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

 

 

CHRISTMAS1 2020

While I was the pastor of St Louis parish some years ago, I visited the home of a wonderful parish family. The youngest in the family was five years old.  She immediately took me by the hand and brought me to the family nativity set.  She pointed to the baby Jesus and promptly told me that the baby Jesus was me.  She claimed I was God.

As I have reflected on this young girl’s description of me as God, this has been a source of prayer for me.  The truth is that the mystery of Christmas is that God chooses to come among us.  God does dwell in the heart and soul of each one of us.

Let me ask you the question:  where is God as we celebrate Christmas in 2020 as we wrestle with the coronavirus?  You can point to the heavens; you can point to the infant Jesus in the Bethlehem crib; but I would like you now to point to your heart as I ask the question:  Where is God?

As we listen to the Gospel just proclaimed: in  one simple unassuming sentence, the Christmas mystery is revealed.  From the evangelist Luke:  “While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son.” 

The power of God comes to us in a tiny infant.  God is with us in the Bethlehem infant born to Mary and Joseph.

Of all the ways that God could have come into our world, the way he chose was as an infant, born in the simplicity and poverty of the Bethlehem crib.

“She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”  No room in the inn is not simply a description of the housing situation in Bethlehem at the time.  It is a probing statement that is meant for us to continually reflect upon as we retell the Christmas story.

 And so, may I ask you what is the housing situation in the inn of your heart?   Is there room in the inn of our hearts for the birth of the Savior?    Is there room in the inn of your heart for the family member for whom you have difficulty getting along with?  Is there room in the inn of your heart for people who think differently than you -- politically, religiously, or in any way whatsoever?  Is there room in the inn of our hearts for Jesus who lives in the hearts of the poor, the immigrants, and children of all cultures and of all ways of life?

As we celebrate Christmas in 2020, Christmas is not simply about Mary and Joseph and the baby.  It is about God becoming part of our daily struggle, transforming the world through us.  We are the people who walk in darkness – the darkness of sin, the darkness of war, the darkness of relationships that are broken, and the darkness of the threat of violence and terrorism.  How many people in our world today experience “no room in the inn” because of race, color, religion, gender, sexuality?  What attitude and actions of ours communicate to people in need that there is no room for them in the inn of our hearts?  Do we ever in our parish life make people feel unwelcome and there is no room for them?  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.

  You may be sure that to whatever area of our life we allow the Christ child to enter, the darkness recedes.  The mystery of Christmas is allowing the person of Jesus to enter the inn of our hearts.  It is an invitation to look at our present moment through a different lens, the mystery of the nativity of Jesus, the wonder of the Incarnation.  This new lens enables us to see a new and radiant vision, a light for people who walk in darkness.

How can we imagine that it is God’s desire to allow the person of Jesus to enter the inn of our heart?  My niece Emily sent me a photo of her three year old daughter playing with the figures in the nativity scene that is in her home.  Now Taylor was talking to Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus in the same way she would play with her barbie dolls.  Now was Taylor in all her innocence being irreverent in playing with the figures of Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus? 

I suggest not.  Taylor is touching into the deepest aspect of the Christmas mystery.  God wishes to come us among in the person of Jesus.  God wishes to become a part of our lives, part of our family lives.  May we see our prayer as our conversation with Jesus.  It is a great idea to seek the assistance of Mary and Joseph in our conversation with Jesus.  It is awesome that we can simply  talk to Jesus. 

Do you see your prayer as a conversation with Jesus?

 The story of Bethlehem points to a vision of hope, one that relies not on the exercise of military power but an on appeal to the common instincts of the human heart.  These common instincts of the human heart are very spiritual – a spirit of peace, a spirit of joy, a spirit of family, a spirit of love, the spirit of Christmas.

The meaning of Christmas is to be found in the presence of Jesus among us and in our love for one another.

We are missioned to be the keepers of the mystery of Christmas – God is with us. We give birth to Christ when we allow the light that is within us to extend to our family, and our parish family, and to all of creation.

Our exterior Christmas decorations are up and they are beautiful.  What about our interior Christmas decorations?  May we allow the peace of Christ to enter once again into our lives, calming all of our anxieties and filling with all that is good.   My we fill this world with many stories that mirror and give witness to God’s love for us. 

The real meaning of Christmas is that God is with us.  In the inn of our own hearts, there is an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.

Have a blessed Christmas day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The angel Gabriel invites us to say YES and to entrust ourselves to God's plan for our life. And our answer will be....

 

FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT  B  2020

 

In the Gospel account today of Mary’s Annunciation, Mary spoke that creative word of God:  “FIAT.”    Let it done to me according to your word.  Here we have Mary echoing the creating word of God in the creation account from the Book of Genesis.  When Mary said Fiat to the will of God in her life, she was not speaking of her ability, but rather her openness, her availability to the plan of God for her life.

From the moment Mary spoke these words:  “I’m the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word.”  Her life was changed.  She had given herself over to God’s designs for her life.

This prayer of Mary in the Annunciation has been known as the world’s greatest prayer.  It is the prayer that brought God down from heaven to dwell in the soul and body of a lowly young woman.  It is the prayer that brought about the greatest event in human history, God becoming human in Jesus.  It is a prayer that changed forever the course of human history some 2000 years ago. 

The prayer of Mary is so very different from what has been called the world’s most common prayer, the prayer in which we try to get God to do our will.  The world’s most common prayer says:  “My will be done,” whereas the world’s greatest prayer says, “Thy will be done.”

What does the Annunciation say to us as we prepare for Christmas?  The Gospel reminds us of God’s desire to dwell in the midst of humanity.  As Christmas draws near, Mary reminds us that the best Christmas, in fact the only true Christmas, is that Christ be born not in the little town of Bethlehem but in the inner sanctuary of our hearts.

The best possible Christmas gift to us and to all is God’s continual promise that I will be with you.  God’s presence in our life is the meaning of the mystery of Christmas.  God is with us.

