April 26, 2009: Third Sunday Easter (B)

Whenever you have a chance, I'd like for you to Google the following phrase on a computer: "Catholics evangelize." If you were typing this to find out how, you as a Catholic, can evangelize to the world, you'll first notice on the results page the following results:

"How to evangelize a Roman Catholic?"
"Do Catholics worship another Jesus?"
"Why do Catholics keep Jesus on the cross?"

I opened one of those links and found the following dialogue:
Author: "So, Paul, as a Roman Catholic, are you a Born Again, or Born Anew Christian?"
Paul: "Nope, I'm a Catholic, so I know I'm going to heaven!"

Could this happen to you? It happened to me in the middle of my college. I'm glad it did, because at that time, although I was a baptized and confirmed Catholic, I did not know my faith or know Jesus. So it was good for me to be challenged about what I believed. It didn't help that I was a New Ager in high school and early college; there was already a vacuum of faith. When I was junior in college, I followed my girl friend to a prayer meeting at a non-denominational gathering. Several guys approached me and asked a question: "Are you saved?" I answered, 'No.' They then asked, "Do you want to be saved?" And I answered, sincerely, 'yes.' Then they had me repeat a prayer to accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior.

"Jesus I know I am a sinner and you are my only hope for restoration. I ask you to come into my life and to direct it. I surrender myself to you completely. I thank you for the great sacrifice you made for all the things I have done wrong. I accept the gift you are offering to me. I desire to have a relationship with You. Come and live within my heart today. Amen."

I've gone to mass many years prior to my falling away as a New Ager in high school. Many time over and over in my life, I've been to the "altar calls" at mass, confessing my sins and professing my faith in God the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit. Why then did I fall away? It's the same reason why even many "Born-Again" Protestant Christians church-hop or church shop from one place to another and have to repeat the prayer to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. All of us, whether Catholic or Protestant, simply fall away because we grow cold or bored. We simply get tired of Jesus. We say one less prayer each day, we miss one more Sunday mass each month. Then soon enough, we're saying to ourselves, "I live a good life and do what the Ten Commandments tell us to do."

The correct answer to the question, "Are you saved?" for all Christians is, "Yes, we have been saved, are being saved, and will be saved by the grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ." If "being saved" was a one time event, then why fall away or grow cold in the first place? Why do we have to repeat the prayer to accept Jesus as Our Lord and Savior? How do you explain fallen away Christians if those Christians were legitimately "saved" by professing Jesus as Lord and Savior?

In our First Reading, Peter reminds us how we all have denied and even betrayed Jesus (including Peter himself), "Jesus, whom you handed over and denied in Pilate's presence when he had decided to release him. You denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. The author of life you put to death, but God raised him from the dead; of this we are witnesses. Now I know, brothers [and sisters], that you acted out of ignorance...Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away." If we are sitting here and thinking to ourselves, "I didn't deny or betray Jesus," then we are forgetting the fact that sin is "not Thy will be done, but My will be done." Everyone of us here can honestly say (including this priest) that we have on occasion this week sought to do "My will" rather than "God's will."

What is Jesus' response to our falling away and stepping away from Him? Jesus makes attempts to get ever closer to us. This past Sunday at 3PM, we had here at Mater Dolorosa a healing service where we prayed the Divine Mercy Chaplet and I brought to each and every person in the pews the Eucharist reposed in a monstrance just like they do in Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in France. Some of the ladies present said how touched they were that Jesus would come personally to each of them and allow them to touch him and express to him their sufferings and affections. God who seems so lofty and mighty allows Himself to be carried by a poor frail human being [priest] to another poor frail human being because of His affection for them; this is simply amazing! It's the same reason why in our Gospel we read Jesus appearing to the disciples to show his wounds and to allow them to touch them. Jesus said to them, "Why are you troubled?
And why do questions arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have."

We as Catholics have one treasure that no other Christian churches have: Jesus in the Eucharist. Most other churches revere the Word of God, as we do (for our mass is divided into the Liturgy of the Word and Liturgy of the Eucharist). Yet, we have Jesus who is in flesh (body, soul, and divinity); Jesus who allows us to put our doubt and troubles behind and allow us to touch him and believe that it is truly the Risen Lord. We take a step away from Him, He takes a step closer to us. We turn our head away, and He is still facing us. One desire that we should ask from Heavenly Father today is, "Father, give me the grace to get to know your Son Jesus more. May I receive the grace to love your Son even more."