3rd Sunday of Advent - Jesus is the Messiah

  

In the first reading today, Isaiah the prophet said, “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me; he has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to captives, and release to prisoners, etc...”

The Jewish people knew this prophecy referred to the Messiah. Isaiah also predicted, “the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.” (Isaiah 35:5) The messiah would bring good news and physically heal the sick.

Just as Jesus began His public ministry, he quoted the prophet of Isaiah in a synagogue saying, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” Then, when He sat down, He said, “Today, these words are fulfilled in your hearing.” By reading this scripture and saying it is fulfilled in their hearing, Jesus was declaring Himself the Messiah.

In the Gospel today, John the Baptist first states he is not the Christ, but rather declares himself, the prophet who Isaiah predicted would be sent to prepare for the way of the Lord. He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the desert, make straight the way of the Lord.” John’s mission was to bring as many as possible to repentance before the coming of the Messiah. Only a repentant heart will fully accept Jesus. The Pharisees would not repent and therefore not accept Jesus.

During the time of Jesus, many Jews thought the Messiah would heal the sick, the blind, and the lame. They also thought the Messiah would come to bring about lasting peace. However, they were wrong when they thought the Messiah would come to free God’s chosen people from the oppression of the Romans. Scriptures do not proclaim Jesus as the leader of an army.

Jesus proves He is the Messiah, by working miracles, forgiving sins and raising the dead, including Himself.

In the future, a false messiah will come. He will claim to be the Messiah for the Jews, but he will actually be the anti-Christ. The false messiah will be world leader, who will bring worldly peace, and has answers to wordly problems. He will want to be worshiped as God. However, the Jews will eventually discover he’s false and will embrace Jesus as the true messiah.

There have also been false messengers who claim to be from God. Muhammad, Buddha, and Confucius claimed to be a messengers of God. But how can we know if there were a messenger from God or not

What if someone would claim to be the Messiah or a messenger from God today? If Jesus claims to be the Messiah, and someone else claims to be the Messiah, than how can one know who the real Messiah is?

Bishop Fulton Sheen indicated there are 3 ways we can know only Jesus is the Messiah. The first way is that the Messiah will be able to work miracles of physical healing (healing the blind, cleansing lepers, the deaf will hear).

The second way we know Jesus is the Messiah, is that the morality Jesus declares does not contradict human reason. In other words, the Messiah would never say it’s okay to kill an unborn baby or that homosexual actions are acceptable.

The third way we can know Jesus is the Messiah is that He fulfills all the prophecies of the Old Testament. During the time of Jesus, there were 456 prophecies the Messiah was expected to fulfill.

For example, it was predicted by the prophet Micah that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. “And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will govern my people Israel.”

Jesus predicted he would die in Jerusalem, and be crucified. As the Gospel of Matthew states, “From that time on Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” Matt. 16:21 And Psalm 22 prophesied Our Lord’s crucifixion, “they have pierced my hands and feet and numbered all my bones.”

What is the probability of fulfilling all 456 prophecies? To fulfill 4 of the 456 prophecies is 1 in 100,000. Jesus doesn’t fulfill 4 prophecies, He fulfills all 456 prophecies. The chance of anyone fulfilling all 456 prophecies 1 and 184 zeros.

It will be impossible for the false messiah to fulfill the prophecies of the Old Testament, because only Jesus did that since He is God. The anti-Christ will be human possessed by the devil, whose power is limited.

Did Muhammed or Buddha or Confucius predict in advance where they would be born or predict in advance how or where they would die? No. Only Jesus, who is the true Messiah predicted all these things in Sacred Scripture.

Did Muhammed or Buddha or Confucius ask anyone to have an intimate and personal relationship with them or to love them? No.

But Jesus asked all to have an intimate and personal relationship with Him. Jesus wants all to love Him and remain in His love. He wants all to be His friends. He said, “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. This is my commandment: love one another as I love you....You are my friends if you do what I command you.”

The anti-Christ will not be sacrificial, and won’t be willing to lay down His life for anyone, but rather reject the cross. He will someday work false miracles. He will appear to do miracles, but they not be true miracles. He will claim to raise the dead, but the person he claims to raise from the dead will not actually be dead. The anti-Christ will not be able to predict where he would be born nor how or where he will die. The anti-Christ will have morality that contradicts human reason. He will not ask anyone to have a intimate union with him.

He will reject the cross and the narrow path of sacrifice. He will not do as Jesus, who laid down His life for us. Rather, he will promote worldly honors and pleasures.

So if someone were to claim he is the Messiah today, we could easily tell he isn’t.

John is calling all to repentance to prepare the way for the Lord, so that all will accept Jesus as the Messiah. By making a good Confession before Christmas, we will rejoice in the birth of Jesus and be prepared for His Second Coming.

Jesus is the Messiah, because He fulfilled all Old Testament prophecies, because He truly raised people from the dead and not just some people, He raised Himself from the dead. Jesus healed the blind, the lame, the deaf. Jesus predicted His own coming in Bethlehem and His crucifixion in Jerusalem and that He would rise from the dead. When He comes on the clouds of heaven, only Jesus can and will bring about a lasting peace, when the world will be transformed and made new, and all will receive a resurrected body at the end of the world.

Today, let us rejoice that Jesus is the Messiah, that Jesus is God and let us ask the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of the Messiah, the Mother of God, to pray for us, that we may help all to come to have a personal and intimate relationship with Her Son, who loves us so much, He laid down His life for us, that we may have life with Him in heaven.

3rd Sunday of Advent, "Gaudete" Rejoice in the Eucharist!

 

“I rejoice heartily in the Lord, in my God is the joy of my soul.”

Today is Gaudete Sunday, the third Sunday of Advent. The Latin word Gaudete means Rejoice. And so, today, we lit, the rose-colored candle on the Advent wreath, which represents rejoicing. We rejoice, because Jesus came to us at Bethlehem, will come to us today in the Eucharist, and will come again in the future.

