Lent - Day Seven - It Was So Important That He Said It Twice!

Gospel	Matthew 6:7-15 ©

How to pray

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘In your prayers do not babble as the pagans do, for they think that by using many words they will make themselves heard. Do not be like them; your Father knows what you need before you ask him. So you should pray like this:

‘Our Father in heaven,

may your name be held holy,

your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven those who are in debt to us.

And do not put us to the test,

but save us from the evil one.

‘Yes, if you forgive others their failings, your heavenly Father will forgive you yours; but if you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive your failings either.’

We saw something strange in the desert today, dark rain clouds passed overhead, lightning sounded but the hot air from the desert floor ascending consumed the water before it could hit the ground. I am not even sure how this storm made it over the mountains,  On our side of the mountains, there is nothing but sun and sand like a never-ending beach but no water to sully the dry, lifeless, and hot sand. 

The day had been long and except for the ten or fifteen minutes of the "storm", the sun beat mercilessly down on us.  Every step was harder than the step before.  Everyone, except the Master, was on edge when we stopped to eat lunch. The meal was over and we were checking the camels, making sure that none of the bindings were chaffing and that the load remained balanced.   Two of my companions were checking Hercules who as usual was in a sour mood when it happened.  One of the men checked a strap by pulling on it and thus loosened it and immediately the whole load became unbalanced.  The Hercules, not a camel to suffer fools easily started to walk away and the whole load fell off the camel's back into the grit of the desert floor.  The man who had charge of the camel called the other a bloody fool and as men do he followed that up with curses, threats, and saber rattling and a description of the culprit's home life that was hard to believe.  The two began to fight. The Master came and after a moment He demanded that they stop.  Reluctantly, they separated.  One of the men had what looked to be a black eye and the other was bleeding from his nose and his upper lip. Hercules for his part was standing and peering at his masters and if a camel could chuckle, that is what he would be doing at this moment.  

The Master was not happy.  He told everyone to unload and set up the camp because we would go no further this day.  The Master walked off to be alone while what He commanded was completed.  When the camp was set, the Master came to where the fire would be built and summoned us and had us sit around as we would at night.  Except that doing this during the day was almost worse than walking through the sun.  We sat with the vain hope that our hats would protect us from the sun.  Once we were all assembled, with the two combatants separated on opposite ends of the circle, the Master joined us.  He stood near the center of the group and He looked at us with eyes that, for once, did not reveal the inner peace that dominated Him.  Rather, the eyes seemed to register concern for someone or something.  This look was as rare as a rainstorm in the desert. He stooped and picked up a handful of sand and examined it intently for a moment and then He addressed us. 

"Every man here volunteered to follow me on this journey.  Every one of you took on the responsibility for taking care of one another, looking out for the good and pushing away the bad.  What happened to us today is a symptom.  There is tension between us and that may interfere with our journey.  We are on our way to Jerusalem for reasons that have been explained to you already.  You need to keep the goal in mind and it seems we have lost that because of petty squabbling and now even fisticuffs.  The two who were fighting, arise and face one another. Now approach and each of you apologize to the other."

 One of the culprits refused.  The Master took it in stride, almost as if he expected this to happen.  He told them to sit down. He began walking around the circle and continued his talk.

"We pray a common prayer. We say "Our Father" which means that we are all brothers.  We are not strangers who pass each other in the night.  Look at the people around you.  When you get to heaven these faces and those of a million trillion others will be ones you see.  When you go to Church on Sunday, look at the people in the pews.  Among them are your companions in heaven.  Yes. the lady with the squealing baby, and yes, the man who is constantly playing with his smartphone, and even the family that arrives late to mass and leaves right after communion every week.  Besides your friends, besides the people you know and love, there will uncounted millions of people that will be brothers and sister to you.  But once again, let us look at our common prayer, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.  There! There it is!  Take heed of this sentence as you learn which is the hardest part of being one of my servants!  You must learn to forgive.  I was not kidding or exaggerating the need for you to forgive.  If you carry hate or bitterness in your heart for even one of your brothers or sisters, your entrance into heaven will be delayed or if your hate has hardened your heart so greatly, it may send you to be with the goats into everlasting torment. This fight that occurred today was minor and I know that it was caused by feelings of frustration and the uncomfortable heat we are dealing with during our journey.  But one bad word between friends can change the destiny of one or both of the brothers unless it is followed by an apology and a deeply felt need to right the wrong.  The devil looks for weakness. Imagine the dam at Aswan.  It is a marvel of human engineering.  But, all it takes is a small crack that is ignored by those whose job it is to tend the dam, and sooner or later, the dam will break and the loss of life will be great.  When you hate somebody, imagine if you will, that God's grace is in your soul protecting you and your brother insults you.  That is the crack in your dam and sooner or later the dam will burst, you will learn hate and your fate will be like that of the rich man who refused to feed Lazurus.   I say again, you must forgive those who hurt you.  In order to enter heaven, you must be a person of peace.  Now the two that were fighting, approach one another and settle this score at once." 

