Homily - Trinity Sunday

Who is God? This is the central question that the Church asks and celebrates today on this, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. Who is God?

This is the very question Moses asked when he encountered the Lord in the burning bush. After receiving his mission to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, Moses asked, “But when I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ if they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what am I to tell them?” (Exodus 3:13). In other words, “Who are you?” This is the same question Saul asks of Jesus before he follows him and spreads his Gospel as the great Apostle, Paul: “Who are you, sir?” (Acts 9:5).

Do we not each ask this question of God: “Who are you?” Moses is given this answer: “I am who am” (Exodus 3:14). Saul is given this answer: “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting (Acts 9:5). At the moment these two answers were given they were not especially helpful and certainly did not really clarify the strangeness of the two situations. Indeed, concerning the answer given to Moses, Pope Benedict remarks that the answer, “I am who am,” “seems much more like a refusal to give a name than the announcement of a name” (Introduction to Christianity, 86). And so it is with us.

The more that we seek to define God, the more that we seek to fully understand him, the more that we desire to say, “This is God,” the more he will elude us. Saint Augustine said, si comprehendis, non est Deus - “If you understand him, he is not God” (Sermon 52:16). Because God is infinitely different and greater than us, we can never fully grasp him, we can never fully comprehend him. Before all of our questions, before all of our intelligence and reflections we will always learn that the more we know about God the less we truly know about him. This being said, what then are we to say to our question, “Who is God?”

Many years ago I asked this very same question, “Who is God?" I did not ask this question in so many words, but the very pain of my being cried out to the Lord with this question. After the death of my father, I, as an eight year-old boy whose world had been torn asunder, cried out to the Lord in great pain and agony demanded an answer as to why my father had suddenly died. Two years later, I again cried out to him in pain and agony this time demanding an answer to my mother's death. I never did receive an answer as to why my parents died - nor do I think I ever really expected one - but I did learn something very profound through this pivotal experience.

The more that I questioned, the more that I demanded an answer, the more that I wept and yelled, the more I came to realize the presence of God around me. It is, really, an indescribable sensation and realization to know that God is with you. All that I can say is that I felt very much at peace even though the two people whom I love most in the entire world are no longer with me. The more that I questioned God’s reasons and purposes, the more I asked, “Who are you?" perhaps without even knowing it.

I do not know if this is an ancient saying or not, but if it is not it certainly should be: We cannot love what we do not know. As I asked God, ”Who are you?" The more I felt him saying to me, ”I know your pain. I suffer with you. I have suffered for you. I loved you. You are mine. Come to me.”

But I did not realize at the time that in feeling the Lord say to me, “I love you,” he was revealing to me the very essence of who he is. We know, first and foremost that “God is love” (I John 4:16). We know, too, as the Holy Father teaches us, “Love is always ‘mysterium’ – more than one can reckon or grasp by subsequent reckoning. Love itself – the uncreated, eternal God – must therefore be in the highest degree a mystery – ‘the’ mysterium itself” (Introduction to Christianity, 114). So then, God is love and love is a mystery, therefore God is a mystery. But then is this all that we can say about God? Is this all that he has said to us? Of course not.

With the love of God as our starting point, we realize – as Pope Benedict reminds us in his Encyclical Letter - that God alone has created all things, he alone has created each of us, “consequently, his creation is dear to him, for it was willed by him and ‘made’ by him” (Deus caritas est, 9). We learn also that “this God loves man” (Deus caritas est, 9).

In Jesus Christ, we realize also that “God’s passionate love for his people – for humanity – is at the same time a forgiving love. It is so great that it turns God against himself, his love against his justice” (Deus caritas est, 10).

One could, in fact, say that God is a relationship of love. It is precisely because God is love that God is a relationship of persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. One could see the Father as the Lover, the Son as the Beloved, and the Holy Spirit as the Love shared between the Father and the Son. In this way God is a communion of love, three persons all in one: the Blessed Trinity. It is because God is a communion of love that he calls each of us to receive his love and to share his love. In short, he and invites each of us to be in a relationship of love with him. Such is the beauty and the wonder of the power of love.

This is, admittedly, still a difficult concept for our minds to grasp. We ask, how can there be one God, and yet three persons in the Godhead? All I can tell you is that from my faith and from my experience I know this to be true. I cannot explain much better than this. Many of the saints have tried and this, it seems to me, is the best explanation that we have. We must be satisfied, then, to keep this mystery - this mystery of great and divine love - before us always.

In the scientific and rationalistic age in which we live, we want to have control of everything around us. We want to explain everything away and remove all mystery. In short, we want to be in charge of our lives and of our surroundings. My friends, this we simply cannot do. Let us then instead follow the wisdom of Saint Francis of Assisi, who encourages us with these words:

Let us desire nothing else, let us want nothing else, let nothing else please us and cause us delight except our Creator, Redeemer, and Savior, the only true God, let nothing hinder us, nothing separate us, nothing come between us (Earlier Rule 10).

The Annual Retreat

Having returned on Friday from a brief holiday respite in Lansing, Michigan, today I will my brother priests of the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois will be on retreat with our Bishop, the Most Reverend George J. Lucas, through Friday afternoon in Belleville, Illinois.

Please keep us in your prayers, even as we assure you of our prayers, that we may grow in greater unity as a Presbyterate and that we might be given the grace of the Holy Spirit that gives refreshment and zeal in our ministry.

Homily - Pentecost

In the beginning, “the earth was a formless void, there was darkness over the deep, and God’s spirit hovered over the water” (Genesis 1:1 [Jerusalem]). We see here the presence of the Holy Spirit at the dawn of the world and we see also the Holy Spirit present at the creation of mankind: “the LORD God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7). The breath of the Spirit creates and gives life.

Today there is one question that we must ask: Why did the Holy Spirit come down upon the Apostles as “tongues of fire” (Acts 2:3)? Saint Anthony of Padua suggests that the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles in this fashion

because it was by tongues (namely those of the serpent, Eve and Adam) that death entered into the world [cf. Wisdom 2:24]. The tongue of the serpent was poison to Eve, the tongue of Eve poisoned Adam, and Adam’s tongue tried to turn the blame back on God. The tongue is a cold organ, surrounded by moisture; thus: “It is an unquiet evil, full of deadly poison [James 3:8],” than which there is nothing colder. Therefore the Holy Spirit appeared in tongues of fire, to apply tongues to tongues, fire to deadly poison (Sermons, Pentecost, 3).

With his forked and deceitful tongue, the serpent spoke a great lie to Eve and tricked her into believing that God did not want – nor even know – what was best for her, what would lead her to happiness, fulfillment, and peace. Through her conniving, Eve convinced Adam that it was safe to eat the fruit of the tree of which they were forbidden to eat. Through his pride, Adam refused to accept responsibility for his action, blaming first Eve for having tricked him and in the end blaming God, presumably for having placed the tree in the garden in the first place.

It is through the tongue and through the breath that the poison of sin and death entered into creation and doomed mankind to eternal death. Now it is through a tongue that the antidote to the poison of sin and death will be given to a fallen world. Today, through the breath and tongue of the Holy Spirit the Lord “renew[s] the face of the earth” by bestowing upon us his manifold gifts, thus fulfilling the prophecy of Ezekiel:

O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and bring you back to the land of Israel. O my people! I will put my spirit in you that you may live, and I will settle you upon your land; thus you shall know that I am the LORD. I have promised, and I will do it, says the LORD (Ezekiel 37:12-14).

Through the power of the Holy Spirit God the Father raised the Lord Jesus Christ from death and restored him to life. As the Crucified and Risen Savior breathed the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles he breathed into them his very life, and so Jesus breathes this same Spirit into and upon us so that we, too, might live. As Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit anew in this fashion what was done through the breath and tongue of the serpent, of Eve and of Adam has been undone; all has been restored and renewed. Through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit we are made new creations in Christ the Lord.

We have seen why the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles in the form of tongues, but why did he descend as tongues of fire? Saint Anthony teaches us, saying:

Note that fire has four natures: it burns, it cleanses, it warms, it gives light. Similarly the Holy Spirit burns away sins, cleanses hearts, shakes off sloth, and enlightens ignorance (Saint Anthony of Padua, Sermon, Pentecost, 3).

It is first of all, then, the fire of the Holy Spirit that we received at Baptism that burns away the poison of sin and death. It is the fire of the Holy Spirit who convicts us of our sins and leads us to confess them by waking us from our slumber and laziness and filling us with the light of Truth. In this way, and only in this way, we are re-created. We must be open to the movement of the Holy Spirit within us. We cannot stifle his work. We must yield to him and so come to a profound understanding of the love that Christ the Lord showers upon us sinners.
Let us always remember that, as Saint Anthony of Padua teaches us,

The Holy Spirit, “sharing with each as he will” [cf. I Corinthians 12:11], breathes his grace where, how, how much, when and on whom he will. May he deign to breathe it on us, he who this day breathed his grace on the Apostles in tongues of fire. To him be always praise and glory, through everlasting ages. Amen” (Saint Anthony of Padua, Sermon, Pentecost, 3).

