Is Jesus Worth Giving 100% of Yourself to?

 

Deacon Kevin Gingras

September 15th, 2024

Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/091524.cfm

Is 50:5-9a    Ps 116:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9

Jas 2:14-18    Mk 8:27-35

I saw a post the other week on social media.  It was a picture of a famous person with words emblazoned over him that he probably never said:

Give People as much as they give you, don’t waste your 100% for their 10%

Regardless of whoever said it, this quote goes against today’s readings.

"Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well, "but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead 

When we give to those who are in need do we expect anything back?  I should hope not, so when we give to them, we give one hundred percent of what we offer for zero percent return,  that is the essence of charity.  To give and expect nothing in return.

Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it

I tried to imagine if Jesus gave his one hundred percent to only those who gave Him back one hundred percent of themselves.  Well, the martyrs would do ok with this math.  Perhaps some others around the world might do ok, those like Mother Theresa.  I certainly know if this is the math Jesus used I’d be in big trouble.

On the other hand, imagine if Jesus Himself only gave ten percent.  We certainly wouldn’t be here today talking about him, he would have surely been considered just a false prophet or charlatan.  Jesus had to give us more than ten, or 50, or even 99 percent.  Jesus had to provide us with one hundred percent of Himself to make up for Original Sin and the sins of the world until the end of time.  

Shouldn’t we do the same for Jesus?  Give Him one hundred percent of ourselves? It’s hard, even Jesus’ closest friends had trouble with this in the beginning.  Judas gave nowhere near one hundred percent back, instead, he betrayed Jesus. Even Peter came up short.  Jesus was telling the disciples how the Son of Man must suffer and die and rise again.  Well, typical Peter, talks before thinking and tells Jesus that this is unacceptable to him.  Jesus responds to him with a different rebuke that must have cut Peter to the heart:

Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do

How do we think - as humans or as God? The Gospel begins with that great question - “Who do you say that Jesus is”?  A good question for all Christians - who is Jesus to you?  Who do you say he is? Is He someone worth one hundred percent of you? We need to think of God in everything we do.  Not easy. How do we make everything we do a prayer?

I was in confession once and I told the priest that I sometimes give God only the last moments of my day, when I’m tired and only have a little left to give.  Based on my other sins he knew I was married, worked, and had children.  He asked me what I did for my kids during the week.  I told him I was a soccer coach, scout leader, baseball coach, youth minister, and other things; he wanted a full list.  Then he mentioned how I worked to provide for my family as well.  The priest told me that is my prayer to God.  If instead of doing these things I prayed all day I would be neglecting my duties as a father and that, in itself could be considered sinful.  I still struggle to keep all that I do during the day a prayer, with God always in mind, but the more I pray about it, the easier it gets.

So pray!  Pray often, pray hard and mighty prayers asking the Holy Spirit to guide you to always have a prayer on your mind, no matter what task you are trying to accomplish at that moment from cleaning the house to attending Mass!

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton once said, 

“We must pray without ceasing, in every occurrence and employment of our lives – that prayer which is rather a habit of lifting up the heart to God as in a constant communication with Him.”

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life

Deacon Kevin Gingras

August 18, 2024

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081824.cfm

Prv 9:1-6     Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7

Eph 5:15-20    Jn 6:51-58

I came across a photo of me from long ago.  It was very long ago.  At that time I was in great shape, I had, what you would call, six-pack abs.  I worked out every day and ran three to four miles daily and it showed.  Now, not so much.  Now I fish.  I try to convince myself that fishing is a sport but I don’t look like what I used to so it’s difficult to convince people I’m still an athlete!  

Like any sport or endeavor, if you want to advance, you have to practice. You have to keep up with the work, which, clearly, I did not!  This is also true for our faith and that brings us to today’s readings.

Jesus was trying to advance their faith, to get them to level up in their understanding of who He is and what it is He is about to do.  This was going to be a difficult workout for them, for some of them it would be too hard.

Jesus begins by telling them that He is the bread from Heaven and that:

whoever eats this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.

Well, that’s kind of shocking, I can understand why the Jews began to quarrel among themselves.  Eat his flesh?  But Jesus doubles down:

Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life,

Now you have to go back to the original Greek that this was written in to fully understand what Jesus was saying.  The first word Jesus used to describe eating his flesh was “phago” which simply means to eat like a human normally would.  After the Jews quarreled among themselves the word Jesus used was “trogo” which means to munch or to gnaw, as an animal would do!  This statement would be much more graphic!  It was indeed a hard saying.  It was meant to grow their faith in Jesus Christ himself and prepare them for the Eucharist He would establish at the last supper that lasts even until today.

