There Is One God

The people of Israel were very different from the other nations that surrounded them. While the Romans, Greeks, Phoenicians and Egyptians worshipped many different gods, Israel worshipped one God. As the Bible shows us, they believed this God to be the maker of heaven and earth. All of creation was under His control. All peoples and nations were under His authority. Nonetheless, He chose Israel to be a people all His own. It would be to them that He would reveal His wisdom and love and through them that He would teach other nations about the truth of His Law.

The other nations only knew about their gods through legends and myths. However, Israel had first hand experience of the one true God. As Moses reminds the people in today’s first reading, it was their God who liberated them from slavery in Egypt, who guided them through a hostile desert and who led them into the place that would be their Promised Land. It was God Himself who gave them a Law to ensure that they would live peacefully in the land He had given them. The God of Israel was no distant god manipulating people from afar. Rather He is a God who is intimately involved with the people He has chosen. He makes Himself part of their history. He lives in their midst.

It was to this people who believed in one God that Jesus appeared. While He was the fulfillment of God’s promise of a Messiah who would definitively establish the Kingdom of God, He challenged the faith of the people of Israel. They had always believed in one God, however this Jesus claimed to be equal to God. Like God, He showed that He had power over nature by calming the stormy seas, multiplying loaves and fish and healing sickness. Like God, He claimed to have power to forgive sin. Finally, He showed Himself to have power over death by rising from the dead. It became clear to those who believed in Him that He and the Father were one. They came to believe that He was God’s Son come down to earth to save His people.

Those who came to believe in Jesus and were baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit received the Spirit of God. Those who received the Holy Spirit learned that they were empowered to do the same wonders that Jesus did. All throughout the Acts of the Apostles we read how through the power of the Holy Spirit the disciples were able to heal the sick, endure hardships for the sake of the gospel and, ultimately, win thousands upon thousands of converts for the Christian faith. Through the presence and action of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Christian community, believers came to understand that, like the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit was also God.

For those first hundred years or so since the resurrection, believers understood that the One God of Israel was Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They might not have been able to fully articulate it in those words. But they lived their faith with the understanding that it was true. It was only later that the name “Trinity” came to be used to identify this belief. However, it was already deeply ingrained in baptized believers. 

It is that mystery that we gather to proclaim and celebrate today. The God of Israel - our God - is a unity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. While each is a distinct person, they all share the divine nature. This mystery is at the heart of what we believe as followers of Jesus Christ. It is a reality that is at work whenever we gather to worship together.

It is at Mass that we most clearly experience the reality of the Trinity. We begin Mass by making the sign of the cross in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The Mass itself is offered to the Father, through the Son and in the Holy Spirit. We pray to the Father, in the name of Jesus and in the power of the Holy Spirit. This Mass on earth takes us up to heaven where the angels sing “Holy, Holy Holy” and the Father, Son and Holy Spirit live in a continual exchange of love for each other. Through our liturgy here on earth we take part in the divine liturgy in heaven - the worship of the angels and saints at the throne of the One God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Before this mystery, the only rational response is to fall down in worship before our God. In the presence of this God who is love and who has loved us, we can only raise our hands and sing His praise. Our hearts were created to be in God’s presence and praise Him. When we lift up our voices in adoration of our God, we become filled with joy. In our life of daily prayer, we should include some time for adoration and praise. During the day today and throughout the week we should each take some time to ponder this great mystery of the One God who is Three Divine Persons, not to try to figure it out or understand it but to contemplate it and allow it to lead us to praise and adoration. It is what our merciful and loving God deserves and it will bring more joy into our lives than we can imagine.

Like the people of Israel, we live in a society that worships many gods. People in our world today run after pleasure, power, wealth and status believing that it will bring them fulfillment and happiness. They sacrifice their health and relationships pursuing what can only lead to frustration and bitterness. By the grace of God, we have experienced the love and mercy of our Heavenly Father. We have come to believe in Jesus who died for our sins and rose to give us the promise of eternal life. We also follow the inspiration of the Holy Spirit who leads our hearts to praise the living God and who guides our thoughts, words and actions. Like the people of Israel, it is our responsibility to make this living God known to those who worship this culture’s false gods. It is only possible through the Spirit who has been given to us in our baptism. As Jesus orders His disciples in today’s gospel reading, we are to make disciples of all the nations. Then they can share with us the joy we know in worshiping the one true God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Our Bold Claim

As Christians, we make a very bold claim. We claim that God is our Father. We claim that the One who created the universe with all its billions of people knows each of us individually and loves us personally. We claim that He formed each of us in our mother’s womb with the care of a sculptor molding clay. There is not one second of our lives that we go unnoticed by Him. Despite all the world’s problems, He has nothing better to do than care for us.  We do not claim that He is like a father, but that He really is our Father in a way that our human fathers can never be. Therefore, we can bring our cares and concerns to Him. We can count on Him to help us through any difficulty. We can be assured that we are never alone. God, our Heavenly Father, is always by our side sustaining us with an unconditional love.

We make another bold claim - that this love of God became visible in the person of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. This Jesus who lived in history was no mere teacher or prophet. Rather, He is the eternal Son of God come down to earth, taking on our human nature, to reveal the love of God. In Jesus, we are able to see and touch God. In his encyclical, God is Love, Pope Benedict writes: “No one has ever seen God as he is. And yet God is not totally invisible to us; he does not remain completely inaccessible.... In Jesus we are able to see the Father.” The love of God, therefore, is no mere feeling or lofty ideal. It is a person, the person of Jesus Christ, who shows the Father’s love by offering His life on the cross for us and by rising from the dead to give us the hope of everlasting life.

If all that were not enough, as Christians we claim another great dignity - that the Father and the Son are alive and active in us and among us through the person of the Holy Spirit. Like the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit is the one eternal God. At the beginning of creation, He was breathed into Adam to give him life. He was present throughout the Old Testament through the prophets of Israel. He was at work in the life of Jesus and raised Him from the dead. Then He was poured out upon the apostles at Pentecost to continue the saving work of Jesus in the world through the centuries. That Holy Spirit now lives within all the baptized, reminding us of our dignity as daughters and sons of God, inspiring us to do good works and strengthening us to live and witness to our faith. The Holy Spirit is the presence and love of God made visible in us through baptism.

