Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church: Catholic Sunday Homilies

The Eucharist: God Leads Us, Feeds Us, and Is In Us! (Mk 16:15-20) (6 ET)

Today on the feast of the Ascension we also celebrated First Communions. The One Jesus of Nazareth Ascends to Heaven, to be with us in the Eucharist. Once only one person, he is now in more that 1 Billion! Let's bring Him to more. 

Roses are Red, Violets Are Blue, God Loves You! (Jn 15:9-17) (6 ET)

Our God is a Lover. We are part of a Love story! All creations exists because of Love. God sent His Son because of Love. He wants us to live in that Love. Yet how can love be commanded, as Jesus commands? God creates it in us, by His Command, just as he commanded creation to come into being. 

Called to Bear Fruit: But How? (Jn 15:1-8) (5 ET)

Disciples are called to produce fruit. But it is God who produces fruit through us. We remain attached to the vine, the Church. It is our relationship with Jesus that allows the Holy Spirit to dwell in us, doing the work of the Kingdom through us.  How do we remain in Jesus? PSSSSS; prayer, sacraments, scripture, study, service and sharing our faith.

God Reveals the Path, and Gives us a Guide for the Path (Jn 10:11-18) (4 ET)

Are all religions the same? In Christianity God has revealed the Way,  AND has given us a guide to help us along the way; The Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ true God and true man.  Our faith is not made by humans, but revealed by God through Jesus Christ, God become Human, to not only show us, but lead us to salvation.  If God has done this for us, ought we not listen? To follow the Good Shepherd requires that we give him permission to lead us, realize that we need to be lean, and follow His guidance. Personal daily prayer, knowledge of scripture especially the Gospels, and the receiving of the sacraments are the essential ways we follow our Good Shepherd. 

Jesus Appears in Our Midst (Lk 24:35-48) (3 ET)

What is Jesus Appeared to Us? He does in this gathering too. A guided meditation. 

The Journey to the Tomb (Mk 16:1-7) (1 ET)

The women go to the tomb to find Jesus the Crucified, but hear Jesus had Risen. Did Jesus really rise?  This is the most important question of all creation, yet we don't make that same journey ourselves to see if he is risen. There are others who have made the journey, C.S. Lewis, Lee Strobel, Francis Collins, they can help us. But we must set out on our own journey. We have obstacles, reasons for not making the journey. Will they stop us from the search to find the answer? If we step out in faith, and if we pray, God will remove the obstacles as he did for the women, and he will roll away the stone of our hearts and enter, to show us he is Risen!

Death is an Important Part of Life (Jn 11:1-45) (5 LT)

Why didn't Jesus go sooner to save his friend Lazarus? Why doesn't Jesus do something about the death of our loved ones? Why does he allow it? Jesus did not come to take away death, but to join us in it, and transform it. Death too is a servant of God, calling us to live fully. This gospel reminds us of the inevitability of death for all of us, but also shows us the power over death, and how to live fully before our death, so that it has no power over us. 

Half of us are Blind: Jesus Can Open Our Eyes (Jn 9:1-41)

The man born blind represents all of us. Jesus wants to heal our sight, so we see others and the world as he does. Each person is an opportunity to make visible God's works and Glory, when we serve them in love and at His command. For God to open our eyes is a miracle, but we must make room for that miracle, by reading and praying scripture, receiving sacraments, praying about the divisions in our world and treating all people as an opportunity to show God's Love. 

The Woman at the Well has a Story to Tell! (Jn 4:5-42) (3 LT)

The Samaritan woman left her bucket at the well after she met Jesus because she no longer needed it. Although hiding before, she now wants to tell all she knows about Jesus. An encounter with Jesus can be so life changing, that we leave behind the things we once thought were necessary to pursue. Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God. Jesus wants to give us New Life so much richer than the lives we live naturally. If we only ask He will give, because he thirsts for our faith. He is waiting for us to come to the sacraments to ask for living water, for a well of the Holy Spirit that wells up inside of us. He wants to give us a story to tell!

The Glory Promised is after the Sacrifice Made (Mk 9:2-10) (2 LT)

Today's first reading is awful; Abraham is asked to sacrifice His Beloved Son Isaac. Could God really ask such a thing from us? In the end he does not, yet that is what God does for us. In this story we can see God's Love, and the extent to which He went to redeem us. But like Jesus who walked the road of Calvary before us, we too must also walk that road. But that road results in resurrection; and every sacrifice is followed by blessings. During our difficult times, when we see no way God can see us through an impossible situation, he still can; let us trust and hope for every death is followed by a resurrection if we join the sacrifice to Christ.