The New Manna

Solemnity of Corpus Christi
By Fr. Victor Feltes

In the Old Testament, God freed his people with the Prophet Moses. The Hebrews in Egypt were slaves to Pharaoh since birth, but God’s mighty works through Moses liberated them. Though he had led them through the waters of the Red Sea their journey was not yet completed. They were still in the arid desert and God wished to lead them into his Promised Land, “a land of milk and honey” he had promised to their ancestors. God had already blessed his people, yet he wished to give them his even fuller blessings there.

How were the Hebrew people sustained for forty years in the desolate Sinai desert? What did they eat to survive? Every day, God made fine flakes appear on the ground around their camp. These flakes were “white, and tasted like wafers made with honey.” Upon seeing them the people asked, “What is this?” (in Hebrew, “Manna?”) Moses told them, “It is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat.” Without that manna they would have starved to death. God’s people ate this bread until they entered the Promised Land.

Here we see things and events of the Old Testament foreshadowing events and things of the New. In the New Testament, God liberates his people with Christ Jesus his Son. We all were slaves to sin, Satan, and hopeless death, but God’s mighty works through Jesus Christ freed us. He has led us through the waters of baptism; however, our journey is not yet completed. We possess renewed life in this fallen world but God wishes to lead us into his Promised Land of Heaven. God has already blessed us, yet he wishes to give us his even fuller blessings there.

So how are we to endure as we walk through the present desert of this world? Every day, in churches like this one, God offers us the Bread that has come down from Heaven. Jesus says, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” He gives us himself in the Eucharist. People see the Blessed Sacrament and wonder, “What is this?” It is the New Manna; the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ.

In addition to Sacred Scripture, the Early Church Fathers attest to this. These theologians living in the first centuries of the Church teach and document what the earliest Christians believed about Jesus Christ’s Real Presence in the Eucharist. For instance, shortly after 100 AD, St. Ignatius of Antioch said, “The Eucharist is the Flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ.” Around 150 AD, St. Justin Martyr taught, “The Eucharist… is both the Flesh and the Blood of that incarnated Jesus.” St. Augustine of Hippo wrote in the early 400’s that, “Christ was carried in his own hands when, referring to his own body, he said, ‘This is my body.’ For he carried that body in his hands.” And there are many other examples of such teaching from that era.

This is what Christ’s one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church has always believed and taught, and God has affirmed its truth here and there by Eucharistic miracles throughout the centuries. In the Old Testament, God’s people ate the manna until they entered the Promised Land. Had they not regularly eaten of it, they would have died from starvation. This reflects how important faithfully receiving and promoting the Holy Eucharist must be for you and me.

Never neglect Sunday Mass. To skip Mass from Saturday evening through Sunday night (without a grave reason for doing so) is to prioritize something else above of Jesus, spurning the Lord who commands us to keep his day holy. Let Jesus Christ be first in your life through faithfully worshipping and receiving him at Mass. And opportunities to worship and receive our Lord at Mass are not limited to the weekends.

If your schedule permits, I welcome and invite you to try weekday Mass, celebrated at St. Paul’s on Monday through Friday at 7:15 AM and mornings at St. John’s on Mondays, Thursdays, and First Fridays. Weekday Mass is only a half-hour long, it features a homily, and is among the best devotions for drawing closer to Jesus.

Are any of your friends or relatives interested in our Catholic Faith? Invite them to come with you to Mass or bring them to that other great way to encounter our Eucharistic Lord: Eucharistic Adoration.

What greater treasure do we have than Jesus, truly present in the Eucharist? Let us treasure him as we ought and introduce this treasure to others. Strengthened by his food, our Lord would bring us all together into his Promised Land of Heaven.

God is a Loving Communion of Persons

Trinity Sunday
By Fr. Victor Feltes

A Muslim man once accused me of what he called an “unforgivable sin.” My supposed offense was espousing a core truth of our faith, the foundation of all reality: Trinitarianism — that God is one being in three persons. (That man’s charge struck me as a rather poor conversion strategy. I mean, if proclaiming the Trinity were really an unforgivable sin, why would I bother converting to Islam?) I was dialoguing on that occasion with generally friendly and thoughtful Muslims, Jews, and Unitarians in a website’s comments section, responding to something a man who believes in God but rejects the Trinity had posted. This is what he wrote:

“The Jews had no idea of the Trinity. Their faith was centred in the Shema: a unitary monotheistic confession. Jesus clearly affirmed that very same unitary monotheism in Mark 12:29″ where Jesus says, “Hear, O Israel! The LORD our God, the LORD is one!” This fellow concluded by chiding, “How is it that Christians today have abandoned their rabbi on this point?”

Both that online poster and Jesus Christ referenced the Shema, which faithful Jews would recite every morning and evening. “Shema” is the Hebrew word meaning “hear” or “listen,” and the Shema prayer quotes Deuteronomy 6:4: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Does this oneness proclaimed by God’s Word refute our Trinitarian Christian Faith? Should we reject our belief in the Trinity because Jews in the Old Testament did not profess it? No, and here’s why.

This famous scripture verse declaring, “the Lord is one,” uses the Hebrew word “echad” for “one.” Now echad can mean singularity, solitary oneness, but this same word sometimes points to a unified oneness. For instance, when Genesis recounts the creation of the two sexes it says, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two shall become one (echad) flesh.” Later in Genesis, in the story of the Tower of Babel, God laments, “If now, while they are one (echad) people and all have the same language, they have started to do this, nothing they presume to do will be out of their reach.” God, by selecting the word “echad” to proclaim “the Lord is one,” inspired a passage with providential flexibility. Echad allows for the unified oneness of the Persons of the Trinity without requiring that interpretation from the Jewish generations who came before Christ.

In the Bible, we see God gradually leading humanity along from darkness to light, from error to truth. For example, from unchecked blood vendettas, to “an eye for an eye” taught in the Mosaic Laws, to the Gospel teaching of loving our enemies. Or from polygamy, to monogamy, to sacramental marriage. Or in this case, from polytheism (belief in many gods), to monotheism (belief in one God), to Trinitarianism (our belief in one God in three divine Persons).

