Carry the gospel with you
Gospel reading of the day:
Matthew 5:38-42
Jesus said to his disciples: “You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one to him as well. If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand him your cloak as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles. Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.”
Reflection on the gospel reading: Jesus taught nonviolence. This passage in the gospel of Matthew makes that clear enough, and his entire life, particularly his behavior at his arrest and during his passion show that Jesus saw the way of nonviolence as fundamental to life in communion with God. Jesus teaches nonviolence, but he does not teach rolling over and playing dead. Rather, he encourages a way for those in a position of powerlessness to recover and retain their dignity when powerful people attempt to denigrate them. Each of the situations that this gospel passage describes requires an oppressor to make a choice. If I am hit, and I turn my cheek, the oppressor must choose whether to continue the assault. If someone wants to sue me for my possessions, and I offer to give more than he asks, the litigant has to negotiate with me as an equal about what he is willing to take. If someone compels my service for a mile, and I have no choice in the circumstance, reclaim my dignity at the end of the mile by giving them what they have no right to compel from me. Jesus does not teach us to be punching bags in the face of oppression. He instead teaches us to grab the moral initiative, confront violence with creativity and imagination, resist humiliation, seek the transformation of the oppressor, and claim our dignity as human persons.
Saint of the day: The Carthusian Martyrs were a group of monks of the London Charterhouse, the monastery of the Carthusian Order in central London, who were put to death by the 
English state from June 19, 1535 to September 20, 1537. The method of execution was hanging, disemboweling while still alive, and then quartering. The group also includes two monks who were brought to that house from the Charterhouses of Beauvale and Axholme and similarly dealt with. The total is of 18 men. At the outset of the “King’s Great Matter,” (the term that described Henry VIII’s decision to divorce Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn) the government was anxious to secure the public acquiescence of the monks of the London Charterhouse, since for the austerity and sincerity of their mode of life they enjoyed great prestige. When this attempt failed in this, the only alternative was to annihilate the resistance, since a refusal engaged the prestige of the monks in the opposite sense. The Church remembers today several of those Carthusians who willingly embraced death before they would betray the consciences.
Spiritual reading: Dear Lord, I do not ask to see the path. In darkness, in anguish and in fear, I will hang on tightly to your hand, and I will close my eyes, so that you know how much trust I place in you. (Mary Elizabeth Hesselblad)
Homily for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, Year A 2014
Homily for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, Year A 2014
As I have been suggesting over the past two weeks, there are three ways that Jesus did not leave us orphaned when he went back to the Father. Two weeks ago we celebrated the first of these on the Feast of Pentecost, when the Spirit descended and came into the world, into each one of us. The presence of the Spirit is all-encompassing, and was sent to be our Advocate and Counsellor. Today we celebrate the second of these ways that God’s presence remains among us. His presence is made real in the Eucharist, and allows each one of us to participate in the life and death of Jesus. The feast today, the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ is a yearly reminder that Christ is still with us, that we are part of the Body of Christ, and that we have access to his physical presence at each and every Eucharistic service – a fact that I think we sometimes take for granted.
The first reading today from Deuteronomy – again, read backwards – ties in the manna in the dessert, God’s way of feeding his flock during their forty year journey, with God continually feeding us in the Eucharist. And it is not bread alone that feeds us, but Christ also speaks to us in his Word, which is the third way Jesus is present to us. Deuteronomy says that God provides his food to “do [us] good”. We know from psychology and sociology today that we must take care of our basic needs – hunger and thirst – before we can even think about spiritual things. Just as God provided for the wilderness travelers, God provides spiritual food for us so that we can have the ability to understand that there is more to life than food.
These images of food and God as provider run throughout the Jewish Testament. In today’s psalm, for example we hear our God fills us with the finest wheat. Again, when we read backwards, how apt a description for the bread of the Christian Testament – the finest God has to offer – his Son.
The reading from St. Paul, again one of the earliest descriptions of Eucharist, reminds us that we all share in the Body and Blood of Christ. In one sense, through consuming the Bread we allow Jesus to use our bodies to become physically present. God is in us, and we are in God. The Bread allows us to be unified as well. We become, in a special way, joined together through partaking of the Eucharist. The cup of blessing is the third cup of wine used in a Passover celebration. Again, Paul is comparing the Eucharist to a Passover Meal, one which has been transformed through the death of Jesus. At weddings we often toast to the bride and groom. We lift our glasses, clink them with each other to show our solidarity and common wishes to the bride and groom. Similarly, the cup of blessing, shared by all, shows our solidarity, or common wish to be a member of the Body of Christ.
The section of John that we read today has been made very familiar to us through quoting and through many songs, so i think we tend to lose the surprise, the shock of it. Certainly non-believers who read this misinterpreted it widely, even as cannibalism. To talk about eating flesh and blood – even more anathema to a Jew! – smacked of strange ritual and ceremonies of the worst of the pagan cults.
