Beloved in Christ, there are many people with the name Catholic, who when they see someone who is a friend, will show courtesy to them, greet them with a smile, be sure to not speak ill of them, and may even help them with some task. But if it is a person they do not care for, or someone who has slighted them in the past or hurt them – well – they don’t give them the time of day.
.
Jesus says, that is exactly how the pagans live, and he is right. People who could care less about God – they are kind to their friends, but disdain their enemies. Our Lord is saying, if you are a Christian, you love all people, those you find affable, and those you do not. This is a test for our life, to find out if we are real Christians or not.
.
Sometimes, our enemies should go home – surprised! Surprised that we stopped and chatted with them, or helped them in something.
.
Jesus says, ‘You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies.’
Francisca del Valle says: The Holy Spirit wants us to never do any deceitful act against our neighbor. Rather, we should give a special place in our heart to those who are against us. We should never speak in any way, of the weaknesses, faults, or sins of our neighbors. If we are persecuted, we should be quiet in the face of it, and open our heart full of affection for those people, however often they try to hurt us – never showing the slightest sign of resentment.
.
St. Francis de Sales says, consider those people whom you find disagreeable and tedious. It is in these cases that we must practice fraternal love. Examine yourself to see if you are well-disposed toward them.
.
‘But how can I love someone who hurts me or is against me? How can I change the way I feel about that person? Firstly, it is impossible to LIKE everyone. Some people are downright cruel or have truly abraisive personalities, we don’t like that. But we are to love them. That means, we wish the best for them, desire good for them.
.
Jesus clarifies this: ‘I say unto thee, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.’ If in our daily prayers, we include those persons who are against us – ‘Lord, help him in his life; pour your blessings on him, guide him – this is the way that we truly love those who are against us.
.
We might only love our friends out of self-interest, but we can be sure we love others for love of God when we love our enemies. This is the mark of a Christian.
Sacred Heart of Jesus
Friends in Christ, at the very beginning of the 20th century, mankind seemed to be on the way to ‘progress.’ Science and reason would be the hope of everything, and religion – especially the Catholic religion – was seen as outdated and irrelevant – especially by the elites and intellectuals. Darwin had shown us our origins, and man was finally on the march to glory, using knowledge and science – without religion.
.
Just before that 20th century started, in May of 1899, Pope Leo XIII issued the encyclical Annum Sacrum. He asked the bishops to consecrate the world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus – ‘this image of the infinite love of Jesus.’ It was providential that he asked for this consecration, because the 20th century would begin not with man-made success, but with World War I, then the Great Depression, then the horrors of World War II – deaths of thousands in trenches by mustard gas; Christian killing Christian, man against man; racial hatred, Gulags, Auschwitz – bombings, nuclear bombs, torture, Gestapo, KGB, the Cold War and the most Catholic martyrs of any century of history.
.
But the Modern Era – having been seen to be a failure at creating human happiness – has led now to the Post-Modern Era, in which people no longer believe in anything, and without God, young people commit suicide, and Europe and the US have near-zero birth rates; no babies, no future – there is an angst on this earth.
.
Pope Leo had prepared the world for what was coming; as if to say, ‘On the path you are heading, what you will desperately need is Jesus. The loving heart of this Savior, who, like a father welcoming his child home who has made a mess of his life – this Savior wishes to draw each person back to his heart.
.
As if to re-emphasize, to re-iterate this, at the end of the 20th century, and as we head down the fearful path of nihilism – John Paul II pointed the way again for us. As if to say, ‘world, what you are going to need very much, is the Divine Mercy of that Heart of Christ. When you find yourself wrecked from your misguided ideas and your moral experiments, run to the merciful heart of Jesus who is waiting; his love is waiting for you.
.
People may not have noticed, but Pope Benedict himself, spoke very often, and emphasized, that we need to have a close friendship with Jesus; so he wrote the book, Jesus of Nazareth – about the humanity of Christ, who came to die for you and for me. Central to Benedict’s papacy, was the need for a personal love for Jesus.
.
And these days, our Holy Father – what is he emphasizing for a lost and confused world? The mercy of Christ.
.
