God can do so much more with your life then you can do with it…..”Our Lord shall come with power; he will enlighten the eyes of his servants”

Today the Universal Church honors St Francis Xavier, a founding member of the Jesuit Order and missionary to Asia….Francis Xavier met Ignatius Loyola at the University of Paris…..Francis Xavier came from a noble Spanish family as did Ignatius Loyola, he was a great athlete and a scholar…..He had a wonderful life of wealth, power and prestige in front of him…..Instead he chose a different path…..”He emptied himself, taking the form of a slave…….He humbled himself becoming obedient to death…….Because of this, God greatly exalted him”……….Francis Xavier encounter the living God and this encountered changed the course of his life….Any person who encounters Truth incarnate is never the same…..And because of this encounter the world was not the same…St Francis Xavier brought the Catholic faith to India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia & Japan….His impact in the Christian world is second only to St Paul as far as the miles he traveled and the souls he converted to Christ……….All because of his encounter with the Carpenter from Nazareth….What makes the son of a noble family give-up everything the world has to offer?…The answer was clear to Francis Xavier - Such a person does not give up such a life for a myth or lie

“A shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom”

As Catholics it’s so important to familiarize ourselves with the lives of the saints….The saints were real people who did incredible things….What was their secret?…They had an authentic encounter with Christ…Far too many people view Jesus as just a word…He was just some "guy" who lived 2000 years ago to many…But if you step back and think about how millions upon millions of people have changed their lives because of Jesus Christ - Its simply hard to grasp….Jesus said he was the Truth…And each of us deeply desires to live a life of Truth - But we are afraid…...When someone speaks the Truth, something resonates deep within the human heart

"He shall rescue the poor when he cries out, and the afflicted when he has no one to help him. He shall have pity for the lowly and the poor; the lives of the poor he shall save."

Before we can be filled with God, we must empty ourself…This is what the saints did and do….As a 54 year old man I have seen many people come and go in my life…I always marvel at how I knew a person in one chapter of my life and now that same person changes….Marriage is one of those “encounters” with Truth…Marriage changes a man…He becomes selfless…He lives for his wife and children…Marriage is a Sacrament and God helps a man to make this change…I have seen this many times in my life…A person I knew “changed” once he got married…..Similarly, if we take our Catholic faith seriously and allow the grace of the Sacraments, daily prayer and fasting to take hold of our life, we too will change….St Paul puts it this way….”Yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me”…..This kind of “change” is very real and is available to us all…..We see this example in the lives of the saints but also in many Catholic couples who live their marriage Sacramentally…This is the road to heaven…”To die to ourself”…Far too many people have a misconception of what it means to “go to heaven”…..What do you mean Joe?…….The road to heaven is a constant call to die to ourself…..But I believe in Jesus Joe, isn’t that enough?…..Of course we must believe in Jesus, but if we do not try to imitate the life of Christ and live what he taught - Then “Jesus” is simple just “a guy” or a word that gets “thrown around” a lot……The saints show us this lived example in real time…And as a result, God uses them…God can use us too if we let him.

On that day, The root of Jesse, set up as a signal for the nations, The Gentiles shall seek out, for his dwelling shall be glorious.

St Francis Xavier shook the foundations of the world because he fully embraced the will of God and emptied himself, allowing the Holy Spirit to empower him….If he did not say “Yes” to the Lord, he would have been just another “rich kid” who went to a good college and made money when he got out - No different then today…Instead, Francis Xavier chose a different path and countless lives were changed because of his choice - His YES….This “path” is available to each of us….When you have been blessed with an education and come from a good family, like St Francis Xavier, its very easy to choose the path laid out for you - The path we all have been indoctrinated to take by our society….However, if we really want to make a difference…And deep down everyone wants to make an impact…Then we must “Let-go” and “Let God”…This kind of choice begins with an authentic encounter with the living God…Because God is real…People do not give up wonderful lives for a myth or a lie….So why settle for second best?…..God can do so much more with your life then you can do with it…..”Our Lord shall come with power; he will enlighten the eyes of his servants”

“I rejoiced because they said to me, "We will go up to the house of the LORD."