Do you remember what Jesus told us on the 1^st Sunday of Advent:  “Stay awake.”

Do you remember the words of John the Baptist on the 2^nd Sunday of Advent:  “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.”

On the third Sunday of Advent, Jesus said:  “Happy is the person who does not lose faith in me.”

What we know and deeply believe is that God is with us.  The important questions that remains is:  “Where are we with God?”  Are we awake?  Have we repented with the Sacrament of Reconciliation?  Have we kept the faith?

And on this Fourth Sunday of Advent, we ask ourselves:  How much do you and I listen to the voice of God’s promise, which is written in our hearts?  How has this pandemic crisis affected our faith life?  Perhaps we will be less selfish insofar as we have been touched by the pain of those who have suffered from Covid-19?

As restrictions lie ahead in our planning for Mass on Christmas and our simpler, scaled-down family celebration of Christmas, I invite you to remember the challenges and struggles of Mary and Joseph on the first Christmas – the arduous journey of the pregnant Mary journeying from Nazareth to Bethlehem; then finding there was no room in the inn; and then giving birth to her firstborn son in the Bethlehem stable in the midst of much simplicity and poverty.

We ask what sustained Mary and Joseph in dealing with these challenges, which were at least as challenging as what we face in 2020 – the year of Covid-19?  Mary and Joseph were sustained by their faith and hope in God’s plan and promise for them. 

May the simplicity of our Christmas celebrations this year purify our Christmas spirit – less consumerism and more trust in God’s promise that his love for us is unending.  Maybe, just maybe, we can open ourselves to the blessings of celebrating Christmas in ways that are similar to the way Mary and Joseph celebrated the first Christmas.  Yes, you and I will miss being together with our extended family.  Yes, this is sad.  But instead of feeling sorry for ourselves, may we be led to trust even more deeply that God is with us; that God indeed accompanies us and leads us to let go of what we want and open ourselves to the ways that God speaks in Christmas 2020.

May Mary be the model of faith for us, the faith community of St. Joseph’s.  In saying yes to the plan of God for her life, Mary gave birth to the Savior.  God came into our world as Mary responded:  I am the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word.” 

Looking to the example and the intercession of Mary, the faith community of St Joseph’s is missioned to bring the love of Jesus into our community – the love of Jesus that shares, that forgives, that accompanies all who are in need.

May we be a faith community that generously shares our resources with those in need through Penfield Hope, through our commitment to St Mary’s School in Mazinde Ju, Tanzania, through our generous support of the diocesan CMA, and through the tithing commitments of our parish.  As God has blessed us financially, may this be an opportunity not just to raise our standard of living, may it be an opportunity to raise our standard of giving.  What if everyone in our parish made a commitment to support the Catholic Ministry Appeal?

May we be a community that forgives – there are no outsiders in our faith community; all are welcome.

May we be a community that accompanies all those in need.  We seek to be a people that look for ways to wash the feet of God’s poor.

Advent is our time to ponder the promise that God is among us, that the Word of God is asking our consent to become flesh in our lives.  Mary invites us to share in the mystery she carried and bore in her human life.  The angel Gabriel invites us to say yes and to entrust ourselves to God’s plan for our life.

And our answer will be….

Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks.

 

Third Sunday of Advent  B  2020

 

Who are you?  The Jews from Jerusalem asked this question of John the Baptist.  As we pray over today’s Scriptures, this same question is asked of us:  Who are you?  After you give your usual contact information, the question is still asked of you before the Lord:  Who are you?

John the Baptist knew his identity.  He knew who he was and who he was not.  John said: “I am not the Christ…I am the voice of one crying in the desert, make straight the way of the Lord.”  John went on to say: “There is one among you whom you do not recognize.”

John’s mission was to help people recognize the presence of Christ who is in our midst. 

As disciples of the Lord, do we know who are and who we are not?

In today’s Scriptures the prophet Isaiah and John the Baptist are models for all of us.  We are called to be prophets in our world; we are to bear witness to Christ; and in the wilderness of human greed, injustice, racism, and falsehood, we are called to make straight the way of the Lord.

The mission given to us at our Baptism is the same mission that was given to John.   We are to witness to the presence of God in our midst.  In so doing, we rejoice.  We rejoice even in the midst of the violence that surrounds racial conflict and the threat of terrorism that we live with. We rejoice during these Advent days even though Covid-19 has forced many, many restrictions on our way of life.  We rejoice because God is present among us.

The question of faith for all of us:  Can we genuinely rejoice when we struggle with all the challenges that we are dealing with?  We rejoice because God goes with us.  Are these just pious words or is this the truth of our life?

 

 

 

 

This third Sunday of Advent is Gaudete Sunday -- Rejoice Sunday.  We light the pink candle of the Advent wreath.  We wear the pink vestments expressing that the joy of Christmas is beginning to invade the Advent season.

In ten words, St Paul expresses the theme of today’s liturgy:  Rejoice always.  Pray without ceasing.  In all circumstances give thanks.

My hope for myself and for you is that the joy of Gaudete Sunday is the joy that you experience everyday as a disciple of Jesus:  rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in all circumstances give thanks.

How can one possibly pray without ceasing?  St Augustine gives us a beautiful example of praying without ceasing.  St. Augustine tells the story of his life as a prayer to God.  He shares his anxieties, successes, discoveries, frustrations and even his sinful behavior in his classic autobiography entitled Confessions of St Augustine.  Augustine shows how every moment of his life can be a conversation with God.  May you have a faith perspective that enables you to view your whole life as a conversation with the God who created you and loves you with an unending love.

In all circumstances, give thanks.  At every Mass, we begin the Eucharistic Prayer with the preface dialogue, we say:  Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

The Gaudete message is true joy and happiness is found only in God.

But we get fooled because John the Baptist is in the desert eating locusts and wild honey.  He may not seem like a person with an infectious smile out there in the desert.  Yet, make no mistake about it, John the Baptist experienced the joy of knowing the Lord.  Joy is one of the characteristics of God’s spirit in the human heart.

