As we journey together during this Holy Week we remember the fullness of mercy that is professed from the table of blessing on Holy Thursday to the cross of Good Friday and the silence filling the world until Easter morning when all creation breaks forth in the great Hallelujah of salvation.

We also acknowledge as we enter into these holy days the sadness and tragedy that surrounds us with the terrorist attacks in Belgium and Turkey, the murder of the four Sisters of Charity and their companions in Yemen as well as the many other acts of violence that intrude upon the world. But we also recognize through these terrible and horrible actions against civilization the true need of faith and most importantly for we who believe in the truth and belief of the Incarnation in the wonder of God becoming man to suffer and die for our sins so that we may discover the peace of reconciliation over and against the violence of vengeance.

It is here that we look to the cross and the promise of resurrection. Jesus, who confronted the violence and hatred of sin, invites us to follow him through the Paschal Mystery of his life, death and resurrection. During the past 40 days of our Lenten journey we have been challenged to transform and renew our faith in God as we prayed, fasted and sought to give in generosity the of love in the alms of our time, talent and treasure.

Pope St. John Paul II wrote, “We are witnesses. Witnesses of a shining faith; of an active, patient and kindly charity; of a service for the many forms of poverty experienced by contemporary humanity. Witnesses of the hope that does not disappoint and of the deep communion that reflects the life of God, of the Trinity, of obedience, and of the Cross. In short, witnesses of holiness, people of Beatitudes, called to be perfect as the Heavenly Father is perfect.” (#11, Lessons for Living)

John Paul II describes perfectly our Easter faith where we are called to be living witnesses of Jesus Christ. The invitation to be active and patient in reaching out and sharing the joy of the Gospel as we enter into the many forms of poverty but especially the poverty of hatred and violence that consumes so many of our brothers and sisters. The Cross of Jesus Christ calls us reach out in hope and to trust in the justice and mercy of God’s love.

To be a witness of holiness, we choose to live the Works of Mercy and the Beatitudes of love that heal and join us once more in the great communion of love. As servants of grace and mercy we choose to live and work within the generous will of God. God, who in the gift of his son Jesus Christ, chooses to place himself into our hands, not that we might manipulate him, rather that we choose to hold him as a light, the beacon that leads us into a deeper and fuller union of love. The light we hold forth is the Cross of Salvation. In the coming days let us all embrace this cross: the tree of life, the cross of truth where proclaim, “Hallelujah He is Risen! Truly He is Risen! Hallelujah!”

God Bless

Fr. Mark.

This 6^th Sunday of Lent, Palm Sunday, we hear the Gospel of Jesus triumphant entrance into Jerusalem proclaimed followed quickly by the Passion. It is the quick succession of the joy of hope followed by seeming defeat and despair, which catches us off guard in our lives. This month we have been looking more deeply into the Spiritual Work of Mercy, Admonish the Sinner, and how we are called to do so in mercy and love. For we who believe that the suffering and death of our Lord Jesus Christ has destroyed the power of sin and death through the triumph of the Cross-, it is only natural that we see the Passion, the life, death and resurrection of our Lord as the ultimate and perfect act of admonishing the sinner in mercy, justice and love.

Throughout our Lenten journey we have been walking the way of the cross with Jesus. He has been calling out to us to participate with him in his works of mercy as he carries his cross for the forgiveness of our sins. He asks us to walk with him, to look upon him and to be with him in his gift of mercy and forgiveness so that we may share this gift with others.

How does this work in our lives? When we come to realize that the work of mercy is not an act of violence, retribution or revenge but rather the healing and invitation back into the community we are able to begin to recognize moments in our lives where we have participated in “admonishing the sinner” on both sides of the work of mercy. Jesus’ carrying of the cross is an act of healing and mercy as he accepts the harshness of those around him as he continually reaches out in love and forgiveness to each of us.

We are all called to carry our cross. Jesus commands us to follow his example, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.“ (Lk 9:23) At times these are crosses we gladly accept and at others they are not.

When I was a sixth grade teacher, most days, I gladly accepted the cross of the 30+ boys and girls given to my care. It was a time of give and take and great learning of humility and accepting my failures that were often (too) gladly pointed out by the children charged to me.

If you have ever visited my office the words “Mark Arnzen and neat organization” have never been used in the same sentence. My principal at St. Lawrence Middle School commented often on my need to move from “messy organization” into the world “organization”…not even “neat organization” just not the sense of chaos on my desk. The students would often point this shortcoming out to me as I talked with them about keeping their desks, binders, backpacks etc.…in some semblance of order. And they were correct. Their challenge became a moment of grace and healing where I began to not settle for the “normal” and began to stretch myself to find the “organization” that relieved stress and helped me be a better teacher and showed the students the value of kindly correction.

Matthew Kelly, in his book Rediscover Jesus, sets forth this challenge as he asks us to consider, “What are your three most frequent sins?” (p 156) They do not need to be large or grave, just those things that keep us away from God and being the best person we can be this day. When we recognize the “sin” we are invited to look out and see how others are calling you to change, “admonishing the sinner,” to return in mercy and love, in doing so we take up our cross and follow him into his kingdom of blessing and peace unified in mercy and love.

God Bless

Fr. Mark

This past week was a banner week for me for many reasons. One of the biggest reasons was the amount of good soccer on display. The San Jose Earthquakes began the season with a win and between the wonderful match between Dortmund and Bayern Munich in Germany and the slate of English games on Saturday and Sunday my cup was overflowing. Add to that the smell of spring training in the air and I can honestly say…God is very good.

