Author Archives: Father L

Friends in Christ, the gospel today shows us the very imperfect lives of the apostles – their failings – before they would become saints. Some were concerned with who is the greatest among them.

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St. Bede the Venerable says that after Christ took Peter, James, and John up Mt. Tabor, when they were privileged to witness his Transfiguration – after that, some of the others were jealous. Something stirred up rivalry between them, but Our Lord teaches that great disciples are humble; they make themselves servants of the rest.

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We are great if we do the unimportant things that God wants instead of chasing worldly honor and prestige. William Barclay explains that there are many wrong motives that people have. Some have a great desire for prestige. A century ago, a doctor wrote about a nurse he knew; for 20 years, she single-handedly served a 10-mile district. He says, ‘I marveled at her patience and her cheerfulness.’ She was never too tired at night to rise for an urgent call. Her salary was most inadequate; I protested to her, ‘Nurse, why don’t you make them pay you more? God knows you are worth more.’ ‘That’s all that matters to me,’ she said. What God thinks. She was working not for prestige or honors, but for God.

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Some people are concerned about holding a high position, they wish to be important, they are always climbing the ladder. Only after many years have I come to realize that some people live only for climbing to a higher position, but it is an endless climb, with no peace.

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Some people work for praise, they have to have it. They will work hard only when they are praised for their work. But what reward is there for us from God, if we work only for earthly honors, position, or praise? Then, as Christ says, we ‘already have our reward.’

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Let us then do all for God; let us live and work only for the honor and the glory of God.

Friends in Christ, today and tomorrow, the first reading is taken from the Book of the Prophet Haggai. Who is this prophet and what is he about?

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Haggai is one of the Minor Prophets, toward the end of the Old Testament. This book has only two chapters and so is one of the shortest books of the Old Testament. It was written in 520BC during the reign of Darius I of Persia, and the theme of the Book is that he is urging the people to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem.

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In 587BC, the Babylonians attacked Jerusalem, killed many of the leaders, and took the people into captivity back in Babylon; this is called the Babylonian Captivity. They also destroyed the Temple, which had been built under Solomon. It was a national disaster.

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For many years the people lived in Babylon, but then the Persians conquered Babylon, and King Darius decreed that the Jews could return home. Returning to a devasted land, the people began to rebuild the temple, but because of a lack of resources they gave up.

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In 520BC, Haggai the prophet began to urge them to take heart and finish the job, which they did, completing the temple in 515BC. The importance of this to us is that God had promised that he would not abandon his people, and that a remnant would remain from the line of David. From this remnant would come the Messiah, and so Haggai saw the critical importance of urging the people not to loose heart but to keep going, because they themselves, and their true worship of the Living God would be what would one day bring salvation, in the Savior.

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He was correct. That same temple was there in the year 1, when the Messiah came down from heaven to begin his mission. But this situation, of the small remnant being the carrier of salvation through difficult and bleak times, is a theme that reoccurs again and again. I think this is where we are today. Yes, there are still millions who say they are Catholic or Christian, but the real followers of Jesus Christ who are ready to give even their life for the Lord, stand for truth and goodness against a pagan society that rejects truth and the moral law – well, I think that we have to be that remnant now, especially in the West; this is our role today in the great story of salvation.

Friends in Christ, a teacher of Scripture once said, when you come to a passage which seems – very strange – be convinced that something surprising is to be found there. Today is one of those passages that often makes us scratch our head. Jesus’ mother and brethren try to see him, they are outside of the house where he is; but our Lord stops and takes a moment to teach. He says, ‘My mother and my brethren are those who hear the Word of God and keep it.’

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Now Christ in no way is disrespecting his mother here, that would obviously be a sin – and Jesus clearly did not have any blood brothers; they probably were cousins or relatives which; in Aramaic the same word was for cousins, brothers, or relatives, and it may have come into the Greek this way.  But what do the saints have to say about this passage?

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St. Ambrose says that there is a mystical meaning here. Israel under the Old Law was often symbolized as a mother of God’s people, just as we refer to Mother Church, today; St. Ambrose says, in a mystical sense, Jesus’ mother and brethren – the Jewish religion – is standing outside. He says: ‘By this symbol, Christ is saying that those who enter inside the Church, who follow him, are to be preferred to the old religion of the synagogue which is still outside.

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St. Bede the Venerable says, ‘People cannot enter in where Christ is teaching, if those people refuse to understand him spiritually. In this scene, we see that many people, surely Gentiles, have entered into the house where Jesus was teaching, because when the Jews rejected Christ, symbolized by the mother and brothers outside – when they rejected Christ, the Gentiles flocked to him.

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Those who stand outside wishing to see Christ, are they who insist on the letter of the Law rather than living the spirit of the Law. St. Jerome says the same thing: ‘His mother and brothers symbolize the synagogue and the Jewish Law, which stands outside. Although they had the power like everyone else to come in, yet they do not approach.

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Gregory the Great says, because the synagogue lost true spiritual discernment, it is not acknowledged, and remains outside. Those outside represent the Old Israel, the mother of the nation. They are free to enter into the New Israel, Mother Church. But no longer is the Old Israel the mother. To be the Lord’s true brothers and sisters and Mother, one must seek the Word of God – that is, Jesus. They must hear the Word of God, and keep it.

Good morning young men and women,

today in the Gospel it says that Jesus drove 7 devils out of Mary Magdalene. That happened when he forgave her her many sins. After she was forgiven, and had turned away from her sins, she followed Jesus all the time, and tried to do anything she could to help him.

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The forgiveness of sins changes a person’s life, they become very happy, and they walk with God, we know this from Confession. After we have told our sins in Confession, and received absolution from the priest, we feel SO good, because we are clean and free of our sins.

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I know that the youngest children here have not yet made their 1^st Confession, but most of us all go to Confession every month with our school. One thing is, you can go more often than once a month if you wish; I go every week. Some children go every week or every 2 weeks; our church has confessions on Friday and Saturday afternoons, and if you go to a different Catholic church, they have confession times too, you can just ask your parents when are the times.

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People oftentimes ask me if they can go to Confession – even if it is in the afternoon, or on a Tuesday, or somewhere else, like at the Mall or in the store. They say, ‘Father, could you hear my confession?’ It’s because they want to be free of their sins.

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But the important thing is, that we go to Confession on a regular basis. I hope that you went during the summer, when we were out of school. Confession, sometimes called Reconcilliation, or the Sacrament of Penance – it is where Jesus speaks to us through the priest. Yes, it’s the priest’s voice, but when he gives us forgivness, Jesus is doing that – taking away our sins.

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It is a relief to have a big sin taken away, to tell it; once it is told, well, that was the hard part. Sometimes older kids or students in college have some bad mortal sins; they are SO relieved when they go to Confession, so that they can forget being wicked and start to be good again.

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When we confess, we must tell all the mortal sins since our last confession, and we can tell some of the venial sins that are bothering us also. If a boy goes to confession, and he has a bad mortal sin on his soul – if he is afraid to tell the priest and he conceals that sin, is that a true Confession? No way.

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Sometimes we think a sin is SO bad, that we are afraid to tell the priest, he might be shocked. But that is not true, because we priests understand how the devil can trick people, and so we are very understanding.

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Let us make always a good examination of conscience before Confession, and then be very truthful when we confess. This way, our soul will be clean and beautiful, and this will make Jesus – and us – very happy.