24 Ord A 11 Sep 11

Today we received a very clear message from the Lord God through the readings of the Holy Bible.  We were told to forgive others of all their trespasses against us.  And, our forgiveness should not be just limited to once or twice, but seventy times seven. This does not   mean  that if we forgive everyday for 490 days,then our share of forgiveness  has been completed.  The seventy times seven means ongoing forgiveness, day after day, week after week, years after years, this being one without counting.

When we do not forgive someone, it is because we are passing judgment on that person.  Jesus commanded us not to judge others so that we will not be judged.  For by the measure that we judge others, by refusing to forgive them of their trespasses, that same measure will be used against us when our time of judgment arrives.

So just how can we make an evaluation of an individual without judging?  It is by completely forgetting offenses that were committed by the person.  It is by forgiving as a holy child of God, forgiving as God would forgive.  In His holiness, God promised, “None of the sins that they have committed shall be remembered against them; they have done what is lawful and right, they shall surely live.  God shall no longer remember the sins of the sinner who does what is right…He forgives those who trespassed against Him without counting, without counting, without looking back without ever mentioning the trespass again, as if it never happened.  That is holy forgiveness.

My sisters and bothers, when we leave here today, let us remember that “Being unable to forgive is the greatest obstacle to holiness!”

With today’s message on our minds and with it tattooed on our hearts this signpost to our salvation is imprinted the soul saving motto of our own salvation.

Many are unable to proceed with their sanctification because they cannot find it in their hearts to forgive. They fall short of the Divine love of God.  In fact, did you know that there are more offenders in the prisons who receive the love and mercy of God than there are victims who are free in the world?  This end result occurs because offenders spend more time towards reflecting on their sins.  An offender is better disposed to acknowledge his guilty heart and conscience that is not at peace.  In search for spiritual peace, he is led by the divine grace of God to admit his guilt, to repeat to confess and to seek salvation through the Lord’s abounding mercy and forgiveness.  The general attitude of those who are victims of crimes is that they are without sin! No one is without sin!  If anyone believes that he is without sin, he is deceiving himself and the truth is not in him.

The soul that cannot forgive does not have the truth of God in its heart.  That means that such a person is not righteous and forgiving as God has commanded.  While possibly unaware of it, such a person has withdrawn himself as an adopted child of God until such a time as he can find the strength in his heart to forgive.

Most of us have been victims at one time or another in our lives.  We may have been victims of mental abuse such as rudeness.  We may have seen victims of ongoing psychological abuse.  We may have been victims of physical abuse, discipline that goes beyond the necessity of discipline and some may have been victims of sexual abuse.

We often find the same sentiment expressed by Jesus as, He is quoted in several different passages  arise your faith has save thee.

Today’s 2^nd reading consists of three short verses.  The passage can be construed as to be speaking about life after death but after careful reading we see that Paul is talking about life in this world.  In isolation the passage appears to be concerned about our relationship with the Lord.  Read in context we can see that Paul is actually more concerned with our relationship with one another.  We see this point more clearly at the beginning of the chapter of Romans, Paul speaks about the two groups of strong and weak believers.

Ultimately Paul is seen to mean that “We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves.  If we live, we live to the Lord and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.  For to this end Christ died andlived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

In other words, Paul is saying that holiness or right and wrong is not about us or about what we think, or feel but about the Lord.  A Christian criticizing another Christian on the ground of difference of opinion and lifestyle is as good.

It is such a fitting day for this discussion to be carried on.  It would be difficult if not impossible for anyone be unaware that today  is the tenth anniversary of the destruction of the World Trade Center on 9 11 2001.

A few short years ago, on 9/11 the TV was a non-stop reporting of the tragedies and it was a good focus for the American Public   We needed that focus to bring out the lesson as to what hatred could do and the danger or our getting lost in the hatred rampant through the American mind.

The need to support our government in whatever just action brought about a retaliation and vengeance for the attack we suffered only because we are Americans.

