I am going to begin today with a simple math quiz. I am sure everyone will be able to answer. 1+1+1=?

 

Mathematically you are correct if you said 3. Today we celebrate the Holy Trinity, which means that the math question of 1+1+1=1. We have God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, three persons in one God.

 

Jesus told his disciples to go forward and baptize the world in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. A statement we hear each time there is a baptism in the church and constitutes the validity of that baptism. The church does not recognize a baptism that does not include the Trinitarian statement. So how can we explain to either children or those who don’t believe about this three in one Trinity we profess?

One analogy would be three bottles of water, each distinct on its own. They may be in different bottles and may have come from various sources, but in the end, the water in the bottles still contains the same combination of elements, two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, H20. But then, of course, we need to figure out why we can buy one bottle for a dollar, but the next bottle over in the same size is two dollars. What are we adding to the already perfect hydration fluid to supposedly make it better?

 

When we consider the Holy Trinity from a human perspective, it can be a mystery to us how we can determine three in one. When we realize we are talking about God, who does not need to conform to our rules, we realize it is ok for some things, like the Trinity to be a mystery. In working on this homily, I came across a prayer.  It comes from a book of Celtic prayers that I thought summed up the Trinity in a wonderfully simple way for my simple mind.

 

O Father who sought me

O Son who bought me

O Spirit who taught me

 

We hear in Proverbs about the Wisdom of God; she was around before the universe was created, yet she took delight in the human race. We understand we are saved by faith in Jesus from Paul and Jesus tells us in the Gospel that the Father will be sending the Spirit to the disciples.

I often wonder why God sent his only begotten Son into the world to give us a way to attain eternal life. I assume since he took delight in the human race he wanted to ensure that we would be able to spend our eternal lives with him to see and understand him.

 

Are we as a human race doing a good job of living up to the Father, the Son or The Holy Spirit’s expectations? We need to remember that God through the Holy Spirit comes to us in the quiet. It was not in the roaring wind he spoke to Elijah, but in the softest breeze. He came to Samuel in the dark of night to talk to him.

 

The Trinity works together as a single unit to assist us in our lives. Christ came to show us how the Father wants us to live. The Son through the Father sends the Holy Spirit for us to be in constant contact with the one God. When we put in so much noise, we are not able to hear the sound of the gentle breeze.

 

The outcome of this is seen in the world today in a multitude of different ways. We hear politicians, friends and neighbors use the plight of the poor and hungry as a way to get their point across. We do not seem to be helping them as it seems more join the ranks of the poor every day. We hear others speaking, but all we hear from them is what Charlie Brown used to hear from his teachers, blah, blah, blah. We don’t listen. We react to what we believe they mean.

 

It has led to a society where racism, sexism, and many other isms have begun to be used not to open a conversation, but to close it. We are not listening to each other, and we each believe that the only viewpoint that is right is the one in which I believe, no opposing view has any merit, and if I hear it, I will just shut it down by saying it is offensive to me.

 

Jesus was not afraid to offend people with his teaching as He knew it was coming from God the Father.  The Holy Spirit would continue the conversation in His absence. He was here for a brief time to show us what God wanted for us, not the other way around. We seem to be looking at what God can do for us rather than what we can do for God.

 

O Father who sought us

O Son who bought us

O Spirit who taught us

 

Do we care that God wants us to be close to him, so much so that he sent his Son to die for our sins so that in asking for forgiveness in an honest way they would be forgiven? Through wisdom comes understanding, and wisdom only comes from having faith and reason to discern what is right.

 

Do we follow the Son’s lead in dealing with people through a conversation that includes mercy and compassion, not just how you have sinned? Through caring for the sick, the suffering, and those on the fringes of society we get to see the face of Christ. We also gain the wisdom and faith necessary to have the conversations needed to not only ensure I am on the right path, but that I am bringing others along with me.

 

Do we take the time to listen to the Holy Spirit when we are in times of distress or do we try and tell her what we plan on doing and ignore her advice? Through taking the time to attend mass, pray and listen we can learn to deal with all the stress of life. It helps us to lead a life worth emulating so that others will follow us, not because we are the loudest or the best orator. They will emulate us because we are the happiest most content in the noise and confusion of daily life.

