Fr. Leo's Benevolent Blog!

     If Alaskans ever needed a biblical justification for their favorite summer pastime, they need look no farther than John 21:3, wherein Simon Peter says, “I am going fishing!” and the others reply, “We will come with you!” As the saying goes, if you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, he will sit in a boat and tell tall tales all day!

       Most Alaskans don’t fish for a living. We do it to relax,    enjoy companionship, and fill the freezer. But up until he met    Jesus, Simon Peter was a commercial fisherman. Not fully     appreciating the implications of the first two appearances of the resurrected Christ, it looks now like he is going back to the life he knew before…and with similar results!

       But there is no going back. He may not realize it yet, but the Resurrection literally changes everything.

       So much of this encounter with the Risen Christ is a reflection of previous moments with Jesus. Just like on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, they fished all night and caught nothing, but at the word of Jesus, their nets are full to breaking. Again, realizing that it is Jesus, Peter jumps out of the boat, just like he did when he went out on the water towards Jesus during the storm. (Only this time, he gets wet!). And just like when Jesus fed the 5000, the menu is fish and bread. There is no doubt in their minds that this is Jesus as they sit down to share a meal.

       But then things take an interesting turn. There is a loose end that needs to be tied up.  Jesus takes Simon Peter aside for a little chat. Notice that Jesus does not address him by the new name he gave his friend at Caesarea Philippi. Instead, he uses his original name: “Simon, son of John.” There is a good reason for this. Three times Peter had denied Jesus. This was a complete denial. In denying Christ, Peter gave up his heritage. He needs to be reconciled. Just so, three times Jesus asks him if he loves him, and three times Simon Peter replies, “Yes, Lord, you know I love you.” Thus, Peter’s three-fold denial is reconciled by his three-fold profession of love. He is restored. We know this because when they are finished, Peter receives the same invitation as in their first encounter.  Jesus said to him, “Follow me.”

       This encounter with the Risen Christ gives me hope. Unlike Peter, I can’t count the number of times I have denied Christ by my sins. But like Peter, I have come to know that as many times as I have denied him, if I turn back to him in love, Christ is willing to restore me to grace. It is an infinite love I cannot fathom, of which I am not worthy, but for which I am extremely grateful.      

Howdy, Church fans! How do move from fear to peace? The resurrection makes all the difference. Check it out. The video is below. The text is below that.

    One of the striking transitions in the scriptures is the way that Jesus greets his disciples. During his public ministry and even up to his passion and death, the first words out of Jesus’ mouth are typically, “Do not be afraid.” or some variation thereof.

   However, after the Resurrection, his greeting changes.  Now it is, “Peace be with you.” 

What’s going on here, and how do we move from fear to peace? 

    First, let’s look at fear.  Reasonable fear itself is not a bad thing and is often useful for survival. When we find ourselves between a sow bear and her cubs, it’s a good thing to be afraid and to remove oneself from the area. When the hackles go up and the ears go back on the bull moose in the front yard, fear is a good thing. 

But this is very different from unreasonable fear, such as fear of failure, fear of embarrassment, or fear of appearing “too religious.”  Such fear paralyzes us and keeps us from doing the loving thing.  As such, it is can rightfully be said that the opposite of love is not hate; it is fear. 

    Peace drives out fear, especially the peace that Christ gives. The peace or “shalom” that Christ is talking about is the reality of when things are as they are intended to be. Before the passion, death and resurrection of Christ, things were not as they were intended.  Sin had entered the world and held it in its grip. Fear was the result.      However, after Christ reconciled all creation to the Father, the world was set aright. The effects of sin are still around, but sin no longer has mastery over the world. Christ has broken the bonds of sin, suffering and death. The possibilities are literally endless. Sin, suffering, and death are still part of the human reality, but they can’t rule our lives. Like Christ, we transcend the vagaries of the present age and rise above to new life in the Spirit. This is the peace that the world cannot give. This is the peace Christ.             

