God asks us to forgive as He forgives us.

 

Twenty Fourth Sunday in OT  A  2023

 

In the Gospel, Peter wanted to know if he had to forgive seven times.  Jesus responds: “I say to you, not seven times, seventy-seven times.” Then Jesus tells the parable in which he insists that we have a forgiving spirit.  Forgiveness is a central characteristic of a Christian lifestyle.

 

Jesus’ mandate on forgiveness is followed by the parable of the unforgiving servant.  The tragedy of the parable is that the unforgiving servant never really experienced the forgiveness the king had granted him.  This servant never experienced in his heart what was given him and therefore he could never offer forgiveness to others.

 

The apostle Peter was shocked at the depth of forgiveness Jesus was asking of him.  We too can easily be shocked at the depth of forgiveness the Lord is asking us to extend to others.  I assure you that this Gospel sense of forgiveness will make sense only when we are grateful for the depth of the forgiveness that Jesus recklessly shares with each one of us.

 

The first Scripture from the Book of Sirach indicates that our willingness to forgive others renders us open to the healing forgiveness of God.  Our best insurance policy to receive God’s forgiveness is our willingness to forgive others.  You have heard the old saw of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.  Mohandas Gandhi, a Hindu, was once quoted as saying, “An eye for an eye and all the world goes blind!”  How true it is that we need to take the initiative in extending forgiveness and healing to people who stand in need.  When Mohandas Gandhi was shot three times in the heart by an assassin, he raised his arms in a gesture of forgiveness.  His last words before dying were Rama, rama, rama:  “I forgive you, I love you, I bless you

 

What about ourselves?  In what ways have you experienced forgiveness in your lives?  This is such an important question in the spiritual journey of each one of us.  Without any doubt, our salvation is not worked out by ourselves finally reaching a state of perfection.  While we seek to grow in living a Gospel way of life, we will always be sinners.  Our salvation is worked out by our experience of the healing forgiveness of God.  May we know the depth of God’s forgiveness in our lives.

The thought I invite you to think about and pray over is:  “When a deep injury is done us, we never recover until we forgive.”  We ourselves need to forgive to experience inner healing and to witness God’s healing love of all people.

 

During this past week, I was the recipient of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  What a blessing for my life.  The experience of forgiveness leads us to a radical understanding of the doctrine of grace in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  We are saved not by finally getting it right, but by the love of Christ that redeems while we are getting it wrong.  Once more the grace of the Sacrament of Reconciliation leads us to that deep awareness that we are saved not by finally getting it right, but by the love of Christ that redeems us while we are getting it wrong.

Followers of Jesus can never be minimalist in matters of justice, charity and even forgiveness.  God shares with us an abundance of love and forgiveness.  We are to do likewise – sharing love and forgiveness in abundance with one another. 

May we be a people who love generously and forgive easily.  The truth of our lives for all of us is we all need to forgive, and we all need forgiveness.  That is the message of today’s Scriptures.  This is such an important message.  The future of our nation, the future of our Church, the future of the streets of our city, the future of the world is in the hands of those who forgive.  There is no way of understating the need for forgiveness in life.

 

May we begin each day in the same way we begin each celebration of the Eucharist:  Lord, have mercy.  Christ, have mercy.  Lord, have mercy.  This is not to say that our lives have no value or goodness.  Rather, it is to say as God’s beloved sons and daughters, we stand under the waterfall of God’s mercy.  This then motivates to share what we have been given.

We are members of a covenanted community.  As God forgives us, we are to forgive others.  Today’s Gospel message is to remember God’s mercy on us.  We then become that memory for others.  By passing his mercy forward, we receive the same.  Revenge and hate have no place in our relationship with God and others.   Treating others with mercy gives us a peace grounded in divine grace.

 

As we seek to reduce racial tensions in the streets of our cities, today’s Gospel message of forgiveness must touch the hearts of us all.  We need to surrender our right to get even.   Meanness of spirit needs to be replaced with a generosity of spirit, the spirit of forgiveness that is permanent and unconditional.

