Is there room in the inn of our hearts for Jesus to enter?

NEW YEAR’S DAY  2019

FEAST OF MARY THE MOTHER OF GOD

The life of Jesus began with Mary at the Bethlehem crib.  Therefore it is most appropriate we begin the New Year with Mary on this her feast day of Mary the Mother of God.  With the example and the intercession of Mary, may we be filled with opportunity after opportunity to say YES to the plan of God for our lives.

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.  We resolve to devote more time to family life; we resolve to work more efficiently; and we people decide to become healthier by dieting and exercising.

In the midst of this beautiful Christmas season, may I suggest a New Year’s resolution for all of us to ponder -- not just on Christmas but throughout all of 2019.

Reflecting on the Christmas mystery, imagine yourself as the inn keeper who decides if there is room in the inn of your heart for Jesus?  I invite you to ponder this resolution question again and again in 2019?  Does the way I live my life reflect there is room for Jesus within me.

Do I make time for daily prayer?  Is there is room in the inn of my heart for Jesus if I am too busy to pray even for a few minutes each day?

Do I have time to be present to my family, to friends, to neighbors?  Is there room in the inn of my heart for Jesus if I am too busy to be present and really listen to people?

Do I use and share the God-given talents and resources that I have to serve and minister in the lives of others?  Is there in the inn of my heart to serve Jesus as HE is discovered in the lives of those around us?

How do I make a difference in the lives of the poor and people in need both in our community and in our world?  Is there room in the inn of my heart for Jesus if I do not reach out in service to people in need?

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 2019:  “I am the servant of the Lord.  Be it done to me according to thy word.”

The evangelist Luke in today’s Gospel describe the shepherds at the Bethlehem telling Mary and Joseph all that the angel had told them about this child.  Luke then writes:  “Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.  In contrast to the frenzy of our celebrations on New Years’ Eve, Mary pondered in silence and stillness in the Bethlehem crib. 

If we want to celebrate Christmas 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, and the tender affection with which he is wrapped in his swaddling clothes.  This is where God is.

New Year’s Eve has an almost carnival-like atmosphere to it.  To celebrate it, we do all sorts of things:  enjoy parties, watch football games, drink champagne, toast new beginnings, wear crazy heats, set off fireworks, kiss and hug old friends, and watch the ball drop from Times Square.

For me personally, I officiated at a wedding at St. Louis Church this afternoon, and I will be going to the wedding reception this evening at the winter garden in the Bausch and Lomb building down town.  I’m sure it will be very festive, and I will enjoy it.

Following the example of Mary in the Gospel account, I know that I listen best when I also make the effort to go to that quiet place to hear God speaking to me.  I seek to take the side of God in the battle between life and destruction, between light and darkness.

Mary pondered and wondered and discerned about all that had puzzled her in the message of the angels and in the gifts of the magi.  Yes, there was uncertainty and questions for Mary and Joseph as they pondered the messages given to them about their son.  But her uncertainly about the messages given to her by the shepherds and the Magi did not keep her from reflecting and pondering about God’s plan for her life. 

In our personal life with our hopes and dreams for 2019, may we encounter Jesus in these hopes and dreams.  In the midst of these hopes and dreams, we need to ponder on the meaning of the Bethlehem crib.  We need to bow down, to humble ourselves, and to make ourselves small.  We need to go where God is.

Jesus enters our life to give us His life; he comes into our world to give us His love.  In 2019 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 our lives.

Have a blessed day and a blessed New Year.                                       

Our families are not perfect, but we need to ponder what makes a family a holy family.

Feast of the Holy Family  C  2018

The feast of the Holy Family offers the opportunity to reflect on the mystery of family life. In reality, every family and community share the perplexing, frustrating, demanding challenge the evangelist Luke described. Put most simply, Mary and Joseph faced the difficult discovery that Jesus was not going along with them every step of the way. It is a real story of a family conflict and is symbolic of all kinds of relationships.

Every family and community have its share of the challenges summarized here. We know what it is like when family members do not go along with us on the journey. When Mary and Joseph confronted Jesus in the Temple, they confronted the fact that he would have to discover his own path in life. No matter what they might hope for him, he did not belong to them.

On Christmas afternoon, I had the wonderful opportunity of gathering with my large extended family at my nephew’s Justin and Kate’s home in Avon.  Our extended family is not just the idealistic home of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.  Rather, our family life is composed of many, many blessings and many, many challenges.  This was the first Christmas for my sister Anne after her husband Larry has gone home to God.  One of my nieces is a single mom.  Another niece is coping with her husband’s serious illness – a brain tumor.  Other family members are discovering the mystery of their own sexuality.

