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	1st Reading
	Psalm
	2nd Reading
	Gospel
	Written Transcript of Homily
	Footnotes

The second reading today brings up a kind of problem for us in the Church.

Philip went down into the city of Samaria and he proclaimed the Messiah to them.

With one accord the crowds paid attention to what was said by Philip.

When they heard it and saw the signs he was doing.

You’ll notice the word is “signs” that’s very important in what I want to share with you.

Doesn't say they saw the miracles he was doing, it says the signs he was doing.

Because uncleaned spirits screaming out in a loud voice came out of many possessed people.

And many paralyzed or cripple people were cured, there was great joy in the city.

And the problem with this, is it’s the problem with miracles.

It’s a huge problem.

We look at the scriptures and the scriptures are filled with....

Well - - - supernatural power.

And this has been a problem with many people over the years....

Because well, if that happened in the apostolic times....

If that happened to Peter and Paul, where is it now?

You hear about an occasional miracle.

This has been a problem over the years.

For instance Martin Luther, five hundred years ago....

The fonder, essentially, the beginner of the Protestant Reformation.

He came up with an idea that he found in St. Augustin.

That St. Augustin had believed but St. Augustin had stopped believing it.

That well, there’s something called ? ? ? ?, God works one way in a certain period of history, and another way in another.

There was the ? ? ? ? of the gospel.

And then there was the ? ? ? ? of the Church

Then there will be a ? ? ? ? in the end times.

And Martin Luther believed that with the death of the last apostle, miracles ceased.

The scripture says, “hat when the perfect comes the imperfect with pass away.”

Well... the bibles perfect, so the miracles passed away.

And he looked at Catholic belief in miracles, as really ? ? ? ?, that was just hocus pocus.

And this problem continues in the lives of many people because it’s a real question.

If God worked that way then, why doesn't He work that way now?

And well... St. Augustin, he was one of the first people to comment on that.

And he talked about ? ? ?, and then something awful happened in his Diocese....

There was a shrine of a martyr, the martyrs tomb....

And people started to get healed at the shrine.

And then so St. Augustin changed his mind.

And realized that God doesn't work in ? ? ? ?, 

God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.

And God works miracles.

God does work miracles.... I’ve seen enough of them to believe that He does.

Discreet

For instance, a few months ago was shown a video of the life of Padre Pio....

Some of you think came to see that.

And Padre Pio, he lived in... he died in the 1960's.

I know people who went to visit him.

And he was the priest in southern Italy who had the marks of Christ in his hands and side.

Well, I remember hearing a story about Padre Pio....

That in the second world war, for some reason....

The Americans decided that ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 

Where Padre Pio’s monastery and hospital were, was his discreet target.

And they were gonna bomb it.

The plane will take off full of bombs, go and aim at ? ? ? ? ? ? 

And come back with their bombs not haven been dropped....

Because the people on the plane said, 

“Well, there’s a monk standing on the clouds, waving for us to go away.”

And of course  the commanding officer thought that was ridiculous.

So the commanding officer went with them. 

And sure enough he saw a monk on the clouds.

Waving... the plane away.

Now that sounds like an absolute fairy tale....

Well - - - I believe it.

Not simply because I heard it or read it.

But because I remember a man who became a Catholic....

I gave him instructions in the faith....

And his cousin was on the team that loaded the bombs on the plane.

And he said sure enough the plane came back everyday full of bombs.

And finally they just gave up on it.

It sounds like an absolute fairy tale....

But it happened.

And Padre Pio’s life was filled with miracles.

You read the stories of other saints... full of miracles.

Why?

The question isn’t “why doesn’t it happen now”, 

that isn’t the question, “Why doesn’t it happen to me.”

If God heals the sick why doesn’t He heal me?

Most of us are looking for a miracle in our lives for the wrong reason.

Some of it was really really telling, a movie about Padre Pio, Padre Pio’s father is dying, and he has been estranged from the faith... 

And he was brought back to the faith, and he was dying, and he said to his son, “I’m scared. I’m scared to die.”

He said, “Can’t you ask God?”

And he looked at him, his son Padre Pio, he shook his head and said, “Papa, He never gives me anything.”

That was fascinating to me.

That this man who healed the sick and demonstrated such miracles power in our times, modern times, could not receive nothing for himself or for His own God.

