FOURTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

“Como to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest”

(Mt. 11, 25-30)

We have left behind the strong time of Easter and the great solemnities of the Holy Trinity and the Body and Blood of Christ, now we come inside a different time, the ordinary time, the time of Hope, blended in with the green color of the liturgy, it is a time of reflection and of learning, in the public life of Our Lord.

This Sunday’s Gospel is rich and profound because it is a prayer that comes from the heart of Jesus, is a profound praise towards God for His generosity in rewarding the humility and humbleness of the little ones and hiding His greatness from the wise and learned, who have lost the joy of seeing Him in the simple things of all creation.

We are in the mist of the twenty first century, beginning the second decade of this century. And never in the history of humanity have we had so many possibilities to study, to investigate, to research, and unearth so many mysteries as we have done at present time. The human being has turned into a re-creator of what God has done.

In some occasions, when we see the greatness of the things God has created, the human being with great intellectual selfishness have gone blind, he has lost the joy of seeing life in the simplicity of things, the simple mechanisms that allow us to be happy. This is the paradox of the human being: creates things to live better, but does not achieve happiness. We know a lot about the things that surround us, but too little about ourselves and the path to the real happiness we can find in God.

Jesus spoke to the people who were desperate because they were looking for God and could not find Him, they tried to be good people, but they were tired and desperate of always looking for happiness and ending up at the same place where they started. For a Jew of that time, religion was something similar to a catalog of regulations, all rules and more rules, never ending rules that did not touch or reached the human heart.

The god of the permanent rules, is not the God who saves. (Mario Santa Bueno). The teachings of Jesus were rejected by the doctors of the law and were revealed to the ones who received them humbly, like children.

To find and feel the presence of the Lord, you don’t have to complicate things.God is God Omnipotent, but allows Himself to be seeing in the simple things, He is a God of the humble and simple, He was born of a poor woman, who was marry to a carpenter, was born in poverty, but in the joyful mist of the shepherds of Bethlehem, He grew in a poor town and maybe among not-so-good people, because of the low culture that prevailed in the area at the time, but in the joy of the simple things, the respect, the enthusiasm for life, the willingness to overcome the challenges that were always present at that time.

As we can see, He is a simple and humble God, He could have chosen to be born in a palace, but instead He chose to be born in a palace of poverty and simplicity. God makes big the hearts of the humble and falls in love with them.

When humility and gentleness are cultivated, by being humble people, the invitation of Jesus is understood and accepted: “Come to me all you who are labor and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart and you will find rest for yourselves” (Mt. 11, 28-29)

The Christian who wants to be a real Christian, and we all should want to be real Christians; does not have it easy. He will have many yokes and burdens to carry. The Gospel’s message, that we should try to live with fidelity, clashes head on with the values and the laws of the environment we live in. On the other hand, the limitations, the illnesses, the laboral and familiar problems and many other things are burdens that sometimes are too heavy to carry.

Confronting the tiredness that these yokes and burdens produce in us, there are two things the Christians must do. In the first place, to accept the “come to me ….. and I will give you rest” of Jesus, taking time to pray, getting closer to the Sacraments, in acts of withdrawals/abandonment, like the one done by S. Josemaria Escriva: “My Lord and my God, in your hands I abandon: the past, the present, the future, the big, the small, the little, the much, the temporal and the everlasting”. How many times, an hour in front of the Blessed Sacrament has been the most restful time we had?

It is a matter of learning the habit of praying and telling the Lord everything that is happening to us. As the poet said: ¿who will I tell my sorrows, my beautiful love? ¿who will I tell my sorrows, but only to you? (Alfonso Martinez Sanz).

In many occasions, it might be necessary to take a physical rest, for a few days or during a vacation, like the ones taken in the months of July and August in the United States or in December in some parts of Latin America. This physical rest, without a doubt, will be more refreshing if it is accompanied by Christ, growing in your relationship with Him, participating in the Holy Eucharist and including the Virgin Mary in everything and anything you do.

