I don't have to go to Mass to be a good Catholic, or do I?

I don't have to go to Mass to be a good Catholic, or do I?


Someone may say: I don't have to go to Holy Mass to be a good Catholic; I'm a good person? I don't hurt anyone. I'm no worse then anyone else and in fact I'm a lot better then many of those who go to Church. Anyway, going to Mass makes you no more of a Christian then entering a stable makes you a horse.

To this I will respond with the following points:

1: No prayer can compare to the prayer of Christ. If, however the prayer that you pray at home can possibly top that of God's only begotten Son then do not be greedy; let the whole Church know and we will surely gather at your house next Sunday and every other Sunday from now on. P.s We will bring the towels to wipe up the blood you shed as apart of your sacrifice as well we will bring the Sacred Chalices so that having rung the towels out over the Chalices we may drink the price of our salvation at your expense. After all, Sacred Scripture does state, “Without the shedding of Blood there can be no remission of sin.” Are you sure, however, that you can afford to make this sacrifice each week because each of us are sinners and fall into sin weekly even daily and will need to make recourse to the cleansing power of blood sacrificially shed? I ask this since you are not eternal and hence you will have to offer your sacrifice each and every Sunday; unlike that Sacrifice offered by Christ, which being eternal only had to be offered once and this in a perpetual way so that others at any time may benefit from His shed blood. Can you really die each week? If you are up to it please let me know. You can reach me at 1-800-I am-confused.

2: The social nature of the human being points to the reasonableness of gathering with other Christians to celebrate what Christ has accomplished and made available to all who will receive it. I have never heard the sound of one hand clapping and I doubt that I ever will. Do you ever go to parties? Why not stay at home and enjoy your glass of red wine or couple of beer in the privacy of your own room? It sounds kind of strange, doesn't it. After all, something worth celebrating is worth celebrating with others. While the Holy Mass is not a party it is a celebration that is truly out of this world. It is a celebration of cosmic proportions. It is the celebration and triumph of life over death, grace over sin. The social nature of humanity also speaks to the validity of this statement, 'a sorrow shared is a sorrow cut in two.' We have being created by God from our conception to exist within a community namely, the human family, and by extension we live out our lives in the context of communities. Having created us, God knows much better then us what we need to live a fully human life. If in God's wisdom, he saw fit to plant us in the context of families and societies then are we going to disregard this plan when it relates to the spiritual realm which is the Church or in other words the family of God.
Have you ever loved two friends very dearly, friends who do not love one another yet not necessarily hating one another either? Then you know the feeling of wanting unity among them. Is this not the feeling of the child whose parents are divorced yet his or her love for each parent is quite deep. Doesn't this child want the reunion of his/her parents? Doesn't the child's love hunger for this unity?
Love desires that what is loved may be united with all other things or persons that are loved. Christ loves me. He loves you. The perfection of His love hungers for a true union of love between us whom He loves. If we claim to love Him, truly love Him that is, then we will also love His loves, or are we spiritually divorced from our Lover's loves. The perfection of this union happens through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in our reception of Holy Communion, which is the heart of the Beloved beating uncontrollably. To gaze upon the Beloved without seeing in His darling eyes the reflection of all that He loves is to be truly blind to Divine Love.

3: The Christian life begins at Baptism, when the Holy Spirit imprints upon the human soul the life of the God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In Baptism the soul is immersed into the communion of the three Divine Persons of the Holy Trinity and is therefore radically oriented toward being relational. For the Christian, the life they receive in Baptism demands that it be lived out in the context of their brothers and sisters who have also been immersed into the same communion of Divine Persons. Within the celebration of Baptism each person, child or adult, is not only immersed in holy water three times as the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit is invoked but is also anointed with Sacred Chrism just as Christ was anointed by the Holy Spirit as priest, prophet and king. In the Old Testament, priests, prophets and kings were the only ones anointed and this anointing always entailed a mission or task. This vocation or call to mission was always to be lived out in the context of the community of faith, for every gift received is a gift to be shared and that is what makes a gift, namely, the ability to bring people together in unity. This Sacred Chrism with which the Baptized are anointed is blessed by the Bishop alone. No one else can bless holy oil for sacramental purposes except for a priest in emergency situations. So the fact that the Bishop alone can bless this oil with which all the Baptized are anointed points to a unity existing among the baptized which finds its visible manifestation in the Bishop who is in each territory, which is also known as a diocese, the sign of Christ the good shepherd. So to be a Christian is to be Baptized and to be Baptized is to be anointed and to be anointed is to be signed with Sacred Chrism which is blessed by the Bishop. As the central figure of unity within each diocese the Bishop is the connection that each Christian has with Jesus Christ for the Bishop is the visible link between us and Christ who conferred on the Apostles who were the first Bishops of the Church the power and authority to confer the grace of Baptism upon all Christians so that they may be one just as the Father and Son are one in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus also said that He is the vine and that Christians are the branches. The logical conclusion of this statement is this: if I am united to Christ who is the Vine as a branch, I am automatically united to those other branches which are also united to Christ. If I am united to Christ I cannot deny the fact that I am also united to other baptized Christians. So to live as if I am not united to other Baptized Christians is a cause for reflection upon whether I am really united to Christ or not. I cannot possess Jesus as if He is mine alone. I cannot have a 'me and Jesus' Christianity. I cannot privatize the Vine nor the faith of the Church. If I seek to, I am in no respect faithful to the Gospel message of Jesus. It is through the Holy Sacrament of Baptism that we are grafted on to Christ the Vine as branches. To receive the gift of being grafted on to the Vine, which is Christ, we must not fail to acknowledge our responsibility to the other branches to which we are united through Christ. It is at Holy Mass that we gather to celebrate the Vine and our union with Him and pray for the strengthening of our union with Him and one another.
The anointing we received in Baptism continues the Priesthood of Jesus Christ. The heart of Priesthood is sacrifice and St. Peter tells us in his letter that as the baptized we are called to offer spiritual sacrifices through Christ to the Father. What in essence is being said by St. Peter is that the Baptized are called to unite the daily sacrifice of their lives with the Holy Sacrifice of Christ celebrated in the Holy Mass to God the Almighty Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit. It is only in union with Christ's Holy Sacrifice that our daily sacrifices become a pleasing fragrance before the throne of God the Almighty Father in heaven.

4: Jesus says in John's Gospel, 'if you love Me you will keep my commands.' On the night before Christ died we celebrated the Passover meal with his disciples. While at Table He took bread in His sacred hands and having given thanks He broke the bread and gave it to them saying, “Take this all of you and eat it, this is My body which will be given up for you.” He then took the cup and having given thanks He gave the cup to His disciples saying, “Take this all of you and drink from it, this is the cup of My blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant, it will be shed for you and for all, so that sins may be forgiven, do this in memory of Me.” As we can see, the celebration of the Last Supper is a command from Jesus. This command is the heart of the Holy Mass in which we receive the substantial presence of Christ in His Body and Blood although in a sacramental manner.(This sacramental manner does not mean, however, and I repeat, this does not mean that Holy Communion is a symbol of Christ's Body and Blood. Rather this Sacramental presence of Christ in what appears to be ordinary bread and wine is in fact the body and blood of Christ who is God. Is this not the most awesome mystery possible, so awesome in fact that Jesus knew that His divine presence in Holy Communion would boggle the minds of His Church that He had to command her to “do this in memory of Me.” If we say we love Christ, we must love Him as He has asked us to love Him and if we don't then our love for Him is not real. It is only lip service. To love Christ therefore is to keep His commands and He commanded us to gather to celebrate His Divine presence in Holy Communion.

5: To build upon what was said in #4 we must look to chapter 6 of John's Gospel in which Jesus says, “unless you eat and drink the flesh and blood of the Son of Man then you have no life in you.” We need to eat and drink His Body and Blood on the threat that we will not have life in us if we do not. Those who faithfully eat and drink His Body and Blood are also given the promise not only of life, but life eternal. This is why Holy Communion is spoken of as the Medicine of Immortality. Who wants to live forever? Then Holy Mass here we come.

6: The Holy Sacrifice of Calvary is not a mere abstraction that happening nearly 2000 years ago saves us. Rather this Holy Sacrifice is concretely present to us at each Mass as time gently bows its head and genuflects as eternity shines for a brief 60 minutes. The Holy Sacrifice is eternal. It happened in time but because it was an offering of the Eternal Son of God it has an eternal quality which transcends the limits of time. This eternal quality Christ alone can accomplish and He perpetuates this Holy Accomplishment in every day and age by tightly and intimately hugging the man He calls to be Himself so as to conceive in this man's soul by the working of the Holy Spirit the same who was conceived in the womb of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ the Author and finisher of our faith.
The historical significance of Calvary is not our salvation if we understand its significance as something we intellectually lassoe through faith some twenty centuries later. Rather the historical significance of Calvary becomes significant for us by virtue of its eternal significance. The historical significance of Calvary acknowledges the eternal significance of Calvary, because it is not bound to the limits of time. It is this eternal significance, which is perpetuated in the Holy Mass that enables all people of every period in history to work out their salvation with fear and trembling albeit in an unbloodied manner according to the Sacramental will of God. This eternal significance is perpetuated because Christ has mirrored Himself, His very Self in the souls of those men whom He has called to Himself so as to continue His saving mission.
The Priest is Christ in your midst, who daily offers His one-time sacrifice. If you are to be saved you must unite yourself to Him. Christ forever lives to intercede for us and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass celebrated daily on Altars throughout the world is this 'Intercession'. Just as Christ said, 'without Me you can do nothing', these words are equally true of the Priest in our midst, who is at the head of the Church. Without the Priest we can do nothing for he is Christ in our midst and he has the marks to show it albeit in his soul, which is symbolically expressed in and by his ecclesiastical attire, which worn faithfully serves as a reminder to himself and the world around him of his consecration.
We are not saved by ourselves but by Christ alone. It is Christ who gives us the Liturgy; we do not concoct our salvation. It is by uniting ourselves to Christ as His body that we pass beyond the veil. Salvation is entirely gift and this stems from the saving sacrifice of Christ on the Cross, who in Himself is the Priest. Therefore when you prayerfully gather for Holy Mass with your eyes you see a mere man but by the power of the Holy Spirit before you stands another Christ to whom you must humbly unite yourselves if you would be saved for there is no other name given under Heaven by which we can be saved and this name and identity are engraved in the soul of the man who becomes priest so that Christ being in your presence can save your soul.

