Holy Family Sunday – December 31, 2012

“Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Fathers house?

But they did not understand what he said to them”.

Mary and Joseph didn’t understand much about what was going on in their life since the visit of the Archangel Gabriel. Since the moment of the Annunciation, followed by the nativity of Christ in a very strange and unusual environment, the threat from King Herod, their hasty escape into Egypt, their new life in a strange country, and then finally their move back to Nazareth, Mary and Joseph must have been very confused. All of these events must have been for them a kind of surprise and a big shock, as well as moments of constant questioning: “What the heck is going on with our life?”

Certainly, all those circumstances could have been a cause of mutual frustration and misunderstanding. All this could cause quarrels and mutual criticisms, grudges, resentments and bitterness. This Family was really going through very serious difficulties in their life. And yet they didn’t finish in a disaster, in a divorce, in any kind of bitterness and mutual accusations. It was rather the opposite - a strengthening and intensification of their mutual love, mutual understanding and closeness in their family life. Despite of all the difficulties and problems, despite the fact that they were a very poor family, without means and without a future (from the human point of view), despite the fact that they were living a very basic and austere life, they didn’t end up in resentment and mutual hostility. Why? It was certainly because of the fact that Mary and Joseph were people of constant prayer and deep faith, but also because of the fact that Jesus was constantly with them. They were living in the constant presence of Jesus. Can you imagine what could happen with and in our families if we allowed Jesus to be present in our daily life?

Today’s Feast of the Holy Family shows us that faith and prayer have to be the most important elements of our family life. Our families are in trouble; our contemporary families are in deep jeopardy just because we do not allow Jesus to be present in them. Our faith, prayer, and the presence of Jesus in our families is restricted or limited to the scarce moments of Sunday Mass, or perhaps even less.

Prayer is supposed to become our daily companion and the source of answers for our questions: how to solve the problems, how to be a good father and good mother, a good husband and a good wife.

If faith and prayer are present in our homes, if Christ is present in our families, we can face the most difficult moments and the most challenging situations in our life and be sure that we will stay united and victorious throughout all harsh and ruthless moments of contemporary life. Where Christ is, there will be mutual understanding, love, strength and building up of our family life. Our family then, following the example of the Holy Family of Nazareth, will truly become the Family of God.

And this is exactly what we, the pastors of this parish, wish sincerely to all FAMILIES today on the Feast of the Holy Family , the patron of our Parish: My OUR parish be composed of Holy Families, following the example of the Holy Family of Nazareth.

Christmas Eve - 2012

As every year the Faith or the tradition guided us today to the church, to take part in this Mass.

As every year we are listening to the story of the Nativity of Christ among us.

As every year in our way through the year we are once again celebrating Christmas.

We are sending to our friends and relative the same Christmas wishes, sometimes singing the same Christmas Carols.

Apparently everything the same, repeated every year in the same or similar sequence …

But only at our tables there is somebody lacking, and instead of the person who should be there … there is an empty place …

And I? I am a little bit older, maybe a little bit more clever more modern, more eloquent and at the same time more tired, more busy, and –let us be frank- weaker and more fragile.

And what about God?

Throughout centuries the same, unchangeable, unalterable, eternal. With every Christmas He is becoming one among us, Emanuel - God with us. Is He closer to me, every year? Am I closer to Him every year?

For centuries the same Triune God: the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, trying constantly to offer me a deeper faith, more authentic love and stronger hope. He is striving to have a place in my life.

And what about the world?

Throughout centuries and millennia more beautiful, more attractive, more tempting and trying to overwhelm me, trying to take over on my faith, my love, my hope and finally my life. The world is constantly trying to separate me from God, to delay me in my journey to Bethlehem, to distract me so that I have no time, no possibility to meet the newborn Christ. The world is trying to distract me and to defend to listen and to see that He is weeping over the world, becoming more and more Godless.

But we are here today, we came to the crib, to kneel down and recognize Him as a Son of God. We are coming today to the church to worship and to meditate this mystery of God's love. We are coming here to the source of this love, to get something from this unutterable Mystery of God's Love. We are coming to ask Him to be a constantly present among us, so that the world through its sins does not fall away from His Love. We are coming to ask Him also for ourselves, so that we don’t fall away from His love. Let us pray for the intention that in our world we can see more God's presence in our brothers, so that God don’t weep over the inhuman world.

Fourth Sunday of Advent - Year C

Fourth Sunday of Advent - Year C

Christmas is almost at the gate.

In our homes virtually everything is ready. We have prepared what is needed for celebrating this feast in a lovely and beautiful way.

We are also most probably ready.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve.  We will be celebrating the most beautiful and appealing feast of the new life. God will become a member of our human family. This historical fact which took place in Bethlehem two thousand years ago, is even now, two millennia later, a special and extraordinary sign. A sign of God's love and unalterable decision to invite everybody to join Him in heaven.

Since our childhood days, we remember only the good and warm things which happened in our lives.

Beautiful Christmas trees, colorful and bright decorations, snow, crèche, visiting members of our family, relatives, specially prepared food, presents and carols … all this is somehow connected with Christmas.

But, we know that all these elements are secondary and nonessential, as long as we do believe that God coming to us in this Divine Baby is the most import_ant reason for the season. And let us be frank, it is difficult.

We aren't becoming sentimental and emotional in celebrating Christmas, but rather cold and dry in keeping Christ in Christmas.

It is difficult because we, the citizens of the twenty first century, have to prepare a place in our daily life for somebody whom essentially we don’t know. We are not able to touch him, to talk with him, to see him. Moreover, God is choosing us to be the witnesses to His Son. He would like to touch others, and be heard by others through us, through the intermediary of our lives. It is because He chose us as His disciples, as His witnesses. Is it possible?

Obviously, if we pass this time of Christmas at the table or in front of the TV screen it will be impossible to be the witnesses to the newborn Christ. We will be celebrating a jolly feast, but we will not get anything deeper from Christmas.

Let us rather see the celebration of the nativity of Christ as a mystery of the new life, a birth of a new member of our family, as a birthday of our Best Friend. Let us find a little bit more time for our families, for God, for prayer, for adoration, just for being human. Let us learn how to see Him in our daily life, how to see His presence in those who are in need, in the normal, even the smallest events of our daily life.

