When you fall in love with the Eucharist, you fall in love with Jesus Christ

Deacon Kevin Gingras

Jan 18, 2026

2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/011826.cfm

Isaiah 49:3, 5-6   Psalm 40:2, 4, 7-8, 8-9, 10

1 Corinthians 1:1-3    John 1:29-34

John the Baptist knew Jesus.  They were cousins, so that makes sense.  But John tells us he didn't know Jesus. I think what John was talking about is that he didn't know that Jesus really was the Son of God. Last week, we heard how John baptised Jesus.  The Holy Spirit came down upon Jesus - that is when John knew who Jesus was! Today, we hear that John knew who Jesus was on another level as he proclaims:

Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

John used language that Jewish people would understand.  We may not fully grasp the connection today, but it harkens back to the book of Exodus and the Passover.  Exodus 12 describes the rules for the Passover Ritual, the thing the Jews had to do to be saved:

Tell the whole community of Israel: On the tenth of this month, every family must procure for itself a lamb… Your lamb must be a year-old male and without blemish… They will take some of its blood and apply it to the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They will consume its meat that same night…

Jews sacrificed lambs, particularly for Passover, by selecting a perfect male lamb, slaughtering it in the Temple courtyard, and having priests collect its blood to sprinkle on the altar while the owner roasted and ate the meat with family. This was a solemn, communal act of remembrance and thanks, marking God's protection in Egypt. 

These words and actions should be at least remotely familiar to all of us!  This is a snippet taken from the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, the book all priests use at every Mass, the one on the altar, which reads:

The Priest genuflects, takes the host and, holding it slightly raised above the paten or above the chalice, while facing the people, says aloud: Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.

Blessed are we indeed!  Jesus became the perfect sacrifice, the sinless “Lamb of God,” and his offering was pure and final, until the end of time.  He gave his life willingly, not just for his followers, but also for his enemies and those who persecuted him.  His sacrifice is eternally effective, extending to us today and on into the future.  We experience this sacrifice today, a bit different, a bit cleaner, if you will.  Today we experience this sacrifice in the Eucharist.  Here are some summaries from the Catechism of the Catholic Church on the Eucharist:

It is a perpetuation of Christ's Sacrifice (CCC 1323, 1351): At the Last Supper, Jesus instituted the Eucharist to "perpetuate the sacrifice of the cross throughout the ages until he should come again," entrusting it as a memorial to His Church.

It is one single sacrifice (CCC 1367): The Mass makes present the one sacrifice of Christ on the cross; it's the same Christ who offered Himself, but the manner of offering (unbloody) is different from the bloody sacrifice on the cross.

Christ is Present (CCC 1374): Through the power of the Holy Spirit and the priest's words, the bread and wine become the true Body and Blood of Christ, really and substantially present.

Source and Summit (CCC 1324): The Eucharist is the "source and summit of the Christian life," completing Christian initiation and uniting believers more deeply with Christ.

A Sacrament of Love (CCC 1323): It's a "sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a Paschal banquet" where Christ is consumed, grace is received, and glory is pledged.

Offered for All (CCC 1369): As a sacrifice, it's offered for all the faithful (living and dead) for the forgiveness of sins and to obtain spiritual benefits.

So what are we supposed to do with all this information?  I suggest this week get to confession if you haven’t been in a while.  Let the Lamb of God take away your sins. Unclog that pipeline of God’s grace into your life.  After that, fall in love with the Eucharist all over again because when you fall in love with the Eucharist, you fall in love with Jesus Christ!

I pray that this week we all come to realize the words of St Thomas Aquinas: 

The Eucharist is the sacrament of love: it signifies love, it produces love. The Eucharist is the consummation of the whole spiritual life.

Where and What is my Excessive Treasure

 Deacon Kevin Gingras

Sept 25th, 2025

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/092125.cfm

Amos 8:4-7    Psalm 113:1-2, 4-6, 7-8

1 Timothy 2:1-8    Luke 16:1-13

This week, as Jesus continues on his journey towards Jerusalem and his ultimate sacrifice, He gives us yet another interesting story.

