Father Paul Weinberger, Pastor
St. William Roman Catholic Church
Greenville, Texas
6 / 5 / 2005 10th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Jesus heard this and said, “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do.
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen
Look at the gold sheet included in your bulletin, the one that says,
“A gentle but firm reminder to be considerate of your Parish”.
A while back I heard a woman from the North Texas area say that her pastor went on vacation. He announced it to the parish something like this,
“I am going on vacation and I don’t know who will replace me but I will get somebody.”
You wouldn’t take that for a babysitter or an office manager.
The week before I left I mentioned that I was going away for a few days and that Fr. Vogel and Fr. Corcoran would be here to fill in for me; great thanks to both of them. Also as just an added bonus I went ahead and made sure that their salaries were paid but not by the parish. The parish normally does that but I thought that I could take care of it. Also I noted in the bulletin the days that I was to be away; I was considerate when I went on vacation.
I am asking that of you because this is the time of the year that vacations begin and some people say,
“Oh well, my little offering isn’t going to be missed at St. Williams.”
Well, just before you got here today we voted and yes, it will be missed so you can just forget that one now. If you go away on vacation to a hotel do you turn off or cancel your utilities in your home?
“Well, no!”
Right! And neither are they canceled at your parish either so please be considerate.
Also, there are people, who have made up a story that goes something like this,
“You don’t have to go to Mass over the summer.”
Now, I really don’t have a problem with that.
“WHAT? What have you done with Fr. Paul, imposter?”
No, I don’t have any problem with it as long as you are consistent and as long as you say something like this,
“Listen, I am not going to come to church over the summer and, by the way, over the summer You don’t have to help me in any way, You don’t have to send me Your graces everyday or bless my family. I am going to be gone over the summer and not go to Church so don’t help me out at all over the summer Lord.”
Instead it is like the independent twenty-one year old writing from college.
“Dear Mom and Dad, I am now twenty-one, independent and in college; please send money.”
What is wrong with this is obvious to us all.
“Well, it is too hot in the summer to go to Mass.”
I would say that if you don’t go to Mass every Sunday when you can, you should be worried about the heat.
“Well, Fr. so and so told me I could do this.”
You know, I have used this line every two or three weeks and it is not a throw away line; it really means a lot. I say,
“You know, I could find a priest…I…me….Fr. Paul, could find a priest who would give me permission to marry a giraffe as long as our house had high enough ceilings.”
I could find him! But when someone says that Fr. so and so told them they don’t have to go to Church on Sundays…find it in the Catechism! It’ll be right there under “giraffe”. Right? It is NOT there; people have made up this permission and it has a lot to do with what we celebrated Friday and Saturday.
The statue right behind me is the statue of the Sacred Heart. As you recall there is Easter, then as we read in the New Testament, forty days after Easter Jesus ascended into Heaven, which is Ascension Thursday. Ten days after Ascension Thursday is Pentecost Sunday followed directly by Trinity Sunday and Corpus Christi Sunday. The Friday after the feast of Corpus Christi is the Feast of the Sacred Heart and the day after is the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and that is why the flowers are surrounding the statues. When we think of the Sacred Heart we have to recognize the fact that a lot of people don’t think of the Sacred Heart at all.
I had a birthday in May and someone gave me this picture after the 11:30 Mass when we were in the cafeteria. It has two large angels here, some small angels here and some symbols in the middle. Up here is a triangle with an eye and then a monstrance below that with a lamb below it. I was explaining this to Carlton, who is usually sleeping on the front row here, and he is now. Anyway, Carlton is four years old and I was explaining the images to him. He understood the angels. He seemed to understand when I explained the triangle with the eye in it being the symbol for God the Father. He understood the Consecrated Host being the symbol for Jesus but when I got down here to the part of the picture under the monstrance where the lamb is, the lamb that looks like the Passover lamb; Jesus is the Lamb of God…so, I told him that the triangle was God the Father, in the monstrance was Jesus and pointed to the lamb and told him that it was a symbol for Jesus. Carlton looked up at me and said,
“UH UH!”
Carlton didn’t understand about Jesus being the Lamb of God but he will one day learn about Jesus and the Lamb of God. You know, the blood was taken from the Passover lamb and placed over the door so that the avenging angel would not kill the first-born son in the home and they had to eat the cooked lamb.
