priest’s faith is a direct, unmediated gift from God. Like the Holy Spirit descending upon Mary, God gives the gift of faith directly to the priest, in an unfailing, unbroken, continual fountain of grace.
No. I repeat: the priest is first of all a man, a Christian and a brother, whose faith needs to be nurtured. One thing that constantly erodes the faith of the priest (and can be quite demoralizing) is celebrating the Sacraments, n various situations, for people without faith. The priest needs to come in close contact with lay people with living faith, who love Christ and His Church, and who will give the priest an opportunity to share his faith, to grow in faith.
And the priest needs to be held accountable to the same people from whom he expects support. The priest has every right to seek and receive support from the bishop, other priests, and from parishioners. Therefore, these same people have the right and duty to hold the priest accountable – the bishop, the other priests, and the parishioners.
I will share with you one of the reasons for bad shepherds in the Catholic Church – a near total lack of accountability. For 50 years or more, the Church has been assuming that it was being done, that someone else was taking care of it, someone else was holding the priests accountable. But no one was doing it!
For example, these are the type of questions that someone needs to be asking priests on a semi-regular basis: “Father, are you praying your breviary, as you promised to do on the day of your ordination? Or are you too busy? And if you are too busy to pray, what are you doing? . . . Are you taking your annual retreat? Do you have a spiritual director? Are you going to confession?” Such little questions are essential for avoiding bigger problems that later appear in the newspapers . . .
Bishops, brother priests and lay people must start asking these questions now. You lay people also have a right and duty to ask these questions, in charity. I don’t suggest forming a posse go after a new priest and force him to confess his sins on the spot to a pre-approved spiritual director! However, in every parish there are holy and committed lay people with a real love for the priesthood and the Church – these kind of people have a role to play in the renewal of the priesthood, by supporting priests AND holding us accountable.
In our prayer for vocations in the Archdiocese of Ottawa, we begin by saying, “Lord God, in every generation, you have provided shepherds after your own heart . . . “ In every generation, Christ the Good Shepherd provides shepherds for the Church and inspires men to follow His example, to lay down their lives for the flock.
On Tuesday night at St. Patrick’s Basilica, some of us attended the play on the life of St. John Vianney, patron saint of parish priests, who gave his life for the salvation of all the people in his little parish of Ars. In the play, we glimpsed how out of the ashes of the French Revolution, God raised up holy men and women to renew the Church in 19th century France. And he is doing the same in our times.
One style of diocesan priesthood is dying (that of the one-man show, the individual operator . . . or even the rogue agent) to make way for a resurrection of a new form of diocesan priesthood that is slowly emerging like a shoot of green from the spring soil. (And by the way, on Friday night we saw one of the signs of this new springtime – we had an ordination in Ottawa of our newest priest who is a very good, holy and prayerful man named Fr. Hezuk Shroff).
Finally, to the young men in our parish considering the priesthood, I say: don’t be discouraged by problems in the Church or negative media coverage. Instead, be brave and answer the call of the Good Shepherd; be a part of the resurrection of the diocesan priesthood, the renewal of the Church and the evangelization of the world.
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May 8, 2011
Posted in Homilies
at 9:00 am
Third Sunday of Easter, Year A, May 8th, 2011 – By Father Tim McCauley
The 50 days of Easter are at least as important as the 40 days of Lent – probably more important. So why do we as Catholics faithfully observe the 40 days of Lent and completely forget the 50 days of Easter? Most of us did something different during Lent, giving something up, praying more, etc . . . But what about the 50 days of Easter, from Easter Sunday to Pentecost on June 12th?
I would like to propose one simple practice for all of us to observe this Easter season (in addition to Sunday Mass and Sabbath rest): Hope. To preach to ourselves and proclaim to others every day of Easter, “Christ is risen! All things are possible. We are filled with hope all the time.”
Political analysts suggest that one reason Jack Layton and the NDP won a record number of seats was his message of hope and change. People always want to hear a message of hope and change. If this is true in Canadian politics, how much more in the Catholic Church. As Christians who believe in the Resurrection of Christ from the dead, we must be heralds and sowers of hope and change in our society, especially in the pro-life cause (today is pro-life Sunday and Thursday is the March for Life).