In today’s parable, the master gets wind of the steward's dishonest practices and calls him out on the carpet; the steward is to be audited.  Even then, they didn’t like audits!  The steward is afraid of losing his situation, so he goes to all the master’s debtors and tells them to write notes that are significantly less than what they used to owe.  This is because the steward has removed HIS portion of the debt, his commission. The master will still get his full cut, so the master commends the dishonest steward.  Now, if the master decides to fire the steward, he has just made some new friends who might be inclined to hire him, and he can keep his life of leisure. Jesus challenges us today to choose our goal in life: God or treasures. Today’s steward liked treasures. The first reading from the prophet Amos also reminds us that wealth was a seductive trap for the people of God throughout salvation history.  Is our wealth a trap for us, too?  What do we do about it?

All the treasures we carry add unnecessary weight to us, to our souls.  We must be good stewards like in today’s Gospel:

No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon.

What do we serve?  Our treasure here on earth?  I hope not. A few years ago, my daughter Faith and I were walking down the beach.  She kept picking up what she deemed to be “treasures” and handing them to me.  I considered it all to be debris, but my opinion didn’t matter.  Anyway, I was putting these treasures into my pants pockets.  We were walking around Boardwalk Beach in Sandwich on Cape Cod.  She kept finding more and more “treasures”, rocks, shell parts, and the like.  I kept putting them in my pockets for her.  At first, it was no big deal, but as we rounded the bend, I realized I had to start hiking my pants up after a few steps; these “treasures” were getting heavy and were weighing my pants down!  Our treasures on earth can do this to us; we slowly stockpile them, accumulating more and more.  We just get more and more treasure, so we need more places to store our treasure.  I’ve noticed a huge amount of storage facilities going up all over the place.  Our stuff doesn’t fit in our houses anymore!  Our treasures are weighing us down.

J.R.R. Tolkien, in his book The Hobbit, wrote:

"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.

Jesus tells us in the Gospel of Matthew:

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.

 The Catechism of the Catholic Church summarizes the chapter on the Tenth Commandment - Thou shalt not Covet thy Neighbor’s goods with the following:

2551 "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Mt 6:21). 

2552 The tenth commandment forbids avarice arising from a passion for riches and their attendant power. 

2553 Envy is sadness at the sight of another's goods and the immoderate desire to have them for oneself. It is a capital sin. (YIKES!)

2554 The baptized person combats envy through goodwill, humility, and abandonment to the providence of God.

2555 Christ's faithful "have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires" (Gal 5:24); they are led by the Spirit and follow his desires.

2556 Detachment from riches is necessary for entering the Kingdom of heaven. "Blessed are the poor in spirit."

This week, I’m giving myself homework.  To thank God for all that I have and make an account of all my treasure! Reminding myself that not all stuff is bad; some stuff is necessary to survive, but where and what is my excessive stuff? What of our treasure is weighing us down and keeping our eyes away from God? Where can we cut back, and where can we give to those who have so much less than we do?

St. Anthony of Padua really cuts to the heart with this quote:

“Earthly riches are like the reed. Its roots are sunk in the swamp, and its exterior is fair to behold, but inside, it is hollow. If a man leans on such a reed, it will snap off and pierce his soul.”

Our citizenship is in Heaven

 

Deacon Kevin Gingras

March 16, 2025

Second Sunday of Lent

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031625.cfm

Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18    Psalm 27:1, 7-8, 8-9, 13-14

Philippians 3:17—4:1    Luke 9:28b-36

St. Paul, in his first letter to those Roman folks living in northeastern Greece in the city of Philippi, says exactly what I want to get across today:

Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it, we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will change our lowly body to conform with his glorified body.

Paul is emphasizing the second and final return of Christ that we today still wait patiently and prayerfully for when we will be joined to our glorified bodies that Christ portrays in today’s Gospel:

While Jesus was praying, his face changed in appearance, and his clothing became dazzling white.