Our purpose today is not to prepare a vengeful attitude to vindicate a war-like attitude  against suspected world power but to pray with friends, neighbors and other world powers torally ourselves to fight hatred and to share God’s Love.

You and I have good reason to be angry because of what happened on 9/11, we have good reason to support the government in taking firm action for the protection of ourselves and our fellow citizens.  But we never have reason to loin in the sum total of hatred that devastate our world.

Like you I want those who perpetrated those acts of violence to be brought to justice no matter where they originated,

Vengeance and retribution remain still part of our thought process but as Christians we know we are called as individuals, as a nation and as a family of nations bound together in grief and anger to act justly.  We must pray for our elected leaders, our President and Congress military and statesmen to respond so that action and the continual threat to respond with prudence and  appropriate actions against those known to be responsible.

To lash out with more wanton violence, even though we are aggrieved as a nation is not to act justly.  We must also avoid the mistakes of the past and be slow to blame or condemn entire races  or cultures, religions or nations.

We need today to remain humble before our God.  Who is one of the worst victims of senseless violence hangs before us on the cross. He remained the humble Son of the Father to the very end and because of that faith, hope and love, the Father made something positive, something good come from the Cross.  We need to remind ourselves in this moment that we may not be able to solve every problem of human creation but with God’s help and our hope and effort, we can at lease begin to bring that era of peace which we all pray for.

The people who died at 9/11 well have spent their lives in vain if we fail to continue to work for an end to all violence, be it among nations religious groups or families.

If we find ourselves unable to forgive other people, chances are that we have not come to appreciate and celebrate sufficiently the immeasurable forgiveness that we ourselves have received from God.  So.  Let us pray today for a deeper appreciation of the amazing love that God has shown us in Christ.  It is this awareness that will make it easier for us to let others off the hook for their relatively minor offences against us.

Abbey 2011                                                                                    23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time – A

Ezekiel 33:7—9
Romans 13:8-10
Matthew 18:15-20

 Last Sunday when we gathered in Jesus’ name, he told us to take up our cross and follow him. Taking up the cross was to be the sign that you and I are joined to him, related to him. Today Jesus points to a very real and common experience in Christian community where taking up the cross is necessary. It is the painful task of offering forgiveness and reconciliation to an offending brother or sister. It is in the process of healing broken relationships that discipleship shows its very real and practical meaning. Life in common, even life in common among Christians, is not easy. We rub each other the wrong way; our speech can easily offend; our anger can strike out; we are prone to gossip, to tell stories about others that do not reflect the best in them or ourselves. None of us can yet count ourselves exempt from the need to bind up interpersonal hurts. And it is these interpersonal hurts, these offenses that Jesus is speaking about when he says, “if your brother or sister sins against you.”

 Jesus outlines a three step process for approaching an offending person. It would have been a process that his Jewish audience and followers would have been familiar with. It is based on approaches outlined in the Old Testament and the later rabbinic tradition. It is also a process that might not work for every case. But we must engage in the process regardless. From the outset it is clear that the process of healing is initiated by the one who is offended. This may be hard work for some. It may be that silence is the easier option, but this is not always the best way forward. What are striking in all steps of the process are the personal elements. The reconciliation is done face to face as it were. The word dialogue comes to mind. The process of coming together is not conducted by mail, post or email, through the newspaper or even lawyers. It cannot be done while hiding behind someone else.  In the first step especially, we hear of no third party to come in. It is one on one. There is here a principle of gospel subsidiarity. You don’t bring to the large group or the higher ups what must be done between two individuals. Your hurt and your forgiveness are worked out at home, as it were. Only slowly are others brought into the process and this only if no hearing is taking place. The personal element and the one on one preserve honor and dignity. You are carrying your cross and not forcing others to carry it for you.

