April 29 Monday (St. Catherine of Siena):
The context: Today’s Gospel describes the night
visit of Nicodemus with Jesus. Nicodemus was a rich Jewish rabbi and one of the
seventy members of Sanhedrin. Later in his Gospel, John shows us how Nicodemus
argued for a fair trial for Jesus (7:51) and how he cooperated with Joseph of
Arimathea to bury Jesus (19:38). Nicodemus came to Jesus convinced that obeying
the Mosaic Law and offering the prescribed sacrifices were enough for one’s
eternal salvation.
Hence, Jesus plainly tells him that in order to be saved he
has to be born again of water and the Holy Spirit (through Baptism). Jesus
further explains that his disciples have two lives, namely natural and
supernatural, and two births, namely a physical birth from one’s mother as her
son or daughter and a supernatural birth from God through Baptism as God’s
child, a member of His family in the Church and an heir of Heaven. The
supernatural birth is possible only when one is baptized into Christ and
receives the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Life message: 1) We need to remember that
rebirth by water and the Holy Spirit is a continuous process for Christians.
For that process of rebirth to take place, we need, every day, to repent of our
sins and try, with His grace, to renew our lives through prayer, our sacramental
life and meditative reading of the Bible, accompanied by corporal and spiritual
works of mercy. In addition, we need to ask for God’s guidance. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)19
April 30 Tuesday (St. Pius V, Pope):
The context: Today’s Gospel is the continuation
of the visit of Nicodemus with Jesus. Nicodemus was a rich Jewish rabbi and one
of the seventy members of Sanhedrin. He wanted to clarify whether the obeying
of the Mosaic Law and the offering of prescribed sacrifices were enough for
one’s eternal salvation. But Jesus used the occasion as a teachable moment,
showing Nicodemus the necessity for a spiritual rebirth through the action of
the Holy Spirit by means of the water of Baptism as an essential condition for
one’s salvation.
Jesus teaches Nicodemus the effects the Holy Spirit produces
in the souls of the baptized. We know the presence, force and direction of wind
by its effects. It is so with the Holy Spirit, the Divine “Breath” (pneuma),
given us in Baptism. In Hebrew and Aramaic, the scholars tell us, the same
word pneuma means ‘spirit’, ‘breath’, and ‘wind’. We do not
know how the Holy Spirit comes to penetrate our heart. But He makes His
presence felt by the change in the conduct of the person who receives Him. Jesus
further explains that he himself comes from Heaven, and, hence, his teaching is
credible. Then, by comparing how God saved the snake-bitten Israelites through
the symbol of bronze serpent, Jesus tells Nicodemus that ”the Son of Man is
going to save mankind by death on the cross.
Life message: We need to adjust our
lives, recognizing and making full use of the presence of the Holy Spirit in
our lives: 1) We need to begin every day by asking for His Divine strength and
guidance and end every day by asking His pardon and forgiveness for our sins.
2) We need, as well, to pray for His daily anointing and for His gifts, fruits
and charisms so that we may live as children of God. 3) We also need to throw
open the shutters and let the Spirit enter the narrow caves in which we bury
ourselves. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)19
May 1 Wednesday: Feast of St. Joseph the Worker: Mt
13:54-58: (alt=Jn 15:1-8):Introduction: Today we celebrate the
liturgical feast of St. Joseph the Worker to honor St. Joseph, to highlight the
dignity and importance of labor and to honor the workers who are dignified by
their labor and who bring Christ to their workplace. This is the second
feast of St. Joseph; the first was the feast of St. Joseph, husband of Mary and
the patron of the universal Church which we celebrated on the 19th of
March.
History: In response to the May Day Celebrations
of workers in the Communist countries where workers were considered mere “cogs
in the machine,” Pope Pius XII (declared Venerable December 19, 2009 by Pope
Benedict XVI; Wikipedia), instituted the feast of St. Joseph the
Worker in 1955 to Christianize the concept of labor, to acknowledge the dignity
of labor and to give all workers a role-model and heavenly patron.
Theology of work: The Bible presents God as a
worker (Gen 1:1: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the
earth.”) Who is engaged in the work of creation and of providing for
His creatures. God the Father assigns His Son Jesus the work of human
redemption and gives the Holy Spirit the work of our sanctification. That is
why Jesus said: “My Father is at work until now, so I am at work (John 5:
17). Further, it was God’s command that man should work: “You have
to earn your bread by the sweat of your brow” (Genesis 3: 19). Jesus
showed us the necessity and nobility of work by working in Joseph’s carpentry
shop until he started his public life — a preaching and healing Messianic
ministry. The workers are important and their work noble, not only because they
obey God’s command to work, but also because they sustain and promote social
welfare and the progress of societies.
Joseph as an exemplary worker: Joseph worked to
support his family by helping his neighbors, using his skill in carpentry. He
was a just worker, honest in his trade of buying wood, selling his finished
products and charging for his services. He was a working parent laboring hard
to support his family. He was a praying worker who prayed in all his needs, got
answers from God in dreams on important occasions, and kept God’s presence in
his workshop. He was an obedient worker who kept the Mosaic Law of Sabbath rest
and spent the day of rest to take Jesus to the local synagogue and to teach
Jesus God’s Law given through Moses.