So not only will our bodies be glorified but our clothes will be quite clean to boot!  Today’s Gospel really juxtaposes Jesus's physical and spiritual nature quite nicely.  Last week, we heard of Jesus out in the desert for forty days without food.  He then was tempted by Satan.  Jesus, in his humanity, was hungry, but he won that battle with Satan. As a sidenote, yes, you can live without food for forty days. I Google it:

In extreme cases, some people have survived for over 60 days without food

Now, on to us, how do we fare during temptations from Satan or hardships that our physical nature must endure? Which one calls us harder, the physical or spiritual?  It is truly an ongoing battle with Satan!  We must win!

The Transfiguration illustrates to us what we were designed to be; we are designed for glorified bodies in Heaven.  Unfortunately, for a brief span of time, we are stuck here on earth, and we are not designed to be of this earth. Earthly bodies have negative emotions and pain, both physical and mental.  Earthly bodies require maintenance, exercise, water, food, and diet.  When it comes to trying to diet or fast, a piece of pie always draws me in! I almost always respond more to the physical. 

When it comes to pain, I respond to its physical earthly nature very quickly.  Fr. David’s homily struck me last week when he talked about banging your head.  That very Saturday morning, I was working on the bottom of my garage door, so I had it mostly up but not all the way.   Three times, I turned quickly and banged my head against the door.  On the third time, I actually told God to send the garage door to the abode of Satan!  I quickly realized the garage door did nothing to me.  I’m the one who put it at that height; I’m the one who turned quickly to get something and hit my head against it.  I laughed a bit and said a quick Hail Mary, asking for more patience and forgiveness for my sin!  

We see the physical, we feel the physical, just ask my head!  Unfortunately, humans rarely see or feel the spiritual.  I came across an article that said that the boundaries of human vision are not exact and may vary between individuals.  The visible light range is a small portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, making up only about 0.0035% of it.  We only see 0.0035% of what’s out there!  Imagine if we could see more of it, even 2% of it!  Abram experienced the spiritual, which is visually represented in the first reading.  Cutting up animals and walking between them was a way to ratify contracts in those days and was common.  What God did with Abram was ratify a covenant.  God was the smoking fire pot and flaming torch that passed between the animal halves ratifying his covenant with Abram.

Now imagine what we would see if we could when Heaven and Earth meet during the Eucharistic Prayer and consecration!  Imagine how strong our spiritual life would become then!  It might even beat the physical life!

Most of us have probably experienced some physical hunger on Ash Wednesday a few weeks ago. What about spiritual hunger?  That should be stronger. Imagine if you couldn't get to church to receive the Eucharist for a period of time. It was almost five years ago that we had just such an experience during the COVID lockdown. Please, God, may we never experience that again!  During that time, did you feel a spiritual hunger?  Did you hunger for Mass and the Eucharist? 

As this Lent progresses on, ask the Holy Spirit to give you a hunger for Mass, a hunger for the Eucharist, a hunger for the sacrament of Confession, and a hunger to spend time with our Lord and Savior in Adoration.  Ask the Holy Spirit to give you that desire so that your soul may be nourished as we approach Holy Week.  Pray to Saint Michael, asking him to defend us in battle.  Remember that our bodies are only here on earth for a short span of time and that “our citizenship is in Heaven” and that time is eternity!

Saint Augustine reminds us to:

Take care of your body as if you were going to live forever; and take care of your soul as if you were going to die tomorrow.

Three Tabernacles

 

Deacon Kevin Gingras

December 24, 2023

4th Sunday of Advent

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/122423.cfm

2 Sm 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16     Ps 89:2-3, 4-5, 27, 29

Rom 16:25-27    Lk 1:26-38

Today, I want to talk about three tabernacles. The word tabernacle means ‘place of dwelling.’  Tabernacle #1 is from 2 Samuel; King David wants to make God a home:

When King David was settled in his palace, and the LORD had given him rest from his enemies on every side, he said to Nathan the prophet, "Here I am living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God dwells in a tent!"

Before the Temple was built by King Solomon, the Tabernacle was the moveable tent that housed the Ark of the Covenant while the Israelites were nomads in the desert. The Tabernacle Tent was 45 feet long, and The Ark of the Covenant was placed in a fifteen-foot cube towards the back part of the Tabernacle, called the Holy of Holies.  

