(Was a) Deacon's Blog

When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?
When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’
And the king will say to them in reply,
‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.’

My fellow subjects of Christ the King,

The veil will be lifted and we shall see God as He is.

This passage in the Gospel has always held a special place in my heart. It lets me look at the last days as a sort of observer. I’m watching the sheep and the goats from on-high. I’m watching Jesus in His glorious second coming. Jesus robed in gold, surrounded by angels, seated on a throne. Trumpets blast, paradise to the right, damnation and fire to the left. A huge sea of humanity before Him.

I wonder if anyone has ever captured this event in a movie? The Gospel lets us watch this movie in our minds.

But, the veil will be lifted,

The veil to be lifted is our veil of voyeurism. We will not be watching this event, but will be participants in it. We will not have the luxury of checking out all the cool sights and sounds; we will be shaking in our shoes.

Remember those small wrongs we have all done? We put them quickly out of our minds. Remember those small and sometimes big lies? We thought the passing of time would wipe them clean. Remember every sin you have committed? Remember those times you put yourself and your money ahead of the stranger, the naked, the sick or the imprisoned? Remember that time you —just couldn’t make it— to see mom or dad, your brother or sister, Aunt Susan or Uncle Tony? Remember that time you judged the person next to you? You’ll be in line thinking about those things pretty fast.

The veil will be lifted,

As we look upon Jesus Christ our King seated on the throne of glory we will also be looking at the rest of humanity around us. We will not be seeing Bob, Nancy, Jim, Mary, Tom, Hassam, Fatima, Manuel, Hilda, Miecislaw, Jadwiga, Juan, Hiroshi, or Kameko. We will be looking at Jesus Christ crucified in them. They will see Jesus Christ crucified in us. We will see the pain and loneliness we have inflicted upon others.

We will see very clearly that Jesus is within each of us. When we hurt another, when we criticize another, when we imply motives to another person, we do it to Christ. We drive the nails straight into Jesus’ hands right through the heart of the person next to us.

The veil will be lifted,

It is something that you and I will not be able to bear. Remember how Peter cried after he disowned Jesus? The old story is that the lines in Peter’s face were from the rivers of tears he cried for days after hurting Jesus.

Very few of us approach Christian perfection and frankly we are all headed to the left. It is pretty cut and dried.

But the veil will be lifted.

The Bible says that we all sin, we all fall short of God’s glory and righteousness. We do not and cannot earn God’s acceptance, nor do we need to. Jesus has purchased that for us by His death on that cross.

On that last day our hope is in Jesus Christ the true shepherd. The Bible tells us that when Jesus saw the crowds “He had compassion on them for they were helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”

Jesus let us press thorns into his head, beat him, whip him, and nail him to a cross. He carried that cross and died on it for our sin. Enduring enormous suffering, Jesus paid for sin on our behalf.

He died, but rose again, showing the world that He has complete power over death. When Jesus said he came to give us eternal life, he showed that he owned eternal life and he offers it to us as a gift. In His kingship we receive that gift.

This is God’s remarkable love for us. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him…might have eternal life.”

This is what our Church, the PNCC teaches. The road to the left is not the final curtain. We teach that repentance, sorrow for our sins and the desire for God opens the door to God’s everlasting love, a door that is never closed. Our Church preaches the hope of the Gospel. Not a false hope of happy times and the easy way, but a hope that comes from right belief. Give yourself to the shepherd and he will take you into His sheepfold. Desire Him above all else, repent and make amends.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever
believes in him…might have eternal life.”

Amen.

For to everyone who has,
more will be given and he will grow rich;

My sisters and brothers in Christ Jesus,

I love biblical lessons on investing.

Consider these questions: Can we invest with our own knowledge and skills and obtain an everlasting reward? Can we go toe-to-toe with God and answer Him in regard to what is right? Can we expect a return for our investment of time in this Church this Sunday?

