17th Sunday, Year A (Gospel: Matthew 15:44-52) The hidden treasure

 

Poor Clare Convent, Galway, Ireland.

There are two lady friends of mine, good friends whom I’ve known for many years: Maura and Marina. Both were accountants, with good jobs and a nice lifestyle; great party-goers and very popular. Then one day Marina announced to us all that she was going to leave everything and enter the Poor Clare convent, in my hometown. The Poor Clares are an order of contemplative sisters, which means they dedicate their lives to prayer. They never leave the convent, except for things like visits to the doctor, or to vote. Otherwise they spend the rest of their lives in the convent praying for all of us. See their website www.poorclares.ie They also have a convent here in Fort Myers, which was on Fort Myers Beach, although I think they had to move because of the hurricane. People from all over the city and beyond continually go into them asking them to pray for different intentions. About two years after Marina entered, my friend Maura did the same thing. This meant that they would give up their job and salary, their independence and nice lifestyle and also the chance to get married and have children. Marina’s family were very upset when she decided to do this, even though they were a very religious family themselves. In spite of their faith they found it very hard to accept. It is an extraordinary calling and one of great sacrifice.

 

Six year after she entered, Marina made her final profession, taking the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Two years after that, my other friend Maura did the same thing. They will spend the rest of their lives in that convent praying and interceding for people, helping us by the sacrifice of their lives.

 

Every time a man is ordained to the priesthood, he also dedicates his life to God and to the service of his people. He gives up the chance to be married and have children. Giving up the possibility of getting married, is not because being celibate is better, rather it is making the sacrifice of something that is good, for a different calling.

 

It’s not only religious people who do this. Many other friends of mine who are married have also changed the direction of their lives and begun to live more closely to God, trying to give time each day to prayer and to living out the faith that they believe in. They continue to work just as before, but they have begun to make a conscious effort to live by the Gospel they believe in and this happens all the time.

 

Some of my classmates and I after ordination 

Why did my two friends decide to leave everything and spend the rest of their lives in a convent? The desire to get married and have children is a very strong one, which was also there for them and me and others who have done the same. But the best way to explain it is to say that the desire to dedicate their lives/my life to God was stronger. If God is calling someone to priesthood, or religious life, it is hard to resist. When I felt called initially at the age of 19 it was too much for me, so I put it off. But three years later it came back again. God is persistent. In St. John’s Gospel God says, ‘You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit’ (John 15:16).

 

Many people consider life in a contemplative convent or monastery, a total waste of a life, but the Church considers it the highest calling that God can give to anyone. I remember talking to a nurse about the Poor Clares and she said, ‘What they do is great, but if they would just come out and do something.’ She could not see any value in a life dedicated to faith and apart from faith, it does seem like a waste of time. But when you bring faith into it, it changes everything. They can do more through prayer than they could ever do in society. Jesus tells us that the power of faith can move mountains, suspend the laws of nature.

 

People sometimes see a priest as being a kind of religious social worker. Do-gooders, who believe in God. Part of our work is helping others, but the most important part of my work is celebrating the mass, bringing Jesus to people in the Eucharist, healing people through confession and helping people find spiritual purpose through explaining the Scriptures. There is no social work that I can do which is more important than this. It is often a temptation for a priest to get so busy with helping people in their practical needs, that we forget what we are really called to. Bringing Jesus to people is more important than anything else I could do and that is the main thing that I am called to.

 

What makes someone want to give up everything for God, or to become a priest, or to really try to live out their faith? The answer is that they have found the hidden treasure, the pearl of great price that Jesus talks about. They have recognized that what God offers us is worth everything and so they have given everything for it. It is what Jesus often calls ‘The kingdom of heaven’. In other words it is the discovery, or realization that God is real and that what Jesus has told us about God, is true. It is as if this suddenly clicks into place and they can see that it is more important than anything else, but also that God is calling them to give their lives to it completely. They realize that God isn’t just an optional extra, but that God is at the center and we are a part of his world. We are the optional extra. We are the ones who would not be here except that God created us. God is at the center of everything and our life only makes sense in relation to him and in relation to what Jesus told us about him. Apart from God, our life makes no sense. To come to know this is worth everything, because it is the truth and it is the meaning of our life.

