Our Lady of Sorrows

Office of Readings: Second Reading

From a sermon by Saint Bernard, abbot
(Sermo in dom. infra oct. Assumptionis, 14-15: Opera omnia, Edit. Cisterc. [1968], 273-274
His mother stood by the cross

The martyrdom of the Virgin is set forth both in the prophecy of Simeon and in the actual story of our Lord’s passion. The holy old man said of the infant Jesus: He has been established as a sign which will be contradicted. He went on to say to Mary: And your own heart will be pierced by a sword.

Truly, O blessed Mother, a sword has pierced your heart. For only by passing through your heart could the sword enter the flesh of your Son. Indeed, after your Jesus—who belongs to everyone, but is especially yours—gave up his life, the cruel spear, which was not withheld from his lifeless body, tore open his side. Clearly it did not touch his soul and could not harm him, but it did pierce your heart. For surely his soul was no longer there, but yours could not be torn away. Thus the violence of sorrow has cut through your heart, and we rightly call you more than martyr, since the effect of compassion in you has gone beyond the endurance of physical suffering.

Or were those words, Woman, behold your Son,not more than a word to you, truly piercing your heart, cutting through to the division between soul and spirit? What an exchange! John is given to you in place of Jesus, the servant in place of the Lord, the disciple in place of the master; the son of Zebedee replaces the Son of God, a mere man replaces God himself. How could these words not pierce your most loving heart, when the mere remembrance of them breaks ours, hearts of iron and stone though they are!

Do not be surprised, brothers, that Mary is said to be a martyr in spirit. Let him be surprised who does not remember the words of Paul, that one of the greatest crimes of the Gentiles was that they were without love. That was far from the heart of Mary; let it be far from her servants.

Perhaps someone will say: “Had she not known before that he would not die?” Undoubtedly. “Did she not expect him to rise again at once?” Surely. “And still she grieved over her crucified Son?” Intensely. Who are you and what is the source of your wisdom that you are more surprised at the compassion of Mary than at the passion of Mary’s Son? For if he could die in body, could she not die with him in spirit? He died in body through a love greater than anyone had known. She died in spirit through a love unlike any other since his.

XVI Sunday Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Wis 12:13, 16-191
Ps 86:5-6, 9-10, 15-16
Rom 8:26-27
Mt 13:24-43

My brothers and sisters, today's Gospel of the Weeds and the Wheat is ultimately a parable about hope.  The fact that evil exists in the world; that sin abounds in the world is not a sign that God does not care or that God does not exist.  Rather it is in our weakness, our very dependence on God – especially in times of trial and tribulation – that we are given the opportunity to grow closer to God and rely less upon ourselves.  The evils that are visited upon us are opportunities for growth and repentance.  We have the blessing of time and space to be able to grow and correct our sinfulness.  Things don’t move forward without friction – and so the Cross that we pick up daily is not meant to be carried reluctantly, but embraced lovingly.  And this is where faith and hope are intimately tied together and will see us through to the end where all will be vindicated.

Justice belongs to God, not to us.  He is the source of justice. He will judge with clemency; with mercy and justice.  Therefore, do not hold resentment in your heart for those that are better than you or have more than you.  But look and see the blessings that are given to you.  God does not demonstrate His love for you by how much He blesses others; how silly that sounds! – You will never know how much He loves you until you start counting your own blessings, until you start praying, and desiring to follow His will.

To be upset at God for all the bad things and for the lack of good things happening in your life without praying and having a relationship with Him is like being angry and upset at a total stranger for not being your friend.  What did you do to get to know that stranger?  How have you tried to be his friend?  Even more so with our Lord – He desires an intimate friendship with us, but we have not taken those steps to befriend Him.  If you do not know how to pray then ask Him to help you to pray or learn how to pray!

You know…. there is a part of me that is glad that God is going to take care of business at the end of time.  I think you might have that feeling too.  All the sick people in this world – the ones who are so far gone, hopeless, and set it in their ways, and are just so evil – committing evil and heinous acts…. They’re gonna get their just punishment aren’t they?  Especially the ones that have wronged us; that they have trespassed against us and took advantage of us!  Yes, they will get what’s coming to them.  Am I right?

And then I realized that this is wrong.  All these “weeds” are still part of God’s creation and as long as they live here on this earth – there is still hope for them.  There is still an opportunity for them to change and transform their lives and hearts as best as they can towards God.  How have we reached out to reconcile and bring others to God – those “weeds” of the world?  How have we offered prayers and penances for their conversion – instead we have relegated them to be without hope and not worth our time to be saved.  This doesn’t sound very Christian.

Take care, too, for yourself – the last I checked, none of you are canonized saints – myself included.  I think that the real “kicker” in this Gospel today is that our Lord didn’t say who was the wheat and who are the weeds.  Wouldn’t it be unfortunate that all this time you thought you were a happy go lucky wheat when you were actually a weed?  There are times I feel like wheat and there are times that I am more a weed.  How sure are you, that when you die, you will not be a weed thrust into the fire?  The fire is not just reserved for the worst of the worst, but see what our Lord says [later] in the Gospel: The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect our of his kingdom all who cause others to sin and all evildoers. They will throw them in to the fiery furnace where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. Hmmm… all who cause others to sin and all evildoers I think that might just cover us too – even on a good day.

Like I said earlier, the parable of the weeds and the wheat is a message of hope – not only for the world, but for our individual salvation.  We are not yet saints, but fortunately we are not yet condemned to the eternal fire.  As long as we are alive and in this world, we must pray and bring ourselves humbly before God – recognizing our sin – repenting and reconciling ourselves to His mercy.  Do not look down on or compare yourself with your neighbor, your spouse, or anyone else; but turn towards God to help you grow closer to Him.  God desires us all to be the wheat of the world and for others to become wheat.  It is why He gave us the Eucharist – Himself – to transform us to be more like Him.

Feast of St. Thomas, Apostle

A homily on the Gospels from St. Gregory the Great, pope

"Dearly beloved, what do you see in these events? Do you really believe that it was by chance that this chosen disciple was absent, then came and heard, heard and doubted, doubted and touched, touched and believed? It was not by chance but in God’s providence. In a marvellous way God’s mercy arranged that the disbelieving disciple, in touching the wounds of his master’s body, should heal our wounds of disbelief. The disbelief of Thomas has done more for our faith than the faith of the other disciples. As he touches Christ and is won over to belief, every doubt is cast aside and our faith is strengthened. So the disciple who doubted, then felt Christ’s wounds, becomes a witness to the reality of the resurrection.

"Touching Christ, he cried out: My Lord and my God. Jesus said to him: Because you have seen me, Thomas, you have believed. Paul said: Faith is the guarantee of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen. It is clear, then, that faith is the proof of what can not be seen. What is seen gives knowledge, not faith. When Thomas saw and touched, why was he told: You have believed because you have seen me? Because what he saw and what he believed were different things. God cannot be seen by mortal man. Thomas saw a human being, whom he acknowledged to be God, and said: My Lord and my God. Seeing, he believed; looking at one who was true man, he cried out that this was God, the God he could not see."

"What is seen gives knowledge, not faith."  So many ask for proofs, evidence of the God invisible.  And yet, He is so present in our lives.  Well known story of "doubting Thomas" is invaluable in helping us bridge the gap between our experience and our faith. Must we see to believe?  And what exactly must be seen to believe? What is it going to take to believe for one who doubts and is skeptical?  Would it be better then to believe without seeing?

My Lord and My God, I do believe! Help my unbelief!

Ascension of Our Lord, Cycle A

Act 1:1-11
Ps 47:2-3, 6-7, 8-9
Eph 1:17-23
Mt 28:16-20


It would have been enough for God to have declared us forgiven and we would be forgiven. But He didn’t.  He took on human nature and became God incarnate out of love for us.  It would have been enough for Christ to assume human flesh and go about preaching a new morality that followed the spirit of the law rather than simply the letter of the law.  But He taught and revealed Himself and our morals through parables, healings, and preaching for three years out of love for us.  It would have been enough if Christ simply showed us how to take on suffering and carrying our Crosses daily by bearing insults and libelous claims against Him. But He carried that Cross to Golgotha suffered and died on the Cross out of love for us.  It would have been enough that He died for our sins, but then He rose from the dead, journeyed with all His disciples for 40 more days, He went and ascended into heaven out of love for us.

So after all that journeying, all of the lessons and parables, the miracles of healing and changing this into that, suffering a cruel and horrible death, resurrecting and now walking amongst His disciples for over a month re-hashing everything that He had been teaching them for the past three years…. Finally we come to the end of the journey and you can imagine the Christ’s frustration as the disciples ask: “Lord are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” Why don’t they get it?!  Why don’t WE get it?  Again the disciples are causing our Lord to have a Holy Face Palm!!  After all the sermons, after all of those examples and parables, the disciples are still looking for a messiah that would liberate their people from Roman occupation and reestablish the Davidic Kingship…. That’s all they cared about and their vision fell short to see the greater picture of Christ ushering in the Kingdom of God.  But why does Christ go away?  Why does He have to leave?

We are often times so focused on the here and now: our plans, our desires, our thoughts, opinions, feelings and emotions.  And here we miss what is really going on. You would think that Christ’s leaving would be something depressing and saddening, but this is not so.  At the end of Luke’s Gospel (which wasn’t read today) after the Ascension the disciples are recounted as joyful: [He] was taken up to heaven. They did him homage and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple praising God.  This doesn’t make sense because we are sad when anyone or anything goes away.  If our friends or family move away or passes away do we rejoice?  (Only if we don’t like ‘em – but we still feel guilty!)  But even if we hear about a tragic accident or a natural disaster in some remote part of the world, we feel a sense of loss.  But with the disciples this account seems strange – they are happy and rejoicing!  This begs the question: why?