Lord God have pity on the many countries, including our own country that are being torn apart by traditional hatreds.  Send them men and women who will show their compatriots that unless they forgive from their hearts they will forever tortured by hatred and the desire for revenge.

As we know from the Lord’s Prayer, our best insurance policy to receive God’s forgiveness is our willingness to forgive others.  When we celebrate the Eucharist, we bring to God’s Eucharistic table personal memories of our journey with God, our joys and our challenges.  We pray with good memories of grace as well as times of anxiety and fear when God seemed far from us in all these memories.  In the green pastures as well as the dark valleys of life, today’s Scripture message is simple and direct:   God asks us to forgive as He forgives us.

 

Have a Blessed day.

We are the Church.

 

TWENTY THIRD SUNDAY IN OT  A 2023

 

The mantra for our parish that is repeated with each celebration of the Eucharist is:  WE ARE THE CHURCH.  In the deepest sense, the building we are in is not the Church.  It is the building that houses the church.  The church is ourselves, the people of God, who gather to celebrate God’s presence in our midst.  This brings us together around the table of the Lord in the mystery of the Eucharist, and then the Lord sends us out to renew the face of the earth.

As a Church, the people of God, we belong to one another.  We are brothers and sisters to each other.  We are the community of the baptized.  There is no way of over-rating the importance of relationships and community.  The heart of our spirituality is to be found in the love, the forgiveness, the healing, the kindness that we share with one another.

We are not just isolated individuals who come to Mass so that I can deepen my relationship with God.  We are a community of brothers and sisters who are called to make a difference in each other’s lives.  We live Eucharistic lives when we affirm, the God-given dignity of our neighbor.  We are to love one another, no exceptions,

The God we worship is a Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in relationship to one another.  The mystery of love that is found in God is also to be found in the Church in our relationships with each other.  There are millions of rules and regulations in our Church and in our society but the great commandment is love - love of God and love of neighbor.

Having said all this about the beauty and the value of our ourselves as the community of the baptized, the truth of our lives also means confessing that we are all sinners.  We can diminish our community life.

Jesus is very much aware of the frailty among his disciples and future followers.   We need help in acknowledging our faults and needed areas of improvement. 

And the clear Gospel message today is that part of being a community of disciples is that we as a community must involve efforts to correct our faults.

At first glance, today’s Gospel may look like a process to exclude the offending party.  “If your brother sins against you, go and tell his fault between you and him alone.  If he listens to you, you have won over your brother.  If he does not listen, take one or two witnesses along with you, so that every fact may be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses.  If he refuses to listen to them, tell the Church.”

In today’s reading, the entire community is given authority to hold its members to account and rectify wrongful acts.

What is crucial is understanding today’s Gospel is the process seeks not to exclude but to reconcile and restore the person to the community.  It is all about healing, forgiving, and reconciling.  Make no mistake about who we are as the community of the baptized, our mission is healing, forgiving, and reconciling.

The Gospel is an instruction by Jesus to the disciples about, not confrontation exactly, but about the sacredness of community.  The well-being of others – whether in your family, your workplace, your parish community or wherever – becomes the reason for prophetically attending to the faults of one of the community.

Now there is an abundance of therapy and workshops in conflict resolutions and the skills of mediation.  You may consider that Matthew’s Gospel may seem a little sketchy in resolving conflicts.  However, on a deeper level, conflict resolutions involve more than skill training in psycho-social skills.  The message of today’s Gospel is that reconciliation is a spiritual activity.  When our psycho-social skills are exercised from our spiritual center, they become all they can be. When the Spirit enters listening skills, the listening becomes deeper and more inclusive.  When the Spirit enters mediation skills, the skills become more respectful.    This presence of the Spirit within the skills signals that the skills are being used for the purpose of reconciliation.

We become better listeners to each other when we affirm the sacredness of our community life and the Gospel message calls us to be a healing, forgiving and reconciling community.

As seen in the Gospel, correcting the faults of another can be dangerous territory.  When I am the person being criticized, it can be devastating.  And yet, if we are to grow as a person, if we are to grow as a faith community, if your family is going to be enriched, criticism is important for our growth when the critique is motivated out of care and concern and love.  We all must acknowledge:  Be patient God isn’t finished with me yet.

