”Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts"...She will guide us….One "Hail Mary" at a time

Today at Holy Mass we hear from St Luke’s Gospel….Jesus performs a miracle and the people respond…."A great prophet has arisen in our midst and God has visited his people”….Jesus was much more than just a “prophet” but the people were looking for “signs”…They were looking to be liberated from Roman occupation and because of their “temporal wants”…They missed the bigger picture…Christ did not come to act as some “magician”…Nor did he come as a political liberator…Jesus came to free us from the bonds of sin………"God has visited his people” the people shouted….Did they really believe that?…..Or were they looking for a “magician”?…..If their words were spoken from their heart, they would have changed their life…But we all know that was not the case…..And when Christ came into Jerusalem on a humble mule on the first Palm Sunday…The people were disappointed…They were looking for “something else” and quickly turned on him….So the question today is…What are we looking for?…Who is Jesus to you?..... Is he just a “magician”?

As many of you know I have five young children…One of the phrases I repeat in my home over and over again to my kids when they fight is this…”Treat people like you want to be treated”…This is known as “the golden rule”…Jesus tells us there really are only two commandments…Love God above all things and love your neighbor as your self…Easy right?….Hmmmmm…..What if loving God causes you to suffer?….What if loving your neighbor requires you to have less?…..Easy right?…..People want what they want and they see what they want to see….We create all kinds of idols that replace God and the devil knows us better than we know our self…..Before we even realize it, we can “create” “a god” after our own making and if our neighbor “gets in the way” of that "god" we do everything we can to destroy them…..Jesus came for everyone and because of that we must love everyone but before we do that….Our eyes must be opened…And all our “idols”, which replace the one true God must be destroyed…Easy right?…..Hmmmmmm…….Without God’s grace this can not and will not happen…Only by means of daily prayer, the Sacraments and fasting can this happen….We can not “muscle” our way to this mindset…Only by God’s grace can we truly “see” and once we “see”…Then we can act....We must act!

St Paul tells us in the first reading today that we are all part of the Body of Christ and that we all have something to do….”As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body”……That means I can do what you can’t and you can do what I can’t…But that is ok…Because each of us have something important to do!….St Paul tells us to….........”Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts”…...What do we strive for?….Are our goals orientated towards growing closer to God or are our goals focused on the fruits of this world, which all pass and turn to dust?

Back to our gospel today from St Luke…Is Jesus just a “candy machine” where we put in “our coin” and look to “get something” from the “machine”?…In order to live by the “golden rule”, which I repeat to my children almost daily when they fight with each other…We need to be able to look past our self and put God first but before we do that we have to destroy all the “things” that we put in the way of God…..Easy right?….Hmmmmm…..Without daily prayer, fasting and the Sacraments that will never happen!

Our Lady is said to be “Full of Grace”…Only she "did it perfectly" being she was born of the flesh of a man and a woman…Some call Our Lady, "mankind's only boast".....And because of this we need her…She will guide us….One Hail Mary at a time…..

”Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts"...She will guide us….One "Hail Mary" at a time