21st Sun. in Ord. Time Yr A 8-27-23 Dcn. Bill Kenney

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“With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, . . .” If you’ve ever bumped into someone you haven’t seen in a very long time you know that it can go one of two ways. One --- it can be a fun, joyful, surprising moment --- one in which the person immediately experiences an “I can’t believe it’s you!” moment. That’s usually followed by handshakes or hugs or smiles or whatever. But that doesn’t always happen. Sometimes we get the second possible experience --- the one in which the other person knows exactly who we are, but we find ourselves thinking, “Who is this?” And if the conversation is brief, without many cues provided, we might find ourselves walking away and still not knowing who we had just bumped into. And that can be more than a little frustrating --- a kind of “missed opportunity”. The story we just heard is a familiar one, yet also a puzzling one. It’s the kind of story that makes some of us want to ask follow-up questions so that we can fill-in the blanks, that is, get the additional details we need to understand it better. And what immediately jumps into my mind is the question, “Did the two men on the road actually know Jesus before then? Had they personally met him or seen him before? If they did, then it seems that Jesus somehow kept them from recognizing him (as is stated by the text). But that doesn’t explain the fact that later the text doesn’t say that JESUS opened their eyes. It just says that “their eyes were opened”. So maybe they knew ABOUT Jesus, but didn’t really know him --- at least not know him by sight or by having met him. So which is it? Wouldn’t that make a difference in how we are to understand the story? Maybe not. At its most basic level, this story is about our ability to recognize Jesus or not, our ability to be ready to encounter Jesus or miss the God who is standing before us, the God in our midst. And the ambiguity in the story (in a sense) allows it to cover all possibilities, the entire range of human experience. That means the story has meaning for us regardless of whether we sense the divine often or hardly ever, whether we feel God is close by or far away, whether we feel we know him well or whether we wonder if we’ve ever even met him before. And that’s because no matter where we find ourselves on that range of experiences, the truth is --- Jesus will always seem to be absent from the places we don’t expect him to be, always seem to be hiding (in plain sight) if our hearts and minds are closed to the possibility of seeing him, always seem to be distant if we never expect him to be close. In other words, God wants us to see him, experience him, and recognize him in places, experiences, and people we would never expect --- “encounter” him where we can’t imagine he would ever be. In the boss we don’t like and in co-worker who is our best friend. In the neighbor who drives us crazy and in the one who always shovels our snow for free. In the person who “has it all together” and in the person whose life is a hot mess. In the college acceptance letter and even in the college rejection letter. In the most virtuous person we know and in the person who makes bad choice after bad choice, wrong turn after wrong turn. In church and in the supermarket. In our prayers at night and in the little league game we’re cheering at (no matter if our kid’s team eventually wins or loses). In the believer and (maybe to your surprise) in the non-believer. Even at this sacred, holy meal we share week after week, year after year. These God-moments are what we call “grace” --- our God pouring out his very life, his very self into our world and every person in it --- immersing himself and revealing himself in countless ways. He’s walking with us all the time, accompanying us on our journey --- wanting nothing more than for us to be aware of him, to recognize him, to listen to him, to be astounded by him. Yet too often our eyes remain closed, our hearts hardened by cynicism, our minds distracted by more things than we can count, our attention focused mostly on ourselves and earthly things. Yet, God doesn’t abandon us in those moments, doesn’t turn around and head in a different direction, looking for someone else who will pay attention to him. He just keeps walking with us, saying to us over and over again, “I’m right here….I’m right here.” The challenge is to not let these opportunities, these holy moments, these profound encounters pass us by. And if I make it sound easy, I don’t mean to. It’s not. It takes expecting to meet him in the unexpected. It takes pausing during these moments (especially the difficult ones) and asking ourselves . . . Where is God in this experience? Where is God in this person? What is God trying to tell me, show me, teach me, reveal to me? And maybe most importantly --- can I see God actually gifting himself to me in this experience or this person that doesn’t really look or feel like a gift at all? In other words, am I ready to let God come to me on his terms rather than on mine? How we answer that question might not just make a few moments more meaningful, it might just change the way we experience every single day of the rest of our lives. 