We see God’s progressive revelation occurring at the Burning Bush, where Moses must ask God to clarify for him, “If I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what do I tell them?” The Lord replies, “I AM (the God) WHO AM.” That the Lord was not just another god among many pagan gods — that the Lord is, in fact, the only God — was a revelation God’s people were taught and accepted over time.

So who reveals to us that God is a Trinity; that the one divine being is three distinct Persons? This is revealed to us through Jesus Christ himself. Jesus claims authority to forgive sins, declares himself Lord of the Sabbath, demands an absolute and total commitment to himself, and presents himself as the one way of salvation. He accepts peoples’ worship, which would be idolatrous if he were not divine. And Jesus says “the Father and I are one” and “whoever has seen me has seen the Father,” yet he speaks to God his Father as another Person.

You and I are single-person beings, so we would naturally assume a personal God would be a singular-person like us. But through Jesus Christ we discover that God as a solitary one would be less perfect, less complete, less great than our God is. Our triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is a loving communion of Persons. God the Father entirely gifts himself to his Son. God the Son entirely gifts himself back to his Father. And God the Holy Spirit proceeds from this eternal, self-gifting exchange. Indeed, as St. John writes, “God is love,” and we are made in and called to the image and likeness of God.

What does this teach us for our lives? The Holy Trinity teaches us our personal perfection will not come in isolation. God the Son calls us to be God’s children with himself, while God the Holy Spirit calls us to be animated with himself, while God the Father calls us to offer all things to himself, so that he — the source of all good things — may give us all good things in return. Loving personal relationships are the meaning of life. Our lives come from a loving communion of persons, and we are called to a loving communion of persons, the Trinity and their Church. We will only become Christian saints through self-gifting and receiving in the oneness of a holy, loving communion of persons.

From Fear to Peace: Celebrating Divine Mercy

Divine Mercy Sunday
By Fr. Victor Feltes

During the Exodus, before descending in fire and smoke upon a trembling Mount Sinai, God gave instructions to prepare the Hebrews for this encounter. The Lord said to Moses:

“Go to the people and have them sanctify themselves today and tomorrow. Have them wash their garments and be ready for the third day; for on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. Set limits for the people all around, saying: ‘Take care not to go up the mountain, or even to touch its edge. All who touch the mountain must be put to death. No hand shall touch them, but they must be stoned to death or killed with arrows. Whether human being or beast, they must not be allowed to live.’ Only when the ram’s horn sounds may they go up on the mountain.”

Then Moses came down from the mountain to the people and had them sanctify themselves, and they washed their garments. He said to the people, “Be ready for the third day.”

On the third day, as all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the blast of the ram’s horn and the mountain smoking, they became afraid and trembled. So they took up a position farther away and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we shall die!” Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid, for God has come only to test you and put the fear of him upon you so you do not sin.” So the people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the dark cloud where God was.

A pair of themes throughout the Old Testament are the holy otherness of God and the deadly sinfulness of man. Our Fall made it dangerous to approach God carelessly. And even Moses was mysteriously told, “You cannot see my face, for no one can see me and live.” Compare and contrast that with this Sunday’s Gospel.

On the third day, despite the doors being locked where the disciple were, the Risen Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. And he said again, “Peace be with you.” A week later when Thomas was there, Jesus appeared again and said, “Peace be with you.” He then invited Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.”

In former times, seeing the Lord or merely touching the mountain or ark of his holy presence could mean death. But disciples in the New Testament are invited to see his face and touch his wounds. In the New Covenant, we are called to receive Jesus Christ alive in the Eucharist. Today we celebrate Divine Mercy, mercy reflected in how — even after our sins led him to his Cross — Jesus returns and repeatedly wishes us “Peace.” In forgetting our past, we fail to appreciate what the Lord has done for us. And too few rejoice in his Divine Mercy because so many do not realize their need for it.

On Easter Sunday evening, Jesus breathed on his apostles saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” Why would Jesus give them this power to forgive sins if he did not intend them to use it? Why would he give his Church such a Sacrament if we did not need it? Jesus wishes you a peace beyond your fear. He desires to forgive your sins and personally give himself to you in the Eucharist. Will you trust him enough to regularly encounter his healing Divine Mercy in the confessional so that you may receive him all the more reverently, fittingly, lovingly and joyfully at his altar?

God Calls Unlikely People

4th Sunday of Lent
By Fr. Chinnappan Pelavendran

Today is the fourth Sunday of Lent, also known as Laetare Sunday, which means “rejoice.” The Church is joyful in anticipation of the Resurrection of our Lord. Today’s readings remind us that it is God who gives us proper vision in the body as well as in the soul. We need to be constantly on guard against spiritual blindness. God has a plan for each of us. He can call any of us to the vocation He has chosen for us. Being a priest, nun, or religious are not the only vocations. God has called some to married life or to be single. Prayer is very important to us in discerning our vocation.

When God called Moses, he was tending the sheep of his father–in–law, Jethro. God called him from the burning bush, but Moses had many excuses. If I say to the sons of Israel, the God of your father sent me, and they ask me what is His name? what shall I say to them? God said to Moses, “I am Who am.” I don’t think they will listen to me, I am not eloquent, I am afraid, I don’t want to go alone. God told him to take his brother Aaron with him and God would also be with him. Because God was with him, Moses was able to fulfill God’s request. He went to Pharaoh and led the Israelites out of Egypt. They were in the desert for forty years, and God provided everything they needed. Moses was able, with God’s help, to deliver His people to the land flowing with milk and honey.

In the New Testament, we have the call of Matthew. When Jesus called him, Matthew was a tax collector. Tax collectors were not upstanding citizens, they worked for the Romans, they kept some of the tax money for themselves, and they went after people to get the tax money from them. They did whatever it took to get the money. When Jesus said, “Follow me,” He followed Jesus leaving his work, money, and everything behind. He was completely changed. He became one of the Apostles and wrote the Gospel of Matthew in the Bible. He is the one who wrote the genealogy of Jesus.

