Summary: 

We've probably all heard children ask, maybe not just children, but we have all heard children ask the question, “Why do we have to go to church?” Sometimes, well, not that often, once in a while I will hear a little voice out there saying, “Is it over yet? How many more songs?” My favorite is when I was told that when Father Darren was the pastor here, there was once in the silence after Communion, a little guy piped up and said, “I had it! Let's get out of here.” [Laughter] That must be what people are thinking when they leave before Mass is over.

But of course, there are objective reasons to go to Mass as well. God deserves to be worshipped. God deserves to be worshipped and to be worshipped in the way that He told us to worship Him by offering Him the Body and Blood of His Son, the sacrifice acceptable to Him which brings salvation to the whole world as we hear in the Eucharistic prayer. God himself said in the person of Jesus, “Do this in memory of me.” So, this morning we are doing this in memory of Him and in obedience to His command. Offering God worship that is His due. And of the course for those who participate in Holy Communion, that is another good reason to come to Mass, to receive the grace of that Sacrament. But we also come to Mass because we need instruction about how concretely we ought to live our Christian life. We come to hear the word of God proclaimed to us. We come to hear God's speaking to us directly in the real context of our lived life today.

The first is to practice. Practice. So, in the first half of the beatitudes in Luke’s Gospel, we hear Jesus saying that that the poor, the hungry, those who are weeping and grieving; those who are persecuted and hated are blessed. So, when we are in situations where we experience our own poverty, when we are hungry, when find that we can't satisfy what our own those deepest longings of our souls; when we are weeping, when we are grieving, when are struggling, when people hate us and exclude us and insult us and denounce us because we are disciples of Jesus, when we're experiencing all of these things concretely in our lives, we can practice trusting in God.

The second thing is to make a good examination of our life and try to identify things other than God in which we place our trust. So, in the second half of the beatitudes there is a warning, there are several warnings, that we ought not to be attached to riches or satisfaction, a sense of satisfaction in life in terms of like providing for all of our needs. We should beware of attaching our hearts to pleasures and enjoyment and ease and comforts. We should be careful of seeking always a good reputation. Not that a good reputation is a bad thing to have, but if we care more about what other people think of us than how we are in God’s eyes, then we are not on the right path there.  We are not trusting fully in God. So, the more we be aware of these different kinds of attachments in our lives, the more we have the opportunity to turn to God. 

And then thirdly, it occurred to me recently when we think about trusting God more, we often turn and look at ourselves and we think I’ve just got to try harder with this, or it's mainly just a matter of getting better on my own. But truly trust in God is a response to God's trustworthiness. We can trust God because he's trustworthy. If we ponder, reflect, and meditate on the trustworthiness of God, that will help us to trust Him more. God does not fail us. God never turns His back on us. God never forsakes us. He is always prominent. He is always trustworthy so pondering God's trustworthiness helps us to respond in trust.

So, just those three things: practicing trusting in God when we find ourselves poor and hungry and grieving or despised. Being aware of those things in our lives, those areas where we need to trust God more. In other words, identifying our attachments in life and then thirdly, just really pondering, meditating on the goodness and trustworthiness of God. All of these will help us to trust Him and to really place our life in God's hands. 

Summary: 

In today's Gospel, at the beginning, the disciples, perhaps not yet disciples, are standing on the solid ground on the shore. They are doing what is familiar to them. They're doing what they know how to do - this is their comfort zone, right? This is their day-to-day life. They're washing their nets - apparently not taking any fish out of the nets - but washing the nets and Jesus comes along and gets into Simon’s boat and He says: “Put out a short distance from the shore.”  Okay, well at a short distance from the shore, the water is deep - it's not really a place of great danger for a fisherman - but it's not the solid ground on the shore. So, perhaps this symbolizes Jesus inviting us to step off of that solid ground of self-reliance. You know, relying on our own resources, our own strength, stepping into the board with Him and taking a step toward trusting Him more. “Don’t be content standing there on the shore, I have something else in mind for you.”

And after a while, Jesus finishes His teaching from the boat, and He offers another invitation to Simon. “Put out into deep water.” Well, deep water is certainly a place where Simon had been before, but deep water is in place of greater danger, greater uncertainty. Throughout the sea of Galilee storms could rise in a matter of minutes and they could be in great danger, but Jesus invites to go out into that place - taking yet another step toward fuller trust and belonging to Him.

I think this is a good model for us in this battle against mediocrity because maybe we want to stay on the shore, maybe we want to stay in shallow water. Maybe even once we get out into deep water, we want to stay there instead of going into deeper water or wherever the Lord wants to lead. The point is we don't want to be content with belonging anything less than ‘complete’ to God. 

