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Corpus Christi

Anyone who has ever complained about water spots on their glasses following a sprinkling rite ought to count their blessings! Would you rather be sprinkled with blood as a reminder of our covenantwith God?

The ritual described in Exodus sounds gory. Splashing blood on the altar and then on the people, Moses said, “This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you.” The Israelites viewed blood as the source of life from the mother’s womb to the moment the heart stopped beating. As ordinary as blood is, its presence leaves an impression. I’ll never forget seeing Jacqueline Kennedy returning from Dallas in her pink suit stained with her late husband’s blood.

Moses used blood to seal the covenant between God and the Hebrew peoples in the Sinai. Being a word we don’t use often, we could confuse covenant with contract. A contract is a legal document while a covenant is a relationship, a lasting bond between two parties. One example of covenant is a sacramental marriage, a permanent relationship between a man and a woman made in the presence of God.

Throughout the Hebrew scripture, God repeatedly offered a covenant for one reason: to be passionately one with us. “You will be my people and I will be your God.” For the Hebrew people, this solemn bond was nothing trivial. They pledged fidelity to God’s commandments. With one voice, they answered, “We will do everything the Lord has told us.”

If a covenant is to survive, both parties must fulfill their obligations. While God never fails to keep the divine end of the deal, we fail to keep our end whenever we sin. In ancient Jerusalem, when the people desired to atone for their sins, the priests of the temple would slay sacrificial animals, then sprinkle blood and ashes on the penitents.

Jesus radically altered this practice, shedding not the blood of animals but his own blood on the cross for our sins. The Eucharistic prayers remind us of what happened. “When supper was ended, he took the chalice and, once more giving thanks, he gave it to his disciples, saying, ‘this is the chalice of my blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.’”

Jesus is telling his disciples that he is totally giving them himself, complete, whole and very much alive. His message did not have a lasting impression on all believers however.

The letter to the Hebrews was written to an early Christian community in danger of turning away from Christ and his new covenant. They were on the verge of returning to their old faith and the covenant offered by Moses but the letter offers a logical concern. “If the blood of goats and bulls can sanctify those who are defiled so that their flesh is cleansed, how much more will the blood of Christ cleanse our consciences from dead works to worship the living God.”

Many Catholics have entertained the same notion of turning away from the Eucharist. Their choice to do so reminds me of a couple sitting on their porch during a sunset. They had both worked hard that day and in the cool breeze of the evening, the man dozed off. His wife watched what became a stunning beautiful sunset. She woke her husband to tell him what was happening. “Dear,” he mumbled, “it’s just another sunset” and he went back to sleep. 

If we are tempted to think of the Eucharist as a very ordinary event, then we fail to appreciate the fullest love God has for us. What can we do when we think of the Eucharist as just another ordinary or even boring encounter with God?

The opening line of today’s psalm asked, “How shall I make a return to the Lord for all the good he has done for me?” The question is quickly answered, “The cup of salvation I will take up, and I will call upon the name of the Lord.”

Each of us can experience God’s love as deeply as we choose to. Each of us can experience God’s love freely if we dare to honestly answer this one question. If Jesus died for me, how might I die for him?

Something will always die in us when we love deeply and selflessly. Doing what we know is right in the sight of God is not always easy or popular in the sight of others. By offering his body and blood very concretely, Jesus established the new covenant. When we share in the Lord’s Supper, we repay the goodness of the Lord by laying our own flesh and blood on the line. Nothing less.

I suspect many who receive communion see themselves as only being recipients of Jesus Christ. But there is more to the Eucharist than receiving the Lord. We affirm our acceptance of our covenantwith God. The original intent of this feast was to remind us that we are also the body of Christ, a congregation of believers, a gathering of the community of faith. As the body of Christ, we exist for the sake of others.  We are expected to bring the real presence of Jesus to them by what we say and do. The grace of this sacrament empowers us to honor our covenant by doing so, namely “we will do everything that the Lord has told us.”

