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Psalm 22 Fulfilled

March 24, 2024

Palm Sunday
By Fr. Victor Feltes

A thousand years before Christ’s Passion, King David was inspired by the Holy Spirit to pen the Twenty-Second Psalm. Jesus quotes this psalm’s opening words from the Cross: “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” Psalm 22 contains passage after passage prophetically predicting details of Good Friday.

It foretells how Christ’s enemies would deride him: “Scorned by men, despised by the people… they mock me with parted lips, they wag their heads: ‘He relied on the Lord; let him deliver him, let him rescue him, if he loves him.’”

It reveals what Jesus would endure in his chest, mouth, limbs, and back: “My heart has become like wax, it melts away within me. As dry as a potsherd is my throat; my tongue cleaves to my palate… They have pierced my hands and my feet; I can count all my bones.”

It predicts what all four gospels writers record the soldiers did: “They stare at me and gloat; they divide my garments among them, and for my vesture they cast lots.”

Despite expressing great anguish at feeling as if God were distant throughout these sufferings, the psalm declares hope in deliverance, a restoration to life: “I will proclaim your name to my brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will praise you. …All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord; All the families of nations will bow low before him… The poor will eat their fill… And I will live for the Lord; my descendants will serve you. The generation to come will be told of the Lord, that they may proclaim to a people yet unborn the deliverance you have brought.”

These accurate prophesies have been realized in God’s Church, where our Lord is with and in his Eucharistic people proclaiming his resurrection to every land and generation. The Twenty-Second Psalm was fulfilled in Jesus Christ and he continues today to fulfill it in our midst.

Posted in David, Feast Day Homilies, Homily, Inspired Scripture, Jesus Christ, Passion, Salvation History, Sunday Homilies | Leave a Comment »

He Set His Face Like Flint

March 23, 2024

Palm Sunday
By Fr. Chinnappan Pelavendran

This week, the Holy Week, is a week like no other in the year, a week when we celebrate in our special celebrations on Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil, what Jesus did for us. This week is a week to take time out, to stop, to reflect, to spend time with Jesus who gave his life for us, a week to pray.

Today I want to share my thoughts briefly on the words of the Prophet Isaiah: “I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who tore out my beard; my face I did not hide from insults and spitting. The Lord God is my help, therefore I am not disgraced; Therefore, I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame.” (Isaiah 50:6-7) This passage from the prophet Isaiah is very striking and every detail of his prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled in the passion of Jesus.

The face is very important because, in many ways, the face represents the inner person. “The front part of the human head including the chin, mouth, nose, cheeks, eyes, and the forehead.” Therefore, the expressions of the mouth, such as smiling, tight lips, and shaking lips form part of facial expressions. Emotions of cheerfulness, fearfulness, troubled mind, and anger are often expressed on the face. The eye is called the light of the body and the window of the soul.

The face not only gives an idea of the emotional state of a person but also the mental state. One can imagine the facial expression of Jesus in those moments of his suffering and distress. Jesus also communicated to God with his face. When he went into the Garden of Gethsemane, he fell on his face to pray. Falling to the face was a mark of humility and total surrender to God’s will.

Therefore, it is not surprising that the detractors of Jesus targeted his face. “Then they spat in his face and struck him, while some slapped him. The soldiers weaved a crown of thorns and placed it on his head (his forehead, his face)…They spat upon him took the reed and kept striking him on the head.”

There is something great to learn from Jesus. Even when his body was wounded and his face suffered bashing, He set his face like flint meant he remained positive and strong. In his wounds, he never lost the spirit of fortitude, endurance, patience, and boldness. He carried his cross with dignity without a word of insult to his persecutors. What is more, even in the face of agony he sought the face of God and the will of God.

Therefore, He teaches us the necessity of seeking the face of the Lord when we are in difficulty, even when our detractors try to put our faces to shame. “Seek the Lord and His strength; Seek His face continually.” (1 Chronicles 16:11)

Posted in Feast Day Homilies, Homily, Jesus Christ, Passion, Sunday Homilies | Leave a Comment »

Jesus the Grain of Wheat Died to Harvest Us

March 20, 2024

5th Sunday of Lent
By Fr. Chinnappan Pelavendran

Who are the important people in our world? Who are the great people in our country? It depends on what you mean by “important” and “great.” These are some of the people in our world who receive glory, fame, and publicity: such as pop stars, sports stars, successful businesspeople, and company directors. Other people are not famous—people caring for sick relatives, people suffering crosses without grumbling, those encouraging others, those who bring the love of God to others, those who witness to Jesus in small ways. Are they the greatest people in our world? I think they are.

What about Jesus? At the wedding in Cana Jesus said, his hour had not yet come but in today’s Gospel, he says his hour has come. Now the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. (John 12:23)

What is this hour of glory for Jesus? It is his passion and death. That is the hour of glory for Jesus in John’s Gospel, his passion and death. Why? The first reading, taken from the book of the Prophet Jeremiah, explains how God will replace the Old Covenant of Judgment with a New Covenant of Forgiveness of sins. This New or Renewed Covenant prophesied by Jeremiah has been fulfilled, through Jesus’ life, and death. (John 12:24) “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” Here Jesus tells us that this is the price of eternal life. The grain, of course, does not die but is transformed into something completely new: roots, leaves, and fruit. Jesus here speaks about his own life, which he sacrificed to gain new life in the Kingdom. He invites us too to be ready to lose our life for the sake of Jesus to gain eternal life.

