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During today’s Reading from the Gospel of Mark, we heard how the Lord Jesus served God the Father in obedience and humility. Jesus came on earth to do His Father will and obeyed to the end. “He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross.” He did not come as a King but as a humble servant in human flesh.

Jesus went to His hometown and taught in the synagogues. As we heard in today’s Gospel, few believed in Him because they personally knew Him. Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house.” So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith. Because of their lack of faith, the grace of God could not manifest itself through Jesus. Very few were healed.

How often during His ministry did Jesus say, “If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me? But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”

Surely, the people from the hometown of Jesus had heard of the great miracles He was performing throughout the country. Surely, it must have been obvious that the grace of God was at work through Him. If only they would have believed that God the Father was manifesting Himself through Jesus, would that not have been sufficient faith for numerous cures? But no, the unbelief of the people was limited to their worldly perception of the human nature of Jesus. Refusing to believe in the Son of God, the grace of God did not manifest itself upon them through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Today, there are similar circumstances in our world. When in need of a healing through the anointing of the holy oils, many people search for a charismatic priest who is alleged to perform miracles. During this time, they have no faith in the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit that is manifested through their own local priest who has the authority from Jesus to administer the Sacrament of the Sick in the Church.

People forgot that priest, who administers the Holy Sacraments of the Church, is the instrument of the Lord Jesus. While the priest is visible at the ceremony of Baptism, during the Consecration of the bread and wine or during the Sacrament of Confession, Jesus is also present, He being the One who is administering the Sacraments. Jesus is manifesting Himself through the priest during the Sacraments.

My brothers and sisters, as Jesus obeyed and served the Father in humility, the priests, and all of you are also called to obey and serve the Lord in humility. As the power of the Spirit of the Father was manifested through Jesus Christ, so it is in the Holy Church, be it through the priest who is administering the Sacraments, teachers who are teaching in a classroom children and youth and people who work for the parish. We should humbly believe in the grace of God the Father and the power of the Holy Spirit that is manifested through the sacraments, the priest, and people who come to the church to pray, sing, and work.

With this belief, spiritual knowledge, and understanding our faith will bring us to the realization that God is manifesting Himself all around us, in ways that we have never seen before.

A priest was giving a talk on Scripture in Canada. After the talk a woman came up and gave him a note to read on his flight home. When the priest was on the plane, he took out the note. It read:

We have had many prayers answered in our family, but none so meaningful as the answer to our daughter’s recovery from an emotional problem. On the twelfth anniversary of my daughter’s emotional illness, I prayed in a special way to Jesus to heal her as he did the woman in the Gospel.

As you recall, the woman in the Gospel believed that if she could only touch his garment, she would be healed. After she touched it, Jesus turned to her and said, “Woman, your faith has healed you.”

With that same kind of faith, I told Jesus that I believed he could heal my sick daughter, and that I had enough faith for both of us. The next day we noticed small, positive signs pointing to her recovery. They continued in the days ahead. And after each one, we thanked Jesus whom we truly believed was answering our prayers. That was six years ago. Today she is a happy young woman. And what is even more marvelous, Jesus is now using her to help other people.

This mother ended the story with this observation:

God cannot answer prayers unless we pray. And if we pray, God will answer our prayers in his own time and often in a way more marvelous than that for which we prayed.

God did this in the case of the mother’s daughter. God used her illness to prepare her to help other people in need.

Saint Paul writes in his Second Letter to the Corinthians:

[God] helps us in all our troubles, so that we are able to help others … using the same help that we ourselves have received from God.

That is a significant statement. Let me repeat it for you:

[God] helps us in all our troubles, so that we are able to help others … using the same help that we ourselves have received from God.

That brings us back to the Canadian mother’s statement that God often answers our prayers in a way more marvelous than what we prayed for. Let us close with a brief meditation. I’m sure many of you are familiar with it. It was found in the pocket of a dead soldier. It reads:

I asked for health, that I might do greater things;
I was given infirmity that I might do better things….
I asked for riches, that I might be happy;
I was given poverty, that I might be wise….
I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men;
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need for God….
I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life;
I was given life, that I might enjoy all things….
I got nothing I asked for, but everything I hoped for.
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am among all men most richly blessed.

