As we participate at the Eucharistic banquet, we are sent forth to share our five barley loaves and two fish with the hungry people in our midst.

 

SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY in OT  B  2021

Today we remember the most famous picnic in religious history. Today’s Gospel recounts the account of Jesus feeding the five thousand with the multiplication of the loaves and the fish.

 

I invite you to envision this well-known miracle story of Jesus feeding the five thousand people with five barley loaves and two fish in a new way.

 

Imagine that the hungry crowd of 5,000 people represents all the people we will encounter through this coming week, beginning at the dismissal rite of this Mass.  These are the people God puts in our path as we journey this week … obviously your family members, the people who have gathered for this Eucharistic celebration in our parish community, the people you work with and vacation with, the incidental people you meet during the course of the week, the person in the car driving ahead of you and so on and son on.

 

These are all God’s people.  In some real ways, they are hungry for that which gives them life.  They may or may not be physically hungry, but they are spiritually and emotionally hungry for the fullness of life.   Lord calls us to move out of our comfort zone and do something about it.

 

Do we think of ourselves as people having a responsibility to feed the hungry in our midst?  To be clear from the Gospel, we are missioned to feed the hungry – the physical, emotional and spiritual hunger of people whom the Lord places in our lives.

 

 This is our spirituality.  This is the meaning of stewardship.  Pope Francis in his homily on this miracle account says its spiritual message is more about sharing than multiplying.

 

As the Body of Christ, we are commissioned to wash the feet of God’s poor and feed the hungers of people we share life with.

 

 

But to be clear, we are called also to share of ourselves in feeding the spiritually and emotionally hungry that the Lord places in our lives.  In the Gospel account, God met the hunger of the people, beginning with the generosity of one of the least among them – the young boy who was willing to share his five barley loaves and two fish.  May this young boy who was willing to share be our examination of conscience for us.  What reasons do we give for not sharing some of our perfectly disposable gifts?

 

Thus young boy also provides an inspiration:  Whenever we are discouraged by the demon of “What good can my little bit do (whether of money, time, or effort), we should remember that God can multiply our little bit.”

 

As we consider and take responsibility for our mission collectively as a parish community, we are sent forth as the Church of St. Joseph’s to be a Church of Mercy.  As we are fed and nourished in the mystery of the Eucharist, we are to share the giftedness we have been given.  We are to share our five barley loaves and two fish so that the Lord reveals His love to the hungry through our generosity.  The Lord is merciful to us so that we can be merciful to others.

 

This Gospel miracle account is good news because it tells that God is concerned about people who hunger.  It is good news because it reminds us that God can work wonders with the little we have if we are willing to give it all.  It is good news because it reminds us that with God in our midst, we can always make a banquet out of what seems to be pretty poor fare.

 

In the Gospel account, there is more here than just a great number of hungry people being wondrously fed and satisfied.  Jesus is gathering with the hungry in the context of a shared meal, not only to feed and to be fed but to enter into covenant with all those present.  Here Jesus sets an example for those who follow him in ministry.  Our task is not simply to dole out food but to take, bless, give thanks and share our food together with the hungry and the poor, thereby sealing our relationship with them.  We are to offer nourishment as well as commitment, food as well as fellowship.

 

The true miracle is not the multiplication of loaves and fish, but the multiplication of God’s grace.  The God who is the source of all life offers us the possibility of participating in the divine life by our sharing with others our five barley loaves and two fish.

 

When Jesus and the disciples ate together with the crowds who had gathered that day by the Sea of Galilee, they were announcing by their sharing that a new relationship was being established between Jesus, the disciples and all the hungry whom they fed.

 

Moreover, the meal of barley loaves and fish by the Sea of Galilee anticipated another even more significant meal that Jesus would host with his own.  This meal would remember the gift of himself on the cross and the covenant made with sinful humankind through his blood.  That meal would celebrate the union in love that believers would forever thereafter enjoy with God, with Jesus, with one another, in the Spirit.

