The Baptism of the Lord

Today's readings can be found here.

Today we celebrate Jesus's baptism and the beginning of His public life. If we were hearing the story of Jesus for the first time, we might wonder what that child of God would do with his life. We heard of his miraculous birth, visitation by three kings, escape into Egypt, an ordinary life of pilgrimage as a teen, getting “lost” in the temple. When we listen to the story, he grows older and older. Today, we would be on the edge of our seats with anticipation wondering, “When will he act? He's a grown up already! What will come of his life?”.

When Jesus meets with his cousin John at the river, we've already heard about John, too. We know John was born to woman who was supposedly barren after an appearance of an angel, his father went mute during the gestation, John jumped in the womb when he was in the presence of Mary, pregnant with Jesus. As an adult, John preached far and wide, lived as a wild man in the desert living off of locust and honey. Both men were born under stupendous circumstances and amazing blessings.

When they meet at the river, we know something miraculous is going to happen. John had been baptizing people and saying that one mightier than him would come. Jesus arrives, is baptized and begins praying. The heavens open up and and the Holy Spirit gently descends upon him and a voice is heard, proclaiming that Jesus is God's son and has pleased God.

At this point, we should be on the edge of our seats! It is time for Jesus to begin doing whatever it is that he will do! If this is our first time hearing this story, we wonder, what will he do? The first reading, from the book of Isaiah, gives us our answer. In this reading, God names his servant, with whom he is pleased, just like we heard at the river after Jesus' baptism! Then, we hear what Jesus will do, why he has come to this earth. God says that he will peacefully bring justice to the nations. He is sent to bring light, open the eyes of the blind and free the captive. He is sent as a covenant to the people. Jesus is a promise of peace between God and man.

Fortunately this isn't the first time we have heard this story. We know the covenant between God and man is played out daily at Mass in the sacrifice of Jesus' life on the altar. His life and blood are poured out so that we might live in peace with ourselves and others, freed from sin. We are the captive who needs to be freed. We are the blind who need to see. We are in darkness and should look to Him for the light.

Feast of Pentacost

Speaking in foreign tongues is the first big manifestation of the Holy Spirit. The apostles, so filled with that fire, went out and began speaking in languages they had never learned and never heard. The Spirit was able to work through them to speak to the many visitors who had gathered. How many times in your life have you wanted to share a supportive, loving or kind word with another person, but didn’t know what to say? Sometimes the right words feel awkward or forced. However, if we seek the support of the Holy Spirit, God is able to work through us to speak a word to that person. In Lent, we read “The Lord GOD has given me a well-trained tongue, That I might know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them." (Isaiah 50). Well, the Holy Spirit gives us that power!

The Holy Spirit didn’t just come to comfort us, it came to help us in the Missionary and Apostolic work of the Church. We should be praying that God’s word would always be at the tip of our tongue and that we are able to speak in foreign tongues. This doesn’t mean to speak in Chinese, Spanish or French, although it could. This means to be able to speak teenager if you are an adult, to speak angry neighbor if you are a calm one, to speak support and comfort, motivation and healing, guidance and reproach.

We are called to testify what we have seen and heard about God. We are called to speak to others on God’s behalf. Jesus doesn’t walk on this earth anymore, but we do. We walk with the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit wants to work through us to reach others. We must testify what we know about God so that others may hear and benefit. The Holy Spirit has the power to speak through us to others, but we must ask the Holy Spirit to come into our lives and work in this way.

Finally, we shouldn’t feel bad if we don’t testify in the ways we see others testifying. Not everyone can be a priest, not everyone can stand on the corner and read scripture to strangers as they walk by. However, we can share with some of our friends and family a story of how God has loved us, how God has helped us, how God has saved us, taken us back, or brought us into His glory. These are the stories we are meant to share with others.

The psalm proclaims, “When you send forth your spirit, they are created, 
and you renew the face of the earth.” Well, God has sent forth his Spirit. We have been created and blessed by Him. In sharing our stories with others, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can share the love that God has shown to us. In this way, the face of the Earth can be renewed.

The Feast of the Asecension

While Easter is the most important Holy day of our Church's year, the Feast of the Ascension is a very important Holy day for us as well. Today's readings are full of excitement. Not only do they describe the Ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven, but they also describe the responsibilities of all Christians and encourage our work. Without out the readings of today, we may have never heard the word of God. Today's readings remind us of our job as believers and followers of Christ. We must go out and spread the Good News to the ends of the Earth. Without today's readings could have been a branch of Judaism who believed that the Messiah had come, but with today's readings we become followers of Christ strengthened in our journey by the power of the Holy Spirit.

There are so many riches in these readings that I will just point out a few. In Ephesians 1, the Paul prays that "the eyes of your hearts be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call." He is praying that we will not be sad and burdened by life, but look towards the hope of eternal life that Christ promised. In another option for today's second reading, Ephesians 4, Paul urges "you to live in a manner worthy of the calling... with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, ... through the bond of peace," Paul is encouraging us to live a life of forgivness and love. (The theme of the Easter season, remember?)

