32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time - Give Your 2 Cents

 Part of being Catholic Christians is that we must help one another in many ways especially giving. Next month I have to pay the bills for this domain and other services and I need your help. Like the widow today who gave what she had, I ask you to imitate her by helping me continue this work and expand it. Donate to my campaign at www.gofundme.com/sacerdotus.  God will see this and reward you for helping.  Thanks.

REFLECTION:
Today's readings remind us to be humble and simple. What the poor gives is greater than what the rich can ever offer.

In the first reading, we read of Elijah the great prophet. He enters Zarephath and runs into a widow. He calls out to her to bring him some water and bread.  She quickly goes to get him some. However, she does not have enough flour and oil to make bread.  She was saving it for her son and herself. The writer emphasizes this because of the culture. Women at the time were not allowed to have property or work. Some cultures in today's world still have this way of living. The fact that this woman was a widow and that she had a little flour and oil for her son and herself shows her struggle after losing her husband.  The husband was the 'breadwinner.'  However, with his absence, she has no source of income or wealth to care for herself or her son.  Despite knowing this, Elijah still insists on the bread.  However, he tells her,  "Do not be afraid. Go and do as you propose.  But first, make me a little cake and bring it to me. Then you can prepare something for yourself and your son. For the LORD, the God of Israel, says,'The jar of flour shall not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry, until the day when the LORD sends rain upon the earth.'" This widow immediately did as Elijah instructed without question. Because of her faith, she had enough to feed herself and her son for a year.  God took care of her (Psalm 68:5).  This connects to the Gospel and shows us why we must trust God and praise Him as the Psalm today calls for.

God keeps faith forever.  What does this mean?  It means that He is always there for us (1 Corinthians 1:9). He will not abandon us.  God is just and protects the oppressed like the widow we read of in the first reading (Deuteronomy 10:18).  God cares for all, the blind, the dead, those who are humiliated.  He loves the just and is there to protect the stranger.  As we read, He protects and sustains the widow and stops the wicked.  We must praise God and thank Him always (Psalm 106:1).  We are in the month of November which in the United States of America is dedicated to giving thanks to God on Thanksgiving Day.  However, we must thank God all the time. Luckily, we have Jesus Christ who is our connection to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as we read in the second reading.

Jesus is God.  He is also our high priest who plead for us and sacrificed Himself for us (Hebrews 4:14-16).  The reading tells us that Jesus "did not enter into a sanctuary made by hands, a copy of the true one." This is in reference to the temple built by Herod which was a copy of the Temple of Solomon (John 2:20). Moreover, the verse reminds us that temples, synagogues, churches are just buildings made by human hands. It is God who blesses them and gives them importance via His presence (Ezekiel 10, 2 Chronicles 5:14). A Catholic church building may be beautiful with ornate decorations, images, etc; however, it is useless without the Holy Eucharist; the presence of Christ Himself (1 Corinthians 10:16)! This reading reminds us that Christ is with us.  He suffered for us and died once for us (Hebrews 9:28, 1 Peter 3:18).  The reading also reminds us that human beings die once and are judged. We do not reincarnate nor do we become angels.  Human beings are conceived, live, and die.  They remain human entities.

As an atheist studying reincarnation in Hinduism and Buddhism, the idea did not register logically to me. If we come back over and over in order to reach perfection, then which personality actually reaches perfection?  Moreover, how can a soul reach perfection if it starts a new life with new experiences and does not have knowledge of mistakes in "past lives?"  These are just some of the problems I saw with the idea of reincarnation. The Christian idea of dying once and facing God after death made more sense. This is why we must take advantage of this one life that we have and do our best.  We must live each day as if it were our last, as the saying goes (Ecclesiastes 9:1-12).  A video game comes to mind in this regard. In video games such as PacMan or Super Mario Bros, the character has a set of lives. The more the lives, the more careless a player playing the game is. However, if his or her character has only one life left in the game, then he or she will be more careful so as to not lose the game. We should have a similar mentality in life.  We only have one, so we must make the best of it by avoiding sin and 'losing' our life by condemning ourselves to hell or permanent separation from God.  Our lives must be humble, doing small things with lots of love as Blessed  Mother Teresa said.  We see this in the Gospel which connects with the first reading.


In the Gospel, we read that Jesus is teaching the crowds.  He warns the people saying, "Beware of the scribes, who like to go around in long robes and accept greetings in the marketplaces, seats of honor in synagogues, and places of honor at banquets. They devour the houses of widows and, as a pretext recite lengthy prayers. They will receive a very severe condemnation."  This verse is unfortunately used to attack priests and Catholics who pray the Rosary. However, Jesus was clearly speaking about the scribes and Pharisees. He was making a point that these people dressed the part and did the prayers but out of vanity, not for the real reason (Matthew 6:5). However, this does not mean that some of us in the Church does not do similar things.  Many times there may be priests who celebrate Mass simply as a ritual that needs to be done. They focus on the wording more than the spirit of the wording. Vestments become things that 'dignify' the priest instead of representing the high priest Christ.

