Easter Tuesday - Piercing The Darkness

First reading	Acts 2:36-41 ©

You must repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus

On the day of Pentecost, Peter spoke to the Jews: ‘The whole House of Israel can be certain that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ.’

  Hearing this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the apostles, ‘What must we do, brothers?’ ‘You must repent,’ Peter answered ‘and every one of you must be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise that was made is for you and your children, and for all those who are far away, for all those whom the Lord our God will call to himself.’ He spoke to them for a long time using many arguments, and he urged them, ‘Save yourselves from this perverse generation.’ They were convinced by his arguments, and they accepted what he said and were baptized. That very day about three thousand were added to their number.

We have just completed a forty-day journey through the desert as seen through the eyes of a simple man on a pilgrimage.  Our own walk may have been very different than his or perhaps we did not walk at all.  It is of no consequence because now we have a reason to be hopeful.  We have a reason to be joyful.  We have a reason to want to announce the good news that death has lost its sting, that sins have been forgiven.  We should be walking with a spring in our step for Jesus Christ has Risen Today!  Yes, we are two days away from the day which we memorialized the Resurrection with great ceremony and ritualistic celebration.  The Church asked us to reflect, fast, give alms, and repent for forty days. Today she bids us rejoice for fifty days -  From Easter to Pentecost -  and to be ready to tell everyone we meet why we are so happy.  The pagan world welcomes Easter as the time when the cold and gray of winter are banished.  They give a bunny the power to bring candy to children.  They play hide and seek with eggs.  This is all great fun, even politicians in Washington get into the act.  At the White House, there was an Easter Egg rolling contest.  Easter, for pagans, fades into nothingness when the sun rises on Easter Monday.  It was fun while it lasted, but now there is work to be done.  The childish things like bunnies and hard-boiled egg hunts are put back on the shelf and the serious business of business returns.  For a Catholic especially we realize that the festive season has just begun.  In the words of a song that is sung on Holy Saturday at the vigil Mass, "We will sing to my God who has delivered us from death, into life into freedom through the sea."  

Let me exhort you.  The death of Jesus on the cross was for you, personally.  The resurrection on Easter Morning was for you personally as well.  Jesus did not destroy death for the world, He did it for you.  How can you be silent about that?  These next weeks between now and Pentecost, give vent to the joy.  Let everyone you know how happy you are about the gift that Jesus gave you.  Your joyful face should cause people to wonder why you are so happy.  If they ask, tell them, tell them, tell them.  If they don't ask, tell them anyway by the way you live your life, with joy.  Be a little kinder, be more gentle, be helpful, let the love that is bursting through the walls of your soul escape into the wild.  The joy is the Spirit of God in you.  Don't hold it in, dispense it freely.  People will notice and more importantly, you will notice the difference in how people treat you. 

Brothers and sisters, the world is in darkness this day.  The pagans have not a clue that they are loved beyond measure by God who knows them better than their own mother and father. They see the grave and live their life in abundant poverty of spirit.  Give them the gift or at least make them wonder why you are so different than they are.    

CHRIST IS RISEN 

CHRIST IS TRULY RISEN 

Lent Day Twenty-One - The Necessity Of Death

Gospel	Matthew 5:17-19 ©

I have not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets but to complete them

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete them. I tell you solemnly, till heaven and earth disappear, not one dot, not one little stroke, shall disappear from the Law until its purpose is achieved. Therefore, the man who infringes even one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be considered the least in the kingdom of heaven; but the man who keeps them and teaches them will be considered great in the kingdom of heaven.’

Once again, my journaling fell by the wayside yesterday but the way was long and hot.  The camels were moody and we made little progress towards our goal of Jerusalem.  The Master was not too perturbed about our lack of progress, as a matter of fact, he seemed to welcome it.  

Disaster struck us today and I am still upset by it.  Jack was an older member of our team and he was a retired policeman.  He had always wanted to go up to Jerusalem and over the objections of wife and kids, he joined us knowing full well what he was getting into.  He was a slim man, very bright, he had been promoted to a detective during his stint as a cop, and for a man of his age and what he had been through, he looked like he was pretty fit.  He never complained and I learned that he had beaten cancer three times!  He did his share of the work and was assigned one of the smaller camels to tend whose name was Sandy.  Uriah stormed into our tent well before the sun had even thought of rising and kindly and gently asked us to get up.  Actually, he spoke to the camels with more love, but we were used to it and took it all with good humor.  Everyone was up and doing the needful except John.  He was still abed and Uriah, an evil gleam in his eye approached the supine figure bent down and was going to yell in his ear when he noticed something and told Matthew to get the satellite phone and call for an air ambulance.  John was alive but it appeared that some cataclysm had claimed him during the night and he needed help.  We all stopped while Uriah made the patient comfortable.  Matthew came by about twenty minutes later and reported that the Life Flight helicopter was about thirty minutes out and he had activated the distress beacon that Uriah carried to guide the pilot.  John was a pasty white and there was a tinge of blue about his lips.  He was not responsive and Uriah said while there was a pulse, it was hard to find and it was kind of weak.   Water was brought and Uriah tenderly mopped the brow of the stricken pilgrim with water to keep him cool.  The Master came by and was concerned about John.  He knelt next to the man, place His hand on John's forehead and John's body seemed to relax.  He was no longer quivering.  He was still unresponsive but his pulse was stronger.  A tear appeared on the Master's face and he walked slowly away from John.  The helicopter eventually arrived and the paramedics took John away,  Later that day we were informed by radio that John had passed away.  It shook us a bit because this could have been any one of us. 

