Know Thy Neighbor

"Which commandment in the law is the greatest?" (Matthew 22:36)

This is more than just a trick question that the Pharisees offer up to Jesus. We hear this question and immediately think that Jesus has to choose from among the 10 commandments given to Moses.  But the Pharisees really want to put Jesus to the test because their question goes much deeper.  You see, the Jews observed 613 commandments that are present in the first five books of the Bible and now Jesus had to choose the greatest of them.  Jesus simplifies things and doesn't make up any new commandment. Rather, he quotes two that are already present in the Scriptures.  When telling us to love God with all our strength, heart, and mind, he is quoting Deuteronomy 6:5.   When he tells us that we must love our neighbor like ourselves, he quotes Leviticus 19:18.  So Jesus is not reinventing the wheel here, he is merely summarizing the whole law in one word:  love.  

There is a two fold dimension to this love:  love of God and love of neighbor.  One cannot exist without the other.  St. John speaks of this in his first letter when he says that we cannot love God, whom we can't see, if we don't love our neighbor who we do see (see 1 John 4:19).  So this begs the question:  do we love our neighbor?  I have another:  do we know our neighbor?  There are so many people around us that walk in and out of our lives like strangers.  We don't engage them.  We don't talk to them.  They are our coworkers, classmates, members of our family, and even the very people that we worship with every single Sunday who are currently sitting right next to you.  These are our neighbors that we are called to love.  Do we know them?

This morning as I was preaching to the children, I asked them who is their neighbor and why does Jesus tell us to love them.  One of them answered:  "because Jesus is present in everyone of us."  It's amazing how children can comprehend the mysteries of God's love even more than we can.  Yes, Jesus is present in the poor, the downtrodden, the alien, the imprisoned, and every single person that we find it difficult to see Jesus' face in.  Yet, we are called to love them nonetheless.  All it takes is a smile, an embrace, an act of love.  In fact, you might want to start with the person sitting next to you. 

Ever the Dreamer (10-20-08)

I did not preach today due to the Ministry Weekend we held in the parish, so here is an excerpt of my homily from these readings three years ago.

"[Give] to God what belongs to God."  (Matthew 22:21)

What belongs to God?"  Do our hearts belong to him?  Our thoughts?  Our actions?  Our words?  Notice that part of the word "belongs" is the word "long".  There should be a longing in our hearts to offer up all that we have and all that we are to the glory of God's name.  Every blessing that we have in our lives comes from the Almighty and that is why we owe him everything.  If we truly want to give to God what belongs to God, then we must spend our lives working for his Kingdom  Yes, we can build up his kingdom in our jobs, schools, and homes.  Separation of church and state doesn't mean we check our beliefs, our religion, our convictions, and our morals at the door when we leave this church today.  That really doesn't make us very good Christians, it makes us, yep, Jesus calls us out in the gospel, just as hypocritical as the Pharisees.  If we truly belong to God, the world will know.  Unfortunately, we spend most of our time worrying about what the world thinks of us than worrying if we are indeed doing God's will.  If we all gave to God what belongs to God, by totally serving Him and our neighbor, maybe the dire picture of our society that [we see on TV] would become a little more hopeful.  I don't know.  Maybe I'm a dreamer, as John Lennon says in "Imagine."  Maybe I'm overly optimistic about the possibilities we have within us, about what Christians could actually accomplish if we were, well, really Christians.   Well, so what if I'm a dreamer?  I've been called worse.  

