April 29, 2013. Homiiy, Tuesday, April 30, 2013

John 14:27-31a.

Jesus said to his disciples: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. You heard me tell you, 'I am going away and I will come back to you.' If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe. I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world is coming. He has no power over me, but the world must know that I love the Father and do just as the Father has commanded me."
The Gospel of the Lord.

Today honors three martyrs - Saints Nereus and Achilleus, and Saint Pancras. But we do not wear red at Mass; instead we wear white. Why, because this is Easter season, the season of the resurrection, the season not of the death of martyrs but of life, the life of Jesus in the resurrection. Thus, we emphasize life. Jesus by His resurrection showed His victory over death. "Where, O Death, is your victory? Where, O Death, is your sting?" The first reading is from Acts 14:19-20 which tells of the Jews turning the crowd against Paul; the crowd "stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. But when the disciples gathered around him, he got up and entered the city." In 2 Cor. 11, Paul tells of his encounters with death: five times Paul received 40 lashes less one; three times he was beaten with rods; once he was stoned. This is that stoning, and the end result of a stoning was death. Paul was shipwrecked three times; he spent a day and a night adrift at sea.

So these readings are about the triumph of life, the life of the Lord (I am the way, the truth, and the life) over death. The death is that brought by "the ruler of the world." Jesus, says, the ruler of the world "has no power over me, but the world must know that I love the Father and that I do as the Father has commanded me." We have the details of the Passion to show what pain the world may apply but we have the death and then resurrection of the Lord to show the power of Jesus over death. over the world and the "ruler of the world".

We are reassured by tenderness of the Lord, by His concern: "Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. You have heard me tell you, 'I am going away and I will come back to you.'" He has given us the path to eternal life; he assures us of eternal life. We have hope; we hope in the Lord; our hope gives us the way to eternal life.

April 26, 2013. Homily, Saturday, April 27, 2013

John 14: 7-14.

Jesus said to his disciples: "If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him." Philip said to Jesus, "Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Do you now believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe because of the works themselves. Amen, amen, I say to  you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father. And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it."
The Gospel of the Lord.

Philip said to Jesus, "Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. 

The first day of class, the grammar school teacher decided to test for manual dexterity so she handed out sheets of paper and pencils to her class, and when, she had their attention, asked them each to draw a picture. Some just sat ther, but Harry bent over and started to work feverishly. The teacher went over. "Harry, what are you drawing?" "I am drawing a picture of God." "But no one knows what God looks like." Harry kept working, "They will when I am finished." In the words of Jesus from today's Gospel,  "[B]elieve that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works. Believe me [when I say] that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe because of the works themselves." When we witness to the Lord, when we do the works of the Lord, others see the Lord in us. "[W]hoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these. . . . And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son."


John 14:1 "Do no let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. [2] In my Father's house, there are many dwelling places[mansions]. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you. [3] . . . so that where I am, there you may be also. [4] Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" [6] Jesus said to him, "I am the the way [to live as Jesus lived because He is the fullest. most perfect expression of God's love], and the truth [by living His life perfectly, submitting Himself to God the Father in all things, Jesus is the embodiment of truth: what it is to be truly human], and the life [Jesus through His life and example showed us how to live as God's children]. No one comes to the Father except through me. [7] If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."

John 10:30.  The Father and I are one.

John's Gospel passages of the past few days talk about the relation between Jesus the Son and the Father. The Father and I are one. Two persons in one God; with the Holy Spirit, [the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are] three persons in one God. 

April 24, 2013 Prayer Service

From: John 12:44-50

The Unbelief of the Jews
-----------------------------------
[44] And Jesus cried out and said, "He who believes in Me, believes not in Me,
but in Him who sent Me. [45] And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me.
[46] I have come as light into the world, that whoever believes in Me may not
remain in darkness. [47] If any one hears My sayings and does not keep them,
I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.
[48] He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings has a judge; the word
that I have spoken will be his judge on the last day. [49] For I have not spoken
on My own authority; the Father who sent Me has Himself given Me command-
ment what to say and what to speak. [50] And I know that His commandment
is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has bidden Me."

*********************************************************************************************
Commentary:

44-50. With these verses St. John brings to an end his account of our Lord's pub-
lic ministry. He brings together certain fundamental themes developed in previous
chapters--the need for faith in Christ (verse 44); the Father and the Son are one
yet distinct (cf. 45); Jesus is Light and Life of the world (verses 46, 50); men will
be judged in accordance with whether they accept or reject the Son of God (ver-
ses 47-49). The chapters which follow contain Jesus' teaching to His Apostles at
the Last Supper, and the accounts of the Passion and Resurrection.

