We follow a God who can work through anyone, any place, any time.

Twenty sixth Sunday in OT  B 2018

The Scriptures today remind us that God dwells within all people, from our earliest ancestors in faith, to all of us in this present day and age.  Moses came to the realization that God was deeply immersed in all of the chosen people, not just a few.   In the first reading from the book of Numbers, the biblical writer features the people encamped with Moses, and God bestowing upon them a share of the divine prophetic spirit that has been given to Moses.

God dwells in each of us.

In the Gospel, the disciples try to stop someone who was driving out demons just like them. They had to learn that their way was, in fact, a much narrower way than the Lord’s way, and that their narrow perspective was an obstacle to the Lord’s work getting done. Those they judged to be ‘not one of us’, Jesus regarded as ‘for us.’

One of the most difficult things for people of faith to acknowledge is that we can’t put limits on God.  It’s impossible to set boundaries in which God can work.

In contrast to his disciples, Jesus was able to recognize and encourage goodness wherever he found it. He knew that the Spirit blows where it wills. He was alert to the presence of the Spirit in anyone.

We follow a God who can work through anyone, any place, any time.

The main point is that we all have a role to play in recognizing and supporting the working of the Spirit in each other. Towards the end of his first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul says, “Do not quench the Spirit.” (Thess 5:19) How do we quench the Holy Spirit in others?  There are several examples. We can become a stumbling block, an obstacle, to God’s working in their lives. We can quench the Spirit in others and hinder the good work that God is doing through them for a whole variety of very human reasons. We can be motivated by jealousy, as Moses suggests Joshua was in today’s first reading.

Like the disciples, we can refuse to acknowledge God’s good work in the lives of others because they are not ‘one of us’, because they belong to a different church or religion or ethnic group. We can also be dismissive of the good someone else is doing simply because it is not the way we would have done it, forgetting that the Holy Spirit works in many diverse ways in people’s lives.

So what message do we take home this Sunday?  The mark of a true disciple and steward of Jesus Christ is an attitude of encouragement, accompaniment, compassion and acceptance of the gifts of others.

This message is most appropriate for our generous support of the Catholic Ministries Appeal.  We are called to share our financial resources beyond the confines of our parish  to support people in need throughout our diocese.  The Spirit of God dwells in everyone, and they are much deserving of our support.  The CMA stands for what is good and worthwhile in our diocese reaching out to the poor beyond the confines of our parish boundaries.

From the perspective of the Gospel demand, we cannot not reach out beyond our comfort zone to serve the needs of our larger diocese.

In the second Scripture reading, James warns against being obsessed with earthly things that rust and corrosion will claim one day. The Letter of James provides a deeper understanding of how the prophetic spirit works.  James addresses the wealthy of the community.  All that they have gained through injustice will come to naught.  The wealth around which they have centered their lives will become worthless, and their lives will follow suit.  Justice will be served for those who have been treated unjustly.  Thus, acting in accord with the Spirit, James delivers a stinging message to the rich of his community whose wealth is ill-gotten.   James reminds his readers that our God numbers the most unlikely people among his “righteous.”

For those of us who have worked hard and fairly for the resources we have, there is no free pass from the Gospel challenge.  Plain and simple, we are to share the blessings that are ours.  What we have is meant to be shared with those in need.  This is the purpose of the Catholic Ministries Appeal.

Our goal is $ 230, 596.  This is one of the highest goals in the diocese, although not the highest.  The goal is high, but the goal is not unreasonable.  The goal is high because God has blessed us in our parish with many, many blessings.  These are to be shared.  The Gospel leaves us no wiggle room.  We are to share our blessings with those in need.  I assure you I will personally be generous in contributing to the CMA and ask you to do the same.

 

My guarantee to you is that you will never regret your generosity to others.

My prayerful question for us is what do we consider our true treasures to be?  Our true wealth is to be found in our love and service of one another.  Love and hospitality live on in the giver and the receiver and do not fade away like temporary earthly treasures.

This Sunday’s readings invite us to ponder the ways of our God whose prophetic Spirit has been poured out freely upon all people, all creation.  Rather than quenching the Spirit in others and hindering the good work that God is doing through them, we are urged to recognize, encourage, affirm and share our blessings with others.

Have a Blessed Day.

Jesus' chief criterion for greatness is the willingness to be of service to others.

