Divine Mercy

Today is Divine Mercy Sunday, a day that celebrates the merciful love of God.  Pope John Paul II established the second Sunday of Easter as Divine Mercy Sunday on April 30, 2000, at the canonization of St. Faustina.  

Since this is a fairly new feast, many of us might not be familiar with it.  So, let me briefly review its history.  Sister Maria Faustina, a Polish nun of the Sisters of our Lady of Mercy, had a special devotion to the mercy and trust of Jesus.  On February 22, 1931, Sister Faustina saw an image of Jesus dressed like that in the picture displayed in the gathering space.  Jesus told her to paint of picture of this vision and to venerate it. 

Sister Faustina wrote in her diary:  "The Lord permitted me to see the immensity and greatness of His Mercy.  If souls could only realize how much God loves them!"

Jesus told Sister Faustina:  "Know my daughter, that My heart is mercy itself.  From this sea of mercy graces pour out upon the whole world.  No souls that come to Me depart without being comforted.   All misery vanishes in My Mercy: and every grace, redemptive and sanctifying, stems from this source."

Karol Wojtyla, later Pope John Paul II, was the champion of Sister Faustina and the message of Divine Mercy.  As Archbishop of Krakow in 1965, he began the process of the beautification of Sister Faustina.  After he was elected Pope, his second encyclical, Rich in Mercy, was influenced by the message of Divine Mercy.  And, on April 2nd, 2005, right after the Divine Mercy Sunday vigil mass was celebrated in his room, Pope John Paul II passed away.

I must admit that I haven't paid much attention to the message of Divine Mercy in the past.  But, this year, I think the Lord wanted to get my attention.  So, last November, when my wife attended a prayer service, a visionary gave her a rose pedal which had the Divine Mercy Image on it.  When Lent began, she suggested that we pray the Divine Mercy chaplet each night.  Then, we, like many others in the parish, participated in the 33 days to Morning Glory retreat during Lent. At the end of this retreat, we said the consecration prayer which included the following: "Wash me in the blood and water that flow from his pierced side, and help me never to lose my trust in this fountain of love and mercy."   Hmmm, this sounds like Divine Mercy.   Then, I was asked to lead the Divine Mercy Celebration this afternoon during which we will venerate the divine mercy image.  So, the Lord has my attention.  He wants me to tell everyone about His divine mercy.  

Our Lord said to Sister Faustina: "I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls, and especially for poor sinners. On that day the very depths of My tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the font of My mercy. The soul that will go to confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment. On that day all the divine floodgates through which graces flow are opened.".

We can celebrate the Feast of Divine Mercy today three ways:

1.  We are to venerate the sacred image of our merciful Savior by gazing upon it as a reminder to trust Jesus and be merciful.  This afternoon at 3, we will have a Divine Mercy celebration in church with an opportunity for everyone to venerate the sacred image.

2.  We are to seal and ratify the covenant of mercy by receiving Holy Communion.

3.  We are to perform some works of mercy for others.

Jesus said to Sr. Faustina: "Humanity will never find peace until it turns with trust to Divine Mercy". Divine Mercy! This is the Easter gift that the Church receives from the risen Christ and offers to humanity.

Why has Jesus given this message to us today?
Our Lord makes it very clear to Saint Faustina that this need to proclaim His message of mercy is urgent, because the world needs it as a preparation for His coming again.  Jesus told her: "Speak to the world about My mercy.... It is a sign for the end time. After it will come the Day of Justice...."   "You will prepare the world for My final coming... "  "Tell souls about this great mercy of Mine, because the awful day, the day of My justice, is near."

God is love. The unconditional love of God, the Divine Mercy, is always there for us. The one unforgivable sin is to think that our sin is too great for the mercy of God. As we saw during Holy Week, this was the sin of Judas: not that he betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver but that he denied Jesus' Mercy. He thought that his sin was too great to be forgiven. He could have been forgiven just as Simon Peter was forgiven.

