Sunday, August 31, 2008: Jeremiah 20:7-9; Romans 12:1-2; Matthew 16:21-27

A few weeks ago, I met a successful business man in Ohio who had decided to sell his business and devote his life fully to doing God’s work. He felt God calling him to ministry. His family could not make any sense of this. They thought he was crazy. As I listened to his story, I remembered my own experience when I was discerning my vocation to the priesthood. Some of my family members who today are very supportive of my vocation tried to convince me not to follow this path. They reminded me of my dream of being a medical doctor. They also told me how I could save many human lives as a doctor. At the time, they could not understand why I will chose to become a priest rather than a medical doctor. They thought they were doing me a favor by offering their strong advices against my decision. They were doing what they did because they loved me and they wanted to protect me from any future frustrations choosing a very difficult and less “rewarding” vocation.


St. Paul in today’s second reading warns us not to conform ourselves to this age but to discern the will of God in our lives. The will of God for our lives is not always rosy and so when we compare it to the wisdom of this age, we will think it is foolish. Neither the family of the Ohio business man nor some members of my own family understood what the will of God was for me. Their discernment was the wisdom of this age and not the wisdom of God. St. Peter in today’s gospel fell into the same trap. In the gospel last week, he professed Jesus Christ as the Son of the living God. Jesus told him that it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to him but the Father in heaven. It is obvious that this profession was not the wisdom of Peter; it was the revelation of God. This is clear in today’s gospel. He doesn’t understand the true kingship or the Messianic role of Jesus. His understanding of it is solely in human thinking. He calls Jesus Christ aside and tries to advice him against the way of the Cross. At this point, Peter takes on the role of the tempter, offering Jesus Christ a different path. Peter is persuading him not to follow the true path, which is the way of the Cross. He is offering him an easy way. He does this because he loves Jesus and wants to protect him. There is a strong message here for every one of us. Your tempter might be the person who loves you the most. Satan will use your closest friends and the people you love to tempt you. In this case, it was Peter. In your case, it might be your spouse, your child, and your boss at work or a close co-worker. Always keep your eyes open when you are called to a different path apart from the one you think God has called you to. Do not assume that because this is from someone I love, it must be the right path. Also, we need to careful how we offer people different paths. While we have a responsibility to make sure family members are making good Christian decisions, don’t always respond with your head but give strong prayerful considerations and careful discernment before you offer the person a different path.


Jesus tells Peter to get behind him. Origen one of the Father’s of the church suggests that this means, He (Jesus) is leading the way and not Peter. This makes sense. Peter is not the way to the Father. It is Jesus Christ. He has no authority to show Jesus Christ the true way. We must always keep this in mind in our own lives. We are not leading the way. Jesus Christ is leading the way. This means, we must always ask him to show us the way that we might follow. His way is not always rosy. His way is the way of the Cross. We too must take up our crosses and follow him on this way. If we follow this way, we may never go astray and this way will lead us to eternal life with him in heaven.

Sunday July 13, 2008: Isaiah 55:10-11; Romans 8:18-23; Matthew 13:1-23 or 13:1-9

In today’s second reading, St. Paul continues his teaching concerning life in the Holy Spirit. Paul discusses the theme of our adoption in Jesus Christ. His understanding of adoption is different from the way we will understand adoption today in our society. An adopted child today has access to his biological family when he has reached certain age. In some instances, the child continues to have communication with his or her family. Adoption in the Greco-Roman world was a total separation from the previous family. All ties with the person’s family were completely severed once the person was adopted and no longer had access to his original family. The person in a sense took on a new life in which his debts of the previous life cannot be carried over to this new life. It wasn’t uncommon to have people take on a new name to signify their new personality. For St. Paul, this is what our adoption in Christ Jesus means.

By virtue of our baptism in Christ, we are adopted sons and daughters of God. As Jesus Christ tells us in the Gospel of John 1:12, “But to those who accept him he gave power to become children of God.” Our baptism empowers us to become the children of God and we can rightly cry “Abba, Father.” Our adoption eliminates our previous debts, debts that were paid by the precious blood of Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary. We can now embrace a new life free from corruption and sin. That is rightly the reason at baptism we take a new name to signify that we have become a new creation in Christ.

