The Healing of a Paralyzed Servant

In today's Gospel, Matthew 8: 5-17, a centurion, a Roman soldier, approaches Jesus and asks him to heal his paralyzed servant. When Jesus says that He will come and heal him, the centurion says to him:  "Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed." And so it is!  Every time that you and I receive the Eucharist, believing that it is a personal visit from Jesus, that it is the body and blood of Jesus that we eat and drink when we receive Holy Communion, Jesus comes down and enters our house, the house of our souls. If, like the centurion we believe and ask for healing, we, too, are freed of whatever "demon" has imprisoned us in negative, sinful thoughts and/or behaviors and healed of those "diseases"--physical, mental, spiritual, psychological-- that are depriving us of the energies we need to choose good and avoid evil.

I believe! And I ask the Lord to strengthen my belief, to awaken me to His Presence in the Eucharist, in the Blessed Sacrament that resides in the Tabernacle in every Catholic Church, as well to His Presence in every person, in all of creation, in the universe itself, as God resides in the depth of all that exists in the world, in all that that takes its being-ness from the Being of its Creator.

God be praised! God be exalted! God be glorified in all of His Creation!

The Holy Eucharist Given to Us at Jesus' Passover Supper

Today we celebrate the feast of Holy Thursday, the day that the Lord instituted the Holy Eucharist when, at the Passover Supper with His disciples, He  "took bread, and after He had given thanks, broke it and said, 'This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in  my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.' for as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup,  you proclaim the death of the Lord until He comes."  At every liturgy the priest consecrates the bread and the wine which, in the consecration, the bread and the wine becomes the body and blood, soul and  divinity of the Lord. Through the priest, the Lord then says to us: Take and eat and take and drink: "This is my body that is for you...[and] this cup is the new covenant in my blood," poured out for you. Each participant at this holy banquet then receives the Holy Eucharist, which is the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ.  What a gift! What a meal! What awesome nourishment. And what a gift to be part of this holy banquet until Jesus comes again and in the act of celebration proclaiming, in faith,  the death and resurrection of the Lord! 

I thank my parents and religious education teachers and the priests of my childhood for passing on this faith to me. And I thank God for giving me this gift of faith through them!  May my faith deepen day by day until my death in the Lord Jesus and my entrance into eternal life!

A River of Graces that Flows into our Lives

In today's first reading, Ezekiel 47: 1-9, 12, an angel brings Ezekiel to the entrance of the temple, where he sees water flowing from beneath the threshold  toward the east.  The angel walks out into the water with a measuring cord in his hand and invites Ezekiel to walk out as well. First the water is ankle deep, then knee deep, then up to his waist and then so deep that one can only swim in it. A river is flowing through it to salt waters, which it freshens.  Wherever the river flows, there is an abundant fish.  "Along the banks of the river, fruit trees of every kind shall grow; their leaves shall not fade, nor their fruit fail. Every month they shall bear fresh fruit, for they shall be watered by the flow from the sanctuary. Their fruit shall serve for food, and their leaves for medicine."

This passage speaks to me of the life-flowing waters of baptism.  It also speaks to me of the graces flowing to us from the altar upon which we celebrate the Eucharist and offer the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ in the consecrated hosts to God our Father.  By staying close to Jesus in the Eucharist and in prayer, we are staying close to the "Water" and to the "River," that is Christ Jesus, a "river"  of graces that serve as spiritual food and spiritual "medicine" --a "medicine" that restores our health in Christ Jesus.  In union with the Lord, we bear fruit that will last and our "leaves" never fade, that is our faith and hope and love are abundant, as the fish in the river that is spoken about in today's first reading.

In the Gospel of today's liturgy,John 5: 1-16, we are shown how waters of the pool of Bethesda act as a source of healing for the person who is first to enter the pool when it is stirred up. Jesus sees a man at Bethesda who has been ill for 38 years and asks him whether he wants to get well. Instead of answering Jesus' question with a "yes", he complains that no one puts him in the pool: "...[W]hile I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me."