7: God has willed to express Himself and His plan of salvation in this world in a sacramental manner. The world sacrament means: A visible sign of an invisible reality. It is also a visible sign of an invisible grace. So God makes the mystery of Himself and His saving grace, which is necessary for our salvation, present through visible signs and symbols. The Sacraments are also guarantees of God's grace. Though God may offer His grace to us at any time and in any place as He chooses He has given His word that the Sacraments which number up to 7 will guarantee the transmission of grace each and every time they are received. In the Sacraments we are guaranteed a grace filled encounter with God. Why not choose what God has willed to offer us as a sure path to Him. These Sacraments form the backbone of the Church's life with the Most Blessed of the Sacraments being the Heart of the Church's life namely the Eucharist which is the source and summit of the Catholic Christian life celebrated in each and every Holy Mass.

8: Many hands make light work. The Gospel speaks about Christian mission-we are sent out in two's. Jesus did not say, 'you go home and I will come later.' Rather, He said, 'go out into all the neighboring towns and villages to which I myself will also come.' Love is not love which does not seek to go out of itself for the other and Christian mission is directed at bringing the love Christ has for us to others so as to attract them to communion with Christ.

9: When the Lord Jesus returns in His great glory, He will be returning for His Bride which is His mystical Body. He is not returning only for her big toe which chose to be hidden away from the rest of the mystical Body in some sock drawer.

10: The Church building is Holy because it was consecrated. In other words, it has been set apart for the worship of God. To use an analogy and not meaning to be irreverent by means of the analogy I ask does a person pee in the kitchen or sleep in the porch? No, people pee in washrooms and they sleep in bedrooms. These places have been designated for good order. So in a worldly sense even the non-religious see the purpose of 'consecrating' or setting apart times and places for certain things. How much more should we as children of God acknowledge the Consecration that the Church building has received for prayer and worship?

11: Jesus says, 'a city built on a hill cannot be hidden,' and 'no one lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel basket.' We must share our talents with the community. We cannot be selfish about such gifts. Our vocation is a calling to bear fruit for the whole Church. We all have belly buttons don't we? They serve to remind us that we can't survive on our own and that we are dependent upon others. Baptism in a real sense is like a spiritual belly button which leaves us dependent upon Holy Mother Church for our spiritual survival. In the spiritual level, however, we cannot sever our umbilical cord lest we wish to impale ourselves upon our own ego. The Church for the Baptized is what the Dialysis machine is for the person with kidney failure.
Who ever heard of a banana tree eating its own fruit? It is always picked and disseminated to others who rejoicing in it give praise to God for it recognizing that though the bananas came from the banana tree the ultimate source of the trees fruitfulness comes from God.
Laughing is always more enjoyable when you have someone to laugh with because the other person's laughter can serve as an occasion for our own laughter to be intensified. Let our gifts and talents therefore be the same in the service of God.

12: You may say, 'I am basically a good person...” The error in this kind of thinking is of such a kind that it doesn't take into account the truth that Jesus Christ is the standard. So for example: You may be able to jump 15 feet long distance and I may only be able to jump 10 feet and so you may say about yourself, 'I don't need to go to the gym to work on my jumping because in comparison I am a pretty good jumper.' But what if we are asked to jump the Grand Canyon? If you can jump twice your normal distance on that day and I can jump three times my normal distance that same day the reality is that both of us are going to plummet to our death's because the task before us is beyond comparative success. Christ alone can bridge the gap and this with His Cross. Remember that there is an infinite degree of perfection between Christ and us with Him being the standard. So what was it we were saying about being basically good persons not needing to go to Holy Mass?

13: You say, 'I can pray at home.' Let me ask you, 'What does your prayer consist of? Are you always asking for something? Looking to be bailed out? How would you like it if the one you loved the most in this life treated you the same? Is God, the Beloved of your soul or simply a cosmic ATM machine from whom you get what you want and then abandon until the next time you're in need? Shame on us if we treat Divine Love with such ingratitude?
Prayer is a conversation of love; it is not a one way street. Through God will speak to you anywhere if you open yourself up to Him, His preference is to speak to you at the Holy Mass. At home you may speak to Him, but He likes to speak as well, and this through the heart of His Son torn asunder on the Cross perpetuated at every Holy Mass.

Indulgences

(An indulgence is the extra-sacramental remission of the temporal punishment due, in God's justice, to sin that has been forgiven, which remission is granted by the Church in the exercise of the power of the keys, through the application of the superabundant merits of Christ and of the saints, and for some just and reasonable motive.) The above definition of an Indulgence was taken from www.newadvent.org


If I really loved You, Lord, I would embrace every opportunity to grow in faith, hope and love. Do I seek out indulgences to better prepare my soul to be free of the temporal punishments due to sin so that I may not tease You with my love by delaying our union after this life by having to undergo further purification?
I know that Divine Love is not impatient but He does deserve my greatest efforts in working toward perfection in this life so that I may not cause His perfect love to wait for me on account of the slowness of my love.
Grant me a true hunger for indulgences so that I may not be accountable for neglecting the knowledge I have today with regard to how I could have better prepared myself for eternity.
May I not rob 'Love' of a Milli-second of my love by neglecting to use all the graces at my disposal for my greater sanctification and lasting union with the Divine Bridegroom of my soul.
Lord, in Your great mercy admit the Holy Souls into Your Thrice Holy presence. Amen

Homily on The Fatherhood of God, 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time Luke 11:1-13 cycle C

In today's Holy Gospel, Our Blessed Lord responds to the request of one of His disciples by teaching them how to pray. The Lord's Prayer or the Our Father as it is most commonly known is the model prayer for all Christians. In teaching His disciples this prayer the Lord Jesus was revealing then as now that the First Divine Person of the Most Holy Trinity is Father. In the Old Testament God is called Father 11 times while in the New Testament He is called Father 170 times.
But why do we call God Father? No doubt many of us may have asked ourselves this question in addition to ones like it such as: is God male or female, can God be called mother? If God is neither male nor female then why is God called Father?
The very fact that our Blessed Lord calls the First Person of the Trinity Father is reason enough. But let us explore these questions a little more in-depth so as to deepen our knowledge and love of the Father whom Jesus reveals in His very own prayer, the prayer which becomes ours through the grace of Holy Baptism.
God, as Holy Mother Church teaches is neither male nor female, He is Spirit. Yet, however, the second Person of the Most Holy Trinity who with the Father and the Holy Spirit is one God did become a human being and more specifically became a male human being. So in one sense a person who claims that God is male is correct in so far as they are speaking about the mystery of the Incarnation.
God has imprinted or stamped upon our bodies a theology that we cannot escape. Our bodies are filled with theological meaning. So given the fact that Jesus had a male anatomy does this justify the belief that men are superior to women? Of course not. But it does certainly teach us something about the first Person of the Most Holy Trinity. For in addition to becoming a human being so as to put an end to sin and the empty promises of the devil, Jesus came to reveal the first Person of the Most Holy Trinity and He did so as Father. So was Jesus' male anatomy a product of chance? Was it assumed so as to appease a male-dominated/patriarchal society? Or was it a necessary element of His mission? In other words, did Jesus, the second Person of the Most Holy Trinity who has existed eternally with the Father and the Holy Spirit, intentionally choose a male anatomy with full freedom motivated only by His mission, a mission which is inseparable from His very own Person? Aided by Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition Holy Mother Church confidently proclaims the strength of our Blessed Lord, who is not weak minded or easily pushed around by the passsing shadows of cultures and societal taboos. We see one example of this in Our Lord's conversation with the Samaritan Woman at the well, an action heavily frowned upon by the Rabbi's of Jesus' day.
Jesus chose a male anatomy precisely because He wanted to proclaim the Mystery of His Father, who through Baptism has become Our Father also. Jesus' choice to have a male body is also a reflection of His desire to uncover the original meaning of what it meant to be male and female according to God's creative plan and intent. God's creative plan entailed the reality of sexual differentiation and the call to experience the fruitfulness of sexual complementarity. Both this differentiation and complementarity are in God's creative plan aimed at revealing the Mystery of Himself and our call to participate in His Divine life.
In what way then does sexual differentiation and complementarity reveal this mystery? A prudent reflection upon the sexual anatomy of both male and female reveals the call to communion that exists between man and woman within the confines of holy Matrimony. It also reveals that the male anatomy expresses itself as a gift which the female anatomy is designed to receive. The male anatomy is designed therefore to initiate and the female anatomy is designed to receive. This differentiation and complimentarity speak to a much deeper truth, which they as symbols herald through their bodies. This truth involves the mystery of Masculine Personality and Feminine Personality. Masculine Personality is characterized by 'giving' or 'initiating', whereas the Feminine Personality is characterized by 'receiving' and 'dependence'. Now while these personalities are expressed visibly by one specific anatomy, ie. Masculine personality=male anatomy and Feminine personality=female anatomy this does not mean that a man does not possess to varying degrees this feminine personality or that a woman does not possess to varying degrees masculine personality. What this does say, however, is that a male anatomy reveals the truth of masculine personality while the female anatomy reveals the feminine personality. The whole of this revelation transcends the horizontal meaning that it has for the relationship existing between men and women by symbolically pointing us to the vertical meaning that it inherently makes visible, a meaning that teaches us about God and our relationship to Him. God is completely masculine in His personality while in relationship to Him all of creation bears a feminine personality. As a result we see the covenant language of the Holy Bible characterized by spousal analogy. In the Old Testament we read that God is the Divine Bridegroom of His holy people Israel who is spoken of as bride. This analogy is carried over into the New Testament and given it's fullest expression in the new covenant established by Christ the Divine Bridegroom with His bride the Church, a covenant sealed with the Blood of His Cross.
So this analogy works itself out like this:
God and Israel
Christ and Church
Bridegroom and Bride
Male and Female
From the Fatherhood of God flows the esteem in which Holy Mother Church defends the Traditional definition of Marriage as the covenant capable of existing between one man and one woman witnessed and blessed by Christ's representative the Priest.
This also touches on the issue of those men and women who have been born with or possibly cultured into a homosexual orientation. By it's nature a union of this type obscures and dismisses the very reality of God's covenant love for the world which is seen in Christ's love for His bride the Church and by Sacramental extension in the love expressed between man and woman within the confines of Holy Matrimony.
Finally, the Fatherhood of God which Jesus reveals through everything He does and says sheds light on the issue of a male oriented Priesthood. Without a proper education in the theology that is inherently present within our bodies as male and female this particular point could simply be dismissed as an issue of inequality that has it's roots in a patriarchal era. In fact this is why the Priest is called Father because as the representative of Christ through Holy Orders he is empowered to continue the mission of Jesus which is to uncover and destroy the works of satan and to reveal the first Person of the Most Holy Trinity whom Jesus in today's Gospel teaches us to call Father through the intimacy of prayer.
Any attempt to divinize the earth, which is common among the adherents of mother earth worship is to deny or at least obscure the Fatherhood of God. It is to reject that God is a loving Father from whom every grace and blessing flows. Supporters of mother earth who place a god-like quality upon creation are deceived and when persistent in this error after having been informed are seriously dangerous to others not to say anything about their own spiritual condition. Mother earth worship is much like the story told in the Book of Genesis about Adam and Eve who instead of waiting upon and trusting in the Fatherhood of God to provide for them they chose at the instigation of satan, father of lies, to reach out their hands and take instead of receiving as God had intended. They got caught up in the gift and not the true gift, which is the Giver of the gift. Is this not what mother earth worship does? It sees the gift of the earth as the Giver of the gift which we can be at one with as if it were the underlying principle of all existence as is common among various strains of Hindu and Buddhist belief (the belief that there is one reality that we must work toward so as to be freed from the false sense of the self). In essence mother earth worship denies the distinction between us and God by placing a godlike quality upon the earth which we must strive to be at one with. This pursuit leaves little space for the necessary mediation of Jesus Christ in experiencing perfection. The Fatherhood of God reveals our creatureliness and our utter and complete dependence upon the generous and all loving God who created us. Mother earth worship removes this sense of dependence by replacing it with a sense of mutual exchanges thereby limiting the need to acknowledge one's dependence. Mother earth worship is in my estimation characterized by pride, impersonalism and intolerance toward rightful distinctions.
In the story of Adam and Eve it was they who took the initiative, which is the prerogative of God. They were implicitly denying their creatureliness by not acknowledging the limits placed upon them. Their action revealed an unwillingness to be Feminine in their relationship with God, they were not going to simply stand by and wait upon someone else to offer hand-me-downs.
Yet in God's punishment upon the Woman He says that her giving birth will be characterized by pain and yet her desire will be for the Man. Does this not also carry within it according to the same theology stamped upon their bodies that even though humanity lifted up it's foot against the Fatherhood of God in the Garden our deepest desire is still for Him, a gift however which can only be received not taken. The punishment levied against the Man entailed making his livelihood by the sweat of His Brow. Was this not the plight of the Son of Man, The Christ who in making a livelihood for His family had to undergo the sweat of His brow on the wood of the Cross so as to mediate between the Father and the Woman the possible union that was her desire in the midst of her suffering. The woman symbolic of the whole human race injured her relationship with the Fatherhood of God by overstepping her bounds and yet despite her sin her desire for divinity would not be diminished but rather it would be given birth only with great difficulty. Is this giving birth not indicative of humanity's interior struggle with self mastery which will happen only by it's union with the Man who will make fruitful her attempts by laying down his life on the wood of the Cross thereby initiating the plan of salvation by the sweat of His brow. In this story as the Father levies out punishment He does so not only upon humanity but upon His own divinity which would be subjected to the pain of a frail human nature torn and ripped asunder on the Cross.
Today, let us give thanks to God for revealing the very mystery of salvation in the theology imprinted upon our bodies. Let us be proud to be a male or a female acknowledging that our particular body proclaims symbolically the mystery of Christ's sacrificial love for the Church and the Church's response to Christ of reception through the sacred action of 'Remembrance', which is the mystery of the Father's love for the world, a love that flows from His initiative. May our sins never blind us to the perpetual truth of this mystery proclaimed so well in John's Gospel, "For God so loved the world that 'He gave' His only begotten Son so that all who believe (receive Him in faith) may not perish but have everlasting life.

