Friends in Christ,
In the Book of Exodus, we see how our ancestors were set free from the bondage of Egypt. Moses guided them through the Red Sea, then through the desert – to Mt. Sinai. But while Moses was on Mt. Sinai speaking to God – while he was gone, the people fell back into their old sins – into idolatry. They made the Golden Calf and worshiped it.
After this sin of the Golden Calf, God instituted the entire system of temple sacrifices: the sacrifice of cattle, sheep, and goats. Why? What was the purpose of these animal sacrifices?
Well, Israel had lived for a long time in Egypt, and those pagan ways were deeply rooted in the people; this is why they quickly returned to idol worship.
Just like us; we have perhaps conquered a past sinful habit, we are going along fine, we’ve left the slavery of Egypt, but then comes the temptation to return to our old sin, and there we go – This is what the people did.
Perhaps the greatest rabbi in history, Maimonides, says that the Egyptians worshiped: cattle, sheep, and goats – these were their gods, among others. The greatest crime in Egypt would have been to dishonor or harm those gods, the cattle-god or the goat-god for example.
So the Lord gives the command to Israel, that they will now, day after day, slaughter cattle, sheep, and goats, and offer them up. Killing these gods daily, will be a reminder, that their former ways of idolatry can never save them. This they would do for 1400 years.
These temple sacrifices, which were symbols, they ended when Christ came. Jesus has come, and gives his life for us, so that we will have the power to drive the idols out of our life. The Lord says, ‘I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or lambs, or goats. Rather, ‘cease to do evil. (Isaiah 1:11)
So it is not slaughtered animals that must die in order to drive “Egypt” out of our souls. It is ourselves who must die to the idols in our life. Therefore, we offer spiritual sacrifices to God. The best spiritual sacrifice we can make, is when we are tempted to sin, to immediately pray. We stop what we are doing, for a moment, and we ask for help from the Lord. Then we bring these spiritual sacrifices and offer them here at Mass with the True Golden Calf – Jesus Christ.
Friends in Christ,[i]
Today is the feast of St. Francis of Paola. He was born in 1416 at Paula, a small town in Calabria, Italy; if Italy is the ‘boot’, Calabria is the toe of Italy. His parents loved God very much, and for a long time could not have a child. But after earnest prayer, they had a son, whom they named after St. Francis of Assisis: Francis.
His early education was with the Franciscans, where he learned to read; more importantly, he developed a love for prayer and the spiritual life, and with his parents permission at age 14, he went to live an austere life as a hermit in a cave by the sea. Others eventually joined him, and they built cells for themselves to pray in. They chanted the Liturgy of the Hours, and a priest would come to offer Mass. As others joined them, a church and monastery were built; the people of the area loved them so much, that they themselves worked tirelessly to help built it.
Francis had a favorite expression, ‘out of love,’ he would say. ‘Out of love, the heaviest stone can be made light. ‘Out of love, a brother can be corrected. ‘Out of love, will you not help the poor.’ He would say this.
Francis worked many miracles. One time, in order to make a point, he lifted out of the fire burning coals which he held in his hand for some time while speaking. On another occasion he wanted to go from the shore of Italy over to Sicily. A boat was lying in the harbor. Francis asked the owner if he would take him and his companion along on the boat. “If you pay, monk,” “I will take you along, he said with a huff; “Out of love,” Francis pleaded; “for I have no money.” “Then I have no ship for you,” came the mocking reply. Francis walked a little down the shore, blessed the sea, and then, to the man’s surprise, he stepped out on the waves, and walked on top of the water all the way to Sicily.
Francis lived a very penitential life; his bed was a plank, a stone was his pillow. In addition to the 3 traditional vows, his order never ate meat, eggs, or anything with milk. So in this spirit of mortification, he is a real example for us during this Lenten season.
[i] Adapted from “The Church’s Year of Grace, Pius Parsch” and Butler’s lives of the Saints.
Friends in Christ, Today we see in the gospel, Jesus finds this man at this pool of water. The water there apparently had some kind of curative power, but not always. Now this man had been sick for 38 years! That’s a long time. Our Lord asks him: ‘Do you want to be cured?’ For sure he did. And Jesus did cure him.
But it is interesting that later on, Our Lord tracks this man down, and speaks to him again: “Look, you are well; do not sin any more, so that nothing worse may happen to you.”
