Click here for the Gospel reading.
St. Paul says in his 1st Letter to the Corinthians (15:14), “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” If Christ did not rise from the dead, you might as well all go home!
Since Good Friday, Jesus’ disciples (except His mother) had thought that Jesus was just dead, so they were devastated, crest-fallen, hopeless, and afraid—afraid that they would be killed like their master.
The Empty Tomb changes everything; it’s the key to Easter faith. Imagine going to a cemetery (like maybe our own) and coming across an emptied grave after a person had been buried there. Our first natural thought would be that someone has dug up the body and maybe moved it to another grave. That was the first thought on Easter morning. But then there is the evidence of the burial clothes that are left and folded up. A robber taking a body wouldn’t bother to leave behind burial clothes. The disciples didn’t take the body, because they would have presented it when they were threatened with death. So Jesus had risen had risen and had left the clothes there intentionally. The Beloved Disciple came to believe this: that a supernatural occurrence had happened—that God had raised Jesus from the dead! The clincher to knowing that Jesus was risen from the dead is that thousands of witnesses encountered the risen Jesus over the course of 40 days.
The Empty Tomb changes everything for the disciples: Jesus is alive and will never die again! There are profound consequences for them—and for us. Everything Jesus had said was true. Jesus is God. Jesus has opened Heaven (which had been closed since Adam & Eve’s sin). Perhaps most importantly for us, our sins have been forgiven (as long as we accept His Mercy)!
My brothers and sisters, we are called to celebrate the joy of Easter every week. During the 1st season of Easter, Jesus focused on things that we should focus on: God’s mercy (for example, in forgiving Peter for his denials), giving His Disciples mission and purpose, and preparing them to receive the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
St. Paul in our 2nd reading tells us how to be filled with Easter joy: “Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.” We often, though, think of “what is on earth.” If the daily news is our only news (especially this past year), we will end up sad, depressed, and hopeless. Instead we are called to think of “what is above”: What is above? The Good News of Jesus, which gives us joy, hope, and love! And not just any type of love, but unconditional love from God!
As Christians, we are called to live today and every day like that first Easter—full of the Lord’s joy, love, and mercy. Jesus’ favorite line after rising from the dead: “Peace be with you!” It was something that the Disciples needed to hear, and it is something that we need to hear. Being raised with Jesus, we leave behind our past sins and bad habits. We also live in total trust of God. As Christians, we seek out time to connect with our God each day through daily substantial prayer. Prayer is more important than the air, food, and sleep that we need.
Our identity as Christians--we are an Easter people and “Alleluia” is our song. As Christians, we are people of joy, because Jesus is our savior and our friend. Every Sunday is a “mini Easter.” So being an Easter people--if you’re committed to coming on Easter Sunday, then come the
other 51 Sundays of the year! Those who are in a state of grace, having confessed any known mortal sins through Reconciliation, can receive the risen Christ through Holy Communion every Sunday (and even every day).
My brothers and sisters, we celebrate today God’s greatest deed—raising Jesus from the dead. May we celebrate Easter and live in the joy and freedom that Christ has given us not just today but every day as an Easter people.
Click here for the Gospel reading.
The past year has been the year of cancellations. Last spring, March Madness and public Masses were cancelled. I’ve had a Christopher Cross concert canceled on me twice. There were statues canceled, including ones of Catholics like St. Junipero Serra and Christopher Columbus. Even fictional characters were canceled this year—those of Dr. Seuss as well as Mr. Potato Head.
Well, Jesus was canceled almost 2000 years ago (before “the Cancel Culture” became a phrase). Jesus was canceled by almost all of the Scribes and Pharisees. He was canceled by the crowd prior to his death. He was canceled by most of His Apostles and Disciples—one betrayed Him, one denied Him.