But, those who know Jesus know that what Jesus is referring to is something different, and something quite beautiful. Jesus says that he himself is the manna that was sent down to heaven to feed those on the journey of life. It is different from the manna in the desert, however, because that bread was not any more than bread, and was there only to feed the body. It sustained life, but did not extend it. Jesus is the living bread that falls from heaven. Through the Eucharist he gives us this living bread – his flesh to eat. And it does more than sustain. It gives life, yes, but also extends life to life eternal, so that on the last day we will be raised up and live forever. These are revolutionary thoughts. I can barely imagine what those who first heard them must have thought. Remember John makes a point of it to say that Jesus said all this in the Jewish synagogue! No wonder many thought he was a crazy man!
It is only through reading backwards that the Apostles and we become able to see the relevance of what Jesus was saying. These passages are given meaning by the death and resurrection of Jesus.
It is so easy for us to normalize and not really think about the meaning of these passages. We hear people today who say they are spiritual but not religious, and by that, they seem to mean that they pray and maybe even have a relationship with Jesus, but they are not churched – they have no community to be attached to. This is so not Christian. Jesus constantly spoke of community, of being one with each other, to the point of giving us this gift of the Eucharist to make it all real. I feel sorry for those who say they are spiritual yet do not partake of the food that Jesus sends us each week. It reminds me of the parable of Jesus where the man was giving a banquet and nobody came. How sad.
For those of us that do come, this yearly feast is a reminder to us not to take the Eucharist for granted. Jesus tells us : Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink [his] blood, you don’t really have life in you.
My wish for you today is that you think about what the Eucharist means and can mean to you this week, that you have the ‘life’ that Jesus promises you, and that we have the strength and means to let others know that they are missing an incredible gift and an incredible opportunity.
Let the Good News of living forever ring out as we celebrate this wonderful feast of Christ’s Body and Blood!
Bishop Ron Stephens
Pastor of St. Andrew’s Parish in Warrenton, VA
The Catholic Apostolic Church in North America (CACINA)
[You can purchase a complete Cycle A of Bishop Ron’s homilies, 75 of them, from amazon.com for $9.99 – “Teaching the Church Year”]
Carry the gospel with you
Gospel reading of the day:
Matthew 5:33-37
Jesus said to his disciples: “You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, Do not take a false oath, but make good to the Lord all that you vow. But I say to you, do not swear at all; not by heaven, for it is God’s throne; nor by the earth, for it is his footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Do not swear by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black. Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the Evil One.”
Reflection on the gospel reading: We live in a world full of half-truths and outright lies. People’s efforts to interpret an event to suit a certain narrative are so transparent that almost anyone living in our day recognizes not only the word spin but also the process as it occurs. The wink-wink, nod-nod quality of the technique is so transparent that reporters explain to viewers they are in the “spin room” to cover the half-truths the room’s name implies. Vitamin companies promise their products cure cancer. Tobacco companies claim some of their products are healthier than others. Weight loss programs promise people can shed pounds without diet or exercise. A friend of mine used to sometimes answer my questions, “Yes–in the sense of no,” a small joke he knew would make me laugh.
But none of this is how it is to be with us who are baptized. Jesus calls us to an integrity of life where people can count on our word–if we say we will do something, people know we will do it–if we say something, people know we believe it. Saying yes when we mean yes and no when we mean no, does not mean saying everything we have in our heads, but it does mean that when a Christian does or says something, you can take it to the bank.
Saint of the day: Blessed Francisca de Paula de Jesus, commonly known as Aunt Francesca, was born in 1808 in São João del Rey in the State of Minas Gerais in Brazil. She was born outside marriage a slave named Maria Izabel. Her father, probably the owner of the ranch, was not known. Francisca had no last name. From her mother, she learned to pray, but being a woman and 
a slave, she could did not receive a formal education. As an adult, she never felt the need to learn to read, but near the end of her life, she said, “I wished only listen to the reading of the Holy Scriptures, and someone gave me this favor, and I was satisfied.” Freed from slavery in 1821, Francisca de Paula moved with her mother and a brother to Baependi. Within a few month, her mother was her deathbed and advised her to lead a retired life, practice charity, and preserve the Christian faith. Francisca believed doing this was her vocation, and she refused many requests for her hand in marriage.
Wanting to follow the advice of his mother, she lived alone in a small house on a hill at the limits of the town of Baependi to devote herself to prayer and care of the poor while her brother became a lieutenant in the National Guard, then a member of the city council, and a businessman.
Francisca de Paula, therefore, from her earliest youth chose a life of poverty to live in prayer, poor among the poor. She organized daily and weekly prayer meetings among the people of the surrounding district, offered a weekly lunch for the poor, and gave alms to the needy. She became a mother of the poor, ready to welcome those who approached her to ask for prayers, advice, 
consolation, and comfort. Only faith led her to give up a comfortable life and trouble-free for the sake of others. Despite being a former slave, she attracted people of every race and background to herself.
For 75 years, her home was visited by ordinary people and imperial councilors, young people and professionals, poor and rich, not only from Minas Gerais, but also from the neighboring state of São Paulo and especially from the capital at the time, Rio de Janeiro. Her brother died in 1862 and left all of his possession to his sister who used this considerable inheritance to increase charitable and social activities, including supporting construction of a chapel dedicated to the Immaculate Conception of Mary.