The two men walked towards one another.  One with his black eye showing beautifully against his tan skin and the other with a lip that seemed to be swollen twice as large as normal came together, embraced and when they dropped the embrace, each looked at the other, one pointing to a black eye and the other pointing to a split lip and they burst out laughing and took places next to one another in the circle.  The Master was pleased and he showed it with his warmest of smiles.  He left the circle and went to His tent. 

The King Comes In All of His Glory!

Today is the Feast of Christ the King and it marks the last Sunday of the Church Year.  Next week we begin anew with Advent as we begin our wait for Christmas when we celebrate the birth of a baby. But today we study the end of things. Much has been written about the end times and this blog entry is not going to prophesy when the end shall come, that I leave to God who alone knows the day and the hour.  I do, however, make use of the scriptures to show just what will happen on that day. 

Jesus, Himself, tells us exactly what will happen.  He will come in all of His glory and He will gather the nations together.  We will be separated, the sheep from the goats, and he will address each of the groups separately. 

To the sheep:

'Come, you who are blessed by my Father.
Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 

For I was hungry and you gave me food,
I was thirsty and you gave me drink,
a stranger and you welcomed me,
naked and you clothed me,
ill and you cared for me,
in prison and you visited me.'

The sheep will be amazed, they could not remember when they had done all of these things.  To them the King will say:

'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did
for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.'

To the Goats:

'Depart from me, you accursed,
into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
For I was hungry and you gave me no food,
I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,
a stranger and you gave me no welcome,
naked and you gave me no clothing,
ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.'

The goats will be puzzled and will wrack their brains trying to remember when they had seen Jesus in need. To them the King will say:

'Amen, I say to you,
what you did not do for one of these least ones,
you did not do for me.'

The sheep will go to heaven and the goats will go to hell. 

There are those in this world that believe that just believing in Jesus and saying the sinner's prayer will forever protect them from losing their salvation. The scriptures, specifically the reading from Matthew that we have above tears down this comforting but dangerously erroneous belief.  To believe in Jesus and to make Him your personal Lord and Savior is absolutely required and is a wonderful first step.  But to believe in Jesus is just not enough.  The devil believes in Jesus as do all of the devil's demons. We have to believe in Jesus and do the work that needs to be done.  The work is described in Matthew as helping those that need help.  To believe and not do will not get us anywhere.

Each of us needs to develop a sensitivity to the state of the people around us, those that live in our cities and towns that are in need and we need to address those needs as if we were doing them for Jesus Himself.  Can you imagine what the world would be like today if all of God's people did the work of Christ?  It boggles my mind why Christianity has not had more of an impact on the problems that have plagued us over the years. As this church year ends with this sobering Gospel reading, let us begin today to look for ways to improve the lives of those who have less than us.  Let us remember that the face of Jesus is in the face of the person that is in need. 

The month of November is the month we remember those that have gone before us.  Some of those who have died recently have ended up in purgatory and they need our help.  Please, pray for the poor souls.  They will remember your efforts on their behalf for all eternity.  

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.   

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. 