Some laypeople may pray Rosaries without even focusing on what they are saying.  All that is heard is a mumbling of words without any substance behind them. We must not be like this. A priest should say Mass recalling what it really is.  He must use vestments not to look 'pretty,' but to remind himself and the people who He represents. This is why Pope Francis has made it a mission to tone down the ornate decorum. We cannot be in a Church thinking we are royals that deserve praise and veneration from the world.  Moreover, when we pray Rosaries, chaplets, litanies, etc, we must really think about what we are saying (Matthew 6:5-15). The Rosary is the life of Christ and Mary.  It is not an incantation that we recite mindlessly.  In light of this, we must be sincere. Jesus reminds us in the Gospel that we must be like the poor widow who had little (2 mites - Lepton) but gave a lot.  These mites were worth about half a penny which is a cent.  Some tend to believe the phrase, "Putting my 2 cents in" comes from the story of the widow.  A rich person can give 10 dollars out of his or her $1 million dollar salary to charity thinking it was a big deal, but in reality, it is not.  In contrast, a poor man or woman who gives 2 quarters he or she got from begging to charity and he or she gave a lot because it was all he or she had.  God sees this and puts more value on this giving because the person gave all he or she had, showing that he or she is detached from material wealth and trusts in God.  The Gospel reminds us that the lowly widow's actions trump that of the hypocritical religious person. Let us be like the widow and give to others even when we have little. Let us be humble like she was practicing true and sincere religion that trusts in God and does not seek to promote the self.  During this pandemic of the Covid-19 Coronavirus, many stepped up to help others by donating food and volunterring. Let us continue to do this and reach out to those in need whether there is a pandemic or not.  May Jesus be praised.


Readings:  Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time | USCCB

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Christ Gives Us To Eat

Dear readers, sorry for this "in your face" message but it is urgent and I do not know any other way to get help.

Please consider helping my fundraising campaign which will help me maintain and expand this evangelization work.  In about six months I have to pay the expenses related to this website.  I need your help! The pandemic has hit us all very badly especially those who rely on donations.  Please donate. 

Funds are needed for the following:

1. Help keep the blog domain URL names which are expensive and help bring in web traffic.  see godaddy.com for more information on the costs of premium domain names.

2. To help purchase podcasting equipment for the radio podcast show and expand the time slot for it by updating the subscription. For subscription costs see: https://secure.blogtalkradio.com/register.aspx?aid=CRMTS

3. I mail religious articles (Rosaries, Crucifixes, Pamphlets, Medals, Scapulars, etc) to people who request them. This costs money to purchase and mail. Shipping is expensive, so funds are needed to help cover this cost as well. See usps.com for cost information regarding shipping.

4. I want to publish some books to help maintain this work via sales. In order to publish, I need funds for printing, access to research papers to cite from (journals et al), etc.

5. In the future, I may expand the work on Livestream and other streaming and video services which also cost money.  We need to purchase 2 Mevo cameras for this purpose. 

All monies will go towards the ministry of Sacerdotus in order to keep it stable and running for at least 3 to 4 more years until another fundraising campaign will be needed.

Again, without your help, I will lose this domain name in six months when the renewal of it is due. If this happens, I will lose access to keywords, search engines, and millions of visitors. Moreover, someone else may purchase the domain for malicious purposes in order to attack Catholicism or me by pretending to be me.  Your help can help me keep this going and expand it, especially the radio podcast subscription.  With it, I can speak more, have guests and take calls on air live.

Our world is becoming more and more secular and without strong Catholic voices online, then it will continue to grow and push back all that Christianity has done in order to build the West.  As you may know, atheism thrives online.  On the internet, atheists can create blogs and other social networks which they use to promote their misconceptions. This draws in naive youth who read these blogs and buy into the rhetoric. We must stop this by having online evangelization work done just like sacerdotus.com which is a source for those of faith and no faith to get clear answers to the questions and claims regarding atheism.

I hope you reading this will make a donation at www.gofundme.com/sacerdotus to help me.

God will repay you for your help.  I promise to remember at Mass, Liturgy of Hours, and private prayer all of those people who have helped me keep this alive.


Reflection:

Christ feeds us all.  In today's readings, we are reminded of how God cares for His people, not only spiritually but physically as well.

The first reading tells us of Elisha who was the successor of Elijah. Elijah was seen as the greatest of prophets.  I mention Elijah because of what the reading tells us and how it relates to the Gospel. Elisha, we are told had twenty barley loaves.  With those twenty loaves, a hundred people were able to eat and there were loaves left over. Sound familiar (Jesus' miracle)? Here we see a miracle regarding the multiplication of loaves. Elisha's servant at first objects to giving the barley loaves because his reason told him that twenty loaves cannot feed a hundred. However, God is above the laws of physics and our cognitive limits in regards to processing what is physically possible and what is not (Ephesians 3:20).

Elisha, as stated above is the successor, Elijah.  I stress this because Elijah as well was involved in a miracle regarding loaves as well.  In 1 Kings 17:7-16, we read of the prophet Elijah who was told by God that a widow would be waiting for him. Elijah meets with her and asks for a loaf of bread. However, the widow does not have enough flour and oil. Her family is literally starving. Nevertheless, Elijah still instructs her to make him a loaf of bread and then one for herself and her son. She does this and they then have enough food for each day. A miracle occurred. God multiplied the food. So first Elijah is involved in this miracle for himself, the widow, and her son.  Then Elisha is involved in one, but this one entails twenty barley loaves that would feed one hundred.  However, as we shall read in the Gospel today, Christ outdoes them both.  He multiplies five barley loaves and feeds 5,000 leaving twelve baskets leftover of food.  This indicates that Jesus is greater than Elisha and even the greatest prophet of all Elijah.  As God promised Moses, He rose a prophet from among the Israelites (Deuteronomy 18:18). God, Himself comes to feed us as we read in the Psalm (Psalm 81:17).