Today, Divine Mercy Sunday, is the day of mercy!
It is a day for us to turn to the Lord and plunge ourselves into the infinite ocean of His mercy. Today is the day to immerse our family and friends into the ocean of mercy by our prayers for them. Today is the day to tell Jesus we love Him and give our lives to Him and say that we trust Him. Today and every day we cry out to Him: Jesus, I Trust in You!

The muscular Jesus

Today's Gospel startles us.  When Jesus drove the money-changers from the temple, was this the same Jesus who forbid anger, insults, and contempt for others?  Is the Jesus who we see knocking over tables and driving out animals with a whip the same Jesus who said, "turn the other cheek" and "Love your enemies"?

Actually, what Jesus gives us here is an example of how to live out his teaching on anger.  Certainly, anger is a source of much evil.  But this means chronic anger which distorts our attitudes and infects our behavior.  This happens when we let our anger grow in us.  In itself, anger is just a natural reaction that is part of our human nature.  There is no fault at all in feeling angry, any more than in feeling hungry or cold or scared.  Like every emotion, anger can be put to good or bad use.   Today, Jesus shows us how to use anger as an expression of love.

Jesus' anger in the temple showed how much he cared about people, and it was directed to bringing about a change of heart.  Jesus didn't insult the merchants.  By quoting Scripture to them, he acknowledged their faith and the bond he had with them as fellow Jews.  By saying they had turned God's house into a den of thieves, he was not saying they were bad people, but reminding them that they were called to be good.  By expressing the anger he felt, Jesus was trying to show people that what they were doing was bad, so that they would change.

Jesus was not a man who stood meekly by and let evil go unchallenged.  He didn't use violence to overcome evil, but he did take forceful measures against it.  The gentleness and respectful love of enemies he teaches is not an excuse to stand by and do nothing about evil.  It is a call to risk speaking the truth and even to accept dying ourselves in an effort to bring people together in love and peace.

Jesus' angry actions might make some of us uncomfortable. We might describe the Jesus in today's Gospel as "the muscular Jesus." Sometimes the gentle images of Jesus make him seem too soft. But today's depiction shows us how Jesus could ruffle the Temple staff and cause the Romans to begin to wonder about him. The Jesus we heard about a few weeks ago who reached out and touched the leper, is the same one who wrestled with Satan in the desert and won. This is also the Jesus who will accept and bear his cross.

Which one are we most like, the meek and humble Jesus or the muscular Jesus?  I expect that most of us relate better to the meek and humble Jesus and that we wouldn't want to confront or argue with someone about issues of faith.  But, it has been said that all it takes for evil to win is for good men to do nothing.   

In the film, Jerry Maguire, Tom Cruise says several times: "Show me the money."   If we follow the money, it will often lead us to evil.  If we follow the money in today's Gospel, we find God's house being turned into a noisy place of trade. 

Today, if we follow the money in the abortion industry, we find a big, profitable business which promotes barbaric procedures to dismember babies in the womb.  If we follow the money in child trafficking, we find children being used for forced labor, domestic and construction work, child soldiers, and sexual exploitation.  If we follow the money on the internet, we find that one of eight on-line searches is for pornography and that internet porn is estimated at 3 billion dollars.  If we follow the money in end of life care, we find lobbying for euthanasia or so-called right to die which is driven by a desire to avoid the expense of caring for a person at the end of his or her life. 

How would Jesus react to these money changers in today's marketplace?  I expect that he would be angry and would do everything in his power to throw them out.  He would not sit idly by and watch these evil practices.  He loves us too much for that. 

And what does Jesus expect us to do about these modern day money changers?  Certainly he wants us to pray for their conversion.  But, what else can we do?  Is it time for us to follow the money and put an end to these evils?  Is it time for us, like Jesus, to throw these merchants our of our communities, our homes and our hospitals?  Let us follow Jesus' example and show these money changers our righteous anger.