In a similar way that he didn’t understand the imagery contained in this picture, a lot of our children, grandchildren, nieces nephews and neighbors have no idea what is meant by, “The Sacred Heart of Jesus”. Fortunately I grew up and was taught along the way about the sacred Heart. My mother had a great devotion and attended Sacred Heart Cathedral, which was changed to Our Lady of Guadalupe in the 70s. Devotion to the Sacred Heart is something we have to meditate on and teach our children because what is contained in that devotion is contained in today’s Gospel.
For centuries the fathers of the Church have referred to Jesus as “The Doctor of Souls”, and the Sacred Heart is the bodily expression of God the Father sending us the Doctor of Souls to help us in our needs. God keeps His promises as that second reading says when it speaks of Abraham and Abram. In the first reading from the Book of the Prophet Hosea, God says the prophets got it wrong.
I slew them by the words of My mouth; for it is love that I desire, not sacrifice.
They’d convinced so many people that God is a terrible God just waiting for us to step out of line so He could smash us like a bug under His shoe. Hosea says this is not correct. Then again there are people who see God as just the opposite, a big purple dinosaur; Barney’s brother so to speak, who really doesn’t care what we do. How many times have you heard someone say while quoting this Gospel about Jesus sitting with tax collectors and sinners,
“See! Look!”
But when He called St. Matthew He said to him,
“Follow Me!”
That meant that St. Matthew had to leave his former way of life behind and follow Jesus. It is like the woman caught in adultery; Jesus didn’t say,
“Has no one condemned you? Neither do I so keep doing exactly what you were doing.”
He said,
“Go and avoid this sin in the future.”
So many people have God being either one extreme or the other and they are both wrong. Having a devotion and prayer life to The Sacred Heart is a way of getting to the essence the mission of Christ. There is a brief synopsis on a page in your bulletin. On the back of the page are the Twelve Promises of the Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. The Sacred Heart appeared to her again and again in the late 1600s and these are some of the promises made to her and to us if we are devoted to His Most Sacred Heart. There are twelve but lets just concentrate on number one. If He had only made one promise then the first one would be satisfactory for everyone. Number one says,
I will give them all the graces necessary for their particular state of life.
Just what is contained in number one is tremendous. Move on to number two.
I will give peace to their families.
He is saying that all who are devoted to the Sacred Heart; He will give peace to their families. Lets just face it we are not the Waltons. The last words out of our mouth at night are not.
‘Good night momma, good night John Boy.”
There is not this everlasting peace reigning in families; some don’t talk to others and won’t call a family member because that member is not calling them. Number three says,
I will console them in ALL their troubles.
How often when problems arise our friends have something else to do.
“Oh you have a problem? I'll be seeing ya…until I need to borrow your lawnmower or something.”
Friends often desert us but the Sacred Heart promises to be with us. Number four says,
They shall find in my Sacred Heart a place of safety during life, especially at the hour of death.
This is particularly important for priests. Do you know that most priests die alone? It usually goes something like this; the way people find that the priest has died is they go and knock on his door an tell him he is late for Mass. Then they come into the Church and announce that there will be no Mass because Father died. That is how it happens in a lot of cases for priests. You will never have to worry about that happening with the promise of the Sacred Heart. He promises that those who are dedicated to promoting the Sacred Heart will find in his Heart a place of safety during life and at the hour of their death.
People worry about social security and it being tinkered with. When Cardinal Law was up in Boston he was Cardinal Archbishop of Boston for sixteen years and every year for sixteen years he just forgot to do something; he forgot to pay into the priest’s pension fund. Well…you know how accidents can happen and now they are cutting the priest’s pension fund in Boston. So, social security and pension funds can be tinkered with, but this is one pension fund, the promise of the Sacred Heart, can not be tinkered with.
They shall find in my Sacred Heart a place of safety during life, especially at the hour of death.
Tell me a day more important in your life than your last day on earth? You are going to want all the help you can muster. Number five says,
I will pour out abundant blessings on all their projects and undertakings.
There is grace upon grace and blessing upon blessing poured out from the Sacred Heart.
Sinners shall find in My Most sacred Heart the source of Mercy and an infinite ocean of Mercy.
This sounds very similar to the prayer called the Divine Mercy. Remember the Sunday after Easter and the subsequent Sunday I handed out some of the prayers to the Divine Mercy? Notice that the Divine Mercy picture has those rays coming from the Heart of Jesus. The statue behind me is an image of the Sacred Heart and the Divine Mercy picture is an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus; even the pelican on the altar, although it is an image of the Church it is also an image of the Sacred Heart.
