Friends in Christ, today in the gospel, Our Lord urges us to pray: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find.’
How many times in the gospels does Jesus, not only urge us to pray, but he himself, very often, prays. He prays alone, he prays with his disciples, he prays during the day and sometimes all night!
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Some people want to do many good things for God: help the poor – this is good. Teach children their religion – that is good. Visit the sick – very good. But we must know that none of our actions will be fruitful unless we pray.
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St. Joseph Cafasso says, that when a person is a person of work, or study, or of learning, but not a person of prayer – then of what use are those things? Regarding worldly tasks, how many times does a person say, ‘this task simply MUST get done,’ and then prayer is set aside, no time for it.
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Some people exercise each day: ‘I simply have to do this, my doctor told me, its for my health.’ And they never miss a day; there are no excuses which could change their mind – This is good, but this is to tend to the health of the body. But isn’t the soul more valuable than the body? The body will decay and rot. But the soul lives forever. If we can make time for our exercises, or other things that we deem important, how is it that we can’t find the time to pray for 20 minutes?
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Another question is, HOW do we pray? St. Augustine gives some advice on this: He says, place yourself at the foot of the cross with Mary, before that God who became Man and died for you, and then think about anything you wish – that will be prayer. Prayer is not just asking for things, children do that. Prayer is mostly talking – to the one we love, and listening. When we just sit or kneel with a spiritual book or the Holy Scriptures and think about the Lord – if we do this each day with our friend who is God, then we are praying well.
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In this way, everything we do will be for the glory of God; our work will be fruitful, and bring about a thousand unforeseen benefits and blessings.
Beloved in Christ, as we begin this season of Lent, We read of the Prophet Jonah going through Nineveh urging them to repent of their sins. The people of Nineveh were given a time limit – 40 days to repent, or their city would be destroyed. The King of Nineveh did not waste any time, he proclaimed a fast – to try to save the city from God’s wrath.
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We can learn an important lesson from this King: we have limited time in this life. Each of us is given a certain number of years and minutes, to please God. St. Francis was once asked, ‘if you knew today was your last day on earth, what would you do? ‘I would keep on doing just what I am doing,’ he said.
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Can we say that? That what we are doing today is exactly what God would want me to be doing at this moment? It might be a good idea to watch carefully, for one full day, whether and how much we waste time. Hours before the television, or speaking about useless things. If we listen to our conscience, it tells us each moment what the Lord would prefer us to do, now.
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St. Josemaria says: ‘don’t waste your time throwing stones at dogs that bark at you along the way’. We should ignore the useless distractions of life, and do God’s will.
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A good day is begun well: that means, getting up on the dot. The saints call this the heroic minute: rising at the prescribed time. Ok, we like the snooze button. Then use it only once, and get up immediately. This could be a Lenten resolution.
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Many tell me that if they lounge in bed for even ten minutes, there is a sense that it throws off the whole day, and there can be dangerous temptations in the morning. You may have noticed, that if the night goes well, we get to bed on time, the morning seems to be much better. But using our time well, getting to bed – these things require renunciation of self. Turning off the television or the computer, closing the book in mid-chapter, saying ‘no’ to our will, ‘yes’ to God’s will.
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When we face our Master on the day of judgment, we will realize: ‘I have no more time.’ I remember in school, if I was not so prepared for a test – taking the test, there are still 10 more questions to go, but the teacher suddenly says: ‘TIMES UP! HAND IN YOUR PAPER. -Aghh, a feeling of dread.
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On that day of Eternity, when the Judge says, ‘Your time is up,’ how will we see today, and tomorrow? How have I used my time in this short life?
Friends in the Lord,
St. Maria Goretti was a very young martyr, we had her traveling relics here not long back. When she was being attacked by that man Alessandro, she did not cry out as a typical child would; she was more worried about the danger to Alessandro’s soul: ‘Alessandro, what are you doing?, she asked. ‘You’ll lose your soul!’ In fact, days later, as she neared death, she said to the priest: ‘I forgive Alessandro and I want him to be with me in paradise.’
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Friends, we see in the gospel today, that as Jesus teaches us to pray the Our Father, he particularly emphasizes one thing: forgiveness. In the prayer we say: ‘forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.’ Some translations: ‘forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.’
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Then Our Lord reiterates this point again: “If you forgive men, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father forgive you.”
