Jn 14:7-14 Finding God

Jn 14:7-14 Finding God

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“If you know me, then you will also know my Father…Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”

How can we find God? I think the answer rests in the Instruction Manual, in the Holy Bible: “Go throughout the world and baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And remember, I will be with you till the end of time.” A great way for anyone to find God is to see Him in his people.

Someone once told me a delightful story. I cannot remember where or when it took place. I just remember the most important part of the story. It goes something like this: A parishioner asked the local pastor if he could put him in contact with someone who was on fire for the Lord. The pastor instinctively said, “Of course.” But when he began to think about it, he could not think of a single name in his parish. So what did he do? He resolved to be that person! He brought his parish back to life. I would not be surprised if that parishioner was the Lord.

A great way for anyone to find God is to see Him in his people. But the best way to find God is to seek Him. This is what happened to Andre Frossard. He was born in France in 1915. His parents were members of the Communist Party. His Father was the first Secretary General (head) of that party! He was educated in a totally atheistic environment. He encountered the Lord at the age of twenty and in a very surprising way. While waiting at a bus stop he decided to enter, for the first time in his life, a Church. It was a Catholic Church. He walked in at 5:10 pm an atheist and walked out at 5:15 pm a “Catholic, Apostolic and Roman!” In his hard-to-find autobiography, God Exists and I have Met Him, he writes “When I walked into the Church I was twenty years old. When I walked out I was a child, ready to be baptized.” He became a world renowned journalist and a great defender of the faith. He was also somewhat of a prophet. When Blessed John Paul II was elected Pope, he wired his French newspaper, “This is not a Pope from Poland. This is a Pope from Galilee.” He was right!

“Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these.”

What are some of things we can do to help others find God? 1) We should take time, on a daily basis, to meditate on the life of the Lord so that we can offer our friends (and strangers) someone other than ourselves. 2) We should offer up our prayers for those who are in need, and let them know that they and their intentions are being looked after. 3) We should always invite non-Catholics to the Catholic Church. After all, it is a gift that many of us received from birth. And if that is the case, then you should know why: We have been called to be in the front lines of the new evangelization. 4) We should never turn our backs on anyone, not even the hardest of basket cases.

This past Easter, over 900 former Anglicans were received into the Catholic Church, including sixty-one former Church of England priests. The priest shortage in England just officially came to an end. The Lord provided in a way that had never been imagined! Once again, it is a sign from God that he loves his Church. Even the recent scandals are a sign of God’s love for His Church: He is purging and purifying at the same time. He is making holy his bride.

Jn 14:1-4 Troubled Hearts

Jn 14:1-4 Troubled Hearts

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“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me.”

Not too long ago a young man asked me an all too common question. “Father, do you always need to go to Confession to get all your sins forgiven?” I told him, “No, only for the worst sins.” He shook his head, looked at me with the saddest eyes and said, “That’s why Confession is so hard! Why does it have to be for the worst things?” I asked him, “Why are you looking so sad? Don’t you remember? Or have you forgotten? Confession is only for the worst sins, when you hate yourself the most, because that's when you need to hear Christ's love for you the most.”

Troubled hearts are broken hearts and broken hearts are the result of sin. My sins makes it very hard to believe in God, in others and even in myself. Our fallen nature, our sins, can make us feel as if life is hard and almost not worth living! But we must never forget that sin is the lens that distorts our vision - our view towards God, towards others and even towards ourselves. Sin makes us short-sighted, near-sighted, and for this reason we experience tunnel vision far too often. Sin has turned us into inferior creatures, and we were never created to be inferior. Due to sin, we can only see what is in front of us, close up, but never the obvious. Yes, we are damaged. We can’t go beyond our sight to the reality of faith. Faith helps man recover his vision and reach the Heavens. The Lord helps us to see, with new eyes, the Father’s revelation for he is the Father’s word made flesh, visible! We know God because we know Christ. As G.K. Chesterton points out, “Revelation means to reveal reality. What makes a religion? Revelation. Revelation is a religion…it is a vision, and a vision received by faith; but it is a vision of reality. Faith consists in a conviction of its reality.”