The most prominently displayed image of the Sacred Heart of course is over the Tabernacle. You see that the heart is pierced and the blood and water flowing from His Sacred Heart into that chalice miraculously suspended there. This is the source of mercy and an infinite ocean of mercy. By devoting ourselves to the Sacred Heart of Jesus it keeps us away from these extremes I spoke of earlier, which are wrong.
Tepid or lukewarm souls shall become on fire.
If you ever get the chance, look in the book of Revelation where the words are placed in the mouth of Jesus in heaven. Jesus says to us that He will have us hot or He will have us cold but the lukewarm He will vomit out of His mouth. So many people in politics today are clamoring to be moderates, tepid. Jesus says that if one wants to be lukewarm that it is not ok with Him. He will have you hot or cold, but lukewarm…no! Tepid or lukewarm souls shall become on fire.
Fervent souls shall speedily rise to great spiritual perfection.
I will bless the homes in which an image (picture or statue) of My Most Sacred Heart shall be exposed and honored.
I remember about this time last year how many of you purchased the prints of the Sacred and Immaculate Heart prints to hang over the beds of your children and grandchildren. So, in your homes there is an obvious dedication to the Sacred Heart. In a lot of Catholic Churches you can walk in, walk around and not even find a crucifix; a vampire’s dream…these modern Churches with no cross and no crucifix at all. But, your home has to be consecrated and dedicated to the Sacred Heart. “Oh Sacred Heart of Jesus we want you to be ruling over our home, just not what we watch on TV though. Amen” You are not going to find a prayer written to the Sacred Heart like that. He has sway over the entire house and what we watch on the computer or the TV. Huh huh! It can’t be that way.
I will give to priests the power to touch the most hardened hearts.
And He does this!
Those who propagate this devotion (to the Sacred Heart, meaning you) shall have your own name written in My Most Sacred Heart, and it shall never be erased.
Gee, that is tremendous! It is grace upon grace and wave upon wave of blessings. The best is saved for last and it is a little longer.
The all-powerful Love of My Most sacred Heart will grant to all those who shall receive Holy Communion on the First Fridays of nine consecutive months the Grace of final repentance; they shall not die under My displeasure nor without receiving their Sacraments; My Most Sacred Heart shall be their assured refuge of safety at that last hour of their life.
That means that on your last day at your last moment, you won’t be tempted to hang onto anything that will keep you out of Heaven. That is what sin does, it is so enticing and seductive that we want to hold on to it thinking that this sin is going to carry us to Heaven but it doesn’t! It is quite the opposite. Holding onto sin, especially mortal sin, keeps us out of Heaven and then you have to worry about all that HEAT; I am not kidding at all. Those who shall receive Holy Communion on the First Fridays of nine consecutive months the Grace of final repentance; they shall not die under His displeasure nor without receiving their Sacraments. What a promise! His Most Sacred Heart shall be their assured refuge of safety at that last hour of their life.
Again, look at how we can be fooled and how we can fool ourselves. Tell me before God that if this were your last week on earth, what would you do over the next six days that would be more important to you and your eternal salvation than Mass and Holy Communion on Sunday? But, look how we make it easy and write ourselves a note saying that we don’t have to go to Mass on Sunday. The Mass is the Sacred Heart feeding us and giving us His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, fortifying us on the day He rose from the dead and we don’t want to go? Prayers and devotions to the Sacred Heart begin to unlock God’s incredible mercy and calls us to follow Him. As number six says, the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the source of mercy and an infinite ocean of mercy.
St. Gemma Galgani, who died in 1903, Jesus would appear to her often throughout her life. She would have long conversations with Christ while she was in ecstasy. During these conversations with Christ other could over hear her conversation with Jesus. One day she is arguing with Jesus. I know what you are thinking, it sounds like your mother in law. Right? The only one you know who would argue with Jesus, right? Well, St. Gemma was arguing with Jesus, kind of like when St. Therese was promoting the salvation of Pranzini, the triple murderer I mentioned on Trinity Sunday. Anyway a priest overheard the conversation between St. Gemma and Christ while she was in ecstasy and she was speaking with Jesus about His Divine Justice for the salvation of one man and his soul. Some of the words she was over saying were;
“I do not seek Your justice but Your mercy; yes I know he made you shed many tears but You must not think of his sins, You must think of the Blood You shed. And now answer, Jesus, and tell me that You have saved my sinner.”
