Food for the Homeless

We will do charity work by serving food for the homeless on Saturday August 12. There are many ways you can take part: 

First, you can make a donation, in the form of either money or the ingredients themselves. 

Second, you can come to the Church on that day to prepare food, and 

Third, you can distribute the food to the homeless. 

For more information, please see the poster on the news board.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus continues to teach us a lesson about the Kingdom of Heaven. Today Jesus gives us three stories. One of the stories was about a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind. This story teaches us a crucial lesson about the Church: It is made up of both good fish and bad fish.

The net symbolizes the Church, and the fish are the members of the Church - you and me. The water symbolizes the world of human history, in which the Church exists and with which the Church interacts. And at the end of history, there will be a judgment. Jesus will "come again to judge the living and the dead," as we pray every week in the Creed. At this judgment, some of the fish in the net will be saved, but others will be thrown back, "into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth."

Both kinds of fish, the "righteous and the wicked," were inside the net, inside the Church. In other words, it's not enough just to be an official member of the Church, just to say we're Catholic, just to go through the motions of being Catholic on the outside.

We need to do that so that we find ourselves inside the net. But we also need to let God's grace penetrates our minds and change our lives, so that we follow in Christ's footsteps all week long, not just on Sunday morning.

Like the farmer and the merchant in the other stories, we have to sell everything to take full possession of the treasure and the pearl. We have to actively fight against our selfish, sinful habits to enter fully into friendship with Jesus Christ, the only treasure that will fill us with everlasting joy. It is possible to work in the field without possessing the treasure, and that's exactly what Christ wants us to avoid.

I rejoice exceedingly in all my tribulations.

From a homily on the 2nd letter to the Corinthians by Saint John Chrysostom, Bishop

Again, Paul turns to speak of love, softening the harshness of his rebuke. For after convicting and reproaching them for not loving him as he had loved them, breaking away from his love and attaching themselves to troublemakers, he again takes the edge off the reproach by saying: Open your hearts to us, that is, love us. He asks for a favour which will be no burden to them but will be more profitable to the giver than to the receiver. And he did not use the word "love" but said, more appealingly: Open your hearts to us.

Who, he said, has cast us out of your minds, thrust us from your hearts? How is it that you feel constraint with us? For, since he has said earlier: You are restricted in your own affection, he now declares himself more openly and says: Open your heart to us, thus once more drawing them to him. For nothing so much win's love as the knowledge that one's lover desires most of all to be himself loved.

For I said before, he tells them, that you are in our hearts to die together or live together. This is love at its height, that even though in disfavour, he wishes both to die and to live with them. For you are in our hearts, not just somehow or other, but in the way I have said. It is possible to love and yet to draw back when danger threatens; but my love is not like that.

I am filled with consolation. What consolation? That which comes from you because you, being changed for the better, have consoled me by what you have done. It is natural for a lover both to complain that he is not loved in return and to fear that he may cause distress by complaining too much. Therefore, he says: I am filled with consolation, I rejoice exceedingly.

It is as if he said, I was much grieved on your account, but you have made it up for me in full measure and given me comfort; for you have not only removed the cause for any grief but filled me with a richer joy. Then he shows the greatness of that joy by saying not only I rejoice exceedingly but also the words which follow in all my tribulations. So great, he says, was the delight that you gave me that it was not even dimmed by so much tribulation but overcame by its strength and keenness all those sorrows which had invaded my heart and took away from me all awareness of them. 

My dear brothers and sisters, in the Gospel of the 15th Sunday Ordinary Time, Our Lord teaches us that evil will be present in the world until the last days of Judgement when the fruits of all are measured. Evil festers in hearts; it is not always seen on the surface.

Holiness is characterized by meekness and humility, so it is not always seen on the surface either. Like wheat, holiness is in the world trying to grow into something good. Like weeds, evil is at work doing the opposite, preying on the good in parasitic way to serve nothing other than itself. It can be hard to tell the difference and, therefore, we need to be on guard against a holiness that is only skin deep.

Today's First Reading reminds us that we can try to be masters of moral disguise, but the Lord sees beyond the surface and measures us by our deeds, not just appearances. The Lord never misjudges anyone, yet people still try to deceive him, if they believe in him at all.

The Lord gives the unjust time to change their ways, to seek his forgiveness, usually for far longer than we would, because he truly cares about them. The Lord is willing to put up with a lot of things, but in justice, he cannot ignore insincerity.

When we sincerely try to do good and to be good, even with moments of weakness, he forgives and helps us, and that gives us cause for hope. If we're insincere, we don't trust him, and all that's left is justice. The Lord shows us justice is necessary, but that doesn't put kindness on hold.

