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 

Abba, Father

GAL 4:4-7

Brothers and sisters:                                                                   
When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son,
born of a woman, born under the law, 
to ransom those under the law, 
so that we might receive adoption as sons.
As proof that you are sons, 
God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, 
crying out, "Abba, Father!"
So you are no longer a slave but a son, 
and if a son then also an heir, through God.

Happy 2018!   It has to be the greatest feeling in the world to know that YOU are loved.  I don't mean that God loves all of  His children, although He does. No, I mean he loves you, just as you are right now today on this first day of the New Year. He stands ready to be your father, no strike that, just like Paul says, he is your Abba, which is your daddie.  It is a term of endearment that children used.  It means the person who personally loves and protects them and who knows each of them just as he knows himself. 

Start 2018 with this in mind.  Your father is there ready to go with you every step of the way this year.  There will be no issue so great that you and He cannot work out together.   You may be close to Him now, but just you wait, by the end of this year you will be even closer, you will understand Him better and your vision of His plan for you will become even clearer tor you.  He will strengthen you when you need to be strengthened. He will wipe your tears when you need to cry and tell Him how you have failed.  He will raise your spirit up and assure you that your failure is part of His plan and you just have to wait to see the seeds you planted take root and grow.

There will be many challenges ahead of us in this year of 2018 and much room for personal growth in our love of the God and man.  Our Abba, our daddy will see us through all of it and we will help make His kingdom come.  

💔 Please join my new prayer ministry for the Poor Souls in Purgatory.  There is no paperwork to fill out, you don't even have to tell me that you joined, just promise to pray at least once a day for the Poor Souls in Purgatory and once a month say the prayer of St. Gertrude the Great and offer up one communion for the soul who has been in Purgatory the longest and has no one else to pray for them.  I promise, it will take only a minute or two out of your busy day but it will mean so much for our brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, friends, and relatives who just might be there.  You loved them in life, pray them into eternal life!  Here is the prayer of St. Gertrude the Great:  

According to tradition, St. Gertrude the Great was told by Our Lord that the following prayer, each time she piously recited it, would release 1,000 souls (or a vast number) from their suffering in purgatory:

“Eternal Father,
I offer You the most precious blood
of thy Divine Son, Jesus,
in union with the Masses said
throughout the world today,
for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory,
for sinners everywhere,
for sinners in the universal Church,
for those in my own home,
and in my family. Amen.”

A Great Promise

I am the LORD, your God, who grasp your right hand; It is I who say to you, 

"Fear not, I will help you."

How can we fail when we have a friend such as this.  The God of the universe loves us so much that He watches and will grasp us with His right hand and will keep us from harm.  He tells us in this reading from Isiah that we are to fear not for He will help us. 

Look around the world today.  If there ever was a time when we needed the strong right hand of God to grasp us and pull us out of the pit it is today. Mind you, the world is still a very beautiful place.  There are abundance and plenty all around us. The sun rises and sets as it always has, the tides of the ocean are regulated by the moon. Plants take in the sunlight and grow and are nurtured by God's mighty hand and the animals of the forest find their food provided for them.  Yet, God in his love has done so much more for those of Adam's race.  Time and time again he has come to the aid of His children and all of us while at first grateful, later we fall away from His counsel, forget His laws, and we wander off on our own way again.  Does God turn His back as we would to one who offended us greatly? No, with infinite patience, care, and love He extends His hand in friendship ready to accept any and all that want to return to Him. 

In this season of Advent, I ask you to be cognizant of the state of your soul. Are you wandering down a path that will lead to your spiritual ruin?  Do not give the devil a victory by thinking you have not sinned.  This lie is the evil one's sharpest tool and one that is used to separate man from God. When was the last time you approached the Lord in the sacrament of reconciliation?  A year ago? Five years? A quarter of a century ago?  It does not matter how long it has been, make plans to receive the mercy and love of our God in the confessional.  He knows your sins already, you will not be telling Him anything He doesn't know.  But to heal you have to tell Him what you have done and apply for His forgiveness and mercy.  He has never rejected anyone who has come to Him in tears and sorrow, even if it took years and years to come to the realization that sin was present in life.

Forgiveness and healing are but steps away.  Show your love and faith in God by admitting your wrongs and resolving to do right.  Then the coming Christmas holy day will mean more to you than it did when you were a child because you will know the love and mercy of the God of the universe and He will grasp you with His strong right hand and never let you go again.  

Today would be a great day to say the rosary for the Poor Souls in Purgatory, it is the memorial of St. John of the Cross. Please remember the poor souls, they cannot pray themselves out of purgatory, they need your help.  Remember, my friend, as they are, perhaps someday you shall be. 

If You Can't See, Well then Climb a Tree!

At that time Jesus came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town.

Now a man there named Zacchaeus,

who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man, 

was seeking to see who Jesus was;

but he could not see him because of the crowd,

for he was short in stature. 

So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus,

who was about to pass that way.c

When he reached the place, Jesus looked up and said, 

"Zacchaeus, come down quickly,

for today I must stay at your house." 

And he came down quickly and received him with joy. 

When they saw this, they began to grumble, saying, 

"He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner." 

But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord,

"Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor,

and if I have extorted anything from anyone

I shall repay it four times over."

And Jesus said to him,

"Today salvation has come to this house

because this man too is a descendant of Abraham. 

For the Son of Man has come to seek

and to save what was lost."

