Advent is about our spirituality -- God is with us.

Following our wonderful Thanksgiving family time in which we are very much in touch with our spiritual roots of gratitude, the next day is Black Friday.  And so, the commercialism of the season gets into high gear.  Were you among the shoppers on Black Friday and were you able to get what you wanted at a very good price?

Further, often enough, we are reluctant to schedule parish events in December.  People are too busy.  There is too much to get done in preparation for Christmas.

But deep down we all well know that Advent isn’t about commercialism; it isn’t about non-stop busyness.  Advent is about our spirituality.  It is about being in touch with our spiritual center  --  God is with us.  “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”    The meaning of Emmanuel is God is with us.  May we deeply value the spirituality of this holy season.  May it a time of spiritual preparation  --  to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  May the Advent wreath be a symbol of hope as we await for the light of Christ to overcome the darkness of our world.

The Advent season invites us to reset our spiritual calendar, to readjust the choices in our lives to be sure that they are consistent with the priorities of Christ.    We seek to move beyond the darkness of fear, anxiety, and sin to live in the light of Christ Jesus. 

On the one hand, there are 27 shopping days till Christmas.  On the other hand, in the Advent season, we are given the gift of time – four weeks – to prepare in joyful for the coming of the Saviour.

Pope Francis has given us a most challenging Advent message.  If we live in a world of war, and we see that the only solution to our problems to take us arms and defeat the enemy, Pope Francis then says our Christmas is a charade.   Christmas isn’t about military might as a solution to our problems.  Christmas is about embracing the message of the Prince of Peace.  Somehow we have to reconcile our political life as Americans with our spiritual life as the disciples of Jesus.  May we embrace the dominant message of Jesus of bringing the forgiving love of God to a sinful people.  In this Advent, we need to reflect on the meaning of our prayer for the coming of the Prince of Peace among us.

A week from now, on December 8, Pope Francis will be opening the Holy Door at St Peter’s Basilica in Rome inaugurating our Jubilee Year of Mercy.  Our Advent=Christmas spirituality is to proclaim and to witness to the merciful love of Jesus in our world.  We the Church of St. Joseph’s are to proclaim the gospel of mercy in our prayers, in our teachings, and in every ministry we engage in.

If are not proclaiming the merciful love of Jesus in all we say and do, then we need to reset our spiritual calendars.

In today’s Scriptures, the prophet Jeremiah proclaims to a discouraged people that “the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel.” The prophet Jeremiah is a prophet of hope and mercy that God’s promises will be fulfilled.

The apostle Paul writes:  “Brothers and sisters:  May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all.”  Paul’s words are the living word of God that are spoken to us as well.  The love we shared with our family members on Thanksgiving Day is the love the Lord wishes to share with one and all. We are to the witnesses of the love of Jesus in our world.

The Advent message of hope may be more difficult to see in today’s Gospel for it contains a stern warning to us.  Jesus says:  “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on earth nations will be in disarray; perplexed by the roaring of the sea and the waves.  People will die of fright…Additionally, beware that you hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and do not be overwhelmed by the anxieties of daily life.”

But the core message of Advent remains:  watch and wait for God, not with a sense of fear, but rather with joyful hope.  Sometimes we Christians tend to think Jesus came to sing us lullabies:  that when things are comfortable he’s with us, and when they get turbulent we’ve lost him – like the disciples in the stormy boat. Today’s Gospel tells us otherwise.   Yes, the sea of our heart sometimes is turbulent, fearful and anxious.  Even in these times, God is with us in the present moment and in every day of our future.  We are and will always be the recipients of the merciful love of Jesus.

To wait for the Lord who comes means to wait and watch so that the Word of Love enters inside us and focuses every day of our lives.  Advent calls us not only to welcome the coming of Christ but to incarnate it in our lives.  We are to be the light that illumines the world.  What does it mean for us to incarnate the love of Christ into our lives and how are we to the light that illumines the world?