A Factoid

Yesterday after our practice for the ordination of a new priest for the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois, a priest-friend of mine remarked that I hold a special distinction of the priests of my presbyterate: I am the only priest under thirty years of age. This distinction I shall keep for one more year.

Homily - Ascension of the Lord

When Christ the Lord took on flesh and was born in Bethlehem of the Virgin Mary he took upon himself our humanity together with his divinity. He lived among us and taught us the way to the Father as he made the difficult and agonizing journey to Jerusalem. All the while his divinity remained veiled. The veil over his divinity was pulled back, as it were – his divinity was revealed - when he healed the sick; when he cast out demons; when he raised the dead; or when he multiplied the loaves and the fishes, but his divinity was not seen by all, nor was it seen all of the time.

When the all-powerful God chose to come be with us he did not come with the blare of trumpets or the march of armies. He did not come as he deserved; rather he chose the way of poverty and humility, all to reveal to us the awesome power of his love. He came among us so quietly that he almost came unnoticed.

In his death on the Cross, we see the fullness of his humanity and the depth of his great love for us. In his Resurrection from the dead we begin to see more of his divinity, but at the same time we see his humanity given greater glory as he stayed among these past forty days. In his resurrection, he reveals more of his majesty to us, but in his ascension into heaven we behold the fullness of his divinity.

Pope Benedict XVI, in reflecting upon the meaning of Jesus’ ascension into glory, reminds us:

The meaning of this last gesture of Jesus is twofold. Above all, ascending on “high,” he unequivocally reveals his divinity: He returns to where he came from, that is, to God, after having fulfilled his mission on earth. Moreover, Christ ascends to heaven with the humanity he had assumed and which has resurrected from the dead: That humanity is ours, transfigured, divinized, made eternal. The Ascension, therefore, reveals the “supreme vocation” (Gaudium et Spes, no. 22) of every human person – called to the eternal life of the kingdom of God, kingdom of love, light and peace (Pope Benedict XVI, Regina Caeli Address, 21 May 2006).

But how do we enter into this kingdom?

After the Last Supper Jesus said to the Apostles, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be. Where [I] am going you know the way” (John 14:2-3). Today he says this to each of us as well. Having ascended to the Father he prepares a place for us, but we must seek to follow after him. We must desire to be where he is. He will not force us to be with him; we must desire it and we must have faith in him. We must implore for the gift of this faith.

To this statement of Jesus Thomas demanded, “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” (John 14:5). Do we not say the same to Jesus: “Lord, where have you gone? Why have you left us?” Jesus answers this question, which we all pose to him, saying, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). He has not abandoned us; rather, he is our hope, for he shows us the way to the Father.

After watching in bewilderment Jesus ascend to the Father, the Apostles continued “looking intently at the sky” (Acts 1:10) and “standing there looking at the sky” (Acts 1:11). It is as though they stand there asking again with Thomas, “Master, how can we know the way?” They see Jesus ascend in his glory. They know where he has gone but they do not know quite how to get there, they do not quite know how to follow him.

To their wonderment, the two men told them how to follow after Jesus: “This Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven” (Acts 1:11). “He has not abandoned you; he will come back for you when all is ready.”

The way to heaven, the way to the Father, the way to eternal life is no thing, it is a person; the way is Jesus Christ! Knowledge of the Savior and a mature faith in him is the way to heaven, is the way to follow him; in short, what is needed is a faithful relationship with Christ Jesus, nothing more, nothing less. We are reminded again of the Holy Father’s words: “Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice of a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction” (Deus Caritas Est, 1).

Today we witness where Jesus has gone. This is the new horizon we are given and the decisive direction. Our new horizon, our decisive direction, is the ascension of the Lord. We see him “lifted up” (Acts 1:9) into heaven and we know that today “God mounts his throne amid shouts of joy; the LORD amid trumpet blasts” (Psalm 47:6).

“We rejoice that Christ our savior has taken his place at the right hand of the Father, because where he has gone, we hope to follow” (Pope Benedict XVI, Regina Caeli Address, 21 May 2006).

Let us then not be found staring into the sky wondering where it is that Jesus has gone and pondering how it is that we are to follow. No, we know the Way! The Way knows us and loves us and calls us to himself. Let us then yield to the power of his love. Let us embrace the power of the Cross and resurrection so that when he comes again with the angels and the saints we may be found worthy to share with him eternal glory. Amen.

The School of Faith

Yesterday, in his General Audience address, the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI continued his powerful reflections on the person of Saint Peter the Apostle.

Referring to the faith of the Prince of the Apostles, the Successor of Peter said:

His was still an initial faith, a journeying faith. It would come to true fullness only through the experience of the paschal events. But, nonetheless, it was already faith, open to a greater reality -- open above all because it was not faith in soemthing, but faith in Someone: in him, Christ.

Thus our faith is also an initial faith and we must still journey a long way. However, it is essential that it be an open faith that lest itself be guided by Jesus, because not only does he know the way, but he is the way.What comforting and assuring words the Holy Father speaks to us! He continues:

The school of faith is not a triumphal march, but a journey strewn with sufferings and love, trials and faithfulness to be renewed every day.

Like Peter, we follow willingly after the Lord and we also deny the Lord and betray him. But we can take courage and consolation from the example of Peter because he did not let his failings stand in the way of his following after Christ. Rather, through his failings he came to know, in a more profound way than before, the love of Christ.

Pope Benedict XVI points out that, in the passage where Jesus thrice asks Peter, "Do you love me?" there is a distinction in the Greek in the words used for "love". The Holy Father says:

Jesus asks Peter the first time: "Simon . . . do you love me ('agapas-me')" with this total and unconditional love (cf. John 21:15)? Before the experience of the betrayal, the apostle would certainly have said: "I love you ('agapo-se') unconditionally." Now that he has known the bitter sadness of infidelity, the tragedy of his own weakness, he says with humility: "Lord, I love you ('filo-se')," that is, "I love you with my poor human love."

Can any of us love Jesus with more than our poor human love? What else have we to offer him?

Pope Benedict continues:

Christ insists: "Simon, do you love me with this total love that I want?" And Peter repeats the answer of his humble human love: "Kryie, filo-se," "Lord, I love you as I know how to love."

The third time Jesus only says to Simon: "Fileis-me?", "Do you love me?" Simon understood that for Jesus his poor lve, the only one he is capable of, is enough, and yet he is saddened that the Lord had to say it to him in this way. ... It would seem that Jesus adapted himself to Peter, rather than Peter to Jesus!

Such is the powerful and tremendous beauty of the love of Christ, who loves us as we are and calls us to grow in love, while at the same asking only of us the love that we can give.

Thank you, Holy Father, for these beautiful reflections! I eagerly await your continuing reflections on the Apostles!

Somebody Had to Say It

After repeated requests for decency went unheeded at a recent graduation ceremony, the Most Reverend Michael Jarrel, Bishop of Lafayette, walked out of the ceremony.

Parents, relatives, and friends persisted in cheering in the form of "hoots and hollars" for their graduates, despite instructions to hold their applause and cheers until all graduates received their diplomas.

Like many of you, I am sure, I, too, have witnessed such debacles and I find them very distasteful, self-centered, and immature at best.

To refrain from such ridiculous and obnoxious behavior seems a fair request, and a decent one, that adds dignity and respect to the ceremonies.

In a statement he issued in response to the controversy his walking out has caused, Bishop Jarrel wrote,

I have great respect for the graduates. They were perfect young ladies and gentlemen. They did all that was asked of them by the school. I believe that they wanted a dignified ceremony and one not interrupted by rude behavior by others. Thirty years ago it was the graduates who created disruptions. Today's graduates are models of good behavior; the problem is in the audience. What I did was for the sake of the graduates in future years (emphasis added).

It is high time somebody said such a thing! Way to go, Bishop Jarrel! Keep up the good work!

No Cross, No Christian

In a letter to Father Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, Superior General of the Society of Jesus, the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI reiterated a centrul truth of the Christian faith, saying, "In fact, being Christian is only possible with our gaze fixed on the cross of our Redeemer."

So many who would call themselves "Christians" - largely in the Western world - are promoting a version of "Christianity" that seemingly seeks to avoid the cross of our salvation in everyday faith and living, but such a vision clearly is false and dangerous.

The letter, written on the occassion of the fiftieth anniversary of Pope Pius XII's Encyclical Letter Haurietis Aquas (On Devotion to the Sacred Heart), centered on the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Praising this devotion, Pope Benedict XVI reminds us that "gazing at the side pierced by the lance, where shines God's boundless will for salvation, cannot then be considered as a passing form of veneration or devotion. The adoration of God's love, which found historical-devotional expression in the symbol of the pierced heart, remains irreplaceable for a living relationship with God."

In reflecting on the call of the Savior, Pope Benedict XVI recalled that "the experience of God's love is lived by man as a 'call' to which he must respond." Let us respond generously and with loving hearts to this invitation and so fulfill the Scripture, "They shall look on him whom they have pierced" (John 19:37).

Sweet Tackiness

The other day a friend sent a link my way that I thought I would share with you: Talking Bible Dolls.

