Homilies from St. Anthony, Allston, MA

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Calling the Holy Spirit to Challenge Us and Change Us

 

In today’s second reading from Romans, Paul tells us that we must think of ourselves as being dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus.

What does that mean?

Well, I actually decided to look to see what God calls us not to do to understand what he wants us to do. The strongest word in the Old Testament that tells us what not to do is abomination. Anything that is an abomination to God is what we should not do. Looking in the Old Testament to see what is an abomination, I found that the most common use of the word is in connection to idolatry.

The worst sin in the Old Testament is idolatry. Every form of idolatry eventually leads the Jews away from God and even into pagan practices including human sacrifice.

If we are to live in a way that rejects sin and seeks righteousness, the most powerful form of it is in finding and eliminating idolatry from our lives. Any form of idolatry will lead us away from Christ.

The cause of idolatry was always what makes me prosperous. Even in societies that never encountered the God of the Jews until 1500’s they too had similar pagan practices including human sacrifice and even child sacrifice and such practices were to please the gods to ensure prosperity of one form or another.

Such idolatry was an attempt to manipulate the gods to conform to our will or to placate the gods who might be mad at us for one reason or another.

Jesus calls us completely out of this system and he offers himself as sacrifice so that we will be freed from all that.

Then, as we see in Paul, our role is to serve God in such a way that we are not pleasing him so that he will make us prosperous, but we will live for him as His agents and glorify him in our lives. At times that might make us prosperous, but at times it might make us poor. Jesus never promises financial prosperity. He rather promises eternal joy and calls us to be agents to lead others to that joy.

This means we need to allow ourselves to be formed as those agents. We need the Holy Spirit to come to challenge and change us so that we will live in a way that will reflect our love for God and for God’s presence in the world.

We cannot live for prosperity and we cannot make prosperity our focus, we must instead live for holiness and make holiness our desire.

If we live for Christ we must live for righteousness, but the truly righteous one among the Jews was the prophet. He was the one who lived in a way that let people know that God was intimately involved in the human lives of the Jews and later the whole world. The perceived righteous one was the pharisee he conformed to the norms that would most benefit him.

So if we are to live as St. Paul calls us we must live in true righteousness, the righteousness of the prophet, not of the pharisee. We need the Holy Spirit to come to challenge and change us to be those prophets.

I think you will find that we are living in a unique time where that call is even stronger.

Our country is caught up in a revolution right now and we are seeing people challenge the status quo in every aspect of some cities.

We see the work to take down statues. Does any of this challenge our form of thinking? People are afraid that these revolutionaries will take down statues of Jesus because they represent the status quo to some people.

I am certainly not inviting you to participate in any of this, but I am calling us all to ask the Lord to show us where we have embraced the status quo. Look for anytime we made property more important than people and we will see what needs to change in us.

How can we as Catholics live for righteousness at this time? Can we live this way, if it becomes unpopular to come to church and live the faith?

Can we pray to be challenged on what God wants us to do?

Can we ask the Lord to show us what needs to be done?

We need to draw on the devotions and piety we foster as Catholics, we need to stay close to the sacraments if we can, so that we can live in ways that pleases Christ in our love and service to others, even if it does not conform to society.

Remember going to Church is a powerful act whether you are attending in person or attending online. It is a powerful act for each of us to live.

We must allow ourselves to be challenged by Christ so that we can be his agents in the world. We must not be influenced by what is expedient or culturally acceptable. We must live in ways that lead others to know Christ in us to see Christ in what we do. That may not conform to society’s norms.

What happens when we do not. I learned some time ago when I watched people protest against the Catholic Church and insult and scream at innocent Catholics attending Mass on Sunday, when the local media was trying to mold the Church in their image and fostering movements that called people to fight for their world there way, that this was the source of evil: in and out of the Church. Our world, our way.

We represent our world, God’s way. But our understanding of God’s way is challenged and must be challenged every day. We must allow God to show us where the status quo is not God’s way and where we need to understand our perception of righteousness to be God’s way.

We are agents of God’s love, justice, mercy, holiness so that people can see that their world their way will fail but the only way to a just society is one that is rooted in the eternal truths of love, mercy, justice and holiness in Christ. That is a society where all try to live in righteousness in service to others.

Let us call the Holy Spirit to come to challenge and change us that God’s will may enlighten our minds and we may enlighten others by our actions.

Homily: Living Life Prophetically

Since we are in ordinary time, the first reading and Gospel now have some form of connection. The first reading is from Jeremiah the Prophet and it details how much he suffered for his speaking out. He wanted to live just a simple life, but God called him to be his prophet and the people did not want to hear what he had to say. They persecuted him severely so much, he cursed the day he was born.

What would have happened if Jeremiah never spoke out? The Jews would be remembered as much as the Babylonians. Their culture would have died out, but God’s will was that the world would be transformed through the Jews’ monotheism. The world needed to know that our truth comes from beyond us and it costs nothing to seek it but seek it we must. For those who seek it find it and those who reject it get lost in the falsehood of their own chosen idolatry.

Now let’s look at our same world from the Gospel reading.

Like the call for Jeremiah to be courageous, so Jesus teaches us to have courage and for the same reason. What is at stake?

Our world is in flux and one of the reasons is that in many corners humanity lost touch with the source of truth and the fount of wisdom.

However, do not start shaking a finger at them. Do not start shaking a finger at the Chinese Communist Party, The atheist professors in our own country, The European Union, The United Nations or even the corporate media, we need to start focusing on own call and mission.

Jesus calls us to live in courage and not to fear those who can kill the body and not the soul. That can be difficult at times, I know from experience. However, why does he admonish us this way? For the same reason he called Jeremiah to be strong despite his suffering.

There is too much at stake.

He calls us to be strong in our faith that we can witness to the truths that come from outside of us.

If we do not, then our society falls back into paganism which has been happening worldwide for several decades.

It is a natural progress. Humanity either continues its pilgrimage to union with the Father or it falls back on itself into the worst forms of paganism. There is no other alternative. This does not mean that humanity cannot accomplish great things even within a pagan society, but it does mean the society’s eventual weakness will lead it to collapse as it did since the days of fall of the Assyrian Empire.

Jesus’ words are important to us today. We have a mission to be the prophets that he called Jeremiah to be. We have a mission to testify to the truths and we do that by living the Gospel. What does that demand? To love as Jesus loves.

We need to live prophetically.

If we are not doing that then we are not being the Catholics Christ called us to be.

In order to accomplish that goal, we must be people of prayer because it is through prayer that we learn to know Christ and to live his demands. If we do not pray, even though we know every jot and tittle of Catholic moral teaching, we will be as St. Paul demands noisy gongs and clanging symbols.

It is through our actions of love that we witness to the truth of Christ. In fact, when we come forward to communion, it is an action that we commit to love to that level. That by the way is the reason that the Church prohibits people from receiving if they are living in ways that reflect a rejection of Church teaching, it is a call to embrace a higher form of love.

We can look around at how our country changed over the past month and since the shutdown caused by the fears over the virus. Many of the social struggles that the country suffers from right now are caused by the Catholic Church not being a prophetic institution.

