Hopefully Move Forward

The last year has been lovely.  God has shed His grace upon me.  Through His grace, He has empowered me to do His will.  I feel that I have done what He sent me here to do.  And so it seems that the time has come to move on from here.  

And so on January 1 I will move back to the hermitage.  I feel God is calling me back there. 

I imagine you are wondering how this conclusion intersects with my previous discernment to leave the hermitage.  

Although I did not explicitly say so, when I left the hermitage to serve poor persons, I was overwhelmingly focused on rejoining the Peace Corps.  I re-applied to the Peace Corps near the end of 2015, and in early 2016, Peace Corps informed me that they could not offer me a position.  

I applied or at least inquired with other organizations serving impoverished people abroad.  Either I didn't hear back at all, or at other times it didn't work out with those other organizations.  
Thus in time I came to realize that one reason I left the hermitage, to serve poor persons overseas, was not materializing.  I let it go, and so the path I thought I was following turned out to be taking me not as far away as I had envisioned.  

Since it started becoming clear I wouldn't be moving to another country again, I began to ponder serving poor folks here in the states.  Having been a Catholic Worker in San Jose before I moved into the hermitage,  I began to think about once again being a Catholic Worker.  

After a brief stint last summer filling in for my friends at Casa de Clara, the San Jose Catholic Worker House, I moved in here at the Redwood City Catholic Worker House.  After not too long, I began to get to know homeless folks here in Redwood City.  I came to witness the sense of community amongst those living on the streets here.  I became much closer with them than I had ever felt with homeless folks anywhere else.  And so I have felt much fulfillment as I have served people living on the streets here.  

And yet I have gradually, steadily, increasingly felt more and more spiritually malnourished despite how I have continued the spiritual practices I deepened at the hermitage.  I read Scripture.  I attend Mass.  Yet I have consistently felt that God has been calling me back into more solitude, more silence, more stillness, more contemplation.  I have felt that God has been calling me back into the deep prayer which monastic life fosters, and then will flow whatever service to poor folks naturally, organically arises out of monastic life.  

I feel too that God has given me the grace to make vows to Him.  I know that I can make vows of poverty, chastity and obedience to Him.  If I were not to do so, I would be wasting graces God has given to me.  If you know me well, you know well that I cannot stand wasting what God has given to us.  God has given us marvelous gifts: we should not only appreciate and use well His gifts, but thank and praise and adore and glorify God who gives us such magnificent gifts.  Out of gratitude to Him, I do not wish to be the servant who buries in the ground a coin or coins he has received from his Master.*  I do not wish to be the servant who wraps up in a cloth the coin He has received from His Master.**  

I used to think that God had not empowered me to make a vow of chastity.  Perhaps I was correct.  What I do know is that at times I have prayed to God for grace, and He has given it to me.  I have recalled how Our Blessed Mother Mary told Saint Catherine of Laboure that so many people do not receive certain graces because they do not ask for them.  I have seen for myself how it is true that you can receive a grace you have not had if you but ask for it.  

And so I will be moving on with a desire to use well what God has given to me.  I wish to invest well the talents God has given me, so that I may make more,*** just as Jesus teaches us to do.  

I look forward to trying to use well the gifts God has given to me.  I face forward into the future, though parting under these circumstances is bittersweet, and not just for me.  

I think of the homeless woman who once again I'll call "Kimberly."  She has shared her pain with me, and so she and I have come to appreciate each other.  Despite her sorrow, she has expressed to me that she wants to understand my reasons for leaving, and the goals I hope to reach, so that she can better support me in my decision to leave here.  

I think too of the homeless woman who again I'll call "Anna."  As she has been considering my moving away, in the context of how she has been well aware that she must repent and do her best to sin no more, she has confidently proclaimed that at the very least, she will see me again in eternity.  

I am greatly consoled by these mature words of faith, hope and love.  I am encouraged by the spiritual growth these words of sureness convey.  I am comforted as I adjust to leaving here, knowing that such faith resides amongst those who are homeless here.  

Thus I know that I am not deluding myself when I say that I have seen homeless persons rising up here.  I can move on since I have seen real growth and progress among them.  

I am reminded that recently a certain homeless woman who I'll once again call "Jane" showed up here at the Catholic Worker House.  She had rung the doorbell, and in speaking with a Catholic Worker here, she expressed gratitude, saying, "Thank you for helping me to rise up."  Jane too has been rising up from where she had been, to a better place, proven by the gratitude she has expressed.  

I have also seen with my own eyes how a certain woman, who I'll call "Helen," has also moved forward in her life.  Helen used to be homeless.  Now she lives in her own apartment, which I have seen.  I need not doubt her progress, which is evident.  

I hear and see all this proof of rising up with my own ears and with my own eyes.  As my time here draws to a close, I am encouraged by what I hear and see.  

