Catholicism   |   Karate   |   Family   |   Gallery

Contact  |  About  |  Search

My brothers and sisters in Christ on this Sunday I want to wish to all of the mothers of the parish a happy Mother's day. We love you very much, and specially today we pray for you, and ask our Lord to fill you with great joy and as you serve Him that our Lord will make of each of you as mothers great saints. Because I think that of all of the vocations of the Christian world, being a mother is one of the most difficult. It's a day to day crucifixion of your will and placing yourself at the service of your family. And that is a great sign of holiness and a great grace that the Lord gives to you.

We have the image of the Blessed Mother in the Sanctuary this weekend because on Friday we had the crowning of the Blessed Virgin.

It's very appropriate that this weekend the scripture readings speak of the Church as a bride and as a Mother. What a wonderful coincidence, how appropriate.

What I'd like to do this morning is speak on each of these three readings.

The first reading is from the Acts of the Apostles, and it recounts Saint Paul's first missionary journey. He spent much of his life in three missionary journeys going over much of the known world, and this reading speaks of the first. Of a great urgency to build up the Church. To spread the news of Jesus Christ risen for all of mankind's salvation.

Saint Paul has been stoned for preaching the gospel and for healing the sick in a place called Lystra in Asia Minor. He's left for death but he recovers quickly; and with saint Barnabas he sets out for Darbey, then back to Lystra, then to Aconium and then to Pergae then back to the sea, then back home to Antioch. It's a remarkable scene really, of Saints Paul and Barnabas rushing from town to town, unable to rest, unable to silence the burning desire to speak of the risen Lord Jesus wherever they go. From town to town they speak of the risen Lord and baptize as many as possible in order to give to them eternal life.

Eventually Saint Paul comes to Europe where our ancestors first received the Holy Gospel.
Who were the first Europeans to hear? It was a group of women, again appropriate on this day, a group of women praying at a river bank in northern Greece. And from there the Holy Faith spreads like wild fire throughout all of Europe.

What made the Apostles work so urgently for the Church, what made them so willing to completely lay down their lives for Christ and for the Gospel which brings salvation. Well we receive the answer from the second reading, from the book of Revelations which describes for us how from all eternity God and mankind dwell as one meeting at the heart of Christ Jesus the Lord.

"I John saw a new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, beautiful as a bride prepared to meet her husband. I heard a loud voice from the throne cry out 'This is God's dwelling among men' ".

What is this new Jerusalem that Saint John speaks of in Revelation? What is this new Jerusalem? It's the Church, the Church is the new Jerusalem which is God's dwelling among men. The Church is God's house, the Church is God's body, the Church is God's home of salvation, the Church is God's dwelling. Not 'a' dwelling, but 'the' dwelling of God among men. It is in the Church and only in the Church that you and I receive the Sacraments of Christ. It is in the Church, the body of Christ, that we alone find salvation. In this house we are fed, in this house, the home of the Church, we are made holy and given life eternal through Christ Jesus our Lord.

How does Saint John describe this Church? He says first of all that it comes from heaven. The Church is of God, not of men. The Church is a thing of God, not a human institution as so many want to reduce the Church to be.

Saint John says the Church is beautiful as a bride prepared to meet her husband. The Church is beautiful Saint John tells us, not because it's people are perfect, the Church is beautiful because of her head, her bridegroom which is Christ Jesus, and He is perfect.

And so what drove Saint Paul on and on until his eventual death in Rome? He loved Christ Jesus, and he loved Christ's Church; and he loved them both with the same fierce love which drove him on. Because how can you love Christ and not love the Church, the home in which He dwells, the people He has made His own.

There has been a movement in the last thirty years to drive a wedge between Jesus and the Church, and to say it's possible to love Jesus and to hate the Church. Or it's possible to trust Jesus and distrust the Church; or it's possible to obey Jesus and not obey the teachings of the Church.... Nonsense!

How can we love Christ and not love the home in which He dwells, and the people He has made His own?

Pope John Paul II puts it this way: "The Church must be respected and served, for one cannot have God for their Father if they do not have the Church for their mother". Isn't that wonderful? One cannot love Christ without loving the Church which Christ loves. So from Christ's cross the Church is born and she's become the home and gathering place of all people of all times. Her center is in Rome, where Peter, Pope John Paul II, Christ Vicar, died for the faith. Her home is in Christ, and her ambition is in heaven.

So when we see the Church as she truly is, then we cry out with joy along with Saint John: "Behold God's dwelling among men". Mankind can never build paradise on earth. Let me say that again, we think otherwise, but mankind can never build our own paradise here on earth. The twentieth century has clearly taught us that lesson.

Intimately joined to God in the Church alone do we find joy. There we find paradise, separated from Him we lose everything. Connected with Him in the Church we gain everything.

And so the readings encourage us to pray for a deeper love of Christ's Church and a deeper desire to take part in Her work of salvation. And how do we do that? Well, the Gospel, the third reading, the Gospel of Saint John. The Old Testament is summarized by this law: "You shall love the neighbor as yourself", but in the new covenant sealed by the blood of Jesus Christ, it is summed up in this rule from today's gospel: "Love one another as I have loved you", and we say: "Ah, Lord, that is impossible; because the way You love me is by being crucified, by being broken for me, by giving everything for me. How Lord can I imitate You to literally die to myself for love of You and love of others." And so on this Sunday we pray: "Lord Jesus give me the strength to serve the Church by loving one another as You have loved me, even to the point of death. Oh Lord, this is beyond my strength and seems completely impossible, but You show me the way, and is this way alone which gives me joy and gives me the grace to serve my mother the Church in which I find salvation."