People believe what they see, even those who are “unwilling to see”

Today at Holy Mass we hear from the Gospel of St Luke…Jesus is saddened by the fact that his people would not listen to him….“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how many times I yearned to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were unwilling!”…People did not want to hear it…Jesus was God…..Jesus performed miracles…And the people still “did not want to hear it”…..Is it any different today?…..As a father I tell my children all the time…”Listen to me”…Clearly I tell them things for their own good but there is something about human beings that do not want to be told what to do…Even if that instruction is for their benefit……God is constantly trying to form us in our everyday life…He gave us Sacred Scripture…Jesus founded a Church, which provides us with time tested teachings that have guided great saint to do amazing things….We have Our Lady to teach us the about her son…We have the Sacraments to enlighten our minds and hearts and fortify us with grace…And we ignore it all!…..This is why Jesus lamented over his people today in the Gospel……..“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how many times I yearned to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were unwilling!”

“O God, I will sing a new song to you; with a ten-stringed lyre I will chant your praise, You who give victory to kings, and deliver David, your servant from the evil sword.”

When I was growing up my mother would say…”Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face”……How true that statement is…..The only person we hurt by not listening to God is our self…….What makes us not want to listen?…..Maybe it could be that some people who had authority over us in our life deeply disappointed us……Maybe it could be past hurts and wounds…..What can break through these “walls”?…I have learned over the years that facts and logical arguments will never convince people about the eternal truths of Christ and the Catholic Church…People need to see for themselves the fruit of a life that is completely invested in the Gospel…..Radical love witnessed makes even the hardest hearts second guess their life choices, which oppose God…..How does one give such a witness?…The answer to that is clear…..On our own we can not do it!…We must develop an deep interior life…..A radical Christian witness works from the inside out and then radiates to the world around us…The grace of God is real and trust me when I tell you, when people see a holy person, they know it…..This is the only way we as Catholics can and influence the world…..Our “best argument” for Christ and the Catholic Church is our life, witnessed and lived each and every day…….Over time those who encounter such a witness will second guess their own choices…That is a work of the Holy Spirit and not anything we can do or comes from us…Our job is to deepen our interior life - Period Full Stop!…By daily prayer, weekly fasting, and living a Sacramental life….These practices will lead us to a life of sacrificial love…And sacrificial love witnessed by others changes hearts…It cause others to question their choices….It sparks conversion…Such a life lived can not be “manufactured” and people will know if such a “witness” is “self-manufactured”…A sacrificial life is the fruit of daily prayer, weekly fasting, and living a Sacramental life…This how we change the world…First by changing our self

“Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!”

St Paul gives us some good advice in the first reading from today’s Mass….”Draw your strength from the Lord and from his mighty power. Put on the armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the Devil”…In this statement Paul is comparing the spiritual life almost like to a war….But the “war” he is referring to is not a fight with others or a fight with the world around us…The “war” is within our very self…The greatest enemy we each face is our own sin…And only through God’s grace can we defeat our sins…..When we “overcome our self”, then and only then can we give a witness to the world around us…No one will be “convinced” if we do not live as Christ instructed us to live…That type of life can only happen as St Paul describes….”With all prayer and supplication, pray at every opportunity in the Spirit”…We can not give what we do not have……Before we convince others about the Truths contained in the Catholic Church, we must first be transformed by those Truths ourselves…Words do not “break down walls”….Radical and sacrificial love consistently witnessed is our best “argument”, which is the “fruit” of a deep interior life…Again, such a life cannot be “self-manufactured”…There is no response to or for such an “argument”…Even if people still “do not want to hear it”….A holy life witnessed stops the world in its tracks like a cold bucket of water poured upon someones head…..People believe what they see, even those who are “unwilling to see”

The morning came around and the “cock crowed”….."Cock a Doodle Doo”…And Peter the “tough guy” was no where to be found!…Why did that happen?….Jesus Prayed - Jesus Stayed….The Disciples Slept - The Disciples Ran!…Do you hear that all you “tough guys”!

Today at Holy Mass we hear from the Gospel of Luke…Jesus tells us something that breaks the American narrative of what many mainstream Protestants refer to as “Once Saved - Always Saved”…These are Jesus’s words not mine - So don’t shoot the messenger.…."Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough”…Let’s breakdown what Jesus just said….First off, the road to heaven is narrow, which implies its the road less traveled….Which implies we as Catholics must be in the world but not of the world…This means we must be “set apart” and not like “the crowd”…Why is that?…Catholics are called to be a “light on the hill” for the world…In order to do that, we can not be “like the world”…What else is found in that one sentence from Jesus?….Jesus says that some will “not be strong enough”…What does he mean by that?….This statement implies effort is required by those who “walk on the narrow road”…..And since we are all human, which means we are all sinners, will need divine assistance to “walk on that road”…Why is that?…Well, lets look to what Jesus just said…On our own, “We are not strong enough”…I can hear all the “tough guys” out there saying right now…”That is what you think!”….My answer to all the “tough guys” is remember our friend St Peter…..When push came to shove, Peter denied his friend three times…In fact, every single one of the 12 disciples ran away…Why is that?…Because the road to heaven is “narrow”…And because of that in order to stay "on the road" we need divine assistance…What is that divine assistance?…..Daily Prayer, Weekly fasting and living a Sacramental life…..Do you hear that all you “tough guys” out there!….The road is narrow!

“The LORD is faithful in all his words and holy in all his works. The LORD lifts up all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down”

For the past 30 years I have taught the Catholic faith in many different capacities…One of my go-to stories about the need to pray and stay connected to Jesus and his Church is this story….If you heard it before, bear with me!…..The night before Jesus was to be killed he went to the Garden of Gethsemane with his 12 friends…Scripture tells us that his 12 buddies all fell a sleep while Jesus spent the night in prayer….In the morning the Roman guards came to take away Jesus…And the 12 disciples all ran away…Let’s break this story down to one sentence…”Jesus Prayed - Jesus Stayed….The Disciples Slept - The Disciples Ran!”…Remember, Jesus was God and he still felt the need to pray to his Father in heaven for the grace to remain faithful to his mission…The disciples, took for granted the task at hand and slept…And as we all know they were “not strong enough” and ran away….This is something I remind myself all the time and frankly anyone who reads this should take note….Jesus instituted a Church…And the Church gives us the Sacraments, which provides us with divine assistance to “walk the narrow road”…If you think you are going to do what Jesus and the gospel asks of you relying on your own strength…I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you!........Do you hear that all you “tough guys”!….The road is narrow!