And so, as night has fallen today, so too the twilight of my time here as a Catholic Worker is also upon me.  Yet as this night is upon us, I am not in despair, for a new dawn is rising up in homeless friends I have made here.  This dawn I have been seeing break open in them gives me hope, a hope which stretches beyond them, into the wide community of humanity.  This hope extends beyond this lifetime, into the limitless expanse of eternity.  The fruits of this faith, hope and love will be seen in eternity.  In eternity, we will see the consequences of our faith, hope and love.  

Let us move forward in faith, hope and love now, so that we may live in love for all eternity.  Amen.  

* Matthew 25:18,25 
** Luke 19:20 
*** Matthew 25:20,23 

Humbly Request Prayers

The doorbell just rang.  When I opened the door, there stood a certain homeless man I'll once again call "Manuel."  He softly and gingerly inquired whether he was disturbing me.  I smiled as I assured him that he came at the right time, trying to welcome him.  He humbly asked me to pray for him.  

If people ask us to pray for them, they show they are humble.  It takes humility to request someone's prayers.  

In seeking someone else's prayers, we admit that we cannot navigate life's difficulties on our own.  When we would like another person to pray for us, we indicate that we realize that we need help in petitioning God.  

When we turn to God, we demonstrate humility.  If we are humble, we give God what is due to Him as we recognize our true relationship with Him.  Realizing that we are nothing without Him, and that we can do nothing without Him,* we are humbled before Him.  Seeing that God has given us all we have, with much gratitude, we thank Him.  Once we have humility, we become who God created us to be, and so we come to praise, glorify and adore Him.  Amen.  

* John 15:5 

Gratefully Become Ourselves

This morning I saw a particular homeless woman I'll once again call "Kimberly" here.  She announced that she has been sober for three days.  

She shared with me that when she went to be interviewed for the outpatient rehabilitation program she will soon enter, they didn't proceed with the interview because their computer system was down.  They said they'll interview her in two days.  

Immediately Kimberly expressed her contentment with the situation as she noted, "Well, then it'll be even better, since I'll have five days sobriety by then."  Rather than become disgruntled and discouraged, she chose to recognize and value the benefit of the delay.  

I am encouraged by how my dear friend Kimberly is appreciating what God is handing to her in her circumstances.  She is showing interest in being grateful to God for what He is giving to her.  

When we are grateful to God, then we thank God.  If we thank God, we are recognizing His love.  

As we realize that God is love,* we can come to adore God.  Coming to see that God is, we can praise God since He is.  

As we thank God, as we adore Him, as we praise Him, as we glorify Him, we become who God created us to be.  When we thank and adore and glorify and praise God, we become our true selves.  

* 1 John 4:8,16 

Be His Will

Today as we celebrate All Saints' Day, when we honor all saints, those both known as well as those unknown, we can be encouraged if we keep in mind how Pope Francis has reminded us that we are all called to be saints.  This might seem like such a lofty calling that it is beyond our grasp.  Perhaps we obscure what we try to see through our own tendency to short-sightedness.  Maybe we fall into the trap of feeling like we can't do something because we rely too much on ourselves.  When we refuse to depend on God, we are telling God that we do not want Him to perform miracles through us.  

God can work miracles through us if we but give our consent.  If we simply submit and give our assent to the Word of God like Our Blessed Mother Mary did, if we merely respond to God that it be done unto us according to His Word,* then we welcome Jesus into our hearts, and show God that we wish that the Holy Spirit dwell in us.  

Until we offer this complete obedience to God, we are cutting ourselves off from how the Holy Spirit can radically transform us.  We can't do much without God, but God can do much through us.  What is impossible for humans is possible for God,** for nothing is impossible for God.***  

If we open our hearts to God, God can work wonders through us.  If we allow ourselves to be humbled, God will give us the grace**** and the strength we need to do His will.  God will exalt those who humble themselves.*****  

In deciding whether or not we would like to be humble, we determine who we will become.  We spend our time well when we ask ourselves who we would like to become.  Having pondered who we wish to become, we then do well to request what we need to evolve into who God has always intended us to be.  

If we pray to God that He give us what we need to do His will, He will give it to us.  Those who ask will receive.  Those who seek will find.  Those who knock will have the door opened to them.******  

God answers the prayers of those who seek to serve Him.  God gives people what they request when they seek to be who He made them to be.  

As I recently suggested to someone, God made us to pray to Him, to praise Him, to adore Him, to glorify Him, and to honor Him.  When we do so with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our soul, and with all our strength,******* and when we love our neighbor as ourselves,******** then we become who God made us to be.  When the will of God is what we will, then we are saints.  When we live the will of God, we become who God has always meant us to be.  Amen.  