We must step out of ourselves and live in a way that radically affects the lives of those around us and changes our world and we can only do that through the love that comes from the source of all love, truth and wisdom.

If you look at the great problems we are having in our country right now, they are based on delegating government agencies the authorities to act on our behalf. However, what if we chose only to delegate that authority as a last resort.

An example: You saw the news of the final result of incidents in Atlanta: A man who  fell asleep in his car in a drive thru of a fast food restaurant. He apparently had been drinking. A police officer charged with his murder after a struggle where the man got a hold of his TASER. A riot and finally the restaurant burned to the ground.

How did all this start. With people calling the police that a man was asleep in the drive-thru of the restaurant. Now this needs to be said with caution and with discernment. What if instead of calling the police, a small group of people knocked on the car window, woke the guy up, advised him to move his car to the parking lot where he could continue sleeping and that worked.

None of the previous issues would have happened. That is a bit risky, and I am sure many people including the restaurant would not be happy. However, if they knew what the alternative result would be I am sure everyone would be happy.

What is the difference, acting in a way that humanizes That is acting prophetically. It may or may not have worked, but we know the action taken did not work.

How can you live your faith courageously first be a person a of prayer and then with discernment put your faith in action.  

Homily for Corpus Christi: We Are Not Gods

Notice the first reading, from  Deuteronomy how much it speaks to us at our time, especially for this day: Corpus Christi.

A little history:

This passage takes place just before the Hebrews are going to cross into the promised land, the land we now call Israel. They spent forty years in the desert. This is because the older generation turned from the Lord, so He raised a new generation that would be more faithful. The Lord calls these new migrants to remember what they went through and explains the struggles they suffered for the past forty years were all by the Lord’s hand. He used those experiences to strengthen them and prepare them to enter into the promised land. They would know, as they crossed the border, they survived the forty years through the power of the Lord. They learned to rely on Him which they would need to do to remain faithful. 

Now we are living in a unique time, we spent many weeks without even being able to receive communion or attend Mass in person we have been in our own desert. We are just beginning to open up our churches, but our country changed radically. Many are unemployed, businesses closed and trying to reopen. We saw the riots sparked by the death of a man at the hands of a rogue police officer and now our country is not in the same place it was only three months ago.

However, we are here either in person or via online streaming. This might be a good time to reflect, especially because we are here on Corpus Christi Sunday.

What is the Lord saying to us?

The Eucharist is such a unique reality—the presence of Jesus Christ, especially in exposition. It is not a symbol, but Christ present in the Eucharist and present to us. Just as the angel said to Mary: God with us. Christ speaks to us with his presence visually. So it is a message that transcends all languages and cultures.

During these months when we were forbidden from attending Mass or receiving the Eucharist we could receive our Lord spiritually. As I would say on many Sundays, the playing field was leveled. No one could receive, but all could invite Christ into their hearts spiritually.

Is this not what Christ wants for us? He does not want us to receive the Eucharist just because that is what we do at that part of the Mass. He wants us to be in communion with Him regardless of whom we are. Those who are not able to receive communion because of a state of life or a disagreement with Church teaching, then Christ wants to draw them closer through the Spiritual communion so He can bring them to conversion so they can receive him sacramentally. He wants people to bring their disagreements, their struggles, their anger, their fear, their questions to him in prayer.

That is the powerful message that the Eucharist gives to us on this unique celebration of the Body and Blood of Christ.

We watched struggles in this country over the past several weeks. There is a terrible story coming out of New Jersey where a corrections officer publicly mocked the George Floyd killing. He has been suspended pending an investigation, but we can ask the question what is the source of all this?

It can be caused by a country or even a world losing a sense of who we are. Remember, the first temptation is the most important: ‘You will be like Gods’ and when members of our society lose a sense of who we truly are as humans we can fall into that temptation. Indeed, our society and others in the world have.

Gods have no accountability. They can do anything they want at any time. If there is any message in the Bible especially in this first reading it is that we as human beings require accountability to our God. Or we will act like gods. What do gods act like? How about a rogue police officer deciding who will live and who will die? How about others stealing, lying, looting, immorality of all forms and more. Look carefully there is a commandment for everything I just mentioned.

When we as humans do not allow ourselves to be accountable to God then we can do some horrible things. That includes those who believe in God, but choose not to act accountable to Him. Jesus called that offering Him lip service. That simple message is the prime message of the twentieth century and now twenty-first century.

The Eucharist and this special day gives us an opportunity to say: We are not Gods and to look upon the Eucharist, the Body of Christ as the presence of our true God. We can seek to be humble before him and pledge obedience to He who is pure truth, pure reason, pure love, pure goodness which we are not. We can recognize our need for him. God tells the Hebrews in today’s first reading the importance of remembering that he is with them always and he used those forty years to strengthen them. He used these days to strengthen us.

Let us look upon the Eucharist as a reminder of the same message. God is with us always. God might be showing his hand in this time and He is calling us to remember, we are not gods. We are human and we need Him in every part of our life or we risk acting like the worst of the Greek pantheon. For when we forget, then, like the Hebrews, we can and will go astray. We have a glimpse, after all these weeks, to understand how much we need God in our lives and in our society. 

God is with us and now he is with us in the Eucharist.

Unity with the Trinity

Just before the meltdown, a local professor with a doctorate in psychology who happens to be an atheist told people that churches should not open because they will spread the virus.

 

Why is this important? Simple. A person could be an expert in basketweaving and tell everyone that the way to stop the virus is to walk on your hands for a week and some people would do it because well he is an expert and they believe he will keep them safe.

 

In philosophy that is called appeal to improper authority. There is a word for that in religion, it is called idolatry. It is endemic in this society. People fawning all over someone who is and expert in anything all the time.

 

Psychologists are not epidemiologists, nor virologists. Neither am I. Like me, he obviously is able to state his opinion. So, he is not the problem.

 

The melt down happened and that is pure psychology. That is exactly where you need a comment from a psychologist and no one consulted him from what I saw.

 

That is the problem. Again, it is not him. It is how our culture has embraced the experts and turned them into gods because many believe they will keep us safe.

 

Matt Taibbi wrote a great book called I Can’t Breathe A Killing on Bay Street (2017; Spiegel & Grau) about the Eric Garner case in New York. The George Floyd case echoes it. He shows how what happened to Eric Garner begins with some experts coming up with an idea to stop crime. It turns into a policy that destroyed lives and led eventually to the death of Eric Garner. What was at the bottom of all these policies? Safety.

 

Why is all this important for our time?

 

Just before the meltdown, a local professor with a doctorate in psychology who happens to be an atheist told people that churches should not open because they will spread the virus.

Why is this important? Simple. A person could have a Ph.D in basketweaving and tell everyone that the way to stop the virus is to walk on your hands for a week and some people would do it because well he is an expert and they believe he will keep them safe.

 

In philosophy that is called appeal to improper authority. There is a word for that in religion, it is called idolatry. It is endemic in this society. People fawning all over someone who has a Ph.D. in anything all the time.

 

Psychologists are not epidemiologists, nor virologists. Neither am I. Like me, he obviously is able to state his opinion. So, he is not the problem.

 

The melt down happened and that is pure psychology. That is exactly where you need a comment from a psychologist and no one consulted him from what I saw.