 

Like St Francis de Sales or Jonah

Yesterday was the feast day of our patron, St Francis de Sales. After his ordination in 1593, Francis lived just over the mountains from Switzerland -- Calvinist territory. He decided to lead an expedition to convert the Calvinists back to Catholicism. 

For three years, Francis and his cousin traveled through the countryside.  They had doors slammed in their faces and rocks thrown at them. In the bitter winters, Francis' feet froze so badly they bled as he tramped through the snow. He slept in haylofts if he could.  Once he slept in a tree to avoid wolves and tied himself to a branch to keep from falling out.  He was so frozen the next morning he had to be cut down. After three years, his cousin left him alone and he had not made one convert.

Francis' unusual patience kept him working. No one would listen to him, no one would even open their door. So Francis found a way to get under the door. He wrote out his sermons, copied them by hand, and slipped them under the doors.  In a few more years, Francis had converted 40,000 people back to Catholicism.

In today's Gospel, Jesus calls Simon, Andrew, James and John.  He says:  "Come follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."   Immediately they respond to his call by leaving their nets and following him.   These first followers of Jesus aren't called into just a private relationship with Jesus.  Instead, they are part of the twelve who become  the first leaders of his church. 

Now, you might ask why were Simon, Andrew, and James willing to give their lives to proclaim Jesus' message and to build his Church?   And why did St Francis de Sales work so diligently to convert people back to Jesus' church, the Catholic Church?  Certainly, it is possible to follow Jesus and to get to heaven without going to church.  But, is that the best way, the path that Jesus himself gave us?  Jesus said to  Simon Peter:  "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it."  Jesus formed a community of believers, a church, and he taught the first leaders of the church.  He formed a church, a mystical body on earth, as the guardian of the truth and the best and easiest way for us to get to heaven.  And he gave this church seven unique means of distributing graces, seven sacraments.  Through these seven sacraments, all of us are able to gain graces to help us on our journey. 

We have all had someone tell us that they're spiritual but not religious.  That is, they have a personal relationship with Jesus.  They don't need any church to get in the way and to tell them what to do.  Do we need a church?  Why are we gathered here today and not just meditating on our own?

 

In his homily for the January 1st Mass celebrating the solemnity of Mary, Pope Francis said: “The Church is like a mother who tenderly holds Jesus and gives him to everyone with joy and generosity…Without the Church, Jesus Christ ends up as an idea, a moral teaching, a feeling.”

Without the Church and her guidance, our relationship with Christ “would be at the mercy of our imagination, our interpretations, our moods,” he continued.

“Our faith is not an abstract doctrine or philosophy, but a vital and full relationship with a person: Jesus Christ” who lives among us and can be encountered inside the Church through her sacraments, Pope Francis explained.

Jesus told us that our spiritual life is like a vine in which he is the trunk and we are the branches.  We are interconnected with others in the Church, through our beliefs, our worship, and our desire to know and understand the truth.

The first reading is from the book of the prophet Jonah.  Jonah was a reluctant prophet.  God told him to go to Nineveh and tell the people about their wicked ways.  So, Jonah reacted like we might react, he boarded a ship headed in the opposite direction.  Then, there was a terrible storm and the ship threatened to break apart.  The sailors threw Jonah overboard in the hope of calming the storm.  Wouldn't you know, Jonah was swallowed by a whale who carried him to Nineveh and spit him out on the beach.  Finally, Jonah did as God commanded and warned the people that their city would be destroyed in forty days.  The people responded to Jonah's warning by fasting and putting on sackcloth.  Then, our merciful God spared the city. 

Today, our culture in America is much like it was in the time of the prophet Jonah and the time of St Francis de Sales.  Like each of these men, we have an opportunity to evangelize our culture and to proclaim the truth to a fallen world.  At the end of each mass, like the prophet Jonah, we are sent out into our world.  Hopefully, we won't need to be thrown overboard in a storm or to be swallowed by a whale to understand our important role in building His kingdom.  I pray that each one of us will be inspired by St Francis de Sales and will tell everyone we meet about our loving and merciful God and about his Mystical body on earth, his Church.