Love and forgiveness are the heart of the life on earth that Christ wanted for us all. God has given us such amazing gifts and abundant grace. We should ask for this grace when we are temped to not love, and to not forgive. He will give us the grace we need to forgive
and love, even for the biggest and hardest things to forgive and the hardest people to love. I promise. Jesus promises.

Finally, the gospel tells us that if we believe and are baptized we are saved. Too many Christians would stop there and say, "I'm baptized, I'm in!" The lines following these tell us that signs will accompany those who believe: driving out demons, speaking new languages, picking up serpents and drinking deadly things but not coming to harm, healing the sick. Wow! Have we done that? Well, have we helped someone drive out the demon of doubt, despair, sadness? Have we helped a friend? Have we been able to give someone encouraging words when we really didn't know what to say? Have we come close to a dangerous topic, person or event only to pray for the strength to make it through it and then made it through it? Then we have seen some of these signs. Perhaps we are saved. The love and forgiveness that we act on as we follow Christ will lead us to these signs and wonders. Pray for the grace to love and forgive and pray for the grace to see these signs.

6th Sunday of Easter

In today's readings we learn that all who hear God's word and obey it are welcome to the salvation offered by God. We are also reminded of the reoccurring theme of the Easter season: obey the commandments and love one another.

Some people might view the 10 commandments as a "do not do" list that God gave to Moses. However, the list of commandments are really guidelines that teach us how to love. The first three commandments show us how to love God and the final seven show us how to love others.

The second reading tells us, "God is love." Therefore, God equals love and love equals God. Did you ever think of that before? Not that God is love, but that love is God.

God is the source of love for the whole world. Just as water cycles around the world in clouds, rain, rivers, oceans and into clouds again, God's love cycles through us and our neighbors. As we love, we are really spreading God and sharing God with others.

Part of God, part of love, is forgiveness. The second reading tells us, "God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him." When we hold a grudge or will not forgive another person, we withhold love from them. When someone is angry with us, or holding something against us, they withhold love from us. In these instances, both parties
are losing the heart of the relationship with each other and they are without the life of the other.

When Jesus died to free us from sin, it was to open us to love and forgiveness, and introduce us to God the Father as pure love. He died for us to show us a better love than the love we often live. In the Gospel, Jesus instructs us to "remain in His love". We must remain with God to be able to love others and be forgiving. In his commandments, God isn't trying to hold us back or squash our zeal for life, he is trying to help us live more fully. Jesus tells us to remain with Him so that our "joy may be complete." He summarizes the one lesson that we need to hear over and over again by saying, "This is my commandment: love one another as I love you."

5th Sunday of Easter

Luckily, lovingly, God is the vine grower. He tends to us branches. He sees the branches that are withering from thirst and he gives them a boost with water. He sees the branches that are burning from heat and gives them the mercy of shade. He also sees the branches that are bearing fruit. He waits until the fruit is ripe and heavy before he picks it. God also prunes some branches. He cuts them down so they will bear fruit in the future.

Have you ever been pruned? Have you ever felt that God was cutting you down or holding you back? It is hard to come to terms with pruning sometimes. Why would God prevent you from doing something that you wanted to do? Why would He give that job to someone else? Why would He let your boyfriend or girlfriend break up with you? God is the vine grower, and he knows the end result. He knows the fruit you will bear. If you took that first job, then you wouldn't have applied to the position where you were able to change people's lives by your work. If you had stayed with that boyfriend or girlfriend, you wouldn't have had the opportunity to meet your real true love, the spouse that God had planned for you before you were born. He knows what He is doing.

He sent Jesus Christ to this earth to guide us and give us hope. Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. We must root ourselves in the vine that God provided. Jesus says, "without me you can do nothing." If we live apart from Christ, then we are like the branch that has broken off of the vine and fallen to the ground. Where are our roots? Where will we get water and nutrients with nothing holding us in the soil? Even if God tried to water us, we couldn't receive it without the vine. We are dead without the vine. We are dead without Jesus Christ.

Today's second reading gives us hope for staying on the vine when it says, "Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them," In order to stay on the vine, we must keep his commandments. The greatest commandment (Matthew 22) is to "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself'," Love is the key to staying on the vine. The second reading tells us how to love too. Saying, "I love you" is simply not enough. We must act out our love through service to God and to one another.

4th Sunday of Easter

So often we wonder what we mean to God, what He is doing with us or where He is leading us in our lives. Today's readings should give us hope. Jesus Christ should be the cornerstone of our foundation. The rock on which we stand. But when we want to move, where should we go? God has provided us a shepherd to guide us. The sheep do not lead themselves, the shepherd guides them to rich meadows full of grass to eat. He also leads them away from the dangerous predators who would kill or harm the sheep. But we are not sheep, and we know that. The second reading assures us who we are, which is the children of God.

