Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion, April 1, 2012

Link to Today's Scripture

Palm Sunday.  The penultimate event during these days (second to The Paschal Mystery).

He who Is.

I am who Am.

He returns to Jerusalem finally.  He is heralded in triumph as the anticipated KING.

What can we say.....the Readings are profound (read them again).  Paul's masterful work in Philippians is known as the "Kenosis", a Greek word meaning "emptying".

Though he was in the form of God he took being God as not something to be grasped, so He became a SLAVE (Ph 2:6).

A slave?

Yes a slave.  A slave for love.  A slave for us....

God so loved the world, that He gave the world His only Son, born of a Virgin, from a far off land, the carpenter's boy.  He gave us Himself, all of Himself, emptying out Himself, his blood (Eucharist) and His water (baptism).....so that all who believed in Him may have eternal life. 

(Jn 3:16)

I suggest we walk around with this verse during Holy week, our immediate preparation for the Triduum, the Passion and Death of our Lord (bow) Jesus Christ.

He who is the Way, the Truth and the Life....our lives.

Say yes to HIM.............

Bullets and Broadway: 5th Sunday of Lent (B)

Today's Readings and Gospel

What we did seemed innocent, oddly enough.  My young friends, a couple married 7 years and I were strolling back to the parish after a special treat on a Sunday.  A bite to eat in between Masses.

On the ground it stood before us.  A single bullet near the driveway of a fast food restaurant on the very block where our Parish campus resides.

I suppose we could think externally in our spiritual way and say that this is just an indication of a crucified world.  I suppose fear could enter into our hearts at the unique localness of this bullet in our personal world.  You know the old adage "not on my street" and such...

We could be correct to do so.

However, we would be wrong to localize this tragedy.  It is easy to imagine that late last night someone also had a bite to eat and threw the bullet out of the window of the car for whatever reason.

Ultimately our conscience informs us this is wrong.    In NY state it is never legal For a "civilian" to carry a firearm in a car.   this event seems to point to a larger, more "global" crisis.

Why would you need a gun to get a burger?
Because we are out socializing with "friends" (Whom we Love...than why endanger them?)

Are we protecting ourselves from our enemies?
Who? (we are supposed to love them too, says the Christ).

I do not pretend to have the answers except this...

Now let us speculate why.
Why would the Son of God have to die like this....
Why would the creator of the world give himself up to his "enemies" like this...
What would be the reason that would be a scandal to his own people, the Jews and foolish to the rest of the civilized world (the Greeks and Romans, the powers of the day) as Saint Paul informs us.

Jesus, the Son of God submits to his crucifixion for us.  You and me.  And the man or woman who dropped the bullet.  And the beautiful children who sat in the sanctuary today listening to me try to teach them about love and right and wrong inspired by the Holy Spirit.

We can suppose one bullet dropped and picked up (I have taken it safely away to be properly disposed of) is one bullet less that could hurt someone.

Deep down where truth resides we know that it is not just those who die at gunpoint, but especially those who feel the need to carry these things that are the instruments of destruction.

Jesus Christ taught us that He is the Way and the Truth and the Life. When will we learn?

...Miserere mei Domine

4th Sunday of Lent (B): I, the Lord your God, Want You Back!

Today, Readings and Gospel

 His name is Rollen Stewart.  If you grew up watching sports on TV in the late 70s and early 80s you surely would have seen him.  He was everywhere, obvious and unmistakable.  Whenever there was an important sporting event he was there in full camera view: the NBA finals, the World Series, the Olympic games and even one of my favorites, the Masters golf tournament.

Rollen was there usually with "John 3:16" stamped on the front of his tee shirt,  the universal message of the salvation offered by Christ to all, "God so loved the world that he sent his only Son for us who believe in Him so that we shall have everlasting life."

I remember knowing this biblical citation because of Rollen's overexposure and I remember looking it up.  I remember being amazed that he was at all of these great sporting events.  Rollen was everywhere and always in perfect camera view.  You could not miss him.  What a phenomena!