From Leo XIII to today, Mother Church has recognized that the path that we are on is so destructive and poisonous and noxious, that we have only one recourse: to turn to this loving Heart of Jesus. When Jesus saw the crowds turning away, he asked Peter, ‘What about you?’ And Peter gave the answer for each of us: ‘Lord, to whom else shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.’
Friends in Christ,
today Our Lord says that he has not come to abolish even one tiny smidgeon of the law. The Douay-Rheims says, ‘not one jot or one tittle’ of the law will be abolished. What does our Lord mean? After all, one of his complaints about the state of things, was the zillions of laws the Jewish scribes had created, that no one could really live.
.
Christ could not mean here, all the Jewish dietary or ritual laws, because under the New Covenant we are not bound by these. So Jesus did not mean those laws.
.
The word ‘law’ is used in a variety of ways by the scriptures. It can refer to the first 5 books of the bible, the Pentateuch, it can refer to all the multitude of ritual and dietary laws, but it can also refer to the 10 commandments, and this is the Law to which Jesus refers. This law can not be changed, and one may not cut corners or only partially observe the commandments. Christ says this during his Sermon on the Mount, in which he is teaching us the true spirit of the 10 commandments.
.
The commandments teach us to love God and to love neighbor. To have no other gods in our life – no dark corner of our heart controlled by sin, but our whole heart given to the Lord. Speaking always with respect of God, and worshipping him on the Lord’s day.
.
Sadly people do not fulfill – not even close – these commands. ‘If you love me, keep my commandments,’ says the Lord. So we should urge people to go to Sunday Mass, to use God’s name with respect: ‘Hey! Why not say ‘Oh my goodness,’ instead of offending God.’
.
Respect for parents – the 4th commandment. I meet many elderly people who have been neglected by their children.
Then there’s the 5th commandment: thou shalt not kill. How many by their vote, have put people in office who have not only continued, but have widely promoted abortion, or by our silence on this issue? But we are also commanded to avoid anger and hatred and arguing. And not to kill someone’s soul by bad example or failure to teach right and wrong.
.
The 6th commandment: enjoins us to live perfect purity. Faithful, pure, and wholesome in our relationships and with our bodies, which are temples of the Holy Spirit. Some people think that we can vote down God’s laws, or have the courts change God’s laws. Impossible.
One can draw a straight line from the sexual revolution of the 1960’s to the tragic vote in Ireland. But not one jot or tittle can be changed in God’s laws. Ever.
We are far from what Jesus is asking.
.
The 7th commandment means respecting other’s possessions and property. Of all crime, theft is probably the most common.
.
The 8th commandment: lies, calumny, backbiting, gossip.
The 9th and 10th: covetousness, lust, greed.
.
We should teach those we know the commandments, and live them. Why?
Jesus says: Whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.”
Friends in Christ, in ancient times, Moses ascended Mt. Sinai to receive the 10 commandments from God. Today, Christ ascends the mountain and GIVES us the 8 beatitudes. In St. Matthew’s gospel, Jesus is depicted as the New Moses, the awaited ‘prophet.’ Moses received the commandments from God, but Jesus himself teaches the beatitudes – he IS God.
.
The beatitudes represent an entirely new way of looking at things. Today let us focus our attention on the first one: ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’
.
Fr. Gerald Vann, in his book the Divine Pity, tells us that this beatitude instructs us to walk as a child, to be simple.
.
There is a pride lurking in us, which makes us want to be autonomous; we wish to be our own master, which really is a state of isolation and independence from God. A proud, controlling person never loves. By trying to treat everything as our own, as utilities, to use all things and people and even God himself simply as means to our own plans – this is a person who possesses much but actually has nothing.
.
Freedom from this narcissism is found in the first beatitude: ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit.’ We must learn the lesson of detachment. The detached person will care about things and people, but in a different way. They will not just be tools for his own desires. A person must learn not to cling to things. Then his possessions, his desires, his relationships will no longer be a cause of anxiety or frustration, but of freedom.
.
This is reflected in the poem by T.S. Eliot, He says, ‘Teach us to care, and not to care’. The virtuous man first of all ‘cares.’ We care about things, we want things or relationships; but we are to care about them not as means to an end, but with a detached enjoyment, a ‘disinterested love,’ even a calm reverence.