Do I find excuses when I am presented with an opportunity to move from a crippled position or attitude? Do I respond to Jesus' invitations to a chance of new life by complaining about others not helping me? Or do I say "yes" to what is being offered to me?

God's Mercy Is Forever

In today's first reading, Ezra 9: 5-9, the prophet comes before the Lord filled with shame and too confounded to lift his eyes to the Lord.  Why? Because, he says, "our wicked deeds  are heaped up  above our heads and our guilt reaches up to heaven."  Ezra acknowledged God's mercy, leaving a remnant of the people to rebuild the Temple.  "For slaves we are," Ezra says, "but in our servitude our God has not abandoned us; rather he has turned the good will of the king of Persia towards us. Thus he has given us new life to raise again the house of our God and restore its ruins...."

As we listen to the news each night and also examine our own consciences, it is obvious, if we are honest with ourselves and about the news we hear, that our wickedness also "reaches up to heaven."  We, too, throughout any given day, become slaves to sin and selfishness, to being unjust and deceitful in how we deal with our neighbors here or abroad.  As with the Israelites, God is merciful toward us, as well!  Every day, God gives us life anew and new opportunities to rebuild the "house of our God," to restore the ruins created by unjust, deceitful, greedy, selfish actions towards others, all of creation, and the earth itself. And God comes to us in His mercy in many ways throughout the day and especially at every Catholic Mass, when we offer, in the the Holy Eucharist, the body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ  to God the Father in atonement for our sins against humanity and the Earth. Yes, God's mercy comes down to us every single day, as it did in the day of Ezra , the prophet.

Thank you, God, for your awesome Presence among us!  Thank you for being merciful to us! Thank you for not abandoning us in our efforts to rebuild the house of God, that is, to restore the beauty of each human being, Temples of the Holy Spirit, that,  by our selfishness, greediness, injustices and deceitfulness have been wounded.

Institution of two sacraments: The Eucharist and Ordination

[O]n the night he was handed over, [Jesus] took bread and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, 'This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood.  Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.' For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup,  you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes."

In those words, Jesus instituted two sacraments: the sacrament of the Eucharist and the sacrament of Ordination.  The apostles that night, were ordained priests and entrusted with doing in remembrance of Jesus what Jesus did: changed the bread into His body and the wine into His blood.  "Do this in remembrance of me."  At every Mass, the priest consecrates the bread and wine and says to us: "Take and eat; this is the body of Jesus given up for you and the blood of Jesus poured out for you. Yes, at every Mass, when we receive Holy Communion, we "eat this bread and drink the cup...[proclaiming] the death of the Lord until he comes."  

In the responsorial psalm for tonight's Mass, we pray:  ""How shall I make a return to the Lord for all the good he has done for me? The cup of salvation I will take up, and I will call upon the name of the Lord....To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving, and I will call upon there name of the Lord.  My vows to the Lord I will pay in the presence of all his people." We do that at the Mass!

Presenting Ourselves in the Temple of the Lord

Today, the Feast of the Presentation, "Mary and Joseph took Jesus 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'"  (Luke 2: 22).  In the collect of today's liturgy, we pray: "Almighty ever-living God, we humbly implore your majesty that, just as your Only Begotten Son was presented on this day in the Temple in the substance of our flesh, so, by your grace, we may be presented to you with minds made pure."

At our baptisms, each of us, like Jesus was by his parents, is presented to the Lord to be purified and consecrated to Him in the waters of baptism.  May we continue ti cooperate with God's grace as we live our our consecration to the Lord in our daily lives by living justly, loving tenderly and doing what s right in God's eyes.

That is my prayer this day for all of us, the least to the greatest, the richest to the poorest, the healthiest to the sickest in body, mind,  and soul. And may our minds continue to be made pure  through the Body and Blood of Christ, which we Catholics receive in Holy Communion at every Mass.  May we complete and become the Eucharist we celebrate by pouring out our lives every day in self-sacrificing love for the good of others.

