Sixth Sunday of Easter
WATCH THIS HOMILY
Fr. Jim Deiters
I was listening to a podcast the other day which interviewed several professors of history and political science about how to find hope in the midst of the turmoil and divisions within our congress and state politics. One of the professor’s comments was most interesting when she said, “It would help all of us if each person running for politics was required to have a thorough background in both U.S. and world history before acting in a leadership role for our citizens.” As she spoke, it seemed like an obvious requirement to me, as she emphasized this as part of our problem. Whether it be one’s own family history or that of our nation and world, knowing where we came from and how we got here helps connect one to a bigger sense of ‘belonging’ to God’s human family…and the responsibility of carrying forward the torch of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” for all people.
My own amateur understanding of history gets most energized in the arena of Catholic Church History. I get great joy in teaching it to our Seventh Graders by trying to get them enthralled with belonging to such an ancient religion of characters, sinners, and saints. An important part of Church history, that we are just getting to in class, includes knowing the various Church Councils which formulated our basic teachings on Jesus, the Trinity, saints, and the sacraments. The very first of those Councils is talked about in our first reading today, when the Early Disciples gathered in Jerusalem to clarify several issues, but primarily rejecting the idea that a Gentile had to first convert to Judaism and be circumcised before being baptized as a Christian. This was a game-changer for Christianity, (Jews including Gentiles in Salvation!), and this first Council set up a precedent on how Church teachings would be established, primarily by gathering the leaders and praying to the Holy Spirit to guide the decision. Interestingly, it was more than a hundred years later before Councils were held to decide which books to include in the bible, and three hundred years later before we had any official teaching on who Jesus is, as being fully God and fully human in nature.
It is so important that the writer of the Acts of the Apostles tells us not only ‘what’ they decided at this first Council but HOW they came to a conclusion. Their decisive letter about welcoming Gentiles starts out, “It is the decision of the Holy Spirit…and us…” From this first official teaching of the Church in about 49 AD, we, the Church, have depended on the Holy Spirit to guide our decisions on doctrines, papal elections, and all the way down to how a parish is run.
These scriptures this weekend are definitely meant to prepare us for the great feast of Pentecost coming up when we officially celebrate the central role of God’s Spirit in both our Church hierarchy and in our personal lives…to truly know God’s Will and dream for us.
When I think about all of our 8th grade students who recently received the Holy Spirit of Confirmation, and our 2nd Grade students who consumed the Holy Spirt in their First Communion, and each of us who encounter the Holy Spirit at every Mass in these Scriptures and Holy Eucharist, we have access to this powerful, guiding force of God’s Love that we often underestimate. Where did the Catholic Church get this idea of the Holy Spirit always guiding us? Straight from the mouth of Jesus who tells us in the Gospel today, I am giving you the “Holy Spirit who will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.”
Based on these words of Jesus…and how the Holy Spirit has guided the Church for 2000 years, in good times and bad, from the halls of the Vatican to the hallways of our own homes, I am inviting each of us to begin a 14-day Novena to the Holy Spirit…in preparation for Pentecost Sunday in two weeks. I don’t have a specific prayer assigned for this, but simply do this: once a day, for these next two weeks, set aside five minutes to reflect on the role of the Holy Spirit in your life. Each day, give God thanks for some experience when the Holy Spirit guided you through a difficult time; and in the second half of the daily prayer, place one intention, one area of your life, for which you need the Holy Spirit’s guidance about what you are to do or be. I’m not saying you will get some ‘miracle’ in 14 days, but when prayed, with even a mustard seed-sized faith, there will be some greater clarity and peace that God wants you to have.
Our ‘checkered’ Church history proves that the Holy Spirit truly IS guiding this ‘boat’ we call the Church, God’s People. Let us start this 14-day Novena to the Holy Spirit together right now in prayer: First, think of one time when the Holy Spirit helped you in the past; secondly, place one intention or need before God at this Altar… as we KNOW and believe that God’s Spirit will always guide us to the center of God’s Truth and Love.
FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
WATCH THIS HOMILY
Fr. Jim Deiters
Last weekend, after each of the Masses, I used Mother’s Day to take a ‘survey’ of the little children and asked many of them, “Do you have the best mom in the whole world?” About 70% responded quickly with, “Absolutely!” Another percentage took a little pause before answering, then saw their mom was listening and said hesitantly, “sure do!” But when I asked one little boy, “Is your mom the best ever?” he took a longer pause and finally said, “Well, it depends on what ‘mood’ she is in.” To which I said, “Well, I wonder who changes her mood?” He shrugged his shoulders trying to look innocent and said, “Dad?”
