When You Get Caught Between the Ascension and Pentecost (5/8/16)

With today’s celebration of the Seventh Sunday of Easter we find ourselves between the time when Jesus has left His mission completely up to His Apostles and before they were fully empowered by the Spirit to accomplish that mission.  That will not come until Pentecost. For now it is good for us to reflect on what Jesus says to us today:  “Holy Father, I pray not only for my disciples, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me.”  It seems to me as if what the Lord is saying is that if His teaching and presence to us on this earth are to be of any enduring value they must be put at the service of the Lord’s will to bring all people together in faith in God the Father so that the world may know that the Father has sent the Son, and that the Father loves all of us just as He loves His own Son.  Right here, Right now we need to ask ourselves in a very practical way, how the Lord’s gift to us can help us to accomplish the mission that the Lord has put before us. To help us to answer this question we need to look no further than the Words that Jesus will speak to us next week on Pentecost Sunday: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be with you always. “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Those who do not love me do not keep my words.” Yes, it always comes down to this: loving Jesus means keeping His commandments. Any accomplishment that we achieve through the grace of God is fulfilled when we give to it the purpose of helping us to better keep His commandments and love Him which by definition means to love all people as one in union with the Father and the Son.  We do need to ponder this truth, and even be awestruck by it, but at the same time we need to understand one of the lessons of the Ascension.  Of course, the apostles were completely dazzled and utterly speechless as they saw Jesus ascend into heaven, but they were soon brought back to earth by the words of the angels who said to them:  “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking up at the sky?”  While we must reflect on the awesomeness of God and His message and His commands and how they relate directly to our accomplishments, we must not fall into the trap of admiring and marveling at Jesus so much that we forget to follow Him that we forget that we must do what He does.  As Jesus forgives, we must forgive; as Jesus heals, we must be agents of healing; as He loves, we must love. When we get caught between the Ascension and Pentecost, we cannot allow ourselves to become so awestruck by the glory of God that it prevents us from doing His will.  Instead of just “standing there” we need to do His will, in the faith that that the Spirit of Pentecost is right around the corner.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. (5/01/16)

Let’s remember the setting. We are at the last supper.  Judas, washed feet and all, is on the way back to hand Him over. The cross looms just behind the foreground. Occupying soldiers are ready to flex their Roman muscle at any time, and the disciples are moments away from seeing their friend and leader arrested and running for dear life. So what does Jesus speak to them about? Safety? Protection? Evil? Betrayal? Failure? Defeat?  No, He speaks to them of peace. His Peace.  Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  And He does not speak of a distant peace in a golden age gone by, nor does he speak of a future peace yet to be realized in days to come. Quite the contrary, Jesus speaks in the present tense: He speaks of Peace now. Jesus is doing much more than simply saying good-bye. He is affirming the gift of peace that is made real for the disciples because of His relationship with them. It is a peace that He can give to them now, even in the midst of their unbelievably precarious circumstance. Even in the midst of life’s trials and difficulties, Christ’s peace can be experienced. The challenge, of course, is to pay attention to our relationship with Christ in the midst of lives that are often hurried, harried, and hassled. In such a context, it is critical for us to engage our world with great energy and vigor, while at the same time carving out priority time for reflection and prayer. No relationship can be healthy if we do not invest time in it. Hence, our need to be intentional and proactive about making time for meditation and prayer in order to cultivate an inner stillness in the midst of busy living. In so doing, we become more able to sense how Christ is present in the midst of the world’s need, and thereby become more able to receive the peace of Christ, even in the presence of great turmoil. Also, we need to understand that His understanding of peace is radically different than ours. What we consider peace and what God considers peace are two different things.  For us, peace means not to have conflict.  But Christ calls us into conflict with the world.  Still, He gives us peace.  A different peace, a peace within ourselves, a peace that only comes through union with Him.  We are not to be troubled.  We are not to be afraid.  Rather we are called to embrace the Lord and His Way.  Then the Father and Son will be with us and make their dwelling with us.  But we are afraid.  We are afraid that if we abandon our pre-conceived notions of happiness we will be left with nothing.  So we work frantically in order to obtain happiness.  But happiness cannot be bought obtained or acquired. It is a huge step for us to trust that only radical union with and surrender to God can bring us true happiness and true peace. An integral part of the struggle of our lives is to come to terms with and live in conformity with the truth that it is only in unity with God and His will that real happiness and peace can be ours. Once we take that step; once we realize that truth, the peace that Jesus gives can truly be ours no matter what turmoil surrounds us.

How Will They Know that We are Disciples of Jesus? (4/24/16)

Well, that certainly would be a wonderful question or us to ponder, that is, if we did not already have the answer.  In John 13:35 Jesus says this: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another,” but of course we all knew that, correct?  Love is the Christian identity. Love is the Christian uniform. You see, Jesus does want the world to recognize us as Christians. We need to evangelize and witness to people around us. But effective evangelization and witnessing has less to do with how fluently we speak and more to do with how faithfully we live and love.  What we need to do is to love one another as Jesus loves us: then the world will know that we are His disciples. But these are not mere words; Jesus doesn’t just say “Love one another,” He says, “Love one another as I love you.”  And how does Jesus love us?  Well, He poured out every last drop of His precious blood, for us, He forgives us for our sins and pays the penalty Himself, He gives us everything He has and is, without ever thinking of asking any thing in return.  That is how we are called to love. That is what is new about His commandment and it is what makes all things new. In the second reading today we hear about a new Jerusalem that was literally recreated and made new by the fact that its citizens loved one another in the way that Jesus loved them.  Would you not feel totally new if you felt that everyone around you loved you as Jesus does? And how do you think that those God gave you would feel if they truly could see that you love them as Jesus loves them?  His commandment is always new because it has never been carried out nearly to the extent to which Jesus longs.  If we love one another as Jesus loves us, the world will know that we are truly His disciples and the world will be made completely and totally new.

Good Shepherd Sunday (4/17/16)

Near the end of last Sunday’s Gospel Jesus asked Peter three times “Do love me.” Each time that Peter answered, Jesus responded by saying either “Feed my sheep,” or “Tend my lambs,” and finally by saying. “Follow me.”  He was calling Peter to follow Him out of a deep profound love and to lead His people in the same way that Jesus had done while He was on the earth. This call of Jesus to Peter very nicely sets the stage for us this week, on this Good Shepherd Sunday, to reflect upon the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd that Jesus gives us the metaphor of the relationship that exists between Him and us

In Jesus’ time, sheep were the people’s main source of meat, milk and cheese.  They provided wool for clothing and were used for sacrifice in their liturgy.