To the first and second question, no. We cannot rely on ourselves. We cannot approach God as experts, demanding of Him.

What is sadly lacking in our hearts is humility and knowing our place. It is lacking because society and the world tell us that we are grand. Our ideas are perfect, our opinions and feelings are important. Our desires should be met, whatever they are. False and dangerous reasoning.

For the third question, Can we expect a return on this Sunday’s investment of time? Maybe. If we are led by the Holy Spirit, and come to God of our own free will, perhaps. If we live Christian lives beyond this Sunday morning, all the more certain.

But, we must first come here. We must come and lay our lives and our desires at the foot of the cross.

If we come with humility and the desire for God burning within us we have found wisdom, the worthy wife. —her value is far beyond pearls.—

I thank God that we have been called. That we have been called here, not because of our own righteousness, but because of the gift of the Holy Spirit. Our acceptance of the call and our follow-through in living the call is the outward sign of that wisdom.

Reflect on your parents’ gift to you at Baptism. Your inclusion and membership in the Body of Christ, not by your own desire and demand, but by your humility.

Think about Baptism. A small child, little self consciousness or determined will. A child subject to the will of another. A child, ultimately, really, and symbolically carried to the waters of Baptism. The child, pure humility and reliance.

Jesus told us that we must be as the little children, even now.

But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness,
for that day to overtake you like a thief.
For all of you are children of the light and children of the day.

No, you are not in darkness. You know that, as children, we must be humble before God. You know that we must set our own will and desires aside —“ to let God lead us. To free ourselves from the darkness of earthly desires and enter into the light of the kingdom.

Jesus told Peter this.

—Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.—

And this is what we must do as good investors. We must come to this Altar free from self-will. Reliant only on the grace and love of God. Humble in receiving Jesus Christ into ourselves through the Word and through His body and blood. Dependent on an act of faith, trusting in God. Come forward and proclaim your faith. Stand now and profess your act of faith.

My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.

My family, joined together in the name of Christ Jesus,

We all thirst. Within us is an unquenchable desire. During the month of November we reflect even more deeply on this desire.

On All Souls Day Father Andrew and I read the names of our deceased brothers and sisters. Before each High Holy Mass throughout the month we will re-read those names, and pray for the repose of their souls. A strong symbol of our desire to remember them.

For All Souls Day we broke out the black vestments. You do not see these very often. They are however very representative of our feelings. They are symbolic of our emotions, our longing, and our need.

When I visit a funeral home before the Requiem Holy Mass, I ask people what color they would like us to use for their loved one’s funeral. They have a choice of black, purple, or white. Invariably, people choose white. White is obviously symbolic. We celebrate our brothers’ and sisters’ entry into heaven. We celebrate their life. We are supposed to be ‘happy’.

In today’s second reading, Saint Paul reminds us that death is not a time for mysterious grief, but a time for ardent hope. We know where we, as people who hope in the salvation of Christ Jesus, are going.

—We do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters,
about those who have fallen asleep,
so that you may not grieve like the rest, who have no hope.—

My brothers and sisters,

The fact is, we are not happy. We miss them. Even weeks, months, years later we will cry for them. Our pain might ease over time. But we are not predisposed to forget them. We cannot wash away our sadness and desire in a sea of joyful white. When we try to mask the reality of our existence, when we try to cover our true feelings, we are failing to touch the humanity that God gave us.

The first reading speaks of the gifts of wisdom. Wisdom is found in truth.

The truth is, we are thirsting. We thirst for the Kingdom of God. We thirst to be joined together. What we see now is only shadows, and what we know now is not everlasting happiness. What we do know is that we must walk the way of the cross before we can reach the Resurrection. Good Friday comes before Easter Sunday. We know that we must be truthful and deal with the pain and sadness represented in black before we can get to the white.

The ten virgins represent this difference. Five were wise. Five were prepared for and understood reality. Five knew that the bridegroom has his own schedule. Five were foolish. Five thought they knew what was going to happen and were left unprepared.