Sometimes this evokes fear in people. “Oh, where is the Lord going to call me to go?” Oh really? Is He going to be asking me to do something that would be quite uncomfortable? Or sometimes we have these ideas that He's going to send us to a faraway land to be a missionary or send us to the street corner to start talking to people about our faith or something that maybe we find repulsive that we just shy away from. But again, it's not necessarily about ‘doing’ more.

You can't say that putting that into the deep means doing something dramatic things. It just means belonging more and more completely to God and being willing to abide and let God direct our life. That's the common thread among Saints. We focus on all these wonderful things they did - the working of wonders and converting hordes of people, but that is not the essence of sanctity. The essence of sanctity is being completely available to God. Saying ‘yes’ in all things.

Unfortunately, the Mass of the Presentation recording failed. No homily is available. 

The Homily below is from the Feast of the Presentation, Friday, February 2nd, 20204

This feast looks at the dynamic of encountering the Lord from a couple of different angles. The introductory greeting says that when Mary and Joseph bring Jesus to the temple, they are fulfilling the Law, but in reality, Jesus is coming to meeting His believing people. 

So, He is coming to meet them and then it says, “So, let us also proceed to the House of God to encounter Christ.” So, Jesus comes to encounter us. We come to encounter Him. And then we process into the Church carrying candles symbolizing that we also bring the light of Christ just as Our Lady and Saint Joseph brought the ‘light’ into the temple.

So, there's at least a double, maybe a triple encounter that is celebrated in today’s feast. It mimics or mirrors our whole Christian life, that is, the first aspect the Lord comes to meet us. So, do we see Him, do we recognize Him drawing near to us each day?  Secondly, we go to meet Him. We come into His house. We draw near to the sacraments. We are seeking Him; we are going out to find Him wherever He may be found. And then thirdly, we bring Him so that others can encounter Him in and through us.

So, the bottom line is, it's all about encountering the Lord. That is why we are here. Not just why we are here this morning, but why humanity is in this world - to encounter the Lord. He draws near; we go in search of Him and we help others also to find Him.

Summary:

The 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time was recently designated Sunday of the Word of God. We look at the Word of God - why exactly does God speak? It seems when you look to the Scriptures that usually God speaks for one of two main reasons. There may be others, but it seems that there are a couple of main reasons that God speaks. The first is that he wants to reveal to us who he is. So, God speaks in order to reveal his identity, but God also speaks in order to tell us what he wants. In other words, he speaks to us to reveal his will.

In today's readings, especially the first reading and the Gospel, it seems that God is speaking more to reveal his will than to reveal his identity.

It can be hard sometimes for us to find a good answer to the question “Am I doing what God wants me to do? Am I doing what God wants me to do?” We each ask ourselves that question. I don't think we find our name and Social Security number in the Scriptures telling us exactly what we are supposed to be doing with our life in great detail. But I would like to just reflect for a moment a few moments on how about answering that question: “Am I doing what God wants me to do?”  I think sometimes it's asked in the big picture like am I living my life as I'm supposed to be living it but also in the in the more minute details of day-to-day living. 

What about this decision? What about that decision? Is this what God wants in this situation? Am I doing this or did I make the right choice? And so forth.

I think we can start at kind of the broadest level and ask ourselves: Do I keep the commandments? 

Maybe one level deeper: How do I spend my time? What do I do day after day? For whom do I spend most of my time? Is it for myself? For my boss? For my neighbor? For my family? For whom do I spend most of my time? Am I genuinely working on my relationship with God? In a certain sense, any observer of our life could answer these questions. 

But when we are asking the question am I doing what God wants me to do, the full answer to that cannot be given by someone else who observes the way we live. We have to go inside. 

I would just say there are three things. The first is that we renew our resolve to do God's will - to do what God wants us to do with our life. Secondly, that we ask God that we would be able to hear what it is that he is speaking to us in the intimacy and silence of our heart; that we would be able to notice, to perceive, to understand those promptings of the spirit. To resolve to do God's will asking God to help us to hear and thirdly, asking God to give us the grace not just to hear, but to do. 

Summary:  Maybe what we're asking for would lead us to a place where we need God less 

But God’s design for our life is not that we would eventually graduate and not need Him anymore. I am not very good at remembering scenes from movies so I can't remember exactly what movie or movies this type of scene occurred in. But picture mom and dad kind of waving as the child goes off in a car or the train or something. He is going off to school or going off and starting his own life and you know from the son or daughter’s perspective mom and dad are receding off into the background. That is not how it is supposed to be with God!  God is not sending us off and when we can finally stand on our own two feet God says, “Ah, at last! There is my success story! Right there. My beloved son or daughter no longer needs me!” 