The relationship of a shepherd to his sheep, resembles that of a mother to her several small children. Just as toddlers depend on their mother’s care, the sheep depend on the care of their shepherd, and the shepherd, who usually, had dozens of sheep, is kept busy all hours of every day.

Each night, a number of shepherds would come together with their sheep and put them in a common pen.  As they slept one shepherd would stay awake to guard the sheep.  In the morning, each shepherd would call out for his own sheep to follow him to pasture.  The sheep knew the voice of their own shepherd and would follow only his voice when they were called.  They would ignore the calls of the other shepherds.  Remember, Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice; I know them and they follow me.

We may not like to admit this, but we are like sheep. We need God’s constant care at all times and not just when we are aware of our great need for Him

Meanwhile, we live in a society in which it seems like everyone is trying to get our attention.  We are constantly bombarded with commercials on radio, social media, TV etc. as well with all kinds of signs, posters and billboards all over highways, streets and buildings trying to catch our eyes and ears.  Sometimes, we have a tendency to simply follow the latest message we’ve heard, or, because we hear so many, we might just follow the crowd.

But, if we want to follow Jesus, we have to be able to hear and to recognize His voice, from among the many others.  We have to make a conscious effort to shut out all kinds of noise so that so that we can listen to Him.  If we don’t, we can easily lose touch with Him.  We need to take time to be quiet, to be still, and to pray, so that we can stay in touch with our Good Shepherd.

Our Lord does not want to lose any of us.  He wants us to be with Him forever.  He leads us through the Mass.  He speaks to us in the Scriptures and feeds us with His own body and blood.   Sheep may not be the most intelligent of creatures, but they are smart enough to know that they need their shepherd and that they need to recognize his voice.  May we also be intelligent enough to know that we need Jesus and smart enough to recognize His voice so that He might lead us to the eternal pasture of Heaven.

Do You Love Me?.....Do You Love Me?.....Do You Love Me? (4/10/16)

I remember as a young boy I could not wait for the day when my father would let me finally take the lawn tractor all by myself and mow the lawn.  I’ll never forget the first time, during the spring of the year that he finally let me cut the grass on my own. I was so excited and so happy with myself.  But then just a few days later, as you might say, a real growing up moment took place.  My dad saw me and said, “Boy, get that tractor out; that lawn ain’t gonna cut itself!”  Well that’s when it really hit me. Just like that something I had wanted to do for so long, suddenly became something I had to do. And not only did I have to cut my own lawn, I had to cut my grandmother’s lawn, which was right next door, as well.  I quickly learned that I better had cut my grandmother’s lawn when I was supposed to do so, or else there would be consequences. Unpleasant consequences! Eventually, I came to realize that I should mow her lawn not just to avoid punishment, but because it was the right and just thing to do.  Further down the road, I think I even matured beyond that. I think I can say that eventually I cut her lawn, notto avoid gettinginto trouble or even because it was justifiably and logically the right thing to do.  I believe I came to the point where I could honestly say that I cut my grandmother’s lawn because I loved my grandmother. I tell this story because it reminds me of a lesson which I believe comes from the Gospel story we just heard.  This beautiful story comes from the 21st and last chapter of St. John’s Gospel. And what a wonderful last chapter it is.  It follows immediately after the story of doubting Thomas that we heard last week from John’s 20thchapter, but I wonder if we remember exactly how John closed that chapter out.  After finishing the story of Jesus’ encounter with Thomas and the apostles, St. John says the following: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in His name.” Those words certainly are a wonderful way to bring a chapter to a close, but, we may think not only are they wonderful words with which to end a chapter, they also would have been wonderful words to close out an entire Gospel.  Well then, it might be interesting for you to know that originally, the Gospel of John did indeed end with the 20th chapter and with these words as its conclusion. The 21st chapter, from which we just heard was a later addition to John’s Gospel and the reason for its addition provides the subject matter for our reflection todayand actually provides us with a wonderful story of how the early Church overcame and resolved a painful situation which may have led to a permanent separation of the community of St. John, the beloved disciple from the Church of Rome. As we may know, John, who was the youngest Apostle, lived long after the other Apostles had been martyred and a devoted community of believers developed around him. The leaders of the Church in Rome which of course had developed around St. Peter saw this as very troubling and a possible threat to the authority of the leadership of St. Peter and his successors.  This threat seemed to become very real to them when they read the first version of John’s Gospel without the all important, 21st chapter. They feared that it gave primacy to St. John, “the disciple who Jesus loved,” instead of sufficiently accepting the legitimacy of St. Peter as head of the Church.  Remember, even, in the account of the Easter story, it was “the beloved disciple” who out ran St. Peter to the tomb, and it was the beloved disciple who first “saw and believed in the resurrection. For this and other reasons, the Roman Church was not comfortable with including the original Gospel of St. John into the Bible. It seemed as though the first schism might be at hand.  But then something wonderful happened.  And that wonderful happening was the 21st chapter that we just heard. The community of the Beloved Disciple added this chapter to the original and it was accepted by the Roman Church as giving sufficient adherence to the primacy of Peter as the head of the Church.  At the same time it allowed John’s community to make its point that love for Christ must be the primary basis for the legitimacy of leadership of the Church.  We might say it was a classic struggle of the head and the heart, of the dominance of the right brain an the left brain, or the primacy of Peter and John. But the Church did not choose between one or the other.  It chose “both and.” Both the head and the heart, both right brain and left brain, both Peter and John and actually set a precedent for Catholic theology that is in place even to the present day.  The Church learned early onthat in many instances we are called to embrace the tension of two great realities (i.e. Jesus is both human and divine, the Trinity is made up of three persons yet one God, the Mass is both a meal and a sacrifice, etc. etc) and learn from the truth which lies within that tension.  And so we have Jesus asking Peter three times “Do you love me?” Do you love me? Do you love me?”  Jesus is almost desperately expressing the fact that He knows He needs Peter’s leadership to establish His Kingdom or His earthly mission would have been for naught while at the same time understanding that if and only if He has the love of Peter’s heart than He can accomplish anything.  Clearly at least two very important points are being made here.  First, Jesus is indeed establishing Peter as the head of the Church and Peter is being accepted as such by John’s community.  Secondly, The Church of Rome is accepting that the legitimacy of the leadership of the Church must be based on nothing other than love for Jesus Christ.  We might say that the early Church avoided what would have been its first Schism by coming to the realization perhaps somewhat painfully, and not totally unlike the young boy who wanted so much to mow the lawn all by himself, that true discipleship, more than any thing else is indeed a matter of the heart.

