Fullerton T

Corpus Christi

In our Gospel story this Sunday we hear the story of the feeding of the five thousand. The reading and the feast itself are filled  with the richness of faith. Jesus fills us with nourishing food spiritual and physical. Then we are sent out to proclaim the good news of God’s kingdom to all around us, in doing this we provide food for others. the Word of God and the Eucharist  continue to live in our communities and in the world. The Eucharist  is the sign and the sacrament of thanksgiving. When we see the Eucharistic Bread, we believe that it is Jesus who is there before us such is our faith in the Blessed Sacrament. The Church tells us that the Eucharist is “the source and summit of the Christian life.” (CCC 1324)   Remember, the crowd in our gospel story was first taught, healed and then fed. Their hungers were both spiritual and physical.

Now it is our turn, to find ways to address the physical and spiritual needs of the hungry we have noticed along the way. These needs can seem overwhelming. But, as with the bread and fish in the gospel story we take what the Lord has given us and give it freely to others. He will do the rest and all will be satisfied. The eucharistic meal is also a promise: one day we will sit at the heavenly banquet where there will be no more hunger, no more illness and our satisfaction in God will be complete. This weekends feast celebrates the enduring sign of Christ’s presence with us in the Bread and Wine of the Eucharist. It is the Church’s act of homage and thanksgiving to Christ, who by instituting the Holy Eucharist gave us the members of the Church the body of Christ our greatest treasure. 

At the Last Supper, Jesus dramatically acted out his care and concern for, his bonding and union with, his followers. He got down on his knees like a slave, went round the group, and washed their feet, one by one. It’s interesting that St John, in his gospel of the Last Supper, does not mention the action of Jesus with the bread and wine. Instead, he tells us of the action of Jesus with a basin of water and a towel. In this way, John tells us the meaning of both actions of Jesus. It is all about belonging to one another in the same community of Christ, the community of faith, hope, and love, the community which is the Church. It is all about bonding and union with one another. It is all about humbly serving one another. The Eucharist is our sacrament of communion, not only with Christ and God, but also with all those called into the Christian community. So as we come to the eucharistic feast this weekend let us remember exactly what we are doing in a sacred union of mind and heart with Jesus the son of god who is the bread of life who leads all of us to salvation.

TRINITY SUNDAY

This weekend we celebrate Trinity Sunday, which is the celebration of the Father, Son and Holy spirit the three equal persons that make up the Holy Trinity. Today we seem to be celebrating a dogma of our faith., but we don’t come to church to celebrate dogmas. Today we celebrate the mystery of the Trinity and how the 3 divine Persons have influenced and continue to influence our lives. God is Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier  named for us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, through our worship and prayer we are invited into the mystery of God. In the Holy Trinity the Father is equal to the Son and the Son is equal to the Spirit three in one and one in three and we hear this in the breastplate of St. Patrick. St Patrick, with a brilliance that the Irish justly celebrate found in the three leaf shamrock rising from the one stem an image of the Trinity which is still used today.

The feast of Holy Trinity goes back to 12th century England and St Thomas a Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury. Historians say the great Thomas celebrated a Liturgy in honor of the Trinity in his cathedral. In the 14th century, the feast came to be observed by the universal Church.  The feast of the Holy Trinity invites us to contemplate the mystery of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Paul in the Letter to the Romans reminds us that the Spirit of God makes us God’s children, destined to share in the life of God, as Christ does. The gospel reading speaks of the power of presence and the power of the name. We believe that God is transcendent, beyond our experience. Yet, we are created in God’s image and likeness. The image and likeness of God is forever created in infinite variations and all of us are different. The sum total of everything we are fails to even portray in adequate fashion the complexity and utter immensity of God. Jesus came to save us from our ego-centric strivings.

