Homily for May 2019 Holy Hour
Isaiah 42:1-4
Psalm 63:2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9
Philippians 2:5-11
Matthew 16:13-20<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why\ndo I like to come to Holy Hour? One\nmight simply think I do it as part of my job. \nI don\u2019t. I want<\/em><\/strong> to be here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Why? Because my soul is thirsting for Jesus. There is a place in my life that only Jesus\ncan fill. We are created to know Jesus\nand nothing else can fill us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What\nis it about Jesus that draws us to him?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another\nway of approaching this question is to look at what Jesus asked his disciples,\n\u201cWho do people say that the Son of Man\nis?<\/em>\u201d Who is Jesus to you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\ndisciples responded by listing names of famous biblical characters. These are all prophets who are dead. Well, except for Elijah as he was taken up to\nHeaven without dying. There were\nprophecies about the return of Elijah so it might have been natural for the\npeople to wonder if Jesus could be Elijah returning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For\nJeremiah and John the Baptist, one might suppose they wonder if Jesus could be\nthem because they are coming to realize that Jesus is indeed sent by God and so\nthey equate him to them as a great prophet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then,\nJesus asks them, \u201cBut who do you say that\nI am?<\/em>\u201d Of course, Peter is the one\nto answer. He gives a different type of\nanswer. Instead of listing names of\nfamous biblical characters, he responds, \u201cYou\nare the Messiah, the Son of the living God.<\/em>\u201d Peter had come to realize that Jesus was the\nlong-awaited Messiah. He is right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus\nis the one who fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah. \nJesus is the \u201cchosen one<\/em>.\u201d He is the one who \u201cwill not cry out, nor shout.<\/em>\u201d \nHe comes to bring us truth but He does not force it on us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I say Jesus \u201ccomes\u201d.\u00a0 Where does He come from?\u00a0 Paul helps to know the answer to this question in his letter to the Philippians.\u00a0 He tells us that Jesus \u201cwas in the form of God<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 He was with God, consubstantial with the Father.\u00a0 Jesus had nothing to gain for himself by becoming human.\u00a0 Yet He chose to empty himself, becoming human like us becoming \u201cobedient to death, even death of a cross.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus\ncame down from Heaven not for himself. \nHe did this for us because He loves us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n None\nof this should be anything new to us. \nYou are all familiar with Jesus. \nWe might not feel worthy of his love but we know Jesus does love\nus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What\ndoes this have to do with what I initially said about being here? I said I come to holy hour because my soul is\nthirsting for Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\nare in God\u2019s house. God is present\nhere. The building and its contents are\ndesigned to get us to think about God. \nWe have the stained glass window behind me as well as the Processional\nCross to remind us that Jesus dies for our sins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\nhave the Stations of the Cross on the walls to remind us what Jesus went\nthrough for us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We\nhave statues of Mary as model disciple, Joseph as a righteousness man, and St.\nMichael as our defense against Satan to remind us that we are not alone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There\nare various images in the other stained glass windows to remind us of other elements\nof our faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tonight,\ntonight we are here for one specific thing. \nJesus is present in an extra special way tonight. We see him on our altar. We see him in the monstrance. The monstrance is shaped like rays of light\nemanating from the center. At the center\nis bread, but not ordinary bread. It is\nthe Bread of Life! It was ordinary bread\nthat has become the Body of Christ. It\nis Jesus for whom our soul thirsts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To\nend, I turn to the second stanza of tonight\u2019s responsorial psalm, \u201cThus have I gazed toward you in the\nsanctuary.<\/em>\u201d Now, let us take time,\neach in our own way, to gaze on Jesus in Blessed Sacrament.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Homily for May 2019 Holy HourIsaiah 42:1-4Psalm 63:2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9Philippians 2:5-11Matthew 16:13-20 Why do I like to come to Holy Hour? One might simply think I do it as part of my job. I don\u2019t. I want to be here. Why? Because my soul is thirsting for Jesus. There is a place in …<\/p>\n