Like most children, from his perspective, the parents are the problem! And for most of us, it takes a lifetime to have enough self-awareness to realize that our perspective of things isn’t always the correct one. We need such things as good reading, good friends, and an openness to the Holy Spirit’s promptings to be willing to update and change our perspective of things and people…to help us realize that sometimes our thinking does not line up with the way God thinks or sees things.
For the past four weeks of Easter, we have been listening to sections of the Book of Revelation that describe John’s vision of heaven as a ‘divine liturgy’ with angels and saints praising the Lamb of God…which we also participate in during the Mass. Today’s passage is towards the end of Revelation, and the author describes God as creating a “new Jerusalem” (the Church) and a “new heaven and earth.” It is symbolic language to describe how Jesus’ Resurrection-Cosmic Event changed everything… and that we, the Church, now participate in the things of heaven.
The author is inviting us to see life differently, from a new perspective and paradigm, in which God’s dwelling is already in our midst...since Jesus’ Resurrection took away the sin-barrier between heaven and earth. Because of Jesus’ Resurrection, we no longer have to wait until we die to be very near to God. Perhaps one way to better grasp this ‘Resurrection paradigm’ is to imagine yourself being there on that first Easter morning, finding the tomb empty, and then seeing the Risen Jesus face to face. Beyond all imagining, you would have to change everything you used to think about suffering, death, and heaven...since Jesus himself is now standing before you...as living proof that the physical suffering and death of a body is no longer the end...and the Presence of God is right in front of you! This is why it is called “Revelation” – God revealing Himself – since the word ‘revelation’ means a “lifting of the veil.”
When you believe and admit to yourself that Jesus really did rise from the dead, it changes fear... into hope, and changes suffering... into a path to something new! This ‘new paradigm’ is part of the new heaven and new earth that was created through the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead. It allows us to already participate in God’s plan for the Garden of Eden to be recreated.... where justice in our world is restored, and all of humanity is meant to live in peace...with a renewed reverence for all of God’s Creation.
“Non-Resurrection” people live in fear and try to create fear in others. People who don’t believe that Jesus created a new heaven and earth… give up hope in people’s inner goodness...and exclude people based on race, creed, or political position. People not living in Christ’s Resurrection… think only of themselves and can’t see the bigger picture of what God wants for our world...and thus are not willing to do the hard work of changing ‘divisions’ into cooperation for the Common Good.
The problem we Christians face is that an ‘old way of thinking’ controls much of what we see through the lens of the media and in movies...which rarely give us any hopeful images that God IS MAKING all things new! Our world has too few visionary leaders who truly believe in this Revelation-Resurrection Truth that God is continually making all things new. Some exceptions are people like the new saints canonized this weekend by Pope Francis who model for the rest of us how to be actively involved in charity and justice…and remind us that we are called to be co-creators with God in making all things new in a world of so much darkness.
Many Christians keep waiting for God to simply ‘zap’ all bad people out of this world...or ignorantly think some political leader will fix our problems. To be a baptized person… who shares in Jesus Resurrected life, we have to choose every day to SEE the world as already re-created in God’s Light...and be actively engaged WITH GOD in helping create a new heaven and new earth...where there will be no more suffering or divisions in the Body of Christ. People of the Resurrection never give up hope in people’s goodness… OR stop believing that the world can be a better place if we work with God in making that happen.
Through the power of this Eucharist, let us allow God to ‘update’ our perspective, reshape our vision with renewed Hope, and our re-create our hearts to beat more like the heart of Jesus...so that we can better hear God saying to us, “Behold, I make all things new” for you.
4TH SUNDAY OF EASTER
Deacon John Gomez
I’m sure it comes as no surprise when I tell you that the Catholic Church has seen Sunday Mass attendance declining for many years. Our Pastoral council like many others has asked themselves what can we do to revitalize our parish? They question their purpose or the ministries they provide. They may try to find new ways to proclaim the Word of God or promote various devotions. The bad news is despite all these good and noble efforts, we have not been able to reverse the trend. But today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles offers us hope. Afterall, our most fervent desire both as individuals and as the Church the Body of Christ, is to receive the superabundance of God’s grace, the grace to build a vibrant, thriving, and growing church, but how? How do we build a church that draws not only the faithful but attracts those who have not received the gift of faith?