The truth is exactly the contrary. Exactly the contrary. The Lord wants us to grow in such a way that we realize more and more how much we need Him and perhaps to even need Him more! Not just say to God, “I'll turn to you when I really can't do something on my own. For now, I'm doing my own thing by my own strength”.  The Lord is not looking for us to say that at all. The Lord desires that in every situation and in every circumstance in life we would recognize our dire need for Him. And as I said, it is not that we should not ask for good health or ask for, you know, enough material resources to keep a roof over our head and food on the table. We are not asking God to lead us into destitution, but there is a higher value that we ought to be seeking. A value that is higher than having all the things that we think we need and having a situation in life that's comfortable that doesn't stress us out too much. There is something more valuable than that, than having the material resources we need, the good health, the team of other people and so forth and so on.

That higher value is that whatever our situation in life, we would know the nearness, the closeness of the Lord, and know His Providence so that whatever the material situation might be or relational situation with other people - whatever happens - we are not panicking. We are not falling into despair. We are not falling into fear that the Lord is abandoning us or not going to provide, but even in those situations that are really difficult, we stand on solid ground that the Lord's love is sustaining us and that His Providence will carry us through.

Summary: Baptism as a foundational Experience

Living in the present moment, we find ourselves referring back to past experiences all the time. Our past experience informs how we deal with present situations. And it's not only pertaining to instruction that we've received or experiences that we've lived through but also commitments that we've made. 

Even in the scriptures where it's not explicitly stated, I think we can safely infer that this happened in biblical times. I think, for example, of the blessed Virgin Mary, how often she must have thought back to the experience of the Annunciation especially as she was pregnant with Jesus. How she must have thought back to the words of the Angel Gabriel. Maybe sometimes she thought, “What's going on here” and then she thought back to that experience. Who knows. Or thinking about Joseph, remembering what he heard Simeon say at the Presentation of Jesus in the temple. Or when they found the youth Jesus, the twelve year old Jesus, in the temple sitting among the scholars and doctors of the Law asking them questions and answering the questions. They were amazed at His learning, right? These kinds of experiences must have stuck with them, and I imagine that they very frequently returned to those experiences. 

I propose that Jesus Himself also thought back to key moments in His own experience. Today we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord, a pivotal moment or what I would call a ‘touchstone moment’ in His life. Something that He kept going back to as He began His public ministry.

I want to propose that His example of returning to that experience of Baptism is a model for us. And I want to propose that among all of the different past experiences that we have, that we go back to, that we refer to all the time, our Baptism should be a really important one.We were made a new creation; we were freed from sin. Forgiven original sin and all personal sin up to that point. We were made members of the Church, the body of Christ. We were given a new identity as a son or daughter of the Father. We were given the gifts of faith and hope and love. We were given the gifts of wisdom and understanding and knowledge, piety, fortitude, counsel and fear of the Lord. All seven. We received those in our Baptism. We were called to holiness. We were sent on Mission. We were deputed toward worship of God. We were given a responsibility in our Baptism to glorify God in our life so why wouldn't returning to that experience of Baptism be a powerful practice for our day-to-day living as disciples of Jesus.

I encourage you to make or allow your Baptism to be truly a foundational experience in life. Keep going back to it on a regular basis renewing the promises of your Baptism. Renewing your resolve to live as a faithful disciple and reaping the fruits continually day after day of that tremendous gift that was given. 

Summary:  Seek, Encounter, Change, Announce

So, it begins with ‘seeking.’ Seeking of Jesus; trying to find where He is so that we might draw near. This in a sense is characteristic of the everyone's Christian journey. We come from a place perhaps where we have not known Him and we're turning into knowledge of Him and relationship with His friendship with Him and everyone's journey is unique and different but there is there is this ‘seeking’. The Magi are clearly “seeking” to meet the Christ child and then of course comes a real encounter with Him.

There is no Christian life without a real encounter with Jesus Christ. There is no Christian life without a real encounter Jesus Christ, the person of Jesus Christ. Not an imagined or pretend or an intellectual thing - there has to be a real personal encounter with the Lord.  And clearly the Magi enter into this. We don't have a lot of details about what happened there. They enter the house; they see the child with Mary, His mother; they prostrate themselves and do homage. Wow! There must have been something that really happened in their encounter with Jesus there. Keep in mind you know it's not like they came to hear Jesus preach. They didn't come to see Him working miracles. He is just the baby, an infant in the house.