We can give to ourselves the best present, the best gift. We can receive Christ into our life, into our families, into our homes and schools, and into our hearts.

And this is the Birth of God, the Birth of Christ in me.

Second Sunday of Advent – Year C

Let us just imagine a following situation. You got a possibility of organizing a huge marketing operation. You have unlimited financial means and possibilities, but you have to organize the promotion or marketing of faith or religion. You can go wherever you wish, to the schools, molls, public places, halls, shops and theaters just wherever you wish to say only one fundamental truth: "who was and constantly is Jesus Christ? The main object of the marketing is Jesus Christ.

But, an immediate question arises: Is it not too risky? It seems to be not a very good idea, not at all.

Firstly because, you will have none of the very attractive promotions and new products to offer, rather the old stuff, repeated for last 2 thousand years. Packaging is also rather not very attractive, since it is mainly composed by 10 commandments and some old fashioned moral teaching which seems to be not very popular.

Secondly it seems to be a difficult task to get your attention. Many will rather say: "I have too much to do and too much to care for, so I don’t have time for this kind of operation". Others will be rather too shy or intimidated to publicly speak about their faith. Even if we can find a group of volunteers who will be able to go and to perform this kind of marketing company, the effects could be somewhat mediocre, because who would like to listen to, who will be interested at all in this, Gospel message? The presence of the disciple of Christ preaching His Good News on the streets and in the public places will be intimidating or even offending and finally this idea will be classified as a fiasco and too idealistic to be performed in our laicised world.

We get used to the situation that God is tightly closed in the tabernacle and the most comfortable way of expressing our faith is on Sunday in the church and not in our daily life.

And in today's Gospel John the Baptist in a very simple but straightforward (direct) way is calling

"Prepare the way of the Lord,

make straight his paths.

Every valley shall be filled

and every mountain and hill shall be made low.

The winding roads shall be made straight,

and the rough ways made smooth,"

Prepare the way of the Lord, but what for? Do these words have any sense and meaning 20 centuries later? What does it mean "Make straight the paths of your life"?

Is Jesus not present in my life? Don’t I come for the Mass every Sunday (o, maybe almost every Sunday)? Do I not convert twice a year during Advent and Lent penitential services, confessing sincerely my sins? Do I need more? What for do I have to convert or to change my life? If I seriously admit that I need a conversion is it not to admit that I am living a messy and disordered life.

What for do I have to convert or to change my life if I think it is good, comfortable and fitting me perfectly?

The answer for this question is only one: I have to convert from my style of live and accept the way of Christ because I cannot and will not save myself, because He is the Saviour and the Redeemer and without Him I am unable to reach Heaven. I have to "make the crocked way of my life make straight", because otherwise they will lead me nowhere. I have to fill our every valley of my greediness and to level every mountain of my pride, because otherwise my selfishness and my pride will devour and destroy me. I have to convert because only Christ is able to liberate me from the slavery of sins. Without Him I can do nothing.

I Sunday of Advent

What is the meaning of Advent?

Can we say that today for many, Advent is limited only to the colorful streets, lampions and preparation of Christmas decorations, sumptuous displays in the shops and promotions in supermarkets and molls? For many contemporary, Advent means rather hours spend in hunting the Christmas gifts and presents. Will I be far away from the truth if I dare to say that although the season of Christmas is the season of light (what we can see on our streets and in our supermarkets) indeed internally for many among us it's the time of darkness or spiritual darkness, religious emptiness?

What is the deepest sense of all this?

Do you remember the Advent last year? Did it not look like this year in more or less the same way? Despite of the fact that since last Advent we became certainly wiser and more skilled, more involved in a different aspects of our daily life, can we say that also in our relationship with God we are better, deeper, more sincere and more honest? Or should we rather say that we did not progress, that for many years now we are living rather a kind of stagnation? And after Christmas with our faith will share the lot of the Christmas decorations, it will go to the storage room till next year?

At the beginning of this Advent we have to find a serious answer for a question: "what am I waiting for?" Because if this Advent will be for me once again (or once more) the time only for gifts and presents and external colorful lampions it is true that I will be afraid and frustrated when Jesus is talking about the inevitability of His final coming, I will be frustrated and scared, I will be afraid. And if I am afraid I will run away from Him, I will despise Him, I will run into the superficiality of colorful decorations. They are beautiful and cheering but if this is only the meaning of Advent and Christmas … let us be frank it is empty and superficial.

We have to know that the one of the most dangerous words for our spiritual life is the word "tomorrow". This word tries to convince me that I still have a time, plenty of time for confession, for prayer, for liberating my busy life for God. But in reality with "tomorrow" mentality I will never be able to say to God COME LORD JESUS. This is why today at the beginning of Advent we are receiving from God one more chance, one more opportunity to deepen our personal relationship with Emmanuel, with GOD WHO IS WITH US. It is the time when I suppose to prepare not only my house, to ornate and decorate not only the front doors of my apartment, to cleanse not only my flat but first at all to prepare my heart to accept God whenever He comes.

It will certainly cost me more than only external preparations but it will be certainly more successful and more rewarding if I have the courage to do it.

Advent is the time of preparation but first and foremost the internal preparation to meet God in so many different ways. He is coming in the manger; he is coming in His Word, Body and Blood during the Mass, He is coming also in my neighbour, in a poor, the needy, and starving. He is coming in so many ways. Am I ready to meet Him, do I wait for Him, or simply I DON’T HAVE TIME?

Freedom ...

Compare the stages of your personal sin with the stages and effects of the original sin. Exactly the same ... shockingly the same.

Why the sin, each sin has such a dramatic and traumatic effects? Because turning your back to God you are going away from Life, from Love, from the Source of existence, from the Existence itself, and so you are choosing the destruction, the death, the disorder ... And this is causing in you the deepening feeling of lost, of sadness, depression and anger, and nihilism.

Individually and on the social level. What is going on in the Western societies? Increase of sin, folly of perversion, catastrophic growing of lust, greediness and pride and at the same time increase of suicides and overwhelming sadness and depression.

Humanity is going nowhere, is sliding rapidly into the abyss of Hell which is the absolute "freedom - anarchy" of choice and at the same time the total chaos, madness of evil, sadness and dying without death. People in Hell would like to die, to stop to exist and they cannot ...And this is increasing their suffering caused by the Absolute Absence of God, by the total absence of any, even the smallest good. They are aware of the fact that it is their free choice, and that they are there not because of God's punishment but because of their free will, this is their choice, their freedom. They "liberated" themselves from "the tyranny" of God's commandments at the same time liberating themselves from good, from love, from life ... And so they are FREE!!

