28th Sunday Year B (Gospel: Mark: 10:17-30)

 

There is a priest by the name of Benedict Groeschel from New York, he died in 2014. He founded the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, a reformed branch of the Franciscans. Fr. Groeschel is an excellent speaker and in one of his talks he was saying that there is a man he knows in New York who is a multi millionaire, with more money than he could ever spend, or knows what to do with.  Benedict goes on to say that he was talking to this man at a particular conference and he—let us call him John Goldman—was saying to Benedict that he would like to put his money to good use, but he didn’t know what to do with it.  He admitted straight out that he had more money than he could ever spend.  Benedict said that if he wanted he could give a donation to one of the orphanages that they run in the Bronx, as it would make a big difference to them.  In spite of the fact that it was John Goldman himself who brought up the subject and admitted that he didn’t know what to do with all his money and wanted to put it to good use, by the end of the conference he still hadn’t agreed to part with one cent of his money. Benedict was saying that it was as if he was possessed by his wealth. He had no freedom. His wealth controlled him.

 

Most of us don’t have that kind of problem. In fact, most people have the opposite problem, but it is still very easy to become consumed even with the desire for money, or riches, or indeed anything. The problem is not the riches themselves, but our attachment to them.

 

In the Gospel, see how Jesus responds to the rich young man who is keen to live the right way.  When he asks Jesus what he should do to get to heaven, Jesus doesn’t say ‘You should sell all your possessions,’ first He says, ‘You know the commandments; live them.’ It is only when he is pressed further that Jesus says, ‘Go and sell all you own...’  What is he doing? Jesus is showing the young man that he is not as free as he thinks he is. In spite of the fact that he could probably buy anything he desires and do anything he wants because of his wealth, he is in fact a slave to his riches. Jesus is not trying to make the young man feel bad, or guilty, rather, since he did ask, Jesus is pointing out where the problem is for him. The problem is not in having riches, since riches are neither good nor bad, but that we get so attached to them that we are no longer free. No doubt the young man felt he was living a good life and probably was, but the Lord wanted him to see that he was not as free as he thought. You don’t have to be very wealthy for that to happen. 

 

St. John of the Cross says that if you become too attached to your rosary beads, get rid of them. He also says there is no point in taking a vow of poverty if you are still consumed with the desire for the things that you have given up. The freedom from them is what is really important.

 

There is a story of two monks out walking on a journey. They come across a creek and they meet a young lady who is trying to get across, but she is afraid. So one of the monks offers to carry her across. She accepts and he carries her across the creek, lets her down and then they part ways. After some time the other monk says, ‘You shouldn’t have carried that lady across the creek. You are a monk!’ The first monk says, ‘When I carried her across, I left her down and walked away, but you are still carrying her in your mind.’ We can become obsessed with anything.

 

Thank God for what you do have, but ask yourself are you free from it, or a slave to it? Because if you are a slave to it—thinking that you could not do without it—then it is the master. Think of your cell-phone. Most of us would find it pretty hard to do without it.

 

God wants us to be free to open ourselves up to God and to enjoy this beautiful world that He has given us, but God is the only thing that is really important. Everything else is going to be left behind when we die, even our bodies. They will disintegrate. That is why Jesus is telling us not to get caught up with what is ultimately trivial and forget the only thing that matters. We should enjoy what we have, but don’t let it become the master.

 

For those of you who have children. How much time and energy do you put into preparing them for this life, which is temporary? Probabaly a lot! But how much time do you put into preparing them for the world to come, which is eternal? Probably not as much.

 

When people hear this gospel, many people only hear the part where Jesus says, ‘How hard it is for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven.’ But perhaps the most important part of this Gospel is the last part. When Jesus says, ‘How hard it is for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God,’ the apostles are astonished, just as most of us probably find this hard to understand too, since the general thinking is that if we had enough money, it would resolve most of our problems. But when the Apostles ask, ‘Then who can be saved?’ or in modern English, ‘Who can get to heaven?’ then Jesus says, ‘For people [by their own strength] it is impossible, but not for God.  Everything is possible for God.’ That is the really important thing to remember. Everything is possible for God. By our own strength we are very limited in what we can do, despite our best efforts, because we are weak and we easily get distracted by wealth, or work, or relationships or whatever. God knows that we often get caught up in all the wrong things, just like the rich young man in the story, but God is bigger than all of this. God is bigger than the mistakes we make, bigger than the mixed motivations for what we do. That is why we just keep coming back to him and asking him to help us, to forgive us, to guide us: and He does. The wonderful thing that God continues to teach us, is that it is never too late to come back to him.

 

The disciples said: ‘If that is the case, then who can be saved?’ Jesus said: ‘For people it is impossible, but not for God; because everything is possible for God.’

 

26th Sunday Year B (Gospel: Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48) Different paths to God

 

 

One of the things I was very blessed with as a young priest, was getting to know a Baptist minister and his wife who worked in Galway: Kelly and Susan Curry. He and his wife came over from the States, because they felt the Lord was calling them there on a mission, although they didn’t know exactly what He was asking them to do. They ended up in my hometown and they set up a centre to encourage people to come back to their faith. They weren’t trying to convert people to become Baptist, rather this centre was about encouraging people to take their faith more seriously and since most of the people who came there were Catholic, they ended up helping more Catholics than anyone else. They started giving retreats in high-schools and they have had more and more requests from the schools. At this stage they are giving retreats to several thousand students every year. He also said that the schools are asking them to come to their schools because they have so many problems, but they also ask them if they can give the retreats without talking about God. And they said ‘no,’ they will be talking about God.

