From Our Pastor's Desk
|
From Our Pastor's Desk
|
|
BREAD THAT HEALS THE SOUL
Anorexia is a disease of modern times. When bread is most abundant in rich countries, people lose their appetite. Scientists say that it is a psychosomatic syndrome. The Eucharist is bread come down from heaven. It is bread that gives life. "Whoever eats it will live forever." For lack of responsibility, many Christians are systematically deprived of the Eucharist. It is a kind of suicide by starvation because this weakness can lead to a death of the soul. Sisters and brothers: 1. The anorexia of the soul is defeatism and discouragement. We can not avoid in our lives the arrival of extreme situations of physical and moral suffering that lay us low. How do we usually react? Normally we go through three stages: First we deny that the evil we are experiencing is real; we believe that the ills of others would never happen to us. The diagnosis of a tumor, job loss, an aborted project, the death of a child, a failed test, etc... Then we recognize the reality, but we rebel against it: Why me? The others are at fault! Why does God not intervene? This makes me lose faith! My life has no meaning I'd rather die! Finally, we accept it with resignation because we see no escape. Only with the help of God will we accept it with love. 2. We can lock ourselves in a vicious circle. The defeatist would rather sit under the tree to die, but you can find reasons to be optimistic. Optimism makes a harsh road bearable. The defeatist has three lives within the soul: the past, present, and future. All of them disturb him. He is convinced that their faults, illnesses, and failures will happen again. The pessimist carries the root of his troubles in his own thoughts: He only sees one part of the truth, the darkest. He is color blind. The one-sided view of the world and of things makes him unhappy, unsociable, and unpleasant. Joseph Zuhr says that "Pessimism overshadows one's existence, numbs dynamism, saps energy, paralyzes action, and finally ends in discouragement and despair. That is, it ends in the destruction of life." Pessimism is a contagious disease and a form of moral decay. 3. "Get up and eat for the way is long!" God always sends his angel at the right time. The sacrament of the Eucharist is the very person of Jesus who feeds us only if we eat it with the necessary dispositions. Unfortunately there are among us many anorexics who lose their appetite for God. They stop eating, so they are sterile and are in danger of starvation. Let us resolve not to let this plague called discouragement, weariness, defeatism enter our soul. Rather, let us cultivate optimism and high ideals. Let us say like Peter, "Lord, to whom shall we go? Only you have the words of eternal life." Source: ePriest.com / Best Practices and Homily Resources for Catholic Priests GIVE US THIS BREAD ALWAYS!
Every Sunday, we leave our homes and forget the worries of work to go to Mass in the parish. Why we do it? Why have believers been doing this since the early centuries of Christianity? It will be very helpful for today and the two following Sundays to seek an answer in the reading from the Gospel of John in which he narrates the multiplication of the loaves and the Eucharistic discourse of Jesus. Jesus is the bread of life. Sisters and brothers: 1. The people followed Jesus because he had multiplied bread and had satisfied the hunger of thou-sands of his followers. But Jesus reproached them: You seek me not because you saw miraculous signs but because you had eaten your fill. They were not really looking for the Jesus of the miracles, but the miracles of Jesus. Man is a beggar. Man is a being full of needs. Nothing quite satisfies all of his desire. Then his cry is ad-dressed to someone to come to his aid. What about us? Do we participate in Sunday Mass because we feel hungry, afraid, we are overwhelmed? 2. Man needs salvation! It is true that many people just ask God for things. We ask for our daily bread and all we need to live, but these specific requests are expressing our need for God. Thus, St. Augustine warned: "God hears your call if you seek him. He does not listen if you are looking for other things through him." At the time of the communion, we also feel that Jesus makes that great revelation to us: "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst." 3. Jesus speaks of another bread. Life is a journey where we need to be fed in order to continue on, Jesus reminds us that He is the bread that gives eternal life. The great spiritual weakening of many people (lack of feelings, lack of love, lack of faith and hope, lack of solidarity with the weakest...) is because they do not eat properly, are anemic in spirit and stunted of hope. Brothers and sisters: Let's make each Mass a true celebration as a personal encounter with Christ. It gives us the bread of the Word and the bread of his Body. A feast cannot be improvised. So let us promise to prepare for it during the week. Our prayer, our service to others, the fulfillment of our duty should be the bread that we take with us on Sunday for the Lord to bless and multiply. Jesus has left us his life, his Church, and his body so that we might have life and abundant life. Our pray-er should be this: Lord, give us always this bread! Source: ePriest.com / Best Practices and Homily Resources for Catholic Priests FIVE LOAVES AND TWO FISH