Friend and Foe Alike

You have to be careful out there.  The world is a wonderful place with many beautiful things. God has created it to be a thing that sustains both our body and our soul.  The world is both a friend and a foe and true wisdom will come to us when we can distinguish the difference between what is good and what is bad.  At the start, God knew this truth and he told His first children, Adam and Eve, that they should not eat the fruit of one tree and one tree alone.  Every other food source was okay. So, innocent Eve approached the tree one day, just to have a look at it and suddenly she was joined there by the serpent. The serpent posed as a friend and probably made a little small talk as he got ready to pump Eve with his venom.  He started with a lie, well not a full blown lie, an exaggeration would be fairer to say.  He asked Eve about the tree and she said God told them that they should not eat of this one tree or even touch it lest they die.  The snake smiled and said that God knew that if you ate the fruit you would become like Him and know the difference between good and evil.  Eve digested that bit of news and reached out and plucked a piece of the forbidden fruit from the tree. Keep in mind here that God had told them to not eat of the fruit, but the serpent put it in her head that she was not to even touch it.  So she had the fruit in her hand and in her mind, she was already guilty and she was bright enough to see her only defense was to become as God, so, she carefully examined the fruit and she saw it was beautiful, it was ripe, it looked delicious and since she had already gone against God, she felt that she had no choice, she brought the fruit up to her lips and took a big bite.  Her eyes were opened alright, she now saw God as an enemy instead of a friend.  She pulled another piece off of the tree and brought it to Adam.  She now took the place of the serpent and convinced him to eat the fruit. His eyes were opened too and together they hid from God.

Sometimes, our family, our spouse, our friends, can be the one that leads us to sin. They mostly do it innocently enough, often it is not their intention to do so, but it happens all of the time.  Sometimes we know where they are leading is sinful and since we do not want to offend them, we follow their lead. This is when our friend becomes our foe and becomes a person to be feared.  Your beautiful wife or handsome husband becomes for you a tempter and because you used your free will to turn away from God, you end up in a sinful condition. In this case, it would have been better for you to have been assaulted by a robber because he could only take your wallet and at the most your life while the other has managed to cheat you out of your soul.   

Now, wait a minute here. Are you saying that if something like this were to really happen to me I would be better off leaving my spouse than to stay with them?  No, because what God has joined, man cannot separate. What I am saying is that just because someone is your friend, that does not mean they are always going to be right. What we need to do in our daily life is to keep our eye on the prize and if temptation comes by way of a friend, we should take the lead and gently move them back onto the correct path.  A simple, "I don't think we should do that." may be all that is needed to change the situation.  We are called to lead those we love towards God, not away from Him.  It is the gentle prodding of one lover to another, one friend to a friend, one family member to another, that will bring them back home. 

Cooperate and coexist with evil and evil will be your only friend.  Take the lead, light a lamp and gently but firmly refuse to accept an evil direction in your life and reach out a hand to your spouse, child, neighbor or friend and with charity and love for them, help them back onto the path that leads away from Gehanna and towards the happiness of heaven. 

So, you don't believe in Purgatory?  Take my word that it exists and is a sign that God loves us very much.  Please pray for the poor souls today and today take a moment and pray for someone who is on their deathbed and is afraid, your prayers will help. 

Seeking Is A Way of Life

Seek the LORD while he may be found,
call him while he is near.
Let the scoundrel forsake his way,
and the wicked his thoughts;
let him turn to the LORD for mercy;
to our God, who is generous in forgiving.



For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.
As high as the heavens are above the earth,
so high are my ways above your waysand my thoughts above your thoughts.

The first reading at mass today is taken from Isiah and is really quite a written reminder to us as to who we are and where we fit into the universe.  

We are to seek the Lord while He may be found - does that mean that there will come a time when He cannot be found? Well, He will always be within our reach, we can push Him just one arm's length away, that's as far away as He will go from us.  He will respect our privacy and our desire to be without Him in our lives but He also will be ready to come at the first whisper of His name.  But, there will come a time when it is too late.  When we take our last breath and still keep our desire to be away from God, well, He will honor our request and we will spend eternity without Him.

We are then reminded about the wonder that God is and how far above our human ways He is.  Scoundrels and the Wicked are called to repent and call upon God.  Who are these scoundrels and who are the wicked?  It is you and me. Oh, I know that there are persons in this world that are far better at being a scoundrel and being wicked than I am.  I am a poor sinner. By that I mean I am not really good at it because my conscience calls to me and the prompting of the Holy Spirit convict me of my sin.  The professional sinner can sin and think nothing of it.  He (or she) goes through life trampling on the laws of God and not fearing the consequences of the sinful acts. Those of us who are poor sinners, we know enough to call to God and to return to the path of holiness before it is too late. 

This week, in all you do, Seek The Lord Where He May Be Found!  

Please, Please, Please pray for the poor souls in Purgatory.  I know I sound like a broken record but they really need YOU to step up and pray for them,...Thank you. 

Waiting,Watching, Keeping Time and Eternity

"Therefore, stay awake,  
for you know neither the day nor the hour."

