Turning to the disciples in private he said, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I say to you, many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it,
and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it” (Lk 10:23-24).

What did the disciples see, what did they hear that the prophets and kings desired to see? The kingdom of God in their midst was no longer a saying or teaching of Jesus, but a reality uniquely experienced by the disciples who were sent by him. Those who were sent by Jesus took the risk, trusted, and believed in him and went out and preached, exorcised, and healed in Jesus’ name doing what they had seen him doing!

Deeper still the disciples experienced the gift of the Mystery of God. The Mystery of God is not a problem to be solved because God is not one being among many, not even the greatest or supreme being. God is, “I am who am” (Ex 3:14), as he described himself to Moses. He cannot be solved or proven, but he can be experienced, and that was the joy and exhilaration that the disciples felt coming back after having experienced God working through them. Jesus himself rejoiced in the Holy Spirit, not so much because they had healed in his name but that they had entered into communion with the Father, “do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” (Lk 10:20).

In following Jesus, learning directly from him, and then going off to minister in his name, they experienced the kingdom of Heaven. They had participated in the loving communion of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. How did they do so? They became childlike in that they lost themselves in their mission of following the will of God. Jesus had prepared them to be free from all sense of ego, how others would look at them or how others would react to their preaching or healing. The disciples were in the zone of being directed by God and doing his will, like Jesus, without hesitation.

When I was younger I used to live, eat, and breathe baseball and hockey. I would make up different versions of playing for the NHL or MLB with those players of that time in our backyard which became the Montreal Forum or Yankee Stadium. One experience I remember was setting up cinder blocks in a steps formation, three on the bottom, two next, and then one on the top. I then strode some steps back with my left hand fit snugly into my worn baseball glove and tennis ball in the right. Each step led me to the pitching mound of Yankee Stadium. When I wound up and threw a tennis ball at the makeshift concrete pitchback the game had begun and within minutes, I was on the field with Willie Randolph, Thurman Munson, Mickey Rivers, looking to retire the batters Jim Rice, Pudge Fisk, and Carl Yastrzemski.

Each time the ball soared into the air or skirted across the ground, I leapt into the air, or dove to the ground to come up and throw to first base, then zipped over to first base to make the stretching grab. Of course, during some of the better plays I reenacted them as instant replay. I completely lost myself in the game, I was in the zone. After some time, I happened to look up and saw my mother, stepfather, and some family friends who had all come over to visit, all of them with big smiles on their faces. I sheepishly put my head down and stood for a few moments. Within a minute or so, they went back to their business and I returned to Yankee Stadium to finish the game.

I share this experience to show an example of how we as children can lose our self, “free of reactions, expectations, and approval of those around” us. The disciples did the same, the only difference is that they lost themselves in hearing the word of God and just doing what he wanted them to do. Bishop Robert Barron shared it this way in his daily homily: “The best moments in life occur when we lose the ego, lose ourselves in the world and just are as God wants us to be.”

I invite you to lose yourself today in something you love to do, whether that be drawing, painting, singing, playing an instrument or sport, running, praying, reading, writing, or serving in ministry, even as Brother Lawrence did, he lost himself in doing the dishes. Find moments to be free of expectations and approval, let go the weight of what others might be thinking or expecting. Instead, be present and mindful in the moment and immerse yourself in what you are doing.

These are very real acts of spiritual discipline that prepare us to be in the present, where we experience and find the God who is reaching out to us, and so then like the disciples, we will be better able to experience him and follow his will, serve him, without hesitation or concern for what others think. We will then also experience Jesus rejoicing with us that we have our names “written in Heaven”.

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Photo: Me about seven?

Quotes from Bishop Robert Barron’s homily from today 10/7/2017. He is the auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and founder of Word On Fire Ministry. Check out his web page link below, for many wonderful resources. I also added the direct link below to sign up for Bishop Robert Barron’s daily Gospel messages:
https://www.wordonfire.org/
https://www.wordonfire.org/resources/blog/free-daily-gospel-reflections-from-bishop-barron/5315/

Link for today’s Mass readings:
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/100618.cfm

Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me (Lk 10:16).

On the surface today’s Gospel may sound like a Debbie downer of a message, but it is actually the road map, the passage that will lead us from the darkness of slavery steeped in our own sin to the light of truth and freedom in Christ. Jesus is continuing to prepare the 72 that are about to go out to proclaim his message of repentance. This echoes Mark’s recording of Jesus’ mission statement: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mk 1:15).