Sacrificial Love Never Dies (3/27/16)

And so, it is Easter. Perhaps it seems to have arrived a little earlier than usual this year, maybe a bit too early for some of us but here it is, and here we are.  Once again.  It is amazing how we are, we human beings. We have an ability to get bored by just about anything eventually.  Don’t tell me it’s not true. Try to think of something that you have been given that after a while you haven’t gotten tired of. You know it’s true. It would be a very interesting little experiment to see if we can even remember the Christmas gifts we received just three months ago.  It is my theory that we can even get bored by a resurrection. I mean, you know, we hear about it all the time. We agree that it’s very nice and all that, and it’s kinda good that we are going to live forever, we guess, but it is kind of old news by now. Sure we come to Church every Easter Sunday and all that, but we know it’s not like we are going to hear anything new.  That, my friends is what any preacher is up against, just so you know. And so yes, it might be a little vain of me, but I actually try to do it, I try to say something that maybe my congregation hasn’t heard before; to give them a new perspective because I understand that pretty much all of us, eventually will get bored with pretty much everything. So I tried to come up with something that pretty much always stays new with us, something that will never bore us, something that truly never dies, so that we might better understand, Jesus’ Resurrection, so that we might truly be inspired by it. Wat I have come up with is this: Sacrificial love never dies.  Hopefully, we have been the recipient of true sacrificial love from someone. If we have been, than we know that that kind of love never ever dies. It is eternal. By the same token, if we have ever loved any one sacrificially, we know that it never dies. To love sacrificially is to love eternally. The Resurrected Jesus is the embodiment of sacrificial love.  His entire life was a life conceived in sacrificial love and lived in sacrificial.  Such a life cannot die. That’s what the Resurrection is about. That’s what it is. For us to share in eternal life means that we live a life of sacrificial love. We will never be bored because it never dies.

Holy Week at Saint Aloysius - Do Not Miss It

Believe it or not, it is Palm Sunday, 2016!  We are about, once again to enter into holiest of all weeks of the year, as we begin by commemorating the Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem and His Passion. Next Sunday of course, we will celebrate His Resurrection. But what about all the days in between-remember it is “Holy Week”; it is made up of seven days, not just one or two. Our invitation and challenge is to make sure that we do not miss it, that we accept the invitation and challenge of Jesus to walk with Him from the time of His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, through His sorrowful passion to His joyful Resurrection.  I firmly believe that here at Saint Aloysius Parish you will have ample opportunity to do just that.  Of course, we will begin by participating in today’s celebration of the Mass of Palm Sunday. Note that we are invited to leave from Mass in silence as a sign of the fact that we are beginning the most solemn journey with Jesus through the holiest of weeks. Perhaps you would consider participating in daily Mass at 8:00AM on Monday or 6:30AM on Tuesday or Wednesday, so that you might continue walking with Jesus as He moves closer and closer to the Upper Room and Gethsemane.  On Tuesday, March 22 at 6:30PM in church our eighth grade students will present the “Living Stations.” They have been working so hard and they have done a fantastic job; you will not want to miss it! Wednesday, March 23 Stations of the Cross will be prayed at 6:30PM. Then, on Holy Thursday we will celebrate the Mass of the Lord’s Supper at 7:00 PM. Join us as we present the newly blessed sacramental oils, celebrate once again with Jesus the Last Supper, the First Mass, the institution of the Eucharist and of the Priesthood.  At the end of Mass the altar will be stripped, statues, etc. will be covered in black and we will process the Blessed Sacrament down Hanover Street and back into the Gathering Center to the Altar of Repose.  As the Triduum continues we will commemorate Christ’s passion and death with our Good Friday service at 3:00PM. This is an absolutely moving service which includes the most powerful ritual of the veneration of the Cross.  On Holy Saturday morning (8:00AM), we will pray morning prayer in the barren church. At 8:30AM you may bring your Easter food to church to be blessed. Then we wait with heartfelt expectation for the blessing of the Easter Fire at 7:19PM on the evening of Holy Saturday as we begin the Easter Vigil and celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus.  As you can see, this is indeed the holiest of weeks.  Do not miss it!

Caught in the Act (3/13/13)

They thought they had Him this time. Here was a woman caught in the act of adultery. The law demanded that she be stoned to death.  But what about Jesus’ message of mercy? Note how the Pharisees did not care at all about the woman or the sin. They only cared about putting an end to Him.  And this time they thought they had Him dead to rights. If He let her go, He was clearly breaking the Mosaic Law.  But if He did not let her go, then what about all of His talk about mercy and forgiveness?  They thought for sure there was no way out for Him. So what does Jesus do?  Well, basically He turned the law on them.  The law also called for two witnesses who were known to be free from any suspicion of wrong doing to make the official accusation.  They did not have two such witnesses.  Therefore there was no one to cast the first stone at her.  They could not fulfill the prescriptions of their own law so the woman was not condemned; she was off the hook on a technicality.  But what about the law-it called for death.  Where was the justice? The woman would not die for her sin but the story was not over.  Jesus knew that when He saved this woman’s life and let her go free that He had sealed His own fate.  He knew He had not seen the last of the Pharisees.  He knew that they would be back in force, especially after this latest humiliation and would not stop until He was gone.  He knew that because of His action He would most definitely die.  But He saved her life any way and upheld the Law by choosing to die in her place.  What He did for her, He does for us.  We commit sin, and because of our sin He dies and sets us free, urging us to sin no more. We might wonder about the woman in this story. Did she turn away from her sin? But really we should wonder about us. Will we ever turn away from ours?

On the Outside, Looking In (3/06/16)

We have all heard the story of the prodigal son countless times. I’ll bet that it’s probably one of the parables of which we are most familiar. That is good but, at the same time the fact that it is so familiar to us might prevent us from really listening to it and grasping the full meaning that Jesus and St. Luke are trying to get across to us. If you’re like me, there’s a chance that you might hear the first few words, and then your mind quickly identifies it and moves on because it’s already “been there and done that”.  The problem with this rapid subconscious process is that it could prevent us from either reaffirming an understanding that needs to be reaffirmed or coming to a realization of an insight that we did not see before or both.  I am constantly amazed, even after nearly 25 years of scripture study, that I still come to new insights all the time, even though to my knowledge the scriptures have not been changed for nearly 2,000 years. This pattern holds throughout the bible, and I find it to be particularly true of the more familiar passages, like the parable of the Prodigal Son, which are identified very quickly by our minds and kind of put to rest at the start, without allowing us to seek new insight or understanding.

