Three is Not A Crowd.

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

Sunday Readings here.

The practical lesson of the doctrine of the Trinity is that since we are made in the image and likeness of God, the more we understand God the more we understand ourselves. Therefore, the question for us to ask today is: What does the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity tell us about the kind of God we worship and what does this say about the kind of people we should be?

On this, I have two points to share with you. (1) God does not exist as a solitary individual but in a community of love and sharing. God is not a loner. This means that a Christian in search of Godliness (Matthew 5:48) must shun every tendency to isolationism. The ideal Christian spirituality is not that of flight from the world like that of certain Buddhist monastic traditions, where the quest for holiness means permanent withdrawal away from contact and involvement with people and society. 

(2)   Three is not a crowd. You remember the old saying “Two is company, three is a crowd.” The Trinity shows us that three is community, three is love at its best; three is not a crowd. Taking an example from the human condition we see that when  man A is in love with a woman B they seal the loving by producing baby C. Father, mother and child -- love when it is perfected becomes a trinity. 

We are made in God’s image and likeness. Just as God is God only in a Trinitarian relationship, so we can be fully human only in a relationship of three persons. The self needs to be in a horizontal relationship with others and a vertical relationship with God. In that way our life becomes Trinitarian like that of God. Then we discover that the so-called “I-and-I” principle of unbridled individualism which is acceptable in modern society leaves so much to be desired. The doctrine of the Blessed Trinity challenges us to adopt rather an I-and-God-and-neighbor principle. I am a Christian insofar as I live in a relationship of love with God and other people. May the grace of the Holy Trinity help us to banish all traces of self-centeredness in our lives and to live in love of God and of neighbor.

- Rev. Joseph Maloney, Pastor 

Pentecost: It’s Why I Believe

Sunday of Pentecost 

Sunday readings here.  

Well folks, I might as well come right out with it and finally say it, and maybe you have already figured it out, but I tend to be a rather skeptical person. I definitely would fall into the “trust but verify” category.   It is not my normal way to just accept things, especially those things that seem to defy reason and logic without at least some kind of serious scrutinizing on my part. 

In my late teens and young adulthood, which is probably at least somewhat typical, I did not know what I believed; I wasn't even sure if I believed in God. I questioned pretty much every thing. And I truly questioned the Resurrection; I was not impressed by the fact that the stone was rolled away or that Jesus’ body was not there.  I mean, really, if you were Mary Magdalen, would those circumstances have led you to conclude that Jesus was alive? I don’t think so.  Then we get into the eyewitness accounts, and while they do give more substance, I probably would still remain a doubting Thomas. I mean, after all, like Thomas thought, if the other apostles had seen the risen Jesus, then why did they stay locked in the Upper Room?  As a matter of fact, they stayed in that room until guess when?  Pentecost would be the answer. 

I have no doubt something really big and really special happened on that day. And whatever it was that did happen put their hearts on fire and allowed them to change the world and literally bring us to our pews today.  I have no other explanation for what happened after Pentecost, except that the apostles were literally transformed on that day.  It is pretty clear that they were going nowhere before Pentecost happened. But after Pentecost there was nowhere they didn’t go. Furthermore, it only makes sense that what they proclaimed was the truth and the inspired Word.  For me, Pentecost is what makes it all make sense. Just look at what didn’t happen before and what did happen after.  I challenge any one to come up with another explanation.  The long and the short of it is that because of Pentecost I believe, and it just might be why you believe as well.

- Rev. Joseph Maloney, Pastor 

When You Get Caught Between the Ascension and Pentecost

The Seventh Sunday of Easter 

Sunday readings here. 

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 the Spirit of Pentecost is right around the corner.

- Rev. Joseph Maloney, Pastor

Invited Into Eternity Part VI

The Sixth Sunday of Easter 

Sunday Readings here. 

On this Mother’s Day we arrive at the sixth and concluding week of our homiletic series entitled “Invited into Eternity”, which we began on Easter Sunday.  

