In the inn of our own hearts, there is an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. We are missioned to be the bearers to the keepers of the mystery of Christmas.

The first Scripture reading from the prophet Isaiah proclaimed:  “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light:  upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shown.  You have brought abundant joy and great rejoicing.”

This is a wonderful, wonderful way of describing the Christmas mystery.  The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.  There is a light at the end of the tunnel  -- not just a temporary flicker but an eternal flame.   We are indeed a people who wait in joyful hope not because the darkness is over, but because the Light is with us now, and the Light will overcome the darkness.

I see darkness in the halls of Congress where there is a distinct lack of dialogue and honest listening to one another. I see darkness when we cannot trust one another and instead we fear for our safety and security; and I see darkness in the brokenness of too many relationships.

On the other hand, I  see only light when I participate in our children’s lessons and carols and in our school’s Christmas concert.  Our children are beacons of God’s light and love.  There is so much enthusiasm and beauty and love when our parish families gather and speak the language of love to one another.  There is so much potential for us to be the light shining in the darkness.  And so, we gather on this Christmas feast to celebrate the light of Christ – that light that overcomes the darkness of our lives; that light of Christ that brings joy to our Spirit; that light that brings hope and the deepest meaning to our lives.

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.   The Christmas story affirms that whatever happens, the light still shines.  Because of Christmas, it will never get so dark that you can’t see the light.

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.

This night of mystery had its origins on the darkened hills of Judea.  In a manger, in a town far away, among shepherds, and in the dark of night, Jesus is born.  Our salvation is dawned with the messiness, poverty, and weakness of ordinary human life.  This hardly seems a very auspicious beginning to the dawn of salvation.

“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?

The mystery of Christmas happens for us when we connect the story of our lives with the story of Christmas.  The Christmas message is the story of God’s unconditional love for us.  As his disciples we are to fill this world with many other stories that mirror and give witness to God’s love for us.  That is the meaning and wonder of the Incarnation.

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.

I had a most beautiful Christmas moment earlier this month when we were celebrating First Reconciliation with our second graders.  I just celebrated this sacrament of God’s merciful move in the life of this young seven year parishioner.   After her confession, she said:  “Father I have a question for you.”  I politely asked what her question was.  She asked me:  “Father, do you ever sin?”  The preciousness of her question made me fully realize that yes I am a sinner; I stand in need of God’s forgiveness; and this beautiful Sacrament of Reconciliation expresses God’s desire to share forgiveness and love with one and all.

God desires to be part of my life as Lord and Savior.

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. 

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.

When the Lord of history, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, broke the silence of the centuries and spoke in the darkness of that first Christmas night, he spoke through a vulnerable infant in a manger.

Yet we may be confident that the final word of the story will be one of light shining in the darkness and life triumphant over death.  The true gift of Christmas is the ability to discover God in the midst of brokenness and darkness.  The spiritual power given to us in the mystery of Christmas is the power of our faith -- the faith that enables us to hear the Christmas story filled with the promise that our future is full of hope and that we always and forever are God’s beloved sons and daughters. 

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

We celebrate Christmas with our children.  We tell the Christmas story that is ageless and needs to be told and retold again and again.  From the darkened hills of Judea in the dark of night long ago to this liturgy we celebrate, Jesus is present in our midst when we speak the language of love to each other, when we share our giftedness with one another, and when we gather around the Table of the Lord in awe and mystery to give thanks to the Lord our God.

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

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.

The way Pope Francis expresses the Advent joy is with one of his favorite expressions:  “Evangelizers must never look like they have just come back from a funeral.”  In Advent, we prepare with much hope and joy in our hearts.

How can possibly pray one 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, w begin the Eucharistic Prayer with:  LET US GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD OUR GOD.  It is right and just.

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, and falsehood, we are called to make straight the way of the Lord.

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.

The question that people kept asking John was:  “Who are you?”  John 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. 

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.

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 because God is present among us.

 When the question is asked of us that was asked of John in the Gospel:  “Who are you?”  May we witness to the reality that the Spirit of the Lord is upon us.  And thus, we are a parish community filled with the qualities that Paul asks of us:  “Rejoice always.  Pray without ceasing.  In all circumstances give thanks."

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.

Repentance is not negative and down-faced; it looks up and looks forward. Repentance calls us to place God first in n our lives.