So let’s begin by trying to look at the core message of this parable. However it needs to be made clear right at the outset, that it is impossible to discuss this parable completely in any one setting because it is so full of symbolism and has so many layers of meaning.  In order to understand this parable’s bottom-line lesson we have to ask what Jesus is saying to the scribes and Pharisees.  It is to them that this parable is addressed, and it is to their complaint and concern that He is responding.  We can trust that whatever He is saying to them He is also saying to us.  That’s another one of those little tricks that our subconscious minds can play on us.  We might hear the words, “Pharisees and scribes” and quickly think, “OK they are the bad guys, I don’t really have to worry too much about them,” and lose at least part of Jesus’ message to us. What I try to do is train my brain to remember all the time that when Jesus speaks to the scribes and Pharisees, He is speaking to us. We know about Toys-R-Us-well the scribes and Pharisees are us too.

The scribes and the Pharisees make the charge against Jesus that He “eats with sinners and welcomes them.”  It is this charge that prompts Jesus to tell them this story.  And what happens in the story? Well a man not only welcomed a sinner and ate with him, he threw a tremendous banquet in his honor, had the fatted calf killed for him, dressed the sinner in fine robes, put a ring on his finger and embraced and kissed him as soon as he saw him.  Of course the man who welcomed the sinner was the sinner’s father, and the sinful son had sinned against him in an unbelievable and unimaginable way. But not only did the father forgive him, he grieved, longed for, and searched for the lost son day and night and ran out to greet him when he saw him coming from a far off.  The father didn’t even let the son speak his sins. It was as if the Father didn’t even care that the son had sinned at all. All he cared about was that his son was back home and safe.

Jesus is saying to the scribes, the Pharisees, the older son and us:  My sons, and daughters you are here with me always; everything I have is yours. But we must celebrate and rejoice; each time that anyone confesses their sins because they are my children and your brothers and sisters. 

Jesus is saying that we are all invited to His heavenly banquet each and every day and that He so longs for us to join Him but the choice is ours.  There are two realities that keep us from joining the celebration.  The first is the inability or refusal to recognize and confess our own sinfulness.  The second is the inability or refusal to forgive.  These two realities usually go hand in hand.  The scribes, the Pharisees, and the older brother, either refused to or could not see their own sinfulness and refused to forgive their brothers and sisters even when they saw their father rejoicing in the opportunity to do just that.  To the extent that we behave in a similar way we will find ourselves just like the older brother at the end of the story: on the outside, looking in.

Lent, Third Sunday, Year "C", The Burning Bush and the Barren Fig Tree

My guess is that most of us remember Simba, the little lion cub who grows up to be the Lion King in the movie of the same name.  He had found a pretty good life for himself after the murder of his father and the violent takeover of his homeland by evil forces. He very much enjoyed frolicking around in the jungle with his new found friends Timone and Pumbaa, and all seemed to be good. But something was missing.  His homeland needed to be saved; his “people” needed to be set free. Unless he went back, his life would remain like that of the fig tree at the end of today’s Gospel; barren and fruitless.

I’m also pretty sure that we remember Jonah, who is one of my favorite biblical characters.  Jonah found peace in a rather strange place- the belly of a whale. But before we chuckle, we should take a moment to reflect on the rather odd places where we have either found or have attempted to find peace, albeit a peace that was at best only temporary.  You see Jonah had sinned against God.  God called him to preach repentance to the people of Ninevah, but he hopped onto the first boat going in the opposite direction instead. But then a great storm erupted, as storms do erupt when we try to run from God, and Jonah had himself, thrown overboard so that his shipmates might be saved.  That’s where the whale enters the scene and rescues him. Inside the whale, Jonah was basically able to go on retreat: he offered praise and thanksgiving to God and repented for his disobedience. He found a kind of peace, for a while.  But what about the Ninevites?  They were still there, and they still needed to be saved, they needed to be set free of their slavery to sin.  If his story ended here we would not be talking about Jonah, he would have been just like another barren fruitless fig tree.

And so we come to Moses.  Moses had found a kind of peace as well.  He had gotten himself into trouble back in Egypt because he murdered an Egyptian who had struck one of his people, an enslaved Israelite.  So he fled that land and found a home and solace tending the sheep of his father-in-law.  Isn’t that just a little bit ironic- I mean, Moses was indeed supposed to be tending sheep, just not the sheep of his father-in-law.  He was meant to tend to the Israelites, the sheep of his heavenly Father, who was indeed about to reveal Himself to him.  The Israelites, his Father’s sheep, his people, needed to be set free.  If Moses’ story ended here, not only would we not be talking about him today, we would not be here at all. He too would have remained as useless as a barren fruitless fig tree.

But we know that the stories of Simba, Jonah and Moses did not end where we have left them.  In the case of the soon-to-be Lion King, the messenger from his kingdom found him and called him back to fulfill his role and the kingdom was saved because of his positive response. After Jonah repented, the whale immediately spewed him out onto dry land and God once again called him to go to Nineveh.  This time he went and the Ninevites were saved.  And as for Moses, well he ran into this rather strange bush.  He noticed it not so much because it was on fire-as a shepherd he had seen many burning bushes before and probably had set many bushes on fire himself. Rows of bushes were often used as boundary lines to separate one flock of sheep from another, and were burned down at times when sheep needed to be moved to different pastures.  But this bush was different. It was burning, but it was not being consumed.  There probably was no smoke, no smell and no ashes. That’s what drew him to this bush.  Little did he know as he approached it that his life would be changed forever.  What did he find when he arrived at where the bush was?  Well, he found that he was on holy ground, that God, his God who calls himself “I AM,” not “I was,” or “I will be,”  was calling him back to the place from where he was fleeing, the very epicenter of his fear to set God’s people and his people free. Simba was called back to his kingdom, back to the place of his fear so that it could be set free. Jonah was sent back in the direction that he did not want to go so that the Ninevites could be set free. But Simba and Jonah are fictional characters.  Moses is for real. And so are we. We can be sure that God calls us to do pretty much exactly what He calls Moses and the barren fig tree to do: To bear fruit.