I am very conscious that on December 12 we will have 130 of our younger parishioners celebrating the Sacrament of Reconciliation for the first time?  That is an amazing number and a great blessing to our parish community.  Now, are we as a parish community going to witness to the forgiving and merciful love of Jesus in the lives of these young parishioners?  Will the staff of St Joseph’s, will the families of these candidates, will the parish family of St Joseph’s witness to these candidates that we have experienced the forgiving love of Jesus in the Sacrament of Reconciliation?  You can take to the bank that unless we ourselves witness to the grace of the sacraments in our lives, it is a long shot for these candidates to values the 2^nd and 3^rd and 4^th time they celebrate this beautiful sacrament of God’s forgiveness.

I am not here to try to give a guilt trip on any of us.  But I am inviting in this Advent to reset our spiritual calendar to value the many ways that God is with us in this Advent Season.  May this Jubilee Year of Mercy be our time to more fully experience the merciful love of Jesus in our lives.  If we know Jesus in our hearts, we will readily witness to the Lord’s mercy in the lives of others.

We have much to be thankful for.

Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday that expresses very well the spiritual roots of our nation.  We are at our best as Americans when we are grateful to God, grateful to one another, and grateful for the blessings we enjoy as a nation.  We are at our best as a nation not by the force of our military might, but when we in humility give thanks for the incredible blessings that we enjoy.

We are now living in the aftermath of the horrific terrorist attack in Paris.  We are mourning the breakdown of the global human family.  How can humans, created in the image of God, choose death rather than life, choose revenge rather than mercy?    How do we continue to anchor our faith life in the love and compassion and forgiveness of Christ Jesus?

May we, with God’s grace, move beyond this senseless cycle of violence to pray for peace and to live in gratitude with the same passion as those who would wage war.    May we wrestle with the Gospel  truth that we will never get out of the mess of the fear and terrorism that we live in by going to war.  The Thanksgiving – Ad vent – Christmas message is to live in hope of the coming of the Prince of Peace.

The threat of terrorism, as unnerving as this is for us, does not give us a free pass on the commandment to love one another.  Love was and is and will always be the first requirement of our discipleship of the Lord Jesus.

On the fourth Thursday of November, we remember our foundational value of gratitude that was expressed back in 1621 by the Pilgrims at that Plymouth Plantation.

For us as Catholic Christians, the first Thanksgiving took place on another Thursday, approximately 2000 years ago, Holy Thursday, in a rented room in Jerusalem where Jesus gathered with his apostles at the Last Supper and celebrated the Eucharist for the first time.

To give thanks is to go to the heart of the Gospel.  Our spiritual lives stem from our gratitude for God’s unconditional love for us for being exactly who we are, no better, no worse, no strings attached.  Lord our God, give us grateful hearts.

In the healing of the ten lepers in the Gospel account, it is important to note well that divine love and healing went out to all the lepers in the Gospel account.  In the same way, we are all the gracious recipients of the unconditional and unending love of God.  God’s love is for everyone but our gratitude response to God’s love is also a most important dimension of our conversion process.  Lord God, give us grateful hearts.

As we reflect on the reaction of the lepers to God’s healing love, when only one came  back to give thanks.  How about ourselves?  Do we always live with grateful hearts?  Are there times when we also  run away from God’s invitation  to love?  Do we run away from God in the midst of life’s struggles?  Do we run away from God’s love when we are fearful?  Lord, give us a trusting heart that is anchored in gratitude for your unconditional love.

I think it can be said with considerable truth that our lives are directed by the stories we choose to dwell  on.  Are the family stories you remember rooted in gratitude?   God gave us a memory so that we can remember and give thanks.  The memory enables us to bring forth from the storeroom of the past the wonderful moments of success, love happiness, so that we can re-live, re-enjoy them and be grateful.  Lord, give me a grateful heart. 

