Fr. Timothy Barr

1 Corinthians 10:14-33

Posted on by Fr. Timothy Barr

               There is an essential difference to the Eucharist and the worship of any other religion. Worship of the Eucharist is something God gave us at the Last Supper. The Passover has not been eradicated, but fulfilled in the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Therefore, it is the fulfillment of the once and for all sacrifice that is made present to us every day. The Eucharist fulfills the sacrifice that must be offered “perpetually” (Ex: 12: 14&17). The old form of worship has been renewed and brings new life and along with it, new graces. It is not just an ordering to the physical, but for the spiritual. The physical leads to the spiritual. Our worship has become whole and integrated, body and soul. “Is not the cup of blessing a sharing in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread we break a sharing in the body of Christ?” (v16). The blood is the blood that was shed on the cross and poured out of His heart when pierced.

               Therefore, our worship cannot be mixed with other foreign worship. Todays culture wants to mix and match different forms of worship to make up what we want. We shop around for what we like. The message of Jesus is appealing and many may call Jesus a good guy or may even call Him God, but do not want to worship as God designed it to be. But we worship God alone, and Him alone do we worship (Ex 20:1-6 & Lk 4:8). We do not go to palm readers, any form of astrology, Hinduism, Buddhism or use any tools of such things or the New Age. These would be directly opposed to faith in Jesus and therefore be an offense against Him. In short, any such thing would be a mortal sin. Evil spirits often attach themselves to such souls who invite them into their lives through such practices.

               Paul warns us, “You cannot take the cup of the Lord and of demons” (v21). It seems that many today have totally forgotten what it means to worship God.  How Jesus is really and truly present in what appears to be bread and wine, but in fact is no longer bread and wine, but the body and blood of Jesus. This is so true, that we can bend our knees before what looks to be bread and wine point to it and say with full heart, I worship you Son of the Most-High God! For the Bible tells me so. Jesus says, “this is my Body…this is my blood” (Lk 22:19&20). He does not say, a symbol of… If Jesus says it, then we believe it. It is not much of a leap to say that God became man to God became bread. He does whatever He wills. If this is the way He chooses to share with us His love as the fulfillment of the Passover, then so be it (Jn 6:68). How God chooses to be worshipped is how we worship. No other worship will do.

               Paul finishes the chapter with practical advice. Do not go looking to be offended or be scrupulous. What makes a sin a sin is that it is willed. We have to will to offend God. So when a person offers food, do not go into all the questions to make sure it is not food for false worship. Don’t look for the offense, but love your neighbor. Be hospitable and assume the best. If there are red flags, then you may want to be careful about spreading scandal to others. Not having your palms read can be a great witness for others when you say you will not come with.

Being scrupulous can also steal away the Joy of God in your heart. Living in fear that we could offend God is hardly what God intended. One of the things Jesus did for worship is take it from mere servitude and fulfilled it where God made Himself a gift to us. It is a renewal of the covenant relationship with God. God gives Himself totally to us as we give ourselves totally to God. The two become one in flesh, much like marriage, but better. God reveals Himself as He really is in His kindness, gentleness, humility, peace and joy. These attributes are not just attributes, they are essentials of who God is as our spouse in heaven. Marriage gives way to the reality of our calling to be united to God. If this is true, why would we go anywhere else? Only those who believe (Jn 6:47) can understand this. He fills us with what we need as we worship.  If we have God, we have everything we need (2 Thes 1:2). Do we trust in that?

Spiritual Bouquet for Our First Responders

Posted on by Fr. Timothy Barr

What is a spiritual bouquet? It is a promise to pray specific prayers for whom we say we are praying for. This particular Spiritual Bouquet is for our first responders in its many facets. These are our nurses, paramedics, police, firefighters, and all those who help save lives. We normally celebrate Mass for them, but since the COVID virus, we have not been able to do so.

The intentions for them can be for their safety, wisdom, their families, health, and in thanksgiving for their sacrifice and commitment to the community. Many people pray rosaries, chaplets, holy hours, other written prayers, bible readings, or even good works such as suggested by the corporal and spiritual works of mercy in honor of them. You can be as creative as you like. We will present all our prayers and works in a list. It is a way of asking Our Lord Jesus to fill them with the graces they need in this time of intense trial.

Please let us know by Sunday, August 2, what you are willing to offer for our first responders in prayers so that your prayers may be on the list and bring them hope. God bless them all!

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Posted on by Fr. Timothy Barr