And I think that’s a very important, very important thing.

Because in the second reading, or rather the first reading

Remember I said, pay attention to this, 

“When they saw the signs”

Well... what is a sign?

Think about it.

A stop sign.

The bible doesn’t so much talk about miracles.....

Talks about signs and wonders.

What’s a stop sign?

A stop sign has meaning.

It says something.

And all of the miracles of God....

Whether they happen in biblical times or they happen now....

In a certain sense, God speaking.

And the truth is.... God wants to tell you something.

Now I don’t want God to tell me something.

I want God to make my life easier.

I don’t want God to upset my life....

I want God to make my life better.

And this is one of the hardest things to really lay hold of in the Christian faith.

Think about the apostles.

Peter and John and Paul.

Peter walked into the temple and there was a lame man.

And he was begging for money and Peter said:

“silver and gold we do not have - - - but we do have we give. 

In the name of Jesus of Nazareth - - - Stand up and walk.”

And that man stood up and walked.

Boy that would be great.

Well, look at the life of Peter.

What happened to Peter?

Peter never had a quiet day after Pentecost.

He lived in life on the road and died a martyrs death.

All the disciples, except for St. John, at least according to tradition, died violent deaths.

If God had worked so many miracles through them.....

Couldn’t he have worked a miracle for them?

The saying is true with Jesus.

Jesus would raise the dead, was crucified, and the crowds shouted at Him:

“If you were the son of God, come down from that cross.”

Yes there He stayed.

And they say:

“He who cures others can do nothing for Himself.”

This is a very, very difficult thing to understand in our faith.

Now... different approach to it.

The Hebrew people lived and died....

But their lives centered on the temple.

And in 70 A.D. the temple was destroyed.

And this was a great problem....

Because the temple was where sacrifice was offered.

It was the place where you were reconciled from God....

Through the sacrifice of animals.

And the Romans destroyed the temple 70 A.D.

About 70 years after the birth of Christ.

And the question that rose among the Jews....

"How can you be a Jew without the temple?”

And the Pharisees came up with this idea....

“the most important thing about Judaism is it’s moral and ethical component. “

Now it’s spiritual component.

Because you see....

To offer sacrifice in a temple presumes there is a spiritual world.

That there is a God who is unseen, to whom in some way, these sacrifices were given.

So when you weren’t able to give sacrifices anymore.

What was left?

The moral and ethical content of Judaism. 

My friend Rabbi ? ? ?? Pointed out to me that Catholics in a way are a throw back.

Because we believe in Sacrifice, the sacrifice of the mass.

And he is absolutely correct.

You know what we have done, and we do in our lives, because it’s easy.

We reduce Christianity to it’s moral and ethical component.

I know this is a little ? ? ? , 

So bare with me - - - this is a kind of a new idea for me....

So I’m kind of working it out.... experimenting it on you.

But what is Christianity about?

It’s about being good... 

Following the rules...

And going to Church on Sunday...

And yet we forget that there is a supernatural element to the Christian faith.

And fact is the supernatural reality isn’t even an element.

It’s the substance of our faith. 

We will kneel in a few minutes and....

Somehow believe that bread will become flesh and blood.

The world thinks that’s crazy.

But all of our worship is built around something unseen and supernatural.

And the miracles of God are signs of that reality.

God wants to speak.

And you know, miracles very, very inconvenient. 

I believe this is why in our own life we don’t see miracles.

I don’t want new life, I want the old life made better.

You follow what I mean?

The bible talks about new life, Pentecost....

The feast we’re about to celebrate is a feast of new life.

“I don’t  really want a new life...."

"I want my old life to be made a little bit easier...."

"With a little more money and less arthritis. “

But God doesn’t do that....

He gives us new life.

And new life can be very difficult.

Miracles, believe me, make life more difficult.

One example, I remember... I was much younger....

An icon at the Albanian Orthodox church on ? ? ?? 

Across from the brick yard shopping mall, began to weep.

And not just weep.

They had to put buckets under this thing.

It was really something....

It just wept.... and wept.... and wept.

And of course people were coming from... Nebraska and ? ? ? to see this thing.

They were lines outside the church.

And being a priest... when I went in to see this wonder...

Well, I was invited, you know Greek churches set up a ? ? ? ? 

