Most Blessed Trinity - Year C "Response to Protestant Pastor"

 

Today is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. All of us believe the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are three persons one God.

Each person of the Trinity has a specific function. God, the Father, is the creator. Jesus Christ, the Son, is the redeemer. The Holy Spirit is the sanctifier. Yet, because each person is one with the other persons, all persons create, redeem and sanctify.

The Blessed Trinity is in scripture. For example, The Blessed Virgin Mary was the first human being God revealed the Blessed Trinity. When the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, asking Her if She would become the Mother of God. He said, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you (the Father), therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.” (Lk 1:35)

The Trinity was also revealed at the Transfiguration and at the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan. At Our Lord’s Baptism, the Holy Spirit was seen in the form of a dove and the Father spoke and said, “You are my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matt. 3:16-17)

Jesus revealed the Trinity when he told His Apostles, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

The Church teaches that when we are baptized, the Blessed Trinity comes to dwell within our heart, original sin and all personal sin is washed away, we become a member of the Church, and we become a child of God, such that we can cry out “Abba Father.” (Rom. 8:14-17) Through baptism we share in the divine life of the Trinity, as we become God’s children.

In the March 19^th, issue of the Harvey County Independent, a protestant pastor wrote an article called, “False Gospels Have Been Around Awhile.” When referring to what he said was a false gospel, he wrote, “It’s called the Jesus-plus gospel.” He said, “In another words, it is Jesus plus something else that saves us. Maybe it’s Jesus plus another holy book, of Jesus plus a creed….” He said, “The bottom line is this: There is one gospel message found in the Holy Bible, which teaches that Jesus and Jesus alone is sufficient to save us. If anyone, no matter who it is, tells you differently, they are teaching a false gospel.”

First, we must recognize these words from the Protestant pastor are a direct reference to what Catholics believe. When he refers to Jesus-plus, he is referring to the Sacraments and to Sacred Tradition of Catholics.

If taken strictly, which I doubt he means it in a strict manner, does he exclude the Father and the Holy Spirit and their role in saving men and women? We can’t separate the persons of the Trinity because they are perfectly one. Jesus is our savior, but the Father and the Holy Spirit participate in saving us.

When referring to “Jesus plus”, is the Protestant pastor also referring to the Church itself? But Jesus gave us the Church for a reason. The Church is “the instrument” in which Jesus saves us. Jesus said, “Peter, you are rock and on this rock, I will build my Church…” Jesus gave us the Church and leaders of the Church, to help save us. As St. Paul tells us, the Church is the pillar and bulwark of truth. (1 Tim. 3:15). The Catechism of the Catholic Church (#86) states, “Yet this Magisterium is not superior to the Word of God, but is its servant. It teaches only what has been handed on to it. At the divine command and with the help of the Holy Spirit, it listens to this devotedly, guards it with dedication and expounds it faithfully. All that it proposes for belief as being divinely revealed is drawn from this single deposit of faith."

The sacraments are the means, Jesus Himself chose, to save us. Jesus instituted all 7 sacraments.

Does the Protestant minister accept the need for baptism? Suppose for a moment he does. Then would baptism be a Jesus plus thing?

I am certain he does not accept Confession because very few ministers would. However, Jesus wants all to go to Confession and the early Christians did go to Confession to a priest. Confession is found in scripture, when Jesus told His apostles, “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven, whose sins you retain are retained”. (John 20:23) St. Justin, who died in 165AD explains that the early Christians confessed their sins to a priest. He said, “Of how much greater faith and salutary fear are they who . . . confess their sins to the priests of God in a straightforward manner and in sorrow, making an open declaration of conscience.”

The protestant minister rejects the Eucharist. But Jesus said, “This is my body given up for you (Luke 22:14)..And Our Lord said, “If you eat my flesh and drink my blood you will have eternal life”, (John 6:54). Non-Catholics say Jesus meant this symbolically. But if that were the case, then Jesus would have said it was only symbolic, especially when “many of His disciples left Him and would no longer follow Him”. (John 6:66). But He didn’t tell them it was symbolic, He let them leave. Why would He let many leave if He didn’t mean it literally?

The minister most likely also rejects, the Priesthood (bishops, priests and deacons), yet these are all in Sacred Scripture in (1 Timothy 3:1,8; 5:17). The early Church had them because Jesus wanted them. St. Ignatius of Antioch in 107AD, (only about 10 years after the last apostle died), shows us that the early Christians were receiving the Eucharist and that there were bishops, priests and deacons. He said, “Make certain, therefore, that you all observe one common Eucharist; for there is but one Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, and but one cup of union with his Blood, and one single altar of sacrifice—even as there is also but one bishop, with his clergy and my own fellow servitors, the deacons. This will ensure that all your doings are in full accord with the will of God.”

