Gratitude to Those Who Paid the Ultimate Price for our Freedom

Today we honor all of those men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom, those serving in all branches of the military.  Like Jesus, who died to set us free and to share His inheritance with us in heaven, the men and women of the military died so that we here in the U.S. and around the world would know freedom from the violence of war and "inherit" peace, so to speak!

Because of the sacrifices of those men and women who served in our military, we are, on the one hand, free here in the U.S. in so many ways: free to plant our gardens, to play in our parks, to visit our neighbors without fear of losing our lives by the likes of a Hitler or by  leaders who taunt their power by a show of force, a parade of military equipment and hundreds and hundreds of men and women and even children marching  like tin soldiers in front of a country's leader. 

On the other hand, we might ask ourselves:  are we really free? Have we sold our freedom to addictions flaunted as "must haves," or "must dos?"  Have any of us become a slave to consumerism, materialism, relativism, sexism? Are any of us locked into attitudes of prejudice and/or hatred? Have any of us chained ourselves to being judges of others, of being this world's superior cynics, of being superior to others, above others and deaf and blind to those in need?

If any of the above is true,  we believe the words of Psalm 68 of today's liturgy: "God arises; his enemies [and ours] are scattered, and those who hate him flee before him. As smoke is driven away, so are they  [our enemies of any kind] driven; as wax melts before the fire. But the just rejoice and exult before God;  they are glad and rejoice."  Let us "sing to God, chant praise to his name" for the freedoms we enjoy and those who won them for us!  It is God ultimately who has given us a home where freedom reigns, whether that home be our country, our State, or the home in which we are raising our family to serve and worship the one true God. It is God who leads us out of our "prisons," away from that which enslaves us, and protects us from the "Hitlers" of our world!

From Whence Does Our Work Originate

In today's first reading, Acts 5: 17-26,  the Sadducees threw the Apostles into prison out of jealousy.  They were furious that the Apostles' popularity was spreading and that they were having success in witnessing to the resurrection of Jesus and the spreading of the faith!  No way were they going to allow this to happen, if possible. They did not realize that the origin of the work of the Apostles was of God, not of human orig

From whence does my work and yours originate?  Is it of God or am I/are you functioning merely from a human perspective?  If of God, the results will prove its origin. When I am functioning merely from a human perspective, it is easy to become jealous of another or to react angrily when the results of my work are not what I expected or wanted. However, if I am allowing the Spirit to lead me and I am doing that which the Lord is asking of me, I will experience what the Apostles experienced: "prison" doors become unlocked! Those unlocked "doors" may be the doors of my heart or of the hearts of others!

Let us remember, as we pray in today's responsorial psalm: "The angel of the Lord encamps around those  who fear [reverence] him, and delivers them. Taste and see how good the Lord is; blessed the [one] who takes refuge in the Lord," as did the Apostles.

Coming before the Lord in Sorrow and Repentance

In today's first reading, Ezra 9: 5-9, the prophet bows before the Lord in sorrow and repentance, acknowledging that "[f]rom the time of our fathers even to this day great has been our guilt, and for our wicked deeds we have been delivered up, we and our kings and our priests, to the will of the kings of foreign lands, to the sword, to captivity, to pillage, and to disgrace, as is the case today."  He then adds: "And now, but a short time ago, mercy came to us from the Lord, our God, who left us a remnant and gave us a stake in his holy place; thus our God has brightened our eyes and given us relief in our servitude."  Ezra could be speaking of the world in which we live today.   He could be speaking of each one of us. Why do I say that?  You and I,  from time to time, are weighed down with sorrow, realizing that we, too, have strayed from the right path.  We are well aware of the wickedness that exist in our world  today and, yes, we are turned over to the will of foreigners, "to the sword, to captivity (in many forms), to pillage, and to disgrace." Then, amazingly, sometimes, it seems, out of nowhere, we experience God's mercy, the good will of another, giving us "new life," restoring our "ruins," and bringing us  back into good graces with the Lord our God,  with others and with self.

In what ways have you experienced being brought back into good graces? In what way have you been  "in captivity" to negative attitudes, negative behaviors, poor choices? How have you experiences being disgraced? And, in what ways have you experienced "God's mercy," the good will of another, the "ruins" of a situation for which you were responsible being restored?

