4^th Sunday of Easter-B

Acts 4:8-12

Psalm 118

I Jn. 3:1-2

John 10:11-18

Salvation Means Picking up the Stone, which is Rejected and Making it the Cornerstone

Beloved in Christ, it is spring, and we thank God for a wonderful weather, the beautiful trees and flowers. Wow! I cannot believe that we made it through another Iowa winterJ Beloved, spring is also a time for cleaning. We clean our yards, our houses, and closets. As we do so we throw away things that we don’t value anymore but we save that which we see to have value. As I was cleaning my closet today, I throw some old socks away because they were torn and I cannot wear them anymore. But I also found a hundred dollar bill in my closet and my face just beamed with a huge smileJ That one I did not throw way. See, we save things that we think are of value to us, right?

In the Bible, the people of Israel were always aware of how other nations looked down on them because they often had a small army, were often defeated and enslaved by other nations. But they also knew that when other nations looked down on them, God placed value on them, made a covenant with them, and made them an instrument of salvation for the world. That is why they would often praise God in the psalms like the one we just sung today in our responsorial psalm (118): “The stone rejected by the builders has become the corner stone”. This for them was salvation: that they were rejected by other nations but God placed value on them and treated them as a people with dignity. It was this understanding that the people got out of the covenant that God made with them and saw themselves as a people sent to bring salvation to others.

However, as on many occasions, at the time of Jesus, the chief priest, the Sadducees, the Pharisees and other leaders of God’s people had forgotten what it means to save even though they still saw themselves as people who were called to bring salvation to others. That is why Peter in our first reading today, reminded them that if they really wanted to understand what it means to save they should look at the way Jesus did it:  “There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved” except Jesus! Why did Peter say that? Because in the ministry, suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus, God reminds us that no matter how bad our human condition gets, God still places value on us. As Jesus himself said in the gospel today, He alone is the Good Shepherd who places value on the lost sheep. Only Jesus has remedy for sin. He alone saw the value in the blind, the lame, the cripple, the sinner, and even the dead! That is why he ate with sinners, healed the sick and raised the dead. By this Jesus teaches us that you cannot save that which you don’t place value on. The first step in saving somebody or something is the place value on the person or the thing.

Beloved, at times, we Christians are like the chief priest, the Sadducees, the Pharisees and the other leaders of God’s people in Israel at the time of Jesus. We call ourselves people who are called to bring salvation to the world but we forget what it means to save. There are times we don’t get it as a church, and there are times we don’t get it as individuals. When I was reflecting on this homily my mind went to two events. In 1454 Pope Nicholas V wrote a decree Romanus Pontifex and blessed the slave trade at the time in the name of Jesus. Can you imagine that? In my religious studies class I also read that one reason why the Prophet Mohammed started a new community of believers was because the Christians in his area at that time did not want anything to do with him and his family. In our own individual lives, we at times fail to reach out to those who are rejected by society. That is why Peter’s clarification of what salvation means is a very important reminder for us today. Peter reminds us in the first reading that Salvation means picking up the stone, which is rejected and making it the cornerstone.

What value do you place on strangers, on people who are different than you? What value do you place on people of different religions, worldviews, and lifestyles? What value do you place on those who have offended you? At times, these are the very stones that we the builders reject. Beloved, we are called to make them the cornerstone. May God give us the grace to put value on all human beings and created things so that we can pick up those stones that are rejected and turn them into the corner stones. Let’s pray in this Mass, that God will open our eyes to see His face in those people that we reject; that God will open our ears to hear his voice in the voices of people we look down on; that God will open our hearts to love those we find difficult to love.

