Living Out Faith

    Today I am reminded of the simple words of St. Francis of Assisi. This man spoke so well to the way that we are truly called to live and he explains it in a simple sentence. "Preach the Gospel always, when necessary use words." There is one huge thing to be taken out of this line and that is to live the way Jesus taught us to live and allow your actions speak for your words. It is easy enough for a person to say something, but it is more impressive to see someone actually live out what they believe. To simply say you are a Catholic is one thing, but to truly live out the faith is another, that is the true definition of being a Catholic. Even Jesus in today's Gospel tells us that we need to speak in our actions, why do you think the Jewish elders wanted Him to be dead for blasphemy? Yes Jesus spoke against them, but it was more of the actions He performed that changed the minds of the believers.

    Think about it this way. In Jesus time, anyone could have gone around and said they were the Son of God. But why was Jesus so well received and yet so well hated at the same time? Yes He was a good speaker, but it was because He actually lived what He was preaching. Jesus performed miracles, He ate meals with tax collectors and prostitutes and other sinners. Jesus flipped table in the Temple in order to cleans it! Jesus physically showed His love to everyone as He was being nailed to the cross on Good Friday. Jesus gives us the example of how we are to live our faith and He tells us in Scripture today that our actions are what show people that we truly are faithful followers of Christ.

"If I do not perform my Father's works, do not believe me, but if I perform them, even if you

do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may realize and understand that the Father

is in me and I am in the Father."

    I have said it before that just because you say that you are Catholic, that does not mean you are actually Catholic. Your actions speak for your words. Do you go to Mass? Do you ask for forgiveness? Do you truly know Jesus is in the Eucharist? Do you go out of your way to help those in need? Do you pray daily? Do you understand and follow all of the teachings of the Catholic Church? Remember to be Catholic it is more than just fulfilling the obligation of Mass every week and Confession during Lent/Easter. Being Catholic is a lifestyle in which the laws given to us by Jesus Christ must be followed. Jesus followed the same rules and if you simply do not like a rule or a teaching, well then your action of not following that practice is speaking more volumes than you can ever know.

    Jesus calls us to be followers and to be believers, but He also calls us to live out the faith we have been taught so that we can be like the Apostles and go out and show others that this life is truly joyful and filled with God. So today, as we enter into the final Friday of Lent, let us take a look at our own actions and see if we truly are living our faith and if not, let us find a way to reform our own personal lives to be more like Christ. Remember that Jesus told us He loved us, but we did not know how much until the time came for Him to be on that cross. How much do you love Christ?

Truth Is More Than Understanding!

    So in praying about this Gospel today, I find it difficult for me to really find the words to speak or write about it. For some reason I have a block, but the theme of "Truth hurts" comes into my mind. The truth of life experiences can be painful, they can be joyous and they can be extremely sobering to us. The truth is that one thing that has no way of being false or changed. It is what it is and nothing can change that; a lie can't even change it, rather the lie simply covers the truth up for a time and eventually that truth will come out into the open air.

    Today we have a situation that arises where Jesus tells the Jewish people the truth of who He is. Jesus says, "Amen, Amen I say to you, whoever keeps my word will never see death." Now this raised a flag with those in the crowd because in saying this, Jesus told them that He was on the same level as God, that He is God. We face this same challenge today in our everyday lives. We wake up every morning and decide if we know that Jesus and God truly exist. Some people say no. They claim that science explains everything, some people cannot see how a loving God would allow people to die, some simply have never heard of God, and others sadly have had a traumatic experience within the Catholic Church or another Christian denomination. For some, they know all about the teachings of the Catholic Church and of Christianity and many other forms of religion, but still choose to be a non believer of any kind of supreme being, this is a stance I can deeply respect since they have taken the time to learn about everything.

    The point is that today I find myself in the crowd who is questioning Jesus. The way I see this reading in my head is that Jesus is there, the elders of the town are in front and throughout telling the people to be quiet and to only let the elders speak. They question Jesus on behalf of all the people, and the elders, who are at this point in time are ready to kill Jesus due to His courage and lack of standing down from the truth, they pick up stones to try to finish Him off right there, but Jesus finds a way to hide and escape. So I get to thinking to myself, "If Jesus is God and He spoke only truth, and I am to follow God's lead, why do I not always stand up for what I believe in? Why do I just give in sometimes to the injustices of this government, or to the hate that is brought upon my Church?" This is where we get into the idea that the Truth can Hurt and that Truth will never be changed.

