Cookie Walk, The Road to Emmaus - 3rd Sunday of Easter

(Readings)

Someone gave my daughter a cookie. She thanked the person for their kindness. But, she’s on a diet, watching what she eats, exercising, and really didn’t need a cookie.

With pure innocence the young cookie giver suggested this solution. “Then just walk while you’re eating the cookie!”

Walk while you’re eating a cookie and it goes away. It doesn’t.

Maybe that was the purpose of the walk to Emmaus: walk and talk the Jesus experience away.  He didn’t go away. Christ Jesus was resurrected and He will come again.

“We had hoped,” they said on the road to Emmaus. They had hoped but had lost hope. They did not understand what happened. So they walked to Emmaus trying to reason it out.

Life is a journey. It is not static but the continuously changing event of our existence, a walk on the road of life from birth to death. The greatest thing, we are joined by Christ Jesus on the journey. By the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, the resurrected living God walks with us.

He walks with us during good times, those times are easy for us to see. But even more, Jesus walks with us during our loss of hope and in times of lack of understanding. He is with us when we are weak in our faith; at times we doubt and find it hard to believe. Jesus is walking with us when we don’t recognize He is right there beside us. 

Because of their expectations of a Messiah, the two travelers on the road to Emmaus did not realize Jesus’ true purpose. “We had hoped,” He would have met our expectations.

Just like them, something is happening in our journey that we are not able to realize. What we expect of God is not what God has planned for this world and for us. So we doubt and find it hard to believe. But, Jesus is with us.

“We had hoped,” He would be who we wanted him to be. How foolish they are.

Even today, many study the Scriptures. They study Christ and his works. They talk to prove Him, to teach of Him, and to preach of Him, but they preach him the way they want Him to be. They walk away from Jerusalem and the cross. They don’t live a life of Jesus’ works or His words. They don’t know the true Christ that walks with them.

Scripture tells that God is known in the breaking of bread. “Their eyes were opened, and they knew Him when He broke the bread.” There will be surprises at the true table of Christ. The bread of life will change many.

Hope is in the breaking of the bread. We realize He is always with us. “We had hoped … our hearts would burn within us.“ Transforming our frustration; giving us a passion to share our hope, our belief, and our love. In the breaking of the bread we realize a passion to share Christ with the world.

Recognize that God is with us on our journey. With God with us, the feelings of loss and longing are hope. With God with us, the desire to believe is believing. In God’s presence, longing to love is love.  

The breaking of the bread is the best cookie we can receive.  

Y’all be good, y’all be holy, and preach the gospel by the way you live and love. Amen.

Have Mercy - Reflection Sunday of Divine Mercy

(Readings) & (Divine Mercy Chaplet)

In today’s gospel we read, “On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciple were, for fear of the Jews.”

Maybe, the doors were locked for more than fear of the Jews.

We‘ve been there. We’ve believed in something and it does not come to be like we wanted. We're disappointed and sit back, close our hearts and sulk.

Jesus’ followers believed He was the messiah.They were disappointed because they didn’t know what that meant.

They were disappointed and doubted. They doubted they would be able to continue without their master. They lacked a leader. Their purpose was gone. They doubted they could stand up to non-believers. They doubted they could answer believers who had questions. They huddled behind a lock door and hid behind their doubt.

In the Chaplet of Divine Mercy we pray. “For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.” Those behind that locked door were in need of God’s mercy. Just like you and I are in need of God’s mercy.

Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” He then breathed upon them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” And the source of life gushed forth for souls, and the ocean of mercy opened up for the whole world.

By the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit, they no longer doubted.

We forget everyone behind that locked door had some doubt; but we remember Thomas. We remember Thomas because he gave voice to the doubt. “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nail marks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

Thomas asked to see the wounds where the Blood and Water gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fountain of Mercy for us.

When Jesus told Thomas to put his hands in the wound, Thomas cried out, “My Lord and my God!” Thomas prayed “Jesus, I trust in You!”

After this, Jesus said “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” 

Acts and Peter describe those who have not seen and believed. They have a strong faith even when they suffer through various trials. They have a pure and precious faith tested by fire. They give praise, glorify and honor his name. They believe and come together in Church and Eucharist table.