On July 8, 1888, she felt the need to divest himself of all that she possessed as an heiress, dictating in her will that her parish was to receive her wealth. Francisca died on June 14, 1895. Her body was kept exposed for four days to allow faithful come from all over to give her a last farewell. She was then buried in the church she had built to commemorate Jesus’ mother. She was beatified a little over a month ago on May 4, 2013.
Spiritual reading: To live by grace means to acknowledge my whole life story, the light side and the dark. In admitting my shadow side I learn who I am and what God’s grace means. (Brennan Manning)
Carry the gospel with you
Gospel reading of the day:
Matthew 5:27-32
Jesus said to his disciples: “You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body go into Gehenna.
“It was also said, Whoever divorces his wife must give her a bill of divorce. But I say to you, whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful) causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”
Reflection on the gospel reading: Jesus in today’s gospel makes a point about sin in general which may get masked because we are fixated on the particular issue he addresses. Jesus in this passage does not make so large a point about sex as he makes about our interior lives. We know his concern is not as much about sex as it is about what drives us: we know this because of the gentleness he applied to every sexual weakness he encountered, and we know this also because of the complete ferocity he displayed when people were hypocritical.
It is easy for us to level attacks on behaviors we think do not stand up in the light of the gospel, but sin isn’t just the external and the physical, that is, it isn’t just what others see. Jesus says that sin is insidious, because it is not only about what we do but also very much about our motivations and the things that people cannot see. Even if we live lives that are impeccable on the outside, there is always work to do inside, because the roots of our shortcomings, weaknesses, and sins may not always be obvious to us.
Saint of the day: Marianna Biernacka, was born Marianna Czokało in 1888. She was a Polish Roman Catholic citizen and a victim of the Second World War.
Before the Nazi occupation of Poland, Adolf Hitler is said to have authorized his commanders to kill “without pity or mercy, all men, women, and children of Polish decent or language. Only in this way can we obtain the living space we need.” During their occupation of Poland, the Gestapo would round up and kill Polish civilians in retaliation for any Germans killed by the resistance.
In July 1943, the Nazis conducted a mass arrest in the city of Lipsk as an act of reprisal for the Germans who were killed during the resistance. The names of Stanislaw Biernacka, together with his pregnant wife Anna, were in the list of those who were going to be killed. The Biernacka family were never politically active and poorly educated. Hence you can imagine their deep surprise when German soldiers knocked at their door to arrest Stanislaw and Anna Biernacka.
Early in the morning, the armed soldiers came to arrest Stanislaw and Anna. Stanislaw’s fifty-five-year-old mother, Marianna, fell on her knees and asked the Nazis to take her instead of Anna. Marianna was a simple woman, for whom God and his laws are the most important value, even more important than freedom. She said as the soldiers were taking the couple, “She is already in the last weeks of her pregnancy. I will go for her.” At first, Anna objected. But Marianna told her, “You are young, you must live.” The Nazis released Anna and took Marianna together with her son to the prison in Grodno.
According to witnesses, Marianna spent her time in prayer. While in prison, she requested for a rosary and a pillow. A parcel was sent to her, but it was not known if the parcel reached her. On July 13, 1943, she was shot to death together with her son and 48 other people in Naumowicze, near Grodno. Marianna Biernacka’s selfless sacrifice saved the life of her daughter-in-law and her grandchild. On June 13, 1999, Marianna was recognized as a martyr and beatified, alongside 107 other Polish martyrs of the war who collectively are known as the 108 Polish martyrs of World War II.
Spiritual reading: The creator of the heavens obeys a carpenter; the God of eternal glory listens to a poor virgin. Has anyone ever witnessed anything comparable to this? Let the philosopher no longer disdain from listening to the common laborer; the wise, to the simple; the educated, to the illiterate; a child of a prince, to a peasant. (Anthony of Padua)
Carry the gospel with you
Gospel reading of the day:
Matthew 5:20-26
Jesus said to his disciples: “I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven.
“You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, ‘Raqa,’ will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable to fiery Gehenna. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has 
anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court with him. Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge, and the judge will hand you over to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Amen, I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.”
Reflection on the gospel reading: From our early years, we are schooled in the law that we are not to kill, but in general, we think of this as a prohibition against violence that ends a life. Jesus tells us that the prohibition against killing is deeper than we think. We are enjoined against the slight acts of violence that cause ruptures in our communion with each other. We are to embrace a complete ethos of non-violence. Jesus also speaks of punishment here, that what we do to one another has ramifications, and even though that is troubling, there is something hopeful here, because Jesus talks about being released when we’ve paid the last penny.
Saint of the day: The Servant of God René Giraudet was born in France on December 4, 1907. Having prepared to serve as a missionary, ill health after his ordination as a deacon led doctors to suggest he ought not to serve as a missionary. He was ordained a priest on December 19, 1931 in Paris.