What draws us together with so much joy?  Our love for one another.  Again, this is not to say that this love for one another does not have our share of challenges.

So you can ask if our family and your family is a holy family?  For sure, our families are not perfect, but we need to ponder on what makes a family a holy family.

The Gospel account of the Holy Family reminds us that love is rooted in profound reverence for the mystery of the other. Such reverence cultivates profound respect for the other’s mysterious freedom. In that, we learn to desire that the other will become who they are meant to be rather than what we would have them be.

The challenge for every parent as your children grow into adulthood is to allow and love your children into becoming who they are meant to be rather than what we would have them be.

In today’s Gospel, Luke tells us that Mary and Joseph were a day’s journey out of Jerusalem when they discovered that Jesus was not with them. Luke describes their consternation as they looked among the people they journeyed with but did not find him. But according to Luke, they did not return to search all over Jerusalem, checking out the markets and recreation spots that might have interested a budding adolescent. They went to the Temple and found their curious child listening to the scholars who spoke of the things of God.

They knew their son and had a good idea where they might find him. They understood him; they were his first teachers. As they taught him what every child needs to learn, they had seen his fascination with the things of God — which for him included everything.

The feast of the Holy Family invites us to celebrate our relationships with those we love most deeply. It reminds us that the greatest gift we can give others is to respect and nurture their freedom to become all God has created them to be. Whether it is with children, spouses, siblings or members of our communities, we know it will not be easy. But with Mary, we can pray, “Dear God! You never warned me!” and remember the only assurance she was ever given: “Nothing will be impossible for God.”

Shakespeare said it well: "The way of true love never did go smooth.”  All families have a bit of the zigzagged messiness in the relationships with our extended family.  We are not perfect, don’t you know.

But the Christmas mystery we continue to celebrate is that God is with us and God is to be found in our family life and therefore our family is a holy family.  God had chosen to be born and live in the beauty and the craziness of our family life.

A beautiful God moment for me in our Christmas family celebration was when my five year old grand-niece was having a melt-down.  She was in tears.  I have no idea of what was causing the melt-down.  But I was observing her in the arms of her loving mom who simply was listening and loving her daughter.  Knowing that she was loved and listened to and understood by her mom made everything ok for my grand-niece.  She then went back being the life of the party.

I said to myself that’s what family is – a place in which you receive love and acceptance you don’t have to earn.  You are just simply loved into life.  This was such a God moment for me.  Where there is love in family, there is God.  God is love.  Love makes a family a holy family.

That Gospel should also remind us that Jesus came to create a much larger family than the holy trio of Jesus Mary and Joseph. He was about his Father’s business; he was sent to reconcile all people to God and to one another.

Any healthy family finds its love spilling beyond the household to many others, and the more a family grows in love, the wider that circle of love becomes.  We are gifted with our natural families, but we are called to expand our hearts to include all our brothers and sisters who share this planet.

The Feast of the Holy Family is a Christmas feast in which Jesus seeks to be the light that overcomes the darkness.  Ultimately this feast is a story about being at home with our God.  What would it take for us to imagine that we belong to a global family in which we all are brothers and sisters.  Christ has come to be the Savior of all of humanity, and are called as a global family to speak the language of love to one another.

Is this an impossible dream?  I pray that with God all things are possible.

Have a Blessed Day.

In the inn of our hearts, there is an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying a manger.

           CHRISTMAS 2018

Last Wednesday evening was a moment of experiencing the Christmas mystery.  God was in our midst.  The children of St Joseph’s School were the bearers of the Christmas mystery in the school concert.  Our children in singing the very familiar Christmas music radiated the joy and mystery of Christmas for me.

It is by God’s design that our children are the beacons of God’s light and love.  When the Lord of history, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, broke the silence of the centuries and spoke in the darkness of that first Christmas night, he spoke through a vulnerable infant in a manger.

Going back to the school’s Christmas concert, what was my part in this beautiful, inspiring Christmas concert?  I simply listened – listened with my ears and listened with my heart.

I speak of the value of listening because listening is such an important dimension of the Christmas story, and listening is such an important component of the spiritual journey of each one of us.

When the angel Gabriel arrives to bring Mary the news that she will bear a child…she listens.

When the angel tells Joseph in his dreams what is about to happen…he listens.

