Sermon, Quinquagesima Sunday, Feb 19, 2012

Quinquagesima Sunday, February 19, 2012

Luke 18:31-43

Nearing the end of His life, Jesus tells His Apostles again that He is about to die. But even after three years with Jesus they are still worldly; they still expect a powerful Messiah who will restore Israel to its former glory. That’s why the Gospel says “they understood not the things that were said.” But our Lord told them this to strengthen their belief in Him, so when they saw him later in His Passion, naked, beaten and bloody, spat upon, insulted and crucified they would not be led astray.

The Season of Lent starts this Wednesday and this is the time for us to prepare for our Lord’s Passion so that we are not led astray by the temptations of the world. The Apostles saw the world triumph over the Son of God, but the world is a fool and always will be. On Pentecost, fifty days after His Resurrection, the scales left the eyes of the Apostles and the fog left their minds. They understood then everything Jesus had told them. They saw what the humiliating death of Jesus meant, the triumph of God and the salvation of mankind.

The forty-day fast we are about to enter on was not practiced, as far as is known, in the time of the Apostles. They celebrated the Resurrection of the Lord every Sunday. Later there was a very severe seven-day fast before Easter Sunday. And still later it developed into the forty days of Lent that we know today with its fasting and abstinence. Lent prepares our souls for Heaven by reminding us that the pleasures of the world are not as desirable as Eternity with God.

Every day our minds are filled with the things of this life – jobs, money, cars, family, entertainment, and there is a place for all these things. But Lent is the place and the time for thinking about how we will spend our lives in eternity. Lent is the time to think about God’s gifts to us. Think way back to Abraham, about 4,000 years ago. He marks the beginning of the religion of the Old Testament. God wanted to know if there was a man who loved Him so much that he would be willing to offer his son as a sacrifice to God. Abraham was willing, but of course God didn’t permit it. Abraham raised his arm with knife in hand and an angel stopped him. God tested Abraham and knew that he loved Him. Now think forward 2,000 years from Abraham to the time of Jesus Christ. God sent His Son to us to be the sacrifice of propitiation, or conciliation, for the sins of all of us, beginning with the sin of disobedience of Adam and Eve.

But before we go forward to the time of Jesus, first think back in time to Adam and Eve. How serious was their sin of disobedience? It was extremely serious because the punishment for that sin was death. Adam and Eve weren’t only thrown out of the Garden of Eden. Before their sin they and all of us were meant to live forever in a bountiful universe and to walk and talk with God. Once humanity sinned, humanity was changed. We developed a liking for sin in all its forms, and if we ever wanted to walk and talk with God again, we had to earn our way back to that. The Son of God, Who is the Way, the Truth and the Life, has given us that way back to God through His Passion, Death and Resurrection.

The Passion of Christ was not stopped by an angel as Abraham was stopped. It played out till the end on the Cross. But by His death Jesus gives us hope, because on the third day He rose from the dead, and that is the promise given to all of us, that when Christ comes again there will be a general resurrection of all who have lived on earth. Some are destined for Heaven. Others will have earned eternity in Hell by living a life of sin.

In addition to fasting we prepare for Good Friday, the day He died, and Easter Sunday, the day He rose from the dead, by meditating on His Passion. St. Bonaventure wrote that “nothing produces in the soul such a complete sanctification” as contemplating the Passion of our Lord. Read the four Gospels on His Passion, Death and Resurrection to see exactly what He went through for us. St. Paul must have spent a lot of time contemplating our Lord’s Passion because he said he did not come in loftiness of speech, “For I judged not myself to know anything . . . but Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” (1 Cor. 2:2) +++

Ash Wednesday, February 22, 2012

There will be a Mass and distribution of ashes that day at 7:00 p.m. at Pwned Cyber Cantina, 800 E. Strawbridge, Melbourne, FL

YOUR OBLIGATIONS DURING LENT

FAST: Everyone between ages of 21 & 59. You may eat only one full meal with meat. You may also eat two light meals, without meat. These two meals together must not equal the main meal. Water and juices may be taken between meals.