In the first reading: When he [Christ] had said this, as they [the disciples] were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.  I missed this line of scripture and didn’t think there was anything to it.  But as I read Pope Benedict’s interpretation in his second book Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week (from the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection), my eyes were opened.  The cloud is a theological statement.  Recall all the times in scripture that a cloud appears – “the Transfiguration: in which a bright cloud falls on Jesus and the disciples; at the Annunciation: the archangel Gabriel announces to Mary the ‘overshadowing’ of the Most High; in the Old Testament: Moses with the Israelites journeying in the desert had the ‘shadow’ of the cloud that hovered over the holy tent of God and led the people through the desert…”  All of these awesome miraculous miracles are a sign of God’s presence and when Christ ascends into the cloud, it means that He Himself is entering into this mystery that connects all of these events.

Why does the Lord go away?  The answer is simple, but the meaning is complex:  He goes away to come to us.  What do we say in the Creed?  “He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory…”  He goes away to come again, and to come closer.  We are not to think that Christ simply just goes away in some remote corner of the universe.  No, He is God and so He goes away to be at the right hand of the Father so that in the Father He can be more intimately closer to us!  To think that He is simply a human person sitting in a seat far far away is to limit the fact that He is God and omnipresent – always and everywhere present to us.  He goes away so that He can be closer to us.  

If you remember the story right after the Resurrection, Mary Magdalene goes up to the tomb and she is despairing and looking for our Lord, afraid that someone has taken Him away.  Our Lord simply calls her name, “Mary!” and she tries to grab onto Him.  Our Lord steps away and says, “Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.”  It is a puzzling statement, but when we understand that the Ascension is necessary for us so that we may be even more intimately closer to Him, it makes perfect sense.  To “hold on to Him” only in human terms would be limiting Himself to her and to all of us.  To believe that Christ would be the messiah to conquer Romans and re-establish the Davidic kingdom would be to limit the Kingdom of God to merely human terms/understanding.  NO! Christ is King of the world, King of the Universe and all of Creation.  It makes me marvel how small our minds are in the context of God’s designs!  Who would have known that He ascended to the right hand of the Father, not to hide Himself, but to reveal Himself more fully?  Who would have known that His ascension allows us to be more intimately connected to Him – not just in His humanity, but more importantly in His divinity!!

My Brothers and Sisters, the feast of the Ascension of Our Lord is not just another feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ and another “cool thing” that He did, but rather it is the great moment for us to recognize Him in all His glory and the pledge of His future promise of the Resurrection.  It is for us to recognize how our thoughts, whims and desires cannot compare to His ultimate love for us.  He didn’t just resurrect Himself and ascend into heaven…. He invites us into the divine hope – to have the Faith so that we experience Him in this life and the life to come: our Resurrection!   This week and for the rest of your life, remember that we cannot be so short-sighted to only think about this world, we must go beyond and try to understand first what God is revealing to us.  We must live for the Resurrection, for our life at the End, not just to make ends meet.  Know that Christ is here and now present to us more intimately than human comprehension through the Ascension so that we too – like the disciples in Luke’s gospel be rejoicing in His Temple.

III Sunday of Easter, Cycle A

Act 2:14, 22-23
Ps16:1-2, 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11
1 Pt 1:17-21
Lk 24:13-35

In the year 1984, there was a movie that was released and forever changed the way people looked at me, especially my classmates. But it was not until I was in the third or fourth grade did my classmates get to watch this movie.  I had pretty normal friends; friends that I played with in my back alley kicking soccer balls back and forth and using our garage doors as goals.  But when my friends got to watch that movie, they started acting strange around me.  I didn’t watch very many movies back then because my parents didn’t know.  But this movie had an unmistakable gesture, a tell-tale movement of the body that not only showed that you watched it, but that you embraced and embodied everything it stood for.  Now if I do this gesture, you too will know what I’m talking about…. It’s the universal sign and if you don’t get it, you have some catching up to do!!!

Of course the movie that I'm talking about is “The Karate Kid” and because this movie came out… every single one of my classmates thought I knew karate or some sort of martial art.  As if all Asians, by their very DNA, were genetically predisposed to know kung fu.  In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to be thinking in your minds: “Yeah, I bet Fr. Reuben knows Shaolin kung fu… I mean he even *looks* like a Buddhist monk.”  Sorry to disappoint… I don’t know any martial arts. And you shouldn’t be stereotyping people! ;)  What was so fascinating to me about this movie was how Ralph Macchio or “Daniel-san” was learning and training under Mr. Miyagi.  He was so excited that his new sensei or teacher would teach him how to fight off a Darth of bullies that were beating up him.  But all Mr. Miyagi instructed him to do was to Force him into menial work and chores: painting the fence, sweeping the floor, “wax on, wax off.”  Daniel was not only frustrated, but angry at Mr. Miyagi. Daniel was all too eager to start breaking wooden blocks and concrete bricks; retaliating and fighting.  Finally, Daniel blows up and yells at his master.  And what happens next?   Mr. Miyagi reveals that he had been training this young padawan all along – that all the sore muscles and disciplined work actually came to fruition.  His training was complete.

In the Gospel today, what the two disciples of Jesus had experienced was nothing short of unpacking the whole entirety of Salvation History from the beginning of time into a little seven mile journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus.  These two were completely dazed and confused at what had happened.  Remember that this passage takes place on Easter Sunday.  Only two days prior was their leader, their Lord and Master brutally tortured and crucified, dying a horrible painful death.  And now these events of Easter are still very puzzling… what does this all mean?  Their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.  Only when the scriptures were unpacked, the milestones marked, and bread broken did it all become revealed: their eyes were opened and they recognized him.  And they remarked in amazement to each other… “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?”

So you might be wondering what does “The Karate Kid” have to do with the Gospel?  Well, let’s think about this Daniel-san.  The disciples were told certain things and taught certain things; and having inherited all of the writings and teachings of the Jewish faith, they knew and were expecting that the Messiah would come and save them… that a new kingdom – one as grand as old King David’s kingdom.  However, they did not put what they had learned into proper context – the context of the Incarnation: that God Himself would come down, to take on flesh and blood, to lay down His life, not with perishable things like silver or gold but with the precious blood of Christ as of a spotless unblemished lamb.  The disciples were expecting another King David, but what they got was something even better: the Son of God!  That the patriarch David died and was buried… but God raised this Jesus of this we are all witnesses. 

The Old Testament scriptures recount the theological history of events of the Jewish people and out of habits of what they had experienced in the past was what they were expecting to see and experience in the present and future.  The people tried to fit Christ into THEIR narrative, but they missed the fact that He is THE NARRATIVE. He’s the one writing this story and people have been misinterpreting ever since.  "Daniel-san" also experienced and knew what manual labor was in the past, but with Mr. Miyagi those habitual actions are transformed into the art of self-defense and self-actualization.   The disciples’ hearts were burning with a desire that they knew unconsciously that this Man was speaking the Truth!!!  And so their very souls resonated and glowed for God, but yet not able to see.

My brothers and sisters, it’s time to start our training!!  Our bodies and our souls are equipped to receive God’s love; your souls can be burning too! And you can tell when you are not because you are frustrated, confused, and angry at God. The same menial labor worked day in and day out seems pointless and hopeless because our hearts have not experienced the Resurrection, our eyes have not been opened in the breaking of the Bread.  Our Gospel says that our Lord vanished from their sight – where did He go?  I don’t know about you, but my mind immediately jumps to the bread that was just blessed and broken – the Holy Eucharist!  When you receive God – the Holy Eucharist – do you know who you are receiving into your body?  Do you believe that this is substantially, essentially the body, blood, soul and divinity of our Lord? There are people that say that they don’t get anything out of Mass, that it is boring, and the same thing over and over again – that nothing changes…. Well guess what?  If earth is preparation for Heaven, and Mass is heaven on Earth and you don’t get anything out of it.... then there’s always another place you can go after you die!!!  It’s your choice.  Do not let yourself get angry about the failures and failings of things happening in life.  Do not let the same thing over and over again frustrate you and get confused.  But rather put everything into its proper context (get out of yourself) and your hang-ups, open your eyes, and see WHO is being revealed.  

II Sunday of Easter, Cycle A

Acts 2:42-47
Ps 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24
1 Pt 1:3-9
Jn 20:19-31

Today will go down in history as “the day of four popes.”  Two popes – one reigning and one emeritus – raising to the altar (canonizing) two other popes.  It is truly a great time to be Catholic; to be followers of Christ.  Some of you lived during the time of Pope (now Saint!) John XXIII and he is known by the faithful as “the Good Pope” for his pastoral and gentle heart – and I would probably also say his sense of humor.  One of my favorite quotes from him was when he was asked by a reporter how many people worked in the Vatican he said, “About half of them.”  He was a man of humility, only wanting his whole entire life to be “a simple country priest.” But the Holy Spirit had other plans and being led by Him, St John XXIII was the one that convened the Second Vatican Council and forever changed the course of the Catholic Church.

