25^th Sunday in Ordinary Time “A”

How many of us think that Jesus' parable today is telling us a story about a situation that is both unfair and unjust. I’m pretty sure every one of us can think of some injustice in our lives. If we think back over the years can we remember some things that have happened to us that we figure were pretty unjust?

I think most of us have some experience of injustice in our lives. Sometimes that injustice that has happened to us leaves a wound that takes a long time to heal. However Jesus’ story today is not about injustice because really there is no injustice done to anyone in it.

And Jesus’ parable is not about justice either, although for sure the story goes out of its way to tell us that justice is done.

Justice is a great thing and it is one of those things that is stressed over and over again in the Bible. But as I said, Jesus' story is not about justice either.

If it’s not about justice or injustice what then is this parable all about? The owner of the vineyard says 'Are you envi­ous because I am generous?' And that phrase is the key phrase of the whole story. This parable is about generosity, a generosity unlike anything we've ever known or seen in our lives.

The eleventh-hour workers were not lazy people who didn't want to work. But they were people no respectable employer would hire. These people were the leftovers, the rejects. All the good workers were gone to work already.

And so the idea that any employer would take these peo­ple on at the eleventh hour, and pay them a full day's wage, was really unthink­able. Yet this is exactly what the owner of the vineyard did. And that action is the whole point of the parable. In this story Jesus isn’t talking about human generosity but rather He is talking about the generosity of God. In today’s First Reading it was said, 'God's ways are not our ways, God's thoughts are not our thoughts'. And so, in today’s Gospel God's generosity is totally unlike human generosity.

I mean who among us would have done what the owner of the vineyard did? Think about it. In today’s world, truthfully, who among us is going to pay someone the same wage for one hour’s work as we would for eight hours work. It’s not going to happen. Jesus aimed this parable directly at the Pharisees. You see, the Pharisees were critical of Jesus because He befriended sinners and so Jesus gave them His answer in this par­able.

In this parable Jesus shows them and shows us what God is like: God is generous and full of compassion for the poor, the outcast and the sinner. God is generous and full of compassion for all of us. God deals with us in ways that are very different from the ways we normally deal with one another. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high is God's generosity above our generosity. The goodness of God is a great comfort to us. But it is also a great challenge to us, because you know what? We are called to imitate it. We are called to deal with one another the same way as God deals with us. And that is a great responsibility.

Therefore we are called to conversion, because a conversion is required before we can begin to act like God. Not an intellectual conversion, not a conversion of the mind but a conversion of the heart.

St John says: 'Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.' Once God has touched our hearts, and warmed them with His love, we will begin to love in our turn. And then we will truly know what God is like. God is love. This parable is about God's gen­erosity to all of us. This parable is about giving. Giving what? This parable is about God giving us that free and utterly undeserved gift that we call grace and our response to that gift.

If we accept that view then we can see that it is about God's call to us, and blessed are those who listen to Him and respond to His call and in turn 'call to Him', realizing that 'He is close to all who call on Him, who call on Him from their hearts'. The landowner in the parable calls workers into His vineyard at daybreak, at the third hour, at the sixth and ninth hours and finally at the eleventh hour. When we listen to this story we have to all agree that this is a most peculiar way of going about things.

This parable is telling a story not about unemployment, it is not about wages, but rather it is teaching the Pharisees and us about how God has dealt with the human race throughout the ages. Jesus was speaking to His disciples who knew their Scriptures very well and, as He spoke to them, they remembered the call to Abraham who was called by God three times and each time Abraham answered the call, believing and trusting in God, obeying God and doing what God told Him to do.

That same call came to Isaac, to Jacob, to Joseph, to Moses who led the people out of the captivity of Egypt into the freedom of the desert. And it is here we can begin to understand the meaning of the divine call. It was there in the desert that God made a covenant with the people, a covenant, a union that later in the Old Testament is called a love-pact, a marriage between God and His chosen people.

God gave them a way of life called the Torah, which literally means “the law”, which includes the Ten Commandments but also a great deal more. Through Moses the people were called upon to promise that they would keep the law, and God promised to bind Himself to them and so they would be His people and He would be their God. This was all sealed by sacrifice when Moses sprinkled the people with the blood of the sacrificed animal saying, 'This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you.'

All seemed pretty good for the future of the chosen ones, but unhappily it was not so. As we know, in spite of repeated calls through the prophets over the centuries, in spite of all the various and painful turns of fortune for the Jewish people, time and again they failed to make an adequate response to God

And so it was in the fullness of time that God sent His Son, born of a woman, Mary of Nazareth, born a subject of the old law, that He might redeem those who were under the old law. And He came and dwelt among us and taught and called people to Himself, among them He called the twelve disciples and He called all the others, men and women, of whom we read about in the gospels. He called them, they responded, they followed, and they like ourselves were those who were called at the eleventh hour to experience the generosity of God. And our calling at the eleventh hour was completed by the New Covenant.

At the Last Supper, on the night before He died to show us and to show the whole of the human race how much He loved us, He said a prayer of blessing over some bread - Jesus said, 'Take and eat; this is my body.' He said a prayer of thanksgiving over the wine and offering it to the twelve said: 'This is my blood of the covenant. Take and drink.' This was and this is the sacrament of the New Covenant with the new People of God, brought into existence by the shedding of Jesus' blood and the complete free will of­fering of Himself to His Father.

As we read in the Gospel of St John, greater love, (and we could say here, greater generosity) no one could have than that He should give His life for others. That is the generosity shown in today's gospel.

So let us not forget that we also are being called. We are among the last to be called, those called at the eleventh hour, and therefore we have an obligation to re­spond to God's call by our daily living, by our lived faith, and by the love of God and for each other which we should return for the love that Jesus has shown us. We are in a sense privileged and at the same time we are not privileged. We are privileged in that through no merit of our own we have been called freely by God‘s grace into God's church out of the infinite goodness of God.

