When we look at life through the lens of love, we see God's love in all of life.

Thirteenth Sunday in  OT  C  2019

The great journey begins.  ‘Jesus resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem.  Jesus has already set Jerusalem as the heart of the Gospel story.  In going to Jerusalem, Jesus was walking the road to his death and resurrection.  Jesus knew full well that in going to Jerusalem, he was opening himself up to the plan of His heavenly Father.

Those who journey with Jesus in every generation must make Jerusalem their goal.  For us to journey to Jerusalem is no simple travelogue but a vocation to discipleship and mission that will indeed take the rest of our lives. I have had the privilege of visiting the Holy Land a couple of times.   These have been most memorable and very inspiring for me.  But the Gospel imperative is even more than that.   For you and I to set our faces toward Jerusalem is the surrender we must make when we choose to follow God’s call in our lives – wherever that may lead us.  In other words, the Gospel invites us to reflect on the cost of discipleship.

To be honest, many of us, myself included, have a way of bargaining with God over the terms of our discipleship.  At various times, we give the Lord different responses to the Lord’s call to be a disciple.  Sometimes our actions suggest we are saying:  “No thanks.”  Sometimes our response is:  “Maybe later.”  Hopefully our response at other times is: “Be it done to me according to your Word.” – the response of Mary at the Annunciation.

But well before we examine our own whole or half-hearted response to Jesus’ invitation to discipleship, he sets us straight on how we are to judge others’ response to God’s call.  Jesus frankly says:  “It is none of your business.”  Jesus demands we not judge how others respond.  From the Gospel account, Jesus sent his messengers ahead of him.  On the way they entered a Samaritan village to prepare for his reception there, but they would not welcome him because the destination of his journey was Jerusalem.  When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?”  Jesus turned and rebuked them and they journeyed to another village.  Jesus is saying to James and John:  “It’s none of your business how others respond.”

Jesus’ decisive command to James and John that they express commitment to him through compassion for others.   St. Paul writes that we must abandon the violence of biting and devouring one another, choosing instead to serve one another through love.

You and I need to do an inventory of the judgments, the gossip, the stereotyping, and the negativity we have toward all those who get under our skin.  The message of Jesus is very clear:   Let go of your judgments about others; rather make the commitment to serve one another with love.

Our focus needs to be on ourselves.  How do we respond to our call to discipleship of the Lord Jesus?  Our Gospel question of the week was and is:  What stands in the way of you following Jesus more completely?  This is such an important question because from the Gospel perspective we must be “all in” our discipleship of Jesus.

True discipleship is a full-time job.  We   can’t be disciples at certain times but not at others.    It’s not like a project we can set aside and resume later.

To be a disciple of Jesus to live as Jesus, to love as Jesus, and to forgive as Jesus forgives us.  The heart of Jesus is filled with love and because the heart of Jesus was filled with the love of His heavenly Father.  Jesus loved everyone because he saw the Father’s love in each and every person.

The lens Jesus used was the lens of love and he saw love in every person on the face of the earth.

There is such an important truth to be learned by the disciples of Jesus.  The world is as your heart sees it, not just as it is out there.  What do I mean by that?  When we look at life through the lens of love, we see God’s love in all of life.

What my life gets overwhelmed by fear, by anxiety, when I have trouble forgiving someone, when I get too stuck on myself, when my ministry seems like I’m

 rearranging the furniture on the Titanic, when my view of the world is filled only with dark clouds, I am not looking at life through the lens of love.  My heart is not filled with the love of Jesus.  For when my heart is filled with the faith and love of Jesus, I see my future as full of hope and I see the love of God in all the people of my life.

What does it mean to be “all in” in our discipleship of Jesus?

To be a disciple of Jesus means discovering the way of love.   Disciples must learn how to love.  To be a disciple you must forgive one and all.  There can be no exceptions.  If you’re going to be a disciple of Jesus, you must be detached from everything but one thing and that is Jesus Himself.

