My brothers and sisters, this weekend we celebrate the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

When we look to Jesus, Mary and Joseph we receive the best example of God’s plan for the human family. This must be the case because Jesus is God the Son, the incarnate perfect word, Mary is without Sin by a special grace, the Immaculate Conception, and Joseph is a righteous man.

Who else are we going look to for a better example of how to live out God’s plan for marriage and family?

Mary was perfectly obedient to God and she put His plan above everything else. It was with this decision to put God first that the fruit of her faith was born in Jesus Christ. And Joseph, being obedient and yet feeling unworthy of the task, trusted God and lead Mary and Jesus as the father of the house. He played his role mainly by actions, and less by words. In fact, Joseph does not have one spoken line in the whole bible. He leads by actions; he leads by putting the needs of Mary and Jesus before his own needs.

And of course Jesus, who has no need to be subjected to any creature, including his Mother, shows us perfect obedience to God the Father by submitting to the will of his earthly parents, following the fourth commandment to honor thy father and thy mother.  

There is a theme, a common connection between all three, Jesus, Mary and Joseph. All three of them put the will of God the Father above their own will. The will is the power of the soul which chooses to do good or evil. Jesus Himself claimed that He was in the temple, not lost, as his parents believed he was, but instead concerned about his Father’s House. And as an adult, he claims He has come to do the will of His Father. That seemed to be the most important thing to Him.

This family, certainly above any other family in human history, set about to accomplish God’s will.  And they did! Mary is the Queen of Heaven, the New Eve and the Mother of the Christ and His Church. Joseph is the patron Saint of all Fathers, and Jesus is the redeemer of the world. Through perfect obedience they accomplished God’s plan.

We, on the other hand, we struggle with obedience at times. Most of us fall or have fallen into sin, a rejection of God’s plan for our own lives, many times.

We try and try, but we keep falling. We confess, but we fall. We keep getting back up though, and we want to be holy and do God’s will. We are fathers, mothers,  husbands, wives, aunts, uncles, priests and religious, etc.

What we need is encouragement to keep trying, and not to give up. God doesn’t call us because we are qualified, he calls us, imperfect as we are, and then ask us to try. Slowly, by HIS Grace, he is perfecting our imperfect nature. Slowly we are learning the wisdom of His perfect plan.

Other people are overwhelmed by God’s plan. They want to do His Will, but they have stopped trying because they believe it is too difficult, or they believe their situation is impossible, or they have become dangerously complacent. Circumstances can feed this tendency. Other times these individuals have trust or commitment issues. These would be people who are, for example, living outside of God’s plan for family and marriage, and for whatever reason are not doing anything to change it. This is dangerous because we cannot knowingly live outside of God’s plan and still go to Heaven.

An example would be the couple that continues to live together in the same house, sometimes for years, outside of being married. The couple that sleeps together and does not plan on stopping. The single person who will not commit to a relationship and continues to have multiple partners with no intent to change. The spouse that continues to be unfaithful and sees nothing wrong with it. The person who has quit coming to Mass and has fallen so far away from the Eucharist they have convinced themselves that they don’t need to come anymore. The priest that gives up on his priesthood and lives in sin, instead of accepting God’s forgiveness and grace to persevere.

These souls are in grave danger.

However, God loves these individuals too; and he wants them to know his love more perfectly which can only occur by following His Will. Therefore, these individuals need our love and support and encouragement to return to the right path; they do not need our condemnation. At one time, they were living according to God’s plan and they fell away; the same thing could happen to us. The devil is very deceitful. He uses human weakness and circumstances in many forms to try and get us to stay away from the Church and that grace that comes from the Holy Spirit through the Church. We must be humble and pray that we too don’t fall away, while at the same time be patient and encourage those who are away to come back to following God’s plan, which most certainly entails eating and drinking the body and blood of our Lord. The farther we fall away from the Eucharist, the easier it becomes to justify doing so. This is a trick of Satan.

Sometimes these individuals just need someone to pray with them. Maybe they forgot the value of prayer and they need to start again. We can do that so long as we are praying ourselves.

Then there are those who are active enemies of God, they are wolves trying to destroy God’s plan and anyone who would try to live it. We must be careful that we do not fall victim to the lies of the evil one. These are the ones who try to redefine God’s plan and make it seem like it is something it is not. Marriage is under attack from these people. They refuse to accept that Marriage is sacred; it is for a man and a woman, for the good of the spouses and for procreation and education of children. It is meant to be lived in a holy committed union, blessed by God, faithful, once until death.  