But there's still something profound that happens in this encounter: they meet perfect, infinite, divine, love Incarnate, and something has to change in them. They don't just go off and kind of file this away and say well that was interesting and that's the next step, that's the next way in which their visit is symbolic of the Christian life. Because we ‘seek;’ we encounter the Lord; we are changed by that encounter and then we go, and we are different than when we came. When we first encountered it before we encountered the Lord, but we go forth and we have to share it. 

Perhaps today is good day to ask for the grace to live out this whole dynamic of Christian life similar in some ways to the way that the Magi demonstrate. Seeking the Lord, encountering Him, being transformed by Him, going forth and proclaiming Him but also always remembering that happens most effectively in the context of the family of witnesses.

Summary:

I've had a couple of questions on my mind the last few days ever since Christmas and I've been giving my homilies surrounding these questions because I think they're very important for us. And the questions have to do with the most basic questions of life. 

So, the first one is this and they have to do with Christmas and today the Feast of the Holy Family. First question: What is it that you really want? In your heart of hearts, what is it that you really want? 

And here's the answer friends: Why is it that nothing satisfies our hearts because what we really want, what we really want is to go home. To be in a place of infinite love, perfect happiness, never ending peace and love, forever. That's what we want because that's the reason our hearts are made the way they are. We are not meant for this life; we are on a journey in this life of a few short years. 

You want to know how to get to Heaven? Be holy. The Holy Family is holy as well – that is why we call them the Holy Family - Jesus Mary and Joseph. What is it that they do to be holy? What is it that we need to do to be holy? And this is the answer in response to our first question - what is it that we want? We want to go home. We want to have perfect happiness but to get that we need to strive to be holy. To be holy is to do God's will. That’s it. And to do God's will is to strive to love. The will of God is always the will to love. And to love means doing what is best for the other. In other words, to give of ourselves, to live a life as a gift back to God and to those around us. 

Summary:

Today, on the 4th Sunday in Advent, we are presented with this beautiful picture of the Visitation. Mary visiting her kinswoman Elizabeth and if you've seen this depicted in iconography or other Christian art, usually the Visitation is an embrace between Mary and Elizabeth. It is as if Mary has knocked, Elizabeth has opened, they see each other and they embrace. And this is a beautiful image of hospitality. .But hospitality teaches us something important about making ourselves receptive and the element that I want to focus on for just a moment today is that it is actually in giving of ourselves that we receive, that we are able to receive others. 

The more we spend ourselves the more receptive we become. So, my simple message today is that maybe each one of us can find some way in these last days of Advent and in the beginning days of Christmas to stretch ourselves even just a little bit in the way that we give of ourselves. Not with the specific intention that we will receive more because of that but that we will be better disposed to receive the Lord. The more we give of ourselves to the Lord, the more fruitfully He can come into our life.

What are some different ways that we could stretch ourselves these days? Perhaps devoting ourselves a little bit more to our Advent prayers. Perhaps looking around us a little bit more closely to see who might be in need. Maybe drawing even closer to our family members - finding out how we can serve them, how we can lay our lives down for them a little bit more. There might be, like I mean, I think the Holy Spirit can lead you into all kinds of different ideas and realizations of how to be stretched a little bit more. 

May God give us the grace to do just that - to really focus in these days on the true meaning of the season - preparing our hearts to receive by giving a little bit more of ourselves to God and to our neighbor.

Summary:

It occurred to me recently that the Lord in a certain sense is aiming at us, not with malicious intent like a cat ready to pounce on his prey but the Lord is very attentive to us and has full intention of drawing near and drawing us closer to Him. In the season of Advent, we are trying to prepare our hearts in a special way, to receive the coming of the Lord and so part of that means turning to the Lord and seeing that the Lord is looking at us. Seeing that the Lord is looking at us with intention, not indifferent or as if the Lord is, you know, going around and every once in a while casts a glance in our direction. But to look to the Lord and to receive the gaze of the Father upon us is very, very important for us and to prepare ourselves to receive Him.

But it just strikes me that sometimes we may be like the cat with their back turned who is surprised to find that it is the object of another's attention. But truly we are always at the center of the Lord's attention. It is so easy in the spiritual life to set aside time for prayer and to enter into the gaze of God, to realize that God is gazing at us in that moment and then walk away from there and forget that we are still receiving the loving and merciful gaze of God. We may think that we have somehow moved out of that loving gaze, but no, that is not what happens. We simply become less aware of that gaze. 

To turn, so to speak, to Him and recognize that He is looking at us with infinite, divine, love is something quite beautiful to experience and that is a wonderful way to prepare for the coming of the Lord at Christmas: simply to spend some extra time receiving the loving gaze of the Father through Jesus. 

