IN MEMORY OF A FALLEN HERO - Memorial Day 2019

A Guide to Heaven

Second reading
Apocalypse 21:10-14,22-23 ©

He showed me the holy city coming down out of heaven

In the spirit, the angel took me to the top of an enormous high mountain and showed me Jerusalem, the holy city, coming down from God out of heaven. It had all the radiant glory of God and glittered like some precious jewel of crystal-clear diamond. The walls of it were of a great height, and had twelve gates; at each of the twelve gates there was an angel, and over the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel; on the east there were three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. The city walls stood on twelve foundation stones, each one of which bore the name of one of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

  I saw that there was no temple in the city since the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb were themselves the temple, and the city did not need the sun or the moon for light since it was lit by the radiant glory of God and the Lamb was a lighted torch for it.

Where is heaven?

This is a good question.  My answer is simple, I don't know.  Is heaven a "place" in the classical sense in that it occupies space somewhere "out there?"  Well, you can answer that in two ways.  First of all, it is the abode of souls, a multitude of millions of them. Souls, of course, have no physical substance to them.  They, therefore, would require no physical world to house them.  A soul is the inner essence of a person and we are told that we will recognize each other in heaven and that it will be a place of perfect happiness and joy.  On the other hand, heaven is also the home of the Risen Jesus and His Mother, Mary who both have bodies that have been glorified by God. You might make a case that they are exceptions because of their special place in salvation history.  But then you are faced with Elijah who, while still a holy man and a prophet, went to heaven in a fiery chariot.  While he is an important prophet, his importance does not reach as high as that of Jesus and Mary.  So, he too is in heaven with a physical body if we are to believe the scripture. I believe that our heaven, the home God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, is a real place where you can either have a physical body or be a spirit.  The location of this place is beyond our understanding. I believe it is outside of our universe, inaccessible to us because we live in the universe where time moves forward at a constant speed and the citizens of heaven dwell outside of time.  While in our universe it is forever expanding and is subject to the passing of time. 

How do you get into heaven? 

Our residency in heaven is assured and is a free gift because Jesus died for our sins.  To enter heaven one just needs to be owned by Jesus.  We must bear his mark on our soul.  This begins with the Sacrament of Baptism.  This Sacrament wipes away original sin and brings us into the household of God.  We are then to live our lives as servants to one another.  We are to love others as Jesus loved us.  He loved us to death, His death upon a Roman cross. We are to become whole people, that is, holy. 

So, Everyone goes to heaven then? 

No, unfortunately, that is not the case.  After Baptism has wiped away original sin and you become old enough to understand good from evil, it is possible for you to squander your inheritance and declare God as your enemy by living a life that places your will and your rules above God's.  God loves you so much that He will allow you to do your will over His.  He will, of course, try to win you back.  You have to come back of your own volition, He will do nothing to force you.  Some of the evil you do will cause consequences in this life but they are because of the natural world we live in.  For example, if you murder someone, you may get the death penalty which is a consequence of your actions.  People who consistently follow their own will and desire God to be out of their life will have their wish granted to them and after death will make hell their abode. 

Also, not every "good" Christian goes directly to heaven.  We may have some minor sins that we did not confess and did not make amends for.  Or, we may have some attitudes that would cause discord in heaven. For example: 

I found out in first grade that you stole my pencil when I was not looking. I loved that pencil, it had a red lead on one side and a black lead on the other.  My grandma gave it to me and I always thought about her when I used it.  You stole it.  When you were on your deathbed and I came to visit and comfort you, you confessed to what you had done.  I became very, very, angry at you even though I did not say anything.  Shortly after this, you died.  I lived a few more years and then I said good-bye to this world and passed away.  Let us assume I arrived in heaven and saw you.  Immediately, anger boiled up inside of my soul and discord and hate arrived for the first time in heaven.  This cannot be.  Heaven is a place of eternal happiness and peace.  With the hate, I was carrying around for you because of what you had done to me on earth, I was not fit for heaven.  Yet, it was a small matter and I was not damned to hell for it.  What would become of me?  I would choose to go to purgatory, a place that God has provided for us to get rid of those things that keep us from heaven. 

Purgatory? Didn't the death of Jesus remit all sin?

Why, yes it did. Guilt for the sin was is not the point of purgatory. Purgatory is there to purge the underlying cause of the sin.  In the case of me and stolen pencil, I would be in purgatory to purge the hate from my soul so that when I got to heaven I would be a whole person or a holy one.  Purgatory also is the place where you satisfy the demands of justice for the sins you committed.  For example, you stole, well, you would either make amends on earth while you were alive or in purgatory.  Evil and God do not mix.  Heaven will admit no sinful person. But God is a God of mercy and He will do what is best for His children, applying discipline as needed as a good father will but His discipline will be applied and be tempered with mercy. 

Imagine, if you will, that you were getting married in the afternoon.  In the morning of your wedding, you go and play a game of football with your friends.  The field is wet and muddy and you are tackled several times and are quite dirty.  Would you go to your wedding before you had a chance to take a shower and just perhaps put on some clean clothes?  Well, purgatory is just that sort of a place.  You are readying yourself to see God as He is.  You do not want to do it in dirty attire. 

What about those in hell, can they repent? 

St Teresa once said, "Hell could be emptied with one tear of sorrow."  This means that the people in hell want to be there, they want to be away from God, they do not have any desire to share eternity with Him.  To repent from the evil of their lives would be abhorrent to them.  They curse God and blame Him for all of their woes.  Every corrupt thing, every curse, every evil ever committed are memorialized on the walls of hell.  Each person is known by their own particular sin and the punishment they receive is appropriate to the crime.  Some say that they would choose hell because that is where all of their friends are.  Well, there is no friendship in hell, only hate, bitterness, regret, and thoughts of revenge against God and His followers.  Your "friends" will be too busy hating and lusting after violence to be talking over old times with you.  The fact is, they will despise you and do what they can to make you more miserable.  There are no friends in hell. 