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Our present world is not interested in forgiveness; the newspapers are all about ‘gotcha,’ trying to find faults or mistakes with people, and condemn them. This is the role of the devil, who is called ‘The Accuser.’
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Fr. Jacque Felipe says, when we refuse to forgiven someone, we are adding another wrong to the first. It solves nothing. We are increasing the quantity of evil in the world. St. Paul says ‘Don’t be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.’
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Forgiving someone does not mean we are pretending they have done nothing wrong. Forgiveness means, ‘this person has wronged me, but I don’t want to condemn him.’
Sometimes people say, ‘I just can’t forgive him.’ Well, can you at least pray for him, and say ‘Lord, have mercy on him, don’t let him go to hell.’ Forgiveness means, I don’t want to condemn him, I don’t want him in hell.
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When we forgive someone, we are canceling their debt, but we are also doing much good to ourselves. If we don’t forgive, if we keep stoking resentment, then we are binding ourself to the person we resent. It diminishes our freedom, we become dependent on the person we hate; when we have resentment, we can’t stop thinking about that person. We are enslaved by our passion.
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By keeping the resentment alive in our memory, it is like we are writing a bill, that they will owe us in due time, that person has a debt to us, and we will demand payment!
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Christ is telling us however, that to be free, and to bring healing into the world and in our lives, we need to cancel the debt.
Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
Ash Wednesday
Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it…. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done…. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.’
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Friends in Christ, Judgment day will lead to two results: those saved – and those thrown into the fire. There are only two ways for us: the road to heaven, or the road to hell. The road to heaven is described as narrow; this is a path that winds through the dark woods, sometimes steep hills along mountains, not always easy.
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Many people however, choose the wide and easy road. It is easy to walk along, with pleasant views, few hills, and places to rest. But this road does not lead to the mountain top. It is sloped downward.
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Jesus says, the road that leads to destruction is wide, and many go that way. Narrow is the road that leads to life, only a few find it.
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We are all here today because we wish to stay on, or else get onto, that narrow road, that leads to life, and that is what Lent is for; a time to reassess: what road are we on? How are we going? Where are we going to?
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In reality, there are two roads that lead to hell. One road is the road of presumption. This is the road in which we say, ‘Everything is fine in life, I do what I want, I follow the crowd. It’s normal to cheat in business or live with my boyfriend or hate my neighbor – hey, everybody does it, at least I haven’t murdered anyone, God will let me into heaven.’
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This is the road of presumption, presuming on God’s mercy, and such persons are many; they will have a shock at the end of their life. As Jesus said, ‘They will knock at the door and say, ‘Lord, Lord! I’m here.’ But he will say to them, I never knew you. Depart from me you evildoers into the fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
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Many are on that road of presumption. They never pray, happily walking on the wide path, simply following the world, without noticing that the road is always going – downhill.
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The other road to hell, is the road of despair. There are people who say, ‘I know that how I am living is wrong. What I do is sinful; but I can’t seem to stop these sins, I feel that I will probably end in hell. What’s the use?’
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These people are giving up, and have not listened to the Son of God who has come down from heaven. They have not listened to him tell, about the man who wasted his life in many great sins, and who was starving. So he says, ‘I will at least go back to my father’s estate, and see if I can be one of his servants. But actually, the father had been praying for his return. As long as this son was sorry and wanted to try to change, his Father welcomed him with great joy, and even threw a party because he had returned.
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So, the person who is walking that road to hell, who is giving up, has not listened to the Son of God, who came into the world and who has died for your sins and mine.
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As we begin Lent, the Lord is calling us to return to the true path; the path that will lead us to life. As the Lord says to us in the 1st reading: ‘return to me with your whole heart, return to the LORD, your God.’
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Today is a day of fasting and abstinence. We eat no meat, we eat less than 2 meals. On Fridays we eat no meat as a little sacrifice. We will confess our sins this Lent. But all of Lent should have a spirit of self-denial; we give up something, some good deeds, pray more.
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This is what Jesus is asking for; he is asking us to return to the narrow but safe path. It takes discipline to stay on that path. But on the narrow way, let us notice as we walk: it is always going up. That means, that we are going in the right direction.
Friends in Christ, we see in the gospel today that Jesus is training his first priests; he sends the apostles out to anoint the sick with oil. Later, in the Epistle of St. James, it says ‘if anyone is sick, call for the priests to anoint the person with oil.’ Here is the sacrament we call the anointing of the sick.