He calls us to face our fears, to conquer them, and thereby to fulfill the purpose for which we were created:  to set ourselves free and to become an agent of freedom for those around us. That is the fruit He wants us to bear.   And how do we do that?  For starters we can take a hint from the very name, “I am,” that He gives Himself.   We are called not to live in the past-the place of regret, resentment, grievance, sadness, bitterness and all forms of non-forgiveness or to live in the future-the place of unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worry and all forms of fear, but to live in the now, the present.

We are called to be here in the world now, to love now, to see things as they are now, to face our weaknesses now, to forgive now, to seek forgiveness now, to heal ourselves now, to help others to heal now, to carry our crosses now, to live with full awareness and consciousness now, to see the burning bushes that are all around us now.  That’s how we free ourselves, from slavery to sin, from our slavery to fear and help others to do the same. We need to realize the presence of God in the present and respond to that presence- whether it comes to us in the form of a messenger from our past, the voice of God coming through our hearts and souls, the amazing form of a burning but unconsumed bush or the manure that was placed around a barren fig tree. 

You see the difference between those who were either killed tragically by the falling tower in Siloam or the Galileans who were horribly and violently killed by Pontius Pilate and the fig tree and us at the end of the Gospel, is that, at least for the moment, we still live, we still stand.  Those people were cut down and no longer have a chance to repent or to bear fruit.  The fig tree still has a chance, and so do we.

In this Year of Mercy, we need to live in God’s healing presence now and bear fruit now.  We do not have the luxury of knowing if we will be cut down in an untimely manner or how or when we will be called from this life like the fig tree, our story will either end as barren and fruitless; or perhaps it is just about to begin.

"Lord, It's Hard to be Humble..." (2/21/16)

As we journey through this season of Lent, I think it is very important that we reflect on what I have come to see as perhaps the most important virtue of all.  I believe that it stands before and provides a foundation for all the others. It comes from the Latin word “humilitas,” which means “ground.”  We can say that one who lives by this virtue is well “grounded.”  The virtue that I am talking about is humility. Being humble is very hard for us even when we want to be and are trying to be humble, and let’s face it, there are lots of times that being humble is the last thing we want to try to be. We see humility as presenting weakness or a low or even negative opinion of ourselves. We see it as a sign that we have very little or no ambition and therefore not much hope of achieving or accomplishing much in our lives.  But that is not what it means at all. To be humble does not mean to see ourselves negatively, it means to see ourselves clearly, too see ourselves as God sees us and for us to see God as He truly is. In the brief moment of the Transfiguration that is exactly what happened. Peter, James and John saw Jesus clearly, exactly as God the Father saw Him. If we truly live by the virtue of humility, we would see ourselves and others as God sees them, as His children, as we and others truly are. The humble person does not lack ambition or leadership ability. Indeed studies have shown that the most successful leaders are those who practice true and sincere humility but who are able to channel their great strength and ambition onto their mission or those they are leading. Please pray for me as I strive to learn, apply and live this virtue. We need to learn to channel our strength and our ambition onto something greater than ourselves. One of the major lessons of God’s relationship with the Israelites is that without God, they were nothing and nowhere. That needs to be our starting point. We need to see humility as a starting point to success and as strength because that is what it is. Scripture clearly teaches that success with God rests on humility. He exalts the humble and scatters the proud. It grounds us in the reality that there is a God and that we are not Him, that everything that we achieve and everything that we are gifts from Him. It also teaches us the reality that we need others; that we are made for relationships. It helps us to be kind, merciful, forgiving, and compassionate. It might be hard to be humble, but it is much harder to exercise these other wonderful virtues if we are not humble first. Humility makes us attractive to others. Just ask yourselves, who is it easier for you to be with, someone who is humble or someone who is proud? Yet we find ourselves moving away from humility so very often! The humble person recognizes as Peter did that when we see ourselves and God and others clearly, it is indeed “…good for us to be here.” Let’s strive to get and stay there.  Remember, it is not that humble people think less of themselves. They just think of God and others more.

FIGHTING TEMPTATION...IS IT EVEN RELEVANT ANYMORE? (2/14/16)

Once again, on this First Sunday of Lent, we hear the story of Jesus being tempted in the desert. Of course, we know He knows that He won a dramatic victory over Satan and that His victory is meant to inspire our own victory over temptation. However, I can’t help wondering: does anyone ever fight temptation anymore?  I mean, really, does anyone see any value in such an arcane struggle in the present day?  Perhaps I am seeing the glass as half empty, but I do think I have valid reasons to be concerned. We are so affected by the modern culture that I even wonder if we recognize sin any more or the value of trying to stay away from sin – and that is the very reason that Jesus died on the cross! Have we actually gotten to the point where we no longer value trying to stay away from the very thing (sin) from which Jesus came to save us?  Honestly, I am very worried. It would take many books to analyze the negative effects that modern culture has on us, but I can at least mention what I call “the four big lies” by which we are tremendously affected, whether we can admit it or not.  The first lie, or fallacy, is that any action is perfectly acceptable as long as no one gets hurt. This is the old “victimless crime” theory. The problem with this is that there is no such thing. If we commit sin, no matter how “private” someone always gets hurt. It is not okay to hurt ourselves, or God, or anyone else and sin always hurts all three. The second lie is that it is psychologically harmful to deny ourselves of anything that we want-and really, if we want something, we need it; don’t we? Therefore, if I want something, I am hurting myself if I don’t act to get it. This kind of thinking is so pervasive that I actually know of multiple cases in which professional counselors tried to explain to the wives of their unfaithful clients, that they had to be unfaithful, or else they would be unhappy! The third lie is that human beings cannot overcome temptation. Therefore parents should supply their teen children with means of birth control, and provide them with “safe havens” to abuse alcohol because they would not be able to refrain from sex or beer, etc.  This kind of thinking denies young people of the human dignity to which they, believe it or not, want to be held. Last, but certainly not least is the lie that because we are living in modern times we need a whole new set of moral guidelines. Because things have changed so much and because we are have learned so much and have become “enlightened,” we simply can no longer abide by the antiquated values of the past. Therefore, no one can be expected to refrain from sex before marriage, and certainly we now realize that same sex marriage is to be regarded in the same way as traditional marriage.  What is amazing about this one is that, while we think we are so enlightened, we are not quite enlightened enough to realize that countless cultures bought this lie before us. And guess where they are now?  Well they are exactly where we will be if we also buy it-on the ash heap of history just like the Romans at the hands of the barbarians. You see, the bottom line is this:  there is good, there is evil, there is right there is wrong, and they are here to stay. And human beings are always tempted to sin. But Jesus gives us the means to victory. His lesson is that we don’t have to be slaves to sin. All that we have to do is struggle to resist temptation, and when we fall we turn to Him and keep on striving-and the victory is ours. The only question is does any of this matter to us anymore?

