31st Sunday, Year C (Gospel: John 6:37-40) Are you ready to die?

 

 

If you were told that you were going to die today, or within the week, what would you do? One thing for sure is that all our priorities would change. Worldly things would suddenly become irrelevant. I’m sure for many people family would become very important. I’m sure the concern of what will happen at death and after death would also come to the forefront of your thinking.

 

Throughout Jesus’ public ministry, He used many stories and parables to remind us that we always need to be ready to die, because we never know when this will happen.

 

Every day on the roads approximately 107 people die in car wrecks, just in this country. That means that yesterday, over 100 people left their homes to go to work, or shopping, or to drop off their kids somewhere and one moment later they were standing before Jesus for judgement. One second you are in your car, the next second you are before Jesus. It’s pretty shocking when you think of it that way and yet it happens to people every day of the week.

 

A few years ago I was driving somewhere in Ireland and I came across a man who need a ride. He was a musician and made a living by busking on the streets. Not an easy way of life. He had practically all his possessions with him. He told me he knew over 350 songs, which was impressive. When he realized that I was a priest, he began asking me about religion. I can’t remember much of what he said except for one thing. He said that he wasn’t very religious but that he preferred to stay out of it and sit on the fence. When I asked him about death and coming before God, he said that he would just plead ignorance. That was the thing that struck me the most.  He said, “I’ll just plead ignorance.”

 

I suppose if God were just another human being, we might get away with pleading ignorance, but since God knows everything about us, including our motivations, all the things that have influenced us and how free or not we are to make choices, I don’t think that pleading ignorance will be much use! This is not to focus on the negative as if we should be afraid of God, but it is reality. On the contrary, the Lord loves us and wants to help us in every way possible. He knows our weaknesses and what we struggle with, but He also knows when we avoid responsibility. There is no pleading ignorance before God and this is what the Lord keeps reminding us.

 

Jesus taught parable after parable reminding us to be ready for death and never take it for granted that we can sort everything out at the last second.

 

In St. Matthew’s Gospel (Matt 25: 1-13), Jesus gives the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, also called bridesmaids in another version of the story. One of the traditions of the time was that after a man and a woman were betrothed to each other, when they were legally married, they remained apart for about another year, during which time they would both be able to make preparations for their wedding and new life together. The man would go and build an extension onto his father’s house, where they could live together. When the time was right, the father of the groom would announce to his son that it was time to go and collect his bride. This would happen in the middle of the night. They would then go to the bride’s house, where the bride and bridesmaids would be waiting. They would already be wearing their wedding garments, ready for when the groom would come, although they didn’t know exactly when that would happen. Since it was in the middle of the night, they would need to have lighted lamps. They would then leave the bride’s house and go for the wedding celebration. If you weren’t ready at that time, you would be left behind. The parable says that five of the bridesmaids were wise and brought enough oil for their lamps to last as long as needed. The foolish ones did not and when the groom arrived they were almost out of oil. They asked the wise bridesmaids to lend them some oil, but they said ‘no’ as there may not be enough for both of them. Then Jesus says those who were ready went into the feast. When the other bridesmaids came back having gotten enough oil, the wedding part had left and gone into the feast. And then there is the line that says, ‘And the door was locked.’ They were left behind. And when they ask to be let in, the groom says, ‘I do not know you.’ There was no relationship there. They were casual and presumptuous. Jesus finishes by saying, ‘So stay awake. You do not know the day or the hour when the bridegroom will come.’

 

This is a strong message for all of us. Leaving it until the last minute to prepare may be too late. In this parable Jesus says it was too late. Our life on earth is the time to prepare to be with the Lord. He gives us a whole lifetime to prepare, so we can’t say we didn’t have enough time. That is why we must not allow ourselves to become so immersed in the things of the world, that we forget the bigger picture. We have to be practical and provide for our families and attend to our work, but we also must not forget the things of God.

 

The Lord guides us in so many ways, especially through the Scriptures, which is why we read them at every mass. They are constantly teaching us what God expects of us and what is required of us. We cannot say I didn’t know what to do, as the Lord gives us very specific instructions as to how to live and always to be ready.

 

In the book of Exodus (40:16) when God had given Moses instructions as to how to build the tabernacle, it says ‘Moses did exactly what the Lord requested of him.’ Exactly as the Lord told him, not roughly. In Genesis (6:22), when God gave Noah instructions about the ark, it says that Noah did precisely as the Lord had told him.’ The Lord shows us exactly how to live in the way that will help us the most, so that we can enjoy our life on earth and so that we will be ready to meet him when our time comes.

 

I know many people of faith who have often told me that they long to meet the Lord. They are looking forward to that day more than anything else. If you have faith that makes total sense. If we are living in fear of this life coming to an end, then we are not hearing what the Lord is saying to us. It is not something to be afraid of. If we have made any effort to prepare for it, then it is something we can look forward to, but we don’t know when that day will come. It may be after 80 or more years, or it may be when we are young. ‘Therefore, stay awake, for you know not the day nor the hour.’

 

That is also why it is so important that we try and pass on our faith to the next generation. Think of all the things you do for your children to give them the best possible chance in the world. How much time do you take to teach them about the more important things: the reality of God, how God tells us to live, what is right and wrong and that we will all be held accountable? To ignore this is to do them a great disfavor. Being successful in a worldly career is good and we should develop our talents as the Lord has given them to us, but being prepared in the things of God is far more important.

