“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.”

What does this mean?

First, remember how the Messiah is associated with peace.  There is Isaiah 9:5 that Handel used in “For Unto Us A Child Is Born” in his Messiah: “For a child is born to us, a son is given to us; upon his shoulder dominion rests.  They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace.”  Jesus is the Prince of Peace. 

We also see this association of the Messiah with peace in other places in Isaiah and in Haggai, which says “Greater will be the glory of this house, the latter more than the former—says the LORD of hosts;          And in this place I will give you peace— oracle of the LORD of hosts.”

In the early Church, we find grace and peace as part of a standard greeting to other Christians.  But it is not a secular peace.  It is a deeply religious one.  It is even part of one of the options for the priest’s greeting at the beginning of Mass – “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

So, what is the peace that Christ gives? 

It is the peace that is eternal life.  It is the joy of salvation.  In this time between the two comings of Christ, this peace does not eliminate the trials and tribulations of this life.  It does not exempt us from suffering.  It does not even completely inoculate us from division within the Church.  However, it does give us hope for what is to come.  And that hope makes our difficulties easier to bear.  Not to mention how the Holy Spirit acts as our consoler.

As Francis Moloney noted, Jesus’ gift of peace leads to a uniting of the faithful person with the Father and the Son.  It is far greater than the fragile peace of this world that might come from politics. 

We can rest in this peace of Christ.  Even as we deal with difficulties, we have this peace.  Perhaps we might find ourselves unable to sleep soundly in the boat during a raging storm as the boat takes on water, although Jesus himself had no trouble.  But, because of this gift, we can find greater peace even in this life.

I want to understand how helpful these reflections have been for you and whether I should continue them as we start to come back to public Mass and to some increased activity in the parish.

Please take a moment to complete this simple one-question survey.

Please provide your input prior to 7am this Friday.

Thanks and God bless,

Fr. Bob

What is love? 

Fifty years ago, the movie Love Story made popular the expression, “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.”  Others have different expectations of love.  For some, it means helping another get, or do, anything that they want.  For others, it means simply making the other happy.  Still others think that love is an emotion.

One of many great things about being Catholic is that we have the teachings of God himself in the person of Christ along with almost two millennia of great and holy people interpreting those teachings.  St. Thomas Aquinas gives us his famous definition of love that we can build upon by saying that love is willing the good of the other for the sake of the other.  It is a decision, not an emotion.  It is wanting good for the other, not whatever the other wants.

But that really seems to describe love of neighbor.  The Greatest Commandment is to love God “with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”  The second is to “love your neighbor as yourself.”  How do I will the good of God for the sake of God?  Does God need some good that God does not already have?  How does God benefit from my willing some good for God?

Of course, God is already the source of all good.  And God needs nothing from us. 

So, while we cannot logically want some additional good for God, we can want to do the will of God.  Loving God means wanting to do God’s will.  That is how we love God.  That is why Jesus says in today’s Gospel, “Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me.”  It is God’s will that we follow the Commandments.  In following them, we are loving God. 

Following the Commandments means following their literal meaning along with the other actions that fall underneath them.  It is not enough to say that we have not killed anyone.  Have we disrespected the dignity of others by causing scandal…by leading them to sin?  Have we harbored deliberate hatred toward another?    The Catechism shows us that all are sins against the Fifth Commandment. 

Are there some Commandments that we avoid?  Some that we think do not apply to us or no longer apply to our times?  Do we realize that these exceptions to following the Commandments are ways in which we hold back on fully loving God?

When we speak of God, we speak of three Persons.  But we speak of only one God. 

The joke that I have used with youth is to say that the Trinity consists of “three who’s, one what, two processions, and two missions.”  There are three divine Persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Yet, all are God and share the same nature (the same “what”).  The Son was begotten of the Father.  The Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father and the Son.  Both can be called processions.  Those processions are internal to God.  Or some might say internal to the Godhead.  Both happened before time began.  Missions are where God entered our world at a point in time.  These two visible missions are Jesus’ Incarnation (including his entire life on earth) and the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.  They are where God entered our world such that we could see it happen. 

