Hypocrite ! (2021-08-29, Sunday - 22)

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Homily – August 29, 2021  /  22^nd Sunday (Year B) ●    Deuteronomy  4:1-2, 6-8  ●  Psalm 15  ●   James 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27    ●  + Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23  ●

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Title:   Hypocrite !

 [__01__]   We use the word “HYPOCRISY” or “HYPOCRITE” to describe someone who puts on a false appearance, and in particular a false appearance of values. This has also been called ’virtue – signalling’ – i.e., pretending to have a virtue or value that one does not actually hold to.

          Who is a hypocrite?

          Am I a hypocrite?

          Are you a hypocrite?

[__02__]  Have you ever been – or have you ever been afraid you might be turning into a HYPOCRITE? Or being hypocritical, living a life of hypocrisy.

          Jesus says the Pharisees are hypocrites. The Pharisees – OTOH – think Jesus is a hypocrite. Accusations of hypocrisy are constantly breaking in the 24 hour news cycle of the Gospel.

When we think of the word – HYPOCRITE – which is really also an ancient word that comes down from Greece – the Greek language – and it means one is an actor on a stage and one who wears a mask to pretend to be someone else.

          Or, a hypocrite stretches himself or herself into a new appearance…that is far from reality.

          When we think of the word – HYPOCRITE – we often think of 2 types of people:

(1) Someone who is not me, often someone famous as a sports star or politician or corporate executive.

(2) Or, we if we do think of “hypocrite” – for ourselves, we think of something in the past….

But, the simple definition of a hypocrite is someone who doesn't do what he says he's going to do, or does something he says he would not do….sometimes with millions of YouTube views or Facebook followers

          But, hypocrisy is not only for the lifestyles of the rich and famous. How does hypocrisy apply to you ? to me ? right now ?

[__02__]  NOT-FEELING WELL  EXAMPLE

If you've ever been NOT FEELING WELL, if you've ever not felt, well, one of the things you ask yourself is, how did this happen? Right? Where did this happen? And why did this happen? Okay. And the other thing about sickness is there's two types of sickness in the world, the sickness that is we say contagious or communicable and sickness that is not contagious, are not communicable.

And right now, we live in a world with a lot of fear of sickness that is contagious or communicable. Right?

And, we fear the CONTAGIOUS sickness – in particular. So, if you or or someone  your family does not feel well, and you find out that it is due to allergies, you are relieved because an allergy is not contagious.

The question about “not feeling well” is really not – am I a hypocrite? Is James Ferry.  Father James Ferry   “padre” a hypocrite ? The question REALLY is, am I a repenting hypocrite? Or am I a non repenting hypocrites?

Am I aware of my own hypocrisy even now? So as a preacher once heard a preacher once say, if you don't know the bad news, then the good news is no news.

So we are called  to know the bad news about hypocrisy in order to hear the good news of the gospel.

I’d like to talk about 3 aspects of the bad news of hypocrisy [H] and also the 3 Good News of the Gospel.

          The 3 bad news aspects are :

[H] is contagious DISEASE

[H] is self-DECEPTIVE

[H] is one-DIMENSIONAL (superficial)

[__03.01_-contagious disease_] 

+ G.Mark ch. 7, v. 5. à  “Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?”

Hypocrisy is [contagious], it is communicable. If I see someone else I respect being a hypocrite, or not living a life of integrity. This might give me permission to jump a hurdle or jump a boundary that is really for my benefit.  Here is an example, from a story/joke you may have heard about the kid who came home from school:

HOMEWORK:   1 day a child came home from school and said to his parents, "Mommy, Daddy today in school I was ACCUSED by my schoolteacher of something that I myself did NOT do."

The parents were indignant and exclaimed, "That's terrible! I'm going to talk with your teacher: by the way, what was it that you did NOT do?"

The child replied, "My homework."

          Is the child is a hypocrite? I will postpone answering that… it all depends on what the “homework” is.

          And, Jesus gets into an argument – about the value of HOMEWORK - with the Pharisees and the scribes who say, Why do your disciples not do their HOMEWORK ?

i.e., why wash their hands before they eat? Jesus says to them, you're hypocrites, because you don't understand the original, really the intent of the Mosaic law, the Mosaic law, the law of Moses, in the Old Testament, was meant for the priests in the temple whenever they touched holy objects, to wash their hands before they touch those holy objects. But then it became kind of a contagious thing. It's contagious idea. It spread to many people, that, whenever you do anything, you better wash your hands. So then Jesus becomes accused of why don't  you wash your hands. And the other reason the Pharisees are accusing them of this is because Jesus is professing to be a holy person, a sanctified person, he's professing to be the Son of God.