    Jesus gave us the example to spread the Truth to all the ends of the earth. The Gospel, the faith of His followers, the teachings found in Scripture and the Traditions that Jesus has brought into practice during His ministry. Just because it is hard for us to understand something does not mean that it is not true! Just because I am horrible at Math and I can not comprehend numbers does not mean that I can go in and say truthfully that 1+1=4. It does not happen because the truth is that 1+1=2 no matter how much I do not understand how it remains 2 forever. Just because we cannot understand how Jesus comes into the form of bread and wine does not mean that Jesus does not actually become the essence of the bread and the wine. On the road after the Resurrection Jesus appeared in a different form that His Apostles couldn't recognize Him, but that did not mean that it wasn't Jesus. In fact they recognized that the man was Jesus once they broke bread!

    The point is that everyone today can only believe in something that they can explain. The sense of faith is quickly leaving the people of England and the US. The truth is that when you have no faith you will die and when you have faith, unless you work to spread that faith, you are not doing your job. So today, let us put our ability to understand things that are impossible to explain aside and let us rely on the truth that there are things we humans will never understand why or how they happen. We must have faith everything will work out for the best and that is how life is truly lived, it is just the Truth of the matter!

FREEEDOM!!!!

    Freedom is what we as Americans always pride ourselves on. We take time to celebrate the freedom of our country from England and we take pride in the fact that we are the Land of the Free. We gather every 4th of July to celebrate with a BBQ, fireworks, some go to see the Liberty Bell, and thousands go and see the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Declaration of Independence in D.C.. I have been blessed to grow up in a part of our country where I can still visit Washington's house at Valley Forge or go see the original American flags that were created by Betsy Ross. Heck I have even put the penny on Ben Franklin's grave! I am blessed to be able to simple drive 25 minutes and be in Colonial Philadelphia (we call it Old City) and see America's birth! We live in a country where we are always discussing what are entailed in our rights and our freedoms. Well today Jesus tells us exactly what will set us free.

"If you remain in my word, you will be my disciples, and you will know the truth,

and the truth will set you free." - John 8:31-42

    Jesus tells us that if we listen to His word we will be able to follow His word, and we will know the truth and this is what is going to bring us true freedom. Now yes, political freedom is great, but being a slave is not the only thought of as a political or demographic statistic anymore. Slavery to sin is very real and our society, not just here in America, is totally at bay to the ways of sin today. Think about how we work as humans today. Our top rated shows on tv are those that involve some kind of sex, drugs, alcohol (all of these in a glorified state: meaning that we put them into a light that is good even when these are abused). We have shows that are always on my tv with my mom because she loves celebrity gossip. We have shows on MTV that tell our teenage girls that if they get pregnant, society will reward them with a tv show and a paycheck. I wont even get into the craziness of Honey Boo Boo or Toddlers in Tiaras. We are in a world that if we do not get what we desire than we cannot live a happy life.

    Our entire world is based off of the idea that I want this, so I am going to get it, and I do not care who I hurt or if I hurt myself, as long as I get this desired object, I am ok with everything. This is horrible! Everything has become an object of pleasure! The worst case is in the issue of sex. We have taken a beautiful gift given to us to share in marriage between a man and woman and have totally redefined what it is supposed to be. We have taken the only means of procreation and turned it into a simple means of pleasure! People there is a theology to sex! There is a part of God in sex! Sex is only here because God made it possible for a man and a woman to fit perfectly together as one being, united in the divine through the graces and blessings of the Holy Marriage! Our society has taken the WORD of GOD in so many different situations and redefined it or have disregarded what we have been told in Scripture because it does not fit our lives.

    Now, yes, the Devil has done a wonderful job working into our little minds and hearts, but he has not totally corrupted everyone due to the simple fact that Jesus has already overcome this sinful artist. Jesus tells us today that you are never stuck in sin! You are never trapped, that there is actually a way out of every sinful fall! Yes, believe it or not, we always have a door or window to get out of sin and that is through listening to Jesus, following Him and knowing the truth of God on all things. Not possible? Well yea we will not know everything perfectly, but this does not mean that Jesus will not send the Holy Spirit to guide you and that Jesus is not standing right there screaming out to you to just put your hand out so He can grab your hand and take you to freedom!

    Jesus is the "William Wallace" of this battle. It seems like those who follow Christ and who are trying their best to fight for freedom are totally up against the wall, but it does not mean that we can not go without a fight. The only difference between Braveheart and real life is that the army with Jesus has already won freedom over the sinfulness of this world and the redefining of truth that is found in this world as well. So the choice is up to you today... You can remain in your life of slavery to sin and redefinition to fit your desires, or you can stand up for your soul, tell the Devil to go to hell, and listen to Christ Jesus and follow Him into the light and the joy of freedom!