The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity comes down to this - God is a family. He is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is the nature of God that He is love and that His love becomes real in the persons of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Because His love is so great and overflowing, God invites us to become a part of that family. We are rescued from a life of sin and death through adoption into God’s family. And we enter into this family through baptism in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

We are sons and daughters of God called to an intimate and personal relationship with the Father, in the Son and through the Holy Spirit. It is so beyond our ability to comprehend that the only appropriate response is awe and gratitude for such a tremendous gift. 

A Mystery To Ponder And To Live

Throughout the centuries, the rosary has been one of the most popular forms of prayer for the Christian people. It allows us not only to invoke the powerful intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, but the repetition of the Our Father, the Hail Mary and the Glory Be invites us to focus our minds on the mysteries of Jesus' life which we contemplate with each decade. As the rosary becomes more and more a part of our spiritual life, the mysteries take on new meaning for us. They are no longer just events of the distant past. Rather, we begin to look at our own lives through the lens of the life of Christ. We see in our joys the joyful mysteries of Jesus' life playing themselves out. Our difficulties and suffering are transformed into moments of grace as we see the sorrowful mysteries of the suffering and death of Christ becoming a reality in our own lives. Through this powerful form of prayer, we learn that mysteries are not just something we ponder in our minds with wonder, but realities that we are invited to enter into and to live.

Each year we set aside this first Sunday after Pentecost to ponder the great mystery of the Blessed Trinity. We reflect on the nature of our one God who is three persons - Father, Son and Spirit. There have been many attempts to try to explain this reality. Saint Patrick used the example of the shamrock which has three leaves but is still one flower. Sometimes the triangle which has three sides but is one shape is used as a symbol of the Blessed Trinity. One of the best examples is that of a family. A mother, a father and a child - though distinct persons - come together in love to form one family, one household. So God is a family, a community of persons marked by self-giving love. The mystery of the Blessed Trinity, in its simplest terms, is another way of describing our God as a God of love.

Like the mysteries of the rosary, the Blessed Trinity is a reality that is not just meant to be pondered but to be entered into and lived. Saint Paul explains how in today's second reading. The third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, lives in our hearts and testifies to us that we are the sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father. God has invited each of us to join the family of love that he is. We have been adopted by God so that we can share in the unconditional, self-giving love which the Father offers to the Son and the Son offers to the Father through the Holy Spirit. The mystery of the Blessed Trinity is not just about the nature of God, but about how we are chosen to become part of the family that God is.

As we meditate on this mystery and enter into it, we cannot help but change. We begin to act like members of the family of God. If we were adopted by a king or a wealthy person it would no doubt change our lives. Because of the power and riches which would be at our disposal, we would no longer be happy with the simple life we lived before. It is just so for us when the reality of our adoption in Christ takes root in our hearts. We no longer settle for the fleeting pleasures this world offers. We no longer live and act like people who have no faith and no hope. Rather the knowledge that we are loved by God and are members of his family causes us to act with a certain dignity and a new purpose. 

Our ancestors in the faith, the Jewish people, understand this reality very well. As Moses describes it for us in the first reading from the book of Deuteronomy, the Jews understand that they have been chosen out of all the nations on the earth to be a people special to God. They look at their long history through the lens of God's saving power beginning with the covenant with Abraham, through their delivery from slavery in Egypt and into the crossing of the Jordan River into the Promised Land. Because they are a chosen people, they understand that they cannot live the way other nations do. Rather they must live according to the Law which God revealed to them. They must show forth his justice and mercy by caring for those whom society casts asides and by turning their backs on all forms of permissiveness and immorality. Just so we who have been called out of the slavery of sin and given the Spirit of adoption must live our lives according to the gospel message so that our dignity as sons and daughters of God can be shown forth to the whole world.

Because, by its nature, a mystery is impossible to fully explain or understand, ritual is at the heart of what we do as a believing people. Jesus and the apostles understood that if we were to participate fully in the saving mystery of the one God who is three persons, we would need something more than words to nourish our spiritual lives. For that reason, Jesus left us not only his teaching but the sacraments as well. In today's gospel Jesus commissions the disciples not only to preach the good news but to baptize the nations "in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit."  Through baptism, which is the first of the sacraments, we are adopted as sons and daughters of God. The other sacraments build on this reality. And so participating in the sacraments whenever possible is vitally important if the mystery of God's life is to become real in our own lives.

We bless ourselves "in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." We offer the Mass to the Father, through the Son and in the Holy Spirit. Though we cannot fully explain or understand it, the mystery of the Trinity is woven into our lives as believers. It is nothing more or less than the nature of God whose love is so abundant that he welcomes us to share in his very life. It is an invitation which we first received at our baptism. We strive, with God's help, to respond to that invitation daily by living our lives according to the dignity that is ours as sons and daughters of God. Through the sacraments and prayer, we enter more fully into that mystery which is beyond words. And we live with an active hope that one day we will see God as he is - one God in three persons - and praise him forever.

Gifts Of The Spirit

It is an amazing scene that Saint Luke describes for us in today’s first reading.

On that first Pentecost Sunday, the Holy Spirit descends in dramatic fashion upon the place where the disciples were gathered. Imagine what it must have been like to witness it. Like a driving wind, the Spirit of God shook the house. Then, the air burst into fire. Everyone there was then touched by that fire. With the Holy Spirit moving within them, they began to praise God loudly in languages they didn’t even know. Their prayers were so loud, in fact, that it got the attention of the people passing by on the street.

What was going on? As Jesus promised, the Holy Spirit was given to the apostles to empower them to bring the good news of salvation into the world. As God, the Holy Spirit cannot be seen. However, as we read throughout the Acts of the Apostles, He is made manifest in works of power. As they preach the gospel, the apostles heal the sick and raise the dead as Jesus did. Most importantly, the Holy Spirit manifests Himself by giving them words of truth which change the hearts of those who hear their message.

The Holy Spirit that the apostles received on that first Pentecost Sunday is the same Holy Spirit we received in baptism and confirmation. That same Holy Spirit continues to be at work in the Church so that the world can come to believe in Jesus Christ. Sometimes the Holy Spirit works in dramatic ways giving people the power to heal or to speak in tongues. Most of the time, however, the Spirit of God works silently in our souls, calling us to a change of heart and inspiring us to perform works of mercy for our neighbor.

