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Read more about the article I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life

I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life

The past two years of isolation has caused us to turn inward and the constant fear surrounding us has tempted us to focus on ourselves and our own needs and wants to the exclusion of seeing the suffering and loneliness and despair of others.  This fear is not from God; this fear from the enemy who seeks to separate us from our brothers and sisters when we most need to come together as the family of God.  Jesus offers us a way out of this cycle of fear: “Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” (Jn 14: 27)

I AM the Way

Jesus calls us to focus on Him, not on the chaos surrounding us.  He calls us to focus on following the Divine Will of the Father.  This is difficult because we have been following our own wills for so long.  Even after choosing to follow Jesus, we constantly backslide because we are human and our will is weak.  We get tempted to follow our will because we think we know what will make us happy.  We often treat God as a vending machine, praying for exactly what we want, determined to get Him to give it to us.  While we may want good things, we do not have the long term perspective to see what obstacles are around the bend or the long term consequences of our plans, so we become filled with anxiety as we struggle to control the outcomes.  Our loving Father truly desires the highest good for us; trusting Him means allowing Him to navigate the way for us.  If we allow ourselves to become like children, trusting in our parents to drive us safely to our destination, how much more can we enjoy the scenery as we live in the present moment in peace instead of anxiety?

I AM the Truth

At Jesus’s trial, Pilate asked “Truth? What is Truth?”  Although he meant it sarcastically, each of us has to discern how we know what is truth.  Many times young people say “I am speaking my truth.”  My truth? Really?  I can voice my opinion, share my perspective, and explain my point of view, but The Truth belongs to Jesus.  None of us have the Truth apart from God Who is the eternal, unchanging truth.  Seeking this Truth in the world today is a challenge.  Russia and Ukraine are currently locked in conflict and rumors on all sides abound.  Before any shots were fired, truth was the first casualty.  In any war, all sides mount propaganda in an effort to persuade others to their point of view, but the danger of propaganda is that it causes us to divide into enemy camps and regard our enemy as less than human.  When we allow hatred to cloud our judgement, we give ourselves the excuse to commit horrible atrocities against one another.  While claiming the moral high ground for ourselves in justifying these acts, we damage our own souls in the process.  This is happening now with the current war, and unless we embrace God’s Truth, things will continue to escalate as they did in World War II.

The World War II biography, A Higher Call by Adam Makos, deals with these issues. Makos writes about Franz Stigler, a German citizen drafted into the military who became a Messerschmitt fighter pilot.  Stigler recounts the actions of some of the brave military commanders who stood up to the Nazis. His own commander staunchly denied they were any Jews in the air force when the SS came looking to root them out.   Another military commander discovered American POWs had been sent to a concentration camp instead of a POW camp and intervened; he had them transferred in the same week they were scheduled for extermination in the concentration camp.  Stigler had his moment when he came upon a B-17 bomber that had been almost completely destroyed.  He saw the terrified looks on the faces of the helpless Americans as they were trying to get out of German airspace.  He knew that if he did not shoot them down he would face court martial and either a concentration camp or immediate execution if found out.  And yet, he also knew that it was murder to kill these defenseless men.  Stigler answered God’s call; he chose to give them safe escort out of Germany. 

How did these men make potentially life ending decisions and go against the ruthless Third Reich?  They were able to make these decisions because they chose not to hate and thus were able to clearly see God’s Truth which is intertwined with Love: “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” (Jn 14:15)  They were given the graces to make these courageous decisions precisely because other Christians in the world also saw God’s Truth and chose love; they chose to pray for their enemies.  At the crucial moment, God sent these men the wisdom and courage to act upon their convictions that every human life matters. Now more than ever we need to pray for the conversion of the whole world.

I AM the Life

The invitation to follow Jesus is an invitation to live as we were meant to live – in the center of His Sacred Heart.  Here we experience boundless love and mercy, the love and mercy He asks us to share with others as freely as He shares it with us: “Truly, truly I say to you, he who believes in Me will do the works that I do.” (Jn 14:12)  The Feast of Divine Mercy (April 24th this year) follows the Sunday after Easter.  The apostles were overjoyed at hearing the news that Jesus had risen, but they were also afraid to face Him after what they had done.  When Jesus appeared, His first words to them were “Peace to you.” (Lk 24:36) They were the first recipients to experience Divine Mercy. The Feast of Divine Mercy celebrates this forgiveness and peace that He offers all mankind. More than anything, He wants the gift of our love.  The love we have for Him is a special gift The Father has placed in our hearts to be given to Jesus.  Our love is as unique as our fingerprints – no two people can love Jesus in exactly the same way.  So when we choose to forgive and pray for the conversion of those who have offended us, we are really praying so that Jesus will be able to receive their gift of love to Him.  How much joy this brings Our Father, seeing us gathering souls to bring to Jesus! And Jesus promises us, “he who loves Me will be loved by My Father.” (Jn 14:21)

