Author: Christine Jordan

Dear Friends,

Today our Lord tells us; Be holy, Be perfect, Be a temple of God.  And what ties them all together is charity.  Love your neighbor as yourself, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.  To be holy is to love.  Holiness is measured by charity.  This is the basic ingredient of the spiritual life.

In 1943 there was a nineteen year old man who had spent his whole life spiritually asleep, totally unaware of God.  He did not love.  His name was Claude Newman, he lived in Mississippi.  When Claude was nineteen, in a fit of rage, he murdered a man.  Claude was quickly apprehended; he was tried in court, and sentenced to death.  Sitting on death row he found himself in a cell with three other men.  That very first night they talked and got to know each other.  Now one of the men in that cell was wearing a religious medal around his neck, Claude asked about it, but the man couldn’t really explain it.  He couldn’t explain who the figure was on the medal or even why he wore it.  In a fit of frustration the man took the medal from around his neck and threw it at Claude’s feet.  Claude picked it up and put it around his neck.  That medal was a miraculous medal.  A medal with an image of The Blessed Virgin Mary on it.

That night Claude had a dream, and in that dream a beautiful woman whom he didn’t know told him to call for a Catholic priest.  Claude was about to wake up from his deep spiritual sleep.  God’s grace was going to bring him out of his spiritual coma.  He was going to learn how to love.  So a priest was called.  The next day Fr. Robert O’Leary entered the cell to speak with Claude.  Fr. O’Leary was skeptical of the dream, but he was impressed with Claude’s sincerity and so he agreed to give him lessons in the Catholic faith.  In fact all the men of that cell joined in the studies.  Over the next few months, even though he could neither read nor write, Claude made remarkable progress in his knowledge and understanding of the faith.  It is said that the BVM helped him in his studies.  On January 16, 1944, Claude Newman was baptized into the Catholic Church along with all his cellmates.  His execution was to take place at Midnight four days later.  On the eve of the execution the sheriff asked Claude if he had any last requests.  To the sheriff’s surprise Claude asked if he could celebrate a Holy Hour of prayer.  He didn’t want dessert or a steak he only wanted a holy hour of prayer. And that’s what they did, along with his cellmates and prison guards they prayed for an hour before his scheduled execution.  The hour ended with Claude receiving Holy Communion.

Now about fifteen minutes before he was about to sit down into the electric chair the sheriff received a call from the Governor, Claude was given a stay of execution for two weeks.  He was allowed to live for two more weeks.  No one knew why he was given two extra weeks to live.  At first Claude was disappointed; he had so looked forward to heaven.  But at the suggestion of Fr. O’Leary he used the two weeks to pray for the conversion of prisoners, but most especially to pray for the prisoner occupying the cell next to his.  He prayed for a man named James Hughes, a convicted murderer, who though he had been raised a Catholic had led a highly immoral life.  James hated everyone but most especially he hated the ever so pious Claude.  He taunted Claude every day, calling him the vilest names, spitting on him whenever he got the chance.  If he could have, he would’ve killed Claude.

So Claude prayed; and at the end of the two weeks he went to his death.  The reporter for the newspaper wrote that he’d never seen anyone go to his death as joyfully and happily.  Now three months later James was scheduled for his execution, and for those last three months he remained unrepentant.  He remained spiritually asleep and it seemed impervious to God’s grace.  And it was only as he sat down in the electric chair that he finally asked for a priest to hear his confession.  Claude’s prayers had been answered.

Claude Newman spent most of his life spiritually asleep, he was not holy, he was not perfect, he was not a temple, and he didn’t love.  But he woke up and he ended his life spiritually wide awake loving his enemy.

What about us?  Do we love our enemy, do we love the person who’s maybe not an enemy but just irks us to no end.  Love is not always a feeling, love is not always a warm sentiment of the heart, and love is not just about being kind.  Love wants the good of the other; love wills the good of the other, and love does this without expecting anything in return.  That’s the way that God loves, he loves everyone, even the ones who don’t love him back.  Love is all he knows how to do.  To be holy is to love the good and bad alike.  And the good news is you can love someone without liking them.

I have three questions for you to consider. But first picture someone who is troubling to you, someone who maybe irks you. First question:  do you want to see this person get to heaven?  Second question:  do you pray for this person, praying especially when tempted to despise him, gossip about him, dismiss him, or hold a grudge?  Third question:  would you help this person if he needed your help and you were the only one around to assist him?  If you answered yes to all three questions, then you love, you may not like him, but you love him.

Claude ended his life by loving his enemies, the people he committed crimes against, the man he murdered, and James Hughes the prisoner next door to him.  And in loving them he became holy.

Holiness is simple.

Holiness cannot be manufactured.

Holiness grows simply and quietly.

Holiness is not argument, and it’s not philosophy.

Debate does not lead to conversion, the witness of holiness does.

Holiness does not isolate.

Holiness is found in my encounter with the other although it may not be immediately apparent.

Holiness is not on a mountaintop somewhere but in the Gospel, the sacraments, and community.

Holiness is beautiful and I need beauty – a child playing peek-a-boo, friends laughing, feet being washed.

Holiness is living in friendship with God.