“The Lord is faithful in all his words. Making known to men your might and the glorious splendor of your Kingdom. Your Kingdom is a Kingdom for all ages, and your dominion endures through all generations.”

The saints know that without God, we can do nothing!…..If we look to the lives of the saints, they will show us what can be accomplished when we “stay connected to the vine”…Not only will we “walk the narrow road”…But we will conquer the world in the name of Christ, who says to us today very clearly….”In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world”……I can go on and on about how the saints faced down the very powers of hell in this world……The saints show us the way!….And only the saints change the world

“The LORD is faithful in all his words and holy in all his works. The LORD lifts up all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down”

Getting back to the gospel today from Mass….Jesus tells it like it is…The road to heaven is narrow…But what he also tells us and I am hear to remind anyone who reads this is, we have all the “tools” we need to walk that road!….God did not leave us orphans!…He walks with us and sustains us…But do not be deceived by the ancient serpent who whispers in your ear….”You do not need God”…Tell the devil to beat-it!…..Because we must cooperate with the Lord, he can not save us without our cooperation….And if you think you can do it all by yourself…Remember what happened to St Peter…The morning came around and the “cock crowed”….."Cock a Doodle Doo”…And Peter the “tough guy” was no where to be found!…Why did that happen?….Jesus Prayed - Jesus Stayed….The Disciples Slept - The Disciples Ran!…Do you hear that all you “tough guys”!

”What is the Kingdom of God like? To what can I compare it?”

Today at Holy Mass we hear from St Luke's Gospel…..In the text Jesus asks two questions….“What is the Kingdom of God like?” & “To what can I compare it?”…......So I will ask you....What is your idea of heaven?…Is it a party?…Today when we speak to people about heaven they assume “everyone gets in the door”…..In the mean time do we consider the “things of God” while we are here on earth?…….Heaven is simply seeing God as he is…Standing in the presence of Pure Love…But before we “get there”….How must we prepare?……A good question…Do we ever consider it?

“Those who die in God’s grace and friendship and are perfectly purified [whether in this life, or in the next life in Purgatory] live forever with Christ. They are like God forever, for they “see him as he is,” face to face.”

Years ago I was at a funeral Mass and a man after the Mass spoke about his father…He said his father “lived his life on his terms”….As I sat there I thought to myself…Does this person have any idea what it means to enter the Kingdom of Heaven?…..Jesus did not live his life on “his terms” so how can we possibly think that we can enter heaven and while we are on the earth live our life on “our terms”……….”Though he was in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross”………Jesus Christ came down to earth to heal humanity of its fallen nature…As we all know…We all are sinners…Jesus knew this and because he loved us beyond all telling, he humbled himself and walked among us….Jesus gave us all the “tools” to elevate and heal our fallen human nature and in the process to grow in holiness…..To strive to sanctify one's self is a process….Why is that process important?…Because we will not stand before God until we are made pure…Don’t believe the Americanized / Sanitized version of heaven…Heaven is not a party……We don’t just “zip right in the door” - It does not work that way……”Heaven is principally a state of utter and absolute fulfillment. In the possession of God in the beatific vision, the blessed will experience what cannot be put into words; a radical union with God that transcends anything we could imagine”….But before we get there, we need to be made pure…We either do the “heavy lifting” here on earth or it will be done in Purgatory……That means we can not die in the state of mortal sin…That means we need to confess our mortal sins to a Catholic Priest…..Because nothing enters heaven and stands before God expect for what is pure…So start the process now!

“Blessed are you who fear the LORD, who walk in his ways! For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork; blessed shall you be, and favored.”

Years ago I went to confession with a very famous Catholic Priest. Fr Andrew Apostoli was known all over the world for his devotion to Our Lady of Fatima. During the confession I did not have anything “off the hook” to confess but Father went on to tell me interestingly enough that I did not want to end up in Purgatory, that I should strive to go directly to heaven and at the end of the confession he gave me a prayer to Our Lady of Fatima to help me…I always remember that confession, not because of what I confessed but what Fr Andrew said…Again, it was strange, almost mysterious why Father Andrew brought Purgatory up to me that day…....What I confessed to him was not anything too “over the top”….Its not like I “killed somebody”…Yet Father focused his instruction to me about not ending up in Purgatory….I still remember what he told me to this very day

“Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth; You have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the Kingdom”

Getting back to St Luke’s gospel from Mass today and the two questions asked by Jesus….Do we have a realistic idea as to what heaven is?…..If we want to end up there, and I am sure we do, we should learn about what our Catholic faith teaches about heaven….. Because being in heaven means spending time with God, so logically speaking, don’t you think we should start spending time with God while we are on the earth, in the here and now?…How do we do that you may ask?…By praying…By receiving the Sacraments….By going to Mass….Or will people say of us when we die, “He lived his life on his terms”…..Something to consider - Don’t you think?…It all boils down to the two questions Jesus asked today in the gospel….”What is the Kingdom of God like? To what can I compare it?”

We are part of the Body of Christ….Jesus is the head and we are the body….Jesus established a Church…He did not write a book…..The two can not be separated!

Today at Holy Mass we hear from St Paul in the first readings…Paul was writing a letter to his friends encouraging them……To summaries what Paul said…He states that we are all part of the same Body of Christ and Jesus is the head of that body…Most people would agree with that…However, large numbers of people somehow try to separate the Body, which is the Church from Jesus…You hear statements like this from many….”I do not need the Church - I only need Jesus”…..This is not reality because the Church is an extension of Christ and without the Sacraments whether we realize it or not…We will lack the needed grace as St Paul stated rightly......…”To run the race to the end”…Jesus did not write a book, he formed a Church…And he formed it for a reason…Because we as human beings, all of which are born with a fallen nature need the grace of the Sacraments……Never underestimate your own weakness and your capacity to sin…The moment you do, you open the door to the devil…”Who prowls the earth like a lion”…Its when we acknowledge our sin and understand our weakness…Its only then we become strong…Because God sustains us by his grace……That only happens when we embrace Jesus as the head and the Church has Christ’s body….We are part of that body…The two can not be separated!

