Epiphany of the Lord

   If we were to list all the characters in the Christmas story, I think the list would go something like this: First You got Baby Jesus at the center, then Mary and Joseph, then the angles, then the shepherds, then King Herod, then The Magi and lastly the Star of Bethlehem. However there is one character which is hardly ever noticed, although it is a fundamental part of the action in this story. And not I’m not talking about sheep or the cow or the donkey. The character I think I have in mind was there when Jesus was born, stood next to the Magi while they tried to figure the meaning of the strange signs they were witnessing in the heavens. This character stood with the shepherds as they tended their flocks at night and accompanied them to visit the new born King. It stood next to the choirs of angels as they praised God while wishing peace to all people of good will and was responsible for the brightness of the guiding star. We can even see the influence it had in King Herod’s heart as he plotted the murder of innocent children; And. If by now you have not guessed whom this crucial member of the cast is let me tell you it’s name… Its name is Darkness.
   If we were to re-read all the stories which compose the story of Christmas, from the annunciation to the visit of the Magi, you will notice that the closer we get to the point in which we are today the more darkness plays an ever increasing role in the plot. From the night dreams St Joseph had as he struggled to decide if he should expose the pregnancy of Mary, to the Holy couple seeking for a place to spend the night and deliver their baby, to the dark corners of a cold a dirty stable, to the shepherds herding their sheep in the night, to the choirs of angels singing in the night, to the magi following a star; without the shadows of the night, the Christmas story would be incomplete.
    I do not think this happened by accident, in fact this is one of the main points of the incarnation, God in the flesh illuminating a world in darkness with his divine presence.
    The interesting thing is that although human beings and animals have a natural fear of darkness, in this story darkness although a constant companion in itself it is not scary. It is only when we are confronted with the darkness residing in the heart of King Herod that we are repulsed by it. What can be in the heart of a human being who chooses to murder innocent children than the plain unadulterated darkness of evil? It would be nice if we could say “thanks be to God we do not live in a world with that kind of darkness in the hearts of men!” But sadly we do, we see examples of this every day! From the children murdered in Sandy Hook just a few days before Christmas, last year. To the stories of the Islamist terrorists in, butchering children just because they would not deny their faith in Christ, to the sad reality that since abortion has been legal in our country 52 million babies, have been aborted by an industry which exploits the fears and confusion of poor women. The darkness of evil is a clear presence in the hearts of many men today.
   This is why we needed a savior, someone like us but not one of us. Someone who can show us the way in the same way the start guided the Magi, not destroying the darkness but illuminating it with its brightness, and marking a path for us to follow; because darkness cannot be destroyed or eradicated but it could be made disappear by the light of something as simple as a baby wrapped on swaddling clothes resting peacefully in a manger.

   The three wise men visited the baby Jesus because he was light in the darkness; they followed a star because it guided them to the source of all light. They set an example for us, who exist in the darkness of our modern world.
   The other day Nancy and I were walking from the parking lot and met a gentleman, one of our parishioners. We started talking and in his words we could hear how much he had been affected by the things that are currently happening on the world. He asked me “Why are all these horrible things happening?” I gave him The best answer I could, I said “Evil exists because of sin, as long as we live in this side of heaven we will have evil. But we will also have the light of the spirit which guides us, protects us and consoles us”.
    This is the light which today shines from the manger, the light the magi followed and the Shepherds marveled about in wonder. The light which shines into the darkness of world, Jesus Christ the Son of God, who became flesh dwell among us and is still gently guiding us into heaven.  
    In this Epiphany Sunday, as we finish the Christmas season, my prayer is for the light which guided the Magi, to brings you peace and joy today. Amen

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Top Religion Related Science News for 2014

        One of the major arguments secularists and atheists love to throw around is the perceived mutual exclusiveness between science and religion.  This canard is constantly exploited by the mainstream media as a way of pushing their anti religious agenda. The fact is religion and science mutually contribute to, and coexist with each other quite nicely. So in the spirit of this mutually beneficial  relationship between these two human endeavors here are my 5 Top Religion Related Science News for 2014.

