The kingdom of God is Jesus. Not a territory. Jesus is the kingdom.

 

Third Sunday in OT  B  2021

In today’s Gospel, the evangelist Mark summarizes Jesus' entire message in three short statements: "This is the time of fulfillment. The reign of God is at hand. Repent and believe the good news."

"The reign of God is at hand." That was the essence of Jesus' message and activity. In his obedience and in what he offered humanity, Jesus inaugurated God's reign in history. Jesus was the fulfillment, the culmination of God's promises to the chosen people: the one sent to catch others up in the dynamic of his life.

"Repent" summarized the only appropriate response to getting caught up in Jesus' dynamic. Repentance, metanoia in Greek, is not merely a call to be sorry for sin.  Jesus preached metanoia as an invitation to believe that God was about something entirely new and wonderful — and everyone who so desired could participate in the good news.

 Metanoia is all about hope and a new vision of life. Metanoia springs from a vision of how God's future is breaking into the present. It is a faith-filled certainty that communion with God and all of creation is the ultimate storyline and meaning of history. Metanoia is the stuff of dreams that only God's spirit can inspire — and it is ongoing. Jesus' message is simply that. Each of Mark's three statements summarizes the newness, hope and promise that Jesus embodied

So, what is the meaning of “Repent and believe in the Good News”?  Repentance and belief are not two separate acts in our movement towards God, but one!  In fact, repentance could even be a consequence of our belief.

To understand what I am saying we need to ask a basic question: What is the Good News?  Is it the sum of all the dogmas declared by the church?  Is Good News the collection of the teachings of Jesus?  No, not at all.  Good News is the fact that God loves us in the person of Jesus. It is a person. Good News is JESUS Himself!  Yes, Jesus is the Good News.  The kingdom of God is here, in the person of Jesus.

So, belief in the Good News is our acceptance of the reality that we can experience God in the person of Jesus.  And when we do this, we repent.  We become our best selves.  We are motivated to love others not for any of our own motivations – that could become selfishness – but because we have experienced the love of God in Jesus. 

The kingdom of God is Jesus.  Not a territory.  Jesus is the kingdom.

As Mark continues to narrate in the gospel text of today, the apostles were able to leave their fishing nets, their family – things that they held dear.  This renunciation was their sign of repentance. And they were able to reach this decision because they encountered God in the person of Jesus.  They believed in the Good News!  Their belief was not just an intellectual assent, but a tangible experience of God in Jesus.

May we then surrender ourselves in front of this tremendous mystery – Jesus Christ, the Good News! Believe!   Recognize the Kingdom that is already here.  May this greater power enfold us and transform us.  May we become our best selves in the unconditional love of God!

Having announced that the kingdom is here and stated the conditions for belonging, Jesus begins the work of spreading the kingdom.  He begins to gather disciples.  In this liturgy, Jesus continues to call and gather his disciples -- you and I.  To follow Jesus is to not only listen and agree with his message, but to be willing to work with others he has called us to build up the kingdom.  Mark preached his gospel to help us know who we are as a people — those who have chosen to become one with Jesus in baptism; he did not imagine that he was writing down merely wise religious sayings.

For us as we respond to the call of God in our lives, our discipleship of the Lord Jesus involves responding to the call to be in community, to be Church.

As we celebrate Stewardship Commitment Sunday today, we invite you to consider how the first disciples responded to the call of God.   Their sense of stewardship is an example for us to making God first in our lives.  Stewardship is our response to the call of God in our lives – how we live as the disciples of Jesus.  We speak of a stewardship of time, of talent, and of treasure

Our stewardship of treasure is not the only way we are called to discipleship, but it is an important means of our willingness to turn ourselves over to the Lord.   If you are able to increase your giving, join me in making our commitment for our parish ministries to continue to grow.  If your commitment stays at the same level, thank you for that as well.  In all cases, we are grateful for your generosity.

I invite to watch this video to see how the ministries of our parish life are enlivened by your generous commitment to a stewardship of treasure in our parish life.