Knowing these things is comforting, but still we wonder, “What is God doing with my life?” We can say, “Last year I did this good thing” or “Right now I am doing this.” or “One day, I hope to do that” but still we do not know what God wants from us. Today's second reading offers assurance. “Beloved, we are God's children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed.” This letter to John assures us that we aren't supposed to know. Perhaps the accumulation of our life's work will be revealed to us in the end. The reading says, “We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” We will know where God led us, and what we did for Him when we see Him. Is this when we get to heaven?

In our entire lives, we have so many opportunities to do God's work. Sometimes it is easier to look for the big thing to do, the hurricane victim to rescue or the mission trip to go on, than it is to do the small thing, loving your neighbor or giving 35 cents to the homeless guy. Not everyone can do the big things, but all of us can do the small things. Will the most important thing we did in our entire lives be a big thing or a small thing or many small things? Perhaps the accumulation of our lives is to smile at that one person who will go on to change the world. Perhaps the $20 donated to the mission trip car wash fundraiser didn't seem like much, but it helped 25 students get that much closer to Honduras. In those 25 students, maybe one needed the trip desperately so God could crack their hard shell and shine His light into their life. Perhaps that one student became a priest who goes on to lead many parishes and speak to the hearts of thousands of people. That $20 doesn't seem so small now, does it?

We can all work for God, we may not know how our actions change others, but there is a change. If we live as God's children, let the Shepherd guide us, and stand on the Rock then we shouldn't worry if we are doing the right thing for God. He won't let us do anything else.

Divine Mercy Sunday

For whoever is begotten by God conquers the world.
 And the victory that conquers the world is our faith.
 Who indeed is the victor over the world
 but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? (1 John 5: 4-5)

What does it mean to conquer the world? This scripture is not referring to world domination like the goal in board game Risk. It is referring to our more personal world and the things we deal with on a daily basis: work, home, self, family, friends, coworkers, money issues, grief, fear, illness, uncertainty, death, disability, trauma, etc.

One very good example of this is the death of Fr. Bill. As a community our hearts are saddened, but we have the faith that he is with God in heaven. We could be consumed in grief, but we should be filled with joy because he is receiving the reward of his life. Conquering the world with our faith may be easy with the passing of a holy person, but it can be done in other types of situations too.

When struggling with the overwhelming situations of daily life, its important to remember that God wants what is best for us. Ever since He placed mankind in the Garden of Eden, God designed the world to give us the best. It is our own foolish human nature that leads us away from the best things that He has planned for us. It is our weakness of faith that lets life defeat us sometimes. When we are tempted to declare defeat, that’s the world that we need to conquer with our faith.

Sometimes it is hard to love our neighbor, enemies, and even our family. Sometimes it is hard to believe that God wants what is best for us when there is a pile of bills to be paid and no money in the bank. The same is true when a loved one has a disability or is in the hospital with little chance of recovery. Again this is true when dealing with defeat and failure of best laid plans. It is hard to believe when hearing the news of war, famine, and horrors in distant countries. However, God does want what is best for us.

When the world tries to defeat us, having faith in God’s plan, faith in heaven, and faith in his providence will help us conquer our world. Who indeed is the victor over the world
 but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? Belief in Jesus is belief in the words he preached, belief in our community, belief in heaven and through these things, belief that God will provide and lead us to what is best .

Easter

Hosanna He is risen! Easter is the most important holiday in our church year, every thing that we do and believe as Christians centers around this holy day. Jesus’ teachings and his entire life can be summed up in his sacrifice on the cross which triumphed over death and gave eternal life to all who believe. Jesus loved us so much that he was willing to give his life so that we might have life. His death and resurrection teach us to follow what he has done and to love so much that we would be willing to give a sacrifical love to others. We must love so much that we would be willing to give our lives so that others may have life. Everything in our faith can be summed up with this life-giving love.

How has Jesus given life to us? How can we give that life to others? How can we love someone so much that we could give our life for them? How are we life giving? Is it through our marriages or chaste relationships that respect the life-giving power God has given us? Is it through our children? Do we give life by holding our tongue when we have a potentially hurtful opinion? By encouraging the best in others? By showing kindness to someone we dislike? By forgiving people who have hurt us the most? By seeking forgiveness when we have hurt others?

Sometimes living a live-giving love can seem difficult or even impossible! In order to give something away to others, we must have received it first. Just as we would prepare for a race by exercise training and proper nutrition, we can do the same to prepare to love others as Christ taught us. Every day in Catholic churches around the world, Jesus’ sacrifice is celebrated on the altar. We can draw the strength we need in order to be life-giving from the sacrifice that is re-lived on the altar at Mass. Receiving the Eucharist is the way that we can strengthen and nourish ourselves to live as Christ lived and love as Christ loved.