Summary: 

So, friends what is it about our relationship with God that is the cornerstone and the key to healthy relationship with Him? This is the theme that we read all throughout Advent. We have in Brauch a prophet who is telling the Israelites in the midst of their captivity - here is a city and a nation that was taken captive out of Jerusalem in the year 500 or 600 BC, conquered by the Babylonians who killed a great number of the Israelites, took captive the ones that they wanted to keep and brought them into captivity into Babylon. And then Brauch the prophet is telling them when this is happening in their life that God will bring you back to Jerusalem. How in the world is that going to happen? The city was basically destroyed. God will be faithful and continue to love you and bring you back to Jerusalem. And God will come and dwell with you. Why should they believe that? This great tragedy just occurred in their life why should they believe the prophet that God would do something like that? Why should we believe that God will in fact through His son Jesus Christ come back in glory at the end of time and make all things right? Why should we believe that? Why should we take the words of Scripture that say that? Because of one word friends, trust.

Because we trust that God is faithful to His promises and that He is trustworthy and when we have that trust, friends, here is the thing, this is so important. When we have that trust in God, He brings us His peace of heart, right? Because when we know that God is in control that we do our best to live our lives, that His will and His Providence is always for the good. He always is working in the midst of our freedom and our free will and our ability to make decisions and to choose - in the midst of that without violating that freedom -He is working to bring about good. Which means when people make bad decisions that have consequences either personally or in culture or internationally or globally - when decisions are made that create difficulties and suffering for people and messes, God is still at work in the mess. And when we trust that it brings us peace knowing that we don't have to be in control and do it all ourselves. And we let God be God. That is the best preparation that we can make for Advent, friends, is to build our trust in God. 

That is why all of these readings are given to us, and we'll continue to hear them for the next couple of weeks. All of these promises that God had made through the prophets, through Isaiah, through Baruch, through Jeremiah, all of these prophecies and promises that are made to Jerusalem are promises made to us. That He will return; that He is a good God; that He hasn't abandoned His children; that He loves us; that you are beloved, and He delights in you. All of these readings are supposed to remind us that God fulfills His promises because they get fulfilled in Jesus Christ. 

So, a lot of ways to prepare for Christmas - a lot of busy ways to prepare but they are also spiritual ways to continue to prepare during Advent. I would challenge you to do this: ask yourself “Where is my faith?” And faith is built on trust in God. And faith and trust go together. Faith is not just an intellectual belief, an intellectual ascent to something that is taught. Faith is a firm trust in God that what He says is true and then we believe that. Where is our faith right now? And as a result, where is our trust in God? And then make the decision to build our trust in God by looking at all the times that He has been faithful and that He never abandons us and that He's always working for the good. Even though He might allow suffering to happen, He only allows it - and all we need to do is take a look at it the Crucifix – to allow something better. We may not see it even in our own lifetimes, but we trust that He can, and He will bring good out of suffering and difficulty.

So, we never give up hope and we never give up our faith and we continue to be available in our hearts to God and He continues to bring us along until we die and then life begins. So, the next time I come around after Christmas, I want to hear how many gifts were given that had skulls in them. I think that's a great idea for a Christmas gift for any of your family members.  Not, from you know, obviously not from the cemetery – you can buy them on Amazon, I am sure. I wonder how many skulls will be given as Christmas gifts because that would be wonderful. Let me know and I think that would be very special. It is actually a very strong spiritual reminder, friends, I say that tongue in cheek, of course. It is kind of humorous how some of the Saints did these somewhat extreme things, but it doesn't hurt sometimes to give ourselves a jolt in life so that we can stay on track. Have a most blessed Advent season and God bless you on your journey.

Summary:

Like the season of Lent leading up to Easter, the season of Advent is a time of preparation for the coming of the Lord. I am proposing that we have a Eucharistic Advent this year. A Eucharistic Advent. 

The main principle that is driving the whole idea is a principle that underlies so very much of the spiritual life. And that is: what we receive from God has very much to do with our ability to receive it. There's a principle in philosophy that states: “What is received is received according to the mode of the receiver.” In other words, what we receive from God certainly does depend on God, right? God is the one who gives. But it depends also very, very much on our ability to receive. 

So, what I'm proposing with Eucharistic Advent is that we simply work on improving our disposition to receive the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist.  Why not others, too, such as Confession. And if you're preparing to receive any of the other Sacraments as well. Or simply working on our disposition to receive from God. Looking at what there is in our life that needs to be cleared out. 

So, perhaps this is a good time in these next few weeks, three and a half weeks until Christmas, a good time for us to take inventory of what there is in our hearts that the Lord would like to clear out. Also, we can ask the Lord for the grace, you know, that He might just stir up something in us. Stir up a greater desire for this, the grace of the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist and help us to have the strength to make a concrete decision about how we will exercise our faith more and more completely in this holy season. 