It is not too surprising that Jesus cries out from the Cross, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” Jesus was quoting our Responsorial Psalm from today. He felt distant from His Father and canceled by many people. But by saying the first line, Jesus was meaning to quote the entire psalm. The Psalm ends with proclaiming God’s name in the assembly…a symbol of trust in God.
Jesus is still canceled by many people to this day. All of us experience some hatred from others for faith and morals. More notably, persecuted Christians throughout the world sometimes suffer martyrdom in deaths like Jesus. On the other side of things, there are Christians who cancel Jesus by not living up to their baptismal dignity maybe by choosing habitual sin. There are those, too, who have left the Catholic Church—the community that Christ founded. Maybe it’s my collar, but I regularly meet people who tell me they have left the Catholic Church. Every time, it feels like a punch to my stomach when I hear that. After all, I’ve given up my life to follow after Jesus. The Catholic Church has the fullness of truth and goodness. And the Catholic Church also has all the means necessary for salvation.
My brothers and sisters, as we begin Holy Week, our invitation is to be with Jesus at the foot of the Cross, like the Mary’s and John the beloved disciple. Perhaps this week we can detach from those created things we’ve gotten too attached to, simplify our lives and find extra time for prayer, and get to a service this week that we aren’t required to attend. We are also invited to grow in our trust that God is with us no matter what happens in our lives. Knowing that we are not above our Master, others will cancel us just as they canceled Jesus. May we offer up our sufferings to Jesus’ suffering for the good of the world.
Click here for the Gospel reading.
We like new stuff. New cars—and their factory smell. A new, well-designed rectory that is centrally-located. Or shopping: “This product is ‘new and improved.’” As the saying goes, “Out with the old, and in with the new.”
Before we get to the New, we have to start with the Old. We find the Old Covenant in the Old Testament. God made covenants with people throughout the Old Testament, most notably with Moses on Mount Sinai. The Old Covenant was written on stone tablets—the Ten Commandments. The Old Covenant was given by God but it was something that was imposed from the outside.
In our 1st reading from Jeremiah, we hear about the promise of the New Covenant. In contrast with the Old Covenant, the prophet says that the New Covenant would be written on the hearts of believers. People of the New Covenant when they sinned would not be violating some extrinsic law but rather something intrinsic to their own persons, their own consciences. Jesus is the one who ushers in the New Covenant.
Often in our lives, we enter into contracts (not covenants) with others. For example, at Caribou Coffee, we enter into the contract, “I agree to pay you $5 if you provide me with a caramel mocha latte.” Contracts are short-lived; they only bind the two parties for as long as the service is being rendered.
Covenants, on the other hand, bind people together in a new family relationship. One example of a covenant for Jews before Jesus’ earthly life was marriage. Marriage has even taken greater importance for Christians. In sacramental marriage, through God’s grace, a man and a woman are bound together “til death.” A marriage covenant creates a stable foundation for any children that come about through their union. Married couples have to re-commit themselves regularly to each other so they stay faithful to their covenant.
Did you know that the phrase the New Covenant comes up only once in the New Testament? Do you know where that occurrence is? You should, because we hear it every time we come to Mass. During the Eucharistic prayer, the priest quotes St. Paul’s 1st Letter to the Corinthians: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” We see that the only time that the phrase “new covenant” comes up in the New Testament is with the Eucharist. We can then say that the New Covenant is the Eucharist. Similarly, the New Testament, which is just another way of saying the New Covenant, is the Eucharist.
As the 1st Reading promises in the New Covenant: “I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” We are nourished by the Eucharist to truly be God’s people. That’s why we come to Mass each Sunday: we re-commit ourselves to being part of God’s family through the banquet of unity and love.
As we hear Jesus say in the Gospel, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.” Jesus is the grain of wheat that dies so that we may have something incredible—the very life of God, eternal life. God instituted the Mass to drive home this point. Just take a look at the presentation of the gifts: grains of wheat that have died are brought forward and they become the body of Christ during the Eucharistic prayer.
