Fr. JC Maximilian

“Make a wish!” How many times have we heard that phrase? Usually it precedes blowing out the candles on our birthday cake, or breaking the wish-bone of the Thanksgiving turkey. Do you remember what you wished for on your seventh birthday? I cannot remember exactly when I wished for this, but when I was around seven I really thought Evel Knievel was cool, and they had this Evel Knievel motorcycle toy that could make jumps. I just thought I would be the happiest kid in the world if I got that motorcycle, and I did get it for Christmas and had a lot of fun with it. But you know what? Even though that toy made me happy, that happiness faded in a few days. Oh, I still had fun with it, well, at least until I was 8 or 9, but I am sure that by Groundhog Day there was something else that I thought would make me really happy.

Wishing seems to be a basic part of our temperament as human beings. It does not matter if we are young or old, an optimist or a pessimist, we all seem to wish for that “something” that will make us happy. The “something” varies depending on our age and background, but there is always something that we are wishing for – maybe it is to win the lottery, to get the perfect job, the perfect boyfriend or girlfriend, a new house, a car, or even a motorcycle. Yet we all know the disappointment, not only of not getting what we wish for, but even when we do get it we find that it does not bring us the real, lasting happiness for which we are longing.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus offers us the fulfillment of the deepest wish of our heart. He says that He is the Good Shepherd and He will give His sheep “eternal life” and promises that they will never perish. How many works of literature and film have told a tale of someone looking for the key to eternal life, a way of avoiding death. Death is our deepest fear, so it is only natural that we would want to avoid it.

Jesus has already defeated death by His Resurrection to a new life beyond the grasp of death and decay. Jesus says of His followers, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.” As long as we try our very best to live for Him, death can never defeat us, any more than it defeated Jesus. For those who cling to Jesus, giving Him their entire life, the grave will be the gateway to a new life, one infinitely more wonderful than the life we live now.

Sounds pretty wonderful, doesn’t it? So how do we get this eternal life that Jesus offers to us? We must become the friends of Christ Jesus.

You may have heard some Protestants say “once saved, always saved.” The idea is that once you have accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, then no matter what you do afterwards you will still go to heaven. This sounds pretty nice, but in fact it is contrary to the Gospel.

Jesus came to set us free from the slavery of sin and death. Why would He make us slaves of another kind? God does not want us to be slaves in heaven. He wants us to be friends, and friendship is never automatic. Our friendship with God starts here on earth with our baptism. It grows as we get to know Christ, discover His plan for our lives, and strive to live, with the help of His grace, as He wants us to live. However, at any point along the way we can break off the relationship with Christ. We call this mortal sin. Because He loves us, Jesus leaves us free to do so. He wants us to love Him as completely, as totally as He loves us, but love must be freely given. It can not be forced.

Any friendship is like that. It can be broken by one terrible act of disloyalty, or it can slowly disintegrate due to a lack of attention. Our friendship with Christ is vulnerable in the same way because it is a REAL friendship. In fact, our friendship with Christ is even more vulnerable because Satan does his best to make it hard for us to stay faithful to Jesus. That is why Sts. Paul and Barnabas, in visiting the Christian communities, “urged them to remain faithful to the grace of God.” God is the faithful Good Shepherd, and as Jesus tells us in the Gospel, “no one can take them out of the Father’s hand.” God’s grace never fails, but we, stubborn and selfish sheep, are too often lured into temptation. We allow other, lesser but more immediate things, distract us from the deepest desire of our hearts – Heaven.

This is why one of the greatest virtues is perseverance. God wants to grant us the gift of perseverance for He is eager for us to grow in our friendship with Him. He wants us to become the noble, wise and joyful men and women that He created us to be. Surely each of us, deep down, want the same thing.

