The Friar Podcasts - preaching prayer and spiritual reflections

We have probably become so familiar with Jesus that we do not fully appreciate how radical the claims were that the early Church was making about Jesus. While we might easily be able to see and understand Jesus as the fulfillment of the Old Testament promises, it was not quite as easy to understand that in the time of the Letter to the Hebrews, today's first reading.

To emphasize, in the Old Testament, there was a High Priest that was chosen each year to offer sacrifices in the Temple. Those who were eligible to be High Priest were eligible based upon their lineage. Namely, they had to come from the tribe of Levi. The sacrifices they offered were animals, according to the Jewish Law.

The claim being made about Jesus is very dramatic. Not only is he the High Priest, he was not appointed, and he was not from the tribe of Levi, as he was a descendant of King David, who was not from the tribe of Levi. Also, his sacrificial offering was not one of the animals mentioned in the Old Testament. Rather, Jesus was the sacrifice. He is the total fulfillment of all the Old Testament sacrifices.

The claim of the Letter of the Hebrews would have come as a shock at first to those Jews who heard it, especially if they remembered or knew Jesus when He was on this earth. If they had not yet come to believe in the resurrection, the claim that Jesus was God would have been unbelievably difficult to accept.

But, the implications of Jesus being the eternal High Priest, of his offering the sacrifice of himself make all the difference for us today. Because of this, we keep holy the Lord's day, a Sunday, by going to Mass. Because of this, we can receive the sacrifice of Jesus in His body and blood. We are not people of the book, but people of the Word, who is identified in the gospel of John as the Word that existed from all eternity.

All this means we can have great confidence in Jesus, who is not merely human, but is also fully divine. He can accompany us in easy and difficult times. He can forgive our sins. He can offer the gift of Himself over and over to us in the Eucharist. Most of all, in being attentive to the Lord Jesus in our lives, it is the case that we can see his offer of salvation and live with Him forever.

On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

Jesus is always able to save those who approach God through him

Through this sentence fragment we are reminded that above all things, God wants to save us. He wants us to know fully and completely how much we are loved, and he wants us to know that whether we realize this or not, whether we feel worthy or not (truth is we are not, but God saves us) and that all we need to do is to accept this gift and to live the way that pleases God. For God knows this makes us our best selves.

On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

He warned them sternly not to make him known.

One of the more interesting things in the gospel is the fact that Jesus often does not want people to tell anyone he is the Messiah or the Son of God. Jesus wants to keep the secret about his being the Messiah, so that he might invite people into a deeper relationship. At first glance, this can seem a little odd, since so much of the New Testament after the gospels is about how it was that people shared Jesus was the Son of God.

And yet, upon further inspection, there are reasons that can be gleaned from what we know. First, and probably most important, is that when reading through the gospels the importance of the experience and relationship with Jesus is emphasized. Over and over again Jesus tells the recipients of miracles that their faith saved them.

Second, if Jesus identified himself as the Messiah, it might have made it harder for people to develop faith in Him. This is because the expectation was that the Messiah was to be a military ruler.

Should people think that Jesus was the military Messiah, they might be short-changed in being able to grow in faith. Rather than having open hearts to grow in faith, it may be the case they were disappointed in Jesus. They may not have been ready to view his spiritual authority, because they were blinded by their own expectations.

These two areas together have big implications for our faith. Are we open to and ready for an encounter with Jesus? Do we allow our pre-conceived notions of Jesus stand in the way of encountering fully the real presence of Jesus in our lives? It is quite important to appropriately balance our knowledge of the faith, knowledge about Jesus, with the important knowledge of Jesus Himself.

Today in the Letter to the Hebrews we read about Melchizedek, "king of Salem and priest of God Most High." You may have even heard, maybe at the ordination of a priest the line, "You are a priest forever in the Order of Melchizedek, which is mentioned at the end of today's first reading. But who is he?

We first encounter Melchizedek in the book of Genesis. Abraham, having defeated five kings encounters Melchizedek who mysteriously appears on the scene, bringing bread and wine, and as quickly as he arrives he leaves. What are we to make of this?

There are a few important references for us to consider in gaining some understanding of this mystery figure. First, Melchizedek is not a proper name, but a title. He is the "king of righteousness" and given the mystery of the moment is identified first with the coming Messiah but ultimately with the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is substantiated by the fact that Melchizedek has no relatives before or after, and like Jesus at the Last Supper offers bread and wine. That he seems to have no beginning or end also reinforces that he could be seen as a Christ-figure. Some evangelical scholars even suggest that he might be an angel, or even Christ himself.

Without father, mother, or ancestry, without beginning of days or end of life, thus made to resemble the Son of God, he remains a priest forever." (Hebrews 7:3)

The import for us today is that the figure mentioned in Hebrews reminds us of God's providence. As people who have sinned and fallen, the Christ-figure Melchizedek reminds us of God's great promise of salvation and that it is one that comes out of all eternity from the providence of God.

Moreover, there is a powerful connection between the use of bread and wine by Melchizedek, and the use of bread and wine at the Mass. Just as Melchizedek had no ancestors or descendants, and therefore was not chosen high priest by lineage, so too Jesus Christ is now the High Priest, not as one who comes next in a genealogical line of people, but as the true Messiah, the Son of God.