God's Compassion and Ready Response to Human Need

In today's Gospel, Matthew 15: 29-37, Jesus "went up the mountain, and sat down there. Great crowds came to him,  having with them the lame, the blind, the deformed, the mute, and many others.  They placed them at his feet, and he cured them...." 

Every time we take time for prayer, for participating in the Eucharist, we, too, ascend the mountain of the Lord.  Whenever we "go up that mountain," let us take with us and lay down at Jesus' feet the lameness, the deformities, the blindness and deafness, and any other "diseased" parts of ourselves, of our world, of other people that need healing. Jesus will heal all in need of healing, if we acknowledge our brokenness and the "dis-eases" that cause divisions in our families, our nation, our world and within ourselves.

We are told in the Gospel that when Jesus looked out at the crowd that had  gathered before Him and simply stayed with him he said: "My heart is moved with pity for the crowd,  for they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat (think of Jesus in the tomb for three days following his death and then coming back to life)."  He would not not dismiss the crowd without giving them something to sustain them on their journeys back home. The disciples ask Jesus how they could possibly feed so many. Jesus asks: "'How many loaves do you have? "Seven,' they replied, 'and a few fish.'" And we know the rest of the story. Jesus took the loaves and the fishes, "gave thanks, break the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, who in turn game them to the crowds. They all ate and were satisfied. They picked up the fragments left over--seven baskets full."

Scripturally, seven represents an abundance. It also reminds us of the seven sacraments whereby God's abundant blessings flow into our lives, sustaining us and making us whole, as God, now, as then, "is moved with pity" for us and does not want us to collapse on our way to the Kingdom!  He wants us to arrive safely!  He wants us to be well fed for the journey!

Obviously, this is not just about Jesus reaching out to human needs, it is also a call to us to go and do likewise!

The Living Bread

Today's Gospel, John 6: 51-58, opens with Jesus saying to Us: "I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world."

"I am the living bread."  I left heaven for you. I have come down to earth to be one with you. When I returned to my Father, I left you the Eucharist, myself as "the living bread."  In every Eucharist  you eat of my flesh and drink of my blood, a gift I gave to you at the Last Supper when I said to my disciples attending that meal: "This is my body given up for you; take and eat." And with the wine served at that meal, I took it in my sacred hands and, as the High Priest of God, blessed the wine and said to the disciples: "Take and drink; this is the blood of the New Covenant which will be poured out of you." My changing water into wine at the wedding feast of Cana prefigured the Eucharist that I would leave with you in the hands of priests to follow my Way.  To priests, I have given the power at every Catholic Mass to change bread and wine into my body and blood for your spiritual nourishment and to fulfill the promise I made at my Ascension: I will be with you always until the end of time and, in this case, in the Eucharist.  Not only am I with you in the Eucharist, but I reside in the depth of your being and in all of creation. As God, I am everywhere sustaining all in existence, strengthening all, governing all, loving all, comforting all, challenging all and transforming all into the Divine, as My Love knows no end. I will draw all persons and all things to Me.  Your transformation will be complete in eternity and so, too, for everyone else open to the graces I pour out upon you an them from the cross every moment of every day!  Do you believe? Do you trust?"

A Blessed, Faith-filled Glorious Christmas

In today's first reading, Isaiah 52: 7-10, the prophet Isaiah burst forth with "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings glad tidings, announcing peace, bearing good news, announcing salvation and saying to Zion, 'Your God is King!'"  As we take time to ponder the crib, looking at the baby Jesus, may we realize that that tiny baby born in a filthy stable is "Your God and King," Christ the Lord, Creator of the Universe, your Creator and the Creator and of every human being who lives in this universe.  That tiny baby is God the Son, who becomes one like us in all things but sin.  That tiny baby is the only begotten Son of God, who leaves the glory of heaven and does not cling to equality with God but humbly becomes a human being.  That tiny baby is God, His glory and His Power hidden from us!