Easter, 2022

[Hello, Church fans! Well, it took me a week to recover, but here is the Easter homily along with the video. What does it meant to mean to be an Easter people? The theological virtues can give us insight. ]

Last year I spoke about why the resurrection is so important for us as human beings.  Namely, that as human beings we are unique in that we have a body and a rational soul. Christ entered fully into our human nature, body and soul. He did not redeem just part of us, he has redeemed and perfected all of us. The resurrected Jesus is humanity perfected, body and soul. So if we die with him in baptism, we will rise with him in glory at the resurrection at the end of the age.

       However, the reality of the resurrection begins now. As Pope St. John Paul II said, “We are Easter people, and Alleluia is our song!”

What then does it mean to be an Easter people?  Three things, I think.

First it means that we are a people of Faith.

       Faith, we know, is not simply assent to a disembodied set of philosophical principles.

       Too often in the world today, there are those who try to reduce Jesus of Nazareth to just another wise sage who taught us how to live in peace, love, joy and harmony,

       …Jesus of Nazareth…sensitive new age guy.

Faith, at its heart is a relationship,  

       With Christ and with others.  

It is not rocket science.  If you want a relationship to grow, you give it two things

       – time and attention.

The more time and attention you give it, the deeper it will grow. Until we reach the point where the lover and the beloved are joined at the deepest level of human existence, a perfect and holy communion at the very level of our being.

       This holy communion was described by Saint Francis de Sales as “Cor ad cor loquitur.” – “Heart speaks to heart.”

To be an Easter People is to be a people of faith.

To be an Easter People is also to be a people of hope.

       Hope, of course, is born within the context of the relationship of faith.

       Hope, in its simplest form, simply means a founded, realistic expectation of some future good. 

       There are two kinds of hope.

• “little” immediate hope and

• eschatological or “ultimate” hope

It is important not to confuse real, theological hope with wishful thinking.

       Wishful thinking is an unfounded expectation of something that may or may not happen.

       For example, “I hope Fr. Leo doesn’t preach too long, I have a leg of lamb in the oven for Easter supper.” 

       But real hope is founded on one’s relationship with the other. It can be immediate or ultimate.

       For example, say you get a call from your spouse who says, “Hey, honey.  Come home hungry because I am making your favorite dish for dinner tonight.”

       That, my friends, is a founded hope. You know your spouse loves you and knows what your favorite dish is. That same spouse has revealed to you that tonight’s dinner will indeed be your favorite. Furthermore, you know that you spouse would not lie to you.  You now have a founded, realistic hope in a really tasty future good. 

       Do you have any guarantee? Absolutely! Your relationship with your spouse. Over the years, your relationship has grown and deepened to the point where you know beyond the shadow of a doubt that when you get home, the house will smell wonderful, and you are going to enjoy your favorite meal with your favorite person.

       Having such a hope changes the entire rest of your day. No matter what the world, your boss or the clients throw at you that afternoon, because you await the blessed hope of the taste of the meal to come. Amen!

       It’s not all that different with eschatological, that is, ultimate hope. 

       As a people of faith, living in relationship with Jesus in the midst of the Church, it has been revealed to us that ‘what we await is a new heaven and a new earth.” (2Pet 3:13) when those who have died in Christ in baptism will rise, body and soul with Him into eternity. This is our hope

“and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the holy Spirit that has been given to us.” (Romans 5:5)

       We await the blessed hope

              And the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ.

To be an Easter People is to be a people of hope. 

Finally, to be an Easter people is to be a people of love.

       To help me out, I’d like to turn to one Monhandes K. Gandhi. Gandhi enumerated seven “deadly sins”. They are

•      Wealth Without Work

•      Pleasure Without Conscience

•      Knowledge Without Character

•      Commerce Without Morality

•      Science Without Humanity

•      Politics Without Principle

•      Religion Without Sacrifice

This last one kind of hits home doesn’t it.

Faith, our relationship with Christ and others, gives rise to our hope.

       And hope changes how we live in the midst of the world.  Hope gives rise to Love.

       And love involves sacrifice. 

Thomas Aquinas tells us that love intends the good of the other.

       And the deeper the love, the greater and more eternal is the good that one intends. 

       In the warm of deepest love, no price too great, no sacrifice is too high.  

       Ultimately, we come to realize that Our Lord was correct when he said, “There is no greater love than to lay down your life for a friend.” 