The prophet Isaiah speaks of the rejoicing, we should have, as we prepare for Christmas. He states, “I rejoice heartily in the Lord, in my God is the joy of my soul.” The prophet foretells a time, in which the Messiah would come, and bring glad tidings to the poor, heal the broken hearted, proclaim liberty to captives, and release prisoners. The Lord God will make justice and praise, spring up before all the nations.

And this longed for time of rejoicing arrived, when angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, and She conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus came into Mary’s womb, the new tabernacle, and a new age dawned, as the prophecy of Isaiah would soon be fulfilled.

The responsorial psalm, is Our Blessed Mother’s beautiful Magnificat. She rejoices knowing the time for the Messiah has come. The Savior of the world would soon be born. When Mary visited Her cousin Elizabeth, She said, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; My spirit rejoices in God my savior.” Her words echo the prophet Isaiah, who said, “I rejoice heartily in the Lord, in my God, is the joy of my soul.” Mary rejoiced in God, Her unborn Savior, who is the Emmanuel, God with us, within Her womb. The time had come in which hearts of fathers would turn toward their sons. The day of vindication had arrived. Jesus would soon give sight to the blind, and free prisoners, who were chained to their sins.

Our Lord’s life, death, and resurrection, would open the gates of heaven, to free all those from the days of old. All our ancestors would rejoice at the coming of the Messiah; from Adam and Eve, to Noah, to Abraham, to Moses, to prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel; kings like David and Solomon, and all who longed for redemption. They rejoiced as they entered the pearly gates of heaven, when Jesus brought them from the dungeon of death on Holy Saturday.

And Jews, who lived during the time of Jesus, thought the Messiah would set Israel free from the bondage of the Romans. But this is not why the Messiah came, rather He came that mankind may be reconciled with God. He came to establish peace on earth, not through conquering men, but through a change of heart, conversion, holiness, and justice.

Today, we rejoice at being set free, from the bondage of sin, especially through the sacraments of baptism and confession. When we go to confession, we rejoice in peace, mercy and freedom, as Jesus absolves us from our sins. And we rejoice, as He heals our broken hearts, wounded by sin, and He sets us free, from the bondage of sin.

Sunday evening at 7pm, there is a combined St. Paul and Holy Trinity penance service at Lyons. There will be 5 priests to hear Confession.

As Mary rejoiced when Her womb, became the first human tabernacle, when God, Her Savior, came to dwell among us, so, we rejoice, most especially in the Eucharist, as He comes to dwell within the tabernacle of our hearts, and the tabernacles, of every Catholic Church.

Today, we rejoice, our Savior, Emmanuel, God with us, comes at Mass, and into our hearts in Holy Communion! And He stays here in our tabernacle.

God is really, and truly with us, in the Eucharist. The Eucharist is Jesus. The Eucharist is God. And so, God is with us! Rejoice always! I say it again, rejoice, God is with us, in the Eucharist!

The same Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is in heaven, comes here, and now, to be with us, on the altar. We should therefore, humble our hearts, to receive Our Lord with great reverence and awe. If we could only see Jesus, in the Eucharist! It looks like bread, tastes like bread, but is no longer bread at all. It is totally and completely Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is with us! Do not the words of Isaiah echo in our hearts, when we receive Jesus in Holy Communion? “I rejoice heartily in the Lord, in my God is the joy of my soul.”

If we really and truly understood, the Eucharist, we would cry out with joy, and sing to the Lord with all our heart. “Rejoice--Our God is Here!” “Jesus Christ, our God, is truly here in the Eucharist!” We would plead with others: Come to the Holy sacrifice of the Mass! Come to receive Jesus in the Eucharist, worthily in Holy Communion! Come to adore Our Savior in the tabernacle, and adore Him in Eucharistic Adoration, He who heals broken hearts, brings peace, and unity to families, and to the world!

Someday, perhaps sooner than we think, Our Lord will come, and bring about justice, and peace to the nations, ending war, terrorism, division, murder, drugs, abortion and euthanasia. He will bring about a civilization of love, life, and peace. And our God will conquer, once and for all, the ancient serpent. As we prepare to receive Jesus in the Eucharist, let us rejoice, rejoice in the Lord always, for God is with us, in the Eucharist, and will come again, in all His glory!

2nd Sunday of Advent - Confession Helps

 

Why would the Church have John the Baptist as its focus during the Advent Season? Aren’t we preparing for the birth of Jesus? Let us recall John the Baptist was sent to prepare the people for the coming of Jesus. In order for the people to prepare for the coming of Jesus, God wanted the people to repent of their sins. In other words, one cannot prepare for the coming of Jesus, if one does not first acknowledge one is a sinner and needs His loving mercy.

Pride prevents repentance and one who is proud will not listen to what another person is saying…they think they know better. The Pharisees and the Sadducees were too proud to accept the fact Jesus is the Messiah and because of their pride, refused to repent and because they refused to repent, they would not become one of His followers. To prepare for the way of the Lord, John preached repentance and the forgiveness of sins.

Advent is a time to prepare for the Lord, by making an act of repentance through Confession. I would like to give helpful advice when going to confession.

When we come to Confession, we are supposed to say our state of life. Are we married or single?

If we commit a mortal sin, we are supposed to say how many times we committed a moral sin and also the circumstances of the sin. For a sin to be mortal, it needs to be grave matter, you must know its grave matter and full consent must be given. If any of these is lacking then its a venial sin. The circumstance is like saying, “I missed Mass on Sunday, because I went hunting.”