That is the problem. Again, it is not him. It is how our culture has embraced the experts and turned them into gods because many believe they will keep us safe.

 

 

 

 

Matt Taibbi wrote a great book called I Can’t Breathe A Killing on Bay Street (2017; Spiegel & Grau) about the Eric Garner case in New York. The George Floyd case echoes it. He shows how what happened to Eric Garner begins with some experts coming up with an idea to stop crime. It turns into a policy that destroyed lives and led eventually to the death of Eric Garner. What was at the bottom of all these policies? Safety.

 

Why is all this important for our time?

 

Today is Trinity Sunday. We celebrate the Holy Trinity that God is one God of three persons. God’s greatest desire is that all live in unity as God is unity. So we can assume what we see right now going on outside is not God’s greatest desire.

 

Our whole faith is about the Father, Son and Holy Spirit calling us to be in union with them by seeking God to be the center of our lives. He calls us to deepen our union with Him until the time that as St. James says we see him face to face.

 

Dennis Prager in his book the Rational Bible: Exodus (2017, Regnery) explains that Moses never saw the face of God. So we have no idea what God’s face actually looks like and will not until that time. We only know that Jesus became the face of God so we would understand. However, God is so much beyond us and this God calls us to be as much in union with him as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are with themselves. This is destiny of every human being.

 

Many, instead, as we see in Romans 1, exchange the truth for a lie. They worship someone whom they tell us is an expert. So, he or she must be all knowing, of course. That person has the secret of life and the secret to save us from ourselves of course.

 

The problem with that attitude is that it does not denigrate God, it denigrates us. God desires to bestow His wisdom upon us. He calls us to union with Him and many instead say that this is Old Fashioned, we have science now, we can now be like gods. Then meltdowns like this happen and we learn the effects of believing that certain people were like gods who came to take care of us. We learn they are only human.

 

You cannot learn to be the fullness of what it means to be human, to be fully human and fully alive from any media outlet from any university professor, any tv reporter, any politician or for that matter any priest or bishop, archbishop or pope if you are not first seeking the wisdom of the God who is beyond us.

 

When you seek the wisdom from the Divine Trinity, then you will learn a deeper truth that will help you move in this life.

 

What failed in the death of George Floyd, Eric Garner, Ahmaud Aubrey, Trayvon Martin and so much more was not just the actions of certain individuals but the breakdown of a system that promotes a false understanding of what it means to be human. It is a system rooted in idolatry and develops a concept of humanity based on doing what is necessary to keep a certain part of the population safe, even at the risk of hurting another part of the same population. That is clear in Taibbi's book by the way.

 

Universities are not local branches of Mount Olympus. They are human institutions at best. The media are not oracles, they are human institutions at best. When we ascribe to them the characteristics of being like gods, we set ourselves up for manipulation, destruction and pain.

We say that they are like Gods while we bow and scrape to them. Therefore, we don’t question them.

 

Eventually this idolatry breaks and that is what happened this week. People saying out loud this system failed again. Remember, the mission of the police officer is to keep people safe, but many are saying the system is not keeping us safe.

 

There needs to be a change and it can begin by realizing that all have a calling to respond to the invitation given to us by love itself The Holy Trinity. We do that by humbly seeking that relationship with the Father through the Son under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Jesus calls us to be his witnesses not only of whom He is but whom we are. We pray so we can know him more and more and be more in union with him and with his people.

 

God created all people and you and I have a command to love God and our neighbor as Christ loves us. That is not a nice notion; that is a radical notion because it requires us not to do what some system tells us is correct, but what Christ calls us to do in the name of love and obedience to him. Often that bucks the system in and out of the Church by the way. That is because we all have the same calling. There are no special people who have a super human status while the rest are just humans. Nor are there any sub humans. God calls each human being equally.

 

Let us take this time to recommit ourselves to our mission as baptized Christians, to seek Christ and to eliminate from our lives the idolatry that has hurt us, our neighbor, our church and every person affected by the policies in place that dehumanize until they blow up as they did this past week. Remember, safety is at the bottom of what dehumanizes us, Jesus reminds us that what is at the bottom of what leads us to union with the Holy Trinity is risk that begins with carrying our cross.

 

May I ask that we all begin to pray to be open to being confronted with those attitudes and actions that undermine our ability to testify to the truth that we are all invited to embrace. Reflect this week on what risk you would take to seek your destiny to be in union with the Holy Trinity. What you would do to ensure as many people around you go with you. I am not referring to protests or violence. I am talking about sacrifice for those around us for whom Jesus died and to whom the trinity invites us to unity. God is not only one God in three persons but he invites all of humanity to participate in his unity.

 

 

 

 

Our whole faith is about the Father, Son and Holy Spirit calling us to be in union with them by seeking God to be the center of our lives. He calls us to deepen our union with Him until the time that as St. James says we see him face to face.

 

Dennis Prager in his book the Rational Bible: Exodus (2017, Regnery) explains that Moses never saw the face of God. So we have no idea what God’s face actually looks like and will not until that time. We only know that Jesus became the face of God so we would understand. However, God is so much beyond us and this God calls us to be as much in union with him as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are with themselves. This is destiny of every human being

 

Many, instead, as we see in Romans 1, exchange the truth for a lie. They worship someone whom they tell us is an expert. So, he or she must be all knowing, of course. That person has the secret of life and the secret to save us from ourselves of course.

 

The problem with that attitude is that it does not denigrate God, it denigrates us. God desires to bestow His wisdom upon us. He calls us to union with Him and many instead say that this is Old Fashioned, we have science now, we can now be like gods. Then meltdowns like this happen and we learn the effects of believing that certain people were like gods who came to take care of us. We learn they are only human.

 

You cannot learn to be the fullness of what it means to be human, to be fully human and fully alive from any media outlet from any university professor, any tv reporter, any politician or for that matter any priest or bishop, archbishop or pope if you are not first seeking the wisdom of the God who is beyond us.

 

When you seek the wisdom from the Divine Trinity, then you will learn a deeper truth that will help you move in this life.

What failed in the death of George Floyd, Eric Garner, Ahmaud Aubrey, Trayvon Martin and so much more was not just the actions of certain individuals but the breakdown of a system that promotes a false understanding of what it means to be human. It is a system rooted in idolatry and develops a concept of humanity based on doing what is necessary to keep a certain part of the population safe, even at the risk of hurting another part of the same population. That is clear in Taibbi book by the way.

 

Universities are not local branches of Mount Olympus. They are human institutions at best. The media are not oracles, they are human institutions at best. When we ascribe to them the characteristics of being like gods, we set ourselves up for manipulation, destruction and pain.

We say that they are like Gods while we bow and scrape to them. Therefore, we don’t question them.

 

Eventually this idolatry breaks and that is what happened this week. People saying out loud this system failed again. Remember, the mission of the police officer is to keep people safe, but many are saying the system is not keeping us safe.

 

There needs to be a change and it can begin by realizing that all have a calling to respond to the invitation given to us by love itself The Holy Trinity. We do that by humbly seeking that relationship with the Father through the Son under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Jesus calls us to be his witnesses not only of whom He is but whom we are. We pray so we can know him more and more and be more in union with him and with his people.

