Be on guard against idols

Sisters and brothers in Christ, in my homily on the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, I reflected on today's Gospel about Jesus' miracle at the wedding at Cana in Galilee:

However, as with any mother-child relationship, sometimes a mother does not know if her children need her unless they tell her. Or she does not step in to help unless her children ask for her help, hard as that may be for any mother. But when we do go to her, as a child goes to his or her mother, we will find that Mary is always there for us. We pray this in the Memorare: “Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who FLED to thy protection, IMPLORED thy help, or SOUGHT thine intercession was left unaided.” We also read this in Scripture, that when the wine ran short [at the wedding in Cana], Mary interceded for the newlyweds and said to Jesus, “They have no wine.” She also gave the best motherly advice ever when she said to the servers [and to us], “Do whatever [Jesus] tells you.” (John 2:3). Mother Mary is there waiting and ready to lift us up after we have fallen; to wipe away our tears of sorrow and pain and share tears of joy with us; to embrace us in her loving arms and hold us close to her Immaculate Heart. Therefore, let us “[never] be afraid of loving the Blessed [Mother] too much. [We] can never love her more than Jesus did” (Saint Maximilian Kolbe).

Moreover, in today's first reading, Saint John warns us: "Children, be on your guard against idols." Idolatry is a sin against the First Commandment. What are the idols in our life? What are the persons, things, habits, or addictions that we obsess about and take priority in our life, especially when they take priority at the detriment of our relationship with God? And how can we help each other overcome idolatry? For the answer to this, we turn to Saint John once again who encourages us: "If anyone sees his brother sinning, if the sin is not deadly, he should pray to God and he will give him life." Therefore, let us pray for each other and encourage each other to pursue God in our life, not idols.

. . .

Gospel of the Day

There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee,

and the mother of Jesus was there.

Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding.

When the wine ran short,

the mother of Jesus said to him,

"They have no wine."

And Jesus said to her,

"Woman, how does your concern affect me?

My hour has not yet come."

His mother said to the servers,

"Do whatever he tells you."

Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings,

each holding twenty to thirty gallons.

Jesus told them,

"Fill the jars with water."

So they filled them to the brim.

Then he told them,

"Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter."

So they took it.

And when the headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine,

without knowing where it came from

(although the servers who had drawn the water knew),

the headwaiter called the bridegroom and said to him,

"Everyone serves good wine first,

and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior one;

but you have kept the good wine until now."

Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs at Cana in Galilee

and so revealed his glory,

and his disciples began to believe in him.

The testimony of God

Sisters and brothers in Christ, the month of January is dedicated to the Holy Name of Jesus.

Saint John tells us, in today's first reading, that "the testimony of God is this, that he has testified on behalf of his Son." And what is God's testimony? We read it is today's Gospel. As Jesus rose from the Jordan, after John the Baptist had baptized him, his Father in heaven said of Christ: "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased."

Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Son of Man, fully divine and fully human, and he died on the Cross so that we may become adopted sons and daughters of the Father through him. However, for our part, we must believe: ". . .you may know that you have eternal life, you who believe in the name of the Son of God

I have been listening to a novel (off and on) and I caught a conversation between the characters about a theory that our DNA was put in a pod and shot into space and that we are still evolving. We can believe in such thoughts and ideas and yet somehow it is so hard for us to believe in God as our Creator, that He created us our of love and sustains us through love.

What are faith and science but man's way of finding the Truth about himself and what it means for him to be the son of God and the son of Man? However, reason takes us so far before faith has to take over because we cannot know and understand the mysteries of God completely. On this, the student does not surpass the Master.

. . .

Gospel of the Day

This is what John the Baptist proclaimed:

"One mightier than I is coming after me.

I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals.

I have baptized you with water;

he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

It happened in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee

and was baptized in the Jordan by John.

On coming up out of the water he saw the heavens being torn open

and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him.

And a voice came from the heavens,

"You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased."

or

When Jesus began his ministry he was about thirty years of age.