So, we ask ourselves the question:  What helps us to recognize the presence of Christ that is in our midst?  Also, we need to humbly ask what blinds from recognizing the presence of Christ in our midst.  We might be so intent on something that we miss the gem right before us.

 John was filled with a faith-filled vision in recognizing Christ.  John lived his life deflecting attention away from himself so that the focus might be fully and directly on Jesus.  John had plenty of time to focus on Jesus because nothing else mattered to John.

May we in this Advent season exercise a John-like role directing attention away from ourselves and witnessing to the Christ who is in our midst.  May we find joy, Gaudete, in helping others recognize the presence of Christ.   It is my prayer that my preaching can help others know Jesus in their lives.  Yours is an even more important witness.  You are to preach without words.  How?  By a simple smile that communicates friendship, and in all the ways we wash the feet of God’s poor, we witness to the mystery of Christmas.  Our God is present to us in human flesh – in your human flesh and in mine.

As we well know, for months our pandemic has prompted the letting go of a million things everywhere.  Here in Church, we are wearing masks; we are keeping socially distant from one another; our sharing of the sign of peace is very constricted; and we are asked to receive Communion in the hand. To keep the coronavirus from spreading, we have asked everyone to receive Communion in the hand.  I realize full well for some Catholics, receiving on the hand is a challenging, even disturbing practice.  For some, receiving in the hand fails to give the body of Christ the reverence it is owed.  Again, it can simply feel wrong.

I invite you to revisit the way we think about receiving Communion.  Because for some it is a profound sacrifice to receive in the hand, maybe it is a profound opportunity to serve the sacrificial lamb himself.  Taking Communion on the hand could be a way to shed the usual contours of how we think we must receive God and let God in fact receive us.   Perhaps Communion is as much about God receiving us as we are receiving God.  God wishes to receive us in our helplessness before this disease, our frailty, our sacrifice, our shedding of habits and customs we thought were non-negotiable.  For what reason we ask:  all for the common good, for preserving the life of the wider body of Christ.  I invite you to consider:  Who are we to deny how God comes to us?  Who are we to deny that Jesus can come to us as we receive Communion in the hand?

At the Last Supper, at the First Mass, Jesus simply said:  Take and eat.  For this is my Body.  The real grace of this sacrament is not so much how we must receive God; the grace of Communion is that God wishes to come to us in our unworthiness.

May the Church of the Holy Spirit in this Advent season herald, give witness, give voice to the presence of Christ in our midst.  May our Advent attitude be: “Rejoice always.  Pray without ceasing.  In all circumstances give thanks. 

Come Lord Jesus.  Marantha.

To repent is to see things differently and, as a result, to live differently.

 

 

Second Sunday of Advent  B  2020

Today we move along on our Advent journey towards the celebration of the Son of God entering our world, our humanity, and our community.  John the Baptist calls us to move from the wilderness of sin and discouragement to a state of hopefulness and trusting expectation.

This Advent season is a waiting season for us in capital letters.  We are waiting to get beyond the restrictions of these pandemic days.  We are waiting for a vaccine.  But may this forced time of waiting be an invitation for us to enter into the blessings of the Advent season of waiting.  For me a slower pace of life is getting me in touch with the grace of the Advent season. I am trying to step back from the busyness of day to day activity and to simplify my day.

The grace that was given to me was that way down underneath all the busyness someone waits for me to come home to who I truly am.

My wish for myself and for all of us is for the Advent grace of pausing.  Keep vigil with your life and keep vigil with the God who welcomes you with His merciful, forgiving love.

In this pandemic Advent season, John the Baptist still calls us to repentance in our Advent journey.  Additionally, in the second Scripture reading, Peter also calls us to repentance.  Peter says: “God is patient with us, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”

I would like to reflect with you the on the meaning of repentance that the Lord calls us to in our Advent journey -- a kind of repentance that is given to us when we encounter the Lord.

For many the word repentance is a word that belongs to yesterday.  It is equated with sackcloth and ashes.  Some see repentance as something that we do only if we get caught.  But repentance is far more than blurting our “I’m sorry” if we get caught cheating on our taxes or are engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior.

When John the Baptist calls us to repentance, he is not talking about self-incriminating scruples but for a radical open-mindedness.  The Greek word is metanoia. It means going beyond our normal mindset.  It speaks of a change in our vision of life.  It is about placing God first in our lives.

Repentance means to “rethink.”  Repentance calls to rethink and to reform our lives.  To repent means to see things differently and, as a result, to live differently.

When we place God first in our lives, the joy of the Gospel motivates us to share what we have been given.  We then prepare our hearts for the coming of the Prince of Peace.  Repentance is not negative and down faced.  Rather, it looks up and looks forward.  It breaks the chains of sin and death that hold us down.  Don’t get stuck in the notion that repentance means feeling sorry and miserable.  It is simply this.  It means you have stopped doing what is wrong, and now you are going to do the right thing.

Make no mistake about it, John the Baptist calls us to confront sin in our life.  One of the temptations of our times is to applaud the absence of guilt.  Some people are pleased that guilt has been dethroned.  In some quarters, the absence of guilt in today’s society makes it very difficult to talk about sin and the need for repentance. 

True repentance means a willingness to confront sin in our lives.   May I give you an Advent suggestion this week that I did during this past week in one of my long walks.  Sometime when you are alone, say your sins out loud.  Speak about the way you have not responded to the love that Jesus shares with you, how you have not lived up to your identity as a daughter or son of God.  If you think about it this way, it will be less a list and more of a conversation with the Lord, but a conversation about my sins which I speak out loud.

There’s something very real about hearing yourself speak your sins.

But we are not to be bogged down in our sinfulness.    While are of us are God’s beloved and made in the image and likeness of God, none of us are perfect.  All of us are sinners.  All of us have need for the Savior.  All of us are called to repentance in this beautiful Advent season of repentance.  But be assured that God’s judgment is that we are worth saving.  God’s judgement comes to us in in His grace and mercy.