The foolish ones, when taking their lamps,
brought no oil with them, but
the wise brought flasks of oil with their lamps.

The five foolish virgins created their own reality. They had their own dreams and schemes. You would think that after sitting there, waiting for a while, at least a few of them would have gotten nervous. You would think at least a few would have rethought their positions on what is real. But no,

Since the bridegroom was long delayed,
they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

They waited to rethink their concept of reality and didn’t do so until it was too late.

‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’
the bridegroom came and those who were ready went into the wedding feast with him.
Then the door was locked.
Afterwards the other virgins came and said,
‘Lord, Lord, open the door for us!’
But he said in reply,
‘Amen, I say to you, I do not know you.’

Now is the time to reconnect to what is real. Now is the time to worship what is real. Now is the time to buy your oil and to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Now is the time to be ready. Do not think that you have the power to define reality. That is God’s job.

Let us pray that our reality will be the truth taught by wisdom. Let us pray that we rethink our perceptions and concepts, and that we sacrifice what we think at the foot of the Cross. Lord Jesus Christ, take my life and teach me Your truth. Amen.

On this All Souls Day I want you and I to focus on the body of Christ.

The Body of Christ —“ the Church with you and me as its members. The Body of Christ with our deceased relatives, friends, and benefactors as its members. The Body of Christ in the Holy Eucharist.

The Body of Christ is what we are and what we are becoming. Each day that we come to Holy Mass we are being transformed. We are transformed in a way that requires us to give up our appearances and our facades. We are transformed in a way that requires us to become what God has always intended for us to be.

When we receive Holy Communion we are changed. We are primarily nourished spiritually. We are made part of Christ. Jesus Christ is taking us unto Himself. This is unlike regular eating, where the food we ingest strictly becomes part of us. At the same time we are fortified by the bread so that the ‘staff of life’ strengthens us for the Holy work ahead of us.

How does this transformation occur? It occurs in the most mysterious and magnificent way, through our reception of our Lord, Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist. In his Summa Theologiae (3a.75.1), St Thomas Aquinas addresses the question: ‘Is Christ is really and truly present in the Holy Eucharist, or is He only there in a figurative way, as a sign or symbol.’ St. Thomas’ belief, and ours, is that Jesus Christ is really the Holy Eucharist. He is here body, soul, humanity, and divinity, because Jesus desires to maintain friendship with us. There is no more bread or wine, it is Him.

St. Thomas summed it all up by making several points:

· The charity of Christ led him to take a real body, to become human and unite that body to the Godhead to save us.
· The law of friendship requires that friends should live together in union.
· Jesus promised us his bodily presence.
· Jesus has not left us without his bodily presence in our pilgrimage to heaven.
· Jesus specifically told us, —He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him.—

These thoughts from the passages in St. Thomas’ work are truly wonderful. They tell us what we know by instinct. Friends and lovers cherish each other’s bodily presence. Our bodies are the very means of our communion.

Some Protestant churches do not believe in the real presence as we do. Their theology has boiled down the relationship with Christ to an —I and thou— personal communion. The Body of Christ is more than Jesus and me.

The Body of Christ is all of us together. God and I are not alone. I am not alone in my joys, sufferings, happiness, sadness, struggle or triumph. I am joined to Christ and to the entire Christian community everywhere and throughout all time.

Jesus Christ is indeed real and present with us and for us. The bread and cup are his visible body. When Jesus says, —This is my body. This is my blood— He is telling us: —Here I am for you. I love you. I died for you. I forgive you. I fill you with my Spirit. I give you eternal life. Come, come feast upon me. I am the bread of heaven and the cup of salvation.—

Today we conduct this immemorial remembrance for our deceased brothers and sisters. We reaffirm that they are not gone, wiped out of existence, but that they are present here with us spiritually as they pray and intercede for us in heaven.

