If we really love God and pray, we will be lured into active, generous love for someone in need.

Thirty First Sunday in OT  B  2018

In the scriptures this weekend, our first reading is from Deuteronomy chapter 6, an iconic passage for the Jewish people. This passage is so important to the Jewish people that they nail it to their doors and at times even wear little containers with this passage on their foreheads. This is what Moses has to say, “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone! Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.”

The connection between the words of Moses and the Gospel from Mark is very apparent. “One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him, "Which is the first of all the commandments?" Jesus replied, "The first is this: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

The two great commandments are essentially connected with each other.  If we really love God and pray, we will be lured into active, generous love for someone who needs us.  The authenticity of our celebration of the Eucharist, the genuineness of the time we spend in Eucharistic adoration will be seen in the love and the service we share with one another.

I would like to share with you a bit of my recent trip to one of the poorest regions in all of Africa, the area of Mazinde Juu in Tanzania.  A necessary background to my experience is the story of a young boy who grew up in a humble family in Elmira, New York.  He was one of 14 children.  His father was a journalist for the Elmira, Gazette.  The love of God was deep in the heart of this young man, and he had a desire to become a priest, a Benedictine priest.  His name is Damien Milliken.  He is now Father Damien and has spent the last 57 years of his life as a priest in Africa, in Mazinde Juu in Tanzania.

He has started a number of schools in Tanzania to give young girls an educational and spiritual opportunity that they would not otherwise have.  From October 8^th to the 20^th, I and five other parishioners from St. Joseph’s had the opportunity of spending time with Father Damien, the religious sisters of Usambara who staffed St. Mary’s School, and a I,000 high schools girls at St. Mary’s.  This school is a residential school where the girls live here in the academic year, and the school is situated on the side of the mountain surrounded by significant poverty in this area of Tanzania.

Try to imagine at 6:00 am each and every morning, 1,000 high schools at Mass singing and praying in a fashion so very beautifully.  For the purpose of comparsion, try to imagine everyone here in our Church singing the opening hymn with full voice and then multiply that by more than three times and you will get a sense of the angelic voices of these girls.  The only musical instrument in the Church was a young girl in the choir loft beating some drums with all her heart.  Even our Christmas Eve liturgies would be challenged to match for the spiritual vibrancy of the weekday Mass at St. Mary’s School.

More than that, these girls were present at the liturgy and throughout the school day with much joy in their hearts and so thankful for the opportunity they have to learn and grow and to be together.  My heart was so touched by the way these girls loved God and loved one another.

I tell you all this as an inspiring example of how this young boy from Elmira, New York lived out his love of God.  Father Damien is now in his 80’s still providing incredible leadership and love and prayer for many, many Tanzanians who are now given opportunities for academic and spiritual growth flowing from a young boy’s desire to show his love for God.

In the Gospel, Jesus tells us about the way of love in his words and in his life.  Father Damien has shown me and so many others that his love of God led him to love and serve the poor on a humble mountainside in Tanzania.

How do I and how do you show our love of God in the day to day moments of our lives?  Perhaps for us, it is the best of times and in the worst of times; it is the season but it can also be the season of darkness.  Isn’t it true we all have to confess at times that when we need God, we spend time with God.  But then when apparently we don’t need God, we can shelf Him.  Sometimes, God can be likened to one of the applications on our iPhone to open and shut at will.

In this liturgy, we humbly ask for the grace to experience God in our lives not as an application on the iPhone but rather to experience God as our very operating system by which everything else in our lives draws its existence and meaning.

In the dismissal rite of the Mass, the priest says:  Go in peace glorifying God by our lives.  We respond:  Thanks be to God.  We also need to respond by witnessing to our love of God in all the ways we love and service of one another.

Our Eucharistic spirituality is lived out in our home, in our neighborhood, in our work place, in our schools and in all of life.  Do we treat with love and respect the incidental people of our lives – the people we meet at Wegman’s, or on the street as we are driving, or the people in front of us in a waiting line?  As we prepare to vote this Tuesday, what values motivate us in the people we choose to elect to be our government leaders?  As members of the faith community of the Church of the Holy Spirt, are we a parish community that is identified by our love and service to people in need.  What needs still for us to us to be a faith community that shows our love of God in the way that we love one another?

Father Damien went from Elmira, New York to the eastern rural region of Tanzania in his witnessing to God’s love in his life.  May we too in the neighborhoods of Penfield and Webster witness to the love of God in the ways we serve the needs of one another.

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Lord, that I may see.