At the same time not privileged because, if like the people of old we fail to respond to God’s call, to God’s grace, if we fail to live for Him, if we fail to take our place in co-working with Him to bring about His kingdom, His reign, then we shall have forfeited whatever may seem to have been a privileged position. For by our disobedience and rebellion then the last shall become first but we who are first can also become the last.

And so, these are the questions that Jesus asks us in this parable: In our lives as faithful Catholic Christians, how are we responding to God’s grace? Are we responding to God’s call to live for Him, to put Him first in our lives, to obey Him and His church in order to help Him bring about His Kingdom, His reign?

Are we keeping our part of the bargain? Are we our brother’s keeper as God asks us to be? How are we responding to His call to forgive each other, to help each other, to guide and teach each other, to pray for each other? Are we truly obeying His command to love one another with the generosity that He has loved us?

Deacon Bernie Ouellette

Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sept. 11, 2011

First we have to notice that Christ's teaching is holistic, complete and universal. This is especially visible when we see the Gospel of the last Sunday and today's teaching of Christ. Jesus is teaching us seriously and talking honestly in the universal way. He is not just skipping the difficult topics to please to his disciples. For this reason we cannot take one part of His teaching which is pleasing to us and forget or reject the other part which is less nice or demanding. And this is –most probably- the biggest problem of the contemporary Christians. We are accustomed to "choose", to "pick-out" and to select. What is agreeable I accept, what is not I reject. I am choosing and selecting, I am deciding according to my wishes or caprices.

Last Sunday Jesus was teaching about our mutual responsibility, about our mutual duty to help each other in the situation of sin. Today He is teaching about the duty of forgiveness, mercy and compassion. But I cannot be merciful, I cannot forgive you, I cannot be compassionate if:

(and there are two NECESSARY CONDITIONS) …

- I don't see that something was wrong in your behaviour, so I CANNOT FORGIVE without judging, or assessing

- And secondly - if you don't recognise your errors and faults, if you claim that everything is OK and you don't do anything wrong,

If there is no sin, no error, not offence so …? What to forgive, what to excuse, why to be merciful and compassionate?

Fr. Alex McAllister SDS

http://www.ctk-thornbury.org.uk/

In the Gospel today we hear Jesus’ teaching on forgiveness. Peter poses the question, an entirely practical one, by asking how many times we must forgive those who sin against us.

What was being taught at the time in the Synagogues was that one had a duty to forgive someone three times and so we can see that Peter by putting forward the possibility of forgiving seven times probably thinks he is doing very well. In giving the number seventy-seven Jesus is essentially saying that there should be no limits to the number of times we forgive those who have offended us.

In the parable that Jesus gives to illustrate his point there are two different currencies used. The servant owed the king ten thousand talents, a huge sum; but the man who owed the servant money only owed one hundred denarii. Since one talent was equal to six thousand denarii we can see that the man only owed the servant a tiny amount in comparison.

Jesus clearly intends the King to represent the Father and is by means of a parable is making the point that the debts we owe to one another are just chicken-feed in comparison to what we owe God.

Nothing we can do, can ever pay the debt we owe to God. Yet he offers his forgiveness freely to all. Somehow though, this extraordinary generosity seems to offend our human sensibilities. We find it difficult to cope with such unrestrained generosity. It goes against what we think of as natural justice. We feel that sins must be paid for; that recompense must be made for serious offences. We feel that justice must be done and seen to be done.

The willingness to make restitution is an important factor in establishing true repentance. But sometimes this can be difficult to achieve and this is why in confession these things are discussed with the priest who will determine what is appropriate in the given circumstances.

I was once in the prison a while ago saying mass and on my way out a young man came up for a chat. He had only arrived there the previous week from another prison. I asked him how long he had already served but was astonished at his reply: nineteen years.

It seems he had been given a life sentence. I asked him when he was due to be released. He said that he didn’t know as it was entirely in the hands of the parole board who he said were sure to knock him back. His best guess was another two years or so.

Now I have no idea what that man did to deserve life imprisonment; but we can guess that it must have involved murder perhaps with some aggravating circumstances. All I do know is that his crime was committed when he was quite young because he only looked about forty years old.

There are all kinds of things that have to be taken into account by a judge when he determines a prison sentence. He must consider the seriousness of the crime, the state of mind and personal circumstances of the criminal as well as other factors such as the potential danger to the public.

Sentencing policy is always controversial and governments are constantly adjusting the guidelines as a way of showing themselves to be sensitive to the wishes of the electorate.

But human justice can never be compared to God’s justice. And the fundamental difference between them is that only God can see into the very heart of man. Only God truly knows all that has to be taken into account. Only God can know whether someone is truly repentant. Only God can determine whether appropriate restitution has been completed.

Our problem is that we think that God is too lenient. We think that God will let major sinners off the hook if they express some slight repentance. And we frequently don’t think that this is right or just. We would be harsher; we tend to believe that punishment is the true expression of justice and that most criminals get off too lightly.

When it comes to our turn things get more complicated. There are two common approaches. One is the tendency think that our sins are relatively minor when compared to those of some others and God can’t or won’t withhold his forgiveness. And the other is the opposite, it is the surprisingly common belief that our sins are so bad that God can’t or won’t forgive us.

Of course, in both of these positions there lies a heresy and we realise that they are just plain wrong. On the one hand God certainly does not overlook our sins. But then neither does he withhold his forgiveness from those who truly repent.

And this is the key as far as God is concerned: true repentance. In thinking about what repentance consists in, I realised, just the other day, that it must be an aspect of love. We love the other person and through this love we come to realise just how much we have hurt them. Love then motivates us to make appropriate restitution and to seek forgiveness.

Sin is quite the opposite; it is the expression of lack of love. Selfishness is the real motivation for sin. Greed, abuse of power, hate –all these things are the opposite of love.

So the human project, the very aim and purpose of the Christian life, is to grow in love. And the best and most straightforward way to do this is to imitate Christ, the Lord of Love. The solution then for every sin, for every crime, is to grow in love. This is what brings about repentance both in this world and in the hereafter.

In talking to that man in the prison, I asked him how he had coped over these nineteen long years. He told me, only two things have kept me going –the love of my family and the fact that I found God. Without those, he said, I’d never have survived.