"Here I am Lord, Send Me" (2/07/16)

Those words from Isaiah haunt me till this very day.  I remember when I first felt the call to the priesthood.  I could not get the words of the hymn, “Here I am, Lord” out of my mind.  What I remember so clearly during that time was the sobering realization that I/we only have one shot at life.  We only get one life.  We need to make the very best of it– we need to get our vocation right.  We need to serve God in every aspect of our lives.  Some of you might be asking yourselves, as I often ask myself, “Am I good enough to serve God in the way that He wants me to serve Him?”  All three readings this week answer that question.  Isaiah was not good enough at first.  Then an angel touched Isaiah’s mouth with the ember from the fire.  He was made clean.  In the second reading, Paul reminds us that he started off by persecuting Christians.  He would round up men, women and children and bring them to the Jewish authorities in Jerusalem.  He watched and approved as an innocent and meek Stephen was stoned to death by a mob.  Paul was a spectator at the lynching, but he cheered on the mob and left excited to find the mob’s next victims.  But despite all this Jesus transformed Paul into an apostle.  “I am who I am,” St. Paul says, “through the Grace of God.”  In the Gospel, Peter wants Jesus to leave him because he is so aware of his own sin.  Jesus basically says, “No way.  I have work for you.  You will be catching men.”  And Jesus says to you and to me, “Stop hiding behind your human failures.  How dare you say that I cannot send you?  I am God. I have work for you to do.  I will cleanse you.  I will send you.”  I remember when I left home to go to the seminary, my pastor; the priest who inspired me said to me that the priesthood is the life.  I do believe that over the years I have come to a deeper understanding of what he meant when he spoke those words but I have also learned something else: when it comes right down to it the only life worth living is the life into which the Lord sends us.  Therefore, our response to Him should always be, “Here I am Lord, send me.”

Louie Knew (1/31/16)

Although it is very hard for me to believe this, it has been over 25 years ago now that I while as a seminarian on break can remember visiting with parishioners one Sunday after Mass at my home parish, Sacred Heart in Oxford PA.  As I was greeting many people whom I had not seen for a while, a young man of about 13 or 14 who I knew from the parish CYO came up to me to say “Hi”; I said “Louie, it’s great to see you, how are you?” He said “OK” in a less than an enthusiastic manner to which I responded, “Are you sure; is there something wrong?” “No,” he said, “it’s just that I have to go to CCD class.” (CCD is what we in Oxford used to call religious education classes for children who did not attend Catholic School). “That’s not so bad is it?” I asked. “I guess not,” he said,” except for the fact that they keep on talking about the same old things, things I already know all about.” “Oh,” I said, “can you give me an example of something that they keep on talking about of which you already know? “Love,” He said “you know, “Love.” Now, it is very true that I am not so sure that young Louie’s understanding of love would match that which is displayed in the words of St. Paul in our second reading which are as follows: “Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, it is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never fails.” However, it did show me that there was something very valuable that he did understand; there was a connection that he had made. He knew that Catholic education was all about, he at least had a sense that Catholic education always pointed to love.  As we celebrate the opening of Catholic Schools Week that is indeed a connection of which we need to be aware. All the wonderful learning that we experience in all of the different grade levels and all of the different subjects and activities is always about helping us to know, to understand, to experience and to share the love of God. That is what it always about. We learn about the truths of God’s universe so that we can better receive and share His love.  And this education does not stop. We never ever get to the point, even though Louie thought he done so, where we can say that we know all about love. And that is what makes our lives so adventurous and exciting. So, my young friend Louie does have a lesson that remains valid and valuable to each and every one of us to the present day and throughout eternity: Catholic Education is indeed always meant to be all about love. That’s what Louie knew.

"Rejoicing in the Lord Must Be Your Strength" (1/24/16)

What is your strength?  We all have strengths; they have been given to us by God. Do we know what they are?  I bet if you were asked what your weaknesses were, you would have an easier time identifying and listing them then you have identifying your strengths. But really folks, we should know our strengths at least as much as we know our weaknesses. Why?  Well not so that we can become proud and brag about them but so that we know that we have them at our disposal to help us overcome our weaknesses and so that we can put them at the Lord’s disposal in building up His Kingdom. And there is another reason, which we will come back to after looking at our scripture readings for a bit.  Our first reading gives us a snapshot of the story of Ezrah and Nehemiah. Their story in the scripture captures that part of the Jewish history from the end of the Babylonian Captivity to the restoration of Jerusalem, including the rebuilding of its walls.  Today’s reading describes the historic scene of the priest Ezra reading the sacred Law to the people for the first time in generations. Imagine the emotions that must have been present in the hearts of the faithful that were present there.  Now fast forward to the Gospel scene in which Jesus, still very much at the beginning of His public ministry unrolls the scroll of Isaiah and reads these words: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.” My guess is that the emotions of the people hearing these words of Jesus were very similar to those who heard Ezra reading the words of the Law hundreds of years before. Both were occasions that were marked by feelings of freedom, joy, heeling and restoration. Yet we are told that many were brought to tears as they heard the words of the Law being read Why- were they tears of joy? Perhaps, but maybe as people heard the words of the Law, they realized how much they feel short from it in living their lives. I bet there were the same kinds of tears in the synagogue when Jesus read those words from Isaiah as well. Those words reminded them that in their lives they experienced many imperfections, many weaknesses. They were enslaved, they were oppressed, they were afflicted. They needed to be healed, to be freed, to be restored. But Nehemiah and Jesus reminded them that despite their many weaknesses they were strong. And the same is true with us. We need to be able to see our strengths up against our weaknesses as we said before. But even more than that, we need to see our strengths, so that we can begin to see our greatest strength-who is the Lord Himself. And rejoicing in the Lord, must be our greatest strength.