While, as Saint Paul tells us in today’s second reading, there are special kinds of spiritual gifts given to believers, there are also gifts that all of us receive through baptism and confirmation. These gifts transform us interiorly so that we can live the gospel with sincerity and conviction. These gifts are - wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord. Let’s take a look at all these gifts to understand how they work in the lives of believers.

The first gift of the Spirit is wisdom. Through this gift, the Holy Spirit leads us into a love for the truths of our faith. Those who receive wisdom do not see the truths of faith as mere doctrines to accept but as revelations of the nature of God Himself. It leads us to not only acknowledge those truths but to contemplate them and take joy in them. If you have ever found yourself thinking about our faith and are led to marvel at God’s power and goodness, then you may have experienced the gift of wisdom.

The second gift is understanding. As the name suggests, through this gift we are lead into a deeper understanding of our faith. It helps us to recognize the truth of what we believe even when we cannot fully understand it.  It also gives us a firm conviction about our faith. If you have ever found yourself thinking about a mystery of the faith and, all of a sudden, you achieve some clarity about it, you may have experienced the gift of understanding.

The third gift, counsel, helps us to put faith into practice. For instance, we know that we must  love our neighbor, but how must we show that love? The gift of counsel helps us to figure out how we should put our love into action in the circumstances of daily life. If you have ever wondered how you should act in a certain situation and the answer became clear to you, you may have experienced the Spirit’s gift of counsel.

The fourth gift is fortitude which is also known as courage. It helps us to live our faith even when it is difficult. It strengthens us to speak and act with conviction in the face of opposition and persecution. If you have ever spoken up to defend your beliefs even when you were afraid you might be ridiculed or criticized, you may have experienced the gift of fortitude.

The fifth gift is knowledge. It is closely related to the gifts of wisdom, counsel and understanding. It helps us to see things as God sees them. Through this gift, the mind of God forms our mind so that it more like His. God’s will and purpose for our life become clearer to us. If you have ever found yourself asking yourself, “What would Jesus do?”, then you may have experienced the Spirit’s gift of knowledge.

The sixth gift of piety gives us a profound desire to worship and serve God. It moves us from within to seek a union of our heart with our Heavenly Father. Through this gift, prayers go from being a rote recitation of words to an expression of our desire to know, love and serve God. When this gift is operative in our lives, we no longer go to Mass out of a sense of obligation but because we truly want to hear God’s word and receive communion. If you have ever felt the need to sit quietly in God’s presence, then you may have experienced the gift of piety.

The seventh gift is fear of the Lord. Through this gift, the Holy Spirit gives us the respect for God that a child would have for his father. In many ways, it is the opposite of fear. Through this gift we learn to live the faith not out of fear of punishment but out of a desire to please God, just as a child wants to please his father. This gift also gives us the conviction that God will always provide for us. If you have ever stopped yourself from doing or saying something because you knew God wouldn’t approve, then you may have experienced the gift of the fear of the Lord.

We have only taken a short look at each of these gifts. We should all spend some time this week reading more about them and praying to receive them.  We should also ask the Holy Spirit to help us put them to use in our lives. Then we will see the hand of God at work in us and be more open to the ways He is leading us to speak and act. No gift is of any use unless we unwrap it and use it. The Holy Spirit wants us to make use of all these amazing ways that He manifests Himself in us so that God may be glorified, we may be transformed in His image and the power of that first Pentecost Sunday may continue to be a reality in our world.

Following The Spirit's Lead

In 1992, when the civil war was raging in the former Yugoslavia between the Serbs and Croatians, two brothers , Magnus and Fergus MacFarlane-Barrow, watched the news reports with horror at the loss of human life. Knowing they couldn’t just sit at home in Scotland and do nothing about it, they began a drive to collect food and blankets to deliver to the victims of that conflict. When they had collected enough to fill up their jeep, they drove it all the way to Bosnia, left the supplies with an aid agency there and drove back to Scotland.

In their minds, they had done all they could and would return home to continue their work as fish farmers. However, they found that, while they were gone, people had continued to donate supplies, enough to fill their jeep again. So they collected it all and drove back to Bosnia with it. This continued to the point that Magnus decided to leave his job and begin a charity, which he called Scottish International Relief, dedicated to providing relief to the people of Bosnia.

Magnus continued in that work up until 2002 when he took a trip to Malawi. While there, he visited a mother of six who was dying of AIDS. As they sat around her on the floor of the hut, Magnus turned to her older child and asked him what he hoped for out of life. The child responded, “To have enough to eat and to go to school one day.”

The child’s answer struck Magnus to the core of his being. Like that day 10 years earlier, he knew he couldn’t sit back and do nothing in the face of the hunger and poverty plaguing the children of Africa. So, he developed a simple, low-cost program to provide daily meals for poor, undernourished children which he named, Mary’s Meals, after the mother of Jesus. It began by feeding 200 children daily in Malawi. In the sixteen years since, it has spread to twelve countries servicing over one million children every day.

Saint Paul tells us in today’s second reading from the Letter to the Romans that “all creation is groaning.” It is groaning with the cries of undernourished children who go to bed hungry. It is groaning with the grieving of boys and girls who lose their parents to war and disease. It is groaning with the tears of migrants who are fleeing corruption and violence to seek a better life for their families. Many times, we choose not to listen to their groaning and look away. Many times we choose the attitude that there’s nothing we can do or that it’s someone else’s problem.

Magnus and his brother heard the groaning of those who were suffering. It would have been easy for them to sit back and decide that there was nothing that could be done. However, they couldn’t turn a deaf ear to the groaning of their sisters and brothers in pain. At the time they might have wondered what difference a jeep-full of supplies could make to a conflict as extensive as the Bosnian war. As it turns out, it made all the difference in the world to that child who would have been cold if not for the blanket they brought or who would have gone hungry if not for the food they delivered. And today, that small act of service has led to a mission that feeds over one million children a day.

What would happen in our lives and in our world if we were to really listen to the groaning of the people around us and respond to their needs? How many people might  we be able to help? And where might it possibly all lead?