A venial sin is like stealing a piece of candy, or having angry thoughts, or gossiping. While we are not obliged to confess venial sins, the Church recommends we confess venial sins regularly. When confessing venial sins, we should not confess the number of times. Some priests will tell the people that they don’t need to confess venial sins. But this is really bad advice. Catechism of the Catholic Church encourages confessing venial sins: “Without being strictly necessary, confession of everyday faults (venial sins) is nevertheless strongly recommended by the Church. Indeed the regular confession of our venial sins helps us form our conscience, fight against evil tendencies, let ourselves be healed by Christ and progress in the life of the Spirit. By receiving more frequently through this sacrament the gift of the Father's mercy, we are spurred to be merciful as he is merciful...” (CCC 1458).

If we forget to confess a mortal sin, it is still forgiven. However, the next time you go to confession, you should tell the priest, that you forgot to confess it. Not because it wasn’t forgiven, but so that you will receive extra penance for the sin you forgot to confess.

If we commit an objectively grave action, though we didn’t know it was sinful at the time, we should still confess it, to break any attachment to the bad action. For example, if we didn’t know birth control was a serious sin or didn’t know playing the Ouija board was sinful, we should confess them.

We shouldn’t confess another person’s sins. For example, “My wife nags at me all the time, and she constantly charges up the credit card.” Or “My husband is lazy. He doesn’t help me clean the house and he never listens to me.” Rather, we should only confess our sins.

We also shouldn’t tell stories. For example, “On my way to work, I got a flat tire, and then a stray dog came by while I was changing the tire and barked at me. Even though I was late for work, my mother called and all this made me angry.” Rather, we should just say, “I had angry thoughts”.

If you have never confessed a serious sin from the past, it’s important to confess it. Once we confessed a big sin from the past, we need to trust in God’s mercy. However, it’s okay to say, for example, “I am sorry for all my sins, especially for using contraception when I was younger.”

When we steal something, we have an obligation to return it. If its not possible to return it, we must still pay for it. We should do it anonymously. We can put the money in an envelope and mail it anonymously to the person or business it was stolen. If you don’t know where the person is, or if the business is no longer in existence, you should donate the amount the item cost, to a charitable organization, but you only do that if you cannot repay what you took or can’t return the item.

When we confess the sins, we should have the intention of not doing them again. If we look at a crucifix or meditate on the sufferings of Jesus, it helps us to be sorry.

Every day, we should examine our conscience and ask God for forgiveness for what we did during the day. If we do this regularly, we will actually begin to see how the motivation behind our sins, and we can even eventually give up some sins.

We should not lose heart if we keep re-confessing the same sins over and over. Welcome to humanity! Saints confessed the same sins repeatedly such as St. Jerome, who had terrible temper his whole life. Jesus called James and John, “Sons of Thunder” because both had a temper.

We should ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten us to know all our sins and make a good confession. We should also pray for the priest before confession, so Jesus will help the priest to give good advice.

The devil doesn’t want us to go to confession. He doesn’t want us to tell all our sins. He doesn’t want us to bring sins into the light. For example, a person who may want to hide their sin, may say something like, I looked at a bad video, but they actually viewed pornography, and should confess viewing pornography and not just a bad video.

The devil wants us to think, we don’t need confession. The devil wants us to doubt God’s mercy. For example, he will give us the idea, that a sin is too big, that God will never forgive us. Or that our sins from the past aren’t forgiven. Or the devil uses our pride to keep us from confessing sins because of embarrassment.

If you have purposely withheld a serious sin in confession, it will not be forgiven, nor are any of our sins forgiven, until that one sin is confessed. To purposely not confess a particular sin is to make a sacrilegious confession. For example, some may be afraid to confess adultery, or birth control or were sterilized or that they stole thousands of dollars from their company.

A common sin not confessed is to have received Holy Communion sacrilegiously after committing a mortal sin, and then failing to go to confession before receiving communion.

We should also confess what we have failed to do. Failed to bring children to Mass. Failed to teach your children to pray or failed to teach them the faith. Or failed to bring them to PSR. Or failed to bring children to confession. We, our selves can fail to pray everyday. Failing to financially support the church. Failing to help the poor. We can fail to pay attention at Mass. Fail to help a family member or neighbor who could use our help.

Sometimes, we don’t try to overcome our sins, but only confess, but don’t have the intention of avoiding the sin again and therefore are not really as sorry as we should be.

You can ask the priest for advice for a particular sin. When the priest gives us advice, we should take it to heart and do what he asks of us. Jesus speaks to us through the priest. Our Lord told Saint Faustina, “When you approach the confessional, know this, that I Myself am waiting there for you. I am only hidden by the priest, but I Myself act in your soul. Here the misery of the soul meets the God of mercy. Tell souls that from this fount of mercy souls draw graces solely with the vessel of trust. If their trust is great, there is no limit to My generosity.” (1602) On another occasion, he said to her, “Come with faith to the feet of My representative…and make your confession before Me. The person of the priest is, for Me, only a screen. Never analyze what sort of a priest that I am making use of; open your soul in confession as you would to Me, and I will fill it with My light.” (1705)

You can ask the priest to help you examine your conscience-- by him asking you questions. He can go through the 10 commandments and expound on them. For example, for the 2nd commandment, he will ask you if you took God’s name in vain, such as saying “Oh God!” for no good purpose except as an expression. And would ask if you cussed or used foul language or told dirty or offensive jokes.

When finished with our confession, we can tell the priest, “I am sorry for these and all the sins of my past life, especially for a particular sin.” By saying these words, it helps the priest to know you are finished confessing. You can also ask for specific advice for one particular sin. When we are finished with confession, we should immediately do our penance, and always thank Jesus for washing away our sins. We should confess monthly.

Confession not only washes away our sins, it also gives us grace to overcome our sins. The more often we go to confession, the more peace we have. The more often we go to confession, the easier to overcome sins. We are also more able to see the root cause and our motivations behind our sins, which helps us to more easily turn away from them. Then, when we do our daily prayer, we can ask Jesus for specific help in overcoming our sins.