The Master addressed us after dinner. 

"Brothers, one of our number has left us because the Father has called him home. Be of good cheer in spite of our loss for our loss is John's gain.  We will no longer be able to see him or talk with him and in the years that follow we may even forget what he looked like or forget his sense of duty or humor.  This is as it is for the human being looks after self before others.  John, when he departed, did so in peace.  I believe that dozens upon dozens of the people that John helped came to escort him to heaven.  With so many friends pleading his case how can the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit keep him out of heaven?   But it is more than that.  You will find in your last hour that you are called upon to trust God and to let go.  Your love for God will make this easy.  On the other hand, if you despise God, hate the thought of being with Him forever, then you will go into eternity kicking and screaming, but you will go at a time and place of the Father's choosing.  As for John, you can be assured that this day because of his selfless life, his giving attitude, his humor, his thoughtfulness and the fact that he never held a grudge, that he beholds the Father, not through a glass but face to face!"

This was a lot to digest and most of us went to our beds early and spent time in prayer and remembering John and praying to build up all of the qualities that will make the transition from earth to heaven easy.  My last thought was, "Imagine, inhaling on earth with your eyes closed and exhaling in heaven in the sight of Jesus and the Saints."

May the souls of the faithfully departed, through the Mercy of God, Rest in Peace.  Amen. 

This post is dedicated to the Memory of Jack Needham

Lent - Day Twelve - Between Heaven And Earth

BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH

Second reading Philippians 3:17-4:1 © Our homeland is in heaven, and from heaven comes Christ to transfigure us My brothers, be united in following my rule of life. Take as your models everybody who is already doing this and study them as you used to study us. I have told you often, and I repeat it today with tears, there are many who are behaving as the enemies of the cross of Christ. They are destined to be lost. They make foods into their god and they are proudest of something they ought to think shameful; the things they think important are earthly things. For us, our homeland is in heaven, and from heaven comes the savior we are waiting for, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he will transfigure these wretched bodies of ours into copies of his glorious body. He will do that by the same power with which he can subdue the whole universe. So then, my brothers and dear friends, do not give way but remain faithful in the Lord. I miss you very much, dear friends; you are my joy and my crown. This morning we almost had a tragedy and it was just the luck of the Irish that kept it from happening.  One of the brothers whose turn it was to make breakfast started the fire which had gone out during the night.  He went over to the bag which held the cooking utensils and noticed that it had not been sealed properly the night before.  He opened it and reached in and got the coffee pot and the pot used for making cereal.  As was his custom he grabbed a towel and was going to dust the inside of the pot but something made him look inside it first.  Inside was one of the deserts most fearsome creatures, a deathstalker scorpion had taken up residence there during the night my companion was just inches away from getting what could be a lethal injection of the neurotoxin that this delightful desert creature uses to kill its prey.  The tiny beast was ready and willing to dispense a jolt of his special elixir but to his credit, the man holding the pot did not panic.  Instead, he went to the edge of camp and catapulted the creature out of the pot as hard as he could.  The little guy had an experience most deathstalkers do not receive, the experience of flight!  Now, in spite of the colorful name of this creature, death to a healthy human, while not unheard of, is unlikely if they are stung by this scorpion.  From what victims say it is not an act of mercy to survive the sting as the potent venom causes great pain.  Children and the elderly are most vulnerable but it is considered a medical emergency if you are stung by one of these and in our present situation, medical help and the antivenom that is required is so far away that any dying that the victim would be doing would be done by the time any help could arrive.  So it was on this cheery note that our day began and in our morning prayers, we thanked God that our friend was spared the agony of a sting from this scorpion. After breakfast, as usual, we broke camp but it took a bit longer because we were carefully checking to make sure that the little fella hadn't brought any friends of his own.  No other examples of this miniature death machine were found and as the sun rose above the horizon, we began our trek.  While walking today, I began thinking of death but not death itself with all of the pains that might be attached to it but rather what happens after death. Physically, once the blood stops pumping your body begins it's the journey back into the elements that it is made of.  Tissues break down and in no time the only thing left of bodies that are not specially embalmed such as the Egyptians of old will be our bones.  And years from now, even those bones will return to dust.  All that was "me" will be gone.  The flesh that I work so hard to keep animated, the brain that fuels my thoughts and emotions will be no more.  Yet, through this all, I survive not as a memory on a tombstone with a date of birth and date of death and if I were rich enough some clever saying to mark my time on earth. What will remain of me is any of the good that I accomplished.  My mark will not be a long obituary story nor a small death notice.  My mark will be the seeds of love I planted while I, a body and a soul, walked and talked on this earth.  My soul will be in heaven.  I will be next to those I love and those that love me and we will glorify God together in songs of worship and praise.   This reward, this new life after death is as certain as gravity and as we are counter-culture people, our ways will receive persecution for "forward thinking" men and women who only can see what is in front of them and who take no notice of God, His laws, and His rewards.  They will be furious when we point out that their way of life is contrary to the Word of God.  They will tell us to follow our God in our own way and to leave them alone.  If that was only possible.  They do not live and let live as they want us to do, they pursue through the rule of law to make their rights to sinful things the law of the land.  They will do all that they can to enforce their rights while limiting ours.  But these people who are the most pitiful creature on earth are the enemies of Christ and the Cross. They existed at the time of Christ, at the time of the early Church, at the time of the great revolt of the Protestants, and exist until today.  Our Church is built on rock and in spite of the scandals of the moment it will survive and thrive because Jesus said so.  Paul tells us that our real homeland is in heaven.  We cannot keep silent about this because God wants a bountiful harvest and wants as many as possible to join Him in the never-ending feast. So, stir up your spirit, gird your loins and announce the Good News by the way you live and by the people you love.