I’m sure the priests in the synagogue at Antioch were asking themselves many of the same questions when Paul and Barnabas arrived from Perga. They had faithfully and fervently proclaimed the Word of God to the Israelites, instructed them in the law, and offered sacrifice for their sins. Why didn’t they have greater support from the community? There must have been something fundamentally different about Paul and Barnabas’ preaching to elicit such an enthusiastic response. Oftentimes when we compare ourselves to others, we can become bitter when we perceive them getting what we think we deserve. Is it any wonder that the priests contradicted Paul who professed Jesus of Nazareth raised from the dead? To think that the son of a carpenter from the tiniest of villages on the Jewish frontier could be the Messiah, nonsense. But this is the glorious truth of Easter; that which we hoped and longed for, that which we didn’t dare dream was possible, that which we can never fully comprehend has come to pass. God so loved the world that He sent His Son to redeem us from death. A truth that brings incomparable joy. Perhaps it is just that simple, Paul and Barnabas preached their joy in the risen Christ—a joy that was for all people. Paul told the priests, “For so the Lord has commanded us, I have made YOU a light to the Gentiles,” to the heathens, the unbelievers, the pagans, “that you may be an instrument of salvation to the ends of the earth.” Can we find that joy in our Catholic Church?
In October of last year, Pope Francis formally launched the two-year process leading to the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, and Mission,” popularly referred to as the synod on synodality. The Catholic News Agency reported the pope called all Catholics to “look others in the eye and listen to what they have to say, to build rapport, to be sensitive to the questions of our sisters and brothers, to let ourselves be enriched by the variety of charisms, vocations, and ministries.” I believe this is what Paul and Barnabas did during the week they were in Antioch that drew so many people on the following sabbath.
Pope Francis says three verbs mark the synodal path: encounter, listen and discern. “Let us begin by asking ourselves whether we, the Christian community, embody this style of God who travels the paths of history and shares in the life of humanity. Are we prepared for the adventure of this journey? Or are we fearful of the unknown, preferring to take refuge in the usual excuses: ‘It’s useless’ or ‘We’ve always done it this way’?”
The first phase of the synod preparation process for diocesan encounter just concluded at the end of April. Listening sessions with Bishop McGovern responded to the following questions
I am fascinated by these questions because they don’t talk about encountering others but encountering myself and my faith, listening to the voice of Jesus in my life, and discerning the path I should follow. And my answer to each of these questions fills me with joy. I am drawn to Jesus by his mercy and compassion. I want my family and neighbors to know that despite all my faults and shortcomings and sin, that Jesus loves me. The Church draws me to the Lord by reminding me that my efforts alone separated from God’s grace lead to disappointment while my efforts inspired, initiated, and sustained by the resurrected Jesus, nurtured and nourished at this table of sacrifice lead to the superabundance of grace I so desperately need. Alone I struggle like Peter to understand why Jesus had to suffer and die; strengthened by the Body and Blood of Christ I am able to proclaim Jesus as Messiah, Son of the living God. Alone I am fearful like the Apostles in the Garden of Gethsemane; with the gift of the Holy Spirit I can stand before the hostility of the whole Sanhedrin. Alone I am betrayed like Judas by my own betrayal; but when Jesus shows me the wounds in His hands and feet, and in His side I know God’s peace.
Last weekend I had the privilege of talking with a young man who entered the seminary at 13 and will be ordained a transitional deacon next month after 16 years of study. He told me about how he wrestled with his decision to pursue his priestly vocation. He also told me he knew the exact place and moment that he accepted God’s will for his life. He absolutely glowed with joy as he shared his witness.
By journeying with this young man, I realized we start our journey of salvation by witnessing to the joy we’ve found in following Jesus. When we listen to other’s concerns and doubts, we journey with them—not them with us but us with them just as God journeyed with humanity—until they encounter the superabundance of grace the risen Lord has for them. We need to discern the wisdom here in the Word of God and this banquet of salvation on where we must go—where is our Antioch—for the benefit of all God’s children.
On this Mother’s Day weekend, celebrate the joy of your own mother’s love with your family, celebrate the joy of the perfect love of Our Blessed Mother, and most importantly celebrate the love of Mother Church as we work to draw all her children to her in joy.