No 5:Scientist honored by the Vatican on verge of stem-cell breakthrough

In August the Vatican honored professor Silviu Itescu for pioneering a therapy for congestive heart failure based on Adult Stem Cells. Prof Itescu, who is NOT Catholic, is the chief executive of Mesoblast, an Australia-based regenerative medicine company.  Mesoblast is pioneering a therapy that requires a single injection of 150 million adult stem cells into the heart – and no conventional surgery.

No 4: New Study Examines the Effects of Prayer on Mental Health

In September, researchers from Baylor university published the study "Prayer, Attachment to God, and Symptoms of Anxiety-Related Disorders among U.S. Adults." Their research found that people who pray to a loving and protective God are less likely to experience anxiety-related disorders — worry, fear, self-consciousness, social anxiety and obsessive compulsive behavior — compared to people who pray but don’t really expect to receive any comfort or protection from God. Apparently, the study seems to point to the fact that the more faith you have, the better mental health you experience.

Prayer, Attachment to God, and Symptoms of Anxiety-Related Disorders among U.S. Adults - See more at: http://spiritualityhealth.com/blog/traci-pedersen/praying-loving-god-guards-against-anxiety#sthash.upiqvXse.dpuf

Prayer, Attachment to God, and Symptoms of Anxiety-Related Disorders among U.S. Adults - See more at: http://spiritualityhealth.com/blog/traci-pedersen/praying-loving-god-guards-against-anxiety#sthash.upiqvXse.dpuf

No 3: Prayer Can Aid Organizational Bonding

In June, the American Sociological Review Journal published a paper stating that "The prayer practices observed appear to play a crucial role in binding participants together across significant racial and socioeconomic differences" when people from different backgrounds attend prayer services together.

No 2: Vatican scientists co-host conference in Arizona seeking alien life in universe.

In March, the University of Arizona and the Vatican Observatory co-hosted a gathering of about 200 scientists interested in planetary biology. The topic of this conference was:"The Search for Life Beyond the Solar System: Exoplanets, Biosignature and Instruments"

No 1: Brother Guy Consolmagno, S.J., wins the American Astronomical Society's Carl Sagan Medal. 

The Carl Sagan medal is awarded  for outstanding communication by an active planetary scientist to the general public. In the announcement, the AAS states: "As a Jesuit Brother, Guy has become the voice of the juxtaposition of planetary science and astronomy with Christian belief, a rational spokesperson who can convey exceptionally well how religion and science can co-exist for believers."

As you can see it was a good year for the intersession between religion and science, hopefully 2015 will bring more of this and less of the nonsense we constantly get feed by the enemies of religion.

NOTE: Following the suggestion from one of my commenters I decided to add a page to the web site in which I will continue reporting these sort of news throughout the year. You can link to it here. 

"Viva Cristo Rey!!"

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Closing the 2014 Year!

Well, another year is in the books! I have to say that this has been quite a year for me. Among the highlights of the year I embarked in a new form of ministry with my podcast (The Hidden Bible). I began a new ministry helping Spanish speaking  divorced Catholics seeking a Marriage annulment. I spend a fantastic vacation time with the family back in the "mother ship" (AKA the beaches of Puerto Rico). I met some fantastic friends, (I'm talking about you Rose Sweet!). I fulfilled one of my childhood dreams by honoring the Camino the Santiago and earning the Compostela (A certificate which declares I was a real "peregrino" in the Camino). And I dropped 20 pounds! Quite a year!

Now last Year I posted my resolutions for everyone to see, as a way of holding myself accountable. I think it is only fair to see how I did... so here they are with an honest assessment for each one.

• Eat better - I have to say that (with the help of my bride) I was able to cut on my caloric intake, although I still have a weakness for sweets.
• Walk more - Boy did I met this one! I trained heavenly for my trip to northern Spain, and there I walked 200 miles in 2 weeks, and after this I continued taking regular walks.
• Spend more time reading -My goal was 24 books, and I have to say I fell short. I only ended reading 18. But I read quite a bit of articles and technical papers so those should count for something right?
• Spend less time on line - This one failed miserably mostly because I do heavy use of Google productivity tools such as gmail, drive and calender. However I also did a fair amount of wilffing.
• Increase my guitar repertoire - Here I have to say that I was doing quite well until I got a nasty bout of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, which forced me to stop my guitar playing for a couple of months. I did however come up with a pretty good guitar practice program, which I will pick in the new year and see how my wrists hold.
• Record more of my music - Big goose egg  here, mostly because of time and the bout of CTS.