Summary:

We may question sometimes whether we can trust Jesus with everything, everything in our life - especially those things that are most dear to us. Maybe we're not fully convinced all the time that Jesus has our best interests at heart especially if there are very important prayer intentions that we lift up to the Lord and the intentions are not granted the way that we see or that we want them to be fulfilled. Maybe we are not always entirely convinced that Jesus keeps His promises. 

But whatever our thoughts about Jesus as King may be, we have to realize that He is a different kind of King then the powers in our world, human authorities. 

In place of a crown of jewels and precious gems, Jesus takes a crown of thorns. In place of a royal scepter, they placed a reed in His hand; they knelt and mocked Him and He submitted himself to that. Instead of fine robes, He was stripped and hung on a cross. Instead of lording His authority over His subjects and making sure they know who is in charge, He chooses the path of humility. He, Himself said, He came not to be served but to serve and to lay down His life. In place of wealth and riches, He chose poverty. Rather than being self-aggrandizing, who is always focused on the good of the other. Instead of residing in some palace or castle or great mansion, He chooses (well, He does reside in Heaven which is a pretty good place), chooses the human heart -broken, struggling. In place of a royal throne, He chose the cross. In place of lavish banquets, choice food and rich wines, He instead makes Himself food for us - giving Himself to us under the humble appearances of bread and wine. 

Jesus Christ is truly a different kind of King and in all of this, He shows us so clearly that He came for our sake. He came for our sake, and He is perfectly worthy of all of our trust, deserving of all of our affection and devotion and yes, our loyal obedience to His Word. 

But I'm also reminded today about the fact that in our Baptism we were anointed with the Sacred Chrism. We were anointed priest, prophet, and king. We were anointed to be sharers in the priesthood of Christ, offering the sacrifice of our life to God. In other words, offering to God all our trials, our ills, our struggles, our pains. Offering to God all our successes and victories, all the wonderful and beautiful things in our lives, everything of our lives. Being shares in the priesthood of Christ means we offer, we make of our lives, an offering to God that is pleasing in His sight. We share the prophetic mission of Christ to speak the truth into the world. To speak the Word of God, to announce the truth of the Gospel. 

Lord Jesus, be our King, help us to be faithful citizens of your Kingdom. Help us also, Lord, to govern as you govern, with love, humility, patience, every virtue, with mercy, strength - total trust and obedience to God the Father.

Summary:

     The first judgment, when we die, we stand before the Lord, we render an account of our lives. He judges us. At the particular judgment - at the end of our lives which these readings are supposed to remind us of - we stand before Christ we know that we are saved at that point when He says “Welcome. Welcome home.” That is when we know we're saved. It is at that point that we are assured of salvation. Until then our salvation is somewhat fragile because we can't risk losing it by saying “no” to God. 

     The second judgment is the one that the Lord is talking about here and will continue to talk about - at the end of the world. And so, He gives us some warnings to help us understand what will happen when all of this takes place. And notice that the Lord is talking about two different events here. He is talking about the end of time when He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. He will gather up those elect and the wicked, He will set aside. There is that event which He says even the Son doesn't know, He, Himself the Son, doesn't know when that will happen. Only the Father knows. So, we have the end of time and then we have another event that He talks about. Notice He says, “This generation will not pass away until these things are fulfilled.”  What He is talking about there is a second and separate thing that is coming at the end of time. 

He is talking about the final tribulation of the Old Testament and a judgment upon the Jewish people that would take place as a result of their sins. That event was the destruction of Jerusalem that historically took place exactly forty years, a generation, forty years to the year that Our Lord said this. He was talking here around the year 30 A.D, and so forty years later the Romans encircled Jerusalem, 70 AD, they starved the people and then they went in and broke down the walls and slaughtered everybody. 

     So, friends, over the next weeks we will be doing readings from scripture about the end of time and how to prepare our hearts for the end of time. How to prepare ourselves properly but most importantly just simply to remain vigilant; to live each day to its fullest, to give thanks to God in gratitude for His incredible blessings and to trust Him. To put ourselves into His loving arms knowing that He is with us. He cares for us, and He strengthens us in whatever situation we might find ourselves. He doesn't remove our suffering, remember friends, or our difficulties in life. What He does is He promises to always be there with us helping us get moving. Amen. 

Summary: 

     Jesus is watching how the people put money into the treasury. And He sees many rich people putting in large sums and He observes the poor widow who puts in a couple of coins worth almost nothing and He praises that widow. He says that she actually put in more than all the other contributors because she didn't have any surplus wealth like they did out of which to contribute. She gave all she had out of her poverty. She gave all she had.