Twenty Fifth Sunday in OT  B  2018 

In today’s Gospel, Jesus is inviting us to reflect on the meaning of our discipleship as we come to understand the true identity of Jesus.

Jesus forecasts once again his suffering, death, and resurrection.  The disciples’ response is disheartening.  They understand nothing and they are afraid to ask any questions.

The disciples had been arguing about who was the greatness among them.   The conversations the disciples had about who among is the greatest is familiar human behavior, is it not. Jesus rebukes his disciples for thinking that they might achieve greatness without following his example of suffering and service.\

Jesus’s chief criterion for greatness is the willingness to be of service to others.

Jesus’ disciples loved him but they did not understand him.  His way of thinking was just too different.  So, when words didn’t suffice, he picked up child to show his argumentative disciples what it looks like to be in first place in the reign of God.

Their mission was to share the love they had been given so freely.  They were called to the humble, humbling service of embracing the little people just as Jesus did.

When Jesus picked up the child, he was performing a living parable, teaching that loving someone is the greatest service you can do them; everything else flows from that and nothing else is very valuable without it.  Jesus presents them with a new flowchart for organizing the kingdom of God.  And children are on the top of the list.

The CMA video that began the liturgy, along with the mailing asking your generous support of our diocesan ministries, invites us to express our willingness to financially be of service to others.  From today’s Gospel, in the mind of Jesus, the true criterion of greatness is our willingness to be of service to others.  The Catholic Ministries Appeal supports the servant ministries of our diocese.

I would comment clearly that I recognize full well that the dark clouds of sex abuse might lead you to question your commitment to support the CMA.  I get it.  Printed and in capital letters is the diocesan commitment that not a dime of the CMA will be used for legal claims or in any way related to the issue of sex abuse.

The reason to support the CMA is that the CMA monies are used to support that is good in the mission and the ministries of the diocese.  I personally am going to increase my tithing to the CMA and invite you to do the same, if you are able.  For us to be faithful to our Gospel commitment to be of service to others, there is no such thing as a free pass.  In season and out of season, we are called to share of the giftedness that is ours.

Additionally,  this is also our parish stewardship commitment weekend.  In the second collection today, we are asking you to place your commitment card.  To be clear, the parish stewardship commitment is of our time and our talents.  We are not asking for a parish stewardship of treasure in our parish commitment.  We are focused on the stewardship of time and talent.

The heart of a spirituality of stewardship is living with an attitude of gratitude and sharing with others the blessings that we have been given. This is living out our discipleship of the Lord Jesus.

In gratitude, we commit ourselves to a stewardship of time.  What does that mean?  In one word, prayer.  Each and every day that God gives to us, we seek to spend time in a prayer of gratitude.  This can be in the silence of early morning prayer; it can be reflectively praying with the Scriptures; it can be praying the rosary;  Eucharistic Adoration; and, most of all, in the celebration of the Eucharist in which we give thanks to the Lord our God.  I want you to make a 1% commitment each day – to spend 15 minutes in prayer each day.  There is busyness to my life and your life, but personally I cannot imagine a day going by without being faithful to this 1% commitment.

 In the Stewardship of talent, we share our giftedness with one another.  Suffering and service is the meaning of discipleship of the Lord Jesus.  In all honesty, some of our ministries are under staffed by the community of the baptized.  The purpose of today’s Stewardship Commitment Sunday is to deal with this reality.  We are asking you to make the commitment to be stewards in the building of the Church of the Holy Spirit.  This is our time to walk our talk and continue to build up the vibrancy of our parish life.  When all of us fill out the commitment card, then what is asked of each of us is to do little things with great love in our hearts.   In the wheel house of each of us, there is a humble talent that each one of us can share in the service of one another.

As I said, this means we would like you to fill out a stewardship commitment card and place it in the second collection today.  If you forgot to bring your commitment card with you today, not to worry.  There are extra commitment cards in the pews, we would like to give you a couple of minutes now to prayerfully make this stewardship commitment in the service of one another.

Have a blessed day.

Jesus asks us the same question He asked the first disciples: 'who do you say that I am?'

Twenty Fourth Sunday in OT  B  2018

When Jesus asked his disciples “Who do you say that I am?”  Peter responded:  “You are the Christ.”  Peter was right, but not right enough.  Peter has the right answer, but not the right meaning.  Peter had hoped that the long-awaited Messiah was to be regal, powerful, and a strong leader.   Peter did not understand the words of Jesus that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected and be killed and rise after three days.