In today's Second Reading Paul reminds us that holiness is something that comes from the depths of our soul because it consists of making the Spirit of God our spirit. The special ingredient in a Christian life is that even when we're weak, the Holy Spirit helps us to be holy.

The Spirit is the protagonist in our sanctification, from the sacraments we receive to the prayers we say. If the "one who searches hearts" finds the Holy Spirit there, he knows he has found one of the "holy ones." The three parables in today's Gospel teach us that holiness is often hidden, even small in the eyes of the world, but makes good things spread and grow, unlike parasitical weeds.

The moment of harvest is a moment of reaping fruits. Our Lord's listeners in Matthew's Gospel have just heard the parable of the sower (see the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle, A), and now they hear their lives compared to wheat, leaven, and a tiny mustard seed.

Wheat is not very glamourous, but if we want bread, a symbol of life, it is essential. When we eat a sandwich, we don't think much of the wheat that went into it, but we certainly enjoy the sandwich. Leaven is useful not only for baking bread but for baking delicious bread. When we receive the Eucharist, made from unleavened bread due to Passover traditions, we note the difference from the bread we eat every day.

Leaven does its job by quietly being sifted throughout the flour used to make the bread, but it makes a big impact on the recipe. Mustard seeds average between 1-2 millimetres in size and may seem small and inconsequential, but on a hot day, the shade and shelter of a tree that grows up to twenty feet tall and wide is not to be ignored. The mustard seed in today's parable also shows that the Church may start small and seemingly insignificant but is meant to spread far and wide. 

From a sermon by Saint John Damascene, bishop

By Their Fruits You Will Know Them

Anne was to be the mother of the Virgin Mother of God, and hence nature did not dare to anticipate the flowering of grace. Thus, nature remained sterile, until grace produced its fruit. For she who was to be born had to be a first-born daughter, since she would be the mother of the first-born of all creation, in whom all things are held together.

Joachim and Anne how blessed a couple! All creation is indebted to you. For at your hands the Creator was offered a gift excelling all other gifts: a chaste mother, who alone was worthy of him.

And so, rejoice, Anne, that you were sterile and have not borne children; break forth into shouts, you who have not given birth. Rejoice, Joachim, because from your daughter a child is born for us, a son is given us, whose name is Messenger of great counsel and universal salvation, mighty God. For this child is God.

Joachim and Anne, how blessed and spotless a couple! You will be known by the fruit you have borne, as the Lord says: By their fruits you will know them. The conduct of your life pleased God and was worthy of your daughter. For by the chaste and holy life you led together, you have fashioned a jewel of virginity: she who remained a virgin before, during and after giving birth. She alone for all time would maintain her virginity in mind and soul as well as in body.

Joachim and Anne, how chaste a couple! While safeguarding the chastity prescribed by the law of nature, you achieved with God's help something which transcends nature in giving the world the Virgin Mother of God as your daughter. While leading a devout and holy life in your human nature, you gave birth to a daughter nobler than the angels, whose queen she now is.

Girl of utter beauty and delight, daughter of Adam and mother of God, blessed the loins and blessed the womb from which you come! Blessed the arms that carried you, and blessed your parents' lips, which you were allowed to cover with chaste kisses, ever maintaining your virginity. Rejoice in God, all the earth. Sing, exult and sing hymns. Raise your voice, raise it and do not be afraid. 

Mary conceived in her soul before she conceived in her body.

A royal virgin of the house of David is chosen. She is to bear a holy child, one who is both God and man. She is to conceive him in her soul before she conceives him in her body. In the face of so unheard of an event she is to know no fear through ignorance of the divine plan; the angel tells her what is to be accomplished in her by the Holy Spirit.

She believes that there will be no loss of virginity, she who is soon to be the mother of God. Why should she lose heart at this new form of conceiving when she has been promised that it will be effected through the power of the Most High? She believes, and her faith is confirmed by the witness of a previous wonder: against all expectation Elizabeth is made fruitful. God has enabled a barren woman to be with child; he must be believed when he makes the same promise to a virgin.

The Son of God who was in the beginning with God, through whom all things were made, without whom nothing was made, became man to free him from eternal death. He stooped down to take up our lowliness without loss to his own glory. He remained what he was; he took up what he was not. He wanted to join the very nature of a servant to that nature in which he is equal to God the Father. He wanted to unite both natures in an alliance so wonderful that the glory of the greater would not annihilate the lesser, nor the taking up of the lower diminish the greatness of the higher. 

What belongs to each nature is preserved intact and meets the other in one person: lowliness is taken up by greatness, weakness by power, mortality by eternity. To pay the debt of our human condition, a nature incapable of suffering is united to a nature capable of suffering, and true God and true man are forged into the unity that is the Lord.

