Tag Archives: grace

Death March – a Homily Worth Sharing

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The death penalty is being debated in New Mexico.  “It’s quite a debate” according to my pastor who finds irony in the fact that this debate rages while the death penalty is in fact “the most common penalty”  known to man. “Every single one of us is under a sentence. We are born, so to speak, with a noose around our necks.”

“Our death is an absolute certainty..no second chances, no reincarnation!…  ‘Human beings die once, and then the Judgment.’ Hebrews 9:27 ”  What our pastor finds absolute madness, “insanity to the highest degree,” is that most people on this “Death March” to the grave, never ever stop to consider their end.  “If we die in a state of grace, we shall live for all eternity.  If we die in mortal sin, we shall be damned for all eternity.”  No do-overs!

“The only guarantee of dying a holy death is living a holy life,” Monsignor Raun concluded.

Lent “Forgiving the Living”

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“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”

“Remember, O man, that thou art dust and to dust thou shalt return”

A Lenten reflection on “Forgiving the Living” a phrase used by Immaculee Ilibagiza in her own story:

Left To Tell, Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust

Most of us struggle to forgive, finding it difficult to put aside our bumps and bruises.  We savor our wounds as though they give us pleasure. We are a strange lot.

Imagine, if you can, living with the memory of genocide.  Not a genocide across the world from you, but surrounding you; a genocide that includes your mother and father, your brothers, friends and all your neighbors in one way or another.  Imagine a genocide you can smell and touch and that touches you, that calls your name, hunts you and haunts you.

For thousands in the world today, that is the reality.  For one particular soul, Immaculee Ilabigiza, the author of  Left to Tell, this reality has sprouted wings.  She flies high above her small village in Rwanda living forgiveness, not as a half-hearted effort, but as a mission.  A dream, that she believes was given her by God, opened her heart to the world.  Her touch is one of grace and healing.  Immaculee was left behind to let us know that in order to truly be alive to Life, we can and must forgive by the living grace of God.

Lenten alms and charity

The Incorruptible

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Today is the feast day of  Our Lady of Lourdes.  Lourdes, the shrine of healing, will be forever linked to the weak and the humble.  The miracles that happen are often those of the soul.  It should be noted the Bernadette Soubirous to whom Our Lady appeared, had a tuberculous tumor on her knee and was never herself healed.  In life, she knew great suffering.  The miracle that did happen to her body,, though, is ongoing.  After her death,  her body proved to be in corrupt.

Old school Catholics are very familiar with the injunction, “Offer it up!”  St. Paul, you will recall, made an outrageous claim.  He said, ” Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.” Col. 1:24

Rev.  Jeffrey Whorton, now, a Catholic priest, coming to us from Episcopal fields,  offers this in his inimitable fashion.  He found the Catholic concept of “Offer it up!” astonishing.  That our warts and wrinkles,  our far from perfect acts and sufferings, could ever be more than the sad effects of the Fall, seemed far too good to be imagined.  He did find something to which he, and, perhaps, we, could relate.  He said for us to think of our 401Ks and an employer who offers to match any funds that we contributed to our account.  Now,  God the Father, in his magnanimity,  goes far beyond matching funds.  He turns our humble dross into pure and eternal gold by clothing it in the sufferings of  His Son.  The thing, Fr. Jeff says we must  remember is:  “No funds, no matching fund!”   So “Offer it up!”  The corruptible can become incorruptible.

The Anchoress has more and more and more on St. Bernadette