 

I have always admired Kelly and Susan’s open-mindedness, but the reason I feel very blessed to have come to know them is because it opened my mind to different ways of faith. I got to know Kelly best. He was obviously a man of God and filled with the Spirit. Kelly has been a great source of encouragement and support to me as a Catholic priest. As I got to know him it helped me to realise that God was working in and through him, just as much as through any priest I knew. Maybe that should be obvious, but when you grow up in one particular way of faith, without much exposure to many other ways of faith, it is not always obvious and often we can be suspicious of people who don’t see things as we do, but God works through different people in many different ways. Many people I know have been greatly helped by the work they do there in that centre. It is called An Tobar Nua which means The New Well.

 

I know that at this time, many of you as parents and grandparents are distressed as you see your children no longer practicing their faith, or going to church. While it is a tragedy to us, it doesn’t mean that they have no faith. We believe God offers us an extraordinary treasure in the mass and through the different sacraments and of course we would like that for others, especially for our children, but at this time many young people have become disillusioned with the Church and with official religion and often for very understandable reasons. In many ways it is hard to blame them, they have probably more reasons than most to be turned off by it, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t have faith, or that they are not searching for God. People are always searching for God. It is an instinctive need God has given us. While they may find it difficult to relate to the Church at this time, that doesn’t mean that God is not reaching out to them, or guiding them.

 

Just as getting to know my Baptist friend Kelly helped me to realise that here are many ways God speaks to people, it is good for us to remember that God continues to speak to them and reach out to them, often in ways that we do not recognise, or would never have imagined. I am often struck by the great goodness that I have met in so many people, often people who have no interest in the Church at all, but they do their best to live good lives and help the people they meet, often with great generosity. Many do believe in God, but they don’t relate to God through the means that we are used to.

 

It is also surprising how people are still being drawn to the Church and to religious life. Nine years ago I spent a year with the Dominican order in Ireland. That year 5 young men joined the Dominicans in Ireland. The previous year 6 entered. The year before that 2 entered and the year before that 13. God is at work around us all the time and that should help us take heart.

 

The readings today remind us how God gives his Spirit to whomever He wishes, often in ways that we don’t expect. The Apostles were surprised, just as the men in the time of Moses were surprised, when they found others teaching and healing in God’s name, but Jesus said to them, ‘Don’t stop them…If they are not against us, they are with us.’ They were also surprised when the Gentiles—those who were not Jewish—received the gift of the Holy Spirit, sometimes even before they had a chance to pray with them. God was showing them that He is bigger than all of us and not just there for one group of people.

 

Peter and the other apostles were unclear about this in the beginning. When Peter was praying he had a vision of something like a big sheet being let down from heaven, which had all kinds of birds and animals on it. Then he heard a voice say, ‘Get up Peter. Kill and eat.’ Peter replied, ‘Certainly not Lord, I have never eaten anything profane.’ The voice said, ‘What God has called clean, you have no right to call profane.’ (see Acts 10:9-16). This vision helped him to understand that God was there for all people, not just the Jewish people.

 

Later on when challenged about this Peter said, ‘What I have come to realize is that all people who fear God and do what is right, are acceptable to him.’ (Acts 10:35).

 

Mahatma Gandi

Does that mean that all religions are the same? No. God uses different ways to guide people to himself, but Christianity is different because it is what God revealed to us. And what God has revealed is that ultimately no one can come to him except through Jesus. Jesus said, ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’ (Jn 14:6). Does that mean that everyone has to be Christian to go to heaven? Not necessarily, but when everyone dies, they will instantly know who Jesus is and that it is because of his death and resurrection that we can go to heaven. During their life, even if they don’t know anything about Christ, what is important is what Peter said: ‘What I have come to realize is that all people who fear God and do what is right, are acceptable to him.’ (Acts 10:35).

 

We believe that the path we follow as Catholics, is directly from God through Jesus and we are blessed to know these things. Jesus has given us the most extraordinary gifts to help us: above all the Eucharist, the gift of his Body and Blood; the Word of God; the healing we receive through confession and many other things.

 

We hope and pray that others will come to know these treasures too, but God goes on reaching out to people all around us in many ways which we will probably never know about until we get to heaven. Part of what we are called to, is to pray for the people around us that they will come to know God too. We are blessed to have been given the gift of faith and the more we live it seriously, the more we will be a signpost to God, to the people around us.

 

I remember hearing a story of an elderly woman living in the suburbs of New York. Each morning she walked to church to go to mass and receive the Eucharist. There was also a lawyer who drove past her each morning on his way to work and scoffed at this old woman and her superstitious beliefs. On her way to the church she had to make her way up a steep hill and she was slow on her feet. One morning in winter there was a lot of snow and ice on the roads. The lawyer didn’t expect to see her. But then he passed her on the way up the hill on her hands and knees. Her faith and desire to receive the Eucharist was so strong, that she was willing to do this. He was so astonished that this lady would not even let ice and snow stop her, that it actually brought about his conversion.

 

Living our faith seriously is one of the most powerful ways we can help other people, especially during times of scandal. When people see that we are just as committed to our faith despite scandal or division in our Church, it makes them think. They may not say anything, or they may even make sarcastic remarks, but people do notice. If you want excuses to walk away from the Church, you have 2000 years of scandal to choose from.

 

At this time people need the witness of those who have faith more than ever, because so many have lost faith and don’t know where to turn. God has made us in such a way that we are not complete without him and even if people are not aware that God is what is missing, they know something is missing. In wealthier countries such as ours, people will try to fill that void with material things, but that can never satisfy. We may hope that our spouse will be our total fulfilment, but no matter how much we love them, even they cannot totally fulfil us, because only God can do that. I have no doubt that one of the reasons the suicide rate is so high is because of a lack of faith. If you don’t believe in anything beyond this life, then where do you turn to when everything seems to be going wrong? When you do have faith, even when everything is going wrong, we do not give up, because we have the hope of knowing that this world is temporary. We have what people are looking for and the best way we can help them, is through prayer and by living our faith as well as we can.