The hour of glory for Jesus is his passion and death because when he is lifted from the earth, he will draw all men to himself. (John 12:32) Jesus’ glory is not what the world thinks is glorious because the world does not see as God sees.

Today’s Gospel teaches us that new life and eternal life are made possible only by the death of the self through obedience, suffering, and service. Salt gives its taste by dissolving in water. A candle gives light by having its wick burned and its wax melted. Loving parents sacrifice themselves so that their children can enjoy a better life than they have had. Let us pray that we may acquire this self-sacrificing spirit, especially during Lent.

Only a life spent for others will be glorified, sometimes here in this world, but always in Heaven. We know that the world owes everything to people who have spent their time and talents for God and their fellow human beings. Mother Teresa, for instance, gave up her comfortable teaching career, and with just five rupees in her pocket began her challenging life for the “poorest of the poor” in the crowded slums of Calcutta. The people who spend their lives and talents for others are great and important.

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“Where I Am, There Also Will My Servant Be”

March 17, 2024

5th Sunday of Lent
By Fr. Victor Feltes

“Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be. The Father will honor whoever serves me.” Jesus says, “Where I am, there also will my servant be.” His statement is descriptive, prescriptive, and predictive. He describes what is the case, he prescribes how we should act, and he predicts what will be. His servants can be found where Jesus has been before. They should serve him where Jesus is now on earth. And one day his servants shall be where Jesus is in heaven.

So where has Jesus been? Next Sunday is Palm Sunday when we will remember the way of his sorrowful Passion; how he mentally agonized in the Garden of Gethsemane, how he faced religious and secular trials, criticism and mockery, how he carried and painfully endured his Cross. Jesus notes, “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.” Christ’s glory was made complete through his offering-up of his physical and emotional sufferings; and where he has been, his servant will also be. Jesus says, “No servant is greater than his master,” adding that if people persecuted him, they will persecute us also. St. Peter writes, “Beloved, do not be surprised that a trial by fire is occurring among you, as if something strange were happening to you. But rejoice to the extent that you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that when his glory is revealed you may also rejoice exultantly.” It will not always be an extreme burden, like martyrdom, but each of us has a cross to carry. Jesus says, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

Jesus Christ has been on Calvary. Where is he present on earth today? He is present in his Church, for he says, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there among them.” He is present in his Sacraments, most blessedly in the Eucharist, of which he says, “This is my Body” and “This is…my Blood.” He is present in little ones and the least of his brethren, for Jesus says, “Whoever receives one of these little ones in my name receives me,” and declares, “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brethren of mine, you did for me.” Therefore we should not neglect to gather and adore him in his Church, to approach and honor him in his Sacraments, and to love and help him in the small and vulnerable. The servants of Jesus should serve him where he is.

Where else is Christ now, following his Ascension? Jesus declared during his religious trial before the high priest, “From now on the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God.” So St. Paul urges us to “seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” More than a mere description of Christian life, more than just a call to serve him, Jesus’ words contain a promise of heaven. The Letter to the Hebrews calls Jesus Christ “the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.” And Jesus says, “Where I am, there also will my servant be. The Father will honor whoever serves me.”

Jesus Christ is present at Calvary, in his Church and in his Sacraments, with the lowly on earth and with the saints in heaven. Remember this, for Jesus says, “Where I am, there also will my servant be.”

Posted in Homily, Jesus Christ, Service | 1 Comment »

God Loves You So Much

March 11, 2024

4th Sunday of Lent
by Fr. Chinnappan Pelavendran

The central theme of today’s readings is that our salvation is the gift of a merciful God, given to us through Jesus, His Son. The readings give importance to God’s mercy and compassion and remind us of His great love and kindness. As an act of love and gratitude to God, who is “rich in mercy,” and as an expression of our Faith, we are invited to share Jesus’ sufferings by doing penance during Lent so that we may inherit our eternal salvation and the glory of his Resurrection in Heaven.

In the first reading, we learn the compassion and patience of God. The reading shows us how the people’s infidelities also caused them to lose the Temple, their homeland, until they “came to their senses,” recognizing their sinfulness, and cried out to God for mercy. It was then God came to their rescue, choosing to work through the pagan king Cyrus. To return them to their homeland and to help them rebuild His Temple there. God chose Cyrus the Great, a pagan conqueror, to become the instrument of His mercy and salvation for His chosen people.

The second reading reminds us to focus on the mystery of salvation as a gift to sinners. St. Paul teaches us that, although we do not deserve anything from God on our own merits, God has chosen to love, save, and give life to us – both Jewish and Gentile Christians. St. Paul says that Divine grace does three things for us: a) brings us to life in Christ, b) raises us with Christ, and c) seats us in the Heavens. The sole purpose of these Divine deeds is to show the immeasurable riches of God’s grace.