God is also calling us to be like Jesus—to be grains of wheat that die so that we produce much fruit. We aren’t talking about physical death but more of a death to our ego and our own will. In other words, sacrificing our own wants out of love for others. You who are parents or work in jobs of service like teachers and medical professionals have experienced the goodness of self-sacrifice. But all of us in our lives are faced with decisions to die to ourselves:
• Young kids decide whether to share their things with friends and siblings
• Teenagers decide whether to keep curfew
• College students decide whether to go to the crazy Saturday night party or to forego it so they can make it to Mass in the morning
• A newly-married person decides whether to stop living like a bachelor (or bachelorette)
• New parents decide whether to make important sacrifices for their kids
As most of you are married or will be married, it’s good for us to reflect more on how to die to self in marriage, especially since our culture looks at marriage more as a contract than as a covenant. A man and a woman become one flesh when united in Holy Matrimony—they live the love that Jesus gave to His Bride, the Church, in giving up His Life. Their covenant is “til death,” which encompasses many “good times” and “bad times.” Although sometimes couples don’t “feel love” for each other, couples can nonetheless still choose to love…with the help of God’s grace. To choose to ask for forgiveness and to forgive, to not give the spouse the silent treatment or to carry a grudge to bed. If I might speak about divorce…it’s certainly an unfortunate outcome for a marriage, but not necessarily blameworthy for both spouses. For a couple that entered into a valid marriage—a marriage that is seen as binding in the eyes of God—divorce then is just a rather permanent separation, although sometimes necessary due to the hardness of heart of one of the spouses.
My brothers and sisters, God has written the New Covenant onto our hearts, which is then ratified when we consume the Eucharist at Mass. Being Christians, we are called to follow Jesus and to die to our selves, out of service of God and neighbor. May we do so “til death,” “without counting the cost,” trusting that God’s will is what is best for us.
Click here for the Gospel reading.
We heard in our 1st Reading how the Israelites spent 70 years in exile in Babylon (about 1000 miles away from Jerusalem). This was punishment for the 70 Sabbath years they failed to honor. God had given them a rule for the Sabbath year (Sabbath meaning every 7th year): there was to be no planting or gathering any crops that year. I know farmers have already started to put fertilizer down, but imagine if God had said, “There will be no planting or gathering any crops in 2021 (or 2028 for that matter). That would affect all of us! We would have to rely on food from previous years. The Sabbath year rule was God’s test of obedience and trust. And most of them failed. Another punishment for their choices was that the Temple—the center of Jewish worship—was destroyed. In the 70 years of their exile, most of the memories of the former way of life die-off. So when they finally get liberated by King Cyrus of Persia, many of them just choose to stay rather than make the journey back to Jerusalem.
We have had our own exile in the Church—things in the Church had gotten off the rails in the last 55 years. The Second Vatican Council was a good ecumenical Council in the life of the Church. However, many of the interpretations of ‘Vatican 2’ were way off-base and even evil. For example (and this is even difficult to say) some priests tried to be ‘hip’ by having Masses that used pizza, cookies, pop, and beer instead of bread and wine. Those would have been invalid Masses. Also, General Absolution penance services—which should be an exception rather than a norm—became rather popular in the Archdiocese (including my former parish as well as I believe here in Hastings) when Archbishop Roach gave rather broad allowances for them. In the past year, we have seen suitable circumstances for General Absolution—for example, a COVID outbreak at a locked-down nursing home in which it would be difficult for a priest to hear everyone’s confession. However, the ordinary way for sins to be forgiven is through one-on-one confession. Also about 50 years ago, the culture’s sexual revolution resulted in the bad fruit of the clergy abuse scandal.