Unaware, as yet, of the true nature of Jesus’ identity, Peter tried to set aside the unthinkable notion of a suffering Christ.  Jesus was explaining to his disciples his upcoming suffering, passion, death and resurrection.   For Jesus this is what the meaning of Messiah is, and this is the straight truth.

There is a crossroads in the journey of faith for many of us in our discipleship of the Lord Jesus.  We encounter that crossroads when we personally have to deal with suffering and struggle.  Sometimes that suffering is of our own doing -- dealing with the weaknesses and the demons within each of us – or sometimes the suffering comes from having to deal with realities we cannot control or manage -- as in illnesses or death of someone close to us.

In the face of dealing with life’s struggles, what happens to the piety and the prayerfulness of days gone by?  In speaking to the first disciples, Jesus is saying you indeed will experience rejection, the cross, and ultimately death.  This is the meaning of discipleship.  What is our understanding of our discipleship of the Lord Jesus?

The Scriptures today are inviting to reflect on the meaning of our discipleship of the Lord Jesus.  The Scriptures, in a sense, want us to restart our baptismal commitment, how we are to live as the disciples of Jesus?

Jesus asks us the same question he asked the first disciples:  Who do you say that I am?   Like Peter, it’s easy to give the right answer.  When we shortly profess the creed, we are giving the right answer for our discipleship of Jesus.  But as for Peter and so for us, it’s not enough to give the right answer in the words we speak.  How we live our lives validate the words we say in professing the creed.

A necessary component of discipleship is stewardship, a spirituality of stewardship, the receiving and the sharing of the many gifts that God has given to each one of us.  If we knew and claimed the gift of God that is freely and abundantly given to each of us, we would experience a new Pentecost in 2018 at the Church of the Holy Spirit.

What we do and how we live our lives speaks to our commitment to make a stewardship a way of life for us.   In stewardship, we start with the basic truth that all is a gift of God  -- our life, our family, the people we love, the beauty of creation, the opportunities we have in life.  All is a gift of God.  Our stewardship response to the abundance of God’s gifts to us is gratitude and a desire to share what we have been given.  The heart of a spirituality of stewardship is living with an attitude of gratitude and sharing with others the blessings that we have been given. This is living our discipleship of the Lord Jesus.

In gratitude, we commit ourselves to a stewardship of time.  What does that mean?  In one word, prayer.  Each and every day that God gives to us, we seek to spend time in a prayer of gratitude.  This can be in the silence of early morning prayer; it can be reflectively prayerfully on the Scriptures; it can be praying the rosary;  Eucharistic Adoration; and, most of all, in the celebration of the Eucharist in which we give thanks to the Lord our God.

In the Stewardship of talent, we share our giftedness with one another.  In all honesty, some of our ministries are under staffed by the community of the baptized.  More of us need to be stewards in the building of the Church of the Holy Spirit.  This means we would like you to fill out a stewardship commitment card and place it in the second collection next weekend.

Example:   I know that many of your homes are beautifully decorated.  You have a taste for art and environment.  We invite you to use those same talents to enhance the art and environment of our Church both outside and inside. 

Another example: Our parish choir and are our parish cantors are composed of some beautiful and talented parishioners.  But there is plenty of room for new blood in our cantors and choir members for the 11:00 liturgy and for the other liturgies as well.  What if we had a youthful cantor front and center for all to see to invite us to enter into song in the first note of the entrance hymn.   Would if the cantor was even able to bring the ushers in the back of the Church to break into song.  Gabe, as we know, is a wonderful music director, but the music ministry of the parish needs to be embraced by more of us who are the community of the baptized.

Equally, there are examples in faith formation, social outreach, youth ministry and so on that are not just to be staff driven; they are to be parish driven. The meaning of discipleship of the Lord Jesus; the meaning of stewardship is that all of us are to get involved in some way.  May we make the commitment next Sunday to be more than pew-sitters.  We are disciples of Jesus who have been given the mission of stewardship – living life with an attitude of gratitude and committing ourselves to share our God-given talents.

Have a Blessed day

While all of us struggle with a bit of hypocrisy, there is nothing hypocritical about God's love for us.

Twenty Second in OT  B  2018

In the Gospel Jesus says: “Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written:  This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”   They worshipped ritually in solemn ways, but this did not translate into deeds filled with love. Isaiah accuses the people of being more concerned with ritual defilement than with ethical defilement. 

