Hodie Christus natus est.

There are many, many books that describe the Christmas story.  But no Christmas story holds a candle to the original masterpiece found in Luke’s gospel.  In 320 words, the evangelist Luke tells us the story that is ageless, that needs to be told again and again, and needs to be remembered, for it is the story of our salvation.

“Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.  While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son.  She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”

We gather today to honor and worship the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying a manger, the one announced by the angel as the Savior, who is Christ and Lord.  We worship Him who gives meaning to our lives.  The power of God comes to us as a tiny infant.

The first Scripture reading from the prophet Isaiah proclaimed:  “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light:  upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shown.  You have brought abundant joy and great rejoicing.”

This is a wonderful, wonderful way of describing the Christmas mystery.  The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

We are indeed a people who wait in joyful hope not because the darkness is over, but because the Light is with us now, and the Light will overcome the darkness.

We are well aware of the darkness in which we live:

 The massacre that is taking place in Syria that has destroyed the once thriving city of Aleppo, the darkness of violence in which there are too many streets in our cities that are not a safe place to walk, the brokenness experienced in too many family lives, and who of us would not say that there is darkness in our spiritual journeys.

In our world there is both darkness and light.  We know that the darkness isn’t over.  But we gather as a people of hope and promise because the light of Christ overcomes the darkness of life.

God’s gift to us is the Christmas mystery  --   Hodie Christus natus est.  Today Christ is born. Hodie.  Today.  You see, for all its uniqueness, Bethlehem is not an isolated experience.  Christ is born in the stable of Bethlehem but Christ is also born in every child born of God’s love.

In each child I have the privilege of baptizing, Christ is born again.  

It is good for us to remember who planted the seeds of faith within us.  It is also good to remember who brings us and who to we bring to listen again to the Christmas story. 

Who first held you and shared with you the Christmas story and who holds you today with love, encouragement, and affirmation as you live now the wonder and the mystery of Christmas.

A story:  In World War II a soldier was on duty Christmas morning.  It had been his custom to go to Church every Christmas morning with his family, but now, in the service on the outlying districts of London, this was impossible.  So, with some of his soldier buddies, he walked down the road that led to the city as dawn was breaking.  Soon they came upon an old, gray, stone building over whose main door were carved the words, “Queen Ann’s Orphanage.”  So they decided to see what kind of celebration was taking place inside.  In response to the knock, a matron came and explained that the children were orphans whose parents had been killed in one of the many bombings that took place in London.  The soldiers went inside just as the children were stumbling out of bed.  There was no Christmas tree in the corner.  There were no presents.  The soldiers moved about the room wishing the children Merry Christmas and giving them whatever presents they had in their pockets.  The soldier noticed a child alone in the corner -- looked a lot like his nephew back home.  And you, little guy, what do you want for Christmas?  The lad simply replied:  Will you hold me?  The soldier, with tears in his eyes, picked up the little boy and held him in his arms very close.

The Christmas mystery continues when in our journey of faith we are held by people who love us and we, in turn, hold others in their faith journey.  In my 48 years as a priest, I am most often in the sanctuary presiding and preaching.  I have been richly blessed in my priesthood.  But I must confess that I was filled with joy yesterday when I was merely in the pews.  I felt held by our school children as they led an inspiring Christmas prayer service.   Is it not a most precious for you and for me when our children teach us the faith lessons that we have taught them with our deepest love and faith.  The students of St Joseph’s School touched my soul.

As was illustrated so beautifully by the soldier in World War II, we also need to share the Christmas mystery with the poor and the needy in our midst.  We can never be a gated community.  We are taught in the original Christmas story that the birth of the Savior was first announced to shepherds – folks who live on the margins of society.  These shepherds are God’s kind of people.  These shepherds are God’s beloved just as the children in that orphanage without a Christmas tree and without Christmas presents are God’s beloved.

We are to hold with great love our own children.  We also are to hold with great love all children.  They are God’s beloved.

Have a blessed Christmas.

Doing it "my Way" needs to give way to "doing it God's way."

It was back in 1969, when Frank Sinatra originally composed and sang the haunting lyrics to:  I DID IT MY WAY.  The song seems so powerful, so masculine, and so confident.  We looked to Frank as a person who knows how to live life.

Yet, the message I DID IT MY WAY is in contradiction to the message of today’s Gospel.  The Gospel gives the infancy account of the birth of Jesus according to the evangelist Matthew.  This account tells us about Joseph.  His profound dilemma was whether to do it my way or to do it God’s way.  Joseph is our model for us to realize that “doing it my way” needs to give way to “doing it God’s way.”

The Scriptures tell us that Joseph was a righteous man.  That meant he was “law-abiding.”  Tell me what the rules are, and I will be a faithful rule keeper.  The laws in Joseph’s time were very strict.  If you found out that the woman you were engaged to was pregnant and you were not the other party to the pregnancy, you were to cancel the engagement, and the woman might be stoned to death.  Did I mention that the laws in Joseph’s time were quite strict!

With a compassionate heart, Joseph was unwilling to expose Mary to shame, and so he wanted to divorce her quietly.

It was then that the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said:  “Do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.  For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her.”

“When Joseph awoke from the dream, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him to do.”

In a word, Joseph did it God’s ways.

It is worth reflecting on the discernment-conversion process that took place in Joseph and then to wonder how and if we are to model this discernment in our own lives at times.

For Joseph, “the black and white” decision making was clear.  The rules clearly said to divorce Mary over this pregnancy issue.  Through the guidance of the angel of the Lord, Joseph moved beyond the letter of the law and embraced the spirit of love and followed the mystery of God’s law in his life.  Following the mystery of God’s call in  his life meant not being too tied down to the letter of the law, but rather to be open to the mystery of God’s call leading us to live by the higher law of love and being open to the spirit of God leading us in unexpected ways.

Like Joseph, we need to be open to the mystery of life, however life challenges us and calls.  True religion is open to mystery.  We need a Church lit with the light of God, as Joseph was.  His burden was lifted when he was open to God, to take Mary home as his wife, no matter what others might think.

In the life of the Church, there will always be very strict rule keepers ready to be severe and judgmental about all the folks not keeping the rules.  Their worry, at times very fairly considered, is that we will fall into a slippery slope that if you don’t keep some rules, then this means there only be chaos in the life of the Church.

I was talking to a parishioner recently even concerned about Pope Francis.  In her opinion, the Vicar of Christ seems to be a little lax on enforcing some of the rules of the Church.  After Pope Francis was elected to the papacy in 2013, during his first Holy Week as pope, he went to a prison for young people for the annual liturgy of the washing of the feet.  He raised a few eyebrows and opened the eyes of even some clergy, when he not only washed the feet of Catholics, he also washed the feet of Muslims and women in the ritual.  Previously this washing of the feet was reserved to Catholic men.

Pope Francis has captured the imagination of the world and breathed new life into the Church as he has extended the compassionate love of Jesus to one and all.  For Pope Francis, more than keeping rules, we are to be faithful to the commandment of love that Jesus has given us.