Would the minister also reject Anointing of the Sick which is found in the book of James--"Is any among you sick? Let him call for the priests of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven." (Jas. 5:14–15).

Does he also reject Confirmation which is found in the Acts of the Apostles, “..they sent them Peter and John, who went down and prayed for them, that they might receive the holy Spirit, for it had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 8:14-18)

All of these are in scripture. All of these were instituted by Christ. All these were done by the early Church. He is right when the minister said, we only need Jesus to save us. But He is missing something very important. And that is the means in which Jesus intends to save us. The means are the Church, the leaders of the Church and the sacraments, all of which Jesus is the source and how we come in contact with Him.

If one rejects the means Jesus desires to save us, would one also reject Jesus Himself?

The protestant pastor excludes all creeds. However, in the history of the Church creeds were necessary because of false gospels, which Catholics call heresies. For example, in 325, all the bishops gathered in union with the pope at Nicaea to clarify who Jesus is-- due to the Arian heresy. Bishop Arius denied the divinity of Jesus, which began to spread in the early Church and as a result a Creed was developed to help the people to understand, Jesus is fully God and fully man. We say the Nicene Creed every Sunday at Mass.

On another occasion, the Council of Ephesus in 431AD was called-- due to the Nestorian heresy, which claimed Mary gave birth only to the human Christ. The Council affirmed Christ is a divine person, who assumed human nature when conceived in Mary’s womb and therefore Mary is the Mother of God, because Mary is the Mother of Jesus, who is God.

The Nicene Creed helps us to know Jesus saves us because He is truly God and truly man. The Creed reminds us that there are three persons, and one God. It reminds us the Trinity is the same substance.

Without creeds (statements of beliefs), people can have the wrong understanding of who Jesus is. They can take scripture out of context.

We can clearly see this today. For example: Jehovah Witnesses deny Jesus is God. They also deny the Holy Spirit is God and they even state they do not believe in the Blessed Trinity. Another example: Mormons don’t believe Jesus is God. They believe Jesus is an angel. Muslims don’t believe Jesus is God, they believe He is only a prophet. (None of these religions believe in the Blessed Trinity).

If Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons accepted the Nicene Creed, they would believe Jesus is God and believe in the Trinity.

When any Christian church says, it does not need a creed, but only Jesus, it risks losing the understanding the fullness of who Jesus is. How would it be possible for Jesus to save us, if He were not fully God and fully man?

This is why in the Nicene Creed, we say, Jesus was “incarnated” (became man) by the Holy Spirit. He is fully God and fully man. Also in the Nicene Creed, we say, Jesus is consubstantial with the Father. We use the word, “consubstantial” in the creed because of a heresy which said Jesus and the Father are not the same substance.

Some religions have invalid baptisms. When I was an associate pastor at St. Francis in Wichita, I called one of the largest Protestant churches in Wichita and asked which formula they used for baptism. Because there were multiple ministers at that church, the pastor told me, “Each minister uses whatever formula he or she wants to baptize. Some ministers baptize in the name of the Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier. Another minister baptizes in the name of Jesus. And some baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of Holy Spirit.”

But how can they choose to baptize in any other way, except the way Jesus instructed His apostles which is in Scripture. “Go.. and baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of Holy Spirit.” The Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith said all other formulas are invalid.

How can those who subscribe to scripture alone, not use scripture when baptizing and how can they even refer to the Blessed Trinity, without tradition? The word “Trinity” is not in the bible. The tradition of the Catholic Church gave us the words, “Trinity, consubstantial, incarnation, etc…”

If one were to exclude everything outside of scripture, it would contradict scripture itself. The false gospel idea of “scripture alone”, is a man-made idea. In fact, no-where is “scripture alone” found in the bible. Quite the contrary, St. Paul in 2 Thess. 2:15 states, “So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter.” Even the last sentence of John’s Gospel proves there is more than scripture to what Jesus said and did. St. John said, “But, there are many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” (John 21:25)

Some non-Catholics exclude everything Jesus said and did, outside of scripture. Therefore, they are not accepting the fullness of what was revealed by God because of their false doctrine of scripture alone.