Yes, we train our altar servers in all the details of the liturgy.  This is most appropriate.  But in the big picture of the spiritual life, we need to form our altar servers to see the essential connection between participating in the Mass and the team work and sportsmanship and old-fashioned kindness on the ball field.

And so, yes, we can spiritually get lost even when we are obeying the law and seemingly being very religious if our hearts are not filled with the merciful love of Jesus, and we not have the desire to share the merciful love of Jesus with one and all.  Our discipleship of Jesus is not about legalism; it is about loving God and neighbor.

In all truth, all of us probably need to acknowledge a bit of hypocrisy when our egos get in the way of reaching out to people in need and reaching out to people whom we find unlovable for whatever reason.  There is sin in the world and sin in our own hearts.  We always need to recognize our own sinfulness and come before our healing, forgiving God.

The North Star of our spiritual lives is rooted in our faith conviction that there is nothing hypocritical about God’s love for us.  It is unconditional and unending.  I invite you to hold on to the truth:  There is nothing we can do to stop God from loving us.  God is love.\

In the first Scripture reading, Moses said to the people: “Now Israel hear the statues and decrees which I am teaching you to observe; observe them carefully for you to be a wise and intelligent people.”

 The laws of God’s people serve like an invisible fence -- the fence you put in your yard to keep your dog from wandering into the street or menacing the jogger out for a bit of exercise or wherever your dog would like to wander to.  This fence serves an excellent purpose so that the dog can play in the yard without getting hurt.  So too, the Ten Commandments are our invisible fence that helps us to live in right relationship with one another and with our God.  They make all the sense in the world. 

But strict observance of the law doesn’t determine whether God is going to love us or not.  As I said, no matter what, God cannot stop loving us.  But the commandments are meant to hold us accountable as to how we respond to God’s great love for us.

In the Gospel, we see the anger of Jesus in confronting the hypocrisy of the Pharisees.  Jesus says: “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”  Few situations moved Jesus to anger like the hypocrisy of people who distorted the Law’s intent.

Please note that Jesus is not venting against the Pharisees because of their fidelity to religious observance and the ritual tradition.  This is a good thing.  Jesus labels them hypocrites because the words they spoke from their lips did not come from hearts filled with compassion.  They worshipped ritually in solemn ways, but this did not translate into deeds filled with love.  

This Gospel is not just meant for the Pharisees, but its message is for each and every one of us.  Do we walk our talk in our prayer life and in our celebration of the sacraments?    Sometimes we too need spiritual open-heart surgery to see if we are touched by the love of Jesus in the faith that we live.  Our prayer needs to touch our heart and thus motivate us to share the love of Jesus with others.

Yes, may all of us pray for spiritual open-heart surgery.  We seek to have our hearts filled with the merciful love of Jesus.  We seek to have humble, loving hearts.

 Jesus is so clear in His teachings.  He tells that He did not come to destroy the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill them.  Jesus has no problem with the person who ritually washes his hands and still serves the poor and the needy.  The problem is with us who make sure to wash our hands but never pay attention to the poor and the needy.  Jesus responded to the purity police by citing the prophet Isaiah.  Our prayer and liturgy must lead to witnessing to the love of Jesus in our lives.  In the dismissal rite of the Mass, I will say: “Go in peace glorifying the Lord by our lives.”  This is not a simple throw-away statement to head to the parking lot.  This is our call to live the meaning of the Eucharist 24 hours a day.  In Eucharist we receive the love of Jesus; in Eucharist we are missioned to live and witness to the love of Jesus in the actions of our lives.

Pope Francis’ favorite image for the Church is to see the Church as a “field hospital,” for all of us are sinners.  Using this image can help us to avoid self-righteous attitudes that see the Church and the sacraments as rewards for good behavior. 

In today’s Scripture, Jesus gave us a new tradition that begins and ends with love.  He asks us to let love transform our hearts and our souls so that we transform the world.

We just celebrated the funerals of two great Americans – Aretha Franklin and Senator John McCain.  The eulogies they received were very, very moving.  In our parish, we just celebrated the funeral of a faith-filled parishioner, Kathy Taddeo.  May we be inspired by those who have gone before us to the Lord.  May we also inspire each other to fill this world and to live a way of life that witnesses to the reality that we are the recipients of the merciful love of Jesus each and every day.

Have a Blessed Day