Deacon Tom Anthony

MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS,

Whatever circumstances we find ourselves in Jesus will be there is show us a path through it. We must remember that nothing is impossible with God. As Christians, we are encouraged to give everything over to God. There can be no compromise to this. If we truly believe that there is a God and He has an influence in our lives then we must surrender to Him. Through this act of surrendering, all that we encounter, all that we endure will come into perspective. God will guide us and He will crush anything that becomes an obstacle to our relationship with Him.

Jesus in the Gospel Reading today sends us a message: all of us have sinned and it is only through him that we can receive the forgiveness and love necessary for us to experience the joy of a relationship with him. We are all broken. We all are lost without Jesus in our lives. Many of us have wandered aimlessly for years while we tried to find the answer to joy in our lives. Yet, the answer has been in front of us all of time. We need to recognize that we are completely helpless to the snares and worldly allures that society offers us if we do not recognize who Jesus Christ is: Our Savior and Our Lord.

God has continuously made us a promise. He has never diverted from this and it continues today through the revelations of Sacred Scripture: He makes the way and provides everything that we need to achieve inexplicable joy and contentment. We do not need to wait until Final Judgment or some other allotted time. We can receive everything that we need, want, and desire right now. The only ones who want us to wait and procrastinate in this recognition of God and His love for us is Satan. The more time we take, the more time Satan has to create the cracks in our foundation of faith that will then lead to our demise.

Envision the woman accused of adultery lying before the feet of Jesus. She was thrown there by those who judged her for what she had done while ignoring their own sins. So quick are other people to judge and condemn. Meanwhile Jesus states the obvious: everyone is a sinner and is undeserving of redemption. It is only through the Love of Jesus Christ that we can all be forgiven and go forward to with him to repair our relationship with God. Everyone is equal in this respect. No one can claim to be above another in this respect. We all are Brothers and Sisters through and in Jesus Christ.

When we live our lives through and with the message of God there will be a fundamental change in the way that we perceive things. All the clutter and debris that has blurred our vision to the Path of Truth will be pushed aside. The Truth will be revealed and made known to us. As we progress towards the Easter Joy, bearing our crosses and walking with him to Calvary, we always need to keep in mind that with Jesus there will always be the Easter Joy beyond all of our pain and suffering. He will always be there

Deacon Tom