11th Sunday after TRINITY (2014): Homily

 

“JUSTIFIED IN THE JUST ONE”

Saint Luke 18. 9-14

11^th Sunday after Trinity: 31 August Anno + Domini 2014

Fr Jay Watson SSP

In The Name + of Jesus

   The Christ speaks parables because you are all self-righteous. You get the overly familiar story of the Pharisee and Publican once a year, whether you want it or not, because you all despise others!

   It’s so easy to despise truth because it cuts just a little too deeply. It’s one thing to intellectually acknowledge the veracity and purity of the Lord’s Law—the Ten Commandments—but another thing to stare honestly and heart-openly into that mirror of absolute Truth and be eviscerated. When WAS the last time you smote your breast and spoke the Kyrie—last week, same time, same station?

   Jesus told this text “unto certain which trusted in themselves.” It matters not that the laser focus of His words were upon the Pharisees; the “12” and His other followers heard it all as well; and so do you.

    You trust in yourselves…at least when you can even be cajoled to think about anything at all other than the rat-race, the grind, the play-time, the hobbies, politics, and accumulation schemes. There’s a reason man-centered, contemporary Christian worship, and mega-church crap is so darn popular—“old Adam sinners” are just hard wired to be narcissistic preening poppin-jays  “God, I thank Thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, rioters, unjust, shoplifters, looters, adulterers, Hispanics and Blacks with multiple girl-friends, wives, and whores, or even as this publican, liberal…democrat.”

   These two actors, Pharisee and publican, though parable personages are NOT card board cut-outs, clichés, or caricatures…they are YOU!

   But unlike the outwardly rigorous Pharisee, you are so secularized Monday through Saturday, so conformed by the world & society, that you don’t even pray, fast. or give tithes (a hard 10%  or  more to the Kingdom’s work).

   Instead, every year when you hear this parable, of quickly assenting “mentally” to the fact that your “old man” is the Hypocrite but that your new forgiven self is the blessed publican…ponder that fact and meditate on the wisdom of Christ’s Bride, Holy Mother Church’s insistence to keep this text in constant, CONSTANT, yearly rotation. You are not a one-time Pharisee “lifting up your eyes” to your own statue of self-righteousness and made-up “works;” you are a daily Pharisee!

    You don’t fast your eyes from sin or your appetites from gossip, revenge, and meanness! You gorge yourselves on your own superiority and self-constructed “lawfulness.” Turn off your media outlets that constantly (by the very minute—and second) taunt you and tempt you to judge, hate, and condemn “others” and instead start helping the less fortunate and struggling—sinners though they be. Associate more with the type of people that He, Who you call your “Lord and God,” associated with and lived among!

   There are no “others…” and conversely there are no good people that you can aspire to be…there are only fallen, broken, hurting and incredibly lonely people. Every one of us is both Pharisee and publican.

   There is only One Who can help Who can rescue and save. Only Christ Jesus is the JUSTIFIER, the One Who makes all right—RIGHTEOUS between you and God; between you and your fellow brethren.

    The publican, “standing afar off,” could do so only because Jesus allowed Himself to be “afar off” from Heaven’s fullness during His earthly visible ministry, i.e. He humbled Himself in non-use of His Divine powers and attributes. Only Jesus causes your repentance by allowing the Sanhedrin and Roman soldiers to stand Him “afar off” on Golgotha outside the city…away from proper and neat Pharisees and Lutherans. The unnamed publican could bow his head in contrition, close his eyes in prayer, and smite his breast, only because Christ bowed His sweaty, bloody and wounded Head, closed His agony-filled eyes, and prayed to The Father “forgive them,” “today you will be with Me in Paradise” “I thirst” and “it is finished!” Jesus let His own breast, and back, and feet, and hands, and head, and side be mightily smote so that your thrice-fold breast beating is now symbolic of your heart being rended rather than your flesh in hell for all eternity. You speak the confession of sin to your pastor and in your Mass preparation on Sunday mornings; you speak the Kyrie with Bartimaeus, lepers, cripples, mothers and fathers with dead children, you plead for mercy ONLY BECAUSE The Merciful One took your sin, disease, pain, sadness, and all your “otherness” and crucified it all on the Cross in, with, and under His sinless Body. By His suffering and death your Phariseeism is paid for. By His Resurrection, Ascension, and Presence in you by His Holy Word (Baptism, Absolution, Eucharist, Preachment) you are forgiven.