Saint Paul goes on to say that “the Spirit helps us in our weakness for we do not know how to pray as we ought.” In the face of so much suffering in our world, we might think that we have too little to give. However, if we turn to God in prayer, great things are possible. When we rely only on ourselves and our meager resources, our efforts are largely ineffective. However, when we rely on God, when we turn to Him with humility and confess that we want to do something but we don’t know how, He provides the opportunity and the means for us to make a difference. If we are willing to take that first step in faith, God will do the rest.

It all begins with prayer. The more in tune we are to God through prayer the more attentive we will be to the needs of the people around us. Our Heavenly Father hears the cry of the poor. That is why He sent His Son, Jesus, to die for us. In turn, Jesus and the Father send us the Holy Spirit, who meets our deepest need for loving unity with God. Now God sends us to relieve the groaning of the people He puts in our path every day.

Today we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came down upon the apostles to empower them to spread the Good News. We received that same Spirit at our baptism and confirmation. The Spirit dwelling within us opens our ears to the groaning of all creation and empowers us to make a difference. If we but listen and respond, nothing will be impossible because it is the very Spirit of God at work in us who believe.

Making Bold Proclamation

What holds us back from being fully the person God created us to be? What keeps us from fulfilling all the dreams He has for us? Why do we resist the inspirations He gives us daily to be more generous and loving to those we meet?

The simple answer fear. Fear holds us back from achieving all the great things God has planned for us. We are afraid of what others think. We do not want to be judged, criticized or ridiculed. We fear failure. We worry about what it will cost us to follow Jesus with all our heart and strength. How will it affect our relationships and jobs? Will others reject us because of our faith? Will we be called “fanatics” or “bigots” because we take God’s word seriously and make it the center of our lives. We also fear being wrong. What if we go all out in following Jesus and it does not end up being worth it? Finally, we can also be afraid that we are not good enough.

Those who followed Jesus during His earthly life knew very well the fears that we experience today. Even though they found the courage to leave everything behind to follow Him, they still experienced doubts, reservations and fears. We know that Judas began to fear that Jesus was not really the Messiah which led to his betrayal. When Jesus was arrested and crucified, the disciples fled in fear that they would be next. Even after Jesus rose from the dead, they remained holed up in the upper room, hiding from the authorities. They were imprisoned and isolated by their fears, unable to proclaim the great wonders they had experienced.

However, all that changed on Pentecost Sunday. The Holy Spirit came rushing down upon the place where they had been staying. A mighty wind shook the building and fire from the sky descended upon them. They were so overcome with God’s presence within them, that they praised Him in full voice. Not able to contain their joy, they spill out into the street below proclaiming the wonders of God to all those who were passing by. They were no longer afraid what people would say about them. They were no longer afraid that they would be arrested and put to death. They were no longer concerned about their lack of talents or education. In fact, they were not thinking about themselves or their fears any more. Rather, they were caught up in the great wonders God had done for them and in His power. Their joy was so great that they could not keep it to themselves.

The Holy Spirit we received at our baptism and who lives in our hearts through faith is the great antidote to our fears. He inspires us to take the focus off ourselves and our limitations and to put it on God and the infinite possibilities He offers us. The Holy Spirit gives us confidence that no matter what situation we may find ourselves in, God will provide us with what we need to not only get through it but to thrive. He fills our innermost being with such a complete and overflowing joy that we do not care what others think anymore. We no longer measure ourselves by what others expect of us but by what God expects of us. Though we may still experience some nagging fears and self-doubts, they will begin to dissipate as we experience God’s power working through our human weakness. We learn to rely more on His inspiration and power and less on ourselves.

It all begins with prayer. The disciples were gathered in prayer with Mary in the upper room when the Holy Spirit descended upon them. In fact, prayer is nothing else than allowing the Holy Spirit to raise our hearts and minds to God. By spending some quiet time in prayer every day, we learn to become attentive to God’s voice speaking to our hearts. As we experience His loving presence, we grow in our ability to trust Him. We let go of the doubts that hold us back and begin to make choices based on what our Heavenly Father has planned for us rather than on what we have planned for ourselves or what others expect of us. Our fears melt away as we experience God’s power taking root in our lives. Our prayer time every day should begin with the words, “Come, Holy Spirit!” Then we will experience our lives being transformed as we learn to follow the Spirit’s lead.

The next important step is rooting out sin in our lives. The Holy Spirit cannot work within us and through us if our heart is enslaved to selfishness, greed or lust. If we have too strong a desire for the comforts and pleasures of this world, then our  hearts cannot be attuned to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. We cannot be free to follow the Spirit if we are enslaved to sin. Saint Paul makes this very clear in today’s second reading. After listing sins which he describes as “the works of the flesh”, he tells us, “I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” The good news is that we do not have to allow our weakness and shame to hold us back. In Jesus, we have the forgiveness of our sins and the power to overcome them. As we allow the Holy Spirit to work in and through us we will also find the strength to conquer our temptations and put our strength into doing good for others rather than indulging our passions.

When Jesus appears to His disciples on the day of His resurrection, He greets them with the words, “Peace”. At the Last Supper, He reassured them that peace would be His lasting gift to them. The Hebrew word for peace, shalom, which Jesus would have used is much richer than our English word. It can also be translated as “health”, “prosperity” and “wholeness.” In essence, peace is what we experience once our fears have been conquered. It is a result of our confidence in God. It is the lingering joy of knowing that we are forgiven and no longer have to be held back by shame or fear. It is the gift God offers us on this Pentecost Sunday as we gather here in prayer.

Come, Holy Spirit! Lead us, your people, to overcome our fears so that we may proclaim the joy of Christ’s resurrection to a world that longs for the hope that only you can give!

In God's Image And Likeness

It is the first of all the sins – the desire to make ourselves God.

Instead of submitting to God, we want to take his place and put ourselves at the center of the universe. Instead of obeying God's law, we want to make up our own rules. Instead of allowing God to use us, we want to use others to serve our needs.

