I think it is pretty safe to say especially after hearing today’s Gospel that Jesus was not and is not a people pleaser. He did not come to earth so that He might tend to all our whims and fancies and to make sure that we always feel that we are being catered to perfectly. You might say, of course Father, we know that, but I would say that at least sometimes we don’t live like we know that is the case. Are we not at least somewhat taken aback every time we hear Jesus say that He has not come to bring peace on the earth, but division? He does not even consider the possibility of trying to please everyone, or any one, for that matter, because and, part of me hates to say this, that is not His goal. And besides, He knows that pleasing everyone is impossible. Actually, isn’t it true, that even if we only try to please one person we soon find out that all we have done is to create a monster who expects us to tend to them in perpetuity? What we forget is that Jesus did not come to earth and become one of us because He was just pleased as punch with how things were with the world and with us. He came for exactly the opposite reason. He came because He was not okay with how things were on earth. He came because things had to change, we had to change, and because He was going to be the agent of that change. He did not come to preserve the status quo; He came to topple it. He came to be a leader; You might say He came to be a Pastor. If we are going to be good leaders, and we are called to be such, we cannot allow ourselves to be paralyzed by the fear of rejection.  I know from experience, and I am not proud to say this that I sometimes fall into the trap of trying to please everyone, of trying to keep everyone happy. That is not what Jesus did and it is not a way to help people to grow closer to Christ. The fear of rejection leads so many leaders, and perhaps pastors especially, to compromise away from what could be to what is merely possible or to settle for how things already are, and you know what? People still complain. This might cause them;  it might cause us, to retreat from a position of leadership and to regret that we ever even tried.  We allow our fear of disappointing someone, of possibly offending some one of rendering us ineffective and irrelevant; afraid even to dream.  And that truly is tragic. What Jesus teaches all leaders and pastors is that we cannot focus on the few that we fear might leave but rather focus on the many that we might reach through our exercise of humble but bold leadership. I know one thing, and I need you folks to help me with this one, if you ever see me fall into the trap of becoming a timid people pleaser rather than a pastor who yearns to lead, then give me a warning, because if I do become like that, it is time for this pastor to be put out to pasture.

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AuthorCathy Remick

Our second reading for today, which reflects on the tremendous faith of Abraham (who is rightly called our Father in faith) reminds me of the song, “Sometimes by Step,” which was written and performed by the late Contemporary Christian Artist, Rich Mullins. It is indeed a wonderful song and is on youtube. The lyrics to the chorus and first verse are as follows:

 

Chorus:
Oh God, You are my God.  And I will ever praise You.  Oh God, You are my God.  And I will ever praise You.  I will seek You in the morning.  And I will learn to walk in Your ways. And step by step You'll lead me. And I will follow You all of my days.

 

First Verse:

Sometimes I think of Abraham.  How one star he saw had been lit for me.  He was a stranger in this land.  And I am that, no less than he.  And on this road to righteousness. Sometimes the climb can be so steep.  I may falter in my steps.  But never beyond Your reach(Chorus)

 

Imagine for a moment that you are Abraham, and that you are called by God (whom you had never heard of before) to leave everything that was familiar to you behind and to “go to a land that I will show you.”  How would you respond? Well, the fact of the matter is that in a very real way, we are all Abraham.  We are called to walk step by step with the Lord to a place that He will show us. And how do we do this? By faith- “the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.” Abraham realized that God is, even though he could not see Him, and answered His call, even though he did not hear Him. And, no less than he, we are called to do the same.

 

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AuthorCathy Remick

This might seem a little strange to some of you but the readings for today make me think of Disney’s movie, “The Lion King.”   There is a particular scene in the original production that has always been a point of reflection for me ever since I first saw it.  I will try to recreate it for you, and hopefully a good number of you will remember it.  I’m sure you will remember in the movie when young Simba has to flee the kingdom of his father and run for his life into the jungle.  Eventually he meets up with his soon-to-be new friends, Timone and Pumbaa, and at least for a while has a rollicking good time.  He was almost able to forget about his father’s death and the terrible evil forces that were controlling his homeland. Almost; but not quite. Right in the middle of his time of “Hakuna Matata,” the messenger from his father’s Kingdom, (Zazu, I believe) finds him and tells him how bad things have become and calls him to come back and fulfill his rightful role as the Lion King. At this point we have the scene of the nearly full grown Simbalooking into the oasis, and seeing his father’s face as his own reflection.  Simba realizes in this solemn moment that as much as he would love to stay and continue to enjoy the “good life” with his fun-loving friends, the only real life for him was to fulfill the mission for which he was born. In fact the “good life” was not really life at all but only an illusion-like the illusion spoken about in today’s first reading and by Jesus in the Gospel about the folly of spending so much time building up treasure for oneself on earth only to come to life’s end without ever being able to use it. We need to try to make sure that we are not living by such foolish values, especially because it is so easy for us today to get caught up in the illusion of living the good life. Ironically it is the one who spends himself hoarding earthly treasure who ends up with nothing. By the same token the only way that we can be sure that we can keep all that we have been blessed with on earth through all eternity is to give it away before it’s too late.