 

Just because someone finds this treasure doesn’t mean that they have to become a priest or Religious. Most people are not called to Religious life, but to continue as normal in society, working, having families and giving witness to the reality of God by the way they live. That’s what most of us are called to, but the fact that some people are prepared to live a life dedicated to God, shows the value of what they believe in, of what we believe in. It testifies to the fact that what we believe in has a greater and more lasting value than anything we can know in this world. It’s a sign that we believe there is more to come after this life and that it’s worth waiting for, suffering for and making sacrifices for.

 

That is also one of the ideas of celibacy, or the vow of chastity. People decide to give up the possibility of marriage, because they believe in the world to come and that is how we will be in the next world. Jesus said, ‘In the resurrection, people will neither marry, nor be given in marriage. Rather, they will be like the angels’ (Matt 22:30).

 

Sometimes people have told me that they find the idea that they will not be married in heaven, sad. It doesn’t mean that you won’t be with your spouse, it just means that it will be different. Love in heaven is totally pure and we can be with all the people we love, but the primary purpose of marriage is to have children. That no longer happens in heaven.

 

God created us so that the most natural thing for us is to get married and what could be greater than what God has designed? But God has also called some to live in a particular way, to encourage and remind others that there is more to this life than meets the eye.

 

Often when I’m finding it tough going and wondering why I’m a priest or what it’s all about, I think of my two friends in the Poor Clares and their witness helps me to keep going. It is worth the effort.

 

The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field,

which a person finds and hides again,

and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

16th Sunday Year A (Gospel: Matthew 13:24-43) The problem of evil

 

 

One of the most difficult questions in religion is to do with the problem of evil. If God is all good and all powerful, then why does evil exist? Why is there evil and sickness in the world? Many people will use this argument as a way to say that God cannot exist. They will say that if God were really good and all powerful, then evil would not exist, as God would not allow people to suffer. The answer to the problem of evil comes down to two things: free will and the devil.

 

A knife is a useful tool. I can use it to cut bread or meat, but I can also use it to kill someone. If I have free will then I can choose to do good or evil. I would not be free if God continually stepped in when I decided to do wrong. We are free to do right or wrong, but our actions also have consequences, both in this world and the next, the next life being much more serious, as they are eternal consequences. If I choose evil, people will suffer. The more people choose evil, the more suffering is brought into the world. A typical example is religious extremism. People of a certain faith, be they Muslim, Christian, or any faith, decide that they are right, others are wrong and they are entitled to kill anyone who stands in their way. It happens in all faiths. The one we see the most of at this time is Islamic extremism. But don’t confuse Muslims with Muslim extremists, any more than Christians with Christian extremists. The two are very different.

 

Satan also causes evil and entices people to do evil acts, but we are always free to do evil or not.

 

There is also another side to it. God can bring good out of anything, even evil. Evil was involved in the death of Jesus. Jesus was given up to the authorities because Judas chose to betray him, even though he regretted it afterwards. The religious authorities of the time had Jesus convicted through a trial which was illegal according to their own law. They chose to do what was wrong and yet the mysterious thing is that even though Jesus was betrayed, tried, tortured and killed by the deliberate choices of men who decided to do evil, yet look what God brought about through the death and resurrection of Jesus. The course of history was changed forever because of his death and resurrection. Eternal happiness was won for us. What does that tell us? One thing it tells us is that God can and will bring about good even out of the worst of evil. We often hear of people working hard to correct injustice, where someone is falsely accused and imprisoned. People will fight for years to bring about justice and they also inspire others to do the same. Think of people like Nelson Mandela, Gandhi and Martin Luther King. They suffered greatly because of the evil choices of others and yet they brought about wonderful things and also inspired so many others, because they were prepared to battle on, in spite of the evil brought about by other’s free will.