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.

Even though none of us like to wait, least of all myself, the Advent journey calls us to appreciate the wisdom of waiting.  John the Baptist himself was someone who knew how to wait. More than that, Jesus Himself never tires of waiting for us to embrace His merciful love.  Thanks be to God, Jesus is a very patient God who never gives up on us.

John the Baptist 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. 

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.

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.  I need to let go of my self-centeredness.  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.

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 the 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.

On Saturday, we celebrated with over 100 of our second graders their first experience with the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  Please God the repentance these children are called to enables them to celebrate the merciful love of Jesus in their lives.  On Tuesday, December 19^th, our St Joseph school students will celebrate this sacramental encounter with the healing Lord.  Then on Wednesday Evening December 20^th, we invite you to experience your Advent confession.  And, of course, there is the Sacrament of Reconciliation every Saturday from 3:30 till 4:30 pm.

“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.

We are living now in this Advent time of mercy when we have the opportunity to repent.  Let us receive as much grace as we can from God during this time of Advent.  The Lord has no limits to what he wants to give us.  All that is asked of us is to say YES to placing God first in our lives.

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?  Are we going to announce the merciful love of Jesus to one and all?

Have a blessed day.

In this Advent season, Jesus calls us to be alert to God's unexpected appearances in our lives.

Advent begins with us looking at the eventual end of the world.  The message in today’s Gospel account is taken from St. Mark’s report of Jesus speaking to his disciples about the end of the world, telling them (and us) to be watchful and alert because we do not know when the Last Day will come.  No one does.

Advent begins with us looking at the end of the world.  However, Advent ends with a beginning – the birth of Jesus.   The spirituality of the Advent season calls us to be a people who celebrate the birth of Jesus, and also it is a season of expectancy and hope as we long for the fullness of the coming of Jesus into our hearts and into our world.

It is right that we should be concerned about the judgment of God on the Day of Judgment.  But we should not be held in the grip of fear.  Why?  Because God’s judgment is that we are worth saving.  God’s judgment comes to us in His grace and mercy, His grace and mercy given us in His Son, Jesus Christ.  Jesus tells us that God sent His only-begotten Son not to condemn the world but to save it.  God’s judgment comes to us in His only-begotten Son whom HE has sent among us to bridge the chasm between us and God and thus to give us the power of salvation, a power that can be ours if only we respond to God’s love for us.  God’s ultimate judgment is His mercy.

Advent is a time of expectancy along with our waiting in hope.  Advent is forward looking.  During this Advent season, we have our set of expectations, longing for a better world.  While it is true that the reign of God has, in Jesus Christ, been established among us, it is likewise true that we humans have not responded as we should.  We long for peace.  We cry out for justice.  Yet security remains elusive.  Dishonesty, corruption, and greed beset us.  We lament that world in which we live is in the condition that it is.

In today’s first reading we hear Isaiah’s lament.  In it we hear echoed our own lamentations.

“You, Lord, are our Father, our redeemer you are named forever.  Why do you let us wander, O Lord, from your ways, and harden our hearts so that we fear you not?  Behold, you are angry, and we are sinful; all of us have become like unclean people, all our good deeds are like polluted rags; we have all withered like leaves, and our guilt carries us away like the wind….Yet, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay and you the potter; we are the work of your hands."

Lamentations are a part of our Old Testament heritage.  There is an entire Old Testament book devoted to them – the Book of Lamentations.  It was written in the time when the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed and the Hebrews had been carried off in captivity to Babylon.   Their prayers there in Babylon were laments.  Laments are prayers.

We, too, can lament, cry out to God, wanting to know where He has been when calamities, injustices, and injuries have come upon us.  We cry to God and lament the fact that mean-spirited people hold their sway over us.  Where is God in the midst of so many terrorist attacks? 

Where is God when the lives of too many people have been victims of sexual harassment?  Where was God in the presence of the hurricanes in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico?  Where is God’s wrath and justice when the poor continue to be oppressed by the rich and powerful in so many parts of our world?

Advent is a time to see the world for what it is, to acknowledge the mess things are in, to recognize our own failings, failings caused by our own indifference and apathy.  Yet, at the same, Advent is a season of hope and expectancy.  Please God, Advent can be a beautiful gift that allows to take time out to clearly see we need a Savior and in our hearts to listen to His voice within us.  We need God to come among us and set us back on the right path for living on this planet with each other, as the Lord Jesus intended we should.  And, of course, Christmas is the celebration of the fact that God has done just that.  In Christmas, He has given us His presence, His power, and His love.