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What is the purpose of anointing of the sick? Many people have the mistaken opinion that the anointing is to cure the person of sickness. This sometimes does happen, but the sacrament is for a far more important thing than physical healing. Presuming the person is receptive, supernatural grace is imparted to the soul for the purpose of helping them to carry their suffering – to help them be like Christ. While I HAVE seen some amazing bodily healings, the most important is spiritual healing.
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People can become discouraged in their suffering; they can’t see the point of their pain, and they are perhaps bitter. Then comes the anointing of the sick. Many times, one will see either immediately or over the next days a different attitude. The person comes to realize that they are carrying a cross, like Jesus, or the martyrs. Sometimes, for the first time in their life, they realize they can offer their body and pain and discomfort for the salvation of their family and the world.
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The power of anointing of the sick often changes despair into hope. It’s a supernatural change in the soul. Sometimes a person’s most difficult time in old age can be, in God’s eyes, their finest hours; a new time of courage and hope. One man said that he kind of felt guilty that he only sought pleasure in life, but now that he has some pain and trouble, he finally has something he can really offer to God.
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If anointing of the sick is given near death, it drives away the fear of death and brings a peaceful acceptance of the will of God, of His plan. The heart can suddenly feel a joy in thinking of heaven. Healings of the body can happen only if this is better for the soul. But for many people, they are holier when they are sick – for some, it’s the first time in decades that they are no longer plagued with impure thoughts. So healing of the body could be undesirable in regard to their salvation.
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Finally, at the approach of death, anointing of the sick purifies the last traces of sin, and even forgiven sins if the person was not able to confess. So if a person is quite sick or frail, the priest should be called so they can be anointed, and we should avail of ourselves of this sacrament in any serious illness.
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If a person is dying, absolutely call the priest to hear their confession, anoint, and give the apostolic blessing, preferably before they lose consciousness.
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Ideally the last sacrament is the reception of Holy Communion, for the journey to the new world, but often this is not possible due to the illness.
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We also must beware of some protestants who are trying to imitate the Catholic Church, who come around in hospitals and so-call “anoint” people; this is not a sacrament. Instead, call a priest.
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Jesus gave the sacraments to us for a reason: so let’s make use of them.
Beloved in Jesus Christ,
Today we celebrate the Presentation of Our Lord, also called Candlemass. This is called Candlemass, because we bless candles today. Now the lighted candle represents Jesus, the Light of the world. When we hold the candle, as we walked in our procession, we should think of holding the Child Jesus.
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At the time of Christ, there was living in Jerusalem an old man whose name was Simeon. he had longed for years, to see the Messiah. The Holy Spirit revealed to him that he would not die without first seeing that LIGHT which was to come into the world, Jesus. As Mary and Joseph went into the Temple, Simeon felt within himself a strong impulse of the Holy Spirit: he left his house, and walked quickly towards the Temple, forgetting his old age. Arriving there, he recognizes the Virgin Mother that he had so often read about in Isaiah, and so he presses through the crowd to the Child that she is holding in her arms.
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Mary knows what to do: she places her child in the old man’s arms. He says: “Now O Lord, you may dismiss your servant in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation; a Light to enlighten the Gentiles, and give glory to thy people Israel.’
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You know, priests and religious pray the Liturgy of the Hours daily, and many lay people often pray these prayers every day. The last prayer of the day, before bed, is this one from Simeon: ‘Now Lord, you may dismiss your servant in peace.’ Simeon says this prayer at the end of his life, thankful that he has seen salvation come in Christ, the light of the world.
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My grandmother had in her home a lovely picture of the Child Jesus. We loved to look at it. When I think of grandma, I think of this image of Christ. Painted by Charles Chambers, this painting is called, ‘The Light of the World.’
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Well, Jesus is the Light of the World.
St. Anselm says, that the candle is an appropriate symbol of Christ: The wax represents the Flesh of the Savior, the wick which is within, is his Soul, and the flame, is his burning Divinity.
More than ever, the world needs this Light. When we see a candle, let us think of the burning love of Jesus and never let this light go out in our hearts.
Friends in the Lord, today in the first reading, we see that King Saul is in big trouble; what did he do? Well, ever since Israel had entered the Promised Land, they had to fight against a whole host of enemies; one of these enemies was the Amalekites.
