THURSDAY AFTER EPIPHANY – JANUARY 8, 2015
On
January 8, 2015, the Confraternity of Penitents was honored to have
Bishop Kevin Rhoades accept our invitation to offer Mass in the
Confraternity of Penitents house chapel and to remain afterwards for a
pot luck luncheon. The photo was taken following the Mass, in the
Confraternity House (chapel behind the group through the open doorway).
Confraternity members from Indiana and Ohio were present at Mass and
gathering. The Mass was concelebrated by Father Jacob Meyer, CFP
Visitor, and Father Danial Johnson, Spiritual Assistant for Our Mother
of Perpetual Help CFP Circle that meets in Delphos, OH. Father George
Gabet, pastor of Sacred Heart Church, Fort Wayne, IN, was also present.
Not shown in the photo is Tim Luncsford who works as an on site
volunteer for the Confraternity. He was also present but was taking the
photo.
 |
| Bishop Kevin Rhoades with Confraternity members and fellow priests, following the Mass he offered for the Confraternity of Penitents in the International Headquarters House Chapel (behind). Shown also Fr. Jacob Meyer, CFP Visitor (priest to right and rear of Bishop Rhoades) and Fr. Daniel Johnson and Fr. George Gabat, between Fr. Daniel and the Bishop. |
There follows here Bishop Rhoades' homily at the Mass in the Confraternity of Penitents House Chapel. Bishop Rhoades' homily focused on the Confraternity of Penitents Motto "You shall love the Lord your God with
your whole heart, with your whole soul, and with all your mind, (and)
you shall love your neighbor as yourself." (Jesus's words as recorded in
Matthew 22:37-38)
+ We are still in the Christmas season which ends this
Sunday, the feast of the Baptism of the Lord.
+ Wonderful readings last week and this week from the first
letter of Saint John. Saint John, the
beloved disciple, wrote 5 New Testament books: the Gospel of John, the three
letters, and the book of Revelation. A
major theme: love (God’s love and our vocation to love). Recall the famous words in the Gospel of John
(the famous 3:16): “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that
everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life.” This is what we have been celebrating during
this Christmas season – the gift of the Incarnation – the Word becoming flesh
and dwelling among us.
+ When Saint John
wrote his three letters, he was addressing a difficult problem in his
communities at the end of the first century.
Many were being led astray by false teachers who were denying the truth
of the Incarnation, the truth that the Son of God became flesh. He called them “antichrists.” They believed in Jesus but they denied that
He came in the flesh. They claimed they
were being led by the Spirit. Saint John
makes it clear that it was not the Spirit of God, the Spirit of truth, that was
guiding them, but the spirit of deceit, the father of lies. This heretical group also claimed that they
loved God, but they were not loving their neighbor nor keeping the
commandments. They hated the other
members of the Christian community.
That’s why Saint John wrote in today’s reading: “If anyone says, ‘I love
God’, but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother
whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.”
This teaching of Saint John is very challenging. He says we are liars if we say we love God
and hate our neighbor. Being a liar
means being on the devil’s side since the devil is the father of lies. Loving God means we keep his
commandments. John writes: “For the love
of God is this, that we keep his commandments.”
The principal commandment is charity, therefore, it is not possible to
love God without loving one’s neighbor.
Love of God and love of neighbor are inseparable! The true disciple of Christ loves God and
neighbor.
Earlier in this first letter of John, Saint John wrote that
“God is love.” This is a profound truth
of Christianity. With love, He sent us
his Son. This was entirely gratuitous. In today’s reading, he reminds us that “we
love God because he first loved us.” But
there is a requirement attached to God’s gift of love, that of sharing it with
others. The love for others brings us as
close as we can come on earth to union with God. Saint Thomas Aquinas taught that in this life
we come closer to God through love than through knowledge.
Saint John tells us God’s commandments are not burdensome,
for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world. And the victory that conquers the world is
our faith.” So faith and love are
connected. Our faith in Jesus, lived
through love, enables us to conquer the world.
This is what our world so desperately needs. It is the only way to true and lasting
peace. There is no justice nor peace
without forgiveness and love.
The Eucharist we now celebrate is the sacrament of love as
Jesus comes to us, His Body broken and His blood poured out for us, giving us
the grace and strengthen to love one another as He has loved us.
May God help all of us to live our vocation to love! This is what makes life meaningful and
beautiful.
--Bishop Kevin Rhoades
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