The Christian knows he cannot solve all the problems of hunger, for the food given is quickly consumed and misery returns, but when the Lord asks us to contribute five loaves and two fish, we has the assurance that He will take care of multiplying it miraculously. Sisters and brothers: 1. The prophetic act of the multiplication of the loaves has a meaning that goes beyond satisfying the stomach. A child offered what he had and Jesus commanded the apostles to distribute it. This means that our human contribution is needed for the miracle since it is the starting point for this wonderful communion. The Word of God encourages us to share the riches of the earth more wisely. 2. Man today suffers a spiritual void and we have a duty to satisfy it; understanding is the most sublime trait of love. Jesus shows us so much love in this episode! Sometimes it is hard for us to understand others and that is when love plays a key role, because if we love, we can easily be understood. It is what a woman said to her husband: "If you loved me, you would understand me." If we want to figure out what type of hunger the brother at our side or all of society is suffering from, we must learn from Jesus to love and understand their situation. 3. What is understanding? First of all, it is to get in tune with all hearts. Saint Augustine said: "Imitate good men, tolerate the bad men, and love everyone because you do not know how today's bad man will be tomorrow." That is the love of Jesus to the thief, the adulteress, the Samaritan. What is love? To love is to give oneself even though the heart is bleeding; it is to support others without being discouraged; is learning to stand in solidarity with others; it is to think well of others and also not to ask men and women more than they can give; it is to close your eyes and open your hand. Today's world needs men who know how to give and receive. Love is an adventure and a risk. The Christian must always leave a trail of light behind, like a ship at sea. Do not be ashamed to call "brother" the beggar, the sick, the fallen or the man of dark skin, and let us not forget to treat our brothers with love and understanding. Think of all the material and spiritual wealth that God has given you. These are the bread and the fish he wants you to offer so that he can multiply them and satisfy the hunger of those around you. The hunger for bread is satisfied by generously sharing, but the deepest hunger that must be satisfied is that of the spirit. See if you can understand, love, and give yourself to others to make them happy. If so, you will be happy your-self. Source: ePriest.com / Best Practices and Homily Resources for Catholic Priests A Staff and Sandals Are Needed The Word of God is like a seed; it needs an open furrow and a welcome. The Word of God is the link be-tween God and man; once inside a man’s heart, its transformation begins. Christ needs coworkers who pro-claim the Gospel. To them the Gospel’s recommendation applies: ”Take only your walking stick and sandals,” as if to say, “Don't put your trust in the means, but rather only in the grace of God.” Brothers and sisters, 1. The master's fortune will also be that of his followers. He was not well received by his countrymen for the mere fact of being one of their own. On another occasion, they wished to stone and hurl him over a ravine because he had given witness to his status as Messiah; he was persecuted, abandoned, betrayed and nailed to a cross. “What has been done to me shall be done to yourselves as well.” This does not only refer to the clergy, but also to his lay followers. It is clear that from the beginning, the preaching of the Gospel goes against the current of the world. 2. Today, people want to banish God from society. Secularization, laicism, and agnosticism have taken over the mass media, politics and economic power. Their laws and customs harm the most basic morals, assault life (abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, genetic manipulation, therapeutic cloning of embryos, etc.) assault family (quick divorce, gay marriages), assault our faith (our religious teaching, our popular devotions, the elimination of holidays). But where are committed Christians who can give convincing answers through their words and proclaiming truth and goodness through the witness of their lives? Where are those who bravely defend values in the public square, in academia, in the financial world, in scientific research, on the street? It seems that Christians with leadership and guts stand out by their absence. 3. A Christian is an apostle through the strength of his Baptism and his Confirmation. He is responsible for the salvation of his brothers and sisters. To be a lay disciple is above all, a must for a person of faith. It is to make God's love penetrate the world's ordinary circumstances. It is to feel that God drives us to get involved with people and their problems. To be a disciple is to pray as a little girl once did, “Lord, make the wicked good and the good likeable.” Being an apostle is not just talking about God, but living from God and bringing him to all those around us. Being an apostle is having a heart so overflowing with love that you cannot but share it with those around you. Brothers and sisters: Christ puts down three conditions in order to proclaim the Gospel: full time dedication to the mission, letting go of things, and the internal freedom to evangelize without limitations. Let us re-member that the success of evangelization depends not only on our own personal effort, but also on the grace of God. Source: ePriest.com / Best Practices and Homily Resources for Catholic Priests AT TIMES JESUS SLEEPS