 

The bread we receive from the hand of God is more than mere barley loaves.  It is the Eucharistic bread of full life, life in all its dimensions, life in Christ.  As we are fed and nourished at the Table of the Lord, we are sent forth to share our five barley loaves and two fish with the hungry people in our midst.

 

Have a Blessed Day.

 

Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.

 

Sixteenth Sunday in OT  B 2021

 

Of the ten commandments, in some ways the third commandment is the least thought of the commandments.

 

Who can tell me the third commandment?

 

Remember to keep holy the Lord’s Day.

 

What does this mean? 

 

Doing what you are doing.  Coming to Mass.  Thanks be to God.

 

The Sunday Eucharist is to be a part of the rhythm of our life.  What is less clear about this Commandment is that we keep the Lord’s Day holy by resting, by renewing ourselves, by remembering what is important in life.

 

We need to reclaim a sabbatical consciousness.  By that, we need to be able to rest – not just in the sense of taking a nap or even taking a vacation, but resting in the presence of our loving God who wishes to renew us in spirit day by day.

 

 

In the Gospel, Jesus is calling the apostles to rest.  Jesus said:  “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” 

 

The message here about our need for rest and renewal is genuine, not selfish.

 

 

What is your “Out of the-Way Place” that enables you to rest a while?  It may be a place on the water or in the mountains.  It may simply be a favorite chair -- perhaps not located in front of the TV, but in a quiet prayer corner of your home.  It may be a relaxing walk or a place to experience the sunrise. 

 

I would invite you to think of this dimension of your spirituality.   God will hold us accountable for the good things we fail to enjoy.  We are blessed in so many ways.  Pope Francis in his writings wants us to rejoice and be glad.  He has written the JOY OF THE GOSPEL and the JOY OF LOVE.

 

 

 

 

 

In the rhythm of the spiritual life, there needs to be both a time apart and a time with others.   In the time apart, we need to be comfortable with solitude – time to be, time to be still in the presence of God.  It has been said wisely:  Beware of the person who cannot be alone. This person can use community as a way of running away from themselves.

 

We need to find time in our day for prayer.  But “Father, my day is too crazy.  I’m too busy.’  If we are too busy to pray, yes, we are too busy.  I invite you to find sometime in your day to waste time with God.  That is what prayer is – wasting time with God.

 

Back to the Gospel, “when Jesus disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things.”  In the rhythm of our spiritual life, there needs to be time for personal prayer; there also needs to be time in which we do what Jesus did.

 

Our spiritual life is not merely about our personal piety; our spiritual life is to be lived out in the service of people in need.  This is how Jesus lived.  This is how the disciples of Jesus are to live. 

 

There are so many people searching today, people hungering for instruction, good people who are looking for direction: elderly people who feel the diminishing surge of life in their bodies; people who are angry and confused because they have lost confidence in leaders, whether political or religious.  They are people looking for answers and for meaning.  They are like sheep without a shepherd.  To whom should they turn?

 

As a people of God, as the disciples of Jesus, as the community of the baptized, our call is to shepherd one another.  It doesn’t mean they we have all the answers, but it does mean that we are to offer our loving support and service to one another.  It does mean that in Christ Jesus we are brothers and sisters to each other.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the rhythm of our spiritual life, prayer leads to our service of one another, and our service of one another leads us back to prayer.  It is the Lord who is the Good Shepherd of the lives of us all.  The Lord is be a part of the rhythm of our lives.   Our responsorial psalm is psalm 23.  “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want; he makes me lie down in green pastures.  He leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul.”  May we always know that we are never abandoned by a God whose love is made known to us in Jesus, the Good Shepherd.

 

Jesus is the Good Shepherd who is always concerned about people.  Notice in the first part of today’s Gospel account, Jesus is concerned about the well-being of his disciples even more than the success of their mission.  Jesus invites them to come away and rest for a while.  Then when Jesus saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them for they were like sheep without a shepherd.  Always, Jesus places people first.  He wishes to the Good Shepherd of his disciples as well as the vast crowd of people.