The Ark was the link between God and Earth, and it was in the Holy of Holies where the high priest could enter only once a year on the Day of Atonement. The Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur, is the highest holy day of the Jewish calendar. The High Priest would make an atoning sacrifice for the sins of the people.  This act of paying the penalty for sin brought reconciliation between God and His people. After the blood sacrifice was offered to the Lord, a goat was released into the wilderness to symbolically carry away the sins of the people. This "scapegoat" was never to return.

In a rarely-read passage in the Old Testament, the Ark of the Covenant is hidden by Jeremiah. We hear of this in the Second Book of Maccabees 2:4-7

The same document also tells how the prophet, …, ordered that the tent and the ark should accompany him, and how he went to the very mountain that Moses climbed to behold God’s inheritance. When Jeremiah arrived there, he found a chamber in a cave in which he put the tent, the ark, and the altar of incense; then he sealed the entrance. Some of those who followed him came up intending to mark the path, but they could not find it. When Jeremiah heard of this, he reproved them: “The place is to remain unknown until God gathers his people together again and shows them mercy.”

No, Indiana Jones did not find the Ark of the Covenant, and no, it’s not stored deep in some government archival building. Remember the Prophet’s words:

The place is to remain unknown until God gathers his people together again and shows them mercy.

This brings us to Tabernacle #2, the Ark of the New Covenant, which is Mary, the Mother of God.  Through Jesus, God is about to gather all of His people, whether Jew or Gentile, when the word becomes flesh in Jesus through Mary as the angel Gabriel speaks these words to her in today’s Gospel.

"Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom, there will be no end."

We know that through Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, sin entered the world. Through Mary’s yes, her Fiat, and the birth of Jesus, a man and a woman, that first sin can finally truly be reversed. Now is the time for God to gather His people together again and show them mercy. Mary is not only today’s second Tabernacle; Mary is also a new Ark of a New covenant.  Through her yes, salvation entered, the Word was made Flesh, and Jesus Christ was born.

So what could be the Tabernacle #3? Our church today has a lot of similarities to the Old Testament Tabernacle tent. When you enter a church, you will see golden lampstands. Back then, there was, to the right, a table for the Bread of the Presence. Today, to the right of our altar is the Credence Table that holds the unconsecrated bread that will soon become the True Presence of Jesus, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. Just before the giant curtain, there would also be an altar of incense. We have our altar here, and we also incense it at the beginning of most of our Masses. Finally, against the back wall, but no longer hidden, is the tabernacle that holds the remaining consecrated hosts after Mass. Jesus, the Son of God, is present in our tabernacle right now.  But that is not the third and final tabernacle I’d like to discuss. Tabernacle #3 is us. Once we receive Jesus in the Eucharist, we become a tabernacle; we hold within us our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

It is so important to remember that! After we receive Communion, we should return to our pews, kneel, and pray. Offering prayers of thanksgiving for finding us worthy to receive Him.  

A few weeks ago, a parishioner asked me why we have rules of not eating an hour before Holy Communion but no rules for after receiving. I didn’t know, so I looked it up, and here’s what I found from Catholic.com:

There is no present requirement for fasting after  Communion, but many books have recommended, as an act of reverence, not eating or drinking for 15 minutes after receiving –about as long as the sacred Species remains intact. If one remains at Mass until the closing blessing, one likely observes this recommendation even without realizing it.

Saint Alphonsus Liguori tells us:

“There is no prayer more agreeable to God, or more profitable to the soul than that which is made during the thanksgiving after Communion.”

 

Dual Citizenship

 

Kevin Gingras

October 18th, 2020 - 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101820.cfm

When we adopted our daughter Faith from Wuhan China, yes, Wuhan, good things can come from Wuhan!  Anyway, nothing really became official until we finished up our trip to Guangzhou and were sworn in as her parents.  At the agency in Wuhan, they even told us it’s a trial run at first, kind of like test driving a used car!  God already had told us that she was our daughter but things needed to be made official.

She became an official citizen of the United States the second our plane touched down in California.  Later, in New Bedford, we filled out an American version of paperwork to officially adopt her in the United States.  It wasn’t necessary but it would make life easier for her to have an American Birth certificate.  These were very important dates for her citizenship but they don’t compare to February 21, 2010.  That was the date of her baptism.  This was the most important part of her adoption process, citizenship into the family of God.  Something she would have never received in Communist China.