* Luke 1:38 
** Matthew 19:26; Mark 10:27; Luke 18:27 
*** Genesis 18:14; Luke 1:37 
**** 1 Peter 5:5; James 4:6 
***** Matthew 23:12; Luke 14:11; Luke 18:14 
****** Matthew 7:7-8 
******* Deuteronomy 6:5; Deuteronomy 10:12; Matthew 22:37; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27 
******** Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14 

Give Him Honor

Who do we think we are?  What do we think we know?  What do we think we owe?  To whom do we think we owe it?  

In today's Gospel reading, Jesus speaks to us about what we owe and to whom we owe it.  In those verses we hear 

The Pharisees went off
and plotted how they might entrap Jesus in speech. 
They sent their disciples to him, with the Herodians, saying,
"Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man
and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.
And you are not concerned with anyone's opinion,
for you do not regard a person's status.
Tell us, then, what is your opinion:
Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?" 
Knowing their malice, Jesus said,
"Why are you testing me, you hypocrites? 
Show me the coin that pays the census tax." 
Then they handed him the Roman coin. 
He said to them, "Whose image is this and whose inscription?" 
They replied, "Caesar's."
At that he said to them,
"Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar
and to God what belongs to God."*  

When asked whether people had to pay taxes or not, Jesus asked for a coin.  He asked and was told that the emperor was shown on the coin.  Jesus then instructed us that we should give to the government what belongs to the government, and to God what belongs to God.  

In expounding upon Scripture, it has been written that we are to give to earthly rulers what is due to them, as long as it does not controvert what is due to God.**  With similar reasoning, some people conclude that they do not have to pay taxes, claiming that they need not pay taxes to a government which then uses taxpayers' money to fund warmaking.  The logic goes that since war is all too often unjust, citizens are not obligated to pay taxes to support unjust wars.  

However, Jesus did not teach us to pay taxes unless the government is waging an unjust war.  When he offered his reply on this question of whether we must pay taxes, the Roman empire was conquering and subduing many persons.  Jesus could have said that taxes should be paid, but not to the Romans since they were subjecting so many people to their forced imperial expansion.  However, he did not say so.  Despite the warmaking of the Roman empire, Jesus taught people to give to Caesar what was Caesar's.  

Elsewhere in Scripture we hear that we are to pay taxes.  Today in his sermon here at the hermitage, Father Cyprian reminded us that Saint Paul tells us, "Pay to all their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due, toll to whom toll is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due."***  When taxes are due, we are to pay them.  We are to give the honor and respect to our leaders which is due to them as our earthly leaders.  We are to worship God since He is Our Heavenly Father, and we are to give Him the glory, praise, honor and adoration which is His due.  

Scripture tells us to pay the taxes we owe.  Jesus Himself directs us to give our earthly rulers what is due to them.  If we decide not to pay taxes, we turn away from Scripture.  We all have to decide whether or not to listen to Jesus.  

God tells us what we are called to do.  God has already chosen who we are.  Yet some people try to decide that they are someone other than who God made them to be.  Some people were born men but decide they want to be women.  God had already chosen their gender.  Some decisions have already been made for us.  If we try to ignore who God made us to be, we ignore the truth.  If we try to be people other than who God created us to be, we are living lies.  We all have to decide how we will relate to the truth.  

In deciding how we will relate to the truth, we either accept God or reject Him.  If we embrace who God made us to be, we welcome the truth into our hearts.  The truth is that God made us; He is our Creator.  We owe Him the respect due to Him as our Creator by respecting the choices He made for us when He knit us together in the womb.****  We pay him the respect and honor due to Him when we acknowledge our proper place before Him, that we are nothing without Him, that without Him we can do nothing.*****  To God be all glory, praise and honor, now and forevermore.  Amen.  

* Matthew 22:15-21 
** Jerusalem Bible, Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. (New York, 1990), p. 1646, note "d" to Matthew 22:21
*** Romans 13:7 
**** Psalm 139:13 
***** John 15:5 

Listen With Love

Here at the hermitage where I am currently on retreat, every night after Vespers, for half an hour the Blessed Sacrament is on the altar in the church.  The monks welcome guests to join them in Eucharistic Adoration.  

Tonight during Eucharistic Adoration, as is typically the case, the lights were off.  Also as usual, near the Eucharist on the altar, three very short candles were burning.  

As I sat gazing at the Blessed Sacrament, I recalled how, earlier this week, I had heard a needy man, who I'll again call "Manuel," recite part of a poem he had written.  From memory as he retold the poem, he spoke of how he would not be ashamed of the sacrifice Jesus had made for him.  In the poem, he explained how he would not be ashamed of the body and the blood of Christ, for in it rests his salvation.*  

I was implicitly encouraged to welcome Jesus Christ into my heart as I heard Manuel recite his poem.  While Manuel does not always speak so poetically, nor does he always act so gracefully, nevertheless he sits before me as one from whom I can learn.  