Jesus Likes a Good Party

“Behold, I have prepared my banquet…”  (Matthew 22:4)

 

I have a very dear friend who throws parties that are the stuff of legend.  She plans every detail.  Invites all her family and friends.  And you know you have been to one of her parties when the party ends and you think to yourself, “Wow, I partied too much.”  We all look forward to a good party. We enjoy the eating, the drinking (in moderation, of course), the dancing and the joy that comes in sharing that occasion with friends.  Now, weddings are parties on steroids.  So much planning goes into every single detail.  I sometimes lament that couples spend too much time preparing for the wedding day and party instead of for the actual sacrament of marriage.  Brides spend hours on their wedding day preparing for their big day. So many things are happening behind the scenes to make the wedding feast unique and memorable.  But today’s readings challenge us with a simple question:  Do we prepare properly and in the same manner for the feast that we celebrate here every Sunday?  You see, Jesus likes a good party.  Throughout the gospel we read how he was at parties and ministered to the people there.  In fact, he performed his first miracle at a wedding feast in Cana.  So as Christians, we take our cue from our Master and realize that being festive and enjoying parties is part of the joy that we share as sons and daughters of God.  But do we give secular parties and this ultimate celebration of the Mass the same importance?

 

In today’s gospel we read how God has prepared this big feast for us, but like some of the people in the gospel, we sometimes reject or ignore this invitation.  Or if we do show up for the feast, we aren’t adequately dressed or prepared.  Think about it.  There is no wedding, party, holiday event that you’ve been to that is bigger than what we are doing right now in the Mass.  Yesterday, a deacon came to give our men a morning of reflection here at the parish and he put forth this example:  if we knew that Jesus was going to present in the Mass (which he is but we’ll get back to that in a second), but if we knew that Jesus and not the priest was going to be the main celebrant at the Mass, wouldn’t we go out of our way to be here and to be properly prepared?  I mentioned to my friend last night that I was going lead off my homily with the analogy on her parties, and she immediately picked up on where I was going with it.  She texted me this reply:  “ONLY THE BEST!!!!  If you knew Jesus was coming to your party…NO DETAIL WOULD BE SPARED!!!!!  N in my case He’s always first on the list!!!!!” 

 

But the thing is, and I told you that I would return to this, is that Jesus IS really here, and this challenges our faith in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.  Because if we believe that Christ is really and truly here in body, soul, and divinity, then we would prepare for this celebration like we would for one of our weddings or parties.  We go out of our way to plan everything for our parties, and we dress to the nines and build up so much excitement so that we can have an unforgettable time.  So much work goes into these great events.  Why can't we put that much effort and excitement into the wedding feast of the Lamb?

Thorns in the Vineyard

“O Lord, God of hosts, restore us; if your face shine upon us, then we shall be saved.  (Psalm 80:20)”

God creates everything so beautifully.  We are vines in his beautiful vineyard where Christ is the true vine.  Unfortunately this vineyard sometimes has thorns scattered throughout that prohibit the vine from growing and producing fruit.

The Church, the new house of Israel, is that vineyard.  I see the beauty of the Church every day.   I see a Church that is strong, vibrant, and able to transform the world.  Yet, we ourselves sometimes try to tear down the vineyard as in today’s Gospel or we let others come into God’s vineyard to trample it by imposing the world’s will on us instead of us staying firmly rooted in Christ, the true vine.  The readings today are a cautionary tale of how a vineyard can be overrun both from within and from the outside.  As Catholics, we are besieged from all sides when it comes to our faith and morals, and there are times when we join the crowds and are lured by the voices of the world because it is easier to fold and compromise our values than to cause conflict.  This causes us to be cut off from the vineyard and at the same time cause harm to it.

Let’s not mince words.  As Catholics, we can sometimes be wimps.  We don’t stand up for our faith and values as we should.  This Respect Life Sunday should serve as a wake up call for us because the Gospel of Life is being assaulted on all sides.  Yes, I always preach on how little we are doing, outside of the good people in the Respect Life offices, to stop the genocide of abortion in this country.  But how many of us are standing up to the plague of executions occurring across our nation?  How many of us are standing firmly for the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman?  Do you know that some of our children in our Catholic school think that marriage should be between whomever?  Why do they think this? Because it’s become acceptable in television and pop culture.  They can’t tell the difference.  Did you also know that our government is drafting language that would basically label those who defend traditional marriage as racists and bigots?  The Archbishop just told his priests as we met this week that we must be prepared to confront this challenge.  He alluded to a priest in Canada who was arrested for denouncing same sex marriagesand abortion from the pulpit.  In other words, what I am doing right now.  If that’s the direction that we’re going in then lock me up now and throw away the key because this priest will never cease to preach the TRUTH that has been passed on to us from Christ for 2000 years.

