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

 

Twenty sixth Sunday in OT  B 2024 

Thank you for coming together to pray together, to give thanks to the Lord our God for the blessings of our lives.  There is no better way to give thanks than by coming together in the celebration of the Eucharist.  The Eucharist is the North Star of living life with an attitude of gratitude.

 

In this outdoor celebration of the Eucharist and in our parish picnic we come together to pray together and to socialize together.  WE come together as sister parishes who share our giftedness with each other.  As St Joseph’s and the Church of the Holy Spirit, we don’t’ come together to compete with each other; rather we come to pray together, to inspire each other, to love and serve each other.  We come together following the example and at his command to be fed and nourished at the Table of the Lord.

It is always good for us to be in Church; it is also good for us to celebrate the Eucharist in the beauty of God’s creation.  It is good for us to remember that St Joseph’s is a building that houses the Church.  WE the community of the baptized, we the people of God are the Church where God dwells.

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

 

Initially, some of the Israelites were jealous that the spirit of prophesy too widely.  They thought they were the inner circle, so to speak.

 

But the message was much more inclusive:  God dwells in each of us.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

It is a mystery to me in my own family that not all of us practice our Catholicism in the same way.  Yet, we are not called to be judgmental of others; rather we are to have this attitude of encouragement, accompaniment, compassion and acceptance of the gifts of others.

 

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

 

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

 

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Even as we gather today in the beauty of God’s creation, may we not limit the workings in our own lives and in the lives of each other.  All is a gift of God.

 

Have a Blessed Day.

 

 

What were you arguing about on the way?

 

Twenty Fifth Sunday in OT  B  2024 

 

In today’s Gospel, Jesus brought the disciples up short by asking a very revealing questions:  “What were you talking about on the way?”

 

He had just told the disciples for a second time that He was going up to Jerusalem to suffer and die and that he would rise again. 

Jesus’s message was that our lives gain our meaning from sacrifice, not power.  Jesus came to serve, not to be served.  He was going to teach his disciples that they were to transform the world by getting down on their knees to wash the feet of people in need.

The disciples were having big time trouble understanding the message of Jesus.  This wasn’t the kind of talk from Jesus they liked.  They had another vision of the type of Messiah they were looking for.

 Peter had previously argued with Jesus about this and Jesus had told Peter:  “Get behind me Satan.”  But they still did not understand that Jesus was to suffer and experience rejection and was going to lay down his life.

In responding to the question Jesus asked:  “What were you talking about on the way,”  the disciples were silent for with some embarrassment they were arguing about who was the greatest among them?  Was it Peter?  Was it James?  Was it John?  So, who you think is the greatest?

For sure, all too often that question is very important.  We live in a very competitive society.  The cult of “We’re Number One” stimulates every unholy emotion known to humanity.  Internationally, we want to believe the USA is the number one superpower.  You want your children to be number one in wherever they find themselves.  I want St Joseph’s to be the number one parish in the diocese.  It is in our DNA that we want to climb the ladder of success.  Does this even apply to the Buffalo Bills who we want to be the Super Bowl champions?

In the second Scripture reading, James says:  “Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every foul practice”  Yes, the desire to climb the ladder of success is instilled in us at an early age.  The apostle tells us that this too easily leads to jealousy and selfish ambition.

In reversing this mindset, Jesus tells the Twelve and all of us that the only to be first, the only way to be the greatest:  “If anyone wishes to rank first, he must remain the last one of all and be the servant of all.”  This is the world turned upside down.  All of our common measurements of importance and greatness need to be revisited.  Jesus halts the human parade and puts it in reverse, with servants at the front, and all the pompous kings who ever reigned bringing up the rear.  And in front of the whole parade is the greatest servant of all:  Jesus:  the Jesus who emptied himself, became a slave to all, dying on the cross for  our sins and out of love for us.

So Jesus brought them up short that day by a revealing question:  “What were you talking about on the way?”  It should be a question that is unsettling for us as well.  We can ask the question:  “Who is the most important person here at St. Joseph’s parish?”  Is it the pastor, the co-administrator, the finance director, the school principal or, or is it the person who cleans the bathrooms and scrubs the floor?  Do we view importance in the same way that Jesus does?  Can Jesus join our conversation about who is most important and feel we have understood his message that he is to suffer, be rejected and die on the cross and be raised up again?

Jesus’s chief criterion for greatness is the willingness to be of service to others. Please God, that is our parish mantra for greatness:  our willingness to be of service to others; the God we reverence and adore is a God who emptied Himself to the servant of all, to be the slave of all, willing to embrace death, death on the cross for us and for our salvation.