He was appointed vicar of Saint-Hilaire-de-Loulay March 5, 1932. He became the parish priest of Saint-Hilaire-du-Bois on January 24, 1942. To the constant refusal of the German authorities to 
authorize the creation of an official in Germany Chaplaincy French workers, Father Rodhain, Chaplain General of Prisoners of War, with the consent and encouragement the French episcopacy, called for volunteers to go to Germany as illegal worker-priests who clandestinely served French Catholics forced into labor in Germany.
René Giraudet saw here the possible realization of his missionary dream and on Holy Thursday April 22, 1943, the “chemist” Giraudet moved to Berlin where he was welcomed by the Father Bousquet, who was a secret priest who had arrived in January, and officials Catholic Action movement. Father Giraudet took charge of those whom illness had brought to the hospital. There, the young men were very touched by this older friend who took care of them. When Father Giraudet saw a well-disposed soul, he told him in a whisper, “Listen, my friend, I am a priest. Keep the secret!” The response would be astonishment, but great joy also, and conversation would become closer. During the week, he sat on a public bench to hear confessions, and entered a telephone booth to give Eucharistic Communion. On Sundays he organized trips into the woods surrounding Berlin to 
preach little retreats and to celebrate the Mass for seminarians, scouts, and Young Christian Worker members. He devoted himself to all these activities, in spite of fatigue from the factory work and the racket of the night bombardments.
After the arrest and deportation of Fr. Bousquet, Fr. Giraudet became the General Chaplain of the movement, but a wave of arrests occurred between February and August 1944. Arrested on June 12 and after four months in prison, René Giraudet was sent to Sachsenhausen where he found most of the arrested Catholic activists with whom he had worked. Subsequently, we was sent to Bergen-Belsen. This camp was ravaged by typhus, and Fr. Giraudet, already suffering from tuberculosis, also contracted typhys. After the liberation of the camp by the British April 15, 1945 
and when his health permitted, Fr. Giraudet returned to France. He arrived in Paris on June 11th and was hospitalized at Kremlin-Bicêtre. The next day, June 12th, he received Holy Communion and died peacefully shortly thereafter, at the age of 38. After a wake and a solemn funeral at Les Invalides, presided over by Cardinal Suhard, the archbishop of Paris, Father Giraudet’s body was received in his parish by great crowds. Funeral services, presided over by Bishop Cazaux, were celebrated there on June 18th, followed by interment in the cemetery in Chantonnay. Father Giraudet belongs to a group of fifty-some priests, religious, seminarians, Catholic youth organization members, and scouts, all victims of Nazism, whose cause for canonization as martyrs of the faith was introduced in 1988.
Spiritual reading: We stumble and fall constantly even when we are most enlightened. But when we are in true spiritual darkness, we do not even know that we have fallen. (Thomas Merton)
June 15, 2014 Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
Today is Trinity Sunday, the feast of the Holy Trinity. If we look back at the scriptures, the old testament really parallels the development of the human race. The history of Israel and its relationship with God is sometimes brutal and perhaps even cruel in a world that was harsh and fighting hard for survival. In early centuries, the atmosphere was tribal and the fight for survival was very strong. Even the idea of God was strong and harsh and demanding and even punishing. Worship meant sacrifice and service. Many worshiped multiple gods and practised strange cults.
Reward and punishment was strong. God was a creator but he was demanding and to the Jews he was a jealous and demanding God wanting Israel’s love and trust and obedience. How often in the old testament do we see him forgiving and calling back and embracing his people. He gave the a code or book of laws or rules on how to live and get along. Yet all along they kept failing. In all this, he promised to send a Savior a chosen one who would be a redeemer, a sacrificial lamb in their parlance to bring all humanity to God.
When Jesus came, neither the world or the Jews recognized him for he was like any other man who had been born. But as we know he was different, he was the Son of God, yet God himself and a human being. His life was one of giving and sharing who he was, finding love and acceptance according to how each he met was prepared to meet him. His person was a draw, an enticement to love to share to listen. We know the brutality and evil that surrounded the times and how Jesus died and rose to give new life and a new age to the world. What he did was once for all, yet his presence remains even now in his church, in his believers. We personally meet him in his sacraments and in the first, Baptism, his love comes to us in his Spirit. This Holy Spirit is very special as it is the love that is between God the Father and the Son and is the third person of the Trinity. His Spirit is alive and active today in the church and in our lives in the world as we go about living and adapting to the rigors of our time. While evil and war, and violence still remain in the world today, we at least now have hope that some things can be resolved for we are sure God is with us.
To celebrate the Trinity today, we celebrate what we know. We know God is a giver. He gave life in creation. He poured out his love and watchfulness, even as his creatures went their own way choosing to turn their backs to him. He gave his Son for a new beginning, a redemption and the Spirit to love and guide for the rest of time. His love never stops coming to this world regardless of what happens for his care is for each and every person. Beyond that, God is a mystery, a Trinity of persons, someone we know but will never understand in our earthly existence. Today we offer our worship and praise and thanksgiving.