Lent - Day Ten - Into The Desert - Alone

First reading
Ezekiel 18:21-28 ©

I prefer to see the wicked man renounce his wickedness and live

Thus says the Lord:

  ‘If the wicked man renounces all the sins he has committed, respects my laws and is law-abiding and honest, he will certainly live; he will not die. All the sins he committed will be forgotten from then on; he shall live because of the integrity he has practiced. What! Am I likely to take pleasure in the death of a wicked man – it is the Lord who speaks – and not prefer to see him renounce his wickedness and live?

  ‘But if the upright man renounces his integrity, commits sin, copies the wicked man and practices every kind of filth, is he to live? All the integrity he has practiced shall be forgotten from then on, but this is because he himself has broken faith and committed sin, and for this, he shall die. But you object, “What the Lord does is unjust.” Listen, you House of Israel: is what I do unjust? Is it not what you do that is unjust? When the upright man renounces his integrity to commit sin and dies because of this, he dies because of the evil that he himself has committed. When the sinner renounces sin to become law-abiding and honest, he deserves to live. He has chosen to renounce all his previous sins; he shall certainly live; he shall not die.’

I wish I could describe to you the terrible silence that lives in the desert.  When the wind is calm and you are outside of camp you can almost hear your heart beating.  Just on the other side of the dune is your camp where men are eating, speaking, and doing chores but here, five hundred feet away there is nothing but the heat of the sun attempting to boil your brain and the heat of the sand that reminds you that you are in the desert.   There are no birds in the air and if you see birds, it is not good news because they will mostly be vultures who announce that something has died.   It is in this silent place, not too far from camp but certainly in another world that I found myself.  I fell to my knees and prayed by saying nothing, by thinking of nothing else than the great beauty that is God.  I pondered His love for me and the realization that He knew me personally and loved me personally even after all of the things I had done that were against His will, I cried and was in torment inside. Then my heart poured out wordless repentance and sorrow for my sin and there came into me a peace that defies my ability to describe it.  The love I felt entering my heart was hotter than the sun and it burned gladness into my soul.  I was beloved, I was a friend of the Father.  All was good with my soul. 

Lent - Day Eight - Forty Days And Its All Over!

Gospel	Luke 11:29-32 ©

As Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be a sign

The crowds got even bigger, and Jesus addressed them:

  ‘This is a wicked generation; it is asking for a sign. The only sign it will be given is the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. On Judgement day the Queen of the South will rise up with the men of this generation and condemn them because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and there is something greater than Solomon here. On Judgement day the men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation and condemn it because when Jonah preached they repented, and there is something greater than Jonah here.’

The days are starting to blend into one another.  Upon awakening, I really have to think for a moment to figure out what day it actually is.  I knew it wasn't Sunday because of the fact that the slow and easy attitude was not what I was seeing from my companions.  Breakfast was being prepared, the camels were being tended to.  So, I did my assigned chores and then we met around the campfire in the morning darkness and after a prayer, we sat down around the fire and began to enjoy breakfast.  Today the flat desert style bread was bulging with the fruit of dates and figs and the coffee was just perfect.  Overhead I saw an airplane heading east, the same direction we were going.  They would arrive at the Holy City in a matter of hours, but we had days of walking before we would get there and once again enjoy modern conveniences.  The Master, after He finished his breakfast, stood up and with that, all of the noise around the campfire stopped and we looked expectantly at Him.  

"Brothers, back in the day there was a town called Nineveh.  It was a beautiful place and it was busy with trade and there was nightlife and there were enjoyments of a carnal nature but there was no respect for God.  Oh, they knew what they should be doing but that would not be fun.  Some of the people who saw what was happening and loved and respected God and His ways tried to tell people that they were sinning.  For their trouble, they were mocked and spat upon and unspeakable things were done to them and their family that made them outcasts for the fun-loving characters of Nineveh.  The Lord God looked down and saw such evil that He could not believe it.  He resolved to remedy the matter but first would send them a prophet to warn them and if they would repent of their evil ways, well He would stay His hand.  But it was even difficult to get someone to do this job.  Jonah who was God's choice for the job was not a great lover of the people of Nineveh.  He defied the Father and the Father arranged for the ship he was using to get stuck in a great storm. The sailors knew that something unearthly was in play here and so they decided that one of them had to be put over the side.  They drew lots and Jonah drew the short straw.  He saw it as punishment for trying to flee God and so he allowed himself to be thrown overboard.  But God was not done with the man.  He caused Jonah to be swallowed by a big fish and he was in the stomach of this fish for three days and the God caused the fish to vomit him up onto dry land, and guess where?  Yes, you guessed right, it was right where the road to Nineveh began.  Jonah walked to the great city and as he walked through it he proclaimed that in a short time, the great city would be destroyed because of its sinful ways.  Others had tried this and met with failure.  Jonah touched the hearts of the people and even the king who immediately proclaimed a fast and they wore sackcloth and ashes and they repented of their sins and thus was the great city spared. "

"In this world, we can easily see the wicked and their actions and how every face is turned away from God and every person thinks he is a god. Your job is to be Jonah to those you see that are sinning.  Sin, no matter if it is your own life or if it is the life of others has to be stamped out.  This has to be done at the peril of your reputation, for there are those that will think that you have gone mad, or that you are old-fashioned, or perhaps a prude.  They will tell you that whatever rules you want to follow they will not interfere with but don't try to make them toe that mark.,  That is what they will say to your face, but they will interfere. They will go to those in power and demand that their sinful ways be protected and become the law of the land.  And they will go after you.  Your life will be revealed in stark detail and they will not hesitate to lie about you. You are called to spread the word that God is  Love and Mercy, but He is also God of Justice as well. Your job will be to tell them to repent and return to God and His ways.  Your job will be hard but rewarding in the end.  Now pack up this camp in record time, we have to go to Jerusalem."