In affirming the sacredness of community - in our family life, in our Church life, in the streets of our cities, and in all ways we come together with others -- we must learn to forgive, we must learn to care, we have to learn that strangers are no longer strangers, that we are brothers and sisters to each other.

What would like for us as Americans if Democrats and Republicans committed themselves to affirm the sacredness of our community life and sought to build up each other?  What would be like if on the streets of our cities, instead of racial violence, we affirmed the dignity and the sacredness of each other; what would it like in our Church life, if we all prayed together the prayer of Jesus, that they may be one in unity and love.

As we pay attention to our inner journey, we become aware that the spirit of God’s love and healing dwells deep in our hearts.  When we hear with the ears of our heart, we desire to share forgiveness and reconciliation and healing with all people.  When we hear with the ears of our heart, there is no place for pettiness, judgments, ill-will, prejudice, and hatred among us.

We can turn to the second reading today and be very clear:  it is all about love.  “Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another.

Have a Blessed Day.

 

 

As Jesus gazes across the centuries, how do you respond to the question: "Who do you say that I am?"

 

Twenty First Sunday in OT  A  2023

 

In today’s Gospel, Jesus asked his disciples two questions:  The first was an informational discussion question: “Who did people say that I am?”  It was a warmup question.

The Lord’s second question was the real gut question Jesus was asking.  It was a heart question, a faith question: “Who do you that I am?”

 Simon Peter said in reply, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  Jesus said to him:  “Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah…And so, I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church.”  In Peter’s answer, he was saying that his relationship with Jesus was the commitment that defined his life.

St. Peter is a paradoxical leader of the Church in that he exhibits both strength and weakness in his faith journey.  In next Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus is saying to Peter: “Get behind me, Satan!  You are an obstacle to me.  You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”

And yet, Peter was chosen to be the first pope not by accident, but rather by divine design.  His very failure became his credential to be the foremost preacher of God’s limitless mercy.

Can you resonate with that powerful statement?  Where in your life are you most aware of your need for the merciful love of Jesus?  What weakness, failure, or sinfulness puts you most in touch with your need for God’s healing grace? St Paul proclaims that we have this treasure in earthen vessels.  God lives within us surrounded by the humanness of who we are.  Yet, God chooses to witness to his merciful love in the lives of others.

I know for myself when I am in touch with my own sinfulness, when I too quick to judgment on others, when I carry the weight of the world on my own shoulders, I am most challenged to trust in the limitless mercy of Jesus.

 

 

 

 

Going back to Peter, people would see in the face of Peter the look of one who knows the giving and forgiving God.  Peter would speak from his own experience: “Do not be afraid.”  God’s love has pursued Peter in his sin and found him and gave him a new life.  Peter was a sinner saved by the love of Jesus.   The Good News Peter would fearlessly proclaim is God’s love will pursue you in your sin and find you and give you new life. 

There is nothing you can do that is going to stop God from loving you.

We Catholics boldly speak of the primacy of the pope.  What of the primacy of our first Pope?  Peter has primacy because he is first in failure, first in suffering, first in his need for God’s mercy to serve the Church.  Somehow Jesus understands that Peter can only preach God’s reconciling love if he first experiences it himself.  It is because Peter will fail so completely and weep so bitterly over his denial of Jesus that, when he is finally reconciled with Jesus at the Sea of Tiberius, he will truly understand God’s message of mercy.

This realization in the life of Peter leads us to ask ourselves:  what are our credentials to proclaim the limitless mercy of God?  Perhaps it is our own failures and weaknesses that have been forgiven by God’s grace that leads us to share God’s merciful love with one another.

Pope Francis began his time as pope by acknowledging that he was a sinner and that God had first “mercied” him before choosing him.  He was chosen to be pope because he was well acquainted with the mercy and forgiveness of God.

In the penitential rite at the beginning of the celebration of the Eucharist, we acknowledge and celebrate our need for God’s merciful forgiveness.  Before receiving Communion, we say, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof; but say only the word and my soul shall be healed.”  The Eucharist is not a reward for the perfect.  The Eucharist is God’s gift of love to us who are not worthy, who are sinners, but are grateful for the merciful love of Jesus that is shared with us.