So the Pharisees want to catch him in a lie. They want to say, You're, you're saying, You're the Messiah, people think you're the Messiah, and you're not washing your hands. How can this be true? But Jesus is saying that, you know, he's saying, Don't purify just your hands, purify your hearts.

So, what is the solution to something that is CONTAGIOUS. To refer back to the “pandemic” playbook of lessons, I suggest we need to do some contact tracing.

And, to recognize as we read in the letter to the Romans 10:17 –

Romans 10:17-->  So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Matthew 11:15 -->  He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Now, the other thing I'm called to remember myself, for example, is that I'm never not a priest, a Catholic priest. In other way, I'm always in public.

My contacts are always TRACED. Your contacts are traced.

They are traced to your family …and even if you live alone, there is someone who is driving by Our Lady of Lourdes – 5 or 10 minutes after Mass is over that will see you going to your car in the parking lot. You are witness. And, in this regard your presence is a way to build up “health contacts”… a spiritual network and immunity against hypocrisy.

John Henry Newman in a sermon called “Witnesses of the Resurrection” preached that it does not matter if there are only a few witnesses…these can be contagious in a good way:

It was necessary that Jesus started with only a few…

“It is, indeed, a general characteristic of the course of His providence to make the few the channels of His blessings to the many; but in the instance we are contemplating, a few were selected, because only a few could (humanly speaking) be made instruments. As I have already said, to be witnesses of His resurrection it was requisite to have known our Lord intimately before His death. This was the case with the Apostles; but this was not enough. It was necessary they should be certain it was He Himself, the very same whom they before knew. You recollect how He urged them to handle Him, and be sure that they could testify to His rising again.””

          Yes, hypocrisy is contagious… but so also is our prayer and contact tracing and witness is our medicine by uniting ourselves to Jesus on the Cross.

 [__03.02_-self-Deceptive_]

+G.Mark ch. 7, v. 6 à  “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.”  (Mark 7:6)

 And sometimes we honor people with our lips, but not with our hearts. And, this begins with a self-deception.  A classic example of this in the Gospel is the parable of the prodigal son. Do you remember that parable? The prodigal son? The prodigal son is the one who goes to his father. Father, GIVE ME (demanding !!) the inheritance that belongs to me, he takes all the money, he leaves home, he spends all the money, loses all the money, and then he comes back and he wants to move back and he has to come back and work for his father. Okay. But the younger son is a hypocrite. Why is he a hypocrite? And why is he deceiving himself? Because the first thing he has to do in order to get the money is he has to deceive his father.. And then he has to deceive himself. But first he has to deceive themselves. How does he assume he has to convince himself that his father is already dead…

Or, I might deceive myself – or at least not be fully truthful – if I do not recognize the DIGNITY and VALUE of others around me…it’s easy to see the DIGNITY of people I already know and like … what about the person who causes me difficulty? Do I deceive myself about him or her?

You might be saying – how can Father Jim Ferry – you padre -- talk about hypocrisy? You're saying to yourself I know he's a hypocrite that priest that priests that the microphone in the front of the church, you might say, is it hypocritical for a hypocrite to talk about hypocrisy? But what if we agree that I'm not here to give you my medicine for hypocrisy, but that of Jesus's medicine for hypocrisy? What if we could simply say it were, it would be hypocritical not to notice hypocrisy? So, and I'm called to notice hypocrisy in my life. So and that it's self-deceptive. Okay. Now, I said before that hypocrisy is like it's a disorder. It's a disorder. It's like a disease. It's and what do we do about disease right now? That is the pandemic disease. What's thing we do we quarantine? Okay, and I'd like to apply that principle of quarantining to this. What we are called to do everyday as Christians and as Catholics is to examine our lives to examine our conscience. It's like a mini quarantine. I'm not saying you have to lock yourself in a room for 14 days and not see anybody but a mini quarantine, meaning take some quiet, take some stillness, especially at night to examine what happened that day. Okay. To examine what was true about today, what happened? Was I true to myself, okay, that that's the stillness that we need in order to get away from the waywardness of hypocrisy. Okay?

All right. So that's one medicine for the self. That hypocrisy is self deceptive. And I'm recommending the quarantine as a medicine or the examination of conscience.  