Where you have an icon stance....

Where you can barely see the alter....

And it was kind of a grill work.

And I went behind and I looked....

And this weeping icon was just a little square piece of wood....

Put in a frame where you could see through.

It was a grill.

And I thought.. If this a fake this is a really good one....

I don’t see how they’re doing this.

And as I left, I looked at the pastor, the man looked like death ? ? ?  Over.

And I looked at him and I said:

“I bet this has made your life tough.”

And he shook his head and looked at me and said:

“This was the worst day of my life when this happened.”

He didn’t get a night sleep....

Middle in the night there would be people knocking at the rectory door....

“We’re here from Minnesota, we wanna see the icon.”

He didn’t have a minutes piece until that icon stopped weeping.

I remember... 

I’m trying to make this short....

But this was funny is a very story.

I remember when I was at St. Thomas....

This will tell you what kind of a pastor you have....

We had a statue of the lady of Fatima, and the ? ? ? ? community....

It belonged to them. 

They made a beautiful shrine, it was like a ? ? ? ?, it was lovely.

And they put dramatic lighting in....

And I was at the sacristy and I heard a little buzz out in the back.

And a lot of the Mexican church members....

The Spanish, the ? ? ? were lookin’ and pointin’

The housekeeper, Margarita, ran to the sacristy, she said:

“The statue of our lady is weeping.”

I thought, oh no...

And I went back and looked....

And there was actually a little bump in the plaster....

And the change of the lighting had caused shadow....

And I looked and scratched and said:

“Nope. Just a bump in the plaster.”

Nothing here to see.

And the housekeeper, she’s a wonderful godly woman, after said:

“You stopped the Blessed Mother crying”

And I said, “That’s a good thing!”

That’s what kind of pastor you have.

But, can you understand what I mean?

A miracle is inconvenient....

Because it means God has absolute sovereign to you.

That this is all real.

You look at the life of Padre Pio....

And his entire life was a wrestling match with the devil.

And it hurt to walk because he had holes in his feet.

C.S Lewis put in the words of the Devil, about prayer:

“There’s such a thing as getting more than you bargained for.”

Most of you here are parents - - - those of you who aren’t are children.

And you have all experienced this I bet once --- one way in another.

On Christmas... 

under the tree, has a pile of beautifully wrapped packages and presents....

They’re lovely....

You spend hours wrapping them.....

And hiding them.....

And you spends hours working overtime trying to buy them.

Cheap plastic junk that you’re children had to have because they saw it on television.

Christmas morning they run down the stairs....

And in thirty seconds....

Those hours of work wrapping those packages....

Looks like a bomb had hit it.

And they look at you and say:

“Is there anything else?”

And later on in the evening they say:

“Can we go over to Jimmy’s house? He got some really neat stuff.”

You wanna strangle ‘em...

Well, that’s who we are.

You as parents know what those presents mean.

You gave your time and your sweat.

Time you will never get back.

Working the overtime.

Wrapping the packages, getting it all ready.

You were giving those children yourself.

The kids didn’t want yourself - - - they wanted stuff - - - didn’t they?

They wanted stuff.

No, later they grew up and understood....

Those presents were the gift of your love.

And we as Christians grow up and we realize that God loves us.

And His desire isn’t to give us stuff - - - but to give us Himself.

That’s the faith that works miracles.

When we commend our lives completely....

And unstintingly to the love of God, when we say:

“Father, whatever you want.”

There is great power in prayer.

When we learn to intercede in the needs of others.

But my prayers are always about me and mine.

I need - - - I want.

For me and for those close to me.

And when I take my eyes off myself and lift them to God....

A and realize He is all in all.

And He can use me in a channel of His grace and power.

Miracles... happen everyday.

They’re all around us.

And we have the power to work miracles by the presence of God’s Holy Spirit in us.

But... we need to understand....

That what God wants to give us is not just a convenient life....

And not just the wealth and the prosperity that our country demands.....

Not even in the health that we envy.

What God wants to give us is His love - - - which is eternal.

So let us here at St. Lambert's pray to take God and His Word....

And understand that He loves us more than we can understand.

Our situation may be difficult....

We may suffer tragedy.....

But God gives us Himself....

And He wants us to use His power for the betterment of which we live.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.