My mind is baffled by the truth that God also hides Himself from us and for us in the consecrated Host.  Yes, my faith tells me that God is hidden in this Sacred Bread--we do not see God in His glory or power, yet, in the Eucharist, I believe, God does come to us in all of His power and glory to transform us into Himself, purifying our hearts,  renewing our minds, reconciling us to the Father--making us one with the Trinity  and with one another--and, yes, strengthening our wills to follow His Way more faithfully.

I invite each of us, with Mary and Joseph, with all of the angels of God, with those who have preceded us into heaven, to meditate/ponder:

The humility of God in the infant Jesus.

The humility of God in the Sacred, consecrated Host and whom, I believe, we receive every time we receive Holy Communion during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass!  What a privilege and what a grace!

The humility of God dwelling in each human being who is full of grace and continually cooperates with God's graces to do what is right and just, merciful and loving, compassionate and understanding!

Truly God is with until the end of time! With all of the angels in heaven and on earth we sing: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will! Are you and I persons of good will?  If not, what needs to change?

Living through the Eyes of Faith

In yesterday's first reading, 1 Thes 3: 7-13, Saint Paul tells the Thessalonians that they are "reassured about you, brothers and sisters, in our every distress and affliction, through your faith."  Could those who know me, know you, be reassured in what they are going through because of our faith?  Do you, do I, live each day and look upon each circumstance of life through the eyes of faith?  "Night and day," Saint Paul tells the Thessalonians, "we pray beyond measure to see you in person and remedy the deficiencies of your faith."

May the deficiencies of your faith and mine be remedied. May our hearts be so strengthened that we are found "blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his holy ones."  This is Paul's prayer for the Thessalonians and for us. It is my prayer for my loved ones and for myself, so that our faith strengthens others and does not lead to their downfall, causing them to lose faith in Christ Jesus and especially to lose faith in Jesus' invitation at each Eucharist:  "Take and eat; this is my body given up for you. Take and drink of this cup; it is the blood of the New Covenant poured our for you" (Luke 22: 19-20).

God's Knowledge and Love of Us

Today's responsorial psalm, Psalm 139, opens with us acknowledging that God has "probed me and...[knows] me."  We go on to pray:   "O Lord,...you know when I sit and when I stand; you understand my thoughts from afar. My journeys and my rest you scrutinize, with all my ways you are familiar. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know the whole of it. Behind me and before, you hem me in and rest your hand upon me." 

God probes me! God knows what I am thinking.God knows what I am pondering. God knows my desires.  God know what motivates me to do what I do or not do what I do not do. God knows me more than and better than I know myself.   And yet God loves me beyond all telling! Why? Because God sees me as one redeemed in the blood of Christ. In Holy Communion, God visits me: "Take and eat," God said to the disciples at the Last Supper: "This is my body given up for you. Take and drink; this is the blood of the New Covenant" (cf Luke 22: 19-20)--the blood which saves us from Satan's pursuit every day. The Blood of Christ marks us as God's redeemed, as ones saved by Christ, just as the blood of goats sprinkled on the door posts of the houses of the Chosen People saved them from physical death.

Thank you, Lord, for this gift of faith!

O, the Greatness, the Generosity, the Mercy and the Love of our God

In today’s first reading, 1 Cor 11¨17-26, 33, St. Paul reminds us that what he received from the Lord Jesus he hands on to us, namely, “that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, ‘This is my Body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This is the cup of the new covenant in my Blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.”

At every Eucharist, we remember what God has done for us on Calvary. We give thanks through Jesus Christ and we take and eat in obedience to His teaching that “the bread that  I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world….Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life, and I shall raise that person on the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in that person.”

At every Mass the Holy Spirit changes the bread and wine into Jesus through the consecrated hands of the priest.  “It is the Lord,” each of us at Mass can say as we ponder the act of consecration and what happens on the altar when the words of Consecration are said. At that moment, God comes down from heaven to visit us in person, to share the fullness of His life with us and the gift of reconciliation with our God. In the Eucharist, God transforms us, purifies us, recreates us into the persons God designed us to be in His creation of us and in His molding of us in our mother’s womb! O, what a gift is Eucharist! O, what a gift is the Mass! O, the greatness and the generosity and the mercy and the love of our God!