Heaven and the Cincinnati Bengals

I’ve been a Bengals fan since they started in 1968.  There have been a few highs, like the two super bowls, and lots of lows.  So, when I read today’s Gospel about being watchful and anticipating the heavenly kingdom, I naturally thought about my beloved Bengals.  I imagined what it would be like if the Bengals won the rest of their games including winning the super bowl.  For some of us, that might seem like heaven.   Then, I imagined that Marvin Lewis, the Bengals’ coach, came to me and asked me to be on the team.  I know that this is far-fetched, but dream with me a little.  Finally, he revealed to me a secret weapon which made everybody play better and virtually guaranteed that the team would win super bowls for years to come.  I began dreaming about participating in exciting victories and lots of super bowl rings. 

So, how does this dream about the Bengals relate to the parable Jesus told in today’s Gospel?

In the parable, the man traveling abroad, Christ, is the master of the house, like the owner of a football team. The master, Christ, leaves home and ascends into heaven.  Then, he rules through his gatekeeper, the head coach, Peter and the apostles and their successors, our bishops.  The Church is Christ’s household, and its members, all of us, are his servants.  This passage reminds us that this present arrangement will not last forever, and when the Lord returns he hopes to find each of us working hard at whatever tasks we have been assigned.

We have some work to do during our short time on earth so that we all can follow Jesus to everlasting life, the ultimate victory.  Jesus has made us members of his team, the winning team, his sons and daughters, through baptism.  He has given us everything we need to succeed, like the playbook of a football team, through his church.  He has even given us a secret weapon, his body and blood in the Eucharist which gives us grace for our journey.  All we have to do is to follow him and our final victory, eternal destiny with him in heaven, is assured. 

These are very exciting times, more exciting than any football season.  They can be described as already, but not yet.  Christ has already come and has won the victory.  He has defeated the devil and has opened the gates of heaven for us. But, we are not yet there.  First, we must spend a short time here doing our part as his sons and daughters, His mystical body, His winning team, to build his kingdom.  The season of Advent, which begins today, is the announcement of a time when Christ shall return to establish his kingdom. Advent is a time of preparation for that final triumph over death and darkness. That is why Advent begins with this passage from St. Mark: “Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come. It’s like a man traveling abroad. He leaves home and places his servants in charge, each with his own work, and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch.”

Our current time, “the age of the Church”, lasts from the birth of the Church at Pentecost until the end of time.  In this age, every person is given the opportunity to play an important role on Christ’s team in building His kingdom.  Christ longs for us to use this opportunity well, and we have no one to blame but ourselves if we don’t.

In the Gospel, Christ provides a snapshot of what it means to be a Christian.  To follow Christ is to honor him by serving and obeying his Church as a member of His Mystical Body, His team.  Each of us is a member of this household, his Church, and our membership constitutes the most important aspect of our lives on earth.  If we live accordingly, we will be ready to welcome him when he comes again.  If we neglect to watch, however, and let other concerns take precedence over our relationship with God, we may be unpleasantly surprised by the eventual outcome. 

Jesus tells us: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”  If we build our lives on the rock of Christ and his teaching, we will achieve our goal, eternal life with Him.  Jesus doesn’t speak about these events to scare us, but to motivate us.  It is so easy to fall into a purely natural outlook on life, getting so wrapped up on our daily to-do lists that we forget the big picture.  When we do that we ignore our relationship with Christ.  Jesus knows that nothing could be worse for our happiness, now and forever.  Therefore, he reminds us to keep the end in sight, so that we can keep everything in its proper perspective.

If we do our part, we won’t have to worry about tomorrow, tomorrow will take care of itself.  We also won’t have to worry about money, power, fame, or even our favorite sports team.  These are just fleeting things. 