As Catholics, we cannot compromise our values, Christ’s values, to accommodate the world.  We cannot fold when faced with a raging stream of immorality that seeks to drown our voices.  No, our voices must louder than ever.  The world does not see the beauty that we see within our Church community.   The beauty that we see in every human life.  We cannot allow an ever more secular world to obscure the beauty of what we stand for as Catholics.  The vineyard of the Lord is great and vast, and we have to extend its message of peace, mercy, and respect for all human life and respect for the sacredness of marriage.  These are challenging times we are living in which is why we must rise with one voice and uphold all we hold sacred.  This priest has your back.  I just pray you have mine.

Did Jesus Make You Angry?

 "...complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing." (Phil 2:2)

This morning I spent the first three Masses standing outside the Church doors greeting the people as they came in for Mass and as they exited.  Since there was a blood drive being held in the parish today, there were two volunteers inviting parishioners as they left if they would give blood.  The volunteers were shocked by the cold reaction of our people as they were leaving Mass.  Some people wouldn’t even acknowledge them or simply gave them a mean face for even bothering them.  Now mind you, some of these parishioners were walking out of Mass during communion which prompted me to wonder and almost ask one of them like a little child would:  “Did Jesus make you angry or something?”  I’ll return to this group of people in a bit.

This week’s readings pick up where last week’s readings left off.  We continue to see God favoring those who truly repent for past bad decisions over those who seemingly live virtuous lives but have gotten lazy and stop producing fruit for God’s kingdom.

We have two group of people referenced in today’s gospels:  the religious leaders of Israel and then the tax collectors and prostitutes.  The religious leaders represent the son who said yes to his father but did not go into the vineyard to work.  The tax collectors and prostitutes represent the son who initially tells his father that he would not got out to work in the vineyard but eventually does.  The son who goes into the vineyard will produce fruit from his labor.  The son that does not go into the vineyard is paying lip service to his father and produces no fruit.  What side do we fall under?

Last week, I made an aside remark during my homily that I never wrote down.  I made the analogy that these two groups of people reminds me of Catholics who come to Mass only on Easter and Christmas versus those of us who are here every week.  Those that come only a couple of times a year have a place at this table no matter how much they frustrate us for taking our parking spaces and seats because they may be moved to join us more frequently at this table where they belong.  Those of us who come weekly run the danger of falling into routine, of becoming stale, and not producing any fruit except for clocking in and clocking out at Mass for an hour a week.  I said it a few weeks ago:  we have to be careful not to fall into this routine.  Every time we come to Mass should be an experience all its own.  We must be open to the promptings of the Spirit that lead us to change our lives.  Yes, we say the same prayers and sing the same songs, but the readings are different and we should experience Jesus in a totally different way that challenges us to do more for the building up of his kingdom.  We must approach the Eucharist with a sense of wonder like someone who is approaching this sacrament for the first time or maybe even a couple of times a year. We should walk out with joy in our hearts because we have just experienced something heavenly.  The sinners of Jesus’ time understood that they had experienced the divine.  The religious establishment did not. 

I wonder if some of us fall under the title of “religious establishment.”  Most of us come to Mass every Sunday, but we want to do it on our own terms.  We want to arrive at a certain time, leave at a certain time, sit in the same pew, and not be bothered by anything going on around us.  We start to get very good at paying lip service to God, priests included, and have nothing to show for after Mass except that we were sitting in a pew for an hour once a week.   We don’t want to be bothered by the people around us who are trying to draw us in to the life of the Church yet we profess to be part of the Body of Christ.  St. Paul tells us in the second reading that we must be of the same mind and the same love, but some of us come to Mass as if we were the only people in the church.