     I came across a quote by Fulton Sheen: “Never measure your generosity by what give, but rather by what you have left.”  Those who were putting large sums of their surplus into the treasury, they had a lot left over and their gift cost them very little. The poor widow had nothing left after she gave the little she had.

     You see, this is the beautiful thing. It is not about really economics in this Gospel. It is not really completely about our material possessions and being generous with those. It is really illustrating what kind generosity of the heart we are called to live in. And in giving of ourselves to God more completely we find ourselves not left destitute but left ready to receive Him. There is a beautiful readiness and receptivity about this spiritual poverty that Jesus is encouraging us to have. There's something good in that. The poet and spirit writer Carol Houselander described or illustrated this principle by speaking of a nest, a bird’s nest, that is empty but had all kinds of potential to receive new life.  

     I was at the Amazing Parish summit a year and half ago in Phoenix. The keynote speaker was Monsignor James Shea who is the president of the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota. He was speaking to a group of pastors and parish leaders, and he said, “Here is the problem with your parish. You hate your poverty.” The problem for us is that we hate our poverty, he said. “We despise it. We can’t stand to be poor.” Not even talking about material poverty - talking about a spiritual poverty. He illustrates the fact that so many of us strive to be self-sufficient.

     God is looking for an empty space in your heart into which He can warm Himself. I know I've mentioned before Jesus words to say Saint Angela Foligno.  He said to her, “You made yourself a capacity and I will make myself a torrent.” But see, we have to go of so many things. We have to give like that poor widow in order to create the space for God. 

Summary:

     “How do I know that I really love God?”  I can tell myself all day long, I love God, but how do I know that that love is real? How do I know that that love is authentic? 

     How do we know? Saint Thomas Aquinas said, “Love tends toward union.” Love tends toward union between the one who loved and the beloved. So, the question might be “Am I tending toward union with God and what would that look like?” So, just a few points for our consideration. 

     How often do we think about God? Do we think about God at various points during the day just pondering the mystery of God? Asking God to help us to understand who He is a little bit better. Asking God to help us to set aside our false notions of God.

     Do we pray to God from the heart? And instead of getting caught in the trap of just saying the words of the prayers that are so familiar to us, do we really pray from the heart? How heartily do we desire Holy Communion? Do we really look forward all week to the opportunity to receive Jesus’ Body and Blood Soul and Divinity into us? Do we make really good reception of Holy Communion even staying after Mass to give thank God? Do we feel ourselves drawn into Eucharistic Adoration? Are we drawn to communion with Christ? 

     Do we notice inside a desire to know Him better? Do we seek Him in Scriptures? Do we want to find Him and how He has revealed Himself in His Word and also how He has revealed Himself to us in His Church? 

     Is there a desire to know the Lord better? What about sharing the good news about Jesus? When we love someone ardently, we find ourselves eager to talk about that person, to share about that other person with other people who might not know them yet. Do we want to live boldly as disciples? The Scriptures also tell us that we know that we love God by keeping His commandments. Do we have a strong desire to live our lives according to God's plan? Not just following the letter of the law but really embracing God's plan for our life. 

     Do we rejoice when God is honored? Do we rejoice when we see the growth of the Church and lament when our Lord is dishonored? Do we celebrate the feasts of the Church with great joy? Do we ache when we see our Lord dishonored? When you hear someone using the Lord's name in vain? Is there something of a twinge or some sort of pain inside or does it just go away with the flow? 

     Finally, what kind of response do we make when we ponder God's love for us, God's infinite love for us? What kind of response do we make with the gift of ourselves? How fully do we make ourselves available to God? Are there parts of us that we hold back from God? Areas in our hearts where we don't quite want to welcome Him in – maybe many places of wounding or shame. Maybe there are places where we're still attached to something - we're afraid the Lord is going to ask us to let go of that, and we don't want to yet. How fully do we give ourselves to God in love? How fully do allow God access to our heart? 

Summary;

The story of Bartimaeus, for example, in today’s Gospel is not just the story of this man who encountered Jesus as Jesus was leaving Jericho. The story of Bartimaeus is the story of me and of you as well. We are poor, blind, beggars calling out to Jesus to come and help us. 

With the ears of faith, we hear Jesus in the Sacrament asking us, each one: “What do you want me to do for you?” That's a great question for us to ponder when we come to Mass. What is it that we're asking? What kind of grace are we asking Jesus for in the Sacrament? Are we asking for the grace just to keep on going one more day, another week? Are we asking for the grace to carry a heavy burden of illness or depression or despair? Are we asking the Lord to heal a physical infirmity? Are we asking the Lord to set us free from the bondage of a repeated sin and the lure of the temptation to that sin? What are we asking? He is saying to you, “What do you want me to do for you?”