We have so many questions we put to God.  But did you notice that Jesus has a question for us?  He has an expectation of us.  He asks:  Where is your faith?  He asked, when He comes again in glory on the Last Day, will He find any faith on earth?

In the first Scripture from the prophet Isaiah, the prophet uses the beautiful imagery of clay in the hands of the potter to describe God’s unending love for us.  God never stops working us.  We are like the clay in the hand of the potter.  When there is a crack, God can reshape us.  During Advent, we are invited to think about our human weakness, not so as to become sad or depressed, but so that we can be filled with wonder at the way God chooses to save us.

Going back to the question, Jesus is asking us:  Where is your faith.  Our faith is to surrender ourselves, to trust that we are clay in the hands of the potter.  In shaping us, God will shower us with love and will reconcile us to Himself.  Our faith leads us to the hope and the joy that Jesus will share His merciful love with us.

In this Advent season of conversion, Jesus calls us to be alert to God’s unexpected appearances in our lives.  Yes, God is already working and active in our lives. Our task of discipleship is to be alert for the signs of God’s presence in our moments of prayer and in the ways we serve one another.  This Advent alertness and watchfulness enables us to celebrate the coming of Christ in Bethlehem and in the inn of our hearts.

Be watchful! Be alert to the spiritual center that is within each of us.  To be alert is to pay attention to that which matters in life, paying attention to the relationships of our lives, paying attention to our relationship with God.  Within us, there is a deeper longing that never goes away.  It is the longing for love.  It is the longing to experience the mystery of God’s love in our life.

Be watchful – God is with us.  The light of Christ shatters the darkness of our world.

The feast of Christ the King is ironic because Jesus never acted like a king.

What have been the beautiful ways you have encountered the Lord this past week?  There is a side of us that would immediately think of our moments of prayer and our time in holy places.  Today’s Gospel takes us in a different direction.  We encounter the Lord when we feed and clothe those in need, when we visit hospitals and prisons.

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.  For me, I need to spend less time behind my desk as the pastor and more time being with people in need.  Please God I will remain people-focused in my priestly ministry.  May all of us be mindful of how we are to wash the feet of God’s poor following the example of Jesus at the Last Supper as He was washed the feet of His disciples.

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.

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King.  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.”

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 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 the fear and threat that has been generated by random acts of violence, sexual harassment, and terrorist attacks.  Is the message of love and forgiveness professed by Jesus as the Lord of our lives get modified as we are gripped with fear of terrorists?  How safe are we from the threat of senseless violence?  Are we still expected to look with love on those whose hearts may be filled with hate?  Can we welcome refugees with love in our hearts if we are paralyzed by our fear that refugees are a threat to our safety?

We mourn the breakdown of our global family and the violence in so many places when humans created in the image of God choose death instead of life, when they choose revenge instead of mercy.  Yes, we need to ask how is Jesus the king of the culture we live in?  It is we who lose when we allow the venom of hatred and revenge to circulate through our spiritual lives.

Closer to home, is Jesus the king of your family life?  Is each and every member of your family treated with the love that Jesus has for each member of your family?  How much of a commitment do you have for family prayer?  Can you really say that Jesus is the King of your family life if you are too busy to pray together?

At the conclusion of the story of every person on earth, when each is alone with himself and with God, only love will be precious.   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….

Jesus is the great teacher of gratitude...May our lives be marked by a radical gratitude to our loving God.

THANKSGIVING DAY  2017

If you had to describe yourself with just one word, what would that be?  The one word, the one quality that names who you are.

I’m using this introduction on Thanksgiving Day because for me the one word that I think best describes who I am is gratitude.  I know my spiritual life stems from my gratitude for God’s unconditional love for me being exactly who I am, no better, no worse, and no strings attached.  In the experience of gratitude, I come to know the origin and purpose of my life.

The source of my priestly ministry is my desire to express my gratitude for the love of Jesus and for the love that I have experienced from the many, many people who have touched my life.

Gratitude is a prominent and essential part of our parish mission.