23 Ordinary Time – A - 2011

Homily from Father Cusick

http://www.christusrex.org/www1/mcitl/lowhome.html

Meeting Christ in the Liturgy

Ezekiel 33, 7-9; Psalm 95; Romans 13, 8-10; Matthew 18, 15-20

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

The first reading today from Ezekiel speaks about the responsibility that we have to each other. The Lord says that we are set as watchmen for his people. It is wrong for someone to ignore another person who is behaving improperly. There is an obligation to try to convince the other person to choose right over wrong. Of course, this is difficult because we can jeopardize our lives if we appoint ourselves as guardians of everyone else’s actions. For example, if you are in Wal-Mart and come upon a young Mom with eighteen month old twins in a stroller and a four year old who doesn’t want to hold on to her hand, and you hear her yelling at her four year old, your life might be in jeopardy if you tell her that she should speak nicely to her children. At the very least, you probably would get hit in the face with a diaper bag. Actually, Ezekiel’s is not speaking about people in general. He is speaking about being a watchman for the community of Israel. His main point refers not as much to people we don’t know as to those we do know. This is even more difficult. If we learn that our friend or a member of our family is doing something immoral, and we don’t say anything, we are condoning their action. It takes a lot of courage to say to someone, “Look, I can’t agree with what you are doing, and I hope you reconsider your actions,” but Christianity does take courage.

The Gospel reading today is dealing with someone who has offended you. It gives a set procedure: talk to the person about it. If this doesn’t work, bring two or three others to have a discussion about it. If this is not successful, then go before the community and discuss the matter. If the community agrees with you, and the person still continues to offend you, then he or she is no longer part of the community.

This sounds harsh, but is it not much better than our present system. Ideally, if we followed what the gospel suggests we would be much better and less stressed in our lives than with our "political correctness" AGENDA.

We do indeed "meet Christ in the liturgy". Learning this truth and living by it, every Catholic can learn to love the liturgy more and to participate in it more deeply, responding to the infinite graces that are present in each Mass. Many, unfortunately, are unaware that an encounter with Christ happens each time the liturgy is offered. Many allow themselves to become bored, are put off by the obligation to attend Mass, and many fall away. Yes, we must attend Mass each week in order to fulfill the commandment to keep the Lord's Day holy, but it is more perfect to do so out of love of God and the desire to praise Him. He is ever worthy of all praise and glory because of He is God. It is our great calling as creatures to find fulfillment and happiness in coming to know and love our Creator, and to worship Him.

The teaching of the Church about the presence of Christ in the Mass, or liturgy, comes from Christ's own teaching. Christ is present in the Eucharist, the Blessed Sacrament, really, truly and substantially. The Eucharist is the great sign of the Church and the guarantee of Lord's abiding presence in the Church and in the sacraments.

Christ is also present through the authority of the Church to teach in matters of faith and morals in his name and, as it were, with his own voice. In today's Gospel according to St. Matthew, chapter eighteen, verses fifteen to twenty, we hear again that the Church has been given Christ's power to bind or loose, to forgive or not forgive sins. All of the Church's faithful enjoy Christ's presence, through the Holy Spirit, while assembled to praise and worship him and to pray in His name. The Catechism helps us in our understanding. Christ, glorified at the right of the Father in heaven, is now present among us in a number of ways, including in the earthly liturgy, or the Mass. "Christ is always present in his Church, especially in her liturgical celebrations. He is present in the Sacrifice of the Mass not only in the person of his minister, 'the same now offering, through the ministry of priests, who formerly offered himself on the cross,' but especially in the Eucharistic species. By his power he is present in the sacraments so that when anybody baptizes, it is really Christ himself who baptizes. He is present in his word since it is he himself who speaks when the holy Scriptures are read in the Church. Lastly, he is present when the Church prays and sings, for he has promised 'where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them.' " (Mt. 18: 20) (CCC 1088)

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The readings also tell us that we are members of a faith community and as such we are accountable to each other. Quite often, we miss this. We consider ourselves accountable only directly to God, and then convince ourselves that God understands the stress we have and will close an eye to our sins. We may convince ourselves, but we are assuming that God agrees with us. What we are overlooking is that God is present in the community. The Church is the Body of Christ. When we offend others, when we sin, we are sinning against the Body of Christ. If we hurt another person, we are offending Christ within that other person as well as offending the entire Christian community. If we claim we are Christian, we have a responsibility to all other Christians to behave in a Christian way. We are accountable to each other, and to all others in the Church.

Many of you have told me that you really felt your responsibility to others to act in a Christian way when you got married. Your wife, your husband, had a right to your respect, charity, patience and kindness. You have told me that you avoid the immorality of the world because you are accountable to your spouse. You who are married take care of yourselves physically, mentally and spiritually because you belong to each other. Others of you have told me that you really felt the depth of your responsibility to others when you had children.

22 Sunday of the year – A – August 28, 2011

"Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,

take up his cross, and follow me.

For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,

but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world

and forfeit his life" …

Last week we heard in our Gospel reading about Peter’s spontaneous profession of faith “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” This was followed by Christ’s great mandate to Peter and his successors, “Upon this rock I will build my Church.”

And yet here we are with the immediately following text where Jesus calls Peter a stumbling block and says, “Get behind me Satan”! It is hard to credit that these two things should be in the same Gospel, let alone in the same chapter.

Matthew has deliberately chosen to put these incidents together. First we have the profession of Peter’s faith together with Jesus’ declaration that it is on the rock of Peter that he will build his Church and then immediately following we have the text today about him becoming a stumbling block and the famous phrase “Get behind me Satan.”

Matthew puts these two things together as a warning to us, the members of the Church, the people to whom this Gospel is primarily addressed. It is a warning that we should not take the first part of the text in any sort of triumphal way. We should not become so confident that we are members of the true Church of Christ that we start to believe that this means we can do no wrong. This is the warning against our human capacity of making all things smooth and "nice". This is the warning against our temptation of "organizing" and "shaping" our salvation relaying on our human capabilities and resources. Western civilization is so successful and efficacious in so many domains that we start to believe that we can achieve our ultimate salvation through our own efforts and means. This is why Jesus is telling me: "You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do." Be careful and don’t rely on yourself on your possibilities.