“Through him the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord; in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit”

The Catholic Church is made of human beings…”Saints and Sinners” - It always has and always will……We can choose to focus on the sinners or we can associate with the saints…Its our choice…However, no matter what…The Sacraments are the Sacraments…We need them and that is why I am Catholic and always will be…Jesus himself is fully present in the Eucharist, which can only be consecrated by a Catholic Priest…And I am a sinner and need to reconcile my sins, which only can happen in and through a Catholic Priest as well…This is reality and its time to face reality…..Even if a priest is a sinner and all of them are sinners to varying degrees - Through a Catholic Priests hands the Sacraments are still and always will be valid …And I need grace in order to “run the race”…And I got news for you - So do you!…..Many people would call me an “orthodox” or a “conservative” Catholic…I do not like the term because my view is, you are either a practicing Catholic or you are not….There should be no “terms” used to describe Catholics: Progressive Catholic, Orthodox Catholic, etc…But I digress….For purposes of this reflection…I will call myself Orthodox…I state this because where I work in New York City there is a parish, which is known for being very “progressive”…Many “orthodox” Catholics will never walk into such a parish…..But I do…Why?….Because its near my office and I want to receive the Sacraments at lunch…I go to daily Mass there and also go to Confession there two times a month…With all that said…I have heard homilies said at this parish that have made me “twitch”…But that does not stop me from going back to receive the Sacraments on my lunch hour…I have also had one of the worst confessions of my life at that parish…The Priest was so off, I almost fell out of my seat…But that still does not stop me from going there on my lunch hour…No one or no thing will stop me from encountering Christ!…Not even a “Bad Priest”…..We can choose to focus on the bad things we see in the Catholic Church or we can search out the good…Trust me when I tell you…The good things far out way the bad…Every thing human beings touch in this world are imperfect…But what we have to realize is….While the people in the Catholic Church are imperfect…Me being one of them…The Church itself is perfect…What do I mean by that?…The Catholic Church has taught the same thing for 2000 plus years…It has endured the test of time…..And the Catholic Church’s teachings are perfect - Because God is perfect and the two can not be separated….And if we follow those teachings from the one Church Jesus established, we will have a healthy and productive life here on earth…Those teachings will also lead us to heaven…..Always keep in mind, we as fallen human beings need the Sacraments because we are all sinners and need grace….Without grace we will not “run the race” to completion nor will we “run the race” well….Why is that?……..Because the “race” is long and hard…Those who have ears - Let them hear!

“Through all the earth their voice resounds, and to the ends of the world, their message”

St Paul tells us in the first reading that….”Christ Jesus himself is the capstone”…Ask yourself…What is Jesus the “capstone" of?…The answer is the Church….When we separate ourselves from the Church, we separate ourself from Jesus…..To some that may be shocking to hear…But its true….We need the grace of the Sacraments…The Eucharist is referred to in latin as viaticum, which is translated to mean “food for the journey”….Jesus himself weighs in on the subject in Scripture….”My flesh is true food and my blood is true drink…Unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood you have no life within you”….Not my words - We either take Jesus at his word or we do not…Completely up to us….However, not listening to the only man in history who rose from the dead and is the only person who can give us eternal life when we die is not advisable - If you ask me…..We are part of the Body of Christ….Jesus is the head and we are the body….Jesus established a Church…He did not write a book…..The two can not be separated!

The Kingdom of God is at hand…But do we “see it”?…..Words will never penetrate the heart the way seeing the Gospel in action radically lived can

Today at Holy Mass we hear a passage from St Mark…A man named Bartimaeus, who was blind calls to Jesus and asks him for help…."Master, I want to see”…..Clearly one can understand that being blind must be a very difficult thing to deal with in life but there is a deeper meaning to Bartimaeus’s request…..A person can have his / her sight and still be very blind….All of us have a fallen nature and because of this reality human beings tend to “see” and “hear” selectively…What do I mean by that?….We see what we want to see in order for our minds to validate our lifestyle….One can say human beings have selective-sight….Jesus today gave Bartimaeus his physical sight back but he also gives him something much more….By turning to Christ, Bartimaeus sheds all the impediments that prevented him from “seeing” reality as it truly is…..So the question today is…Do we want to see?….Not to see “selectively” but see everything about ourselves and the world that need to be addressed and changed…This is the sight that Jesus offers us…And this kind of vision only is given to those who open their heart to the Holy Spirit……But in order for the Holy Spirit to give us sight…We must “clear the way” for it….God can not fill us if we are full of ourself

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God”

When we read the Bible we will find that there are numerous stories of men and women who are blind and how their sight was returned to them…The story today about Bartimaeus is just one of many of those stories…..How about today?…..How many of us are blind?…..We walk by people who are hungry on the streets…Innocent children are murdered in the womb of their mothers and we do not blink an eye……Mortal sin is accepted and even embraced by our society in a matter of fact way and no one cares…..God sees things very differently than the way we do…And in order to become the people we were born to be, we must learn to see as God sees

“Since sin is universal, those who pretend not to need salvation are blind to themselves”

Far too many Catholics have never encountered a holy person…When one does, such a person almost looks through you….And you feel their gaze upon you in a tangible way…This is why only saints change the world…Saints impact the world around them by almost placing a mirror in front of people allowing them to see themselves as they truly are…In doing so, many acknowledge what they “see” for the first time and begin the process of changing…….I have seen this many times play out in my work with Mother Teresa’s sisters over the years…People of all walks of life witnessing holiness for the first time in the sisters and because of what they saw they change…..Words will never penetrate the heart the way seeing the Gospel in action radically lived can…..I have told this story before but its worth repeating….My first full day in India I was headed to the Home from the Dying and Destitute run by the Missionaries of Charity with a young woman from America…Her name was Sarah and she was showing me how to get to this home by taking a public bus…When we arrived I witnessed Sarah see a street woman who she knew…This woman was so dirty words can not properly describe her…Upon Sarah seeing her, she hugged her like this street woman was her own mother…She meant it too, nothing was fake about the gesture….Upon seeing this, I literally almost fell over!!!!…I could not believe my own eyes…..And in a sense, I realized just how “blind” I was…..Seeing things for the first time can be enlightening…Only radical love demonstrated can “open our eyes”….This is the love Christ has for us…This is the love we must show the world…To open the eyes of the “bind”

“The Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous.”