 

‘Jesus said to the Apostles, “What about you? Are you going to go away too?” Peter said, “Lord where else can we go? You have the message of eternal life. We believe and know, that you are the holy One of God.”’ (John 6:67-69)

 

‘There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name, who can at the same time speak ill of me. For whoever is not against us, is for us.’

25th Sunday, Year B (Gospel: Mk 9:30-37) Abortion

 

By the time the average child has finished elementary school, they have seen approximately 8,000 murders on TV. By the time they reach 18 they have seen approximately 30,000 murders and 200,000 acts of violence on TV. That means that we are being told that life is cheap, killing is a normal part of our society. Saint John Paul II called it a culture of death.

In many assisted living homes for the elderly, where they are so well looked after materially, there is often terrible loneliness, because people are often abandoned by family. We need the love of other people because we have been created for love.

St. Teresa receives Nobel Peace Prize

In 1982 Mother Teresa, now Saint Teresa, received the Nobel Prize for Peace. She was also invited to speak at Harvard University and at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC. She primarily spoke about abortion. She said that abortion is the greatest threat to peace in our world.

“America needs no words from me to see how your decision in Roe v. Wade has deformed a great nation. The so-called right to abortion has pitted mothers against their children and women against men. It has sown violence and discord at the heart of the most intimate human relationships. It has aggravated the derogation of the father's role in an increasingly fatherless society. It has portrayed the greatest of gifts—a child—as a competitor, an intrusion, and an inconvenience. It has nominally accorded mothers unfettered dominion over the independent lives of their physically dependent sons and daughters.” 

“As long as mothers are prepared to kill their own children, how can we ask grown adults not to kill each other?” - Mother Teresa of Calcutta 

In India, her sisters—The Missionaries of Charity—continually ask women not to have abortions, but to give up those children for adoption to so many couples who long to have a child, but are unable.

I saw a video of a young couple receiving a newborn baby for adoption. It was such an amazing sight. Everyone in the room was in tears for the joy of what was happening. That is what God wants for us, the joy of life. 

As long as a child is seen as an inconvenience, it means that we are focused only on ourselves. But God is asking us to give of ourselves until it hurts. Jesus completely gave of himself for us, even to the point of death and we are called to imitate him. An unexpected pregnancy may turn a woman, or a couple’s plans on their head, but this is a sacrifice that God asks us to make. With love comes responsibility.

Couple seeing newly adopted child for the first time.

We believe that at the conception of each human being, an immortal soul is created by God and given to us, a soul that will be in God’s presence for all eternity. All of us have souls, given to us by God and that is the part of us that lives on for eternity. Remembering that can change our outlook on how we see a pregnancy. Every time a child is killed, the role that God had given them in this world, is taken away from them. When Andrea Bocelli the—world renowned tenor—was in the womb of his mother, she was advised to have an abortion because of complications. But she refused and now the world has that wonderful singer. How many other people of great talent and knowledge have been lost?

The other side of this is that many women, probably the majority, have abortions under severe pressure from boyfriends, or family. How do I know that? because so many women have told me this in confession. I have yet to meet any woman who didn’t regret it. Even several decades later many still carry that terrible pain, because we instinctively know that it is wrong. This could never come from God. Part of our work is also to help women heal from this. God is always the one to create life and the one to heal us. 

If you were able to ask Jesus if an abortion was the right decision in any situation, what would He say to you? The answer is obvious. He would say, “never.” I have no doubt whatsoever, that it is the greatest evil in our world and the greatest sin against God. Satan wants to destroy God’s creation and what better place to start than at the very beginning of human life, because it is God’s creation.

Think of the words of the consecration at mass: ‘This is my body, which will be given up for you.’ The thinking behind abortion is the opposite of that: ‘This is my body and it will not be given up for you.’ That is how you know what is behind it is evil. 

In Sep 2019, a group of pro-abortion activists tried to burn down the cathedral in Mexico city. Why attack a Catholic church? There are plenty of other groups that oppose abortion too. Doesn’t that tell you something? Satan rages against God and will continue to try and destroy everything that God creates.

Another part of it, which is largely overlooked, is that we must teach our young people that sex is only for marriage. If that was really lived, it would drastically reduce the amount of abortion. But that has been lost sight of and often seen as old fashioned. However, it’s not. It is called fornication and is a sin. But the problem we are up against is that in every kind of media, sleeping around is considered the norm. Yet God tells us that it is a sin and offensive to him.

It always goes back to listening to what God teaches us, which is always for our good. 

We will continue to work hard for the preservation and dignity of life at all its stages. It is God’s greatest gift to us.

You have seen the various signs saying Vote No on 4^th. This is about changing the 4^th amendment of the constitution of Florida. If passed it essentially says that no law can be passed that will restrict abortion in any way. That would be the most extreme law in the country regarding abortion and the bishops are strongly encouraging us to vote against it. Since I was ordained 26 years ago, I have never seen the bishops take as strong a stance on anything as this. They have asked us to say the St. Michael prayer at the end of each mass especially to defeat this bill. As is often the case, the language of the amendment is misleading. Voting 'no' is voting against abortion and against this bill from being passed. We must protect life at all costs.

God is all about life. God keeps creating and God has made it possible for us to be part of that creating, which is a great privilege and a wonderful thing, but we must never let ourselves be complacent about it.

‘Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and conquer it.’ (Gen 1:28)

‘I have come that you may have life and have it to the full.’ (John 10:10)

24th Sunday Year B (Gospel: Mk 8:27-35) “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself, take up his cross and follow me.”

 

There is a tradition I came across from Bosnia, where a couple getting married bring a crucifix to the church. The priest says a special prayer of blessing over the cross and when the wedding is over the couple bring the cross to their new home and place it in a prominent position. The idea is that they will come before the cross in their sufferings and difficulties and ask Jesus to help them. They will not run away from their problems, but face them and ask for God’s help to work through them and most importantly, that Jesus be at the center of their home. One of my sisters did this at her wedding. 