Actually, what he is telling us is that we have to tread very carefully indeed so as not to become the very opposite of what we are meant to represent.

Peter did not mean to offend Jesus, and he certainly did not want to do anything to obstruct Jesus’ plan of salvation; it is simply that he didn’t understand it in all its fullness. He tried to be politically correct. Peter was simply saying the kind of thing any other human being would say in the circumstances; he can’t really believe that Jesus would need to suffer and die. Because he loves Jesus he does not want him to die and so comes out with his statement of disbelief.

One can’t help but think of how human Peter was; his very impulsiveness being one of his most endearing characteristics. It seems that in the Gospels he always speaks from the heart even if what he says is a bundle of contradictions.

We find this to be very reassuring. Jesus did not choose the perfect man on which to build his Church. No, he chose a man like us; someone with all the same sorts of faults and contradictions that we recognise within ourselves and yet someone who is essentially good and straightforward.

Even when we get to the moment of Peter’s greatest betrayal, when he denies Christ three times, we find that it is not something blatantly bad that he is doing. Actually he is trying to be near Jesus, to find out what is going to happen to him and, one is tempted to think, try to help Jesus if he can.

What happens is that his cover is blown, he is recognised and it is the panic that this induces that causes Peter to deny that he even knows Jesus.

And here in our text today we see that Peter’s real intention was not to be a stumbling block so much as to try to protect Jesus from harm. We are inclined to think that Jesus is being a bit hard on poor Peter in order to stress very clearly what is going to happen and that anything that gets in its way is contrary to the will of his Father.

The underlying assumption of Peter is that suffering is bad and it is something that we should be protected from, and this is an assumption that we all share in our everyday lives. Christ, though, tells us something different; he tells us and shows us in his own life that suffering is redemptive. He tells us that suffering is essential to his work of salvation.

One of the greatest problems in the world is that people do not seem to understand this anymore. And indeed one of the most common arguments against the existence of God put forward by ordinary people today is that God allows the innocent to suffer. What they fail to take into account is that suffering has a meaning. They fail to understand that it is often only through suffering and struggle that a greater good can come about.

Now this is not to say that suffering and pain are good in themselves or we would feel obliged to flagellate ourselves every five minutes! No this would be a distortion of God’s intention. But we do know that in suffering there is something deeply mysterious, valuable and redemptive.

In time Peter was to come to understand the meaning of the Cross. We know that when faced with his own crucifixion at the hands of the Romans he asked to be crucified upside down because he did not feel worthy to imitate Christ.

There is another tradition which tells us of Peter leaving Rome to escape persecution and as he passes down the Via Appia meets Christ travelling in the opposite direction, towards Rome. He greets Christ with the words “Quo Vadis, Domine?” Where are you going, Lord? Only for Jesus to respond that he was going to Rome to be crucified once again. At which point Peter turned around and returned to the city to face his own death.

This little story might be apocryphal but there is something in it for each one of us. Our following of Christ will inevitably lead to the Cross and it is how we regard the Cross that will determine our response to it. We will then face the moment of truth; which we hope, with God’s help, will be the moment of our salvation.

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

In today’s gospel we hear Jesus asking the question “who do you say that I am?” This is a very important question because it is one that applies to all time and all places. Therefore, it is a relevant question for today’s church. When Peter, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, comes up with the right answer – What does Jesus do? Jesus makes Peter the first Pope at the head of His Church, the Body of Christ.

You remember when Saul was persecuting the Church, he was stopped by Jesus and asked the question “Saul, Saul why do you persecute me? Saul said “Who are you Lord?” Jesus said “I am Jesus, the one whom you are persecuting.” As a result of his conversion Saul becomes St. Paul - one of the greatest saints and teacher of the Catholic faith. Now Jesus asks us the same question “And who do you say that I am?”

This is something that we need to think about because it is asked of us by Jesus. Therefore it is an important question. For us Jesus is truly the Son of the living God and we are members of His body, the Church. But which church are we members of? And is that important?

Although it is one, Christ’s church also is plagued with division and dissension from within and without. The Bible tells us that there will always be those who do not accept the authority of Jesus’ teachings, the teachings of the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church is the only universal Christian Church that has existed since the time of Jesus. Think about it.

We should not be ashamed of our faith – we should not be afraid to talk about it in front of others – we should not be afraid to mention our differences for fear of offending anyone. But we should always do so in the spirit of Christian charity – no one should be afraid of the truth.

Isn’t it true that every other Christian group is an offshoot of the Catholic Church. The Eastern Orthodox churches broke away from unity with the pope in 1054. The protestant communities were established during the reformation, which began in 1517. Most of today’s protestant groups are actually offshoots of the original protestant offshoots. For example the Church of the Nazarene just started in 1908. The Mormons in the early 1800’s and the Jehovah’s Witnesses started in the late 1870’s by Charles Taze Russell.

The Anglicans began with Henry the 8th of England break with Rome in 1534. The Lutherans, who have fractured into many different Lutheran divisions, were started in the early 1500’s by Martin Luther while the Dutch Reformed Church which follows the teachings of John Calvin began around 1571. In 2004 the Dutch Reformed church reorganized and merged with the Evangelical Lutheran church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands and now call themselves the Protestant Church in the Netherlands. Those who did not want to change broke away from them and now call themselves the Restored Reformed Church.

There have been so many break always in the protestant community that it is a difficult task to keep track of them all. For example in the United States alone there are over 35,000 different Christian denominations each one of them calling themselves the one true church.

Most of these protestant communities are fairly recent and there are more coming every day as they continue to split amongst themselves mostly over doctrinal issues.