Amen

SOLEMNITY OF CORPUS CHRISTI

“FOR MY FLESH IS TRUE FOOD AND MY BLOOD IS TRUE DRINK”

Jn. 6, 51-59

Rev. Alexander Diaz

Today the Church commemorates one of the most important solemnities. With this great feast, we commemorate the institution of the Holy Eucharist on Holy Thursday as an end of paying tribute to the Eucharist, as public worship and solemn adoration, love and gratitude.  That is why it was celebrated in the Church on the Thursday after Holy Trinity Sunday.  In the United States and other countries the solemnity is celebrated on the Sunday after Holy Trinity Sunday, with the objective that believers will have the opportunity to participate in the public worship of adoration.

The Solemnity of Corpus Christi is one of the most ancient feasts of the Church, it goes back to the (XIII) thirteenth century.  Two extraordinary events contributed to the institution of this great feast: The visions of Saint Juliana de Mont Cornillon and The Eucharistic Miracle of Bolsena/Orvieto.

This is a very special day in which real Christians acknowledge the divinity and real presence of Jesus in this Holy Sacrament, publicly and without reservations.

Today, the Word proclaims our attention in the food of heaven.  The food is, together with the water, that which keep us physically alive and talking, but we know very well that our life is formed only of our fragile physical constitution.  While food and water maintain our bodies, we know that in our insides there are other realities that need food in order to help us grow.   

The Eucharist is the best way we have to sustain and preserve our divine life.  The body and blood of Christ is our first fountain of eternal life.  The Eucharist occupies the central place of our faith.  Many times I ask myself, if all Catholics are aware of this reality;  that time and time again we celebrate in our temples?  The Church opens, people come in to participate in the Mass. 

The entrance hymn begins. The priest begins the rituals and the assistants respond in a great voice, big realities that many times are not adapted in daily life.  The Eucharist is not a simple historical commemoration, it is indeed the presence of Christ, dead and resurrected, a sacrifice related to the one Christ made on the cross and brought to date under the veil of the symbols.  

The feast of Corpus Christi reminds and celebrates the Real Presence of Christ in this central sacrament, that is saved in the tabernacle for the sick and travelers, it is the worshipped light of the Eucharistic memorial celebration .

Vatican (II) Two  highlighted the new aspects of the fraternal Eucharistic banquet, the Lord’s memorial and act of thanksgiving, without forgetting the ancient aspects of the Sacrament, real sacrifice and presence.  It proposed itself that the people should participate “actively, fully and consciously”, hence it was decided that everything should be done in the peoples’ language, with a selected and abundant number of readings, a recovery of the prayers of the faithful, simplification of the rites and sharing of ministries.  

It is not a matter of being mute while the priest celebrates the Eucharist, but to actively participate in the celebration.  The celebration has gotten much better, especially among the base communities.  (Cariano Floristan, de Domingo a Domingo). 

 Saint Agustine calls the Eucharist: the sacrament of love, symbol of unity, bond of charity.

Sacrament of love: in front of the Eucharist, thru faith it can encompass some of the depth and intensity of the love of Christ, since this love is responsible of the Church and the Sacraments.  “Having loved His people that were in the world” 

Sign of unity:  Saint Agustine  “Our Lord put His flesh and blood in these things – bread and wine – that, as they are multiples within themselves are reduced to only one thing, because the bread, of many grains, becomes one thing, the wine made of many grapes, becomes only one substance.”

It realizes the Unity: “Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf” (1 Cor 10.17).  Christ is the head of the Mystical Body that is formed by all the baptized.  If we receive Jesus in the Eucharist, we also receive our brothers and sisters. We receive communion with all of them: saints or not, friends or enemies.

Bond of unity: without the Eucharist there will be no love for others.  Each communion should make us grow in our love towards the others. The other should be our daily host.  The Eucharist should create within us the conscious decision to go towards others and give ourselves to them. 

