From the Pastor

My sisters and brothers in Christ,

“The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise.” – From today’s Gospel.

The more we come to know Jesus the more we know that if we want to follow Him we must accept all the sufferings that come on this way. Even if we live in Christian communities we will still suffer. Suffering is part of our human condition. There are no people on earth who live only in happiness without suffering. It doesn’t matter, rich or poor, children and adults, suffering is just a normal part of our earthly life, even for followers of Jesus Christ.

Saint James in his letter shows us the reasons for suffering: jealousy, selfish ambition, infidelity, dishonesty, wars, and conflicts. These negative qualities and others like them are found in all of us from time to time. Sometimes we suffer from the effects of bad example, from the sins of others and from difficult things that have passed in our lives. We also have the effects of all of the bad choices that we have made, some of them sinful and some not.

My Dear Sisters and Brothers,

Redemption in Jesus Christ gives us power to live in another way. It is not always a complete healing of all that is in us which is negative or of sin but is a start on the path to complete healing. Believing in Jesus Christ does not immediately make us perfect human beings. The graces of Baptism and the other Sacraments begin to change us.

The more we cooperate with the grace of God, the more God can transform us. We are invited to become like little children and to live in the Lord with total confidence and trust. Jesus said to the Apostle in today’s Gospel:

“If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” Taking a child, he placed it in their midst, and putting his arms around it, he said to them, “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me.”

This Sunday we can pray that we be able to know the will of God in our lives, that we have the power of the Holy Spirit to fight against all that is negative in us and within us and that we can love all those who may set themselves against us.

My dear brothers and sisters in today’s Gospel we find Jesus confronting the Pharisees for doing many right things but for the wrong reason. For example, they prayed, they fasted, they gave money to the poor; but they did these things for the wrong reason. And what was that wrong reason?

In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus tells his disciples not to pray as the Pharisees do? They like to pray on street corners. And why do they like to pray on street corners? Jesus replies directly, “So that everyone will see them.”

Jesus continues by telling his disciples not to fast the way the Pharisees do. They put on a sad face when they fast. And why do they put on a sad face? Again, Jesus replies directly, “So everyone will see that they are fasting.”

Finally, Jesus tells his disciples not to give to the poor the way the Pharisees do. They make a big show of it. And why do they make a big show of it? Once again, Jesus does not pull any punches. He replies directly, “So that people will praise them.” These are terribly strong words coming from the gentle Jesus.

That brings us to the practical question you may be wondering about. It is this: How does this distortion of religion by the Pharisees apply to us in our lives today? It applies in a very important way. It reminds us that we, too, need to guard against turning religion into something God never intended it to be. We can, unwittingly, do something similar to what the Pharisees did.

For example, we can do or say things so much out of habit that they lose their original meaning. Consider just one example. Taking holy water upon entering a church and signing ourselves was originally intended to remind us of our baptism and to be a renewal of it. Unfortunately, however, `we can get so used to performing this act that it loses its beauty and meaning.

The bottom line is this: God does not want us to perform acts and to say prayers mechanically and out of habit. God wants us to do our acts and say our prayers consciously and out of love.

The apostle James refers to this in today’s second reading. There he says it is not enough for us to simply listen to God’s word. We must translate it into acts of love directed to God and our neighbor.

Paul makes the same point in his First Letter to the Corinthians. He writes: I may have all the faith needed to move mountains – but if I have no love, I am nothing. I may give away everything I have … but if I have no love, this does me no good…. It is love, then, that you should strive for.

Let me conclude with a story. It is a good illustration of doing the right thing for the right reason. A mother went into the bedroom of her six-year-old son, Danny, where he was watching TV. She said, “I’m sorry to interrupt, but I need my shoes shined. I have got to run to the hospital for a few minutes. “I have put the shoes outside on the sidewalk in the backyard. That way if you accidentally spill any polish, it won’t hurt anything: When Danny picked up the first shoe, he noticed something inside it. It was a dollar bill. A note attached to it said, “Thanks. This is for you.” It was signed “Mom.” Later, when Danny’s mother slipped her foot into the first shined shoe, she felt something inside it. She took it out. It was Danny’s dollar bill. A note was attached to it. It read: “Thanks, Mom. But I shined your shoes not for money – but out of love. Danny.

“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

This is one of the clearest and greatest professions of faith in the Gospel. It went to the heart of who Jesus was and what he was about. He was not just a teacher or healer or prophet. He was the Holy One of God. Later the first Christians came to believe that he was, in fact, the Son of God.