In this incident, we can see a lesson about the Christian life. When the man is cured, this is analogous to a person first becoming Catholic, or it could be a big religious experience of faith, that we might have at one point in our life.
Sometimes people stray from the Church, even for many years, but then something happens – God grants them a special grace, a certain circumstance – and….they are on fire with Faith! In some ways we may all have had some manner of awakening of Faith at some point in our life.
But that experience, which may involve a lot of emotion – it may not be built on rock, sometimes it is more like sand; when feelings wane, or difficulties come in life – when we don’t FEEL God’s consolations every day, our faith-life can slacken.
In the gospel, we see that after this man is cured of his disease, Jesus returns to him later. He tells the man not to sin any more, so that nothing worse might happen. Jesus is implying that sin leads to sickness of the soul; and that if, after our soul is healed, we should go back to a sinful way of life: Look out! It will end even worse for us.
We see then, that rather than living off of one ‘spiritual experience,’ we need more visits from the Lord in life. Jesus went to see the man again; so should we. To remain ‘cured,’ we need to call on our Savior often, pray daily, meditate each day, aspirations, examine our conscience, asking his help – as they say, ‘it’s a work-in-progress.’
Many of us have known a person who had a ‘born-again’ experience, but later in life is found living in a pagan way, long-forgetting that experience. On the contrary, we should invite Jesus into each our of our day, and if we do, we will find he is there with us at the end of our life.
Friends in the Lord,
Yesterday was called ‘Laetare Sunday.’ It comes from the Introit in Latin for yesterday’s Mass, ‘Laetare, Jerusalem, et conventum facite.’ ‘Rejoice Jerusalem, and all who love her!’ Yesterday, the Violet vestments of Lent gave way to a happier Rose color. We rejoiced a little, because we are half way to Easter. Easter: is our salvation.
Today we read Isaiah’s words about this beautiful future ahead: ‘Thus says the LORD: I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; The things of the past shall not be remembered, instead, there shall be rejoicing and happiness, for I create Jerusalem to be a joy; This is a vision of the New Jerusalem, a promise that we will be resurrected in the New World to come. The Christian should always have this hope.
St. Peter says, ‘Be ever ready to answer those who ask the reason for the hope that is in you.’ Our hope is the resurrection, and in a few weeks we will re-live the first Resurrection, that of Jesus.
With this in mind, we can perhaps see today, when this man comes to Jesus to ask him to heal his dying child – this man who seems to have no hope in anything beyond this life – well, Christ seems a bit frustrated: ‘Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.’ As if to say, ‘Death is not the end at all; you should know this, that a new world awaits, in which you will see that child in joy, and anyone who might die.’
If our child is dying, we would of course wish to ask Jesus to save him. But with a different faith than this man. We would come to the Lord and say, ‘Lord, I am not afraid of death and I know that in the New World ahead our families will be reunited; but if it be your will, grant him more time with us now.’
And he said to him, ‘You may go; your son will live.’
St. Alphonsus says[i] that according to the senses, death brings about fear and worry; but with the eyes of faith, it can be consoling, the end of our earthly suffering and labor.
I knew a woman who felt sad a long time over the death of her young daughter. One day I was at the hospital, and she was there. She said, ‘Father, today is my birthday, and I was just told that I have terminal cancer.’ I said, ‘Then this is news that you will see your daughter.’ Her smile was the best I ever saw.
St. Ambrose says, ‘The present life is given to us, not for rest, but that we may labor, and merit eternal glory in the life to come ‘
[i] Preparation for Death, Liguori, p. 87.
Latin Mass: 4th Sunday of Lent (Laetare Sunday)
Beloved in Jesus Christ, At Holy Mass, the priest always effects the ‘double-consecration.’ That is, the Sacred Host and the Precious Blood are consecrated separately, in two separate actions, and this follows the words of Institution given by our Lord. Continue Reading →
Friends in the Lord,
The saints tell us that throughout the earthly life of Christ, he had before him always, the Passion that he would undergo for us. As the God-Man, his Divine Mind always saw, not only all of creation – always there, in his mind – but also the Passion that he would endure.
Knowing this, we can consider what Our Lord says today, when asked: ‘What is the greatest Commandment?’ – What is it, Lord, that God asks most of us? –
As Jesus answers, he is teaching this scribe before him how to live, yes, but he has in his mind as well, his Passion. ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and all your strength, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ He did this.