 

 

 

In the Gospel, Jesus said to Peter: “I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.”  The first and the most important power that was given to Peter and his successors was the forgiveness of sins.

As you pray over this beautiful Gospel, may we discern that certain keys have been entrusted to each of us.   What keys has the Lord entrusted to you?    With the keys that have been given to us, we are to open the way to Jesus for others instead of locking those doors.  We should welcome more people that we turn away and serve more people than we refuse.  Jesus comes to give us Good News that we are to share with others.

As we look to receive the Eucharist in our liturgy, may the grace of Communion encourage us in those moments when we recognize and tend to the presence of Jesus in the poor.  The grace of Communion will enable us to speak out against injustice and translate our words into actions.  The grace of Communion will be there on those days when we give of ourselves to help, to listen, to serve, and to befriend.  Grace will inspire us to quiet ourselves, to pray and to allow the presence of God a place in our lives.  Grace will move us to put others and their need ahead of our own.

May the struggles of our life lead us to trust in Jesus as the source of our inner strength.    Deep within is the person God our Father dreams we can be.  May all of us commit ourselves to do what the Lord asks of us in the building of the Church.  We are to be merciful for God has shown us mercy.

As Jesus gazes across the centuries to today, how might you respond to the question: “Who do you say that I am?”

 

Have a Blessed Day.

"Take courage. It is I. Do not be afraid."

 

Nineteenth Sunday in  OT  A  2023

 

“Take courage.  It is I.  Do not be afraid.”   These hope-filled words were spoken by Jesus to his frightened disciples as they were being blown around by the storminess on the Sea of Galilee.  As we engage today’s Gospel of the disciples on the Sea of Galilee, we are in the midst of an angry sea, in a boat that seems fragile, and there are howling winds and enormous waves that threaten to capsize the disciples.

Today’s Scripture readings invite us to reflect over the ways we encounter the Lord in our lives – the ways we become in touch with God’s presence.  There is much to be learned from the first disciples on the Sea of Galilee.

At some point in time, the storminess on the Sea of Galilee may describe anyone’s life – one’s parish or school; one’s business or neighborhood or family; one’s personal life as our employer tells us that our job is downsized or outsourced, or our doctor explains our test results.   This storminess has been the life of the community of the Church many times since Jesus walked on water, and it is what today’s Gospel account is all about.   When we focus on the power of the winds and the depths of the waves and how wet and how cold we are, then we panic and grasp and clutch and…sink.  When we give our life over to Jesus, when we trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior, we save our life.

This message is straightforward and easy to understand but so hard to live out when we are gripped by our fears.    The grace we seek from today’s Scriptures is to cultivate faith in Jesus that is greater than our fears.  Faith over fear. The words of Jesus that are spoken to us again and again are: “It is I; do not be afraid.”  We aren’t being asked to walk on water, but to act like we believe that God’s love for us is more powerful than chaos, evil and apathy. 

The storminess on the Sea of Galilee describes very well the quality of life of high school girls who live in the poverty of the country of Tanzania in Africa.  I would like to describe to you the missionary outreach our parish provides for St. Mary’s School, a Catholic high school for girls in Mazinde Ju in Tanzania. This school is a beacon of hope for high school girls that gives them a life-changing experience to get out of the web of poverty that diminishes their quality of life.

On three occasions dating back more than ten years ago, parishioners from St Joseph’s have gone on pilgrimage to St Mary’s School in Tanzania.  I have the privilege of going with a group of parishioners in 2018.  This has been a life changing experience for me as well as all from St Joe’s who have had the opportunity to be a part of this Christ-like school that provides a spiritual and academic opportunity for high school girls who otherwise would be without educational opportunities.

Over these last several years, St Joseph’s has been a major benefactor to this school – contributing as much as $50,000 in a given year.  There are several of us, myself included, who contribute $1,000 per year to provide scholarships for deserving students.

My mantra is you never regret being generous to people in need.

