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Easter Vigil                                                                                  

           If there is one word that we could use to sum up the celebration tonight, the word would be LIFE. It is life that makes all things possible. In death, possibilities stop. We know that death for us can bring darkness, fear and despair. There is nothing to look forward to.  Everything we are doing tonight speaks of LIFE. Blessing the Easter fire, we recognize the gift that fire is which makes life possible. Fire purifies, warms and brightens. It is that light which we carried into Church tonight. It is that light which has illumines for us the beautiful flowers and vestments. It makes it possible for us to sing hymns that bring beauty into the air. When Christ died, the world became dark, but tonight, with the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, the world is flooded with life and light.                

          In the readings from Sacred Scripture, we hear that God speaks and things happen. Every word from God is a blessing, not a curse. Every Word of God brings LIFE. We believe that the Word Incarnate, Jesus Christ, who died on Good Friday is now alive. HE is real, true, living, loving and saving. We do not say that Jesus was, rather we affirm with faith that Jesus IS ALIVE.              

           We human beings are by nature seekers. We do not look for ends, but beginnings; we do not want to give up, but try again. We do not seek death, we seek life. Several men and women here tonight have growing on knowing and living their faith in Jesus Christ. It is true that we are mortals and that we will suffer. It is true that our lives will have crosses and it will seem unfair at times. We can never deny the cross, but we come in faith to fully proclaim that if we face our crosses with courage and are led with the love that God desires to pour into our hearts through prayer, we will truly live.                  

          Dear Elect and Candidates, the life which you enter into tonight through the living waters of baptism and your profession of faith offer you more hope than you can ever imagine. Jesus Christ conquered sin and death through the power of his self-giving love on the cross. He held nothing back for us so that we will know that we do not have to hold anything back from him. When we give everything to him, then we receive graces beyond measure. The light of faith which is consecrated in Baptism produces in us the courage to hope and ultimately leads to the fire of love present in the Holy Eucharist, the Bread of Life.                      Jesus Christ still teaches us today that life is about living. It is about being present ad paying attention to the presence of God in the world and in the hearts of each other. That is why the two men at the tomb asked the women that question: Why do you seek the living among the dead?             The resurrected and glorified life that Christ offers us is too much for the world to handle or even imagine. That is why much of the world today does not believe in Christ or his resurrection. Tonight, we celebrate in faith that the Resurrection is not only possible, it is historically and  truly real. It is all that we have and it is truly all that we need.                      I congratulate all of you who are entering this new life in Christ tonight and I give thanks to God for his goodness that still moves in the world. As our Risen Lord once said, “You have chosen the better part and you will not be denied it.” You have chosen Jesus Christ, who is life. May the Lord who has begun this good work in you bring it to completion in the joy of Heaven.

Good Friday                                                                                                        

            One of the more popular television shows is the series “CSI.” It is about investigating crimes to determine the culprits and the motives. The investigators look at all the evidence, and then beneath the surface of things to discover the truth. One of the things that makes the series so popular are the many mysterious twists and turns the investigations take before the truth is found. 

            What would happen is the CSI detectives and forensic experts showed up on Calvary that Good Friday? At first glance, there is no crime. It is an open and shut case. Jesus of Nazareth was accused and found guilty of claiming to be God and making himself king. This execution was carried out by the Romans at the requests of the Jewish authorities and the mob gathered around the so-called trial. But is that the whole truth? Does it all add up? If someone were a thorough investigator, he or she would soon discover that there is more there than what meets the eye.         

        When the records are examined, it is true that Jesus does not defend himself against the charges. He does not appear bitter or defensive. He does not blame anyone else. He simply speaks the simple truth. It is this: God has sent his Son into the world to show his love for it and for his desire that the world be healed from all that afflicts it, namely sin, hatred, division and death. Jesus is a witness to this by what he says and does. There are no ulterior motives or secret conspiracies. There is no fomenting of political revolution. He has come to bring an abundant life to a world devastated by sin and death.