3^rd Sunday of Easter-B

Those who have really experienced the Risen Christ become more merciful

Holy Thursday: Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper

Ex. 12: 1-8, 11-14

Ps. 116

1 Cor. 11:23-26

Jn. 13:1-15

Lift up the cup of salvation

Beloved in Christ, tonight we celebrate our God as a God who saves. We begin the Holy Triduum, which is a three-day celebration of the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Tonight we thank God for the Gift of the Holy Eucharist and that of the Holy Priesthood. We begin our Eater celebrations, by receiving the Holy Oils that our Archbishop and all the priests in the diocese blessed last Tuesday! These Oils are means that God will use through out the year to sanctify us and give us physical and spiritual strength to live our calling as priestly people! Tonight the Church invites us to reflect on two important gives that we have and are: The Eucharist and the Priesthood! In baptism, every Christian is anointed a priest; so all of us gathered here tonight are priests! What are priests called to do? To sacrifice their lives for people, to sanctify them (make them holy) and bring them life. I thank God for the gift of each one of you and the sacrifices you make to sanctify your family and friends, and to bring them life. In addition to the common priesthood that we all share, God has called some of us to serve the Church as ministerial priests. So I thank God for the gift of Fr. Jon, our Pastor, for the gift of Fr. Secora, and all priests and deacons around the world. I thank God in a very special way for the gift of my own priesthood; for calling an unworthy servant like me to serve Him and His church. I LOVE the priesthood. I still believe that it is the BEST thing that has ever happened to me! But I always wonder why God would choose a sinner like me to become a priest! I tell you, my brothers and Sisters, that if God can make a priest out of me, He can make a saint out of you! 

In addition to thanking God for making all of us Priests, the Church invites us to thank God for the gift of the Eucharist and reflect on what this GREAT Gift means in our lives. St. Paul tells us in the second reading that before Jesus was crucified, he took bread and wine and changed those into his Holy Body and Blood for us, his disciples. Why was it important for Jesus to do that? Why is the Eucharist important in our lives?  The Eucharist is Jesus’s way of helping his disciples to make the sacrifice of the Cross-their own. Literally speaking, the body that hanged on the cross on Good Friday was not that of the disciples. It was not their blood, it was not my blood; it was not your blood that was poured out on Calvary. So how does that Sacrifice become yours and mine? How does Jesus’ Sacrifice take away my sin? How does it take away your sin? In John 6: 56 Jesus told his disciples “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood will live in me and I will live in him.” So, by giving them the Eucharist, Jesus was joining his body and those of the disciples together and mixing his blood with those of the disciples so that as he hanged on the Cross, it would also be the disciples hanging on the cross sacramentally; as he poured out his blood, it will be the disciples pouring out their blood. It is in this sacramental way that Jesus’ death on the cross becomes my death and your death, and his resurrection, becomes my resurrection and your resurrection. 

The responsorial psalm poses a very important question for our reflection. The question is “What will I do to thank the Lord of all his goodness to me? Beloved what would you do to thank the Lord for His goodness to you? The psalmist tells us to “Lift up the cup of salvation” What does that mean? How we de lift up the cap of salvation? It is by living your priestly calling, as a person who lays down your life to bring about reconciliation between God and his people, among families and friends, to walk with them in such as way that they are sanctified, and that your presence, words and actions bring people life. That is what Jesus tells us in the gospel “I give you a new commandment”. He did not say it is a suggestion. No! It is a commandment: “Love one another, the way I have loved you. What I have done for you, you must do for one another”.  Lift up the cup of salvation!

Beloved, it is not easy to lift up the cup of salvation because at times the people whom you lay down your life for are the very people who offend you so badly. What do you do when those you lay down your life for turn against you? One of the things that struck me in the gospel was the fact that Jesus washed the feet of Judas: Jesus knew his enemy, but did not treat him like an enemy. He knew Judas wanted him dead; yet he still washed his feet. By this Jesus teaches us that we cannot control what people will do, but we can control our reaction to what people do. Yes, we also know people who have hurt us in our family and among our friends. Are we going to pay them back or are we going to wash their feet? Tonight we will wash each other's feet. If all your family and friends were here tonight, whose feet would you rather not wash and who will you not allow to wash your feet?

