Feast of Saints Peter and Paul - 2025

When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter said in reply, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” This gospel passage for the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, contains two of the most important questions we may ever be ask to answer. We might characterize them in this way;  the first is about religion ( “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” ) the second is about faith (“But who do you say that I am?” ) Few questions receive more attention than questions about religion. What people say about religion can vary greatly:  about God, is there a God or not? if there is a God what is God like? are there many gods? why does God matter to us? which religion has got it right? So many questions like these make up the discussion, or the debate, or the argument about religion. In places like the Middle East, religion and conflict seem to go hand in hand. Here in our country the question seems to have become more muted, deciding instead that it no long matters that much, or just keep it to yourself if you have an opinion about religion. In the gospels, we see Jesus very much engaged in the religion questions of the day, but his purpose is to get to the deeper question, the question of faith, for it is what you believe that shapes the way you conduct your life. It is one thing to form theories and have opinions about religion, it is quite another to embrace with certainty what you are convinced is true. St. Paul made it quite clear when he said, that if it is not a certain fact that Jesus has been raised from the dead, our whole faith structure collapses into nothing. (1Cor. 15:14) It is the official position of our liberal, democratic society not to have a definitive answer to the questions of religion. As long as we do not impose our beliefs on others, or deny them their rights granted them by law, we can practice what ever religious beliefs we have. It is our country's guarantee of religious freedom under the law. So question one asks, "... what are people saying about ...?" After exploring the question of religion, Jesus turns to the question of faith. Jesus has come into the world to bring together and form a communion of people over which he will be the head. ("I will build my church." ) The nature of this communion will be to have a real yet mystical union with Jesus as head and a true and fraternal union with one another. Their instruction will come, by way of revelation and inspiration by the Holy Spirit forming and guiding their minds and hearts. ( “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.”) Their purpose is to live holy lives and be a sign and example for all the world to follow. (Be holy as your heavenly Father is holy.) In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him. In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another. No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us. This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us, that he has given us of his Spirit. Moreover, we have seen and testify that the Father sent his Son as savior of the world. Whoever acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him and he in God. We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us. God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him. 1 John 4:8-16 The fact that in this county we have the freedom of religious belief and practice, which we respect, and see as a blessing, does not diminish the importance of the fundamental question: What do you believe - "who do you say I am?". And if your answer concerning Jesus is the same as Peter's, what is the state and condition of your "communion" in the Church that Jesus builds in the world? And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven.

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Corpus Christi - 2025

Two months ago, in the liturgy of Holy Thursday we celebrated the institution of the Sacred Eucharist, the Mass. Today’s feast of Corpus Christi, was established to create a feast focused solely on the Holy Eucharist emphasizing the joy of the Eucharist being the body and blood of Jesus Christ through the mystery of Transubstantiation. The origins of this feast began in Liège, a Belgium city, toward the end of the 12thcentury. In the city there were groups of women, known as the Norbertine canonesses, who lived together and devoted their lives to prayer and to charitable works. One of them, Juliana of Liège, had a vision of Christ in which she was instructed to plead for the institution of the feast of Corpus Christi. The vision was repeated for the next 20 years but she kept it a secret. When she eventually relayed it to her confessor, he relayed it to the bishop. So in 1246 the Bishop ordered a celebration of Corpus Christi to be held in the diocese each year thereafter on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. Pope Pius V revised the General Roman Calendar and Corpus Christi was one of only two "feasts of devotion" that he kept, the other being Trinity Sunday and it remains to this day. This feast is all about the real and true presences of Jesus, body, soul, and divinity in the elements of the Eucharist. This has been a part of the Church’s belief beginning from the Last Supper but understanding just how this happens has been a developing work over time.  The Fourth Council of the Lateran in 1215 spoke of the bread and wine as "transubstantiated" into the body and blood of Christ and this was later elaborated on by St. Thomas Aquinas, as well as other medieval theologians. In the end in remains a Divine mystery to our understanding. Martin Luther was not a fan of the Feast of corpus Christi. He wrote: "I am to no festival more hostile ... than this one. Because it is the most shameful festival. At no festival are God and his Christ more blasphemed, than on this day, and particularly by the procession. For then people are treating the Blessed Sacrament with such ignominy that it becomes only play-acting and is just vain idolatry." He also rejected the theology of transubstantiation. So what of this mystery of the real presence today and devotions to the Blessed Sacrament? Many remember the time when Mass could not be said after 12 noon. So during Lent, on Wed. Fri. and Sun. evenings devotions with benediction of the blessed sacrament was norm. Exceptions to this restriction began with Pope Pius XII, and with the new liturgy of the 60’s evening mass was common. So in Lent Mass replaced devotions in most parishes. The Mass and the reception Holy Communion rightfully hold the highest place in our devotion, but other forms of Eucharistic devotion have an important place in deepening our communion with Christ. At the heart of today’s feast of Corpus Christi is the wondrous mystery of Jesus’ real presence, body, soul, and divinity in the elements of the Eucharist. May we never lose sight of this. May our devotion to this mystery grow ever stronger.