Do Whatever He Tells You (1/17/16)

For me that has always been the primary lesson that we can learn from the story of the Wedding Feast of Cana, but there indeed many others. Today, I will focus on this one and four or maybe five or six others.  First, Jesus needs to be invited into our lives just like He was invited to the wedding feast. He would not have gone if He were not invited. He will not come into our lives, our minds, our hearts, or souls if we don’t invite Him in. He simply does not force Himself upon us. So, do we want Him in our lives? Do we invite Him in? How so? If we want to be open to miracles in our lives, it would be best if we do our best to clearly let Him know that we want Him to be part of them. Second, we should be sensitive to the needs of others. Mary’s sensitivity to the needs of others is the reason why this miracle happened. If she was oblivious Jesus would never have been called upon.  Our sensitivity to the needs of others creates the possibility for miracles to happen. Third, we need to bring our needs to Jesus. I bet there are a lot of needs that we have that perhaps we either aren’t aware of, or that we simply haven’t brought them to Him. Jesus is especially open to prayers that place the needs of others ahead of ourselves and, yes, He is particularly moved when His mother intercedes for us. Fourth, it is indeed when we obey His commands that miracles happen. I actually wonder if it isn’t our obedience to Him that is in fact the greatest miracle of all. Remember, scripture continually reminds us that the Lord looks for obedience much more than He looks for sacrifice. Fifth, we need to give Him something or do something that shows Him that we are cooperating with Him if we hope that He will provide a miracle for us. Remember the five loaves and two fish that the young boy brought to Jesus that fed over 5,000 people?  In this story, the people brought Him the six water jars that He transformed into approximately 900 bottles of wine! We must be active participants in the miracles we seek. We need to bring Him something, we need to act, we need to do something so that Jesus has “stuff” from us to perform the miracle. We can’t simply be a bystander, nor can we throw up our hands and say we don’t have anything to offer, we need to give Him what we have and show that we have a stake in what we are asking for. Jesus can do amazing things with just a little bit of faith but we have to show it to Him. Lastly, the wedding feast of Cana reminds us that our whole faith journey is about a union, indeed a wedding, between God and us that begins with us inviting Him into our lives, being sensitive to the needs of others, bringing our needs to Him, doing whatever He tells us and ends with us actively demonstrating our faith in Him.

MR. ROSE'S EPIPHANY (1-10-16)

Over 24 years ago I met a man named Mr. Rose who was a parishioner in the first parish to which I was assigned as a priest.  My guess was that he was about 45 years old but I never really knew for sure. I don’t think I ever learned his name until my second year in the parish but I had become familiar with his face almost as soon as I had arrived in the parish.  He came to Mass every Sunday and attended almost every parish activity by himself.  He sat in the middle of the center pew of the church, he wore one of two very similar looking suits every time I saw him, and although he was very polite I don’t know that I ever saw him engage any one in an actual conversation.  If I ever encountered him personally it was after Mass while I was greeting parishioners.  He would simply nod as he went by.  He was intriguing because of his almost complete silence, his persistent presence and the sadness that always seemed to emanate from him. I wondered if I was ever going to get to know him and his story; and then one day he called the parish office for an appointment and wanted to see me.  We met several times over the next few months.  He was a single man who worked at a grocery store. He explained that he had been feeling sad ever since his mother died and he did not know how to shake it. At first I told him that it was very normal to feel sad after losing a parent and that at the very least it would probably take a full year before things would begin to feel somewhat normal again.  But he explained that it had been several years and he still felt pretty much the same way.  I asked him how long it was since his mother had passed and he said that it was now well over 10 years ago.  I have to say that this was very surprising to me. Here was a middle aged man who had been talking to me as if his mother had died in the very recent past but now I realized that he had been in this state of malaise for over a decade and saw no way to ever change his life situation. It was as if the life he had lived had simply been dealt to him and that he had no control or even influence over it. He was an only child who had lived in the same house from the time he was born and was now living there by himself since his mother’s death. I saw, however, that he did want to rise above his sadness, and although, I did not know the answer, I hoped very much that I could help him. Then finally at one of our meetings I asked him the following question: “Mr. Rose,” I said, “have you ever done anything for any-one?’  He kind of looked a bit puzzled at first, as if he wondered what my question had to do with his situation, but after a bit of a pause he said that he really could not remember any time that he extended himself to anyone.  I explained to him that helping other people always tended to lift my spirits and I thought maybe it would help him as well. The rest, as they say is history.  Mr. Rose agreed to help out at a local soup kitchen and became a regular there. Eventually he became very involved in the parish, and especially in any service activities. He became much more socially outgoing and his spirits rose almost exponentially. He wrote to me a couple years after I had been transferred and thanked me for the time I had shared with him and that he had come to see my question as an “epiphany,” that literally brought him to new life.  You know what, folks?  I think Mr. Rose’s epiphany can be an epiphany for each of us.  If we ever feel like we are in a rut that we can’t get out of, there is nothing like asking ourselves what we can do for others to pick ourselves up.  Isn’t that what the three wise men did?  You know what else, folks? I think this principle works on a parish level as well.  I have decided that this year I am going to challenge us as a parish to be on the lookout for how we can extend ourselves beyond ourselves, beyond our neighborhood and beyond our parish. Over the next several weeks I will be presenting you with opportunities to help our parish to reach out to people across the globe, across the country, across the archdiocese and also in our parish and in our neighborhood.  In doing so, not only will we be impacting the lives of many others; we will be not only be lifting our spirits, we will, like Mr. Rose, be bringing ourselves to new life.  Please stay tuned.

THE MAGI RETURN TO THEIR COUNTRY BY ANOTHER WAY

1-03-16

I once heard a homily on the radio that was given by a Baptist preacher.  He was very enthusiastically speaking about the story of Jacob wrestling with the angel.  He was focusing on the verse in which it says that the angel knocked Jacob’s hip socket out of joint and because of that he would walk with a limp for the rest of his life.  His point was that, because of His encounter with the Lord, Jacob literally walked differently than he did before. He said that if anyone truly had an encounter with the Lord, than pretty much necessarily, they would walk in a different way after their encounter with the Lord than they did before.  He also said that this is something that could not be feigned or pretended.  He challenged his congregation to go ahead and try to change the way the walked. His point was that it was nearly impossible to do, unless we have truly been changed by the Lord. And so on this Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord we celebrate the fact that the Magi visited the infant Jesus as a sign that His birth was a gift to all people and not just the Israelites.  Indeed this is a wonderful message for all of us. But what strikes me is that they returned to their home country “by another way.”  They did not return home the same way that they came.  Their encounter with Jesus changed them. So what about us? We also bring ourselves to visit the infant Jesus. Perhaps like the Magi, we even bring Him gifts rather than simply looking for something for ourselves.  But are we going to leave Church the same way we came? Are we going to walk out in exactly the same way that we came in or are we going to return home “by another way.”  If we do not leave somehow differently, somehow changed, than when we came, than I think it is fair to question whether we had a true encounter with Christ. Of course, it does take to two to have an encounter-but you can count on this; Jesus is truly here. The only question is are we?

