Sunday April 6, 2014 5th Sunday of Lent - "Jesus wept."

Gospel jn 11:1-45

Now a man was ill, Lazarus from Bethany,
the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
Mary was the one who had anointed the Lord with perfumed oil
and dried his feet with her hair;
it was her brother Lazarus who was ill.
So the sisters sent word to him saying,
“Master, the one you love is ill.”
When Jesus heard this he said,
“This illness is not to end in death,
but is for the glory of God,
that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
So when he heard that he was ill,
he remained for two days in the place where he was.
Then after this he said to his disciples,
“Let us go back to Judea.”
The disciples said to him,
“Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you,
and you want to go back there?”
Jesus answered,
“Are there not twelve hours in a day?
If one walks during the day, he does not stumble,
because he sees the light of this world.
But if one walks at night, he stumbles,
because the light is not in him.”
He said this, and then told them,
“Our friend Lazarus is asleep,
but I am going to awaken him.”
So the disciples said to him,
“Master, if he is asleep, he will be saved.”
But Jesus was talking about his death,
while they thought that he meant ordinary sleep.
So then Jesus said to them clearly,
“Lazarus has died.
And I am glad for you that I was not there,
that you may believe.
Let us go to him.”
So Thomas, called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples,
“Let us also go to die with him.”

When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus
had already been in the tomb for four days.
Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, only about two miles away.
And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary
to comfort them about their brother.
When Martha heard that Jesus was coming,
she went to meet him;
but Mary sat at home.
Martha said to Jesus,
“Lord, if you had been here,
my brother would not have died.
But even now I know that whatever you ask of God,
God will give you.”
Jesus said to her,
“Your brother will rise.”
Martha said to him,
“I know he will rise,
in the resurrection on the last day.”
Jesus told her,
“I am the resurrection and the life;
whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live,
and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.
Do you believe this?”
She said to him, “Yes, Lord.
I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God,
the one who is coming into the world.”

When she had said this,
she went and called her sister Mary secretly, saying,
“The teacher is here and is asking for you.”
As soon as she heard this,
she rose quickly and went to him.
For Jesus had not yet come into the village,
but was still where Martha had met him.
So when the Jews who were with her in the house comforting her
saw Mary get up quickly and go out,
they followed her,
presuming that she was going to the tomb to weep there.
When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him,
she fell at his feet and said to him,
“Lord, if you had been here,
my brother would not have died.”
When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping,
he became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said,
“Where have you laid him?”
They said to him, “Sir, come and see.”
And Jesus wept.
So the Jews said, “See how he loved him.”
But some of them said,
“Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man
have done something so that this man would not have died?”

So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb.
It was a cave, and a stone lay across it.
Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”
Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him,
“Lord, by now there will be a stench;
he has been dead for four days.”
Jesus said to her,
“Did I not tell you that if you believe
you will see the glory of God?”
So they took away the stone.
And Jesus raised his eyes and said,
“Father, I thank you for hearing me.
I know that you always hear me;
but because of the crowd here I have said this,
that they may believe that you sent me.”
And when he had said this,
He cried out in a loud voice,
“Lazarus, come out!”
The dead man came out,
tied hand and foot with burial bands,
and his face was wrapped in a cloth.
So Jesus said to them,
“Untie him and let him go.”

Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary
and seen what he had done began to believe in him.

“When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said to him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’  When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Sir, come and see.’ And Jesus wept.”

Sisters and brothers; why was Jesus moved to tears?  Some have speculated that he was crying because He loved Lazarus, and like any of us who lose a loved one, was grieving over His friend’s death.  Others have speculated that it was a combination of His own grief for Lazarus and empathizing with the grief of Mary and Martha.  In other words He was moved to tears out of compassion for the pain Mary and Martha were experiencing.  However, I take a different approach to the tears of our Lord.  There is only one other explicit instance when our Lord is moved to tears in the Gospels and it occurs in the Gospel of St. Luke; the lament for Jerusalem, “As he drew near, he saw the city and wept over it…”  This then gives us insight into the Heart of our Lord.  Jesus is not crying because of the grief that comes with death; He is crying over the pain He is experiencing due to the lack of the people’s FAITH in Him.  In both instances the people’s rejection of His grace is the offense against our Lord that moves him to tears.  You see, it is okay to morn and be sad over the death of a loved one, but it is wrong to despair because desperation means we have lost hope: our HOPE is in the Lord!  In the case of the people of Jerusalem our Lord wept because they outright rejected Him as the Messiah.  My brothers and sisters in Christ; do you believe that all things are possible for God?  Do you believe that Jesus the Christ has conquered sin and death once and for all?  Do you put your trust in God’s magnificent Grace that with His divine benevolence you can overcome the trappings of all sin?  Do you believe in the power of the Blood of the Lamb that was shed for us?  As we continue our Lenten journey let us cry out with all the faith in our soul: “I trust in the LORD; my soul trusts in his word. With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.”