As we gather Thanksgiving Day, it is, of course, a national holiday that expresses very well the spiritual roots of our nation.  I am always touched at a military funeral committal service when a member of our American military presents the American flag to a grieving family member and expresses thanks on behalf of a grateful nation.  We are at our best as Americans when we are grateful to God, grateful to one another, and grateful for the blessings we enjoy as a nation.  We are at our best as a nation not by the force of our military might, but when we in humility give thanks for the incredible blessings that we enjoy.

On the fourth Thursday of November, we remember our foundational value of gratitude that was expressed back in 1621 by the pilgrims at that Plymouth Plantation.

Personally in the life of the Schwartz family, thanksgiving is a wonderful family day in which my siblings and nephews and nieces and grandnephews and grandnieces gather to be a family, to play a little football, enjoy a bit of food and drink, but most of all to give thanks for the love that is shared in our family life.  We are not perfect.  Our family has its share of messiness.  We argue.  But, most of all, we love one another and are grateful for each and every member of our family.

In today’s Gospel of the healing of the ten lepers with only the Samaritan returning to give thanks, it is important to note it is not a matter of the divine love of Jesus going out to only one of the lepers.  The healing is given to all as a sign of God’s design to offer salvation to everyone without exception.  While only the Samaritan expresses gratitude, the evangelist Luke in this account is portraying God as relentlessly pursuing us who are relentlessly running away.

We are the gracious recipients of the unconditional and unending love of God.  We are all God’s beloved sons and daughters.  What we seek to focus on in this Gospel message is the second half of the conversion process – our response to God’s loving initiative of healing.

As we reflect on the reaction of the lepers to God’s healing love, do we run away from God’s invitation to love?  Is there a spiritual awareness to the way we live our lives?  Is there a deep gratitude to all the people of our lives?  Do we trust in God’s presence in the joys and the fears of our life?  Do we run away from God in the midst of life’s struggles?

May our response be always be one of gratitude.  This is the deepest meaning of the holiday we celebrate.  May this Thanksgiving be expressive of our daily desire to live with an attitude of gratitude.

It is significant to note in the Gospel passage while all ten were given physical healing from their leprosy, it was only the Samaritan who completed the conversion process and was made whole in his attitude of gratitude. 

I think it can be said with considerable truth that our lives are directed by the stories we choose to dwell on.  On this Thanksgiving Day as you share family stories, what are your personal memories of your family history?  Are your memories characterized by gratitude or ingratitude?  Can you find gratitude even in the midst of the pain and struggle of your story?

Just this past Sunday while at my niece Emily and Josh’s home for dinner, my grandniece Keara was showing her new bedroom.  She was holding me a small statue of Mary.  I asked her who Mary was.  She thought for a moment and said she was a friend of my mom’s.  I thought to myself:  Wow! I am grateful that Mary and Keara’s mom are good friends.

I can remember as a fifth grader at Our Lady of Good Counsel School, as I was training to be an altar boy, my dad taught me the Latin responses for the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar:  Introibo ad altare Dei.  Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam.  My dad was really proud to see me as an altar boy, and I have a grateful heart to my dad for teaching me in Latin:  “I will go to the altar of God, to God who gives joy to my youth.”  Those words still have meaning as I go to the altar of God, to God who gives joy to my youth.  My memory of my dad’s faith and his desire for me to be an altar boy laid a most beautiful foundation for me in my journey to the priesthood.

May we remember our family stories and our personal faith stories.  They are our truth that helps fashion who we are today.  May we also remember and celebrate stories of God’s love for us that is revealed in the Scriptures.  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.

Have a blessed day.

What are we doing with the talents that God has given to us?

Today’s scripture readings prepare us for the end of the liturgical year and 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?

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 is 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.  What type of people are we?  Would we describe ourselves as predominantly adventurous or overly cautious?  How creative are we with the talents that God has given us?

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.  Love is, in fact, the gain, the fruit that the Lord wants.

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 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.

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 led others to join and become active participants in our parish community.  Have we increased the number of participants in our Sunday Eucharist?  Have we increased the numbers of those involved in the liturgical ministries?

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

Pope Francis has declared today to be the World Day of the Poor.  How have as individuals and 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?

Yes, we all live busy lives.  We are consumed by so much stuff to do; we all have our own set of fears and anxieties; we have trouble balancing the priorities of our lives.  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.

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!