             When the people demanded justice, Jesus preached mercy. When some people demanded special treatment, he treated all people, rich and poor alike with respect and dignity. When the people thought they knew all they needed to know about God, He came to reveal the truth about a loving God. The angrier they became, the more he loved; the more they attacked, the more he forgave; the more they shouted, the quieter he became.          

       While it appears that the physical cause of Jesus’ death was crucifixion and asphyxiation, deeper investigation reveals that the real cause was love. Jesus came to show us that the only true answer to the mystery of suffering and death is love. It came to be that the only way he could teach this to people was to die out of love for the people to whom he was sent, the entire human race.    

          The death of Jesus was not something to done to please God the Father or settle the score for human sin. The Father says time and time again that “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. The Father loves the Son deeply.          

          The death of Christ was for us and by us. We are ultimately responsible for Calvary. When we face suffering, our first response is often to lash out, seek vengeance and cause pain to others. Some of us may even believe the statement, “If I am unhappy, then EVERYONE is going to be unhappy!” That response never works. It never brings peace and in the end it will destroy us.            

           On this Good Friday, the Son of God is who became man, has seen the suffering with his own eyes, the woman caught in adultery, the death of his friend Lazarus, the crippled man at the pool of Bethsaida. He heard with his own ears the human shouts, “Son of David have pity on me!”             If one were to ask Jesus what he would do about this, he would not speak in word but in action. His answer is to suffer in love for us. It was our anger over our sins and suffering that drove us to nail him to the cross. Jesus responded not just by suffering for them and with them, but to love them until his final breath. That Spirit he gave up on Calvary is destined to descend upon usso that we too may follow his example. The answer to evil is love- a self-emptying, agonizing, life-giving love.           

            The evidence of this is our faith and the faith of all who have come before us, down to Mary and John and the other women at the foot of the cross. We cannot escape the cross. All our anger, indignation, shouting and violence will not lighten our burden one bit. It will only increase it.             The cross shows us the true divinity of Christ. Only God will suffer innocently unto death for the guilty. Only God would patiently endure injustice to show his mercy. Only God can destroy hatred by love.         

              Jesus has given us the true path and if we honestly investigate the case, the evidence is overwhelming. St. Paul said it clearly: Jesus died for sinners, you and me because he loved us and desired everlasting life for us. We must die to ourselves, not simply because we are guilty or because it is a matter of justice. We must do it because we love God before all else and we recognize him alone as the true path to life and freedom in this world and the next. Case Closed.

     Tonight, St. John tells us that the hour had come for Jesus to pass from this world to the Father. For many of us, an hour is simply a period of time, 60 minutes. We sually tend to think in days or weeks or even years, but John tells us that everything hinges on the Hour of Jesus. Jesus’ Hour is the moment for us and for him is the moment of truth. Jesus’ hour is the moment in which God in Jesus Christ opens himself to the world even more fully to receive it, transform it and then return it full of his divine life. It is an hour of anguish, love, suffering and glory. It is an hour of communion.

     Jesus teaches us that God at the very center of his love is unconditional Love that serves his people. He knows us before we are born. HE has given us every goft to help us live joyfully with him in this life and the next. We have chosen at times to reject this lasting love and service and focus on ourselves. We tend to believe in self-service, serving only ourselves and our wants and desires. We have cut ourselves off from God and have changed the garden of our souls into a desert. We can find our souls to be dry, dusty lands with no hope of a gentle rain to relive them.

     As a God who serves, the Father looks into our hearts and sees our doubts, anxieties and fears. He hears our cries for help and chooses to do something about it. He sends his only Son, Jesus Christ, to show us how to serve in love. St. John shows us that first Jesus us IN his body. He washes us, cleanses us making us beautiful and pleasing to the Father and worthy to come into the Father’s presence. Before he will bow his head in death on the cross, tonight God bows down humbly and wrpas a towel around his waist to serve us. He offers us consolation, love, hope and peace.