 

God created all people and you and I have a command to love God and our neighbor as Christ loves us. That is not a nice notion; that is a radical notion because it requires us not to do what some system tells us is correct, but what Christ calls us to do in the name of love and obedience to him. Often that bucks the system in and out of the Church by the way. That is because we all have the same calling. There are no special people who have a super human status while the rest are just humans. Nor are there any sub humans. God calls each human being equally.

 

Let us take this time to recommit ourselves to our mission as baptized Christians, to seek Christ and to eliminate from our lives the idolatry that has hurt us, our neighbor, our church and every person affected by the policies in place that dehumanize until they blow up as they did this past week. Remember, safety is at the bottom of what dehumanizes us, Jesus reminds us that what is at the bottom of what leads us to union with the Holy Trinity is risk that begins with carrying our cross.

 

May I ask that we all begin to pray to be open to being confronted with those attitudes and actions that undermine our ability to testify to the truth that we are all invited to embrace. Reflect this week on what risk you would take to seek your destiny to be in union with the Holy Trinity. What you would do to ensure as many people around you go with you. I am not referring to protests or violence. I am talking about sacrifice for those around us for whom Jesus died and to whom the trinity invites us to unity. God is not only one God in three persons but he invites all of humanity to participate in his unity.

 

 

 

God Spirit Does Not Need Fireworks

Today is the day when we see the power of the Holy Spirit come upon the Apostles and disciples.

There is the visual manifestation of the Holy Spirit in the tongues like fire that come down upon them and the physical manifestation of those who start preaching the Gospel powerfully in different languages.

Let us look at those words today, however.

We can make a huge mistake when we require to see a manifestation of power in order to recognize God at work in our lives. Sometimes, God’s power is seen not in what we can see but through what happens.

Even if God manifests himself in ways that do not look so powerful as we see in today’s celebration, we can recognize that He is working in our lives. We can know that God is alive and we can act on that fact. Or we can see when we take all of that for granted and do not respond to God’s grace alive within us.

I want you to reflect on this for a second. The Apostles preached the Gospel empowered by the Holy Spirit that day. Their preaching changed people’s lives and secured thousands of converts again that day.

However, what happened the next day? Obviously, they were preaching and bringing in more converts from the Jews to the new Christians. Remember, further, the new Christians were also Jews at the time. However, the manifestation that we see on the day of Pentecost did not keep happening. God’s work was happening without all the fireworks going on the background.

Why is that important? Because God’s work was happening even though there were not fireworks going on when you were baptized or confirmed. The last time you went to confession, God’s work was still happening. Even through an online Mass, God’s work is still happening, even though we do not see any fireworks.

 

We can know that each of us have an invitation to respond and when we do, God works even stronger in our lives, but we may never see a manifestation of it that looks like Pentecost another time.

So let me reiterate what I just said. Even though the day you were baptized and confirmed there were no fireworks, that does not mean that God’s power was not working then and is not working now.

Now one of the things that I preach regularly and did so in some of my previous parishes was to talk about the first chapter of Romans. That is a chapter that is often misunderstood. People use it to specifically condemn homosexuality just for one verse in the chapter. However, if you look at it carefully you will see that there is a lot more to that chapter than that simple verse.

What do you see?

If you go look it up, you will see that St. Paul lays out a kind of a road map. He complains that first people practice idolatry by turning from the God they know they should worship, then there is moral breakdown and finally there is civil breakdown. I have been warning about that for years. Does all of that look familiar now.

We see some real civil breakdown many of our young people have never seen it before and some of our older people have not seen it since the 1990’s or the 1960’s.

What is the source of this breakdown. It is a lot of things but some of it is to put our faith to the side in the interest of progress. Contrary to the commandments of God, we stop paying attention to Him now because we don’t have time, we were planning all along to go to church before the virus, but we did not have time.  Right now our school, our work, our career, our diploma whatever are on the line. They are more important.

When we as a society decide to turn from God something is bound to go wrong: Unless there is no God then everything will be fine. Something went wrong!

We see emotions that exploded which were exacerbated by the fact that we gave certain people the role of gods over us because they would keep us safe. Now several cities are literally burning at this time. Why? We as Americans lost a sense of who we are as humans. 

When this whole corona virus issue first appeared and we had the immediate shut down, I warned everyone then that we went, as described in the bible, literally overnight from a time when we said we lived in peace and security to an overnight change that led to chaos. We already had people turning away from God for a long time which brought forth moral breakdown and, finally, now we have civil breakdown.

What is the cause? A loss of sense of who we truly are. St. Paul reminds us in Romans 1 that we are creatures called to worship the creator, not other creatures. He warned that when we do the opposite the road maps starts to work. Suddenly, we will see moral breakdown and then civil breakdown.

I have warned over the years watching through the eyes of faith that the Church was suffering from great persecution because the Lord was strengthening us for difficult times ahead. I also said back then that those who left the Church angry would never have had what it will take to remain in the Church when things really went south. You who are watching right now are those who remain.

Now things are really going south. But why?

We Americans tried to be what we were not and now we are seeing the fruits of what that means.

Do you think any of the reporters of the media have any understanding of what the word sin means? Ok some do. But

What would Jesus say to the officer who had his knee on the man’s neck and did not let up even though the man claimed that he was suffering that he could not breathe. What do you think he would say?

Isn’t that a sin? You bet it is. The wheels of justice will determine if it was a crime, but was it a sin? Yes, because racism is a sin.

It is a sin because it is a source of evil. Evil when it first appears becomes like a germ in a petrie dish, it is invisible at first but then becomes as obvious as, well, the plague.

Idolatry is a sin and we practice idolatry when we decide that God won’t mind if we do not pay attention to him, after all we are busy people—don’t you know.

Pride is a sin. When we decide that we know better than others can’t you tell by our successes?

As we prepare to open up our parish next week. Let me invite you to consider today and throughout the week a recommitment to Christ and to root out all forms of idolatry in your life. Recommit to following Christ to where he is leading you. Why? Because on this Pentecost Sunday, that is what we need more than anything else.

Our committing ourselves to the call that the Holy Spirit gave to us at Baptism and Confirmation even though we did not experience any fireworks.

From the Archdiocese of Boston

Good afternoon,   The following document is guidance for resuming Mass following Governor Baker's morning announcement regarding re-opening.   We understand cities and towns, such as the City of Boston, are implementing orders specific to their community. We will review this and the state orders tomorrow (May 19th) at the 1:00pm webinar. A reminder for the webinar will be send out this afternoon.   Thank you.

