Homily for Second Sunday of Lent (C)

The natural seasons of the year give a rhythm to life. Each season provides nature with something it needs to keep growing.
The same thing happens in the Church, with liturgical seasons. In each liturgical season God sends us graces we need in order to keep growing in wisdom, holiness, and happiness.
But these graces don't benefit our souls automatically, the way sunlight benefits plants. Rather, we have to take them in on purpose.
But how? How can we bathe in the supernatural sunlight that will make us grow, make us better, make us change, during this liturgical season?
Today the Church reminds us of the most effective method we have for drinking in all the graces God wants to give us during this Lent: prayer.

• Today's  First Reading tells us that "The Lord God took Abram outside..." and had a conversation with him. That's prayer.
• The Psalm gives us an example of King David's prayer in the face of danger, "Your presence, O Lord, I seek. Hide not your face from me..."
• St Paul, in the Second Reading, reminds the Christians in Philippi that while most people occupy their minds "with earthy things... Our citizenship is in heaven." Our attention is on God - that's prayer.
• Finally, in the Gospel, Jesus leads his three closest disciples away from the hustle and bustle of life, up to the top of a high mountain, where he can be alone with them, and give them a lesson in prayer.

We have to ask ourselves: is our prayer life in good shape? Has it improved in the last year, the last ten years? If it's out of shape, we won't be able to drink in the graces God wants to give us this Lent, the ones we really need.

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Prayer brings many benefits to our lives. One that is often overlooked comes across in this Gospel reading.
One of the reasons that Jesus brings Peter, James, and John up the mountain is because they need to see a glimpse of Christ's divine glory.
Just as Lent is bringing us closer to Christ's passion and death, so in St Luke's Gospel the Passion is drawing nearer. They are on the way to Jerusalem.  

• Jesus knows that when his followers see him betrayed, scourged, and crucified, they will be shocked and disheartened. They don't know this, but he does.
• He knows they will need something to hang onto in those dark moments, something to give them hope and encouragement. This experience on the mountaintop is exactly that.
• It is meant to give them a deeper knowledge of Christ's greatness.

This knowledge, this experience, will in turn enable them to persevere through the hard times ahead, and to help the other disciples persevere too.
God wants to do the same with us.
Even better than a good coach, parent, or doctor, he knows what lies ahead for each one of us: the triumphs and the temptations, the success and the struggles.

• He wants to equip us to get the most out of each of them.
• He wants to outfit us for each stage of our life's journey.

But if we don't make room for prayer in our lives, he can't.
If we don't go up the mountain with him and give him a chance to do fill us with his grace, we won't be ready when the future comes.

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All of us have to ask ourselves about our prayer lives. We need to be honest. If our prayer life hasn't grown in the last year, we need to do something about it.
God still has so much he wants to do in our lives. Improving our prayer life will give him room to work.
One way to do that is by instituting a daily quiet time.

• We never let a day go by without taking a shower, because we know our bodies need that cleansing.
• We never let a day go by without eating, because we know our bodies need that nourishment.
• Many people almost never let a day go by without exercising, because they know their bodies need that stimulation.

Why not do the same thing for our souls? That's what a daily quiet time is for. It's a one-on-one appointment with the Lord, which gives him room to refresh, nourish, and exercise our soul.
It's very simple to do.
Choose a time and place in which you won't be interrupted. Then do three things:

• First, Remember. Remind yourself that Christ is with you and wants to be with you. Think of all the blessings he has given you.
• Second, Read. Take out a spiritual book, a Bible, or your favorite prayer book and read a paragraph or two, slowly. No rush.
• Third, Reflect. Think about what you read. Listen to what God wants to say to you through it. Apply it to your life.

Remember, Read, Reflect.
Before you know it the fifteen minutes will be up, and you will have received a word of encouragement from God to help you live the life he wants you to.
Prayer is the secret to drinking in all the graces God has in store for us. Today, he is hoping we'll decide to become better pray-ers. Let's not disappoint him.

Quote from Pope Benedict

When asked by a journalist how the Church could be more attractive, Benedict replied: 
"I would say that a Church that seeks to be particularly attractive is already on the wrong path, because the Church does not work for her own ends, she does not work to increase numbers and thus power. The Church is at the service of another: she serves, not for herself, not to be a strong body, rather she serves to make the proclamation of Jesus Christ accessible, the great truths and great forces of love, reconciling love that appeared in this figure and that always comes from the presence of Jesus Christ."