Today’s Gospel provides Jesus, the Son of God, to become the agent of God’s salvation, not just for one sinful nation but also for the sinfulness of the whole world. Through John 3:16, the Gospel teaches us that God has expressed His love, mercy, and compassion for us by giving His Only Son for our salvation. Nicodemus, the wealthy Pharisee, and member of the Sanhedrin, meets Jesus by night and begins a long religious discussion. Jesus explains to him that he must believe Jesus’ words because Jesus is the Son of God. Then, by referring to the story of Moses and the bronze serpent (Num 21:1-9), Jesus further explains God’s plan of salvation. Just as God saved the victims of serpent bite from death through the bronze serpent, He is going to save humankind from its sins by permitting the crucifixion and death of His Son Jesus, because the love of God for humankind is that great.

We need to love the cross, the symbol of God’s forgiving and merciful love: it is not only of God’s love and mercy but also of the price of our salvation, It encourages us not only to feel deep sorrow for another’s suffering but also to try our best to remove that suffering. God’s love is unconditional, universal, forgiving, and merciful. Let us try to make an earnest attempt to include these qualities in sharing our love with others during Lent

Posted in Homily, Love, Mercy, Sunday Homilies | Leave a Comment »

The Light of Christ

March 11, 2024

4th Sunday of Lent
Deacon Dick Kostner

It seems to me that the last time I talked to you I was wearing my “favorite” color of pink and talking about the light of Christ and once again I am called to talk to you bright as ever, once again displaying for all to see that God does indeed have a sense of humor in asking this Deacon friend of his to share some thoughts with you during this Holy Season of Lent before celebrating with you the “Light of Christ” at the Easter Vigil.

Why does God God punish us so much with pain and suffering? Why has our world lost common sense and no longer can determine what sex a person is or what bathroom one should use? Or the great question, where can I find someone I can count on to tell me some truth for it seems that no one seems to be able to even define what truth is? Sounds like the conversation between Pilate and Jesus don’t it? All of these big issues and questions are on display for us in the readings for this weekend with Jesus giving us the answer that we may not really want to hear or accept.

All of the problems we encounter during our lives centers around us being human descendants of Adam and Eve the first creatures God created in his image and likeness to create a new kingdom where love of God and others would find its home. But because of their desire to be like their creator and because of their free will they too wanted to be gods and make up their own plan of happiness and love, and so they did not listen to their creator and thus they and their descendants were blemished through their decision and God allowed them and all their descendants to suffer the consequences of their actions because of God’s love and respect for them.

Because of God’s love for us he gifted us with his son Jesus, and became human to allow us to learn how to live a life of happiness and love even in a world that contains sufferings. Jesus, our mentor and redeemer who will accompany us on our journey to eternity and support us to weather problems beyond our control such as natural storms and yes even the experience of having to die.

But what about the sufferings we experience such as failed relationships, and trying to find truth in a world filled with craziness? Where do we get relief and answers? Jesus gives us the answer in our Gospel as he explains it to Nicodemus. The answer is: “Through the light of Christ” and by allowing the light of Christ to become transparent and to shine through us as brothers and sisters of our Brother Jesus.

I believe that through our baptism we are given a hot line number, a switch so to speak that allows us to make a call for help to Jesus at any time of the day or night. When we are suffering or just uncertain of a path we are tempted to follow in life all we have to do is to not be afraid to make a call to the someone who can help us see the light to get us through our suffering or make that important decision. A person we can depend on to tell us the truth, that person is Jesus who has promised to send his spirit, the “light” referred to in the Gospels, to help us see our way out of a dilemma or weather a suffering. The problem is we first need to make that call for help or throw that switch “on” in order to make that connection with him, and secondly we need to listen to and trust his response even though it might not make sense to us or we disagree with what he is saying.

Because of free will if we fail to listen to him and trust ourselves over his advice, we will need to accept the consequences of our decision. God does not inflict punishment on us, rather he allows us to make up our own mind which can impose on us results that we might like to blame on him or others.

When I first got out of law school and began practice the first thing my dad taught me was to never be afraid to ask people who have knowledge and experience, for help. He said when you are uncertain pick up the phone and call a fellow attorney for advice. They will never refuse to help out a fellow brother. I trusted my dad and followed his advice and that eliminated me making a lot of mistakes and needless sufferings.

Jesus gifts us with the Sacraments to offer us help and support. He gives us an army of spiritual advisors to access through his Church, his body and his priests educated in obtaining for us the vocation he planned for each of us at our birth. And yes he gives us his written hopes and direction through his Gospels for us to study and to partner with him in building the kingdom of God here and now.

Do you trust Jesus? Do you believe he will tell you the truth? If so why do we not think about asking him and his Church first for help and direction when we are uncertain if we are making the right move in life or experiencing sufferings and need some support? He knows the future and what is best for us we don’t, so that’s where we need to trust his advice and accept it. We only need to throw the switch to see the light of Christ overtake the darkness of the world we live in and continue our walk in safety.

Remember the ashes we received, listen to our friend Jesus and “Repent and believe in the Gospel” to move through the Good Friday’s of life and see the light of Christ with him through his Resurrection on Easter Sunday. Assignment: Examination of Conscience meditation on being a Light Disciple through prayer giving us “The Last Days of our Life with no regrets!” A Second Chance! (PS. Barb agrees with AJ she says I look good in pink!)