All and all a pretty good year!

Ok, with that out of the way, here are my resolutions for next year!

• Continue eating healthy AND control my sweet tooth.
• Continue exercising (Walking)  and do a multiday hike either in the AT or the C&O Canal.
• Read at least 2 books a month.
• Write at least one blog article a moths (In addition to my homilies).
• Produce at least 10 episodes of my podcast.
• Increase my Guitar repertoire (And record at least some!)

So there you have it, the year in review and a plan for the next year.
May the new year be filled with many blessings and see you next December to see how I did!

"Viva Cristo Rey!!"

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2nd Week of Advent (Cycle B)

First Reading:

The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
because the LORD has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor,
to heal the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives
and release to the prisoners,
to announce a year of favor from the LORD
and a day of vindication by our God.

I rejoice heartily in the LORD,
in my God is the joy of my soul;
for he has clothed me with a robe of salvation
and wrapped me in a mantle of justice,
like a bridegroom adorned with a diadem,
like a bride bedecked with her jewels.
As the earth brings forth its plants,
and a garden makes its growth spring up,
so will the Lord GOD make justice and praise
spring up before all the nations.



   My brothers and sisters; welcome to the third Sunday of Advent also called "Gaudete Sunday" a day in which we are reminded by the festive liturgical color of Rose that we must rejoice because the Lord is almost here. Personally, I think this Sunday could not come any sooner, as I imagine that by now some of us might be reaching a saturation point. Many of us might still have a long list of things to do before Christmas and not enough time to do them, So; I will like to take his opportunity to tell you that if by now you do not have all of your Christmas lights out, or your cards in the mail, or your ginger cookies and houses made, or one of the other hundred little things we convince ourselves we have to get done in order to have the "perfect Christmas"; if we feel we are still "not ready"... Well,,, There is a strong possibility that some of these things will not get done in time.
  Now since this is Church and we are supposed to support and encourage each other I figure it will help if I share my own experience this year, specially as it comes to setting the Christmas tree at home, a few days ago. This year our family decided to invite some old friends to help us decorate our tree, so of course about an hour before people were due to arrive I dragged our 15 year old plastic Christmas tree out of its resting place in our basement and started setting it up. This is when I discovered that long sections of the string lights which are built into the three were not lighting, resulting in a tree with some very noticeable dark areas.
  Like I mentioned before, this year we invited some dear friends to come and help decorate the tree; a family we have known since before we all had children. As I heard them knocking at the door I accepted the fact that I had no time to fix the dark parts in the tree so with much sorrow in the heart and embarrassment in the face I gave up and decided to go with the tree as it was. After telling my sad story to our guests we all had a good laugh (at my expense) and proceeded to busy ourselves with placing the ornaments in our little tree. I took a step back to watch as the ribbons and ornaments kept finding their places and realized that the old raggedy plastic tree I had just dragged from the basement was no more. In its place stood a beautiful Christmas tree filled with the light and the love given by two generations of dear friends who have seen my kids and their kids grow together as one big family. To some our tree might not win an award, or make it to the cover of a magazine, but to our two families which have lived a whole lifetime together, this tree was the best present we could offer to one another... And you know what my brothers and sisters? It was one of the most beautiful presents we have given to one another in a long, long time.
  This is the message of today’s first reading, in this Gaudete Sunday. The Spirit of the Lord is the spirit of love, it brings joy to anything we do, if what we do, we do for love of others; it makes our heart rejoice not by the quality or the expense of what we are doing but by the meaning it has for us. When we do things out of love, the spirit of the Lord possesses us and clothes us with a rove of salvation and wraps me and my efforts within a mantle of justice.
  So in this Gaudete Sunday, ten days before Christmas, if you are feeling overwhelmed by all the things we still have to do; I'm here to tell you: It doesn’t matter... It doesn't matter if our tree is not the most handsome, or our house is not the one with the most Christmas lights, or if our plans do not go according to what we had in mind, or if we never get to realize our idea of what the "perfect Christmas" is supposed to be. What matters is that we pour our love into the things we get to do, because when the spirit of love enters into what we are doing, even if it is not the biggest, the most beautiful, or the most expensive thing;  our love will take what we are doing and transform it into something adorned with a diadem and bedecked with jewels...Something that comes from our very selves.
  Gaudete Sunday is a time to rejoice! REOICE AND BE GLAD MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS!! The Lord will be reborn in our hearts in just a few days! Forget about the million things we still have to do, and allow the Spirit of God, the spirit of love transform the few things we get to do into what really matters. Assure you if you do this, this year of all years, you will experience the "Perfect Christmas".