One of the most interesting parts of the games this weekend were the four players, in four important games, that were sent off with two yellow cards. Three of them were early in the first half of play and the fourth very early in the second half. For the non-soccer people…two yellows equal a red and when a player is sent off they are not replaced so effectively one team plays with one less player for the amount of time remaining in the game. You may at this point ask…where are we going with this? Good question…Admonish the Sinner. In particular Kevin Mirallas from Everton who was sent off with a second yellow after only 34 minutes. Everton did a heroic job with 10 against 11 until the death when West Ham scored the winner in the 90^th minute.

How do you admonish such a sinner? Well, first there is the anger stage: how stupid do you have to be to make such a silly second yellow card offense. There is disbelief and frustration that the game is over, done and doom and gloom descends. But then you see the team pulling together and increasing their lead to 2-0 and there is hope as you begin to forgive him and are proud of the effort on display that slips into “Ohhhhh noooooo!!! Here we go again!!!” as the goals begin to leak in and you loose 2-3. And yes there is the frustration and disappointment that comes with losing. What do you do then? You notice that it’s Everton v. Chelsea in the FA Cup quarterfinal this weekend and begin focusing on the next game.

I know this has been a long winding introduction to the Spiritual Work of Mercy: Admonish the Sinner and I hope it is worth it. Often times when we are immediately confronted with the effects of sin we can feel the anger and disappointment and ask how such a thing could happen. We see the wreckage left by sin and all the work that we must do to try and hold on to the healing holiness of God that we often fall into the trap of getting stuck in the moment and trapped by not choosing to look forward and towards life and God.

God’s desire for us is that we heal and move forward. Yes, I will remember the foolishness of Mirallas’ fouls and that this yellow card may have cost Everton a win, but if I hold on to this for too long I will loose sight of the next blessing to come and fail to enjoy the gift of grace given by God. Maybe the soccer analogy is a little strained, but admonishing the sinner calls for us to recognize and correct the sin in the moment and then move forward in the joyful hope that through forgiveness and reconciliation the sinner may once more choose to enter into the community of grace and participate fully in the life of God’s holy people. It is choosing to recognize that even with the effects of sin surrounding us, if we have eyes to see and ears to hear, we will continue to experience God’s blessing as abundant and generous. We admonish with love because, as disciples of the one, true and living God, we know the fullness of life in and through the reconciliation given freely through the cross of Jesus Christ. In other words…I forgive you Kevin, please don’t do something so stupid again…let’s play the next game. Go Everton

God bless

Fr. Mark

The first two months of this year we have focused on three Corporal Works of Mercy: Clothing the Naked, Feeding the Hungry and Visiting the Sick. This month we are focusing on one of the Spiritual Works of Mercy: (#3) Admonish the Sinner. This can sound a bit harsh and can at times, if we are not careful in our work of mercy, be mean spirited. In reality this work of mercy, admonishing the sinner, is one of the greatest acts of love that we can share in our lives because “there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.“ (Lk 15:7) and “remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.“ (Jms 5:20)

In our work of mercy we are invited to seek the correction of friendship, a correction of love of the other lived and shared in example that grows blessing through grace. And it is not so difficult to understand because in truth we admonish and correct one another all the time, it is just doing it in mercy and charity that we often fail.

The first step is to recognize what sin is before we correct it. Working from the basic definition from the Catechism of the Catholic Church “Sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience; it is failure in genuine love for God and neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods. It wounds the nature of man and injures human solidarity. It has been defined as “an utterance, a deed, or a desire contrary to the eternal law.” (CCC 1849) Sin is when we choose to act in a manner contrary to the person God created us to be. Sin always causes a break in relationship, a loss of trust, and a loss of confidence in the goodness of the other in our life. When we choose to sin, we choose to bring harm into our relationships. And how do we admonish the sinner in a broken moment of trust? First and foremost we recognize that sin is always connected to mercy, “The Gospel is the revelation in Jesus Christ of God’s mercy to sinners.“(CCC 1846)

And with Jesus as our guide we can go to those small simple moments for the greatest lessons in our faith journey. We begin all good relationships with acts of kindness. Theses acts may grow into enduring love where the other becomes the blessing of life. As a priest this is my relationship with the Church that I promise at ordination. It is the gift of obedience and prayer in which love is sustained and grows in chaste and holy interactions with God’s people. I, the sinner, am admonished when I receive the corrective blessing of love from the Body of Christ (you) in the midst of sin. An example of this was when during a meeting I said words with a harshness that demeaned another member of the committee. It was the wrong thing to do (a sin) and with a warning look from a friend and fraternal words of correction, words that were stern and yet loving, the ability to seek forgiveness and move forward was shared rather than let to fester and grow in divisiveness.

To admonish the sinner is more about loving, mercy and forgiveness than it is about punishment and retribution. It is the parent correcting a child, wiping the tears in comfort and then encouraging them to do better. It is the teacher who marks the errors with the red ink and shows a different path of seeking the right and good. It is the brother and sister who live the example of faith, love and holiness to the sibling who has chosen deceit and hurt seeking healing and blessing in the family.

It is the actions of our Lord that we will hear from the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (LK 23:34) Hearing the words of truth that echo throughout time and place as we seek the face of love in Jesus Christ in one another.

God Bless

Fr. Mark