He was the son, as was thought, of Joseph, the son of Heli,

the son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha,

the son of Nathan, the son of David, the son of Jesse,

the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Sala,

the son of Nahshon, the son of Amminadab, the son of Admin,

the son of Arni, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez,

the son of Judah, the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac,

the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor,

the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem,

the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, the son of Enos,

the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.

Well done, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.

Jesus: "Well done, my good and faithful servant" (Matthew 25:21).

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI: "I love you, Jesus."

"For I am already being poured out like a libation, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith. From now on the crown of righteousness awaits me, which the Lord, the just judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but to all who have longed for his appearance" (2 Timothy 4:6-8).

"May his face, for which the light of this world has been extinguished, be forever illuminated by the true light, which has in You the inexhaustible source" (Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI).

Philip's invitation to us, our invitation to others

Sisters and brothers in Christ, today is the Memorial of Saint John Neumann, Bishop.

Like in the Garden of Eden when God the Father goes looking for Adam & Eve, who hid from Him, the Father sent His Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to be the Good Shepherd who comes looking for us. And when Christ finds us, as he found Philip in today's Gospel, he invites us to follow him. In that moment, we have a decision to make. Are we willing to make changes in our life to follow Jesus - the Way and the Truth and the Life - and have eternal life? Or do we continue on our current path and deny ourselves the tremendous blessing of getting to know our Lord and our God?

However, if we do choose to follow Jesus, which is THE BEST decision we could ever make, then we would have to live by His commandments, beautifully simplified to love of God and love of neighbors. Saint John explains in his first letter (today's first reading): "This is the message you have heard from the beginning: we should love one another. . . Whoever does not love remains in death." We love because God loves us first and sent His Son to save us; from Saint John once again: "The way we came to know love was that he laid down his life for us; so we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers."

Moreover, Saint John teaches us: ". . .let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth." Therefore, as Jesus laid down his life for us out of love, we are called to do the same for each other. It is a challenging call to follow Jesus but it can be a grace-filled journey with the help of the Holy Spirit. And then, out of love for our brothers, we invite them, as Philip invited Nathanael, saying "Come and see" our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

. . .

Gospel of the Day

Jesus decided to go to Galilee, and he found Philip.

And Jesus said to him, "Follow me."

Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the town of Andrew and Peter.

Philip found Nathanael and told him,

"We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law,

and also the prophets, Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth."

But Nathanael said to him,

"Can anything good come from Nazareth?"

Philip said to him, "Come and see."

Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him,

"Here is a true child of Israel.

There is no duplicity in him."

Nathanael said to him, "How do you know me?"

Jesus answered and said to him,

"Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree."

Nathanael answered him,

"Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel."

Jesus answered and said to him,

"Do you believe

because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree?

You will see greater things than this."

And he said to him, "Amen, amen, I say to you,

you will see the sky opened and the angels of God

ascending and descending on the Son of Man."

Jesus destroys the Devil's works

Sisters and brothers in Christ, today is the Memorial of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, Religious.

Saint Andrew the Apostle is my patron saint. It always bring me great joy (and puts a smile on my face) when I read that not only did he follow Jesus first, but he found his own brother and brought him to Jesus. And who is Andrew's brother but the first pope himself, Saint Peter, the rock on which Christ built his Church.

Every day, Jesus ask us: "what are you looking for?" And every day, Christ invites us to "come" follow him and "see" how our lives will change when we do follow him. The lives of Andrew and Simon Peter changed forever the day they decided to follow Jesus and ours will, too, if we are willing to encounter Christ and then make the changes necessary in our lives to enter into a personal relationship with him.

This means that we must turn away from sin because, as Saint John wrote in his First Letter (today's first reading), "[whoever] sins belongs to the Devil. . . because the Devil has sinned from the beginning." However, "[no] one who is begotten by God commits sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot sin because he is begotten by God." Here is God's saving work for our salvation, "the Son of God was revealed to destroy the works of the Devil."

. . .

Gospel of the Day

John was standing with two of his disciples,

and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said,

“Behold, the Lamb of God.”

The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus.

Jesus turned and saw them following him and said to them,

“What are you looking for?”

They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher),

“where are you staying?”

He said to them, “Come, and you will see.”