Life messages: 1) Let us appreciate the
dignity of all forms of work and all types of laborers as they glorify God and
promote the welfare of society. 2) Let us be sincere and committed to our work
as St. Joseph was, working in the constant awareness of the presence of God. 3)
Let us love our work and convert it into prayer by offering it for God’s glory.
(http://frtonyshomilies.com/)19
May 2 Thursday (St. Athanasius, Bishop, Doctor of the
Church):
The context: In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus
explains his Divinity to Nicodemus and his relationship with God the Father and
God the Holy Spirit. It is Jesus’ Divinity which gives authority and veracity
to his teachings and credibility to his promise of eternal life for his
followers.
Jesus’ claims: 1) Jesus claims that, as Son of God, he
“comes from Heaven.” Hence, he can speak of God and Heaven from his own
experience, just as the native of a town can speak authoritatively about his
town. That also means his teachings are reliable. 2) While the Jews believed
that prophets were given only a small share in God’s Spirit, Jesus, as God’s
only Son, shares the fullness of God’s Spirit and, hence, his teachings and
promises are always reliable. 3) He gives eternal life to his followers. “He
who believes in the Son has eternal life; he who does not obey the Son shall
not see life, but the wrath of God rests upon him.”
Life messages: 1) We need to seek the daily
guidance and strengthening of the Holy Spirit living within us because it is He
Who reveals Divine truths to us and Who gives us a better and clearer
understanding of Scriptural truths taught by the Church.
2) Since our destiny depends on our own free daily choices,
we need to choose Christ and his teachings and stand for Christ’s ideas and
ideals.
3) We need to choose Jesus in order to choose Life. Before
his death, Moses challenged Israel: “See I have set before you this day
life and good, death and evil…. Therefore, choose life that you may live,
loving the Lord your God, obeying His voice, and cleaving to him” (Deuteronomy
30:15-20). Joshua repeated the challenge in Joshua 24:14-15. We face
that challenge every day. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)19
May 3 Friday: St. Philip & James, the Apostles)
James, son of Alphaeus, called James the
Lesser, wrote the epistle that bears his name to the whole Church and
served as the bishop of Jerusalem. He is different from James the
Greater, the son of Zebedee, the brother of John and the cousin of
Jesus. James, son of Alphaeus, is also known by the title of James the
Just on account of his eminent sanctity. James and his brother Jude
were called to be Apostles in the second year of Christ’s preaching, soon after
the Pasch, probably in the year 31. In addition to his epistle and his actions
as Bishop of Jerusalem, James, son of Alphaeus, only appears four other times
in the New Testament, each time in a list of the Twelve Apostles. In Christian
art, he is depicted holding a fuller’s club because he was believed to have
been martyred by being beaten to death with a fuller’s club at Ostrakine in
Lower Egypt where he was preaching the Gospel.
Philip: John describes Philip as being from
Bethsaida in Galilee, the same town as Andrew and Peter. It is possible that
Philip was originally a follower or disciple of John the Baptist. He was in
Galilee when Jesus called him. Immediately after his call as an Apostle by Jesus,
Philip introduced Jesus to his friend Nathaniel as the “one about whom Moses
wrote” (John 1:45). On one occasion, when Jesus saw the great
multitude following him and wanted to give them food, he asked Philip where
they should buy bread for the people to eat. Philip expressed his surprise
declaring, “two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough for each
of them to have a little bit” (John 6:7). It was in answer to Philip’s
plea, “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us” (John
14:8) that Jesus answered, “Have I been with you for so long a
time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the
Father” (John 14:9). Since Philip had a Greek name, some Greek Gentile
proselytes once approached him with a request to introduce them to Jesus.
Eusebius records that Polycrates, 2nd century Bishop of Ephesus, wrote that
Philip was crucified in Phrygia and later buried in Hierapolis, in
Turkey. Tradition has it that his death was around AD 54. We celebrate
his feast day on May 3rd along with the feast of St. James.
Life message: Let us ask the intercession of
Sts. James and Philip so that we too may bear witness of Jesus by our lives to
those around us. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)19
May 4 Saturday:
The context: The event presented by today’s
Gospel is the scene immediately following Jesus’ miraculous feeding of the five
thousand with five small loaves of bread and two fish. Sensing the danger
of having the people make him leader of a revolt, Jesus promptly instructed his
apostles to leave the place by boat and went by himself to the mountain to pray
after dispersing the crowd.
A double miracle in the sea: When the apostles in the
boat were several furlongs away from the shore, they faced an unexpected storm,
caused by the hot wind of the desert rushing into the Sea of Galilee through
the gaps in the Golan Heights. Recognizing the danger, Jesus went to the boat,
walking on the stormy sea. Jesus calmed the frightened disciples as he
approached the boat, and as soon as he got into the boat it “reached land they
were heading for.”
Life messages: 1) We need to approach Jesus with
strong Faith in his ability and availability to calm the storms in our lives
and in the life of the Church. Church history shows us how Jesus saved his
Church from the storms of persecution in the first three centuries, from the
storms of heresies in the 5th and 6thcenturies, from the storms of moral
degradation and the Protestant reformation movement in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, and the storms of sex abuse scandals of the clergy in
the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. 2) We need to ask Jesus to protect us
when we face storms of strong temptations, storms of doubts about our religious
beliefs, and storms of fear, anxiety and worries in our personal lives. 3)
Experiencing Jesus’ presence in our lives, we need to confess our Faith in him
and call out for his help and protection. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)19