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Trinity Sunday - 2025

When you look back on the history of the human race you find that in every age people understood well that everything that exists must have had a creator; every age that is except this age. Within the scientism of our age there are those who insist that everything in the universe just spontaneously happened on its own. However, knowing who the creator of all things, who is called God, truly is has been a long work in progress. History is full of gods that man put forward to describe who God is; some of whom are still today thought of as true gods. Knowing who God is, is impossible for mere humans to discover on their own. As his first letter, John points out “that no one can see God”. God, who is beyond sight, must reveal Himself to us. And so, our Jewish-Christian tradition has been that long historical experience of God revealing who he is to us. First God is seen as having the nature of a father, the giver and protector of all life. Then in the New Testament, Jesus is revealed as the Son of God. Finally, Jesus reveals that there is a third person, the Holy Spirit, who comes to take us up into the very life of God. In the early generations of the Church, these revelations were pondered and studied, not without conflicting opinions. Then, in the year 325 AD, that is Anno Domini, the year of the Lord, not of the Common Era; the bishops of the Church gathered in the City of Nicaea to discuss and define who God truly is. From this Council of Nicaea we now have the Nicaean Creed in which we profess our faith. In 1 John 4: we read: Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you will know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming, and is already in the world at this time. Today the big problem facing Christianity has more to do with whether God exists at all. Atheism is strong today. John continues: Little children, let no one deceive you: The one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as Christ is righteous. The one who practices sin is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the very start. This is why the Son of God was revealed, to destroy the works of the devil. vs. 7-8 Little children, let us love not in word and speech, but in action and truth. And by this we will know that we belong to the truth, and will assure our hearts in His presence: If our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and He knows all things. vs. 18-19

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Pentecost - 2025

It is impossible to over state the importance of this day of Pentecost. Stating the importance of Easter St. Paul says: “…  if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.” 1Cor 15:17. So too, of Pentecost Paul states with equal consequence: “… and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. 1 Cor. 12:3 As examples of the necessity of the Holy Spirit let us look at just two figures in scripture, the Apostle Thomas and the Apostle Paul. The disciples’ faith in Jesus was scandalized and totally crushed by the Cross of Jesus and they fled in despair – as the two disciples on the road to Damascus lamented “we had hoped …” They believed Jesus had come from God, as Luke describes it, "And they were all amazed and said to one another, “What is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!” Lk 4:36). But to believe Jesus WAS God, and all things were under his authority, including our very lives – this required a direct intervention of Grace. Thomas put it well (especially for our generation): "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe." Jo. 20:25. Only when, he gazed into the face of the risen Lord, could he then exclaim: “My Lord and my God!” Jo. 20:27 And St. Paul after being knocked to the ground on the road to Damascus – when he saw and heard: “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting”, could he realize who Jesus truly was and turn from being an enemy to apostle.  Acts 9:5.  But as convincing as these visions and encounters were, there was about to happen a different plan for revealing Jesus and convincing believers. This plan was to become the norm for all generations to follow – so for us today. It began on Pentecost. A true living faith would be the result of a direct encounter with the Holy Spirit – an encounter that would take place in the depths of a believer’s soul. And the unfolding of this plan is what we have just witnessed as we have been pondering and praying through the Acts of the Apostles these past Easter Days. Here are just two examples from Acts: While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. Acts 10:44. Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. Acts 19: Remember that amazing and prophetic prayer Pope John XXIII offered up to open the Second Vatican Council 1961:  “Divine Spirit, renew your wonders in our time, as though for a new Pentecost, and grant that the holy church, preserving unanimous and continuous prayer, together with Mary the Mother of Jesus, and also under the guidance of St. Peter, may increase the reign of the Divine Saviour, the reign of truth and justice, the reign of love and peace. Amen” At nine o’clock on the morning of October 12, 1962, twenty-four hundred Roman Catholic bishops began a lone procession through St. Peter’s Square toward the Basilica for the solemn opening of the Second Vatican Council, and a new Pentecost is what has been happening in the Church these last many years since that prayer.  And it’s not over by a long shot. A new Pentecost awaits any and all who desire to know the Lord. Let us be like the father of the possessed boy seeking Jesus help, when Jesus said to him that all things are possible for those who have faith: “… cried out to Jesus, “I believe; help my unbelief!” Mk. 9:24 Cry out your prayer, loud and clear: Jesus my Lord, I confess to you and to all the world my need for your presence in my life. I am alone and in darkness without you. I am influenced and controlled by the many forces that surround me. Even though I struggle against them, it is sin that so easily dominates my life. Who can save me but you alone, my Lord and my God. Deliver me from the Evil One. Touch my life with that power which flows from your resurrection. Cause your Holy Spirit to be born in me anew. Prince of Peace and Lord of Glory reign now in my heart. Baptize me with your Holy Spirit and Fire. Raise me up to a New Life in you. Amen.

Here is a link to a guide to praying for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit +++ LINK +++

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