  From my family to yours, may you have a much blessed season of Advent and a very Merry Christmas Season!

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Christ the King (Cycle A)

   The Gospel reading for this week is very important. It is not an accident that the Church has selected this reading for the last Sunday in the liturgical year. Today we hear Jesus last public words to the crowds who were following Him. The gospel of Matthew tells us that after this, last public speech, given in Jerusalem; in just a few short days, The Lord would be dead, hanging on a cross. So today’s reading could be viewed as the culmination of Jesus message to the world.
   Now if we were to take all of Jesus’ teachings during his public ministry and were to give it a name, I think the best way of describing it would be as “The Law of Love”. In fact we can compress Jesus message into just a few very familiar statements. Love God with all your heart, your entire mind and all your soul, be a neighbor to all, and love all as yourself, love and pray for your enemies.
   Up to this moment in the ministry of Jesus, this Law of Love has been directed towards things we can easily identify: God, our neighbors, and our enemies. Today in this last message to the crowds Jesus directs us to go one step further. To this short list of statements about whom and how to love he adds one more element: Love those who for a better word we could call “Strangers”.
   Like I said, up to this moment it is easy to know who Jesus has been telling us to love.  We all have an idea of who God is, and we also have a pretty good idea, even if we do not know them personally, of whom our enemies and our neighbors might be, but “strangers” are something completely different. Strangers are people that we do not meet by accident, in fact these strangers are people who for one reason or another, either because they are sick, or in prison, or naked or hungry cannot be met were we normally meet others. To love these strangers we have to leave our circle of comfort and find them because they cannot leave their situation to find us.
   In our society we have taken this large mass of faceless strangers and turned them into a statistic. We clump them together and use phrases such as “the sick”, “the hungry”, “the homeless”, “the imprisoned”. “the immigrant”, to refer to them.
   What Jesus is doing with this final element of His “Law of love” is making sure no one, not one person, is left out from our responsibility to love them.  Those which are faceless, ignored or forgotten by others have become our responsibility, and it is up to us to find these “strangers” and love them as we would love our neighbors as we would like to be loved ourselves if we were in their situation.
   For Christians, for true followers of The Lord, Today’s gospel is one of the most challenging readings in the Gospel!   It demands deep reflection from us: how well and how much do I love? And I’m not talking about the kind of love that makes us feel good about ourselves, the kind of love which is easy to achieve. The love Jesus is demanding from us today is not a warm fuzzy feeling, but an act of the will. Is a love in which we must force ourselves into.
   But you know what is most amazing about this radical love for the stranger in need?  It brings us back to the very first of the Laws of Love!  The Lord tells us that in helping the stranger we help him; In going out and loving the stranger; we encounter Jesus himself, whom we have to love with all of our heart, all of our mind and all of our soul. The more we love the stranger the more we fulfill the very essence of the Law of Love.
   By now you might be thinking “ok, but how I, in my own little life can fulfill this command to love the stranger”? Well, I’m glad you asked! Here at St Michael’s we have ministries which are geared specifically towards doing just this! We have for example the yearly trip to Jamaica, I talking to Ted the other day and he said that he has only 2 people interested in going! We have the Chiros ministry to the prisons. We have the pastoral visitors to the Lorian senior center, a ministry we are planning to expand to other senior centers in the area. We have the first Saturday lunches for the homeless, in which for just 1 hour a month we prepare 500 lunches for a food center in Frederick. We have trips to Our Daily bread in Baltimore for our young people, so they can helps those who are hungry every day just 33 short miles from our homes. We have our food cellar which this year delivered groceries to 48 families who cannot spend their money on luxuries like Turkey Stuffing and pumpkin pies. We need volunteers to help in our funeral ministry. All you have to do is call the office and leave your information and someone will contact you.
  My brothers and sisters, today in this feast of Christ the King, I invite you to commit yourself to fulfilling Jesus Law of Love by fulfilling the needs of those who cannot be here with us is today. Remember, by loving the stranger we are loving God Himself. May you have a blessed thanks giving with your family and loved ones. Amen.   

