Where Are You From? 2014

see April 24, 2017

Mercy Mercy

Who would you most like to see burning in hell?

Maybe someone who caused you great harm—willfully, maliciously and without remorse.

Maybe the greedy, corrupt predators who take advantage of the weak and the poor.

How about Adolph Hitler or Pol Pot or Idi Amin, or other mass exterminators?

Or sadists who enjoy torturing their victims?

How about the guy who skips Mass one Sunday to go to the football game?

Just this week the Post had a few articles about an ex-Marine who murdered a female Marine.

While he was in jail awaiting trial he bragged to a fellow inmate.

He said he'd gotten away with murder before, a few years earlier.

Two little girls cutting through some woods happened to see him in there taking drugs.

He didn't want any witnesses, so he eliminated them—in a most brutal and sadistic way.

He told his cellmate he wasn't at all sorry or bothered by what he had done.

He laughed that the police had already arrested the wrong guy—the father of one of the girls.

Surely he's a good candidate for hell.

And around the world, every day, there are many stories just as repulsive as his.

Many other good candidates committing equally evil and depraved acts.

And then there's the rest of us.

With a little greed, a little lust, envy, anger, pride, gluttony and sloth.

A little indifference.

Or more, or less.

Maybe offsetting our bad acts with good acts—serving God, serving the poor.

Sometimes better, sometimes worse.

Maybe very contrite for our failings, maybe not.

Maybe mightily striving to be better, maybe not so much.

Well adjusted, well balanced—or not.

Where's the line?

Who deserves to go to hell?

No doubt, a lot of people.

Who actually will go to hell?

We don't know.

If justice were the sole determining factor, hell would surely be a very crowded place.

Without divine mercy, we could very well all go to hell.

But—thank God—God tempers his justice with mercy.

Today's responsorial psalm assures us, His mercy endures forever.

And Jesus, by his mission and by his words, assures us that God is our loving, merciful Father.

And so, today, we celebrate God's Divine Mercy.

God's sending his only son to be one of us.

To save us and open the gates of heaven by his life, suffering, death and resurrection.

This Sunday has always been a continuation of the Easter celebration.

But the Church didn't designate it as worldwide Divine Mercy Sunday until 2000

Pope John Paul II gave it that name at the same time he canonized Sister Faustina Kowalska.

Faustina was a mystic who around 1930 saw apparitions of Jesus.

And he told her to work to build up worldwide recognition and praise for God's Divine Mercy.

We can't know for certain if a particular person has gone to heaven or hell.

But the Church declares its opinion about some special individuals.

Those canonized saints, like Fuastina.

The Church can scrutinize the life of an individual and, with the help of signs from God,

Declare that it believes that God has taken that person into heaven.

Declare that we can consider that person to be a model to follow in our own lives.

And an intercessor who can petition God for us, and help us along our way.

We can take comfort in the messages of the Gospels that tell us many are saved.

Jesus told us his Father's house has many rooms.

And, as we heard in the reading from the Acts of the Apostles,

Every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

This morning, the Church formally added to the number two new recognized saints.

Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II; Saints from our own era.

Many of us remember John XXIII.

My grade school class was touched by the death of the only pope we'd ever known, Pius XII.

And we all watched for the white smoke as John XXIII was chosen as his successor.

All but the youngest among us remember John Paul II.

Neither these popes nor the other canonized saints led lives of absolute perfection.

Look at St Peter's denials and St Paul's persecution of the Christians.

Look at the weak faith of St Thomas in today's Gospel.

But the Church has formally recognized that, despite their imperfections,

God has taken all these individuals into heaven.

Who does God want to see burn in hell?

No one.

But God is all-just, and justice demands consequences for the evil that we do.

Yet, God is also all-merciful.

He has already shown his Divine Mercy by sending his son to save us.

How much more mercy will he have for us when we face him at our final judgment?

Where will he draw the line?

At that judgment we'll look back over the mistakes and failures of our lives.

We'll see more clearly then that we don't really want justice.

We want mercy.

If we do make it to heaven, how will it be heaven if our loved ones aren't there too?

If we look across the chasm and see our child, or a friend, or even an enemy, in eternal torment?