Jesus nourishes us with his body and blood so that we in turn can nourish the world with our body and blood, that is, with love and compassion we make others aware that Jesus Christ is truly present in the world around us.

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Ascension Sunday

In the classic comic strip, Shoe, irascible Shoe is at the counter trying to attract a woman sitting at the next stool. “Listen,” Shoe says, “I don’t mean to be a pest. You say the word and I am out of here.” She responds, “Why that is very sweet of you.” She then says, “Commitment.” When she turns around, the entire place is empty.

Fortunately for us, that didn’t happen when Jesus spoke much the same message to the disciples shortly before he ascended into heaven. His ascension became a moment of commitment for the disciples. They could have gone back to their past lives: fishing, collecting taxes, whatever, but they didn’t. Jesus had entrusted them with the mission to go forth from Jerusalem to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth. “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.” Since then, the Church has done just that, living up to its name, “Catholic,” which means universal.

Little did the apostles realize what was in store for them when they asked Jesus, “Are you going to restore the kingdom?” Indeed he would, but not in the manner they ever imagined. The Church has since then become the most widespread faith in the world. What has drawn so many to the Catholic faith is that the Church continually shows us how to best live our lives, bringing about God’s kingdom, for example, safely guarding and respecting all life from conception to natural death and caring for our planet.

Like many of you, I am a “cradle” Catholic, baptized as an infant because my mother was intent on raising her children in the Catholic faith. As a young adult, I made the personal decision to remain Catholic, inspired largely by my father, who became Catholic while stationed in Korea a year before he died.

My father’s family was not Catholic. Growing up, I assumed that his family had been Protestant for generations. While in the seminary, I was surprised to learn that I had distant cousins who were Catholic and that my great grandfather left the Church when he remarried after being widowed. Is that the work of the Holy Spirit that a century later, I, his great grandson, would become a priest?

While I was growing up, my father rarely went to church. I never asked him what prompted him to become Catholic but the change I saw in him inspired me to remain Catholic while in college and become involved in campus ministry. Never underestimate the impact your faith has, not just on your family and friends but also on future generations.

Although this feast brought Jesus’ earthly mission to a close, his final words were more of a commencement address than a farewell discourse. In effect, he challenged the apostles to go forth and make a difference in the world around them by proclaiming the good news to every creature.

What he charged then is the same mission Jesus entrusts to us today. He isn’t sending us out on our own to stand on some street corner in Langley, thumping a Bible and preaching to anyone who would listen. The promise of the Father that Luke mentions in our first reading is the Holy Spirit, who empowers us at our baptism and confirmation to be witnesses to the faith we profess. We do this best by striving to live our faith in its entirety, adhering to Christ-centered moral values, caring, loving and respecting others, summed up for us as the corporal works of mercy.

A popular folk song that I first heard in college at Mass sums up our mission well: “They’ll know we are Christians by our Love.” Setting an example by loving others, being patient with those who annoy us, forgiving those who have offended us, working side by side to create a better world by striving to respect all life from conception to natural death and all peoples regardless of their gender or race are examples of how we can effectively proclaim the gospel message that God loves us unconditionally. Act toward others just as we hope Christ would act toward us at our last judgment. After all, actions do speak louder than words. St. Francis said to preach the gospel and use words if necessary.

There is the notion in education that we never truly learn a subject until we teach it ourselves. For good reason, Jesus is calling on us to proclaim the good news. Doing so, we better know what being Catholic entails. If you need a refresher course, pick up your bible during the week and read a chapter from one of the gospels. Witnessing to Jesus is the mission entrusted to us, but for that to happen, we must first strive to deepen our relationship with the Lord and better understand what he is asking of us as his followers.

I think of the Ascension as the moment in a relay race in which Jesus passed the baton on to the disciples, which in due time has been passed on to us to pass on to others. Your personal testimony and conviction evidenced by your love and commitment to Christ, could very well make a lasting impression on someone in your life, just as my father did on me when I was a teenager.