Third Sunday of Easter
Fr. Jim Deiters
When a group our parishioners and I went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 2010, one of the many highlights was time spent in the town of Capernaum, where Jesus actually lived as an adult, along with some of the first disciples. It is located on the north end of the Sea of Galilee and probably the location where this Gospel scene takes place when the Resurrected Jesus appeared to his disciples. When there was a break in our tour, I went down to the rocky seashore by myself to sit and meditate on this holy place where, we just heard, Jesus himself stood on the shore and called for his disciples to “come and have breakfast.” I tried to imagine that this might be the very spot where Jesus had made a fire and was cooking for them. It all felt very spiritual, until… I thought about the idea that Jesus made fish for breakfast that day! Later that day at a nearby restaurant, I did choose the fish option which the menu boasted as coming straight from the Sea of Galilee. The meal was quite memorable and a little eerie…as the young man serving us was a friendly local guy who looked like he stepped out of the pages of this story which prompted me to ask, “I just want to make sure your name is not Jesus?” (Since I was not ready for my judgement day!)
It’s the only story in the bible where Jesus is actually doing the cooking; and in this case over a campfire, making fish and bread…for breakfast. The story is filled with symbols and spiritual meaning, but I want to focus on just two aspects: the location and the time of day.
The other times Jesus appeared after his Resurrection happened in Jerusalem. Since the author tells us that the disciples were out fishing is a not-so-hidden clue that they had gone back to their former way of life, still not ‘getting it’ that Jesus was calling them to a new way of living…as missionaries to spread the Gospel. Even though we learned last week that Jesus had ‘breathed the Holy Spirit on them,” they thought they could just maintain their previous everyday life. How wonderful that Jesus never gives up on us. We come here, consume his Body and Blood, and often go back to our same old daily habits; but Jesus is never going to stop appearing on the ’seashore’ of our everyday schedule…to try and get us to see our life differently…as his followers and disciples…and not just working, sleeping, eating, and paying the bills. The writer wants us to SEE Jesus in our everyday life…and hear him asking us, “do you love ME more than all this?”
The second spiritual insight is that this all happens at “breakfast” time. The word “breakfast” literally means to “break” the “fast” from the hours we did not eat while sleeping. But also for us Christians, some might remember a centuries-old tradition of fasting all night and morning until going to Mass for the Eucharist…where, in the sacred Host, Jesus feeds us with himself as our “break-the-fast.” One more significant connection to make is that Jesus’ appearance at the seashore in Galilee happens at the ‘break’ of dawn…after a long night in which the disciples had “caught nothing.” Do you hear the deeper meaning of Jesus ‘breaking forth’ light for those in darkness and despair?
All the ‘fishing’ we do for money, stuff, and things to feed our ego and pride…in the long run, all leave us feeling like our nets are empty. Like those first disciples, Jesus sees how ‘hungry’ we are after a ‘night’ of empty nets…and invites us to come to HIM for the real food our souls need. Sometimes when we are ‘out on the sea’ thinking we can manage our life on our own and just keep doing things as we always did, it can start to feel like it has been a long, dark night.
And then, just when we start to wonder if ‘this’ is all there is to life…Jesus invites us to look up from whatever ‘boat’ and ‘nets’ we thought would satisfy us… and see HIM inviting us to a new kind of food and way of life as he says, “Come have breakfast…and follow me.”
The Eucharist IS our weekly ‘breakfast’ with Jesus. It is the Risen Christ who ‘prepares’ this meal for us…to feed us with his very Self. The Holy Spirit called YOU to this ‘seashore’ of grace…where Jesus invites us to become an active part of his Mission of love and peace in the world. As we admit that the empty nets of our life have left us hungry, Jesus asks us, “Do you love ME more than all these things in your life?”
Second Sunday of Easter
WATCH THIS HOMILY
Fr. Jim Deiters
I remember from many years ago my first visit to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit to anoint a parishioner’s baby that had been born prematurely and was in critical condition. When you are in the NICU, one immediately realizes how fragile life is as room after room has a baby that is fighting to live. As we have come to learn so much about the development of a baby in the womb, miraculously, by the sixth week, the heart is beating and the lungs are already taking shape. Once a baby is out of the womb, those tiny lungs beautifully take their first breath, and we hear its first loud cry. While we often take lungs for granted… each breath we take is a gift from God as our very existence depends on it.