The theme of this series is that God the Father, from the dawn of creation has not only been inviting us to an eternal life in Heaven with Him but that He has  done everything in His power to lure us, to coax us, and to entice into accepting His invitation and continues to do so to this very day. That’s why He never gave up on Adam and Eve. It’s why He saved the world after the great flood. It’s why He called Abraham and started the nation of Israel. It’s why He continually had mercy on them after their ongoing rejection of His love. It’s why He sent Jesus and it’s why Jesus suffered and died for us, pouring out every last drop of His precious blood and it’s why He raised Jesus from the dead. 

But His coaxing, His luring, His enticing didn’t stop there.  Even after Jesus, rose from the dead, humanity still did not understand and so Jesus came back to try finally once and for all to get them to understand.  That’s what the stories we’ve been hearing during this Easter season are all about. He appeared to Mary Magdalen. He appeared to the disciples on the road to Emmaus. He appeared to the Apostles while those disciples were explaining to them what they saw, and then He appeared to the Apostles again because Thomas wasn’t there when He appeared the first time.  Even after that the Apostles still headed back to their old livelihood of fishing and Jesus appeared yet again, this time with breakfast prepared for them on the beach.

But He is not just inviting into eternity, He is inviting us into eternity with Him. He is inviting us to a life of the very best kind.  We looked at the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd, and we said that just as the Shepherd leads his sheep to the very best kind of life they can have on earth, so Jesus leads us to the very best kind of life that we can have both here on earth and into eternity. 

Last week we discussed another image, the image of the vine and the branches which we said was yet another way of Jesus leading us into eternity; to a life of the very best kind.  Today, on this Mother’s Day, as we honor our Moms and bring our series to a conclusion, we hear, for me at least, what is one of the most beautiful verses of all of scripture: “All this I tell you that my joy may be yours and your joy may be complete.”  I know I often speak of scripture as among my favorites but this one truly is and I can demonstrate it as this is the verse I chose for my ordination card.

To me these words indeed confirm for us that everything Jesus says and does is so that we might be able to once and for all accept His invitation to an eternal life of the very best kind. But these words also give us pause to think of our Moms, don’t they? Isn’t that why she does and says everything that she does and says?  I know it certainly is true of my Mom and I also know that there were enough times because of me that she wasn’t always pretty in saying or doing it, but she was and is relentless in getting her message across.  One thing I know for sure, is that I will one day accept Jesus’ invitation to heaven because if I don’t she will kill me and I also know that I will in fact I will get into Heaven because there is no way that Jesus is ever going to say “no” to her.

- Rev. Joseph Maloney, Pastor 

Invited Into Eternity Part V

Fifth Week of Easter, 2015

May 3, 2015

Readings here. 

We are now into the Fifth week of our homiletic series entitled “Invited into Eternity”, which we began on Easter Sunday. 

The theme of this series is that God the Father, from the dawn of creation, has not only been inviting us to an eternal life in Heaven with Him, but that He has done everything in His power to lure us, to coax us, and to entice into accepting His invitation, and continues to do so to this very day. That’s why He never gave up on Adam and Eve. It’s why He saved the world after the great flood. It’s why He called Abraham and started the nation of Israel. It’s why He continually had mercy on them after their ongoing rejection of His love.  It’s why He sent Jesus and it’s why Jesus suffered and died for us, pouring out every last drop of His precious blood and it’s why He raised Jesus from the dead. 

But His coaxing, His luring, His enticing didn't stop there. Even after Jesus rose from the dead, humanity still did not understand, and so Jesus came back to try finally once and for all to get them to understand.  That’s what the stories we've been hearing during this Easter season are all about. He appeared to Mary Magdalen. He appeared to the disciples on the road to Emmaus. He appeared to the Apostles while those disciples were explaining to them what they saw, and then He appeared to the Apostles again because Thomas wasn't there when He appeared the first time.  Even after that the Apostles still headed back to their old livelihood of fishing and Jesus appeared yet again, this time with breakfast prepared for them on the beach. But He is not just inviting into eternity, He is inviting us into eternity with Him. He is inviting us to a life of the very best kind. 