What are your memories in your journey of faith for which we give thanks.  For we wish to pray:  Lord, give me a grateful heart.  I can remember back as a fifth grader at Our Lady of Good Counsel School, as I was training  to be altar boy, my dad taught the Latin responses for the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar.  Introibo ad altare Dei.  Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meanm.  My dad was really proud to see me as an altar boy and I have a grateful heart to my dad for teaching me in Latin the words:  “I will go to the altar of God, to God who gives joy to my youth.”  Those words still have much meaning as I go to the altar of God, to God who gives joy to my youth.”  My memory of my dad’s faith and his desire for me to be an altar boy laid a most beautiful foundation for me in my journey to the priesthood.

May we remember our family stories and our personal faith stories.  They are our truth that helps fashion who we are today.   May we also remember and celebrate the stories of God’s love for us that is revealed in the Scriptures.  As  St Paul writes in the second scripture reading, “ I give thanks to God always for you and for how you have touched my life.”  The Scriptures reveal the story of God’s unending love for us.

When we gather this afternoon around our Thanksgiving table, we will be grateful for the food, of course, but also for belonging – that we are with family and friends who accept us and share our lives.

This morning,  as we feast at the table of the Lord, we are grateful for the food, the bread of the Eucharist that comforts us in this life and nourishes us toward life that is eternal.

And we are grateful for belonging – to this parish community that loves and supports us and we are grateful that we belong, both in life and death, to Jesus our Brother.

Lord Jesus, give us a grateful heart.

On this the last Sunday of the Church year, the Feast of Christ the King, we celebrate that Jesus is the Lord of all creation, the king of the universe.  The Gospel chosen for this feast is taken from the trial scene where Jesus is being interrogated by Pilate, who directly asks Jesus. “Are you the king of the Jews?”  Jesus responded in so many words:  “Why do you ask?”

The evangelist John’s portrayal of Jesus’ trial before Pilate depicts Jesus and Pilate having a rather extended dialogue over Jesus’ identity as a king.  We are left to reflect on what it means to be a king.

Pilate comprehends a rule in which the sovereign can enforce his will.  But everything Jesus is about pertains to another plane, one based on loving relationships.  Jesus draws all people to himself, not by force or fear, but by the example of his life-giving love.

Jesus was certainly a strange kind of king:  Jesus was born in a stable and reached his glory on the cross of Calvary.  I invite you to gaze at our image of the crucified Christ.  Jesus is a king who serves – not one who rules.  Jesus’ dominant ministry is mediating the forgiving love of God to sinful people.

The prayerful question we ask ourselves:  “In what ways is Jesus the ruler, the king of your life?” 

Presently as we are dealing with the fear and threat that was generated by the horrific terrorist attack in Paris last weekend?  Is the message of love and forgiveness professed by Jesus as the Lord of our lives get modified as we are gripped with fear of terrorists?  How safe are we from the threat of senseless violence?  Are we still expected to look with love on those whose hearts may be filled with hate?  Can we welcome refugees with love in our hearts if we are paralyzed by fear that these refugees are a threat to our safety?

We mourn the breakdown of our global family and the violence in so many places when humans created in the image of God choose death instead of life, when they choose revenge instead of mercy.  In the midst, we still ask how is Jesus the king of the culture we live in?

Closer to home, is Jesus the king of your family life?  Is each and every member of your love treated with the love that Jesus has for each member of your family?  How much of a commitment do you have for family prayer?  Can you really say that Jesus is the King of your family life if you are too busy to pray together?

Is Jesus the king of your sexual life?  If we use pornography for our sexual pleasure in ways that does not reflect our profound respect for another’s person’s sexuality, are we really believing that Jesus is the king of our lives?  How much of our hearts are filled with generosity when we reflect on the number of children that we would like for our family?