We are a privileged people to receive this special gift from God. We are privileged because we are the “first fruits of the Spirit.” What God is intending to accomplish in the whole of creation, he has chosen us as the first. The revelation which all of creation awaits with eager expectation, we have already experienced that revelation. It is the revelation of Jesus Christ and this we celebrate at every Eucharistic celebration. We have seen what the world have not seen – the Way, the Truth and the Life. We have been already set free from sin and corruption. All we wait for is the redemption of our bodies when we will truly unite with our heavenly Father in His/Our kingdom.

Given this rare privilege that we have, we must live truly as people who have hope. We must live in hope because what we have awaiting us is greater than whatever we experience in this world. The pains and sufferings of this world may overwhelm us and we begin to doubt God’s promises for us. We need to stand firm in faith knowing that the glory that is to be revealed to us is greater than the pains and sufferings of this world. These pains and sufferings are only temporal but the glory of God lasts forever. In his glory, there is righteousness, peace and Joy.

As first fruits of the Holy Spirit, we have an active role to play in God’s salvation of all creation. We need to be the face of Christ to all of creation by how we love. We must actively work to lead people away from the bondage of sin into the freedom of the children of God which we all have received. We have a lot of work cut out for us but it is easy if we live each day of our lives in the love of Christ and the love of neighbor. If we do this, then we are active agents in God’s revelation to all of his creation.

Friday May 16, 2008: 2:14-24, 26; Mark 8:34–9:1

St. James challenges us today to match up our faith with actions. We can pray for all the poor in the world, we can pray for all the sick in the world, we can pray for the hungry in the world, if we cannot match up our prayers with some action, our faith is in vain. It is understandable if we do not have, but if we have, but do not give, in vain are our prayers. Christianity is a practical religion. Jesus Christ consistently showed this when he was here on earth. He did not only feed the people with spiritual bread, he also fed their immediate physical hunger. How many times have people brought great needs to us and even though we can help them, we assured them of our prayers and did not do anything practically to help them. I do not want to underestimate the power of prayer for those in need, but Jesus Christ uses also as instruments to answer those prayers of faith.

How can you help those who are in need today?

Acts 8:5-8, 14-17; 1 Pt 3:15-18; Jn 14:15-21 (April 27, 2008 – Fifth Sunday of Easter)

In the last few weeks, Jesus Christ has been inviting us to hope. He has been calling us to have faith in him and to remain in his love. In the face of all the pains and tribulations we go through, why should we still hope? For those who have suffered for many years, the question becomes, what is the fruit of hoping all these years? Our Christian hope is not foolish hope as some of my skeptical friends think. Our hope is not a pie in the sky as Karl Marx will think. It is not an illusion or at consequentially, a delusion as Sigmund Freud will argue. The temptation is that when we hope and hope for many years and nothing seems to change, we begin to believe that our hope is delusional.

In the last few months, there is hardly a day that goes by without using the word “hope.” For a friend who has just lost a loved one, I say “hope;” to a parishioner that has just been diagnosed of cancer, I say “hope;” to a class mate who has just been laid off because their company is moving over to Taiwan, I say “hope.” It is not uncommon to hear these people ask me, “Do you really believe that things will be better?” I do believe that things will be better. Why do I believe that things will be better? That is what I want to share with you today.

St. Peter tells us in the second reading of today that we need to have an explanation ready for anyone who asks us why we hope. My skeptical friends want to know why I will continue to hope in the Lord after letting my brother and sister die in accidents. Let me tell you, after going through traumatic or difficult circumstances in your life, it sometimes become difficult to remember why we hope. My job this morning is to remind us why we Christian people hope and to give you reasons why we should hope.

We hope because God is truth. He is always faithful to his word. He does not deceive us. Again and again throughout scriptures, he blessed those who hoped in his promises. The story of Abraham in the book of Genesis, is a story of hope. Abraham hoped that the promise which the Lord has made to him would be fulfilled. Biologically, it was impossible for him to become the Father of all nations because his wife Sarah had reached old age. He mistakenly thought that, that promise was to be fulfilled through Haggai, his slave woman. God still made it known to him that, it was Sarai that would fulfill this promise. He believed and because of his hope in the promise of the Lord, St. Paul tells us in Galatians 3:6 that he was credited of all righteousness.