How is it for you when your family isn’t all you want it to be; how is it when your job situation isn’t what you would like; how is it when the Church we live in and the world we are part of is all mixed up?

 The world is as your heart sees it, not so much as it is out there.  If your heart is filled with the love of your heavenly Father, what you see will be filled with love.  I believe in the basic truth that we see life through the lens of our heart.  When our hearts are filled with the love of Jesus,   we will see in the people of our lives the love that is in our hearts.   Jesus’ heart was filled with love for all people because he saw the love of God in all people.

Who in your life do you find most difficult to reach out to and love?  Perhaps it is the person who has hurt you deeply -- even a family member; or person whose views on life are completely different than yours.  The discipleship question for all of us is can we love as Jesus loves?  Can we forgive as Jesus forgives us?

As we transition to the Liturgy of the Eucharist, as we prepare to receive Communion, we testify to the reality of our Catholic faith.  We are being nourished with the life and the love of Jesus.  This is a profound act of discipleship.

Have a Blessed Day.

While the Mass is our greatest prayer, it is what we do outside the Mass that determines the genuineness of the offering we make at the altar each Sunday.

FEAST OF THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST   C  2019

PROPAGATION OF THE FAITH HOMILY

In my 51 years as a priest, excluding Christmas and Easter Masses, I have never experienced a liturgy in which at 6:00 am on each and every school day 1,000 high school girls in full Catholic school uniform sing the opening hymn with enthusiastic voices accompanied only by one high school girl in the choir loft striking a well-worn drum.  I tell you looking out from the altar at these Tanzanian girls was a mystical moment of prayerfulness and joy.

We were indeed on holy ground.  Father Damian Milliken, a Benedictine priest from Elmira, New York, was presiding at the Mass.  Father Damian is a priest in his 80’s and has ministered in the last 50 years of his priesthood serving the poorest of the poor in Tanzania, East Africa.  The genuine love and respect that Father Damian enjoys with these young Tanzanians and their families and all who live in the area around Mazinde Ju is so Christ-like and uplifting. 

Equally impressive is a religious community of consecrated women who are such an important part of the teaching faculty.  These are the religious sisters of Usambara.  Dressed in their full habit, these sisters number 500 in Tanzania.  These sisters know in their DNA the joy of the Lord.

Last October six parishioners from St. Joseph’s parish made this pilgrimage to Tanzania arriving in the Mount Kilimanjaro International Airport warmly greeted by Father Damian.  As a side bar, we didn’t have time to hike up Mt Kilimanjaro but that mountain sure is impressive.   We visited and became part of the community of St. Mary’s School in Mazinde Ju located on the side of a mountain in one of the poorest regions of Tanzania.  This was such a precious God moment for the six of us.  We were privileged to enter the world of Father Damian and the sisters of Usambara and these high school girls who are so very, very grateful for this educational experience that gives them the opportunity to go on to a university and have job opportunities which otherwise these students simply would not have.   For these students come from very poor families.

In a culture that is so different from what I am used to, to be immediately accepted and embraced and loved truly is an experience of a lifetime.

To describe St Mary’s School is a bit of a challenge.  It is a residential school where these students live during the academic year and are able to get three healthy meals each day.  The dormitories these students live in are filled with bunk beds.  Each girl has a tiny cubicle which houses all her worldly possessions including all her clothing.  I have a beautiful niece for whom to put all her clothes in this tiny cubicle would simply be impossible. 

These beloved daughters of God have no sense of entitlement by which they expect people to take care of them.  They are so grateful for every opportunity in life that is given to them.  They are not saddened by the effects of the poverty of the country; they are joy-filled in the opportunity that is given to them as students in this quality academic setting that is filled with so much love and so much spirituality.

Why do I tell you all this?  This weekend is our parish’s annual Propagation of the Faith Mission Appeal in which we are asked to spiritually and financially a mission component of the world-wide Catholic Church.   In previous years in this annual Propagation of the Faith Mission appeal, Father Damian has spoken in parishes in our diocese; last year Sister Evetha, a religious sister of Usambara and the principal/head mistress of the school preached the mission homily.  This year, Father Damian asked me to preach in order to save the money that would have cost for him to make the trip.