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28th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Cycle A)

    Today’s Gospel reading has been interpreted in many ways throughout the ages. The most common interpretation I’ve seen goes like this: The king Jesus is talking about is of course God the Father, the son who is getting married is Jesus himself, the people who were originally invited to the wedding and refused to attend were the Jewish people in the times of Jesus who did not listened to what the prophets have said about the coming messiah. The servants who were killed were these same prophets. The town who was destroyed was again the Jewish people who suffered many calamities throughout their history for not listening to the prophets. The people who were gathered from the streets were the gentiles who were given the messiah which the Jewish people had rejected.
    The beauty of Jesus parables is that they could be viewed from many different angles by peoples from different cultures and time periods; and you can always find a new meaning for them which speak to that specific time and place.   Personally, I think that the interpretation I just gave worked pretty well for the people who were listening to Jesus 2000 years ago, but (and I say this with all respect to the Word of God) it really does not resonate well to Catholic Christians living in 21st century America.
    The question is then: how can we look at this parable of the Lord and extract a message for us today?  Well, let’s start by pointing out a few things we skipped over on our first way around. Did you notice how harsh the king in this story sounds? First he sends his soldiers to destroy the town of the people who refused to attend his wedding banquet, and then he sends his soldiers to “gather all they found the good and the bad”. After he had basically forced the people on the streets to attend his party, he takes a stroll to meet the guests and finds himself in front of a poor man who does not meet his own personal standards of fashion, after embarrassing this man, he orders his servants to tie him up and throw him into the darkness. I have to tell you my brothers and sisters this king acts more in the capricious way in which King Herod or Pontius Pilate behaved than in the way we expect a merciful God to act!
  But let’s keep digging, what about this poor man who was not dressed to the liking of the King?   The parable says that when the King confronted him “He stood in silence”. And here I need to remind you of a very important detail: The Gospels record another man who stood in silence when questioned by a king. Who am I talking about? Jesus in front of Herod the day he was crucified. This man, who the parable says was tied up and thrown into the darkness reminds us of Jesus bound and thrown out of the city of Jerusalem, abandoned by his friends and left to die alone in a cross.
    Now, by now you might be thinking “wow” the deacon is really grasping for straws today. What kind of teaching can we possibly get from looking at this parable in this way?
   Well, it is a sad reality of the culture in which we live that anyone who publicly expresses an idea which goes against what is the ‘accepted narrative”, is treated like this poor man in the parable. We have reached a point in which expressing publicly an opinion against abortion, or against the legalization of homosexual unions, or assisted suicide, or any number of other cultural topics been forced down on us by the media and even our own government means public ridicule, and the risk of legal persecution and even the loss of a job or a business.  What does our culture do with anyone who expresses in public the Christian belief on the sanctity of life, the uniqueness of the union between one man and one woman, and the dignity of the human person? What happens to the ones who do not conform to the ideas of the kings of this present world?  They are bound “hands and feet, and cast into the darkness outside, where there is wailing and grinding of teeth”.
     Today’s Gospel starts with the words “ The kingdom of heaven is like”. Of course we like to think that in heaven we will be invited to a magnificent feast like today’s first reading describes “With rich foods and choice wines”, but the reality is; as long as we find ourselves in this side of heaven, we the citizens of God’s kingdom can only expect hostility and persecution by the kings of this age. The beauty of it is that we were not created for this worldly kingdom, we are citizens of the kingdom of God.
    Jesus was murdered by the kings of his time only to receive a great reward for his faithfulness to God the Father, the resurrection. Our faithfulness to our true King, will be rewarded also by the eternal wedding feast we are all invited to attend, so rejoice and be glad! The Kingdom of heaven is waiting for us!