There's a great deal of mystery to Heaven and to God's mercy.

But Jesus has taught us how to ensure that we'll receive all the mercy we need.

Love God and neighbor.

Forgive those who trespass against us.

He tells us, The measure with which you measure out will be given back to you.

So what can we do about this great uncertainty regarding the most important goal of our life?
How can we enjoy that peace that Jesus wished us three times in today's Gospel?

We can follow those instructions Jesus gave us.

We can even hope that God's mercy trumps God's justice in all cases.

We can trust that somehow our merciful, loving Father will take care of all his children.

Second Sunday of Easter -- Divine Mercy Sunday

     Read this Scripture @usccb.org

No Bad News

Sometimes it seems like there's nothing but negative, depressing, bad news.

When that mounts up, I can't help but think of that lively song from The Wiz.

A really upbeat rhythm that tries to push all that aside with the refrain—

No bad news.

No bad news.

Don't you bring me no bad news!

Last week was a bad news week in our liturgical year.

The week of Jesus' Passion.

A week of bad vibes as we see traces of ourselves reflected in the apostles.

And maybe even in Pilate or some of the others who failed Jesus.

A week that highlights our fears and weaknesses.

Our ability to betray, deny, abandon and ignore.

But Sunday we began a new week—a whole new Season.

Celebrating the epitome of the Good News.

We're now in the third day of the Octave of Easter.

We celebrate this greatest of Christian feasts for not just one day, but for eight.

The Good News doesn't get any more joyful or better than the Easter News.

A new and glorious beginning.

Jesus' victory over death.

His assurance that we can share in that victory.

For eight days we hear different reports and different aspects of that news.

Today we hear Peter telling the Jews:

… the promise is made to you and to your children and to all those far off,

whomever the Lord our God will call.

We're among those receiving that promise, far off from that place and time.

We're those children who God is still calling two thousand years later.

Calling us to forgiveness, to the Spirit, to a share in that victory over death.

We also hear Jesus asking Mary Magdalene:

Why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?

Those words are directed to us too.

There are plenty of times in this life when we weep in pain and sorrow.

And too often at those times, we're like Mary at the tomb.
We fail to recognize that God's is right there with us.

He's there with the comfort and the assurance that, ultimately, all can be well.

And Jesus adds yet another Good News reminder.

He says, I am going to my Father and your Father.

He's not just returning to God and leaving us behind.

Even in his glorified state he continues to call himself our brother.

Continues to assure us that we can look to God as our loving, merciful Father.

No bad news this week.

Nothing but Good News.

Tuesday, Octave of Easter

Jn 20:11-18           Read this Scripture @usccb.org

Ups and Downs

Today we have the unusual experience of hearing

two different Gospels at Mass. 

We see two very different scenes;

an extreme upper and an extreme downer.

In the first, adored and acclaimed,

Jesus rides through the welcoming streets of Jerusalem.

While the crowd cheers, Hosanna to the Son of David! 

In the second, just a few days later, scourged and scorned,

Jesus struggles along those punishing streets

dragging his cross to Calvary.

While the crowd jeers, Crucify him, crucify him! 

Jesus, like all of us, lived a life of ups and downs.

But he had it already figured out as he rode that donkey

through the palm-laden streets.

He knew the ugly turn that ride would take.

And, despite, the terrible low point ahead, he rode on.

Neither the high nor the low could pull him off his course,

because he had faith in his mission and in his ultimate end—

his end beyond Calvary.

All of us are here on a mission.

And, thanks to Jesus, we can all share in that ultimate glorious end. 
Holding onto our faith, and keeping that end in view,

all of us can ride out the ups and downs of life.

Palm Sunday

     Read this Scripture @usccb.org

Who ARE You?

Yesterday I drove home from a few days in New York.

We started up the navigation app on my cell phone and plugged it into the digital radio jack.

This new app, called Waze, not only guides you on a route to follow (I didn’t need that),

But also gives you up-to-the-minute reports on the road conditions ahead.

Thousands of travelers constantly feed in information by tapping icons on their phones.

They report if they see a wreck, a breakdown, a slowdown—or a police car.

The system is instantly updated and immediately alerts everyone of any problems on their route.