For the last three years, I have personally contributed $1,000 which provides a scholarship for a student for a whole year.   I gladly make this $1,000 contribution each year.  I had the profound privilege of spending some time with this young Tanzanian girl I have sponsoring for the last three years.  I tell you I had to tell myself: “Be still my heart.” when I realized the opportunity I was giving this daughter of God in my prayer and in my tithing commitment.  In all truth, l cannot think of a better use of this money.  The second collection today goes in support of this Tanzanian ministry.  I have talked about St. Mary’s School, our contributions also go to support another nearby high school for schools founded by Father Damian and headed by Sister Christa, another Sister of Usambara.   Father Damian has also founded St Benedict’s parish with an elementary school connected to it. 

If you wish to take another step beyond the second collection, I or any of the parishioners of St. Joe’s who are with us today, would gladly talk to you about the possibility of you making this pilgrimage to Tanzania and/or providing scholarship money for a student.

Lest you think that I have forgotten about the feast that we celebrate today, I think our support of this Tanzanian ministry has everything to do with the beautiful feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, the feast of Corpus Christi.

In reflecting on this Eucharistic Feast, we are celebrating the central prayer of our faith tradition.  We are a part of a tradition that is nearly 2,000 years old.  At the Table of the Lord, we feed and nourish the deepest hungers of the human heart.

As a Eucharistic community, we gather with an attitude of gratitude.  We gather to give thanks to the Lord our God.  As we are fed and nourished at the Eucharistic altar, we seek the grace to live as Jesus lives, to love as Jesus loves, to forgive as Jesus forgives us.

We continue our Eucharistic prayer with our parish’s strong commitment to Eucharistic adoration.  Our prayer is the silent journey of the heart to be in the presence of our God.

While the Mass is our greatest prayer, it is what we do outside the Mass that also determines the genuineness of the offering we make at the altar each Sunday.  By our mutual love for one another, by our concern for those in need, we will be recognized as the followers of Jesus.

Thus our missionary support of the educational and spiritual needs of these young Tanzanians goes to the heart of our Eucharistic prayer.  Again, I urge your generosity in today’s second collection.

Have a blessed day.

I have never previously experienced a liturgy in which at 6:00 am 1,000 high school girls dressed in their Catholic school uniforms gather with such joy in their hearts to celebrate Mass.

TRINITY SUNDAY C 2019

PROPAGATION OF THE FAITH HOMILY

In my 51 years as a priest, excluding Christmas and Easter Masses, I have never experienced a liturgy in which at 6:00 am on each and every school day 1,000 high school girls in full Catholic school uniform sing the opening hymn with enthusiastic voices accompanied only by one high school girl in the choir loft striking a well-worn drum.  I tell you looking out from the altar at these Tanzanian girls was a mystical moment of prayerfulness and joy.

We were indeed on holy ground.  Father Damian Milliken, a Benedictine priest from Elmira, New York, was presiding at the Mass.  Father Damian is a priest in his 80’s and has ministered in the last 50 years of his priesthood serving the poorest of the poor in Tanzania, East Africa.  The genuine love and respect that Father Damian enjoys with these young Tanzanians and their families and all who live in the area around Mazinde Ju is so Christ-like and uplifting. 

Equally impressive is a religious community of consecrated women who are such an important part of the teaching faculty.  These are the religious sisters of Usambara.  Dressed in their full habit, these sisters number 500 sisters in Tanzania.  These sisters know in their DNA the joy of the Lord.

Last October six of us parishioners, Steve and Virge Smith, Michelle Woods, Barb Long, Barbara Bruce and myself made this pilgrimage to Tanzania arriving in the Mount Kilimanjaro International Airport warmly greeted by Father Damian.  As a side bar, we didn’t have time to hike up Mt Kilimanjaro but that mountain sure is impressive.  