45. Christ, the Word Incarnate, is one with the Father (cf. John 10:30); "He re-
flects the glory of God" (Hebrews 1:3); "He is the image of the invisible God" (Co-
lossians 1:15). In John 14:9 Jesus expresses Himself in almost the same words:
"He who has seen Me has seen the Father". At the same time as He speaks of
His oneness with the Father, we are clearly shown the distinction of persons --
the Father who sends, and the Son who is sent.

In Christ's holy human nature His divinity is, as it were, hidden, that divinity which
He possesses with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit (cf. John 14:7-11). In
theology "circumincession" is the word usually used for the fact that, by virtue of
the unity among the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity, "the Father is wholly in
the Son and wholly in the Holy Spirit; the Son wholly in the Father and wholly in
the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit wholly in the Father and wholly in the Son" (Coun-
cil of Florence, "Decree Pro Jacobitis, Dz-Sch", 1331).

47. Christ has come to save the world by offering Himself in sacrifice for our sins
and bringing us supernatural life (cf. John 3:17). But He has also been made
Judge of the living and the dead (cf. Acts 10:42): He passes sentence at the Par-
ticular Judgment which happens immediately after death, and at the end of the
world, at His Second Coming or Parousia, at the universal judgment (cf. John 5:
22; 8:15-16).

St. George. April 22, 2013. Homily, Tuesday, April 23, 2013

John 10:22-30.

The Feast of the Dedication was taking place in Jerusalem. It was winter. And Jesus walked about in the temple area on the Portico of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, "How long are you going to keep us in suspense?  If  you are the Christ, tell us plainly." Jesus answered them, "I told you and you do not believe. The works I do in my Father's name testify to me. But you do not believe, because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father's hand. The Father and I are one."
The Gospel of the Lord.

The Feast of the Dedication was the feast of lights; it took place in what is our month of December, on the 25th day of that month, our Christmas.  Jesus says, "It was winter", meaning that it was dark.  The beginning of John's Gospel: "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. Everything came into being through Him, and nothing came into being except through Him. What came to be through him was life, and this was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." The Jews ask, "If you are the Christ, tell us plainly." And Jesus answers, "The works I do in my Father's name testify to me." Those works, those signs of John's Book of Signs, are the water into wine at the Cana, the healing of the man paralyzed 38 years, the curing of the royal official's son from a distance, the feeding of the multitude, the giving of sight to the man born blind, the raising of Lazarus.

Those works testified to Jesus as the Messiah. The Jews did not believe. Then, the Passion , Death and Resurrection of Jesus. Jesus conquered death. Thus, after the resurrection, we can say with Paul, O Death, where is your victory. O Death, where is your sting. 

Jesus speaks of his followers as sheep. Do we want to be called a sheep? Ask this, do we want eternal life. Jesus promised eternal life to his sheep and that his followers will never perish. He has promised eternal; life to us. And Jesus answers the question as to His provenance, "The Father and I are one."

April 1, 2013.omily, Tyessday, April 2, 2013

John 20: 11-18

Mary Magdalene stayed outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she bent over the tomb and saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet where the body of Jesus had been. And they said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken my Lord, and I don't know where they laid him." When she said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there, but did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" She thought it was the gardener and said to him, "Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him." Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni," which means Teacher. Jesus said to her, "Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, 'I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" Mary went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord," and then reported what he had told her.

The Gospel of the Lord.

In the Catholic Weekly NY edition on Timothy Dolan, our new Archbishop, one commentator who knew him as the rector of the North American College in Rome, said that Dolan acts as a spiritual father to the faculty and seminarians, and by analogy to his priests, clergy and the faithful, reflecting the Rule of St. Benedict on the conduct of an abbot, that he should "arrange all things that the strong have something to strive for and the weak have nothing to fear."

So we turn to today's Gospel on the treatment of Jesus to Mary Magdalene. Mary Magdalene was strong enough to stay by the side of Jesus and of His mother during the time of Jesus on the cross and yet weak enough so that at His tomb, she was blinded by her tears as she sought to do her duty as she saw it. And Jesus on His way to His Father and to our Father, to His God and to our God, paused to tend to her, to call her name, "Mary!", to comfort her, and then to send her as his messenger to "His brothers" to the apostles to tell them that she had seen the Lord, that He had risen, to tell them and eventually through them to tell the whole world the message of Easter, that Jesus had risen, that Jesus had conquered death, so that we can say with St. Paul, "O Death where is your victory. O Death where is your sting."