An Endless Stream of Sighs

My smallness at last is oh so real. I now behold that I am borrowed breath. And You, O Lord, well where can I begin and to what end will I start for to behold You is more then words can say. To even attempt such is a pointless pursuit that bears no distinguishable progress for to begin is to acknowledge all that one has already failed to say. I must stop now for so futile are my words. But yet my mouth cannot help feeling pressured by my eyes to translate into words the vision that has produced within my heart an endless stream of sighs. 

Reflection on the Story of the Samaritan Woman in a penitential light

The Samaritan woman in today’s Gospel reading left her water pot behind, will we? Leaving behind her water pot the Samaritan woman was also leaving behind her failed attempts to satisfy a deeper yearning which had been veiled until her eye-opening encounter with Jesus. The very place where the Samaritan woman met Jesus is the same place she had been coming for years in order to quench her thirst, a thirst having a symbolism beyond the merely physical. Without knowing it the woman who left her water pot behind set forth to evangelize by bringing with her the message of her encounter with the Messiah. The people of the town to whom she went saw not only the truth of her words but they also saw the transformation that had taken place in her. The people of the town went out to meet Jesus where the woman had encountered Him. She had met him at the well; the well being symbolic of those things that cannot satisfy but by which we are drawn time and time again. It is in the midst of this well that the people of the town encounter Jesus. They encounter Jesus in their own sins and failures, symbolized in their need to keep coming back to the well.
At first the people of the town accept the woman’s words and the transformation that has occurred in her life as a cause for belief but then through their own personal encounter at the well with Jesus they are able to say that they no longer believe solely because of the woman’s words but because they too have been transformed by Christ who gives to all living water, a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.
All the people then urged Jesus to stay with them and he did for two days. When Jesus left though it doesn’t say this in the story I believe that there was more than just the woman’s water pot left behind by the well.
This evening Jesus poses this question to each and every one of us including me: Do you need an appointment at the well? Let us this evening take advantage of the mercy of God and sit with Jesus by the well for if we do he will direct us on the right path and give us the strength to leave our own water pots behind.

Reconciliation Service March 23rd 2007 St. Patrick's Burin

What is sin? Is it not a rejection of God’s will in favour of our own? In the Gospel that we have just heard the people in the crowd were given a choice between Jesus Christ and Jesus Barabbas. It is interesting to note that Barabbas who was a criminal also had the same first name as Jesus Christ and furthermore his surname means ‘son of the father’. Barabbas stands for each and every one of us, he stands for our own will which is accepted over and above God’s will, which is to believe in his only begotten Son. The people in the crowd were Jews who had been under the oppression of the Roman Empire for years and were seeking release from their bondage. God also wanted to release them from their bondage and through the prophets he promised to deliver them. It was God's will however to release them from bondage to the evil that the human heart is capable of by eliminating sin. However, they were not willing to wait upon the Lord to rescue them because they preferred their own concept of deliverance. Deliverance which came by the sword. Barabbas was a criminal, he was a murderer one that knew how to fight with the sword and therefore the crowd chose him because he was in keeping with their will.

How I have longed to gather together all of my children. Do you know how much rejection hurts? I am the author of love and for me the hurt is so much more real. When I stood before Pilate and heard the crowd call for Barabbas instead of me, what was I to say? Who shall stand in the crowd and call my name, will you? When you come before a priest acknowledging your sins you are calling out my name because you are calling on my name. I will be looking for you. You must teach others to call my name.

I want you to abandon yourself into my loving arms. I want you for myself, me alone. I am in this for the long haul. I promise to be true. You will not match me in charity. My love is too potent it will get you every time. I’m not kidding.

Reflection for Wednesday June 6, 2007 9th Week of Ordinary Time

In today’s Gospel Jesus points out that everyone who has a relationship with God even though they may cease to exist upon earth are still alive in the eyes of God. He illustrates this by referring to the story of the Burning Bush in which God reveals himself to Moses as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. At the time when God spoke to Moses from the Bush Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had already been dead for over two hundred years and so it is interesting to note that God says of himself that: ‘I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob’ as opposed to saying: ‘I was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
It just goes to show that relationships are for the living and those who have been faithful to God in this life will forever be alive to God in the next life.
Jesus also points out in today’s gospel that when people rise from the dead at the resurrection they will neither marry nor be given in marriage. Since there will be no marriage in eternity this also means that there will be an end to procreation and therefore we who exist are a collectors item because we are a limited edition. Each one of us are numbered among the limited number of human beings that God has chosen to collect and gather to himself as his prized possessions, as trophies on his wall even. Each time I think about this reality I am filled with a unique sense of being special. All of us have been created with great care and concern by the wondrous hand of God who calls us to himself daily in the Eucharist so that he may teach us the Truth of the Scriptures and the Power of God at work in our lives, a power which transcends even death itself

Homily for the 5th Sunday of Easter, Cycle C

What's new about this commandment? The OT laws also include the command to love your neighbor as yourself. “As I have loved you.” Sacrificial love, which rejoices in Truth.
Central vocation of every Catholic is to love; love as is defined and lived out by our Blessed Lord.
How do we generate vocations to love as Christ commands? We need to sanctify our society with love. We need to work toward the holiness and transformation of our society. We work toward this goal empowered by the love of Christ which is generously poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit each time we embrace Jesus in Holy Communion.
Example: Driving someone home after the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass even though its out of one's way. After all, didn't Jesus teach us that if we do good only to those to whom we expect to receive something in return then we are no better then the tax collectors and sinners.
Love is the answer, but not just any kind of love for as we know there are unnatural forms of love, disordered forms of love and forms of love that are indifferent to the call of truth.
Love can transform our society, but we must be its voice, hands and feet.
Does our use of technology really reflect sacrificial love? Have we become so enticed by technology that our familiarity with it and our dependance upon it have blinded us to the needs of one another and its effects upon our society. Has the convenience of technology in some ways stunted our primary growth and call to be disciples of sacrificial love.
Example of Technology that we take for granted can be a cause for reflection on sacrificial love.
The all famous ATM machine-aren't they the cause of some of the unemployment that affects our society, even though they are a great convenience.
But here's the question: Would we be willing to stand an extra 10-15 minutes in a line up waiting for a bank teller if it meant it would create more jobs?
Are we willing to live out the command to love as Jesus loves us even when it requires sacrifice and inconvenience? Is it not the true nature of love to draw one self out of their own shell so as to live life as a gift.
How are we as the Body of Christ in this world being instruments through which Christ can say, “See, I am making all things new.”
The Spirit at work in us is greater then the spirit at work in the world. We have the power to bring about change but we must come together as believers committed to the love that requries personal and communal sacrifice.
What kind of world, society and city are we creating or allowing to be created? It is one that truly highlights this new command of Jesus?
We have a voice and the command of Jesus Christ to us is that we use it to transform this world, society and city by our sacrificial love, a love that will birth to a wisdom that cannot be confounded?
For such change, for such transformation to be brought about we need people, especially the lay faithful whose particular vocation is to transform society through the grace they receive from this altar, to take charge in society by bringing our Catholic values to every sector of society. How are we teaching the young to recognize this need and how are we supporting them in answering it. Who here will take the initiate to bring about some change?
This is not some pie in the sky theological homily. We have the power, the power of the Risen Lord, we must not shrink away from using it. No one lights a lamp and hides it under a table.
Jesus says to us today, “if we have love for one another, his sacrificial love, then everyone will know that we are His disciples.”
Does this city of St. John's know that we are Christ's disciples?