Carry the gospel with you
Gospel reading of the day:
Matthew 5:17-19
Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.”
Reflection on the gospel reading: There is a stage in the spiritual life where we believe that adherence to a rulebook is the path to God. Too many of us stay there, and it is being stuck in this place that creates an unflattering picture of Christian life and repels people who otherwise will find the message of Jesus and his good news attractive. As Mahatma Gandhi once observed, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” Jesus challenges us to move beyond the letter of the law and embrace the deepest spirit of the law. Lives of grace are not in sync with the legislation; lives of grace are sync with the Spirit of God, which blows wherever it will but do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So choose life, so that you may live.
Saint of the day: The Servant of God Angelino Cuccuru was born in Sardinia in Italy on December 6, 1920. Six days later he was baptized. At seven he received his first communion. The future bishop of Alghero-Bosa who in 1993 would then introduced the Cause of Beatification of Angelino was present at his confirmation when the boy was eight. Angelino attended elementary 
school and left a lasting impression on his contemporaries for his exemplary conduct and his interest in school subjects, particularly Catholic doctrine. His friends noted his tenderness and that he never missed Sunday Mass and communion. At certain times of the year he attended church even on weekdays, which was not common among the children and youth of Italy.
Called to military service in early March 1940, he left for San Remo and fought against France. In July 1941 he set out for the Russian Front: his letters on this trip show Angelino as a keen observer of the campaign. On June 10, 1942 in the area of Plasky, near the River Don, he was shot in the head during action observation and measurement. The next night, around two, Angelino Cuccuru died in the hospital from the field of Rikowo, Ukraine, assisted only by his most dear friend Giovanni Salaris. It was June 11, 1942. His body was buried in the military cemetery of Senakiewo in a tomb bearing the number 234.
Angelino’s confessor received many letters from the military front and has written a short biography. Family members agree on the exceptional nature of Angelino’s conduct: for example, he prayed at the beginning of work in the countryside, before meals, and in the evening, he and his father would kneel as the family recited their rosary. Angelino expressed confidence in God: he was diligent in the hard work of the farmer, available to others, happy to be with peers and relatives, and interested in the scripture that his father repeated or read directly from the Bible. His peers were unanimous in the opinion of serious and his comportment that was different from others you. Even his fellow soldiers attested to his gentleness. His neighbors were great admirers of this young man considered exceptional for his behavior whom they considered a friend of God to turn to and obtain the Lord’s grace and healing. His body was returned home in 1996 in the presence of the highest military authorities of Sardinia and many civil authorities. His diocese has concluded an investigation into his heroic virtues.
Spiritual reading: Why do we people in churches seem like cheerful, brainless tourists on a packaged tour of the Absolute? (Annie Dillard)
Carry the gospel with you
Gospel reading of the day:
Matthew 5:13-16
Jesus said to his disciples: “You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.”
Reflection on the gospel reading: Being a follower of Jesus anticipates a way of being in the world. We are to witness to the world what have received, not just to announce the gospel, but live in a way that others will know that are transformed by an experience. It isn’t the gospel that the unbelieving world finds hard to swallow; it is lips that profess that Jesus Christ is Lord with lives that are not changed by that profession. Lives lived in the light of the gospel glorify the Father.
Saint of the day: Edward Joannes Maria Poppe was born in Temse in 1890 as the third child and eldest son of a baker. He studied at the college of Sint-Niklaas from 1905 until 1910, where he was a member of De Klauwaerts, a Flemish student association in the Flemish Movement of before World War I.
Although his father died in 1907, he was able to continue his studies and to go to the seminary in 1910 to become a priest. He studied Thomism at the Catholic University of Louvain. Influenced by the works of Louis de Montfort, he became devoted to the Blessed Mother. In 1913, he moved to the Great Seminar of Ghent, where he became a member of Filioli Caritatis, a group of young priests aiming for priestly sanctity.
When the war started in 1914, Poppe was called to arms, but fell sick in Bourlers, part of Chimay. After strengthening again in Temse, he went to the seminar of Mechelen, which stayed open. Finally, on May 1, 1916, he was ordained a priest. His motto was “Accendatur” – “May the fire be kindled,” referring to Luke 12:49.
Poppe became the parish associate pastor in Sint-Coleta, a poor laborers’ parish in Ghent. He started a communion bond for the youngest children, introducing them to many aspects of Christianity. Poppe also chose to live in severe poverty and to be like one of his parishers.
Exhausted, due to his way of living and his weak health, he was transferred to a monastery in Moerzeke. Mostly confined to his bed, he wrote numerous texts for the “Eucharistische Kruistocht” (“Eucharistic Crusade”) of the Averbode Abbey, often appearing in the popular youth magazine Zonneland.
When his health slightly improved, he was appointed as spiritual leader of the military school in Leopoldsburg in 1922. A cardiac crisis in 1923, when visiting his mother with Christmas, made it impossible for him to return to Leopoldsburg, and he again was confined to the monastery of Moerzeke. He died there on June 10, 1924.