Talk to God about these situations. Share your thoughts and feelings with the Lord. Stand beneath the cross and let the precious blood and water flowing from Jesus sacred side cleanse you, restore you, strengthen you, make you new.

God's Will: Our Redemption and our Freedom

In the Collect of today’s liturgy we pray: Set aside, O Lord, the bond of sentence written for us by the law of sin, which in the Paschal Mystery you canceled through the Resurrection of Christ your Son…   In a second prayer, we pray: O God, who willed that through the paschal mysteries the gates of mercy should stand open for your faithful, look upon us and have mercy, that as we follow, by your gift, the way you desire for us, so may we never stray from the paths of life…”  

As I prayed those prayers, the image of Peter and the apostles in prison, chained to the floor, surfaced in my mind.  “…during the night the angel of the Lord opened the doors of the prison, led them out, and said, ‘God and take you place in the temple area, and tell the people everything about this life’”  (Acts.5: 17-26). 

That is what Jesus did for us on the cross and in His resurrection. The prison doors were opened for us. The chains that bound us to sin and death were shattered. We are being led out of our slavery  and put on the path that God desires of us, a path that leads to ever greater and greater freedom in the Spirit of God leading us to our ultimate destiny, eternal life.  In His great mercy, God has opened the gates  of heaven for us.   “Eye has not seen nor ear heard, neither  have entered into the heart of man [humankind] the things which God has prepared for them that love him,” Paul tells us in 1 Cor 2:9.

Blessed by the Lord, our God, our Deliverer

In today’s first reading, Dan 3: 14-20, 91-91, 95, the King asked Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, “is it true…that you will not serve my god, or worship the golden statue that I set up? Be ready now to fall down and worship the statue I had made, whenever you hear the sound of the trumpet, flute, lyre, harp, psaltery, bagpipe, and all the other musical instruments. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego do not succumb to the King’s demands and are bound and thrown into the white-hot furnace. When the King peers into the furnace and sees three men unfettered and unhurt walking  on the red-hot coals with the Son of Man in their midst, he proclaims “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who sent his angel to deliver the servants who trusted in him.”

In the Gospel , Jn 8:31-42, Jesus, the one true God, reveals the Father’s will and  challenges the Scribes and Pharisees who are planning to kill him.  They carry out their plans and Jesus is executed by crucifixion on the cross.  Death has no power over Him.  He is risen from the dead and now sits at the right of God in glory as king “until he has made his enemies his footstool” (1 Cor 15: 25-26).

The three men in Daniel testify to the power of the one true God to save us from harm and set us free.  Jesus actually does save us and set us free from Satan’s snares to worship false gods. Those false gods are the focus of many of our commercials. Marketing experts “sound the trumpet, flute, lyre, harp, psaltery, bagpipes and all the other musical instruments” to  lure people into worshipping consumerism, materialism, individualism, sexism, and the ego’s demands to exert  power over others, use pleasure at other’s expense, and accumulate wealth for selfish ends.

We, too, are faced every day with the choice Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego made when they said to the king:  “…we will not serve your god or worship the golden statue that you set up."  Yes, every day we, too, are faced with the blaring invitations to worship the gods of this world, of pagan cultures and pagan societies or to worship the one true God and to listen to Jesus’ Gospel messages. Which choice will I make today?

Jesus: Savior

Today’s first reading, Heb 2: 14-18, opens with the following statement:

                Since the children share in blood and Flesh, Jesus likewise shared in them, that

                through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is,
                the Devil, and free those who through fear of death had been subject to slavery
                all their life.

We may think of the phrase “fear of death” to mean only our physical dying.  However, it means far more than that. It refers to fear of dying to selfishness and rising to the new life of generosity in giving one’s 100%, fear of dying to pride and rising to new life through humility, the fear of dying to anger and rising to new life through peaceful negotiation and compromises, the fear of dying to deceitfulness and rising to new life through honesty, the fear of dying to fear itself and rising through acts of courage and so on.

When I am afraid of something, my energy goes into protecting that of which I am afraid. I become a slave to the behavior I engage in to protect myself: a slave to hiding the truth, a slave to selfish behaviors, a slave to acts motivated by pride and so on.  Jesus came to set us free!

From what do I need to be set free today?