Some were ready for that workout as the early church truly believed in the real presence. Back in 112 AD Pliny the Younger, the governor of a Roman province went to look into what these Christians were doing, thinking, perhaps, that they were cannibals! He wrote a letter back to the Emperor Trajan and in the letter, Pliny describes the practices of these alleged “criminals”:

“They were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up; after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to partake of food–but food of an ordinary and innocent kind.”

What stands out is that the letter states that they partake of food of an ordinary and innocent kind.   Pliny stressed that it was ordinary food because back then Christians were thought to be cannibals since they ate the flesh and drank the blood of Jesus Christ!  Yes, the early Catholics, just like we do today, eat the true flesh of Christ at the Eucharistic feast.

I think Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel challenge us to the same spiritual workout.  They call us to level up our faith in the Eucharist.  As St Paul told the Ephesians:

be filled with the Spirit … giving thanks always and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father

And we can thank Him personally, here today at Mass, present in the Eucharist.  We need to level up our faith in Jesus ever present in the Eucharist.  Our gym is the Church and the Adoration Chapel.  Spend time in adoration, face-to-face with Jesus Himself. Our workout should include praying to the Holy Spirit to strengthen our belief.  One of our tougher gym workouts is Confession, but don’t skip Confession Day!  Try to go often, at least monthly.  That will strengthen you more than you can imagine!

All of this is to give us the spiritual muscle to fight the demons Satan will send our way during our time on Earth.  All this is to help keep us strong when the temptations of life come our way.  This way when we have finished the Earthly race we can spend eternity.  St. Ambrose gives us a great workout plan:

 “Let your door stand open to receive Him, unlock your soul to Him, offer Him a welcome in your mind and then you will see the riches of simplicity, the treasures of peace, the joy of grace. Throw wide the gate of your heart, stand before the sun of the everlasting light.”

Jesus came to tear down the dividing wall of enmity

 

Deacon Kevin Gingras

July 21, 2024

Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/072124.cfm

Jer 23:1-6     Ps 23:1-3, 3-4, 5, 6

Eph 2:13-18    Mk 6:30-34

In today’s Gospel, the apostles have just returned after Jesus sent them out two by two with nothing but one set of clothes and a walking stick. They have reported to Jesus all that they had done and taught. We didn’t hear this story last Sunday but they also had just received news of John the Baptist’s execution.

The disciples were tired, dusty, smelly, saddened by the bad news, and just needed a break.  We all have those moments when the burdens of life overwhelm us and make us tired as we deal with that one more thing.  Jesus was aware of that tiredness.  

He said to the Apostles, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” People were coming and going in great numbers, and they had no opportunity even to eat.

Jesus was taking them on a mini-retreat!  Or at least trying to since the crowd follows them and even beats them to their destination.  This will soon lead up to one of the two miraculous feedings in the Gospel of Mark.  The feeding of the five thousand.  More on that in a bit.

Now Fr. Matt homilized about Lectio Divina a couple of weeks back, how we should read, reflect, respond, and rest with Scripture.  I practice Lectio a lot, especially when preparing my sermon.  This week, while praying with the readings, the one clear takeaway for me is that Jesus came to unite all of mankind, to create one flock, and remove all things that divide.

Let’s get into that! There is a hidden meaning in the two feedings in the Gospel of Mark. The first is Mark 6 - feeding of the 5 thousand - this is where they had 12 wicker baskets full of leftover food.  The leftover number is important. It represents the 12 tribes of Israel, the Jewish people.  This feeding happened near Bethsaida, near the Sea of Galilee a Jewish region.  Jesus is the new Moses feeding the Israelites the new bread of life, the first group of people.

The second miraculous feeding is in Mark 8 where Jesus feeds four-thousand and has seven wicker baskets of leftovers.  Seven represents the Gentile towns that would convert. This feeding takes place in the region around the Decapolis - Gentile territory; the second group of people.

Acts 13:17-19 speaks of them:

The God of this people Israel chose our ancestors and exalted the people during their sojourn in the land of Egypt. With uplifted arm, he led them out of it, and for about forty years he put up with them in the desert. When he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance

Acts refers to the seven Gentile nations the Israelites took over and settled in way back in Exodus.  This was a time when the was a major division between the Gentiles and the Jews.

Our second reading today is all about getting the Gentiles and the Jews to be of one faith now that Jesus has come.