Homily on Beauty, inspired by the Words: "And God saw that it was good."

When we enjoy beauty are we conscious of participating in an action rooted in the divine? Not only do we engage in a divine action when observing beauty but whether conscious of it or not we are also invited to experience communion with the Transcendent God who at that very moment is also delighting in that beauty.
My hope for us today is that we can begin to move into a more conscious awareness of God’s presence with us in a particular way while we observe beauty in its many expressions, whether it be watching a sunset, or listening to the sound of birds chirping melodiously or gazing upon a work of art by Michelangelo or listening to one of Beethoven's symphonies. The list goes on. In all of these let us be conscious and confident that our delight is coupled intimately with the delight of our loving Triune God such that during or after each encounter with beauty the phrase, ‘And God saw that it was good’ could be broadened to say, ‘And we saw, God and us together, that it was good.’ Observing beauty is like doing the tango, we miss out when we try it by ourselves. Observing beauty always offers us an opportunity for intimacy with God.
Finally, I would like to suggest that reflecting upon beauty is at the heart of the life of the Trinity. We all know what its like to get caught up in the beauty of a sunset, and how what seemed like a minute turns out to be thirty minutes later. Beauty has the power to make time stand still and within God each member of the Trinity is caught up in the beauty of each other thereby giving birth to eternity. By virtue of our baptism we are being called to participate in this eternal gallery of beauty.
As we approach the Eucharist today, let us pledge ourselves to become more conscious of God’s intimate presence waiting to delight with us in the beauty that brings delight to our hearts. As well let us give thanks to Christ who handed himself over for us so as to present us to the Father without spot, wrinkle or blemish.

Homily on St. Paul's letter to the Colossians 1:15-20

It is my wish to reflect with you this evening on the canticle taken from Paul’s letter to the Colossians. In this passage Paul is addressing a heresy that was beginning to emerge within this community of faith. As a result of his pastoral work we have the honor each Wednesday of praying this great hymn of praise to Christ who is both the source and summit of creation and redemption. The heresy that Paul is addressing is Gnostic in character because it claims that Christ is insufficient by himself to redeem humanity for the purpose for which it was created. I would like to emphasize one aspect of this great hymn of thanksgiving, namely, the verse that states, “all were created through him and for him.”
Underlying these words there exists the profound hunger of the heart of God, the call to live for him. The love we feel for people in our lives is sometimes overwhelming. God allows us to be drawn toward specific people to show us by way of analogy the energy that draws him to each human life. Whereas we tend to be drawn to one beautiful thing or person at a time, he is consumed by all that is beautiful in its entirety at each moment.
God wants nothing to get in the way of our reception of his love. We exist because he wants us to exist. Others exist in our lives because God wants them to exist. But first and foremost He wants us to exist for him. He has created us for his sole pleasure, and today he begs us not to rob him of this pleasure for after all he endured the Cross-for this pleasure.
We rob Christ of this pleasure when we like the Colossians begin doubting the all-encompassing power of Christ. Paul challenges us to live without reservations, trusting in the power of Christ. Is Christ supreme in our lives and is his sacrifice on the cross-adequate enough in meeting our deepest needs and desires or do we have reservations in entrusting our whole lives to Christ? What else is needed? The temptations faced by us are analogous to the temptation that the Colossians faced. We believe in Christ just like them and we also grapple with the temptation to lessen his supremacy in our lives by putting on par with Christ other things that seem to be necessary components in making for happiness and final fulfillment. Paul reminds us that Christ in his very person and mission alone reveals humanity to itself. We need not look elsewhere to find the purpose for which we were created. Let us entrust our whole selves to Christ this evening prayerfully remembering that his arm is not too short to save even in what seems hopeless.

Lenten Homily based on John 9:1-41

As I was preparing my homily for today’s Mass I found myself drawn to reflect upon the Gospel reading in light of this question: “What is the unspoken story of each character’s life?” As a whole the story of the man born blind is a message of faith; a faith, which is seen to grow and deepen as life happens. It is an assurance to many of us who may at times find ourselves struggling with teachings of our holy catholic faith.
I could not help but wonder as I pondered the words of this gospel as to the unspoken story of this man’s life. In the latter part of this gospel passage John introduces us to the parents of this man. Yet this man is seen to be a beggar. What happened to the relationship that should exist between a parent and a child in this situation? There seems to be no longer any real connection between this man and his parents. I wonder what happened between those hours when these proud parents would have rocked their baby boy to sleep each evening and brag about him to their neighbors and now when left to care for himself he is seen to be a beggar dusty and dirty sitting at the corner of 1st and 3rd street in Jerusalem? A countless number of answers could be given to this question.
Our own journey of faith is affected by our life experience. Just as Jesus saw the blind man in a way that others could not, so too he sees us and every detail of life that has contributed to, who we are today. Jesus approaches each of us with knowledge of our whole life history because love seeks to understand better the one who is loved so that the invitation of faith may recognize and appreciate the slowness with which we sometimes accept and live out the faith to which Jesus invites us.
The experience of the blind man points to a journey in faith. At the outset of this gospel passage he refers to Jesus as the ‘Man called Jesus” who put mud on his eyes. A little later when questioned by the Pharisees he refers to Jesus as a ‘Prophet’. Finally, when confronted with Jesus one on one at the end of the passage he makes the ultimate expression of faith he calls Jesus ‘Lord’ and begins to offer him worship. He did not begin by proclaiming Jesus as Lord but by acting upon what was stirring within his heart as a result of his encounter with Jesus.
As the blind man was on his way to wash in the pool as Jesus commanded I wonder if he stopped and thought to himself, ‘what am I doing, no one has ever heard of a man born blind being healed of his blindness. Who am I kidding.’ Maybe he stopped many times before reaching the pool of Siloam but because he felt the inner stirrings of the man called Jesus he could not help but satisfy the curiosity he experienced.
It is these same inner stirrings that have given rise to the season of Lent, a journey that we undertake yearly when we seek to deepen our baptismal faith. Each one of us is at a different level in our faith journey but together we make this journey and it is together that we form the light of Christ in this world a light, which helps to guide others to know and love Jesus as he truly is.
Throughout the universal Church countless people will undergo a scrutiny this weekend during Mass. The Church’s intention behind this scrutiny is to help assist those on their way toward receiving baptism or full initiation into the Church at the Easter Vigil. By means of this scrutiny the Church hopes to strengthen those preparing to make the final decision to accept Jesus as Lord with their hearts as well as their minds at Easter Time.
Just as the man born blind could not find his way to the pool of Siloam without someone guiding him there so too with those who are seeking to enter the life of the Church. We the baptized must be for them a light shining in the darkness so that they may rejoice in due time when the supernatural life-sized smile of Christ shines upon them in its brilliance.
This journey of faith, which we call lent is not only for those who will enter the Church at Easter time but rather it is for all the baptized a time to deepen our faith in Jesus Christ. For as the baptized we have been drenched in divinity, and everywhere we go we drip the very mystery that we have become. In truth, God has given us the shirt off his back, his very own divinity.
As we receive the Eucharist in a few moments we will receive into the solar system of our souls the Son of God. Throughout the remainder of Lent let us strive eagerly to be the window through which his light shines upon the world.

A Homily On Our Lady's Magnificat

Deep within every human heart there is a song that is waiting to be sung in unison with all other hearts. For Mary this song is her Magnificat. We are truly privileged to know this song and greatly blessed by God when we pray it both as individuals and as a faith community. We must thank the pages of Scripture for this song and more specifically we must thank St. Luke. St. Luke has situated this beautiful canticle in the context of Mary’s visit to her cousin Elizabeth. Mary’s song is proclaimed in response to this encounter with her cousin. A quick survey of her song will show how extremely important humility is to it. Mary not only sings this song gracefully; she also compliments it by her life. It is Mary’s example of humility in visiting her cousin Elizabeth that I want to focus on.
Mary is the perfect disciple and as we journey on the road of discipleship we need look no further than Mary as our example. It is in cooperating with Christ’s self-emptying love that each of us will be able to reach that state of holiness to which we are called; a state, which is without spot, wrinkle or blemish. It is in Mary’s humble cooperation with God’s love that this holiness is most fully realized.
Just as Jesus humbled himself taking on the form of a slave so too did Mary humble herself under the mighty hand of God. Though Mary was graced with the greater honor of bearing Christ rather than Elizabeth who carried his forerunner, she did not consider herself more highly esteemed than Elizabeth. Mary on the other hand acknowledged everything as being a gift from God and that none of us are the sole bearers of those gifts and when we no longer associate with the lowly in their joy we risk the danger of falling into pride.
So Mary united her joy with that of Elizabeth such that there was just one joy. Mary was acknowledging that both gifts, Jesus and John, were a part of God’s plan. It was not Mary or Elizabeth who deserved the honor and glory but God who in his kindness choose both women to be cooperators in his plan of salvation.
Just as Mary pondered in her heart the great things that God had done in her life, we too are called to ponder the great things the Lord is doing or has done in our lives. By virtue of the humility that she embodied Mary was able to go out beyond herself and testify to and celebrate the great things, which the Almighty was doing in Elizabeth’s life.
The power of God at work in this joyous event is clearly gratuitous. Just as He favored Mary with such high honor so he favors us with special gifts but we must have humble hearts like Mary. Humility releases us from our own grip and allows and empowers us to go beyond ourselves in the service of others. Humility gives birth to joy, a joy, which must be shared with others. Humility never puffs up or exalts oneself; it always refers the honor to God. Let us with Mary acknowledge all the good things that we are owner of as being gifts from God for when we do, it is then that we sing in unison the song that echoes within the holy heart of Mary.