You see, we all have dual citizenship, by our birth we became a citizen of an earthly nation but by our baptism we became citizens of a heavenly Kingdom.

Earthly kingdoms will have an end.  Our heavenly citizenship will last forever, eternity.  My wife says being married to me for so long is like an eternity, she has no idea!  Eternity is so much longer than that!

Dual citizenship is what struck me in today’s Gospel: 

He said to them, "Whose image is this and whose inscription?" They replied, "Caesar's." At that he said to them, "Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God."

Caesar's image is on the coin so pay the tax, give to Caesar what has his image on it, it belongs to him.  We also should give to God what belongs to God. God’s image is on us.  We belong to him, give to God what belongs to God! 

As it is written in Genesis 1:27:

God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Our reading from Isaiah carries this even further:

I have called you by your name, giving you a title, though you knew me not. I am the LORD and there is no other, there is no God besides me.

God created us and in doing so also placed His divine image within us.  Our dual citizenship into the family of God was made official at our baptism.

CCC 1213 states:

Holy Baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit, and the door which gives access to the other sacraments. Through Baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God; we become members of Christ, are incorporated into the Church and made sharers in her mission

We need to reflect on how we are doing in giving to God what belongs to him.  God doesn’t just want your presence here in the pews or watching Mass online on Sundays.  God wants your presence at church of course, but also at work, at home, at the game, in other words, all the time.  

St. Paul reminds the Thessalonians that they are called out specifically by God and even strengthened yet still even though Christ had already left the earth as he writes:

before our God and Father, knowing, brothers and sisters loved by God, how you were chosen. For our gospel did not come to you in word alone, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with much conviction.

This week we all should pray to the Holy Spirit to ask for that conviction to help us repay to God what belongs to God.  It isn’t easy and that is why we need the Holy Spirit’s help to take God with us when we leave here today and bring him with us everywhere by our actions, what we say and do and also by what we DON’T say and DON’T do.  Know that God is there with us, we just have to always remember His presence.  Focus on our divine vocation while carrying out our earthly jobs and tasks to make our life on this planet so much more fulfilling.

Pope Saint John Paul the II says it well:

"Jesus has a specific task in life for each and every one of us. Each one of us is hand-picked, called by name by Jesus! There is no one among us who does not have a divine vocation!"

Dress for the Banquet

October 11th, 2020 - 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101120.cfm

Here I am trying to lose weight and I have to preach about feasting!

We have gone from discussing the vineyard the past few weeks right into a wedding feast.  We are done working in the vineyard and now get to reap the rewards of our labors at a banquet …  with God … in Heaven!  Well, some still refuse to attend the feast and Jesus is not afraid to point that out to the chief priests and elders since their hearts are still hardened.  Lately, the Parables of Christ are really zoning in on the Chief Priests, the Elders, the Scribes, and the Pharisees.

Today’s Gospel is actually two parables in one - that’s right, bonus parable this weekend!  The first is the parable of those who were invited to the wedding feast but refused to attend, some of the invitees even killed the servants who invited them.  Glad I didn’t have to deal with these folks when I planned my wedding 31 years ago.  Since these invited guests didn’t want to attend, the king opened the wedding feast to all, good and bad alike, and filled the hall with those people.

The second parable is about the man who snuck into the feast but wasn’t dressed properly, he didn’t have on a wedding garment so he was cast out.

That’s what I want to focus on, how to dress for the heavenly banquet so that we can get in?   If I do this I won’t be preaching about feasting and my diet can stay safe!

Regarding how to dress, Jesus isn’t talking about what clothes we wear or if we are up to the latest fashion trend or not.  Jesus is talking more about how we dress our souls.  Paul mentions how to dress in his letter to the Ephesians when he states: 

Ephesians 6:13-17

Therefore, put on the armor of God, that you may be able to resist on the evil day and, having done everything, to hold your ground. So stand fast with your loins girded in truth, clothed with righteousness as a breastplate, and your feet shod in readiness for the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, hold faith as a shield, to quench all [the] flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Put on the strength of the Holy Spirit when it comes to speaking about your faith.  Don’t fear telling others the truth of the Catholic faith but always do it in love, not by putting others down. 