The Dangers Of Christian Political Correctness

Gospel	John 15:18-21 ©

The world hated me before it hated you

Jesus said to his disciples:

‘If the world hates you,

remember that it hated me before you.

If you belonged to the world,

the world would love you as its own;

but because you do not belong to the world,

because my choice withdrew you from the world,

therefore the world hates you.

Remember the words I said to you: A servant is not greater than his master.

If they persecuted me, they will persecute you too;

if they kept my word, they will keep yours as well.

But it will be on my account that they will do all this,

because they do not know the one who sent me.’

Where did we get the idea that to survive that we Christians have to be politically correct? I have to think that the idea came straight from the bowels of hell because remaining silent in the face of evil will, in fact, cause to allow us to have a very peaceful and serene life free from any anxiety and angst. While we are enjoying such peace and serenity, around us the world is burning. Our country moves farther and farther away from the principles that have made her great. We have evicted God from our way of life and have rushed headlong onto the path that leads to destruction. Abortion right up until the time of birth has been legalized in some places. These laws go on to the books without meaningful challenge from the Christian community, but there is peace.

Wake up, look around you. Evil was allowed its freedom between 1933 and 1945 and millions upon millions of people paid the price for the sloth that engulfed the world. But what are some things we can look work on? Get mad about these minor issues that confront us today:

1. Abortion - This act of human selfishness, where a baby is destroyed in its mother's womb is one of the greatest evils of all time.  It was recognized as evil by everyone up until late in the twentieth century.  Under the guise of women's health, it has killed more people than the Nazi's did in their industrialized killing centers. Get mad about this, refuse to be politically correct about it. 
2. Persecution of Christians around the world  - Yes, it is happening today.  While we sit in front of our televisions watching sitcoms, Christians in the ravaged middle eastern countries are being persecuted by radical Muslims and maybe even worse than that, they are being ignored and left to their own devices as humanitarian aid which reaches Muslim refugees does not make it to the Christian parts of the country. Get mad about this, refuse to be politically correct about it.
3. The bad behavior of the Cardinals and Bishops - Oh, I am so tired of these blue-ribbon commissions, conferences, synods and the like that do absolutely nothing to really address the sex scandal of the Church.  To put the investigation of these matters into the hands of the bishops and cardinals would be like staffing the parole board with convicted murderers and thieves.  Yes, I believe what they have done is just that bad.  Get mad about this, refuse to be politically correct about it.

The time to be silent is over.  The time for action is now.  We Catholics make up a large block of votes. We know that the principles we live by are the principles set down by Our Lord and that they represent the will of God. Our voices should be heard because we outnumber the opposition who has disguised themselves as those that possess the will of the people while actually being in the minority.   

Our choices are simple. Do we live our lives quietly and blending into the woodwork, causing no waves, rocking not the boat we ride on? Or do we, like Peter, leave the boat in response to the call of the Lord knowing full well that He will not allow us to sink beneath the waves as we do his work on earth. We can and should be people of peace but it is incumbent upon us that when we see evil we should address it. We address it not out of hate or a sense of superiority, but rather we address it out of love because we see that the path that our brothers and sisters are taking will move them outside of the Father's will and thus lead them to an eternity in hell without God. This is too great a price to pay for political correctness.

Why did our Bishops and Cardinals Start Behaving Badly?

First reading
Acts 1:15-17,20-26 ©

'Let someone else take his office'

One day Peter stood up to speak to the brothers – there were about a hundred and twenty persons in the congregation: ‘Brothers, the passage of scripture had to be fulfilled in which the Holy Spirit, speaking through David, foretells the fate of Judas, who offered himself as a guide to the men who arrested Jesus – after having been one of our number and actually sharing this ministry of ours. Now in the Book of Psalms, it says:

Let his camp be reduced to ruin,

Let there be no one to live in it.

And again:

Let someone else take his office.

‘We must, therefore, choose someone who has been with us the whole time that the Lord Jesus was traveling around with us, someone who was with us right from the time when John was baptizing until the day when he was taken up from us – and he can act with us as a witness to his resurrection.’

  Having nominated two candidates, Joseph known as Barsabbas, whose surname was Justus, and Matthias, they prayed, ‘Lord, you can read everyone’s heart; show us therefore which of these two you have chosen to take over this ministry and apostolate, which Judas abandoned to go to his proper place.’ They then drew lots for them, and as the lot fell to Matthias, he was listed as one of the twelve apostles.

There was a vacancy that needed to be filled.  Once there had been twelve apostles, twelve men specially selected by Jesus to be the bishops of His Church. One of them betrayed the Lord and committed suicide leaving the vacancy. 

It is interesting that this passage begins with us being informed that one day Peter stood up to speak to the brothers -120 people. Out of the crowd that was present, it was Peter that told the group that they needed to fill the office of the traitor Judas.  Peter was held in great esteem because all knew that he was the one that Jesus appointed as leader of the Church. 

The process that they used was interesting, they prayed and they drew lots.  I guess Mathias got the short straw and was enrolled as one of the Apostles.  They were relying on the Holy Spirit to show them the way. Today, we do not select our Church leaders by praying and drawing lots.  The process we use starts at the seminary or maybe even before. Back in my youth, I had the notion that I had a calling to be a religious brother, a Franciscan to be exact.  I wrote a letter to the vocation director who came to Chicago to visit me one Saturday morning and we had a long talk in the lobby of a downtown hotel.  I must have made it past this preliminary screening because he told me that I would be receiving some documents in the mail.  He was not lying.  There were lots of documents and a checklist of things that I had to provide before the Third Order Regular of St. Francis, Loretto PA would consent to allow me to try my vocation. There were tests to take, psychological panels to fill out and documents to obtain followed up by a one-hour screening at the office of a local head shrinker.  All of this was to assure them that my motives were pure and I was not an out of work ax murderer looking to open a branch office in Pennsylvania. Today, in light of the scandals that are plaguing the Church, I am sure that the process is even more rigorous than it was back in the '70s when I underwent it.   