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Read more about the article This Is My Body

This Is My Body

Today is Easter Sunday, one of my favorite days of the year.  For Catholics, we celebrate the Resurrection every Sunday, but Easter is especially joyful.  After preparing during Lent with sacrifices, fasting, almsgiving, repentance, forgiveness, and prayer, we experience a deeper connection with each other, with Our Lord, and with the Mass.  As our pastor explained in his homily how we are all connected to “The Greatest Story Ever Told,” I felt such gratitude for the gift of faith.  Then I thought about what I have not done to share this gift with others.

A few weeks ago I returned a phone call to a friend.  When I mentioned that my phone is silenced when I am in church, she responded, “You went to church on a Thursday? To pray?”  When I responded that I went to Mass, she said, “Your church has services every day?”  I started thinking deeply about what we had said and I realized that my shortcomings were staring me right in the face.  Each conversation we have at some point turns to Scripture and she always shares her love for Jesus.  I leave the conversation feeling elevated, my burden of the day lifted.  I have known my friend Myrna all my life and she has the gift of joy which she readily shares with me and everyone she meets.  How is it that I have been such a poor friend that I have never shared my witness, my testimony, with her? Why have I never told her why I go to Mass?

As Catholics, we use the shorthand – “going to Mass.”  We say it so casually, we ourselves often forget that we are “going to participate in The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.”  Yes, we are active participants and yes, it is a sacrifice.  In every Mass, Jesus is on the altar offering Himself to the Father for us.  We begin the Mass with Scripture (the Liturgy of The Word), which always includes at least one passage from the Old or New Testament, a Psalm, and a Gospel reading.  We then follow with the Liturgy of the Eucharist, in which the gifts of bread and wine are presented to the Father.  The angels who sang the Hosanna announcing to the shepherds the birth of Christ, are again present with us when we sing Hosanna right before Jesus comes again to be physically present.  The priest acting in the person of Christ says “This is My Body” and “This is My Blood.”  At this moment, the miracle of transubstantiation (change of substance) takes place.  While the appearance remains bread and wine, the Eucharist is the Body and Blood of Jesus.  Jesus Himself is re-presenting His sacrifice on the Cross to the Father.  Every day.  Immediately after, the priest offers Jesus’s sacrifice in prayer for the whole world.  When we are at Mass, we participate by joining our prayers to Jesus’s prayers in interceding for the whole world. It is this daily offering of Jesus to the Father that brings mercy to our world and has kept back the Hand of Justice.  Every Mass is an encounter with Jesus Himself face to face.

Every day Jesus is offering Himself to the Father for our salvation and offering Himself to us in the Eucharist.  In this way He gives us a share of His Body, His Blood, His Soul, His Divinity.  This is the key to eternal life.  In Heaven, we are continually aware of His Presence with us.  He invites us to live Heaven on Earth.  He invites us into His Presence every day.  He awaits us with love and graces to help us advance in holiness.  Every communion received worthily, with love, increases our love for Him.  It is in these moments when I invite Him into my heart that I have prepared for Him as best as I am able, that I feel the intimate presence of Him, Who loves me so tenderly.  In these moments, I touch eternity and I am one with Him on Earth as I will be in Heaven.  This is why I am Catholic.

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Read more about the article Return to Me with Your Whole Heart

Return to Me with Your Whole Heart

Even now, says the LORD,
            return to me with your whole heart,
            with fasting, and weeping, and mourning;
Rend your hearts, not your garments,
            and return to the LORD, your God.
For gracious and merciful is he,
            slow to anger, rich in kindness,
            and relenting in punishment. (Joel 2:12-13)

This was the first reading for Ash Wednesday. God speaks to us through Scripture and also through the natural world.  It is no coincidence that Lent begins in the winter and yields to Easter in the Spring.  God uses these cycles to call us back to Him, to deepen our connection to Him.  If we approach Lent the way we approach a garden, we can yield beautiful flowers in the garden of our hearts.

