April 26, 2011, Homily, Tuesday, May 3, 2011

John 14: 6-14.

Jesus said to Thomas, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 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 6, 2011, Homily, Tuesday, April 21, 2011.

John 20: 11-18

Mary Magdalene stayed outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, he 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.

April 16, 2011, Homily, Tuesday Holy Week, April 19, 2100

John 13: 21-33, 36-38

Residing at table with his disciples, Jesus was deeply troubled and testified, "Amen, amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me." The disciples looked at one another, at a loss as to whom he meant. One of the disciples, the one whom Jesus loved, was reclining at Jesus' side. So Simon Peter nodded to him to find out whom he meant. He leaned back against Jesus' chest and said to him, "Master, who is it?" Jesus answered, "It is the one to whom I hand the morsel after I have dipped it." So he dipped the morsel and took it and handed it to Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot. After Judas took the morsel, Satan entered him. So Jesus said to him, "What you are going to do, do quickly." Now none of those reclining at table realized why he said this to him. Some thought that since Judas kept the money bag, Jesus had told him, "Buy what you need for the feast," to give something to the poor. So Judas took the morsel and left at once. And it was night.

When he had left, Jesus said, "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and he will glorify him at once. My children, I will be with you only alittle while longer. You will look for me, and as I told the Jews, 'Where I go you cannot come, so now I say it to you."

Simon Peter said to him, "Master, where are you going?" Jesus answered him, "Where I am going, you cannot follow me now, though you will follow later." Peter said to him, "Master, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you." Jesus answered, "Will you lay down your life for me? Amen, amen, I say to you, the cock will not Crowbefore you deny me three times."

The Gospel of the Lord.


John's Gospel is the Book of Signs followed by the Book of Glory. So here we have Jesus reclining at table "deeply troubled" and Jesus testified "Amen, amen I say to you, one of you will betray me." A prophesy by Jesus. Peter asks "the one whom Jesus loved [John, the writer of this Gospel]" to find out whom Jesus meant. And Jesus indicated Judas. Then Jesus sent Judas on his way. Judas "left at once." "And it was night."

Now starts the Book of Glory. For Jesus says, "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him." Now starts the Passion of the Lord. And none of the "disciples" are to undergo the Passion with him except as observers. Each fail in their own way. Judas betrays him. And John with knowledge of the betrayer Judas takes no steps to stop Judas. Peter takes up the sword to defend Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and cuts off the ear of the servant of the high priest. But Peter is stayed and the servant's ear healed. Peter goes on to deny Jesus "three times". Jesus forgives Peter (after the Ascension when he asks Peter "three times" whether Peter loves him) and forgives John (at the Cross where Jesus gives care of his mother Mary to John). Judas commits suicide, so that we assume that Jesus did not forgive Judas. But would Jesus have forgiven Judas. What precedent do we have. Well, Jesus forgave Saul (who orchestrated the murder/martyrdom of Stephen) for Saul became Paul the great apostle and missionary to the Gentiles.

Passion, Death and Resurrection. The three days of the Passion and Death are the prologue to the Resurrection of Jesus and the attendant eternity of the Glory of Jesus.

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.