By Fr. Michael Cummins

Let us be great Saints,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

Dear Friends,

Each of the lessons taught in today’s Gospel passage could be expanded into an entire book and they have been.  But at the core of them all, is the heart.  Biblically speaking the heart represents the inner depths of a person, the place where decisions are made, and the place where we decide to either respond to God or to resist Him.  Ancient people saw the heart as the source of all emotions like love, and grief, and anxiety, and joy.  The heart was the source of thought, will, and conscience.  And even today it means so much more to us when someone tells us they love us with their whole heart.  It just wouldn’t sound right if someone said to us, “I love you with my whole brain!”  It might be the anatomically correct thing to say but it just doesn’t sound right.  You would never see that on a Valentine card, a big picture of a brain with the caption, “You’re awesome; I love you with my whole brain!”

Jesus came to align our hearts more and more with God.  He came to align our thoughts, our will, and our conscience more and more with God the Father.  Friendship with God, which is what Jesus offers, requires a union of hearts.  Now certainly, our exterior behavior  must follow God’s will, we still obey the Ten Commandments.  This is what Jesus means when he says, “Do not think I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.”  But Jesus is also telling us that exterior behavior, that appearance, is not enough.  For a true, faithful citizen of Christ’s Kingdom, the attitudes and desires of the heart must also be in harmony with God’s plan for our lives. This is what Jesus means when he says: “I have come not to abolish the law but to fulfill.”  He came to bring the Old Testament Law to its fulfillment.

Christ is explaining the Law from this perspective when he explains the true meaning of sinful anger, lust, and lying.  God “wills that all of us be saved” (1Timothy 2:4),  but our friendship, our heart’s alignment with him can never be complete when we harbor resentment or contempt towards some people, or tarnish their good name by spreading rumors about them or speaking ill of them. How can we live in intimacy with a God who loves every man and woman as a father loves his children, when in our hearts we desire to use some of them only as an object of pleasure and self-indulgence?  How can we be a true friend of God, when we make promises we don’t intend to keep?

The law is being intensified.  The old law is being raised up to a new pitch of intensity.  At the very end of this Sermon on the Mount our Lord tells us, “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  This might seem to be an impossible request but it could also be seen as an invitation to accept God’s grace at every moment of our lives.  Divine love is constant and always present, as is God’s forgiveness, no matter what we may do.

We always have the option of accepting God’s love and moving towards perfection, and fundamentally, this is the Church’s job to make us perfect saints.  She is not satisfied with spiritual mediocrity; she is not satisfied with people that are just basically good.  She wants to make us perfect as God is perfect.  Now this is a tall order, and it’s not easy.

Some of the church’s moral demands are deemed too hard, by some, especially in the realm of sexual morality.  No intimate relations outside of marriage, marriage is between one man and one woman. No artificial contraception, no in-vitro fertilization, no embryonic stem cell research, no abortion. Completely against the tide of what the world says is right and good.  This is hard and some people balk.  But through the centuries people have always balked.  We just hear about it more in this age of constant information.  The church’s job is to make us perfect; we don’t compromise and give in to the world’s views.

This perfection is possible; God wouldn’t ask it of us if it were impossible.  We have so many examples of people in our lives even, parents, grandparents, siblings, the person sitting in the pew next to you maybe.   We can also look to the many saints in heaven, people just like us, I’ve talked about a lot of them, they failed, they sinned, but they never gave up, until finally reaching the perfection of heaven.  We are little, we will trip and fall, but we keep trusting in Gods great love and mercy, and we keep trying.  We never stop trusting and trying.

In this week’s gospel, Jesus intensifies the moral law and raises the bar.  Christ’s goal and the Church’s goal are to make saints.  His moral demands are great, but so is his mercy.  Where there is extreme demand there is also extreme mercy.  He always offers grace and forgiveness when we falter so that we can always have hope in our struggles for sanctity.  May our hearts be ever more aligned with our Lord’s so that each beat of our heart becomes an act of love and praise.

Let us be great Saints,

Fr. Christopher Ankley

Dear Friends,

Jesus today tells us, “You are salt, you are light, and you are a city set on a mountain.”  You are salt, you are light, and you are a city on a hill. All three of these things exist for something else.  Salt seasons and preserves, it makes food taste good and it also keeps food from rotting.  This is very important when there are no refrigerators.  But salt can also make the earth barren.  An army would sometimes spread salt into the fields around a city they had just conquered.  Salting the earth so that nothing would grow, so that their enemy would starve.

Light illuminates and pushes back the darkness.  Before electricity darkness was a much more dramatic reality than it is today.  The ancients understood how helpless they were without a lamp.  And finally a city on a mountain, a city on a mountain is visible to everyone and was used as a guide and point of navigation.  Without MapQuest or gps a city on a hill was a point of reference in finding your way.  Someone giving directions might say, “Keep the city on the hill to your right and you’ll find your way.”

Now many times we are told by our culture that religion is something to be kept private.  Keep it to yourselves, keep it in your homes and churches, but don’t bring your religion in to the public square.  Jesus never says this; the Bible says something else entirely.  Religion is not meant for oneself alone, it is meant for the other.  We are not to rest in our own holiness: we salt, we enlighten, and we are a city on a hill.  We are all of these, for those around us.

As disciples of Jesus we salt; preserving and enhancing what is best of our culture, but at the same time we salt and destroy what is dysfunctional and sinful.  Light:  by the light of our lives we reveal what is good and beautiful, but by our light we also expose what is ugly and sinful in our culture.  We highlight what is dysfunctional.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born in Breslau, Germany on February 4th in 1906.  He was a vocal opponent of the Nazi party.  He was salt, he was light, and he was a city on a hill.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer began a promising career as a theologian and Lutheran pastor at the University of Berlin in 1931.  The political events occurring in Germany in the early 1930s, however, soon brought about many profound changes in his life.  Bonhoeffer’s opposition to the Nazi party led to his decision to abandon his academic career when Hitler came to power in 1933.  Hitler’s subsequent policies led to divisions in the German Lutheran Church, and Bonhoeffer became an active member of the Confessing Church that was formed in opposition to Hitler’s totalitarian government.  This Church commissioned Bonhoeffer to direct one of the underground seminaries that were established for the training of young pastors.  The seminary was eventually closed by the Nazis in 1937.