[__03.03_superficial, 1 dimensional_]

+G.Mark ch. 7, v.  à “Do you not realize that everything that goes into a person from outside cannot defile,

…  but what comes out of a person, that is what defiles. … From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly”

I’d like to connect hypocrisy as 1 dimensional to this part of the Gospel, our Savior acknowledges that food – at the surface level at one dimension – is not unclean – or spiritually toxic – but that what is inside of us – in our hearts, souls, stomachs, below the surface, can be toxic. We need God’s grace and mercy to heal….

I would say that these things are kind of like viruses.

VIRUS EXAMPLE

 They're kind of like, like, each one is a different virus. And one of the things I heard recently about the COVID virus or about viruses in general, it was interesting is that a virus is not a living thing. A virus isn't a living thing. A virus only survives because it attaches itself to a living thing. Or to a host exactly, which is the technical word.

So that the so in order for the this list of bad things that Jesus says to survive the list that he says, greed, malice, adultery, envy, blast me, these are like viruses, and they attach themselves to a host, sometimes I am that host, and I let those things attach themselves to me. So in order to the medicine that I need in order to get away with from this hypocrisy that is, you know, that is so one dimensional is I need to look deeper, I need to look deeper than one dimension of my life, I need to look deeper than the one dimension I see of somebody else's life. So for example, and so these are questions, I have to ask myself all the time, do I judge somebody else? Or do I hold somebody else to a standard that I would not hold myself to? Do I sometimes do that? Yes. I can be a hypocrite. Okay. And I have to be I'm called to be a repenting hypocrite for that. 

          The waywardness of hypocrisy can make us one dimensional (superficial). The Pharisees -- they're really not purifying their hearts. They're one dimensional. So we're called to judge our actions, not just based on outward appearance, or even not to judge the actions of others based on outward appearance.

          Let's say I have to say, say I'm sorry to somebody. Okay? We do this all the time, sometimes we want to say are sorry. And we bring a gift to the other person, maybe we bring a gift of the person's favorite flowers, or we bring a gift

Or we maybe give a gift of like, get a person have an extra special birthday present, or an extra special Christmas present, we give a gift. But do we sometimes give that gift without our heart being in it? Sometimes the gift is in our hands, but it's not in our heart. Maybe we give the gift even with some resentment that we even have to do it.

So Jesus is saying, don't just purify your hands, don't just give gifts with your hands give gifts with your heart to others. Because otherwise, we're just one dimensional.

FOOD PANTRY EXAMPLE –

1 of my mentors, another pastor, shared with me his guidance of how to receive visitors – without “hypocrisy” – especially if we think someone else is guilty of hypocrisy. In short, do not judge.    

LESSON: if you see somebody drive to food pantry in a really nice car or dressed in very nice clothes, do not judge by the 1 dimension of a luxury automobile. The person still may be in crisis …

Hypocrisy is self-deceptive.   We need the QUARANTINE OF QUIET -- by that quiet by that stillness by except by sitting in prayer and in humility before God and also going to confession to confess my sins? The quarantine is key to getting away from the self deception.

Hypocrisy is contagious.   Another thing I said that hypocrisy was contagious. Okay. Well, how do I get away from that? The contact tracing to recognize that my witness to others matters? How am I tracing my contacts? We're tracing our contacts all the time. We're thinking right now, am I going to be in the presence of an unvaccinated person? Where am I going? Or is there going to be a big crowd? Well, I would suggest we apply that same spiritual principle to our lives to trace our contacts to recognize that our witness has value to others. Okay, that affects our relationships with others, it helps us to honor others. So we're talking about honoring God, honoring others, and then finally honoring ourselves. hypocrisy can be one dimensional, but I can honor myself and really purify myself when I recognize that the gospel needs to penetrate into my heart  each day.     (END)

Assumption / Obscurity (2021-08-15, Sunday)

Homily – August 15, 2021  /  Assumption BVM

 ● ●  ● + Luke 1:39-56  ●  Title:   Obscurity

[__01__]     Recently, I was at a wedding rehearsal dinner. You know, these dinners that occur the night before the bride and groom get married in the church and includes a subset of the actual full wedding guest list.

          I was seated at the table of the mother and father of the groom and enjoying the conversation.

          This mother and father reminded me that we had met before, several years ago, because their son was a student at a college where I was the chaplain. They remembered meeting me. And, then, several other pleasant memories started to come back to me (overcoming the senior moment I was having).  I was then able to retrace the steps of where we had previously met.