If we want to make sure that we will always persevere we need to pray each day, to celebrate the sacrament of Reconciliation frequently and to worthily receive Holy Communion as often as possible. We need to strive every day, no matter how difficult it gets, to love God with all our hearts and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We need to implore the help of our friends in Heaven, the saints, particularly the Blessed Virgin Mary, the refuge of sinners. Most importantly, we must keep our hearts always focused on Christ. No matter what idols try to seduce us – whether they be idols of pleasure, power, success or prestige – we must keep our eyes on Christ Jesus, our destiny, the fulfillment of the deepest longing of our hearts. He will give us eternal life and happiness.

I know it has been nearly three weeks since I last posted to this blog.  I am sorry, but things can just get so busy in the parish.  Of course the first week, Easter Week, I was on retreat.

The retreat was held at the Seton Retreat Center, which is at the motherhouse for the Daughters of Charity in Emmitsburg, MD.  If you have not been to Emmitsburg it makes a nice trip.  Gettysburg is only about 10 miles away, so there is some nice history to see, and the Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton is attached to the motherhouse.  There are some beautiful hills, especially where the Grotto above Mount St. Mary’s University and Seminary is, just down the road.

This retreat was for priests involved with Communion and Liberation.  It was my first time on this retreat, and a first time to meet other priests involved with CL (well, I meet with 3 of them in Brooklyn monthly).  Msgr. Lorenzo Albacete gave the conferences.  He is a very fine theologian, and very funny.  He is also kind of incharge of CL in the US.  The retreat was just what I needed.  It was so uplifting.  The major theme was seeing the evidence of the Resurrection in our lives.  I think he made a good point, that for too many Catholics the Resurrection is treated as merely an historical event that happened a long time ago.  While this is true, it is also an event that has completely changed the world.  We have been set free from the Law of Corruption, Sin and Death, and live now a new life.  We need to be aware of that, and see the world as different because of the Resurrection.  It is in remembering the Lord that we make the Lord present in our lives, and see Him, encounter Him, everyday in the events and people in our daily lives.  That is what it means to be a follower of Christ.

When I first encountered CL I was in a place where I was looking for “something.”  I was feeling as if my joy and zeal for the priesthood had been robbed from me.  The first 18 months as a priest was very challenging, personally.  First a few months after being ordained, I was diagnosed with cancer, and while it was easy to treat, it really wiped me out for a long time.  Then just as I was getting back to “normal” my father was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and I moved to a new parish to be closer to him.  He then died 11 days after I arrived.  The new parish was going through a lot of growing pains.  It had just been merged, two parishes were combined, 6 months before I arrived.  Understandably many of the people did not like the idea of being merged, and it has taken time to adjust to the new reality.  Spiritually I was feeling very down, and a priest friend of mine mentioned this group called Communion and Liberation.  I did not know anything about it, so I Googled it (actually I Pro-Life Searched it) and what I read attracted me.  I then contacted the local person, and we met for coffee.  Something about him, really the joy in him, was what I wanted.  So a small group of us, four, started to do “School of Community,” using the book, Why the Church? by Msgr. Luigi Giussani the founder of CL.  The book spoke to my experience, of the struggle and frustration I was feeling, my discouragement, and it showed me another way.  Of course it is the WAY, Jesus!  I still feel like I do not fully understand CL’s way and method, but I am getting there.  The key is to encounter the Lord, to recognize Him as the deepest longing of my heart.

Since coming back from the retreat I have noticed that I am more joyful and more zealous for the Lord.  Others have noticed it too, and that is the key.  While preaching is important, what really draws people is their noticing your joy.  Their hearts will say “I want that too,” and they will then want to know what the “something” is that you have.  That is when they are ready to have Christ proposed to them.

Well, I have two committals to do, and it is pouring rain, so I should get ready to get wet.

(Image of  The Incredulity of Saint Thomas by CARAVAGGIO)

Early in his pontificate, Pope Benedict started a series of talks on each of the twelve Apostles. For the Holy Father, it is through the experience of the Apostles that we can best understand the Church’s relationship with Christ as the “new family” that exists in the people. One of the Apostles which I think most people can associate with is St. Thomas.

