A Father’s Witness

“Everyone who acknowledges me before others
I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.
But whoever denies me before others,
I will deny before my heavenly Father.”

Matthew 10:32-33

Today we celebrate Father’s Day in the United States, a day we give thanks for God for the gift of our fathers and father figures, whether they be brothers, uncles, grandfathers, stepfathers, godfathers, or spiritual fathers, and to ask God to bless them. The readings for today, the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time, I feel are very appropriate for today’s holiday.

In the first reading we hear of Jeremiah who feels he is being surrounded by people who denounce him and reject him, yet he places his trust in the Lord. In the responsorial psalm, the Psalmist expresses a similar sentiment, crying of the “insult” and suffering he willingly endures because of his witness to the Lord, reminding the listener of God’s kindness and mercy. St. Paul reminds us in his letter to the Romans that although through one man sin entered the world, bringing about death, the obedience of Jesus, the New Adam, opens for us an ever overflowing fountain of mercy and grace. Finally, in the Gospel, Jesus affirms us in our dignity and worth in the Lord, that even the smallest detail of our lives are important to the Father. All this, our earthly fathers ought to reflect and to bear living witness.

The life of a Christian can sometimes feel like that of Jeremiah. Voices everywhere in the world that doubts you, tempts you to abandon a life of virtue and instead pursue a life of pleasure, tells you that you are not enough and that you must earn your dignity and worth, and most deceptive of all, convinces you that God does not exist. But we must stand firm and remember that the Lord is with us, the Lord who loves us and willed us into existence in love, by love, and for love. And we know that perfect love casts out all fear, and that this love has conquered even death.

When the world tries to convince us that we are not worthy or that there are others who are above us or that certain lives are more precious than others, Jesus tells us that those are all lie. We are each created in the image and likeness of God, and God Himself breathed into us the very breath of life. As Christians we must reclaim this truth and to remind ourselves and others of this: that we are each precious in the eyes of God and are worthy of love, and in fact, we each have been loved from all eternity.

The alternative to this is a life that bears witness not to God but to ourselves and to the lies of this world. At times this life is much easier to live because it neither seeks a higher calling nor sees God as our end. This life is tempting because it appeals to our senses and to our fallen nature. But we must not forget that this fallen nature God Himself as assumed and redeemed. We no longer are chained by death, for we have the hope of salvation. This alternate life is a life that wants to bring us back to Egypt, where yes, we enjoy some luxuries, but ultimately are enslaved. Brothers and sisters, Jesus tells us “I no longer call your slaves, but rather friends.” Do not settle to be a slave, but rather live as a child of God.

In a particular way, I encourage all fathers and father figures to live the life of freedom, the life that Jesus has won for us. As fathers, you have the great responsibility of leading your families, your spouses, and your children to God. A father’s witness can be an avenue of God’s grace. Jesus reminds us in the Gospel today what whoever acknowledges Him before others, He will acknowledge him before the Father, and whoever denies Him before others, He will likewise deny before the Father.

Will you live a life that courageously and unwaveringly acknowledges Jesus, bringing light into the darkness, hope in the midst of despair, and life in a world that preaches death? Let’s not be afraid to proclaim from the housetops that we indeed are Christians and that we willingly lead a countercultural life because of the surpassing joy of knowing Jesus Christ. Take courage for the Lord acknowledges you before His heavenly Father.

Rejoicing in Love

“Brothers and sisters, rejoice. 
Mend your ways, encourage one another,
agree with one another, live in peace,
and the God of love and peace will be with you.”

2 Corinthians 13:11

The first Sunday following Pentecost Sunday the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. We will perhaps hear homilies at Mass about the essence of the Trinity, about how our God is three divine Persons in One God, and many different analogies explaining the life of the Trinity and how each of the three Persons are distinct yet one. We may hear how St. Patrick used the shamrock to explain the Trinity, explaining each of the leaves to be Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, yet all held together by the one and same stem. Or maybe we will hear how St. Augustine described the Trinity as a community of love where the Father is the Lover, the Son is the Beloved, and the Holy Spirit as the Love that is present. Whether we prefer the theological explanation of the Oneness of the Trinity or the emphasis on the personal attributes of the distinct Divine Persons of the Trinity, at the core of why we celebrate Trinity Sunday is to remind ourselves of one very simple but profound truth: that God is Love and that we were created in that love, for that love, and so we rejoice.