Sunday March 30, 2014 "Oh no, not me!"

Gospel jn 9:1-41

As Jesus passed by he saw a man blind from birth.
His disciples asked him,
“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents,
that he was born blind?”
Jesus answered,
“Neither he nor his parents sinned;
it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him.
We have to do the works of the one who sent me while it is day.
Night is coming when no one can work.
While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
When he had said this, he spat on the ground
and made clay with the saliva,
and smeared the clay on his eyes,
and said to him,
“Go wash in the Pool of Siloam” —which means Sent—.
So he went and washed, and came back able to see.

His neighbors and those who had seen him earlier as a beggar said,
“Isn’t this the one who used to sit and beg?”
Some said, “It is, “
but others said, “No, he just looks like him.”
He said, “I am.”
So they said to him, “How were your eyes opened?”
He replied,
“The man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes
and told me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’
So I went there and washed and was able to see.”
And they said to him, “Where is he?”
He said, “I don’t know.”

They brought the one who was once blind to the Pharisees.
Now Jesus had made clay and opened his eyes on a sabbath.
So then the Pharisees also asked him how he was able to see.
He said to them,
“He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and now I can see.”
So some of the Pharisees said,
“This man is not from God,
because he does not keep the sabbath.”
But others said,
“How can a sinful man do such signs?”
And there was a division among them.
So they said to the blind man again,
“What do you have to say about him,
since he opened your eyes?”
He said, “He is a prophet.”

Now the Jews did not believe
that he had been blind and gained his sight
until they summoned the parents of the one who had gained his sight.
They asked them,
“Is this your son, who you say was born blind?
How does he now see?”
His parents answered and said,
“We know that this is our son and that he was born blind.
We do not know how he sees now,
nor do we know who opened his eyes.
Ask him, he is of age;
he can speak for himself.”
His parents said this because they were afraid
of the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed
that if anyone acknowledged him as the Christ,
he would be expelled from the synagogue.
For this reason his parents said,
“He is of age; question him.”

So a second time they called the man who had been blind
and said to him, “Give God the praise!
We know that this man is a sinner.”
He replied,
“If he is a sinner, I do not know.
One thing I do know is that I was blind and now I see.”
So they said to him,
“What did he do to you?
How did he open your eyes?”
He answered them,
“I told you already and you did not listen.
Why do you want to hear it again?
Do you want to become his disciples, too?”
They ridiculed him and said,
“You are that man’s disciple;
we are disciples of Moses!
We know that God spoke to Moses,
but we do not know where this one is from.”
The man answered and said to them,
“This is what is so amazing,
that you do not know where he is from, yet he opened my eyes.
We know that God does not listen to sinners,
but if one is devout and does his will, he listens to him.
It is unheard of that anyone ever opened the eyes of a person born blind.
If this man were not from God,
he would not be able to do anything.”
They answered and said to him,
“You were born totally in sin,
and are you trying to teach us?”
Then they threw him out.

When Jesus heard that they had thrown him out,
he found him and said, ADo you believe in the Son of Man?”
He answered and said,
“Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?”
Jesus said to him,
“You have seen him,
the one speaking with you is he.”
He said,
“I do believe, Lord,” and he worshiped him.
Then Jesus said,
“I came into this world for judgment,
so that those who do not see might see,
and those who do see might become blind.”

Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this
and said to him, “Surely we are not also blind, are we?”
Jesus said to them,
“If you were blind, you would have no sin;
but now you are saying, ‘We see,’ so your sin remains.

“Oh, no, not me!”