Eternity is a long time.  Just when you think you've been there for a long time, it dawns on you that you've only just begun.  This reality is the reality for all of us, Christian, non-Christian, Buddhist, Atheist, or whatever.  Each of us bears within us a never-ending supply of life.  This, even more than the speed of light, is the one law that will affect all of us.  In a week, or in a year, or maybe tomorrow we will cast off this temporary housing and find ourselves standing before the judgment seat of God and there we will see in His awesome beauty, Jesus Christ,  The Son of God.  We will render an account of our life to Him and the location we will choose where we will spend our eternity in, either heaven with God, or if we choose, hell, without Him.

Thomas A' Kempis in the Imitation of Christ tells us that we should not put off doing a good deed until later because we do not know if we will even draw one more breath.  That is what the story of the virgins waiting for the bridegroom means. Be ready at any moment because we do not know the time that Jesus will call us.  This lesson, for me, is easier to understand now as I am older than it was when I was very young.  The youth feel the seed of immortality more keenly than the old because it is so close to the surface and it has not taken root as it has in the more mature.  The young in the spring of life interpret this feeling as being applicable to their lives here on earth and the door to eternity is so far away that it bears no consideration. 

Be watchful, young and old, men and women, for the chances to do good that come your way. Do the good not out of fear of losing heaven if you do not do them, for heaven is a free gift. Do the good deeds in celebration of the life that you have been given with the knowledge that what you do for others will please our Father in heaven. 

The poor souls in purgatory cannot pray themselves out of there and into heaven.  They depend on us to help them. I believe that praying for the poor souls is the ultimate good deed - remember to pray for them today and dedicate your weekly Mass to them.  You will be glad that you did. 

It Ain't Gonna Fit!

Jesus said to his disciples:

"Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich

to enter the Kingdom of heaven.

Again I say to you,

it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle

than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God."

When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and said,

"Who then can be saved?"

Jesus looked at them and said,

"For men this is impossible,

but for God all things are possible."

OH MY GOSH - HE'S GOTTA BE KIDDING

NO WAY A CAMEL CAN GET THROUGH

THE EYE OF A NEEDLE - CANT BE DONE!

Now calm down, this is NOT what Jesus had in mind. 

This is what he was referring to:

The eye of the needle was a place in a wall that would admit only a camel and rider and that at a very slow pace indeed.  If the camel was laden with merchandise, the rider would have to dismount and remove all of the parcels and only then could the camel and rider enter.  This made it possible for the city fathers to collect taxes on each parcel as it was handed through and prevented armies mounted on animals from invading and pillaging their city.  All in all, quite a smart thing to have in your city wall. Also if your rider was bent on causing mischief, you had time to size him up and summon help before his weapons were pushed through. 

For us, entering heaven will be like this.  Everyone thinks that you die and you go to heaven or hell.  That is not the case.  In heaven, no sin or evil is permitted to arrive with you.  That has to be left outside the gate.  You can't bring in your love of lust, love of gold, hatred, or any other thing that separates you from God.  Purgatory functions as the eye of the needle where we cast off the things that separate us from God.  True, some of us will not have to go to Purgatory but I fear that will be very few of us.  It is very logical.  Say for example for some reason you confessed to me that in third grade you stole my favorite pencil just to annoy me and you threw it away because you thought that was funny.  You confess this to me on your death bed and immediately die.  You end up in Purgatory for that theft and it isn't too long you are brought into heaven.  I die and there is a mix up in the paperwork and they let me into heaven and I meet you.  I still hate you because you stole my pencil and when I see you coming to greet me and welcome me, I wait until you get close and bang I punch you right in the nose.  This cannot happen in heaven and there will be no mix up in paperwork so, in reality, I will end up in Purgatory to get rid of those things that don't belong there.  On the day I finally let go of the anger I have for you, I will mount my camel and right straight through the eye of the needle and will accept your welcoming hug. 

Purgatory is not a "second chance."  If you die in mortal sin you will not go to Purgatory, you will go to hell and hell is forever. Purgatory is where you clean the stain of your sins from your soul.  Jesus died on the cross for us and our sins are forgiven, but we have to pay for the effect that our sins had on the world around us.  You can break a window and the home owner can forgive you, but he still wants to have the window fixed. 