 

4th Sunday of Lent-Year B

2 Chr 36:14-16, 19-2

Ps 137:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6

Eph 2:4-10

Jn 3:14-21

Give God the Benefit of the Doubt: Believe that His Hand is Leading You

Beloved in Christ, last week I attended a conference in Las Vegas. Something happened that is worth sharing with you. I got lost a couple of times and each time, my GPS would say:  “You have left the route, recalculating! That reminded me of this great Season of Lent! A time when God reminds us that we have left the route but with his grace we can recalculate, find the right path, and reach our destination. This is the immeasurable grace that St. Paul talks about in our second reading today!

My Dear People of God, life is a journey; and at times a very difficult one. Many times on this journey we ask the ancient question: “God, is everything going to be okay? In the face of Isis, boko haram, Ferguson, and all the unrest in our world today? We are tempted to ask, “God, is everything going to be alright? We struggle with sin and at times, the harder we try, the more we fail. Perhaps, you have tried many Lenten practices like prayers, reading of scripture, fasting, almsgiving etc. and still you struggle with sin. This could be very discouraging and you might want to give up.  We do not only struggle with sin, we also have disasters that befall our families. We have illnesses and death of loved ones. All this makes us wonder whether everything will be alright. Our readings today answer that question for us.

In the gospel, Jesus makes reference to one of the moments in their journey when the people of Israel had to give Moses the benefit of the doubt. All those who did received new life. The story Jesus referred to is recorded in Numbers 21: 4-9 when the people had gotten tired of the journey in the wilderness and the manna. They insulted God and Moses telling God that the entire act of saving them from Egypt was useless. As a result they were bitten by snakes and were dying. But they prayed to God to have mercy on them and God asked Moses to make a bronze serpent and raise it on a pole so that all those who raised their eyes and looked at the serpent would be said. Inasmuch as humanly speaking this did not make sense to the people, all those who gave Moses the benefit of the doubt and raised their eyes towards the bronze serpent were healed. They received new life. Like the people of Israel in the days of Moses, anybody who gives Jesus the benefit of the doubt and puts his/her trust in his death and resurrection will have life.

Beloved, we are a people of the Resurrection! We believe that no matter how broken life gets, God can put things together; that if we give Jesus the benefit of the doubt, things will be okay again. God loves us so much and wants the best for us! That is the faith we celebrate in the Eucharist. If you pay attention during the mass, you will see that after the kiss of peace, the priest breaks the bread which has become the body of Christ into two and puts it back together and lifts it up as he calls on the congregation to behold the lamb of God. The breaking of the bread symbolizes the death of Christ and the fact that on many occasions things get broken in our own lives. The bringing of the two pieces of the broken bread back together symbolizes the Resurrection and reminds us that no matter how broken things get, God can bring them together again if we put our trust in him.  

Our first reading from the book of Chronicles tells us that even after 70 years, God still kept his promises to his people. What was striking about that story is how God did it. It was totally different from the way the people thought He was going to do it. They thought God was going to call one of them to lead them to fight and defeat the Babylonians. In that way the people would have had to shed their own blood to get their freedom. But no, God had a better plan. To their surprise, God chose a pagan king, Cyrus of Persia, who defeated the Babylonians, set the people free without any of them shedding their blood, set them free, and gave them all that they needed to rebuild their temple back in Jerusalem. You see what God can do? Indeed, God’s ways are not our ways; His delays are not denials. He is a faithful God and He works in ways that might be contrary to what we expect, but He will always make things okay. One Jesuit called Teilhard de Chardin wrote a wonderful poet/prayer about how God takes us through life, even on those broken roads:

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.

We are quite naturally impatient in everything

to reach the end without delay.

We should like to skip the intermediate stages.

We are impatient of being on the way to something

unknown, something new.

And yet it is the law of all progress

that it is made by passing through

some stages of instability—

and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you;

your ideas mature gradually—let them grow,

let them shape themselves, without undue haste.

