On the 4^th Sunday of Advent the Church remembers God’s promises through his prophets, about God coming to earth as a tiny child. The Gospel repeats the message of Isaiah in the first reading, written as a prophecy some 700 years before Jesus’ birth.

Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign:
the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son,
and shall name him Emmanuel.

St. Matthew repeats this prophecy as he tells of the Messiah’s actual birth to Mary, when the Angel Gabriel appears to Joseph and tells him, [Read more…]

Now in the 2^nd Sunday of Advent, we remember that “Advent” means, “He comes”. Our God comes to us. Isaiah prophesied to us hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus about the coming of the Messiah:

On that day, a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom.

The spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him ….”

Jesse was the father of King David. Jesus was the great, great grandson of David, of the line of King David, born almost 1,000 years after David.

John the Baptist saw the Holy Spirit descend upon Jesus at his baptism. Who was John the Baptist? [Read more…]

Relations between Church and State have always been wary and sometimes strained, throughout history, from Roman times to the present. Heads of state have often sought to dictate to the Church and even select our Bishops. The latest, most famous example occurred when the President of Argentina sought to name the Archbishop replacement for Cardinal Bergolio in Buenos Aires, when he came our Pope Francis. Pope Francis side-stepped that threat by quickly naming one of his closest colleagues from their work in the slums of Buenos Aires as his replacement.

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Not everyone will experience the Resurrection. In our Creed we say,

I look forward to the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come.

If we read and listen carefully to the Scriptures, some will experience the Resurrection, and many will not.

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Take a look at your prayer. Do you pray? If you don’t, then that means that this world is much more important to you than your relationship with God. If you don’t pray often, daily or even more often, then you have allowed yourself to become more focused on the world and the things of this world.

It is very important to examine your prayer once in a while.

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Would you like to know how to prepare for your eternal judgment? We will all be judged. How can we prepare for that moment?

Prepare to be grateful to God for everything he has done for you.

In the Gospel, Jesus healed ten lepers. All ten were cleansed of their leprosy. Only one was grateful. Only one was saved. He was a Samaritan, a foreigner. He was cleansed of his leprosy just like the other nine. But he was grateful and returned to Jesus. His cleansing led him to faith. His faith led him to gratitude. In faith and gratitude Jesus saved him for all eternity. Would you rather be cleansed, or saved?

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You may recall a series of homilies we shared a couple of years ago concerning the Seven Deadly Sins. In one we spoke about Pride. Today the scriptures speak of Humility, which is the cure for the sin of Pride. It will help us today help to return to understand the sin of Pride.

Let’s recall that there is no eternal life apart from God. Only God is eternal. Nothing else is eternal apart from God. There can be no eternal life if we are separated from God. Deadly sin, Mortal sin separates us from God, and we lose our eternal life. That is the meaning of “Mortal Sin”.

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All too often we are told to be “nice”. I heard Fr. Richard Simon on Relevant Radio say, “’Nice’ often looks like religion, but it is not. ‘Nice’ is not the same as truth.”

We often hear it is better, “To go along to get along.” That is not a Christian teaching. We should be seeking harmony with God. Our harmony with God will often challenge our harmony with the world. If you live your Christian lives, you will frequently find yourself in conflict with the world. If you take the Gospels seriously, you will experience the same misunderstanding and division as Jesus.

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Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth,
vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!

I have worked hard in my life, as many of you have. I have had goals for which I have sacrificed many things to achieve. One of my greatest fears is of finding out that all my work and effort amounted to nothing. Imagine building something at great cost and effort, and then having it completely destroyed. Or imagine having a million dollars, but then discovering you do not have a good use for it, except to spend it on yourself. Vanity. Imagine working on something for years and the seeing it was for nothing. Useless. Useless. A complete waste. These thoughts frustrate me.

People do useless things all the time.

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Have you ever entered a home and felt the tension in the home? Perhaps the husband yells and belittles the wife and children in front of the guests, or the wife does the same thing. Or perhaps the children talk back to the parents in front of guests. Perhaps foul language is used in this home. The residents may openly criticize one another to try to make the other family members appear stupid in front of the guests.