So what happened to our hierarchy? They went through the process the same as I did plus they spent years discerning if celibacy and the priesthood were for them.   I think the vast majority of the hierarchy began to trust too much in the process and not enough in the Holy Spirit.  I am speaking here of the leaders that practiced trying to solve the predator priest problem by playing the Move 'em Out game where they transferred problem priests to other parishes.  Were they working for the good of the Church when they did this?  Why of course they were or at least they thought so.  We know now what they were doing was to spread the contamination and to give the predators a new virgin hunting ground.  They acted in what they considered charity by transferring these people, many of whom they had been to seminary with and had close relationships that spread over several decades.  It was, the long black line similar to the long blue line of the police.  What happens in the Church, stays in the Church (although we see that it doesn't) and we take care of our own.  In all of this, our Bishops displayed great trust in human nature and a lack of faith in the Holy Spirit. Each time a predator was moved, each time a violation of a person be they young or old, male or female, the bishop was making it harder and harder to reform the Church and was no longer doing his job.  His job is to lead people to heaven and not to protect the church from chastisement from outside forces. If he had stuck to the leading people to heaven, the perpetrators would have been thrown out, put in jail, and the Church itself would be in a better position today than it is right now. 

The College of Cardinals, the Bishop's Conferences around the world, and even local parish priests have lost credibility.  The public now looks with suspicion at these men who are supposed to be good examples whom we should emulate.  Every "solution" to this issue involves the bishops doing something, coming up with a rule, investigating this and that and yes, they are now coming down hard on predator priests.  Schools that were named after what appeared to be holy men are being renamed with any inspirational artwork being relegated to storage closets and or landfills. 

Our Holy Father, Francis, whom I respect as a good and holy man but as a terrible pope finally came out with a definitive what to do rule for those cardinals and bishops that still may be unsure.  While the rules apply to Vatican City, they are a model that should be adopted by all.   Here is the news story from May 5th courtesy of API. 

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has issued sweeping new sex abuse legislation for the Vatican City State and Vatican diplomats that requires the immediate reporting of allegations to Vatican prosecutors, as he seeks to create a model policy for the Catholic Church.

The mandatory reporting provision, while limited in scope to Vatican officials, marks the first time the Holy See has put into law requirements for Catholic officials to report allegations of sex crimes to police or face fines and possible jail time.

Francis also issued child protection guidelines for Vatican City State and its youth seminary, acting after the global sex abuse scandal exploded anew last year and The Associated Press reported that the headquarters of the Catholic Church had no policy to protect children from predator priests.

While the new norms only cover Vatican City State, affiliated institutions and the Holy See’s diplomatic corps, they were still symbolically significant and were welcomed by a former seminarian whose case helped spark the reform.

“I see this as something positive,” Kamil Jarzembowski told the AP.

The law for the first time provides a Vatican definition for “vulnerable people” who are entitled to the same protections as minors under church law. The Vatican amended its canon law covering sex abuse to include “vulnerable adults” in 2010, but never defined it.

According to the new Vatican definition, a vulnerable person is anyone who is sick or suffering from a physical or psychiatric deficiency, isn’t able to exercise personal freedom and has a limited capacity to understand or resist the crime.

The issue of whether “vulnerable people” can include seminarians, religious sisters or other adults who are emotionally dependent on clergy has come to the fore in the wake of the scandal over ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, a once high-ranking American cleric who molested seminarians, and revelations of priests and bishops around the world sexually preying on nuns.

The new law covers all personnel who live in or work for the Vatican and any abuse that occurs in the Vatican, the 44-hectare (110-acre) city-state in the center of Rome and its other territories, as well as the Holy See’s vast diplomatic corps.

The Vatican’s own ambassadors have figured in some of the most scandalous cases of sex abuse in recent years, with papal representatives accused of groping, distributing child pornography and sexually abusing minors in their far-flung posts.

The provisions to punish them criminally are now contained in the city state’s criminal code and are separate from the canon law which also imposes canonical penalties, such as defrocking, for predator priests worldwide.

The law now requires any Vatican public official who learns of an allegation of abuse within the law’s jurisdiction to report it to Vatican prosecutors “without delay.” Failure to do so can result in a fine of up to 5,000 euros ($5,615) or, in the case of a Vatican gendarme, up to six months of prison.

Information obtained during confession is exempt from the reporting requirements, in keeping with Catholic doctrine.

“With this document, the Vatican wants to send a message that it takes these crimes seriously, wants to prosecute them, to avoid cover-up, and also to create an atmosphere that prevents these crimes from happening in the first place,” said Ulrich Rhode, a canon law professor at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University.

Anne Barrett Doyle of BishopAccountability, an online database about clergy abuse, said any law that protects even a single child is to be applauded. But she faulted its limited scope as reinforcing the Vatican claim that it is only responsible for protecting children in the city-state.

“Let’s hope (Francis) finds the courage soon to enact new, sweeping laws in this larger jurisdiction,” she said.

Francesco Zanardi of the Italian survivor advocacy group Rete L’Abuso (Abuse Network) echoed her call, saying: “If minors have the luck of being abused in the Vatican City State, their rights will be protected. Outside, we can’t do anything.”

Many of the law’s provisions answer longstanding victim complaints about how they are treated by the church, while also ensuring that the accused are entitled to a defense and efforts to restore their reputations if the claims are not substantiated.

The legislation requires that victims be welcomed, listened to and provided with medical, psychological and legal assistance, and sets the statute of limitations at 20 years past the victim’s 18th birthday.

They must be kept apprised of the investigation, a significant point given that victims are usually kept in the dark about canonical sex abuse investigations.

Victims and their families are to be protected from any retaliation. Jarzembowski, who reported abuse at the Vatican youth seminary, was kicked out the following year.

Mimicking some provisions in place in the U.S. church, the guidelines require background checks for Vatican staff and volunteers working with minors and calls for safe environment training for all Vatican personnel.

The Vatican’s editorial director, Andrea Tornielli, acknowledged that very few children actually live in the Vatican City State. But he said Francis decided to make the legislation and accompanying guidelines a model.