A Lesson in Public Relations ?

Jesus said to the crowd: "They will seize and persecute you, they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons, and they will have you led before kings and governors because of my name. It will lead to your giving testimony. Remember, you are not to prepare your defense beforehand, for I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute. You will even be handed over by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends, and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name, but not a hair on your head will be destroyed. By your perseverance, you will secure your lives."

Okay, I have to say that if I were an average Hebrew and was standing in the crowd that was listening to this talk that Jesus was giving, I might be tempted to continue to look for my messiah elsewhere.  I mean, just listen to what He says.  He says that they will seize you and persecute you, take you to court and even your parents, friends, and relatives will turn you over to the authorities and you will be hated by all because you believe in Jesus.  Where do I sign up?  

Look at today's world and this is what Christians face every day.  In the East our brothers and sisters, Catholics and Protestants alike have endured years of persecution due to the madness of ISIS.  In the United States, we watched during the Obama years as our religious freedoms were eroded and laws and regulations were passed that were completely contrary to Christian teaching and morals.  I include in this abortion under the guise of woman's health, mandatory provision of contraception under the HHS mandate, and the debasement of marriage with the adoption of same-sex marriage and the marginalizing of Christians nationwide. In Canada, a Catholic bishop was taken to court for preaching against same-sex unions under a commonwealth hate law. So, the law was being honed and shaped to disenfranchise and silence Christians and to make null and void the morals we have been living under for centuries. We should expect nothing less.

Our founder came into the world and teaching with authority He scared the powers that ruled His time. The chief priest knew that the Romans had a dim view of a coming Messiah and to protect themselves they had to distance themselves from any of these street preachers that might anger the Romans.  It never occurred to them that one day the real Messiah might appear as promised.  Thus, when Jesus appeared on the scene there was only one road that he could be placed on and that road led to the Cross and Calvary. 

Today, in the United States we are getting a short respite from the evils perpetrated during the Obama years.  But we must remember that it is only a respite and that the hatred of Christian values remains just below the surface and is ready to erupt again once the conditions are ripe for it to do so. We must be ready to bear our burdens cheerfully.  We must trust in the Lord to fill us believers with wisdom that will counteract the evil teachings of the enemy and we must remain strong in our faith and attract as many people as we can to become one with us.  Let our cry be, "This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad."  Let our cry be heard in a cheerful voice even as we carry our crosses.  Remember the promise of the Lord, "Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee the crown of life." 

Please remember the poor souls in Purgatory today. Challenge yourself to take two minutes to pray for your friends and relatives that might be there.  Please say a special prayer for the soul that has been there the longest and has no one to pray for him or her.  

Death - The Final Frontier

DEATH is the ultimate truth for all living things in this place we call home.  For human beings, at one point in time, sperm met egg and life was created.  That point of time is the start of our relationship with God. In the future, we will take a final breath and our life will be claimed by death as the result of our forefather's original sin. But, does death bring the finality of absolute nothingness that we mortals fear?  I think not.  In the act of procreation, man and woman create more than just a physical body, they, through God, infuse forever this new creature with a soul that can never die. Our souls are meant for eternity and not for mortality.  Our souls are that which make us who we are and they are never, ever, satisfied until they can behold the Face of God.  That is why heaven is so wonderful, God is there, we can see Him and that is why hell is so awful because God is not there and forever we are restrained in our bondage and we can never see God.

From the time of Moses, it was known that the dead shall not be dead forever but rather that they shall rise on the last day and be resurrected and will attain a glorified and immortal body that will never see sickness or pain or decay.  The first of these bodies was that of Christ who defeated death and the second was Mary His mother who would be assumed into heaven to await the last days when all of us will arise and no decay or corruption shall be able to touch us again. 

Can I ask you today to please say a rosary for the Poor Souls in Purgatory?  They need our prayers.

Every Tear Will Be Wiped Away

We do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters,

about those who have fallen asleep,

so that you may not grieve like the rest, who have no hope. 

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose,

so too will God, through Jesus,

bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 

Indeed, we tell you this, on the word of the Lord,

I have been present at both the deaths of my mother and my father.  They died eighteen years apart, my mother in nineteen-ninety and my father in two-thousand eight.  My mother died young, at age sixty-four and my father at eighty-seven years of age.  Both slipped from this world to the next without much trauma, they went peacefully.  In both cases, I cried but when my mother died I went into what I now know was depression.  My sorrow at the passing of my father was just as great as when my mother passed but I was older and was able to deal with it better.  Death will happen in all families.  Just as sure as there is a God that loves us, there is the certainty of death. 

I do not want to bust up your Sunday and bring you down to consider the ultimate facts of life and death.  I want to encourage you to remember that the death of one we loved is not an ending but rather it is a new beginning.  We are assured that we will meet those that we have loved in the afterlife and we will be together again. More than that, at the end of time, we will not be disembodied spirits but we will have our bodies back and they will no longer be subject to decay and disease. They will be resurrected bodies that will be recognizable as our own but endowed with miraculous powers.