He did not seek this calling, but rather the Lord called him. Often being heavily burdened with his responsibilities and working long hours, he reportedly said, “Well Lord, it’s your Church. I’m tired and I’m going to bed.”  Isn’t that what our faith is all about?  To totally and fully give ourselves over to the will of God and work for Him; and letting Him handle the rest?  It does not matter if we are in the pew or in the sanctuary, every one of us are all called to holiness; we are all called to be saints – to follow and abandon ourselves to His Providence.

Nine years ago, before I even entered the seminary, I was chaperoning a retreat in Ft. Worth with my high school youth group.  This retreat was always held on the weekend following Easter – called Divine Mercy weekend.  I was college grad, with a steady job, and doing my young professional adult thing (whatever that was…).  We were having breakfast at our hotel and we watched the news reports on the deteriorating condition of the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II.  Pilgrims from all over the world were filling St. Peter’s square in prayerful vigil.  It was an incredibly moving sight to see… thousands of people from all over the world at the Vatican, praying together, hoping that the Holy Father would pull through.  One of his last words, which I always remember and still moves me is: "I have looked for you. Now you have come to me. And I thank you." Such holiness and humility even on his death bed; preaching and teaching us how to suffer and find joy and gratitude in God!

It was about three or four in the afternoon on Saturday in the middle of a retreat talk (I don’t even remember what the priest was saying), when he was interrupted by one of the staff saying that the Holy Father had just died. Immediately we all knew what to do!  We all got on our knees and started to pray – something incredible was happening….there was absolute silence, except for those who were quietly weeping, myself included.  Nearly a thousand people at this retreat. And we were in the best place we could be to receive this kind of bad news: right in front of the Eucharist, the Blessed Sacrament. I will never forget this memory. A sober look at this experience may think my reaction was a big strange.  How could someone I had only seen photos of or seen from a great distance move me to such grief and tears?? I don’t consider myself an incredibly emotional person, but yet I felt such emptiness at that moment.  I felt like my own father had just died!  I did not realize what an impact he had on my life at the time, but now I understand and very much attribute the life and witness of St. John Paul II to inspiring me to seek my vocation – the Call of God.  He helped me to open my heart to God’s will, he helped me to embrace holiness in suffering, and ultimately he was the one who told me… “Be not afraid!”

This canonization is fitting because we have just experienced the resurrection of Christ last week and now we see such an abundant fruit coming from an event that happened two thousand years ago.  When we study the history, we see many events in the Church.  But unlike the history of the United States or the history of the world or any other historical record, there is a unique and personal connection that we as Catholic Christians have – or at least we *should* have.  When we put the canonization today next to our Gospel reading, I cannot but feel intimately connected.  The story recounts the very beginning, the very “embryonic” infancy of the Church, OUR Faith!  This isn’t just another “story” that we are hearing, but this is our story!  This is our heritage!  These scriptures connect us in such a spiritual way that not even the stories of our great grandparents and ancestors can match this intimacy.  This Gospel is talking about the original disciples of Jesus Christ – the very Apostles! – handpicked by our Lord to carry out the mission of evangelization to the rest of the world.  I don’t know about you, but this gives me goosebumps: the unbroken past made immediately and experientially present in the events of today.

Within one week after our Lord had died and risen from the dead, our disciples are found hiding away, locked behind closed doors, and scared of the world and for their lives.  The Apostle Thomas, who wasn’t present at the first apparition, wanted physical proof of the resurrection by sticking his fingers in the wounds of the hands and feet of Christ.  Though he got the name “doubting Thomas”, let us not forget that he traveled the furthest in evangelizing the Gospel to India, and some even speculate as far as South America!!  This just shows how much one can be transformed by the faith – from doubt to the long distance runner for God!  After Pentecost, the Holy Spirit moved all of the apostles to really begin the evangelization and spreading the Gospel, as we hear in the first reading,

“They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers…Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together….praising God and enjoying favor with all the people. And every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” 

And now look two thousand year later, the successor of the Apostle St. Peter, Pope Francis, reaching out and engaging the world with a message of God’s love.  The Gospel is being preached to all the continents and to all the corners of the world, being broadcasted through the wonders of modern technology; centuries influenced and inspired by what was been handed down and from the Apostles in an unbroken lineage.

Sometimes the Gospel message – the Divine Revelation that we have received from God – is difficult to really bring into our hearts.  In an age and a world that struggles with belief in the Good and inflicts such suffering on one another; where sin and the devil seem to be prevailing, the good Lord has given us this gift of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church; and today, these holy saints St. John XXXIII and St. John Paul II to help us and inspire us to not lose hope and to not be afraid!  Yes it’s a great day to be Catholic and today is the day to rejoice in the Lord.  This is truly the springtime of our Faith!! Let us be invigorated and inspired by these new saints to pursue holiness in our lives and to grow in love with our rise Lord!

Easter Sunday, Cycle A

Acts 10:34a, 37-43
Ps 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23
Col 3:1-4
Jn 20:1-9

In recent memory, I can’t say that we have not had a more beautiful Triduum! The weather has been just incredibly spectacular.  I think it’s one of the silver linings of having a late Easter in Texas – it really feels like Spring instead of doing all four seasons in one week.  The trees are green, the grass is green – at least for the next four weeks – and Spring is really in the air.  The neighbors are outside working on their lawn – finally raking those leaves that they left there since last Fall.  People are planting, gardening, and really just bringing new life into their landscape and gardens.  It’s just really beautiful.

In this spirit, I would like to reflect on a particular subject: the Garden of Eden – and it has, if you will excuse the pun – been quite fruitful for me.  When we reach Easter Sunday – the day of our Lord’s Resurrection – and we look back at the beginning of Creation to the Garden of Eden we see something quite fascinating.  We all know what happens in the Garden of Eve – it was paradise right?  Where it is all lush and green and creation was found to be just brimming with life; untainted. And there stood in the garden two trees: Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Of course we remember clearly what happens in this garden because it was also in this wonderful garden that mankind fell.  Out of pride and disobedience, our first parents colluded with the devil and ate the forbidden fruit.  In this little garden: this is where sin entered the world and our first parents were banished from paradise.

Let’s fast forward to the Last Supper, of this past Thursday.  You have to remember the details here because it is the second half of Mass.  However, what I want to focus on is what happens after the Last Supper… what does our Lord and His disciples do?  They go to the Mount of Olives and to another garden: the Garden of Gethsemane.   It was there that our Lord prayed His most intimate prayer to His Father that this “cup would pass from His lips”, yet He was resigned to the Father’s will, “Not my will but Thine be done.”  And finally it was there that He was betrayed by a kiss from Judas.  Again, we find the betrayal of our Lord, this heinous sin carried out in a garden.  You might see now where this is going.

The following day, our Lord suffers persecution; is scourged, shamed, and finally crucified, suffering a cruel and horrible death.  But here’s the interesting twist: the Gospel of John notes that at the place where He was crucified there was a garden (cf. Jn19:41) and in this garden there was a tomb, where He was put to rest only to rise on the third day…TODAY!

I believe that it is no coincidence that the setting of our salvation occurs in a garden because it was in a garden that sin entered the world.  God has a way of making things round out like that!!  But I believe that we can go even further in this meditation.  And the reason this theme has been on my mind was because the week before Ash Wednesday at the very beginning of Lent, Fr. Glen Sudano, CFR gave our three-day Parish Mission.  And he gave this analogy for ourselves: that we are a house with a courtyard in the middle of the house and in this courtyard is a garden.  We can dress up this house of ours and make it beautiful inside and out.  We can make it pleasing to the senses for ourselves and for other people to see, and it may seem all well and good.  But what really counts is this little garden that is growing in the middle of our house – at the very depths of our being.  This garden represents the state of our spiritual soul and reflects whether we have really cared for it, nurtured it, and fostered its growth.  This garden can be very beautiful or it can be neglected, with weeds, vines sprawling around uncontrolled, filled with rotten stinky fruit, and other undesirable things.

Isn’t it true that even today, we can put on our Sunday best, we can put on a smile and a happy face for our friends and family, and yet inside we find a rotten and derelict garden of our soul?!?  Sin enters through the garden, but it is also in the garden where our Lord saves us.  It was there that paradise was lost because of the sins of our first parents, but it is also there that we can be led to something even greater by the Cross of our Savior.  Now we not only have redemption, we have a relationship with our heavenly Father – which is greater and more important than anything else in our lives!  The early Church also latched on the theme of the garden too.  In an ancient homily it was preached:

The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise. I, [the Lord,] will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven. I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as God. The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager. The…banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared…. The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity. 

We are ultimately destined to go out from our earthly garden and into the heavenly banquet that the Lord has prepared for us.  He has not only restored and healed our gardens for us, but He calls us to something even greater.  We are called to share in a heavenly banquet with Him.  And what are we going to eat at this heavenly banquet?  [You can bet this is going to be a potluck] and the dish that you bring are the fruits cultivated from your garden in this life.  Take a look at the state of your garden and take the necessary steps to cultivate it.

All of our gardens require a certain tree – that is the Tree of Life.  Not the tree of life from the garden of Eden, but the Tree of Life that is the Cross of Jesus Christ!! Why is it the Tree of Life? From the wood of the Cross, from the side of Christ there flowed blood and water, the sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist.  Let us celebrate the fact that the Tree that represents sin and death is now the Tree that brings us new life in the Eucharist.  He was hung on a Tree for our sins and died for our sins, so that we may look upon this wondrous Cross and marvel in His love for us.  If you cannot look upon our crucified Lord and be moved from sorrow, to gratitude, and finally to joy… I’m sorry, your Christian conversion is incomplete and you will have trouble really celebrating the Resurrection.