 

 

May you embrace the grace of today’s liturgy and allow Jesus to be the Good Shepherd of your life.  Allow yourself to be loved by the Lord.  May our summer mantra be a renewal of the third commandment:  Yes, the Sunday Eucharist and Yes to allowing our loving to renew in Spirit.

 

May God give you rest in experiencing the love of the God who is within us.

 

When I am weak, then i am strong.

 

FOURTEENTH SUNDAY IN OT B 2021

 

On this Fourth of July weekend, may we enjoy perhaps a family cookout, watch some fireworks, participated in our town parade, perhaps a round of golf, reflected in gratitude on the blessings we enjoy as a nation.

I commend you for making this celebration of the Eucharist a spiritual moment in your holiday weekend.

 

The Scripture readings today invite us to experience God moments where we least expect.

 

  In the Gospel today, when Jesus returned to his hometown of Nazareth to preach in the synagogue, the people who knew him best responded with disbelief.   They said: “Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother James and Joses and Judas and Simon?”

By way of parenthesis, it was customary in the time of the evangelist to refer to close relatives as brothers and sisters.

As far as the hometown folks of Nazareth were concerned, Jesus was too local to be important.  As one sage puts it, “an expert is someone who tells you everything you already know but comes from of town and is carrying a briefcase.”  Jesus should be home making tables like his dad, instead of preaching in synagogues and working miracles and casting out demons. 

A question for our reflection is whether our preconceived notions of Jesus hinder us from recognizing his presence in the circumstances of our life.

The people of Jesus’ time might expect a word of God from the high priest in Jerusalem temple, but not from a carpenter, not from Nazareth.  What we believe in the mystery of the Incarnation is that God is not an expert from heaven with a briefcase.  Rather God is to be found in our neighbor, our friend, our hometown wisdom.

 Who for you is a most unlikely person to reveal God’s presence to you?

May you find the presence of God in those you know and love so deeply?  No one is too local or too ordinary to be a bearer of God’s love for you.

St. Paul in the second Scripture provides us with another deep insight in experiencing God where we least expect.

Paul writes: “A thorn in the flesh was given to me, an angel of Satan, to beat me, to keep me from being too elated.  ‘Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it might leave me, but he said to me: My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’  Paul then said, for the sake of Christ, ‘when I am weak, then I am strong.’”

Certainly anyone who knows much about the life of St. Paul would not view him as a weak man.  This is the man who, through his strong faith, puts his life in jeopardy constantly.  He endured imprisonment and shipwrecks.  Yet, he admits to having weaknesses.

There is something humiliating in admitting one’s weakness.  Pope Francis reveals his humility in beautiful ways.  In his first description of himself as our Pope, Francis humbly says: “I am a sinner.”  The message of this scripture passage is that recognizing and admitting our shortcomings is essential for us to have the strength Paul demonstrates.

The reason St. Paul finds strength in his limitations is because he is aware that the Lord will provide the power needed in the midst of those deficiencies.  Paul’s life is God-centered.  For the Apostle Paul, his true God-centeredness came from his weakness, rather than his strength.  For in his weakness, he grew to trust in God’s grace for his life.

However, note that Paul’s first prayer was that his thorn in the flesh would be removed so that he might be a better preacher of the Gospel.  So too, it is for us, we pray that we finally overcome the sins we have been confessing all our lives.  We finally want to get it right and prove that we have the will power to live the kind of life we can be very proud of.

 Yet, conversion happened for Paul happened when he switched gears.  Instead of praying that his thorn of the flesh would be removed, he boasted of his weakness.  Paul then said: “For the sake of Christ, when I am weak, then I am strong.”

How would that work for us?  Can you imagine yourself boasting of your weakness?  And then say: “When I am weak, I am strong.”

What success have you not achieved that is very important to you?  What would you like to give your children but are unable to?  What illness or handicap or addiction are you dealing with? What loss leaves an emptiness in your life?  What secret is too vulnerable for you to share with others?