 

[__02__]     Then, the music in the room got really loud. We were down the Jersey shore at a restaurant. The music was neither Bon Jovi nor Bruce Springsteen, but loud. I could hardly hear.

In acoustic sense or “audible” sense, what had previously been “intelligible” or clear … well, it was obscure.  It was O-B-S-C-U-R-E or unclear.

This was unfortunate, because I felt a bit lost ..and by the way, it was a social situation where I really did not know anyone else in the room.

You know, like you’re at a party, you meet 1 person who is nice that person talks to you..and then he or she gets called away, you’re lost, you’re looking out the window. You’re on your own, amigo !

Anyway, we tried to continue talking..but I could only pick up bits and pieces of conversation.  I made some effort during this time of – shall we say – DARKNESS …. To pretend that I knew what was being said, by this very dignified couple from South Carolina.

Perhaps, if they had been from New Jersey, they would have shouted over the music.  As they say, it was it is. So, I had to deal with it.

The “darkness ” or obscurity was compounded by the fact that I was pretending to understand…

Sometimes, that’s what happens in a moment of difficulty, we pretend to understand or we follow that old saying that applies to the “first day of school ” or first day of a new job …or first time interval of anything…

Fake it until you make it.

Should I fake it?

Should I pretend?

Should I remain in in obscurity? In darkness?

[__03__]     When we encounter our Blessed Mother Mary and/or St. Elizabeth – of the Gospel today of Luke Chapter 1 - in the paintings and sculpture of our Catholic Tradition, we are NOT encountering unknown anonymous individuals.

          St. Elizabeth, a very old woman who perhaps did not live much longer after the birth of John the Baptist, we really do not know … well, she is better remembered than many of Jesus’ own apostles.

          Elizabeth, a woman of obscurity and who emerges from the darkness – is blessed by God’s grace.

Elizabeth, what do we read about Elizabeth earlier in the Gospel, about Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah. (cf. Luke 1:6-7) Both Elizabeth and Zechariah were righteous in the eyes of God observing all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blamelessly. 100% Perfect record. Perfect report card.

 But Elizabeth and Zechariah had no child because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years

Elizabeth didn't have a child and she could have lamented this as God's punishment to her God's reproach. It’s also clearly stated in the Gospel that Elizabeth is not being punished …

And, Elizabeth remains steadfast in her faith, and much more so than her husband, Zechariah, who was ready to give up the ship.  Zechariah doesn't even believe when an angel appears to him. When the angel Gabriel appears to him Elizabeth is now expecting, in effect Zechariah – says “No way, José, this is not happening…how can this be…. ?” gets made mute temporarily, for his lack of faith, even though the angel Gabriel had told him

 [__04__]     The lack of faith Zechariah is contrasted with that of Mary, contrasts with him sharply. An angel tells Mary but Mary has the same questions as Zechariah – how this can this be, etc…. but Mary does believe. Elizabeth and Mary are examples of early disciples who receive and trust God's word even though they live with difficult the difficulty of obscurity the difficulty of obstacles they trust.   

 [__05.01__]     We also celebrate and remember Elizabeth and Mary because we can trace intelligibility of our faith in a personal God and personal savior to their personal Yes to JTB as prophet and Jesus as Incarnate Son of God.

          At the same time, just because they believed, it’s no guarantee that we are going to believe. It is a struggle for mothers and fathers – of every age and era – to bring up their children in the ways of God.

          And, it is a struggle and calling for each of us to develop a personal relationship with God that is based on our own experiences and reasons for believing, whether as young adults or as grown-ups.

          Yes, many of our parents raised us in the ways of faith, but we are called to believe on our own, not just because our parents did so.

          I also hope and pray that Our Lady of Lourdes – parish family – will also a place of sanctuary, silence, peace, and friendship / love of God and of neighbor for all of us, here for all of us.

          The feast of the Assumption of BVM reminds you and me that we all have a mother – the Mother of God – praying for us in heaven.

          The decree and teaching of Pope Pius XII – on this subject - The entire decree (and the title itself) is also worded to suggest that Mary's Assumption – at her death or before her death - was not in any sense a logical necessity, just because Mary was the Mother of God, but was a gif of God.        

          And, while Mary is the Immaculate Conception, and Mary is the sinless mother of God, it reminds us that each day – by our own virtue – we are not just trying for “self-improvement” or self-help, but also to experience the mercy of God right now.