In order to truly celebrate Easter, we must start at the Cross that is planted in our garden.  There is no Easter Sunday without Good Friday.  Easter – the Paschal Mystery – means to remember it all: not just His Resurrection, but also His Passion and Death.  I pray that you and your family have a very blessed Easter.  Today, I hope that you can take some time to examine your own garden – look deep within your soul to see where your garden needs work.  Easter is upon us.  Spring is here and our gardens are ripe for work and cultivation, let us strive to truly celebrate this Easter season in the Resurrected Christ!  Today is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad!! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!! 

Good Friday, Cycle A

Is 52:13-53:12
Ps 31:2, 6, 12-13, 15-16, 17, 25
Heb 4:14-16; 5:7-9
Jn 18:1-19:42

When one struggles to make sense of the world in all its problems, we have only to look at the Cross to know that He’s suffered through it all.  He has suffered the full brunt of hatred and evils that one could ever experience: violated, shamed, abused, beaten, spat at, scourged, and crucified. The words of the prophet Isaiah rings true:

Yet it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured… he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins… Though he was harshly treated, he submitted and opened not his mouth; like a lamb led to the slaughter… he gives his life as an offering for sin… and the will of the LORD shall be accomplished through him.

When we come face to face with the Cross of Christ, we often ask the question of “why?”  Why did He go through all of this suffering for us?  Why did He endure three hours of excruciating pain with His hands and feet nailed to a piece of wood, exposed for all to see?  Why did He endure the scourging at the pillar, the beatings, the constant mockery, the heartless ridicule, and all the false accusations?

It seems so unnecessary and troublesome… why couldn’t He just forgive us, why did He have to go through all that?  Out of love for us… He did this.  But again, the question is why?  From the outside, the world sees us Catholics go through this almost barbaric ritual every year – crucifying Him “again.”  The Last Supper, the Veneration of the Cross, and the Easter Vigil.  Everybody knows what will happen and yet we go through this act every year and we never tire of it.  Do we just love pain and the suffering so much?

It seems that we do – we are the people who rubber-neck at a car accident on the road, the one curious to see why everyone is crowded around something – we are drawn into the spectacle of it all.  But what was morbid curiosity is now at this moment necessary for us to realize that WE are the cause of such suffering – all of humanity, whether you are the aggressor or the victim, all sin was and is borne upon the shoulders of this Man.

The lashes of the whip, the jeering, and mockery… all of those ugly images of our Lord’s Passion is a necessary reminder; not just an intellectual “oh yeah He did that” reminder that Jesus died for our sins, but rather a reminder that one is called to relive, enter into, and remember.  The Jewish Passover and hence our Eucharist is an anamnesis – the calling out of and making present the ONE action, not just in history but for all eternity.  In the same way, the Triduum – the Three Days – is where we bring the past present and into the action existing within the stream of eternity; timeless.  What Christ has done, is doing, and will do is made present and real to us.

And so the suffering that Christ bore then in history, He bears now in the present, and will bear onwards for us.  We are drawn into His Passion – with compassion – to suffer with Him as He suffers for us.  To realize that we are the inflicting Him with this pain and suffering with our sin and at the same time, we are the receptors of His redemption and love for us.

It was not necessary for Him to suffer as He did, but it is necessary for us to enter into what He did so that we can know the cost of our redemption, the price of our salvation.  So that we can know that the sins we commit is made real and present each time we visit the Cross in the Sacrament of Reconciliation asking for forgiveness.  So that we can know that the atonement for mankind’s sin is through this Passover sacrifice of the Holy Eucharist in which His Body and His Blood is offered for us.  So that we can know that since the fall of Adam we have been waiting for this moment so that we can once again have a relationship with God, whom we can now call Him: Our Father!

It was not necessary for Christ to do this, but He did it this way for our benefit: that we do not only have that statement of forgiveness but a constant reminder and sign for His love for us.  Therefore when we are faced with the wounds of Christ, the pain and suffering that He bore, we do not see pointless and senseless suffering, but rather the beautiful means by which our lives are touched, healed, and lifted up through forgiveness, freedom, redemption, and relationship with our heavenly Father.

Palm Sunday, Cycle A

Is 43:16-21
Ps 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6
Phil 3:8-14
Jn 8:1-11

As we enter into the holiest of weeks, the liturgy – that is, the work in which we are engaged at this moment – tends to unfold and speak for itself.  There is not much that I can add when it’s already all been said.  My only desire is for you is to meditate and ruminate on what this Gospel means – not only for yourself, but for all of humanity.

As we divide out the parts of this Gospel into all the different parts, the irony is that you stand there, holding your palms while you are yelling, “Crucify Him, Crucify Him.”  If you haven’t noticed, this is gut-wrenching.  At the beginning of the Mass there was a joyous welcome of the Son of David – Hosanna in the highest!  The palm branches laid before Him in peace and homage to the King.  It is a joyous celebration on the one hand and not more than five days later you stand there demanding Jesus’ death.  The Jews didn’t crucify Jesus, we did!  This is not a mean trick to point fingers, but for us to realize the hypocrisy of our lives and that we are all sinners. Every. Single. One of us.  Do a good examination of conscience with your palm branches – are you welcoming the Christ as your Lord and Savior with that palm branch or are you brandishing that palm like a sword about to stab Him in betrayal?  Or do you prefer the kiss of betrayal like Judas?

This is to help us realize that the unrepentant Christian, the uncompassionate Christian are the real hypocrites in this story and are no better than those who – in the name of “righteousness” – crucified an innocent man.  As much as I know how bad I am or how sinful I am, it is salt in the wounds when someone calls me out.  You and I am guilty; guilty as sin.  But guilt is not to keep us down, but to lift us out of our faults and failings; it is to reconcile you with our Lord so that you can continue to walk with Him.

Until then, today’s Mass “begs the question” – or rather it begs a response, our response: to realize that we are all sinners in need of a Savior; that even though we can claim to love God, every time we sin we are slapping Him in the face and kicking Him in the gut.  Fortunately, this is not the end of the story.  The events today unfold in real time this week.  On Monday, we have our Lord’s preparation for burial with Mary anointing our Lord at Bethany with costly perfume and drying it with her hair.  On Tuesday, our Lord predicts that one will betray Him and another will deny Him. And on Wednesday before the celebration of the Last Supper, Judas plots to hand our Lord over to the authorities.  The path is set, the trajectory is to the Cross where He will suffer and die – only to rise again Easter Sunday.

I want to challenge you today to make a commitment to come to the holiest three days of the year starting with Holy Thursday here at Seton.  I guarantee you Easter Sunday will have a whole new meaning in your life.  You cannot go to these three days if you haven’t gone before without it changing your life.  Ask anyone around you who goes to the Triduum every year why they go and they will tell you.  Unlock your heart and bare your soul to Him who has died for you and let us celebrate the Resurrection in His glory.

IV Sunday of Lent, Cycle A

1 Sm 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a
Ps 23:1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6
Eph 5:8-14
Jn 9:1-41

It is quite clear that the theme in all of these readings is light and sight, including the first reading – which doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the blind seeing or light, but let’s take a closer look.  King Saul wasn’t cutting it as king of Israel and the Lord wanted a replacement so he sent Samuel to find a new King.  From the house of Jesse of Bethlehem, Samuel looks at all the fine sons that Jesse had: seven of them.  Strange thing though, the Lord didn’t want any of them – they were the cream of the crop and yet the Lord chose David – the youngest and tending the sheep, the guy out back, the last resort, the backup of the backup; yet scriptures call him, ruddy, a youth handsome to behold and making a splendid appearance.  
“Not as man sees does God see, 
because man sees the appearance 
but the LORD looks into the heart.”

Many times we are quick to judge and quick to act to think that we know best – as we grow older those habits become more engrained in us.  “This is the way I’m gonna do it because this is the way that I’ve always done it….” We are quick to judge the book by its cover, quick to think we know what the other is up to.  But our Lord doesn’t work like that – and if we are to do His will, then we are going to have to make some changes in our life; making Him part of the decision making process and this is the best season to do that.

The season of Lent calls us to prayer, fasting, and acts of charity to help us rethink what we thought was a foregone conclusion and reexamine our habits and routines that we have built up over the years.  One of my Lenten promises was that I gave up watching Netflix, suddenly I have this new block of free time that I can actually use to sleep or read that book that’s been collecting dust on my table.  The spiritual practices of giving up stuff disorients us in a way, blinds us in a way so that we have to turn to God to help make us see again… and to see the way that He wants us to see.  He is the light of the world.  He brings light into our darkness so that we can be children of the light, and not of the dark.

We in the world – with the gift of technology and communication – we are able to do so much and yet when we are faced with the horrible Malaysian Airlines plane crash in the middle of the Indian Ocean, we are at the mercy of the weather, the ocean, and limited by our “advanced technology”.  When we make use technology as an end in itself rather than a means to an end, we end up becoming dependent and blinding ourselves.  When we make assumptions about people and judging them harshly – including our own family members – we end up blinding ourselves.

The scary thing is… we don’t even know that we are blind, until it is too late and tragedy strikes and we don’t know to who to turn.  We can’t turn to our family and friends because they warned us and we’re just gonna feel ashamed.  We can’t turn to God because we forgot how to pray; and that’s when you have fallen into despair.  It is really scary in the dark – even the things familiar to you like walking around your house in the dark.  How many times have you run into a table leg or a door jam in the dark?  Isn’t it your house – shouldn’t you know it well?  Why are you running into things?  If you don’t know God as well as you know your house, then you are going to have a bad time when it goes dark.  Therefore don’t wait, don’t despair, but turn to him.