 

As our relationship with God grows, we will become less and less afraid of death, because instead of seeing it as the end of our life, we will begin to see it as the beginning of the life we are called to. It will be a relief that our time of struggle is over. This is also what St. Paul is talking about in the second reading:

“We do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, about those who have fallen asleep, so that you may not grieve like the rest who have no hope.”

 

It is also so important that we pray for the dead. Often at funerals you will hear people say, ‘He is in heaven now.’ That may be true, but many people will die still with some sin on their soul. No sin can exist in God’s presence. It is a contradiction. So if we die with some sin on our soul, we need to be purged of it, which is what we call Purgatory. It is a mercy of God which allows us to go through any final purification we need before we can come into God’s presence. Unfortunately many people disregard the idea of Purgatory, but think of it this way: this is an extreme example, but it makes the point.

 

Imagine that Hitler hadn’t committed suicide, but that he was murdered. But the day before his death he had a moment of enlightenment and realized the terrible evil he had committed. He then repented and begged God’s mercy. God promises mercy to anyone who sincerely asks for it. If he died the next day, would he go straight to heaven? Somehow we know that that wouldn’t make sense. It would be a mockery of God’s justice. He would have to go through some kind of atonement or purification before he could come into God’s presence. That is what Purgatory is.

 

We believe that we can also help those who are in Purgatory by praying for them and having masses offered for them. That’s why we dedicate the month of November to praying for the holy souls and we pray for the dead in every mass. Through our prayers their purification can happen quicker, which is a gift of God responding to our efforts. So pray for those who have died.

 

When I die I would much rather people pray for me and have masses offered for me, than just say nice things about me.

 

The Lord wants us to have hope and not to be afraid, but we must listen to what He tells us, so that we are not caught off guard.

“Therefore I tell you, stay awake, for you neither know the day or the hour.”

 

29th Sunday Year C (Gospel: Luke 18:1-8) The deception of the Occult

 

There is a lot of confusion these days as to what comes from God and what does not. I am talking in particular about things come under the general heading of occult, such as going to fortune tellers, Tarot card readers, psychics, playing the Ouija board, or going to mediums and other similar practices. A lot of people just consider them harmless fun; besides what could possibly be wrong with them?

 

God expressly warns us in the Scriptures to stay away from such things. In the book of Deuteronomy it says:

You must not have in your midst anyone... who practices divination, or anyone who consults the stars, who is a sorcerer, or one who practices enchantments or who consults the spirits, no diviner, or one who asks questions of the dead. For the Lord abhors those who do these things (Deuteronomy 18:10-12).

 

In another book it says, ‘Do not have recourse to the spirits of the dead or to magicians; they will defile you. I, the Lord, am your God’ (Leviticus 19:31).

 

Why are these things a problem for us? The Lord doesn’t just give us rules for the sake of rules. If God tells us to stay away from something, there is a good reason, just like you will tell your children to stay away from the fire, or they’ll get burned. God does the same for us, telling us what to avoid if we want to stay healthy.

 

So why are these things, which are now available everywhere, a problem? The first and most important reason is that they interfere with our free will. Our free will is an extraordinary gift which the Lord has given us, because it means that we have the freedom to do anything we choose, be it good or evil, although real freedom is the freedom to choose what is good. We can even reject God if we choose. It is an amazing thing that the Lord who has created us respects us enough, even to giving us the freedom to reject him, and sadly some people do this by the way they live.

 

Anything occult is an attempt to gain knowledge, or control, of the future. The problem is that if we think we have any kind of knowledge of the future it is going to influence our freedom to choose, because we will probably start acting out of fear of what we think might be going to happen. The Lord does not want us to be afraid, but to be at peace. That is why God does not reveal the future to us. We don’t need to know it. If we did, He would show us, because He wants the very best for us.

 

When Jesus was talking to the Apostles about the end times and his return in glory, Jesus replied by saying, ‘See to it that no one deceives you’ (Matthew 24:4).

 

The second reason why these things are a problem, is that by dabbling in them we are going directly against something God has told us, which is a way of creating an obstacle between us and God. We sin when we do this. From a spiritual point of view, they can also have a hold or influence over us. If God does not reveal the future to us, then where is this information coming from? It is not coming from the Lord, even if the fortune teller starts off by praying the Hail Mary or Our Father, which I know some of them do. 

 

I worked with an exorcist priest friend of mine for a while and saw first-hand the mess that some people get themselves into by dabbling in these things that the Lord tells us specifically to keep away from. They are very real. Satan is cunning and will do anything to lead us away from God, because he hates us as God’s creation. Satan is real. If Satan is not real then Jesus is a liar, because Jesus frequently mentioned him in his teaching. Jesus called him a liar and a deceiver and that’s what he does.

 

‘[The devil] was a murderer from the beginning, refusing to uphold the truth, because the truth is not in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, because he is a liar and the father of lies’ (Jn 8:44).

 

Satan distorts God’s word, to confuse us and lead us away from God. In the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, Satan twisted God’s word. He said to them, ‘Did God really say that you cannot eat of any of the trees in the garden.’ God had said they could eat of any tree, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Satan also lied to them and said if they did eat it, they would be like God themselves, knowing good from evil, but this is exactly what God warned them about. Remember that Satan wanted to be like God himself, but without needing God. So he was trying to get them to give in to the same temptation. He twisted God’s word to deceive them.

 

The former exorcist of this diocese told me about one encounter he had. He was called to a house where footsteps kept appearing across the couch! When he got there, he asked the family about themselves. It turned out that the woman was living with a man who was not her husband. She was practicing witchcraft and so was her daughter. So they had left themselves wide open to evil and the demonic. The priest told them that unless they were willing to change their ways, there was nothing he could do for them and they were not willing to change, so he was unable to help them.