As for what he was about. Though he healed and fed the bodies of people, his main concern was to nourish their minds and hearts with what Peter so rightly called ‘the words of eternal life.’ His words truly brought life to people. Here are some examples of the kind of words he spoke to people.

“Go in peace, your sins are forgiven.” With these words he set sinners free.

To the people he said, “I am the bread of life. Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever.” Who would not want to eat of this bread?

Again he said, “I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in darkness, but will always have the light of life.” The light of Jesus was such that no darkness, not even that of death, could overpower it.

To the Jewish leaders he said, “I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep and they follow me. I give them eternal life.”

To the Martha and Mary he said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will never die.”

On one occasion the religious leaders sent the temple guards to arrest him. But they never laid a hand on him. Instead, they were fascinated by his teaching. Even they recognized that Jesus’ words were special, and went back to their masters and declared, “No one ever spoke like this man speaks.”

Jesus truly has the words of eternal life. And all these words of Jesus have been preserved for us in the Gospels. Each Sunday we are invited to listen to them, to be reassured by them.

“Will you also leave me?” These words are now addressed to us. It’s not the Lord who leaves us, but we who may leave him. Many still do so.

We need to make our own Peter’s profession of faith: ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.‘ We have done so. Our presence here is a sign of that. But we need to reaffirm our commitment, just as the Israelites did on taking possession of the Promised Land. Every Sunday we get a chance to do this. We need the Lord to strengthen our faith. We also need to confirm one another.

Eternal life is not something that lies in the future. It has already begun in Baptism. Its full flowering is still to come. It is something we accept on the word of Jesus.

One day, a priest walked into a church in Germany. His attention was drawn to the large bronze tabernacle door. It was divided into four panels. The first panel showed six water jars, symbolizing the miracle at Cana, when Jesus changed water into wine. The second panel showed five loaves, symbolizing the miracle at Capernaum, when Jesus multiplied the bread for the hungry crowd on the hillside. The third panel showed 13 people at table, symbolizing the miracle at Jerusalem, when Jesus transformed bread and wine into his own body and blood. The fourth showed three people at table, symbolizing the miracle at Emmaus, when Jesus manifested his risen presence on Easter night to two disciples. These four miracles for the tabernacle door told the beautiful story of the Eucharist housed inside that tabernacle.

Take the first panel: the miracle at Cana. The important thing, however, is not how Jesus worked the miracle at Cana, but why he worked it. Besides saving the young married couple from social embarrassment, Jesus did it to prepare people for the day when he would change this same wine into the sacrament of his own blood.

Next, take the miracle of the loaves. Once again, the important thing is not how Jesus worked this miracle, but why. Besides feeding a hungry crowd, Jesus also used it to prepare the same hungry crowd for the day when he would feed them in an even more marvelous way- in a spiritual way.

That brings us to the third panel – the Last Supper. Mark describes the Last Supper this way: While they were eating, Jesus took … bread, gave … thanks, broke it, and gave it to his disciples. “Take it,” he said, “this is my body.” Then he took a cup, gave thanks to God, and handed it to them; and they all drank from it. Jesus said, “This is my blood which is poured out for many, my blood which seals God’s covenant.”

At that moment Jesus gave us a gift that only God could give.

And it leads us directly to the last panel: the Emmaus supper on Easter night with two disciples. St. Luke says in his Gospel: Jesus sat down to eat with them, took the bread and said the blessing; then he broke the bread and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he disappeared from their sight. The Emmaus supper is the first celebration of the Eucharist in the new covenant.

And so the tabernacle door summarizes the four stages in Jesus’ gift of the Eucharist. It was: prefigured at the marriage feast at Cana, promised on the hillside at Capernaum, instituted at the Last Supper in Jerusalem, and celebrated in Emmaus. This brings us to how the Eucharist touches our lives.

First, it is our spiritual nourishment. Just as the manna nourished the Israelites on their journey to the Promised Land, so the Eucharist nourishes us on our journey to our promised land: heaven. Second, besides nourishing us on our journey, it also makes present, sacramentally, the real presence of Jesus in our midst.

Recall that before Jesus ascended to heaven, he made this promise: “I will be with you always, to the end of the age”

If a small child hurts his finger he runs to Mommy crying. All Mommy has to do is to kiss his finger and all is well again. Children know that their mother loves them and has made a great many sacrifices for them.

