We do not have to have all the answers - But know this - God has the answers….Stay the course - Full Steam Ahead

Today at Holy Mass we hear in the Gospel of St Matthew that the hour of Jesus’s betrayal is drawing near…..”One of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, "What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?" They paid him thirty pieces of silver, and from that time on he looked for an opportunity to hand him over.”……What drove Judas to do what he did?….That is the question I want to explore…..Judas saw all the miracles, he witnessed the crowds…How could he do what he did?…..To answer this question, I think we have to get some historical context first….The Jewish people at the time when Jesus walked among them were under the yoke of the Roman Empire….People were looking for a King to free them from Roman occupation….Then here comes this Carpenter from Nazareth….People liked what he had to say…He spoke Truth to power…He was fearless…But the problem was, he did not “fit the mold” of the King they were looking for…Jesus said very clearly…”My Kingdom is not of this world”…The Jewish people were looking for a King to wield a sword not to enter Jerusalem on a humble donkey…I believe this reality was at the heart of Judas’s betrayal…It was not the fact that he did not like Jesus…He simply lost faith in Jesus’s method of freeing the Jewish people…..Now the question for us to answer…How about us? - Do we trust in the method laid out for us by Christ? ….Jesus did not write a book, he founded a Church….And the Church, while each and every member in it is flawed, the teachings of the Church are perfect…Let’s stop right there…Do you believe what I just said?….If you don’t….Pray!!!….Jesus tells us….”Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”…..God loves us and He will never refuse us this request…Simply ask in the words you know - Praying does not have to be fancy - Talk to God like you would a friend……..God will show you that the fullness of Truth is found in the one Church that Jesus founded…..God’s ways are not our ways…I say that because to the secular mind, the teachings of the Catholic Church do not make sense…..And this is why we must ask the Lord to provide us with grace.

“For your sake I bear insult, and shame covers my face. I have become an outcast to my brothers, a stranger to my mother's sons, because zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who blaspheme you fall upon me.”

This may sound strange to some but one of the greatest revelations of my enter life can be boiled down to this sentence…”My way does not work”…..Allow me to explain…I tried to live life under “my terms” as a young man…And it did not work…In my early twenties, by God’s grace I “put down” doing it “my way” and slowing the Lord took me by the hand and showed me “his way”…I am still on that journey……I have also come to understand the wisdom contained in Catholic teaching….Think about this for a moment…For 2000 years Catholic teaching has withstood the test of time….A life built upon it is a life that not only bears fruit but one that will last for the long haul….But this is a grace to believe that…How does one receive such a grace?…..”Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you”……..I remember the day of my wedding - September 8th - The Feast Day of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary…Here I am 43 years old, I am not a rich man and I am about to get married…I was fully committed to living a Catholic life and that meant being open to life, which means not using contraception…..Let’s stop right here….People reading this right now are saying - You are crazy!……No - Remember what I just wrote….Believing and living as a Catholic is a grace….Allow me to continue….As I sat in the back of the Church…I thought to myself…How am I going to do this?….Fast forward, I now have five children…My wife and I lost three children due to mis-carriages…We live in a small house…I drive a 21 year old car…..But through it all….My family wants for nothing!…All my children go to Catholic school…They are happy and everything they need has been provided by God - Everything!…..Now if you were to “calculate” how this “makes sense”…You will not get your answer…But if you rely on God and his grace….It not only works out but it makes perfect sense!…Everything comes down to grace…We must ask for it…God is Our Father and like all good fathers, he loves us and will always provide…We must learn to “trust the process”….God did not write a book, he established a Church…We can not separate Jesus, the head from the Church, which is the body…To believe that once again is a grace…Ask for it - And it will be given to you!

“For the LORD hears the poor and his own who are in bonds he spurns not"

Today in the Gospel read at Mass, we hear how Judas gave up on Jesus…How he “thought” there was a better way…That the “method” that Jesus proposed would not work…..In many ways, we all are no different…God’s way is the only way but that way many times “does not make sense”….Its in those moments, when we grope in darkness, that we must believe all the more…….We do not have to have all the answers - But know this - God has the answers….Stay the course - Full Steam Ahead