Just think about this for a minute. There was no such doctrine as scripture alone for the first 1500 years of Christianity. Were all those Christians wrong including the apostles and St. Paul? Or were the people 500 years ago who rejected the tradition of the Church wrong? The answer is clear, the “Jesus plus Gospel” (the Church, Church authority, the Sacraments, Sacred Tradition) all of these Jesus gave us----and make up the authentic Gospel, and that which lacks these is truly, “the false gospel”.

Today, let us rejoice in the Blessed Trinity and in our Catholic faith, handed down to us from the apostles. And may, Mary other Mary, help all to come to know who Jesus really is and all Jesus revealed. For God the Father, sent His only Son, to save us. He sent the Holy Spirit to form the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, which will last until Jesus comes again to the Judge of the living and the dead.

St. Anthony of Padua - June 13th

 

Today is the feast of St. Anthony of Padua. St. Anthony was born in Lisbon, Portugal in 1195 and given the name Ferdinand de Bulloen. The clergy in the Cathedral of Lisbon educated him. At the age of 15, he became an Augustinian religious brother.

For 8 years, he devoted himself to study and prayer. Due to his remarkable memory, he acquired a thorough knowledge of scripture.

In 1220, some Franciscans were martyred in Morocco and their relics were brought back to Portugal. St. Anthony longed to be martyred like the Franciscans. So he joined the Franciscan order, with the hope that he would be martyred. He changed his name to Anthony due to his devotion to the Anthony of the desert. With great zeal he received permission to set out to Morocco to preach to the Moors, but had to return to Europe due to a severe illness.

As a sickly young brother, no one suspected he had intellectual gifts. If he wasn’t praying in the chapel, he was either serving the brothers washing their dishes and pots. At an ordination service, none of the Franciscans or Dominicans were prepared to deliver the sermon. His superior told him to go and speak whatever the Holy Spirit put into his mouth. All who heard his address were astonished, with his eloquence, fervor and learning. Due to this event, he was sent to preach in the province. He was an immediate success as a preacher and particularly effective in converting heretics. Due to his teaching at the university against Albigensians, he developed the title “hammer of heretics”.

The mere sight of him, brought sinners to their knees, for he appeared to radiate a spiritual force. Crowds flocked to hear him, hardened criminals, careless Catholics, heretics—all were converted and brought to confession. Men locked up their offices and shops in order to go and hear his sermons and women rose early in the morning or stayed overnight in the church to secure their places. Because the churches weren’t large enough to accommodate the crowds, he preached in public squares and marketplaces.

Once Anthony had traveled to the city of Rimini because it was a hotbed of heresy. The city leaders had ordered everyone to ignore him, so no one turned up for his homilies. Wherever Anthony went, he was greeted by silence. As he walked outside of the town, he came to the mouth a river. There he began to address the not the crowds, but fish.

He called out, “You, fish of the river and sea, listen to the Word of God because the heretics do not wish to hear it.” Suddenly there were thousands of fish neatly arranged in rows, all pushing their heads through the surface of the water as if they were straining to listen to every one of Anthony’s words. The people of Rimini, seeing this miracle, gathered to listen to Anthony. They were so moved by Anthony’s words, by his call to conversion, that they abandoned their hardened positions and returned to the Church.

On another occasion, a heretic said he did not believe in the true presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. St. Anthony challenged the farmer to not feed his mule for three days and then come and bring the mule’s favorite grain. The man did as St. Anthony told him. With St. Anthony holding the Eucharist in one hand and the farmer holding a bucket with the mule’s favorite grain, the mule walked up to Saint Anthony and fell on its knees before the Blessed Sacrament. The mule’s owner was immediately converted and believed in the true presence.

St. Anthony is also invoked to help find lost articles. In our own diocese the bodies of two people were found due to the intercession of St. Anthony of Padua. In 2016, Brian Bergkamp, a seminarian from the Diocese of Wichita drowned by saving the life of a young lady. He threw his life jacket to her, sacrificing his life for her. His body could not be found, and consequently, a novena was prayed to St. Anthony and it was on the 9^th day of the novena Brian was found.

In 2020, Savanna Schneider, a blind young lady, and a new Catholic convert, went missing. It’s believed she got lost in a field near a city and could not find her way back. Her body was found on the feast of St. Anthony, June 13th after her friends prayed to find her body and a Mass was offered that morning asking St. Anthony to locate her body. The coroner said she died the same day she was found.

St. Anthony is also an intercessor for the poor, infertile and pregnant women, and of travelers. People sometimes give bread to the poor, for the purpose of obtaining his intercession, which is often called “St. Anthony bread”.