 

I was called to a house one time where radios and lights kept turning on during the night. When I asked the people who lived there if they had been involved in any kind of Occult practice, they said no, but the lady who had lived in the house before them was a medium. She now lived next door. So that was the origin of what was happening. She had opened the door to the demonic. What we think of as harmless fun, is not harmless if God forbids us to do it. Getting involved in any kind of magic, witchcraft, or fortune telling, etc, is also opening up doors to what is not of God. Hence the cases I mentioned where things were happening in those houses. If we do what God forbids us to do, we can expect consequences.

 

We have to ask ourselves do I believe what Jesus said is true or not?  Either the Bible (the Scriptures) is the word of God, or it isn’t. If it is, we need to listen to it. If it’s not true, then what are we doing here?

 

God wants the very best for us and will continually guide us along the right path, the path that will help us to reach our full potential as human beings, the path that will lead us to heaven, but sometimes we get misled and go astray. That’s not a problem so long as we recognise it and come back again. I’m sure you want God’s blessing for your lives and for your families, just as I do, but if we mess with what God expressly tells us to stay away from, we will be blocking God’s help from us. 

 

If you have dabbled in any of these things at any stage, confess it, which is also what the Lord asks us to do. By confessing it you break any spiritual hold that it can have over you. By repenting of it you also open the door to God’s grace .

 

In the second reading it says, ‘Remain faithful to what you have known and believed, because you know from whom you learned it…’ You know what you have learned comes from Scripture, which means it is from God, so you can trust it. The Bible is God’s gift to us to guide us in every situation we face. If we listen to it, it will lead us to God. If we ignore it, or go against it, it will lead us away from God.

 

If God has assured us of his help, then we would be foolish to look for spiritual help from any other source, especially a source which God expressly tells us to stay away from. We know that God wants the very best for us and if we believe that then we must also listen to what He tells us to do and what He tells us to avoid.

 

Jesus said, ‘Anyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise person who their built his house on solid rock. Rain came down, streams rose, winds blew and beat against that house, but it did not fall because it had its foundation on solid rock.

 

But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice, is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. Rains fell, torrents raged, winds blew and beat against that house and it fell and great was its collapse.' (Mt 7: 24-27).

 

‘I am the Lord your God. You shall not have strange gods before me.’

 

 

 

 

28th Sunday Year C (Gospel: Luke 17: 11-19) Give thanks in all circumstances

 

 

As part of our formation in the seminary, we were appointed different kinds of pastoral work. One of my class-mates, Paschal Hanrahan, spent one summer working in the slums in one of the big south American cities. I forget which one. He shared some of his experiences with us. He said that one night he was sitting outside the hut of the family he was staying with and he was feeling very depressed about the terrible poverty that was there and how much the people were suffering and how there seemed to be no resolution to it. Then the father of the household came outside and sat with him. After a few minutes he said, ‘Paschal, we have so much to be thankful for. God has blessed us so much.’ My friend was taken completely off-guard by this comment. He could only see what was wrong and what they didn’t have, yet the man living there in this terrible poverty was full of gratitude. He could see what they had and was not concerned about what they didn’t have. This really opened his eyes and helped him to see things differently.

 

I have often come across people who have worked in some of the poorest parts of the world, where there is not only terrible poverty, but often terrible injustice as well, but they will always tell you that you will find more joy in people there than in any first world countries, where we have so much materially.

 

I was reading the account of a priest who worked in Sweden. He said that it was probably one of the wealthiest countries in the world, materially. The government takes care of everything you may need, but that there was so much hatred and despair there. They had a crucifix on the door of their apartment and he said that three times it was ripped off the door.

 

When we live in places where there is so much material wealth and where we have so much choice, it is very easy to become focused on what I want and no longer see what I already have. If I live in a place where most people don’t even have the basics, then I am more likely to be grateful for anything I can get. People in poor countries aren’t looking to material things to make them happy, because they don’t have them. So they tend to be more joyful.

 

The readings today are a reminder of how important it is to give thanks to God for everything. In the first reading, Naaman comes back to Elisha to give thanks to God for being healed. In the Gospel, one of the ten lepers goes back to Jesus to give thanks for his healing and note Jesus’ comment, ‘Where are the other nine?’ In other words, we should make a point of giving thanks, not just for when prayers are answered, but for everything we have in all situations.

 

One of the remedies for the anger and anxiety that so many people are feeling at this time, is to give thanks. Yes, the country is not in a good place right now, but we have so much to be thankful for. When you get up, give thanks for the gift of another day, for your health, for your faith, that you have enough food to eat, that you have a place to stay and people who love you. Give thanks to God that God has created you for eternal happiness. Give thanks to God for making that eternal happiness possible to you through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Give thanks to God for all the people you love and for those who have gone on to the next world, that we can be with them again when we die. Give thanks to God for all the people in your life, those you like and those you don’t like. Why should we only give thanks to God for what we like and nothing else?

 

The Scriptures always teach us what God expects of us. If you look at the accounts of the last supper, the most important meal in history, where Jesus gave us the gift of his Body and Blood, note the words Jesus spoke. In Matthew, Mark and Luke’s account of the last supper, they each say that Jesus took bread and after he had given thanks, He broke it…

St. Matthew: ‘Jesus took bread and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to his disciples saying, “Take and eat. This is my body.” (Matt 26:26).

 

St. Mark: ‘While they were eating, Jesus took some bread and when He had given thanks, He broke it…’ (Mark 14:22)

St. Luke: ‘He took bread, gave thanks and broke it and gave it to them saying, “This is my Body.”