What is so important about this message that drove this man, this child of God to such great lengths to spread the message of salvation?  In fact Jn 3:16 is the summary of Christ's salvific purpose, of God's intention for his human children.

God has made the ultimate sacrifice in sacrificing his Son for the salvation of the world.  A great price but an incredible action of Love.  Nothing compares nor comes close to what God would do to get us back.  In fact we remember the story of just a few weeks ago about Abraham and Isaac.  God would not allow Abraham to sacrifice his son but in the fullness of time God allows it for His only Son as the supreme act of redemption.

Abraham attempts to sacrifice Isaac but God provides the sacrifice: a ram caught in the thicket.

What does that say about our God?  What does this teach us about His infinite mercy?  What does this teach us about His infinite love for we, His creatures and how much he wants us back?

The story did not turn out so well for Rollen Stewart, thus far.  In the 1990s he was convicted for kidnapping and was sentenced to three life terms in prison.  Jealous over the loss of his former wife and their divorce and in a drug induced and crazed furor, he succumbed to evil temptation and now has to repay society for his crimes.

It is not enough to profess the faith.  Believing in what Jn 3:16 says is the key.

Believing requires turning away from sin and listening to the Gospel.  Believing requires a certain "imitation  of Christ".  We as Catholics recognize that the journey will have its peaks and valleys.  We recognize the infinite mercy of God but also know that we must turn toward His light to be empowered by its effects: grace.

For some would rather choose darkness over light.  As the end of our Gospel passage today says:

And this is the verdict,
that the light came into the world,
but people preferred darkness to light,
because their works were evil.
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light
and does not come toward the light,
so that his works might not be exposed.
But whoever lives the truth comes to the light,so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.   

Come forward, Children of the Light, recognizing God's mercy and His call to repentance, to conversion. Amen!

Second Sunday of Lent, B: He who would not withhold his only Son

Link to today's Readings and Gospel

The Sacrifice of Isaac on Mount Moriah

Sometimes the selection of readings for our Sunday worship at Mass does not give us the whole story.  In our excerpt from Genesis we hear of the father of the monotheistic faith, the Patriarch Abraham bringing his son to sacrifice to God.  What is missing from Gen 22: 3-8 is the willingness of Isaac to go along with this plan in perfect obedience to his father.  When asked by his son what will be sacrificed, Abraham says to Isaac that God will provide it.

You may know that human sacrifice abhors God.  Created in His image and likeness, this is an unthinkable sin.  It is made even the more abhorrent by the pagans of Abraham's day who made this a regular part of their sad religious rituals, some of which occurred in close proximity to Mount Moriah, perhaps even on the very spot that Abraham and Isaac came to.

What happens is that God spares Isaac and provides a ram for sacrifice.  The ram is caught in the thicket, a thorn bush which wraps  around the head capturing his horns.  This is a profound parallel to the Crown of Thorns.

God (YHWH) will not allow man (Abraham) to participate in human sacrifice.  But God allows his Son Jesus to be sacrificed for the redemption of mankind.  It is a profound action of an all merciful God providing himself to us as an expiation of sin, as the perfect remedy for the Fall of Adam and Eve.

Of course Jesus consents to this in the Garden of Gesthemane.  God who is Trinitarian is in perfect harmony.  In the Gospel, God teaches us that he will spare nothing to allow for our redemption. Paul highlights this in his letter to the Romans.  It is an amazing gesture, one that cannot be captured with words.

1st Sunday of Lent, B

Link to Today's Readings and Gospel

King David showing remorse for his sinfulness

Today is  our first Sunday of Lent, our annual 40 days of preparation for the glory of Easter.  We hear in our first reading about a new covenant with God that will be shown by the sign of a rainbow, that miraculous and mysterious work of God through nature.  God had to cleanse his people from their un-repentant sinfulness, their irreversible concupiscence that had gone to far.  