Believe God; believe also in me means we don’t have to resort to human inventions for explanations. There is a difference between myths and religion, because there is a difference between day dreams and visions. It is the difference between telling a ghost story and seeing a ghost (G.K. Chesterton).

Jesus invites us to have eyes open to Him, and we know the eyes are the means to the heart. “Do not let your hearts be troubled…I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.” There is nothing more important in life than knowing the Way to live it, the Truth behind it and the expectancy of it. The vision in the Upper Room was a reality; it shaped the lives of Eleven Men. The Twelfth man had gone missing because he thought he knew the end of the story. His life was lived like his faith: short-sighted and short.

The Apostles had their eyes opened on the day of Pentecost and they remained opened until angry men shut them tight forever. But before they did, the disciples had multiplied and reached the ends of the earth. They had made it through the valleys of tears to tell men and women of good will the Good News that would last forever, for truth endures the test of time and men!

What makes a great story? A great ending. And a great ending is a surprise ending. The Lord gave us a surprise beyond all our imagining!

Sin destroys happy endings and makes them boring. Sin creates an ending similar to its beginning: an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, a face for a face. How boring! The Lord invites us, through his passion and resurrection, to try something different the next time we are tempted! Instead of succumbing to retaliation or revenge, try forgiving…for they know not what they do! That will always make a fantastic love story; a great ending that settles our hearts for good.

Jn 13:16-20 Imagine

Jn 13:16-20 Imagine

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“Whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me…No slave is greater than his master nor any messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it.”

There it is! You read it yourself. We are called to be authentic ambassadors of the Lord. We are called – actually sent – to represent the Lord wherever he wants, whenever he wants, throughout the world and throughout our life. Imagine for just a moment what that would mean. Imagine for a moment if I never said “No” to the Lord or if my life was a constant “Yes” to Christ. What would that mean? A new world! A new world order where loves reins supreme, forgiveness is ordinary and mercy is expected.

Instead of imaging no religion, let us imagine the religion of Jesus Christ, the religion of love. It’s easy if you try, and it’s perfectly fine because it is the perfect religion! Who said God is Love? Answer: St. John the Apostle. And it is striking that only Christians refer to God as being Love. Muslims have ninety-nine names for God, but not one of them is God is Love or even God is Father. I’m not here to bash anyone. I am here to bathe in God’s Almighty revelation, a revelation that is far superior to all other revelations. Regardless of my upbringing or background or faults and failures, I can believe God is Love and I can believe that God is Father. Who couldn’t believe that? Who wouldn’t believe that? Who shouldn’t believe that?

God is love and his love is best expressed by His Word: Jesus Christ! God’s tolerance towards man is best described by one act: His crucifixion. Instead of condemning the world, he died for it! Instead of blasting and cursing to smithereens sinners the Lord embraced them, welcomed them and healed them. He taught us to never ever give up on anyone and to never ever spread hatred and revenge upon our enemies. It’s okay to pray for the soul of Usama Bin Laden and the safety of our soldiers. It’s okay to pray for the soul of Margaret Sanger, abortion providers and the children who have been aborted. It’s perfectly fine to pray for those who have been abused and those who abused. It’s even okay to pray for Professor Peter Singer and those who advocate infanticide! But what is not okay is to cheer the death of the sinner. Rather, it is to cheer for their conversion! This is the scandal of the Christian faith. It is no longer an eye for an eye; a face for a face, or a tooth for a tooth. This is the greatest scandal of our faith. It is how we love.

Just recently the Iranian government, under pressure from human rights organizations, postponed the retribution punishment of a criminal with drops of acid. I was appalled by the reaction of so many Americans to the postponement. It would appear as though the war on terror has hardened many American hearts. We cannot let that happen. The World loves Americans because of our generous hearts and because of our love for others. We need to fight the war on terror with tenacity, but we cannot be a part of it.

The Lord picked Twelve Apostles, not because they were perfect and not because they were gods. He picked them because he could work with them, through them and in them.

If we claim to be Catholic, then we must live like Catholics. The Lord has given us a beautiful faith and calling. He has given us everything – all the means – to become holy. This means, we must live to the fullest extent the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Otherwise people may not believe in Christ because of us, and that is a cause of great concern.

Imagine being Catholic! Try loving rather than insulting; forgiving rather than judging, and giving rather than resenting. It’s easy if you try.

