Category Archives: Weekdays

Beloved in Christ, today in the first reading we find that St. Paul goes to the Areopagus. This is a place in Athens where trials used to be conducted by the Greeks, and it is not far from the Acropolis, full of idols to various Gods. Paul sees there that they had an idol to ‘the unknown god;’ he takes that opportunity to talk to them about the true God that they do not know. He speaks to them about the creator of all, and then he leads to the fact of Jesus Christ, who has risen.

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This was what I was speaking to the 8^th grade about recently. When they go to high school they will encounter people who say they don’t believe in God. What should they do, what should we say? Because we have to say something!

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Do what St. Paul did. He tries to speak to them first about the True God, using what they know, even referring to their own poets and this idol they have, to some ‘unknown god.’ So we can first talk about the fact that this entire beautiful universe, in it’s complexity, cannot ‘create itself,’ there had to be an origin to all things. If science says it all started with the Big Bang 14 billion years ago, that all the matter and energy, all that we see – exploded forth from a tiny dot – how did this begin except by a Creator. All of this can’t create itself.

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Like St. Paul, having first spoken about God’s existence, then we tell them about Jesus. God himself came down from heaven; he entered his own creation; the Son of God became Man, and lived our life; he taught and then he suffered and died for us and rose from the dead, so that we can do the same.

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Jesus is a fact. There is more evidence that Jesus existed than that there was Julius Cesar or Thomas Jefferson. Jesus Christ did many miracles, instantly curing people, raising people from the dead, and himself.

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‘Well, they may say, I believe that Jesus was a good teacher, like Budhah or Ghandi or Mohammed or Confucious. ‘No, we must reply,’ you cannot say that. Jesus claimed to be God. He said ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life.’ ‘I am the Way.’ ‘You can’t be saved without believing in me. Yesterday we read, our Lord said over and over: ‘I and the Father are One.’ ‘To see me, is to see the Father.’ Jesus is the Revelation of God, he is the face of God in the world.

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We present the truth to our friends, then they have to decide whether they will seek out Jesus, or not. Everyone must choose to follow him, or reject him. There is no middle ground. And it will be very much like with St. Paul: some said ‘this is foolish,’ but others said, ‘I would like to hear more.’

Friends in Christ, today Our Lord says, ‘ Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.’  

These are the exact words we use at Mass before the sign of peace. The peace that Christ gives is not that of the world.  The world sees peace as the cessation of war, or the end of fighting, or the end of arguing. But Christ’s peace is different.

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Thomas Aquinas defines peace as the union of wills, our will united to God’s will.  Doing God’s will in our life, no matter the cost –  this brings the peace that God can give to our soul.   

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The sign of peace at Mass is a sign of this peace. The priest offers it only after Christ is present on the altar. It is Christ then, who offers his peace to his brethren.  

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The sign of peace that we have at Mass has, through history, been called the ‘Kiss of Peace,’ and St. Paul refers to this.  In the early Church, the kiss of peace was given – on the lips!  It was literally a kiss, in which the person turned to their neighbor and kissed them.  It is not quite so surprising, when we remember that a kiss between unrelated people was at that time, a sign of respect.  

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Later, in different parts of the church, more stylized kisses of peace were done.  Among the Syrians, each person clasps the hands of his neighbor, and kisses them.  Maronite Catholics clasp the neighbor’s fingers, then kiss them. In the Latin Solemn High Mass, the clergy give the light, Roman embrace. Priests and Deacons often continue this at the Sign of peace, a light embrace of the arms as is done in Rome.

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In Europe, there is the ‘cheek kiss’, in Japan it is a deep bow to one another, and in India the palms are put together in a bow.  In the 13th century in England, they used an ornate plaque  imprinted with a picture of Christ. The plaque was kissed and passed along, each person kissing it; this was actually specified in the Missal of Pius V.   

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In some places, the priest would kiss the Sacred Host, and then kiss the Deacon, who would kiss the servers,  and then the people, all of it originating from the Sacred Host. And this is the point: the peace that we desire, can only originate in Jesus.  

Friends in Christ, today is the Feast of St. Anselm of Canterbury.