THIRTIETH SUNDAY1 IN OT  B   2018

This week’s Gospel invites us to place ourselves along the way with the blind Bartimaeus.    How would name your spiritual blindness -- contemplate and admit your own blind spots.  This is bit of a challenge for all of us because it is so easy to be unaware of our own blind spots.

Do we have a blindness to the unnoticed people on the side of the road that we so easily pass by?  How aware are we of the people near us in Church today?  What can we do to connect more fully with the people in our faith community?

Who is the person in our family life that we have built up a wall of blindness that makes it so difficult to reach out to?  Lord, that I may see how your grace can bring healing to this relationship?

The dialogue of Jesus with Bartimaeus is the dialogue Jesus has with us today.  Bartimaeus, like each of us, needs to be loved, and is fortunate to receive by Jesus a loving question.  Not “what do you want to do?” asks Jesus, but “What do you want me to do?”  It’s a question that comes from the heart of Christ and shows His compassion.

The Lord is asking us:  What do you want me to do for you?  May we respond with Bartimaeus:  “Lord, that I may see.”  Let Bartimaeus be our guide.  He asks for the most important gift God can give.  May we see what is of real value in life.  May we know what is true.  May we judge rightly and walk confidently in the light of Christ. 

Notice in the account that the very first thing Bartimaeus sees when he is healed is the face of Christ.  To know Jesus is the key to the Christian life.   To know Jesus is to know God and our true self.

Bartimaeus’ prayer is answered.  Once he has seen Jesus face to face, there is no other life for him except to be with Jesus and to follow him.  He leaves behind his beggar’s cloak and joins Jesus and the other disciples on the way to Jerusalem.  Like a man in love, he has seen the face of his beloved, and there is no turning back.   May we too be cured of our blindness which keeps from seeing the face of Jesus.   We seek the conversion that comes from encountering Christ.

Today we celebrate Stewardship Commitment Sunday in which we place our stewardship commitment form of our time and talent in the collection today.  The commitment form you received in our parish mailing, we invite you to place this filled out form in the collection today.  Not to worry if you have forgotten to bring it with you.  There are extra forms in the pews today and we invite you to take a couple of moments after the homily to fill out this form and place this in the collection today.

In the stewardship of time, I invite you to consider the 1% rule in the spiritual journey.  1% of each day is 15 minutes.  We invite you to spend 15 minutes each day in prayer giving thanks to God for the blessings of your life and to celebrate God’s merciful love that is showered upon you.  May we pray just for a few minutes each and every day recognizing the spiritual dimension of life.  Yes, we live busy lives.  But may our busyness not keep us from giving thanks to God each and every day.

In the stewardship of talent, we are called to share our own giftedness for the building up of our faith community.  There is no such thing as being a lone ranger in the spiritual life.  From the Gospel of Jesus, what we have is to be shared, and it is to be shared in the service of others.

St Joseph’s parish is not solely to be pastor-driven; it is not intended to be primarily staff-driven; rather, we are to be parishioner-driven.  By baptism, all of us are called to proclaim the good news of the merciful love of Jesus with one another.

Our stewardship commitment, our willingness to be held accountable for our commitment to stewardship tells the story of the vibrancy of our parish life.

As we pray today with Bartimaeus, we pray with his words:  “Lord, that I may see.”  We pray for the spiritual sightedness to encounter Christ in our hearts and to celebrate God’s merciful love.

We pray also for the spiritual sightedness to embrace a spirituality of stewardship – a spirituality that enables us to see that all is a gift of God; that we are to live life with an attitude of gratitude; and we are to share what we have been given for the building up of our faith community; we are better together; and we are to share our love with each other as brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.

What would it take for us to have a vision of life in which we trust that Jesus goes with us in all experiences of life?   What would it take for us to have a vision of ourselves as a faith community in which we welcome everyone as one who is made in the image and likeness of God, and there is room for everyone in our faith community?

On Stewardship Commitment Sunday, we thank you for who you are as God’s beloved, and we thank you for all the ways you have shared yourself with our faith community.  We are who we are as a faith community because of your love and generosity.  Thank you.  Thank you.

But we always desire to reach beyond where we are now and there is always room for us to grow as a parish community.  In that spirit, I invite you to fill out a stewardship form that is in the pew and to place it in the collection basket as we affirm our commitment to a spirituality of stewardship.  The Lord blesses us for the ways we serve one another.

Have a Blessed Day.

It is not good for us to be alone. We are better together.

Twenty Seventh Sunday in OT  B  2018

On this first weekend of the month of October, we are celebrating respect life weekend.  We are celebrating the dignity of every person God has created.  We are all made in the image and likeness of God.  From the first moment of conception till the day we are placed in the grave, each person’s life is to be respected and is very much deserving of our love.