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Zeal for Your House Will Devour Me

March 2, 2024

3rd Sunday of Lent
By Fr. Chinnappan Pelavendran

Like the desert (Lent week 1) and the mountain (week 2), the Temple is a place of special encounter with God. However, today we are not going to see the glorious face of Jesus; we are going to see his angry face. At the same time Jesus is kind and merciful, we should not take his kindness for granted. His love is forever yet, he corrects our faults. By chasing those buying and selling out of the Temple, Jesus gives us a foretaste of his wrath on those who do not obey the commandments of God. The Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:1-17) given by God are meant to be obeyed and kept by all. Yet many of us are taking it for granted. God is the Father of us all and he wants us to be upright.

For this reason, St. Paul tells us that, “while the Jews demand miracles and Greeks look for wisdom, here are we preaching a crucified Christ.” (1 Cor. 1:22-25) We preach Christ because he is the power and wisdom of God. Those who follow Christ are on the right path because he has the message of eternal life. Those who do not know Christ lack wisdom.

Since they lack wisdom, they turned the house of God, which is meant for prayer into a marketplace. Jesus proved to them that he had a strong desire to dwell in God’s house forever. He exclaimed, “zeal for your house will devour me.” (Jn. 2:13-25) This zeal to dwell in God’s house forever is the motivating factor behind Jesus’ mission. He has come to serve, not to be served, and to give his life as a ransom for many. The house of God is the house of prayer and worship.

On the spiritual level, the temple refers to every one of us. St. Paul tells us in the First Letter to the Corinthians (3:16-17) that we are God’s temple and God’s Spirit dwells in us. Therefore, if anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy the person, for God’s temple is Holy, and that we are.

For those who feel that going to church to worship God is not necessary, Jesus has proved to them that we meet in God’s house for adoration and prayers. The church is a sacred place. It should be kept holy and reserved for things concerning God. When we gather in the church, we are in the presence of the almighty and ought to maintain the decorum befitting his presence. May our Lenten observance help us to experience the presence of God among us.

Let us love our parish Church as “our Heavenly Father’s house” and make it a holier place by our care for it, by our active participation in the liturgy, by offering our time and talents in the various ministries, and by our financial support for its maintenance and development.

Posted in Homily, Jesus Christ, Sunday Homilies, Temple Cleansing | Leave a Comment »

Revere What Is Holy

March 2, 2024

3rd Sunday of Lent
By Fr. Victor Feltes

On a spring day before Passover, Jesus went up to the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. He found people there selling animals to be sacrificed; oxen, sheep, and doves. He also saw money changers doing business there, seated at their tables exchanging foreign currencies. Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, then made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area along with the sheep and oxen. He spilled the money changers’ coins and overturned their tables. The doves for sale were kept in cages, so Jesus told those vendors, “Take these out of here!” Jesus proclaims peacemakers blessed, yet we see that he is not a pacifist. His disciples who witnessed the event recalled a verse from Psalm 69, “Zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me.” So why was what was going on at the temple upsetting to Jesus and insulting to his Father?

Jesus said, “Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” He also quoted to them a verse from Isaiah, “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.” “But you,” Jesus said, “are making it ‘a den of thieves!’” Jesus was angered by how they were profaning the temple, exploiting the Jewish faithful, and being obstacles to foreign peoples’ coming to worship God. The Jews regarded marketplaces as impure places. St. Mark’s Gospel notes how “on coming from [marketplaces], they would not eat without purifying themselves.” Running a market at the temple was treating the holy place like somewhere base or ordinary. Jesus likened the vendors and temple officials to a den of thieves for charging the Jews who came for worship inflated animal prices and exploitive rates of exchange. And their marketplace was setup inside the Court of the Gentiles, the temple courtyard for all the nations, where God desired non-Jews to come and worship him. Consider how much harder it is to pray when surrounded by the noise of others. (This is why we encourage people after Mass to gather to chat in our vestibule or basement—to preserve the quiet of this holy place for the benefit of others at prayer.) Ultimately, Jesus cleanses the temple because the ways in which it was being profaned were creating obstacles to peoples’ deeper relationship with God.

A physical holy place can be profaned. Holy names can be treated profanely as well. God commands his people, “I, the Lord, am your God… You shall not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain. For the Lord will not leave unpunished the one who takes his name in vain.” This second of the Ten Commandments forbids the misuse of God’s holy name. Swearing false oaths, invoking God to declare untruths, is taking his name in vain. Neglecting or spurning doing something that you have vowed to God, is taking his name in vain. And most commonly of all, using the Lord’s name without reverence and love (that is, blasphemy), is taking his name in vain. Using God’s name carelessly like a joke, employing the name of Christ like a word for excrement, treating holy things as base or ordinary creates a stumbling block for others as they see our Faith as foolishness. If we do not lovingly respect our holy friends in heaven and holy things on earth, then why should they? Only say “O my God” as an act of prayer. Only say “Bless your heart” if you sincerely mean it. And only say “I swear to God” about things which are gravely important and true.

The Second Commandment demands reverence for the Lord’s name for the same reason Jesus forcibly cleansed the temple; that people may come into deeper loving communion with God. Let us love God, and his holy ones, and everyone by word and deed, and respect his holy things and places. By our lived Christian example, may others come to do the same.

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The Mountaintop Experience

February 26, 2024

2nd Sunday of Lent
By Fr. Chinnappan Pelavendran

God’s call is personal; it is an invitation to enter into his holiness with an attitude of faith and total trust in God. As we enter the second week of Lent, our task is to continue to examine our hearts and change ourselves to be worthy of his glorious paschal mystery. As human beings, we do not like to change and we resist any change as much as we can. However, change is a part of our life. We know that we are pilgrims on a journey to a more permanent dwelling place. A place of total union with our God.