ABSTINENCE: No meat on Ash Wednesday, on all Fridays, on Ember Days (Feb 29, Mar 2, Mar 3) and on Holy Saturday (Apr 7).

We Celebrate the Traditional Tridentine Latin Mass

Sermon, Septuagesima Sunday - Feb 5, 2012

Septuagesima Sunday – February 5, 2012

(Epistle: 1 Corinthians 9: 24-27, 10, 1-5; Gospel: Matthew 20: 1-16)

The three weeks before Ash Wednesday are to prepare us for Lent and following this, for the joy of Easter. These weeks seem to have originated in the Eastern Church. You won’t hear the Alleluia now until Holy Thursday, or if you attend the Mass of a saint’s feastday. This is in preparation for our Lord’s Passion and His Resurrection on Easter.  Septuagesima means seventy and this Sunday is approximately 70 days from Easter Sunday. Yves, Bishop of Chartres, France, (d. 1116) wrote of this time that our souls groan within ourselves at seeing us made subject to vanity through the fall of Adam and Eve. And our souls are in pain in longing to be in Christ’s Kingdom, which is still so far off. This is the season to get a clear understanding of the misery of our banishment from the Garden of Eden.

It’s easy for us to become indifferent to praying and to the liturgy of the Church. Liturgy means the way we worship God, in a certain order and certain forms given to us by the authority of Christ’s Church. It is easy to become indifferent to the rules of His Church regarding fasting and attending Mass. Before the fall of our first parents we could walk and talk with God, but now we have to fight the devil all our lives to get to see God at the end of our lives. Use these 70 days before Easter to develop habits of holiness by praying, fasting, going to Confession and attending Mass and receiving Communion as often as possible, but always on Sunday, the Lord’s Day. The Church and Her priests are here to show you the way to heaven.

Today’s Introit describes the fears of death: “The groans of death surrounded me, and the sorrows of hell encompassed me: and in my affliction I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice from his holy temple.” We have been tormented by this since Adam’s fall. But the same God Who threw us out of the Garden of Eden and Whom we sin against, also sent His Son to redeem us.

The Householder in today’s Gospel is of course God. His vineyard is the Church. He sends out workers to his vineyard at all hours, and never ceases to send them out; from the beginning it was the Patriarchs and Teachers of the Law, and lastly the Apostles and their successors. The workers of the early morning, the third, sixth and ninth hours “signify the Jewish people, who . . . have from the beginning of the world endeavored to serve God . . . But at the eleventh hour the Gentiles were called, and it is to them it was said: ‘Why stand you here all the day idle?’”

Consider what they answered: “Because no man hath hired us.” What does this mean except that no man has preached to us the way of true life?  The Lord has hired all of us, but what if at our judgment He asks, “Why did you stand idle?” We are members of His Church, some of us since the cradle. We don’t have the same excuse as those men in the Gospel.

These hours in the parable can also be seen as the years of our lives. Morning is the childhood of our reason. The third hour, adolescence, because while the heat of youth increases it is as though the sun mounts higher in the sky. The sixth hour is young manhood and womanhood, because the sun is now at its zenith when we are at our full strength. The ninth hour is our mature age because as the sun now declines so does the heat of youth. The eleventh hour is our old age. Some are called to the good life in their young years, others in adulthood, others later in life and still others in old age. Laborers are called at different hours to the Vineyard. We should all look to our manner of living then to see if we are really laboring the Vineyard of the Lord. Those who live for themselves and feed on the pleasures of the flesh are truly rebuked as idle because they do not work for the fruit of divine labor.

St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians today speaks of our lives as a race, that we should run to  win, and the prize we seek is the incorruptible crown of eternal life with God. Paul was aware that he might lose this race, so he chastised his body and kept it in subjection to the spirit. We have an inclination to sin. It is an effect of the Original Sin of Adam and Eve and defines the human condition, that is, it makes us what we are. Our only means of winning the race is to subject our bodies to the spirit. This is a very harsh doctrine. We know that it is difficult, to say the least, to make an impression on those whose happiness is fixed only on the things of this present life. “Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity.” (Ecclesiastes 1: 1) For these people we pray.