In the first reading today, God sent the Prophet Samuel to the house of Jesse to anoint a king for Israel. Jesse had seven sons with him and presented each one to the Prophet Samuel. Samuel thought each one would be acceptable, but God said No. Jesse had one other son, David, who was tending the sheep. They sent for him and the Lord said, “Arise, anoint him, for this is he.” (1 Samuel 15:12) God chose the most unlikely candidate, the shepherd boy to be king of Israel. God told Samuel, Not as man sees does God see, because man sees the appearance, but the Lord looks into the heart.

Our Gospel today tells us about the healing of the blind man. After receiving his sight, he believed in Jesus and followed Him. Let us not be blind to Jesus, we need to believe and follow him as this man did. We are all called by God to be faithful to our vocation, whatever it is in life. Moses, Matthew, and David were faithful to God. As a religious, married, or single we also need to be faithful to God.

Those of you who are parents, bring your children to God. You presented them to God for baptism, don’t stop there. Pray with them. Bring them to church, and teach them to love God as you love them. Be a good example to them. Let them see you praying on your knees at home and in church. Teach them to be faithful to God by your example. God is calling us today to follow Him.

The Openness, Obedience, & One Word of St. Joseph

4th Sunday of Advent
By Fr. Victor Feltes

Our Gospel this final Sunday of Advent centers on St. Joseph. It recounts how St. Joseph received the stunning revelation of Mary’s pregnancy. We can learn from the great saint’s response — from his openness, his obedience, and his one word.

Mary was already Joseph’s wife when she conceived her child. In their Jewish culture, a newlywed couple would live apart for the first year of marriage. Thereafter, the husband would bring his betrothed into his home to live with him. When Mary conceived a child (whom Joseph knew was not his) why did he decide to divorce her? Was Joseph heartbroken because he believed she had betrayed him? Or was Joseph frightened, because he believed her story of the Annunciation and thought himself unworthy of this holy woman and her holy child? Whatever the case, Joseph was a righteous man and unwilling to expose Mary to shame, so he intended to divorce her quietly.

Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home because it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” Once Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary into his home.

I used to fret very much about precisely discerning God’s will. “What if the Lord wants me to do a specific thing but I can’t figure it out?” During my college and seminary years, I thought I had a vocation to the priesthood but how could I be sure? I worried, “What if I get this discernment terribly, terribly wrong?” Then a holy friend gave me peace of mind by pointing to St. Joseph. When Joseph was about to make a terrible mistake by separating himself from Mary and Jesus, it only took one night’s dream to get him back on the right track because Joseph desired to do whatever God willed. God can easily redirect a willing heart.

People sometimes complain, “I wish God would just tell me what to do!” But unless we are open to doing God’s will, what good would his directions do us? Imitate St. Joseph in his openness. Like with the Blessed Virgin Mary, Joseph’s openness allowed God to do great things through him. So resolve your will and pray for the grace to always be open to God’s will like St. Joseph. Another St. Joseph trait of we can imitate and profit from is his simple obedience.

St. Matthew’s Gospel records, “When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home… and he named [the boy] Jesus.” On this occasion, like later when told to flee to Egypt or told to return to Israel, Joseph does point-by-point what God commands. Like Moses in the Old Testament, whenever God instructs Joseph to do (A) and (B) and (C), the author notes how Joseph then does (A) and (B) and (C).

Moses and Joseph’s duties were different from ours today. We will not construct an Ark of the Covenant, nor protect and provide for the Holy Family, but each of us has persons and tasks entrusted to us by God; people to care for and works to be done. You already know a great deal of what God has commanded you to do; your own (A) and (B) and (C) according to your state in life. You will not fulfill your missions perfectly—and that’s OK—but imitate St. Joseph in his simple obedience because your basic, God-given duties are more important than you realize.

A third and final feature of St. Joseph reflected in today’s Gospel is his single word. Did you ever hear that in all of Scripture there are no recorded quotes from St. Joseph? It’s true: Jesus has many, Mary has several, but Joseph has none. Now there is no evidence that St. Joseph lacked the ability to speak or ever took a vow of silence.  Joseph probably said many things that were simply not written down. Yet today’s Gospel contains the strongest evidence of his having said any one particular word. What was that word?

The angel in Joseph’s dream said of the unborn child: “You are to name him Jesus.” And when Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him. Joseph named him Jesus. The name of Jesus was St. Joseph’s greatest and most important word. Ever after, the name of Jesus defined his life.

Learn from St. Joseph, the husband of Mary and foster-father of Jesus. Imitate his openness to doing God’s will whatever it may be. Benefit from practicing his obedience in your daily duties. “And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus,” like St. Joseph did.

He is not God of the Dead, but of the Living

32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Fr. Chinnappan Pelavendran

My first funeral as a priest was for a baby who was two weeks out of the womb. How does one talk to the family? They are a devout, Catholic family, but they asked, why is God allowing this? I listened to them and cried with them. I later responded to them by saying that when I ask why I look at a crucifix. Why did God allow His own son to die? Our salvation and redemption come from the cross. Through the death of that baby, God wants to say something to us; resurrection is what comes out of Christ’s death.

When God revealed Himself to Moses in preparation for bringing His people out of Egypt, He called Himself “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” (Exodus 3:6) When God told this to Moses, centuries had passed after these forefathers had died. However, God acknowledged their existence even after their death. Though the verse did not specify the resurrection of the dead, it implied their survival after death.

Today’s first reading describes a Jewish family, consisting of a mother and her seven sons, who refuse their king’s command to eat pork, forbidden as “unclean” by Jewish Law. Because of their obedient Faith in God, they endure suffering and accept martyrdom. During their torture, three of the brothers speak, and each of them finds strength in the belief that he will eventually be raised and rewarded by God.

The second reading encourages the Thessalonians, who were waiting for the second coming of Christ, to trust in the fidelity of God who would strengthen their hearts in every good work and word.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus is challenged by a group of Sadducees concerning the resurrection of the dead. Just before this, Jesus had been challenged by Pharisees and Scribes, whether to pay taxes to Caesar or not. Jesus had dealt effectively with them and reduced them to silence. Again they raised a question this time about the imaginary story of seven brothers marrying one woman, and their relationship with each other in the next life. Their question in the Gospel is certainly an insincere and impossible example, they want to ridicule a belief in the resurrection.