    The greatest pain and sadness is loneliness—being solitary without friend and family. The most profound emptiness each human being feels is the lack of touch, embrace, closeness. Self-righteous sin separates and isolates. Jesus draws you to Himself, places you into His sheepfold, His Family, His Church, His very side, wounds, and heart. Jesus exalts you today at His High Altar of sacrifice, Eucharist, and forgiveness because He humbled and abased Himself at Calvary two millennia ago. And just where does the publican go at the parables end? Just where has the Holy Ghost called and gathered you this morn? “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified.” The publican went home. We all want to go home. We all want to be with our beloved Father.

   ‘God is in His holy habitation’—font, pulpit, altar, for you in the nave that leads to the chancel—He is God Who setteth the solitary in families.’

   His fast is over. The fast is over. You’re home. Come home to the feast and eat and drink all that He possesses—the righteousness of Christ.

In The Name of The Father and of The + Son and of The Holy Ghost

10th Sunday after TRINITY (2014): Homily

“FORGIVEN: THE TEARS OF JESUS”

Saint Luke 19. 41-48

10^th Sunday after Trinity: 24 August Anno + Domini 2014

Fr Jay Watson SSP

In The + Name of Jesus

   “…and He shall hear my voice: He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me.”

   Adam and his precious rib wept when expelled from paradise. “Adam,” man, has been weeping ever since. Exile and loneliness; pain and deprivations; death of loved ones and the deprivations of old age; hunger and thirst; persecution and want; life under the cross waiting for the Redeemers visitation and redemption is awash with tears and weeping.

   You weep because of Satan’s attacks—the devil’s vicious (all the more so because there are elements of truth in his accusations of your evil) indictments. You weep because of the constant groaning of the world (change and decay in all around I see). And you weep because the Lord’s bright mirror of the Law shows you your fallen nature—the “beast” howling in pain as it first sees its hideously ugly reflection in the glassy pond. Sin causes weeping.

   You weep but others usually do not see it. Old Adam views crying and sighing, bawling and smiting as signs of weakness and dependence.

   You ask, you petition, and you entreat God to take away your thorns. You bargain with Him and at times you curse Him. Who will save you from the weeping; from the condition that produces the symptom of the weeping?

   “And when He was come near, He beheld the city.”  For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. The Son has always been God and has always been Savior: “He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world.” [Eph. 1.4a]

   Weeping is ultimately solitary. The weeping of the mother who has lost her child, the husband who has lost his wife, the prisoner in solitary and the soldier dying in a foxhole. Joy and its attendant laughter and conversation (i.e. communion) is of the Trinity—multiplicity in solidarity: One in Three and Three in One—FAMILY.  There is no only-child in the Lord’s courts.

   Jesus always beholds the “city,” the “polis,” as He has from before eternity. He knows His own sheepfold in all of its individual manifestations over time and space. He knows His people in their hamlets and villages, in their neighborhoods and towns; in their metropolises and lunar colonies (should it come to that).

   While He cares and governs all men, all the world—His own brothers and sisters, His Christians are the apple of His eye. And His eyes are more than moist they are outpouring of His Grace—His love in action. “He beheld the city, and wept over it.”

   God cries for you. Do more than casually think about that—ponder it and meditate over it.  The Lord of Life and Light weeps over your dying, darkness and death. So, at least be aware of your sinful condition and repent. Repent and believe the kingdom of God is at hand. The King with His wounded and blood-stained hands, and tear-stained cheeks, is NOW in your midst! This is the day of your salvation, rejoice and be glad in it and IN HIM!

   The pagan Sadducees and the heathen Pharisees, back then in Jerusalem in 30 AD and now in these last days, willfully and consciously rejected the things which “belong unto thy peace.” God is your peace for God the Trinity is PEACE incarnate in Christ the God/Man! Only the eyes of the Saints are opened by His tears of cleansing…not Visine or saline, or even Can-C, but the tears of Jesus—the Water of Life from the Rock of ages. Only by Grace and not works are you enlightened to know, and to receive the “things which belong unto thy peace.” These things are Jesus in His Word and in His Supper. These things, THIS JESUS has been given to you ever since He first “came near…beheld the city” at the Holy Font of your Baptism.  At your initial washing into His Body He wept over you and His tears, the Water from His riven side, cleansed you and brought you back to life.  This is given to you so that you don’t just “know it” but that you literally “have it.” You have God in you through your ears and through your mouth.  PEACE has come to dwell in you. You are a temple of the Holy Spirit because The Lamb of God is IN YOU…making you and all your brethren the New Jerusalem which comes down from above—the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church!

