Words From Father John

Easter 2007

2007-04-09T12:17:00.000-07:00

Easter Sunday
April 8, 2007
Peter addressed the people in these words: “I take it you know what has been reported all over Judea about Jesus of Nazareth.”
Acts 10:34

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Pray to see! Jesus is risen from the dead and we want to see him. Death no longer has hold of us; Jesus does. Forgiveness and eternal life resounds through all the earth. In our joyful shout of triumph, we declare with St. Augustine, “We are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song.” Alleluia means “Praise the Lord” and so we praise the Lord all the way to the praise of heaven. And we know that there is only one way to spell, have, see and know JOY. Our JOY as an Easter people is Jesus Over You. Jesus rules over our sin and death and it is in making him our Lord, Master, Savior, Ruler, King Redeemer, our Everything, etc. that we can see, have and know his risen and everlasting life. As we dedicate our lives to JOY, that is Jesus Over You, we look to see him bring in the joy of his risen life into all we think, say and do. We put Jesus first over ourselves and all things and he brings us the JOY of everlasting.

Pray to see! We want to see the risen Jesus and he wants to be seen. I love the words from one of my favorite songs, “Open the eyes of my heart, Lord. I want to see you.” Yes, through faith we want to see the Risen Jesus offering the JOY of salvation to all the world, all the time. But we have got to pray to see. The praying unlocks the seeing. The praying opens the eyes of our hearts so that we can see Jesus by faith everywhere we go. Some words from another favorite song of mine are, “Everywhere I go I see you.” What would it be like if our goal was to see Jesus with every look?

Pray to see! If you truly find Jesus and come to know his love, you want more and more and more. The world, your own flesh and the devil will try to stifle and extinguish that desire for more of Jesus but you can have more and more if you decide for it. That is the point where I was at as a collegian. I had come to know his awesome and life-changing love and I wanted more. I was in the Word each day, going to mass and living for him. I went to a weekly prayer meeting where we were seeking more. One night the leader of the prayer group challenged us to pray with people as they presented needs to us. He said we would get ample opportunities to pray with people in just one week and that we could come back to the prayer meeting the next week with our stories. Is it good enough to say “I am sorry” when someone shares a need with us? Is it good enough to say “Keep warm and well fed” when someone needs clothing, food or anything else? Are we fully responding to God’s call when someone shares some problem/suffering with us and we say, “I will pray for you”? What about acting like God is all powerful and ever-present and asking the person who presents you with a need to pray on the spot? What if we prayed with people on the spot and treated Jesus as a first resort instead of a last resort? JOY would fill and flood our broken and desperate world.
So, I semi-took the prayer group leader’s challenge to heart. I was sure there were going to be opportunities to pray with others but I just wanted to see how it was all going to play out. It was summer and I was doing what I did for about a decade of summers as I worked my way through high school, college and graduate schools. I had a house painting company and I was working a job alone on the day following the prayer meeting. My customers (the house owners) were going to be gone so I was wondering how I would get an opportunity to pray with others. Well, all I have to say is that God provides!

As I was spraying some trim with my airless sprayer and using a shield, an elderly man pulled his car up to the house. He got out of his car and began to talk to me as I was up about fifteen feet on my ladder. He asked me what I was doing and I told him about spraying the trim using my shield. But, from the get-go, the Holy Spirit was telling me to climb on down the ladder and talk to this man. And I kept saying to the Holy Spirit, “No, no, no.” Finally, after a few minutes, I surrendered to the Holy Spirit. And oh how much joy and life and love you get when you surrender to the Holy Spirit’s leading. You know what I am talking about! I came down off the ladder and began to have a face to face and eye to eye conversation with this man. He shared with me how his wife had Alzheimer’s and that she was living in the nursing home next door. It was really tough on him. She did not know his name any longer and the bills of keeping her there were more than he could pay. As he shared his suffering with me, the Holy Spirit kept saying, “Here is your opportunity. Pray with him. Ask him if you can.” And I, who sometimes chooses to be surrendered and sometimes chooses not to surrender, said, “No, no, no.” But finally I surrendered. I said to this man, “You know, I believe that God cares for you and your wife so dearly. And God wants us to turn to him in prayer. Knowing that God cares for us so much, may I just say a prayer with you right now?” He said, “Yes.” So, I said a prayer with him for him and his wife. And Jesus showed up. Yes, Jesus showed up and he brought the whole Kingdom of God with him. Talk about everlasting, almighty and eve-present power! The man’s eyes moistened in the presence of the power we had called upon. When I finished the prayer, he said to me, “Thank you for praying. Son, with that attitude, you will go a long way in life.” He turned and walked away never to be seen by me again in this life.

Pray to see Jesus. Treat Jesus as a first resort and not a last resort and pray to see him. Have that attitude in life and just see how far you will go. I prayed with that man and I saw Jesus. Pray by yourself and pray with others to see Jesus.
Do you want to see the Risen Jesus? Do you want the JOY of the everlasting? Make Jesus your first resort and pray for it. We want to see the Risen Jesus offering the JOY of salvation to all the world, all the time. But we have got to pray to see. The praying unlocks the seeing. The praying opens the eyes of our hearts so that we can see Jesus by faith everywhere we go.

It has been about twenty years since I prayed with that man whose wife was living in the nursing home with Alzheimer’s. Today, my dad lives with mom in that same nursing home and he has Alzheimer’s. I visit my mom and dad and we laugh, share, eat and pray. And as we pray together I see Jesus bringing the JOY of the everlasting to my dad and mom. Jesus becomes more and more visible as we pray and through the praying we come into the seeing. As we see him more clearly, we are raised up into his Risenness. We know the JOY of the everlasting all the way to the JOY of the everlasting.
Live the confronted life!
+Fr. John

Holy Saturday April 7, 2007

2007-04-07T06:38:00.000-07:00

Holy Saturday

April 7, 2007

“The women found the stone rolled back from the tomb; but when the entered the tomb, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.”

Luke 24:2

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Exciting News!!! Fr. John Amsberry's book is finished! Check out a little taste of it following todays message.

We all want to know what is on the other side. What will it all be like for us, say, one hundred years from now? How much different will it be? Will it be better? Sometimes, and I think wrongly, we compartmentalize and say the other side is for the other side and this side is for this side. But, the other side has come to this side to pour out the other side with this side. Jesus has come to share the mercy, life and love of heaven (the other side) with us as we journey on this side (earth to heaven). So, we believe that the heaven is with us, all the way to heaven. Yes, the women come to the tomb to find the body of the Lord Jesus not there. Our faith holds that Jesus has been raised from the dead to the other side. But in his rising, instead of being further separated, the two sides are eternally brought together in the deepest unity possible which is what we call God. Often I think we think that the other side is for the other side and we have to wait till we get to the other side to experience it when Christ wants us to know it now. Of course, as always, each step of the way we can choose to join this perfectly loving union or reject it.

In the early practice of the mass, as the bread and wine were being prepared to be changed in to the body and blood of Jesus through the consecration, the priest would pour some wine into the water. There was a very practical reason for doing this. The wine was thick and the water was poured in to loosen it up. Since then, a spiritual significance has been added to that practical practice. Now, when I (and every other priest) pour a little water into the wine at each mass in preparation for the consecration, I pray the words, “Through this mingling of the water and wine may we come to share the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity.” Talk about the other side coming to this side! Talk about Jesus inviting us to share in the eternal loving union of Father, Son and Holy Spirit right now and all the way to heaven! We are the little bit of water that is poured into the wine that will become the blood of Jesus. Humanity is poured into the blood of Jesus and Jesus devours our sins as we share in the eternal love exchange of the Trinity!

When will we let ourselves be devoured by divinity?

True story. As I made my way through airport security, there was a guard standing on the other side of the metal detector. As I cleared the metal detector, the guard looked at me kind of sternly and started to talk. I thought, “Oh no! Am I in trouble? Are they going to stop and search me?” I did not want to stop as I had a plane to catch. His words were this, “It is 3:08 and you are loved!” Yes, I believe. I responded to him, “And you are loved, too! Who are you?” It turned out to be a parishioner from my first parish that I served. How cool is that? So, I have been pondering this exchange. What waits for us on the other side?

Jesus waits for us on the other side. Jesus, whether we are walking through metal detectors at airports or walking down the isle for our wedding or walking through the suffering or death of a loved one or anytime as we walk through our days on earth, is waiting for us. And as we walk through our days, let us remember to walk to him just on the other side. Jesus, right on the other side of the metal detector in the airport, as in all other places on this side and in the now, says, “It is 3:08(or whatever time it is) and you are loved. You are loved by me and I am the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. You are loved by me, your Savior and Friend. You are loved by me, your Hope and Life. You are loved by me, the Healer of your soul. And I am on your side, right now and always. I am leading you to the other side. You are so often devoured by your emptiness, sin and unhappiness. Will you let me devour you in my divinity?”

Brothers and sisters, how about praying this mantra over and over again all the way to the other side? How about praying and being and doing and living this pray as Jesus is with us on this side to take us to the other side? Here it is, “Confession and Eucharist- all the way to heaven.”

Be devoured by divinity.

Confession and Eucharist- all the way to heaven.

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

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Reaching Out to Joy!

Exciting News!!! Fr. John Amsberry's book is finished! Check out a little taste of it below and if you would like to order one or 1,000 just follow the ordering instructions below. If you are in Portland, Oregon, we will have a book release/signing the first weekend of June, 2007 at St. Joseph the Worker so you can get a copy then. They will also be available through the parish office after the first weekend in June. For my friends in Flagstaff, Arizona, who have already signed up for my book, we will be sending books to St. Francis De Asis Church and they will also be available at your book store next door to Nativity Church. The books should be there by Mid-May. For my loved ones in San Diego, I will have them available for you at the end of July when I come down for Steubenville, San Diego. Otherwise, you can order though the mail. Thanks for all your help, love and prayers with this project! Loved, Blessed and 4given are we!

Time out! Why are you running around so crazy here on earth? Slow down. Stop. Be still and know that God is God. Reach out to God. You are forever blessed, loved, and forgiven! Do you know this in your heart? Heaven is with you- all the way to heaven. Reach out to Jesus! Put Jesus over you and you will have JOY! My prayer is that this book will help you to jump into the JOY that is everlasting.

You are familiar St. Paul’s writings, correct? Sometimes one line can become very long and convoluted and even turn almost a whole chapter of a book. He would not get an “A” for grammar. But, in some ways I say, “So what? Big deal. He does not have to be perfect.” Some say he wrote in the imperfect manner that he did because he was so full of grace that it was uncontainable and spilling out all over the place. Welling up with grace and words and light and life, St. Paul just filled the page as God rushed forth! And that is the way I would like you to look at this book. It is not perfect but neither am I. This book is about a perfectly loving God coming to save a sinner like me and you. It is about God rushing in with his grace and words and light and life to create this book, however imperfect it might be. So, I pray that God will be uncontainable in you and you will not worry so much about having perfect presentation and grammar in your life. You do not have to have your house in order for God to come in. Rather, invite God into your messy house and he will put it into order. Just, without ever stopping, keep letting God in and out. Let God and his JOY write straight with crooked lines. When people see you, may they see JOY!

If you wish to purchase Reaching Out to Joy, Jesus Over You please fill out the order form below and send to the address listed along with you payment.

Name: _______________________________________________

Address: _____________________________________________

Address: _____________________________________________

City:__________________________________

State: _______Zip:________________

Please send me _________ Books @ $20.00 each _______________

Shipping $ 4.00 for first book _______________

For each additional book add $1.00 _______________

Total _______________

Please mail order with payment to: Reaching Out to Joy
6012 SE Parkview Terr
Milwaukie, OR 97222

Make checks payable to: Fr. John Amsberry

Good Friday April 6, 2007

2007-04-06T08:59:00.000-07:00

Good Friday

April 6, 2007

“He was a man of suffering”

Isaiah 53:3

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Jesus’ vocation was to die. He came to give his body and blood to us that we might live. He humbled himself by leaving the uninterrupted glory of heaven to make himself venerable to us and we crucified him. But love for his own life did not deter him from death. Jesus vocation was to die for you and I and he fulfilled his vocation. That is why, paradoxically, we call this Friday “Good”, because of the gift of eternal life Jesus gives in his vocation of dying for us.

The cross is the central symbol of our faith. It keeps bringing us back to Jesus’ vocation of dying for us. We must remember to remember the cross as much as we can in our lives. It is the “Good” of Good Friday that we need to conquer all the evil in our lives and the world. The cross is forgiveness, salvation and life and we go and go and go to the cross. We know the cross is the truth of our lives. It defines us. We meditate on it and it explains our life. It is in denying our selfish way of living and living for God alone, and in going through the suffering and dying in the way that we are all called to in following Christ, that we come to eternal life. Our vocation is him and that means the cross.

How can we remember the cross daily? A custom born in the church assigns 3 pm as the time of the Lord’s death on Good Friday. So, we can remember the Lord’s death every day at 3 pm and especially on Friday’s (the day and time assigned to Jesus’ death) at 3 pm by making the sign of the cross. And, every Friday can be a special day of devotion to the cross as we remember Jesus’ vocation. Perhaps we fast on Fridays and hold a cross in our hands with that free time to go deeper into the mystery of who Jesus is for us. There is no doubt a lot of telephone poles you go by each day. Near the top of a lot of those poles you can see a cross made out of the wood. Let the telephone poles you see each day bring you to the cross and all the “Good”, which, by the way is all the “Good”, pouring out through the cross of Jesus Christ. When you drive by the church or graveyard or you hear the ambulance or police siren, make the sign of the cross. When you go into the church or when you pray your personal prayers or grace before meals, you make the sign of the cross. Make the sign of the cross for every need and praise and, in doing so; come back to Jesus who tells us what everything is all about.

If Jesus’ vocation on earth was to die and we call ourselves followers of Jesus, the prospect of following him does not sound fun at all. If we are truly going to follow him then that means we have to die? That sounds great, Fr. John! I am with you! Let us follow Jesus and die! You are kidding? You can’t be serious? I am. Jesus says to us, “Come follow me and die.” We have to die to our own ways and live for him. We have to prefer eternal life with him to our own physical life if that is what Jesus is calling us to. This, my friends, is the suffering and death we take on when we take on our vocation of following Jesus in his vocation.

Like with gold, we are tested in the crucible of suffering and humiliation. The gold smith burns any impurities away in the ravaging fire. And how does he know when he has pure gold? When he can see his reflection in it. God, Our Refiner’s Fire, burns away the impurity of anything that is not his in us so that we might become holy. Our Refiner knows his job is complete when he sees and loves in us what he sees and loves in Christ. When he sees his reflection in us after taking us through all our suffering and death, his vocation for us is fulfilled.

They say the greatest form of compliment is imitation. Jesus says, “Come die to your ways that you might fully live for me. That is your vocation. Fulfill your vocation. Imitate me. Let me see me when I see you.”

Each year it is the same on the calendar. Good Friday always comes before Easter Sunday. Suffering and death before eternal life. Let us give Jesus the greatest compliment with our lives by imitating him with all that we are.

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

Holy Week Thursday April 5, 2007

2007-04-05T08:06:00.000-07:00

Thursday of Holy Week

April 5, 2007

“Jesus rose from the meal and took off his cloak. He picked up a towel and tied it around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel he had around him.”

John 13:3-5

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What place in line are you? Jesus took the last place. The Lord and Master of all, whom all creation should worship, became smaller than us all and took the very last place in line. He traded all the glory of heaven for all the sin of earth so that we could walk on him to get to heaven. We read in John 15:12-15 how there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. Look how the one, who is Lord and Master of everything, becomes smaller than us all and takes the last place in the line of all humanity that was and will ever be. And in this pinnacle of humility, this smallest one, who is the Savior of all, calls us friend. On the evening of His Last Supper for you and me and all human beings that will ever be, he rises from the table, takes off his cloak, ties a towel around himself and washes and dries the disciples feet with the towel. The King and Lord and Master of all takes the form of a slave, becomes the smallest, and takes the last place in the line of all humanity in order to serve us all.

You call yourself Christian? You want to be just like Jesus? Take the last place in line. Be small. Lay down your life as a slave in service to all.

Ponder what the scriptures are really all about. “Though Jesus was in the form of God he did not deem equality with God something to be grasped at. Rather he emptied himself and took the form of a slave, being born in the likeness of men.” Phil. 2:6-7 “The first shall be last and the last shall be first.” “Defer to one another out of respect for Christ.” See how Christ defers to us all by becoming smallest, taking the last place in line and serving us as a slave so that we could walk over him to get to heaven. As we defer to each other out of respect for Christ, we become small and take last place. We humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord and how we do that is to humble ourselves before one another. “Let all parties think humbly of others as superior to themselves.” Phil. 2:3 The scriptures are about being small and taking the last place in line in serving all.

Practice forgetfulness unto self and remembrance of Christ. The world is always reminding us that it is about being first in line, being big, being served or serving oneself. Our self wants self, self, self. Jesus wants others. In the epic battle of our carnal nature seeking self and Jesus’ nature seeking others, we need to remember and be transformed. We need to remember to forget seeking ourselves, live for Jesus and ask for the Holy Spirit to give us the power to do so! Yes, through the power of the Holy Spirit we can move from living for self to being small by taking the last place in line in service to all.

At each mass, beginning with the Lord’s Last Supper which we celebrate this night, we remember and ask for the Holy Spirit’s transforming power. We remember how Jesus taught us forgetfulness unto self and remembrance of God. Jesus became small, took the last place in line, and forgot about his own life as he became a slave to die for us all. And we see how God’s transforming power raised Jesus from death to life. Like Jesus did, we remember to forget living for ourselves and live like Jesus. And in this remembering, we ask the Holy Spirit for the power to live small, take the last place in line and serve all.

Remember to forget yourself and remember Christ. Be small. Take the last place in line of all humanity. Serve all. Beg the Holy Spirit to make it happen.

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

Holy Week Wednesday April 4, 2007

2007-04-04T05:08:00.000-07:00

Wednesday of Holy Week

April 4, 2007

In the course of the meal Jesus said, “I give you my word, one of you is about to betray me.”

Mt. 26:21
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We were set to have our Parish Spaghetti Dinner the next day from 11:30 am to 6:00 pm. The night before a parishioner came up to me and warned, “You better make the 10:30 mass short because of the dinner tomorrow.” That was the wrong thing to say to Fr. John! When someone tells me something like that I usually respond, “It just got longer.” The last thing in the world I will do is make the mass shorter. We need all of the mass we can get. We cannot get enough of his word and sacrament. We want to go deeper and deeper into knowing his truth so that we can live his truth. We need to make the mass longer. One hour a week together surrendering to him and being transformed together by Christ is not near enough for all the hours of the rest of the week. I mean, what is more important, spaghetti or Jesus? If all we do is eat spaghetti and ignore Jesus, we carbo load and die. On the other hand, if all we do is consume Jesus and forget about eating we get skinny and live. We truncate Jesus. We turn on him and turn from him and turn to our spaghetti, whatever that “spaghetti” is. We betray him and, in betraying him, deny all the ways he wants to transform this world with and in and through us.

Ultimately, it all has to do with our priorities. We all have our busyness, schedules, meetings, obligations, sports, work and the list goes on. And it is right that we are involved with the world. But how are we to be involved? Who is determining what we are doing with our limited time here on earth? Are you run by society or by Jesus? Who cares what society says? Do you want to be run by something that says that it is good to kill the unborn, adultery and fornication are the norm, and let us take God and Jesus and prayer out of everything? We betray Jesus, our Life, by turning from him and we die. It is time to make knowing Jesus in the mass, prayer, and scriptures longer. Time to stop turning on him and from him and turn to him. Now is the time confront ourselves and ask, “What is my spaghetti?” In other words, what do I consider more important than Jesus Christ and his way of life? There is only one source of forgiveness and hope and life and we care about what society says? Care about what Jesus says! And then live it.

How are you to be involved in this world? How are you to spend your time on planet earth? Jesus must answer that question for you! If we are not going to Jesus and we are going to society or whatever our “spaghetti” is, then how are we not betraying Jesus? If we deny him full access to command our lives, then surely we are serving another master. And this other master will never be able to give life.