Hands Lifted up to Heaven

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Fr. Victor Feltes

After God’s people, the descendants of Israel, crossed the Red Sea in the Exodus, an army of Amalekites came to battle them in the Sinai desert. So Moses instructed his servant Joshua: “Pick out certain men, and tomorrow go out and engage Amalek in battle. I will be standing on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.” The next day, while Joshua led Israel’s soldiers in fighting the foe on the battlefield, Moses stood upon an adjacent hill along with Aaron and Hur.

“As long as Moses kept his hands raised up, Israel had the better of the fight, but when he let his hands rest, Amalek had the better of the fight.” Moses wielding this staff at God’s command triggered the plagues in Egypt, parted the Red Sea, and now brought Israel’s victory on the battlefield. But this raises a reasonable question: why would God condition his people’s success in combat upon an old man holding a piece of wood above his head? Moses lifting up this staff of God was a sign for God’s people which preserved them from a spiritual disaster.

God knew that if Israel had won apart from this sign they would have ascribed the victory to themselves. “We won this battle because we’re so smart, and strong, and brave! Maybe we don’t need God’s help after all.” Such pride in their success could be their downfall, in this life and the next. So instead, through the sign of an up-lifted staff, the Lord showed Israel, “I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains [with] me and I [with] him will bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.”

Similarly today, our Lord desires us to pray without ceasing for the good things we want or need. Otherwise, if and when his blessings come, we shall attribute these things to mere luck, coincidence, or to our own personal abilities, with no growth in our relationship with God. He is the source from whom all good things come. By asking and then receiving, we come to see and know the Lord is near and cares for us. And in the end, that is the most valuable gift of all.

God not only wants us to know and to love him, he desires us to glorify us as well. God is all-powerful, omnipotent, he could do everything without us. But by God accomplishing his will through us, as he did with Moses, the Lord makes us more like himself and causes us to share in his glory.

Holding the staff of God in his hands throughout the day made Moses’ hands and arms grow tired. (If you cannot understand why, try holding an object above your head for just ten minutes sometime.) When Moses’ body grew tired, his friends came to his aide. “They put a rock in place for him to sit on. … Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side and one on the other, [one on his right and the other on his left,] so that his hands remained steady till sunset.” With this help from his friends, Moses kept his arms raised-up and God’s people prevailed against their foe. All of this was a foreshadowing of greater things to come.

On Good Friday, when Jesus was condemned to death, he took the cross into his hands and carried it to the top of a hill. There his hands were nailed to the wood above his head. And Jesus was not there alone. All four Gospels note he was crucified between two others, “one on his right and the other on his left.”

Our Lord was mocked as he hung for hours upon the Cross: “Are you not the Messiah? … If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” But in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus had said, “Do you think that I cannot call upon my Father and he will not provide me at this moment with more than twelve legions of angels? But then how would the Scriptures be fulfilled…?” Christ had the power to come down from the Cross, but if he had done that—if Jesus had released his hands from the wood—if he had refused to die for us, how would we have been saved from our enemies, sin and death?

Love kept Jesus on his Cross: love for his friends gathered nearby. love for the criminals on his right and left, and love for you and me. Consider what a precious consolation it was for Jesus in his suffering to have his Mother Mary, John the Beloved, and Mary Magdalene there supporting him. “But,” Jesus asks, “when the Son of Man comes [again], will he find faith on earth?” Will Jesus return to a world where everyone imagines they can get along just fine without him?

Let us continue being God’s humble people, recognizing our dependence on him. Let us ask of him our wants and needs so that we can know and experience his blessings. Then we shall share his deeper friendship and share in his great works, increasing in his likeness and increasing in his glory. By relying on God and the holy friends and loved ones his providence places near to help us, we shall share in our Lord’s great victory.

Encountering God, we Cannot Remain the Same

5th Sunday of Lent
By Fr. Chinnappan Pelavendran 

We are just one week away from the Holy Week and away from our celebration of God’s love shown in the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus. For us, this season of Lent is a time of special grace in which we experience the presence of a God who cares and loves us. Our response is to transform ourselves and to live according to his will. Before him, we acknowledge our weakness and we know that he is the one who supports us and builds with us new relationships we ought to change our lives during Lent and come closer to him.

In today’s First Reading, we heard the prophetic Words of the Lord God speaking to the prophet Isaiah. Yahweh begins by identifying Himself. He says that it was He who created Israel. It was He who led the Exodus of His people under the leadership of Moses. It was He who divided the Red Sea and who destroyed the great army of the Pharaoh of Egypt. It was He who quenched the life out of the enemies of His people. God tells them to look ahead and not to look back into the past. The past always closes our minds and does not allow us to see things in the present moment as they are. The Lord promises to the people, “I am about to do a new thing for I am about to create new heavens and a new earth, and former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.”

In the second reading of today, St. Paul tells the church of Philippi to break away from its past. St. Paul presents his reflections on how much God loves him, He says I have accepted the loss of everything, and I look at everything so much as rubbish if only I can have Christ and be given a place in him. All I want is to know Christ and the power of his resurrection. In his search for perfection, he observed all the rules and norms as a Pharisee, but ultimately he found the meaning in Christ. He accepted the loss of all things that he might gain Christ.

The Gospel of today places before us an episode that emphasizes the need to examine ourselves and avoid passing any judgment on others. Generally, there is a tendency within us to find fault in others and to condemn them. As we approach the end of the Lenten season, we are reminded of the great opportunity to cooperate with God’s special graces. The Gospel presents to us a sharp contrast between the cruelty and wickedness of the scribes and Pharisees and the compassion of Jesus. The scribes and Pharisees had no regard for the woman caught in adultery and brought her to Jesus the master. They were only interested in using her to try to trap Jesus. Jesus places a bigger challenge before the accusers. He asks them to consider their actions and their shortcomings. He tells them to look into themselves before passing any judgment on others.

Jesus has forgiven the woman’s sin and expects her to live from now on in a life of grace and union with God by not sinning anymore. He gives her a chance to change her life completely. The Pharisees and the Scribes were proud and arrogant and preferred to judge. They had no idea how to love, how to forgive but only how to observe the Law externally. They did not love God’s people.