Then there is where we will be. We cannot imagine what heaven will be like. It will be a place where love reigns and there will be no tears of sorrow ever again.  Sickness will be something that no longer exists.  The aches and pains we suffer today will forever be gone.  The light will forever be bright in heaven because it's source will be from the holiness of God.  The rich people of the planet earth live in great splendor here where rust and moth take their toll.  For us, there will be the mansion built by Jesus Himself for us and it will be grander and more beautiful than any dwelling place ever constructed on earth because it will be built just for us! 

Today, all around us, are people who are closer to death than we are.  Some are in hospital or hospice counting the days, hours, or minutes until their destiny is wrought.  Or they have received word from their doctor that there is nothing more to be done and that they should plan for the end.  There are those that are afraid and are holding on to what they know with grim determination and grasping at torturous medical procedures in the vain hope of prolonging their life.  There are those also who are but moments or even seconds away from their encounter with eternity and with God.  We have to pray for all of these people.  We have to pray that they are given the help they need to accept God's invitation to experience eternity to not hold foolishly to the things of time but to embrace the things of eternity.  Each of them is beloved by God and no matter what kind of life they have lived, they will all have a final chance to claim their birthright as a son or daughter of the Great King in that final moment.  For those who have lived their lives in a worthy manner who have loved God above all, the choice will be simple, sweet, joyful, and immediate. For those who are still attached to the world, who carry with them the burden of sin, forgiveness will there for the asking, but many will choose to remain mute before the great judge because their guilt, their sinfulness, their rejection of the graces that were sent them will be self-evident and they will move away from the light of Christ towards the everlasting darkness.  Others, who are aware that they are not yet ready to stand in heaven will choose to purify themselves in Purgatory.  There they will have the joy of knowing for certain that in the future they will experience the joy of heaven when they are cleansed of the effects of sin and from attachments to worldly things.  That joy will never be taken away from them.

So today, my friends, make it a point to pray for all of those among us who are at a point in their life where they approach a crossroads. Pray that all of them experience a peaceful and joyful death and that those among them that need to accept the final chance that God will give them.  It will be a tough choice to turn away from a life filled with hate for the Holy but it can be done.  And for our friends and relatives in Purgatory, pray for them too.  Remember, as they are, you might someday be. 

All Souls Day - A Final Pilgrimage

For Christ, while we were still helpless,

died at the appointed time for the ungodly.

Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person,

though perhaps for a good pperson one

might even find courage to die.

But God proves his love for us

in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.

The day will come when each of us will take our last breath and say goodbye to everything that is familiar to us. All of the things that we considered important, all of the property we owned, all of the money we had in the bank will remain behind and only the things that we can carry in our heart will follow us.  This is the truth for all men, not just Christians, or Jews, or Muslims, or Buddhists, or even atheists.   Our lot as human beings is the same.  Death pares down the differences between us and makes us all the same. 

But, death does not mean an end, it means only a change. We change mortality for immortality.  We acquire a new dwelling place where we will live forever.  The choices are three, and we ourselves will sentence our souls to what we will know in that awful moment our fate should be.  Heaven for those who are completely turned to God.  Purgatory for those of us who need to release attachments to sin and to purify in us what needs to be purified.  Sadly, for some, hell will be their place of eternal sojourn, forever blaming ourselves for hating God and turning fully away from Him. 

Has someone you've known and loved passed away during this past year?  This holy day was instituted for them.  Take a moment before you retire for the evening and pray for the souls of the dear departed.  Pray especially for the souls that died recently and suddenly who have found themselves unprepared for eternity.  Pray for the Holy Souls in Purgatory.  They will remember those who prayed for them, even once, and will be forever grateful. 

May the souls of the faithfully departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.   Amen.   

Tick, Tick, Tick

Jesus said to his disciples:                                                                   
"Be sure of this:
if the master of the house had known the hour
when the thief was coming,
he would not have let his house be broken into.
You also must be prepared,
for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come."

The clock had stood on the mantle forever.  There was not a time that anyone going back five generations that a member of the family needing to know what time it was failed to see the ornate clock on the mantle.  Throughout all of those years, it was dusted, carefully wound, and it responded to this care by always providing the correct time.  One day, however, a bit of moisture that had started corroding one small part over a hundred years ago finally triumphed and the clock stopped.  Thinking that someone had forgotten to wind the clock, the young master of the house pulled a chair over to the mantle, mounted it, found the key and promptly overwound the clock effectively stilling the heart of the ancient clock, stilled forever, or at least until the clockmaker was able to fix it.  No one knew the exact time anymore.  They had to guess by where the sun was in the sky, where the shadows hit the terrace or of course they could look at their wrist watches or mobile phones.   Come on now, I didn't say it was the only clock!  

Just as the people in our mythical house had to judge the time using other means, so too must we.  We do not know the time or date when Jesus will return.  Maybe it will be before you finish reading this sentence or maybe it will be a thousand years after the next two millenniums fade into the period we call the past.  For the vast majority of us now living, it is possible that we will face the end of the world on our own, perhaps with family around us as we take our last breath in here on earth and make that trip to the judgment of Jesus.  We do not know when this will happen.  If we are young we feel it will be in the far distant future, sixty, or even seventy years from now.  If we are older, such as your author, we know that the time grows ever closer with every blink of our eyes.  The point is no matter if you are young, middle-aged,  or in those years we call the golden years, you must always be prepared for the call home because it will come without warning and at a time that will not be chosen by us.