Today at Holy Mass we hear in the first reading from the Prophet Isaiah…..”In days to come, The mountain of the LORD's house shall be established as the highest mountain and raised above the hills. All nations shall stream toward it”….Isaiah is giving his people and us as well something to hope for….There is something better on the horizon…..And only Jesus can deliver it….All of us are flawed and everything we touch as human beings are consequently flawed as well……People and governments since the beginning of time try to create “heaven on earth” in so many different ways……All of those efforts ultimately fail….Christ is the “missing piece” that our humanity requires…All people whether they realize it or not are incomplete…Until we realize this and accept the one who only can complete us…We will be like a dog chasing its tail…Whether on Central Park South in Manhattan, in a hut in Tanzania or in housing projects on the Southside of Chicago…..The human race was made by God and when God is rejected, something breaks within us….This is reality….And this reality is visible to all…..The only thing that stands in our way of “filling in the missing piece” is our pride

“Many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the Kingdom of heaven"

All people need hope…Something to look forward too…Something to strive for…Once a person loses that hope - They are finished…..As we get older we realize all the “things” of this earth do not fully satisfy…..Whether it was career advancement, academic achievement or even in the people we love…..Nothing and no one is perfect…That reality should tell us something…We were created for “something” else……….Life has a way of humbling people…And its when we embrace humility….Realize and accept our limitations…And acknowledge our weakness…Its than that a “door” opens and God awaits on the other side of that door…..Billy McGill was born poor in Liverpool England…He left home at 16 to be a Longshoreman never to return to his native country again…..I got to know Billy where I would attend daily Mass a number of years ago in Lyndhurst New Jersey…Billy was a “rough guy”…He lost his family…He lost his house…And when I met him after digging himself out of the hole he created…Starting all over…He found his Catholic faith and was a daily communicant at the Church I attended…..Look at what it took for Billy to get where God could work with him?……In many ways and for many people, this is what it takes…..Rock Bottom!……God allows us to pursue “everything” we "think" we want and need….And when we get it…We find that it does not fully satisfy…I would go to Giant Football games with Billy before he died…..As an older guy, he was very generous and if you met him you would never know the life he once led……Billy eventually got cancer and my wife and I would visit him in the hospital shortly before he passed away…He told me as he was lying in his bed he could hear the man in the bed next to him crying out as he was about to die…Billy told me with tears in his eyes he prayed the Divine Mercy Chaplet for the man silently and was assured that Christ took mercy on his soul…Billy lived a rough life and was not dealt the best hand…He made big mistakes and when he “hit rock bottom” he found God and in finding God he found peace…..I think of Billy often and I have peace when I think about him knowing Jesus took care of him….Billy was a Longshoreman and construction worker…And Jesus was a Carpenter….Jesus always takes care of his own!

“Come and save us, LORD our God; Let your face shine upon us, that we may be saved”

The Prophet Isaiah reminds us today at Mass….”They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again”…..The hope of the human race is not found in “things”…Its only found in God…..Mankind still has not “bought in”….Like a dog chasing its tail….Chasing after one thing after the next….When I first got married Billy would stop over my house and give me advice like he was my father…..One day I offered him a Guinness beer…..Billy used to drink a lot but not any more…He kindly turned the beer down, looked at me as he smiled and said…”In every bottle of Guinness beer Joe there is a baby”…Once again Billy was right….My wife and I had five children in ten years of marriage…….The Longshoreman from Liverpool England “figured it out”….With a smile on his face and his Divine Mercy Chaplet in his hand…He figured it out!

“I rejoiced because they said to me, "We will go up to the house of the LORD."

The King of Kings was born in a barn….Are we willing to find him there?……In the world of the forgotten……Born in a barn, Christ came into the world

Today Advent begins in the Universal Church….A time to prepare for the birth of Jesus Christ…Advent is like a “mini” Lent…A time to increase our prayers and fasting to focus our mind and heart towards Christ's birth….During this time I often spend some time sitting before a Nativity scene after daily Mass….The statue of the Child Jesus is not in the manger yet but Joseph and Mary are there…Siting in a barn full of animals…..During the time I spend kneeing before the Nativity…I think just how hard is was for Joseph and Mary…They were fully human…They had so much faith and trust but that did not take away what they had to endure and what they were up against….Then here comes baby Jesus, the King of Kings…Born poor and born for the entire world……The Nativity scene, set up in Catholic Churches around the world during Advent is in a sense a mirror image of what our hearts should look like before the birth of the Christ-Child on Christmas Day - Humble……When we acknowledge out own “poverty” before God - God “raises us up” and fills us with Himself