Once a person is touched by God and has received His divine command, he cannot remain the same person. That was the experience of Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Peter, Paul, and several others who came into close contact with him and remained united to Him. In the Word of God today, we heard the divine message that God makes all things new. Jesus gives us a basic command that helps us to identify that we are on our way to reaching union with Him. We must persevere in our living faith. As Jesus said to the woman so he tells us Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.

Our God of Second Chances

3rd Sunday of Lent
By Fr. Chinnappan Pelavendran 

On this third Sunday of Lent, the Church provides us with another moment of grace to straighten us on our journey. Today, we celebrate the Lord who frees us from our slavery to sin, if only we listen to His warning to repent. Repentance is, feeling sorry for the sin we committed and a firm resolve not to deliberately commit it again. Sincere repentance provokes God’s compassion, mercy, and love.

The first reading taken from the Book of Exodus, tells us about the deep concern of God towards his people suffering in Egypt. He sees the hardships experienced by his chosen people and observes their misery. God had heard their cries of misery and takes initiative to liberate them from the Egyptian masters. God shows His mercy to His chosen people by giving them Moses as their leader and liberator. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob reveals Himself to Moses from the burning bush and assures Moses of His Divine presence with His people and of His awareness of their sufferings in Egypt. He declares His intention to choose Moses as the leader who will rescue His enslaved people. Then God reveals to Moses His name as Yahweh (“I AM Who AM”) and renews the promise He made to the patriarchs to give them a “land flowing with milk and honey.”

In the second reading, St. Paul warns us that our merciful God is also a disciplining God. Paul reminds the Christians of Corinth that they must learn from the sad experience of the Israelites who were punished for their sins by a merciful but just God. The merciful and gracious God is also just and demanding.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus informs us that those who do not repent will perish. On the other hand, Jesus tells us a parable about the patience of God. As the fig tree is given one last chance to produce fruit before it is cut down, so Jesus is giving His people one final opportunity to bear good fruits as evidence of its repentance. Through this parable, we are reminded of the patience of a God who is willing to give sinners a chance to reform their lives and to seek reconciliation. Just as the farmer tended the barren fig tree with special care, so God affords sinners whatever graces they need to leave their sinful ways behind and return to God’s love and embrace.

Divine grace is expressed as justice with compassion and judgment with mercy. However, we cannot draw strength and sustenance from God without producing fruit. Our fruit should consist of repentance, confession, and firm commitment to change our lives. Let us produce good fruit when we can, Let us repent while we have the chance. Let us turn to Christ, acknowledge our faults and failings, and receive from his mercy, forgiveness, and the promise of eternal life. There is no better way to take these words of Jesus to heart than to go to sacramental confession. There is no better time to go to confession than during Lent. Repentance helps us in life and in death. It helps us to live as forgiven people and helps us to face death without fear.

Our merciful Father always gives us a second chance. The prodigal sons returning to the father was welcomed as a son, not treated as a slave. The repentant Peter was made the head of the Church. The persecutor Saul was made Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles. During Lent, we, too, are given another chance to repent and return to our Heavenly Father’s love.

The Day of Calamity

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today I will be speaking to you about why the Jewish calendar is different from our own, about why this Sunday is of special significance in Jewish history, and about the enduring faithfulness of our Lord towards his people.

Like many ancient cultures, the Jews kept a lunar calendar, while we, and most of the world today, follow a particular solar calendar. Our modern calendar is called the Gregorian Calendar, instituted by Pope Gregory XII in 1582. For the Gregorian Calendar, one orbit around the Sun makes one year, counted as 365 days (or 366 days in a leap year). The Jewish calendar, instead, is focused on the Moon: one cycle of the Moon through its phases makes one month, counted as 29 or 30 days. Because the cycles of the Sun and Moon do not perfectly match-up, particular dates on solar and lunar calendars do not line-up either. This means the dates of Jewish holidays and observances float around on the Gregorian calendar. Today, for instance, is the ninth day of the Jewish month of Av. The ninth of Av falls on July 18th this year, but next year it will land on August 6th.

The “ninth of Av,” also known as Tisha B’Av, is no ordinary day for observant Jews, but a day of fasting and abstaining, because ninth of Av has seen multiple calamities in Jewish history. First, during the Exodus, when the twelve spies sent by Moses returned from scouting the Land of Canaan, most of them voiced negative reports, saying there was no way The Promised Land could be conquered. The Hebrews despaired and cried and refused to proceed. As a consequence, God made his people spend 40 more years in the desert until almost all the adults of that generation had died without entering The Promised Land. The next calamity came in the days of the Prophet Jeremiah, after the founding of the Kingdom of Israel. In the sixth century B.C., the Jewish Temple built by King Solomon in Jerusalem was destroyed by the conquering Babylonians. With that disaster, the Jews were forced to leave their homeland and resettle in the East, and this Babylonian Exile lasted about seventy years until a significant number of Jews were able to return. A third catastrophe occurred in 70 A.D., when the Second Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in response to a Jewish revolt. Not one stone was left upon another, as Jesus had foretold about 40 years before it came to pass. All of these devastating catastrophes, all three of these traumatic, mournful events (the denial of The Promised Land and the destruction of the first and second Temples) are remembered as occurring over the ninth day of Av.

Each of these disasters flowed from the faithlessness or unfaithfulness of God’s people. All of the Hebrews in the Exodus had witnessed the Lord’s mighty power wielded against Egypt, yet they disbelieved that God would be with them and would enable them to enter the land he had promised to Abraham’s descendants. The Prophet Jeremiah in our first reading decries the shepherds of his day (that is, the leaders of the people) whose wickedness would lead to the fall of the nation and the scattering of the sheep. And before his Passion, Jesus once lamented: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how many times I yearned to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her young under her wings, but you were unwilling! Behold, your house will be abandoned, desolate.” Jesus foresaw how that generation’s rejection of their Messiah would be followed by disaster.