These I suggest are your thorns in the flesh?   How can we embrace the virtue of humility and confess our shortcoming and acknowledge our need for God’s grace in our life?  This path, I would suggest, is your journey of conversion.

The virtue of humility does not come easily for anyone of us and certainly not us as a nation.  We would like to see ourselves at the top of the ladder than the bottom of the ladder.  The way we are wired is that we want to be among the best and the brightest.  Yet, Jesus has given us the example of the cross; he washed the feet of his disciples; and he came not to be served but to serve.

 

These Scriptures appropriately come to us during the ordinary time of the Church year.  The take home message for us during the ordinary time of the Church year is to find God in all of life, and to discover God’s presence in the ordinary and the unexpected moments of the day.

 

May God give you peace.

 

When our hearts are filled with judgments about others, there is no room left for love (Mother Theresa).

 

Thirteenth Sunday in OT B  2021

 

This week’s Gospel speaks of the healing of two women.  It tells two different stories that are woven into one.  They both involve women in crisis.  We don’t know them by name, just by their need.

 

The Scriptures reveal to us the heart of God.  As in the case of the woman who been afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years in today’s Gospel, Jesus did not see an unclean woman with uncontrollable bleeding, he saw a beloved daughter of God who is suffering.  May we too see in those who are suffering God’s beloved sons and daughters.

 

We may ask ourselves at times what keeps us from recognizing people in need as God’s beloved sons and daughters.  I find the words of Mother Theresa as very helpful.  Mother Theresa says:  “When our hearts area filled with judgments about others, there is no room left for love.”  May we repent of our judgments so that we may be able to love others as God loves them.

The words of Mother Theresa give us such an important message.  When a person’s skin color, when a person’s way of praying is different than ours, when a person’s speech is different than ours, when a person’s sexuality is different than ours, whatever it is, we ask for the grace to see that person as God’s beloved son or daughter.  We ask for the grace that our hearts can be filled with love toward one and all.

May we always be mindful of the words of Jesus:  “Come to me all you who labor and are burdened and I will give you rest.”  The people of Jesus’ day were sometimes scandalized because Jesus seemed to be too welcoming to sinners and people who stood in need of healing and forgiveness.

 

 

 

 

 

Today’s scriptures also invite us to consider what areas of our life stand in need of healing?  If you were to ask the Lord this day for healing, whether this be physical, emotional, relational—if some relationship in your life needs healing, or if it is an addiction that brings you down from being your better self; perhaps it is financial shipwreck; perhaps anxiety or depression.

In our personal suffering, may we hold onto our spiritual identity as did this woman afflicted with uncontrollable bleeding.  Her deeper spiritual identity gave her the courage to reach for God’s love as it was manifesting itself in Jesus.  God’s love is for God’s children, and she is one of God’s children.  This is her faith. 

 

She touched the clothes of Jesus and was healed.  Do you believe that the healing touch of Jesus is meant for you as well?  Jesus is here today, and you have a chance to touch not only his clothes but his very body.  This is what we are privileged to do in the Eucharist.  Let us put our heart and soul into that privilege.  May we trust that the healing grace is meant for you and me.

 

Also, In today’s Gospel, there is a girl of 12 years of age who is near death, struck down by an unknown illness, driving her father to extremes in his desperate search for help in going to Jesus.  Jairus risks being ridiculed and risks missing the last precious minutes in his daughter’s life.  When the news of his daughter’s death arrives, Jesus preaches the shortest sermon of his career.  He simply says:  “Do not fear, but believe.”  That sermon Jesus preaches to us as well who suffer from those human conditions in which we cannot control.  “Do not fear but believe.”

The meaning of faith is that we are not to fear; rather we are to trust in God’s love for us.

 

 

 

 

In the eyes of Jesus, there is no death, only a passage from one form of love into another form of love.  In the words of the preface of the funeral liturgy:  in death, life is not ended; it is merely changed.