.
When we hold too tightly to a relationship, it becomes ruined. If we hold too tightly or obsess on material things, we become frustrated because they are not able to fulfill us. We must learn to stop and look at all the things and people that come our way, that God has put in our path, with an appreciation, but without holding them too tightly.
.
To care, but not to care too much, or wrongly. Our heart should appreciate things, but we should not set our heart on things, or even persons. This way we find the freedom Christ wants for us; then we have begun to find the kingdom of God. Blessed are the poor in spirit.
Friends in Christ, we have been reading this week from the Book of Tobit, and Tobit has sent his son Tobias on a trip. On the trip, he is accompanied by Raphael; he doesn’t know it, but it is St. Raphael the Archangel.
.
Having arrived and met their relatives, Tobias wants to marry their daughter Sarah. Her father agrees, but he warns Tobias, that 7 times, men have tried to marry his daughter, and in each case, on their wedding night, each man died. Nevertheless, Tobias has confidence in God and wants to marry her.
.
As the wedding bed was prepared, Sarah was very worried, and she and her mother cried a great deal, for fear Tobias also would perish. But he says to her, ‘Let us kneel down and pray and ask the Lord to have mercy on us.’ And so they did and then went to bed for the night.
.
Little did they know, that there had been a demon in that house, and it was now driven out and pursued by St. Raphael. Now during this time, Sarah’s sad father was outside digging another grave, figuring, this one too would die. In the morning, the maid is sent to see what happened. They are alive! And the house rejoices.
.
A wedding feast is celebrated, which lasted twice as long as a normal wedding feast. And then the father made them heirs to all that he had.
.
In understanding the meaning of this story, we should recall that Jesus was once asked by the Sadducees, about the case of a woman who had 7 husbands who had each died; they asked Our Lord, ‘Who will be her husband in heaven?’ The Sadducees clearly are thinking of the story of Tobias.
.
But Jesus standing there before them is the true Bridegroom who came for his Bride, the Church. As with Tobias, Christ will be the 8th husband. The True Husband.
.
Now Jesus’ name numerologically, represents the number 888. 8 is the number of the New Creation, of the resurrection. it is appropriately the number of the 8th husband, the True Spouse of the Soul. And so we see that Tobias is a symbol, a type, of the Savior to come: Jesus. Raguel is an image of God the Father, for he entrusted his daughter to Tobias and told him: ‘Bring her back safely to your father.’ He promised him his inheritance.
.
Our Father in heaven rejoices in the marriage of Christ and the Church, and so he makes us heirs of his kingdom.
Friends in Christ, today in the gospel we have this famous scene of Christ going to the temple. And it is interesting, that on the way there, he is hungry, and he goes up to this little fig tree, but finds no fruit on it, only leaves. ‘And when he reached it he found nothing but leaves, and he said to it in reply, “May no one ever eat of your fruit again!’
.
Upon returning that way, they saw the fig tree withered to its roots. Peter said, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered.”
.
Regarding this passage, St. Josemaria says that we ourselves should never be like that tree – unproductive. We are all called to be fruitful for the Lord in this life, to build up the kingdom wherever we can. Christ has said: ‘This is my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit.’ So this is what we must do.
.
People will say, ‘But I don’t know how to speak to people about the faith, I get nervous.’
‘I don’t have much talent,’
‘I better wait awhile before asking my neighbor to Mass with us.’
‘But I’m afraid to speak to my adult daughter about…’
But, but, but….
The apostolate is our mission to bring Christ to the world, in our daily life, to others.
.
The saints tell us that we can’t live a false apostolate. We don’t want only an appearance of a fruitful life, while in reality wasting our time away. A fruitful apostolate requires an interior life, a life in relation to the Lord: praying, thinking about God’s will, living for God’s glory.
.
This world is confused, but underneath it is a real hunger for the True Way. Many people are nothing but leaves. Leaves, no fruit. But when people find us, let them find the real thing.
Friends in the Lord, sight is one of the greatest and most precious gifts God has given to us. I saw a woman in the hospital whose eyesight has been weakening over the years, she finally said, ‘Now I’m blind father.’