 

Jesus invites us: COME AND SEE what our life will be like if we live as a disciple of Jesus.

 The Scriptures invite us to reflect on the call of God in our lives.  Our response to the call from God is our vocation to live as a disciple of Jesus.  We sometimes think of a vocation as only applied to a vocation to the priesthood or to the religious life.  The call to be a priest is indeed a vocation to live according to God’s plan for one’s life. We indeed need to pray that vocations emerge from our parish community. But I also would emphasize at this moment is that all of us have a vocation in life -- our response to God’s call.  Those of you who are married and have children have a most sacred vocation as a spouse and as a parent.

 More than that, all of us who are baptized have a vocation to witness to the love of God in all we say and do.

 I suggest that today’s Scripture readings alert us to the ways we can recognize the call of God in our lives.  The first Scripture reading describes the call of God in the life of Samuel.  Samuel was sleeping in the temple of the Lord where the ark of God was.  The Lord called to Samuel, who answered, “Here I am.”  Samuel ran to Eli and said: “Here I am. You called me.”  “I did not call you,” Eli said.  “Go back to sleep.”  This happened three times. Then Eli understood the Lord was calling the young Samuel.  He then told Samuel to go to sleep and the next time he was to reply: “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.”

 

We too need people to help us recognize the call of God in our lives.  Who for you is the prophet Eli who helps you to recognize the call of God in your life?  I would love for us to have a dialogue on identifying the soul friends in our lives who have raised our awareness of the presence of God in our lives.  Who has been your soul friend that has helped you discover and to encounter the Lord?

 Make no mistake about it.  We need others to help us recognize God’s call.  We belong to each other. We are better together.  As we know from the first pages of the Bible:  It is not good for man to be alone.  Our discipleship of the Lord Jesus calls us to be soul friends to each other.

 Then in the Gospel, I invite you to listen again to the dialogue of Jesus with the first disciples.  Jesus, sensing that two people were following him, asked: “What are you looking for?”  They responded: “Rabbi, where do you live?”  Jesus simply responds: “Come and See.”

 

 The conversation Jesus had with the first disciples is the conversation Jesus wishes to have with you today. Can you imagine the Lord asking you: “What are you looking for?”  I would invite you in a prayerful way to look into your own heart and hear the Lord asking you:  What are you looking for?

 Would we too respond: “Master, where do you live?”  What are you all about?  Then we receive the invitation to COME AND SEE.  Jesus is saying if you want to know me, you need to live with me.  To know is to love me.

 Where is Jesus to be found?  Up in the sky?  The mystery of the Incarnation is that God has become enfleshed in our human nature.  Jesus is to be found among the poor, among the suffering, among those who have no hope.  Jesus is inviting us to Come and See where the Lord lives -- in the hearts of people in need.

 When the disciples asked Jesus: “Where do you live?”  They were not so much looking for a street address in which they could put into their GPS system.  The disciples were asking a spiritual question.  What gives meaning and purpose to your life?

 I would like to ask you rhetorically this question for your prayerful reflection: “Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus?  Do you know the Lord Jesus as your personal Savior?”  This, typically, is a question evangelicals ask of each other.  Catholics, on the other hand, are called to live a life of morality, of responsibility, of a Gospel way of living.  To do the right thing.  For us older Catholics, it’s almost a foreign language to ask us if we have a personal relationship with Jesus.  That wasn’t one of the questions found in the Baltimore Catechism.

 What does a personal relationship with Jesus look like for us old timers used to the Baltimore catechism?

 The invitation given to the first disciples is to COME AND SEE.  Come and See what life will be like when lived in relationship with Jesus and in relationship with the all the disciples of Jesus.  Come and See if the Gospel stories connect with your spirit and your way of looking at life. 

 

Come and See if your relationships in the Church – the disciples of Jesus – allow you to love and be loved in life-giving ways. Come and See if in the faith community of the Church of the Holy Spirit gratitude, discipleship and hospitality come alive in our parish life.  We seek to witness to the love of Jesus Christ in the world.