Today's responsorial Psalm tells us that, "The hand of the Lord feeds us; He answers all our needs." God cares for us (Matthew 6:26). We in turn must give Him thanks (1 Thessalonians 5:18).  He gives us our food in due season and satisfies the desires of everything that lives (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8). All things come from God and we must be grateful (James 1:17, Psalm 127). We must have faith in Him and realize our place in nature.  We are not gods (Psalm 8:5). Nature reminds us of this constantly. We are seeing droughts in many areas and floods in others. These are natural processes that occur but also serve as a reminder that we are mortal and need to trust in God. God will bless a nation that seeks Him (2 Chronicles 7:14).  The nations that run from Him face destruction.  We seek God by having faith and putting that faith into action via love as we read in today's second reading.

In the second reading, we are reminded that we must live in a manner that is worthy (Philippians 1:27).  We do this by being humble, gentle, and patient.  We must do this with one another through love (John 13:34-35).  I know there are people in our lives or people we may encounter who we want to push down a flight of stairs.  They may annoy us, may compete with us or may just rub us the wrong way.  This happens all the time. Nevertheless, we must love these people and bear them for the sake of Christ and our own sanity. This is especially true of our own in the Church.  Sometimes or many times, people in the Church can be worse than people outside of the Church. We perceive it this way because they are in our Church or parishes, we know what to expect of them. When they do not meet that bar, we begin to judge them. This is wrong (Matthew 7:3-5). We must bear with one another with love. We must be united in peace; of one body and one spirit (Philippians 2:2, 1 Peter 3:8). We have one Lord and must be of one faith and one baptism. This means we should all believe in the same God and believe the same thing.  The ideas and labels of "Conservative Catholic," "Liberal Catholic," "Traditionalist," "Progressive," etc must disappear from our Catholic culture.  We must be of one faith (John 17:21). Moreover, those that believe in Christ must be of one baptism. It is a big scandal that there are over 30,000 sects calling themselves "Christian" and the "true church." Christ only founded one Church, not Churches (Matthew 16:18).  Christ has only one bride (Ephesians 5:25-27).  We must work hard to bring our separated friends back home to Rome (Luke 5:4, 2 Timothy 2:25, James 5:20). We must evangelize all those around us and bring them to eat of the baskets, so to speak as we read in today's Gospel.

The Gospel tells us of one of the most well-known and popular miracles Jesus had performed: the Multiplication of Loaves and Fishes. We are told that a large crowd follows Jesus.  They are following Him because of the signs and wonders He performed; namely, healing the sick. Jesus goes up on a mountain with His disciples. The "mountain" is where God resides (Psalms 125:2, Exodus 19:16-19).  Passover is coming up soon.  We are told this for a reason. The miracle Jesus is about to perform is connected to the Passover.  Jesus notices the huge crowd and asks Philip, "Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?"  The question is a strange one because why would God need to buy food? Why would the creator of space, time, matter, and energy need to buy food?  This is why the Gospel says, "He said this to test Him, because He Himself knew what He was going to do."  So we see here Jesus was playing the "human role," so to speak.

Philip tells Jesus that not even nearly a year's worth of wages is enough to buy the crowd food. Andrew then interjects saying that a boy has five barley loaves and two fish but then asks what good would these do. Jesus then tells them to tell the people to relax on the grass.  The Gospel is careful to tell us this by stating, "Now there was a great deal of grass in that place."  Sound familiar? We read of this last week where God Himself will bring back the sheep to the meadows and will care for them on verdant pastures (see: Jeremiah 23:1-6, Psalm 23, Sacerdotus: 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time - The Flock He Shepherds) Here we are seeing how God is bringing the sheep back to the meadow. This is why the Gospel mentions that "there was a great deal of grass in that place" to make the connection that God is present as a shepherd.  Jesus then takes the loaves from the boy. This boy to me is like the first altar boy ever and is the Gospel I love to use when I used to train altar servers.

Anyhow, Jesus gives thanks and distributes it to those 5,000 present. After the distribution was done and everyone ate their fill, they gathered what was left showing that Jesus was not part of what our Holy Father Pope Francis calls a "throw-away culture." When the leftovers were collected, there were twelve baskets left over.  The number twelve is significant in the Sacred Scriptures and is mentioned 187 times.  The number twelve symbolizes God's holy people; God's power and authority, and completion.  This number is a product of three (3x3x3x3=12 /  3^4=12) which represents the Holy Trinity.  There were twelve tribes, twelve patriarchs, and twelve apostles. Furthermore, notice what the people say when they had their fill, "This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world." This is connected to the promise God told Moses in Deuteronomy 18:18.

The miracle of using five loaves and two fish showed them that Jesus outdid Elijah, their greatest prophet. By using five loaves and two fish, Jesus uses seven items indicating the number of God or total perfection. This means that this miracle was done not by a mere human prophet, but by the one who is represented by "number 7" or God Himself.  The five loaves represent the body of Christ (bread/Holy Eucharist) and the five wounds of Christ (Matthew 26:26). The fish represent baptism; that the disciples are fishers of men, and the dual (hypostatic union) nature of Christ (Human/Divine) (1 Corinthians 10:1-4, Matthew 4:19, John 20:28, Mark 15:39). This miracle is done when Passover is approaching which is a foretelling of the Holy Eucharist where Christ feeds us with Himself under the form of bread and wine (John 6:25-59). The loaves are connected to the Old Testament and the events surrounding Passover which reveal who Jesus really was to the Jews of His time and us today. Jesus was preparing the people for the Holy Eucharist.  Unfortunately, the closure of parishes last year was a disaster and should not have happened. Many do not have faith in the Real Presence, to begin with, according to statistics. Now, things are worse. By closing parishes and denying the people the Mass and sacraments, the bishops sent a very bad message that the spiritual is ineffective and useless.  The truth is, we need the Eucharist now more than ever. The Eucharist is Jesus Himself!  Jesus will never spread disease. Now with the Delta variant spreading so quickly, we need to rely on God.  Man, Science, and even religion have failed. It is now God and our faith that we have left.  Let us trust in God and allow Him to feed us daily.  May Jesus Christ be praised!


Readings: Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time | USCCB

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time: God is More Important

This week's readings have had a common theme regarding discipleship. We are all disciples of the Lord.  During Ordinary Time, we are taught directly from Christ in the readings.  There is nothing ordinary about Ordinary Time. While the other seasons of the Liturgy are focused on the events of salvific history, Ordinary Time focuses on Jesus' teachings. Today's readings remind us of the importance God has in our lives and how we must welcome those who preach the Lord to us and make them feel at home.

The first reading tells us of Elisha, the prophet. A woman of influence was having trouble conceiving. This woman would dine with Elisha for quite some time. One day, she invited Elisha to stay over.  The woman prepared a room for Elisha and furnished it.  She wanted Elisha to feel at home.  Elisha appreciated the gesture and asked his servant Gehazi if there was something he could do for the woman.  His servant told Elisha that the woman and her husband had no son.  Elisha asked for the woman and told her that in the next year, she would have a baby son. Here we see how God rewards those who help others.  God will repay whatever we spend on others. I know this from personal experience. I am sure that you reading this have had your share of moments when you literally saw how God rewarded you for a good act.  This is why it is important to help others whether they are a friend, part of the family or stranger.  I understand that we live in a world with lots of crazy people who do harm.

However, we must be helpful always without forgetting to be smart about it. God does not want us to put ourselves in harms way in order to help others. We must let God present the moment. My uncle who is a permanent deacon learned this the hard way. While setting up equipment at his former parish. He was approached by a local woman who was known by the neighborhood as a homeless person.  She would often stand at the now defunct supermarket Met Foods in Little Italy in the Bronx and open the door for people hoping to get a quarter. Well, this time, she came to the parish asking for help. My uncle got her some food for her.  Instead of being grateful, she slammed the food on the sidewalk and began cursing at my uncle. These are things that happen. This is why I say that we must be careful when helping others. We must analyze the situation first.  God will present the opportunity for grace to us. We should not go look for it. As the saying goes, "don't try to be a hero."  God will set everything up and will reward us based on how we responded. This is why I constantly ask fellow Catholics and others to help me run this ministry. I trust and hope that those who visit my site or read my content will be generous and will donate.  God truly rewards when we give.  This is why today's responsorial Psalm says that we will sing the goodness of the Lord.

God's goodness will be visible in our lives if we trust Him and do good things.  Being a Catholic is not just going to Mass, praying, receiving the Sacraments and what not.  We must do good works (Matthew 25:35-40).  This does not mean that we must go out there like St. Francis or St. Teresa of Calcutta. What this means is that we must look for when God presents an opportunity for us to help another person in any way that is of course moral. There will be those who will criticize us. On social media, I see how some people who call themselves Christian cry foul when others help refugees or those who seek help.  Our job is not the judge the character of others or if they are deceiving us.  What God expects is for us to help in His name.  As the second reading tells us, we were baptized into Christ. We died and were buried with Him.  We are now part of Christ's Body, the Catholic Church.  We must be dead to sin; dead to the world and alive in Christ.  The world will hate us for this.  Let it.  Spoiler Alert: Christ wins in the end. Those of us who remained faithful will win as well (2 Timothy 4:7-8).

Lastly, in the Gospel, Jesus reminds us that we must love Him above everyone else, including parents. I know this is hard. Our parents brought us into the world, raised us and introduced us to what it means to be a human being in society. To love anyone more then they is absurd.   Our parents are so important that we even have two days in the year to honor them (Mother's/Father's day). However, Christ is above them. Christ is God; the second person of the Blessed Trinity.  While our parents are important, they would not exist had it not been for God.  We would not exist had it been for God.  God is the source of all that exists.  He is the creator. No one can be above the creator.  No one can be more important.  We who chose Christ must take up our crosses and love God above all things.  Last month, many celebrated the so-called "Pride" month which honors the LGBTQ agenda.  It shocks me the amount of Catholics who disregard the Church's teachings on homosexuality because they have a relative or friend who is LGBTQ. These Catholics even support so-called same-sex marriage.  We cannot love this world and God at the same time.  Jesus tells us today that we cannot love anyone more than He.  We cannot call ourselves Catholics and avoid carrying the cross.

The pop singer Ariana Grande made headlines a few years ago for abandoning the Catholic faith (see: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2800399/my-brother-told-god-didn-t-love-ariana-grande-reveals-turned-kabbalah-homosexual-brother-shunned-catholic-church.html).  She claims that since her brother is gay and the Church teaches that the gay lifestyle is wrong, that she cannot be Catholic anymore.  The idea goes against the Gospel today. She loves her brother more than Christ.  We can pretty much assume that she is destined for hell if she does not repent. Those of us who claim to be catholic but love others more that God are disobeying Christ.  If our friends or relatives are gay or are participating in something that is counter-God, we must rebuke them and invite them to center themselves back to reality with Christ.  Moreover, Jesus says that those who find their lives will lose it.  This means that those who believe they have succeeded in life and did it without acknowledging God, will lose that life.  All things come from God, including wealth. Those who lose their lives for God's sake will find it.  This means that those of us who deny this world and what it offers will earn the true life in heaven with Christ.