It's frightening, it's terrifying ...

Almighty God free me from my stupid freedom!!!

While Rome Burned

32 – Sunday in Ordinary Time – B

Only Jesus Christ appreciated very much the widow's offering. Only He respected her by saying: “For all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

Here we can see that our way of seeing and assessing somebody's value certainly differs from the way of God. By these words from today's Gospel Jesus is teaching us that even the smallest act done out of God's love is much more precious than the biggest achievements done out of selfish desires.

But first we have to ask more fundamental question: whether we are still able to offer something, to share, to give without thinking about getting back?

We certainly know the golden rule cited by St. Paul in the Acts of Apostles (20:35): "There is more happiness in giving than in receiving".

But do we practice this in our daily life?

What kind of giver am I?

Do I give because I must or I have to?

Do I give because it is requested or because it is noble or trendy?

Or, am I a joyful giver? I give out of my heart not counting on being appreciated?

One of the Russian writers said: "Nobody is too poor to not give and share, to not be able to help others."

We have also to remember that very often others don't ask or expect the material help, that very often much more important is spiritual help, few friendly words of consolation, a prayer or time we are able to give. It is quite easy to give money; it's much more demanding to share joy, to give a little bit of time, to give a good and constructive word, to be with a needy person. In giving we can quite easy "get reed" of a problem or we can create a durable lifelong relationship.

Francis Balfour wrote:

The best gift we can offer to our enemy is the gift of forgiveness,

the best gift we can offer to our friend is faithfulness,

the best gift we can offer to the child is a good example,

the best gift we can offer to the father is honour him as a Father,

the best gift we can offer to our mother is our heart,

and the best gift we can offer to our neighbour is our supporting hand.

Catholic Dignity

31 Sunday in Ordinary Time - B

Spend all my goods and possessions to help poor and needy,

Become a servant of all, and the slave of my brothers and sisters,

Forgive all and everybody, forget all offences, and be ready to show the forgiveness at all time,

Love neighbour and even my enemies like God loves them ...

Is it not exactly what God expects from me?

Is it not the concrete realization of the most important commandment "love God and your neighbour"?

But immediately come some question:

- is it not too much?

- How could it be possible today to practice such a radical understanding of the teaching of Christ in the 21 century, in our technicyzed world?

- can Jesus ask us such a deep radicalism in our already burdened and heavy stressed life?

Shouldn't the church adjust her teaching and update a little bit the traditional approach to the Gospel? Should the teaching of the church not amend and adjust the teaching of Christ to the contemporary reality, so to become more realistic and simpler, easier to live?

We would like to be faithful, we would like to love God, we would like be honest but those impossible to keep requirements and unrealistic expectations are a big obstacle. If God would like us to be in heaven He has to help us by adjusting His commandments and be a little bit more realistic. And it is true not only in these issues but also in the case of a very restrictive and difficult moral commandment especially in the matter of marital life.

We cannot be idealistic; we cannot live today with the fifteenth century mentality.

I cannot give up everything what I have - I have to assure my future and my retirement plan.

I cannot be a naive servant ready to help everybody - it's a risk of ridiculing my life.

It's naive and unrealistic to forgive and forget all the time and even sometimes is dangerous.

It is impossible to love the neighbor in this way, because it is naive and certainly nowadays it is stupid to love and enemy in this way because it is dangerous.

I cannot resign from my live and be naive. I have to assure the security of my live.

What matters in those entire unrealistic God's commandments? What is finally the meaning of Love ?

God is Love - it's true but we have to know also that God is One, or Oneness.

This is showing immediately that to gain or achieve oneness we have to struggle for it and to sacrifice something. The true love is always demanding, and always sacrificial. This is what Jesus is showing in His the passion and death. It was not a theatre; it was not a sentimental performance. It was the real and very brutal death on the cross out of love for us and for our salvation. He paid this price in full and He knows what He is talking about, remaining us the commandments.

Our wealth, our luxury life, our selfishness, our lack of mercy, our hate, envy, or negligence are always against God, and against the children of God.

Therefore:

- Let us help others with our wealth and richness,

- let build up the unity in our families and in our life by serving and helping others,

- Let us forgive each other,

- Let us be merciful,

- Let us build up the culture of mutual understanding and sharing, the culture of help and love even if it should costs us, because God gave us not only the commandments but also all necessary graces to be His children and mutually brothers and sisters.

This is the direct and the straight way to God, Who calls us to be His children and to be holy as He is holy.

Year of Faith

30 Sunday - B

Year of Faith - Jesus is showing us the Faith, which is a healing power

Do we ask sometimes ourselves a question: Why I cannot meet Jesus on the way of my live? Why -when I need Him so much in my life- He is apparently absent and not answering my prayers?
Why so many o my prayers and requests are neglected by Him ?
Why -despite of so many of my sincere and honest prayers- He is mute and unanswerving? Why I do have to struggle so much in my life?
Why I am not able to meet Him personally despite of His promises that He will not abandon us, that He will be present with us until the end of time?

There are many possible answers for all those questions, but let us present here only two, and both are stressing the necessity of Faith:

First - in order to meet Jesus seriously I have to believe in Him and to believe Him, or rather the renew my faith that He really is God and He certainly knows better than me what is good for me and what is not.

And secondly - in order to meet Jesus I need to believe that I really need Him, the Son of God and not a wizard or magician, that I need Jesus. Like Barthymeus I have to realize that I am blind and poor, and sinful, and in need of His help. I have to admit that I need Jesus with His help and not with His eagerness of fulfilling my caprices and whims. When I accept Jesus as a Son of God and not a magician, I have to cry wit Batrimeaus "Jesus, Son of the living God have mercy on me!".

Jesus changed radically the life of Batrimeaus, his daily life and his spiritual life. Bartimaeus believed in Christ and believed Christ and followed Him radically.
Do I need Jesus to heal me radically, to change my life drastically and to follow Him or ... only to fulfill some of my caprices ?

And there się one thing more "Go your way; your faith has saved you".

