My Sisters and Brothers in Christ:
The Psalmist on the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time declares, “The Lord upholds my life.” As we pray excerpts of Psalm 54 during the celebration of Mass, the words easily roll off our tongue. In our daily living, do we really declare this? Or is there another upon whom you rely? Do we know God as the center of our life, from the moment we arise to the moment of rest?
God is calling us out of any selfish regard and into a selfless love for others. What we do for others, we are doing for God. This is extraordinary; bringing Jesus to one another by a simple hello. Jesus walks in our door every day; as we are a dwelling place of God. If you knew Jesus was coming to visit you in your home, you would open the door widely for Him and offer Him the best of everything you have. You would change your schedule to be sure to meet Him. Yet, Jesus comes to us as we receive the Eucharist. He does come through our doors each day in the person of our family, friends, and those whom we encounter wherever we are. We may not be as welcoming to these people, as we would to Jesus. They are also the face of Jesus as we are His face to them.
Receiving the Eucharist, then, is meant to change us. Entering into communion with Jesus Himself brings us to see how He sees, think how He thinks, and love how He loves. Being in union with Jesus the Eucharist compels us to live deliberately as children of God, not just by name, but by thought, word and deed. There is no other to uphold our life! St. Leo the Great wrote, “Christian, recognize your dignity and, now that you share in God’s own nature, do not return to your former base condition by sinning. Remember who is your head and of whose body you are a member. Never forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of the Kingdom of God” (Sermo 21 in nat. Dom., 3: PL 54, 192C).
St. James wisely asks the question of all of us, ‘who or what is dividing us; who or what is keeping us apart?’ The answer is the age old attraction to false idols, our leaving God at the door so much so that we are not able to embody God’s teachings. Jesus sits with us and asks us to employ the same gentleness and openness as if embracing a child. Jesus’ Way, the way of wisdom and holiness, means striving for weakness, not power. It means taking on the beauty of God’s love and wearing this divine love, the undivided garment of Christ.
Pope Francis asks us to be missionaries of Christ’s love. He says that we must make our own lives an offering to God, united to that of Jesus on the altar, so that He may be better known, loved, and served. Our Holy Father asks us to bring the Lord’s hope to our family, friends, and others we meet, “be witnesses of His compassion and merciful love.”
I invite you to the annual Blue Mass Monday, Sept. 30, noon to 1:30 p.m. at St. James Cathedral, 215 N. Orange Ave. in downtown Orlando to pray for our public safety personnel who gather with us as we enfold each one in Christ’s inimitable love.