Christ IS Divinity; from his Divine perspective, all events are ONE, before him. And so those words he FEELS as he says them, as if uttered at every time in his life, as if said on the cross. ‘You shall love the Lord with all your heart.’
Jesus will give all, he will pour out all in his offering to the Father. The night of his Passion, when Peter denies that he even knew him, Jesus looks at Peter, and those words are in his heart: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself – and he does; he still loves Peter. Christ will fulfill these commands perfectly; giving all and loving even his neighbor: who betrayed him.
But the Divine Mind of Christ is not in any way limited to the events of his earthly life; on the cross, he has in his mind each one of us as well. Each of us. We are all his ‘neighbor.’ This Savior dies for each one of us in particular, knowing our whole life, our deepest thoughts and joys and failings.
All he asks is for our love in return, that we will love the Lord with all our heart, and mind, and strength, and our neighbor as ourself. Because if we do, he will be able to say to us: ‘You are not far, from the kingdom of God.’
Friends in the Lord,
In the Gospel today, some of the people said of Jesus: “Its by the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that he drives out demons.” They begin to say that he is in league with Satan, and that this is where he gets the power. But our Lord explains that if it were really Satan who was casting out demons from people and curing them of possession, Well, that would be crazy; Satan does not work against his own kingdom. He doesn’t work against his own kingdom, but the devil does wish to attack God’s kingdom, and he does it by division.
Diabolos, diabolical – these words mean to ‘divide.’ The devil’s game is division. He wishes to stir up rancor and discontent among people; he tries to divide families, pitting one person against another; he wishes to divide husband and wife, stirring up resentment and distrust and argument. Division is his game. When we see politicians trying to pit one race or group against another, stirring up envy, and trying to divide people instead of unifying them: this is diabolical. But it does not end there.
The Devil wishes to divide the interior of the person. When people try to live a double-life there is no interior peace. The boy who pretends to be good, but secretly he is doing bad things – he will be an unhappy child. The person who puts up a good front on the outside, but in reality is not following the Lord, or is involved in sinful things – this person will have no peace. We say that he has no ‘unity of life.’
Unity of life is to live the same way on the outside as on the inside; to do as the Lord wills in all areas of life; it is to be rid of those little ‘compartments’ in the heart which are not touched by the gospel.
To avoid the divisions of the devil, we must seek peace on our inside, and try to bring peace on the outside, to others. The Lord desires that we promote harmony in our families, setting aside our own preferences for the good of peace. Scripture says: ‘If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. (Rom 12:18) St. Paul says, ‘Pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another. (Rom 14:19) Division is of the devil, peace is of God. So let us be at peace, on the inside and on the outside.
Friends in Christ,
Today in the Gospel, Jesus says that the least in the kingdom of God are those who teach others to break the commandments. This is called scandal, or giving bad example. (see Tour of Summa) Giving scandal happens when by our words or our actions we lead others to do bad things. Giving bad example is a sin against charity, because we hurt the soul of our neighbor. Scandal is opposed to the good virtue, called fraternal correction, which means helping a person to turn from their faults.
Examples of scandal:
Suppose that a lazy boy is passing the afternoon with a friend, and this friend is a conscientious student. The lazy boy says, ‘I don’t think I’ll do my homework tonight, the teacher doesn’t really care if we do it anyway.’ Now he hopes the other boy will do the same thing, so that he won’t be the only one without his homework. This is scandal, or giving bad example.
Two kids are in the store, and one steals something; he not only breaks the 7th commandment, but gives bad example for the other child.
Two ladies are eating lunch at a restaurant; one lady thinks: ‘I should probably suggest that we pray before we eat;’ but out of worry of what the other might think, she says nothing. Bad example has taught the other lady not to pray.
Scandal is a venial sin if we don’t fully intend to lead another person to sin, or if it is not a serious matter. Giving bad example is a mortal sin, if it is a serious matter, and we want to tempt the other person to commit sin.
Now if a person is not really bad, but ACTS bad, this too is giving scandal. This can happen when a person who is good, wants to fit in, and so acts bad like the others. Joe’s co-workers ask him to golf on Sunday morning, so he is careful to go to Mass Saturday evening. But while golfing, one of them says ‘the ol lady wanted me to go to Mass, but what a waste of time.’ Joe smiles as if he agrees, because he wants to fit in – but in doing so, he gives a very bad example, because he led him to THINK that he skipped Mass also.