Getting back to our friend Bartimaeus from the gospel today from Mass….Bartimaeus kept calling out to Jesus and as he did many people tried to silence him….”And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he kept calling out all the more”…….Jesus eventually respond to Bartimaeus because of his persistence….Because Bartimaeus persisted, he received his sight…..What can we learn from this story?…To a degree we are all “blind”….We only see what we want to see….And only radical love demonstrated in real time can “open our eyes” to a world that we never thought existed but stands right before us……But in order to re-gain our sight, like Bartimaeus we must be persistent…… Bartimaeus understood that he was blind and to some degree we too are also blind...Do we have the courage to acknowledge our own blindness and to call out to Christ for sight?

The Kingdom of God is at hand…But do we “see it”?….Words will never penetrate the heart the way seeing the Gospel in action radically lived can

God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked man but rather in his conversion that he may live…The outcome is completely up to us…We can not have it both ways

Today at Holy Mass we hear a passage from St Luke…In it Jesus tells us point blank that he is always their reaching out his hand to us…However, its up to us to take his hand and if we choose not to…We will perish!…This is reality…This is not “Hippie Jesus”…This is the real Jesus talking……“Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!”…….”Americanized Christianity” has twisted the words of Christ…Far too many people “think” we get to heaven on “our terms”…That there is no such thing as mortal sin or hell….That “Jesus understands” when “I do the wrong thing”…..Yes, Jesus does understand very well…He has the holes in his hands to prove it!……When we sin and we all do!….We MUST reconcile with the Father in heaven……Don’t believe anyone who tells you differently!….Yes, God understands the human condition…That is why he sent his son to us….And Jesus also understood the weakness of men and women…That is why he established a Church where we can reconcile our sins and we are fortified by grace through the Blessed Sacrament……..There is no such person as “Hippie Jesus”!…Jesus the man told it like it is…..His hand is extended to each of us…Its for us to reach for it.

“There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard, and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none, he said to the gardener, ‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. So cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?’ He said to him in reply, ‘Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it; it may bear fruit in the future. If not you can cut it down.”

Years ago I remember when Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts was dying…As we all know Ted was a baptized Catholic and raised in a famous American wealthy family…His brother was the president and his other brother was the Attorney General of the United States of America…Ted was also the most powerful Senator in the Democratic Party…As we all know, Ted while he was Catholic did not live a life that witnessed to his Catholic faith…While he was on this earth, he was powerful, rich and influential….Then came the moment we will all face…Ted got sick and was on his death bed…So what does he do?…..He writes a letter to Pope Benedict…Like he was “negotiating a deal”…The Pope graciously extended his prayers to Ted…..Instead of writing this letter…Why not just go to a Sacramental Confession with a local priest?…The letter Ted wrote…What ever was said in it…Does not and can not duplicate a Sacramental Confession nor can such a letter absolve Ted of his sins…Only the Sacrament can…And deep down I think Ted knew that…But he was still “holding on” to a his earthly “perception of power”, which was about to disappear because he was about to die….Why tell this story?…Because no matter who we are….No matter how “powerful”, rich or influential while we are on the earth…We will all face God after our death…And when we face God, there will be no “negotiating”…..God’s rules - God’s terms!…It’s for us to “take his hand” in the here and now….Don’t believe me?….Jesus tells us this point blank today in the gospel….”Those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them, do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!”……..God is full of love and mercy….God loves us like no one ever can or will…But we must take his hand when he reaches out to us…We must reconcile our sins with him…Heaven is God’s house and we get into heaven on God’s terms…..Don’t believe what people tell you about this made up person called ““Hippie Jesus”…Jesus was no “Hippie”…He was the son of God, who came to save us from our sins…But in order for him to save us…We must reconcile with him…Take his hand!

“I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked man, says the Lord, but rather in his conversion that he may live”

Today’s gospel from Mass challenges us!…If we read Scripture we will find that many things Jesus said are challenging…And he did not say these words for his own benefit…..He told us these truths for our benefit…However, we were born with free will and we all make choices…..We choose to take the hand of Christ or we choose not to…..Its completely up to us…God gave us free will because love can not be forced upon someone…Love is a choice…And we choose to love God or we choose not to…..Take my advice - Take Jesus's hand!…..The “road to heaven” is narrow but it is filled of peace and joy…..I have come to understand after many years its the only “road worth traveling”…..God is merciful but God is also just…..God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked man but rather in his conversion that he may live…The outcome is completely up to us…We can not have it both ways

All we have to do is “listen” to the small voice found in silence…..”Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face”….And you will set the world on fire!

Today at Holy Mass we hear from the Gospel of St Luke…Jesus is discussing with his 12 friends about paying attention to what is right in front of you…..The past is just that…The past!…And as for the future…..We can not control the future…But we have the present…Its for us to recognize it as a gift….To pay attention to what God is doing in our life…God works in the here and now, he uses everything to pull at our hearts…He uses everything to mold us into who we were born to be….”You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky; why do you not know how to interpret the present time?”….We must begin by listening to the ever small voice in our heart…IT IS THERE!!!!!…..Do not ignore it…This is where the journey begins…The greatest adventure is to follow God and his holy will….Fear nothing and trust what I am telling YOU!…..God created YOU for greatness and he placed his spirit with in YOU……Take his hand and never let it go!

“He shall receive a blessing from the LORD, a reward from God his savior. Such is the race that seeks for him, that seeks the face of the God of Jacob”

Charles de Foucauld was rich, brilliant and spoiled…….He wanted nothing to do with God…He lived off his family money and all he cared about was wine, women and song…After years and years of this behavior he felt empty and believe it or not “Crazy Charlie” went to confession with a Catholic Priest…And after this one confession it was like “lightening struck him”…He began “the journey” of changing his life…Charles went from a drunk and a womanizer to become a monk…He felt called to live in the desert of Northern Africa with the hope to preach the gospel to Muslims…And while he was there he failed continuously…So much so the very people he tried to help eventually murdered him…..But after his death something happened….His life’s example “spoke” to people…So much so people all over Europe, Northern Africa and the world began to read about him…To listen to his words that were written…Charles was like a “small seed” buried in the North African desert…While he was alive no cared to listen to him but after his death the “seed” “took root”…Why am I telling you about the story of St Charles de Foucauld?…Because Charles was just “another guy” “siting at the bar”…..The difference with “our friend Charlie” is - He heard within his heart a small voice - And he responded to that voice!…And Charlie set the world on fire!…Not in the way he thought he would…But in the way God intended and planned all the while “Good Old Charlie” was sitting at that bar!