We believe that when we receive communion, we make Christ ours, when in reality the truth is something else.  When we eat Christ, we are being eaten by Him. The Eucharist fails when we receive communion, not when we are communion.   “Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me”. (Jn 6,58).  Saint Augustine  Sacrament of Love.

Amen!!



SOLEMNITY OF THE HOLY TRINITY

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life”  

Jn. 3, 16-18

Rev. Alexander Diaz

This Sunday we celebrate  The Solemnity of the Holy Trinity, a profound mystery and only thru the light of faith can we truly understand its’ fullness, a simple and short reasoning is not enough to understand such huge mystery.  All our lives are marked with the gift of the Trinity. 

When we are born to the supernatural life thru baptismal grace, we do so in a trinitary manner, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Also, when we begin the Holy Eucharist, it is done in the same manner, hence all we do in our daily lives is marked by the Holy Trinity. 

 The Trinity is a mystery of Communion , is God in us, God with us and God above us.  Is the mystery that penetrates and wraps our lives and our history.   The Spirit is God within us.

From Him comes our hope that wanders toward the fulfillment with Christ. He inspired the prophets with the Word of God, He acts in the hearts of the believers to accept the Word of God,  He gathers God’s children around the Son.  He inspires the prayers we direct to the Father.  He has been poured out in our hearts and He is more intimate within us than we are to ourselves.   Is the Son of God with us, the One who was born to be our brother, our companion, our neighbor. 

The Son is the face of God, who sees the Son sees the Father. It is His word made flesh in the womb of Mary, in front of whom is brought to date our maximum responsibility.   The Father is the one who summons us to Jesus with His Word and to whom we go thru Jesus with the impulses of the Holy Spirit. 

It is God above us and in front of us, Who Is to be seen and to come, the reservation of our infinite hope.   The Holy Trinity is exactly the same God that have come in communion with us.  Is the Father who has become “our Father”, is the Son who has become our brother, is the Spirit who has become our life.  The Holy Trinity is the mystery that establishes our coexistence. 

In order to live this mystery it is required that all of us be “ourselves” in front of the Father who summons us, that we all become “brothers” in the Son who accompany us and that we all participate in the same feeling, the same hope, the same love, and the same life, thanks to the Spirit that has been poured in our hearts.  ¿How can we explain that God is one, at the same time is Father, Son and Holy Spirit?

Maybe we might say that in each love there are always three realities or subjects: one that loves, one that is loved and the love that unites both.   In a general line, this shows us that the loving reality of God is His relationship with the human being.   

The text the Church proposes today is like a synthesis of the reality of God and the human being.  Jesus came to save us by forgiving our sins by the love that God has for us.  It also tells us that God gave His only son for our salvation.   Our world, so self sufficient, possibly do not understand these words.  Some might think, probably that he does not need salvation, that he is the only main character in his history and his hope.   But we all know this is not so.  

Humans need God’s help to be real humans.  Humans need His word, His life to be truly happy.  Even when today’s world blinds and dazzles me with its’ proposal explosions, only the light of God will give me an explanation to the unworthiness of my human reality.  The proposal that God offers us is the one based on love.

Many Christians are established in the permanent condemnation of themselves and the condemnation of others. They are “prophets of calamities”. Their announcement of the Gospel is not an invitation to discover the love that God has for us, but rather an invitation that we love God.  We love, who loves us.

If you do not announce to me the love that God has for me, it is very difficult for me to spontaneously love God.  All announcements and evangelization  acts have to always begin with a question ¿Do you know who really loves you?  All pedagogical conversion is to simply dig in the reality that God loves you and your personal answer to that love.  LOVE PAYS WITH LOVE.

Jesus opens the doors of the love of God to the whole humanity.  He does not condemn anyone. He only tries to heal people’s hurts from sin and life.  Each time I have the impression that life is like a huge boat where humanity sails, where each one of us have to fill in the holes where suffering and despair come thru.  