In this game of life, all of us are in the trenches, like offensive and defensive linemen.  We don’t get to call the plays or to be the star.  We just continually do our part in building His kingdom.  The stakes are high, eternal life or eternal death.  What team are we on, the losing team with our culture and the father of lies on the wide road to eternal death?  Or are we on the winning team with Jesus on the narrow road to eternal life?  

Two great commandments

Jesus gives us the two great commandments in today’s Gospel; love God and love our neighbor.  These are universal commandments for all people and for all times.  They aren’t something that we need to take a poll on or something that changes from one culture to another.  They are universal truths which Jesus has given us for our own good.

These two great commandments are shorter, more concise versions of the ten commandments which God gave to Moses.  Again these commandments are not just meant for the Israelites in the desert.  They are given to all peoples of all times to help us to live our lives in a way which will make us happy and, ultimately, will lead us to heaven.

So, if these commandments are so good for us, why do we continue to break them?  The answer to this is simple, because we’re human, because we listen to the evil one more than we listen to Jesus, and because we want to do our will and not God’s will.  We don’t want to turn away from God and sin, but like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, we just cannot help ourselves.

When we break these commandments, we often hurt those closest to us.  That is why our families today and throughout the ages are often a mess.   Of course, the evil one wants to convince us that our families are not a mess.  He tells us they are normal, modern families, if you will. 

Our society and our Church have very different views about what it means to be a man and what it means to be a woman, what a marriage consists of, what love is, and even when what life is.  Over the last fifty years, we seem to have gone in the wrong direction as far as our families are concerned.  If my parents and grandparents were still alive, they would hardly believe how much things have changed in just the past fifty years. 

A group of our church leaders met recently in a synod on the family.  When you read the reports from this synod, it is apparent that many bishops are confused also.  On the one hand, they want to be pastoral, to welcome everyone and to meet them where they are.  After all, our Catholic church is meant to be a warehouse for sinners not a museum for saints.  But, the bishops don’t want to encourage the sinful behavior which is being promoted by most every other group in our society today.   How does our church hold the line on the ten commandments and on Jesus’ teaching and still remain open to meeting the needs of everyone?

Clearly, this is a difficult problem which isn’t easily solved. But there are several things we all can do during these challenging times.

First, we need to pray, pray, and pray some more.  We need to pray for our church fathers that they will listen to the guidance of the Holy Spirit and will continue to guide the church in the right direction.   Also, we need to pray for families.  Pope John Paul II said that as the family goes, so goes the church, and as the church goes, so goes the nation.  Today, our church and our nation are struggling because our families are such a mess.  And we won’t see the light at the end of this tunnel until families return to holiness.

Second, we need to trust in God and in our church.  Jesus told us that the gates of hell will not prevail against our church.  Sometimes, it seems like the gates of hell are prevailing, but we need to keep the faith and to do our part in building his kingdom on earth.  There have been disagreements at church councils and synods before and somehow the Holy Spirit always has prevailed.   Recently, I heard that at the Council of Nicea in the fourth century the discussion was so heated that one bishop punched another bishop and pulled his beard.  Fortunately, they didn’t have facebook or twitter in those days, so it didn’t become instant news.   We need to relax and not pay too much attention to the reports that we read.  Based on past experience, the initial stages of these types of controversial meetings are often messy and confused.  But, somehow the Holy Spirit always leads the church in the right direction. 

Third, we need to do our part in promoting and building strong families.  When I come on Sunday mornings and I see the families here, it gives me hope.   I see mothers and fathers who are bringing their little children to mass and I know that the future of our church is secure.  I don’t care how much noise those children make.  Their voices are like angels which drown out the evil one and guarantee the ultimate victory of the family.  All of us need to witness to everyone we meet about the joy of our families and the joy of raising children.  Too many people today have bought into the devil’s lie that:  Things are a blessing and people are a burden.  The truth is things are a burden and people are a blessing.  Just go to a family’s home with lots of children who are living their faith.  They might be having financial struggles, but if they are able to trust in the Lord, they will be joyful.  We need to embrace and to rejoice in our traditional families.