Everyone seems to focus on Thomas’ doubting of the Resurrection. Why did Thomas doubt in the Resurrection of Jesus, even after the men with whom he had lived with for three years so joyfully proclaimed it? Thomas was mad at Jesus. He was angry that Jesus had failed, or at least failed in the mission that Thomas thought Jesus had come to accomplish. Thomas wanted to brood over his disappointment; nursing his anger and sorrow in solitude. That is why when he heard the news of the Resurrection he would not accept it, “Unless I see the mark of the nails . . . I will not believe.”

Jesus was not offended by Thomas’ hesitation and resistance. He was just eager to get his faith back. Most likely with a smile on His face, Jesus was happy to oblige Thomas’ stubborn request. And Thomas sees this. He sees that Jesus lowers Himself to his level, and lets him touch Him. In touching Jesus’ wounds, Thomas feels Christ’s real, physical presence. And Thomas falls on his knees and is the first Apostle to proclaim his faith in Christ’s divinity, calling Him, “My Lord and my God,” the very titles given to God throughout the Old Testament. Maybe instead of remembering him as “Doubting Thomas,” we would be better to remember him as “Believing Thomas.”

How alike St. Thomas are we? How often do we, when our hopes seem to be disappointed, do we get angry; especially at God? Often we just want to be left alone with our hurt feelings, and we do not want to hear the good news of others. We rather brood, and we fail to recognize the evidence of the Resurrection that is being presented to us and the grace that it brings.

In this first Easter meeting of Jesus with His Apostles, which we heard in today’s Gospel reading, He gives the Apostles the Holy Spirit, which has a threefold significance – not only for the Apostles, but for us too. First, Jesus says, “Peace be with you.” By His Passion, Death and Resurrection Jesus has once again restored harmony between heaven and earth. As St. Paul puts it, “Christ is our peace,” or at least as Christians He should be our peace. This is not only a vertical peace, between God and humanity, but it is also horizontal – a peace with all of creation, and one we need to live with one another. It is a peace due to sin being banished and grace being restored.

The Spirit’s presence also expresses the forgiveness of sins. This is why we celebrate this Sunday as Divine Mercy Sunday. Jesus’ death is atonement for our sins, and atonement means to be at-one-ment with God. While God’s forgiveness is freely given, it does require a change of heart to be received. God’s love is boundless, but it cannot be forced. With a change of heart, it is ours for the asking.

Finally in giving the Apostles the Holy Spirit, Jesus also gives them a mission, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” Probably one of the most pondered questions about the Resurrection, though often only in our own minds, is why didn’t Jesus appear to Pilate or Herod or Caiaphas or even the Roman Emperor after His Resurrection? Pope Benedict says, “He can only be seen by the person to whom he reveals himself. And he only reveals himself to the one whom he can entrust with a mission” (Joseph Ratzinger, Seek That Which is Above, 1986, Ignatius Press, pp. 64-65). He does not desire to simply ease people’s curiosity. Jesus desires to build His Church, and the Spirit guides the Church so that it continues the work of Christ. In fact, in the Church, Jesus continues to be the incarnate presence of God in the world today.

This mission is not just for the Apostles, nor just for bishops, priests, deacons and religious. As the children of God, all of us, each according to the vocation that God has entrusted to us, should be like God. All of us, I pray, have had the grace to experience the mercy of God in our lives – through the sacraments, particularly Reconciliation, and through prayer. However, there are still many people around us who have not had that grace, or have forgotten about it. We must spread the Good News of God’s Mercy and Love to all the ends of the earth. We must live as the people of the Resurrection. It has to make a difference in our lives, and not be simply relegated to something we are told to believe that happened a long time ago. We need to be excited about the Resurrection, so excited that people can tell we are excited just by looking at us. If you won the Powerball lottery, don’t you think the people around you could tell; wouldn’t they notice a difference in you? Well the new life that the Resurrection gives to us is infinitely better than winning the lottery.