If you have ever done “jail ministry”, then you probably understand that it is a very challenging and at times demanding ministry.  You see, to minister to the incarcerated is challenging because the minister must enter into a non-judgmental relationship with the incarcerated, the minister tries to see past the “crime” and support the child of God before them who seeks the mercy of the Heavenly Father.  “Jail ministry” is at times demanding because the minister must use astute judgment in how and in what way they can really “help” the imprisoned.  Needless to say not many are willing or able to perform this much needed ministry in our universal Church.  But if there was one thing that I learned in my years of ministering to the incarcerated at the Bexar County Detention Center; it is that only one bad decision separates us all from the fate of imprisonment.  More often than not when I share my thoughts on imprisonment; the response of the other person is: “Oh no, not me!”  For the most part people tend to think that it will never happen to them; that they won’t get “locked up”.  In today’s Gospel the Pharisees are convinced of their own righteousness and say “Surely we are not also blind, are we?” in a way saying to Jesus; “Oh surely you’re not talking about us!”  You see the Pharisees were convinced that they were “holy” and so in turn felt privileged to pass judgment on others.  I wonder how often we too become convinced of our own righteousness and look down on others?  My brothers and sisters is Christ we are called to see each other as created in the image of God, to look upon one another as part of the family of God.  We must be careful of how we judge others, whether we deem them worthy or not to receive our Love.  After all, our Lord looks upon all of us with Love and Mercy and so we are called to do the same to others.  Sisters and Brothers, learn what is pleasing to the Lord, allow His healing touch to open the eyes of your heart, awake and do not hesitate to forgive someone today!

Sunday March 23, 2014 - Don't Just Come to the Well; Drink the Water!

Gospel jn 4:5-42

Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar,
near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
Jacob’s well was there.
Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well.
It was about noon.

A woman of Samaria came to draw water.
Jesus said to her,
“Give me a drink.”
His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.
The Samaritan woman said to him,
“How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”
—For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.—
Jesus answered and said to her,
“If you knew the gift of God
and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink, ‘
you would have asked him
and he would have given you living water.”
The woman said to him,
“Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep;
where then can you get this living water?
Are you greater than our father Jacob,
who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself
with his children and his flocks?”
Jesus answered and said to her,
“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again;
but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst;
the water I shall give will become in him
a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
The woman said to him,
“Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty
or have to keep coming here to draw water.”

Jesus said to her,
“Go call your husband and come back.”
The woman answered and said to him,
“I do not have a husband.”
Jesus answered her,
“You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’
For you have had five husbands,
and the one you have now is not your husband.
What you have said is true.”
The woman said to him,
“Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.
Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain;
but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”
Jesus said to her,
“Believe me, woman, the hour is coming
when you will worship the Father
neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
You people worship what you do not understand;
we worship what we understand,
because salvation is from the Jews.
But the hour is coming, and is now here,
when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth;
and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him.
God is Spirit, and those who worship him
must worship in Spirit and truth.”
The woman said to him,
“I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ;
when he comes, he will tell us everything.”
Jesus said to her,
“I am he, the one speaking with you.”

At that moment his disciples returned,
and were amazed that he was talking with a woman,
but still no one said, “What are you looking for?”
or “Why are you talking with her?”
The woman left her water jar
and went into the town and said to the people,
“Come see a man who told me everything I have done.
Could he possibly be the Christ?”
They went out of the town and came to him.
Meanwhile, the disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat.”
But he said to them,
“I have food to eat of which you do not know.”
So the disciples said to one another,
“Could someone have brought him something to eat?”
Jesus said to them,
“My food is to do the will of the one who sent me
and to finish his work.
Do you not say, ‘In four months the harvest will be here’?
I tell you, look up and see the fields ripe for the harvest.
The reaper is already receiving payment
and gathering crops for eternal life,
so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together.
For here the saying is verified that ‘One sows and another reaps.’
I sent you to reap what you have not worked for;
others have done the work,
and you are sharing the fruits of their work.”

Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him
because of the word of the woman who testified,
“He told me everything I have done.”
When the Samaritans came to him,
they invited him to stay with them;
and he stayed there two days.
Many more began to believe in him because of his word,
and they said to the woman,
“We no longer believe because of your word;
for we have heard for ourselves,
and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”

“What I learned from that loss, and also another loss that I'm going to talk about later, was that when you're there, it's not good enough to be there, when you're there, you better walk away with that ring.” (Don Shula, NFL Coach, Miami Dolphins: only champions to ever have an undefeated season in 1972)

