· Any actions performed faithfully in Jesus’ name must be respected.
· Anything contrary to Jesus’ teaching must be rooted out. This is true for us as individuals and also for our community.
· We do not know everything about God’s plan and it is particularly dangerous to disparage the faith of others. We could turn them away.
· Following God’s commandments of loving God and our neighbor is a must for our lives.
· Jesus went to great lengths in recent weeks to explain how the receiving of the Eucharist is essential for our holiness.
· Jesus calls us to unity with him and with one another. The connection is faith!
· How are your connections?
· The passions of the jealousy and greed destroy peace and right living. The fruit of selfishness is war and discord.
· Wisdom cries out for us to be peaceable and merciful.
· Even Jesus’ disciples fell victim to enhancing their status and anticipated rewards.
· Jesus says no! You must be as open to Him and as simple as a little child. You are then free of passions that limit you.
· Yet this is the opposite of what our society values. Going against the tide is difficult – Can you do it?
· It was easy for the disciples and crowds to accept Jesus as a great teacher and healer and even as a prophet.
· Even Peter had difficulty accepting the idea that Jesus had to suffer and die and that He, Jesus, would be rejected.
· If Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life, was to suffer and die then His followers must also be willing to to give up their lives too.
· Each of us have own Cross to bear whatever that me be.
· Following Jesus, even though hardship and sacrifice, will lead to salvation.
· Will you do this?
· Jesus came that we may hear and see the truth.
· Jesus not only heals the truly blind and deaf but also tells us, too, to be opened to his message.
· The wonders of the world and of heaven are before us if we can only hear and see them.
· Jesus offers us this vision of reality.
· He offers himself.
· Are we sufficiently focused and open to him?
· Jesus attacks the hypocrisy of following the formalities of religion without taking them to heart.
· God has set His rules and precepts before us as guides to save us.
· Focus on the rules or externals, to build our self-esteem in the opinion of others, instead leaves us empty.
· Following God’s commandments of loving God and our neighbor is a must for our lives.
· Jesus went to great lengths in recent weeks to explain how the receiving of the Eucharist is essential for our holiness.
· Without His presence in our hearts and minds we are susceptible to evil overcoming us.
· Do we sometimes appear to be someone we are really not? Can we choose God over self?
· Over the past several weeks the gospels relate Jesus’ telling us that He is the Bread of Life.
· He tells us that if we eat His flesh and drink His blood through the Eucharist we can share eternal life with Him.
· Many of the disciples who knew Him could not accept or trust what He was saying and offering. And they left Him!
· Jesus asks us, too, can you enter the dimension of the Spirit to accept the truth and the life I offer?
· Does the truth of the Real Presence in the Eucharist shock you?
· Can you accept it?
· The seeds of the harvest have been planted.
· The seeds will sprout and bear fruit as God has planned.
· This will happen in ways unknown to us.
· We are the seeds and the fruit of our lives is to be part of the flowering of the Kingdom of God.
· Sometimes we can feel that we really have nothing to contribute to God’s Kingdom, we are too small for this task.
· God thinks otherwise. Listen for the Holy Spirit to guide you. Don’t wait.
– God promised Moses that he would send a Prophet to his people and that whoever did not listen to him would have to answer to God.
– All throughout the Scriptures we hear the resounding theme that we should strive to listen for the voice of God and when we do hear it, not to harden our hearts.
– God promises to guide us, to shepherd us, but we must listen to the words of the Holy Prophet he sent, which is Jesus, his only begotten Son In the Gospel, the demons recognize Jesus, they call him the Holy One of God.
– Like the demons, we too should recognize Jesus, but to believe who he is, is not enough, because as Saint James tells us, “Even the demons believe – and shudder.” (James 2:19)
– If we want this faith to profit us unto salvation, it must not be apart from the works of God (cf. James 2:14), because our faith should take root in our hearts by working through love.
– Let us obey the teachings of the Holy Prophet of God, Jesus Christ. Let us feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and imprisoned…let us do what our Father commands.
– Time is running out for each of us and our lives draw nearer to their end every day.
– God is always calling us to repentance like he called the pagan Ninevites even though they were the enemies of Israel.
– We are all God’s enemies when we sin, but even when we were his enemies he still loved us and died for us.
– We need to ask God to teach us his ways and to guide us in his truth, so that we can share in his eternal life.
– When we sin, we tell God our transgressions are more important than God himself.
– When the Ninevites heard the reality of their sins, they turned away from them by fasting and other acts of penance.
– Like that of the Ninevites, our repentance is a witness of our true contrition and of our desire to reconcile with God.
– We must believe the Good News of Jesus Christ, that his Kingdom is at hand, by repenting of our sins in the sacrament of Reconciliation that Jesus instituted.
– God calls each of us, but does not force us into service
– We must… Ask God to speak to us, Remember to listen, Tell him that we desire to do his will
– God desires one thing: a humble heart willing to serve
– The Father has made us temples of his Holy Spirit and vessels to carry his message forward
– Just as Jesus invited Andrew to come and stay with him, he also beckons us to an intimate friendship with him.
– As Andrew evangelized his brother Peter after his experience with Jesus, we too should bring Jesus to our families, friends, and neighbors by our own example
