The Gospel is from St. Matthew 13:1-23. Christ's description of His audience, that day in Galilee, is unfortunately as true today as it was then. His message of salvation has been preached to a great part of the world's population, but the proportion of those who accept it and live up to it, is about the same today as it was then. There are millions of men and women today, in what was once Christian Europe, who are like the seed sown on the unplowed path. They refuse to accept the message, they have no thought for their future, they are content to end in the grave after their few years of misery and hardship on this planet.

Long before any thought of a pandemic, the Diocese of Honolulu and the Hawaii Catholic Conference offered sessions last fall on our Catholic Advance Healthcare Directive (AHCD). In those sessions, we had several questions on POLST and offered inconsistent answers. To remedy this, we have prepared the attached Catholic Moral Guide to Completing the POLST (attached). For more information on POLST, go to Kokua Mau’s website. https://kokuamau.org/polst/

Elections in 2020 are going to be very different!  Gone are the days when you go to ballot booth.  Now, whether or not you like it, the ballot comes to you.  To find out how that is going to work, you can watch the video (at right) produced by the Office of Elections.  In order to ensure that as many people vote as possible, we wanted to provide you with a few reminders.  First and foremost, (1) make sure that you are registered to vote.  You should have received a few mailings already from the Office of Elections including a signature capture card.  (2) Hopefully you received, and returned, that signature capture card.  (We can talk about security and safety at another time, but know that we have our concerns.) If you did NOT receive anything in the mail, please contact the Office of Elections directly.

The Gospel is from St. Matthew 11:25-30. Pagans and Jews had the same hardships of life to face as we have, and even greater ones. They earned their daily bread by the sweat of their brow and body. Their illnesses were more frequent and less bearable than ours, for they had not the medical help that we have. Death came to young and old then as it does now, but for them it was a final parting from loved ones, and no hope of a future happy meeting served to lighten their sorrow. All their crosses were crushing weights, sent to make life more miserable. Life on earth was passed in gloom and darkness and there was no shining star in the heavens to beckon them on or give them hope.

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The Gospel is from St. Matthew 10:37-42. In the first part, Christ tells his representatives, his delegates the Apostles, and those who succeed them, that they must be prepared to undergo great sacrifices, even death itself, if called on to do so for the sake of Christ. It was not only the Apostles who gave their lives gladly for Christ. There are thousands of martyrs who, during the first three centuries of the Church, not only accepted but welcomed death for Christ's sake, because they were convinced that it was the door to eternal life, the only life that mattered. Nor did occasions for martyrdom cease when the Church was granted freedom by Constantine, the first convert Roman emperor. Here and there, down through the centuries, the followers of Christ have been persecuted because of their belief in him, and many of us can be proud that we have had among our ancestors men and women who died for the faith.

The Gospel is from St. Matthew 10:26-33. What our Lord said to His Apostles applies to all Christians in the practice of their faith. By the very fact of living our faith openly and fully we are apostles by example. If we are always truthful and faithful to our promises, if we are honest in all our dealings, if as employers we pay a just wage and treat those working for us not as "hands" but as whole men and women, if as employees we give an honest day's work for an honest day's pay, if we live chaste lives whether in single life or in marriage, we are true Christians. Above all, if we have true love of God and show our appreciation of all that he has done for us, and if we prove that love, by helping his other children, our neighbors, we are a light shining in the darkness, because we are helping others to see the true meaning of the Christian religion.

Today is Corpus Christi, the Feast of the Body and Blood of Jesus. The Eucharist is the source and summit of our lives as followers of Jesus. The Eucharist calls and binds us together as disciples of Jesus. The Eucharist feeds, nurtures and nourishes us. As the gospel today tells us, ‘the bread that I shall give is my flesh for the life of the world’. Jesus does not mean this as some general comment about the world ‘out there’. The Body and Blood that Jesus offers is given as his flesh for each of us personally and intimately; for you and for me. Perhaps, ironically, these days have strengthened our sense of belonging, community and of being connected to each other. We are connected to each other as we share in Mass and other prayers online, through the radio and on our televisions. These can never be a substitute for being physically together as a faith community.

Why is this feast celebrated at this particular time? It may be interpreted as a finale to all the preceding feasts. All three Persons contributed to and shared in the work of redemption. The Father sent His Son to earth, for "God so loved the world as to give His only-begotten Son." The Father called us to the faith. The Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, became man and died for us. He redeemed us and made us children of God. He ever remains the liturgist par excellence to whom we are united in all sacred functions. After Christ's ascension the Holy Spirit, however, became our Teacher, our Leader, our Guide, our Consoler. On solemn occasions a thanksgiving Te Deum rises spontaneously from Christian hearts.

A HAPPY AND BLESSED BIRTHDAY! PENTECOST is the birthday of the Church! Let us rejoice and be glad! As promised by our Risen Lord, and out of His great love, He gave us the Holy Spirit who remains always with us. Someone said that the Holy Spirit is the Present Tense of God! As the whole world still suffers from the corona virus, through the eyes of our faith, we are seeing and experiencing how the Holy Spirit is actively present in assurance that God never leaves us. Through His Spirit, the Lord teaches us lessons on living our gospel values and virtues especially in the very concrete situations in which we find ourselves. Thanks be to God for the reopening of our Churches this Pentecost Sunday.