Last week we looked at the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd, and we said that just as the Shepherd leads his sheep to the very best kind of life they can have on earth, so Jesus leads us to the very best kind of life that we can have both here on earth and into eternity.  This week, Jesus gives us another image. He says that His Father is the vine grower, He is the vine, and we are the branches.  This indeed is another way to invite us to an eternal life of the very best kind. 

He says “Remain in me as I remain in you…because without me you can do nothing.”  With Him there is love, joy, peace, gentleness, self-control and success.  What Jesus is doing here is not only inviting us to life of the best kind but He is telling us how to receive it and how to live it; by remaining with Him and by allowing Him to stay with us.  We must spend time with Him and His word every day of our lives with a goal of allowing Him to achieve a pervasive presence throughout our lives.  That’s how we achieve success- His success. That’s how we achieve peace and joy and contentment.  It’s how our hearts and minds are conformed to His and it is how His desires become the desires of our hearts. It is then that we can ask for whatever we want and it will be done for us, because our desires and His desires are one.  It is then that we will bear much fruit and glorify the Father. That is a life of the very best kind and we are invited to live it from here through eternity.

- Rev. Joseph Maloney, Pastor 

Invited Into Eternity - Part IV

Sunday readings here. 

We are now into the fourth week of our homiletic series entitled “Invited into Eternity”, which we began on Easter Sunday.  The theme of this series is that God the Father, from the dawn of creation has not only been inviting us to an eternal life in Heaven with Him but that He has done everything in His power to lure us, to coax us, and to entice us into accepting His invitation and continues to do so to this very day. That’s why He never gave up on Adam and Eve. It’s why He saved the world after the great flood. It’s why He called Abraham and started the nation of Israel. It’s why He continually had mercy on them after their ongoing rejection of His love. It’s why He sent Jesus and it’s why Jesus suffered and died for us, pouring out every last drop of His precious blood and it’s why He raised Jesus from the dead. 

But His coaxing, His luring, His enticing didn’t stop there. Even after Jesus rose from the dead, humanity still did not understand, and so Jesus came back to try finally once and for all to get them to understand.  That’s what the stories we’ve been hearing during this Easter season are all about.

He appeared to Mary Magdalen. He appeared to the disciples on the road to Emmaus. He appeared to the Apostles while those disciples were explaining to them what they saw, and then He appeared to the Apostles again because Thomas wasn’t there when He appeared the first time.  Even after that the Apostles still headed back to their old livelihood of fishing, and Jesus appeared yet again, this time with breakfast prepared for them on the beach. But He is not just inviting us into eternity, He is inviting us into eternity with Him.

He is inviting us to a life of the very best kind.  Now at this point there are two very obvious questions in my mind.  Why does God do all this for us; why are we so important to Him; why does He put up with us?  The second question is the flip side:  Why don’t we just with absolutely positively with grateful hearts and open arms accept His invitation? I mean really, wouldn’t you think that if we were invited to live life of the very best kind we would sign up immediately? But we don’t. I think we can find one possible explanation in our Gospel today.

Of course we know that Jesus in this Gospel depicts Himself as the Good Shepherd who does what; who lays down His life for the sheep so that they might have life of the very best kind. But the problem for us might be that this means we need to see ourselves as sheep and we just might have a problem with that.  I remember once in High School I gave a homily about the sheep and the goats, and a teacher came up to me and said something like, “Well Father, your homily would have worked quite well, accept that I am not a dumb sheep.”  You know what? I think that teacher’s statement pretty well sums it up.  If we are going to able to accept Jesus’s invitation to an eternal life of the very best kind, we need to be able to see ourselves as sheep in relation to Jesus the Good Shepherd.  Actually, we need to be humble enough to be as smart as sheep who both can recognize who they are and who their shepherd is. And then maybe we can accept God’s invitation to an eternity with Him which is indeed the very best kind of life for us.