That we fail in living this plan of a marriage, or are victims of a spouse who has fallen away, is not condemnable, what is condemnable, however,  is when we fall victim to the lie that the plan is different than what it is and therefore we never try to return. The father of lies would like us to believe that God’s revealed plan can be changed, it most certainly can not be changed.

The good news is that God comes to save people who fail sometimes. That is all of us. We are all sinners. Sometimes we are disobedient and so we recognize that, repent and return, every time. He is merciful to the last moment. It is easy to fall, but it’s not so easy to rise and continue, which is why we need God’s help and we have it in his Grace, an with the perfect example He gives us in the Holy Family. Let us mimic their obedience and discover the beauty that comes from being faithful sons and daughters of God our Father.  

And let us pray for each other and especially for those who are living away from the sacraments and God’s will in their lives. His grace is amazing, and He can and does draw people back frequently, ourselves included, so we should never lose hope. May God Bless you and may you continue to have a Merry Christmas.

“We will be like Him. For we will see Him as He is.” – These are the words we hear from St. Paul in today’s epistle. What glorious words for us to reflect upon as we celebrate the Feast day of All the Saints in Heaven.

When we are in Heaven we will be like God. We will not be God, but we will be like Him. That’s hard to imagine. But it is true! How wonderful!

Luke says the Bible that the Saints are equal to the Angels and are sons of God.

The saints have finished the race of this life, they have fought the battle against evil and they have won! They are now with Jesus in Heaven, and they see Him clearly face to face. They have received their reward for living lives of virtue, a reward for which we cannot even comprehend.

It is true, not everyone who dies goes straight to Heaven; some, those who rejected God and refused to follow his commandments, will sadly go to Hell. Others will spend quite a bit of time in purgatory, being purified of their selfishness, before they enter Heaven. Tomorrow we will remember them. Most souls, ourselves included, will spend some amount of time in purgatory before entering into the glory of God. We will pray for the dead, especially the holy suffering souls in purgatory who need our prayers, as they are praying for us.

We will remember our relatives and friends who have gone before us and will pray for them.

But today, we celebrate the lives of the Saints already in Heaven. They are there, triumphant, joyful, eagerly awaiting our arrival, and praying for us to stay on the right path.

Who are they though? Who are the saints? They are our heroes! The reason we have statues and images of them in all of our houses and in our Church is because they are the ones who went before us and participated fully in God’s grace by living lives of virtue and humility. They gave us examples to follow on how to live a Christian life. The Church recognizes that there are certain souls that lived such heroic lives that when they died they went straight to Heaven.

How do we know which souls went straight to Heaven though? Well, the Church has a process called canonization where miracles are attributed to individuals who prayed through the intercession of these holy men and women. Also. the lives of these holy men and women are closely scrutinized and after a long process, which includes elements of the supernatural, it can be concluded that these men and women are in Heaven. Some even have bodies here that never corrupted after death. Saints like Bernadette and Claire and Jean Vianney.

Others had other miracles attributed to them. They are certainly in Heaven.

Men like John Paul II, Padre Pio; women like St. Therese, Mother Teresa, St. Joan of Arc, and many others who persevered through the challenges of life, stayed close to the sacraments, and were incredible witnesses to the Truth of the Gospel.

And not only are they in Heaven enjoying eternal happiness, where there is no more suffering, they are also very active in helping us. This is why we have patron saints. Saints are in Heaven, close to God, for the real purpose of prayer and intercession.

The Saints in Heaven are praying for us.

Patron Saints are intercessors, friends in Heaven, who are protectors and guiders; chosen usually for something they specialized in while on here. For example, St. Jude is the patron saint of impossible causes. Why? He is the patron of impossible causes because the Scriptural Letter of Jude urges Christians to persevere in difficult times.  Also, St. Bridget of Sweden was directed by Our Lord to turn to St. Jude with great faith and confidence. In a vision, Christ told St. Bridget, “In accordance with his surname, Thaddeus, the amiable or loving, he will show himself most willing to give help.” He is the patron of the impossible because Our Lord identified him as a saint ready and willing to assist us in our trials.

There are many other patron saints that are willing and ready to help us on this journey. There is St. Christopher, patron of those who travel, St. Joseph, patron of fathers and workers, St. Augustine and St. Maria Goretti, patrons of those who struggle with purity and chastity. There are saints for just about everything, and we shouldn’t be afraid to ask them for help and develop relationships with them. They are in Heaven, they hear us, and they want to help.   