In the first scripture reading from the Book of Genesis, the Lord God said: “It is not good for the man to be alone.”  God has created us for relationship.  The need for companionship is basic and God-given in each of us.  We become our best selves in loving and sharing and giving with each another.  We are made for each other.  God created us to share life and life in all its abundance.

Simply put, no person was made to be an island, in isolation from community.  Through God’s eyes, humanity is complete in partnership and in love.  We are better together.

This past Wednesday, I had the privilege of celebrating Mass with the children and their families in our Wednesday Evening Faith Formation at St. Joseph’s.  I asked our precious children why they thought God said:  “It is not good for man to be alone.”  They responded so beautifully and honestly:  One said: “We need friends”….another “I love my mom and dad and brothers and sisters”….Another said:  “It would be so boring.”  Another said:  “Jesus wants us to love one another.” 

Even at a young age, maybe especially at their age, children know they are safe and very much loved in their family.  They know they are their best selves when they are kind, when they have friends, and when they love others.

The need for partnership and companionship and love is best expressed most beautifully in the marriage vows:  “I, John, take you, Mary, to be my wife.  I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health.  I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.”

Marriage is part of God’s loving plan of salvation.

In the Gospel, the Pharisees asked Jesus:  “Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?”   The Gospel brings us the D – word – Divorce.  Divorce is more common in our community and in our country than we would like.    Today’s Gospel begins with the painful description of what happens when love is wounded beyond healing; when bonds are fragmented beyond repair.  We live in a time when divorce is common and acceptable in most countries and cultures.

Jesus, the great teacher, goes back to God’s original plan of creation.  God has created us to be in relationship.  When the examiners of Jesus brought up the question of divorce, Jesus turned it into a discussion of the dignity of each person and the fact that human beings are made for loving one another as truly as we are made to love God.

In his interchange with the Pharisees, Jesus went far beyond the question of divorce to teach about the meaning of human relationship in general.   Jesus went beyond the legality of the law.  He called people to discern God’s will as that which promotes life-giving relationships in each and every situation.

Marriage is a school of love and forgiveness.  When two people get married they bring with them to their marriage normal human weaknesses and discover weakness in the other which previously they did not know.    In the sacrament of marriage, it is not just two people coming together in love; the sacrament of marriage unites the couple with Jesus and brings them God’s blessing.

The faithfulness of God to this couple is lived out in the sacrament of marriage.  God is always faithful to us his people.  God is always faithful to the Church.

How are parishioners of the Holy Spirit who are divorced hearing this Gospel message today?  Are they welcome in our parish community?  Do they experience God’s merciful and forgiving love in their lives?  Yes, God’s plan for marriage is to be characterized by permanence and fidelity and openness to life?  The original plan for marriage is clearly found in the marriage rite:  “What God has joined together, let no one separate.”

In the second Scripture reading, the sacred writer says that Jesus was made perfect through suffering.  For us too, our relationship with Jesus is deepened through the sufferings we experience.  The cross, suffering in our life is part of our sharing in the paschal mystery of the Lord.  We are to die to ourselves so that we may live more fully in the life of Christ.  Regrettably, when a married relationship is moving farther and farther apart even leading to divorce, the suffering experienced can lead a person to experience the merciful love and forgiveness of Jesus in a new way.

As we celebrate respect life this weekend, may we respect the life and the dignity of all those who have experienced the pain and suffering of divorce.  The beauty of our respect life theme is that people most in need – for those who are divorced and those who have experienced brokenness in relationship – are people whom the Lord welcomes and forgives and desires them to be reconciled to the God who desires reconciliation with one and all.

The respect life theme is also demonstrated in the second part of today’s Gospel.  Jesus said:  “let the little children come to me: do not try to stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.”

 Sometimes at our church services little children distract us: they make noise and make comments.  But they are teaching us a precious lesson that if we do not feel at home with them we can never enter into the  presence of God.

Jesus welcomes the little children to come to me.  We the Church of the Holy Spirit seek to welcome little children.  In fact, if we are not comfortable with children in our Church, to that degree we are depriving ourselves of experiencing the kingdom of God in our midst.

Have a Blessed Day.

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

Twenty sixth Sunday in OT  B 2018

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 of the chosen people, not just a few.   In the first reading from the book of Numbers, the biblical writer features the people encamped with Moses, and God bestowing upon them a share of the divine prophetic spirit that has been given to Moses.

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.

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.