Going back to the Gospel, the angel of the Lord led Joseph to be open to God’s plan for his life.

How does that play out in our lives?  When does "doing it my way” need to give way to “doing it God’s way,” even when this requires us to trust in God’s grace for us?

Have you ever broken the letter of the law in order to follow a higher law?  How do you share your unconditional love for your children and the merciful love of Jesus for your children even when they are not keeping the rules you would like them to keep?  Are all of your children and grandchildren and extended family members going to Church Sunday after Sunday after Sunday? 

What would be an example of letting go of my way in order to be open to God’s plan for us?  This was the life and commitment of Joseph in today’s Gospel?  I know for myself as a priest becoming the pastor of Holy Spirit parish is being open to God’s plan as expressed through appointment I received from Bishop Matano?   When did or do have you have deal will illness in your life or someone you love, when you have to deal with death in the life of someone you love, how is it for you when you need to let go of your children in their growth and development process, and what happens for you when someone you love betrays your trust?

What I do know for myself and for you is that God has a plan for us.  The problem is that sometimes God’s plan doesn’t look like a gift we like to receive.  It requires far more trust to accept what God gives that what Santa gives.   May we pray for the openness to listen with a trusting heart and then to live out God’s plan for us.  Doing it “my way” needs to give way to “doing it God’s way."

Have a blessed day.

In our parish life, do people experience healing, joy, hope, and is the Good News of the love of Jesus preached to one and all?

You will recall from last Sunday’s Gospel that John the Baptist was a paragon of austerity.  He wore clothing of camel’s hair and had a leather belt around his waist.  His food was locusts and wild honey.  His message was:  “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

 Nobody questioned John’s integrity but few wanted to live exactly as he did.  His lifestyle of fast and abstinence was harsh, reflecting his concept of God.  Jesus, on the other hand, was criticized for eating and drinking, for mixing with all manner of folk.  That mirrored his experience of God.  Little wonder that John’s primary sacrament was a baptism of repentance while Jesus was a communion feast.

So, in today’s Gospel, John, from prison, sent his disciples to ask Jesus:   “Are you the one who is to come or should we look for another?”    John might have added:  “Because you certainly don’t look like the one I was expecting!”

 Jesus said to them in reply, ‘Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.’”

This brings us to Jesus who went in a different direction from John – a direction based on his unique relationship with the God he called Abba, Father.  Instead of emphasizing the wrath of God and the punishment soon to come, Jesus saw everything in the context of God’s great, infinite mercy.

In fact, Jesus introduced a whole new language about God.  He agreed with John that the people needed conversion.  But what he wanted people to see first was not the wrath of God so much as his incredible compassion for all.

Jesus emphasized that God comes to us primarily as a savior, a liberator.  He replaced the Baptist’s austere life in the desert with a lifestyle centered on meals open to everyone, meals in which he could invite people to celebrate this new possibility of total trust in a Father God.

And then Jesus began doing something that John never did.  He healed people whom no one else could heal; he soothed the pain of the “least of these” who lived on the margins of society; he blessed and embraced women and children.  Everyone was invited to the feast of mercy. 

That’s the background to this powerful story we hear in today’s Gospel.  John and his followers are beginning to wonder about Jesus.  What is he doing?  John the Baptist is in a dark place and asks a heavy question:  “Are you the one to come or should we look for another?”

Jesus’s response to all of this is very simple:  “Go and tell John what you hear and see.”

Fast forward to 2013 to the papacy of Pope Francis.  During the first Holy Week after he was elected, Pope Francis raised a few eyebrows and opened many eyes.  On that Holy Thursday he visited a prison for young people where he celebrated the annual washing of the feet.  Not only did he wash the feet of Catholics, he included Muslims and women in the ritual.  This was a big surprise for many Catholics, especially some clergy.  For centuries, the Holy Thursday washing of the feet had been reserved exclusively to Catholic men.

During this past Jubilee Year of Mercy, the pope initiated a custom of going out from the Vatican one Friday a month to perform some work of mercy.   In August the Holy Father went to a home for women recovering from prostitution, many of whom had been victims of trafficking.  If someone were to ask Pope Francis:  “Are you the Holy Father who was chosen for the Church or should we look for another?” 

As did Jesus, Pope Francis could respond: “Go and tell what you see and hear.”

I wonder as new people move into the town of Penfield and as they go Church-shopping for the right fit for their family, how do we respond as people ask whether we, the Church of St Joseph’s, are authentic disciples of Jesus or should we look for another parish?  This is the question of John the Baptist:  “Are you the one who is to come or should we look for another?”

In our parish life, do people experience healing, liberation, hope, and is the Good News of the love of Jesus preached to one and all?

As we know, the words and actions of Pope Francis have captured the imagination of the world and breathed new life into the Church. 

So too for us the Church of St. Joseph’s, instead of seeming to impose new obligations, may we be a people who wish to share our joy and the joy of the Gospel, who point to a horizon of beauty and hope in people’s lives and invite others to the Eucharistic table of the Lord.  In the words of Pope Francis:  “The Eucharist is not a prize for the perfect but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak.

As we celebrate the Sacrament of Penance this Tuesday, may we experience in this sacrament an encounter with the healing Lord; may we experience the merciful love of Jesus.

My favorite Advent hymn is:  “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.”  Have you ever noticed the paradox that is found in this very familiar hymn?   “Emmanuel” means “God is with us.”  And yet we pray “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.”  Advent joy is like this beautiful Advent hymn.  The joy is already given to us, but we long for a joy that is not here yet.

Emmanuel – God is with us.  Yet we are still burdened by the demons of war, of greed, of selfishness, and of deceit.  And so we pray for a fuller coming of God’s presence among us.  “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.”

We pray today that the blind regain their sight and the poor have the Good News preached to them.   May we the Church of St Joseph’s continue the mission of Jesus.  May we celebrate that God is with us  -- Emmanuel.  May we also pray:  “O Come,  O Come Emmanuel.”  We long for a fuller experience of the presence of God among us.

Advent is our wake-up call to return home to God and to listen again to God's dream for us.

We light the second candle of the Advent season today.  The countdown to Christmas is moving on.  The media, and especially advertisements, remind us constantly that the time is drawing short.  Of course, the reminder is too often in terms of how many shopping days till Christmas.

Today’s Scripture readings give us a different point of view.  John the Baptist is clear and direct:  “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.”  There is passion in the words of John the Baptism;  not the passion about the number of shopping days left but a passion about us preparing for the coming of the Lord into our hearts and our world.  The passion of John was a call to repentance.

In today’s Gospel, we are to enroll in the school of John the Baptist, hear his message and put it into action.  John the Baptist is our model for advent preparation preaching a baptism of repentance.  John  the Baptist appeared in the wilderness to give us a wake-up call.

The Advent question I have for myself and for all of us is do we have the passion of John the Baptist in recognizing our need for repentance and conversion in our lives?  What are the habits, the addictions, the sinfulness that we need to confess?  Humbly may we seek the grace of God to help us leave behind all that keeps us from putting Christ at the center of our lives.  All of us, including and especially myself, need to seek the conversion of our lives whereby God is our true North Star in all we say and do.