My reflection on how I see the role of Obedience in my call to Priesthood

I feel that I am doing my best to be obedient to God's call. My experience of obedience to God's call is one in which I am losing my former concept or experience of freedom. For me, obedience means losing my own free time. For me obedience means dying to self. Obedience is calling me to surrender my preference for being an introvert. Obedience is giving rise to endurance and consequently strength in character. Obedience is drawing me into prayer especially when it demands me to step outside of my comfort zone. Obedience is also allowing me to see the ugliness of my me centered life and the resentment that I have toward God for calling me to surrender my whole life to him with nothing left for myself. Obedience gives clarity of vision to our own will. Just as fasting heightens ones sense of their appetite so too does obedience heighten our sense of the attachments that we have to self-will. Obedience also speaks to me of the words of Jesus to Peter: Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.
Obedience requires that we live according to God's time, which is the acceptable time of salvation. Obedience draws us deeper into friendship with God, reliance upon him and the awareness that he alone is our rock of refuge and support in life. It develops a capacity for solitude, for aloneness which gives aid in living a prayerful, celibate life.
Obedience is giving birth in me to an eagerness for the kingdom of God in which the celibate life finds completion. Obedience cultivates a spirit of detachment thereby deepening our availability and accessibility to be used by God for the good of his holy people. I find that obedience is leading me to the cross where I must die to self so that others may have life. It also draws me deeper into the life of Christ who out of obedience to His Father suffered for me. I feel that obedience is giving me a first hand experience of what Christ has done for us. Living a life of constant and on-going obedience reminds me and presents me with a real and fresh encounter with Christ・s obedience to the Father; an encounter which gives the strength necessary to continue marching on in the midst of the many trials and tribulations that are bound to come my way. Obedience is in a certain sense a distinguishing characteristic in my discernment process. I am aware of a strong sense of duty toward answering this call because of my firm belief in the divine origin of this call to priesthood. For me obedience is like the wind in the road which beckons the hiker's curiosity as to what lays beyond that wind in the road despite the fact that the hiker's legs are tiring from the journey, a journey which is not the normal path to which he is accustomed.

A Word Study on the Greek Term applied to the Church=Ecclesia

Ekklesia
The second Vatican council which convened between the years 1962-1965 endeavored to address a number of issues which were facing the Church in regard to her own self-understanding and mission. Of all the documents that came out of this holy synod it was Lumen Gentium which actually addressed directly the Church's understanding of being 'Church'. In speaking about herself and in order to articulate her self-reflection, the Church alluded to the holy scriptures, the writings of the Church Fathers and the faithful witness of her own Tradition which never ceases to be a loyal and formative guide. In the same document mentioned above, the fathers of the holy synod outlined eight areas pertaining to the Church's self-understanding. The list of eight includes the following: "The Mystery of the Church, the People of God, the Hierarchy, the Laity, the Call to Holiness, the Religious, the Pilgrim Church, and Our Lady." (Flannery 350-432) The area of concern for this paper will obviously be upon the Church, but specifically upon the Church as the 'People of God'. The people of God in both Old and New Testaments were defined by a certain word. In the Tanak, the word used for the people of God is lhq,, which is 'qahal' and in the New Testament the term that speaks of the people of God is 'ekklesia which is 'ecclesia'. The focus of this paper therefore will be to analyze the Greek word 'ecclesia' as it is used in the New Testament. This task will necessitate a certain amount of reflection upon the term 'qahal' that has already been mentioned. In addition to examining the semantic range of the term 'ecclesia' and it's Hebrew counterpart 'qahal', it would be fitting to tackle the question of why the early Christian communities chose such a word to define their fellowship in Christ. Upon completion of this study it would be helpful to examine the importance of this word study for our own spiritual lives.
Starting with Strong's Exhaustive concordance we find that the Greek term for Church is 'ekklesia' and it entails the following meaning: "Church, congregation, assembly; a group of people gathered together. It can refer to the OT assembly of believers (Ac 7:38), or a riotous mob (Ac 19:32), but usually to a Christian assembly, a church: as a totality (Eph 3:10), or in a specific locale (Col. 4:15). In the NT a church is never a building or meeting place." (Strong's 1494) The term ecclesia occurs in the New Testament a total of "118" times. (Strong's 1494) The term ekklesia comes from a Greek preposition "ek" and a Greek verb "kalew". (TDNT 488) The preposition ek means "out of" and the verb kalew means "to call, invite or summon". (TDNT 488) By virtue of the roots of ekklesia we are able to see that ecclesia denotes the idea of being called out of something, to be summoned out of or from something. The verb kalew, being of such fundamental importance to our term ecclesia also deserves an examination of its own. In the New Testament this verb occurs a total of "145" times and entails the following connotations: "to call, invite, summon. The authority of the speaker dictates the nature of the calling (friends invite; kings summon). This is also translated 'to name', the giving of an attribution to someone or something." (Strong's 1506)
Ekklesia, as an assembly seems to have been very political in its origins. It "denotes the popular assembly of the competent citizens of a polis, city-state (in Athens, they met 30-40x a year, more in times of emergency). Decisions were made on suggested changes in law, on appointments to official positions, and on every important question of internal and external policy (contracts, treaties, war and peace, finance). To these was added, in special cases (e.g., treason), the task of sitting in judgment, which normally fell to regular courts. The ekklesia opened with prayers and sacrifices to the gods. Every citizen had the right to speak and propose matters for discussion; a decision was valid only if it won a certain number of votes." (Verbrugge 388) Despite being fairly political in structure, the translators whose task it was to translate the Tanak into the Greek Septuagint chose to employ its use in rendering the Hebrew term lhq. Two questions arise around this topic. One: what does the Hebrew word 'qahal' mean?; two: why choose the Greek term 'ecclesia' to translate its meaning? Let us now look at the meaning of the word 'qahal'. lhq "means a summons to an assembly and the act of assembling. What assembles is the h'de, the m' (people), Israel, Judah, the elders, or the princes. This breadth of usage indicates that the decisive meaning of the word is to be determined from the noun, not from the verb. Who make up the qahal? In the earliest strata of the OT, the word stands primarily for the summons to war of all the men capable of bearing arms. To a certain extent, the soldiers represent the people, but occasionally the word stands for the whole congregation of the people." (Verbrugge 389) The term 'edah' is "the unambiguous and permanent term for the covenant community as a whole, while 'qahal' is the ceremonial expression for the assembly that results from the covenant. Where ekklesia is used in the LXX for 'qahal', it indicates the assembly of the people or a judicial assembly, i.e., a political body. It also indicates, especially in Chr,. the assembly of the people for worship. Still, even in these cases ekklesia is only used where it is a question of the people of God's assembly, characterized by Yahweh's call. Admittedly the word is used esp. where the historic greatness of Israel is implied and avoided where it could be a merely political claim. Perhaps that is why, in legal passages regulating the life of the community, qahal is translated by synagoge." (Verbrugge 390) From these few quotes we can see that the term 'edah' is somewhat of an umbrella term for the people of God in general and that qahal is more narrowly the 'assembly' that has responded affirmatively to Yahweh's initiative. Verbrugge also points out that the term 'qahal' is not only translated by ekklesia but rather it also appears as 'synagoge'. The earliest Christians could have chosen either 'ekklesia' or 'synagoge' to convey the reality of their assembly or gatheing, so why did they choose the former over the latter? It appears that "toward the end of the first century, Christians were no longer welcome in the synagogue", which maybe accounted by the strong presence of polemic in the writings of the New Testament. (Verbrugge 391)
So, to distinguish themselves from the legalism of the Jewish religion and the synagogues in which they were no longer welcome the first century Christians consciously chose the Greek term 'ekklesia'. What did the early Christians understand by this term 'ekklesia'? "One can say with certainty that all the early Christian writers used ekklesia only for those fellowships that came into being after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Its roots lie in the fact that some of the disciples became witnesses of resurrection appearances and were commissioned to bear the news that the time of salvation had dawned. In other words, the concept of the Church developed through the consciousness of being in the eschatological situation created by the resurrection appearances. The early Christian ekklesia understood itself as the herald of the lordship of Christ, which was already being realized in their midst." (Verbrugge 392) What is really interesting about this self-understanding of being a witness of the resurrection can be seen in a word that is related to the verb Kalew which underlies the term 'ekklesia'. The related word is Parakalew, Paraklesis. This is the word used by Jesus to refer to the coming 'comforter' or 'paraclete' who would lead the apostles into the fullness of truth which they were not able to receive prior to his death and resurrection. The 'Paraclete' was the gift of the Father which Jesus was going to send in his name so that his disciples could be witnesses to the ends of the earth of the 'Good News'. It is from the opened side of Christ on the Cross that the Church find's her origins. The nature and mission of the ekklesia is bound up in the Most Holy Trinity. The Church is the sacramental extension of Christ's incarnation in the world. The presence of the Spirit in each and every member of the ekklesia helps to complete the saving work of Christ. The term found in John's gospel for the 'paraclete' has the same root as that of the 'ekklesia'. "Parakletos means legal advisor, advocate, counselor or helper;" and understood in this way both Christ and the Holy Spirit are for the Church its advocate and helper. (Balz 28) This very same paraclete, the Holy Spirit, had descended upon the disciples who had been gathered in the upper room at Pentecost. This descent of the Holy Spirit ensured in a definitive manner the birth of the 'ekklesia' in that the disciples were now fully equipped with boldness for the mission that lay ahead. As mentioned above, the earliest Christians understood themselves as being witnesses to the resurrection and the dawn of a new day in the plan of God's salvation. This understanding is inextricably bound up with the Pentecost experience. Another interesting point about the relation between Parakaleo and Ekkaleo is that St. Paul speaks about our inefficiency to pray as we ought but at the same time we have the Spirit of Christ who prays for us in the inner depths of our spirits. We are the Church, those who have been called out of spiritual slavery into the light of God's presence, called to be a holy people, a royal priesthood who offer spiritual sacrifices. The Spirit, is the Paraclete which is the adjectival form of parakaleo, assists us in being Church.