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3rd Sunday of Lent

Today and for the next two Sundays, our Gospels have a special message for those whom the Church calls the elect, folks who will be baptized at the Easter Vigil. Today, we heard the story of the woman at the well. Next Sunday we will hear the story of the man born blind and on the following Sunday, the story of Lazarus being raised from the dead. These stories are not just for the Elect, they are vitally important for the rest of us as well. The Church is using these gospels to help all of us look into our lives, examine our hearts, to know and name where we thirst, and to ask ourselves, “Is God there for us?”

Lets consider the woman at the well. None of us have literally traveled her path. We haven’t had to trek many miles to any well at high noon to tote water back to our homes. Instead, we take water for granted. With the turn of the tap, we have clean safe water for drinking, bathing, cooking and washing. Unlike the Israelites in the desert, I doubt any of us ever experienced thirst that left us grumbling.

On the other hand, we may relate to the thirst expressed by the Samaritan woman. She is craving for something more than plain stagnant water to quench her physical thirst. Scandalized at first that Jesus, a Jew, would converse with her, much less ask a favor, she listens to what he has to say and realizes that what he has to offer is of more value that all the water she could ever draw from the cistern.

Jesus points out that the water he has to offer is living water, even better than the flowing water she first envisioned, which sounded so refreshing beneath the midday sun. “Everyone,” Jesus asserts, “who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst.”

Jesus is making a point that is often ignored. Our souls thirst just as our bodies do. If you are feeling spiritually empty, you are yearning for God. We may not realize that because our lives are filled with many distractions, which we are tempted into believing will bring us the lasting satisfaction we seek.

If you are feeling empty, despite all that you have (a place to call home, clothes to keep you warm and dry, food to nourish and sustain you, and companions who journey with you), that means there is a gaping hole in your heart, a hole that only God can fill.

Since this encounter at the well, human nature hasn’t changed much. We spend much energy and time trying to fill the emptiness of our hearts with something other than God, as though we are trying to plug a round hole with a square peg. Whatever our indulgences may be, sooner or later, we will learn that they can’t quench the thirst of our inner being.

Trying to quench our spiritual thirst with material things is like trying to satisfy our physical thirst with salt water. The more we drink, the thirstier we get. Describing this as spiritual restlessness, St. Augustine points out, “Our hearts are made for God, and they will not rest, until they rest in God.”

One doctor, known for the Christian principles he practiced, was seldom seen without a beautiful fresh rosebud in the lapel of his suit. It remained fresh for a long time because he kept the stem in a small vial of water hidden behind the lapel. The doctor would explain that just as the rose was kept fresh with the water in the vial, the secret of beautiful and fragrant Christian living lies in drawing refreshment from the living water of Jesus.

That is a message many people across the country have been discovering. Invited by someone in their lives “to come and see” what believing in Jesus is all about, they are now discovering for themselves through prayer, discernment and instruction, the joy of becoming a Catholic. Like the Samaritans in the gospel, those preparing for baptism at the Easter Vigil are realizing that Jesus is the source of living water that will bring them eternal life.

We who are already Catholic may have forgotten just how refreshing the living water of Jesus can be. We come here to have our hunger satisfied in the Eucharist, but are we giving Jesus the opportunity to quench our spiritual thirst the rest of the week?

Lent calls us to reflect and scrutinize seriously on our own faith journey. Are you striving to draw closer to Christ through prayer, alms giving and fasting? Are you giving witness to the Gospel in what you say and do?

If not, what’s stopping you? Perhaps your faith is a head-trip, rather than a journey of the heart.  Our relationship with Jesus, however, demands more than simply knowing the principles for being a Catholic. Jesus is inviting us to a deeper faith that calls for holding on to values and moral choices, however counter-cultural they may be.

Admittedly, drawing closer to God isn’t easy. Moving into a mature faith relationship confronts our usual way of acting and thinking. But just think, if we would truly accept the challenge Jesus gives us, we would no longer find ourselves thirsting for what really matters. Like the Samaritans, we would say to others what some have said to the elect, “We know that this is truly the savior of the world.”