This was done to make possible the kind of remedy that fitted our human need: one and the same mediator between God and men able to die because of one nature, able to rise again because of the other. It was fitting, therefore, that the birth which brings salvation brought no corruption to virginal integrity; the bringing forth of Truth was at the same time the safeguarding of virginity.

Dearly beloved, this kind of birth was fitting for Christ, the power and the wisdom of God: a birth in which he was one with us in our human nature but far above us in his divinity. If he were not true God, he would not be able to bring us healing, if he were not true man, he would not be able to give us an example.

And so at the birth of our Lord, the angels sing in joy: Glory to God in the highest, and they proclaim peace to his people on earth as they see the heavenly Jerusalem being built from all the nations of the world. If the angels on high are so exultant at this marvelous work of God's goodness, what joy should it not bring to the lowly hearts of men? 

There are two kinds of leaders in the world, those who use other people to get what they want, and those who sacrifice themselves to bring prosperity to others. Jesus is the second kind of leader.

Today's First Reading expresses this beautifully. It is a prophecy describing the Messiah, God's promised Savior, Israel's great king, who will come and rescue Israel from idolatry and foreign oppression. The description presents a vivid, poetic comparison between the leadership style of this promised Messiah and that of the pagan kings who have conquered and ruled Israel for so long.

The Messiah enters Jerusalem on a donkey, an animal considered noble in ancient Palestine, but an animal ridden by judges and rabbis, by those who brought order and justice to society. This Messiah, the prophet goes on to describe, will banish chariots and horses - instruments of war used by the pagan conquerors and symbolizing oppression, injustice, and violence.

Jesus himself, in today's Gospel passage, explains his leadership style in the same way. He invites the crowds to come to him, to follow and obey him, so that he can "give them rest." He will never force us to labour and carry heavy burdens just for his own gratification, as selfish, power-hungry leaders do.

Instead, Jesus invites us to walk by his side, uniting our crosses to his cross, as if we and he were harnessed to the same yoke. Yes, we will have to work and suffer in this life, but when we do so united to Christ, it all has a purpose; it is all leading us somewhere.

And so, instead of oppressing, depressing, and frustrating our souls, bearing crosses with Christ brings us deep satisfaction and peace of mind even in the midst of life's trials.

St Genevieve the Peacemaker

This is why faithful Christians are always courageous defenders of peace, in all its forms: since Christ has established his own peace in their hearts, they are able to become peace-makers for others.

Take St Genevieve [JEN-uh-veeve], for example.

She lived in France, in the 400s. Paganism was still strong at that time, and so when her bishop allowed her to follow her vocation to become a consecrated virgin, she stirred up a storm of opposition. Calumny, slander, and abuse accompanied her on her many charitable journeys. At one point her enemies even plotted to drown her. She persevered by uniting her sufferings to Christ's - by taking his yoke upon her, she found rest for her soul.

She spent most of her time doing for others what Christ had done for her: bringing them the peace that comes from experiencing the power of God's unconditional love. For example, when Frankish warrior tribes (they were barbarians) laid siege to Paris, Genevieve risked her life by leading secret excursions out of the city at night in order to gather provisions for the starving Parisians.

When Paris eventually fell,it was Genevieve who courageously persuaded the pagan conqueror to release his prisoners and newly enslaved Christians.

Later, when Attila the Hun and his devastating army were approaching Paris, the people and city leaders panicked with fear. It was St Genevieve who rallied the populace, encouraged the Christians to pray for deliverance, and arranged for a prayer vigil in the Cathedral.

For no apparent reason, Attila changed his course and the city was spared. Six hundred years after her death, her relics were carried in procession through Paris as the city prayed for an end to an outbreak of the plague - and the plague ended. It's no wonder she is the Church's official patron saint for disasters. When we are filled with Christ, like St Genevieve, we overflow with his peace to everyone around us.

Putting on the Yoke of Humility

Christ brings peace to our souls. We have all experienced Christ's peace, at least a little bit. We have tasted the joy of his forgiveness in the sacrament of confession, the assurance that he is taking care of loved ones who have died, the consolation of knowing that he is near.

And yet, for most of us, that interior peace is not so deep and steady as we would like. The storms of life still seem to upset the ship of faith on which our hearts sail. Is there anything we can do to experience Christ's peace more steadily, securely, and deeply? "Take my yoke upon you," Jesus says, "and I will give you rest." What is that yoke? Jesus tells us, "Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart."

Humility is the secret to experiencing Christ's peace.The more we grow in humility, the more Christ's peace, strength, and wisdom takes over our hearts.Like all the virtues, humility grows gradually, like a muscle if we exercise it.