Recently Manuel was chastised for allegedly attempting to conduct a drug deal in a public space.  Later that evening, apparently agitated over how he had been chided, Manuel was yelling in the road that if he felt like screaming in the street, then he would scream in the street.  

From his unsavory actions, one could quickly conclude that one has nothing to learn from him.  We can jump to the conclusion that we have nothing to learn from drug dealers and drug addicts.  Or we can recognize the truth that even drug dealers and drug addicts can teach us, if we are willing to listen to them.  

Jesus speaks to us through those who are maligned.  In how we react to those who are social outcasts, so we reply to Jesus.  Whatever we do to those who are the least among us, we do to Jesus.**  If we ignore those who are marginalized in our society, we turn our backs on Jesus.  

Everyday we are confronted with the choice of how we will respond when we meet Jesus in the poor person in front of us.  If we shut our ears and avert our eyes from the indigent person before us, we shut out Jesus.  Yet Jesus advised that those who have ears to hear should listen.***  

In the end, Jesus calls us to love.  We love our neighbor when we listen to our neighbor.  We are able to listen to our neighbor when we do not judge our neighbor.  If we choose not to judge our neighbor, then we can forgive our neighbor, and welcoming him into our hearts, we can listen to what he has to tell us.  

The Holy Spirit speaks to us through our neighbor.  The Holy Spirit, in our neighbor, invites us to open our hearts to Jesus.  There, in our neighbor, we find Jesus, inviting us to welcome Him into our hearts.  If we wish to welcome Jesus into our hearts, let us love our neighbor by not judging our neighbor, by forgiving our neighbor, and by listening to our neighbor.  Amen.  

* Romans 1:16 
** Matthew 25:40,45
*** Matthew 11:15; Matthew 13:9; Mark 4:9; Revelation 2:7,29 

Little Becomes Much

We can be convinced that we do nothing of any significance.  It might seem that all of the evidence shows that we are having no effect on another particular person.  

We see so little.  So much there is we do not see.  

What we do is little, yet it can matter so much.  It might seem to matter little, but out of just a little can come so much.  

What we do might matter little to us.  Yet it might matter a great deal to someone else.  

I am not speaking merely in theoretical terms here.  I have seen this truth demonstrated right in front of my very eyes.  

I am thinking of a generous person I know named Amy.  Amy likes to make desserts for people.  Recently Amy made a pie for someone who was turning 43, who said no one had ever made her a dessert for her birthday.  

We can think that we are doing something routine and normal and ordinary and therefore that what we are doing does not matter much.  However, we might find out that what we have done is much more special than we had thought, and gives much more love to a person than she has previously received.  In the little presents we give, we might be extending much more kindness, with much more of a nurturing and caring effect than we realize.  

Unlike people who do not see that little acts of love can have great effects on others, Amy recognizes that every dessert she makes is an opportunity to love her neighbor as herself,* just as Jesus taught us to do.  She bakes treats for people since she seeks to love others.  She seizes little chances to serve her neighbor.  

When we perform little acts of kindness for our neighbor, we follow the little way of Saint Therese of Lisieux, whose feast day we celebrate today.  Saint Therese sought to get to Heaven by making herself little, by making little sacrifices, by showing her love for others in a thousand little ways.  

As people choose to be content with doing little, in the end they might find that actually God is doing much through them.  If people give their assent to being humbled, to becoming less than they have been, they can come to find God doing great things through them.  

When much is accomplished through those who are little, God receives the glory due to Him, since He is performing the great works.  Through the little, God is glorified.  

When God is glorified, praised, and adored, we find the greatness for which we were made.  If you wish to become great, become little.  

* Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14 

Joyfully Thank Always

This morning a friend of ours came here to the Catholic Worker House.  Here I'll call him "Stan." Stan is homeless and suffers from various ailments.  He moves very slowly; it seems like one might be overstating his degree of mobility if one were to say that he hobbles along.  On his legs and his fingers, his skin has become scaly and is peeling off in large flakes.  This morning, it was clear that his sores had broken open and were bleeding.  

Despite his misfortune, at one point this morning, Stan proclaimed, "The Lord is good."  Stan could lament his medical condition, but instead he chooses to give glory to God.  In the midst of his discomfort, Stan praises and adores and glorifies God for His great goodness.  

Amidst suffering, just as during times of ease and comfort, we are to give thanks to God.  Knowing that God is good, we are to be joyful always, pray constantly, and for all things give thanks.*  

I am reminded and am told that we must do so by the suffering homeless man who shows up at my doorstep.  Jesus, in the impoverished individuals** in front of us, comes to us to continue to teach us how to love God with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our soul, and with all our strength.***  

As we open our hearts to the poor persons who are before us, we open our hearts to God.  When we truly see the impoverished man in front of us, we recognize Jesus here with us.****  As we welcome the homeless person here with us into our hearts, we welcome Jesus into our hearts.  

