Just as Abraham did not spare his son Isaac, our Lord did not spare His son Jesus. When the Lord put Abraham to the test by asking him to sacrifice his son, He did so to see how much Abraham loved and trusted him. It is the same with His relationship with us, He chose to allow his son to come among us as man, knowing full well that He would suffer and be killed for our sake. There is no greater expression of love possible. Any parent can tell you the depth of love and intimacy they share with their child, to give them up to anything that might harm them would be the hardest thing to do, for many of us it would be unthinkable. Yet Abraham knew that the God who created the universe, in whom he so strongly believed, could also be trusted to raise from the dead, and to keep his promises. He trusted completely. Our Lord also knew that despite the suffering and death His son had to endure for our sake, the price to be paid was worth it for the sake of our salvation. He knew that His resurrection would draw us closer to Him, and to help us understand His intentions and His true nature.

When Peter, James, and John went up that mountain with Jesus, they already were His followers, and had seen Him perform miracles, and were awed at His wisdom and teaching. Yet this experience was profoundly different, while they were there, they were able to see Jesus as He truly is, in his glorified form. They say the brightness and beauty of their Lord for the first time and heard the voice of the Father. They could see Jesus conversing with the prophets, and heard of his coming exodus. They now saw with full clarity just who they had waited on, and believed in through all those generations before, and now for themselves, the Son of God. It must have been very hard to reconcile what they had seen, with the man they had travelled with, camped with, and broken bread with for all that time they had been with Him. Jesus wanted them to see this, so that they would perhaps understand His true nature better, and so grasp the significance of what was to come in a different light, and to hopefully then guide the others during those times of trial and fear. It is one thing to see a friend and even someone they knew as the Messiah in human form go through crucifixion and death, it is another completely to know someone to be the God of the universe go through such a thing, knowing the power and promise that He possesses, where literally nothing is impossible.

Jesus knew full well what we need to know through scripture, so that we can also grasp who He is, and what is possible. He knew that with that knowledge, we truly can take on the stance that if God is for us, who can possibly stand against us, and live our lives accordingly by having the hope of our God’s love and compassion for us. We can trust in his forgiveness and His love for us and know that all things are possible through Him. We can actually live in trust of Him, and so know peace rather than uncertainty and fear. We can focus our lives on His teachings, and love both Him, and one another, because of the hope that we have through Him. We were not meant to spend all our time focusing on secular worries, that is not what He intended for us. He calls us to a much greater way of living, one that emulates His own in its caring and compassion for others, because we can have confidence that He will handle the rest, whatever may come. There is peace in being freed from the worries of temporal life, knowing that in the end, He has it all figured out. It’s a peace that allows freedom, and it is a peace that we all seek, all we need do is believe in Him who has given us so many reasons to do so.

Podcast Link

https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-sqe2q-fc1959

We are a people who are incredibly loved. Loved by one who is love, and who cares for us as our perfect Father – God. I say this, aside from it being an obvious conclusion given the world He created for us, and the many gifts of creation that we all too often take for granted, but also because of the way He demonstrates it through selfless acts of giving to a people who are all too often ungrateful.

In our readings and Gospel this week we hear of two covenants that are pivotal to us in that because of them we can both exist and look forward to eventually existing with our Lord for all eternity. In the time of Noah, God saw how flawed his creations had become. We did not look to Him with wonder, we did not listen to His word. We had deviated and become entrenched in doing things our own way, and worse giving credit for our many gifts to other created images. This was both an insult and an afront to the laws that God had revealed to us. Our collective evil had become so great that He decided that enough was enough and planned to wipe out humanity entirely. Yet He relented when He saw that in Noah and his family there was still a bit of good left in humanity. So, He gave him instructions to build the ark, and save himself, his family and the animals of the earth. Our Lord was merciful even in the face of such great evil in the world. You see, He is always looking for ways to save us. That is His essence. That is also why He gave us such a beautiful sign of this saving, and His promise to never again wipe clean the face of the earth – the rainbow. A beautiful reminder of His mercy and love for us.