This past Tuesday we had a wonderful and enthusiastic Town Hall meeting in which we expressing our hopes of inviting more people to join our parish community, to make us even more vibrant that it already are.  We suggested some possible actions steps:  do a mailing, announcements during Mass, even going door to door.

More than strategy steps, we need the passion, the authenticity, the commitment of John the Baptist to help point us to the Lord at the center of all we say and do in our parish community.  May we pray in this Advent season to take on the passion and the need for repentance that so characterized the mission and preaching of John.

We need to more aware of the wilderness that is in our lives and in our world.  Perhaps we need to re-think our values totally.  We need to repent of all that keeps us from placing at the center of our lives and in this Advent season we need to find our way back to God. 

The repentance we seek is a fundamental change of heart which results in leaving sin behind and embracing God’s freely shared life and love.  The prophet Isaiah promises that the Savior will usher in a new era of relationships.  Then the wolf shall be the guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and the young lion shall browse together…There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain.  Woody Allen’s comment to this was:  The lamb and the wolf shall lie down together – but the lamb won’t get any sleep.’’

Advent has more to offer us, however, than that.  Advent has a Savior for us.  Beyond our own efforts to recognize sin and failure in our lives, beyond our confessions and admissions that lead us to repent, Advent presents us with what we truly need – a Savior.  For if we’re honest with ourselves we will admit that we cannot deal with sin, repentance, and conversion all on our own.  We can’t manage our lives all by ourselves.

I invite you to consider the first three steps of the famous Twelve Steps in Alcoholic Anonymous.   Of the twelve, the first three are the most vital and critical.  They deal with what John the Baptist is talking about in the call to repentance.  So, substituting the word sin for the word alcohol the steps are:

1 – We  admitted we were powerless over sin – that our lives had become unmanageable.  As Pope Francis himself acknowledges very freely, we confess that we are all sinners.  We need more than what our will power provides us.  The truth of our lives is that we are not lone rangers.  Left to ourselves, we become entangled in demons that keep us from placing Christ at the center of our lives.

2 – Came to believe in a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.  That power is the merciful love of Jesus of which we are the generous recipients.  May we all value the grace offered to us in the sacrament of reconciliation.  May this Advent be all about our journey back to God.

3 – Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him.   God’s grace is freely offered to each and every one of us, but we need to make the decision to yes to the plan for our lives.  We have the wonderful example of Mary who we celebrate in a special way on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception this Thursday.  Mary said:  “I am the servant of the Lord.  Be it done to me according to your Word.”

Mary is our example of John the Baptist’s call of repentance.  When Mary said yes to the plan of God for her life, she made the decision to live out God’s plan for her life, rather than providing for her security and comfort. 

Each year the church marks the season of Advent as a time to nourish hope in God’s kingdom.  During these four weeks, we open the Word of God to hear anew God’s dream.  Advent is a wonderful time of hope and trusting in God’s promise that a Savior will be born to us who is Christ the Lord.   But for us to make room in our hearts for the Savior, we must heed the call to repentance from John the Baptist.

What spiritual discipline of prayer and service to others is going to characterize your Advent days?

In our Catholic liturgical tradition, we are richly blessed in our sacramental life.  God still illumines our eyes through the light of baptism.  God still opens our ears through His Word.  God frees from what holds us bound in reconciliation.  God feeds us at the table of the Eucharist.  In these ways and many others, we come to experience something of God’s vision for us, and we are empowered to take that vision into the world through acts of justice and mercy.

Advent, like discipleship, calls us to firmer conversion and deeper commitment, it calls us also, and in equal measure, to Christ-like compassion even as we extend God’s mercy to all long after the Jubilee Year of Mercy is done.

If you cannot recognize in another's face the face of your brother or sister, the darkness has not begun to lift and the light has not yet come.

So Advent begins! A new liturgical year begins! A new Lectionary year begins anchored in the Gospel according to Matthew.

The theme of today’s Gospel can be summed in two words:  STAY AWAKE.

Stay Awake – we preachers like to give this good advice to you who listen to us.

In some ways, this Advent theme to stay awake is counterintuitive.  It doesn’t mean “don’t get any sleep.”  Stay awake is certainly not the advice parents give to children when it is time to go to bed.  Staying awake doesn’t mean setting your alarm clock to anticipate this major religious event of the coming of the Day of the Lord.  It can’t have this meaning as the Gospel tells us we do not know the day nor the hour.

To stay awake is to stay awake to the spiritual center that is within each one of us.  To stay awake is to pay attention to that which matters in life, paying attention to the relationships of our lives, paying attention to our relationship with God.  Within us, there is a deeper longing that never goes away.  It is the longing for love.  It is the longing to experience the mystery of God’s love in our life.

In the Gospel, the evangelist Matthew sharpens our awareness that if we live our daily lives actively waiting for the Lord, we will not be caught off-guard when Jesus makes his appearance.  “For at the hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”

We are getting better and better at protecting ourselves and our property from would-be intruders.  Does your home have a burglar alarm?  Do you leave lights on when you are away to give the impressions that someone is home?  Our schools are becoming more and more vigilant in protecting our students from those who would harm them.  Getting on an airplane is becoming more and more of a security event to provide for our safety.  We spend millions, perhaps billions of dollars, for the Department of Homeland Security for the safety we seek to protect ourselves against unwelcome intruders who could come like a thief in the night.

The Advent season is our spiritual Department of Homeland Security to help us recognize the Lord in our midst coming at a time we least expect.  In fact, Advent is more that a season of four weeks.  Advent is a spiritual way of life lived in watchfulness to the God who comes – not just on Christmas but everyday.  The best to get ready for the coming of the Lord is simply to be ready. 

We are to say awake – not just for the next crisis that may or may not appear in our lives.  We are to stay awake to the God who is relentlessly pursuing us in every situation and in every relationship of our lives.

We are not to bucket God’s presence to the heavens; rather, in the ups and downs of our daily life, may we experience the presence of God with us.  May we have an inner resource which speaks to us the mystery of God’s love that is within each one of us.

It goes without saying that the run-up to Christmas is a busy time.  We as a parish hesitate to schedule activities during the Advent season because everyone is too busy.  There are the Christmas cards, Christmas shopping, Christmas parties and decorating the Christmas tree.  There is nothing wrong with this Christmas run-up except that it is all consuming.  In fact, the demands of the Christmas season can be merciless.  There is always more to do and not enough time to do it.

Unfortunately this busyness can put us asleep spiritually.  The rush of the season works against the message of the season.  It is what T. S. Eliot calls living and partly living.

How do we as a parish stay awake during this Advent season?  In the midst of the schedule of all our activities and gatherings, may we be deeply conscious that we are an incarnational people.  In four words:  God is with us.  The light of Christ shatters the darkness of our world.

I have heard the story of a wise old Rabbi who instructed his students by asking questions.  He asked:  “How can a person tell when the darkness ends and the day begins?”  After thinking for a moment, one student replied, “It is when there is enough light to see an animal in the distance and to know if is a sheep or a goat.  Another student ventured, “It is when there is enough light to see a tree, and to tell whether it is a fig or an oak tree.