First, we begin with weeding.  The biggest weed is gossip. Weeding needs to continually be looked after just as we need to continually mind what comes out of our mouths. This is difficult for all of us, but we can ask St. Joseph for help with this.  St. Joseph had a major secret – his betrothed was pregnant and the baby wasn’t his.  He was devastated by this, but instead of telling anyone, he kept it to himself, preserving Mary’s reputation.  In the end he found out that he had misjudged the situation, but he had caused no harm to Mary in the process.  Gossip is difficult to overcome, especially when we think we are in the right, but St. Joseph can teach us how to receive the gift of silence.

Second, we must get rid of all the large rocks in our garden.  Some of them are quite big and heavy because as we carry resentment for past wrongs the rocks grow larger and heavier with each passing year.  Forgiveness cannot be achieved alone, so St. Theresa of Calcutta is there to help.  She would often beg for food for the poor.  One day she brought a child into a bakery and asked for bread.  The shopkeeper spit in her face.  She calmly said, “Thank you for that gift for me. Now how about some bread for this child?”  The child received the bread. She understands well how to react with humility and forgiveness in the face of wrongdoing and she can help us get rid of those rocks.

We must then add amendments to our soil so it will be a healthy place for our plants.  Even after forgiving others, some wounds are very deep and still need healing.  Psychologists say that the greatest thing they do for their patients is listening to them.  In our culture listening is a lost art.  How often have we tried to have a meaningful conversation with someone who was constantly checking every alert on their cell phone?  How often have we done that to others?  To heal these deep wounds, we need to take them to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.  Spending time with Him in the silence, pouring our hearts out to Him and giving Him time to speak to our hearts when we are silent and listening to Him, allows Him to heal these wounds.  He will ask us to pray for those who caused the wounds, but this is part of our healing process so it needs to be done.

We are then ready to plant our seeds.  Almsgiving and acts of kindness and charity are the best seeds to plant because they are not only planted in our hearts, but also in the hearts of those around us. Water the garden thoroughly with prayer, especially the Rosary.  Gentle pruning is required as well, so we fast to help us get rid of those bad habits that keep wanting to grow back.

Just as flowers need to be fed, our “miracle-gro” is frequent reception of the Eucharist, daily if possible, and Confession. When Easter arrives our daffodils will bring us joy as they blossom and our roses will bring us peace when they bloom.   Those around us will also enjoy the beauty of our garden, but most importantly, Jesus will join us on our porch swing and make His home with us.

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Read more about the article Blessed Are Those Who Mourn

Blessed Are Those Who Mourn

This statement really challenges us.  In today’s culture there is a strong aversion to thinking about suffering.  We prefer to distract ourselves with anything and everything to avoid thinking about sorrow.  The real problem is that we do not understand why Jesus said “blessed are those who mourn” or what the fruits are.

Our decisions to do good or evil matter.  Every moral decision has a spiritual effect on not only ourselves, but also on the whole world. It is like casting a stone into a still pond; eventually the ripples reach the shore.  So too do our actions affect others.  Each and every one of us is connected as members of the Body of Christ, so what happens to one member affects all the rest.  When we truly understand this connectedness, we react with sorrow to the suffering around us.  Whether the sorrow is the loss of someone’s family member or the suffering of others through illness or injustice, it affects us.  When we mourn their loss, we sorrow with them.  We imitate Christ, who mourned for Jerusalem, (Mt 23:37) who mourned the death of Lazarus, (Jn 11:35) and who mourns for the souls who choose hell instead of Paradise with Him.

As Christians, and especially as Catholics, we are called to be intercessors for the whole world. At the beginning of Mass at the Confiteor when we acknowledge our sinfulness and need for God’s grace, we end the prayer with “and I ask Blessed Mary, ever-virgin, all the angels and saints, and you my brothers and sisters to pray for me to the Lord Our God.” We proclaim our oneness as the Body of Christ.  What happens to my brother or sister matters to me.

Prayer, fasting, and offering up sacrifices for those suffering is a way to spiritually unite with them, to spiritually walk the road with them, and to bring God’s grace into their lives.  How many times have each of us had something devastating happen and we thought we would never recover?  It was the prayers of others that sustained us through these dark times even if we were unaware of it.  We can do the same for other people. Blessed are those who mourn, because those people understand that mourning with and praying for others is a reflection of what Jesus Himself does for each of us every day.  It is this compassion that sends us straight into the abode of the Sacred Heart of Jesus where all comfort, peace, and joy reside.

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