As we welcome God into our hearts, we see that God is infinitely good.  When we realize that the Lord is good, we give thanks always.  We never stop expressing gratitude to God once we see that God infinitely loves us.  

When we recognize that God is love,***** we welcome the truth that God loves us always.  Aware that God loves us infinitely, we rejoice at all times.  Ever joyful, we give thanks for all things.  Amen.  

* 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 
** Matthew 25:40,45 
*** Deuteronomy 6:5; Deuteronomy 10:12; Matthew 22:37; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27 
**** Matthew 28:20 
***** 1 John 4:8,16 

Called To Respect

We are called to respect others the way we would like to be treated.  Otherwise, when we fail to respect others, we are telling them that they are not worthy of respect.  In time, they come to disrespect themselves, as they slip into a downward spiral in which they get used to abusing themselves.  We can think that we have no responsibility for others' actions, but when we fail to build up people, we choose not to lift them up, we keep them down, and we push them even further down.  

Often I think about the people who sift through the garbage and recyclables in the dumpsters in the parking lot outside my window.  They usually sort through it around 5:00 a.m.  I've imagined that they come at that time because they want to get what they can out of it before the garbage truck comes around 5:30 a.m. to empty the dumpsters.  

I've imagined talking with them when they are going through the garbage and the recyclables.  I've envisioned saying something to them like, "I'm not going to try to stop you from going through the garbage.  You can do so.  I'm not disturbed by the sound.  I am deeply saddened that human beings care for each other so little that some people are reduced to rifling through garbage.  I believe you were meant to be treated with more dignity.  We are supposed to treat you with more respect."  
Homeless folks have told me and shown me that they collect recyclables to exchange for money.  Earlier this week, I asked a homeless woman, who I'll call "Kelly" here, what she was going to buy with the money she was going to get from the recyclables she had.  She told me she was going to buy cigarettes.  

In addition to nicotine, homeless folks also fall prey to illicit drugs.  Kelly has confessed to me that she has taken methamphetamines.  Meth is inexpensive, so homeless folks can get it.  

Although meth doesn't cost much money, homeless folks pay a high price for it.  In using it, people become less than they were meant to be.  

When we do not acknowledge the presence of a homeless person, we treat them as less than they actually are.  By acting as if homeless people do not exist, we rip them down just like an illicit drug tears them down.  

In addition to meth tearing people down, people use it in the first place since they are down.  Kelly has identified her low self-esteem as the root of her problems.  She admitted to me that she does things which she thinks will make her feel better, but which don't help.  She has acknowledged too that she tries to numb herself to prevent herself from feeling what she doesn't want to feel.  Kelly does not want to feel the disrespect that has been shown to her.  She would rather turn aside from the pain inflicted on her.  

We cannot justify ignoring and casting aside those who are homeless or otherwise poor.  We cannot in good conscience tell them that they must accept their lot, for in doing so we reject our duty to love them.  

In loving homeless persons and showing them respect, we build them up.  We help them become more than they have been.  By treating homeless persons with dignity, we help them to rise above the suffering they have endured.  If any of us refuse to help our neighbor, whether homeless or not, we are ignoring the lessons of love presented to us.  

If any of us, whether we are homeless or rich, only try to escape from pain, and never embrace suffering, we are refusing to learn from what life presents to us.  Through life's hardships, God seeks to mold us, just as He does by way of life's blessings.  

God asks that we agree to become who He created us to be.  We are called to become who God made us to be.  

We find out who we are as we endure life's challenges.  If we reject what we have to learn in what unfolds in our lives, we refuse to accept what God is trying to give to us.  If we decide not to seize the chance to love our neighbor, we throw away the gift God is giving us.  

Yet God made us to learn and grow through endurance, which is a reflection of love.  To become more than we have been, by obediently submitting ourselves to the will of God, we show who we are.  By loving our neighbor, we demonstrate who we are.  

In the film "Restless Heart," Saint Monica says to her son, Saint Augustine, "Don't forget who you are."  As he continued to ignore the call from God to become who he really was, she admonished him to embrace his true identity, where he would find deep joy and happiness.  

God made us to be happy and joyous.  We find deep joy and happiness when we turn towards God, and submit ourselves to Him, and praise and glorify and adore Him, and love our neighbor.  We do not realize this is why God made us.  We must not forget who God made us to be.  

We are to use what God has given to us to bear much fruit to His glory.  We are to use the gifts God has given to us.  

Kelly told me that at one point she had been in college.  She has told me that she would like to go back to school and get her Bachelor's Degree.  

Kelly realizes that she is meant to be more than she has been.  She knows that she must respect herself.  In loving herself, she can become who God has always meant her to be.  In loving each other, we become who God created us to be.  

God calls us to respect each other.  When we respect others, we invite them to respect themselves too.  

