Our Old Testament Reading today comes from the book of Wisdom, or as some call it, The Wisdom of Solomon.  Now, most scholars agree that King Solomon, did not, in fact, write this book, but say that it was written in honor of him, using things he did write and things he said.   During the Reformation, Martin Luther discarded this book of the Bible, along with others, whilst the more Liturgical churches retained them.   Melito of Sardis in the 2nd century AD, Augustine (c. 397 AD) and Pope Innocent I (405 AD) considered Wisdom of Solomon as part of the Old Testament. Athanasius writes that the Book of Wisdom along with three other deuterocanonical books, while not being part of the Canon, “were appointed by the Fathers to be read”.  In Matthew 12 Jesus quotes from this book.  SO….having said all that, this is today’s reading:

There is no god besides you who have the care of all, that you need show you have not unjustly condemned.  For your might is the source of justice; your mastery over all things makes you lenient to all.  For you show your might when the perfection of your power is disbelieved; and in those who know you, you rebuke temerity.  But though you are master of might, you judge with clemency, and with much lenience you govern us; for power, whenever you will, attends you.  And you taught your people, by these deeds, that those who are just must be kind; and you gave your children good ground for hope  that you would permit repentance for their sins.   WIS 12:13, 16-19

At the risk of being accused of “cherry picking,” I want to focus on these verses:  For your might is the source of justice, you judge with clemency, and with much lenience you govern us; And you taught your people, by these deeds, that those who are just must be kind;

So let’s think about that.  The author(s) of the Book of Wisdom, in praising God have said that God judges with clemency, he judges with leniency, and has taught us that those who are just must be kind.

Well now…….Three key words:  clemency, leniency, kindness.  Clemency is defined as “mercy.”  Leniency is defined as “quality of being more merciful or tolerant than expected.”   Kindness is defined as “the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate.”

How many times must it be repeated?  Be merciful.  Be kind.  Show love.  It’s pretty much one of the key recurring factors of Jesus’s ministry.  Love God.  Love people.  Love God.  Love people.

Jesus tells us in John 13:34-35, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”    How do we show that love?  Again, Jesus tell us, and again, very specifically in Matthew 25:35-45:   For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,  I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’   “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?  When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?  When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’  “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’  “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.  For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,  I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’   “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

The least of these….who then, are ‘the least of these’ in today’s society?   Probably those who make many of us uncomfortable.  The homeless?  People who are a different color?  People who are of a different color?  Sexual orientation?  Ethnicity? Who are “the least of these” to you?

Stephen Mattson writes:

Throughout his ministry, Jesus showed that he did, indeed, love everyone, even to the point of dying for their sins, but you know,  he went out of his way to intentionally help specific groups of people — the alienated, mistreated, and those facing injustice.  Throughout his earthly ministry:

Jesus said, “Samaritan lives matter.”

Jesus said, “Children’s lives matter.”

Jesus said, “Gentile lives matter.”

Jesus said, “Jewish lives matter.”

Jesus said, “Women’s lives matter.”

Jesus said, “Lepers’ lives matter.”

Christians must recognize that our society today is filled with numerous groups and communities facing systemic oppression, and we must act. We must be willing to admit and address the complex realities within our world that create such problems,  and avoid the spiritual laziness that tempts us to rely on generic excuses and solutions.

Christians do a disservice to the gospel message by removing the cultural context from Jesus’s ministry and watering down his message to one of religious platitudes. We like to generalize the words of Jesus and transform his life into a one-size-fits-all model that can apply to all of humanity.  He intentionally, purposefully, and passionately addressed very specific causes. He radically addressed the diverse and complicated conflicts of the time and shattered the status quo.  Are we, as Christians, not called to do the same?  By addressing racism, immigration, gender equality, and a litany of other issues, we are following in the steps of Jesus.

Justice.  Mercy.  Kindness.  Love God.  Love people.

Amen.

 

Reading 1: EPH 2:19=22

R psalm: Mark 6:15

Gospel: JN 20:24=29

Today’s we come together to commemorate the Feast of St Thomas the Apostle, often nicknamed ‘Doubting Thomas’,because on Easter Sunday after Mary had seen Jesus, he went to the room where the disciples were and suddenly appears to them despite locked doors and they could clearly see the wounds to His hands and side. Jesus tells them, “Peace be with you”. The disciples believed.