We hope because we are children of Abraham. Through Jesus Christ, the singular descendant of Abraham, we too are sons and daughters of Abraham. The promises and blessings of Abraham are also rightfully ours. This promise from the Lord is of good and not of evil. In Deuteronomy 28:12-13, the Lord makes a promise to us, “The Lord will open up for you his rich treasure house of the heavens, to give your land rain in due season, blessing all your undertakings, so that you will lend to many nations and borrow from none. The Lord will make you the head, not the tail, and you will always mount higher and not decline …” It may be difficult to see how this promise would be fulfilled in your life if you are going through difficult circumstances. The promise of the Lord, is his promise, how he will fulfill it is not for us to decide. I remember what Mike Huckabee use to say in the campaign trail, “I am in the business of miracles and not Math.” Our science cannot explain how God will bring to fruition these promises. Job, the righteous man must have been wondering how God will bring about a change in his life after going through those years of tribulation in his life. His friends had all given up. He was even persuaded to curse God and die, but he stayed firm in the Lord. His response is found in Job 42:2, “I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be hindered.” As we see at the end of the story of Job, his situation was turned around. Job 42:12 tells us that, “The Lord blessed the late days of Job more than his earlier ones.”

We hope because hope does not disappoint. St. Paul in Romans 5: 4-5 says that we can now boast of our afflictions. We boast of our afflictions because they produce endurance, and endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint. It is hope that brings you here every morning, it is hope that makes you go to school, it is hope that makes you go to work. If you have no hope, you can do nothing. In Ezekiel 37, we have the prophecy of the dry bones. God asked the prophet Elijah to prophecy so that these dry bones will come back to life. He says that these dry bones are the house of Israel, their hope is lost and they have been cut off. God asked Elijah to prophecy that their graves will open and they will rise from them. He will put his spirit in them and they will live. He concludes that, “I have promised and I will do it.” We have become like dry bones without life in them. We have been buried in our problems and difficulties, but God has made a promise he will keep. He will open our graves and we will have life and live.

How is he going to give us life? He says to us in the gospel of today that, I will send you the Holy Spirit, the helper, the comforter. Help is on the way. On Friday, the President told us that the treasury department will be mailing out our stimulus checks beginning this Monday. That is help on the way. It will be foolish to sit down and hope that the checks are not coming. We know they are coming. In the same way, Jesus has told us that help is on the way, the Holy Spirit is coming to help us, it will be foolish to stop hoping and believing that help is not on the way. If we do that, we are making Jesus Christ a liar.

We hope because of what God has done in Jesus Christ. He sent him to come and set us free. What greater witness there is, for us to hope? If we believe that Jesus Christ died for us, then we have no option than to hope. His death and resurrection, guarantees everyone of us a place in his father’s kingdom, where as Revelation 21: 3-7 tells us, there is no pain and suffering. We must keep our eyes on this eternal prize. As St. Paul exhorts us in 2 Corinthians 4:16, “we are not discouraged by this momentarily light affliction … we look not to what is seen but to what is unseen, for what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen is eternal.”

Let us not give away our greatest and only weapon, hope. If all fails, the one thing we must hold unto is hope. The moment you let go of hope, your life will become meaningless. It is hope that will bring us successfully to our kingdom. I live you with the words of the prophet Jeremiah in 31:17, “There is hope for the future, says the Lord.”

John 10: 31-42, (Friday, March 14, 2008)

The people are trying to stone Jesus Christ for the sin of blasphemy. He is claiming that he is “I Am” i.e. he is God. For them, there is nothing in him that says he is the Messiah they have been expecting. They know his parents, they know about his birth, they know every bit of his human history. All these do not match up to their expectations of the messiah.

In this gospel, Jesus Christ is saying to them, do not just believe me because of my talk, look around and see the works I have done. Are these works not speaking for themselves. In our Christian journey, they got to be a point we must stop do the talking, and let the works we do speak for us. It does not make any point if I preach about the need to help the poor, if people can see us as a church helping the poor. The works of Jesus, made many people to believe in him. Rather than tell the people what the bible says about Jesus Christ, let us begin to live lives in which people would see Jesus in us.

How can you be Christ-like today?

John 8: 21-30, (Tuesday, March 11, 2008)

How do you overcome all the challenges of the world? How do you navigate this hostile world? How do you relate with difficult people in your life? Jesus Christ faced with a lot of difficulties and challenges knew where he belongs, not of this world, but above. He was able to show that he is beyond the things that try to hold him back in this world. As a Christian people, we do not belong to this world. We belong to something above. If we believe this fact, we would be careful how we respond to things that come our way daily. Our problem sometimes is that we drag ourselves below. When someone who is not a Christian is trying to make trouble with you and make life difficult for you, do you stoop low and engage them, or do you show them through your actions that you belong to something that is greater. Jesus Christ did not engage the people in useless arguments. He knew his identity, he stated it and he lived it. We are told at the end of today’s gospel that, “Be he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.” If we being to live like Jesus rather than engaging in fruitless arguments with non-believers, we will be able to draw many people into the family of Jesus.