The late 1930s brought further changes for Bonhoeffer.  As the German war operation expanded, he was drawn more and more into active opposition against Hitler’s government.  Convinced of the righteousness of the course, he eventually became involved in a conspiracy to overthrow Hitler.  He was arrested by the Gestapo on April 5, 1943, and spent the next two years in prison.  Another attempt to overthrow Hitler in 1945 led to the execution of a number of political prisoners only weeks before the end of the war.  Bonhoeffer, only thirty-nine years old at the time, was among them.  He was executed by hanging just twenty three days before the Nazi surrender.

A camp doctor who witnessed the execution wrote:  “I saw pastor Bonhoeffer…kneeling on the floor praying fervently to God.  I was most deeply moved by the way this man prayed, so devout and so certain that God heard his prayer.  At the place of execution, he again said a short prayer and then climbed the few steps to the gallows, brave and composed.   Now one of the last things that Bonhoeffer was heard to have said was, “This is the end…for me the beginning of life.”  “This is the end…for me the beginning of life.” 

Our Lord is calling us to be vibrant Christians.  Without vibrant Christians the world is in a worse place.  We don’t see what is good, and the ugly and sinful are not exposed and destroyed.  What would have happened to World War II if more Christians spoke out like Dietrich Bonhoeffer or like Pope Pius XII, St. Edith Stein, or St. Maximillian Kolbe?  When Christians are not salt and light people lose their way.  What happens to our culture if we are the salt and light we are meant to be.  This is not the time be a lukewarm Christian.

“In Sinu Jesu” is a journal written by an anonymous Benedictine priest and he’s been receiving private revelations from our Lord.  One thing our Lord reminded him of was his immense love for each of us.   Jesus says to each one of us, My heart has a particular love for you, a love that My Father destined for you alone and for no other from all eternity.  How it grieves My heart when the unique love I offer a soul is spurned, ignored, or regarded with indifference.

Homework for this week is to meditate on these words.  My prayer for us this week is that with this realization of our Lord’s infinite love for each one of us, it may make us desire to be more salty and more filled with light

Let us be great Saints,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

From a sermon by Saint Sophronius, bishop

Let us receive the light whose brilliance is eternal

In honor of the divine mystery that we celebrate today, let us all hasten to meet Christ. Everyone should be eager to join the procession and to carry a light.

Our lighted candles are a sign of the divine splendor of the one who comes to expel the dark shadows of evil and to make the whole universe radiant with the brilliance of his eternal light. Our candles also show how bright our souls should be when we go to meet Christ.

The Mother of God, the most pure Virgin, carried the true light in her arms and brought him to those who lay in darkness. We too should carry a light for all to see and reflect the radiance of the true light as we hasten to meet him.

The light has come and has shone upon a world enveloped in shadows; the Dayspring from on high has visited us and given light to those who lived in darkness. This, then, is our feast, and we join in procession with lighted candles to reveal the light that has shone upon us and the glory that is yet to come to us through him. So let us hasten all together to meet our God.

The true light has come, the light that enlightens every man who is born into this world. Let all of us, my brethren, be enlightened and made radiant by this light. Let all of us share in its splendor, and be so filled with it that no one remains in the darkness. Let us be shining ourselves as we go together to meet and to receive with the aged Simeon the light whose brilliance is eternal. Rejoicing with Simeon, let us sing a hymn of thanksgiving to God, the Father of the light, who sent the true light to dispel the darkness and to give us all a share in his splendor.

Through Simeon’s eyes we too have seen the salvation of God which he prepared for all the nations and revealed as the glory of the new Israel, which is ourselves. As Simeon was released from the bonds of this life when he had seen Christ, so we too were at once freed from our old state of sinfulness.

By faith we too embraced Christ, the salvation of God the Father, as he came to us from Bethlehem. Gentiles before, we have now become the people of God. Our eyes have seen God incarnate, and because we have seen him present among us and have mentally received him into our arms, we are called the new Israel. Never shall we forget this presence; every year we keep a feast in his honor.

Dear Friends,

St. Francis de Sales, was born in 1567.  His feast day was this past Friday the 24th.  Very early on in life Francis de Sales vowed to become a priest.  But this was very much against what his parents wanted for him.  Francis was tall, handsome, intelligent and wise.  So his parents had great ambitions for him.  They wanted him to pursue a political or military career or maybe even become a lawyer.  So at the age of 14 they sent him to the university to study law.  Francis still hoped to become a priest somehow, but he followed his parent’s wishes and studied law.  He did well with his studies, but his spiritual life was in a shambles.  He was always filled with worry and anxiety.  He worried about the state of his soul; he was convinced that he was going to hell.  He did not trust in God’s love or mercy.  He lived in darkness.

So every day, for two years, to rid himself of this darkness, he’d visit various churches to pray.  One day he visited the Church of Saint-Etienne-des-Gres and on the wall he saw a plaque with the Memorare inscribed on it.  Francis knelt before the altar of Our Lady of Good Deliverance and recited the prayer.  It had an immediate calming effect.  The darkness was gone, his depression and anxiety turned in to a state of grace-filled optimism.  He consecrated himself to the BVM and took a vow of chastity in appreciation for his deliverance.  This experience taught him to deal tenderly with all the spiritual difficulties and temptations of those he would someday help.