The time for making up for our sins easily is here on earth where we can pray, do penance, do sacrifices, acts of charity, and make up for what we have done.  Failure to do this here will mean we will spend time in Purgatory.  Once in Purgatory, you will be kept there until you have paid the last penny as it says in the Gospel of Mark.  You will have no way to remit even one second of your time there.  You will need to have help from the people that you left behind at home.  If they won't pray for you, who will?  Strangers from all around the world make it one of their ministries to pray for the poor souls in Purgatory. Some of us, if left to the mercies of our family and friends could expect quite a long layover in Purgatory.  Thank God for those people who use their time wisely and pray for the poor souls.  They realize two things. First, they realize that they will most likely end up in Purgatory and their hope is that someone prays for them. And second, they know that if they help even one soul leave the purging fires and arrive in heaven even one minute early. they will make an eternal friend who will not forget about them. 

I am sorry to be such a preacher about this somewhat unpleasant subject.  No one likes to think of ending up in a place of pain after death even though the joy those souls feel cannot be described in human terms for they know that they will end up in heaven with God.  That they cannot see Him now is what causes the part of the pains that they feel.  

Please, make an investment today in your future.  Pray for your friends and relatives that have gone before you and pray for the souls that have no one to pray for them.  When you go to Mass, dedicate that Mass to the poor souls.  When you go to Communion, dedicate that grace that comes from the presence of Jesus within you.  Those that you pray for will remember you and will come to your aid when it is needed. 

There Is No Small Sin

"Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments

and teaches others to do so

will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven.

But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments

will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven."

When we think of Jesus we most often think of Him as kind, loving, gentle, and meek.  This is good because He is all of these things.  In today's Gospel reading we catch a glimpse of another facet of Jesus.  We see what I call Jesus the Prophet.  Today His words tell us that we are God's children and we are called to obey and he tells us that there are consequences when we disobey and commit sin. 

Sin happens anytime when we place our will above that of God's. Our Church wisely classifies sin into two types which are venial or less serious sin and a mortal sin which is a sin that does just what it says, it destroys the relationship between the person and God.  Praise God that all sin is forgivable through the sacrament of reconciliation which we can use to express our sorrow and receive assurance that we are truly forgiven for what we have done. 

While I agree that there are two types of sin and that every sin, no matter how grave can be forgiven, I want to talk a little about the nature of sin itself.  Father Larry told this story.  He was driving to work one day and a person cuts him off.  He lost his temper and mentioned things about the other driver's ancestry that would have amazed the driver had he been able to hear them.  This act of cussing out the man that offended him was, of course, a venial sin.  He did not know the person in the other car and he did not really mean the things he said so it was not a grave sin.  Now imagine the same circumstances but the other driver happened to be his mother.  He has the same reaction.  The sin would be greater because of the dignity of the person he was sinning against. 

This is why I say that there is no small sin. There are sins that are milder than some but every sin, no matter how small, no matter how venial, is an offense against God and it is no small thing. The wonderful thing about sin is that it always can be forgiven. God is always there with His arms outstretched waiting to hug us back into His family. 

So today, I challenge you to stop and think before you consider committing even the smallest sin and remember who it is you are offending.  I challenge you also if you haven't taken advantage of the Sacrament of  Reconciliation in a while, even if it has been years or decades, to consider swallowing your pride and approach the throne of grace to be received back into God's family.  Sometimes love does mean we have to say that we are sorry. 

Easter - We Are Risen !

When I was in High School, I was fortunate to have as my public speaking teacher a man by the name of Mr. Cassidy. He was the designer of the Ho-Hum Outline.  It was a guaranteed method of creating a speech that would keep your audience's attention.  One of the steps is Ho Hum, thus the clever name!  This step is to engage your listeners so as to get them to buy into the fact that you are worth listening to.  I mention him because I know if you've been to church either for the Easter Vigil last night or at one of the masses today you probably have heard the words, "Easter People." You probably heard how we are the Easter People and how Jesus rose from the dead.  But did you really consider what this means for you, personally? 