Sin is any actively contemplated thought, word, or action that we knowingly know goes against the will of God and we freely choose to act on it anyway. This is why many of us prefer the darkness to the light, because we do not have to see and name our sin. We hold on to apparent goods or substitutes that we believe will make us happy and fulfill us, when in actuality they are empty promises. After experiencing the lack of satisfaction, once the emotion or passion of the moment or experience wanes, we either seek more to fill the void, or hopefully, recognize the false lure. If we choose to seek more, we continue along a slippery slope of ensnarement and addiction. But if we repent, allow the light and truth of Jesus into our darkness, trust in his willing our good, we can begin to see our sin, name it, let it go, be forgiven, and be healed.

As servants of the Lord we are invited to repent, to say yes to building a relationship with him, recognize this is a daily, lifetime task, and we are willing to examine our conscience to continue to see and confess our sin. This process is not just for ourselves. We are called to bring the light of truth to those we meet. This does not mean we are perfect. The only difference is that we are more aware of our sin, because we are incrementally willing to allow the light of Jesus to shine in our darkness. We acknowledge our need to be healed, seek Jesus’ healing touch, and go forward to share that healing balm we have received from Jesus with others.

We need to resist the temptation to go forth and wag thy finger of judgment. For then we are only a darker storm cloud approaching those living in the shadows, in which those we seek to provide healing will either draw deeper into their own shell or come out fighting seeking to dispel us from their midst. May we instead encounter one another with understanding, mercy, patience, understanding, and love. We need to remember that in the beginning, our light needs to be soft, like the morning dawn, so as not to blind those we seek to offer an invitation to, those to whom we call from the shadows.

May we embody and sing the Canticle of Zechariah, father of John the Baptist: “In the tender compassion of our God the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace” (Lk 1:76-79). May we resist being barriers preventing access to Jesus and instead help to prepare the way for others to encounter Jesus.

Jesus, this day and each day going forward, may we, with you by our side, strive to meet those you place in our path with warmth, welcome, and joy. May we respect the person before us, accept them, be present and accompany them, so that they may know that they are not alone, that they in fact do exist, that they matter, that they are loved as you love us. May we be like the first light of dawn to help awaken those in the darkness of their pain, suffering, and sin, so to be a lamp unto their feet and a light unto their path, that leads to an encounter and embrace with you; our Truth, our Way, and our Life. “Guide us Lord, along the everlasting way” (cf Psalm 139).

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Image: Photo by Tobi from Pexels

Link to the Mass readings for Friday, October 5, 2018:  http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/100518.cfm

Jesus appointed seventy-two other disciples and said to them, “Go on your way; behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals” (Lk 10:3-4).

There are saints in the history of the Church who took the radical call that Jesus gave to the seventy-two. One, who literally followed this command and whose memorial we celebrate today, is St Francis of Assisi. Francis, in his youth, lived a carefree, self absorbed life, experienced pleasures, and sought dreams of glory. Yet, one eventful day, Francis would express the full acceptance of Jesus’ invitation to give everything and follow Jesus. Francis dramatically renounced his clothes and his inheritance publicly such that he was left standing naked before the bishop and his parents. This dramatic act expressed Francis “taking the most rigorous form of the sequela Christi [the following of Christ]… the highest and most rigorous form of asceticism” (Manselli 1988, 59).

This conversion scene is artfully expressed in Franco Zeffirelli’s, Brother Sun Sister Moon, the YouTube link of which is posted below. It is still powerful, as it expresses Francis’ total commitment to give his whole life to Christ. “His supreme choice matured slowly and, clarified by his kiss for the leper, was to move from one part of society to another – from the part that had an orderly family and social system over to the other of the poor, the derelicts, the abandoned. With this renunciation, his choice achieved its ultimate and definitive consummation” (Manselli, 59).

Most historians agree that the act of Francis kissing a leper was the significant event that led to Francis being able to give himself totally to Jesus, because prior to that event, just the sight of lepers repulsed his senses. Francis led a pampered life of the early emerging middle class. The leper represented the complete antithesis of who he was. In the act of embracing that which he abhorred, he became free. Francis loved the leper unconditionally and in so doing encountered Jesus in his distressing disguise of the poor.