“Prepare in the wilderness a way for the Lord,” says the Prophet Isaiah.  That prophecy has great meaning when we apply it to our own hearts.  It is in our hearts that we need to prepare a way for the Lord.  It is in our hearts that we need to make a straight highway for God.  It is the valleys of sin in our own hearts that are to be filled with God’s mercy and healing.

One of the beautiful ways to experience repentance is the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  In this Sacrament, we encounter the merciful and healing love of Jesus who fills the valleys of sin in our hearts with God’s mercy and healing.  When we realized how much we are loved and forgiven, we are motivated to metanoia.  Like Zacchaeus, we then want to share the love we have received.

This Advent we salute the forerunner John the Baptist who prepared the way by challenging the people’s sins. He was not after the popular vote. He had eyes only for God. With eyes fixed on God, John announced that the judgment of God was to be revealed in the love and the mercy of Jesus who came not to condemn but that the world might be saved through Him.

Are we ready to share in the work and mission of John the Baptist?  In recognizing our need to repent, may we be led to announce the merciful love of Jesus to one and all?

I conclude with the Advent prayer we will hear again and again: “God of mercy, may this Eucharist bring us your divine help, free us from our sins, and prepare us for the birth of our Savior.”  Amen

Have a blessed day.

Even those who have nothing can give us the gift of thanks.

 

 

 

THANKSGIVING 2020

 

Mother Teresa of Calcutta tells the story her encounter with a very sick woman on the street in disparate straits.  As typical for Mother Teresa, she stopped and helped this woman in every way that she could.  She did everything that love could do.  Mother Teresa cleaned the person and put her in bed, and there was such a beautiful smile on her face.  She took hold of Mother Teresa’s hands and said two words in her native language, Bengali:  “Thank You.” Then she died.

Mother Teresa then reflected and said:  I could not help but examine my conscience and ask: “What would I say if I were in her place?”  Perhaps I would have liked to draw a little attention to myself.  I would have said:  “I am hungry…I am dying…I am in pain.”  But the woman gave me much more; she gave me grateful loving, dying with a grateful smile on her face.  It means that even those with nothing can give us the gift of thanks.

We are celebrating Thanksgiving in the midst of this horrible pandemic.  We are not able to celebrate Thanksgiving with the number of people that we would like.  We perhaps rightly can feel sorry for ourselves.  We are getting pretty anxious to get back to a new normal.

Before we feel too sorry for ourselves, I call your attention to the dying person on the streets of Calcutta whom Mother Teresa cared for.  Instead of feeling sorry for herself, she said thank you with a smile on her face.

May we too celebrate this day with grateful hearts giving thanks for the blessings of our lives.  We gather to give thanks to the Lord our God in this mystery of the Eucharist.  May we focus not on what we don’t have; rather, may we focus on the blessings we enjoy.

May we live this day and every day with an attitude of gratitude.  Gratitude is our greatest defense against the cloud of fear, uncertainty and loss that Covid-19 has brought to our lives.

We express our gratitude in the context of the Eucharist in which we give thanks to the Lord our God.  This day expresses our spiritual roots not only as a nation but also as a Church, as the disciples of Jesus.  This day is not a holy day of obligation; rather this day is a holy day of opportunity.  It’s an opportunity to think back on what we have been given…and to give something in return:  thanks and gratitude.  We are here to honor, with grateful hearts, what God has done for us.

In the Gospels, Jesus is the great teacher of gratitude.

May we be mindful that Jesus is the great teacher of gratitude – grateful for the love of His heavenly father, and he showed that gratitude in his living and dying witnessing to the Father’s love.

In the stories that Jesus told and, in the story, that Jesus lived, gratitude to His heavenly Father was at the center of the Lord’s life.  Jesus was always grateful for his disciples.  We are among the disciples Jesus is grateful for.

Jesus’ message in today’s Gospel passage is that gratitude is the way to find and experience true joy of heart.  The grace of gratitude, the life posture of gratitude creates an open and truly receptive heart.

In the Gospel in the healing of the ten lepers when only one came back to give thanks, implicit in this episode is the idea that something is missing.  Giving thanks is a vital and necessary part of our relationship with God.  For thankfulness is a measure of faith, a measure of our dependence on God and of our own humility.

Physical healing of leprosy is a great blessing no doubt.  An even greater blessing is the healing of relationships and experiencing the friendship and the salvific love of Jesus that is offered to us.  The Samaritan received a healing far greater that a physical healing when he came back to Jesus to give thanks.

Yes, we desire physical health but may our greater desire be for spiritual health that comes from encountering the Lord with grateful hearts.

 As St. Paul writes in the second Scripture reading, “I give thanks to God always for you and for how you have touched my life.”  The Scriptures reveal the story of God’s unending love for us.

On this Thanksgiving morning, may we as a faith community ask for the grace that our community life will always be marked by a radical gratitude to our loving God.   May we be mindful that Jesus is the great teacher of gratitude – grateful for the love of His heavenly father, and he showed that gratitude in his living and dying witnessing to the Father’s love.

 

God give you peace and have a Blessed Day of Thanksgiving.

Did you feed the hungry? Did you shelter the homeless? Did you care for the sick? And our answer will be......

 

FEAST OF CHRIST THE KING  A  2020

 

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King, the Lord of the Universe.  This is ironic because Jesus never acted like a king.  He embraced poverty, not wealth. He taught humility, not arrogance.  He emphasized service, not domination.  He chose a cross, not a palace.  Kinship, instead of kingship:  This is what Jesus is truly passionate about.  Kinship with “the least, the lost, and the last.”

As we reflect on Christ the King and ask if Jesus has authority over our lives, remember the qualities of the Kingship of Jesus.  Jesus embraced poverty; he taught humility; he emphasized service; and he chose the cross.  In a trial, would you be convicted for being called Christian, a disciple of Christ the King?

The Gospel describes the Last Judgment scene.  “The king will say to those on his right. ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father.  Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.  For I was hungry and you gave me food…The righteous will respond, ‘Lord when did we see you hungry and feed you…And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of the least brothers or sisters of mine, you did for me.’”