Ephesians 2:13-14

But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have become near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, he who made both one and broke down the dividing wall of enmity, through his flesh

“Made both one” is a direct reference to the Jews and the Gentiles. The dividing wall St. Paul speaks of refers to the actual architecture of the Jerusalem Temple, which had a physical wall separating the outer court, accessible to Gentiles, from the inner courts, only permissible for Jews.  There would even be signs posted on the outer walls warning the Gentiles that if they dared pass into the inner courts they would be trespassing and could face the death penalty!

Jesus did not come to earth and die for us to tear apart our world, our country, our church, and our families.  No, he came to unite us, to unite us through the bread of life, the Eucharist he has given us.

There are so many things dividing us all right now:

• Democrat vs. Republican
• Some families are divided by a tragedy or a misunderstanding
• We can be divided at work or school
• Some arguments divide us with our friends, even our good friends
• How we choose to worship in the Catholic Church even divides us
• The list could go on and on…

Again, in honor of the month of the Precious Blood of Jesus, we will have an intinction station so that you may receive the body AND the precious blood of Christ.  If you wish to receive in this manner come to the left side where Fr. Matt will be and fold your hands as if praying.  That will signal you wish to receive both the body and the blood.  You need to receive on the tongue.  While you receive pray about the divisions that are causing you stress and tension in your life and your relationships.  Bring them to Jesus in the Eucharist.  Bring them to the foot of the cross. Ask Jesus for healing and peace of these divisions.  Jesus has broad shoulders and can handle these things with you!

Pope Francis says it well:

Unity is, above all, a gift; it is a grace to be requested through prayer

Use the Holy Spirit as our guide

Deacon Kevin Gingras

May 19, 2024

Pentecost Sunday

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/051924-Vigil.cfm

Gn 11:1-9     Ps 104:1-2, 24, 35, 27-28, 29, 30

Rom 8:22-27     Jn 7:37-39

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/pentecost-sunday-mass-during-day

Acts 2:1-11      Ps 104:1, 24, 29-30, 31, 34

1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13    Jn 20:19-23

When we adopted our daughter Faith from China we started in America with China Adoptions with Love. They were one of our guides in this overall process getting us to the point where we finally went to China.  Once there, we went to three major cities.  

In Beijing, we were a group of ten American families and we were tourists for that leg of our journey. The entire time we were there we had a guide who would translate anything we needed, answer questions, and help us understand the culture and history of China in the places we visited such as Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden or Temple Gardens, and the Great Wall.

Wuhan was the next city.  Only Allison and I traveled there and that was where we met Faith, our daughter.  We had our own personal guide there who helped us with adoption-related things like going to the agency and being able to understand what the man there was explaining.  She was also helpful when I had to go to two Chinese banks to exchange our 5,000 US Dollars for Chinese Yuan.  I even had to open a bank account for a few hours to do one exchange so you could say I’m a worldwide banker now!

In Guangzhou, the families met back up and we all shared a guide. She was very helpful with our clinic visits when the kids needed shots and checkups.  Our guide was also helpful in getting our issues fixed when it was realized Faith’s birth certificate was wrong. Without our guides in China, we would have been lost and could easily have failed in our adoption process! 

The Apostles also needed an earthly guide that Jesus promised to send in John 14:

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot accept because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it, because it remains with you, and will be in you.

That first Pentecost is when the Spirit, comes to them, to guide them out of their fear and hiding and to go boldly proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to everyone.  Without this guide, the Church would have never been born. Pentecost is the birth of the Catholic Church and at the first Pentecost Peter gave quite the homily:

Peter testified with many other arguments, and was exhorting them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand persons were added that day.

I’d be happy if one of my homilies got two or three people to be baptized, imagine three thousand!  Anyway… the Holy Spirit has played, and still plays a huge role in the Church.

In Luke, we read how the word became flesh, and how Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit:

the angel said to her in reply, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.

Matthew tells us how the entire trinity was present at the Baptism of the Lord:

After Jesus was baptized, he came up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon him. And a voice came from the heavens, saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

The Holy Spirit, through the priest, comes down, in a special way, at this mass and all mass throughout the world at the epiclesis, where the priest joins his hands and, holding them extended over the offerings of bread and wine, he says:

Therefore, O Lord, we humbly implore you: by the same Spirit graciously make holy these gifts that we have brought you for consecration, that they may become the Body and Blood of your Son our Lord Jesus Christ…

Now comes the big question for us - How do we use the Holy Spirit as our guide through our journey on this crazy Earth?  How does the Spirit guide us to our ultimate, - please God - destination of Heaven?