How will you respond to attacks today?

John 8: 1-11 (Monday, March 10, 2008)

“GO AND FROM NOW ON, DO NOT SIN ANY MORE”

Jesus Christ uses these powerful words. These words of healing; these words of consolation; these words of challenge in the gospel of today. Let us for a moment imagine how this woman felt when she heard Jesus say to her, “neither do I condemn you.” This is a woman that was about to be stoned to death. She committed one of the worst crimes in Jewish law. The three capital sins in Jewish law are Idolatry, murder and adultery. These sins were punishable by death.

Adultery simply means unfaithfulness. In Christian tradition, we refer to this sin of unfaithfulness as Mortal sin. When we are unfaithful to God, we have committed a mortal sin. Mortal sin is a turning away from God and choosing something else; it is a rejection of Jesus. Mortal sin is deadly, because it separates us from God. There are three things that make a sin mortal: it is a grave matter, you know it is a sin and you willfully go ahead to commit it. At one point or the other in our lives, we have fallen into this kind of sin. And some people are living in this sin, separating themselves from Jesus Christ. This period of lent, it is an opportunity for us to turn once more towards God and turn away from our unfaithfulness.
In what ways have you been unfaithful to God?

John 7: 40-53 (Saturday, March 8, 2008)

Some people in the crowd are beginning to understand who Jesus Christ truly is. Some are beginning to think that he is the Christ. They are however still held back by their own human judgments. They are failing to understand that Jesus Christ is greater than all the biological origins they are trying to limit him to. Even as they try to trace this human history of his identity, they still do not understand that he actually falls within this history. Jesus Christ is properly of David’s family as it is evidenced in the genealogy of Jesus as it is found in Matthew 1: 1-25. Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:1) and because of this, he is humanly speaking, a proper native of the town of Bethlehem. The people’s prejudices and lack of faith would not let them see the Truth that was before them.

This is a caution to us Christians to be careful as to how we make judgments about people. Sometimes we have the tendency to make rash judgments and draw hasty conclusions about people without being open to truly know who they are.

How many times have you drawn conclusions about people just because of the way they look or something they said, that you did not really agree with?

John 5: 31-37, (Thursday, March 6, 2008)

During elections, candidates are always eager to get endorsements of prominent persons; they want those persons to testify to their suitability for the office. As Christians, sometimes, we seek these kinds of endorsements. We want people to say how good Christians we are. We do many things not because they come from our inside, but because we want to show people how Christian or holy we are. In the gospel of today, Jesus Christ alludes to the endorsements he has received from John the Baptist, from Moses, from the scripture itself. He says all these endorsements are nothing to him, compared to his works in relation to his relationship with the Father. He says, “I have testimony greater than John’s. The works that the Father gave me to accomplish, these works that I perform testify on my behalf.”

The way we live our lives in and out of the Church give testimony for us; and not what the pastor or some member of the parish council says about us. Jesus Christ tells us in the gospel of John that it is by the way we love that other people will know that we are truly his disciples. Rather than seeking the praise of men and women, let us let the fruits of our work speak for us.

What are the fruits of your Christian life?

John 4: 43-54, (Monday, March 3, 2008)

The royal official in the gospel of today is not a man who goes around looking for signs and miracles, he is a man that has a genuine faith in Jesus. He believed in Jesus’ power to heal his son. When Jesus says to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe,” his response to Jesus truly shows the depth of his faith. He says, “Sir, come down, before my child dies.” He knows that Jesus Christ has the power to save the life of the child. When Jesus Christ sends him back to go and his son will leave, even though Jesus Christ did not go physically with him, he believed.

This is the kind of faith that Jesus Christ demands of us his followers. He wants us to lay everything we are going through to him. We need to bring our troubles to him with confidence, knowing that he will help us. One of the problems we always face is that even when we ask Jesus to help us, we don’t really believe that he can help us in our situation. If Jesus cannot do it, no other person would be able to. Trust fully in him.

Do you sincerely believe that Jesus Christ can lift you up from your troubles?