The old Rabbi gently said:  “No, it is when you can look into a man’s face and recognize him as your brother.  For if you cannot recognize in another’s face the face of your brother or sister, the darkness has not begun to lift and the light has not yet come.

As the old Rabbi suggests, we are to stay awake to the ways that indeed we are all brothers and sisters to each other.  In so doing, we are staying awake to the presence of the Lord in our midst.

The scripture readings for the first Sunday of Advent always look to history’s end.  We look forward to the second coming of Christ.  We are to direct our minds to the Day of Judgment.  Today’s readings invite to focus on the end, not to emphasize our vulnerability but to remember where we are going.

The invitation of Advent is to remember our future so that it will transform our present.  As we look forward to the Second Coming of Christ at history’s end and the end of our lives, we are to stay awake in the present moment for the ways we encounter the Lord.

Staying wake means recognizing that ordinary life is permeated with God’s loving presence.  In the words of the great poet Gerard Manley Hopkins:  “The world is charged with the grandeur of God!

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

Today as we celebrate our family life and our many blessings on this day of Thanksgiving, the Church has us ponder in the Gospel the story of the ten lepers. All ten were cured of a disease that had been eating away their flesh and bones,  that had made them the worst of outcasts and forced them to stay at least 50 feet away from any non-leper, that had compelled them at all times to yell out “unclean!, unclean!,” anytime someone was approaching. Only one of the ten returned to thank the Lord Jesus. Jesus poignantly asks, “Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine?”

But while all ten were cured of the physical leprosy, nine retained a leprosy of the soul, an ingratitude that took for granted the greatest gift they had received in life until then.

There’s a lot that we all have to learn from this scene to help us understand and celebrate better Thanksgiving, because this attitude of the grateful leper was the attitude that marked the pilgrims who celebrated the first day of Thanksgiving.

When the pilgrims lowered the anchor in Plymouth harbor in December 1620, they were filled with hope. They had survived a perilous three-month journey on an inhospitable Atlantic ocean with only one casualty. Their incessant prayers for a safe arrival had been heard. They had finally landed in the new world and were ready to begin a new life.

Little did they know the year that would await them.   Of the 103 that disembarked, more than half would die before winter was over. Governor John Carver, their leader, succumbed quickly to fever. Ten of the seventeen husbands and fathers died. Fourteen of their seventeen wives also perished. The young wife of soon-to-be Governor William Bradford drowned in Plymouth harbor before even reaching shore. Those who avoided the grave remained in grave danger because of fevers, famine and freezing temperatures. Yet they didn’t give up hope.

The fifty-one survivors easily could have looked at the previous eleven months as the worst year of their lives. The reason they were able to thank God so heartily in spite of the suffering they had endured was because they believed those hardships and blessings were both part of God’s providential care. No amount of personal suffering could shake their faith. No amount of hardship could rock their trust in a God whom they knew loved them and was looking over them. They convened full of gratitude on that first Thanksgiving.

I like to think of today, Thanksgiving Day, as a moment which clearly puts life into perspective. Do we have that same spirit of Thanksgiving that marked the grateful leper and the Pilgrims who had survived?   May we approach this day with hearts and souls bursting with thanks to God and to others for all of the blessings we have received, including the crosses and hardships?  Lord God, give us grateful hearts. 

I am mindful every day but especially on this day of Thanksgiving, that there’s a very important dialogue of prayer that happens in the heart of every Mass.  After the priest prays that the Lord be with all present and the people pray that God will be in a special way with the priest to do what God ordained him to do, after the priest commands the people in God’s name to lift up their hearts, the desires and their lives to God and the people reply that they have in fact lifted them up to the Lord, the priest says, “Let us give thanks to the Lord our God” and the people respond, “It is right and just.” The priest then echoes that sentiment saying, “It is right and just, our duty and salvation, always and everywhere to give you thanks, holy Father, almighty and eternal God.”

To give God thanks always and everywhere is the right thing to do, whether we’re perfectly healthy or have leprosy, AIDS, cancer or any other suffering. To give God thanks always and everywhere is the just thing to do even when whether we win or lose the lottery, whether we get a promotion or a pink-slip, whether we are celebrating a wedding or a funeral. To give God thanks always and everywhere is our duty and our salvation. We are saved through thanksgiving! The grateful leper received salvation by faith precisely through his gratitude, not because God makes salvation conditioned on our saying thanks but because if we’re not grateful, if our hearts are hardened, we can’t receive that grace.

The Mass is a school of Thanksgiving where we are trained how to give thanks to God always and everywhere as the right thing to do, as a duty of justice, and as the path to salvation. It’s highly significant that when the first Christians described what they were doing when they got together to “do this in memory” of the Lord, they didn’t called it the celebration of the body and blood of the Lord Jesus. They didn’t call it the Feast of the Lord’s Supper or the Banquet of the Lamb. They called it the Eucharist, from the Greek word, Eucaristein, which means thanksgiving.

 Every time they came together for Mass, it was Thanksgiving Day. It was Thanksgiving during the times of growth and peace. It was Thanksgiving during the times of persecution. But their fundamental approach to the Mass was that it was the greatest way possible for them to thank God for the gift of life, to thank God for so many blessings of family and friends, to thank God for the gift of the Christian faith and the new life and family they had received in baptism, and to thank God for the gift of salvation.

They saw what they were doing as entering into Jesus’ own prayer of Thanksgiving to the Father. To enter into Jesus’ prayer is to become filled with a spirit of Thanksgiving. His prayers were always marked by gratitude. He thanked the Father before the multiplication of the loaves and fish. He thanked the Father for revealing his wisdom to the merest of children instead of to the clever and proud of the world. He thanked the Father before raising Lazarus from the dead. During the Mass, he thanked the Father profusely even before he was to give his own body and blood during the Last Supper. He thanked the Father before he would be crucified because through that sacrifice he would be able to save us all out of love. The Mass is the school in which we enter into Jesus’ own thanksgiving, always and everywhere, to the Father. The Mass is our continual thanksgiving from the rising of the sun to its setting. It is a school that transforms us to be fully Christian and to be Christian is to be grateful.

The Lord has done far more for us than he ever did for the ten lepers or the Pilgrims. Here at Mass he gives us in a concrete way even more than what he gave to the one grateful leper when he said: “your faith has saved you.” This is where we receive salvation-in-the-flesh. No matter what we have experienced in this past year, no matter what hardships we’re still enduring, God comes into our world, to accompany us, to strengthen us, to heal us, to help us.

Our best response is always gratitude.  Thanks be to God.  And so, we gather to give thanks to the Lord our God.

Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.

A retired teacher decided to volunteer at a local hospital and tutor some of the children who were going to be there for an extended period of time.

She was given the name of a 9 y/o boy, named Jimmy.  She called Jimmy’s teacher at his school and got the assignments which his class was studying-- nouns and verbs.  The teacher brought all the material with her to the hospital.

