Link for the next divorce annulment forum

Zoom Link

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11th Sunday OT (Cycle B) The Columbia Pregnancy Center

(Mk 4:26-34)
Jesus said to the crowds:
“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 through it all 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.”
He said,
“To what shall we compare the kingdom of God,
or what parable can we use for it?
It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground,
is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth.
But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants
and puts forth large branches,
so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.”
With many such parables
he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it.
Without parables he did not speak to them,
but to his own disciples he explained everything in private. 

    Last Thursday I attended the yearly dinner and fundraiser for the Columbia Pregnancy Center. An organization which provides services to women in crisis pregnancies. This year, they are celebrating their 40th anniversary, and are hoping to raise close to $300,000 to continue their work of providing women in need with a better choice than Abortion. Which to many women, seems to be the only viable choice our culture has to offer.

     I was very pleased to see a good compliment from St Michael’s parishioners there, especially from the Knights of Columbus and the Respect Life committee .  I tried to mingle as much as possible and say “hi” to all, but there were just too many people so if you were there and I missed you please forgive me.

    We heard some very good speakers, all women who have experienced motherhood, some who had experienced abortions and now regret this decision deeply; others who by the work this center does of educating and providing support,  where able to take their pregnancies to term and now have healthy and babies.

    Usually you hear pro-abortion advocates say that we pro-lifers like to help woman have their baby but that after the baby is born we don’t care anymore about mother and child. If anyone ever gives you that argument, send them to this center and they will see the work pro-lifers are doing to help families  before, during and after the baby is born.

    One of the speakers told us about the humble beginnings of this center. And how this was just the idea of two pro life women who felt they needed to do more to help pregnant women. As she was telling this story I kept thinking about one of the Lord’s parables in today’s reading. How the mustard seed is the smallest and least impressive of all seeds when it is planted and how it grows to become a large plant and its branches grow so big that the birds of the sky come to enjoy its shade. 

    From its humble beginnings this center now helps about 1200 families a year to safely deliver healthy babies. Babies that are wanted and loved. Babies that without this support most likely would have never seen the light of day.  In my mind I could see how everyone of these babies was like a bird resting securely under the shadow provided by volunteers, staff and friends of this center.

    To paraphrase the Lord in today’s readings.  The kingdom of God is composed of many seeds the farmer plants into fertile ground and then sits and waits to see how much fruit each plant will provide. The seed the Lord planted right in the center of our community has become a big strong tree, and has produced much fruit for the last 40 years.

   As it always happens in events like this,  one of the speakers gave us a bunch of statistics about everything they had accomplished during the last year. Perhaps it is the engineer in me but whenever I hear numbers my brain just pays attention. Because of this there was one statistic that hit me like a hammer: Even after all the work and effort of the good people volunteering their time to this center last year of all the women who have sought their  help only 82%  decided to keep their babies. This might sound good to some but it also means that last year, right here in our Howard County Community (And please forgive me, but there is no other way of saying this) 216 babies had their lives extinguished because  women thought that the help offered by our prolife efforts was not enough.

       So this tree planted by the Lord 40 years ago is still trying to find its full potential.  It is by the efforts of communities like St Michaels that this work can continue, and we should be proud of our achievements, but also keep in mind that the work is not yet done. There is room to grow, work to be done and lives to be saved. 

     I pray that in the year ahead more and more people here at St Michael’s get involved in the fight against the great evil that is abortion, and that they lend their time and voices to help women who have no other place to turn than the Columbia Pregnancy Center.  GBMBAS

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5th Sunday OT (Cycle B): Self Reflection in times of COVID

For a streamed version of this homily you can go here. 

 
  In today’s mass we hear about 3 very important men in the history of our salvation. In the first reading we meet Job, a man who's strong faith is an example to all believers because after losing his fortune, his home, his wife, his children even his health had the strength to famously say “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of Lord”.   On the second reading we met Paul, a former Pharisee, well educated, Roman Citizen, a well respected tent maker, and a persecutor of the Church. A man who after an encounter with the risen Christ, voluntarily gave everything he was and had in order to become a messenger of the Good News. Finally, in the Gospel reading we meet the Lord Jesus but not in all his glory. We meet him as a simple man who unlike Job and Paul, who in their lives had wealth and family, had nothing. In fact his parents were poor, so poor that he was born in a manger and as a baby became a refugee. We meet  him as a man that is beginning to fulfill his calling in life. Not worrying about what he had or what he gave up but focused on the task He received from the Father, to bring the good news to the world.. 

   We meet these three men at different stages in their lives. Job is at the end of his rope, he looks at himself and only sees failure, pain and disappointment. Paul is in the middle of his ministry reflecting upon why he does what he does, how he has given everything to the Gospel without expecting any recompense. And Jesus is at the beginning of his ministry, still trying to decide how to reach the people he had come to save, relying on prayer and contemplation to follow the way the spirit takes him.   

   The interesting thing about these three stories is that we meet each one of these men in a moment of self reflection. One of those moments in which we are forced by circumstance to take a good look at ourselves, reflect on where we had been, and decide how to move forward into the next step in our lives.  

    I would venture to say that every human being on earth, it doesn't matter from what culture or which time, has experienced moments like these throughout their lives.  The question for us today is :  In a time like the one we are living, in the middle of a pandemic, a time in which the act of wearing a mask, keeping our distance or even speaking loudly can be the difference between life and death for ourselves or for the ones we love.  What can we learn from these three men? What should our own moments of self reflection tell us?

    Well to the ones who have suffered great loss and now find themselves wondering what next, Jo(U)b teaches us that life is truly like the wind and that even when we feel that we will never feel happiness again, our faith doesn't end with what we have lost.  Winning or losing  the name of the Lord will always be blessed because as long as we have life, there is an opportunity for His eternal love and mercy to reach us and restore to us that which we have lost, even if we think this impossible.

    To the ones who day after day feel they give everything they have and are, and feel that they do not have anymore to give, St Paul reminds us that our efforts are not in vain. We have the assurance that some of the people we serve will be saved, but we should also accept the reality that some will be lost or not appreciate what we do for them. This is fine because our Father in heaven knows how much we love and care for the lives of others.

   To the ones who are starting on their efforts to help others, how have finally pushed fear out of the way and have taken the decision that this pandemic will not dictate the way we will live our lives, the Lord Jesus teaches us that only living a life of prayer and contemplation will give us the strengths and understanding we need to move ahead not where we want to go but where God the Father wants to send us.

  In today's readings we meet 3 very different men, in very different situations; each one reflecting on what lies ahead, what they should do, where they should go. Three men whose approach to dealing with the uncertainty of life have much to teach us.

    In these times in which we find ourselves wondering what comes next after COVID, let us focus our attention on the lives of these three men as a great example for us to follow. 

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2nd Sunday of OT (Cycle B): Here I am Lord

You can see the video here. 

      As I was reflecting on today’s readings, I kept wondering about how to relate these stories to the situations we have been living in our country for the last few weeks. What can God’s call, to 9 year old Samuel, and Jesus' first conversation with two of his future apostles teach us about the deep divisions, and anger we see every day in the news? About the fear and frustration of life in the middle of a pandemic? What light can these images shed on the way we are all feeling today about our country and our future?

  These were my thoughts that occupied my mind during my reflection and had to ask my family for a little help because I was having  difficulty with today’s readings. It was my older son, Lucas, who pointed out something I had completely missed. You see, in both of these stories we are witnessing events which are confusing and scary. In the first story we see Samuel listening to a voice in the dark calling his name. He is confused and asks Eli if he is the one calling him. An unknown voice, in the dark calling your name is a pretty confusing and scary thing, especially for such a young child. 