”You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky; why do you not know how to interpret the present time?”

Like what Jesus taught his 12 friends in today’s gospel…The past is over..Forget about it…The future is unknown, so don’t fret over it…All we have is the present…I used to have a friend who I would drink coffee with years ago at the train station before work….His name was Daily Dowd…..Daily went to my Parish and struggled with mental illness…He also was homeless at times and lived at the train station…Daily would always tell me…”Joe - The cross is what is right in front of you”…Daily did not concern himself with the past…Daily was not thinking of the future…All Daily was concerned with was getting through the moment standing right in front of him…This is our task…..God has placed infront of you "a moment”…He speaks to you in the silence of your heart….All we have to do is “seize the moment”….And a new world will open up….Fear is the only thing standing in your way…And fear comes from the devil…Tell the devil to “beat-it”….Take a step….Like Good Old Charlie de Foucauld…And you will set the world on fire!

“Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth; you have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the Kingdom”

Jesus tells his 12 friends today in the gospel to “pay attention” to the signs of the times…..He is telling us the same thing…Do we pay attention to the small voice within our hearts?…It’s there you know!……Are we listening?…..And if we hear it….What is stopping us?…Only you can answer those questions…No one can answer them for you……Jesus went on in the gospel today telling the original twelve….“Why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?”…..If Jesus was from Northern New Jersey, he would have put it this way….”You know what you need to do - So do it”…..We have been given all the “tools” we need…..All we have to do is “listen” to the small voice found in silence…..”Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face”….And you will set the world on fire!

“There can be no freedom as long as there is sin in the heart. What’s the use of changing structures? What’s the use of violence and armed force if the motivation is hatred and the purpose is to buttress those in power or else to overthrow them and then create new tyrannies? What we seek in Christ is true freedom, the freedom that transforms the heart, the freedom the risen Christ announces to us today, “Seek what is above”

Today at Holy Mass we hear from the Gospel of St Luke…In this text Jesus says something that many may be shocked at….”Jesus said to his disciples: “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.”…Wait a second…Is this Jesus talking?…..The Truth is a powerful thing!…When it is heard it causes people to question themselves and if an individual is not willing to change…They can and will violently reject it…This is why Jesus was crucified…And this is why the Truth is rejected today….Far too many people love the idea of “Hippie Jesus”….Who did not challenge the world to change…That is not who Jesus was…..If we as Catholics do not challenge the world’s views…You can guarantee one thing…We are not following the Lord

“For upright is the word of the LORD, and all his works are trustworthy. He loves justice and right; of the kindness of the LORD the earth is full”

St Oscar Romero spent just three years as Archbishop of San Salvador in El Salvador, but by the time he was murdered in 1980 he had become a shepherd to all the people of his country…This is what he once said in a Radio Sermon on January 14, 1979: “That is what the church wants: to disturb people’s consciences and to provoke a crisis in their lives. A church that does not provoke crisis, a gospel that does not disturb, a word of God that does not rankle, a word of God that does not touch the concrete sin of the society in which it is being proclaimed—what kind of gospel is that? Just nice, pious considerations that bother nobody—that’s the way many people would like our preaching to be. Those preachers who avoid every thorny subject so as not to bother anyone or cause conflict and difficulty shed no light on the reality in which they live.”……Like Jesus, Oscar Romero was killed for speaking the Truth…..He stood in the midst of chaos as his country was tearing itself apart…How does one stand firm amidst such a situation?….By grounding one self in God’s grace….If you will remember, all the original 12 disciples ran away when Jesus was crucified…Only the youngest one, St John remained at the foot of the Cross with Our Lady and John was not killed probably because he was too young and thought to be “harmless”….If we are not firmly grounded in daily prayer, weekly fasting and living a Sacramental life…We too will run away!!!!…..St Paul tells us very clearly….”That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”…..As Catholics if we do not allow our voices to be heard…To speak the Truth…More importantly to live the Truth…We are deceiving ourselves in thinking we are following the Carpenter from Nazareth….There is no “sitting on the fence”….We must choose a side!…Jesus had enemies…And so will we if we embrace the Truth.

“Remember that I told you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you”

St Luke today reveals a side of Jesus that many choose to over look…Its human nature to want to be “liked”…To “go along to get along”…..This was not who Jesus was nor can it be our way as Catholics today….Oscar Romero before he was killed was a quiet academic man…His country of El Salvador was “on fire” about to enter a civil war…..He was chosen as Archbishop because people “thought” that he was a “safe choice” and would not make “waves”….Then God stepped in!…..Oscar Romero’s friend was murdered…His friend’s name was Fr Rutilio Grande García……Fr Rutilio was a man of the people, who defended the poor…When Fr Rutilio was murdered something in Oscar Romero “snapped”…He became the voice of the people like Fr Rutilio…He became fearless…He stood up for the voiceless and powerless.…And like Jesus he was murdered too…However, to this very day…Oscar Romero is remembered as a saint…To this day he inspires people and nations who are being persecuted as El Salvador once was…And to this day…Oscar Romero reigns in heaven with the Carpenter from Nazareth, who taught him what it meant to be a Catholic man

“There can be no freedom as long as there is sin in the heart. What’s the use of changing structures? What’s the use of violence and armed force if the motivation is hatred and the purpose is to buttress those in power or else to overthrow them and then create new tyrannies? What we seek in Christ is true freedom, the freedom that transforms the heart, the freedom the risen Christ announces to us today, “Seek what is above”

“Whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father”…It comes down to this simple question…Do we take the words of Jesus seriously?