Anselm was born in the year 1033 in Aosta, Italy. His dear Mother taught him to love God very much, and this never would leave him his whole life. At age 15 he wanted to join a monastery, but his father forbid it, so he turned to a worldly life.

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His mother having died, Anselm walked on a bad path for some time; in later life he would never cease to repent of those days. He went to France, and applied his brilliant mind to his studies, but at the age of 27, the call of the monastery returned to him; he entered the monastery at Bec, France. 3 years later, he was named the prior of Bec!

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Because he was so young, out of envy, many monks complained. One monk named Osbern was a bitter opponent of Anslem; but Anselm took a kind interest in him, and guided him from his lazy ways to become a very disciplined monk. Patience and gentleness eventually won them all over.

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Making many visits to the monastery in England, Anselm would have a long series of run-ins with the King who did everything in his power to oppose his work. But Anselm eventually was named the Archbishop of Canterbury.

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He was the greatest theologian of his age, a Doctor of the Church. He wrote many things, but his most famous is on the Incarnation, ‘Why God became Man.’ Although he was brilliant, it was not his brain that made him a saint, it was his heart.

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He had a kind charm about himself and a method of his own for teaching even the most simple persons. He was always trying to see God in every event of the day; once, as he was riding his horse, a rabbit, being chased by dogs, ran under his horse for safety; the dogs, who were with hunters, stayed back from the horse. He said to the hunters, ‘This rabbit reminds me of the poor sinner who is near death, and is surrounded by the devils.’ He then ordered the dogs to stay put, while the rabbit ran off.

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St. Anselm built up goodness wherever he went; once, he saw a boy who had tied a string to a bird’s leg and was stopping it from flying; Anselm didn’t like it, so he cut the string; and as it was often told, ‘the bird flew, the boy howled, and the priest rejoiced!

Friends in the Lord, today in the gospel we encounter Jesus in the temple; he is teaching the people, and it tells us that it was the time of the Feast of the Dedication. This feast of the Dedication is called by its Jewish name as ‘Hanukkah;’ and Hanukkah is generally celebrated around December 25^th.

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The origin of this feast goes back to the 2^nd century BC when the Greeks dominated Palestine. They wished to eliminate the jewish religion and replace it with Greek culture; Jerusalem was attacked, killing some 80,000 Jews. Since circumcision was the sign of the covenant, it was outlawed; mothers who were found to have circumcised their children were crucified with their children hung around their necks.

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The Temple was profaned, the chambers turned into brothels, and offerings were made to Zeus on the main altar. It was then that Judas Maccabaeus and his family rose up and led a rebellion against the Greeks. They were victorious, and the temple was cleansed and re-dedicated, hence the name: The Feast of the Dedication (Hanukkah).

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But this feast had another name too: it was called the Festival of Lights. There were brilliant lamps lit in the temple; in fact, in the main temple area, were some enormous oil lamps that lit up the night sky all around. There were also lamps lit in the window of every Jewish home. It was around this time of illumination that Jesus had said: ‘I am the light of the world.’ As we see today, Our Lord indicates his Divine Nature; he says ‘I and the Father are One;’ and when lights were illuminating everything for the feast, he tells us that he is the Light of the world; He is the One who lights the way to God.

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We had 8 people baptized this year at the Easter Vigil; after that, they were given a candle, and then father said this prayer over them: ‘You have been enlightened by Christ. Walk always as children of the light and keep the flame of faith alive in your hearts. When the Lord comes, may you go out to meet him with all the saints in the heavenly kingdom.’

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This prayer was said over us too, at our baptism. So we also, are to keep this Light of Christ always alive in our hearts.

Friends in the Lord, the gospel we’ve been reading these days, and tomorrow, is from the 6^th chapter of St. John, and this is called the ‘Bread of life discourse.’ Our Lord is teaching about this miraculous ‘Bread’ that he will give. ‘This is the Bread that comes down from heaven, if anyone eats this Bread, he will live forever.’