There is nothing mysterious or difficult to figure out about today’s Gospel.  Each of us will be judged upon our performance of the simple works of mercy we hear in the Gospel. 

The Gospel suggests that our leadership in religious organizations doesn’t count for too much before God.  In the last judgment, the only thing that really counts is humble service.

As we gather on Sunday to celebrate the beauty of our liturgy Sunday after Sunday, the Gospel reminds us of the liturgy of life without which all other liturgy in Church has no meaning.  Plain and simple, if we are not focused in the liturgy of life in our service of one another, all other liturgy, no matter how beautiful it is, is pointless.

Jesus doesn’t even use big words like justice or democracy to explain what is going to be on our final exam.  He simply talks about food, clothes, water, and shelter – the basics of life.  Jesus took his stand with the needy people of this world and said in effect: “This is where I live.” These are my people.  I belong to them, and they belong to me.  Jesus not only cared about the needy and sought to help the needy. He completely identified himself with the needy.  There was His hunger.

God has no other name than Mercy.  Where is the Lord of the Universe to be found?  He has disappeared among the hungry, thirsty, naked, lost, sick, imprisoned, alien and persecuted of this world.  Our King is hiding in the least of our brothers and sisters.

That’s where you and I belong. This is how we strengthen our trust in God.  It isn’t as if the needy are people who need help, and we are the people who give help.  We all belong to the fellowship of the needy.  Who are the needy?  I am; you are; everyone is.  Today I may help you, but tomorrow I may need you to help me.  We are members of the same family, sharing our love, sharing our resources, sharing our needs.

The primary message of this Gospel account is not to inform you about what will happen at the end of time, but to teach how to behave today.  In the words of the writer Stephen Covey, we need to begin with the end in mind.  Jesus is suggesting how we must live.

The prayerful questions we ask ourselves:  In what ways is Jesus the ruler, the king of your life?  How does God’s love inspire us to show mercy?

Presently as we are dealing with Covid-19.  This virus is taking over how we are living our lives.  In this liturgy, we are wearing masks, we are socially distant from one another, we are continuously washing our hands, many of us are participating in this liturgy by live stream.  All of us need to feel safe in participating in this liturgy.  In the midst of this pandemic, our care for one another includes our wearing of masks so that we are doing our part to keep our parish community healthy physically and spiritually.

During these Covid days, we need to stay connected with each other.  We belong to each other. We are missioned to serve and love one another.  During the announcement time at Mass today, we will be showing a video about an important challenge we have as a parish community in supporting all the needed ministries in our parish.

Our commitment to grow our Penfield Hope initiative is focusing on our desire to feed the hungry, to give drink to the thirsty, to clothe the naked.  What the Lord asks of us is to make a difference in the lives of our neighbors; we are to lift each other up in hope and in humble service.  Penfield Hope responds to critical unmet needs of Penfield area residents through meaningful encounters, dialogue, and practical services.

 

On this the last Sunday of the Church year, the Scriptures draw our prayerful to the end times – the end of our own lives when we go home to God.  At the conclusion of the story of every person on earth, when each is alone with himself and with God, only love will be significant.   And we can never love others unless we feel a certain reverence towards them.  From the Gospel, the life of each one will be considered a success or failure according to the commitment of the person in the elimination of six situations of suffering and poverty:  hunger, thirst, exile, nakedness, sickness, imprisonment.

Again going back to the Gospel, in His last words to us in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is telling us in advance that when we each stand before our God, we won’t be given a test that will be confusing or difficult.  It will instead involve only the most practical questions:  Did you feed the hungry?  Did you shelter the homeless?  Did you care for the sick?

And our answer will be….

 

Have a blessed day.

What are we doing with the talents God has given to us? Have we buried them or have we used them to make a difference in the lives of others?

 

Thirty Third Sunday in OT  A  2020

Today’s scripture readings prepare us for the end of the liturgical year.  They challenge us to understand our life in terms of its ultimate purpose.  On this the second last Sunday of the liturgical year, our prayer centers around the accountability the Lord will ultimately ask of each of us.  In terms of the Gospel parable of the various talents given to the three servants, we too have been generous recipients of blessings and talents from our loving God.

Our prayerful question is one of accountability.  What are we doing with the talents God has given to us?  Have we buried our talents, or have we used them to make a difference in the lives of others?  What effect have these Covid days had on our accountability to use our God-given talents in the service of one another? 

The second Scripture reading from St Paul tells us the Day of the Lord is coming like a thief in the night.  We know not the day or the hour.   The apostle Paul   told people not to get too worried about end times, but not to get too comfortable either.  What really matters on the Day of the Lord is what we are doing with the graces and talents that have been given to us.

The message in the parable is about trust.  God is entrusting us with God-given talents.  God trusts us.  In turn, we are to trust God in taking the risk and making the commitment to share the talents we have been given in the service of others.  Our precious God-given talents are not ours to keep.  Our talents are not to be buried in the ground.  Rather that are given to us to live out the commandment of love, the first requirement of a disciple of Jesus.

Our talents are not our personal wealth.  These talents are our God-given gifts that are meant to be multiplied and be life-giving for all.

 We need to get our head around the talents that we have been given.   I invite you to think of talents as what Jesus has given to His Church:  the Gospel, the message of salvation intended to transform the world and create a new humanity; His Spirit who renews the face of the earth, and even Jesus Himself in the Sacraments; and then his power to heal, to comfort, to forgive, to reconcile with God.

These are the talents given to the three servants in helping us understand the meaning of the parable. The three servants are members to of the Church. To each of them is given an assignment to be done so that this wealth of the Lord may be put to good use.  According to one’s own charism, everyone is called to produce love. 

The second part of the parable describes the different behavior of the servants, two are enterprising, dynamic, hardworking, while the third is fearful and insecure.  The first two servants learned to love what the master did.