In the funeral liturgy we remember that those who have died were baptized into the Body of Christ, made members of His Holy Church. We remember too that they ate the Bread of Life and drank from the Cup of eternal salvation.

In the Holy Eucharist we, the Body of Christ, encounter the source of our life and salvation —“ Jesus Christ, God and man. We eat His flesh and drink His blood. We chew on Him and digest Him so we can become more like Him, less like us.

When you approach the Eucharist today, and I encourage you to approach Holy Communion as often as it is available, know that you are purified and sanctified by God’s grace. Know that you are regenerated into our Lord’s very body, and that you are joined to the entire Body of Christ, living and deceased, militant and triumphant.

May our prayers for our beloved dead be blessed and received this day through the merits won for us by Him who is our Lord, Jesus Christ, and through His grace may we all be joined together in the Kingdom of God.

[My special thanks to Al Kimel from the Pontifications Blog for the inspiration for this homily]

Think of the love that the Father has lavished on us,
by letting us be called God’s children;
and that is what we are.

But we’re turning into the Maytag repair man. Our lot is getting very lonely. Being a true Christian, especially in a traditional Catholic/Christian community is not very easy. It takes a special gift of the Holy Spirit to hold true to what is right in the Church.

In the Roman Catholic tradition there is a great battle going on. It is between those who which to re-invent the Church in their own image and those who hold fast to a very traditional, dogmatic way of thinking.

Neither is correct.

I recently read a series of articles in the St. Anthony’s Messenger, a Franciscan magazine. These were effusive articles relating the great things that Vatican II brought about. The commentators and the —everyday people,— selected to write brief observations, were completely one sided in their views. The funny thing was that there was a common thread, besides the ‘this is all great’ part of their message. The common thread was that they all said ‘something is missing’. They couldn’t put their finger on it or describe it. But it was there, a longing for the holy, the sacred.

When you look at our Church, the PNCC, you might observe that its congregations are small. You might notice that its church buildings are not huge cathedrals or modernist monstrosities. You might see churches that speak of holiness in honor of God. You might observe everyone pulling together and cooperative decision making. You might notice a respect for the sacred and a love of democracy.

You might notice —“ the Catholic Church.

Look around you. Look at these walls, this Altar, the windows, the statues, the candles. People are dying alone, without the comfort and love of the Catholic Church they grew up in because all this was done away with. It went into the garbage pile. They are hurt and cannot find their way home. They stay away in anger because they have no home.

On this All Saints Day, the saints are crying. They are calling to the world and saying, we are here, the martyrs and mystics, the doctors and confessors, the virgins, the priests, deacons, and bishops, the holy men and women.

Look around you and give thanks. We are not ultra-modern. We are traditional. We pray. We light candles and use incense. We say novenas and the rosary. We do the Stations of the Cross. We believe in penance, repentance, and forgiveness. We believe Jesus Christ is truly present in the Word and in the Eucharist, and that the Holy Mass is a sacrifice not a holy mess.

I could walk into many churches, go to the tabernacle, pull out the ciborium, throw the Eucharist on the floor and step on it. No one would probably notice or care. Only 30% of Roman Catholics even believe anymore.

Long-time syndicated columnist and editor at the Dallas Morning News, William Murchison describes how Europe has lost its Christian faith.

—If you don’t believe a thing is true, or vital, or relevant, in due course you quit acting as though you did, notwithstanding any sentimental attachment you might have to the outward forms and symbols of the old belief structure…You look elsewhere for satisfaction. Europe has long been looking elsewhere for the satisfactions Christianity once supplied.—

A church as a museum is not a Church. Look at these walls, look at the blending of the old and the new. Look at the democracy and will of the people. No one here threw out the baby with the bathwater. No one here threw out the saints and what they fought for. No one denigrated the ancient and sacred tradition of the Holy, catholic, Church.