We respect and love ourselves.  We wish to be respected and loved.  Thus we should respect and love others, since we wish to be respected and loved.  Seeing that we too would like to be respected and loved, we come to be able to love our neighbor as ourselves,* just as Jesus taught us.  

* Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14 

Wonders Through Littleness

We have not been left alone.  We have our guides, companions, protectors and advocates with us, now and always.  They come unto us to tell us The Truth, so that we may remain on The Way, so that we may have The Life,* and so that we may have it to the full.**  

Jesus is gone from our bodily sight, yet He is with us always.***  Jesus further said He would not leave us orphans, but that He would send us another advocate, namely, the Holy Spirit, Who would lead us into all truth.****  

And from the Cross, Jesus entrusted us to His mother, to Our Blessed Mother Mary.  In the Gospel according to Saint John, we hear that when Jesus was on the Cross, 

Seeing His mother and the disciple whom He loved standing near Her, Jesus said to His mother, 'Woman, this is your son.'  Then to the disciple He said, 'This is your Mother.'  And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.*****  

From the Cross, Jesus told His Blessed Mother Mary that Saint John was her son.  As He was on the Cross, Jesus told Saint John the Apostle that His Blessed Mother Mary was his Mother.  
Yet Jesus looked beyond Saint John both as someone for whom His mother would care and as someone to care for His mother.  Jesus was announcing to His Blessed Mother Mary that she was becoming the Mother of all the faithful.  Jesus was telling every human being that the Blessed Virgin Mary is the Mother of all the faithful.  

We are to pray the rosary and beseech Our Blessed Mother Mary to intercede with her Son Jesus on our behalf.  We are to humbly seek the aid of Our Blessed Mother Mary, for through her intercession, by her tremendously effective prayers for us, we will be protected.  

As Pope Francis declared today about Our Blessed Mother Mary, "We have a Mother!"  We have a merciful, loving, sweet, kind, gracious advocate in Our Blessed Mother Mary.  

What more can we say in describing Our Blessed Mother Mary?  We can look to when she appeared to the three peasant children Servant of God Lucia, Saint Jacinta and Saint Francisco in Fatima in Portugal exactly one hundred years ago, on May 13, 1917, and when she appeared to them later that year.  These Fatima seers said she is beautiful.  Saint Jacinta was so overjoyed that she later exclaimed to her mother, "Today I saw Our Lady!"  

We can also recall when Our Blessed Mother Mary appeared to Saint Bernadette of Lourdes.  Someone suggested to Saint Bernadette that she offer pen and paper to The Lady who had been appearing to her, who turned out to be Our Blessed Mother Mary.  When Saint Bernadette suggested to Our Blessed Mother Mary that she write what she wanted, Our Blessed Mother laughed!  Now I would like to see Our Blessed Mother Mary laugh!  There would truly be a joyous sight.  

A glorious reward among many in Heaven will it be when we will see Our Blessed Mother Mary!  As Pope Francis said earlier today, we will have all eternity to gaze upon Our Blessed Mother Mary!  

And how are we to get to Heaven?  How are to conduct ourselves so that we welcome the guidance we need to get there, so that we invoke the protection we need?  

On our way, as Pope Francis has advised, "We can take as our examples Saint Francisco and Saint Jacinta, whom the Virgin Mary introduced into the immense ocean of God's light and whom she taught to adore Him."  As Pope Francis further noted today during the Mass in which he canonized them, "That was the source of their strength in overcoming opposition and suffering.  God's presence became constant in their lives, as is evident from their insistent prayers for sinners and their desire to remain ever near 'the hidden Jesus' in the tabernacle."  

Who were Saint Francisco and Saint Jacinta?  He was eight and she was seven when Our Blessed Mother Mary first appeared to them.  They were very young peasants, poor, uneducated and simple.  Saint Francisco and Saint Jacinta were humbled by the circumstances of their lives.  How can we humble ourselves?  How can we become like little children?  

Anyone who humbles himself will be raised up.******  Someone who makes himself as little as a little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.*******  

We become like little children toward God when we totally rely on God, just like little children completely depending on their parents for all they need.  We humble ourselves when we pray.  When we pray, we admit we cannot get where we are going on our own.  As we are praying, we are acknowledging that we need God's help.  

There is no way we can get to Heaven solely on our own merits.  We all are in need of God's mercy.  

God is love.********  Love is mercy.  Thus, the name of God is mercy, as Pope Francis has told us.  Similarly, Saint Faustina has told us that Jesus told her that He is love and mercy itself.  

If people ever wonder why I am looking forward so much to the next life, there is much I can say.  I know that I will enter Heaven because I will throw myself at the mercy of God's great love.  I know that God will forgive me, for God is infinitely merciful.  And on the day I enter into Heaven, you can imagine me telling you, "Today I saw Our Lady!"  I will have all eternity to bask in the unspeakably marvelous warm glow of the love and glory of God, largely thanks to the immense mercy of Our Blessed Mother Mary, for in her great kindness she has greatly aided me, for she has secured grace for me through her intercession on my behalf.  