   In the second story we see Andrew and John, future disciples following the Lord after John the Baptist calls Him “the Lamb of God”. In a moment they did not expect, Jesus surprises them by turning around and asking. “What are you looking for?” They are so confused and surprised by this that they respond with the first thing that comes to their minds “Where are you staying?” 

   These two stories are born out of surprise, fear and confusion. However, although this is a common thread between them, the part that can help us navigate our own situations is not their surprise and fear but their reaction to an unexpected challenge coming directly from God. These events were just the beginning of something completely new, something none of these men could have predicted or even imagined!

  Samuel became one of the most important prophets of Israel. Andrew and John became part of Jesus' inner circle of apostles. What would have happened if any of these three men decided that this event was too scary to handle, or that they were too comfortable and happy with the life they were living and did not want to bother with living the life the lord was presenting in front of them?

   Of course if we try to describe the mood in our country for the last few months or last few weeks I think that anger, confusion and fear are the best words we can use. Now if we were to list the reasons why we feel like this we will list the usual suspects: The pandemic, social distancing, the election results and the reactions towards these results. And those are big reasons,  we can certainly add to this list things like, problems in our jobs, our schools, troubles with friends and loved ones. Fear of getting sick, or of a parent or a friend getting sick, and on and on.

  Anger, fear and confusion are natural reactions to sudden changes to the peace in our lives. As humans we don’t like change, we avoid it, we resist it. But in the history of any country as it is in the history of any person change is the only constant thing in life. How do we react to this change is what determines what kind of people we are, and I hope that if I were ever to ask anyone here to day (and anyone viewing our streamed mass): What kind of person you are, the first answer you all would give is: “I’m a follower of Jesus, I’m a Christian, I’m a Catholic. That’s the kind of person I am.”

     What will define us in these coming days, months and years of fear and confusion will not be how we voted, which political party we followed, what kinds of protests I agree with, whether I chose to wear a mask or I just don’t care anymore. What will define us as persons will be the way we react to the changes happening around us. Whether I decided to follow the Lord and how far was I willing to go. The one thing to know is this: It doesn't matter what is going on in my life at the moment. What matters is what kind of reaction I’m going to have to these events. 

   Am I willing to accept changes that I know will make the world less comfortable, less safe, less certain? Am I ready to embrace these changes like a disciple of the Lord should with faith and hope? Will I forgive those who offend me?  Will I pray for my enemies and the people who persecute me and threaten the security of my future and the future of those who I love?  

   Anger, confusion and fear are the results of losing control in our lives. But If you ask me the reason why we were born in these times and in this place was so that we can be an example and overcome these emotions and plunge ourselves into the darkness with confidence like young Samuel, and follow the Lord to wherever he wants to lead us like Andrew and John. This is what our families, our communities and our nation needs right now: it's not, democrat or republican leadership. It's not enraged protesters tearing  down the institutions that we are all supposed to protect, it is not Black Life Matters movement, it is not White supremacy ideas, it is not conspiracy theories, or crazy politicians. None of that can bring true peace to our nation. The only thing that it’s going to bring peace is true disciples of our Lord Jesus, like you and me, willing to embrace the changes and situations God is proposing to our nation, without fear, without anger and without confusion but with God’s love which surpasses all understanding. GBMBAS

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Your Grandchildren Carry the Weight of your Life Experiences

NOTE: Being an engineer and a deacon, I'm always attuned to the intersection of science, theology and spirituality. Usually when I encounter these I reflect on the event and move on, but since I have resolved to leave more permanent traces of myself for 2021, this year when ever I encounter these intersections I will write a post about them. So here is the first of what I hope will become a more regular event.

  Does God punish children for the sins of their parents (or Grandparents)? There are more than one bible passage that seems to say this. Here are a few examples:

Deuteronomy 5:9 - You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me

Exodus 34:7 -  Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.

Isaiah 14:31 - Prepare a place to slaughter his children for the sins of their ancestors; they are not to rise to inherit the land and cover the earth with their cities.

  How can a just and loving God behave like this? This is a very important theological question specially for people seeking to deepen their relationship with this divine being. There is a good answer to the justice behind this idea of children caring the guilt of their progenitors, which I intend to answer in an upcoming episode of my podcast.  However as I was researching this question I was shocked to find that the Journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, also known by the non-scientific folk by the name Science, has published an article explaining the "how" of this process. You can read part of the article here. 

  The article I linked to (The epigenome—a family affair by John R. McCarrey, Department of Biology, University of Texas at San Antonio) is 5 years old and presents a state of the science up to that point. What is surprising to me, is that this branch of genetic science (epigenetics) presents a mechanism by which this biblical tenant is made true in the lives of human beings.  Since this article was published more research has being made offering  more proof  that the events in the life of parents and grand parents can have a direct effect on the genetic code of their off spring. 

  Once again science and theology are more interrelated than what many people would like to admit.

"Viva Cristo Rey!!" 

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2021 Resolutions!

      I used to do one of these types of posts every year as a way of keeping myself accountable. However back in the winter of 2017 I started having health issues which culminated in an open heart surgery. As you can imagine this caused quite a disruption in my life and for the last 3 years I hardly had any time to focus my mind on End of Year resolutions, when the only End of Year resolution that mattered for me and my family was "Get better".

    Enter COVID 19. Because I'm considered  "high risk" (Due to my heart problems) I have had to sit in my home for the last 10 months, which gave me a lot of time to return to activities I had neglected since before my surgery. So this year, as 2020 ends I decided to return to my resolution tradition. After much meditation I realized that this year I only care for 1 resolution.

    "I will be more present in the real world."

   You might be wondering what I mean. Well, I noticed that because of my long recuperation during  2017-2018 and the COVID 19 quarantine I  have developed the habit of spending a considerable share of my time viewing online content. Time that I was robbing away from my family and activities that throughout my life have given me great pleasure, like playing classical guitar, reading, blogging and podcasting.  My only online presence during the last three years has been basically emails and Facebook posts. I have decided that in 2021 this is going to change. By "being more present" I mean that I will stare less at screens and will use my time in a most productive way in "The real world" by continuing projects that have more significance to my life and ministry and that will leave a better digital footprint of myself for my friends and family, than just a bunch of funny Facebook posts.  

 
Now, I understand that "being more in the real world" is quite a general statement, so I need to refine the idea a bit more so that it could be applied to my day to day life. So I figure that I could translate this into 4 more specific activities that will help me focus better during this year. They are:

        A. Lurk less.

  Again, I spend an in ordinate amount of time staring at different social media, just to publish a few funny Facebook posts a week. In order to be more present in the real world I will focus on  being less and consumer of pre-processed content. 

        B.  Leave more permanent traces of myself.

  This might sound silly to some (perhaps it was my close brush with death) but for a while I've been thinking, "If  100 years from now one of my great-great-children decides they would like to get to know me better and went to the internet to find any digital traces I have left behind, what kind of picture would they get of me if the only content they can find are just my Facebook posts?". To leave better permanent traces of myself, this year, I will copy and paste less and endeavor to create more. I will focus on leaving a permanent record of my thoughts and significant events in my life. 

        C. Stay honest with myself.

 One of the reasons I have achieved both personal and professional goals throughout my life has been my ability for self reflection and self discipline. I have always thought  that I owe this to my Catholic upbringing, that always calls me to reflect on the consequences of my actions on others lives and to sacrifice comfort and personal pleasure for the greater good. (Fasting and penance are a great way to develop self discipline!) This year I will endeavor to reflect more on how I'm using my time and be willing to adjust my path when moving away from my goals. In short: I will try to be less on "automatic" mode and more on giving my complete attention to every task at hand. After all my goal is to leave a better picture of myself, so I need to pay attention to make sure I leave the best of me.

