From Our Pastor's Desk
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From Our Pastor's Desk
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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 WE NEED A GOOD SHEPHERD
Life is worth living only if it is to surrender. Christ is the Good Shepherd who gives his life for his sheep -he knows us each by name. The shepherds of our time are not only the priests, but all the coherent Christians. Today's Gospel speaks of shepherds and of mercenaries. Only the first are capable of giving their life for his flock. Sisters and brothers: 1. Jesus ends the parable by saying: "I am the Good Shepherd." You and I are also the good shepherd if we meet the conditions: giving life for the sheep; know them by name, living among them by helping them with their problems and concerns, especially those outside the fold. Giving life is the supreme example of love. There are many who live off the sheep, taking advantage of the position and turning it into power and control, rather it should be responsibility and service. Being a shepherd is not easy. Knowing and giving life implies a personal, intimate, dynamic, and exciting relationship. 2. The teaching of Jesus is innovative and illuminates with a new light the relations of power and authority. "The good shepherd, says Vatican Council II, is known for the goodness of heart, sincerity, strength and steadfastness of the soul, and the constant concern of justice." We can be good shepherds or bad shepherds for others. Christ is the shepherd par excellence, but there are also other good shepherds among us. Good shepherds can be found in every state of life, all professions, and all social classes. They must always be "self-giving" (to die to self) - to sacrifice, be loyal, and be an example of loving one another. 3. The Fourth Sunday of Easter is the day of vocations. The world needs to be evangelized with new methods, new enthusiasm, new language, says the Pope. We need priests who devote their lives to serving the elderly, the handicapped, the sick, the poor, drug addicts, and children. Today priests are needed more than a king, the military, bankers, doctors, and teachers, because they can replace all of them, but none can replace a priest if he were missing. Without priests, the world would die the worst hunger without that little bit of bread and that little bit of wine that are the focus of all liturgical celebrations. Brothers and sisters: Let us pray that the Holy Spirit brings us many vocations. Many people can and do not want. Many want but cannot. A vocation is a calling from God. If any of your children has expressed an interest in a vocation, thank God for that. Protect them in their difficulties, pray for him to be generous; support their decisions. It will be the pride of your home and a blessing from heaven. Source: ePriest.com / Best Practices and Homily Resources for Catholic Priests CHRISTIANS ARE PEOPLE OF HOPE
Brothers and Sisters: We have already heard the good news. In fact, we have heard the best news: "Christ is alive! He is risen and has appeared to his disciples." Happy Easter to all of you! The sorrow that filled our heart at the Passion and death of Christ gives way to the unrestrained joy that his Resurrection brings. 1. It's not easy to believe in Jesus' Resurrection. The disciples had to experience the dark night of the soul after Good Friday. Together with the trauma of Jesus' violent death, they suffered because of the silence of so many unknown elements. So what would happen now? We can understand their anguish if we compare it to what we feel when we are waiting for someone who doesn't show up. They tell us that mom is coming on a trip, but she doesn't arrive when we expect her to. What could have happened? Our soul gets worried, and all sorts of images pass before our eyes. That's what the disciples were like, with a knot in their stomach. The resurrected Jesus appears to Peter, to Mary Magdalene, and to Thomas, precisely to these three because they were doubting. They were more dead than alive. And he appears to the disciples of Emmaus because they had already lost hope. To all of them he brings new reasons to live. 2. Christ's Resurrection changed the world. Death was defeated when Christ accepted death; pain and suffering were conquered when Christ freely chose to suffer; sin was destroyed when Christ bore it on his shoulders. This is all true, even though death, suffering and sin still continue by our side. But they are no longer unable to be overcome. We must be men of hope. We can't walk through the world always predicting calamities; we must persevere in solid optimism, tested in love and in death, a realistic optimism that is also full of good humor. There is a new Beatitude intended for us: "Blessed are those who have not seen, yet still believe." 3. Every Sunday is a little Easter that becomes a reality in the Eucharist. It's as if the day arrives when I can go to the bank of mercy and cash in the check of life, joy and pardon that Christ gave me two thousand years ago on the day of his Resurrection. It's not written out to "the bearer"; it's written to my name, and no one else can cash it for me. Tomorrow could be too late. It's an invitation for us to live "like resurrected souls." St. Paul invites us to "look for the things above, and not those of the world." Make a practical resolution: spend some time reading the Gospel narrative of everything that took place after the Resurrection. It will fill you with joy and peace. And how much do we need them after hearing all the bad news about catastrophes, death and abuse on the radio or on TV. Let us rather fill ourselves with good news that is a sign of God's presence. Let us be men of hope! 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. |
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