          Thus, we are all capable of attaining our own way, receiving our own path to heaven by listening to God’s word, and we can be raised up into heaven as well.

 [__05.02__]       Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI finds that we might feel “stopped in our Catholic traditional tracks” by this question of the scientists –“hey, Catholics, what do you mean by ‘heaven’ ? Where is that ?”

          B16 admits / wrote: “We instinctively ask whether it is really nonsensical, foolish, and a provocation to claim that human being be taken bodily into heaven. We are inclined to say that such a statement might have made good sense two thousand years ago or even two hundred years ago, but the situation is entirely different now. We know with incontestable clarity that the heavens we see are really part of the world and are subject to the same conditions as our world here on earth” (Benedict XVI, “The Assumption of Mary, Part 3, Ch. 37” Dogma and Preaching, pp. 358-359, San Francisco: Ignatius Press: 2011)

          Heaven, however, is not based on a place but rather a person – and the person of Jesus Christ, living in his love, both before death and after death.

          We also because our loved ones can and live on because of God’s love.

We talk about them because we believe they are alive.

 [__06__]       Mary and Elizabeth are saints how show us the light. They are not faking it. They are making it.

[__07__]      Can I trust as they do? Can you trust as they do? It's difficult. having faith and being a faithful person doesn't mean that I resist change, or that I'm stubborn. Sometimes we have faith, we equate faithfulness with religious art religion, and then with rigidity. But Mary is not rigid in her faith. She is mobile and moving and alive.

Thomas Aquinas says this about what it means to be a believer what it means to have faith. That to have faith doesn't mean that we simply have a set of propositions that we live by. But we live but we also take those propositions into reality. The Boston College Professor Peter Kreeft writes this that Creed's to stand for the creed and a little while we're going to stand for the profession of faith of the creed. This “creed” is also known in Latin as the “Credo”. We stand for profession of faith  -- don’t stand up yet --  But the creed is given so that we have an accurate road map

A road map is necessary. Now you might say road map isn't necessary Padre. Because we use GPS these days. Well, whether you're using GPS or a map, both are necessary. But GPS or a map isn't sufficient. Because if you just have GPS, if you just have the roadmap, you might still be sitting in a chair. Looking at a roadmap is no sufficient, not substitute for taking the trip.(cf. Catholic Christianity, p. 17, Peter Kreeft)

And Mary makes the trip, she makes the move to go and see Elizabeth and we are called to make the trip and move in our own faith. in obscurity, when we feel we're in obscurity, it's often just easy to give up and not persevere. Mary and Elizabeth give us examples of perseverance and fidelity, even when all seems lost, and we remember them as the first disciples of our Savior Jesus Christ suit through whom we found our own way.

[__08__]     And through their prayers in heaven, we are still blessed. It's worth it to go back and retrace our steps in the Gospel to reread this gospel to realize that Mary and Elizabeth were obscure, and we are also at times feeling obscure, but God's word is a light to our path and a lamp to our feet to keep us going.

[__09__]     I'd like to close with a real life example, not a religious example per se, but nevertheless, about obscurity, about intercession about overcoming an obstacle and retracing our steps. On _____date____, during the Tokyo Olympics, which just finished this happened about two weeks ago, there was a Jamaican track star runner, who boarded a bus from the Olympic Village in Tokyo, to the stadium for his competition. If it were not for some helpful somebody very helpful to him in obscurity, he might not have his gold medal today. So we got on the bus, this track star, his name was Hansle Parchment. Hansle got on the bus and he was listening to music listening to music on his headphones. And sometimes I'm not listening to what goes on. I get distracted. I know the feeling. I'm in obscurity. And Hansle, this Olympic runner, representing Jamaica, realized on the way that he was on the bus going the wrong direction, and he was panicked. And he felt he couldn't just get on another bus. Somebody told me to get another bus. It'll take you to the stadium, but he thought the bus couldn't get him there in time. So this hurdler this Japanese Jamaican hurdler met a stranger on the street in Tokyo, a stranger who paid his taxi fare. And because of her he made it to compete in the 110 meter Olympics. Hurdles. He won the gold medal.