  The Good Thief came to his senses about these things at the very end of his life. We don’t know whether he had minutes or hours to live, but he won the race of life and was paid the promised reward shortly after he confessed God from his cross. Every event in our Lord’s life is a lesson on Eternity. From this brief conversation with the Good Thief we know that God’s eye is always on those who work and suffer. This truth is expressed in the Gradual prayer in today’s Mass: “A helper in due time, in tribulation: let them trust in thee, who know thee, for thou does not forsake them that seek thee, O Lord.”

Today’s Gospel is also a message to the Jews that salvation is about to be offered to the Gentiles, that the Law of Moses will give way to the Christian Law through the preaching of the Apostles. Dom Guéranger points this out: “By the selfish murmuring made against the master of the house by the early laborers, our Lord signifies the indignation which the scribes and Pharisees would show at the Gentiles being adopted as God’s children. He shows them how their jealousy would be chastised: Israel, that had labored before us, shall be rejected for their obduracy [hardness] of heart, and we Gentiles, the last comers, shall be made first, for we shall be made members of that Catholic Church, which is the bride of the Son of God.” This is the interpretation given by Sts. Augustine and Gregory the Great and other fathers of the Church, but it also contains within it the second instruction, and that is that God invites each of us individually and personally to labor in His Vineyard for the promised payment. We should remind ourselves, also, that God does not promise us a second call if we excuse ourselves from answering the first. +++

Do not let His blood fall uselessly on your soul.

(Dom Guéranger)

We Celebrate the Tridentine Latin Mass

Sermon, 3rd Sunday after Epiphany Jan 22, 2012

3rd Sunday after the Epiphany, January 22, 2012

Epistle – Romans 12: 16-21

Gospel - Matthew 8: 1-13

                In the Chapters prior to Chapter 8 in Matthew, Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount, which ends with, “the people were in admiration at his doctrine. For he was teaching them as one having power, and not as their Scribes and Pharisees.” St. Jerome comments: when he came down from the mountain “an occasion presented itself for working a miracle; so that by means of the miracle the sermon just heard might be confirmed.”

            And so today’s Gospel reading beings: “When Jesus had come down from the mountain . . . behold a leper came and adored him.” Mystically, the mountain here refers to our Lord's throne in heaven, and the leprosy refers to our sins, because just as leprosy is a wasting away of our bodies, sin is a wasting away of our souls. After hearing the Sermon on the Mount, this leper recognized Jesus as God and believed He had power over the universe. He knew that in a former time God cured Naaman of leprosy through the Prophet Eliseus (2 Kings 5: 1-19). Now this leper in today’s Gospel was not only a man of faith, but also very wise in his understanding of life. He knew that good health is not profitable to everyone as a means to gain heaven, and he did not know whether being healed of leprosy would help him to gain heaven. Therefore, he said to the Lord, “If thou wilt,” or putting it a different way: “I believe that what is good You will do, but I do not know if what I ask for is good for me.” But Jesus, “stretching forth His hand, touched him, saying, I will, be thou made clean.”

            In the Old Testament the prophet Eliseus did not touch Naaman to cure him, but observed the Law of Moses against touching lepers and told him to wash himself in the Jordan River. But the Law of Moses is not the Lawgiver, and so Jesus touched this leper not as a servant of the law, as the priests were,  but as the Lord of the Law, the One who gave the Law to us.  Jesus came not only to heal the body, but to guide the soul to true wisdom, so by touching the leper, He also teaches us that only the leprosy of the soul is to be feared, which is sin, and that neither leprosy nor any illness of the body will prevent someone from living a virtuous life. So in touching the leper, Jesus rescinded the letter of the Law but not the righteousness of the Law. It seems the mercy of God was only hinted at in the Law of Moses, but here it was demonstrated in public for all to see.