What is so inspiring to me in my visit to Tanzania, is that St. Mary’s School is so much more than a quality classroom experience.  This is a residential school that is for me is an experience of Church in which everyone has their fixed on the Lord.  The spiritual leader of this community is a priest from the Diocese of Rochester, Fr Damien Milliken, a Benedictine priest who has served his priestly ministry for over 50 years in Africa.  This wonderful community of faith has an abundance of consecrated women, the religious sisters of Usumbara, who are teachers for these high school students.  All in this school community live out the Gospel values of love and service and friendship with one another.

I regard it as a privilege for us as a parish community to be benefactors of this Christlike school community of faith.  I invite your generosity in the second collection.

 

As a priest of 55 blessed years, I have the opportunity to celebrate Mass in many sacred places including at St Peter’s Basilica in Rome when St John Paul II ordained my nephew Jason a priest.  That was a wow experience for me.

But I tell you, my most mystical celebration of the Eucharist was in the school chapel of St Mary’s at 6:00 am on an ordinary school day.  Looking out from the altar, I was in the presence of 1,000 high school girls in full Catholic school uniform singing the opening hymn with angelic and enthusiastic voices accompanied only by one high school girl in the choir loft striking a well-worm drum.  The joy in their hearts was unmistakable.

What I would emphasize is that this wasn’t a special feast for Our Lady, this liturgy happens each and every school day at 6:00 am in the morning with the same kind energy and prayerfulness.

The holiness of this liturgy remains with me five years later.

What is so amazing is to be aware of how the graduates of St Mary’s have gone to leadership positions in the legal area, in the medical area and in business and government.  These graduates hold leadership positions improving the quality of life in Tanzania.

 

My prayer is that you will shower these deserving high school girls with the same love, generosity, and prayer as you would your own daughters.  As we are mindful that these young women are God’s beloved daughters, we are called to share from our giftedness in our generosity for these high schoolers.

We have it right in our ministry here at St Joseph’s Church when both St Joseph’s School and St Mary’s School in Mazindu Ju, in Tanzania are recipients of our prayer and our generosity.

 

May God bless you with the gift of generosity.

 

 

"This is my beloved Son. Listen to HIm,"

 

TRANSFIGURATION  2023

 

 

Today the Gospel presents the Transfiguration.  Jesus “took with him Peter and James and John his brother and led them up a high mountain apart” (Mt 17:1). The mountain in the Bible represents a place close to God and an intimate encounter with Him, a place of prayer where one stands in the presence of the Lord. There up on the mount, Jesus is revealed to the three disciples as transfigured, luminescent, and most beautiful. And then Moses and Elijah appear and converse with Him. His face is so resplendent and his robes so white that Peter, awe-struck, wishes to stay there, as if to stop time. Suddenly from on high the voice of the Father resounds proclaiming Jesus to be his most beloved Son, saying “listen to him” (v. 5). This word is important! Our Father said this to these Apostles and says it to us as well: “listen to Jesus, because he is my beloved Son.”

The ‘brightness’ which characterizes this extraordinary event symbolizes its purpose: to enlighten the minds and hearts of the disciples so that they may clearly understand who their Teacher is. It is a flash of light which suddenly opens onto the mystery of Jesus and illuminates his whole person and his whole story.

 

By now decisively headed toward Jerusalem, where he will be sentenced to death by crucifixion, Jesus wanted to prepare his own for this scandal — the scandal of the Cross — this scandal which is too intense for their faith and, at the same time, to foretell his Resurrection by manifesting himself as the Messiah, the Son of God. Jesus was preparing them for that sad and very painful moment.

 

 

Going back to the Gospel account, Jesus appeared to Peter, James and John in his risen glory. They then heard a voice from the cloud: “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”

 

What does it mean to be beloved of the Father for Jesus? You might think Jesus would have a permanent mountaintop experience? Not so! The transfiguration was a preparation for his final entry into Jerusalem where he was to suffer and to die on the cross…. Still, he certainly was the Father’s beloved.

 

You would think that as the beloved of the Father life would be a bit more extravagant for Jesus. The best of everything -- a vacation in the high rent district of the Sea of Galilee, or an unlimited checking account or something.