We are in danger of becoming the Pharisees of our time if we continue to simply pay lip service to God and not produce fruit for his vineyard.  Every Sunday I stand outside and see so many people dash out of the church as if it was on fire with a sour look on their face.  It causes anyone to wonder if they truly experienced the living God during the celebration they supposedly took part in.  We cannot and should not approach the Mass as an obligation or something we simply do out of habit or routine because we close ourselves off from being awed by the living God that makes himself present in the Breaking of the Bread. That is why Jesus favored those who despite being sinners embraced his message because it’s never too late in God’s eyes to set things right, and the sinners rejoiced that were even acknowledged by God let alone forgiven. That is why we must empty ourselves as Christ did and become humble when we come to this table so that we may be open to whatever He has in store for us.  We must come to Mass with a total sense of wonder much like a child would. 

Who knows?  Maybe one day I may be standing outside the church with a child, and trust me they pick up on everything, and that child may actually be bold enough to ask those grumpy people coming out of Mass:  “Did Jesus make you angry?”

A God Who Constantly Surprises Us

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways.”  (Isaiah 55:8)

Sometimes we have to step back to see God tapping us on the shoulder and reminding us that he’s there:

-A little girl who I barely know is walking in a perfectly straight line with her Kindergarten class while I walk in the other direction.  She suddenly breaks the line to give me a hug.

-A woman approaches a brother priest in a New York subway last week on the way to Ground Zero to tell him how she ran out of the Twin Towers on 9/11, sought refuge in a church, saw the firefighters lay their fallen chaplain by the altar, and rediscovered her faith.  (Read more of Father Luis' moving story here: http://www.miamiarch.org/ip.asp?op=Blog_11910124712281)

-A man approaches me after a weekday Mass to simply tell me: “Thank you for being a priest.”

-A random email or text message is received from a friend, a family member, an old parishioner, or student to remind me that I am loved and somehow made a difference in somebody’s life.

-A young man who pulls me aside out of the blue and tells me:  “Father, I think I want to be a priest.”

-A routine phone call from my sister becomes not so routine and flat out reduces me to tears when she tells me she is going to pass on my name to her unborn son.

Just when you think you have God figured out, he starts to surprise you in ways that you couldn’t possibly imagine.  Try as we might to do things “our way,” we still seem surprised when His way turns out infinitely better.  Our ways are definitely not his ways.  He is a God who will favor those who are last, yet we still scratch and claw to strive to be first.  When are we going to learn to let God be God and to just get out of his way?  It’s amazing how easy life gets and how joyful we become when we just surrender to His will.  And even then, He continues to amaze us, surprise us, and overwhelm us with the depths of his love.  Because just when you think God cannot possibly demonstrate the depths of his love for you any more than he already has…he goes even deeper!

This week, let yourself be surprised by your God.

Redefining Heroism

“None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself.”  (Roman 14:7)

To be human is to be selfless.  It is to love others more than self.  True heroism involves putting the common good over one’s self, and laying your life down for another.  This is what our Lord did.  This is what we see on the cross.  Ten years ago, our definition of what it means to be a hero changed.  Men and women we see every day, and pretty much take for granted most of the time, were all of the sudden seen in a new light. Firefighters, police officers, and first responders were seen throwing themselves into harm’s way, as they do pretty much every day in this country, and were rightfully and finally given their due for running into two burning towers.  I always tearfully recall their heroism and that of our military whenever I hear the third verse of “America the Beautiful”:  “O beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife.  Who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life!”