Finally, we need to love those who have somehow fallen off the track, who are in dysfunctional relationships or strained situations.  We need to love them even more than we love those who have it all together.  We need to love them as the children of God that they are.  Somehow, and this is difficult, we need to love them without embracing their sinful behavior.   I suspect that there isn’t one adult in this church who doesn’t have a friend or family member who fits this description.  Love them.  They are your neighbor.  They need a friend.  Love them not because they have sinned but in spite of the fact that they have sinned.  Who knows, we might need their love when we fall off track.

As Jesus tells us:  Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your soul.  And love your neighbor as yourself.  Love is the answer.  Do not be afraid.  Trust in the Lord and have faith in His church.  

We're invited to a party

My family loves birthday parties.  In fact, we’ll have a party later this afternoon to celebrate two birthdays.  I have five children and seven grandchildren with number eight on the way.  Four of my five children are married and these four all live either in Mason or Lebanon.  So, our typical birthday party has seventeen people attending.  When these parties are at our house, which they often are, we are seated at a large dining table with a smaller table at the end.  This seats sixteen with one baby in a high chair.  I don’t know what we’ll do when we need another seat at the table. 

Today, Jesus tells a parable about a party, a wedding banquet.  Twice he sent his servants out to invite guests to this party.  Some people ignored the invite and others even killed his servants.  The king was enraged by this and killed the murderers and burned their city.  But, he sent out his servants once again to invite anyone they could find. One of those attending the wedding feast didn’t wear the proper wedding garment.  So the king had him tied up and cast into the darkness. 

In this parable, God is the king; Jesus the bridegroom.  The feast is eternal life as we hear in today's first reading.  The Israelites are those first invited to the feast by God's servants, the prophets.  For refusing invitations and killing His prophets, Israel was punished, with its city conquered by foreign armies. 

Then, God sent new servants, His apostles, to call not only Israelites, but all people - the good and bad alike - to the feast of His kingdom.  Who is this God who loves us so much that he wants us to be with him in heaven for all eternity?

Several weeks’ ago I attended a retreat with some other deacons.  The leader of our retreat was Father Vincent, a wise elderly monk.  Father Vincent told us to trust in the Lord and to follow his will and not our will.  He told us we could learn more about our great and loving God by reading the psalms slowly.  Today’s responsorial psalm, Psalm 23, tells us a lot about our God.  It compares our God to a shepherd, with us as his sheep.  It reads:

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want; he makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul.

He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.   

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil;

for you are with me;

your rod and your staff comfort me.

   You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

   you anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows.

   Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life;

and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

I thought of psalm 23 as I was reading today’s Gospel.   In the Gospel, we are encouraged by the king’s willingness to seek out guests for the wedding feast.  But, then, at the end of the parable, we might be taken back when the king tells his attendants to cast out into the darkness the man who wasn’t dressed in a wedding garment.  Is this God of ours a merciful God or a just God?

As we hear in psalm 23, our God is a merciful God.  He is a shepherd who constantly seeks us.  Our God is also a just God.  Since he gave us our freedom, he honors our freedom by allowing us to choose whether we will attend and be properly dressed for his wedding feast or not. Will we follow him, our loving shepherd, or seek our own way?

I love my children and my grandchildren.  I love celebrating birthdays and other occasions with them.  I’m sure those of you who have children and grandchildren also love them.  Our love for our children and grandchildren is just a small sample of God’s unsurpassed love for each of us.  Like a loving father, our God combines mercy with justice, compassion with freedom.

We may reject God, but God doesn't give up on us. There is a party planned and God, like a shepherd, comes out to find us.  He wants to share His joy with us.  After all, the invitation comes from Jesus, who wants us at the feast so much that he offers himself as a sacrifice on the cross and on the altar today to encourage us to accept his invitation.