Who are the figurative lepers in our life? Who or what is the key barrier(s) between us giving our life totally and wholly to our loving God and Father as Francis did? Jesus, reveal to us, grant us the courage to identify that which we abhor and so empower us that we too may surrender and embrace you in your distressing disguise and so be free to serve you with all our mind, strength, and soul and love our neighbor as our self.

St Francis of Assisi, pray for us!

Painting of St Francis: Jusepi de Ribera 1643

Manselli, Raoul. St Francis of Assisi. Chicago, IL: Franciscan Herald Press, 1988.

1972 Franco Zeffirelli movie Brother Sun, Sister Moon conversion scene link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=Ev2d92_W47Y

The Mass readings for Thursday, October 4, 2018: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/100418.cfm

And another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family at home.” Jesus answered him, “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the Kingdom of God” (9:61-62).

Jesus again invites us to the radical call of the Gospel to put God before all else, even before family and again even more radical than the Old Testament. When Elijah called Elisha to follow him, Elijah allowed Elisha to say goodbye to his family and settle his estate, so to speak, before they left together (cf 1 Kings 19:19-21).

This invitation is given to all of us. We are invited to be part of the Church. The important foundational point is that we understand what Jesus means by the Church. The original Greek term that we have in the earliest manuscripts was ekklēsia. This is more than just a gathering or an assembly of like minds. Ekklēsia means to be called out from.

Jesus calls us out from anything in our life that we put or place before God, and he calls us to a new way of living. He calls us to be part of his very being, his Body. Jesus invites us to turn away from the false substitutes in which we may be seeking happiness and fulfillment. Pleasure, power, honor, and wealth will not fulfill us, will not provide stability for us, nor will they give us control over our lives, but making them idols, we will be enslaved to them.

We have been created to be fulfilled, to be happy, to belong. To experience meaning and fulfillment means to surrender to who God has created us to be, which is a living, craving hunger and desire to be one with God and one another. Nothing else will satisfy, nothing. Once we say yes to the invitation of Jesus to reorient our life such that we put God before all else, the other matters and material realities will fall into place. Jesus calls us each by name, out from the apparent goods and false truths that we have been distracted by and he calls us into the experience of being incorporated, being part of his Mystical Body, which is the Body of Christ, the Church, the communion of believers unified in his name, renewed, born from above in water and blood.

Jesus calls, will you follow?

Photo accessed from pexels.com

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, October 3, 2018: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/100318.cfm

“Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.
And whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me” (Mt 18:4-5).

Children during the time of Jesus were seen, if at all, to have little worth, vulnerable, completely dependent on their parents, and little, if any, status in society. They were under the radar, nothings, nobodies. Jesus invites a child to be in their midst as a response to the disciples question as to who would be considered the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.

Jesus taught his disciples and us that we need to be completely dependent on God our Father, as a small child is totally dependent on his or her parents. What leads us to greatness in the Kingdom of heaven is to turn away from the temptation to curve in within ourselves, resist feeding our ego, and as St Thomas Aquinas taught, we are to resist the cultural lures and substitutes for God: power, pleasure, honor, and wealth. We are to reject the image that we are super men and women that need no one as we strive for complete autonomy and self sufficiency. We are to place our complete dependency and trust in God and rely on him for everything.

Participating in the reign of God is not one of lordship over another, but assuming the humility to accompany and walk along another in their journey. We see this in the reality of Jesus, who as the Son of God entered into our human condition. While remaining fully divine, he became human when through the power of the Holy Spirit was conceived in the womb of Mary, developed through his period of gestation, and was born into our world. As an infant and child he was completely dependent on Mary and Joseph and God his Father.

As he continued to grow, he experienced the fullness of the human condition. He laughed, he cried, he got sick, he was tempted, he felt pain, he experienced heartache, and joy. Throughout his life, and especially during his public ministry, he met people where they were and as they were, he accompanied them and loved them by willing their good and empowered them to actualize their potential and to turn their heart and mind to God.

We are to do the same. Let us resist putting our self interests first, surrender ourselves in prayer to God and give of ourselves in our service to one another. We need to recognize our dependence on God and others. We are not self sufficient and we need to be humble enough to ask for help. Our guardian angels, whose memorial we remember today, are at the ready awaiting our call. When we realize that we are not alone, and experience some supernatural support, we may be more willing to be present and accompany those in our midst as we journey together in this life. We are not alone. May we provide a shoulder to lean on, an ear to hear, a smile, a hug, a voice that speaks for the voiceless, and a soul open to pray with others.