St. John’s account of the Eucharist is given in the account of feeding the five thousand with five loaves and two fish in chapter 6. Note Jesus’ words: ‘Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted.’ (Jn 6:11)

It also says that after everyone had eaten, Jesus tells the people to collect all the food that is left over so that nothing is wasted. That is also a way of showing gratitude.

 

When Jesus is about to raise Lazarus from the dead, He starts off praying to the Father saying, ‘Father I thank you that you have heard me. I know that you always hear me, but I say this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me’ (Jn 11:41). Then He cries out, ‘Lazarus, come out.’

 

St. Paul writes, ‘Rejoice always, pray continually, in all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.’ (1 Thes 5:18).

Where it says, ‘In all circumstances give thanks…’ does that mean that we should give thanks even when things are going wrong? Yes it does. Why should we only give thanks to God when things are going our way, or when things suit us? Giving thanks to God when things are going wrong for us, is not thanking God for whatever it is that has gone wrong, rather it is giving thanks to God, because God is God. It is a way of acknowledging God’s greatness, his holiness and his providence.

 

Whenever you are feeling down, or disheartened with anything, our world our country, or any situation in your life, start by giving thanks to God for everything you can think of. It helps us to turn the focus outward toward God, instead of inward.

 

‘Rejoice always, pray continually, in all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.’ (1 Thes 5:18).

27th Sunday Year C The mustard seed (Gospel: Luke 17:5-10)

 

The Mulberry Tree

 

So many people I have met feel that they have very little faith, or they will tell me that they are not very religious. However, I think most people have far more faith than they give themselves credit for. Being ‘religious’ and having faith are not necessarily the same thing.

 

Today we are given the unusual image of something as tiny as a mustard seed, which is about the size of the tip of a pen. Jesus tells the Apostles that if their faith was even as big as that, they could move mountains, or in this case a mulberry tree! There are two ways to look at this. First we could say, if it only takes faith the size of a mustard seed to move mountains I must have very little faith, since I could never do anything spectacular like that! But the other way to look at it is to say that with very little faith you can do an awful lot. Most of us do have faith and that faith grows as our relationship with Jesus grows. We often talk about God ‘testing our faith’ when we find ourselves going through a crisis. But by ‘testing’ what is meant is that God is stretching our faith to full capacity. It is not so much a test to see if we are up to standard, rather a time of growth. God knows what we are capable of and God is all the time helping us to reach our full potential, just like a good trainer will help an athlete reach his or her full potential. The athelete may not be aware of their ability, but a good trainer will see it and Remember how God tested Abraham by asking him to sacrifice his only son Isaac. God knew that Abraham had extraordinary faith, even though Abraham himself probably didn't realise it. But Abraham proved his faith by trusting in God even in this dire situation and God blessed him for it.

 

The Apostles had faith and must have seen extraordinary things when they were with Jesus. Peter even walked on water for a few seconds, but then he began to sink as he started to think in human terms that it couldn’t be happening. But even the Apostles had a lot to learn with regards faith. After the crucifixion of Jesus they hid themselves away in a room because they were afraid. It was only after they received the gift of the Spirit that they were transformed and began preaching fearlessly and working miracles and they were so convinced of what they believed in that they were willing to lay down their lives for it, and most of them did, but they also had to grow and I’m sure that as their life went on their faith continued to grow. No doubt their faith was very different at the end of their lives than it was when they were with Jesus. They then had a life-time of trying to serve God and seeing many extraordinary things. Faith grows gradually, but it does grow.

 

The second reading today speaks of how so many people are feeling at this time. All we see is violence and injustice around us. At times like these, God often seems to be very quiet, which can even make us question is God there at all.

 

In several of the recent mass shootings in schools and churches, people are often critical of and cynical towards those who say ‘Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims.’ Being cynical towards such comments is really to misunderstand what it is to pray for people.

 

Prayer is not an insurance policy against violence, although sometimes God’s protection may well be there in different ways. Prayer is how we speak to God and express our faith, both in good times and in bad, asking for God’s strength and protection. God will not stop acts of evil, because God has given us freewill. If we choose to do evil, others will suffer. If the Lord kept intervening when someone was about to do something evil, then we wouldn’t have free will. Our actions have consequences.

 

If we believe that our true life is in heaven, then this will help us not to lose hope. Firstly, no matter what we suffer in this life, it is temporary. Also, if our true life is in heaven, then when those we love die, it means that they have gone ahead of us, sooner than we expected. Sooner or later we will catch up. Just believing that much colors how we see this life and helps us not to lose hope.

 

One of the most important things that we can do in this life is to bring the hope of our faith to other people. Our hope means that we don’t despair when everything goes wrong, because we know that it is temporary. People need that hope, more than ever at this time. The anger and rage that so many people are filled with, is a sign that they have lost hope and lost sight of our true purpose on earth. If we understand our purpose on earth, which is to love God and to love and serve the people around us, that will affect everyone around us. I can’t fix the war in the Ukraine, or in Palestine, but I can influence the world around me, for better or worse. If I am filled with the hope that our faith gives us, that in turn will be a light shining in the darkness of the times we are in. Bringing hope to people is so important, because all of us need hope.

 

I am often surprised at how many people smile at me, when they see me, because I am a priest. What they are smiling at is the hope that I represent. Seeing someone dedicated to God, gives hope to people, because we are bombarded with so much negativity. But in order to have that hope, I have to fill my mind and heart with the things of God, not the things of the world. If I immerse myself in all the negativity and hatred around me, I will be filled with it and I will bring it to others.