As people of the Resurrection we cannot hold on to resentment, anger and envy. We must forgive. We must have a lively, personal relationship with Jesus, so we can say that wonderful prayer of Divine Mercy: Jesus, I trust in you.

I will be away this week.  I am attending the Communion and Liberation Retreat for Priests, in Emmitsburg, MD.  The first conference is tonight, and I will be back sometime Friday night.  Please keep all of us priests in your prayers, that this will be a time to draw closer to our Risen Lord, to develop some holy companionships for on the Road, and just some time to relax and recharge the spiritual batteries.

THE LORD IS RISEN!  INDEED HE IS ALIVE!

EASTER SUNDAY

“The Lord has indeed risen, alleluia. Glory and kingship be his for ever and ever” (Entrance Antiphon for Easter).

Jesus, the crucified one, has now been raised from the dead. Utter defeat has been transformed into irreversible victory. Satan, and all the powers of evil, did all they could do to breakdown the courage and fidelity of God’s anointed Savior. Satan exhausted his arsenal of hate, injustice, humiliation and pain, and had his way with the Messiah of the world. Despite it all, God’s anointed came out victorious – Christ Jesus Victor!

Many people outside the Christian faith often think that Christmas is the most important of the Christian holidays. Yet we, the Faithful, know that Easter is the holiest of solemnities. The glorious resurrection of Christ Jesus is the key for understanding His entire life, and is the foundation of our Faith. Without the Resurrection, all the other aspects of Jesus’ life would be without meaning. Jesus would have just been recorded in history as a wise teacher, with no more authority over our lives than Socrates or Confucius or the Buddha or Mohammad, or even Dr. Phil. Good Friday, the Crucifixion, would have been the last act of Jesus’ life, hardly “Good News,” just another nice guy, just another dreamer whose dreams were squelched by the harsh reality of real life.

But Jesus did rise from the dead, and His victory over evil, sin, falsehood, injustice, suffering and even death is total and irreversible. As St. Paul writes, “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain . . . . You are still in your sins” (1 Cor. 15: 14, 17).

It is interesting, however, that this, the most central event in our Christian Faith – the Resurrection – is not described in any of the Gospels. We have careful accounts of so many of Jesus’ miracles, including His raising Lazarus from the dead, yet we have no description of the Resurrection itself. All we have is the account of the empty tomb. Even Mary Magdalene is uncertain as to what the empty tomb really means. She runs to the Apostles and says, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.” St. Peter, and the other disciple, run to see the empty tomb. Clearly this was not the work of grave robbers, because the expensive burial linens are still there. The Gospel says they “saw and believed. For they did not yet understand the Scriptures that he had to rise from the dead.” They had faith and hope.

When I was in Rome, the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva was near where I was staying, so I stopped there often to pray. In the church is a small, little known marble sculpture of the resurrected Christ by Michelangelo. The figure of Christ is gloriously sculptured. He is young, muscular, confident and energetic. He stands firm, but not stiff. The risen Lord stands alone, the only other figure in the sculpture is His cross. He holds it in His arm; it is rather puny in size, certainly too small to have been used to crucify Him. It is just a flimsy little wooden cross, and he holds it as easily as we would hold a bouquet of flowers. And that is the whole point that Michelangelo is trying to convey in this work of art. The life-giving power of the Risen Lord has overwhelmed the deathly power of the cross. What Easter Sunday does for us is it makes the light of hope shine so brightly in our lives that it shrinks our crosses down to size. We can bear them now, and with joy, because we know that they are leading us towards the glorious victory of the Resurrection. Just like the disciples standing in the empty tomb, the Resurrection gives us our hope, even if we do not fully understand it.

Today we should relish this joy of Easter, thanking God for letting us share in this victory which gives us hope. However, we should not let it stop there. We should not just enjoy Easter, we should allow the reality of the Resurrection to transform our lives. Christ’s Resurrection is the power of eternal life at work in us. We should do something to plug into that power. All of us made an effort to live Lent in a special way – maybe we gave something up, or we committed to saying some extra prayers. Priests are often amazed at how many more people can find the time to make it to daily Mass during Lent, but not during the rest of the year. Holy Mother Church in her wisdom gives us six weeks of Lent and eight weeks of Easter.