Today the life of the faith and the Church encounter strong headwinds. It is a moment of trial which we can use in order to awaken from the mediocrity and superficiality we fall into at times. What affects us? There are those who become discouraged or who are scandalized and there are even those who try to tame the storm on their own. Jesus orders the winds and they obey him, but he takes the disciples to task for their cowardice and lack of faith. Sisters and Brothers: 1. The night scene of the twelve men bent over their oars, who fight to the limits of their strength against the fury of nature, helps us see the seriousness of the moment. But their symbolism goes beyond the narrative. The storm is the image of the persecutions that the Church suffers and the fight that each soul has to undertake against temptations and difficulties. Small or large storms: worries, plans that don't turn out, difficulties in dealings with others, unexpected misfortunes. And then the temptation to think that God has for-gotten us and that "Jesus has fallen asleep" comes. 2. Why does Jesus stay asleep in the midst of the storm? We all want and hope for a miracle! But a religion of miracles would place God at the service of our interests and of our whims. Jesus knew that the miracles he performed on things could distract attention from his person. It is as if Jesus is asleep, laid back, quiet, patient. We should be able to believe in him not needing other miracles other than the miracle of his love. In other words: Do not seek the miracles of the Lord, but the Lord of the miracles. 3. When we feel threatened by some evil we all go running to the Lord. The apostles' prayer was, in reality, a prayer of distrust, of worry and of doubt. If he was there, they should not have been afraid. When we are with Jesus we do not run the risk of perishing because he can save us even though he is asleep. "Why are you such cowards? - Jesus asks them - Don't you have any faith?" Fear is our greatest enemy, the greatest enemy of families and of communities. It paralyzes us, impedes creativity, the Gospel adventure. Someone was very right to say: "The only thing to fear is fear itself." Cowardice is our greatest sin against the Faith. We do not dare to take everything that the Gospel tells us seriously. Ballet used to speak of a "disguised heresy" of those who defend Christianity, even aggressively, but who never open themselves to the fundamental demands of the Gospel. At times it seems that Jesus sleeps; it is the night of the Faith. It is the heartrending and exasperating silence of the Lord. Jesus wished to experience our fear in the night of his agony and he begged his Father: "My God, My God, Why have you abandoned me?" This is the high point of the Faith, when, in spite of the darkness that envelopes us we trust in him. It is the moment of naked Faith. Source: ePriest.com / Best Practices and Homily Resources for Catholic Priests A SEED OF HOPE
It is quite likely that Jesus told the parables of the mustard seed and the parable of the seed that grows silently in the night and the parable of the sower, when the group of his followers was small and the fruits of his preaching were few and far between. It was the opportune moment for sowing hope in the hearts of his disciples. Sisters and brothers: Jesus also invites us today to draw three lessons from this Gospel: that we be realists, that we be patient, and that we hope in his promises: 1. The word of God does not bear fruit automatically. In life we reap what we sow. Going through life waiting for a stroke of luck is similar to that flame that quickly dies out. What remains is that which one toiling builds up. It is necessary that we create the conditions needed so that the seed takes root and grows until it reaches its fullness. Things that are worthwhile don't come about just like that; rather they are built little by little. Hope is a theological virtue, which responsibly takes the present into account and it values it and faces it with real-ism. Our life is transcendent and we know that our human drama will certainly be overcome. 2. The word of God will bear fruit at its proper time. And God's timing does not always coincide with ours. We have to begin each day with new goals as if each were the first, the only, and the last day of our lives. We should nev-er be downhearted. We always have to conquer new goals no matter what it may cost us. Thanks to our hope we nev-er remain fixed in a spot with our arms crossed; there is always a second chance. 3. The word of God has humble beginnings and sure ends. A farmer is a man of hope because year after year he begins preparing his land confident that this year will be better than the previous ones. We have the same sentiments as that farmer, because we can always be better, we always hope for better times. Let us allow things to develop grad-ually. Humble and insignificant beginnings will turn into works of God which change people and our contemporary society. In the Church we are that small seed that Christ wanted to sow; through us grace and salvation will have to reach all those men and women who live around us. Mother Teresa of Calcutta used to say: "Don't try to do spectacular things. What is most important is your daily gift of self." Let us ask God not to become disheartened in moments of crisis, even though we do not see the fruits; let us not allow ourselves to become seduced by purely material results; may we always feel the nearness and the solidarity of the Church, present in every corner of the earth; and above all, may we learn to discover the hand of God, even in the small actions of our lives. Amen. Source: ePriest.com / Best Practices and Homily Resources for Catholic Priests The Real Source of Courage
Jesus was focused on his mission
mission
And yet, he persevered.
