John 10: 22-30 You Do Not Believe Because You're Not My Sheep

In today's reading we hear that it was winter and the Feast of the Dedication, that is Hanukkah.  This Jewish feast day is also known as the Festival of Lights.  The story behind it comes from the Book of Maccabees where the tale of how Judah Maccabee raised a fierce and army loyal to God (the army would also be known as the Maccabees) against the Greco-Syrian king who banned Jewish religious practices and defiled the Temple of Jerusalem.  When the Maccabees were victorious over the oppression, the Temple was cleansed, purified, and re-Dedicated to God.  When they rededicated the temple, there was only enough oil for the sanctuary lamp for one night, the rest having been defiled.  Through a miracle the oil lasted for eight days.  That is why Hanukkah lasts eight days with one candle being lit each night.  As a Jew Jesus would have participated in the Feast of the Dedication. 

As a Christian follower, we can ask ourselves what is the parallel between the Jewish celebration and our own this Easter season.  Very clearly the authorities and other leaders are demanding to know if Jesus is the Messiah.  It could not have been easy for Jesus' followers.  However, their courage and stamina against the hardships caused by people who doubted Jesus and were not his followers is an echo of that of the Maccabees.  What was true for the followers of Christ then is true now as we wage battle against threats against Christians whether we are in Syria, Pakistan, or laws against what we believe in other countries around the world.  What Christian has not been persecuted for our faith?  We stand firm and courageous because Christ is our savior and we are his flock.  Like the eternal light of the sanctuary lamp, Christ stands with us incarnate in human history as a Light to the World: God made manifest.  The Light of the World came to give us the light of life. 

John 10:1-10 You must enter through the gate

It is amazing that all it takes if faith in Christ to enter through the gates of Heaven.  God has blessed those who are faithful, and makes them holy, and so they can enter through the gate.  Jesus gives us a parable about entering into the sheepfold through the gate.  Those who try to climb over are like robbers.  They have not had the needed conversion of heart and soul that comes through Christ: the repentance and salvation that he preached, that the Church preaches now at his command. 

There is a story, The Dangerous Journey, a retelling of Pilgrim's Progress written for children, that emphasizes how difficult the life of a Christian, the temptations and challenges that befall us on our path.  The main character, Christian, has several friends on his journey that help him.  Toward the end of his journey he comes across a fellow sojourner who has crossed the field and climbed a fence and walks with Christian the rest of the way to the castle.  When they reach it, the man is not allowed in because he came as a deceptive untrustworthy stranger across the field and over the wall.  Christian's heart has been true though and though he's been tempted and strayed from the path, he was always found the right path again that led him to Kingdom, to the gate, to the place of his salvation.  And it is his example that will lead the other members of his family.  Jesus is trying to impart this to us.  Life can and will be difficult, but the only way to the Kingdom is through him.  He is our shepherd, and so too are those he has appointed in his place: our pope, our cardinals, our bishops, our priests, and our deacons.  Theirs is to help us follow the course so that we come to the gate not as strangers, but as friends and brothers and sisters of Christ. 

Mark 4:26-34 To What Shall I Liken the Kingdom of God?

Today we have two parables that describe the Kingdom of God.  The first is the farmer who can't explain why the seeds the has sown grow in his field and ripen before the harvest yet he checks on the field day and night and is amazed with its growth.  The second is the mustard seed, one of the smallest of the seeds that grows into a huge bush/tree where the birds find safe haven beneath it.

From these two parables we begin to infer that the Kingdom grows in ways that we cannot begin to understand, in places that we may or may not expect; that it is up to God.  The next thing that we begin to realize is that it, and we in our faith lives, will come to full fruition becoming fully ripe to the point when we are ready for the harvest, that judgement promised us by Christ.  The Kindom comes to us inconspicuously though it grows into something strong and lasting.  To it many flock and take refuge within it because of its enduring love and mercy.

Mark 4: 1-20 The Sower Went Out to Sow

Jesus gives his Apostles and us a very clear reason why he gives us parables, "to those on the outside, everything comes in parables so that they may look and see but not perceive, and hear and listen but not understand, in order that they may not be converted and forgiven."  He then fully breaks down the parable of the sower for them to understand. 