 

Having a personal relationship with Jesus effects the way we pray.  Yes, our traditional memorized prayers are a sacred part of our prayer life.  Our ritual sacramental prayer is a privileged way of communicating with the Lord Jesus.  Can you imagine your prayer with Jesus to be similar to a phone conversation with a best friend describing the ups and downs of your day?  Jesus wishes to be present to you in the joys and the challenges of each and every day.  When we speak to Jesus from our heart, this too is a most sacred prayer, and it is indicative of our personal relationship with Jesus.

 

Although God calls, not everyone is listening all the time.  So many voices call for our attention; so many activities distract us.  We need to make a serious effort if we are to become sensitive to the divine presence in our lives.

 

We may learn from what Eli spoke to the young Samuel.  A significant part of our prayer life is listening.  May we speak the words of Samuel: “Speak, Lord your servant is listening.”

 May we also learn embrace the conversation that Jesus had with the first disciples and know it is the same conversation Jesus wishes to have with you.  Jesus asks us:  What are you looking for?  As we respond:  Master, where do you live?  Jesus invites us:  “Come and See,”  Come and See and live with a relationship with Jesus in which we can allow Jesus into the inn of our hearts and that we can trust Jesus goes with us in the challenges of our life.

Have a Blessed Day.

 

 

The grace of baptism is lifelong. We are always and forever missioned to give witness of the love of Jesus in our lives.

 

BAPTISM OF THE LORD 2021

 

Today’s feast celebrates the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River by John the Baptist.   As Jesus was baptized, the Spirit, like a dove, descended upon Him.  And a voice came from the heavens, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” 

 

The Baptism of the Lord marks the end of his hidden ministry in the town of Nazareth with his parents and the beginning of his public ministry proclaiming the kingdom of God is at hand.  The Lord’s Baptism is his coming party, so to speak, that will ultimately to his suffering, death and resurrection for our salvation and our sharing in His Risen life.

 

With the voice from his heavenly Father, his baptismal identity is being staked out.  “This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”  God the Father is declaring that Jesus is more than a prophet.  He comes from God; he is the Son of God. With the presence of the Spirit and the voice of God the Father, the mystery of the Trinity is being revealed.

 

Along with his identity, Jesus inaugurates his baptismal mission to teach, to heal, to forgive, to love, to save us from our sins, and to give us share in His Risen Life.  Jesus is our Lord and Savior.  He has come to save us from our sinfulness and to give a share in his risen life.

This feast invites us to see the connection between the Baptism of Jesus and our own baptism.

I call your attention to the front entrance of our Church.  As you come in the front entrance of the Church, you bump into the baptismal font.  This is not a design fault that the baptismal font is in your way as you come into Church.  It is placed at the front entrance as a clear reminder that our life in Christ, our spiritual journey begins at Baptism. 

 

When we get behind our Covid regimen and our baptism font is again brimming with water, we bless ourselves with the water from our baptismal font to remind us of the day of our Baptism when we received the life of Christ Jesus and when we first became of member of the Church – the Body of Christ.

 

You will notice that the baptismal font is positioned on a direct line to the altar of God.  This is symbolic that our spiritual journey goes from the baptismal font to the altar of God where we give thanks to the Lord our God and are fed and nourished at the Table of the Lord.

In our Baptism, we claim our baptismal identity.  We become God’s beloved son and God’s beloved daughter in whom the Father is well pleased.  We claim who we are and whose we are.    We are sons and daughters of a loving Father; we are brothers and sisters to each other; we are welcomed into the Church, the Body of Christ.  Such an incredible grace we receive in Baptism, and the grace of Baptism is lifelong.  In the spiritual journey of each of us, we need to ask ourselves the question:  Do we claim our own baptismal identity as a beloved child of God?   When I am stressed out, when I am fearful and a bit anxious, am I claiming my baptismal identity as God’s beloved?   The words spoken to Jesus are words that are spoken to us as part of our baptismal identity.