 

Today we are constantly being told that my life is about my fulfillment and that you shouldn’t have to suffer, that you should be able to have everything your way, that you shouldn’t have to make sacrifices, sometimes not even for your children. That is the opposite to what Christ teaches us, which means we have to decide who we are following. Am I following the way of Christ, which is difficult, but so worthwhile, or am I following the way of the world, which tells me I should have everything I want? This has also become a modern mentality with marriage. We are told that if things are not working out, then move on. That is not the teaching of Christ. Yes, sometimes marriages don’t work out, but divorce and separation should be the last possible resort. It always troubles me when I hear a couple who are not long married, going through difficulties and the word divorce is already being used. The problem is that it has become part of our thinking, but it is not a healthy way to think. Currently in the US, one in four marriages break up within five years. That means that marriage is in crisis in this country.

 

The word sacrifice is at the heart of what we believe. Jesus sacrificed himself for us. He gave everything. We are called to sacrifice ourselves for each other. A husband and wife are meant to lay down their lives for each other and sacrifice themselves completely for their children. I am meant to sacrifice my life for the people God asks me to serve. That means that it is not about me being fulfilled, but about me giving of myself.

 

After Moses had given the Ten Commandments to the people he said, “Choose today whom you wish to follow. Choose life or death, blessing or curse. Follow the Lord or not, but make up your mind.”

In the book of Revelations, Jesus uses very strong words.  He says:

Here is the message of the Amen, the trustworthy, the true witness… I know about your activities: how you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were one or the other, but since you are neither hot nor cold, but only lukewarm, I will spit you out of my mouth’ (Rev 3:14-16).

 

In another translation it says, “I will vomit you out of my mouth.” That is very strong language. The Lord is not afraid to shock us and challenge us. He simply wants to make us wake up to reality. In order to grow, our focus must be on the Lord and not just on our own fulfillment.

 

Christianity is unusual in that it does not try to run away from suffering, or to rise above it, in any way. Rather it teaches us that suffering is part of the path that brings us to God. This is something people have always found difficult to understand. Two thousand years ago it was just as hard to understand. Peter is horrified when Jesus announces to them that he is going to suffer and be put to death and he tries to talk Jesus out of it. He says, “Lord, this must not happen to you. People won’t believe you, people will turn away from you. You are to be the King and all people will bow down to you.” And Jesus said, “Get behind me Satan (enemy), for the way you think is not God’s way, but man’s.” Jesus was saying to him, “You don’t understand this, but it has to be this way. If you want to follow me, you will suffer too.” Suffering has its place, even though it makes no sense to us.

 

When we suffer we often cry out to God, “Why have you done this to me? I shouldn’t have to suffer.” I used to hear this all the time when I worked in the hospital. People say, “Father, why has God done this to me, what did I ever do wrong?” as though this was a punishment. We forget the line from Scripture that says, “If anyone wants to follow me, let him renounce himself, take up his cross and follow me” (Matt 16:24). Does this mean that we shouldn’t try to get rid of suffering? Of course not. We should do everything we can to help those who are suffering and to make our world a better place, but we will never be fully rid of it, it is part of this life.

Perhaps what is most important is why the Lord asks us to follow this path. It seems to be a doorway we have to pass through, which helps to form us as people, and which brings us closer to God. It is not just suffering for the sake of suffering, which would be sadistic. The death of Jesus atoned for the sin which separated us from God and led to his rising from death and winning eternal life for all people. If we are allowed to suffer, it is because through it, God will lead us to something greater, although we may not see this until the next life. Padre Pio used to say that if we understood how powerful suffering was, we would pray for it.

 

We say that we are followers of Christ? Do you have a crucifix in your home? If you don’t, maybe it’s time you got one. By having a crucifix in your home where people can see it, you are saying “I belong to Jesus Christ.” I believe in what he has done for me; Jesus Christ is Lord for me.” We have no reason to be ashamed of what we believe in. Acknowledging the way of the cross is also a recognition of the world to come. If there was nothing after this life, then the way of the cross would be meaningless. But what it is saying is that the struggles we go through and the sacrifices we have to make in this life are worthwhile, because they are leading to something greater. That’s why we keep our eyes fixed on the world to come. If that is our ultimate destiny, then everything we have to sacrifice in order to follow the way of Jesus, is worthwhile.

 

I saw a documentary about how they caught Joaquin Guzman, “El Chapo,” the brutal drug lord who ran the Sinaloa cartel. What was so sad about him and the others caught up in these drug cartels, is that they invested so much in gaining everything for this life, for now. They were found with huge quantities of cash and jewels and they were prepared to kill and butcher others to get it. They don’t seem to have had any sense of the purpose of our life here on earth. Apart from being evil, it is also very sad. Ironically, many of them also had big chapels built in their homes. What a contradiction!

 

“Unless you take up your cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple.”

 

 

 

 

22nd Sunday Year B (Gospel: Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23) We must love one another, but God first.

 

 

After mass one Sunday a young man came up to me and said, ‘Father, I think that at the mass you should be talking about loving each other and not just talking about things from the bible which people don’t understand.’ Another time at a wedding a man said almost the exact same thing to me.  He said, ‘You should just be telling us to be good to each other. There is no need for all these words from St. Paul to the Corinthians, etc.’ They are both right about the need to talk about loving each other, because that is one of the most important things that Jesus asked us to do, ‘Love one another as I have loved you.’ ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ That is how Jesus told us that people would recognise us as Christians, by the way we love each other. But there is another part to it which is easy to forget.