We all sail thru the same eternal sea. Together we go in the same ship of life. To be a Christian is to be sure that God also sails with us, He does not leave us alone or unprotected.    

That the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit allow us the necessary graces to live our Christian lives in constant touch with the divine.  Receiving undeserving graces.   To  be able to live dwelled in Trinitary graces.

AMEN!!  

 

SOLEMNITY OF PENTECOST

Receive the Holy Spirit, Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them”

Jn 20, 19-23

Rev. Alexander Diaz

Today we celebrate the solemnity of Pentecost, the feast of the Holy Spirit, this is the feast in which the church is born and consolidates without fear or doubt, the Church is not afraid.  Today’s liturgy tells us that after the Ascension of Jesus, the Apostles with the Mother of Jesus were reunited.  It was the day of the Feast of Pentecost. 

They were afraid to go out and preach. Suddenly, there came from the sky a noise like a “strong driving wind” and “tongues as of fire” which parted and came to rest on each one of them.

They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim. In those days there were many travelers and visitors from Jerusalem that came from all parts of the world to celebrate the feast of the Jews’ Pentecost . 

Each one heard the Apostles speak in their own native language and they understood what they said perfectly.  All of them, the Apostles, as of that day, were no longer scared and went out to preach to all the world Jesus’ teachings.

The Holy Spirit filled them with the strength to fulfill the great mission they had to accomplish, bring Jesus words to the whole world, to all the nations and baptized all men in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  On that day, the Church truly came to existence as such.

¿Who is the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit is God, the Third Person of the Holy Trinity. The church teaches us that the Holy Spirit is the love that exists between the Father and the Son.  That love is so big and so perfect that it forms a Third Person.  The Holy Spirit fills our souls in Baptism and afterwards, in a perfect manner, in Confirmation. 

With God’s holy love inside of us, we are able to love God and our neighbor.  The Holy Spirit helps us to fulfill our lives compromise with Jesus.  We are call to grow in the Spirit.  We are invited to mature both humanly and spiritually, to do so we need the constant presence of God in our lives.   

The Word reminds us that the disciples were reunited (as many times we reunite ourselves), but they were behind closed doors (it does not refers only to physical doors but also the doors of our hearts),  they were afraid (I have to decipher the fears that surround my life, fears that do not allow me to grow as a person or as a believer).

  

 The Lord knows very well that to carry out the titanic mission of growing and presenting God to the world,  it is necessary to have the help of God Himself.   The human being does not have enough strength to, on his own, stay in the constant presence of God. That is the reason why we need His help, His breath and His encouragement.

¿Do you live under the Spirit’s law?

The fruits of the Holy Spirit are the testimony of His important actions within us.   We are Christians in the measure that we allow God to transform us and prepare us to be His followers.  “Even though they were behind closed doors, Jesus does not force the locks or give an aggressive blow to the doors where the disciples were.”

 He comes in silently.  He filters Himself thru the walls.  They were full of fear, but were reunited remembering and recalling everything that had taken place.  It was such a shock to see the resurrected Jesus, that fear left them and the Church was created. 

Hence, the Church appears, therefore, with these elements:  - they were reunited, - they accepted the presence of the resurrected Jesus, -opening the doors of their souls, - overcoming fear, - receiving the Holy Spirit.  The Church is the homeland of the soul.  To be Church is to have the doors opened, be reunited without fear. 

Whoever wishes to live the Gospel from these premises, is the one who sees what the Holy Spirit is doing to him each day.  People who live full of fears and insecurities will be inefficient disciples because in them, the gifts of the Holy Spirit are not present.  

Whoever lives cowardly, only cowardice will transmit to others.  Whoever thinks that faith is something so intimate that there is no need to share it, will find himself locked in his selfishness, alone and without the presence of the Holy Spirit. (Mario Santana Bueno)

Today,  the Feast of Pentecost, we have to ask ourselves about the process of maturity in our faith. ¿Thru all these years, have my heart been getting closer to the spiritual maturity that I have been called to have? ¿Which are the locks that are so hard to open in my life and why it is so? ¿Which are the fears I still have to overcome? ¿Do I accept the Holy Spirit in my life?