It makes sense then that throughout the scriptures we learn that God chooses to express his love for us in the form of breath. The first book of the Bible describes that creation began with God breathing upon the chaos to form the planets and all living creatures. Genesis tells us that God breathed into the nostrils of the woman and man he formed from the clay of the earth. It is God’s breath, in the form of the Holy Spirit that enters Mary’s womb for the Incarnation of Jesus. And today in our Easter Gospel, the central theme of Jesus’ first Resurrection appearance is about how he breathed on the disciples his gift of the Holy Spirit.
This image of God ‘breathing’ his Spirit into us is another great way to think about Christ’s Resurrection and how we share in Jesus new life. Since our very existence depends on what we put into our lungs, the Easter season invites us to be taking deep breaths of God’s Holy Spirit… and to think about ‘other kinds of air’ we have been breathing. For example, if we have been around the ‘air’ of gossip, negativity, or greed…it begins to affect our words and actions. But taking deep breaths of the Holy Spirit throughout our day…produces holy words and actions.
Many of the great prayer traditions involve taking deep breaths to allow God’s Spirit to fill us; but we also need to ‘exhale’ all that is unholy and needs forgiven by God. It is no coincidence that Jesus combines his gift of breathing the Holy Spirit upon the disciples and giving them the power to forgive. Jesus’ gift to us of the Spirit’s power… can help us when we are having a difficult time forgiving someone. On our own, forgiving someone is very difficult. But when we pray and invite God’s Spirit to come into us, we are given a new power to forgive what we ourselves thought was unforgiveable.
In this Gospel passage, Jesus connects the ‘Breath of God’ with the Holy Spirit’s Peace. Each time he appears after his Resurrection, the first words from his mouth are “Peace be with you.” Jesus’ breath of peace helps us let go of worries about our future…or anger about something in the past. Jesus could see that fear was one of the main blocks to his disciples living passionately about his Mission; so he arrives in that ‘upper room’ where the disciples were huddled in fear… and breathes on them his Spirit of Peace. In our 50 days of the Easter Season, keep making the connection between Jesus’ Resurrection and his gift of peace to you.
We have to remember that these disciples were just ordinary husbands, wives, and single persons who started their faith journey in fear and being timid; but once the Spirit came into them, they grew into being our great hero-saints of the Church. They now look upon us from heaven and are praying for us to also open our hearts and minds to the same breath of the Holy Spirit that comes to us in the Eucharist. This holy sanctuary space is, in a sense, our own ‘upper room’ where we gather with our own fears, doubts, and grief. And when the priest raises his hands over the gifts of bread and wine, he calls down the Holy Spirit to ‘breath’ the Presence of God into the elements…so we can then consume God’s Peace. Powerful!
On this feast of Divine Mercy, the Risen Christ comes to each of us in the Eucharist and breathes upon us his gift of the Holy Spirit to ‘resurrect’ us from thinking too small about what God wants to do with our lives. From the very first breath we took outside of our mother’s womb, God blessed us with life. But as baptized members of Christ’s Body, the air we breathe now is the very life of the Holy Spirit. Let us take a moment now…and throughout our week…to practice the prayer of breathing in God’s Spirit… filling us with the Risen Christ’s peace, joy, and hope!
EASTER SUNDAY
WATCH THIS HOMILY
Fr. Jim Deiters
A wonderful Easter gift you can give yourself is a visit to our St. Louis Art Museum and their magnificent exhibit right now called, “Painting on Stone.” The curator pulled together many exquisite pieces of art painted in the 16th-18th Centuries of Europe on a wide variety of sheets of stone. While my breath was taken away with many of the pieces, one that stood out for me, was an image that the artist Bassetti painted of the Resurrected Jesus appearing to his Mother Mary. Even though there is no Gospel account of this, other artists through the centuries have depicted this scene where Christ surely would have come to see his Mother after he rose from the dead. In the painting, Mary is kneeling in prayer after Jesus’ death, capturing a look on her face that is part grief and part shock that her Son is now standing before her in his Risen Body. To me, it captures the mixed emotions we hear about in our Gospel for Easter….as the disciples are torn between confusion and fear about his body being gone, but amazement when the angels told them that Jesus had been raised from the dead.