 

In times of war we don’t usually hear about the many heroic acts of justice and kindness that people do in order to help those who are suffering. A few years ago I remember hearing the account of a BBC journalist called Fergal Keane, who has covered areas of conflict for years. He told one story about two women in their seventies he came across in the Ukraine. They had lost everything, including their pension and they were now living in a basement. They didn’t know how they were going to survive. Sometime later many people wrote to Fergal asking him if he knew what had happened to them. So he went back to try and find them. He discovered that they were now living in another tiny room together, but they were also cooking food for people fleeing the war. They were using what little they had to bring about relief for others, even though they had hardly anything themselves. When Fergal was asked how he was able to keep working in the midst of so much suffering, he said it was because of stories like this one, which inspired him so much. People can also choose to do good, in spite of the suffering caused by others.

 

Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) was asked about the problem of corruption and scandal within the Church, which has been there from the beginning and will be there until the end. In his response he pointed to today’s Gospel and the parable about the wheat and the darnel, or weed. He said that Jesus is teaching that there will always be evil in the world. We deal with as much of it as possible, but there will always be a certain amount we can do nothing about and we have to learn to live with this. But Jesus also teaches us that it will ultimately be dealt with, because all of us will have to give an account of our actions. There will be justice when we come before God. Does that mean we should be afraid? Of course not. Jesus reassures us of his infinite mercy if we make even the smallest effort to ask for forgiveness, but we must not take it for granted either. I actually find it reassuring to know that all of us will be accountable for our actions, because when you think of people who choose to do terrible evil and cause so much suffering for others. It often seems that they are not brought to justice in this world. I find it comforting to know that they will not escape God’s justice. Everyone will face God's perfect justice.

 

There is also the question, perhaps more difficult, of sickness. Why do good people suffer? Why do children get sick? Again, there is no easy answer to this, except that it is part of the human condition. However, God also allows things to happen which serve a higher purpose. I have often seen situations where someone in a family has gone through a lot of sickness, but it has brought the family together, or helped people to mature, or get their priorities right. We can’t see any good in it, but that doesn’t mean that God can’t bring good out of it. We tend to blame God for the bad things that happen, but we don’t see the bigger picture.

Does God ever intervene? Yes, sometimes God does intervene and people are miraculously cured, or saved from an accident.

I have no doubt that the Holy Spirit continually whispers to us to help us make good choices, but we are free to listen or ignore those suggestions, just as we are free to listen to the whisperings of temptations.  

“The Son of Man will send his angels,

and they will collect out of his kingdom
all who cause others to sin and all evildoers.
They will throw them into the fiery furnace,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.
Then the righteous will shine like the sun
in the kingdom of their Father.
Whoever has ears ought to hear.”

 

 

 

15th Sunday Year A (Gospel: Matthew 13:1-23) A sower went out to sow

 

 

Do you ever wonder why it is that some people believe in God and take the practice of their faith seriously and others don’t? How is it that some people are converted and others aren’t?  Why did I come back to my faith at 19 and many of my friends did not?

 

Why did so many people listen to Jesus when he preached? Nobody knew who he was and he had no education to boast about. Yet he gathered a huge following of people wherever he went. You could say, it was because he is the Son of God. Yes, but nobody knew he was at the time. I’m sure part of the reason was because he was preaching the truth and peoples’ spirits recognized this, because all of us are searching for the truth; the truth about God and the truth about life. The truth is attractive to us and it pierces right to the heart, so that when we hear it we want to hear more of it, even though it may be difficult or painful for us to hear. Our faith is about a search for this truth, which has been revealed to us by Jesus Christ. That’s why we keep striving to understand it, even though it can be difficult at times. I heard it said that even those who were critical of John Paul II still listened to him, because they knew what he was preaching was truth. The more Jesus preached the truth the more resistance he met.

 

What is this truth? It is the truth about why we exist, where we came from, what our destiny is and what is right and wrong. If something is offensive to God, it is damaging to us and so God shows us exactly how we are to live and what will help and harm us the most. It’s strange how throughout the centuries people continue to try and live without God and always with the same results.

 

When John the Baptist was imprisoned, it says that Herod liked to listen to him, although he was afraid of him at the same time. He knew that John spoke the truth and this drew him to John. John had publicly said, ‘What you are doing is wrong. It is immoral and it breaks the divine law.’ Herod knew he was right. The same with all the other people who were drawn to John.