Think about it. Only the Catholic Church existed in the tenth century, in the fifth century and in the first century – if you were Christian in those years you were Roman Catholic. It is the truth that the Catholic church has been faithfully teaching the doctrines given by Christ to the apostles, omitting nothing. It is true also that the line of popes can be traced back in unbroken succession to Peter himself. This is unequalled by any institution in history.

Even the oldest government in the world is new compared to the papacy. So with all of this diversity in the Christian community how do we find this one true church? And is it important for us to do so? How do we do so in Christian charity without causing further division? Actually the one true church is easy to find. Look for the church that is still One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic.

One because Jesus established only one church not a collection of differing churches. The Bible says that the church is the bride of Christ. Jesus can have only one spouse and that spouse is the Catholic Church, which teaches one set of doctrines. The same set of doctrines which were taught by the Apostles. This is the unity of belief to which scripture calls us (Phil 1:27, 2:2)

Although some Catholics dissent from officially taught doctrines, the Church’s official teachers – the pope and those bishops who are united with him – have never changed any doctrine from the very beginning. Over the centuries, the Church comes to understand some doctrines more deeply but it never understands them to mean the opposite of what they originally meant.

The Church is Holy. By His grace Jesus makes the Church holy, just as He is holy. This doesn’t mean that each member is always holy. Jesus said there would be both good and bad members in the church (John 6:70) and not all members of the Catholic church will go to heaven (Matt 7:21-23). But the Church itself is holy because it is the source of holiness and is the guardian of the special means of grace Jesus established, which are the sacraments (Eph 5:26)

Jesus’ Church is called catholic, which means universal in Greek, because it is His gift to all people. He told his apostles to go throughout the world and make disciples of “all nations” (Matt 28:19-20). Nowadays the Catholic Church is found in every country of the world and is still sending out missionaries to “Make disciples of all nations”. The church Jesus founded is apostolic because he appointed the apostles to be the first leaders of the church and their successors were to be its future leaders. The apostles were the first bishops and since the first century there has been an unbroken line of Catholic bishops faithfully handing on what the apostles taught the first Christians both in Scripture and oral tradition (2 Tim 2:2)

These beliefs include the bodily Resurrection of Jesus, the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the sacrificial nature of the Mass, the forgiveness of sins through a priest, baptismal regeneration, the existence of purgatory, Mary’s special role in salvation, how we are saved and much much more, even the doctrine of Apostolic succession itself.

Early Christian writings, especially those of the early church Fathers, prove that the first Christians were thoroughly Catholic both in belief and practice and looked to the successors of the apostles as their leaders. What the first Christians believed is still believed by us, members of today’s Catholic Church. No other church can honestly make that claim.

It is One because Jesus wanted it so. It is Holy because it is the Body of Christ. It is Catholic because it is universal having members in every country in the world. And it is Apostolic because it can trace its roots all the way back to the Apostles. Next Sunday Jesus will tell us that if we would come after him, we must die to ourselves and carry a cross.

Just think. What if Jesus had left this world without giving us a Church to support and guide us on that journey? How much more difficult it would be. We could so easily be led astray by false doctrine and Gospels. Even those in the church who do not agree with all the teachings of the church, stay with it because they know that it is the one true church. They do not want to make the same mistake that Martin Luther did. And how do we know we are in the church the Jesus wants us to be in? How can we be sure we are in the "right" church, and what makes our church unique?

Let’s look at some of these differences. In a protestant church the emphasis is mainly on the preached Word and the music. Therefore if you have good preaching and good music and the preaching fits with your thinking you will want to go to that church. If the preaching or music doesn’t suit you, you are free to find another church that has what you want to hear.

In a Catholic Church, while the preached word and the music are important, more important is the Holy Eucharist. Christ said: "Let me solemnly assure you, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you ... for my flesh is real food, and my blood real drink" (John 6:55). Many of those who were listening to Jesus were shocked. Why? Because the drinking of blood was unthinkable to a Jew. To even touch blood required ritual purification.

All Jesus had to say here when they started to grumble at this was, "No, no, no. This is merely a symbol!" But he didn't. Jesus said, "Does it shake your faith? ... What then if you were to see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before ... ?" (John 6:61, 62). No, Jesus knew that what He was going to institute, namely the Eucharist, and He knew also that it was going to require a radically new way of thinking for His followers. And so many left Him that day and sadly it is a fact that today many still leave Him over that same doctrine.

Catholics believe, as the Apostles taught and as it says in the Catechism, “In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist "the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really and substantially contained" [Council of Trent]. "This presence is called 'real' ... because it is presence in the fullest sense: that is to say, it is a substantial presence by which Christ, God and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present" [Paul VI, Mysterium Fidei] (CCC 1374).

So we see that the Catholic Church is being faithful to the Scriptures in believing in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. When parents lament that their children have gone off and joined other religions, We should encourage them not to worry. If they ever really find Christ, they'll be hack for the Eucharist. Consider next the Mass. In Matt. 26:26-28 Jesus said of the bread at the Last Supper, "Take this and eat ... This is my body," and of the cup, "Drink of it, all of you; for this is my blood, the blood of the covenant, to be shed for many for the forgiveness of sins." Giving one's body and shedding one's blood for the forgiveness of sins are biblical expressions that speak of a true sacrifice.

It is this divine, timeless sacrifice of Jesus' death that We "re¬present" in the Mass: "The Mass is at the same time, and inseparably, the sacrificial memorial in which the sacrifice of the cross is perpetuated and the sacred banquet of communion with the Lord's body and blood" (CCC 1382).

Without the real presence, you can't have the real sacrifice. Next major difference - Confession or the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Jesus said to his disciples whom He sent forth in John 20:23, "Whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven; whose sins you shall retain they are retained." The Catholic Church fulfills this by both forgiving and retaining sins (depending on the case) in the sacrament of penance and reconciliation. It would be impossible to "retain" sins if the penitent's disposition were not known to the priest in confession. What a great gift we have in this sacra¬ment of mercy. Christ said in Matt. 7:17, 20 "Every sound tree hears good fruit .... Therefore from their fruits you shall know them." The "fruits" of the Cath¬olic faith are the saints.

