Dear Friends,     
                                                  Shepherd, Sheep, and Strangers

The Good Shepherd calls his sheep by name. The stranger’s voice also calls the sheep to himself. The sheep paying close attention listen for and follow the voice of the good shepherd and disregard the attractive but misleading voice of the stranger. Our world is like a marketplace of competing voices. These mercantile-like voices can be compared to the honey-sweet voice of Homer’s Odyssey singing Sirens, enticing us to purchase various items shoved in our faces. What products do these voices call us to buy? Lies and death, packed in shimmering boxes held together by golden strings. Don’t be mesmerized by the sweet coated tongues of these slimy sirens as Odysseus’ men were before being tricked to their peril by the irresistible singing voices of the mythical Sirens. The voice of the enemy-strangers, the diabolic voice calls us to a place of destruction and atrophy; the enchanting voice calls to diminish and destroy our soul. Let’s be wise to shut out this deceptive voice, do not listen to it.
As St. Peter wrote in his first letter, be on the alert because the enemy is like a roaring lion ready to pounce on you once you listen to the false voices of the devil (cf. 1 Pt 5:8).  The Good Shepherd calls his own by name and they follow him. But as it sometimes happens, the sheep fall victim to the pretentious voice of the stranger and is lead astray. When do we go astray? When do we follow strange voices? They are the times we fail to listen to the Shepherd’s voice in the silence of our hearts. There are too many screaming voices in our head and mind inviting us to distractions-to sin and darkness. They come to our souls in different disguises. They are the material culture of our post-Christian world, they are sensuous pleasure in the public places and media, they are the calls to false self-reliance and independence from the so-called “clutch of faith and religion”, they are the selfish cravings for dominance over others, they are the heart-hardening to the Gospel of life similar to the hardening of hearts of Israelites at Meribah, “as on the day at Massah in the wilderness” (Ps 95: 7-8), and they are the other forms of deviation from the voice of love and truth.
Today, we will listen to the Shepherd’s voice. We will find time for silence. We will detach the plugs from our ears from time to time today and listen to the voice calling us to life. Jesus speaks to us in the Sacred Scriptures and deep, quiet meditations, he speaks to us in people we meet each day, he speaks to us in the beautiful and sublime things of nature, and he speaks to us even in the tragedies of life like the present pandemics. We only need to listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and let his voice speak to us and lead us back to the shepherd and guardian of our souls (1 Pt 2: 25).
Decide today to listen to the true voice of the Shepherd who leads his sheep to abundant life. For a start, may I suggest you commit daily to 10 minutes of silence in the presence of God who dwells in the inner recesses of your soul? Start by inviting the Holy Spirit and give the Shepherd’s voice full control to speak to your mind and soul. By listening to the Shepherd’s voice, we are tied to Christ and prevented from following destructive voices of the evil stranger similar to how Odysseus was tied to the mast of the ship to prevent him from following the seductive and destructive voice of the seductive siren.

Have a Blessed Good Shepherd Sunday.
In Christ, the Good Shepherd,      
Fr. Bernard Oniwe, OP
 

Dear friends in Christ,              
                                                                          Let's Switch Gears!
I was self-taught to drive as a teen in the early '80s on a stick shift car. Learning to drive a transmission car without adult supervision had unpleasant consequences for me-it is painful to recall the image of my dad's wrecked Peugeot 504 car, but that is a story for another day. One painful but vital lesson I learned about switching gears while driving a manual shift car is the timeliness of taking your foot off the clutch as you pedal on the accelerator. I burnt a couple of clutch pads because I failed to take my foot off the pedal as soon as I switch gears to a different level. We need to know the time to switch gears for smooth transmission and mobility of our spiritual life as it driving a stick shift car. A productive religious devotion and prayer life depend on making switches among abundant options as we fight spiritual battles. We fight spiritual battles with weapons of prayers.
It is time we switch gears of our spiritual weapon to the Rosary. As we face the challenges of our time, the Covid-19 pandemic, I want to suggest that we turn intentionally to Mary Our Lady of the Rosary. St. Dominic and St. Pio of Pietrelcina taught me many years ago that turning to Our Blessed Mother Mary and the prayer of the Rosary in time of dire straits is a holy thing to do. St. Padre Pio said it is unthinkable to think we can win life battles without the aid of our Lady and the Rosary: "Some people are so foolish that they think they can go through life without the help of the Blessed Mother. Love the Madonna and pray the Rosary, for her Rosary is the weapon against the evils of the world today. All graces given by God pass through the Blessed Mother." 
 Bible supports this claim.  "Lord Jesus, open the Scriptures to us; make our hearts burn while you speak to us" (Lk. 24:32). As Jesus opened the scriptures to two of his disciples on the way to Emmaus, I opened the scriptures to the marriage feast at Cana (Jn. 2:1-11)  and Jesus' last words to his Mother and John at the foot of the Cross (Jn. 19:25-27). They speak to me of God willing to channel his graces to us through the prayers and motherly care of Mary. These are instances where Mary is called upon to intervene on our behalf to Jesus and Jesus, commending us to her maternal care, respectively.
I want to suggest we go to Mary specifically in May. Devotions to Mary in May started in Ancient Rome to commemorate the beginnings of floral blooms. It is part of the reasons our children crown Mary with flowers during the May crowning of Mary. As we switch to the time of spring, we turn to an intensification of our Marian devotions. I encourage you to meditate daily on the mysteries of the Holy Rosary; we honor Mary this way, and she will intercede on our behalf in these challenging times.
St. Bernard of Clairvaux, my patron saint, said, "God wills that all his gifts should come to us through Mary." I believe so. Through Mary, God gave us his son and our savior Jesus Christ. Through the intercession of Mary, God wants to help us win our spiritual battles as we switch our prayer gears to Marian devotions in May. Please pray at least a chaplet of the Rosary daily throughout May. Pray for us, Holy Mary, Mother of God.

In Jesus and Mary,   
Fr. Bernard Oniwe, OP
 

 Dear friends in Risen Christ,
                                                     Receive Mercy, Practice Mercy

On the eve of the Second World War, Jesus Christ, the Lord of Mercy, revealed to Sr. Faustina Kowalska a message of Divine Mercy. Our Lord requested Sr. Faustina to promote the establishment of the Feast of Divine Mercy universally in the Church. Our Lord went on to say that "Mankind will not have peace until it turns to the fount of my mercy." The message of Divine Mercy is not new, but the Lord instructed Sr. Faustina to convey its modern form to the world of our time, a time of deep suffering and loss, and in need of peace and hope.
 God manifested an abundance of merciful love to us in the Bible. The message of the sacred scripture is about God's mercy. The Old and the New Testaments contain accounts of how God, who is rich in mercy, came to save his erring children from damnation through the merciful love of Jesus Christ. From the pierced side of Jesus on the Cross flows the redemptive water and blood. Jesus offered us the grace of his merciful love in the sacraments of mercy- Baptism and Eucharist: "This is the one who came through water and blood, Jesus Christ, not by water alone, but by water and blood" (I Jn 5: 5).
 He imparted the grace of this redemptive act of merciful love on his followers when he appeared to the apostles after his resurrection as St. John wrote: "Jesus came and stood in their midst…breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained' "(Jn 20). Our infidelity never limits God’s love; he wants to shed his healing rays of mercy on us when we become repentant and choose to love him and our neighbors. God of mercy and compassion who reaches out to us in mercy and calls us to hope in his merciful love. At the same time, he calls us at this time to share with others this hope by practicing mercy. I invite you at this time to believe in the gift of mercy that Jesus brings us on this Sunday of Divine Mercy. I encourage you to begin a lifetime devotion to praying daily the Chaplet of Divine mercy so…" that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that through this belief, you may have life in his name." Receive mercy, practice mercy. 
O God, we have been washed in the living water of baptism and redeemed in the Blood of the Lamb, increase our faith in your everlasting and superabundance mercy.

Jesus, We Trust in You.In Christ,

Fr. Bernard Oniwe, OP
 

                                                            The Lord is Risen, Shout Alleluia!
 
Dear Friends in Christ,
 
Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week because the scripture says: "he must rise from the dead" (Jn 20:9). Mary Magdalene, Simon Peter, and John, the beloved disciple, saw an empty tomb and only later came to believe that Jesus has risen. If we look at what happened to the disciples of Jesus from another perspective, we will see that Easter Sunday was not necessarily and initially a happy day for them. They were devastated that the Pharisees and Scribes crucified their Lord.  They lived in hiding and in fear of these enemies who were after the followers of Jesus. Now they found an empty tomb that did not initially translate to them as a sign of Resurrection. On this Easter morning at the empty tomb, the disciples were in a state of mourning and sadness. At first, Easter morning was not a happy one for the disciples until the Risen Lord appeared to them later. We do feel the same way the disciple felt. The darkness that is the devastation of coronavirus pandemic seems to snuff off the light of Easter joy.
 
This year's Easter is different from what we are used to. Our churches are empty. We are not physically present in church singing Alleluias at Mass, rejoicing that Jesus has risen.  Like the empty tomb, our empty Church does not immediately turn to a piece of joyful news. Yet we are joyful and celebrate the Risen Christ because the event of the Resurrection transcends all the dysfunction that currently marks our world and our regular church life. We have been dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic all through lent. The empty tomb tells us that Jesus has risen over death and sin. The Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is a real and historical fact. His body is indeed risen and united to his soul; this is an authentic experience. But we need more than the historical truth and real knowledge; we need faith to experience the reality of the Resurrection of Jesus.
 
I invite you to that living faith. Despite our empty Church, despite the shadow cast on our worship by coronavirus pandemic, we are above all a people of transcendence faith. Our faith bears testimony to the reality of the Resurrection, the joy of Easter. My dear friends, Jesus has risen indeed, let us rejoice and be glad in this day. This Easter Sunday is the day the Lord has made for us to testify to the world that our faith in Risen Christ is higher than the scourge of coronavirus. Let us break into joyful song and dance. Let us bear witness to risen Christ as we share His love, hope, and saving grace with all people in our lives. Let us offer to all people the good news from the empty tomb and empty Church that Jesus is indeed victorious over all the anomalies of our life as we live it presently.
 
Let the world know that despite deaths and fear, Jesus reigns supreme. He has conquered death and sin. He will overcome the darkness of the Coronavirus pandemic. "This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad" (Psalm 118:1).
 
                                             Happy Easter!      

Fr. Bernard Oniwe, O.P.
 

Dear friends in Christ,
 
                                                                  Sin and Salvific Suffering
 
We begin Holy Week with the procession by the crowd with palms to welcome Jesus into Jerusalem, where at a place called Golgotha, he would fulfill his mission, death by crucifixion for the salvation of the human race from sin and death. During the Passiontide, we listen to the passion narrative, according to Matthew, where our own story of sinful culpability confronts us. We read about the betrayal by Judas Iscariot, denial by Peter, cunning act of the Pilate, shout of murder by the crowd at the instigation of the elders and the Pharisees, heart-wrenching death of Jesus on the Cross at Calvary, his burial and sealing of his tomb.
 
From the Mount of Olives to Golgotha, from the sweating of blood and arrest of Jesus at a place called Gethsemane to his gruesome crucifixion at Golgotha, we prayerfully contemplate the passion of Christ, and we arrive at the question: why did Jesus have to save us through this most horrible suffering unto death? To answer the question, I will borrow the words of St. Anselm of Canterbury in his book on the incarnation,  Cur Deus Homo? (Why did God become Man?}. In a conversation with Boso in Bk 1:11 about satisfaction for sin, Anselm argues that the only way the debt our sin incurred could be satisfied is by God himself paying the debt because we are incapable of paying for it:
 
"If someone sins, he has to restore what he has taken away before he can be clear of fault. So then, every one who sins ought to pay back the honor of which he has robbed God. This is the satisfaction which every sinner owes to God."
 
Jesus satisfied what we owe God by our sin through his suffering on our account, his passion, and death on the Cross. Let us unite our prayers and penance with the Lord's Passion during this time of pandemic restrictions when our liturgical life seems stunted, but graces still flow from the fount of the Church's sacrament celebrated before empty pews. The entire liturgy of the Holy Week will be live-streamed to you on parish Facebook page and YouTube videos posted afterward on our parish website. I intend to keep the scheduled times for the Triduum,  Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday, Good Friday Liturgy, and Easter Sunday mass as posted on our website and in Lent and Easter pamphlet sent to you.
 
As you enter into the mystery of the Holy Week, I recommend you read Pope John Paul II Apostolic Letter, Salvifici Dolores (http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/hlthwork/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_11021984_salvifici-doloris_en.html)  and watch Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Cross (if you have the heart to endure the gory graphic scenes illustrating the evil effect of our sins)
 
In Christ Crucified,
Fr. Bernard Oniwe, OP