RevRobJack.com

     The Scribes and the Pharisees are asking Jesus why he is eating with sinners and tax collectors? Could it be that these people were the only ones to accept him? Maybe they were the only ones who invited him. Jesus makes it clear that it is for the sinners and tax collectors that he came. They are the ones in need of healing. If the only qualification for coming and eating with Jesus is that the person be a sinner, then we are definitely invited. We meet the requirements. Everytime we gather for Mass, we are there with Jesus Christ. The only difference today is that when we gather to be with the Lord, it is to eat his Body and drink his Blood. By doing so we proclaim his death and resurrection until he returns again in glory. This is the “medicine of immortality” of which St. Ignatius of Antioch speaks.

      Thanks be to Jesus Christ for coming to be with us and teach us that the Father is merciful and is willing to take us back if we only repent. Thanks be to Jesus Christ for dying for us on the cross that the disease of sin and death will not have the last word.

Please pray for all priests and seminarians and support Sacred Heart Radio.

        The reading from the book of Deuteronomy has Moses exhorting the Jewish people to choose life. To choose life means to choose God. It is clear from the Gospel that to choose God means to daily take up our crosses and following him. Most people want to prove themselves as worthy friends, spouses, employees, etc. This desire for approval is seen in our ability to make sacrifices for God, for others and for higher things such as honor and principle. The highest thing to sacrifice for is love. This kind if sacrifice is also the most difficult as well as the most fulfilling. In order to be filled, one must first become empty. Christ sacrificed himself on the cross for the love of all mankind. He is clear that if we are to follow him, we must sacrifice as well. This sacrifice should not be done begrudgingly, but joyfully.

       Now that we have begun this second day of Lent, let us ask the Lord to help us to be willing to sacrifice for others and for Him, both bigs ones and little ones. When we begin to do that, we will be one more step on the way to Easter, when we will see what our sarifices have really accomplished.

Please pray for all priests and seminarians and support Sacred Heart Radio.

     When Lent begins, I tend see people with sour faces. They look more serious and more devout, and they don’t look like they are having much fun. Lent can also be a fun time. It is time to do new things, like go to the stations of the cross, make a pilgrimage to a local fish fry or spiritual talk at a parish, or give yourself an excuse for changing something about your life, you wanted to, but did not have the nerve to carry it out.

      Some seem more interested in giving up stuff for a while rather than taking on things that can change the direction of your life. This is the time the Church gives us every year to challenge ourselves to become better believers. Even if we are good, we can always be better. It is not about the quantity of things that we give up or take on, rather it is about the quality of our love for God that needs to increase. When I measure the success of my work during Lent, I want to see concretely how I have grown in my relationship with God to become a better person intellectually, spiritually and even physically, though that is the hardest for me. 

     All I can say is have a good time during Lent. Enjoy being with God more, take advantage of the opportunities to serve others. Then, when we finally come to Easter Sunday, we will be able to truly celebrate how through the death and resurrection of Jesus and the working of the Holy Spirit we have become better servants of God and one another. 

     My four-night Lenten series entitled “Living Jesus: Reclaiming our Catholic Faith” begins tonight at Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Center in Norwood at 7:30 pm.

These are the talks for the four nights

February 23  Living God, Living Word

February 24  Living Faith, Living Waters

February 25 Living Church, Living Bread  Mass with distribution of Ashes begins at 7:00pm

February 26 Living Sacrifice, Living Prayer

          Happy Feast of the Immaculate Conception. This is the Patronal Feast of the Seminary. Co-adjutor Archbishop Dennis Schnurr celebrated the Mass and received three first year theologians as candidates for diaconate and priesthood. The right of candidacy is a public statement from the semiarians that they intend to continue Seminary studies and the Church accepts their intention. The Cincinnati seminarian received from James Romanello from Holy Trinity Parish in Norwood. There are also two seminarians from Toledo: Nathan Bockrath and Jeremy Miller. Please keep them in your prayers.

     It has been a while since I have posted regularly, but I have a stack of St. Paul reflections to add soon. I have recently updated the audio version of my Sunday homilies. Click on “Words of Hope: Ordinary Time.” Double clicking on the date you wish to hear should start it using your own audio system. If you wish to download, you can right click on the homily and then click on copy. That should do it.   I will have a CD version of the September homilies ready soon. Click on Contact Fr. Rob if you would like one of these.

    Also, Happy Birthday to my sister Kathy today. She would probably not like for me to mention her age. Suffice it to say she is my youngest sister and I am 43.

    Do not forget to check out www.eccesacerdos and pray daily for a local diocesan priest. we need all the prayers we can get.

    There seems to be some problem with the Eccesacerdos site today which is keeping me from downloading information. As soon as the problem is sorted out, the October prayer list will be added. It always seems to be something!

   The class notes for S240 Theology of the Holy Trinity have been fixed and are available for down loading.

     How can we come to know God? The first way is through our mind/intellect. We can reason to the existence of God by observing the beauty of the world as well as the harmony and order that we find in the world. But human reason is not enough. For us to know God, we believe that God must reveal himself to us. The means by which God reveals himself is the person of the Holy Spirit. Because of the gift of the Holy Spirit bestowed upon the person  at baptism, we can know Jesus to be the Son of God, our Savior. Because this Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, we know that God is our Father.

     Paul speaks about the knowledge imparted by the Spirit to the Corinthians: “So no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might understand the gifts bestowed on us by God.” (1Cor 2:11-12)

     The Holy Spirit plays an important role in the faith life of every believer. It is through the Holy Spirit that the grace of Christ takes root in us in the first place. This knowledge does not do away with human reason, but rather completes and raises up reason not only to consider things that come to us through our senses, but now through the Holy Spirit we can experience the mysteries of God: His wisdom, goodness and mercy. Paul realizes that his true teacher on Christ is the Holy Spirit. May we do the same and pray that the Holy Spirit may enlighten us today.

Please pray for all priests and Seminarians and support Sacred Heart Radio.

Check out www.eccesacerdos.com and join the CPR

     Human beings like to give advice. They can tell you where to go to get what you need, or where to find the best deal or even good shorts cuts to speed up your trips. It is good to pass on what we have learned to others so that we can help them in life, and they can help us with their experience. All of this is fine in dealing with human beings, but after a while, we might begin to think we can give God advice. Sometimes we can be under the silly assumption that God does not know what he is doing, and that he needs our advice on how to get something right.

     St. Paul knows that while we can think ourselves important enough that we can teach God a thing or two, he asks the Corinthians this question, “For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.” (1Cor 2:16) When Paul says that through faith and the sacraments we possess the mind of Christ, he does not mean that God should be expected to take our counsel. Rather, if we possess the mind of Christ we should expect to hear the Word of the Lord, follow it and obey it with all our heart.

     To my knowledge, there were only two times that Jesus questioned the Father. One was at Gethsemane and the night before he died, and the second time was from the cross. However, Jesus knows that it is the will of the Father that is to guide us, and that his will must become united to the will of the Father. So, for St. Paul, possessing the mind of Christ is a great grace, but it does not mean that we should give God advice and expect him to follow it. Rather, we hear the words of Christ, who tells us to follow the will of the Father. Jesus listens and he obeyed. Paul listened to the Lord, and he obeyed. Let us be imitators of St. Paul  who will follow Jesus Christ, heed the Father’s will and obey.