It is the same way we look on Mary our heavenly mother. She is the mother of us all. We look on her as our mother who loves us, who watches over us to protect us. She is the mother to whom we can tell every joy and every sorrow.

We remember Jesus’ words as he was dying on the cross; he said to Mary, ‘Woman behold your son’, and to John he said, ‘Son, behold your mother’. We have always regarded this tender incident as being symbolic for us: as Jesus was dying on the cross gave us his mother to be our mother as well.

The reason for our great joy today as we celebrate Mary’s Falling Asleep and Assumption into heaven is because we are celebrating a great privilege given to our heavenly mother.

Mary’s greatness lies in the fact that she was humble before God and surrendered herself to God. Her words to the angel at the Annunciation are words that we need to meditate on and practice a great deal, ‘Let it be done to me according to your word’.

Surrendering herself to God did not mean a perpetual, spiritual honeymoon. Rather it meant joy and sadness, work and pain, and all the while greater and greater giving of herself to Him. We can see evidence for this in the Gospels: at the presentation of Jesus in the temple, Simeon told her that her soul would be pierced with sorrow. When Jesus was twelve years old the family had a misunderstanding over why Jesus got lost for three days. Mary once again learned more about surrendering to God as Jesus told her that he had to be about his Father’s business. Mary surrendered herself so much to God, that God filled her with his presence just as God fills us when we surrender ourselves. Mary’s being ‘full of grace’ did not make her supernatural but the best example of what it means to be human – the finest example of what we will one day be in heaven.

A way for us to surrender ourselves to God and be filled with the presence of God like Mary is to pray the Rosary daily. It is a most beautiful prayer, a prayer that can bring us and keep us closer to God. When we pray the Rosary we are not just saying prayers. Saying the prayers calms us down so that we can tune in to God and our blessed Mother. While we say the prayers our minds are meditating on the great events in the life of Jesus. When we are in desperation and we don’t know how to pray, it is a good prayer and is a most beautiful way to keep in contact with our heavenly mother. When we do so we can unite ourselves with Mary in expressing her sentiments:

“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior because he has looked upon his lowly handmaid.“

When Jesus sent his disciples out to preach, he gave them this unusual instruction: “Don’t take anything with you.” Why did Jesus tell his disciples not to take anything with them, but to beg for everything? Would Jesus give this same instruction to modern disciples if he were living in present times? What would happen if he did? How would people react if such a disciple showed up asking for food and place to stay?

Some years ago, a young Jesuit priest, Richard Roos, wondered about these very questions. He decided to find the answers to them. He got permission from his superiors to spend the 40 days of Lent making an 8OO-mile walking pilgrimage from San Diego to San Francisco.

Father Roos walked through sunshine, rain, and high winds. He walked and walked, day after day, just as the early missionaries did. There was one difference, however. He identified himself only as a Christian on a Lenten pilgrimage.

What answers did he get to his questions? How did people react to him when he showed up? He writes:

I was never treated harshly or unkindly. The people who hosted me were of all denominations of Christianity and even no religion at all. All were fascinated by the concept of a pilgrimage.

He concluded his report with an unexpected observation. It relates directly to how he preached the Gospel. He writes: Generally, I found that my presence and our conversation gave or strengthened them in their hope in God and in the goodness of people.

He preached the Gospel on his pilgrimage by his faith and his example. It was this faith and this example that came through when he talked with people. In other words, he did not preach the Gospel by words. He preached by a more powerful way: by his presence, his faith, and his example.

Some years ago, a number of young Christians were attending an international summer camp. They came from many nations around the world. One project assigned them was to come up with effective ways to preach the Gospel in our modern world. After the young people talked about using television, radio, rock concerts, and shopping malls, an African girl said something that touched the heart of everyone. She said: When Christians in my country think a pagan village is ready for Christianity, they don’t send books or missionaries. They send a good Christian family. The example of the family converts the village.

And that brings us to an application of today’s Gospel to each and every one of us here. Jesus wants us to preach the Gospel today. He wants us to do it the way Father Richard did it, but with one exception. He does not want us to do it on a Lenten pilgrimage. He wants us to do it in our homes, in our work places, and in our communities. He wants us to do it the way the African girl suggested. He wants us to do it by living as prayerful people with a deep faith in God and in people. He wants us to do it by our presence and by our example, more than by our words. And if we do it in this manner, not only will we strengthen the faith of those around us, but we will also invite them to imitate our own faith and prayerfulness.

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.