To make sure that this day is not just about eggs and chocolate, we Christians must ‘re-claim’ Easter as a day to re-center our lives more clearly on this central miracle of our faith – that Jesus Christ really did rise from the dead! But, like those first disciples, how do we wrap our minds around this miracle, in the midst of our personal lives that have all kinds of things going on with mixed emotions…about our children, health, grief, political divisions, and worries about the state of our world…to name a few. How will we keep the immensity of what Jesus’ Resurrection means… alive in our heart beyond today…when we go back to our work week, school, doctor appointments, or endless news about violence and killings? In other words, how will I let the power of Jesus’ Resurrection affect how I view life… and the world?
I invite us during these next 50 days of Easter, to have a daily spiritual practice of what the Gospel tells us that Peter experienced – simply… “amazement,” which is a form of faith. St. Luke writes that after Peter doubted the women’s story, but then saw the empty tomb himself, it says “he went home amazed at all that had happened.”
Sisters and brothers, for us Catholics, Jesus’ Death and Resurrection did not just happen 2000 years ago…but happens in ‘real time’ each time we celebrate the Mass. It is a sacrament of ‘amazement’…that all this really happened! – Jesus died to wash away our sins…and rose from the dead…to give us the gift of Eternal Life in heaven! This is why we need to BE HERE each Sunday…to be amazed time and again…of what Jesus does for us. This Eucharist is what helps us keep within us a spirit of being ‘amazed’ at God’s love for us… when each day of our week gives us another reason to walk down a path of doubt, worry, fear, or hopelessness. If we Christians don’t stay ‘amazed’ that God gives new life after death; if we don’t amaze others with God’s Love when conversations turn dark and gossipy; and if we don’t carry within us an ‘amazement’ that God will get us through whatever new trial we face…then we ‘cave’ to a secular trend of thinking that evil, hate, and death win the day.
We need to teach our young people that, through Jesus’ Resurrection from the tomb, a new kind of Light and LOVE pervades ALL of Creation…which is a thousand times more powerful than evil or death. While humans pushed a stone in front of Jesus’ dead body in the tomb, God pushed it away and said, “no longer is death the end!” Jesus went THROUGH the veil of death to show us that there is Life with God beyond what we see. We must cling to our identity as spiritual beings in this world, created by God and for God.
But this takes ‘practice’ to really apply this Resurrection faith to our daily living. This is why the scriptures give us the word “amazed” on Easter day…to help us see life differently…with amazement at what God can do beyond what we think or see. We Christians stand at a crossroads in our culture and world. No longer can we sit back and assume the Christian message of LOVE will just happen. And promulgating doctrines and keeping to our private churches is a luxury we can no longer afford. The world needs us ‘out there’ promoting Christ’s power of love.
Christ needs US to use his Resurrected Spirit to push back the stones of hate, violence, and exclusive attitudes…since the epicenter of Christianity is love. A simple Easter message – BE a person of LOVE in all you say and do for the next 50 days of Easter…and beyond. Then the ‘amazement’ of Christ’s Resurrection will pervade the world around you.
PALM SUNDAY OF THE LORD'S PASSION
WATCH THIS HOMILY & THE PASSION OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST
Fr. Jim Deiters
So that the Passion story we are about to hear is not just a ‘long reading,’ I’m giving a brief homily BEFORE the Gospel to help us stay focused on a couple things. To help us reflect on God’s immense love for us, in Holy Week, Mother Church asks us to listen to the story of Jesus’ Passion twice – on Good Friday we always have St. John’s version, and for Palm Sunday this year we hear Luke’s Passion story. Each Gospel writer focuses on different attributes of Jesus that reveal how he deals with suffering and violence in our world.
The more I prayed this week about Jesus’ Passion, images from Ukraine kept haunting my mind…as we see a modern-day version of Calvary happening before our eyes. And I have mixed emotions… between the beauty of our liturgy here today for God’s Glory and Honor…while thinking about the millions of Christian Ukrainians who have had to flee as refugees and are spending this weekend using their palms to wipe-up tears or blood.
So that our own palms do not simply become ‘decorations’ for our home, I invite us to use our palms as a prayer tool…by holding it during the Gospel and various times through this week. Only in St. Luke’s story of the Passion do we have Jesus comforting the “women of Jerusalem” and offering forgiveness and “paradise” to the repentant thief on the cross… since Luke wants us to know that Jesus is concerned about your suffering even during his own pain. Therefore, hold the palm branch in your hand as a way to unite your own life with his. Since the palms symbolically represent the branches and cloaks that were laid down on the road for Jesus’ procession into Jerusalem, what do you want or need to lay before Jesus in his Saving Act?