Above all the saints however there is one, who each of us should be close to without any questions. We should run to her and talk with her every day, we should treat her as she is our mother and we should love her as she loves us. Her name is Mary, the mother of Jesus and the Queen of All Saints, the Queen of Heaven. There is no better help of Christians than Mary the mother of Christ. The Blessed Mother cares for us so deeply and nothing that she ask of Jesus will be denied her. She is next to Him with our prayers. Let us continue to go to Mary every day.

So today we celebrate all the Saints and we continue to ask for their help, so we might follow their examples and lead lives of holiness as they did. It’s not easy to be a faithful Christian, especially in a world full of distractions and with an enemy in Satan always tempting us to be selfish, but with the power that comes from the Cross of Christ and the prayer of the Saints and Angels in Heaven, especially the Blessed Mother, we can overcome these temptations and live lives of heroic virtue.

May God continue to bless you, and may we all be practicing Saints here as we await the day of our final judgment when we hope to join with all the Saints in Heaven.

Lec # 146- 29^th Sun of OT- Oct 18, 2015- Fr. Bresowar

“Can you drink the Cup that I am going to drink?” “Are you willing to do what I have to do?”

This is what our Lord asks James and John, sons of Zebedee, in the Gospel today.

They wanted the glory, but they didn’t understand how glory came to be.

Everyone wants the joy of Easter Sunday, but no one wants the suffering of Good Friday.

Our Lord is asking us to suffer with Him in order to enter into His glory; he is not simply inviting us to do so. It’s a request of His. Would you suffer for the sake of Love? Would you suffer with Jesus?

Many people suffer; in fact, if you live long enough, all people suffer. Some suffer to greater degrees than others, but all suffer.

When we look for a reason as to why we suffer, or why those we care about suffer, we are often times left standing with our hands up in the air and no answer.

In trying to understand why we suffer, and when we are unable to find an answer, we will generally look to a higher power.

“Why God, do you allow us to suffer?” And so often we do not receive the answer that satisfies us. This causes many people to make incorrect assertions about God, for example, “God doesn’t care about us.” Or, “God is cruel.” Or, “God must not exist because a loving God wouldn’t allow His people to suffer.”

These assertions are made because suffering is hard and difficult, and seems meaningless, and we can’t understand why God would allow something so hard and difficult and meaningless for those he loves.

But just because we do not understand it, doesn’t mean there is no God, or that is doesn’t care, or that He is cruel. 

Instead we need to understand why suffering exist, and what God did and is doing about it.

In the beginning, before Adam and Eve sinned, there was no suffering in the world. They were perfectly happy, perfectly content. But they were tempted to become more than that, tempted to be like God, and then they sinned. Suffering was a result of a rebellion against God.

By sinning, death came into the world. Death is confusion and darkness. It is the opposite of Love and Light. It is darkness, emptiness, pain, physical and spiritual, and it doesn’t make sense. That’s why we try to avoid it most of the time. Suffering was a sign that pointed to death.

In the Old Testament, suffering was seen as a punishment for sin. So if people suffered, it meant they must have done something wrong, or their ancestors did something wrong. And God would often times allow much suffering as a consequence to his people for rejecting Him. But we can also see in the Old Testament, in the book of Job, that God allows suffering to test us, to see if we will remain faithful.

In the New Testament, we see God brings forth the solution to death and suffering by taking it on Himself in Jesus Christ, who is true God, and true Man. For only God could be the solution to the problem of evil and suffering in the world. Man could not atone for his rebellion; he needed God to pay the debt, for only God can close the infinite gap that was caused by the infinite offense of sin.

So in his Loving plan, God enters into the weak and broken human condition, and elevates it to Himself. From the moment we fell into sin through our first parents, Adam and Eve, God already had a plan to save us from death and to transform us into his Love. And this transformation would come by taking the meaningless, confusing, horribleness of human suffering, and using it to defeat death. He didn’t take it away, he enters into it to destroy it, and asks us to do the same with Him.

Would we be willing to suffer for the sake of Love?

In many ways we suffer for those we care about by making little sacrifices of love. Would we be willing to do the same with Jesus when we suffer? Can we offer our sufferings up as little sacrifices of love as He did for us?

Suffering is no longer meaningless, it is transformative. The Holy Spirit uses it to transform us into the Love between the Father and the Son.

When we say Yes, we are willing to drink that Cup of Suffering, we are saying to our Lord, “We will suffer with you, if it pleases you. If you would let us share in your redemption.” IN this we understand suffering no longer as something to run away from, but rather something to embrace.

