2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Wedding

Today's readings are about evangelization.

In the first reading, Isaiah says that he will not be silent for the sake of Zion and Jerusalem.  He has to give witness to God. The people of God are a glorious crown, a royal diadem. These people will be united to God as a young man marries a virgin; as a bridegroom his bride.  This reading reminds us that the Church is the bride of Christ (Ephesians 5:25-27).  At the end of time, this bride will marry the bridegroom who is Jesus (Revelation 21:2). Those in humanity who united to the Church and remained faithful will be restored (Romans 8:22, Acts 3:21).  Their link with God which has been severed or weakened by sin will be repaired. Before all of this happens, we must proclaim God's deeds to all the nations as the Psalm tells us (Matthew 28:19 ).  This is evangelization.

We must sing to the Lord and anounce His salvation to all the Earth.  It is in our love and our joy that we attract others to God (Philippians 4:4).  If we are people with gloomy faces looking to fulfill and obligation, then people will not seek anything in us or from us (Matthew 6:16, Sirach 25:23). However, if we shine bright with God's grace; with God's Good News, then why will seek it as well because everyone wants to be joyous, not miserable. This is why the Holy Spirit was sent to us and gives us distinct gifts as we are told in the second reading.

The same and One Spirit gives different gifts to each of us. He gives different forms of services, but they are all rendered unto the Lord. They all come from God (Nehemiah 9:20, John 20:22). Some may have the gift of wisom and expression of knowledge.  Others may have the expression of faith, healing, mighty deeds, propchecy, discerning of spirits and tongues. While different, each gift serves a person. The gifts of tongues is speaking in a way that everyone understands.  It is not gibberish or sounds that make no sense as our friends in the Pentecostal sect believe the gift of tongues is.  Speaking gibberish does not spread the kingdom of God.  It brings about mockery from the heathen. We must put the gifts God gives us to use in promoting the Gospel (Psalm 68:18, Acts 5:32). For now, I am using websites, social media, radio podcasts, Google hangouts and books to do this. I also do street evangelization. God may change this in the future and have me do something else. What gifts did God give you? How does He want you to spread the Good News? These gifts are meant to promote God, not ourselves or our agenda. We sometimes see blogs out there or certain personalities who use their gifts to preach gossip or attacks against the Pope and our bishops calling them 'wicked' or 'modernists.'  This is not of the Holy Spirit. These kinds of messages are demonic which seeks to undermine the Catholic Church and cause doubt (1 Peter 5:8). Moreover, we must not envy the gifts of others (Galatians 5:26). Not everyone is supposed to evangelize in the same manner. Be happy that God has entrusted you with a gift and mission.

Lastly in the Gospel, we read of Christ's first miracle which came as a result of Our Lady's intercession. Jesus and Mary are at a wedding feast. This shows us their humanity. Being of God does not mean we have to be stiff, rigid stoics who do not enjoy life (Ecclesiastes 9:7). Everything about God is a joyous occasion, a feast. Moreover, we are told that the wine ran out. Mary tells Jesus and He responds in a blunt manner, "Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come."  Despite this direct responds, Mary tells the serves, "Do whatever he tells you.'  We see here how Mary brings Jesus to perform a miracle before the time set showing the intercessory power Mary has. She pleads for us at the right hand of her Son Christ.  Jesus then performs the miracle of transforming jars of water into the best tasting wine. This reading not only shows us Mary's intercession, Christ's power and a wedding party; it is a reminder of the first reading.  God is going to marry His people; the Church (Revelation 19:7; 21:9). This is what the Catholic Church has her eyes on: the wedding feast of the Lamb and herself.  Let us pray to the Holy Spirit to tell us what to do and how to do it.  Let us ask Him to give us the gifts and means to do this.  While we do our work of evangelizing, let us never forget Mary who intercedes for us.  May Jesus Christ be praised.


Readings:  http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/011716.cfm

Pentecost

Today we celebrate Pentecost or the day when the Catholic Church was publicly officially born.  The Blessed Virgin Mother Mary and the Apostles gathered in an upper room and prayed for 9 days.   They then received the Holy Spirit who descended upon them as tongues of fire.  


They received the gifts of the Holy Spirit as well as the gift of tongues so that people could understand them in their native language as they preached the Gospel of Christ. (Acts 2)  


Pentecost means the 'fiftieth day' and was the day on which the 'Feast of Weeks' or 'Shevout' was celebrated.  On this day, all Jews recalled the day the Commandments were given to Moses 50 days after their Exodus from Egypt.  There was a big harvest on this day.  


Jesus had promised the Holy Spirit to the Apostles.  He told them that the Helper or Paraclete will come to them reminding them of all He has taught them and will guide them in Truth.  (John14:15-31)  These are important verses that are ignored by our separated brethren who often claim that the Catholic Church is corrupt and apostate.  In America's infancy, groups such as the Finneyites rose up preaching a form of "primitivism," or what they called a return to the "original Christianity."  We see many of their sects today such as the Baptists, Pentecostals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Methodists, Evangelicals, Mormons, Adventists and so on.  


Anyone who believes that Christ's Catholic Church became corrupt is basically calling Jesus a liar.  If Jesus indeed promised that the Spirit would guide the Church in Truth, how can it become corrupt?  How can the Church fall away from Christ?  This is a misconception our separated friends must really meditate on and throw away as ignorant rhetoric from the harsh anti-Catholicism that existed in the past - post reformation into America's infancy.   

   

• Let us pray for the Holy Spirit to come once again and renew the Catholic Church and the world.  
• Let us pray to the Holy Spirit to rid the Church of scandals; to rid the Church of her Judas's who continue to betray Jesus.  
• Let us pray for the Holy Spirit to renew our Faith in this Year of Faith and to restore or give the gift of Faith to those who lost it or never bothered to open it.  
• Let us pray to the Holy Spirit to tell us what to do in these trying times.  To instruct us how to confront with love and reason the ideas of today such as Relativism, Atheism, Secularism, Homosexuality - Marriage rights issues, Feminism, Indifferentism, Personhood distortions.  

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your love, sent forth your spirit and they shall be created and you shall renew the face of the earth.  


O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.