One night, when St. Antony was staying with a friend in the city of Padua, his host saw brilliant rays streaming under the door of the Saint's room, and on looking through the keyhole he beheld a little Child of marvelous beauty standing upon a book which lay open upon the table, and clinging with both arms round Antony's neck. With an ineffable sweetness he watched the tender caresses of the Saint and his wondrous Visitor. At last the Child vanished, and when St. Antony, opened the door, he charged his friend, by the love of Him Whom he had seen, to "tell the vision to no man as long as I am alive."

In the spring of 1231, after preaching a powerful course of sermons, St. Anthony’s strength gave out and died at the age of 36 after receiving the last rites. He was canonized within one year after his death and at the moment he was canonized the church-bells of Lisbon rang without ringers.

Due to the many miracles worked at his tomb, he became known as the “wonder-working saint.”

Due to his sermons, St. Anthony was declared a doctor of the church in 1947. In a sermon composed for his fellow Franciscans, he wrote: “Christ who is your life hanging before you, so that you may look at the cross as in a mirror. There you will be able to know how mortal were your wounds, that no medicine other than the Blood of the Son of God could heal…. Nowhere other than looking at himself in the mirror of the cross man better understand how much he is worth.”

If we do not have a devotion to St. Anthony, now is the time for us to begin praying to him. Though it is good to pray to him for lost articles, it is better to pray to him for lost souls and to ask him help for help in growing in virtue and holiness. St. Anthony, pray for us!

10th Week Thursday - Purgatory

Today’s Gospel speaks about purgatory. It states, “Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court with him. Otherwise, your opponent will hand you over to the judge, and the judge will hand you over to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Amen, I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.”

Who is the judge? Jesus is the judge who judges each soul at the moment of death. St. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians said, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive recompense, according to what he did in the body, whether good or evil.” (2 Cor 5:10).

The book of Revelation describes why there is purgatory. It states, “But nothing unclean will enter [heaven], nor any[one] who does abominable things or tells lies. Only those will enter whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” (Rev 21:27).

What is the prison?, but purgatory. And one will not be released until they have paid the last penny. We are not released until we have made recompense for our sins.

What is purgatory like? St. Paul states, “For no one can lay a foundation other than the one that is there, namely, Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, the work of each will come to light, for the Day will disclose it. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire [itself] will test the quality of each one’s work. If the work stands that someone built upon the foundation, that person will receive a wage. But if someone’s work is burned up, that one will suffer loss; the person will be saved, but only as through fire.” (1 Cor 3:11-15). Purgatory is often described as a place of fire. The fire is not a consuming fire, but a purifying fire.

The Bible teaches that God uses fire and discipline to reform and purge His children. If this is not done during one’s lifetime on Earth, it must be done in Purgatory.

The Catechism states, “#1030 All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.”

St. Gregory the Great said, “As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment, there is a purifying fire. He who is truth says that whoever utters blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to come. From this sentence we understand that certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come.”

The book of Maccabees speaks about praying for the dead. It states, “Therefore [Judas Maccabeus] made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin.”

From the beginning, the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God.

The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead. We can pray the Rosary, offer our Holy Communion, the graces we receive during Mass or the time we spend with Jesus in Eucharistic Adoration, for a poor soul too.

St. Augustine said, “This fire of Purgatory will be more severe than any pain that can be felt, seen or conceived in this world.” Therefore, who wants to go to purgatory, who wants to suffer more in the next life, than in this life, let us pray God will use our pain and suffering in this life, to remit the punishment due to our sins, that we may skip purgatory, and have a straight shot to heaven and avoid fire and purification in the next. St. Faustina saw the Virgin Mary visiting the poor souls and giving them comfort and relief, let us pray to Her asking Her to deliver our family members and friends who have gone before us.

Ascension of Jesus - Year C

 

This weekend, we celebrate the Ascension of Jesus into heaven. The feast of the Ascension reminds us that through Our Lord’s suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension, He opened the gates of heaven for us and now there are saints in heaven.

Due to the original sin of Adam and Eve, no one could go to heaven before Jesus came. Now that Jesus’ life on earth is complete, we see where we too will someday go—to heaven. The ascension reminds us, Jesus is our savior and we need Him to get to heaven our home and that our life will someday end, so we can be with Jesus and those who have gone before us.

At the moment of death, our soul leaves our dead body behind to be buried. Our soul then goes to its judgment, where our entire life is shown before us. We see all the good that we did, and all the bad too. Then Jesus, the eternal judge, will give us our sentence.

Those died unrepentant, with a grave sin on their soul, will go to hell forever to be punished.