Jn 12:44-50 Who Do You See?

Jn 12:44-50 Who Do You See?

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Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me believes not only in me but also in the one who sent me, and whoever sees me sees the one who sent me.”

This is where I paused, at the above verse, and began my Gospel reflection. The Lord says, Whoever believes in me… will never die, will live forever, will be my disciple, will follow me, will suffer unjustly, will be my friends, will do greater things, will obey my commandment of love, will be light to the world, will rise from the dead.

In all His sermons, the Lord always gives and takes, “This is my body…take and eat.” He always proposes: Choose life or death. What we are to do is as clear and divided as black and white: We are to love (be selfless) or forever remain in darkness (selfish). Many are invited and we are to invite, but not many will follow the commandments of the Lord: to love God above all things and to love your neighbor as yourself, and so too many remain in darkness - covered in sin, covered in ignorance, in deceit and misdeeds. The Lord invites, he nearly begs his children to come into his life saving light – to live during the day and to sleep at night, to read and listen to his words and to stop creating their own. His words, are they not enough? His deeds, are they not enough? “I am the light of the world, says the Lord; whoever follows me will have the light of life.” The Lord did it all: enough said and enough given.

Whoever believes in me will live like me. Am I living like Christ or like one of his adversaries? Do I hold my tongue or do I spit out filth? Do I avoid confrontation or do I instigate it? Do I wail and grind my teeth or do I kneel in prayer? Do I save the soul or do I spread awful things about them? Do I follow the Lord in healing or do I seek to hound?

Whoever believes in me will be like me. Those who closely follow the Lord will experience what the Lord experienced: love, friendship, loneliness, misunderstanding, contempt, hatred, resentment, scorn, gossip betrayal and death. Those who do not follow the Lord may receive roughly the same. But for those who remain in darkness, who condemn and judge, the “word I spoke, it will condemn him on the last day, because I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and speak.”

While I was meditating on today’s Gospel passage, I recalled a story in the life of St. Philip Neri. A penitent sought forgiveness for spreading vicious rumors about an innocent man. St. Philip gave the man this penance: take a large bag of feathers and throw them into the air from the tallest building in Rome, afterwards pick them all up. The man replied, “I will never be able to find all the feathers!” St. Philip had made his point.

When we see Jesus, we see the Father. When people see you, who do they see?

God our Father, life of the faithful, glory of the humble, happiness of the just, hear our prayer! Fill our emptiness with the blessing of your Son’s body and blood, the foretaste of eternal joy. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

John 10:22-30 How Long Will You Keep Us In Suspense?

John 10:22-30 How Long Will You Keep Us In Suspense?

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Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Man and the Son of God, has revealed himself to all. He is God. His words, his actions, his way of life are so beautiful, so amazing and so inspiring. Only God could do what he did. Only God could love as much as He did. Only God could challenge us and caress us as He did. The Pharisees and the Scribes demand more signs, more miracles and more time but the Lord will give them less for their hearts are not into it. They DO NOT wish to see, or hear, or believe.

Just a few days ago, the Lord reminded us that all who have gone before Him are “thieves and robbers” (John 10:1-10). Why thieves and robbers? Why such strong words? Because the Good Shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. He goes before them in everything. He even leads them to the slaughter. The thieves and robbers lead the sheep astray. They are not interested in their safety. They are interested in their own interests. They seek something in return.

How long will you keep us in suspense? When will we see Jesus for who He truly is? When will this day come? When we die. When we end our earthly existence and enter the fullness of life. Although they existed long before man did, it took us centuries to discover atoms and to harness their power. And still, they always existed. You ask, “If God exists, then when will he appear?” My response is always the same, “He did, in the person of Jesus Christ. But if you are asking why not now, my response is ‘Not yet and not in this life.’” You say, “Well then he doesn’t exist!” I say, “If you say that, then you are saying we have discovered everything! And that there is nothing left to discover! And we all can agree that that is not the case at all.” How long will the Lord keep us in suspense? It depends on us and not on Him. He has revealed himself in so many ways, in so many days and in so many of his faithful followers. The Saint, the Hero, the Christian is and will always be “another Christ.”