 

Now the question each of us needs to ask ourselves is can I attain all of this on my own or should I be asking for help?

 

O Father who sought us

O Son who bought us

O Spirit who taught us

 

I was at one time in my life a rather surly teenager. I knew it all and my mom could not tell me anything about the world. We would have arguments about the most basic of things including those chores that I was supposed to be taking care of, like cutting the grass or raking leaves in the fall.

     

There are certainly times I am still this way with family and friends, though I hope they are fewer than when I was a teenager. I was reminded of how I acted, as a teenager, by Nicole and Zachary as they have been going through those same times. All with similar attitudes to what I had, so I wonder how my mom allowed me to live through those times. I can only imagine their thoughts about how I was acting.

I do know the main reason my children have survived this period in their lives is the unconditional love that Karen and I have for the two of them. Though they may still not realize, just as I didn’t, how close they have come to driving their mom totally crazy, they will at some point in their lives.

We all, I am sure, have had experiences like this over the course of our lifetimes where someone close to us drives us to the point that we want to shake them until they start using the sense we know that God gave them.  We have had to control how we reacted out of our love for the person in front of us. We may have even taken some heat for the person since we were contacted when something was not done correctly or maybe even done at all.

Now imagine you are being hauled before the authorities for preaching and teaching about Jesus. They are not fond of the fact you have done this which is leading people to follow you and not them. Would you feel relieved in the way the apostles were? They were ecstatic that they were found worthy to be chastised by the Sanhedrin for talking about Jesus. Eventually, all of them would be found worthy enough that they would die for teaching the things that Jesus had taught them.

We should all be talking about how Jesus is the way to salvation, not just in church, but out amongst our friends and neighbors. This does not need to be an in your face discussion, but we should certainly be able to discuss this with our friends. While we may receive the same response we do from our teenagers at times, the object is to help others attain salvation and we are all called to assist in this. This is an area I know that I fall short of on many occasions.

When I was younger and I would get in those situations where the outcome was not what I wanted or expected I went back to the people I knew loved me and would help me through the situation. My mom would always be there in order to guide me through it, even when I hated the answer I began to realize that with their experience they had answers I did not.

The disciples were like this after they had not caught any fish and Jesus told them to cast their net over the right side of the boat. When they followed instructions given to them by the one who loved them, they reaped the rewards. There was even a meal waiting for them when they came ashore, even though the initially they did not recognize Jesus.

We, also, have had the opportunity to turn our back on those who loved us the most as the disciples did. Of the 12 disciples at the last supper, one betrayed Jesus, one denied knowing him and the remaining 10 went into hiding. Now we all know the story of how Peter denied Jesus three times as Jesus was being led to his death. Do we turn our back on Jesus when we are under pressure and may get in trouble if we acknowledge him?

Now Peter is given an opportunity to atone for his mistake in the Gospel we hear today. He is asked three times by Jesus if he loves him. By the third time you can almost imagine the impetuous child beginning to come out when he says; “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you” I can guarantee my mom could see me in that statement, though there was certainly a good amount of attitude behind the statement I would have given. The feeling of, I have already answered this question honestly twice why are you asking me this question one more time. As I got older I realized when this happened it was usually when I might not have been as truthful in my answers as Peter was to Jesus and my mom would have already known the answer wasn’t exactly what I had said.

Jesus was in his own way forgiving Peter for the denial that he had made. His threefold questioning was a way to forgive for the threefold denial. Of course, after each one of the answers, there was a command on what to do. He was giving Peter the things he needed to do in order to build up Jesus’ church here on earth. Now the disciples all went and followed his commands and were found worthy to die for his name.

We are all given the same opportunities to receive and to give forgiveness to others. We are called to do this and we are expected to. When we fall short with our family there is normally forgiveness, sometimes it takes a long time for it to come, but we are always forgiven. It is the same with God if we truly ask for his forgiveness he will give it to us, though then we are expected not to commit the same sins over and over again.