.
Today in the gospel we see this blind man who hears that Jesus is coming by. The crowds try to silence him – but he keeps crying out, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me.’ Our Lord performs yet another miracle – he heals the man’s sight.
.
God has given us our senses to be used for good things. Sight can be used for great good, but also for evil. Our eyes allow us to bring into our minds an enormous about of the world around us, and this puts upon us a great duty to guard our eyes.
.
King David committed the sin of adultery and murder because he did not guard his eyes under temptation. It wasn’t when David noticed Bathsheba bathing at her pool that he sinned, it was when he chose to gaze at her, it was then that he committed a mortal sin of lust. St. Alphonsus tells us, it is not in the first glance that one sins, it is the second – when we drink in the sin.
.
Our eyes can lead us to greed; looking at things we’d like to have, again and again – envy over our friend’s house, or another person’s outfit – eyes provide the fuel for our covetousness.
.
Guarding our eyes from immodestly dressed people, glancing away from indecent billboards or pictures – in this way we guard a gateway to our soul, and continue on the happy path of Christ.
.
You may have read that recently the Pope said that he hasn’t watched television since 1990. Why? I heard that he was with some Jesuit brothers and some show was on – some kind of bad commercial or something indecent came on – he swore to the Blessed Virgin then and there not to watch television again.
.
The Lord is with us, dwelling in our soul; we must safeguard this divine life by guarding our senses. God gave us our eyes as a gift; then we should show him our gratitude by using them well.
Friends in the Lord, yesterday’s gospel showed us that Jesus predicted Peter’s death. He said that the would ‘stretch out his arms’ – he would be crucified. Today we see Peter’s reaction to this news. He sees St. John and asks about him. ‘What about him?,’ asks Peter. ‘What will happen to him?’ Jesus tells him, ‘Don’t worry about him, what does that have to do with you?’
.
As we know, Peter was indeed crucified, perhaps around the year 65AD. And St. John lived to be very old, he may have still been alive around the year 100. In the previous sentences, Jesus told Peter three times, that he was to ‘feed his sheep.’ His job would be to be the shepherd of the people.
.
Here we see that John had a different mission. He was supposed to be a witness for Christ – a living example, an eyewitness to everything, who could keep living a long time to share the faith with the early Church. And John will write about this in his Epistle: ‘I testify to that which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched.’
.
St. John therefore is really a ‘type’ or a symbol for every Christian today. William Barclay will say that the case to be made for the faith, the primary argument for Christianity, is the life of each Christian lived out. We must say with our life and sometimes by our words, ‘I have known Jesus Christ. I know that these things are true.’
.
Peter was to be the great shepherd, the first Pope, and die a martyr. John’s role was to witness to the story of Christ, and to live to a great old age, telling this story, of what he had seen and touched.
.
Each person in the Church has a role. Mothers, Fathers, teachers, priests; single and young and old and simple or brilliant – each is to serve Christ where Christ has put him.
.
Peter was so worried about what John’s task would be: ‘What about him Lord?’ ‘Never mind the task that is given to someone else, your job is to follow me.’ Our glory is to serve Jesus Christ wherever he has put us.
Friends in the Lord, after the resurrection, Jesus Christ spent 40 days on this earth with his Apostles. They experienced his presence in his glorified body, speaking with them, teaching them I suppose, how to be good priests, and eating with them. That is the time we are in now, since Easter.
.
But the time is drawing nearer for the Ascension, and Our Lord tells them that he is going to send an Advocate, this Holy Spirit, who will teach them and guide them. But Jesus was not only speaking about them, he was speaking about us, each member of the Church. In Baptism, we receive the Holy Spirit and in a new way in Confirmation. We receive the 7 Gifts of the Holy Spirit: ‘Wisdom, Understanding, Knowledge, Counsel, Fortitude, Piety, and Fear of the Lord.’
.
We have at times, spoken of each Gift in detail, let us today take a closer look at the Gift of Piety. Piety brings to our hearts a child-like affection for God, and a respectful love toward things related to God.
.