Some kids act like druggies or pretend to have had sexual exploits just to fit in: in doing so, they give scandal, even if they do not do those things.
Now the more innocent is the person that we lead into sin, the greater our sin. This is why Jesus says that whoever leads a little one into sin should have a millstone tied around his neck and thrown into the sea.
We should try to please the Lord by giving good example, then, not only will we have a good reputation, but the aroma of our holy life will lead others to Christ.
Friends in Christ,
Today is the Annunciation of the Lord, or we sometimes say the Annunciation of Mary. The angel announces the Good News to the Virgin, ‘you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus.’
In the Breviary today, we read a beautiful letter by Leo the Great where he says; ‘to pay the debt of our sinful state, he says, a nature incapable of suffering was joined to a nature that could suffer.’
The Son of God stooped down from his heavenly life, and ‘took on our lowly human nature, to save it. Christ took the nature of a servant, without sin, enlarging our humanity without diminishing his Divinity.’ This is what happens in the dear Blessed Virgin, 9 months before Christmas.
The Incarnation, the fact that God himself, the creator of all things, would enter his own creation, and unite himself to – to the material world – well, this is the scandal, the shock of Christianity that the world cannot tolerate.
In then Cardinal Ratzinger’s famous book: Introduction to Christianity,[i] he speaks interestingly about this. He says that most people will admit that there is some form of ‘supreme being,’ or God, but it is absurd that this being should concern himself with us, or come down to us. They say that we are naïve to think this; that these ideas are left over from a primitive, ancient world of ignorant people. Our tiny and unimportant planet, this speck of dust in the universe, shows that we are nothing; it is absurd that a supreme being would concern himself with us, with our sins, or our problems.
The future Pope says, on the contrary; God reaches down to the smallest, because to him, nothing is too small. this is true greatness: that the great would stoop down to the little.
Why would a chief executive of Exxon, such an important person, have any interest in helping a poor, dirty, street person in the gutter? Well, if he does, we would call this great. Is not God greater because he compassions his creatures? The world errors in thinking of a Creator in a worldly, narrow way; they project the idea onto God, that the powerful are not loving. Is God not greater, if he wishes to stoop down to this speck of dust, and take concern over each of our problems, unite himself to us, walk and suffer our own life with us? He did it, because he is infinitely good.
‘And Mary said, ‘May it be done unto me, according to thy word,’ and the Word was made Flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw his glory.
[i] Introduction to Christianity, p. 101
Friends in Christ,
Today we read in the Book of Kings about Naaman the Syrian; Naaman came down with leprosy – bad news; no cure for it. So he goes to Elisha, the prophet to seek a cure. Elisha tells him he can be cured, all he must do is go and wash in the Jordan river. That’s all? Naaman was indignant at this. He expected some dramatic ritual or incantation;
This situation can make us think of the world today. Many don’t have leprosy of their bodies, but of their soul. People with enormous guilt over many, sometimes terrible things in their life. So they seek dramatic ways to try to be rid of the guilt.
I have heard that on some retreats people write down their sins on papers, and then burn the papers – Does that solve their guilt-problem? Not at all. Some will go on Oprah and tell all their sins, others will go to a psychoanalyst. While psychiatrists can help resolve problems of the psyche, they cannot remove the guilt from sin. Others try to have a ‘born-again’ experience, or seek faith-healers, or even cut themselves. Like Naaman, people believe that removing their guilt and starting fresh in life, requires something unusual.
But in reality, Christ has already provided a simple way to free people from the sin that weighs them down. Children learn about it in 2nd grade: it is called Confession. Our children go every month to confession, and they actually enjoy it. It is a fresh start every time. The hope is, that this habit will stick with them when they are older; when they are in college, or adults, and have committed a serious sin; when they feel desperate or lost – then they will remember: ‘I will go to confession and be cured!’ This is why it is called a ‘sacrament of healing.’
‘But a priest is just a man, he is a sinner,’ they say. Regarding this, St. Augustine said:[i] Tell them: Augustine is a priest, and he will himself have to give an account to God. If he is a bad man, he will know it. But even if he is good, I don’t put my trust in him.’ God gave us the priest, not to prove holiness, but as an instrument by which the mercy of Christ could reach the people. So we should use it often.
‘Are you a born-again Christian?, they ask. ‘Yes. Every time I go to confession
[i] Friends of God, p. 421