How can we get to Heaven?  Be like little children, who greatly respected and honored Our Blessed Mother Mary, Who, in her great humility, did as she was told.  And in turn, she tells us of her Son Jesus, "Do whatever He tells you."*********  

When we have the humility to do as God directs us to do, through us God performs miracles.  Even though we are but little children, God will work wonders through us.  And in the end, God will raise us up, so that we may be with Him for all eternity, in His glory.  Amen.  

* John 14:6 
** John 10:10 
*** Matthew 28:20 
**** John 14:16-18; John 14:26; John 15:26; John 16:13 
***** John 19:26-27 
****** Matthew 23:12; Luke 14:11; Luke 18:14 
******* Matthew 18:4 
******** 1 John 4:8; 1 John 4:16 
********* John 2:5 

Not Only Bread

When it seems like we are suffering without meaning, a purpose can be achieved if we but trust in God.  A point rests in difficulties, if we are but willing that it be shown to us.  God is training us.  Do we accept this guidance?  We learn not just when we are sated.  We grow also when we are longing and feel we are not being satisfied.  

We realize who we are both through times which are rewarding as well as during trying periods.  By navigating amidst both types of waters, we see reflected in those waters our truest, deepest desires.  In time we come to see our true identity in all types of moments, and thus we come to discover true joy, the deep and profound joy which comes from knowing who we truly are.  

And so we are not always satiating our desires.  We know that we learn also when we deprive ourselves of what we want.  Thus now during Lent, for forty days we immerse ourselves in a more intense period of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.  

We are encouraged in our Lenten observances through knowing that Jesus fasted in the desert for forty days.  Thus in today's Gospel we hear that 

At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert
to be tempted by the devil.
He fasted for forty days and forty nights,
and afterwards he was hungry.
The tempter approached and said to him, 
"If you are the Son of God, 
command that these stones become loaves of bread."
He said in reply,
"It is written:
One does not live on bread alone,
but on every word that comes forth
from the mouth of God."

Then the devil took him to the holy city, 
and made him stand on the parapet of the temple, 
and said to him, 
"If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.
For it is written:
He will command his angels concerning you
and with their hands they will support you,
lest you dash your foot against a stone."
Jesus answered him,
"Again it is written, 
You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test."  

Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain,
and showed him all the kingdoms of the world 
in their magnificence, 
and he said to him, "All these I shall give to you, 
if you will prostrate yourself and worship me."
At this, Jesus said to him,
"Get away, Satan!
It is written:
The Lord, your God, shall you worship
and him alone shall you serve."

Then the devil left him and, behold,
angels came and ministered to him.*  

There is the temptation to focus on what is visible.  Satan tempted Jesus to turn stones into bread.  If we focus too much on food, we can end up putting our bodies before our souls.  Then, at the hour of our death, we can be in the position of wishing we had put our souls before our bodies.  Jesus reminds us that we truly subsist on the Word of God, for the Word feeds our souls, while bread feeds only our bodies.  We need not only bread, but, far more importantly, the Word of God so we may be fully nourished.  

There is the temptation to test God.  Satan tried to tempt Jesus into jumping off the spire of the temple to see if God the Father would save Him.  We try to test and see if God is really going to take care of us.  We worry that God doesn't have everything in His care.  God has a plan that is infinitely better for us than anything we could possibly imagine.  Jesus directs us not to put God to the test.  God calls us to trust Him.  

There is the temptation to grab power, and in doing so, to sacrifice our souls through turning away from God.  Satan tempted Jesus with the suggestion of earthly power.  Jesus knew who He was and is; Jesus knew that His Kingdom is not of this world.**  We are not to grasp for power that is not within the scope of our vocation: we are not to cling to power that God is not calling us to have.  We are to follow the call that God sends to each of us.  In the process, we respect ourselves and we reverence God, for we are who He created us to be, and we do what He created us to do, to adore, and praise and glorify Him.  

When Jesus faced these temptations for forty days, He was strengthened in the knowledge of the Israelites' exodus in the desert for forty years.***  Jesus knew also that Moses had spent forty days fasting on the mountain as he received the Ten Commandments from God.****  

Jesus was conscious of what God the Father had been trying to show us for years through deprivation.  When Jesus confronted temptation, He knew the purpose of the desert.  In not only the literal desert, a dry, barren, stark landscape, but also in spiritual deserts characterized by spiritual dryness and loneliness, and in emotional deserts fraught with frustration, dissatisfaction and depression, we encounter denial of our desires.  We are tested through hardship.  Through adversity, we are brought up by God: through trials, God helps us to progress beyond being spiritual infants.  Amidst difficulties, God helps us grow up to be spiritually mature and robust, strong in our faith so that we trust in Him when we are assailed by stressful circumstances which test our faith, so that we may prove our love for Him.  