Today we honor all those men and women who lay their lives down for us whether on our street corners, in firehouses, or in the deserts and mountains of Iraq or Afghanistan.  So many who teach us on a daily basis that selflessness is what makes our nation great.  And that selflessness unites us.  Today we have with us members of our local fire department.  You always have a special place in my prayer life because my brother is a firefighter and civil servant as well.  He became a firefighter just a couple of weeks after the terrorist attacks, but five years ago today I was honored to give the invocation when he joined the City of Miami Fire Department.  That evening I wrote:

“[As for my brother], I often take what he does for a living his vocation for granted.  Many people celebrate my vocation to the priesthood, and they call my life "heroic."  But today as I saw my brother become a firefighter for the City of Miami under the backdrop of the burning twin towers, I wondered, "who truly is the hero?"  Right after the ceremony we proceeded outside to the training center for a demonstration of their skills.  Some were ordinarily impressive and some were jaw dropping.  Then we looked up to the top of this ten story building and saw my brother waving at my parents and at his son, then, with the crowd in awe, with two of his classmates, he proceeded to scale down the building…HEAD FIRST!  And so I wondered, as I often do when I see pictures of the World Trade Center on 9/11, "Would my brother run into those burning towers?"  After watching him scale that wall, after hearing him take the firefighter's oath which forsakes self for the good of others, the only answer I could come up with was an unequivocal "yes."  Makes you want to rethink your definition of a hero.”

These men and women remind us that loving others, loving country, more than self is the greatest attribute of an American.  They unite us through their heroic example of courage.   Ten years ago, our nation was firmly united in one of our darkest hours.  If any good came out of that horror, it’s that we were reminded that we were one and that a nation united is far stronger than any terror attack.  Our churches were filled as people looked for answers, for as Christians we knew that only with Christ could we make sense of the senseless.  May this solemn occasion serve to remind us once again that true heroism lies in selflessness, and that our strength as Americans lies in knowing that we are the United States of America:  one people, one country, one nation under God!

I'm Listening

"If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts."  (Psalm 95:8)

I have a penchant for getting into trouble with my sister when we talk on the phone because she always claims that I don't listen to her.  I do listen even though she asks me every couple of minutes:  “Are you listening to me?”  I do admit there has been a time or two when my mind has drifted or I have been working on something else (multi-tasking) and she asks if I’m listening.  This happened last week when she called and was telling my about my nephew’s first days of Pre-K 3.  After a few minutes, she said, “You’re not listening to me.”  I told her I was.  She paused for a second and said, “you’re watching a baseball game, aren’t you?”  “I’m not!”   I tried to defend myself, but I kind of actually was watching a game.  Now ever since I was a kid, my mother and my sister know when I am lying because my lip starts to curl.  So my sister exasperated said, “I can hear your lip curling over the phone!”  I never did admit it to her. (I guess I’ll be getting a pretty angry phone call once she reads this.)  The reason I bring up this story is because today’s readings are all about listening particularly to the voice of God.  In the late 90’s during the sitcom “Frasier”, the titular character who played a psychiatrist with a radio show would welcome his callers on the air by declaring, “I’m listening.”  This is what God is telling us constantly in the Scriptures particular in the gospel when Jesus tells us that our communal prayer will be answered by our Father in heaven.  He is always listening, but the question that we are challenged with today is:  do we listen to Him?

There are many obstacles that prevent us from hearing the voice of God, and it is very hard to hear His voice if we’re not listening which is an essential, yet often neglected, component of prayer.  If we don’t listen to God, we become disconnected from his will which in turn hardens our hearts and allows us to be easily led into sin.  In today’s gospel, Jesus talks about fraternal correction and about pointing out the sins of our brothers and sisters.  The reason that Jesus does this is because sometimes a brother or a sister may be the last person to know that they are in trouble or in sin.  Think of an alcoholic who needs an intervention in order to realize that they have a serious problem.  What we sometimes fail to realize is that sin has a social dimension.  It may be a “private sin”, but it not only affects our relationship with God, it affects our relationship with the Church because it causes us to distance ourselves from God and prevents us from being effective members of Christ’s body.  That is why during the Confiteor at the beginning of Mass, we say “I confess to Almighty God, and to you, my brothers and sisters…”  For this reason, Jesus asks us to intercede for our brothers and sisters who have gone wayward because they may need to be rescued from the clutches of sin.  Sin drives such a wedge between us and God and our community.  Sin destroys us.  It blinds us.  It sucks us into a vortex of despair.  It tricks us into doing something we think will make us happy when all it does is drive us further away from our God and make us numb to its horrendous effects.  Sin does not allow us to love as St. Paul calls us to love in the second reading, but ultimately, sin makes us forget what the voice of God sounds like.

It is in the despair of sin that we start to blame God for our own self-inflicted problems and start to complain that He isn’t listening to us.  This is a complaint I hear often:  “God doesn’t listen to me.”  It’s not that God isn’t listening to us.  It’s that we’re not listening to Him.  Even when trapped by sin, God always listens to our pleas and sends good friends to rescue us and bring us back home where we begin to remember what God’s voice sounds like.  It is a voice of peace.  A voice of comfort.  A voice of serenity.  A voice that makes us feel that we are home.  So again, the problem isn’t that God isn’t listening to us, the question we must ask ourselves today is:  do we listen to Him?  May we remove all stains of sin that may harden our hearts so that we can freely approach God’s presence and say, “Speak, Lord.  I’m listening.”

Tricked By God

"You duped me, O Lord, and I let myself be duped..."  (Jeremiah 20:7)

There are days where it feels that we are the only Christians on the face of the earth.  We feel that we have given so much to our faith and to our God and end up with frustration, bewilderment, and yes, sometimes even anger at God.  Nobody listens.  It is lonely being a Catholic out in the world.  It is very easy in here within the sanctuary of our church, but out there it's a different story.  That is why the first reading and the plight of Jeremiah touches us so deeply.  We all have had a crisis of faith where we look up to the heavens and wonder where God is.  Jeremiah was at his wits end when he accuses God of tricking him into this life of prophecy which made him the object of laughter:  "All the day I am an object of laughter;  everyone mocks me (v. 8)."  We have felt this way in the past.  We give of ourselves to God and to his service, and we realize that this life is not easy.

The disciples must have realized this as well in today's Gospel.  In a continuation of last week's gospel, the disciples go from hearing Peter's confession about who Jesus really is to hearing that Jesus had to suffer and die.  Peter wants none of this and goes from being called "the Rock" a few verses earlier to being called Satan because he is thinking like human beings do and not thinking like God.  (Talk about being humbled quickly after being given the keys to the Kingdom.)  The disciples must have thought that life with Jesus was going to be easy.  They could not see the martyrdom that each of them, save one, would eventually endure for the sake of the Kingdom.  They did not realize that following Christ involves taking up our cross, denying ourselves and following him.  It entails laying down our life for our God and our faith.

Of course, this is not easy, but there are moments of triumph and glory along the way.  The disciples received in last week's Gospel an incredible truth that had to be shared:  Jesus is the Messiah!  When they became witnesses of the resurrection, they had to shout it from the rooftops.  Yes, it landed them in prison, but they joyfully accepted the challenges of proclaiming the Gospel.  Do we embrace this challenge with the same joy?  Sure we may complain at times like Jeremiah, but even in his lament, the prophet resigns himself to the fact that he cannot help but speak the truth even if he feels like never uttering the name of God again.  There is some beautiful imagery here at the end of the first reading:  "I say to myself, I will not mention him, I will speak in his name no more.  But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones; I grow weary holding it in, I cannot endure it."  We cannot hold the beauties of our faith in our hearts because they are meant to be shared.  Even though we may be inclined to push God away in moments of trial, we constantly return to Him because our hearts long for him.  Today, if it weren't a Sunday, we would be celebrating the feast of St. Augustine who famously said on the very first page of his Confessions:  "our heart is restless, until it rests in Thee."  

