Fr. Michael Scanlan, TOR: Homily: Mary, Mercy, and the Eucharist

I was counseling a man recently he was very professional man had degrees was quite learned and he was telling me about what was truly a difficult time in his life death children leaving the church one child on drugs another in a cohabitation situation and when he finished I looked at him and I said do you believe God loves you and of course [Music] he kind of bug us but what am I gonna do about this situation he said again do you believe God loves you eyes shifted away now I'm sure he would have put yes on any examination paper but the challenge of today's liturgy to us the readings this feast is do you believe we should hope not just when things are going well but when they're difficult do you believe it has it penetrated all the way in God loves you it's a struggle isn't and that's why Jesus says what's been hidden from the intellectuals from the complicated and the professional God has revealed to the merest children I want to assure you this weekend that God wants to touch your heart and your mind and convinced you of his love of his mercy a bazan I didn't ding love he has so much more love than you can receive you understand that see you've got God's love for you and you individually is unlimited you can't get behind it you can't get above it you can't get around it it's so much bigger than you were then what's the limit of it how much we take it in how much we take it in and it's tough I don't want to make it sound easy it's a simple proposition it gets revealed to the mirror is true but it's tough to believe because things don't go the way we want them and if we figure that God loves us then certainly he'd make them go the way we want right and that's a simple formula God really loved me he'd let me run the universe and have everything work out exactly the way I think it should clearly then he doesn't love me this feast you know the words of Scripture is so powerful today oh if we could take him in oh my you know right Deuteronomy would chosen people God chose you because he loves you created you because he wants you he wants you the way you are and can be he loves you the way you are and wants you to come into the fullness of what he created you to be but he chose your chosen race your sacred to the Lord from Deuteronomy the Lord said is hard on you there are better people that made up the holy of people certainly more beautiful than I am and handsome and and then letter to John let us love one not because love is God God is love love consists in this lo consists in this that I've obeyed God's command that I've followed his precepts that I've been faithful that I clean my room and I and I get to work on time and no no it says love consists in this that God first loved us it's not an exam that you pass and therefore get love it's something that precedes that and yet we struggle don't we we struggle with this and so this vote of mass of the Sacred Heart is to remind us of that great apparition of Jesus to st. Margaret Mary apparently warned y'all in France behold this heart that so Long's mad but so little love to meet her people don't believe Jesus acts with real frustration I love those apparitions because geez I can't believe it so you Margaret it's your job you gotta get them to believe that they that I love them that's the way I read them when they come across a few years ago I was preaching in that visitation convent in Perry lamorne y'all and it was a great privilege and I was moving around like this as you can tell they always have to fit me with something that travels a lot and as I was preaching I looked down and I realized I was standing in exactly the spot where Saint Margaret Mary saw Jesus standing in the apparition and I was convicted right in the middle of my own preaching oh my here I am talking about it and I don't really believe it that can be embarrassing right in the middle of preaching you know we wanted to say wait a minute what if priests come up here for my confession before I continue this this homily believing letting that love penetrate us some Wow letting it in somehow why am i doing that that's what it does it hits the hard heart this weekend Mary mercy in the Eucharist are all gifts of love all expressions of love of God will we soften up let it in realize the good news Oh two weeks ago I was on a pilgrimage called the same thing as this conference Mary mercy in the Eucharist and we went to Poland and Cracow and Krakow was an amazing place because we first saw where john paul ii was and we heard his great messages his birthplace and where he occupied the chair of philosophy at the University of London where where he presided in the palace of the archbishop and all these things and then we touch those great places of love a lady of Czestochowa you know and all the tremendous devotion all through Poland to a lady of Czestochowa as an expression of God's love for us Mary in total gift loving and then we went to Divine Mercy convent there this the sisters there and we you know in front of that image of Jesus's love for us with the Rays pouring out and just saying trust Trust trust but you know was not in those places that I was most struck with God's love it was