Genesis 12:1-4a; 2 Timothy 1:8b-10; Matthew 17:1-9 (Sunday, February 17, 2008; Second Sunday of Lent) Homily by Deacon George Showalter

When we look at our lives we become aware of many desires and needs we long to see fulfilled. These needs might include happiness security, love, good health, purpose in life, peace of mind, and many others. The list seems endless. However, the greatest need we will ever have on this earth is to know God intimately! A deep relationship with Him will affect every area of our lives and actually transform us into the persons He wants us to be. Therefore, Holy Mother Church offers to us the season of Lent. It, as Fr. Peterson told us on Ash Wednesday, is not intended to be so much a season of atonement as a season of seeking a closer unity with our maker and Lord.
In our busy world, at work, at practice, at play, each with their own stresses and pressures, it is easy to neglect God and live most of the time as if He doesn’t exist. Some Catholics even settle for a token appearance at Mass on Sundays. We desperately need to have a close relationship with Jesus, our Lord and Savior. He teaches ”I am the vine; you are the branches…apart from me you can do nothing.”
Abram, of our first reading, was human, undoubtedly with the same wants and desires as ourselves. God told Abram, who had not known of or been close to God before, “Follow my directions and I will bless you. I will make your name great. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you.” Abram accepted God’s offer. God was as good as his word. We know the rest of the story.
Paul in his letter to Timothy wrote: “Beloved; Bear your share of hardship for the Gospel with the strength that comes from God. He saved us and called us to a holy life not according to our works but according to his own design.”
In Lent, we move persistently towards the greatest commemoration possible for any Christian.
In five weeks we will celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Is it possible for Easter Sunday to be just another of the 52 Sundays of the calendar year? Is it possible to turn one’s back of the invitation, the call, that each of us receives from God? Do we wait for Moses and Elijah? Must they appear to us?
In the Gospel proclaimed today, as God spoke from the cloud and said ”This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him,” He was not only speaking to the three who accompanied Jesus up the mountain. He was speaking to you. He was speaking to me. He was speaking to all who would hear those words proclaimed.
With that in mind, speaking of giving up things for Lent, perhaps all of us should struggle “to give up” what ever remains of an indifference we still have to the Word of God. God speaks to us. He calls to us. It was He who, as Paul writes, calls us to a holy life bestowing on us grace in Christ Jesus before time began, and then made manifest in our savior Christ Jesus, who destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
The greatest need we will ever have on this earth is to know God intimately! A deep relationship with Him will affect every area of our lives and actually transform us into the persons He wants us to be. It is my belief, the call Abram received is a call given to the world and each individual within it.
God said, “Follow my directions and I will bless you. I will make your name great. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you.” Abram accepted God’s offer. May we be so bold to follow his lead!
God is as good as his Word.

John 1: 29-34 (Sunday, January 20, 2008)

Three imageries are used in today’s gospel to describe Jesus Christ. These imageries are:
- Jesus the Lamb of God
- Jesus the bearer of the Holy Spirit
- Jesus the Son of God.

The imagery of the Lamb of God is one that we see strongly in the Old Testament. This imagery connotes salvation, forgiveness of sin and restoration. In Exodus 12, when God wanted to save the people of Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, he asked them to kill a lamb and mark their door posts with the blood. When the Angel of death sees the blood marked on their doors, he will pass over the house. Through the blood of the lamb, the people were saved from the destruction that was carried out by the angel of death. In the same way, through Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, we would be saved not only from death but also by the power of the evil one that hovers around the world seeking to destroy us. It is the mark of the blood of the Lamb that would save us from the calamities and the principalities of the devil. In the book of Revelation 14, we are told that the Lamb of God standing upon the mount of Zion was the one that conquered the beasts. Today, we are being harassed by the beast in many ways. When you begin to sink in your faith and you no longer believe in God – it is the work of the beast; when you have lost all hope in Christ and in the life he has given to you – it is the work of the beast; when religion falls from your list of priorities – it is the work of the beast. You need the Lamb of God to conquer the beast manifesting in your life.

The Lamb of God is the one that takes away the sins of the world. In the Mass we pray daily: “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, have mercy on us.” The priest also raising the host, repeats the words of John the Baptist, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, happy are those who are called to his supper.” In these words, we are conscious of the mission of Jesus – that of atoning for our sins and restoring our relationship with the Father. In Deuteronomy 29, we learn that the people of Israel sacrificed the lamb every day in atonement for their sins. The sacrifice o Jesus Christ is a perfect sacrifice that is done once and for all in atonement of sin. He is the sacrificial lamb that dies once and for all to restore us into proper relationship with the Father. This sacrifice is salvific and it assures us of a place in heaven.