When Jesus arrived at the house of Jairus,  he put the crowd outside, and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was.  He took her by the hand and said to her:  “Talitha koum,” which means, “Little girl, get up!”

As we pray over today’s Gospel, may we be reminded that Jairus’ daughter lies dying today in little girls jeopardized by illness, lack of food and water and the necessities of life, the safety and the security they deserve.  Jairus’s daughter can be found in the children of Haiti, the children who live in Iraq and Afghanistan, the immigrant children at our border and all the children in need who live in this the wealthiest nation on the planet. 

What can we do to affirm the sacredness of the lives of all children?  What can we do as a Church which affirms our desire to form our own children and all children after the mind and heart of Jesus?

If you will, imagine ourselves as that 12 year old girl and Jesus taking us by our hand and telling us to rise and live:  “Talitha koum.”   Jesus gives life not only to the dead but to those of us who are only partially alive.  Instead of feeling sorry for ourselves because of some illness or setback, may we hear the healing of Jesus being spoken to us.  In deep gratitude, enjoy the blessedness and giftedness of this day and make a difference in someone’s life as a way of sharing your giftedness with people in need.  Our life really, really is a gift of God.

 

May God give you peace.

 

 

 

Who is Jesus for us amid the storms of our lives?

 

Twelfth Sunday in OT  B  2021

On this Father’s Day, we. thank and pray for all our fathers, those living and those who have gone home to God.  Our dads have loved us into life and have protected us and calmed our fears from our earliest years.  My dad went home to God 26 years ago, but his faith, his love, his protection lives on in my heart. Our fathers have revealed to us the God who loves and who calms the fears of our lives.

In the first scripture reading, Job suffers great calamities – the death of children, destruction of property, and debilitating illness.  He asks the question WHY in the sense why do good people endure such hardships in life?  That is our question as well.  God speaks to Job and asks him to trust in God when we don’t understand why bad things happen to good people.

God’s love for Job doesn’t suddenly remove the struggles and crosses of his life, but God does accompany Job in the midst of the calamities of his life and leads him to trust in God even in the midst of life circumstances he cannot control.

The Job reading prepares us for the Gospel.  The disciples were traveling in a boat on the Sea of Galilee that seems unequal to the weather it faces.  And so, a violent storm and the waves came crashing in over the side of the boat.  The disciples were in a state of panic fearing for their lives.

That boat on the Sea of Galilee symbolizes us and our Church as we seem overwhelmed by the storms of life?  The storminess on the Sea of Galilee represent all those situations in life that cause us to be fearful.

The disciples were concerned about the inaction of Jesus who was asleep in the back of the boat.  From the disciples’ perspectives, Jesus wasn’t getting it.  It’s like our correct axiom: “Houston, we have a problem.”  The disciples wanted immediate action from Jesus. The disciples had lost the confidence of their prayer life and the question they asked took on the tone of a hostile accusation: “Teacher, don’t you care about the crisis we are facing?

 Can we identify with the fear of the apostles about the seeming absence of Jesus at times in our life?  In what situations do we lose the confidence of prayer and resort to fear and anxiety? 

We ask the question why did God allow Covid-19 to take so many lives?  When our whole planet was wrestling with this pandemic, where was our good and gracious God?

 

When it comes to the health of our children, when it comes to a break in a significant relationship, when it comes to job pressure, money pressures, when it comes slipping into fear and depression, do we wonder whether the boat we are in can withstand the storms of life?

For the first disciples and for us who also are disciples of the Lord Jesus, Jesus calls us back to our true center with two tough questions:  Why are you terrified?  Do you not yet have faith?

I invite you to consider the temptations of your life as the violent squall and the surging sea that threaten us and make us fearful.  When we’re insulted, it’s like being buffeted by winds?  When we’re angered, it’s like being tossed about by waves.  When we’re insulted, our instinct is revenge.  But revenge produces an even worse situation – shipwreck.  Consider temptations as windy squalls and surging seas.