     After Christ has served us, he now serves us HIS VERY SELF. He first refreshes our bodies and now through the gift of His Body and Blood, he is going to revive our souls. The Son of God who once fed the five thousand with five loaves and two fish now offers to us his Body and Blood, under the humble appearances of bread and wine, to revive our hearts and bodies. He reveals to us that when we eat his Body and drink his Blood, we receive LIFE itself. This life is not a passing one, but an everlasting one.

     When Jesus speaks those saving words, “This is my Body,” “This is my Blood”, he opens up his heart to a world devastated by the famine of sin, death and despair. He has lived our abandonment and isolation. He knows our true hunger and thirst and it is in THIS HOUR that he does something that changes things forever.

     By making this gift of Himself  for the whole world, he makes it spossible for divine grace to flow in our hearts again. God desires that our souls be luscious gardens, places of awesome beauty, where we can walk with the Lordand share our lives with him, free of all the obstacles caused by our sins. For this reason, JESUS’ HOUR has never ceased. The Eucharist restores our spiritual beauty and enables us to show that beauty to those who have know the ravages of pain, ugliness and fear.

     By the institution of the Sacraments of the Holy Eucharist and the Priesthood, the sacrifice of Christ on the cross for the salvation of the world is revealed in the world to this day. Jesus hour has not passed. IT IS NOW! His hour continues in the Church when, in the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ chooses men to be united with as unique servants to continue his saving mission. Priests are to feed Christ’s Mystical Body, the Church by both Word and Sacrament. The priests, whose lived are consecrated for selfless love are to teach others how to serve Christ by serving one another.

     Tonight, after the celebration of the Eucharist, we are invited by the Lord to keep watch with him as we await his coming crucifixion and death. St. Luke tells us that Jesus admonished Peter, James and John for not waiting up with him during his Hour. May we spend some quiet time with him tonight and thank him for giving us his Body and Blood to give us real life. Let us ask him to water and enliven our hearts hardened by sin and life’s crosses. Let us allow him to teach us how to better love those around us.

     Finally, let us remember that the Hour of Christ, which we relive tonight, lasts a lot longer than 60 minutes. It lasts a lifetime and will ultimately lead us to everlasting life with Jesus in paradise.

             The great feast of the Birth of our Lord is a day for joy, happiness and remembering. There is one part of Christmas however, that is not very fun, and that is putting together some of the many gifts we receive. The phrase on any package that sends shivers down our spines is “Some assembly required.” That usually means getting out the tool box, finding some batteries and then following the directions. There are some of us, though, who though we found the directions, decide to “eyeball” the whole thing. While sometimes we do get it right, most of the time, we leave out things, put parts together that were not supposed to go together, put things together backwards, or simply get fed up and take a hammer to it, which is never a good thing. Then we finally search out the directions, look at the pictures on the box, or call tech support to finish the project. 

               From the beginning of time, God has known we have trouble following directions. When God created us, there are parts of ourselves that needed to be put together. The assembly included learning right from wrong, good from evil, service from being served. It also included learning how to love God and others, and to be loved by God and others. We were given the plan for everlasting happiness, follow God and do his will. He has given us Moses, the Law and the prophets to help us figure out how to stay close to him and to be happy.              As we see in the Old Testament, the Israelites had trouble following directions and instead chose many times to “eyeball” life rather than listen to God who is life. God the Father saw that we need more than a set of directions or rules to stay close to him, so he sends us his own Son. God has chosen to fulfill his divine plan by sending us someone we could watch, observe, hear and follow. It is going to take more than a set of directions to get us to heaven; it is going to take someone who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, Jesus Christ.             Jesus, the Son of God came into this world as a little baby this day, born of his Mother Mary, poor, cold, wrapped in swaddling clothes, laid in a manger. The presence of a child helps people shape their minds, hearts and actions. Parents, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles learn selflessness, sacrifice and commitment to help the little persons be as happy as they can be. Children show us the meaning of happiness. One of the great things about babies is their laugh. Their little eyes brighten up and they giggle. That simple little action melts hearts. 

           God has seen enough of human tears, so now he sends us his Son so that he can hear the human race laugh again. Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary to teach us how to laugh, be joyful, forgive, show mercy and compassion again. He does it first by his neediness as a new born child. After Jesus grows in wisdom, age and grace, he will continue to teach us through his preaching of the Kingdom, and he will ultimately show us by his death on the cross and resurrection.     