To my mind, they seem the epitome of tackiness and religious "fluff," but what do I know?

The three dolls are to represent Jesus, Moses, and - so as not to leave out little girls - Esther. I might have thought to make a doll out of Mary to go along with Moses and Jesus, but again, what do I know?

While Moses recites for us the Ten Commandments, Esther tells us about herself. Jesus, meanwhile, recites various passages from the Scriptures for us. You can make them talk by pressing their red hearts. How sweet.

A Lovely Day

I must say that today has been quite a lovely and - for the most part anyway - refreshing day. Without having to teach class in the afternoons I now have a good chunk of free time in the day that I have not had in many months, which has resulted in the possibility to get to projects that have been waiting to be attended.

This morning as I was shopping about for various necessities, I found a bookcase that I liked and thought would work well in my library in the rectory. I have been searching for a bookcase for some weeks now, without success (obviously).

After purchasing the bookcase, loading it into my Toyota Matrix (which is excellent for hauling large objects around), and returning to the parish I lugged the bookcase into the rectory foyer with the help of our Administative Manager (summers are quieter for him, too).

I then spent the next two hours in the successful attempt to put the pieces together in the appropriate order (that part was a bit tricky as the directions were none too clear). However, I finally finished the project and ate some pizza.

After some delicious slices of pepperoni (left over from a meeting last night) I returned to my library and began the very peaceful and relaxing process of transferring books from one shelf to another, resorting books, and finally - after some three months - taking books from the ever-growing pile on the floor to place them properly on shelves, where, as everybody knows, all books belong.

I still have a bit more work to do in the library, including the hanging of various decorative pieces and some organzing to the workspace. When I finish this project I will take a picture of my library and post it - if I remember.

And don't forget, as Cicero once said: "A room without books is like a body without a soul."

With the end comes the beginning

Although I have very much enjoyed teaching at the high school of my parish, I am quite happy to say that the school year is now officially over. Last evening, we graduated forty-five seniors and - as of this moment - we have enrolled sixty-one freshmen for the coming school year.

Even as classes at the high school drew to a close, my preparations were only beginning. This summer I will return to the Liturgical Institute of the University of St. Mary of the Lake to resume my studies toward the Licentiate in Sacred Theology.

What follows is the text of a letter that I sent to the parishioners on the Memorial of Saint Catherine of Sienna, 29 April 2006:

My dear parishioners,

The Lord give you peace! The Lord is risen from the dead! Alleluia, alleluia! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!

During my final year of studies and preparation for the priesthood at Mundelein Seminary, I enrolled in the Liturgical Institute of the University of St. Mary of the Lake and began studies toward a Licentiate in Sacred Theology with an emphasis in sacramental theology (this degree is somewhat higher than a Masters degree). I completed the first year of studies during my final year in the seminary and I now have the second year yet to complete.

With the permission of Bishop Lucas, I have discussed with Msgr. Enlow the possibility of my returning to the Liturgical Institute this summer to resume these studies from June 12th through July 14th, with the aim of completing them in the summer of 2007. Msgr. Enlow has kindly granted me permission to resume these studies this coming June and July.

In my absence, Fr. Carl Schmidt and Fr. Ben Meyer have graciously offered their sacramental ministry to the parish until I return. Please know that my commitments in the parish – particularly weddings – I will keep. As such, I will be back in the parish about every other weekend. Fr. Schmidt and Fr. Meyer will celebrate Masses during the week and on many of the weekends.

I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience my absence may cause, but at the same time I know that these studies will only enhance my future ministry and teaching. I assure you that you will all remain in my prayers while I am away this summer and I ask your continued prayers for me.

As Saint Francis of Assisi encouraged his brothers so I encourage you: Praise and bless my Lord, and give thanks to him and serve him with great humility.
Peace and Joy,

The Rev. Daren J. Zehnle
Parochial Vicar

I am very much looking forward to my return to studies; I feel I am an academic at heart.

Homily - 21 May 2006

The Sixth Sunday of Easter (B)

It is this passage from the First Letter of Saint John that gave rise to Pope Benedict XVI’s first Encyclical Letter, Deus Caritas Est, God is Love. In this beautiful and moving reflection on the God who loves, the Holy Father reminds us that the foundational tenet of the Christian faith is this very passage, that “God is love” (I John 4:8). In fact, this belief and truth is expressly unique to Judaism and Christianity; in terms of the religions of the world, it is something entirely new and unheard of.

We learn from the Old Testament that the Lord God has created everything that is, that “all things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be” (John 1:3). With this in mind, the Holy Father says we can learn two things: first, that

the whole world comes into existence by the power of his creative Word. Consequently, his creation is dear to him, for it was willed by him and “made” by him. The second important element now emerges: this God loves man (Deus Caritas Est, 9).

In the ancient world the notion that God would love humanity seemed absurd and bizarre at best. Today, too, many people are tempted to believe the same. How could it be that God loves mankind, they ask. Look at what people do to one another, look at how people even ignore their God. How could God possibly love man? Even worse, some people go so far as to ask, “How could God love me?” To this very question Jesus responds clearly, “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love” (John 15:9).

It is true to say that we do not deserve the love that the Lord has for us, but it is precisely here that the beauty and wonder of this love is made manifest. “In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins” (I John 4:10).

Just as the Old Testament teaches us something new about the God who loves, so, too, does the New Testament. The New Testament is, of course, primarily concerned with the life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and of his continuing activity in the Church through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Father reminds us that

The real novelty of the New Testament lies not so much in new ideas as in the figure of Christ himself, who gives flesh and blood to those concepts – an unprecedented realism. In the Old Testament, the novelty of the Bible did not consist merely in abstract notions but in God’s unpredictable and in some sense unprecedented activity. This divine activity now takes on dramatic form when, in Jesus Christ, it is God himself who goes in search of the “stray sheep”, a suffering and lost humanity (Deus Caritas Est, 12).

Can there be any greater wonder than this? People often say to me that religion is boring, and by this they mean Christianity. Whenever they say this I have to wonder if they have been even the slightest bit of real attention throughout their entire lives. Can anything be more exciting than this?

Purely out of love God created us and fashioned us for himself. Purely out of pride we sinned against him and forfeited the graced relationship we had with him and were thereby condemned to death. Even so, God never stopped loving us. We might even say that his love even intensified as he continually lovingly called us back to himself, even as we continually turned away. But then, in the fullness of time, God did something seemingly unimaginable: he took on flesh and blood for us sinners, to redeem us and save us, and to restore our relationship with him. Such is the power and the depth of his love! Even when we did not love him he still loved us! So great is his love for us that, seeing us in the dark misery and pain of sin and death, forever separated from him, he sent his only Son, Jesus Christ, to atone for our sins. In Christ Jesus we learn firsthand that, as the only Son of God says to us, “no one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends…” (John 15:13-14). In the Christ Jesus, “The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power” (Antiphon, Psalm 98). Amen. Alleluia!

Homily - 7 May 2006

Today we celebrate not only this fourth Sunday of Easter, this “Good Shepherd Sunday;” we also celebrate today the forty-third World Day of Prayer for Vocations because today Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and will lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10: 14-15). Through his prophet Jeremiah, the Lord also promises us, “I will give you shepherds after my own heart” (Jeremiah 3:15).
These are beautiful words the Savior says to us today and they are comforting words, for we cannot truly “know” another person unless we first love them. We may think that we know someone whom we do not love, but what we really mean is that we know about them; we do not – in reality – know them personally. We do not know their thoughts or true concerns, their worries, fears, and loves. Jesus says to us with confidence and with authority: “I know mine and mine know me.” He knows us through and through because he loves us and it is because he loves us that he reminds us, “[I] will lay down my life for my sheep.” This is the very reason he has come to us, to show us the depth of the Father’s love and to call us back to him. “[I]n Jesus Christ, it is God himself who goes in search of the ‘stray sheep’, a suffering and lost humanity” (Pope Benedict XVI, Deus caritas est, 12).
He comes among us and lives with us. He listens to us, he encourages us, he challenges us, he calls to repent and to turn from sin and he loves us. He loves us like no has ever loved before and he loves like no one will ever love again. He picks us up – wounded, broken, and in pain as we are – and places us upon his shoulders. He carries us all the way to the Cross, all because he loves us. And he invites certain men and women to join him in this act of love, in this act of service.
Jesus cannot know us any more deeply than he already does because he loves us perfectly and completely. We, on the other hand, can always know Jesus more deeply because we can always love him more profoundly. This side of heaven, our love for him will rarely be perfect. Nevertheless, he calls each of us to know him and to love him and so to become one with one.
As we grow in knowledge and love of God we come to know his will in our lives and we come to accept his will. So very often we consider our will for lives – what I want – and what God wants for my life as two very different things, almost as two forms of life set completely in opposition to each other. But this is not the case for the more we come to know and love the Lord

God’s will is no longer for me an alien will, something imposed on me from without by the commandments, but it is now my own will, based on the realization that God is in fact more deeply present to me than I am to myself. Then self-abandonment to God increases and God becomes our joy (cf. Psalm 73 [72]:23-28) (Deus caritas est, 17).