In Genesis 12, God tested Abraham to leave his father’s land for an unknown land. Abraham through his obedience demonstrated that he loved God more than his father’s land. In the first reading as we saw today, God tested Abraham again to see how convinced and strong his faith was by asking him to sacrifice the son of promise. Abraham was a man of great faith and his faith led him to the mountaintop, a place of great encounter with God. It took Abraham three days to journey to the mountaintop at Moriah for the sacrifice and within this period Abraham never changed his mind for his faith remained firm.

God wants you to make the first step with determination and he will come and take control. Remember not to entertain distractions and discouragements in your journey to the mountain-top, Abraham had to leave his servants at the foot of the mountain while he climbed with Isaac alone to avoid distractions. When we keep our faith strong in God and we are ready to make enormous sacrifices towards meeting Him at the mountaintop, then we can be sure that God will be on our side and as the second reading says if God is on our side nobody can be against us. Even when we make mistakes as humans, God would still forgive us since Christ has died to spare us and he stands at God’s right hand interceding for us.

In the Gospel reading, Jesus leads his disciples up a high mountain to witness his transfiguration. Elijah and Moses appear and this demonstrates that Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophets and the law. God speaks from heaven and this gives the disciples clarity in their vocations. Peter wants to stay in the moment. Peter wants to build monuments and to stay. Soon after the events at Mount Tabor, however, Jesus begins to lead his disciples to Jerusalem and the cross. You see, Jesus leads his disciples to another mountain, Golgotha, where all of humanity is transfigured through his passion, death, and resurrection. For Abraham, the undiscovered country seems to be a stretch of land that God would give to him and his descendants. For the disciples of Jesus, the undiscovered country is our salvation, the promise of resurrection and everlasting life.

As we make our way with Jesus from our Mount Tabors to our Good Fridays, we are invited to never lose sight of where Jesus is ultimately leading us. Our destination is our Easter hope. To get there, we need to know who we are, and where we are going, and recommit ourselves to following Jesus who is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

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His Manifest Devotion

February 24, 2024

2nd Sunday of Lent
By Fr. Victor Feltes

How could Abraham do what he did? He fully trusted in God, and through this trust he and us were greatly blessed. God had promised descendants to Abraham through his son, Isaac, declaring, “Through Isaac descendants shall bear your name.” Because of the miraculous birth his son and other experiences with God, Abraham believed the Lord could and would keep all his promises.

So when Abraham reached the mountain of sacrifice, where the Jewish temple would be built about 900 years later in Jerusalem, he told his servants (in a passage omitted from our first reading): “Stay here with the donkey, while the boy and I go on over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.” The Holy Spirit tells us in the Letter to the Hebrews that Abraham “reasoned that God was able to raise even from the dead, and he received Isaac back as a symbol.”

After Jesus was transfigured and proclaimed by the Eternal Father to be his beloved Son, “as they were coming down from the mountain, [Jesus] charged [Peter, James, and John] not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when [he] had risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what rising from the dead meant.” The sacrifice of Isaac, in which Abraham’s son was spared, foreshadows the sacrifice of Jesus offered by God the Father for us.

Upon staying the hand of Abraham, the Lord’s messenger said, “I know now how devoted you are to God.” After Christ’s sacrifice, we now know how devoted God is to us. St. Alphonsus Liguori agrees with St. Thomas Aquinas in saying, “God loves man just as if man were His god, and as if without man He could not be happy; ‘as if man were the god of God Himself, and without him He could not be happy.’”

Such is God’s devotion to us. And brothers and sisters, as St. Paul writes, “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all, how will he not also give us everything else along with him?” So let us fully trust God as Abraham did, and through this well-founded trust be greatly blessed and greatly bless others as well.

Posted in Abraham, Faith, Homily, Sunday Homilies, Trust, Typology | 2 Comments »

What Is “The Gospel”?

February 17, 2024

1st Sunday of Lent
By Fr. Victor Feltes

God loves us despite our sins. Sin divides people from God and one another. So to forgive our sins, to heal our divisions, and to make us saints, God the Father sends his Eternal Son. Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Son of Mary, suffers, dies, and rises again to achieve our reconciliation. Through baptism into Christ and his Church we can be saved from sin and death, similar to the story of Noah whose family is saved through the Flood inside of the ark. As God the Holy Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert so he guides his Church, forming saints in Christ’s likeness.

This is an expression of what today we call the gospel. God loves us and wants to deliver us from sin and death and to bless us in his Church through Christ’s saving sacrifice. This is our Faith. This is the Good News both you and I are called to share with others. Who will you invite to receive the gifts of God you have known and enjoyed? If you are open to it, the Holy Spirit will arrange opportunities for you to do so.

Today we hear St. Mark recount how “Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God: ‘This is the time of fulfillment! The Kingdom of God is at hand! Repent, and believe in the gospel!’” This is how Jesus preached at the beginning of his public ministry years before his Passion, Death, and Resurrection. We have an idea of what “the gospel” means now, but what was “the gospel of God” that Jesus called people to believe in before his saving sacrifice had happened?