Francis became a lawyer at the age of 24.  He hated it. But two years later with the consent of his Dad he was finally able to become a priest.  And for his first assignment he was sent to Geneva.  This was a difficult assignment because most Genevans had left the Church to become Calvinists.  At most there were probably only twenty Catholics left in his parish.  And he found that his parish was not a very safe place.  The Calvinists were very hostile to Catholics especially priests.  He couldn’t even live in his own parish.  He had to live outside the parish boundaries and walk in everyday to care for his flock.  Sometimes he was attacked by would be assassins and once he was even chased by wolves causing him to spend the night in a tree.  But through all of this adversity and there was a lot, he trusted God. He had learned to trust.  He didn’t let that old worry and anxiety get the best of him like it had when he was younger.  The Lord’s light kept the darkness away.  With time, prayer, and perseverance Francis was able to bring many of the Calvinists back to the faith, 72,000 returned to the faith.  “Whoever preaches with love is preaching effectively and nothing is so strong as gentleness” he would say.

St. Francis de Sales was a man of prayer, a man of the scriptures, and he learned to trust God.  The spiritual life at its most basic is all about growing in trust.

Today we heard twice of the lands of Zebulun and Naphtali, first in the reading from Isaiah and then again in the Gospel.  These were the lands occupied by the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali, named for two of Jacob’s sons, two of the twelve tribes.  Centuries before, these two lands had been overrun by Assyrian forces.  All the rich and educated Israelites were taken away and forced to be servants to the rich and powerful Assyrians.  The poorer Israelites were left behind to farm the land and to give the produce to the Assyrians.  They suffered greatly.  They were oppressed and they lived in darkness.  But the prophet Isaiah promised them that a great light would dispel this darkness and gloom.  And in the Gospel we heard that Jesus has entered the historic lands of Zebulun and Naphtali.  The light has come to the land of darkness and gloom.

Now sometimes we live in the land of Zebulun and Naphtali.  Sometimes we live in a place of darkness, hardship, anxiety, and oppression.  Maybe it’s a physical illness, or psychological suffering, or worry about children, or worry about a job, or getting a job.  Maybe it’s a deep injustice we’ve experienced.  Or an old grudge we just can’t seem to let go.  Maybe it’s the loss of a loved one, or fear of the unknown, profound failure of some sort, or maybe its persistent sin.  St. Francis de Sales for two years lived in darkness; he lived in his own Zebulun and Naphtali.  What is your Zebulun and Naphtali, what is your place of gloom?

That place of gloom is the very place our Lord wants to bring his light.  What might God be working in your life where you feel most vulnerable, most alone, most lost?  Where might he be leading you?  In the land of Zebulun and Naphtali a light has dawned, with God’s grace let us be open to this light and to this love and let us look for it.  Let us make an effort to meet Christ, the light of all lights, to be present to him in Scripture, to turn around to meet him in prayer, to visit him in Eucharistic adoration, to visit him in the sacrament of reconciliation, to devoutly receive him in Holy Communion.

I’ve had my moments of worry and anxiety; I’ve had my Zebuluns and Naphtalis.  I’ve had moments where I was tempted to not trust.  Many years ago a spiritual director gave me a prayer about trust.  It was written by St. Francis de Sales who, by the grace of God, learned trust at a very early age.  I’ve prayed it many times especially when I slip into worry and anxiety, and it seems so dark. When that happens I dig it out and it reminds me of God’s goodness and light.  Because after sin its worry and anxiety that are the next biggest things that turn us away from God.  It goes like this:

Do not look forward to the changes and chances of this life with fear.  Rather, look to them with full confidence that, as they arise, God to whom you belong will in his love enable you to profit by them.  He has guided you thus far in life.  Do you but hold fast to His dear hand, and He will lead you safely through all trials.  Whenever you cannot stand, He will carry you lovingly in his arms.  Do not look forward to what may happen tomorrow.  The same Eternal Father who takes care of you today will take care of you tomorrow, and every day of your life.  Either He will shield you from suffering or He will give you unfailing strength to bear it.  Be at peace then, and put aside all useless thoughts, all vain dreads and all anxious imaginations. 

Pax et Bonum,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

Dear Friends,

St. John the Baptist’s favorite title for Jesus is “the Lamb of God.”   It also became one of St. John the Evangelist’s favorite titles. He uses it here in his Gospel, and then he used it again, twenty-nine times, in the Book of Revelation.  This title Lamb of God brings together three images that would have been very familiar to the Jews of those times.  By calling Jesus the “Lamb of God,” St John is telling us that those ancient images are fulfilled in Jesus.

The first image:  In the Old Covenant, God required the Jews to sacrifice a lamb twice a day to expiate the sins of the people (cf. Exodus 29:39).  So the lamb symbolized the price to be paid for sin.

The second image:  The primary holy day of the Jews was (and remains) the Passover.  In the Passover ceremony each family sacrifices and eats a lamb to recall their liberation from Egypt in the days of Moses.  On that night, God allowed the death of all the firstborn children and animals of the Egyptians, but spared those of the Hebrews.  In order to indicate which households the angel of death was to skip over (pass over), God commanded the Hebrews to kill a lamb and mark their doorposts with its blood.  Thus the Passover lamb signified God’s merciful and saving love.

