March 30, 2011. Homily, Tuesday, April 12, 2011,

John 8:21-30.

Jesus said to the Pharisees: "I am going away, and you will look for me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going you cannot come." So the Jews said, "He is not going to kill himself, is he, because he said, 'Where I am going you cannot come'?" He said to them, "You belong to what is below; I belong to what is above. You belong to this world. That is why I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins." So they said to him, "Who are you?" Jesus said to them, "What I told you from the beginning. I have much to say about you in condemnation. But the one who sent me is true, and what I have heard from him I tell the world." They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father. So Jesus said to them, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me. The one who sent me is with me, He has not left me alone, because I always do what is pleasing to him." Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.

The Gospel of the Lord.

God the Father spoke to Moses in the burning bush. Moses asked his name. What am I to answer when they ask for your name. "Tell them I AM WHO AM sent you to them." Thus the name of God the Father is I AM which for the Jews is YAHWEH.

Jesus says in this gospel of John, "You belong to what is below; I belong to what is above. You belong to this world. That is why I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins." So the Jews said to him, "Who are you?" Here we have the answer first, "that I AM" and then the question, "Who are you?" I AM is God the Father's name for Himself.

Then Jesus goes on to theology, "That is why I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins." Those who do not believe that Jesus is God and that when Jesus was crucified, he died for the sins of all mankind, will not have their sins forgiven and thus "will die in their sins."

March 30, 2011. Homily, Saturday Vespers, April 9, 2011,

John 11:1-45

Now a man was ill, Lazarus (Gr. "God has helped") from Bethany (Heb. "House of mercy"), the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who had anointed the Lord with perfumed oil and dried his feet with her hair; it was her brother Lazarus who was ill. So the sisters went word to Jesus saying, "Master, the one you love is ill." When Jesus heard this 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." Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that he was ill, he remained for two days in the place where he was. Then after this he said to his disciples, "Let us go back to Judea." The disciples said to him, "Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you, and you want to go back there?" Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours in a day? If one walks during the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if one walks at night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him." He said this, and then told them, "Our friend Lazarus is asleep, but I am going to awaken him." So the disciples said to him, "Master, if he is asleep, he will be saved." But Jesus was talking about his death, while they thought he meant ordinary sleep. So then Jesus said to them clearly, "Lazarus has died. And I am glad for you that I was not there, that you may believe. Let us go to him." "So Thomas, called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go to die with him."

When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus has already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, only about two miles away. And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him, but Mary sat at home. Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you." Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise." Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day." Jesus told her, "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?" She said to him, "Yes, Lord, I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world."

When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary secretly, saying, "The teacher is here and is asking for you." As soon as she heard this, she rose quickly and went to him. For Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still where Martha had met him. So when the Jews who were with her in the house comforting her saw Mary get up quickly and go out, they followed her, presuming that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Sir, come and see." And Jesus wept. So the Jews said, "See how he loved him." But some of them said, "Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man

have done something so that this man would not have died?"

So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay across it. Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the dead man's sister, said to him, "Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days." Jesus said to her. "Did I not tell you that if you believe

you will see the glory of God?" So they took away the stone. And Jesus raised his eyes and said,

"Father, I thank you for hearing me. I know that you always hear me; but because of the crowd here I have said this, that they may believe that you sent me." And when he had said this, he cried out in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" The dead man came out, tied hand and foot with burial bands, and his face was wrapped in a cloth. So Jesus said to them, "Untie him and let him go."

Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what he had done began to believe in him.

The Gospel of the Lord.

"And Jesus wept." is the shortest verse in the New Testament. "Jesus wept" even though Jesus knew that Lazarus would rise ["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."; "Our friend Lazarus is asleep but I am going to awaken him."; "Lazarus has died. And I am glad for you that I was not there, that you may believe."; "Your brother will rise."; "Take away the stone * * * * Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?"] His weeping shows Jesus knew the pain and sorrow the loss of a loved one causes, even for those with the strongest belief in an afterlife and who know that the separation is only temporary, and, from the viewpoint of eternity, even momentary. At a simple command from Jesus, Lazarus comes forth from the tomb.

Perhaps Jesus delayed going to Bethany to show that there is no way around death even for God's friends, even for God's only Son. "Unless a grain of wheat dies, it remains but a grain of wheat. But if it dies, it produces a harvest a hundred fold."

Death is not an end for the Christian but marks the beginning of something new and wonderful. Death marks the entrance to eternal life, where the faithful will be alive to God and happy with him forever.

As Jesus dies, he knows that his death is becoming the source of life, just as the seed in the earth must be destroyed that a new plant may be born: "unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit." Jn 12:24.