So they went and saw where he was staying,

and they stayed with him that day.

It was about four in the afternoon.

Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter,

was one of the two who heard John and followed Jesus.

He first found his own brother Simon and told him,

“We have found the Messiah,” which is translated Christ.

Then he brought him to Jesus.

Jesus looked at him and said,

“You are Simon the son of John;

you will be called Cephas,” which is translated Peter.

The meaning of my name Phúc

Sisters and brothers in Christ, today is the Optional Memorial of the Most Holy Name of Jesus.

In today's first reading, Saint Paul wrote this about the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and it is beautiful:

". . .God greatly exalted him

and bestowed on him the name

that is above every name,

that at the name of Jesus

every knee should bend,

of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue confess that

Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father."

When we were preparing for the Vietnamese-English bilingual Mass for the Holy Vietnamese Martyrs, back in November, Fr. Charlie noted that my name is in the prayer. My name "phúc" with the word "hạnh" means "happy, blissful, beatific" (according to Google Translate). Growing up, I always understood from my parents that "hạnh phúc" means "good fortune". Our names mean something.

In the Gospel of Luke, which we heard proclaimed at the Vigil Mass, the angel told Mary that her Son will be named Jesus because "he will save his people from their sins." It is a name given to Christ by his Father in heaven. Many have been healed and freed from sin in the name of Jesus. One of the prayers of blessings that I use ask God for "health in mind and body and protection in spirit and soul as [he/she/they] invoke Holy Name, through Christ our Lord" for the person(s) who I am blessing. Therefore, with humble and contrite heart, let us call on the Holy Name of Jesus and never profane it.

. . .

Gospel of the Day

When eight days were completed for his circumcision,

the child was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel

before he was conceived in the womb.

When the days were completed for their purification

according to the law of Moses,

they took him up to Jerusalem

to present him to the Lord,

just as it is written in the law of the Lord,

Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord,

and to offer the sacrifice of

a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons,

in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord.

Who is the liar?

Sisters and brothers in Christ, in today's Gospel, John the Baptist testified not about himself but about our Lord and Savior Christ, who comes to baptize us with the Holy Spirit. A few months ago, a Satanic group was leading an "unbaptizing" ceremony for those who no longer wanted to be counted as part of the Body of Christ. However, what they fail to understand is that those of us who are baptized in the Catholic Church receive an anointing on their soul is an "anointing that [we] received from him remains in [us]." It is an inedible mark on our soul that cannot be erased or undo because when we are baptize, we belong to God and made part of the Body of Christ.

Saint John tells us quite bluntly in today's first reading: "Who is the liar? Whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ.  Whoever denies the Father and the Son, this is the antichrist." Therefore, we pray for those who received the gift of baptism but then choose to reject God, because they are themselves deceived into rejecting God's promise of eternal life with Him in heaven, to return to God. We pray for all baptized that the Holy Spirit strengthen us to remain in Jesus Christ always.

As we begin this new year, let us resolve to declutter our lives of things that distract us from God's loving presence in our lives. We are called to holiness, to help each other become the best version of ourselves in Christ. Most of all, let us renew our efforts to evangelize, to share the Good News with others through our words and actions to that others may encounter Jesus Christ and know that he loves them. 

. . .

Gospel of the Day

This is the testimony of John. 

When the Jews from Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to him

to ask him, “Who are you?”

He admitted and did not deny it, but admitted,

“I am not the Christ.” 

So they asked him,

“What are you then? Are you Elijah?” 

And he said, “I am not.” 

“Are you the Prophet?”

He answered, “No.” 

So they said to him,

“Who are you, so we can give an answer to those who sent us? 

What do you have to say for yourself?”

He said:

“I am the voice of one crying out in the desert,

‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’

as Isaiah the prophet said.” 

Some Pharisees were also sent. 

They asked him,

“Why then do you baptize

if you are not the Christ or Elijah or the Prophet?” 

John answered them,

“I baptize with water;

but there is one among you whom you do not recognize,

the one who is coming after me,

whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie.” 

This happened in Bethany across the Jordan,

where John was baptizing.