May you hear this day and every day these words spoken to you by our loving God: “This is my beloved son; this is my beloved daughter in whom I am well pleased.”  These are spoken not because of our worthiness; rather these words are spoken because of God’s unconditional love for us.  May you always be able to recognize this voice of God in your life.

Now it is true that throughout all our lives, a cacophony of voices will attempt to drown our attentiveness to the voice of God.  There’s the voice of Wall Street calling us to find our security in stocks, bonds and mutual funds.  There’s the voice of Madison Avenue alerting us to unnecessary needs and undue desires.  There’s the voice of Rodeo Drive warning us not to be out of style, and the voice of Broadway luring us to the superficial aspects of contemporary entertainment.

Amid the clamor of all these voices, it may be difficult to hear the voice of God and grasp the hand of God.  Nevertheless, that voice and that hand are ever near, and God’s grace is ever at the ready to keep our hearing acute and our understanding full and clear.  The question for our prayerful reflection this day is: Whose voice will you listen to? 

In today’s Gospel, after the baptism of Jesus, a voice came from the heavens, “You are my beloved Son: with you I am well pleased.”    As we pray over these words, may we ask ourselves:  What actions of ours this past week is our heavenly Father well pleased with?

 

Baptismal mission

We are to embrace our baptismal identity and our baptismal mission.

Sacrament of Baptism -- not just a Church ceremony.  It is your life as a disciple of Jesus.  Baptism is your lifelong call that commissions us to service in the name of Jesus.

We are co-creators with God in building up the kingdom of heaven on earth.

When we are baptized into Christ Jesus, there is no part of our life that does not belong to God.  There is no part of our life that God is not present.

We are drawn into the very life of God.  We no longer live for ourselves in an individualistic fashion.  We are connected with each other.  We are connected with all baptized people across the centuries.  We are the community of the baptized.

The grace of baptism is lifelong.  We are always and forever the community of the baptized.  We are always and forever missioned to give witness to the love of Jesus in our lives.  

Our mission is to bring the peace and love of Jesus into our world.  The violence we saw in Washington this past Wednesday in our halls of Congress is not a Gospel way of living.  Our mission is to bring healing and love and dialogue into our political process.

In the baptismal identity of each one of us, we are given a charism or charisms for the building of the Body of Christ.  Your charism is your particular giftedness given to you by our loving God for the building of the Body of Christ, for making a difference in our world.  Our charisms are not to be buried into the ground, but they are to see the light of day and to be used in the service of others.

As we celebrate this feast day of the Lord, I invite you to name the charism, the giftedness that is given to you and ask if we have used our God given giftedness to bring the love and the healing and the compassion of Christ into our parish and into our world.

 May we pay attention to both our baptismal identity and to our baptismal mission.  What is our baptismal mission?  Your baptismal mission is to serve the needs of one another.   It is in our love for one another that we become more aware that God remains in us. 

We are the community of the baptized.  We are God’s beloved sons and daughters.  We are missioned t be brothers and sisters to each other; we are missioned to wash the feet of God’s poor; and our first requirement as a baptized disciple of Jesus is to love one another.

 

Have a Blessed Day.

 

In celebrating the Feast of the Epiphany, may the story of the magi be our story as well.

  

EPIPHANY 2021

“When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, behold magi from the East arrived in Jerusalem, saying, ‘Where is the newborn king of the Jews saying, ‘we saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage.’”

In celebrating the Feast of the Epiphany, may the story of the magi be our story as well.  We are today’s magi who come to discover and encounter the Christ child.

The magi symbolize what is restless in the human spirt seeking for a greater depth of meaning and purpose in life.  They left behind what was comfortable and safe and took considerable risk in traveling to another country in search of the Lord.  The magi speak to our restless human spirit seeking to discover the spiritual meaning and longing for that which ultimately satisfies us.

May each of us be in touch with our restless human spirit that is looking for something more in our spiritual journey.  How is the Lord calling us to move beyond our comfort zone and follow a star that will lead us to that deeper relationship with Jesus that we seek?  The grace of Epiphany invites to come to know Jesus in a deeper relationship.