Has any other religion besides our own been able to produce the likes of Francis of Assisi, Teresa of Avila, John Vianney, Catherine of Siena or Therese of Lisieux, Mother Theresa, Pope John Paul 2nd? What awesome examples they are! And how helpful to read about their lives. If Jeremiah and Onias were able to pray for their people after having died (2 Mac. 15:11-16), and the saints offered "the prayers of God's holy people" before God (Rev. 5:8), does it not make sense for us to seek the saints' intercession?

There can be no doubt that Jesus lived perfectly the Fourth Command¬ment: Honour your father and mother. If Christ lives in us as he did in Paul (Gal. 2:20) shouldn't we venerate Christ's mother as he did, especially since veneration was offered to angels in Josh. 5:14 and Dan. 8:17? How much greater than the angels is Mary! The Catholic Church honours Mary in imi¬tation of her son.

What a marvelous intercessor we have in Mary, who so beautifully manifests the mercy and tenderness of God! What saint failed to honour her? In summary then what does the Catholic Church teach us about how we are saved? God’s plan for us is simple. Our loving Father wants to give us all good things – especially eternal life. Jesus died on the cross to save us all from sin and the eternal separation from God that sin causes. When God saves us He makes us part of His body, which is the Church (1 Cor. 12:27-30).

We thus become united with Him and with Christians everywhere (On earth, in heaven and in purgatory). Best of all, this promise of eternal life is a gift, freely offered to us by God. We can accept or reject it. Our initial forgiveness and justification are not things that we “earn”. Jesus is the mediator who bridged the gap of sin that separates us from God. (1Tim 2:5).

He bridged the gap of sin by dying for us. He has chosen to make His church partners in the plan of salvation (1Cor 3:9).

The Catholic church teaches what the apostles taught and what the Bible teaches. We are saved by Grace alone, but not by faith alone (James 2:24) When we come to God and are justified (that is, we enter a right relationship with God) nothing preceding that justification, whether faith or good works, earns grace. But then God plants His love in our hearts and in response we should live out our faith by doing acts of Love (Gal 6:2) Even though only God’s grace enables us to love others, these acts of love please Him (Rom 2:6-7, Gal 6:6-1-) Thus these acts of love or good works are meritorious.

When we first come to God in Faith, we have nothing in our hands to offer Him. Then He gives us grace to obey His commandments in love, and He rewards us with salvation when we offer these acts of love back to Him (Rom 2:6-11, Gal 6:6-10 and Matt 25: 34-40). Jesus said it is not enough to have faith in Him: we also must obey His commandments. “Why do you call me Lord, Lord, but do not do the things I command?” (Luke 6:46, matt 7:21-23, 19:16-21)

We do not “earn” our salvation through good works (Eph 2:8-9, Rom 9:16) but our faith in Christ puts us in a special grace-filled relationship with God so that our obedience and love, combined with our Faith, will be rewarded with eternal life (Rom 2:7, Gal 6:8-9) Our Catholic Church is wonderfully unique, because of the Eucharist, confession and the forgiveness of sins, because of purgatory, because of Mary and all the saints. We are blessed to be part of it! And we should be eternally thankful that He in His great love has called us to it.

When Jesus asks us “Who do you say that I am?

What answer do we give Him and, more importantly, how does this answer affect our daily life?

God Bless you.

Deacon Bernie Ouellette

Corpus Christi (A)

Almost everyone who calls themselves a Christian believes in the Holy Trinity. Last Sunday we celebrated Trinity Sunday. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Three Persons in one divine nature. Think about it – we don’t understand it – yet we believe it. Why?

Because God has revealed it to us. While the word Trinity itself does not appear in the bible, the concept is clearly there. Remember when Jesus was baptized in the River Jordan – the Father’s voice was heard and the Holy Spirit descended as a dove (Mark 1:10). So, in this one scene we have the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Another reference is when the risen Jesus tells His disciples to baptize “in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Matthew 28:19. Based on God’s word alone we accept the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity. And God has revealed another truth about Himself. In today’s Gospel Jesus says “I am the living bread that came down from heaven.

Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh”. How many of us who firmly believe in the Trinity – basing our belief on the Word of God also believe in the real presence – How many of us believe that the Sacred Host is really and truly the actual body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ Himself? Jesus tells us it is. He reveals this to us. “This is My body given for you.”

The Doctrine of the Trinity and the Doctrine of the Holy Eucharist. One mystery is just as big a mystery as the other. Yet many believe in one but not the other. It seems that more and more believe that it is merely a symbol. That we have this Holy community meal mostly as a remembrance of Jesus Christ and it is nothing more than that. From the very beginning, the Catholic understanding and teaching is that this “remembrance” is actually a real “making present” on our altars.

The bread and wine has changed into the body and blood, the soul and divinity of Jesus Christ. Just as Jesus said it would. “This is My Body given for you”. And Jesus says more. Jesus says and I quote “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life; for My flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in them.” unquote.

Jesus is telling us that if we eat His body and drink His blood He abides in us and we abide in Him. Is it important that we abide in Him? What if we don’t abide in Him? In the Gospel of John Chapter 15, Jesus tells us: “Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.

I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bears much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.

Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; Such branches are gathered, thrown into a fire and burned.”

So, it is quite clear by these words that abiding in Jesus is very important.

Why? Because the Eucharist is an experience of the real presence of Christ. Until Christ comes in glory, there is no more intense way of experiencing His presence than by receiving Him in Holy Communion. This is not “Holy and Blessed bread” that reminds us of Jesus. This is Jesus, sacramentally present to be with us on our journey. The Holy Eucharist is the source, the centre and the summit of the Catholic Faith.

John uses the whole of Chapter 6 in His Gospel to explain this to us. It is recommended that we prayerfully take our bible and read chapter 6 of John’s Gospel. The Eucharist is also a participation in the Sacrifice of Christ. Jesus offered Himself on Calvary in generous, unselfish love, in the midst of evil – giving and not counting the cost.