Pastoral Application


From what I have learned from my study is directly related to the lives we live as Christians. The usage of the word 'ekklesia' denotes the idea of being called out of something. The call in and of itself finds its importance in the one who does the calling. As Church, specifically Roman Catholics, we have been called by God the Father through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit to live lives in keeping with our baptismal dignity. In the sacrament of baptism we enter through the doors of the Church into the family of God and are sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit who enables and 'helps' us in our Christian vocation. Even within our 'gathering together' as Church, our rich Tradition has shown us that God not only calls people out of the world to be his very own people but also that he calls some of our very own members out from our midst to serve in various ministries for the good of the 'assembly'. The whole notion of Church as 'ekklesia' is linked to the concept of vocation. We are a people that have been called into holiness, we are the elect of God, we are the people who have answered the call of God through our affirmative response that is seen most clearly in our covenantal remembrance of Christ in the Eucharist. Within our 'ekklesia' some are called by God to offer their lives in service as ministerial priests, while others are called to the consecrated life and further still some are called to the married life in which they exercise and make concrete in the secular world the dignity of our divine calling as Church. I think that this study also shows even if only on a semantic level the deep connection between our calling as Church and the pneumatic stamp that is characteristic of that calling. In order for us to live out most fully our baptismal calling we are in need of the advocacy and counsel of the Holy Spirit who teaches us what it truly means to pray. The Holy Spirit defines who we are as Church. It is by the power and invocation of the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, that the Church is able to live out its calling which is to make present to the world for all ages the saving mystery of Christ's life, death and resurrection. Our Church teaches in its official documents that the source and summit of our strength as Catholics is to be found in the mystery of the Eucharist. It is by the invocation of the Holy Spirit, the epiclesis, and the word of Christ that the Eucharist is effected for us in our liturgies. Furthermore, this analysis of the origins of the term Church or 'ekklesia' reminds us that we have been born out of the Paschal mystery of Christ. It was from the disciples awareness of being witnesses to Christ's resurrection that the Church's message grew in strength. This particular awareness is in like manner to be appropriated within each of us. We must be mindful that we are the people, God has chosen for his own. We are a people of election, covenant, and remnant. We are bearers of a message purer than gold. As Church or 'ecclesia' we are on the threshold of the kingdom of God of which we are the seed in the world. With this insight we must make known to the world around us the same call to holiness that has been given to us which in reality has called us out of the world and our former ways of behaving that were provoking God's wrath. To be 'ekklesia' involves a constant becoming, for we are not static but rather we are a pilgrim people summoned to make our election sure. The certitude of our calling is to rest on him who has called us. The root underlying the word for Church in the original Greek has for its meaning call, invite or summon and experts in the area of the Greek language tell us that the significance of such a call rests upon the one who is calling. Let us therefore reflect upon the exalted nature of our calling which has been made by God our heavenly Father. Let us implore the help of the Holy Spirit as we try to discern our own individual call of service within the Church.

Homily for the solemnity of Pentecost

In the Old Testament there is a story called the Tower of Babel. This story tells us of a time when all the nations of the earth spoke the same language. With time these nations planned to build a city and a tower whose top would reach into the heavens so as to make a name for themselves. The all-knowing God however was aware of their wicked plans and so he confounded the nations thereby dividing their one language into many. Without the unity of language these nations went their separate ways leaving behind them their city and its tower.
> In a certain sense this story speaks about the height that sin can reach in human history, a height which seeks to establish itself against the sovereignty of God. This story is one of the clearest accounts found in scripture of the extremes that the human family weighed down by sin can reach. Sin ultimately will lead to man exalting himself over and above God his Creator if man’s heart is not first changed.
> Pentecost is a reversal of what happens at the Tower of Babel. The nations of the world are called together in unity by the Holy Spirit to once again speak one language, the language of praise for the many wondrous deeds that God has worked for the good of the human family. Pentecost is also an invitation to build the city of God where the only name we will seek is the one that God so chooses to give us. Really, what better a name can human beings receive than to be called sons and daughters of the living God?
> Pentecost is not a one-time event. It is the eternal waterfall that continually beats down upon the Church’s calloused hands softening them for the task of handling the Sacred Mysteries of God’s life which is contained in the vessel known as the human heart.
> Pentecost is also a time for getting the kinks out of the hose of salvation so that all the peoples of the earth may come to know that the Church is the well spring of salvation established by Jesus Christ in order to satisfy the deepest yearnings of every human heart.
> Pentecost is a time of contagious joy, a time of exuberant gladness. It is a sign of God’s victory taking on concrete form in human history. The victory of the Resurrection has been sealed by the coming of the Holy Spirit in Pentecost. It is one thing to hear a message and accept it, but to live it is another thing. That is why the Church was not ready for its mission of worldwide evangelization until it received the gift of the Holy Spirit who enables us to live out our exalted call to holiness.
> We all know what its like to fill out a resume and the purpose of doing such. In writing a resume a person tries to sell them self. If such a person is to be taken seriously and considered for a specific job or task they usually need a few references who are capable of testifying to the authenticity of that person’s claim about them self and their resume. The more important the reference the greater the chances they have of selling them self. The Holy Spirit is the Church’s reference and the Gospel is her Resume. The Spirit testifies that who the Church claims herself to be in the Gospel is authentically accurate.
> In Pentecost we celebrate our divine inheritance. As adopted sons and daughters of God we are heirs to the innumerable riches gained for us by Christ’s complete surrender to His Father.
> St. Paul says: “For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of Adoption, through which we cry, ‘Abba, Father.” The Church is God’s response to sin in the human family. We are blest, gifted and yet at the same time we are sinners. We are members of a family where something has gone wrong. We are affected by our surroundings and in our own ways we also contribute to the dysfunctional nature of the human family.
> The evil one seeks to pull the wool over our eyes so as to convince us that we are useless, inadequate and unlovable. When we allow this kind of garbage to settle in our souls, we slowly lose sight of our beauty as individuals and as a people. By the wounds of Christ we have been made whole, why then do we allow ourselves to wallow in the misery of the evil one. Jesus Christ has defeated the world. How many of us are still in chains? We are the people of God and yet many of us still find ourselves held back by many fears and insecurities. These chains hold us back from the freedom that the Holy Spirit seeks to give the Church.
> The devil has convinced us however that we are not good enough, that we will never measure up. The devil has pulled the wool over our eyes and when this happens he makes sure to feed us with his lies which with time we will find ourselves convinced of. We must realize that it is God who defines who we are in truth. The devil is afraid of us, he is afraid of our giftedness, he is afraid that we will use our blessedness for the construction of the city of God. The devil is always preaching that we must earn God’s love and that when we stumble and fall in sin that God couldn’t possibly love us.
> Furthermore, as we struggle with sin, sometimes we find ourselves enslaved to a particular sin which becomes a habit in our lives. The devil is quick to give a sequel to his first sermon by saying to us: ‘Look at yourselves, your slaves to sin, who would possibly love the likes of you. Certainly God won’t.’ The evil one says this to lead us into despair, hoping that we will give up hope and turn away from God for according to the evil one God is only a hard task master who is impossible to please. This perception of God however is false and it is a work of the evil one.
> God’s love is forever strong. It is powerful, passionate and patient. His love for us is unconditional, meaning that regardless of what we do His love for us does not change. We cannot gain his love. His love for us is non-negotiable. He loves us, no questions asked. This doesn’t mean however that God doesn’t judge sin because he does, he hates sin with a divine hatred but at the same time he loves us sinners with an inexhaustible and applause worthy love.
> Pentecost is a reminder that human history is going somewhere, that it is being guided by the all-loving hand of God. By virtue of the Spirit’s presence in us, the Church, the window blinds of human history are progressively being opened allowing light to flood the areas of darkness that haunt humanity. It is with our hands that these blinds are continually being opened to the world around us. Each generation of the Church has been commissioned to help shed the light of Christ upon the world until that day when Jesus Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, will return upon the clouds of heaven to clothe all his faithful ones with garments of light that no darkness can approach or overcome.
> We are the Church and today is our feast day, a feast which calls us to be a community of unity which seeks to lift high the mighty name of God by esteeming our own worth and the worth of all God’s adopted children as we cry out in faith: “Abba, Father”.