“Your ways, O LORD, make known to me; teach me your paths, Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior, and for you I wait all the day”

Its hard for me sometimes to focus on the true spirit of Christmas in the New York Metropolitan Area…So much “flash” and “bling”…..Before I was married I would spend the three weeks before Christmas in India serving the poor with Mother Teresa’s sisters….There was no “flash” and “bling” there….When I would fly out of JFK airport in New York and land in Kolkata it was like flying back into time….Life was “stripped down”…..I lived, ate and saw a side of life that is so different from what I was used to in New York….Coming from the “flash” and “bling” of a New York Christmas and landing into a third world city always made me reflect…It helped me to “enter into” Advent…To prepare my heart for the birth of the Savior of the World…………In every city there is what is commonly referred to as an “under-belly”, where a segment of society lives what is invisible to the rest of “polite society”…..Even where we live in New York / New Jersey….You do not have to go too far to find this “under-belly”…....This was the segment of the world Jesus entered…...Born in a barn - The first people to find him were shepherds in fields, the lowest rung of society…..Many times its in this “under-belly” of cities around the world where the Catholic faith is strongest……On Wednesday’s in Lower Manhattan the Missionaries of Charity would give out food to shut-ins living in boarding houses above storefronts in Chinatown…I have gone with them there a number of times….My eyes could not believe how people in my city, one of the richest cities in the world lived - Living in closets with next to nothing - I remember this one man who would only open his door a crack to receive the food the Sisters gave to him…He was clearly mentally handicapped and all alone in this world…This is the world Mary and Joseph entered when they gave birth to the King of Kings….The world of the forgotten……Born in a barn, Christ came into the world for us……I have learned that we do not have to fly halfway around the world to “find the Christ child” as I would do before I was married…Jesus can be found broken and alone right on the street you live on!….In order to find him we must “enter into” Christ’s poverty making our hearts humble, recognizing our own poverty, which we “mask” with “flash” and “bling”…..It’s there we will encounter something we never knew existed

“Good and upright is the LORD; thus he shows sinners the way. He guides the humble to justice, and teaches the humble his way”

So the question today is…How will you make this Advent special?…How will you prepare your heart for the birth of the King of Kings?…..”Then the LORD said: Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD; the LORD will pass by. There was a strong and violent wind rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the LORD—but the LORD was not in the wind; after the wind, an earthquake—but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake, fire—but the LORD was not in the fire; after the fire, a light silent sound”…….Christ is found in the “under-belly” of our heart….Under our “mask”…..In the “flash” and “bling” of what we Americans know to be Christmas we will not find him….The King of Kings was born in a barn….Are we willing to find him there?……In the world of the forgotten……Born in a barn, Christ came into the worldrist came into the world

That “voice” is still “crying out in the wilderness” to this very day…Can you hear it?…”My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me”

Today the Universal Church honors the Feast Day of St Andrew…Andrew was the first of the apostles to encounter Jesus and once he did, he immediately went to find his brother Peter and tell him about the man….Andrew was a regular guy, a fisherman…In his business I am sure he met countless people…What was it about Jesus that made him as Scripture tells us….”At once they left their nets and followed him”?….There is something about the Truth…When it is heard it stops traffic…But why do some people not care when they encounter it or ignore it?……The Truth resonates in the hearts of men…When a heart is pure, it yearns for the Truth…..”My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me”…….This is why Andrew left everything to follow Jesus…His heart was pure…It was not “caught up” in the fleeting things of this world……So how does one purify their hearts to “hear” Jesus's voice?…..That is the question we need to address…….How can as St John the Baptist put it……”A voice crying out in the wilderness” break through to us?