Any human description of the Trinity with our finite human language is necessarily an incomplete explanation of an infinite God.  But such explanations are helpful for us.

Jesus’ mission was primarily to save us.  But, in so doing, God entered our world.  Creator becomes creature.  Jesus makes God visible to us.  He reveals the Father to us.  We can see God because we can see him.

God told the Israelites not to worship graven images.  They had no image of God because they had not seen God.  Then the Father sent the Son.  And the world had an image of God.  An image in human form.  We do not worship artistic representations of God.  We only worship God.  But an artistic image calls to mind what we worship.

Yes, we know a lot about God from the prophets that he sent.  But our primary source of information about God is God.  The Son tells us about the Father.  The Son tells us about the Holy Spirit.  It is through the Son that God is revealed to us most fully.

In many other religions, there is a figure that purports to tells us about God.  In Christianity, it is God that comes to tell us about God.  We start with who Jesus is.  What he says is so important because of who he is.

Have we ever simply sat and wondered about a God that chooses to become one of us?  What do we think of God because of that?  What do we think of ourselves because of that?

Who is God?  What is God?  How can I see this God?

These are perhaps natural human questions to ask.  On some level, we seek these answers.  Once we know that there is a God, we seek to experience this God.  But we also seek to know about this God.  In today’s Gospel, Philip shows this when he says,  “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” 

Let me see the Father.  A basic longing.  It reminds us of how Psalm 63 begins.  “O God, you are my God— it is you I seek!  For you my body yearns; for you my soul thirsts…”

In his exchange with Philip, Jesus gives us insight into how this Triune God works.  And we continue to peel back the layers of what he has revealed. The Vatican II Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum, tells us, “In His goodness and wisdom God chose to reveal Himself and to make known to us the hidden purpose of His will (see Eph. 1:9) by which through Christ, the Word made flesh, man might in the Holy Spirit have access to the Father and come to share in the divine nature (see Eph. 2:18; 2 Peter 1:4).”  And, “by this revelation then, the deepest truth about God and the salvation of man shines out for our sake in Christ, who is both the mediator and the fullness of all revelation.” 

It is through Jesus that we know the Father.  Jesus is the fullness of revelation.  As Saint John of the Cross wrote, “In giving us his Son, his only Word (for he possesses no other), he spoke everything to us at once in this sole Word – and he has no more to say…” 

He is also the mediator.  God the Son took on a human nature.  In his person, humanity touches divinity.  It is through him that we are united to God. 

This is what Jesus is telling Philip.  Jesus himself is the manifestation of God to us.  If we have seen him, we have seen the Father.  It is through him that the Father makes himself known. 

Through the Holy Spirit, we are united to Christ, our head in the Body of Christ.  And we are brought to the Father.  We enter the divine life of this Triune God and partake of the divine nature.

What a glorious and mysterious gift! 

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. 

In Acts 24, Paul describes himself as being a follower of “the Way.”  This is how early Christians were known. 

Jesus describes himself as the way.  He is the way to the Father.  No one comes to the Father except through him.  He is the truth because he is divine.  He is God the Son, begotten by the Father but equal to the Father.  He is the life because his sacrifice redeemed us.  His Resurrection conquered death and opened eternal life for us. 

If we follow the way, we continue to strive to improve.  We allow Jesus Christ to permeate every aspect of our lives.  We seek him in prayer.  We ask the Holy Spirit to help us to live as he showed us.  His whole earthly life shows us the perfection of human life in this world.  We want to live as he lived.

Knowing that he is the truth, we can trust in all that he tells us.  There is no falsehood.  He is not even capable of it because it would be contrary to his nature.   His promises are always kept. 

If we trust in him, we live the life that leads to eternity with the Father.  And with the Son and the Holy Spirit. 