The  proof in  all this if proof is needed is that Jesus was willing to die on the cross as a result of false, charges rather than reject the message of what God the father  is for humanity! The love of God is our model, it is the path we take if we follow Jesus and what he teaches. Today we have to ask ourselves do we have the courage to recommit ourselves to that path that is the path of the Love of God and our neighbour.  When the followers of Jesus  saw the resurrected Lord and heard his command to go out to the whole world, they saw for themselves the Trinity in action. When we live as followers of Christ, we invite others to join us on the journey  not because they see nice people living good lives. They, too, see the Trinity in action as God works through all of  us. Trinity Sunday is the day when we stand back from the extraordinary sequence of events that we’ve been celebrating for the previous five months Advent, Christmas, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, Ascension and  Pentecost . It is the day when we  are asked to rub the sleep from our eyes and rediscover what the word ‘god’ actually means.  Each Trinity Sunday, we only scratch the surface of this great mystery of our faith. In gratitude, let us begin and end every prayer with greater faith and reverence “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

PENTECOST SUNDAY

This Sunday we celebrate the decent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles at Pentecost which heralded the beginning of the apostolic mission to bring the Christian faith  to the world. It is the birthday of the church so maybe we should sing happy birthday instead of Veni Creator Spiritus and blow out the candles on a birthday cake instead of blowing out the paschal candle and we do that because it’s the end of the Easter season!! With the feast of Pentecost the seven weeks of the Easter season have come to an end with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, manifested, given, and communicated as a divine person. “Peace be with you” was Jesus prayer for his disciples as it is for us today as we listen to this gospel reading. These words have a particular meaning as we hear about the continuing Ukrainian war as well as many other violent events throughout the world.

With the sight of Jesus the apostles fear turned into great joy, and their Anxiety turned into relief. The lack of spiritual direction turned into a sense of deep spiritual grounding. The divine presence stood close to them and with the divine presence came a great sense of peace of spirit mind and soul. We too have the divine presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and it brings Joy and spiritual grounding to all those who come to meet him in the Eucharist. We can’t ignore our own or the problems  other people have. Most of the time the problems in our lives just don’t go away by themselves very often we need to stop and think and pray things through.  If we pray through the problems as well as thinking them through we will find that they it will be so much easier to come through all the difficulties that are sent to challenge us. Simply put Prayer Moves Mountains. 

Gathered at Mass we bring our prayers of intercession to God all of us have our own needs, Family and friends, someone we know may be sick, people need work. Perhaps the person who has been in our lives for so long has died.  We bring these and all our concerns in prayer because they remind us of our need and they raise our hope in the power of God made real to every generation through the Holy Spirit.  Through the Holy Spirit our relationship with God satisfies our longings, and brings us the peace of God which is beyond all understanding. Because of God’s faithfulness, we give thanks, offer sacrifice, and present our needs as we remember the presence of God with us in all our lives through the good bad happy and sad times and we thank God for his enduring presence among us this Pentecost Sunday. Come, Holy Spirit fill the hearts of your faithful, and enkindle in us the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and we shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth.

6th Sunday of Easter

This weekend we celebrate the 6^th Sunday of Easter and soon we will be at Ascension and then Pentecost. In this Sundays Gospel Jesus promises to send the Holy Spirit to the apostles as the advocate. Although Jesus had spoken to the Apostles and told them many different things, he knew them well and realized that they wouldn’t remember everything he said Jesus also knew that they would have to endure many struggles, that they would have to face ambiguity and confusion, difference and disagreement. We see all of this in the Church today with many people agreeing with Pope Francis and many others disagreeing with him on issues of faith. The Apostles would not see eye to eye on everything; they would have different memories of Jesus; they would emphasise different things. In the conflicts that would arise they would have to put their faith to work. That is why he told them and he tells us that the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in his name, will teach you everything and remind you of all I have said to you.

These words are a direct pointer towards Pentecost and the gifts that the Holy Spirit would bring to the apostles as well as us.  We don’t have the physical presence of Jesus with us the way his first disciples did when he talked with them around the table at the Last Supper, washed their feet, and gave them his reassuring promises. His farewell to them was the  real deal he was going, he would no longer be with them as he had been. But he assured them and us that he is present in a different way, in his gift of the Holy Spirit. In the Gospel Reading Jesus also promised the Apostles Peace  ‘A peace that the world cannot give.’ Sometimes we mistake this peace for our idea of quietness or tranquility, but the peace the Jesus gives is a peace that can be found even in the midst of turmoil. This peace is not something we can manufacture ourselves by our own power. It’s a gift that comes from Jesus, who doesn’t want to lose touch with us. Jesus chose his followers to carry out God’s plan of salvation. He chooses us today to do the same. By allowing us to participate in his work of redemption, he gives us a personal stake in the Kingdom of God.