When we can expand this forgiveness, love and compassion past our immediate family we walk more with Jesus. When we expand our forgiveness, love and compassion to those who persecute us as was shown by Jesus and the disciples we are truly living out our Christian way of life. It is not easy, and as we have been reminded before, being Christian, truly Christian is not for wimps. Are we willing to make the commitment to act as true Christians to ALL? This includes the lame, the terrorist,  those we disagree with us, yes even the politicians in our country deserve our forgiveness, love and compassion.

I remember when I was playing softball after college, we were down to our last out and down by two runs with men on second and third. I had not hit the ball worth a darn all day and the catcher was trying to remind me of that as I came up. The pitch was good and I caught the ball flush, next thing I know it is clearing the center field fence and I cross the plate with the walk off home run.

This moment of excitement and fulfillment is something I hope everyone has felt. It does not need to come from a sporting event, it can just as easily be from getting that new job because you had a great interview. It could also be because you have all A’s in school. While there are many ways to get this feeling of exultation we all should be able to relate to this feeling.

We hear about Jesus having this type of moment as he comes into town earlier today in the Gospel, when he is riding in on a donkey, yet the people are covering the road and waving palm branches as he walks by. He is being cheered as the Messiah coming into town. The one who we are all looking for, the person we want to emulate and have them respect us.

Then we have also all had those moments when nothing seemed to be going right, we strike out at the plate, we don’t close the sale we need and miss quota for the month. Through both of our ups and downs we have the ability to learn, it is easy to blame our failures on someone or something else that may have been out of our control. Did we ever consider that maybe we had done something wrong, and just accept the consequences of our actions?

Accepting these consequences is easy when it is a positive experience, but when we have to turn and face the negative consequences we have a much harder time. We hear today though that through it all God is our help, in both those moments of jubilation as well as in those moments of sorrow and all the moments in between. Do we look for him and thank him for having our back regardless of what the situation is?

Paul reminds us today that Jesus came to serve not to be served and he fulfilled that mission. Do we lead our own lives in the same way, wanting to be servants rather than masters? This is how we are asked to emulate Christ in giving to those who need it and in serving others, not waiting for them to serve us.

With our good times and our bad times we have the ability to call on God to thank him, or seek his counsel. We may not always like the answer but if like Jesus we empty ourselves and become obedient to him we will gain eternal life.

Just like our lives though, things changed pretty quickly for the Jews and Jesus. Shortly after he was lauded and cheered coming into town, he was vilified. This happened simply because he did not do as was expected, he did not simply call down the angels to kill the Romans and free the Jews. He continued to preach and act in a way that showed a servant attitude not that of a King. The people then turned away from him to the point of wanting a murderer freed rather than have Jesus freed. Do we turn our back on Jesus and God when life gets tough or what has been asked of us is harder than we want it to be?

When Jesus was crucified he was actually fulfilling the role of the King he was thought to be, just not in the way they expected. He was serving us by taking all of our sin upon himself and sacrificing himself so that we would be forgiven. He asks God “Father forgive them for they know not what they do”

As we recall the story of the Passion we need to remind ourselves that though the road may be hard, we always have God by our side and he will assist us if we lead our lives as Jesus did, but if we turn our back on him he will let us suffer the consequences of our actions. So we have a choice when we are either really happy or really sad, we can forget about God and turn our back on him or we can welcome him into our hearts in order that we can share our happiness with the One who sacrificed his life for us.

I know there are times for me when I am at work where I can legitimately blame someone else for a mistake, but as the manager, I am ultimately responsible. So what should I do? I will take the blame for the issue with my superior. This has led to some tense conversations with my boss. Most times the boss knows who was responsible for the mistake. I will then work with the person who made the mistake in order to ensure it does not happen again.

We all have a belief system that we carry around with us. Some of us can be easily moved from what we consider our beliefs while others may be more resistant. The times where our belief systems are called into question are inevitably times of stress. We will react to these situations in different ways depending on what level of stress we are under. If there is little to no stress then it is easy to follow through on our beliefs. As the level of stress, usually determined by the consequences, increases it can become harder to stick to our belief system.