Thomas however, wasn’t with the other Apostles when Jesus had appeared to them, and when Thomas arrived after Jesus had left them, the other disciples told Thomas about Jesus visiting them, but Thomas didn’t believe, he told them, “Unless I see Jesus for myself, and can touch His wounds, I won’t believe.” I can easily imagine that Thomas may have thought the other apostles were teasing him; or why wouldn’t Jesus have stayed long enough until he had managed to arrive?

The next week however, the disciples are gathered together again, this time Thomas was with them. Jesus suddenly appeared and told Thomas to put his hands on His and to feel his wounds. Thomas does so, and Jesus asked Thomas, “Do you believe because you have seen me?” and he tells him, “Blessed are those who do not see yet believe.”

Can you imagine what it would be like to be mainly remembered by many because of our greatest moment of doubt? Haven’t we all doubted at one time or another? I can tell you that I have once or twice. Thomas therefore, is the disciple to whom all of us can relate. Most of us have experienced what it is to live between faith and doubt at some point.

Most people tend to think that Faith and doubt are opposites, but in true fact, it is often a part of our faith journey. It is a stop, or a bump in the road that most of us would’ve made more than once on our journey. This doesn’t make us bad Christians or believers. Indeed, rather, it can be seen as a sign that we take our relationship with God seriously that we allow ourselves to walk the journey of faith without knowing for certain through what we will be travelling.

Christian tradition tells us that Thomas set sail for India and indeed was the first to spread Christianity there. He is the Patron Saint of India.

The doubt that Thomas previously had, was what brought him faith and that faith was such that he brought the message of Christ to many.

We all have times of doubt, at least all of us that see faith as a true journey, not a one=time stop gap. Doubt can actually propel us to faith, and can be what gives us the shake up we may at times need. It can be what sends us out of our comfort zones and into a new and better world. Doubt can act like a ticket that starts us truly on our journey to a whole new life of faith. It can be a sign of not the absence of God as many may think, but rather of God working within us to do something new.

Let us pray:

O Glorious St Thomas, your grief for Jesus was such that it wouldn’t allow you to to believe that he had risen until you saw him and touched his wounds. But your love for Jesus was equally great and it led you to give up your life for Him.

Pray for us, that we may grieve for our sins which were the cause of Christ’s sufferings. Help us to spend our lives in His service and so to be Blessed, which Our Lord Jesus applied to those who would believe in Him without seeing Him.

Amen.

Saint Dominic carried the Gospel of Matthew with him wherever he went.  That is the reason that we see a book in most of the representations of St. Dominic, both in statue and paintings.  Our Gospel today comes from the Gospel According to St. Matthew:

Jesus said to his apostles:  “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me,
and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;  and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.   Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

“Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.  Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward.  And whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink because the little one is a disciple—amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward.”  Matthew 10:37-42

So, just what is Jesus saying here?  When you get right down to it and boil it down to its most simple terms, Our Lord is saying what he says in Matthew 22:36-40:

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

There you have it.  Put God first.  Love people.    It kind of reminds me of that old comedy skit, “Whose On First?”  Only now, the question tends to be, “Who do you serve first?”  Sounds simple, right? God first, right?  Then people.  Umm…not so much.  In today’s world, with a global pandemic, racial tensions and protests, what are we doing to show who we  love best?  God?  Our politics?  Our nation?  What people believe our Constitution says?  What we want to believe?  Or, again, does our God come first?

Again, Our Lord speaks to us in Matthew 25:

34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ 37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’  40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’  41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’  44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’  45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’  46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

Can we not apply these words to what is going on in our country today?  Perhaps if Jesus were in the middle of us here, he would be saying, “You saw me oppressed and discriminated against and did nothing.  You saw me vulnerable and refused to follow health guidelines”

We were, all of us, created with that pesky little thing called ‘free will,’ that allows us to choose how to behave, how to act.  God is not going to force any of us to do anything, just as He does not force us to believe in Him, worship Him, or follow Him.  It is time to stop giving lip service to our faith and actually live it.  If we truly believe that God comes first in our lives, then it is time for us to, as they say, “put up or shut up.”   It is up to each of us to conduct ourselves in a manner fitting our faith.    We cannot profess to be a Christian and then sit back and do nothing to heal our nation, our society, and our brothers and sisters.

How, you ask?