We need to stop cutting Jesus out of our lives. We need to let him cut into our lives, our minds, our thoughts, our plans, our joys, our sufferings, or days, our minutes, our seconds, our schedules, our TV’s/computers, our work, our play, our studies, our families, our relationships, our everything. We cut him out and turn on him and from him and deny his life for us because we think something else is more important. We run to our “spaghetti”, whatever we deem more important than Christ, and die. Study the generations since Jesus and know that the only “spaghetti” that works is Jesus. Now is the time to cut Jesus in and make him the Master and Lord and Ruler of you.

Remember, Judas left the Last Supper early. He cut out on Jesus at the first mass. Think of his end. Now is the time to make mass and Jesus and prayer and scripture longer.

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

Tuesday of Holy Week April 3, 2007

2007-04-03T07:12:00.000-07:00

Tuesday of Holy Week

April 3, 2007

“I will make you a light to the nations.”

Isaiah 49:6

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Exciting News!!! Fr. John Amsberry's book is finished! Check out a little taste of it below and if you would like to order one or 1,000 just follow the ordering instructions below.
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I am the youngest of eight boys. Chuck, Steve, Joe, Tom, Dan, Jim, Mike and John. That’s right- they save the best for the last! I often brag to my family and friends about the magnanimous humility God has given me (smiles). God bless mom and dad for raising us!

All of us boys would start licking our chops when we knew mom and dad were going to be gone from the house. It was the whole, “When the cat’s away the mice will play” thing. It was a time to have some reckless fun and destroy the house. Ok, maybe not destroy the house but it was time to cut loose as the rulers of the house were away.

One of the things we liked to do was have sock fights. Of course there were a ton of white, athletic socks for the eight of us. We would ball them up, each get our store of ammunition and commence the war. The deal was to hit each other as hard and fast as we could. To add to all the excitement, we would turn off all the lights in the house and have our battles in total darkness. How fun was that?!? I am sure you can guess some of the inherent problems with this situation. It was hard to see in the dark. There are many objects that are solid, large, sharp, and dangerous to run in. They are stationary and they would stay stationary as we would run into them. I would be lying if I told you there was no scrapes, bruises, and bleeding. I do not know if one of us ever broke any bones but it was dangerous business running and throwing and flinging socks in the dark.

It is dangerous business running in the dark. You can avoid a lot of unnecessary injury if you turn on the light. It helps you to see things as they are and maneuver through life. The light is ever available but you and I have to turn the light switch on. I know it takes some time sometimes to find the light switch but there it is on the wall somewhere. Remember, our lives are incomprehensible without Christ. The light of Christ helps us to see true reality and maneuver through a life that can be so filled with darkness. We have to keep seeking the light switch and turn it on.

When is light needed the most? In the greatest darkness. And the greatest darkness that ever was Jesus on the cross. Jesus, the hope of every human heart, dying on the cross. Jesus dead. The greatest darkness this world has ever known and will ever know. But we see what God does in it. Resurrection and light explode eternally. The light switch made eternally available to you and me. And, if God can bring his horizenless light into the greatest darkness ever, he can bring his horizenless light into yours!

The light switch is there for you.

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

______________________________________________________________

If you are in Portland, Oregon, we will have a book release/signing the first weekend of June, 2007 at St. Joseph the Worker so you can get a copy then. For my friends in Flagstaff, Arizona, who have already signed up for my book, we will be sending book directly to you and you should get them by Mid-May. For my loved ones in San Diego, I will have them available for youth end of July when I come down for Steubenville, San Diego. Otherwise, you can order though the mail.

Thanks for all your help, love and prayers with this project! Loved, Blessed and 4given are we!

Reaching Out to Joy

Time out! Why are you running around so crazy here on earth? Slow down. Stop. Be still and know that God is God. Reach out to God. You are forever blessed, loved, and forgiven! Do you know this in your heart? Heaven is with you- all the way to heaven. Reach out to Jesus! Put Jesus over you and you will have JOY! My prayer is that this book will help you to jump into the JOY that is everlasting.

You are familiar St. Paul’s writings, correct? Sometimes one line can become very long and convoluted and even turn almost a whole chapter of a book. He would not get an “A” for grammar. But, in some ways I say, “So what? Big deal. He does not have to be perfect.” Some say he wrote in the imperfect manner that he did because he was so full of grace that it was uncontainable and spilling out all over the place. Welling up with grace and words and light and life, St. Paul just filled the page as God rushed forth! And that is the way I would like you to look at this book. It is not perfect but neither am I. This book is about a perfectly loving God coming to save a sinner like me and you. It is about God rushing in with his grace and words and light and life to create this book, however imperfect it might be. So, I pray that God will be uncontainable in you and you will not worry so much about having perfect presentation and grammar in your life. You do not have to have your house in order for God to come in. Rather, invite God into your messy house and he will put it into order. Just, without ever stopping, keep letting God in and out. Let God and his JOY write straight with crooked lines. When people see you, may they see JOY!

If you wish to purchase Reaching Out to Joy, Jesus Over You please fill out the order form below and send to the address listed along with you payment.

Name: _______________________________________________

Address: _____________________________________________

Address: _____________________________________________

City:__________________________________

State: _______Zip:________________

Please send me _________ Books @ $20.00 each _______________

Shipping $ 4.00 for first book _______________

For each additional book add $1.00 _______________

Total _______________

Please mail order with payment to: Reaching Out to Joy
6012 SE Parkview Terr
Milwaukie, OR 97222

Make checks payable to: Fr. John Amsberry

Books will be mailed out by June 2007

Monday April 2, 2007 Holy Week

2007-04-02T08:35:00.000-07:00

Monday of Holy Week

April 2, 2007

“A bruised reed he shall not break.”

Isaiah 42:3

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More info on Fr. John's Book, Reaching Out to Joy. We anticipate having a book signing/selling time in Portland at St. Joseph the Worker the first weekend in June. After that, the book will be available at the church office. The book will be available in San Diego at the end of July, 2007. More details to follow. If you want to order via mail, please refer to Palm Sunday and make the checks payable to Fr. John Amsberry. Thank you!

I think this would be a good visual to show how we are a bruised people. What if one day in church I asked all the people gathered to admit how they have been broken and bruised and how they suffer from it? I would just start naming things that may have bruised us like divorce, depression, addictions, pride, lust, greed, sloth, selfishness, sin, unforgiveness, harmful decisions to our bodies and dignity, not praying or practicing our faith, worshipping false Gods, materialism, neglect of our family, the poor and elderly, alcoholism and drinking/drugs, etc. As I named a persons bruise, they would come up to get a tourniquet bruise and tie it (loosely) around their arm. This would symbolize that they are bruised and bleeding and they want it to stop. I bet you we would all have a tourniquet on our arms by the time we were done.

From bartenders to beauticians to teachers to parents to doctors/nurses to counselors to priests/ministers, we all know we are bruised. Now, take this reality of how bruised we are and put it smack dab in the middle of the world we live in. You are at a traffic light and you do not start to move within two seconds of it turning green and the horns behind you start honking. Or, maybe you are the one doing the honking. And this is just the beginning of road rage which has led, in some instances, to killing. Think about this one I just saw on the computer. A college guy was breaking up with his girlfriend right in the middle of campus. He chose to have it videotaped and there were hundred’s of onlookers in this ruthless bruising. The two degraded each other, called each other filthy names, and all human dignity and respect was thrown out the window. And now this ruthless and horrible bruising is on the Internet for the whole world to see. This, my friends, is often the world we bruised people find ourselves in.

Where is the gentleness? Where will we bruised people not get ripped apart more? Where is the hope, help and healing for us in our dog eat dog world?

We do not get through unscathed. Admit you are bruised. Come in front of the church, pick up your tourniquet and tie it around your arm. Admit it to Jesus and admit him into your bruised life. Find him coming to you in gentleness. He says, “Come to me all you who find life burdensome. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I am meek and humble of heart. You souls will find rest.”

We need his gentleness in our bruised world. Until we know his gentleness we will keep on bruising and breaking and crushing each other. Bring his gentleness to this world which is so bruised and in dire need of healing.

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

Palm Sunday, April 1st, 2007

2007-04-01T06:26:00.000-07:00

Palm Sunday
April 1, 2007
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”
Luke 19:39

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Exciting News!!! Fr. John Amsberry's book is finished! Check out a little taste of it below and if you would like to order one or 1,000 just follow the ordering instructions following today's message.

If you would, make a fist. Look at it and survey its size. They say the size of your fist is the size of your heart. Take care of your fist, that is, your heart. And not just your physical heart but also the heart of who you are – your soul. We can so neglect the soul and that is where the battle for meaning, peace and joy is won or lost. I was preaching on this taking care of your fist/heart one time and after mass a collegian made a fist and said to her mom, “Mom, look at how small my heart is.” I do not know if she was intending that statement to be literal, figurative or metaphorical but I do think a lot of us see our hearts/souls as much smaller than they really are.

Your heart/soul is not small. In it, is the Kingdom of God. The God who created all that is, is in you ready to manifest his awesome, creative power. Things can never be small when the Lord and Creator of all is in our heart. Do we believe?

I was really proud when a junior in high school girl finally got up the courage to do a solo at mass in front of five hundred people. She did wonderfully and blessed us all by her beautiful voice. Talking to her mother later, she told me how her daughter said, “Mom, the only talent I have is to sing and I will never make any money doing it.” That statement caused me to start thinking about talent. I know we all have different talents and touch people in different ways. Some can sing and some cannot. But then I thought about how we all have the talent of Jesus. Jesus is within us. We are blessed! Blessed is he or she who comes in the name of the Lord. And he is Love. And we have the talent to spread his infinite and beautiful love to all we meet. So, brothers and sisters, do not ever tell me you do not have talent! You have it all! You could not be more talented. Do we believe?

After Jesus had risen from the dead, Peter was walking along one day and came upon a cripple. Peter addressed him, “I have neither have silver or gold but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus, rise and walk.” And the cripple began to walk. Peter believed in his talent and used it. And Jesus healed. The same Jesus that healed that cripple is in you and me. Do we believe?

Your heart/soul is not small. You are blessed because the Lord of all is in you. You have all the talent in the world. Be bold! Use it! Act like you believe!

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

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Reaching Out to Joy

Time out! Why are you running around so crazy here on earth? Slow down. Stop. Be still and know that God is God. Reach out to God. You are forever blessed, loved, and forgiven! Do you know this in your heart? Heaven is with you- all the way to heaven. Reach out to Jesus! Put Jesus over you and you will have JOY! My prayer is that this book will help you to jump into the JOY that is everlasting.

You are familiar St. Paul’s writings, correct? Sometimes one line can become very long and convoluted and even turn almost a whole chapter of a book. He would not get an “A” for grammar. But, in some ways I say, “So what? Big deal. He does not have to be perfect.” Some say he wrote in the imperfect manner that he did because he was so full of grace that it was uncontainable and spilling out all over the place. Welling up with grace and words and light and life, St. Paul just filled the page as God rushed forth! And that is the way I would like you to look at this book. It is not perfect but neither am I. This book is about a perfectly loving God coming to save a sinner like me and you. It is about God rushing in with his grace and words and light and life to create this book, however imperfect it might be. So, I pray that God will be uncontainable in you and you will not worry so much about having perfect presentation and grammar in your life. You do not have to have your house in order for God to come in. Rather, invite God into your messy house and he will put it into order. Just, without ever stopping, keep letting God in and out. Let God and his JOY write straight with crooked lines. When people see you, may they see JOY!

If you wish to purchase Reaching Out to Joy, Jesus Over You please fill out the order form below and mail to the address listed below along with your payment.

Name: _______________________________________________

Address: _____________________________________________

Address: _____________________________________________

City:__________________________________

State: _______Zip:________________

Please send me _________ Books @ $20.00 each _______________

Shipping $ 4.00 for first book _______________

For each additional book add $1.00 _______________

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Please mail order with payment to: Reaching Out to Joy

6012 SE Parkview Terr
Milwaukie, OR 97222

Books will be mailed out in June 2007

Saturday March 31, 2007

2007-03-31T06:59:00.000-07:00

Saturday of the Fifth Week of Lent

March 31, 2007

“My dwelling shall be with them.”

Ezekiel 37:27

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God is always knocking, talking, revealing, pouring out, and showing forth to us. We kick him out of our schools, our families, our friendships, our lives, and our work by not praying. We have chosen other Gods and we are too busy for the only true and Living God. Because we have chosen not to seek him first above all else, we miss so much of his infinite coming to us.

A little kid would walk home from school each day. Each day on her walk home she would stop outside the bakery window to peer in and look at the donuts. One day, an elderly woman saw the little girl doing this. She went up to her and asked the girl if she would like a donut. The little girl’s eyes got big and she smiled with a “Yes!” The woman took her inside and told her to get the donut she wanted. As they were sitting down together inside eating the donuts, the little girl looked up to the woman and asked, “Are you God?” The woman joyfully responded, “No, I am not God. But I am God’s daughter and so are you. And I do know that God loves you very much.”

The little girl saw God in God’s daughter. Do we? Do we see God in all of his daughters and sons? Do we see God each time our mom/dad or someone provides a meal for us? Do we know that God is behind all the loving acts that we see each day, from the small things to the big things? Are we quick to point out that God was behind that person who held the door open for that other person just as God was behind the brother who has cared day in and day out of his special needs sister for over thirty-five years?

We need to pray. Prayer moves us from finite seeing to infinite seeing. It allows us to see the invisible motivating, guiding, and inspiring the visible. Our God, who is the invisible constantly knocking, talking, revealing, pouring out, and showing forth infinite goodness to us, is behind it all.

God dwells with us. Practice the presence of God. At the end of each day or week, write down how you have seen his dwelling among you. Be disciplined and pray about, think about, reflect, talk and write about how the invisible God is becoming more visible to you. Practice the presence of God! In all things, big and small, name that the goodness and love come from God who dwells among us. As you do this you, the finite, will fly into the infinite.

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

Friday March 30, 2007

2007-03-30T11:23:00.000-07:00

Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent

March 30, 2007

Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from my father. For which of these are you trying to stone me?”

John 10:32

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I bet you have been there. You are at a stop light, it turns green, and the person in front of you does not move. You become impatient and frustrated and you think and say a few things that are not totally loving because you have a million things to do and you have got to get going. I was there recently. There was only one car in front of me, the light turned green but the car in front of me did not move for what seemed like an eternity (It was probably only four seconds but that is pretty close to eternity in our impatient world!). As I became impatient and frustrated counting off the seconds for this car to move through the intersection, I thought, “What part of green do you not understand? What part of green do you not like? Green means GO! Press down on your accelerator and GO!” After all these impatient thoughts of the near eternity of four seconds, the car in front of me finally started to move. Blessed relief came to me and now I could get to all the millions of things I needed to accomplish that day.

Just a few seconds after passing through the intersection, God spoke to me. The good Holy Spirit said, “John, what part of Jesus do you not like? What part of Jesus do you not understand? GO! Go into him! Push the petal to the metal of your life and accelerate into Jesus. What is there not to like and love and worship about him? You go and accelerate into so many other people and things that are not Jesus and they all dead-end. Why don’t you go into Jesus? You know why his body is on the cross, why we have the crucifix instead of just the cross? Because he suffered and gave his body for your salvation. It is real. His love for you is real! God could not be any more real for you or come closer to you than Jesus body hanging on a cross and dying for you. Jesus love is not a joke so stop treating it like it is one. A joke is something that you take lightly and do not pay much attention to. I want you to take his body for you seriously and give it your utmost love and undying attention. Look upon him whom they have pierced. Fix your gaze on Jesus. Go! Go into him!”

As Jesus’ ministry amplified and his good works were revealed, some wanted to kill him by stoning him. They sought to deny his good works by ridding him from the face of the earth. And how do we deny him and his works today? We do not go to him. We go to TV, money, games, computers, parties, malls, etc. but how often do we go to him? How often do we go to prayer, the scriptures, and church? How much of our free will are we using to deny him or give him full access?

What part of Jesus do you not like? What part of Jesus do you not understand? His love for you is real. It is not a joke. Accelerate into him. Go into him. Green means go! His body hanging on the cross for you means go!

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

Thursday March 29, 2007

2007-03-29T09:18:00.000-07:00

Thursday of the Fifth Week of Lent

March 29, 2007

Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM.”

John 8:58
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Is anything is what it is? Is anyone are who they say they are? I found myself asking these questions after I found out that a priest I knew had left the priesthood after forty plus years to get married. It shocked me when I heard the news because if I thought anyone was a priest for life it would be this humble, holy, serving man. I am not casting any judgments on this good man, it just jolted me into realizing ever more deeply how people and things can change.

I am sure we have all had the experience of finding out that someone is different than we thought they were. They tell us one thing and their actions are quite different than who they said they are. I think, at least on some level, we are all hypocritical and we can say one thing and yet do another. I know, for example, that the Gospel I preach in church is not always the Gospel I live up to in the streets. One time traveling I prayed that I would have the opportunity to share the Gospel with someone. God was going to show me the person and I was going to let that person have it! I was going to share the Good News of Jesus’ saving love and watch the Holy Spirit set a soul on fire. My whole focus, as always, is that every person would be consumed in the fire of God’s love. My opportunity arrived! And you know what I did? I made about two or three harsh judgments on this person even before we entered into an initial conversation. So much for loving someone and wanting them to be consumed in the fire of God's love! This person actually started the conversation by asking me, “Are you an ordained minister (I was wearing my color)?” Sheepishly, I replied, “Yes.” She came back, “Well, I am a Christian and I love the Lord.” I started repenting in my heart right then. I set out to love and I condemned. I have been a priest for almost ten years now, I have prayed for at least an hour a day for over two decades, I go to confession monthly, I know I am stepped in Gods’ grace; and yet, I am still so quick to condemn and slow to love. I say I am one thing, a loving priest, and yet so many other times I do not live the Gospel of mercy I profess.

Sometimes, in light of what I just shared, I wonder if I will ever make it there. Will I ever be who I say I am? That is where faith comes in. That is where faith in the “I AM” comes in.

Jesus calls himself, “I AM.” That means that Jesus is who he says he is and that will never change. Jesus cannot be a hypocrite- that is impossible. Now, you and I can be hypocrites and that is reality. But we should not lose hope and say that is the just the way it is always going to be. Why? Because Jesus, in whom there is no hypocrisy, calls us to be one with him in heaven forever. And he who calls has the power to make it happen. We just need to go to Jesus, the one who is who he says he is, the I AM, the one who does not change: and let him make our lives a perfection representation of our words.

We just keeping going to Jesus who is good and loving and truthful and sinless all the time and he changes us into him. Jesus changes you and me, the "I was not” who came to be, into him. Our words and our lives match perfectly because of the work of “I AM.” That sounds like heaven to me.

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

Wednesday 28, 2007

2007-03-28T07:39:00.000-07:00

Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent

March 28, 2007

“Blessed are you who look into the depths.”

Daniel 3:55
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In our so often superficial society we would all do well to pay attention to the “Abajo Rio.” The “Abajo Rio” is translated the “River Below.” It refers to what is really going on in the inside, in your heart of hearts. It is where the depth, profundity and mystery of life can come alive for us. To get there, it is a journey that takes risks and vulnerability but that is the only way we can get to the “Abajo Rio.”

Will we risk going to the “River Below?” Remember, no risk, no return. More risk, more return. That is the way it is with knowing the depth, profundity and mystery of our faith. If we are not willing to go into the river, we will never really know the river. Or, we can lightly wade in the river. Or, we could dive in and know it in its fullness. What will you risk in order to know the “Abajo River?”

I had an interesting experience as I was attempting to get men’s small faith sharing groups going in my church. I asked the men to break up into small groups to discuss ways we could get more real with each other on the level of our struggles and faith. A number of the men came back and said we go deeper with each other as men by doing some project together like painting or putting on a breakfast. While I know that can be true and is a more natural and relaxed way, something inside me protested this line of thinking. Why? Because I think it is not natural to dive in and get real. We tend to avoid, deny, delay, rationalize away and not go to the depths. If we do not plan to do it, then we will most likely not do it. It is all about living the confronted life and being honest with what is really going on in our hearts.

Blessed be Jesus who looks into the depths. He has suffered every suffering of all of us. He has been tempted in every way we have and has not sinned. He has gone there and shared with us the depth, profundity and mystery of who he is for us in our “Abajo Rio.”

It seems to me that the church would be most church if we would dive into the “Abajo Rio.” What is really going on with each of us? What if we shared all our struggles, temptations and failures of greed, lust, infidelity, fear, lying and such with each other and our God? How about our love-less marriages; the anger, unforgiveness and bitterness that imprisons us; the temptations to pornography, infidelity, lying, greed, drink? What if we risked everything on Christ who has risked everything on us? I think we would find everything we ever wanted as we found Christ in the “River Below.”