The shepherds listen when the angel announces the “good news of great joy.”

In the passage immediately following this, they go out and tell the world what they have seen.

And the world listens.

Two thousand years later, we confront this stunning message – “Silent Night, Holy Night,” as the Christmas hymn describes it – and our hearts swell with the sentiment of the season.

We hear. But are we paying attention? Are we listening?

Christmas invites us to listen. To listen for God’s messengers. To listen for His good news.

And what good news it is: that God is with us! That we are no longer alone. That He has come into our lives, and into our world. “The grace of God has appeared,” Paul writes. Or as Isaiah puts it so beautifully: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.”

This is the news we have been waiting for.

The news all of humanity has been listening for.

Think of how Christmas comes to us – if only we listen for it.

It comes to us with angels singing and an infant in a manger.

It comes to us with the clang of bells, a blare of trumpets. The rip of wrapping paper. The laughter of loved ones around the table.

We are to listen to the many ways the Christmas is spoken to us.

It comes on Christmas Eve, when a recovering alcoholic walks by a bar, and hears the laughter inside – but keeps on walking.

It is also there in the silence, when the one who used to share your life and your home is no longer there, and you find your heart full of sorrow and longing and memory – and into that, unexpectedly, comes Christmas. Quietly. Gently. Whispering with the angels: “Rejoice. Rejoice, because we are not alone. God is with us. Emmanuel.”

It comes to us as a family member shares that he or she wishes to live out one’s sexuality in a way that is different than your way.  May we be people who listen as did the shepherds to whom the angels wish to announce good news of a great joy to be shared by all people. 

It comes to me and to you in our disillusionment with the priests of our Church when they put children in harm’s way.  Even in this dark experience of Church, the light of Christ overcomes the darkness. 

May we listen to the Good News that today in David’s city and in your hearts and in your family, a Savior has been born who is Christ and Lord.

My friends, on this miraculous night, the message I want to leave with you is so simple: Listen. With your ears. And with your heart. Our salvation has been announced. What will we do with it?

Twenty centuries ago, shepherds listened, and told the world what they heard. Today we are the shepherds who listen to the Good News of the great joy that is to be shared.  We are the ones chosen to hear His good news – and to pass it on. It is news of wonder and hope. Of light breaking through darkness.

It is the sound of music filling the heavens. Of Hallelujahs in our hearts.

Listen for it. Surrender to the joy. Carry it with you out into the night.

In the inn of our hearts, there is an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.  God is within us.  We give birth to Christ when we listen to the voice of the Christ child within us.  We are to share the Good News of the love of Jesus that is within us to our family, to our parish family, and to all of creation.

The message of Christmas is that Jesus comes for people in dark places.  The real, lasting, and deep joy of Christmas is that light shines in the darkness.   The Christmas story affirms that whatever happens, the light still shines.  Because of Christmas, it will never get so dark that you can’t see the light.

Yes, we have fears.  Yes, there is much messiness.  There is death; there is the diagnosis that frightens us; there is loneliness when relationships are broken.  But may we listen again to the Christmas story that is ageless and needs to be told again and again.  The Christmas story affirms that whatever happens, the light of Christ still shines.  Because of Christmas, it will never get so dark that you can’t see the light.

As we listen to the child wrapped in swaddling clothes that is within us, we can speak the language of love to each other, we share our giftedness with one another, and we gather around the Table of the Lord in awe and mystery to give thanks to the Lord our God.

And if we do, maybe one day when we come to the gates of heaven, we might hear God say to us:

“Thanks for listening.”                                                                                                                                                    

It is in the messiness and the questions and the fears of our lives that God chooses to be born into.