Jesus, as God, participated in creation.  He is the Word spoken by the Father that, through the work of the Spirit, gives us our very existence.  As God, he is the source of our existence.  As God the Son, he took on a mission to give us the possibility of eternal life.  In showing us himself, he shows us the Father.  As Saint Irenaeus said, “The glory of God is a living man.”  This man, this Jesus in human form, is the glory of God presented to us.  And, as fully human, he shows us the perfect example of this life on earth.

It is possible to live this life as if God does not exist.  We can make that choice.  That is not what God wants for us.  It is not what is best for us.  But, if we choose not just to believe in God, but to live life in imitation of Christ by the grace of the Holy Spirit, we become much more.  We become what we were meant to be.

There are four cardinal human virtues identified in the Catechism: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance.  There are also the three theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity.  Interestingly, humility is not listed among these foundational virtues.  And yet, it is the virtue that is considered the gateway to the spiritual life.

In today’s Gospel, we hear Jesus’ teaching right after he had washed the feet of the disciples.  This Gospel is a little challenging by itself because it gives the conclusion of that story without giving the story itself.  So, we must read what precedes this passage to understand it. 

Jesus has given them a model to follow.  The word that we translate as “model” here is used elsewhere in the Bible (particularly in Maccabees) to mean “exemplary death.”  At the very least, we can see Jesus’ model as being one of emptying self-gift.  The washing of the feet is an example of this self-gift in that God the Son takes on the role of a servant for the good of the others.

Jesus’ model in washing the feet of the disciples, and indeed his entire offering of himself for our sake, is an act of love.  But, as Philippians tells us, it also is an act of humility.

Unfortunately for us, a certain amount of self-promotion in the secular world is necessary for employment purposes.  I have heard it called creating a “personal brand” that you market.  Outside of that necessity, do we understand how to act out the virtue of humility?  In leadership roles, do focus on enabling the success of those that we lead?  Or are we only looking for some success that we can brag about to others?  Do we mentor others?  Or do we take sole credit for others’ work?  Are we willing to admit our mistakes?  Or do we cover for them by lying about them or by throwing someone else under the bus?

If we lack humility, how can we have the necessary relationship with God?  If we believe that we are singularly responsible for our own successes, then we do not give ultimate credit to the first cause of those successes – to God.  Do we become incapable of acknowledging that there is someone greater than ourselves to whom we owe our very existence?  We must acknowledge our dependence on God to grow in our relationship with God.

The branches do not survive for very long apart from the vine. 

John 3:16 might be the most famous single verse in the Bible.  Some of us remember the guy that used to hold up that “John 3:16” sign at televised sporting events.  What does the actual verse say again?

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.”

I almost always insist that any mention of John 3:16 also include verse 17 that follows:

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.”

In today’s Gospel, Jesus repeats this idea when he says, “for I did not come to condemn the world but to save the world.”  Today’s passage comes from John 12.  This is the last chapter in John dealing with Jesus’ public teaching.  The next chapter begins John’s Book of Glory with the washing of the feet at the Last Supper.  So, as we approach Jesus’ Passion, he seemingly has this increased sense of urgency.  He does not just teach, but he “cries out.”  He wants to make this known, and to make it known now.

I find this idea – that Jesus did not come to condemn but to save – to be one of the most consoling aspects of the Gospel message.  Jesus, as the divine Second Person of God, took on a human nature and entered creation as one of his creatures.  He did this knowing that he would give his life on the cross.  He took on this mission this to save us.  Not to condemn us.  In fact, he says in today’s passage that whoever rejects his words will have something to judge him.  “It will condemn him on the last day…”  It is not Jesus that condemns us.  It is our own rejection of Jesus that condemns us.

Jesus want us to know the saving love of God.  This is who Jesus is.  This is who God is.  A God that wants to save us and that does not come to condemn us.  A God of love.  And, consequently, a God of great mercy.