My hunch is that the Lord is placing a star in our life on this Epiphany day that we are to follow.  That star may not be in the sky but possibly be the star that is in the heart of someone you are called to love and to help and to serve.  That star may be in the hearts of the poor who we are called to reach out to.

As a parish community, that star may be in the ways the Lord is calling to collaborate with St Joseph’s so that each parish community can help each other discover the Lord more fully in our lives.

We are also left wondering why we as a Church have failed to be the star that brings more people into our pews.  We all know many former Catholics even family members who no longer belong to the Church.

 

And so, we ask for the grace of seeing the star that the Lord places in our lives that will lead us to a deeper relationship with Him.  Again, this star may not be found in the sky but in the people or the circumstances that are part of your life in the here and the now.

Please note the sharp contrast between the Magi and King Herod in the Epiphany Gospel.   Herod sees the promised child as a threat. He's afraid the coming baby will crimp his style, will challenge his power and lower his status.

The Magi see the promised child as wonderful gift. They've humbled themselves to travel a great distance to a strange culture that speaks a different language, in order to embrace this baby who fulfills God's love.

Herod’s selfishness fueled by his fears leads to his downfall. The Magi's worship of the Christ child leads to the salvation of all the nations. Today more than 2 billion people call themselves Christians, in some way the result of the humility and the seeking spirit of the Magi.

We see the hostility of King Herod to the notion that he would have a rival to his kingship.  Moved by jealousy, he hatched a murderous plot that was foiled by the non-cooperation of the magi.

Before we simply reject the treachery of Herod, we need to acknowledge that there is a Herod within each of us that keeps from following Christ more fully.  What are the demons within us that make more self-centered than Christ-centered?  How radically do I share with those in need?  What keeps me from listening more fully to another’s point of view?  Do I make time for God in the way that I live?

Yes, we all need to confess that we are sinners, and there is a bit of King Herod in all of us.  But thanks be to God, the Bethlehem infant has come to be our Savior and Lord.  We seek the grace of allowing ourselves to be loved by the Christ child.

In our discipleship of the Lord Jesus, we are the magi – seeking to encounter the Lord Jesus more fully in our lives.  In one perspective we are the magi seeking to discover the Lord.  From another perspective we ask who the magi are we are meant to encounter.  Who are the magi?  They may the strangers whom we meet this coming year who have followed a star in search of the Christ child that is within each of us.  May we welcome that strangers with the hospitality that the magi received at the Bethlehem crib.

In celebrating the Feast of the epiphany, we celebrate the Good News of the birth of Jesus breaking out beyond the boundaries of Israel and being made known to all the peoples of the world – to every tribe, and tongue and people and nation.  So, we celebrate the Savior who comes to the Gentiles.  This is symbolized by the three wise men, who came from the East to welcome and worship Him.

It’s revealed that there no outsiders at the Bethlehem crib.  There was no racism.  All were welcome.  Jesus welcomed everyone – the ox and the ass, the shepherds and magi, poor and rich, the Jews and Gentiles.  He came for us all.  He would reject no one, as he would accept the unique gifts of each.

The magi did not come to the Bethlehem empty handed.  The Gospel tells us:  they opened their treasures.  Like the magi, each of us has a treasure to offer the Christ.  The prayerful question we should ask ourselves this Sunday is:  What is it?  What do we have to give?

The magi presented gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the Christ child.  What gifts do we offer the Christ child?  In our spirit of stewardship, we offer our gifts of time, talent, and treasure.

Notice well, the magi were warned in a dream not to return to Herod, and they departed for their country by another way.  Of course, they would return by another route.  Their lives have been changed by their encounter with Jesus.  May we too with God’s grace have our lives changed by our encounter with Jesus.  We cannot go back to our old way of living -- with our fears, our anxieties, our addictions, our grudges, our pettiness.  We are to put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

A final thought: in the Christmas mystery it is not just the magi who are seekers.  God is a seeker.  We are sought by a God who has become one of us and who hunts us down with His love.  In the Epiphany mystery, we need to allow ourselves to be found by the love of the Christ child.