    All sin. All die. All have tears and weeping…sooner or later. But you and your fellow Saints are saved for you have your sins forgiven in the Blood of the Lamb—the Blood and Water of Jesus.  The rejecting enemies of God will have the eternal enemies casting the trench of hades around them to compass them for all eternity in outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

   But you are rescued from perdition by He Who has visited you and continues to visit and indwell you. He came in time to obey and pay…to do and to suffer…to submit and to die.  He visited you in Washing and He visits you now in Preaching and Feasting. You and your children are safe under “the shadow of His wings.”

   Because not one stone of your trespass breaking was left standing, but all were laid upon His precious flesh, crushing the LIFE out of Him on the tree, the gates of hell have been ripped off their portal and you are free…and today again, home amongst the Company of Heaven and the Angels.

Esaias’ prophecy is now history: “He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces.” [Is. 25.8]  And the Apocalypse of Saint John is now: “For The Lamb Which is in the midst of the throne shall feed [you] and shall lead [you] unto living fountains of water; and God shall wipe away all tears.” [Rev. 7.17]

   Your tears are dried by His hand which feeds you His Body and His Blood. Come now and receive His weeping of Joy over you—the cleansing flood of Grace.

In The Name of The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost

9th Sunday after TRINITY (2014): Homily

“A DIFFICULT PARABLE; A MERCIFUL CHRIST”

Saint Luke 16. 1-9

9^th Sunday after Trinity: 17 August Anno + Domini 2014

Fr Jay Watson SSP

In The Name + of Jesus

   The devil always accuses God’s Saints. And even when you think you are NOT guilty of “a” particular offense, it matters not. No one is good no not one! All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. You do commit daily trespasses for which you daily repent. But your 100% re-cidi-vism rate is due to the fact that you are a sinner with an “old-Adam” virus in your operating system.

   In the Lord’s parable the steward was accused of wasting a certain rich man’s goods. It should be properly assumed that the steward was in fact guilty of thievery—“cooking the books.”

   But in his last day on the job, probably while taking the few hours he had left to clean out his desk, the steward does something that Jesus later commends—he makes himself some friends, and future benefactors, by using the mammon of unrighteousness. The Lord notes that for someone who is a child of this world (i.e. darkness) that that was a pretty shrewd and wise action.

    Christ does not countenance stealing or embezzlement. Christ does not approve of the activity as an activity which the steward engages in: cutting his Masters’ debtors cut-rate deals in order to win friends and influence people. Christ does commend the steward for using what he had, or more precisely, what he had been given; what was entrusted to him, in order to ensure his own earthly salvation.

   You are the steward in several ways. Like the man in the parable you too are a thief. You break the Seventh Commandment…every day. The Steward was too prideful to beg and either too lazy or too weak to dig—to do manual labor.  You also are vain and slothful. The Steward’s clever ploy to extricate himself from unemployment and a life of poverty was to use his last bit of “authority” the fleeting “power of attorney” if you will, to hold a “fire sale” on debt. He “lightens the ledgers” once last time. He self-justifies himself out the door with a gutsy, waggish, caper-like white-collar heist.

    His example, as to content, is sinful and must always be shunned. You are not to self-justify yourself but to admit your guilt and repent in contrition and remorse…and then change behavior!

   You are not to think you can ever dig, or work, your way out of accurate accusations and truthful indictments of the Law.

    But begging?  Begging though it may not have worked in the parable for the Steward…most masters, most “certain rich men” are hardened against begging.  They didn’t get rich by showing mercy.

    But The Lord is different. Jesus is God. Jesus is God as servant and sacrifice; as host and feast. Jesus’ riches are His cross and humility; His passion and compassion!