Imagine you were with the Jews in the desert looking for a drink and could find none. They certainly began questioning the belief they had in God while they were wandering the desert. They were so upset they began to take it out on Moses, asking him why they left Egypt if they were only going to die in the desert. They showed what happens when you question or lose your moral compass. Moses sticks with his belief in God and takes the problem to him for an answer. And as asked God come through for the Israelites.

We live in a stressful time that can be a strain on our beliefs and morals. Between the political circus, we have that is the primary season, unemployment, addiction, or relationship issues our lives can seem to wander aimlessly in the desert. We are like the Samaritan woman who comes to the well at noon. Noon was not the normal time to go since the early morning hours would be much cooler. Her life was a mess as we hear in the Gospel today. She questioned Christ from this point of view, yet he never once lost site of the fact she was a person worthy of saving. It was made apparent during her conversation that she was not talking to just any Jewish man. This man was special and offering the way to everlasting life. The one catch is she had to follow his teachings and believe in him. This meant changing her belief system.

We are called to do the same today. We do however have a much larger support system to enable us along this path. We have the two millennia of church teachings, the Bible that includes the teachings of Jesus, and more importantly, we have the capacity to have him within our hearts. The Eucharist becomes the food that Jesus tells the disciples about, that will satisfy.

Our beliefs and values are brought to us by our parents as they raise us. If we were raised in a Christian household we are generally raised with the Christian values of, assist the less fortunate, come to Mass on Sunday and spend time with family. If we were raised outside a Christian family many people are still raised with the same values, though some may be different.

As we grow and move from our families the beliefs that we were raised with can be adjusted or changed completely, depending upon the people we are surrounded by. If we work for a company that shows no compassion toward those less fortunate, we may soon believe that this is not something we are called to do. If we make friends with people who party, steal, and lie or cheat to get ahead we may begin to believe this is the way to get ahead in life. Of course, if we work for a company that supports those less fortunate, or hang around with friends who believe in telling the truth and working hard we will have our beliefs strengthened.

There is a lot of this transition between beliefs especially as we move from our elementary and middle school years into our high school and beyond years. This is the time where peer pressure can have either a negative or positive impact on our beliefs. I remember when I was in high school and college that my belief system was challenged in many different ways, unfortunately for me, I was negatively affected on a number of fronts. I partied too much and was not truthful in many of the things which I did. The consequences of these actions were not at all pleasant.

Fortunately, for me as I grew older, I realized the errors in my ways and began to try and live by the Christian values I was raised with. This allowed me over time to realize that it was not just the right thing to do so I could be a decent human being. I realized that I was called to do this not just by my parents and my godparents, but from a higher authority as well.

We hear from Paul today “For Christ, while we were still helpless, died at the appointed time for the ungodly.” I was feeling helpless and alone during the times I was living opposed to the beliefs which I was raised with. When I began to come back to church and be with my family, the light bulb went on in my head that Christ truly is present in many ways and in different people who affect our lives. This realization came from someone who was on the peripheries of belief in Christ since I figured he had forgotten all about me and wanted nothing to do with me.

I hope none of you have experienced that in your life but understand that God does care and as Christians Paul reminds us that;

“Since we have been justified by faith,
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have gained access by faith
to this grace in which we stand,
and we boast in hope of the glory of God.”

This call is not only so that we Christians can stake our claim to eternal life, but that we are called by this to make sure we help as many other people, Christian or otherwise, attain their claim to eternal life. The folks here for their first scrutiny this weekend are staking their claim and by doing so will work to assist others as well.

When we leave today we all have not only the capability but the responsibility to assist others along this path, and if you lose your way find a peaceful place to bring yourself back to God for he will be waiting.

 

We are going to start today’s homily with a survey. Please raise your hand if you consider yourself a teacher. Now for those whose hands were raised, how many of you think your educational advice was always followed.

From my perspective everyone here should have raised their hand for the first answer. We are all teachers in one way or the other. While we may not be a teacher in a school, we teach those around us by our words and our actions. This applies to even the youngest member of the assembly today, whoever that may be. As parents and grandparents we teach our children many things. Some of these would be, how to use a bathroom, how to talk, right from wrong, and maybe the most important that there are consequences for our actions.  For the younger folks out there they help teach parents humility, patience and that we must have a good sense of humor. If they are the older sibling they also teach their younger siblings how to act, by their example.