My will becomes one with God’s will for me because I have come to know and experience his marvelous love, a love which knows no limits. In knowing his love I come to learn that he desires my happiness and joy – this is his will for my life and only in him will any of us ever be truly happy and joyous.
This, then, brings us to the heart of the prayer of the Church today. Pope Benedict XVI reminds us today that

it should never be doubted that Christ continues to raise up men who, like the Apostles, leaving behind all other work, dedicate themselves completely to the celebration of the sacred mysteries, to the preaching of the Gospel and to pastoral ministry” (Message for the 43rd World Day of Prayer for Vocations).

Still today the Lord calls men in this very parish to serve him as priests and deacons, just as he calls men to serve him as consecrated brothers and as he calls women to serve him as consecrated sisters.
This is a faithful parish and a vibrant parish. The faith is alive here, and yet there has been no priestly vocation to come from this parish in quite some time. And so the question must be asked, “Are we doing enough? Are we doing what the Lord truly asks of us? Are we living the faith as we should? Is there more the Lord asks of us?” Fifteen years – twenty years – since the last ordination from this parish is simply too long.
I can say with great certainty that I would not be standing before you today, I would not be a priest of Jesus Christ, if it were not for the parishioners of my home parish in Quincy. These faithful men and women have a great love of the Church and of priests, as do you. These men and women saw something in me when I was in high school and they thought the Lord was calling me to the priesthood and so they told me; in fact, they repeatedly told me. Little did they know that at this very same time I, too, believed the Lord was calling me to the priesthood. Even so, without their invitation, without their support, without their enthusiastic encouragement, I would not have had the courage to pursue the priesthood, feeling myself unworthy of such a sacred calling. And indeed I am unworthy of the priesthood – as is every priest; but as the Holy Father reminds us, “Weaknesses and human limitations do not present an obstacle, as long as they help make us more aware of the fact that we are in need of the redeeming grace of Christ” (Message for the 43rd World Day of Prayer for Vocations).
With this in mind, then, I challenge you to ask the Lord to let you know which young men in this very parish he is calling to serve him as priests and deacons. Ask him, too, to tell you whom is calling to serve him as consecrated men and women. I am watching several young men and women – and have been for some time – whom I believe the Lord is calling at this very moment. Many of them know who they are and so do you.
These are the young men and women with whom you live, work, study, and play. You know their qualities and characteristics and you have a sense whether or not the Lord is calling them. When was the last time you extended the invitation to a young man to consider the priesthood or to a young woman to consider the consecrated life?
Vocations are nourished, supported, and sustained through the parish; vocations do not simply fall out of heaven. The Lord raises up men and women to serve him and his Church through the communities of faith we call parishes and families. Vocations must be supported, they must be talked about, they must be encouraged if those whom the Lord calls are to hear his call and to respond to his call with generosity and with love.
The Holy Father reminds us that the Lord invites all people to know him love him. He says,

Already on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, many allowed themselves to be won by Jesus: they were in search of healing in body or spirit, and they were touched by the power of his grace. Others were chosen personally by Him and became his apostles. We also find some, like Mary Magdalene and others, who followed him on their own initiative, simply out of love. Like the disciple John, they too found a special place in his heart (Message for the 43rd World Day of Prayer for Vocations).

Let us then always encourage and invite young men and women to offer their lives to the Lord as priests, deacons, and consecrated men and women. Lord, give us shepherds to lead us!

Homily - 23 April 2006

In the sacrificial death of Jesus on the Cross we find the ultimate expression of love, for “no one has greater love than this, than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). “God, the Father of Mercies,” (Rite of Penance) through the power of the Holy Spirit, raised his only Son from the dead and in so doing displayed for us the ultimate power of love, a love that is stronger than death. Love has conquered. “We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has any power over him,” (Romans 6:9). Even so, the expression of love and the power of love does not stop here, but with Divine Mercy.

After Christ Jesus was raised from the dead and appeared to his disciples and to the Apostles, he did not reprimand or condemn them for fleeing from his side when he needed them most. He did not vent anger against Peter who thrice denied him. He did not raise his voice against Thomas for his doubt and neither does he do to us when we doubt him and when we sin against him. Through his great mercy, he continually calls each of us – as he did the Apostles - individually and by name and he extends to each of us the fullness of his great love. To each of us he says, “I have called you by name; you are mine” (Isaiah 43:1).

To Saint Faustina Kowalska, Christ the Lord revealed that at the moment of death he offers to each soul the grace of conversion; he extends one final time the opportunity to receive his love, to receive his redemption, to receive his salvation. But, of course, this grace, this love, the soul can either accept or reject, for true love never forces itself upon another.

The Lord Jesus says to Dismas, the repentant thief, “today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). For God wishes “everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth “(I Timothy 2:4). For this reason Jesus says to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving but believe” (John 20:27). “Believe in the truth,” he says to us. “Believe in me, for ‘I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life’” (John 14:6). “Come to me,” and know the fullness of my mercy (Matthew 11:28).

Sometimes we have a tendency not to believe in the mercy of the Lord. We think, maybe, that he is too kind, too generous, too loving to us sinners. We know that we do not deserve his love and so we have a difficult time bringing ourselves to believe he can possibly love us as he says he does. We think, perhaps, that he is tricking us, that there is some clause we have not heard, some small print we have not yet read. But, my friends, he is himself Truth itself. He will never lie to us; he will never deceive us; he will never disappoint us!

His love and his mercy he offers to us, without any strings attached. He only calls us to carry our cross each day with him (cf. Luke 9:23). Do not doubt his love! Out of love for us sinners, the sinless one, Jesus, the only Son of God, seeing us in the wretched state of sin, leaps to his feet and abandons the glory of heaven, in order to go in search of the sheep and pursue it, all the way to the Cross (Pope Benedict XVI, Inaugural Homily, 24 April 2005). Jesus says to us, “Come, feel my wounds for my mercy is tangible. Come, see the wound in my side from where my love flowed out for you, for my mercy is visible. Come, take shelter within my wounds and let my love and mercy wash over you and surround you and give you peace.”

Some might take this Divine Mercy as an opportunity to “eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you may die” approach to life. But if we reject the love of the Lord in this life, why would we accept it in the life to come?

The Truth stood before Pontius Pilate and he did not recognize the Truth nor did he accept the Truth; instead, Pilate demanded, “What is truth?” (John 18:38). The testimony Pilate heard about Jesus seemed absurd, bizarre, and unbelievable. Rather than believe the Truth about Love, Pilate chose to believe the lies of the Evil One, he chose to believe the falsehoods of this world that promise power, wealth, happiness, and liberty. Pilate failed to see that all of these things only enslave us and make us miserable. Only the Truth, only Love, can free us! And this he has done through his Death and Resurrection; he has made us free!

It seems too good to be true, and yet it is true. Do not doubt his love and his mercy, my friends, for he has written it in his own blood using the nails upon his hands. Stretch out your hands to his. Feel his wounds. See his love. Open yourself to his mercy. St. Anthony of Padua reminds us that

Christ has inscribed us in his hands … for three reasons: (1) to show the scars of the wounds he bore for us to the Father, thus inviting the Father to show us mercy. (2) In order not to forget us. For this reason he says in Isaiah: ‘Can a woman forget her infant, and not have pity on the son of her womb? And if she should forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have written you in my hands’ (Isaiah 49:15-16). (3) He has written in his hands what kind of people we should be and in whom we should believe. ‘Do not be unbelieving,’ O Thomas, O Christian, ‘but believe’ (The First Sunday After Easter).

Let us then, with the father of the possessed boy whom Jesus freed, let us cry out to him, “I do believe, help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24).

“Let us ask, therefore, dearest brothers [and sisters], and humbly entreat the mercy of Jesus Christ, so that he might come and stand in our midst. May he grant us peace, absolve us from our sins, and take away all doubt from our hearts. And may he imprint in our minds faith in his passion and resurrection, so that with the apostles and the faithful of the Church we might merit to receive eternal life. May he grant this, he who is blessed, [praised], and glorious through all ages. Let every faithful soul say: Amen. Alleluia” (St. Anthony of Padua, The First Sunday After Easter).

