From the Pastor's Desk | January 18

Eucharistic Adoration - Our Response to the News of the Day 

As our lives get a little more back to normal following Christmas and New Year, I want to remind everyone that Eucharistic Adoration is offered every Wednesday evening following the 6:00pm Mass and all day on Fridays from 9:00am to 9:00pm.  Pope St. John Paul II said this about Eucharistic Adoration:  

The worship of the Eucharist outside of the Mass is of inestimable value for the life of the Church . . . It is pleasant to spend time with Him, to lie close to His breast like the Beloved Disciple and to feel the infinite love present in His Heart. If in our time Christians must be distinguished above all by the “art of prayer,” how can we not feel a renewed need to spend time in spiritual converse, in silent adoration, in heartfelt love before Christ present in the Most Holy Sacrament? How often, dear brothers and sisters, have I experienced this, and drawn from it strength, consolation and support!

Since we started praying before the Eucharist about a year ago on Fridays, I have noticed a couple of things.  First, more people are spending time in silent prayer in Eucharistic Adoration.  Second, the breath of the Holy Spirit is anointing our parish most evidently by our increased Mass attendance.  These are just two of the spiritual fruits from a parish at prayer.  There are innumerable spiritual fruits occurring in people’s personal lives as well as they spend more and more time in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.  

There is a lot going on in the world.  We see division, fear, anxiety, unease, even death, and of course sin.  Pope St. John Paul II also famously said, “In that little host is the solution to all the problems of the world.”  Our response to the news of the day is to turn to Jesus - to spend time with him.    

I encourage everyone to spend more time in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.  Time spent in Eucharistic prayer is not time wasted.  Rather, it changes us.  It conforms us all the more to Christ.  It allows Christ to work all the more through us as we unite ourselves all the more to him.  

We have a number of Committed Adorers who have signed up to dedicate one hour each Friday to Eucharistic Prayer.  If you feel so called to commit, please use the link below to sign up so that we can increase our pool of Committed Adorers.  If you cannot commit, please come when you can and spend a little time with the Lord.     

Gospel Reflection

I don’t know whether or not we truly appreciate how pitiful the human condition is.  St. Paul writes, in his letter to the Ephesians, “You were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you once lived following the age of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the disobedient.  All of us once lived among them in the desires of our flesh, following the wishes of the flesh and the impulses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest (Ephesians 2:1-3).  

Make no mistake, God created everything good, and he created man in his own image and likeness (Genesis 1:26-27).  Ever since the fall, however, human nature has been tainted with the scandal of sin which ultimately leads to our destruction in death.  Our intellects, emotional constellations, wills are clouded by sin and the tendency toward sin.  That’s the human condition - slavery to sin and death.  And, the scary thing is, there is nothing we can do about it ourselves.  

St. Paul, however, doesn’t end with the words written above.  In the sentences that follow, he writes, “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ (by grace you have been saved), raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.  For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:4-9).  

Our readings today lean into the generosity of God’s plan for human salvation and human flourishing.  In the first reading, the prophet Isaiah writes, “I am made glorious in the sight of the Lord, and my God is now my strength” (Isaiah 49:5).  Isaiah, foreshadowing the glory and holiness that God gifts us through his son Jesus Christ.  In his greeting to the Church in Corinth, St. Paul writes, “...you who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy…” (1 Corinthians 2).  How are we made glorious?  How are we made holy?  Because Jesus Christ is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29),” as we hear St. John the Baptist cry out in our Gospel passage.

That particular phrase, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29),” would have triggered some strong associations among those hearing it, particularly the Jews.  Their ears would have perked up and they would have taken notice.  This proclamation would have been provocative and loaded with imagery such as Temple sacrifice as lambs were offered daily in the Temple.  Animal sacrifice would have been linked with atonement, purification, and a restored relationship with God.  It would have been associated with the Passover lamb whose blood saved the people of Israel from death, surely symbolizing deliverance and redemption.  It would have been associated with the suffering servant in Isaiah 53 who was like a lamb led to the slaughter…” (Isaiah 53:7).  The word world would have been particularly striking to first century Jews because they would have been thinking primarily of the people of Israel not the entire world.  The reactions among those who heard this would have included curiosity, shock, anxiety, fear, hope, etc.  

Over time we would come to understand what John meant by saying that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world - that he would fulfill the Old Testament prophesies and the Mosaic Law establishing a new covenant cut in his own blood.  It was through the shedding of his blood and his once and for all sacrifice that we are made glorious and holy.  

At the end of our Gospel passage, John says that, “...he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit (John 1:33).”  For what purpose?  Certainly to glorify us and make us holy.  But, our glory and holiness isn’t just for us.  It is a gift to be given to those around us.  Just as the Lord says to Isaiah, “I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6), so are we to be the same.  We are called to be a light to the world so that Christ’s salvation may reach everyone - to the ends of the earth.  We are called, through our life in Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit, to be a people set apart (that’s what the word holy means) and to draw others into the glory and holiness of God so they too can realize their glory and holiness.

In our responsorial Psalm today we pray, “Here I am Lord, I come to do your will.”  If we are to do the will of God - to draw others into the life of Christ - we must first make ourselves available to the Lord - daily.  Then we can do his will.  I think the questions we are called to ponder today are: 

• Do I realize my glory? 

• Do I realize my holiness? 

• Do I make myself available to God?  How? 

• Do I avail myself to God’s grace?  How?

• Am I a light to the nations?  In what concrete ways? 

• Is the Lord’s salvation reaching the ends of the earth through me?  What do I do to make this happen? 

These are lofty questions, but they are questions worth pondering nonetheless.  As we pray today, let us pray that we be the glorious and holy people we are called to be.  And, let us pray that we draw others into their glory and holiness through the life of Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Know of my prayers for you all! 

Fr. Ryan