Let’s not treat the Trinity as a concept to be grasped or a problem to be solved, but rather a mystery to be appreciated and experienced. God is love and we who are made in His image and likeness and are baptized share in this very love. Just as the Trinity is a community of love we, the Church, should also be a community of love for we ought the reflect our Creator. So, are we people of love? In order to truly love, we must first allow ourselves to be loved by God. It is only in encountering God in His love and mercy will our hearts be able to beat not simply for ourselves, but for God and His people.

Brothers and sisters, I pray you will allow God to love you today. I pray that you know and believe that you are loved. When we have come to encounter this love — in prayer, in the sacraments, in our daily living — our lives will be changed. Our fears will be calmed by faith. Our hatred will be washed over by mercy. Our selfishness will be undone by the sacrifice of the Cross. Our despair will be lost in hope. Our darkness will be scattered by the Light. In other words, as St. Paul said, it will truly be Christ who lives in us. And, when we know that it is Christ — Love and Life itself — who lives in us, how can we not rejoice?

Living in the Spirit

“All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. You did not receive a spirit of slavery leading you back into fear, but a spirit of adoption through which we cry out, ‘Abba, Father!’”

Romans 8:14-15

The fiftieth day after Easter the Church celebrates Pentecost Sunday. It is on this day that the Church is born. In other words, Pentecost is the “birthday of the Church.” I have always found it interesting that some other feast or solemnity is not the “birthday” of the Church, such as the Annunciation or Easter. However, it is most fitting that Pentecost Sunday is the birthday of the Church for on this day, the Holy Spirit, the promised Advocate, descended upon the Apostles and all those gathered with them and all were able to understand what each other was saying in their own language. You see, it was on this day that the Holy Spirit broke through the barrier that separated the people, liken to undoing the effects of the Tower of Babel, where now they all spoke one language, a language that transcends words, a language that is rooted in THE WORD, a language that is love and God Himself.

In God, all are one. Jesus prayed “that all might be one,” and it is the Holy Spirit that will guide all peoples to this reality. Just as Jesus appeared to the Apostles in the Upper Room despite the doors being locked, the Holy Spirit breaks through the barriers that keep us from experiencing the love of God. Our fallen human nature keeps us from allowing God to love us because it is prone to believing in the lies of the Enemy that we are not worthy or that God simply cannot love us in our sinfulness. But we must remember that though that may be true, Our Lord has assumed our human nature and has redeemed it! Jesus restored to us the likeness after which we were created. We are not just another creation of God, we are His sons and daughters.

St. Paul reminds us that if we are truly to live as sons and daughters of God, we must be led by the Spirit. We must be honest with ourselves. What are the spirits or voices we allow to dictate our daily lives? Do we pay attention to the voices that cause division and that breaks us down or do we find comfort in the voice that says, “You are my beloved and with you I am well pleased”? Do we listen to the voice that calls us by our sins or the Voice that calls us by name? How about our actions? Do our actions show that we are followers of Christ or do they show that we are still enslaved to the world?

Brothers and sisters, we must reclaim our identity in Christ. We must remember that we are co-heirs with Christ, we are sons and daughters of the Father. We have been made new the blood of Jesus Christ and washed clean in the waters of baptism. We ought dwell no longer in the shadows cast in darkness. It is time for us to live in the Light, to live in the Spirit, that which animates us, that breath that God breathed into us that makes us living. The Spirit comes to us today once again. The Lord breathes on us. He breathes into us His very life, His very Spirit. May we cry out today, “Abba, Father!” and choose to live as beloved sons and daughters of the Father. When we choose to live as such, then truly there can be no barriers, for then we are truly free in our love and we become one in Christ, one in the Spirit.