Lec # 143- 28^th Sun of OT- October 11, 2015- Fr. Bresowar

There is a program on television that is called “Hoarders Family Secrets.” I’ve only seen a one or two episodes and I’m not even sure if it is still on television. What the show does is it follows the lives of individuals who have a problem with being attached to material things. They collect possessions, and for years the possessions build up so much so that their house is filled with items.

And it becomes such a problem that other family members and friends must intervene to try and help these individuals get rid of their possessions.

I watched the show and felt sorry for the individuals because one could literally see how miserable they were. They had a disorder, and they were unable to let go of their possessions. It ruined their lives and the often times, the lives of their family member.

These were examples of extreme cases of individuals who collected years of possessions and needed to be able to throw some of them out.

When one watches this program they might compare themselves to these people and think that they are not nearly as attached to their possessions as the individuals on the television.

And this is often times how we justify our own faults. As individuals, we often times will look at other people who are in worst situations and this makes us feel better about ourselves.

But in reality, a better thing for all of us to do is not compare ourselves to others. If you remember, that is stage two of the four stages of happiness I talked about a few weeks ago. We don’t want to live in stage two; we want to live in stages three and four.

The best thing to do is for us to be honest about our material possessions. How attached are we to the things of the world? What item can you just not live without? Our attachments tell us a lot about ourselves.

And if we look at the Gospel we can learn a lot about ourselves by reflecting on the dialogue between the rich young man and Jesus.

As the story begins, we hear that a young man came running to Jesus and asked him what must he do to have eternal life?

“Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

In this exchange we see ourselves as well, eager to attain this joy. Everyone wants eternal life. No one wants to die and not exist anymore, or to die and go to Hell. Everyone wants to be happy forever. Full of energy, full of a life ahead of himself, the young man comes running to Jesus eagerly and asks this question.

Jesus desires to give this young man exactly what he wants. He knows what will make him happy, what will bring him to fulfillment. And so he answers him and tells him to keep the commandments of the Father. This is to say, do what God tells you and you will be happy.

The young man declares to Jesus that he has kept the commandants since he was young.

And Jesus looked at him, and he loved him.

What a curious thing for St. Mark to put in his Gospel?

Jesus looks at him with a deep love. You can imagine the face of Jesus looking at you this way. It is like the gaze of a father looking at his son who is trying to do the correct thing.

But what may be even more surprising is what Jesus said to the young man after giving him this look of love.

He tells him to go off and sell all his possessions – the very things that this young man is most attached to.

Now, if Jesus really loved this young man, why would he ask him to give up what he valued most?

If Jesus really loved this young man, why would he be so demanding? Why would he make him so uncomfortable?

We all know the answer: it's because love seeks what is best for the beloved.

Love by its very nature is demanding; it will never settle for mediocrity.

And this young man, because he was so attached to money, possessions, and worldly success, was in great danger of falling into a mediocre, stifling, and frustrated life.

And so Jesus, out of love, invites him to choose the path of wisdom instead of comfort, the path of following God's will instead of self will.

The Lord is constantly doing the same for us: looking at us with deep, personal love, and inviting us to follow him more closely, even though it will mean leaving our comfort behind.

Jesus knows better than we do what we really want. He knows what will make us happy, and that is why he asks us to not be attached to our worldly possessions because doing so will only lead us to sadness and frustration. Like the young man, if we can’t walk away from all of our worldly ideas about what makes us happy and fulfilled, if we don’t learn to let go and let God be God, then we will end up miserable. There are way too many miserable people out there.   

Here are some suggestions: When you give, give until hurts. God demands the first fruits, not the last. Too often we only want to give what we are comfortable giving. This shows a lack of trust that God is going to provide for us. If you struggle with attachments, look for ways to fast, to pray more, and live for others.

He never fails us, he always takes care of us, amazing things happen when we rely less on ourselves and rely more on Him. Wisdom grows, joy increases, and we start to become fulfilled. Jesus knows this, and this is why He tells us that it is necessary.

So be it.

Lec # 140- 27^th Sun of OT- Oct 4, 2015- Fr. Bresowar

Today, and especially given the crisis that exist today in marriage and family, I am happy that the Church gave us these readings so that I can preach and teach about the nature of marriage and family.

So, what is God’s plan for man and woman, marriage and family?

We seem to live in a culture, especially here in the United States, where society believes it is up to men and women to decide for themselves what composes a family, what composes a marriage. And because of this, there are many people who believe that marriage and family can be defined in many different ways.

The way that God defines marriage, family, and the purpose of men and women, is just one of many ways according to the society that we live. These same people also believe that God’s definition is just as morally good as any other definition.