Have a Blessed Epiphany Day.

 

 

What is God's plan for me in 2021?

 

New Year’s Day  2021

Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God

The life of Jesus begins with Mary at the Bethlehem crib.  Therefore, it is most appropriate we begin the New Year with a Feast of Mary – Mary the Mother of God.

 

As a people of faith, we gather on this New Year’s Day to honor Mary, the great woman of faith.  We are told, once again, how she used time -- to treasure and reflect in her heart all that God had done for her and how God was giving direction to her life.  Her example should speak to us for we also need to take the time to treasure and reflect within our own hearts what God is doing and what God is calling us to do.

It’s the time of year when we roll out the old and bring in the new.  It’s the time for making new resolutions, new promises to ourselves.  This feast is uniquely appropriate to those of us concerned with new beginnings, with new resolutions, and renewed hopes.

Our resolutions are filled with our dreams and hopes and goals for the coming year.  But the question that the Scriptures today invite us to reflect on is:  What are God’s plan for us this year?  Instead of focusing on our resolutions for the New Year, may we be open to God’s resolutions for us this year.

This is such a fundamental spiritual conversion the Scriptures call us to.  How do we become more aware of God’s plan for us in 2021?  Instead of naming my resolutions for the coming year, I seek to listen to God’s resolutions for me this coming year.

There is no better model for us than Mary in opening ourselves to God’s plan for our lives.  We know at the Annunciation when the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she was to be the mother of our Savior and Lord, Mary worked through her fear and confusion and said YES to God’s plan for her.  With such an inspiring faith, Mary spoke these powerful words:  “I am the handmaid of the Lord.  Be it done to me according to thy Word.”

Can we with Mary speak these words at the beginning of 2021:  “I am the servant of the Lord.  Be it done to me according to your word.”

In contrast to the usual frenzy of our celebrations on New Years’ Eve, Mary pondered in silence and stillness in the Bethlehem crib.  “Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.”  Her heart becomes the place of discovering Jesus, and who He truly is.

May we too ponder in our hearts who that child now born to us really is.  As Mary spent her life pondering the visible Word of Go that was and is her Son, we too must ponder that Word in scripture, that Word in each other, that Word in the created world around us.  We too are asked to incarnate Jesus in our lives.

If we want to celebrate Christmas Season as Mary did, we need to ponder this sign:  the frail simplicity of a tiny newborn child, the meekness with which he is placed in a manger, the tender affection with which he is wrapped in his swaddling clothes.  This is where God is.

What Mary pondered reveals a Gospel paradox.  The Gospel speaks of the emperor, the governor, the high and mighty of those times, yet God does not make himself present there.  He appears not in the splendor of a royal palace, but in the poverty of a stable; not in pomp and show, but in simplicity of life; not in power, but astonishing smallness.  In order to meet him, we need to go where he is.  We need to bow down, to humble ourselves, to make ourselves small.  The newborn Child challenges us.  We need to discover in the simplicity of the divine Child the peace, joy and the luminous meaning of life.

Jesus enters our life to give us His life; He comes into our world to give us His love.  In 2021, through the intercession of Mary, may we be challenged and called by Jesus.  Let us draw close to God who draws close to us.  Let us pause to gaze upon the crib, and relive in our imagination the birth of Jesus: light and peace, dire poverty and rejection.  With the shepherds, let us enter into the real Christmas, bringing to Jesus all that we are, our alienation, our unhealed wounds, our sins.  Then, in Jesus, we will enjoy the taste of the true spirit of Christmas:  the beauty of being loved by God.  With Mary and Joseph, let us pause before the manger, before Jesus who is born as bread for my life.

 

 

May the blessing that the Lord said to Moses be the blessing the Lord speaks to each of us:

 

The Lord bless and keep you.

The Lord let his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.

The Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace.

 

Have a blessed day and a blessed New Year.