        D. Improve my skills.

   As I was recuperating from my surgery (2017-2018), I spent a lot of time just sitting on the sofa watching reruns of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, or just sitting quietly and reflecting about the meaning of  my situation. (Back then my prayer to God was "I can't wait to see what good are you going to squeeze out of this mess in which you have put me")  Looking back I realize that this was the only thing I could do while the hole in the middle of my chest healed. Which drove me crazy!  But the situation required me to completely focus on healing my body as well as my spirit. 

   As 2019 ended I was feeling pretty good. I was in the best shape of my life (Or at least since my college years) and was beginning to think of what challenges I could take for the new year. And then the pandemic quarantine happened. During my time at home I was able involve myself in projects that improve my skills professionally as well as personally. I have completed a couple of construction projects around the house and honed my programing skills on Python and R programming. I have began to take a look at the new computer science field of Data Science.  All of my life I had been a student in one field or another, but was forced to neglect this side of myself for two years. In 2021 I will continue to focus my efforts on learning and growing.

   Now that I have broken down my year's resolution in 4 areas,  I can create a list of real life activities that will make me more present to the world.

Here is my list:

A: Lurk Less

Limit my social media use to 1 hour a day (Ideally 30 ins in the morning and 30 in the evening)

Do not carry the phone around with me when I'm at home. 

Use YouTube for educational purposes not entertainment. 

I will share my entertainment time with my family.

I will only buy a book when I have finished reading 5 al ready in my reading list

I will read 25 a minimum of pages every day

B: Leave more permanent traces of myself 

Resurrect my blog

Resurrect the "Hidden Bible Podcast"

Work on a few writing ideas I have.

Use Facebook exclusively as a way to communicate with friends and family about my life, not as a way to entertain the world.

C: Stay Honest

Post every month how I am doing in my efforts

Develop a schedule allowing a fair time to each activity (Experience has shown me that it is easy to give all your time to things you like to do and very little time to things you NEED to do)

Check with family once a month to see how am I doing.

D: Improve my skills

Exercise 3-4 times a week. (I was doing this before the pandemic; once we were in lock down I have done very little of this. For 2021 I will find ways to replace gym time with other activities like walking the dogs or hiking).

Limit my classical guitar playing to 30-60 minutes a day tops.

Continue improving my programing and data science skills by taking online training and finding ways to apply these skill to my telework.

So there you have it, my resolutions for 2021!

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33rd Sunday OT (Cycle A) The Parable of the Talents

      I’ve always thought that of the 4 gospels, the Book of Matthew from which the reading I just proclaimed is taken is the scariest. And I say scary not in a “Halloween” spooky way, but scary in the “Did Jesus really say that??” kind of a way. The story is simple: A wealthy man divides his fortune between three servants to care for it while he is gone. He doesn’t give them instructions, he just gives each a great part of his treasure. When he returns, he sees that two of the three servants have invested this treasure wisely and doubled the value of what they received. The third servant however decides that it is too risky to speculate with that which was not his, so instead places this treasure in a safe place so that he can return it to his master. (And here is where the scary part comes) When the master hears about how this servant treated the treasure he was given, he became angry. Calling him lazy takes what he had received and gave it to the one servant who had made the better use of his gift. Just listen to the way the Lord Lord Jesus ends the story: ” For to everyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.... Throw this useless servant into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.” Those are pretty scary words coming from the Lord Jesus who (as we all know) is supposed to love everyone.

    I hope that if you were paying attention to my retelling of the story you noticed something I did on purpose. I did not once use the word money. I spoke of wealth, treasure, value but never of money. I did this because in the times of Jesus a “Talent” was a unit of value that meant much more than just money. A single talent was much more than what a common laborer could earn in a lifetime.  Yes, in the parable Jesus says that the master tells the servant he should have at least “put his money in the bank” to get interest, but money is just a part of what a “talent” is. What Jesus  truly means is: “you should have at least used the money part of what I gave you so that I could at least get something...anything from my investment”.

     It is easy to misinterpret this parable in an area as wealthy as our own. We hear it and we make the mistake of assuming that what these servants received from their lord was just money and that the only thing this master truly cared was how much money he would have in return. This is not what Jesus has in mind when he taught this. The owner in Jesus' story entrusted a lot more than just money —he left them all his possessions, everything he had, everything he had accumulated throughout his life. By doing this, he took a great risk and he wanted  his servants to do the same. This is why he was so mad when the treasure he gave to the one servant was not used, not even a small part of it.

    Now, If we were to replace the owner of this story with Our Heavenly Father and the servants with ourselves, our first thought might be “how much money I have to give to the Church or to the poor?” But material possessions are NOT the biggest gift we can receive from God. So the real question we should ask ourselves should be: “What is this great treasure God has given me and how am I using it?”  Well, We all know that God gives to us our own lives with all their material rewards.  But again this is just part of God’s gift to us. What else has God given to each one of us? His own life. He has given us his Son, to die on the cross for us, he has given us His Spirit to be with us to guide us and instruct us, He has given us his grace to unite us with him and with one another in a stronger way that we are united to our own families.

   When we say that God has given us life, we mean he has given us everything we have and are and everything we can become. Not using these gifts for his glory, is the same as burying God’s gifts so that we are not disappointed or even persecuted for living the life of a disciple. The Lord God wants us to take all the beauty and love he has given us and spread it wide and far, without worrying about how much loss we suffer in the process. He wants us to take risks with the blessing of his grace, life and spirit. He wants us to be bold Christians to go and spread his love to those who have not learned how to use their own gifts. He wants us not to worry about how much return we are going to receive for our efforts, what he wants is for us to make these efforts. In the words of St Mother Teresa of Calcutta, which you have heard me quote many times from this pulpit: God doesn't want us to be successful, He wants us to be faithful.

  What is the alternative? Well here is where the scary part comes, he is very clear in the story, those who don’t share his gifts are condemned to a life of darkness and loneliness, grinding their teeth in fear,  condemned to wallow in this fear wondering what will the Lord do when he sees that we have not been faithful with his wishes. A very scary thing if you ask me, and that my brothers and sisters is a chance we can not afford to take. GBMBAAS

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30Th Sunday OT (Cycle A) Vote the Catholic Conscience

      OK let me address the 800 pound gorilla in the middle of the room first: In just 9 days there is going to be a general election in our country. I’m sure that by now you are completely fed up with political ads and talking heads telling you how and for whom you should vote. So don't worry I will not talk about who is a better candidate or which political party is on the side of the angels.  What I will do is use today’s readings as a lens to discern not how we should cast our vote for this or that candidate but how we should approach all the important decisions in our lives. For you old Catholics like myself, what I’m trying to do is what the old Baltimore Catechism calls “forming Consciences”.

    How am I going to do this? Well I will take the example of our parents. Any child will tell you that regardless of how much a parent loves us there are certain lines that should never be crossed. Lines that will land us on deep (And I mean DEEEEEEP trouble). Today’s first reading has a very direct way of saying it:”People of Israel do not do these things or my anger will flare up”. No child wants to see a parent’s anger flair up, right?

   So God, who is a Father to all of us, has a breaking point, a moment  no child would like to encounter. What is this point? Well it says it there very clearly: Do not abuse or oppress the alien, the widow, the orphans or the poor. Because all those who have no other recourse than pleading to God for justice, will be heard, and we will have to answer to Our Father for our actions. That is a line we should never cross.

   By now I know that many of you are doing mental mathematics about this or that party, or about this or that candidate being more oppressive than the other. Here is a principle for you: If you can not look at your own party or candidate and say to yourself “I know I’m going to vote for you, but I understand that these things you have done, these things you advocate are wrong, and even evil”; if you can not say this, then you are not using a well formed conscience to exercise your right to vote.