By coming to Mass today we accepted an invitation.  We come to the supper of the Lamb seeking help putting on our wedding garment.  For, we must dress appropriately for the heavenly banquet.

Are we properly dressed for the heavenly banquet?  The time to prepare is now and the best place to prepare is here at this Eucharistic celebration. Let us rejoice and continue the celebration.

Two sons

In today’s Gospel, the first son represents tax collectors and prostitutes, the worst sinners of Jesus’ day - who by their sin refuse to serve in the Lord’s vineyard.   But, after hearing John the Baptist, they repented and did what is right.

The second son represents the chief priests and elders who worshiped in the Temple and kept up the appearance of a "yes" to God.  But they refused to accept John the Baptist's call to a change of heart. When the promised one came and stood in their midst, they missed him.

These religious leaders were hypocrites. As Jesus' disciples, we have to do more than "accept him as Lord."   We must go into his vineyard and follow through on our initial "yes."  Otherwise, we also will be hypocrites.

Catholics don’t tend to evangelize.  We watch as other groups, fundamentalists, Baptists, Jehovah witnesses, Mormons go out, even door to door, and evangelize.

Maybe that's the point Pope Francis is making when he says: "All the baptized are called to be evangelizers. If we have said our "yes" to Christ through our baptism, then just going to church on Sundays is not enough. Our "yes" must be followed by going into the vineyard." Each day our words and actions must be consistent with what we say about believing in Jesus."

I recently heard a joke about this.  What do you get when you cross a Jehovah witness with a Catholic?  You get someone who goes out to evangelize, knocks on the door, and says nothing.

Why don’t we evangelize?  We have the fullness of truth.  We have 2000 years of history, all the way back to the time of Christ.  We have an excellent resource in the Catechism. We would seem to have everything we need.  At the very least, we should be evangelizing those close to us – our family and our friends.  Why don’t we?

I think there are two reasons for this.  First, we don’t know Jesus and his love of us, and second we don’t know his Church and its teaching. 

The second reading tells us about Jesus’ unbelievable love for us. "Rather, he emptied himself taking the form of a slave coming in human likeness .. he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."

Can you even imagine a God who would love His people so much that he sends his son, not as a king but as a lowly carpenter’s son, knowing that his son would be crucified? 

How do we get to know Jesus and His church so that we can tell others about him?

We can watch EWTN and listen to Sacred Heart Radio.  In fact, you might even hear Father Rob on Sacred Heart Radio.

We can go to a Catholic bookstore and purchase good Catholic books, such as a Bible or a Catechism.

We can search the web for good Catholic resources such as Catholic Answers and the US bishops site, USCCB.  We can go to our parish web site to find links to these and other good sites.

We can attend a bible study or a faith formation session.  This also gives us the opportunity to rub elbows with other Catholics who are learning their faith.  Our fall faith formation program, Symbolon, which provides a comprehensive overview of the faith, begins tomorrow night.  This would be a good way for you to learn your faith.

Bishop Fulton Sheen once said: “There are not one hundred people in the United States who hate The Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be.”   If we rely on the media to teach us our faith, we also won’t know what the Catholic Church actually teaches.

There are many opportunities for us to learn our faith.  But after we learn it, we are challenged to share it in our words and our actions. 

As the Pope says, "Reading the Scriptures also makes it clear that the gospel is not merely about our personal relationship with God... Both Christian preaching and life are meant to have an impact on society". Today’s parable would say it this way, "If you said "yes" to Christ, go out and do the work he asks you to do." Jesus said it in another way in his Sermon on the Mount. "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven".
                                                                             
As Christians we should examine our lives. Do we say yes to Him but do nothing?  Do we know Jesus’ church well enough to lead others to him?  Our family, our friends, and our co-workers need us to show them the way.  Are we ready and willing to do this?