Yet, in the face of this faithlessness and unfaithfulness among God’s people, God remained faithful to them. The first generation of Hebrews who had left Egypt were too afraid to enter the Promised Land, but God did not void his covenant with them. While denouncing the bad shepherds who led to the Babylonian Exile, God promises to gather his scattered flock again. And even as Jesus Christ was foretelling doom for Jerusalem from rejecting the Messiah, he spoke of his own people’s conversion to faith in him one day: “I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

So what does all of this mean for you and me and the Church, the people of God’s New Covenant? Can calamities come to us? Yes – through our own unfaithful foolishness, or through the sins of others impacting our world; grave wrongs, tragic losses, painful sufferings, death. But when these calamities come, will the Lord still be with us? Yes. Through the Prophet Jeremiah he promised: “I myself will gather the remnant of my flock from all the lands.” In today’s Gospel, “When [Jesus] disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.” Jesus declares, “I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me.” The Lord is our shepherd. He refreshes our souls. He guides us in right paths. Even when we walk through the dark valleys we need not fear evils, for he is at our side.

Last Sunday, a young woman named Sarah who graduated college five years ago, posted a beautiful tweet on Twitter that has been liked nearly 2,000 times. She wrote: “I looked at the crucifix at Mass today and saw love rather than death for the first time in my whole [dang] life.” Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world through the Cross. The Good Shepherd knows firsthand what it’s like to be a sheep like us. Jesus reassures us that he is with us and we need not be afraid. For whatever day of calamity may come, it is not the end of our story; the friends of God will rise again in glory.

St. Patrick, the Moses of Ireland

Wednesday of the 4th Week of Lent

St. Patrick, the Apostle to Ireland, and Moses from the Exodus have a lot in common. Moses was targeted by the wicked as a baby; Pharaoh ordered that all newborn Hebrew boys be tossed into the Nile River to die. Patrick was also targeted by the wicked. Raiders kidnapped him from Roman Britain at the age of sixteen. Moses was separated from his family, growing up in Pharaoh’s palace. Patrick was separated from his family as a slave in Ireland for six years. Moses escaped Pharaoh and Patrick escaped his captors, and neither of them planned to ever go back again. But then, Moses had a vision at the Burning Bush calling him to return to Egypt. And Patrick had a vision in his sleep in which he heard the people of Ireland call out to him, “We appeal to you, holy servant boy, to come and walk among us!” Both men had worked as shepherds during their exiles, and this experience helped spiritually prepare them to become shepherds of men.

Moses was sent by God to free the Hebrews from slavery. Patrick was sent by God to free the Irish from their errors and sins. “Saying to the prisoners: Come out!” But the Egyptian and Irish leaders resisted. Pharaoh’s Egyptian gods and the druids’ Celtic gods were quite different from the Lord. Pharaoh thought killing babies in the river would please the god of the Nile while solving his problems, and the druids offered their gods many human sacrifices hoping that good things would come from them. By proclaiming mighty messages and performing mighty miracles, Moses and Patrick defeated these foes and freed the people. Both men are rightly celebrated for leading many people to God.

The Hebrews who left in Egypt and the Irish who lived in Ireland were introduced to a different and better way of life with the Lord our God. Yet amazingly, once they had been set free, the Hebrews often complained against Moses and said they wanted to return to Egypt and slavery. Today, after some 1,500 years of the True Faith in Ireland, more and more people there live as if Catholic in name only; not believing, not praying, not practicing. For example, in 2018 the people of Ireland voted 2-to-1 in a referendum to legalize more abortion. And in 2019, the first year under the new laws, Ireland’s Department of Health recorded exactly 6,666 abortions. “Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb?” Isaiah suggests this as unthinkable thing – but that is how far we have wandered. Yet even if she should forget, God never forgets us. Even if we give up on God, he will not give up on us. “The Lord is gracious and merciful.” But you are free and you can choose to leave him.

Moses cared about the Hebrews, Patrick cared about the Irish, and I care about you, and we do not want any of you to be lost. But life in the desert is hard, and this world is seductive, and it is easy to be lost. Will you choose to follow the Lord, the God of Moses and St. Patrick, or not?

“Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word
and believes in the one who sent me
has eternal life and will not come to condemnation,
but has passed from death to life.”

As Moses said, “This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses… that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. So choose life, that you and your children may live.”

Knowing God by Name

Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Andrew found his brother Simon and told him, “We have found the Messiah! (We have found the Christ!)” Then he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John; you will be called Cephas” — which is translated Peter.

It is a very significant thing when God changes someone’s name. This only happened four times in Bible history. First, God renamed Abram, Abraham (meaning “the Father of Multitudes”) and renamed his wife Sarai, Sarah (or “Princess”). Later, God renamed their grandson Jacob, Israel (or “He who wrestles with God”). From him, God’s first adopted people would receive their name. And finally, Jesus changes Simon’s name. His name becomes Cephas in Aramaic, Petros in Greek, which both mean “Rock” or “Stone.” Jesus says, “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.”

All four of these extremely important figures in salvation history received a name from God reflecting their true identity in his plan. Abraham would go on to have a multitude of descendants, many by blood and many more by faith, while St. Peter would go on to be a stable rock for Christ’s Church as her first pope. The names God chooses are revelatory, and this is true for God’s own names and titles as well.

When God revealed himself to Moses through the burning bush and commanded him to be a messenger to his people, Moses said to God, “if I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what do I tell them?” In those days the early Israelites, surrounded as they were by polytheistic cultures, did not realize that there was only just one God. So if Moses were to come to the Israelites saying God had sent him, they might reply “which one?” When asked for his name, God replies to Moses: “I AM WHO AM. This is what you will tell the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.” In Hebrew, these words “I AM” are pronounced “Yahweh,” which some have mispronounced as “Jehovah”.

What is revealed in this name, “I am who am”? Firstly, that God is personal. God is a Who, rather than a what. Secondly, unlike the false gods of the pagans, this God is real. Unlike those so-called gods, ‘I AM, so I have the power to save you.’ Thirdly, God is not merely another being that exists in the world, but the foundation of all existence. “I am who AM.” To exist is of God’s very essence. Fourth and finally, that God is mysterious. To say “I am who am” is something of a refusal to provide a name. ‘Who am I? I am who I am.‘ God’s perfect, infinite essence surpasses man’s imperfect and limited labels and concepts.