Lucky for us, there are three very easy ways to exercise humility. First, prayer. Every time we pray sincerely, we acknowledge our dependence on God - an act of humility. This is why St John Vianney used to say, "God commands you to pray, but he forbids you to worry." It was his variation of the old saying, "Courage is fear that has said its prayers."

Second, speaking well of other people. Every time we observe and praise the good points of others, we loosen the shackles of arrogance and envy that bind humility. Third, obedience to God's will. Whenever we conscientiously fulfil our responsibilities in life, follow our conscience, and obey Church teaching, we are humbly reversing the arrogant rebellion of original sin.

Today, Jesus will once again prove his own humility and love by coming to us in Holy Communion. When he does, let's tell him how much we long for his peace, and ask him to lay his restful yoke of humility upon us.

The blood of the martyrs gives witness to Christian faith.
From the Homily of Pope John Paul II at the Canonization of the Chinese Martyrs

"Your word is truth; sanctify us in your love". This invocation, an echo of Christ's prayer to the Father after the Last Supper, seems to rise from the host of saints and Blessed whom the Spirit of God continues to raise up in his Church from generation to generation.

Today, 2,000 years since the beginning of Redemption, we make these words our own, while we have before us as models of holiness Augustine Zhao Rong and his 119 companions, martyrs in China. 

God the Father "sanctified them in his love", granting the request of the Son, who "opened his arms on the Cross, put an end to death and revealed the resurrection, in order to win for the Father a holy people".

The Church is grateful to her Lord, who blesses her and bathes her in light with the radiant holiness of these sons and daughters of China. Young Ann Wang, a 14-year-old girl, withstood the threats of the torturers who invited her to apostatise. Ready for her beheading, she declared with a radiant face: "The door of heaven is open to all", three times murmuring: "Jesus". And 18-year-old Xi Guizi, cried out fearlessly to those who had just cut off his right arm and were preparing to flay him alive: "Every piece of my flesh, every drop of my blood will tell you that I am Christian".

The other 85 Chinese men and women of every age and state, priests, religious and lay people, showed the same conviction and joy, sealing their unfailing fidelity to Christ and the Church with the gift of their lives. This occurred over the course of several centuries and in a complex and difficult era of the history of the Church in China.

Resplendent in this host of martyrs are also the 33 missionaries who left their land and sought to immerse themselves in the Chinese world, lovingly assimilating its features in the desire to proclaim Christ and to serve those people. Their tombs are there as if to signify their definitive belonging to China, which they deeply loved, although with their human limitations, and for which they spent all their energies. "We never wronged anyone", Bishop Francis Fogolla replied to the governor who was preparing to strike him with his sword. "On the contrary, we have done good to many". 

The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.

Tertullian [born c. 155/160, Carthage, now in Tunisia, —died after 220, Carthage, important early Christian theologian]

Not to preach the Gospel would be my undoing, for Christ himself sent me as his apostle and witness. The more remote, the more difficult the assignment, the more my love of God spurs me on. I am bound to proclaim that Jesus is Christ, the Son of the living God. Because of him we come to know the God we cannot see. 

He is the firstborn of all creation; in him all things find their being. Man's teacher and redeemer, he was born for us, died for us, and for us he rose from the dead.

All things, all history converges in Christ. A man of sorrow and hope, he knows us and loves us. As our friend he stays by us throughout our lives; at the end of time he will come to be our judge; but we also know that he will be the complete fulfilment of our lives and our great happiness for all eternity.

I can never cease to speak of Christ for he is our truth and our light; he is the way, the truth and the life. He is our bread, our source of living water who allays our hunger and satisfies our thirst. He is our shepherd, our leader, our ideal, our comforter and our brother.

He is like us but more perfectly human, simple, poor, humble, and yet, while burdened with work, he is more patient. He spoke on our behalf; he worked miracles; and he founded a new kingdom: in it the poor are happy; peace is the foundation of a life in common; where the pure of heart and those who mourn are uplifted and comforted; the hungry find justice; sinners are forgiven; and all discover that they are brothers.

The image I present to you is the image of Jesus Christ. As Christians you share his name; he has already made most of you his own. So once again I repeat his name to you Christians and I proclaim to all men: Jesus Christ is the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega, Lord of the new universe, the great hidden key to human history and the part we play in it.

He is the mediator – the bridge, if you will – between heaven and earth. Above all he is the Son of man, more perfect than any man, being also the Son of God, eternal and infinite. He is the son of Mary his mother on earth, more blessed than any woman. She is also our mother in the spiritual communion of the mystical body. 

Remember: it is Jesus Christ I preach day in and day out. His name I would see echo and re-echo for all time even to the ends of the earth.