That covenant with Noah and humanity was certainly not the only one. When the time came that God wanted us to know Him more intimately, He sent us His Son, Jesus, knowing full well what would take place. He knew that Jesus would establish with us a better understanding of His will, and that He would bring us hope. Yet He also knew that Jesus would be rejected, abused, and killed by us. He knew this and sent Him to us anyway because He loved us that much, and in doing so, brought us a new covenant. One that was sealed with the blood of His Son. One that would last forever and bring us the hope of spending eternity with Him, in the unmarred intimacy that was His original intention from the time of Adam. You see Jesus is the new Adam, and He is the first in the glorification that comes from the new covenant. His glorified body is what we have to look forward to when we reach heaven, for we too will share in His form, just like those that Jesus brought salvation to when He descended into hell after His death. He spent the time bringing His word to those who had been there since the beginning of time, and those who accepted His word were then saved and brought into perfect communion with Him. This is how much our God loves us: even in His death He was working toward saving souls and bringing people closer to Himself. This desire to draw us close to Him never stops; He continues to do so to this day by giving us His body and blood in the form of the Eucharistic feast we participate in every Sunday, and in His loving care in hearing our prayers and having a plan for the salvation of each of us. Our God never tires of His work, He never ever desires anything but our love and closeness, and He is ever our Father with a Father’s loving concern. He never wavers, despite our frequent straying, and He is always there to welcome us home with a loving embrace.

Podcast Link

https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-iybti-fb5030

Every one of us has our imperfections, our scabs or sores that scar our spiritual being, and sometimes leave us unclean. We cannot heal ourselves of this, it takes healing grace from the one who can wash us clean through his own blood offered up for our sake on the cross. It is through Jesus alone that this can take place. It is through His sacrifice that we can be made to be able to walk among our fellow members of Gods family without feeling like we need to declare ourselves unclean.

It was Jesus purpose to come among us to teach us, and to help us to resist sin, and when needed to heal us of those sins that had plagued us. He continues to do this to this very day, because He continues to love and care for each one of us, and he does will that each of us is to be made clean. Yet as part of that cleansing we also take with us both a grace, and a responsibility. Like Saint Paul, we must avoid giving offense, so that through our actions and example others will not stumble or fall in their spiritual life. We must do all that we can for the benefit of others as part of the gratitude we have for what Jesus has done for us.

In Saint Marks Gospel, that speaks of the healing Jesus performed, my first reaction to the fact that the man who was healed did not listen to Jesus words about not telling anyone, was always one of surprise that he would ignore our Lords request. Yet the more that I contemplate what this person went through with such an illness, and the utter lack of hope that he must have known before finding his way to Jesus to be healed, the more I can actually understand it. He was overjoyed at being healed; he was likely joyous to the point that he could not contain himself. He wanted to share with others the hope and joy that comes through being healed by Jesus, and this is actually understandable – because there was now hope, where before there was none. How many of us can honestly say we would have reacted any differently?

When we know the joy and hope of living in and for Jesus, we experience the need to share the good news. We do this through our actions and our words. We innately know that this is something to be shared, and that it would be tragic to not do so, because so many need to hear the message that there is hope, there is joy that is possible, and that no matter what we have done, we can be healed. The message for us now is clear, seek Jesus always, share Jesus always, and never keep silent about what is possible through our Lord. He gave all of himself for each one of us, we need to give of ourselves for Him, and for our brothers and sisters that are part of our family that He created.

Podcast Link

https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-mgthj-faa193

Each time I read from the book of Job, I am struck by the incredible humility and trust that he possessed, and the way that he surrendered his circumstances and his very life to Gods hands. He never seemed to waver in his view of simply accepting Gods will in all that he encountered, the good and the bad. Yet there is more, he also held a perspective that many of us seem to forget at times, and that is the sheer brevity of our existence, and the hope in something better that is yet to come when this brief sometimes troubled life comes to its end.

I think that the brevity of this earthly existence was also on Jesus mind, simply because he knew all that he had to accomplish before the time of His passion and death came. He wanted to spend every waking moment in the proclamation of Gods kingdom so that he could reach and save as many as possible while he was here in the flesh. His proclamation came in the form of both His words, and His deeds. He preached in parable, and in plain language, he healed those who were ill, and raised those who had died, so that all who encountered him would know that the Kingdom of God was near, and that there was a reason to hope and to change. It is as he said, for this purpose He came. He turned no one away. 