Spiritual reading: Our life is a faint tracing on the surface of mystery. (Annie Dillard)
Carry the gospel with you
Gospel reading of the day:
Matthew 5:1-12
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him. he began to teach them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
Reflection on the gospel reading: This passage starts the three chapters of Matthew’s gospel called the Sermon on the Mount. It begins with a sentence that gets glossed over even though it is crammed with meaning: When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him. When Jesus sees the crowds, he does something specifically in response: he goes up the mountain and takes a seat. These are not empty gestures. God began God’s career as the God of Israel as a mountain God. When Jesus goes up the mountain, it resonates with a sense of the closeness of God in what Jesus is doing. Moreover, in the ancient world, a teacher who taught with authority, taught sitting down. So Jesus’ response to seeing the crowd–all of us really by extension–is to assume the role of a teacher. But it is not the crowds who come to listen to his teaching: rather, the ones who come to him are a smaller group, his disciples. The opening of the Sermon on the Mount then seems to say that though many are called, only a few actually listen.
Saint of the day: Jose Anchieta, S.J., the apostle of Brazil, was born on March 19, 1534 at San Cristobal de la Laguna, Canary Islands, Spain. The son of a wealthy and prominent family, and possibly related to Saint Ignatius of Loyola, he was educated in Portugal. He became a Jesuit in 1551 at age 17.
A missionary to Brazil, he arrived in July 1553. He is called the National Apostle of Brazil. He was a cofounder of the cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. In his youth, he dislocated his spine. When he joined the Jesuits, he was sent to Brazil for its mild climate in the hope that his back would improve. It never did, and he was in constant pain for the 44 years he worked in the Americas.
He and the Jesuit Emanuel Nóbrega arrived at Piratininga on the feast of Saint Paul. For this reason, he named the mission Sao Paulo. In 1553, he first met the Tupi Indians who lived on the outskirts of the settlement. Adept at languages, Jose soon learned to speak the language of the Tupis. For two decades, Jose worked on a grammar and dictionary used by Portuguese settlers and missionaries.
Jose was later held hostage for five months by the Tamoyo tribe. During this time, he occupied himself by composing a Latin poem in honor of the Blessed Virgin. Since 
he had no writing supplies, he wrote in wet sand and memorized the verses. When he again reached Sao Vicente, he committed all 4,172 lines to paper.
Jose converted the Maramomis tribe, and composed plays for his students to perform, writing them in Latin, Spanish, Portuguese, and Tupi. Because his dramas were the first written in Brazil, Jose is known as the Father of Brazilian national literature.
He became a Jesuit provincial in 1577. In letters to his fellow missionaries, he warned that burning desire was not enough: “You must come with a bag-full of virtues.” He died June 9, 1597 at Reritigba, Brazil. He was canonized on April 3, 2014.
Spiritual reading: God does not seek God’s own benefit. In everything God acts only out of love. Thus, people who are united with God live the same way – they are innocent and free. They live for love without asking why, and solely for the glory of God, never seeking personal advantage: God alone is at work in them. (Meister Eckhart)
Carry the gospel with you
Gospel reading of the day:
John 20:19-23
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, 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. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”
Reflection on the gospel reading: Jesus breathes on his disciples and gives them the Holy Spirit. The gospel links a number of themes in this account of that first Easter night. In Jesus’ hands and side, we see his passion and death. In his coming and standing in the midst of the disciples when the doors are locked, we see the resurrection. Jesus twice wishes his disciples peace, gives them the gift of forgiveness, and sends them on mission. This narrative then suggest that Jesus’ death and resurrection, peace, forgiveness, mission, and the coming of the Holy Spirit are intimately entwined with each other as we celebrate this Pentecost.
Spiritual reading: The day will come, when, after harnessing space, the winds, the tides and gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, we shall have discovered fire. (Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J.)
Homily for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, Year A 2014
Homily for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, Year A 2014
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity is a feast to remind us of the concept of God being three persons, a difficult concept to understand, one which developed in Christian thought over the first 300 years of Christianity. It is a mystery, and I am not quite sure we can ever really understand it it. It began as an attempt by the early Christian Jews to understand how their belief, and indeed the core belief that set them apart from other nations, that there was one God, and one God alone, could be reconciled with the fact that Jesus identified himself with God, yet still spoke of God as outside himself – as a Father. The doctrine of the Trinity was not spelled out, but was pretty much in place in the minds of early Christians by the time John wrote his Gospel sometime late in the first century.
When we read the Bible backwards, that is, when we read it knowing how it ended, we can sometimes see references which at the time they were written may not have made sense, or made sense in describing a particular incident, but with our insight into what actually happened, can be seen as a Christian reference. A good example of this may be the first reading today from Exodus. The incident being told is fairly simple. God had made a covenant with Moses and given him two tablets – what we call today the 10 commandments. When Moses came down from the mountain and saw the people worshipping false gods, he broke the tablets in his anger. At the start of today’s reading Moses is called by God to return to the mountain with two new blank stone tablets, which Moses does early in the day, and there God appears and rewrites the words on the new tablets. It is the description of God’s appearance that can be read backwards. God descended in a cloud and appeared as Adonai or Lord. Could this possibly be a description of Christ whom we now call Lord. “The Lord passed before Moses, and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. And Moses…worshipped.” These are words that could easily have come out of Jesus’ mouth in the New Testament when he describes his Father. The reading from Exodus was chosen today, then, as a possible early reference to Christ as God when we read backwards.