However, as Catholics, as Christians who have faith and believe in an all-loving, all-knowing and True, Transcendent God who is Father to us, we must accept as His children, that the creator of the universe and author of human life, knew what He was doing when he gave us the plan, and that because we rejected the plan doesn’t mean that the plan was untrue or false.

Our acceptance of God’s loving plan for humanity, marriage and family, actually frees us to live as we ought and brings us to completeness. Our rejection of it, as individuals or societies, doesn’t negate it, erase it, or change it; it simply causes us harm.

So what is his plan?

Simply this: We are made in God’s image and likeness. Male and female we are made. Equal in dignity, but not the same, we are different. First God made man, but he saw that it was not good that man was alone, so He made all the animals, but still it was not enough, so he made woman. And it was only woman that made man complete.

So we hear Adam say after the creation of woman,

"This one, at last, is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh”

This indicates completeness. Finally, a suitable companion for man: the woman.

And for this reason,

“That is why a man leaves his father and mother
and clings to his wife,
and the two of them become one flesh.”

Remember we hear this story of Adam and Eve before they ate the fruit from the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil, before they fell into the first sin, before they rejected God and His plan. Before all of that we see God’s original design for marriage.

And in this design, the man and the woman come together and form one flesh union. Not the man and the man, not the woman and the woman, but the man and the woman, whose primary job is to have a family, to go out and multiply and have lots of children. One union, until death do them part. God didn’t design marriage with divorce in his mind.

This is why Jesus says, in the beginning; there was no divorce in God’s original plan. God allowed them to divorce under the law of Moses because they their hearts were hardened, but it was not originally in God’s plan.

What we see today, by in large in society, is not what God originally planned.

Most marriages now end in divorce. Young people aren’t getting married nearly as much because too often the only examples they have are ones of failure.

We have failed in our culture to adhere to God’s plan and so instead of trying to change that, we try to change the plan by saying it’s okay to divorce, it’s okay to redefine marriage. We say it’s okay to live outside of God’s plan and live as a family even though we are not married. We say that if two people love each other, even though they are of the same sex, why shouldn’t they have the opportunity to marry? We say these things, but we are lying to ourselves. We can’t redefine God’s plan. His plan is perfect, anything other than what he planned, is less than perfect. Why would we aim for less than perfect?

In reality, it’s not the correct thing to do, and it causes harm and pain, to our families, our society, the common good, but also to our souls and our relationship with God.

Sadly, many people are unfaithful, sometimes by no fault of the man or the woman, the partner will walk out of a relationship. These realities exist, and no matter what has happened in a person’s life, our job as Christians is not to judge, but to support our brothers and sisters, especially when they are hurting from the reality of divorce, infidelity, broken relationships, broken families and abuse.

Also, we must try to set good examples for our youth by being faithful to God’s plan.

I was blessed, more than I know, to come from a family where my parents were committed to each other and to God’s plan. I assumed that this was normal growing up. It was only until I was older that I discovered that many of my friend’s parents were divorced or never married. That many of my friends didn’t have a father, and that some didn’t know their mothers.

One of my best friends parents got divorced after he had already left and gone off to college. There are so many broken families, broken relationships. We must welcome those who are hurting, no matter what their situation is or has been.

The Church must be a home for people who are broken and wounded by bad relationships. That doesn’t mean that we redefine the plan of God, it just means that we live it, by being compassionate and merciful, and by trying to be faithful to his plan even if we were not in the past.

God will not turn us away; he will remain faithful to us even if we are not. But he does challenge us to change and grow, and to understand that his plan is not impossible, but is slowly redeeming.

Don't be afraid! Don't be afraid to get married and have children! Don't be afraid to do the noble thing and stick with your spouse who you are vowed to until death! Don't be afraid to pray together, share your struggles and weakness with your spouse. Don't be weak Christians who walk away as soon as it takes sacrifice. The family is worth it. Fidelity to Christ is worth it

Also, we need to do a better job of supporting those who struggle with divorce and broken families. Let us pray that we can do so and look for positive ways we can put our faith into action by looking to support them in the many ways that are available to do so.

God Bless you.

Lec # 134- 25 Sun of OT- Sept 20, 2015- Fr. Bresowar

My brothers and sisters in Christ, it is good to be here with you once again to celebrate this holy Mass. This past week I went on retreat with my brother priests in Cullman Alabama. It was a good time to gather as brothers and be with each other, share in fraternity, and listen with the words of wisdom from the master of the retreat.

This year the main focus of the retreat was how to find happiness.

I do not know one person in the world who does not desire to be happy. Everyone here wishes to be happy. Happiness is really the goal of the human life.