Be A Man

    Today we celebrate the feast of St. Joseph, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We take a look at the life of a righteous man who was dedicated to Jewish law and yet a man who was very faithful. We see a man who went against everyone in saying that Mary should be stoned (the common punishment for a woman getting pregnant outside of wed lock). We also hear about two other men, David and Abraham! So what is the point that comes to mind for me today? That we men need to step up our game and be better Men of God. That we need to be able to have the faith and lead our families like these men.

    David, yes he fell pretty hard and sent a man to the front line to die so that he could marry that man's wife, but David also repented and asked for God's forgiveness over and over again. David may have sinned, but due to his faith and trust in God, he was able to build the Temple up and God promised him that if he had trust and faith in God, that his son would be a great King and that the city David had built would flourish! The result, David trusted and the kingdom flourished.

    Then we have Abraham, who trusted in God so much, that after him and his wife finally had a son, he heard God tell him to build an altar and to sacrifice his only son. As Abraham is getting ready to kill his son, God's hand stops Abraham and God sees truly how much faith and trust Abraham has in God. God gave Abraham many sons and his family would be within the twelve tribes! We are told in Romans to "not only adhere to the law but those who follow the faith of Abraham."  We are told to have faith like Abraham had faith!

    Now to St. Joseph. This man was quiet and really a great man. Most likely well received by everyone in the town, but not super wealthy. He was a righteous man, meaning he was solid in Jewish law and teaching. He was never really in any sort of trouble and followed all the laws of the Jewish faith. Today we read that Joseph was visited by an angel in order to help him realize that Mary truly was carrying the Son of God and not of another man. This man was faithful to his wife, even when the law said to kill her, this man stayed a father to a son who was not of his own flesh and blood. We learn so much from the man who said really nothing at all. We learn that faith is huge in who we become as a man.

    A man of faith is willing to push all of his own desires away to love others. He is willing to trust that God will carry his wife and children through life while he is working his butt off to help support them. A man of faith will not be fearful in being a father to his child, for he has learned from the best, The Father in Heaven. A man of faith is that man who has this wonderful gift of grace and actually opens it up on a daily basis. Today people, we see three examples of true manhood. None of this crap that society tells us. We do not have to be a body builder or pro athlete to be a great man, we do not need to sleep with a ton of women to be loved, we do not have to compare our abilities to others to be a loving and fearless man. Today we see three men who were yes, flawed, but who is not, but we see three men who took the time to open up the gift of faith that God gave to them and they became great men. Men of Honor and men of value.


    Gentlemen, we are to be men of honor and not just for an earthly army or an earthly leader. We are to be true warriors for Christ and to be Men of Honor for Christ's Army. We are called to listen to what Jesus is telling us and to stand up against the destruction of abortion, and pornography, and against everything else that the world tells us makes us a real man. We are called to love our women for who they are and not because they are not wearing any clothes. The role of a true man here on earth is to stand up and answer God's call even if that means that you give up a family to become a Priest! Today we see and celebrate a Saint who was a great example of a man laying his life down for his wife and family in St. Joseph. We see a servant of God who had to in many ways teach Jesus the faith! Yes men it is our job to teach the faith to our wives and our children! To want to go to Mass over the football game and to be an example that God is important in our lives.

    So today men, let us better ourselves in being great men of God! Women, I asked that you pray for us men, and that you become a driving support of getting your husband, boyfriend and guy friends back into the faith! You would be surprised how much power a woman has in getting a guy to going back to church. So pray for all men today and ask St. Joseph to help us all become better fathers, brothers, Priests, and husbands!

Sinful Blindness

    Today we read of Susanna, and no it is not the one from the song, although catchy! We see that in this story how powerful sin can be. We see how blinding sin can be in our own lives that we will commit more sins just to cover up our original sin. Then as we get into the Gospel today we see the way in which we need to follow in order to not be blinded or over taken by our very sin. This is a very exciting blog to write about! So shall we begin?

