Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

The following homily was preached by Deacon Donald Massoud on Sunday, September 10 at St. Anthony of the Desert Maronite Church in Fall River, MA.

St. Paul tells us that the Cross is foolishness and a stumbling block to some, but to us who believe it is the sign of salvation (cf. 1 Cor 1: 18 – 15). It is beyond the logic of some who consider their wisdom and knowledge equal to God to understand that Christ had to die for our sins in order to provide us with the hope of salvation.

In today’s Gospel (Jn 12: 20 -32), Jesus says, “whoever loves his life will lose it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternity”. He goes on to say, Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be. The Father will honor whoever serves me.

The phrase to “to lose one’s life” means to die; so Christ is calling us to come and die. He is not calling us to improve our earthly lives in comfort and wealth, but to let go of everything and discover authentic life – life in Christ Jesus.

The death to which we are called may not be the death of our bodies but the death of our old selves and coming alive into Christ’s way of living. It may be the death of our ways of thinking and wanting that do not reflect the life of Christ. In his letter to the Romans, St. Paul tells us, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern the will of God” (cf Rom 12:2).

The struggle between seeing life through the eyes of the world and seeing it through the eyes of Christ is not easy. Jesus’ vision often seems peculiar, while the world’s makes sense. “Be all that you can be!” “Live life to the fullest!” “Enjoy the good life!”

Many of us long to have good things in life, knowing full well that they can neither satisfy nor really give life in all its fullness. Christ calls us to stay with the struggle and trust that true life comes from Him. The world’s vision is captured in words like: buy, shop, have, eat, acquire, accumulate, consume. But Jesus asks, What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? (Mt 16: 26).

We are watching the terrible devastation in Florida. The governor was begging the people to obey the direction to evacuate. He told them, “we can help you restore your houses, but we cannot restore your lives”. The horror and sadness of those people who have lost not only all their material goods but also those of sentimental value has been very difficult to watch.

However, transformed into the mind of Christ, those words of acquisition are replaced by words like, “offer, serve, feed, and give”. Those who want to save their lives will lose it. Christ promises, “and those who lose their lives for My sake will find it”. Life is found in giving and serving because these actions best reflect God’s image in our lives.

This runs against the voices that want us to acquire, to hold on to, voices that are sometimes so overwhelming that they are hard to ignore. This was demonstrated clearly in the hurricane reporting. After watching cars jammed up on highways or waiting in line for gasoline and people huddled in shelters, we have a commercial telling us which car to buy, where to go on our next cruise, and how to stay well groomed and well dressed.

Christ’s invitation to us is for us to let go of our need to get, buy, keep, and accumulate and embrace the desire to give, feed and serve. It is also His promise to us for eternal life.   

St. Joseph, the Worker

The following Homily was given by Fr. Herbert Nicholls on September 4^th, Labor Day,  at the Mother of the Light Convent

In the beginning of time, God gave us the vocation to work. It was not meant as a punishment but a means to bring creation to perfection. God actually commanded three different forms of labor:

1.      To increase and multiply – cooperating with Divine grace to bring a new generation of human persons into existence. Without God there is no respect for human life. From the very moment of its origin, to its last gasping breath, without God we are all at the mercy of one another. Without God we live until someone else decides that we have served our purpose for the good of society; and it is time that we be terminated. A world without God makes itself God.

Joseph took Mary and her child into his home and loved and cared for them. Joseph must have been a man without selfishness. The Bible says so little and yet so much when it says of Joseph: He was a just man, not just a man.

2.      To fill the earth and subdue it – to bring forth from the earth fruits and vegetables from the soil; medicines from plants and glass and computer chips from sand. God gave us this vocation to work in order to discover what it means to become more and more in His image.

The four Gospels tell us nearly nothing of the hidden years of Jesus’ life in Nazareth, but they are certainly not without importance. Most of Jesus’ life was not spent in preaching, but in laboring: making tables, chairs, maybe houses, whatever needs were presented. As He said often: He did whatever was pleasing to His Father. Though referring to His Heavenly Father, He no doubt did what was pleasing to His earthly father as well.

But skills and human formation were not the only teaching which Joseph passed on to Jesus. Joseph also knew the importance of faith formation. In these formative years, the human nature of Jesus learned to integrate human work into Divine plan. He learned to understand the meaning of the third form of labor.

3.      Have dominion over all living creatures by treating them as gifts of God. So great was Jesus’ appreciation for human work that He continued to use it in analogy to the Kingdom. Often He favorably mentions shepherds, farmers, physicians, housebuilders, servants, stewards, merchants, laborers, soldiers, cooks, tax collectors, and scholars. He compared the work of evangelization to the manual work of harvesting and fishing.

Realizing that work is so important to God, here are three suggestions on how to pray for understanding:

1.      Offer your work as a sacrifice to God as Abel did – offer anything and everything.

2.      Offer your gift for a specific intention – whether for yourself or for another, but never lift it without consciousness, intention truly makes it a Liturgy of the Hours.