We all know the Lord is an expert in turning things around. He now asks us, “How long will you keep us in suspense?” Yes, the Lord has every right to ask this question too, and he is dying for our response! How long will it take before I finally live a Christian life? How long will I keep everyone in suspense? The Lord did his part. He suffered and died for me and for my salvation. His passion, his love, his drive has blinded Him to our apathy, our ignorance, our pride and past. If a man is willing to risk death to save another, then we can only be filled with awe when we imagine what God went through to save us, to love us. I personally believe that the only proper gesture to all this love is to bow our heads in shame, for we continue to give our Savior a lukewarm response to so much love and devotion.

How long will you keep us in suspense is a ploy, a decoy, for those who have evil and ambitious plans. But for the Lord it is an appeal, a hope that He has for each and every one of us, for the world is waiting for another Saint! How long will it take before you finally reveal who you are; who you were made to be and why you are loved so much?

John 10:11-18 I lay Down My Life

John 10:11-18 I lay Down My Life

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“No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down on my own.”

Who can forget the dramatic events that took place on October 2^nd, 2006? Charles Roberts IV, a 32 year old milk-truck driver, drove his three children to school and told them goodbye. He left and went back home to get a 9mm pistol, a shotgun, a rifle, a stun gun, two knives, smokeless powder and 600 rounds of ammunition. He brought a five gallon bucket filled with tools that included a hammer, a hacksaw, pliers and rolls of clear tape. He also brought a change of clothes.

He drove to the West Nickel Mines Amish School. He walked into the one-room school house and showed the children his semi-automatic pistol. He let all fifteen boys leave. He also let a pregnant woman and three adults leave. He then bound the ten trembling little girls together by the ankles, ages six to thirteen, with wire and plastic ties and lined them up at the backboard. He called his wife to say he loved her and that he wouldn’t be coming home tonight. By that time, State troopers had arrived at the scene. Roberts looked outside and then walked up behind the girls and began to shoot each girl in the back of the head at close range. The police stormed the school at the sound of gun shots. They broke windows and climbed inside to find Roberts and three girls dead and eight critically wounded. This is what was reported in the morning news on Tuesday (Dallas Morning News, Oct. 3^rd, 2006).

But there was more to the story. The families of the victims immediately forgave their child’s killer. They sought to forgive and to heal not only their loved ones, but also the relatives of the murderer. They reached out to console Robert’s wife and children. They spoke of God’s Will, and that they were full of hurt and not of hate.

But there was even more to the story. Three days after the incident, and as the death toll climbed to five little girls, one survivor, Barbie Fisher, began to speak of bravery, of courage and of Christ! His hand had been there too. His fingerprints were all over the classroom on that gruesome morning. It just took three days to find them.

It is impossible that Christ would not have been present at the scene – to not have entered into the locked room before the Police did. The doors may have been locked and barricaded, but that had never stopped Christ from going where he had to go, especially wherever a Christian community was fearful and yet alive and present.

It turns out that the two oldest girls in the school had made a deal with Roberts. Barbie Fisher told the story of her older sister, thirteen year old Marian, who faced death with “remarkable bravery.” Before the shooting began, she told Roberts, “You can shoot me first”, offering up her life in an attempt to save her terrified younger classmates. Then another, twelve year old Anna Mae Stoltzfus, stepped up and said, “You can shoot me second.” Both girls were laid to rest.

People were amazed that girls so young would offer themselves up. One person said that she knew a lot of adults who wouldn’t do that. They had offered their lives. Why did they do that? What strength did they receive to do that? Where did they learn to do that? From Jesus Christ. “No one takes my life from me; I lay it down on my own.” So death that day had been cheated.

The goal of every Christian is to imitate the life of the Lord. The circumcised believers criticized the Holy Father, Pope Peter, for entering the house of uncircumcised people and eating with them. Peter’s answer was very pastoral and patient. But he could have given them an answer that was sharp and short: I went into their home because the Lord would have done the same thing!

Never fear. Every day the Lord will provide to us, his followers, opportunities to imitate His Son. He will also provide the graces necessary to respond faithfully to them. He will give us an opportunity today to be forgiving to someone, to be generous to another, to seek and find, to serve my neighbor or a stranger, to welcome a guest, to speak the truth, to share the faith, to spend time in prayer and to die to self.