When she arrived, she found out that Jimmy was in the burn unit.  For those of you who don’t know much about burn units, the sights and smells can be overwhelming.  The teacher almost turned around and went home, but she gathered up all of her courage and went inside and introduced herself to Jimmy.  He was not a pretty sight, and he wasn’t responding well to the treatment.

She said, “Hi, Jimmy, my name is Mrs. Smith and I’m going to be your teacher for a while, until you can return to school.  Today, we’re going to learn about nouns and verbs.  It’s very important that a person knows how to speak and write properly”.  After the lesson was over, she told Jimmy that she’d be back in a few days.

Two days later, Mrs. Smith received a phone call from Jimmy’s mother asking if she would be coming to the hospital that day.  Mrs. Smith thought that she had done a poor job with Jimmy and that the mother was calling to tell her not to come back.  “Oh no”, said Jimmy’s mother, “On the contrary.  You have it all wrong.  I don’t know what you said to my son, but, since your visit, Jimmy has been really trying hard to respond to his treatment.  It seems like he has finally decided to live.”                                                                                                                                                               

When Mrs. Smith returned to the hospital, she found Jimmy with his therapist and his mother.  Jimmy said to his mother, “Now I know that I’m going to live.  They wouldn’t send a teacher to teach me nouns and verbs if I was going to die, if I was a lost cause, would they”?

The connection between this story and the Gospel is striking.  God the Father would not send his only begotten Son, Jesus, Christ the King, if we are a lost cause.  He wouldn’t let his son die a miserable death on the cross for us if he didn’t know that some of us would call out to him, as did the good thief --“Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom”.

Many people, unfortunately, only see the negative in their lives.  They have given up.  But Jesus hasn’t given up on us.  He refuses to ever give up on us.  He is Christ the King who loves us.  He loves us to death.  The goal and dream of Jesus is to have us live with him forever.  Our goal and dream should be the same too.  Every other goal and dream is transitory and of very little importance, no matter how important that they may seem at the moment.  They will pass away.

Only eternity and eternal dreams and hopes will remain.  Many of us struggle with the basic fear, “Will I be remembered after I’m gone”.  We try to leave our ‘mark’ while we’re still here.

If we are followers of Christ, we don’t have to worry about being remembered, do we?  Jesus, our Lord and King, will remember us and love us for eternity.  That is the great hope of today’s gospel for us.

This unnamed man, known only to us as the ‘good thief’, is dying for crimes which he committed, whatever they were.  How many people did he swindle or rob?  Who knows?  But, here he was, very close to Jesus on that darkest of days -- Good Friday.   He didn’t know much about Jesus, when he asked to be remembered.  Basically, his future hung in the balance.  This ‘good thief’ knew somehow that his eternal future hung on his faith that Jesus was exactly who he said he was -- the Son of God.  In that faith, he asked simply to be remembered.  He didn’t ask for some mansion in heaven -- just to be remembered.  It is mercy in its purest form that he seeks.

We are that thief, aren’t we?  All of us are sinners, maybe neither better nor worse than that thief on the cross.  There is hope for people like us.  Just a prayer away is the mercy of Christ-- just one prayer away.  This has been the message of the Jubilee Year of Mercy.  Jesus is the face of the Father’s mercy.

This last Sunday of the Church year challenges us to decide -- who is our king?  What are the goals and dreams that we should really be working and sacrificing for?  May we pray for each other that we are all centered in our faith that Jesus is the Lord and King of our lives.  We believe that nothing, not even death, can steal the dream of his kingdom from us.  This day Christ the King isn’t just the conclusion of the Church year.  It’s a sign of our hope.  We are one prayer away from being immersed in the mercy of Jesus.  “Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 

Have a blessed day.

Just rermember that far beneath the winter snow lies the seed that in the spring becomes the rose.

As we head toward the end of the liturgical year, the evangelist Luke uses apocalyptic language to describe the end of the world.  We are confronted with the end of our own life and the judgement of God.  At first glance, today’s Gospel is not a feel-good Gospel of the merciful love of Jesus.

It leaves us ill at ease and puzzled about the end of the world.  The evang0elist says:  “Nation will fight against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.   There will be great earthquakes and plagues and famines here and there; there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven.”

At the time of Jesus, the Jerusalem Temple was an architectural masterpiece admired by Jews and Gentiles alike.  Imagine the shock effect of hearing Jesus declare that this grand building is headed for total destruction.  It will end up as nothing more than rubble.

We would be alarmed if these words were spoken about St Joseph’s Church.  We have sacrificed much to build this Church – this magnificent organ, our baptismal font, our beautiful stained glass windows, our beautiful mosaic.  We are attached to it.

The people who were present with Jesus were attached to their temple and all of its magnificence.  But Jesus admonished them not to be too attached to this external structure.

During times of adversity, Jesus was directing his disciples to focus on a more important Temple – the Temples of the Spirit.  Temples of the Spirit are being built for eternity.  Through baptism we become incorporated into Christ and become temples of the Holy Spirit.

We have within us the wellspring of eternal life; we have within us the spirit of Christ Jesus.  We are the Temples of the Holy Spirit.  We reverence the tabernacle in which the Eucharistic Christ is present.  We are to reverence the tabernacle of our own souls in which God dwells.  This presence within us will live beyond all the challenges of life and even beyond the death of our earthly life.

Yes, there will be adversity in life – struggles and suffering.  Some of this adversity will be the result of the forces of nature – earthquakes, fires, and flood.  Some adversity will be caused by brokenness in relationships.  Some setbacks will be caused by ourselves when our inner demons get the best of us.

But the meaning of the scriptural apocalyptic language is a story of hope in the midst of adversity.  In a word, God goes with us.  God is always a merciful, forgiving God -- not a hair on your head will be lost.  The fact that we face sometimes more than our share of issues to be dealt with that leave us vulnerable and potentially feeling hopeless does not contradict our deep faith in a merciful, forgiving God.  Please God we can continue to trust even when we feel very, very vulnerable.

The message of the crucified Christ which is in the center of our sanctuary and is at the center of our faith life is a story of hope in the midst of the challenges of life.  The most significant challenge we face as the disciples of Jesus is to trust that there is a way forward to the struggles we face.  In fact, the setbacks of life can and hopefully do lead us to trust more fully in God’s promise that the cross is our pathway to sharing more fully in the risen life of Jesus.

Yes, today’s scriptures at the end of our liturgical year invite us to consider our own mortality – what happens when we die; are we prepared to face God’s judgement?  Somehow, some way, we have to deal with the truth that we are going to die.  For those of us in the second half of life, this reality of our own death is more on our radar screen.

One of the deep truths of our Christian faith is that only when we do not fear death can we truly begin to live.  We live life with the end in mind.  We live with the faith that in dying we are born to eternal life.

How do we prepare for the final judgment of God when our time on earth comes to an end?   We do this best when we recognize the inbreaking of God in our daily life.  Our first encounter with God is not at our death; rather God seeks to encounter us this day.  How we deal with the little deaths of life is how we prepare to encounter the loving mercy of God ultimately.  The little deaths of life are all the setbacks, the disappointments, the times we have been misunderstood and treated unfairly.