We hear today the Lord reminding Jeremiah that while he will go about teaching his people the ways of the Lord the people may not want to hear what he is saying. This should not dissuade him from teaching though as God will have his back so that no matter what is said to him or how he is treated the message still needs to be given and Jeremiah will be protected.

Now as teachers I think we can all relate to coming across those who will not listen to us, regardless of our experience or knowledge of the subject at hand. This is where it is nice to know someone has our back. This could be the other teachers in the teachers lounge listening to us, or our spouse backing us up in front of the children. This united front helps to show the people we are teaching that this is more than just one persons opinion.

Today we hear the continuation of last weeks Gospel where Jesus tells the people that he is the fulfillment of the scripture of Isaiah. Jesus had no one physically present to his fellow townspeople to back him up, yet he knew just as Jeremiah did that he had the big guy in his corner. It allowed him to feel comfortable in reminding all around that those you are closest too may listen to you the least. They know your shortcomings, who your parents are and what you may or may not have done to elicit such scorn. Hopefully none of us have upset those around us enough that they are looking to kill us.

Jesus teachings were not popular among his people in his own time so much so that eventually they did get their way and he was hung on a cross. It seems today his teachings are as well received as they were during his time. We see people who claim to be Christian yet they gossip, mistreat family and friends and do everything for the betterment of their own lives. Since many of these people are in places of influence and power the overall impression of non-Christians is why should we believe in what Christ said since the people who claim to follow him do little to nothing that is congruent with his teachings.

Who do we follow as teachers, is it Christ and his Church or someone else? That someone else could be a politician, a celebrity, an athlete or someone close to us. Who we learn from will determine how we act when we leave church this week. If we follow the politician who casts aspersions on others and tries to pit us against them, then we will not see that the other side may be doing the same thing and no one benefits. Well some people benefit, those who continually remind us that it is really all about how we feel and what we do that makes us successful.

The people of Jesus’ time and those who listened to Jeremiah were great at acting in a selfish manner; they did not act out of love for others. They were acting as we see many politicians and celebrities act, it is all about their level of popularity, not what is right. It was also all about what made them feel good.

Cam Newton who is quarterback for the Carolina Panthers of the NFL seems to walk this fine line of promoting himself so he can be popular, yet insuring he does for others. With every touchdown the Panthers score on offense he insures that a young fan in the stands gets the football. This is a wonderful memory for the child. Of course before this happens there is a dance to celebrate the touchdown. While to some this seems self-promoting, what he does after this dance and off the field is the example we need to see more of. In addition to giving footballs away when he is not on the field he uses the celebrity he has gained to help youth get a better education, keep fit and learn to serve others. While I have to admit I am not a fan of the dance and the showboating he does, the outcome of who he is and what he does with the notoriety he has attained is inspiring.

Mother Theresa was another model of a teacher for us as well. While she took care of the poorest of the poor she made sure to show, through her actions that all people mattered, regardless of their social or economic status in the world. When she went around asking for help, whether it be monetary or physical, everyone always knew that what she raised would help those most in need.

These two people help to teach us to act out of love for one another, and to insure we make sure that all those around us are taken care of. While none of us here may be recognized outside our own circle of family and friends we all have the ability to teach those around us the same thing that Jesus was trying to remind those in his hometown and Jeremiah taught the Israelites. That is, that God cares for all his creation, not just those with money, power, or popularity.  While this message can be lost amongst those who are closest to us, we still have the ability to teach them by our example.

How we treat others will always say a lot about us, more than what we say about treating others. Do we say all should be treated the same yet talk behind the back of someone we do not like? Will we be able to be the shining light that proves to others who look up to us that all of God’s Creation is worthy of our love regardless  of what may be in it for us? Jeremiah and Jesus went on to act and say all are equal, and as Paul reminds us that we are all capable of showing the Love of God to those around us.