Every sin no matter how small, hurts Jesus. We can look at a crucifix and see how sin hurts Jesus. Jesus loved us so much, He died on the Cross, so that our sins could be forgiven. There is a beautiful crucifix here above the altar. But this is not what the crucifixion event really looked like.
When I was a newly ordained priest at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton parish in Wichita, a woman from Peru, visiting her family, came up to me crying. I said, “What’s wrong. Why are you crying?” She pointed the large crucifix above the altar, and said, “That’s a terrible crucifix. Its sanitized. There is no blood on that crucifix. Jesus suffered a lot for us. It makes me angry and sick of heart to see Jesus depicted like this.”

My dear friends, the woman had a point. She was right. If we look at a crucifix that hides the blood and wounds, we are doing Jesus a disservice. It’s as though we don’t care about what Jesus went through-- out of love for us.

When we go to confession, we are kneeling at the foot of the Cross. In the confessional, we are telling Jesus, we are sorry for having hurt Him. And through His abundant mercy, He forgives us. When Jesus through the priest absolves our sins, our soul is washed in the blood of Jesus, and it heals the wounds caused by sin. By telling Jesus our sins, we make an act of humility and admit we are a sinner and have hurt Him. Then, when we leave the confessional, we resolve to try not to do the sins again and to make up for them, by doing our penance.

I like to use this as an example of what penance is. If a young boy purposely threw a rock through the window of an abandoned house and, if the owner saw him do it, then, the owner came up to the boy, and said, “You broke my window.” At the first the boy denies it, saying, “It wasn’t me.” But the owner said, “I saw you.” The boy then admits it, and says, “I am sorry, please forgive me.” The owner replies, “I forgive you, but who will pay for the window?” There is punishment due to every sin. We tell Jesus we are sorry, but we need to make up for our sins by doing penance. Doing penance is paying the price for our sins.

The devil tries to get us to fear confession. We can be embarrassed to say our sins. But, we need to trust Jesus. And remember when He discovers a lost sheep, He picks it up and presses it to His Heart.

My dear friends, come to Jesus in the Confessional and trust Him. And know the greater the sinner, the greater one has right to His mercy. Jesus is waiting to give you His mercy and His love. Don’t be afraid. Ask the Virgin Mary to help you to make a good thorough confession. By Her sorrowful Heart, pierced at the foot the cross, the thoughts of many will be revealed and be washed away in the ocean of God’s mercy.

Immaculate Conception - Dec. 8th

 

What and Who is the Immaculate Conception?

The Immaculate Conception is the conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the womb of her mother, St. Anne. At the very first moment of Mary’s existence, Mary’s soul was kept free from original sin.

The responsorial psalm states, “Sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous deeds”. Mary’s Immaculate Conception, which the Church celebrates with great Solemnity, is a marvelous deed that God has done for Jesus, and for mankind.

The purpose of Mary’s Immaculate Conception was so that the Messiah would have a fitting, pure, and perfect Mother, in which Our Lord would descend from heaven, into Her Immaculate Womb.

When the dogma of the Immaculate Conception was proclaimed on Dec. 8^th, 1854, Pope Pius IX, stated, “The Most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of Her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin.”

But how could Mary be preserved from the original sin, if Jesus had not yet come into the world? How could Mary’s soul have been redeemed? That was a hard question that many saints and theologians pondered.

The answer to how Jesus could have redeemed Mary before He came into the world is this: God applied in advance the merits won for us by Our Lord’s suffering death and resurrection to the soul of Mary, because God’s time is eternal.

Mary’s Immaculate Conception can be found in the words of the angel Gabriel as he greeted the Blessed Virgin Mary. He said, “Hail full of grace, the Lord is with thee.” The Church states, that the Greek word “kekoritchemne” means “gratia plena” or “full of grace”. The word is the past perfect tense, meaning that the action of giving grace has already occurred. It was not something that was about to happen to Her but something that has already been accomplished. The word was also used as a title. The angel did not say, “Hail Mary, you are kecharitomene” but rather, “Hail kecharitomene.” Therefore, the word is not simply an action but an identity. Mary’s identity is “Full of Grace” meaning, no sin whatsoever within Her and could also say no sin within Her in the future.

God having ordained that Mary was to be the Mother of His Son, could not permit Her soul to lack a single instant all those graces that would make Her most pleasing to Him. It would be incomprehensible for Jesus to have formed His perfect body from body tainted with the corruption of sin. That is why Mary was created pure and spotless as was the soul of Eve.

Mary’s Immaculate Conception was predicted at the very beginning of the fall of Adam and Eve, when God said “I will put enmity, between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring, she shall crush your head, and you shall lie in wait for His heel.”

The enmity is between the Devil, (the ancient serpent), and Mary (the Woman). And it will be complete enmity and forever. If Mary had been subject to the devil for an instant, the enmity would not have been complete. Therefore, Our Lady was never a slave of Satan, that is to say-- her soul, by a singular privilege of God, was never tainted by original sin.

One of the effects of Eve’s original sin was what God told Eve, “I will intensify the pangs of your childbearing; in pain shall you bring forth children.” Today, some movies falsely depict Our Lady as undergoing intense labor pains. But this false view contradicts the early Fathers of the Church, and casts a shadow over Mary’s Immaculate Conception. Mary would not have endured labor pains, due to Her freedom from original sin. Our Lord’s birth is considered miraculous by the Church.

Where Eve committed sin and lost her spotlessness, Our Mother Mary kept Her Immaculate soul spotless-- to the end of Her life. Not only was Mary’s soul preserved from sin, but by Mary’s acts of virtue and her abundant grace, she never-- not even once-- sinned in Her life. St. Irenaeus, who was born in the year 130 AD, describes Mary’s sinless life. He said, “Being obedient (Mary) became the cause of salvation for Herself and for the whole human race.” “The knot of Eve’s disobedience was untied by Mary’s obedience: what the virgin Eve bound through her disbelief, Mary loosened by Her faith.”