NOTE: The main idea for this homily was taken from a sermon by Lutheran Pastor Paul J. Nuechterlein from Delivered at Prince of Peace, Portage, MI. 

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22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time (Cycle A)

  Today I will break the number one rule, all homilists are instructed never to break. I will speak about what is going on in my personal life, (but don’t worry, It is for a good cause). As many of you know by now, in less than a week, Deacon Cliff and I will be leaving on a pilgrimage to the tomb of the Apostle St James in the city of Santiago de Compostela, in Northern Spain. As pilgrimages go this is NOT your average trip. The day after we arrive in Spain we will take a 5 hour bus trip to the Shrine of “La Virgen del Camino”, Our lady of “The Way” there we will pray and ask for her protection as we start our 300 Km (186 mile) walk culminating in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, God willing, 17 days later. We will carry our “Pilgrims Passport” which will allow us to stay in pilgrims “alberges” (low budget Hostels ran by Churches or volunteers), it will also allow us to eat from the “Pilgrims menu” in the alberges, which are the Camino version of soup kitchens. We will share living quarters with dozens of other pilgrims every night and we will sleep in our sleeping bags, wherever they can find space for us. We will carry all of our belongings in our backs, and hopefully we will be able to take a shower every day (Although this is not a 100 assurance). Our lives will be reduced to its bare minimum since the more we pack the more we have to carry in our backs. Every day we plan to pray the liturgy of the hours in community with each other, the angelus, and will try to attend mass in the churches and shrines we will encounter in our way. All this time we will be praying for our families and for you our, St Michael family, and if you have a specific intention you would like us to take to the tomb of the Apostle just drop Cliff or me an email and we will take it with us.
  Now, you might be wandering why would a couple of middle aged guys like Deacon Cliff and I, will put ourselves through the rigors of a trip which seems to be designed for men half our age. Well, I would not like to speak for Cliff but on my part I find that the words of today’s first reading explain my desire to engage in this trip quite well: “It becomes like fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones, I grow weary holding it in, and I cannot endure it”. In my mind these words of the prophet Jeremiah describes not only my own desire, but the yearnings of all those who have decided to abandon comfort and convenience leaving behind family and friends and follow the Lord.
  In today’s Gospel Jesus states it very plainly: “Whoever wishes to come after me, must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me”
  Now, when we hear talk about our own personal crosses we tend to think of people who are struggling in life, who are sick in hospitals, who are persecuted for their faith or who are suffering with the loss of a loved one.   We do not associate those words with the high middle class life we live here in the “4 county” area. But if we read Jesus’ words very carefully, the cross is not reserved to those who suffer. The only requirement needed to embrace our crosses is the desire to follow him.
   If you are like me you are accustomed to have everything at the tip of our hands, our lives are full of resources, convenience and comfort. Now I’m not saying that these things are bad; in fact I view them as a great gift and blessing from God, but unlike those who are forced to embrace their cross through suffering, we have to make a conscientious effort, and act of the will if you may, to take our crosses. And what would the cross be for us? The volunteer abandonment of conveniences and comfort; This is not easy! This is a struggle; the temptation to get back to our easy lives is great! Just try to spend a day of “the grid” without any social media, or communications or computers and you will know what I’m talking about!

   In the Catholic Church we have a long history of spiritual discipline, of denying ourselves with prayer, fasting, and giving alms, even works of mercy like visiting the sick and consoling the suffering, could become part of embracing our crosses, if they get us out of our comfort zone and cost us an extra effort. It is easy to say that we want to follow the Lord, but when “push comes to shove”, are we ready to do what the Lord expects us to do? Are we up to the challenge? Think and pray about it, and also pray for Cliff and I so that we have a safe and spiritually rewarding trip. God bless you all.
  By abandoning the same conveniences and comforts we have received as a gift from God we are following St Peter's advice in the second reading of “offering our bodies as a living sacrifice holy end pleasing to God”, we are offering “our spiritual worship”

"Viva Cristo Rey!!"

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