This sin of pride is at the core of all sinful behavior. It was the sin of Adam and Eve who disobeyed God so they could have His knowledge of good and evil. As a result, our first parents lost paradise and unleashed violence and death upon God's creation. It is the sin of the people in today's first reading who think their knowledge and skill can rival God’s. As a result, their speech became confused. They were no longer able to work together and the tower which was to be a monument to their greatness fell into ruin.

This desire to put ourselves in God's place continues to harm this planet and its history. It burns in the heart of those who exploit workers to increase their already inflated profits. It drives warlords to kill and maim innocent people so as to intimidate and dominate them. It motivates corporations to pollute the environment so that they can produce more and more products that will only end up in dumps. The allure of godlike power drives some scientists even to manipulate and experiment on other human beings, denying their dignity. There is no doubt that this insane urge we have to overthrow God and put ourselves in His place has caused only misery and destruction all over our world.

Nonetheless, this desire to be God is rooted in one basic fact of our nature. We are created in His image and likeness. Among all the beautiful and amazing creatures on this earth, we are the most like God. It is within our nature to want to know Him, to want to love Him and to strive to serve Him. It is also within our nature to want to be like Him.

In our confused society and culture, we think that to be like God we have to get rid of Him. We think that the only way to be like Him is to have His power and knowledge for ourselves so that we can make our own rules and twist reality to suit our desires. In so doing, we fail to see God as a merciful father or loving Creator. Rather we see Him as a rival.

Of course, God is all-powerful and all-knowing. But that is not all there is to God. He is also merciful and loving. He gives himself totally to His creatures, providing for all their needs. He never grows tired of reaching out to sinners and forgiving them. He strengthens all those who believe in Him and empowers them to achieve great things. He is not a distant God ruling over us from afar but a loving Father who is ever near to all those call upon Him.

If we desire to be like God then, we must imitate his qualities of love, faithfulness, forgiveness and self-sacrifice.

This is precisely the meaning of today's celebration. On Pentecost, God sent his Holy Spirit down upon believers to meet our need to be like Him. The Holy Spirit is God's love poured into our hearts empowering us to love and forgive as He does. The Holy Spirit is the very power of God filling us with strength to do good even when it seems impossible. The Holy Spirit is God himself living within us and making us like himself, renewing us daily as Jesus assures us in today's gospel, "Rivers of living water will flow from within him who believes in me. "

Pentecost brings to fulfillment all that Jesus did to save us. By dying on the cross for us on Good Friday, He won for us the forgiveness for our sins. By rising from the dead on Easter Sunday, he gained for us the hope of everlasting life. Now, on Pentecost Sunday, by sending the Holy Spirit, He made us capable of reaching heights of holiness and goodness that we would never be capable of by our own power. The Holy Spirit we receive through baptism and faith makes us truly like God not so much in his power and knowledge, but in his love and faithfulness.

When we look at all that Jesus did to save us we can sometimes be tempted to put it in negative terms. For instance, we talk about the forgiveness of sins or even the ability to avoid sin. While that is true, there is so much more to what God wants for us. He wants us not only to not be bad but to truly be good. He wants us not only to not harm one another, but to serve one another and to meet one another's needs. He wants not only to protect us from evil but to empower us to do good. Through the power of the Holy Spirit living within us, he wants us to restore the world to the beauty and harmony He first created it to have.

All of us who believe in Jesus and are baptized have this power of God living within us. St. Paul reassures us in today's second reading that the Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness. If we feel weak and afraid, we need only call on this Holy Spirit living within us to reassure and strengthen us. If we feel confused and unsure, we  need only call on this Holy Spirit to enlighten our minds. If we feel ourselves resisting God and becoming allured by the empty promises of this world, we need only to call upon the Holy Spirit to remind us of all that we have as children of God.

God created us in his image and likeness so that we can reflect his beauty and goodness to the world. The Holy Spirit we celebrate this day makes this a reality in our lives. This power is available to all believers so that we can serve one another in love. Enlivened by this hope we can leave this celebration today and really live the power God has poured out upon us so that all of us can be like Him who loves us and gave us his Son so that we could live as His children.

Written In Our Hearts

 Fifty days ago, we began this Easter season by lighting a fire at the entrance of the church and proclaiming that Jesus is risen from the dead. Now, on this Pentecost Sunday, we celebrate another fire - not a fire that we light, but the fire of God come down from heaven. That fire is the Holy Spirit who came upon the apostles and Mary as tongues of fire and who lives in each of us who believe that Jesus Christ is Lord.

We call Pentecost the “birthday of the Church” because on that day the apostles are transformed from men who were too afraid to leave the upper room to bold proclaimers of the resurrection of Jesus. They went from men still confused about the meaning of Jesus’ death and resurrection to preachers of His divinity and Lordship. Rather than being paralyzed by fear and doubt, they are driven by conviction and faith to proclaim the good news to all the world. There is no other explanation for this than the power of the Holy Spirit working in and through them.

The feast of Pentecost was celebrated by the Jewish people as the commemoration of the giving of the Ten Commandments through Moses. It was because of this festival that Jews from all over the world had gathered in Jerusalem as we hear in today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles. We all know the story of how Moses received the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. When he brought the stone tablets written by God down the mountain, he discovered that the people had made a golden calf to worship. Filled with rage, Moses shatters the stone tablets on the ground and commands that all those who participated in the idolatry be rounded up and put to death. It turns out that three thousand people were killed on that day. Though the gift of the Law from the hand of God was a day of celebration, it was also a time to remember how often the people disobeyed the Ten Commandments and broke their covenant with God.

It is no accident that God sent His Holy Spirit upon the apostles on the feast of Pentecost. Rather than write the law on tablets of stone, He would now write them on our hearts. Rather than give us a law we could not obey, He gave us His Spirit which is the power not only to understand what Jesus teaches but to live it out.

I would encourage all of you when you get home after Mass to open your Bibles and read the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles from which today’s first reading is taken. After the account of the descent of the Holy Spirit, we read that Peter addresses the crowd that had gathered on the street below. They are struck to the depths of their soul by his message and ask what they should do. Peter tells them that they must repent of their sins and be baptized so that they also may receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. In verse 41 we read, “Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.”  Whereas three thousand people were slaughtered by Moses on that first Pentecost because they rejected the law, three thousand people were saved by the apostles because of the power of the Holy Spirit. The law of the Old Covenant did not offer those who received it the power to live it out. But to those who receive the New Covenant of love, the Holy Spirit is given empowering us to accept and live out the teachings of Jesus.

