“The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy” (Psalm 126).

On this Second Sunday of Advent, the first reading from the book of the prophet Baruch speaks of the dignity that is about to be restored to the city of Jerusalem as those who had been exiled are about to return to the city. The prophet had witnessed the humiliation of Jerusalem, as it had been captured by the Babylonians, and its people were carried off into the Babylonian exile in the years 587-588 B.C.. For the Jewish people, to lose the city of Jerusalem and to be carried away from it was to lose that holy place where they were to encounter and live with God in their midst. God had given them this city and land as a place for them to be His people and live in His presence. The exile from Jerusalem was not unlike the exile from the Garden of Eden experienced by Adam and Eve when they turned away from God through sin. Carried away from Jerusalem, the Jewish people were carried away from the city in which they encountered God in the His Temple. As the prophet speaks about this longed for return to God’s Holy City for the Jewish people, Baruch also speaks about the manner in which God will fill in the valleys of hardship that the people have experienced and make everything as though it had been a smooth plain. This is to state that God’s love will fill up all the voids and hardships that His people had suffered through this time of exile. With God’s love and mercy, all will be well.Continue Reading “The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy” (Psalm 126)

“I am the Alpha and Omega.” Says the Lord God, “the one who is and who was and who is to come, the almighty” (Revelation 1: 8).

 On the last Sunday of every liturgical year, which this Sunday is, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Christ the King—King of the Universe. Next Sunday, we will begin a new liturgical year as we celebrate the First Sunday of Advent.Continue Reading Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe: King of All Brothers and Sisters

Have you ever had a bright light shone in your eyes? When this happens, it can become impossible to see or notice anything else as a result of the light’s intensity. Many people who perform on stage say that the light can be so bright that even if the theatre is full, all they are able to see in the assembly is the bright light shining in their face. This is an image that I would like to come back to in a few minutes.

Today, in the Archdiocese of Toronto, we are celebrating the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel. We are doing so because Archbishop Leo has asked that we celebrate the feast of our Archdiocesan patron. The feast that we are actually celebrating today is the Feast of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. So happy feast day to all who are named Michael, Gabriel or Raphael. Angels are created beings who are messengers of God. Angels have a mission to bring a message on behalf of God. The guardian angels have been created to bring a message of God’s particular care and love for each of us. The Archangels are those that are given a more important task or message from God. Michael, who is known as the prince of the angels, is known as the “one who is like God.” It is his job to defend people from Satan and to protect us from temptation. Gabriel is known as “strength from God,” and because he is often entrusted with an important message from God, he is known as the messenger of God. Raphael is known as the “healing power of God,” and is best known for his saving work on behalf Sarah and Tobias in the book of Tobit. As messengers of God, the work of the angels is always involved with protecting us from what will threaten our salvation, bring God’s healing presence, or announce His good news.Continue Reading The Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael: Messengers of God’s Love for All People

There is a man, by the name of Winston, whom you will often find sitting on the rock in front of St. Peter’s Church. Much like the man in the famous statue called ‘The Thinker,” Winston does a lot of thinking. Winston is a person who has been homeless and lived for many years on the streets of our city. Often Winston transports all of his belongings in two or three different grocery carts. He frequently attends the parish’s Winter Welcome Table Program in the Winter. I think Winston reads all of the newspapers that are published in the city and knows about the political situation around the world. Although I do not think that Winston is Catholic, I like to think of Winston as the parish philosopher. He is keenly concerned for justice and desires a solution to many of the world’s problems. When Archbishop Leo visited the parish, he and Winston discussed at length many of the problems and challenges in the world today. Winston, as I believe most of us do, would love to see a world without poverty, war, suffering and injustice.Continue Reading ‘May the Lord Jesus, who made the deaf to hear and the mute to speak, grant that you may soon receive his word with your ears and profess the faith with your lips, to the glory and praise of God the Father. Amen” (The Ephphetha Prayer from the rite of Baptism of Infants)

In our first reading this Sunday, from the Book of Deuteronomy, we hear the people of Israel asking what other nation has a god who lives so closely with them as the God of Israel dwells with them. They believed that by observing the commandments, they were God’s people and God dwelt with them. As the psalmist proclaims: “The one who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord.” As a sign that the Lord lived with them, the people of Israel kept the Ark of the Covenant, containing the Ten Commandments given them by God, in the Temple in Jerusalem.

For us as Christians, the idea that God dwells with us actually takes on a much greater significance. We believe that God sends His Holy Spirit to dwell in our hearts. We no longer have the idea that God dwells in a building. For the Christian, each human being is called to be a Temple of the Holy Spirit. This reality, that God desires to come and dwell within us, is why Jesus places such a significance on the interior life. In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus draws our attention to the reality that it is what is in a person’s heart that determines whether the Lord Himself is able to dwell within that heart. As many of the great spiritual writers of our tradition have written, God cannot dwell in a heart that is full of hatred, envy, pride and greed. The heart must be a place that is open and free to contain the Lord.Continue Reading “Hear me all who understand. Nothing that enters one form outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from the heart are what defile” (Mark 7:15)

This Sunday, after six weeks of reading it at the Sunday Masses, we conclude the Bread of Life discourse from the Gospel of John. As it comes to a close, we hear the reaction of those who have heard Jesus say: “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” For many of Jesus’ contemporary listeners, the idea of eating His flesh and drinking His blood is incomprehensible and they reject the idea completely. And yet, while in many other cases when He is misunderstood, He explains himself more clearly, on this matter Jesus does not back away from his insistence that those who wish to have eternal life must consume His Body and drink His Blood. Unable to accept this idea, many of His followers state that it is a teaching that it is difficult to accept. We are told at this point, that many of Jesus’ followers turned away and no longer followed Him. When He asks the twelve if they also wish to leave, they do not indicate that they understand, they simply state that they have nowhere else to go because in faith they affirm that He has the words of eternal life and they have “come to believe and know that [Jesus] is the Holy one of God.”Continue Reading “Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for He is our God” (Joshua 24: 18b)

This Sunday’s first reading, from the Book of Proverbs, contains an invitation that anticipates the great gift which Jesus will make to the Church in the gift of His Body and Blood— “Come, eat my food and drink of the wine….” Since the pandemic, throughout the world, it seems that people have lost sight of the importance of this great invitation. I regret to say, some of the changes in attitude towards the importance of the obligation to attend Sunday Mass, had to do with the message that people might have interpreted Church closures and restrictions in numbers, during these extraordinary conditions, to mean that attendance at Sunday Mass in normal circumstances was not important. However, as we hear Jesus say categorically in this Sunday’s Gospel, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink of His Blood, you do not have life within you,” it is important to emphasize just how crucially important our reception of the Eucharist at Sunday Mass really is to our faith life and our relationship to Christ and His Church.Continue Reading “Come, eat of my food and drink of the wine…” (Proverbs 9:5)