Everyone feels uncomfortable. It is obvious that this is not a place of peace. Anger and resentment live openly in this home. This home is not a source of peace. Hospitality is very difficult in a home that lacks peace. No one is comfortable.

Perhaps every family experiences the lack of peace in their home at different times.

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At that time the Lord appointed seventy-two others
whom he sent ahead of him in pairs
to every town and place he intended to visit.

We have just experienced a modern example of this Gospel with the arrival of our sisters, the Disciples of Jesus. Friday, July 1^st was a day of joy and celebration for our community.

Jesus said,

“The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few;
so ask the master of the harvest
to send out laborers for his harvest.

We asked the master of the harvest for more laborers. And the sisters heard Him. The master of the harvest has sent more laborers to work among us. We are truly blest.

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Jesus told his disciples,

“The Son of Man must suffer greatly
and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed and on the third day be raised.”

This must have been very difficult for the disciples of Jesus. They had lived with him for three years. He had become an intimate friend; closer even than their own families. They loved him. They knew that he loved them. They had left everything to follow him. And now he was talking to them about his suffering and the end of his life.

Why did he have to die? Perhaps every Christian, at some point, asks himself that question. Why did Jesus have to suffer and die?

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He stepped forward and touched the coffin;
at this the bearers halted,
and he said, “Young man, I tell you, arise!”

Jesus did this for the son of the widow of Nain.

Jesus said to Lazarus, after four days in the tomb,

“Lazarus, come out!”

Jesus said to the daughter of Jairus,

“Talitha koum,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise!”

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As Catholics we are “Trinitarians”.

We are more Trinitarian than we probably realize. Just look at the way we begin prayer, “In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” We actually make the sign of Jesus’ Cross on our foreheads, chest and across our shoulders, reminding ourselves of the three Divine persons of God.

When we baptize, we do it exactly the way Jesus taught us in the final paragraph of the Gospel of Matthew,

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you…”

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Happy Mother’s Day!

I find it curious sometimes to see the comparisons we can make with the events in our lives and our faith. Our Mothers gave us human life. Jesus gives us eternal life, divine life with him, through his Death, Resurrection and Ascension. The Ascension is a promise of that divine life with Jesus. The Ascension can be seen as a moment of rebirth for all believers, because he opened Heaven for us.

Jesus, who shared our humanity, has entered into the inner life of God. There is a flesh and blood human being dwelling within the Holy Trinity. The second person of the Holy Trinity is totally human. Pope Benedict has said that,

“… man has found an everlasting place in God.”

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Easter changes things. Easter changes everything.

If the Resurrection never happened, then we would still be cowering in fear, prisoners of the fear of permanent death and subject to the baseless whims of superstition.

Easter is a choice. It is a decision we make. You can choose to embrace the promise of your Baptism. Or, you can choose the path that leads nowhere, back to paganism and Godlessness and superstition.

When we begin to know and understand our Easter Hope, Death has no more hold over us. Of course we are afraid of suffering and the moment of physical death. That is very human.

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Peter is examined by the Risen Jesus, just days after Peter had denied Jesus three times. Here Peter is questioned three times by Jesus. It is somewhat like a Confession, where Peter is reconciled to Jesus.

The vocabulary is critical to understanding this event when the Apostles were fishing in the Sea of Galilee soon after the Resurrection of Jesus.

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Many people think that conversion to Jesus Christ is something that happens only once. Those who have experienced Jesus, know well that faith in Jesus is constantly growing, constantly repenting and converting to Him again.

Just look at the journey of Lent. Every Ash Wednesday we are called to examine our lives. As we grow in faith and in prayer, we always experience our shortcomings and are called to remember his love for us. We are invited to repent and grow closer to him. This is a lifelong experience. It’s like falling in love. Falling in love changes us, and it happens over and over again.

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We are martyrs. The word “martyr” means “witness.” For Christians, we are witnesses to the truth. It can’t be important that the world wants us to keep silent. We are faithful to the truth, even unto death. The truth is too important. We will not play with the truth! Thus, for us Christians, to witness to the truth means to be martyrs to the death, not accepting any other commitment. Many martyrs lost their lives for not accepting any other story.

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