Another imagery that was used in today’s gospel is that of the bearer of the Holy Spirit. At his baptism, Jesus Christ received the Holy Spirit and when he baptizes us, he no longer baptizes us with water only for the forgiveness of our sins, but he also baptizes us with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit symbolizes power, through the spirit, we are illumined and transformed. We know that he is the bearer of the Spirit because again and again in the scriptures, he promises us that he will send us his Holy Spirit, the paraclete and this spirit will give us power, it will teach us all we need to know and it make us bold to preach the message of salvation. St. Paul tells us that the spirit we have received, is not that of timidity but one that emboldens us to preach the message of Christ. It is significant that Jesus Christ uses the word paraclete when he promises us the Spirit. Paraclete means that the spirit is our guide, our consoler and our defender. The Spirit will guide us into the future. It will show us the way of the Lord, how to follow the will of God. We can move into the future without any fear because we know the Holy Spirit is with us. He is with us as the consoler. During those troubled and difficult times, the Spirit is there to console us. The Spirit is there to defend us against our enemies; it is our defense when we are challenged in our faith; the Spirit comes to our rescue when the beast tries to harass and intimidate us.

Jesus Christ is the son of God. His being God’s son automatically enrolls us all as members of the family of God. Through our baptism, we come to share in his sonship. John 1:12 tells us that, for all that believe, he has given them the power to become sons and daughters of God. What a special privilege we share by being members of Christ’s body. For the very reason that we are sons and daughters of God, we are guaranteed a place in God’s kingdom.

This year, as we celebrate the year of victory in family life. I want to encourage us to bring Jesus to our families. Let us give him a prime place in our homes. Let us make him truly the head of our household. When we do, through his blood, he will conquer the power of evil and sin in our homes; he will fill our home with his Spirit and our children will learn to walk in the ways of the Lord and we will be able to work into the future without any fears; he will make us truly a domestic church.

2Maccabees 7: 1-2, 9-14; 2Thessalonians 2: 16-3:5; Luke 20: 27-38 (Sunday, November 11, 2007 – 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time)

Today’s readings invite us to reflect on one of the fundamental aspect of our faith – the resurrection. In the first reading of today, the mother and her seven sons are martyred because of their refusal to live against the law of Yahweh. Both Leviticus 11: 7-8 and Deuteronomy 14:8 prohibit Jewish people from eating pork. These Old Testament martyrs saw the life after as being more important than their present life which will eventually end. They professed that they would rather die than violate the law of Yahweh. They believed that eternity with God was more important than the short securities of this present life. Their statements when faced with this severe persecution reflect a deep theology of martyrdom.

Ø They believed that it was better for the Just to die than to succumb to sin. The Just know that earthly death is only temporal, the life beyond is more important. They know that their death is not in vain as God will vindicate them. After many years of persecution of the church by the Roman emperors, Christians were steadfast in their faith and at the end of the day, God vindicated them. 2000 years later, we can confidently say the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the faith. When faced with the difficulties of this world, we shouldn’t give up our faith. For the Christian, it is better to die than to deny the faith; it is better to fail that exam than to cheat to be successful; it is better to lose that business deal than to lie to get the deal; etc.

Ø The just would be resurrected. Jesus proclaims himself as the resurrection and the life in John 11:25 and he goes on ahead to raise his friend Lazarus back to life. He does not just stop there, he himself after three days of his death, came back to life to show that he is truly the resurrection and the life and death has no power over him. St. Paul tell us in 1Thessalonians 4:14 that if we believe that Jesus died and rose, God will bring forth with him from the dead also those who have fallen asleep believing in him.

Ø There is no resurrection for the wicked. They shall incur the wrath of God. The martyr embraces his or her death joyfully knowing that the person who is causing him this pain does not believe in the power of the resurrection. If only they believed in the power of the resurrection, they will not treat fellow human beings that way. They act the way they do because they have given their lives to sin and as St. Paul tells us, the wages of sin is death.

Ø The martyr believes that his or her suffering is because of their sin but their death has an expiatory value. The sin here does not necessarily mean the giving of self totally to sin. It is an understanding that as a human being he or she is sinful but what the martyr has, that the wicked person does not have is that the martyr believes in the power of God’s mercy and believes that there is redemption in the precious blood of the lamb. The martyrs blood brings expiation from all their sins.