The ultimate question is will we follow the teachings of the politicians and celebrities who say one thing and do another, or will we follow the teachings of Jeremiah, Paul, Jesus, Mother Theresa and Cam Newton in showing that all people are worthy of respect and Love.  We are all teachers, let us teach the right way to live.

We celebrate today Mary, the Mother of God. We each one of us have a mother, who we counted on as we grew into adulthood and beyond. In counting on our mothers we would listen to them and would hold them up as someone to be revered. This is the case even when we disagreed with a punishment, or a rule that she may have made us follow.
We would hold our own mothers, whether natural or adoptive, as a model for us to follow. Humanity was given a mother to follow at the crucifixion and that is Mary. Mary should be considered our mother as well. This was believed from some of the earliest days of the church.
At the council of Ephesus the church officially recognized Mary as the Mother of God with the following statement.
“We confess, then, our Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of                   God, perfect God and perfect man, of a rational soul and a body,                     begotten before all ages from the Father in his Godhead, the same in              the last days, for us and for our salvation, born of Mary the Virgin                  according to his humanity, one and the same consubstantial with                  the Father in Godhead and consubstantial with us in humanity, for a            union of two natures took place. Therefore we confess one Christ,                  one Son, one Lord. According to this understanding of the                                  unconfused union, we confess the holy Virgin to be the Mother of                  God because God the Word took flesh and became man and from his               very conception united to himself the temple he took from her”                    (Formula of Union [A.D. 431]).
With this we are reminded that in Jesus, God came to us through Mary and took human form. We hear in Paul’s letter to the Galatians, God came to be human in order to receive all as adoptive sons and daughters. This was brought forth in that Jesus was fully human and fully God in the perfect hypostatic union.
As his adoptive sons and daughters, we still have the freedom of will to either follow his lead as the Father or to ignore it. This does not limit our freedom but brings us to a more perfect freedom. We are not held captive by material things, addiction to drugs, alcohol or any other things. We are free in the sense that none of these things would hold power over us.
During our lives we have all had times where have asked for our mother to intercede for us with our father. We as Catholics call on the Mother of God to intercede with us to the Father. We know we are to do this in many different situations simply based on the different names that Mary is known by. These include, Our Lady of Loreto, Our Lady of Lourdes, Our Lady of the Angels, Our Lady of Mercy, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Blessed Queen and consoler of the Church Suffering. Many other names can be found in the Litany of the Holy Name of Mary.
When we ask for her intercession, our Heavenly mother will pray for us just as our human mothers pray for each of us. This prayer from our Heavenly Mother is special as she holds a special reverence in Jesus’ heart. Just like sons and daughters hold their mother in high esteem, Jesus holds his Mother in that same high esteem.
When we hear today in Luke that the first people that were told of the birth of Jesus were shepherds, see Jesus and tell Mary and Joseph what they have heard it makes Mary contemplate in her heart. We see in this that God wants all people even the poorest and most ridiculed to be his. The shepherds were never held in high esteem during that time as they were thought to be ignorant of the ways of the world and inevitably they would smell like the sheep they tended.
Yet Mary listened to them and did not send them away without listening and considering all they had said. This reminds us that Mary was still working on understanding all that Jesus would become to so many people around the world.
As we begin this New Year, let us all be mindful of how our mercy can be spread just as the Mercy of Christ was spread by Mary. We have a wonderful prayer to start the New Year that is given to us this day in Numbers.
“The LORD bless you and keep you!The LORD let his face shine                         upon you, and be gracious to you!The LORD look upon you kindly                   and give you peace! So shall they invoke my name upon the                                Israelites, and I will bless them.”
He has blessed us with his son Jesus born of the Virgin Mary, let us continue to live as one as Mary has shown us the way.

Homily for the 32nd time in Ordinary Time

Readings 1 Kings 17:10-16, Hebrews 9:24-28, Mark 12:38-44

We are told by a large number of people every day that we should trust them. These areas of trust can range from your child saying I will clean my room today, maybe, maybe not. To the politician saying I will do the best job in looking out for you and your money if you would vote for me, probably not.