I've often wondered how I would like to die.  Would I prefer everything to end at the snap of a finger, leaving this world and arriving in the next without knowing what hit me?  Or, would I like to have my end staged, gradually taking my leave as one disease or another does its mischief on my body?  I would rather have the later because it would give me time to say goodbye to those I love and to straighten any crooked lines I may have written on my soul.  But whatever God has planned for me, I accept at this moment and as I continue to live, I try to live my life in a manner worthy of my calling as an ambassador for Christ.  I place my soul into the care of the God that has loved me and who has guided me in spite of my stubborn will.  I look at the clock, its hands creep always forward, what time will the bell strike for me?  Only God knows! 

Our brothers and sisters in Purgatory need our prayers.  Won't you dedicate some of your prayer time to them today? 

The Sound of Silence

Jesus said to his disciples: "I tell you, everyone, who acknowledges me before others the Son of Man will acknowledge before the angels of God. But whoever denies me before others will be denied before the angels of God. "Everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.

There is a cost to being silent and it is a terrible price to pay indeed!  If we acknowledge Jesus, He will acknowledge us. If we deny that we know Him before others, He will deny that He knows us as well.  Can you imagine arriving at eternity and being friendless?  At the judgment, it will truly be a case of not what you know but who you know!  Some of us will gather there and feel self-assured because we studied hard and we know all about Jesus, every fact, the significance of every word He spoke that is recorded in scripture, the fine nuances of every parable and the history of the time Jesus lived and even why He came. But, when we look for Him on that awful day we will not see Him because we only knew about Him but we never truly knew Him. Standing to our right will be that little man who spent his life in obscurity, who gave to God what was God's and who ministered to The Christ by acts of piety and charity that went unseen by those with means and power on the earth.  This little, insignificant man will be trembling with excitement because he will be able to clearly see Jesus, his friend, his counselor, his king. He will jump up and down with great excitement and holler, "There He is, there He is."  Tears of joy will stream down his face while on your face they will be only tears.  The little man spent His life ministering to people that needed it.  Although he had very little, he gave what he could and cared for each person as if they were Jesus Christ in the flesh.  He spoke out when he saw a wrong, and it cost him on this earth, but he could not remain silent while the mighty stepped on the meek.  He will be shepherded into the flock that will join Jesus in heaven while you will be sent with the goats. 

Others on that day will be surprised when they are condemned when they are told that their sin against the Holy Spirit, their blasphemy against the very Love of God for the Son and the Son for the Father.  They will ask when they did such a monstrous thing and they will be told that they died in their sins and refused the promptings of the Holy Spirit to repent and so chose the road that is wide and easy to tread. 

I know that this is not a "God is Love Feel Good" message today.  But we have to remember, our lives, our actions, our speech, our acknowledgment of the primacy of God in our lives will matter more than the knowledge that we have about God.  We have to know Jesus and follow His way.  Which way is that you ask?  It is the Way of the Cross. 

Those brothers and sisters that have gone before us and are in Purgatory need our prayers to help them finish the purging of the effects of sin and the temporal effects of sin on their soul. Offer your Mass this week for them and please if you have time, say a Rosary for them. 

The Exchange

God has given us a gift that fits perfectly and is guaranteed to operate without flaw for our whole life.  That gift is free will. When God created humans, he did not want puppets, or robots, or "yes men."  He wanted a creature that could learn to love Him for who He was, infinite love and goodness. The human being would do that through living on earth and experiencing first hand the beauty of creation.  They would experience the joy of being with each other. They would marvel at the gift of procreation, sharing in the process of God in creating a human being.  They would learn that the bounty of God, both physical and spiritual, was to be shared and treated with respect.  God Himself provided ten hints as to how this could be done, we called them commandments.  The people that obeyed them were happier and more joyful than those that did not.  That in itself is a great lesson that can be learned by the most simple of humans just by observation. 

From the beginning, however, there were those that just did not see the wisdom of obeying God's law.  Adam and Eve, for example, were told not to eat the fruit of only one of the trees in the garden God placed them in.  They were tempted by the serpent and using their free will, they chose to disobey God.  Later, Cain became jealous of his brother Abel and killed him, going down in the record books as the first person to commit murder. Years passed and the human race grew.  And instead of growing in wisdom, we grew in sin.  God told Noah to build an ark and to fill it with himself and his wife and his sons and their wives and with animals and for forty days and forty nights rain fell and all life except that which was on the ark perished, giving mankind another fresh start.   Things went on fairly well for awhile but in two towns, Sodom and Gomorrah evil things were happening between men and men and women and women. The town was wiped out except for Lot and his family who was told to skedaddle before the fire storm hit.   More years passed and the time for the Redeemer to appear on earth arrived and He set all things right.  He atoned for all of the sins committed to the date of his sacrificial death and for all that the sins that would be committed in the future. Mankind had been given yet another chance.  

Today, some two-thousand years later, we find ourselves in the same predicament that our forefathers of ancient times found themselves in.  People have once again turned away from the law of God.  The culture of death rules the land.  I am not only speaking about abortion and euthanasia here, sin in all of its guises is death. Today, the rainbow, once a symbol of God's promise to not flood the earth again, has been adopted by people who would be at home in the twin cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.  Also, those that try to follow the Lord's way are scorned and when they point out sins that are occurring in the land, they are told to mind their own business because for the reprobate one belief system is just as good as another. The money god is powerful in this world and those that have a lot of it, if they are not prudent, think of themselves as outside of the law, exempt because they can pay their way clear of any trouble. 