When you come here and feel small. When you come and there are only 50, 75, or a hundred people here, remember that it is not the number that counts. Remember that it is whether those who come believe. Whether this is a Church.

Saint John said, —Because the world refused to acknowledge Him, therefore it does not acknowledge us.— We live the beatitudes and hold the faith of the saints. You yourselves are called to be saints. To be those things the world does not want. To be what everyone else modernizes out of existence.

Being poor in spirit and gentle; to mourn and hunger and thirst for what is right; to be merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, and persecuted in the cause of right.

Listen again to Saint John:

My dear people, we are already the children of God but what we are to be in the future has not yet been revealed; all we know is, that when it is revealed we shall be like Him because we shall see Him as He really is.

May God bless you and May God sustain our PNCC.

—Teacher which commandment in the law is the greatest?—
He said to him,
—You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your soul,
and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.

My sisters and brothers in Christ,

What follows this statement, —You shall love your neighbor as yourself.— is often the focus of the homily on this Sunday. We focus so much on —You shall love your neighbor as yourself.— that we often overlook the first part, the greatest commandment —You shall love the Lord, your God—. Or we see —You shall love your neighbor as yourself!’ as an equal substitute for loving God.

Of course our neighbor is easy to see, sometimes even to love. Look around you. This Church, this community are filled with your neighbors. You’ll shake their hands at the sign of peace.

But what about God? God is in your neighbor of course, but your neighbor is not God. Nothing on earth is God, or anything in the heavens. God is the infinite and the ultimate. He cannot be contained in anything, not even in everything created. The created can only point to Him.

So my family in Christ, let’s focus on God.

You’ve all heard of the terrible term WMD’s, weapons of mass destruction. Today I will talk about an equally terrible weapon we all carry, IMD’s.

What is an IMD? An IMD is the tool of evil in our life. It is intimidation, manipulation, and domination. It is the set of
tools that evil gives us to make us feel secure in our own power and sense of control.

Intimidation, manipulation, and domination.

Perhaps we use these tools with our spouse, perhaps with our children, maybe with our co-workers or subordinates. Intimidation, manipulation, and domination make us feel secure and in control.

Evil in our lives, the force of evil in the world, leads us to believe that we need power and control. It tempts us, and when we sin, when we acquiesce to the idea that we need to gain knowledge, power, and control by using IMD’s, we discard the greatest commandment. God is not in charge anymore. We are. There is no God. We are not loving God heart, mind, and soul. When we sin we are not loving Him at all.

So what of God? Isn’t He the most powerful, most almighty, most everlasting. Isn’t He the ultimate IMD, the mother of all IMD’s.

No.

When we think of God we think, He can fix it, he can make it better, He has the power. And we disappoint ourselves, because we did not gain power and control over our situation through God’s hands. We didn’t get the power to control and understand what is happening. We didn’t change the outcome.

What does God give us? How does He act? Does He use I MD’s?

Well, He gave us His son, He allowed himself to be brutally killed so we could have everlasting life.

That is why the cross is a stumbling block. It does not represent intimidation, manipulation, and domination. It represents sacrifice, suffering, and love. Jesus did not promise us a honkey-dory existence. He did not promise us a rose garden. When we suffer, when we sacrifice, when we are in pain and need, we are ever closer to Him. When we realize our sin and repent from it, His death on the cross becomes real for us. When we set aside our need for control and put all in God’s hands, then we are Christian.

God gives us Himself in the presence of His Son in this tabernacle. His Son gave us all we need. He did not guarantee us power and control —” quite the opposite. He did however open the doors of heaven to us. He guaranteed our everlasting life. And He left us with the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The point of all this is who do you believe? Do you believe in God, in Jesus Christ, in the Cross and the power of the Holy Spirit? Do we love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and mind? Or do you believe in yourself and your ability to use IMD’s.

The next time you are tempted, put down the IMD’s and follow the greatest commandment. Love God, that all may be well with you.