Author: Father Cioppi

I cannot do it alone! I need God’s help!

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People living in the holy land would have been familiar with the dangers of weeds growing up around the wheat and how difficult it is to tell the difference between them until they bloomed. The wheat of course represents good and weeds, evil. As Christians, we need to tell the difference between them especially in a world that makes them seem the same.

The devil’s strongest tool against us is the lie. He uses deception to cloud our perception and convince us that we are not responsible for our actions. That somehow, we can do everything alone and without God. As Christians, understanding good and evil, and taking responsibility for our choices is all about discovering the Truth that is God. God is not a figment of our imagination. He is real and a separate person from us. God is equally merciful and just. We can never be afraid to face the truth even if it makes us feel ashamed, or embarrassed. Because Truth is of God.

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“Jesus works through us, no matter how unworthy we think we are.”

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All Christians through baptism are preachers of the Word. Saint Paul says, “all of us who possess the first fruits of the Spirit, we too groan inwardly as we wait for our bodies to be set free.”  What he is saying is that everything we do, everything we think and say belongs to Christ and through us He communicates to the world.

When we sow the seed of the word, we rarely see the effects of that sowing. We can look back on our own lives and remember people who affected us and yet they never knew how much they changed us; old teachers, our parents, priests, former classmates, coworkers. We have an effect on people’s lives in what we say and more importantly in what we do.

As Christians, Jesus works through us, no matter how unworthy we think we are.

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“Whoever receives Me receives the One Who sent Me.”

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Hospitality is an ancient virtue. In other readings, we heard of Abraham being hospitable to the three angels in the desert. There are stories of the desert Fathers, among them Anthony of Egypt and Mary Magdalene who considered hospitality critical to human and divine living. Monastics through the centuries, even today, practice this noble virtue for all who enter their house. For them, the guest is seen as the icon of Christ through which they can communicate with the Trinity and receive grace.

Elijah, the great prophet in our first reading is given hospitality by his friends. He rewards their virtue with the sacrament of children. Matthew echoes the words of Jesus Himself who said: “Whoever receives you receives me and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”

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‘The Lord is with you, like a mighty champion!’

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Saint Paul reminds us today to consider ourselves dead to sin but alive in God. We know that we still sin; it is because we do sin that God asks us to at least be grateful for His unending mercy.

We cannot be afraid to face the darkness of the evil one. Temptations seem real and very powerful, but, in reality, temptations are weak; the devil’s greatest weapon is deception, making sin seem as though it is irresistible when in fact the devil has no power at all, he has been conquered by Christ’s death on the Cross.

Whatever hardship we endure must be seen in the light of Jesus’ victory over sin and so we should be careful not be deceived into believing we are powerless against evil.  In Christ and with Him, we can conquer sin because Jesus died for just that reason.  The only thing we should be afraid of is the person “who can destroy the soul;” those who easily lead us into sins like gossip, lust, greed, envy, pride, anger, gluttony, and sloth.

Saint Bernadette Soubirous once prayed, “Lord, I do not ask that I never be afflicted, but only that You never abandon me in my affliction.”

Remember my friends that ‘the Lord is with you, like a mighty champion; your tempters will stumble, they will not triumph…run and you will not grow weary for God is your strength!’

 

Our First Holy Communion is alive within us!

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Do you remember your first holy communion- any part of that day when you first received our Lord in the Eucharist? We celebrate that reality today in the Feast of Corpus Christi.

For many centuries now, the Church has chosen to celebrate this day dedicated to the veneration of the Holy Eucharist following the Feast of the Holy Trinity, because the Eucharist is the integral link between God and ourselves.

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Holy Trinity: One God, Three Persons, a Family of Love

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This morning we celebrate the Most Holy Trinity: One God, Three Persons, Who is infinitely a Family of Love.

As Christians, we are all of the same Family who have been touched by the divine life of God through the Word made Flesh. A serious threat to one part of our family is a serious threat to every part.

We have to be more conscious of our family members and the true meaning of its universality in the context, not only of love, but also of suffering and persecution and sadness.

“God so loved the world that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.”

This Holy Trinity Sunday let us expand our definition of everyone. Saint Paul says it so beautifully: “Mend your ways, encourage one another, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.”

Pentecost enlivens the sense of who we are!

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“When celebrating the Eucharist, the Church proclaims Christ’s resurrection; she does so by virtue of the testimony of the apostles who personally saw their Master alive again.

Their eyewitness account is the most important source of faith for the Church, which proclaims Christ’s resurrection as an event that really happened, the foundation of faith and a reason for hope for all those seeking salvation.” Benedict XVI

The solemnity of Pentecost ignites this eyewitness account with the Spirit of Truth Who rests as tongues of fire on each of the chosen apostles, thus “fusing the divine and human witness into one saving reality.”

From this fusion flows the work of evangelization, renewed again today for each of us and entrusted to the Church of which we are members.

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We are the intercessors for those who are lost!

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As we prepare for the great Feast of Pentecost, we encounter again the Apostles retreating to the Upper Room in order to pray and wait for the coming of the Advocate, promised by Jesus. We listened to Jesus last words to them ‘I am with you always, until the end of the world.

It is important for us to understand how we pray as intercessors and for whom we pray. Prayer is firstly a conversation with the Holy Trinity. It is also an opportunity to be an intermediary for someone we know or love. Often times we can find ourselves praying for our own immediate concerns, problems in our families or bad situations in which we find ourselves.

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Be ready to explain the reason for your hope and joy!

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We live in a society that is becoming more and more hostile to God and increasingly more anxious, impatient and confused.

In such an atmosphere, a disciple stands out as different and as counter cultural. My friends, Catholics are becoming voices in the wilderness, crying out, ‘make straight the way of the Lord.’ Imagine a person whose trust is completely in God. What peace, what joy!

If you have ever been with the dying, you would learn the true meaning of life. Where is nothing left of the earthly but only God, the dying see the only treasure in life that matters: love, compassion, forgiveness and mercy.

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“I know My sheep!”

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This Easter season has been filled with miracles, revelations and works; all to demonstrate the saving power of God.

We see these works through the poorer and in ordinariness of simple living. The sacramental life of the suffering members of our parish show us what it means to be created in the image and likeness of a God Who was born lowly and suffered dishonorably.

By becoming one of us, the Son of God reaches into our bodies and raises them up so that we can become vehicles for human redemption. Jesus, the Good Shepherd understands our struggles, our feelings of alienation and fear, our arrogance and ignorance and still gathers us up like lost sheep and rests us on His shoulders. He carries us to communion with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

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