The Good Shepherd

This is a topic that we can talk about at any time because we are called to listen to the voice and follow in the footsteps of the Good Shepherd. We heard that beautiful passage over the weekend, John 10:11-18. Jesus says to us, "I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep." In my homily over the weekend, I focused on the Good Shepherd and also tied in my role as the shepherd of God's people. The Priest magazine had a beautiful commentary for this weekends readings. The opening line of that commentary spoke volumes, especially to me as a priest: "If Jesus is the model shepherd, then the priest must be a model sheep" (The Priest, 30). Later on, the commentator writes this: "We know that priests, by virtue of the Sacrament of Holy Orders, act in the person of Christ when leading us in worship and sacrament. A priest always remembers - or should remember - that to act in the person of Christ does not make him Christ. Sheep are led, but they will follow only a voice they trust. What do we want from our priests? What we want is for our priests to shepherd us, to lead us to Christ, just as a shepherd leads his flock to green pastures. (The word 'pastor' means 'shepherd)" (The Priest, 30). In turn, I asked the people for two things. First, I asked for their forgiveness. I know that I am a sinner. I have failings, shortcomings, weaknesses. Maybe I have offended someone by something that I said, was not nice on the phone, or hurt people by decisions that were made. We never know unless people tell us but I want to be open with them and seek their forgiveness. Secondly, I asked the people for their prayers. I pray for them daily and I hope that they do the same for me. I need the grace and strength of God to be a pastor, a shepherd to those entrusted to my care. We have a beautiful example in Jesus Christ who is the Good Shepherd. As a priest, if I am going to be a shepherd to the people, I need to show them the example of what it means to follow the One who calls us by name. Like that commentator wrote, we as priests need to be model sheep in following the Good Shepherd so others can learn to follow him as well. As we begin this new week, the Diocese of Salina rejoices in the ordination/installation on May 1st of our new shepherd, Bishop Edward J. Weisenburger. Please keep him in your prayers as he begins his new ministry in our diocese. Let us continue to pray for our priests that they may be good shepherds and model sheep. Let us pray for one another as we journey through life and faith together! God Bless You!!!

Call to Conversion!

"Conversion is a life-long process." That is a phrase that I remember from the Foundational Theology course that I took in the seminary. In fact, I received a good grade on the oral exam because that was one of the phrases that I used since the instructor was wanting to know what we learned from the course. I use that phrase often because we are always growing, always learning in the ways of faith. We all have our conversion stories. God touches our lives in a special way and it helps us to grow in our journey, to truly be better individuals and disciples. I have had two experiences over the years, the recent one being last year, where I truly believe God was sending me a message. I was out one evening in June riding my bike and I was about two miles or so out of town when I blacked out and went down hard on the pavement. Thankfully I was out so I don't remember the impact. Up to that point I had been praying for a renewal of mind and heart. God has always answered that prayer before but this time He got my attention in how it was answered. I know something happened on that road out there because I was out maybe 10 or 15 minutes before I came to. I was transformed, I was renewed and that is something I need to hold on to everyday. The passage from the Acts of the Apostles 9:1-20, which is read on this Friday in the Third Week of Easter, is one of my all time favorites, the conversion of Saul. As he was riding to Damascus, Saul encountered the risen Christ and he was knocked off the horse that he was riding. God had a special plan for Saul, who along with his conversion, changed his name to Paul. Saint Paul is one of the great evangelizers of the early Church. His example continues our theme of evangelization. God had a plan for Paul and He has a plan for all of us. We need to be open to God working in our lives and listen to the call to conversion because it will truly change our lives. Who knows, our example just might touch the lives of someone else. God Bless You in your journey!!!

Keep Evangelizing!

On April 25, the Church celebrated the Feast of Saint Mark! He was a disciple and an evangelist and we pray that his intercession will help us in our work to evangelize. Today we have another example of evangelization and it can be considered an early form of Bible study. In our reading from the Acts of the Apostles, 8:26-40, the Angel of the Lord leads to Philip to come in contact with the Ethiopian eunuch. The eunuch was reading a passage from Isaiah which stated, "Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opened not his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who will tell of his posterity? For his life is taken from the earth." The eunuch was interested in who this person might be so Philip opened his mind to understand the passage and he talked to the eunuch about Jesus. Philip explained the passage from Isaiah and at the same time evangelized about Jesus Christ. As the passage from Acts goes on, when they came to water the eunuch asked to be baptized and once he was baptized, the Angel of the Lord took Philip away. The eunuch had a life changing experience on the desert route, between Jerusalem and Gaza. No matter what road we are on, we can have a life changing experience and encounter the Risen Christ in a special way. Philip was not afraid to share the Good News with the eunuch and we should not be afraid as well. The Good News of Jesus Christ needs to be proclaimed and we can do it by our words and our lives. All we need to do is, Keep Evangelizing! Have a blessed day!!!