Sadly, in the story, those who sang his praises at Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem…quickly walked away when the hard work of standing up for what is right was too much. Many of those who claimed to be his followers turned their backs on Jesus’ Mission of truth, justice, and peace. In other words, so that we don’t repeat their mistake, we NEED our palm branch…not only to honor Jesus as our Savior, but as a symbol of sticking with him when the work of discipleship takes sacrifices. If we think of the palm branch as connecting us to Jesus’ Salvation we can hold tight to it each time we want to give up… or need his grace to help us imitate Jesus’ faithful example of trusting God.
We just heard St. Paul describe Jesus as “emptying himself” and living in “humble obedience.” While Jesus could have used his Divine power to take down his executors, he chose non-violence and only use his power of love and forgiveness instead. Like Jesus, true disciples confront hate and injustice, not with violence, but with an example of ‘self-emptying’ love and peace.
As you hold your palm and listen to how Jesus faced suffering and violence with saving love, we can rub the palm like Rosary beads, meditating on what parts of our life we need to lay down before Jesus… so that he can raise us up and save us…to be more like him.
Fifth Sunday of Lent
WATCH THIS HOMILY
Fr. Jim Deiters
NASA released exciting news this week at their discovery of the ‘oldest star’ ever seen through the Hubble Telescope. They estimate that the star is over 50 times larger than our own sun…and it is so far away from us that the light from it, that we now see, took about 13 billion years to get to earth; they say is the closest we have come to seeing the “beginning” of creation. Unfathomable numbers. I was inspired to read how one researcher described the discovery by saying, “the further out and older things we discover, the closer we get to the Creator of it all.”
While some people are inspired to go searching ‘out there’ to get closer to God, our Christian Scriptures invite us to go ‘IN there’ to realize how close God IS to us at any given moment. St. Paul had this profound experience of God’s closeness that he writes about in today’s letter to the Philippians we just heard. If you remember Paul’s story, while he was working as a successful businessman, Jesus came to him in a vision and convinced him to now work for God. Paul developed such a deep relationship with Christ that he writes, “the only thing that matters now…is knowing Christ Jesus; everything else is rubbish.” I hear St. Paul setting before us a real spiritual goal…of placing Jesus Christ far above all our other ambitions. He goes on to beautifully say that he is even ‘possessed’ by Christ; and when Jesus has full possession of our life, Paul says…you are able to “leave everything else behind…and have only one goal…to be with Christ Jesus.”
If we think about our relationship with God ‘spatially’…, ‘where’ is Jesus when you talk to him in prayer? Amazing to think…that while God is out ‘there’ creating new galaxies by the minute, he is at the same time so very near and within us. This woman in the Gospel story certainly had her life turned upside down when she encountered Jesus. I wonder ‘where’ God was in her life before this moment? Just as she was at the brink of being stoned to death, Jesus, who was there at the beginning of the cosmos, came into her life, to remove her fear and self-loathing, forgive her sins, and set her free from her past with love and mercy.
She became ‘possessed’ by Jesus Christ, differently from St. Paul, but in such a dramatic way that her memory lives on in these Gospel pages 2000 years later. I imagine her years later, sitting with her grandchild, looking up at the same stars we see, and telling her little one, “you see all those stars up there? The one who created all those…I met one day…and he changed my life.” We don’t know any details about her life after that day…but I like to believe that she was with that group of ‘women from Jerusalem’ in the “Eighth Station of the Cross” who comforted and cried with Jesus on his painful walk to Calvary.
The men who wanted to use her as a ‘scapegoat’ for their own sins…walk away from the opportunity of letting Jesus forgive their own failings. What does she do? She stands there…in silence, in full humility and guilt, and lets Jesus forgive all her past. It is interesting in the story, that if we think of Jesus as our ‘judge,’ he does not speak of what is required for acquittal…but urges that the acquittal, which is freely given, become the beginning point for a new life!