This weekend we are celebrating our stewardship commitment Sunday, a time to Jesus first – to make him King – in at least three areas of our life  --  our time, talent, and treasure.   We are asking you to place your stewardship commitment card in the second collection today.  If you have forgotten to bring yours, there are extra stewardship cards in the pews.  We invite you to fill out the card now as together we reflect on the stewardship of time, talent, and treasure.  We then ask you to place the stewardship commitment card in the second collection today.

The stewardship of time is your prayer life.  Prayer is our conversation with Jesus.  How often to you talk with Jesus?  Personally I cannot envision a day to go by with our spending some time in prayer.  Can you say that Jesus is the king of your life if prayer is not part of your daily life?  If Christ is the king, the Mass needs to be part of your life Sunday after Sunday after Sunday.

The stewardship of talent is how you use your God-given talents.  In the stewardship of talent, we are called to participate in some dimension of our parish life to serve others in our parish community and to help us be a faith community that gives praise and thanks to God for our blessings.

Is Christ the king of your lives if our participation in our parish amounts to a few minutes each Sunday?  We can sit back and lament that our parish used to be larger than it is now.  We can lament that our youth are not as religious as we are.  Or we can commit ourselves to become part of the solution and be willing to use our talents for the building of our parish community.  If we trust in the kingship of Jesus as the Lord of our parish life, then our future is full of hope.  The spirituality of stewardship calls us to make a commitment to serve, for example, on one of our parish leadership teams.

Is Jesus the king of your hard-earned finances?  How much are we called to share what we have with our Church, with our diocese in the CMA, and with people in need in our community?  If we are able to tithe the biblical 10% of our income, that is incredibly generous.  Do we think in terms of tithing as we value our income?

But still, there is a further question to be asked:   we need to further ask is Jesus the King of your life over how you spend the remaining 90% of your income.

Christ the King won’t ask how many material possessions you have, but He will ask if they dictated your life.

Christ the King won’t ask in what neighborhood you lived, but He will ask how you treated your neighbors.

This weekend we are asked to make a decision on our spirituality of stewardship.  We ask you to take a couple of minutes in quiet or perhaps in filling our stewardship commitment card to be placed in the second collection.  Thank you for your generosity and for your spirituality.

Apocalyptic language is a message of hope.

Autumn now seems to be giving a hint of the winter to come. Many leaves have fallen and others are continuing to fall.  There seems to be more cold darkness as the days grow shorter.  Additionally, the liturgy calls us to consider the end times as we approach the end of the liturgical year.  The first reading from Daniel and the Gospel from Mark uses very apocalyptic language designed to be sensational.  “The sun will be darkened.  The stars will be falling from heaven and the power in the heavens will be shaken.”

They speak of the breakdown of the stable parts of our surroundings.  Yet, apocalyptic language is a message of hope.  Why?  Because Jesus has triumphed over sin and evil.  The ultimate victory belongs to Jesus.  Even though it seems like our world is falling apart, for those who trust in Jesus, the message is always one of hopefulness.

Even before the ultimate end times, all of us at one time or another experience our life being shattered;            

                --we lost our job;

    --our spouse proved unfaithful;

                --we fell into a habit of sinfulness.

                --we learned we were ill;

                --we lost someone dear to us.

Our world fell apart—the sun was darkened; the moon lost its brightness.

But you did not abandon us, Lord God.   In the midst of turmoil, we received a great grace.  We understood for the first time the meaning of our faith.  We discovered inner resources we didn’t know we had; friends rallied around us.

The Gospel calls us to learn a lesson from the fig tree.  Even in the midst of the deep winter of our lives, the twigs on the fig tree have become supple indicating that summer is near.  In the big picture, before this generation has passed away, new and wonderful things will have taken place.

Lord, prayer is trusting totally in your love, knowing with unshakeable confidence that heaven and earth will certainly pass away, but your love for us will not pass away.