God spoke further to Moses in that encounter at the burning bush saying: “This is what you will say to the Israelites: The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever; this is my title for all generations.” Here the Lord identifies himself in terms a communal relationship (‘I am the God of your ancestors’) and then by three individual relationships (‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’). This foreshadows what would be revealed to us through Jesus Christ; that God is an eternal Trinity, a communal relationship of divine three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

God provides other true titles for himself in the Sacred Scriptures he inspired: He is Lord. He is Most-High. He is Almighty. I AM who heals. I AM who sanctifies. I AM who will provide. I AM who is there. Our banner, our shepherd, our righteousness, our peace. And ultimately, God reveals himself through his Incarnate Word, Jesus, whose name means: “Yahweh is salvation” or “Yahweh saves.”

What is the significance of sharing one’s name with another? To reveal your name to others allows them to know you better, it opens up a more personal relationship than one has with a stranger. Sharing your name permits others to honor your name or to defame it, and it allows them to call upon you.

In today’s first reading, the Lord repeatedly calls by name the young Samuel sleeping in the temple: “Samuel, Samuel!” When Samuel keeps running to his foster-father, the High Priest Eli, saying, “Here I am. You called me,” Eli realizes that the Lord is calling the boy. So Eli tells Samuel, “Go to sleep, and if you are called, reply, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” When Samuel goes back to bed, the Lord comes and reveals his presence, calling out as before, and Samuel answers, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” This response led to a deeper relationship for Samuel with the Lord, and Samuel went on to become one of God’s great prophets.

God has revealed his name, his very self, to you. You know his name, you know him, and he calls you. The Lord declares through the Prophet Isaiah, “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.” Will you answer the Lord’s next calling for you; to prayer, to service, to sacrifice, to love? This week, when he calls you, even in the quiet of your conscience, answer him: “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.”

Five Reflections on St. Joseph

By Fr. Victor Feltes

This week, on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception and the 150th anniversary of the proclamation of St. Joseph as patron of the Universal (that is, the entire) Church, Pope Francis declared this “The Year of St. Joseph” through December 8th, 2021. The Holy Father also published an apostolic letter about Jesus’ beloved foster-father entitled “Patris Corde” (or “With a Father’s Heart”). In it, Pope Francis writes about Christian devotion to this great saint and mentions how the phrase “Go to Joseph” has an Old Testament origin. These are five of my personal reflections on St. Joseph.

Go to Joseph

In the Book of Genesis, during a time of famine across the known world, the Egyptians begged their pharaoh for bread. He in turn replied, “Go to Joseph and do whatever he tells you.” Pharaoh was referring to Joseph the son of Jacob who had risen from a very lowly state to become the viceroy of the kingdom. Enlighted by divinely-inspired dreams, this Joseph’s leadership went on to feed and save the whole world from death, including his own family. According to the genealogy at the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel, the New Testament’s Joseph also had a father named Jacob. Though poor and obscure, St. Joseph’s heaven-sent dreams enabled him to guide and protect his Holy Family, leading to the world’s salvation through the Bread of Life, Jesus Christ. Today, as a powerful intercessor in the Kingdom of God, we are wise to “go to Joseph” for needed help.

His One Word

Within the Gospels, St. Joseph has no recorded words. There is no indication the foster-father of Jesus and spouse of the Virgin Mary was physically unable to speak or ever took a vow of silence; he is simply never quoted. Yet the Gospels suggest he said at least one specific word.

Matthew’s Gospel records how an angel (probably the Archangel Gabriel though perhaps another) told Joseph in a dream: “‘[Mary, your wife,] will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus…’ When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home. He had no relations with her until she bore a son, and he named him Jesus.” Just as John’s Gospel tells us “Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book,” so St. Joseph almost certainly said many unrecorded things. But the one word that Scripture most clearly suggests St. Joseph said is “Jesus.” The name of Jesus is the sum total proclamation of St. Joseph’s life. May it be so for us as well.

Image of the Father

The Letter to the Colossians says of Christ, “He is the image of the invisible God.” Something analogous was true of St. Joseph for Jesus in being the earthly image of his Father in Heaven. Joseph’s life has no recorded beginning or end in the Bible. We know that he was a carpenter craftsman – a creator of many things to be blessing for others. Perhaps he looked at everything he made and found it very good. Alongside Mary, Jesus was obedient to Joseph; he was Jesus’ boyhood teacher, deliverer, and role-model. Jesus lovingly called him, “Abba, father.” St. Joseph was a holy and loving image of God the Father for his Son. Though imperfect, may we likewise be images of God for each of our biological and spiritual children.

The Hour of his Death

When did St. Joseph die? Luke’s Gospel tells us that when 12-year-old Jesus was found at the Temple in Jerusalem he went down with his parents to Nazareth and was obedient to them. After that joyful reunion, St. Joseph makes no further personal appearances in the Gospels. Joseph had apparently passed away by the time of Christ’s Passion since Jesus on the Cross does not entrust his blessed mother’s care to her faithful husband but to a beloved disciple. Other episodes in the Gospels suggest that Joseph died before the start of Jesus’ public ministry.

How did St. Joseph die? If Joseph, the heir to the throne of David, had been murdered we would expect this prefigurement of Jesus’ own death to be described in the Gospels like the death of St. John the Baptist. Unless some sudden catastrophe befell him, an ailing Joseph would have reached his deathbed. And who would have been compassionately comforting him and powerfully praying for him at his bedside as he reached his hour of death? His having most likely died peacefully in the loving presence of Jesus and Mary is what makes St. Joseph the patron saint of a happy death.

The Terror of Demons

St. Joseph is called “the Terror of Demons” and his spouse “the Queen of Angels.” Yet the Virgin Mary at the Annunciation was greatly troubled and afraid at the Archangel Gabriel’s greeting, and when resettling his Holy Family from Egypt Joseph feared mere flesh and blood – avoiding Judea because Herod’s son ruled there. How can this man and woman now be leaders of awesome angels or banes of dangerous demons?