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Saul had been commanded by God to exterminate them. All of them! But he did not follow this order; when his army conquered them, he spared the leader, Agag. Samuel then says to Saul, ‘The Lord sent you on a mission to exterminate the Amalekites, but you have disobeyed.’ ‘Therefore the Lord has torn the kingdom from you this day.’ Then Samuel said, bring Agag, the king of Amalek to me. And he cut down Agag.’
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Friends, this is the context of today’s 1st reading, and we may feel revulsion at this gory scene and God’s order to exterminate them. But these things were recorded as spiritual lessons for us. Of the Old Testament, St. Paul will say, ‘all these things happened to them as examples, they are written for our correction.’ (1 Cor 10:11, Rom 15:4) So much of the Old Testament is full of types and symbols pointing to the New Testament. And the New Testament interprets the Old.
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When Israel entered the Promised Land, it was through the Jordan River, and this is a ‘type’ or sign of our baptism. Once baptized, we are consecrated to the Lord. But like Israel, we find ourselves surrounded by powerful enemies: the world, the flesh, and the devil – enemies outside of us, and enemies within us.
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The Holy Scriptures are teaching us a very important spiritual lesson about this war that we are in:
‘do not in any way compromise with the enemy;
‘in no way allow any of your enemies to live,
‘they must be exterminated.
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We can ask the recovering alcoholic how it works, if he just has a little sip of whiskey – NOT. We can ask the drug addict if he can handle ‘just a little bit’ of dope; it doesn’t work. Ask the person struggling against pornography if he can really allow just a little lust in his mind – no! We must utterly exterminate our enemies. Mercilessly.
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More than the addicts, we all must be on our guard because the Amalekites that attack us can be more subtle and cunning than drugs or whiskey. Such addicts know their enemy at least; but for us, the worry is those hidden enemies within, that keep hanging around. Gossip and greed and sloth and a host of others lurk in us like viruses. We cannot ‘sort of tolerate them.’ We must wage all-out war.
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St. Hesychios says, use the name of Jesus to lash your enemies, as flashes of lighting repeat over and over in the sky. Wage war; and as to a hostile thought? Strike it down angrily, curse it, invoking Jesus.
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Spiritual warfare is part of our daily life, so let us fight our enemies to the death.
Friends in the Lord, in these days, our 1st reading continues to be from the Book of Samuel; today we witness a tragedy: the Israelites were under attack by their arch-enemy, the Philistines; they must fight. And so they decide that they would bring the Sacred Ark – the most sacred object of Israel – that contained the tablets of the 10 Commandments. They carried this golden ark into battle before them, knowing that then God would help them to be victorious. But shockingly, they were roundly defeated, and their enemies capture the Ark!
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In his Commentary on this passage, Bishop Knecht says that Israel thought that if they had the Ark with them, God would be sure to protect them. But how could the tablets of the Law in the Ark help them, if they no longer carried the law of God in their hearts? They should have first repented of their sins, then God would have been gracious to them.
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If we would go back and read in context, today’s story of defeat, we would see that the high priest Eli had been tolerating much wickedness; and his priest-sons were showing a lack of respect in the holy place of worship. The Lord did not bless them therefore, because they did not honor him. If we expect God to help us and bless us, our lives must be lived in faithfulness, with a real prayer life of worship, that honors the Lord.
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Even the Sacraments will not be of any help to us if we do not turn to the Lord and cast the false gods out of our life; our hearts must be Christian hearts. I was talking with the young people the other day about the sacrament of marriage, asking them questions. One was, ‘If people are in mortal sin at their wedding, do they receive the grace of the sacrament of marriage?’ The answer: no, they do not. Only if they repent of their sins and Confess will the grace of marriage revive in their souls.
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If a person receives Holy Communion with a lukewarm attitude, with no care of what he is doing, does he receive grace? no. nothing. This is why it is good to prayerfully prepare for Mass, and make a Thanksgiving after Holy Communion or after Mass. Just as that holy Ark was of no help to the Israelites against their enemies because of their empty religion, so too we will not receive God’s grace if we ourselves do not glorify Him.
Let us therefore bless the Lord in our souls, that he may bless us in our lives.
Friends in Christ, in the Epistle today, we read from the 1st Letter of St. John. Our translation is one, but here is another: ‘If any one sees his brother committing what is not a mortal sin, he will ask, and God will give him life for those whose sin is not mortal. But there is sin which is mortal.’
