quince

Today in the parish I celebrated a Quince anos celebration for a young lady.  It is birthday celebration that is marked by a renewal of faith, a renewal of baptismal promises. 

Not only does the young lady give thanks for her parents yes to life but she also gives thanks to God's yes to her. 

the best way to give thanks to God for the gift of one's life is to renew our faith in Him.  This is this thanks he desires, a humble contrite heart.  A heart filled with gratitude is a heart alive with faith. 

A heart alive with faith is a  life full of gratitude. 

By renewing our faith we say 'yes' to God who first said 'yes' to us. 

Not only do we say yes to God but in renewing our baptismal promises we are saying yes to eternity.  Is this not what we dream of, life and love that is everlasting and eternal, happily ever after, a love without end. 

This is the gift of baptism if we so choose to embrace it and live it. 

In living our faith we truly make the gift of life something beautiful for God.

Then our yes becomes a yes forever which is the only way to mirror God's yes which is always forever.

sheep, wolves, serpents, and doves

Genesis 46: 1-7, 28-30; Psalm 37 The salvation of the just comes from the Lord; Mat 10:16-23

In the gospel, Jesus mentions sheep, wolves, serpents, and doves.  The kingdom sounds like a zoo.  

Let us peer into the gospel today.  There are several passages that are striking and insightful for us as disciples. 

Jesus said to his Apostles, "Behold I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves;"

The greek word used for "sheep" denotes any four footed animal that is tame that is accustomed to grazing.  The operative word for us as disciples is tame.  Tame denotes and animal that is docile and attentive to the voice of the master.  The animal knows who the master is and heeds the command of his voice.   Docile and attentive to the master's voice we must be if we are to guard our faith and be true to the mission we are given. 

"so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves."

The greek word for "shrewd" suggest that we are intelligent and prudent.  We keep our sense about us and we keep one eye on our end.  As we journey we must never lose sight of our destination and only then is our intelligence sharped to enable us to bear witness.  The greek word for "simple"  suggest that we are unmixed that is persons of integrity.  We never jeopardize our integrity thus we live who we are called to be.  We are true to our identity in Christ as children of God and all we do points to that integrity. Every circumstance and trial and suffering provides an opportunity for our integrity to shine pure.

"But beware of men"

We often see the signs that warn us, "beware of dogs" and it usually heightens our attention and sharpens our awareness and vision.  Jesus seeks to keep us attentive, on our toes, never letting our guard down.  Awareness and attentiveness are instrumental to spiritual growth and faith life.  Secondly, we should not be surprised when we are betrayed by men.  The witness we give will be a sign against many and this is par for the course. Jesus doesn't want to give us false expectations but rather he keeps it real, that we might rely on him, trusting him and not the princes of the world thus guarding our soul.  For if our soul is not worth guarding, then what is?

"for my sake"

Why do we do this?  Why do we live this life?  It is for His sake we rise each morning and embrace the challenges of a new day bearing within us the joy of being a follower.  Often times, we hear people say the words, "for God's sake" usually as a cry of despair or anger.  But in reality it is a positive sounding note that directs our resolve and empowers us to endure.  We are and should be about "his sake" and then does our life have true meaning and purpose.  

"but, whoever endures to the end will be saved"

Notice that salvation comes in the future.  This statement stares in the face of many who falsely claim, "once saved, always saved."  Salvation is a process, a journey.  Salvation is an event taking place on Good Friday, yet for us individually it is not a one time event, but rather it is a relationship that requires, as Jesus says, "endurance."  Salvation is not something we possess rather it is a relationship in which we stand, thus we become partakers of God's Spirit.  It is this dynamism that makes salvation what it is in Christ an ongoing organic reality that opens us up, transforms us, avails us to respond more fully to the gift of grace offered by God in Christ and thus be strengthen and transformed until Christ is complete in us.  

thursdays with John Vianney

"This is what purifies the eye of the heart, and enables it to raise itself to true light: contempt of worldly cares, mortification of the body, contrition of heart, abundance of tears...meditation on the admirable essence of God and on his chaste truth, fervent and pure prayer, joy in God, ardent desire for Heaven.  Embrace all this and continue in it.  advance toward the light which offers itself to you as to its sons, and descends of itself into your hearts.  Take your hearts out of your chests, and give them to Him who speaks to you, and He will fill them with deific splendor, and you  will be sons and daughters of light and angels of God."

John Vianney

what we put into our hearts and minds and lives will show itself in the manner of our life.  What we choose to devote our life to, will be written all over our face, illustrated by our lives, seen in the works of our hands and words of our lips.  We are, as St. Paul says, a letter written in recommendation.   By our life choices, people read in our life either the noise of the world or the solemnity and joy of eternity.  John Vianney simply seeks to edit our life with his words so that in the end the edition that stands before God is that which most perfectly reads as a love story between the human soul and God Himself.  What remains in every page written in our blood and flesh and desire and will is a simple "yes" to God.

no ordinary errand

Genesis 41:55-57; 42:5-7, 17-24; Psalm 33 Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you; Matthew 10:1-7

In today's gospel, Jesus gathers the twelve apostles and sends them on mission.  Now, this isn't some ordinary errand he has them perform.  This isn't a trial run.  It is a full blown mission. 