So what is Faith? October 11 we were invited to discover what is faith, what does it mean for me to believe, to trust Jesus? But in order to answer these questions I have to see:
- what is the content of my faith, what do I know about my! Catholic Faith?
- in whom do I believe, is this really Jesus Christ or an idol I created for my personal use?
- whom I trust, if I trust Jesus so why I don't trust the Church founded by Jesus, why do I reject the teaching of the Master when it is too demanding or awkward for me?

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time "Year B"

In today's first reading we find Ezekiel being sent by God to a Jewish people who had compromised their faith to the extent that they had gone over to worshipping pagan gods.

God chose Ezekiel to confront them, and it wasn't easy for poor old Ezekiel because God gave him a task that just filled Ezekiel with downright fear.

After all he was frail, he was weak, and very vulnerable man. He didn't feel up to the job. But by God's grace, Ezekiel did it.

Because for the priest and the prophet the Word of God must be spoken whether or not people will listen. Through His priests and His prophets God makes sure that His word and His teaching reaches us.

What we do with it from there is our choice. God does not force us. However, when it comes to judgement day - we won't be able to say - "I didn't know".

The Israelites to whom Ezekiel was sent were rebellious. We all know what a rebellious child is like. Well, rebellious adults are even more so.

Their minds are all made up. Those in rebellion lash out at anything that challenges their mindsets.

A rebellious mind is defiant when it is convinced it is right no matter what anyone says – even God.

Throughout history, all of God’s prophets experienced rejection. So it's nothing new. Rejection goes with the job. St. Paul faced it. We hear him speaking of it in the second reading.

Notice that he speaks of his littleness, just as Ezekiel did when God sent him to confront people with the Word of God.

Prophets, however, are not little in the eyes of God; they are little only in the eyes of those who reject them.

Jesus experienced the ultimate rejection and endured the ultimate lashing out by rebellious humans. In the Gospel of today we find Jesus back in His own hometown.

There His hometown folks take offense at him. Note that they take offense at him, not at what he had done. After all up to then Jesus had worked some pretty astonishing miracles.

Yet when He comes home His people pay no attention to what He had done. Instead their rebellious minds focused on Him as a person, rejecting both Him and what He had to say.

Why? because He did not say what they wanted to hear. They wanted to hear something with which they could agree.

They wanted to be uplifted not put down. But Jesus could not compromise the truth and He told them what they needed to hear - not what they wanted to hear.

One of Father Kaz's favorite sayings and maybe you heard it or maybe you haven't heard it..... it goes like this.....

- "If I do not say what you want to hear you will not hear what I have to say".

Of course this expression is taken directly from the prophet Ezekiel's own experience. Ezekiel had to speak God's word whether or not the people were ready to listen.

And quite often he was confronted by those who stubbornly felt that they knew better.

Why? Because they were human beings just like us and quite often human beings only want to hear that which will uplift them - not that which will disturb them.

We forget sometimes that God's word is like a two edged sword that both comforts the disturbed and disturbs the comfortable.

That is the way it was in Jesus' hometown. He told them things they already knew but didn't want to hear

- they did not like the message and so they attacked the messenger - who does he think he is - we know him - he's just Jesus - the carpenters son. What right does he have to correct us, they said.

And ourselves, what we have said "He's just Father Faustino from Africa - what right does he have to come here and try to impose his African morality on us Canadians"?

He's just Father Kaz from Poland what right does he have to come here and take us back 50 years to rigid Catholicism.

After all, we are Canadian Catholics. We have been enlightened by modern theology .

We are followers of the spirit of Vatican II and the Catholic church needs to turn around and follow us.

The Catholic church needs to update itself and get into the 20th century.

My Dear Friends, We need to remind ourselves that as Christians we need to hear God's word before we ourselves can speak it.

And when we speak it we need to ask ourselves on whose behalf are we speaking and under whose authority?

Sure we are entitled to our opinion but since when does our opinion trump the Word of God and the teaching of Jesus Christ?

Toward the end of his ministry St. Paul ordained young Timothy to take charge of some of the Christian communities Paul had founded. In one of his letters to Timothy St. Paul said:

"I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingly power:

proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching.

For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine but, following their own desires and insatiable curiosity,

will accumulate teachers and will stop listening to the truth and will be diverted to myths.
But you, be self-possessed in all circumstances; put up with hardship; perform the work of an evangelist; fulfill your ministry.

This comes from St. Paul's letter (2 Timothy chapter 4: verses 1 to 5)"

This is precisely what Father Kaz has been trying to do during his time here and I am told this is what Father Christian will continue to do.

Our priests will bring us the Word of God and not their own opinion but the teaching of Jesus Christ.

Jesus said to his apostles, the first Bishops "if they reject you, they reject me and if they reject me, they reject the one who sent me."

And when people grumbled, got upset and left because they didn't like what Jesus said - what did he say to get them to come back - "please come back - I'm sorry I offended you?"

No, He didn't. Instead, rather than compromise the truth, Jesus turned to His disciples and said "and what about you? Will you also leave?

So it's up to us then. Once we hear the word of God, will we accept it or do we reject it?

Who are we going to listen to?
Like the song says "We gotta walk that lonesome valley, We gotta walk it by ourselves, no nobody else can walk it for us, we gotta walk it by ourselves."

So that choice certainly is ours to make. No one else can make it for us.

Let us pray that by God's Grace we make the right choice.

God Bless you

Deacon Bernie Ouellette

III Sunday of Easter B - 2012

III Sunday of Easter B - 2012

We can see several obvious conclusions coming out of the fact of Christ's Resurrection:

-         Who believes in Christ is not anymore a slave of the Law and the sin, the believer is the child of God and free of the slavery to sin,

-         J. Christ is for us the only hope and the only Lord and Saviour,

-         The sin and death although are still part of our earthly reality, but we are not helpless and defenceless in front of this realities, because Christ is the winner, the champion the conqueror of the death and of the sin,

-         In Him we are able to overcome the sin and to win over the death by the resurrection in Christ

-         We are the witnesses of the Good News, we are the light of the world,

-         Jesus is among us and with us until the end of time.

All this is however basing on the one fundamental fact, that I believe in God and I believe (I trust) God.