Jesus makes it very clear that we do not know when the end will come; of that day or that hour no one knows.  Our task is to act as the people who have been given the responsibility to use creation well, to act as good stewards, and to remember that when we abuse creation, we are breaking God’s fundamental loving trust is us. The creation is God’s; we have been entrusted with it; we are called to be good stewards. 

In our parish, we are beginning a two week cycle of stewardship.  We are inviting all of us to consider the commitment we make in helping us as a parish community to celebrate the spiritual dimension of our lives – the ways we give thanks to the Lord our God in prayer for the blessings of our lives.  We reflect on what it would mean for us to become more than a “one-hour a week” Catholic.  What commitment are you called to make to build our parish community so that we better serve one another and how we witness to the love of Jesus in our community?

What is stewardship?  It is a very biblical word.  From the first pages of the Book of Genesis, we all called to be stewards of God’s creation.  In the sacrament of Baptism, we are missioned to witness to the love of Jesus in the world.  We do this by a stewardship of time, talent, and treasure.

The stewardship of time is our prayer life.  Is prayer a part of our daily lives?  How do we pray? Do we come to Church to participate in our Eucharistic Adoration?   Do we pray with our family?  As a parent, is family prayer a part of the rhythm of your family’s life?  Is the Eucharist a commitment Sunday after Sunday after Sunday?

The talent portion of our stewardship is using our God given talents in the building of our parish community.  How can we get involved in our parish life?  We are having a ministry faire immediately after Mass in our parish life so that you may become more familiar with our parish ministries and that you will make the decision to become involved in one or more of our parish ministries.  This ministry faire is an important part of our stewardship commitment.

We have four parish leadership teams:  worship, faith formation, community building, and operations.  There are multiple ministries within each leadership team.  We would love for you to take a few minutes after Mass to stop down to the parish hall and see how you can become involved in one of our parish ministries.

This coming Wednesday evening at 7:00 pm, I will be an “state of the parish” presentation, and we will dialogue together on the blessings and areas of growth for our parish.  As your schedule, I am hopeful you will join me this Wednesday Evening at 7:00 pm.

The stewardship of treasure is your decision to tithe a portion of your income to the Church for the building of the Body of Christ.  You have received a stewardship commitment card in our parish mailing to you.  Next Sunday is stewardship commitment Sunday in which we ask you place your commitment card in the second collection reflecting your stewardship of time, talent, and treasure.  If you are able to increase your stewardship commitment by a bit, it enables us to expand the ministries of our parish.

Part of the stewardship of treasure is our commitment to the diocesan CMA.  We have become stagnant in reaching our goal of $81,456.   We are stalled at $43, 845 from 220 donors that is 53% of our goal.  We need the support of everyone for us to reach our goal.  We would ask you to consider making your CMA pledge this week.  Thank you so much.

In a few words, the spirituality of stewardship is grounded in our conviction that all is a gift of God.  What is have been given is given for the sharing.  We are missioned to be the stewards of God’s creation.  Each one of us has a responsibility.   With the grace of God and when we work together as the faith community of the Church of the Holy Spirit, all things are possible in Him who strengthens us.

The way through loss and death...is love.

In the first Scripture reading from the book of Kings,  the prophet Elijah was asking the poor widow of Zarephath first for a cup of water and then for a bit of bread.

If we are to understand the widow of Zarephath, we need to notice something about her that has not been probably part of our experience:  she is starving.  She and her son have strictly rationed themselves as their store of food diminished.  Meals would have gotten fewer and fewer.  She and her son must have been wasting away long before they got to the last handful of flour.

Yet when a stranger asked her for something to eat, she looked him in the face – and did not say no.

Would we have the compassion of the widow of Zarephath who was worried not just about herself but about her son a well.  She gave to the stranger the food she had saved for her son.

There is such an important lesson here.

To give from our livelihood is not only an act of generosity; it is also an act of trust in God.  We can give from our need only if we trust that God will provide for us.  Jesus himself demonstrates the ultimate act of generosity and trust in God as he gives his life for us on the cross.

And as the Scripture tells us, she was rewarded for that trust in God:  “her jar flour did not run dry.”

When does our giving and giving generously challenge us that we have to trust in God for that next bit of bread?  Have we challenged ourselves to give generously as the widows in today’s scriptures?

But looking at the readings today from the book of Kings and Mark’s Gospel, I was struck by something else.

The readings are about giving, yes, and giving generously.

They are also about something unexpected.  They are about loss, and death.  The two women in these readings are widows.  Once, they loved someone, and depended upon him.  But death changed everything.  Their life has changed.  A widow’s life can be very difficult.  They are grieving.  Financially they are suffering significant hardships. 

And yet.

The widows we meet today at instead of hoarding their assets for themselves, and holding on to whatever they could.  They surrendered.  They gave of themselves, however they could, whatever they could.  A little cup of flour, a couple of small coins.  They held nothing back.

And they were blessed.

There is a lesson we all need to hear.  We may suffer losses that rob us of those we love.  We may grieve, and we may mourn, and we may ask ourselves “Why?”

But the way through loss, the way through death… is love.  Opening our hearts.  Giving ourselves.  Holding nothing back. 

The Scriptures give us a powerful message about grieving.  “Blessed are they who mourn; for they will be comforted.”  Jesus and his mother Mary have taught us how to grieve.  Yes, we are to be in touch with the loss we experience, the loved one we miss so deeply.  We certainly are not to sweep our feelings under the carpet and pretend to be brave. 

As did the widows in the scriptures today, the great lesson in grieving is to hold nothing back, to continue to serve, and most importantly, continue to trust in God.  “And the jar of flour will not run dry.”

Pope Francis has often told us that the poor have much to teach us.  Today’s scriptures are beautiful examples.  These widows had no one to speak on behalf of their needs.  It would be easy to take advantage of them.  Yet, what they teach is about faith.  When we trust in God, our lives are very much blessed.  These widows know a truth about the spiritual life that too often escapes us.

These widows through the loss and death of their husbands came to the profound realization of the faith journey.  The poverty of the poor opens their hearts to turn to trust in God as the source of all blessings.  As a result they can give to the stranger their lasts cup of flour or the last penny to their name.  God will not abandon them.

For ourselves, as we pray over the scriptures, are their parallels in our lives with the poor widows of the Scriptures?  Please God we have a ton of money.  Your response to that:  “Wait a minute, Father, money doesn’t grow on trees with our family.  We need to be very frugal with our resources.”  I really, really understand that, but it is also true we do not experience the poverty and hunger that so many hungry people experience around the world.  Comparatively speaking, we are very blessed.

Friday afternoon, I celebrated Mass with many widows at Penfield Place nursing home.  As you know, the lives of nursing home residents are very much simplified.  Their faith comes from this simple trust that we can do all things in whom who strengthens us.  Nursing home residents do not have the mobility that you and I enjoy, but these residents have much to teach us in their simple trust that God will provide for us and that our lives are very much blessed.

As Pope has said, the poor have much to teach us:

n  We are to give and to give generously.

n  When we give from our need, we simply trust in God’s unending love.

n  The way through loss and death is ---- to love.

Blessed are those who have to rely on God for every breath they take.

The blessedness of the beatitudes are for people who have invited Christ into their daily lives.    Their blessedness is an inner blessedness, an inner joy that comes from trusting and rejoicing and being grateful for God’s unending love for us.  In the beatitudes, we see the heart of God.   Saints are people who are aware of God’s great love for them, and are witnesses of the love of Jesus in the world.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the poor in spirit…The poor in spirit are those who know that stand in need of God’s redeeming love.  Our wealth doesn’t come from are material assets; our real wealth comes from in God’s healing love for us.  To tap into God’s unending love for us, we need first to recognize our need for God’s grace.  This is to say we need to recognize our poverty of spirit which moves us to find an inner blessedness that is God’s gift to us.  Blessed are those who have to rely on God for every breath they take.

The greatest spiritual deception of all is thinking we are self-righteousness; that our spiritual will power is the source of our holiness.  That is the biggest illusion of all.  The spiritual life begins with our need for God.  Left to ourselves, we are poor; we stand in need.  The grace of this situation is that it can lead us to trust not in ourselves, but to trust in God.

And so the beatitude, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.

Reflecting on the beatitudes is a wonderful introduction to the Jubilee Year of Mercy that Pope Francis has announced for our Church.

In preparing for the day that I was ordained a priest, I had 12 years of seminary formation – four years of high school, four years of college, and four years of theology.  I spent a lot of time in the classroom.  When I think of the seminary formation of the first apostles, Jesus enrolled them in the school of mercy.  The disciples of Jesus found themselves in a continual classroom for learning how to be merciful.  They listened to Jesus preach about forgiveness.  They watched as Jesus healed the sick, expelled demons and forgave sinners.

Yet the deepest lessons for the disciples occurred when they themselves went through a heartbreaking baptism of mercy.  The Gospels tell of the disciples’ constant failure to understand Jesus and his mission.  They think they are on the way to power and greatness.  They are dismayed when Jesus predicts his suffering and rejection in Jerusalem. 

The whole story reveals that the disciples had to experience their own need for mercy so that they would be prepared to preach it to others.  For example, Peter, the leader, undergoes a profound failure, denying any relation with Jesus in his hour of need. 

St. Paul, like St. Peter, is prepared for his mission as Apostle to the Gentiles by his own wrenching experience of failure and conversion.  Again, it might seem strange that God would choose an enemy of  the church to be its greatest evangelist, until we realize that Paul’s conversion was essential to his conversion.

The baptism of mercy of Pete and Paul was to recognize the left to their own devices, they were on a sinking ship.  Conversion happened when they made the leap of faith in trusting in God for every breath they took.

It was so in the time of Jesus.  Her was welcomed by sinners but rejected by respectable people, especially religious leaders.  They saw Jesus as undermining morality by being too easy on sinners and lawbreakers.

In our day, Pope Francis has stated in his Apostolic Exhortation the Joy of the Gospel that this same resistance to mercy has in many ways come to characterize the institutional Church.  Pope Francis seeks to revitalize the Church by insisting we be a Church of Mercy;  we are to share the joy of the Gospel with one and all. 

Pope Francis is calling the whole church to a conversion that comes from our poverty of spirit.  Blessed are the poor in spirit.  Blessed are those whose wealth comes from their trust in the merciful love of Jesus.

Francis has preached the Gospel with his smile and his eagerness to embrace God’s people.  The pope has also preached the Gospel by making mercy our highest priority.  The leadership of Pope Francis helps us to discover the merciful love of Jesus.

The parables of Jesus are stories of mercy.   The Parable of the Prodigal Son identifies the deepest obstacle to mercy.  Those who feel they have never received mercy themselves find it hardest to let God give it to others.  This can be seen in the behavior of the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son.  He wasn’t able to celebrate with his younger brother because he was not aware of the father’s merciful love for him.

Mercy comes from mercy.  Our mercy to each other comes from God’s mercy to us.

What about ourselves?   What about our Church?  How aware are we that we are the generous recipients of God’s merciful love?  Are there ways we are reluctant to share the merciful love of Jesus with others?  You can be sure if we are reluctant to be a Church of mercy, a Church extravagant in witnessing to God’s unconditional for one and all,  we ourselves need to go back to the first beatitude.  Blessed are the poor in spirit.  Out of our poverty, out of our brokenness of spirit, may we experience the conversion of relying more fully on God’s grace.  May we receive the grace of experiencing more fully of God’s merciful love that is extended to us.  Blessed are they who rely on God for every breath they take.