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The Lord is of course speaking about the Holy Eucharist, and this is the way that he will remain with us as he promised. He teaches that this Bread is really his Flesh, it is he, himelf. But many of the Jews of those days could not accept this teaching. So too today, many other non-Catholic Christians cannot accept this teaching either, they are like the Jews of those days who reject what happens on our altars each day. ‘They quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his Flesh to eat?” Does Jesus respond by explaining to them that he only is speaking symbolically? No. He responds forcefully: ‘Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood, you have no life in you.

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We continue to believe this teaching, given to us by Christ, and so today I thought we could consider the doctrine of Concomitance.  Concomitance means, that when we receive even one particle of the Sacred Host, or one drop of the Precious Blood, we are receiving the whole, living, resurrected Lord Jesus.

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Sometimes there is a person at our parish with celiac disease who is not able to receive the Host. A tiny sip of the Precious Blood, and that person receives the entire Living Lord: Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. In the Holy Scriptures Christ says you must ‘eat my Body and drink my Blood,’ but then later he says, ‘He who eats this Bread will live forever.’ This means that receiving only the Host or only the Precious Blood is the same as receiving all. Likewise, if we are running out of hosts due to an unexpected crowd, and we must break a Host into small pieces so that each person can receive a little, they certainly receive the whole, entire, living, resurrected Lord.

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Let us therefore stir up our Eucharistic faith.

That Christ has chosen to unite himself to us in this way, demonstrates his enormous love for us, and his promise to really be with us unto the end of the age.

Friends in the Lord, to be a Catholic means to live a certain way of life – to live according to a moral code which, begins with the ten commandments but goes beyond that to the beatitudes. We are called to love our neighbor as ourselves, and even to pray for those who hurt us and hate us: to pray for our enemies. We are to be persons of integrity and honesty; and to be chaste and holy. So we have a moral code that God has given us.

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But our moral code is in many ways similar to other religions. Buddhists and Hindus would agree that we should be faithful to our spouses, to be truthful, and to be pure. And Muslims would agree for the most part. These religions would not agree however, that we should love our enemies, yet there ARE many similarities. For this reason, some say: all religions are about the same.

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But then they miss the point of our Faith. The Catholic Faith is not really about a moral code. Saint Paul hammers away at this: he says that we can’t think of our faith as just ‘keeping the law.’ The heart of our Faith is not a moral code, it is the Divine Person, Jesus Christ. God has come to earth, and has done a great thing to save us. He has revealed himself to the world, now he asks: who do you say that I am? Am I merely a good moral teacher? That is not the answer.

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Jesus is God made Man, who came to unite himself to us. Our salvation is through Faith in Jesus, the Divine Man. This claim therefore, makes our religion TOTALLY different from others. God has visited his people – he has taken on a Body, and he wants us to acknowledge him, love him, and praise him, and of course, follow him in a moral way of life.

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The gospel says: The Father loves the Son, and has given everything over to him. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life.

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If you want to hurt someone, refuse to acknowledge them. Refuse to speak to them or even about them. This is the worst sin against our Lord, to ignore him. Our Lord says: ‘He who acknowledges me, I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father,’ ‘He who does not acknowledge me, I will not acknowledge before my Father.

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Our religion has a moral code. But what it’s all about, is Jesus Christ; He is God, whose Sacred Heart is aching for our love and our witness. This is central to our faith.

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We read today, the high priest said to them: ‘We gave you strict orders to stop teaching in that name. But Peter and the Apostles said in reply, ‘We must obey God rather than men.’

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So too, we ourselves are called to be witnesses, witnesses of Jesus Christ in the world.

Friends in Christ, in the gospel today, St. Mark tells us that when Mary Magdalene went to report to the disciples that she had seen the Risen Lord, they did not believe her. Part of their doubt may be due to her background.

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The gospels tell us that Jesus had once driven 7 demons out of Mary Magdalene. For good reason, she has been presumed to be a ‘woman of the street’ – the sinner, who washed Jesus feet and whom he forgave of her sins.

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She is a representative of the sinner who has been restored – redeemed by Christ and given a second chance. It is only some so-called modern scholars who try to insist that Mary Magdalene was not a sinner. But even St. Gregory the Great said she was the sinner who converted.

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The point is, here she is at the tomb, this former sinner who has been given the privilege by Our Lord to see him there, and bring the news of the Resurrection. Mary Magdalene is there in the gospel as a testament to the power of Christ’s redemption.