“Their voice has gone forth to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world”

The world believes what it sees…..”Nice words” are just that “nice” but they do not change people…..Catholics go to Mass and many times hear a great homily from a priest…They may even talk about the homily in the car as they drive home…But when does that person do what St Andrew did today? - After Andrew met Jesus he “dropped everything” and followed him….Mere words no matter how perfectly articulated can not produce such an outcome…..Only a witness, a person fully converted to the will of God can cause someone to react as Andrew did….When you encounter a holy person, a person fully alive, TRUST ME, you know it…Such an encounter with a person like that “leaves a mark” that is not easily removed or forgotten……Such an encounter causes one to question themself - Why can’t I be like that?…What is missing in my life?…….Words do not make a person question their very existence, only a witness can do that………Years ago when I would travel to India to volunteer with Mother Teresa’s sisters I met a French volunteer…At the time Erik was studying to get his Masters Degree in Business…He came from a well-to-do family in Southern France, he had a pretty girlfriend at the time and was on his way to living a very prosperous life…While in India Erik spent many months serving the poor and developing his relationship with Christ through prayer…..Erik had everything going for him….After graduation he got a job trading currencies for the Bank of Hong Kong, he was living in London, making good money…But something was “missing”….He told me that he would go to Mass everyday and still volunteer with the Missionaries of Charity on the weekend in London….He said he was living a “schizophrenic life”…On his free time he would serve the poor and at work he was making tons of money….At daily Mass in London he would always see this one nun…They never spoke but each day he would see her…..Soon there after Erik made a decision to leave his lucrative job as a Currency Trader and become a Dominican Priest….And after he was ordained by chance he ran into that nun he would see at daily Mass in London…The sister saw that Erik was now a priest and approached him and said…”I would see you everyday at Mass and I would pray that you would one day become a priest”…….Erik, now goes by the name Fr Jourdain Marie and is currently living in Rome getting an advanced degree at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum)…..Erik had “everything” a person would want in this world and “everything” did not satisfy him…….”My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me”

“Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life. They are more precious than gold, than a heap of purest gold; Sweeter also than syrup or honey from the comb”

In the Gospel of St Matthew today at Mass we are told how St Andrew left everything to follow Jesus…I also told you about my friend Erik from France, who also left everything to follow Jesus…What made them do it?……And why would someone “give up” so much to follow Christ?….The answer comes down to the heart…...”Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God”…..A pure heart can hear the voice of God…..Therefore we must strive to purify our hearts…..One Sacramental Confession with a Priest will do the trick - Just one!…..Mother Teresa used the analogy of electricity: “The wire is you and me; the current is God,” she said. “We have the power to let the current pass through us, use us, and produce the light of the world—Jesus"...…But before that happens, we have to “clear away” all the “obstacles”, which get in the way of the Holy Spirit - Then the “electricity” can pass through us…Then not only will we see the “light” but we will also “hear” the voice of God…..That “voice” is still “crying out in the wilderness” to this very day…Can you hear it?…”My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me”

It all comes down to the word - Authority!…..Jesus has authority and “I” do not…..This is reality……We can not save ourself and we can not change what is impossible to change

Today at Holy Mass St Luke tells the world something very important….Something the world to this day has not learned….Even people within the Church…Many do not “hear” these words of Christ….”Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away”…How easily we forget that Jesus is GOD!…..And nothing and no one can eliminate his words or his Church….Oh, how the world tries to this day!….How people inside and outside the Church try to “improve” on what can not change…..This is why I never fear, the Church of Jesus Christ will be the last thing standing on the face of this earth…Not because I said so, because Jesus himself said so..........…..”Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven”…..The world views the Catholic Church like it would any other power structure…And clearly because it is composed of men there is a political element to it…However, God’s hand is upon it…Trying to fight against it is like try to hold back the ocean…It simply cannot be done…Yet, the world keeps trying…It all comes down to one word - Authority….Jesus himself gave the Catholic Church authority…And sadly people hate this word…”Don’t tell me what to do”….Or…For the people who think they are “smart” both inside and outside the Church…”I know a better way to do this”…..Again, it all comes down to the word - Authority!…..Jesus has authority and “I” do not…..This is reality……We can not save ourself…We ALL die….We can not move what is immoveable.