Origen calls her “worthy of God, immaculate of the immaculate, most complete sanctity, perfect justice, neither deceived by the persuasion of the serpent, nor infected with his poisonous breathings.” (185 to 254 AD) St. Ambrose says She is incorrupt, “a virgin immune through grace from every stain of sin. (340 to 397 AD) Theodotus of Ancyra terms Her “a Virgin Innocent, without spot, void of culpability, holy in body and in soul, a lily springing among thorns…” (354 to 430 AD)

In refuting Pelagius St. Augustine declares that all the just have truly known of sin "except the Holy Virgin Mary”.

Even Martin Luther believed in Mary’s Immaculate Conception. He said, "... she is full of grace, proclaimed to be entirely without sin. ... God's grace fills her with everything good and makes her devoid of all evil. ... Moreover, God guarded and protected her from all that might be hurtful to her"

Today, all of us are familiar with the miraculous medal, which Our Lady gave to St. Catherine Labore. The words, “O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us, who have recourse to thee!” are prayed by millions of Catholics every day. The medal when first given to St. Catherine, was originally called the Immaculate Conception medal. But due to the enormous number of miracles associated with the medal, it became known as the miraculous medal. I would like to encourage you to wear it and daily recite the beautiful words, “O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us, who have recourse to thee!” Our Lady will certainly pray for and protect, those who honor Her by wearing Her Immaculate Conception medal, now called Miraculous Medal.

Most of us are also familiar with the story of St. Bernadette Subouris from Lourdes, France. When St. Bernadette asked Our Lady, what is Her name, The Virgin replied, “I am the Immaculate Conception”. Therefore, we should not be afraid to call upon Mary, as the Immaculate Conception.

Today, as we honor and celebrate the Immaculate Conception of Our Heavenly Mother, let us pray for every grace that God desires to give to us through Mary. Let us turn to Our Lady in prayer, come to Her in our affliction and sorrow, seek Her motherly care and intercession and so strive to imitate Her holy and Immaculate life, so that when Her Son, Jesus, comes to take us to our eternal rest, we will rejoice because we will have prayed:

“O Mary Conceived without Sin, pray for us, who have recourse to thee!” “O Mary Conceived without Sin, pray for us, who have recourse to thee!”“O Mary Conceived without Sin, pray for us, who have recourse to thee!”

1st Sunday Advent - Stay Awake!

Today is a special day, and not just a day, but the beginning of a special season, Advent. During Advent, we focus on waiting, we wait to celebrate the birth of Jesus,

we wait for the Second Coming of Jesus, and we wait for the day we leave this world and go to our judgment.

The words of Jesus in the Gospel today express the mood of this early part of the Advent season: Be on your guard, stay awake, because you never know when the time will come.

In the first reading today, the Jewish people expressed hope in God even when going through a difficult time, and so we heard glimpses of hope in that reading: “Return for the sake of your servants . . .Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, with the mountains quaking before you.” This is what Jesus would do, at His first coming. He would rend the heavens and by the Holy Spirit, He came down in the womb of the Virgin Mary and was born in Bethlehem. But, also at His second coming, He will rend the heavens and come down on a cloud, just as He had originally went to heaven on a cloud.

Jesus said, ”May He not come suddenly and find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to all: Watch” These words are also good for all of us to hear as we begin Advent. From what sleep are we to awake?

We are to be awake from being asleep in sin, and sleep of failing to care for our self and our family spiritually. In other words, to take a look at our lives and see how we are doing. We do not know when our lives will end and that is why Jesus said, “Watch, therefore, you do not know when the Lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, at midnight, or in the morning.”

We need to always be in a state of grace, awake, says Jesus because we do not know when He will call us from this life. You do not want to be like the people who were not ready at the time of Noah when the flood came. In our time, we have the impression that many are asleep to sin.

I recently did the funeral of my cousin, Jendee. She was 45 years old. I witnessed their wedding 18 years ago. She and her husband had two boys, a senior in high school, and a 7th grader. She found out she had pancreatic cancer in June, and died 5 months later just before Thanksgiving. She never made it to Christmas. Instead, Jesus came to Jendee in her hospital room. Within 5 minutes after her two boys came to see her, Jesus came. Praise God, she had received the last sacraments and Holy Communion, a few days before she died. She and her family were not attending Mass, and her boys had not been going to PSR. She never expected to die so young, and at the funeral, I reminded the people Jesus died at the age of 33.

I am sure, she wished she would have been better prepared, by being taking care of the spiritual needs of her boys, by bringing them to church and taking them to religious education classes, and by taking care of her own spiritual needs before she died.

Not everyone is able to prepare for death. Father Mark Beard, is a Youtube priest who preached on preparing for our personal judgment, and the next day after he gave that homily, he was killed in a car accident, and went to his judgment. Some people die instantly from a car accident, a heart attack, an aneurysm, a stroke.

When I went to Medjugorje last year, I was confronted with the possibility of death. I wasn’t afraid to die, but I told the Lord, I wanted to do more things for Him. When we die, we have to be ready to let go of everything, our family, our desires, our dreams. We have to be detached from the things of the world, because ultimately, we can’t take them with us. All of our hopes, dreams, and desires are fulfilled in heaven.

Yesterday, I was visiting with a woman from a nursing home. And she said something to me that was very beautiful. She said every time she thinks of someone, she prays for them. She said I think that is God’s way of reminding me to pray for others.

We need to live every moment of the day, as though it was our last. Not in fear, but to be ready spiritually, so that we have no regrets. Do we make family prayer a priority? Do we value our children’s religious education. What we learn about God and His Church helps us get to heaven, but our worldly honors will not. What do we place first above everything? Is it school activities? Is it our job? Is it our money? God should be first above everything, and allow Him to be involved in everything.