 

Recently I was picking up a pizza. There was a big man in front of me, also waiting. The guy who owned the pizza place, Alva Market, knows me to say hello to and he called out, ‘Hey Father, how is it going?’ and I responded, ‘Great. Thank God.’ The guy in front of me turned around and repeated, ‘Yes. Thank God.’ It was as if he was happy to hear someone say, ‘Thank God.’ What we bring to the world affects the people around us, for better or worse.

 

When we hear of all the terrible things that go on in our world, such as abortion, human trafficking, wars and so much hatre and injustice, we can feel very helpless. But going back to the mustard seed it is good to remember that even with very little faith we can do a lot. You could be cynical and ask, ‘What difference will my faith make?’ But if you remember in September 2013 when the US and France were threatening a military strike against Syria, Pope Francis asked everyone to pray and fast for one day. Just after this President Putin stepped in and offered to work out a deal with Syria over its chemical weapons and a possible war was averted. We never know what our faith can do, even if it is smaller than a mustard seed.

 

Let your light shine before all, so that seeing your good works they may glorify your Father in heaven. (Matt 5:16)

 

25th Sunday, Year C (Gospel: Luke 16:1-13) Justice or revenge?

 

When terrible crimes have been committed, like the assassination of Charlie Kirk and all the appalling shootings of the children in schools, there is always a lot of talk about the killers and how they should be dealt with: life in prison, the death sentence? When we are outraged by some terrible crime, it is normal to want to lash out and seek revenge. We should always seek justice, but that often becomes revenge, rather than justice.

 

In the Old Testament, from the law given to Moses, it says, ‘Whoever takes a human life, shall surely be put to death… an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth…whatever injury a man has given a person, shall be given to him.’ (Lev 24:17, 20, 21). That may seem like a call for revenge, but it is actually calling for a proportionate response, as opposed to revenge.

 

Then Jesus quotes that same law and takes it to a deeper level. He said, ‘You have heard how it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,’ but I say to you not to resist an evil person. If someone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.’

 

Jesus is bringing that teaching to a deeper level, calling for mercy.

 

There is a friend of mine in Ireland who is a paramedic. One of the calls that he got was to a house where there had been a domestic dispute between a husband and wife. Something had happened and the father had snapped. He ended up stabbing his wife and accidentally killing his nine-year-old daughter. My friend didn’t realize what he was being called to and then found himself faced with a nine-year-old bleeding to death. She died from her injuries. That is the kind of scene that you never forget. When he was telling me about it he said, ‘That man should never be forgiven.’ I could understand his anger.

 

There is another perspective to it that we don’t usually think about. We usually think of someone’s death as being the end, their life is over. However, from a faith point of view, their life on earth is over, but now they have gone on to what we call heaven, where they are no longer suffering, but experiencing a joy that we have never had. Presuming they are in heaven, I wonder what the person killed would say. Would they demand justice, or revenge, or mercy?

 

I want to share with you the life of one of the youngest saints, Maria Goretti, which speaks for itself and can make us think differently.

 

St. Maria Goretti was born in Corinaldo, Italy, in 1890. She died just before her 12^th birthday, in 1902. Her family were farmers, but her father died when she was young and so they ended up selling the farm and working as farm hands. Eventually they had to share a house with another family, the Serenellis, a father and two sons. The sons were into bad living and one of them, Alessandro, continually tried to seduce Maria. He tried to rape her twice, but she wouldn’t give in to him. Maria normally stayed at the house during the day, taking care of the younger children.

 

One day Alessandro arranged that he would be on his own with her in the house and he then tried to rape her. She refused and wouldn’t give in to him. She kept shouting that it was a sin and would offend God and that he could go to hell for it. In a fit of rage he stabbed her fourteen times and then fled the scene.

 

When Maria was found she was rushed to hospital but died two days later from her injuries. The surgeons were unable to give her anaesthesia as her body was too weak. During the surgery she woke up and told her mother what had happened and that Alessandro had tried to rape her two other times as well, but she was afraid to mention it as he had threatened to kill her if she did. While she was awake she also said that she forgave Alessandro and wanted him to go to heaven too. She died the next day from her wounds.

 

When the locals found out what had happened they tried to get Alessandro and would have killed him, but the police got there first. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

 

The only known photograph of St. Maria Goretti

Initially when Alessandro was imprisoned, he was unrepentant and bragged about what he had done. However, several years later she appeared to him in a dream and gave him fourteen lilies. As he took each one it burned his fingers and disappeared. He realized that each flower represented each of the times that he had stabbed her and that she had forgiven him. From then on his life changed completely. He became deeply repentant and changed his behavior so much, that he was eventually let out of jail early (after 27 years) because of his exemplary behaviour.

 

After he was released he went to Maria’s mother Assunta and begged her forgiveness. He explained how she had come to him in a dream and had forgiven him. His mother said to him, ‘If Maria can forgive you, then I must forgive you too.’ They ended up going to mass and receiving Communion together on Christmas Eve.

 

Alessandro spent the rest of his life working as a layman in a Capuchin monastery as a receptionist and gardener.

 

Maria was canonised in 1950 and her mother and some of her siblings were present.

 

God is perfectly just and infinitely merciful. Even if people escape justice on earth, they will always be held accountable before God as we all will be. But God is also infinitely merciful, in a way that is hard for us to understand. That is one of the reasons why the Church teaches against the death penalty, as people can change, but being merciful doesn’t mean there is no justice.

 

'When they came to the place called the skull, they crucified him there along with two criminals… Jesus said, “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”'

The Exaltation of the Cross (Gospel: John 3:13-17) God so loved the world that He gave his only Son.