The third image:  Finally, a lamb going silently and docilely to be slaughtered is one of the images used to describe the coming Messiah.  He was going to take Israel’s sins upon himself and wipe them away through his suffering obedience.  And so, by calling Jesus the “Lamb of God,” St. John reminds us that all of these Old Testament symbols had been pointing towards Jesus – the true Savior.  As the Lamb our Lord paid the price for sin.  As the Lamb our Lord is the personification of merciful and saving love.  And as the Lamb our Lord went to the cross silently and docilely.

Sometimes it is good for us to remember the basics of our faith.  God created us.  He created us to live in communion with Him; in Him alone we find perfect happiness. This is our fundamental purpose in life, communion with Him – it’s the reason that nothing else in the world satisfies our deepest desires.  Not money, because money runs out.  Not pleasure, because pleasure wears off.  Not power, because power corrupts.  Our hearts were made for more than all those things.  They were made to love and be loved with an eternal love, and that can only come from God.  But as we know, Adam and Eve walked out on God, and the human race became lost and fell under the power of the devil.  We couldn’t save ourselves, so Jesus came to rescue us.  As a true man and true God, he was able to end mankind’s rebellion against God and reestablish our communion with God. We belong to God; we belong to God because He created us.  But we also belong to God because He bought us back; he bought us back through his death on the cross.

I have a story that symbolizes how God bought us back.  It was the 1800s and a young miner who had recently struck it rich in the gold rush was on his way back East.  As he stopped in New Orleans to rest, he noticed a crowd of people gathering for some kind of event.

He approached the crowd and quickly learned they were there for a slave auction.  He heard a gavel bang on wood and a man shouted, “Sold!” just as a middle-aged black man was taken away.  Next, a beautiful young black girl was pushed onto the platform and made to walk around so everyone could see her.  The miner heard vile jokes and comments that spoke of evil intentions from those around him.  The bidding began.  Within a minute, because of her beauty, the bids surpassed what most slave owners would pay for a black girl.  Finally, one man bid a price that was beyond the reach of the other.  The girl looked down.

The auctioneer called out, “Going once! Going twice!”  Just before the final call, the miner yelled out a price that was exactly twice the previous bid, an amount that exceeded the worth of any man.  The crowd laughed.  The miner opened up the bag of gold he had brought for the trip.  The auctioneer shook his head in disbelief as he waved the girl over to him.  The girl walked down the steps of the platform until she was eye-to-eye with the miner.  She spat straight in his face and said through clenched teeth, “I hate you!”

The miner, without a word, wiped his face, paid the auctioneer, took the girl by the hand, and walked away from the still-laughing crowd.

Stretching out his hand, he said to the girl, “Here are your freedom papers.”  The girl looked at the papers, then looked at him, and looked at the papers once again.  “You just bought me…and now, you’re setting me free?”

“That’s why I bought you.  I bought you to set you free.”

The beautiful young girl fell to her knees in front of the miner, tears streaming down her face.

“You bought me to set me free!  You bought me to set me free!”  She said over and over.  The miner said nothing.  Clutching his muddy boots, the girl looked up at the miner and said, “All I want to do is to serve you, because you bought me and set me free!”  She said it again, “All I want to do is to serve you, because you bought me and set me free!” 

That’s what God did for us – we are twice his. First we are His because he created us and second we are His because He bought us back, He bought us back when we were lost to the devil and in slavery to sin and death, but instead of paying with gold, he paid with his blood – the blood of the Lamb of God.  Our Lord gave His life for us, shedding every last drop of blood for us.  Our Lord rescued us, gave us a future, gave us hope, and gave us our lives.  On Good Friday we were slaves but three days later on Easter morning we were set free.  May we always live in gratitude, never forgetting the price paid.

May we be great Saints,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

Dear Friends,

St. Isaac Jogues was a French Jesuit who lived in the first half of the 17^th century.  He was a missionary priest to the Native Americans living in what is now upstate New York and Canada.  Isaac ministered mainly to the Algonquin and Huron tribes. He learned their language and their customs, enculturating Catholicism into their way of life.  His missionary work and that of all the Jesuits, however, was not well received by the Iroquois tribe, sworn enemy of both the Algonquins and Hurons. Any captured Native American Christians were quickly killed by the Iroquois.

After a number of years of missionary work Isaac was eventually captured by the Iroquois, who knew he was a priest by the way he dressed.  He was a black robe as all priests were called, because of the telltale black cassock he wore.  Isaac was not treated well, many of the Christians captured with him were quickly martyred.  Isaac on the other hand was kept for sport and torture.  He was beaten with clubs, burnt with hot irons, had all his fingernails and hair plucked out, beard included, fingers were gnawed off.  Index fingers and thumbs of both hands were removed.  The Iroquois knew that without these fingers a priest wouldn’t be able to celebrate Mass.   Isaac was a prisoner for several months; sometimes he’d be severely beaten, and then left alone to heal.  Other times he’d be confined without any harsh treatment.  He never knew what was going to happen.

Eventually the tribe that kept him prisoner met up with a Dutch trader who helped Isaac escape to New Amsterdam (New York City).  They say Isaac was the first Catholic priest to set foot on Manhattan Island.  Isaac eventually made his way back to France where he recuperated.  Once healed, however, he sought permission to return to North America.  Permission was given, the pope even gave permission for him to celebrate Mass even with the missing fingers.  So off he went, back to Canada.  He was soon captured again this time, however, he was quickly martyred.  He died in Auriesville which is about 40 miles north of Albany, New York.  Isaac Jogues is a saint because he took missionary work seriously he took seriously the words of our Lord in Matthew’s gospel.  At the end of that gospel Jesus says, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”  Isaac Jogues gave his life in order to bring the gift of baptism to the New World.