Last year, the AP reported that Vatican City had no policy to protect children, even though the Holy See required such policies in Catholic dioceses around the globe and had told the U.N. in 2013 that such a policy was in the works.

The absence of clear-cut policy became evident following revelations that Jarzembowski, then a teenage seminarian in the Vatican’s youth seminary had, in 2012, accused one of the older boys of sexually molesting his roommate.

Nothing came of it. Vatican police, who have jurisdiction, weren’t called in to investigate. A series of bishops and cardinals said they investigated, but no one ever interviewed the alleged victim. The accused was eventually ordained a priest.

On Friday, Jarzembowski told the AP the law answered many of the loopholes into which his case fell, particularly its recognition that the youth seminary falls under Vatican jurisdiction.

“Before there was a situation where a group of kids were there, in the Vatican City State, but they were seemingly in a legal limbo,” he said.

Jesus as the Sheep Gate

Gospel	John 10:1-10 ©

I am the gate of the sheepfold

Jesus said:

  ‘I tell you most solemnly, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold through the gate, but gets in some other way is a thief and a brigand. The one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the flock; the gatekeeper lets him in, the sheep hear his voice, one by one he calls his own sheep and leads them out. When he has brought out his flock, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow because they know his voice. They never follow a stranger but run away from him: they do not recognize the voice of strangers.’

  Jesus told them this parable but they failed to understand what he meant by telling it to them.

  So Jesus spoke to them again:

‘I tell you most solemnly,

I am the gate of the sheepfold.

All others who have come

are thieves and brigands;

but the sheep took no notice of them.

I am the gate.

Anyone who enters through me will be safe:

he will go freely in and out

and be sure of finding pasture.

The thief comes

only to steal and kill and destroy.

I have come

so that they may have life and have it to the full.’

Jesus uses a lot of different terms to describe Himself and His mission.  Some of these terms are pointing to Him as He really is, such as "I am the bread of life." which we find in John Chapter six.  In other places, such as our reading today, He is using language which the people of the time, well versed in the keeping and use of sheep, would have understood quite well. 

So, what was Jesus telling us here?  Jesus is the sheep gate.  A sheep gate is a gate in which sheep pass through (Duh.) But the sheep gate that Jesus is referring to is the gate near the pool at Bethesda in Jerusalem.  Yes, the very same pool where the sick and suffering waited to be healed and where Jesus would at some later time heal the paralytic.  But the pool itself was not some beautiful spa where the notables went to bathe and enjoy the healing properties of the waters. No, it was quite the opposite. Those of delicate sensibilities and those of delicate dress and temperament did not patronize pool.  This pool was near the sheep gate by the temple. The sheep would be taken through the sheep gate and washed in the pool at Bethesda to make them pure and ready for sacrifice. So, any lamb washed in these waters then went through the sheep gate and into the temple and would not come out again nor pass through the sheep gate, it was a one-way road for our wool-bearing friends.  

Should we be afraid of Jesus when he describes Himself as the sheep gate?  No, because Jesus Himself says that the sheep that enter through Him will be safe and will come and go through the gate multiple times always finding pasture.  We enter the fold through Him and He makes sure that we have all that we need and more than that, we will have life and have it to the full.

Mother's Day - Was Mary a Good Mother to Jesus?

Today is the day that we set aside to honor the most important people in the world, our mothers.  I want to examine in a cursory manner the relationship between Jesus and His Mother.  I say cursory because books can and have been written about their relationship. How would we rate Mary as a mother using the standards of the twenty-first century as our model?  We will look at a few moments in their combined lives and then total up the score. 

Birth

Well, Mary passes the first test of being a good mother because she decided to give birth.  In her time there was no "choice" in the matter and she was in a tight spot indeed.  She was betrothed to Joseph who knew her in every way except in a carnal way.  He loved Mary and wanted to spend the rest of his life with her.  At this moment, to him, she was an ordinary girl that caught his attention and who had agreed to marry him.  The betrothal period was about a year during which time Joseph would prepare a home for his new bride. This conveyed all of the rights of marriage on the couple including the right to engage in intimacy but it was the custom to refrain until the marriage was solemnized.  When Mary went away for three months and came back three months pregnant it presented a dilemma for her.  Back then they had a cure for unwed motherhood and it was called stoning. If she was found to be with child and Joseph claimed that he was not the father there would have been a quick fancy trial followed by an immediate execution of the death sentence.  Mary who knew the child was a holy one kept steady and told Joseph who must have been heartbroken. That he had a dream and he understood all and took Mary into his house, the betrothed and he became man and wife.  In today's world, Mary could have considered having the baby murdered by being vacuumed out of her womb, or she could have taken a "Plan B" pill to cause a miscarriage.  But today, she would be in no danger because being pregnant before marriage is not seen as being wrong anymore.  But back then, she would have had to leave her home, never to return,  and go to some far-away place, have her baby and make her way in the world as best as she could. A single mother was a novelty back then and as a woman, without means, she would have had a hard time. So, Mary put her faith in God and she had the child and they named Him Jesus. 

Compliance

One thing all mothers, from earliest times, had to do was to be sure that all of the legal niceties were taken care of. She and Joseph took their baby, the Child of Promise, to the temple and before they could even get into the inner courts, a man stopped them and took the Infant in his arms and told Mary what she already knew.  He told her that this Boy would be a sign and a sign that was rejected and that He would be the rise and fall of many in  Jerusalem.  Simeon also prophesized that a sword would pierce her heart too. She must have left the temple after Joseph and her sacrificed two turtle doves, the sacrifice of a poor family in thanksgiving for the birth of their child.  Mary and Joseph also traveled with Jesus to Passover when He was twelve and panicked when they seeming lost Him.  Was he kidnapped? Was he hurt?  They searched for him for three days until they found Him in the temple teaching the elders and asking questions of them who were amazed at the wisdom he had at his tender age.  Mary asked her Son why He had done this and Jesus gave an answer that had I given it to my parents would have resulted in a grounding that would still be in effect today.  He told them that He had to be about His Father's business.  Then he left with them and the Bible says He was subject to them. 