I want us to see these exiles as a type of living in darkness. You have probably heard the phrase, “Nothing good happens after midnight” (or, if you have high schoolers, “Nothing good happens after 10 p.m.). Just think of the things that take place in the dark: nightclubs, bars, immoral parties, questionable entertainment, and going down rabbit holes on the internet. Our Lady of Fatima--which is a private revelation, so it doesn’t have to be believed, but it makes sense—Our Lady of Fatima says that sins of the flesh (like adultery, pornography, and self abuse) are what send the most people to Hell. These sins are easily forgiven if they are brought to Confession.
Just as there was liberation from the darkness in our First Reading, there is liberation in our modern times. All liberation comes through Christ—in what He did for us on the Cross. We are all called to grow in holiness.
Probably the most popular verse from the New Testament was in our Gospel passage--John 3:16. “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 want us to focus on that first part—“For God so loved the world…” God loves the whole world. We celebrate this fact today on Global Solidarity Sunday. We are in solidarity with all people in the world. God loves everyone totally—me, you, your loved ones, acquaintances in your work/neighborhood/school, people you meet in your day-to-day-living, the people in our town you don’t know, and even people you will never meet on the other side of the world. It is a fact that if someone stopped being in God’s mind or God’s heart, then that person would stop existing (but that’s not going to happen, because God loves everyone totally!). The greatest darkness (or personal exile) is to not know Christ.
My brothers and sisters, we as Christians are called to live in the light. As Jesus says in the Gospel, “But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.” Christians live in the light by doing a few things. First, they choose to avoid deeds of darkness. As people who have gone through AA remind us, if we are battling an addiction, then we should get professional help or join a support
group/community. Besides AA, there’s also Narcotics Anonymous, Sexaholics Anonymous, and groups for those with gambling issues or eating disorders. Second, we try to live in solidarity with others. This means providing not only for the material needs of others but also their spiritual needs, even those on another continent. Some of my favorite international charities are Cross Catholic Outreach, Feed My Starving Children, Catholic Relief Services.
My brothers and sisters, we have experienced exiles—both in our own lives and in the life of the Church. We are to receive liberation from the light of Christ and work at living in the light. By allowing Christ’s light to fill all aspects of our lives, we can be lights to the world, even those on another continent.
Click here for the Gospel reading.
Our typical image of Jesus is that he is a laid-back, nice guy…maybe like a hippie. Our Gospel stands in contrast to that typical image…Jesus is angry. But He doesn’t sin in this; it’s a righteous anger.
Jesus’ cleansing of the Temple is recorded in all 4 of the Gospels, so it is a major moment in Jesus’ ministry. It probably happened during Jesus’ last annual trip to Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover. Each year for Passover, the city would be overflowing with hundreds of thousands of pilgrims.
The money-changers in the outer part of the Temple were important for Jews on pilgrimage. Every adult male had to pay a temple tax but foreign coins were considered to be no-good, because they had images of emperors. So the money-changers would convert their money. Also the Jewish pilgrims had to have animals sacrificed for Passover, so there were animal vendors there.
The cause for Jesus’ righteous anger is that money exchangers and sellers of the animals are hiking-up the prices. This is a type of stealing, and it is particularly a sin against the poor. The selfishness of the profiteers is getting in the way of true worship of God.
Jesus tells the Scribes and Pharisees, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” They thought He was talking about the Temple building, but Jesus was talking about Himself…that He would rise on the third day after being killed.
Jewish worship was centered on animal sacrifice, but Jesus was showing that the need for this type of sacrifice was coming to an end. In fact, the Temple gets destroyed 40 years after this cleansing. Jesus and His sacrifice on the Cross becomes the center of worship. The Temple had been where Heaven and Earth met, but now that meeting place is in the Temple of Jesus’ Body—Jesus who is fully divine and fully human.
The 10 Commandments were detailed in the First Reading. A question: are you smarter than a 2nd grader? Even though many adults don’t know the 10 Commandments, we had our 2nd graders memorize them as they prepared for their First Confession. The 10 Commandments are the fundamental rules for living as God’s people. The 3rd Commandment (“Remember to keep holy the sabbath day”) gets moved from Saturday to Sunday in the early Church as a day to commemorate Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.