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Veneration and love of Mary Magdalene flourished for many centuries among the Catholic faithful, as well as in art and liturature. This is because of how much hope she gives us weak sinners, that nothing is ever hopeless.

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In 1871, English novelist Henry Kingsley wrote a little poem about Mary Magdalene. In the poem, she has come to the gate of heaven, which in this case is guarded by St. Michael. (here paraphrased)

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Magdalene at Michael’s gate,

she fumbled at the latch;

and on the thorn bush sang the blackbird, “Let her in! Let her in!”

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“Have you seen the wounds?” said Michael, the wounds to Christ?

“Do you woman, know your sin?”

“It is evening,” sang the blackbird, “Let her in! Let her in!”

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“I have seen the wounds,’ she said.

And I know my sin.”

“She knows it well,” sang the blackbird, “Let her in! Let her in!”

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“You bring no offerings,” said St. Michael, “Except your sins.”

And the blackbird sang, “She is sorry, she is sorry, Let her in! Let her in!”

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And when he had sung himself to sleep,

and night then did begin,

ONE came and opened Michael’s gate,

and Magdalene went in.

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That ‘One’ who opened the gate for her – that’s Jesus, he opens to all repentant sinners who come to the gate of heaven.

Friends in Christ, after the Lord’s resurrection on Easter day, we are told of a number of the different instances in which Jesus showed himself to the Apostles. We read of one such instance today; when the risen Lord appeared, it says that the Apostles thought they were seeing a ghost, but Christ insists that he has really risen, bodily. ‘Touch me, he says,’ because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have.’ He asked for something to eat, and they gave him a piece of baked fish. Our Lord did this to demonstrate the reality of the resurrection. Ghosts don’t have flesh and bones, and they don’t eat baked fish! Only people do.

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In doing these things, being with the Apostles, resurrected – and even staying and living with them for 40 days before the Ascension – Our Lord was strengthening their Faith. He gave instructions to them for the good of the Church, and also, special graces: it says ‘he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.’

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As Bishop Knecht says, ‘it was not without reason that Our Lord wanted to convince the apostles by their senses that he had risen from the grave..he did this because they were to testify before the Jews and Gentiles to the fact of his resurrection.’

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This would allow Peter to stand up and teach: ‘The author of life you put to death, but God raised him from the dead; of this we are witnesses. He then goes on to quote scripture left and right, this previously unlearned fisherman.

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Also, because the Lord demonstrated clearly to them his resurrection, St. John would be able to write: ‘That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, and seen with our eyes, and our hands have handled, the Word of life, Jesus Christ – we declare unto you….’

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Jesus made his apostles definitive witnesses of his resurrection for the good of the Church, that the gospel would be preached to the ends of the earth.

Friends in Christ, we read today this meeting of Jesus with two disciples on the road to Emmaus. It is interesting, that they did not at first recognize Jesus, as they walked and talked. Also, we read yesterday, that when Mary Magdelene first saw Our Lord, she did not recognize him, she thought he might be the gardener of that place. What gives?

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Well, when we are resurrected in our bodies on the Last day, we WILL rise in our own bodies, this is true. But they will be renewed, beautiful, even youthful bodies. In Ludwig Ott’s book on Catholic Dogma, he says ‘The bodies of the just will be transfigured to the pattern of the risen Christ.’ Of course this is from St. Paul, who says that our glorified bodies will be conformed to Christ’s body. He also says that we will reach the ‘measure of the age of the fullness of Christ (Eph 4:13)

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Now Our Lord resurrected at about age 33, which many think is the ideal physical age. Thomas Aquinas says that our physical age is not at it’s best when we are children, and it is weakening when we are old; consequently, he thinks we will be resurrected at that ideal physical age of 33. St. Augustine also thought we will rise at that youthful age, following the model, Jesus.

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Most important to remember however, is that this will be a beautiful renewal of ourself, the beauty of the soul shining through. And this is perhaps why those disciples on the road could not quite realize that this striking, youthful man who spoke to them on the way – was Jesus. So different from a crucified man – he was renewed and without blemish.