- Rev. Joseph Maloney, Pastor 

Invited Into Eternity - Part III

Sunday Readings here.

On this third week of Easter we continue with the third installment of our homiletic series which we are calling “Invited into Eternity”.

The basic point of this series is that ever since the creation of the first human beings, the Father has been doing everything He can do to coax us into a positive response to His invitation for us to spend eternity with Him; to enjoy a life of the very best kind. As we know, He went so far as to sending His only son to die for us so that the gates of Heaven could be unlocked for us. And that is what He does: He coaxes, He lures us, He entices us; He woos us.

The readings for today bear this out very well. In the first reading, St. Peter speaks to the people about their terrible sin of cooperating in the death of Jesus, but instead of condemning them, he urges them to repent and be converted so that their sins might be wiped away. In the second reading, St. Paul says that if we sin, Jesus Christ is our Advocate with the Father. In our Gospel, Jesus Himself appears in the flesh to the two disciples on their way to Emmaus so that He might invite them to life with Him and the Father. He opened their minds to the understanding of the Scriptures and invited them to life of the very best kind. He told them, “You are witnesses of these things.” That’s what eternal life with God is all about: witnessing to Him and being incredulous for sheer joy in doing so.

No matter what we are doing, no matter who we are, no matter where we are, we are being invited into eternity by the Father; to accept is to begin living, at that very moment, a life of the very best kind. 

- Rev. Joseph Maloney, Pastor 

Invited Into Eternity - Part II

Invited Into Eternity – Week 2

Sunday Readings: here. 

Today, on this last day within the Octave of Easter, we continue with the second week of our series entitled “Invited into Eternity.”

As we began this series last week we said that all of salvation history, from the creation of the first human beings to the resurrection of Christ, was about inviting us to live with the Father through all eternity. The Father does everything He does, even sending His only Son to us, so that we might accept His invitation to eternal life with Him. Likewise, the Son endured all that He endured so that we might respond positively to the Father’s eternal invitation. The Father and the Son stop at nothing so that we might be coaxed into accepting eternity with Him. Yes, that’s what I said: the Father coaxes us; the Son coaxes us.

We have this idea that we are striving throughout our lives to jump through these impossible hoops that the Lord gives us and that all we can do is to hope against hope that our all-out effort will merit us a merciful judgment from the Lord. However, I don’t think that’s how the Lord sees it at all.

In the story of the Prodigal Son, the Father tells the elder son that everything he has is his and begs him to come into the party. Jesus died on the cross to open the gates of Heaven for us so that we can enter into the heavenly celebration. Now, what exactly do we do for Him? He invites us to a life of the very best kind: eternal life with Him.

Our readings today give us an example of the life to which He is inviting us:

The Acts of the Apostles say this: The community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common. With great power the apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great favor was accorded them all. There was no needy person among them, for those who owned property or houses would sell them, bring the proceeds of the sale, and put them at the feet of the apostles, and they were distributed to each according to need (Acts 4:32-35).

It might be a rude awakening for us, but I think it is safe to say that in heaven there is no private property, there are no locked doors, and that no one is in need. This is the life to which we are invited, a life in which we bear powerful witness to the Lord and bask in His great favor. And we do not have to wait to accept His invitation; we can accept it now, we can live it now, we can live in His great favor now. The next step for us is to believe in Him, and that’s what the remaining readings are about.

In the second reading, St. John says that everyone who believes is begotten by God, loves the Father, obeys the commandments – which are not burdensome – and conquers the world (1 Jn 5: 1-6). And then, of course, we come to today’s Gospel in which we hear the story of doubting Thomas, who represents all of us. Jesus says to Him and us, “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed,” (Jn 20: 19-31) The Father’s invitation to eternal life is an invitation to belief; it is an invitation for us to literally conquer the world, to be free of and from locked doors, to live in great favor as beloved children of God. It is an invitation to a life of the very best kind.

-          Rev. Joseph Maloney, Pastor