Homily for the feast of St. Andrew, Nov. 30

On this day in the Church’s calendar we celebrate the feast of St. Andrew, one of Christ’s chosen Twelve.
> As I reflected upon St. Andrew in some detail using Sacred Scripture as my aid I found myself intrigued by this servant of Unity.
> Prior to being an Apostle and Martyr of Jesus Christ, St. Andrew was a disciple of Christ’s forerunner, St. John the Baptist. The very fact that St. Andrew was a disciple of St. John the Baptist is evidence that he hungered for the Truth and the fulfillment of God’s promises. St. John the Baptist led and prepared St. Andrew for following Christ. St. Andrew rejoiced in John’s light for a little while until the True Light which was to come into the world arrived. St. John the Baptist saw Him on the Shore and proclaimed Him the Lamb forever more. St. Andrew took to heart the words of his master and followed Jesus. Meanwhile, as the spotlight moved away from St. John the Baptist and centered on Jesus, John was still able in spite of the haunting face of pride to humbly submit to God’s will and profess that: “He must increase in importance while I decrease in importance.” John prepared the way of the Lord in word and deed and then gracefully bowed out being contented with the particular task that God had called him to do. John, the one who preached a baptism for the forgiveness of sins in the wilderness area of Judea, surely drew large crowds to himself by virtue of his desert ministry. John even drew the attention of the religious leaders of Jerusalem. The ministry of the Baptist was quite significant; he even had his own loyal group of followers.
> All of a sudden from out of nowhere Jesus of Nazareth steals the spotlight and John is left to deal with a declining popularity. Even two of his followers, Andrew and John, son of Zebedee, leave him to follow the Lamb of God. Can you imagine some of the Baptist’s thoughts as he relinquished his time in the spotlight to a newcomer? Just think about the temptations which he must have faced. One temptation could have been to get angry at God because he was not chosen to be an Apostle, one of the chosen few. After all he had prepared the way for the Lord who else was better qualified than him to be an Apostle. A second temptation that could have crossed his mind was the temptation to be resentful at Andrew and John for leaving him to follow Jesus.
> As we take time to reflect upon Andrew in accord with the Biblical witness we should clearly see the influence that John the Baptist had on Andrew. Three of the four times that Andrew is mentioned in the New Testament other than when his name appears in a list of names, he is seen as one who brings people to Jesus, people who will enable Jesus to fulfill his mission which is none other than: gathering all his sheep into one flock with one shepherd over that flock. Let us examine those people whom Andrew brought to Jesus. First, Andrew brought his brother Simon Peter whom Jesus appointed as chief Shepherd of His Church. As the chief Shepherd, Peter would serve as a visible sign of unity for the Church. Subsequently, all of Peter’s successors would continue the task of safeguarding the flock in unity; Second, Andrew brought a young boy to Jesus who had five loaves and two fish. Jesus seized this opportunity presented him by Andrew to miraculously feed five thousand men a miracle which has been recounted in the Gospel because it points to the miracle of the Eucharist which is also a great sign of unity. By partaking of the one loaf the many become one. The Eucharist alongside the Papacy are visible signs of Christ’s presence in his Church and in the world and they also safeguard the unity of the one flock. Third: When approached by Philip regarding Greeks (Gentiles) who want to see Jesus, Andrew brings their desire before Jesus. St. Paul tells us that Jesus has torn down the wall of hostility that existed between Jew and Gentile by creating within himself ‘one new man’ who is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave or free, man or woman because Jesus has put an end to that division by nailing it to the Tree and sealing it with His Blood. God desires that all people be saved and that those who previously were not a people, His people, may call on Him as their God. In going before Jesus on behalf of the Greeks (Gentiles) Andrew was putting himself at the service of the Unity which so characterized and continues to characterize the all pervasive mission of Jesus Christ which is to reconcile all things in Himself, things in heaven and things on earth to the One, True Father of love.
> As can be seen from these 3 actions of St. Andrew which all are preparatory steps for the fulfillment of the Lord’s mission, Andrew is continuing the work of John the Baptist. The character of John the Baptist has overflowed into that of Andrew.
> Let us take a closer look at Andrew and John in one particular case. Andrew as we know was engaged in the search for Truth before Jesus put forth the official Call. His brother Peter it appears was not so actively engaged. Andrew, after spending the day with Jesus along with the Apostle John sought out to find his brother Peter in order to introduce him to Jesus. With time Jesus chooses his chosen Twelve with Andrew and Peter among them. Then Jesus decides to honor one of Twelve with the keys to the Kingdom, along with the honor of building the Church upon that person’s leadership. One would think that with the enthusiasm for the Truth that Andrew displayed from the outset, by following John the Baptist, that Jesus would choose him but just like John the Baptist who found himself displaced by a newcomer, Andrew was displaced by Peter. Now think about how Andrew felt upon hearing Jesus acclaim: “You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” He may have been tempted to say to Jesus: “Him, Lord why not me? If it hadn’t have been for me you wouldn’t even know him and he would still be fishing,” or “Lord, I’ve been actively pursuing Your Truth by following John the Baptist, the one responsible for preparing Your way. Peter was no where in sight when all of this was happening.”
> Despite those temptations that may have been in Andrew’s life he did not act upon them but rather he humbly submitted to the good pleasure of Jesus’ will and as if to speak the words of John the Baptist in silence he inwardly prayed: “He must increase in importance while I must decrease in importance.” Andrew’s time with John the Baptist was not in vain for he learned much from him as is seen in the Gospels and so to celebrate the feast of St. Andrew is in some sense to celebrate John the Baptist. St. John the Baptist can be proud of the formative role that he played in the life of this young Servant of Unity, Andrew, brother of Simon also called Peter.
> So as we come before the table of the Lord, the table where we become one in the Lord let us strive to bring that same unity to our homes, neighbourhoods and every place we are called to go.

Homily for the Solemnity of the Birth of St. John the Baptist

Most Roman Catholic Churches throughout the world this weekend will gather to celebrate something which each and every one of has the privilege of celebrating each year, namely, a birthday. In a particular way our Archdiocese has a special reason for celebrating this birthday because it is the birthday of the Patron saint of our archdiocese-St. John the Baptist. But what does it mean for us to celebrate the birth of St. John the Baptist?
> In the Gospel the relatives of John ask the following question: “What then will this child become?” We celebrate the Birth of John the Baptist by helping one another answer this same question about ourselves.
> Today we celebrate the birth of a child, a child who has been entrusted with a very noble and humbling task, namely, the baptism of Jesus, the only begotten Son of God. In responding to his own vocation, St. John the Baptist has paved the way for countless generations of Christians to experience the ripple effect of Christ’s baptism which was received at his hands.
> The neighborhood in which John was born did not help him to realize his divine calling. In fact they wanted to prevent John from receiving his God-given name and identity. They wanted to give him his father’s name “Zechariah.” They objected to his being named John because “None of his relatives had that name” (Luke 1:61). For them what a child could be was determined by what his family and lineage had been. Their dream of a wonderful future for this child was limited by his family background. But God’s dream for us far exceeds anything that has been in our family background. The words from the song: Only a Shadow really hit the target, “The dream I have today, my Lord, is only a shadow of your dreams for me.” Our life’s work is to prayerfully find out what that glorious dream is and respond to it with generosity and obedience.
> Are we open to the movement of God’s Spirit in the lives of the children in our community? Do we point out the talents of the young people in our community so as to encourage them to use them for God’s glory rather than their own glory?
> Each great journey begins with one footstep. So from life’s earliest beginnings in the womb, we see such a beginning as a cause for rejoicing. Throughout the readings for today’s Holy Mass we find words that affirm the sanctity of human life from the very moment of conception within the mother’s womb. A mother is the first hospitality minister that any child will encounter in life. We are a people that celebrate the life of each new born baby as a possible herald of the good news of Jesus Christ. Each human life is a gift from God, a gift which when unwrapped has the power to reveal the vibrant face of God. As Roman Catholics we are a people who are pro-life because we are pro-Jesus, who is Life itself. Today we rejoice in the generosity of God who shares his life with us. Each of us has received life from God as a favor and each of us has the capacity for greatness, a greatness that is measured by charity and not title.
> As Christians we are in the world, but we are not of the world. God has placed a seed of holiness within each human heart, a seed which must be tended to by every child’s’ parents and by extension the whole Christian community.
> As a Christian community do we recognize that we are a people who have the call of God upon us? Each person here is called by God to a life of holiness. Within that call to holiness we each have a specific calling through which we should live out that holiness so as to further spread the message of the Gospel, the only message that grants eternal life.
> It is from our baptism that our vocation in life flows forth quenching the thirst that each of us has with regard to how we should live our lives and for what particular purpose. It is in our baptism that we find the answer to the question: “What then will this child become?” In baptism each of us has entered into the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ which enables and empowers us to live out our particular call to holiness.
> A vocation is a calling, not a choosing. We do not choose a vocation, we respond to it. A vocation is a gift; it is the way in which we are able to respond to the need for personal holiness that God has planted deeply within the soil of our souls.
> Each of us has been divinely willed into existence and though God does not need any of us he has willed to need us in the plan of salvation. Our vocation is not for us alone, rather we must be good stewards of our calling. Each of us has a calling from God, each of our vocations serve as a piece of the overall puzzle of salvation. As we surrender to our vocation in life, the picture that is present within the puzzle of salvation becomes overwhelmingly clear to such an extent that others are awestruck by the beauty of God’s plan of salvation.
> The Baptism of Jesus has and continues to have a ripple effect upon countless generations of believers. 28 years ago today on the feast of John the Baptist’s birth I was baptized into the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the priestly vocation to which I am seeking to respond has come from those peaceful waters which flowed over the head of Jesus by the hands of St. John the Baptist.
> There are times, however, when we would like to run from our vocation in life, because of the particular circumstances of our lives. We are called to live with the reality that each of us has come from God and that ultimately with death we will all return to God. Knowing this reality would we not want to maintain a spirit of focus and build up treasure in heaven where no moth can destroy nor thieves break in and steal?
> In answering my own particular vocation which at times is very difficult because of my own sense of inadequacy I too feel like running away. In the midst of these struggles, however, I find great assurance in the truth of scripture which states that “God qualifies those whom he calls, rather than calling those who are qualified,” and that “the will of God will never take us anywhere that the grace of God will not sustain us.
> Each time we pray the Our Father we say in humble submission: “Thy Will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” In praying these words we are welcoming the will of God in our lives by acknowledging that God is calling us to a specific task. We are a people who submit our lives to God in the sure and certain hope that he is the lover of souls, the one whose wishes for us are greater than the ones we have for ourselves.
> Each vocation is a calling to bear fruit that will provide nourishment for the whole Christian community. In this celebration of the Holy Eucharist let us implore the intercession of St. John the Baptist for all the members of our parish and archdiocese that we may know our vocation with clarity of vision and have generosity of heart in responding to it.