Now we are the third group of St. Joe’s parishioners to visit St Mary’s School and Father Damian and the sisters of Usambara and these high school girls who are so very, very grateful for this educational experience that gives the opportunity to go on to a university and have job opportunities which otherwise these students simply would not have.   For these students come from very poor families.

To describe St Mary’s School is a bit of a challenge.  It is a residential school where these students live during the academic year and are able to get three healthy meals each day.  The dormitories these students live in are filled with bunk beds.  Each girl has a tiny cubicle which houses all her worldly possessions including all her clothing.  I have a beautiful niece for whom to put all her clothes in this tiny cubicle would simply be impossible. 

These beloved daughters of God have no sense of entitlement by which they expect people to take care of them.  They are so grateful for every opportunity in life that is given to them.  They are not saddened by the effects of the poverty of the country; they are joy-filled in the opportunity that is given to them as students in this quality academic setting that is filled with so much love and so much spirituality.

Why do I tell you all this?  Our parish has a very strong Tanzanian Action Team (TAT are our initials.)  Headed by Jack and Mary Skvorak, we have all seen first hand the incredible need and the incredible opportunity that St Joseph’s parish has to make a difference in the lives of these Tanzanian girls who have such a spiritual and educational hunger to grow as citizens of their country.  In previous years in this annual Propagation of the Faith Mission appeal, Father Damian has spoken; last year Sister Eventha, a religious sister of Usambara and the principal/head mistress of the school preached the mission homily.  This year, Father Damian asked me to preach in order to save the money that would have cost for him to make the trip.  Our parish has contributed $40,000 to the great and holy ministry of Father Damian last year.

As part of that 40k, some of us contribute $1,000 annually which provides a scholarship for a student for a whole year.  Personally, I gladly make this $1,000 contribution each year.  I had the profound privilege of spending some time with this young Tanzanian girl I have sponsoring for the last three years.  I tell you I had to tell myself: “Be still my heart.” when I realized the opportunity I was giving this daughter of God in my prayer and in my tithing commitment.  In all truth, l cannot think of a better use of this money.  The second collection today goes in support of this Tanzanian ministry.  I have talked about St. Mary’s School, our contributions also go to support another nearby high school for schools founded by Father Damian and headed by Sister Christa, another Sister of Usambara.  Father Damian has also founded St Benedict’s parish with an elementary school connected to it. 

Lest you think that I have forgotten about the feast that we celebrate today, I think our support of this Tanzanian ministry has everything to do with the beautiful feast of the Blessed Trinity – the mystery of the three persons in one God.  Yes, there have been many books written on the dogma and the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity.  Many moons ago, in the seminary I took a semester course on the mystery of the Trinity entitled De Trinitate.  I suggest that the best summary of the great mystery of the Trinity is that God is love.  God is revealed as a communion of persons.  The love that is within the union of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is shared with us.  As the Gospel proclaims: “God so loved the world that He gave us His only Son so that everyone who believes in Him may not be lost, but may eternal life.”  Jesus then told us on the night before He died: “By this all shall know that you are my disciples, by your love for one another.”

Again, the mystery of the Trinity reveals the truth that God is love and this love has been shared with us and we are to share this love with one another.  This is the meaning of the feast we celebrate today.

In our generous spiritual and financial support of these beautiful, beautiful Tanzanian high school girls we are living out in the actions of our lives the mystery of the Trinity.  Again, l invite your generosity in the second collection.

Have a Blessed Day.

Pentecost is the feast of locked doors. What are the locked doors of your life?

Come Holy Spirit.  Fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.

Initially the disciples were locked in the upper room out of fear.  On the Day of Pentecost those locked doors were thrown open; the fear in the disciples was replaced with a Spirit-filled courage and enthusiasm.  They were now fearless proclaimers of the Word of God.

What had changed for the disciples?  They received the Holy Spirit.

The great truth of Pentecost – for the first disciples and for us as well – is that the Holy Spirit has the power to enlarge and expand the human heart if we allow the Spirit   of Jesus to grow and enliven us from within.