All of the New Testament writers wrote in Greek. The word our English bibles translate as “gospel” is the Greek word “euangelion” (εὐαγγέλιον). Euangelion is a compound word which combines eu which means “good” and angelia meaning “announcement.” In the ancient Greco-Roman world, the news of a new ruler coming to power or of some major military victory were proclaimed as euangelion. In that cultural setting, Jesus proclaims the great announcement that God’s Kingdom is near.

A divine victory was imminent. Time had come for fulfillment of God’s Old Covenant promises. The will of God would soon be done more fully on earth as it’s done in heaven. Jesus says, “This is the time of fulfillment! The Kingdom of God is at hand! Repent, and believe in the gospel!” Jesus is calling his hearers to believe that things can get better.

Pessimists imagine this world is forever getting worse. But if that were true, if things were always becoming worse and worse what good would there remain for any of us to see now? How could any of us still be left alive? Things can get worse or they can get better. In days past, at the beginning of his public ministry, and now, at the start of this season of Lent, Jesus calls for repentance and faith in the gospel. He calls us to believe that we can become more perfectly like himself; to believe this world around us, as a result of grace and cooperation with Christ, can be more fully God’s Kingdom come.

When he came to his hometown, the people of Nazareth were unwilling to believe in Jesus and what he preached. They refused to believe that Jesus could change their lives and change their world. “So,” St. Mark records, Jesus “was not able to perform any mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.” Peoples’ trust and openness was a factor in how much they could receive from Christ.

What could Jesus do in us and in our world beginning in this Lent? Jesus calls you to “repent and believe in the gospel!”

Posted in Christian Perfection, Faith, Homily, Jesus Christ, Sunday Homilies, Trust | Leave a Comment »

Rites of Miraculous Cleansing

February 11, 2024

6th Sunday of Ordinary Time
By Fr. Victor Feltes

The gospels record how a man with some advanced form of skin disease once came to Jesus in one of Israel’s towns. Seeing Jesus, he approaches and kneels and bows beseeching him, “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.” Our Lord, who can read human hearts, probably knows how much this particular miracle will cost him, but he is moved with compassion. Jesus reaches out his hand, touches the leprous man and says, “I do will it. Be made clean.” And the leprosy left him immediately.

One can imagine that man’s joy and excitement. He wants to tell everyone about his miracle! However, Jesus warns him sternly, “See that you tell no one anything.” Apparently, at this point in his public ministry, Jesus does not want to attract too much attention too quickly. Instead, Jesus tells the cured man, “Go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them.” What did this offering prescribed in the Mosaic Law look like?

We read in the Old Testament Book of Leviticus: “This is the law for the victim of leprosy at the time of his purification. He shall be brought to the priest, who is to go outside the camp to examine him.” This reference to ‘going outside of the camp’ dates back to the days when the Hebrews were still wandering in the Sinai desert. “If the priest finds that the sore of leprosy has healed in the leper, he shall order the man who is to be purified, to get two live, clean birds, as well as some cedar wood, scarlet yarn, and hyssop.” So this offering involves a curious collection of items: two birds, some cedar, scarlet yarn, and at least a branch of hyssop plant.

Then Leviticus says, “The priest shall then order him to slay one of the birds over an earthen vessel with spring water in it. Taking the living bird with the cedar wood, the scarlet yarn and the hyssop, the priest shall dip them all in the blood of the bird that was slain over the spring water, and then sprinkle seven times the man to be purified from his leprosy. When he has thus purified him, he shall let the living bird fly away over the countryside.”

Jesus told the man he cured to perform to this peculiar ritual saying, “that will be proof for them.” But what would it prove? First, it would demonstrate to the Jewish leaders at the Temple that Jesus had not come to transgress God’s Law but to fulfill it. Also, the cured man himself would be living proof of Jesus’ greatness, for the miracle of a leper being suddenly healed is documented only twice in the Old Testament (i.e., the case of Moses’ sister Miriam and that of Naaman the Syrian). Yet ultimately, this ritual provides proof for all people that Jesus Christ’s saving sacrifice had been long-foreseen by God.

The scarlet yarn, the wood, and the hyssop would each have a role in his Passion. The scarlet yarn foreshadows the robe in which they clothed him. That cedar wood points to the Cross connected to his death. And St. John’s Gospel notes how a sprig of hyssop was employed to lift a sponge of sour wine up to Jesus’ lips. The two birds in that purification ritual were of symbolic importance as well. One bird is slain, while the other is spared. That second bird, after being dipped in the water and the blood of its brother, is set free. That spring water, risen from the earth, points to the liberating water of Christian baptism which receives its power from Jesus’ blood.

In addition to its commandments regarding sometimes contagious skin diseases, the Book of Leviticus has rules for evaluating, quarantining, and purifying fungal infections of houses, fabrics, or leather. These commandments were useful in helping protect peoples’ physical health. But these teachings also illustrate, in an allegorical way, lessons about sin in our lives. Mold in your home can harm the health of your whole household. Knowing this, people take black growths on their walls seriously. How seriously do you take diseases in your flesh? How seriously do you take the sins in your soul?

If you had been a leper back then, would you have come to Jesus? Lent begins this week, so decide what you will you do. Go, show yourself to the priest in Confession and faithfully offer the holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Remember and honor the scarlet yarn, the wood, and hyssop of the Innocent One who took your place and through whom you can be cleansed and freed.

