Author Archives: Father L

        Friends in Christ, today is Spy Wednesday, the day that the spy, Judas, went out to betray Jesus.  Judas is a tragic figure for sure, in the plan of salvation, but he was only a pawn of the devil.  The real battle here, is between Christ and Satan, and this will be played out in the coming days.   

       An artist once painted the famous Merode alterpiece in Belgium, and featured in this painting is St. Joseph.  St. Joseph in the scriptures, is a symbol for God the Father. And in this painting, St. Joseph, who is a carpenter – who works in wood,  he is depicted as making a special mouse-trap.  He is making this mousetrap out of wood – to catch the Mouse.  Who is the ‘Mouse that he will catch?  It is the devil.  And so Joseph, or really, God the Father, is making a trap to catch the Mouse.

        St. Augustine says this:  ‘What is this trap, made by a Carpenter – who works in wood?  ‘God’s Trap for the devil is the Cross.  And who is the bait, placed on the Trap? It is Jesus.  He himself becomes the bait. As St. Anselm says, Jesus is the ‘sweet bait, by which He will catch the devil.  

        You see, the devil made a big mistake,  in his thirst for power he became reckless.  Onto an innocent man, he put the sins and the evil of the entire world – the grossest injustice of all;  he could not resist the opportunity of cruelty;  onto an innocent man, he put all sin, but – a man over whom he had no authority. (because Jesus had never sinned) Satan was outsmarted; he took the bait: hook, line, and sinker.   

        At the death of Christ, the devil jumped for joy.  ‘I’ve won! ‘The Christ is beaten, and these slaves are mine forever.’  But he had made a big mistake.  On Easter morn, that stone is rolled back –  ‘What is this, says Satan?’ ‘Something is wrong.’ And the angel says: He is risen!!   And that word rings in the devil’s head:  ‘Risen? That’s impossible? He was brutally crucified, I saw to that! ‘Risen? Then I have lost. I have been defeated.  

       ‘Yes says Jesus. You have lost.  Sin, and death, and you, have been conquered. Now give me what I want!    –  

What do you want?   He wants us. Give me now, my children!! All of them!  

        And as it is written… ‘The great dragon was cast down, the ancient serpent,  who is called the devil and Satan, who leads astray the whole world;  and he was cast down, and I heard a loud voice in heaven say,  ‘Now has come the salvation, and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of Christ;  for the accuser has been cast down.  And they overcame him through the blood of the Lamb.   

        These are the Mysteries of which we are about to partake. It is our salvation.     

        And Peter said to him, “Master, where are you going?”

        Friends in Christ, Where is Jesus going?  Where is he going? He is going to die for us.   Jesus has been born into the world, he has grown up through all the struggles of human existence; he has taught for 3 years in his public life,  he instructed his Apostles, he gave the Holy Mass for the Church, and now he goes to die for us.   

        St. Alphonsus says,[i]  to redeem us, it would have been sufficient for Jesus to shed a single drop of his blood,  or shed one tear, or even offer a single prayer;  a prayer offered by a Divine Person would be of infinite value, certainly sufficient for the salvation of the whole world.”   St. John Chrysostom says however, ‘what was sufficient for the redemption was not sufficient for the immense love which God has for us.’ He wished to do more.  

        Jesus Christ led a life full of sorrows; he suffered a death –a most painful one, full of humiliations, all in order to make us know the infinite love he has for us.  As St. Alphonsus also says, if a friend of ours or a relative  died for us – in our place – that we might live, what greater proof could be given of love, than this.   

        Before Christ came down from heaven, people might have doubted whether he tenderly loved them; but it should be impossible to not love him,  after he was nailed to a tree for you.   

        If the most distasteful person on earth had done for you  what Jesus Christ has done,  how could we live without loving that person?  

        Friends in Christ,  very often, I hear people who are shocked and saddened by so many evils going on in the world today.  Our government’s pressure on the church, society’s promotion of the gay-lifestyle; heart-break over irreligious children, so many things.  Yet we should note that from the earliest times of the apostles, there, in the heart of the Church, was Judas.   

         St. Augustine says[i] that in seeing Judas,  we are taught the duty of tolerating wicked people,  lest we divide the body of Christ.   St. Augustine is saying, that while we sometimes must tell someone they are sinning, – we try to guide the sinner –  yet most of the time we must be patient; we must tolerate evil for the good of the whole.[ii]  

         Advisors urged Pope John Paul II to correct and discipline more people who dissented against the Faith; they wanted him to bring down the hammer. He did discipline some; but often not.  He said, ‘We must wait for the situation to mature.’ Because he was thinking of the whole Body of Christ.  

        So there are times when what God wants,  is for us to tolerate the wicked;  yes, pray for he or she, of course – but it is not always the time to chastise. Often patience is called for, as was Jesus with Judas.  

        When the Samaritans were not welcoming Christ, John said: ‘Lord, let’s call down fire from heaven on them.’ ‘You do not know what kind of spirit you are,’ he said.  There must be patience with evil.  

        Jesus was patient with Judas.  He knew from the start what he was, and what he was doing.  He knew that he often stole money from the purse, he knew he would betray him. But he allowed it.  ‘Allow the weeds to grow with the wheat, he says; if you pull up the weeds, you may hurt the wheat.   

        I have seen some people become so upset with the sins  of others, that in their anger and lack of charity, they themselves commit sin. St. Augustine says: ‘tolerate the wicked, you who are good, that you may not fall into the punishment of the wicked.’  