This is one of the most beautiful passages in John's gospel. Jesus was fully man and fully God; this scene captures Jesus giving up his manhood and resuming his Godhood. The angels in the tomb each ask Mary Magdalene, "Woman, why are you weeping?" An angel is a messenger of God. Then Jesus who is the second person of God asks the same question of Mary Magdalene. "Woman, why are you weeping?" She is weeping because Jesus has died, and the angels and Jesus who are not mortal but immortal think she should not be weeping but be rejoicing because Jesus has risen - Jesus has reassumed His immortality.

Synoptic Gospels ("Synoptic" means "of the same viewpoint")

Gospel of Mark (the first Gospel chronologically by the son of Peter gives the life of Jesus and recounts the miracles of Jesus)

Gospel of Matthew (the second gospel chronologically, but first in the Bible, by the tax collector, proves to the Jews from prophecies in the Old Testament that Jesus was the Son of God).

Gospel of Luke (Luke, the physician, recounts the early life of Jesus, shows the closeness of Jesus to the women and the sick; and then follows the gospel with the Acts of the Apostles, the history of the early Church).

Gospel of John  (the last Gospel chronologically, by John, the "apostle whom Jesus loved", the apostle who was given care of the mother of Jesus by Jesus from the Cross). In two parts, the Book of Signs (seven miracles) and the Book of Glory (the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus).

Book of Signs (7)

Jesus turns water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana

Jesus cures the son of the royal official at a distance

Jesus on the Sabbath cures the man ill for 38 years at the Temple's Sheep  Gate

Jesus feeds the multitude with five barley loves and two fish

Jesus walks on the water (crossing the Sea of Galilee)

Jesus cures the man blind from birth (with mud from Jesus' spittle and then wash in the pool of Siloam)

Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead


Book of Glory (Passion, Death and Resurrection)

April 4, 2012. Homily, Tuesday, April 9, 2012

Homily, Tuesday, April 9. 2012

John 3: 7b-15

Jesus said to Nicodemus: "'You must be born from above.' The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes, so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit," Nicodemus answered and said to him, "How can this happen?" Jesus answered and said to him, "You are the teacher of Israel and you do not understand this? Amen, amen, I say to you, we testify to what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but you people do not accept our testimony. If I tell you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if i tell you about heavenly things? No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him shall have eternal life."
The Gospel of the Lord.

What is this Gospel all about? After John Paul II became Pope, he gave an interview and a reporter asked him, "What was the greatest day in your life?" John Paul II, pope, cardinal, bishop, priest, university professor, world expert in sociology, answered, "The day of my baptism." That is what this Gospel is all about, the greatest day in each of our lives.

Baptism: each of us is anointed priest [say our prayers], prophet [preach the word], king [be generous].

Donald Rumsfeld: "There are known knowns. There are known unknowns. And there are unknown unknowns."

John 1:1
In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things came to be through him,
and without him, nothing came to be.
What came to be through him was life,
and this life was the light of the human race;
the light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.

Homily, Saturday, 4/13/13

John 6:16-21

When it was evening, the disciples of Jesus went down to the sea, embarked in a boat, and went across the sea to Capernaum. It had already grown dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. .The sea was stirred up because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they began to be afraid. But he said to them, "It is I.  Do not be afraid." They wanted to take him into the boat, but the boat immediately arrived at the shore to which they were heading.
The Gospel of the Lord.

John's Gospel is in two parts - the Book of Signs which recounts seven miracles done by Jesus where Jesus walking on the water, this miracle or sign, follows his feeding of the 5000 with 5 loaves and two fish, and the Book of Glory, which is the Passion, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Here the disciples are rowing across the Sea of Galilee to Capernaum, they have rowed three or four miles, it is dark, ,and a storm has come up. They see Jesus walking on the water coming near to the boat, they are afraid, and Jesus calls out, "It is I. Do not be afraid." The apostles make ready to take Jesus aboard and they immediately reach shore. 

John chooses this Jesus walking on the water as one of the seven signs, for the Jews of that time were afraid of the dark and afraid of the sea for both were the habitats of dangerous things. And by Jesus walking on water he shows his dominion, or power, over dangerous things, over sin.

This is the Optional Memorial of Martin I, who died in 656, as a deacon served in the imperial court, combated Emperor Constans II (641-668) over the monothelite heresy (that Jesus had only a divine will and was not truly human), was elected pope, forced from Rome to Constantinople, was tried for treason, exiled to Crimea, and died of starvation and ill treatment, the last pope to be martyred.