Homily - 16 April 2006

The Resurrection of the Lord (B)
Based on the Easter Sermon of St. John Chrysostom

Is anyone here a great lover of God? Let the lovers of God enjoy this beautiful and bright festival, for their love is returned by their Lord!
Is there anyone here who is a grateful servant? Let the grateful servants rejoice and enter into the joy of their Lord, for their service is accepted and honored and returned!
Are there any here who are weary from fasting? Let those who have fasted now receive their wages for their hunger is now satisfied.
If any here have worked from the first hour of the day in the vineyard of the Lord, let them receive their due reward; if any here have come after the third hour to work in his vineyard, let him with gratitude join in the Feast! Anybody, who arrived after the sixth hour to work and serve the Lord, do not doubt your payment and reward; for you, too, shall receive your pay. And if any delayed until the ninth hour and have only recently come to know and love the Lord, let the latecomers not hesitate; but let them come, too. And you who arrived only at the eleventh hour and have not yet fully begun to work or serve the Lord, do not be afraid because of your delay, for the Lord is gracious and he receives the last in the same way that he receives the first. He gives rest to those who come upon their deathbed as well as to those who faithfully loved and served from the moment of their Baptism. The Lord Jesus accepts our works in the same way that he greets our endeavor. He honors our deeds and he commends the intention of those who come to him.
Let us all enter into the joy of the Lord! Those who have come first and those who have come last alike – you who worship every week and you who worship only infrequently - receive your reward; rich and poor, rejoice together! Sober and lazy, celebrate the day!
You who have kept the Easter fast, and you that have eaten all in sight, rejoice today for the table of the Lord is richly prepared! Feast royally on it for the calf is a fattened one. Let no one go away hungry. Let everyone drink from the cup of faith. Enjoy all the riches of his goodness!
Let no one grieve his poverty, for the universal kingdom has been revealed. Let no one grieve that he has sinned time and again because forgiveness has risen from the grave. Let no one fear death, for the Death of our Savior has forever set us free.
He has destroyed death by enduring it. He destroyed the power of Hell when he descended into it. He put Hell into an uproar even as it tasted his flesh. Isaiah foretold this when he said, “You, O Hell, have been troubled by encountering him below” ().
Hell was in an uproar because it was done away with. It was in an uproar because it was mocked. It was in an uproar, for Christ the Lord has destroyed it.
It is in an uproar, for it is annihilated. It is in an uproar, for it is now made captive. Hell claimed a human body, and discovered God. It took earth, and encountered Heaven. It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see. “O death, where is thy sting? O death, where is thy victory?” ().
Christ is Risen, and you, O death, are annihilated! Christ is Risen, and the evil ones are cast down! Christ is Risen, and the angels rejoice! Christ is Risen, and life is liberated! Christ is Risen, and the tomb is emptied of the dead; for Christ having risen from the dead, has become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
To him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen! Alleluia!

Homily - 15 April 2006

At the Easter Vigil in the Holy Night of Easter
Based on an Ancient Homily for Holy Saturday

“Something strange is happening – there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.”
The tomb of Jesus is empty. We are told, “He has been raised; he is not here” (Mark 16:). “He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the Cross, the weapon that had won him the victory . . . He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying, ‘Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.’
Jesus says to Adam, “I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. Out of love for you and your descendants I now by my own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I in you; together we form one person and cannot be separated.” So he says to each of us! He has not created us for slavery but for freedom! He has not created us for death but for life! He has not created us to be servants but friends! Through Baptism and the Holy Eucharist he makes us one with himself and he gives to us a share in his divine life.
To Adam he says, “For your sake I, your God, became your son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I, whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth. For your sake, for the sake of man, I became like a man without help, free among the dead. For the sake of you, who left a garden, I was betrayed to the Jews in a garden, and I was crucified in a garden.
“See on my face the spittle I received in order to restore to you the life I once breathed into you. See there the marks of the blows I received in order to refashion your warped nature in my image. On my back see the marks of the scourging I endured to remove the burden of sin that weighs upon your back. See my hands, firmly nailed to a tree, for you who once wickedly stretched your hand out to a tree.
“I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side for you who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in hell. The sword that pierced me has sheathed the sword that was turned against you.
“Rise. Let us leave this place. The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise. I will not restore you to that paradise, but will enthrone you in heaven. I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as God. The throne formed by the cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager. The bridal chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open. The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity.”
As he says to Adam so he says to each of us, especially to you, Greg, Michael, and Crystal, who are to become one with us and one with the Lord Jesus Christ this most holy and blessed of all nights. Tonight, through the saving waters of Baptism new life is to be given to you.
You, Jared, Mark, Cordell, and Jami, who are already one with us in Baptism, you are soon to be received into the Church of Rome founded by the Savior himself upon the Apostle Peter through your profession of faith. And Charity, your initiation into the Catholic Church will soon be completed as you are sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Let us cease now this vigil and this waiting; we have waited long enough; let us begin, for the tomb is empty and the Lord is risen from the dead! Alleluia!

Homily - 14 April 2006

Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion

Today the world is forever changed; nothing shall ever be the same again. Today God has given his life for man, the sinless for the sinners. Today “he was pierced for our offenses” (Isaiah 52:5). Today we experience the ultimate power and mystery of love.

His death on the Cross is the culmination of that turning of God against himself in which he gives himself in order to raise man up and save him. This is love in its most radical form. By contemplating the pierced side of Christ, we can understand … [that] ‘God is love’ (I John 4:8) (Benedict XVI, Deus caritas est, 12).

What can anyone do before such love? What can anyone say upon seeing the depth of such love? Who would have thought a love of this magnitude could ever be experienced? Love has come to us and today Love died in our place. “Because of him kings shall stand speechless” (Isaiah 52:15). Such is the power of this love.
What adequate response can be given in response to so powerful a love? There are two fundamental reactions and responses to this love: we can either accept this love in all humility, or we can reject this love in all of our pride. The choice is ours but the choice must be made.
Last night Judas willingly took those cursed coins and handed the Savior over to death. It was Judas who went to the chief priests and asked them, “What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?” (Matthew 26:15). Indeed, the chief priests “were pleased and promised to pay him money” (Mark 14:11). It was his own idea to betray the Messiah; he freely sold his Teacher and Master for a few pieces of silver. He saw the power of Jesus’ love as he followed him for three years. He saw how dearly Jesus loved his disciples. At the same time, Judas knew that Jesus loved him as well, but Judas would not return any love at all. He refused to accept the love of the Lord; he completely rejected Love himself. Judas represents the ultimate rejection of the Lord.
To accept this love of the Savior we can follow the example of the three Marys, of Joseph of Arimathea, of Nicodemus. These followers of the Lord did not leave his side. They accompanied Jesus on this most difficult of journeys as he gave his life for us. They opened themselves to experience his love and his love they returned as best they could, even after his death. In love, they served him who died for us, and so should we. The Holy Father encourages us in this love, saying,

We offer him our service only to the extent that we can, and for as long as he grants us the strength. To do all we can with what strength we have, however, is the task which keeps the good servant of Jesus Christ always at work: “The love of Christ urges us on” (II Corinthians 5:14) (Benedict XVI, Deus caritas est, 35).

We know, also, that although many of us truly do love the Lord Jesus, we do not always follow him and serve him faithfully. We forsake him, we abandon him, and we sin against him. We sinners then can follow the example of Saint Peter who three times denied the Lord and sinned against him. Even so, he powerfully experienced the merciful love of Jesus when “the Lord turned and looked at Peter” and Peter “went out and began to weep bitterly” (Luke 22:61, 62).

As tears fill our eyes as we acknowledge that we, too, have sinned against the Lord, let us gaze upon the crucified Lord who was pierced for us. Let us look up into his face lowered down to look upon us and see there the very face of love. Let us run into his arms so lovingly and gently extended and held out to embrace us. Let us take refuge within his holy and glorious wounds and allow our hearts to be filled with his mercy and love.

Let us look upon the one whose heart was pierced for us and know the fullness of the truth that “God is love.” “Behold the man!” (John 19:6).

Homily - 13 April 2006

The Mass of the Lord’s Supper

Tonight we gather here in the upper room with the Lord Jesus and his disciples as we prepare to celebrate the great Passover feast. On this night we will be marked with the Blood of the Lamb and his household, the Church, will be saved from death because of his Blood. Tonight, “types and shadows have their ending, for the newer rite is here,” newer rites given us by the Savior himself (St. Thomas Aquinas, Tantum ergo). Christ gives the definitive meaning and power to the celebration of the Passover and never will it need to be repeated again, for with his own Blood he destroys death forever.
When the Lord gathered his disciples together in the Upper Room he knew well what he intended to do. As St. Paul relates to us, Jesus, the Master and Teacher,

took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me’” (I Corinthians 11:23-25).