 

When Mother Teresa was invited to speak at the prayer breakfast in Washington D.C. in 1994, she spoke about abortion. She did the same when she spoke to Congress. I’m sure that made a lot of people uncomfortable, but she spoke truth and people listened, even if they didn’t agree. She said,

‘The greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a direct war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself. If we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?’

 

She didn’t say that it is a complicated problem and we must be open to all sides so as not to offend. She said it is murder. People listened to her, because they knew she was authentic. Our spirits recognize the truth, because the truth is from God.

 

Jesus frequently taught in parables. The fact that he did this tells us how much he respects our intelligence and our free will. The meaning of a parable isn’t always obvious. You have to think about it. In other words, we are invited to search for the truth. If we are open to it, we will hear it, but if we are not open to it, we won’t. Jesus explained that this was the very reason he spoke in parables. The Pharisees were closed to what he said and Jesus said, ‘So that they may listen, but not understand…’

 

Many of the stories in the bible are similar. They are teaching us truth in different ways, but you have to reflect on them to see the truth.

 

In this parable Jesus is teaching us two things about religion. First of all that it is a part of life that some people will hear about God and ignore him, or become preoccupied with something else, or not like the idea that it means you might have to suffer for it. Only a few will actually hear it and really grow because of it, as God intended. Those who do are generally in the minority.

 

The journey that leads us to God and to the truth of God’s teaching is not the easiest, but it is the only one worthwhile. In the second reading St. Paul writes, ‘I consider the sufferings of this present time are as nothing, compared to the glory that is to be revealed to us.’ What awaits us is worth every sacrifice. Being faithful to God and to his law goes against the tide, but it has always been that way.

 

That means it is worth putting up with every struggle and difficult to reach God. Only in God does our life make sense. We cannot exist without God and the more we listen to God’s teaching in the Scriptures, the more our life and our world will make sense. God spells out what we need to know in the Scriptures. The word of God always brings clarity. There is no situation that we will face that the Scriptures don’t address. It may not be directly, but it will be there in some form and that is God’s gift to us, to guide us. At this time we are faced with so much confusion in our society. Confusion does not come from God. God brings clarity and peace. The farther we stray from God’s law, the more chaos follows, which is what we see happening all around us. The more we try to be faithful to the divine law, the more peace we will find.

 

The parable of the sower also talks about the rich soil which bears fruit. For soil to remain rich it takes continuous work. That work, pruning, weeding, is about our continuing to listen to what God teaches. It is not just fate whether we will be open to believe or not, we have a part to play in it. If the word of God is to grow in us, we have to make some effort to be ready for it and to help it to grow. We are not going to grow in faith just by watching television.

 

Jesus says, ‘Try to enter by the narrow gate. For the road that leads to hell is wide and spacious and many take it, but the road that leads to life is narrow and only a few find it.’ The world’s version of that is, ‘All roads lead to heaven because God forgives everyone.’ That’s not what Jesus said. It is not the easy road, but it is the most worthwhile one.

 

If we want our relationship with God to grow, we must make it happen, by taking time to develop our faith, through prayer, reading the scriptures, listening to God. It won’t happen without giving time to it. Would you expect a relationship with someone to grow without giving it any time? Of course not, and faith is no different.

 

God has given us intelligence and free will, and he wants us to use it. Our future is not already set out for us, we have a major part to play in it. That is why God does not reveal the future to us and that is also why it is wrong to go to fortune tellers, or psychics, or ways to try and find out the future. It is only for God to know the future. God doesn’t want us to know the future. He wants us to trust in his providence and listen to his guidance. Everything we need to know has been given to us through the Scriptures. So the next time you find yourself getting anxious or confused about what we are being told, turn to God’s word. It always brings truth and peace.

14th Sunday, Year A (Gospel: Matthew 11:25-30) Knowledge, humility and faith

 

Several years ago an old school friend of mine asked me if I would officiate at his wedding. I said I’d be happy to. We were in school together through high-school, although we hadn’t been in touch for some years. We made our first Holy Communion together. The only memory I have of my First Communion is that I got a new suit and we both pretended we were detectives from Hawaii 5-0. ‘Book him Danno. Murder one.’ I didn’t know what that meant either, but I said it anyway. He became a doctor and pathologist. They are the doctors who perform autopsies.

 

Before we got to the wedding, which was going to have mass, I asked him if he would be receiving Holy Communion. Although he was brought up Catholic like me, I didn’t know if he still was practicing. He said he would like to receive, but he added, ‘I have to tell you that as a scientist, I don’t believe in the resurrection.’ He wasn’t trying to be rude, in fact quite the opposite and I admired him for his honesty. If you think of the work he did, studying dead bodies every other day, you can imagine what a leap of faith it would be for him to believe that any of those dead bodies could come back to life.

 

Knowledge and learning are great gifts, but they can become obstacles too, when it comes to faith. The more we learn, the more we get a sense that everything can be explained. It’s just a matter of time. But questions of faith are completely different.

 

‘I bless you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children.’

 

I have been blessed to study theology for many years, but that doesn’t mean I will have more faith because of what I have learnt. Sometimes the opposite can happen. Faith requires a certain humility. I have been blessed to learn much, but there is so much that is completely beyond my understanding. That was one area where the religious professionals at the time of Jesus were getting stuck. They felt they had the knowledge and therefore things must go as they understood. As a result they failed to recognize that Jesus was the Messiah they had been waiting for, for centuries. If they had been more humble and open minded, they probably would have recognized it. But they had a set picture of how the Messiah must be and because Jesus didn’t fit into their understanding, therefore it couldn’t be him.

 

I am always amazed at how dismissive people can be of religion, offering science as ‘proof’ that religion cannot be real. The truth is that there are incredible miracles all around us and continue to happen all the time. And I’m not talking about the miracle of a new born child, but miracles that are super-natural (above nature), which cannot be explained by science. Just take the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which appeared on the apron of Juan Diego in Mexico in 1531. Our Lady appeared to Juan Diego outside Mexico city and told him to go to the bishop and request that a church be built there in her honor. He went to the bishop, but the bishop needed proof. After a second apparition, Our Lady told him to come again to the same place and she would give him a sign. When he returned he found lots of roses in full bloom, even though it was the middle of winter. He collected the roses in his tilma (apron) and brought them to the bishop. But when he was allowed to see the bishop and emptied out the roses on the floor, he didn’t know that the image of Mary had been imprinted on his apron. When they saw this the bishop and others with him believed. But the miracle wasn’t just that there was an image on his apron. The image itself is a living miracle. It has been studied by science and they don’t know what it is made from. It is not made from any earthly elements. Also the image is a codex, which the local people of the time would have been able to ‘read’. In other words, everything on the image would have explained something to the local people. That image itself is worth reading about.

 

Science doesn’t contradict religion, it simply comes from different angle. It asks different questions. Science asks what something is made of and how did it come about. Religion asks what does it mean and what is God saying to us through different signs.

 

There is a movie called Nefarious, which came out in April, which I would highly recommend. It is about a man on death row, who is possessed, although no one believes he is possessed. They just think he is very intelligent and manipulative. He has to be assessed by a psychiatrist, so that it can be shown that he is sane enough to be executed. The movie is basically a dialogue between the prisoner and the psychiatrist interviewing him. The inmate explains to the psychiatrist that he is a demon, possessing this man’s body. The psychiatrist says that there is no such thing as demons. But as the interview progresses and the demon starts to reveal more and more things to the psychiatrist, he gradually begins to think differently.

 

The demon shows the psychiatrist how he is blinded by his own arrogance. He believes that demons can’t be real, etc. But the demon shows him that it is because of his arrogance and our arrogance, that Satan has managed to deceive the human race so much. The psychiatrist starts to brag about how liberated humanity now is: people can choose their gender; they can marry whomever they wish; women are liberated by abortion. But the demon shows him how all of these things are a deception, because all of them go against the divine law. By ignoring God’s law, God’s Commandments, we have allowed ourselves to be completely deceived and convinced that what is evil is actually what is good for us. Again, it comes down to human arrogance. If we were more humble and accepting of God’s teachings, there wouldn’t be so much evil in the world. But because we think we know better, Satan has managed to deceive us.