The letters of St. Paul pre-date the Gospels, so they are the earliest Christian writings that we have. In the letter to the Corinthians today we have one of the earliest references to the Trinity, and the words we can use to start Mass each week: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.”
The section of the Gospel of John we read today is probably the most quoted verses in the whole Bible, so often repeated that we may take them for granted or not really hear them any more. But these words reflect the relationship between the Father and the Son, and also gives us a definition of what love really is. First of all “God so loved the world…” We often forget that God created everything and it was all good, and that God loved what he had created. That love is always expressed in action – in doing – much as was the act of creation itself. Our God is an active God – a doer. When his creatures sinned and lost the paradise of goodness that God had created, God did not stop loving but actively sought a way to save the world that was so loved. By taking on our humanity, God offered himself to us through the physical reality of Jesus, to be the sacrifice that would save his beloved creatures and give them back eternal life. David Stern expresses it this way in his commentary on this verse: “to love is to give, to love much is to give much, and God loves the world so much that he gave what is most precious to him.”
The condemnation of the one who does not believe might be looked upon, not as a condemnation of non-believers necessarily, but as a condemnation of people who put all their belief in themselves. The condemnation here is that that person is already not living a life that is fully God-filled. Those who put their trust in Jesus will have a full life right here and now, and also will have a full life in eternity: “everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.”
What can we draw from these readings that we can use this week in our own lives? Hopefully, we can renew our belief and our slight understanding of the Trinity, knowing fully that God loves us, loves us so much, that God the Father offered up his most precious thing for us, his child. We need to remember that when we pray to God the Father, or to Jesus or to the Spirit, that we pray to only one thing – to a just and merciful God who loves us despite our failings. We need to remember that Jesus is the physical manifestation of God and when we partake of the Eucharist, we partake of God. God truly is in us, and that is why we are not condemned and why we have eternal life. Let us see ourselves and our neighbor as physical manifestations of God and treat them accordingly. It is what Jesus would have us do.
FInally, Fathers who are present today on this Father’s Day know what it means to be a loving parent, know what it means to be hurt by their children and yet continue to love them. The description of God in Exodus as merciful, gracious, slow to anger, loving and faithful, should be the description of every Father. We know it sometimes isn’t but that is what we should strive for. Jesus said “Be perfect even as your heavenly father is perfect”. God the Father is our model on this Father’s Day – a Father who would give up everything out of love for his child.
Let us honor our own Fathers today, living and dead, and go out and proclaim the Good News that God is the Father of all Fathers and that he is active and present in the world today. And this is the Good News to take with us today!
1 David H. Stern. Jewish New Testament Commentary. Jewish New Testament Publications, MD, 1992. p. 166
Bishop Ron Stephens
Pastor of St. Andrew’s Parish in Warrenton, VA
The Catholic Apostolic Church in North America (CACINA)
[You can purchase a complete Cycle A of Bishop Ron’s homilies, 75 of them, from amazon.com for $9.99 – “Teaching the Church Year”]
Carry the gospel with you
Gospel reading of the day:
John 17:20-26
Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying: “I pray not only for these, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me. Father, they are your gift to me. I wish that 
where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, the world also does not know you, but I know you, and they know that you sent me. I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them.”
Reflection on the gospel reading: As Jesus prepares to mount the cross, he is thinking about his disciples; he is thinking about you; he is thinking about me. As his life waned, with the days counting down to hours, he called us the Father’s gift to him and expressed his desire for all of us to be one in him and he is one with the Father.
Saint of the day: Boniface was born around 673-680 at Crediton, Devonshire, England. Educated at the Benedictine monastery at Exeter, England, he became a Benedictine monk at Exeter. A misissionary to Germany from 719, he was assisted by Saints Albinus, Abel, and Agatha. Boniface destroyed idols and pagan temples, and built churches on the sites. He became a bishop and the archbishop of Mainz. He reformed churches in his see and built religious houses in Germany. Among the people he ordained to the priesthood was Saint Sola. He founded or restored the dioceses of Bavaria, Thuringgia, and Franconia. He evangelized in Holland, but was set upon by a troop of pagans, and he and 52 of his new flock, including Saints Adaler and Eoban, were martyred. He died June 5, 754.
In Saxony, Boniface encountered a tribe worshiping a Norse deity in the form of a huge oak tree. Boniface walked up to the tree, removed his shirt, took up an axe, and without a word he hacked down the six foot wide wooden god. Boniface stood on the trunk, and asked, “How stands your mighty god? My God is stronger than he.” The crowd’s reaction was mixed, but some conversions were begun.