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1st Sunday of Lent

We know the story well. The book of Genesis tells us that God grieved over the wickedness of humanity and was determined to rebuild creation, much like an artist who redoes a painting that wasn’t just right. After flooding the earth for forty days, sparing Noah and his family, God sent a rainbow as an assurance that the waters shall never again destroy all mortal beings.

While there hasn’t been another flood to devastate the whole earth since then, one has to wonder if the earth is being devastated when we find ourselves coping with frigid winters and subsequent floods or dry hot summers and scorching forest fires along with the ongoing pandemic.

As we heard in that first reading, God made a covenant with Noah and his descendants. A covenant is an agreement between two parties so we have to ask ourselves if we are keeping our end of the covenant. The answer is not so when you consider what we have done to our planet in the past century. Granted much has been done to curtail the rampant pollution of past decades but still the health of our planet and its weather system has been impaired by many choices we have made.

Centuries after Noah walked off his ark, Jesus came on the scene. In the gospel, he offers pithy advice, “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.” Evidently, humanity had not done a good job honoring its covenant, but this time, instead of flooding the earth, God is giving humanity another chance by showing how the covenant can be honored.

What comes to mind when you hear that line, “the kingdom of God is at hand”? Do you think of some distant utopia, perhaps heaven? Have you ever given any thought that the kingdom of God is a reality that could happen here and now?  Jesus isn’t talking about what we will find on the other side of death’s threshold. He is talking about himself. Jesus wants us to open our eyes and see him, more to the point, to see what God is doing in and through him. Namely showing us how to make this a better world.

Think of the gospel as God’s vision for a new and better planet. The earth was destroyed once because of humanity’s evil ways. Might the earth be destroyed again because of our sinful choices? Jesus offers us the good news, namely the gospel to repair our broken world.

Perhaps you think of the gospel only as a biography of Jesus’ brief public ministry but actually the gospel is God’s antidote for restoring the beauty of this unique planet, the only one we know of for certain that is blessed with life.

When we see a rainbow, following a storm, we are reminded that the sun is breaking through, that better weather is in store for us. God sends us rainbows in the cloud to remind us as well of the covenant, as Noah learned, “between me and you and every living creature with you.”  Heed the covenant and a better world emerges.

The gospel is given to us as a blueprint for us to honor our end of the covenant, a means for us to deepen our relationship with God by turning away from self and directing our focus toward God and God’s people.

God of the Old Testament and Jesus are striving to lure us away from evil to a new social order that puts the needs of the marginalized first. One pathway that Jesus often spoke of is illustrated by the corporal works of mercy, pictured in our stained glass windows: visit the sick or the imprisoned, feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, bury the dead. Pope Francis calls them our Christian identity cards because they outline for us how we ought to live in imitation of Christ.

Often we see Lent as a time of turning inward, taking an honest look at our failures and shortcomings in living the Christian life and making up for them and it is. But Lent is also a time for turning outward to our brothers and sisters in need, treating them with compassion, mercy and love just as God treats us.

With infinite power, God could have created a perfect world but with infinite wisdom, God willed instead to create a world journeying toward ultimate perfection. Until that happens, however, good and evil will coexist.

Jesus provides us with the blueprint to see how destructive evil is to our lives and our planet. Through prayer, worship and following his directives, we can see the way to create a better world for ourselves now and future generations.

Lent is not the time to be asleep, not the time to languish in complacency and self-satisfaction, not the time for delaying tactics, procrastination and second-guessing. In the midst of Lent and this ongoing pandemic, now is a time for us to be attentive and as Jesus said, now is the time to repent. Not just be mindful of our own wrongdoing but repent also means to alter our way of knowing, perceiving and grasping reality.  Evil persists because we haven’t tried to see the world differently. Jesus and the gospel exist to provide us with a new vision for honoring our covenant, to build a new creation, being mindful of our pressing need to care not only for ourselves but also for others and this planet. Look at the rainbow. God has not given up on us. We must not give up on ourselves either.