In today’s Gospel our Lord is inviting the Samaritan woman to drink of the living waters! It is a very personal encounter with our Lord, an encounter that calls each of us to participate in and respond to, the Grace of Baptism.  Brothers and sisters, when I was a layman I used to sit in the pews during Mass thinking about everything except what was happening at the Most Holy Altar.  I would think; what time do the Cowboys play, where should we go eat after Mass, or what do I need to do to get ready for the workweek, laundry, cleaning, etc.  I was in Church because I had to be there not because I wanted to be there.  It was as if I was just going through the motions and not truly focused on what was taking place.  Now as a priest I am able to look out into the congregation and see the faces of the faithful, sometimes I see you in deep reflection and meditation, sometimes I see you with a smile on your face (I assume you know that you are participating in the Lord’s supper, and this brings you joy), sometimes I see you singing along and responding to every invocation, fully participating – heart, mind and soul: and other times I see you nodding off (yes I can tell when you are asleep), sometimes I see you talking and chatting to those around you not paying attention to the Divine Liturgy, and sometimes I see you sitting there with only a blank stare.  Please realize, I am not trying to embarrass anyone, after all back in the day I was the guy that was usually falling asleep.  What I am hoping to do is help you realize that if you only open yourself to enter into this personal encounter with our Lord and fully participate in the Sacred Liturgy you will receive the living waters in which you will never thirst!  The Samaritan woman had the choice to either accept or reject our Lord’s invitation.  No matter how unworthy you think you might be, we are given this invitation, are we going to accept His grace or are we going to reject it?  You see it is not enough to come to the well; we must drink the living waters!  It is not enough to come and sit in Church; we must fully participate in the Sacred Liturgy!  Sisters and brothers, “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”  Blessings. Fr. Steven

Sunday March 16, 2014 - Come Down from the Mountain

Gospel mt 17:1-9

Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother,
and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
And he was transfigured before them;
his face shone like the sun
and his clothes became white as light.
And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them,
conversing with him.
Then Peter said to Jesus in reply,
“Lord, it is good that we are here.
If you wish, I will make three tents here,
one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
While he was still speaking, behold,
a bright cloud cast a shadow over them,
then from the cloud came a voice that said,
“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased;
listen to him.”
When the disciples heard this, they fell prostrate
and were very much afraid.
But Jesus came and touched them, saying,
“Rise, and do not be afraid.”
And when the disciples raised their eyes,
they saw no one else but Jesus alone.

As they were coming down from the mountain,
Jesus charged them,
“Do not tell the vision to anyone
until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

On March 18, 2014 our president will award the Medal of Honor to two dozen veterans including 19 victims of discrimination.  It marks the first time since World War II that so many veterans will be awarded with our country’s highest military honor, sadly only three of the recipients are still alive.  In truth, these warriors through their heroic actions prove that there is an inherit goodness within every person, and that through our acceptance of God’s sanctifying grace, we are capable of heroic and incredible self-sacrifice.  In today’s Gospel Peter is so happy to be in the magnificent presence of Divine Grace, our Lord Transfigured, that he can only think about remaining in this state of gladness, he says: “Lord, it is good that we are here.  If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”  In other words, St. Peter is saying “I am so glad that I am here with you, and this is how I want it to be forever!” Unfortunately, St. Peter is only thinking about himself and the joy he is experiencing.  Our Lord calls us to share this joy not guard it in our hearts like it is something exclusive but instead wants us to go out into the world and share it as instruments of His Love and Mercy!  And so our Lord says to Peter, James, and John: “Rise, and do not be afraid.” Our Lord is commanding us not stay on top of the mountain but to come down and share the Good News of salvation with all we encounter on the way. During this Lenten journey I urge you my brothers and sisters to make an extra special effort to get involved in parish life, become a part of a ministry or group.  Practice self-sacrifice as a penitential act, an act of love, an act of mercy.  Be a warrior for God and His Gospel, after all; the reward is out of this world! Blessings. Fr. Steven       

Sunday March 9, 2014 - Call to Virtue

Gospel mt 4:1-11

At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert
to be tempted by the devil.
He fasted for forty days and forty nights,
and afterwards he was hungry.
The tempter approached and said to him,
“If you are the Son of God,
command that these stones become loaves of bread.”
He said in reply,
“It is written:
One does not live on bread alone,
but on every word that comes forth
from the mouth of God.”

