From Death to Life!

Sermon by Rev. John Paul Shea

10th Sunday in Ordinary Time, June 5, 2016

Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish, Tucson, AZ

In today’s Gospel passage (Luke 7:11-17), we  reflect on the powerful scene where Our Lord Jesus raises a man from death to life. 

Our Lord is traveling to a city and a large crowd of people are following Him. They pass by a dead man in a coffin who is being carried out. Our Lord sees the dead man and his mother who was saddened at his death, and He stops everything and touches the man’s coffin, orders him to arise, and the man sits up. The people who witnessed this event are astounded! They proclaim out loud, “A great prophet has arisen in our midst. God has visited his people.”

My brothers and sisters, as we hear this story, let us remember that a great prophet has arisen in our midst! This prophet is Our Lord Jesus Christ! 

As you know, there have been many prophets in the history of our faith. In today’s first reading (1Kings 17:17-24), the great Prophet Elijah also raised a man back to life.

Yet, there is a difference between the prophetic ministry of the prophets of old and the mission of Jesus. The prophetic ministry of the prophets was to proclaim the word of God and to manifest God's power among the difficulties of their times. 

But Our Lord’s prophetic ministry is the fulfillment of all prophets. His mission was not simply to manifest God’s power but to restore God’s kingdom in its fullness! 

Our Lord Jesus Christ is greater than any prophet. He is the Son of God! He has come into a world plagued by sin and death in order to break the power of sin and death and restore us to life! 

As Jesus raised the dead man to life in today’s Gospel, so He wants to raise each one of us back to life from the death of sin. This is why Our Lord suffered and died on the cross! 

Even though He shares in the likeness of God, He came in our human nature to restore man's nature to end the death that comes from sin, and allow us to live with Him for all eternity!

Our Lord performed miracles and raised dead people to life when He walked the earth because the power of God was in Him. He did these things to show that the Kingdom of God had come into our midst. But Our Lord has taught us not to rely on miracles. He has taught us to rely on faith. God has continued to work miracles throughout the history of our Church during the past 2000 years in order to help us in our faith, but it is not the miracles of God that will save us. It is our faith that will save us! 

My brothers and sisters, we live in a world filled with suffering. We live in a world filled with pain. We live in a world where everyone of us will experience death. But this is not what God has intended for us! God did not create death, and He does not want us to die in a world that is perishing because it has turned from His plan of life!

In today’s Gospel we hear that when our Lord sees the dead man and his mother that He was moved with pity. What about our world today? How does our Lord feel when He looks down upon our societies today? What He sees must break His heart! The death, the corruption, the violence, the abortions, the misuse and abuse of our sexuality... God does not want these things! This is why our good and gracious God has sent His Son into our world!

Today’s Gospel passage gives us hope! Despite all the chaos in our world today, despite the immoral influences that are plaguing our society, despite the lies and corruptness of our political leaders, God is in control! A great prophet has arisen in our midst, and He is coming again to put an end to all violence, pain, suffering, and all that is not of God’s kingdom! 

Therefore, in these difficult times in which we

Fr. John Paul Shea

live we need to stand strong in our faith! Let us not live for a world that is passing away, for our world is deteriorating rapidly! But, let us acknowledge the gift of eternal life that Our Lord Jesus has come to give to us by following His call for repentance and conversion. For, “A great prophet has arisen in our midst.” This prophet is Jesus Christ, True God and True Man,  and He is coming again  to fulfill the establishment of His Kingdom! Amen.

God's Greatest Gift: The Holy Eucharist

Sermon by Rev. John Paul Shea

The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, May 29, 2016

Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish, Tucson, AZ

Today, we celebrate the greatest gift ever given to the world: the Real Presence of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.

Today's celebration of Corpus Christi was formally instituted by Pope Urban IV in 1264, but in reality the Church has been celebrating it  since Our Lord turned bread and wine into His Body and Blood on the night before He was sacrificed. We call this feast the Last Supper or Holy Thursday. Since the Last Supper, the Church has firmly taught that the bread and wine used in the sacrifice of the Mass become the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ -- without destroying the appearance of bread and wine in the process.

The bread we eat looks and tastes like ordinary bread. The wine we drink looks and smells like ordinary wine. Yet, it is through the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, that  Our Lord manifests Himself in our lives in deepest intimacy.

In fact, there have been many saints who have lived extraordinary lives because of their faith in the Real Presence of Our Lord Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. 

For example, in the 1300s, Saint Catherine of Sienna and in the 1600s,  Saint Joseph of Cupertino both received no nourishment apart from the Eucharist for the last years of their lives.

Another saint is Blessed Alexandrina da Costa. She lived in Portugal during the early 20th century and became bedridden as a young woman after she fell out of a window because she refused to have sex with three men who broke into her home. This woman offered up all of her sufferings to Jesus, and she answered Our Lord’s call to fast on the Holy Eucharist. In fact, she lived on nothing but the Holy Eucharist for the last 13 years of her life!

My brothers and sisters, today’s celebration of Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of Christ, calls us to deeper love and reverence for Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Holy

Eucharist celebrated during Holy Mass! It is a sacred oath given to us by Jesus Himself, which the Church has celebrated ever since in obedience to His Word, "Do this in remembrance of Me." (1Cor 11:24)

Saint Paul tells us in today’s reading that “on the night he was handed over [He] took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in

remembrance of me.' In the same way also, Our Lord took the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes!” (1 Corinthians 11:23-26). 