 

If we are to love one another, and that is what the Lord God tells us to do, where are we supposed to get the strength to do that? How are you supposed to love people who are difficult, or who are unjust to you, who do you wrong, or steal from you, who have cheated you out of money, or offended your family? Since they are in the wrong, are we still expected to love them? Yes, we are. ‘Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, bless those who curse you.’ It seems to be a lot to ask.  In fact, it can seem quite unrealistic. This is where we have to go back to the Scriptures to see what God is saying to us, to try and make sense of this. When Jesus was asked directly, ‘Which is the most important commandment of the Law?’ Jesus answered by giving two commandments: ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind and all your soul. A second is equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself.’ (Mat 22:36-40). Why did Jesus mention two commandments, when he was asked about one? Because the two are directly related. The strength to love our neighbor as ourself, comes from loving God before everything else, with all our heart.

 

What God is telling us is that if we are rooted in him, if he is at the centre, and we become more and more filled with him and with his love, then and only then will we have the ability to love other people, especially people we may consider enemies for one reason or another.

 

Let me give you one example. There is a woman called Sister Alvera, from Italy.  Several years ago she set up a community to help drug addicts recover. She believed that what these people were missing more than anything else in their lives, was the love of God, and that this was where their problem was really coming from. So she set up a centre to help them recover, a place where they could experience the love of God first hand from other people. They live like a religious community. They have no TV, no radio and no newspapers. They do a lot of physical work and they pray a lot together. The interesting thing is that through this way of life (which is basically a monastic way of life – prayer and work) hundreds of men have overcome their drug addiction, but more importantly they have discovered faith, discovered the love of God for them and begun completely new lives. Sr. Alvera now has 36 different centres all over the world. They are known as the Cenacolo community.

 

There are hundreds of people like Sr. Alvera and not all religious either. The Missionaries of Charity, whom (Mother) St. Teresa founded, are another. How do they do this kind of work? It sounds very noble to work with the poor, but it can be really disgusting and dangerous too. Where do they get the strength to work with people who can be very difficult and sometimes ungrateful? The answer is that they are completely rooted in God. Their own personal relationship with God is where they get the strength and energy.

 

When St. Teresa of Calcutta started off working among the poor in India, first she was on her own. Then there were only a handful of sisters with her. Soon they felt totally overwhelmed with the work. Much of their work is bringing people in off the streets who are dying and allowing them to die with dignity. They clean them and give them a clean bed to lay on, but there were so many people in need. She said that they prayed and asked God to show them what to do. All of them felt that the Lord was telling them to do one hour less of work and to spend that time in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. They couldn’t understand how this would help them, but they believed this was what God was telling them and so they decided to do it. They began to set aside an extra hour each day for adoration, being in the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. She said that within a short time, many other women began to join them, to help them in their work. Soon they were able to do far more than before. She said that this was a really important lesson for them, that they must always put God first and then everything else would fall into place. Now they won’t open a centre unless they can have daily mass and time for adoration. This is exactly what Jesus says, ‘Seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness and all these things will be given you as well’ (Mat 6:33).

 

A few years ago I watched a BBC interview with some of the women fighters in Syria who fight with the YPG, or Kurdish coalition fighters. They are an all-women group of soldiers fighting against ISIS in Northern Syria. The journalist was asking one of them how she felt about ISIS since they were killing her own people. She had been fighting there for two years. She missed her family, but she felt she needed to do this to protect their people. Among other things that she mentioned, she also said ‘We have to remember that they are people too.’ I was really surprised and impressed by this. This lady, although fighting this force of evil, was able to distinguish between the evil and the fact that they were also human beings. She had an inner sense of what is important and the value of each life. I’m sure those women didn’t want to be there, but they felt the need to be there to help protect their own people. ‘We have to remember that they are people too.’

 

What exactly does it mean to love your enemies, to love your neighbors who are difficult, or disrespectful? It doesn’t mean you have to like them, but it means we recognise their dignity as human beings and respect them as human beings. It doesn’t mean you have to let people walk all over you. What is important is to be able to rise above the hatred. If we allow ourselves to become just as hateful or corrupt as they are, then we are no different to them.

 

Our ability to love one another, to put up with and respect those we don’t like, or agree with, comes from our relationship with God. The more we come to know God, the more we will be able to love the people around us, starting with our own families, our spouse, whoever is closest to us. As we come to know the Lord more, our ability to love others also grows. The key is in coming closer to God, nothing else.

 

How do we come closer to God? First, through prayer, through reading his words in the bible, through giving God our time, through receiving Jesus in the Eucharist and also spending time in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. We have two hours of adoration here every morning and all-day Friday until 9pm. People come and just rest in God’s presence, reading, or listening, but just being in God’s presence. It is very powerful and no greater source of strength.

 

In the Gospel Jesus warns the people not to get caught up in lip-service. Doing religious things, such as going to mass every Sunday, does not mean you have a relationship with God. It must go deeper than that. Our relationship with God has to be from the heart. A real relationship with anyone has to be from the heart, or else it is not a relationship.

 

As a priest, I celebrate mass every day and pray the Psalms five times every day. That is part of what you promise to do when you are ordained. But just doing these things does not mean I have a relationship with God, any more than wearing vestments. They are important things to do, but they are not going to help me, unless I am living my relationship with God from the heart. My relationship with God is just the same as with anyone I love. I spend time with them, I listen to them, I make sacrifices for them and try to please them, because I love them. If it is important to me, I will make time for it. The more our relationship with God grows, the more we are able to deal with our enemies, the more difficult people in our life.

 

Jesus also says, ‘If you only love those who love you, why should you get any credit for that? Even sinners love those who love them?’ If you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you get any credit for that? Even sinners do that.’ (Lk 6:32-33)

 

Remember Jesus’ words on the cross, praying for those who were torturing him to death, ‘Father forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.’ (Lk 23:34). Jesus is calling us to be different, and we get the strength to do that from getting close to him.

 

‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul. You must love your neighbour as yourself.’

 

21st Sunday Yr B (Gospel: John 6:60-69) What about you, will you go away too?

