Corpus Christi Blog

So ready or not, here we are beginning the Season of Advent, the time of waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.    Both of our 1st and 2nd readings use the word ‘wait’.  Our 1st reading says, “No ear has ever heard, no eye ever seen, any God but you doing such deeds for those who wait for him.”  What this is saying is that God will do something mighty, something we could not even imagine, if only we wait for him.  And our 2nd reading promises that in Jesus Christ we are enriched in every way, “so that we are not lacking in any spiritual gift as we wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  There it is again; wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.  We are to wait until Jesus reveals himself. 

Our Church liturgical calendar is meant to guide us each year through a journey, a journey of life in which there are peaks and valleys.  Throughout the year we remember and enter grandly into great high feast days, as well as journey through the valleys, the ordinariness and routine of life through ordinary time.  But this journey that the Church calls us to is not just a journey of this life, but it is a journey growing closer to eternal life.  Today we conclude Ordinary Time with a great high feast- the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ the King.  After this feast of Christ the King, we enter back into the time of preparation called Advent for the great event which is the beginning of time, the beginning of a new life itself, Christmas.

On Nov. 9th we celebrate the Feast called Dedication of Lateran Basilica in Rome, this year it happens to fall on a Sunday, and so once again we interrupt Ordinary Time in order to celebrate a feast.  The Basilica is named after St. John Lateran and was built during the reign of Emperor Constantine and consecrated in the year 324.  Even though the Pope lives near St. Peter’s, St. John Lateran is the Cathedral Church, or in other words it is the Church where the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, has his Cathedra or “chair” from which he teaches.  This is similar to one at St. Simon and Jude where the Bishop Olmsted’s teaching chair is located  If you haven’t been to Rome or seen the Lateran basilica, or weren’t able to come to the Catholicism DVD series last Thursday where we saw pictures of it, Lateran Basilica is absolutely beautiful and teaches us so much.  I have had a chance to visit the beautiful Basilica on one of my trips to Rome.  There are giant statues of all the Apostles where the columns are, which hold up the Church; greatly symbolizing the truth that the Church is built upon the Apostles.  Then up by ceiling are paintings of all the Pope’s showing the Apostolic succession of shepherds Christ has called to lead his Church. 

My brothers and sisters in Christ, yesterday the Church celebrated All Saints Day, in which we celebrated all the souls who are in perfect union with God in Heaven.  Try and imagine what being in perfect union with God might look like.  In the Gospel of John, Jesus prays that we might be one as the Father and He is one.  To be one with and in God, means to share completely in His divine nature.  We were made by God to live forever in union with God.  But through sin, death entered the world, and because of sin we are not capable of living in perfect union with God.  And that is why in God’s love Jesus was sent and became human.  Jesus, who never lost the divine nature, took on our human nature, even to the point of suffering and dying for our sins. 

Our Gospel today continues right after the Gospels of the past couple of weeks in which Jesus was using the parables to call the Pharisees and elders of the Jewish faith out of their stubborn pride, and so naturally they were feeling on edge and defensive.  And instead of humbling themselves, in our Gospel the Pharisees try to denounce Jesus by lessening the influence he was having.  Although at first they compliment Jesus in his teachings, they were really looking for a way to trap Jesus and discredit his teaching, and thus turn a group of people away from following him.  The Pharisees brought the Herodians to Jesus to try and trap him in what he would say. 

For several weeks now, our Gospels from Matthew have been a series of parables by Jesus directed primarily to the chief priests and elders of the Israelites.  Perhaps you can recall the parables of past several weeks had to do with a vineyard- servants who were paid equally to work in the vineyard, 2 sons who were asked to work in their father’s vineyard, and a vineyard that produced wild grapes.   These stories are most certainly meant to go right to the heart of the Jewish leaders who saw themselves as sons of God working in God’s vineyard,  and so these chief priests and elders should be first to believe in Jesus, the long-awaited Messiah, but who instead remain stubborn in their unbelief.  But although directed to the elders, these parables are also written to teach us, who let’s face it, don’t always make Jesus the center and Lord of every aspect of our lives.  Today Jesus continues the parables, but instead of a vineyard, today our story centers around a wedding banquet.