Those who died, without serious sin, but still need to make up for their sins, will go to purgatory, until their soul is purified, before going to heaven. And those who made up for their sins in this life, will go straight to heaven.

No one who died before Jesus came could go to heaven, except for Enoch and Elijah. From the time of Adam and Eve, the wicked who died unrepentant went to hell. But those who repented of their sins and lived a righteous life, such as Adam and Eve, Noah, Moses, Abraham, Isaac, went to a temporary place, that was not heaven, and not hell. The word “hell” had two meanings. The first meaning everyone is familiar-- is the place of eternal fire and damnation, where the fallen angels went and damned souls go to be tortured.

But the other meaning of hell is what we say when we recite the Creed. We say, Jesus “descended into hell, rose from the dead, ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father, almighty, from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.”

The word “hell” that we say in the Creed is referring to the temporary place where those who died before Jesus came, and who repented of their sins, but could not go to heaven, waited for Jesus to come and take them to heaven. This is sometimes called the “netherworld.”

There is an ancient homily that describes-- how on Holy Saturday, the day after Jesus died, Our Lord descended to the netherworld and brought the righteous to heaven.

Here is part of the homily: "What is happening? Today there is a great silence over the earth, a great silence, and stillness, a great silence because the King sleeps; the earth was in terror and was still, because God slept in the flesh and raised up those who were sleeping from the ages. God has died in the flesh, and the underworld has trembled. Truly he goes to seek out our first parents like a lost sheep; he wishes to visit those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. He goes to free the prisoner Adam and his fellow-prisoner Eve from their pains, he who is God, and Adam's son.”

As Catholics, we do as the early Christians, we pray to the saints, asking them to pray for us. We believe those in heaven are friends of Jesus and they can intercede for us.

Bishop Jackals, our former bishop, said we should not pray to the dead, except to saints, blessed, venerable, servants of God and only those the bishop approves who lived a life of holiness and virtue. We should not therefore pray to our deceased relatives and friends, with the exception of baptized children, who died before the age of reason and never sinned, and so are saints.

However, we can ask Jesus to tell a person who has died, something. For example, we can say, “Jesus please tell my grandmother that I love her”. Or “Jesus tell my friend, that I miss him”. But, we should not pray directly to a person, unless the bishop gives permission or if approved by the Church. But, we can ask Jesus to tell them something.

We can see how our faith in Jesus’ resurrection and ascension gives us hope-- that heaven is real and that we are able to go there, if we live a holy life.

Pope St. John Paul II in his Ascension homily in 1979, said, “The instructions indicated, above all, that the Apostles were to wait for the Holy Spirit, who was the gift of the Father... The Apostles, moreover, were instructed to teach – to proclaim the Good News to the whole world. And they were to baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Like Jesus, they were to speak explicitly about the Kingdom of God and about salvation. The Apostles were to give witness to Christ to the ends of the earth. The early Church clearly understood these instructions and the missionary era began. And everybody knew that this missionary era could never end until the same Jesus, who went up to Heaven, would come back again.”

There is a belief that Virgin Mary was with the Apostles when Our Lord ascended into heaven is tradition not found in scripture. The tradition is so common that many stain-glass windows depict His Mother with the Apostles when He ascended into heaven.

Scripture tells us, “Then when He had said this, as they were looking on, He was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.” Surely, Our Lord kissed His Mother and embraced Her before He went to heaven. Was She standing beneath Him giving Her Motherly hand wave or blowing Him kisses? Perhaps tears welled up in Her eyes as She just watched, knowing She would be unable to gaze upon His face until She sees Her Son in heaven?

Luke says that during those days Jesus was staying with the apostles. That could mean Jesus was with the apostles for many meals, or simply that Jesus was with the apostles often. One thing is clear: Luke wants us to understand that Jesus spent a lot of time with the apostles after He rose.

Near the end of the Gospel of John, John states, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book.” (John 20:30)

While we may surmise Our Lord may have helped them to know how to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, to hear Confessions, and impart other sacraments, and their meaning, etc… we must leave them to the Easter mystery. We can trust everything Jesus did with them during those 40 days was for the good of their souls, the souls of the early Christians and for the future of the Church, that will last until He returns in glory, because the gates of hell shall never prevail against her.

The feast of the ascension is forty days after Easter. All power in heaven and on earth has been given to Our Lord. He is the supreme King and Ruler of this world. He governs it invisibly in heaven and on the Last Day will return to visibly, and in glory, to judge the just and the wicked.