As stated before, we must welcome disciples of the Lord. This means one another.  If we receive them, we receive Christ.  We must be welcoming of our clergy, religious and fellow lay people.  We will be rewarded for this.  I try hard to be a disciple of the Lord by evangelizing here and offline. I hope my fellow Catholics will welcome me and help me in regards to running this evangelization effort.  In light of this, I ask you to please be generous and help me.  If I come into your computer, devices and home via my content as a postmodern prophet of the Lord, please do not forget the cold cup of water, so to speak, and help me run this ministry by donating or becoming a regular patron. God will reward you for this. You are helping spread His Word.

Please donate at:

www.gofundme.com/sacerdotus
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Let us continue to help one another as Christ expects us to do and let us remember to put God above everyone else (John 13:35, Mark 12:30-31). No one is more important that God.  May Jesus Christ be praised!

 


Readings:

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/070217.cfm

32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time - Putting 2 Cents In

Part of being Catholic Christians is that we must help one another in many ways especially giving. Next month I have to pay the bills for this domain and other services and I need your help. Like the widow today who gave what she had, I ask you to imitate her by helping me continue this work and expand it.  Donate to my campaign at www.gofundme.com/sacerdotus.  God will see this and reward you for helping.  Thanks.

REFLECTION:
Today's readings remind us to be humble and simple. What the poor gives is greater than what the rich can ever offer.

In the first reading, we read of Elijah the great prophet. He enters Zarephath and runs into a widow. He calls out to her to bring him some water and bread.  She quickly goes to get him some. However, she does not have enough flour and oil to make bread.  She was saving it for her son and herself. The writer emphasizes this because of the culture. Women at the time were not allowed to have property or work. Some cultures in today's world still have this way of living. The fact that this woman was a widow and that she had a little flour and oil for her son and herself shows her struggle after losing her husband.  The husband was the 'bread winner.'  However, with his absence, she has no source of income or wealth to care for herself or her son.  Despite knowing this, Elijah still insists on the bread.  However, he tells her,  "Do not be afraid. Go and do as you propose.  But first make me a little cake and bring it to me. Then you can prepare something for yourself and your son. For the LORD, the God of Israel, says,'The jar of flour shall not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry, until the day when the LORD sends rain upon the earth.'" This widow immediately did as Elijah instructed without question. Because of her faith, she had enough to feed herself and her son for a year.  God took care of her (Psalm 68:5).  This connects to the Gospel and shows us why we must trust God and praise Him as the Psalm today calls for.

God keeps faith forever.  What does this mean?  It means that He is always there for us (1 Corinthians 1:9). He will not abandon us.  God is just and protects the oppressed like the widow we read of in the first reading (Deuteronomy 10:18).  God cares for all, the blind, the dead, those who are humiliated.  He loves the just and is there to protect the stranger.  As we read, He protects and sustains the widow and stops the wicked.  We must praise God and thank Him always (Psalm 106:1).  We are in the month of November which in the United States of America is dedicated to giving thanks to God on Thanksgiving Day.  However, we must thank God all the time. Luckily, we have Jesus Christ who is our connection to God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit as we read in the second reading.

Jesus is God.  He is also our high priest who plead for us and sacrificed Himself for us (Hebrews 4:14-16).  The reading tells us that Jesus "did not enter into a sanctuary made by hands, a copy of the true one." This is in references to the temple built by Herod which was a copy of the Temple of Solomon (John 2:20). Moreover, the verse reminds us that temples, synagogues, churches are just buildings made by human hands. It is God who blesses them and gives them importance via His presence (Ezekiel 10, 2 Chronicles 5:14). A Catholic church building may be beautiful with ornate decorations, images etc; however, it is useless without the Holy Eucharist; the presence of Christ Himself (1 Corinthians 10:16)! This reading reminds us that Christ is with us.  He suffered for us and died once for us (Hebrews 9:28, 1 Peter 3:18).  The reading also reminds us that human beings die once and are judged. We do not reincarnate nor do we become angels.  Human beings are conceived, live and die.  They remain human entities.

As an atheist studying reincarnation in Hinduism and Buddhism, the idea did not register logically to me. If we come back over and over in order to reach perfection, then which personality actually reaches perfection?  Moreover, how can a soul reach perfection if it starts a new life with new experiences and does not have knowledge of mistakes in "past lives?"  These are just some of the problems I saw with the idea of reincarnation. The Christian idea of dying once and facing God after death made more sense. This is why we must take advantage of this one life that we have and do our best.  We must live each day as if it were our last, as the saying goes (Ecclesiastes 9:1-12).  A video game comes to mind in this regard. In video games such as PacMan or Super Mario bros, the character has a set of lives. The more the lives, the more careless a player playing the game is. However, if his or her character has only one life left in the game, then he or she will be more careful so as to not lose the game. We should have a similar mentality in life.  We only have one, so we must make the best of it by avoiding sin and 'losing' our life by condemning ourselves to hell or permanent separation from God.  Our lives must be humble, doing small things with lots of love as Blessed  Mother Teresa said.  We see this in the Gospel which connects with the first reading.


In the Gospel, we read that Jesus is teaching the crowds.  He warns the people saying, "Beware of the scribes, who like to go around in long robes and accept greetings in the marketplaces, seats of honor in synagogues, and places of honor at banquets. They devour the houses of widows and, as a pretext recite lengthy prayers. They will receive a very severe condemnation."  This verse is unfortunately used to attack priests and Catholics who pray the Rosary. However, Jesus was clearly speaking about the scribes and Pharisees. He was making a point that these people dressed the part and did the prayers but out of vanity, not for the real reason (Matthew 6:5). However, this does not mean that some of us in the Church do not do similar things.  Many times there may be priests who celebrate Mass simply as a ritual that needs to be done. They focus on the wording more than the spirit of the wording. Vestments become things that 'dignify' the priest instead of representing the high priest Christ.