Blessed are you Lord and God of love, you who has given to each of us the gift of a Father.
Today we honor him and we thank you for the wonderful things that are ours because of him.
His love for us has been a sign of your Divine affection and a sharing in your holy love.
His concern for our needs and our welfare is a mirror of your holy care.
Bless our Fathers this day with your Strength that they may continue to be a sign of your Love in our Families.
Bless them in this lifetime with joy and laugher, with pride in their children and with peace in their hearts.
Bless too, those Fathers who have gone out of this life. They gave us life, may they now enjoy the fullness of life in the embrace of God of Love and Peace.
Fathers, may you, on this special day, be blessed by God and by our love for you. AMEN.

There is an ancient story that you may have heard. Saint Augustine was walking along a sandy beach meditating on the Holy Trinity. He kept saying over and over to himself, “How can God be both three and one? How can God be both three and one?” Suddenly, he was distracted from his meditation by the sight of a small child with a toy bucket, carrying water from the sea to a hole in the beach. Smiling at the child, Augustine asked, “And what are you doing?” The small child said, “I’m emptying the ocean into this hole.’ Augustine thought, “I’m trying to do what the child is doing. I’m trying to pour the infinite God into my finite little mind.’

Later, saints engaged in similar meditation on the Trinity, trying to get some partial glimpse into this central mystery of our faith. For example, Saint Ignatius of Loyola likened the three Persons in one God to three musical notes, united in the harmony of a single sound. Saint Luke does not say so explicitly in his Gospel or his Acts of the Apostles, but he clearly views Sacred Scripture as being Trinitarian in structure. The Old Testament focuses on the Father, who created the world. The Gospel focuses on the Son, who redeemed the world. The Acts of the Apostles and the letters of the apostles focus on the Holy Spirit, who sanctifies the world.

That brings us to ourselves. What might we do to make the Trinity come alive for us in our daily lives?

One way some people try to do this is a prayer exercise they follow each night before going to bed. They do a three-minute replay of their day. During the first minute, they pick out a highpoint of the day, for example, going out of their way to help someone. They speak to the Father about it and give thanks for the grace to do it. During the second minute, they pick out something bad that happened, like ignoring someone to whom they could have spoken a kind word. They speak to Jesus about it and ask him to forgive them and to give them the opportunity to make it up to that person. During the third minute, they look ahead to tomorrow to some critical point, for example, something they ought to do but have been putting off. They speak to the Holy Spirit about it and ask for the courage to deal with it in the day ahead. This exercise combines prayer with a simple examination of conscience.

In a very practical way, therefore, it brings the Holy Trinity into our daily lives.

Let us conclude with reflection: Glory to God the Father, who created the earth, and to God the Son who redeemed the earth, and to God the Holy Spirit who hallowed the earth…. Glory be to thee, Most Holy Trinity, today, tomorrow, and forever. Glory be to thee. Amen.

The Holy Spirit! Finally we come to celebrate this great solemnity honoring the Holy Spirit of God. We complete the great 50 days of Easter. We have celebrated 7 weeks to show that the Spirit is the perfect completion of all that happened to Jesus in His death and resurrection.

My Dear Brothers and sisters to understand the role of the Spirit in our life we have to start with Jesus himself. The Spirit had a big role to play in his life. The Spirit descended on him at his baptism, revealing him as the Father’s beloved Son. At his baptism he also received power from on high for the mission he was about to begin. The Spirit was not just given for a moment; the Spirit remained with him throughout his public ministry.

Jesus said: ‘The spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for he has anointed me. He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight, to proclaim the Lord’s year of favor

What a beautiful mission. Jesus was filled with the Spirit, and power went out from him through his gracious words and compassionate deeds.

It was the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead. It was the Spirit who opened the minds of his disciples and helped them to understand the meaning of his death. When he was raised up to glory at the right hand of the Father, Jesus poured out the Spirit on those who were to carry on his mission.

The Holy Spirit descended on the apostles. Filled with the Holy Spirit, they began their mission. And we see the great courage and confidence with which they did so.

My Dear Sisters and Brothers

And the same Spirit descends on us at our Baptism and Confirmation. The Spirit is not given for a moment but accompanies us on our journey in the footsteps of Jesus. The Spirit gives us power to participate in the work of Jesus. The Holy Spirit is our strength in times of weakness, our guide in times of doubt, our consoler in times of sadness, our advocate who always pleads our cause. We can’t take even one step without the Spirit.