In this way his own Body replaces the flesh of the Paschal Lamb and his own Blood replaces the blood of the Paschal Lamb spread on the posts and lintels of the houses. It is precisely through his death on the Cross that he gives his Body and Blood for us to eat and to drink; through his death he atones for our sins and washing us clean in his own Blood, making us “whiter than snow” (Psalm 51:9). He who is without sin willingly gives his life for us that we, too, might live. “This is love in its most radical form” (Pope Benedict XVI, Deus caritas est, 12).
This night Jesus knows that one of his own will betray him and for this reason he says to the Apostles, “Not all of you are clean” (John 13:11). “Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father” (John 13:1). The time has come for him to fulfill his mission, to give his life for our redemption and salvation.
In giving us the Eucharist, his very Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, before he gives up his life for us, he “loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end” (John 13:2). Through the Holy Eucharist Jesus desires to remain present with us always, but to do so his sacrificial death needs to be perpetuated and made present in every age and in every place “until he comes” again (I Corinthians 11:26). To achieve this end he established the Apostles and some of his disciples as his priests of the New Covenant sealed in his own Blood.
To these, his priests, he says, “I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do” (John 13:15). As Jesus changed the bread and wine of the Passover meal into his very own Body and Blood given for us, so he will do through the ministry of his priests. He commands his priests to perpetuate his sacrifice and to bring his love to every corner of world – to a world mortally wounded by sin - through the sacramental life of the Church.
On this night the Lord Jesus institutes the sacrament of the Eucharist and he institutes his Church to carry out his work of salvation always and everywhere. We know that the Eucharist unites each of us with Christ and that the Eucharist gives us the grace we need to daily follow faithfully in the footsteps of the Lord. In this sense, we can say that the Eucharist makes the Church for it strengthens us, cleanses us of venial sin, and unites us with the Lamb of God.
But at the same time, the Eucharist does not simply fall from heaven as the manna did in the desert. No, the Eucharist is given us through the sacramental ministry of the Church through her priests and bishops. We know that without the sacred ministers, without priests and bishops, we cannot have the Eucharist. In this way we can say that the Church makes the Eucharist.
Here, then, we can combine the two into a truly magnificent marvel of God’s love for us: “The Eucharist makes the Church and the Church makes the Eucharist.” This is why the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council call the Eucharist the “source and summit” of the Christian life. The Eucharist gives us life and sends us forth, yet at the same time it calls us back to be refreshed and rejuvenated again. We must always return to this great fountain of life. The Eucharist and the priesthood and the life of the Church and of every individual Christian are intimately and inseparably bound together through the power and mystery of Christ’s love displayed for us in the Eucharist.
Here, then, we can begin to understand the power of Jesus’ humility when he washes the feet of his disciples and commands them to do likewise. Remembering this particular aspect of the Last Supper of the Lord calls to mind the centrality of service in the Christian life.
Various elements of service today are often emphasized but rarely are they ever connected with the Eucharist as Jesus clearly does. The Eucharist is, in fact, a call to service and at the same time it is a call that also enables such service. It is a call that ennobles such service. Without the Eucharist, true Christian service - which must always take the form of love of God and love of neighbor - simply is not possible. The Eucharist demands that we love God and our neighbor while at the same the Eucharist gives us the strength and the grace to love as Christ has first loved us.
In his Encyclical Letter, Pope Benedict reflects on this connection between the Eucharist and service. He writes,

in sacramental communion I become one with the Lord, like all the other communicants. As Saint Paul says, “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (I Corinthians 10:17). Union with Christ is also union with all those to whom he gives himself. I cannot possess Christ just for myself; I can belong to him only in union with all those who have become, or who will become, his own. Communion draws me out of myself towards him, and thus also towards unity with all Christianity. We become “one body”, completely joined in a single existence. Love of God and love of neighbor are now truly united: God incarnate draws us all to himself…Love of God and love of neighbor have become one: in the least of the brethren we find Jesus himself, and in Jesus we find God” (Deus caritas est, 14-15).

On this night when we celebrate the institution of the Eucharist and of the priesthood, let us beg the Lord to fill each of us with his love, that we might then love others as he has first loved us and so come to love him fully. Through the Eucharist and through the Christian service of love may we come a greater unity with one another and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Homily - 2 April 2006 (B)

Today the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews presents for us two necessities
of the Christian life that we all too often seek to avoid: obedience and
suffering, saying, “Son though he was, [Jesus] learned obedience from what he
suffered; and when he was made perfect, he became the source of eternal
salvation for all who obey him” (Hebrews 5:8-9). Through suffering, then, we
learn obedience and from obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ we receive
eternal salvation and everlasting life.

We see this reality in what Jesus says to us in the Gospel. Referring to
himself – and to each of us – he says, “unless a grain of wheat falls to the
ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces
much fruit” (John 12:24). In order to die the grain of wheat must suffer. Its
shell must be broken and it must break free and struggle through the earth to
reach the light of day. In much the same way, whenever we suffer there is a
certain dying that takes place as we come to accept the reality that our will,
that our desires, are not in control of our lives. There is a greater will than
ours to which we must submit, to which we must be obedient for the Lord
says to us, “Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also
will my servant be” (John 12:26).

We see this dual necessity – that of suffering and obedience – in the
words of Jeremiah as well. The Lord God announces through his prophet,
“The days are coming … when I will make a new covenant with the house of
Israel … I will place my will law within them and write it upon their hearts; I
will be their God and they will be my people” (Jeremiah 31:31; 33). Here
again we see that obedience to the will of God, to his Law – which always
involves a certain suffering – leads to eternal salvation, for as the Lord says, “I
will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more” (Jeremiah 31:34).

There is an ancient Greek maxim, a proverb, if you will, that says, paqein
maqein, “to suffer is to learn.” But what do we learn in suffering? We learn
to be obedient and in becoming obedient we grow in union for the Crucified
and Risen Lord.

Very few people today like being obedient. Very often obedience is given
a quite negative connotation, almost to the point that some have difficulty
finding any good whatsoever in obedience. It is almost as though all forms of
obedience are likened to nothing more than a “blind obedience,” which in all
actuality is not obedience at all. It is simply a case of “the blind leading the
blind,” of ignorant following.

What, then, is obedience? The English word comes from the Latin
obidere meaning, “to listen, to hear.” Obedience does not so much consist in
following orders and commands simply because they are given as it does in
being attentive and attuned to the will and desires of the Master. For
Christians, obedience means listening so intently to the voice of Christ that we
know his will for us and we see the good that he has in store for us and so we
do desire his will as our own. When one is truly obedient, one does not
question commands because the good in store is evident; there are no
questions to ask because there is no sense of being oppressed or used. We no
longer need to question the purpose of suffering because we come to know
that obedience in suffering leads to salvation, to a sharing in the Paschal
Mystery of Christ the Redeemer.

In the life of Jesus we find the perfect model of obedience to the will of
the Father. In all things he freely followed the divine will, even in suffering.
We know that Christ Jesus,

emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and
found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death,
even death on a cross (Philippians 2:6-8).

Jesus knows the great difficulty of uniting our will to that of the Father; he
knows how very hard it is to accept suffering and to embrace it. But it is
precisely “because he himself was tested through what he suffered, [that] he is
able to help those who are being tested” (Hebrews 2:18). He knows the
difficulty we face and he has come to alleviate it, to give us “a model to
follow, so that as [he has] done for [us], [we] should also do” (John 13:15).
Indeed, Jesus says to us, “I give you a new commandment: love one another.
As I have loved you, so you also should love one another” (John 13:34).

In his Encyclical Letter, Pope Benedict XVI speaks of the will of God and
he reminds us:

The love-story between God and man consists in the very fact that this
communion of will increases in a communion of thought and sentiment, and
thus our will and God’s will increasingly coincide: God’s will is no longer for
me an alien will, something imposed on me from without by the
commandments, but it is now my own will, based on the realization that God
is in fact more deeply present to me than I am to myself. Then self-
abandonment to God increases and God becomes our joy” [Deus caritas est,
17).

The more that we yield to the will of God, the more that we yield to our
suffering and seek to unite it with the Passion of Christ, the greater our joy
becomes. It is one of the great paradoxes of the Christian faith.

But when we directly face our suffering we say with Jesus, “I am troubled
now. Yet what should I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour?’) John 12:27).
More often than not we ask the Lord to take our suffering away from us,
forgetting that the Son of God accepted his suffering and invites us to do the
same, saying, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and
take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23).

In these final days of Lent, then, let us not run from suffering and from
obedience. Let us, rather, take confidence that in obedient suffering new
growth and life will be given us, for as the Lord said to St. Paul, “My grace is
sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness” (II Corinthians 12:
9).

“Sir, we would like to see Jesus,” the Greeks said to Philip (John ). Jesus then
responds to the Apostles, as if telling them to convey this message to the
Greeks, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (John ). The
hour has come for love to triumph over death; the hour has come for the
Cross.

We do not know if the Greeks ever saw Jesus. I suspect they did see him if
they could accept his message of the grain of wheat and of the Cross; but if
they could not accept it then I suspect they did not see Jesus. It is much the
same with us. May we ask to see the Lord and so accept his message.

Let us follow the example of the Lord and carry our cross together with him
on the road to Calvary. Let us always remember that when we carry our
cross with the Lord Jesus, the name of the Father will be glorified and we will
find our joy.

Homily - 2 April 2006 (A)

Death touches us all. For some, life seems to be a constant encounter with
death; for others, death comes rather infrequently, but either way death never
is easy, nor is it the end.

To experience it changes everything and nothing is ever the same again,
nor should it be, for the experience of death calls to mind our love and that of
others. In the midst of death we very often feel completely alone, isolated,
abandoned and yet surrounded by family and friends. Death leaves us quite
vulnerable and utterly helpless.

A tragic or a sudden death – especially the death of a parent for a young
child and the death of a young child for a parent – is the single greatest misery
and pain that a person can endure. I say this with some authority: the
experience forever changes a person, sometimes for the better and sometimes
for the worse.

The Lord Jesus himself has experienced the agony of death; he knows
well the emotions and the thoughts that we experience in death, because he
himself suffered all of these at the death of his friend, Lazarus.