Teaching

The mother was responsible for teaching the children in the ways of the Lord.  The father helped a bit but it was not considered his job. So Mary taught Jesus, who, even though He was God, he still had a human brain that needed to be taught the rules, regulations, rituals, and traditions of the Jewish world.  Yes, Jesus was God and yes he possessed a brilliant mind but He still had to strive to learn about what it was like to be a Jew in the first century and Mary taught Him and taught Him well.  He knew more than those that had been sent to study under famous rabbis. That is why when he came under scrutiny by the temple gang they were amazed because they could find no one who would admit to training him formally.  So Mary did a great job for sure. 

Kick-Starting

A mother eagle sometimes has to kick her child out of the nest so that the child could start to depend on his own devices, find his own food, find a mate and perpetuate the species.  At Cana, it appears that Jesus was not quite ready to start his ministry.  Mary probably looked into his eyes and with her eyes, the eyes of a mother saw some hesitancy, some unsureness, and yes, probably even some fear.  Let's face it.  Jesus was very comfortable with His life.  He had lived thirty years in relative peace and enjoyed putting the lessons learned from Joseph into practice.  He loved the smell of wood shavings and was proud when a project brought in a small bonus because the people were so grateful for the wonderful work He did for them.  He was proud that He was able to take care of His mother.  So, knowing that Jesus could help their friends whose party had run out of liquid refreshment, she asked her son.  Jesus responded saying basically, "Yeah, what do you want me to do about it?  It isn't time yet."  Mary shrewdly told the waiters to do whatever Jesus told them to do and their wine problem would be solved.  They did, it was, and Jesus started to be watched by people and reluctantly, Jesus gave up the peace and serenity of home life and took His mission on the road.  Mary, His mother kick-started the mission, 

Consoling

We jump forward three years and the worst has come to be.  Jesus has been condemned, has been tortured, and is now carrying a cross to be nailed upon on Calvary.  He wills Himself forward and He sees His mother.  She approaches and their eyes meet.  That brief moment gave Jesus a boost of energy and He stared into her eyes and was going to say something but the Roman guard pushed Him forward.  But never in history was it more important for two people to look at each other. I believe that each understood that this is what had to happen.  Mary for her part mourned for her Son and Jesus in these last few moments of life came up with an idea to keep His mother safe in the world, He would entrust her to John the Apostle.  With this matter taken care of the Savior marched on. 

Mourning

Jesus was removed from the cross.  His body limp and cold was placed into the arms of His mother who would have a moment to say goodbye.  Her tears mixed with the rain that was falling and the dripped on her dead Son's body.  She sobbed and cried.  She was inconsolable.  Jesus's body was pried from her hands and taken away for burial.  She, like any mother who has to bury a child thought of their happy lives with Joseph and then with just her and Jesus.  More tears fell. Thunder sounded in the distance and she rose up and after helping with the burial, she went home to mourn afresh.  Love of a human will always end badly.  It is our fate to die and that is an unchanging law.  In every pair of people, there will be a parting and that parting will be painful and will leave scars.  Time will heal the pain but the loss you feel when someone is called home to God or more simply dies is a common human experience. Even Jesus, the Son of God felt it when Lazarus died. 

So, How Mary Measure Up? 

I think we can safely say that Mary was a good mother.  She falls into the one-hundred percentile. Every mother should try to emulate her.   We are commanded to honor our father and mother.  Jesus followed this commandment to the letter and fulfilled it perfectly.  But what about those of us who did not have a satisfying experience at home with our mother?  Perhaps she was mean, or maybe an alcoholic or maybe she thought of herself over her child or children.  Do we have to honor such mothers or are we free to hate them and cut them out of our lives forever?  We are not commanded to honor our father and mother if they were perfect parents.  No, the commandment does not say that.  What we are to do with imperfect parents is to, as best as we can, see our way clear to forgive them.  I know that this is hard and may even be impossible for us to do without the help of God.  We must try and we must ask for help.  We need not put ourselves in harm's way.  We just need to be thankful to our mother for the life she gave us and we need to pray for her and for the healing of any pains and scars she may have inflicted on us.  We must be generous with our prayers.  We may never sit down with them for coffee again but we can request that both they and ourselves can heal and maybe even one day reunite. 

My Mother Has Passed Away

My mother has been dead since 1990, 29 years without Mom.  I miss her today just as much as I did when I saw her take her last breath on earth.  It makes the holiday of Mother's Day kind of hard for me to take although it has gotten easier over the years.  But how do you honor your mother if she has passed away?  You pray for her.  If you really loved her in life, do not abandon her in death.  Purgatory is a real place and in spite of the fact that you "know" she went right to heaven, it is still possible that she might be in purgatory.  Pray for her.  Have a mass said for her and plan to be at that mass. Talk to her, pour our heart, let her know how you feel.  She is still your mother.  

TO ALL MOTHERS, GOD BLESS YOU AND KEEP YOU ON THIS MOTHER'S DAY 2019 

Miracles Are All Around Us!

First reading	Acts 9:31-42 ©

The churches grew and were filled with the consolation of the Holy Spirit

The churches throughout Judaea, Galilee, and Samaria were now left in peace, building themselves up, living in the fear of the Lord, and filled with the consolation of the Holy Spirit.

  Peter visited one place after another and eventually came to the saints living down in Lydda. There he found a man called Aeneas, a paralytic who had been bedridden for eight years. Peter said to him, ‘Aeneas, Jesus Christ cures you: get up and fold up your sleeping mat.’ Aeneas got up immediately; everybody who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they were all converted to the Lord.

  At Jaffa, there was a woman disciple called Tabitha, or Dorcas in Greek, who never tired of doing good or giving in charity. But the time came when she got ill and died, and they washed her and laid her out in a room upstairs. Lydda is not far from Jaffa, so when the disciples heard that Peter was there, they sent two men with an urgent message for him, ‘Come and visit us as soon as possible.’