God's will for us, to his commandments and to the circumstances that he permits to trouble us.
Source: ePriest.com / Best Practices and Homily Resources for Catholic Priests The Meal
The Eucharist is the sacrament of the presence, but also of the absence, of Christ. It is the meal of thanksgiving to Christ for having remained here as the bread which sustains us on the path of the faith; and it is also the meal of praise to the Father because through the Eucharist he guides us in the present so that we may securely reach our eschatological future. The feast that we celebrate today is the sacrifice of expiation in which Christ is simultaneously priest and victim. Sisters and brothers: 1. The Feast of Corpus Christi unfolds in an atmosphere of happiness and recognition because we ponder the infinite beauty of the gift. We carry him in a triumphant procession through our streets as a public profession of faith. In each Eucharist we come together around the altar in order to eat his Body and drink his Blood. It is a vital communion which reaches down to the very roots of our being. We live from him. With Saint Paul we can say: "For me, to live is Christ". John Paul II confessed: "For me, in the span of nearly fifty years of priesthood, the celebration of the Eucharist continues to be the most important and sacred moment. I am fully conscious that I celebrate it in persona Christi. The Holy Mass is absolutely at the center of my life and of my whole day." 2. The Eucharistic banquet demands that we realize fraternal communion in charity which unites us beyond the temple and which takes flesh in human relations. Unless acts of solidarity are inspired in the love of God, they be-come mere acts of philanthropy. On the other hand the person who has been feed with the Body and Blood of Christ is capable of giving and transforming. We need to live the virtue of charity that buds forth from Eucharistic Communion in order to thereby reach out to those who are most in need with an attentive and welcoming service in their need. And there are so many who do not have a voice to be heard, and who do not have any political clout which would make others take them into account! 3. Let us think of those who hunger physically; but there are other men and women who have no means of feeding their spirit. "Today humanity suffers the most terrible experience of all: Hunger for God and separation from him". For many of our contemporaries, God is something distant and vague, something that almost gets mixed up with the illusory or unreal. Some people are the victims of another's egoism, but others refuse to open their eyes to see the light. We always have to be ready to give and to receive. In order to give we need to be generous; in order to receive it is necessary to be humble. Only those who are generous and humble will be prepared to truly love. Love is communion, true giving of oneself to another. The feast of the Body and Blood of Christ invites us to take part in the Mass, the procession, adoration before the Blessed Sacrament and personal prayer. It is also a day suitable for practicing Christian charity. Do I live the Eucharist with a fraternal spirit? Does each Eucharist help me to grow in friendship, in brotherhood, in closeness to all others who share this same table, such that it leads us to be a parable of unity as Christ taught us? Love Begets Happiness
Love has no limits. In the Gospel Christ calls us friends; on this earth there is no greater sign of confidence than this, and for this reason happiness reaches its fullness. The source of happiness is that love that does not distinguish between persons, that does not discriminate, that does not pick and choose. Sisters and brothers: 1. Many of our contemporaries do not understand the meaning of true happiness. They see it as a parenthesis in the middle of a boring existence in which worry, insecurity and pain are predominate. For this reason we hear more and more laughs and see less and less smiles. "A fool raises his voice in laughter, but the prudent man at the most smiles gently", says Sirach. The one who bears God in his soul, perceives the imperative need of transmitting him with deep, serene and permanent happiness; it is the uncontrollable need to pass it on which penetrates to the depths of the heart, which reassures it. 2. "There is more happiness in giving than in receiving" A mom's happiness is her children's happiness. This is an infallible theorem. But the greatest happiness comes with having God in our hearts. Where there is no love, there is no life and we only find the absence of God; it is then that we desire to fill this empty space with with false idols. On the other hand the person who has Christian happiness is a bearer of a new message of solidarity, of peace, of love; enlightened by happiness he knows how to welcome life with thanksgiving and veneration; it is the attitude of the person who has discovered that all of life is a gift. Only the one who makes the world a happier place is truly happy. Only the person who knows how to give happiness knows happiness. Happiness is contagious. 