Winter on the farm

I was just checking how many page views and it appears that more people are reading my blog than I suspected. Thank you all for viewing. Peace and blessings in the new year to you all! :-)

Homily for Christmastide: Feast of the Holy Family

Homily for Christmastide: Feast of the Holy Family (C)

The Church shows great wisdom in dedicating this Sunday after the Solemnity of Christmas to the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.
Today, the Church's 1 billion Catholics are all thanking God for the gift of the family, and asking for God's help to live family life as he designed it to be lived.
And he did design it; it was his idea.

• From the very beginning, he created us male and female – husband and wife, father and mother.
• And after original sin shattered his original design, he redeemed us by sending a savior into a family, thereby restoring and reaffirming his commitment to work in this world through family life.
• We will probably never know all the reasons behind God's decision to make family life so central to his creation and redemption.
• But we can certainly identify some of them.
• One of the most important reasons is to show us that life, every human life, is a precious gift that comes directly from God.
• None of us can produce another human being alone, the way an artist produces a painting or a bricklayer produces a wall.
• Human life comes from the union of two loving spouses, a union which God often blesses with the conception of a child.

That each human life is a gift from God is a truth that comes across powerfully in today's First Reading, where Hannah shows so clearly her understanding that her son is not first of all hers, but God’s.
It also comes across in today's Gospel, where Jesus shows his first allegiance to be towards his heavenly Father, not his earthly parents.
And the same goes for us – for every single human being.
None of us is a simple “product” of science or chance; none of us are the result of a “mistake”: we are all beloved children of God, called to live forever with him in heaven.

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This is the reason behind the Church's uncompromising position on all moral issues regarding the dignity of human life.

• Human beings are unique members of this earth, created in God’s image, and, though fallen, destined for eternal glory.
• The other creatures around us, from rhinos to rain forests, are beautiful and marvelous and deserving of our respectful and responsible use, but they do not share the same dignity as a human being.
• In fact, the entire physical universe is less valuable than the tiniest human embryo, because the universe will pass away, but every human soul will live forever.

Our popular culture does not agree, and it is more and more trying to convince us that human beings are a cancer on the earth.
Take for example the most recent [November 2009] report of the United Nations Population Fund.

• It concludes that families should be rewarded for refusing to have children, because children perpetuate the polluting of the earth:
• “Each birth results not only in the emissions attributable to that person in his or her lifetime, but also the emissions of all his or her descendents... Hence, the emissions savings from intended or planned births multiply with time.”

If awarding carbon credits for having fewer children seems like a good idea to us, we can be sure that we are not thinking as God thinks.

• Certainly, we are called to use and develop the earth's resources responsibly, but the earth is not more important than the people who inhabit it.
• In fact, it's for us people, you, me, and even our ornery neighbors – that God made the earth in the first place.

Human life is not a cancer on the planet; embracing the gift of human life is the very purpose of the planet.

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Few truths of our faith have more practical consequences than this truth that every human life is a gift from God, a sacred reality.
The first and most important practical consequence is that we need to take care of our own lives.

• We are royalty, members of God's family, called to fulfill a mission in God's eternal plan of salvation.
• That matters.
• And we need to act like it matters.
• We need to keep our hearts strong and free from sin, using frequently and wisely the gifts of prayer, Holy Communion, and confession.
• We need to guard ourselves from temptation by exercising self-discipline in how we spend our time, money, and talents.
• We need to remember that the devil "prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour," as the Bible tells us (1 Peter 5:8).
• He wants to lead us away from God, precisely because he knows how much God cares for us.

The second practical consequence has to do with the people around us, especially those closest to us.

• We are so used to focusing on their failures, foibles, and imperfections, that we tend to take them for granted.
• But God never takes them for granted.
• Instead, he takes each of us by the hand, loving us without condemning us, and leading us along the path of redemption.
• And we are called to do the same, to be God's messengers, to be living signs of his love for those around us by how we treat one another.

In this Mass, God will come to each one of us, in spite of our personality flaws, sins, and hang-ups.
He goes beyond the surface appearances and sees all of us as we truly are: created in his image and destined for everlasting glory.
Today, let's ask him to teach us to do the same.

that's Mr.Egg Plant to you!

One of the happy workers at St.Isidore Farm

 Sophie is a cheerful addition to our farm!