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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