In our second reading Saint Paul speaks to us of an obligation imposed on him, and a stewardship that he had been entrusted with. So too have we. We are each of us called to recognize and accept the responsibility of a stewardship that we each received at Baptism and Confirmation, to proclaim Gods kingdom. We do this not out of generosity, but out of responsibility, as through the reception of those Sacraments we took this on. No man, woman, or child on this planet is a stranger to us any longer – they are each to be recognized by us as a child of God and treated accordingly. It is our responsibility to see that they know of the words of Jesus Christ, and that they have the basic means of living with dignity. If we do not look to all with an eye toward this, we are in fact failing our obligation. Our Lord came to us in our own humble form, to reveal himself to us, and to die for our sake. Who are we to ever look at someone else with disdain or judgement, and decide to pass them by? Our Lord knew each of us with all our faults, and by His grace did not pass any of us by, but instead took upon himself all of our imperfections and burden of sin, so that each of us could then be reconciled to His Father. This was done not out of obligation, but out of love. How can be possibly shirk our obligation to follow His teachings, after He has paid so great a price for us, and still claim to be His followers? There is no way. We are either His followers, or we are not, it is that simple. If we truly are who we claim to be, then perhaps we need to be looking at this brief existence simply as a time to fulfill that obligation and stop focusing so much on other priorities. There is a reality check that is sometimes needed by each of us when we get too wrapped up in things of this world, and allow it to swallow us with its fears, anxiousness, and weight that drive us to focus on the temporal goals that we are constantly told are a priority. No – there is really only one priority, and that is to follow our Lords teachings and to embrace one another with love. It’s true we need to maintain ourselves and take care of our basic temporal needs but imagine how different an aspect this could take on if we were all looking out for one another as brothers and sisters. We would no longer feel so overwhelmed in trying to address these needs and could then peacefully go about taking on the true priorities of this life. This is not an impossible state to achieve, but it needs to start with each of us consciously shifting our way of thinking and placing God where he should be, at the front of our minds, each and every day. If we do this, we cannot help but begin the change. It will become for each of us a source of fulfillment and peace that will also guide us to where we ultimately want to go. That is the natural way of living that was intended for us. There is nothing to fear in this way of living, quite the opposite, it is freeing, fulfilling, and peaceful. I think we could all embrace that right about now.

Podcast Link

https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-vtddk-f9e729

When Moses told the people that a prophet like him the Lord would raise up from among their own kin, there is a wonderful foretelling of our Priest, Prophet, and King, our Lord Jesus Christ, who many did listen to then, and continue to do so, to this day. He raised up from among the Davidic line, someone that the people would be able to relate to, and learn from without fear, as they were terrified of His presence when He spoke, and the people said, “let us not hear again the voice of the Lord, lest we die”. Jesus did indeed come to deliver God the Fathers words to the people, and to deliver His message to them perfectly, exactly as God had spoken it because He is God and knows the words intimately.

Is it any wonder then, that He would speak them in a way unlike anything they had ever heard up to that point? He spoke with perfect knowledge, understanding, and authority. He did not need to analyze, or speculate about his interpretation, because the words came from within, and were always perfectly true to what the Father intended. Moreover, his actions spoke as powerfully as his voice in showing Gods will, for he healed, and cast out evil, and the spirits themselves that possessed so many knew him and feared him, and even testified to who He really was, though He silenced them when they did so. There was no need for efforts at grandeur, He was simply acting in his natural form, and state.

How then do we, as His followers, live to show our love for our Lord, and to do His will? We do so with undivided attention as best we can and try to live in such a way that our priorities are ordered to follow our Lord first and foremost. It is when we try to live duplicitously that we become confused, and anxious, this is what Saint Paul is warning us about when he tells us that he would like us to be free of anxieties. He gives the examples of unmarried women and men being free to focus solely on the Lord, and so it is if someone chooses to live in such a way that there is no division of their time and priorities – these are the people who choose the calling of God, and dedicate themselves in His service, rather than pursue the more conventional domestic structure. Their families are all the people of God, and they serve them all in their vocations. Yet they are not alone in their service to God, we are called to serve Him, and while many of us have nuclear families that we are part of, we too may serve in such a way that we need not be anxious because of duplicity creating tension between serving our Lord and caring for our immediate family. We do this by living in such a way that we and our families all place our Lord, and His will first. We keep our focus on Him in this way, and in doing so, also care for each other as both immediate family and brothers and sisters in Christ. This is how it was intended, and when we live this way, we may truly know His peace, and the blessed prosperity that can only come with this kind of intimacy.