          Of all the things Jesus gives us this Holy Day, the most important Gift is his love. Life is a school of love and while we have directions such as the Golden Rule, the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes, what we really need is someone we can model. We need help to learn how to love. And God the Son has become a little child in order to do just that:  by looking to the needs of others before ourselves, by helping the poor, the sick, the elderly, and the isolated. We know that the best gift we can receive from another is not material, but rather a smile, a hug, or even a simple thank you.             

            We often see the infant Jesus in the manger with his arms outstretched, urging us to pick him up, hold him close, kiss him and love him. This simple action has great meaning: if we love Christ and build our lives around him, he will teach us that we are not alone. We need someone to love and someone to love us. God does not just show us how to love, he loves us first! He loves us completely. Why else would his Son take on our human nature. God’s love opens up doors. It does not close them. He loves in us, through us and in that simple action he makes life truly worthwhile. 

           Through the birth of Jesus Christ, God has now shown us love. We can now see in Jesus Christ, God with a human face, a human smile, a human heart. We can feel the embrace of Christ through our daily prayer. We also meet this personal, incarnate love every time we receive his Body and Blood at Mass. Jesus Christ is the best Gift God has ever given to the human race because he gives us himself. He came to us with no assembly required. We do not need to fear him or life itself. All we need to do is love him, follow him, serve him and allow him to truly love us and shape us into the true images of him that he created us to be.

   Notes of chapters 1-4 of the Journet text on grace are now able to be downloaded

           When Pope Benedict announced that the Year of the priest would be celebrated beginning with the feast of the Sacred Heart, I already had www.eccesacerdos.com up and running since September 3, 2008. I wanted to provide an internet outlet for people to pray for the renewal of the priests of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati everyday. I also knew that besides just asking people to pray, it would  be best to provide a little more direction, so I wrote a prayer and asked people to say a “decade a day” for whatever priest is being remembered on that day.

   The prayer group I desired to start would be called The Confraternity for Priestly Renewal  or CPR for short. this was not an attempt on my part to be snarky, but rather a realization that the Hearts of priests need to be renewed everyday if they are to be faithful and effective servants of the Gospel. Without prayer, we are useless.

          I also knew that God offers his renewing Holy Spirit to each priest according to his talents and his role in the plan of God, but I believe that even though priests are diverse and unique men, there are three things every priest needs to be the true servant God has made them to be. The first is a deep love for Jesus Christ and for the people he has sent him to serve, wherever they are. Second, a strong attachment and committment to daily prayer, the Liturgy of the Hours and the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. Third a love and devotion to the communion of Saints, particularly the Mother of God and St. Joseph. In my humble opinion, although I realize that many of the brethren may disagree with some, these are the three non-negotiables that are to be at the root of the life of every priest.

    So everyday I list a particular priest of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati and his current assignment, so that people can every day think about a different priest and ask God through the Prayer of priestly renewal and a decade of the rosary to help him in his struggles and joys to grow in the love of God and be an even more effective witness to Jesus Christ through his priestly ministry. Several people have taken me up on this, but I hope to get even more involved.

          Soon I hope to bring to some parishes that will use them the prayer for renewal, some single decade rosaries and even some 24 ounce plastic cups with the CPR Logo on it for people to remember their priests every day. We wil see how it goes.

Pray for Priests, a decade a day, and please support sacred Heart Radio.

     It has been a long time (over four months) since I have added anything to revrobjack.com. My apologies to anyone who bothered to check. Now I am going to try to add more to this site from time to time, especially thoughts on the year of the priest. Needless to say I have been involved in many different projects. I will list most of them here, and then comment as time allows.

Things I have been doing:

1. Taping copying and giving away copies of my Sunday homilies on CD, around 3,000 presently at my count.

2. Making  and giving away 1813 full rosaries with medals and prayer cards, as well as 270 single decade car rosaries for my ECCE Sacerdos project

3. Starting and maintaining www.eccesacerdos.com : a website offering daily prayers for priest of the Archdiocese  of Cincinnati for priestly renewal.