Second Sunday of Advent  C  2018 The Gospel begins: In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip the tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the Word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert. It is important to note that the evangelist is placing the ministry of Jesus in the wider historical context.  The point is the sacred ministry of Jesus emerged right in the midst of secular history.  Secular history does not get in the way of the Word of God.  Rather, for us to hear the Word of God proclaimed in this moment of history means we need to know the circumstances of our own history.  God’s Word is being spoken in the midst of the circumstances of our own lives and in the reality of the church and the world we live in. We cannot absent ourselves from the challenges of life.  Rather, we need to recognize how Jesus is being birthed in the secular history of our lives.  This is such an important point.  I don’t like and you don’t like the issues of sexual abuse and the cover up of these abuses.  In 2018, this is the Church that Jesus chooses to be born into. We are called not to leave the Church.  Rather, we are called to transform the Church and our world into the reign of God.  That’s why Jesus came – to teach us how to transform our church and our world into the reign of God, which means where God’s love controls everything, guides everything, and we all live together in peace under that reign of the love of God. It is in the messiness and the questions and the fears of our lives that God chooses to be born.  This is the story of the first Christmas and it is the story of Christmas in 2018.  God chooses to be born. The evangelist Luke in today’s Gospel tells us that the Word of God was spoken to John the Son of Zachariah in the desert.  Say that again!  Where was the Word of God spoken and to whom?    Note that the Word of God was not pronounced by the religious and political leaders of the day.  It bypassed them all.  The Word of God did not come from the Palace of the Temple.  The Word of God came from an outsider in the desert.  The Word of God came to John in the desert.  This certainly leaves us to pause and ask where we hear and recognize the Word of God spoken to us.  We make a grave mistake if we don’t listen and seek to hear the Word of God spoken to us from the outsiders of our lives. Who are the outsiders of our lives?  Who are the people who don’t look like us, who do not share the same religious beliefs, who do not have the financial resources we have and so forth?  Just maybe, these are the people who proclaim God’s Word to us. Who is your John the Baptist? So now in December, while everything in the Northern Hemisphere jingles with excitement about the Christmas holidays, the Church invites us into an Advent desert with John.  The desert is the antithesis of the suburban malls.  No matter how much money you have, there is nothing to buy in the desert.  Far from the city lights whose twinkling lights grab our attention, the desert allows us to fix our gaze on the stars, the beauty that is beyond our reach and yet has been created for our delight. The Advent desert is where our soul can expand, where we can remember what we really thirst for.  How do we fashion a desert for ourselves in this Advent season of busyness and parties and celebrations?

I like to think of Advent as a time of listening to what God is birthing in me.  I need to quiet down and listen.  During this gift of time that is the four weeks of the Advent season, may we find moments of quiet each day to listen to how God is speaking to us.

Yesterday, we celebrated the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.  She who gave birth to the Savior calls us to the awareness that Jesus needs to be born again this Christmas.  In what way is God birthing in you?  Our Advent time of waiting for new birth is a labor of patient love.

The prophet Isaiah describes John as one crying out in the desert:  “Prepare the way of the Lord.”  Every valley shall be filled and the winding roads shall be made straight.  Instead of seeing this mission as part of highway reconstruction, John the Baptist calls us to repentance and metanoia.  For John real change comes from within.  The prophet Isaiah refers to the geography of the heart.  This is where change needs to occur.  We are to clear the path to welcome Christ who is born into our hearts as truly as Jesus was born in Bethlehem. 

But this inner change is not just about our personal salvation.  The inner change is always in the context of community, of church, of the ways we love and serve people.  As St Paul writes in the second Scripture reading in his letter to the Philippians:  “I pray always with joy in my every prayer for all of you, because of your partnership for the gospel from the first day until now.”

Jesus seeks to be born again within our own hearts in 2018.  Jesus’ humble birth within us may be likened to his humble birth in the Bethlehem manger.  May we be Spirit-filled in embracing the Savior within us and may be missioned to sharing the love of Jesus in ways that will transform our Church and our world.  To whom can you be a sign that God is still at work?

Have a Blessed Day.

The Advent-Christmas miracle is that Jesus chooses to be born again in 2018 in our own hearts.

First Sunday of Advent  C  2018

We affirm in the lighting of the Advent wreath that we are an Advent people.  We are given the gift of time – four weeks – to prepare for the coming of Christ into our lives.  The Advent gift we seek to use wisely is the gift of time.   May the Advent wrath be a symbol of hope as we await for the light of Christ to overcome the darkness of our world.

For Advent isn’t about commercialism.  Advent isn’t about busyness.  I confess that we are reluctant to schedule parish events in December.  People are too busy.  There is too much to be done in preparation for Christmas.

In truth, Advent is about spirituality.  It is about being in touch with our spiritual center.  God is with us.  “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.”  The Advent season invites us to reset our spiritual calendar, to readjust the choices in our lives to be sure they are consistent with the priorities of Christ.  We seek to move beyond the darkness of fear, anxiety, and sin and to live in the light of Christ.

In today’s Scriptures, the prophet Jeremiah proclaims to a discouraged people that “the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel.”  The prophet Jeremiah is a prophet of hope and mercy that God’s promise will be fulfilled.