Like Jonah and the people of Nineveh, like Simon and Andrew, we are all faced with a choice. Do we want to continue to live our lives as we have been, or do we want to turn to God and accept His will and His plan for us? Are we willing to stop our old ways of thinking and acting and accept His teaching, and in the process give up old patterns of behavior, and follow Him unreservedly? If we are, the time is now, because as Saint Paul tells us, the world in its present form is passing away.

It is not an easy thing to make this kind of radical change to our thinking and acting. It is certainly not something we can hope to accomplish on our own. We need the help of God’s grace, each and every one of us, all day, every day. We need to be willing, if necessary, to walk away from things (and perhaps sometimes people) that previously brought us comfort or maybe even joy. We need to recognize that this is not about living in our comfort zone, but rather trusting enough in our Lord to enter into His plan fully, and to accept whatever may come of that, whether we initially like the results of that leap of faith or not. The fact is, no matter what happens, we can trust that His plan is better for our lives in the eternal than anything we could devise or dream of, and the time in between that we refer to as this life is simply a temporary space that is of far less consequence.

This is, of course, completely contrary to everything that the world teaches, and it is supposed to be. The world does not want to look to life eternal because it is too consumed with the agenda of the enemy, and its focus is therefore solely on this current existence; How to obtain as much temporal satisfaction from this brief existence as possible, with no regard to the wellbeing of others, and with greed, lust, envy, and self-satisfaction as its only concerns. This is the stuff that has brought us to where we are today. We have a society that is filled with the pursuit of pleasure at any cost, whether it be to us, or to those at whose expense it is sought. There is no regard for the good of others, there is no respect for the gift of life that God has given; It is only about what feels good now. How completely shallow and sad an existence like that is. Its fruits are unrest, depression, anxiety, isolation, and a never-ending quest for the next “fix” of what will bring fleeting pleasure to dull the foreboding that anyone would inevitably feel in such a life, because there is truly no hope of anything to come, only the desperate grasping at what is dangled before us by the one who will benefit from our destruction.

We need to make sure we walk away from such a life, with as much resolve and unequivocal devotion as that which Simon and Andrew showed when they walked away from their nets. No thought of turning back has any place in such a decision, no wanting to obtain just a bit more should distract us, because if we allow it to, we will eventually succumb to wanting more of the trinkets of the here and now and focus that much less on what will truly draw us toward actual life. We must pray for the strength to make the hard choices now, with the assurance of our Lord that it is only a brief difficulty, and one that He will help us overcome. There is no place for any priorities above this way of thinking. There is no political or ideological entity that should ever sway us from God’s teaching, because if it tries, it should be clear that it is not God who is guiding such an agenda. We are Catholics, and we are called to be saints – each and every one of us. There is no agenda outside of this that takes precedence. Our Lord has seen it all before, and has overcome it, and will do so again. We need to believe in that first and foremost, and be ready to act as part of His plan to make the needed changes happen. While the ultimate focus is on life eternal, He is always concerned with our wellbeing even in this brief existence, and we are the tools that He uses to help others in this life, if we are willing to be part of His plan. If, on the other hand, we merely spend our time lamenting the current state of things without being active in God’s plan to address the needs of those around us who are all God’s children, then we have allowed the propaganda of the enemy to place us in a state of despair that he will use to his full advantage to draw us away from God. We are all members of the body of Christ, and we must be eyes to see what needs done, the hands to effect change, and the legs to always propel us toward seeking justice, peace, and the basic needs of this current life to be met for all. We will cherish the life given, we will seek to allow it to flourish, and we will always guide it toward the life eternal that is the true destiny of every one of God’s creations.  