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

Tuesday March 27, 2007

2007-03-27T07:18:00.000-07:00

Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent

March 27, 2007

“But the one who sent me is true.”

John 8:26

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In the end, it is all about whom we point to. We look for the answer to our mortality and want to be able to point to the one who will save us. We know we are weak and short-lived and totally unable to save ourselves. And until we come into the confidence of that which will save us, we do not have true peace while we hear the clock clicking and counting down our time on earth. Where is our security of the lasting?

There is a positive TV show that goes through the story how homes are built and given to people who would otherwise never have the financial means to have a home. It is moving when that family, who is in great need, first walks into their new home and is handed the keys. Their very felt need is matched by the incredible generosity of those who provided for them and you can see how touched they are. Part of this dynamic is moving from the insecurity of a family who has no place to live to the security of a home.

Let us ponder this security. No doubt, there is security in having a home. The generous love of those who provide the homes and security is real and should be lauded by us all. But I am always left wanting at the end of these stories because the security, while meeting a real need, is only very temporary. I want to know where the lasting security is in it all. The home, or any possession for that matter, is not going to save us so where is the answer to our need for lasting security?

Jesus tells us that the one who sent him (The Father) is true. What does it mean that the Father is true and what Jesus is giving us is the truth? What is true to truth is what is real or lasting. It is not like the temporary security of a physical home, which will not stand forever. What is true is unchanging and will last for all time. And the unchanging truth the Father sent Jesus to bring is forgiveness and eternal life. This, my brothers and sisters, is our everlasting security.

Our true home is not the home we live in. Our true home is with Jesus. I was flying back from the Midwest recently and I remember what I shared with all the people I spoke to there. I said that if my plane goes down I am just fine because my lasting security is being at home with Jesus that gives me true peace. Whether I am in the Midwest, 33,000 feet in the air, Japan or back at home, I always am at home in the truth of Jesus who is eternal life.

Why do we put our security in insecure things? In the end, our homes, money, possessions, and retirement accounts cannot provide the true peace of lasting security. Have you ever seen a u-haul following the hertz to the graveyard? No, we can’t take any of it with us.

We look for the lasting in that which does not last and we are in want of peace. Let us come home to Jesus, find peace and have everlasting security- now.

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

Monday March 26, 2007

2007-03-26T05:39:00.000-07:00

Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent
March 26, 2007
Mary said, “Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”
Luke 1:38
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As a priest I think the most important thing I can do for those whom I lead is to teach them how to pray. I have a quote, “Know prayer, know Jesus. No Prayer, no Jesus.” I just want everyone to come to know Jesus who is the deepest longing of every human heart. That is why I pray and pray and pray. I tell my people that I do not want to give them the sinful me but that I want to give them the perfect Jesus. I say you do not want my pride, selfishness, condemnation, conditional love, etc. No, you want the joy of knowing forgiveness and eternal life that can only be found in Jesus.

I cannot give what I do not have. If I want to give people Jesus and I do not pray, how will I give them Jesus? If I do not know and have Jesus through prayer, then I will be giving people something but it surely will not be Jesus. And what we give away has a lot to do with what we say “Yes” to.

What do you say “Yes” to each day? Is it planned or do you just go with the worldly/cultural flow? If I just study history or nursing or sports, then what I will have to give away is a lot of that. The TV, which in many ways seems to be our version of the Bible, is something we say “Yes” to a lot. What kind of giving are you going to give to others from the TV you watch? When I asked the Holy Spirit to be set free in my life twenty-two years ago, I felt like he asked me the question, “Will you pray to me each day?” I said, “Yes.” And it had made all the difference. It is only through the power of the Holy Spirit that I come to know Jesus which enables me to share him with others.

Let us be clear. We have control over what we say “Yes” to in life. Saints do not become saints by accident. Someone does not become a joyful and full of Christ by a fluke. No, they plan it. They decide for it. They know their goal and they plan all of their hours according to coming to fullness of life in Christ. Their first “Yes” is always to Christ in prayer, scriptures, church, sacraments, service, etc. It never takes a back seat. And they find what they seek as Jesus comes to full stature in them.

We look to Mary, Our Mother and The Mother of Our Lord, to learn what to say “Yes” to. In her total “Yes” to Jesus, she gave us all Jesus. Now, she passes us the baton and tells us to do the same. We always give our first “Yes” to Jesus and let him order all the other yeses we say “Yes” to in our lives. That is the way of Most Beautiful Mary and that is the way we want to go.

What do you say “Yes” to? What you say “Yes” to is what you will have to give away. “Know prayer, know Jesus. No Prayer, no Jesus.” What are you giving away all the day long?

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

Sunday March 25, 2007

2007-03-25T09:58:00.000-07:00

The Fifth Sunday of Lent

March 25, 2007

“Jesus said to them (the scribes, Pharisees and people in the temple, ‘Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

John 8:7
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Throwing stones. A woman caught in adultery back in the day of Jesus could legally be murdered by people throwing stones at her because of her offence. So many times I throw stones and I do not want to go with their go and flow with their flow but I go with their go and flow with their flow and become the person I do not want to be. I judge, I condemn, I point the finger, I assume the worst and have the person sentenced to prison before their trial, there is no hint of mercy coming from my thoughts and being- and I throw stones. When will I learn, Lord? When can I become like you and not throw stones? But I continue to act like a mercenary and go with the go and flow with the flow of condemning others. I so much want to know with God’s know, and go with his go, and flow with his flow but I choose the opposite and become an enemy of his way.

Time for a little general confession to you. I took a trip to the Midwest to do some speaking. In the morning before I boarded the plane, I prayed that the Lord would give me an opportunity to share his amazing, salvific, transforming, infinite love with people on the plane. It would be up to the Lord and I would just try to follow the Holy Spirit’s lead. Some people say this is praying for a Divine Appointment and you can call it that or whatever you want. I was sitting by the window and I will have to admit that the first thoughts I had of the woman sitting next to me were not the most Christ-like. In her late 50’s, elegantly dressed, talking on her cell phone, I boxed her in with my all too small heart as a prissy person. Then, the flight attendant came by and asked her to silence her cell and stop using it as the plane began to taxi. And, guess what? She kept talking and I became a little more perturbed at Miss Priss because now she was breaking the moral law of talking on her cell when she was instructed not to do so. Isn’t it amazing how quickly we can try and hang someone?

I was wearing my collar and after about ten minutes into the flight she turned to me and asked, “Are you an ordained minister?” I told her I was a Roman Catholic priest. She responded with how much she loved the Lord as a Baptist, had raised her two kids in the purity of God’s ways and that her two kids had both married wonderful Catholic Christians and had converted to Catholicism. As you might surmise by now, all the while she was sharing this with me I was repenting in my heart for throwing killing stones at her. And I repent to you right now because I do not want to go with their go and flow with their flow. I want to do a 180 and know with Jesus’ know and go with his go and flow with his flow. Please pray for me to that end as I will for you!

I have never literally thrown stones at some but I have figuratively and I see it as severe and death-dealing. Jesus did not thrown literal or figurative stones at the woman caught in adultery. He embraced her with open arms of unconditional love. What is your life more about?

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

Saturday March 24, 2007

2007-03-24T08:21:00.000-07:00

Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent

March 24, 2007

“The guards answered, ‘Never before has anyone spoken like this man (Jesus)’.”

John 7:46
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Surrender. Wave the white towel. Give in.

So many times, for all intents and purposes, we seek to have our word act upon him instead of laying out the red carpet and letting his word come to us and do with us what he wills. While maybe well intentioned, we tell him of our tiny plots, schemes, ideas, plans, desires and dreams. It is like we are trying to make him give into us when exactly the opposite should be happening. We, the powerless ones, tell the All-Powerful One what to do. Should not the powerless ones totally depend on the All-Powerful One for our needs of infinite and invincible power? In the equation of us and God, who needs who?

I imagine Jesus chuckling (or crying) as he gets billions of people telling him each day how things should be. We dream and plot and plan and scheme and be and do so small because it is about our way for Jesus when it should be about his way for us. And so badly Jesus just wants us to listen and be still and silent. In our silence and awareness of him, we can come to know what the All Powerful One wants to do for all the powerless ones. Desperately seeking to show every believer that he wants to pour of the infinite power of his everlasting Kingdom through our hearts, Jesus dies for us to know, “As far as the heavens are above the earth, so far are my thoughts above your thoughts. My ways and plans are infinitely above your ways and plans. Forsake the powerlessness of your pithy thinking and ways, and come and be and think and plan and do with me.”

Jesus wants us to catch and live the vision he has. The vision is him pouring out the infinite and invincible power of The Kingdom of God through our hearts. A great way that we can often remember this vision that Jesus wants us to live is through the prayer he taught us to pray, “The Our Father.” In this prayer we pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” What does that mean? It means that we want to happen on earth what is happening in heaven. In heaven, all people have become perfect in love through the power of God. And when we pray for that on earth, we are surrendering to the power of God’s thoughts, plans and ways to make us so! In the power of the Kingdom Jesus came to bring, the lame walk, the blind see, the lepers are cured, sins are forgiven and the dead are raised to life. This is the power we are praying for to come through us. And we are not praying for it to happen tomorrow or forty years from now. And we are not praying for it happen over there or then. We are praying for it’s power to happen right here and right now in our hearts and through our bodies! That is what is at stake! That is the vision Jesus wants us to catch and live without restraint.

Surrender. Wave the white towel. Give in.

Live the confronted life!

Fr. John

Friday March 23, 2007

2007-03-23T09:20:00.000-07:00

Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent

March 23, 2007

“Many are the troubles of the just man.”

Psalm 34:19
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Fr. John on the Radio- Fr. John will be giving a daily Lenten Reflection in Portland, Oregon on KBVM 88.3 FM at 9 AM and 1 PM each day during Lent until Easter. Tune in if you wish.

Life is difficult! It is a given we will have troubles. Relationships fail, addictions assail, and pressures, sufferings, losses and disappointments are some of the many trials we can face. How we respond to these troubles is the deal-maker or breaker. While it is a given we will have troubles, what is not a given is how we will respond.

If we want to talk about a person who had troubles, we should talk about Jesus. As a matter of fact, he took on all troubles for all time into his body on the cross. Can you imagine the impact of all that coming to him? As we consider his life, as soon as he started opening his mouth and doing God’s work in his public ministry, there were troubles. People did not trust him. They laughed at him and mocked him for saying who he was. Some got very angry and plotted to kill him. He had to watch where he went as people were out for his life. The anger grew and he was finally arrested, scourged, whipped, beaten, spit upon, laughed at, blasphemed, and ruthlessly crucified in utter agony. Talk about troubles!

If Jesus, who loved perfectly, had troubles, guess what is going to happen to us? But the key is how we respond to it all. Troubles can either make us bitter or better. The choice is up to us. I know two men about the same age who have the same life-taking, debilitating disease. The life of their spirit is a study in contrasts. One man has become bitter, closed-in and callous. Seeking God in all of it has not been part of his response. The other man seems to be going in the opposite direction. As he opens his heart to God in all his troubles, I see his yearning to reach out to more people with the love and joy that God has given him. He has become better, softer, with an increased desire and ability to share the grace poured out in his heart.

We look to Jesus and see how he responded to the troubles. With the weight and immensity of all that was coming to him, he cried out, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” And because Jesus gave the Father all the troubles, The Father turned the tables and transformed this giving into eternal life. All you and I have to do, then, is follow Jesus’ lead and let Jesus turn the tables of our troubles and transform us into eternal life.

A troubled person with no way out of their troubles will become a bitter person. A person who knows that the way of their troubles is found in Jesus will be a better person in the sense of knowing a love and joy and peace that never ends.

Troubles come and you become bitter or better from them. Which are you?

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

2007-03-22T05:59:00.000-07:00

Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent

March 22, 2007

“They forgot the God who saved them.”

Psalm 106:21
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There is the quote, “There are no atheists in the fox-hole.” It is amazing how many of us can come running back to God when death is staring us in the face. Forgetting about God and going through life as if he did not really matter, when we are on our last breathes it is time to turn to God in love with all our hearts because, frankly, there is no one else to turn to. Or, in the same vain and on a lesser scale, we can be the type of person who only turns to God when things are going badly and we need help. When things are smooth and good we forget about God but when they get difficult we turn to God and cry out for help.

Consider how much we remember God in terms of our friendship with him. What type of friend are we to God if the only time we relate to him is when things are going bad and we go to him for help. What kind of friend is that? Not much of one. That would be more about being a user of God than a friend with God. Imagine if you had a friend that only paid attention to you when they needed help and wanted to get something from you. Would not you be tempted to say enough is enough and move on to find a true friend where there is mutual giving and receiving. Now, think about how good our God is. What if God decided to move on from us because the only time we went to him was in our trials and all we were there to do was use him and get something out of him? That kind of friendship is not about friendship and love but about being a user. But thank God, God is God and will never stop befriending us no matter how much we forget about him and use him. We might do that but God cannot do that. In John’s Gospel we read how Jesus calls us “friend”. And his friendship will never end (fri-end—a friend will never end).

How would you describe yourself? Are you more of a friend with God or a user of God? Do you give him prime time and attention each day or is it more your mode to turn to him only when the distress level has reached a certain point?

As Christians, we do not want to forget about God and use him but we want to remember him and love him. This “remembering” God is a planned thing. To remember (re- again; member- become apart of) - to become a part of him again, is a deliberate, ongoing action in our lives. When I was twenty years old eight people prayed over me to know the Holy Spirit in Christ the King Chapel at Franciscan University, I felt like the Holy Spirit asked me this question, “Will you pray each day?” In my heart of hearts and responded, “Yes.” In other words, “Would I be a friend to God and love him in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, for better or worse, all the days of my life?” I planned to be his friend and I carry out that plan each day. Even though it is ultimately all his love, we love and share with each other every day.

What is your deliberate plan to remember God and be his friend?

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

Wednesday March 21, 2007

2007-03-21T06:17:00.000-07:00

Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent

March 21, 2007

“The Lord is near to all who call upon him.”

Psalm 145:17

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Imagine yourself as a cup of milk. It can be no-fat, low-fat, two percent, whole or whatever- just a plain-jane glass of milk. This is how you are born- as a glass of white milk. Then comes the day of your baptism. To represent what happens in your baptism, imagine at least one-half inch of chocolate syrup is poured into you, the white cup of milk. All the liquid chocolate falls to the bottom and settles. You, the cup of milk, look basically like the same white cup of milk as before. But now there is rich, sweet chocolate deposit in you. Let us call that chocolate the Holy Spirit.

Sadly and to our own spiritual detriment it seems that the chocolate lays dormant at the bottom of our cups. Here we have the rich and sweet chocolate of the Holy Spirit in us but we remain an unaffected white glass of milk. We could become a sweet and God-rich Christian but the Holy Spirit, for whatever reason, is inactive in our lives. If we do not know the Holy Spirit and see his action in our lives, then God will seem far away.

The Holy Spirit is key to the whole Christian life. The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, gives us the power to personally know God. The only way we can know who God is, what he is about and that he is near to us is through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was sent out at Pentecost and makes Jesus present in every time and every place. Remember, twenty four-hours a day, seven days a week, just like 7-11 convenience stores, Jesus is near to us through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Why does God feel so far off for so many? Why is the chocolate of the Holy Spirit useless at the bottom of the cup? What are we going to do with this sweet, rich deposit that is unstirred, unused and ineffective in our lives? What if we sought to stir it up? What if we dedicated our lives to knowing how truly sweet and rich it is? What if we came to know that the God who created, loves, saves, forgives, and blesses the whole universe lives inside you and me? The Good News is that we can know and God wants us to know and this will all happen through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Why do I say that the key to Christianity is knowing the Holy Spirit? Because the Holy Spirit gives us the power to know God and leads us into all truth. The Holy Spirit is the key that unlocks the infinite mystery of God. And either the chocolate is stirred up and we know we are sharing in that mystery or it lays dormant and we feel a million miles away from God.

Thus, let us use all in our power to come to know the Holy Spirit! Stir into flame the gift you have received in baptism. Pray about the Holy Spirit. Pray that the Holy Spirit may be awakened and stirred up in your life. Have other people pray over you that you might know the life and passion and power of the Holy Spirit. Go to a Life in the Spirit Seminar. Read and learn about the Holy Spirit. Go to someone who you see is filled with the Holy Spirit and ask them how to get there. The way to draw near to our God of life and passion is to know who the Holy Spirit is.

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

Tuesday March 20, 2007

2007-03-20T07:32:00.000-07:00

Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent

March 20, 2007

“When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been ill a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to be well?’”

John 5:6

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Fr. John on the Radio- Fr. John will be giving a daily Lenten Reflection in Portland, Oregon on KBVM 88.3 FM at 9 AM and 1 PM each day during Lent until Easter. Tune in if you wish.

Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? Are you saved? Would not it be wonderful to point to a certain time and day when we surrendered to the Lord and say that where we became whole forever? But that is not how salvation works. Just as it takes time, experience and growth to become a mature man or woman, it takes time and growth to become holy like God is holy. It is God who makes us into saints as we allow him full authority to make us into the people he destined us to be from the beginning. Coming to the fullness of salvation is a journey, a process, an unveiling of the original blueprints that God had drawn up for us from time immemorial.

One way we can capture this journey/process of God totally unveiling the blueprint of us is by how we answer the question, “Have you been saved?” In response, we can talk about the past, present and future. Yes, we have been saved. It is an objective fact that Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, died and rose for the forgiveness of our sins. Through Jesus death and resurrection, we have all been offered the gift of eternal life in Jesus. Secondly, we are being saved in the present. Day by day we seek to grow in the grace of God through prayer and saying “Yes” to Christ in all we think, say and do. We must remember, however, that we can lose salvation. If we begin to reject Jesus, forgiveness and the eternal life he came to bring, we move away from salvation. The scriptures talk about those who are moving towards Christ are moving towards life and those who are rejecting him are heading towards their own destruction. Finally, we speak of the future. One day we hope to go to heaven to enjoy the joy of our salvation forever.

One way we can vision wellness is living in the grace of salvation and having peace. I always say, if you have peace about where you will be for eternity, you have it all. And if you do not have that kind of peace, you have nothing. Today in our scripture Jesus asks a man who had been ill for thirty-eight years if he wanted to be well. Jesus goes on to heal him physically. His body is healed and we can assume that his soul takes on that same healing. But what about all the people we love and pray for that are never healed physically? I still believe that Jesus stands before each one of them and asks, “Do you want to be well? Do you want to live in peace that comes from knowing that you will live forever with me?”

Wellness is an inside-out job. All of our bodies are going to break down and fade away. Just think about what your body will be like one-hundred years from today. But that doesn’t mean we can’t be well on the inside. That doesn’t mean we can’t have extreme peace flowing from our being. Coming to this peace is a process as Jesus unveils our blueprints. I remember this one woman vividly who seemed to so completely exude peace that comes from God making you well on the inside. She was dying from very painful pancreatic cancer. I went to visit her right before I left with a group of kids to a service project in Mexico for ten days. In the midst of all her intense suffering she asked me how “my” kids were doing. She handed me a $200.00 check in support of the trip. I was brought to my knees in her holiness. Here she was in extreme suffering and about ready to die and she was asking me about “my” kids and giving us money for our service project. She is one of the sickest people I have known on their deathbed. But she was one of the wellest people I have known.

She died while we were in Mexico. Now, she is well and will be well for always.

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

Monday March 19, 2007

2007-03-19T06:07:00.000-07:00

Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent

March 19, 2007

“The promises of the Lord I will sing forever.”