Pope Benedict XVI is preparing the Year of Faith which will start on October this year …

In the Insert you will find the first part of his pastoral letter ("Porta Fidei") – the Door of Faith preparing the Year of Faith …

In the letter Pope is sharing with us His concerns and anxieties concerning especially the apparent collapse of Christianity caused by a false understanding of the renewal of the Vatican II, the failure in catechesis and a serious breakdown in the understanding and participating in the Holy Eucharist. And He proposes the REDISCOVERY OF FAITH.


Full text of the Papal Letter "Porta Fidei".

II Easter Sunday - Divine Mercy Sunday

Divine Mercy Sunday - Dives in Misericordia

Faith in God's Mercy is one of the fundamental truths of the Christian creed. God is Mercy and Love. The Bible is using this very word (mercy of God) 200 times.

About this Christ reminded the twentieth century humanity in a very special way. God reminded us about this through the revelation given to Sister Faustina Kowalska - a modest, unknown, uneducated person. Jesus came to her and told her remarkable words: "In the Old Covenant I sent prophets wielding thunderbolts to My people. Today I am sending you to all of humanity with my Mercy. I do not want to punish aching mankind, but I want to heal it, embracing sinners with love of my Merciful Heart"(Diary, 1588).

Canonization of the "secretary of Divine Mercy" Sister Faustina Kowalska done by Pope John Paul II on April 30 2000.

White Sunday, ending the octave of Easter, is celebrated as Divine Mercy Sunday. In a spontaneous way the faithful worshiped and honored Divine Mercy on this Sunday already from the time of World War II. The official celebration was introduced by the "letter for Lent in 1985" and established for the first time in the diocese of Kraków, by Cardinal Franciszek Macharski.

Then the other bishops introduced the feast of Divine Mercy in their dioceses. In 1995, at the request of the Bishops, the Holy See issued a decree permitting the celebration of the feast in all Polish dioceses, while maintaining the liturgical norms in force on that date. Of course this White Sunday celebration has its origin in the visions of Sr. Faustina.

"I wish that the first Sunday after Easter be the Feast of Mercy" (Diary 299) - said to her Lord Jesus. These and similar words are repeated in the Diary at least 14 times. How much the message of the apparitions of Sr. Faustina is up to date, show the words of the Encyclical Dives in Misericordia. John Paul II writes: "Present-day mentality, more perhaps than people in the past, seems opposed to God's mercy, and also aims to very idea of ​​mercy move to the margins of life and to remove from the human heart. The word and the concept of "mercy" if they interfere with a man who, by the development of science and technology unknown before more than ever in history has become his own master."

It is true … we have some problem with accepting the concept of mercy. We are afraid or even humiliated by the fact that we can receive something free of charge. We are accustomed to pay for everything and the idea that I can get something out of mercy put me in a position of a bagger or a position of submission.

To obtain the Mercy of God, I must first believe in Him, but also be myself merciful, I have to recognise that I need Divine Mercy and I can show to others the same mercy in my life ...

The present-day mentality, more perhaps than that of people in the past, seems opposed to a God of mercy, and in fact tends to exclude from life and to remove from the human heart the very idea of mercy.

The word and the concept of "mercy" seem to cause uneasiness in man, who, thanks to the enormous development of science and technology, never before known in history, has become the master of the earth and has subdued and dominated it. This dominion over the earth, sometimes understood in a onesided and superficial way, seems to have no room for mercy.

I am so great that I don't need God's Mercy. God's Mercy is humiliating for me, because it presupposes that I am pitiful or pathetic. If I am searching for "feeling good" the concept of Divine Mercy is awkward and unacceptable.

However, in this regard we can profitably refer to the picture of "man's situation in the world today" as described at the beginning of the Constitution Gaudium et spes. Here we read the following sentences: "In the light of the foregoing factors there appears the dichotomy of a world that is at once powerful and weak, capable of doing what is noble and what is base, disposed to freedom and slavery, progress and decline, brotherhood and hatred. Man is growing conscious that the forces he has unleashed are in his own hands and that it is up to him to control them or be enslaved by them." (Dives in Mosericordia ch. 2 - 1980)

Easter – 2012

No resurrection without death

Easter Sunday, the day of Resurrection of Christ is bringing us a double message.

From one side we are joyfully acknowledging that Jesus Christ is risen, that He is the Lord of Life and that His resurrection is for us an assurance of our resurrection.

But we have to keep in our mind the other side of the reality of the Resurrection …

Tell me please what is the necessary and indispensable condition of the resurrection?

Yes … first … YOU MUST DIE!

There is no resurrection if you don’t die. You have to die first.

You have to die to yourself, you have to die to your sins, you have to die to your selfishness, you have to die to your way of life, you have to die to your pride, you have to die to all your worldly and earthly habits. In order to raise up YOU HAVE TO DIE.

The first and basic idea of the Baptism is that through Baptism we are dying to our old selves, we are dying to the world so to be reborn for Christ.

Do I realize this truth? I was baptize as a baby, I didn't even remember that I was baptized but I have to be aware that my Baptism was an immersion into the "death of Christ", that I have to die every day as St. Paul says: "… we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life." (Romans 6:3-4)

There is no other way to rise with Christ … than through death …

And this is also the message of Easter.

Easter Vigil - 2012

Easter Vigil - RCIA
 
This week, the Holy Father spoke of this sifting at Holy Thursday Mass.
 
"…as Christ told Peter, "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat," today "we are once more painfully aware that Satan has been permitted to sift the disciples before the whole world."
—POPE BENEDICT XVI, Mass of the Lord’s Supper, April 21st, 2011
 
Where do you and I stand in this sifting? Are we among the weeds or the wheat?
 
"We too find excuses when being his disciples starts becoming too costly, too dangerous."
 
It's very uplifting to be with Christ in the moments of glory, it's wonderful to be with Him in the time of exaltation …
If Judas, Peter, and the Apostles fled the Lord in His hour of sorrow … what will I do when the time of sorrow approach?
 
It's wonderful the liturgy of Easter Vigil … in few minutes time some of you will receive the Sacrament of Baptism; some will be accepted to the full unity with the Catholic Church, some will receive the Sacrament of Confirmation and some will receive the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ for the first time.
 
What a wonderful achievement? What a time of glory and joyful exaltation …
 
But my dear brothers and sisters … will you be with Christ when all this will be over and when comes the normal, difficult daily life?
 