Then the devil took him to the holy city,
and made him stand on the parapet of the temple,
and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.
For it is written:
He will command his angels concerning you
and with their hands they will support you,
lest you dash your foot against a stone.”
Jesus answered him,
“Again it is written,
You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.”
Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain,
and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence,
and he said to him, "All these I shall give to you,
if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.”
At this, Jesus said to him,
“Get away, Satan!
It is written:
The Lord, your God, shall you worship
and him alone shall you serve.”

Then the devil left him and, behold,
angels came and ministered to him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus is the pinnacle of human perfection and in today’s Gospel we see His perfect Wisdom and perfect Humility on display.  In this scene in which the father of lies, the devil, is attempting to tempt our Lord, Jesus dominates the devil even after being in the desert with no food for forty days!  We should learn by our Lord’s example!  We too are called to discern our decisions carefully, scrutinizing the consequences and asking ourselves will my words and deeds help to build up the kingdom of God or will they destroy the kingdom and cause division?  In truth, we are called to put aside foolishness and pride, and submit ourselves completely to the divine will of our heavenly Father, just like Jesus!  Moreover, we should not be like Adam who lost God’s grace and gift of original holiness because of his disobedience.  As the catechism states: “Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed God's command. This is what man's first sin consisted of.  All subsequent sin would be disobedience toward God and lack of trust in his goodness.  In that sin man preferred himself to God and by that very act scorned him. He chose himself over and against God, against the requirements of his creaturely status and therefore against his own good. Constituted in a state of holiness, man was destined to be fully ‘divinized’ by God in glory. Seduced by the devil, he wanted to ‘be like God’, but ‘without God, before God, and not in accordance with God’.  Scripture portrays the tragic consequences of this first disobedience.  Adam and Eve immediately lose the grace of original holiness.” CCC 397-399 However, brothers and sisters the good news is that our Lord’s saving sacrifice has won for us Grace and Blessings that far surpass any sin! As St. Paul says in today’s second reading “For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so, through the obedience of the one, the many will be made righteous.”  So today, this first Sunday of Lent let us re-commit ourselves to the will of our heavenly Father, let us resist the temptations of foolishness and pride, and become holy just as our Lord is holy!  Let us strive to follow the perfect example of our Lord and when we stumble and fall let us call out to our God begging: “Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.  A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me.  Cast me not out from your presence, and your Holy Spirit take not from me.”  Blessings. Fr. Steven

Sunday March 2, 2014 - Serve God Alone!

Gospel mt 6:24-34

Jesus said to his disciples:
“No one can serve two masters.
He will either hate one and love the other,
or be devoted to one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and mammon.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life,
what you will eat or drink,
or about your body, what you will wear.
Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds in the sky;
they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns,
yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are not you more important than they?
Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span?
Why are you anxious about clothes?
Learn from the way the wild flowers grow.
They do not work or spin.
But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor
was clothed like one of them.
If God so clothes the grass of the field,
which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow,
will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?
So do not worry and say, ‘What are we to eat?’
or ‘What are we to drink?’or ‘What are we to wear?’
All these things the pagans seek.
Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these things will be given you besides.
Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself.
Sufficient for a day is its own evil.”

Brothers and sisters in Christ, would you like to be worry free?  Would you like to be free from all stress and anxiety?  Well, you can; but only if you serve God alone!  In today’s Gospel our Lord tells us to stop worrying about all the worldly temptations that He calls “mammon”.  "Mammon" comes from a Greek word meaning material goods and possessions - things that money can buy.  In other words, Jesus is telling us that we shouldn't worry about bank accounts, mortgages, work, career, reputation, achievements, or success.  He is warning us that those things cannot satisfy our hearts, and that if we care too much about them, they will separate us from God and from the peace of mind that comes only from a strong relationship with Christ.  Unfortunately, this seems easier said than done!  So how do we serve God alone and not let ourselves be consumed with the anxieties of this world; He says "Seek first the Kingdom of God, and his righteousness…and all these other things will be given you as well."  Sisters and brothers to “seek” means that we go out into the world with our heart’s ablaze with His love and mercy striving to make visible His Kingdom!  So I ask: How actively are we seeking to know, love and follow Jesus Christ? How firmly is our heart set on his Kingdom? How eagerly and energetically are we striving to achieve righteousness, which is success in God's eyes, as opposed to success in the world's eyes?  Sisters and brothers, when our hearts are divided, when we try to find happiness both in our friendship with Christ and in our worldly successes, we end up losing both - we cannot serve two masters.  But if we seek first his Kingdom, then "all these other things will be given us as well."  Remember these words of Saint Teresa of Jesus: “Whoever has God lacks nothing. God alone suffices." Blessings. Fr. Steven

Sunday Feb. 2, 2014 - The Future Generation

Gospel lk 2:22-40

When the days were completed for their purification
according to the law of Moses,
Mary and Joseph took Jesus up to Jerusalem
to present him to the Lord,
just as it is written in the law of the Lord,
Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord,
and to offer the sacrifice of
a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons,
in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord.

Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon.
This man was righteous and devout,
awaiting the consolation of Israel,
and the Holy Spirit was upon him.
It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit
that he should not see death
before he had seen the Christ of the Lord.
He came in the Spirit into the temple;
and when the parents brought in the child Jesus
to perform the custom of the law in regard to him,
he took him into his arms and blessed God, saying:

“Now, Master, you may let your servant go
in peace, according to your word,
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you prepared in the sight of all the peoples:
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and glory for your people Israel.”

The child’s father and mother were amazed at what was said about him;
and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother,
“Behold, this child is destined
for the fall and rise of many in Israel,
and to be a sign that will be contradicted
—and you yourself a sword will pierce—
so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”
There was also a prophetess, Anna,
the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher.
She was advanced in years,
having lived seven years with her husband after her marriage,
and then as a widow until she was eighty-four.
She never left the temple,
but worshiped night and day with fasting and prayer.
And coming forward at that very time,
she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child
to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem.

When they had fulfilled all the prescriptions
of the law of the Lord,
they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.
The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom;
and the favor of God was upon him.

“The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.”

My brothers and sisters in Christ one thing we can all agree on is that we wish the very best for our children.  We hope and pray they receive the wonderful gift of our Catholic Faith and eventually become productive and participating members of our parish community.  However, on the occasion of our Centennial, we must refortify the solid foundation of Faith which was constructed for us so many years ago, by those who came before us, and upon which the next generations will build their “house” upon.  In truth, we celebrate and remember those who worked so hard in the past, we unite with all our brothers and sisters in Christ who toil in the fields of the Lord presently, and we nurture and welcome with great delight the future generations that will call St. Philip of Jesus Catholic Church their home.  And so as we begin the celebration of our 100 year anniversary let us RENEW FAITH, BUILD COMMUNION, AND INSPIRE HOPE!  Let us do our part in working to pass on the wonderful gift of Faith and show through our actions what it means to be dedicated to our parish community. And let our prayer rise to our heavenly father that all our little ones may grow strong in the Faith, be filled with the Wisdom of the Holy Spirit, and find favor and Blessings from our magnificent God!  Blessings. Fr. Steven

Sunday Jan. 19, 2014 - Do you know Him?

Gospel jn 1:29-34

John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said,
“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.
He is the one of whom I said,
‘A man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me
because he existed before me.’
I did not know him,
but the reason why I came baptizing with water
was that he might be made known to Israel.”
John testified further, saying,
“I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from heaven
and remain upon him.
I did not know him,
but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me,
‘On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain,
he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’
Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God.”

“I did not know him…”

Why didn’t St. John the Baptist “know” Jesus, they were related after all, first cousins in fact. Well, the type of “knowing” that St. John the Baptist is talking about is not the same kind of “knowing” that we understand.  For most of us, “knowing” means to be acquainted with someone; we know where the person is from, who their family is, and the skills the person possesses.  But St. John the Baptist is referring to a more profound “knowing”, the kind of intimate and mysterious knowledge that can only be revealed by the Holy Spirit.  It was through the Grace of God and the Wisdom of the Holy Spirit that St. John the Baptist is able to “know” his cousin as more than part of his human family, but as truly the Seat of Divine Wisdom, the Word Incarnate, the Savior of the World, the Lamb of God: our Lord Jesus Christ.  My brothers and sisters in Christ; do you know Jesus?  Do you really know Him?  Do you rely on your own intelligence to know God, or do you submit your heart, mind, and soul to allow God to reveal himself to you? Sisters and brothers, in order to truly “know” Jesus we must allow ourselves to be guided by the Holy Spirit; let us go out this week and truly submit ourselves to brought to our Lord!  You just may be surprised at where you meet Him; especially in the weak and poor of this world.  Blessings. Fr. Steven