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Many of you know that I come from a family of nine children and many of you know that I'm the middle child that there are four older than me and four younger, and you might also know that psychologists say that the middle children are the most balanced ones...or was it the oldest, I don't remember.

You may have heard me speak once before very briefly about my youngest brother, but I thought, in light of the gospel this morning, and in light of the second reading, where Saint Paul tells us to offer our bodies to God, our very lives to God as a living sacrifice that I read that and I thought of my brother Walter again, and the story of his life and how that's very profoundly shaken me, and how the Lord has used that in my life.

My youngest brother Walter was born in 1960 and when he was six months old there was a terrible flu epidemic going on around the country and we had just moved to Colorado and my parents took us all to the doctor and the doctor gave my six months old brother a flu shot which was not a wise thing to do we know now. And my younger brother had a terrible allergic reaction to that flu shot, so much so that he went into a series of seizures for about a week and at the end of that time he had lost about ninety percent of his brain capacity, and he regressed back to the age of birth and he is now in his thirties and he has never progressed beyond about five months of age in capacity. He doesn't speak and he is at the Wheatridge State Home and Training School.

The experience for my parents was a very bitter one, you can only imagine the tears that they shed, that we all did during that period of time. The doctors immediately counseled my parents to put Walter into an institution, and my parents absolutely refused to do that, and so along with the other eight children they cared for my youngest brother. And it was very difficult because he was so profoundly retarded. And as he got older he became very self destructive, so we always had to keep an eye on him and we always had to watch very carefully over him, and as he got a little stronger it used to take three of us to feed him, and as he got older it became more and more difficult for my parents, but I saw them hang on, and I saw them year after year caring for my brother. My brother never recognized any of us. There was obviously never a thank you from him, we as a family never went on vacations or went out to dinner, or all of those things; and instead there was a very simple joy about those eight years that my brother was with us. I remember sitting around the table long after dinner was over talking and laughing as a family, having us kids in the dining room, and just very, very simple joys as a family. And in the midst of my brother Walter there was a great joy about my family. When Walter was eight years old he just simply became impossible for us to take care of, and again amidst many tears my parents had him placed in Wheatridge State Home and Training School where he is to this day.

And I and my sister are his legal guardians, and so we watch out over him.

I am convinced as I get older that that experience of my brother has had a profound influence upon me, and from my brother and from my parents caring for him I learned a very simple lesson; I may not always observe it but I have learned it, and that is this: The language of love is sacrifice. The language of love is sacrifice.

Our Lord attempts to teach the Apostles a lesson, He points to the cross and says: "This is what will happen to me", Saint Peter takes the Lord aside and he rejects our Lords words, just as the church and we sometimes reject the Lord's words, and he says: "Lord may you be spared this suffering, this sacrifice." And our Lord has heard those words before, He heard them in the forty days in the desert, they were the words of temptation from the devil. "Ah Lord, You don't have to suffer, You can accomplish what You wish to without any sacrifice whatsoever."

Our Lord says to Peter the most harsh words of Jesus in the gospel: "Get behind me Satan, you are judging by the world's standards and not by God's". Saint Peter would later be judged by God's standards and he later was himself crucified in Rome.

And our Lord says to us: "The language of love is sacrifice". Saint Paul says: "Offer your lives, offer your very bodies as a living sacrifice to God". The language of love is sacrifice, and it is no accident that we call the Mass the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. God Sacrifices Himself for us out of love in this holy place, and we sacrifice ourselves to God out of love in this holy place. It is not an accident that at the offertory of the Mass I say to you: "Pray brothers and sisters that this my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God the Almighty Father", and you assent to that by saying: "May the Lord accept this sacrifice at your hands".

What is this sacrifice? The sacrifice of Jesus Christ and our lives offered in union with that sacrifice; that is what is happening on this altar, that is what God the Father is accepting.

I saw my parents offer their lives as a living sacrifice for my brother Walter and all eight of us; there always seem to be plenty of love for nine children in my home and beyond, and the Lord says to us: "You will suffer, your life will be one of sacrifice, you can either follow the world's example and attempt to escape suffering, escape sacrifice, escape difficulty, or you can take it and offer it to Me for the salvation of your families and loved ones.

Our Catholic faith does not teach us to escape suffering, for that is unrealistic and it is a path that surely leads away from joy. Our Catholic faith teaches us to offer all of that to the Lord that He might give us His salvation.

During this coming week, all of us, the Lord will place before us moments of sacrifice, moments of suffering and difficulty and we will be tempted to pray: "Lord take this away from me", instead by the example of this Mass and Christ crucified may we pray instead: "Lord Jesus, I embrace this for Your honor and Your glory, I offer this all for the salvation of those I love. Unite me Father to the cross of Christ Your Son."