He gives them AUTHORITY over unclean spirits to drive out demons and cure every disease and illness.  He gave them a mission to proclaim that 'The Kingdom of God is at hand.'

No, this is no ordinary errand, or chore, or trial.  This is the real deal. 

Pope Benedict exhorts us to remember that Jesus gathers twelve to show he is different.  A rabbi was known to have, as was customary,  at least five disciples as a sign of his authority and status.  

Jesus chooses twelve so that he could be identified as set apart, different.  He wasn't just like all the rest.  He was starting something new.  It is this newness that travels with the apostles.  Through the apostles, as they live and embrace their mission, their new life, Christ himself reaches through them and touches those they encounter as they are called to faith.

In bearing their faith in Jesus, the apostles allow Jesus to vicariously make himself known through them, thus they can with certainty make the proclamation, 'The Kingdom of God is at hand,' because the person of Jesus, who sends them and walks with them, is the kingdom itself. 

The proclamation of the kingdom requires a personal faith and responsibility.  Thus, the twelve called are not anonymous but they are named, they are real, they each have a face, their personality bears witness to the reality of their encounter with Jesus.   Their face to face encounter with Christ gives their mission credibility.  This personal witness gives credibility to this new reality, the kingdom that is no longer far away but very near for it lives in the heart of the one who professes faith, in the heart of the one who has seen him face to face and is known by name.

In that heart filled with faith, that personal encounter with Jesus, the kingdom is made manifest.  

In our personal faith, following with the apostolic tradition, walking in the footsteps of the named apostles, we too become bearers of the kingdom of God that dwells in our hearts, reaches through us, and touches those around us. 

This is how the kingdom grows. 

Bethel and Peniel

Yesterday we read of Jacob's encounter with God in a dream.  After the encounter he was pumped, beaming with enthusiasm so much so that he exclaims, "How awesome is this shrine.  This is nothing else but the abode of God and gateway to heaven."

Jacob was in his youthful prime, searching for a bride and just filled with love for life.

Today we read of Jacob having another encounter with God.  This time, he is alone.  This experience is a bit different.  For 7 years he had worked for Laban.  In those seven years he has acquired to wives and two concubines and 11 children, 10 boys and one girl.  He has been busy.  He is exhausted and tired.  He is also filled with fear over his brother Esau who is headed his way.

Jacob leaves his family and possession on one side of the ford and spends the night alone.  In this solitude he encounters God.  But this encounter is different, though it is the same God.  There is no vision of a stairway to heaven like the first.  This encounter is a wrestling match.  Jacob wrestles with God, and it is such a tussle that his hip socket is wrenched. 

What encounter with God!

The story of Jacob points us to the reality that God will come to us in many ways, not just in  great emotion or good feeling, but in all different circumstances.  He will seek us and speak to us in a manner that we need, not as we want. 

Sometimes we will shout with joy, "how awesome is this place"  and think we have found Bethel and sometimes we will be left scratching our heads or even limping, left exclaiming, "Because I have seen God face to face and yet my life has been spared" and know we have found Peniel.  

Both Bethel and Peniel reveal the face of God to us and this is the true spiritual journey. 

Champion of chastity

Genesis 28:10-22; Psalm 91 In you, my God, I place my trust; Matthew 9:18-26 

To we celebrate the memorial of Maria Goretti.  She was born in 1890 and was killed in 1902. 

A young vibrant girl who sought to live a life of love for God and others.  With her family, she moved from her birth town to Rome and then to a farm outside of Rome, where her family was basically tenant farmers. 

Her father became ill with menigitis and malaria and thus they needed to partner up with another family in harvesting the crop.   This father and son tandem  would eventually lead to the death of Maria Goretti. 

The young man, Alessandro Serenelli who was brought on to assist the Goretti family began to take interest in Maria.  He burned with lust and desired to sexually assault her. 

on 1902, his lust and rage overcame him, and he dragged Maria at age 11 to a room and forced himself upon her, he being 18 at the time.  With a knife in one hand, holding her down with the other, he threatened to kill her if she did not give in to sex.  Maria refused to give in for the sake of her chastity, for the sake of her soul and his soul as well. 

In a fit of rage, Alessandro began to attack her with the blade, stabbing her 14 times and leaving her for dead.  

Maria was discovered and taken to the hospital where she lingered suffering for hours.  Mortally wounded, the priest was sent for to give her Viaticum.  Upon arriving the priest asked Maria if she forgave her attacker, she responded, "I, too, pardon him. I, too, wish that he come some day and join me in Heaven."  

The story is tragic on several levels.

Because of poverty and illness the family was forced in a compromising situation where strangers were invited into their family.  

Secondly, while Maria grew up in a devout and faith filled family, Alessandro, the attacker, was not.  Hi mother was put in an asylum and his father abandoned him at the age of 12.  Alone, he was passed around from relative to relative, ending up working in the shipyards, where he was introduced to violent and lewd materials and posters.  