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Christ the King

Every day, we are reminded that death claims the lives of many due to the corona virus. With death, come thoughts of heaven, purgatory and hell. Years ago, I recall reading a reflection by CS Lewis on heaven. He wrote that if we were to go to heaven, we would experience three surprises. First, we would be surprised at the number of people in heaven and shocked to see some people that we never thought would be there. Second, we would be surprised to realize that people we thought we would see are not there. Third, we would be astonished that we are there.

The judgment that Jesus speaks of isn’t between believers and non-believers, or Christians and non-Christians, or churchgoers and non-Church goers. Nor is our verdict dependent on confessing that Jesus is Lord. Everyone’s verdict is contingent on whether one has responded humanely, lovingly and compassionately to the needs of the marginalized, the homeless, the imprisoned, the sick, the poor and the lonely, to those in need of mercy. Simply put, the sheep are people who cared.

There will be many who have been saved by Christ who did not know Him by that name but who reached out to Him by helping others. Thus, there will be many in heaven we never expected to find there. Faith is not solely adherence to a set of beliefs but an active response to serve, seek justice and to advocate for the marginalized.

Lewis’ second theory is that there will be people missing from heaven that we expected to find there.  In our American denial of death, we try to ease our grief by canonizing our Loved Ones who have died.  No matter who they may be, we judge that they are in heaven after their death.  For example, when a loved one dies, children are told that God has taken that person. (Don’t do that–God knows when we will die but God doesn’t decide the manner or hour of our death.) Hopefully our loved ones are all with God in heaven but their presence will be determined not by our wish for them to be there, but by how well they reached out to Christ in others throughout their lives.  People may be absent from heaven not for their sins of commission but for their sins of omission. The sin of not caring reflects our failure to love. Jesus is warning us that those who ignore the message of this gospel about reaching out to others in charity will find themselves numbered among the goats.

It is a good thing to pray for the dead. Still, their presence in heaven is in God’s hands, not ours.   Our motive for praying for the dead comes from our belief in purgatory, where the last of our self-centeredness is cleansed from us. In the second book of the Divine Comedy, Purgatorio, Dante provides a fascinating thought. Those who are not in heaven have not yet developed a tolerance for God’s immense love.  They are not yet ready for the full fire of God’s enormous love. How is this tolerance developed?  Only by exposing ourselves to Christ.  “But when have we seen you hungry or thirsty, naked, or ill or imprisoned, Lord?” the souls who did not expect to be in heaven will ask. “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.”

Alas, some have excluded God from their lives to such a degree that they will not be capable of tolerating his love because, being self-centered, they have not developed the slightest place for His love within them. Those in hell sent themselves there. They condemn themselves to hell, not God. To avoid that fate, let us put ourselves in God’s hands, endeavoring to carry out works of mercy.

In his wit, C. S. Lewis says that the third surprise we would have will be seeing that we are there.  When we are honest with ourselves, we are mindful of the many times that we have turned away from God.  Our sins are very clear to us.  What we are not so aware of is the extent of God’s divine mercy. God sees that which we, though his grace, have developed as our life style.  This continual grace in our lives pointing us to his presence in others is a great mercy.  Mercifully, Christ enables us to replace with love that which we have destroyed with selfishness and sin.  

 During the past year we have followed the life of Jesus from the prophesies of last Advent, through his birth, mission, death and resurrection.  We have prayed over the message of His life as well as His teachings, applying his many lessons to our daily lives.  Someday we will find ourselves before Christ the King seated in his glory on the royal throne. How will we feel? As we end this liturgical year we again seek the mercy of His continual grace drawing us out of our self-centeredness into His presence that is found in the needy of his Kingdom.  

Christ is our King.  May we always be true members of his Kingdom, shedding whatever obstacles we cling to that prevent us from loving others as Christ loves us. As we heard in the psalm moments ago, “Lord, make us turn to you, let us see your face and we shall be saved.”

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