HOLY FAMILY SUNDAY (12-27-15)

Good morning everyone!  I ask that you allow me a moment to scan the congregation to make sure that none of my family members are here in church. I have been doing this for the last 20 years or so because of an incident that happened on Holy Family Sunday that to this day gives me pause.  On that day, as I stepped to the center aisle to begin preaching, this cute as a button two year old young lady came running down the aisle from her pew and stopped just about two pews short ofwhere I was standing and gave me kind of an “in your face but happy to see you kind of stare.”  Of course, I quickly realized that she was my niece Katie, who had brought herwhole family with her for a surprise visit.  I introduced her to the congregation, and I told her that I was very happy to see her and her dad (who is my brother) and her mom and her two brothers, but that now I was in a bit of a dilemma. You see my homily that day, the Feast of the Holy Family was largely based on talking about them!  Oh, what to do, what to do?  That’s why ever since then, I really don’t talk about my family that much on this day. Ever since then, I talk about your families-so here goes.  First of all, I must say that I do think it is fitting that the Church celebrates this feast on the first Sunday after Christmas, because undoubtedly we have been visiting with family members and by this time have probably just about had our fill of them.  Or in other words, this time of year does put our families, warts and all, in the spotlight, does it not?  For us Catholic Christians the starting point is that God the Father sent His own Son into the world to be part of a family. This, of course, has so many implications for us, but the starting point is that our family is our family and the family we are in is not just some random coincidence-it is part of God’s plan.  That is the simple truth. And as far as striving to have a simple Christmas goes: I’ll bet a lot of what you have been trying to do or simplify has to do with your families. I am sure that so much of what God wants us to accomplish this Christmas and throughout the year is about making progress and growing in our family relationships.  What He wants for all families is very simple, but it is not easy. But first of all, I think I can identify something that all of us want and hope for and not just for Christmas but for all year round. All of us want to be accepted for who we are; at some level all of us just want to get along.  Parents want their children to get along, employers want their staffs to get along, pastors want their parishioners to get along, etc. etc. No one wants to live in a war zone.  Actually, I think this might be why some of us are having trouble living simply, which actually means to live in hope.  Our expectations might be low or even non-existent because we know that our wives are going to annoy us, or that our husbands are going to let us down, or that our siblings are going to drive us crazy, or that our in-laws are going to do what they always do, and we won’t feel accepted because we can’t get along and our hope is smothered out.  Believe me, I get it. Well, if that’s you, I think St. Paul has something to say to you, and to all of us. In the first verse of the 15th chapter of Romans, St. Paul says that we who are strong should put up with the failings of the weak, not for the purpose of pleasing ourselves, but rather to build them up.  In other words he is saying that we need to accommodate the very people who are getting on our last nerve and let them have things their way.  Not only should we not insist on having things our way but we should even look for ways to allow them to have things their way. We should focus on ways to build them up, to accept them as Christ has accepted us. And we should do all this, why?  In verse 4 he says, so that we may have hope.  That’s right; when we accept other people as Christ accepts us, when we let them get their way, when we accommodate them, we receive hope. That is how it works.  That’s what Christ does with us; that’s how He wants it to be with us. We give acceptance; we receive hope. Try it; you just might like it.  Christ accepts us totally as we are, with all of our flaws, and then He says “Follow me.” Acceptance comes first, discipleship comes later.  We are all accepted by Christ as we are. We all have unconditional acceptance from Him and He expects us to give to others what He gives to us. And you know what, folks,  it’s a better way to live, it’s an easier way to live, it’s a more successful way to live, and it’s all about simply living in the hope God wants us to have.  So instead of trying to change all those crazy people God put around you; accept them, and you will have hope. By the way, I think I can say that I have learned something else. Acceptance not only leads to hope, it also paves the way to influence. We can influence others if we first accept them. So now let’s go back to Joseph who is at center stage as the simple miracle of Christmas continues to unfold. Here I would like to suggest that the crucial point of this passage goes along exactly with what we have been saying and we find it in the last line of last week’s Gospel: “When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home.”  Joseph accepted Mary as she was, including her incredibly unbelievable story.  His simple obedience helped to change the course of history. What if he did not receive her into his home? And this week he continues to accept the plan that God has for him and to do what it takes to protect his family. Because of his acceptance, he became the one who taught the Son of God to walk like a man. Talk about living simply!  Joseph did what he was supposed to do. So, maybe you find yourselves living in what you think is a very complex and dysfunctional family situation and believe there is no simple solution for you or your family. Well, here’s some advice for you, straight from St. Paul and St. Joseph: try simply accepting and forgiving the faults of those who Christ has given to you as He has accepted and forgiven you and maybe, just maybe you will see the path to the simplicity of the Lord, which is hope once again. Remember, the simplicity of Christmas is meant for all of us all year round and it comes to those who accept those who God has given them as they are.

A BABY CHANGES EVERYTHING! (12-25-15)

A baby does change everything, doesn’t it?  I have seen it many times. Being the 2nd of nine children I remember some of my younger brothers and sisters coming home as newborns. The house, the home, the family was never the same after the arrival of the newest little one. Not ever. From the moment they came on the scene they became the center of attention and affection, etc.  I’ve seen it several times with my brothers and sisters as they over the years have welcomed my 15 nieces and nephews into their homes. Indeed each of those new little ones immediately transformed their lives in the most dramatic fashion. All mothers and fathers can testify and witness to the radical changes they experienced in their lives and their very character as a result of the appearance of that new little human being, who cannot do anything for him or herself.  And that’s what we celebrate at Christmas- the coming of a new born baby.  But this baby is different than all other babies that we’ve been talking about so far. When a baby breaks into the world of a family, real change is inevitable; it can’t help but happen. The baby demands it. But what’s different about the Baby Jesus is that He doesn’t demand it. He invites us to enter in. He invites us to let Him in-to our hearts, our lives, our minds, our souls. That’s what Advent was about, preparing our lives to make room for the coming of the Lord.

We have brought ourselves to Church to celebrate the birth of this new baby, and that is indeed a wonderful thing.  The challenge for us is to take the baby with us and invite Him into our lives as if He is our own, or actually as if we are His, because we are. I think that many parents will agree that once our children came into our lives we developed into people that we would have never imagined that we could have become. Just imagine for a moment the people we might become if we truly invite the Christ child into our lives as we did with our own flesh and blood. Allowing Christ in our lives, through His invitation, will transform us in ways we cannot imagine. Let’s take the baby home with us. Merry Christmas to all of you!