What is my point here?  Free will is a gift that we can use for whatever we want.  It makes us in a sense like God in that no one is going to tell us what to do or not do, at least not inside our head.  True, if your free will compels you to rob a bank, you will go to jail for the exercise of it.  Free will and conscience are hard-wired together.  We use our conscience to temper the desires of our free will.  If we do not do this, if we are not prudent, we will go the way of the sinner on the wide, obstacle-free, road to perdition. 

The Lord Jesus is there to help us in this world.  He knows what it is like to be tempted.  He knows what it is like to be counter-culture and to pay the price for pointing the opposite direction that the world wants to go in. Jesus will be coming back, soon, perhaps very soon.  The day and the hour are not known to any man but we should be ready. Catholic Man, Catholic Woman, humbly admit your faults and go to the oasis of forgiveness where the Blood of Jesus will wash you clean.  The sacrament of reconciliation will make you stronger in your faith and better able to be an example for the dozens or hundreds or even thousands of lost souls around you. Turn your free will over to the Lord and be ready to be freer than you ever were before!   You may be the only Jesus some people ever see during their lifetime. 

And now a word from our sponsor: 

PURGATORY IS PROOF POSITIVE OF THE LOVE GOD HAS FOR US.  THROUGH THIS PLACE, AFTER DEATH, IF NECESSARY, WE ARE ALLOWED TO MAKE OURSELVES PRESENTABLE TO GOD BY PURGING THE TEMPORAL EFFECTS OF OUR SIN AND OUR ATTACHMENTS TO ANY WORLDLY THINGS.  PLEASE PRAY FOR THE POOR SOULS.  THEY WILL REMEMBER YOUR HELP AND WILL BE YOUR HELP WHEN IN NEED.  GOD BLESS. 

The Huge Cost of Division

"Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste

and house will fall against house."

Take a single strand of dry spaghetti out of its box. It takes very little effort to break the piece of pasta into many fragments.  It is a bit harder when you take two pieces, harder still with four, but still possible to take what was whole and to fragment it into many disjointed pieces.  If, on the other hand, you take the whole pound out of the box and try to break it up that way it is much harder to do and depending on your strength may, in fact, be impossible for you to do. 

It is said by some that Martin Luther did not want to fall away from the Catholic Church. His behavior and actions and his pride all belie this statement.  Before the "great reformer" came onto the scene, there was for over fifteen hundred years one faith, one belief, and one kingdom. Marty did have a number of good points, not the least of which was the sale of indulgences which was never what indulgences were intended for.  But his prideful action and failure to look at himself as the least of all, has had a cost that is still owing and accumulating interest some five-hundred years since the schism was created.  But, it is not about Luther and his actions that I want to write about today, I want to talk about the cost of that which divides us.  The cost is huge and people are dying because of our divisions. 

Since the Protestant Revolt, God's church has been suffering from the disease of denominationalism.  Once Luther broke from the Church it was not long before another of the great "reformers" broke with Luther and set up his own community.  All over the world brother went against brother and father against son as the rust and rot of the reformation penetrated deeply into the Christian world.  Today there are approximately thirty and some say forty thousand different denominations, each claiming to own the truth, many of them condemning the Catholic Church as the whore of Babylon and consigning members of the Church to the deepest pit of hell.  They also disagree with the other sects out in the world and First Baptist would never think that they were related to First Presbyterian Church.  In reality, every denomination can be traced only as far back as Luther.  The church founded by Luther was founded by a man, the Catholic Church was founded by Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the present leader of the Church can trace his office back to Peter who was appointed as the prime minister of God's kingdom on earth. It is for this reason that I know I could never become a Protestant. 

But what about the cost of all of this division?  For many years mainstream Protestants stood side by side with Catholics on many issues.  But over the years, the Protestant denominations, very often by democratic vote, decided to water down their beliefs to make things more convenient for the believers.  For example, let's take abortion.  At one time Christians stood together on this subject, it was wrong, it was immoral, it was murder.  Then one by one, denominations voted at yearly meetings and abortion was taken off of the list of things that they stood against. Today, the Catholic Church is almost alone when it comes to the Right to Life issue.  Take for example as well marriage.  Marriage has traditionally been seen as to between one man and one woman.  This is how God wants it to be.  The Catholic Church, to this day, preaches this doctrine.  There can be no marriage between people of the same sex. One denomination after another is coming to the conclusion that marriage is marriage just so the two people love each other, it is okay if the couple is John and Jake or John and Jane just so there is love between the two people, their sexual identities should not be allowed to get in the way of their love.  Again, God's law is discounted and rewritten for the convenience of the people.  The denominations that allow same-sex marriage for the convenience of their congregations, are leading them into sinful behavior.  This is exactly opposite of what a church is supposed to do. 