Posted in Confession, Homily, Leper Healing, Repentance, Sunday Homilies, Typology | Leave a Comment »

The Lord’s Prayer — Funeral Homily for Jack Wolf, 87

February 9, 2024

By Fr. Victor Feltes

In Jack’s final months, I regularly encountered him in his room at Dove Nursing Home. I always found his wife, Mary, there at his side. Like our Blessed Mother Mary or St. Mary Magdalene at the Cross, she faithfully supported Jack through his Passion. He was grateful to receive Holy Anointing and Last Rites, grateful for the consolation of prayers and blessings, and most especially grateful for the precious gift of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist I brought him. Jack was peaceful, prayerful, and well-prepared to die, ready to commend his spirit to God.

His wife Mary tells me that on Jack’s final Friday before God took him to himself, they were praying the Rosary together. Jack was too weak by then to speak very much, but he would join in the first words of the Rosary’s greatest prayer: “Our Father… Our Father… Our Father.” The “Our Father” is known as “The Lord’s Prayer” because it is how our Lord Jesus Christ taught his disciples how to pray. Jesus’ prayer models what he wishes us to desire and to ask for.

One Friday afternoon outside Jerusalem, while darkness covered the whole land, Jesus hung dying on his Cross. Before breathing his last breath, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit!” He prays to God his Father, who is now our Father too. Jesus desires that God’s name would be hallowed; that is, known as holy and loved by all.

Though Jesus is both King of the Jews and the King of Kings, he serves and dies to help the reign of God’s Kingdom come. As Jesus sees and suffers the consequences of our sins, he longs that his Father’s will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. Christ offers his Body on the Cross as he did at the Last Supper. He once declared, “the Bread that I will give is my Flesh for the life of the world.” He gives this Bread to his Church daily at every Holy Mass.

Jesus sacrifices himself to forgive us our trespasses hoping and insisting that we would likewise forgive those who trespass against us. Jesus wants us reconciled vertically to God and horizontally to each other, uniting heaven and earth and East and West in the likeness of the Cross. Jesus faces temptation to save us from temptation. He endures this world’s evil deliver us from evil. So you see, the Our Father prayer Jesus urges us to pray, reflects the great blessings the Lord wills for us.

St. Paul proclaims that “we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death.” And “if we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection.” It is right that we should offer prayers for Jack’s soul, that he may be perfectly pure to stand before our holy God with all the saints and angels in heaven. Yet we have a great and calm confidence for Jack, that he who was united to Jesus and devoted to our Father will share in Christ’s resurrection to glory. Amen.

Posted in Christian Perfection, Funeral Homilies, God the Father, Homily, Jesus Christ | Leave a Comment »

Growing In Christ’s Likeness

February 4, 2024

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Fr. Victor Feltes

This Sunday’s readings feature Job, Paul, and the mother-in-law of Simon Peter. What do these three people have in common? Let’s consider each in turn.

In our first reading we hear from Job who, like Jesus Christ and Mother Mary, suffers greatly despite his innocence. “I have been assigned months of misery,” he says, and troubled nights have been allotted to me. My days [swiftly] come to an end without hope.” At one point, Job’s wife even tells him to “curse God and die!” Yet, despite his painful, honest questions, Job never disobeys. He never renounces the Lord.

Next we hear the Apostle Paul telling the Corinthians how and why he preaches the gospel. Paul insists that preachers have a right to payment for their work, just like others who do valuable labor. He asks, “What then is my recompense?” What is his repayment or reward? “That, when I preach, I offer the gospel free of charge so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.” What is Paul saying? How is he repaid by not getting paid? Paul says he makes himself “a slave to all so as to win over as many as possible… All this I do for the sake of the gospel, so that I too may have a share in it.”

Lastly, we hear the story from Mark’s Gospel about Simon Peter’s sick mother-in-law. She lays in bed in Capernaum enduring a severe fever. Having just cast out a demon at the synagogue, when Jesus enters the nearby house of Simon Peter and Andrew along with James and John, they immediately tell him about her condition. Jesus approaches her, grasps her hand, and helps her up. The fever leaves her immediately and she waits on them. It seems she had been eager to serve, only her illness had prevented her. Something which Job, and Paul, and Simon Peter’s mother-in-law have in common (besides all appearing in today’s readings) is sharing a likeness to Jesus.

We see Jesus in our gospel driving out demons and curing the sick. If he had been charging fees for his healings, Jesus might have soon become the richest man in Capernaum. If he had announced that he was the Messiah and called men in the region to take up arms with him, Jesus could have soon been seated upon a Jerusalem throne. Instead, though everyone is looking for him, Jesus withdraws alone to a deserted place to pray. Jesus Christ was not called to be great in worldly wealth and power (in the pattern of Herod, or Pilate, or Caesar) but to be a suffering servant. He had not come to be served but to serve, giving his life as a ransom for many.

This is the path to Christ’s glory, which he calls others to share. So the innocent victim Job undergoes a “dark night” when his physical and spiritual consolations are stripped away. Would he still love God and goodness when no longer tasting their rewards? Through Job’s trials his love is purified to become more like Christ’s in his Passion. And St. Paul, like Jesus, does not labor for earthly riches but takes the form of a slave. He ministers for the love of souls and to share in heaven’s reward which this world cannot equal. And Simon Peter’s mother-in-law is eager to serve as she is able, agreeing with Jesus that it more blessed to give than to receive.