Our 1st reading and Gospel remind us of a very important point that is good for us to understand.  Sometimes life doesn't go as planned.  Throughout life there are going to be good times and bad times, most likely many of you can testify to the difficulty in your life right now. Our 2nd reading though teaches how to have peace throughout the anxieties life brings us.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, our readings today, particularly our 1st reading and Gospel, challenge us to take personal spiritual responsibility of our lives. Our 1st reading comes from the end of chapter 18 of the Prophet Ezekiel, but in order to help you understand what I mean by Personal Spiritual Responsibility, we need to recall the beginning of the chapter. The beginning of Ezekiel 18 starts with God asking Ezekiel to recite the ancient proverb: “Parents eat sour grapes, but the children’s teeth are set on edge”. What that proverb means is that the children paid for the sins of the parents. I encourage you to read Ezekiel 18 for yourselves to get the full meaning.

On September 14th every year we celebrate the Exaltation of the Cross, this year it just happens to fall on a Sunday.  Some might think how can we celebrate something so gruesome, or how can we exalt something that is so negative as a crucifixion.  Through these readings, I would like to remind you about a truth that that we probably have heard a thousand times, it has probably been drilled into most of your minds by your CCD teachers:  Jesus Christ died upon the Cross to take away our sins.  We have heard that many times, but do we really know that in our lives? 

Our Lord and the Church, always wanting us to grow closer to God and to each other, gives us our practical but challenging readings today.  In order to be convicted, let us open our hearts and ask the Holy Spirit to inspire us concretely in our lives.  Each of these very practical readings answer a very important question in our interaction with other people, and that question is whether we should, and if so just how to engage in fraternal correction, which is a term meaning to give constructive criticism to others. 

Our powerful Gospel today follows immediately after last week’s Gospel in which Peter confessed that Jesus is the Messiah, and Christ said he would build the Church upon Peter, the rock, and promised the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church.  And in this Gospel today, we learn that for the Church to prevail over the enemy, there must be a battle.  Indeed, we have entered into a battle.  There must be a battle because love in the world is always confronted by, to use Saint John Paul II’s phrase, the culture of death.  One of the primary characteristics of the culture of death is selfishness; looking out for the self, doing whatever I want to do, whatever will make me happy.  True love, which is always the opposite of selfishness, is always in opposition against this culture of death we live in, and so we live in a battle, there is a battle in our own hearts.

Before I begin this homily, I'd like you stop, take a breath, and ask for the grace not to think "oh, I know what he is going to say because I've heard this Gospel many times, but instead I invite you right now to ask the Holy Spirit to open your heart to His truth and the truth in your life, for each one of us will be held accountable to the truth of this Gospel.

 Jesus said to the woman, “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” Some of you might be scratching your heads right now,-perhaps thinking that doesn’t sound like the Jesus I know- the Jesus who taught us to love your neighbor, and even your enemies.  This is one of those Gospels which, to some, just doesn’t make sense, many have wondered why did Jesus treat this woman so harshly?  It kind of sounds like Jesus had a bad day or something, doesn’t it?  Before I explain what I think Jesus was doing treating the woman that way, let us gain insight from our other readings, for they also give us a clue.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, each of our readings today teach us one important spiritual truth about who God is.  This spiritual truth is difficult for us human beings to fully understand but it is essential for us to comprehend if we really want to be happy.  The great spiritual truth that our readings teach us is this:  God is grace, grace- gratia, God is free gift.  God does not need us, nothing we do adds to God.  Even creation itself wasn’t necessary, God did not get anything by creating the universe, in fact, God holds the whole world in his hand.  Nothing adds to God, God is full and complete in Himself.  Living a moral life does not add to God, God doesn’t need anything from us.  Even our praise to God, Scripture says, adds nothing to His greatness, but it profits us for salvation.  We do not earn anything from God, our good moral acts does not compel God to give to us.  Everything God does is because God loves us, it is a free gift.  We do not earn God’s love, God does not owe us anything.  This is a truth we have probably heard before, but it is hard to live, isn’t it?