  The reality is that no party is perfect and all candidates are sinners in need of redemption. To demonize one candidate or party so that you can canonize your own is not the action of a well formed conscience. Let me be more specific, If you feel that 60 million abortions are some how OK or that it is a justifiable action to treat illegal immigrants like cattle, to separate children from their parents. You need to form your conscience, before you exercise your vote. The reality is that both parties in our country have not been on the sides of angels for a long, long time.  The voices of every family broken, every refugee summarily deported without recourse, every child separated from their parents by force, every innocent aborted baby, every poor woman tricked into a life of misery, depression, and regret because abortion was the only choice available for her cries to our God for justice. And our Father in heaven listens to each one of these voices. So, if this is not enough to get us all in the confession lines after we cast our votes for party A or party B, I do not know what will.

    So what are we to do? Well, I told you that my goal was to help form  consciences so here it is: Love God above anything else and then love others like you would like to be loved. A well formed conscience always begins with these two principles in mind when making any important decision. Use these principles to do your own “mental math” when deciding how to cast your vote. Read both parties platforms which you can find online, pray about it and cast your vote. Because, no party or candidate is perfect. The reality is that after this election is over not much is going to change regardless of who is in power because when it comes to love of God and love of neighbor both parties have failed on their duty to the American people, especially the most poor, the most vulnerable, the ones who have no voice to speak for themselves.

   You know, people say that they will vote for this or that party because they want “things to change”. Do not cast your vote thinking this. The only thing is going to make things change in our families, our county and our world is if we, republicans, democrats and independents develop a well formed conscience, if we focus on what should be always first, love of God and love of neighbor. 

  9 days from today, go vote, exercise your civil duty, but do it with a clear mind, and on November 4 when we hopefully know who won, lets begin creating the change we so desperately need and want by loving God and Loving our neighbor. GBMBAS 

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15th Sunday OT (Cycle A): The Parable of the Hardened Hearts.

    Today’s Gospel is one of Jesus' most beloved parables. For generations preachers have reflected on the deep meanings behind the story of the sower and the seeds that although being all the same, produce different fruits depending on the kind of ground they fall. It is a real shame that in today’s reading, right in the middle of the story we have to listen to Him explaining to the apostles that the reason why he purposely spoke in parables was  so that a specific group of people would not understand what he was saying.
   To our year 2020 sencibilities this comes across as not too politically correct for Jesus. After all, don't we live in an era in which we are supposed to include everyone in every endeavor? Why is the Lord excluding some while revealing deep meanings of the Kingdom to others?
   Even the Church recognizes this whole scene as problematic;  so out of character for the Lord that it gives us, preachers, the option to select between the Gospel I just proclaimed and a shorter, much more “nicer” version, without the embarrassing talk about “taking away from those who have nothing”. Luckily (for you...I guess) I am one who never shies away from controversy, so… here we are.

    Now, the important questions for us today are these: Why is the Lord excluding a certain group of people from his teachings and what does this have to do with us today?  The key to our first question is given right at the beginning of the reading. “On that day, Jesus went out of the house and sat down by the sea.”  You see, we need to remember that today’s story happened at one specific moment in Jesus ministry. What else happened “On that day”, that Matthew feels the need to point this out? Well if we look at the passages BEFORE this story we find out that Jesus preached this parable the same day he had been presented with a possessed man. The same day when, after he liberated this poor man from the demonic power, Pharisees  accused him of having power over demons not because he was divine but because He was in league with Satan.
    In fact, if you look at Jesus preaching before that day, He never used parables to teach the crowds. It was after this day that he began speaking in parables to the people. Even the apostles notice this chance when they ask him “Why do you speak to them in parables?” Up to this point Jesus had taught in a very direct way, speaking of the Kingdom of Heaven directly, and what it was needed to be part of this kingdom. From this day on the Lord begins to teach in parables, in words that could be understood by those who were poor and oppressed. In words that those who were in power could not understand, not because they were confusing but because they had already made up their mind about who the Lord Jesus was showing to be: The Son of God. They we're too stubborn to receive his message and preferred to close their eyes to the words of truth and dismiss everything the Lord said as rubbish, not worthy of their time and attention.
     Jesus answered the apostles' question in a very direct way. I speak in parables so that you who have been granted knowledge of the kingdom of heaven could benefit from my teachings, and those who have decided to ignore or twist my words for their own benefit, continue to live in the darkness they have freely chosen, where they feel secure and  comfortable. “they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand”. These are the people whose hearts were like a dry path, where Jesus' words have no chance to take a hold and grow, and he tells us very clearly that these are the people to whom the evil one comes and steals away the seeds the Lord had tried to plant in their hearts.
    If you ask me on the parable of the sower there are two types of seeds: the ones with a chance to grow, but for many reasons only some are able to produce fruit, and seeds that never take hold, not because of they are bad seeds but because the ground in which they fell is to hard to give them any chance to produce fruit.
    Before I said we had two questions in front of us today. I hope I answered the first one to your satisfaction. The second one, what does this have to do with us today… well...I will let you answer this in the secret of your hearts. Is my heart so hardened, am I so comfortable with the way I live my life that the word of the Lord can never find good ground  to grow? That is a question we should always ask ourselves, not just today but everyday of our lives. GBMBS

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12th Sunday OT (Cycle A): Do not be Afraid

      I think we can all agree that the year 2020 has turnout to be a year unlike any other. A few weeks back when I stood here preaching to the mothers of St Michael our number one worry was protecting ourselves and our loved ones from the Covid-19 virus… What a difference a few weeks make!
     Today, on top of all of our worries about COVID-19 now we have to add all of the tension caused by news and images of police brutality, protesters, looters, tear gas, graffiti, rock throwing, rubber bullets... It is clear to me that on this Father’s day 2020 our nation is battling another type of virus, not a microscopic entity that only affects our bodies but something more dangerous and more destructive, a virus of the soul. Now some people might be thinking “Well here it goes the minority is going to lecture us about racism”.  If you think like that you are wrong. I believe that this virus which is stealing our peace and consuming our nation is not racism, it is something much deeper and more dangerous.

    As a Puerto Rican, throughout my close to 40 years living in the United States I have had my fair share of encounters with racism. I still recall the very first time I attended mass in Laurel, the very first words out of the usher’s mouth when they saw me walk into the church were “Let me show you where the Spanish masses are in the area”;  back then I  discovered something that is very clear to me in the pictures we see on TV.  Behind all the screaming, and anger, all the destruction of property and the violence, behind all the calls for change  and the actions of corporations changing their logos, and news of politicians threatening to dissolve police departments; behind all this, there is a deep undercurrent of fear. People are scared. Some people are living scared of the police, others live scared of people of a different color, or even a different accent.  Some People are scared of the change one group demands but more importantly almost everyone is scared about their future, and the future of their loved ones.
      If you think about it, we find ourselves living in a paradox. On one hand this is the most advanced society ever, the wealth of our nation, our health care and our technology are really stuff that people from a 100 years ago wouldn't even dream off! Even with all these advances as a society, as a community of people, in our nation we have never been more scared in our lives. The problem with fear is that it makes us behave in ways we would never do under normal conditions. Fear brings the worst in us, it takes away our capacity to think clear and to see or hear what others are telling us.
      In this time in which we live, it is easy to see how our fears can make other human beings look like the sparrows from Jesus story, part of the background, insignificant, without any value to us; So in the middle of this pandemic of fear today we hear Jesus proclaim in gospel: Do not be afraid!  No one is insignificant, not one person falls to the ground without the Father's knowledge, every hair of our head has been counted.  Every human life is precious in the eyes of God.
What I like about these words of the Lord for us today is that He cuts through all the noise and tells us “You are afraid, don't be!”. He doesn’t assume we are scared, he knows we live in fear, and he knows that the very first step to overcome our fear is to recognize we are afraid. When we realize this, fear can not control us anymore. We begin to see the fear of those around us, and we can begin to help them overcome their own fears. So if you find yourself getting angry at what the protesters are saying or about the silence of people who do not understand or care about the issues of race in our country, be honest with yourself and ask …”What am I afraid of?”
“Do not be afraid” is not only a message for today, but it should become our way of life. Do not be afraid of those who look different, sound different, think different than us.  Do not be afraid of stepping out of your echo chamber and listen to what the other side is saying. The Lord calls us to live a life without fears, free to love in the same way he loves. This is the antidote, the medicine our country needs, only then will the words from our national anthem will find their true meaning, that we live in the  “Land of the Free, Home of the brave ''. GBMBAS

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5th Lent: Lazarus and the Coronavirus

    As I was reading this gospel 3 times  was I surprised by the words of Jesus. The first time was when he said:  “This illness is not to end in death, but is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” 
     I believe we can all agree that these are encouraging words in a time like this.  However we can not make the mistake of thinking that these words are a promise that we don’t have to worry about taking precautions, washing our hands and keeping our social distance because Jesus is telling us that if we or anyone we know gets sick, at the end we will all be healed. After all, a few short verses later in the reading we see Jesus crying for his dead friend.