Today we read the story of Zacchaeus a man of some importance in the town of Jerricho.  The town of Jerricho was an important place because it was from this area that balsam was exported.  Balsam was used to make a rare perfume known as the Balm of Gilead. It was used by young women to attract eligible young men but it also was used to anoint the heads of some of the kings of Israel when the oil that was normally used was not available.  It was said that Jerricho was the only place one could get the genuine balsam.  The product was, therefore, considered very valuable and the Romans stationed a trusted tax-gatherer in this town so not one denarius of tax would escape the emperor's treasury.  The man that they put in place was Zacchaeus who is called a man of small stature.  To be blunt, he was short.  His name in Hebrew means "innocent" or "pure" which is kind of ironic since his chosen occupation was most certainly looked down upon by the people.  Israel could never get used to being subjects of another country.  The Romans were seen as invaders. The Romans for their part did their best to keep the situation calm in this small backwater of the empire, going even so far as to circulate coins that did not depict Caesar on them for the Jews would not even touch those coins as they believed that they were against the commandment of God.  The Romans even put local people in charge of collecting the taxes due to the empire.  They felt that payment would be made with less fuss if a local citizen was in charge of collecting the payment.  They told their collectors how was was due and it was the job of the collector to provide that amount of money to the treasury of Rome.  The people saw it just a bit differently.  They saw the tax collector as a collaborator of Rome, as a sinful man and he enjoyed only the company of other sinners.  Since they were not considered worthy of being friends and neighbors to their friends and neighbors, the tax collectors typically extracted more from the people then was actually due.  These extra funds, to which the Romans turned a blind eye, went to line the pockets of the tax-collectors and many of them were made very wealthy indeed. 

So, here we have Zacchaeus, a despised man who is very short.  He wanted to see Jesus but he could not because he was too short and I would imagine that the people lining the streets did their best to keep the hated puppet of Rome in the back of the line and for once not getting his way.  It must have been a bit of sport for the crowd to irritate the tax man in this manner.  Now, Zacchaeus could have handled this in two ways.  First, he could have just given up, cursing the day he was born a short man.  Second, which is the way he took, he could take his lemons and make lemonade with them!  He rushed ahead and climbed a tree, so great was his desire to see Jesus.  Jesus noticed him and told him that he meant to have dinner with him that day.  Can you imagine how Zacchaeus felt?  He must have been almost giddy with joy.  The people in the town hated him for what he did for a living but the Jesus would come and dine with him.  He made the arrangements and a lavish feast was prepared. In a moment of inspiration, he repented of his sin and told the Lord that he would give half of his possessions to the poor and repay those he had defrauded four-fold.  Jesus saw the goodness in this mans heart and told him that as of this day, salvation had entered the house of Zacchaeus.

What can we learn from this story?  I think that we should always be ready to do whatever is necessary to get closer to Jesus.  If we do this and if we repent of our sins He will come into our homes and stay with us.  No one is so evil that they cannot repent.  While life flows through our veins we are given the opportunity to do what is needed to be a friend of Jesus.  Climb the tree today, the view from the top is magnificent! 

Choose

Joshua made this announcement and then asked the people what they were going to do.  He asks them if they will serve the Lord or if they would prefer to serve the local gods of the Amorites. The people point out to Joshua that the Lord was the One who led them out of Egypt, and who had performed great miracles right before their very eyes. The people pointed out that God had driven the local pagans out of the land that they were now standing on and they tell them that it is their decision to serve the Lord that had done all of these great things for them.  Joshua asks them if they are sure about this because the Lord may not forgive them if they worship the pagan gods of the Amorites or others.  The people almost with one voice declared that they would follow and serve the Lord.  The rest, as they say, is history.  The people try their best, but time and time again they fail and fail big time and end up going into exile and into slavery. Each time they went into slavery they learned to trust and depend on the Lord more and more and eventually their time of servitude would end and they would emerge as the Lord's people again.  

For me, it is the same as what happened to my ancestors in the time of Joshua.  I was young and sinless (more or less) and I learned about sin by experiencing it first hand.  I then went to confession and before God and His Church, I confessed what I had done and promised with the help of God's grace to sin no more.  For a while I kept my promise, fiercely turning away the devil's attempts to lure me back. My resolve would be great but my strength would drain. 

Soon I would hear the siren song of the mermaid on the rocks and I would leave the safety of my boat and swim to the rocks where she would tease me and keep me away from safety until weary from the struggle of the wind and the waves I would begin to sink as the mermaid who was so friendly before laughed at my plight as the waves claimed me.  I would then have no choice but to call upon Jesus, and He would come to my rescue and I would find myself back in the confessional, confessing the same sins that I had committed before and once again I would promise not to commit again.  This time, I was sure.  This time I would make it.  But then after some time had passed I would hear the alluring siren song again and because of the grace of God at work in me, I would resist mightily again but the allure eventually became too great and I would once again swim to the rocks forgetting the lesson of my last swim. 

What we cannot do ourselves in our attempt to serve the Lord, we must give the Lord and plead for help.  Help will come in the form of grace but always remember when we are at our strongest, we are most vulnerable to the siren song and allures of this world.  But be of good cheer, if you turn back with all your heart and at least try to serve the Lord, He will see what you are doing, He will approve and He will help you.  You may sin again, but the sound of the mermaid calling to you will have to be louder each time you resist her charms.  Eventually, the voice of your conqueror will be conquered by the voice of your Father in heaven, His constant love and attention to you will win the day.