More than any other thing, today’s readings are an invitation to Christian hope. Christian hope is basically the hope in the resurrection. St. Paul tells us in 1Corinthians 15 that, “if there is no resurrection of the dead, Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is void of content and your faith is empty too.” So, for St. Paul, our resurrection is closely linked with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is for the reason that Christ has been raised from the dead that believers can hope that they too will experience the resurrection. The Sadducees in the gospel of today use Deuteronomy 25:5 to argue against the resurrection. It is important to keep in mind that the Sadducees who are an aristocratic, conservative group that hold only the Torah to be authoritative, do not believe in neither angels nor the resurrection. Jesus would not respond to them using the later development of the teaching on the resurrection as it is found in both Maccabees and Daniel. They would not accept these books as authoritative. So, Jesus uses the teaching from Exodus 3. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is not the God of the dead but the God of the living.

When the Sadducees argue against Jesus using the example of marriage, they are looking at resurrection more or less as a resuscitation of the body. Christian resurrection as understood in the New Testament is not resuscitation. It is a transformation in which our bodies are no longer mortal or corruptible. The resurrection conquers all authority and the last enemy of the human person is death. The resurrection conquers death. Since death is conquered by the resurrection of Jesus, Christians too can hope in the resurrection. And since Christians are transformed and they would live forever with Jesus in heaven where he is the all in all, there would be no need for marriage. The only marriage will be the marriage of the lamb, where Christians would unite with their master and savior Jesus Christ and would see God as he truly is.

Romans 8: 18-25 (Tuesday, October 30, 2007)

St. Paul in this beautiful reading encourages the people of Romans to endure the pains and anguish they go through now since they hope for something greater in the future. Sometimes it feels like Christians are the losers in the world. If you try to live out radically your Christianity as a business person or as a professional worker, you may not make as much money or grow in your career as others because you are not willing to cut corners. We are invited by St. Paul to enjoy these present inconveniences because the glory of God that is our destiny is greater. Like Jesus would say, of what profit would it be, if you gain the whole world and lose your soul. It is important to keep in mind that our home is not here on earth but it is in heaven and it is that glory and joy of heaven that we should work towards. There, they shall be no pain or sorrow.

Prayer:
Lord Jesus Christ help us to keep our eyes on your glory and not the glories of the world. Amidst the pains and sorrows of this world, give us the endurance to continue to work towards your glory.

Matthew 1: 18-23 (Saturday, September 8, 2007) - Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The birth of Mary is a special event in the life of the Church. Mary is specially prepared and she would be the humble one that would joyfully receive the savior of the world. We celebrate the birthdays of our parents whom we so love. In the same way, we celebrate the birthday of Blessed Mother, who loves us so much and is willing to do all for us. In her life, she lived the purpose of God and because of that, she is said to be full of grace. Our mother who is full of grace is also willing to share her graces generously with us. As a woman who lived in this world and lived through the pains and sorrows of the world, Mary knows our problems, she knows the challenges we face each day. It is important that we open ourselves to her and ask her to intercede for us that we may have the graces we need to combat the challenges of this world.

Prayer:
My queen, my mother, I give myself entirely to you. And to show my devotions to you, I consecrate to you this day, my eyes, my ears, my mouth, my heart, my entire self without reserve; as I am your own my good mother, guide me and defend me as your property and possession. Amen.

Mathew 25: 14-30 (Sunday, September 2, 2007)

In today’s readings, we are invited to become humble persons. One of the things we learn from these readings is that humility leads to greatness. Humility is the pathway to exaltation. When Jesus exhorts his followers in the gospel of today, “whoever humbles himself will be exalted,” he is not making an empty statement but this is truly what he believes and it plays out in his life. Jesus Christ is the primary model of humility for the Christian people. St. Paul rightly describes him thus in Philippians 2:6, “though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. … he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on the cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name.” Jesus Christ in Matthew 11: 29 tells us, “learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart.”

Jesus’ humility guaranteed his exaltation. Here, he stands in great contrast with Lucifer the angel of light who failed in humility. St. John Simachus tells us that humility is the only virtue that the devil cannot imitate. If pride made angels into demons, humility makes demons into angels. There is the story of Satan appearing to one of the desert monks. He kept appearing to him in the form of an angel of light giving him messages and trying to make him feel so special and proud. This monk continued living his life of simplicity and humility. After some time, the devil getting frustrated said to him, “all that you do, I can do; but the only thing you do that I cannot do is your humility.” The monk was able to resist the devil because of his humility.