In 1st Peter we hear that Christ's profound purpose is to lead us to God.  Christ comes down from heaven to lead us to God through our sinfulness and our purification.  He remains with us today in the Spirit, as he promised that he would never abandon us.  The water of baptism recall's Noah's Ark and it's saving power from the floods that wiped out the world and it's inhabitants.

We heard what is perhaps my favorite prayer and my favorite Psalm twice in the first three days of Lent, Psalm 51 (including Ash Wednesday) -- Miserere mei Domine -- The first stanza goes:

Have mercy on me in your kindness, Lord

In your compassion, blot out my offense.

O wash me more and more from my guilt

and cleanse me from my sin.

This beautiful poem (hymn) is attributed to King David, the great Israeli King who lived 1000 years before Christ and from whom Jesus descends.   The setting for this beautiful, penitential act is the following.

David is King and Israel is secure from all its enemies and outside invaders.  While his army is out campaigning David sees from his roof the beautiful but married Bathsheba bathing on her roof.  He sends for her and sleeps with her, impregnating her.  She sends him a message alerting him to this fact.

He tries to cover up their affair but her husband will not return to his bed, instead showing loyalty to the King and remaining as his guard.  David is faced with a dilemma.  He will be exposed as an adulterer.

He has a choice to make and chooses wrong.  He has Uriah killed on the battlefield and then takes Bathsheba as his wife.  Nathan sees the wrong (he is the King's prophet) and tells David a parable so that the scandal will be exposed to him.

The greatness of David might be attributed to many things: his just rule, his military might or his elevation of the chosen people of God to the status of great nation.  However, I believe we venerate David (as do our Jewish brothers and sisters) because of his kind heart.  

King David had a repentant heart as seen by the words of Psalm 51.  He realizes his weakness, his frailty and turns to God for forgiveness.  He takes measures to make recompense, he fasts and mourns and puts himself at the mercy of God.  He prays for forgiveness and tries to do good by the widow Bathsheba taking her as his wife.

In our Gospel today we hear of Jesus, who is Lord and God, going to prepare himself for ministry in the Desert.  Jesus reminds us all why it is important to retreat into solitude and fasting to garner spiritual strength.  He allows angels to minister to him while being tempted by the evil one.  He emerges perhaps physically weaker but spiritual stronger to resolve to do the will of his Father.  Mark announces at the end of this passage that "This is the time of fulfillment, to repent and believe in the Gospel."  Thus Our Lord's earthly ministry begins.

We must to learn from King David that prayer, fasting and almsgiving are important practices of Christian virtue.  We must prepare ourselves as does The Christ to foster oneness with the Lord God.  We must recognize that we live in the time of fulfillment and so order our lives to the Gospel.  As is said to us on Ash Wednesday, "Repent and believe in the Gospel."  We need not await any other signs such as Noah's rainbow.  

We begin Lent knowing that the awaited Messiah, the Son of God and the son of David has come and calls us to conversion.  He will come again at the end of time to judge the living and the dead.  He is the fulfillment of all scripture and prophesy, the long awaited Messiah of the House of David.  David who as all powerful King could have ignored Nathan and done nothing.  Instead he repented recognizing that God is Lord of all our lives, especially those with much power.

There is nothing left to make us complete except to turn toward our Lord and believe in the Gospel.

7th Sun OT Cycle B

Today's Readings

Few are not moved by the image of friends who go to great lengths to see us healed.  At the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Huntington, where I studied for the priesthood, there is a great wooden Raredos behind the altar.  It depicts scenes from the New Testament and in one panel is the scene of the paralytic being lowered through the roof.  It is my favorite of the twenty panels, because like the image above, the men can clearly be seen going to great lengths to help their downtrodden friend.