The Cup of Blessing

In today's first reading, 1 Cor 10: 14-22,, Paul asks us: "The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the Blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the Body of
Christ? Because the loaf of bread," Paul states, "is one, we, though many, are one Body, for we all partake of the one loaf."

The bread that we break at a Catholic Liturgy is Jesus' body broken for us on the cross.  The blood that we drink is Jesus' Blood poured out for us on Calvary.  In our participation in the Eucharist, Jesus becomes one with each of us and we become one with one another: one Body of Christ, one Body in Christ. It is the Risen Lord who, in the Eucharist,  visits us, hidden in the consecrated bread and wine. The bread and the wine before consecration is not bread and wine after the consecration. It is the Risen Christ who is one with the Father and the Holy Spirit--one God, three divine persons; one God, undivided unity and Trinity.  As Jesus, the Father and the Spirit are one with each other, so, too we are to become one with others.  We are to live with others as Jesus lives with and in the Father and the Spirit, giving, loving, creating the good in all, for all and through all in God's name and reconciling all to His Father through His death and resurrection.

In what ways do I strive for unity with those with whom I live and work and pray? In what ways to I give, love, and create the good in all, for all and through all in God's name? And in what ways am I divisive?  And, if divisive, what do I do to bring about reconciliation?

Our Blessing Cup: The Communion with the Blood of Christ

In today's first reading, Exodus 12: 1-8, 11-14, the Israelites, God's chosen people, celebrate the feast of Passover.  God instructs each family through Moses to "procure  for  itself a lamb,...The lamb must be a year-old male and without blemish...[W]ith the whole assembly of Israel present, it shall be slaughtered during the evening twilight.  They shall take some of its blood and apply it to the two doorposts and the lintel of every house in which they partake of the lamb...[T]he blood will make the houses where you are. Seeing the blood, I will pass over you; thus, when I strike the land of Egypt, no destructive blow will come upon you."

"Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ, the unblemished male, the Lamb of God, through whom we are saved. "[N]o destructive blow will come upon" us who "eat of this bread" and "drink of this wine." Just as the Israelites celebrate the Passover as "a memorial feast...,which all...[of their]generations...celebrate with pilgrimage to the Lord, as a perpetual institution," so, too, do we Christians "offer [a] sacrifice of thanksgiving [the Sacrifice of the Mass] and "call upon the name of the Lord" in every Eucharistic celebration until the end of time.

The Covenant of the Old Testament is given to the people by Moses. The Covenant of the New Testament is given to us through Christ Jesus.

Just as Yahweh would lose none of His chosen people to their slave owners, neither will Jesus lose anyone of us to Satan, who prowls about the world seeking someone to devour! O, the greatness and the goodness and the mercy and the love of our God, revealed to us in Christ Jesus, whose blood was poured out for us on the cross!

The Coming of the Lord

Today’s first reading, Malachi 3: 1-4, 23-24, opens with the statement “Lo, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me; and suddenly there will come to the temple the Lord whom you seek.”  We can apply that message to ourselves.  Today in each of its events and encounters, the Lord sends a messenger to prepare you and me for His coming. Every day, God does this.  Does God find me sleeping, inattentive, distracted?  We are told by the prophet Malachi that “[s]uddenly there will come to the temple the Lord whom you seek.”  Suddenly the Lord, whom we seek and for whom we long, will come to the temples of our bodies in the host consecrated at every Catholic Liturgy and received in Holy Communion.  This Christmas we celebrate God coming on earth as a living, gentle, smiling, dependent infant.