With all the confusion ambiguity and disagreement that we see in the world at the present time as people of faith  we remember the great gift the Holy spirit. If we keep on trusting in the presence of the Spirit of God we will have peace in the midst of any personal, family, or community turmoil that comes our way as well as someone who will keep us going along the right Road!

5th Sunday of Easter

This weekend we stop and say a prayer for all those who will doing exams in the weeks ahead. Many people is our world put great store on education and sometimes they forget the pressure that this puts on our young people especially at exam time and not all of them are able to deal with that pressure. During this exam season we remember all those who are finding the exams hard to get through and we pray for all those who are doing exams that they may be inspired to do their best and know that there are people out there family, friends teachers and lecturers who value them no matter about the exam results.

In this Sundays Gospel Jesus calls us to a new way of living when he tells us to love one another as I have loved you.  At one level this is a simple call to love, at another it is a big challenge for us to be Christ like  to others in this sometimes horrible world. This means that we should love as Jesus loves, in order to be the face and heart of Christ to a wounded and hurting world. 

The love Jesus speaks of seems to be narrow and restrictive. He is addressing his disciples when he says, “love one another.”  This love may seem insular and applicable just to an inner circle of his followers. Is he telling us that the sacrificial love he calls us to applies only to those around us in the Church? No, of course he is not saying that because we know from other parts of John’s gospel that Jesus’ mission of love includes an outreach to the world. That outreach in our modern times must include all those who are on the margins for many reasons we should not leave them behind as many people might want to do. Jesus wants us to be united with him and one another in A loving and caring community. A loving and caring community that has a great effect on others bringing those who might be doubtful with it.

 What more articulate proclamation of the gospel can there be than a group of diverse people drawn together, not by similarities in education, economic status, neighborhood, citizenship, race, etc., but by the love that God has for them and their bringing that love for one another to other people? Love always demands the best from us and brings out the best in us. Being loved gives us surprising energy and courage. Love makes us fruitful, productive, strong and constant in doing good. Love is the flame that warms our soul, energizes our spirit and supplies passion to our lives. It’s our connection to God and one another.’ We are called to show the love of God to those around us and this is not easy to do but we should try and not be afraid to do that as we go forward in the love and joy of  the risen Lord.

4th Sunday of Easter

This Sunday  we celebrate the 4^th Sunday of Easter  also known as Good Shepherd Sunday.  On this day we also celebrate the 59th World Day of Prayer for Vocations instituted by Pope Paul VI in 1964. We  are encouraged to pray for an increase in vocations to the priesthood and religious life as we the flock of the Lord need shepherds after the lord’s own heart. The idea of Jesus as the Good Shepherd is a lovely one because it is a well-known fact that the shepherd never leaves his sheep outside the sheepfold. If any are outside the shepherd will seek the lost sheep at all costs until they are found.  The wandering figure of the shepherd, anxiously tending his sheep to the point where he is willing to surrender his life for them, is the image Jesus uses about himself in this Gospel Reading. That mixture of tenderness, toughness, care and self-sacrifice, is one that summarises his own leadership. It is not a leadership of detachment and defensiveness;  Instead , it is the  leadership of involvement and self-sacrificial love.

In the good shepherd’s extravagant love for his flock, his own life matters less than that of his sheep as we know Jesus left us an everlasting memorial in the Eucharist and then gave up his life for us on the cross on Good Friday. When we see how Jesus as a shepherd  actually behaves we see his tenderness in caring for the people and his courage which led him to the cross.   The parable of the Good Shepherd has many consoling truths and promises for people of every time and place including ourselves in 2022. The good shepherd challenges us not to leave the lost sheep behind.” The Gospel of the Good Shepherd teaches us how to embrace the gift of redemption by hearing and recognizing the voice of the Good Shepherd. There are numerous voices out there calling us to believe and to do  things that might seem good, but those voices are not of or from the Lord. We are his people the sheep of his flock and that means that we are people who are able to recognize the voice of the Lord and to faithfully follow him. 

This Sunday  we also pray for all those young and not so young who have a vocation to the priesthood, Permanent diaconate or the religious life. We pray that in their lives they may be like Christ the Good shepherd who came to bring his people into the sheepfold of God and faith in him. We also pray that the good shepherd will inspire many more people to take up the vocation of being shepherds of the flock.