Yes, it is easier said than done.  Yes, l can get very anxious when I am not in control of my destiny.  Yes, I get disappointed in the face of the hardship and unfairnesses of life, but I trust that our loving God wishes to keep me centered in His love in both the green pastures and the dark valleys of life.  I pray every day of my life for the gift of inner peace that is God’s precious gift to you and to me.  How did Mother Theresa of Calcutta stayed centered in her ministry in the midst of so much poverty and hardship.  She knew on the inside the gift of peace, the wellspring of God’s life that was within her.

God’s judgment of us will not be feared if we can trust in God’s merciful and forgiving love that is given to us each and every day of our life.  God never takes a vacation in his love for us.  Even though there are situations in life that leave us fearful and vulnerable, may we still hope and trust in the merciful love of Jesus goes with us.

God even uses Mother Nature to remind us of the story of hope in the midst of adversity.   This time of year is a time of dying, but this reality doesn’t have to be terrifying.  As the leaves fall from the trees and have died, as the days grow shorter and the hours of darkness increase, we are very much aware of the change of seasons and the cycle of life.  But as was inscribed in the haunting song of Bette Midler’s THE ROSE:  “Just remember that far beneath the winter snow lies the seed that in the spring becomes the rose.”

Have a blessed day.

What are you willing to die for? What happens when we die?

I recently heard two teenage girls commenting on a rather good-looking guy that had their undivided attention:  “Isn’t he just gorgeous?  He’s to die for.”  (They weren’t talking about me.)

So my question for you today is:  “Just what are you willing to die for?”  I realize this is a rather heavy question, especially if you haven’t had your first cup of coffee this morning.  This is the question the Scriptures invite us to consider.  Just what is big enough, important enough that I would give my life for it?

As we edge toward the end of another liturgical year and the beginning of Advent, the Scriptures address our deepest fears and offer our profoundest hope.  What happens when you die?

In the first Scripture reading from the Book of Maccabees:  “It happened that seven brothers with their mother were arrested and tortured with whips and scourges by the king to force them to eat pork in violation of God’s law.  One of the brothers, speaking for the others, said:  “What do you expect to achieve by questioning us?  We are ready to die rather than transgress the law of our ancestors.”

The brothers and their mother had drawn a line in the sand.   Their trust and faith in God was that important to them.  Their trust in a resurrection faith was non-negotiable.  It was to die for.

The Scriptures today invite to reflect on the lives of people who place God first in their lives.

This weekend we are not only moving toward the end of the liturgical year, we are called to pray about and ask for the wisdom of God as we prepare to vote this Tuesday for our nation’s leaders.  We ask the questions:  how does our faith influence our political life; how do we act on the conviction that we desire to place God first in our lives; how best do we hold sacred our deepest values on the dignity of all human life; and how best are we as a nation to preserve the beautiful and sacred values that we most treasures as Americans?   Abortion is the termination of human life.  This is a most important political question.  I would have you expand on Abortion – the ending of human life – to see Abortion in terms of War, Poverty, Euthanasia, and the Death Penalty.  These too are situations that terminate human life.  Even more than party loyalties, may we vote this Tuesday for the candidates who best reflect our core human and spiritual values.  May we hold in prayer the voters of this nation and the leaders we elect.

Additionally, this is our annual Stewardship Commitment Sunday.  There is a second collection today in which we are asking you to place your stewardship commitment card indicating your stewardship to time, talent, and treasure.  If, by the slightest chance, you did not bring your stewardship commitment card this morning, all is not lost.  There are extra cards in the pews, and we ask that you take a couple of moments before the collection to put your name on one of the cards and fill it out and place in the second collection.

I invite you to think about your commitment to stewardship and filling out a commitment card in the context of placing God first in your life.  The choices we make reflect our level of commitment.  It may seem that prayer, service, and finances, that is, a stewardship of time, talent, and treasure is a demanding commitment.  Know that the Scriptures place our stewardship commitment in the context of our ultimate stewardship – to give our whole life back to God.  As proclaimed in the first Scripture reading from the Book of Maccabees, the stewardship of the brothers and their mother was not just 10%; it is about giving our whole life back to God.  We belong to God.  How much of ourselves can we afford to give? 

The Gospel answer to that question is clear and unmistakable.  As long as our loving continues to give to us, we are never to stop giving in the service of one another.

If we our honest in embracing a commitment to a spirituality to stewardship, we as a parish have room for improvement.  Last year we had less than a 100 families hold themselves accountable to a stewardship commitment.   As of this date, we have only 186 families who have contributed to the Diocesan Catholic Ministries Appeal.  Yes, there is room for improvement.

Thanks be to God.  I am an eternal optimist.  But Jesus is clear on the message that the way we place God first in our lives is the love we have for one another.  Jesus said:  “All shall that you are my disciples by the love you have for one another.”  We ask for your support so that together as the Faith Community of the Church of the Holy Spirit, we reflect a spirituality of stewardship in which we affirm that God is first in our lives; that we gather at this mystery of the Eucharist to give thanks to the Lord our God; and that we go forth from this Church in peace to glorify God by living a life of stewardship in our love and service of one another.

The Sundays of November bring us to the conclusion of the Church Year and the conclusion of the year of mercy.  Today’s readings also call to our minds the conclusion of our own years on earth.  The mystery of life and death, like holy twins, reside within each one of us.  Both of these holy twins have voices for those who have ears willing to listen.  Death speaks of the urgency of growing one’s soul larger and larger by acts of love.

The spirituality of stewardship enables us to live with grateful and generous hearts that call us to share our blessings with one another.

Have a blessed day.

As with Zacchaeus, what tree do I need to climb in order to encounter the Lord more deeply?

During this jubilee year of mercy, we are invited to pray over the Gospel through the lens of mercy.  The story of Zacchaeus is our story as well.  How does the Lord encounter you in your life?  As was the case of Zacchaeus, what would it take for you to realize that you need the Lord?

It is worth noting in this Gospel account that both Jesus and Zacchaeus sought each other out.  Zacchaeus climbed the sycamore tree to get a better vantage point from which to see Jesus.  In turn, Jesus called forth Zacchaeus by name saying:  “Zacchaeus, come down quickly for today I must stay at your house.”  The joy is palpable between them.

The back story on Zacchaeus:  He was an unloved sinner.  He is not an attractive person.  He worked for the enemy as a Roman tax collector.  He had become a wealthy man, perhaps by overtaxing the poor.  His physical smallness matched the low esteem in which he was held. 

There was shadiness to this tax collector’s life.  He was a marked and hated by his fellow Jews.  Zacchaeus had taken advantage of people.  Then, and this is such a significant in his faith journey, there was a moment of awareness in Zacchaeus that is lifestyle led to loneliness and greediness.  He was coming to the awareness that there was more to life than getting rich by taking advantage of people. 

At this point, Zacchaeus just wanted to see Jesus.  And so, he climbed the sycamore tree hoping to catch a glimpse of Jesus who was going to be passing by.