Using the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, we can indeed be guided towards our goal.  Wisdom gives the ability to see God at work in the world.  Understanding helps us realize how we need to live as Christ’s followers.  Counsel lets us see right from wrong.  Fortitude helps us take risks as Christ's disciples and live as Christians even when it’s not easy.  Knowledge helps us better understand what God means to us.  Piety gives us the respect we need for God, the Church, and the Eucharist.  Fear of the Lord reminds us to be aware of the glory and the majesty of God.

Pray to the Holy Spirit to be your guide on earth.  Pray to the Holy Spirit to help you remain holy and humble.  Pray to the Holy Spirit for the strengthening of all seven gifts in your life.  Pray to the Holy Spirit to help you on your journey to Heaven.

I always end with a quote and today I have to leave you with this quote from St. Ephram because in my opinion he kind of sounds like Yoda when he says:

Virtues are formed by prayer. Prayer preserves temperance. Prayer suppresses anger. Prayer prevents emotions of pride and envy. Prayer draws into the soul the Holy Spirit and raises man to Heaven. 

The Tale of Two Fruit Plants

 Deacon Kevin Gingras

April 28, 2024

Fifth Sunday of Easter

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/042824.cfm

Acts 9:26-31      Ps 22:26-27, 28, 30, 31-32

1 Jn 3:18-24    Jn 15:1-8

This is the tale of two fruit plants.  In my yard I have an apple tree out back and a blueberry bush out front.  The apple trees I never prune and they are now a bit out of hand - they bear bad fruit or no fruit at this point.  The blueberry bush in the front, however, I prune the dead branches and the ones that bear no fruit each year.  Because I do this we get a good crop of blueberries from it yearly.  Faith and I will pick and eat them right from the bush, you can’t get fresher than that!

Now I know nothing about pruning grape vines but back in biblical times that must have been what people were familiar with as it is so deeply rooted in the Old and New Testaments.  We hear it in Isaiah 5, The Song of The Vineyard.  We hear it in today’s Gospel as well.  We also read of it in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. In Chapter 1108:

In every liturgical action the Holy Spirit is sent in order to bring us into communion with Christ and so to form his Body. The Holy Spirit is like the sap of the Father's vine which bears fruit on its branches. 

I love that analogy.  God the Father sent his only Son into the world for our salvation.  God the Son ascended into Heaven and sent us God the Holy Spirit to give us the sap of the vine of Christ.  The nourishment we need to keep our souls alive!

Now sometimes pruning hurts.  We heard of our friend Paul, also known as Saul in today’s first reading.  He needed a lot of pruning.  Jesus spoke to him in a flash of light knocking him to the ground.  Saul was blind for three days, he didn’t eat or drink at all until Ananias healed him. Even years after his pruning and conversion the Apostles didn’t yet trust him.  Barnabas had to vouch for him.

I guess this brings the homily to us.  What do we need to prune from our lives?  What are the things that take away our sight of Jesus and how can we remove them?  Don’t worry, Jesus will help us to do this pruning, just reach out to Him. How? 

• Pray, and if you can, spend time in adoration with Jesus, and ask him to point out the dead branches in your life that need to be removed.  

• Receive the sacrament of Confession. Tell Him, in Confession, the sins you want to be pruned. Sure, sometimes some of the bad branches will grow back, and when they do go back to Confession again! 

• Receive the Eucharist in a state of grace.  When we receive the Eucharist, Christ turns us into tabernacle.  

If we do these things, along with proclaiming Christ to others Jesus will be more present to us!  In my morning prayer on Saturday  one of the intercessory prayers was:

You are present to all who preach your Gospel, and give power to their words - make us today preachers of your resurrection by our holiness in life.

You may wonder if it will work, will people come back to church because of something I say to them? A few men from the Holy Family Men’s group had sent out those flyers from one of Fr. Matt’s Homilies entitled Why Come To Mass on Sunday. We sent them out to all of you, but you attend church so our hope was you would give them to somebody you know who doesn’t go to Mass. We also sent them to parishioners on our mailing list we hadn’t seen in a while. After the 4:00 PM Mass Saturday a gentleman asked me if I was part of the Men’s ministry and wanted me to thank the men for the flyer. He said it has been 10 years since he has been to Mass and the flyer inspired him to return. Praise God! He told me “The lost sheep has been found’!

Today, upon our dismissal from Mass, our prayer should be that we go forth announcing the Gospel to the world just like St. Paul who was one of the greatest missionaries the Church has ever seen.

Mother Angelica tells us:

The Lord God has no one else but you.  You’d better get off your lead bottoms and go out there and change this pagan world!