We all will die someday.  The thought of death is one we push out of our mind.  As a matter of fact, death is something that happens to someone else, not to me.  We go to a funeral and in America most often we gaze at the body of the guest of honor, we offer our condolences to the bereaved family.  Our next task is, if possible, to get the heck out of there as soon as possible. The body in the casket hits too close to home, we know that someday that we will be the one that is getting a grand send off.  That day is coming all too soon and we do not want to be reminded of it.  Personally, what I do not like about this death thing is the fact that when I am busy taking my last breaths, the world will be continuing without a thought about what is happening to me.  It is this continuance of routine that really offends me.  I can accept the fact that all of my "stuff" will pass either to another person or end up in a landfill somewhere, I have no problem with that.  I just think that while I am dying, should there be a family celebrating a birthday? Should another family be leaving on a Disney Cruise?  Should my neighbor treat the day as just another work day?  I know that this sounds very silly and self-centered, but hey, that is what is inside of me. 

The messy death of Jesus would have meant very little if that is where the story of Jesus ended. We know not only did it not end there but that His story is never ending. He took upon Himself all of our sins.  He turned our disobedience into obedience. He then did something that no other man had done.  He rose from the dead in a body that people could recognize.  The one who was dead was now alive.  Now, while Jesus was on the cross, the temple crew that was standing nearby mocked Him by saying, "He helped others, He cannot help Himself!"  On the third day, He proved them wrong by rising from the dead.  He stayed on earth another forty days.  He ate with the apostles.  He walked to Emmaus.  He forgave Peter.  He removed the doubt from doubting Thomas. Then he physically rose up to heaven and lives there at the right hand of God. 

What He did, we also will do.  On that Easter morning when the angel rolled away the stone he defeated the final enemy of the human race, death.  When we die, we will immediately be judged. We will choose our destiny, heaven, purgatory, or hell depending on how we lived our life here on earth.  Heaven will be a place of complete joy and happiness.  There will be no sorrow, not a bit of discord or hate.  We will recognize our family and our friends.  We will know people we did not know on earth.  We will be with the saints we prayed to and we will know t the complete love of God.  If we juge ourselves to be not ready we will choose to go to purgatory to prepare ourselves to be received by God. There will be intense joy and intense suffering in purgatory.  The suffering in purgatory will be the fact we are separated from God.  The intense joy will be the knowledge that we will soon be joining Him in heaven.  If we choose hell, I am afraid that there would be no turning back.  The fires of hell are forever and there is no hope of seeing God.  But then again, those that go there made their choice here in life when they turned their backs on God and lived according to their own desires.  The pains of hell are enhanced by the knowledge that the darkness of the loss of God is for eternity. 

The Rising of Jesus from the dead means that we too will rise from the grave.  We too will have a glorified body that will be assumed into heaven. On the last day, that which was subject to corruption will be restored.  The sea will give up her dead, graves will open and all of us will be finally judged and in our new, perfected, glorified bodies will be taken to heaven. 

This is what being an Easter People means.  Death, while still inevitable, looses its power over us and together we will join the angels and saints in heaven. Being an Easter People, we no longer fear death as for us, life is not ended, it is just changed.  Now, does that mean we should do everything possible to hasten our death? No of course not.  Each of us, man, woman, boy, or girl, have a mission on earth, a job that no one else in the universe can do and we have to do it.  Our life is a precious gift that was given to us by a loving and caring God.  All God asks of us is that we try, we may not always succeed.  I am in a choir at my church.  I have the devil of a time reading music, but our leader just asks that we try.  Over the years I have gotten better.  God asks us to try, to work to improving.  We will never be perfect and God knows this.  This is why He has provided us with the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  Not so that we can sin with impunity but we can reflect and repent and come back into fellowship with Him when we see the error of our ways and He for His part will always welcome us back.  

Death, oh death, where is thy sting?  

Lent - The Big Bang Theory

"If God were your Father, you would love me,

for I came from God and am here;

I did not come on my own, but he sent me."

I have to tell you that I am very concerned about the situation we find the world in on this nasty, cold, rainy, windy day.   It is not the lack of bright sunshine that bothers me because I know that above the clouds the sun is shining brightly.  I am concerned because of a little rotund man in North Korea, who is going through life with only seven of his eight cylinders firing in his brain box.  I am also concerned of a despot in Syria who has decided the time to come to murder his people with sarin gas.  I am concerned because of a godless ex-KGB man who sits in Moscow pulling strings here and there simply to increase world tension.  I am concerned because I have a singular lack of trust in our president and his government. It is a scary time.  Events could even as I am writing this, could come to a head and missiles capped with nuclear warheads could start something that no man could stop.   It would be the Big Bang all over again except with us in the middle. 