May 18, 2020 [email protected]       Archdiocese of Boston Plan for safely resuming Masses at the beginning of Phase One     Governor Baker announced on Monday, May 18, that houses of worship can resume services, within the guidelines he has issued.       When can we start Masses? If a parish within the Archdiocese of Boston, after careful and deliberate preparation, considers that they are able to meet all of the State, Municipal, and Archdiocesan guidelines (given below), they may request permission from their Regional Bishop or Episcopal Vicar to begin Masses as early as Saturday evening, May 23. The Regional Bishop or Episcopal Vicar should grant that permission only if he is convinced that the parish can in fact comply with all of the guidelines.   Many, or even most, parishes may well need more time to prepare, and may choose Sunday, May 31 (the Feast of Pentecost), as the date for their reopening.   Parishes should not resume Masses before they are ready, and the decision to delay the resumption of Masses until May 31 may very well be the best decision for a parish.    No matter what the start date, no parish should have Mass unless they can do it safely, and in compliance with the guidelines.   Please note: SOME COMMUNITIES, INCLUDING THE CITIES OF BOSTON AND SOMERVILLE, MAY HAVE LOCAL MUNICIPAL ORDERS THAT ARE STRICTER THAN THOSE OF THE STATE, AND THOSE MUST BE RESPECTED.   Daily Masses and Funerals can resume on Monday, May 25. Both daily Masses and Funerals will need to comply with the same social distancing and safety guidelines as Sunday Masses do, including the wearing of masks.   Shrines and chapels within the Archdiocese fall within these same guidelines.   Who should come to Mass? The dispensation from the Sunday Mass obligation will continue for the foreseeable future.   Cardinal Seán strongly encourages people in vulnerable populations, especially the elderly and those with complicating physical conditions, to continue to watch Mass from their homes, on their parish’s social media or on CatholicTV.   Parishes need to have a way of limiting the number of people who come into the church. A viable option may be to make use of a registration package like SignUpGenius or EventBrite. Signing up by phone or email should also be an option. To view these options please click here.   No matter what option a parish chooses, the pastor must be able to ensure that the size of the congregation in the church is not more than 40% of capacity and not more than the church can fit with social distancing maintained.   If a parish learns that a person who has come to Mass has tested positive for COVID-19, it must notify the Local Board of Health (LBOH) in the city or town in which the church is located and assist the LBOH as reasonably requested to trace likely contacts and advise contacts to isolate and self-quarantine.   Every parish is encouraged to continue the streaming of their Masses, in order to maintain a relationship with those who are not yet ready to return to Mass.   How do we get ready? Every parish is encouraged to form a small committee to help to guide the parish through the restart process, and to ensure that all of the criteria, including the check-boxes on the “Places of Worship – MA Safety Department”, are met. Pastors should be sure that that committee has credible, professional, and cautious people on it to help the parish through this transition. In addition to the state check list, there is a check list at the end of this document which may be helpful to the committee.   Right away, and before resuming Masses, parishes should indicate appropriate seating where individuals or families can sit and yet maintain social distancing. The church cannot be filled to any greater than 40% of its posted capacity as an absolute upper limit, but most churches may find that they cannot fit that many people in and still maintain social distancing. Signs should be posted to help people to sit in the right places. No person or household should sit closer than six feet to any other person or household, even if that means using every third pew rather than every other pew.   In multi-church collaboratives or parishes, a pastor may decide to focus only on one church for now, in order to increase the attention on safety.   Parishes may decide that in order to provide for all of their parishioners who want to come to Mass, more Masses should be added on the weekend. That being said, sufficient time is needed to clean the church between Masses.   The Office of Risk Management of the Archdiocese will send out a document very soon on how to clean and disinfect the church adequately, both between the Masses and on a regular basis.   The church needs to be deeply cleaned before the resumption of Masses, in accordance with the methods in the Office of Risk Management document.   In order to provide that ample opportunity for cleaning the church building between the Masses, pastors should consider ways in which the parish can celebrate Mass in a shorter time frame, while maintaining reverence.   A corps of volunteers should be formed and trained to help to direct the flow of people into and out of the church, and to clean the church between the Masses.   All hymnals and missalettes need to be removed from the church. Holy water fonts will remain empty. In order to discourage the habitual reaction on the part of parishioners to put their fingers in the fonts, a simple and respectful covering could be devised for the fonts.   Arrows should be placed on the floors indicating the direction of traffic flow, so as to assure one-way movement.   In places in which people have to stand in line, tape should be placed on the floor to mark out six foot distances.   Signs should be placed inside and outside of the church reminding people of the need to wear masks and to maintain social distancing.   Bathrooms should be clean and accessible, and soap plentiful. A plan should be developed and explained for safe restroom use. That plan will look different for each parish.   Proper ventilation should be ensured. It may be that opening doors or windows makes sense.   Each priest and deacon should have a set of vestments which will be worn only by him, stored separately, and laundered frequently.         What guidelines do parishioners need to observe while in church? If parishioners can bring their own bottle of hand sanitizer to the church, they should. Otherwise, they can use sanitizer provided by the parish and positioned at the entry to the church.     All members of the congregation need to wear masks, with a few exceptions: Children under the age of two should not wear masks. Parents should judge for children between the ages of two and five whether they should wear a mask. All people who claim an exemption because of health can forego wearing a mask. They do not have to provide documentation. The priest and others with him in the sanctuary do not need to wear masks in the sanctuary as long as strict socially distancing is maintained. They do have to wear masks when assisting with the distribution of Holy Communion.   With reasonable exceptions allowed, there should be no public access to the sacristy while the church is open.   There will be no social gatherings either before or after Mass.   What do we need to do during the Mass to keep it safe? There should be no processions at the Masses, including no offertory processions.   There should be no altar servers.   Choirs will not be allowed.   Congregational singing will not be allowed in these early days. Fully respectful of the very important role that music plays in our liturgies, and also respectful of the public health concerns, the congregation should be instructed not to sing, either by announcement or by signs. There can be a cantor and an instrumentalist, who would provide music during the Mass (perhaps limited to the psalm, the Mass parts, and a song at Communion).   Masses can have a priest, a deacon, a lector, an instrumentalist, a cantor, and whatever volunteers are necessary to ensure the safe flow of people. If there are to be two communion stations (only in a large church), an extraordinary minister of the Eucharist could be used if there is no deacon.   Any priest, deacon, lector, or volunteer who has a respiratory infection of any kind should not attend Mass.   In the sanctuary, the priest, the deacon, and the lector must respect strict social distancing. They should not wear masks in the sanctuary.   There must be no passing of the basket for the offertory. Instead, a basket could be present at the main entrance and people could put their offering into it on their own. Parishes should promote the use of “90-Days Now for your Parish” (link here) as a way of helping parishioners to get started with online giving or use their local online giving solution if that is already set up.   During the consecration, hosts to be distributed should be placed on a second corporal to the side, so that they are not directly in front of the priest.   There should be no holding of hands during the Our Father.   There should be no invitation to participate in a sign of peace. For the distribution of Holy Communion: There will be either one or two communion stations, depending on the size of the Church. It should be announced that parishioners may well decide not to receive Holy Communion if they feel the risk is too high, and that decision will be honored and respected. There will be no distribution of the Precious Blood. The communicants and the priest will wear masks. Neither the priest nor the communicants should wear gloves during the distribution of Holy Communion. Congregants who are not coming forward to receive Holy Communion or a blessing should still get out of their pews at the beginning, so that no one will have to climb over anyone else. The priest will have a table next to him with hand sanitizer. The priest will hold the consecrated host over the communicants’ outstretched hands and drop the host into their hands without touching their hands. Communicants will receive the consecrated host in their hands, step to the side, lower their mask, consume the host, replace their mask, and return to their pew. In the case of unintentional contact, the priest will sanitize his own hands immediately. If the priest himself is a member of a vulnerable population, a deacon or a trained lay minister should distribute communion. The people should return to their pews by a different route, to avoid contact with approaching people. There will be tape on the floor to show where to stand as a communicant approaches to receive communion. There also will be tape on the floor to show where to stand to demask and consume the host, and arrows showing how to return to the pews. There should be a couple of minutes after Communion for silent prayer, before the final prayer and dismissal.   Participants at Mass would be encouraged to leave the church within a couple of minutes of the end of the Mass so as to allow for time for cleaning the church before the next Mass. Row by row exiting, directed by the trained volunteers, is encouraged.   If a Parish cannot offer Mass safely, following these guidelines and all of the checkboxes on the State document, they should not offer Mass.   The Vicars Forane will have regular conversations with the Pastors and will report regularly to the Vicar General with regard to compliance.     Check List: What needs to be in place before we start to have Mass? ✔Church deeply cleaned, according to methods outlined in the Risk Management document ✔Hymnals and missalettes removed ✔Volunteers in place to assist with traffic flow ✔Signs clearly posted, letting people know: That they must wear masks Where they can sit No congregational singing ✔Socially distant seating marked out ✔Hand sanitizer available ✔Holy water fonts empty ✔Markers on the floor indicating the direction of traffic flow and spacing off six feet in places where people might be in lines ✔Some method in place to restrict the number of people who enter the church to below 40% capacity, and no more than the number of socially distanced seats available ✔Plan and volunteers and materials in place to clean church between Masses ✔Permission of Regional Bishop or Episcopal Vicar if starting Mass before May 31