Two hundred years ago, no one could imagine such communications and technology.

People hadn’t yet seen cars or telephones or radios or even the telegraph.

A few science fiction writers might have imagined such possibilities.

But no realistic, practical person really believed that future world would ever exist.

It was unbelievable, incredible, fantastic!

And yet, it was true!

Today we take it all for granted.

We’re used to it, it’s familiar, it’s hardly surprising, we expect even more.

We see science and technology advancing so rapidly, we can imagine almost anything.

Not just in communications and transportation, but in medicine, space, agriculture, construction,

And in any area where we can see science and technology playing a role.

Thinking about that, and reading today’s Gospel,

It struck me that we also take a lot for granted in our understanding of Jesus.

Especially us cradle Catholics, us cradle Christians.

We’ve heard the Gospel since our early childhood.

Our parents and our church instilled it in us.

We’re not like those Pharisees in today’s Gospel.

We don’t have to look at Jesus in puzzled disbelief and say, Who are you anyway?

We know who Jesus is.

And that’s good.

It’s good to have that deep-seated faith and conviction.

And it comes in handy when we find ourselves struggling in a period of doubt.

But taking that faith and knowledge too much for granted has its downside.

It can dampen our full appreciation of just who Jesus really is.

We can forget to be awe-struck.

Yes, Jesus was a man.

But he was also God.

He said so plainly and straight-forwardly many times—in today’s Gospel passage and others.

And yet he became one of us to teach us how to live.

He called us his brothers, his family.

He died for us to conquer death.

He opened the way for us to eternal life.

He chooses to dwell within us and among us—forever.

Do we really grasp and appreciate all that?

That’s incredible!   That’s fantastic!  

And yet, it’s true!

Tuesday, Fifth Week of Lent

Jn 8:21-30           Read this Scripture @usccb.org

Wholly Holy

What is the foremost, primary holy day?

Need some hints?

It’s not Good Friday or Christmas or even Easter.

This holy day occurs more than once a year.

It occurs 52 times.

… It’s plain old Sunday ...

Canon Law and the Catechism call Sunday the primary and foremost holy day of obligation.

They say other holy days of obligation are to be observed in the same manner as Sunday.

Sunday is our Sabbath, as Saturday was, and still is, the Jews’ Sabbath.

It’s a day of rest set aside for worship, family, and spiritual development.

It’s a holy day of obligation because we’re obliged to observe rules regarding the day.

We’re obliged to participate in the Mass.

We’re obliged to avoid unnecessary work—by ourselves or by others.

In our modern, secular culture, Sunday can easily seem pretty much just another day.

In the US, only one in four Catholics regularly attends Sunday Mass.

Many people do get off of work on Sunday, and some do spend more time with family.

But the old traditional Sunday family dinners and get-togethers are nearly a thing of the past.

So, conditioned as we are by our culture,

Doing a little work on the Sabbath seems like a pretty trivial offense to us.

Why would the Pharisees even bother nit-picking about this with Jesus?

To us, they seem pretty hard-up for an excuse to go after him.

But today’s Gospel makes it clear that violating the Sabbath is shaping up as their big issue.

For the Pharisees, working on the Sabbath was a very serious offense.

They had two strong rationales for the obligation to rest.

First, God’s laws, given to Moses, commanded them to rest on the Sabbath.

And second, they realized that God was always active—constantly giving life to his creations.

So God was clearly exempt from his command to rest on the Sabbath.

God and God alone.

So, anyone ignoring the command was, in effect, acting like they were God.

Jesus readily admitted that he was acting like God,.

He said, My Father’s at work and I’m at work.

The work of healing and curing and restoring life.

He was not breaking the rule of the Sabbath, he was exempt from it.

We’re not exempt.

Although we do have many liberal exceptions to strict adherence to the rules.

We should all want to follow those rules.

The Sabbath was made for us, not us for the Sabbath.

We should all welcome a day to rest and devote time to God and family and spirit.

It’s a gift from God.

Those of us here are in that minority of people who have found that gift.

What can we do to share it with those who haven’t?

Tuesday, Fourth Week of Lent

Jn 5:1-16           Read this Scripture @usccb.org