2nd Sunday of Easter Divine Mercy Sunday

After our repentant journey through Lent, and walking with Jesus through Holy Thursday and his Passion on Good Friday, now is the time for joy. Joy as we gather to rejoice in our incredible God --- a God who refused to turn his back on us, and refused to wash his hands of the whole affair (as Pilate did) as if to say, “It’s not my problem.” Rather he took our problems upon himself, our mistakes, our disobedience, our self-centeredness --- that is, all of our sin upon himself --- and in the process, in that saving act, he changed absolutely everything. No longer would humanity have to embrace the attitude, “Well, it’s always been this way.” Instead, he gave us the opportunity to begin down a new path, with new priorities, new purpose and new hope. Now, WE would no longer have to be who we had always been. He rose so that we can rise with him --- that is, so that we can experience an Easter for each Good Friday we are faced with. Even the Good Friday we will experience at the end of our lives is not the end of the story. Something more beautiful awaits. The empty tomb assures us of that. In one sense this incredible loving act came to us completely from the outside, from the utter graciousness of God. God redeems. God saves. God destroyed death forever. And we will forever be unable to be thankful enough for it. And in no way will we ever be able to repay it. That’s simply impossible. That is the God we have! But make no mistake about it, although salvation came from without, from “beyond” so-to-speak, it was won from within --- won by Jesus --- our God who entered our world the first Christmas in a profound and humble and concrete way. And that should tell us something. You see, God didn’t just “wave his hand” (figuratively) and make things better (although he certainly could have). No, this was an “inside” job. And that’s partly because God had to make sure we know just how much we are loved, make sure we know how precious we are in his eyes, make sure we know that we are not forgotten, and make sure we know that we don’t have to make this journey alone. Our God will always be making this journey with us, if we let Him. Our God will always be by our side and within our hearts --- guiding us and comforting us. And our God will always give us chance after chance after chance --- forgiving us and picking us up and drying our tears and pointing us in the right direction again and again and again. Put simply --- Jesus’ saving act might have been a once-in-history moment. That is true. He reconciled us to the Father in a way we could never do on our own. But the power of that act is not a singular kind of thing. Rather, it’s meant to be a day-after-day, year-after-year, generation-after-generation transformation of each and every human soul open to the power of it, the transformation of each and every human heart. In a very real sense, Jesus died to make each of us different --- truly different --- more alive, more loving, more connected --- that is, bring us into true “communion” with our loving God. Are we? That’s really the challenge of this holy day. Yes --- today is a day to rejoice. Absolutely. Yes --- today is a day to give our deepest and most sincere thanks. Yes --- today is a day to be filled with hope and optimism. Yes --- Easter is a time to gather with family and friends and eat great food and hunt for Easter eggs and eat a year’s worth of candy in one day. But it’s also a time to reflect --- reflect on the ways we will choose to respond (or not respond) to what we believe in faith, choose to respond (or not respond) in love to our God who has loved us completely. Will we reach out to others the way God reached out to us? Will we find ways to “lay down our lives”, as Jesus did? Will we forgive the things that seem unforgivable? Will we refuse to pursue revenge, refuse to answer violence with violence? Will we be truly generous, with our time, our gifts, our resources or will we simply give from our leftovers? Put simply --- will we faithfully love? Jesus laid down his life, in love for us. And he did it to show us that we become truly alive, when we lay down our lives for him and others. Challenge of Easter is to not just simply say “thanks” today and go back to doing things the way we’ve always done them thus making the death and resurrection of Jesus not mean very much. Rather, as people redeemed, we give thanks the only way that truly matters --- by more completely dedicating our lives to Jesus, by striving to be faithful, active, committed, loving Disciples, by worshiping God with heart, mind, soul. Jesus is risen! How can we, by our lives, live in such a way… that we boldly show the world - that Jesus has risen in us?