Thoughts on the holy Priesthood, April 6th

​The Priest is Christ in your midst, who daily offers His one-time sacrifice. If you are to be saved you must unite yourself to Him. Christ forever lives to intercede for us and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass celebrated daily on Altars throughout the world is this 'Intercession'. Just as Christ said, 'without Me you can do nothing', these words are equally true of the Priest in our midst, who is at the head of the Church. Without the Priest we can do nothing for he is Christ in our midst and he has the marks to show it albeit in his soul, which is symbolically expressed in and by his ecclesiastical attire, which worn faithfully serves as a reminder to himself and the world around him of his consecration. The Priest does a favor to the world by faithfully wearing the visible sign of his invisible consecration so as to preserve himself and others from treating his consecration as something 'common'. So it is more about others then himself when wearing the collar. It is also a gratitude shown to God in th sense that one who sees a man with a collar is less likely to profane what God has consecrated to Himself just as one is less likely to pass in front of the Divine Presence of Christ in the Tabernacle without genuflecting when the vigil light is lit then if it weren't.
​The Lord has set the Priest apart in a specific way and he should be treated accordingly. The wearing of the collar is also a respect offered to God in prayerful remembrance of the Incarnation of Christ, who took on Himself a human nature so that He could express in a human way the Truth of His Divinity such that would respect our human manner of learning. For as St. Thomas Aquinas says, 'we are led by means of sense perceptible realities to higher spiritual realities.'
​Who can see the spirit of a man or his soul, no one with eyes of the body at least? So is it not reasonable and even a matter of justice that if I have a divine gift in my soul, namely, conformity to Christ the Priest and Lord from whom comes the life of the Church that I should bear some sign such that others may know that I carry such life.
​The Priest is a visible sign of an invisible invitation. At all times we must possess a fearful familiarity with our Priests because worldly familiarity breeds contempt, which sooner or later proves to be the hand that slapped our Blessed Lord as he stood before Caiaphas during His trial. Christ is our brother, that is true but only because as Lord He chose to associate us with Himself. We injure ourselves when we lessen the Lordship of Christ in an attempt to emphasize Him as our brother. For if Christ is only our brother then He is no better then us and if that is the case anyone of us could have paid the ultimate price of our salvation.
​The historical significance of Calvary is not our salvation if we understand its significance as something we intellectually lassoe through faith some twenty centuries later. Rather the historical significance of Calvary becomes significant for us by virtue of its eternal significance. The historical significance of Calvary acknowledges the eternal significance of Calvary, because it is not bound to the  limits of time. It is this eternal significance, which is perpetuated in the Holy Mass that enables all people of every period in history to work out their salvation with fear and trembling albeit in an unbloody manner according to the Sacramental will of God.
​This eternal significance is perpetuated because Christ has mirrored Himself, His very Self in the souls of those men whom He has called to Himself so as to continue His saving mission.
​The branch cannot bear fruit without the vine so accordingly the People of God should look upon their Priest as the Vine to which they must cling if they wish to bear fruit. Any branch that seeks to warp the Vine will sooner or later, in this life or the next will be pruned or severed completely each respectively.
​Has the Priest been set apart? Yes, but you will say, 'so are the lay faithful and the consecrated brothers and sisters'. To this I will say, yes you are right but each in their proper place. Christ is in the gathered assembly but the gathered assembly is not Christ. Yet the Priest does not cease to be the presence of Christ after the Sacred Liturgy is celebrated and the gathered assembly have disassembled. The presence of Christ in the Priest is Christ as Lord, the One who initiates and makes salvation possible. Christ in the gathered assembly is present drawing them closer to Himself in holiness. Christ in the Priest is present accomplishing this holiness by making the means of our holiness possible.
​The Baptized receive two ontological hugs; the Priest, however, receives three. The third is so that Christ can make Himself present to His Bride as 'Head and Shepherd of the sheep'.
​Christ is truly present in all of the Sacraments but the Eucharist alone is His substantial Presence, and this as the Priest exposes His own heart on the Altar for the Priest is not incidental to the Eucharist just as a man cannot live without a heart. “By One Sacrifice He 'has forever' perfected those who 'are being' sanctified.” Hebrews 10:14
​The Priest must be a man of the Eucharist in a most special way for the Eucharist is the very lifeblood that flows through his Priestly viens, which carry to his heart the life that will enlarge his sacrifical love for the People of God. There must be or come to be an intimate link between the Priest and Sacrifice. For a Priest is a Priest primarily because He is called to off sacrifice. Understood apart from sacrifice his Priesthood becomes simply functional. For Christ, the Priest offered His own Body and Blood, His very Self. He did not offer something or someone outside of Himself. The same is true of the Priest, he must see tha in offering the Holy Eucharist he is in some real sense offering Himself in so far as he is configured to Christ through sacramental ordination. As another 'Christ' he offers himself to the Father by offering the Body and Blood of Christ for the Body and Blood of Christ become the Sacramental manifestation of his Sacramental character. Since the character received is that of Christ then the sacramental manifestation of this character must be the Body and Blood of Christ. It is also dogmatically attested that this sacred sacramental character of Christ is ontologically imprinted upon the soul of the Priest and not merely a label. As a result the Priest who offers the Holy Sacrifice is in some real sense offering himself for he is offering Christ whose Persona has been indelibly imprinted upon him. The Sacraments were instituted by Christ the Priest and so all the Sacraments come about in the life of the Church through the Sacramental Character of Christ in the soul of the Priest. In other words, the sacraments come from the sacramental character of the Priest, which is the Sacred Heart of Christ imprinted upon the soul of the Priest.
​The Priest should also enjoy an intimacy with the Almighty Father unlike that of anyone else. Why, you may ask, aren't we all God's sons and daughters through Baptism? The answer flows from the closeness existing between the identity of the Priest and Christ the wholly unique Son of God. The Priestly soul reflects in a unique way the Christ, who is the unique Son.
​The Priest stands before the Almighty Father as His son different then do the Baptized, who stand before Him as sons and daughters of God by grace. Even though it is by grace that the Priest can call God, Father, it is with the grace of Christ as unique Son that he calls Him, Father. This should fill the Priest with a special confidence in regard to the prayers and petitions he offers in the name of sinners as well as the profound need to live a spotless life on account of the undeserved dignity that has been given him. This conformity to Christ which is given him as a heavenly gift demands an obedience on the part of the Priest; an obedience deserving the giving of his life even in death.
​It should be said of the Priest that he spent long hours in prayer offering up tears and supplications for others as well as himself. The Priest should be a man well versed in virtue, and not merely in speaking about their number and defintion.
​The Priest while being no better then any other person must never dismiss the uniquely special grace indelibly marked upon his soul, which of itself deserves special attention and veneration. If he will not accept such attention and veneration for his own sake he must recall that to dismiss such attention and veneration is not so much to be an act of humility on his part as it is to be a denial of  veneration for Christ, whose Persona he now has by virtue of the grace of Sacred Orders. The Priest must also proceed cautiously when in attempting to blend in with other non-ordained members of the faithful he may in fact deter or discourage others from giving Christ the veneration and attention that is His by right albeit in the soul of the Priest. It would be like the doors of the Tabernacle saying, 'leave me alone for my doors are no better then are the doors of the Church,' and while that may be true it does not dismiss the unique Presence of Christ whom they enclose.
​The Priest who genuflects before the Holy Eucharist is like one who genuflects to his own heart or like one who picks his heart up off the ground and dusts it off. The Priest who stands reverently at the Altar is like the doctor who performs heart surgery upon his Bride to be.
​The Priest who wears beautiful Vestments clothes Christ well. Just as one preparing for heart surgery would not place themselves in to the hands of just anyone so too should be the Sacred Vessels in which the Priest will see reflected back at him His own Body and Blood. You would choose the best hands to handle your heart surgery, choose the best of Sacred Vessels to handle your Sacramental LifeBlood.
​The Priest who will not preach the Truth of the Gospel cannot have a real devotion to Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. How can a Priest bring himself to gaze upon the fruit of the Holy Sacrifice present in the Tabernacle if he is not willing to make the same sacrifice in the pulpit.
​The Priest who abhors silence and interior silence is neglectful of his own pulse. Interior silence is the trumpet that proclaims the voice of Divine Love. The Priest who seldom visits our Eucharistic Lord can be said to be a nomad. The Priest who hurries through the Holy Mass is like the teenager who wishes its youth away with the false belief that something better lies beyond. If Christ established a hierarchical Church who are we that we would seek to frustrate that? Are we not knitting our own noose? Have we forgotten the words of Christ, 'he who does not gather with Me scatters.'
​The Priest, who in praying the Eucharistic prayer is seen looking at the assembly needs to be reminded that it is impolite not to look at the Person to whom you are speaking, namely, the Almighty Father. The Priest, who sits down so that a Lay person may distribute our Blessed Lord in the Holy Eucharist is like the woman after having given birth who says to someone else, 'I bore it now someone else can raise it'.
​The Priest is the guardian of the Incarnation. The Priest who truly loves the Sacraments loves the Church for the Church is nothing without them. She is born of them and sustained because of them  and it is through them that her hope is secured. Christ, as St. Paul tells us, 'gave himself up for her (the Bride), so as to present her to Himself as a radiant Church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless'. Ephesians 5:25-27 The Sacraments therefore are in the most reverental sense the supernatural anti-aging cream that preserves the face of the Bride of Christ. The Priest therefore, who loves the sacraments loves the Bride of Christ and if he loves the Bride of Christ he loves Christ who gave Himself up for her and finally if he loves Christ who gave Himself up for her he will love the Holy Priesthood through which Christ cares for His Bride as the Beloved Bridegroom.
​The Priest who trivializes sin is accusing Divine Love of being over-sensitive. The Priest who trivializes sin is in essence seeking to fill the wounds of Christ with putty as if to say, 'sin doesn't merit a Cross, a Cross which would forge crimson upon Personified Innocence'.
​Christ says, 'it is My sacrifice that I offer to the Father, which you must unite yourselves to if you would be saved. And yet as you unite yourself to My sacrifice remember that it never ceases to be My sacrifice, which I of My own free will have made so that you by clinging to it may be saved. Remember this Truth also when you prayerfully gather with My 'other-self' – the ordained Priest through whom I perpetuate My Self-Emptying Love upon the Cross. In uniting yourself to the Ministerial Priest remember that as 'another Christ' in your presence it is he who accomplishes the Sacrifice that saves you for I extend Myself to you through him. Treat him not as common, for I Myself am not common but Holy, Holy, Holy!
​What I have accomplished in his soul is not a label that can easily be removed when you disagree with him for telling you the harsh Truth you need to hear for your soul's salvation or even when he is seen to fall from grace as sometimes happens when he fails to 'keep watch and pray'. Christ says, 'I am not cheap as to set in your midst a mere copy of the real thing. Didn't I say, 'I am with you to the end of the age?' Did you think that I was joking with you, or did you think that I would be present to you merely in your ability to call to mind my words and presence as you would recall a phone number which you have memorized? In the Priest's soul I have imprinted Myself. Not even all the sin in the world can erase this imprint. What hurts Me so is when My 'other-Self' is separated from Me for all eternity in Hell. Even there the imprint of Myself can be seen thereby intensifying the agony of the damned soul of a Priest. The soul of a damned Priest has no where to hide from Me for I am imprinted in his very soul. The most cursed of all, you could say is the soul of a Priest who has damned himself to Hell. Next in line would be the souls of consecrated brothers and sisters, then all Christians who have been Baptized and then finally all who have rejected My offer of salvation.
​The Priest who offers the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass poorly, irreverently, hurriedly or neglectful of the Church's precepts and guidelines hurt Me with the most bitter betrayal. On the day of judgement I will speak the following words to the Priest, who does not respent of such atrocieties against My Sacred Death, “If an enemy had reviled Me, that I could bear. If My foe had viewed Me with contempt, from that I could hide. But it was you, My other-Self, My comrade and friend, you, whose company I enjoyed, at whose side I walked in procession in the house of God.” Psalm 55
​The Priest, who learns to be bored only when he is not in My Eucharitic Presence I will grant an eternal dwelling in My pierced side.