            Having cured him, Jesus tells the leper to show himself “to the priest, and offer the gift which Moses commanded for a testimony unto them.” This is first, a lesson in submission to God’s priests, next, that the priests, seeing him cleansed might be saved if they would believe in Christ, and also that Jesus “may not appear to infringe the Law of Moses,” which was an accusation made against him often by the Scribes and Pharisees. He did not say, “Offer the gift which I order,” but to stop the mouths of malicious talkers, he said offer the gift “which Moses commanded.”

            After healing the leper, Jesus went to Capharnaum and met a Centurion. This man represents the  converts among the Gentiles and more than that. Here is a Roman who had not read the Law of Moses or the Prophets concerning Christ, and had not seen Jesus perform any miracles. He may have heard of the cleansing of the leper, yet he immediately believed more about Jesus. He said to Him, “Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, and is grievously tormented.” Palsy is a condition where one suffers tremors of the body. The Centurion didn't say he would have to spend more money training a new servant if this one died, he said his servant was “grievously tormented.” This shows us that the Centurion loved and cared for him. We can also see that he did not consider the difference between his high state, and the lowly state of the servant. Even though their dignity varies in this life, the Centurion considered only that his servant, a man like himself and whom he cared for, was “grievously tormented.”

            Note the Centurion didn't ask Jesus to come to his servant. He believed that a word from the Lord would cure him. Note also he did not ask for a cure. He relied on the Lord's mercy. He trusted Jesus and merely informed Him of the servant's illness.  Seeing the faith and humility of this man, Jesus immediately says, “I will come and heal him.” But the Centurion replies, “Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof: but only say the word, and my servant shall be healed.” Just prior to receiving our Lord in Holy Communion we repeat this prayer of humility three times, changing the word servant to soul, because we ask for the healing of our souls. Jesus marvels at what the Centurion said, saying, “I have not found so great faith in Israel.” The Son of God does not marvel at wealth or power, but He marvels at faith. Of course, many Jews did believe that Jesus was the Son of God, but they were expected to believe because they were the chosen people, and Jesus loved them. But for a Roman Centurion to have such faith was indeed something to marvel at.

            Our Lord then predicts that many from outside the Jewish nation would come and “sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven,” but that “the children of the kingdom [meaning the Jews] shall be cast out into the exterior darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” We understand He didn't mean all Jews because millions of Jews over the centuries have come to believe that Jesus is the Son of the Living God and have accepted Him as the promised Messiah. Finally, our Lord tells the Centurion, “Go, and as thou hast believed, so be it done. +++

St. Agnes of Rome

            Yesterday, January 21^st we celebrated the Feast of St. Agnes of Rome.  Agnes was one of the most revered martyr saints in the early Church. She was killed in the 4^th Century A.D. The Roman Emperor at the time made it a crime to be a Christian, Agnes immediately came forward and announced publicly that she was a Christian. She was made to suffer greatly for this “crime.” Agnes was a virgin and was turned over to a house of prostitution. When she went in she found that an angel of God was there to protect her. When a young man looked upon her with sin in his eyes, he fell to the ground stricken with blindness. She was taken out, stripped naked and they attempted to burn her alive. She was not concerned with the flames, only with covering herself in  modesty with her long flowing hair. The flames did not harm her.  Finally, she was condemned to die by the sword. She presented her neck to the executioner and her soul to our Lord and her head was struck off. Agnes was mature beyond her years, a courageous heroine who died for Christ at the age of 12.

We Celebrate the Tridentine Latin Mass

Sermon, 2nd Sunday after The Epiphany Jan 15, 2012

2^nd Sunday after the Epiphany, January 15, 2012

Gospel - John  2: 1-11

There are three mysteries associated with the Epiphany. The first is the Star of Bethlehem that led the three Gentile Kings to the Christ Child. The Second is the Baptism of Jesus by John. The third is the Marriage Feast at Cana and our Lord’s first public miracle.