Everyone desires to be happy! Not everyone knows how to be happy, or where to find happiness. Young people especially, often discover the hard way, that happiness, if looked for in the wrong places, can lead to depression and despair. Many times people get addicted to drugs because they only have a very low self-esteem, or they have long patterns of abuse, or because they don’t know how to go deeper to find a lasting and enduring happiness.

On the retreat, the master, made four distinctions of happiness. Four different levels which everyone seems to exist on.

On the first level, where he says that most young people exist, and young adults, and even some older adults are, is the level of Immediate Gratification. These are the people who move from one drug to the next, one video game to the next, they are from one happy moment to the next. The happiness they get is instant gratification but it only last momentarily. And once it wares off they try to find the next thing to make them happy. Often times living only on this level leads to depression, fear of failure, lack of self-worth and boredom. Young people especially who live in social media world without going much deeper begin to experience a deep hole of emptiness on this level.

The master of the retreat said it is not good to stay on this level. The challenge is to find a deeper, lasting, more meaningful happiness.

The next level, or level two, is the level of happiness one receives from personal self-achievement. This is where many young people start to become competitive and their happiness is often times related to how they do in comparison with others. If they see themselves as better than others, they will tend to be happier. The problem with this stage is that it can lead to jealousy, loneliness, and isolation and cynicism. The amount of time one can be happy in this stage is longer than in stage one, but still is very short.

Stage one and stage two is where many many people are in the world. Happiness is often times short lived and there is a big experience of depression and frustration because instead of being happy most of the time, these people often feel only empty.

The challenge for young people, and older people as well, is to exist not in the first two stages of happiness, but in the last two stages of happiness.

In stage three, the individual starts to look beyond him or herself to find happiness. They start to look for happiness for others. They start to focus on what is good for the sake of goodness. In this stage, pursuit of things like justice, and goodness, and truth become more important. Decisions are made for the greater good, and things like video games, and all the fleeting pleasures of the world become less important. Also, how one compares with someone else becomes less important.

Many older adults exist on this level because they necessarily have to sacrifice for their children and families. Happiness becomes more of seeing the good in others. Incidentally, if we can avoid slipping back into level one or level two, this happiness seems to last a lot longer. This stage is marked more by self-giving, and not so much by trying to obtain happiness by being selfish.

The final stage, or stage four, this is the happiness that all of us want. This is the type of happiness that does not go away, it endures for ever. It is obtainable, but really only insomuch as we are connected to Eternal Truth, Love and Goodness. The closer we are to God in this stage, the happier we are. This stage may seem a long way off to someone who only wants to be happy in the first stage, but this stage really is the goal for all humans.

It is marked by the highest truths, justice, beauty, and love. To obtain this level, we must pray and have relation with God, seek the good of others, and live as Christ lived. Willing to sacrifice for other even when they refuse to sacrifice for us. To look for the good in others, and not to focus on the negative.  People who seek happiness in this stage generally stay happy. They see the purpose of their lives and the know where they are going. They want to bring others to know and love God too.

Our challenge as adults is to move ourselves out of the first two stages and start to purse stages three and four. Once we do this, we then need to help our young people find true happiness. This world doesn’t offer much to young people, and that’s why we must help them find God, for only God gives lasting happiness. 

Lec # 92- 11^th  Sunday of OT- June 14, 2015- Fr. Bresowar

My brothers and sisters in Christ, it is once again good to be here with you today to celebrate this 11^th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen once said, “Moral principles do not depend on a majority vote. Wrong is wrong, even if everybody is wrong. Right is right, even if nobody is right.”

And G.K. Chesterton stated something very similar, “Right is right even if nobody does it. Wrong is wrong even if everybody is wrong about it”

Recently the people of Ireland, the first country in the world to put it to a vote, decided, by a not so small margin, that the definition of Marriage should be changed to include people of the same sex.

In an astonishing change of public opinion in the last 10 years, we seem to be on the cusp, in the western world, of completely redefining the definition of marriage. This is alarming, especially considering the pace in which it is happening, and it challenges us as Catholics, particularly, when the country is question, Ireland, historically was a Catholic country, to understand the ramifications of such a decision.

It is very likely that in a couple of weeks, our own supreme court, here in the United States, will make gay marriage a legal right across the country.

As the media, and a large number of people champion this as a great victory of equality for people with same sex attraction, and speak openly of how this is a wonderful new reality, we who know the divine law and the natural law written on our hearts are left wondering if we were wrong all this time?  Why? Because we are constantly being told we are wrong to defend our medieval Catholic beliefs and that we should go ahead and get with the modern times. And many people have abandoned their faith.