       Faith gives rise to hope

              Hope gives rise love

                     And love gives everything, sacrifices everything for the good of the other.

I am reminded of the words that Our Lord spoke to the Apostles in the Upper Room at the last supper, “What I have done is give you and example.  As I have done, so you should do.” 

       There is no greater love…

To be an Easter people is to be a people of love, a people of sacrifice.

       But where love is present, sacrifice comes easily.

To be an Easter people is to be a people of Faith, Hope and Love.

“We are an Easter people, and alleluia is our song.”

Mass of the Lord’s Supper, 2022

So much to preach on, so little time…

       or is there…

When we stop to think about everything that led up to the events that we commemorate tonight, we cannot but wonder at how different the lives of the apostles were from when they left everything to follow Jesus;

       of all the things they had experienced with him,

       the teachings, the miracles, calming of storm, the feeding of the 5000 and the 4000, the raising of     Lazarus from the dead.

They have changed much in the last three years, these twelve men, not to mention the women and the rest of his disciples.

       That’s really how it seems to work with Jesus.

       He is truly human and so he enters fully into our human reality.

       He is also truly divine, and so having entered into our human reality, he transforms it.    

Whatever Jesus touches, Jesus transforms.

       He did it at the waters of the Jordan, transforming the baptism of repentance into the sacrament of our salvation.

       He did it at the wedding at Cana, when he transformed marriage into the sacrament that reflects the faithfulness of God in the lives of husband and wife.

       He does it twice tonight when he transforms the Passover into the Eucharist, the sacrament which is the source and summit of all that the Church is and does. 

        And again, when as the Great High Priest, he establishes the Ministerial Priesthood in order to perpetuate his one perfect sacrifice on the Cross.

       Let’s look at these last two. 

The Eucharist is a true sacrifice and a shared meal.

       What do you need for a true sacrifice?

              A priest

              An offering

              An altar

              A reason

The priest is the one who offers the sacrifice on your behalf. 

The offering depended on the reason for the sacrifice.

       Usually, it was the first fruits of your field or an unblemished animal from you flock.

       It had to be blemished because it was not right to offer one that had a bad foot or disease that you wanted to get rid of anyway.

       You only give God your best.

       Mediocrity is no way to serve Our Lord.

The altar was made of stone. This was because on it were placed coals from the fire for the immolation of the offering.

       There were four main reasons that sacrifices were offered.

       1. to establish covenants – They were always established in blood.

       2. to give thanks – Offering the first fruits.

       3. for the forgiveness of sins – the Sin Offering

       4. to remember – the Passover

The mechanics of the sacrifice varied, but the general pattern was that you brought your sacrifice to the priest, who would lay his hands on the offering. From that moment it could only be used for sacred purposes. 

       Next, if it were an animal, it was slaughtered in the proscribed manner, the blood was saved, certain parts were removed, such as the kidneys, the fat on the liver and so forth, and placed on the coals on the altar.  Sometimes the blood was sprinkled on the corners of the altar. 

       Then you took the rest of it home and ate it in a raucous sacrificial banquet. 

       The idea of sacred sacrifice and sacred ritual meal are inseparable.

What do you need for ritual meal?  You need

       Special environment

       Special gifts

       Special food, and

       Special words and songs.

We are all very familiar with certain ritual meals. 

       For example, you walk into your friend’s house, there are balloons and streamers everywhere…special environment.

       There is a big cake that will be placed on the table with candles on it…special food.

       There are gifts that are brought wrapped in pretty packaging.

       And there is a special song that must be sung for the ritual to be valid: “Happy Birthday to you!  Happy Birthday to you!”

       As we heard tonight, the Last Supper took place in the context of the Passover.  But it is the firm belief of the Church that every sacrifice,

       whether to establish covenants,

       to give thanks,

       to forgive sins, or

       to remember

were fulfilled and brought to perfection in the one perfect sacrifice of Christ on the Cross.

       We celebrate this in the context of what is rightly called the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass,

       Listen to the words of institution over the cup:

       “…when supper was ended, he took the chalice, and once more, giving THANKS, he gave it to his disciples saying, “Take this all of you and drink from it, for this is the chalice of my Blood, the Blood of the new and eternal COVENANT, which will be poured out for you and for many for the FORGIVENESS OF SINS. Do this IN MEMORY of me.” 