Live and Teach What You Believe

There is a great line in today’s second reading from St. Peter that is very apropos for us this week. It actually is the opening line in the reading: Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, ¹⁶ but do it with gentleness and reverence. (I Peter 3:15 NABRE)

Let us remember that we do not just believe in God. How we believe affects every decision and our way of living. This is something that Jesus emphasized in the Sermon on the Mount. We are the salt of the Earth. If salt loses its flavor then it is good for nothing but to be trampled underfoot.

So we have a calling to live in such a way that our faith speaks for itself. Our faith, however, is not just believing after all the devil believes in God more than you do, but he rejects and hates him. Our faith is also helping us understand who we are. That is why we live a different life than those who do not believe because we define ourselves differently. We define ourselves through our communion with Jesus Christ which is at the root of our prayer.

Our prayer with Christ will help us to grow in a deeper understanding of whom we are and where we are going.

Notice something else. St. Peter calls us to be ready to give an explanation of why we do the things we do based on our faith. But he says do it with gentleness and reverence.

There are tons of Catholics out there who are ready to pounce on anyone who disagrees with what we believe and ready to dismiss and even verbally assault those we disagree with in the name of what they consider being faithful to the Church. However, the first pope, the one appointed by Christ himself says for us not to do that. We must respond with gentleness and reverence. How do we do that? By humbly rooting ourselves in Christ and acting on that relationship with him in reverence to his love for others as well.

This means we need to know our faith well.

The Vatican II council says the following:

The laity need to be trained to discern God’s will through a familiarity with his word, read and studied in the Church under the guidance of her legitimate pastors.

 

Yes, you have a call to know your faith in a way that you live as St. Peter requests. But it also teaches us whole new way of being.

I have used this example even at funerals. You may or may not know that I do not have a cardiologist. I did at one time until he told me to give up rice, potatoes, pasta and bread. I gave up one thing: my cardiologist.

But he told me that he wanted me to live until 90. With all due respect to nonogenerians, I asked him if he understood what I do for a living. I explained that I am in the eternal life business.

My whole role is to help others and myself come to eternal life in Christ. So why do I want to be so focused on living a long life, when I am more focused on encountering Christ at the end of this one.

I am certainly not going to live this one without bread, rice, pasta etc. by the way. You may have notice that I have done well controlling what I eat and knowing when to eat those things in their proper proportion.

You see, I was explaining that if God wants me to live until my hundreds that was up to him, but my goal is ultimately eternal life with him and helping those he sends into my life to end up there as well.

Another expression I use is that we are like in the lobby in fine hotel waiting for the room to be ready so that we can move in.

So we will look at the world differently than those who have nothing beyond this life.

At this time we deal with many people who are afraid of the virus. I listen to people who recite the talking points they see in US media that enforces how afraid they are. I get my news from RT so I do not watch the US channels.

I spoke earlier how it is our job to give them hope and that is what St. Peter tells us. By having a deep understanding of who we are as Christ tells us through the holy spirit we live our lives differently than those who do not believe at all.

We are called to do that and when people ask us why, we can explain so that they will understand.

Right now our country is in a unique position. The reason is that freedom and liberty are the key virtues in our country, but those who are not afraid of the virus are afraid that freedom and liberty are at stake. To be honest the most contested and vilified politicians in our country are so because they have not allayed the fears of those who are worried about the future of our country more than their future under the virus.

However, our hope is in the next world more than this one. So St. Peter tells us to define ourselves and act on this definition so that we may be signs to others no matter what happens that there is more and it is in Christ.

There are protests happening over whether one should wear the mask. Well, I am wearing the mask, why because whether I agree with it or not, I am serving Christ by obeying the civil authorities right now. So it is not a sign of submission or of fear, it is a sign of service to the Christ who calls me to live in such a way that I am testifying to what I believe and I believe in being in service to My Lord in whom I hope and his people whom I serve.

Peter is telling us to live differently than those who do not believe. It is central to what we are all about. Let us always remember that.

 

 

Homily for the 5th Sunday of Easter

One of the reasons I enjoy the letters in the New Testament is that they are straight forward. They say what they mean and so they are easy to read. The opposite is also true because they are easy to read, they help us to understand what they say and what they mean.

St. Peter in today’s second reading defines you. Listen to those words again.

But you are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises” of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

This is who you are. You have a special dignity before the Lord, but that is not a prize as much as a responsibility. Where does this dignity come from: your baptism and your confirmation.

These are not tools to help you get to Heaven as much as tools to help you to live as Christ has called you. St. Paul describes you as ambassadors for Christ.

You will notice that St. Peter defines whom you are as a royal priesthood. What does that mean? It is a powerful term that indicates the priesthood of the laity.

When you were baptized you receive an anointing that brings you into he priesthood of the laity. That anointing with sacred Chrism which is also used at your confirmation brings you to share the ministry of priest, prophet and king with Our Lord Himself.

That is the priesthood of the laity. The priesthood of the ordained is a call to service of the priesthood of the laity. So you are everything that St. Peter calls you to be. A chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. The ordained priesthood has a mission to serve the priesthood of the laity, not the other way around. You have that special role to be that in the world.

This is a time where that really is becoming more relevant.

We are listening to many opinions regarding this current pandemic. Granted we are waiting to open up, but I think that it may have affected how we see the world around us. I know it has with me.

What is most important is the element of fear that surrounds us and people actually afraid of the virus. Others are angry at the way this was handled. We are seeing protests in this state and others where people have angrily demanded that the state open up and others fearful of those events and their effect on the people.