Psalm 89:2

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Make God big. Make Jesus big. Make the Holy Spirit big. What do I mean when I say make God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit big? Of course, we know that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are omniscient (all-knowing), omnipotent (all-powerful) and omnipresent (everywhere) and so how could God get bigger? Well, the point is whether or not we personally know how big God is. God is big and could not be bigger but do we know that in our hearts? Either we are disconnected from God and he feels small and not too helpful or we can come into an intimate knowledge of how big and powerful he is through the working of the Holy Spirit. We make God big and grow in our close knowledge of him by always focusing on him and who he is for us. One of the great ways we can focus on God and make him big is to memorize his promises to us in scripture and have those constantly floating around in our brains so as to transform our lives. Without further adieu, let us look at and put to memory some examples:

“We know that God works all things for good for those who love him.” Romans 8:28

“For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare, not for woe! Plans to give you a future full of hope. When you call to me, when you go to pray to me, I will listen to you. When you look for me, you will find me. Yes, when you seek me with all your heart, you will find me with you, says the Lord, and I will change your lot.” Jeremiah 29:11-14

“Study the generations long past and understand: has anyone hoped in the Lord and been disappointed? Has anyone persevered in his fear and been forsaken? Has anyone called upon him and been rebuffed?” Sirach 2:10

“Take delight in the Lord and he will grant you your heart’s requests.” Psalm 37:4

The Lord said to me (Paul), “My grace is enough for you, for in weakness power reaches perfection.” 2 Cor. 12:9

“Blest are the poor in spirit: the reign of God is theirs.” Matthew 5:3

“God chose us in him before the world began, to be holy and blameless in his sight, to be full of love.” Ephesians 1:4

Jesus said, “I have come that you may have life and have it to the overflowing.” John 10:10

“The grace of God has appeared, offering salvation to all.” Titus 2:11

“Thanks be to God who unfailingly leads us on Christ’s triumphal train, and employs us to diffuse the fragrance of his knowledge everywhere! We are an aroma of Christ for God’s sake, both among those who are being saved and those on the way to destruction.” 2 Cor. 2:14

“Here I stand, knocking at the door. If anyone hears me calling and opens the door, I will enter his house and have supper with him, and he with me.” Revelation 3:20

Memorize these and other scriptures that speak to you. Have them ever in your thoughts, focus on making God big, and dance and sing the promises of the Lord forever!

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

Sunday March 18, 2007

2007-03-18T07:29:00.000-07:00

Fourth Sunday of Lent

March 18, 2007

“While he (the Prodigal Son) was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him.”

Luke 15:20
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“Have I done anything to hurt you?” “I am sorry.” “Please forgive me.” How regularly do we employ these or similar types of sentences of communication? How common is it to seek reconciliation with God and each other within all the words we say each and every day? We know we can say a lot of words in one day alone but how many of those words are actively seeking to repair relationships that have, for one reason or another, gone south.

Recently a man asked me why so few people go to confession any more. Is it because we are flawless and sinless? I think we all know the answer to that question. Maybe we do not treat sin as a big deal. Sin separates us from each other and the ability to enjoying a loving relationship with God and each other. And it is this loving relationship with God and each other that is the deepest desire of any human heart. Since sin destroys what each of us wants most, it is a big deal that we must deal with. It is the biggest deal if we want to know and live the deepest desire of our hearts.

How can we move from sin being no big deal in our lives to being the biggest deal we need to deal with? Remember, it is the biggest deal in the sense that it is the obstacle to what we want most- loving relationship. Overall, of course, the biggest deal is to live in right and holy relationships with God and others. So, how do we get there? We need to get rid of our own sin. If you want to know your sin and it’s destroying effects, pray diligently to God each day to reveal to you such. Make going to confession a monthly habit. Get a good examination of conscience from someone, examine yourself and confess your sins. Employ words of reconciliation regularly in your day-to-day communication: “Have I done anything to hurt you?” “I am sorry.” “Please forgive me.” Again, the purpose of detecting your sin is to rid yourself of it by confessing it and moving to the most loving relationships possible.

What is on the other side of confessing your sin? With God, as we know, there is no risk. He always forgives! You can count on it. With another human being, well, that can be a different story. Maybe there will be forgiveness and maybe there will not. But, that does not stop us from our duty to ask each other for forgiveness when we know we have sinned against someone. If they forgive, praise God for all the mercy that will flow. If they do not forgive, know and be at peace that you have done your best in reaching out to “right” the relationship and you cannot make the other person forgive. That is their choice to withhold mercy but you must stand with a clear conscience because you have done what you could do to seek reconciliation.

I love the quote, “Christians, inform your face.” In other words, we have been forgiven by Jesus on the cross for all our sins but we often walk around planet earth moping. We have salvation and eternal life and if we know that in our heart it should show in our beaming smiles and bright eyes. Why are so many Christians sad and frowning so much? I think it is because we do not know how big and wonderful and life-giving and joy-producing forgiveness is! What if we made how we sin against each other and God a big deal? What if we confessed and forgave and let the infinite font of God’s mercy flow in our lives? I think a lot more Christians would be informing their faces and all the world about the JOY of our salvation.

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

Saturday March 17, 2007

2007-03-17T07:15:00.000-07:00

Saturday of the Third Week of Lent

March 17, 2007

“Let us strive to know the Lord.”

Hosea 6:3
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Fr. John on the Radio- Fr. John will be giving a daily Lenten Reflection in Portland, Oregon on KBVM 88.3 FM at 9 AM and 1 PM each day during Lent until Easter. Tune in if you wish.

I started one weekend homily by asking all those married five years or less how many hours they had put into the planning of their wedding. Usually, it was the woman who put in the most time and I got answers anywhere from fifty hours to over 200 hours. The point I was driving at is that we put a lot of time into preparing for the wedding day and the wedding day is just a day. Yes, it should be beautiful and celebratory, but why go through all the worry, stress and mess that can happen in trying to make the day so perfect and pronounced?

A few hours after Saturday Vigil Mass, I was talking to a recently married couple who do not go to my church and getting their feedback on my homily. I was moving to make the point that we put an awful lot of time into the externals of a wedding day and that it is just one day and that marriage is thousands of days in a lifetime that are to be filled with beauty. As I was talking about all the time we can put into the wedding, the wife said, “Of course we put all that time into it. It is the most important day in my life.” I disagreed immediately but I did not say anything about it- until my three homilies the next day.

Your wedding day is not the most important day of your life. The “Most Important Day” of your life is when you meet Jesus Christ! To really know Jesus Christ is to know we are forgiven. To know Jesus Christ is to know eternal life. A wedding day does not give us eternal life- Jesus Christ does. Your spouse is not your Savior- Jesus is.

How do we get to thinking that the wedding day is the “Most Important Day?” Who is the teacher teaching this false teaching? It is the culture. However, the culture often lies about what is true and good and lasting. But see what sway the culture has in convincing so many people that the wedding day is the “Most Important Day” and we better pour out our hearts into it. Believing this sway of the culture is silly and dangerous and can lead to a lot of destruction and divorce.

The “Most Important Day” is when you meet Jesus Christ. If you have not met Jesus Christ, you have not had the “Most Important Day” of your life and you want to get there. What if couples who are preparing for marriage put as much time and heart into getting to know Jesus as individuals and couples as they put into making the wedding day a gorgeous external experience? What if a wedding was all about striving to discover the love of God which makes all things beautiful and, without which, nothing remains beautiful?

The “Most Important Day” in your life is when you meet Jesus Christ. And the next most important day is when you meet him more fully in prayer, relationships, the sacraments, serving the poor, etc. And so on, forever. What if all married couples, what if all of us believed in the “Most Important Day?”

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

Friday March 16, 2007

2007-03-16T05:34:00.000-07:00

Friday of the Third Week of Lent

March 16, 2007

“Thus says the Lord; Return, O Israel, to the Lord, your God; you have collapsed through your guilt.”

Hosea 14:2

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“God allows U-Turns.” That is what out church sign reads as people buzz by in their cars on 148th Avenue. And I thank God that he allows U-Turns. So many times I am going to the wrong place and I would never be able to get to the right place unless I was allowed to U-Turn to God. I U-Turn all the time. I am sure I U-Turn thousands of times in a single week. Think about how miserable we would be and how our lives would end if God did not allow U-Turns. But God allows for U-Turns and that is called salvation. We move from misery to joy when we U-Turn away from the wrong places and turn it back to God.

I have an awesome U-Turn story for you. I take Monday’s off (Good luck! Can’t remember having a full Monday off for a long time) One Tuesday morning at our daily 8 am mass, I noticed someone totally new sitting in the pews. She came up to me after mass and asked if she could go to confession and talk. I told her I could hear her confession and we could schedule a time to talk as I had other appointments waiting for me. In the course of reconciliation she told me that she was driving by our church sign and parking lot the day before (Monday) when she felt inspired to come to church and confession. She made a U-Turn and pulled into our church. We were having a Communion Service like we do on all Monday’s and she was told that she could come back tomorrow (Tuesday) and that I would hear her confession. At this point I was pretty much up to speed on how she got to my church in her desire to go to confession.

The story continues. She shared with me how she had become Catholic almost a year ago at the Easter Vigil and that she had not stepped inside the church since then. I did not find out why and a lot of what I was thinking about in our ten minutes together was that God allows U-Turns. There is not a more effective or real way to U-Turn back to God than in the sacrament of reconciliation. I was thinking about how this daughter of God was U-Turning it back to God and how you get God when you come to God. You cannot do better than that! She U-Turned her car and her life back to God and God was going to absolve her all her sins. At this point I looked her in the eyes and asked the question, “Do you know what is presently written on our church sign?” She said, “No. I just saw that you were a Catholic Church.” I pointed out, “Our church sign reads, ‘God allows U-Turns.’ Isn’t that amazing? You are making a U-Turn to God and you did not know that the sign you passed said, ‘God allows U-Turns.’ In your U-Turning you will know forgiveness of your sins and you can enter the life of the church. Know what the sign says is true.”

God allows U-Turns. U-Turn to him and give him his turn with you so that he can turn you around to share with the so many guilty and despairing people you walk with each day that “God allows U-Turns.”

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

Thursday March 15, 2007

2007-03-15T10:39:00.000-07:00

Thursday of the Third Week of Lent

March 15, 2007

“Oh, that today you would hear his voice: ‘Harden not your hearts’”.

Psalm 95:8
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If you would, make a fist right now. Think about the size of your fist. They say that the size of our fist is about the size of our heart. Whenever you make a fist or see a fist, whether it is a mad fist or a fist that declares victory or whatever kind of fist it is, think of the heart. And remember always to take good care of your fist, that is, your heart.

Harden not you heart, the Lord God says. Don’t become bitter, hypercritical, cynical, judgmental, small-mined, vindictive, merciless… A hardened heart is a heart that does not have room for God, others and you. It is closed off to grace and mercy and redemption. With a spin on the whole heart and fist analogy, a hardened heart is your fist that is closed and clenched tightly so that nothing can get in. It is impenetrable. It cannot give, either; because it has it has not received what wants to be given to it.

Extending out analogy of the fist as a sign of a hardened heart, we know that the fist does not need to remain a fist. All the clenching and closing off of the bitterness, judgmentalness, small-mindedness, mercilessness does not need to continue on in a whole way of life. We can begin to relax and open up our clenched fists. All the suffering, ways we have been disrespected and maltreated, unfairness can be freed by us to go to Jesus. Remember, if you think life is unfair just look at the cross of Jesus Christ. Jesus did not clinch his fist. He opened his hands and heart and body wide and cried out in his crucifixion, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”

It is our choice. Clenched fist/hardened heart or open hands to freely give and receive. A hellish existence or the heavenly way. Hell is having a hardened heart where God, others, love, friendship and community are not allowed. It is the utter hopelessness of me. Heaven is all about having God, others, love friendship and community. It comes from having open hands; a heart that is willing to forgive and be forgiven without end.

How might your existence be hellish? Who is your heart hardened toward? Use all your heart, mind, body, soul and strength to move from clenched fists to open hands. The choice is to move from that hellish type of existence to the heavenly way. What is it going to be? Remember, if TODAY you hear his voice in these words you are NOW reading, harden not your heart.

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

Wednseday March 14, 2007

2007-03-14T08:44:00.000-07:00

Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent

March 14, 2007

“Moses spoke to the people and said: ‘Now, Israel, hear the statues and decrees which I am teaching you to observe, that you may live.’”

Deuteronomy 4:1

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Do you love and obey the law of the Lord at all costs or is it more just sitting on a shelf somewhere collecting dust? For our Jewish brothers and sisters the first five books of the Bible, that is the Torah (which means teaching or instruction), was the law and word of God which you would give your life for. The Torah was the heart, mind and person of God and to live your faith was to live according to the teaching of the law.

Let us not fool ourselves. The law can be very demanding. It is one thing to open the door for an elderly lady but it is quite another thing to forgive an enemy. It is easy to talk about how much I love Jesus in Church but how about when I am surrounded by a group of people who are glorying in sin or bashing on Christ and the church? Have you ever gone in front of an abortion clinic to peacefully pray and try to talk women out of having the abortion? The evil you feel is palpable.

There is the statement, “Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die.” Some deep meaning we can harvest from this statement is that we all want joy and comfort and peace and happiness of heaven but we are not willing to enter into the pain, suffering and death to get there. But Jesus teaches us that we got to go there before we go to heaven. Pick up your cross and follow me, my way, my law. First the cross and then the crown of heaven.

Is the Christianity I am living more about Jesus following me or me following Jesus? Because if the majority of my Christianity is more about Jesus following me than me following Jesus, then how much can I call myself a Christian. I should call it the religion of “Me”, because that is who I am following.

Ponder this quote: "If you believe what you like in the Gospel, and reject what you don't like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself." Augustine of Hippo. Is the reason for a lot of our sadness despair and crying is that we are making Jesus follow us into death and not following Jesus into life? The religion of “Me” is a death warrant.

Jesus stands before us today and says, “Now, sisters and brothers, hear, listen to and obey the laws statues and decrees I give you to observe, that you might live.”

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

Tuesday March 13, 2007

2007-03-13T07:15:00.000-07:00

Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent

March 13, 2007

“Peter approached Jesus and asked him, ‘Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?’ Jesus answered, ‘I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.’”

Matthew 18:21

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A theology class was talking about loving God. The professor asked the students to reflect on their own love of God. How was their love of God shown forth in their lives? One day the professor brought in a thin blank sheet of white poster board and asked the students to draw the face of the person that they were angry with or did not like. Then, the professor put the board on the wall, gave the students darts and told them to throw the darts at the face they drew. When the last dart was thrown, the professor took down the board and turned it over for the whole class to see what was on the other side. To their own dismay, there was a picture of Jesus damaged by all the dart holes. An obvious point here is that how we do or do not love others is how we do or do not love Jesus.

Peter, trying to love his Lord and Master, gives Jesus a very generous offer when he asks Jesus how much we are to forgive each other. He suggests seven times which means completely. Certain numbers have significance in the bible and a way we can remember seven is that it means heaven which is fully or completely. So, Peter offers to forgive completely and Jesus responds seventy-seven times which is eleven times seven times. Once we have forgiven seven times (completely), we are to forgive eleven times more than that! In other words, we are to forgive infinitely like Jesus forgives infinitely.

Forgiveness is the business of the Christian. In all our families, friends, neighbors and relationships there is ample opportunity to exercise forgiveness. I always say that the married relationship is a lot about forgiving and being forgiven much. If we are a Christian but are not in the business of forgiveness, then how empty is our faith?

Do you have any darts of unforgiveness in your hands? When we throw those darts at others, we throw them at Jesus.

A final challenge. I have only known a few to do this in life. What would our world be like if each of us lived by the rule that if we ever had the slightest inkling/sense that we somehow sinned against another person that we would immediately go to that person and restore that relationship through asking forgiveness if need be?

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

Monday March 12, 2007

2007-03-12T07:20:00.000-07:00

Monday of the Third Week of Lent

March 12, 2007

“A thirst is my soul for God, the living God.”

Psalm 42:3

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Fr. John on the Radio- Fr. John will be giving a daily Lenten Reflection on KBVM 88.3 FM at 9 AM and 1 PM each day during Lent until Easter. Tune in if you wish.

No other world religion professes what Catholics and Christians believe. Until Christianity, never was it known that God would become one of us. He would strip himself of the heavenly glory and become human like you and me in the incarnation. In this unprecedented happening, he who often seemed in such a distant place came near to us as possible. Further, he did not come near to us to punish us but that we might be saved in Jesus. He loves sinners and loves spending time with us, healing us with his saving presence. No God, past or present, has drawn so close and loved and forgiven us unconditionally. This, my bothers and sisters, is the Good News! Jesus becomes one of us that we might live forever.

One time I gave a homily on weddings. I started it our by asking couples who had been married five years or less how many hours they had spent putting into the “Wedding Day.” I got answers from fifty hours to over one-hundred hours. The point I was making was that the wedding is just one day while there are thousands of days that we should put our whole hearts and souls into. It is fine to plan and have a beautiful wedding day but much more important than the exterior beauty of the day is the relationship that the spouses will have with God and each other. I pondered if we put as much time into that as we did for the “Wedding Day” how things might be different. I was talking to a newlywed after my first mass of preaching this on Saturday night and her response was, “Of course I am going to put all this time into my “Wedding Day” because it is the most important day in my life.”

I disagree. The most important day in your life is when you meet Jesus. When you really meet Our Sovereign Lord and Savior is when you have the most important day in your life. Knowing Jesus, the Living God, is knowing eternal life. Again, culture is telling us lies. Through the culture many people buy the belief that the “Wedding Day" is the most important day in your life. The church and the bible, however, proclaim that the most important thing is knowing Christ.

Saul, a football player at a major university, was feeling really down. He broke his leg and was out for the season. He lived to play football and what he lived for was being taken away. He also had a troubled family life. He decided to give Jesus a try. One night in his dorm room he kneeled down by his bed and asked Jesus into his life. In powerful waves of love, Saul experienced Christ. That was the most important day of his life.

Have you had the most important day in you life? If not, you want to get there. If so, maybe you could share this with others who haven’t had the most important day of their life. Whether this is for you or other people please pray the following prayer. If you believe and keep asking, your life will be changed forever. You can pray to Jesus anytime and anywhere to invite him fully into your life.

“Lord Jesus, I have searched for love and hope in so many other places and the search has left me empty-handed. Now I turn to you and ask you to come into my heart and fill me with your love. Please forgive me for my sins and let me know your goodness forever. Thank you Lord Jesus that you are so near to me to save me. I love you and bless you and praise you this day and always. Amen.”

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

Sunday March 11, 2007

2007-03-11T09:15:00.000-07:00

Third Sunday of Lent

March 11, 2007

“But I tell you, you will all come to the same end unless you reform.”

Luke 13:3

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Image, image, image. The culture bows down before image. But it is the wrong image. It is exclusive, conditional and very terminal. Unless you are rich, beautiful, famous, etc., you do not belong. It is all so much about image and if you do not have the image you are out of luck. This kind of bowing down is a lie; such a sham that is hollow and empty. And if we go with the culture flow, look where we go. Do you see all the despair? Most of us are not rich, beautiful, famous, etc. and so we cannot even be considered by culture to be esteemed and loved. Even if we have the money, fame and beauty, there is nothing esteeming us that will last.

At each mass the outer-most garment I wear is a chasuble. On one of my many beautiful chasubles is a hand coming in to shape a pot of clay. The hand is the hand of God and the clay represents you and me. God is the Potter and we are the clay. We are to let God work his perfect and exquisite craftsmanship on us. The core work of any believer is to let the Potter work on us. God is not to be formed into us; we are to be formed into God.

Think about the Potter (God) trying to form the clay (you and me) into that perfect pot. As I imagine the perfect pot I see a big wrecking ball coming toward it. That wrecking ball is sin. It is coming toward that perfect pot of clay to shatter it. Sin shatters the pot of clay made by God. This shattering of our image by sin is something we are constantly dealing with. It is in our shattered lives that God bids us, “Reform.” Be formed again in God, by God.

One of the quotes we have put on our church sign is, “God allows u-turns.” Yes, praise God we can u-turn to him now. Praise God we can u-turn to him in scripture, prayer and church every day. Praise God that we can turn to him anytime, anywhere because we know that Jesus is open 24/7 like 7-11. But how often do we turn to God?

In many ways we have been shattered by the wrecking ball of sin. We want the pieces of our lives to be put back together. The longing is to be whole. Culture cannot and will not ever begin to be able to do the job. We look to the exclusive, conditional and terminal to put us back together. Only the Potter can. Let the Potter bow down to the ground and pick up your pieces. Gently and exquisitely he forms you into the perfection of his love.

Reform. Be formed again by the Potter. U-turn to God.

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

Saturday March 10, 2007

2007-03-11T09:12:00.000-07:00

Saturday of the Second Week of Lent

March 10, 2007

“Show us wonderful signs.”