In the third part of the parable, we witness the rendering of accounts.   The reward the first two servants receive is the joy of their Lord, the happiness that comes from being in tune with God and His plan.

Then the third servant, despite not being a main actor, appears to be the principal character of the parable.  The central message of the parable is the master’s rebuke of the slothful servant:  the only unacceptable attitude is the disengagement; it is the fear of risk.  He is condemned because he let himself be blocked by fear.

 This third servant is held accountable for not sharing the talent of forgiveness, of compassion, of loving those who are difficult to love.  These talents are not to be buried in the ground.  Refusing the trust that he had been given, he buried his master’s offer in the grave.

During these Covid days in which for good reason, we live with the limitations of what we can do and what we cannot do.  Nonetheless, we ask ourselves are we burying our God-given giftedness in the ground?

But our life as a disciple of Jesus can never be just as a spectator; we are to be active participants in sharing our God-given talents in making a difference in the lives of others.  We begin within our own family.  We begin within our own parish community.  But the Gospel call to love demands that we move beyond our comfort zone and bring the message of the healing love of Jesus to one and all.

We are to pray over this parable individually and as the parish community of the Church of the Holy Spirit?

Has the sharing of our talents resulted in candidates for the priesthood, consecrated life as a religious, or the commitment to serve the Church as a lay ecclesial minister?  Who has emerged from our faith community to serve in leadership ministries in our Church?

Has our sharing of our faith and love led others in our neighborhood  to join and become active participants in our parish community. 

Are we known in the neighborhood as a welcoming parish, as a family friendly parish?

How have we as a parish community shared our giftedness and talents with those who are in need?  What we have been given, we are given to share.  We are called to wash the feet of God’s poor.

  It has been said that for us to enter the kingdom of heaven we need a letter of recommendation from someone who is poor.  Who is going to write that letter for you and who is going to write that letter for me?

Have we made a pledge to support the CMA this year?  Will we lend our support to empower our diocesan ministries to serve people in need?

The challenge for all of us to place God first in our lives.  It’s too easy to bury our baptismal talent in the midst of a life that is filled with activity from one moment to the next.  The potential talent we have as a parish community is limitless if we commit ourselves to be a parish community that gives praise to God and if we commit ourselves to use our talents in the service of one another.

And so as we come to the end of this liturgical year and we reflect on the accountability that is asked of each one of us and is asked of us a parish community, may we rejoice in the joy of the blessings of life that we have been given and shared.  May we also hold ourselves accountable that we have not yet finished the work that the Lord has given to do.  The Lord will hold us accountable for how we shared our faith, our compassion, our forgiveness, our welcome, and our love with one and all.

Have a blessed day!

So, would you vote for a candidate whose vision was a way of life based on the Beatitudes?

 

 

ALL SAINTS DAY   2020

 

Today is All Saints’ Day.  Tomorrow is All Souls Day. And Tuesday is Election Day.

In the last few weeks, we have been bombarded by our political candidates highlighting the issues and the qualities you should consider in who to vote for. 

AS we reflect on the Beatitudes in today’s Gospel for All Saints’ Day, I’m left wondering what are the qualities and the issues that we find in the lives of the saints.

If you were to become a political candidate and at one and the same time you aspire to be a saint. are the qualities we find in the saints the same as the qualities we look for in a political candidate.

So, how would you describe a saint?  Saints are friends of Jesus.  They have invited Jesus into their lives.    Saints are people who are aware of God’s great love for them and are witnesses of the love of Jesus in the world. 

In the context of today’s feast, the beatitudes in today’s Gospel tells us: this is how you become a saint.

 As we mark this All Saints Day, it is tempting to put saints, literally, on a pedestal.  We see saints in stained glass, in wood, in marble. They are plaster figures we put on a shelf and decorate with flowers or adorn with halos.  We collect them in holy cards and venerate them in icons.

But to think of the saints that way reduces them to something merely decorative—and risks making this feast seem unnecessary.

I invite you compare a saint to a political candidate.  Just as political candidates have to convince you they connect with you in the way you live your life and how they will improve your quality of life, so too, saints are people whose  lives are like you and I with all our strengths and our weaknesses.

The blessedness of the saints is the blessedness of the beatitudes and the blessedness of the beatitudes is an inner blessedness, an inner joy that comes from trusting and rejoicing and being grateful for God’s unending love for us.

I invite you  to reflect on two of the beatitudes.

  Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are the poor in spirit…The poor in spirit are those who know they stand in need of God’s redeeming love.  Our wealth doesn’t come from are material assets; our real wealth comes from God’s healing love for us.  To tap into God’s unending love for us, we need first to recognize our need for God’s grace.  This is to say we need to recognize our poverty of spirit which moves us to find an inner blessedness that is God’s gift to us.  Blessed are those who have to rely on God for every breath they take.

The greatest spiritual deception of all is thinking we are self-righteous; that our spiritual will power is the source of our holiness.  That is the biggest illusion of all.  The spiritual life begins with our need for God.  Left to ourselves, we are poor; we stand in need.  The grace of this situation is that it can lead us to trust not in ourselves, but to trust in God.

And so, the beatitude, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.

In preparing for the day that I was ordained a priest, I had 12 years of seminary formation – four years of high school, four years of college, and four years of theology.  I spent a lot of time in the classroom. 

When I think of the seminary formation of the first apostles, Jesus enrolled them in the school of mercy.  The disciples of Jesus found themselves in a continual classroom for learning how to be merciful.  They listened to Jesus preach about forgiveness.  They watched as Jesus healed the sick, expelled demons and forgave sinners.

 Yet the deepest lessons for the disciples occurred when they themselves went through a heartbreaking baptism of mercy.  The Gospels tell of the disciples’ constant failure to understand Jesus and his mission.  They think they are on the way to power and greatness.  They are dismayed when Jesus predicts his suffering and rejection in Jerusalem. 

The whole story reveals that the disciples had to experience their own need for mercy so that they would be prepared to preach it to others.  For example, Peter, the leader, undergoes a profound failure, denying any relation with Jesus in his hour of need. 