If it were not for my faith in God I think I would be in a state of depression right now because I know how inhumane man can be to other humans.  But I know that above these dark and scary clouds we have a God that loves us.  We have a home where we will be happy forever.  No matter what, we will live in the bright sunlight.  Praise you, Jesus.  Your Sacred Heart beats a song of love for us.  With you, at our side, we will stand firm.  With you, we will live forever. 

Things Protestants Don't Understand About the Church - Praying to Statues and Praying For the Dead

Today, we have a two for one sale.  We will discuss both "praying to statues" and praying for the dead. 

My mother, her name was Violet, passed away many years ago.  I still carry her memory in my heart and I carry a picture of her when she was in the full bloom of her youth in my wallet.  I sometimes will look at that picture and think of all the times she showed her love to me.  I remember her feeding me ice chips when I had my tonsils out at age seven.  I remember how when I was having a problem in school and felt downtrodden and the least of the least, she told me to hold my head up high and be proud of who I am.  I remember during her last sickness, I sat beside her as she lay in the hospital bed, just holding her hand, not saying a word.  The warmth of our hands together sharing the love of a mother to a son and a son to a mother.  All of these memories come flooding back to me because of a little scrap of paper with an image of a person on it.  It is almost a miracle. I bet you thought this paragraph was going to address praying for the dead, but no, this paragraph deals directly with the use of statues in the Catholic Church.  A statue is no more or less than that picture of my mother.  As a Catholic, when I look at a statue, I know I am looking at a piece of carved wood, or molded plaster, or maybe even a plastic Jesus on the dashboard of my car. (You remember the old song, "I don't care if it rains or freezes, as long as I got my plastic Jesus, Sitting on the dashboard of my car.)  As a Catholic Christian, I know that the image has no power to save me because as the Psalms tell us; "They have ears but do not hear. They have mouths but do not talk." (Psalm 115)  
I look at the statue and it brings to mind the story of the saint that is represented.  (See my previous post regarding the communion of saints.) I then pray to the saint asking him or her to pray to Jesus for me just as I might ask you or my pastor or another friend to pray for me. Are there Catholics that actually pray TO statues? I would imagine that there are but these unfortunates are not stable and may be feeble minded. In their case, I am sure God takes that into consideration. A Catholic grounded in his or her faith does not pray to a statue but addresses all prayers to God, sometimes asking the help of a person already enjoying the Beatific Vision. 

It is a fact of life that someday we will inhale our last breath and when we exhale we will next breath the air of eternity.  Of course, I mean this figuratively because a soul does not need to breathe.  So when we die we Catholics believe that we will enter one of three places.  First, we may enter heaven, or purgatory or we may choose hell.  If after death we enter heaven or if we choose hell there is no need for prayer for us.  Heaven, of course, is our ultimate goal, the place that was created for us where we can continue our friendship with God in His august presence.  Hell, is the place we will go to if we have rejected the love of God, preferring our own way to His way and declaring us to be His enemy.  Enter the gates of hell and you are outside the presence of God for all eternity just as you wanted.  No amount of prayer will do you any good because you do not want it, you hate God, and as bad as the suffering is you prefer to be without God.  

The second place is where many of us will choose to go, that is to Purgatory.  Is purgatory in the Bible?  Not by name but it is there all the same. It is for these Poor Souls that we on earth pray for.  We pray for them because they are unable to help themselves.  They need the prayers of the faithful on earth to help them get out of Purgatory.  In 2 Maccabees we find that certain dead soldiers were found to be wearing an idol under their tunics.  The living among them turned to prayer to God and beseeched Him to forgive the sins of those who died.  

But where do we find any teaching about purgatory in the New Testament? As I said the word "Purgatory" is not found in scripture but the principle behind it is clearly mentioned by Paul.  But is a purgatory really necessary or is it an invention to make the Catholic clergy rich?  

You have a friend, his name is Mark.  You and Mark spent your whole life being friends until one day you found out that Mark had stolen your pencil in second grade.  It was a wonderful pencil with red lead on one side and blue on the other.  You loved that pencil.  Sixty years after the event you confront Mark about the pencil.  He confesses to you that he indeed did take the pencil from you when you were not looking.  He asks for your forgiveness and you tell him that you will never forgive him and you walk away.  A few years later Mark dies. You do not go to his funeral, you do not comfort his widow, as a matter of fact, you are happy that the sneak thief is out of your life forever.  Mark for his part, confessed his sinfulness and spent the rest of his life working for the Kingdom of God and following the counsels of Jesus in that he fed the hungry, visited the sick and imprisoned, clothed the naked, and he prayed for you every day.  When he died he was turned completely to God and was welcomed into heaven by the angels and saints and was ushered into the very presence of Jesus.  