 

One of the reasons I enjoy the letters in the New Testament is that they are straight forward. They say what they mean and so they are easy to read. The opposite is also true because they are easy to read, they help us to understand what they say and what they mean.

St. Peter in today’s second reading defines you. Listen to those words again.

But you are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises” of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

This is who you are. You have a special dignity before the Lord, but that is not a prize as much as a responsibility. Where does this dignity come from: your baptism and your confirmation.

These are not tools to help you get to Heaven as much as tools to help you to live as Christ has called you. St. Paul describes you as ambassadors for Christ.

You will notice that St. Peter defines whom you are as a royal priesthood. What does that mean? It is a powerful term that indicates the priesthood of the laity.

When you were baptized you receive an anointing that brings you into he priesthood of the laity. That anointing with sacred Chrism which is also used at your confirmation brings you to share the ministry of priest, prophet and king with Our Lord Himself.

That is the priesthood of the laity. The priesthood of the ordained is a call to service of the priesthood of the laity. So you are everything that St. Peter calls you to be. A chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. The ordained priesthood has a mission to serve the priesthood of the laity, not the other way around. You have that special role to be that in the world.

This is a time where that really is becoming more relevant.

We are listening to many opinions regarding this current pandemic. Granted we are waiting to open up, but I think that it may have affected how we see the world around us. I know it has with me.

What is most important is the element of fear that surrounds us and people actually afraid of the virus. Others are angry at the way this was handled. We are seeing protests in this state and others where people have angrily demanded that the state open up and others fearful of those events and their effect on the people.

 

One group of experts says we are doing everything right and one group of experts says we are doing everything wrong.

However, we represent the bigger reality the bigger issues the ultimate reality that this pandemic is drawing us to understand.

We can ask many questions of what is true and false of what we hear, of whom we trust and we do not trust. For the record may I say that it seems our state is not as locked down as others people can still enjoy walks while social distancing along the Charles, the Boston Common and the Public Gardens so many including myself are thankful for this.

However, we have a mission to be the chosen representing the Kingdom of God. We have a mission to lead people away from their anxiety and into a sense of peace in Christ even if things are not resolved.

St. Pio of Pietraclina whom most people know as Padre Pio always taught that we should pray, hope and never worry. How can people understand those words if we do not live them ourselves.

People need to know that God is present to them and is always calling them to draw near to him and to understand the call to holiness. How can they hear that message if we do not live that message ourselves.

We hear people scare others by saying that God is punishing his people for their sins and pointing at people who do not have any relationship with God as the target of God’s wrath. But God does not work that way. Even the Book of Revelation shows that God calls us toward him so that we can understand his truth no matter what happens around us. However, how are people going to understand that if we are not living it and teaching it.

I am currently reading Fr. Daniel Moloney’s book on Mercy, Fr. Moloney is a fellow priest ordained for the Archdiocese of Boston and is currently the chaplain at MIT. He makes an interesting teaching. He says the issue of original sin is that unless we are redeemed and healed from it, then we would be miserable in Heaven. That is actually why Jesus came to us, he explains. The effects of original sin separate us from God being able to make us fully human and fully alive. God is calling us to grow in holiness and in doing so we will be joyful in Heaven. The more we understand that, the more we can live it and teach it.

These are the messages people need to hear today in the midst of their trepidation and even bad information that they are hearing in a time of great anxiety and upheaval.

None of us have every been through anything like this and it reflects fear and anxiety in the face of forces bigger than us. There is a lot of fear of political maneuvering which makes it hard to trust the authorities that are acting sincerely. That lack of trust compounds the fear, frustration, anger and more.

Yet, our greatest trust is in Christ and even if we disagree with the authorities, we respect and respond to them knowing that in doing so we are serving Christ. Christ calls us to be a voice of calmness in the face of anxiety. The reason is that we are looking at the bigger picture and trusting a bigger authority that will get us through this and is using this to transform us.

This is all part of our role right now as a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises” of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

This reading is so apropos for us right now because it is a calling us to live in service to God and our neighbor. It is a service our neighbor needs us to live right now.

One group of experts says we are doing everything right and one group of experts says we are doing everything wrong.

However, we represent the bigger reality the bigger issues the ultimate reality that this pandemic is drawing us to understand.

We can ask many questions of what is true and false of what we hear, of whom we trust and we do not trust. For the record may I say that it seems our state is not as locked down as others people can still enjoy walks while social distancing along the Charles, the Boston Common and the Public Gardens so many including myself are thankful for this.

However, we have a mission to be the chosen representing the Kingdom of God. We have a mission to lead people away from their anxiety and into a sense of peace in Christ even if things are not resolved.

St. Pio of Pietraclina whom most people know as Padre Pio always taught that we should pray, hope and never worry. How can people understand those words if we do not live them ourselves.

People need to know that God is present to them and is always calling them to draw near to him and to understand the call to holiness. How can they hear that message if we do not live that message ourselves.

We hear people scare others by saying that God is punishing his people for their sins and pointing at people who do not have any relationship with God as the target of God’s wrath. But God does not work that way. Even the Book of Revelation shows that God calls us toward him so that we can understand his truth no matter what happens around us. However, how are people going to understand that if we are not living it and teaching it.

I am currently reading Fr. Daniel Moloney’s book on Mercy, Fr. Moloney is a fellow priest ordained for the Archdiocese of Boston and is currently the chaplain at MIT. He makes an interesting teaching. He says the issue of original sin is that unless we are redeemed and healed from it, then we would be miserable in Heaven. That is actually why Jesus came to us, he explains. The effects of original sin separate us from God being able to make us fully human and fully alive. God is calling us to grow in holiness and in doing so we will be joyful in Heaven. The more we understand that, the more we can live it and teach it.

These are the messages people need to hear today in the midst of their trepidation and even bad information that they are hearing in a time of great anxiety and upheaval.

None of us have every been through anything like this and it reflects fear and anxiety in the face of forces bigger than us. There is a lot of fear of political maneuvering which makes it hard to trust the authorities that are acting sincerely. That lack of trust compounds the fear, frustration, anger and more.

Yet, our greatest trust is in Christ and even if we disagree with the authorities, we respect and respond to them knowing that in doing so we are serving Christ. Christ calls us to be a voice of calmness in the face of anxiety. The reason is that we are looking at the bigger picture and trusting a bigger authority that will get us through this and is using this to transform us.

This is all part of our role right now as a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises” of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

This reading is so apropos for us right now because it is a calling us to live in service to God and our neighbor. It is a service our neighbor needs us to live right now.

The Good Shepherd Shepherds Us

Today is Good Shepherd Sunday and the readings we read reflect Jesus as the Good Shepherd.

When crises like this happen, it is always a good time to reflect on what God may be saying to us through them.  

Meanwhile, I have heard people ask during this time: “ Where is God?”

However, we have to understand that God is bigger than our ability to understand or imagine him.

Jesus reminded us that He is our shepherd. So, if God is with us, then he is shepherding us right now.

How does a shepherd work? He guards the sheep, he knows them and cares for them. So the shepherd cares for his flock. Everything the shepherd does for his flock is to their benefit. However, they may not understand it. This is why the sheep must learn to trust the shepherd.