    So we begin in the Old Testament where we meet Susanna, a beautiful woman and a very pure woman. A woman who is devout to the laws of the Moses and Jewish faith. She is a woman who is married and has children and just by the description found in Scripture, our judgement can only be that she is a very wonderful woman and a woman who would never go against the laws of the Tradition. We see that there are elder judges who also "Follow the laws" of the Jewish faith as well. The story goes that Susanna is bathing in the garden and the elders are filled with lust and try to get her to sleep with them, but Susanna would rather die than sin against her God, so she refuses and screams to alert others that there is trouble. The elders falsely accuse her of sleeping with another man, but Daniel is stirred by the Holy Spirit, given wisdom to make right judgement and as the story goes on, the elders are found to be lying and they receive the punishment of death they originally gave to Susanna. As we look into the Gospel, the line that screams out to me today is where Jesus says, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

    We all of things in our life that pull us away from God. It could be lust, drugs, alcohol, anger, the need to steal, gossip, sarcasm, in ability to be chaste (Not only in a sexual sense), greed, jealousy, and I could go on and on with this list. The point is that we are very much like the two elders in the story found in Daniel. We find ourselves with a temptation to see something or to have something that will hurt our relationship with God. Now let me say that the initial temptation is not a sin or a bad thing. It is simply a thought or desire, and let us face it, we all have desires and thoughts that we can not control all the time from popping into our minds. The sin comes in and came in for the elders, when they decided to act upon their desire to have Susanna. This action is what I think lead to the spiritual blindness in which they decided to cover up their failure with another sin, which in this case would have meant to kill an innocent person. In their blindness, they were super selfish and that is where it has it's roots.

    Every sin we commit is a selfish act. We do not care who it hurts or who it effects because we are doing only what we want. The crazy thing is that we are blind to the fact that anyone else gets hurt and that we ourselves actually get hurt from it. We are all selfish and we all fail to be perfect, but this does not mean that we can be blind and act like the elders. In fact, just like the elders, who got caught, we will have our sins catch up to us. Now you may not get your just punishment here on earth, but God will be just in the next life. This is where Jesus comes into play. We suck at being perfect, but God has given us the light to follow, we simply have to get out of our own selfish sinful blindness and see the light. We are told Jesus is the light of the world and that if we follow Him we will have the light of life. We will have LIFE! The elders where stuck in their blindness and perished in death, but if we follow the teachings of Jesus and we follow the light that He has given to us from the Cross; we will live in the light forever!

    So today, let us look at our own wrong doings and ask God for mercy, love and forgiveness. Let us shoot to go to confession this weekend before Holy Week and prepare ourselves to truly see the joy and the light that will shine forth from the cross next Friday when darkness was and is so dense here in this world. Let us focus not on our own selfish desires and wants, but focus on the main goal of life, which is getting into heaven with our Lord and God. Take off the blindfold of sin today and look at the light of life in Jesus.

We Need To Be One Body!

    In looking at today's Gospel I see how easily people are swayed one way or another in the discussion about Jesus. He came to simply give us the truth and show us how to live, but once it came to the human mind, this is where the schisms began to form. Some believed everything this man said, some believed in one thing, but not another, or you have those who think nothing of Jesus or even hate Jesus. We even see division on how to accuse and judge Jesus among the Pharisees.

    So let us relate it to our world today. First we have the Catholic Church, which is the exact Church that Jesus has established over 2,000 years ago. We have many Christian brothers and sisters who do not believe that the Eucharist is really Christ, or that we need to go to Confession in order to have forgiveness with God. We also have those who believe in Priests being married or women priests. This falls into the area that I first mentioned, that we know Jesus is the Lord, but we seem to not be able to totally agree on what He actually preached. Is this because He was inconstant  Heck no, it is because we as humans tend to change the rules as things get harder and harder to believe. We know He is sent from God, but we do not agree on the fact that God could actually become fully present in the form of bread and wine or that He asks us to go to the men He gave divine power to forgive sins through a Sacrament like when He told the Apostles. The thing to remember is that we know Jesus is sent from God, we just do not agree on things that distinctly set Him apart from a prophet.

    Then there is everyone who does not believe in God. Do I know their reasons, no, but maybe it is just far beyond their comprehension that there could even be this great God who created everything. Maybe they associate bad things with God; like why good people die, or children get abused, or even scandal within the Church and other religious groups as well. The thing is that people die and these bad things happen not because God is allowing it. These things happen because every person has a decision to make whether or not to drink and drive, text and drive, to abuse a child, the decisions are not that from God. God will simply not impede on our gift of Free Will that He gave to us. Obviously disease and such are not human caused and I do not know why people die from them, but people since the beginning of time of died due to disease. It is apart of the natural human life, we all get sick, we all get hungry and at some point, we will all die. That is the course of human nature! The thing here is what Nicodemus said when the Pharisees first came to him:

"Nicodemus, one of their members who had come to him earlier, said to them

'Does our law condemn a man before it first hears him and finds out what

what he is doing?' They answered and said to him, 'You are not from 

Galilee also are you?'"