In today’s second reading, St. Paul encourages us to “think of what is above, not of what is on earth.” Maybe we should make an Easter resolution that will help us do just that, that will help us keep in mind the eternal life in Christ that is waiting for us if we stay faithful to Him. It might be making a commitment to attend daily Mass, or to spend time each day reading the Scriptures. Maybe we could decide to join one of the Bible Studies that we offer here in the parish, or the Communion and Liberation School of Community, or one of the other prayer groups. Maybe we can commit to keeping the Lord’s day more faithfully, not only by participating in Sunday Mass but also planning special, uplifting activities to do as a family. If we ask the Holy Spirit to give us some ideas, He will not be stingy. We just need to decide to let Easter make a difference in our lives, the way it should.

I leave you with these words of Pope Benedict XVI, “All this makes clear what Easter does mean: God has acted. History does not go on aimlessly. Justice, love, truth – these are realities, genuine reality. God loves us; he comes to meet us. The more we go along his path and live in his way, the less we need to fear justice and truth, the more our hearts will be full of Easter joy. Easter is not only a story to be told: it is a signpost on life’s way. It is not an account of a miracle that happened a very long time ago: it is the breakthrough which has determined the meaning of all history. If we grasp this, we too, today can utter the Easter greeting with undiminished joy: Christ is risen; yes, he is risen indeed!” (Joseph Ratzinger, Seek That Which Is Above, 1986, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, CA, pp. 54-56).

“Now the holy rays of the light of Christ shine forth, the pure stars of the pure Spirit rise, the heavenly treasures of glory and divinity lie open. In this splendor the long dark night has been swallowed up in the dreary shadows of death have vanished. Life is offered to everyone; the whole world is filled with glory. A heavenly light more brilliant than all others sheds its radiance everywhere, and he who was begotten before the morning star and all the stars of heaven, Christ, mighty and immortal, shines upon all creatures more brightly than the sun” (Attributed to Hippolytus of Rome, Easter Homily: SC 27, 116-118. 164-190).

Those beautiful words were preached by St. Hippolytus of Rome, about 1800 years ago, during the Easter Vigil. The image of Christ Jesus as the Light of the world is very ancient, and is beautifully symbolized during the Easter Vigil with the church being all darkened, and then the Paschal Candle, representative of the Risen Christ, enters and casts away the darkness. As we sing, “Christ the Light! — Thanks be to God,” the church brightens as the light of the Paschal Candle is spread to all those in the church who hold candles. All creation rejoices in Jesus’ victory over sin and death. The drama of God’s mighty deeds and of salvation history is proclaimed in the Old and New Testament readings. We celebrate that that Light, the Light of Christ, is the deepest yearning of our hearts. He is our destiny, and our hearts will be restless until we rest in Him. In the midsts of the darkness of the world, and false lights, we keep our eyes fixed on Christ.

Pope Benedict XVI gives us, all of us, our charge this night when he writes, “The world is indeed dark, but even a single candle suffices to bring light into the deepest darkness. Did not God give us a candle at baptism and the means of lighting it? We must be courageous enough to light the candle of our patience, our trust, our love. Instead of bewailing the night, we must dare to light the little lamp that God has loaned us: ‘The light of Christ! — Thanks be to God!’” (Joseph Ratzinger, Dogma and Preaching, Matthew J. O’Connell, Trans., Chicago, IL: Franciscan Herald Press, 1985).

Today our attention is drawn towards the Cross on which Christ Jesus, the Savior of the world died. The Cross is a dominant image in Christianity. As Catholics, we begin every liturgy and prayer with the Sign of the Cross. We hang crosses in our churches, on the walls of our homes, and many of us wear them around our necks. Despite the image of the Cross being so prevalent in Christianity, how many of us really take time to reflect on what the Cross means for us? How often do we sit before a Cross and contemplate the great mystery that is the Cross?