Podcast Link

https://www.podbean.com/eu/pb-wkm23-f86b1e

If I were going to choose a theme for our readings and Gospel this week, I think it would be “The different ways that Jesus calls us to himself”. We’re not all quite as fortunate as Andrew and Simon to receive a direct verbal invitation from our Lord (although it can happen), most of our callings seem to come about a bit differently. We might receive such a thing in a vision or dream the way that Samuel did, or perhaps there is a revelatory experience we encounter in our lives where we can simply sense that our Lord is calling us. Often it comes about as a result of our seeking that which we know is missing from our lives, and our Lord reveals himself to us in our journey of faith which ensues.

Our Lord does want us to seek him out; He has already provided us with the means to do so through His sacrifice for each of us, and through His word that we can immerse ourselves in through the reading of scripture. The path is different for each one of us, and that is because He knows us well enough to know the best way for each of us to seek and learn and develop in our relationship with Him. It is not an easy process or journey, and it is not supposed to be. Our best lessons, the ones we remember the most, are those which we learned through effort and perhaps even hardship.

One of the key areas in our journey that often requires effort, and can seem like hardship at first, is the changing of our behaviors. As we learn more about our Lord and we digest His teaching we will see areas in our lives that require change, and perhaps even the pruning out of some bad habits. We need to remember that pruning is the surest way to induce growth in something. It stimulates and causes new branches to form which may well be better than the old branch and produce fruit that would otherwise have been impossible. It can seem like a harsh process as the old is cut away and tossed into the fire, but when we see the new branches form and the lush fruits that accompany them we will also see that it was well worth it. We cannot hope to accomplish something this radical in terms of our spiritual growth on our own; It can only come about with prayer and asking Jesus for his help and guidance as we work our way through it. Our effort needs to be there, but make no mistake, it will take His help to affect the changes that are most needed within ourselves.

What we must always keep in the front of our minds, is that Jesus desires for each and every one of us to come to know Him and be saved through Him. There are no exceptions to this rule, no special cases in which our sins are so much worse than those of others that they are unforgiveable, no circumstance in our past that would preclude our Lord’s desire for us to come to Him. He wants us all – period, and the fact is, He proved it. We were each purchased at a very high price: His very life when He shed his blood for us on the cross. There can be no greater proof given.

For our part, we must work through this lifelong process of drawing close to our Lord and ensuring that each of our places are swept as clean as possible to be a fit dwelling for His Spirit to reside within each of us. We do this through examination of our actions, and when needed, the reception of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Moreover, we are ever watchful. We look for Him in all that we encounter, and respond accordingly by following His teachings so that we treat others who are also created in His image in such a way as to reflect how we would treat our Lord himself. We each continue to learn and grow in Him, and when we hear His voice through our life experiences, we are each prepared, and respond – “Speak Lord – your servant is listening.”

Podcast Link

https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-aw26y-f7c4d0

In our first reading we hear from the prophet Isaiah, that the Word of God, will not return to Him empty. He is speaking of the Word or Logos, who is Jesus Christ, this is a foretelling of Him who is to come, and will bring God’s message to the people, and it will bear much fruit. Our second reading from Saint John likewise bears the message of the one begotten by God, his Son, Jesus Christ, and the salvation that will come through Him, to the world. Moreover, Saint John tells us of this salvation coming through blood, water, and the Spirit, the fruits of Jesus sacrifice and new covenant with us. We are saved through this water and blood shed for us, and through our obeying the action of the Spirit working within us and drawing us closer to Jesus Christ. It is only through this that salvation comes to each one of us.

The question for each one of us then becomes, how do obey the Spirit working within us, and honor the covenant that Jesus created through the blood and water that flowed from His side? First of all, we need to understand and honor the gifts that we received at baptism, and eventually confirmation with His Church. We have received the gift of the spirit, but it is one that needs to be accepted and cultivated to bear fruit within us. We need to actively keep in our minds our desire to be part of Gods kingdom, which is our continual acceptance of the
Spirit, and we need to cultivate this gift through prayer and our actions in our everyday lives. Our prayers are the way we communicate, and our actions are the way we hopefully demonstrate our acceptance of God’s teachings. Like any good relationship, communication with our Lord is key, how can we hope to know Him better without communicating? We must be open about what is going on in our lives, He wants to hear everything, all the stuff that is taking place with us, there is nothing that He will consider trivial. He wants to hear, not because He doesn’t already know what is going on, but because He wants us to bring it up, to place it before Him, to develop this kind of communication that includes Him in our lives and shows our reliance upon Him in all that we do. He wants to be part of our life, not just some outsider we reach to when things really get tough. His desire is for intimacy with each one of us, like that of a spouse, someone who is part of us in everything. As we do this, we will find more and more that we see His responses in ways that we might otherwise have missed, these are the fruits of the Spirit working in us as we draw closer to Him in relationship. We will see things in our reading of His word in the bible, we will notice things in our everyday lives where He is helping us along. We will feel His presence more and more on an everyday basis and draw comfort and hope from that. We will never feel alone again.