Paul is reminding the people of God to remain humble and to stay out of sin. He reminds them
of how God saved them from slavery in Egypt. They passed through the Red Sea and left
Egypt, the land of slavery, behind. This crossing of the Red Sea was a prefigurement of our
baptism. “… By the cloud and the sea all of them were baptized into Moses” (v2). As it was
necessary to cross the Red Sea, so it is necessary for souls to cross the waters of baptism for
freedom from slavery. Baptism is necessary. But not just baptism. We need to follow Christ.
Practically speaking, we need to eat the food given by God. In the desert, they had manna and
quail. Today, we need the Bread of Life, the true spiritual food (v3) to help us in this desert of
life. Paul beckons back to the spiritual rock. He calls this rock Jesus, but what is the Old
Testament figure of this rock? It is the rock found in Exodus 17:1-7. Moses struck the rock and
God made water flow from the rock during the whole time in the desert. In the Old Testament,
Egypt is symbolic of our slavery to sin. The Red Sea is symbolic of baptism and our new life in
Jesus. The time God’s people spent in the desert is symbolic of our life here on earth with all
our doubts, distrust in God, and waywardness. I can’t imagine how many hours Moses and the
priests spent prostrating themselves and begging God to have mercy on His people. Crossing
the Jordan and entering the Promised Land is symbolic of us getting into our promised land,
heaven.
In the desert, God fed His people and gave them plenty to drink. But our drink here is the Blood
of Christ in the unbloody sacrifice of the altar. Jesus Christ is our rock that feeds His very self
today. The people of God brought the rock at Meribah with them wherever they went. Water
continued to flow from it to water all their animals and themselves. A single stone gave water for
all their needs. The Eucharist fills all our needs today. It brings hope. How good God is to us!
Yet some were not of good heart. They still intended to offend God. They were found not worthy
to receive such graces (v5). It is a reminder that we too remain in God’s graces; that we do not
intend to offend God and do the best we can to remain pure of heart. How we intend to use
God’s graces and interact with them plays a big part in our salvation. This is so important that
we do not take advantage of the Eucharist and make sure we do not receive the Eucharist with
mortal sin on our souls. Those who consciously persisted in sin “were struck down” (v5). They
never entered the Holy Land.
Paul notes it as an “example” (v6) to keep away from sin and keep our hearts pure. God was
with them and blessed them. They became prideful and were thinking that they were getting by
with something. But the snakes came and bit them (Num 21:6). We have a snake today that
bites us every time we sin. God does not make it happen; the devil does what the devil does. He
hates us and wants to cause us to suffer any way he can. It is the snake that bites us, not God.
At the heart of what Paul is getting at is false worship. This can take many forms. How many
things do we put before God and His ways? How much time do we spend with God? How much
time do we spend actively avoiding God? Some people actually do this. Paul even admits that
followers of Jesus were doing it: “arose to take their pleasure” (v7). They put pleasure above
God and so made it their worship. Whatever we put at the top in our life, we end up
worshipping. These are the snakes Paul is warning us of (v9). This is why it is so important to
make sure we go to confession often.

When was the last time you have been to confession? Jesus came to save us. He saved us
2000 years ago when He died on the cross for us. He saves us every day from our own sinful
inclinations, and we have hope He will give us His definitive salvation when we leave this earth.
He is so good to us. Why not go to confession today?

St Faustina’s Diary

Posted on by Fr. Timothy Barr

Listen, My daughter, although all the works that come into being by My will are exposed to great sufferings, consider whether any of them has been subject to greater difficulties than that work which is directly Mine — the work of Redemption. You should not worry too much about adversities. The world is not as powerful as it seems to be; its strength is strictly limited (Diary, 1643).

Love is Always a Proper Response

Posted on by Fr. Timothy Barr

I would have never thought I would have to write about prejudices or hate. I could write a book about why it is so bad, so to think that there are people today who embrace it as a way life is abhorrent. But as Catholics, we must still live the gospel message of salvation and love as God’s plan for us. We must persevere in holiness of life and continually offer mercy and forgiveness to those who are more than willing to take advantage of our and God’s generosity.

Prejudices can come from two perspectives. The first is one that has pure evil intent on suppressing another using whatever classification one needs to justify suppression. Slavery itself has been around almost since the time of Cain and Abel. Slavery is not a white, black, brown, religion, national or anything otherwise problem. It is a human problem. There will always be people who will want to take advantage of others by whatever means they can get by with. That is why it is so important that we have laws that are applied equally to all peoples that protect all peoples from injustice. Not only should the laws promote equality, there also needs to be a means by which the law is applied equally by governing bodies like the police. Without such a structure, justice cannot be obtained in humanities fallen state.  At the same time, there will be no perfect governing body. There will always be people who at least fall short of the goal of justice and there may be some who do not desire it at all. But that does not mean throwing away the justice system. Adjustments are good to make as we go, but the foundation of justice and its principles are always the same.

There is no place in the Catholic Church for such prejudices. The very word catholic means universal. This presumes that the Catholic Church was meant from its very inception by Jesus Christ that the hope of the Gospel message would be offered and accepted in “every tribe and nation” (Rev 7:9-10). God meant for all peoples to be able to respond to the salvation offered and receive the love of God. Every person is made in the image and likeness of God. We also need to be aware that since the Catholic Church is universal and therefore worldwide, it is called to love all peoples. We have such a limited view of the Church if we think merely of the concerns of whatever nation we are from. She prays even for her enemies as Christ did for us. This brings us to the second perspective from which prejudices flow.

It is part of fallen human nature to want to retaliate and do evil back to those who do evil to us or our loved ones. We can make a classification of others who have done the evil and then transpose it onto all people of that classification. But still, this falls short of the gospel message; the Way who is the very person of Jesus. How we react to prejudices cannot be responded with prejudices. Evil begets evil. This is the hardest part of being a Catholic Christian.

So what do we do? St Therese, the little flower, had a situation in the convent. She was ridiculed and demeaned by her very sisters in the convent. What she found is that tolerating them was not easy or good enough. As long as she tried to tolerate, she found the situation difficult. It became easier to choose to do good for the ones who caused her so much suffering. It required energy and strength to love them. The energy she spent made her committed. In that way, she overcame the temptation to do evil back. In choosing to love, she found joy and peace. The anger dissipated by making a commitment to go all the way to love. Love begets love. In her commitment to love, she became fruitful in ways unexpected. We can know about the evil someone has intended for us, but that does not mean not loving them is the answer. Rather, when we will the good, there is an opportunity that actual goodness happens. Let your goodness shine!  – Father Barr