 

I am often amazed and in awe at people I meet who have little education and yet have some profound insights into our faith. That is because they are humble enough and open enough that God can more easily speak to their heart. Intelligence and knowledge are great things, but they are not essential for growing in faith. What is essential is openness to what God wants to show us and the humility to recognize that no matter how much we know and learn, the ways of God are completely beyond us. But just because we cannot understand them, doesn’t mean they cannot be.

 

Instead of saying, ‘That doesn’t make any sense to me, therefore it cannot be,’ it might be better to say, ‘That is completely beyond my understanding, but I believe because it is what the Lord has said.’

  

‘I bless you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children.’

 

Heaven

 I will be away for the next three Sundays, but I would like to recommend a book I came across, which I was so taken by I am now reading it for the third time.

It is about a lady called Marietta Davis, who lived in Berlin, New York, in the 1840s. She wasn't a particularly religious woman, but in 1848 at the age of 25 she went into a trance or coma, for nine days and had an extraordinary experience of the next world, both heaven and hell. I would highly recommend it. It was translated into modern English in 2006 by Dennis and Nolene Prince. Be well and be blessed.

Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ ‘Corpus Christi’ (John 6:51-58)

 

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 143 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. Pius of Pietrelcina (Padre Pio)

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.

 

York Minster Cathedral, England

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.”

 

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. Ongoing 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.

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)

Dr. Federic Zugiba

Two Australians, journalist Mike Willesee and lawyer Ron Tesoriero, witnessed these tests. Knowing where 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 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 (he 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)

 

 

 

 

Feast of the Holy Trinity (Gospel: John 3:16-18)

 

One thing that all of us have in common, is the search for happiness. Everyone wants to find happiness. We may have very different ideas as to what happiness is, but all of us are searching for it. God shows us exactly where to find it and how to get there, but we are not always convinced. One of the consequences of Original Sin, was that we were no longer in communion with God the way He intended for us. It’s says right after the Fall, that Adam and Eve hid from God. They had not done that before. They were suddenly afraid of him. And this has passed on to us. We are not always convinced that what God teaches us is true, that He really has our best interests at heart. If we were, we would try and live his commandments as carefully as possible, since they are the path to our happiness.

If I asked how many of you here want to be rich, probably everyone would say yes, because we are convinced that we will have happiness if we have enough money. Our problems will go away, but they won’t. In fact, Jesus says ‘How hard it is for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven.’ Why would it be harder to enter heaven if you are rich? Because our wealth can be a distraction. We can become immersed in material things, forgetting about what is truly important and it doesn’t have to be great wealth either. Being obsessed with getting enough money is just as bad, but Jesus taught the opposite. He said, ‘It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven.’ (Luke 18:25; John 3:3).  The ‘eye of a needle’ was a metaphor for a very narrow opening. The kingdom of heaven is where we will find happiness and ironically wealth often becomes an obstacle to it, because it distracts us from what is really important. Instead of spending our life growing closer to God, we are focused on material wealth and forget about him. Just recently a man told me that he realized he had spent his whole life working hard to make enough money, but in the process he alienated himself from his family. He realized he would have been far better off to earn less and spend more time with his family.

Many times I have heard people who have worked in third world countries say, that it is always in the poorest countries that people have the greatest joy, even where there is terrible injustice. It is in first world countries where you will find the greatest anger, depression and despair. Why is that? Because in the poorest countries they are not distracted by wealth and they realize that they will only find happiness in God, beginning in this life and fulfilled in the next.

When Our Lady appeared to St. Bernadette in Lourdes in 1858, she said to her ‘I cannot promise you happiness in this life, but in the next.’ If we understand this, we will begin to find peace, because we won’t be expecting to find complete happiness here. We will only have complete fulfillment in the world to come, because we will only find our fulfillment in God.