One key trait Joseph and Mary shared is obedience. The Book of Exodus displays Moses’ obedience by recording God’s instructions to him and then repeatedly presenting Moses doing “just as the Lord had commanded.” Whenever St. Joseph receives instructions from God (to take Mary into his home, to escape to Egypt, or to return to Israel) the text that follows has Joseph doing exactly as God commanded. Mary was also radically open to God’s will, as when she famously said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” The demons, for their part, fell from Heaven’s glory because they refused to do God’s will.

Joseph and Mary were also among the first on earth to accept and love the (then still-unborn) baby Jesus. The demons, in contrast, were the first to reject the Son of God. We do not know the exact reasons for their primordial rebellion but some theorize the demons took offense at God’s plan that the Eternal Son would become an incarnate human being, crowning that creature with a greater glory than the angels. “By the envy of the devil, death entered the world,” says the Book of Wisdom.

Joseph and Mary’s obedience to God’s will and their love for Jesus on earth lead to them being gloriously empowered in Heaven. Jesus told his disciples, “you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel,” and St. Paul reminded the Corinthians “we will judge angels.” It seems that faithful human creatures who, by God’s grace, love and serve the Lord in the likeness of Christ himself are best suited to become powerful, humble, servant rulers in the Kingdom of Heaven.

St. Joseph, patron of the Universal Church, pray for us throughout this holy year!

Christ Ordained

Holy Thursday

What the Old Testament foreshadowed, the New Testament reveals. What the Old Covenant prefigured, God’s New Covenant fulfills. What our Lord prepared in ancient times, he now bestows to his Church. The Holy Scriptures point to the gifts of God we particularly celebrate on this evening: the Holy Priesthood and the Holy Eucharist.

In the Book of Exodus, the Lord declares to Moses: “This is the rite you shall perform in consecrating [Aaron and his sons] as my priests. … Aaron and his sons you shall…bring to the entrance of the tent of meeting and there wash them with water.” On Holy Thursday, “[Jesus] rose from supper and took off his outer garments. He took a towel and tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel around his waist.”

Peter said to the Lord, “You will never wash my feet.” But Jesus answered him, “Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.” The Book of Deuteronomy taught, “The levitical priests, the whole tribe of Levi, shall have no [landed] portion or [territorial] inheritance with Israel…. [T]he Lord set apart the tribe of Levi,” Deuteronomy says, “to carry the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to minister to him, and to bless in his name…. For this reason, Levi has no portion or inheritance with his relatives; the Lord himself is his inheritance….”

When Jesus told Peter, “Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me,” Simon Peter replied, “Master, then [wash] not only my feet, but my hands and head as well.” As part of the priestly ordination ritual in the Book of Exodus, the Lord commanded Moses: “[Sacrifice an unblemished male sheep and] some of its blood you shall take and put on the tip of Aaron’s right ear and on the tips of his sons’ right ears and on the thumbs of their right hands and the great toes of their right feet. Splash the rest of the blood on all the sides of the altar.” Jesus says Peter does not need to be washed all over, head and hand and foot, because whoever has bathed is clean. (This is likely a reference to his baptism.) But at the Last Supper, the Body of God’s perfect, unblemished Lamb is broken and his Blood is poured for the apostles.

As St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians: “[T]he Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood.’” On Holy Thursday, the apostles receive the Blood of the Lamb and then, on Good Friday, this Blood marks the sides of the Lamb’s Altar, the vertical and horizontal beams of the Cross.

In Egypt before the Exodus, when the Lord instituted the Passover sacrifice, he commanded his people: “[E]very one of your families must procure for itself a lamb… The lamb must be a year-old male and without blemish…. It shall be slaughtered during the evening twilight. They shall take some of its blood and apply it to the two doorposts and the lintel of every house in which they partake of the lamb. That same night they shall eat its roasted flesh…. This day shall be a memorial feast for you, which all your generations shall celebrate… as a perpetual institution.” At the first Eucharist, Jesus commands his apostles, “Do this in remembrance of me,” thereby ordaining them as his priests of his New Covenant.

The apostles had been washed with water, sanctified by blood, bestowed an inheritance in the Lord, and entrusted with the mission of offering the unblemished Lamb. As the Catholic Church has always believed and taught, this memorial sacrifice, this Eucharist, re-presents, truly makes present, the sacrifice of the Cross, and applies its saving fruits among us. On Holy Thursday, Jesus gave his New Covenant Church the intertwined gifts of the Holy Eucharist and the Holy Priesthood.

The trial of this Long Lent of 2020 has made Catholics more appreciative of God’s precious gifts. This evening, we are blessed by the presence of the three seminarians from our local parishes assisting at Mass. We thank God for their vocations and urge them to press on. Eventually, this Long Lent of the Church will joyfully end and these young men will be (God willing) ordained to serve her, offering Christ’s sacrifice as loving servants for the good of us all. Pray for our seminarians, Eric, Matthew, and Isaac, that they may take up the cup of salvation; that they may offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call upon the name of the Lord; that they may fulfill ordination promises to the Lord in the presence of all his people. And with patient eagerness let us pray for the coming day when all of us, God’s priests and his people, can celebrate the Mass together again.

Prepared for this Time

Wednesday, 3rd Week of Lent

Moses spoke to the people and said:

“I teach you the statutes and decrees as the Lord, my God, has commanded me… Observe them carefully, for thus will you give evidence of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations, who will hear of all these statutes and say, ‘This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people.’ … However, take care and be earnestly on your guard not to forget the things which your own eyes have seen, nor let them slip from your memory as long as you live, but teach them to your children and to your children’s children.”

We may not have expected circumstances to be as they are now, but these things come as no surprise to God from his vantage point outside of time. He permits such trials for the salvation of souls and for his saints to more greatly share in his likeness and glory. The Lord, in his providence, has been preparing you for this season.

In difficult times like these, virtue is tested, character is proven, and many souls will rise or fall. So take care and be earnestly on your guard. Do not to forget the things of faith your ears have heard and eyes have seen. Teach and practice what you have learned. For as Jesus said to his disciples, “whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.”