 

Yet, his transfiguration was not far removed from the cost of discipleship. This Jesus who was the beloved of the Father would empty himself, suffer and die on the cross.

 

In fact, Jesus was already revealing himself as a Messiah different from their expectations, from how they imagined the Messiah, how the Messiah would be: not a powerful and glorious king, but a humble and unarmed servant; not a lord of great wealth, a sign of blessing, but a poor man with nowhere to rest his head; not a patriarch with many descendants, but a celibate man without home or nest.  And the most bewildering sign of this scandalous overturning is the cross. But it is through the Cross that Jesus will reach the glorious Resurrection, which will be definitive, not like this Transfiguration which lasted a moment, an instant.

Transfigured on Mount Tabor, Jesus wanted to show his disciples his glory, not for them to circumvent the Cross, but to show where the Cross leads. Those who die with Jesus, shall rise again with Jesus. The Cross is the door to Resurrection. Whoever struggles alongside him will triumph with him.

 

Jesus was God’s beloved Son. God’s plan for his beloved Son included the scandal of the cross – his suffering and death. In Baptism, we too are God’s beloved. But like Jesus, this does not mean we get a free pass from suffering and the cross. God’s love is unending but like Jesus God’s love for us includes the scandal of the cross.

For us to trust in God’s love for us in the crosses of life, we need transfiguration moments that sustains our faith in our journey that leads to the cross as our entrance way to sharing in the risen life of Jesus. Our transfiguration moments occur in times of prayer. Our prayer can come in many forms. This past week, I experienced a prayerful transfiguration moment in experiencing the beauty of sunset over Lake Ontario. Another moment was spending time with my sister during a game of golf.

These blessed transfiguration moments sustain my trust that Jesus is with me in all experiences of life.

 

From the event of the Transfiguration, I would like to take two significant elements that can be summed up in two words: ascent and descent. We all need to go apart, to ascend the mountain in a space of silence, to find ourselves and better perceive the voice of the Lord. This we do in prayer.

 

But we cannot stay there! Encounter with God in prayer inspires us anew to “descend the mountain” and return to the plain where we meet many brothers and sisters weighed down by fatigue, sickness, injustice, ignorance, poverty both material and spiritual. To these brothers and sisters in difficulty, we are called to bear the fruit of that experience with God, by sharing the grace we have received.

 

And this is curious. When we hear the Word of Jesus, when we listen to the Word of Jesus and carry it in our heart, this Word grows. Do you know how it grows? By giving it to the other! The Word of Christ grows in us when we proclaim it, when we give it to others! And this is what Christian life is. It is a mission for the whole Church, for all the baptized, for us all: listen to Jesus and offer him to others. Do not forget: this week listen to Jesus!

 

As we ponder the meaning of the Transfiguration Gospel, know that we are God’s beloved. May we listen to how the Lord speaks to us in our prayer. May we recognize many prayerful experiences throughout the day. May we know that we then are missioned to come down the mountain and to share the love of Jesus with one and all.

 

Have a Blessed day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

'We are all sinners in the hands of a loving and forgiving God.

 

Sixteenth Sunday in OT  A  2023

 

 

In today’s Gospel parable, Jesus is suggesting that we let the weeds in the garden grow along with the wheat till harvest time.  When the question was asked:  Do you want us to go immediately to pull up the weeds?  The response was given: “No, if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them.  Let them grow together until the harvest.”

 As I reflect on today’s Gospel of the parable of the weeds and the wheat, my conviction is we live in a very weedy world.  Isn’t it true, there is much too much violence, hatred, power-grabbing, self-centeredness in the world today?  We have to look no further than ourselves to recognize too much self-centeredness and not enough God-centeredness and other-centeredness.

Jesus tells us this parable to illustrate the patience of God in dealing with weeds.  Wait until the harvest.  The Church of Jesus is not to grow impatient with the weeds.

What weeds are we talking about?  Yes, the weeds of life are all about us.  We are all sinners.  We all have demons.  In terms of this parable, we all have weeds – the weeds of pride, the weeds of materialism, the weeds of anger, the weeds of lust, the weeds of self-centeredness, and the weeds of holding grudges.  Often enough, we are more aware of these weeds in the lives of others than ourselves.