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem”

In 1950 Roberto Rossellini directed a film called The Flowers of St. Francis…..The structure of the film is a series of short stories depicting the life of St Francis….There are many aspects of the film that are very powerful but allow me to tell you about one of them…..In the movie there was this very simple man who was one of the original followers of St Francis…Francis each day would send the brothers out into the world two by two to preach the Gospel but he never let this one simple minded brother go because he feared for his safety…...He was too innocent…But the simple brother would keep asking Francis to go…And finally Francis agrees….So this very simple man goes into this corrupt town and the people laugh at him, they abuse him…They will not accept anything he says…..As time goes on the city falls into disarray…The city literally in the film goes on fire and chaos ensues….As this happens everyone runs from the city in a panic….At the very end of this chaotic scene…The last man standing is the “simple” brother…..Everyone flees and everything is destroyed except him…….This short story masterfully told by Roberto Rossellini captures every period of world history since the beginning of time…Mankind “thinks” he has it all figured out……And in the end it is proven once again…Mankind had nothing figured out and once again mankind destroyed itself......”I warn everyone who hears the prophetic words in this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words in this prophetic book, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city described in this book.”

“Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest in which she puts her young – Your altars, O LORD of hosts, my king and my God!”

Jesus is reminding us in the Gospel of St Luke today…Its impossible to destroy or manipulate what cannot be changed….I can hear it now….”That is what you think”……….”I’m smarter than you”….”The Catholic Church is behind the times”….”I figured it all out”……..For 2000 years powerful men and woman, brilliant minds, empires and even men inside the Catholic Church have said those very words…And history tells us…They all failed miserably……..So what should that tell us all today?……It all comes down to the word - Authority!…..Jesus has authority and “I” do not…..This is reality……We can not save ourself and we can not change what is impossible to change

Two criminals, one repents and the other does not…..Which one are you?

Today at Holy Mass we hear from St Luke’s gospel….Ask yourself why did Jesus come?….Jesus came to pay the price for the sins of mankind….He also came to forgive sins - My sins and yours……That was his purpose…The question is…Do you recognize that reality?…….What do I mean by that?…If Jesus came for those two reasons, we must infer that we are ALL apart of the “mess” that was created by mankind because of sin…Also, one must infer that we need a means by which we can be forgiven…..That again implies that sin exists and that we are ALL sinners…..This concept is fundamental to believing in Christ, his Church and the desire for eternal life….Do we believe this?…..St Luke tells us today in his gospel….”Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled”…What does this mean?….It means that Jesus was the “seed”, which was planted 2000 years ago to spread the message of salvation throughout the entire earth….There will come a time and God the Father only knows that time, when the entire world was not only told about Jesus and his Church but was also given the chance to turn to Christ.....And ask to be forgiven through his Church...….Whether we accept that invitation is completely up to us…But when that time comes…And Jesus returns…And when he returns, trust me, he is not coming back as some homeless “Hippie”….."There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on earth nations will be in dismay, perplexed by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will die of fright in anticipation of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory”

“Stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand”

Dutch Schultz was a Jewish mobster in the 1920s and 1930s. Schultz, whose real name was Arthur Flegenheimer convert to Christianity and received the last rites from a Catholic priest before he died and was buried in the Roman Catholic Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York…….Schultz was a “bad dude” and committed many crimes during his life but when the time came, when he knew he was going to die, he repented and asked for a Catholic priest…..Joseph Stalin was another “bad dude”, a man known for being a murderer. During his reign in Russia untold millions of people were put to death by his command. The numbers are so high that experts can only give broad estimates as to the actual total. According to the story told by his daughter, Stalin was plagued by terrifying hallucinations as he lay dying on his bed. Then suddenly he sat halfway up in bed, clenched his fist toward the heavens, fell back upon his pillow, and was dead. It was as if his last gesture in life was literally a clenched fist toward God….Whether or not this is true about Stalin’s death can be disputed, the point I am making here is this…Here we have two murderers, one turns to Christ and the other does not…The story of these two men is not unlike the story of the two men who were crucified along side of Jesus 2000 years ago…Two criminals, one repents and the other does not…..Which one are you?