 

When I was a deacon I was sent to a conference in Los Angeles. I spent two extra days in a parish there. The pastor was an Irish man and he was explaining how things work over there. He said that for years there was a man in the parish who used to lead the folk group. He played the guitar. Then one day he decided to start his own church. So he rented a building down the street and started his own church, just like that. That’s how it works in LA.

 

What if you could change whatever parts of the faith you wanted to? You could have women priests, married priests, divorce, contraception, etc. You could change some of the more difficult teachings like having to love your enemies, which seems a bit extreme after all and you could tailor it just to suit your own needs. You could believe what you wanted to believe. What would you end up with? a feel-good religion of nice ideas, of wishful thinking. It would mean nothing. It might make you feel better, but it would be empty. Why? because it would be man made, not God made.

 

The word of God and the teachings of God are demanding, but they are God’s teachings, not just something we made up. We are free to either take it or leave it, to accept it and struggle with it, or to walk away from it. When we come across parts of the Bible that are difficult, we tend to say it must be wrong, because it doesn’t make sense to us. I think it would make more sense to say it is right because it is the word of God, but I don’t understand it. Therefore I have to try and understand what it means, rather than discard it.

 

In this Gospel passage, Jesus is just after teaching about the Eucharist. He said, ‘I am the bread of life’ (Jn 6:48) and ‘Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you will not have life in you’ (Jn 6:53). And the people said, ‘This is too much, who could accept it?’ and they walked away. But Jesus’ response is even more interesting. He didn’t go after them and say, ‘Let me explain’. Instead, He just let them walk away. The only thing He did was say to the Apostles, ‘Are you going to go away too?’ (Jn 6:67). In other words, ‘This is my teaching, take it or leave it.’ And it says that ‘As a result of this many of his disciples returned to their former way of living and no longer accompanied him.’ They couldn’t accept what He said, so they left, but He didn’t change anything He had said. How could He, if it is the truth? and this applies to all of the teachings of Christ, handed down to us. They don’t change. They cannot change, because they are truth, but we are free to accept them or not.

 

Jesus says to us, ‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments’ (Jn 14:15). Above all this means putting God above everything else; above your wife, or husband, above your children, above your work and above your politics. God must be first and God assures us that if we put him first, everything else will follow. ‘Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these other things will be given you as well’ (Matt 6:33). ‘If you put me first, I will take care of all your needs.’ The problem is that we usually think we have to get everything else in our life in order first and then we can turn to God. But the Lord is saying it must be the other way around. He must be first in everything. This also applies to the election. My faith comes first, politics second. I am a Catholic first, then a supporter of which ever party. My faith should be what guides me in how I vote.

 

Recently, on the back window of a car, I saw this Scripture reference: 2 Chronicles 7:14. I didn’t know what it was, so I looked it up. It is a perfect Scripture for our times. It says:

“If my people who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear them from heaven and I will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

 

Look at what is happening across the country and all over the world. Huge fires, floods and many volcanoes coming to life which have been dormant for years, even centuries. There is chaos in our society, with people turning against each other in acts of madness. More and more road-rage incidents are turning into shootings. ‘Oh, it’s just climate change.’ Is it? Perhaps it is exactly what it says in Scripture. When the people turn away from God and worship other gods, God’s blessing is lifted from the land. The people no longer have God’s protection.

 

Nature is part of God’s creation and is subject to him. Remember when Jesus fell asleep in the boat and the boat began to take water because of the storm? The Apostles were panicking and woke Jesus. He commanded the sea and wind to calm and it did! The Apostles said, ‘Who can this be, even the wind and the sea obey him?’ (Mk 4:41).

 

The flood during the time of Noah came and killed thousands of people, because they had become so evil. It was an instrument in God’s hands and part of how God purified his world. It is his world, not ours. We are currently seeing nature begin to do the same thing.

 

This is what happened time and time again with the people of Israel. When they got comfortable, they turned away from God and worshipped other gods. Chaos followed, their society began to fall apart and their enemies took over, until eventually they recognized their sin and turned back to God asking forgiveness. Are we worshipping other gods? Yes, the gods of money, pleasure, self. We have child sacrifice, which is abortion. All these things are abhorrent to the Lord. That’s what the word of God says. These things are detestable to the Lord..

 

In February 2021, in congress, a congressman publicly said, ‘…God’s will is of no concern to this congress.’[1] Thankfully someone immediately pointed out that on the wall behind him was written, ‘In God we Trust.’

 

To restore God’s blessing on the land, we have to do what God asks of us, which is to put him first, to repent of our sins, to confess our sins and to live by the ways of God.

 

People keep saying, ‘I don’t need to confess my sins to a priest. I can tell God I’m sorry myself.’ Sure you can, but that’s not what God asks us to do. God asks us to confess to his priests, because that is the gift He has given us and that way we are being held accountable to another person. There is no sense of accountability if we just tell God we are sorry by ourselves and it doesn’t take any humility to do that. That is why God established the gift of confession, which is one of the sacraments of healing. He wants to heal us. It is also interesting that any place where Our Lady has appeared, she always says, ‘Tell the people to go to confession.’ She doesn’t say, ‘Tell the people to tell God they are sorry for their sins.’

 

I find it interesting that at this time, many Christian leaders, Protestants, Catholics and Evangelicals, are all saying the same thing. God is telling us to repent and turn back to his ways and what we are seeing happening around us in society and in nature, are signs that we need to wake up.

 

If it were impossible for us to follow God’s teachings, He wouldn’t have given them to us. So it must be possible, but it does require a definite decision on our part. Trying to do it on our own can seem impossible, but God doesn’t ask us to do it on our own. He asks us to continually turn to him and use the help He offers us, which He gives us above all through the Eucharist, through Confession, through the Scriptures. God gives us all the help we need, if we ask for it, so we have no excuse to say it’s too difficult.

 

‘Lord where else will we go, you have the message of eternal life and we believe, we know you are the holy one of God.’

 

---

[1] Congressman Jerry Nadler, Feb 27^th, 2021:

“What any religious tradition ascribes as God’s will, is no concern of this congress.”