St. Paul, like St. Peter, is prepared for his mission as Apostle to the Gentiles by his own wrenching experience of failure and conversion.  Again, it might seem strange that God would choose an enemy of the church to be its greatest evangelist, until we realize that Paul’s conversion was essential to his ministry.

The baptism of mercy of Peter and Paul was to recognize that left to their own devices, they were on a sinking ship.  Conversion happened when they made the leap of faith in trusting in God for every breath they took.

The parables of Jesus are stories of mercy.   The Parable of the Prodigal Son identifies the deepest obstacle to mercy.  Those who feel they have never received mercy themselves find it hardest to let God give it to others.  This can be seen in the behavior of the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son.  He wasn’t able to celebrate with his younger brother because he was not aware of the father’s merciful love for him.

Mercy comes from mercy.  Our mercy to each other comes from God’s mercy to us.

What about ourselves?   What about our Church?  How aware are we that we are the generous recipients of God’s merciful love?  Are there ways we are reluctant to share the merciful love of Jesus with others?

  You can be sure if we are reluctant to be a Church of mercy, a Church extravagant in witnessing to God’s unconditional for one and all, we ourselves need to go back to the first beatitude.  Blessed are the poor in spirit.  Out of our poverty, out of our brokenness of spirit, may we experience the conversion of relying more fully on God’s grace.   Blessed are they who rely on God for every breath they take.

All Saints Day beckons us to something beautiful.  It reminds us of our great potential—the promise that lies within each of us. The promise of holiness.

It is the promise that was fulfilled in the countless people we venerate this day—our models, our companions, our inspirations, our guides. All the saints. They give us blessed hope.

So, would you vote for a candidate who sought to live the Beatitudes way of life:  Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.

Have a Blessed Day.

 

 

 

 

 

Each day we have to decide whether to be a Good Samaritan or indifferent bystanders when we come upon the needy and the hurting of our community. (Pope Francis)

 

Thirtieth Sunday in OT A  2020

 

One of the Pharisees, a scholar of the law, tested Jesus by asking: “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”     As in last week’s Gospel in asking Jesus: “Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not,” the Pharisees seek to engage Jesus in debate and to win the argument.  Good luck with that.

Jesus responded: “You shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the greatest and first commandment.  The second is like it:  You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

These two commandments are the currency of God’s kingdom, a currency completely different from last week’s Roman coin and completely different from the self-centered transactions that too often characterize our contemporary way of life.  Being indifferent to or hating others is to deny the existence of God’s presence in one’s neighbor.

Jesus’ answer was not a particular law, now even two particular laws.  His answered demanded a new lifestyle, a way of living that draws us so close to God that we become His presence for others.  The law tells us what we have done wrong.  Love tells who we can be.  While this linking of the two great commandments was not unique to Jesus, it does get at the heart of Jesus’ mission and ministry.

Jesus is not attempting to do away with the law and the prophets by reducing everything to the so-called new commandment.  This commandment becomes the lens through which everything is to be seen.  It is the interpretative key for understanding all of revelation. 

 The love command is the guts of Catholic morality.  Church practices and rules are there to help us avoid everything that is opposed to the “love command.”  Sin in our lives is when we do not live up to our baptismal commitment, to our discipleship witness of loving God and our neighbor.  In the Gospel account, the Pharisees understanding of what truth is could be found only in a multitude of laws.  The Gospel affirms the witness of a God of love and a God of hope.  The joy of the Gospel is discovered when we share the merciful love of Jesus with one another.

Meaningful discipleship is not found in the mere observance of law.  Meaningful religion is lived out in a triangle of love – love for God, love for others, and love for self.  In that triangle of love is found the secret of a fulfilling life on earth and a foretaste of the life to come.

If you ask yourself, what does God want of us, what is God’s priority for us?  God’s priority for us is that we love our neighbor as our self.   For Jesus, our neighbor is anyone and everyone, unconditionally, no exceptions.  To say again, for Jesus, our neighbor is anyone and everyone, unconditionally, no exceptions.

I recommend for your reading and prayer Pope Francis’ most recent encyclical FRATELLI TUTTI.  Pope Francis invites to pray over the parable of the Good Samaritan.  Pope Francis challenges us with the meditation that each day we have to decide whether to be a Good Samaritan or indifferent bystanders as we come upon the needy and the hurting people of our community.  The Pope asks: “Will we bend down and to touch and heal the wounds of others?”

Our intimacy with the Lord will be based on the love and intimacy we have shared with all of God’s people.  The first Scripture reading from the book of Exodus concretizes Jesus’ teaching.  The alien, the orphan and the poor are our neighbors.

  Immigrants whether documented or undocumented, saints or sinners, every member of LGBT, your family member whom it is most difficult for you to relate to is your neighbor to be loved and is the barometer of the depth of our love of God.

May the next rosary we pray be for those it is difficult for us to understand and for those it is difficult to love.

In a family or in a religious community or in a parish community, it is not easy to love those who reject the way of life of the family, of the religious community or of the parish.  Loving these people does not mean rejecting the way of life handed down by the Lord.  It does mean seeking ways to love those who reject it.   This is part of the ongoing challenge of following Jesus Christ

May we be transformed by God’s grace, who desires us to care for all among us who are in need, not just because particular laws govern us but because the love of God and neighbor burns in us.

We pray today that we might love God so deeply that we will have no choice but to bring God’s love to those around us.

This is not to say all of us are ready to be canonized because we have already mastered the commandment of love, but may it be the desire of our hearts to make love the first requirement of our discipleship of the Lord Jesus.

The poet Maya Angelou was once asked what her lifetime goals were.  She answered that she wanted to become a Christian.  Now Maya Angelou was already a Christian.    Her point was that Christianity is an ongoing process of becoming.    Everyday we take steps to become a Christian.

In all humility, may all of us identify with the lifetime goal of Maya Angelou and strive always to become more Christian, to live the first requirement of our discipleship of the Lord Jesus – our love of God and our love of one another.

