Lord, may this sacrifice, which has made our peace with you, advance the peace and salvation of all the world.
Strengthen in faith and love your pilgrim Church on earth;
your servant, Pope Benedict, our bishop Paul, and all the bishops,
with the clergy and the entire people your Son has gained for you.
Father, hear the prayers of the family you have gathered here before you.
In mercy and love unite all your children, wherever they may be.

Third Eucharistic Prayer. 

This prayer, taken from the Eucharistic Prayer I intend to use this morning, came to mind as I reflected on the Scriptures for today.  The passage from Revelation includes this tender verse: “The Lamb who is in the center of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of life-giving water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Rev. 7:17) 

The Lamb is Jesus, risen from death.  He has been slain, but is now alive.  His death is a victory, not a defeat.  We recognize his death as a victory because we have seen him overcome death in his resurrection.  Death no longer has any power over him. 

But what is the difference between Jesus and us?  Why—or how—has he overcome death in his flesh, while we have yet to see any of his servants, any member of his Church, come back from death?  Or, to put it another way, why must we wait for the coming-again of our Lord Jesus? 

This is what I see.  We who belong to Jesus through baptism into his death are being transformed, daily, weekly, yearly into the likeness of the true and faithful Son of God.  Little by little, often with pain and impatience, we are adopting the attitudes of Jesus: faith in God and love for those whom we recognize as our sisters and brothers.  In Jesus case the faith is complete and utter trust; in our case, the trust is on-again-off-again, hesitant.  For Jesus, the love is absolute and unconditional and universal.  In us, the love is selective, highly conditioned by our human experience, and limited by our personal limitations. 

We defeat ourselves by relying on some way that is not the Way (the Truth and the Life).  Each time that we “fall into sin,” isolate ourselves from God and one another, we buy a little piece of death, already beginning to taste the pain of hell.  We don’t do it—what is “it”?  Gossip, theft, impurity, neglect of the needs of others, reliance on some addiction—we don’t do it because we like the pain it brings, but because we think, we believe that it will bring us some pleasure or gain us something tangible.  But in the end it only harms us and the people around us. 

We fail to recognize the enormous love of God for us, and therefore to respond to it wholeheartedly.  A little like looking at the world through a little slit in a thick wall: what we see is beautiful, but it is so narrow!

We fail to recognize that the grace and power of Christ’s resurrection is not focused only on me, or on all of us individually—like so many Star Trek tractor beams (the golden thread model of salvation).  We fail to recognize that God, who loves us perfectly, each of us, is drawing us into a family, working in and through the Church, to make us a family, each member offering his or her gifts generously, and all the others receiving them, respectfully and with gratitude. 

We “wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior,” because the grace and power of the resurrection is working in us a day at a time, a “test” at a time, an opportunity at a time.  God’s grace is not just saving us from drowning in our self-centeredness, but teaching us how to breathe underwater in the ocean of Love that God is. 

And so we pray: “Strengthen in faith and love your pilgrim Church on earth.”  And we pray it over and over.  We pray, “In mercy and love unite all your children, wherever they may be.”  And we “wait” actively, with bright hope, and with a willing heart, for the grace and power of the resurrection to transform us a little more into his likeness. 

I want to take a moment now to

1. Update everyone on the Bishop’s Annual Appeal
2. To thank all who have taken part in KDSA in the past
3. To challenge us all to open our hearts to assist our diocesan Church in its mission and ministry

FIRST: As of yesterday, we had received 41 pledges (and a number of notes indicating that the household was not in a position to contribute this year).  The pledges add up to $10,341, almost 12% of our target!

It’s this kind of generosity that persuades me that we can reach and even exceed our goal.

Next I want to THANK YOU, all of you who have made sacrifices and given to this appeal in the past.   Your generosity is one of the principal components of the greatness of St. Joseph’s.

FINALLY: I want to help you have the courage to take part in this appeal.  Our goal—my goal—is 100% participation.  I know that not everyone can give a particular amount.  But I am gratified that many have already made pledges, while some have made a single gift, paid in full; and a few families have sent word that they cannot give this year.  That is participation.  And I’m grateful.

The Appeal is about our belonging to a Church greater than our parish. 

If you did not receive a packet of information with a pledge form, you will find some blank forms and envelopes in the pews.  If you’re in a position to make a pledge right now, please use one of those envelopes to make your pledge while I’m speaking.  If you are not ready to make a pledge this weekend, please take home the envelope from the pew and bring it back next week with your pledge.