          And then he retraced his steps. He goes back on the bus the wrong bus he took originally to the wrong place. It was back to this place obscure of obscurity and he found the young woman who helped him he repaid the money and he gave her an Olympic Jamaican polo shirt and told her in his Instagram video post you were instrumental in getting me to the final day and he had and he shows her the gold medal. She was astounded. The accolades for this good samaritan young woman in Tokyo continued; the Jamaican government got involved and the government extended to this young woman and invitation to travel 15,000 miles to come to come to the capital of Kingston to come to the nation of Jamaica.

    The woman rejoices she can rejoice in the victory of somebody she helped with whom she interceded for us. Now the nation the world salutes are, we rejoice in our faith because both Mary and Elizabeth in their obscurity gave us by their faith. The Prophet john the baptist and our Savior Jesus Christ, the nation the world. Also honor them with our praise. Knowing by God's love, we are not in obscurity. We are loved. We are helped on the way to our own eternal reward.    [__fin__]     

Bread of Life / Background Check (2021-08-08, Sunday - 19)

Homily – August 8, 2021  /  19^th Sunday (Year B)

●  1 Kings 19:4-8  ●  Psalm 34   ● Ephesians 4:30-5:2 ● + John 6:41-51  ●

Title:   Bread of Life / Background Check (ver. 7)

[__01__]    Before I even enter/dial the phone number to my doctor's office to the medical group with all the doctors and nurses or the phone number to CVS Pharmacy about a prescription, I get ready to pronounce my date of birth, and the clear spelling of my last name.

Before I even tell them why I am calling. I am preparing to authenticate to prove who I am. What's your date of birth? What are the last four digits of your social security number? What's your mother's maiden name?

You know the drill.

And if you're in the hospital, this drill is repeated over and over again several times a day. You're asked a few times a day, what's your name? What's your date of birth?

Do you find this troublesome? frustrating? Yes, it can be troublesome to be asked this over and over again.

Because we wish that our name would be enough or maybe our face would be enough maybe our face is so memorable.

Or we wish that we didn't have to go through the equivalent of a criminal background check every time we want to change an appointment or renew a prescription. Yes, it can be frustrating, troublesome. We can be frustrated and troublesome troubled by this, we can be troubled by the background proceed check procedure

Jesus could be troubled by this background check procedure because it's similar to what is happening to him by the crowd in the Gospel. today.

They're trying to identify him to interrogate him. They want more information than simply his name, and his last name and his hometown. And in fact, based on the background check of the crowd, our Savior does not really measured up to them. Everything had been going well up until now, up until recently, Jesus a few verses earlier in the same chapter of the gospel, and two Sundays ago in the Gospel, fed them with the multiplication of the loaves and the fishes and the miracle. That is he fed the crowd Jesus fed the crowd with physically with calories and nutrition.

That was the prescription to their hunger diagnosis, the “medicine of the multiplication”

 

Jesus produced something that the crowd of people wanted.

Now, going back to the medical example, doctors and nurses produce something that we want, they produce a diagnosis that we want, or they produce the therapy that we want, or they produce a medicine that we want. And this leads to something more than just a material outcome or transaction. This produces trust, a real spiritual trust between you and your physician or nurse.

So our connections to the doctor isn't just based on the fact that we like the pills, or we like the diagnosis. Or we'd like that we'd like what the therapy the nurse offers us or the injection. But we like them for their attitude. We like their whole person. We like everything, we everything that can be summarized in those important words, the “bedside manner”.

So our connection to our doctors and nurses is based on a personal relationship. And then a personal relationship of such trust that it's frustrating to be asked over and over again.

name?

date of birth?

last 4 digits of SSN?

You're like, Hey, don't you know who I am? I trust YOU. Don’t you trust me ?  But the doctor or nurse does this because he or she wants want to treat you or me as an individual they don't want to mix us up with anybody else.

That's just how healthcare works, right? But Jesus as our Lord and Savior and physician also doesn't want to lose track of us or mix us up with anybody else.

And hearing that the people were grumbling and complaining about him in the Gospel episode, Jesus said to them, stop murmuring stop grumbling among yourselves. Sometimes, a doctor may say this to us in the most loving and professional terms… implying … Hey, stop complaining.

Jesus goes on to say that he has in mind a treatment plan, a diagnosis and an invitation to repentance that is custom designed for each of us. No copay required. And this is based on his consultation with God the Father. Jesus continues promising us something about this diagnosis.

 

 

[__02__]    Jesus continues saying, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day. It is written in the prophets, they shall all be taught by God.

In other words, Jesus does not want to lose track of us. How can we know that Jesus really is the bread of life that Jesus really is the good news.