       The Eucharist is a true sacrifice, allowing us to participate truly and substantially in the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ.

       It is also a shared meal.  Here we have:

       Special environment – this sacred space

       Special gifts – bread, wine, our treasure and ourselves.

       Special food – the bread and wine which become truly and substantially the Body, Blood, soul, and divinity of Christ.

       Special words – “This is my body…This is my blood.”

       Thus, the Eucharist is also a shared, ritual meal, rightly called the Supper of the Lord. 

       It’s important to remember that while the Temple worship ended with the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., the Church retains the inseparable connection between ritual sacrifice and ritual meal, even though modern Judaism does not.

       But there was more that happened that night in the Upper Room.  To ensure that the Eucharist would always be at the center of the life of the Church, Christ established the Ministerial Priesthood in what we have come to know as the Sacrament of Holy Orders

       This differs substantially from the priesthood of all believers in that the priest is configured at the core of this very being to Christ the High priest.

       As such, he acts in persona Christi – in the person of Christ, the Head

       And in persona ecclesiae – in the person of the Church, the Body

       There is no higher calling.

              There is no greater challenge.

                     And today, there is no greater need in the life                      of the Church.

There is no higher calling

       because the priest is configured, changed at the very core of his being to Christ, the Great High Priest. 

       As the priest acts for the Church and the world in the person of Christ, so to, it is Christ who acts in person on each priest who continues his ministry of teaching, sanctifying and governing.

There is no greater challenge

       because in a world obsessed with power, the priest is called to exercise his authority in imitation of Christ, the suffering servant,

       Christ, who came not to be served, but to serve.

       One cannot understand or comprehend the nature of the priesthood and authority in the Church, unless it is exercised in as service to Christ, to the Church and to the world.

       Sadly, throughout history, and especially in the early part of the 20^th century, we have seen what scandal can happen when authority in the Church fails to be exercised in spirit of service. 

       There is no greater need,

       because in an increasingly over-secularized and over-sexed world, the priest stands as countercultural witness to the things that are eternal and the one dignity and sanctity of human life and love.

       Who else, like Christ, can stand as the bridge between heaven and earth?

       Who else can celebrate the mysteries of our salvation?

       Who else can forgive the penitent sinner or entrust the dying soul, cleansed from sin and anointed by grace to mercy of Almighty God? 

       This is the challenge of the joy of the ministerial priesthood of Jesus Christ in the Church in the world.

       This is is why I love being a priest.

Who shall call the next generation of priests

              if not you?  If not me? 

Karl Rahner said it well in his poem entitled, “The Priest”

The priest is not an angel sent from heaven.

He is a man chosen from among men, a member of the Church, a Christian.

Remaining man and Christian he begins to speak to you the Word of God.

This Word is not his own.

No, he comes to you because God has told him to     proclaim God’s Word.

Perhaps he has not fully understood it himself.

Perhaps he adulterates it.

But he believes,

       and despite his fears

       he knows that he must communicate God’s Word to you.

For must not some one of us say something about God,        about eternal life

       about the majesty of grace in our sanctified being;

must not some one of us speak of sin,

       the judgment and mercy of God?

So my dear friends, pray for him.

Carry him so that he might be able to sustain others

       by bringing to them the mystery of God’s love

       revealed in Christ Jesus.

                                                  (Karl Rahner- The Priest)

       Acting in the person of Christ, with the heart of Christ and the power of Christ, the priest enters into and transforms the reality of everyone and everything.   

       That’s why I love being a priest.

I could say more, but that’s enough for now. 

       For now, it is enough to remember that two great sacraments were initiated that night in the Upper Room by Christ, the Eucharist and the Holy Priesthood

Both are at the heart and soul of all that the Church is and all that she does 

       from now until the end of the age. 

Hello, Church fans! Palm Sunday begins with in triumph and ends in tragedy…or does it. Here’s hoping that this coming week is truly ‘holy.’ The video and text are below.