3.      Many of the same virtues which we learn in prayer are the same virtues that help us to sanctify our work – perseverance, humility, doing it for the will of God. And the virtues that we learn working – punctuality, dependability, diligence, doing the best that we can, foster better prayer.

When work takes on this significance, we and our work can become the means through which God can sanctify others. That is why work is an essential part of life – not a punishment but a gift.

We have not been allowed to know when or how the life of St. Joseph came to pass. But most surely it happened in the presence of those dear to him – the Virgin Mary and Jesus, perhaps the family and towns people of Nazareth. At that time it was common for families to live closely together.

According to custom of the time the wake was held in the family home, and the nearest male kin would lead prayer. Perhaps Jesus might have prayed similar words to these:

My Father, and Father of all mercies, Father of Truth, listen to me, Your beloved  Son, who implores you on behalf of my earthly father, Joseph……by the work of Your hands, send the Archangel Michael, protecter of souls; and Gabriel, a familiar face and messenger of light to accompany the soul of my father, Joseph, until he pass beyond the straights of the terrible. This is indeed the moment in which he is in need of mercy. (History of Joseph the Carpenter, Coptic Version, 20-22)

Family is that place where we learn to put it all together and where Jesus learned to recognize God’s plan for our lives. It is the place where we learn to step out of ourselves, to accept others, to accept forgiveness…and if nothing else we might learn how to become not just a person, but a “just person”.

Reflection: Which Soil Are You?

A Reflection on the Parable of the Sower (Luke 8: 1-15) by Sr. Natalie Sayde Salameh

When a large crowd gathered, with people from one town after another journeying to him, he spoke in a parable. "A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path and was trampled, and the birds of the sky ate it up. Some seed fell on rocky ground, and when it grew, it withered for lack of moisture. Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. And some seed fell on good soil, and when it grew, it produced fruit a hundredfold." After saying this, he called out, "Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear." ”This is the meaning of the parable. The seed is the word of God. Those on the path are the ones who have heard, but the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts that they may not believe and be saved. Those on rocky ground are the ones who, when they hear, receive the word with joy, but they have no root; they believe only for a time and fall away in time of trial. As for the seed that fell among thorns, they are the ones who have heard, but as they go along, they are choked by the anxieties and riches and pleasures of life, and they fail to produce mature fruit. But as for the seed that fell on rich soil, they are the ones who, when they have heard the word, embrace it with a generous and good heart, and bear fruit through perseverance.”

In this parable, Our Lord shows us that are many different attitudes in this world with respect to receiving His word. If only all of us were the rich soil where the word of God could germinate and grow to such an extent as to yield the greatest fruit. However, if we are honest with ourselves, we usually fall into one, or maybe even all three, of the soils that need more growth and development for the word to take root in our lives. In this reflection, I would like to concentrate on the first and fourth types of soil because they are directly linked to each other.

In the first kind of soil, Our Lord says, that the seed falls on the path and is trampled upon by the passers-by. This is an interesting image, if you think about. I immediately thought of a stone or a small rock that gets pressed down into the ground every time someone walks over it. Indeed, if enough time goes by, it becomes so compacted into the earth that nobody even notices it or even thinks “hey, I’m walking over a stone right now”. This is exactly what happens to the word of God in our lives. The path is really our minds and souls, in which we allow many things to enter and trespass within us and ultimately distract us royally from the word. Because there is so much noise (or traffic) on the path of our souls, the word of God cannot germinate and bear fruit within us, and so is trampled upon to extent that you no longer notice it or even think about it. In the Gospels in many places, Our Lord is always telling us, “be alert, be vigilant, wake and watch”. He is referring to the many thoughts that dart in and out of our minds everyday, that squelch the word within us. Beware of what is coming in and out of your minds, too many intruders walk on the path of our souls. We need to put up a sign on the paths of our hearts, “Do not enter, this is private property that belongs to Jesus Christ, the only thing welcome here is the word of God”. Then and only then can the word germinate in our lives.

This approach is directly linked to the fourth soil. The fourth is the rich soil, referring to those people who, when they have heard the word, embrace it with a generous and good heart, and bear fruit through perseverance. The most beautiful aspect of those in this soil, is that they listen to God’s voice alone in their hearts. They do not allow entrance to anything else to distract them from the word within them, which is being cultivated and watered by God’s grace to bear great fruit. They have put up the “Do not enter” sign on their hearts and allow God admittance only.

You may say, “this is impossible, there are so many things on my mind, so many things I need to take care of, my sick mother, my children’s schooling etc etc”. I assure you that Jesus would never ask something of us that He knew we could not fulfill. If we even show the slightest desire to be one with Him in His word, the grace of heaven would come to meet us there, and give us all we need to make it a reality. What is required of us is simply to desire the word to take root in our lives and intentional effort to check ourselves when the intruding and distracting thoughts want to barge in (His grace will be there to make up for our lack in any way).

So pick up the Bible and give it a try, one verse is sufficient for Our Lord to work wonders in the soil of your heart.