What discouragement in your life are you in touch with  --  what person or situation causes you to be restless or sleepless at night – what now is separating you from the love of God or separating you from being connected to an important person in your life – what is causing to think there is too much on your plate just now, these all are Advent moments in which we await the light of Christ to overcome the darkness of our lives.   The Advent prophet Jeremiah assures us that God’s love will not fail, and God’s love will be our final answer.

The Advent message of hope may be more difficult to see in today’s Gospel for it contains a stern warning to us.  Jesus says: “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on earth nations will be in disarray, perplexed by the roaring of the sea and the waves.  People will die of fright.  Additionally, beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and do not be overwhelmed by the anxieties of daily life.”

But the core message of Advent remains:  watch and wait for God, not with a sense of fear, but rather with joyful hope.  Sometimes we Christians tend to think that Jesus came to sing us lullabies:  that when things are comfortable, the Lord is with us, and when they get turbulent, we’ve lost the Lord -- like the disciples on the stormy sea.  Today’s Gospel tells us otherwise.  Yes, the sea of our heart sometimes is turbulent, fearful and anxious.  Even in these times, God is with us in the present moment and in every day of our future.  We are and will always be the recipients of the merciful love of Jesus.

The Advent season is a season of waiting.  In the story of our lives, the season of Advent may be considerably longer that four weeks.  As we deal with illness, as we grieve over the loss of a loved one, as we deal with the demons and addictions of our life, as we seek for an inner peace in dealing with a hurt that seems to paralyze us, Advent may seem like an eternity for us. 

Yet, the Advent grace is to trust and hope that God’s love is stronger than our deepest fears and God’s love for us will never fail.

When a person is aware the end of his or her life is near, this can be terrifying or it can be a gift -- terrifying in the sense of bringing to an end the life the person has known and treasured or it can be a gift when in faith a person is ready to go home to God and experience the fullness of life.

Can the same be said in any of life’s challenges:  illness, breakdown in our family life, dealing with a demon or sinfulness in our life.  All of life can be terrifying or all of life can be a gift.  Are we able to trust that our God is with us and the experience of the cross in life can be the very source of our salvation?

To wait for the Lord who comes means to wait and watch so that the Word of Love enters inside us and focuses every day of our lives.   Advent calls us not only to welcome the coming of Christ, but to incarnate it in our lives.  We are to be the light that illumines the world.  What does it mean for us to incarnate the love of Christ into our lives and how are we to be the light that illumines the world?

We are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.  If we know Jesus in our hearts, we will readily witness to the Lord’s mercy in the lives of others.

We are missioned to share the light of Christ that is within us and in so doing we will bring joy and hope into the lives of those around us.  The Advent-Christmas miracle is that Christ chooses to be born again in 2018 in our own hearts and we are to give birth to the presence and the light into our family, our neighborhood and into our world.

On this last Sunday of the church year, our crucified king hangs in our midst with arms outstretched in loving mercy and welcome.

FEAST OF Christ the King  2018

Today’s feast always creates problems.  One word is at the root of the problem:  king.  What does it mean?  How is it applied to Jesus?

Given the Gospel reflections on the ministry of Jesus, “kingly” would be the last adjective anyone would use to describe the ministry of Jesus.

In fact in today’s Gospel, Jesus in so many words tells us not to celebrate today’s feast. 

Jesus kept company with tax-collectors, sinners and prostitutes, so much so that the authorities described Jesus as “a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners.”  You would expect kings to receive important people and dignitaries but Jesus received the lowly and rejected people of his time. A king might expect to receive a gift but Jesus gave gifts, he restored health to those who were sick. Jesus was not the kingly type according to our understanding of king; he is a powerless king! Kings wear a crown. What sort of crown did Jesus wear? It was a crown of thorns. What throne do we see Jesus sitting on in the Gospel today?  It is the cross.

In today’s passage, Jesus is basically saying, “If you insist on calling me a king, you have to give a brand-new definition to that title.  I’m here to tell people about truths only God can reveal to them; not the kind of work in which kings normally engage.

For Pilate, a king can only be understood in political terms. Yet, Jesus assures Pilate, “My kingdom does not belong to this world.’

Who is welcome in the spiritual kingdom of Christ the King??

Who, if not the condemned Savior, can fully understand the pain of those unjustly condemned?

Who, if the not the king scorned and humiliated, can meet the expectations of the countless men and women who live without hope and dignity?