St Mother Teresa embodied the discipleship Jesus calls us to when she picked up that first dying man in the street. She did not ask his religion, was not concerned if he was of a different race or nationality, was not afraid to risk illness or injury by attending to him. She knelt down and was present to him in his time of dire need. May we follow Jesus and St Mother Teresa by placing our dependency in God’s hands and accompany others in doing little things with great love. When we do so, we say to another, you exist, you matter to me.

Guardian Angels, pray for us and assist us.

Photo: accessed from pexels.com

Link for Mass readings today:
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/100217.cfm

The Apostle John attempted to prevent someone from casting out demons in Jesus’ name because he was not one in their “company”, he was not on the inside. This person did not appear to be like Simon the Magician (see Acts 8:9-25) who sought to buy the power of God from the Apostles to perform feats to boost his own fame and ego, this person was doing what they were doing and in the proper way, by invoking the name of Jesus.

Jesus said to him, “Do not prevent him, for whoever is not against you is for you” (Lk 9:50). The important part about being a disciple is surrendering ourselves into and following the will of God. This was a consistent point Jesus pointed out to his followers time and again. Being a disciple of Jesus had nothing to do with whether or not someone was in or out of their company, or whether they were related to Jesus, as is recorded just in the last chapter of Luke 8:21, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.”

Jesus, in today’s Gospel, is pointing out the danger of group think for its own sake. This is something we desperately need to get in our present moment. What is important is not putting our self, our family, our tribe, our party, our nation first. What is important is putting God first. The man in today’s Gospel did not rely on his own strength or will power but called on the name of Jesus to cast out demons. John was getting hung up that this man wasn’t one of them, wasn’t in their company, and he was doing what they were called to do. John may have also been a bit miffed that this man was doing a better job.

I say the more the merrier! There is much that needs to be done, there is too much pain and suffering in the world, and we are losing pressure resources and hours by fighting among ourselves, instead of actualizing the unique and diverse gifts each of us have. We have much more in common with one another than we have differences. There are ways to diminish the growing polarization and division. May we be willing to cast aside our protective and defensive postures, make a commitment to respect the dignity of each person we encounter, and strive to be people of virtue and integrity. Whoever is not against us is for us.

As this is the memorial of St Therese of Lisieux, may our starting point today be a willingness to, in the Little Flower’s words, do little things with great love. “I saw and realized that love sets off the bounds of all vocations, that love is everything, that this same love embraces every time and every place. In one word, that love is everlasting” (Liturgy of the Hours 1975, 1451). Let us surrender ourselves into the loving embrace of our God and Father, so to receive his love and be his love for one another.

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The Liturgy of the Hours. NY: Catholic Book Publishing, 1975.

Photo by burak kostak from Pexels

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, October 1, 2018: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/100118.cfm

What we think, say, do or do not do, has consequences for ourselves and others. The smallest act of kindness, like suggesting, as Jesus did in today’s Gospel, of giving someone a drink of water goes a long way. That may seem like a small and insignificant gesture, but according to Water.org, 785 million people do not have access to safe drinking water. That is equivalent to one out of every nine people on earth not having ready access to a drink of clean water. Women and girls are especially affected as they can spend up to six hours a day seeking and returning home with water.

Mni Wiconi is a Lakota phrase that means water is life. The phrase is a recognition of the sacredness of water and that water is the life blood for creation and those of us who walk on this earth. Pipelines carry oil with the promise of jobs and the illusion of self sufficiency for a time. Yet fossil fuels are a finite source. Oil leaks and spills threaten sacred land and water resources coming not only from the Missouri River but any oil leakage could also dramatically impact the The Mni Wiconi Rural Water Supply System. This water resource covers a 150-mile area that begins at the Oahe Reservoir and ends at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Drinking water is provided by this system for some 25,000 plus tribal members as well as non-reservation communities.

Prior to the installation of the Mni Wiconi system in 2008, many suffered from health problems caused by contaminated water. The reality that there are people who do not have access to just the basic needs of survival, such as access to clean water or that it is threatened, or not corrected in a timely manner like those residents who have suffered in Flint, Michigan, is a unacceptable.