This is the opportunity for grace that happens in the sacraments of Eucharist and Confession. We come before Jesus, admitting our failings and guilt, and listen for God to say to us like he did to her, “I do not condemn you. Go and sin no more.” It is almost hard to believe that… the same God who is ‘out there’ doing marvelous things in our awesome cosmos…loves each of us so personally…that Jesus wants to meet us one-on-one in the sacraments to set us free from our past and create a “beginning point” for new life.
This is what Jesus did for St. Paul, for Peter, Mary Magdalene, this woman in the Gospel, every other saint…who thought their sins and their past were too awful for God; or thought their life was too insignificant that Jesus would die for me?
As we prepare to receive the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist, let us hear St. Paul’s invitation to let Jesus come inside… and possess our whole being with God’s Love and Mercy.
Fourth Sunday of Lent
WATCH THIS HOMILY
Fr. Jim Deiters
One of the many beautiful things about our Catholic faith is our devotion to all the saints who have shown us how to love God with all our heart, mind, and soul. When our seventh and eighth graders are researching which saint to be their patron for Confirmation, they often find it amazing to learn that we have in our 2000-year history over 10,000 saints and various devotions to them. But with so many, some life-long Catholics often ask me about a saint or devotion they are not familiar with, including two people who asked me this week about the “Immaculate Heart of Mary” that Pope Francis called upon to consecrate Russia, Ukraine, and all humanity in his prayer on Friday for world peace.
I think there is a wonderful link between the words the Pope chose for the consecration prayer and this Gospel of the Prodigal Son. Our Catholic devotion to Mary’s Immaculate Heart actually flows ‘out of’ the immense love in the Heart of God we learn about in this powerful story of mercy and forgiveness. The Church honors Mary since it was God himself who first honored her through the words of the angel, “Hail, full of grace; blessed are you among all women.” Let’s look at the connection between God’s Heart, Mary’s Heart, and our own heart.
God’s Heart of Love first burst open when God brought forth the cosmos billions of years ago…as all of creation is an expression of God’s Love. And God’s Love has never stopped pouring out of his Divine Heart, but particularly climaxed when Jesus himself came to earth to draw all of humanity INTO God’s Heart. And since it was the Virgin Mary’s Immaculate Heart, her flesh and blood, that gave us our Savior, we often turn to her intercession to help us humans reconnect our ‘umbilical cord’ to God’s outpouring heart of love. At a time when we see the ravages of war going on, Pope Francis challenges us to look into our own heart to be converted from anything that adds hatred or selfishness to God’s world.
This is the core lesson we are meant to learn from the Prodigal Son parable…as the young man comes to this conversion point in his life…in realizing how much he NEEDS his father’s forgiveness for his selfish behavior. Since selfishness is often at the core of our sins, we look to the example of Mary’s Heart to learn how to put the needs of others before our own.
The word we use for this ‘process’ of recognizing our selfishness, asking God’s forgiveness, and living out Jesus’ selfless, non-violent love…is the word “reconciliation.” And in our second reading to the Corinthians, St. Paul speaks of “reconciliation” as a “ministry” we are each given to DO on behalf of Jesus Christ. Imagine how that changes how we think about going to confession! When we admit our sins and God forgives US, Paul says that God gives us the ‘ministry’ of going out to better forgive others! Or as St. Paul says so eloquently, “we are ambassadors for Christ” when we accept God’s forgiveness of us…and then practice that same kind of forgiveness on others.
The image that comes to mind for this… is a sacred ‘blood flow’ from the Heart of God into our own heart…that we then let flow into the lives of others. Divine, universal ‘cardiac healing’ taking place each time we come back to God for reconciliation and then offer reconciling love to others…even when it may seem like the other person doesn’t deserve it.
This is why the prayer Pope Francis wrote and prayed over the world is not about ‘one person’ being the problem. True, Christ-like, world-wide reconciliation is something every single one of us has to participate in and activate, in order for true WORLD peace to ever come about. Each time we go to confession to let God’s reconciling love flow into our heart and mind…and then flow OUT of us in each act of forgiveness we offer to others…is contributing to God’s vision for universal peace.
In medical terms, we might think of these challenging scriptures as an EKG; an ‘electrocardiogram’ to evaluate anything that’s going on in our heart that is not in ‘rhythm’ with the hearts of Jesus and Mary. As we let the Holy Spirit in this Eucharist do a thorough examination of anything that needs reconciled with God or others, we invite Jesus’ reconciling love to flow from God’s heart into our own.