The second  significant moment of grace in this Gospel account is when Jesus stopped and caught sight of Zacchaeus in the sycamore tree.  Jesus looked into his heart with love and invited him down as Jesus wished to come to his house today.  Zacchaeus, at that moment, experienced himself as loved by the Lord.  This beautiful moment of encounter with the Lord was a conversion moment in Zacchaeus.  Nothing would ever be the same.

This is our story as well when we experience ourselves as being loved by the Lord.  Nothing is ever the same.

Now notice the sharp contrast between Zacchaeus as he is the recipient of the Lord’s extravagant mercy and unconditional forgiveness, and the crowd of the so-called righteous who grumbled judgmentally at God’s mercy.   In this Gospel account, Jesus desired to save not only the sinner Zacchaeus, but Jesus wanted also to save the people who were so ready to condemn Zacchaeus.  As a sinner’s home became salvation’s house for Zacchaeus, Jesus was directing this message to the religious leaders of his day that God is extravagant in mercy and unconditional in the forgiveness of sins.  Instead of anger and violence and judgment, they are to proclaim to one and all the merciful love of God to people in need.

Who are the lost in the Gospel today?  Is it Zacchaeus who rejoices in the compassion and forgiveness of Jesus or is it the righteous who grumble that Jesus is staying at the house of a sinner?

Jesus is inviting Zacchaeus to experience repentance and to move forward into life and the fullness of life.  The folks who were accompanying Jesus were left grumbling at God’s mercy.

Where do find ourselves in this Gospel account as we gather for this celebration of the Eucharist.  Are we aware of our need to encounter the Lord as did Zacchaeus or are we more focused on our judgments on the worthiness or unworthiness of others?  Are we scandalized by the extravagance in which Jesus reaches out to others?

In the Gospel, Zacchaeus’ conversion journey began with his awareness that he wanted more of life that what his wealth provided him.  He had been isolated by his greed and wealth.  He wanted to experience the love he saw in the followers of Jesus.  This awareness of his need for the healing and forgiving love of God provides the fertile soil to experience the extravagance of God’s mercy.

As we gather for Eucharist, please God we too have that awareness of our need for God’s healing love.  If you recall last Sunday’s Gospel about another tax collector, his simple prayer:  “Lord, be merciful to me a sinner.”  Do we come before the Lord in a spirit of humility? 

I invite you as pray over this Gospel is to ask yourself the question:  What tree do I need to climb in order to encounter the Lord more deeply in my life? 

Maybe we need to climb the tree of humility.  What would that look like?  Beginning with ourselves, are we aware that the Lord already looks into our hearts with great love?  Do we believe that we are God’s beloved?  Do we love ourselves as God loves us?  There came to Zacchaeus that desire to encounter the Lord.  May we too have that awareness as we celebrate the Eucharist this morning?

Do we need to confess that there is a bit too much righteousness in us that leads us to grumble when others are showered with the extravagance of God’s love?   Are we a tad resentful with others that they don’t deserve the good fortune that our extravagant God provides them?

As we imagine ourselves as Zacchaeus in the Gospel account, may we be in touch with that side of ourselves that struggles to accept God’s unconditional love.  Initially it was Zacchaeus who was seeking Jesus.  Now Jesus is seeking Zacchaeus.  Jesus makes the bold proclamation:  Today salvation has come to this house.”  To put this in our language:  “Zach” got saved.  He was born again!

The power of this liturgy is that Jesus is speaking these same words to the Church of St. Joseph in Penfield, NY:  “Today salvation has come to this house.”

Z

Like Zacchaeus, may we live our lives with transformed hearts—taking the risk of being loved and healed and forgiven by the Lord.

O God, be merciful to me a sinner.

When the late Benedictine Cardinal Basil Hume learned that he had terminal cancer, he specified that this Gospel of the Pharisee and the Publican was to be the Gospel for his funeral liturgy.  When asked why, the Cardinal explained:  Two short months ago when I learned of my terminal cancer, I was at first temped to think “If only”…”if only” I could start all over again, I would be a much better monk, a much better abbot, and a much better bishop.  But then on second thought how much better to come before God not to say thank you that I was such a good monk, a good abbot, a good bishop, but rather I simply want to say to the Lord: “O God. Be merciful to me a sinner.”  For If I come empty-handed, then I will be ready to receive God’s gift of his merciful love.

Indeed, this beautiful Gospel can make every day of our life a jubilee of mercy.   May we come before the Lord not impressed by our own accomplishments, but rather in a spirit of humility we are loved and healed and forgiven by the merciful love of Jesus.

The unspoken question in today’s Gospel:  which of the two:  the Pharisee or the publican tax collector are you?  In our personal inventory of the actions of our lives, there is probably a bit of the Pharisee and a bit of the publican in all of us.

The Pharisees were for the most part religious people.  Most of the people held them in high esteem.  We can point to many accomplishments in our lives.  Many “I” statements:  I succeeded in school; I make good money; I know the right people; I support the Church and charitable causes; I once worked in a soup kitchen.

If you listen closely to the Pharisee’s prayer, he really isn’t speaking to God, the evangelist Luke says:  “He spoke this prayer to himself.”  He probably was one of those churchy types whose very presence makes you aware that you don’t measure up.   

In contrast, the publican comes empty handed before the Lord and simply says:  “O God be merciful to me a sinner.”  This weekend we are welcoming into our First Reconciliation preparation process many, many of our younger parishioners.  They are beautiful, beautiful boys and gifts.  They are God’s beloved, but they are not perfect just as you and I are not perfect.  We are teaching them to pray the beautiful heartfelt prayers of the publican:  “O God be merciful to me a sinner.”  This prayer does not lessen their self-esteem; rather this prayer makes them even more beautiful before our loving and forgiving God.

Today we celebrate annual Stewardship Commitment Sunday.  We are asking you to place your stewardship commitment card in the second collection today.  If you neglected to bring the commitment card with you today, all is not lost.  We invite  you to use one of the commitment cards in the pews today.  Simple write your name on the card and your  stewardship commitment of time, talent, and treasure.

Let me quick to say in the light of today’s Gospel, we are not trying to turn you into a proud Pharisee by which you list all of your proud accomplishments on the commitment card.  That is not the intent.  Rather we are to follow the example of Cardinal Hume and Pope Francis, we come before the Lord empty handed and trust that we will be the recipients of the extravagant merciful love of Jesus;

We come empty-handed before the Lord because we have spent ourselves in the service and love of others.  We make a generous commitment of time, talent, and treasure because we already are the recipients of the merciful of Jesus, and we are told by the Lord himself to share what we have been given.  As a disciple of the Lord Jesus, we cannot not give of ourselves in praise of God and in service of one another.

Please God we do not consider our plate as already too filled to be available for others.  As long as the Lord keeps on loving us, we are to keep on loving others -- in gratitude for the love we have received.

As previously mentioned, we will now give you a few minutes to fill out the stewardship commitment card and then to place it in the second collection which will be for the purpose of collecting the commitment cards.  Again, a reminder to put your name on the commitment cards.