4. Hopefully completing soon soon a rosary CD in a one and two volume set- the two volume set also containing Litanies of the Church.

5. Also to appear soon, a video series entitled “God Alone is Enough” on living out and teaching the Catholic faith, as well as teaching on the basics of Catholic prayer.

6. Taught two summer courses: a Four day course on Marian spirituality for the Athenaeum of Ohio as well as a one day workshop entitled “Blessed Beads: History and theology of the Rosary.”

   I am sure that I have probably left some things out, but as you can tell, I have not spent my summer eating chocolate Bon-Bons and watching All my Children. I am still trying to get the exact number of copies I need for my STL so I can send the Final draft to Rome.

Now on to the rest…

          Some of you may be hoping for a short homily today. If all I said was  “Jesus has been raised from the dead” and then sat down, many of you may be very happy, and say Alleluia! and Thanks be to God!, but you don’t get off that easy! It is true that Jesus has been raised from the dead. It is an article of the faith and the anchor which holds together everything we believe. But to say he has been raised is to say something even more important- Jesus Christ is truly alive today!

          When we speak about Jesus and his life and ministry, we often use the past tense, “Jesus said, or Jesus did.” Those statements would be true, but not complete. Because we believe Jesus is raised from the dead, we can say without a doubt that Jesus says, and Jesus does, and Jesus loves.

          Jesus is a real, living, divine person today. He is not simply a historical person from the past that we remember. The resurrection is not something he did once upon a time. He is acting in the world today. He desires to act in and love each one of us right now. He comes to us and calls us by name and says, see my body wounded for your sins; see my risen body glorified for your salvation. See in me, the living God, all that you need in this life to have joy and meaning and hope in the midst of hardships.

          Some people thought in the past, and some still believe today that we make Jesus real. We believe in the resurrection because we want to, it is a creation of our mind. It is simply a delusion we came up with. Nothing could be further from the truth. In faith, we do not believe that we make Jesus real. It is just the opposite. Jesus risen from the dead makes us real. He gives us our true identity. He suffered and died for us so that in our suffering and death, he would be with us. He makes it possible for us to receive the inheritance that God the Father has desired to give all of his children- the gift of everlasting life!

          If we desire to take our life seriously, then we must take Jesus Christ seriously. One of the ways we testify to the importance of Jesus Christ is to renew our baptismal promises. In these we profess our faith in Jesus Christ. We also commit ourselves to a life lived in Christ by daily prayer, service to God and neighbor, and living a morally upright life in line with Gospel teaching.

          We profess that the Eucharist, the greatest of all God’s gifts to his people, is truly the living Body and Blood of the living Jesus! We do not just celebrate the resurrection today, but in a profoundly sacramental way, we receive the resurrection of Jesus today and every day that we eat his Body and drink his Blood. His reality is now our hope of bodily resurrection on the Last Day.

          We have so much to be thankful for today: The gift of new life, the gift of God’s wisdom to be a real witness to the living Jesus, the true outpouring of God’s love on each one of us by Jesus living in our midst. Let Jesus be someone with whom we share our lives with every day, as individuals and as a Church, because he is truly alive and wants to share his divine life and love with us.

               This evening we follow the Easter candle into the dark Church; it is a small, flickering flame that pierces the darkness of night. God created light before he created the world, but the sun rises and sets every day. Tonight the light we follow is not something created, but Jesus Christ himself. The darkness of evil and death tried to extinguish him, but it did not succeed. When the Exultet was sung, the deacon called upon the heavens, the earth and the whole Church to rejoice because with this Easter light, God will never let darkness cover the world again. 

          The readings we have heard proclaimed from Sacred Scripture give us one clear message: God is intimately involved in the world and in the life of every single person. God does not wait for things to happen, he makes them happen. God does not expect us to find him, he goes out in search of us. He expects us to love him because he has loved us first. On this holy night, we discover just how great this love is. 

          Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead! The cold, dark emptiness of death is defeated by the warm, bright fullness of divine grace. The death of the Son is not going to be the final word: the life of the resurrection is the final word! God has heard our cries. He has seen our sorrow. He has experienced our sufferings. The Father responds to the Son’s offering by physically raising him from the dead. By this action, the resurrection does not bring about an end as much as it institutes a new beginning. 

          Our Christian faith teaches us that life in Jesus Christ marks a new beginning, a new birth. Tonight we baptize catechumens who have been preparing for this moment, and we welcome into the fullness of the Catholic faith those who have already been baptized. Those who are baptized and received into the Church truly begin a new life. They do not complete a journey, but rather begin one fully with us. 

          The journey of faith has its ups and downs, joys and crosses. God has entrusted the Sacraments to the Church so that we may always remember that we are never alone. We are brothers and sisters in a community of faith and witnesses to the grace, love and mercy of Jesus’ resurrection. We are daily asked to lead a life of prayer, service and witness of the love of God to the world. 

          To those of us who are already members of the Church, we renew our baptismal promises, knowing that we have a long way to go in our faith lives. We will hold lighted candles in our hands, remembering our baptism and the comfort that faith brings in the midst of a troubled and confusing world. 

          On this night the Church tells us to rejoice. We rejoice in the light of the Easter candle,  because Christ has been raised from the dead to conquer sin and death. We rejoice that he has added to our numbers by calling these catechumens and candidates to faith. We rejoice in the Sacrament of Baptism which sanctifies us and the Holy Eucharist that feeds us. Finally, we rejoice because even though this world may seem dark, we know that the Light of Christ’s love, presence and power will never be extinguished.

          Today is a day of tragedy and triumph, surrender and victory. We often do not connect these two realities, but today they are one and the same. We live in a world where evil seems to prevail over good, division seems to prevail over unity and hatred seems to prevail over love. All of that changes today through the death of Jesus on the cross.

          The tragedy of Good Friday is that an innocent man has been given a death sentence because of our sins. Jesus is guilty of only one crime: He loves us. He came to announce the Kingdom and he showed us many times in the Gospel how the coming of the kingdom will offer us peace and joy beyond measure if we forgive one another and do the will of the Father. We looked at our sins and weaknesses and then we looked at Jesus. our response was simple:  Crucify Him! Nothing is more tragic than unrequited love and that is what Jesus suffers today.

         While the prophet Isaiah foretold that we would reject his love, Jesus still surrendered all of it to the Father for us so that even though we would reject it, we might come to embrace it through his sacrifice. Love always has hope. Love always forgives. Love always transforms.

          The perfect sacrifice of the Son of God shows its true power today. The power of sin and death is destroyed by the wood of the cross. The despair caused by injustice and division is healed by the death of the Son of God, who hangs on the cross between heaven and earth, uniting once again by this sacrifice God and the human race. The generosity of the Son of God who surrenders himself into our hands overcomes the selfish desires we have to hold on to everything, whatever the cost.

          We look to Jesus bruised, beaten and bloody. It is difficult for us to face this ugliness. He is alomst unrecognizable carrying the burden of our sins. Many people would prefer to ignore his death and just proceed to his resurrection, but we cannot have one without the other. We need to accept the responsibility for what we have done. We come and venerate his cross. We kiss the body of our crucified God and thank him for his love and mercy. We ask him never to abandon us.

          We know that in the midst of our sufering and pain, our doubts and fears that he is still with us. Jesus encourages us from the cross to embrace our suffering and not to run from our fears. He reminds us to pray daily for what we need to serve him in faith. Most of all, he encourages us to love as he loves, without considering the price.

          Like the repentant thief, we know that Jesus is innocent. We know that we are sinners. We ask only one thing from him today: Jesus remember me, when you come into your Kingdom. Remember me when I feel lost and alone. Remember me when I am overwhelmed and tempted to despair. Remember me when I am tempted to forget you. Then, after these words leave our lips, we hope with all our hearts that Jesus will hear our voice and say: Today you will be with me in paradise!