“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."