Or "you will find excuses when being His disciple starts becoming too costly, too dangerous, to boring to demanding."
 
I will quote you only one sentence of Jesus which is repeated three times in the Gospel:
 
"You will be hated by all because of My Name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved." (Matthew 10,22)
 
The way to the Resurrection goes through Calvary. We have to be aware of this truth.

Good Friday 2011

We are afraid of suffering and pain. We are scared and terrified of discomfort. We won't like even to listen about it. We search Jesus Christ without cross and very often we find cross without Christ. And this is our misery our disaster.
 
Elizabeth Leseur a twentieth century saint in a letter to a woman on the verge of losing her eyesight, wrote: "The Stoics say, 'suffering is nothing.' They were wrong. Illuminated by a clearer light we Christians say, 'suffering is everything.'"
 
She knew what she was talking about. She had married a man who was a dedicated medical doctor, but an unbeliever and well known leader of the French anti-clerical, atheistic movement, who tried to dissuade Elizabeth from her faith. When she tried to share her faith with her husband, he cut her off, sometimes with mockery. Elizabeth bore his insults quietly and even though she was weakened by hepatitis, she worked diligently. In her early forties, she was diagnosed with cancer and for three years, suffered horribly so to finally die in 1914.
 
When she was dying, she said to her husband,
"Felix, when I am dead, you will become a Catholic and a Dominican priest."
 
Her husband answered:
"Elizabeth, you know my sentiments. I've sworn hatred of God, I shall live in the hatred and I shall die in it."
 
After her death, her husband discovered the spiritual journal she kept. It moved him to his depths especially her profound and personal meditations on suffering and cross of Jesus Christ.
 
Reading through her papers, Felix found her will:
 
"In 1905, I asked almighty God to send me sufficient sufferings to purchase your soul.
On the day that I die, the price will have been paid.
Greater love than this no woman has than she who lay down her life for the salvation of her husband."
 
He experienced a profound conversion. He became a Dominican priest and travelled through Europe speaking about his wife's spiritual writings.
 
Elizabeth Leseur certainly found the ultimate truth about the value of suffering …
 
"The Stoics said, 'suffering is nothing.' They were wrong. Illuminated by Christ's light we Christians say, 'suffering is everything.'"
 
So, this Good Friday we learn that through the suffering of Jesus we receive the greatest blessings - forgiveness and true life.
 
Without Christ … our sufferings can only destroy and annihilate us. Without Christ our sufferings are absolutely senseless. Without Christ the cross -we are carrying on- is senseless and hopeless. Without Christ the suffering and death have no meaning and no significance. Without Christ whole our life is meaningless.
 
If we join our own sufferings to His, they become means of grace, means of our salvation. Illumined by faith, we can say, "suffering is everything."
 
As we read in today's second reading:
 
"Jesus Christ though he was the Son of God, He learned obedience from what he suffered; and when He was made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him. "
 
Amen.

HOLY THURSDAY

HOLY THURSDAY

- THE FIRST EUCHARISTIC BANQUET

- WHAT IT MEANS TODAY?

When Jesus entered the Upper Room to eat the Passover Meal with His disciples, it would become the night that changed the world. When Jesus broke the bread and shared the wine saying to his Disciples "This is my Body, this is my Blood. Do this in memory of Me" it would become the greatest of Gifts, the Gifts of His Body and Blood. The Gift of Himself. The Apostles realized this fact the very next morning, when they saw their Teacher stretched out on the cross. His Body and Blood given to us for our salvation …

St. Paul was probably one of the first to understand also that Jesus was really present in the Eucharist. Saint Paul saw clearly that when we share in the Body and Blood of Christ and when the words "This is my Body” are said as they are every day throughout this world, in every country, in every parish, in every time and place, we become indeed one bread - one body, the Body of Christ – because He gave us this commandment "Do this in memory of Me". 

One converted theologian said: "You become what you eat." When you eat the Body of Christ you become the Body of Christ. He is transforming you into Himself.

But, do we really understand and appreciate what this means as we come up to receive the Holy Communion? Do we understand or believe that this is Jesus Christ Himself in His Body and Blood, the Creator and the King of the Universe through Whom everything was made?

Do we really understand what is happening as many of us shuffle up disengaged? It sure doesn’t look like we really understand as we trudge up quietly as if receiving a handout in a bread line then trudge back to our seats perhaps even looking at our watches. I have done that and am ashamed I ever have.

The Angel of Peace appeared before the Children of Fatima holding a chalice in his hands, above which was suspended a Host from which drops of Blood were falling into the chalice. The Angel left the chalice suspended in the air and prostrated Himself before it in prayer. If an Angel can do this … why am I so bling and not able to see the Hidden Reality of the Lord present in the Eucharistic species?

It doesn’t mean we have to fling ourselves to the ground but perhaps we can prostrate ourselves internally as we receive the Holy Communion. Pope John Paul II stated that we “need to cultivate a lively awareness of Christ’s real presence.”

Something very mystical and awe inspiring happens when we receive the Eucharist. Sadly so many don’t understand or believe this.

When Jesus becomes present in the Eucharist He is not alone- He brings Heaven with him. I love the imagery of what St. Padre Pio said about the events of the Eucharist. He said it was “Paradise” and “Our Lady is present at every Mass, along with all the angels and the “whole celestial court.” I must admit I envy these Saints, and I suspect most of our Saints, St. Faustina, St. Therese, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Joan of Arc, St. Francis, St. Padre Pio each have experienced Eucharist this way. We can too. The evidence has always been there.

There is only one Mass, one Eternal Mass, and only one Liturgy of the Eucharist that is taking place in Heaven all the time, or rather out of time, because Heaven is timeless. So we do not merely attend Mass, nor do we go back in time 2 000 years, but we join with all of heaven and earth in celebrating that one eternal liturgy. Remember what priests proclaim “Now, let us join the choirs of angels as they sing their unending Hymn of praise.”

Think of it at every moment priests and believers throughout the world on every hour celebrate Mass all over the world. We are not alone ... ever …. One writer has said that “we go to Heaven when we attend Mass”.

So, good music or bad music, good homilies or bad, good pronunciation or bad - it doesn't matter. The Eternal Mass matters – as it is always Heaven on Earth joined together when priest celebrate the Holy Eucharist.