Don’t try to force them on,

as though you could be today what time

(that is to say, grace and circumstances

acting on your own good will)

will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit

gradually forming within you will be.

Give Our Lord the benefit of believing

that his hand is leading you,

and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself

in suspense and incomplete.

—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ

Beloved, I don’t know what is going on in your life right now. But I want to challenge you to do one thing: Give God the benefit of the doubt.

4^th Sunday in Ordinary Time-Year B

Deut. 18:15-20

Psalm 95:1-2, 6-9

I Cor. 7:32-35

Mk. 1:21-28

Who is Your Life’s Coach? Jesus or the World?

Beloved in Christ, today is the day for the NFL Super Bowl for 2015. It will be played between the Patriots of New England and the Seahawks of Seattle. How many of you will watch to the game? Good! Which team do you think will win the game? Okay, I don’t know which team will win the game but I can tell you one thing: any team that wins, the winning will have something to do with the extent to which the team members listen to the instructions that their coach gives them. The Super Bowl, in some ways, remind me of some experience I had as a child learning how to play soccer. Usually, when my parents took me to practice, they would be sitting among the other parents and instead of just watching the game, they would be shouting so loud giving me instructions on how to play. They would be shouting “Richmond, Score! Score! Score!” This would usually happen at the same time the coach would be telling me “Richmond pass the ball! Anytime my parents did that, I got so angry and confused and I felt like telling them “Would you just keep quiet, I know you are good parents but soccer is not your area of specialization” J But I dared not say that because I knew if I did I would be grounded for a yearJ. My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, there is some relationship between obeying the right voice and success in life.

As Christians, our desire is to win victory for God. That victory is to make the world a better place, a place were all human beings and created things find a home, feel welcome; a place where God is glorified. When it comes to learning how to change the world for the better and fulfill God’s plans for our lives, only one person has the specialization: JESUS! There is no better coach than our Lord Jesus Christ when you really want to learn how to please God! He is the prophet that God promised Moses in the first reading that He would send into the world so that the world will have life. Beloved, our success in life depends on the extent to which we listen to the voice of Jesus as we hear from Scripture and the teachings of the Church. That is why our responsorial psalm today tells us: If today you hear his voice, do not harden your heart!

In the Gospel today, St. Mark reminds us that Jesus’ teaching is the only teaching with authority to make life better for people. When we obey Jesus, life becomes better. When the evil spirit submitted to the voice of Jesus in the gospel and left the boy, what happened? The boy’s life became better. If you reflect upon your life and the choices you have made, you will see that anytime you obeyed the voice of Jesus, you made life better for yourself and those around you!

That is why St. Paul is telling us in the second reading to make sure that nothing stops us from listening to the voice of God. St. Paul tells us that not even your desire to fulfill an important obligation such as fulfilling your duties towards your family should make you disobey God. Because the truth is when you disobey God, you cannot be a blessing to your family. St Paul acknowledges the blessings in marriage and family life but he also acknowledges the fact that the world puts so much pressure on married people that can force them to make choices that contradict the teachings of God. St. Paul is saying not even the struggle to keep your family going and happy should make you disobey the voice of God. Do you remember the story of Miriam Ibrahim? She is the 27 year-old woman from Sudan, who was imprisoned because of her faith in Christ. She was pregnant with her baby girl at the time and they threatened to kill her and her family if she did not give up her faith in Christ. This was just last year. She refused to denounce Christ and said she would not let the gift that God had given her, her baby and her husband, prevent her from showing her love to the giver of those gifts. What an example! I wish I can say the same all the time that I will never let any gift that God has given me prevent me from obeying the God who gave me that gift! Even though Miriam was ready to die, God saved her because the whole world cried against the government on her behalf and the pressure made the government set her free. The story is online. Just Google Miriam Ibrahim and you can read more about her. This is what St. Paul is talking about. Let nothing make you disobey the word of God. Not even your love for your family!

My Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ, each one of us needs to answer this question for yourself: “Who is the coach of my life? It is Jesus or the world? Whom do I listen to?

2^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time-Year B

I Sam 3:3b-10, 19

Psalm 40

1 Cor. 6: 13c-15a, 17-20

Jn. 1: 35-42

Behold the Lamb of God

One of my favorite Christian music artists is Matthew West. He recently sang a song called Do Something. In that song, Matthew West says he woke up one day and felt very sad with all the evils and problems in the world: the poverty, the killing of innocent people, the wars, families that are broken, children dying of hunger, people who are killing themselves because they have lost hope in our world and have lost hope in God. In that song, Matthew West said he prayed to God asking God to do something and then he heard a voice telling him: I have done something: I have created You! I remembered the words of that song when I heard St. Paul reminding us in our second reading today: You are the Temple of the Holy Spirit! The power of God, who makes all things new and beautiful, dwells in you! That Statement should remind us of the honor and the responsibility we have as sons and daughters of God. I think that honor and responsibility are what Dr. Martin Luther King Junior remembered, that is what made him move beyond the walls of his church to bring the gospel of Christ into his community, transform the American society, and leave the legacy we celebrate this on Monday as a nation.

That honor and responsibility are what our scriptural readings today call our attention to. In the gospel, we hear John the Baptist inviting us to behold the Lamb of God. As Catholics, everyday at Mass we hear the priest repeating those words of John the Baptist. What does it mean to behold the Lamb of God? I need an answerJ The word “behold” as used by John the Baptist does not only mean to look at or to admire; it means opening one’s heart and lifting up one’s gaze with attention in order to embrace something and become what one embraces. So when the priest says during Mass: “Behold the Lamb of God”, he is inviting you to open up to Christ, lift up your gaze and heart to embrace Christ in order to become like Him. That is how the disciples of John understood the invitation to behold the Lamb of God. That is why they followed Jesus, invited him into their lives, embraced him and stayed with him. The result was that they become like him and were able to transform their society. John the Baptist understood his life as helping people to listen to the voice of God, to embrace God, and help them become the means of grace that God uses to transform the world. In the gospel, we see people whom God was calling to become means of grace for the world: Andrew, Peter, and the other disciple whose name is not given. But one thing that they all needed was somebody to teach them how to listen to the voice of God, embrace God in their daily experience, live with Him, and become like him so that they would became the grace that transformed and restored the fallen situations and relationships that their time. In the first reading, we heard about the call of Samuel, a young boy who was being called by God but needed somebody to help him come to know God, embrace him, so that he would become a blessing to Israel. If you remember the story of Samuel’s life as recorded in I and 2 Samuel and 1 Kings, you will see that the whole nation of Israel would not have become the great nation it was without that little boy we read about. He became that means of grace for Israel because Eli taught him how to listen to God and embrace him.

Beloved, each of us is God’s answer to some problem in the world. Our first reading and the gospel remind us that God places people in our lives so that we can direct them to God. God places us in specific situations and in the lives of specific people and those lives and situations are the ones that he expects us to transform. As Christians, all our words and actions should shout out that single invitation to the world: Behold the Lamb of God! As we celebrate the Eucharist today, we need to ask ourselves: Does my attitude at work tell people to behold the Lamb of God? Do my words and actions invite my family, friends, and people in my community to behold the Lamb of God?

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, that is what all of us are called to do as Disciples of Christ. Yes, you may be thinking “…but how can I, as an individual person, living in Ames, Iowa, transform the situation in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria etc?”. Beloved, perhaps all God is asking you to do is to transform the little world around you, your family, your church, and your community, and pray that people everywhere in the world will allow Christ to influence their thinking and actions and so become that grace that transforms the world. Perhaps you are also worried about some problem in your family, some problem in your church, or community and you are asking God to do something. His response is “I have done something: I have created you!”