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

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

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

We have the privilege in our parish community to have many, many young children.  May they reveal to us about what are our most important Christian virtues.  More that the credentials that may or may be after your name, more than the size of your portfolio, what is most important for our parish community is for our children always to have our undivided attention as we seek to fashion them after the mind and heart of Jesus.  Is St Joseph’s School just an extra in our parish priorities?  By no means.  Definitely not.  Our school is a parish priority in which we seek to instill in our children the mystery of God’s great love for them.  May everything we do in our parish faith formation initiatives with all of our parish youth always be a major parish priority.  In the vision of Christ Jesus, children are on the top of our list of who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Have a blessed day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who do you say that I am?

 

Twenty Fourth Sunday in OT  B  2024

 

In today’s Gospel, Jesus asked his disciples two questions.  The first was an information, polling question:  Who do people say that I am?  The second was a more personal spiritual question:  “Who do you say that I am?”  Peter responded:  “You are the Christ.”  Peter was right, but not right enough.  Peter has the right answer, but not the right meaning.  Peter had hoped that the long-awaited Messiah was to be regal, powerful, and a strong leader.   Peter did not understand the words of Jesus that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected and be killed and rise after three days.

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

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

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

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

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

The Scriptures today are teaching us about the meaning of discipleship.  In what situations of life are you willing to embrace suffering as a means of embracing the cross in your journey of discipleship?   In the big picture, denying yourself and taking the cross is far more than giving up candy during Lent.  It is a complete reordering of our principles and priorities in order to “restart “baptismal commitment.  Turning away from self-centeredness, we embrace other-centeredness and God-centeredness.

--There is no one we will not forgive.

--We are committed to share what we have in the service of others.

--We are simply going to be kind to each person we share life with today.

--Prayer, our relationship with the Lord, is going to be a daily part of our DNA.

--The struggles, the setbacks we experience are going to be our teachers.  They are going to lead us to trust that God is with us in the crosses of life.  As we are challenged to empty ourselves of our own plans for success, we are going to trust that God has a plan for us and will lead us to discover more fully the spiritual dimension of life, of God’s unconditional and unending that comes to us in the midst of the challenges.

 

May God give you peace,

 

We can get spiritually lost even when we are obeying the law if our hearts are not filled with the merciful love of Jesus.

 

Twenty Second in OT  B  2024

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Jesus is so clear in His teachings.  He tells that He did not come to destroy the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill them.  Jesus has no problem with the person who ritually washes his hands and still serves the poor and the needy.  The problem is with us who make sure to wash our hands but never pay attention to the poor and the needy.

 

 

 

 

Pope Francis’ favorite image for the Church is to see the Church as a “field hospital.”  In the field hospital of the Church of St.Joseph’s, we humbly recognize that all of us are sinners.  Using this image can help us to avoid self-righteous attitudes.   The sacraments are not rewards for us who are perfect; rather the sacraments are spiritual medicine for us who are weak. 

 

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

 

In the Gospel, Jesus responded to the self-righteous  purity police by citing the prophet Isaiah:  This people honors with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”  In the second scripture reading, James proclaims:  “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God is this:  to care for the orphans and widows and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”

 

Isaiah accuses the people of being more concerned with ritual defilement than with ethical defilement. 

And so, yes, we can spiritually get lost even when we are obeying the law and seemingly being very religious if our hearts are not filled with the merciful love of Jesus.

 Our discipleship of Jesus is not primarily about legalism; it is about loving God and neighbor.  May we deeply believe that God truly wants to share his life with us.  Sometimes the Gospel is too good to be true and so we don’t believe.  Can we believe God is so loving, that his love is wonderful and so all-encompassing, that he who is mindful of all of our failings and the darkest secrets still finds us lovable, still wants to shre his own life with us.

 

At all times and in all situations, we need to speak our convictions but we all must witness to the love of Jesus in our dialogue with one another.

 

 

 

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

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

Our prayer and liturgy must lead to witnessing to the love of Jesus in our lives.  In the dismissal rite of the Mass, I will say: “Go in peace glorifying the Lord by our lives.”  This is not a simple throw-away statement to head to the parking lot.  This is our call to live the meaning of the Eucharist 24 hours a day.  In Eucharist we receive the love of Jesus; in Eucharist we are missioned to live and witness to the love of Jesus in the actions of our lives.

 

May God grant you peace.