What we are experiencing during this time is not our Mass, not our offering, is not a spectacle, not a ceremony, not a common meal … it's rather the moment when the priest is opening to us the gate to Heaven, so that we can participate in this ONE, ETERNAL SACRIFICE of Jesus Christ.

When the priest lifts the Sacred Host in front of you, pause a moment- see into the Host to feel the whole magnificent presence of Jesus and the Trinity, the Angels and Communion of Saints and feel how jubilant they are to join with you in this always present Eternal Banquet, the eternal Sacrifice of Christ.

Jesus didn't say: "Whoever studies the Bible will have eternal life." He didn't say "Pray 7 times per day and you will inherit the Kingdom of God". But He certainly said: "Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life, and I shall raise that person up on the last day."

Eucharist is truly the center, the summit and the source of our life.

This is what Jesus instituted during the Last Supper, this is why He gave us the commandment: "Do this in memory of Me."

Palm Sunday – 2012

Jesus' life can be summarized in few very meaningful words:

First we have Gloria at His birth

Than we have "this is my beloved Son" at His baptism and transfiguration,

Next we have "Hosanna" in today's first Gospel

And "crucify Him" in today's second Gospel.

But we have not to forget that the last word summarizing His life the "ALLELUIA" on the Easter Sunday.

In our life we did have our Gloria, we did have our "this is my beloved child", we do certainly have our Hosanna and crucify him, but we cannot forget that the end of our life is Alleluia at the day of our resurrection.

**************************************

When Jesus dies on the Cross, a pagan, a Roman centurion makes the announcement: "Surely this is the Son of God." To understand who Jesus is, we have to stand under the Cross.  To recognize how much God loves us, we have to realize the extent of his suffering for us.  To realize that we are his followers, we have to join Him on the Cross. Love gives joy, but this joy can result in pain. Love means giving, but this gift can result in suffering as we say no to our own desires for the sake of the one whom we love. Love gives life. The Lord loves us so much that we receive His life.  As we begin this Holy Week we pray that we might have the courage to follow Christ in embracing our own crosses.  May we make real the cross of Christ in the world by giving ourselves to others in love, not sentimental and emotional but in real "love in the truth", as Pope Benedict XVI writes in his encyclical letter "Cartatis in Veritate".

V Sunday in Lent – B - 2012

 

He who loves his life will lose it

In today's Gospel Jesus has for us an amazing and even frightening truth about the human condition. He feels the approaching hour of His final battle with evil, death and Satan on the cross. He knows that only such an ultimate and complete sacrifice, the sacrifice of Himself may be effective in the fight against evil. God gives Himself to man and gives Himself to the end, irrevocably. It is the gift of total and absolute sacrifice for the salvation of humanity. The gift of self, the gift of His life. And Christ invites us to make such a gift of ourselves too. "If anyone serves Me, let him deny himself, and follow me, and where I am there shall my servant be."

Is it not true that in our lives, very often we lose precisely what we are so much attached to, what we love so much? Is it not true so that our economy and philosophy of life, is a philosophy of ownership, or philosophy of possession, "as much as you can, have, possess and use?" Our whole life is oriented toward possession, toward having. And Christ offers us a re-evaluation, a change of this optics. Nothing what I have, I really do have, but rather things have me. I am not the owner; I am rather possessed or controlled by the things. So, what I love so much, I will lose! I WILL LOSE EVERYTHING WHAT I HAVE. And it is hopeless, I cannot change this, this is a fate, this is our human life after the original sin. "If the seed thrown into the ground don't die, it remains alone and it does not produce anything any yield nothing." Therefore in order, to gain, to win I must be able to lose, in order to live I need to know how to die ... above all, to myself and to my whims, caprices and sins. This is the strange philosophy of God, who has not chosen another way to save man, than through the sacrifice of Himself, through the self-destruction ... like a seed thrown into the ground. In this way, He assured the eternal life to those who want to follow Him, those who are able to forget themselves, to lose their earthly life.

It is very painful, but is this involuntary loss of what we love so much not as painful? Only, this loss does not bring anything in return! And here, in exchange for the temporality of my earthly life and the pain God is providing me with eternal life. Can I afford it, Can I lose my life to win the eternal life?

Or maybe I'm so attached to these little things so strongly that I cannot get rid of them?

Alternative Homily

The radical logic of the Gospel ...

How difficult it is, we cannot even understand how to accept, and it is even harder to put into practice the words of the Gospel today? How difficult it is to believe in the depths of our hearts, that anyone who wants to gain his life must lose it, that the seed must die in order to give the fruits? This logic is a way absolutely incompatible with our common sense, for who of us wants to die, who will agree to lose their lives to get it back, who is able to learn obedience in suffering, and in self-denial? (Mt 16.24, Mk 8.34, Lk 9:23)

Unfortunately, this is the radical logic of the Gospel, which is shocking and teasing today's man. Inflexibilities and firmness of Good News discourages modern man and causes such a resistance among listeners that those who hear these words of Christ are revolting and rejecting Good News and finally Christ. In our daily life we try to soften this harsh and difficult logic of Christ and what we have? I heard somebody say: "If you are searching Christ without Cross you will find only cross without Christ. And this is the real disaster!

And God certainly does not want terrorize us, or to create martyrs. He does not propose the mortification and purification as ends in themselves, but as treatments for a real healing a measure to achieve the journey to the Father's House. He draws no pleasure from the suffering and death, because He did not create it (Wis 1:13-14). So why such a radical demands, why such "inhuman" recommendations? And why He speaks of this in the context of "glorification of the Son of Man"? What glorious can be in death on the cross? And why Christ exalted on the cross is to attract us to Him? We would prefer to do it on Mount Tabor, or on the top of the Mount of Ascension, but not on Calvary.

All this does not seem to be understandable and certainly is not acceptable without Resurrection. The whole logic of the Gospel is absurd and unacceptable if Christ has not risen (1 Cor 15:14). And only the Resurrection of Christ put all the "inhuman" requirements and recommendations in a different light. Because only Christ exalted on the cross and risen from the death contradicts logic of death and draws all to Himself, that is ... to eternal life. And it is precisely this exaltation, referred to in today's gospel which is the ultimate winning of LIFE. The cross is a turning point in human history, is the reverse process of destruction and reign of death, which began after sin. And that's why I need to lose my life to retrieve the true and full, eternal life in Christ.