I asked, How can we know this? Because then the gospel and in later readings, some of the people are losing, losing trust with Jesus. They're finding Jesus to be misinformed. They accused him of religious blasphemy, they think he's lacking sanity, they think he's out of his mind. I'd like to reflect on the ways that that our Lord and Savior, our connection with him is beneficial and good for us. Good for our wellness and body and soul.

 

Three things we can learn from Jesus's message to us. Not just in this message, but generally,

 

[__03__]    1^st. TRUTHFULNESS.

It's easy for us to say that our default setting is to truth and telling the truth that's easy to say. It's easy to say that I avoid telling lies, that's good. But to be truthful, takes practice. And Jesus knows this takes years of practice starts when you're young, but then it continues into our adulthood. Jesus teaches us this by by his parables by His Word. He doesn't interrogate you and me and say, Are you a liar, but he simply says that he who is true, truthful or faithful in small things, will be faithful in great things. And by studying his word, and paying attention to all of Jesus's commandments, not just about the big stuff, hey, because what is the big stuff is that hey, I didn't kill anybody, or I didn't rob a bank. But we realized that the commandments invite us to be truthful. And to live lives of integrity and how we express our emotions, how we show respect to others, how we ask questions, how we treat our elders, how we treat young people, how we spend our money. In all of these things. We're called to be truthful, body and soul. And this affects our whole profile. So that truthfulness, Jesus teaches about truthfulness.

 

2^nd . TRANQUILITY. And secondly, Jesus teaches us about tranquility or serenity or peacefulness. Jesus's version of peace does not mean that we will simply acquiesce. Or let everybody get their own way. Sometimes to work for true peace or peacefulness, even peace in our families, we may have to say something difficult or unpopular. I may have to admit I'm wrong, I may have to correct somebody else. In a charitable way. Jesus gives us peace The world cannot give. He's asking us to follow his way. And along the way there may be the peace is not simply the absence of conflict, Jesus asked us to be of good cheer. Finally, so there's Jesus's offering as truthfulness Jesus is offering us tranquility

 

3^rd. TRIUMPH.  Finally, Jesus is offering us triumph, a victory, the bread of life, message for all of us. doesn't start after we die. We don't get that victory. after we die. It starts now. Jesus says, I am the living bread which came down from heaven. It's here now. But living bread came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. And the bread which I shall give him for the life of the world is my flesh. This refers both to his real presence in the Blessed Sacrament, and in the books of the Bible, just like we and so this means that just like we make an except vows on a wedding day, or we make this affects all of our sacramental journey,  our view of eternal life. So when a husband and wife get married, they're making vows on their wedding day. Or when they make promises of baptism to raise our children Catholic or, you know, to, to our profession of faith or to make promises in confession. When we confess our sins. We accept that all of these things are mysteries, we don't really know the future. The future is a mystery, and I'm a mystery. But we enter into these mysteries because we believe that they are for our greater good, giving us a connection to God more than we could attain by our own ingenuity. So we say yes, to God, we say yes, to love. That triumph. That's eternal life. But it's difficult to get there. One of sometimes we have to change along the way. One of my own reasons for postponing my own response to God and to ministry and entering the priesthood entering the study to be a Catholic priests was that I knew that I would have to accept certain changes that I myself might have to change. Of course, I'm not talking about the fact that I would have to become this cookie cutter Christian disciple, this cookie cutter version of hashtag priest app that the diocese is releasing as software to the parish. If that were the case, there Some bugs in the software I don't fit into the software package. Padre is not perfect. But that isn't what it is. Jesus is accepting you and me as individuals. At the same time he has a plan for us a plan that includes our faith in his truth, a plan that includes our faith and his tranquility, our faith in his triumph. And part of this triumph is we accept that he is really present in the bread and wine consecrated on the altar, and that he invites us to trust Him and to respect and love others as well. Is there mystery? There's a mystery, the Holy Eucharist is a mystery. You're a mystery. I'm a mystery, the mystery is not solved just because you know, the last four digits of some social security number or you know the date of birth, or you know, their, their mother's maiden name. Sometimes I am a mystery to myself, I cannot know myself perfectly. I rely on prayer and relationship with others and relationship with God so that I can know that I am loved. And you also I asked you to rely in the same way on God on your loving relationship with others to know that you are loved and that we are one in the mystery of God's love.

Yes, God does know both our name and number even before we call out to Him. He is waiting for our call, for our response.

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