The irony of today’s Gospel if you were paying attention is that the blind man is the only one that is able to see.  He is asked three times and explains it four times what had happened.  It almost gets tedious – his neighbors, his family and the Pharisees all are completely blind to what has just happened.  They question their own knowledge, their own habits, and their own son – how can this be?  This man was blind, and now he sees? How is this possible?!  A miracle that happens right in front of your eyes and you are on your smart phone and googling if this can really happen.  Meanwhile we miss something spectacular and wonderful: God’s providence.  There are miracles happening every day, but are we conscious and aware enough to see what is going on?  The spiritual gift of sight is a powerful thing and we should desire to have this as an integral part of our lives to help us not only grow closer with God, but also to help others in witness and testimony to God’s wonderful providential acts.  

We are now at the half way point of Lent.  And I encourage and challenge all of you to persevere in your Lenten practices.  Whatever you have given up, keep it up, challenge yourself and make it harder.  For those that haven’t even started you still have three more to make it happen.  Do not slumber any longer… awake from your sleep and arise from the dead!!  Take no part in the fruitless works of darkness… but expose them to the light through confession and reconciliation.  The light of the Lord will give sight to your eyes and your spiritual eyes so that you are no longer blind.  But this just doesn’t happen miraculously, He can’t force you to do that, He invites you to ask Him to help you.  Be like the blind man – where when one sense goes, the others become more aware; and you take nothing for granted – so that when your sight is restored you have a greater awareness of who is behind all of this.  Today is the day to make these changes in your life; don’t delay any longer.  May you persevere in growing closer to our Lord the rest of this Lenten season.

III Sunday of Lent, Cycle A

Ex 17:3-7
Ps 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9
Rom 5:1-2, 5-8
Jn 4:5-42

It was hot in the desert. He was traveling through a small town, and He was thirsty, parched. He asked her for a drink – “Give me a drink,” He says.  She was a lonely woman, five husbands later, struggling to make ends meet, and going to the well when no one was around so she didn’t have to deal with all the fuss of the other women… all the while still looking for that perfect someone.  She was a little distracted on her way, thinking about how the watering well led to those chance encounters of her ancestors’ marriages: how Rebekah and Isaac were brought together (Gen 24:10-67), how Jacob and Rachel met (Gen 29:1-30), and how Moses met his wife Zipporah (Ex 2:15-21).  Maybe today would be different she thinks and then she sees Him – a little distance away – sitting there, hands on His knees, clothes soaked, perspiring, and looking weak….  This is her chance! Coming closer and seeing that He is a Jew, she scowls and knows that her chance for serendipitously meeting that special someone quickly disappears.  “Sorry dear... not today, not today.”

He asks for a drink.  “The nerve of Him!” she thinks to herself. She gives a snarky reply – knowing that the two of them clearly know that their people have nothing to do with each other – “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”  But even in His dehydration, He puzzles her with this cryptic reply, “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would asked him and he would have given you living water.” “Living water?” She thinks to herself. “There are no rivers around, there’s no rushing or gushing of cool waters anywhere… just this old cistern with stale stagnant water. He must have had too much sun.”

What is this water that this man is speaking of? Water, where if I drink I will never be thirsty again?  That would be great, then I won’t have to lug this bucket back and forth and listen to all those women talk behind my back! “Sir, give me this water!” But He wants to talk to my husband? That can’t be right... how does He know that I have had five husbands?!  Oh, He’s good!!  Clearly there is more to Him than I can see… and now He’s telling me that Jews and Samaritans will be worshipping in a whole new way? This is incredible.  Clearly He must be a prophet…

“But the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth; and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him. God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.”

I know that there is a Messiah that’s been prophesied, maybe that’s what He is talking about. “I am he, the one speaking with you.”  This is too much. I don’t know why, but I believe Him and I have to tell the others. They won’t believe me, but I have to go.



She leaves her water jar. That’s why she went to the well; she needed water – the old cistern of stagnant water – it’s all they had.  But this is something else; something fresh, new, exciting, and profound.  St. Augustine says that her “leaving the water jar” is a symbol for

…the fallen desire of man that draws pleasure from the dark wells of the world but is never satisfied for long. Conversion to Christ moves us, like the Samaritan woman, to renounce the world, leave behind the desire of our earthen vessels, and follow a new way of life. (Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, RSV 2ndEd, p.169)

This Samaritan woman – a recognized sinner, conversing with another man in public, and sharing a drink – has been transformed to both a believer and now a missionary to her town.  What is incredible is that her witness is so compelling that her foul reputation does not distract or take away from the authority and witness to Truth.  And so the townspeople are led to believe not just in her, but ultimately in Christ: “We no longer believe because of your [her] word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.” 

When are we going to put down our water jars of our smart phones and tablets; our remote controls, and computer mouse to be transformed by the Word of God and be moved – no, compelled – to share this Gospel with someone else?  This Samaritan woman is no saint and her past has been burdensome.  Surely if she is able to do it, why can’t we?  What’s stopping us? Perhaps we need to be transformed first…

Do we believe, as St. Paul writes to the Romans, that we "...have been justified by faith… have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ?”  Are you compelled to boast in hope of the glory of God? If there is anything in the world to boast about, it is our salvation through Christ, our Faith, and what keeps us going each day.  If we truly believe that we have accepted Christ and have been transformed by Him, shouldn’t we be satisfied?  We are thirsting for sodas, energy drinks, coffee, and alcohol when we should be thirsting for the font of Living Water – the roots of our Baptism!! That’s why it is so important to give up things during Lent; so that we thirst for Him and not for the world.  It was asked to me why we – who have been baptized, who believe, and are trying to practice the faith – why do we still spiritually thirst and where is this spring of water welling up to eternal life that our Lord speaks of at the beginning of the Gospel?  It is not enough that you receive the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist – it’s not a “once and done” kinda thing, it’s not a check mark next to a box, an “achievement unlocked”, you have to keep going.  You’re soul has been transformed, but your flesh, your body is still catching up.  And God willing, on the day that we die we will die with our thirst truly quenched preferring nothing else to Him.  If Moses is able to strike the rock and have water flow in the middle of the desert at Meribah and Massah, surely our Lord can strike us and have a spring of living water flowing out of our stony hearts.

I believe that is it is no accident that our Lord’s encounter with the Samaritan woman occurred at noon and that it happened at the well – where the Old Testament Patriarch bridegrooms met their destined brides – where thirst meets satisfaction and new life.  Our Lord is also a bridegroom, THE Bridegroom and He beheld His Bride at noon when He was nailed to the Cross on Good Friday.  He had been traveling a long and tired road up to Golgotha and He was weak and covered in blood.  The faithful few stood at the foot of the Cross; His Mother, Mary the wife of Clopas, Mary of Magdala, and His disciple whom He loved to name a few.  He gave His Mother to His beloved disciple, “Woman, behold, your son;” and His disciple to His Mother “Behold, your mother.” And after He had done all of this – what did He say?  “I thirst.”

My Brothers and Sisters, we are at the Well – the Holy Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ on Golgotha.  Here He says, “I thirst.” But it is us – the notorious sinner sneaking up as if no one was watching – who is really truly thirsty.  He asks us for a drink.  But if we knew who He really was, who truly is for us, we would be asking Him for a drink.  We would cast aside those earthen jars, not calling him “sir” or “prophet”, but “Messiah! My Lord and My God! I am thirsty! Give me a drink!” And He will gladly open up His side and from His Most Sacred and Pierced Heart will pour out blood and water – gushing out – washing us of our sins, cleansing us, purifying us, and making us a new creation.  The eternal living water that He gives us is the Precious Body and Blood of Our Lord, which we will drink and partake of and will never be found wanting again.

Who’s thirsty?

II Sunday of Lent, Cycle A

Gn 12:1-4a
Ps 33:4-5, 18-19, 20, 22
2 Tim 1:8b-10
Mt 17:1-9

A popular saying attributed to St. Ignatius of Loyola: “Pray as if everything depended on God and work as if everything depended on you.”  I think this is a great maxim to live your life by.  It shows trust and faith in God AND it also shows personal responsibility in what is entrusted to you.  But there is a danger that many people fall into; myself included.  The temptation and tendency is to do one or the other, but not both.  What good is it if you sit in the chapel all day without practicing your faith in your daily life?  What good is it to just be a nice likeable person without any trust or faith in God?  You cannot do one or the other but you must do both.

Here today our first reading comes from Genesis – the first promise that God makes with Abram.  A promise to make him a father to a great nation, a great “name”, and a great blessing to all – fame, fortune, and power.  If God were to approach you with this offer, how could you refuse? It sounds great!  Well, let’s take a look at the reality: Abram is old and knows that he will not live long. He has no children – that’s kinda important; how is going to be a “Father” to nations without any kids?  [You kinda need water to go swimming right?]  And let’s be real: it’s gonna take a few years to develop a serious political portfolio as a sheep farmer in a foreign land to have any power. He’s a stranger in a strange land, a foreigner with no children and no money; and God makes this grand promise – this is whimsical, farfetched and a little bit ludicrous.  But Abram is one who has faith and trusts in Him.  He obeys God and ventures off, trusting in this promise.  “Pray as if everything depended on God and work as if everything depended on you.”