When at last he arrived at Bethany, Martha and Mary both cried out to
him, “Lord, if you had been my brother would not have died” (John 11:21,
32). Martha seems to address him with a sense of deep faith in his power,
for she then says to him, “[But] even now I know that whatever you ask of
God, God will give you” (John 11:22). Martha has not lost all hope; Mary has.
Seeing the mournful tears of Mary Jesus then “became perturbed and deeply
troubled” (John 11:33).

At this point in the Gospel we find one of those unfortunate instances
where language becomes a difficulty. In Greek, the word we translate as
“perturbed” actually says that Jesus “snorted in spirit.” Jesus is not simply
irritated or frustrated at what death has done to his friends, he is moved to
anger because of what sin has done to his people. He feels our agony and he
sees our powerlessness in the face of death and so, with a certain authority in
his voice, he calmly demands, “Where have you laid him?” (John 11:34). Here
in the midst of suffering and of death - standing near the tomb - Jesus
acknowledges the very purpose for his coming among us: “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” (John 11:25-26).

In his anger over the power of sin and its grip upon the human race Jesus
exclaims

O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and bring
you back to the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the LORD,
when I open your graves and have you rise from them, O my people! I will
put my spirit in you that you may live, and I will settle you upon your land;
thus you shall know that I am the LORD. I have promised, and I will do it
(Ezekiel 37:12-14).

As Jesus looks upon us in his love and as he sees our desperate plight, he is
moved with pity and moved again to anger until at last he calls for his
beloved: “Lazarus, come out!” (John 11:43).

Yet Jesus does not stop here, for Lazarus has only been restored to life –
he has not shared in the glory of the Resurrection and Lazarus must die
again. Jesus cannot leave us in such a deplorable condition. The anger that he
feels when he looks upon our grief and shares in the agony of death impels
him to turn his gaze anew to Jerusalem. Jesus sees each of us and he knows
that we will suffer a physical death as a consequence of sin. Yet he still says,
“Let us go back to Judea (John 11:7); “Let us go to him” (John 11:15); “Let us
go to Jerusalem.”

The Apostles know the danger of returning to Jerusalem and Thomas
senses something of Jesus’ mission when he says to the others, “Let us also go
to die with him” (John 11:16). Having shared fully in our human experience
Jesus longs to save us and free us from the power of death, but this he must
do on the Cross. Before he heard of Lazarus’ illness, Jesus said, ”This is why
the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.
No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own” (John 10:17-18). Jesus
becomes resolute in his desire to save us and seven days later Jesus enters
Jerusalem to lay down his life so that we might live (see John 12:1, 12).

Before the power of Christ the Lord death has no power. Humanity was
bound to death – was made subject to death – because of sin. When our first
parents sinned against the Lord and chose their own wills over his own, the
Lord God said to them, “By the sweat of your face shall you get bread to eat,
until you return to the ground, from which you were taken; for you are dirt,
and to dirt you shall return” (Genesis 3:19). Confident in the power of the
love of Christ Jesus, St. Paul mocks death, saying, “Death is swallowed up in
victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (I
Corinthians 15:54-55). The love of Christ has conquered death because it has
destroyed the power of sin and broken its hold on us.

By raising Lazarus from the dead Jesus foreshadows the greatness of his
power that will be revealed when on the Last Day he raises all of our mortal
bodies to the glory of the Resurrection. We can be confident that the Lord
will reunite our bodies with our souls and we shall be like him in glory, for “If
the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the One
who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also,
through his Spirit dwelling in you” (Romans 8:11). The Spirit of God certainly
dwells within us through the grace and power of the Sacrament of Baptism; he
has promised and he will do it.

My dear Elect, you have listened to the words of the Redeemer and you
have heard him call to you, “Come out of your sin and live!” You have, with
him, come to detest sin and you long to share in the life that he promises to
those who believe in him. With great joy we look forward to the day when
you will be one with us. But before we bestow upon you the gift of the Spirit
of God and the promise of eternal life, you must first go through this last
scrutiny.

Homily - 26 March 2006

Laetare, Ierusalem! Rejoice, Jerusalem! Rejoice, all who belong to Lord our God! “This is the day the LORD has made, let us rejoice in it and be glad!” (Psalm 118:24).

We may think it odd to hear such words in the midst of the season of Lent, a season which we typically associate with weeping and with sorrow. Certainly these emotions and mindsets are a part of the Lenten observance, but if we stop here then we miss the very meaning of this season of grace and of mercy. Lent always looks to Baptism, to freedom from sin, to life, to joy, to glory. Can there be any greater cause for rejoicing than this? Can anything bring us greater joy than knowing that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life”? (John 3:16).

We know full well that through our pride and selfishness and sin we lost the blessed state in which we were created and we were cast out from the presence of God. It is a pain that we feel even today. We sometimes feel abandoned by God; at other times we feel that have utterly failed him, but we are not without hope because in Christ Jesus “God has visited his people” (Luke 7:16). For “God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ,” all because of his love (Ephesians 2:4-5).

Because of our sin we, like the Israelites, had been taken captive by the Enemy and made subject to sin and death. No longer were we free but we were slaves to sin with no possible means of escape; we could do nothing to regain our freedom. But then, “in the blink of an eye” (I Corinthians 15:52) the tables were turned when the Father, because of his love, sent the archangel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin Mary with this announcement:

Behold, you will conceive and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end (Luke 1:31-33).

At the very moment Gabriel stood before Mary our freedom and salvation was close at hand. For Jesus Christ, to whom “all power in heaven and on earth has been given” (Matthew 28:18), has come to us to save us from the power of sin and death and to free us from our captivity, to restore us to the “glorious freedom of the children of God” (Romans 8:21).

From his glorious position on the throne of the Cross, lifted up for all to see, Jesus proclaims to the world:

All the kingdoms of the earth the LORD, the God of heaven, has given to me, and he has also charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever, therefore, among you belongs to any part of [my] people, let him go up, [knowing that I am] with him! (II Chronicles 36:23).

We were doomed to death, but now, through the self-giving love of Christ, the sentence has been lifted, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17). Through the power of his love he brings us now into his house, and not as slaves but as friends (cf. John 15:15).

We know that we belong to Christ, we know that he has saved us, and yet we grow complacent in our faith; we openly rebel against him choosing our own will over his; we sin and we fall short of the glory he has given us. So Holy Mother Church gives us this “joyful season when we prepare to celebrate the paschal mystery with mind and heart renewed (Preface, Lent I). It is a blessed time to return to the Lord, to dedicate ourselves again to living as his faithful servants, those who truly belong to his household. It is a time for us to cease our evil thoughts and deeds, to stop walking in the darkness and to begin walking anew in the light of the Lord. It is a time for us to embrace the power of the Paschal Mystery in each of our lives. How, then, do we do this?

Jesus says to us today, “Whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God” (John 3:21). Jesus also tells us, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). To live the truth, then, means to live in Jesus Christ, to recognize that in Baptism we have been made one with Christ and have become a “new creation” (II Corinthians 5:17). Living in Christ Jesus we journey within into heaven where the brilliant light of God is so beautiful and bright that even the angels shield their faces. How then do we always remember that we are new creations in Christ Jesus? How do we always live as true and faithful members of his house? Let us follow the advise of St. Clare of Assisi:

O dearest one, look up to heaven, which calls us on, and take up the cross and follow Christ who has gone on before us: for through him we shall enter into his glory after many and diverse tribulations. Love God from the depths of your heart and Jesus, his Son, who was crucified for us sinners. Never let the thought of him leave your mind but meditate constantly on the mysteries of the cross (Letter to Blessed Ermuntrude of Bruges, 9-12).

We must always focus on the “Son of Man [who was] lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life” (John 3:14-15). The Cross is the source of our joy and it is to the Cross that the season of Lent leads us, and for this reason it is a joyful season.

Pausing today should fill us with the joy of the Risen Lord for today we are reminded that the final victory is already won because of the power of his love, a love that is stronger than death (cf. Song of Songs 8:6). We know that Christ has forever conquered sin and death and that his love is with us always. Let this be our consolation and our hope as together we journey toward Easter. God loves us. Let us rejoice and be glad.

Homily - 19 March 2006

Are you thirsty? Have you found a means to quench your thirst? Is there a longing or a yearning in your heart that you cannot satisfy? We can rightly say that if we are not fully satisfied that we search for something or, perhaps better, that we thirst for somebody.

Today the Israelites grumble against Moses, demanding, “Why did you ever make us leave Egypt? Was it just to have us die here of thirst with our children and our livestock?” (Exodus 17:3). They thirst for water, certainly; but they thrist for something more than the water they demand, even though they do not yet realize it. We are much the same.

Like the woman at the well, the Israelites thirst for the Messiah. With her, they know “that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ; when he comes, he will tell us everything” (John 4:25). This woman has many unanswered questions. Her life has not been easy, nor has it been pleasant. For many years she has tried to quench her thirst. She has looked for ways to ease her troubled heart. She looked for ways to suppress her disturbing questions about life. In short, she looked for her happiness in the things of this world, yet never did she find it here.