Even as a prisoner Isaac Jogues continued to evangelize and baptize, although in secret.  So when someone was ready for baptism it was done very creatively.  During his forced marches if they crossed a river, he’d quickly baptize as they made their way through the water.  With the candidate walking next to him he’d quickly pour water over him three times, hoping no one would see.  Or if confined he’d use a cup of water that he had been given for drinking.  Or sometimes he’d have to wring water out of a rag for baptism.

Isaac knew the great gift that baptism is, to become a child of God, to be unconditionally loved by God, and to be able to call him Father, this is the greatest gift we can ever receive.  And hands down the most important day of every person’s life is the day of his or her baptism.  We are more changed by baptism than by any other experience in our life.  Baptism is not just a simple rite of passage, it’s not just a chance to get the family together and have a party.  By baptism we are grafted onto Christ.  All sin is forgiven, both original and personal.  We are enabled to participate in the very life and love of God.  Sanctifying grace is infused into our souls and we become temples of the Holy Spirit more beautiful to God than any Cathedral.

Of all that baptism confers upon us, perhaps the most remarkable thing is that it makes us “adoptive sons and daughters of God.”  The only reason why we can pray the Lord’s Prayer, addressing God on such familiar terms as “Our Father,” is because of our baptism.  Through Christ’s death and resurrection, we are made by adoption what Christ is by nature:  children of the heavenly Father.  In John’s gospel we hear Jesus say that he is ascending to “My father and your father” (John 20:17), a statement that would have been impossible for anyone to make before Jesus came along.  If we really reflect on what it means to be the beloved children of the creator of the universe, we can’t help but to be in awe.  Spend some time this week thinking about this, thinking about what it means to be the beloved child of the Creator of the universe.

At the end of today’s Gospel we hear that after John baptized Jesus, the heavens opened up, and Jesus “Saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon him.  And a voice came from the heavens, saying, “This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased.”  All that Jesus would do and accomplish after this beginning of his public ministry, in particular in his death and resurrection, would make it possible for these very same words to be spoken by God the Father to us.  If we are baptized, then God truly looks at us saying, “You are my beloved child.”

Not long ago Pope Francis spoke of baptism saying that this sacrament is an act that profoundly touches our existence.  “With baptism we become immersed in that inexhaustible source of life who is Jesus; and thanks to His life and love we can live a new life, no longer at the mercy of evil, of sin, and death, but in the communion with God and with our brothers.”  The pope then asked everyone present to search for the date of their Baptism, to know the date of their birth into the life of Christ and his Church.  This is not just a date in the past, he said, but a gift that will always affect us.  “We must awaken the memory of our Baptism and all that it means!”  So many missionaries throughout the centuries were willing to die to make this gift available.

We know the date when we were born into time, we should also know the date when the eternal entered into our soul and we began our journey towards Heaven.  Do we know the date of our baptism; do we know the most important date of our life?

Let us be great Saints,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

Dear Friends,

In 1982 the world of journalism was stunned when it learned that, one of their own, the famous British journalist, Malcolm Muggeridge, had been received into the Catholic Church.  Muggeridge was the son of agnostic parents, and they raised him in the religion of socialistic progress, from his father he had inherited the conviction that man was capable of building paradise here on earth all by himself, and there was no need for God or for grace.  Despite a brief interest in Christianity during his university days at Cambridge by the time he graduated Muggeridge was a convicted agnostic socialist, once writing, “I’m a socialist, because I believe that with the right conditions man can be good, and only the government of collectivism can create such good conditions.”

In 1927, Muggeridge married Kitty Dobbs, she was also a convinced socialist and religious agnostic.  They were proud to establish a marriage that was free of all religious constraints, and with their non-traditional and ultra-liberal attitudes towards sexuality there were many infidelities that caused much suffering for themselves and their children.  In the 1930s Muggeridge was sent to the Soviet Union as a correspondent for the Manchester Guardian newspaper.  He was convinced that in the USSR he’d find a land free of all exploitation and injustice.  He wasn’t there long before learning the truth, and witnessing firsthand the barbarism of that governmental system.  Muggeridge left Russia no longer convinced that socialism was the answer to all humanity’s problems.

Muggeridge made his way back to Great Britain and began to consider the idea of Christianity, the Catholic Church in particular.  But it would be forty years before he and his wife would enter the Church.  There were many experiences that helped to bring this well-known agnostic home to the Church but the deciding factor was his meeting with Mother Teresa (M.T.).  In M.T. he saw a woman whose life had been completely transformed by Jesus Christ, and it was impossible for Muggeridge not to be attracted to her witness of faith, hope, and love.  M.T. in all of her simplicity radiated Jesus to such a degree that Muggeridge felt compelled to embrace the Christian faith.  During the last 8 years of his life he became a devout Catholic, he was one of the Church’s staunchest defenders.  He died in 1990 at the age of 87.

God used Mother Teresa to bring Malcolm Muggeridge home to the Catholic Church.  On this feast of the Epiphany we are reminded of our own call to discipleship and evangelization, which M.T. lived and did so well.  The same missionary fire that burned in her heart should burn in ours as well.  Because of our baptism we are charged with bringing Christ to those who have never heard of him, or to bring him to those, who once knew him, but have grown cold in their faith and no longer see His relevance to their lives.