Our Second Reading from the letter to Timothy again call on us to trust in God

Beloved: Bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God. He saved us and called us to a holy life, not according to our works but according to his own design and the grace bestowed on us in Christ Jesus.  

What we have to go on and live by, my brothers and sisters, is simply to trust in a promise to carry our Cross, especially in this Lenten season, to unite our sufferings and burdens with Him because He came to love us, save us, and set us free.  It is not by our own designs, our own plans and desires, but through HIS design and HIS grace that is bestowed on us.  It is a simple request to trust in Him, but for us who have been wounded by the world, wounded by our own sin, and wounded by ones that we have loved this simple act of trust – hoping against hope – as Abram did, is one of the most difficult things to do.  But yet, when we do – and you can see the proof in some of the people around you – when we do, you will find peace and joy.  Pray for that grace.  And put some more effort into your Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting, and charity.  Pray– not just more, but pray with quality AND quantity.  Fast more – truly hunger for Him in the things around you.  Exercise compassion and charity to those around you; so that you may see Christ in others.  These are the things that increase your awareness, sharpen your wit, and open your heart to the grace that He has for you.  “Pray as if everything depended on God and work as if everything depended on you.”

Early Christian tradition places the time of our Lord’s Transfiguration forty days before Good Friday.  It is only fitting that this event should occur, not randomly, but connected intimately with the Cross.  And it is also why we hear these readings of trusting in God near the beginning of Lent.  What happens before the Transfiguration sets the context to what is happening.  St. Peter has just made the declaration that Christ is “the Son of God”, but immediately sticks his foot in his mouth by rebuking Jesus’ announcement that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer… and be killed and on the third day be raised.  This is Christ’s first announcement that He was not going to be the Messiah that the disciples thought they knew.  Jerusalem, the Holy City, is not only a geographical location but also the ultimate End (read: destination) for us in heaven… the New Jerusalem.  And it has been said, you cannot get to Easter Sunday without going through Good Friday.  We must take that leap of faith to journey with Christ to the Cross – to pick up that Cross and carry it home.  This is the paradox for us and the disciples.  You can almost hear the questioning in disciples’ minds, “How is He going to be a Messiah if He is just going to die a painful death?  How is this going to work?”  How is God going to make Abram a father to the nations without any children?

Our Lord, knowing all of this, goes up a high mountain – taking His three trusted disciples: Peter, James, and John – and shows them what’s really going on.  And there you see this account: his face transfigured, radiating light and his clothes white as light and the two critical figures of the Old Testament: Moses and Elijah – representing the Law and the Prophets, all coming together for this holy meeting.  The signs and the symbols are just incredible. There should be no doubt in their minds: this Man is the fulfillment of the Old Testament – the Law and the Prophet have come to see Christ – and the transfiguration of Christ shows the fulfillment of the Resurrection; that is, the manifestation of the glorified body.  The Past, the Present, and the Future are seen all at once.  If there was any doubt that there would be a resurrection of our bodies, this account should put those doubts to rest.  But of course the disciples are thickheaded thinking that this is just a neato place and so they want to build tents here to memorialize this event. You build memorials for heroes and events, this isn’t just an event but the heavenly reality realized in the here and now.

And to top it all off – the bright cloud descends upon them with the voice, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”  And what are the first words from our Lord’s mouth, “Rise, and do not be afraid.”  Falling prostrate in fear of the awesome power of God, the incredible vision that they had seen – this is not a warm fuzzy – this is, “Woe is me, how can I be in His presence and still be here and alive.”  This is the “utterly and beyond comprehension” manifestation of God, a name not even dared spoken in Judaism.  This is not the fluffy chubby cherub angels on clouds, but a booming thunder.  It is not fearful or scary – but tremendous and so utterly Other – that leaves us not only speechless, but filled with awe.  And the first words from the Second Person of the Trinity Godhead says, “Rise and do not be afraid.”

My brothers and sisters, wherever we are in Lent – if we just had a horrible start to Lent or an excellent beginning, we could all use more trust in God and fortify our faith. Our readings provide a formula for true trust and full faith.  He has shown that we must work hard and persevere, not to our own design but in His.  He has made the impossible possible; He has revealed the future, what is there more to do than to start walking towards Him?  What are those sins that you have not confessed, that you have kept hidden all your life embarrassed and ashamed to speak?  Why is that Bible collecting dust in the corner of your coffee table or shelf?  And why aren’t you giving up the things that don’t truly satisfy you, but rather hold on to it as if you wanted to buried with it?  Our lives are short, but there is enough time to make the changes we need to get right with God.  We aren’t doing it alone, we are doing it together and the grace of God is surely working in your life.  He won’t force you, He is inviting you.  “Pray as if everything depended on Him and work as if everything depended on you.” Trust in God, do not be afraid. Get up and go – walk with Him… let us continue on to Jerusalem.

I Sunday of Lent, Cycle A

Gn 2:7-9; 3:1-7
Ps 51:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 17
Rom 5:12-19
Mt 4:1-11

Last week, I preached about the Stewardship of Time and I felt that the timing of the Stewardship of Time could not be better.  Because the Season of Lent is here, we received our ashes and the time is now – if you haven’t already – to really put yourself into the desert with our Lord.  Every first Sunday of Lent begins with Jesus’ temptation in the desert. The Church in her wisdom has given us these readings to give us the encouragement and inspiration to start us off on the right foot in the desert and to make it a good Lent.

Our Lord is tempted in the desert three times with three different things.  What is the first one?  Food - “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.”  After 40 days and nights in the desert, our Lord was hungry.  Satan is no slouch when it comes to temptation; and he knows that if there’s a weakness with someone who has been fasting for 40 days and nights, the first place to attack would be the stomach.  What is the second temptation? At the top of the Temple in Holy City Jerusalem, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: He will command his angels concerning you / and with their hands they will support you/ lest you dash your foot against a stone.”  Our Lord is already weak in the body, now the Devil is tempting His faith – to test God with prayer.  And finally, what is third temptation?  The Devil taking Him to a high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, "All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.”  Finally, an appeal to power and authority – a test and temptation of the mind – Satan has pulled out all the stops to try to make our Lord fall – body, spirit, and mind: the flesh, the faith, and the power.  Doesn’t this sound a bit familiar?  Perhaps maybe… what we are supposed to be doing for Lent?

I said it last week and again on Ash Wednesday: PRAYER, FASTING, AND ALMSGIVING are our Lenten disciplines.  Fasting involves the body – giving up the things that are non-essential in life, paring back the clutter of our lives so that we can start to hunger and thirst for Him – not only physically, but most especially spiritually.  How can we keep our Faith strong? How is our faith strengthened? Through PRAYER – time spent in prayer: be it devotions, silence and meditation, spiritual reading and contemplation.  Specific time, dedicated time, consecrated time to God in addition to what you are already doing and supposed to be doing.  Be specific and purposeful in your prayer and make it your time.  Finally, as your relationship with God grows, you will be called to put your faith into action, which brings us to our third discipline of Lent: Almsgiving.  Money is always a safe bet, but not always the best bet – everyone is blessed differently to give differently, but time spent in kindness to others, compassion for others, and acting justly and virtuously is always beneficial.  It is up to your conscience to discern what your best spiritual practices are, but they should ultimately all be focused on one thing: growing in Holiness.

There should be some pain and suffering during Lent.  How many of you really fasted and abstained on Ash Wednesday and then abstained on Friday? How many of you all did it for the first time?  If you aren’t used to it, it most certainly will be a very painful experience.  I compare it to the first day at the gym after the first workout.  You go in all excited – I got my gym shorts, I got my Under Armor shirt, my brand new running shoes, my gloves, BPA-free water bottle, and protein shake ready to go!!!  You walk-in, and you start working out, you’re feeling good, feel like you got a good sweat going, look at the time – it’s only be two minutes in to a 1 hour workout.  At the end of it, you are a Complete. Mess.  Yeah, that’s our spiritual lives too – we’re gonna be sore, we’re gonna look all disheveled and need a lot of icy-hot and Advil.  But we are working out; we are exercising our Souls – our Spiritual Life.  The rest of the year we’ve let it just sit idly, haven’t engaged it and now it looks like an obese couch potato.

This is a perennial problem ever since the Garden of Eden – spiritual weakness and concupiscence.  The Good News is that we have the grace of God on our side. And what our Lord did in the desert is for us a model: He did it and so can we.  “But Father, Father, He’s God! Of course He can do it!” I answer, “Yes, but He is also fully human – He is the New Adam.”  He had to succeed where Adam and Eve failed.  He had to do it right and make it right on human terms not on divine terms.  Otherwise, the whole economy of salvation – redemption of man by man – would not have counted – as an early Church Father declared, “What He did not assume, He did not redeem.”

Notice that the Devil only acted AFTER the Father revealed that Jesus was His beloved Son when He was just baptized in the previous chapter.  To have supernatural assistance against a supernatural foe would seem beyond our abilities in a battle in the desert, but do not forget that each one of you are baptized too!  “What our Lord Jesus Christ has by nature, we have by adoption” to be called Sons and Daughters of God – that’s not some cheesy line out of Sunday School class – that is a fundamental theological reality that we quite often forget or don’t even realize.  Therefore, we should not be scared to face these temptations of the flesh, of the mind, and of the spirit.  The question is: What’s keeping you from entering into this journey?