  Peter went back with them straight away, and on his arrival they took him to the upstairs room, where all the widows stood around him in tears, showing him tunics and other clothes Dorcas had made when she was with them. Peter sent them all out of the room and knelt down and prayed. Then he turned to the dead woman and said, ‘Tabitha, stand up.’ She opened her eyes, looked at Peter and sat up. Peter helped her to her feet, then he called in the saints and widows and showed them she was alive. The whole of Jaffa heard about it and many believed in the Lord.

Whenever there is an abundance of something we tend to take it for granted.  For example, we want to go somewhere in our car.  We get in and see that the gas gauge shows almost empty so we go to the gas station and fill up with gas.  We don't think about it, we just go and get it.  Go back a few years now to when the Arabs were angry because the U.S. was supporting Israel and they slowed down the amount of oil that they were sending us which meant that we could not make as much gasoline and that caused lines at the gas pumps.  We realized at that moment that we were being held hostage by OPEC.  Gasoline was now rationed.  Depending on your license number you could buy gasoline on even or odd numbered days.  On Sunday, all stations, nationwide, were closed. On the days you could drive you were mandated to save gasoline on the highway, we were limited to 55 miles per hour maximum.  This limit, which was pretty much ignored, was supposed to save gasoline.  So, you see that an abundance led to indifference and a shortage led to concern and conservation. 

Every day we can, if we look, see miracles around us. The issue is not the lack of miracles which requires much study and interpretation to see one but rather recognizing them as abundant and as gifts from our Father in heaven.  The very fact that you are drawing breath and able to see things around you is a miracle.  Life itself in all of its forms is a miracle.  The food we eat, the water we drink all came from the hand of God to sustain us. 

Our ancestors understood that their world was filled with miracles and they watched for them and thanked God for them daily.  A miracle is usually described as something that happened that did not have an explanation in nature.  Do you realize that using this definition we can consider electricity a miracle?  Sure, we know how to generate it, to distribute it, and to use it but scientists have never been able to define just what it is.  Electricity is, therefore, a miracle.  That would mean that everything that we use electric for is a miracle too!  Our smartphone could not exist without the humble electron so perhaps the smartphone is a miracle too.  

I hope you see my point. God has provided us with a wonderful world, full of miracles to help us live our lives in a better and more comfortable fashion.  It follows that when we take advantage of the miracles we find in the world that we should use them not only to enrich our lives but we should make it point to be a miracle for those in less fortunate circumstances than we are. 

You and I are walking miracles.  Inside of us is a soul that will never ever die.  We, humans, have the capacity to feel the joys and sorrows of other people.  We can empathize, which means we can share in the feelings of others.  When we do this we can reach into our resources and be of help to others.  Other occupants of this planet such as animal life normally cannot do this.

So today, think of yourself as a miracle, as the beloved of God the Father who has been so very generous to you in so many ways.  Before you eat or drink, think and thank God for what you are about to do, it is a miracle.  Before you start your labor for the day, think and thank God for you are about to do is a miracle.  And today resolve that you, an ambulating, talking miracle will not keep the joy of God's love to yourself.  Distribute miracles as you walk through life, it is why you are here! 

Why Do You Persecute Me? - Conversion For Fun and Prophet

First reading	Acts 9:1-20 ©

This man is my chosen instrument to bring my name before the pagans

Saul was still breathing threats to slaughter the Lord’s disciples. He had gone to the high priest and asked for letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, that would authorize him to arrest and take to Jerusalem any followers of the Way, men or women, that he could find.

  Suddenly, while he was traveling to Damascus and just before he reached the city, there came a light from heaven all around him. He fell to the ground, and then he heard a voice saying, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ ‘Who are you, Lord?’ he asked, and the voice answered, ‘I am Jesus, and you are persecuting me. Get up now and go into the city, and you will be told what you have to do.’ The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless, for though they heard the voice they could see no one. Saul got up from the ground, but even with his eyes wide open he could see nothing at all, and they had to lead him into Damascus by the hand. For three days he was without his sight and took neither food nor drink.

  A disciple called Ananias who lived in Damascus had a vision in which he heard the Lord say to him, ‘Ananias!’ When he replied, ‘Here I am, Lord’, the Lord said, ‘You must go to Straight Street and ask the house of Judas for someone called Saul, who comes from Tarsus. At this moment he is praying, having had a vision of a man called Ananias coming in and laying hands on him to give him back his sight.’

  When he heard that, Ananias said, ‘Lord, several people have told me about this man and all the harm he has been doing to your saints in Jerusalem. He has only come here because he holds a warrant from the chief priests to arrest everybody who invokes your name.’ The Lord replied, ‘You must go all the same because this man is my chosen instrument to bring my name before pagans and pagan kings and before the people of Israel; I myself will show him how much he himself must suffer for my name.’ Then Ananias went. He entered the house, and at once laid his hands on Saul and said, ‘Brother Saul, I have been sent by the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on your way here so that you may recover your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.’ Immediately it was as though scales fell away from Saul’s eyes and he could see again. So he was baptized there and then, and after taking some food he regained his strength.

  He began preaching in the synagogues, ‘Jesus is the Son of God.’

Today we read about Saul an eager and devoted man who was ready to go to great lengths to stamp out this Jesus cult which was rocking the temple to its foundations.  Day by day he saw good people being lured away by the smooth-talking of the followers of that crucified pious faker who claimed to be the Son of God.  It seemed to Saul that no one was taking this cult seriously.  The chief priest and the Sanhedrin sat around and talked and talked and talked and at nightfall they were no closer to a plan to rid the people of the Jesus Cult.  Saul approached them and agreed to take on the responsibility of ridding Judea of this menace.  He was very successful in the city but some had fled to other cities and slipped through the fine sieve that he constructed.  He armed himself with letters of authorization and began to hunt these Christians on the road.  Then, he was thrown from his horse, blinded, and he heard a voice asking "Why are you persecuting me?"  Saul was a bit shaken but found the voice to say, "Who are you?"   He received the answer that he never expected to hear, "I am Jesus."

