{"id":1073,"date":"2018-05-05T18:54:39","date_gmt":"2018-05-05T18:54:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/?p=1073"},"modified":"2018-05-05T18:55:03","modified_gmt":"2018-05-05T18:55:03","slug":"homily-easter-season-week-05-06-yr-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/2018\/05\/05\/homily-easter-season-week-05-06-yr-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 05 06 – Yr II"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steadfast Faith and Love<\/em><\/p>\n

(Acts 16:1-10; Psalm 100; Jn 15:18-21)<\/p>\n

*****************************************<\/p>\n

In the gospel, Jesus warns that as he was misunderstood and persecuted, his followers will also be misunderstood and persecuted.<\/p>\n

We must pray for the faith to stay faithful in the light of that persecution.<\/p>\n

Karl Rahner, commenting on Jesus\u2019 prayer on the cross, \u201cFather, forgive them, they know not what they do,\u201d maintains they did know what they were doing \u2013 they were killing an innocent man. What they did not know, he maintains, is how much God loved them.<\/p>\n

Throughout all of history, it is evident what the world really understands, and loves, is the false gods of possessions, prestige and power \u2013 the exact temptations that Jesus faced in the desert. Grounded in the Father\u2019s love for him, and his intimate relationship with the Father, Jesus was able to face down and say no to these temptations. He knew how much he was loved by the Father.<\/p>\n

We will be faced with those same temptations and false gods every day, as our culture is blatantly in love with those false gods. Thomas Keating describes them as an inordinate attachment to survival and security, affection and esteem, power and control. When these needs are unmet in our lives, they tend to take over, control us and eventually, even addict us.<\/p>\n

There is a growing fear in our society of the so-called Illumenti<\/em>and a New World Order. A quick check of You Tube will reveal how very present that fear is, with video after video claiming many stars and celebrities of this world are involved in very cultish rituals and activities, pressured into even eating human feces, drinking their own urine, and drinking the blood of babies! All for the sake of selling their souls to Satan in exchange for success, fame and power.<\/p>\n

It seems surreal, but when one thinks of the power of these false gods to seduce us \u2013 and that is happening all the time, perhaps these claims are not so far fetched.<\/p>\n

The best and really only antidote to this pervasive and even diabolical force that Jesus warned us about, is to have our love needs \u2013 our need to beloved, to belong and to be valued, met. That happens best in loving families were there is unconditional love, demonstrations of affection, honest and open communication, and forgiveness of the hurts of family life. Akin to that is a close, intimate, prayerful relationship with the love of the Father through a close, intimate, prayerful relationship with his Son, Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

The Eucharist is our greatest prayer and the one true ritual that does not enslave us to false gods but rather fills us with the love of the one true God. It sets us free to give our lives away in love, complete with the peace and joy that comes from doing the Father\u2019s will in our lives.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steadfast Faith and Love (Acts 16:1-10; Psalm 100; Jn 15:18-21) ***************************************** In the gospel, Jesus warns that as he was misunderstood and persecuted, his followers will also be misunderstood and persecuted. We must pray for the faith to stay faithful in the light of that persecution. Karl Rahner, commenting on Jesus\u2019 prayer on the cross, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-easter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1073"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1075,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1073\/revisions\/1075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}