 Join me this Lent.  Enter into today’s Gospel prayerfully as a way for you to imitate Our Lord – His suffering and temptations are your sufferings and temptations.  Go into the desert and begin your fasting, your prayer, and your almsgiving.  Take away all those things that won’t bring you closer to God and start drawing nearer to Him. He is closer than you think.  I realized that all of the Lents that I have been through (it’s not that many, I’m not that old), I have noticed that the more I give up, the more I pray, the more I act charitably – the closer my walk is with God.  I am a sinner, I am a coward, I am weak, and I know that. But I also know that the better the effort, the purer the intention, the greater the reward.  My fellow brothers and sisters, let us journey to Easter Sunday – where the sweets will be sweeter; and the sweetest of all will be our relationship with our risen Lord in the Resurrection.

Ash Wednesday

Jl 2:12-18
Ps 51:3-4, 5-6ab, 12-13, 14, 17
2 Cor 5:20-6:2
Mt 6:1-6, 16-18

*NB* Certain parts of this homily was given last year... still rings true.

Prayer, fasting and almsgiving mark the three major themes of practice during the season of Lent.  Prayer is obvious – we should pray more.  We should spend more time in prayer and meditating on the scriptures and spiritual works, meditating our lives, and most importantly evaluating our relationship with God.  Fasting is typically concerned with food – because it is so essential and in our current state, quite optional: we can eat a big meal, we can eat small meals.  But fasting can and usually does extend into our optional daily habits as well: television, books, video games, internet, shopping, and entertainment.  Almsgiving is another act of sacrifice – it takes one out of themselves and into the life of another.  Whereas the first two are more personal, almsgiving is communal.  There are many corporal and spiritual works of mercy when one helps and supports another.  Almsgiving incarnates – brings into the flesh, as it were – your spiritual works of prayer and fasting into action. The first two purify and sanctify, the last one actualizes.

Perhaps you might be asking: “Why do such things?  My relationship with God is going great, it seems fine to me – why do I HAVE to pray, fast, and give to the poor? My life is busy as it is – nobody has time for that!”  My answer is simply this: Liar! You are lying to yourself! If you have excused yourself from a mistake, reasoned your way out of going to Mass, to Church, felt lazy, or dodged some other responsibility.  If you have sinned in any form – white lies, getting angry and frustrated, cutting corners, looking lustfully or enviously at anyone around you, you need Lent – you need these practices.  Lent humbles us, wherever we are and helps us to see where we are and where we need to go.  Fr. Glenn said in one of his homilies – “Too often we think we are alright because we compare ourselves to criminals and those people who don’t have their life together, ‘at least I’m not them!’ What we should REALLY be doing is comparing our lives to the saints!!”  How true that is! Anybody can set a bar so low that they trip over it, but what good does that do?

Lent helps us to humble ourselves and in some cases humiliate ourselves because once we have it in our hearts that each and every single one of us are sinners and do not deserve anything – even life itself – it is only then can we rely on God’s grace and this divine relationship and understand how we can stand worthily before Him.  When we die, all will be revealed – the TRUTH – of the lives that we live held to us like a mirror reflecting our past as we stand judged before Him. This can be a very scary thing because we have been conditioned for decades to just think happy thoughts and to overlook our shortcomings.  Now is the time to face reality – the reality of the state of our soul.  To strip away the window dressing, to strip away the gilded gold on our souls and to bring our hearts humbly before God to really fix what is broken and to rid us of what we no longer need.  This season is not about damnation, but about redemption; it is not about condemnation but about being picked up and said to you, “Your sins are forgiven. Go and sin no more.”

I have to admit one of my pet peeves is this novel trendy idea: “Instead of giving something up, I’m gonna try to do more of something” and leaving it at that.  As if to say, “between prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, I’m just gonna pick one.”  And while that may work for some, it really misses the point of Lent.  Lent is a season of austerity: somber reflection and stripping things bare.  Why does Lent focus on what you give up?  Because it removes the unnecessary things from your life.  We live in a first world country where we have pie eating contests, hot dog eating contests, where we can super-size, add a side, and multiply whatever we want!!  There are seemingly endless possibilities with what we can do.  And then when you look at your possessions – how many of these things bring you closer to God or is it an anesthetic to numb your pain and suffering?

In this season, the disciplines of prayer and fasting and almsgiving will help us to journey towards healing, forgiveness, and redemption; but the three, I believe, must be used together.  Prayer bonds the almsgiving and fasting, almsgiving bonds prayer and fasting, fasting bonds prayer and almsgiving.  This trifecta of discipline and practice helps us better our relationship with God.  I exhort you to make it a tough and challenging Lent filled with lots of suffering without the complaining.  Yes you’ll be miserable at times, but you’re not to make others miserable!  If you are, you’re doing it wrong!  Some say that giving up this or that makes other peoples’ lives miserable and so it would be better if they didn’t give it up.   Otherwise, you are taking fasting and giving up things in the wrong direction – why aren’t you turning to God but instead…. turning on others?  It’s not the coffee or the chocolate that’s the problem – you can’t blame those for making you fall – you fell because you are weak and you have discovered a weakness for God to work on.  Good!  Stop the EXCUSES!  Really pray about why you fell and move forward to grow with God; we are sinners but it doesn’t mean we have to stay there.

The more you invest, the more you sacrifice, the greater your Easter will be!  If you find yourself frustrated and irritable, that’s when you should be reminded why you are doing what you are doing.  Do not fall to the temptation of giving up your penance, but rather do your penance better and go to confession if you sin.  Confession is not a punishment, but a medicine.  If you fall off the wagon, get back on – this isn’t the Olympics, this is training; if we were perfect we wouldn’t need Lent.

If you knew you were going to die today, what would you do?  You would do the very things that prepare you to meet God – you would stop doing what is not important: anything and everything that was unnecessary (video games, internet, television, sweets, extra helpings, etc.).  And then you would do what was the most important – confession, penance, and making amends in your life – forgiving others and making the most of your time with your loved ones. The ashes that are put on your foreheads are said with these words: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”  When you think about it, our lives are limited.  A single day to a hundred more years is nothing compared to eternity in heaven or hell. We are mortal, we are limited; and the things that we thought are important aren’t really that important.  I cannot tell you how important Lent is for us this year.  With as many things going on in the world, especially in Russia and Ukraine – each one of us need to get on the “praying, fasting, and almsgiving” bandwagon right now and do our part; not just for ourselves, but for the world.

Lent is a season of austerity that strips the leafy branches of our lives to reveal the bare branches of the reality of who we are.  When we take away our coping mechanisms and means of escape through food, entertainment, and luxuries we are left with facing who we really are before God.  And this is sometimes scary – we may not like what we see.  What is life like without the TV on all the time, what is life like without social media?  When you are faced with silence instead of the humdrum of life – can you handle it?  Just *doing* something without taking anything away simply adds more layers to your life.  You are already busy enough – why are you going to burden yourself with more stuff!?  Go to the quiet place of your soul; go into the desert with our Lord this Lent.  Have a one-on-one with Him without the distractions in life – don’t add more layers, but rather take things away and reprioritize life so that the noise of life will not drown out the sound of His voice.  Go into the desert, have that heart-to-heart with Him and enjoy that tranquil solitude that only He can give.

VIII Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Is 49:14-15
Ps 62:2-3, 6-7, 8-9
1 Cor 4:1-5
Mt 6:24-34

We hear in today’s reading from Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians, Brothers and sisters: Thus should one regard us: as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.  Although St. Paul is not speaking directly to us, but rather to the Church leaders; I believe that this most certainly applies to us as well.  What is a steward?  What is stewardship?  We’ve been somewhat conditioned to immediately think: stewardship means something to do with finance or with administration.  Skeptics consider it a euphemism: talking about donating money without talking about donating money.  But spirit of stewardship includes a nice little alliteration of three things: “time, talent, and treasure”.  At the very heart is a sense of duty and responsibility, and most especially privilege.  We are privileged to receive God’s gifts: blessings of time, talent, and treasure; and He entrusts these gifts to us to evangelize to bring salvation into the world, but also very much for our own spiritual benefit and growth.  It would be an absolute waste to bury the gifts that He has given to us and leave it unused.  Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen said, “Most people today want a religion which suits the way they live, rather than one which makes demands upon them. Religion thus becomes a luxury like an opera, not a responsibility like life.”  Our faith demands an integration of the gifts in our life and to be good stewards of His gifts.

Today, I’m here to speak about the “Stewardship of Time.” What is stewardship of time?  It is time spent in prayer with God – cultivating and deepening that relationship with Him.  You might have noticed that it is March and Lent hasn’t started and you’ve been keeping quiet hoping that the Church might just skip it this year… The Church didn’t forget! Ash Wednesday is THIS WEDNESDAY.  he discipline of Lent involves three things: FASTING, PRAYER, and ALMSGIVING. They’re connected if you look at it this way: FASTING or giving up things coincides with the very spirit of Lent: simplicity and austerity. Simplicity is meant to spiritually and physically clear out the clutter in your life and to hunger and thirst for God, making room for Him.  After you have cleared out the clutter with fasting, giving things up, and are really thirsting and hungering for Our Lord, it makes sense that PRAYER will fill you up; He is the only one that truly satisfies and we often neglect that.  And then finally, ALMSGIVING (giving to the poor) – corporeal acts of mercy or charity – is your personal response to God’s spiritual work in your life; you are so filled with Him that you are moved to compassion and love for others.  These three disciplines – fasting, prayer, and almsgiving – go hand-in-hand.  Don’t try to outthink Lent saying, “Instead of giving up something, I’m just going to do more of something.”  Do all three – clear out the clutter, pray to Him, and allow Him to work through you – otherwise you’re just doing your New Year’s Resolution that failed three months ago.