When Jesus comes again, at His Second Coming, there will also occur the General Resurrection, where bodies will come forth from their graves and be reunited with their soul and will receive a resurrected body like the body of Jesus.

Today, let us rejoice in the Ascension of Jesus in heaven, and look forward to the day, when we will be there, with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Virgin Mary, all the angels, and saints, and all our loved ones who have died and are now with them in our eternal home, prepared for us by Jesus.

6th Sunday - Peace I Give to You

 

(REVISED DUE TO ERRORS--MY APOLOGIES) During Our Lord’s final discourse, at the Last Supper, Jesus told His disciples, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you! Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.”

He was preparing them for suffering, shock, and temptations in the midst of the tragedy of His crucifixion. And after that horrible Friday, their hearts were tormented and troubled, at the loss of their Master.

When a tragedy occurs, just like the Apostles, we can lose our peace, and our hearts can become troubled. The shock can cause us to doubt and be afraid.

But, on Easter Sunday, Jesus appeared to the Apostles, knowing they were troubled and afraid. Twice Jesus said, “Peace be with you”.

All of us were shocked to hear about Nate Dold. His death caused our hearts to be troubled. Our hearts and prayers go out to Paul and DeeDee and his brothers, sisters and family.

Jesus, as God, knows the future and I believe the Lord gave us that Eucharistic Festival and Adoration Under the Stars to prepare us for the tragedy we are now going through. During the Eucharistic Festival, we had peace in our hearts adoring Jesus in the Eucharistic Adoration, and we enjoyed hamburgers and hot dogs together as a parish.

Not everyone was able to attend, but those who did attend were channels of grace to fellow parishioners and our community and the whole world.

Jesus in the Eucharist reminds us, He is with us when there is calm, when the wind doesn’t blow, when the weather is beautiful. But He is also with us when there is turmoil and difficulty and when there are tornadoes and storms.

Jesus gives us peace. Our Lord said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.”

Sometimes, we may think, we will have peace, if we did not suffer, or didn’t have temptations, if there are no storms, if there are no difficulties. And we think we will have peace if our relationships with others were always good.

Jesus reminded the apostles, “Not as the world gives, do I give it to you.” Worldly peace is false peace, such as we will only have peace if we get an A on test, or if we win the game or the championship. We will only have peace if we get the promotion. We will only have peace if everyone in the family gets along. Worldly peace is really false peace. It lacks peace in Jesus.

Tranquility, freedom from disturbance, freedom from suffering and pain, and harmony in personal relationships with family and friends is really a description of heaven. We live in a fallen world. There will always be disunity, suffering, temptations, pain and tragedy.

If we want peace, we find it in Jesus, who dwells within our soul.

We cannot have peace, unless one knows how to suffer and one knows, how to endure temptations, how to endure difficulties, because we can never be free of temptations or sufferings or difficulties in this life.

Peace is in living a life of virtue. Peace can be found in the midst of suffering. Peace in times of turmoil. Peace in imperfect relationships and peace can be found when things don’t go our way because if we have Jesus, no matter what goes on, we will have peace.

I have a friend who is nun in a monastery. She once told me that no matter what is going on in the world, or in her community, she has peace, because she hides in the Heart of Jesus.

This is where the Cross comes in. We embrace the cross. We lift high the cross. We keep our eyes of the Cross. And if we do, we have peace no matter the difficulty or hardship or tragedy. Through the Cross and resurrection, there is peace. We can have peace of soul despite storms, loss, suffering and diffculties.

St. Paul’s words give us encouragement. He said, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?...No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

I would like to share a comment from a teammate wrestler of Nate. The comment was posted on the Birzer Funeral Home obituary.

The young man said, “When I first started ---wrestling, I admired the way (Nate) treated the kids on the team. He’s like a big brother to them. I quickly became one of the kids who looked up to him even though he’s younger than me. Back in Blackwell, Oklahoma, where we wrestled together, he lost one of his matches, and I asked him a question “how do you not get so upset-- when you lose because I get really (angry)? And his response sticks with me.

(Nate said), “I guess I just realized it’s just a sport, and you’re supposed to let your anger out on the mat, not be mad when walking off of it.”

By these words we can see that Nate had an inner peace and not a worldly peace. Nate embraced the cross of the virtue of self-control. He knew true success is when one has peace of heart, and not a worldly success, with false peace.

Therefore, if we have the peace of Jesus, it doesn’t matter if we win or lose. It doesn’t matter if there are storms or difficulties.