There are significant weeds in the life of the Church – the weeds of sexual abuse, the weeds of power, and the weeds of not living out the Gospel that is preached.

What are we to do in the face of the weeds that are all about us?  The parable suggests that God is patient—much more patient than ourselves.  Matthew’s Gospel could be renamed the Gospel of Punishment postponed.

 harvest.”

 

 

With this parable, Jesus is telling us clearly we are to be an inclusive church.  Since its earliest days, the Church has preferred to tolerate different levels of commitment and holiness.  I wonder if you can observe in your own family life different levels of commitment and holiness.   Even if this is true, are we not called to love and embrace each and every member of our family.

This attitude of acceptance is also in line with the revelation of God “as merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in kindness.”

An inclusive Church that is kind and lenient toward its own members and toward everyone else should be an inspiration to a divided world that has a tendency to judge harshly, to be quick to anger, and to uproot weeds even at the cost of damage to the good plants.  The Church is to stand forth as a sign that we are all brothers and sisters which allows honest dialogue and invigorates it.

A Church that is welcoming and has room for everyone, a Church that can forgive and forget, a Church that does not condemn, criticize or judge has God’s heart beating within the Church.

May we pray for the grace of the patience of God.  This does not mean passivity or helplessness or an attitude of giving up.  Does this mean we are to sit back and pick daisies while the innocent suffer?  It means we are to love ourselves who are sinners and who have weeds that disappoint us.  The truth of our lives is that we are all sinners whom the Lord has turned his gaze upon.

The evangelist Matthew is concerned that no punishment be meted out prematurely.  Beware of the overzealous volunteers, anxious to “weed out” undesirables, supremely sure of their ability to identify such undesirables with unfailing accuracy.  What looks like weeds to us may well be wheat.

What are we to make of the weediness of our Church that doesn’t always reflect the love of Jesus in the lives of people?  Do we look for a Church without weeds so that we can focus more fully on God?  As illustrated in the parable, as disillusioning as this may be, the weeds are going to be present till the harvest at the end of the world.  The Church will always be a Church of sinners.  Again, this doesn’t mean that we are to be passive recipients of evil as in sexual abuse.  We are to stand for the Gospel and hold ourselves and others to a Gospel way of living.  But at the same time, as long as people are people, there is going to be some weediness in our own hearts and in our world.

What are we to do?  What did Jesus do?  Recall the story that Jesus told of the Good Shepherd who left the 99 and went in sheep of the lost sheep that had gone astray.

Recall the story of the woman caught in adultery when Jesus said to her accusers: “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.”

And to the thief that was crucified along with Jesus: “This day you will be with me in paradise.”

I call your attention to the words of St. Paul in the second Scripture reading: “The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness: for we do not pray as we ought.”  I have always taken great comfort in this reading from Paul to the Romans.  Even though I’m sure your prayer is always very focused, and you never get distracted, I confess that my mind is capable of wandering in prayer.  I am too capable of getting caught in the busyness of life and not focus on resting in the Lord Jesus.  But I am very comforted that the Holy Spirits brings my distracted and useless prayer to our loving God.  My “very weedy prayer,” so to speak, through the grace of the Holy Spirit deepens my union with Christ Jesus.  Thanks be to God.

To sum up the parable of the weeds and the wheat, at the end of the day, we are all sinners in the hands of a loving and forgiving God.

 

Have a Blessed Day.

 

 

Generosity is a divine investment.

 

Thirteenth Sunday in OT  2023 A

 

The message of today’s scriptures is that hospitality and GENEROSITY is A DIVINE INVESTMENT.  The disciples of Jesus never regret generosity -- even then this involves the detachment from the pleasure that we are very attached to.

 

Just as we can become skilled in investing resources so that our future will be secure, please know that our divine investment in our future life with Christ is secured by the generosity and hospitality we show to our brothers and sisters today.

 

In today’s first Scripture reading, the prophet Elisha was the recipient of the hospitality and generosity of the woman of Shunem who fed him and offered him a place to stay in their home.