It has been said that the Christian life is not just difficult, it is impossible. It is impossible to love and forgive our enemies. It is impossible to bless those who curse us and rejoice when others make fun of us for being followers of Jesus. In today’s world, many think it is impossible to live a chaste single life or a faithful married life.  For human beings with our weak wills, all these things are impossible. That is why no other religion besides Christianity proclaims such a radical, all-embracing message of love.

The reason we as baptized members of the Body of Christ do say that it not just possible but mandatory that we live and love as Jesus did is that we have the Spirit of Jesus living within us. We have received the same Spirit by which Jesus cured the sick and raised the dead. We have received the same Spirit that compelled the apostles to preach the good news of Jesus resurrection to all the world even to the point of giving their lives for Christ. We have received the same Spirit that empowered the saints to feed the hungry, care for the sick and teach the gospel message even under the threat of persecution. It is that Spirit that makes it possible for us to love our enemies, to live simpler lives so that we will have more to give to the needy and to love God more than life itself. We can now live the Christian life with joy, not as a burden, because the Spirit of God lives in us.

Very often we fail to live the gospel message because we are trying to live it by our own power or on our own terms. When we sin, we too often just tell ourselves and God that we will try harder next time. Or we pick and choose which teachings we will follow and which teachings we ignore. Both attitudes are a recipe for failure. If we are to live the Christian message in all its fullness and experience the joy and peace it brings, we must resolve to abandon our lives to the work of the Holy Spirit. We must say to Him, “I am no longer in control, Lord. You are.” We must simply tell God that we give up trying to follow Him by our own will power and give Him permission to work in and through us. It is a scary thing to do because we do not like to hand over control of our lives. But once we do, we will see wonders take place just as the apostles did and just as generation after generation of saints who have given up everything to follow Jesus.

Living Water From Within

Fire. A Dove. A mighty rushing wind.

All these are symbols that Scripture gives us of the Holy Spirit of God. They convey His power, His presence throughout the world and, at the same time, the difficulty in understanding and seeing His mighty work.

In today’s gospel, Jesus provides us with another image of His Holy Spirit. It is the image of water.

Water is essential for human life. Particularly in the harsh desert climate that Jesus lived in,  no one could survive for long without it. In our own day, the first sign of potential  life that scientist look for on other planets is the presence of water. Just so, the Spirit of God is a Spirit of life.

In the book of Genesis, we see the Spirit of God hovering over the waters on the first day of creation bringing form to the void and life out of nothing. When the angel Gabriel announces to Mary that she will be the mother of Jesus, it is the Holy Spirit who overshadows her to conceive our Saviour in her virgin womb. And on the day of Pentecost, it is the Holy Spirit who rushes in like a mighty wind upon the apostles and Mary gathered in prayer in the upper room to give birth to the Church. That same Holy Spirit gives life to the Church today, pulsing through all the baptized, empowering us to live the good news, to care for those in need and to show love to the abandoned. Like water refreshing a parched and weary traveler, the Holy Spirit brings comfort to all those who believe in Jesus and life to those who call upon His name.

Today’s gospel is set during the Festival of Booths when the Jews commemorate how God provided water for them from the rock while they wandered in the desert. Remember that God had liberated them from slavery in Egypt but the road to freedom ran through a desert. There was little food and no water, and the people began to fear that they would not survive. They began to wonder whether they had made a mistake in trusting God and His servant, Moses. To provide His people with water, God commanded Moses to strike a rock and immediately water began to flow from it for the people to drink. It was a reminder to the people - and to us - that God is near even when He seems far away and that He can provide for all our needs no matter how impossible or dire our circumstances may be.

It is during the greatest day of this festival that Jesus cries out: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me; Let him drink who believes in me.” He is telling those who heard Him that it is He who gives the living water, that is the Holy Spirit, to all those who believe. Just as God provided water to His people in the desert, so Jesus provides His Holy Spirit to those who live in a desert of selfishness, individualism, poverty and persecution. Unlike water which can only nourish us for a short while, the Spirit of God sustains us always so that we never experience thirst again.

Jesus goes on to say, “Scripture has it: ‘From within him rivers of living water flow.’” We who are baptized and who are the fulfillment of God’s promise, experience the Holy Spirit as a fountain of life within us. Within our heart and soul, the living power of God bubbles up giving us inspiration, encouragement, comfort and peace. Even if we were to be locked away in a dungeon with no light and no contact with the outside world, we would experience the presence of God within us leading us by faith. The refreshing, life-giving water is always flowing within us.

Of course, a river or well is no good unless we go there ourselves to get water. Unless we turn the faucet on, the water stays in the pipes. Just so, if we are to draw on the power of God’s Spirit within us, we must turn to Him in prayer. Prayer connects us with the Spirit and unleashes His life within us. Perhaps a good meditation for us during this week would be to imagine ourselves with a bucket going to a fountain of water. As we try to catch the bubbling water into our bucket, we can imagine all the blessings God wants to shower us with - peace, joy, love, happiness and whatever it is we may need at the moment. We can imagine ourselves being cleansed and refreshed at the fountain.

If we were to spend ten to fifteen minutes everyday this week in that prayer, we would notice a big difference in our lives. We would feel centered and focused throughout the day. We would be at peace no matter what difficulties we faced. Whenever we may feel confused or out of sorts, we would develop the habit of looking within ourselves for the strength of God within us. And we would develop trust in the Spirit to lead us in all circumstances. In short, through the power of daily prayer and the Holy Spirit within us, we would be transformed daily into the image and likeness of Christ.

Saint Paul assures us that the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness and helps us in our prayer. The Christian life is essentially coming to abandon ourselves through the grace of God to the impulses of the Holy Spirit within us. It takes our whole life to learn how to do it, but it is possible for each of us through baptism and the power of faith. We need only take the time to pray each day, read the Bible and receive Jesus in the sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist to make that promise a reality in our lives.

This day, the Feast of Pentecost, we celebrate the gift of God’s Holy Spirit poured out upon all believers. He is the life of God Himself breathed into the soul of all believers, the living water that refreshes us. Let us go to the well always and draw deeply from the depth of His love. Nothing else can provide us with that for which our soul thirsts - God Himself living and active in each of us through faith.