 

Over the last few days I have met so many people who are so stressed and angry and even feeling hatred, because of the terrible events of the last few days. Almost everyone who came to confession expressed this.

We should be outraged at the assassination of Charlie Kirk and all these horrific school shootings and we should always work for justice whatever way we can and try to end all the gun violence. But then there comes a point where we need to decide where we will go next. If we immerse ourselves in all the social media and all the opinions, many of which are so toxic and so hateful, then we will become full of anger and hatred ourselves, which is exactly what the devil wants. He wants to get everyone to hate everyone else, to turn all of us against each other.

We can also turn to Jesus and the things of God and then we will become filled with light and we will be light in the darkness which is all around us. Our country and world doesn't need more people filled with hatred. It needs people filled with hope and who bring the light of Christ everywhere. Our faith gives us that hope and we need to bring that into our world. Turning to Jesus is not being naive about what is going on. I read and watch everything, but there comes a point where I need to turn away from the hatred that follows. Our country doesn't need more hate-filled people. It needs hope and faith-filled people. 

One of the summer jobs I had as a student was working in a car factory in Germany. There were a lot of Irish students working there. One of the other guys there—knowing that I was into my faith—said to me once, ‘That whole idea of being lost and saved is a load of rubbish,’ or words to that effect. I understood what he meant, but at the same time I believed that he was mistaken. ‘It’s probably a phrase that you associate with some of the charismatic tv evangelists who often talking about being saved. A lot of the problem comes down to language. Much of the language we use with regards to our faith sounds out of date, and as a result it is easy to think that faith is just something from an age gone by.

 

So if there is such a thing as being ‘lost’ or ‘saved’, what does this mean? What are we saved from, if we are saved? All through his teachings, Jesus, the Son of God, frequently mentions the need to choose for God. There is a choice to be made and that choice must be made by each person individually. No one can make that choice for anyone else, even if we want to. We are told that if we choose for God we are ‘saved,’ but what does this mean? It means we are saved from losing God forever. We are choosing the only thing that makes sense of what our life is about; that is, God. We are created by God and for God, created to be with God and that is the only place we will find happiness. If we choose God, we are saved from losing that possibility of the happiness we long for.

 

To be lost means to lose all that God offers us and consequently to lose what God wants to give us: happiness, fulfilment and being with our loved ones again. It is not just a religious notion; it is real and Jesus tells us again in this Gospel passage, that the whole purpose of his life, death and resurrection, was to save us, to save us from being separated from God forever. So the idea of being lost or saved is very real and it is a choice that we must make.

 

The title of this feast that we celebrate—the Triumph of the Cross—is a contradiction in itself. To be crucified in ancient times, was the ultimate mark of failure. They understood that anyone who died this way, was cursed by God. That was one of the reasons why they wanted Jesus killed by crucifixion specifically, since this would ‘prove’ that he was not God. It says in Deuteronomy (21:22) ‘Cursed be the man who hangs on a tree.’ And even when you look at the symbol of any cross, what could be more of a failure than this: total public humiliation, total helplessness, and death. Yet the bizarre thing is that through this event, through this terrible suffering and miscarriage of justice, everything changed. Through what seemed the ultimate act of human failure God brought about the greatest act of mercy for his people. The crucifixion is the bridge between God and humanity, lost through Original Sin, but now restored again through Jesus. That is why the cross is such an important symbol for us. That is also why the demons hate the symbol of the crucifix. It is also why we should have blessed crucifixes in our homes and wear them if possible.

 

Probably the greatest problem that any of us face is the problem of suffering: sickness and the death of people we love; injustice carried out against the innocent. We rebel against this, we get angry and we cry out to God, ‘How can you allow this to happen?’ Often during times of the greatest distress, God seems to stay infuriatingly silent. We want an answer to help us make sense of what is happening, but there does not seem to be any answer. And yet there is an answer that God gives us, though perhaps it is not the answer that we want to hear. God points us to the cross and reminds us that He allowed Jesus—the completely innocent one—to suffer the most horrific and shameful death. It reminds us that even though we do not understand suffering, that it does have a purpose and that God will make sense of it for us in the end and even more importantly that God can bring the greatest good out of situations of suffering. That is why when we are suffering we come and pray before the cross. We unite our suffering to his suffering. He understands our suffering because He has also experienced it. We ask God to help us not to despair, but to trust that everything will make sense in the end.

 

When we encounter the death of loved ones, especially in a way that is not natural, through violence, or when a person is young, we ask, ‘Where is God now? How could God allow this to happen?’ Yet, if you look at the crucifixion, I’m sure many people there said the same thing. ‘Where is God now? How could God allow such a man to be crucified?’ And yet God was there in the heart of it. It was that act of suffering that reopened the possibility of eternal life for us. To accept that is to be saved. To reject that is to be lost. That’s why it is so important that we pray for people who have lost their way in the world, turned their back on God by the way they are living.

 

The mercy of God is infinite and something we can’t grasp. The saint and mystic known as Padre Pio (1887-1968), said that if God’s mercy was only what we think it is, then we would all end up in hell. In other words, we have such a small and limited idea of that mercy. Jesus went to the ends of the earth, to make it possible to get to heaven when we die. If that is true, then what is there to be afraid of, so long as we make an effort to repent of our sinfulness. Getting to heaven does not depend on us becoming holy enough, rather on us abandoning ourselves to God’s mercy. What matters is that we try to live as God asks us to. Effort is what matters.