The disciples on the road to Emmaus in today’s Gospel were converted by their meeting with the risen Christ – converted from isolation and despair into hope and mission, sharing the good news of the risen Christ.
They begin their tale of woe to this mysterious stranger by saying, “we were hoping that (Jesus) would be the one to redeem Israel” (Lk 24:21). We were hoping, implying that they are no longer hoping; they have lost hope. Why? Because the worst thing imaginable had happened: their beloved leader and friend, Jesus the prophet great in word and deed, had been crucified. After the rejection of God by the first human beings in the Garden of Eden, the crucifixion is the worst crime in the history of the human race. We murdered the Son of God! What could be worse than that? What is going to make that situation better? Just sweep it under the rug? It’s not that bad – we only killed God! It is sickening and horrifying that we did this. Nothing was going to improve this situation except something totally unexpected and “impossible”: the Resurrection of Christ from the dead.
We live in a culture without hope, a culture of death. It’s almost as if we live in the shadow of the cross, with the guilt of the crucifixion hanging over our heads, because of the 3 million children in Canada that we have murdered through abortion since 1969. Because of our darkened consciences, we have “normalized” what is sickening and horrifying; we think, “well, it’s been part of the fabric of Canadian society for over forty years. Even though we are murdering innocent children, about one hundred thousand a year, it can’t be that bad. The sky hasn’t fallen. Life goes on.”
Actually it doesn’t. We live in a culture of despair because we have built a culture of death that murders its own children, its own future, that murders its own hope.
And yet, all of us present here today are the fruit of hope – something we should celebrate on this secular holiday called Mother’s Day. Our mothers and fathers were filled with great hope in our conception and birth. They did not look upon us as burdens, as annoying cry babies, more mouths to feed. They accepted, embraced and loved us, and that’s why we are here today – the fruit of hope and love.
Mothers and fathers who kill their own unborn children through abortion are people without hope. It is a downward spiral. They live without hope and abort their children, leading them deeper into despair until they repent and trust in God’s mercy. Statistics from Ontario from 2007 report that for every 100 babies born in Ontario, 37 others were aborted. Among adolescents aged 15 to 19, the number rises to over half of children being aborted (Project for an Ontario Women’s Health Evidence-Based Report). Such crimes against humanity leave a deep scar on the hearts and minds of everyone involved.
What is going to help these mothers and fathers to climb out of their despair, to hope again? We Christians must be heralds and sowers of hope in our culture of death. We must preach the Resurrection to ourselves, and proclaim it to others: “Christ is risen! All is not lost. You will see your child again. Christ has died to take away your sin, and He has been raised so that you can begin a new life.” At a general audience on April 29th, Pope Benedict said,
“It is our task and our mission: to arouse in our neighbor hope where there is despair, joy where there is sadness, life where there is death.”
Some people say that the prevalence of abortion in Canada is impossible to change. It’s simply too deeply ingrained, just like the grip on power of the Bloc Quebecois in Quebec. Impossible to change. Those separatist Quebecers are never going to vote for anyone but the Bloc. What’s the alternative? The Green Party? The NDP? What a joke! . . . Wait a minute . . . The “impossible” just happened in a Canadian election a few days ago – the immovable Bloc was completely swept aside in Quebec by the Orange Wave, a truly miraculous phenomenon that no one predicted or even imagined a few weeks ago!
Canadian politics can change. The grip of the pro-abortion lobby on the hearts and minds of the people and politicians of Canada can and will be broken. But it must begin with Christian hope, as St. Peter writes in the second reading, that God raised Jesus from the dead “so that your faith and hope are set on God” (1 Pet 1:21). Out of the worst crime in human history, the crucifixion of the Son of God, came the greatest miracle – the Resurrection. Out of the horror of abortion will come a new culture of life – through the power of Jesus Christ risen from the dead.
But only if we Christian meet the risen Christ and become His apostles of hope. Many commentators have remarked that the structure of the Emmaus story is the same as the Mass. The first part of the Mass is the liturgy of the Word, paralleled to what Jesus did on the road to Emmaus, explaining how all the Scriptures referred to him. The second part of Mass is the liturgy of the Eucharist or the “breaking of the bread.” Jesus disappeared the moment the disciples recognized Him in the breaking of the bread, almost as if to suggest that they don’t need to see Him with their bodily eyes, because He is truly present to them in His Word and in the Eucharist, the breaking of the bread, the Bread that is His Body (Lk 24:13-35).