Who, if not the crucified Son of God, can know the sorrow and loneliness of so many lives shattered and without a future? 

On this the last Sunday of the liturgical year our crucified king hangs in our midst with arms outstretched in loving mercy and welcome.

            .

May we have the courage to ask him to remember us in his kingdom, the grace to imitate him in our own earthly kingdoms, and the wisdom to welcome his when he stands knocking at the doors of our lives and hearts.

In our parish community, could there be anyone who is not welcome in our parish community.  In witnessing to the kingdom of Jesus, all are welcome.  There is no one who is excluded from the unconditional love of Jesus, the king our hearts and our lives.

Jesus does wish to be the King of our Hearts.  He will usher in the Kingdom through love, by appealing to the hearts of people. 

Jesus as the King of our hearts opts to be the suffering servant.  And that is why, as the Gospels describe, he ends us as a king who hangs on the cross.

It is interesting to note that the dialogue between the two criminals who were Jesus’ companions in his last moments.  These two criminals  raise this conflict once again – the conflict between what the people thought Jesus’ kingship was and what Jesus himself had chosen to be.  The so called “bad thief” becomes the spokesman for the people: “If you are the Christ save yourself and us as well.”

The “good thief”, on the other hand, understands the role of Jesus in this world more clearly.  Jesus does not save us from human limitations of suffering and even death itself. Rather, Jesus gives us hope, He provides meaning to our human lives.  Therefore the criminal surrenders his heart to Jesus. He makes a choice to be part of the real Kingdom of God.  And Jesus assures him: “Indeed, I promise you, today you will be with me in paradise.” 

This is what the feast of today invites us to: to surrender ourselves to the loving reign of God, to make a choice to be part of the Kingdom of God, to be free from the tyranny of power, possession and pleasure.

This feast is an invitation to all those who have power or authority of any kind to compare their use of power or authority with Jesus. Are they using their power to serve others or to manipulate? Are they using their power for the building up of a more just society or to feather their own nest? Are they using their power in any way that might cause pain to others or in a way that could help to alleviate pain? In the prayer Jesus taught us, we pray, “thy kingdom come.” Jesus has shown how to bring about that kingdom. Let us pray that nations and individuals will be humble enough to look at how Jesus used power and bring about the kingdom of God.

Even as we are confronted with the clergy sex abuse scandal, perhaps a root cause of this crisis is a clerical desire to give a royal, kingly definition to the Church – something which Jesus clearly rejects in the Gospel.  If we don’t define kingdom in the life of the Church in the same way that Jesus does – a church of humble service and love.  We run the danger of cover-op and the abuse of power.

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.  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 from being immersed in the mercy of Jesus.  “Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

Have a Blessed Day.

Our faith is not an insurance policy that guarantees our life will be free of trouble; rather our faith in God is the only thing that will get us through the troubles that come in every life.

Autumn now seems to be giving a hint of the winter to come. Many leaves have fallen and others are continuing to fall.  There seems to be more cold and darkness as the days grow shorter.  Snow is on the ground.  Additionally, the liturgy calls us to consider the end times as we approach the end of the liturgical year.  All things come to an end.

The first reading from Daniel and the Gospel from Mark uses very apocalyptic language designed to be sensational.  “The sun will be darkened.  The stars will be falling from heaven and the power in the heavens will be shaken.”

They speak of the breakdown of the stable parts of our surroundings.  Yet, apocalyptic language is a message of hope.  Why?  Because Jesus has triumphed over sin and evil.  The ultimate victory belongs to Jesus.  Even though it seems like our world is falling apart, for those who trust in Jesus, the message is always one of hopefulness.

The primary reason for apocalyptic literature, such as this reading from Mark, is to offer hope to those who feel there is no hope in sight.  This literature arises from a community that is facing deadly force and serious threats.  Yet even if the situation seems impossible, God will prevail.

Today Pope Francis has declared November 18^th to be the World Day for the Poor.  We are to share what we have to provide for the needs of others.  For the poor, the rejected and the marginalized, their poverty can make it seem that their world is falling apart.  The apocalyptic message of hope for all people is that no one is excluded from the Father’s love.  The hope Jesus offers is the hope he lived.  Jesus transformed the poverty of people’s lives into occasions of grace and healing.

Even before the ultimate end times, all of us at one time or another experience our life being shattered;    

            --we lost our job;

--our spouse proved unfaithful;

            --we fell into serious sin.