Parents teach their children. You parents out there know this is the case. And these “teachings” can be for good or for bad, helpful or hurtful. Some are taught deliberately --- through tasks, lectures and smart discipline. Other things get “taught” because, as you know, kids are sponges and mimic the behaviors of adults around them. Of course, every adult here was a child once, and almost always sees things in themselves that they first saw in their parents. Even in matters of faith the Church asserts that parents are truly the ones who bear the first responsibility to make sure what they believe gets passed on to their sons and daughters. The baptismal rite says as much. Yes, parents explicitly and implicitly and sometimes even accidentally teach their sons and daughters all sorts of things. Now, I want all of you parents out there to consider one particular question for a second. If you could have your children remember only one thing from all the hundreds, maybe thousands of things you have taught them over their lifetimes, what would that one thing be? That’s not an easy question, is it? What is most important for them to remember? I’m guessing that if I asked a hundred of you that question - I’d get at least eighty different answers. And that’s ok. We’re not all the same, nor are our children all the same. We just heard a passage from John’s Gospel that shows Jesus in this very predicament, in this very situation. Jesus knows that his death is near. And he is in the presence of his best friends, the ones who have been by his side for several years --- listening to him, watching the things he did traveling about from town to town. And there was a lot packed into a short time. The stories. The miracles. The explanations. The scolding of the self-righteous. The demonstrations of mercy and compassion and forgiveness and kindness. The reaching out to those on the margins. He had TAUGHT them a lot (through word and deed). And now, it was sort of coming to the end. And Jesus only has time to remind them of one teaching, one lesson, one thing that he wanted to make sure they understood and that they would never forget. And so he washes their feet. And tells them they must do the same. His last wish. At least this is what John chooses to include in his depiction of that fateful night. The other three Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, don’t include this detail. Rather, they describe at length the sacred meal that took place (which John chose to omit). And so, it might seem that Jesus was actually teaching them two things that night, two final wishes, two teachings that were meant to stand in a place of importance in the hearts and minds of those who called Jesus friend, brother, Lord. But are they really two? Two different teachings? For many of the faithful tonight’s Liturgy is sort of their personal “favorite” of the entire Church year. It really is quite beautiful and meaningful. So many “Catholic” things on display. So many feelings and emotions. So many profound things to contemplate and be grateful for. It really is such a special night. And the two pillars it rests on, are Eucharist (and the ordained priesthood that is intimately linked to it) and the washing of feet. And the amazing thing is, they aren’t separate at all. They are simply two essential parts of what it means to authentically embrace our faith, two parts of what it means to be a true Catholic, a true Christian, a true disciple of Jesus. Put simply --- we share in the one so that we can do the other, RECEIVE Jesus so that we can BE Jesus, turn to God for strength and nourishment and guidance and inspiration and forgiveness --- that is, for true communion --- so we can bring those very things to others, do those very things for others, BE those very things for others. In other words --- what we do around the Sacred Altar, who we receive in this holy meal, is not to be seen in some sort of isolation, as some kind of spiritual gift we “get” for ourselves and cling to tightly. Rather, the Eucharist is meant to transform us, help us actually become the One whom we receive. That means that if we come before the altar time and time again but never wash the feet of others --- never care for our brothers and sisters --- then God will not have achieved in us and through us what he wants to achieve. Rather, what was meant to be a channel of grace has become an obstacle, what was meant to be life-giving has been anything but, what was meant to be shared has been hidden away. That’s the challenge of this holy night --- to take all our gratitude and pay it forward through acts of love, take this heavenly, divine, food into our bodies and hearts and minds so that we can be more beautiful than we were yesterday, more merciful than we were yesterday, more compassionate and forgiving and generous than we were yesterday. And so, every time we share in the communion of Jesus may we not forget that that’s only part of what God the Father calls us to. The other part --- that’s up to us the moment we walk out the door into the world --- a world in desperate need of Jesus. The amazing thing is that the ones called and sent on this mission, are you and me. And God never wants us, his children, to forget that.