The risen Christ is equally present to us today, but we usually do not recognize him, like the disciples on the road to Emmaus – their eyes were kept from recognizing Jesus (Lk 24:16). Pope Benedict comments on another scene in which the disciples failed to recognize the risen Jesus – when He appeared to them by the sea of Galilee. There we read that “none of the disciples dared to ask Him ‘who are you’ because they knew it was the Lord” (Jn 21:12). Pope Benedict remarks: “they knew from within, not from observing the Lord’s outward appearance” (Jesus of Nazareth, p 266).
What good would it do for me or you to have a miraculous vision of the outward appearance of the risen Christ? Without a change of heart, it would only make us proud, thinking we are better than others. Knowing this, the risen Christ wants to open our eyes by changing our hearts. We have an equal opportunity, like the apostles, to know the Lord “from within.” We can meet the risen Christ today, so that we really know it is Him, in the Scripture, in the breaking of the bread, in the other person.
Jesus walks with us “on the way” through life, like the disciples on the road to Emmaus. He really cares about what we are thinking and feeling. He really wants to enter into a conversation with us, asking,“what are you discussing on the way? What are you thinking? What are you feeling? Why are you losing hope?” He will listen to us, and then proclaim to us the Resurrection.
It is this central mystery of our faith that we must also preach to ourselves, and proclaim to others, every day this Easter season: “Christ is risen! All things are possible! We are filled with hope all the time.” Let us be heralds and sowers of hope in our culture of death, transforming our society, one person at a time, into a culture of life, a civilization of love.
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May 1, 2011
Posted in Homilies
at 9:00 am
Second Sunday of Easter, Year A, May 1st, 2011 – By Deacon Thomas Stephenson
The busiest and greatest parts of the year, Holy Week and the Triduum, have passed, and we might think that things are now slowing down a bit. But, this weekend is also quite busy. Our celebration of Easter continues; even the beginning of the Gospel we just heard takes place on the evening of the first Easter. And, this Sunday is the Feast of Divine Mercy, which was instituted by Pope John Paul II in the year 2000. The other big event of the weekend is the beatification of Pope John Paul, beatification being the step immediately preceding canonization, or being pronounced a saint.
We can see that there is a relationship between God’s Divine Mercy and sainthood. All those we call saints are understood to be in heaven. Therefore, they have had the benefit of God’s mercy, without which they could not have made it. Anyone who is in heaven, all those who have died in a state of grace, are considered saints, whether or not they are canonized. Although loved ones or others who have died are sometimes described as now being angels, the truth is that if they are in heaven they are saints, the same as any saint that the Church has formally canonized.
In order to become canonized, there has to be some evidence of the person’s being in heaven. Without going into all the details, this usually means either being martyred, or there being two confirmed miracles that have occurred through the prospective saint’s intercession. It should be clearly understood that it isn’t the saint that has performed the miracles – God has performed the miracles, the saint having asked God for His help. Knowing that there are saints is another indication of God’s mercy, that through His Church He has given us people in heaven that we can identify with, and through whom we can petition for our needs. This does not in any way diminish the importance of our own prayers directly to the Lord, but as the Vatican II document Lumen Gentium tells us: “Being more closely united to Christ, those who dwell in heaven fix the whole Church in holiness …they do not cease to intercede with the Father for us, as they proffer the merits which they acquired on earth through the one mediator between God and men, Christ Jesus…so by their fraternal concern is our weakness greatly helped.”
Christ is the only mediator between God and man, but He is not our only intercessor. Our Blessed Mother, and all the other saints in heaven, including all those we love who are there, can ask on our behalf for God’s help.
So, if we have saints, people who are in heaven, and we all hope to be saints some day, are there some who do not become saints? In other words, do some people end up in hell? There was a story in last Saturday’s paper about an evangelical preacher who claims that no one goes to hell for eternity. As has become common in the last few years, during Lent and especially around Holy Week, the secular world brings out all kinds of things challenging our Christian belief. Most of these are totally baseless, or wildly inaccurate. Never trust the media on any religion story – if they should happen to get it right, it’s probably by accident. But, the story appears to give a fair appraisal of this man’s premise, much of which is unquestionably wrong from any faithful Christian viewpoint.