Well, St. Gemma actually named the fellow. Soon afterwards she broke out joyfully and exclaimed in her ecstasy;
“Oh yes he is saved. You have won Jesus; You triumph always this way.”
She then came out of her ecstasy and the priest had just left the room when he heard a knock and was told that a stranger wished to speak to him.
Look at the source of mercy and the infinite ocean of mercy that St.Gemma understood was coming from that Sacred Heart. She brushed aside Divine Justice and appealed to His Sacred Heart. This devotion to the Sacred Heart is very instructive to us because we can pigeonhole Jesus into one or the other extremes, and that is not Jesus and not the true doctrine of Jesus. (Editor note: Father is saying that we have a tendency to limit God because we, ourselves, are limited. Jesus is infinite in all aspects including mercy and justice.)As soon as the man was before the priest, he fell to his knees weeping and said, “Father I want to go to confession.” The priest was stunned to realize that this was the man St. Gemma had mentioned in her prayer.
This is that Catholic Book of Prayers that the children receive here the last class of CCD and there is a section in here on the prayers to the Sacred Heart; beautiful prayers. There is also a section on the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Five First Saturdays. You know…the Nine First Fridays and the Five First Saturdays? Our Lady of Fatima appeared to the three children in Fatima, Portugal and she said to the children that she promised that if the people would do these three things on five first Saturdays, she promised to help them at the hour of death with all that they need to get to Heaven. What do you have to do? Oh it is terrible, very difficult. Number one says to go to Confession and go to Holy Communion. As a matter of fact, for these Five First Saturdays you can go eight days before the First Saturday or eight days after. So, number one is to go to Confession and receive Holy Communion. Number two is to pray five decades of the Rosary and number three is to spend at least fifteen minutes meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary and keeping the Blessed Virgin company while making reparation to her.
So many people abuse their mothers or wives, right? The husband takes off his clothes and drops them wherever he is thinking that his wife really loves to bend down and pick up his socks and shoes, shirts and pants left in a trail. No! People do this also to their mothers. Mothers don’t like picking up after the children but they do it anyway. Mom may have dinner ready for us but we would rather spend time with our friends and think that it doesn’t matter. Sure it matters! And people say terrible things about the Blessed Mother like, she had other children and that Jesus wasn’t all there was, or that she sinned. Those are terrible things to say and are not part of the Doctrine of the Church. So by spending fifteen minutes on the First Saturday of the month and meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary, we make reparation to Mary.
It is kind of like the services on Good Friday where we have the march in silence and remember how people could say nothing to the Blessed Virgin to console her after she had wrapped the body of Jesus and placed it lovingly in the tomb; she had to walk home and no one could have consoled her with words but your presence there would have consoled her. In a similar way, spending fifteen minutes with the Blessed Mother is a good thing. Five First Saturdays!
I know people who are now senior citizens, who when they were children were taught these two devotions; Nine First Fridays and the Five First Saturdays. What they have done as children then as young adults and now as senior citizens, after making the nine Fist Fridays they start another nine. When they complete those they start another nine. They do the same thing with the Five First Saturdays, Now as senior citizens they have grown tremendously in the school of spirituality of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
There are many people who are terribly ill and need a doctor but won’t lift a finger to have access to His Most Sacred Heart. The generosity, mercy and graces that come from the devotion to the Sacred Heart need to be taught to our children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews and neighbors. They need to be told that faith in Jesus Christ is more that fulfilling some legal precept. The reason I go to Church is not because it is a mortal sin to miss Mass on Sunday without a good excuse, but because the Sacred Heart gives me all the graces in Holy Communion that will help me through the next six days. A proper understanding of these devotions over a lifetime will form a heart to be in unison with the Heart of Jesus. That is the problem with the people in the world today, we never think of Heaven, You are born, you grow up, you live, you die and you go to Heaven. Well, that is fine but I just have not found that in the catechism and I don’t find it in the prayers at the Mass. It is always speaking of our “hope” at the resurrection and our ‘hope” of going to Heaven. We never hear on TV about Heaven and we rarely hear it from our friends and relatives so as parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles we have to be diligent in passing on this devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Jesus heard this and said, “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do.
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen