No nation has outlived the death of their God.  Go back and look at world history.  No nation has outlived the death of their God.

On Tuesday our nation will vote for the next President and Congress.  This season has been a difficult test for many of our citizens.  The pandemic, the quarantines, public chaos and mayhem, etc.  Many things that are important to Catholics, and to many Christians are about to be decided for some time to come.  We pray to our God that He will preserve our nation and our values.  We pray that we will emerge still “One Nation Under God” as our national motto says, because … no nation has outlived the death of their God.

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On October 11^th, last Sunday, Pope Francis beatified a new saint, an Italian teenager, Carlo Acutis, who died of leukemia in 2006 at age 15.  Blessed Carlo was just a normal teen who loved soccer, but really loved computers.  He loved his PlayStation, making videos, had a cellphone and an e-mail address and embraced the web and the internet.  Just a modern, ordinary kid.

Carlo attended Mass daily, they say, from the time of his First Holy Communion, at age 7.  He fell in love with the Eucharist.  He fell in love with computers and began studying computers, graphic design and programming around the age of 9. He created a website to catalog Eucharistic miracles.  Carlo learned self control, and would self-limit his time on the computer and other activities to keep them from taking control of his life.  He is called the patron saint of the Internet, for the good use he found in it.

He performed many good works for the less fortunate, and brought many to the Catholic faith, including his own mother.  Carlo said of the Eucharist, “the more Eucharist we receive, the more we will become like Jesus, so that on this earth we will have a foretaste of heaven”.

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Perhaps we are challenged from time to time to explain the Holy Bible, or our own faith.  Perhaps few things in Sacred Scripture explain God’s Word better than the story of God’s vineyard, as sung by Isaiah and repeated by Jesus as a parable.

Every Israelite and Jew knew Isaiah’s song of his friend’s vineyard, written perhaps 700 years before Jesus’ birth, prior to the Babylonian Exile.  Everyone knew the vineyard referred to Israel and Judea and Jerusalem.  The vineyard and the garden were God’s blessings to his people, prepared especially for the people He loved.  Adam and Eve defiled the Garden with their disobedience and had to leave the Garden.  They lost their eternal life by their Original Sin.

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Cain and Abel were the first children of Adam and Eve.

Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go out in the field.” When they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

Then the LORD asked Cain, Where is your brother Abel? He answered, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”

From the beginning of the revelation of God’s Word to man, this question has been central to our Faith, and to our identity as children of God, “Am I my brother’s keeper.

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No faithful Israelite would ever go to Caesarea Philippi.  If a faithful Jew or Israelite went to Caesarea Philippi, they would have to undergo a period of purification or cleansing before they could rejoin their community.

At the time of Jesus’ ministry, Caesarea Philippi would have been equivalent to our Las Vegas today.  It is located on Mount Hermon about 20 miles north of the Sea of Galilee.  It is known for the headwaters of the river Jordan, and for being one of the most pagan, most demonic places in Palestine.  There was a deep, vertical cave there called the “Gate of Hell”.  The cave is still there in the side of a massive cliff.  A temple to the pagan god Pan covered the cave entrance.  Today the spot is known as “Banias”, for Pan.  Human sacrifices were often practiced there, including the killing of children and adults, by tossing them down into the deep cave.  Caesarea Philippi was a dark, evil place.

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“Give me that old-time religion,
Give me that old-time religion
Give me that old-time religion
It’s good enough for me ….”

That is a familiar song in America, particularly among Protestants.  The problem is that there never was an “old time religion”.  It never existed.  This is a false narrative.

The song expresses a longing for a comfortable religion from the past, free of conflict, a stable religion.  There never was such a Christian religion.  True Christian faith is full of conflict in every generation.  It was always that way.

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Deacon Willie Cortez: A Reflection

Once in a while, each of us has to eat “humble pie”.  I am now eating “humble pie” before our God, who gives us everything that is good.  Once in a while God reminds us to wait on him and learn patience. We follow Him, – – not the other way around. This causes some humbling moments for me, and I’ve had a few lately.

