The Church must first tend to the wounds of its people....Only then will the Truth be heard….“Tend the wounds, tend the wounds!”

Today at Holy Mass we hear from the Gospel of St Mark….Jesus is confronted by the scribes, they say he is possessed by the devil…..Why would they say this?…..Jesus is helping people, yet they criticize him, trying to discredit his actions…..We do not have to look too far to see the same thing happen today…..The scribes like everyone else saw with their own eyes what Jesus was doing…But if they acknowledge it, they would in turn have to question their own actions, which they were not willing to do….So instead they “throw stones” at Christ….Again, so it is today…The Truth stares us all in the face….The Truth is reality and when we “push up against it”…....When we try to change what can not change….There are consequences…..We see this all the time…..The shortest distance from one place to another is A to B…..This again is reality!….The first step in facing this reality is looking one’s self in the mirror….Admitting where we ALL fall short…Ask for forgiveness….And in turn and in time divine grace will help us to overcome our short comings….This is the ONLY way forward…To deny this reality is to reap the consequences of this reality…What the scribes were doing to Jesus was a very human response to someone who is faced with the Truth and does not want to acknowledge that Truth, so they instead attack it…All of which stems from not being willing to change…..Our refusal to change does not alter the Truth because the Truth can not be altered…Remember what Jesus said…I am the Truth…He did not say…I am the custom

“Our Savior Jesus Christ has destroyed death and brought life to light through the Gospel”

With age comes wisdom…I have seen over the course of my life how people and actions come full circle….There is an old saying…..No one gets away with anything….And as a fifty-four year old man - I have found that saying to be true…If we are honest with ourself, we have seen this saying play out time and time again…But here is the key…Are we honest with our self?…The human mind has a way to rationalize bad behavior away because of our reluctance to change…..Human beings do this all the time…If we want to move forward in our journey towards God, we first must confront our self….Everyone wants to change the world but no one wants to change themself….Nothing changes until we face the “man in the mirror”….Years ago a friend of mine was struggling with alcoholism…..He was not eating and living on vodka….As a result, his health was deteriorating…..It was not until he admitted to himself that he could not stop drinking and needed help that he began the journey back to a better life…..The first step that alcoholics have to take is admitting to their problem….A problem can not be solved when we deny it exists….This is a good analogy for all of us because all of us are human and because of that all of us have failings and flaws….And if we are honest with our self deep down, we probably want to correct those failings…If you don’t think you have any “issues” my suggestion is - Ask you spouse - I bet they can tell you what they are…But I digress……When we are honest with ourself and face our shortcoming, like a person who struggles with alcoholism, its the first step to correcting our shortcomings…This is why going to a Sacramental Confession once a month with a Catholic Priest is very healthy…..Not only are our sins forgiven when we maintain this practice, but we are holding ourself up to accountability…We are admitting our shortcomings honestly…And here is the good news…God hears us, God loves us, God forgives us and in time God heals us….With each Sacramental Confession we are given divine grace…And that grace helps us in time to overcome our sins and shortcomings…That is why a person who maintains this practice of going to Confession on a monthly basis grows in virtue…In time what we struggle with disappears all together with God’s assistance…Like the alcoholic, this begins with admitting we have a problem…And we all have this problem - We are all sinners and that is why Jesus walked the earth - The only reason…To help us - To forgive us - And to sanctify us…None of this happens without our cooperation.

"How can Satan drive out Satan”?…….”If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand”

The scribes today in St Mark’s Gospel did not want to hear it…How about us?…..Jesus was doing good and instead of acknowledging the good, they “throw stones” at Christ in an attempt to discredit him…All because they would not change…..Our reluctance to change does not change reality…..For example…You are free to believe gravity does not exist….My response is…Climb to the roof of your house and jump…When you hit the cement sidewalk you are again free to believe gravity does not exist…But when the hospital bill comes to your mailbox, your "ideas" about gravity do not pay the doctor’s bill - You pay……Humility is truth…We are all human and we all have shortcomings…Just ask my wife about mine, I am far from perfect…Admitting that is ok..Jesus came to call sinners, not those who believe themselves to be perfect…That is one of the driving reasons why I am Catholic…I am a sinner who needs to be forgiven…I need grace to overcome my shortcomings…And I got news for you - So do you!….The Church must first tend to the wounds of its people....Only then will the Truth be heard….“Tend the wounds, tend the wounds!”