Jesus is the grain of wheat that falls to the earth, is split open, is destroyed and dies, and for this very reason is able to bear fruit. From the day on which Christ was raised upon it, the Cross, which had seemed to be a sign of desolation, of abandonment, of failure, has become a new beginning; from the profundity of death is raised the promise of eternal life. The victorious splendor of the dawning day of Easter already shines upon the Cross.

March 30, 2011. Homily, Tuesday, April 5, 2011.

John 5:1-16.

There was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem at the Sheep Gate a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes. In these lay a large number of ill, blind, lame and crippled. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him laying there and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be well?" The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me." Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your mat, and walk." Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked.

Now that day was a sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who was cured, "It is the sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat." He answered them. "The man who made me well told me, 'Take up your mat and walk.'" They asked him, "Who is the man who told you, 'Take it up and walk'?" They asked him, "Who is the man who told you, 'Take it up and walk'?" The man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away, since there was a crowd there. After this Jesus found him in the temple area and said to him, "Look, you are well; do not sin any more, so that nothing worse may happen to you." The man went and told the Jews that Jesus was the one who had made him well. Therefore, the Jews began to persecute Jesus because he did this on a sabbath.

The Gospel of the Lord.

Jesus, not the pool at Bethesda, is the pool of life. Jesus is the life-giving water.

This whole Gospel shows violations of the sabbath yet Jesus is the one persecuted by the Jews:

the sick man was one of many by the pool at Bethesda in the temple area waiting for an opporunity to be cured.

each of the sick had to be carried down to the pool when it was stirred up.

Jesus did not carry the man to the pool but instead cured him in place then told him to take up his mat and go home.

The man was cured and was carrying his mat but the Jews were not concerned that the man had been sick for thirty-eight years but were only concerned that the cured man ws carrying his mat home.

And the Jews were only concerned not of the cure after thurty-eight years of sickness but only that the cure had been done on the sabbath.

And because of the cure on the sabbath (a technicality in the face of a miracle) the Jews began to persecute Jesus.

March 30, 2011. Homily, Saturday, April 9, 2011,

John 7: 40-53

Some in the crowd who heard these words of Jesus said, "This is truly the Prophet." Others said, "This is the Christ." But others said, "The Christ will not come from Galilee, will he? Does not Scripture say the the Christ will be of David's family and come from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?" So a division occurred in the crowd because of him. Some of them even wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

So the guards went to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them. "Why did you not bring him?' The guards answered, "Never before has anyone spoken like this man. " So the Pharisees answered them, "Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd which does not know the law is accursed." Nicodemus, one of their members who had come to him earlier, said to them, "Does our law condemn a man before it first hears him and finds out what he is doing?" They answered and said to him. "You are not from Galilee also, are you? Look and see that no prophet arises from Galilee."

Then each went to his own house.

The Gospel of the Lord.

John's Gospel is in two major parts: The Book of Signs and the Book of Glory.

The gospel of John read earlier this week has Jesus curing the man at Sheep's Gate lying by the pool of Bethesda who had been sick 38 years with the words, "Rise up, take up your mat and go home." And Jesus being asked by the court official to come and cure the official's son, Jesus saying the words , "Your son will live.", and the official believing and returning home with the son cured at the very hour Jesus had spoken. So we have, "Never before has anyone spoken like this man."

The Pharisees relied on their knowledge of the Book without doing their own research, whether learning where Jesus had been born or themselves observing his Signs in the form of his miracles, but instead passing over Jesus in that they thought he had come from Galilee. Galilee was the Brooklyn of Palestine with the Aramaic equivalent of Brooklyn's dese, dem and dose. Instead, they dismissed the thought of Jesus and each went to his own home.

The simple trappings of deliberation make academics think they have reached an opinion through reasoned debate, instead, in part, through am irrational social dynamic. A group-think environment produces a one-sided academy. Bauerlain's law of group polarization: when like-minded people deliberate, their general opinion shifts toward extreme versions of their common beliefs.

If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

March 28, 2010. Homily, Tuesday, March 29, 2010.

Matthew 18:21-35

Peter approached Jesus and asked him, "Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?" Jesus answered, "I say to you, not seven times, but seventy-seven [or seventy times seven] times. That is why the Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants. When he began the accounting, a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount [10,000 talents]. Since he had no way of paying it back, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, his children and all of his property, in payment of the debt. At that the servant fell down, did him homage, and said, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.' Moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave the loan. When that servant had left. he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a much smaller amount [a few denarii]. He seized him and started to choke him, demanding, 'Pay back what you owe.' Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.' But he refused. Instead, he had him put in prison until he paid back the debt. Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were greatly disturbed, and went to their master and reported the whole affair. His master summoned him and said to him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to. Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant as I have had pity on you?' Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt. So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart."