These are true for those who believe today. So, let us give thanks to God, His love is everlasting.

Today is Divine Mercy Sunday. We celebrate faith that overcomes the doubt that stands behind the locked doors of our hearts.  We celebrate the sacrament of penance and Jesus' forgiveness found in these words, “Receive the Holy Spirit, Whose sin you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained. “

In His Divine Mercy, Jesus is never disappointed in those who believe. That is the mercy we seek when we pray the final Divine Mercy prayer, Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

Yall be good, yall be holy and preach the gospel by the way you live and love, Amen.

A Little Blue Chicken - Homily Holy Saturday - Easter Vigil

(Readings)

When I was a little boy, the Easter Bunny would bring baby chickens. These chicks would be yellow or pink or green or blue.  When I was 3 or 4 years old, I got a blue one.

My brother and I both got one. That’s the only part of the story I remember: getting that little chicken on Easter and how happy I was. The whole story comes from mom and dad.

We lived in apartments in New Orleans which frowned on chickens; so, after a couple of weeks, my parents brought the baby chickens to my great uncle and aunt’s house is the woods of Mississippi.

It was an old house high up off the ground; the animals would go up under it in the heat of the summer to cool off. Every time we’d visit, I’d run under the house looking for my chicken.

My great uncle would tease me, “Boy how’d you like to see your chicken today, baked or fried?”  I was afraid I’d eat my pet chicken. My aunt would fuss at him for teasing me.

Years later, I asked Dad, did we eat my chicken. He’d say “That’s what chickens are for.”

I’m fifty-six; I’d like to have some chickens. Deep inside a part misses that little blue chicken.

I tell this story as a parable of humanity. In the beginning God created us. He looked at all He created and said it was good. We were happy when we were young and God was with us in the garden.

Humanity ruined it.  We forget that.

It was long ago and humanity was young. As humanity grew older, happiness in the Garden became a memory.  We remember parts of it. Even though we don’t remember exactly, we long for the part that’s missing. There is a God-size hole in us. We just don’t remember how to fill it.

We look to someone older to know the whole story. The story is that God is always with us even though we think differently.

God spoke to Moses, Why are you crying out to me? I am with you, I will protect you, I will lead you through the waters.

Isaiah writes those who are thirsty come to the water. Ezekiel says I will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities….

The scripture from Romans says we were baptized into Christ Jesus… so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.

The whole story points to the waters of baptism. The same baptisms most of us share, the baptisms we remember tonight; the baptism that brings us to God. Baptism brings Christ to the God size hole inside us.

Because of that hole, we long for God. We will never truly be happy until we fill that missing part of us.  

But my brothers and sisters here is the problem. Evil and meanness exists in the world. It tells us that the hole is not the absence of God. It’s the absence of self, of the world, of things we can get or buy or steal. Or maybe, the hole is something as simple as a little blue chicken.

This world tells us anything and everything will fill that hole. This world changes anything and everything to the acceptable; the thing that will make right; and the thing that will fill that longing in our heart. The world asks “How do we want to fill that hole inside us?”

Do we want to be baked of fried?

Nothing that comes from man or the world can fill that hole.

Things the world puts forward can never fill the hole that only God can fill. The world can change but the hole inside does not change. God does not change. Many will never acknowledge it: but, our longing for God is always there.

After the crucifixion, Jesus’ disciples and the apostles knew what caused the hole inside them.  But they forgot, He is always with us, even when we think differently.

The Gospel tells us, that Mary Magdalen and the other Mary came to see the tomb. The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid! You are seeking Jesus the crucified. He is not here, he has been raised … They went away quickly, fearful, yet overjoyed…

Christ Jesus meets us and tells us - Do not be afraid. Jesus came to change us.  And by that, Christ fills that God-size hole.

I look at everyone here: those who live in Christ, those about to be baptized, those to be confirmed and about to make a first holy communion. Your faces show the joy of people who seek Jesus and your hearts want Jesus more than anything.

By our baptism, we open that hole inside us so Jesus can fill it. By partaking in the Holy Eucharist, the risen Christ becomes part of us and fills that God-size hole in us.