            --we learned we were seriously ill;

            --we lost someone dear to us;

--the clergy sexual abuse scandal has rocked our trust in the Church’s leadership;

--the dividedness of our political leaders leaves us wondering whether genuine dialogue is possible in the halls of Congress.

Our world fell apart—the sun was darkened; the moon lost its brightness.

But you did not abandon us, Lord God.   In the midst of turmoil, we receive a great grace.  We understand for the first time the meaning of our faith.  Faith in Jesus is the certainty that God can transform any situation into an occasion of grace.

Lord, prayer is trusting totally in your love, knowing with unshakeable confidence that heaven and earth will certainly pass away, but your love for us will not pass away.

Today’s readings are apocalyptic.  Apocalypse is promise.  The apocalyptic mindset proclaims that the worst of times will give birth to the best of times.

The Gospel calls us to learn a lesson from the fig tree.  Even in the midst of the deep winter of our lives, the twigs on the fig tree have become supple indicating that summer is near.  In the big picture, before this generation has passed away, new and wonderful things will have taken place.

Our prayerful Gospel question is where do you see the tender branches and sprouting leaves that reveal Christ’s presence?  Yes, there is darkness in our world.  But God’s promise is the worst of times will give birth to the best of times.  The cross leads to the resurrection.  It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

As you prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving with your family this week, may you experience God’s presence in the love and joy and gratitude that characterizes your family life.  For you, they are the tender branches on the fig tree revealing God’s promise to us that his love for us is unending.

As we gather now to celebrate the Eucharist and to be fed and nourished at the Table of the Lord, may we know that Jesus is the North Star of our lives and no matter happens, the love of Jesus for us is unending.

As we approach the end of the liturgical year, the readings call our attention to the last things – the end of the world and the end of our own lives.  How do we approach and prepare for our going home to the Lord? 

I guess there are many ways for us to prepare for our ultimate encounter with the Lord.  The Gospel message is that God’s promise of faithfulness is firm.  We read in our newspapers daily about places that seem devoid of hope.  We see faces of bewildered children caught in circumstances over which they have no control.  We all know that every death on any side of the conflict of war brings loss to someone’s family, someone’s parent, or someone’s child. 

Our message of hope is found in today’s psalm response:  “You will show me the path of life, you, my hope and my shelter.”  This reminds us that we can be certain that God is found in darkness.  God is near, walking beside us, calling us to live lives of justice and peace so that the Gospel may be carried to all the places where we go.  The Gospel invites us to do the right thing no matter what. 

The Gospel gives the motivation to trust in Jesus.  Faith alone gives us the perspective to see that our current troubles are not “the end of the world.”  By trusting in God, we can successfully navigate the troubled waters of any earthly storm.  The faith perspective we seek is not that having faith in God is an insurance policy that guarantees that our lives will be devoid of troubles, but that having faith in God is the only thing that will get you through the troubles that come in every life.

Have a Blessed day.

Real Poverty allows us to know our need for God.

Still very much conscious of my recent pilgrimage to Tanzania, to St. Mary’s School in Mazinde Juu, to this land of considerable poverty, I experienced such a beautiful faith in the high school students at St. Mary’s School, in the dedicated faculty, and in Father Damien Milliken.  They were such beautiful examples to me of people of faith, who in their simplicity of lifestyle, witnessed to their trust that a loving God accompanies them every step of the way.

This same powerful message is found in the widows in today’s Scriptures.  In the first Scripture reading from the book of Kings, the prophet Elijah was asking the poor widow of Zarephath first for a cup of water and then for a bit of bread.

If we are to understand the widow of Zarephath, we need to notice something about her that has not been probably part of our experience:  she is starving.  She and her son have strictly rationed themselves as their store of food diminished.  Meals would have gotten fewer and fewer.  She and her son must have been wasting away long before they got to the last handful of flour.

Yet when a stranger asked her for something to eat, she looked him in the face – and did not say no.

Would we have the compassion of the widow of Zarephath who was worried not just about herself but about her son a well.  She gave to the stranger the food she had saved for her son.

There is such an important lesson here.

To give from our livelihood is not only an act of generosity; it is also an act of trust in God.  We can give from our need only if we trust that God will provide for us.  Jesus himself demonstrates the ultimate act of generosity and trust in God as he gives his life for us on the cross.

And as the Scripture tells us, she was rewarded for that trust in God: “her jar flour did not run dry.”

When does our giving and giving generously challenge us that we have to trust in God for that next bit of bread? 