The wonderful thing is that God has created us for happiness. The Holy Trinity was perfectly fulfilled in every way before He created us, but God wanted to share that happiness. So, God created us to be able to share in his happiness and total fulfillment, which we will experience, if we remain open to God. Think of times in your life when you were happy: birthdays, weddings, the birth of a child, graduations. Our instinct is to share it, to celebrate it with others. So we invite others to share in our happiness and we have a party. That is why God created us, because He wanted us to share in his happiness and that is what awaits us unless we reject it. Why would someone reject it? Because we think we know better and refuse to listen to what God teaches us and commands us to do. The death and resurrection of Jesus reopened the possibility of heaven, which we had lost because of Original Sin. Now it is offered to us, but we still have to choose it.

How is it that nearly all of us want peace and happiness, but our world is full of war and hatred? We want equality, but we are continually faced with discrimination. The reason is because there is a war going on that we cannot see, but it is mentioned many times in Scripture. Satan rejected God and hates us, because we are God’s creation. He wants to take everything away from God, especially us, his children, purely out of hatred for God. The only reason Satan takes any interest in us, is to get at God.

In the book of Genesis, after the fall of Adam and Eve, God said,

I will put enmity between you [Satan] and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. She will crush your head, and you will strike her heel (Gen 3:15).

It says in the book of Revelation:

And the dragon was enraged at the woman and went to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.’ (Rev 12:17).

The woman is Our Lady, the Mother of all God’s children. At the crucifixion, Jesus said to saint John—who is the model disciple and represents all of us who follow God— ‘Behold your mother.’ And to Mary, ‘Behold your son.’ (John 19:25). He gave us his mother as our heavenly mother. That is why she has continued to appear many times throughout the world, because she cares about her children and wants to make sure we remain on the right path. The very fact that she has appeared at all means that we have strayed from the right path and we are putting ourselves in danger.

If you think of evil people in the world. If they want to cause pain to someone, they will try and harm whatever is dearest to them. What is abortion, except that? Satan destroys God’s children from their beginning. That is what is behind abortion. Satan has convinced us that it is a good thing, so that we needn’t be inconvenienced. But think of the words of consecration at the mass: ‘This is my Body, which will be given up for you.’ Think of what abortion says: ‘This is my body and it will not be given up for you.’ It is the opposite of the mass. That’s how you know what is behind it. There is no species on the planet that kills its own young.

So we are in the middle of a war, a spiritual war, where Satan wants to take us away from God in any way possible. St. Paul puts it this way:

For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places (Eph 6:12).

How did he know that? Because Jesus taught them all these things. I have no doubt that between the time of the resurrection and the ascension into heaven, these were some of the things that God was teaching the Apostles. He was piecing it all together for them. That is why God inspired them to write it down and why we have it in the Scriptures, the word of God.

What is the casting out of demons, except taking back God’s children? How do you destroy an enemy? Divide and conquer: turn them against each other. Look at what is happening in our world right now. We are turned against each other and killing each other, often for no particular reason. This is because we are in the middle of a much bigger war than we can see, when people turn their back on God and on God’s teachings, they lose their way and are open to every kind of suggestion.

But as always, God gives us all the tools we need to fight back. He shows us that living the Commandments and the teachings of Christ is what keeps us safe. If we listen to what God says to us, then we will not get distracted from the path to our happiness. If we live by the word of God, then we will remember what is important and we will see through the lies that we are constantly being told: ‘Abortion and Euthanasia are good for society. You should be able to do whatever you want.’ That was the lie told to Adam and Eve, which they fell for. ‘You don’t need to listen to God.’ Notice in the Gospel where Jesus said to the Apostles, ‘Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations… teaching them to observe all I have commanded you.’

God has created us to share in his happiness, but He will not force us to accept it. I’m often amazed at the amount of parents who tell me in great distress about one of their children who has rejected them. They cannot understand why. They did everything they could for their children and then their children turned their back on them. Sadly, it happens quite often. We can also do this with God. God offers us everything and gives us everything, but we can still reject him and people do.

I think that must have been one of the most difficult sufferings in the life of Jesus, knowing that some people would still reject him, in spite of the terrible sufferings He was going to go through. His death and resurrection re-opened the way to heaven for us, but we can still reject it.

God so loved the world that He gave his only Son,

So that all who believe in him might not perish,

but might have eternal life (John 3:16).