That‘s what Jesus came for and what He died for. That’s what Christ’s resurrection was for.

Have a Holy and Happy Easter. Amen.

Beast of Burden - Reflection Palm Sunday

(Readings)

It's about Jesus and His choice. 

On Palm Sunday, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. He did not ride in on a kingly horse or a royal chariot but on a lowly yet ennobled beast of burden. He rode a beast of burden that dutifully carried him to the cross.

Think about it, Jesus was the one carrying the burden of the sins of the world. He carried them into Jerusalem. He brought them before Caiaphas, the high priest, as he was accused. He bore them before Pilate and was beaten and suffered. He carried our sins in the cross to a place called Golgotha.

All the world and those He loved abandoned him. They denied him. 

We do that today, "Surely not I, Lord!"

In some way, each of us asks the world we live in "What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?"  

We ask that question, maybe not in those words but in our acts and actions. We asked that by prejudice, hate, and bigotry. We ask that by falling to drugs, addictions, and pornography. We seek reward in lies, cheating, and the idolatry of the world.

In our weakness for these things and so much more, we chose the world over Christ. Given a choice, we answer, "Barabbas!"

Christ looks down from the Cross, looks at us and his eyes speak “why have you forsaken me?"

Jesus gave us all that he was, his life and his death, his body and his blood. He gave all these things in His passion as a beast of burden for our sins as he rode into Jerusalem and to his crucifixion.

It's about HIs love for you.

Yall be good, yall be holy and preach the gospel by the way you live and love, Amen.

Expectations - Reflection for the 5th Sunday of Lent

(Readings)

In the Gospel, I recognized something that I missed many times before, Jesus was perturbed, twice.

When Jesus saw Mary weeping and the Jews with her weeping, he became perturbed and deeply troubled…. And when, “Some said, ‘could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man have done something so that this man would not have died?’ Jesus was perturbed again….”

To be perturbed is to be anxious. In Philippians we are told “Work with anxious concern to achieve your salvation.” In other translations, anxious concern is written “fear and trembling.”

I picture these emotions as an upset Jesus speaks with the crowd. He was upset at the death of Lazarus and perturbed at the expectations of the Jews, Mary and Martha, and even his disciples. Even as Jesus neared the cross, they did not understand everything He did was for the glory of God.

Everyone has expectations. We have expectations for our self. Parents have expectations of their children. Spouses have expectations of one another. You have expectations of the Priest and Deacon. Priests and Deacons have expectations of the community.

We even have expectations of God. Remember, Jesus was perturbed, twice.

Expectations hold others to our standards. It is not fair to impose our expectations upon another. Only God has the right to expect things from us and scripture says that “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

Maybe that is why Jesus wept. He wept for his friend Lazarus; but, He also wept in anxious concern for our salvation.

As Christian believers, our salvation is manifest in striving to meet God’s expectation and His will for us. We are to follow Him.

But this is made difficult because the world has human expectations of God, "Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you, and you want to go back there?"

God’s expectation is not passiveness. We must be active in God’s work. “If Christ is in you…, the spirit is alive because of righteousness.” He gives us his righteousness, which is the goodness and love in us to do His work,

Salvation has anointed us for His work. Jesus tell us, If one walks during the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if one walks at night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him."

In Christ, we can raise those dead because of sin. Like Jesus’ call to Lazarus, Christ reaches out to others through our goodness, our holiness, and our lives lived as an example of Christ’s love. The Christ shouts, Untie them.

This is done in Christ’s perturbation for sin. It is done not of expectations but in anxious concern. This is done in fear and trembling, because we always fall short of God’s expectations. Yet, we continue in the hopeful expectation given by Christ’s death on the cross.

“Then you shall know that I am the LORD….”

God’s expectations are the same for all Catholics, Christians, and true believers. So like Thomas, called Didymus, said, "Let us also go to die with him."

Jesus, our salvation, words, "I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

Those who believe answer, "Yes, Lord.”

The resurrection is not a place or a time, but is Jesus. – (Fr. Joe Martina) For some this is unexpected and it perturbs them.

Y’all be good, y’all be holy, preach the gospel by the way you live and love. Amen.Amen.