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So it is clear from the Holy Scriptures, that there is mortal sin. Some translations call it ‘deadly sin,’ – same thing. There are two types of sin which we can commit: mortal sin, and venial sin. Mortal sins are serious sins against the law of God. They are called ‘mortal,’ or ‘deadly,’ because they kill the life of grace in our soul. Venial sin is a less serious offense against the Lord, which does not however, deprive us of sanctifying grace.
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Sin is best understood in terms of our relationship with God, which is really what the spiritual life is all about. If a boy disobeys his mother and does not set the table, this is a venial sin. It disappoints his mother, but their love remains. But if that boy in an argument would punch his mother; well – this would be a serious break in their love, and somebody would have to apologize big time. So too with God.
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Venial sins can be healed in us in a variety of ways. We tell the Lord we are sorry, we say an act of contrition; the grace of Holy Mass, receiving Holy Communion forgives venial sins according to our devotion and desire; praying the rosary or other prayers, acts of Faith – in a variety of ways, we are always renewing our love for the Lord, and being healed of the many venial sins we commit each day.
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Mortal sin requires a real apology, repentance, and forgiveness, so we must go to Confession. In confession the priest speaks for Christ and for the whole Church; he needs to reconcile us with the Church, because serious wounds harm the whole Body of Christ. In the early Church, people had to stand in front of the whole congregation and confess their serious sins; they would be given an often difficult penance that might last weeks or months. Today the Church makes it easier for us; we can even confess behind the screen.
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When we commit mortal sin, we lose all the merits of all the good actions we have ever done because we’ve turned from God. So, with mortal sin, we must be reconciled in confession, but then all of our former merits are restored.
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For something to be a mortal sin, the action must first of all, be a SERIOUS one. Secondly, we must KNOW that it is a serious sin, and finally, we must FREELY CHOOSE to do it, we can’t commit sin in our sleep. Mortal sins would include any sexual related sins, skipping Mass, hatred, serious theft or lies, really damaging someone’s reputation, and other things. Confession is the place to be reconciled, and to begin new.
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We ourselves should try to not commit even venial sins, so as to always please our Heavenly Father.
Let us then take our relationship with God seriously; and let not anyone tell you that there is no such thing as mortal sin – it’s in the bible!
And the leper said, ‘Lord, If you wish, you can make me clean.’
Friends in Christ, this man who comes to Jesus is sick; but he is the image of each of us in need of healing. We have wounds due to sin – moral evil – and we have wounds due to tragedies and the crosses of life – physical evils.
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Modern man today in general, is wounded – all you have to do is read the newspapers – society is wounded, but cannot find the True Physician. There are so many problems out there; for example, I recently read that venereal disease is way up, it is rampant; the cause of this is human behavior.
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The solution to this problem would be for people to live a Christian life of purity. Could you imagine government sponsored billboards along the roads: ‘Be pure.’ ‘Wait for marriage.’ ‘Be faithful.’ ‘Purity is happiness.’ But this solution is not even mentioned. The world is so wounded, yet they do not know how to see the cure.
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The wounds inflicted today are very great: nearly 1 million went to prison this year for a felony; 1 million babies are aborted each year 20% of men and 15% of women have committed adultery These figures represent enormous pain in the lives of people; in these figures is great sadness and regret.
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‘And he pleaded with him, and said, “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean, and Jesus stretched out his hand and said, “I do will it. Be thou made clean.”
The way of the Christian, following Jesus, is the way to life. The religion of the world produces broken hearts. The religion of God produces self-control, virtue, peace, and mercy: the healing of wounds. As St. John tells to us today: ‘God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son; whoever possesses the Son has life. Our Faith in God the Son, is what gives us the power to say ‘no’ to our whims and passions and to develop self-mastery over our desires.
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The life of Faith is what allows a Christian to survive devastating experiences, losses, or illnesses with the assurance that there is more to life than this car accident or this disappointment. Today in the world we are seeing now a strong contrast between life without Christ and life with Christ. Very different.
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But really these are beautiful days for us, because we have a mission: we are the messengers of hope: sometimes by our words, but always by our example of the goodness of our Christian life. As St. Peter says, let us be ready with an answer to those who asks the reason, for the hope that is in us.