I’ve been directing a lot of my energy in recent months and years on a few projects to benefit our community.  I just tend to forget who is driving the boat.

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As the Pandemic and quarantine closed things down around the world, we closed our churches worldwide.  We learned to live-stream Masses all over the world.  Church attendance and revenues plummeted.  Many of our institutions may be closed permanently as we emerge from the crisis.  Things will be different.  We are hearing wails of woe: “This is the end of the Church!” Or, “This pandemic is God’s punishment of the world!” 

However, this is not the end of the Church.  The pandemic is a huge, worldwide, world-changing event, but it is not the first pandemic the Church has experienced.  The Church will survive and be even stronger.  God is doing something.  God is doing something with BIG blessings!  We just can’t see them yet.  Watch carefully.  God’s Grace is at work.  Pray to remain part of God’s plan.  Do not be afraid.  Do not lose Hope.

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None of us will ever forget the year 2020.  Presidential impeachment.  Coronavirus and quarantine.  Economic shutdown.  Churches closed.  Widespread fear.  And, we are not even halfway through the year.  I cannot remember another year so full of frightful narratives.  Fear is widespread.  An unarmed black man named George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police.  A video of the killing went viral, leading to nationwide riots.  The narrative spread that police target blacks and kill them.  Now there are growing reports of insurrectionists manipulating the crowds in the riots and pre-staging bricks and bombs for destruction.

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“Lord, you will show us the path of life.”

God has a way of changing our plans.  Something profound happens in our lives, expected or unexpected, and our lives can never be as before.  Think about your wedding day, or the birth of a child.  At that point our lives are changed forever, and we have new destinies.

We could be speaking of the Coronavirus pandemic.  We will not be returning to “normal”.  We may still have some familiar parts of our former lives, but we will not ever live the life we knew in 2019.  The events of Winter and Spring, in the year of our Lord 2020, have changed our destinies.  We do not know where this will lead us.  We must learn to trust the Lord.

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I doubt any of you will forget Palm Sunday and Holy Week the Year of Our Lord 2020.

These are tough times.  Some are suffering.  Some are dying.  Some have great fear and anxiety.  All of us have lost our freedoms due to the pandemic and the fear.  No one knows what the next week will bring, much less the time between now and Mother’s Day, May 17.  That is the date I have chosen for my horizon.  What happens between now and Mother’s Day will shape our earthly lives forever.  Most of the damage will have peaked by then.  We will be different.  We don’t know how.  But we will never be the same.  The unique solution for Christians is to trust in Jesus, and unite our sufferings to his Passion and Death.  Pay close attention to the scriptures this week.  Know your own sufferings.  Unite yourself to Jesus this week.

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These times we live in are remarkable.  None of us have ever experienced anything like it in our lifetimes.  There is a lot of fear in the world right now.  Most countries of the world are experiencing this tragedy of pandemic, sickness and death.  And isolation and fear.  We are all being tested.

I hope you saw Pope Francis’ Holy Hour and the Blessing “Urbi et Orbi” yesterday.  It was a remarkable message of Hope, Faith and Unity, watched by millions around the world.

Are you afraid?  Today, in the Gospel we are all challenged. Jesus told Martha,

“I am the resurrection and the life;
whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live,
and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.

And he said to her,

Do you believe this?”

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We hear in Psalm 33,

Our soul waits for the LORD, …
May your kindness, O LORD, be upon us
who have put our hope in you.

Perhaps one of the most difficult things for American Christians and Catholics is to put our hope and trust in the Lord.  Really, really trust in Him.  Not just to believe, but to put our lives in his hands.

The readings today give us three figures who truly live the words of the “Our Father”, … “… thy will be done.”

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God calls his people to do His Will.  There is no one here who is not being called by God.  We are a people called by God.  You can’t sit this one out.  There are no sidelines or observers if you are of this people.  We were included and called by our Baptism.

The Israelites were a people formed by God from ancient times, a people of shepherds and wanderers called together and formed to be one people; God’s people.  Jews and Israelites are our older brothers and sisters in Salvation History.  Their story is our story.  Their call is our call.

Isaiah was God’s servant, saying,

“Now the LORD has spoken
who formed me as his servant from the womb,
that Jacob may be brought back to him
and Israel gathered to him ….”

Jeremiah said he was called by God from his mother’s womb.

St. Paul says he was called by God.

John the Baptist was called, saying,

 “… the reason why I came baptizing with water
was that he might be made known to Israel.”

But there is much more here.  Isaiah heard from God,

“It is too little, the LORD says, for you to be my servant,
to raise up the tribes of Jacob,
and restore the survivors of Israel;
I will make you a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”

Around the year 931 BC the single kingdom of Israel which David and Solomon had ruled, split.  The northern tribes were called “Jacob” or “Israel”.  We later hear the southern tribes referred to as Judah, with their capital in Jerusalem.  Later, the Assyrians captured the northern tribes, and they disappeared, leaving a great sorrow in all Jews and Israelites.  God sent prophets and promises that he would,

“ … raise up the tribes of Jacob,
and restore the survivors of Israel”

By the time of Jesus, all that was left of God’s people were the Jews in the southern kingdom of Judah, the “Jews”.

Finally, we hear that Jesus’ first mission was to restore the tribes of Israel.  Because, Israel was originally formed so that all nations could be saved by the nation of Israel, Israel was always destined by God to bring salvation to the world.  God told them through Isaiah,

“I will make you a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”

The Psalm provides us the proper response as God’s people,

“ Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will”

St. Paul calls to gentiles (We are gentiles called to God by our Baptism), saying,

“to you who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy,
with all those everywhere who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.”

We are “called to be Holy”; that means to be with God.

John the Baptist said, when he saw Jesus approaching him,

“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”

And, John explained,

“… the reason why I came baptizing with water
was that he might be made known to Israel.”

And after John baptized Jesus, he said to his followers,

“Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God.”

So, John the Baptist was called to make known to Israel that Jesus was the Son of God.  Isaiah was called to prophesy about Israel and Jesus as the light to the world.  Paul was called to evangelize the world outside of Israel, the gentile world.  We are called to be the light to all nations.

How should we respond?

“ Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will”

The Gospel today waits for our response.

“Here I am, Lord.  You can count on me.  You can count on me.”

 

Where did the Bible come from? In recent generations Catholics in Texas find themselves surrounded by beliefs arise in predominantly Protestant influences. So, where, exactly did the Bible come from?

The Bible came from the Mass. From the earliest generations of the Church, when Bishops met in large groups or synods, they would ask one another what scriptures do you read at Mass? This all happened even before there was a Bible, which actually took two or three centuries. They did always read the Old Testament at Mass. In the beginning, the New Testament did not yet exist, as it was written mostly in the first century of the Church. Many things were read at Mass early on, even things that today we do not consider as part of the Bible. Gradually, they acquired and began reading at Mass the four Gospels and the letters of Paul, James, John and Peter. And so, the formation of the Canon of the Bible, the official collection of the books of the Bible as the Word of God, came about through generations of Bishops asking one another, “What do you read at Mass as the Divine Word of God?”

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In the first reading the prophet Habakkuk asks a question many of us ask sometimes in our faith life.

How long, O LORD?  I cry for help
 but you do not listen!

We may doubt God is really doing anything, and that our faith is in vain.

In the Gospel, we hear the apostles struggling with their doubts when they say to Jesus,

Lord, “Increase our faith.” 

Jesus essentially tells them they have enough faith.  They just need to learn patience in God and trust him, and do their work.

St. Paul tells his younger companion, Timothy, probably a new Bishop of Ephesus,

I remind you, to stir into flame
the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands.(Timothy’s ordination)
For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice
but rather of power and love and self-control. 

In the case of Habakkuk, he was probably giving his prophecies shortly before 587 BC, when the dreaded Babylonians would come and destroy Jerusalem and take the Jews into exile in Babylon for the next 70 years.  There is the question we all hear:  Why does God permit evil and destruction?