These words of Saint Paul remind us that the celebration of the Holy Eucharist is a sacrifice. When we receive Jesus in the Holy Eucharist we are not simply making a gesture to be more loving and caring. 

No! When we worthily receive Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist we enter into His death. We share in the sacrifice that He suffered on the cross so that we can become one with Him in His resurrection! Therefore, as Jesus offered Himself to God as a Sacrifice, He expects us  to offer ourselves to God as well. We must be willing to sacrifice our own will and desires and pick up our cross and follow Christ. 

 
Many today in our culture do not want to give anything up. We want to live for ourselves. Our culture teaches us to indulge ourselves regardless of God’s laws and His teachings! But as Catholics we are called not to frequent the wayward places of our culture, but to live for God.

As Catholics, our job is to celebrate the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist with much  reverence. Therefore it's necessary to prepare to receive Our Lord worthily.  For, when we eat Our Lord’s Body and Blood worthily, we become what we eat! We become a holy temple because our Sacred

Lord lives inside of us. This is why we do not want to come to receive our Lord if we are conscious of grave sin. For, it is an act of pride and arrogance when we receive Our Lord knowing that we are living a lifestyle that contradicts the teachings of Christ's Church.

My brothers and sisters, the gift of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist is the greatest benefit ever bestowed on mankind! In the Eucharist, we receive Jesus in His True Presence. We should never take this gift for granted! May the grace of the Holy Eucharist protect us from all harm and from all evil so that we can live in Peace with Our Lord for all eternity. Amen!

THE FATHER AND I ARE ONE

Sermon by Rev. John Paul Shea

The Most Holy Trinity, May 22, 2016

Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish, Tucson, AZ

This Sunday our Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity -- One God in three Persons -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Today’s celebration holds a deep place in my heart. 

I am a convert to Catholicism and was raised and baptized Mormon. I was very involved with the Mormon Church as a child. It was not until God called me to be Catholic several years later that I learned to understand the most important teachings of our Christian faith, including the significance of the Holy Trinity. 

The Mormon Church does not believe in the Trinity. Mormons believe in God the Father, and in Jesus His Son, and the Holy Spirit, but they do not believe that the Father, Son, and Spirit are one and the same God in three Persons. The Mormon Church believes that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are separate beings. Therefore, even though I was baptized Mormon at the age of eight years old, I had to be re-baptized as Catholic because the Mormon Church does not baptize in the name of the Most Holy Trinity.

I can remember that as I went through the

Fr. John Paul Shea

Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) to become Catholic that it was as if I had already known in my heart that God is a Trinitarian Being even though I had not been formally taught such.

I can remember that as I learned about the Trinity that I searched the scriptures and read the many passages that relate to the triune Godhead. For example, I looked at the beginning of the Gospel of John where it teaches us that the Word, who is Jesus, was with God, that the Word was God, and that this Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us (John 1:1). 

I read further into the Gospel of John where Our Lord relates that the Father is in Him and that He is in the Father… Our Lord says, “Believe in me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me” (John 14:11). Our Lord says that the Father and He are One (John 10:30), and He says that the Father will send the Holy Spirit in His name to teach us all things and guide us to all Truth, as we heard in today’s Gospel passage (John 16:12-15). 

I read Saint Paul’s letter to the Colossians where it says Jesus is the "image of the invisible God” and the "firstborn of all creation.” Not only that, but Jesus is “before all things” and that through Him all things were created! (Colossians 1:15-17).

And I looked at the miracles of Our Lord Jesus during His time on earth. He walked on water. He controlled the weather. He forgave sins, and He cured people. Our Lord did these things because the mighty power of God was in Him. 

My brothers and sisters, the Holy Trinity, that God is one God in three Persons, is a central belief of our faith! In fact, there have been many Christians who have been persecuted and martyred for belief in the Trinity!

It is through the Trinity that we Christians are able to share in the very life of God. It is through Our Lord Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit that we receive Him in the Holy Eucharist. If God was not a Trinitarian God, then we would have no Eucharist! If we did not have a Trinitarian God, then Our Lord would not have had the power to breathe the  Holy Spirit upon His apostles after the Resurrection.  When He did that, He gave them -- His priests -- the ability to forgive sins.

 
Today’s solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity teaches us that our God is a God of relationship! He is a Community of Persons!

Our God is huge and incomprehensible. Our God, Whom no eye has seen and no ear has heard, is a God of love. And in His love, He has made His dwelling among us through His Son Jesus Christ. Through Jesus Christ, He has given us the Holy Spirit making us His

children by adoption! It is through the Holy Trinity that we share in the very life of God!

Yet, let us be reminded, that if we want to share in the life of God for all eternity, we must take to heart the salvation that has been won for us through the death and resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ!

Even though Jesus is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity; even though He is in the very form of God; even though He is the imprint of God’s very being, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death -- even death on a cross! (2 Philippians 2:5-8). 

Therefore, brothers and sisters, let us acknowledge the significance of the Holy Trinity in the life of our Catholic faith. As the world indulges itself in materialism, let us

follow Jesus Christ in humility so that we can live with Him in the love of His Father through the gift of the Holy Spirit for all eternity.

"Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.”