Matthew 25 tells us that we will be judged on love by doing deeds of mercy. Jesus said what you do unto the least of others, you do unto Me. Is there some poor person or family, you can help during Advent. Is there some organization you would like to donate?

There is what is called the principle of subsidiarity, which states that we first are to take care of our immediate family, then our extended family, then our parish, then our community, then those in our state, then our country, and lastly to take care people in other countries.

Is there some relative or someone in the community that you could help?

Advent is a time to prepare to celebrate the first coming of Jesus as a baby. It’s also a time to prepare for our own personal judgment, but also to prepare for His 2nd coming.

What better way to prepare, than to wake from sin. In other words, to prepare our hearts for Jesus which we can do with a good, sincere, and honest Confession this Advent. There is someone you need to be reconciled, to forgive?

In the alleged apparitions of Mary at Medjugorje, She asks for monthly confession. I would like to encourage you to go to Confession at least twice, once at the beginning of Advent and just before Christmas.

Mary asked us to daily read a small paragraph from the bible, to daily pray the Rosary, to fast on Wed and Friday, to attend Mass during the week. Many of you have the opportunity to come to daily Mass.

Just after college and I began to attend daily Mass. I was absolutely shocked at how the German Catholics practiced their faith. Before Advent there was a good number who attended daily Mass, but when Advent started, the church was packed with those who attended daily Mass. They saw the importance of coming to Mass to prepare for Christmas.

I encourage you to come to daily Mass if you are able. Many of you are able to come to Mass on Wed. evening. Come and receive Jesus in Holy Communion.

How beautiful it is, 90% of our families have a weekly Holy Hour. Bring your children with you, so they too can experience Jesus in adoration. Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them.” You can come anytime there is Adoration and you can come also to pray to Jesus in the tabernacle. That’s why its continuous adoration, so anyone may come and pray during the 46 hours of Adoration that we have every week. It’s not just your hour, the time of Adoration is for anyone who want to come and pray. The church is big enough for people to spread out and pray.

At home, pray the Rosary as a family, perhaps on a Sunday evening before going to bed. Father Peyton, used to say, the family that prays together, stays together.

Make time for Jesus in your life every day. Turn off the TV, get away from the phone, the video games, the internet, have some silence in your life, so Jesus can speak to you. Pray together as a family and pray alone. Pray, pray, pray.

Make Christ be with you every day and at all times. How can we be all wrapped up in Christ and have Christ behind us, before us, beside us, beneath us, above us and so prepared for when He comes?

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in the mouth of a friend and stranger. Amen.

Mostly taken from Fr. Tommy Lane

Christ the King - End of Life

 

The Gospel today is the last judgment. Our Lord’s coming on the clouds of heaven will be when all His enemies will be put under His feet. When everything will be subject to Him, as King of heaven and earth.

When Jesus comes the second time, He will hand over the kingdom to God His Father. The sheep, who are the righteous will be placed on the right and the goats, who are the wicked will be placed on the left. Jesus goes on to say what each person will be judged on, which is love in the form of acts of mercy. Much of the corporal works of mercy are practiced daily by hospital staff and nursing home workers. This is what Jesus will say to those at the last judgment who practiced works of mercy, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepare for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I as thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.”

By these words, Jesus explains when we care for the ill, we care for Him. When we feed the hungry, we nourish Him. When we give drink to the thirsty, we give Jesus hydration. Due to doctor’s orders, nursing staff give medicine and take vitals (blood pressure, temperature, pulse). They make sure each patient eats food and drinks water. They have a moral responsibility to care for them when they come to the hosptials when they are sick and suffering.

At times when a patient is unable to eat or drink orally, the patient will have an IV and if unable to eat for a number days, can receive a feeding tube.

Patients can be treated with ordinary care or extraordinary care, which is their choice. Ordinary care includes food, water, medicine & oxygen. Extraordinary care can involve a ventilator, being in ICU, significant surgical operations or CPR, etc…

In this past year, I had 5 surgeries that could be considered extraordinary medical care and I could have morally refused to do them. If I didn’t had some of them, perhaps I would be seriously impaired and unable to do things I had before, or perhaps without them, they could have caused my death. Poor people don’t have insurance like I do and some of them would not have had the choice to do these surgeries. I am happy to be able to continue to be alive.

Sometimes, a person can benefit from extraordinary care to temporarily help them through a difficult illness, until the health crisis subsides.

There is a new document by the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, called “Good Samaritan, on the care of persons in the critical and terminal phases of life”. The document was originally created to help prevent euthanasia, but it also speaks about the dignity of life and ethical considerations for the terminally ill and dying.

The document says, “A fundamental and inescapable principle of the assistance of the critically or terminally ill person is the continuity of care for the essential physiological functions. In particular, required basic care for each person includes the administration of the nourishment and fluids needed to maintain bodily homeostasis, insofar as and until this demonstrably attains the purpose of providing hydration and nutrition for the patient. When the provision of nutrition and hydration no longer benefits the patient, because the patient’s organism either cannot absorb them or cannot metabolize them, their administration should be suspended. In this way, one does not unlawfully hasten death through the deprivation of the hydration and nutrition vital for bodily function, but nonetheless respects the natural course of the critical or terminal illness.

The withdrawal of this sustenance is an unjust action that can cause great suffering to the one who has to endure it. Nutrition and hydration do not constitute medical therapy in a proper sense, which is intended to counteract the pathology that afflicts the patient. They are instead forms of obligatory care of the patient, representing both a primary clinical and an unavoidable human response to the sick person. Obligatory nutrition and hydration can at times be administered artificially, provided that it does not cause harm or intolerable suffering to the patient.”