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5th Sunday of Lent, The Third Scrutiny Yr. A Ref.: Jn. 11:1-44 Humanity in his tears Mar. 21/ 22, 2026 Dcn. Bill Kenney One of the most revered stigmatists and mystics of the 20th century was St. Padre Pio, an Italian Capuchin priest. Last October we made a pilgrimage to San Giovani Rotondo, Italy to view his body lying there in- state. He professed that, “tears are the work of God in you," suggesting their divine origin and power to irrigate the stirrings of our hearts. Our tears can be understood as a gift from the Holy Spirit uniting our suffering with the sufferings of Christ for personal sanctification. Babies spontaneously cry for all sorts of reasons. As we grow older, it’s not possible, nor should we try, to hold back the tears of joy at births and happiness at weddings or tears of mourning at death and distress at illness. There’s every occasion to cry at a good book, movie or song. Deep emotional tearing is uniquely human amongst God’s creation. It expresses our solidarity for God’s will to be done in and through us. Created in the image and likeness of God, we are called to be like Jesus Christ in both his humanity and his divinity. Through his incarnation, Jesus is fully man and fully God. We often focus our thoughts and prayers of Jesus on his divinity. The awesome power and wonder of Jesus’ miracles, or signs pointing to a divine grace, certainly capture our attention. The raising of Lazarus, pointing to Jesus’ and our own resurrection, is a prime example. Arguably, one of his greatest miracles, the power of Jesus’ divinity is on full display to mournful onlookers, as Jesus, speaking to the Father says, “…I have said this, that they may believe that you sent me.” We adore and praise his divinity. “And Jesus wept” is one of the shortest verses in the Bible, yet it is lengthy in meaning and symbolism. Jesus’ humanity is perhaps no better expressed than in this verse. It expresses the anguish Jesus felt over the pain and sorrow his friends Mary, Martha, and others, were suffering at the death of Lazarus. To "weep" often implies a prolonged and impassioned deep grief. Jesus wept for love of Lazarus, Martha, and Mary and knew what he was going to do. Have you ever felt the peace and consolation that God had heard and answered your prayers through your weeping? Throughout his Gospel, John identifies the divinity of Jesus- his oneness with and in God; from the beginning, the Word. St. Martha proclaims Jesus as, “…the Messiah, the Son God”. Yet, John is also careful to insist that Jesus is at the same time completely human. As a human person, Jesus loves, weeps, feels fatigue and anguish, gets suspicious and perturbed; he thirsts, walks, sleeps, hungers, prays, and most notably, dies a most agonizing human death. All these references to Jesus’ humanity tell us he can relate with our daily struggles: our weaknesses and temptations and can deliver us from them as our redeemer and Savior. How does having an all-powerful divine Savior who lived as we live, except in sin, help you to realize a more personal relationship with him? Each time we partake of the true presence of his body and blood in the holy Eucharist, we grow in the humanity and divinity of Jesus. We softly pray during the preparation of the gifts, “By the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity.” The Eucharist is a lasting remedy for our body and soul to become more like Christ. During our earthly pilgrimage, we live in a “valley of tears” where we continue to shed tears of joy and sorrow. May we one day rise to new life in Jesus’ Kingdom following the Paschal Mystery of his divine Passion, death, and resurrection. May we one day share his heavenly banquet, where, “ He will wipe every tear from our eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, for the old order has passed away.” May we, especially our OCIA Elect, “Come out” as Lazarus did, to the calling of our Lord to new life this Easter, recognizing his divinity and humanity in our lives, for our salvation and for the glory of God.