in a strange place which you wouldn't normally go to find out how much God loves you it was in awe sweats right there outside of Cracow and when I walked through that gate with its sign about work will make you free and into this terrible death camp and experience the horror the absolute of horror of man's lack of love for man man's hatred man's inhumanity of love and read their the words that were addressed to each group that was brought into that death camp as they were addressed by commandant Frisch de st. Maximilian Kolbe let me tell you you have not arrived at a health spa but a German concentration camp you will find only one exit the crematorium if you don't like the sound of this you can leave it once by throwing your so at the electric fence now if any of you are Jews you have the right to live no longer than two weeks prease one month the rest of you three months what a horror after they've stripped if they've taken everything from you and then address you with those words and heard you into these into these stone with houses of concentration and then in the punishment bunker where they force the prisoners to stand in little cub leha cubbyholes four at a time they can't even sit down strip naked and standing there until there they die or a shot at the execution wall you might say well now this is a strange place to find God's love for indeed there was many a man and woman who screamed out in the midst of this where is God that he would let this happen there was many a man who went up to Maximilian Kolbe and said where is your God what has he done how can he let this abuse this horrible slaughter happened for literally millions were executed 300,000 died of famine the horror of Auschwitz and as we walk cell by cell through that area that's been preserved and saw the little remnants of people saw the little toys of children in one place saw the hair shaved from all the people who had been gassed saw the terror the teeth pulled out of their mouths to find gold this horrible situation going on we saw the little medals and the prayer books and the Jewish shawls together and realize how much they've been stripped and the agony of those people who existed only for weeks as an average before they died in this camp and yet there was a man Maximilian Kolbe who understood who understood it he mayn't as testified by all sorts of prisoners in that camp he was patient complacent looking to help others giving away his food taking the hardest jobs concentrating constantly on other people and assuring them yet yes they may die but but they would not be conquered they would conquer they would conquer the Germans they would conquer the Nazis here they would conquer hunger they would conquer death because God loved them and Maximilian himself saying I'm on mission here I'm not leaving God has a special mission for me and indeed he would say to many of the others you will go and you will go you will be out there others he will say to them to get ready but then finally at August 1941 the day that there was an escape from his bunker and they took them out the hole the bunker mates and they made them stand there in the hot Sun all day while they search for the escapee they didn't find him the next day they were standing again and finally they said all right the punishment will be as fish says that's ten of you will starve to death in the starvation bunker and he went through the ranks picking one picking another faking putting some people out and then pushing them back scaring them to death until finally he had gathered the ten of them and pulling the ten of them forward he then heard one man sergeant Francis good Jonna check cry out oh my wife and my children what will happen to them ignored it he's heard heard many of those kind of cries before and then suddenly from the back row there was a man moving forward just to move out of the line was reason to be shot and executed at the time but this man kept mark walking forward to the horror of everyone who was in lines with him looking at him and he finally walked up in front to the head commandant and he bent and he kissed his hand and the commandant said to this orderly what does this polish Pig wine and Maximilian says to die in his place to take his place why would you do that because I'm a priest and then remembering the whole ethic of the cab for work and I am also old and not as young as this man who can work in my place the commandant agreed and Maximilian Kolbe now taking it to the limit walked with nine other men stripped naked and thrown into the cold cell at the bottom of this block house to slowly starved to death but as the orderlies would testify later and as the German shoulders would say what kind of a priest is this we haven't found one like this before because he gathered them together and he talked about God's love and he moved them in songs and he moved them in prayer and and they in their particular starvation bunker they took on a serenity it was difficult yes but as they came in he'd be in the midst of them leading them through prayer assuring them of their conquests in their victory one by one they died and their body would be dragged out by the orderly who would later testify at the beatification in