In the hospital we are used to seeing IVs and feeding tubes removed when a patient is placed on “Comfort Care”. But this should only be done if death is imminent (within a few days). If the patient’s dying process is such the patient can continue to live for days or weeks, and if they can benefit from and IV and feeding tube, it is obligatory unless it would cause an excessive burden to the patient. It is an exception for it to become an excessive burden to have a feeding tube and IV. Today, many try to make the exception the rule and so deprive the dying person of something that can help them. Some patients are even purposely overdosed on pain medicine, at the request of the family, when they have little or no pain for the sake of helping them to die quicker.

I witnessed one time a nurse came into the room of a patient and she asked him if he was in any pain, and he said no. She then asked him if he wanted pain medicine, and he said no. She then forcibly stuck a syringe filled with roxenal (morphine) into his mouth and injected it. Within 30 min the man became unconscious. Where is the respect for the patient and his desires? It seemed as though the family just wanted him to die quicker to relieve the agony of themselves watching a loved one die.

However, a doctor or nurse may not do anything unethical even if the family of the patient or the patient wants them to because it goes against their conscience.

The totality of the patient's condition should be taken into consideration and whatever most benefits the person. Not every patient dies the same way or from the same illness. For example, when a person is dying, one person’s kidneys may fail quickly, while another person’s kidneys may not be a problem.

If someone has a stroke and is unable to swallow, and the rest of their health is good, then they should receive a feeding tube.

In this past year I had difficulty swallowing and needed to have my esophagus dilated. There were times food would get stuck in my esophagus and I would choke. If the dilation wouldn’t have worked, I could very well been on a feeding tube.

For others with multiple serious health issues which may be causing death, the patient may prefer to not have a feeding tube, because perhaps then it would become excessively burdensome.

I have heard people say, “I don’t want to be a vegetable.” But this phrase dehumanizes people. We have human dignity. If we need a feeding tube and an IV, we may not have the quality of life we would prefer, but life is worth living. But that does not mean we should do every thing possible to live as long as we can, when it may be excessively burdensome to stay alive. Rather, we should attempt to understand what benefits the person the most and what God is wanting for him or her.

Every hospital and nursing home should have some dying patients who are on a feeding tube and an IV, but not every dying patient should have these.

DNR’s (Do not resuscitate) are often used, but they don’t take into consideration all the factors a person may undergo. For example, a person may temporarily use a vent, to help them through an infection, until the antibiotic can get rid of it and allow the person to breath on their own again.

When a patient is unable to make his or her own decisions, it’s often better to have a Catholic Power of Attorney for healthcare, so someone who will follow Catholic principles will do so, rather than to do a DNR.

I had a tube in my belly twice this past year each time for a month. I know what It's like to have a tube in the abdomen. For the first several days its uncomfortable, but after that you don’t even hardly notice it. I didn’t need any pain medicine for it. For me, it would be difficult to see how it could be an excessive burden for myself.

However, for those with severe dementia, it may not be possible, because they may try to pull out the tubes.

The document is saying, when a feeding tube or an IV no longer benefits the patient due to the inability to absorb them or metabolize them, or if it were to be an excessive burden, then it respects the natural course of the terminal illness.

However, when the patient can benefit from an IV and a feeding tube, then they are obligatory, because they are not medical therapy, rather ordinary care which can benefit the human person. In other words, we all need food and water even when we are dying when we can benefit from them.

What we are really doing is providing food and water to Jesus in patient, as Jesus said, “What you do to the least of my brothers, you do to me.” For when I was hungry, you gave me food, when I was thirsty you gave me drink, when I was ill you cared for me….”

Likewise, oxygen should also not be removed when a patient is dying, because that too is ordinary care. We don’t want to remove oxygen for the purpose of causing the patient to die quicker. Rather, the patient has right to oxygen to be able to take breaths as easy as possible when dying. Receiving the supply of oxygen helps them to be more comfortable.

Jesus, the King of heaven and earth is the author of life and no one but Him determines life and death. We cooperate with Him in understanding His will, by documents of the Church which give us principles on how to respect the human person from the moment of life until natural death. When we see a loved one going through agony, it’s difficult for us, but especially them.

In the bulletin are two documents. One document by the Kansas Conference of Bishops, is the Catholic Declaration for End of Life, which is a statement that can be signed requesting how a Catholic should be treated.

The other document is the Directives for Catholics Concerning Artificially Administered Nutrition and Hydration by Bishop Olmsted which explains how food and water are ordinary medical means and should not be withdrawn when a person can benefit from them. It also explains that a person’s death should be caused by an illness or disease and not by a lack of food and water.

When they are dying, we should never deprive them of ordinary care, food or water, unless it would be futile such the inability to assimilate food or water, such as when the kidneys no longer work or the colon is blocked.

We need to be careful to avoid false mercy, which seeks to alleviate pain and suffering at all cost, even to more quickly cause death, for the sake of our own needs, rather than for what is best for the person. This is really euthanasia in disguise. We may also forget about the value of redemptive suffering and the dignity of each person.

It is up to us to be sure they receive the Last Rites, confession, anointing of the sick, the Apostolic Pardon, which washes away all punishment due to sin and also Viaticum, which is Holy Communion one last time.

We should support them by our prayers, most especially the Holy Rosary and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. I have seen patients die immediately after the family gathered around their bed and finished the Rosary. I also seen the same for the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, just after the family finishes the Chaplet, the patient dies. These are truly beautiful deaths. To die surrounded by family is consoling the patient.

We should also pray to St. Joseph, the patron of a happy death because its believed Jesus and Mary were present when he departed this life.

Jesus told Saint Faustina, "My daughter, ... Write that when they say this chaplet in the presence of the dying, I will stand between My Father and the dying person, not as the just Judge but as the merciful Savior (Diary, 1541). Jesus also said, “Say unceasingly the chaplet that I have taught you. Whoever will recite it will receive great mercy at the hour of death. I desire to grant unimaginable graces to those souls who trust in My mercy." (#687)

On this solemnity of Christ the King, we pray every terminally ill or dying patient who can benefit from artificial nutrition and hydration, will be able to receive them and die a holy death in union with the death of Jesus on the Cross. We pray that we will be prepared before we go to the judgment seat of Christ, the King.