It’s too late in time for your name or mine to be written in the Bible, but if in the end our names appear in heaven’s Book of Life, our Christian lives will have shared some likeness to the life of Jesus Christ.

Posted in Christian Perfection, Homily, Jesus Christ, Job, Redemptive Suffering, Salvation History, St. Paul, Sunday Homilies | Leave a Comment »

Obey Christ For Abundant Life

January 28, 2024

4th Sunday of Ordinary Time
By Fr. Victor Feltes

The people of Capernaum witnessed the authority and power of Jesus, “He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.” The demons are mere creatures, but Jesus Christ is Lord. Will we heed and obey him? According to Catholic exorcists, a good confession is more powerfully effective than an exorcism. This makes sense. It is difficult to root out demonic influence in a person’s life when the person is siding with the demons in rebellions against God through grave sin. But once that person comes to Confession — repentant, seeking to sin no more — they are rejecting those sins and the demons lose some in-roads.

I once received a request from an unmarried, non-Catholic couple to help them with spiritual disturbances occurring in their home. They were hearing strange noises and voices, seeing and finding inanimate objects moving about, and their dogs were behaving strangely. Unless they were lying to me (and I can see no purpose in them lying) the couple sometimes witnessed phenomena together, which rules out the possibility of these being mere hallucinations. I visited and spoke with them, blessed their house, prayed for them, and blessed them.

When I reached out to them some months later, they said they had been thinking about contacting me again. They said that following the house blessing things had gotten better — quieter, for a time — but then the disturbances resumed and maybe worse than before. So I came back and blessed their house and both of them anew, but I admonished them again, just as I had before, that it was gravely important that they cease fornicating. I told them God’s will for them was either to marry, to live separately, or to live chastely like a brother and sister. Behaving otherwise is to lie with one’s body; simulating a permanent gift of self without vowing that same commitment before God and the world.

That man and woman and I did not know whether spiritual disturbances had occurred in that house before they moved in. However, I can see why the Lord might permit these unsettling signs for the couple’s own good: to deepen their faith in spiritual things, to help them recognize their sin, and to motivate them to change. I believe my first blessings had some effect to reveal to these non-Catholics that such blessings hold power and to validate me as a messenger. Yet these blessings did not make the disturbances go away forever since that would do them little good; making the symptoms disappear without curing the underlying disease. The couple was grateful for my visits, but I do not know what they went on to choose.

Jesus manifests his full authority over demons. “He commands…the unclean spirits and they obey him.” So one might ask, “Why doesn’t Jesus simply constrain all of the demons now, making them completely incapable of doing anything?” I suppose some imagine that without any demons there would be no further evil in the world, but temptations and sins would still remain. As St. James writes in his New Testament letter, “each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire conceives and brings forth sin, and when sin reaches maturity it gives birth to death.” Would our temptations be less if the demons were no more? Quite possibly. So why does Jesus allow them to prowl about the world at all? It must be for our greater good and glory, for “God works all things for the good of those who love him.” Why was Satan allowed to tempt Jesus in the desert if not for Christ’s glory and our greater good? And notice how once Jesus said, “Get away, Satan,” then the devil left him. Jesus Christ offers each of us the grace to do his will, but will we heed and obey him?

Someday, I would like to write a book imagining modern-day America if it suddenly became impossible to commit the vast majority of sins. How would people react to God the Father decreeing that much more of his active will must be done on earth as it is in heaven? My story would describe the initial disruptions for a society in which the markets for immoral things evaporate overnight, and many other goods and jobs (like door locks and security guards) are no longer needed. Then I would tell how much society would benefit from the abolishment of sin. Imagine all of the wealth wasted on sins or on repairing sins’ effects instead being spent more usefully; not to mention the greater peace people would enjoy from never being willfully mistreated anymore. Yet my narrative would also note how much people would complain; for instance, they would insist upon their “rights” to speed or curse or lie, or to misuse their bodies or their money however they desire. They would denounce God for his tyranny, and wail and grind their teeth. For these people, it would be like a hell on earth.

In Deuteronomy, Moses proclaims to the Hebrews, “A prophet like me will the Lord, your God, raise up for you from among your own kin; to him you shall listen.” God declares about that prophet, “[I] will put my words into his mouth… Whoever will not listen to my words which he speaks in my name, I myself will make him answer for it.” Jesus is that promised prophet raised up from his own people, the Incarnate Word of God. “People were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.”

Jesus does not instruct us in order to control us. He does not command us so that he may dominate us. Jesus declares, “A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that [you] might have life and have it more abundantly.” In this age, we are free to disobey God like the demons did. But in the age to come, such sins will no longer be permitted. If we die as friends of God, before we can enter heaven our love for sins will need to first be fully purged. God shall not force his enemies into heaven against their will.

Brothers and sisters, Christ is Lord. He is here to help us, not to destroy us. So choose love over sin, end your rebellions, and encounter him in the confessional. Heed his authority, obey his teachings, and embrace the more abundant life Jesus is offering you.

A Protest Against Paradise

Posted in Chastity, Chrisitian Virtues, Christian Perfection, Culture, Homily, Marriage and Family, Satan, Spiritual Warfare, Sunday Homilies, Supernatural Phenomena | Leave a Comment »

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