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Sunday, March 24, 2024 – Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion - Cycle B Readings: Mark 11:1-10, Isaiah 50:4-7, Psalm 22 “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”, Phillipians 2:6-11, Mark 14:1—15:47

3/24/2024

THE GREAT AND HOLY WEEK

Today is a very special day. We come dressed for a feast and carrying palms in our hands because Holy Week is starting. For forty days we have followed the path of conversion and penance. There are two contradictory feelings in our hearts: on the one hand, joy at seeing Christ make a solemn entrance into Jerusalem and be proclaimed king; on the other, sorrow from knowing what he will suffer for us in a few days. Offend-ed, betrayed, beaten, humiliated! We are going to see him climb up Calvary with the Cross on his shoulders and die for us.

Brothers and Sisters,

1. Palm Sunday is the gateway through which we enter Holy Week. On Thursday we will celebrate the Last Supper, in which Jesus leaves us his Body and Blood, and his commandment of love. On Friday, we will go with him to his Passion and Death. Saturday will be a day of mourning, but that night, at the Easter Vigil, we will recall his passage from death back to life, and we will renew our baptismal commitments.

2. Everything that is going to happen this week will trouble us and fill us with sorrow: the Son of God, who came into the world to free the poor and the suffering, decides to live out in his own body the experience of defeat, of the silence of God, of death. The Good Shepherd becomes the sacrificial lamb; the Sower be-comes the grain of wheat that dies; the Lord becomes the servant wounded by suffering, as the prophet Isaiah foretold.

This is the Jesus we want to follow, because we believe in Him, because we know that his Cross is the source of life, because we already feel in ourselves the light of the resurrection that we will celebrate in a week.

3. Who is not able to recall the fervor of his Christian life during the years of his First Holy Communion? Who hasn't heard God's voice at one time or another, asking him to be more generous and accept the cross-es life brings, bearing them with love? Let us go into the Church and sing with great joy: "Jesus, You are our King!" On Good Friday, we will also be at the foot of the Cross. Will there be anyone who by his sin still shouts out "Crucify him!"?

Let us not allow these days of grace to go to waste. Here are some very good ideas, for example: let us go to the ceremonies; find time to read and meditate the Gospel account of the last days of Jesus; if anyone is sick, let them unite their sufferings to Christ's for the salvation of sinners; or as we meditate on the Crucifixion, let us think of our own death, and prepare for it with faith; let us help someone who is terminally ill, by drawing them closer to receive the last sacraments. How much do we have to ask him for, and also to thank him for!
Amen.

March 17, 2024 – Fifth Sunday of Lent - Cycle B Readings: Ezequiel 37:12-14, Psalm 130 “With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption”, Romans 8:8-11, John 11:1-45

3/14/2024

                                    THE HOUR

     The Gentiles insisted in seeing Jesus. It is the same insistence that man has of our times. Jesus is never out of fashion! There are periods in history particularly marked by the incredible thirst for discovery; just as there is in man's life there comes "the hour" to look for the definitive answer to life's questions. Jesus' hour is marked by pain as a basic condition for fruitfulness.

Sisters and Brothers:

1. Some Gentiles seek to beg Phillip: "We want to see Jesus". How noticeable, the urgency to       experiment a joyful encounter with God himself. Isn't this the same request, that millions -with begging urgency-to make believers of us this time? "The Gospel still has something to say to humanity", claimed Roger Garaudy,Marxist philosopher converted to Catholicism. Jesus is still interested in those men, that without knowing are claiming for Him and his Gospel. Jesus has prophesied this: "I will bring all to me".

2. Jesus' life still attracts us, because it is a life completely focused on the Father and to man. Who dares to love and to give himself in this un-bounding fashion? Would we be willing to follow Christ with the giving of our own lives? How deep are his words! "He who loves himself, loses himself, and he who abhors himself in this world will keep himself for eternal life". Will we be able to understand the dynamism of love that these words can and should bring about inside of us?

3. The hour for Jesus has arrived. For John, Jesus' hour is that of his death. It is the hour that reveals the meaning of all of his life... his message... and is the moment of triumph because it is in this hour that he ful-fills the mission that God entrusted to him.

Jesus' death is the beginning and the way to his glorification. Through the cross to the light, through death to resurrection. Paradoxically, God's glory lies in his death. And, which should our hour be? The same as Jesus': Be a grain of wheat. Die in order to bear fruit, lose to win, choose what is frail to confuse which is strong.

Sisters and Brothers: "We would like to see Jesus." This is the world's most urgent demand today. It de-pends on us, the "those seeking God", to satisfy this legitimate need. We should be prepared to bring others to join this fascinating endeavor. "Our Hour" is the one when we discover Jesus and through Him we set "a new order" in our lives: be holy, love God above all things, and give ourselves to our neighbors so they can become holy too. We must feel the need of God, and be His mirror to give him to others. "Blessed the pure of heart".

Source: ePriest.com / Best Practices and Homily Resources for Catholic Priests

Sunday, March 10, 2024 – Fourth Sunday of Lent - Cycle B Readings: 1 Samuel 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a, Psalm 23 “The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.” , Ephesians 5:8-14, John 9:1-41

3/10/2024

                                         ILLUMINATED EYES
     Men are born blind, in the darkness; but our eyes are opened by the faith of baptism. To live by the light means to get close to Christ so that our good deeds are illuminated by Him. For us, do we still belong to the world of the blind or are we going through life illuminating the world with the torch of faith? It is the Faith in Christ that saves! "He who believes in Him will not be condemned".