At every Mass, after the consecration, when the bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of Jesus, the priest says: “Lord Jesus Christ, who said to Your Apostles, Peace I leave you, my peace I give you, look not on our sins but on the faith of your Church, and graciously grant her peace and unity in accordance with your will. Who live and reign forever and ever.” At Holy Mass and in Eucharistic Adoration, we turn to Our resurrected Lord for peace and He gives it to us when there is calm, but He also gives peace in times of turmoil.

May we embrace the cross of suffering, the cross of imperfect relationships, the cross of pain, the cross of practicing virtue, the cross of heartache and unite our crosses to the Cross of Jesus and Our Lord will stand before us and say,

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you! Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid”, because I am with you and will help carry your Cross of your pain, of suffering, of loss and failure.” “Keep your eyes on me. Keep your eyes on the Cross. Keep your eyes on heaven, where there is no pain or suffering or loss, but where all the faithful departed rest in peace.”

All of us are sinners and we have attachments to sin and so many of us would need purgatory after death, to purify our soul, so it go to heaven unstained.

I would like to encourage our young people to light a candle for Nate. By lighting the candle, you are making the commitment to pray for Nate.

At Mass you can offer your Holy Communion for him and when you go home, you can pray a Rosary for him.

Adults can have a Mass offered for Nate, by contacting Shayla Grasser.

Let us all keep him in our prayers, though he may be in heaven, if he is in purgatory, he will be so grateful, that we prayed for him and helped him to go to heaven.

May the soul of Nate and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace. And may Our Lady Queen of Peace, help us to turn to Jesus, when our hearts are troubled and afraid and also in times of calm.

5th Sunday - Love Your Neighbor (Rosary Retreat)

 

The readings today give us a glimpse into heaven and how Jesus’ commandment to love-- is necessary to obtain heaven.

In today’s Gospel Jesus gave His apostles and us a new commandment, called the “Commandment of love.” He said, “I give you a new commandment, love one another. As I have loved you, so you should love one another. This is how all will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Jesus said, love one another, as I have loved you. How did He do that, but by laying down His life for them, and for us. And they responded with love.

All of the apostles, except John would lay down their life for Jesus, as martyrs. But, they attempted to kill John, by boiling him in oil, but he miraculously survived.

The apostles laid down their life for others, by preaching the Gospel, even when they knew it was cause their death. They loved their neighbor so much, they wanted them know and love Jesus and with Him in heaven.

There is no greater example of how we should love one another, than the Virgin Mary. At the moment of the annunciation, when the angel Gabriel appeared to Her asking Her to become the Mother of Jesus, She gave her fiat, Her Yes. The angel Gabriel told Mary that Her cousin Elizabeth was six months pregnant, but the angel didn’t ask Her to go to visit Elizabeth.

But, out of love of neighbor, Mary was concerned for Her cousin Elizabeth and the unborn John the Baptist. Out of love of neighbor, the Gospel tells us, She went in haste to visit Her cousin Elizabeth. Mary immediately responded because She understood Elizabeth would need help, since she was advanced in years and it was her first and only child.

The virtue associated with the Visitation is love of neighbor. While praying the Rosary, when we meditate on Mary’s action of thinking about her cousin Elizabeth before Her own needs, makes us want to respond to the needs of others out of love of neighbor.

Ladies, if you were a virgin and made a vow of virginity and if you knew you could keep the vow and still become a mother, wouldn’t you be enthusiastic and thrilled? And then immediately after you became pregnant, wouldn’t you want to tell others the wonderful news?

But, wait a minute. How could She? Imagine Her telling others, “Hey! Everyone! You will never believe what happened. An angel appeared to me and the Holy Spirit came down upon me and now I am pregnant with Jesus, the Son of the Father. I’m still a virgin and I am also the Mother of the Messiah!” If She would tell others, people would think She’s crazy.

If you were the Virgin Mary, and if you kept it to yourself, wouldn’t you think about preparing for the birth, perhaps making infant clothes and a baby blanket and telling Joseph to make a crib?

If you knew, Jesus, the Son of the eternal Father, had just come down in your womb, wouldn’t you spend extra time praying to Jesus in your womb and thanking God the Father? I suspect many of you would tell your friends and they would give you a baby shower.

Mary didn’t do any of these. Rather, Our Lady continuously prayed to Jesus inside Her, though She quickly went to visit Elizabeth. She was able to see God in others, whom She helped and prayed for.

Mary kept the secret of Her pregnancy to Herself and most likely didn’t even tell Joseph. She knew it was up to God to tell him how it happened. Only after Joseph went the trial of having to trust Mary, and not understanding how it could be, only then, did God send an angle to give him peace and understanding.