There are several things that the shepherd will be aware of that the sheep will not. For example, they will be in the pasture but eventually they will have to be moved to another pasture. They do not understand what is happening, it is just that the shepherd is moving them from where they were to a greener pasture, literally. They might have been comfortable there, but the shepherd is in charge. If they fight the shepherd then he will have to move them in such a way that they understand he is the shepherd and they are not. It will not be to force his authority but for the benefit of the flock.

There may be other issues. Maybe a storm is coming and they have to move to shelter. So again the shepherd has to move his flock to shelter even though they may not understand it. Maybe the wolf is in the area and he has to protect the sheep. Whatever is happening, the shepherd is in charge and the sheep have to allow the shepherd to lead them.

 

So at this time, which is so difficult, we have to allow the shepherd to shepherd us. We may not understand this difficult time, but keep in mind nothing happens to us that is not allowed by God. He may not will it to happen, but he allows it to happen.

Maybe you have a child or grandchild that is learning to ride bike. You know that part of learning of falling off the bike. You may not will it to happen, but you allow it to happen or the child will never learn to ride a bike.

The sheep have to learn to trust the shepherd and they will be fine. Even when they are sheered. They lose all their wool for blankets and shirts and other materials. However, if they do not allow the shepherd to do that, then he cannot afford to keep his sheep. So he knows and they have to trust him completely.

During this time, it is essential that we keep focused on the shepherd and we trust in him completely.

That can be quite difficult, especially at this time, but it is also a skill that you are learning.

Let me give you an example. We can go to the one of the most famous natural disasters in New England: The Blizzard of ’78.

I was a student at UMass Boston at the time and my father was writing for the Boston Globe across Morrissey Boulevard. I used to spend hours and hours at the radio station sometimes to late at night. My father calling me from the newsroom warned me that the storm coming was worse than anyone ever saw and I was not to stay late at WUMB. I didn’t. I got home and went to bed. The first thing I heard when I woke up the next morning was Governor Michael Dukakis saying: “Do not go out of your house, it is against the law.” The first word out of my mouth was: “What the heck happened?”

Eventually, everything got cleaned up and we were fine, but my father made an observation. He pointed out that before the storm everyone groaned at the thought of four inches of snow falling to the ground. After the storm we would look at forecasts for a foot of snow and dismiss them as nothing to deal with for we lived through the Blizzard of ‘78.

Take this time as God is training us for many things. He is training us to trust him more. He is training us for other issues coming down the pike which will make this time easier to work with. He may be training us and shepherding us for what is in our future. We do not know. He can see what we cannot. However, trust in the shepherd.

Keep your prayers going and build your devotions. Allow this time to ask the Lord to transform you and to lead you closer to him that you may do his work. Stay close to Jesus as our Good shepherd especially when you are struggling and you do not understand.

We do not know what we will deal with in the future. However, our time here will prepare us for it because our Lord is shepherding us through it.

Remember those words of St. Peter: Cast your cares upon the Lord for he cares for you.

Remember the words that St. Faustina taught us: Jesus I trust in you.

Jesus is shepherding us. Allow yourselves to be shepherded by him and trust.

Walking A New Road

Today’s second reading is from St. Peter’s first letter and we can see it is an instruction on how to live our faith in Christ.

Look at the letter closely. Peter writes to new Christians who were, for the most part, converts as gentiles. So, they were previously what today we would call pagans. They had a  completely different world view than Christians, just as atheists have a different understanding of the world than we do. The new Christians accepted Christ and the new vision of the meaning of their existence. They now seek to know Christ and to follow him, but that means that they are following a new way of living different from what they knew growing up. This is the message that Peter is writing in this first chapter and we can see it in this passage. He is calling them to understand the old ways led nowhere, so they must be left behind. The new ways lead to eternal life.

The new American Bible Revised Edition reveals that they lived a form of Godless conduct brought upon by their pagan influence. Now their life in Christ has completely changed their self-understanding of the meaning of life.  Peter is teaching them that the new meaning of life and the old understanding are incompatible. He calls them to live by the new understanding for that leads them to eternal life. St. Irenaeus taught that this means being fully human and fully alive. So now he calls them to pursue holiness. Let holiness drive them and form them anew.

Remember, the words of the Prologue of John. These do not give us new philosophies to follow, they give us a new vision of who we truly are. We are now the receivers of the promise of eternal life in Christ. It is a promise of something that the former life in the Roman World could not grant them, nor can the secular philosophies of our world grant us. It is an understanding that Jesus allowed himself to become the Lamb of God so that we may all have eternal life in Him.

 

St. Paul separately reminds us that we have a calling to a renewal of our mind so that we see the world more and more through the wisdom of God instead of the wisdom of the world.

He says that we are being rebuilt into new men and woman through Christ and the action of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

This gives us a new spiritual vision and a new spiritual understanding.

Let me give you an example. Many people today say that we must change our teachings in order to make them conform more to the world. This is doing the exact opposite of what St. Peter calls us to do.

So to whom do we listen. Obviously, St. Peter, but why?

The answer surrounds you.

Have you been watching the news lately? I am sure you have been watching it more in this quarantine. You see the political battles and the statements made from various figures and heads of US states in press conferences throughout the country and often throughout the day.

Where do we stand in regard to these political battles? Maybe on neither side.

Many people in these battles fight for their vision of the world. They will be loud and boisterous, they will manipulate words and ascribe intentions to actions that may not be there. This how you fight a battle of words and a war of ideas. What is the prize in this battle?  On what does each side base their vision and their actions? On what do they base their decisions? Where can they take us in light of how they see what it means to be a human? We are looking for an end to the quarantine and a return to where we were in January. However, it looks like that once the virus passes we will be in a new world. What will it look like? How will it apply to us?

St. Peter is now asking his readers to understand who they truly are now that they accepted Christ and how they are no longer like those they left behind. They did not learn a new form of morality but a new vision of being. Therefore, he teaches his readers to understand that vision and not to conform to that of the pagans around them. Embrace the new vision and direct their lives in it.

In light of this political battle that is happening on television, twitter and the internet should we take Peter’s lesson to heart as well? Should we leave those battling for their political visions to continue their fight, while we pursue the higher calling to Christ.

Take this time to pursue what that new vision is that Peter talks about. Continue your prayer devotions. Don’t forget the Eucharist in exposition 24/7 at the rectory and offer yourselves to Christ where you allow him to form you in that new vision in that call to holiness.

Our world is changing and our country is changing. Everything may return to normal in several months or maybe nothing will be normal. That is why Peter’s words to us today are reminders that we need the true stability in the pursuit of holiness and the vision of the new person that Christ gives to us.

There will be winners and losers in the ongoing battle in those daily news conferences from Washington, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Albany, Lansing and more, but in the words of St. Peter we find the life giving path to a witness that the world really needs to know. God is wiser than those battling for their vision of the country through their response to the corona virus pandemic.  

We need to pursue His wisdom and leave the all other battles behind until the pandemic comes to an end. We must live by the vision that Christ formed within us and will forge in us more during this quarantine. That is the true vision that gives life, that is the vision that we need to live for the good of our neighbors, our country and our world.