Lift the fog to see the Light

If you’ve ever had a really severe toothache, you know it is pretty awful. How does something so small cause so much pain? And, if it’s bad enough a person will do just about anything to make it stop. All we want to do in that situation is get as fast as we can to the person who can make it better. And we are probably willing to pay whatever it costs to make the pain go away. If everything goes as planned, the relief we feel can be incredible. “Thank God I never have to go through that again,” we might think to ourselves. And for many of us, what happens at some point in time? We get another one. Rarely is a terrible toothache (or any other painful thing) a singular event. If we live long enough, we’re almost sure to experience multiple health aches and pains. Many things in life are this way. And they occur in all sorts of areas of our lives. Many of these things are random in nature. And there isn’t much we can do to avoid them. But others are not as random and can come about because of something we fail to learn. How many of us as children would get hurt doing something reckless, yet continue to do that very thing over and over again? I am reminded of a sibling who will remain nameless who loved to shout “Don’t try this at home!,” and then proceed to do something risky. How many of us, get into romantic relationships with people for the same wrong reasons over and over and over again? “I won’t make that mistake next time.” But then we do. How many of us give in to some sort of temptation and are convinced that we won’t succumb to that temptation again? How many of us think that if we just carefully select the right spouse, our life will be easy and perfect? Or if we achieve a certain level of financial security we’ll never have to worry again. Or the next drink will be my last. Or the next pill. Or I’ll just do this bad thing (maybe even something criminal) this one time to get myself out of a jam and that will be the end of it. You get the idea. In other words, almost nothing in life has a guarantee of permanence, a guarantee that it will last forever (for good or for bad). Sometimes things work out that way in a particular circumstance, but most things come and go. They’re here one second and gone the next. Good one moment and not so good the next. We’ll do something to alleviate a particularly negative thing (a completely worthwhile pursuit) yet somehow it (or something similar) comes back around. Or we do things that bring us a certain amount of joy (another completely worthwhile pursuit) --- yet that joy only lasts a very short time. Everything, it seems, is fleeting. “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; . . .” Now, Jesus says this statement in the middle of a strange and puzzling conversation with the woman at the well. The two of them start out talking about one thing but pretty soon are talking about something else altogether. This ordinary, daily chore had become a teaching moment, a challenging moment, a transformational moment. Jesus knows exactly what to say in every situation, always knows exactly what we need to hear. It’s easy to go through life relying most on what we can see and touch. In many respects, these earthly physical things seem more ‘real” than spiritual things, things we are asked to believe in faith, things that can’t exactly be proved to us (in the usual way we use that word). When a person is hungry --- food sounds way more important than God. When a person is sick ---- getting well sounds way more important than God. When a person is in danger --- getting to safety sounds way more important than God. When a person has no money --- getting a job sounds way more important than God. And when a person is terribly lonely ---making a friend sounds way more important than God. And you know what? The pursuit of those things does not necessarily have to take the place of God. They’re not in true competition with him. And so we should try to meet those needs, should try to improve those situations. In fact, in doing so we are almost certainly doing what God wants, cooperating with his grace. Even Jesus in the story we just heard asked the woman at the well for a drink of water before saying anything else. In other words, being faithful doesn’t mean we can’t pursue trying to meet our earthly human needs and things that make us happy, and certainly doesn’t mean we can’t do things to try to alleviate our pain or our sorrow or our disappointment. But what they aren’t supposed do is get in the way of going to the well, get in the way of our journey into holiness, get in the way of our relationship with the only ONE who can guarantee us love, compassion, understanding, mercy, forgiveness and ultimately, SALVATION. Even things such as happiness, joy, peace, meaning, hope, and every other good thing can only come about through the grace of the ONE who is all of those things. And so, as we continue through Lent we reflect on how deeply we want or deeply we think we need certain things in our lives. And then, we can strive to make sure they are aligned with our faith and our desire for God and holiness. In fact, our hearts will always be restless until they rest in God, who is - in the end - all we need. He’s the life-giving water for a thirst this world can’t quench.