It is from this perspective of one akin to that of a loving parent that we come to understand a faint, slight glimmer of how God loves us.  While we may think that we are suffering pointlessly, God is helping us to become more than we have been, to become much better than we have been.  

Through this lens of spiritual clarity we gain when we see that God is a deeply loving Father, we come to view our past trials through a new light.  We see how God has been working all for our good, for those of us who love Him.*****  Then we understand how the Israelites were told 

Remember how for these forty years 
the LORD, your God, 
has directed all your journeying in the wilderness, 
so as to test you by affliction, 
to know what was in your heart: 
to keep his commandments, or not.  
He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger, 
and then fed you with manna, 
a food unknown to you and your ancestors, 
so you might know 
that it is not by bread alone that people live, 
but by all that comes forth from the mouth of the Lord.  
The clothing did not fall from you in tatters, 
nor did your feet swell these forty years.  
So you must know in your heart that, 
even as a man disciplines his son, 
so the Lord, your God, disciplines you.  
Therefore, keep the commandments of the Lord, your God, 
by walking in his ways and fearing him.******  

With the realization that afflictions are not meaningless suffering, but are tests from God to demonstrate our love for Him, and are lessons that we must rely only on Him, we see that we are led to love God.  God guides us through all that happens, some of which seems harsh and painful.  Yet we must remember that when we are being disciplined, although it seems a cause not of joy but of distress, later it brings fruit in peace for those who have gone through it.*******  

By way of analogy, I think of a family who recently moved out of the Catholic Worker House here.  They often come back to visit, so we still get to see them a lot.  The mother has noticed that one of her children asks very frequently for chocolate.  The mom now often tells her daughter that she may not have chocolate when she asks for it.  

If a child grows up always getting what she wants, what kind of adult will she become?  If God always gives us what we want, what sort of people will we be?  

I think too of a conversation I had recently with a certain homeless woman I've met countless times.  Once again here I'll call her "Roslyn."  Roslyn once asked me why God lets unfortunate things happen to people.  I suggested to Roslyn that she imagine a child playing on a playground.  I added into the visualization a parent who stayed at the playground and always intervened and prevented any harm from ever coming to the child.  I asked Roslyn what she thought of the way that such a child would be brought up.  She replied that the child would not be well raised.  I said that thus God loves us and lets us learn in varied ways.  

Yet are we willing to learn?  Do we embrace opportunities to learn, or do we reject such occasions to learn when they feel unpleasant?  A friend of mine recently broke up with her boyfriend.  Understandably, she was disappointed that they realized that they had to part ways because their values were too divergent to make a continuing relationship feasible.  At the end of relationships, what is God trying to teach us?  In every situation in our lives, what is there we can learn?  

To learn, we must be humble.  God wants us to learn, so He humbles us.  

God makes us feel hunger and thirst, so we can hunger and thirst for what we need.  We grow not just through our desires being satisfied.  We also develop through our yearnings.   

So that we may grow, God tests our inmost heart.  If we are never tested, we never know where we stand and thus where and how we need to grow.  God wants to see what we desire.  God wants to see if we truly love Him.  

Do we really love God?  Will we obey God even when things become rough?  

And so some periods in our lives become harder.  God knows that sometimes if we suffer, we can learn.  There are instances when God allows us to hurt so that we may grow through the pain.  

If we see that God allows misfortune so that we may grow, then we become more willing to die to ourselves.  If we realize that, by denying our desires, we can grow, then we are likely to begin fasting.  

We come to see that we live not on bread alone.  When we see that our souls are fed and are strengthened in the midst of adversity, we become willing to suffer out of love of God and love of our neighbor.  Feeling nourished by the love we witness through the sacrifice Jesus made for us, it becomes clear to us that our souls are fed by the Word of God.   

During Mass, when we remember His sacrifice, we recall how he gave Himself to die for our sins.  In this recollection of His death on the Cross, we are implicitly encouraged to die for our neighbor as He died for us.  We receive the encouragement and love of Jesus when we receive the Eucharist.  Thus we can come to realize that the Eucharist is not merely bread.  

Jesus is living in us.  If we welcome Jesus into our hearts, then we are living in love.  If we remain in Jesus as He remains in us,******** we have true life, and thus true joy: this is a joy which no one can take away from us,********* no matter what happens.  In this joy we begin to have a foretaste of the joy we will have in Heaven.  If we welcome Jesus into our hearts, we can begin to live in eternal joy right now.  

* Matthew 4:1-11 
** John 18:36
*** Deuteronomy 8:2-3 
**** Exodus 34:28; Deuteronomy 9:18 
***** Romans 8:28 
****** Deuteronomy 8:2-6 
******* Hebrews 12:11 
******** John 15:4 
********* John 16:22