If you grew up with the Way, then you have no difficulty understanding parables, but there are those in RCIA programs and other Christian faiths who do not understand and strive to know better how we come to know what we know.  This was true of Jesus' own disciples as they start following him compared to the others whose parents were followers or who had been with Jesus since the beginning.  There were those too who watched him heal, but did not stay to hear him preach, and also those who plotted against him.  Jesus taught about the Kingdom of God in images that were common to the people.  What a wonderful thing because they could go back home and in their daily work, they could meditate upon his words about the sower as they themselves sowed in the field planting the seeds in the rows by throwing it and leaving what grew up to God.  How much more poignant would the lesson come!  To understand that the sower plants the seeds of the Word in each life, but then to see the crows come and snatch the seed away, like Satan comes to take away the Word sown in their hearts.  But the seeds are also sown on rocky ground, and although they "receive it with joy.  But they have no roots; they last only for a short time."  How many of us have known someone try to make a new year's resolution only to drop it after several months?  Sometimes people do that with faith too in trying to understand better they jump fully into their faith without realizing that faith is a way of life, not some commodity easily come to a person.  "Those sown among thorns...they are the people who hear the word, but worldly anxiety, the lure of riches, and the craving for other things choke the word."  To those who are fertile ground, those who are nourished in the way of life, those who find loving and supportive friends and families, those are the ones who will bear good fruit and whose lives will bear the fruit of the Kingdom and share it with others, Jesus indicates.  It is through their lives that they follow the Way.   Jesus tells them that they will "bear fruit thirty and sixty and a hundredfold, "  which are incredible percentages of the harvest to yield.  They would have been amazed and it would have been more than they could imagine.  That is our hope too, that God will allow us to have that kind of good fruit be produced in us to the point that we can't even imagine the good it does for others.

Mark 16: 15-18 Go Out to All the World

In today's Gospel we hear Jesus tell the eleven, "Go into the whole world  and proclaim the Gospel to every creature."  Several Christian sects do this very well.  Frequently we identify Jehovah's Witnesses in groups canvassing neighborhoods, or Mormons on their mission wearing their slacks and pressed white shirts usually on bicycles, both sects knocking on doors to spread the Good News.

What about Catholics?  In our Creed we affirm that we are "One, holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church."  This means that we as Catholics are likewise being sent out into the world to bring the world into communion with God.  Christ was sent by God.  He tells us "As the Father has sent me, so I send you." (John 20:21)  He gave us the Holy Spirit to be with us and help us as we are sent out to spread that Good News.  As Catholics we are not confined to knocking on doors.  Instead we are reminded that the Good News is a path, a way of life we are to follow.  Let every action and word, though seemingly unimportant, be made part of your apostolic mission so that your very life becomes a living example of the Good News lived and example to others.  Saint Paul was a living example of how to do this.  Today we celebrate his conversion experience.  Let him be our guide in sharing the good news by our very lives. 

Mark 3:7-12 In God We Trust

Taken from my journal:

When was the last time that you looked at your money?  It says, “In God we trust.”  We hear in our Psalm today we hear the message more completely, “In God I trust, I shall not fear.”  This is the same sentiment that St. Agnes had as she resolutely held fast to her faith in Christ desiring to remain chaste and pure for the Lord despite the suitors who threatened to expose her as a Christian during the reign of the Roman Emperor Diocletian.  There are many legends of St. Agnes and how this young girl of noble blood was dragged through the streets by the Roman prefect and that the Lord prevented her from being raped.  Other legends about Agnes tell of how her attackers were blinded because the Lord so loved her and wanted to preserve her. There are those legends about Agnes that say she was tied to a stake, but the wood just wouldn’t burn.  Still there are those that tell of how she was beheaded, or stabbed in the throat.  St. Ambrose leaves aside the legends to give us one of the earliest accounts of St. Agnes’s martyrdom and stresses Agnes’ young age: she was twelve.  He also found noteworthy her steadfastness in faith and her virginity.  Agnes had no fear of death because she knew that her salvation lay in the Lord Jesus Christ.  She loved the Lord.  In him was her trust. 

We hear that echoed in the Gospel today as well.  The crowds came from all over.  They trusted that Jesus could cure every ill that they had.  Imagine that much faith, and not fully knowing that this was the Son of God. Yet, the unclean spirits knew.  We are told, “And whenever unclean spirits saw him they would fall down before him and shout, “You are the Son of God.” He warned them sternly not to make him known.”  His time was not yet come.  They acknowledged him as Lord of all and bowed down before him.