In these situations of fearfulness, do what the disciples did.  Wake us Jesus who is asleep in our hearts.  Then like the wind and sea, we are called to quiet down and be still and trust that Jesus who is the master of the sea and the waves is the Lord and Savior of your life.

As we seek to wake up Jesus who seems to be asleep in our hearts, we need to discern who is asleep.  Is Jesus asleep and indifferent to the cross we are experiencing or is it we who are asleep when the fears of our life control our inner space so much that our trust in Jesus as the Lord and Savior has been completely eroded?  The tire hits the road in our spiritual journey when the storms on the Sea of Galilee invade our personal space and when we are gripped with fear.

Psychiatrists tell us that toxic fear and worry is a disease of the imagination.  Fear robs us of the inner peace we seek.  It keeps us from enjoying the present moment.  How much of our lives is controlled by the fear of what might go wrong?

The very first words out of the mouth of the angel Gabriel when he speaks to Mary are: “Do not be afraid.”  Scripture scholars tell us those four words are repeated 365 times in the Scriptures.

Why so much attention to the single emotion of fear?  Fear cripples our ability to become transformed – which is the whole purpose of the Gospel and of the coming of Jesus Christ into our anxiety-ridden world.  Jesus is focused:  we cannot move forward in faith until we have learned how to deal with our fears.

With 70% of our state now being vaccinated and we gradually remove the health restrictions caused by the pandemic, how do we reinvigorate and reimagine the ministries of our parish and how do we come together as a parish community respecting the faith journey of one and all? 

The Sea of Galilee is a gift of God to us for its beauty, and the storminess of the sea is our challenges to convert the fears of life into trust in His abiding presence in our life. 

The Gospel calls us to be mindful of God’s faithfulness towards us.  We need to discern who is Jesus for us amid the storms of our lives.

May we also discern how the Lord calls us to help others to navigate the storms of life as they need and value the compassion care and presence of a calming friend and a fellow traveler.

 

Have a Blessed Day.

 

 

 

Love your neighbor who doesn't look like you, speak like you, vote like you, love like you. Love your neighbor. No exceptions.

 

Eleventh Sunday in OT B  2021

 

The kingdom of God is like.    Jesus often used this expression in speaking about the kingdom of God, the reign of God. 

The kingdom of God is the person of God.  where God reigns, where god is respected, where god is thought about, where god works among a people who care and love and are with him, this is what the kingdom of god is like.

Then Jesus told us parables to explain the mystery of the KINGDOM OF God.  In today’s Gospel, Jesus told two parables drawn from agriculture which was very familiar to the people Jesus was talking to.

In today’s parables, our focus is drawn to seeds and how they grow.  The farmer sows the seeds, and miraculously they grow. 

The Bauman’s should give this homily, not by self, don’t you think they understand the science and the beauty of the growth of seeds far better than I.

Or I must say, I am inspired by the beauty of the grounds we have at holy spirit.  A major shout out to megan and kristen donaher for their magnificence work in our parish gardens.  They also are assisted by the next generation of Rademachers – jake, fiona, julia and i’m not sure if siobhan helps out as of yet.

Back to the gospel, the first parable is sometimes called the “Parable of the Seed Growing Secretly.”  “This is how it is with the Kingdom of God:  it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and through it all the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how.  A good gardener would disagree with me a bit on that.

The MESSAGE FOR us in this parable is in the Kingdom of God, God is in charge.  God gives the growth. your heavenly father never sleeps, never stops loving, never stops reaching out.   INDEED, there is a profound truth in us reaffirming that God cares and god is in charge.

In the second parable, the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed sown in the ground; it is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth.  But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.”

The message is there is a mustard seed planted in the heart of each one of us on the day of our baptism.  It is the life of Christ Jesus that is within us.  This mustard has incredible potential to become within us the wellspring of eternal life.

A most important message is we must never forget who the sower is and who is the seed.  Yes, it is God who gives the growth.  As St. Paul in the second reading, we walk by faith, not by sight.