A couple of questions to ponder.

Has society evolved to a point in the last 10 years where we can say with certainty that we were wrong to put our faith in God and what he has said through his Son, through His Church? Has human nature changed so much in the last 10 years that we can now say that same sex attraction is a normal healthy thing, and that marriage should no longer be defined exclusively between a man and a woman?

That’s what the media, politicians and many scholars would like us to believe.

They would like us to change our faith, walk by sight, and abandon our moral principles. And it is apparent that we have acquiesced, at least in Ireland, and in most of the western world to their request.

Given the onslaught of media in our lives, we are bombarded every day with little subliminal messages of how this new reality is supposed to be the new normal. Wells and Fargo recently aired an advertisement depicting two women married and living together, there are TV shows with gay couples being the norm. Where the limit can be pushed, it is happening, and all the while, we as a society are just soaking it up and accepting it as the way things are now, even if we quietly disagree with it.

Eventually, as Catholics, we might find ourselves being willing to compromise this part of our faith, because we do not want to offend others or because we are afraid of what would happen to us in the court of public opinion, or even worse, we are convinced by our modern society that they are right, and the Church is wrong.

Eventually, as Catholics, we are going to have to make a choice.

I’m brought back to Bishop Sheen’s comment, “Moral principles do not depend on majority vote.”

We’ve all heard the question, if everyone was jumping off a cliff, would you follow them? It would appear weird at first that everyone was jumping off the cliff, but soon you might find yourself questioning your own sanity, “if everyone else is doing it, I guess I should too.”

My brothers and sisters, the world is jumping of a cliff right now.

Are we going to follow it?

Listen to the words of Paul again, which we heard in today’s second reading, “We are always courageous, although we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight.

Yet we are courageous, and we would rather leave the body and go home to the Lord. Therefore, we aspire to please him, whether we are at home or away. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense, according to what he did in the body, whether good or evil.”

Nothing revolutionary here in terms of what St. Paul is saying, as if we didn’t already know that we do not belong any more to this world than Jesus did, that our home is in Heaven with God, not here on earth. That we walk by Faith, not by sight. That we aspire not to please the world, but to please God, and that each one of us will go before the judgment seat of the Christ and give an account for our lives, according to what we did, taught, believed.

But maybe Paul’s statement, which was true to the Christians of the early church and may not be so true of the Church today is, “We are courageous!”

Are we courageous? Courageous enough to defend the Truth, to be insulted and maybe even abused, or even killed for love of Truth?

The Church has always taught, and will always teach that there are certain acts which are contrary to the natural and divine law and which if committed risk separating us from God’s friendship.

These include acts of the sexual nature which are disordered. But we shouldn’t simply pass judgment on people who are living in sin with same sex attraction, because there are a much greater number of people living in sin who do not have same sex attraction. People contracepting, cohabitating, living outside of God’s plan for marriage. Before we as Catholics can go out and live our faith boldly in a world which is rejecting it, we have to clean our own house.

Courageous is not a word I would use to describe the Christian Church in today’s age, at least in the west. In other parts of the world, people are bravely giving up their lives for their faith. Would we learn from their example?

Same sex marriage is an offense against human nature and divine law. It would be wrong for us to sit by idly and just accept it as the new norm.

Love the sinner, that includes ourselves, and hate sin. There is no love in accepting sin. Sin is what separates us from God. Unless we order our lives to the Resurrection, we will run the risk of jumping off the cliff too. The Truth always prevails, rather we live it or reject it, in the end, the Truth remains and in the end the Truth will convict us of eternal life or eternal damnation.

Will we embrace it, live it, follow it? Or will we allow society to change it in the course of a few years? Something which no matter how hard it tries to do, will fail, and when it falls, unless it repents, it may never return.  

 

   

Lec # 53- 5^th Sunday of Easter- May 3, 2015- Fr. Bresowar

My brothers and sisters in Christ, it is once again wonderful to be with you here to celebrate this 5^th Sunday of Easter! Easter last for 50 days, leading up to Pentecost, and so we continue to celebrate His Resurrection and its eternal implications for all of us, and we look forward to His glorious Ascension and Sending of the Holy Spirit in Pentecost, as well as always, His Triumphant return!