    The point I am making here is that our society and now our government is so quick to judge a person especially someone of faith that does not agree with society that they are a guilty party. Think about all of the scandals that have happened. I remember going to Spain and seeing an anti-Catholic protest where people were screaming "Hide your children, the Catholics are here to rape them!" We were judge based on a handful of people in our church doing the wrong. Jesus never did anything wrong except to stand up against those who challenged the TRUTH! This is where today comes in. Those in the position of Nicodemus will not fully stand up for the Truth due to their own political loss and the turning on them from voters. It comes to us the people of faith, no matter if I know Christ's presence in the Eucharist or your opinion on Confession. We know that Christ is from God, He is the truth and that the Bible is the WORD of GOD! We must come together and we must stand up for life, and truth and stand up against those who use hate and manipulation as tools in order to bring forth their agenda!

    So today my Christian brothers and sisters, let us begin to work together in bringing forth the truth of moral situations  bring forth the truth about who Jesus was, is and will be. It is up to us to be the Apostles and Disciples of today. The world is falling into death spiritually and morally very quickly, we must answer the call and unlike Nicodemus, we must fight harder to bring forth rightful judgement!

Do Not Be Afraid

    Today Jesus shows us that there is to be no fear. The fear that we have is simply not something that God teaches or gives to us. This is a lie that is so well presented to us by the Devil. How does he do it? Well through everything haha. He makes it seem that losing our life in any case is a bad thing. Think about it in this light... You are going to work or school and someone says "If you are a Catholic I am going to kill you." Now you have the choice to say "Yes, I am a Catholic" and you will be killed or you can say, "No" and go on living your life here. Now check this out... You say you are a Catholic and you are martyred for it. Think about the reception you will get as you are walking into the gates of Heaven with your creator! You gave your most sacred and most prized possession to God and that is your life.

    Jesus gave His life on the cross for all of us. We have no reason to not jump in front of the proverbial bullet when it comes to standing up for our God who is only physically present on this earth in the Eucharist. Last time I checked, I have never seen or heard the bread speak back to me. That does not mean He is not there, it is just God has given us this time to stand up and if called to do so, give our life for Him. Truly though, it really is not your life anyway, it is God's life since He created it for you. Ok, back to the real point of today! A lot of things can happen in life, some good and some bad. We are told today that we cannot be fearing people! The only thing you should be scared of or fearful of is a life that is totally lacking God. Nothing else should make you fearful.

    Today we look into the Scripture and see that Jesus also had a hesitation to go into a hostile territory against himself and what he taught and preached. The opening line says it all; "Jesus moved about within Galilee; he did not wish to travel in Judea, because the Jews were trying to kill him."  You see Jesus like us enjoyed life here on earth and did not always want to die, even on Holy Thursday we have the account where He asks God to allow the cup to pass, but if it were only God's will that this would be possible. The next line that jumps out is the one about His brothers, now again Jesus did not have biological brothers... In this context you could say cousins or most likely it would have been the Apostles since they were the group of men he was always with. Just like when I refer to my NET friends as brothers and sisters. Anyway, we read, "But when his brothers had gone up to the feast, he himself also went up, not openly but as if it were in secret."  So here we see Jesus going with His spiritual brothers, but still in secret and not wanting to be seen, but then we see something incredible.

    We get to a point where Jesus cannot hold the truth in any longer and actually begins to preach! The people are asking if that is really Jesus speaking to the people in the open and the authorities could not say anything to him. The part that I want to really focus on is where it says that; "Jesus cried out in the temple area as he was teaching..."  Jesus cried out even when He was in a place where people wanted to kill Him! The point is that Jesus shows us what we are called to do! We are to be willing to over come that fear of death in means of spreading the good news of the Gospel. We are to stand up for our faith and for our God no matter the result. To be imprisoned or killed, the Holy Spirit and God will protect us until it is our time to be brought home! "So they tried to arrest him, but no one laid a hand upon him because his hour had not yet come."  God will keep you safe until it is your time to be brought home to Heaven and if it because you died for God, the celebration in Heaven will be even greater!

   
    Do not be afraid of giving your life for God. There are graces and blessings upon all of us to be able to do this kind of thing, we simply need to be willing to open them up. Do I know if we are a generation of red martyrs? No, but maybe we are called to be white martyrs where our names are slandered by the government or we are persecuted by our society! God wants us to not be afraid to answer His call, because when we put God first, we preach against the Devil and his teachings. I leave you with a wonderful quote from Pope Francis; "'Whoever does not pray to God, prays to the Devil.' When one does not profess Jesus Christ, one professes the worldliness of the Devil."