As we’ve said before, the Gifts of the Holy Spirit are infused into us, they are not gained by our own work or effort. That is why they are called ‘Gifts,’ but we must act on them. The Gift of piety makes us see in God not just our Master and Lord, but a loving Father. As St. Paul said, ‘You have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry out Abba, Father.’
.
Piety gives us a sense of confidence and love, without losing the reverence that we owe to God. Piety can bring a sweetness to our prayers and spiritual excercises, and a real desire to sacrifice for the glory of God.
.
The true effects of this Gift are not emotional or sentimental. It does not lead us into consolation-seeking daydreams; true piety seeks to do the will of God out of love; an affectionate obedience. The Gift of Piety leads us to a total abandonment into the will of God, knowing that this loving Father knows far better than we do what is good for us.
.
Piety leads us also to love those persons who are associated with our Father-God. The Blessed Virgin, the saints, the angels. We revere the Holy Scriptures, which is a love-letter from our Father. It leads us to a love of Holy Mother Church, and to any who are in authority over us, especially parents.
.
Without this Gift, God seems to be our Master, prayer is a burden, trials are punishments, and the commandments are a burden. But with the Gift of Piety, anything we do or experience for our Father in heaven is sweet.
Children’s Mass
Good morning young people of St. John Vianney. Today in the first reading, we see that there was a big meeting in Jerusalem to decide some questions for the Church. Present there were the apostles, some presbyters – that is, priests; St. Paul was there, and many other people.
.
In the Church, there are many different types of people with their own role, or we might say, with their own vocation. So I thought I would ask the question today: What are you going to be when you grow up? Have you ever thought about it? What do you want to be, what do you want to do for your work?
.
When some people think about their future, they say: what is it I want to HAVE when I grow up? This is because they think that HAVING things is going to make them happy. They think that if they get a lot of money, some cars, a boat – or buy a nice house and lots of nice things, then I’ll be happy. After I buy all these things, and then go to work every day and come home every night, will I be happy with that money? Not really, because something else is missing. When a person gets old, and they look back at their life, those things will be seen to be a waste of time, chasing after THINGS.
.
Other people are not interested in getting many things, what they want with their life, is to be IMPORTANT. Yes, that will make me happy, being important. I will become a lawyer, or I will become a journalist or become a great basketball player and then people will say, he is very important, look what he does. Then I’ll go home and know that I am important, but will I be happy? When that person gets older and retires, he will realize that no one thinks he is important anymore, and soon he will be forgotten.
.
Maybe being popular, with tons of friends who like me, maybe this is the purpose of my life and the way to be happy. Yes, if I dress the right way, and act the right way, and then I will be liked and very popular with many friends. But are these really friends? Do they last a lifetime? Such people do not. When one gets old, one finds who one’s real friends have been, and they are usually not so many.
.
So how do I find out what I should be when I grow up, how I should be, what should be my goals? The answer is, we must discover our vocation in life, our calling. The question is not, what do I want to do with my life, but what does GOD want me to do with my life. The Lord calls each person here to become a saint. Saints come in all sizes and shapes, different occupations, some are married some not, some are important, some are not. Some are popular, some are not. But the Lord needs all different kinds of saints.
.
I will tell you how to be happy. I will tell you how to find value in life and be very happy with who you have become when you are old. Follow the will of God every moment. Say your prayers. And listen to him. Don’t fill all your time with music and talk, but listen to Jesus.
.
The Lord is always speaking: ‘Do this, don’t do that. Follow this way, avoid that. Help this person, stay away from that person. By doing God’s will in the small things of daily life, then we will also find what the central vocation of our life is too.
.
Is God calling me to be a dentist, or a mechanic, or a homemaker or a nurse or a teacher? Maybe God wants me to be a priest? Or maybe a religious sister? Am I called by God to be a Catholic mom or a Catholic dad, and raise a good family?
.
Instead of doing what we WANT, and instead follow what we ought to do, then we will always be on the right path in our future plans. You are young. You don’t have to decide yet, but it is good to think about it. Some people know early on; I know someone who when he was in 2nd grade, knew that he was to be a priest, and he is today.
.
Let us listen to God every day, and do his will; in this way, we will also find out his bigger plan for us, what we are to be, and we will be very happy.