3. "The happiness of the heart and of the face". Paul Claudel places this message in the mouth of one of his characters: "My God, you have given me the possibility of having it that anyone who looks at me, would desire to sing, as if I had intoned for him in a low voice". Ask yourself honestly: does your smile reveal God's presence in your soul to others? Does the world get better when you do something to lift it up? The balm of sincere Christian happiness could once again bring, among our brothers and sisters in the faith, the resurgence of exemplary charity. Happiness imperatively needs to communicate itself through authentic friendship. Let us remember that the measure of love is love without measure. Authentic love knows neither strategies nor reckonings; for this reason love implies generosity, gratitude and happiness. Self-interested love is the antithesis of love. "Egoism is like unto those Egyptian bandits who only embrace their victims in order to strangle them." "Sing out with your voice", says Saint Augustine, "sing with your heart; sing with your lips; sing with your whole life." Sisters and brothers: Let us bring Christian happiness wherever we go: to our family, to our workplace, to our friends. Let it not be the happiness that the world gives, but that which Christ brought by his Incarnation. Only thus will we have the face of those who have risen. Source: ePriest.com / Best Practices and Homily Resources for Catholic Priests REMAIN IN CHRIST
The deep meaning of the allegory of the vine and the branches is the mystical union between Christ and believers. The trunk, branches, and fruit suggest many things to those who listened to Jesus. The stability of the trunk evokes the certainty of faith. Fruitfulness opens horizons for Christian hope. Sisters and brothers: 1. The Paschal cycle ends and the risen Christ has left key messages today and the previous Sundays: He is the Good Shepherd who gives his life for his sheep, is the master who teaches us the commandment of love, in which we are the branches that receive life and produce fruit if we are united to the vine. We cannot ignore the invitation to re-main in the fold of Christ, and still less, become united to the vine which gives much fruit. The allegory is clearly a life of communion with Christ. Grace is communicated to us through the sacraments and gives fruits of holiness and apostolate if we remain united to God. In contrast the separation from Christ produces fruitlessness and death. "Without me you can do nothing." 2. The disease most prevalent in our day is loneliness, say psychologists. This is found mainly in countries of higher living standards. Many children suffer from loneliness because their parents are too busy doing other things. Many young people feel misunderstood. They are married living in solitude. Those living in communities of consecrated life can also live solitary lives, if they have not found friendship with Christ and vegetate unenthusiastically amid the turmoil of their occupations. The elderly especially suffer from loneliness, neglect, abandonment, and are considered a burden. These people have done much in their lives and now may be surrounded by everything but love. 3. The loneliness is unbearable for anyone who is surrounded by thousands of people who are unrelated and unknown. Our cities are home to multitudes of people we do not know. Among those that are known, few are real friends. The relationships are superficial and can be short-lived. The interior pain is externalized in depression and anxiety, which can bring more than one to suicide. Our sophisticated and technical world does not favor the deep relationships between people as such. When John says, "you remain in Christ!" he is asking us not only to live "as" or follow "behind", or that we live "as" or walk "with" him, but live "in" Him. Our program of life should be in communion with God. Certainly to "remain in" is not interpreted passively, but is a dynamic and compromising program. Sisters and brothers: God is the answer to the problem of loneliness. His knowledge of us is intimate, personal, and profound. He knows our weaknesses, needs and wishes, even before being displayed. I invite you to begin to live like the branch, together with the true vine which is Christ the Lord. Source: ePriest.com / Best Practices and Homily Resources for Catholic Priests |
Archives
January 2025
Categories |