In today’s first Scripture reading, we hear how the Holy Spirit was given to the followers of Jesus.   Listen again:  “When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together.  And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were.  Then there appeared to them tongues of fire, which parted and came to rest on each of them.  And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled to proclaim.”

The great meaning of Pentecost is that it was time for God to be born again not in one body that was Jesus but this time in a body of believers who would receive the breath of life from their Lord and pass it to others.  We see how the growth of the Church took place with the influence of the Holy Spirit in the Acts of the Apostles.  The Book of Acts is the story of the incredible growth of the first Christian communities.  The Acts of the Apostles is kind of like a Gospel of the Holy Spirit.  In the first four books  of  the New Testament we learn the Good news of what God did through Jesus Christ in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  In the Book of Acts of the Apostles, we learn the Good News of what God did through the Holy Spirit.

The first and foremost attribute of the servant church is its daring openness to the Spirit.  It is the prayer that the Church make room for the release of the Spirit in the life of the community and the courage to act when it does.  We are not to fall back into being the safe and self-absorbed church, but rather a place of miraculous hope and extravagant hospitality.

God chose a young virgin named Mary to bear God’s Son, and Jesus chose a bunch of Galilean fisherman to share in His ministry.   God chooses you and me to hear his message of hope and promise and love in this place and in our world this day.

We seek to experience Pentecost as the feast of locked doors.  Where are the locked doors in our lives?    For me, as I read and hear about the horrific crime and sin of clergy sex abuse, there is a side of me that wants to go behind a locked door and to walk away from this crisis in the life of the Church.

But for me and for all of us, it is not a time to abandon the ship, we need to trust in the grace that God provides for all of us.  With the grace of God, we need to move heaven and earth to root out sexual abuse in the Church and any attempt of cover up.  All need to be held accountable and we need to restore trust and integrity in the Church’s leadership.   Come Holy Spirit fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.

For us as the parish community of the Church of Holy Spirit as we consider the ways we are called to collaborate with St. Joseph’s Church, our locked door of fear may be the fear of being cobbled up by a larger parish and that we will lose our valued charisms and spirituality.  Clearly we need to acknowledge all that keeps from trusting in the grace and the blessings of collaboration.

We also to pray again and again:  Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your love. 

Defensive Christianity is not a Biblical idea.  The posture of Christian disciples is not hiding in fear to protect ourselves,    No, the disciples are sent to proclaim the Good News of the love of Jesus to one and all.  St. Joseph’s and Holy Spirit are called to be sister parishes who help and serve and love one another.

I was blessed to have two brothers and three sisters in my family of origin.  What a blessing my brothers and sisters have been for my life.  Are we exactly the same?  Absolutely not.  We each have our own giftedness and our own craziness.  Yes, we have argued at times.  But without any doubt we love each other and would do anything for each other.  We are family and we very blessed that we are family.

My hunch is you can say the same for your family life.  Thanks be to God.

On this day of Pentecost, as we celebrate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit of God in our lives, can we trust in each other and in the grace of God that St. Joseph’s and Holy Spirit can be sister parishes that love and serve and support one another?

As the first disciples of the Day of Pentecost were transformed from fearful disciples who wanted to live behind locked doors to fearless proclaimers of the Word of God, can we on this Day of Pentecost welcome the opportunity of having a sister parish that will help us live according to our better angels, and equally we will help the faith community of St. Joseph’s be filled with the many gifts of the Holy Spirit that we will share.

Come Holy Spirit.  Fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.

Have a Blessed Day.

Life is the best school. God is our teacher, The problems we are facing right now are our best assignment from God.

 

All of us know the sadness of good-byes.  We have said them to our parents, our children, our relatives and our friends.   Every farewell seems a little death.  At each parting there is a wrenching and a loneliness – especially if it means separation for a considerable period of time or even a permanent separation.   I have had to say good-bye to my mom and dad, my older brother and sister as they have gone home to God.  With 51 years of priestly ministry, I have had to say good-bye when the Bishop has moved me from one priestly assignment to another.  Saying good-bye to good friends takes something out of you.  Indeed, for all of us, good-byes are not easy. 