Many of us look to food, or alcohol, or drugs, or money, or food, or sports, or cars, or clothing, or computers, or books – it could be anything – to satisfy our longings. We at least look to these sorts of things to forget about our questions, but this forgetting is only temporary and so we find ourselves in some sort of viscious circle of forgetfulness and remembrance and we grow more weary because the questions never go away. The more we try to avoid them the more insistent they grow and the more we try to satisfy our longings with things.

The Samaritan woman at the well sought her escape from her suffering and pain in the company and pleasure of men. Jesus pointedly reminds her of the uselessness of her quest for happiness when he says to her, “You have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband” (John 4:18). In searching for her happiness she wandered farther and farther from the Lord her God, the only true source of happiness, fulfillment, and peace. Now her Lord comes to her, saying, “Give me a drink,” or rather, “Take a drink of me” (John 4:7).

With the Psalmist, the woman can sing, “As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God. My being thirsts for God, the living God. When can I go and see the face of God” (Psalm 42:2-3). Through her searching in vain for something to satisfy her deepest desires the woman came to realize that she sought the Lord himself. She is left with no where else to turn. All that she thought would bring her happiness has failed; she has been lied to and is lost. Now she knows that she was really searching for the Lord all along, but she does not know where or how to find him.

Her situation seems desperate and almost without hope. All of her life has led her to this point, but for what purpose? It has been a life of “emptiness and pain” (Psalm ). Have not each of us felt ourselves in this same predicament before? The singer and songwriter Rich Mullins sings this: “I can’t see how you’re leading me unless you’ve led me here / Where I’m lost enough to let myself be led / And so, you’ve been here all along I guess / It’s just you’re ways and you are just plain hard to get” (Rich Mullins, “Hard to Get”). Her difficult journey has led her here, to the very place where she is broken enough to recognize her need for the Savior. Today the Savior comes to her and says, “All you who are thirsty, come to the water!” (Isaiah 55:1). He calls, too, to us in our brokenness, “All you who are thirsty, come to the water!”

Jesus offers himself to her – and to us as well - as the only lasting satisfaction to her yearnings and as the only one who can tell her everything she has done (cf. John 4:39). As Jesus said to her so he says to each of us today: “whoever drinks the water I shall give will become in him a water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14).

But where do we find this water? When Jesus died upon the Cross for our salvation, “one soldier thrust his lance into his side, and immediately blood and water flowed out” (John 19:34). By gazing upon the pierced side of the Crucified and Risen Lord we will find this living water, and the more we gaze upon him in love the more we, too, we will come to say, “For you my body yearns; for you my soul thirsts, like a land parched, lifeless, and without water” (Psalm 63:2). We will come to realize that without the Lord Jesus we are empty and lost, but that with him all of our thirst will be quenched.

It is precisely at the Cross that we will find this living water and it is here where all of our deepest yearnings and desires and longings will at long last be fulfilled and satisfied. Beneath the shadow of the Cross we will find our happiness, our fulfillment, and our peace. This will only happen at the Cross because it is from the pierced side of the Savior that the Church and all of the Sacraments poured forth. The Fathers of the Church always saw the blood and water which flowed from his side as the symbol of the Sacraments – especially of Baptism and the Eucharist – and of the Church.

There are in our community a number of individuals who, like the Samaritan woman, have searched in vain for happiness until the Lord came to them and said, “Give me a drink; take a drink of me.” They [You] have found in Jesus Christ their happiness, their fulfillment, and their peace, and they [you] wish to share in full communion with us the riches and graces of the Sacraments of the Church, entrusted to the Church by the Savior. All of the joys and sorrows of their [your] lives have led them [you] to this moment and we are happy to welcome these [you] Elect and look forward to the day when they [you] will be one with us.

But before we can welcome them [you] fully into our community, we must first examine their [your] lives and their [your] commitment to Christ and to his Church. We must scrutinize their [your] motives and their [your] faith. We must ask the Lord to protect them [you] from and strengthen them [you] against the power of Satan and his ways. They [You] come to us now, in humility and in faith, to be received into our community. As these Elect and candidates come to us to ask for the Sacraments they say to us, “[We] have seen the Lord!” (John 20:18).

Let us follow their example of complete faith and trust in the Lord Jesus and in his Church. Let us examine and scrutinize our own lives, so that we may cooperate with the grace of God to remove whatever it is that keeps us from following perfectly after him. Let us seek to become like him and so share fully in the glory of his Resurrection.

Homily - 12 March 2006

Today, in the reading from the book of Genesis, we see a foreshadowing of the Messiah in Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his only son Isaac. The Lord called Abraham while he was still in the land of the Chaldeans and said to him: “Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you” (Genesis 12:1-2).

There was nothing particular about Abraham that gave the Lord a specific reason to call him. He had previously never known the Lord nor had Abraham performed any especially significant deeds. The Lord chose Abraham simply because he wanted to; the Lord chose Abraham simply because he loved him, and so he chooses us as well.

After Abraham followed the way of the Lord to the land of Canaan, the Lord clarified his promise to him that he would make of him a great nation:

Look about you, and from where you are, gaze to the north and south, east and west; all the land that you see I will give to you and your descendants forever. I will make your descendants like the dust of the earth; if anyone could count the dust of the earth, your descendants too might be counted. Set forth and walk about in the land, through its length and breadth, for to you I will give it (Genesis 13:14-17).

Here, then, we come to the particular dilemma Abraham faced when God said to him, “Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. There you shall offer him up as a holocaust [as a burnt offering] on a height that I will show you” (Genesis 22:2). The difficulty here for Abraham is not so much in the offering of his son as it is in the Lord’s former promise to him. This is not to say that Abraham did not love Isaac – he certainly did – but this command of the Lord seems to contradict his promise to make of him a great nation.

When Abraham’s wife Sarah gave birth to her son she called him “Isaac” – a name that means “laughter” – because, as she said, “God has given me cause to laugh, and all who hear of it will laugh with me” (Genesis 21:6). When Isaac was born Abraham was one hundred years old, and Sarah was close to this age. The Lord then told Abraham that “it is through Isaac that descendants shall bear your name” (Genesis 21:12). All of God’s promises to Abraham rested upon his only son and now the Lord asked Abraham to give him Isaac. Without Isaac, how could the promise possibly be fulfilled? Nevertheless, Abraham followed the command of the Lord.

When they reached the top of the height, Isaac – thinking they had gone to offer a sheep - looked around and asked his father, “Here are the fire and the wood, but where is the sheep for the holocaust?” (Genesis 22:7). The father answered his son, “God himself will provide the sheep;” surely there were tears in his eyes as his heart pounded within his chest (Genesis 22:8).

When all was ready and Abraham was about to sacrifice his only son, the angel of the Lord commanded him, “Do not lay your hand on the boy. Do not do the least thing to him. I know now how devoted you are to God, since you did not withhold from me your own beloved son” (Genesis 22:12).

Now we come before the Lord fully aware of our sins and with the full knowledge that the “wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). What are we to do? We, too, look around and ask, “where is the sheep for the holocaust?” We are told, “God himself will provide the sheep,” and the John the Baptist announces to us, “Behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

God indeed provided the lamb to atone for our sins; he sent his only Son whom he loved. “He … did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all” (Romans 8:32) because “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22). At the time of the Passover, the Lord commanded the descendants of Abraham, “Go and procure lambs for your families, and slaughter them as Passover victims” (Exodus 12:21). “The lamb must be a year-old male and without blemish” (Exodus 12:5).

But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that have come to be . . . he entered once for all into the sanctuary, not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls . . . can sanctify those who are defiled . . . how much more will the blood of Christ? (Hebrews 9:11-14).

Jesus Christ, “like a lamb was led to the slaughter or a sheep to the shearers, he was silent and opened not his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7). “But he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins, upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we were healed” (Isaiah 53:5). Of Jesus’ death on the Cross, the Father has said, “Through his suffering my servant shall justify many, and their guilt he shall bear” (Isaiah 53:11b). “He shall take away the sins of many, and win pardon for their offenses” (Isaiah 53:12c).

Through his death Jesus has taken away our sins and redeemed us, restoring our relationship with the Father and giving us the promise of eternal life and glory with him. This is certainly cause for great rejoicing in “this joyful season when we prepare to celebrate the paschal mystery with mind and heart renewed” (Preface, Lent I). The Church presents to us today the reading from Genesis to remind us of the very reason for this penitential season. Through these forty days of Lent we are to renew our love and trust in the Lord who has saved us.

At the same, Holy Mother Church presents us with the reading from the Gospel of Matthew concerning the Transfiguration of the Lord to remind us of the joys of Easter which we will experience after these forty days. In her wisdom, the Church recognizes that the beginning of any sort of discipline is difficult. Ask someone who has quit smoking, or drinking, or gambling, or who has lost a significant amount of weight. The first week or so are always very difficult, but once that hurdle is cleared it becomes at least a bit easier.

So it is with Lent. I do not know about you, but a double bacon cheeseburger never sounded so delectable as it did on Friday. The Lenten disciplines are difficult if we truly seek to honor them. As we continue our Lenten observance may we always remember the Father’s offering of his only Son for the forgiveness of our sins. At the same time, let us keep in mind the great joys of the Resurrection that await us if we remain faithful when the Lord at last comes again.