Many of you grew up when Sundays used to be different than the other days in the week. For example, if you were going to go visit relatives on Sunday, you would fill-up your car on Saturday so that you had enough gas to get there and back on Sunday. The gas stations weren’t open. I never experienced that growing up, but I have seen how other cultures celebrate Sundays. In some places, some roads are closed down on Sundays so that people can bike on them. In Germany, stores and banks are closed on Sundays, and many people use it as a hiking day. In the Holy Land, Muslim shops close on Fridays, Jewish shops on Saturdays, and, I suppose, Christian shops on Sundays. With fewer people going to church on Sundays, there’s little to differentiate Sundays from Saturdays except for professional football. But I digress.
If Jesus is the New Temple for Christian worship, then we enter into that worship through His Mystical Body, the Church. The Sacrifice of the Mass is at the heart of that worship, where we offer to God the Body and Blood of Jesus. Through Holy Communion, God comes to dwell in us and we become temples of His Holy Spirit. Others we meet can encounter the invisible God through the gift of love that we pass on to them.
My brothers and sisters, it has almost been a year since the pandemic disrupted our community by stopping all public Masses for a few months. Those were difficult times! I offered Mass each day during that stretch for all of you who could only attend virtually, such as through a TV broadcast or later our livestream options. I only have limited experiences of watching Mass online during the past year—mostly 3 ordination Masses that I was not able to be in attendance for.
We know a lot more about this virus now than a year ago. To the best of our knowledge, both our Parish and School have been very safe places. Not knowing all of the details, though, I can only say that there have been very, very few (if any) cases that could be traced to our facilities. Although the Archbishop’s dispensation to attend Sunday Mass will continue to be in place for now, those who have not attended basically in a year—whether you or family members or friends—it’s time to make a plan of how to return to Mass. If a person is high-risk or caring for someone who is high-risk, they will still be excused from Mass even when the dispensation changes (maybe they’ll stay away until they get the vaccine). Those people can still make a spiritual Communion and maybe there are ways that they can also receive sacramental Communion through our ministers. But as Pope Francis reminds us, we are made for worship in community. It’s not easy watching Mass on a screen in your home in your pajamas (wait, does that happen?). One of the ways in which Jesus is present is in the community gathered for worship. That’s not the same when everyone is watching at home. The Eucharist is our spiritual food for our pilgrimage to Heaven, so at least those in Mother Seton Hall at 8 and 10 a.m. can receive Jesus sacramentally (in addition to watching the Mass on our large screen).
For those wanting to make a return to Mass, we can think outside the box a little bit since Sunday Mass isn’t required right now (although we do need to do something like watch Mass online to fulfill the 3rd Commandment). Perhaps a daily Mass is a better place to start due to the short Masses and fewer people. All of our daily Masses, especially our Tuesdays and Thursdays at 5:15 p.m. or Saturday at 8 a.m. have room in the church. For Sunday Masses, we have room in Mother Seton Hall at the 8 and 10 a.m. Masses, and room in the Church at our 6 p.m. Mass. The only Mass that is at capacity right now is the Saturday 4:30 p.m. Mass.
My brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus was very focused on true worship, a worship focused on His Body. We are invited to follow His Commandments so that we can live in true freedom and love. We look, too, for ways to invite others to make a return to Mass that is at the center of our faith. May we be strengthened by this Eucharist to live lives pleasing to God.
Click here for the Gospel reading.
During this pandemic, we have all gotten a taste of what it is like to be a leper—wearing a mask, keeping 6-foot distance from people, quarantining due to possible exposure or perhaps having come down personally with the virus.
There is a lot of mentioning of lepers in the Bible—both in the Old Testament and in the Gospels. In ancient times, leprosy was untreatable. As we heard in our 1st Reading, lepers were considered to be “ritually unclean.” They were forced to live outside the city and if they encountered others, they had to warn them by shouting, “Unclean!” Most importantly, though, they were not able to participate in Temple worship. They were more or less cut-off from the Jewish people.