You too lived a worthy life, you did all that Jesus commanded just as your friend Mark did but on the day you died, you carried the resentment of the stolen pencil to the grave with you. You began to approach heaven and as you got closer you realized that you were not ready to enter heaven.  What would happen if you met Mark in heaven while you were carrying the resentment about the pencil with you?  You could not greet him as a fellow saint because you had this burden on your soul.  As you got closer and closer to God in heaven, the pain became too great and you knew that the sin on your soul would have to be removed before you could get close to God.  You turned yourself around and chose to enter Purgatory.  There you would remain until the imperfection was cleared away. 

The above is a nice story but isn't that all that it is, a story?   To be honest with you, it is not a story, it is a parable based on Biblical truth.  First of all, in Revelation we read that we must be perfectly holy to enter heaven because; "Nothing unclean shall enter it."  That is found in Revelations Chapter 21 Verse 27.  Saint Paul, himself, tells us in 1st Corinthians that "Each man's work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done.  If any man's work is burned up he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only through fire."

So, now for the reason we Catholics pray for the dead.  Those in Purgatory cannot help themselves.  The time to repent and to make up for the evil we do is while we are on earth.  Once we die, our fate is set in stone.  Those in purgatory depend on our prayers and sacrifices for them so that they can be raised from their state to the state of sainthood in heaven. 

But then, what is the difference between Purgatory and hell if they are both places of suffering?  The difference is huge.  Those in purgatory, although suffering, are happier than anyone on earth can imagine because they know that they will see God.  The pain of purgatory is the pain of the soul longing for God and not being able to see Him.  The pain is temporary and the Poor Souls know this.   The souls in hell, on the other hand, suffer torments that are unimaginable and their separation from God is permanent and they are without any hope.

This subject is a complicated one and I would direct anyone who has questions to the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  It is available online for free and the specific cure for ignorance about the Catholic Church.  It is well written and Biblically based. 

When is Home Not A Home?

The vast majority of us are going to end up in a room that is eighty four inches long, twenty eight inches wide and twenty three inches high. These are the dimensions of a standard casket. It will be the home for our bodily remains. When you think of it, that is not much space. The grave we will be placed into will be about six feet deep and three feet across, that is a total of eighteen square feet of mother earth. Inside of the casket we will return to the basic elements that made up our body and eventually they will leach back into the ground. That is a sad ending for us if that was all there was to it. But as we know, there is more, much, much, more.

Nothing that we have here on earth can come with us to heaven. All of the things we worked so hard for here will be taken by someone else. Our land, our home, our books and other possessions will belong to another. 

This world with all of its beauty, with all of its wonder is not the place we are meant to be. The place we are meant for is a place that even if we let our imaginations run wild we cannot really see what the reality of it is. That place of course is heaven, the place where the Lord God dwells along with the angels and saints. 

Our hearts know this. Even people who worship pagan deities know this. Siddhartha begins life experiencing all good things and soon the sweetness turns to bitterness and he looks for fulfillment elsewhere. Famous saints learn this, some the hard way too. St. Francis of Assisi spent his youth enjoying wine women and song. He tries to become a soldier and realizes that this is not as satisfying as he thought it was going to be. Eventually he embraces poverty and he does so as a man embraces a wife and he was faithful to her his whole life. He found satisfaction in serving God and relying on God for all things. 

Surely we must use the things of this earth. We need the basics, food, drink, shelter, companionship for example. Beyond these basic needs do we have to strive for ever more luxuries land and gadgets?  I am not saying that they are evil in themselves, but they can never be ours permanently because one day we will die and we cannot carry the things of this world with us.  

Maybe we should concentrate more on our relationship with God and His kingdom first and then on relationships with our family and friends. These things will come with us. When we get to heaven our relationships will be restored, we will recognize our mother, father, sister, brother, uncles, aunts, grandparents, everyone we ever knew and they will recognize us. I cannot describe what heaven will be like. The only thing I know about it is that no matter how great I think it will be, it will be infinitely better. Is anything on earth worth loosing heaven for?