We know that hell exists; it is referred to in the scriptures, and it is specifically mentioned by Jesus. Yet, it can be very attractive to think that God is so benevolent that He would not really condemn anyone to spend eternity there. And actually, He doesn’t; it is the person who condemns himself or herself, through “a wilful turning away from God…and a persistence in it to the end.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1037). God does not want to lose any of us; He created us to live with Him for eternity. He also gave us free will, and our choices sometimes move us away from Him. We are responsible, and we will be held accountable, for our actions. However, this is not a reason to despair. The good news is that when we are repentant after we have sinned, God in His mercy will forgive us, He will wipe the slate clean. So, yes, God’s mercy is necessary, it is so necessary that in His mercy, He sent His Son to suffer and die for us. In the Nicene Creed, we say of Jesus: for us men and for our salvation He came down from heaven.
In one way or another, all of our readings today mention our salvation. The first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, ends with “And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” From the Psalm: “The Lord is my strength and my might, He has become my salvation.” Peter tells us in the second reading “you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” And, in addition to giving the Apostles the power to forgive sins, instituting of the sacrament of reconciliation, which is critically important to our salvation, John concludes by telling us that through our belief in Christ, we may have life in His name.
If we want this life, it is up to us to choose it. God will not force us to be saints. But if we really desire to be saints, we must start right now. We may recall that the diocesan theme this year is “Called for holiness: the saints among us.” Being holy, being saints, doesn’t mean that we must be perfect. You may be aware that Pope John Paul II went to confession once a week. So, even though he is being beatified, he was not perfect. What is required is a sincere, contrite heart and a strong love of God.
We are now all sinners. Let us pray that, through God’s Divine Mercy, we may one day all be saints.
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April 24, 2011
Posted in Homilies
at 9:00 am
Year A, April 24th, 2011 – By Father Tim McCauley
There are two resurrections in human life: the first in our baptism into Christ’s death, and the second, when we rise from the dead to be like Jesus in His own Resurrection. We live the first to receive the second. We live our baptism, our personal relationship with Christ, and we look forward with great hope to our future resurrection.
In the Gospel for the Vigil, we don’t hear details of the appearance of the risen Christ. Yet throughout Easter we will re-read all the accounts. On Easter Sunday, we hear the Gospel that includes the meeting between Mary Magdalene and the risen Christ: “she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus” (Jn 20:14). She thought He was the gardener! But then, when He called her name, she recognized Him.
In his new book on Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict expertly explores this mystery of the risen Christ. He writes, “(Christ’s) presence is entirely physical, yet he is not bound by physical laws . . . In this remarkable dialectic of identity and otherness . . . we see the special mysterious nature of the risen Lord’s new existence . . . “ Identity and otherness. Mary first thought He was the gardener (otherness), then recognized Him (identity). The Pope continues, “(it) is presented quite clumsily in the narratives, and it is this that manifests their (truth)” (Jesus of Nazareth, p. 266).
The account of the meeting of Mary Magdalene and Christ is so clumsy and messy that its very strangeness is a proof that it reports a true historical event. Had it been necessary for the Church or Gospel writers to invent the Resurrection, then they would have made up a story in which Mary would have immediately recognized Jesus the moment she saw Him.
The Resurrection of Jesus points to the future of humanity, and our own personal destiny. We too will rise from the dead in a spiritual body like the body of the risen Christ. To those who are skeptical of such a “physical” conception of life after death, Pope Benedict writes, “If there really is a God, is he not able to create a new dimension of human existence, a new dimension of reality altogether? Is not creation actually waiting for this last and highest ‘evolutionary leap’, for the union of the finite with the infinite, for the union of man and God, for the conquest of death?” (247).
This is such a great joy and consolation for all of us. God created us for life, not death. After we die, we will not be dead; we will be more fully alive! Alleluia!
This is the second resurrection that awaits us. We have already experienced the first resurrection in our baptism. On Easter, we renew the promises of our baptism; let us also renew our personal relationship with Christ. Let us go back to the beginning of our faith. Do we have a personal relationship with Christ? When did it begin? When did we first meet?