Thus began the conversion of one of Christendom's greatest evangelists.  In a way, his conversion story is much like the story of many of us.  Oh, we may not have seen a bright light, or have fallen from a horse or even been struck blind but each of us has a conversion story, something that propelled us on the way to being a faithful follower of Jesus.  I think that in my case it was two things that happened to me when I was a small boy.  Each incident involved a woman being Christ for and to me.  First was my mother Violet (I had a pet name for her, it was "Mom.")  She faithfully took me to church with her every Sunday. She made sure that I knew that this place we were going to was the House of God and was not a place to use any other voice than a whisper. She pointed out the tabernacle to me and said that Jesus was there. I tried to be very good at church.  I tried to follow what the other people were doing.  When they made the sign of the cross, so did I.  Except it looked more like I was shoeing flies away than an actual sign of the cross.  I was impressed that all of these people were here to visit Jesus.  There was music and the priest read a story about Jesus and then he spoke about it, which I didn't understand.  But I was fascinated by the whole thing, the quiet, the people praying, the little box where Jesus was and the fact that I had been brought here by my mother so it had to be a good place to be. 

The second woman was always dressed in the same clothes, black and white and she wore a veil.  She was known by many names but the two that we children used the most was "sister" and on ocassion, we would raise our hand and  chant her other name as we clamored for her attention and said, "sss sss sss."  Yes, forty kids trying to get sister to call on them.  It kind of sounded like a convention of snakes.  This sister taught us that Jesus loved us.  What converted me was simply the story she told about Jesus leaving the ninety-nine safe sheep and going out to look for the one that was lost.  When He found the lost sheep, He would pick it up and carry it back home on His back.  Sister showed a picture of Jesus doing that and I, from that day forward, was convinced. My conversion to becoming a real Christian had begun. 

Very few of us are converted like Saul was.  Saul, whose name was changed to Paul, was converted in one big incident and he never looked back from that moment on.  The cult he had once hated became the Church that he loved unto death.  For me, my conversion is an ongoing process.  I heat up for a while and then I seem to cool down.  Later, I realize that I have begun to stray from the path and I reconvert myself and for a time I work harder on myself and try to get closer to Jesus. When will I be fully converted?  I don't think any sooner than when I stand before Jesus.  Everyone is converted when they see Jesus face to face.  For some, this conversion comes too late because when they look into the face of Christ, they can only see their failures, their acts of self-love and their refusal to adhere to the Words of Christ.  Jesus does not accuse them, they confess how they have failed to Jesus but they feel no remorse. These are the ones who will prefer to spend their eternity away from God and their request will be granted.  The rest of us will also see our failures but as we look into the eyes of our Savior we will see how He even used our failures to create good in the world. We will look in His eyes and see the love He has for us, his servants, and will bid us take our place among the Saints of heaven.  

My suggestion to you is to keep converting yourself.  Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus and re-convert again and again, as many times as is needed to be the Friend of Jesus, who is very happy to carry a lost sheep such as yourself back to the fold. 

Martyrdom - Is It Safe?

First reading	Acts 6:8-15 ©

They could not get the better of Stephen because the Spirit prompted what he said

Stephen was filled with grace and power and began to work miracles and great signs among the people. But then certain people came forward to debate with Stephen, some from Cyrene and Alexandria who were members of the synagogue called the Synagogue of Freedmen, and others from Cilicia and Asia. They found they could not get the better of him because of his wisdom, and because it was the Spirit that prompted what he said. So they procured some men to say, ‘We heard him using blasphemous language against Moses and against God.’ Having in this way turned the people against him as well as the elders and scribes, they took Stephen by surprise, and arrested him and brought him before the Sanhedrin. There they put up false witnesses to say, ‘This man is always making speeches against this Holy Place and the Law. We have heard him say that Jesus the Nazarene is going to destroy this Place and alter the traditions that Moses handed down to us.’ The members of the Sanhedrin all looked intently at Stephen, and his face appeared to them like the face of an angel.

Our reading today stops a bit short and does not describe the fate of Stephan who was one of the first deacons of the Church and the first martyr.  Once again we have the august personages of the Great Sanhedrin meeting in conclave faced with this issue that they thought that they had taken care of when Jesus was disgraced and hung on a Roman cross for the scripture says, "Cursed is he who hangs on a tree."  In the language of the time, the crosses used to dispatch criminals was referred to as a tree. So, the holy men of the Sanhedrin did all that they could to nip this Jesus thing in the bud.  

The blood of martyrs became the seed of the Church.  People of the time had no belief system that made death something that anyone would find appealing.  But the Christians believed that death was not the end of things and that they would be with the Lord if they remained faithful.  

This begs a question; What is the difference between Christian martyrdom and Islamic martyrdom?  Is there a difference?  

I believe that there is a definite difference in the mindset of Christian martyrs versus Islamic martyrs.  A Christian person does not seek out opportunities to die for their faith.  A living Christian is certainly what Our Lord has in mind because a living Christian can preach The Good News to others and show them the benefits of being Christian.  A Christian martyr is typically not a volunteer, although he or she can be, such as in the case of Maximillian Kolbe who sacrificed his life so that another might live.  But normally Christian martyrs are rounded up or arrested by the authorities and in Rome, they were sometimes given a chance to redeem themselves by offering a pinch of incense to the emperor who was considered (at least by himself) to be a living god.  In the Roman world one just did this out of habit and did not really believe that the oaf sitting on the throne was any kind of god.  It was viewed as something that would unite Romans and thus keep the empire strong.  Christians lived in the world and most likely prior to their conversion, they partook in this civic duty without thinking much about it.  Once they came to believe that Jesus was Lord, the ritual took on a new meaning and they could not in good conscience sacrifice even a pinch of incense to the false-god that the emperor was.  This was seen as treason by the man on the throne and was a crime worthy of death.  As the Christian martyrs were marched off to be killed in the arena, their fellow Christians would ask for their prayers for they knew that they would be heard as they were about to shed their blood for their beliefs.  So we see, that Christian martyrdom was in a sense voluntary since a pinch of incense would be the tonic that could save their lives. 