 

So often people come to me, afraid that God will not forgive them because of things they have done. Yet, the whole purpose of the sacrifice of Christ was to forgive those very things that we are ashamed of and which cause us to be afraid of losing heaven, being lost. It also implies that we are thinking we must merit heaven, in some way; be good enough for heaven.

 

‘It is owing to his favor that salvation is yours through faith. This is not your own doing, it is God’s gift. Neither is it a reward for anything you have accomplished, so let no one pride himself on it. (Eph 2:8-9)

 

This is a reminder again that it doesn’t depend on us being good enough, since we can’t be, but accepting this gift that God offers us, the gift of eternal life. That is what God gave us in the first place and still wants for us.

 

Imagine that you went to great lengths to get an incredible gift for someone you love. You want them to receive that gift. You want them to realize what an incredible gift it is, so that it will bring them all the more happiness. You would hate for them not to receive it, since you went to such lengths to get it for them. That is what God’s giving us eternal life is about. God wants us to have this gift and it is a gift. God offers us that gift of eternal life with him. We just have to accept it and we accept it by the choices we make throughout our life.

 

Imagine if eternal life was not real? How would we face the death of our loved ones. But this gift is what gives us such great hope. We can be with our loved ones again if we choose for God.

 

Jesus also said there is one sin which is unforgivable. ‘Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.’ (Matt 12:21). What does that mean? The Holy Spirit is the love between God the Father and the Son. To blaspheme against the love of God is to reject it, which is to reject God. If we curse God and reject God, we have lost God, because God will never force us to love him. That doesn’t come down to one time saying something that is blasphemous. It is a continual state of mind that rejects, or curses God.

 

Christianity is probably the only religion that does not try to escape, or avoid suffering. God tells us that through suffering we are transformed. It is part of our journey to heaven, even though none of us want it. It is part of what forms us as human beings. You have probably encountered people who have suffered a lot, they are often the most compassionate.

 

No one wants to have to face the cross, but it also has its place. It is part of our path to heaven. 

‘It is owing to his favor that salvation is yours through faith. This is not your own doing, it is God’s gift. Neither is it a reward for anything you have accomplished, so let no one pride himself on it. (Eph 2:8-9)

23rd Sunday, Year C (Gospel: Luke 14:25-33) St. Carlo Acutis - world wide saint

St. Carlo Acutis (May 3, 91 - Oct 12, 2006)

All down through the ages, God continually raises up holy men and women to inspire others and help them come closer to him. Different saints often have different charisms, which are particularly suited to their time. One such saint is Carlo Acutis who is being canonized a saint this Sunday Sept, 6^th, 2025, along with Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, who died at the age of 24.

I just want to share with you a little of the life of Carlo Acutis as his life is so much part of our time.

Blessed Carlo Acutis was born on May 3, 1991, in London, England, into a wealthy Italian business family to Andrea Acutis and Antonia Salzano, members of wealthy Italian families. His father's family worked in the Italian insurance industry and his mother's ran a publishing company. They moved to Italy soon after his birth and he was cared for by Irish and Polish nannies.

Acutis’ mother, Antonia, says she doesn’t know how he came to love Jesus. He had been baptized as a baby, but the family didn’t practice the faith. Perhaps it was their Polish nanny who told Carlo about Jesus. Regardless of the source, Carlo had a deep love for Jesus even as a preschooler, asking his bemused mother if they could stop in to see Jesus when they walked past churches in their Milan neighborhood — and even insisting on taking flowers to place at the feet of the Blessed Mother.

Antonia wasn’t sure what to do with this piety in her young son, and she wasn’t prepared to answer his many questions. But as he asked, she began to wonder as well. His curiosity eventually prompted her to take theology classes; beyond just being back at Mass, Antonia was diving into her faith, and all because of Carlo. “He was like a little savior for me,” she said in an interview published in 2019.

Carlo’s longing for the Eucharist drove him to ask permission to receive earlier than was customary. At 7, Carlo received his first Communion and never missed Mass again. Not just Sunday Mass, either. Every day of his life, Carlo went to Mass. Every day, he stole a few minutes to pray in silence before the tabernacle. And while his parents sometimes went with him, Carlo often went alone. When they traveled, Carlo’s first order of business was to find a church and figure out Mass times. Whether or not his parents joined him, Carlo would be there. Every day.

And they traveled quite a bit. Carlo’s deep love of Mary (whom he called “the only woman in my life”) led the family to Marian apparition sites all over Europe. But their pilgrimages became more intentional when Carlo was 11 and got an idea.

After receiving his first Communion, Carlo had begun to lament the many, many people who don’t go to Mass. “They’ll stand in line for hours to go to a concert,” he would say, “but won’t stay even a moment before the tabernacle.” Eager to do something to draw souls to Jesus, young Carlo began to research Eucharistic miracles.

He was convinced that people wouldn’t be able to stay away from the holy Mass if they knew about the miracles of Lanciano and Poznan and the dozens of others recognized by the church. So Carlo began to research, dragging his parents from one shrine to another in order to take pictures for the website he was building.

Born the year of the launch of the worldwide web, Carlo was also something of a child prodigy when it came to computer skills. He was able to read and write at the age of 4. By age 9 he was reading books meant for the faculty of computer engineers at the University of Milan, referred to as La Statale, which is a renowned research facility.  His mother said he knew the importance of the internet from the beginning, not for a career purpose for himself, but for the importance of the evangelization of his faith.

He was asked to set up a web page for his parish and in high school began to set up a website on the cataloging of Eucharist Miracles and Marian Apparitions used by the Vatican. He launched it in 2004 and worked on it for two and a half years. He created a portable display along with the website cataloging 187 Eucharistic Miracles.