I was baptized on May 17th many years ago, by my father, an Anglican minister at St. Bartholomew’s Church in White Plains, New York. But I really did not begin to discover the meaning of my baptism more than 20 years later after a long and painful search for the truth and the meaning of life. The search brought me back to the faith of my baptism and a personal encounter with Christ.
How did that happen? In many small ways. Once on a ferry to Greece when I was 23. We need to create a time and space to meet the risen Christ. Mary Magdalene did not busy herself at work on Sunday morning; nor did she stay at home depressed. She went out to meet Christ, out of her routine, out of her self-centeredness.
On the ferry to Greece I had the time and space for God. I didn’t have my iPad with me because they weren’t invited yet. I was reading the life of Jesus in the New Testament, and all of a sudden it dawned on me that my life-long search for love had been a search for God, and that God had been searching for me, this God who has a face and a personal love for me in Jesus Christ . . . There were many other moments that I don’t have time to go into detail now.
Imagine a modern family on a crazy, busy day, perhaps on a Sunday on which people have forgotten how to worship God and rest. Instead, there’s a full agenda: clean the house, rake the lawn, drive the kids to soccer and whatever else, a social engagement in the evening. Parents and children are rushing around the house and beginning to lose patience with each other when suddenly the husband stops in his tracks, walks up to his wife, puts his hands on his her shoulders and says, “I love you. I have always loved you from the first day we met, and I will love you all the days of my life. And all this (the house, the car, the career) is nothing to me apart from you. And the kids – I love them dearly – but you came first and you will always come first. I just wanted you to know that. Now we can get on with our busy day!” Would not that one minute of love energize you for an entire week?
Jesus Christ, here and now, puts his hands on your shoulder to stop you, to catch your attention. He looks at you and says, “I have always loved you from the first day we met (when was that? In baptism?) and I will always love you. And all this is nothing to me apart from you.” You reply, “All this – you mean this Church, Jesus?” “No, I mean the sun . . . the moon and the stars – the universe is nothing to me apart from you . . . when will you understand? I would have created it all just for you . . . I would have died just for you.” (Easter Sunday: Interestingly, last night in Rome for the Easter Vigil, the Pope said the following: “from God’s perspective, the heart of the man who responds to him is greater and more important than the whole immense material cosmos.”)
My brothers and sisters, do you not know that Jesus Christ has been looking for you and looking at you with love for years? And He wants to have a personal meeting with you, as He did alone with Mary Magdalene the day He rose from the dead. If only you would give Him the time and space.
When I returned from Greece and other places many years ago, I thought I could be a Christian on my own, but I failed. I realized that I needed the help of other people who were believers in Christ. So I eventually joined a support group for recovering sinners . . . founded by Jesus . . . called the Catholic Church. And it has been my home, my family, my comfort and strength ever since.
For Christians, attending Church is essential – Mass on Sunday, keeping the Sabbath holy as a sacred time and space for God. But for us to truly live our baptism, the new life Christ has won for us, we need more – we need each other more than ever. The secular world at best slowly erodes our faith, and at worst, it even dismisses, denies or persecutes our faith. We need each other to share, strengthen and increase our faith.
For this reason we have small Christian communities in our parish that are open to everyone. We have two or more small groups starting up in the next week or two that will begin with a Faith study called “Discovery” to discover the basics of our faith and our personal relationship with Jesus Christ. One of our parishioners, Jenna Gernon, will be sharing her testimony and will be available after Mass for anyone with further questions.
When I was in Jerusalem in November of 2009, I had the opportunity to visit the tomb of Jesus, to lay my hand on the stone on which the body of Jesus lay. But the angel said to me, as it were, “He is not here; for he has been raised . . .he is going ahead of you to Galilee” (Mt 28:6-7).
“Galilee” is the daily life of Christians throughout time. Christ is risen! He is alive and present in His Word, the Sacraments, people and events. (Easter Sunday: Last night at the Vigil in Rome, the Pope spoke extensively of the goodness of creation that Christ has restored through His death and Resurrection. A reminder for us to ask the Lord for new eyes, to see his goodness in creation, in ourselves, in all the people around us). But if we are so busy, even on Sundays, and not paying attention, we might pass by the risen Christ, thinking He is only the gardener. If we are not praying and listening, we will not hear him call our name. Christ is risen! Truly He is risen! Let us go out to meet Him.
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Homilies