 

Later Elisha inquired to her was anything he could do for her.  He was told that she had no son, and her husband was getting on in years.  Elisha called her and promised: “This time next year you will be fondling a baby son.”

 

This shunemite woman indeed experienced her generosity as a divine investment and an end to barrenness.

 

Today’s Gospel is the conclusion of the missionary discourse Jesus was giving his disciples before sending them out to proclaim the Good News of the Gospel.

 

Jesus is upping the ante in what is being asked of his disciples.  Jesus says: “Whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.  Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

 

The great mystery of our faith is the paschal mystery:  the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus.  It was through his suffering and dying on the cross that was the pathway for Jesus to come to resurrection and his risen life.

 

The great mystery of our faith is that we are called to participate in the paschal mystery of Jesus.  It is through our suffering and ultimately our death that we come to sharing in the risen life of Jesus.

 

In our journey of faith, we need to embrace dying to self and our self-centeredness before we die.  We need to appreciate the virtue of detachment as the path for experiencing the freedom of the children of God.

 

The challenge for us is that detachment is so counter-intuitive to the life we too often live.  Often enough, attachment is our home base. It is so against the logic of human progress. We easily are attracted to the pleasure of all kinds of attachments. 

 

We become attached to our families that love us; we become attached to our home and property that bring us considerable pleasure; we become addicted to receiving recognition and praise from others; we become attached to our favorite cocktail:  we become attached to the particular lifestyle which brings pleasure to our lives.  We never have enough.  We become addicted to wanting more.  These attachments can become our false gods.

 

What would it take for us to die for any or all of these attachments? What would it take to die to all the pleasures of our life?

 

Just this past week, I have presided at four funerals at St Joseph’s Church?  Grieving family members have experienced the unthinkable – the death of a family member that was so much loved?  Their grieving leaves a profound sense of loss and abandonment.    How do we deal with the detachment that is completely unplanned and for which we are so unprepared?

 

In our spiritual journey, all of us through the circumstances are challenged to participate in the paschal mystery of Christ Jesus.  We need to die to our ourselves so that we can live more fully in Christ Jesus.  We need to be able to let go and let God.

This also applies to all the negative experiences in our life that rob us of our self-esteem.  We need to let go of past hurts, judgments we have made about others; let go of the need for revenge. We need to die to all the negativity that haunts us so that we can the freedom of the sons and daughters of God.

 

For all this to happen, we need to make God the first priority of our lives.  The discipleship that Jesus asks of us is not a part-time sense of discipleship.  Jesus calls to trust that He will always be the Lord and Savior of our lives.

 

This means we need to die to our plans for our life and to give ourselves over to God’s plan for our lives.   This means embracing the virtue of detachment from our plans and trusting his God’s plan for our life.  WE need the courage and trust of Mary at the Annunciation when she responded to the angel Gabriel:  I am the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to your Word.

 

Listen again to what seems like very troubling words from Jesus: “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”

I can remember to this day when I was a seven-year-old second grader at Our Lady of Good Counsel School, my second-grade teacher Sister Concilia asked me: “Who do you love more?  Your mommy or God?  I immediately responded: “My mommy.”  Sister Concilia corrected me and told me I was to love God more.  As a seven year old, I was confused by this correction and when I told my very faith-filled mom what had happened.  The puzzling question still confused me.

 

As we pray over today’s Gospel, Jesus is inviting to come to a deeper understanding of our call to love.  First and foremost, God is love.  To know God is to experience love. Each of us is the recipient of God’s unconditional love.  There is nothing we can do to stop God from loving us.

 

As we deepen our relationship with Jesus, we become more and more aware of God’s love for us and our missionary mandate to share our love with one and all.  As far as we are steeped in the mystery of God’s love for us, yes, this indeed is the first priority of our lives.  When Jesus is the North Star of our lives, then our love for our mother and father and son and daughter deepens and grows within us.

When indeed we experience detachment from our self-centeredness and when we are willing to die to self, we experience the freedom of the sons and daughters of God.  This freedom enables to trust in God’s plan for our life and enables to love more freely one and all.

 

Have a Blessed Day.