Some lay people may pray Rosaries without even focusing on what they are saying.  All that is heard is a mumbling of words without any substance behind them. We must not be like this. A priest should say Mass recalling what it really is.  He must use vestments not to look 'pretty,' but to remind himself and the people who He represents. This is why Pope Francis has made it a mission to tone down the ornate decorum. We cannot be in a Church thinking we are royals that deserve praise and veneration from the world.  Moreover, when we pray Rosaries, chaplets, litanies etc, we must really think about what we are saying (Matthew 6:5-15). The Rosary is the life of Christ and Mary.  It is not an incantation that we recite mindlessly.  In light of this, we must be sincere. Jesus reminds us in the Gospel that we must be like the poor widow who  had little (2 mites - Lepton) but gave a lot.  These mites were worth about half a penny which is a cent.  Some believe the phrase, "Putting my 2 cents in" comes from the story of the widow.  A rich person can give 10 dollars out of his or her $1 million dollar salary to charity thinking it was a big deal, but in reality it is not.  In contrast, a poor man or woman who gives 2 quarters he or she got from begging to charity and he or she gave a lot because it was all he or she had.  God sees this and puts more value to this giving because the person gave all he or she had, showing that he or she is detached from material wealth and trusts in God.  The Gospel reminds us that the lowly widow's actions trump that of the hypocritical religious person. Let us be like the widow and give to others even when we have little. Let us be humble like she was practice true and sincere religion that trusts in God and does not seek to promote the self.  May Jesus be praised.


Readings:  http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/110815.cfm

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Christ Feeds Us

Dear readers, sorry for this "in your face" message but it is urgent and I do not know any other way to get help.

Please consider helping my fundraising campaign which will help me maintain and expand this evangelization work.  In about six months I have to pay the expenses related to this website.  I need your help!

Funds are needed for the following:

1. Help keep the blog domain URL names which are expensive and help bring in web traffic.  see godaddy.com for more information on costs of premium domain names.

2. To help purchase podcasting equipment for the radio podcast show and expand the time slot for it by updating the subscription. For subscription costs see: https://secure.blogtalkradio.com/register.aspx?aid=CRMTS

3. I mail religious articles (Rosaries, Crucifixes, Pamphlets, Medals, Scapulars etc) to people who request them. This costs money to purchase and mail. Shipping is expensive, so funds are needed to help cover this cost as well. See usps.com for cost information regarding shipping.

4. I want to publish some books to help maintain this work via sales. In order to publish, I need funds for printing, access to research papers to cite from (journals et al) etc.

5. In the future, I may expand the work on Livestream and other streaming and video services which also cost money.

All monies will go towards the ministry of Sacerdotus in order to keep it stable and running for at least 3 to 4 more years until another fundraising campaign will be needed.

Again, without your help, I will lose this domain name in six months when the renewal of it is due. If this happens, I will lose access to keywords, search engines and millions of visitors. Moreover, someone else may purchase the domain for malicious purposes in order to attack Catholicism or myself by pretending to be me.  Your help can help me keep this going and expand it, especially the radio podcast subscription.  With it I can speak more, have guests and take calls on air live.

Our world is becoming more and more secular and without strong Catholic voices online, then it will continue to grow and push back all that Christianity has done in order to build the West.  As you may know, atheism thrives online.  On the internet, atheists can create blogs and other social networks which they use to promote their misconceptions. This draws in naive youth who read these blogs and buy into the rhetoric. We must stop this by having online evangelization work done just like sacerdotus.com which is a source for those of faith and no faith to get clear answers to the questions and claims regarding atheism.

I hope you reading this will make a donation at www.gofundme.com/sacerdotus to help me.

God will repay you for you help.  I promise to remember at Mass, Liturgy of Hours and private prayer all of those people who have helped me keep this alive.


Reflection:

Christ feeds us all.  In today's readings, we are reminded of how God cares for His people, not only spiritually but physically as well.

The first reading tells us of Elisha who was the successor of Elijah. Elijah was seen as the greatest of prophets.  I mention Elijah because of what the reading tells us and how it relates to the Gospel. Elisha, we are told had twenty barley loaves.  With those twenty loaves, a hundred people were able to eat and there were loaves left over. Sound familiar (Jesus' miracle)? Here we see a miracle regarding the multiplication of loaves. Elisha's servant at first objects to giving the barley loaves because his reason told him that twenty loaves cannot feed hundred. However, God is above the laws of physics and our cognitive limits in regards to processing what is physically possible and what is not (Ephesians 3:20).

Elisha, as stated above is the successor Elijah.  I stress this because Elijah as well was involved in a miracle regarding loaves as well.  In 1 Kings 17:7-16 we read of the prophet Elijah who told by God that a widow would be waiting for him. Elijah meets with her and asks for a loaf of bread. However, the widow does not have enough flour and oil. Her family is literally starving. Nevertheless, Elijah still instructs her to make him a loaf of bread and then one for herself and her son. She does this and they then have enough food for each day. A miracle occurred. God multiplied the food. So first Elijah is involved in this miracle for himself, the widow and her son.  Then Elisha is involved in one, but this one entails twenty barley loaves that would feed one hundred.  However, as we shall read in the Gospel today, Christ outdoes them both.  He multiplies five barley loaves and feeds 5,000 leaving twelve baskets left over of food.  This indicates that Jesus is greater than Elisha and even the greatest prophet of all Elijah.  As God promised Moses, He rose a prophet from among the Israelites (Deuteronomy 18:18). God, Himself comes to feed us as we read in the Psalm (Psalm 81:17).