For all his technological skills, Carlo was a friendly, outgoing kid. He was so friendly that his family was reluctant to go on walks with him; Carlo knew everybody, it seemed and couldn’t help but stop to talk to every person he passed. He had a sensitive heart and was always looking out for those who were suffering: classmates whose parents were going through a divorce, kids who were being bullied.

Carlo’s approach was always friendship. And through that friendship, people were always drawn to Jesus. As pure and as pious as he was, nobody felt judged by the young saint. His uncle says that being with Carlo filled your heart and that joy left people seeking and wondering, as Carlo’s mother had years before. A young Hindu man who worked for Carlo’s family was baptized as a direct result of his friendship with Carlo, while many others returned to the faith.

Carlo was particularly close to the homeless people in his neighborhood, packing up food most days to take out to his friends on the street. Though his family was wealthy, Carlo had no patience for excess. He saved up his pocket money to buy a sleeping bag for a homeless friend, and when his mother suggested they buy Carlo such “luxuries” as a second pair of shoes, he revolted. Technology, though, wasn’t a luxury. It was an important part of his apostolate, and Carlo had no qualms about using three computers when building his website.

Through all this, every day: mass, the rosary, silent time before the tabernacle. Carlo insisted that holiness was impossible otherwise. “The Eucharist is my highway to heaven,” he would say, and nothing could get between him and his daily appointment with the Lord. “The more we receive the Eucharist, the more we will become like Jesus,” Carlo said.

How did he have the time? In between teaching himself computer skills, playing soccer, riding his bike around Milan to visit the poor, teaching himself the saxophone, patiently explaining technology to his older relatives and making one movie after another? According to his mother, Carlo didn’t waste time on useless things. He limited himself to an hour a week of video games (because, he said, he didn’t want to become a slave to them) and focused the rest of his time on things that were valuable. But that didn’t exclude silly animations or videos of his dogs — Carlo knew that something doesn’t need to be catechetical to be valuable, and he enjoyed leisure all the more because its greatest value was in being fun.

Carlo hungered for heaven. “We have always been awaited in heaven,” he said, and throughout his life his eyes were fixed on eternity. So when, at 15, he went to the hospital with the flu and was diagnosed instead with an acute and untreatable leukemia, Carlo wasn’t upset. He was ready to go home. “I can die happy,” he told his mother, “because I haven’t wasted even a minute on things that aren’t pleasing to God.”

Within three days, Carlo Acutis was dead.

He was a remarkable young man, but he was an ordinary man. He had no visions. He didn’t levitate when he prayed. He just lived like heaven was real. He was completely himself, video games and computer programming and all, but entirely Christ’s.

 

Two Miracles

Part of the process of being made a saint, is to have two miracles attributed to the intercession of that person. The first miracle involved a boy from Brazil named Mattheus being healed from a serious birth defect called an annular pancreas after he and his mother asked Acutis to pray for his healing.

Mattheus was born in 2009 with a serious condition that caused him difficulty eating and serious abdominal pain. He was unable to keep any food in his stomach and vomited constantly.

By the time Mattheus was nearly four years old, he weighed only 20 pounds, and lived on a vitamin and protein shake, one of the few things his body could tolerate. He was not expected to live long.

His mother, Luciana Vianna, had spent years praying for his healing.

At the same time, a priest friend of the family, Fr. Marcelo Tenorio, learned online about the life of Carlo Acutis, and began praying for his beatification. In 2013 he obtained a relic from Carlo’s mother, and he invited Catholics to a Mass and prayer service in his parish, encouraging them to ask Acutis’ intercession for whatever healing they might need.

Mattheus’ mother heard about the prayer service. She decided she would ask Acutis to intercede for her son. In fact, in the days before the prayer service, Vianna made a novena for Acutis’ intercession, and explained to her son that they could ask Acutis to pray for his healing.

On the day of the prayer service, she took Mattheus and other family members to the parish.

Fr. Nicola Gori, the priest responsible for promoting Acutis’ sainthood cause, told Italian media what happened next:

“On October 12, 2013, seven years after Carlo’s death, a child, affected by a congenital malformation (annular pancreas), when it was his turn to touch the picture of the future blessed, expressed a singular wish, like a prayer: ‘I wish I could stop vomiting so much.’ Healing began immediately, to the point that the physiology of the organ in question changed,” Fr. Gori said.

On the way home from the Mass, Mattheus told his mother that he was already cured. At home, he asked for French fries, rice, beans, and steak – the favorite foods of his brothers.

He ate everything on his plate. He didn’t vomit. He ate normally the next day, and the next. Vianna took Mattheus to physicians, who were mystified by Mattheus’ healing.

 

On Feb. 22, 2020, Pope Francis approved the miracle paving the way for his beatification.

In May 2024, Pope Francis approved a second miracle attributed to Carlo: the unlikely recovery in 2022 of a Costa Rican woman who suffered a traumatic head injury in a bicycle accident while studying at a university in Florence, Italy. That miracle cleared the path to his canonization.

On his website, Carlo wrote a list of instructions for becoming holy, encouraging people to go to Mass daily and confession weekly. But his very first rule for becoming holy was this: “You must want it with all your heart.”

This is the legacy of Saint Carlo Acutis: an ordinary, modern kid who watched cartoons and used the internet and wanted holiness with all his heart. This is why the world loves him. Because he shows us that holiness is possible for every one of us even if you have an Instagram account even if you’re a gamer.

In his own words: ‘Holiness is possible for you, right now, but you have to want it.’