How we react to these calls for trust will depend largely on our viewpoint on the subject at hand. This is where we as a society begin to label others. There are the conservatives, liberals, democrats, republicans, optimists and pessimists. The first thing we need to stop doing is labeling people. God does not label people, He loves everyone equally. This is what we are called to do.

These labels serve one purpose in life. That is to separate us so that if you belong to one group and I belong to the opposing group we cannot see eye to eye on whatever subject we are discussing. Of course this has led to such a cooperative, and productive government.

The labels were something the scribes in Jesus’day were very good at persistingin, and we heard today what Jesus thought of them in regards to trust. Since they believe they knew better than others they made it no secret who they were by wearing flashy clothes that the average people could not afford.

We also see a different view of trust shown by the two widows discussed in today’s readings, that is the trust in God. The first widow we hear about in 1 Kings is just waiting to prepare her last meal for her and her son and then they will die. They have no more food and in this time, roughly 900 BC, widows unless they were taken in by their deceased husbands family had no way to support themselves. She had no money and there was no way for her to buy more flour and oil.

Then the prophet Elijah comes along and asks for a drink, then as she goes to get this he asks for some bread. The widow is called to trust in the Lord when Elijah says when he says that the jar of flour and the jug of oil shall not go empty until it rains. Would we have enough trust to believe Elijah today? The widow does and she is blessed to have enough flour and oil to continue to feed not only her son and herself, but Elijah as well for an entire year.

We see today so many images that say the only thing to do is to take care of oneself, and don’t worry about other people because it is not our fault they are in that situation. We are to take care of our family first and only if we have anything left are we to share it with others. Our personal somewhat biased judgement is the only thing we are called on today to trust, no one or nothing else is trustworthy.

We see this trust in God from the widow who gives her last coins to the collection plate while Jesus and his disciples are watching. She does this not with great fanfare, as those who are giving from their excess do. We are reminded that we are called to act as the widow, not as the rich in the story do. While we do not know what happens to the widow after she gives her last coins, we do know that she has the same support system, none, which the woman from Elijah’s time had. Not much had changed in the way widows and women were treated during Jesus’time.

We certainly can see this same selective support being shown in the world today. If you are of a different race, or a different gender you can be treated differently. If you believe differently than I do about something then I have the right to treat you differently, I am able to judge you. This is the image of trust that we are shown in today’s media, politics, and especially in social media.

If it is said on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media it must be true. We have access to more and more information, yet it seems we have become more and more isolated. Rather than looking out for others, we only look out for ourselves. It is easy to attack others in an internet forum since we are not saying this face to face, and we may not even know who we are talking to or about. We simply lump everyone into the label we are deriding. How do we feel when we are lumped in with a labeled group that is being derided?

It comes down to a decision on who we can trust and believe in. Do we trust and believe in the people who continue to label others, or do we trust the one whom labeled no one? If we believe in Jesus and we look forward to his return we should live as he would want us to live. He sat down and ate with tax collectors and other sinners. He also sat and talked with Pharisees and Scribes. He showed no preference for one over the other. He showed that women and those from different levels of society were ALL equal in God’s eyes. We are called to be the same.

We are not told anywhere that it will be easy to follow Christ, what we are told is if we follow his plan we would receive salvation when he returns. The disciples trusted in him up to their death, most in very cruel ways. The Coptics Christians earlier this year believed as well up to a cruel death on the beach. We also saw those who trusted in Him stand up in Oregon even though they knew they would be shot. Trusting in God leads to the ultimate joy, are we willing to search for that Joy? Do we trust in God enough to follow the examples of those who trusted in Him or will we trust only in ourselves?

Readings; 1 Kings 19:4-8, Ephesians 4:30-5:2, John 6:41:51

 

Most of us at one time or another have felt a hunger that seemed overwhelming. We felt to hungry, to the point we may have felt like we were starving to death. Nicole reminds us when we get to this point that we cannot be starving. We are not ready to eat mud cookies for dinner. This hunger comes from us waiting to long between meals to feed ourselves. We are lucky in this country to have an abundance of food available to us to eat. We heard some of those statistics last week.