The Church Is Born In Fire

For the past fifty days we have celebrated and reflected on the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. We have told the stories of his appearances to the apostles and how he finally ascended to heaven to assume his glorious throne. Today, the feast of Pentecost, we bring our Easter celebration to a close by remembering the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles and Mary. On this day the Spirit of God rushed down like a mighty wind upon the room in which they had gathered in prayerful expectation. Then tongues of fire alighted on them signifying that each of them had been touched by God and were now empowered to preach the good news.  We learn what a radical transformation came over them as they spill into the streets proclaiming the wonders of God. They are no longer huddled in fear, hiding from the world. Once touched by God, they are free to proclaim to all those who would hear about the death and resurrection of Jesus.

And so the Church is born by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

This Holy Spirit continues to dwell within us forming us into the People of God and equipping us to bring God's love to the suffering and the needy.

We use many symbols to help us understand who the Holy Spirit is. One of the most powerful of those images is that of fire. It is the reason why we wear red on this feast of the birth of the Church. By depicting the Holy Spirit as fire, the Scriptures are instructing us about the effects that he has on the lives of believers. Like fire, the Holy Spirit transforms us, purifies us and sets us aflame with love of God.

First of all, the Holy Spirit transforms us. Fire changes whatever it touches. Once something is burned, it cannot return to what it was. Just so, once we are sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit through baptism and confirmation, we are forever changed. We cannot undo baptism or confirmation. No matter how hard we may try to reject that gift of faith and grace, it is forever with us. The way we write our names on the cover of a book we love, just so each of us has been marked by God as his special possession. Both the angels and the demons recognize it. Because of it, we can go before God with confidence and bring him our needs knowing that he will recognize us and answer us. And if we look into our hearts and find that we need to change, all we need to do is ask the Holy Spirit to refresh us and there is no doubt we will be forever transformed by his fire.

Secondly, the Holy Spirit purifies us. The way we boil water to kill the bacteria in it, the Holy Spirit's presence in our hearts burns away all that is not of God. As we are consumed by the fire of God's Spirit, our sinful self melts away. The Holy Spirit does this by putting into our hearts a love for God which makes anything that offends him loathsome to us. This image of purifying fire also reminds us that there is some pain involved in the transformation that God wants to accomplish in us. We resist change and are often fond of our sinful habits. But as we surrender to the Holy Spirit's purifying power, we discover the peace, joy and love that emerge once our sin is burned away. Once we taste that freedom, we never want to go back to our former slavery to sin.

Thirdly, the Holy Spirit sets us aflame with love for God. When we have an intense love for someone, we sometimes say we are "on fire" for that person. Or if we want something badly enough, we will say we have a "burning desire" for it. Just so, the Holy Spirit sets us on fire with love for God. Like a fire, that love is intense and all consuming. It is the love that compelled the apostles to put their fears aside and witness to the death and resurrection of Jesus. It is the love which even today inspires people to leave their comfortable lives to serve the poor and needy. It is the love which drove Jesus to hand his life over so that we might be saved. If we are feeling dead inside. If we feel that life has become a drudgery and that there is no purpose in what we are doing, we need to give our lives over to the presence and action of the Holy Spirit. We will find that our hearts are so engulfed with God and his love that there will not be enough hours in the day to proclaim his wonders and sing his praises.

And so with the feast of Pentecost we wrap up our celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus. It reminds us that God's saving work is not finished with the cross and resurrection. Rather God invites each of us to enter into the mystery of Jesus' death and resurrection by making our lives an offering to him. Furthermore, he desires that each of us also share in the joy of bringing his saving word to others. The gift of the Holy Spirit which has forever marked us as God's sons and daughters empowers us to do just that. He is continually at work within us to transform us, purify us and set us on fire with love. It is ours for the asking. But watch out - there is no telling what wonders the Lord will work in our lives.

Can I Be Christian Without The Church?

Can I be Christian without the Church?

We often hear people say  that they can follow Jesus without being part of a church. They claim that they are fed more by taking a walk in the woods than by going to worship services. Others say that all they need is the Bible to help them pray and teach them about Jesus.

Of course, we can get a sense of God’s grandeur and beauty through nature and there is much to learn about Jesus by reading the Bible at home. However, that does not mean that we do not need the Church.

Consider this. How would the world know about Jesus if Christians did not spread the good news of His death and resurrection? In fact, we would not even have a Bible unless believers like Matthew, Mark, Luke and John sat down and wrote it. Also, the Bible has survived down through the centuries because, before the printing press was invented, many followers of Jesus meticulously copied it by hand so that it would be available for others to read. Without a doubt, if there were no Church, there would be no Bible. And, if there were no Church, we would not know about Jesus.

Furthermore, the Bible itself teaches us that we need the Church. Jesus makes it very clear that He is establishing the Church when He says to Peter, “You are rock and on this rock I will build my Church…” (Mt 16:18). It is also clear in Scripture that Jesus gave His authority to teach and to celebrate the sacraments to His apostles and that He intended them to give that authority to others.

We see that in today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles. Peter gathers the disciples together and explains that they need to find a replacement for Judas. In doing so, he quotes from Psalm 109 - “May another take his office.” Interestingly, the Greek word that is translated as “office” is the same Greek word that is used for “bishop”. Through the sacrament of Holy Orders, the apostles handed on their authority to other men who then handed it on to other men, and so on down to the present day. That is why we call bishops “successors of the apostles” because they have received the authority to teach and celebrate the sacraments which Jesus handed on to the apostles so that His Church can be built up through the centuries.

The Bible teaches us not only that Jesus established the Church but that He loves the Church. In fact, Saint Paul compares the relationship of Jesus to the Church to the relationship of a married couple. When teaching about how married couples should love one another, he writes: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (Eph 5:25). If Jesus loved the Church, we should love the Church as well.

We should also love the Church because,  through her, we receive everything we need for our salvation.