Our life is a gift from God. You can either wait for it to end or you can offer it up to Him. What are you waiting for? There are only two options: either it can be taken or it can be given. Choose Life! Give your life! Do not be afraid to do His Will, follow His path, to see how He sees. Do not be afraid to live life to the full and pour it all out!

Let us lay down our life to the only one who can raise it from the dead.

John 10:1-10 Cut To The Heart

John 10:1-10 Cut to the Heart

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Today’s readings are of the Good Shepherd. Christ is the Good Shepherd. The sheep hear his voice and they follow him because they recognize his voice. All of us have heard the voice of the Good Shepherd, but not all of us follow Him because not all of us recognize Him. Where are you Lord that I may follow you?

“Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and proclaimed: ‘Let the whole house of Israel know for certain that God has made both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified’…Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart.” (Acts 2:14a, 36).

Cut to the heart is what every single Christian will achieve if they cut to the chase! Peter cut to the chase and what happened? About three thousand souls were added that day. Are they exaggerating? Is this just a lie? No, it is not. It is what will always happen if we preach the Gospel message effectively and allow the Lord to affect our lives! I have no intention here of writing an English paper on the proper use of affect and effect. But its proper use may be essential in the battle for the hearts and minds of millions of souls.

Authentic Discipleship. It may be argued that pastors and religious spend way too much time on social issues (war, abortion, marriage, poverty and climate) and not enough time on the original message: God so loved the world that he sent his only Son, the Son he loved with all his heart, with all his mind and with all his strength, for the salvation of the world. Whoever believes in Him will live forever. This is the message that cut through the stoniest of hearts. Those who were added in a single day were not naïve, nor were they ignorant. They were open to the truth; to a beautiful message of love, forgiveness and compassion. Who is not open to that? Have we tried to enter a sheepfold by climbing over the gate? Do I believe that the pressing issues of today will be resolved through philosophical agreement, scientific discovery or educational resources? Can the family be replaced? Can love be replaced? Can the God of Jesus Christ be replaced? No. Never! For as long as we search for life and joy, we will continue to search for the One who has both; the only One who has it abundantly.

The habit does not make the monk. Almost every day I receive phone calls from the emergency line at St. Joseph. Most of the time I am ready for them, but sometimes they come at awkward moments – like when I am exercising. In these rare cases, I sometimes opt to go to the hospital in my sweatpants. Well, on this one particular evening, I decided to dress in my uniform. I arrived at the hospital and it took me a while to find the building and the room. I finished the anointing and headed back to my car. Like so many times before, I got lost in the maze of hallways and tunnels and ended up on the opposite side of the parking lot. As I was shaking my head in my own lack of attention, I heard someone call out to me. I looked up and saw a woman running towards me. Her sister was dying and they had been looking for a priest all day. I followed her and saw a little angel, a thirty-three year old mentally challenged woman who was dying after having suffered a heart attack due to years of muscular dystrophy. The family was heartbroken. But I, along with them, knew she was an angel. The Lord always provides for his angels. “The Lord is my Shepherd; there is nothing I shall lack.”

I got lost for a reason and I was wearing my uniform for a reason. If I had not been wearing it I would have passed right by this woman in need. We should always wear our love for Christ in our heart and on our sleeves! The early Christians were easily recognizable – they lived what they believed.

When I arrived to the room the family was still waiting for one last family member, a brother, but after thirty minutes they felt uncomfortable that they were making me wait so long. They asked me if I should go ahead and perform the Last Rite. I wanted to leave but I told them, “Let’s wait.” They were so happy! I learned another good lesson from God.

What made the Apostles so successful? They communicated through their words and actions the God they loved so much! It was a convincing message. For three years they had had an intimate relationship with Christ and they would never allow themselves to forget what the Lord had done for them: Christ had died for them.

It was so natural for the Eleven to give a little bit back, and on this day, three thousand men were added. And that is no exaggeration.

Why were the Apostles so successful in bringing souls to Christ? Because they never forgot what the Lord had done for them. They wore it in their hearts and on their sleeves. Christ spoke from His heart, through their hearts and into the hearts of thousands. For this reason, all who heard believed, for they recognized the voice of God and the language of His love.