Lobby for changes to discriminatory laws.  Actively seek out social justice.  Keep the conversation going.  Educate yourself.  Make your voice heard.  Donate.  Protest.   Don’t avoid the discomfort you’re feeling.  The past few weeks have been uncomfortable. We are supposed to be uncomfortable.  Recognize that the ability to quickly move past the feelings that have been brought up in response to the things happening in our country and world is an absolute privilege, one that many people don’t have. The people who move past them are those who don’t harbor continual fear over the same thing happening to themselves or to their loved ones.  Systematic injustices can only become invisible if they don’t affect you.  Sit with the discomfort you’re feeling instead of ignoring it. Reflect on your own privilege and how you can do better for ALL people in the future. And then decide which actions you’re going to take going forward.

Ask yourself, what comes first, your politics, your race, your nationalism, your guns, or your God?

“But,” you say, “if I do those things, what if I make some people mad?  What if I lose friends?”  Again, I will refer you to what our Lord says:  “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;  and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.   Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. “

Isn’t it time that we, as Christians, start putting Christ first, start putting his people first?  Isn’t it time that we as true followers of the Jesus that we proclaim learn to treasure what we have been given?   Work for justice.  Work for peace.  Work for understanding. Fred Kaan, the lyricist, has written a hymn that is especially meaningful for today:

 

Put peace into each other’s hand and like a treasure hold it;

protect it like a candle flame, with tenderness enfold it.

Put peace into each other’s hand with loving expectation;

be gentle in your words and ways, in touch with God’s creation.

Put peace into each other’s hand like bread we break for sharing;

look people warmly in the eye:  Our life is meant for caring.

Give thanks for strong yet tender hands, held out in trust and blessing.

Where words fall short, let hands speak out, the heights of love expressing.

Put peace into each other’s hand he is love’s deepest measure;

in love make peace, give peace a chance and share it like a treasure.

Let us pray:

God, we pray that Your Spirit may rule over all things.  May Your Spirit rule over kings and presidents over prime ministers and generals over CEOs and party bosses over the legislature and over the bureaucrats over all citizens.  May Your Spirit guide us on the way of peace on the way of honest dialogue on the way of reconciliation between peoples on the way of disarmament and justice on the way of freedom and life for all.

May Your Spirit lead us on the journey of blessings shared with all on the journey of educational  opportunity for all our children on the adventure of research and study that helps all men and women on the road to meaningful work for all people on the path of solidarity and love between all our brothers and sisters.

May Your Spirit help us to speak up with courage to share what we have and what we are to challenge the powers that be to offer a message of liberation and life. We make this prayer through Christ, our Lord.   Amen

 

 

 

 

 

 

Liturgical Context:

First Reading: Genesis 1:1-2:4a

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 8:1-9

Second Reading: 2 Cor 13:11-13

Gospel: Matt: 28:16-20

Homily:

Soon after my twins started their catechesis this fall, they learned the Sign of the Cross:

“In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”. They were so excited that

they could finally participate in at least one of the many incomprehensible things about the Mass

they attended each week. Slowly, they were beginning to do the things the grownups and older

kids were doing—they were becoming part of the community. Soon after, I got the inevitable

question: “What is the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit?” The only thing sadder than my

struggle to explain the Trinity to an 8-year-old was their attempt to understand what I was

saying. In the end, they let me off easy and chalked it up to something that would become

clearer as they got older. But, as we adults know, it is not quite that easy.

The Trinity. It is the most fundamental dogma of the Catholic faith and yet the most

difficult to understand. We cannot truly follow Christ until we know who He truly is, and we

cannot know who He truly is until we understand the Trinity. For those unfamiliar with the dogma

of the Trinity or who have not been formed in the Christian faith, the Trinity seems like a useless

theological parlor game. Three persons in one God, each distinct but all part of a single Deity:

distinct, equal, inseparable. Why is it necessary to make God so complicated? What difference

does the Trinity make to our salvation and to our faith in Jesus? The answer is, like the Trinity

itself, deceptive simple. God is love, as John 4:7-21 says. God is love. And if God is love, then

 

the Trinity is Love. God is one love expressed in three persons, three kinds of loving

relationships. Our Second Reading from 2 Corinthians 13:13 expresses this so succinctly: “The

grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all

of you”. We will use Paul’s summation of the Trinity to guide us through our reflection on the