If we really love God and pray, we will be lured into active, generous love for someone in need.

Thirty First Sunday in OT  B  2018

In the scriptures this weekend, our first reading is from Deuteronomy chapter 6, an iconic passage for the Jewish people. This passage is so important to the Jewish people that they nail it to their doors and at times even wear little containers with this passage on their foreheads. This is what Moses has to say, “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone! Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.”

The connection between the words of Moses and the Gospel from Mark is very apparent. “One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him, "Which is the first of all the commandments?" Jesus replied, "The first is this: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

The two great commandments are essentially connected with each other.  If we really love God and pray, we will be lured into active, generous love for someone who needs us.  The authenticity of our celebration of the Eucharist, the genuineness of the time we spend in Eucharistic adoration will be seen in the love and the service we share with one another.

I would like to share with you a bit of my recent trip to one of the poorest regions in all of Africa, the area of Mazinde Juu in Tanzania.  A necessary background to my experience is the story of a young boy who grew up in a humble family in Elmira, New York.  He was one of 14 children.  His father was a journalist for the Elmira, Gazette.  The love of God was deep in the heart of this young man, and he had a desire to become a priest, a Benedictine priest.  His name is Damien Milliken.  He is now Father Damien and has spent the last 57 years of his life as a priest in Africa, in Mazinde Juu in Tanzania.

He has started a number of schools in Tanzania to give young girls an educational and spiritual opportunity that they would not otherwise have.  From October 8^th to the 20^th, I and five other parishioners from St. Joseph’s had the opportunity of spending time with Father Damien, the religious sisters of Usambara who staffed St. Mary’s School, and a I,000 high schools girls at St. Mary’s.  This school is a residential school where the girls live here in the academic year, and the school is situated on the side of the mountain surrounded by significant poverty in this area of Tanzania.

Try to imagine at 6:00 am each and every morning, 1,000 high schools at Mass singing and praying in a fashion so very beautifully.  For the purpose of comparsion, try to imagine everyone here in our Church singing the opening hymn with full voice and then multiply that by more than three times and you will get a sense of the angelic voices of these girls.  The only musical instrument in the Church was a young girl in the choir loft beating some drums with all her heart.  Even our Christmas Eve liturgies would be challenged to match for the spiritual vibrancy of the weekday Mass at St. Mary’s School.

More than that, these girls were present at the liturgy and throughout the school day with much joy in their hearts and so thankful for the opportunity they have to learn and grow and to be together.  My heart was so touched by the way these girls loved God and loved one another.

I tell you all this as an inspiring example of how this young boy from Elmira, New York lived out his love of God.  Father Damien is now in his 80’s still providing incredible leadership and love and prayer for many, many Tanzanians who are now given opportunities for academic and spiritual growth flowing from a young boy’s desire to show his love for God.

In the Gospel, Jesus tells us about the way of love in his words and in his life.  Father Damien has shown me and so many others that his love of God led him to love and serve the poor on a humble mountainside in Tanzania.

How do I and how do you show our love of God in the day to day moments of our lives?  Perhaps for us, it is the best of times and in the worst of times; it is the season but it can also be the season of darkness.  Isn’t it true we all have to confess at times that when we need God, we spend time with God.  But then when apparently we don’t need God, we can shelf Him.  Sometimes, God can be likened to one of the applications on our iPhone to open and shut at will.

In this liturgy, we humbly ask for the grace to experience God in our lives not as an application on the iPhone but rather to experience God as our very operating system by which everything else in our lives draws its existence and meaning.

In the dismissal rite of the Mass, the priest says:  Go in peace glorifying God by our lives.  We respond:  Thanks be to God.  We also need to respond by witnessing to our love of God in all the ways we love and service of one another.

Our Eucharistic spirituality is lived out in our home, in our neighborhood, in our work place, in our schools and in all of life.  Do we treat with love and respect the incidental people of our lives – the people we meet at Wegman’s, or on the street as we are driving, or the people in front of us in a waiting line?  As we prepare to vote this Tuesday, what values motivate us in the people we choose to elect to be our government leaders?  As members of the faith community of the Church of the Holy Spirt, are we a parish community that is identified by our love and service to people in need.  What needs still for us to us to be a faith community that shows our love of God in the way that we love one another?

Father Damien went from Elmira, New York to the eastern rural region of Tanzania in his witnessing to God’s love in his life.  May we too in the neighborhoods of Penfield and Webster witness to the love of God in the ways we serve the needs of one another.

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