There is a key word in all three steps of the process. In fact it says a lot or even everything about how this process works. It is a matter of “listening.” Can the offending party and the offended party listen to one another? This certainly rules out shouting as an option; it rules out judgmental words and behavior; it rules out any attitude of putting the other person in their place. It involves humility and admission of where I went wrong. It demands the humility of listening, of getting myself out of the way. This is perhaps the hardest part of this process of healing and reconciliation. It is also the most necessary. We are often over whelmed by our hurt, angry at the offender and ready to justify ourselves. But the way of Jesus is clearly a way of listening. It is very practical too. It means I have to keep quiet, not do all the talking, and treat the other with respect. He or she may be an offender, but God looks equally on all. The hard work for the offender is to hear the situation from another point of view and not be quick to excuse, to push off responsibility for one’s actions.

 Jesus makes it clear today that healing up relationships in the Christian community is the responsibility of all. We remember that a few Sunday’s ago Jesus gave Peter keys to the Kingdom for binding and loosing Now Jesus offers the keys of binding and loosing to the community. Binding up relationships between members, helping members to walk straight, helping them listen and understand is not Peter’s work only; the responsibility lies within the community. Healing offenses, calling each other to be accountable for our behavior is a task for all. We are, as Paul says, members of one Body. Here in Matthew it says we are members of one Church and bear responsibility toward each other for how we interact. Jesus goes so far as to say that when community members are praying for healing, praying for a member, for one who has gone astray, then he is there in their midst to hear their prayer and to continue his ministry of healing. When the community is involved in bringing members back together because they belong to Christ, then the Risen Lord is very much present with them.

 We can find many places where Jesus says he can be found: in the poor, the sick, the marginalized, the prisoner and homeless. He is also found with the sinner and tax collector–eating with them no less! Today Jesus assures us of his presence as we work together to heal the offenses between us. Listening with humility to a fellow Christian who is telling us of how we have hurt him or her, is not just some exercise for a better world. It is an experience of Jesus in our midst; it is a moment when the power of the cross to heal and reconcile is working. We are coming very close to the heart of Jesus care and love for us.

 All this effort to heal, to forgive, to accept a wrongdoing is a necessary part of Christian life together. It is just as relevant now as it was in the days of Jesus and Matthew. We can look around us in our own days and see and hear how perhaps we have not followed the personal approach in confronting others about their wrongs; how we have not put dialogue first as the way forward; how we have judged and condemned before listening; how we have nottaken time to sit face to face.

There are two small but key words in the gospel proclaimed today. One is “listen” and the other is “win over.” Both refer to the ultimate goal of interpersonal relationships and communication. What we strive for is community where all are respected, where, sinner or not, the dignity of God’s image is acknowledged and even reverenced. And the aim of confrontation with the offender and the challenge of accepting responsibility is to gain someone back, to bring someone back into the abundant life and joy of the community. Permanent exclusion is not the goal.

 Paul sums it all up today when speaking about the commandments that involve interpersonal behavior and responsibility. He says that in the end we owe no one anything, except to love. For to love means that our lives are at peace, at peace with others and at peace with the world. Loving here is the most profound form of respect and caring.

 Today Jesus shows us the nitty-gritty of what that loving means. He shows just where our responsibility lies: in dealing with the troublesome, the offender. When we are doing that and praying over it, then he is with us, Emmanuel, in our midst. Then we are truly fulfilling the law.

August 28, 2011 Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time(Mt 16, 21-27)

My dear brothers and sisters,

How are you this Sunday? Hurricane Irene is coming.

It is a blessing from on high that no harm will be done and the damage will not be great.

And I have such great news.

Today is the 22nd Sunday in ordinary Time and we also remember saint Augustine.

Especially, I’d like to introduce the right reverend abbot Augustine Hinches.

He is honored for name’s feastday. He was elected second abbot of this abbey in 1970 and resigned 1982. He is a ripe and advanced age of eighty-one.

I trust it is right to give our celebration and respect to abbot Augustine,

Because I think that his life is to offer his body as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God like today’s second reading from Romans.

Let us congratulate Abbot Augustine on his feastday,

and give thanks to the Lord,

for our God allows a respectable feastday and a new Sunday for us.

 «take up your cross and follow me»

 One day, a sister was explaining the Stations of the Cross to her class.

They got to the fourth Station where Jesus was on the road to Calvary where he meets his mother.