For me in my personal prayer, if a good-bye seems too difficult, perhaps I am not using the help God provides.  In fact, that always has been the case.

Today between the Feasts of the Ascension and Pentecost, we are marking Jesus’ leave taking from the disciples but before celebrating the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost.  There is sadness for the disciples of Jesus on the Feast of the Ascension.  What the first disciples had to learn is a lesson for all of us -- many, many times we have to let go and say good-bye and trust that with each letting go, God promises that he will not leave us orphans.  We have to change many times in our discipleship journey.  We choose some of the good-byes of life; other times our good-byes are not of our own choosing.  With each transition, we are called to trust in God’s continuous presence in our life.

The Gospel is taken from the end of Jesus’ prayer at the Last Supper.  We are privileged to eavesdrop on Jesus’ intimate prayer with his heavenly Father.  In the Upper Room on the Eve of his Passion, the Lord prayed for his disciples gathered around him.  At the same time, Jesus looked ahead to community of disciples of all centuries.  In his prayer for all disciples of all time, he saw us too, and prayed for us.  He prayed that we be consecrated in truth.

In today’s Gospel, we are listening to the prayer of Jesus to his heavenly Father.  This takes place at the Last Supper with Jesus being conscious of His impending death on the cross.  Jesus does not see his death as ending, but rather his going home to his heavenly Father and a new way of being with us who are in the world.

Overhearing Jesus at prayer is our way of understanding the identity of Jesus and our participation in the divine plan.  The mission of Jesus to be become our mission.  What is this mission – to release divine love into the world. This is such an awesome mission for us as a parish community.

This weekend I am celebrating my 51^st anniversary of ordination to the priesthood.  What is my mission as a priest -- succinctly stated – my mission is to empower all of us in the awesome mission of releasing divine love into the world.

 May the prayer of Jesus be our prayer as well.  The prayer of Jesus is that we all may be one.  Jesus prayed for us to experience a unity based on our love for one another.  We needn’t be reminded for its need.  We often witness breakdowns of communication in families, enmity among members of the same faith community, dissension in civil society.  Jesus’ unity – one of personal relationship -- is to overcome all such divisions, especially those within the fold.  Jesus wants a unity like that between himself and the Father – a unity that preserves individuality, but which is close and intimate.  That union of the Father and the Son is our model.  It is a unity in which people will love and serve each other because they love and serve him; it is heart speaking to heart.  Its key is love.

Unless the Church has the unity willed by God, it can’t perform its essential mission:  that the world may believe, that we may be one, as Jesus and the heavenly Father are one.

Like Jesus, we find our glory in doing not what we will but what God wills.  What would it take for all of us to be committed to the petition we make in the Our Father: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” 

I invite you to hold on to this truth:  Life itself is the best school.  God is our teacher.  The problems we are facing right now are our best assignment from God.  In your present challenge, whatever it is, you may have to let go; you may have to take a risk; but please God this challenge may invite you to place even more trust in the plan of God for your life.  In the first Scripture reading today, Stephen was beautifully releasing divine love into the world by offering forgiveness to those who were stoning him to death.  Forgiveness is an essential element for achieving the unity that Jesus prayed for.

This weekend we are celebrating six baptisms in the life of the parish.  What a wonderful blessing for us.  What an awesome responsibility for us as a parish community to witness to God’s love to our newly baptized and their precious families.  As a parish community that is blessed with so many Baptisms, so many First Communions, so many Confirmations, we are called to be the witnesses of divine love in the lives of these families.

At the end of the day, may we claim the prayer of Jesus to be our own prayer.  Jesus prayed: “I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them.”  We are missioned to make the Lord’s name known to the students in St. Joseph’s School, to all those who have received the sacraments in our parish, and, more than that, we are to make the Lord’s name known to our entire community and well beyond our parish boundaries.  We make the Lord’s name known best when we release divine love into our world.

Have a Blessed Day.