We have already mentioned how the Bible came to us through the Church. But it is also only through the Church that we receive the sacraments which nurture our faith, hope and love. Without the Church, there would be no baptism, which initiates us into the life of grace. Without the Church, we would not be able to receive communion which Jesus gave us at the Last Supper when He commanded the apostles, “Do this in memory of me” (Lk 22:19). There is no other way to receive the graces that come from these sacraments than through the Church. No matter how many walks in the woods we take or how many hours we spend praying at home, we can never have the same real and life-transforming encounter with Christ that we experience through the sacraments.

There are also many reasons to be proud of our Church. No other institution feeds as many hungry people, shelters as many poor people or educates as many children as the Catholic Church. Down through the ages, she has stood up for the weak and the vulnerable against the powerful who would exploit them. She has survived many tyrannical and oppressive governments which have sought to destroy her. As Catholics, we should learn about our history, about the great women and men of faith who have witnessed to the love of God and about the great events that shaped who we are as the People of God. In particular, we should learn the truth behind events such as the Crusades and the Inquisition which people often refer to when they want to sully the Church’s reputation. Though Catholics have not always been perfect, there is still much for us to be proud of.

Another claim that we often hear is that all religions are equal and that it doesn’t matter which Church you belong to. How should we respond to those claims?

Because religions have different and contradictory doctrines, they can’t all be true. For instance, some religions teach that Jesus is the Son of God and other religions deny that. Obviously, they cannot all be right. And, if some of them are wrong about Jesus, then they cannot all be true. Doesn’t it make sense that we want to belong to the Church that teaches the truth about Jesus? Does such a Church exist?

We can answer that question by looking at the Bible. Jesus says clearly that he will establish His Church on Peter. There is only one Church which claims to be the one that Jesus founded on Saint Peter. That is the Catholic Church. And, if I cannot follow Jesus without belonging to a Church, doesn’t it make sense that I should belong to the one that makes the strongest claim to being the one He founded?

Pope Francis said recently, “We Christians need to participate in Sunday Mass because only with the grace of Jesus, with His living presence in and among us, can we put into practice His commandment, and thus be His credible witnesses.” The Church is God’s gift to us to make sure that we have everything we need for our journey to heaven. We cannot be true followers of Jesus, then,  unless we make that journey with others in the Church that Jesus established - the Catholic Church.

One In Christ

                                                                                                             

Some of the world’s problems are so immense that we wonder how individuals like us can make a difference. Issues like poverty and racism are so deeply ingrained that we doubt that any one of us can make a lasting change in the culture. The sheer enormity of these dilemmas can tempt us to throw our hands up and become indifferent to the struggles of our brothers and sisters around the world.

One such problem that has been with us for centuries is the disunity among Christians. For many complex historical reasons, Christians have split into thousands of denominations, each pursuing  its own understanding of what Jesus taught. The situation is nothing short of tragic. Not only has it caused confusion about the Christian message, it also has weakened our witness to the world of what Jesus taught. If instead of loving one another we are bickering and fighting, then how can anyone believe the truth of what we profess?

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus is praying for unity among His disciples. He prays “...that they may be one…” His intention is that all those who are baptized and claim Him as their Lord and Savior not only profess one belief but also live in loving communion with one another. Sadly, we have let Jesus down. We are not one in belief, one in practice or one in love as Jesus prayed we would be.

What can we do about it? Are the divisions too deep for any one of us to overcome them? Are the wounds too painful for any one of us to heal them? Perhaps. However, we can take steps to repair what has been broken. The disunity among Christians is the result of thousands of individual acts of disrespect, misunderstanding and even violence. Our return to unity will only come about through thousands more acts of respect, mutual understanding and forgiveness. We cannot change history but we can change ourselves. And history shows that changes in attitude and behavior can make all the difference.

What steps can we begin to take today to make Jesus’ prayer that we be one a reality?

The first step is to acknowledge the harm that all Christians, including Catholics, have caused and ask for forgiveness, first from God and then from other Christians when appropriate. Many times when we share about our faith others will bring up the usual litany of wrongs committed by the Church over the centuries. Even though they often misunderstand or exaggerate the harm that was caused, we should not become defensive. Rather we should simply acknowledge that injustices were committed and ask the person we are speaking to for forgiveness. Such an attitude will go a long way toward healing the divisions among us.

The next step would be to be careful about the way we talk about people who do not share our faith. It goes without saying that any slurs against them are absolutely inappropriate and sinful. Even though they may differ from us in their understanding of Scripture or the way they celebrate their faith, we should always speak respectfully of their traditions. When we are called upon to defend our Catholic faith, we should never speak down to others as if we have all the answers. We should always avoid coming off as aggressive, arrogant or offensive. Remember it is often unlikely that we will convert anyone solely by our intellectual arguments in favor of our faith. However, we can change attitudes, create friendships and also learn from one another. Even if we continue to have different beliefs and practices,  we can achieve closer unity through friendship and mutual respect.

Another step we can take is to follow Jesus’ example and pray. Ultimately, Christian unity is the work of the Holy Spirit. It is He who opens minds to the truth of the gospel message. It is He who inspires our hearts with a desire for communion not only with God but with one another. It is He who breaks down the walls of division and discord between people. Prayer makes a difference. We may not always see the results but our faith assures us that all things are possible for those who believe.

The final and perhaps most important step is for each of us to look within ourselves and resolve to live the gospel of love. The more each of us is like Christ in our attitudes and behaviors the closer we will become to one another. It is love that creates unity and peace. If we are more loving, then there will be more unity and peace in the world and among Christians. This is where the Sacrament of Confession can really help us. By working to root out sin in our lives through the power of God’s grace, we become more effective instruments of His peace.

We constantly look to Jesus to answer our prayers. This is one way in which we can return the favor and answer His prayer by working for unity not only among Christians but among all people of good will. The task can seem insurmountable. However, each one of us through the power of the Holy Spirit can make a difference by seeking forgiveness when it is appropriate, speaking respectfully of one another, praying for unity and changing our hearts to make them more like Jesus.

We call the sacrament we are about to receive “Holy Communion” because it unites us not only to God but to one another. Like all sacraments, it actually achieves what it signifies. It creates unity among us. As we receive, let us ask God to open our hearts to the action of His Spirit so that we can become instruments of His peace in this world until we reach the fullness of union with Him and one another in the Kingdom of Heaven.