Cannon nation of Maximilian Kolbe until finally there were a couple left and coming in on August 14th there was one man his face aglow smiling with the victory and they had to inject him with the poison serum in order to kill him and Maximilian Kolbe went home to glory my brothers and sisters yes this is a horrible story but Maximilian never lost the fact that God loved him through that he was able to undergo the greatest tests known to appear our human being and smile and maintain the contentment to the end he said to his friars there are three stages of our life preparation apostolate and suffering as evilly as we've taken on the preparation of our life and as eagerly as we've taken on the apostolate let us take on the suffering and he did each day when he would talk to the prisoners right up to the end he'd say God will triumph this is God's will for us now we can make it through it but God loves us what happened to me that day no more complaints no more saying why did this have to happen why did that have to happen how is God's love I can't find God no no if Maximilian could last through this what is it in my life or yours that we can't walk through what is it that should that in any way should squash out our absolute conviction and embracing that God loves us what can be so that we can't pass through it we can do it brothers and sisters john paul ii has called us to this joy of conversion jesus said it's a peace the world cannot give a peace beyond understanding paul says rejoice in the Lord always in all circumstances rejoice that is the great gift of conversion that that we get the gift of God's love which is a peace and joy that conquers over anything even ausmus oh can we open our hearts and receive that grace God wants to give it to us as he gave it to Maximilian john paul ii is calling us as we're approaching the third millenium this is the year of conversion this is the last moments up until january in which he's saying repair as forgiveness he's running around he's asking for more forgiveness anybody I know he's asking the Jews for forgiveness he's asking the Protestants for forgiveness he's asking the Orthodox for forgiveness he's running around saying anyway we haven't treated you in love I'm sorry will you forgive us he is so confident of God's love and God's plan and he says starting in January we move into that year of Jesus the year of Jesus which is a year of faith which is a year to grow in faith concentrating on the one and only Savior Jesus the Lord and then we moved the next year into the year of the Holy Spirit a year of hope and he says the Holy Spirit's a source of our hope to the extent we receive the Holy Spirit in our hosta that extent we hope we don't hope because things go well we don't go hope because of the evening news we don't hope because of the talk shows of the columns in the newspapers we hope because we are men and women of faith who take the holy spirit in and let the Holy Spirit conquer in us so that we become men and women of peace and joy who can't be rattled by the circumstances who can't be rattled by the illusion and the third year will be the year of love the year of the Father and then John Paul says it's a jubilee he talks about in the year the father let's forgive everything you know he's not gonna command it but he's a you know sup some people are your money write it off he gives all sorts of examples to get ready for that great year of 2000 and the Jubilee celebrating it at Jerusalem celebrating it in wrong oh he is sure a man of hope his own book crossing the threshold of hope I say the students it's a sin not to read it well it's not exactly but anyhow I want to bring across the point to grab on to that spirit of hope and triumph that john paul ii as and why does he know it because he's a man of auschwitz he grew up there he visited there he's a man of oppression of the communists of the night of the germans he's a man who had to hide away he's a man who did his seminary training in a secret program hidden away in the under places of the Bishop's Palace he's a man who's had to stand up against authorities they wanted to threaten him and kill him and take his life away and abuse him he's been there he's walked the steps of Maximilian over and over again he knows that the Spirit of God can triumph that's a challenge isn't it next time someone says to you when things are going bad you believe God loves you you say he not only loves me but as long as I permit him he's going to conquer it through me over every circumstance of life over the illusions of power and prosperity failure rejection and the rest he's going to conquer in me so that with Paul I can stand up and shout to the world we are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus amen and amen [Applause]

Channel: Franciscan University of Steubenville

Views: 9,783

Keywords: Franciscan University, Steubenville, Ohio, Catholic, college, Franciscan University of Steubenville, Franciscan University of Steubenville (College / University), Fr. Michael Scanlan TOR, Fr. Mike, Mary Mercy and the Eucharist, Steubenville Conferences, conference, homily

Id: ItBy6XgLDXU

Length: 23min 16sec (1396 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 07 2017