Today at Holy Mass we hear from the Gospel of St Luke…Jesus tells his 12 friends something…He tells us the same thing…..”Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more”…Now this is Jesus talking - Not me!….First question to ponder…Do we take the words of Christ seriously?……Jesus tells us a lot of things in the New Testament and frankly he is crystal clear…….Do we take what he says seriously?…Because today he is telling us…..I expect something from you!….Just like all parents, who raise their children…They expect them to be good citizens once they leave their family home…Jesus is telling us…..You have been given a great gift…What are you going to do with it?…….Far too many people have this misconception that we just “float into heaven”…..Not the case my friends!…While heaven and faith are gifts from God given to us completely undeserved…….Jesus does expect us to use what was given to us for the building of the Kingdom of God here on earth…What you do with your gifts is completely up to you…But do not delude yourself or listen to watered down Americanized Christianity…We have been given a great gift at our Baptism…The Life of Christ has placed within our soul….Jesus expects us to use what was given to us….But don’t take my words for it…..Jesus is very clear…The rest boils down to a choice made by each of us.

“Stay awake! For you do not know when the Son of Man will come”

We all may recall the story in the Book of Revelation……..”And now war broke out in heaven, when Michael with his angels attacked the dragon. The dragon fought back with his angels, but they were defeated and driven out of heaven. The great dragon, the primeval serpent, known as the devil or Satan, who had led all the world astray, was hurled down to the earth and his angels were hurled down with him.”…..Lucifer, who was the greatest of all angels said something we should all pay particular attention to…..”I will not serve”……Lucifer was full of pride…He would not bend his knee to God, therefore he resisted God’s will…And as we all know, that choice did not end well for Lucifer…Nor will it end well for us…..When we choose to not do as God asks of us…We too echo the words of Lucifer, whether we want to admit it or not…”I will not serve”…..This is something we must avoid at all costs….Some times though, like St Peter, we fail only to face our failure and redeem ourself after we reconcile with God….That is the course most of us take…Due to our fallen nature we all sin…The key to this reality is we must humble ourself by saying some of the most beautiful words ever stated…”Bless me Father for I have sinned”….In making that statement to a Catholic Priest, Jesus himself forgives us…And we are given grace to overcome our very nature in time…….If you ask young children the question…When you grow up, do you want to be great?….They all will say yes!…..Would if I told you that every person who was ever born has the capacity to be great…Would you believe me?…..Most would not because we measure “greatness” on the terms of the world…However, if you read the lives of the saints you will learn that the saints come in all shapes and sizes…Some were well educated and brilliant like St Augustine and St Thomas Aquinas…Some we poor…Like St Benedict Joseph Labre, who was in fact homeless…Some were simple like St Therese of Lisieux…And some were wealthy like St Elizabeth of Hungary…What made them great was that they followed the will of God radically…We can do the same!……That kind of “greatness” I am speaking about lasts!!!…These men and women are spoken about to this very day…..If you notice…The people the world calls “great” are forgotten about very quickly no matter what they accomplished….True greatness is found simply in doing the will of God…And if you do…You too will set the world on fire!…It all boils down to a choice…"I will serve"…Or…"I will not serve"…Make your choice

“You will draw water joyfully from the springs of salvation”

Getting back to the gospel today from Mass….Jesus tells us very clearly…Each of us have been given so much!…We were grafted into the very life of God through your baptism and God expects us to use that gift!…Again, don’t take my word for it, just read the words of Christ, they are very clear…..When we stand before God we all will be judged but what many forget to think about is when that moment comes, we also will be shown what we did not do or better put what we could have done if we only followed the will of God…..The Universal Church calls these action not performed “sins of omission”…..What we have to realize for ourselves is…Greatness is within us all by means of our Baptism…All we have to do is “uncork the bottle”…..The French Catholic novelist Leon Bloy famously said…."The only real sadness, the only real failure, the only great tragedy in life, is not to become a saint.”….Everything we accomplish outside of the will of God, no matter how much value the world places upon our accomplishments will be forgotten…However, if we pursue the will of God with all our might…You too can and will set the world on fire!…….Don’t believe me?…..Once again, let’s read the words of Jesus himself on the matter….”Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father”…It comes down to this simple question…Do we take the words of Jesus seriously?

Grace is real…And whether you want to realize it or not…You need it…And you know what?…..So do I….Because I am “ME”

Today at Holy Mass we hear in the first reading from St Paul….”For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast”……Everything we do, which is good is in essence the result of God’s grace….Like the word love, the term “grace” gets “thrown around a lot”….However, do we really believe that “grace” is real?…..If we open our hearts to it, unmerited grace can elevate our nature….This is why Jesus came and walked among us….God understands the human condition very well….This is why he created a Church and this is why God gave us the Sacraments…I can hear it now…”Your talking about the Sacraments again?!?”…..YES!!!!….The Sacraments are the tools given to us, which open us up to grace!….The Sacraments while they are administered by men (i.e. A Catholic Priest) they are heavenly in their origin and in their nature…..In order to be the people we are called to be…We ALL need grace!….And that “grace falls like rain” from God’s hand to our own…Our job is open ourselves up to it….So simple

“Know that the LORD is God; he made us, his we are; his people, the flock he tends”

One of the biggest mistakes of our current culture is that we do not think we need God in our marriages….Marriage is a Sacrament…God created us “man & woman” and he also created marriage…So why is it important to view marriage as a Sacrament?…Because to have a good marriage it takes more than work….It takes grace!…….Our current world disagrees with what I just said but the statistics back up everything I just stated….One in two marriages end in divorce leaving a wake of sorrow and hardship for all involved…..Here are some sociological statistics….If a couple goes to Church together once a week…Only 20% of those marriages end in divorce…Now, here is the BIG factor…Couples who do not use any method of contraception and practice what is called Natural Family Planning (NFP)…Only 3% of those couples get divorced…..Now “don’t shoot the messenger” - These are just the facts!…Ask your self why do these statistics demonstrate these outcomes?…Because when we do things God’s way, we get grace!…..When Catholic couples live up to their wedding vows, which they made at Holy Mass - Following the three F’s (Faithful, Fruitful, and Forever)…Those marriages thrive - Sociological statistics say so! ….Not because those couples are somehow “better” or they “bought in” to what the Church teaches…But because God helps them with his grace…..Again, a good marriage requires work and grace is needed for that…God knew this from the beginning…That is why marriage is a Sacrament…Now, what is the “rub here”?…..The going to Church on Sunday with your spouse part from what I just said is not that hard to do…Its the not using contraception part, which is hard….To be fair, many Catholics ignore this reality, which means their marriages are not Sacramental…Again, “don’t shoot the messenger here”! - I am just telling you the facts….But since we are talking facts, lets continue…….For love to be real, it must cost us…..Love holds nothing back…Love gives completely of “the self” to the other…When we use contraception, we are "holding a piece of ourself" back from our spouse…..And this action will bleed into other areas of our marriage wounding it…Also, when a family has many children and God is at the center of it….What is important becomes very clear!….Again, the statistics do not lie…..Grace is real and we all need it

“Give thanks to him; bless his name, for he is good: the LORD, whose kindness endures forever, and his faithfulness, to all generations”

St Paul tells us in the first reading that grace is a gift, we can not self manufacture it…We can not “read our way” to grace…However, Jesus himself tells us in Scripture….”Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you”….All we have to do is ask!…..And utilize what God gave us - Daily prayer (The Rosary), Monthly Confession and Receiving the Eucharist in the state of grace on Sunday at Mass…So simple…In doing so we open ourselves up to life changing grace….Now that does not make life “easy” and all our troubles will not magically go away......However, when we utilize what Jesus gave us...God will equipt us for everything we will face - Bank on that!…Like with everything else…Its up to us…However, the “outcomes” speak for themselves….Grace is real…And whether you want to realize it or not…You need it…And you know what?…..So do I….Because I am “ME”

Has our “Americanized Christian mindset” skewed the message of Christ?

Today at Holy Mass we hear in the Gospel of St Mark two of Jesus friends ask him a question….."Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left”…..These two guys, James and John did not get it!…..They were looking for power and glory in the here and now….Jesus was the suffering servant and they did not understand so Jesus had to set them straight!……He addressed their request…”You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?”…….In order for us to walk the “narrow road”, which Jesus laid out for us we too must live a sacrificial life….Now don’t take my words for it…Jesus tells us very clearly today in the gospel…..”Whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all. For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many”…Do we somehow “think” that we are excused from this path?…..If we do, we are not thinking as God does…The path to heaven is a path that renounces “self” each and everyday…In that process, we are filled by the Holy Spirit…Because even God can not “fill us up” when we are full of our self…….Do you disagree?….. Has our “Americanized Christian mindset” skewed the message of Christ?

“Because of his affliction he shall see the light in fullness of days; through his suffering, my servant shall justify many, and their guilt he shall bear.”

Love is possibly the most misused word in the English language…Do we really know what love is?…..Love gives completely…Love never takes….Love holds nothing back…For love to be real it must cost us….Is this the definition of love that you think about when the word is “thrown around”?…More importantly, is this the witness of love you see in the world today?….Because if you do witness such an example of love - It will deeply impact you…Many people knew Mother Teresa from all the media coverage she received…But before she became famous…She was just another nun serving the poor….I have seen and served at the first home she established in Kolkata. The home itself is located in the red-light district of Kolkata and in it the sisters pick up men and women from the railway station and streets who are half-dead and give them assistance. Some get better and move on and many die…I bring this up because before Mother Teresa became famous she worked in that home for 17 long years day and night…The nuns who live there to this day sleep on the roof of the home. There are open air apartments on the roof and that is where Mother Teresa called home for 17 years…..Living in a brutal city…..Living in a red light district….For 17 long years day and night!…..What should the example of Mother Teresa teach us?…Before you address my question, I will tell you what it taught me……..Before we can lead, we must learn to serve….And in order to serve, we must renounce our very self…..Do you disagree?……. Has our “Americanized Christian mindset” skewed the message of Christ?

Our soul waits for the LORD who is our help and our shield. May your kindness, O LORD, be upon us who have put our hope in you.

Getting back to our gospel today from St Mark…James and John wanted to have power and authority here on earth and asked Jesus for it…Jesus tells them flat out…”You do not know what you are asking?”…….”The son of man came to serve and not to be served”….This is what Jesus did and this is what we are also called to do….Period - Point Blank!….This is the "narrow road" to heaven……Do you disagree?……. Has our “Americanized Christian mindset” skewed the message of Christ?

“There are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

Today the universal Church honors the North American martyrs…..Six Jesuit Priests and two laymen, who gave their lives witnessing to the gospel in New York State to the Iroquois Indians…..Fr Isaac Jaques was one of those priests who had his fingers chopped off and after being beaten on his first trip to North America returned to France only to go back to New York State to serve the people again…..He knew he would be killed but went back anyway…..Before the Iroquois chopped off this fingers this is what Fr Issac wrote………..”When I ascended the scaffold, I exclaimed in my heart: For we are made a spectacle unto the world and to angels and to men for Christ’s sake”…..To the world what Fr Issac did was crazy….He sacrificed himself to spread the gospel….Most of us who are Baptized will not be called to be physically tortured and killed in cold blood for the faith…However, there is such a thing in religious circles called “white martyrdom”…This is where we die to ourself without the drawing of blood…This is the path to heaven for most people…We are all called to die to ourself…..Very few people have to give their physical blood for Christ…However, if we want to enter eternal life…We must “die to ourself”…That is the “narrow road” Jesus speaks of…There is no other road that leads to heaven

“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me”

One of the first words out of a child’s mouth is “mine”….From birth we want things….Learning to share is not something we learn from books…Sharing is learned in the home and it must be experienced in real time…..The same goes for giving ones self away….Parents do this in real time….They sacrifice for their children….The greater the sacrifice, the more children see with their own two eyes what it means and that witness will resonate with them for the rest of their life….Trust me when I tell you this….There are no selfish people in heaven…..And learning to be a selfless person takes a life time….But this is the essence of what it means to be Catholic….Giving yourself away!…..In order to accomplish this, we need God’s grace…Its not natural to “give yourself away”…But through daily prayer, fasting and living a Sacramental life…Jesus himself and his Holy Mother Mary show us how we are to do it…..When we live such a life, we in turn empty ourself and God then can fill us with his Holy Spirit…That is the “blue print” we all must follow in whatever state of life we are in as Baptized Catholics…Whether single, married or as a consecrated religious priest, brother or nun….The “blue print” is the same…We must strive to “give our self away”….Striving to become selfless…So God can fill us with his Holy Spirit……This is the “narrow road” that Jesus himself speaks of in the Scripture….Don’t let anyone fool you…There is no such thing as the “prosperity gospel”…..All of the baptized are to “walk the road” of selfless service and in doing this we find our true self and in turn will arrive safely in heaven

“For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it”

Getting back to Fr Isaac Jaques, the French Jesuit who gave his life to spread the gospel in New York State to the Iroquois Indians…..Fr Issac “gave himself away” in a very radical way…By shedding his blood…Most probably that will not be the way we are to live or die…However, we are ALL called to live selflessly…That is how we find the “pearl of great price”….We do this by serving our community, our family and by sharing the gifts, which were given to us…..God will help us in this process if we cooperate with him…He will “open our eyes, our hands and our hearts wide” to the needs of others and He will provide the needed grace to help us along that “narrow road” to heaven

“For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay everyone according to his conduct. Amen, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

We are all far too confident in our own abilities…Jesus will take what he has given to you and magnify it…If you let him

Today at Holy Mass the universal Church commemorates the Feast Day of St Luke, the beloved physician and author of one of the four gospels…Luke was not a author by profession, he earned his living by being a doctor…Yet he is remembered to this day roughly 2000 years after his death for his service to Christ…Luke never met Jesus in person, he was a peer of St Paul therefore his gospel was not a first hand account of the life of Christ……. Yet Jesus’s life made a deep and lasting impression upon Luke….How about you?…..Each of us are in this world and we all have responsibilities, which require us to labor for our families….However, what we do to make a living may not necessarily be what our “true calling” is…..Work was made for man and we must toil for our daily bread…But the bread we eat is not the bread of life…Each of the Baptized, that means YOU, has been called by God to a particular service…As St Paul rightly put it in Scripture…”And he gave some as apostles, others as prophets, others as evangelists, others as pastors and teachers, to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ”……Like St Luke, who the Church honors today, made his living by being a doctor but he is remembered for what he did in his service to and for the Lord….What will you be remembered for?…..What gift has the Lord given you and how are you using that gift?

“Your friends make known, O Lord, the glorious splendor of your Kingdom”

From the development of a deep interior life through daily prayer, weekly fasting and living the Sacramental life each of us will find our calling…..Many Catholics approach their service for the Lord putting the “cart before the horse”…..Please allow me to explain…..They look to serve God before they develop a deep interior life….If we first pray, our work will organically flow from our interior life…Mother Teresa once told a great story….She was speaking to a group of priests about the importance of making a daily Holy Hour before the Blessed Sacrament…And this priest says to her…”Mother I am the pastor of two parishes…I run a school as well and have so much to do…I have no time to make a Holy Hour each day….This was Mother Teresa’s response….”You are a very important man…You have been given so many responsibilities….You should make two Holy Hours each day!”…..You see…This priest got it wrong…He put the “cart before the horse”…First we pray, go to confession regularly, receive the Eucharist in the state of grace…And then God will not only show you what you are to do for him but empower you to do it……We are all far too confident in our own abilities…Jesus will take what he has given to you and magnify it…If you let him

“This is how it is with the kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come.”

Today in the gospel from Mass….St Luke tells us…..”The Lord Jesus appointed seventy-two disciples whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit. He said to them, "The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest”…Just as Jesus sent out his friends to “labor in the fields of the world” for the salvation of souls…He sends us out too!…But before you set out, first pray, go to confession with a priest, and receive the Blessed Sacrament in the state of grace….Then what you do will have power and when you speak you will speak with authority…..”Do not worry beforehand about what you are to say. But say whatever will be given to you at that hour. For it will not be you who are speaking but the Holy Spirit”…….Each of us has something to do….As I was once told by a wise and holy nun….”Joe, don’t think…..Pray and do!”…That is the correct order……Pray & do!

We are all far too confident in our own abilities…Jesus will take what he has given to you and magnify it…If you let him

What is the cornerstone of your life?…..That is the question…..Is it love?…Is this what drives you?...And if it is love….Who do you love?

Today at Holy Mass we hear from the gospel of Luke…Jesus addresses the leaders and teachers of the people….”“Woe to you who build the memorials of the prophets whom your fathers killed. Consequently, you bear witness and give consent to the deeds of your ancestors, for they killed them and you do the building”…….Have we ever stopped to think about what it must have been like for Christ to speak truth to power knowing full well he was going to be tortured and brutally murdered?…..Can you ever imagine the thoughts that ran through his head as he sweat blood in the garden of gethsemane the night before he was killed?…..What drives a person to go to such extremes?…The answer is simple…Love!….Only a person who loves can do what Jesus did….No one is willing to die for a lie…..But for love a person will do almost anything and endure the worst the world can throw at them…..We can study and read about Jesus, the lives of the saints and the teachings of the Catholic Church all we want…But if we are not driven by love…We will not stand firm when the “rubber meets the road”…..However, if we encounter love itself….God who loves us…We can endure…We will persevere…And we will conquer in the name of the Carpenter from Nazareth…Only love can do that and we must find this love because it is there!

“Whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber”

St Peter was a flawed man as we all know…Peter as they say “shot from the hip”…He put his “foot in his mouth” often…Peter was a regular man and when the “rubber met the road”…He denied Jesus in his moment of need to save his own skin…….”He began to curse and to swear, “I do not know this man about whom you are talking.”…….However, Peter was humble enough to repent and reconcile with Jesus after the fact…..”He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was distressed that he had said to him a third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep”……As we all know, Peter redeemed himself and did in fact “feed Jesus's sheep”…He went on to be the first pope, lead the early church and he was crucified himself…..How did he do all that?….When one meditates upon the life of St Peter, we may come to see that he was very human and maybe he needed to fail for him to eventually succeed….Isn’t that the way it is for all of us too?….Many times we fail in trying to follow Jesus…In trying to do the right thing…We fail…Only to get back up and try again…That is what St Peter did…And in the end Peter succeeded…..God uses our failures to fuel our successes…..If you allow your failures to motivate you forward….Learn from your mistakes…Reconcile yourself to God…You will be given the needed grace as St Peter was to “complete the race”.

“Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.”

Getting back to the gospel today from Mass…The teachers of the law did not want to hear what Jesus was saying because they liked their status within society more than they valued the Truth itself…We too must ask ourself this question…What do we value more then the Truth?…Is it comfort?…Is it status?…..All those things are temporary and in the end will be meaningless when we face death in our final hour…..…What will give you real comfort and peace in the moments before you die?…You must answer that question for yourself…..We will all die one day…..What is the cornerstone of your life?…..That is the question…..Is it love?…Is this what drives you?...And if it is love….Who do you love?