Sunday Homilies from Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Hermosa Bch, CA. Fr. Paul Gawlowski OFM Conv. (English), Fr. Carlos Morales OFM Conv., (Spanish).
We have just celebrated Easter, The Ascension Pentecost, Holy Trinity and now the Body of the Blood of Christ. What is the relationship between all these? It is the Sacrament that makes all these others realities present to us today.
This feast reveals how we treat our brothers and sisters is important. We can never lose our fundamental identity that we are all children of God brothers and sisters. A prayer for our world in these divided and violent times.
Today we celebrate Pentecost Sunday the birthday of the church when we are filled with the gifts of the Holy Spirit that bring a supernatural joy and other gifts in addition to salvation.
In the readings from today's feast of The Ascension we hear of the important role of witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus in the Church.
The Holy Spirit is to the church what Jesus was to his disciples. Now it is by the power of the Holy Spirit that the body of Christ is made alive and it's guided and this is done through both charismatic and the institutional church. Pray to the Holy Spirit individually and seek his wisdom as mediated and revealed through the church the sacraments in the magisterium.
Faith Hope and love our divine gifts. We must have faith and Hope in the power of God's Love. This is what it means to give God glory.
If we reflect on our lives we can notice a difference between doing our will and doing the wheel of another who calls us to places where we would not go on our own. Today's challenge from God is to learn how to hear his voice, and obey it. Only this leads to fullness of joy, purpose, and fruitfulness.
We gather for mass on the first day of the resurrection, the next Sunday and every Sunday to encounter the risen Lord truly present breathing His resurrected life into us. And as the father sent Jesus to us while we were still unworthy we are called to go and show God's mercy to other others, even those we might think our unworthy.
Homilia del padre Carlos.
Like the early disciples we come to the evidence of the empty tomb and travel from unbelief, to openness to the possibility that Jesus has risen, to belief that He is Risen, and then finally to a life-changing encounter in love.
God is doing something new, and does not condemn us but wants to re-create us. The woman caught in adultery shows what God has done for all of us.
We live in a divided world. Are we going to approach it more like Jesus, or more like the Scribes and Pharisees in the Gospel parable today about the two brothers of The Loving Father.
As in Jesus's day today some people still believe God punishes sinners with illness suffering and death. These are rather the consequences of our sin, that God does allow. However God does not desire that we die in our sin, rather he sends his son to save us from the consequences of sin which is death. Death becomes a servant of God that reminds us all of our need to repent and accept the salvation one for us by Jesus not our good works.
God stands at the center of all time making those who came before Him and those who came after Him members of God's family by uniting us to Himself.
Life is a spiritual battle, we are being tested. The testing strengthens our faith if we fight the battle not by our strength but by Christ who is our strength and Savior.
Today we conclude the sermon on the plane where Jesus has set out the higher standard for his disciples and then shares that he is the image into which we are to become if we are to live up to that standard. Although we fall short that should not discourage us, because he also gives us the power to become what we see in him.
The New Testament standard is the highest possible standard. In the Old Testament we were given the minimum requirement and failed. In the New Testament Jesus gives us the highest requirement, the ultimate goal for our transformation into children of God. We would still fail, if not for his help, for the power of God is offered to us to transforms us into His likeness.
I have always found an unattractive expression of Christianity is to be good in this life to go to heaven in the next. Christianity's power is it helps now bring strength purpose meaning and many other blessings into our life. However, it is true that the promise of life to come also is a tremendous blessing. We are called to live as agents of transformation in this world never fully succeeding but longing for the completion to come after we die.
This passage shows three different ways we can relate to Jesus; He's distant we know of Him but we're not listening to Him, He's in our life and helps us but we're still in control, or we've turned control of our lives over to Him. To allow God to work the biggest miracles in our lives requires that we allow Jesus to be the captain of our ship.
Jesus our Redeemer, our Savior redeemed us from sin, death and the evil one. He takes away the power of death he forgives us of our sins which disarms the devil's capacity to enslave us, and joins us to Himself in God's family making of us an offering to God. On this feast of the presentation of Jesus we learn that he presents us to God just as Mary presented Him.
If ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ, as Saint Jerome says, then that is pretty serious! Because ignorance of Christ, unless it's no fault of our own, means we are not saved.
Atheism says there cannot be a God who is all powerful and loving if there is suffering in the world. But Christianity's answer to suffering is different. God hasn't given up on us.
Jesus did not need to be baptized since he was God, but the Holy Spirit gave him the mission, because God always works as one; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We too, with the same Spirit, can share in the same mission with the Power of the Holy Spirit!
Jesus promises that anyone who seeks Him will find him, the question is will we seek? There are many reasons why we may not, but if we do we find the meaning, purpose and direction of our lives and the strength to live them.
Is it a bit strange that on the feast of the holy family we hear about how Mary and Joseph lost Jesus!? Maybe the message is that a Holy Family is not necessarily a perfect family but one who searches for, and finds, Jesus. Let's make a plan for our families to search and to find a deeper relationship with Jesus and in that grow closer together. Happy new year.
Sometimes we don't open all our Christmas gifts. We have been given the greatest gift of all; let's unwrap it.
The child in the womb of Elizabeth lept for joy when the Lord came to him, and Elizabeth exclaimed who am I that the Lord should come to me? Let's pray that we will be so filled with awe and wonder at the miracle of God's incarnation that we too leap for joy! It's incredible to think that God would come to his creatures in this way! Who are we to deserve such a great blessing? Yet God loves us so much that's exactly what he has done!
Rejoice! This is the message of the church today, but how can we do that in a times of trouble and illness?
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