       When I was in Mrs. O’Brien’s 8th grade English class at Romig Jr. High, we learned that a common literary device to engage your reader is the “negative-positive approach.” That is, in order to convince your reader, it works best if you begin with a negative statement or idea and then morph or contrast it with a correlative positive idea. It’s the literary equivalent of affirming that it’s not how you start, but how you finish.

       Then we have Palm Sunday which violates this in the extreme. We start out by commemorating Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The palm is an ancient symbol of victory, used by kings returning from battle to signal to the townspeople that they were victorious. In a similar way, Jesus is welcomed to Jerusalem amid cries of, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”  Life is good.

       Then the liturgy shifts gears as we participate in the dramatic reading of the Lord’s Passion, this year from the Gospel of Luke. I don’t know about you, but I really hate it when we yell out, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” I think it’s because each of us realizes that because Jesus paid the price for our sins that day, we all had a role in his crucifixion. It is a hard reality, yet one that we must admit is true.  

       Yes, Palm Sunday is a downer of a way to enter into Holy Week. This is done on purpose. It is the way that the Church in her wisdom helps us to enter into the reality of our redemption. But, even as we do so, we must also admit that we have a decided advantage over those first disciples.  We know the rest of the story. For us, the commemoration of the Lord’s suffering and death is a bummer.  For them, it was an experience of total loss. The apostles saw the one in whom they placed all their hopes hanging in indignation on the Cross. Mary watched in agony as the life oozed out of her son. We are slightly bummed.  They were devastated. 

       But as I said, it’s all in how you finish. Like them, Holy Week begins with triumph, plunges into tragedy, but ends in victory beyond our wildest imagination. Like them, we enter into the devastation of the suffering and death he endured because of our sins, so that we may rise with him victorious in the resurrection. In a world of voices contrary to the gospel, we are not the heralds of doom. We are the prophets of hope for the world.

       The master has need of us.  Let us take the good news to the world.

Hello again, Church fans! There is no text for my homily on the raising of Lazarus, but it was a fun homily. Check it out.

[Hey, Church fans! I’m back! This week there are actually two homilies for your enjoyment. Here is the text from the C cycle readings (the woman caught in adultery) , but we also had the A cycle readings for the Third Scrutiny. (The raising of Lazarus.) The Vid is below. The Lazarus homily is on the next post.]

     Next to Peter getting out of the boat to walk on the water, the story of the woman caught in the act of adultery is one of my favorites. What’s going on?

     First, when they bring the woman before Jesus, we know the scribes and the Pharisees are not genuine in their moral indignation. How do we know this?  Well, it usually takes two parties to commit adultery.  Where is the guy?!

---

       Rather, they are simply trying to trap Jesus. If he says they should stone her, then they can condemn him to the Roman authorities since that would have been illegal. If he says they should not stone her, then they can denounce him as unfaithful to the Law of Moses. Jesus is smarter than that.

       So what was he writing on the ground? Some of the Church fathers speculated that he was writing that passage of the Law that they were invoking. Others that he was writing the sins of the scribes and the Pharisees. That’s my favorite, but the sacred text just doesn’t say.

       His answer to let the one without sin cast the first stone is particularly shrewd. Defeated, they all went away, one by one. Who of us is without sin? 

       But by the same token who of us is beyond the mercy of God? We could learn much by how Jesus treats the woman. Her guilt is not in question.  Nor does he make light of the seriousness of her offense.

       Sometimes it’s easy to forget that Jesus is the only one present who actually could throw a stone at her. He is the one who could condemn her. But that is not what Jesus is about. Jesus did not come to condemn the world, but to save it.  None of us is without sin, but not one of us is beyond the mercy of God.        All too often we are quick to condemn and slow to give mercy. Looking at what Jesus did, should we rather not be slow to condemn and quick to give mercy? In doing so, we truly join Christ in his salvific mission for the world, or at least that little part of the world in which we find ourselves.           

Hey, Church fans! Here is this week’s homily. I’ll be honest. I departed pretty severely from the text so I’m just posting the video. If you have trouble viewing it, you can see it by clicking on the link HERE or on the link below.

https://youtu.be/s2M3qudvxD4

Enjoy.

Fr. Leo