Be humble also, and that doesn’t mean weak.  It means putting others' needs before yours when appropriate.  Wear a humble demeanor and allow that to show instead of wearing arrogance or pride. 

Paul talks of knowing how to live in humble circumstances in his letter to the Philippians today.  Currently, with everything going on,  a lot of us are learning to live a bit like this.  On the contrary, in Heaven, we will always have abundant circumstances instead of humble ones.  We will have a feast laid out before us, a feast more generous than we can imagine as the first reading from Isaiah states:

On this mountain, the LORD of hosts will provide for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines.

We are experiencing a very small dose of heaven here today at Mass.

Pope Saint John Paul II describes the Mass as “Heaven on Earth”  saying that “what we celebrate on Earth is a mysterious participation in the heavenly liturgy”.

Sitting in the church shouldn’t be the first time you hear the readings.  Find time to be quiet and reflect on the readings for Sunday prior to Sunday.  Reflect on what they are saying to you.  Where are the readings trying to set you straight?  Ask yourself, are you in line with God in every aspect of your life.  If not, correct that part, dress that part of your life for the wedding feast.  Prepare that part of your life for when you attend Mass, the wedding feast of the Lamb here on earth.

Think about the words of St. Gregory the Great when he stated:

“The heavens open and multitudes of angels come to assist in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.”

Persistence in Prayer

August 16, 2020, 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081620.cfm

Today’s Gospel from Matthew could be considered the very beginning of our salvation story.  We aren’t Jewish, most of us probably never were.  Jesus, so it was thought back then, had only come to save the Israelites, the Jews, and nobody else.

Now Jesus heads off to the regions of Tyre and Sidon, probably to get a bit of an escape.  Here comes the Canaanite woman, not a Jewish woman, but a Gentile and the scene that unfolds is quite remarkable.

There are so many perspectives to take from this but let’s focus on the persistence of the Canaanite woman.   Her faith begins by calling Jesus the Son of David, a title of earthly power.  She knew Jesus was a great man and could do marvelous things but she didn’t know who Jesus really was yet. Her faith led her to believe that Jesus, whoever He was, could do great things for her.  She was desperate.  The disciples were in her way, they didn’t want her daughter healed out of compassion and love, they looked at her like an annoying fly buzzing around their faces.

His disciples came and asked him, “Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us.”

Whatever Jesus had to do for her, they wanted it done and wanted her gone.  Jesus finally confronts the woman and the conversation seems harsh!  

But the woman came and did him homage, saying, “Lord, help me.” He said in reply, “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” 

Context is everything when reading the Bible.  The word Jesus used for dogs, kunaria, means a household pet and not the scroungy street dogs from Jerusalem.  When I was growing up if I called a person a dog, especially a woman it was a major insult but in this case, it was not so bad.

The Canaanite woman doesn’t even seem phased.  She has the wit of a true Greek as she responds:

“Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.”

What faith!  She still doesn’t give up and her persistence pays off and her daughter is healed by the Master.  Jesus saw so much more in her faith at that moment to exclaim: 

“O woman, great is your faith!”.  

She has moved from seeing Jesus as a great man who can help her to see who He really is, and Jesus notices this transformation in her as well and the fact that she is a Gentile becomes irrelevant.

The second reading from St. Paul to the Romans spells it out clearly, Jesus’ salvific mission is to the whole world, not just the Jewish people, but to all, and this includes us!

I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I glory in my ministry in order to make my race jealous and thus save some of them.

The Caananite woman, a Gentile, a non-Jew, is one of the first to take advantage of this.  Her persistent prayer of petition to Jesus is what saves her daughter from the demon.  Our Psalms today echo those prayers of petition asking for pity, blessing, and salvation.  

Now we must reflect, how are we doing in our prayer life?  Are we still persistent in asking God for help and healing in whatever is troubling us no matter how long it’s been going on?  Some things are individual troubles that affect us personally.  Some things are prayers for our families.  Some things are issues in our towns, our church community, our state, our diocese, our nation, and the whole world.  I understand now why a great saint once said pray without ceasing! There really is a lot we should be asking God for help with right now and that’s ok, our God has very broad shoulders, trust Him to handle all of our issues we bring to him. 