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Our reading from Corinthians speaks of the “love of God”. We believe the first “person”

of the Trinity is God the Father. So, let’s start here. Scripture tells us that God created us from

his own spirit. Genesis says, “And the Lord God formed man of the slime of the earth: and

breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul” (2:7). So, the Father’s

love is one of giving us life from His own breath, His own essence. Maybe more important for

us living as sinners on this earth, is the fact that God the Father not only created us from His

own essence, but he also created us from His own goodness. Genesis 1:31 tells us that after

God the Father made the universe, He “saw all the things that he had made, and they were very

good.” (Gen 1:31). And to emphasize this creative love and goodness, God the Father gave us

another gift: His son, our Lord Jesus Christ. John 3:16 tells us in that famous passage: “For

God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in Him, may

not perish, but may have life everlasting”. So God the Father gave us another creation, the

Incarnation of Jesus Christ, the Word made Flesh for us; another free gift that had within it not

only God the Father’s creative love but also the very epitome of his creative goodness.

The second “person” of the Trinity is God the Son, Jesus Christ. In His Son Jesus, God

the Father makes His redemptive love, His sacrificial love, manifest in a new way. I want to be

clear here, God the Father has always had a redemptive and sacrificial love for humanity—this

is not a new love. Jesus Christ, who was with the Father since the beginning, does not undo

what His Father created; He only creates a new way for us to make relationship with the same

old love God the Father had for the Israelites throughout the Old Testament. Our reading

 

speaks of the “grace of the Lord Jesus Christ”, part of this grace Jesus imparts to us as a free

gift is his wonderful new commandment. Remember the 10 Commandments in the Old

Testament? These don’t go away, but Jesus sums them up in a new way in John 13:34: “A new

commandment I give unto you: That you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also

love one another”. But, one might say, God the Father gave commandments and covenants all

through the Old Testament and the Israelites kept breaking them, how is this new

commandment any different? The answer is that this new commandment did not come down

written on tablets of stone but came down written on the Sacred Heart of Jesus Himself. Jesus

died for us. He willingly surrendered his divine self so that he could be the least of us, the poor,

the scorned, the unfairly accused, the beaten, the tortured, the executed. Jesus, the living gift

of God the Father, freely chooses to give us His own gift, the gift of His death and resurrection.

From this supreme gift, we have the gift of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, which re-creates us

in the original love and goodness of the Father and allows us to preserve the bond of grace and

love we have with God, despite our faults and failures.

 

The third “person” of the Trinity is the Holy Spirit. To understand the Holy Spirit, we can

go back to the passage from our Gospel reading where Jesus says in Matthew 28:20, “and

behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world”. Jesus makes this

promise because He intends to ask the Father to send a comforter, who will stay with humanity

in in all times and in all places. In John 14:16, Jesus says: “And I will ask the Father, and he

shall give you another Paraclete, that he may abide with you forever”. As we have seen, God

the Father gave us life and the Law and His only begotten Son. God the Son gave us His new

commandment of love, his life and resurrection, and the Holy Spirit. But what does the Holy

Spirit give? The Holy Spirit gives us the free gift of grace of belonging, that gift that allow us to

live in the love and goodness of God and serve Him. This is the “communion of the Holy Spirit

that our reading from Corinthians speaks about. Paul says it best in 1 Corinthians 12, 7-13:

 

“Now there are diversities of graces, but the same Spirit… And the manifestation

of the Spirit is given to every man unto profit. To one indeed, by the Spirit, is

given the word of wisdom: and to another, the word of knowledge, according to

the same Spirit;…But all these things one and the same Spirit worketh, dividing

to every one according as he will…For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one

body, whether Jews or Gentiles, whether bond or free; and in one Spirit we have

all been made to drink.

 

So, the Holy Spirit gives us the grace of serving others and the grace of being served by others.

 

And so the Trinity is Love. A gift of love that keeps giving until the end of time. It is

God’s embarrassment of riches in His desire to love us. It is a love that creates us in goodness,

loved by the Father; redeems us in goodness, loved by the Son, and keeps us in the grace of

belonging to that supreme goodness that is the Church, loved by the Holy Spirit. The Trinity is

one God and one love expressed in three “Persons” that invite us to three different relationships

with love and with each other. And so, as I think about it: I do have an answer for children who

ask what the Trinity is and for those, young at heart, who still care enough to question: The

Trinity is God’s loophole of love—in an irrepressible and unrelenting passion for us, God defies

His own laws of physics to love us three times as much with one heart. And this is the love that

Jesus commands us to impart in our Gospel when he invites us to “Go therefore, teach ye all

nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. (Matt.

28:19).