Sometimes people find it hard to trust in the Lord.  My sister-in-law, Tanya, died of cancer eight and a half years ago.  In the last months of her life we used to discuss God.  Tanya had doubts that God was with her.  She had taken care of her mother who had Alzheimer’s.  Her mom had just died when she was diagnosed with the cancer.  She had just been reunited with her first child whom she’d given up for adoption.  She was searching for God in the shambles that she saw her life.  In some ways, perhaps this isn’t too unlike the crowds who watched Jesus climb into the boat and withdraw.  Why does he withdraw when in other places in the Bible Jesus tells us that he will never leave us?  God never leaves us.  He has many forms and we believe that he is everywhere and in everything and everybody.  God loves us.  Repeatedly he tells us that he loves us.  He also repeatedly tells us that he will never leave us.  Sometimes though we get a sense of the Lord withdrawing.  It is normal.  The saints felt that too.  It allows us to know the sweetness of the presence of the Lord.  But it also encourages us to fly to him, to have that desperate need for him that draws us to him on the cross where we hear again as often as we need, that promise of the new and everlasting covenant borne of his love and mercy.

He is with us, just as he was with St. Agnes, just as he worked within the crowds.  Let us continue in faith to turn to him and say, “Jesus, I trust in you.”

Mark 3:1-6 The Man with the Withered Hand

"Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath rather than do evil, to save life rather than destroy it?" Jesus asks in today's Gospel. 

How very dead and lifeless the Sabbath seems in Jesus' time as it has succumbed to merely following lifeless rules; that the idea of caring for and bringing new vitality to a person would seem so against what the priests ordain as godly, is absurd.  The Pharisees always seems to be plotting against Jesus, trying to trick him and trap him into doing something against their laws.  We get a real sense that the man with the withered hand was placed in the synagogue on the Sabbath to see if Jesus would heal him.  Jesus' words should have had a biting effect and made them feel shame.  They are intolerant of a man who has just healed another on the Sabbath and picked the grain from the field because he was hungry.  Now, they want him to "condemn" himself even more. 

Sometimes in our own lives we feel like this too, that the world is against us, that at moments we feel that we can't trust others.  The Gospel tells us that he felt righteous anger toward them and grieved at their hardness of heart.  Nonetheless Jesus cannot waiver in the love that he has for mankind.  He came to save us from the power of sin and death.  If a withered hand brought a form of death to this man, then he will heal this man and set him free from not only the physical infirmity, but also his sins.  Christ Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath.  As Christians we are called to be a pro-life people in all the forms that being pro-life may take, whether it is encouraging a friend, empowering children to be good stewards, respecting elderly persons, or upholding the dignity of the unborn child.  In this year of mercy, have you today followed Jesus by sharing His life with others? If not, what one thing can you do for someone else in God's name?  Remember, it doesn't have to be big, Jesus calls us where we are to work within our circles of friends and families first.  The Kingdom grows from there.

Luke 5:12-16 Your Will Be Done

In today's Gospel Jesus is confronted by a man with leprosy.  The man acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ.  He asks for God's mercy to heal him,  but acknowledges that it should be God's will and not his own that needs to be done.  He is willing to continue suffering the leprosy if God so desires.  Jesus Christ tells him that it is his will that the man be healed, "I will do it.  Be made clean. 

We are called in this reading to be mindful as to whether we ask God's will be done in our lives, or if we demand that our will supersede that of God.  May we walk humbly always with the knowledge that God so loves us and is merciful.  May we put our trust in Him to allow his will be done in our lives, even if it means a continued suffering, or great healing.  Let us not forget to praise and adore him.

Matthew 9:27-31

In today's Gospel two blind men are following Jesus begging for his mercy and pity.  Jesus asks them, "Do you believe that I can do this?"

This Advent season we are preparing ourselves to receive Christ as the hope of the world.  Do we believe that he can do this?  Faith is a gift of God the Father through the Holy Spirit.  Christ Jesus stands knocking at the door of our hearts ready to lead us through the gates of eternal life should we seek him.  For those who follow Jesus as the blind men did, seeking to see the eternal Kingdom, the Lord will reveal it "according to your faith."  For these men, their eyes were opened. 

Jesus warns them, "See that no one knows about this."  We are told that "they went our and spread the word of him through all the land."   Did they miss the point?  When we receive a gift, do we focus solely on the gift, or the giver?  Perhaps that is Jesus is really warning of overlooking the One, The Father in Heaven, who has given them the ability to see and to attain the Kingdom and its eternal life, by instead focusing on the fact that Jesus has restored their sight.  Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  Let us focus on that as we prepare to meet the coming of Christ this Christmas.