In the second Scripture reading, James warns against being obsessed with earthly things that rust and corrosion will claim one day. The Letter of James provides a deeper understanding of how the prophetic spirit works.  James addresses the wealthy of the community.  All that they have gained through injustice will come to naught.  The wealth around which they have centered their lives will become worthless, and their lives will follow suit.  Justice will be served for those who have been treated unjustly.  Thus, acting in accord with the Spirit, James delivers a stinging message to the rich of his community whose wealth is ill-gotten.   James reminds his readers that our God numbers the most unlikely people among his “righteous.”

For those of us who have worked hard and fairly for the resources we have, there is no free pass from the Gospel challenge.  Plain and simple, we are to share the blessings that are ours.  What we have is meant to be shared with those in need.  This is the purpose of the Catholic Ministries Appeal.

Our goal is $ 230, 596.  This is one of the highest goals in the diocese, although not the highest.  The goal is high, but the goal is not unreasonable.  The goal is high because God has blessed us in our parish with many, many blessings.  These are to be shared.  The Gospel leaves us no wiggle room.  We are to share our blessings with those in need.  I assure you I will personally be generous in contributing to the CMA and ask you to do the same.

 

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.

Have a Blessed Day.

Jesus' chief criterion for greatness is the willingness to be of service to others.

Twenty Fifth Sunday in OT  B  2018 

In today’s Gospel, Jesus is inviting us to reflect on the meaning of our discipleship as we come to understand the true identity of Jesus.

Jesus forecasts once again his suffering, death, and resurrection.  The disciples’ response is disheartening.  They understand nothing and they are afraid to ask any questions.

The disciples had been arguing about who was the greatness among them.   The conversations the disciples had about who among is the greatest is familiar human behavior, is it not. Jesus rebukes his disciples for thinking that they might achieve greatness without following his example of suffering and service.\

Jesus’s chief criterion for greatness is the willingness to be of service to others.

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.

The CMA video that began the liturgy, along with the mailing asking your generous support of our diocesan ministries, invites us to express our willingness to financially be of service to others.  From today’s Gospel, in the mind of Jesus, the true criterion of greatness is our willingness to be of service to others.  The Catholic Ministries Appeal supports the servant ministries of our diocese.

I would comment clearly that I recognize full well that the dark clouds of sex abuse might lead you to question your commitment to support the CMA.  I get it.  Printed and in capital letters is the diocesan commitment that not a dime of the CMA will be used for legal claims or in any way related to the issue of sex abuse.

The reason to support the CMA is that the CMA monies are used to support that is good in the mission and the ministries of the diocese.  I personally am going to increase my tithing to the CMA and invite you to do the same, if you are able.  For us to be faithful to our Gospel commitment to be of service to others, there is no such thing as a free pass.  In season and out of season, we are called to share of the giftedness that is ours.

Additionally,  this is also our parish stewardship commitment weekend.  In the second collection today, we are asking you to place your commitment card.  To be clear, the parish stewardship commitment is of our time and our talents.  We are not asking for a parish stewardship of treasure in our parish commitment.  We are focused on the stewardship of time and talent.

The heart of a spirituality of stewardship is living with an attitude of gratitude and sharing with others the blessings that we have been given. This is living out our discipleship of the Lord Jesus.

In gratitude, we commit ourselves to a stewardship of time.  What does that mean?  In one word, prayer.  Each and every day that God gives to us, we seek to spend time in a prayer of gratitude.  This can be in the silence of early morning prayer; it can be reflectively praying with the Scriptures; it can be praying the rosary;  Eucharistic Adoration; and, most of all, in the celebration of the Eucharist in which we give thanks to the Lord our God.  I want you to make a 1% commitment each day – to spend 15 minutes in prayer each day.  There is busyness to my life and your life, but personally I cannot imagine a day going by without being faithful to this 1% commitment.

 In the Stewardship of talent, we share our giftedness with one another.  Suffering and service is the meaning of discipleship of the Lord Jesus.  In all honesty, some of our ministries are under staffed by the community of the baptized.  The purpose of today’s Stewardship Commitment Sunday is to deal with this reality.  We are asking you to make the commitment to be stewards in the building of the Church of the Holy Spirit.  This is our time to walk our talk and continue to build up the vibrancy of our parish life.  When all of us fill out the commitment card, then what is asked of each of us is to do little things with great love in our hearts.   In the wheel house of each of us, there is a humble talent that each one of us can share in the service of one another.

As I said, this means we would like you to fill out a stewardship commitment card and place it in the second collection today.  If you forgot to bring your commitment card with you today, not to worry.  There are extra commitment cards in the pews, we would like to give you a couple of minutes now to prayerfully make this stewardship commitment in the service of one another.

Have a blessed day.

Jesus asks us the same question He asked the first disciples: 'who do you say that I am?'

Twenty Fourth Sunday in OT  B  2018

When Jesus asked his disciples “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.

A necessary component of discipleship is stewardship, a spirituality of stewardship, the receiving and the sharing of the many gifts that God has given to each one of us.  If we knew and claimed the gift of God that is freely and abundantly given to each of us, we would experience a new Pentecost in 2018 at the Church of the Holy Spirit.

What we do and how we live our lives speaks to our commitment to make a stewardship a way of life for us.   In stewardship, we start with the basic truth that all is a gift of God  -- our life, our family, the people we love, the beauty of creation, the opportunities we have in life.  All is a gift of God.  Our stewardship response to the abundance of God’s gifts to us is gratitude and a desire to share what we have been given.  The heart of a spirituality of stewardship is living with an attitude of gratitude and sharing with others the blessings that we have been given. This is living our discipleship of the Lord Jesus.

In gratitude, we commit ourselves to a stewardship of time.  What does that mean?  In one word, prayer.  Each and every day that God gives to us, we seek to spend time in a prayer of gratitude.  This can be in the silence of early morning prayer; it can be reflectively prayerfully on the Scriptures; it can be praying the rosary;  Eucharistic Adoration; and, most of all, in the celebration of the Eucharist in which we give thanks to the Lord our God.

In the Stewardship of talent, we share our giftedness with one another.  In all honesty, some of our ministries are under staffed by the community of the baptized.  More of us need to be stewards in the building of the Church of the Holy Spirit.  This means we would like you to fill out a stewardship commitment card and place it in the second collection next weekend.

Example:   I know that many of your homes are beautifully decorated.  You have a taste for art and environment.  We invite you to use those same talents to enhance the art and environment of our Church both outside and inside. 

Another example: Our parish choir and are our parish cantors are composed of some beautiful and talented parishioners.  But there is plenty of room for new blood in our cantors and choir members for the 11:00 liturgy and for the other liturgies as well.  What if we had a youthful cantor front and center for all to see to invite us to enter into song in the first note of the entrance hymn.   Would if the cantor was even able to bring the ushers in the back of the Church to break into song.  Gabe, as we know, is a wonderful music director, but the music ministry of the parish needs to be embraced by more of us who are the community of the baptized.

Equally, there are examples in faith formation, social outreach, youth ministry and so on that are not just to be staff driven; they are to be parish driven. The meaning of discipleship of the Lord Jesus; the meaning of stewardship is that all of us are to get involved in some way.  May we make the commitment next Sunday to be more than pew-sitters.  We are disciples of Jesus who have been given the mission of stewardship – living life with an attitude of gratitude and committing ourselves to share our God-given talents.

Have a Blessed day

While all of us struggle with a bit of hypocrisy, there is nothing hypocritical about God's love for us.

Twenty Second in OT  B  2018

In the Gospel Jesus says: “Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written:  This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”   They worshipped ritually in solemn ways, but this did not translate into deeds filled with love. Isaiah accuses the people of being more concerned with ritual defilement than with ethical defilement. 

Yes, we train our altar servers in all the details of the liturgy.  This is most appropriate.  But in the big picture of the spiritual life, we need to form our altar servers to see the essential connection between participating in the Mass and the team work and sportsmanship and old-fashioned kindness on the ball field.

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, and we not have the desire to share the merciful love of Jesus with one and all.  Our discipleship of Jesus is not about legalism; it is about loving God and neighbor.

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.\

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.  As I said, 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.  

This Gospel is not just meant for the Pharisees, but its message is for each and every one of us.  Do we walk our talk in our prayer life and in our celebration of the sacraments?    Sometimes we too need spiritual open-heart surgery to see if we are touched by the love of Jesus in the faith that we live.  Our prayer needs to touch our heart and thus motivate us to share the love of Jesus with others.

Yes, may all of us pray for spiritual open-heart surgery.  We seek to have our hearts filled with the merciful love of Jesus.  We seek to have humble, loving hearts.

 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.  Jesus responded to the purity police by citing the prophet Isaiah.  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.

Pope Francis’ favorite image for the Church is to see the Church as a “field hospital,” for all of us are sinners.  Using this image can help us to avoid self-righteous attitudes that see the Church and the sacraments as rewards for good behavior. 

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 transform the world.

We just celebrated the funerals of two great Americans – Aretha Franklin and Senator John McCain.  The eulogies they received were very, very moving.  In our parish, we just celebrated the funeral of a faith-filled parishioner, Kathy Taddeo.  May we be inspired by those who have gone before us to the Lord.  May we also inspire each other to fill this world and to live a way of life that witnesses to the reality that we are the recipients of the merciful love of Jesus each and every day.

Have a Blessed Day