I pray that the Holy Spirit strengthens us with His light and purify us to be good Christians.   Come sweet guest of our souls and give us your peace and joy.  

Amen!!

    

Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord

“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations”

(Mt. 28, 16-20)

Rev. Alexander Díaz

The Ascension of the Lord is a huge celebration with big hope to the us, who believe in Jesus Christ and follow his Word, because we know that He first went to Heaven, so that we all may follow Him.  Follow His footsteps and His walk towards the glory of the eternal Father.  This is why the celebration of this mystery gives us the assurance that we too will follow Him there.  The gospel of the previous Sunday told us in a very clear and concise way that:

“In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places, ff there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself so that where I am you also may be. (Jn. 2-3)

Jesus has opened a special place for us in Heaven, so that we too may participate and live forever.  The right to heaven should not be for the human being a simple option, but rather, an obligation to be true followers of Jesus.  Our following Him will be rewarded when we live in heaven eternally.

Today’s gospel has some elements that disconcert me, because they really represent the human attitude when face free divinity.  I feel that it is hard for us to completely believe in this free divinity, and that was happening to the apostles the day of the ascension of the Lord.  The Word tells us the disciples worshipped Jesus, but some of them “had doubts”.

They did not believe easily, they wanted proof and reasons to know if the resurrected was really Jesus or someone else.  I fear that our life on this earth will always be splatter on these two instances:  of worship and doubt.  The human being is capable of worshipping and doubting at the same time.

Our fragile human nature weights in many instances and that makes us stumble, but even though we stumble, we should not give up because His powerful presence will allow us to be better men and women in our society and the world. 

Jesus tells us that He has all authority in heaven and in earth.  ¿How are we going to understand Jesus’ authority when we see that this world is going on a complete different path from His  message? This is the question many of us make ourselves: ¿If God is so powerful, why is the world so troubled?  The world is troubled when we don’t pay any mind to what God indicates. If we live by the Gospel, with dignity, the world will be more alike to what God wants. 

The wickedness in the world is the absence of God.  God has the power to offer the human being a message, His own person, a God that gives Himself up for us.  In order to accept God I need to balance out my mind and my heart and make an option from my liberty.  God has the power to invite us always from the bottom of our hearts to follow Him joyfully. (Mario Santana Bueno) 

I am impacted by the mandate Jesus gives to the twelve, because it gathers the group’s vision of all the human beings.  For the Jews, they were the only ones who had access to salvation; everyone else was not call by the Lord to be with Him.  Jesus breaks the scheme, because He invites the whole world to make disciples of all the inhabitants of the world. 

Today, that we talk so much about the unity of the nations for the common good, we forget that it was Christianity who started this unity, above all human differences, the one who impulsed the globalization  of God’s salvation. 

Therefore, under this divine mandate we are obliged to evangelize and turn into true missionaries in the world, no matter the race, color or tongue.  What is important is to show the real face of Jesus.   The Christians’ duties are very clear, to bring the gospel to other people no matter the color, race or tongue.   Baptism is the door to have an encounter with our Lord.  Thru baptism we begin the journey that Jesus has made thru the world’s path.

 In the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, the Church proposes this text where Jesus leaves us the promise to be with us always.  “I am with you always, until the end of the age” He is with us every single day, in good and bad times. It is a “ I leave but I stay”.

This text  specifically, must keep us alert and sure of what we are and of what we have, our Catholic Faith, nothing or no one can take us away from her or destroy it, because He is always with us.   He walks hand in hand with us, He makes us men and women that are sure of what we are, baptized and His children. 

This means that His presence among us should lessen our fears and doubts, because He walks ahead of us, hence, whenever we initiate a company or when we encounter challenges, we must be assure that He is with us every day of our lives until the end of time.  Because all we have is for Him, with Him and in Him, forever and ever,

 AMEN