If you have your commitment card already filled out, praise God.  Take these three minutes to be still in the presence of our God.

   

My funeral homily for my very good friend, Father Ray Booth

Our heartfelt loving support goes to Fr Ray's sister-in-law Ellie and Fr Ray’s nieces Karen and Mary Ellen and his nephew Paul, grand nieces and nephews, and great grand nieces and nephews.  Our heartfelt loving support goes to the faith community of St. Louis, his spiritual home for the last 17 years.  This altar and this sanctuary has been such a part of my prayer life as well.  Additionally, my friendship goes to his and my fellow priests and to our beloved Bishop Matano who expressed such beautiful pastoral care to Fr Ray especially in his time of illness.  Welcome to everyone.  Fr. Ray’s death does not extinguish the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.  He now shares in the fullness of light.

Bishop Matano, I will ask you at the outset to grant me a little relief from the liturgical police if this homily strays a bit into words of remembrance.  I will try my very best but I loved this man, Fr Ray Booth, so very, very much.  Mind you, we are both Germans, we were not huggers, we were not given to saying” I love you” to each other.  Did I mention we are hard-headed Germans?  But he has been such a gift to my priesthood and to my life.  I will never be able to thank him for all that he has meant to me.

The Scriptures Ray chose for his funeral were well chosen, of course.  I’m only sorry he did not include one of his numerous funny stories at the beginning of his homily.   Some of them were actually funny.  

The Scriptures today describe beautifully why Ray Booth was such an inspiring priest – one who was a profound mentor for me in my 48 years as a priest.

The first Scripture reading was from the first letter of John.  We read:  “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”  The first key to Father Ray’s priesthood was that he was simply a person who loved people.  In the way he loved, he revealed to us God who is love.  His friendship with me and to all of us was so giving and unselfish.  In June of 1980, when Father Ray was the pastor of St Christopher’s, he invited to me live at St Christopher’s rectory as I was a young special worker, the diocesan Ministry to Priest Director.  His love and friendship and sense of humor were so infectious.  We so enjoyed giving each other the business.  This was back in the day when St Christoper was removed from the ranks of the formally canonized saints.  I used to give Ray a hard time saying that he was the pastor of the only Church of the diocese that was not named after a saint.  I referred to the parish as Mr. Christopher. 

In June of 1999, I returned the favor to Father Ray and invited him to live at St Louis rectory as a senior priest.  I think the parishioners of St Louis will agree that this one of the smartest decisions I made in my 12 wonderful years as pastor.  He enjoyed the penthouse suite at the rectory.  Although I was a more experienced priest at this time, he was still the face of Jesus to me in helping to understand the meaning of priesthood.

Lest you think I am trying to canonize Father Ray at this moment.  I would say, as you know,  many priests are famous for bringing parishioners to the beautiful shrines around the world:  Fatima, Lourdes, Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Holy Land, St Peter’s Basilica in Rome.  Fr Ray’s preferred shrine is in Saratoga Springs – the famous racetrack.  He prided himself as being a pretty good handicapper of the ponies.

In the second Scripture reading,  Paul writes:  “Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, not things present, nor things to come can separate from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

I mentioned the first key to Father Ray’s priesthood was that he was a beautiful human being – such a good friend to one and all.  The second key was his deep spirituality.  He was a prayerful and faith-filled disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Nothing separated him from the love of God.  In our younger days, Ray and I and our support group of priests enjoyed winter ski vacations for many moons out West and in Europe.  We called them pre-lenten pilgrimages.  As we got older, we traded in our skis for golf clubs and enjoyed golfing vacations in Puerto Rico.

We would begin each day with the Liturgy of the Hours.  One of our favorite lines in the 95^th psalm – the invitatory psalm.    Looking out on the ocean we prayed:  “He made the sea.  It belongs to Him.”  Looking out at the ocean was a genuine retreat setting for us.   To pray the psalms together, to celebrate the Eucharist together gave me such a beautiful view into his contemplative faith-filled spirit.

To this day, every time I pray that 95^th psalm:  “He made the sea; it belongs to me.”  I think of Ray and am reminded of the God moments we shared together.

Even in his last days when he experienced such restlessness, when he was so sleep deprived,  when it would break your heart to see him so restless, nothing would separate him from the love of God in Christ Jesus.  Father Ray enjoyed life.  We shared so many, many laughs together, but know in the depth of his soul, he was a deeply spiritual priest, he was a soul friend to so many;  he was a gifted preacher of God;   He celebrated Mass with such faith-filled conviction;  he was a Christ-like minister to people;  he was loved by everyone who knew him.  He was a priest’s priest.  Fr Ray was a prayerful priest who loved being a priest and who loved to serve people and he loved to wash the feet of God’s poor as Jesus commanded us.

 At the motherhouse of the Sisters of St Joseph where he spent his last days, along with Therese Lynch his dear, dear friend for 50 years, we celebrated the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick with Ray.  It was such a God moment for Therese and I to pray the Our Father with Ray (we added the Hail Mary for good measure).    Then I somehow knew  all will be well.  Therese, although you seek no recognition and probably are mad at me for mentioning your name, your goodness to Fr Ray will  be a source of your salvation.  This I know from the depth of my being.

The Gospel proclaims the presence of the Risen Lord to the foundational disciples Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Peter and John and then the two disciples on the way to Emmaus.  In this Resurrection liturgy, we rejoice in the presence of the Risen Lord with Fr Ray Booth and the presence of the Risen Lord to all of us who mourn his going home to God.

The Risen Lord appeared to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus as a stranger in their midst listening and asking them questions.  As those of us who knew Fr Ray, he too was such a good listener, loved to asked questions, loved to provoke a little dialogue, and tease a bit as well but he revealed the presence of the Risen Lord to the many, many people he ministered  to in his 59 years as a priest.

In his words and the way he lived, Ray proclaimed the joy of the Risen Lord.   In the words of Pope Francis, the joy of the gospel was part of his DNA.  As the disciples said to one another:  “Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way,  and while he opened to us the Scriptures?”

In the Gospel account, Jesus appeared as a stranger to the disciples and they failed to recognized him initially.  In our friendship with Fr Ray, we recognize him easily, his ready smile, his great sense of humor, his care and love of each of us.  He was not a stranger to us but rather a good, good friend.  My connection with the Emmaus account, there were and are times when I had trouble recognizing the stranger in my midst – the Risen Lord.  It was Ray’s friendship that help give me  the spiritual sightedness to recognize the presence of the Risen Lord in our lives.  Thank you, Fr Ray, for your priestly ministry in leading all of us to the Lord.

As we transition into the liturgy of the Eucharist, I am so grateful that Fr Ray and I and so many of you are Catholic, the best way for us to grieve the loss of this good friend and faith-filled priest is to do what he did all his life from the day of his First Communion 80 years ago.   May we give thanks to the Lord our God in this mystery of the Eucharist, and may we be fed and nourished at the Table of the Lord with the Bread of Life and Cup of Salvation.

I love you, Father Ray.  More importantly, welcome into the mystery of God’s immense love for you.  We will see you again.