Jesus says to us in the Gospel, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.” This isn’t the first time Jesus admonishes us to ask God for favors, “Ask and you shall receive, seek and you will find, Knock and the door will be open to you.” He says this in the Gospel of Matthew. In John’s Gospel, chapter 14, He tells us to ask anything in His name, and He will do it. In Mark He says, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

In fact, this theme of asking the Father is laden throughout scriptures, it is mentioned frequently. It comes up in the Acts of the Apostles, in Paul’s letters, in the letter to the Hebrews, in the letters of St. John and St. James. And in the Old Testament, in the Psalms, in Isaiah and Daniel and the Song of Songs.

God wants us to ask and to seek. I think often times people are too quick to give up though when what they ask for is not received. Many people have lost faith in God when they ask for a miracle of healing for example, and they do not receive it. Or when they ask for a difficult situation to be resolved, and it is not.

This truly can be a test of our faith.

So the question becomes, why does God ask us to seek Him with this special requests, and then not answer them?

I think a better question might be, does God truly not answer them, or does He answer in a way which is even better than we could imagine.

If we knew the value of seeking and asking, we would never stop. So many times, people only talk to God when they need something, or a situation is desperate.

Also, if we knew truly what God is going to give us, we’d realize that our prayers have been answered and continue to be.

The problem I think is that we only see in the micro, and God sees in the Macro. When a prayer is not answered how we think it should be, that doesn’t mean that our prayers are not answered or that God is indifferent. He already knows fully what we can only know in a slight way by faith. He knows what he has prepared, He knows the reward of our faith and perseverance in suffering; He desires to give us so much more than what we are even asking for, and he is teaching us to seek and to ask for those gifts which are not temporary. A healing is temporary, when given it has a purpose, when not, it has a purpose, all the same it is temporary, eternal life is forever. Are we asking for eternal life and the food that gives life and never dies?  

I believe that if he answered everyone of our request, whenever we asked, then we would never learn what we really need to ask for, and instead we would simply operate out of the concept that we know what we need better than He does.

Who amongst us would have asked God to come and die on a cross to destroy death? We couldn’t have asked for that because it would not have been possible for us to know that death and suffering were going to be destroyed by God taking on flesh, and destroying it by dying and rising. No one except God knew that plan. It was alluded to but it still went against every human instinct. 

And yet, before Jesus came, people were asking for God to take away the pain, take away the suffering, end the grief of death, end the suffering of the innocents. Asking to be relieved of their personal trials, and the trials of their loved ones. They also asked for worldly gifts like food, water, money to provide, reasonable things to ask for. And some not so reasonable things to ask for.

Much like we do today, they spent a good amount of time in their prayer telling God exactly how their request needed to be answered. They couldn’t have imagined how everything they were truly seeking was going to be given to them, because they lacked faith. They saw, as many of us do, in unanswered prayers, a God who doesn’t care or is indifferent.

Nothing could be further from the Truth.

Whenever we seek good in our lives, or an end to misfortune, what we really are seeking is Heaven, rather we realize it or not.

This life, and all we endure, is temporary, and God has put it in our hearts to desire Heaven, which is not temporary, the eternal life where all things are right, and there is no more suffering. We must not fall into the error of trying to make this temporary worldly existence eternal life.

What does Jesus truly want us to seek? What should we be asking for?

St. Thomas Aquinas spent his whole life in pursuit of the Truth, and when God appeared to Him at the end of his Life, He said to Him, “Thomas, you have written well of me, what would you like?” And Thomas said to Him, “All I want is You.”

Because what else is better than God? What could we possibly seek that is better than Jesus?

What we will find, my brothers and sisters, is when we knock on the door, seek the Kingdom of God, and ask for Jesus, everything that we want and then some will be given to us, even if we were not aware of what it was we wanted in the first place.

God won’t answer every prayer request immediately, or He could, but it wouldn’t teach us to seek the right thing, mainly Him.

God, I want to do your will, I want You, I don’t care about anything else. I know it is painful, because I don’t always understand why certain things happen, why certain hardships or worldly injustices are allowed, why you ask of me certain things that seem very difficult, why some have more blessings then others, why some suffer more than others, but I trust you, with the Faith that you have given me, that you know what I need more than I do and that you will give that to me and to all of us who remain in you. And he does, wisdom is learned in patience.

May this become our prayer until the day we are in the Kingdom of God. And truly it is our prayer, the prayer He gave us, we say it every day when we say the Our Father. You kingdom Come, your will be done, give us this day our daily bread, and forgive our offenses, teach us to forgive others as you have forgiven us, save us from the temptations of the devil and from sin. For sin is the only thing which can separate us from You.

Only you Lord, that’s our hearts desire. Teach us to desire only You, for we know by Faith, that there is no thing better than You and the eternal life you have promised to those who follow your commands.