Pope John XXIII had a Crucifix hanging on his bedroom wall. He would pray in front of his Crucifix every night before retiring, and every morning upon waking. And whenever the cares of the Church awakened him during the night, he would pray before the Crucifix on his bedroom wall. This beloved Pope, of blessed memory, once said, “A cross is the primary symbol of God’s love for us.”

As I reflected on the Cross this week, two words came to mind – trust and generosity. The Cross is the ultimate sign of generosity. One thing that I think we too often forget is that God does not need our love, or our worship, or us for that matter. God is utterly complete in Himself – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God did not need to create us, but He choose to do so purely out of His generous love. Even more amazing, God continues to be generous towards us despite all of our sinfulness. God is so generous in His love for His creation, that He sent His only begotten Son to us, and Jesus demonstrates this completely generous love of God by offering Himself on the Cross for us. Jesus did nothing wrong, committed no sin, yet He was willing to take on all the sins of the world so that we might have eternal life in a perfect communion of love with the Trinity. Jesus just gives and gives, and all that we need to do is accept the countless graces that He generously offers to us.

The other word that came to mind as I contemplated the Cross this week was trust. In truth we can say that salvation history began with a breakdown of trust. Satan tempted Adam and Eve by making them suspicious of God, by making them start to question whether or not God really was their loving Father. When they stopped trusting God, their relationship with God was shattered, and the human race was cut off from its source of happiness. That is when we started to need a savior.

Jesus’ mission was to reestablish communion between the human race and God, and He did so by totally trusting in God, His Father. Christ’s cross is a bridge of trust that makes it possible for us to return to communion with God, the source of our happiness. On the Cross, Jesus reverses Adam and Eve’s lack of trust, by completely trusting His Father for us.

This is what the mystery of the Cross is all about. Jesus willingly came down to our level, “and the Word became Flesh and dwelt among us.” Jesus embraced His human nature, with all of its limitations. When Satan made it hard for Him to obey His Father’s will, Jesus continued to trust and obey, even in spite of the indescribable suffering that He endured. As the letter to the Hebrews expresses it, “Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered….”

How was Jesus able to do this? Again, the letter to the Hebrews gives an explanation, “Let us . . . [keep] our eyes fixed on Jesus . . . For the sake of the joy that lay before him he endured the cross . . . .” (Hebrews 12: 1-2). He knew that doing His Father’s will was the source of happiness. Christ’s limitless trust in God rebuilt the bridge between us and God that Adam and Eve’s lack of trust destroyed.

Jesus’ total trust in the Father makes it possible for us to totally trust in the Father, and then to take up our crosses. Our crosses are intersections of wills. When our personal preferences contradict what God asks or permits, we are faced with a personal cross. An example that I think most of us can understand is when we face a serious illness. Our initial reaction is that we would rather be healthy, but God has permitted this illness to come to us. This creates an intersection of wills; God’s will is going in one direction, and ours is going in another. If in that moment we turn to Christ’s cross, He will remind us, through His example and through that supreme expression of God’s love for us, that God is trustworthy. In Christ’s cross we can find the strength to trust that God knows what He is doing, and we embrace our cross.

Every cross that we experience in life is a chance to exercise trust in God and thereby rebuild the relationship that sin has ruptured. In fact, this is why God sends and permits crosses in our lives. He wants us to rehabilitate our trust in Him so that we can deepen our communion with Him and experience the fullness of life that He has promised us.

Today, as the Church reminds us of the intensity of Christ’s suffering, which is a sign of the intensity of His love for us, let us renew our trust in God. Let us ask for the strength we need to embrace our crosses out of love, as Christ did. Do not allow the Cross to just become a piece of jewelry or a wall decoration. As the Cross is the primary symbol of God’s love for us, let our embracing of the Cross, however it is manifested in our lives, be the primary symbol of our trusting love for God.