Micah 7:15

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Each one of us needs these glasses. They allow for a special kind of seeing. You do not go to the store to buy these glasses. As a matter of fact, you cannot buy them. They can only be given to you. When wearing the glasses, you can see the heart of the universe. Through their lens, you see the invisible God becoming more and more visible.

I learned a lesson about these glasses when, right after graduating college, I traveled with my brother and a friend to Europe for seven weeks of backpacking. We were in Assisi, Italy and my brother was pretty sick, weak and tired with a severe soar throat. It was a Sunday and we had no idea where we could find medical help and a place to stay. We decided to go to mass and lo and behold one of the Franciscan priests from our university comes walking into church just before mass. We all saw it as an amazing work of God (you see, we had our glasses on) that God would send us to this mass out of the probably around thirty masses that would be offered at the various churches in Assisi that day. Fr. Dan greeted us with joy (“Joy is the infallible sign of God’s presence.” Leon Bloy- again, it can only be seen if we are wearing the glasses), and asked us how we were doing. We told him that my brother was pretty sick and without hesitation Fr. Dan asked us to join him in a praying over him.

Without hesitation, Fr. Dan turned to prayer. What if you and I did that all the time? What if we really believed in the power of prayer? So many of us want to see God’s signs of healing, peace and power and, yet, we do not pray. We keep going on about our pain, suffering and problems but we do not harken to God for the glasses to see him in it all. We want to see God but we hesitate, delay or do not go at all to God. What if, like Fr. Dan, we always turned to God in prayer without hesitation? What if our very first response was to look to God in prayer? We would be given the glasses and see the very power of God in our midst.

Let us pray: “Loving God, we pray for the glasses only you can give. We want to see the beauty you see and know the love that you are. Help us to know your saving and soothing power in our midst. When a worry or trial arises, without hesitation may we turn to you in prayer. You are Emmanuel, God-with-us, ever ready to show forth your power from the very center of our need. Without hesitation, before we turn to anything or anyone else, Lord, may we turn to you. Thank you for being ever-present. Amen.”

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

Friday, March 9th, 2007

2007-03-09T06:56:00.000-08:00

Friday of the Second Week of Lent

March 9, 2007

“When his brothers saw that their father loved Joseph best of all his sons, they hated Joseph so much they would not even greet him.”

Genesis 37:4

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This is the well known story about Joseph and his brothers. All the brothers become jealous of Joseph because he is loved “best” by Israel, their father. In their jealousy they plan to kill Joseph but they finally end up selling him off to the Ishmaelites as a slave for twenty pieces of silver.

Jealousy is an ugly sin that can lead to other ugly sins. We see that in the story of the brothers of Joseph. They are highly jealous of their father’s love for Joseph and so they totally betray their own brother by selling him off to a people they do not even know. The motivation for this cut throat rejection is that the brothers do not feel as loved as Joseph.

There are countless opportunities in our lives where we can play the, “I am not as loved as her or him” game. We compare our lives to their lives and we come up with the answer that I must not be as loved as them. He is brighter or more successful in his career so God must be smiling down more on him than me. She is so beautiful and thin and that means that she is more loved than me. We have had all this bad fortune which must mean that the love we have always wanted must have been withheld from us.

Like the story with Joseph, it is destructive to become jealous of others and act on that jealousy in life-taking ways. We all know that there is always going to be someone who is smarter, better, more likable, better looking, more successful, etc. than we are. So, if we are comparing with others to determine if we are loved then we will always come up short and become jealous because there is always someone out there who is better. We do not want to go to jealousy and all of its destructive arrows to ourselves and others.

How can we move away from being a jealous person? We can look to our jealous God for the answer. God is jealous in that he wants our eyes, our attention, our focus. He wants us to stop looking at others to determine if we are loved or not. Our jealous God wants us to look at him and, in looking into him, to dive into the sea of his love. Then you will know that you are the “best” loved of all his sons and daughters. All will know that same knowing as they look to God and not others.

One time in prayer a few years ago when I was struggling with being jealous, God asked me this question, “John, when will you believe that my love for you is enough?”

And so, I ask you, “When will you believe that God’s love for you is enough?”

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

Thursday March 8th, 2007

2007-03-08T05:35:00.000-08:00

Thursday of the Second Week of Lent

March 8, 2007

“Who can understand it (the human heart)?”

Jeremiah 17:8

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He was a monk who dedicated his life to prayer. There were a lot of people in the abbey and beyond who had big dreams for him. He was a brilliant man filled with the holiness of God. Oxford educated, many people thought he might well become the abbot someday and lead the whole community of monks as their spiritual father. I had the great fortune to have him as my spiritual director during two years of my seminary formation to become a priest.

He never became the abbot. Things never panned out. All the big dreams others had for him did not come to fruition. I remember at his funeral mass, how, the whole idea was brought up about judging him a failure as someone who did not nearly live up to his potential. The person challenging us not to judge his life, who happened to be the abbot, reminded us of the great mystery of the human person. We did not know all the physical, emotional and other things he struggled with. We did not know his human heart. While it would be easy in our human nature to say something along the lines that he wasted his talent, we should avoid going down that harsh path of thinking. Rather, we should uphold in compassionate prayer and embrace the infinite mystery of this human being who struggled so much in life.

We are so quick to judge! And our judgments can be so rash and severe without a tint of compassion. People have asked me whether I think people like Hitler or Manson are in hell. I tell them I do not know. Jesus is the one who decides and so I leave all that up to Jesus. But I do know that Jesus is mercy, within mercy, within mercy. I also know that I do not understand the human heart. My fellow human beings are incredible mysteries to be upheld in prayer and compassion. It is not my job to condemn others or figure out the sinner who is condemned after death.

You think you know the human heart? You don’t even know your own. Start asking questions to the person whose heart you think you know. Uphold that person in prayer and compassion as you listen to the answers. As we learn that the human heart is an infinite mystery filled with more sorrows and struggles and reasons than we could ever know, may our judgments be turned into compassion.

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

Wednesday March 7th, 2007

2007-03-07T05:34:00.000-08:00

Wednesday of the Second Week of Lent

March 7, 2007

“Anyone among you who aspires to greatness must serve the rest.”

Matthew 20:27

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What posters do young people have on the bedroom walls? What are the shows they are watching, things they are reading, music they are listening to? Who are their heroes and do these heroes have anything to do with greatness?

This year in Oregon we have the top ranked and fourth ranked senior in boy’s high school basketball players in the country. There is no doubt they are great players and they get a lot of press for being so. But we must take note of what society deems as greatness. Is greatness about trying to put a leather basketball through the rim with the goal to win an eternally meaningless basketball game? Is it being well-dressed and rich and famous? What does culture teach as greatness and what does Christ teach?

When I am with a couple preparing them for marriage I talk about how competition can destroy a relationship and that there is only one kind of competition that is allowed in marriage. I challenge the couple to a competition to out-love each other. If their whole focus is to serve each other with the food of heaven all the way to the glory of heaven, the marriage will be great. And this is the greatness Jesus came to teach us. It does not make the front page of the newspaper and the headlines of the news but it is true greatness.

Believe it or not, I have come up with an acronym for the word GREAT- God Redefines Everything; Agape Treatment. Yes, God has sent us the final and definitive word on what it means to be great; he sent us Jesus. In Jesus, God defines greatness for us. Greatness is found in imitating the Son of Man who has come, not to be served by others, but to give his whole life in service as a ransom for the many. This Agape treatment we are to give each other is the unconditional love that acts according to the intent that everyone we meet would go to heaven. We want the best, i.e. heaven, for others and we unconditionally serve them to that end.

Who cares about what culture calls greatness? What does Jesus teach with all his words and, most importantly, his body on the cross? Don’t you find it wrong that our youth do not have poster’s of Mother Theresa, John Paul II, the saints, and all holy women and men on their walls?

Go GREAT!

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

2007-03-06T06:52:00.000-08:00

Tuesday of the Second Week of Lent

March 6, 2007

“Why do you recite my statutes, and profess my cotenant with your mouth, though you hate discipline.”

Psalm 50:16

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Discipline comes from the word “disciple” which means “to learn.” To learn we must listen, think about, absorb and live. When we think about learning from God in prayer, how much time do we spend listening? Is the majority of our prayer about us doing all the talking or about how well we listen? It seems all too common that we do an awful lot of talking in our prayer and not much listening. It is if Jesus cannot get a word in edgewise. This is not good practice for a disciple! In the truth of what St. Peter said, as disciples we say, “Lord, to whom else should we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (See John 6:68)

Jesus has the words of eternal life! You and I do not. Jesus does not need to be changed into us. We need to be changed into Jesus. We become like Jesus by hearing and obeying his word to us. That means in order to truly become his disciples; we must listen to Jesus’ teaching and live according to it so that we might be transformed into him.

Disciples listen to the master and live out his words with all their heart, soul, strength and mind. A way Catholics ritualize the importance of listening to the master happens each mass before the gospel is read. We make the sing of the cross on our foreheads, lips and hearts. We make the sign of the cross on our foreheads and ask that they may be conformed to the mind of Jesus Christ. We make the sign of the cross on our lips so that we may always speak the life-giving words of the saving gospel to all. Finally, we make the sign of the cross on our hearts and pray that Jesus and the will of God will be what is most dear to us in this life.

As a disciple, our foundation rests on how we think. So we pray that we may be transformed by the learning God has for us as we listen to the one who has the words of Eternal Life. As we make the sign of the cross on our forehead, we pray that our mind will be so conformed such that it will be Jesus who will shine through in all our words (sign of the cross on our lips) and actions (sign of the cross on our hearts). But, all we say and do in life depends on how well we listen to what Jesus wants to say and do through us.

What if the world took seriously being a disciple and listened to Jesus. What if we stopped talking and started listening in prayer? So much of our Christianity is about Jesus following us rather than us following Jesus. Jesus following us is not Christianity.

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

Monday March 5, 2007

2007-03-05T06:12:00.000-08:00

Monday of the Second Week of Lent

March 5, 2007

“Lord, great and awesome God, you who keep your merciful covenant.”

Daniel 9:4

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I have asked many people what is astonishing about Jesus. Probably the most common answer I get is forgiveness. Jesus forgives unconditionally. No matter what the sin and who the sinner is, Jesus will forgive a truly repentant sinner. This is his covenant for us that will never change. He has sealed this covenant in his blood.

The convenience stores 7-11 can always be a reminder of Jesus unending mercy. 7-11 stores are open for business twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, all the year long. They are always open for business. And so is Jesus. He is always open to serve you and do the work he came to do. The work he came to do is to forgive! Whenever you see a 7-11 convenience store, remind yourself that Jesus is always open for business. He is ready to take your sin and shame and replace them with limitless mercy.

Jesus’ place of business is your heart. Whether you are at work, in the mall, on a plane, at school, home or church, on a mountain or beach or wherever you are, that is the place where Jesus does his business. One time I was in an airport and, from behind, I heard, “Hi, Fr. John.” It was a man who I knew from previous ministry. I asked him all about his family and we got updated. Near the end of the conversation he asked me when confessions were at my church and I told him and then asked him, “Would you like to go to confession right now?” (Fr. John, are you crazy? Asking a man to go to confession right in the middle of an airport with all these people around.) He did and it was awesome. Confessing his sins right in the middle of the airport as people were walking by. Tears trickling down as the Savior washes God’s child in tender mercy so that this child can run and play and sing free in God’s love once again. For, if the Son has set you free, you are free indeed.

You are forgiven. You are forgiven all the time, twenty-four seven, like 7-11. Sadly, in this country we are so consumed with work, business and making money. But the most important work and business is what Jesus came to do. He came to forgive and give us the freedom of knowing that forgiveness leads to eternal life. Yes, we are caught up with work but it is the wrong kind. We focus on so many trivial business pursuits in life and forget the most important work to be done.

And Jesus waits to get down to real business with you.

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

Sunday March 4, 2007

2007-03-04T08:07:00.000-08:00

The Second Sunday of Lent

March 4, 2007

“God took Abram outside and said, ‘Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can. Just so, he added, shall your descendants be.’”
Genesis 15:5

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Three main promises that were given Abram that spoke of God’s blessing were name, land and posterity. God would soon give Abram a new name and lead him into a new land with the blessing of many descendants. God says to look up into the heavens and count the stars and so shall your blessing be in your posterity.

Talk about generosity! We cannot even count all the stars. And that is going to be God’s blessing for Abram and every believer. Try to wrap your finite mind around this one. We live in galaxy where there are billions and billions of stars. Think about how long it would take to see and name and know all the stars that are part of our galaxy. Now, think about the fact that we are in just on galaxy of billions of galaxies. Think about all the stars God has made to look at. And the stars are a sign that points to the unending goodness God desires to flood every believer with. So, think about that goodness and generosity the next time you are star gazing.

The generosity of God will never be exhausted. We will always be able to dive in deeper to his goodness forever. There will always be more and this is the mystery we call life in God. Yes, God tells Abram that he will have descendants as many as the stars in the heavens but the life we have now and forever in God is much greater than simply having countless posterity. Eye has not seen nor has ear heard nor has it so much dawned on you and me what that will be like but we do know that it will be and it will be infinite goodness!

When we humbly walk up to receive Jesus in communion (which I hope we are taking every chance we can to receive his body and blood), Jesus is saying to us, “I give you all of me, forever!” Wow! The generosity of absolute forgiveness and eternal life is greater than all the trillions and trillions of stars there are. And our response to Jesus in communion is, “Amen.” We say “Yes” to the unending goodness of Jesus as he feeds us with his body and blood. We come to know that there is nothing more generous in this world than Jesus feeding us with his very body and blood.

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

Saturday March 3, 2007

2007-03-03T06:18:00.000-08:00

Saturday of the First Week of Lent

March 3, 2007

“God will then raise you high in praise.”
Deuteronomy 26:19

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What if heaven was set up with rooms according to the way we prayed the most in life so that when you died you would go there? Some speculate that the supplication room (praying for needs) would be packed full and the praise room would not have too many people there. What prayer room in heaven would you go to? In other words, is the center of your prayer supplication, intercession (praying for others), repentance, listening, adoration, praise, etc.?

I have been preaching on the importance of making Jesus big. What does that mean? Of course Jesus is big for he is the Lord God Almighty who takes away every sin and has defeated death. But it seems so many times that I see Christians who have little power for living the Good News. Jesus and his joy and life and freedom seem buried under the weight of so many people’s worlds. Often I think we give the problems all the honor and glory and they become bigger and bigger instead of giving our all-powerful Jesus all the honor and glory so that we can know just how big he is. Thus, when we, in a sense, pray to our problems and not to Jesus, our problems become magnified and Jesus gets smaller in our lived experience.

Let us go back to the supplication room example. There is nothing wrong with praying for all our problems and needs but there can be a tendency with this type of prayer to focus on our problems and not Jesus. In other words, we spend our time, focus and energy in prayer on problems instead of Jesus. The problems get the attention and glory and the one who can do something about the problems gets left out of the mix.

A crucial question to ask of ourselves about prayer is, “Where do we start with our prayer? Do we start out with God or do we start out with ourselves and all our problems?” A great quote that we would all do well to move towards in our prayer is, “It is time to stop telling God how big our problems are and start telling our problems how big our God is.” And how do we make Jesus and God big and our problems small? We praise Jesus. We praise him with all our hearts and he comes with power in the midst of that praise to heal, bind up, release, forgive, save, and let us see his glory.

Praise allows Jesus to be the starting point and center of our prayer. And we need Jesus’ power for living. Praise him and he will manifest his power and all the problems will get smaller.

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

Friday March 2, 2007

2007-03-02T13:28:00.000-08:00

Friday of the First Week of Lent

March 2, 2007

“You say, 'The Lord’s way is not fair!'”

Ezekiel 18:25

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“Life’s not fair!” We have heard that before or said that before or maybe we are saying in right now in our lives. If you want to see what is not fair, look at Jesus’ body on the cross. The Almighty God, The King of Kings and Ruler of all from whom all and blessings flow, crucified on a cross. The sinless one dying a most excruciating death because he was falsely accused as a sinner. Mortal man killing our immortal God. Talk about unfair! Could life get more unfair than Jesus dead on the cross?

Maybe it is all about how we measure fairness. If we just think about our short breathe on this mortal coil, then life can seem very unfair. Innocent people dying from war, starvation, AIDS, cancer, accidents, etc. Good fortune for the people who commit evil and those who are doing the good having bad fortune. However, if our focus is limited to this life alone, we are severely limiting ourselves. We might be thinking small and the greatest idea that we have about our lives is that we should all get eighty years to fulfill our dreams down here. That is small thinking because all of our dreams will not be fulfilled down here.

St. Paul says we are the most pitiable of all people if our hope in God is limited to this life alone. Our hope is for our unseen God and we are desperate for that day to happen. Again, if we limit our thinking of the unfairness of life on earth, we look to Jesus as our leader in the faith. He lived the most unfair life ever lived! Perfect love came to offer his life for our salvation and we cut his life way short by murdering him on a cross at age thirty-three. And the one on the cross said to you and me, “Pick up your cross daily and follow me.”

We think as humans beings think and not as God thinks. Jesus teaches us that this life is not what it is all about. He says that we will suffer, we will have our crosses and life will be unfair. He wants us to leave the small thinking that life is all about our short breathe on earth and how unfair it can be to the big thinking about eternity. Eternity is fair! It is the most fair thing anyone of us can have.

I do not want to make light of the unfairness in this life because I know we have powerful emotions and feelings when life is unfair. But, I do want us to focus on what is fair instead of giving our time and energy to what is unfair. Yes, the sooner we learn that life on earth is unfair, the better. But what is fair in all this unfairness? Is eternal life with Jesus and all the friends of God fair? Is it fair that God is good- all the time? How fair is it that Jesus forgives us 70x7 times, that is, infinitely? Is it fair that the worst sinner can be saved by Jesus with their last dying breath? Is it fair that the God-man will never stop loving his enemies, no matter what they do to him? Is Jesus fair?

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

Thursday March 1st, 2007

2007-03-01T07:37:00.000-08:00

Thursday of the First Week of Lent

March 1, 2007

“Treat others the way you would have them treat you.”
Matthew 7:12

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I just heard this story and found it curious. This girl picked up her friend at college and drove her to see her boyfriend. Along the way, the girl who was getting a ride asked if she could stop and get her boyfriend some flowers and a card. They did and she was going to give the flowers and card to her boyfriend at the bowling alley where he was bowling in the bowling league that night. My questions were, “Does this guy even like flowers? How would he feel about getting flowers around his other friends? I know that it is the thought that counts but how much do the flowers mean to him and how much do they mean to her?”

I think a lot of times we love others based on ourselves rather than on the person we are trying to express our love to. Yes, we are commanded to treat others the way we want to be treated but that means doing what really speaks to their hearts which might be something that really would not be of too much interest to us. For the sake of example, say you want to send someone out for a nice dinner. So, you really like this fish house and you get them a hundred dollar gift certificate there. But, unbeknownst to you, that person does not like anything about the taste, smell and thought of eating fish. What they really like is pizza. And they like it thin crust. And there is a certain pizza parlor that is their favorite. The question is how far will you go to find out how you can best communicate your love for them by doing what most speaks to their heart. I mean it would not be difficult at all to find out that this person really likes pizza and what their favorite pizza place is. And just think how loved the person getting the pizza certificate there would feel compared to getting one for a fish dinner.

One time I was watching the play “Godspell” and there was a particularly moving part in it for me. John the Baptist was baptizing in the Jordan River and Jesus came on the scene. He was greeting all those he came to befriend and save. What was interesting was that he greeted each person differently. He “read” the person to see how they wanted to be greeted. To some he gave a hug, others got a handshake, others a wave of the hand, some a high-five… Seemingly, he was trying to greet each person in a way that they felt most comfortable. I took it as Jesus loving them right where they were at in a way they felt the most honored. Then, at near the end of the play when Jesus was saying good-bye to his friends, Jesus remembered how he greeted each friend when he first met them at the Jordan. It was so moving because Jesus' love was about speaking to each particular friend’s heart in a way that it could be most spoken to.

Is my love really speaking to another person’s heart? How far have I gone to find out what really moves them and makes them feel honored and loved because I have gone the extra mile to find out exactly what most speaks to them?