And when we come up and approach the altar and receive Holy Communion, this is the most intimate moment of that experience of encounter with Jesus. This is where Bartimaeus and Jesus, we and Jesus, are face to face. And that's where the healing word, the transforming touch, will come about.  Give Him the answer to His question – “What do you want? What do you desire for me to do for you?  

Homily by Fr. David Kruse

Summary:

     What is the best piece of advice you have ever been given?  What is the one piece of advice or a piece of wisdom that was shared with you that really stuck? The one that you've been able to carry with you.  The most important piece of wisdom that you really should carry with you every single day and it should be a primary motivator in your life and it has to do with a Psalm in the Book of Psalms. 

     Receive your inheritance! Receive your inheritance. Do whatever it takes to keep your inheritance. That's it! It is from Psalm 90 in the Book of Psalms. It is the only Psalm that Moses authored: "Remember the shortness of life; remember your years are numbered. Life passes like a sigh - seventy years or eighty who are strong will live and it all goes and what matters most is eternity.” 

     Now, the journey of life is all about doing what we need to do – following the Lord, following the Commandments, following God will, which is expressed in the Commandments, in His Church that He has given us and the teachings of His Son. Do whatever it takes to keep your inheritance. It is so important and that helps become a motivator when you don't feel like going to church on Sunday, when you don't feel like being generous to the others in your environment, when you don't feel like following whichever Commandment. So important to get the ‘why’ identified and clarified.

Summary:

What usually happens in the Gospels when Jesus calls someone and says, “Follow me”.  They follow immediately. Remember as Jesus went by and saw Simon and Andrew at their boat. He said, “Follow me.” They left the boat and followed Him immediately. Down the shore a little bit farther, He sees James and John with their father Zebedee in the boat, “Follow me”.  They leave their nets; they leave their father in the boat and follow Him immediately. Matthew, at the tax collector’s booth, “Follow me” and he got up and followed Him. That is the typical dynamic we see when Jesus calls but it's not what happens in today's Gospel, is it? 

However, this man walks away sad and how sad he must have been because he couldn't part, he couldn't let go of those attachments. He was unable to belong completely to Jesus.

How do we respond when we are faced with a hard teaching from Jesus or His Church. After all the teachings of the Church are the teachings of Jesus. How do we respond when we're faced with this kind of difficult, this very hard teaching, or a challenging invitation.

Therefore, what we need when it comes to these hard teachings - it's not to be convinced - but what we need is greater communion with Him. Greater communion with Him - in mind and heart because if we love Him more and more and His hard teachings are less and less of an obstacle for us; if we love him more and more, we will gladly accept all that He teaches. All that He teaches. And all that He teaches through His Church as well.

Summary:

     So many important matters are being identified merely as examples of partisan politics when they are so much more than that. For example, as Catholics we don't see abortion or gender identity or immigration as matters that simply define a person's political stance. For us they have something to do with the very will of God and God's plan for humanity, His plan for human flourishing. It goes so far that the way people engage with these matters can bring them closer to God and it can also move them away from God. So, these things are very important. We have to take such matters rightly.

     Another of those matters is marriage. In today's first reading and in Gospel, these readings focus on the unity and indissolubility, the permanence of marriage, starting with Adam and Eve in the garden and culminating with what Jesus teaches about the divorce in the Gospel of Mark. And one might reasonably ask why is it that the Catholic Church seems to be so hung up on marriage and divorce?

     I think the first answer to that question, why does the Church, why is the Church so concerned about it? Is that Jesus seems to be so concerned about it. Also, beyond the consideration of the harm that is done through divorce, I think the main difference is that when it comes to the Sacraments, the external reality has to correspond to the internal reality. The Sacrament is an external sign, right, instituted by Christ to give greater visibility to the external, visible, the audible, the sensible with the reality that is not seen - the invisible – the grace of the Sacrament

     The grace of the Sacrament is principally for the benefit of the spouses so that they might remain faithful all their life long. But when it comes to the Sacrament of marriage there's actually another layer here. There's another layer of understanding of how the visible reflects the invisible because it's not just that the vows of the couple reflect the invisible reality of their union, the love of the couple as it becomes visible in the community points to Divine Love. It becomes a visible image of the love of Christ for the Church. As the husband loves his wife, so Christ loves the Church as the wife loves the husband, so the Church loves her spouse Jesus Christ. .