Third Sunday of Easter

This Weekend we celebrate the third Sunday of Easter it seems strange that we have come so far from the ashes of Ash Wednesday right through to Jesus resurrection at Easter. In the resurrection We celebrate the one who affirms for us that God has walked on our streets, confronted the evil we see and suffered died and rose again for us.  Jesus  resurrection assures us that life can come out of death and good can overcome evil. It doesn’t always seem that way these days when we see the suffering of the people around the world especially in places like Ukraine but for people who have faith in God nothing is impossible. After the earth shattering events of Good Friday and Easter Sunday Peter and the others were ready to put the events of those days behind them and return home to what they did before they came across Jesus. But Jesus won’t let them go and by association he won’t let us go either.

In our Gospel Story for this Sunday he comes to the shore looking for them. He gets their attention, as he did when he first called them, with a large catch of fish. He prepares breakfast for them and invites them to eat, “Come, and have breakfast.” After the meal Jesus asks Peter three times about the reality of his love. Insisting on love is something of a mark with Jesus. Three times Peter affirms his love, as three times Jesus insists on it. And when Peter professes his love Jesus commissions him to care for his flock when he says feed my sheep. And that is what Peter does – as we hear in Sunday’s first reading. In his ministry of preaching and healing Peter gets through to many people, and the authorities become nervous at the ability of Peter and the apostles to work in the name of Jesus. In spite of the opposition Peter will continue insisting on his love for Jesus and this insistence will take him to martyrdom in Rome. No matter whether the believer is new or old, a pew sitter or a leader of people, the call of Christ is the same: “Follow me.”

Following Christ means life in the community of faith where we are. Are we, like Peter, spreading the net for new believers and professing a true love for our Savior? Or are we on the sidelines watching others doing the work when we should really be out there doing the work with them?  At the end of the day whatever happens we remember that God is with us and wants us to be with him now and in the future, He is with us in good and bad times so let us take courage this Eastertime  to go forward in faith.

Second Sunday of Easter

This Sunday we celebrate the second Sunday of Easter that is also called Divine Mercy Sunday. The season of Lent, Holy Week and  Easter  Sunday have come and gone so quickly  and are now a distant memory. Many people think that Easter begins and ends on Easter Sunday but it doesn’t end there the celebration of the season of Easter goes on for 50 days and ends on Pentecost Sunday. I wonder what the Apostles would think if they were to come down to us these days and find that we are celebrating the Death and Resurrection of Jesus that took place over 2022 years ago, they would be amazed especially as they thought everything was over with the Crucifixion on Good Friday but that first Holy Week and Easter Day was only the beginning of the story. In this Sundays Gospel reading the Apostles were still huddled together behind locked doors, pondering the shocking experience from the week before when all seemed to be lost. Then Jesus appeared  to them and to assure them that he was alive.

 His message must have troubled them as well when he told them: “As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.”   In the same way as the apostles were sent out we are sent out to bring the  message of god’s mercy  and love to other people wherever we are. Then of course there is doubting Thomas who heard the witness of the those who saw Jesus but, like so many of us today he wanted more proof. Jesus says to Thomas, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me?  Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” That is a favorite quote for many of us, who have not “seen” the risen Christ in person as the disciples did. We have come to believe though we have not seen him in the flesh but he is with us in the midst of our communities through so many different people. When Jesus says to the Apostles Peace be with you the Peace he is talking about is much more than the lack of conflict. True peace, gives us happiness, since it is built on trust in God and one another.  The gospel tells us how Jesus gave his followers peace because they trusted him. In spite of the skepticism of Thomas and so many others, Jesus  offers us the same peace of heart mind and soul.  

As we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday we remember the joy, the hope, the grief and the anxieties of the people in our time those we know and those unknown to us and we bring them to the merciful Lord. We remember in a special way the Ukrainian people and all those who are refugees from that country who have come to ours wherever we are. Our world is hurting so much because of the things that are happening within it with people at each other’s throats for so many reasons.  Let us not give up on our efforts, as small as they seem, to bring peace into our families, workplace, classroom and community. May all of us be witnesses to the love  and mercy of the Gospel as we try to bring the caring face of God’s mercy to the people wherever we are.