What young pregnant teenage girl would travel five days on a mule, spending 5 nights out along the side of the road, for the purpose of helping an elderly cousin who is pregnant and return home doing the same thing for another 5 days. Hot days, cold nights, little food, dusty roads, sleeping outdoors.

Scripture doesn’t say if Mary stayed until John the Baptist was born. But we know she stayed for three months, which would be about the same time he would be born. Mary certainly would not spend three months and then leave just before her cousin gave birth.

Mary’s love of neighbor is especially seen meeting Jesus on the way of the Cross and standing at the foot of the Cross. If people were beating your son, condemning him t be crucified and nailing Him to a tree, wouldn’t you try to stop them? Wouldn’t you yell at them and perhaps even curse at them?

But, not Mary, She prayed not only for the soldiers, the chief priests, and the crowd mocking Jesus, She prayed for all of us and offered everything as a sacrifice for our salvation. Out of love of God and love for neighbor, She endured it all.

How did Jesus love us? By laying down His life for us. And we are called to do the same, to lay down one’s life for another.

As we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus for 40 days until He ascended into heaven, we are reminded that by Our Lord’s death and resurrection, we can go to heaven.

His resurrection gives us hope for heaven. And we have hope that at the end of the world, we too will have a resurrected body just like Jesus.

We have hope if we lived a life of love and virtue, we will enter the joys of heaven, “where every tear is wiped away”. The Holy Rosary will help us to obtain the virtues we need, by praying it often meditating on the lives of Jesus and Mary.

Just think about heaven for a moment. There is no old age, no suffering, no pain, no tears, no heartaches, no cancer, no mourning, or wailing, no war, no disagreements, no disunity, no physical ailments, no arthritis and no death.

Rather there is joy, peace, love, unity and happiness. Our imperfect relationships on earth, become perfect in heaven. We get to know each other and love each other in a way beyond our imagining. Every question we wanted answered on earth-- will be answered in heaven. Everything we wanted to do in this life, we will be fulfilled and not just fulfilled, but in the most profound and incomprehensible way. As the Lord, said, “My ways are not your ways.” St. Paul said, we have “an everlasting home in heaven”. On earth, we suffer, we go through difficulties, and by doing so we learn to love, to forgive and to grow in virtue.

And we arrive in heaven we will see the beauty and glory of the Virgin Mary and understand more fully Her motherly care and concern for us. We will see how when we prayed the Rosary, not only did it help us to get to heaven, but many others. Praying the Rosary will have helped us love our neighbor, by assisting those we pray for, in their spiritual and temporal needs.

Speaking of how we love our neighbor, and how that affects our judgment, the book of Wisdom states, “Our good deeds go with us.” St. John of the Cross helps us to know what our judgment will be like. He said, “In the end, we will be judged on love.” In other words, how much we fulfilled Our Lord’s commandment of love, loving our neighbor--- will either be our glory and reward-- or our eternal loss.

When we share with others God’s gifts He has given to us--- we are practicing stewardship. For example, mowing yards for those who cannot do it themselves, stitching and sewing for others, to use our voice in singing, to smile at someone who we know could use cheering up. There is a lady I know who makes her own greeting cards by her artistic talent. She draws beautiful flowers, birds and animals and writes little notes inside. Her Christmas, Easter and birthday cards are always my favorite. She uses her ability to make people happy. We can give a compliment to a co-worker when they did a good job. To financially help a single mother who is struggling to make ends meet. To bake cookies or a meal to give to a neighbor. To help our neighbor move cattle. To donate vegetables from your garden. To send a sympathy card to someone who lost a relative. A few kind words of encouragement for someone who is discouraged. All of these things are acts of love. Stewardship is recognizing God’s gifts He has given to us and sharing them with others out of love for God and neighbor.

Finally, many people have a “bucket list,” important things they want to do before they die. I would like to suggest, we create a new and different kind of “Bucket Bucket list”. We trust everything we ever wanted will be given to us in heaven and in a more profound and unimaginable way.

Let’s get the largest bucket we can find, and fill it with acts of love and mercy and place our good deeds, kind words and rosaries we prayed in it, so that when we go to our judgment, when Jesus said, “How much did you love?”

Then we will hand him a giant bucket filled of love and overflowing with all the good things we did in our life and He will say to us, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Today, let us entrust our good deeds, our merits, our prayers, our rosaries and everything to the Blessed Virgin Mary, for She will make sure, nothing we did in this life will be lost, but rather will be our reward and our glory.