Our actions that come from this closeness will be the other fruits that come of this. We will find our perspective changing, and our behavior. We will begin to automatically think of His will before our own, and in so doing demonstrate our acceptance of His teachings, and our love for Him. This will not happen overnight, but it will happen, we must simply make the leap of faith and put forth our will to be drawn close to His own. We need to be willing to give up the illusion of our own control, and trust in our Lord enough to allow Him to show us what is possible if we let His will be done and let Him handle even what we think are our toughest issues. He will not let us down, we may not always get exactly what we want, or perhaps even fully understand what His plan is, that’s ok, we don’t need to, His ways are far above our ways, and His thoughts far above ours, for our part we need to trust Him. He did not let us down when He died for each one of us on the cross, and then rose again as He said, He will not let us down now or ever.

Podcast Link

https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-s5bap-f71ffd

In today’s gospel we hear the account of how the Magi arrived from the east, to do homage to a new king whose star they had seen at its rising. I’m not certain they fully understood the kind of king that they were seeking to worship. They knew him to be the newborn King of the Jews, but it is not clear if they had any knowledge beyond that. As they were not of Jewish descent, they would likely not have had knowledge of the prophecies that surrounded the event of Jesus birth, and the true nature of his kingship. Yet despite this, they knew enough to seek Him, and to want to worship Him in the only ways they knew how. In many respects this is a humble profession of faith, in that being willing to seek what they did not fully know or understand, despite great hardship and a long journey, they still knew it was what they must do. They knew it was important, even if they didn’t have the full picture.

I think for a lot of folks who have not been brought up in the Christian faith, this is something that they find themselves sometimes pursuing in some similar fashion. They don’t have the full picture about whom they are seeking, they only know that something profound is missing from their lives, and they seek to fill the void that exists there. In that sense they are very much like the gentiles of whom Saint Paul speaks, and of whom the Magi themselves were a part. Those who seek the grace of the knowledge of our Lord have good reason to rejoice, because just as the Magi found Him, they too through our Lords acceptance of those who are not of the House of Israel have the hope of salvation through Jesus Christ. Our Lord is accepting of all who believe in Him. This is good news for all of us who seek Him, and who desire to worship him. We too may know the joy that the Magi felt when they found the baby Jesus and were able to worship Him. Like the Magi we too may bring Him gifts of, our love, our faith, and our witness, because our Lord seeks for all to know him, and to bring salvation to all. That is his desire, to save everyone and to have them with him in His kingdom.

It’s very important for us to always keep this in mind, our Lord seeks us, seeks our love, but also our help in bringing others to know Him. This is something we are specifically called to do as believers, to proclaim the news of His love and salvation to all. How could we not? If we truly believe; the news is entirely too good to not share. No fear of others reactions, no concern about what they will think, should ever stop us from sharing this news. What we should always remember, is that if it were not for others proclaiming the gospel message, and being bold in their faith, we too might not share in the knowledge and love of Jesus, we might still be those who are lost and seeking to find what will bring joy and fulfillment to their lives. We might still not have the promise of eternal life with our Lord to look forward to. Think about this for a moment, how tragic is it to not have this understanding, and to be able to love Jesus. This is something we must share with all, and we have the opportunity that a new year presents each of us, to start something new, or perhaps to focus even more on an effort that we should be making. Let’s make that our resolution this year, to show others how we live in Christ, and to share His message with them. I can think of no better gift we can give to those who are still not illuminated by a guiding star, or light, than to bring them out of the darkness.

Podcast Link

https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-s4mxp-f67f4e