For generations, the Jews had turned their back on God and the teachings of their faith.  There was rampant corruption and violence, with the strong in Judah abandoning their faith, and taking advantage of the poor, not unlike today.  The Jews apparently counted upon God’s protection, but they themselves were probably worse than what they expected from the feared empire of Babylon.  Several prophets had come to warn them, including Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Habakkuk.  Habakkuk was now saying, it’s over.  That’s the last straw.  Jerusalem will be destroyed and the people were going to be sent into exile.

Habakkuk was also saying, “Lord, get on with it!  Make it happen soon!”  God replied to Habakkuk,

“Write down the vision (of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Exile) clearly upon the tablets,
 so that one can read it readily.
 For the vision still has its time,
 presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint;
 if it delays, wait for it,
 it will surely come, it will not be late.
 The rash one has no integrity;
 but the just one, because of his faith, shall live.”

Often we are “rash”, demanding of God, insisting He act upon our instructions. It may be something like, “God, please make this happen!  I’ll give you until Thursday.”

The lesson God gives us is that His promise is true, and his chastisement is for our good.  As I said, there was much evil in Jerusalem, probably equivalent to any evil in Babylon.  Jerusalem had become like Babylon. Jerusalem had been warned by God, through the prophets, but rejected the warnings.  The destruction and exile happened in 587 BC.

Therefore, we must learn to be patient and wait on Him, not the other way around.  God says, “Wait for it.  Turn to me.” We must learn to endure God’s chastisement, because He is perfecting us, not the other way around.  Our impatience is often against God.  He asks us for patience in our faith and endurance.

In the Gospel, Jesus is showing us how to serve one another, patiently, in faith, when he said.

“Who among you would say to your servant
who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field,
‘Come here immediately and take your place at table’? 
Would he not rather say to him,
‘Prepare something for me to eat.
Put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink.
You may eat and drink when I am finished’? 

Allow me to share a different way to think about this parable.  Think about the “Last Supper”.  Jesus has just come in from tending the sheep.  Jesus is the servant.  We are the ones saying, “Prepare something for me to eat … put on your apron and wait on me.”

At the Last Supper, Jesus takes a towel and washes the apostles’ feet. Jesus is the servant at the Last Supper who serves his apostles, before and during the Supper.  He shows us exactly how to become the true servant who does what is expected of him, only eating after his service is finished. Jesus is the servant who feeds us, and asks us to do likewise.  Do your job. Complete your ministry without grumbling.  That is the faith of the mustard seed that can move mountains.

Instead of saying, “Lord, increase my faith”, we must simply do what is expected of us.  Then, he will give us rest, only after we have completed our task.

So, as St. Paul tells the young bishop, St. Timothy,

… stir into flame
the gift of God that you have …

… Take as your norm the sound words that you heard from me,
in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 

Love grows.  Love matures. Love can be messy.

When I engage in marriage prep, I love to use love stories. I recall an interview I heard on National Public Radio years ago.  NPR was doing a series on marriage, and they interviewed an older married woman about her marriage.  The interviewer asked, “Was it love at first sight?”  The woman answered, “No.  But it is now.”

She revealed that her love for her husband had evolved.

Let’s take a look at the situation of Martha and Mary.

Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me.The Lord said to her in reply, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.”

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I mentioned at the beginning of our pilgrimage the importance of knowing the difference between “tourism” and “pilgrimage”.  We should consider another spiritual dimension:  A pilgrimage should involve discernment, or an intention.

Jesus’ last evening at Gethsemane was a discernment.  He was completely free.  He knew he had a choice.  He knew what his choices were.  He knew what was coming.

The word Gethsemane is derived from the word for oil press.  Gethsemane was not only an olive grove, but also a place where the oil was pressed out of the olives.

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The first written teaching we possess regarding the Eucharist, the Holy Mass, comes to us from St. Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, written from Ephesus to the Church in Corinth around the year 56, some 23 years after Jesus’ crucifixion.

I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, 
that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, 
took bread, and, after he had given thanks,
broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.”
In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, 
“This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

By this we see that the Church had the custom of the Holy Mass very early after the Resurrection and Pentecost of Jesus.

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