One tradition about Saint Boniface says that he used the customs of the locals to help convert them. There was a game in which they threw sticks called kegels at smaller sticks called heides. Boniface bought religion to the game, having the heides represent demons, and knocking them down showing purity of spirit.
Spiritual reading: Forgiveness creates an obligation for which there are no exceptions allowed. Love is a fire which goes out if it does not kindle others. Thou hast burned with joy; kindle those who come near you with the same, lest thou becomest like a stone, hard and cold. You have received much; you must also give. (Giovanni Papini)
Homily June 8, 2014 Pentecost Sunday
Today is Pentecost Sunday, the end of the Lenten-Easter cycle. While it is a separate event, it is the completion of Jesus’ resurrection, ascension and the giving of His Spirit for the future life and the mission he has given his followers. This Spirit is special for it is the love that is between the Father and Son and is the third person of the Trinity. This Spirit is freely given to each and every follower of Jesus when they are baptized. The Spirit has and gives many gifts in supporting each of us and continuing the church. The most important thing to remember is that the Spirit is a gift flowing from baptism and has at its core the love of Christ and the forgiveness of sin and evil and all its allurements and consequences. As it draws us into the body of Christ, it becomes one with us in our own body and spirit and fills us with love in accord with our own capability and power. At the same time its gifts are bestowed upon us in ways that are unique and special to us and for the good of the church, the body of Christ. 
Looking at the gospel and History, we see different manifestations of the Spirit and the way different followers are called to carry out the call to bring Christ’s message and love to others, but really no two people have identical gifts. The person truly answering Christ’s call and using the gifts of the Spirit must truly be marked and living by Christ’s love and sharing love and the forgiveness and refraining from judging as Christ in his own time refrained, seeing only that one was ready to love and receive forgiveness and live the good news.
The Spirit’s gifts as I said are unique and adapted as God sees fit for you and his church. The gift of tongues or healing are not things we see in the ordinary course of things, yet the Spirit still works in and about the world today in its own way. Physical healing certainly happens but more importantly spiritual healing and the finding of love and community and God’s love is a gift that is really most important of all. After all is said, being Christ like is so important. Loving suggestions and instructions are certainly more helpful than condemnations in sharing Christ’s love. Jesus only lost his temper and condemned when it was a question of abusing his Father or his Father’s temple or abusing God’s people such as the Scribes and Pharisees did for their own gain. This too can be a warning to temper our actions that what we do is truly for the good of all and is for God and not a personal act or obsession. Nothing can be worse than a false use or abuse of what we think is the gift or call of the Spirit. The Spirit’s gifts are like a leaven implanted within us. When yeast is mixed with dough you can’t find it but it ferments the dough and makes it rise. So it is with the Spirit.
Regardless of human fault Christ and his Spirit remains among us even now. The twists and turns of history certainly exhibit the failings of humanity and the evil that can present itself. Yet the Spirit brings hope, brings life, and breathes. He is with us now, he is with us always. The Spirit has kept alive Christ’s ministry and call to preach the good news. The Spirit is active and calling us now to be true followers and step forward in whatever way we can be most forceful in being Christ to others. Today the Spirit brings us together to worship and witness, to be a light, a force to show and bring Christ’s love. This never changes, only how we do it, how we adapt and how we remain selfless and in God’s love.
Carry the gospel with you
Gospel reading of the day:
John 17:11b-19
Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed, saying: “Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are one. When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me, and I guarded them, and none of them was lost except the son of destruction, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 
YBut now I am coming to you. I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy completely.
I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the Evil One. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.”
Reflection on the gospel reading: Christianity has long tradition of women and men leaving the world to go and lead lives of solitude and prayer, to hear God’s voice in desert winds and the caw of lonely birds as they fly through crisp Autumn nights. But the more typical vocation of Christians is to live in the work-a-day world with its thousand every day worries. Jesus on rare occasions calls certain men and women into dedicated quiet spaces, but he often is content that we stay in the world. But his invitation that we be in the world is not an invitation that we be of the world. No matter where we land in our lives, Jesus’ prayer to his Father for us is that we avoid evil and commit ourselves to what is true.
Saint of the day: Elizabeth Hasselblad was born in 1870 as the daughter of country merchant Robert Hesselblad and Catharina Pettersdotter Day. By 1886, she had to work to help them make ends meet. 
At first she looked for work in Sweden, but eventually sought work in the United States as a nurse. Her work in the U.S. led to her interest in Catholicism; she converted in 1902.
Elizabeth later joined the Bridgettines on a visit to Rome. She attempted to revive interest in the order and its founder. She also worked at efforts at inter-religious dialogue and against racism, and became known as, “the second Bridget”.
Elizabeth Hasselblad worked during World War II in Rome to protect persecuted Jews. She died in April 1957 in the Casa di Santa Brigida, where she also received her final resting place. An effort to canonize was launched in 1987, and she was beatified in April 2000.
In 2004, she was posthumously awarded Righteous among the nations of Israel for her efforts to protect Jews during World War II.
Spiritual reading: Pray, trust, and don’t worry. (Padre Pio)
CACINA 
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