        There are many times when, for the good of peace in the family, in the Church, in society – we have to tolerate the wicked, with patience.  Why did the Lord tolerate a thief like Judas? To show that his Church should tolerate sinners, while she suffers for them.[iii]   

        We have to be patient with sinners, because the Lord has been patient with us. We will see how patient he is with us, on Good Friday.    

Friends in Christ,

I recently read an article,[i] written by a Catholic from Europe, who describes what is happening in her country. She says that there, many Catholics are just going through the motions. They grew up in the Faith, but they really believe only what their culture tells them.  The vast majority do not attend Mass.   

At Mass, she says,  people often listen to gray-haired priests  go on and on about politics and a hundred things that are not related to Jesus Christ.  But the people have tuned it out long ago.   Their country is quite liberal,  with theologians often demanding that Rome give up its  ‘out-dated’ ideas.’  We of course have some of this in our country as well, but what caught my attention, was what the author said, sort of mater-of-fact. She said that a kind of Arian catholicism is present there..  It was a striking statement.  

Arianism is a heresy which hit the Church in the 4^th century. It is the belief that Jesus is not Divine, he is not God.   But Jesus’ Divinity is one of the most important doctrines of the Faith; He is fully God and fully man.  It is God the Son who took Flesh, to be born of the Virgin.   Yet it is surely true, that many today are really Arians, who think that Jesus was just a good man who taught some nice things.   

The writer I mentioned says of her country: There are few seminarians studying for the priesthood, because studying ‘about a nice guy in Jerusalem 2000 years ago, doesn’t draw too many students.’  

A ‘nice guy from Jerusalem’ cannot save us; he cannot change our life, he cannot raise us from the dead  anymore than Buddha or Gandhi or Mr. Magilicuddy can.   But for the honest person, this is not an option.  Jesus does not allow you to say that he is ‘just a nice guy.’  He claims to be God.   ‘You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen Abraham?, they asked. ‘Who do you make yourself out to be?’ And he said to them, “Amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM.”  This is his claim – to be God; its why they tried to stone him.   

So as we approach Holy Week, the question lies before every person: If Jesus was just an ordinary man who was crucified, it means nothing. But if he is the Son of God, and has risen: it makes all the difference in the world.   

‘If you remain in my word, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  

Friends in the Lord,  True freedom is freedom in Christ. What does this mean?  Well, it doesn’t mean what the popular culture means by freedom.  Many think that freedom is doing whatever you want.  Money makes me free, so I can buy what I want and do what I want.  Contraception makes me free, so that I can indulge myself anyway and anytime I want.  The list goes on: today, the idea of freedom is what used to be called license.   

Freedom embraces responsibility and is guided by virtue; license is choice without restraint. License is the throwing off of all responsibility.  It is a carte blanche to do as we feel.  Therefore, it is incompatible with virtue.  License leads to absurd and dangerous action.  On the personal level, license leads to moral chaos.  If my actions are based merely on whim or the impulse of the moment, they are completely unpredictable, even to myself.  On the social level, license leads to anarchy —  the lack of all dedication to the common good.   

Following our own whims and desires is not freedom, and we can even see how this destroys lives.  Jesus says: ‘If you remain in my word, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Sin is slavery, it is a bondage, says the Lord. Freedom in Christ is true freedom.   

Recently, the Holy Father asked: ‘What exactly is Christian freedom?’ Well, doing what you want and not what God wants –  this is a sin, he says – a sin of idolatry.   “Christian freedom is to discern what the Spirit is doing in my heart, what the Holy Spirit wants, where the Spirit is taking me. And to obey. To discern God’s will, and then obey.”     

True freedom does not look only inward, to our own interests, but acts for the good of others as well; acting in true freedom builds a peaceful community, selfish, me-first freedom tears down community.  

Pope John Paul II said that freedom in Christ  is not the freedom to do what we want,  it is freedom to do what we ought.  This is the freedom that builds up the City of God.  

Friends in Christ,  

When Our Lord was in the bloody sweat of the Agony in the Garden, anticipating his Passion, he asked his Father if it were possible, that the cup of suffering would pass by – He was not asking to be spared death, because he had already committed himself to it at the Last Supper: ‘this is my Body, given up for you,’ he said.  Nor did Christ wish to avoid the physical suffering and torments and nailing which he knew would happen.  It was more than that.   

As Frank Sheed says in his book,[i] many other people had suffered the same or worse crucifixion or torture, but the agony of Jesus, no other person ever suffered. Isaiah said it: ‘He was wounded for our iniquities and bruised for our sin. The Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all.’[ii]  

Jesus took upon himself not only the suffering that our sins deserved, in we who commit them, but he also took to himself all the sorrow that sinners ought to feel, and did not feel, for their many and sins.  That, as Sheed says, was the heart of his agony.  He took upon himself the guilt we should all have, the sorrow for sin.  “Him, who knew no sin, he has made sin for us,  that we might be made the justice of God in him.’   

Who, since the creation of the world could ever handle that? The pain that we feel when we do something very wrong, when we hurt someone –  Jesus takes all that pain for our faults, and sadly, the pain for the sins that we never thought twice about. He takes it all upon himself.  

This great act of Redemption was foretold in the desert: ‘And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a saraph and mount it on a pole, and whoever looks at it after being bitten will live.’  

This is a prophecy of the events of Good Friday. It was reiterated by Christ:  “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM.”  

Lord Jesus, thank you, for dying for me; thank you for dying for this sinner, that I may live.