We, the baptized, through the sacramental sacrifice of the Mass, are joined to the one sacrifice of Jesus. We don’t crucify Him all over again but rather we mysteriously and sacramentally join in the one sacrifice of the cross. We transcend time and space and are there at Calvary and with the angels and the whole of the heavenly host, who are present at every Mass. And receiving Him we fall on our knees in adoration of this most Blessed Sacrament.

The Blessed Sacrament is so important to our salvation and is so central to our worship that the bible has something very important to instruct us about the proper preparation for receiving Holy Communion. Writing around the year 57 to "the church of God which is at Corinth" (1 Cor. 1:2), St. Paul praises the Christians there for maintaining the traditions he had delivered to them when he preached the Gospel there six years earlier (1 Cor. 11:2) [1].

He rebukes the Corinthians, however, for their divisions and for their liturgical abuses (1 Cor. 11:17-22). St. Paul does not consider liturgical abuses to be a small thing, for these abuses violate the sacredness of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, which shows forth Christ’s death again and again until the end of time (cf. 1 Cor. 11:23-26). In particular, St. Paul is really concerned about the unworthy reception of Holy Communion because this unworthy reception of Holy Communion profanes the Body and Blood of the Lord.

St. Paul says "Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died" (1 Cor. 11:27-30).

"Christ’s invitation to receive Holy Communion-"Take this" (Lk. 22:17), for "unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you" (Jn. 6:53)-demands a worthy response from us.

Following St. Paul who says that we must examine ourselves, the Church teaches that this worthy response means that we have to make an examination of our conscience before receiving Holy Communion. In making this examination, the faithful should discern whether or not they have any unconfessed mortal sins.

We need to ask ourselves when was the last time we received Holy Communion. Did we examine our conscience prior to receiving Holy Communion. Were we conscious of grave sin in our lives. When was the last time we went to confession. "Anyone conscious of a grave sin," the Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms, "must receive the sacrament of Reconciliation before coming to communion."[4]

The Church also exhorts the faithful to think deeply upon their love of God and love of their neighbor before receiving Holy Communion. Our Lord warns His followers to be reconciled with their brothers before offering their gifts at the altar (Mt. 5:23-24); He cautions His disciples not to partake of the Eucharistic marriage feast without the wedding garment of charity (Mt. 22:1-14).

Again following St. Paul, the Church exhorts the faithful to discern the Body of the Lord so as to receive Holy Communion worthily. This discernment consists in reflecting upon both the majesty of the Blessed Sacrament and our own unworthiness to receive it:

We should also reflect in the silence of our own hearts how unworthy we are that the Lord should bestow on us this divine gift.[6] The words of the Holy Mass assists us in making this discernment.

The Catechism teaches, "Before so great a sacrament, the faithful can only echo humbly and with ardent faith the words of the Centurion . . . ‘Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul will be healed.’"[7] Discerning the Body helps ensure that the faithful approach Holy Communion with the necessary dispositions.

The liturgical abuses in Corinth, (1 Cor. 11:21-22), also pointed to the desirability of fasting in preparation for Holy Communion. For most of the Church’s history, Catholics were required to fast before receiving Holy Communion and a fast of one hour prior to reception of Holy Communion has become part of the Church’s current canonical discipline:

§1. A person who is to receive the Most Holy Eucharist is to abstain for at least one hour before holy communion from any food and drink (and this includes candy, pop and chewing gum), except for only water and medicine. §3. The elderly, the infirm, and those who care for them can receive the Most Holy Eucharist even if they have eaten something within the preceding hour.[12]

During the week as we live out our baptismal priesthood through faithful discipleship, we prepare once again to meet our risen Saviour at Sunday Mass. At the same time, as each day goes by, we realize our frailty, and our need for the grace that we receive at the Eucharist.

Sunday is a time to stop, look and listen. We need to have a break from our daily work. Sunday is the time to be with family, to be with God. Sunday Eucharist allows us to get our priorities straight, and strengthens us to be more faithful disciples.

It is so easy for us to forget the awesome reality of the presence of Christ, since the way in which He comes to us is, as always, so quiet, so unobtrusive. Therefore, whenever we enter a Catholic Church we look to the red sanctuary lamp which burns there as a reminder of His real presence. We genuflect in acknowledgement of this. And entering the pew we fall to our knees in prayerful adoration. Because it is the Lord. The awesome reality is that we are now in the real presence of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ Himself.

Rockyford – 25.06.2011

Maybe to begin I will shortly present myself …?

I am a member of the Society of the Divine Saviour, briefly Salvatorians.

I am a priest for almost 30 years.

I used to work for 15 years as a Philosophy professor in different seminaries and universities in Africa, means in Congo, Tanzania and Comoros Islands.

As you –certainly- can hear I have this specific John Paul's II polish accent, because I am also originally from Poland.

Since 2006 I am working as a pastor in the diocese of Edmonton precisely in the Rocky Mountain House Parish.

I am seriously and deeply interested in the studies of Cosmology which is the science of the Beginning and the Evolution of the Universe …

You now this Big-Bang theory, galaxies, origin and the end of stars and solar systems, and the stuff like …

However, through these studies in astronomy, cosmology and theoretical physics I was able to discover and to see the wonderful and astonishing unity of God's revelation whereas in the created nature or in the Holy Scripture.

God doesn't contradict Himself, God is truthful and reliable … GOD IS GREAT IN S DEEDS AND WORDS!!!

I can assure you out of my personal experience "GOD NEVER, NEVER, NEVER misleads, cheats or deceives us". If you are honest and searching Him sincerely … even if sometimes you commit a sin, and you feel bad … He will never abandon and never forget you as long as you honestly search Him and as long as you are able to tell Him: "Jesus I trust You, have mercy on me".

Because He created us and He (and only HE!!!) knows us, better than anybody else ... He knows you even better that you know yourself.

I like fishing and especially ice-fishing … but maybe enough about myself …

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First I have a very serious question and a very personal one to ask you:

Do you think that Jesus is hones with us?

Do you think that we can trust Him or rather be very cautious or wary?