In modern times, leprosy is known as Hansen’s Disease. Many parishioners here at SEAS are familiar with St. Damien of Molokai. He is a priest who was sent to minister to the leper colonies in Hawaii. He ended up catching leprosy himself and dying from it.
Leprosy in the Bible is a symbol for our souls…we all have spiritual leprosy. Fr. Dave says that you’ve heard lots of homilies on spiritual leprosy, but I haven’t really preached on that before…so I continue. Sin defiles our souls just like leprosy defiles bodies. Spiritual leprosy is not visible, so saints and sinners mix together in this life. If we have committed mortal sin, we are cut-off from God and the Church until we are reconciled. Mortal sins are serious sins that you know are wrong and commit with full freedom. The children preparing for 1st Communion know this even if they can’t really commit a mortal sin at their age. Also, Fr. Dave and I don’t have the gift of reading souls (unlike St. John Vianney) to see if there are sins that a person needs to confess.
All of us have a need to be cleansed of our spiritual leprosy. The leper in the Gospel asked to be made clean...he wanted to be able to belong to God’s people and to worship God. Jesus desired to cleanse the leper. He wants to cleanse us from spiritual leprosy. He desires to unite us more closely with Himself and with the Catholic Church that He founded. This is demonstrated by Jesus’ statement that the cleansed leper show himself to a priest—the priest was the one who could readmit the man to the community.
Jesus instituted the Sacrament of Confession. In the Gospels, we hear that Jesus breathed on the Apostles and gave them the power to forgive and retain sin. Now Fr. Dave and I keep preaching about Confession because many of us still don’t realize the full effects of Confession. Confession is the ordinary way for mortal sins to be forgiven after Baptism. There are extraordinary ways for mortal sins to be forgiven. For example, a person in comatose would have their mortal sins forgiven through the Anointing of the Sick if they would have wanted sacramental Confession. However, if they recover, they are obliged to confess their mortal sins at their next Confession. God is not bound by Confession...He can forgive someone outside of Confession but they have to have “perfect contrition”—being sorry for their sins for having offended God (which is difficult for a person to judge for themselves). Having “imperfect contrition,” which is being sorry for our sins out of fear of going to Hell, is sufficient for sacramental Confession.
People hold on to spiritual leprosy for months, years, and even decades! Sometimes this is done out of fear of having to confess something that they’ve never told anyone. We know from psychology, though, that a past misdeed or a past sin loses its power when it is confessed. How freeing it is to hear God say to us through the mouth of a priest, “I forgive you!” God won’t hold your confessed sins against you. They are cleansed from your soul. You receive graces from Confession to live in the freedom of Christ and to avoid future sins.
My brothers and sisters, I strongly encourage you to commit to going to Confession this Lent. If you need a refresher on how to confess, search on YouTube or Google. Or find an examination of conscience and after you have make an inventory of your sins, just show up—Fr. Dave, myself, or another priest (if you go elsewhere) can help you through the rest! At the start of your confession, mention approximately how long it has been since your last Confession. It is also helpful to Mention your state-in-life at the start of your Confession—whether married in the Church, widowed, or single. If you are married outside the Church, set-up a meeting with Fr. Dave, me, or Mary Ellen, so we can discuss a way to full Communion for you.
My brothers and sisters, there’s a lot of mention of physical leprosy in the Bible but even more mention of the spiritual leprosy of sin. We ask Jesus to cleanse us of our leprosy, especially through the means of the sacrament of Confession. By doing so, we will live in the freedom of God’s sons and daughters that He desires for us.
Click here for the Gospel reading.