This to shall pass and our troubles won’t last forever. Prayer should be the main tool we use to get us through these tough times.  Sure, we may not all receive the healing that the Canaanite woman’s daughter did but perseverance in prayer will at minimum make those tougher times much more tolerable.  Pray...pray and pray some more and don’t let other things get in your way like Jesus’ disciples tried to get in the way of the Canaanite woman.

I think St. Augustine put it far more eloquently than I have when he said: 

If God seems slow in responding, it is because He is preparing a better gift.  He will not deny us.  God withholds what you are not yet ready for.  He wants you to have a lively desire for His greatest gifts.  All of which is to say, pray always and do not lose heart.

Aim for Heaven

June 21, 2020 - 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year A

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/062120.cfm

Happy Father’s Day and first day of Summer!

In our first reading today the prophet Jeremiah is in dire straights.  Very important people and even his former friends are conspiring against him and seeking to have him put to death for speaking the truth, not the truth that Jeremiah’s opinion tells him, no the absolute truth of God.  This has brought the prophet near the point of despair but he still remains confident in God as the reading ends with:

Sing to the LORD, praise the LORD, for he has rescued the life of the poor from the power of the evildoers!

Jeremiah’s zeal and trust in God’s Justice are what give him his desire to see God’s vengeance and revenge play out when he says “Let me see the vengeance You take on them for to you I have entrusted my cause.”   Are there times when we desire to take out our own vengeance on people?  Do we lack the trust in God’s heavenly reward, and also heavenly punishment?  We must never let the sins of others cause us to sin and that’s exactly what seeking our own vengeance does, it becomes a twofold sin, first off is not trusting in God to properly deal with the wrongdoings of others but also our act of vengeance can be sinful.  It’s like my old shop teacher and drivers ed instructor Mr. Bradley used to say:

When driving down the road, if the car coming towards you has their high beams on, quickly turn your lights off and on instead because if you flash your high beams at them you now have two blind idiots driving towards each other!

When it comes to us being “blind idiots” we have Adam and Eve to thank for that as the second reading from Romans tells us.  

Through one person sin entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus death came to all, inasmuch as all sinned.

Really it was the sin of both Adam and Eve, the original sinners that we are all labeled with due to their disobedience of God.  Thus we needed two people to reverse their sin.  In comes Mary and Jesus to undo what was done.  Adam and Eve said yes to the serpent, also known as Satan, and Mary and Jesus said yes to God.  Jesus is the new and improved Adam and Mary is the new and improved Eve.  Adam and Eve brought sin into the world and Jesus and Mary brought down the grace of God for everyone to open paradise once again to us all.  That paradise is no longer on Earth but instead is in Heaven where we can have that eternal life that Jesus won for us, that God so long ago promised for us. 

Heaven isn’t guaranteed as some would like us to believe, no, just read today’s Gospel and you will know the truth of it all.

And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.

It is often said that Jesus tells us to not fear 365 times in the bible.  That’s once for each day of the year unless, like 2020, the year of such fun, it’s also a leap year with 366 days, then randomly pick one day to not apply that saying!

Very rarely does Jesus tell us to fear so when He does we need to pay attention!  Who do we need to fear?  Who is the one when Jesus says:

Be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.

That one is he who the Church Lady from Saturday Night Live would say, is “perhaps… Satan!”.  Gehenna in biblical times was also the “Valley of Ben-Hinnom” most likely in Jerusalem so the people of Jesus’ time would be familiar with this place.  Horrible things were done here I’m not going to go into details but you can read Jeremiah chapter 19 to find out. Anyway, Jesus is referring to eternal damnation and suffering when he refers to Gehenna so we must avoid that at all costs.  We must, as 1 Peter states:

Be sober and vigilant. Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for [someone] to devour. Resist him, steadfast in faith, knowing that your fellow believers throughout the world undergo the same sufferings.

We should strive to do what today’s Gospel says to gain eternity in peace and love with God in paradise and it sounds so simple.  Just acknowledge who Jesus is!

Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.

Our current state of the world makes this hard but let’s not shoot low and aim for Purgatory, no instead aim bigger, it's what God wants for us. Aim to become Saints in Heaven for as C.S. Lewis warned:

Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’; aim at earth and you will get neither.

Sanctify!

January 19, 2020

Second Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year A
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/011920.cfm


Have you ever read a scripture passage so many times that you just don’t feel it’s fresh anymore, as if there is no new material in it for you to learn from?  I shouldn’t be guilty of this but I am and now I stand here to tell you - DON’T DO THAT!  Scripture is alive, the living breathing word of God!  Scripture’s meaning doesn’t change but our perception of it can as we learn more and God brings us closer to the truth of who the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is.

Today, something in the Gospel struck me that I hadn’t noticed until meditating on it these past few weeks.  The Gospel of John has this quote from John the Baptist:

‘A man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.’

Because he existed before me!  But John the Baptist is six months older than Jesus!  John the Baptist was giving a quick course in Christology before anybody even knew who Christ really was!   Christ always existed - he was begotten, not made of the father when the word became flesh.  Christ the Son, like God the Father and the Holy Spirit are all and always have been eternally one!

Ok, with that said, the next thing we need to discuss is that today we once again wear green, welcome back to Ordinary time! Today is actually the second Sunday of Ordinary Time, but last week was actually not the first week of Ordinary time, it was the feast of the Baptism of the Lord on Sunday and that ended the Christmas season so, in essence, we don’t get a First Sunday in Ordinary Time!  Confused?  Yeah, me too. When I researched how to lodge a complaint about the missing Sunday with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (or USCCB) I stumbled across what they say about Ordinary Time:

Ordinary Time is a time for growth and maturation, a time in which the mystery of Christ is called to penetrate ever more deeply into history until all things are finally caught up in Christ. The goal, toward which all of history is directed, is represented by the final Sunday in Ordinary Time, the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

Ordinary time should be a time where we reflect on how God should sanctify our lives in all areas, even what we find ordinary like waking up to go to work or school.  

Our sanctification isn’t like going to a spa where we sit back and relax and let the sanctification do its work.  Our sanctification and salvation rely on our actions and that is clearly stated in today’s readings.  Today’s readings also state that our sanctification through our work is not just for ourselves but for the whole Church.  We see this right away in Isaiah:

The LORD said to me: You are my servant, Israel, through whom I show my glory.

And then goes on to state:

I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.

The Responsorial Psalm gives a good line to meditate upon during prayer or in adoration:

Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.

We are called to live a life of service to God in every aspect of our lives, to do God’s will.  When we go to work and walk into the office each day we are called to bring God there with us, we shouldn’t be saying: “God, you wait here in the car, I’ll be back in about nine hours”.  When we go on vacation we need to bring God with us and at a minimum, we need to make every effort to find a local Church and attend Mass that weekend while we are away from home.

Again, I can’t stress this enough, God must be first always, and then everything else will fall into place.  Our lives will be sanctified and our community as well!  As Paul’s letter to the Corinthians said:

you who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be holy, with all those everywhere who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.

That is for all of us, all the time, and with our church here at Holy Family I feel I’m preaching to the choir - we are a small but very active parish here in East Taunton and it doesn’t go unnoticed.  Others have often said to me how much we have going on with our bible studies, adoration, special Masses, Youth, March for Life (pray for the March Pilgrims as we leave for the March on Thursday morning), Saint Vincent de Paul, Knights of Columbus, That Man is You and WINE - Woman in the New Evangelization ministries for the men and women of our parish and others too.  Our outreach has affected the lives of many enriching the spirituality of those individuals as well as that of our parish and beyond.

If you feel you are on the outskirts of all these parish ministries jump in, find one of our very active ministries and get involved.  If you already are involved then invite a friend or two or twelve to get involved with you and share that gift with them! If you aren’t comfortable with that then just spend some time at our adoration chapel in the Parish center praying for the church.  Don’t neglect the power of prayer, it is one of our most important ministries to help sanctify us and our Church and our world.

As Saint Francis of Assisi said:

Sanctify yourself and you will sanctify society.