It seems clear to me that people who have already pledged to the Bishop’s Annual Appeal have made a sacrifice: the average gift in this first wave of gifts is over $250.  Still the amount of the gift is not the whole picture.  I hope that every one who received a pledge form in the mail will respond personally.  No gift is too small . . . or too large! 

            Please consider making a 10-month pledge. 

4º domingo de la Pascua                                                               

25 abril, 2010

Te pedimos, Padre, que esta v íctima de reconciliación
traiga la paz y la salvación al mundo entero. 
Confirma en la fe y en la caridad a tu iglesia, peregrina en la tierra:
a tu servidor, el Papa Benedicto, a nuestro obispo Paul, al orden episcopal,
a los presbíteros y diáconos, y a todo el pueblo redimido por ti. 
Atiende los deseos y súplicas de esta familia que has congregado en tu presencia. 
Reúne en torno a ti, Padre misericordioso, a todos tus hijos dispersos por el mundo.
Tercer Plegaria Eucarística

Esta petición, tomada de la plegaria Eucarística que vamos a rezar en esta Misa, me vino a la mente mientras reflexionaba las Escrituras de hoy.  El pasaje del libro del Apocalipsis incluye este tierno versículo: “El cordero que está en el trono, será su pastor, y los conducirá a las fuentes del agua de la vida, y Dios enjugará de sus ojos toda lágrima.”  (Apoc. 7:17) 

El cordero es Jesús, resucitado de la muerte.  Fue degollado, per ya vive.  Su muerte es una victoria, no una derrota.  Reconocemos esta muerte como victoria porque lo vimos superar la muerte en la resurrección.  La muerte ya no tiene ningún poder sobre él. 

Pero ¿qué es la diferencia entre Jesús y nosotros?  ¿Por qué—o bien, cómo—venció a la muerte en su carne mientras no hemos visto a ningún siervo suyo, ningún miembro de la Iglesia, resucitar?  En otras palabras, ¿Porqué tenemos que esperar la venida de nuestro Señor a los fines del tiempo?

Lo siguiente es lo que veo yo.  Los que pertenecemos a Cristo a través del bautismo estamos siendo transformados—de día en día, de mes en mes—a la imagen del Hijo verdadero y fiel de Dios Padre.  Poco a poco, y muchas veces con pena e impaciencia, vamos adoptando las actitudes de Jesús: la fe en Dios, y el amor para con los a quienes reconocemos como hermanos.  En Jesús, la fe es una confianza completa y absoluta, mientras nuestra confianza es a veces sí, y a veces no.  En Jesús el amor es sin condiciones y sin limite cualquier, mientras nuestro amor es muy selectivo, condicionado por nuestra experiencia de la vida y limitado por nuestras limitaciones personales.

Nos dejamos vencer confiando en algún camino que no es “el Camino, la Verdad y la Vida”.  Cada vez que caímos en el pecado, así aislándonos de Dios y los unos de los otros, compramos un pequeño terreno del infierno, ya en el justo momento gustando de las penas de la muerte.  No lo hacemos—no pecamos, digo—porque nos gusta le pena, sino porque creemos que el pecado—sea un chisme, una impureza, una adicción—pensamos que el pecado nos ganará algo tangible.  Sin embargo, al final, lo que nos proviene es daño, a nosotros o a los demás. 

Faltamos en reconocer el amor enorme de Dios por nosotros y por eso no respondemos de corazón al mismo amor.  Faltamos en reconocer que la gracia y el poder de la resurrección de Cristo no es solamente para la salvación del individuo, sino para la salvación de toda la raza humana, y hasta par la de toda la creación.  Que Dios, que ama perfectamente a cada persona humana nos está conduciendo en una familia, trabajando en y a través de la Iglesia para formarnos en una familia, cada miembro ofreciendo sus bienes generosamente a la comunidad, con todos los demás recibiendo esa ofrenda con respeto y gratitud. 

“Esperamos la gloriosa venida de nuestro Señor” porque la gracia y el poder de la resurrección está obrando en nosotros un día a la vez, una prueba a la vez, una oportunidad a la vez.  La gracia de Dios nos salva de ahogarnos en nuestro egocentrismo; pero más: la misma gracia de Dios nos está enseñando respirar bajo del agua en el mar del amor que es nuestro Dios. 

Por eso decimos en oración: “Confirma en la fe y en la caridad a tu iglesia, peregrina en la tierra”.  Y lo decimos una y otra vez.  Decimos, “Reúne en torno a ti, Padre misericordioso, a todos tus hijos dispersos por el mundo”.  Y esperamos, activamente con anticipación y con corazón alegre, que la gracia y el poder de la resurrección nos transforme cada vez más a la semejanza de nuestro Pastor y Redentor.