 

 

A couple of examples.

St Therese of Lisieux, the little flower.  She did not see herself to be the mighty rose but just a mere little SUNFLOWER, a mustard seed if you will.  Her mantra was simply to do little things with great love.  For THERESE, ALL is grace.  We can be assured the grace of God is at work in the most insignificant of ways.  St Therese is known as one of the great doctors in the history of the Church but she saw herself as a little flower, a mustard seed but what she is all is grace. 

In the simple ways that you serve and help and love in your family like, like Therese, do little things with great love and believe that all is grace.  The grace of God is present to you 24/7.

Another example:  the simple life of Jorge Mario Brogolio, this humble Argentinian who we probably never heard just a few years ago.  The mustard seed of this simple, humble man has become Pope Francis who has exercised such a Christ-like leadership in the Church.  Who would have thought???  Pope Francis opened himself up to the plan of God for his life.

What of the mustard seed of the Church of the Holy Spirit?  We can feel sorry for ourselves for not having more income, more parishioners, more staff, a Catholic school and so on and so on.

Rather than feeling sorry for ourselves, we are called as a faith community to keep scattering seeds on the land as is suggested in the Gospel parables and to trust that God is in charge.  That God gives the growth.    I can assure you that if we keep scattering the seeds of faith on the ground in Webster, in Penfield and we trust that God gives the growth.  In god’s time, this mustard will become the largest of bushes.

Today’s scriptures are about the mystery of growth and renewal – the seed of God’s grace and love in our hearts and in the world about us.  As we worry about the Church and whether people are practicing their faith as well as we think they should, may we always deeply believe that the mustard seed of God’s grace is within us and within all.  In ways we do not know how, may we trust that God is in charge, that God gives the growth.  By all means, we like the farmer in the parable need to plant the seed in the ground and water the seeds to provide for growth. 

The way this gets translated in our parish life is YES, we need to be PEOPLE OF prayer.  Daily prayer needs to be part of the rhythm of our lives.  We need to provide the very best faith formation we can for young and old alike.  We need to be engaged in SOCIAL OUTREACH that reaches out in the service of God’s poor.  This is our way of planting the seed of God’s grace and watering it.

But may we leave the results to God.  God WILL GIVE the growth PERHAPS IN ways beyond our understanding.  But it is God who is in charge.

If we dare to give god a blank check to do with us according to his plan, we will approach the faith and trust of Mary who said:  i am the handmaid of the lord; be it done according to thy word.

 

 

 

 

love your neighbor

who doesn’t

look like you

think like you

love like you

speak like you

pray like you

vote like you

love your neighbor

no exceptions

 

 

 

have a blessed day.

The Eucharist is not a prize for the perfect; rather the Eucharist is medicine for the sick.

 

Body and Blood of Christ  B  2021

 

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Eucharist; the Feast of Corpus Christi;  the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ.

May we ponder in faith and in awe the mystery that we celebrate.

Today as we receive Communion, as  we receive the host in our hands at Communion, we are holding the Body of Christ.  We are holding Jesus who taught us his parables of love and forgiveness for one and all.  We are holding in our hands Jesus who walked on the water.  We are holding in our hands Jesus who died on the cross to save us from our sins.

 

What a profound privilege we have to receive the Body and Blood of Christ!

 

Regrettably we too easily take for granted this mystery of the Eucharist.

 

I must confess that too often skipping breakfast is relatively easy for me as long as I get my caffeine jolt with a cup of coffee.  I am not bragging about this.  As we all know, this doesn’t make for a healthy diet.

Sad to say, it is also easy to neglect spiritual food.  It’s too easy to skip daily prayer and the weekly celebration of the Eucharist.  We often don’t seem any worse for the wear and tear.  But over the long haul, we can get out of touch with our deepest spiritual hungers.

The thing of it is with spiritual hungers; we can be spiritually hungry without being in touch with our deep hunger.  As the great St. Augustine, you have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in thee.