The Readings for Sunday Mass are set-up so that there is usually a link between the First Reading and the Gospel. It is a little tough to see the link in today’s readings. In the Gospel we hear that Jesus heals Simon’s Mother-in-law (and some other people). In our First Reading, we hear that Job is miserable; he even says, “I will never see happiness again.” It is true that Job has the boils in the story (so he is sort of sick). More importantly, though, Job has a terrible day in which he loses basically everything he has—including all his livestock and his children. His wife remains, but she is not all that supportive. She tells Job to “Curse God and die.”
As it turns out, the Psalm gives us the link between the First Reading and the Gospel. In the Psalm, we heard that “God heals the broken-hearted.” “Broken-hearted” can mean many things—including illness (as in the Gospel), bad luck (as in Job’s case), or sin (whether we are wounded by the sins of others or wounded by our own sin). Another form of broken-heartedness is relationships that go sour. This can be extreme brokenness if, for example, it’s a marriage that becomes separated or ends in divorce.
Broken-hearted can also take place when a dream that we have is broken—or is at least delayed. I experienced this in my sixth year of seminary. I was already a deacon at this point. The seminary doesn’t give a “green light” until the end of seminary but I had received a “yellow light” for most of seminary—"We think Matt will make a good priest.” That all changed when my ordination was delayed so I could work on things related to being on the autism spectrum. It was really tough news for me to know that I wouldn’t be ordained with the rest of my classmates. The next few months were tough until I came to the conviction that if God was calling me to be a priest, He would make it happen in His time. So that give me a lot of peace and I did end up getting ordained the next year.
The Responsorial Psalm goes on to say about the brokenhearted that “God binds up their wounds.” As regards to illness, there are still miraculous healings that occur to this day. When I give the Anointing of the Sick—whether it is for those with Covid or non-Covid—there is always spiritual healing even if there is only an occasional physical healing. We are blessed with modern medicine these days in which God heals people through doctors and nurses. Catholics brought about the field of modern medicine through their concern for the sick. We even see the mark locally in places like St. Joseph’s Hospital and Regina Hospital. During this pandemic, we are now hopeful with the vaccines getting distributed. Pope Francis has said that it is a good sign of solidarity to receive the vaccine. For me personally, I’m not worried that I would die if I got the virus, but I don’t want to spread the virus to others who could die from it. So the vaccine is a way that we help reduce the number of people who become broken-hearted. Now people can choose to not get the vaccine for their own reason, but it wouldn’t be due to a religious exemption (since the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are morally licit to receive).
For those who find themselves in bad luck, Job was reminded of the only thing we need…the only One we need is God. At the end of the story, Job was blessed with more children and even more things than he had at the beginning of his story. We might not receive those material blessings in this life, but we know that we have a great treasure waiting for us in Heaven.
Our wounds from sin—our own personal sin—is usually healed through the Sacrament of Confession. Sometimes we need to see a Counselor or a Therapist for our own woundedness, maybe if we have an addition or just a weakness on our part. A Christian therapist is worth their weight in gold! I sometimes just talk with my Counselor about my Pastor who maligns me and puts me in the dungeon of the rectory.
I want to close today by bringing this all back to a prayer that we pray at every Mass and maybe times throughout the week—the Our Father. I want to focus on the line “Lead us not into temptation (and deliver us from evil).” Other languages translate it as “Do not let us fall into temptation.” Now it’s the case that God does not tempt us. In fact, Jesus was tempted…by the Devil in the desert. Temptation and broken-heartedness are types of suffering. St. Paul says about suffering: “Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.” There are good fruits that come about from suffering and broken-heartedness. It is also good to remember that Jesus was broken-hearted, particularly on the Cross when He was dying for our sins but also at times like when He wept at the death of His Friend Lazarus. When we are broken-hearted, we can be united to Jesus in a special way.
So my brothers and sisters, we all experience broken-heartedness in this life. But we take hope in the fact that “God heals the brokenhearted…He binds up all their wounds.” May we be healed by the Eucharist today so that we can walk with others who are brokenhearted.