Because, if I really trust Jesus in my life I will be following Him fully and without restriction, but if I don’t trust Him … so where are the sense and the meaning of my life?

We all are in the constant quest for love, meaning and sense, for happiness and fulfilment in our lives.

Would you like to be happy?

Would you like to be loved and to have deep and meaningful relationships?

Would you like to see your life to be fortunate and sense full?

Or rather you will tell me I DON'T CARE !?

By the way, do you remember; what were the first words of the Pope John Paul II when he was elected pope 33 years ago?

He said: "Don't be afraid! Open the doors to Christ!"

During the World Youth Days 1984-2008 John Paul II and Benedict XVI were constantly repeating:

"Don't be afraid! Open the doors to Christ!"

and

"Don't Be Afraid to be Saints"

So why are we afraid? Why we are scared of Jesus?

Is it not because we don't trust Him? We don't believe in Him, we try to live our life according to our caprices, feelings and impulses? And yet we are constantly unhappy, empty, unsatisfied, unfulfilled and disappointed.

Jesus is certainly not an "easy going fellow" who doesn't care what you do and what is your life like.

He will never tell you "DOESN'T MATTER" … or "KEEP SMILING" or "TAKE IT EASY".

He will rather say … "do not be afraid I am the One who can help you and lead you out of the mess you encountered I your life." But be a little bit more careful and cautious because sometimes you are going too far and you follow very dangerous paths. If I am giving you the commandments it is not to make your life miserable, not to make it difficult or to limit your freedom … it's rather a kind of warning. By the commandments I would like to prevent your fall, your disappointment your failure and depression. Trust and believe me … what I am telling you is only for your good and not to cause you misery.

So I have to re-examine perhaps once more the question: "What or Who is the center of my life?"

A story of a drug addict let us call him Peter …

He started at the age of 12 when he was still in the elementary school …

he started out of simple curiosity just to know what it means to feel cool …

he started with very mild drugs an in the very tiny doses…

I meet him when he was already 22, ten years later and close to die … in a hospital for terminally sick patience …

You know father … - he told me- it was like going downhill on the skies or on the snowboard. At the age of 16 –while physically still quite good and healthy – he was a skier or rather he was very good in snowboarding. He won even some international European competitions in snowboarding … he was really good. But –as he said sincerely- he was also sliding down and rapidly into the drugs, more and more, deeper and deeper, stronger and stronger … And nobody was able or RATHER NOBODY WOULD LIKE TO HELP HIM …

He said:

"I have had so many friends and colleagues but nobody even dare to say me … "Peter you are sliding quickly into hell". And actually I was sliding into hell – he said. And now I know – I am in hell because I see that I am dying and I cannot live more than two – three hours without a dose …"

At the beginning I was able to live without "shot" even for months … but after few years it was impossible for me to stay "dry" even for two or three days."

I needed more and more often. And there was no force, no power which can stop me or end this nightmare.

T was cool but only at the beginning, later on it became a kind of necessity and obligation. I cannot stop it I can do nothing, I was like forced and spell bounded by a mysterious force …

It became a real nightmare … terrifying and dreadful awful and frightening …

One night when I was sitting at his bad in the palliative care facility he asked me:

"Father, can you please read me the Gospel, this passage when Jesus is talking about the building the house on the sand and on the rock?"

So I read it for him the passage from the Gospel of St. Matthew chapter 7:

Jesus said to His disciples: "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction and those who enter through it are many. How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few.

He interrupted me here and said:

"This is very truth Father, for last ten years I was going the very broad and wide road of pleasures and self-indulgence … I was listening to nobody, than to my feelings and desires … and now I can say honestly it was the way which leads to destruction."

And he called the nurse, who came to administer him once more the dose of painkiller, because he was not able to support the pain and the hunger for narcotics anymore.

After the nurse left I continue with the reading of the Gospel:

"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but underneath are ravenous wolves. By their fruits you will know them.

And once more he interrupted me saying:

"How true are these words, how true? I was living in a fancy world of false friends and buddies who were really like the wolves in sheep's skins. Where are they now? Where are now all those friends and palls who were repeating me that it is cool? Why nobody told me that I can't go out of this? Why I was so stupid and so week to continue my way which was leading me to hell? And nobody intervened or had enough courage to save me? I didn't trust Jesus however I believe that He is the Lord, but … I didn't took seriously His teaching"

Father please continue the reading"

So I did continue the parable of Jesus where He says:

Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? Just so, every good tree bears good fruit, and a rotten tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. So by their fruits you will know them. "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven"

Father – he interrupted again asking – do you think that I am a rotten tree? Do you think that I am dying and I will be condemned?

Do you think that when Jesus says: " Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. " it applies to me, that I will be cut down and thrown into the fire?

I feel so bad, so bad physically but even worse psychologically … I totally destroyed my life. Please read further the Gospel.

And so I did continue:

Jesus said: "Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock."

And he interrupted once more: "I think that I can win my life and now be in a totally different situation, studying and having some wonderful perspectives in my life if only I build my life on the rock …, but …

Please read the last part of this Gospel.

And the last part is:

"And everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely ruined." (Matthew 7:13-29)

Do you think Father that I am an example of this last part of Jesus' Gospel? I did build up my life on the sand of sentiments and feelings and I am now ruined. Do you think that I cannot be saved?

I don't think – I answered- that you cannot be saved, because finally recognised your error and I pretty sure Jesus Christ will certainly see your honesty and will find for you the way to His Kingdom.

He looked at me with a certain hope and seems to be relaxed.

Thank you Father but can I ask you one think? Please tell others about my life and help them to understand how stupid is to build up their lives on the sand of emotions, feelings and desires. Please tell other young people to trust rather Jesus than their false friends and wrong teachers.

How do I build my house? Do I build it on a rock or on the sand?

We are living the civilisation of feelings, emotions and sentimentality.

Cult of sentimentality,

If you feel good do it,

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And Jesus is telling us something very different. He is not playing with our emotions. He is rather making an appeal to our reason, to our intellect and our will, our honesty.