     I think that what the Lord is telling us is that in a time like today, when the news is grim; even when we have to deal with the sickness of a loved one, if we let him, He will find a way to bring glory to his name. All we have to do is trust that even in the grimmest of times He is right there with us, sharing in our sufferings.
    The second time I was surprised by His words was when he said: “Father, I thank you for hearing me. I know that you always hear me”. It surprised me because he is giving us a perfect example of how to start every prayer in times like the ones we are living. It is easy to get discouraged when, day after day, after we spend hours pleading with the Lord, we see that our prayers are ignored and that those things we so desperately want are denied by the harsh reality of life.
   It is important we recognize that these words of Jesus are the first words of the Lord when he was asking his father for the impossible, to bring Lazarus back to life. The Lord is giving us an example of how to pray. And that example is this: Pray with the realization that God indeed listens to our prayers. Even if we do not get the results we want, our prayers, every prayer counts. And our desired to be heard by God is always, always fulfilled. He might not answer our prayer but, like a good Father He is ready to console us when He has to deny what we so desperately need.
   And the third time I was surprised by the words of the Lord was when he said: “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”  Today  the Lord is asking  each one of us: Do you truly believe this?
   We are living in a time in which, because of this pandemic, death can become part of the reality of our lives. In fact we have reached a point that death has become just a number, that keeps going up and up. Anyone could become discouraged by the constant reporting of death in the news, but the Lord IS resurrection and life, if we believe in Him we will never die! Yes, our bodies might decay until it can not continue the battle, but our soul, our essence will continue, united to Him for all eternity.  And eventually we will meet again. Do we believe this? If we do, then there is no fear, no pain, no sickness, no virus that can keep us away from our eternal destiny.
    The coming days and weeks will be challenging to some if not all of us. The time of complacent Christianity is over. The time to pray, to hope and trust in God’s plan is here.
    Lets commend ourselves to the protection of all the angels, the saints, the martyrs and especially the Blessed Mother and lets make our prayer “Yes, I believe, Lord help my unbelief!” GBYMBAS.

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2nd Lent: Transfiguration and Corono Virus

  My dear confirmandi, I’m so glad you are here today! When I was working on this homily I was not aware you would be here today. As I finished it and reviewed it, I realized that it did not sound like  my regular sermons. In fact reading it I got a sense that this particular homily had been given to me for a specific person. You might be asking why? Well it is because one of the important points I want to make is that the Jewish people in the times of Jesus, were not much different than you or me. Yes, for them, our world would look more like a magical place than anything we can imagine. Just think about the fact that today, right here I can pull out of my pocket a device which allows me to contact anyone, no matter where they are in the world by just a few keystrokes on a keypad. But the reality is that if we take all the technology away we are left with the realization that the problems of these people from 2000 years ago and your problems are not that different.
    Think about it this way, in the times of Jesus people were scared of contagious diseases like leprosy. To the point that even the suspicion of contact with a leper, would force you into quarantine from the rest of the community. They were under the control of political forces that only cared about their own interests, and not about the lives of those who were less fortunate to the point that the lives of regular people, especially the most vulnerable had very little value. Like you and me they had to get out of bed every morning, to go to work and in their own way make every day of every week count. They lived in fear of the Roman authorities especially on what could happen if one of their children ever had a run in with a Roman soldier or worst the weight of the Roman law.
   I can go on and on but the point I’m trying to make is that as different as their world and our world could be, when it came to what really matters health, security, companionship; their concerns, those things that keep anyone of us up all night, were no different than the problems we face in our own homes and our own lives. 

   This is why today's’ gospel has always been very important for the Christian believer. So important that along with the crucifixion and his resurrection it is the only other episode in Jesus life that is mentioned in the gospels AND in the letters of the apostles. But why? Why is this event so fundamental to Christians from all times and places?
   Quite simply the transfiguration of the Lord is proof that although in life we can be assaulted by the tragedy or disease, by the failure of the political systems to be just and fair, even by the loss or abandonment of loved ones there is a place outside of our regular day to day perceptions in which the Lord Jesus is King, a place in which we can meet him in all of his glory.
   You see the transfiguration was a gift of the Lord to the apostles. Right after this, the Lord began his long way towards Jerusalem and the cross. Jesus wanted to make sure the apostles did not get discouraged by the terrible events of the coming weeks. He wanted to make sure that when things looked at their worst, when the soldiers were torturing him and nailing him to a cross, and the apostles were running away scared to hide from the authorities, they would look back at this moment on time and realize that He had already defeated his enemies and that as beaten and as broken as he looked to those who didn't know him, he was still the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
   The significance of the transfiguration is that it was not an event for just the apostles or the disciples. It was a moment in which all believers could find consolation, whenever they themselves were scared, and confused. This is why Paul in the first reading reminds persecuted Christians of the first century to “Bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God.” because of  “the appearance of our savior Christ Jesus, who destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light”.
  Today we are living in a time not much different than the times of Jesus, the CoronoVirus, the loss of billions of dollars in the stock market, what is starting to look as the most divisive election cycle in memory is making regular people like you and me scared and worried like the disciples in Good Friday. What is the Lord telling us today?  Do not be afraid Jesus has destroyed death and had shone a light from the top of the Transfiguration mountain into the souls of those who believe in him. There is no virus, no future president and no stock market crash that can take that away from us. God bless you my dear confirmandi and my brothers and sisters.

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6th OT (Cycle A) God's Wisdom

    When I came to live in the United States, about 35 years ago, I had what you would call a culture shock. Mostly because I came from a culture in which Catholicism was part of everything I did. It was not that religion was part of life, it was that religion was life. I still remember when, during the Holy Week all schools, government and private businesses were closed. The only thing open were churches. On TV (Granted we only had 3 channels) the only things you could watch  were movies about the life of Jesus and especially his passion.
    When I relocated to this area  everything was different. Here the Catholic religion was one among many, and that one was part of the minority. Worst, the way people talked about the Church, the things they said were so outrageously wrong to me an informed Catholic, that many times I was left speechless, not because I did not have the answers but because a comment was too outrageous to even deserve an answer.
     There were many things that confused my religious sensibilities back then but the most confusing thing for me was the usage of the Lord's name. You see, since I was a child the Lord’s name was always in my parents lips. In fact, growing up, our day to day talk was filled with religious references. In the Puerto Rico of my childhood we were constantly giving thanks to God, blessing his name and requesting favors for ourselves. The names of Jesus, Mary and Joseph were common companions in our speech.  Of course when I arrived in Maryland I just began to translate this custom into my English speech, so in my new job, with my new friends, even in public I began to  use the name  of “Jesus” often.  Boy was I wrong! Finally one of the secretaries that worked with me, pulled me to the side and corrected me. Because, unknown to me, I was “using the name of the Lord in vain”.  I tried to explain to her that I would never use the name of the Lord in a less than worthy way, but that was beside the point. The people listening to me did not care about my intentions but about the fact that I was actually using the name of Jesus in a “secular”setting.