    Jesus was wrongly accused for all the wasting of goods that you and your kind, mankind, was/is/and will be guilty of!  Jesus was not too ashamed to dig, that is, to work and “do” in keeping all of God’s Laws perfect and unbroken.  Jesus was not too ashamed to become incarnate of the Blessed Virgin. The flesh and blood of man is no dishonor to our Lord; how could it be since He created it in the garden…in His own image.  But the Lord did not beg. He did not beg for mercy because He was Mercy Incarnate! You the miserable beg for His Mercy like Martha and Mary of Bethany; like the 10 Lepers; like Blind Bartimaeus; like the cripple at the pool of Siloam; like the Syro-Phoenician woman, like Jairus, and like the thief on the cross!  He always hears your plaintive plea and always has mercy upon you!

    He has made you all children of light and He is constraining you by the Holy Ghost to act like it. Be what you are!  If a weasly steward in the Lord’s parable can use the mammon of unrighteousness…earthly stuff for earthly security, then why can you not also use earthly goods (the 1^st Article gifts of the Creed which Luther lists) to love your neighbor? Why can you not use, that is receive, the earthly elements in your Lords Word and Sacraments to strengthen and preserve your everlasting habitations? You can!  Be what you are: High Priests of the New Testament; honored family guests at the Nuptial Hall; dear brothers and sisters of the King at His Table.

   When you are daily accused of wasting the rich man’s goods, confess your misdeeds and your misdeed-breeding heart, and ask for forgiveness. Beg the giver of all good things to have mercy on you a poor miserable sinner—seek His Word of love and life, and His Word of Peace and Forgiveness, in His diary of love to you—the Holy Scriptures. When you are shamed by your deeds in thought and word and rightly convicted of hating God and your neighbor…be led again to this His Temple of Remission and His Tabernacle of Presence and let the mammon of wine and the mammon of bread be used by Jesus to give you absolution and strength in His Body given for you and His Blood shed for you. Christ’s Body and Blood and Word are your everlasting habitations!

In The Name of The Father and of The + Son and of The Holy Ghost

8th Sunday after TRINITY (2014): Homily

“THE FRUIT OF CALVARY FOR YOU”

Saint Matthew 7. 15-23

8^th Sunday after Trinity: 10 August Anno + Domini 2014

Fr J. Bill Watson SSP

In The + Name of Jesus

   Clothes make the man said someone once…someone who was dressed in nice, new, expensive, and “stylish” clothes. It is a lie. Clothes don’t make the man and neither does the “man” make the man. God makes man. Jesus makes all men: “all things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made.” [Jn. 1.3] Jesus suffered and died to forgive the sins of all men. Jesus clothes His own in His Baptismal Word and feeds them His inscripturated and His Sacramental Word.

   The reason people don’t come to Jesus’ Church is not that they haven’t made the right decision yet. The reason people don’t come is either they have not yet heard the Word, heard the real Jesus, or they have heard and simply do chose to reject Him. People are not gathered around Him because they don’t want to be. And sadly, some people who do find themselves in His sheepfold a Sunday here and there, or even every Lord’s Day, act with the disrespectful and nonchalance of attending a community center puppet show for kids BECAUSE they don’t believe the Words of Institution; they don’t believe “IS” means “IS.”

    Maybe the Lord is correct in blaming, and more importantly, warning against, “false prophets.”

   A prophet is a “God talker,” specifically a Christian speaker. This rules out applying this text to pagan oracles and heathen deities from Islam, Hinduism, Secular Agnosticism, to Buddhism and more. The Lord’s Words are also not directed at openly knowable heresies, cults, and Christ-less shells such as Judaism, Seventh Day Adventism, Mormonism, and Watchtower Witnessism.

   Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing.” Jesus says it so it is true. The false prophets can be fellow parishioners to be sure. There can be tares amongst the wheat, yes. This does not mean avoid sinners. Everyone from Saint Peter, Paul and the Blessed Virgin are sinners. To avoid associating with sinners would mean avoiding the black-hearted whiner in the mirror. You are of course to be on guard against the heterodox (false teaching) man or woman in your congregation. But Christ is more pointedly talking about the one with authority and oversight. Jesus’ warning against false prophets is aimed at pastors and bishops, the teachers and guardians of the faith, His Faith, handed down to them from the Blessed Apostles.

   Beware the false prophet because they are wolves—ravening wolves. Wolves will kill you and eat you. But even worse, the killing will be a spiritual death and the eating will be an endless consumption in hell—where the worm does not die.

   Be alert and on watch for these false shepherds because they will not come to you with sharp bloody teeth and blood red “demon-eyes,” but with smiles, soft words, and “sheep’s clothing.”