If we are humble people, not only that God helps us to resist the temptation of pride, but he brings us forgiveness. Humble people are able to look at themselves and says, I have really made wrong choices. People who are not humble would always look for ways to justify away their mistakes. They always look for people to blame for their mistakes. In 1 Kings 21, Ahab wanted Naboth to sell him his vineyard. Naboth refused. This caused Ahab great pain that he refused to eat. His wife Jezebel accused Naboth of cursing God and king and had him stoned to death. After that, she convinced Ahab to take possession of Naboth’s vineyard. When Ahab went to take possession of the vineyard, the Lord sent Prophet Elijah to prophecy to him. The Lord said, “In the place where the dogs licked up the blood of Naboth, the dogs shall lick up your blood too. I am bringing evil upon you. I will destroy you and will cut off every male in Ahabs line, whether slave or freeman, in Israel.” When Ahab heard this, he tore his gaments and put on sackcloth over his bare flesh as a sign of his repentance. When the Lord saw this, he said, “since he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his time.”

What we really need as a country is humility. We are quick to proclaim how great a nation. We boast about our military might and our power to subdue all nations. Our lack of humility will not let us confess that we made a mistake with Iraq. What we need today is the humility of Ahab to recognize that we have really sinned and that our sin if not repented of, will lead to our destruction. We as a nation need to mourn of our national sins. We need to do a national fast and penance. The religious right that is quick to support and defend the war with the bible need to recognize that we have sinned and have failed God in the power he has given to us as a nation. We cannot separate the things that are going on in our nation today from our social sins. Our economy is in big trouble; natural and man made disasters everywhere; everyday our fine soldiers are exposed to more and more risks in Iraq. God is inviting us as a nation to humble ourselves. 2Chronicles 7:14 tells us, “if my people, upon whom my name has been pronounced, humble themselves and pray, and seek my presence and turn from their evil ways, I will hear them from heaven and pardon their sins and revive their land.” God wants to restore our nation but we must humble ourselves, acknowledge our sinfulness and pray. Talking politics is not enough; congress would not help us either. Reviving our country is a spiritual battle and it must start from the grassroots. The question today is how we at St. Margaret Mary can bring about this spiritual revival. It is not enough to come to church on Sunday and to even say to me at the end of the Mass, “nice homily Father.” I want to see people who want to change our nation come forward with ideas on how we can first revive Parkersburg, then the whole of Wood county, the state of West Virginia and the whole country. We can have a day of prayer and fasting across different Christian denominations. But that change must start here at St. Margaret Mary Church.

We can never become the people that God wants us to be if we fail to live out radically the virtue of humility. We are told in the book of James 4:10 that if you humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, the lord will lift you up. Your humility will cause you to find favor with God. What is greater than being favorable in the eyes of God? When you are favorable in the eyes of God, he will pour abundantly his graces and blessings. It means, you will become a special person. God found favor in the Blessed Virgin Mary and she was called the Blessed one. God found favor in Abraham and he was blessed.

Let us today begin a process of becoming humble people, so that God will bless us and bless our land. This will mean doing such little things as adults respecting the opinions of younger people and taking corrections from them and younger people trusting in the wisdom of older people; this will mean seeking forgiveness from those you have hurt or who have hurt you; this means making yourself available to others who need your help; this also means working actively to bring about a change in the national policies of our country.
It is by doing these things, that we will truly be people of humility – becoming the people God has called us to be.

Matthew 18: 21 - 19-1 (Thursday, August 16, 2007)

Without faith, it is difficult to forgive others who have offended you. You need faith to recognize that through the event of the Cross, Jesus Christ has forgiven you all your sins. Saint Paul tells us that Jesus died for us while we were still living in sin. He forgave us and offered his life for our salvation even before we asked for forgiveness. As he has forgiven us, he invites us today to forgive other people. We should not place limits on how much we forgive, but generously forgive as Jesus continues to forgive us. There is no offense your fellow human person can commit against you that is greater than that which you have committed against God. If he whom we have offended the most forgive you, why can you not in the same way forgive those who have offended you?

Forgiveness brings us healing. It makes us whole. Until we forgive, we do not feel whole. Our moods always change when we encounter the person that has offended us. As Christians, the right thing to do is to ask for forgiveness even if we are the ones that have been offended. That is the Christian difference that we must take seriously.

Forgiveness from the heart does not mean that you forget that the event ever took place. It means not holding the offence against the person that offends you. This also means not keeping records of offences you have forgiven. Like Jesus, forgive without counting the offences.

Prayer:
Lord Jesus Christ, forgive us today all our failings, as we continue to forgive those who offend us. Give us the graces we need to forgive those who have hurt us the most and those we feel, we cannot forgive.