 

20th Sunday Year B (John 6:51-58) The Body and Blood of Christ

 

Sometimes when I think of some of the different things that people of different faiths believe, and how strange they seem to me, it also makes me think of the Eucharist. For those who do not believe as we do, it must seem like the craziest notion of all; that God makes himself present through the hands of a priest, in a tiny piece of bread and some wine. What could be more bizarre than that? And we don’t just believe that it is a reminder of Jesus or that it represents Jesus, but that it really and truly is the body and blood of Christ. I also think that it is a teaching so extreme that only God could come up with it and get away with it, so to speak. What human being would try to convince others that a piece of bread actually becomes the body of Christ when a priest says certain prayers over it?

 

To help us believe, the Lord has also given a great number of Eucharistic miracles, to date over 200 all over the world and they are the ones that have been officially recognized. In many of those miracles, the host has miraculously turned into a piece of bloody flesh. And with modern technology many have been studied by scientists and it has always shown that is the real flesh and blood of a man’s heart.

 

The first time that Jesus gave the people this teaching— “Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you cannot have life within you”—it says that many of the people who had followed him up to that point left him. They said “This is madness. Who could accept it?” It is interesting how Jesus responded to them. He didn’t say anything. He just let them walk away. He then turned to the disciples and said, “What about you, are you going to go away too?” In other words, “This is my teaching. Take it or leave it.”

 

In his first letter to the Christians in Corinth (1 Cor 11:23-26)—which is the oldest account of the mass that we have, written about 54 or 55AD—St. Paul says, “This is what I received from the Lord and in turn passed on to you…” He doesn’t say that he received it from the other Apostles, but from the Lord himself. Jesus, as you probably remember, appeared to St. Paul while he was persecuting Christians and the event turned his life around. Jesus appeared to him several other times as well and Paul was so affected by what happened to him that he dedicated the rest of his life to preaching about this man Jesus, but the line that always strikes me is where he says, “This is what I received from the Lord…” He is saying, “I didn’t make this up and neither did any other person. Jesus himself taught us this and taught us to do this in his memory.” So, every time an ordained priest says the words of consecration at mass, “This is my Body… This is the chalice of my Blood…” Jesus becomes present in the form of bread and wine. How are we supposed to understand this?  We aren’t!  I do not understand it at all, but I believe it. That is why we are meant to fast for an hour before receiving Holy Communion and why we don’t eat or drink, or smoke in the church, to remind us that this is something unlike anything else in the world. It is also a beautiful sign of how close God is to us, that He would continually come to us in the middle of our lives, each week, each day, to help and encourage us. He comes to us as we are, not as we should be, but as we are. It is also God himself who makes it possible to receive him, because we could never be ready or worthy enough to even come close to the divine presence, not to mention receive him. That is also why we always say the prayer: “Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed” (just as the Roman soldier said when Jesus offered to come to his house to heal his servant). It is also why we begin every mass by acknowledging that we are sinners and asking God’s forgiveness.

 

There are two extremes that I come across with regard to the Eucharist. One is where someone will say to me, “Father, I don’t receive the Eucharist because I really am not worthy enough.” Correct! No one is worthy enough, nor ever could be, but since the Lord himself is happy to come to us this way, we should not be afraid to receive him. The other extreme is where people feel they have a ‘right’ to receive the Eucharist without any kind of repentance, or need to confess their sins, or change a lifestyle that is sinful. That is also wrong. There is no question of this being a ‘right’ on our part. The Eucharist is pure gift from God and for our part we must try to approach it as worthily as we can, especially by confessing our sins every so often. But the most important thing to remember is that Jesus wants to give himself to us, and so we should not be afraid to come to him. Remember that ultimately it is God himself who makes it possible for us to receive him. “Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and I shall be healed.”

 

St. Paul also warns us to be careful not to receive unworthily, or we will bring condemnation on ourselves.

Each person must examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. Anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body, eats and drinks condemnation on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick and some have fallen asleep (1 Cor 11:28-30).

 

If we are living in any way that is not in line with God’s teachings, we need to address it. Several years ago, after I spoke about this, a couple came to me who were 48 years married. They said they had both been previously married, but never got an annulment, so they were never married in the Church. They realized that since they wanted to receive Communion, they really needed to put this right. So, after 48 years, they both applied for annulments, got them and were then married here in the church. I found that so inspiring. And that is the right approach. If you find yourself in a second union, without having got an annulment, then you should try and put it right. Come and talk to me and I will help you sort it out. All of us need to make every effort to do what the Lord asks. Receiving the Eucharist casually is a big mistake and it is sacrilegious, that is, a sin against what is holy.

 

Margaret Clithero: Martyr for the Eucharist

In the late 1500s there lived a woman named Margaret Clithero in the town of York in England. She was a convert to Catholicism at a time when it was against the law to be a Catholic. Priests used to come to her disguised as cloth sellers, bringing her the Eucharist and she would hide them. She never saw mass in a public church or heard a Catholic hymn being sung even though she lived next to York Minster Cathedral. It was an Anglican (Episcopal) church at the time.

 

She was eventually found out and she was dragged from the butcher shop where she worked and brought before magistrates and ordered to plead guilty or not guilty, so that she could go on trial. She refused as she didn’t want her innocent blood to be on the head of twelve jurors. She said, “If you want to condemn me, condemn me yourself.” The judge said, “Because you are a woman I will let you go free, but you must promise never to hide these priests again.” He then handed her the bible and told her to swear on it.  So she took the bible in open court and held it up in the air and said, “I swear by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, if you let me go free, I will hide priests again, because they are the only ones who can bring us the body and blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ.”

 

York Minster Cathedral, England.