This week the entertainment world was (again) stricken with sad news, the death of Whitney Houston.  By my un-official count that would be about a half dozen "pop-stars" dying under mysterious circumstances, with drug and alcohol abuse providing the haze.  Most recently there was Heath Ledger, Brittany Murphy, Amy Winehouse and now Houston among others.  The news report said Whitney was carousing at rehearsals but did not appear to be herself.  The suggestion would be that she was under the influence of "something".  This despite the widely known fact that she is a substance-abuser in "recovery".

In our Gospel there are many good lessons for meditation.  There is the popularity of Christ so early in St. Mark's Gospel.  There is the faith in The Christ that he can heal.  There is the discourse between Our Lord and the Pharisees regarding his authority to forgive sinners.

For me, in light of another tragic "hollywood" death, it is the length in which the paralytic friends go to, to put their friend within Christ's reach.  They first take apart the roof, then fasten the man in rope and then gently lower him down the roof to be healed.

Where was Whitney's friends and family in her hour of need?  Why was she allowed to go on abusing substances?  Why were the others allowed to "expire" before their time?  Does anyone in the Hollywood set care or are they just happy that there has been a spike in record sales?

My friends we are called to be more than bystanders to those who we love as they make train wrecks of their lives.  We are called to bring them to help and loving forgiveness.

Let this week's events and our Gospel be a lesson for us all.  Christ is our High Priest and Divine Physician.  We would do good to resolve, now and in the future, to be the intervening agent in the lives of those who cannot help themselves. Like those who helped the paralytic meet Christ, we too can do ordinary things that will have extraordinary value in others lives by bringing them to the healing hand of God.  He, who makes all things new and is capable of reconciling us all.

To do so we only need to ask for His help and His strength.

6th Sunday of Ordinary Time, B

Today's Readings and Gospel

Jesus heals the leper and returns him to society.

Today we hear in the first reading of the Levitical law regarding the handling of those afflicted with Leprosy.  They must make themselves obvious in manner and appearance, present themselves to the priest and dwell apart from others.  This is a failed expression of the law because these people are marginalized and does not witness to the exemplary manner that the children of Israel are called to; in fact it does not distinguish the Chosen People from the actions of ordinary pagans.

St. Paul exhorts us to imitate Christ in all things by showing glory to Him.  Doing so will benefit all.

In the Gospel we have an ironic twist.  By healing the leper, Jesus becomes the outcast, having now to remain on the outskirts of villages.  At his cure, the leper returns to society after the prescribed ritual cleansing by the priest.  

In our nation today we Catholics may feel a bit like lepers.  Our government has initiated wide sweeping "healthcare reform" that thumbs its nose at religious liberty and freedom of conscience.  We must support these unpopular measures or face serious fines, perhaps criminal charges.  

This strategy is the epitome of "radical secularism", a phrase coined by none other than our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI.  The government is saying in a way that we will not be undeterred in marginalizing religious belief and rights, despite that constitutional protections afforded such.  Radical secularism purports    that religious beliefs are best kept private out of the public realm where they can challenge relativistic moral "values".  

Pope Benedict XVI has said (in Light of the World) that radical secularism is the greatest evil existent in the world today.  It attempts to overshadow the objective Truth of our faith: that all life is sacred, created in the image and likeness of God and has an inviolable right to life.  This is enshrined in the deposit of faith and our U.S. Constitution.

Some have said the modern "secularists" want us Catholics out of education, health care and social services.  This is despite the good we do; as St. Paul said, "To the benefit of all".  This stance against us is despite the fact that we are the largest private educator in the U.S., the largest private health care network and social service agencies.  And we refuse no one!

The current issues and Gospel message of today show us that we have much work to do.  We must object strenuously to these affronts by politicians on religious liberty and freedom of conscience.  We must contact our senators and representatives and vote with our conscience next fall.  It is no longer the time to act on our emotions and vote for the popular choice.  Instead we must invoke real change by the power of our voices and our votes.  

Failing this, we will mimic the leper we hear about in the OT Leviticus reading and be banned to the margins of society.  Instead we can go to Christ who heals and restores us to our rightful place as advocates for all in the public square.