The sister explained that even though they could not talk to each other, mother and son spoke just using their eyes.

“What do you think they said to each other?” she asked the pupils.

The class gave many different answers. One kid suggested that she said, “This is unfair.” Another kid suggested that she said, “Why me?”

Finally a little kid raised his hand, got up and said: “Sister, I know what the Blessed Mother told Jesus. She said to him, ‘Keep on going, Jesus!'”

 Do you know why a little kid would say that holy mother encourage her only son on the way to crucifixion to keep on going?

Maybe the little kid understands and remembers today’s Gospel, “deny yourself and take up your cross.”

In today’s gospel, we can see how poorly Peter understood the true mission of Jesus.

He still had to learn that God’s ways are often not human’s ways.

We sould not forget last Sunday when Simon Peter said and confessed to Jesus,

“You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”

 And now, when we hear the words of this Gospel, “Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly … and be killed and on the third day be raised,”

we recognize the familiar story of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

But this was a story that the disciples had not even imagined.

They expected a political Christ as Messiah and a new kingdom of David.

They are disappointed, therefore, by the words of Jesus.

Jesus talked about resurrection indeed, but they could hear that Jesus would suffer and die, and that their dreams would die with him.

When Peter tried to dissuade Jesus, he received a sharp rebuke,

and was told that he must abandon human plans in favor of God’s way of doing things.

God’s way is first the way of the cross, and then only the blessings of freedom and joy. This does not mean seeking pain, or even awaiting pain;

it means simply trying to be loving, but which will also end in joy and fulfillment,

as it did for Jesus.

 Simon Peter sought to flee, to escape, and to deny.

He is a great figure for us to contemplate. How many times did Simon Peter flee? How many times did he deny? And yet Christ named him Peter, Rock.

In the end we must remember that it was Simon Peter who declared, “Lord, you have the words of eternal life. To whom else can we go?” He knew that he couldn’t go it alone.

We, too, know that we can’t “go it alone”.

Do we come to Jesus then to be freed from our burdens, or do we come to Jesus to take on the cross? We come to Jesus to be freed from our meaningless and futile burdens and,

in its place, take on the cross that leads to salvation and glory. And the most important thing to remember when the Lord will come again, and then we will repay all according to our conduct.”

Therefore, I’m always grateful to see a cross with Christ’s body hanging on it.

It shows me the cost God paid in order to stay with us.

 Jesus teaches us what thinking like God means: to love, with whatever is implied

about denying ourselves in favor of our brother and neighbor.

This is why following Christ means taking up the Cross.

And, when the Cross is a sign of sincere love,

then it becomes enlightening and a sign of salvation. Amen.

Trinity Sunday

The Holy Trinity appears to be a simple statement of fact but within it’s simplicity lies its complication.  But as we often discover, “Out of the mouths of babes we often find gems.

One day at a confirmation being held in Newark, the archbishop asked the children for a definition of the Holy Trinity.  A girl answered very softly, “The Holy trinity is three Persons in one god.”  The archbishop, who was almost deaf, replied, “What … I didn’t understand what you said, “  The young girl who appeared to be a well versed theologian  gave a pleasant little smile and  replied, “You are not supposed to understand.  The Holy Trinity  is a mystery.

Often in our daily lives we attest to the truth of the Holy Trinity as we trace the trinity on ourselves as we make the sign of the Cross.  We start by touching our forehead, bringing God into our minds.  Then we bring the Holy Trinity down into our hearts and with our hearts filled with compassion we touch our hearts the seat of our compassion.  And finally tough our shoulders indication the embrace in which we hold the burdens of our family, friends and our petitions.

Today the Church celebrates God’s revelation of Himself to us.  This is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity.

The trinity feast goes back to the 12^th century England and to the archbishop of Canterbury, St. Thomas Becket, who celebrated a Liturgy in honor of the Trinity in Canterbury cathedral.  By the 14^th century this tradition was celebrated throughout the entire universal church.

The belief in the Trinity is seen in the New Testament and can be referenced in a biblical concordance in about 40 different places, dating its acceptance back almost two thousand years.

We open each liturgy invoking the Trinity.  We close it by calling upon those same persons.  Throughout the Christianworld infants are received into our community through Baptism in the name of the Trinity and finally we are committed into the arms of the mysterious Trinity as we will be sent on the behalf of the Church, by the officiating clergy at our Funerals.

We speak about the Trinity and we seem to be drawn to it and as Albert Einstein is quoted as saying, “The most wondrous think in the world is the mysterious.”

Our world is filled with mysteries.  We live with them very comfortably.  Science is a search for the unknown.

We might ask, where the Trinity came from:  a Theologist would explain “The Blessed Trinity is the perfect community of life and love.  God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit live eternally, love eternally and pour out divine love and life in the world through the Body of Christ, which is the Church. We learn that God the Father’s love seeks to increase itself infinitely and embrace the whole world through the passion and death of His Son, reconciling us to Him, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life.  The people of God, then, must be people of life.  God’s perfect plan provides a place for life to come into the world; the marriage of man and woman in total self-giving.  The self-donation of man and woman in marital life is the blessed earthly sign of Christ life giving death on the cross that brings us new life through redemption.

Man and woman joined in matrimony are the privileged cooperators in God’s will that life should go on.  In marriage God joins both the life-giving and love-giving aspects of man and woman into one reality.  “What God has joined man must not divide.”  Thus love and life in marriage must not be divided.  The two have been brought together as one gift by God.

It seems pretty difficult to understand who someone is and this question is even more difficult when we attempt to understand who we ourselves are.  As an exercise we might ask ourselves, who of us understands themselves.  1/Most of us are still trying to figure out how water rises from the earth through the trunk of a plant and finds its way out to the leaves of the tree?  2/ The why and how of homing pigeons still mystifies us.  3/ How about the infamous common cold?  Many cures not withstanding that mystery is not solved.

There are so many things which we don’t intuitively know the answers for.  4/ The New York Times, the self-acclaimed expert of most all things admitted  with an uncharacteristic humility that they doubt humans will ever understand how the brain works.  (I’m rather sure that if the NY Times admits to ignorance, the subject has to be a mystery)

5/Walt Whitman the author described mystery and reality as being two sides of the same coin.

As early as the first days of the Christian Era thegeniuses and the great thinkers wrestled with the concept of the Trinity, most struck out while every once in a while someone would hit a home run. As did holy St. Patrick who resorted to the lowly three leaf clover for his argument in explaining the Trinity.

6/ We know God is the Awesome One who existed before all times and who is his goodness created the universe and all within it.  God the Creator is the God that we refer to when we say, “God the Father.”

But this Awesome God is also an Awesome Lover.  In the Gospel of John we are told how God sent his Son to save the world from the evil that the world had turned to.  God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. God’s son was sent not to condemn the world but that the world might be save d through him.  There is a personal element here. The Son is sent not just to the world in general but to each of us so that we might be saved through him.

The Power of Love, the Power that binds us as one is itself the very spirit of God.  The unity that we enjoy, the power of God that we possess, is the presence of God acting in our lives, and that is the presence of the Holy Spirit.

We belong to this Awesome God, this Awesome Love, and thisAwesome Presence.  We are baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  God’s life dwells within us.  God dwells within us.

We carry God in the fragile vessel of our humanity, we seek his presence and love and power and pray to him within us and all around us.  He is ours and we are his.  This is the Gift of the Almighty to each of us, a gift that should not betrivialized with concepts of Force. But wemust  know it as a gift that should be treasured withreverenceandrespect. How beautiful it is to be alive to God!  How sad it is when we forget his.

The celebration of the most holy trinity is a celebration of the dignity we have received by being admitted into the mystery.  The Mystery is God, His Power and Love and Presence are greater than our minds’ can measure and explain.  He possesses us, and we possess him, not for ourselves but to continue his presence in the world.

And so let us celebrate the Holy Trinity as we make the sign of the cross.  In the name of the Father and…