So just over 400 years ago, she was brought to St. Michael’s bridge in York and given the punishment, worse than being hung, drawn and quartered. It was called in English law, ‘the punishment most severe’. She was pressed to death under heavy weights. It was to take three days and she was to receive only a little muddy water to drink to keep her alive. The executioner was bribed, and he put a stone under her head so that she died within an hour as her neck was broken. She was the mother of eight children, and some of them were there when she was executed.

 

In the little chapel that is there to her memory in York today, there is an inscription over the door, which is a message for our times. It says ‘She died for the mass.’

 

So the next time that you find yourself bored with the mass, or just not too bothered to go because you are tired, think of her and think of the many priests and men and women who have been executed for carrying the Eucharist or for saying mass. God has given us an extraordinary treasure in the Eucharist. May He give us new eyes to see what is here before us.

“I swear by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, if you let me go free, I will hide priests again, because they are the only ones who can bring us the body and blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ.” – St. Margaret Clithero.

 

Eucharistic Miracle in Buenos Aires

At seven o’clock in the evening on August 18, 1996, Fr. Alejandro Pezet was saying Holy Mass at a Catholic church in the commercial center of Buenos Aires. As he was finishing distributing Holy Communion, a woman came up to tell him that she had found a discarded host on a candleholder at the back of the church. On going to the spot indicated, Fr. Alejandro saw the defiled Host. Since he was unable to consume it, he placed it in a container of water and put it away in the tabernacle of the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament.

On Monday, August 26, upon opening the tabernacle, he saw to his amazement that the Host had turned into a bloody substance. He informed Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio (Auxiliary Bishop at that time, now Pope Francis), who gave instructions that the Host be professionally photographed. The photos were taken on September 6, 1996. They clearly show that the Host, which had become a fragment of bloodied flesh, had grown significantly in size. For three years the Host remained in the tabernacle, the whole affair being kept a strict secret. Since the Host suffered no visible decomposition, Cardinal Bergoglio decided to have it scientifically analyzed.

Eucharistic Miracle in Buenos Aires 1996

On October 5, 1999, in the presence of the Cardinal’s representatives, Dr. Castanon took a sample of the bloody fragment and sent it to New York for analysis. Since he did not wish to prejudice the study, he purposely did not inform the team of scientists of its provenance. One of these scientists was Dr. Frederic Zugiba, the well-known cardiologist and forensic pathologist. He determined that the analyzed substance was real flesh and blood containing human DNA. ‘For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.’ (John 6:55)

Zugiba testified that, “The analyzed material is a fragment of the heart muscle found in the wall of the left ventricle close to the valves. This muscle is responsible for the contraction of the heart. It should be borne in mind that the left cardiac ventricle pumps blood to all parts of the body. In other words, it is the action that keeps the body alive. ‘Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have life within you’ (John 6:53).

Dr. Zugiba also said that the heart muscle was in an inflammatory condition and contained a large number of white blood cells. This indicates that the heart was alive at the time the sample was taken. It is my contention that the heart was alive, since white blood cells die outside a living organism. They require a living organism to sustain them. Thus, their presence indicates that the heart was alive when the sample was taken. What is more, these white blood cells had penetrated the tissue, which further indicates that the heart had been under severe stress, as if the owner had been beaten severely about the chest.” ‘I am the living bread, that comes down from heaven.’ (John 6:51)

Two Australians, journalist Mike Willesee and lawyer Ron Tesoriero, witnessed these tests. Knowing where the sample had come from, they were dumbfounded by Dr. Zugiba’s testimony. Mike Willesee asked the scientist how long the white blood cells would have remained alive if they had come from a piece of human tissue, which had been kept in water. They would have ceased to exist in a matter of minutes, Dr. Zugiba replied. The journalist then told the doctor that the source of the sample had first been kept in ordinary water for a month and then for another three years in a container of distilled water; only then had the sample been taken for analysis. Dr. Zugiba’s was at a loss to account for this fact. There was no way of explaining it scientifically, he stated. Only then did Mike Willesee inform Dr. Zugiba that the analyzed sample came from a consecrated Host (white, unleavened bread) that had mysteriously turned into bloody human flesh. Amazed by this information, Dr. Zugiba replied, “How and why a consecrated Host would change its character and become living human flesh and blood will remain an inexplicable mystery to science—a mystery totally beyond her competence.”

Only faith in the extraordinary action of a God provides the reasonable answer—faith in a God, who wants to make us aware that He is truly present in the mystery of the Eucharist.

The Eucharistic miracle in Buenos Aires is an extraordinary sign attested to by science. Through it Jesus desires to arouse in us a lively faith in His real presence in the Eucharist. He reminds us that His presence is real, and not symbolic. Only with the eyes of faith do we see Him under the appearance of the consecrated bread and wine. We do not see Him with our bodily eyes, since He is present in His glorified humanity. In the Eucharist Jesus sees and loves us and desires to save us.

In collaboration with Ron Tesoriero, Mike Willesee, one of Australia’s best-known journalists (who converted to Catholicism after working on the documents of another Eucharistic miracle) wrote a book entitled Reason to Believe. In it they present documented facts of Eucharistic miracles and other signs calling people to faith in Christ who abides and teaches in the Catholic Church. They have also made a documentary film on the Eucharist—based largely on the scientific discoveries associated with the miraculous Host in Buenos Aires. Their aim was to give a clear presentation of the Catholic Church’s teaching on the subject of the Eucharist. They screened the film in numerous Australian cities. The showing at Adelaide drew a crowd of two thousand viewers. During the commentary and question period that followed a visibly moved man stood up announcing that he was blind. Having learned that this was an exceptional film, he had very much wanted to see it. Just before the screening, he prayed fervently to Jesus for the grace to see the film. At once his sight was restored to him, but only for the thirty-minute duration of the film. Upon its conclusion, he again lost the ability to see. He confirmed this by describing in minute detail certain scenes of the film. It was an incredible event that moved those present to the core of their being.

 

‘I am the living bread come down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh’ (John 6:51)