For those who care for them and who do their best to follow the Church's teachings on death and dying, will hear the words of Jesus at the Last Judgment, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepare for you from the foundation of the world.”

May the Queen of Heaven, help us to care for others in their dying days with dignity and respect always providing ordinary care when it can benefit our loved ones.

Thanksgiving Day

 

Thanksgiving Day helps Americans discover the importance of thanking God for every gift and see His hands in providentially taking care of them.

This national holiday of giving Thanks to God for all His gifts and benefits is important for our American culture. While many are discovering the beauty of thanksgiving, others fail to remember God and continue to attribute their own successes and material achievements to themselves.

Thanksgiving Day is a reminder for all Americans that God in His providence-- takes care of all our needs. It is also a reminder that we is not self-sufficient, but rather depend totally upon God our creator and that we is the steward of God’s gifts.

Many pastors attempt to help people understand the meaning of thanksgiving and that all they have is a gift from God and that they are merely the stewards of these gifts.

We know from Sacred Scripture Jesus, as our model, constantly gave thanks to God. Before raising Lazarus from the dead, He said, “Father I give you thanks that you have heard me.” When He multiplied the loaves, He took the loaves, and after giving thanks, distributed them and the fishes to those who were reclining. At the institution of the Eucharist, Our Lord gave thanks before blessing the bread and wine which truly became His body and blood at the Last Supper.

The letters of St. Paul often begin and end with thanksgiving. St. Paul also urged the Church in his letter to the Thessalonians, “In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ, Jesus.”

The Gospel of the ten lepers helps us to understand the importance of being thankful, but is also reveals our failure to thank God for His gifts and blessings. After the lepers had departed because Jesus had told them to show themselves to the priests, they realized Our Lord healed them. However, only one returned to thank Our Divine Savior. In a loud voice, he fell on his face at the feet of Jesus, glorifying God. He thanked Our Lord for healing Him, while the others continued on their way to the priests. And so, that is why Our Blessed Lord said, “Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine? Have not but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God.”

Perhaps, most know that our first president, George Washington established Thanksgiving as a national holiday. Many of us were taught in school-- the history of Thanksgiving. We were told Puritan pilgrims, from Britain came over on the ship, the Mayflower, and that they gathered with the American Indians at Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts, in the fall of 1621. We were told these pilgrims and Indians gave thanks to God for surviving the hard winter, and for the many blessings-- God had bestowed upon them. We are told that they ate wild turkey and deer meat.

Although this event actually happened, perhaps most are unaware-- the very first Thanksgiving occurred 56 years earlier in 1565 at St. Augustine, Florida. The first settlers were not British Puritans, but rather, Spanish settlers, many of whom were Catholic.

It was on Sept. 8^th, 1565 a Catholic priest by the name of Fr. Francisco Lopez Grjalas, offered a Mass of Thanksgiving and invited all 800 European settlers and the native Indians, for a communal meal, which consisted of wild turkey, deer meat, pork stew, and vegetables.

Today, on Thanksgiving many families pray their prayer before meal-- each family member will go around the table and name at least one thing they are thankful. Naturally, many will thank God for their family, their job, their food, their home, and their health. Some thank God for their talents and for the gift of their life. Others may thank God for His creation, such as the stars, the moon, the sun, the trees, snow and the animals. Those of us who live here can thank God for our wonderful little community. And we are thankful for living sort of out in the country where there is wild life, deer, turkeys, foxes, coyotes and owls.

God loves us and desires that we love our self, love our neighbor and show our love for Him, by using the gifts He has given us in the proper way.

Perhaps with the following words we can thank Our Lord: Thank you Jesus, for your suffering and death on the Cross, by which you came to save us and by which you opened the gates of paradise, so that we may be forever with you in heaven. Thank you Jesus for all the sacraments, most especially yourself in the Holy Eucharist, the Holy Mass and Holy Communion. Thank you Jesus for my baptism, in which You washed away original sin, and the Trinity came to dwell within me. Thank you Jesus for Confession where you forgive our personal sins. Thank you Jesus for the Last Rites whereby you forgive our sins, give us grace to perservere through suffering and You prepare us for eternal life in heaven.

Thank you Jesus for the Church, you established and promised that the gates of hell will not prevail. Thank you Jesus for the deposit of faith. Thank you Jesus for the pope, cardinals, bishops and priests You give to us as shepherds.

Thank you Jesus for all the martyrs and saints, who give us an example of how to grow in holiness and virtue. Thank you Jesus for humbling yourself to come down from heaven into the Immaculate womb of the Virgin Mary, in which you took upon our human nature, so beneath Your dignity. Thank you Jesus for being born in a cold stable-- with no lay place to lay Your head, but upon the straw- in a manger in the little town of Bethlehem.

Thank you Jesus for Your life, your miracles, your teachings, and for revealing the Blessed Trinity to us The Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three persons in one God! Thank you Jesus for Your agony in the Garden, Your scourging, Your crowning with thorns, Your carrying of the Cross, and for shedding Your blood-- during Your three hours of agony on the Cross. Thank you Jesus for showing us the value of suffering. Thank you Jesus for making suffering redemptive. Thank you for every suffering I have ever endured in my life, because by suffering I am like you, who suffered so much for me. And thank you Jesus for rising from the dead, conquering sin and death and opening the gates of paradise.

My friends, let us give thanks to Jesus for all He done for us and give thanks to God for your every gift and use your gifts for the glory and honor of God and for the good of your neighbor, by doing so, you will be true disciples of Jesus and when that day in the future comes, when you will be called to that eternal home, when you arrive with a grateful heart you will cry out, Thank Jesus, my God, for the greatest gift of all—the gift of heaven—the gift of being with you forever!