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But here, they experienced someone – whose splendor shone through his person – In fact, after the experience, they marveled, saying to each other: ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way?’

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The radiance of the glorified Lord Jesus – this is a sign of our own destiny as well: beautiful and youthfully renewed – if we follow him.

Holy Thursday

Beloved in Jesus Christ, tonight we celebrate the Mass of the Lord’s Supper; we commemorate that night, when Christ the Lord gave us the Holy Mass, his Sacred Body and Blood.

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Jesus said that he would be with us all days, even to the end of the world, and this is how he has done it, in Holy Communion.

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Our first reading today was of the Passover, when the perfect, unblemished Lamb was sacrificed, and then the people ate the Lamb – they participated in that sacrifice. As we know, this was a sign, pointing forward to the New Testament, to the Holy Mass; Christ is the True Lamb of God, offered for us; and when we eat the Lamb, we are participating in this Sacrifice, in the very life of God.

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The Passover foreshadowed the Holy Eucharist, but there are so, so-many places in the Scriptures, where this Holy Banquet is signified. In the Old Testament, we see that, Melchizedek offered Bread and wine; this was a sign of the Holy Eucharist some 2000 years before Christ, and we still recall it in Eucharistic Prayer I.

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The miraculous manna, that white, thin, bread-like food by which God fed his people on their desert journey – it was a sign of the coming Bread of Life.

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There was, at the time of Elijah, the miraculous bread, by which the woman and her son were saved from famine.

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The thin, round, bread used in the holy temple, along with wine, was changed by the priests every week; this too foreshadowed the Holy Banquet here on our altars, that Jesus would give us.

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In so many ways and signs, the Bible is literally loaded with references to this most Holy Sacrifice. If we consider also the New Testament – Look at when Christ multiplies the loaves to feed 5000 people, this is most certainly a Eucharistic Sign. It says, he ‘blessed, broke, and gave then to the disciples. These are special words: blessed, broke, and gave – these were the words used in the early Church to refer to the Mass. And notice, Our Lord did not himself give the miraculous bread to the people, he told his disciples, his first priests, ‘YOU give it to them.’ And His priests still do this today.[i]

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In the 24^th chapter of the gospel of St. Luke, we see there that after Jesus had risen, he appeared to two disciples, and it says they finally ‘recognized him in the Breaking of the Bread,’ and then he disappeared. The ‘Breaking of the Bread’ was another phrase referring to the Mass in the early Church. Notice that Jesus disappeared – he is teaching that he is now with us in a new way: under the appearance of Bread, in the Holy Sacrament of the Altar, and this is how he stays with us through all time.

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A final example, of images in Scripture: In Acts of the Apostles, we read that when St. Paul was on a boat, caught in a terrible storm, the men think they will all die, they want to abandon ship. But St. Paul says, ‘Unless you stay in the boat, you will all die.’ This means, you have to stay in the boat – in the Church; the boat is a symbol in the scriptures of the Church, the ‘Barque of Peter.’ Then what does St. Paul do? It says: He took bread, and giving thanks, broke it, and they ate. And in the end, they were all saved.

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Friends, the Great Sacrament we commemorate tonight, is to be found everywhere in the Holy Bible. Scripture was written in a special way, with lots of signs and images, so that those who do not have the True Catholic Faith, will not understand many of it’s profound teachings. But we DO understand, because we are of the Faith.

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The Holy Eucharist, the Mass, is the center of our life, it is our salvation, and that is why it is to be found, sometimes clearly, often hidden, throughout the Holy Text. Our Lord said that this is the Bread that has come down from heaven, he says ‘it is my flesh.’ Many did not believe, and they no longer walked with him. But we believe.

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Lord, help us to love Thee in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar; O Lord, give us this day, our daily Bread.

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[i] We can see also, that after multiplying the loaves, the apostles are in a boat, there is a storm, they are afraid. The boat is a sign of the Church. Jesus comes to them, walking on the sea, and when he gets into the boat the storm ceases. It says, they had not understood about the loaves of bread. The meaning is: when Jesus comes into the boat, into the Church, we are safe from the storms. Jesus comes into the boat in the miraculous bread, every Mass.