With each Eucharist we celebrate, in the Penitential Rite we acknowledge the areas of our life in which Jesus is not yet Lord, the ways that we have not loved God and our neighbor.  Thankfully and gratefully we are the recipients of the merciful love of Jesus, and we commit ourselves to be people who love one another.

And so, we pray, Lord, let love be the guiding principle of all I say and think.   For our life as a disciple of Jesus requires that we treat all –especially the most vulnerable – with dignity.  Again, being indifferent to or hating others is to deny the existence of God’s presence in one’s neighbor

Have a Blessed day.

The human heart is stamped with the image of God.

 

TWENTY NINTH SUNDAY IN OT A 2020

In today’s Gospel, the Pharisees went off and plotted how they might entrap Jesus in speech.  Their strategy was to get Jesus to talk about taxes.  That usually is a no-win situation. Taxes are a timeless human issue.  So, they said to Jesus: “Tell us, then, what is your opinion: Is it lawful to pay tax to Caesar or not?”

In replying to those who were trying to trap him, Jesus said: “Show me the coin that pays the census tax.”   Looking at the coin, Jesus then asks: “whose image is this and whose inscription?’  They replied, “Caesar’s.”  It is lawful to give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar.  By answering, “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar.” Jesus narrows his response to the need to pay the census tax.  The payment of taxes helps fulfills the government’s responsibility to provide for the common good.  We need to be the servants not only of our personal interests but also of the societal needs.

The point of the story is to see how Jesus responds to this attempt to entrap him.  Jesus turned the question about taxes into a much more important question:  How are we to relate to God?

The second half of Jesus response: “Give to God what belongs to God.”  This is comprehensive statement and includes all areas of life.  There is one crucial question for us to reflect upon that is not asked in the Gospel conversation.  If Caesar’s image is on the coin, where do we find God’s image?  For we are to give to God that which bears the image of God.

As of last Wednesday, I just completed my annual eight day silent, directed retreat at a Jesuit retreat house in Gloucester, MA. I prayed using the words and the prayer of St. Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuits:  “Take, Lord, and receive my liberty, my memory, my understanding, my entire will – all that I have and all that I call my own.”

The prayer of St. Ignatius is the prayer that Jesus is asking of us in today’s Gospel.  Give to God what belongs to God.  Jesus is asking of us – where do we belong?

On the one hand, belonging can sound like we are being controlled, or our money belongs to us and we can do what we like with it.  But for Jesus, it’s the belonging of love, not of power and control.

The truth of our lives is much is not in our control. We are born and die in God’s time. This reminds us that we are not the masters of our lives, we come from God and go to God. This belonging is the center of our human family and community. God doesn’t want to control us but to love us.

But there’s an addition: belonging to God means belonging to each other. This means we have rights and duties of love: To give to oth­ers what belongs to others; give to the poor what belongs to the poor. To give to God what belongs to God is to share the goods of the earth!

Following the wisdom of St. Ignatius, the grace that I sought in my retreat is to have the spiritual sightedness to find God in all things.  We will find God’s image imprinted on all of creation, on each human being and each human work.  We are made in the image and likeness of God.

It is people, ourselves, who are in the image and likeness of God.  We belong to God.  When God is truly the center of our lives, there is no problem with giving others their due. 

When we forget that we are made in God’s image, we can easily attach ourselves to the Caesars of our lives – the stock market, your career, or your favorite political party. We may want to grasp Caesar’s false coins as our security and our destiny.  But we need to ask ourselves, can anything but God be our security and our destiny?  The old adage holds true that nobody laments on their deathbeds that they didn’t make more money or spend more time at work.  Submitting only to Caesar and the pursuit of wealth will not satisfy us. 

Ultimately, we belong to God and the service and love of God’s people is the source of meaning and happiness in our lives.   Moreover, all of God’s creation bears the image of God.   Our care for our environment, our stewardship of the earth is giving back to God what belongs to God.

Even though none of us enjoy paying taxes, in the big picture, giving to Caesar what is Caesar’s is not the demanding component of today’s Gospel.   Where we are challenged is:  Giving to God what is God’s.

God does not want taxes. He does not need your vote and He does not need you to take up arms in His defense.  But God does deserve your heart and conscience. These should never be given to a human institution or even to a human relationship. Your greatest love, your greatest loyalty belongs to God.

The Roman coin was stamped with the image of Caesar.  The human heart is stamped with the image of God. We are made in His image and likeness.  Perhaps, the question is, “Shall we, can we, and do we give to God what is God’s?”

An old Indian was sharing his wisdom with this grandson.  He told the grandson that we have two wolves inside us who struggle with each other. One is the wolf of peace, love and kindness. The other is the wolf of fear, greed and hatred. “Which wolf will win, grandfather?”, asked the grandson. The wise old Indian said, “Whichever one you feed and whichever one you encourage.”

Yes, we all have within us the demons, the wolves of greed, control, and self-centeredness.   We all get stuck on ourselves and what we want at times. We can act as if everything belongs to ourselves.  Yes, we can feed that side of our selves with our greed and our need to be the center of the universe.

It is when we realize that we and all creation belong to God, that we are made in his image and likeness, that we are made to love and serve others, that we are to give thanks to the Lord our God, then we feed and encourage the wolf of love, the better angels within us.

This weekend, we are asking your support of the Catholic Ministries Appeal.  In supporting the CMA, we are feeding and encouraging a spirit of generosity within us.

The CMA supports the ministries of our diocese – some of them directly benefit our parish, and some of these ministries directly benefit people in the diocese who have considerably less resources than ourselves.  In both cases and in all cases, we are called to a Gospel spirit of stewardship in which we share what we have with others.  All who are served by the CMA are made in the image and likeness of God.

When we give generously from our giftedness to help and serve, we indeed are giving to God what belongs to God.  We are the stewards of the abundance of God’s love what we share generously what we have been given. 

Lord may your will that we share well the goods of the world be done.

Have a Blessed Day.