St. Matthew announced to us the mystery of faith by the star on the Feast of the Epiphany, where the gifts of the Magi expressed the Divinity of the Christ Child. (Matthew 2: 1-12) St. Luke instructed us in the mystery of the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan, where God the Father announced that Jesus is His Son. This was last Sunday. (Luke 2: 42-52) Today is the Second Sunday after the Epiphany and St. John suggests the explanation of the mystery of the Marriage Feast at Cana. At Cana Jesus acts as God in changing water into the finest wine. (John 2: 1-11) This begins His public ministry as the Messiah.

               

                Scriptures, both the Old and New Testaments, have no meaning if we do not understand that Christ is in all the Scriptures. Our Lord said as much when, just before He ascended to Heaven, he told His Apostles in Luke 24:44, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was yet with you, that all things must needs be fulfilled, which are written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms concerning me.”

                The Law begins to speak at the beginning of the world.  And God’s Law continues to speak from the beginning to the sixth age of creation, which is the period we are in today. The first age is reckoned from Adam to Noah, and the great destruction of the flood. The second age is from Noah to Abraham, our Patriarch. The third is from Abraham to David,  king and prophet. The fourth from David to the transmigration into Babylon, into slavery. The fifth is from then until John the Baptist, the herald of the Messiah. The sixth age is from the Baptist and Jesus until the end of the world.  The six water jars at the wedding feast in Cana, therefore, signify the six ages of the world. In each age there were prophesies of the Christ. All the prophesies have now been fulfilled, and so today’s Gospel tells us the water jars are “filled to the brim.” So we can easily understand now that Christ has kept the good wine, that is, the Gospel, until the last, which He reserved until the sixth age of the world.

                St. Gaudentius   (d. 410 A.D.) has a different insight into today’s Gospel, to help us understand what happened at Cana and why it happened.  The Gospel beings: “And on the third day, there was a marriage in Cana . . .” What is this “third day?” St. Gaudentius asks. It was the day of light he tells us, fittingly prepared for the teaching of the Lord, Who is the True Light. The first day he reckons from Adam until Moses. The second day were the many years subject to the Law of Moses, and the third day is the time in which the Grace of the Redeemer prevails.

                On this “third day” the Lord joined to Himself the Church as His Spouse because this day began His public ministry. This Spouse was joined to Him from among the Gentiles and this we know because this wedding took place not in Judea, but in Cana of Galilee. Isaias 9: 1,2 speaks of this: “At the last [time] the way of the sea beyond the Jordan of the Galilee of the Gentiles was heavily loaded. The people that walked in darkness, have seen a great light: to them that dwelt in this region of the shadow of death, light is risen.”

This Light is Jesus Christ, the Light of the world.

                Today’s Gospel continues: “And Jesus also was invited, and His disciples. “ In the religious sense we are speaking of today. Jesus is the Bridegroom, the Church is His Bride and Jesus is invited by the prophets: “Lord, bow down thy heavens and descend.” (Psalm143: 5) And again, “Stir up thy might, and come to save us.” (Psalm 79: 3)

                The Gospel continues: “And the wine failing, the mother of Jesus saith to him: They have no wine.” The wine provided at the wedding was all consumed. The wine referred to by Mary was the nuptial wine of the Holy Spirit, Who inspired the Prophets, because the prophets had now ceased to speak and to minister to the people of Israel. Their role was brought to fruition by the appearance of Jesus. The Gentiles also had no one to give them spiritual drink, but Jesus was there that day to fill the new bottles with new wine. “For the old things,” St. Paul tells us, “have passed away: behold all things are made new.” (2 Corinthians 5: 17)

                Each year God makes wine from water and grapes on the vine, but this miracle of nature loses its wonder through its yearly repetition. So at Cana God used an unaccustomed means to rouse men to the worship of Himself, and this is the reason St. John added the words “and manifested his glory” at the end of today’s Gospel. Following this he wrote: “and his disciples believed in him,” because after seeing what Jesus did at Cana, they were obliged to believe in Him and to pay more attention to everything He said and did.  +++

We Celebrate the Tridentine Latin Mass