God also comes to us in a whisper of hope,  a touch of caring love, as an inspiring thought,  a gentle reminder, as a spring rain or softly falling snow whitening the ground , flowers opening/revealing their beauty in the spring of the year,  as sunrises and sunsets bursting with bright light across the horizon. Am I awake to the Lord’s coming? Am I aware? Am I seeking the Lord in all of the events of the day, in the changing of the seasons, in the awakening of the dawn and the approach of darkness? Or am I too full of selfishness, too busy with projects, too angry and resentful or anxious over worldly cares to notice?  When that is so, Lord, I ask for forgiveness and healing, mercy and love so that I may see you each day, working quietly and lovingly in my midst.

God's Bread: Never Be Hungry Again

In today’s Gospel, John 6: 30-35, Jesus says to the crowd that is pressuring Him for a sign “so that we can put faith in you.”   The crowd reminds Jesus that  heir ancestors “had manna to eat in the desert”  that, “according to the Scriptures,”  came down from heaven.  Jesus  responds:  “I solemnly assure you,  it was not Moses who gave you bread from the heavens; it is my Father who gives you the real heavenly bread. God’s bread comes down from heaven and gives life to the world…I myself am the Bread of Life. No one who comes to me shall ever be hungry; no one who believes in me shall ever thirst again.”

The Jews’ ancestors did hunger again. Every morning the manna reappeared. It did not last.  When you and I eat the “Bread of Life,” when we believe in Jesus and follow God’s will we never hunger or never thirst.  O, the power of the resurrection of the Lord. O, the power and the strength of the Truth Who is God Incarnate, who is the Eternal Word made flesh, who nourishes us in the Eucharist, in the Scriptures, through the Spirit who dwells within the depths of our beings! O, the power and the wisdom and the humility and the love and mercy of our God!

Anointed with the Holy Spirit and Power

In the second reading for Sunday, January 12, from Acts 10: 34-38, Luke reminds us that "...God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power. He went about doing good and healing all...oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him."  At our baptism and confirmation, we, too, were anointed with the Holy Spirit and power.  At every Mass and Holy Communion, God rekindles, deepens, reactivates that power to engage in "doing good and healing all...oppressed by the devil, for God [is] with..[us]".  Anointed with the Holy Spirit and divine power we are capable of recognizing "bruised reeds" and "smoldering wicks" (compare Sunday's first reading from Is 42: 1-4, 6-7) and empowered to treat such with tender love, to act justly toward them and to be a source of goodness to them (compare Mi 6:8).  What is blocking me from being this extension of the heart and mind and hands of Christ? How to I prepare myself each day to activate the power that God has given me? At the end of the day, do I take time to reflect back on the day to ascertain how I cooperated/failed to cooperate with the graces of my baptism and confirmation and reception of the Eucharist? 

To become the best version of myself in line with the graces of baptism and confirmation, to be the best Christian I am capable of becoming, I might heed the advice Matthew Kelly gives in Rediscovering Catholicism.  He speaks about how professional athletes like Michael Jordan practiced making 500 free throws (his weakness) every day for ten years--500 free throws that hit the mark--until he succeeded.  Tiger Woods took a year off golf to practice his swing as it was not up to par. If I fall short of doing good on any given day, of following the guidance of the Good Spirit, do I resolve, as any athlete does, to practice the behavior that revealed a weakness until the good becomes a habit. If not, I might want to make this a practice in praise of God's holy name and in gratitude for the graces of baptism and confirmation and Eucharist. Let's not allow those graces to lie dormant.

The Power Jesus' Touch

In today’s Gospel, Luke 5: 12-16, “there was a man full of leprosy in one of the towns where Jesus was; and when he saw Jesus, he fell prostrate, pleaded with him, and said, ‘Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.’  Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, ‘I do will it. Be made clean.’”  Healing flowed out of Jesus through the entire body of the leper. No longer was he "full of leprosy," but full of grace from a God of compassion and love.