This signifies that Jesus is the ultimate high priest who not only offers the sacrifice but is in fact himself the sacrifice. All this reminds us that God loves us and calls us to accept his salvation and to know that even though we sinned, his sacrifice is all the more powerful, as it is the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Next time you are at Mass, remember that it is the case that you are part of the great sacrifice of Jesus who gave his life for you. He loves you as his beloved son or daughter. And he in fact wants so much for you to enter into the life-giving relationship he wants to have with you, that he gives himself for your salvation.

At one point or another you have probably been encouraged to pray to Saint Anthony when you lost something you need to find. So, when people hear about Saint Anthony, they typically think of Saint Anthony of Padua. But the Saint Anthony we celebrate today was a hermit and is often referred to as the father of monasticism.

Living in the third century, he had quite a life. Hearing the call to sell his possessions and to give to the poor, he did. He dedicated himself to a life of prayer. He was one who could be called confident of Saint Athanasius, who wrote a biography about him. And given the difficulties Saint Athanasius faced in defending the Trinity, I am sure their relationship served to be a great consolation.

The invitation today is to search out silence in your life today. Think about the possessions you have and ask yourself if these possessions keep you from a deeper life of faith. Most important, ask God for the gift of holiness.

We earnestly desire each of you to demonstrate the same eagerness for the fulfillment of hope until the end, so that you may not become sluggish, but imitators of those who, through faith and patience, are inheriting the promises.

I do more of my exercise at home now, but when I belonged to a gym, shortly after the first of the year there was a repeatable and interesting phenomenon. After January 1, the gym would be very, very crowded. But after a while (around 2 weeks) slowly there became the slow exodus of the newcomers. Their resolve at the new year, or their desire to use that gift of a gym membership had started to fade.

Making a resolution is easy. It is hard to keep it. The start is exciting as we imagine just what the end of keeping our promise and achieving our goal will look like. But after a little while into our resolution, the reality sets in. Just as the people in the gym slowly leave the gym and little by little give up on the exercise they are doing, our spiritual resolutions can be the type of exercise we walk away from as well.

We read about this in the letter to the Hebrews. Just like the resolution to commit to exercise can be easy to walk away from, the early fervor we experienced when we made the promise of faith can become stale as well. We can lose our early fervor, we can skip a day of prayer, and before we know it, the relationship we committed to starts to fade away.

It is for this reason we need to look first at our God, who helped Abraham, who is mentioned in this letter to the Hebrews. God promised, because of Abraham's faith, to make him the father of many nations. God tells those who demonstrated the love of God in the exercise of serving the holy ones that such discipline will not go unnoticed.

But we need to be careful here. It is not simply the case that what we need is to work harder, as if all of this depended upon us. No, the exercise of faith is one where God helps us with the gift of his grace. Unlike the physical exercise, which does depend largely on our effort, spiritual exercise is where we need to engage in surrendering to the grace of God.

What we need to do is to pray for the gift of perseverance. It is not easy. Just as athletes need to train their bodies, so too we need to train our souls.

We do not do any of this alone. God is always with us. We have the prayers of others. We have the community of faith. In every time and place, when we seek the community of faith and open our eyes to the presence of God great things can happen.

How often is it that we think if we can just work harder, pray harder, put in more effort, or simply rely more on ourselves and our efforts, we can earn a little more love? Is there a little belief in us that we earn our salvation? This flies in the face of what we believe about salvation. When it comes to God's love for us, we cannot earn it, we do not deserve it, it is a free gift of grace from our God. And that is true of all grace our God gives us.

"Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?"

I think some of us may not be aware of why anyone would fast. Sometimes we can see it as a dietary tactic, but in my experience it can be the case that we really do not understand why it is we fast, and why doing penance of any kind is valuable in our spiritual life. True fasting and prayer is always directed towards the Lord and our conversion.

But the Catechism of the Catholic Church discusses the importance of interior penance in order to grow in the spiritual life. Paragraph 1430 says this, "Jesus' call to conversion and penance, like that of the prophets before him, does not aim first at outward works, "sackcloth and ashes," fasting and mortification, but at the conversion of the heart, interior conversion. Without this, such penances remain sterile and false; however, interior conversion urges expression in visible signs, gestures and works of penance."

This echoes the discussion of fasting throughout the bible. We begin the season of Lent with the prophet Joel asking for interior conversion over external actions alone. "Rend your hearts, not your garments." In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus warns us not to perform acts for people to see. It is easy to see why. The notice others give us could be a source of pride.

The same is true for fasting. The goal is the interior conversion of the heart, which is why the Father who is hidden is the one who sees the attempt to change hearts. We should not look gloomy we should not do anything that would draw attention to ourselves for the goal is not the notice of others but the transformed heart.

But prayer and fasting must go together. Paul and Barnabas do this in appointing pastors. (Acts 14:23) The same actions are being done when the receive the message that Paul and Barnabas should be set aside for a mission. (Acts 13:2-4) Anna in Luke's gospel combines the actions. (Luke 2:37)

Fridays are typically penitential days since that is the day Jesus died for our sins. But in any event, the penance we do is not for external show, but for the conversion of the heart.

While I read it only after I gave this homily, I think this article from the Church Life Journal from the McGrath Institute for Church Life, helps us to recognize that if we are really pro-life, our focus is to change the heart and eliminate those conditions that make abortion seem like a desirable choice.

Your creation by God was not an accident. It was not because God was bored and had nothing better to do. From all eternity God knew you, created you, had something in mind just for you. God meant to create you, and loved you into existence. Make this request of God when you pray: God, help me to know your will and to do it.