    And this was the moment in which I discovered one of the realities of our fallen human nature: When we make an action, speak a word or even give a look most people only care about what it means to them.  They don’t care about our intentions, they will only judge our actions by the way these actions make them feel. That is the sad reality of our human wisdom, that it can only focues on what we perceive.
    Today’s readings remind us that God’s wisdom is unlike our human wisdom. God looks in what is in our hearts he doesn’t wait until we make up our minds and make an action. Human wisdom tells us that killing is wrong, God’s wisdom tells us that we can kill someone way before we lift a finger against them. Human wisdom tells us adultery is wrong, God’s wisdom tells us we can hurt our relationship with our loved ones way before we touch, kiss or even reconnect with that long lost highschool flame. Human wisdom tells us not to make false promises, God’s wisdom tells us not to make promises at all, to let our words be yes or no, anything else will just open us to the temptation and occasions to lie. 
   God’s wisdom is based on what matters in all of us, the state of our souls.  Paul calls God’s wisdom something mysterious and hidden. Mysterious because it is unlike any type of human wisdom we can conceive. Hidden because it can reach deeply within our souls and we can not hide from its presence. The spirit scrutinizes everything, even the deepest corners of our souls. I assure you my brothers and sisters, nothing is hidden to God; because of our baptism the spirit IS the constant companion of our souls every second of every day, witnessing to what resides in our hearts.  He is a witness to every thought and desire we indulge, in every second of every day, and testifies about the way we decide to live our lives.
  I guess the best way of finishing today is by repeating the words of the first reading: “If you choose you can keep the commandments, they will save you; If you trust in God, you too shall live; Before man are life and death, good and evil, whichever he chooses shall be given him.  Immense is the wisdom of the Lord;he is mighty in power, and all-seeing” GBMBAS

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3rd Sunday OT (Cycle A): The People Who Sits in Great Darkness

   “The people who sit in darkness have seen a great light.” Believe it or not, this is a very important passage for us Christian because it not only describes what happens when those who are suffering and abandoned, find themselves confronted with God’s love and mercy, but it also describes how those who serve others are illuminated by the face of Christ when they give themselves in service.
    The first time we hear these words today is taken from the book of the prophet Isaiah, who is speaking to those poor souls that had fallen under the captivity of the Assyrian king about 800 years before the birth of Christ. In the Gospel, we find ourselves in another very dark moment in the history of the people of Israel, the Roman occupation, however Matthew uses these same words to describe NOT the political liberation of his people but their spiritual liberation from the powers of evil. In Jesus ministry  these words find a different meaning, the darkness they speak about is much more than physical oppression, it is the darkness of a world that lives in ignorance. Ignorance of the suffering of their neighbor, ignorance of the will of God for their lives, but more importantly ignorance of the power of God and of the role of each person plays in the building of the kingdom of God. Matthew takes a prophecy which was spoken specifically for the people of Israel and gives it a universal meaning, a meaning not bound by time and space. Who are the people who live in darkness? Everyone who has not heard the good news of the Gospel, and every one who has heard the Gospel but has never taken the next step and put these words into actions.

   As you might know, last Monday I returned from our yearly Jamaica mission. This is my 8th trip and every time I visit this country I see people who are living in great darkness be blinded by the great light which is the Gospel of Christ in action.
   This year we had a good mix of young and old. We had married couples, college students, parents with their children, siblings, friends, college roommates, as well as people on their own. We packed 1800 pounds of donations, from you the good people of St Michael’s. We brought toys for children, clothes, school supplies, tools, laptops, phones and more than $25,000 dollars in contributions.  Our center of operations was the Our Lady of the Annunciation Catholic Church in Hase Jamaica. An area forgotten by the government. A mere quarter of a mile away from a 400,000 gallons open air chemical waist pool for a Chinese operated aluminum processing plant. In fact you can see the levee of this pool from inside the church if you look out the window, and when the wind blows just right you can not miss the aroma.
   To complicate the matter the community has been trying to recuperate from losing a beloved priest and has just been assigned a “part-time” pastor. Needless to say this was a community experiencing great darkness. The task which took the bulk of our time there was replacing a rotted roof and moving a small wooden structure to a new foundation. But I would say these were the least important aspects of our trip.  Seeing how grateful and willing to embrace us  this community was, was truly an eye opening experience for us. For example, noticing that on the first day of work we only had sandwiches for lunch they gathered their few resources and for the next 3 days, for lunch, prepared for us a true Jamaican feast cooked right there on the site with burning wood using  an old tire rim as a stove.
     I could spend hours talking about our experiences on this trip and how we saw the light of Christ on the service work we did but I will do something better; I will read to you a note sent to Ted Burkheart by one of the college kids that accompany us. And I will let it speak by itself:
“   Hi Mr. Ted! Thank you so much for all you’ve done this year and all the years prior to get us all prepared for this trip and giving us this amazing opportunity. Going in, I wasn’t sure what to expect. All my siblings and my father had told me about the poverty and injustice I was going to see, as well as the kind and joyful spirits I was going to meet, but nothing they said really prepared me to see and experience it myself. The trip was truly a unique experience that I think everyone who has been as blessed as I have been, during my entire life, should have at least once in their lifetimes. Meeting the people of Jamaica, who don’t have nearly as much as us, but are still so much more joyful and gracious than us, really changes your perspective on the world. I see them all as an inspiration on how I want to live my life from now on, with that same joy and graciousness. I really think service trips such as this one are not only fulfilling and worthwhile, but also part of our duty as people so fortunate to help those who have not been as fortunate.”
   Wow, I tell you my brothers and sisters, because of the generosity of you; the people of St Michael, people who normally sit in darkness have, indeed, seen a great light. God bless you my brothers and sisters.

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13th Sunday OT (Cycle C): Jesus and Inclusiveness

    One of the Facebook pages I follow belongs  to a “made-up” personality who calls herself  “Susan from the Parish Counsel”. Now I have to tell you that this is a satire page and in no way, shape or form resembles any of our very hard working parish council members.
    Susan is not only a very active member of her Church community but she is also the council president. What makes this page so funny (To me at least) is that in her mind she believes that this position gives her the right and authority to run the whole parish conforming to her own personal idea of how the whole Catholic Church should be run by the Vatican.
   One of the favorite topics she likes to bring up with her readers is the fact (and she is convinced of this) that what defined Jesus ministry on earth was his compassion, his kindness and especially his inclusiveness.  Susan is always reminding us that Jesus welcomed everyone, and because of this we should all do the same. Compassion and kindness are the guiding lights which compel Susan’s to embrace all sorts of social causes and “wako” spiritualities, never mind what the teachings of the Church or the Bible are, in her mind the way she acts is the way Jesus would act if he in fact had the chance to be in Susan’s shoes, kind of like Jesus asking himself "What would Susan do"?

   I think this page is so funny because it disturbingly reflects the spirit of our times. Today the idea of Jesus accepting everyone without caring about the way they live their lives AFTER this encounter  has taken a hold of our society and culture. It is based on the erroneous idea that if we love someone we must accept everything they are or do because anything other than complete acceptance would be judgmental, unkind and even hateful.
  The problem is that under the shadow of gospel stories, like the ones I just proclaimed, this idea falls flat on it face. Yes, Jesus welcomed every one but he demanded something from everyone he encountered: Conversion. And not the one-time-thing kind of conversion that gives you a warm fuzzy feeling, but real conversion, the type which makes us realize we are sinners and places us on the path of a day-to-day struggle towards holiness.
   At the end of the day, what Susan and the spirit of our times ignore completely is the way in which Jesus welcomed everybody. His welcoming was more than a welcome, it was an invitation to a deeper relationship with the divine, it demands our attention. Jesus welcome is transformative, it changes us. It gives us life, it is a welcome to forgiveness and conversion. In the presence of the divine we are supposed to realize there are things about us that need to be changed. If we don’t we are missing the point. And what is the point? No one is perfect, no one is capable of standing in front of Jesus and say, ”I live a perfect life I do not need to change anything about it after I meet you”. Encountering Jesus requires we ask ourselves every day: what do I need to change about me? What can I give to you Lord as a response to you welcoming to me, to you giving me new life?
   Jesus was not an enabler, or a manipulator or a liar. He was very clear about the type of conversion he expected from the people he welcomed as his disciples. In today’s Gospel we see a couple of good examples of this: “Do not expect a life of luxury, I do not even have a place to lay my head at night” he says to one and “If you are to follow me you have to be willing to abandon everything and not look back not even to your friends and family”  he tells another.  A truly converted heart values a relationship with God more than a life of comfort and luxury, safe sleep, and even the death of a loved one.
   Jesus loved and accepted his disciples but he also was not afraid of correcting them. In today’s reading we also see how when the apostles are offended by the way they are treated in a Samaritan Village and want retribution for this treatment they are rebuked, because this is not the expected behaviour of one who had an encounter with the living Lord.
   Regardless of what you hear, the church wants all to be welcome, from the same sex couples to the ilegal inmigrant, form the pro-choice to the pro-life, from the straight to the LGTBQ. But as his Church, Jesus expects a specific type of behaviour from each of us. Not judging or condemning but of loving fraternal correction.  And he expects from us, his disciples to be able to look at our own sins and recognize we need conversion and when we fail, to be able to  accept the loving words of correction from others. That is what it means to love each other. That is what being welcoming and loving really means.

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Advent 4 Cycle C: Theotokos

   I have to admit my intention on this homily was a bit ambitious. Condense the whole of Mariology in an 8 minute homily. As you might expect I have to leave quite a bit out, so some of what I left out is serves to clarify the main point I made. So instead of just publish the homily I added some of what I left out for completion. These parts will be in [BOLD]
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   As important as the Blessed Mother is for Catholics when it comes to preaching about the Mother of God, we really don’t have  many chances to do this during the regular Sunday masses. This is why when we have readings in which she takes a primary role I like to grab the opportunity to reflect on who she is and on her importance in the history of our salvation.
   So today I decided to give you a bit of a catechism refresher on the mother of Jesus. The first thing I should point out is that if you call yourself a Christian (Not just a Catholic) by necessity, you are required to believe 4 things about the mother of Jesus. These things are not optional, you are required to accept these 4 truths even if we do not understand them or even can explain what they mean. Not because we need to have blind faith in what the Church teaches us but because if we do not believe these 4 thing about her we are saying that we do not believe that Jesus is who he revealed himself to be, The Son of God, The Second Person of the Most Blessed Trinity.
 

  Early in the history of the Church, the Fathers realized that without Mary we can not understand Jesus. In fact, in the gospel of Luke, right after the reading I just proclaimed today, Mary herself tells us that we can gain a greater, more deeper understanding of who God really is through her. And  I’m referring to the first words of what we known as the Magnificat in which she state  “My soul magnifies the Lord”. Simply put,  Mary is the lens by which we can gain a deeper understanding of Jesus.
    Now Catholics call these four things every Christian has to believe about Mary: the Four Marian dogmas and they are as follows:
1) Mary was conceived without sin, which reveals to us Jesus complete freedom and power to save anyone at any time, even at the moment of their conception. [There is also a more practical reason why this dogma. By being born without sin, we are saying that Mary was not subjected to our  human tendencies towards sin, what St Augustine referred as Concupiscence. This protected Jesus holiness as a Jewish boy who was subjected to the will of his earthly parents by way of the 4th commandment. If Mary suffered concupiscence (Like we all do) What would prevent her from ordering Jesus to use his divine power to accomplish her own selfish desires?]  2) Mary was a virgin her whole life even after the birth of her son; which reveals to us how at the moment of the incarnation, at the union of created matter and divine power, divinity doesn't destroy or damage mater but elevates it to a special place in creation. A place reserved only to those things wish are pure, without blemish, things which are separated exclusively for God’s own purposes. [Jesus elevated human dignity to a special level by appropriating for himself a human body, Mary's. He used her flesh to generate the extra genetic material required for a human child to be conceived. It can be shown very easily how whenever God takes created matter for his purposes he uses the best materials available and then these remain at higher state of dignity. Just read how the arc of the covenant was built and teared] 3) Mary’s assumption into heaven which speaks to us about the complete humanity of her divine son; which compels him,  like every other loving human son, to take His mother with him to share his own glorified state. The same state we are all going to achieve after the resurrection of the dead.[If Jesus was completely human then, like any loving son he would want for his mother to share in his glorified state, anything less will make Jesus  a worst son than other normal human son] 4) And  Mary the Theotokos, the God bearer, the Mother of God which speaks to us about the complete divinity of her human son, which makes her the one human person who bears, brings to us the Second Person of God in the most human way, by been His very human mother.
  Of these 4 dogmas 3 are about events in her life, events God uses to show us to what extent he is willing to go in order to get closer to us, so close that he becomes one of us. The fourth dogma clarifies to us who she is because of whom Jesus is.
  In today’s readings we see that Mary was not just another Jewish girl, in fact back on the times of the prophets, they knew who this woman was. This is why we hear Micah say today: “Therefore the Lord will give them up, until the time when she who is to give birth bears a son”. And back in the times of her cousin Elizabeth they knew this Jewish girl was going to have a very important role in the coming of the messiah.
   When Elizabeth realizes who Mary is, 3 times she calls her blessed   “Blessed are you among women,  and blessed is the fruit of your womb,”...” Blessed are you who believed”. The Jewish people thought that the mother of the Messiah was going to be a very unique and special person, and we can hear this in the angel’s greeting “Hail full of Grace The Lord is with you!” and we hear it in Elizabeth’s greeting: “And how does this happen to me,  that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”
  Catholics sometimes are accused of giving Mary to much importance, I personally believe we do not give her enough attention. Without Mary there is no Jesus, no cross, no resurrection, and no Church. [Quite simply, without Mary's completely free 'yes' to the words of the angel, "She who is to give birth" would have never become pregnant, and with out this there is no Jesus. In God's plan, everything hinged on Mary's 'YES']
   In a couple of days we will be celebrating Christ birth, and once again we will relive the story of Christmas, God in the flesh a flesh which came from Mary’s most pure and most fertile womb. Let’s take this celebration as a chance to thank God for such a wonderful messiah who was born from such a wonderful and special woman.

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On the Crisis of Manhood in the Church; 20th OT Cycle B

    I was going to preach a homily about  how Jesus is the bread of life who comes down from heaven, but then on Wednesday, while I was on vacation, I started to see the news of the Harrisburg Diocese Grand Jury report. I have to confess that it pained me deeply that Cardinal Keeler, a man which I admired greatly, the man who ordained me to the diaconate, was in fact a big player in the culture of silence and  abuse that existed in Harrisburg. So I think that this Sunday, we the clergy of the Church can not ignore this devastating report from the pulpit.
   Since Wednesday I have been following the reactions of people in  social media and I have seen the pain, anger, and disappointment Catholics like you here today are feeling.  One of these commentators said something which stuck with me. He said: “It is not a good week to be Catholic”. At least for me, It’s been a brutal week. Just go to Facebook and look at the reactions Archbishop Lori’s statements referring to this report have generated, and you will see what I’m talking about.
 

    In my mind I am convinced that there is nothing we the preachers in this Sunday can say that will make you, the lay people, regain the trust of the men that are supposed to be our spiritual fathers and the successors of the apostles. So where do we go from here?  Well I feel that the only thing I can do is explore what in my opinion is the cause of why the horror stories in this grand jury report happened.
    I feel that this latest scandal reflects one of the great tragic realities of our times and our church. For decades, our church have been suffering from what I call a "crisis of manhood". The reason why our seminaries are empty is because we have forgotten as a church what the meaning of “being a man” is. The real tragedy is that we have ignored the one great example of manhood in front of our very eyes: Jesus the God man, dead on a cross. And what is this example? To give your life for the ones you love, to sacrifice self for the good of the other and to embrace and console those who suffer. This is what real men do and this is what we as clergy have failed to do.
   I feel that the only hope we have as a Church resides in the lay people. They are the ones who should keep us accountable and they are the ones who, like a mirror, should reflect to us what is lacking in us, where are we falling short from the real image of manhood, Jesus on the Cross. As a church we need to return to this image. This might not happen in one homily, or in a week or a year, it might take a generation or two, but once we return to this example, once we begin to reflect to the world the image of Jesus the Christ, we as a Church will return to be the moral beacon for our culture. We need men lay and clergy to embrace this image of Jesus Crucified for our sins, for the sake of ourselves, our families and our the world. God bless you my brothers and sisters.

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The Bread of Life Discourse (17Th Sunday OT Cycle B)

    Today is a very special Sunday. If you are a liturgy geek like myself you will know that in the church we use a three year cycle for the Sunday readings. Meaning every 3 years we repeat the same Sunday readings; so today’s readings we have not heard since 2014 and we will not hear them again until the year 2021. Now the reason why today is special is because today’s Gospel reading is the beginning of what is known as the Bread of Life discourse, and I say the beginning because for the next 6 Sundays we will read the whole story.
   Now, if you are a bible geek like myself, you will know that the gospel reading for today comes from the 6th chapter of the Gospel of John.  And if you are a theology geek like myself you will also know that for Catholics this section of the new testament is one of the most important sections in the whole of the bible. Why? Because this is the point in Jesus ministry in which he begins teaching His disciples about the Eucharist, the source and summit of our faith. How important are these readings? Think about it, without faith in what Jesus tells us in these readings, that He is the bread of life who came down from heaven and that we need to eat His body and drink His blood in order to have eternal life, everything we do at mass, every single day and especially on Sundays, would have no meaning. In fact if Jesus were not present in the Eucharist, everything we do at mass could be considered idolatry.

     What Jesus begins teaching us today will culminate not 6 weeks from now but on the day of the Last Supper or Holy Thursday, the day in which for the first time, he gives himself to us in the forms of bread and wine, and gives His disciples to power to transform this bread and wine into His divine body and blood. He himself becomes the bread that comes down from heaven. 
  Now, when we look at today’s gospel again, we will notice that the Lord Jesus begins his catechesis on the Eucharist not with deep philosophical or theological ideas but with the one very common, very human act. The one act who gives life to the human race, eating and drinking. Of course the Lord could have used some other human act to remain with us. Before the first Jewish temple was destroyed by the Babylonians the Bible states that the presence of God resided in the temple as a form of permanent cloud in the Holy of Holies.
   Why would God select the form of bread and wine to remain with us “until the end of times”? Because he knows very well human hunger. physical hunger as well as spiritual hunger. The physical hunger can be taken care of by the substance of the bread and wine, but our spiritual hunger can not be satiated by material things. Some people try to do this by filling their lives with “stuff”. Some use money, some use sex, some use power, others use alcohol, or pills or illegal drugs, but what they are really doing is covering over the emptiness the carry in their spirit.
  But the only thing which can satiate this hunger is God himself, who created us with this hunger for him, a hunger which will not leave us until we fill our spirit with him. This is why we receive communion, to allow God to become part of who we are. To become part of our cells and our DNA and to allow him into our hearts to fill the emptiness we all carry inside..
  Like I said, today is just the first part of the Bread of Life discourse, in the next 5 weeks we will see how Jesus slowly moves from feeding 5 thousand people with 5 loaves of bread, to giving his body to be eaten and his blood to be drunk by the whole world.
  If you are a Catholic geek like myself, you will realize during this next few weeks that there is no life without partaking of the Eucharist, that we were created for this moment and that we will never be closer to the Lord than when we quietly kneel on our, pews after communion. GBYMBAS

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Trinity Sunday (B): The Examen

     Father Mike was telling me before mass how happy he was that on Trinity Sunday, it was the deacons who were scheduled to preach. To which I gave a half hearted “thank you”. Now, don’t get me wrong I love to preach God’s word to this community, the issue today is the topic. It's been said many times that there is more heresy preached on this Sunday of the liturgical calendar than in any other Sunday of the year.
   As fascinating as the dogma of the Most Blessed Trinity is, there is not much we can say without, falling short with the words we use. In fact I am of the personal opinion that the only thing I can say about the Blessed Trinity without risking being misunderstood is that the Trinity IS true; That the persons of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit IS the One and True and Only God. And as you can see only by using bad grammar I can be specific enough about this great mystery. Even our language falls apart when we use it to describe the mystery of the One God in three persons.
     Of course we do not need to understand the true nature of God to develop a relationship with “Him Who Is Love”. We can all experience this mysterious being, without getting a theology degree. The reason for this is  because The Trinity is a mystery which wants to be explored, it wants to be part of our lives, it wants to have a deep relationship with us. The problem is that God is a pure spirit; we on the other hand are a strange mix of spirit and created matter. Our brains are not configured to understand spiritual realities and there is no higher spiritual reality than  the One God.
   So we find ourselves in a dilemma, as material beings we are incapable to perceive and understand spiritual realities, but God is the highest, deepest, and most mysterious of all spiritual realities. Luckily God in his infinite mercy is constantly trying to get our attention, so he constantly enters into our daily lives and leaves markers, little signs of His love for us, which we would discover if only we were to pause every day and tried to find them.  By discovering these little drops of God’s mercy, we can develop a deeper connection with this divine being.

  How can we do this? Well, in the two thousand years of history in our church many saints and spiritual masters have developed ways of discovering God’s mysterious actions in our lives. Today in this Trinity Sunday I would like to tell you about one method which is practiced every day by millions of people, and has proven to be very effective in discovering God’s mysterious actions. This method, developed by St Ignatius of Loyola is called The Exam and I call it the “5 Rs”: Request, Review, Relish, Repent, Resolve.

• Request the Spirit to lead us through the exam. Begin with a short prayer to the Trinity, ask The Father, by the Son, through the Holy Spirit to help you on your examination of the day.
• Review the day. You can do this hour by hour or morning, midday, afternoon, evening, or home, commute, work, commute, home, there is not a set way to do this just do what comes naturally to you.
• Relish the moments that went well and all of the gifts received today. Focus on the small victories and try to see why? Why things went well and what was the reason of the gifts received 
• Repent of any mistakes or failures. Don’t duel on these but don’t ignore them either. Again for each one of these as God for forgiveness. If any of these is serious enough, make a promise to yourself to attend the sacrament of reconciliation.
• Resolve, Ask God to show you how tomorrow might go. Imagine the things you will be doing, the people you will see, and the decisions you will be making. Ask for His help.

  My brothers and sisters although we will never understand the true nature of God, He is a loving father which is always looking for ways to let us know He is there. I encourage you in this day to make a firm commitment to discover all the little ways he uses to take care of you throughout your day. I promise you that if you do this you will grow in your relationship with God, who loves you and gave the live of His Son for you.

"Viva Cristo Rey!!"

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