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

Wednesday February 28, 2007

2007-02-28T07:18:00.000-08:00

Wednesday of the First Week of Lent

February 28, 2007

"The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: ‘Set out for the great city of Nineveh and announce to it the message I will tell you.’"
Jonah 3:1

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Many times I have told my congregation and other people, "You do not want me in my pride, small ways, selfishness and all the other ways I am not like Jesus. You want Jesus and I want to give you Jesus. But in order to give you Jesus I must pray! If I do not pray I will never be able to give you Jesus because I will not have him to give. And you do not want me! The sinful me I offer does not give hope or salvation. Only Jesus does. So I must know Jesus and his message. And the way to know Jesus and his message is to pray. That is why I pray and I pray and I pray."

If you know me, you know I love Catherine of Siena’s, "Heaven is with us all the way to heaven." We can always make grand, magnify, amplify, broadcast the message of Jesus just like Catherine of Siena, Mary the Mother of Our Lord, or any other Christian who has surrendered to Christ in their lives. Thus, based on Catherine’s quote, I like to keep telling others, "Heaven is with us all the way to heaven. Forgiveness is with us all the way to the land of the forgiven. We are blessed all the way to heaven. We are loved all the way until the love of heaven. Goodness is with us all the way to the perfect goodness of heaven." And we could sing and speak and live forever the message of Jesus.

Quite frankly, there are times when about the last thing I want to do is be up in front of people with all eyes on me waiting for me to give guidance, wisdom, truth. So I pray and beg the Lord to change the message I am tempted to give about me and not wanting to be up in front because I am tired or whatever. I pray and beg the Lord that the message will be about him giving hope of salvation and not about me being tired or whatever.

What is your message? As a Christian, the message of my life is not about me. It is not about that I am tired or whatever. It is about who Christ is for me. It is about what Christ has done, is doing and will do for me and you if we let him. It is about following Jonah’s advice to turn back to God so that God can do his incredible work in you so that you will have an incredible, life-saving message to share with the world.

Remember, people do not want you, they want Christ in you.

The message is Christ. And we speak and sing and live his love always and forever. From the mountaintops of our lives, we magnify, amplify and shout out to all the message of Jesus. But how do we always keep focus on Jesus and not ourselves? We keep turning to him. We pray and we pray and we pray.

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

2007-02-27T12:29:00.000-08:00

Tuesday of the First Week of Lent

February 27, 2007

“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted”
Psalm 34:18
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You gotta be a little cracked for the light to get in! So, it follows that you gotta be a lot cracked to let a lot of light in. How much light do we want?

I am the youngest of eight boys. It takes a lot of food to feed eight boys. Sometimes the food would run short and there would be “disputes” over who would get what. One time there was a “dispute’ between my two oldest brothers over the last potato chip. Who would get it? My oldest brother came to a quick solution. He made a fist and smashed the chip into many, many pieces. Now there were many, many “little chips” to be shared because the “big chip” was cracked into many “little chips”.

How about considering out lives as potato chips? You and I are “big chips.” But, as “big chips” we do not want to be cracked. Don’t show any cracks in the armor. Do not be weak. Do not be vulnerable. Do not show you are broken and act like you have your act all together. And this “uncrackness” is all such a sham and lie!

Think of how St. Peter was like a cracked potato chip. Peter did not even know how to be a fisher of men and Christ not only wanted him to do that but to have the authority of being the first shepherd of the church. Fr. George Montague comments on how Peter allowed himself to be cracked open for the world, “Peter told and retold the story of his own weakness and how the Lord touched him. When Peter preached, he preached from his weakness with the power of God. And that is what converted the Roman world and that is what will convert us, and the people around us if they see the power of God has touched us.” (Manning, “Stranger to Self Hatred” pg. 36)

The choice is before us. To be a big chip that acts like it has got it all together. To be a liar, sham and fraud. No cracks and no light getting in to feed and fill with eternal, overflowing power. To be “uncracked” thus to die without the power of God. Or to forsake the sham and the lie and to say we are who we are.

Be honest and be cracked. The more cracked we are, the more light gets in. The more light gets in, the more we can feed the others. The more pieces we are broken into before the Lord, the more people we can feed. Just like St. Peter, we tell and retell the story of how God has touched us in our weakness with his almighty power. And that is the conversion that will convert the world. And that conversion is what this world is desperate for.

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

Monday February 26, 2007

2007-02-26T09:18:00.000-08:00

Monday of the First Week of Lent

February 26, 2007

“The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the whole assembly of the children of Israel and tell them…”
Leviticus 9:1

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God wants to deliver his teaching through us. In our scripture verse today we read how the Lord is speaking through Moses to teach the people how to live. Through Moses, God tells the children of Israel that should not steal, lie, rob, defraud, hold grudges, take revenge, etc. These are all prohibitions of what you should not do as a follower of God. Also, the Lord teaches through Moses what a follower of God should do, like become holy, not stand by idly when your neighbor’s life is at stake, forgiving your brother from your heart, loving your neighbor as yourself, etc… Thus, we see Moses teaching what we should and should not do as followers of God.

Many times in my own life and in viewing other Christians, I have seen us taking a minimalist approach to our following of Christ. The focus is on all the prohibitions and what we cannot do as Christians. This minimalist approach is sadly limiting and a lame definition of what it means to be a Christian. Of course we are called not to sin but it leaves out all we can do for the Kingdom of God that has been poured out into our hearts through baptism! When we focus on that, when we think about what we can do with the power of the Kingdom within, then that is when Christianity becomes the ultimate fascination.

This past Christmas I cut my finger with a knife and it needed stitches. I ended up in the emergency room on Christmas night. The intake person was asking me what I did and I told her I was a priest and that she was loved. Visibly moved, she told me thanks because it had been a rough Christmas day for her. You see, brothers and sisters, God always wants to deliver his teaching through you and me?

Do you believe that? Do you believe that God always wants to deliver his teaching through you? At every opportunity. If not through you then through who? Moses is not the only speaker. So, if we agree that God wants to speak through you to his people at every opportunity, then what teaching does he want to deliver through you? Pray about it, receive it and deliver it- you have to do all three! And remember, focus on all that we can do as Christians because the Kingdom of God has come and is within us. Teach people about the ultimate fascination of following Jesus.

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

Sunday February 25, 2007

2007-02-25T12:47:00.000-08:00

First Sunday of Lent

February 25, 2007

“The Lord, the God of our fathers, brought us out of Egypt with his strong hand and outstretched arm. “
Deuteronomy 26:8

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Maybe we should all go to prison. I have been to prison. I went there this past Christmas. I was so fortunate to go. But I was not sentenced to go there. I was asked if I could celebrate a mass there on Christmas afternoon and I am so grateful I had the opportunity to do so. I learned a lot and was deeply moved in my two hour stay at the women’s prison on Christmas day.

That day during mass a couple of the women who were in prison shared how that they were not free when they were living outside the prison walls and how they had become free since living in prison. What an interesting point to ruminate on. While living in the free world they felt incarcerated and when they were incarcerated they finally became free.

Now, what I am not proposing is that we should all break the law such that we would be sentenced to prison in order to become free. What I am proposing is true freedom and we can look at what it took for these women to find it. You see, these women have lots of time and little distraction in prison to come to God and ask to be released from their prison of sin to enjoy true freedom. We, too, can make time and clear distraction in order to let Jesus lead us to true freedom. True freedom is knowing Christ and his salvation. It is knowing that we are not sent to prison and death because of our sins and mistakes. True freedom is knowing that we are loved and forgiven- all the way to heaven. As one woman shared, a major thing she learned in prison that she is not a mistake even though she made the mistake that sent her to prison. True freedom is not about physically being able to go and do and wherever you want when you want. Rather, it is knowing and living according to the way of Christ which is the way of everlasting life. We see this way of life foreshadowed as Moses is going to lead the Israelites out of the oppression of the Egyptians. Jesus, the New Moses, will come to lead every sinner out of their spiritual prison to the land of true freedom.

St. Paul talks about being set free “from” so that we can be free “for”. Yes, we are set free “from” sin so that we can be free “for” Christ. That is the life of a Christian and that is the way of everlasting. Like St. Paul, let us make ourselves prisoners to Christ. Let us sentence ourselves to Christ who can only set us free. It is being imprisoned to Christ that we find true freedom. You are not a mistake and neither am I. Even the person on death row who made that grave mistake can be set free from the physical and spiritual sentence of death and know true freedom.

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

Saturday, February 24th, 2007

2007-02-24T06:35:00.000-08:00

Saturday after Ash Wednesday

February 24, 2007

“If you remove from your midst false accusation”
Isaiah 58:9

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I remember speaking with a parishioner who was pretty upset with me. I asked why and she said that I intentionally “blew her off” one day while greeting people after mass. I said I am sorry that she saw it that way but that I would never intentionally ignore her. She said it was intentional and that was that! What could I do? I asked her for forgiveness and she made clear to me that that wasn’t going to be happening. Bummer! I told her that forgiveness would be the Christian thing to do.

Obviously, I felt falsely accused in this situation. This woman had decided it was my intention to ignore her. I, for my part, know that it was not my intention to ignore her. The situation is that I had no reason to ignore her and there are always a lot of people vying for my attention after mass and I try to get to as many of them as possible. Many walk by and many who are standing in line leave before I can get to them. And, as a priest, it isn’t exactly in my vocabulary to ignore people and especially someone who I do not have any problems with.

But she decided that I willfully intended to ignore her after mass. My question is, “How could she know that?” And how about all the accusations I make in my life about why other people do what they do? How do I know? How do I really know their innermost heart? What is the true story behind all that they have done? Am I big enough to so easily and readily and harshly accuse another acting like I know the mystery of that human person? Beware, because that is dangerous business and can become sinful very quickly.

If you know me, you know I love to have scripture quotes, quotes, poems, alliterations, acronyms, my own personal axioms, etc. running around in my brain. One of my personal axioms is, “People are doing the best they can with what they got.” So, for example, if a person has never really been shown love or honesty or positive speech growing up then there is a good chance that they will not have that in their repertoire until they are given that and choose the grace to change.

Let us all be vigilant with how we can so easily and readily and harshly accuse others knowing that it is safe to assume that people are generally doing the best they can with what they’ve got.

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

Friday February 23rd, 007

2007-02-23T13:17:00.000-08:00

Friday after Ash Wednesday
February 23, 2007

“Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?” Matthew 9:15

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Ten minutes in a twenty-four hour time span is barely a blip on the screen. It is very doable. Each of us could set a time and place for those ten minutes each day. It would be no big deal to do that, right? Or maybe it would be a big deal?

A Christian song offers this enticingly provocative question, “What if his people prayed?” Yes, what if every person on this earth was committed to praying for ten minutes a day? We could call that praying each day for ten minutes the ten minute rule. How would our world be different?

I traveled around the United States for two years doing evangelistic retreats for youth. The goal was to invite the youth into the good, loving and saving relationship with Jesus Christ lived out in the church and the world. One of the most common things the youth would say about coming to personally know Christ was, “I did not know that you could get to know God and have fun at the same time.” That sentiment needs to be looked by us all who are in the church. Do we have joy with our God?

If we do not have joy with our God then we do not have our God! A joyless Christian is an impossibility! You cannot be in the presence of Jesus and be sad. So, if you are sad, you are not truly in the presence of Jesus. The disciples of John asked Jesus why his disciples did not fast and Jesus told them that they could not mourn while with him (Jesus). So why is there so much sadness and mourning in the church? If that is our life with God, then why would the unchurched ever want to walk in our doors?

So, let us get back to the ten minute rule. No big deal or a big deal? I propose that it is a huge deal. I think it is revolutionary. It is a revolutionary deal that can lead to a continual explosion of joy in your world. Only Jesus can give continual joy and if we are not going to him to get that each day that is the reason for our sadness.

Let us make a deal. Obey the ten minute rule for one year- one year. Commit to a prayerful time and place each day for ten minutes for one year and see what happens. Watch mourning and sadness flee. Learn why Christians are always smiling and laughing so much.

Live the confronted life!
+Fr. John

Thursday After Ash Wednesday

2007-02-22T07:20:00.000-08:00

Thursday after Ash Wednesday

February 22, 2007

“I (Jesus) say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church.”
Matthew 16:13-19

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Two points I want to share today. The first point is to ask yourself, “Who founded the church I am presently attending? The choice is either the Divine Christ or a mere mortal. Today, in our scripture, we see Jesus founding the church on St. Peter which has continued in unbroken unity to our present Holy Father, Pope Benedict. Every other church that exists was founded by some mortal who broke off from the church Jesus founded. Second, Jesus founds the church on St. Peter, and, in turn, on us all.

Today we celebrate the Chair of St. Peter, apostle. How would you like to be St. Peter? Jesus, The Divine Messiah, Savior and Lord says to you, “I am going to build my Church on you! On me? Woe! The manifestation and revelation of Jesus is going to come to and through my body? Like Our Most Beautiful Mother Mary we ask, “How can this be?” I am just a poor pauper begging for bread and you want to build your church on me, Dear Jesus? Don’t you think you better rethink this proposal?”

Now, rekindle what Isaiah said about who the Israelites would be for the nations, “See, darkness covers the earth, and thick clouds cover the people; but upon you the Lord shines, and over you appears his glory. Nations walk by your light, and kings by your shining radiance. Raise your eyes and look about; they all gather and come to you: your sons come from afar and your daughters in the arms of their nurses. Then you shall be radiant at what you see.” Isaiah 60:2-4

What an image! Because of our radiance, nations and kings shall stream toward us and walk in the radiance of the light God has given us! Wow! Coming out of the dark of the world, all people come into light of us, the church, who are radiant with light.

Let us try a little exercise right now. Just repeat out loud the following words: “Fr. John. Are you trying to tell me that I will be radiant at what I see? Are you trying to tell me that when I see Jesus, I will become radiant with light? Are you telling me that nations and kings will exchange the darkness of sin for the light of Christ when they see the radiance you have poured out into my soul? Is it true that all the daughters and sons from far off will see the light you have given me and come home to you because in me they have found you? How can it be? But you will it and so LET IT BE!!!”

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

Ash Wednesday February 21, 2007

2007-02-21T08:23:00.000-08:00

Ash Wednesday
February 21, 2007
“Rend your hearts, not your garments.”
Joel 2:13
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Here we go! Welcome aboard to our Lenten Journey 2007! Once again, we get to dive into the mystery of God by diving into his Word! The mystery of God will forever be discovered by us. We just go deeper and deeper without ever exhausting it. If that is not cause for excitement, then nothing is in this world. Thank you all for joining me as we seek to dive into the heart of God as if we were diving into an ocean laden with unspeakable treasures on the ocean floor.

Live the confronted life! That is going to be a theme that I sign off each day with during Lent.

Recently meeting with a couple who I am preparing for marriage, I asked them about their chastity. Were they following God’s plan for their bodies in terms of how they relate to each other physically? When I asked them the question, they turned their eyes and heads away from my eyes, their faces blushed with red, and one said to the other, “I told you he would ask!” The other one did not think I would ask about that in the first meeting! But I did. I confronted them with the truth of God’s love. Just as I expect to be confronted by anyone who calls themselves Christian or who loves me. I want to choose love and life and God’s ways. And I want everyone I know, from engaged couples to married couples to the elderly to kids, to do the same.

If we do not live the confronted life, we can choose the life of sin and darkness- a life apart from God and his power, healing and forgiveness. If we do not live the confronted life, we can lose our marriages, friends and hope. We keep getting farther and farther from God’s ways and pretty soon we are in over our heads.

That is why we have marriage preparation- so those getting married will confront their lives. That is the purpose of church- to have the Gospel and the Eucharist and the Christ-filled community put before us, challenging us to become Holy as the Lord is Holy. That is why spouses and families should pray together each day- so that Jesus Christ will be the standard of all we think, say and do. That is why we go to confession. And on and on.

Are you living the confronted life? If not, what will you put in place to do so? Lent is a clarion call to confront yourself. Notice I wrote “yourself” and not “others.” Time to quit rationalizing, hiding, denying and tear your heart open to God and others so you can grow in the mystery of God’s love.

Live the confronted life!

+Fr. John

Christmas Day Dec. 25th

2006-12-25T12:03:00.000-08:00

Christmas Day
December 25, 2006

“The shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go, then, to Bethlehem to see this thing that has taken place.”
Luke 2:15

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Merry Christmas! Happy Birthday, Jesus! The JOY is uncontainable! Thank you for journeying with me through Advent to Christmas! I pray that you will choose to allow Jesus become bigger and bigger for you so that all the problems, sufferings, and sin may become smaller and smaller in comparison. Thank you for your faith, your love and your friendship as we march on to our true home in heaven. Look forward to connecting with you in Lent!

Exciting News! My book will be out in about 3 months...

If you want to see a 40 second sound bite at what I do at some conferences: http://youtube.com/watch?v=6Zatf9uARUo

If you want to give me a "You are Loved" story or sign my guest book: http://www.uareloved.com/

Today is Jesus’ Birthday! What should we get him for his Birthday?

I would like to suggest where he was born to help us with the answer. Jesus was born in Bethlehem. With the shepherds, let us go to Bethlehem. The word “Bethlehem” means “House of Bread.” Isn’t it fitting that the one who was born at the “house of Bread” becomes the Bread of Life for the entire world? And Mary, The Most Lovely Mother of God and Our Most Lovely Mother, gives birth to the Bread of Life by her full surrender to God. And I thank that is all Jesus wants for Christmas- that we would fully surrender to his plan for us. To try and become the perfect friend to our perfect friend- Jesus.

St. Catherine of Siena imaged it this way, “O Mary, may you be proclaimed blessed among women for endless ages, for today you have shared with us your flour. Today the Godhead is joined and kneaded into one dough with our humanity- so securely that this union could never be broken.” Isn’t that beautiful? Mary is sharing her flour, The Bread of Life, so that he can be kneaded into us with the one dough of friendship in a bond that can never be broken. And what Jesus wants for us this Christmas is to fully surrender to him being kneaded in us.

How can we let Jesus be kneaded in us? How do we become the perfect friend to our perfect friend? Let us remember why the Bread of Life came to the earth in the first place. Through sin, we had lost our true home and we had no way of getting there without divine help. Jesus came to earth to be the WAY back to our true home. He came to be the Savior who takes away all the sins of the world. Forever and ever, he pours out mercy and forgiveness and eternal life on us! That is his gift for us. And the best way we can make a gift-giver feel good about their gift is to rejoice and enjoy it to the full! Jesus just wants to be kneaded into us and be ecstatic with mercy, forgiveness and everlasting life. So, the gift Jesus most wants from us all this Christmas is our sins. Isn’t that a strange gift to give to Jesus? You and I would not want sins for Christmas. But, then again, you and I are not The Messiah, The Bread of Life who takes away the sins of the world.

GO TO CONFESSION! Give Jesus want he wants most this Holy Christmas Season. Thousands of people are reading this. If only one of you goes and makes a good confession, then it is all worth it to me. Think about Jesus being kneaded into you as you surrender your sin to him!!! Finally, I would love to hear your story of what The Bread of Life does for you when you go to confession.

Merry Christmas!
Love is spelled T-I-M-E,
Fr. John

Fourth Sunday of Advent Christmas Eve Dec. 24th

2006-12-25T07:46:00.000-08:00

Fourth Sunday of Advent Christmas Eve

December 24, 2006

“Thus says the Lord: You, Bethlehem-Ephrathah too small among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel.”

Micah 5:1

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Fr. John's Web site: Web site- www.uareloved.com

Ever had a bad headache like a migraine? Migraines are amazing and amazingly painful. I used to get cluster migraines. I would usually get about 5-7 of them within a two week period. They would last anywhere from five to fifteen hours. Talk about pain. Usually within about five minutes warning, I would have a full blown migraine and the pain was often severe enough that I would be vomiting(sorry bout that detail). I even ended up going to the emergency room several times to get help for the intense pain.

And this incredible pain that put an earthquake on my whole body was caused a microscopic, unseen to the natural eye, nerve. How could something so small become so big?

Too small. Born in an unnoticed, backyard barn in Bethlehem. Raised in no-name Nazareth. There was no kingly or stately appearance about him, he looked just like any other man. An average-Joe carpenter who was born in such a small way and raised in a small town. How could something so small become so big?

But that is the work of God- he makes small big! You know the scriptures… “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed you could say to the mountain: Be thrown into the sea and it would.” Thousands of people converted at the power of the apostles preaching on the day of Pentecost. The lame walk, the blind see, sins are forgiven and the dead are raised to life. God making Big things through small people like you and me.