The most serious of sins in this regard is not bothering to care. Jesus shared clearly, as is recorded in Matthew (cf. chapter 25), that what we do to the least of our brothers and sisters, we do to him. He also shared with Saul on the road to Damascus (cf. Acts 9), “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”

God has created us such that we are interconnected with one another. How one thinks, speaks, and acts ripples out to touch all people and all creation. This is why Jesus uses such graphic, hyberbolic words in today’s Gospel, such as “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire” (Mk 9:41-50). Jesus does not literally mean that we are to cut off our hand or foot, or pluck out our eye, if we sin, but he is showing us the seriousness of our sin.

We can see the horrific affects at play in our fallen world. Life is hard, too many suffer from the effects of selfishness, pride, greed, abuse of power, and violence. May we resist contributing to or shutting ourselves off from the reality of abuse that is committed to the dignity of any person or our mother earth. When we engage in thoughts, words, and actions that are demeaning or dehumanizing; when we rationalize and justify behavior that goes against our Gospel values and our conscience; when we remain silent, we play a part in contributing to the condition of original sin that plagues our world, and we are going against God’s plan for what we pray for in the Our Father, “May your kingdom come, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

We need to take a deep breath, slow down enough to sit still so that we can hear God in the silence of our hearts and be willing to allow Jesus to shine his light, that we may better see with the eyes of our conscience, better see the lies, the half-truths, and apparent goods that we have been allowing to have free reign in our life. As they are revealed, may we pluck them out, even the smallest of sins, and dash them on the rock of Christ.

No one is justified in belittling, demeaning, dehumanizing, or abusing anyone, for “it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea” (Mk 9:42). May we follow Jesus today and give someone in need some water to drink, literally as needed, and figuratively in the sense of being aware of the needs of others, by praying for and being present with concrete and practical support, while at the same time, holding those accountable who have harmed others in any way. Let us be better stewards and caretakers of each other, our water, our land, and natural resources. Mni Wiconi! Water is Life!

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Photo accessed from:

https://www.pinterest.com/maryclarkfoods/livin-the-dream/?lp=true

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, September 30, 2018:  http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/093018.cfm

And he said to him, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (Jn 1:51).

Jesus, in making this comment to Nathaniel, was referring to the incident where the patriarch Jacob had a dream in which he saw angels ascending and descending on a ladder from heaven to earth. Jacob was in awe from the experience and believed that he was at “the gate of heaven” (cf. Genesis 28:12-17). Looking carefully at Jesus’ comment, we see again the image of the angels ascending and descending, as with Jacob, but the difference is that that ladder coming down from heaven is not seated upon the earth, but “on the Son of Man”. This is a title Jesus used for himself often.

Jesus is the gate between heaven and earth. Jesus will state later in John 14:6 that he is “the way and the truth and the life” and that no one comes to the Father except through him. The glorious moment when the Son of God took on flesh and became a man, the Son of God became one with us. This was not just so that thirty years later he could lead, model, teach, and perform exorcisms and miracles for their own sake. It was as St Irenaeus taught, that Jesus became one with us so that we could become one with him and in doing so opened up heaven for us in the humanity he assumed.

Heaven and earth are joined in the presence of Jesus. This is a mystery of the glory and wonder that we can partake in at each celebration of the Mass. We do not attend just to take up space and fulfill an obligation, but to experience again in the sacrificial offering of Jesus “on earth as it is in heaven.” We share in the heavenly banquet. We participate in the divine communal dance of Love between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We pray for our needs and for others, we intercede for the salvation of the whole world. We are empowered by his own Body and Blood in the Eucharist to minister to his broken and wounded Body in the midst of a fallen world. Filled from this glorious feast we are then sent forth to be Jesus’ hands and feet to the world.

I invite you to attend Mass this weekend. If you don’t have a parish home, have been away for awhile, there’s no time like the present to begin again. If you are not Catholic, are curious, and seeking a place to worship, join us as well. Just introduce yourself when you come into the sanctuary at the front entrance and seek out our welcoming kiosk and our greeters will help to get someone to sit with you to accompany and guide you. For times, directions, and if you are unable to attend in person you may click on the picture link that says Watch for our live online streaming of the Mass. Here is the address to our homepage: https://www.stpetercatholicchurch.com/ .

Come and experience angels ascending and descending on the Son of God!