The Gospel of the Lord.

seven times: when Cain killed Abel, the very ground cried out. God put the mark of Cain on Cain so that anyone who harmed Cain would be punished sevenfold. Six generations later, Lamech, Cain's descendant, killed a man who had injured him and and a boy who had struck him, Lamech boasted anyone harming him [Lamech] would be punished seven times seventy times.

We must forgive others even those we love who have hurt us. Something in the human heart likes to nurse a grudge. But only when we let go of what is consuming us, only when we forgive and wipe the slate clean, that peace can return, and we can get on with our lives. Let it go.

a talent was the largest denomination of a bill in ancient Palestine [say 10,000 dollars; our largest denomination is $100].

a talent = 6000 denarii.

a denarius was the equivalent of one day's wage.

The GDP of Palestine at that time was 600 talents.

The point of the parable is that Jesus is comparing Peter to the unjust servant, because Peter wants to put a limit on forgiveness.

March 23, 2010. Homily, Saturday, March 26, 2010

Luke 15: 1-3, 11-32.

Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus, but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them." So to them Jesus addressed this parable. "A man had two sons, and the younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of your estate that should come to me.' So the father divided the property between them. After a few days, the younger son collected all his belongings and set off to a distant country where he squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation. When he had freely spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he found himself in dire need. So he hired himself out to one of the local citizens who sent him to his farm to tend the swine, And he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed, but nobody gave him any. Coming to his senses he thought , 'How many of my father's hired workers have more than enough food to eat, but here am I , dying from hunger. I shall get up and go to my father and I shall say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired workers." So he got up and went back to his father. While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him. His son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son.' But his father ordered his servants, 'Quickly, bring the finest robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Take the fatted calf and slaughter it. Then let us celebrate with a feast, because this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.' Then the celebration began. Now the older son had been out in the field and, on his way back, as he neared the house, he heard the sound of music and dancing. He called one of the servants and asked what this might mean. The servant said to him, 'Your brother has returned and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound. He became angry, and when he refused to enter the house, his father came out and pleaded with him. He said to his father in reply, 'Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feed on with my friends. But when your son returns who swallowed up your property with prostitutes, for him you slaughtered the fatted calf.' He said to him, 'My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours. But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found."

The Gospel of the Lord.

The parable of the prodigal son appears only in the Gospel of Luke. And it is the longest parable in all the Gospels. I tell you this as a reward for sitting though its reading. Some call it one of history's best short stories.

In commenting on the parable, one may focus on the prodigal son with the theme that no matter the extent of his sins he was welcomed back, or one may focus of the forgiving father, who is like God the Father in that His mercy is without limit, or one can focus on the older son who is like the Pharisees and scribes in his complaining, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them." But I liken this parable to a graduation in that the elder son concentrates on the husbandry of the father's property, but is unable to celebrate and further, although the younger son asks for his share, the older son waits for his father to give him a goat without understanding that he should ask for it.

March 18, 2011. Homily, March 22, 2011.

Matthew 23:1-12

Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying, The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people's shoulders, but will not lift a finger to move them. All their works are performed to be seen. They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. They love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues, greetings in marketplaces, and the salutation 'Rabbi.' As for you, do not be called 'Rabbi.' You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers. Call no one on earth your father; you have but one Father in heaven. Do not be called 'master'; you have but one master, the Christ. The greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted."


phylacteries: Scripture prayers [dedicate your first son to God; the Shema - Love the Lord your God with your whole heart, mind and strength; the 1st Commandment - I am the Lord your God, you shall not have false gods before you] written on parchment and worn on one's forehead and around one's left arm.

tassels: fringe on the ends of a prayer shawl [originally used to hang up a cloak by tying it to a hook]

reb: the Hebrew word for "great". "Literally, "rabbi" means "great one".

Jesus was annoyed because the Pharisees in interpreting the Gospel for their fellow Jews were interpreting it without mercy.

In yesterday's Gospel, Luke 6:36-38, quotes Jesus, "Be merciful just as your Father is merciful." "Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and gifts will be given to you in good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you."

Popes have always signed their letters, "the servant of the servants of God."

phylacteries: little boxes containing four of the most sacred passages in the Old Testament - Exodus 13:1-10 about the first-born being consecrated to God; Exodus, 13:11-16 also about the first-born being dedicated to God; Deuteronomy, 6:4-9, the Shema, "Hear, O Israel, You shall love the Lord thy God with your whole heart soul, mind and strength"; Deuteronomy 11:13-21 "There shall be no false gods". Phylacteries were worn on their foreheads, the motivating reasons for all their actions, and on their wrists, that they might put into practice what God wanted.

the prayer shawl tassels were reminders of the law.

An old priest to a class of young priests, "If you don't love people, for God's sake don't preach."