It is all about going small. Remembering we are no-names born in a backyard barn. We take after Jesus in seeking, being and living the small. We let the BIG (an acronym for Believing in God) come in to our small and move mountains, heal the lame and raise the dead. Yes, in our smallness, we go BIG! We pray and become the prayer of the Baptist, “He (Jesus) must increase and I must decrease.” John 3:30

Love is spelled T-I-M-E,

Fr. John

Saturday of the Third Week of Advent Dec.23rd

2006-12-23T13:50:00.000-08:00

Saturday of the Third Week of Advent
December 23, 2006

“The Lord shows sinners the way.”
Psalm 25:8

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So, you ask me how I am doing? And I say, “Blessed.” Blessed by the baby that we celebrate the birth of on December 25th every year. Infinitely blessed that he is The Savior of the world. Blessed that he is saving a sinner like me. Unspeakably blessed by the faith of believers like you. I get a front row seat in seeing Jesus pour out his salvation in sinner after sinner. Knocked down by seeing the power of God at work through the truth that, “The Lord shows sinners the way.” Psalm 25:8

Blessed by a man who shines Jesus with his being. It is the eternal smile in his current pain and what he is facing. Seeing the undeniable JOY of his heart when you look into his eyes. In his late 50’s, he is a former heroine addict and health care worker. He cannot move his head from side to side because his neck is stiff like concrete. The humiliation of not being able to control bodily functions is very hard for him to cope with. The role reversal of being cared for by people that he used to care for. The Parkinson’s brings neurological, mental and physical deterioration. He has three to five years to live. He tells me that he has computed the average age of the patients in the facility and it is 84.6 years old. He beams JOY because he says Jesus has forgiven him. He just wants to share Jesus with everyone in the facility. Glowingly, he talks about if Jesus can raise people from the dead, and he can, that is he full of power and can do anything. He shares how he came back from the dead- that he was in and out of life and death for 7 hours and he came back to tell us about the one who is on the other side who raises us from the dead. With deep affection and inspiration, he talks about how his father, a big man over 200 pounds, just lets God fill him with love. His dad radiates love. Think about his man that I share with you. Dying. Degenerating. Deteriorating. And full of JOY! Wanting everyone to know Jesus.

The baby to be born in two days is Our Savior. He is the Lamb of God who takes away every sin from every sinner for all of time. He comes to us in the middle of our sin, pain, degeneration, humiliation, deterioration and dying and shows us the way.

Good News!

Love is spelled T-I-M-E,
Fr. John

Friday of the Third Week of Advent Dec. 22nd

2006-12-22T19:06:00.000-08:00

Friday of the Third Week of Advent
December 22, 2006

"Hannah brought Samuel and presented him at the temple. Hannah said, “Now I give him to the Lord; as long as he lives, he shall be dedicated to the Lord.”
1 Samuel 1:24-28

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I love to play tennis. One time I played a really good player. He hits shots that I never have come close to encountering in an opponent before. You might say my experience was a close encounter of a very good tennis player kind (smiles). This player went to a Division 1 major college on a full-ride. Besides being gifted athletically, what was the reason for his level of success? Dedication. He told me about how year after year he would practice tennis four to six hours a day. Through his dedication he became a very good tennis player who performed at a high level.

You and me as Christians want to perform at a very high level. We want to be like Jesus who is full of grace, love, goodness and salvation. But in order to get there we must be dedicated to the person of Jesus Christ!

In our scripture for today we learn how Hannah dedicated her son Samuel to the Lord. My mind, upon reading this, went right to my own mother. When my dad asked my mom to marry him within three weeks of meeting her (Yes, I do not recommend proposing after 3 weeks of meeting someone!), my mom replied, “Let me do a novena for nine days and then I will tell you my answer.” Obviously and thankfully, my mom said, “Yes.” But, she only said “Yes” after she sought out what God wanted her to do. An amazing story, right? I just think of her dedication to God from the get-go. Always trying to follow God and dedicate her life, her husband and her family to God and his will for us all. We absolutely needed God because marriage and family life is not easy and will only work with oceans of grace. I really do not think I would be alive today (I am the youngest of 8 boys) or serving as a priest if it was not for my mother’s ferocious dedication to God. She brought my dad and all of us to the heart of God. It would have all fallen apart before I came to be as John Matthew if my mom was not so dedicated to Jesus.

Even though we might have the dedication, not many of us can be Division 1 tennis players because we do not have the talent for it. But what we all do have the talent for is to be a great Christian. The question, then, becomes one of dedication. If we are not dedicated to pray each day then we will not pray each day. If we are not dedicated to serving the poor, then the poor will not be served by us. If we do not dedicate going to church as much as possible then it will fall by the wayside. The question is, “What could be more important than being dedicated to Jesus in prayer and the church so as to take him to the world?”

Imagine the tennis player practicing 4-6 hours a day for years practicing tennis. Now imagine if we spent 4-6 hours a day for years getting to know Jesus. Think about that ROI-return on investment.

Love is spelled T-I-M-E (how much time do you give God, how much do you love him?),
Fr. John

Thursday of the Third Week of Advent Dec. 21st

2006-12-21T06:29:00.000-08:00

Thursday of the Third Week of Advent
December 21, 2006

“Our soul waits for the Lord.”
Psalm 33:20

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I had my plans. I knew what I was going to do. I had it figured out. The only major problem was, and it is the most major problem of all, that Jesus was not a part of it. There were way too many “I’s” in what I was planning on doing with my time here on our mortal coil. I was not waiting on Jesus. He was waiting on me- consigned to my whims and desires. One way I like to visualize the way my mode of operendus truly was is that I left Jesus behind in the dust.

Waiting. We are a few days away from Christmas. Remember growing up? We could not wait to see the all the presents under the tree on Christmas morning. Adrenaline, joy and excitement pumped through our body leading up to the time we would gather to open our gifts. We were so excited to find out if we got what we wanted and what surprises there might be.

Waiting. It is not our forte. Driving this morning there was one car in front of me on a red left turn signal. I needed to get to the office as soon as possible because there were a ton of things on my plate to get done as usual (isn’t that the way it always is in our over-booked society?). The light turned green, the car in front of me did not move, I began to get frustrated but I did wait for two whole seconds before I honked my horn! I knew it was going to be a short light and I did not want to miss my turn and have to wait again.

As a pastor I want to teach my people to wait on the Lord. To be quiet and still in prayer and wait on the Lord is not a forte of us Westerners. I have tried to instill that before mass for about 10 minutes but we have tended back to talking to and waiting on each other during that time. That is always a quandary for me because I want people to greet each other “with a holy kiss” as St. Paul would say but I, more importantly, want my people to learn to wait on the Lord. As a congregation it seems like we can stand about 15-20 seconds of silence after communion and then people start rumbling, shuffling and fidgeting. Waiting is not our forte.

Waiting in silence before the Lord is the only way we are going to turn thing around. His plans and thoughts are above our plans and thoughts; his ways are above our ways. He is the way and truth that leads to life that never ends. To wait on Jesus as the way and truth leading to life is the antidote to all the ruin around us. He will show us the way above all other ways.

What if we got as excited about waiting daily on Jesus as we did for opening our Christmas presents growing up? Let us wait and take a long look at this statement. Christmas presents are here today and gone tomorrow but the way of the Lord is overflowing life forever. Not much of a choice, is there?

Wait on the Lord.

Love is spelled T-I-M-E,
Fr. John

Wednesday of the Third Week of Advent Dec. 20th

2006-12-20T07:04:00.000-08:00

Wednesday of the Third Week of Advent
December 20, 2006

“Hail (Mary), full of grace.”
Luke 1:28

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Imagine you are in your house. Mary, the mother of God and our mother, walks in and sits down. How awesome would that be to be in her presence? What would you do? How would you respond? Would not we want to know what she knows, to see what she sees, to think what she thinks? We would want to be in total union with what she is experiencing.

Mary, full of grace! Mary, full of the Lord, maker of heaven and earth. Mary, full of the source of all the salvation and love and joy for every human being that has lived and ever will live. Mary, the creation we all want to be most like.

Mary could have said “no” to God and rejected being full of grace. Thankfully, she said “Yes”. But isn’t it incredible that we have the gift and responsibility to say to say “yes” or “no” to the grace of Christ. It is so astonishing that God would be self-limited by his own creation. In other words, our acceptance of God’s grace determines the goodness of God that can come through us.

Like no other, Mary resounded with the grace and light of God. What do people see when they see you and me? When we walk into someone else’s house do others want to draw near to us? Do they want to be in union with what we are in union with?

St. Augustine taught, “God made us without our permission but will not save us without our consent.” How much consent have we given to the grace of Jesus in our lives?

Love is spelled T-I-M-E,
Fr. John

Tuesday of the Third Week of Advent Dec. 19th

2006-12-20T06:56:00.000-08:00

Tuesday of the Third Week of Advent
December 19, 2006

“He (John the Baptist) will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God.”
Luke 1:16

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A few days ago I once again invited my whole congregation to come to our Advent Reconciliation Service. It is a time for us as a community to receive the infinite mercy of Jesus in the sacrament of confession/Reconciliation and be set free in love. I told everyone who is coming that I have a special going for that day. I said, “Boy, have I got a deal for you. For only five dollars you can have all you sins taken away! Isn’t that great? How could you beat that? Just five dollars to get rid of all your shame and guilt and be set free!” The people just laughed because we all know that salvation from our sins is a gift, it is free! What an exchange- we give Jesus our sins and he gives us eternal life.

I want to share with you two different stories to highlight what we are faced with in the human condition. As I always say, it is all about HOW we are going through life. Are we going through life confident and free in God’s love or are we being crushed under the weight of our own offence?

I few years back I was hearing reconciliations at a Catholic high school. It was awesome as I spent two days solid hearing kids confess and seeing them literally transformed before my eyes in the freedom of God’s love. At the end of a person’s confession I offer the absolution of Jesus. Absolution means absolute, total forgiveness is found in Jesus. Well, one girl I prayed over for this had a few tears in her eyes when I was done offering absolution. She said, “Thank you,”, and then walked out of the chapel. She went to the campus minister who asked her how her experience was and she replied, “That was the most loving experience in my life!” Wow!

The second story. Through the Legion of Mary, our parish has begun to reach out to every house in our parish boundary. Our goal is to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with every household that is under our geographical limits. We figure we have about 12,000 doors to knock on. Well, on the first day we came across a woman who felt she was going to go to hell because her past was just too bad and sinful. She was living in the tyranny and slavery of a life without Jesus and his forgiveness. So many go through life in this way. Mind you, this was just the first day of our outreach efforts. How many more people are there?

Our scripture today says that John the Baptist will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. Well, I am another John, Fr. John, some 2,000 years later asking you to turn to the Lord. HOW are you going through life? Are you living in the tyranny and slavery of sin or are you free in the mercy of Christ?

We all have the chance and choice to make our lives the “most loving experience.” There will probably be about 250 people that come to our Advent reconciliation service which is around 20% of our weekend mass attendance. It seems like 100% of us would want to know “the most loving experience.”

So, what about you? Christ waits for you in the priest. He waits to give you, “the most loving experience.”

Love is spelled T-I-M-E,
Fr. John

Monday of the Third Week of Advent Dec. 18

2006-12-18T11:38:00.000-08:00

Monday of the Third Week of Advent

December 18, 2006

“Joseph was a righteous man.”

Matthew 1:20

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Are you are person of your word?

Think of the Holy Scriptures. If we truly believe they are The Word of God leading us home to heaven, do we follow their commands and demands? For example, do we love money and what it affords which Jesus says is the root of all evil. Does our current war point to that end? How are we doing with praying constantly and really making the Sabbath holy? What about Jesus’ scathing challenge to the Pharisee’s, “You hypocrites and blind guides. You wash the outside of the cup but you do not clean the inside.” Is our life just an external show or are we honestly trying to become more like Christ from the inside out? Jesus tells us that the greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. Do we? What if we do say we love Christ above all other things and we only give Christ an hour a week? Isn’t that a lie? Remember how Jesus asks us to pray for our enemy’s and forgive each other fully (70x7 times). Do you? Are you are person of the word to all the commands and demands of The Holy Scriptures?

When we go to church we say “Amen” which means, “Yes. So be it. I will live what I say yes to!” Well, we have got to know what we are saying yes to! We are living our life as a living sacrifice in order to glorify The Lord. The epitome of this is captured when we receive the Eucharist. As we come forth in the communion line to receive The Body and Blood of Jesus, We hear the words, “The Body of Christ. The Blood of Christ.” And we reply, “Amen.” In our “Amen”, we are saying back to Jesus, “This is my body given up for you. I am saying “Yes” to you Jesus and I will live for you with all I got!

In my nearly ten years of priesthood, I have had about two-hundred weddings. Always, a very profound time is when the couple exchanges their vows. They are giving their word to God and the whole world that they are going to be true to each other come hell or high water. They are totally giving themselves in sacrifice to each other for the rest of their lives. I know there is a lot of pain around marriages and why they do not work out at a high rate, but there is not too much more of a beautiful portrait of God’s love in this life when you see a couple holding hands who has been married fifty, sixty or seventy years.

I love the quote, “God loves you right where you are at. But he loves you so much that he doesn’t want you to stay there.” Yes, you are loved right where you are at. Whether your marriage worked out or it did not, whether your plans came to be or not, you are loved right where you are at. But, God loves you so much that he has more for you!!! And where do we find that more? In following his commands and demands. Of course, in order to follow them you need to hunt them down and capture them in your heart! Do this!

I always say that there is nothing more beautiful than when a believer believes. How beautiful are you? Be a person who keeps your word to Christ.

Love is spelled T-I-M-E,
Fr. John

The Third Sunday of Advent Dec. 17th

2006-12-17T05:53:00.000-08:00

Third Sunday of Advent
December 17, 2006

“Brothers and sisters: Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice!”
Phil. 4:4

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We are preparing to celebrate Jesus’ Birthday December 25th. Here on earth we celebrate each others birthdays on the day we were physically born. While it is wonderful to celebrate our physical birth, the church has us focus more on the greatest birth anyone of us can have. That birth is our spiritual birth and it comes when we die. So, when we celebrate the life of a particular saint, we do not celebrate the day they were born but the day they died. Why? Because it is in dying that we can be born into the infinite celebration of life that we have always been looking for but could not find here in this valley of tears.

Think of what the person who does not know God and the afterlife runs from. It is death. The clock is ticking and everything is going to be over in a few, short years. How unsettling this thought must be. St. Paul says that we are the most pitiable of all people if our hopes are limited to this life. The one who lives in union with Christ, on the other hand, runs to it. For the Christian, death is just a door to the home of eternal life that she or he has always wanted to get to.

St. Paul gives us this injunction, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice.” As we look to fulfill this command of always rejoicing in this world, let us start with the end. Death, which can be the saddest time for various reasons, can be turned into our greatest time of rejoicing. Remember, it is in dying that we are born into eternal life. When I die, have a big party to celebrate our call to heaven. Have lots of food, fun, music and dancing. Rejoice that the savior is taking another one of his children to himself! At the funeral, rejoice by proclaiming how our Great Jesus loved and saved a sinner like me.

If, then, our saddest time in life can be turned into the greatest time of rejoicing, then let us turn all the sad and all of everything into rejoicing. So, you broke your leg. Rejoice that you have a leg! Your spouse or someone betrayed you. Rejoice that Jesus will never betray you. Someone has discounted, disrespected, made light of you. Rejoice that Jesus counts you more than all the riches and beauty of the world as he dies for YOU on the cross. Rejoice at the next breathe you take because it means you are alive and you have an invitation from Christ, delivered by the Holy Spirit, to live forever.

Rejoice, rejoice, and rejoice in everything, all the time. See Jesus in it, raising us all up to the joy of heaven.

Love is spelled T-I-M-E,
Fr. John

Saturday of the Second Week of Advent Dec. 16th

2006-12-17T05:49:00.000-08:00

Saturday of the Second Week of Advent
December 16, 2006

“In those days, like a fire there appeared the prophet Elijah whose words were as a flaming furnace.”
Sirach 48:1

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The single leading cause in atheism in the world today is Christians who profess Christ with their lips and walk out of the door and deny him by their lifestyles. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.

Are you believable? Are you a fire burning in the dark? Are people hungering to know the light and warmth you emit? Is Christ on fire in you? Muriac said that when we no longer burn with love many will die of the cold. What would the world be like if we all burned with God’s love?

Are you believable? St. Catherine of Siena said, “When we are what we are supposed to be the whole world will be ABLAZE!" It sounds like Elijah was ablaze with fire. Do you think he got there by accident?

We do not accidentally become fire for God. Rather, we decide for it; we choose it; we plan it. It is not happenchance, luck or circumstance when we see someone like Elijah on fire with God. It is a whole life, including daily prayer that shouts out to God, “I need your fire. I have no light or warmth without you but with you I can shine more brightly than the sun. Fire me in your love. I don’t just want to think or philosophize or theologize about your fire. I want to become your fire!”

Being believable means being on fire. It means being irresistible because you are so full of light and warmth. It means moving from being a minimalist in your faith by just going to church every Sunday and confession once a year to an all out effort with all our hearts, minds and bodies to know fire.

Be fire and set the whole world ABLAZE!

Love is spelled T-I-M-E,
Fr. John

Friday of the Second Week of Advent Dec. 15th

2006-12-15T06:19:00.000-08:00

Friday of the Second Week of Advent
December 15, 2006

“I the Lord, your God, lead you on the way you should go.”
Isaiah 48:14

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When I was four years old my dad was putting up a string around our garden. He asked me if I knew why he putting up the string and I told him, “No.” He said, “I am putting up the string so little kids like you won’t run into the garden.” Always try to get around things, I replied, “Little kids can jump over that string.”

Of course, the string was strung around the border of the garden to keep people from walking or running on it thus destroying the growing vegetation. Hence there was a purpose to the string. I suppose, you could say, that there was a string attached to doing what my dad was doing. In a small way, my dad was leading me in the way to go.

Is there ever no string attached to what we say, think or do? Is it possible to have thinking, words or actions that are simply neutral, neither for the good nor the bad?

Whether we assent to it or not, we have been given an incredible responsibility if we call ourselves Christian and proclaim that we know and love Christ. We do believe that there is a string attached to what we think, say and do. We do believe that there is “a way to go.” And we know that we have a ways to go in totally understanding “the way to go.”

Knowing that there is no such thing as “no strings attached” and knowing that there is “a way to go”, let us come before God and others in utter humility to learn about God’s way.

Let us pray: “Lord Jesus, teach me that there are strings attached and there is ‘a way to go.’ Help me to see that what I do leads to either good or bad. Teach me your way and give me the grace to always live it. I want to think and act and speak as you think, act and speak. Thank you for fullness of life and joy I will have when I follow your way. Amen.”

Love is spelled T-I-M-E,
Fr. John

Thursday of the Second Week of Advent Dec. 14

2006-12-13T21:07:00.000-08:00

Thursday of the Second Week of Advent

December 14, 2006

“Let all your works give you thanks, O Lord.”

Psalm 145:10

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Recently I heard about one pastor who challenged his congregation to go one month without complaining. Could you and I do that? Could we go a day without complaining? God wants us to go for eternity without complaining so it seems we need to move in that direction. What are all those who live in heaven doing all the time? They are praising God. There is no room for complaining.

I remember one marriage therapist who stated that he could pretty accurately predict whether a marriage was going to make it or not within 15-20 minutes of meeting a couple. It was all about the positive or negative messages the spouses were communicating to each other. If the negative messages far outweighed the positive ones that was a strong indicator that the marriage would break down. Is it more about giving thanks to your spouse or complaining to your spouse?

Now, let us transfer the marriage study to our relationships in general. What are the ratio of positive messages to negatives messages that we are sending to our spouses, kids, friends and all people around us? Specifically, how does complaining enhance the life of God in others and us? What do you communicate with your life- thanksgiving or complaining? Are you someone you would want to be around?

How can we move from complaining to thanksgiving? I think it is important to name the fact that we complain and then actively seek to rid it from our lives. Maybe grab an accountability partner to check up on you each week and see how you are doing with your complaining. How about reviewing your day before you go to sleep at night to see how much complaining verses thanksgiving you have done during the day. And try verbalizing thanksgiving in place of complaining every time you are tempted to complain.

What about prayer and our connection to Jesus? What does all of our complaining tell us about how united we are to the Lord? It seems to me that if we were truly united with the Lord, truly present with Jesus, it would be impossible to complain.