Saint Mark

In the midst of our Easter Time, the Church celebrates the Feast of Saint Mark. This is Saint Mark's biography, as offered in the Magnificat, "Saint Mark, a cousin of Barnabas, accompanies Saint Paul on his first missionary journey and later went with him to Rome. He was a disciple of Saint Peter whose teaching was the basis for Mark's Gospel. Mark is said to be the founder of the church of Alexandria" (259). This morning, I asked those gathered at Mass, "What does it mean to evangelize?" There were no responses! I said this is something that we should all know because we are all evangelizers of the Good News. We proclaim the Good News, not just with words, but with our very lives. As a faithful people, we need to put our faith into action. It can be the words that we use or the service that we provide to others. There are many ways that we can evangelize! Of course, I mentioned that evangelization is not just for priests and religious but all the people of God. Priests and Religious cannot be everywhere so we entrust others to help us in the mission. That is why Jesus chose disciples so they could continue the mission entrusted to them. I even used a statement that I heard several months ago at our clergy renewal days. "People feel that the only way to get involved is by being asked, but they don't need to be asked, because Jesus has already done the asking, we just need to respond." The opportunities abound when it comes to ministry in the Church and working to evangelize in the world and in our communities, we just need to take hold of the opportunities and go with them. The assurance that we have is that Jesus is with us at all times. He told the disciples that before he ascended to the Father, "I will be with you until the end of the age." God gives us the grace and strength that we need. We also have that divine assistance from examples like Saint Mark. Let us do our part to be evangelizers of the Good News and share the love of Christ with all our brothers and sisters! Saint Mark, pray for us!!!

The Bread of Life

Jesus says, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst" (Jn 6:35). On April 23, I focused on the First Communion celebrations being held and how our young people were filled with joy as they received the Body and Blood of Christ for the first time. Their joy is what we need at all times, especially when we receive communion, because we are truly a blessed and redeemed people. Now, we have the passage from the Bread of Life discourses, John, Chapter 6, where Jesus tells us that he is the living bread come down from heaven. To have life, he tells us that we need to eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood. We follow that call each week when we gather as the Body of Christ to celebrate and participate in the Holy Mass. We are nourished and fed by the word of God and by the Eucharist, which is truly the Body, Blood, Soul, Divinity of Jesus Christ. Let us approach the table of the Lord, with mind and heart renewed, to receive the living bread for our lives are nourished and our faith sustained. God Bless You!!!

First Holy Communions!

These past few weekends have seen adults and children receiving Holy Communion for the first time. My thoughts begin with the Easter Vigil and the four adults who received their first Holy Communion. The adults were already filled with joy because two of them had been baptized and the four of them were confirmed. Receiving the Eucharist for the first time was the culmination of their sacramental journey. By receiving the sacraments that night, they became full members of the Roman Catholic Church. Then, on April 15 and April 22, the second grade students from Saint Augustine in Washington, Kansas and Saint John the Baptist in Hanover, Kansas received their first Holy Communions. The smiles on these young peoples faces told the story. They had been preparing for this time since the school year began. Those young people had already made their first Sacrament of Reconciliation so they were ready to make their first Holy Communion. As I told the people gathered for these celebrations, look at the joy you see in the faces of these young people. That is the same joy and enthusiasm that we all need because it is an honor and a privilege to receive the Eucharist- Jesus Christ- Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. As we say before receiving communion, I am not worthy to have the Lord enter under my roof but only say the word and my soul shall be healed. We are all sinners in need of God's mercy and forgiveness and we have received that forgiveness by our Lord's death on the cross. It is the mercy and forgiveness of God that allows us to approach the sacrament because we are not worthy. This is why the Sacrament of Reconciliation is important because if we have committed a mortal sin, we need to approach the sacrament before receiving communion, but anytime the Sacrament of Reconciliation is offered, we need to make the most of those opportunities so that we can receive our Lord with a pure mind and heart. Our young people are a good example for us because they have approached both sacraments in their journey of faith and they received the Body and Blood of our Lord with joy and enthusiasm. No matter how long it has been since our own first communions, we need to have that same joy and enthusiasm, even though we know that as the years have gone by, we have hopefully grown in our Catholic Faith. We congratulate our First Communicants and ask God's blessing upon them. May God Bless us as we approach the sacraments because they are life-giving and faith-sustaining. Have a blessed day!!!

The Face of the Lord

This is a beautiful title to think about. Just as the psalmist says for us this weekend, "Lord, let your face shine on us" (Ps 4). We know that the Lord looks upon us with great love and mercy. The psalmist recognizes that when he asks the Lord to hear and answer his prayer. Even the entrance antiphon encourages us in our call to the Lord: "Cry out with joy to God, all the earth; O sing to the glory of his name. O render him glorious praise, alleluia" (Ps 66:1-2). Do not be afraid to call on the name of the Lord and to trust in his presence at all times. The gospel gives us hope for this weekend, Luke 24:35-48. Jesus once again appears to his disciples and they are afraid. Our Lord reassures them with his greeting, "Peace be with you." Then he goes on to ask, "Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself." By his greeting of peace, Jesus is reassuring the disciples that he has truly risen and they do not need to be afraid. They need to get away from the locked doors and go forth and announce the good news to everyone. We are a resurrection people! We are disciples of Jesus and witnesses to his resurrection. Even though we have not seen him, we do believe! May the gospel that we proclaim, with words and deeds, guide our brothers and sisters in their journey, so that they will not be afraid, but have hope to call on the name of the Lord and seek his face. Have a blessed weekend!!!