So yes, there will be days when we will feel like Jeremiah, duped or tricked by God, but He has a plan for us.  It may feel lonely at times to live this life of faith, but Pope Benedict XVI assured a million and a half young people in Madrid last week that we are not alone in this journey of faith.  There are brothers and sisters sitting around you that will help you endure the moments of trails and rejoice with you in the moments of triumph.  Jeremiah goes on to say later on in the same chapter that God will be his champion.  He will never abandon us.  He knows the way.  All we have to do is trust in His will, lay down our lives, take up our cross, and follow Him.

The Question

"But who do you say that I am?"  (Mathew 16:15)

As a Christian, we must ask ourselves this question every day.  Who is Jesus?  Our answers evolve, expand, and deepen as we get to know our Lord.  There is a reason why we must daily ask ourselves this question that Jesus asked his disciples.  If our understanding of Jesus and our relationship with him does not evolve, then there is the danger of falling into a spiritual rut or into routine.  Not long ago, my confessor told me, “Beware routine.”  We cannot grow deeper in love with Jesus by just going through the motions.  So daily, this poor priest, kneels before the Blessed Sacrament, Jesus himself, and I ask:  Who is this Jesus?

This morning before any of us woke up, Pope Benedict XVI celebrated the Closing Mass of World Youth Day in Madrid with over a million young people.  He took the same path that I chose to take with my homily, but he is the Holy Father so I’ll let him do the talking:

Dear young people, today Christ is asking you the same question which he asked the Apostles: “Who do you say that I am?”  Respond to him with generosity and courage, as befits young hearts like your own.  Say to him: “Jesus, I know that you are the Son of God, who have given your life for me.  I want to follow you faithfully and to be led by your word.  You know me and you love me.  I place my trust in you and I put my whole life into your hands.  I want you to be the power that strengthens me and the joy which never leaves me”.

In order to respond to Christ in this manner we need faith and lots of it.  In order to “put my whole life into your hands” we need to trust in Jesus who is inviting us into a deeper relationship with him.  The Pope said that he was moved by the great gathering of young people before him.  Every time I stand up here to celebrate Mass with so many young people, I am moved as well.  I see before me young men and women who united in their faith can transform the world.  Notice that I said united because we cannot do what God wants us to do on our own and the Pope echoed that this morning:

We cannot follow Jesus on our own.  Anyone who would be tempted to do so “on his own”, or to approach the life of faith with that kind of individualism so prevalent today, will risk never truly encountering Jesus, or will end up following a counterfeit Jesus.

Too many times we are seduced by individualistic and secular mindsets that the world leads us to.  We come to know Jesus as a community of faith, particularly here in the Breaking of the Bread.  We must get to know Jesus in communion with the Church.  We must resist the temptation of talking to God “my way” or “confessing directly to God” or any of the other individualistic ways we sometimes approach spirituality.  Jesus lived in a community, was strengthened by a community, and shared his Last Supper with a community.  As a priest, I draw strength not only from God but from all of you.  Yes, we must all individually answer the question, “who is Jesus?” but we do so in communion with the Church, and when we finally answer this question, the Holy Father tells us that we must share the Answer:

Friendship with Jesus will also lead you to bear witness to the faith wherever you are, even when it meets with rejection or indifference.  We cannot encounter Christ and not want to make him known to others.  So do not keep Christ to yourselves!  Share with others the joy of your faith.

As we begin a new school year this week, I invite you to continue asking yourself this question.  I tell my students time and time again, we cannot get to the Answer unless we ask the question.  Every morning this week, ask who Jesus is?  Deepen your faith.  Deepen your relationship with him.  And as the Pope implored the young people in Madrid:  “Do no keep Christ to yourselves!”  Share this Jesus and share your youthful joy with the world.