   But like the Berean Christians who “searched the Scriptures daily” [Acts 17. 11] so as to discern the preaching of the Apostle, you too will be able to see through the cleverest and most subtle disguises by the lens of Holy Scripture and the filters of the Symbols of the Evangelical fathers of 1580.

   If you don’t know the Scriptures; if you don’t know the Lutheran Confessions, then you are in trouble, in danger to every fad, error, heresy, embarrassment to our Lord’s Body, and blasphemy that the man in the robes or the bureaucrat in the district and synodical “suit” can spin. Grow up from your Sunday School (your CPH) knowledge and your 8^th grade hormonally-laced lack of memory “knowledge” and eat the Holy Word daily and the Sacramental and Absolving Word every Sunday! Every means every!

  “Ye shall know them by their fruits.” The Christ gives you the key to uncover their chameleon blends and their “sleeper” status. Look to the “fruits.” Don’t look to the world’s measurements and barometers. Don’t judge the orthodoxy, the faithfulness, of the Shepherd by the size of his flock or the largeness of His tent. Don’t judge his fidelity to Christ by the number of initials after his name or the list of published articles and books in his c.v. And most of all don’t judge him based on his personality or lack thereof. “A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.” There are only two trees and neither of them comes from the vision, creativity, or “people-skills” of the pastor. The tree in the garden is the damning tree of sin—the world, the flesh, the devil. The other tree is the Holy Crucifix with Christ’s own Body and Blood given and shed for your forgiveness and your life! Judge the prophet by which tree He constantly sticks in your ears, holds up before your eyes, and places on your tongue! The good fruit is of course healthy and nutritious doctrine—the dogmas and truths of Jesus’ identity and work... “sound doctrine.”  The good fruit is the Fruit of Christ Himself—His Body and Blood given in His Eucharistic meal. The Sacrifice of Calvary comes to you in that atoning paschal mystery and it brings you THE Passover but also the Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity, Epiphany, 30 years of unrecorded life and obedience, Holy Baptism, 40 days of desert fasting, 3 year ministry of teaching and healing, Passion Week, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Easter Pascha, Ascension, Pentecost, and today’s Real Presence Visitation in your very midst.

   You sin all the time. The 10 Commandments show you this. But more so, you are a sinner…all of Genesis 1-3 and David’s Psalms, and Paul’s teaching letters show you this. But Jesus is your fruit of the vine. Hearing what the God/Man has done to save you; hearing His words “I forgive you, I love you, I give you Peace,” and hearing the Word of His under-shepherd “The Peace of the Lord be with you alway” gives you the lamp to judge the face, the heart and the soul of the prophet standing in front of you. You will know by the words and the mysteries entrusted to him whether he is a ravening wolf or whether he stands in the stead and by the command.

“Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”

In The Name of The Father and + of The Son and of The Holy Ghost

I MEAN....HOW ELSE WOULD YOU BEHAVE IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD???

7th Sunday after TRINITY (2014): Homily

“CHRIST FEEDS”

Saint Mark 8. 1-9

7^th Sunday after Trinity: 3 August Anno Domini 2014

Fr Jay Watson SSP

In The Name + of Jesus

    A favorite sentimental hymn of many people goes: “I love to tell the story, twill be my theme in glory, to tell the old, old, story, of Jesus and His love.” The problem is the hymn never actually gets around to telling the story—proclaiming the Gospel of The God/Man.  Warm fuzzy feelings are no substitute for the work of Law Keeping and the payment of sin by blood shedding and substitutionary suffering and death.  Fluff is always fluff and junk food is always junk food.

    The reason people get bored with church isn’t so much that church can be boring at times as much as it is that sin causes boredom. Sinners are bored. Hell will be boring and endlessly tedious. Eve was seduced by Satan to boredom, hard to believe I know, but bored nonetheless with the food that God had given her and her husband.  Eve lusted for novelty and the “Burger King” diet of disaster “having it her way,” or, “you can be like God!” Eve rejected the food of faith the Edenic feast with the Trinity for the forbidden fruit of the murdering prodigal.

   Are you hungry? If you’re not hungry either you’re dead or you have already eaten. Are you healthy? If you eat the wrong things there will be consequences. If a child, or someone who has not grown up despite their calendar years, is constantly snacking on chips and sweets they won’t be hungry for healthy meals of meat and vegetables. If someone constantly drinks the fructose laced big gulps and liters of lies they won’t be thirsty for pure water.