 

Far from being a pit stop for fast food and entertainment in the journey of life, the gift of the Body and Blood of Christ is the necessary sustenance for the spiritual growth of each member of the community and for the community itself.

As we reflect on the mystery of the Sunday Eucharist, we are reflecting on the central prayer of our faith tradition.  We are part of a tradition that is nearly 2000 years old.  The Sunday Eucharist is our participation in the paschal mystery of Christ Jesus.  The Sunday Eucharist satisfies the deepest hungers of the human heart.

I suggest our deepest spiritual hungers are for Jesus’ power to love and forgive his enemies rather than embarrass and crush them.  What we hunger for is Jesus’ power to be bighearted;  to love beyond one’s own family, and to love poor and rich alike; to live inside of charity, joy, peace, patience, goodness, despite everything in life that militates against these virtues.

Left to our own will power and our own desires, we get too easily trapped in self-centeredness.  The truth of the life of all of us is that we are deeply flawed by sin.

With great joy, we have  recently celebrated two First Communion weekends in the parish.  The spiritual joy experienced in our First Communicants and in their families is so very precious.  The ritual of our First Communion celebrations are so inspiring.  It is a moment of joy for me as a priest to give First Communion to one of our younger parishioners.  In age appropriate ways, they celebrate the life giving presence of Jesus within them.  Thanks be to God.   

The challenge we have as a parish community is to sustain our Eucharistic faith and joy continuously throughout the year.  Even though our First Communicants won’t  be wearing their communion dresses and suits Sunday after Sunday after Sunday, nonetheless the God whose love for us is unending continues to offer to us the Bread of Life and the Cup of salvation always.

As the congregation approaches the altar and receives communion, it is as if the Church is filling up with Christ.  We are not only in union with Christ, we are in communion with all those who receive him.  The Eucharist is a community affair, not simply Jesus and me.  We are not only in union with Christ; we are in  communion with all those who receive Christ.  This is the meaning of Church.  The Church is a people  of God who are in union with Christ in the mystery of the Eucharist.  We are also a people in communion with all those who receive Christ Jesus in the Eucharist.

There are some who want us to judge whether a person is worthy or eligible to receive Communion.  I am clearly not in that lane.  I believe that none of us are worthy to receive Communion as we pray before receiving Communion:  Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof but say but the word and my soul shall be healed.”  This is a profound truth that it is the love and mercy of Jesus that enables us to approach the altar.

 

As Pope Francis, the Eucharist is not a prize for the perfect; it is medicine for the sick.

 

 

The Eucharist is our bond of communion with Christ who cleanses us our sins and unites in marvelous communion with God and gives our dignity to be God’s beloved sons and daughters.  Further, the Eucharist binds us together with each other as brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.  We are called to the Body of Christ – the bearers of hope and love to people who are sick in body and spirit.

At the Last Supper, Jesus gathers his disciples with the context of something very old – the Passover meal – to give them something very new  -- the Eucharist.  He creates for them a new covenant.  These disciples must carry on the work of Jesus.  They will be able to do his work through the empowerment of His presence.  The Eucharist has a social dimension.  It is always an encounter of the Church, the people of God, with the powerful presence of Jesus in the new covenant of His blood.  This is why the Eucharist is so central to the life of the Church.

The Mass is our greatest prayer; we gather to give thanks to the Lord our God.  Yet it is what we do outside the Mass that also determines the genuineness of the offering we make at the altar each Sunday.  By our mutual love and, in particular, by our concern for those in need we will be recognized as true followers of Christ.  Go in peace glorifying the Lord  by our lives in all that we say and do this day and every day.

As a Eucharistic community, we gather with an attitude of gratitude.  We gather to give, to give thanks to the Lord our God.  We give thanks because we have been fed and nourished at the Table of the Lord with a food that enables to live as Jesus lives, to love as Jesus loves, to forgive as Jesus forgives.  Amen

 

Have a Blessed Day.