“Blessed are they who are called to the wedding feast of the Lamb”

St Luke tells us today….”Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled”…….God is giving us all time to face reality…What is that reality?…That we are all sinners…That there is “one way off the island” and that “one way” is to take Jesus’s hand and say these words - “Bless me Father for I have sinned”…If we commit to making a Sacramental Confession with a Priest, trust me when I say, you will be glad you did!…..Peace will flood through your enter body……How did a Jewish murderer, Dutch Schultz come to this conclusion?…Because written on the hearts of all men is the Truth - We either accept it or we do not……Schultz took a leap of faith……..”Now one of the criminals hanging there reviled Jesus, saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us.” The other, however, rebuking him, said in reply, “Have you no fear of God, for you are subject to the same condemnation? And indeed, we have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing criminal.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He replied to him, “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”……..St Luke is telling us…The time does run out!…The “final buzzer” will sound off…Two criminals, one repents and the other does not…..Which one are you?

“Remain faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life”

Today we hear at Holy Mass from the Gospel of St Luke…..Jesus tells his friends that following him will not be easy…Jesus does not “sugar-coat” reality…“They will seize and persecute you, they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons, and they will have you led before kings and governors because of my name. It will lead to your giving testimony. Remember, you are not to prepare your defense beforehand, for I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute. You will even be handed over by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends, and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name, but not a hair on your head will be destroyed. By your perseverance you will secure your lives”…We all want to belong…As I say on my radio show all the time…”We all want to get invited to the barbecue”…In our desire to belong, do we give our true self away?….Do we compromise what we know to be true to “get along”…..This is one of the driving factors, which keeps us from becoming the people God called us to be…..At the end of the day, we all have an “audience of one”…And that audience is God alone…..Its God’s opinion of us that matters…Never let “the crowd” steal your soul

“Remain faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life”

I began my career on Wall Street as a Branch Examiner…I would travel around the country and audit the various branches where Financial Brokers sold stocks and bonds to the public…During the audits I conducted I would have to give a presentation to each branch reviewing the various internal and external regulations, which impacted their business…The crowd at my presentations could be very hostile at times…Wall Street brokers are not the most “gentle” of people as you can imagine…This one year during Lent I pinned a cross into the lapel of my suit jacket as an outward sign of the penitential season, which prepares us for Easter Sunday and the Resurrection of Christ…This one presentation I gave was outside of St Louis and when I got up before all the brokers to speak, I felt all eyes upon the cross pinned to my suit jacket…It was hard enough to give that presentation but with that cross pinned on my suit, I felt like it was pinned into my bare flesh!….Why tell you this?…Because the “world” will ALWAYS reject the ways of Christ and the Church…ALWAYS!…Jesus today is warning us ahead of time…So don’t expect anything less!…..In Scripture, after Jesus was killed I always remember the story of Joseph of Arimathea…Joseph was a secret follower of Jesus and very rich…He held social standing and had a lot to lose…After Jesus was murdered he approached Pontius Pilate and requested the body of Jesus so it could be properly buried…He also paid for the burial, giving Christ a tomb for his body to be placed, which was originally intended for himself and his family…This took great courage on the part of Joseph of Arimathea, he had a lot to lose but his love for Christ propelled him to “take the risk”….As followers of Jesus we too must take risks!….The Holy Spirit will help us if we allow it to enter our heart…..I have always found when we enter “the space” of vulnerability…When we "expose ourself" in the name of Jesus Christ…When we have no control…Its there - In “that space” that we encounter the Lord…We must be willing to enter “that space”!

“Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch. Simon said in reply, “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets.”

Jesus today warns his friends….”In the world you will have trouble”…..We must accept trouble as it comes because it is a reality - It comes with the territory of being a follower of Jesus Christ…We were not born to “get along”…We were born to light the way!…..Before Jesus entered Jerusalem and suffered his passion he fasted for 40 days…During that time the devil tempted him three times….”Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence, and he said to him, “All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.” At this, Jesus said to him, “Get away, Satan! It is written: ‘The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.’” Then the devil left him and, behold, angels came and ministered to him”…..We too must be willing to endure…And make no mistake, we will be tempted too!….But as Jesus today told his friends......”In the world you will have trouble”...…He also told them……”By your perseverance you will secure your lives”…….And when times get tough - Angels will come and minister to you as well……So ”put out into deep water and lower your nets”

“Remain faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life”