Today’s gospel describes a story we know very well.  The Magi from the east follow the star to do homage to the newborn king.  St. Matthew tells us that after the wise men have paid their homage they “Departed for their country by another way.”  The Magi after encountering Christ do not walk away the same, they are different.  When we encounter Christ as the magi did our lives too should be different.  And when we are transformed by our encounter with Christ, other people, hopefully, will be transformed by their encounter with us.  They will notice something different about us.  They will be attracted to this faith called Christianity, Catholicism in particular.  Have we let ourselves be radically transformed?  Do we pray for this radical transformation?

M.T. had been profoundly changed by the same Jesus the Magi paid homage to.  She was changed by Jesus every morning in her Eucharistic holy hour, she was changed by Jesus every day at Mass, she was changed by Jesus when she meditated upon His life in the Gospels, and she was changed by Jesus who she found in the poorest of the poor.  It was because she had allowed herself to be transformed that Malcolm Muggeridge was able to write of her in his book, Something Beautiful for God,

“Mother Teresa is, in herself, a living conversion; it is impossible to be with her, to listen to her, to observe what she is doing and how she is doing it, without being in some degree converted. Her total devotion to Christ, her conviction that everyone must be treated, helped, and loved as if he were Christ himself; her simple life lived according to the Gospel and her joy in receiving the sacraments–none of this can be ignored.  There is no book I have read, no speech I have heard … there is no human relationship, or transcendental experience that has brought me closer to Christ, or made me more aware of what the Incarnation means, and what is demanded of us.”

On this feast of the Epiphany as we celebrate the encounter of the Magi with the Christ child, we ask ourselves whether our own encounter with Christ leads us back by a different road, making us instruments of evangelization which M.T. and thousands and thousands and thousands of saints have carried out so well.  Once, when preaching on the feast of the Epiphany, St. Augustine said, “Even we, recognizing Christ our King and Priest who died for us, have honored him as if we had offered him gold, incense, and myrrh.  But what remains, is for us to bear witness to him by taking a different road from that on which we came.”  If we truly bear witness to Christ by taking a different road then we can firmly hope that God will use us the way he used Mother Teresa to bring others to the faith.

That what happened to Malcolm Muggeridge will happen to many others through the Holy Spirit working through us, enabling us to say confidently with the Psalmist today, “Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.”

Merry Christmas,

Fr. Christopher Ankley

Dear Friends,

In a small Michigan town there was a police department that built a rifle range where the policemen could practice their shooting skills.  By a strange coincidence, two starlings decided to build a nest in a pile of brush and sticks that were used to stop the bullets as they whizzed through or past the targets.  Their little nest was almost directly in the line of fire.  In that dangerous spot, the birds built their nest, hatched their eggs, and raised their young.  Bullets splintered twigs all around them, and threw up dirt and dust over their tiny nest.  But the birds stayed anyway.  Only when the chicks were fully grown did the family of starlings leave their dangerous home.  One of the policemen was curious about how the starlings managed to remain safe despite all the bullets whizzing around them.  He wondered why a bullet never killed any of the birds.  So one day he went over to the nest, and as he inspected it a coin fell from it.  He picked up the coin and smiled after reading the familiar words:  “In God We Trust.”

“In God We Trust.”  This simple motto was the motto of the Holy Family.  It was the principle by which they lived their lives and survived the dangers, and trials, and threats of their time.  We know little about the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.  What we do know comes mostly from the Gospel passages we hear at this time of year.

This year we hear the story of the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt.  The Gospel reminds us that the Holy Family didn’t live in isolation.  They didn’t live in a cocoon sheltered from the struggles and sorrows of everyday life.  They lived in the real world that was at times very cold and dark.  They struggled, just like us.  St. Matthew tells us that an angel appeared in a dream to Joseph, and commanded him to take his family to safety in Egypt.  He wanted Joseph and his family to escape the plans of King Herod.  Herod was trying to destroy the Child Jesus because he feared Jesus would become a political rival.  So at his command all male children 2 years and younger living in the vicinity of Bethlehem was killed (slaughter of the innocents).  King Herod was violently insecure about his position as king.  He murdered any suspected rival even killing his wife and three of his sons.  Nobody was going to take his kingship away from him.  Not even this baby named Jesus.  King Herod responded to his fears with anger, and destruction, and violence.

As we know threats to the family are not a thing of the past.  There are still many threats to family life in the 21^st century.  They include a contraceptive mentality, which separates life and love; individualism, which isolates couples from each other; governmental attempts to redefine marriage and family; abortion, no-fault divorce, materialism, and poor moral examples in movies and TV which promote false ideas of marriage and love.

How do we deal with these modern threats, these modern King Herods?  We could follow the example of St. Joseph.  King Herod responded to fear with anger, destruction, and violence.  St. Joseph on the other hand when tempted to fear responds instead with trust. He didn’t do what the society of that time thought was best.  Instead he trusted that God would lead him on the better path.   Joseph placed himself and his little family under the guiding hand of God, following God’s direction and law.  He accepted the child who came, not from himself, but from God, he treated the child Jesus not as a possession at his disposal, but as a responsibility entrusted to him by God.  His whole life, like that of all fathers was focused on the mission of raising and caring for his foster child Jesus.  It wasn’t about him anymore; rather, his new purpose was now service to his child.   Guiding, guarding, teaching, and serving as the model of a God-fearing man.

Joseph lets himself be led by God, in God he trusted.  But as we read in scripture God only gives Joseph guidance one step at a time, Joseph hears in a dream, take Mary into your home Joseph and he does.  Later in another dream he hears, take your family to Egypt Joseph and he does.  And finally while in Egypt he hears in a dream; go back to the land of Israel Joseph and he does.  At each of these commands no further instruction is given.  As he takes each of these steps Joseph doesn’t know how it will all turn out, but yet he trusts, taking each step, knowing God is right there with him.

To let God lead our hearts the way Joseph did means regularly spending time listening to Him in prayer.  It means learning and knowing our Catholic faith and what it asks of us.  It means letting go our own willfulness, consenting to God’s guidance trusting that He is always leading us on good paths even if they are difficult paths.  When we live this way we have no need of fear, we’ve placed our lives into God’s hands.

May the Holy Family inspire our families to grow closer to God our Father.

Merry Christmas,

Fr. Christopher Ankley

Dear Friends,

On this final Sunday of Advent we are presented with two men, Ahaz of the Old Testament and Joseph of the New Testament.  One trusted the other did not.

Our first reading from Isaiah is one of the most descriptive prophesies foretelling of the future Messiah.  Ahaz is a descendent of King David and he is the king of Judah; he’s a young and inexperienced king.  And he’s expecting his country to be attacked from the combined forces of Israel and Syria.  Ahaz is not in a good spot and he’s wondering whether to trust in God or to depend upon the neighboring army of Assyria, who he’s asked to help him in defense of his country.  God tells Ahaz to ask for a sign, but Ahaz refuses.  He’d rather decide his own fate and that of his kingdom rather than trusting in God.  He says, “I will not ask!  I will not tempt the Lord!”

Now Ahaz might appear to be holy and pious when he says, “I will not tempt God,”  but actually what he’s saying is that he doesn’t want anyone telling him what to do; he wasn’t going to allow this prophet of God to determine his plans.

God was inviting him to ask for anything no matter how big or how grand, but Ahaz was afraid to trust God, and so he refused.  Isaiah, frustrated responds, “Is it not enough for you to weary people, must you also weary my God!”

Sometimes I think we react a lot like Ahaz.  We’d rather put our trust in ourselves and in those around us who we can see rather than to trust in God, whom we can’t see.  Maybe God seems too out of reach for us, and in our weakness or fear, we just push Him aside and put our trust in our self or in others.

We are sometimes tempted like Ahaz to trust in our own ability to solve problems and to find happiness.  We do this rather than being vulnerable by trusting in God. We do this because God might lead us down a path that is unfamiliar and uncomfortable.  We are not ready to reject the so-called happiness that the world offers.  Fr. Cantalamessa, the papal preacher, points out that the problem with this age (those who don’t follow Christ, and often even many who do), is that they’ve turned upside-down the manner of finding happiness.  Instead of making God their happiness, they’ve made happiness their “god.”  When you make God your happiness, God gives you happiness.  You find both God and happiness.  But when you make happiness your “god,” that is, when you seek happiness (in money, power, pleasure, honor) rather than God, you lose both – you lose both happiness and God.

There is a story of a young man who had avoided going to Church because he knew that if he started taking his faith seriously, he’d have to change his life.  It took him years to realize that his immoral lifestyle did not bring him happiness.  When he finally took the step to return to the Lord, everything changes.  Others told him that he wasn’t the same guy.  He agreed, “That’s right,” he said, “I’m happy now.”  Perhaps there are times that we think that embracing God in our lives would cost too much.  And, consequently we end up avoiding happiness.  There is a temptation in all of us to act like Ahaz.

Even after Ahaz rejects God, God tells him – I will give you a sign; the virgin will conceive and bear a son.  She will name him Emmanuel: Emmanuel meaning God is with us.  God is telling Ahaz, just as he’s telling us:  do not be afraid, trust me; I am with you.

In our Gospel from Matthew we have our second Advent man, Joseph.  And Joseph like Ahaz is also a descendant of David and he is told by an angel, “Do not be afraid to take Mary, your wife, into your home.”  What might he be afraid of?  There was the fear of what others might think.  Perhaps Joseph was fearful and worried about what this Mary was really like.  He knew he wasn’t the father of the child she carried.  Perhaps he was fearful of the religious authorities.  What if he was caught protecting Mary and she was viewed as violating the Law of Moses. Her pregnancy could be viewed as an offense punishable by stoning.  Or maybe he was afraid that he couldn’t love this child as a father.

But the angel told him- do not be afraid.  Trust God, for this child is special and so is his mother. It is the work of the Holy Spirit.  Do not be afraid, trust in God.  And so, unlike Ahaz, Joseph puts his complete trust in God.  God would figure out how to deal with the gossip, god would figure out how to deal with the Law of Moses, and God would figure out how to deal with his concerns about the child.

So: Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us.  In His earthly life, Jesus truly showed Himself to be God-with-us. As He healed the sick, and raised the dead, He visibly brought about salvation.

But what about now? Is He still today “Emmanuel, God with us” in so great a way?  Yes! Just as He is announced as “Emmanuel” at the beginning of St. Matthew’s Gospel (Mt 1:23), so His final words at the end of Matthew are: “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Mt 28:20). By the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus comes to live even more intimately in you than He did during the whole of His time on earth. And He wants each of you to know Him just as intimately.

In the Eucharist, He comes to you now in a way even more intimate than the way He was present, in the flesh, on earth. He comes to you now, not only from the outside, as He did when He walked the earth; He comes to you now also on the inside, as you take Him in, and “God-with-us” becomes “God-in-you.” And that is something we can trust.

Merry Christmas,

Fr. Christopher Ankley