In The sacrament of confirmation we received gifts of the Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. Wisdom, understanding, and counsel guide our mind and assist our conscience in knowing right from wrong. Fortitude enables us to do the right thing even when it is difficult or unpopular. Fear of the Lord is really awe and reverence for God.

My Dear Brothers and sisters, if we live in the Spirit, that Spirit brings us love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. These are beautiful things, and make our life joyful.

One of our marks as Catholics is our devotion to the saints. Some of us honor the saint of our baptismal name, and many of us have some other favorite saints like St. Francis, St. Joseph, and St. Patrick. The first reading for today’s Sunday tells the brief story of St. Matthias.

After the Ascension of Jesus into heaven, Peter stood up in the midst of the brothers—there was a group of about one hundred and twenty persons in the one place–He said, “My brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand through the mouth of David, concerning Judas, who was the guide for those who arrested Jesus. He was numbered among us and was allotted a share in this ministry. “For it is written in the Book of Psalms: May another take his office.

The disciples prayed, and chose Matthias. Matthias, unlike the twelve apostles, was not chosen directly by Jesus but by the Church. We are like Matthias in that we did not hear the voice of Christ calling us or feel his hand upon our shoulder in a gesture of welcome. Rather in the sacrament of baptism we were chosen by the Church.

St. Peter declared that the choice for a new apostle should fall upon someone who was a witness to the resurrection of Jesus. Apparently Matthias fit that reason. We have no record of what St. Matthias did after his choice. It is left to us to carry on the mission he was given as a witness of the resurrection. We express what we believe in the profession of faith during every Sunday Mass. We say, “He suffered, died, and was buried. On the third day he rose again.” These words of faith influence our actions in such a way that our lives would not make sense if we did not believe in the resurrection. We believe that Christ’s resurrection is the example which will lead to our resurrection, that he will come again to raise us from the dead.

If there is no future for us through our resurrection from the dead, then surely we should “eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die.” And yet we know that death is not the end, that a life lived faithfully with Christ will lead to the fullness of life in our resurrection from the dead on the last day.

During our time on this earth we give a further witness to the resurrection.

The reason Jesus was raised from the dead is that the Father loved him in his humanity. The reason there will be a resurrection for us is that God sees the person of his Son within us. He values every human being as precious, body as well as soul, created as we are in the image and likeness of his Son. That is why the Church is pro-life, that is why we are called to honor and respect every human person. Our Catholic respect for every human person is a powerful witness to our faith in the resurrection, both that of Christ and our own.

In our Blessed Sacrament, the Holy Eucharist, Christ is present as he has been raised from the dead in his glorified body. When we profess our faith in the real presence, we acknowledge that, to put it bluntly, we do not receive a dead body. The Mass is not a wake service or a funeral. It is a celebration of the great truth of which we are to be witnesses: “Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.”

Jesus gives us one of the strongest commandments of His in today’s Gospel. Not an idea but commandment: “love one another as I have loved you.” It sounds pretty easy. Doesn’t it? Everybody wants to be loved, and in our nature is that we seek to love others. So it should be easy to fallow that commandment.

Jesus tells us that: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends”.

Our Church, here in the United States, does not ask us to lay down our life for Christ. But, there are spots in the world that Christians are still persecuted. Here we are free, and with this freedom many times we do not follow God’s commandments, the commandments of Jesus. We break these commandments frequently and we say that think little of it because it is common.

A few weeks ago I preached on the third commandment of God and I showed you that by breaking that commandment we commit not only one serious sin but at least five, and the same is with the other nine. The key then is to focus on loving — not on what we shouldn’t do, but on loving because love excludes sin, love gives us what we need to do.

Love one another can mean that we do not gossip. But better it means to say a word of love and support to others.
Love one another means to worship on very regular basis but also to bring others into our community to worship God side-by-side.
Love one another means to support others in their sorrows and their problems.
Love one another means to lift others up in our goodness.
Love one another as God has loved us means that we do know the ten commandments of God in our heart and that we put the command of Jesus, to love, into action.

It is God who chose us, like he chose the Apostles, like He chose Cornelius. We accept God’s choice when we live Christian life full of love and prayers, and free of sin.