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.