We look next at Islamic martyrs. In the modern era, we have what radical Muslims call "The Nineteen Martyrs."  These were the men who participated in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.  Osama bin Laden is seen to be the number one martyr. We also have many, too many, examples of men, women, and children putting on a suicide vest and going to a crowded place, killing themselves and scores of innocent people.  The person wearing the vest is considered a martyr for the cause. These people are volunteers who agree to commit savage acts of murder so that they can receive a reward from their diety.  This cult of death is a perversion of main-stream Islam to be sure but it is the public face of this leaderless religion where the word of one teacher is just as good as another so the radical Islamic is free to choose from among the most blood-thirsty teachers available and thus legitimize their murder of innocent people. For this type of people, blood will run in the streets until the whole world is not only Muslim but the form of Islam that is the strictest and which saps the joy out of life as one person watches another, ready to denounce him or her for crimes against Allah. 

For the Christian, life is better than death but death is not a thing to be feared. Until the day we are called home, and that day may include our being martyred for the Faith, we live the Christian life day by day.  We learn how to love one another as Christ loved us - remember he spared nothing.  We also try to live in harmony with the world at large being of the world but not part of it. 

Third Sunday of Easter - Why Lamb of God?

The following is from CATHOLIC ANSWERS  To understand why the title “Lamb of God” is used for Christ, we must first appreciate the celebration of Passover.  Recall that at about 1250 BC, the Israelites were slaves of Egypt.  Almighty God heard the cry of His people:  Exodus 2:24 stated, “He heard their groaning and was mindful of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”  God sent Moses to deliver His people from their bondage.  After Moses had performed nine signs, Pharaoh’s heart was still unmoved.  Finally, God told Moses to have each family take a one-year-old, male, unblemished lamb; slaughter the lamb; and paint the door posts and lintel of every house where they would eat its roasted flesh with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.  That night, the Angel of Death would “passover” the homes protected by the blood, but take the lives of the first born children unprotected by the blood of the lamb.  Because of that blood sacrifice, Pharaoh let the people go:  they went from slavery to freedom, from a land of sin to the Promised land, and from death to new life. The prophets used this image of the lamb to describe the Messiah.  Isaiah prophesied, “Though he was harshly treated, he submitted and opened not his mouth; like a lamb led to the slaughter or a sheep before the shearer, he was silent and opened not his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7).  However, the image is twofold:  the Messiah would be both the sacrificial lamb to atone for sin and the suffering servant.  Interestingly, when speaking to the Ethiopian eunuch who was reading this exact passage from Isaiah, St. Philip told how it referred to Christ and how He fulfilled it (Acts 8:26ff). Nevertheless, in the Gospels, Jesus is specifically identified as “the lamb of God” in the sense of both the sacrificial offering for sin and the suffering servant.  As John the Baptizer was proclaiming the coming of the Messiah at the River Jordan, he saw Jesus and proclaimed, “Look!  There is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).  After foretelling His passion, death, and resurrection for the third time, Jesus asserted, “Anyone among you who aspires to greatness must serve the rest, and whoever wants to rank first among you must serve the needs of all.  Such is the case of the Son of Man who has come, not to be served by others, but to serve, to give His own life as a ransom for the many” (Matthew 20:26-28). The imagery of “Lamb of God” becomes clear in the Passion Narratives of the Gospels.  In St. John’s gospel, Pilate condemned Jesus to death on the preparation day for Passover at noon (John 18:28, 19:14), the hour when the priests began to slaughter Passover lambs in the temple.  After the crucifixion, the Gospel recorded that they did not break any of Jesus’ bones in fulfillment of Scripture (John 19:36); this reference corresponds to Exodus 12:46 and Numbers 9:12 where none of the Passover lamb’s bones were to be broken.  After our Lord’s death, the soldier thrust forward his lance, piercing the heart of our Lord; out flowed blood and water (John 19:34), always interpreted as signs of the life-giving sacraments of Holy Eucharist and Baptism. Ponder the depth of what is happening in the passion narratives!  At the crucifixion, Jesus, the innocent and sinless victim, takes all of our sins unto Himself.  He though does not just bear our sins and suffer the punishment for us that is due for them; no, Jesus Himself expiates the sins.  He as Priest offers Himself on the altar of the cross.  Through His blood He washes away sin.  However, unlike the Passover lamb that was slaughtered, roasted, and eaten, our Lord rose from the dead, conquering both sin and death.  He has truly delivered us from the slavery of sin, shown us the path of salvation, and given us the promise of everlasting life.  He has made a new, perfect, and everlasting covenant with His own blood.  Therefore St. Peter exhorted, “Realize that you were delivered from the futile way of life your fathers handed on to you, not by any diminishable sum of silver or gold, but by Christ’s blood beyond all price, the blood of a spotless, unblemished lamb…” (I Peter 1:19). We must not forget that this image evokes victory.  The Book of Revelation highlights this notion picturing the Lamb surrounded by angels, the “living creatures,” and elders, who cried out, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches, wisdom and strength, honor and glory and praise!” (Revelation 5:12).  Jesus is the King of kings, and Lord of lords (Revelation 17:14) who will be victorious against the powers of evil and will invite the righteous to the wedding feast of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9), the union of the Church, the new Jerusalem, in heaven with the Lord. For this reason, the Agnus Dei is sung during the fraction, the breaking of the consecrated Host.  St. John Chrysostom (d. 407) preached of how the fraction symbolized the Passion of Christ:  “What Christ did not suffer on the Cross, He suffers in the sacrifice for thee.”  The hymn itself invokes Christ and recalls His sacrificial death with overtones of a hymn of victory of the triumphal Lamb.  This belief is then emphasized again when the priest holds up the fractured Host and says, “This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, happy are those who are called to His supper.”  (Or, in a literal translation of the Latin, “Happy are those who are called to the supper of the Lamb,” better reflecting the imagery of Revelation.) As we celebrate the mysteries of the Mass, we look to the Lamb who suffered, died, and rose for our salvation.  We must gather around the altar of the Lamb, offering to Him our own hearts and pledging to be His servants, so that we may welcome Him and become wedded to Him in the Holy Eucharist.