So have you prepared for Lent?  Have you looked at what you are going to do and not do?  If you haven’t started, you’re already behind.  You can still catch up: After Mass TODAY, spend some time as a family and talk about what you are going to do. That way you are ready for our Mardi Gras Celebration on Tuesday and roll straight into Lent on Ash Wednesday.   Really spend time in prayer and ask God what you should do for Lent – challenge yourself, make it pinch a little.  Don’t just make it a program for weight-loss or reading the “self-help” books, but make it a true spiritual journey in God.  In addition to your personal time of prayer, check out our Parish Bulletin and look for opportunities to grow spiritually and with the community.  Seton is really blessed to have so many ministries to help you with grow spiritually.  If you don’t know how to begin, where to go or what to do, that’s alright.  Chances are the person sitting next to you is just as clueless as you are.

Friday evenings here at Seton are wonderful.  So just clear your calendar every Friday night until Easter (I’m serious).  First we have our Lenten Soup Supper in the Parish Hall at 5:30pm, followed by Stations of the Cross, and then Evening Prayer afterwards; three wonderful things rolled into one.  You don’t even need to be Catholic to do these things, so bring your friends and family or maybe someone who’s been away from the Church.  And for all you guys and girls in High School– this is a special invitation for you – you can join me for a special scripture study during the Soup Supper called: “SOUPER SCRIPTURES”!!

Next Monday evening the Seton’s Women’s Club has a special Lenten talk.  There’s a “Day of Retreat for persons with disabilities and caregivers” here at Seton on March 15. There are lots of Bible studies at Seton in the coming weeks: there are the regular ones on Sunday and Wednesday Mornings; a “Bible Book of the Month” on Thursday evening; a study on Corinthians starting on Tuesday evening.  Just check out our bulletin, plenty of opportunities for spiritual growth, time with God – each and every week!!

Of course to be a good “steward of your time” in the midst of a busy life could very well mean that you have to actually schedule time to pray daily.  Instead of a generic desire to “pray more”, lookup our daily Mass schedule and the schedules of other parishes around you and schedule daily Mass before or after work.  (You can look up mass times easily online).  Take advantage of our additional reconciliation times after Mass on Saturday morning or one of three penance services during Lent.

Our readings today speak about hope in the midst of anxiety and trials.  They tell us that we are not forgotten, that we are the most treasured of God’s creation, and that we have hope.  Four times he tells us not to worry – what would He rather us do?  Simply to Pray – to depend and grow in relationship with Him.  We need to pray all the time, but especially in a time of anxiety and trial.  The world out there is only getting worse, but we don’t have to; we can grow and we can trust in Him through prayer.  We can pray, and pray without ceasing we do.  He’s given us a personal relationship with Him and desires an even more intimate one – it can be as intimate as you allow it to be in your prayer.  The invitation to pray is always there, are we going to seize Him? Seize God? One of my favorite quotes is from a Benedictine monk and he said, “Unless you believe that prayer is the best use of your time, you will never find time to pray.”

Among those three gifts in stewardship, I believe that the stewardship of “time” is the most important.  Think about it: Our gift of treasure vary, our gifts of talents and skills vary, but all of us are given the same amount of time: one lifetime.  All of us are given today to use at our disposal; how are you going to spend it?  Are you going to use it to work late or watch one more TV show, talk and gossip on the phone, spend time on Facebook? Or are you going to use it to appreciate one more moment with the one whom you love the most, Our God?  It is a popular saying to say, “Carpe diem” – Latin for “seize the day!”; but I say to you “Carpe DEUM” – Seize God!  Every day and at every moment we can choose among many good things to do with our time, let’s make it a good one!

Presentation of Our Lord

Mal 3:1-4
Ps 24:7, 8, 9, 10
Heb 2:14-18
Lk 2:22-40

Indiana Jones – His father has just been shot and is about to die. The evil Nazis force him to go through three deadly traps, finally to arrive in a room full of chalices.  There are big ones and small ones, simple ones and ornate ones… too many to count.  And then a medieval knight comes out of the shadows and attacks Indiana with a swing of his broadsword; that was all the strength he had. He had been standing there for centuries as a sentinel dutifully protecting the Holy Grail.  That’s how I picture our prophet Simeon – this old man waiting and praying in the dark shadows of the Temple.  Though the scriptures simply describe him as righteous and devout, awaiting the consolation of Israel, our tradition always shows him as a man that is not only beyond old, but practically ancient – living for centuries, waiting.  I cannot help but imagine him as most nearly blind – but yet faithfully waiting the fulfillment of the prophecy to Him: that he should not see death before he had seen the Christ of the Lord. That the words of the Holy Prophet Malachi would also be fulfilled:

Lo, I am sending my messenger / to prepare the way before me; / And suddenly there will come to the temple / the LORD whom you seek, / And the messenger of the covenant whom you desire. / Yes, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.

And just as the Holy Family enters, Simeon is filled with the Spirit and makes a beeline to the Christ Child, took this forty day Infant out of the Blessed Mother’s arms and cradles him as if he was his own child.  You can just imagine the shock out of Blessed Mother… who is this creepy guy and what is he doing with my Son?!  And the words of a beautiful song start flowing from the mouth of Simeon - the prayer that every bishop, priest, deacon, and religious prays every night before they go to bed…

Nunc dimíttis servum tuum, Dómine, secúndum verbum tuum in pace, quia vidérunt óculi mei salutáre tuum… Lord, now you let your servant go in peace; your word has been fulfilled: my own eyes have seen the salvation which you have prepared in the sight of every people: a light to reveal you to the nations and the glory of your people Israel.

My own eyes have seen the salvation… a man – possibly blind from old age – suddenly his sight restored and sees the One who is to bring light to every single person and every single nation, the glory of Israel!  For that brief moment his life is illuminated and now he may die in peace, satisfied/fulfilled.
My brothers and sisters in Christ, this is what we are celebrating today.  Christmas is forty days gone – the decorations are packed up - and this celebration, which hardly ever falls on a Sunday, closes the traditional Christmas season with a final reiteration of the Christmas message:  Christ has brought light into our darkness.  It is ego-centric to assume that our light is actually our own.  We do not bring light into the world.  We are the ones that sit in the darkness that have seen a great light.  It is Christ who is our light and the light that we bring to the world actually comes from Him.  We participate in His light, we receive His light, and only in this sense can we be the light to the world. 

Every year on this day, to commemorate this understanding of Christ bringing light into the darkness of this world, we bless all the candles that we will use for the coming year.  The faithful also bring their votive candles that they burn in their homes to be blessed as well; and hence, this Mass is affectionately and traditionally called “Candlemas.”

As we are reminded that Christ is truly our Light, we remember that the spirit does not end forty days ago, it does not end today, but rather it sets us to look forward to the day of our salvation on Easter.  What is fascinating is that this day, sits roughly in the middle between the Winter Solstice and the Vernal Equinox (the beginning of Spring).  Again, Christmas comes in the darkest and shortest time of the year where everything is dead.  Christ brings light and hope into that darkness; and the candles blessed today, perpetuates this light and hope into the climax of new life in the celebration of Easter, with the Easter candle. The Lord has come into the Temple – the Son of God has entered His House and thereby inaugurating the fulfillment of this promise, this prophecy, to an old man who – in a way represents Israel’s anxious anticipation and bringing this light to the entire world.

And to remove any shadow of doubt as to Jesus’ purpose, let us not forget why our Lord was brought into the Temple.  This was done according to and submission to the laws of the Old Covenant.

Consecrate to me every firstborn; whatever opens the womb among the Israelites, whether of human being or beast, belongs to me.  …And when your son asks you later on, ‘What does this mean?’ you will tell him, ‘With a strong hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, out of a house of slavery. When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the LORD killed every firstborn in the land of Egypt, the firstborn of human being and beast alike. That is why I sacrifice to the LORD every male that opens the womb, and why I random every firstborn of my sons.’  

Although the Blessed Mother maintained her virginity, the Holy Family still went to the Temple to ransom their Child from God: symbolic ritual gesture, acknowledging the cost of freedom from being enslaved and that all life is a benevolent gift from God and belongs to Him.  And so the Law prescribes a lamb and a turtledove or young pigeon as a burnt offering.  Because the Holy Family was poor, they were allowed to offer two turtledoves or two young pigeons.  What I think is so beautiful is that Christ is fittingly not ransomed with a lamb, because He is THE Lamb that ransoms us from slavery to sin into freedom of new life.

In this Holy Exchange the Lord is presented in the Temple, the prophecy is fulfilled to Simeon is fulfilled, the Light to the Nations proclaimed, and the candles will continue to burn brightly to remind us that He is with us and has come to save us.  He is the Light and He is the Lamb.  We look towards Holy Week and the Easter Triduum where we will see the ultimate fulfillment: where Christ, will be the High Priest and the Victim, the Lamb of God, sacrificing Himself and offering Himself to the Father for our sake, to wipe away sin and bring us to new life.  At every single Mass, we make present and realize this incredible mystery of not only our personal salvation, but salvation to the nations.  Every day, every single Eucharist celebrated participates in the single and perpetual act of His salvation, which we see with our own eyes… in the sight of every people: a light to reveal Him to the nations… Therefore, at the end of a long and busy day of doing His will we can rest in our beds and close our eyes with song of Simeon:  Lord, now you let your servant go in peace; your word has been fulfilled…