So what?  So some Christians have gone off on another path if it makes them happy, life is short, why not?  True, Life is Short, but Eternity is Forever. One of the things we Christians are to do is to be a beacon, illuminating the way to the Kingdom of God.  Disjointed as we are, we are showing the world many different examples, many of them sinful, many of them unworthy of a person who calls themselves a Christian. These sinful examples are the ones that people like to see, they are the ones that they remember.  This is giving power to the pagans, the atheists, the LGBT community and even the satanists.  Our leaders in Washington (such as they are, God help us) are seeing that true Christian morals and values are becoming less and less important to the people of their communities and they are behaving in accordance with what they see!  So the cost of not being unified into one Church and one Kingdom are staggering.  The situation is costing lives.  Besides the millions of babies murdered in the abortion mills under the guise of woman's health, a right to die law allowing assisted suicide is on the books in some countries and even in some states.  Right now, the patient is the one who decides to end things but, I can see that there will come a day when a committee meets and decides for you the date and time when your life is no longer worth living and they, without your consent, will send you on your way by giving you a lethal injection right after you finish your hearty breakfast.  This has happened in other countries where "mercy killing" is permitted.  In one case, a man was put into the hospital for a mild case of depression.  The man's wife had to go on a trip.  When she came back just a week later she was handed her husbands ashes.  In his depression, the husband asked for assistance in ending his life and it was given to him.

We can thank Martin Luther and all of the other reformers that he spawned for where we are today.  Our Lord prayed that we be one as He and the Father are one. Due to human error and human pride, we have failed in this request.  What can be done about this sad situation we find ourselves in?  To hope for all the denominations to realize that they are in schism with the Church is too much to hope for on a human level.  We need to pray for one another and ask God to release the Holy Spirit because the job of bringing us all back together is too big to do without His help.  You know, Jesus did say that there would be one flock and one shepherd so maybe our prayer today will bring a unified, revived, strong, loving, and obedient Church back into reality tomorrow. 

Do you know somebody in Purgatory?  Please, pray for the poor souls today. They will remember those who help them and it pleases God when we share our spiritual wealth with those who need it most.  

   

The Journey Must Continue

When the days for Jesus to be taken up were fulfilled,

he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem,

These two sentences say so much in just a few little words and it seems that these words can be words of comfort to us as we try to get our hands around the terrible event that happened in Las Vegas the other day.  Fifty-eight innocent party goers were slain by a madman armed with an automatic rifle of some sort.  He broke out the window of his hotel room and shot indiscriminately into the crowd gathered for a concert below and minutes later blood ran in the venue and dozens lay dead or dying.  These were innocent people, out for an evening of harmless fun at a country music concert.  Why did they have to die? What snapped in the mind of a man that had been described as a self-made millionaire, a man who had everything that the world had to offer?  We will never know the answer to this question. 

What we do know is that like Jesus, we must resolutely determine that we must continue our journey.  Along the way, there will be more moments of sorrow that will slow our travel and cause us to be stunned, to shake our heads and wonder why God has such patience with his awkward and disobedient children.  The journey for Jesus was to end in death, death on a cross, a death reserved for slaves in ancient Rome.  Jesus knew this and yet he fixed his eyes on the goal of arriving at Jerusalem where he would suffer and die for us and in doing so save us from all of our sins.  Our journey, while it sometimes goes through valleys of sadness, we do not despair for Jesus, the Lamb of God has achieved the victory for us.  Our journey, unlike His, will end in the joy of heaven. 

May the souls of those taken from us in this tragic event and all of the souls of the faithfully departed, through the mercy of God rest in peace.  Amen. 

PLEASE REMEMBER TO PRAY FOR THE POOR SOULS IN PURGATORY, ESPECIALLY FOR THOSE WHO WERE THE VICTIM OF SUDDEN DEATH.  YOUR PRAYERS WILL GARNER THEIR THANKS. 

Life As A Loser

"Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.  For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."

Growing up as an American boy I was taught that I have to win. To win at a game was good and it proved to all that you were the best. One day, in the fall, we were at Kelly Park and were playing a game of tackle football.  We were all dressed for the game, of course, we had sweatshirts and blue jeans as our protective gear.  For whatever reason, this time, my best friend, Big Jim, had been selected to play for the other team. The game went on and my team was getting the better of Big Jim's team.  Of course, because he was my friend, I spent a lot of time consoling Jim except the word taunting would fit much better here.  I was having a heck of a good time because for once I was on a winning team.  The insults and taunts kept spewing through the air aimed directly at the ego of my best friend. It was going to be the last play and in the huddle, it was decided that the ball would be thrown to me and since it was the last play and we were so far ahead it didn't matter if I caught it or not.  The play went off perfectly.  The quarterback feinted left, feinted right, and let loose an easy to catch pass.  Once the ball was dead, the game would be over and my team would be the winners. I could have done anything with that ball. I chose to catch it. No sooner than it was safely in my hands, I was upended by a freight train named Big Jim. I flew into the air and since what goes up must come down, I found the earth, my head hitting first, and in a blaze of light, I said good-night as my head hit the earth full force and consciousness temporarily left me.  Sometimes being the winner can be very painful. 

What Jesus is asking us to do here is to strive to become a loser.  One of the definitions of a loser is a person that is put at a disadvantage by a particular situation or course of action. What we are asked to do is to bring our "A" game out when it comes to being a follower of Christ.  We must take up the cross and follow our leader. This means that sometimes we will need to say "no" to ourselves in situations where a "yes" would be far easier to tolerate. 

I think that what is required of us, is to realize that what awaits us is worth the trip.  Our cross may be heavy but the reward at the end will be worth it. Winning is a good thing. Winning by doing good is a better thing.  If we spend our lives engaging in everything we feel like doing and making ourselves happy, we will most certainly be living in the way that leads to perdition. On the other hand, If we take time and inconvenience ourselves, work for the good of others, be charitable and not to count the cost, then we will find at the end of the road, not a cross, but paradise. 

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE -REMEMBER THE POOR SOULS IN PURGATORY TODAY!