Love is spelled T-I-M-E,

Fr. John

Wednesday of the Second Week of Advent Dec. 13

2006-12-13T20:55:00.000-08:00

Wednesday of the Second Week of Advent

December 13, 2006

“Jesus said to the crowds, ‘My yoke is easy.’”

Matthew 11:30

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In his dictionary, Mr. Webster says a “yoke” is a wooden frame or bar with loops or bows at either end, fitted around a pair of oxen, etc. for harnessing them together. It is a pair of animals harnessed together. A yoke is something that unites, binds and or connects. It is also any mark or symbol of subjection, bondage or servitude.

We yoke! We yoke or bind or harness ourselves to people, things, etc. Are our yokes wise? Are they leading to the results we want?

Don’t make a joke of the yoke you yoke

Like takin a toke from the smoke you smoke

U breathin it in

And servin its wind

Is it love or sin

That u got you in?

Don’t make a joke of the yoke you yoke

I was just moved to write the above seven lines in rhyme/rap form. The point of it is that yoking is like breathing in smoke from tokin and this smoke can be love or sin that we breathe in and end up serving with our lives. Are we choosing to bind ourselves to God and his goodness or are we harnessing ourselves to something, which always leaves us empty handed?

In 2 Cor. 6:14 we read, “Do not be yoked with unbelievers.” It often baffles me when I see the friends or spouses people choose. It is not uncommon for a couple to come to me wanting to get married where one person has faith and the other is an unbeliever. These two people are going to bind, harness, yoke themselves to each other with having, in the big picture, very little in common. If one person is seeking to love and glorify God and the other could care less about doing that, there is going to be trouble in river city. How will you be inextricably bound to serving each other in the sacrament of marriage if both spouses do not have God in their lives? And this type of questioning should be asked of all the friendships we choose to yoke ourselves to.

You yoke! Are you smart about who or what you have yoked yourself to?

Love is spelled T-I-M-E,

Fr. John

Tuesday of the Second Week of Advent Dec. 12th

2006-12-12T07:11:00.000-08:00

Tuesday of the Second Week of Advent
December 12, 2006

“Now of salvation and power come.”
Rev. 11:10

He died about seven or eight years ago. There is a good chance that he may have touched your life but that you might not know the story of how that came to be.

He was driving though his home state of Indiana on a late summer evening. The sun was setting over the farmland and he stopped by a restaurant to get a meal he really enjoyed. After getting back on the road with his Big Mac, fries and coke, he really began to experience the presence of God. In a state where he had many fond memories and friends, the beauty of the sunset over the fields, the great meal of a Big Mac, he began to think about how good God is. “God, you are great and wonderful and all-giving. You are awesome.” So moved by the presence of God, he began to cry and had to pull over to the side of the road. And on the side of the road in just a few minutes he wrote a song on the McDonald’s bag that has touched millions and millions of lives. I am sure it is one of the most loved Christian contemporary songs ever. Maybe you have been touched by it? The song? “Awesome God” by Rich Mullins.

This time every year in the church we read about the end of the world, the second coming of Jesus. Words and images like tribulation, distress, stars falling out of the sky and the moon turning black, the earth shaking, come to us in scriptures read at mass. To be honest, my reaction to all of this is to say, “Big deal! Why be so worried? Why be afraid? Jesus is going to come when Jesus is going to come. The point is is to be ready! Are we ready? If we are, Jesus will take care of it all.”

Sometimes we try to live in the past with going back to the hurts or the fond memories we have there. But Jesus is not there. Or we may try to live in the future trying to figure out what our job will be, what will be happening ten years from now or when will be the exact time of Jesus’ second coming. But Jesus is not there either. The only place Jesus is is in the present. So many times we are not present to his presence in the present. The only time Jesus can come to you and me is now! “NOW have salvation and power come.”

Let us be inspired by the life of Rich Mullins. He was just so present to Jesus in the NOW. Practice the presence of God in the NOW because that is the only place we can experience him. May we all have the grace to be so connected to Jesus in the NOW that we would have to pull over our cars because God’s love moved us so much that it was unsafe to drive with all the tears streaming out of our eyes.

Love is spelled T-I-M-E
Fr. John

Monday of the Second Week of Advent Dec. 11

2006-12-11T15:21:00.000-08:00

Monday of the Second Week of Advent
December 11, 2006
“They glorified God”
Luke 5:26

What is our job in life? Glorify God!

In 1944, GR Tweed was a prisoner of war on the island of Guam. Not knowing if he would ever be saved, one day he used a mirror to send out an SOS signal to a US ship. The ship picked it up and came to his rescue.

The mirror worked! It was simply just being what it was supposed to be. It reflected the sun and saved GR Tweed’s life. By analogy, our lives should be mirrors. We are to reflect the eternal weight of the Son’s glory and light. In Matthew 5:16 Jesus tells us, “Let your light shine before all so that they may see the goodness in your acts and give praise to your heavenly Father” (Mt. 5:16). Paul teaches us, “Whatever you do- you should do all for the glory of God. (1 Cor. 10:31)

What if, when someone asked how we are doing, we responded something like this, “I am living in God’s Glory. His mercy is bigger than the air I breathe. His love is more than I can ask or imagine. He is the Lamb of God who died to take away every sin of every person for all of time. His deepest heart’s desire is that we would live in unspeakable joy forever. And that JOY starts

RIGHT NOW because he has sacrificed his life for us so that we might have heaven-all the way to heaven.”

What if we answered something like the above when people asked us how we are doing? I think our light would be shining and God would be glorified a lot more than he is now.

But there is a difference between the mirror JR Tweed used to reflect the light and us. The mirror had to reflect the light because it could not act differently. But you and I have the choice to reflect the light or not. You can let Jesus in and out so that all may praise the Father or you can say, “No Trespassing.”

Let your light shine. Glorify God. Let Jesus in and out and in and out. Speak and live the eternally flowing mercy and love and forgiveness and joy of Jesus. Praise our heavenly Father that we can have heaven-all the way to heaven.

Love is spelled T-I-M-E,

Fr. John

Sunday of the Second Week of Advent Dec. 10

2006-12-10T09:11:00.000-08:00

Sunday of the Second Week of Advent
December 10th, 2006
"The rough ways made smooth"
Luke 3:6

Do we make the rough ways in our lives truly smooth or do we just smooth over the rough ways? In other words, do we honestly come before God with our problems and give him full permission to heal and make us whole or do we not deal with what is truly going on and just try to smooth things over without divine help?

Growing up there was a ditty we used to chant, “Ring around the rosy. Pocket full of posies. Ashes, ashes, all fall down!” There is a dark meaning to this rather cheery tune and game. It is about the Black Death of the fourteenth century. The sign of this horrible disease was a black ring rash around a red spot. Hence, “Ring around the rosy.” People would carry flowers that would act as a fragrance to fight against the terrible stench of death and decaying bodies and so we have the line, ‘”Pocket full of posies.” “Ashes, ashes, all fall down” refers to that fact that the Black Death wiped out one-fourth of the population of Europe. It was a horrible time as every family had a death. “Ring around the Rosy” was a chant and game that was used to smooth over by covering up the roughness of the Black Death.

But Christianity is about facing the rough ways, feeling them, and inviting God into them to give us healing and wholeness. In direct opposition to the intent of “Ring around the Rosy”, Christianity is not about smoothing things over by covering them up. No, it is about total exposure and honesty with all that is rough in our lives. We know that we have to suffer and die before we go to heaven. The ideal we should push each other towards is to come before the Lord and say, “Here is all my roughness. Please make is smooth.”

There is an interesting physiological fact about our tear ducts. Crying helps to cleanse them and we can actually see better after we have cried than before. This analogy can be applied to our relationship with God. We can see better after we have cried with him over all the rough ways in our lives. Sisters and brothers, we need to learn how to cry!

Have you made the rough ways truly smooth by inviting the Lord into it all or have you just tried to smooth over the rough ways by covering them up and not dealing with them?

Love is spelled T-I-M-E,

Fr. John

Saturday of the First Week of Advent Dec. 9th

2006-12-09T07:13:00.000-08:00

Saturday of the First Week of Advent

December 9, 2006

“Jesus went around to all the towns and villages.”
Matthew 9:35

There are number of people who say they follow Christ who also say they just do not do it. Maybe they do not see it as a demand from Christ or they simply do not know in their hearts the most incredible knowing ever known. Whatever the reason why someone does not take every opportunity to do it, let the excuses cease right now! Pope Paul IV says that it is the reason we exist as a people and a church. Christ demands it of us. As a matter of fact, Christ is it! What is the “it” I am referring to? Evangelization. Evangelization is sharing with others the most incredible, loving and eternally life-giving news ever- Jesus Christ!

Why is it we can go crazy and yell and scream at some sporting event and be silent about Jesus? Why is it that we are not talking about any teams or sporting scores from 2,000 years ago but that we have based all of history on the life of the man-God, Jesus Christ? What does anything we go crazy over, including sports, have to do with eternity and what does Jesus have to do with eternity? Why is there so much anger when we do not win at sports, business, life and we keep on insisting going there when the only thing Jesus offers us in it all is joy and healing love? Why do we keep throwing ourselves into mortal news when we could throw ourselves into the Good News of Jesus Christ who is everlasting life?

Jesus Christ went from town to town, from village to village to share the Good News. He did not only share it with all, he was it! Yes, Jesus Christ is the Good News every soul is desperate for! In him, we are loved, blessed, forgiven! Why are we silent? Cease with this crime. Stop killing others by letting them die without knowing the Lord.

Brothers and sisters, keep the faith- but not to yourself!

Love is spelled T-I-M-E,

Fr. John

Friday of the First Week of Advent

2006-12-08T06:24:00.000-08:00

Friday of the First Week of Advent

December 8, 2006

“The woman answered, ‘The serpent tricked me into it, so I ate it.”
Genesis 3:13

Duped by the deceiver. Sucker-punched by Satan. Falsehood flowing forever from the father of lies. Destroyed by the devil. The trickster who only knows how to trick.

The Devil offers what we crave for but never delivers. All his promises are empty. Have you ever been tricked into believing otherwise? Our scripture verse today is about the first sin. Those who commit the original sin are tricked by the trickster who offers all and never gives anything. Adam and Eve, duped by the deceiver, basically choose themselves over God. They choose their way for happiness and fulfillment. Their choice to be without God is their own demise. To be without God means to die.

When we fall for the trick of the trickster, we sin. To sin means to separate ourselves from the God of life. One way to remember what sin is to note who is in the middle of it- I! “I” is in the middle of the word “sin”. If “I” am the middle, if my life is all about me and “I” am the center and purpose of it all, then I will surely perish being disconnected from the God of life.

What is the antidote to being tricked into believing that “I” am the center of it all and thus sinning and dying? Trust! It is about putting “U”, Lord, as the center of my life just like “u” is in the middle of the word “trust”. As I make my life all about “U” Lord, by fully trusting in you, you will lead me in the way of everlasting life.

“Stay sober and alert. Your opponent the devil is prowling like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, solid in your faith.” 1 Peter 5:8-9

Will I continue to sin by putting “I’ in the middle and die or will I put “U” in the middle, Lord, and live?

Love is spelled T-I-M-E,

Fr. John

Thursday of the First Week of Advent Dec. 7th

2006-12-07T05:23:00.000-08:00

Thursday of the First Week of Advent
December 7, 2006

“On that day they will sing this song in the land of Judah: A strong city have we.”

Isaiah 26:1

At one point in the Gospels people were questioning Jesus about his power and he replied, “You would have no power unless it were given to you from above.” True, so true. In one of his letters, St. Paul challenges his hearers to name something they have not received. Yes, any power or strength we have for anything is given to us from the hand of God.

Funerals highlight how powerless we really are. I mean, in one hundred years from now you and I are going to be dead physically. So, what power do we have on our own? Ultimately, the only power we have on our own is to die. Thus, why would anyone not make Christ the most important person to seek out in life?

In this Holy Season of Advent, we prepare for the coming birth of Jesus into our broken, tear-filled world. Jesus leaves the perfect strength of heaven and vulnerably subjects himself to the weakness, sufferings and onslaughts of the world. What amazing love that Jesus would trade heaven for crucifixion on a cross.

If we look at Jesus’ life, he models for us what true strength is all about. As Jesus is misunderstood, rejected and suffers and dies, he shows us that his strength is not in his own power but comes from the might of God. He trusts in God the Father and the Father is his portion and strength forever.

As human beings, we are weak and short-lived. We are here today and gone tomorrow. But the Good News is that we throw all our weakness, suffering and, ultimately, our death into Jesus and he gives us eternal life. Talk about strength!

You would have no power whatsoever unless it were given to you from above.

Love is spelled T-I-M-E,
Fr. John

Wednseday the First Week Of Advent Dec. 6th

2006-12-06T07:14:00.000-08:00

Wednesday of the First Week of Advent

December 6, 2006

“On this mountain he will destroy the veil that veils all peoples.”

Isaiah 25:7

A priest was preaching on the parable of the wedding banquet and the urgency of responding to God now because tomorrow might be too late. During the middle of his homily a man got up and walked out of church. No knowing exactly why the man left church, the priest received a phone call from him the next day. He explained that he left the church because he was moved by the priest’s challenge to act today. Twelve years ago he and his brother had gotten in a fight and had not spoken to each other since. There was a canyon of alienation and bitterness between them. Inspired to make things right, he left the church during the middle of the homily and hurried to find the nearest pay phone. He called his brother and they got together and forgave each other.

We all want to see God but many of us complain that we can’t see him in our world. Some of our excuses might be that there is too much suffering, fear, bad things happening to good people to see anything of God in it all. Well, if you want to know what God looks like, if you want to see behind the veil, look at two brothers who have forgiven each other after twelve years of hatred and you will see God.

So much of our ability to see God in our world depends on what we are looking for. Sure, if we just focus on the darkness, suffering and all the bad things going on, God will seem veiled to us. On the other hand, if we just focus on seeing the goodness of God in our days, we can pull back the veil and see him.

Jesus came to earth to unveil God. Anytime you see brothers forgiving each other after twelve years of hatred and alienation, couples married for fifty years, a youth serving an elderly person, a parent up in the middle of the night with their sick baby- you can count that as seeing Jesus.

Jesus is everywhere- all the time. Unveil him.

Love is spelled T-I-M-E,

Fr. John

Tuesday The First Week of Advent Dec. 5th

2006-12-05T05:51:00.000-08:00

Tuesday of the First Week of Advent
December 5, 2006

“In him all the tribes of the earth shall be blessed.”
Psalm 72:17

One day while walking through my favorite store, the dollar store (the dollar store is my favorite store because you can get everything for $1), I said, “Hi”, to a man and he greeted me back. Then, his next response literally stopped me in my tracks. I asked him how he was doing and he replied, “Blessed.” I thought, “What an awesome, true and invigorating answer.” We are so blessed. I asked the man if he had a copyright on that answer and if I could use it. He just chuckled and told me to use it.

So, I have been teaching that when someone asks us how we are doing we can say, “Blessed.” Yes, we are so blessed! Just count your blessings. You have eyes, eyesight, and you are reading this now. You just took another breath. This day alone you will have at least 100,000 reasons to say you are blessed because that is how many times your heart will beat. We were created by God who loves us with an everlasting love! We know that God is good- all the time! We are forgiven and beautiful in his sight. Jesus died for us so that we could go to heaven. God invites us to live with him forever. Yes, we are so blessed! Count and count and count your blessings.

Many of you have shared with me how you have stopped other people in their tracks when they have asked you, “How are you doing?” You have told them, “Blessed.” Why does saying we are blessed stop people in their tracks? Because that response causes all of us to go to the source of every single blessing in our lives. When we tell others we are blessed, we are pointing our lives to the source of all blessing--God. Yes, we are blessed because we are beautiful, loved, forgiven, and invited to live with God forever. Could we possibly be more blessed than that? No! Please continue to let others know how blessed we ALL are.

My dad has Alzheimer’s disease. He is losing his ability to remember things. He is a bright man and has always been a creative thinker. As you can imagine, it can be frustrating to lose your mind when you have used it so well and creatively. He shared the following touching story with me. Going to sleep at night is difficult for him because his thoughts were so jumbled and confusing. Dad would get frustrated so he decided to seek peace in his heart by praying the rosary. But he said to me, “I tried to pray the rosary, John, but I cannot remember all of the words of the Hail Mary. So now I just keep repeating, ‘Thank you, Jesus’ until I fall asleep. It works.”

The words that dad wants on his tombstone are, “Thank you, Jesus.” My dad is a blessed man.

How are you doing?

Love is spelled T-I-M-E,
Fr. John

First Monday of Advent Dec. 4th

2006-12-04T07:09:00.000-08:00

Monday of the First Week of Advent

December 4, 2006

The centurion said in reply, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed.” Matthew 8:7

I was teaching a Confirmation class and a kid kept asking me, “What is the word?”He was referring to the above scripture, which is what Catholics pray in the mass right before receiving the body and blood of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist (see John 6).The context is that Jesus had told the centurion that he would come to heal his servant and the faith-filled centurion replied by asking Jesus to just say the word right there without coming to the house and his servant would be healed. So, how would you answer the kid’s question, “What is the word?”Would it be something like “Be healed”, “Suffering cease”? We do not know exactly what “the word” was and that is not the point.The point is throwing ourselves into Jesus and acting like he has the power that he says he has. The centurion inspires us to believe that Jesus has the power to do anything.

We do know that Jesus wants to heal our hearts. Do you believe in the power of his word working healing in you? He may not ever heal us physically but he is going to give us the healing that will last forever if only we would believe.Can our prayer become more like, “Only say the word, Jesus, and I, your servant, will be healed?”

The centurion brings up a point about not being worthy to have Jesus under his roof. Maybe we feel that we would never be worthy to receive Jesus into our home, our heart, our life. It is true. On our own merits, we will never be worthy of Jesus. But the reality is that Jesus has made us worthy. He has come to teach, heal, befriend, love, suffer, die and rise for us and in this he makes us worthy! We just say yes to Jesus and jump into him to be healed in the power of his word.

Jesus, only say the word and I, your servant, shall be healed.

Love is spelled T-I-M-E,

Fr. John

First Sunday of Advent Dec. 3rd

2006-12-04T07:08:00.000-08:00

“Brothers and sisters: May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and all.”

1 Thessalonians 3:12

Welcome as we journey together to be with The Holy Family at the birth of our Savior! Thank you for joining hands as we seek the Advent/“Coming” of the Lord. My hope and prayer and utmost desire (which is nothing compared to the Lord’s) is that you may find what you are looking for this Holy Advent Season.

This time is a time for decision. What are you looking for and how are you going to find it? We must be very conscious about articulating what the desires of our hearts are and how we are going to honor those desires.

Many of us in this crazed and hyper-busy society suffer greatly from a lack of friendship, community, love, and peace. A high school boy was asked to write an essay on the happiest time in his life. He said his happiest time happened when he went out to dinner with his father and they spent three hours together just talking and sharing that time. Sadly, that experience of the three hours with his dad had happened only once in his life.

Love is spelled T-I-M-E. It is about being with one another and sharing what we have to share. St. Paul wants our love to increase and abound for one another. Is it? To what do we give our time?

If love is spelled T-I-M-E, then let us ask a revealing question. In this past week, how much did you love Jesus? How much time did you give to Jesus alone so that he could share with you and you with him? If we say we are Christians and that we love and follow Christ but we do not give him time that is absurd.

As families, do we love Jesus? Do we give him T-I-M-E? If you want love to increase and about in your family, pray together each day!!!! And then watch miracle after miracle after miracle happen. And write and tell me about them and our love in God will more and more increase and abound- all the way to heaven!

This Advent I am choosing to sign each reflection with “Love is spelled T-I-M-E.” This season is all about the fact that LOVE has come to show the way. And the way is LOVE. And we must decide to spend time sharing with the source of all love. Honor the desires of your heart by knowing what you are looking for and how you are going to find it.

Love is spelled T-I-M-E.

+Fr. John

Words From Fr. John

2006-07-23T09:47:00.000-07:00

Words of wisdom, faith, hope, encouragement, humor, and more from Fr. John Amsberry!

Inspirational thoughts from Father John that should have a little something for anyone who reads them.

The posts will cover Advent. We hope you will be inspired.

Going First Class!

All the Way to Heaven!