   Heard the miracle of Christ’s multiplication of loaves and fishes too many times?  No you haven’t. Been embraced by your dear Father’s loving arms too many times; had the wounds cleansed,  disinfected, and dressed too many times by your Mother;  had the tears wiped away too many times by your protecting big brother?  No, no you haven’t!

    The reason one is hungry in the morning for toast  or in the evening for piping hot filleted trout is that…they are hungry!  Man was made to enjoy eating healthy and tasty food.  But after the fall, man needed and required food, and in the Lord’s mercy and grace, food still tasted good. No matter how many breakfasts and dinners you’ve already had in your life, if you haven’t eaten all night long that fresh warm and buttery toast will be wonderful again upon rising.

    The multitude which surrounded Christ was “very great” but it wasn’t everybody. The large throng was not every Jew much less every living human. Jesus loves all men and came for all men. Jesus suffered and died for all men and forgives all men. But, only those who stand, or sit, in His presence are fed with His miraculous food. Yes He sends rain to all men and indeed gives all humans their daily bread; but the true bread of life comes only from His hands through the hands of His Apostles in His house.

    The Christ fed that crowd with real bread and real fish because they were famished and He had compassion on their real physical needs—YES! The plenteous, indeed copious—cornucopias and overflowing, foodstuff was a miracle—a Divine sign done by Jesus’ Divine power as God. But, like the Samaritan woman He once met at the well, the one who He told would be thirsty again after drinking only regular water, He gives the eternal Water of Life eternal and He gives the very Bread of Heaven.

    This event with the few small fishes and seven loaves did happen. It was not the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar; it was Jesus feeding hungry bellies. It was a supernatural God-worked miracle. And yet He did not continue to feed His own special “12” this way. He provides food to the world and to you through the agency of man (farmers, wholesalers, markets, and grocers) and family. One works at a vocation to pay for many items needed. But, this historic event does indeed point to a mystical, sacramental reality of life with/in/under Christ the provider of all good things. For where there is forgiveness of sins there is not just forgiveness and salvation but ALSO life!  Life is meant to be filled with joy and peace and family feasting. Church life at its apex is a Eucharist Feast which is the foretaste of an even greater Heavenly Feast to come!

    Jesus wants to feed you. Jesus wants you to eat the goodness of His Grace; the goodness of Himself. He never runs out of nourishing life. He may start with seven loaves but He will end with seven baskets full if He desires: unbroken circles and alphas & omegas!  Seven is a perfect number: the six days of creation and the day of rest. The flock of Christ will always be provided for by its Good Shepherd. The sheepcote will be protected in His presence and given all that it needs to satisfy its hunger, thirst, and health unto eternity.

   Even as the fish and bread did not “run out” since the very Word made Flesh was speaking and distributing, so too in the Sacrament of The Altar the actual and true Body and Blood of Christ are present in as many parishes every Mass day—every Sunday—as have the Words of Institution spoken by Christ’s appointed pastors.

   His Grace imparted in His Flesh and Blood never runs out, or diminishes, or ceases to be. Take eat and take drink as He invites; and so you do.  You are filled.

    Not hungry? Why would that be? Are you busy sleeping in ignorance or sloth? When one sleeps one is not hungry and does not build an appetite. Wake up! Repent! Be vigilant and alert for your enemy prowls about seeking whom he may devour. Be fortified and strengthened on The Word of God and the Sacramental Body of God the Second Person.

   Are you not hungry because of inactivity and lack of combat? Repent! Pick up your arms, that is, your cross, and follow your Captain in the fight. After a day on the front lines you will be weary and very hungry and He will attend to your bruises and feed you even more of Himself!

   As you daily feast on Holy Scripture you will find yourself ravenous for the comfort absolution which comes only from the New Testament of His Body and Blood here at the High Banquet table of the Altar of God. You will never be sent away with nothing to eat for Jesus has spent three days in suffering, death, and the grave, to feed you His Calvary-victorious Body and His Commandment-keeping Blood. Not loaves but Jesus. Not fish but the very Paschal Lamb Himself. The wilderness is pushed back and a glimpse, a glimmer of heaven itself, opens up here at the rail. The fast is over come and be filled with God.

In The Name of The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost