Gospel, Homily and Coffee

We remember that Jesus preached repentance, which literally meant, “change the direction of our lives.” The Resurrection is the culmination of repentance. Resurrection is about experiencing life. And to have life, always we have to look at how we are living, and make changes to realize that life The Resurrection calls us to change the direction of our lives; Christ invites to examine our lives and change, the Resurrection is experienced as we change the direction of our lives. So where are we going?  Where are we going?  Or as some of us who remember a certain movie “Quo Vadis? If we truly want to experience Life, to have life in the full, for which Jesus came, we must see where we are going, and make those course correction.   We must “Recalculate” as our GPS will say. Look at this gospel.  Two disciples of Jesus, walking away from Jerusalem.  It is clear they are walking in the wrong direction. Why?  Why do they walk in the wrong direction? The

Jesus preached repentance, meaning change the way we see and act:  Go in a different direction. The Resurrection is the epitome of repentance:  is moves us to see differently, so that we can experience the fullness of life. The Resurrection is about inviting us to see ourselves and life differently The Resurrection changes the direction of our lives. See our Gospel passage this day. The disciples see the Risen Lord; they have had their first experience of the Resurrection, but...it is still incomplete.  They “only” see a Risen Jesus. Thomas sees the Risen Lord, and sees more.   He sees the Reality of God in Jesus. Thomas makes THE most profound statement of the Gospels.  He equates Jesus as God. What helped him to see?   I don’t think it was just seeing the wounds.  Something else occurred, or actually did not occur, depends on our perspective. What did Jesus NOT do to Thomas...He did not punish him for his doubts.  He did show mercy.   I think this is w

Hay tantos voces gritando a nosotros. Hay esos voces dentro de nuestra comunidad y el mundo que tratan a disminuirnos. Qué somos dignos si hablamos la lengua correcta, si tenemos mucho dinero, estaremos en el barrio apropiado. Voces diciendo que somos dignos por de donde somos, por el color de nuestra piel, dignos por el estatus de nuestra ciudadanía, dignos por nuestra religión Pero...    Hay un voz que dice:  Eres dignos. Hay tantos voces gritando a nosotros, diciéndonos que necesitamos a tener los cuerpos bellos, a comprar las cosas correctas y muchas de las cosas, Voces demandando que comportamos en una manera específica. Voces gritando que es necesario a ganar más y más dinero y a trabajar más y más, y ignorar nuestros esposos, hijos, amigos. Y hay un voc que dice:  Te Amo. Hay las voces en nuestras mentes que dice somos tontos, bajos, nada Que somos solos. Voces que nos dicen que somos inconvenientes, inútiles. Voces que nos dicen que podemo

There are so many voices yelling at us.  There are those voices from within our community & world that want demean us.  These voices say we are only worthy if we speak the correct language, vote a certain way; we are worthy if we have the correct amount of money, live in the right neighborhood.  Voices saying we are worthy by virtue of where we were born, by the color of our skin, worthy by what our citizenship status is or is not.  Voices that tell us we need to be the “correct” religion.  Yet.. There is one voice that says: You are worthy.  There are so many other voices that yell at us, telling us we need to have the most beautiful bodies, that we need to buy all the right things to be good; so many voices that yell at us that tell us how to act.  Voices that say we must have the best job that makes the most money, and we must devote all our hours to this job and ignore our spouses, our children, our friends  And there is one voice that says: I love you. 

I think that all of the human condition is on display in the Passion reading. In all of its bravado and in all of its destruction. There is the greed, false bravery, egotism, the use of violence as a means to resolve conflicts; There are people controlled by their fear, by their anger, by their desire for power. People controlled by their ignorance, lack of vision, ideology and politics. There are people more interested in destruction. The results:  death. And sadly, the human condition still exists as this to this very day, to the very moment. It in the racism that persists in our communities:  how we are scared to share resources or what we call power, so we demean others. We see it in the poverty in how the poor are abused by a system; arrested and fined for jaywalking in our cities, further burdening them, all trying to force the people away from sight. Or in how their homes are taken away from them; forced to move for “Development” It is present in

Jesus said, in John 10:10 that he came so that we may life in the full; Salvation is to have life in the full. Now later in John, Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.  I think there is so much here for us to chew on. Why did Jesus even permit Lazarus to die in the first place?  He could have cured him, even by his word far away.  Where is this fullness of Life? Jesus gives us reason for his actions.  Yet I think if we were there at the moment, it would be an odd answer: so that we would believe.  Believe in What?  Or rather whom? Jesus is the resurrection; he is the way, the truth and the life.  He is our salvation, our way to the fullness of life.  Not just fullness of life in heaven, but here in our reality today. The raising of Lazarus points to this, but more importantly it will be Jesus’ own resurrection that reveals the fullness of life; and what life is all about. Here is the the issue or the question:  What do we really expect from Jesus?  How do we really exp