But is that really our image of God?  Do some of us, at least at times, have an image of God as a distant and harsh judge?  Where do we get this?  From the Gospels?  No, I am guessing that we get this from our own experiences.  Perhaps it comes from how we view our own fathers?  Perhaps it comes from somewhere else?

How do we view God?  What do we think God wants from us?  What do we think God wants for us?  For all eternity?

Here in this passage from Chapter 10 of John’s Gospel, the season has changed.  We have moved from the time of the Feast of Tabernacles (or Booths) just after the harvest to the Feast of the Dedication in winter.  We know this celebration today as Hanukkah.  The setting is still Jesus at the Temple.  And he is still using the theme of the shepherd. 

Jesus tells those who are opposing him that they do not hear him because they are not his sheep.  So many Jews who have been waiting for the Messiah then reject him when he comes before them.  But many Gentiles will hear the voice of the Good Shepherd and follow him.

As St. John Chrysostom preached about this from Jesus’ perspective, “For I, on my part, have fulfilled all that a Shepherd ought to do, and if you do not follow me, it is not because I am not a shepherd, but because you are not my sheep.”

If we follow Jesus as our shepherd, where and how do we hear his voice?

We hear it in his words in the Gospel.  We hear it in the words of his disciples in the other books of the New Testament.  We also hear it in the writings of the Church Fathers that provide insight into what was conveyed by Jesus to those around him in what we call the Apostolic Tradition and that complements the New Testament (and Scripture as a whole).  And we hear his voice in the teachings of the Church’s Magisterium. 

We also hear his voice in our prayer, but only if we are listening.  We even hear it in the voices of others who share messages consistent with long-standing Church teaching.  But, sometimes, we put our own obstacles in the way of hearing Jesus’ voice.  Sometimes, our own grave sin is the obstacle that makes us deaf to the voice of the Shepherd.  That is why we have the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

For each of us, how do we allow ourselves to become more receptive and attuned to the voice of the Good Shepherd? 

Today’s Gospel continues the theme of the Good Shepherd that we heard on Sunday.  First, Jesus criticizes those who have not been good shepherds for the Jewish people.  Then, he outlines his own mission.

Jesus draw a contrast between himself and the “hired man…whose sheep are not his own.”  At the first sign of danger, the hired man abandons his sheep to save himself.  This man does what he does solely for the pay.  He has no care for the well-being of his flock.  It is not a vocation.  It is merely a job to pay his expenses.

 As the Good Shepherd, Jesus comes to lay down his life for his sheep.  He has other sheep outside of the Jewish fold, and he will lead these too.

Today, we can find other good shepherds in the Church.  Many of us had examples growing up.  My childhood pastor was one for me.  He was a great pastor for our parish.   He was the Baltimore priest that Bishop Galeone would admiringly tell stories about it.  He was also an Army Reserve chaplain who would manage to get a helicopter to fly over our school at recess at some point during his annual service (and even ended his service one year by having the helicopter land on our soccer field in front of the assembled students).  When he died prematurely, a blizzard left most roads impassable for the school’s memorial Mass the day before the funeral.  But the people could not be kept away.  An army of students and parents walked through the snow to pack the church well beyond capacity.

Who are the good shepherds that you most remember from your past?  Think of one.  What were his qualities?  Hopefully, great personal holiness.  Likely also approachability.  Perhaps great leadership.  He was almost certainly someone who clearly sacrificed himself for others.  A great preacher and/or teacher of the faith?  Perhaps, you felt like you knew Christ because you knew him.  Maybe he was someone who really knew how to bring others together.  He was likely someone who was there for you when you most needed it.  Maybe he was someone who showed you great kindness.

Think about those good shepherds that have gone to their eternal reward.  Pray that they might intercede for us today.  Pray for their intercession to help our current shepherds through this crisis and beyond.  And pray that they might help to inspire the shepherds of tomorrow.