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Photo: My first Mass about five years ago with Fr. Jean and Deacon Stephen

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, September 29, 2018:  http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/092918.cfm

Jesus asked his disciples about who people said that he was and Peter, through the revelation of God the Father answered, “the Christ of God” (Lk 9:20). Jesus then responded that, “The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised” (Lk 9:22).

Jesus is indeed the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. Yet, that meant many things to many people who were awaiting the coming of the Messiah. For most, they were hoping for a military leader to come to lead them and overthrow the Roman occupiers. As soon as Peter made his statement, Jesus clarified the Messiah that he would be, the suffering servant.

This reality that Jesus was the suffering servant, willing to give his life on the Cross for all of humanity and creation, is also true for all who would walk the path following Jesus. If we seek to be a disciple of Jesus, our steps will also lead us to the Cross. We must be willing to be martyrs, witnesses of our faith in our everyday experiences and encounters. This may begin with prayer, worship, and study but our discipleship will be ultimately expressed in love. We must resist the temptation to turn in on ourselves such that we embrace our ego, our anxiety, fear, prejudices and biases.

We need to resist seeking to conform God to our will, and instead be willing to go out from ourselves to love God with our whole mind, heart, and strength and love our neighbors as ourselves. This dying to self, our self centered stance is to be crucified with Christ, and is to be expressed in all aspects and areas of our life. We are not to be one way for one hour at Church on Sunday and the rest of our time live like Sunday never happened. We are to surrender ourselves to Jesus and be Jesus for others in every action, decision, and encounter we engage in. Christianity is not about compartmentalization, but it is about transformation and conformation to the Body of Christ!

Photo: New crucifix in the chapel and Cardinal Newman

Link for the Mass readings for Friday, September 28, 2018:  http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/092818.cfm

“‘Who then is this about whom I hear such things?'” And he kept trying to see him” (Lk 9:9).

Herod Antipas, ruler over Galilee and Perea, heard stories about Jesus. The range of his thoughts, expressed by Luke, are confusion to curiosity. Herod may have started to feel concern over the possibility of a growing revolt, some guilt for his execution of John the Baptist, or just curiosity to see what this man was all about and if this Jesus could accomplish even half of the things Herod had heard about him. One question that did not seem to cross Herod’s mind was if he had any interest in changing his life and becoming a follower of Jesus.

Herod was not the only one in Luke’s Gospel who asked questions about who this man Jesus was. Nor did the asking of those questions die with Jesus on the cross. They continued after his resurrection and ascension, they continued into the first centuries of the Church, which led to the calling of the first ecumenical councils which dealt directly with who Jesus was, and they continued in each following century and continue today. There are even at present in some academic circles, the question arising as to whether Jesus even existed at all. The answer to whether or who Jesus is matters.

One could ask why does this question about Jesus persist? One answer is that we are finite beings seeking to understand an infinite Mystery. The full comprehension of the reality of Jesus existing as fully human and fully divine, dying on the cross, conquering death through his resurrection and ascending to the Father transcends even the wonderful intellect and ability to reason that we have been blessed with. Also, Jesus’ invitation is a universal but personal one.

Jesus called the Twelve, one by one. Jesus called Mary Magdalene, St. Irenaeus, St Thomas Aquinas, St Francis and Clare of Assisi, St Catherine of Siena, St Teresa of Avila and St John of the Cross, St Ignatius, St Mother Teresa, Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, and he calls each of us to himself as well. He did not call us to just merely embrace a new philosophy, a new ethical way of life, or even a new religion. Jesus called and calls us to be a part of his Body, the Mystical Body of Christ.

Who is Jesus? Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, who became incarnate, who became one with us in our humanity so we could be one with him in his divinity. May we say yes to his invitation and continue to walk this journey together. Life with Jesus isn’t perfect, and we will at times echo St Teresa of Avila, who stated after she was thrown from a carriage into a mud puddle, “If you treat your friends this way, it is no wonder you have so few.” But we will also experience moments of inexpressible joy, of wonder and exhilaration, and feel blessed when Jesus works through us, and loves through us to be present for and help others. Let us be grateful for this journey with Jesus and continue to look forward to what lies ahead as we are perfected in Jesus! If there are any on of you sitting on the fence, jump on down, and come along!

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Not only have their been questions about who Jesus is, there have been many pictorial representations of Jesus. Here is one painting from Fr. John Giuliani – Indigenous Jesus.

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, September 27, 2018:  http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/092718.cfm