IV Sunday of Lent – 2012 - B

God sent his Son to the world to save the world

God certainly is rich in mercy (Ephesians 2:4) and there is no doubt that he shows it to all and without exception (Deuteronomy 5:10). His mercy and forgiveness have no limits ... except one - a stubborn, ill-will of man. God cannot show forgiveness for someone who does not need it, who does not recognize that being a sinner, man needs God forgiveness God cannot do anything for a person who believes that God has nothing to forgive him. Christ certainly did not come into the world to condemn the world but to save it (Jn 3:17). But he cannot do it by force and against the free will of man, because He respects too much the freedom once given to man. And here is the problem. It cannot be that I commit the sin, indulge myself in carelessness and I disregard God and his commandments, for anarchy and lawlessness, and yet persuade myself, "God will forgive me and save me because He loves me so much, because He is merciful", because God has imposed on Himself a "duty of forgiveness" - for every human being, because He is bound to fulfill "automatically" its redemptive function (Sir 5,3-7, John 12.47).

That is why Christ continually and so strongly emphasizes the need for standing in the light of truth, especially in the truth about myself. "Anyone who commits wickedness hates the light of truth and does not come to light, lest his deeds be condemned." That truth is a liberating and saving force (John 8:32), because He, Jesus Christ is this Truth which saves (John 14:6).Living in the Truth, it is fair from being judgemental, it means rather to see my strengths and positives, but also acknowledge my inadequacy and sinfulness, because only such an attitude teaches me humility and allows me to accept Christ as the Savior. This, in turn, is the only way to attain the Divine Mercy. It always comes back the saying of St. Augustine: "God created us without us, but save us without us He cannot." And who says I am without sin, is a liar (1 John 1:10) and there is no truth in him. If I don't accept my situation of sin, I cannot expect to be forgiven, because what God would forgive him, since I consider myself pure and innocent? Do I live in the light of truth? Or rather, I avoid the light of truth, because I have something to hide, and the light bothers me (Jn 3,19-21)?

Over the next two weeks we will follow together with St. John in his Gospel, Jesus' discussion with the Pharisees. But it is also-in a sense, Jesus' discussion with the modern world and with me about the truth which is revealed in Christ. Am I ready to accept this fact, with all its consequences? God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, and I cannot be able to accede to God in His Mercy otherwise than through the Son, who is Truth. Knowing the right, the truth about myself, is an indispensable condition of repentance and acceptance of God's Love.

And this truth is sometimes very unpleasant, very irritating, annoying, and even frustrating. I wondered many times over the problem "Against what is really fighting our modern civilization?" And I think that the best candidate for the most attacked value by contemporary people is the value of TRUTH. Ultimately, Christ was crucified, not because they talked about the love of God and the neighbor. He was crucified precisely because he preached the TRUTH, He was crucified for He was calling people to live in the TRUTH. And this is what man very often rejects and cannot stand. This is what we try to kill, to shout down, and to silence. Because we don't like it. This is precisely what is happening in the world today, when the Church of Christ speaks of unbridled immorality of pornography, the wickedness of abortion, the crime of euthanasia, the immorality of homosexual acts. Civilization is trying to shout it down, get rid of it, kill the voice of conscience, which reveals in the end is the voice of Truth itself. That is what Jesus says in today's Gospel: "the light has come into the world, but men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light neither comes to the light, lest his deeds be condemned. "

III Sunday of Lent – B – 2012

In the first reading we have the Ten Commandments, the law of God, about what one of the philosophers said, that there is no possibility of denying the ultimate value of this law.

1.  You shall not have other gods besides me.

2.  You shall not take the name of the LORD, your God, in vain.

3.  Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day.

4.  Honour your father and your mother,

5.  You shall not kill.

6.  You shall not commit adultery.

7.  You shall not steal.

8.  You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.

9.  You shall not covet your neighbour’s house.

10.  You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or anything else that belongs to him.

And yet if I verify these instructions with our contemporary life...?

·       How many people live their lives worshipping money, comfort, extravagance, pleasure, success, satisfaction, wealth? Where in all this is God the Father?

·       How often even among Catholics especially politicians the name of the Lord is taken only for the political and unfair ways and purposes?

·       How many people keep the day of rest holy?

·       “Honour your father and your mother” and I thought about the persistent agenda on euthanasia?

·       “You shall not kill” and I thought about the pro-choice lows and abortion ...

·       “You shall not commit adultery” – and immediately click out the pornographic industry ...

And we can endlessly continue with this list. All commandments are constantly neglected, denied, rejected and contradicted in the name of human rights, in the name of human dignity, human freedom, in the name of civil liberties ...

And then I read the Gospel, where I see Jesus Christ in rage and how the “zeal for the house of God is consuming Him” and I realised that most probably He will react in the same way seeing what is going on with His Church, the Temple of God today. How often this Temple of God became only the marketplace of the personal opinions, private convictions, individualistic statements, the place of business and commerce where o more God and his worship is present but ME and MY personality?

And then I read the short passage from the letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians, our second reading today:

“Brothers and sisters:

when Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom

we proclaim Christ crucified,

a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,

but to those who are called, the power of God and the wisdom of God.

For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom,

and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.”

“Jesus Christ crucified the power of God and the wisdom of God” will certainly take care of His Temple, and will cleanse His Church.

As long as we believe Jesus Christ crucified we don’t need to be afraid, hopeless and depressive.

But in todays' Gospel there is one more think which attracted my attention. This is the end of the dialog between Christ and Sadducees:

At this the Jews answered and said to him,

"What sign can you show us for doing this?"

Jesus answered and said to them,

"Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up."

The Jews said,

"This temple has been under construction for forty-six years,

and you will raise it up in three days?"

But he was speaking about the temple of his body.

1.  Jesus is defending and protecting the temple of His Mystical Body, the Church,

2.  He is enraged against those who destroy it, who "are making out of His Father's house a marketplace." He is infuriated with those who are changing His Holy Church into "robber's den".

3.  But He is also very positive and encouraging when saying "even if you destroy this temple, I will raise it up in three days." Nothing and nobody can destroy the temple of God, the Mystical Body of Christ, nothing and nobody can destroy the Church of Christ. About this He also assured us when giving to Peter the responsibility for the church: "I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and even the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it."