                                              Sisters and Brothers
1. By curing the man that was blind since birth, Jesus reveals himself to us as He who opens our eyes to the true light, the light that allows us to see things with the new eyes of faith. Illuminated by Christ we must live as true sons and daughters of light; and this demands a conversion in the way of thinking, a capacity to judge according to a new scale of values that comes from God, "He doesn't see the outside, but inside the heart".
     The ceremony of the Easter Vigil explains to us the meaning of the baptismal light. It is a symbol of our Alliance, and that we live like sons and daughters of light. In this same baptismal rite, a candle called the baptismal candle is lit taking light from the paschal candle, and it is presented to the baptized from the godparent with the words, "receive the light of Christ".

2. Light means life and grace. Sin is darkness, and on the other hand grace and faith are light. Baptism is a gesture of the divine generosity that frees us from darkness and incorporates us into the Kingdom of his Son so that we may have part in the eternal life together with the saints in the light. God places us in a new situation. He places ME in a new "nature" that I will never part from - divine nature. I become a child and as such I live something like that that comes to life and is committed to live as man and cannot reasonably blame God or his mother for having brought to the world.

3. "To walk in the light" is to live coherently this new situation with his eyes fixed upon a new life and a new world. A new way of life with relation to all others: It is fraternal love which distinguishes the "sons and daughters of light". A life that separates sin, like darkness, with a continuous effort of conversion; a new and deep orientation that transforms the existence in a way of light to the glory. Rebirth means consequence and attitude. Jesus Christ came to give life, and it is up to us to accept it.
     We recall the importance of our baptism in the light of Easter. Would it not be a good time to examine the baptismal commitments involving mainly a rejection of sin and confession of our faith in the risen Christ? If we have the opportunity to be godparents at a baptism, pass this responsibility to others.
Amen.

Source: ePriest.com / Best Practices and Homily Resources for Catholic Priests

Sunday, March 3, 2024 – Third Sunday of Lent - Cycle B Readings: Exodus 20:1-17, Psalm 19 “Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.”, 1 Corinthians 1:22-25, John 2:13-25

3/3/2024

WE PREACH JESUS CHRIST ON THE CROSS

The essence of the Readings today is faith. Christ has saved us so we can be free, by taking the Ten Commandments as an answer for the love of God. But our faith can face the problems of those men in the time of Jesus, more than two thousand years ago: with the scandals of the Jews and the madness of the Greek. On Good Friday we will contemplate Christ on the cross, but let's not fall into the mistake of this scandal and this madness. Instead, let us seek to identify ourselves with Christ crucified and renew the mystery of redemption in our own life. Easter will lead us to the conversion through the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ.

Sisters and Brothers:
1. Let us think of our conversion. Let's practice a lifestyle more in tune with the Passover of Christ. Easter is the transition into something new. Easter challenges us. We shouldn't just say Alleluia! We must have a great admiration for the powerful action of God who raised Christ. Passover is also our response to God. As it was in the time of the Israelites. The receiving of the sacraments of the Eucharist and confession is the best expression of our consistency. What is communion?

Communion is the Alliance to accept what was conquered by Christ on the cross. The chalice of the Blood of Christ is the "Blood of the New Alliance." This is the alliance that we make with God in our baptism, and that we renew at the Easter Vigil. In front of everyone we have renounced to all that is not in accordance with the commandments and we proclaim our faith in God, in Christ, His Spirit, and in His Church.

2. Today's Gospel has an essence of true Love. Christ crucified and risen from the dead leads to knowledge and worship of God. The poet Rafael Laffon says: "High teaching you are in, a lesson you are giving fast.... Hands, feet, sides and head attest thread by thread". For he whom faith is revealed the cross becomes a great sign, the divine wisdom available to the poorest. The cross is destroying the church where I worshiped and have discovered the power of Jesus.

3. God finds a new way to reveal himself through the cross. He is the only one capable of moving us to conversion, when wisdom and the proof of miracles cannot convert the rational man. God is not known or reached other than through the mystery of the cross. The medieval mystic says: "You move me Lord: moves me to see you nailed to the flesh on that cross; moves me to see your mangled body; moves me, your fight and your death".

Easter is approaching. This year we have the possibility to live it with more attention and devotion if we pre-pare beginning today... with a good confession and receiving holy communion. Explain to your children the meaning of each rite. Remember the commandment the Church asks of us "to confess and receive commun-ion at least once a year, around the time of Lent". This is necessary to survive.

Source: ePriest.com / Best Practices and Homily Resources for Catholic Priests

From Our Pastor's Desk

Sunday, March 24, 2024 – Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion - Cycle B Readings: Mark 11:1-10, Isaiah 50:4-7, Psalm 22 “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”, Phillipians 2:6-11, Mark 14:1—15:47

March 17, 2024 – Fifth Sunday of Lent - Cycle B Readings: Ezequiel 37:12-14, Psalm 130 “With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption”, Romans 8:8-11, John 11:1-45

Sunday, March 10, 2024 – Fourth Sunday of Lent - Cycle B Readings: 1 Samuel 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a, Psalm 23 “The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.” , Ephesians 5:8-14, John 9:1-41

Sunday, March 3, 2024 – Third Sunday of Lent - Cycle B Readings: Exodus 20:1-17, Psalm 19 “Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.”, 1 Corinthians 1:22-25, John 2:13-25

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