Please watch these three important videos on Faithful and Safe Guidelines for Returning to Church from our Diocese of Honolulu.

The Gospel is from John 16:16-20. Jesus said to His disciples: "A little while and you will no longer see me, and again a little while later and you will see me." What a promise! These words must have brought them a great deal of comfort. Of course, they did see Jesus again when He appeared to them in the upper room.

Peace be with you! Those are the words of the risen Jesus as he breathed out the Holy Spirit upon his Apostles, sending them out in the power of the Spirit to proclaim that He is risen from the dead, and is always with us. Just as the Apostles encountered Jesus physically in the Upper Room on the night of the Resurrection, we encounter him physically in the Holy Eucharist. Now that it has been deemed safe for us to gather again in our churches to physically encounter the risen Lord in Holy Communion, we rejoice that the Spirit will open the way for us once again. Our gathering for the Eucharist after so long a time without being able to celebrate together, while it will be a joyful event, will also have restrictions, because we want to be sure that all who attend are kept as safe as possible from infection. After consulting with the Priests’ Council, it was decided that, while the parishes are not ready to open this coming weekend, we will open for public worship the weekend of May 30/31, which is Pentecost Sunday.

The Gospel is from St. John 14:15-21. In this discourse at the Last Supper, which was His last will and testament, our divine Lord promised His Church, through the Apostles, that the Holy Spirit would be with it until the end of time. The Spirit of truth will be directing it and effectively aiding it to preserve the faith, the doctrine, and the morals which Christ taught His Apostles.

"Do not let your hearts be troubled." (John 14:1) Be at peace, Jesus said. Don't be afraid. It's the most common command in the Gospels. Much of the time, Jesus says it when the disciples catch a glimpse of His glory. Think about His transfiguration, or when He walked on water. But this time, Jesus reassures them because He is leaving. They were used to having Him walk with them in one way, but once He was gone, He'll be with them in a new way. Jesus wanted His friends to know that even though He would not be with them in bodily form, He wasn't really leaving them alone. He would be with them through the Holy Spirit living inside them. He would be with them in His Eucharistic presence. He would be present in their brothers and sisters in the faith. They just needed to learn to see Him in a different way.

The Gospel is from St. John 10:1-10. One of the oldest paintings of Christ, in the Roman catacombs, represents Christ as carrying the injured, straying sheep gently on His shoulders back to the sheepfold. This is an image of Christ which has always appealed to Christians. We have Christ as our shepherd—He tells us so himself in today's gospel—and we do not resent being called sheep in this context. There is something guileless about a sheep, but with Christ as our shepherd and the "good shepherd" who is sincerely interested in the true welfare of His flock, we have reason to rejoice.

The Gospel is from St. Luke 24:13-35. The two disciples from Emmaus are to be found, along their journey, talking to "Jesus in person, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him" (Lk 24:16). Why did the Lord not tell the disciples straight away who He was? Indeed, in the dialogue that the liturgy presents to us today, it almost seems that Jesus did all He could to avoid revealing His true identity. At the end of the journey, "He made to go on" (Lk 24:28). Jesus didn’t want to play games with His disciples, but He sought to educate their hearts, and also ours, so that we won’t be " slow’!"  The Risen Lord uses so much gentleness with us! He doesn’t oblige us to "believe" but He offers us the instruments that enable us to judge based on the infallible measure of our own hearts.

Grace and Peace in our Risen Lord!   Today is the eighth and final day of the Octave of Easter.  On this grace-filled day we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday.  The Lord Jesus told Saint Faustina “On that day (the 8th day of Easter each year) all the divine floodgates through which grace flow are opened. Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet.  My mercy is so great that no mind, be it of man or of angel, will be able to fathom it throughout all eternity.”  At this time of the corona virus pandemic gripping the whole world, and the costs to human lives and the economy are rising, who would not want to experience the super abundance of this Divine gift of mercy that God wants to pour forth upon us?

My dear Brothers and Sisters in the Risen Lord: Needless to say, Brothers and Sisters, these are devastatingly difficult times in which we live, the rising human and economic costs of COVID 19 virus throughout the world. We are getting used to words like lockdown, social distancing, shelter in place, quarantine, curfew, etc. The reality we are in today presents us with new challenges on how to live a lively faith, in solidarity of heart and mind with all the people in the world. We are concretely living the other aspect of being Church, that of communion of saints sans being physically gathered. The Holy Spirit makes it possible for we are members of the corporate Body of the Risen Christ.

Today we begin Palm Sunday listening to the story of Jesus being welcomed into Jerusalem with great joy and exultation! "Hosanna!" they cried out. "Hosanna in the Highest!" Jesus was treated as He should have been treated. People were excited to see Him and there was much excitement. But this excitement quickly turned to shock and horror as we enter more deeply into today's readings.