Today's responsorial Psalm tells us that, "The hand of the Lord feeds us; He answers all our needs." God cares for us (Matthew 6:26). We in turn must give Him thanks (1 Thessalonians 5:18).  He gives us our food in due season and satisfies the desires of every thing that lives (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8). All things come from God and we must be grateful (James 1:17, Psalm 127). We must have faith in Him and realize our place in nature.  We are not gods (Psalm 8:5). Nature reminds us of this constantly. We are seeing droughts in many areas and floods in others. These are natural processes that occur, but also serve as a reminder that we are mortal and need to trust in God. God will bless a nation that seeks Him (2 Chronicles 7:14).  The nations that run from Him face destruction.  We seek God by having faith and putting that faith into action via love as we read in today's second reading.

In the second reading, we are reminded that we must live in a manner that is worthy (Philippians 1:27).  We do this by being humble, gentle and patient.  We must do this with one another through love (John 13:34-35).  I know there are people in our lives or people we may encounter who we want to push down a flight of stairs.  They may annoy us, may compete with us or may just rub us the wrong way.  This happens all the time. Nevertheless, we must love these people and bear them for the sake of Christ and our own sanity. This is especially true of our own in the Church.  Sometimes or many times, people in the Church can be worse than people outside of the Church. We perceive it this way because they are in our Church or parishes, we know what to expect of them. When they do not meet that bar, we begin to judge them. This is wrong (Matthew 7:3-5). We must bear with one another with love. We must be united in peace; of one body and one spirit (Philippians 2:2, 1 Peter 3:8). We have one Lord, and must be of one faith and one baptism. This means we should all believe in the same God, and believe the same thing.  The ideas and labels of "Conservative Catholic," "Liberal Catholic," "Traditionalist," "Progressive," etc must disappear from our Catholic culture.  We must be of one faith (John 17:21). Moreover, those that believe in Christ must be of one baptism. It is a big scandal that there are over 30,000 sects calling themselves "Christian" and the "true church." Christ only founded one Church, not Churches (Matthew 16:18).  Christ has only one bride (Ephesians 5:25-27).  We must work hard to bring our separated friends back home to Rome (Luke 5:4, 2 Timothy 2:25, James 5:20). We must evangelize all those around us and bring them to eat of the baskets, so to speak as we read in today's Gospel.

The Gospel tells us of one of the most well known and popular miracles Jesus had performed: the Multiplication of Loaves and Fishes. We are told that a large crowd follows Jesus.  They are following Him because of the signs and wonders He performed; namely, healing the sick. Jesus goes up on a mountain with His disciples. The "mountain" is where God resides (Psalms 125:2, Exodus 19:16-19).  Passover is coming up soon.  We are told this for a reason. The miracle Jesus is about to perform is connected to the Passover.  Jesus notices the huge crowd and asks Philip, "Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?"  The question is a strange one because why would God need to buy food? Why would the creator of space, time, matter and energy need to buy food?  This is why the Gospel says, "He said this to test Him, because He Himself knew what He was going to do."  So we see here Jesus was playing the "human role," so to speak.

Philip tells Jesus that not even nearly a year's worth of wages is enough to buy the crowd food. Andrew then interjects saying that a boy has five barley loaves and two fish but then asks what good would these do. Jesus then tells them to tell the people to relax on the grass.  The Gospel is careful to tell us this by stating, "Now there was a great deal of grass in that place."  Sound familiar? We read of this last week where God Himself will bring back the sheep to the meadows and will care for them on verdant pastures (see: Jeremiah 23:1-6, Psalm 23, http://www.sacerdotus.com/2015/07/16th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-flock-he.html) Here we are seeing how God is bringing the sheep back to the meadow. This is why the Gospel mentions that "there was a great deal of grass in that place" to make the connection that God is present as shepherd.  Jesus then takes the loaves from the boy. This boy to me is like the first altar boy ever and is the Gospel I love to use when I used to train altar servers.

Anyhow, Jesus gives thanks and distributes it to those 5,000 present. After the distribution was done and everyone ate their fill, they gathered what was left showing that Jesus was not part of what our Holy Father Pope Francis calls a "throw-away culture." When the leftovers were collected, there were twelve baskets left over.  The number twelve is significant in the Sacred Scriptures and is mentioned 187 times.  The number twelve symbolizes God's holy people; God's power and authority, and completion.  This number is a product of three (3x3x3x3=12 /  3^4=12) which represents the Holy Trinity.  There were twelve tribes, twelve patriachs and twelve apostles. Furthermore, notice what the people say when they had their fill, "This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world." This is connected to the promise God told Moses in Deuteronomy 18:18.

The miracle of using five loaves and two fish showed them that Jesus out did Elijah, their greatest prophet. By using five loaves and two fish, Jesus uses seven items indicating the number of God, or total perfection. This means that this miracle was done not by a mere human prophet, but by the one who is represented by "number 7" or God Himself.  The five loaves represent the body of Christ (bread/Holy Eucharist) and the five wounds of Christ (Matthew 26:26). The fish represent baptism; that the disciples are fishers of men, and the dual (hypostatic union) nature of Christ (Human/Divine) (1 Corinthians 10:1-4, Matthew 4:19, John 20:28, Mark 15:39). This miracle is done when Passover is approaching which is a foretelling of the Holy Eucharist where Christ feeds us with Himself under the form of bread and wine (John 6:25-59). The loaves are connected to the Old Testament and the events surrounding Passover which reveal who Jesus really was to the Jews of His time and us today. Jesus was preparing the people for the Holy Eucharist. Let us trust in God and allow Him to feed us daily.  May Jesus Christ be praised!


Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/072615.cfm

6th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Merciful God

Today's readings continue from last week's theme that Jesus heals.

In the first reading from Leviticus, we are told the procedure of how to deal with those with leprosy. These people were visibly ill and contagious. Like with any serious and infectious disease, quarantine is necessary as we see today with Ebola. The people with leprosy in the Bible were considered "unclean" which made them pariahs in the Hebrew liturgy and society. This disease was a visible sign of punishment after the bearer of it disobeyed the commands of God (Numbers 12:12-15; 2 Kings 5:27). They had to identify themselves via rent garments, covered beard, shaven head as well as shouting "unclean unclean" which were signs of mourning, death and penance (Ezekiel 24:17). The leprosy was a visible sign of sin. Mortal sin and Venial sin hurt us spiritually and physically. The life of grace dies in us every time we sin.  We become distant to God.  Since God is our life and the body cannot sustain itself without life, then sin eats away at the body just like at death when there is no life and the body cannot regenerate from decaying cells by replacing them.  Mortal sin bars us from receiving the Sacraments (except Reconciliation), especially the Holy Eucharist.

The responsorial Psalm responds to the first reading with "I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation." This Psalm reminds us that we must seek God and ask for mercy and forgiveness. We must acknowledge our sin before God and confess our faults to Him. It is in repentance that we find salvation (Isaiah 30:15). We will see how this ties in with today's Gospel.

In the second reading from Corinthians, Paul reminds us that everything we do must be for the glory of God. The Jesuits have a great motto, "Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam" which means "To the greater glory of God." This is pretty much what Paul is saying. When we eat, drink, work, study or play; we must do it for the glory of God. It is God who allows us to exist and sustains us so that we can live life (Psalm 66:9).  Paul also reminds us that we cannot offend others and must do things that will please instead. Today we live in a world that celebrates offending others. Free speech is not considered free unless you offend others is the mantra of today. This is unfortunate and goes against the second greatest commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves (Leviticus 19:18, Matthew 22:29).  By loving our neighbors as ourselves, we open the opportunity for them to be saved; not because of us, but because we imitate Christ. Pope Francis has been showing us how with the way he has been delivering the Petrine ministry to the world with charity and compassion. This is where today's Gospel comes in.

In the Gospel, we read of the leper who came to Jesus and kneeled before Him begging Him to have mercy and asking to be healed if it was Christ's will.  The next thing that happens is amazing. We read that Christ is moved with pity. Jesus immediately succumbed to this beggar's plea and said, "I do will it, Be made clean."  Immediately, the man's leprosy left him and he was cleaned. Christ then warns the man to not tell anyone but instead go to the priest and follow the rituals which Moses prescribed. This would be proof that the man was cleansed. We see here how Christ respects the old rites and did not come to dismiss them, but to make them into a tangible reality (Matthew 5:17).  Why did the priest need proof?  Well, news of Jesus traveled quickly and the priests of the time were suspect of Him. In the Old Testament, only God healed those with leprosy (2 Kings 5:7).  Elisha healed a leper only by calling on God in order to prove that Israel had a prophet (2 Kings 5:8).  He could not do it on his own will because he was a mere man.  In the Gospel, we read how Christ does it Himself.  This is because He is God.  God made flesh living among His people (Luke 7:16).

This Gospel not only shows us the power of Christ and the fact that He is God, but it also shows us the power of repentance and prayer. The leper knelt before Jesus.  This is not easy for a grown man to do.  What grown man kneels before another man? This would be a humiliating act in most cultures. The leper begs Jesus and Jesus is moved to act. God waits for us to repent and ask for mercy. He waits for the sheep to return (Matthew 18:12-13).  Once we return after we repent, He will heal us from the damage done by sin which is the soul's leprosy.




Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/021515.cfm

   

Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Today is the feast day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.  This is another title upon which Our Lady is invoked.

There is only ONE Blessed Mother Mary, but the Church has many titles for her; and rightfully so, she is the model for all Christians to imitate if they wish to be Christ-like.

The feast day has its origin within the Carmelite tradition. The Carmelite order is a religious group of priests, brothers and sisters who take vows.  It is believed that this group originated with Elijah and Elisha of the Old Testament.

The Blessed Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to St. Simon Stock on July 16, 1251 and introduced the sacramental called the "Brown Scapular." The Brown Scapular is a cloth that is placed over the shoulders with one piece resting on the mid back and the other on the mid chest. This is why the word "scapular" is used which comes from 'scapula' or the shoulder blade.  Brown Scapulars are usually made of wool and symbolize the yolk of Christ.(Matthew 11:30)  A larger version is used by different religious orders within the Catholic Church.

The Brown Scapular has to be imposed with a specific rite. Not anyone can just wear it and expect to receive the spiritual benefits. Those spiritual benefits include indulgences, special protection from danger, graces to aid in perseverance and deliverance from Purgatory.

“Take this Scapular, it shall be a sign of salvation, a protection in danger and a pledge of peace. Whosoever dies wearing this Scapular shall not suffer eternal fire.”

                                                                        - Our Lady of Mt. Carmel to St. Simon Stock

May Our Lady of Mount Carmel pray for us and for the souls in Purgatory.