Luke 10:21-24

In today's Gospel reading Jesus teaches us how to praise God Our Father in the Holy Spirit.  Praise is nearly a forgotten form of prayer, but one that is so important.  Throughout scripture God is very insistant about praise.  Even in the Lord's Prayer we find praise in the words, "Our Father, Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name, thy kingdom come, Thy Will be done..."  Within these words and all other prayers of praise we acknowledge God's greatness, and conversely our lowliness.  Praise allows us in our humility to find room for God's love and for His will to be done in and through us.  Praise is also a thanksgiving.  Shouldn't we be grateful?  Our Father sent his Son to die for our sins so that we may be given eternal life.  Doesn't that deserve our eternal praise and thanksgiving? 

Think about a child.  Most young children are filled with such awe and reverence toward those they love and admire.  They seek to please them by doing what they know is right.  And they are grateful for the love shown to them and the gift they receive.  We are called to be childlike, to have complete abandon in Him, so that His love and Kingdom will be present to us and not hidden.  Praise can lead us to be worthy to receive and see.  May we in our humility lovingly turn toward Our Father in praise and thanksgiving with the heart of a child holding nothing back.  

Matthew 4:18-22

Feast of St Andrew, the Apostle

In this Gospel reading we hear the calling forth of Andrew and his brother Simon, called Peter, by Jesus.  They were fishermen along the Sea of Galilee. Jesus promises that they will be "fishers of men." After they are called, Jesus calls James and John.

We are each called to follow Jesus too in the ways that lead to the Heavenly Kingdom.  Jesus is our Good Shepherd and we are his flock.  By living in his Way, through the gifts of the Holy Spirit, we are to be known as Christians by our love. 

We are called not once, but repeatedly to follow in the ways of Christ.  Each time we say 'yes' that is a conversion where not only are our thoughts refocused on the Lord, but also our actions and words.  Every time we go through a conversion experience, we come that much closer to the Lord.  As we continue through Advent, let us take listen closer to the Lord's call, so that our hearts my be turned much more towards that Enduring Light. 

Luke 21:25-28, 34-36

Today celebrates the first week of Advent and the lighting the first candle.  The candle represents our hope as we await the Light of Christ at Christmas. 

In the readings today we are met with cosmic wonders, unsettling images, and the idea that "people will die of fright at the anticipation of what is coming upon the world."  Yes, these images were intended to scare the hearer.  They were also intended to bring hope.  We shouldn't take each day for granted.  We should live each day to the best of our ability to do what we know is right and loving.  Daily life can take its toll and make us numb to what is important.  We should aspire to keep our eye on God always and remember that we are merely journeying through this life to the next.  We should be prepared to stand before God.

Carpe Diem means "Seize the Day."  The phrase encompasses the meaning of today's message.  Don't waste the day, prepare, stay alert.  Take care though.  For many in the early 20th Century fraught with war and economic depression and for later decades including ours, the phrase takes on a more modern morally relativistic meaning with people who use it to justify lascivious lifestyles, addictions to drugs/alcohol, and the self-centered/'me first" mentality.   

We are a people in darkness awaiting our Savior, the Son of Man, for whom we prepare for as the Christ Child at Christmas, and also the one who will come to judge the world at the end of time.  Be alert.  Look to the Light.  He is the response to our hope.   

Luke 21:34-36

Today's reading is very short and very important, so much so that it will be repeated on Sunday.  What is the message?  "Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap...Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man,"  Jesus says to us.

Be aware of the anxieties of daily life.  It is so easy to get caught up in work, taking care of kids or elderly parents, of planning for the future, of worrying about little things.  These are small tribulations.  We are being told to be aware, get a new perspective, the Lord should come first in our lives; we should be aware that we will stand before the Son of Man in our judgement.  Will we be found worthy?  This is why we should pay attention to what we do and why we them.  Prepare yourself by doing those things that you know to be right and just.   

Luke 17:11-19

Happy Thanksgiving! 

The Gospel of Luke today presents us of a story of thanksgiving.  There were ten lepers and one, the Samaritan, returns to Jesus to thank him for healing him after showing the Temple priests are required by Jesus.  The man's faith had saved him.

What a curious thing though.  Where were the others?  They were Jewish like Jesus.  Yet, they did not return to acknowledge the great thing that he had done for them, namely restoring their lives to them. Lepers were considered the walking dead, no one wanted to have anything to do with them. We are healed in big and small ways each day and we look for the gift of everlasting life which God alone can grant us.  Let us be thankful to Him today.