 We live in a world “full of leprosy, the leprosy of sin:  the sin of human trafficking, drug trafficking, corruption, cheating, sexual promiscuity, lying, dominating others, exploiting the weak and the vulnerable, using  violence to solve problems. and so much more.  Sin invades all of life in some way. You and I fall into Satan’s trap, as well.   In every Mass, Jesus stretches out his hand through the Scripture readings and through the liturgical prayers ; He literally touches us in the Eucharist, coming into our beings to cleanse us of our sin.  When we bring the sinful world to Him during the offertory, the consecration and the communion rite of the Mass  and say: “Lord, if you wish, you can make…[the world] clean,” Jesus says “I will do it.”  Jesus is doing it, one person at a time, one day at a time. Jesus is doing it in your life and in mine.

In the first reading of today’s liturgy, 1 John 5: 5-13, John raises the question “Who indeed is the victor over the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?.”  The answer: We are! Just as Jesus was not afraid to touch the leper, may you and I be not afraid to touch others with the healing power of Christ, believing in God's power within us. May none of us be afraid of the "leprosy" within ourselves, the dark "spots" that need to be brought out into the open for Jesus' healing. May we have the courage of the leper to approach Jesus and say: "Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean." Jesus is waiting for us!

The Feast of St. John, the Beloved Disciple

Today we celebrate the feast of St. John, the youngest of the apostles and the only one who did not die a martyr’s death.  However, he was exiled to the island of Patmos where he wrote the book of Revelation.  Recent scholars point out the relationship between the Book of Revelation and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. If interested in this development, I recommend that you read Scott Hahn’s book entitled “The Lamb’s Supper, The Mass as Heaven On Earth.”  When participating in the Mass—standing, as it were, beneath the cross of Christ, as St. John did, “we share in a foretaste of that heavenly liturgy which is celebrated in the Holy City of Jerusalem toward which we journey as pilgrims, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle. With all the warriors of the heavenly army we sing a hymn of glory to the Lord; venerating the memory of the saints, we hope for some part and fellowship with them; we eagerly await the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, until He, our life, shall appear and we too will appear with Him in glory” (The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy as quoted by Scott Hahn in The Lamb’s Supper).

Thus the Gloria and the “Holy, holy, holy,” the Lamb of God” and “Happy are those who are called to this Supper” prayers offered during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. We join with all of the angels and saints in heaven as our Warrior God proclaims battle upon Satan prowling the world in search of souls. In Jesus’ name and through His once and for all sacrifice on the cross, Satan will be overcome. We will ultimately triumph over evil, as Jesus did on the cross, where He took on sin to destroy it forever.  He descends from heaven to earth in every liturgy, inviting us to “Take and Eat; this is my body given up for you,” and “Take and drink; this is the blood of the New Covenant,” shed once and for all for the salvation of the world. You are a part of that saving act in every Eucharist, as John was a part of the first Eucharist, when, at the Last Supper, Jesus said those same words to the apostles at that last meal of Jesus on earth. He would not eat it again until the heavenly and earthly liturgies unite as one.

Holy Thursday

Holy Thursday: “He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end,” we read in today’s Gospel, Jn 13: 1-15.  This is the day Jesus begins His bitter passion.  Before doing so, He models humility, servanthood, and incredible love for us, both in the washing of the apostles’ feet, including those of His betrayer, and by the giving us the Eucharist, whereby He is with us always sacramentally.  Following the Passover meal Jesus leaves for the Garden of Gethsemane. He says to His disciples: “My soul is sorrowful to the point of death.”  He asks them to stay awake and pray with Him. They fall asleep. Will I?

Jesus’ suffering is so severe emotionally and spiritually that his “sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood” (Lk 22:44).  He prays: “If you are willing [Father], take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, let your will be done, not mine. Then an angel appeared to Him, coming from heaven, to give Him strength” (Lk 22: 42-43).  When I am in suffering severely, do I seek out others to pray for and with me? Do I realize that God suffers with me in those moments and, not only sends “angels” to give me strength but that He Himself comes also to be at my side to comfort me, strengthen m e, console me, and transform my way of handling the painful event so that I become a better person through it, that I move from “death” into new life?