When he met back up with his father some 6 years later, he was well immersed in graphic and pornographic material.  slowly, he began to burn with lust and rage. 

This is what fueled his attack on Maria. 

In reminds us of the importance of good parents to form their children.  It warns us of the damage and destruction that  lewd and violent material has on one's development.  

If you look at today, with the constant flood of sexual graphic movies and books and the like, it is easy to see why we are in the state we are with a moral decline and no respect for sexual purity. 

Eventually, however, Alessandro does have a conversion.  In prison he has a vision of Maria Goretti which begins is conversion.  

In his cell, Nov 10, 1910 he writes on the floor, "I am deeply sorry for what has happened.  I have taken the life of an innocent girl whose one aim was to save her purity, shedding her blood rather than give in to my sinful desires.  I publicly retract the evil I have done  and beg pardon of God and of the stricken family.  One hope encourages me-that I may also one day obtain God's pardon and so may others." 

After his release he sought out Maria's mother and asked for forgiveness.  She responded simply with, "If Maria could forgive you, then so can I."  She led Him to the church where he confessed his sins before the church of Maria's hometown.  He was present at the Beatification of Maria Goretti then he entered a monastery where he spent the remainder of his life as a gardener. 

On his death bed, his last words were,"I am going again to be with Maria in paradise."

The story is a story of grace.  It is a story of how God does not give up, his grace always seeks to bring souls back to him.  Even in tragedy, grace can be found, grace is effective, love is stronger than death.

words of Pope Pius XII at canonization of St.Maria Goretti

"Finally, all of you are intently listening to Our words, know that above the unhealthy marshes and filth of the world, stretches an immense heaven of beauty.  It is the heaven which fascinated little Maria; the heaven to which she longed to ascend by the only road that leads there, which is, religion, the love of Christ, and the heroic observance of His commandments."

St. Maria Goretti, youthful martyr, patroness of purity, champion of chastity, pray for us now and forever until we shall be reunited in paradise.   

Dependence Day

Ezekiel  2:2-5; Psalm 123 Our Eyes are fixed on the Lord, pleading for mercy; 2 corinthians 12:7-10; Mark 6:1-6

In the first reading, we encounter the call of the prophet Ezekiel.  

God says to Ezekiel, "whether they heed or resist- they are a rebellious house-they shall know that a prophet has been among them."

They shall know that a prophet is among them.

Each of us is baptized a priest, prophet, and king, which means we no longer live just for ourselves.  Everything we do has bearing on all of us.  We are sent in to the world like the prophet ezekiel to bear witness to the truth and justice of God.  

We do this by the words we speak but also by the life we life.  We are either a true prophet or a false prophet.  Which are we?

In our life do we reveal the face of God or do we reveal our own face? Do we rebuke the nations or do we go along with them and the latest trend?  Do we invite them to renew the promise of the covenant or do we write our own terms?  Do we help restore lasting hope or are we satisfied with temporary hoax?

Do we embrace the teaching of the church or do we pick and choose?  A true prophet stands firm on all not just some of the truth.

In the second reading St. Paul speaks of the thorn in the flesh.  Three times he begged the Lord to take it from him, but God chose for it to remain.  Sometimes, God's answer is no. 

How often have we asked God to remove things in our life that are difficult.  Time and time again we sought it gone, only to have it remain.  We thought God wasn't listening because he failed to heed our request.   Yet, we fail to realize that God is not at our beck and call. We don't carry him around in our back pocket to do as we please

We are at his.  Did we ever stop to think that perhaps, his prompt answer was let it be and stay the course. We discover that God wants us to enter deeper into our weakness, enter deeper into humility.

Here we learn true strength.  

In our weakness we learn compassion, we learn mercy, and we learn dependence. 

When we keep one eye on our own weakness, we have a tendency to no longer judge the other by their weakness but rather our hands reach out to support.  We discover that we can relate, thus compassion builds communities of love.

In our weakness God keeps us on our knees and keeps us looking up, here we truly can begin to serve and grow in holiness.  

In the gospel, Jesus comes home.  There is a homecoming.  Jesus is back at his old stomping grounds.  And the people recognize him. They know his trade, "he is a carpenter"; they know his mother, "son of Mary" and they know his kinfolk.  They know everything about him, yet they don't know him. 

They ate the same food, shopped at the same market, worshiped in the same synagogue, talked with the same accent, and probably hung out at the same places growing up.  Yet all this familiarity caused contempt not rejoicing.

What was to be a home coming turned into a gossip party, "who does he think he is."

They were so close yet they missed the Messiah right beside them because he looked too much like one them.   But this is the good news.

God comes as one of us so that we might finally recognize ourselves as ones loved by God.  

The people failed to recognize the holiness of Jesus because they had not accepted their own call to holiness.  They couldn't honor Jesus' relationship with God because they never fully explored their own relationship with God. 

How often we see people that look like us and we put on airs, put up walls, or make judgments.  Yet if we raise our expectations, carefully peel back our eyelids, we might catch a glimpse of God, in us and in them. 

Until this happens miracles will be scarce as rain.  

We can amaze God with our lack of faith or we let him marvel at our faithfulness, embracing the face of God in those around us.