We insure we have enough food to satisfy our physical hunger, to the point of excess at times. This can be seen in the size of servings we receive at restaurants. We also pay no attention to the serving size we are supposed to go by. These all insure that we feed our physical hunger.

The question comes is this the only hunger we have or are we hungry for more. We all look for a better life, one that is more comfortable, with a better house and car. These are all worthwhile things to strive for. Do we work so much for these that we lose sight of what would be truly important in life. What happens if we do not achieve what we set out to do, are we like Elijah and tell God it is time to go, or also like Elijah accept the food that will satisfy our hunger for more.

The only way  to accomplish this is with the food that God will provide. We hear how Elijah makes his journey with two meals from God. The meals did not only feed his physical hunger, but his spiritual hunger as well. With both needs taken care of Elijah accomplished many things.

In this country we have no problem feeding our physical hunger, the spiritual hunger is a different story. We tend to substitute many things for our spiritual hunger. Some of the ways we try include alcohol, drugs, sex, food and scheduling ourselves so we have no spare time. We spend a whole lot of time striving for what we think is the goal only to still feel that hunger. This has led to a world that appears to be turning against God and life.

We see, as we heard from multiple popes a culture of death not life. God is not trying to show us this. He would like us to be close to him and work for a culture of life. He did this by sending Jesus to be our spiritual food.

We can certainly act as the crowds did and grumble about the predicament we find ourselves in. Paul reminds the Ephesians to set aside all anger, frustration, shouting and to revile the malice we see in the world. Now if only the politicians and world leaders would set all those things aside we may see the world peace and harmony that we all hope for. It would certainly lead to a more harmonious world that would help all those who need it.

We will be ridiculed at times for our faith and our “old fashioned beliefs” that every life is sacred from conception to natural death. This is and has seemed to be over the course of history a countercultural idea. This leads to the culture of death we heard both Pope Francis and Pope Benedict talk about. We have the power to change that culture by bearing witness to God’s Mercy and Love for each of us. We are also free to grumble amongst ourselves about what we hear or do not hear from our deacons, priests, bishops and popes.

One of the ways  to feed the spiritual hunger is to listen to the Word of God proclaimed and preached at Mass. This will give us the spiritual baseline to work from in order to be the people we are called to be. We will hear what God wants not only for us, but from us as well.

When we leave the church and get back into the world we can easily find ourselves straying from the path we want to follow. We can fail to love our neighbor or gossip about the folks we see here at church, at work or around the neighborhood we live in.

What do we when this happens. We can certainly rationalize and say the gossip is not hurting anyone, or that the person we have animosity for deserves it somehow. When we get to this point we are on our way to rationalizing many things that contribute to the culture of death, we believe it is ok for the death penalty to exist in our country. We can rationalize that is ok for us to hide our elderly away in a nursing home, or we can say it is ok for someone to have an abortion so long as we are not assisting in any way.

In order for us to overcome all of these down falls through the week we need to be fed spiritually so our defenses will be kept up. We need to know where to find this and the Gospel tells us where it is to be found. Jesus is the bread of life as we hear him proclaim to the crowds gathered around him. You can imagine the horror that they felt after hearing that the bread he wanted them to eat was his flesh.

We are called to do the same thing in the Eucharist we will receive shortly. If we eat this bread and drink this cup we will have everlasting life. We will also be nourished so that we can stay true to our faith. We do need however to remember that when we eat this bread that it cannot only feed our physical hunger but our spiritual hunger as well. The second part can be hard to do. This means we need to be affected by the body of Christ in our heart.

We need to truly believe as we are taught that we are eating the flesh of the one who saves. In doing this we need to act like he does and not as our society tends to act. To be affected by his body and blood there can be no grumbling and we need to be prepared to do the heavy lifting that is needed in today’s world. We need to be willing to stand up for what is right regardless of what others will think of us.

Also in doing this we need to be joyful and full of His Spirit in order to accomplish all we are called to do. We need to approach the Eucharist each time we receive it as if it was the first time we received, whether it is the second, or thousandth time you have received. If we do this we can begin to change the world. Are you ready to change the world?