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AuthorCathy Remick

Many things about my father (may he rest in peace) used to drive me absolutely crazy.  One of those things was the way he prayed and forced us to pray.  Every night during May and October he would drag all eleven of us into the living room to pray the rosary, without ever really giving us a reason why.  It’s amazing how many of us would be asleep by the time we were finished.  And many, many times throughout the year he would force us to come together to pray for things that he thought we needed, but what really got the best of me was the way he would always begin the prayer.  He would always start out by saying, “Lord, if it be Your will, we ask that…,” and finish by saying, “...please give us what we need to accomplish Your will.”  To me that just did not make any sense.  Isn’t the whole point of prayer to ask God for what we want and need and not what He wants?  Why would we ask Him for His will to be done? Usually I didn’t say anything because I was a little bit afraid of him, but his manner of prayer did cause me to stew in frustration.  Then one day during the summer when I was about 12 years old I had enough and I had to say something.  He had called us together to pray for our crops (we were farmers).  He prayed as follows: “Lord, if it be your will, could you provide us with rain so that our corn might grow and sun so that our freshly cut hay might be dry for baling?”  To me that just did not make any sense.  He was asking for sun and rain at the same time for adjoining fields.  I got my nerve up and said, “Dad that does not make any sense!  You asked for it to rain and to be sunny at the very same time!” In response, he said something that I will never forget.  He said, “But son, that is exactly what we need.  We need rain for the corn and sun for the hay.  What would you have asked for?”  At that moment and to this day, I have no response and have learned a great lesson from his wisdom.  And you know what else?  When we pray the Our Father, we are basically praying in the same way that my father always prayed.  We are praying that God’s will may be done and that we may have what we need to accomplish His will.  My father was right again.  It’s still enough to drive me crazy...sometimes!

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AuthorCathy Remick

Jesus said to Martha, “Mary has chosen the better part, and it will not be taken from her.”  I am sure we can all relate to how Martha must have felt as she saw Mary relaxing with Jesus. We might think, at first glance, that Jesus’ response demonstrated a lack of appreciation for Martha’s legitimate efforts, but it would be good for us to look at this situation from Jesus’ perspective.  Martha indeed was presenting Him with a wonderful gift in preparing His meal for Him, but Mary was also presenting Him with a wonderful gift. She was listening to Him. Martha could have chosen to sit with Him and listen to Him as well, but she did not, and although Jesus was grateful to her, He was also grateful for the choice that Mary had made.  Imagine how Jesus must have felt after speaking to so many people so much of the time. He must have often wondered if any one ever really listened to Him or if any one ever truly understood what He was saying.  How often does it feel like, although we have to talk to a lot of people, we have truly been listened to?  And how do we feel when we have actually had the experience of truly being listened to?  I think that we would pretty much all agree that the experience of being listened to is one the most positive experiences that any one can ever have.  And so, here was Mary, listening to Jesus.  Of course, Jesus was not going to deny her of this opportunity. Nor was He going to deny Himself of the gift she was giving to Him. He probably needed to be listened to as much as He needed to have nourishment-and so do we, and so do the people we love, and the people who are around us.  Jesus needed someone to listen to Him, He needed Mary to listen to Him, He needs us to listen to Him and we need to listen to Him.  That is one of the main lessons of today’s Gospel: to listen to another human being is no small matter, it is a command of Jesus. To listen is to give a rare gift, to listen is to validate, to listen is to show someone that they matter, to listen is to show that we care, to listen is to heal, to listen is to love.

 

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AuthorCathy Remick

On April 3, 1968, the day before he was assassinated, Martin Luther King Jr. had the following words to say about the parable of the Good Samaritan:

 

“It is possible that these men (the priest and the levite) were afraid. You see, the Jericho road is a dangerous road. I remember when Mrs. King and I were first in Jerusalem. We rented a car and drove from Jerusalem down to Jericho. And as soon as we got on that road, I said to my wife, "I can see why Jesus used this as a setting for his parable." It's a winding, meandering road. It's really conducive for ambushing. You start out in Jerusalem, which is about 1200 miles, or rather 1200 feet above sea level. And by the time you get down to Jericho, fifteen or twenty minutes later, you're about 2200 feet below sea level. That's a dangerous road. In the days of Jesus it came to be known as the "Bloody Pass." And you know, it's possible that the priest and the Levite looked over that man on the ground and wondered if the robbers were still around. Or it's possible that they felt that the man on the ground was merely faking. And he was acting like he had been robbed and hurt, in order to seize them over there, lure them there for quick and easy seizure. And so the first question that the Levite asked was, "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?"

 

Certainly, that is the point that Jesus is trying to make in today’s Gospel. Being “neighbor” is not something that someone else is or is not; it is something that Jesus commands us to do.

 

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AuthorCathy Remick

There are many interesting points about our scriptural readings this week.  For one thing, the Gospel passage from Luke about the sending of the seventy-two disciples is unique to him. Mark and John do not include a similar story about the “sending out” of Jesus’ followers to proclaim the good news and Matthew’s Gospel speaks only about sending out the 12 Apostles.  Luke, however, describes both the sending out of the 12, which he does in Chapter 9, and the sending out of the “72” in Chapter 10, which we are reflecting upon today.  This is very significant, because one could say that what this means is that Luke is trying to say that not only priests (represented by the 12 Apostles) share in the work of evangelization, but that lay people do as well, because “the harvest is great, but the laborers are few.”  It also means that Luke is teaching that the good news is not only for the 12 tribes of Israel, again represented by the 12 Apostles, but for everyone-it was believed in Jesus’ time that there were 70 countries in the entire world. It is also interesting to understand that many of the instructions that Jesus gives them has to do with the fact that He was indeed sending them out “like lambs among wolves.”  In Jesus’ world the traveler’s life was literally in the hands of thieves and robbers and was totally dependent on the hospitality of those that they met. That’s why Jesus told them not to carry with them anything of value but to trust in the kindness of those in the towns they visited. The law of hospitality was taken vary seriously because it was literally a matter of survival, not just being polite as we think of it today. To violate this rule was to commit a most grievous sin. Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed because they failed to show hospitality to Abraham. It was so important to Jesus that He ordered His disciples to publicly “shake off from their feet” the dust of any towns that were inhospitable to them.  But even then, they were still to proclaim the good news while testifying against them.  As they were shaking the dust off their feet they were still to cry out that “the kingdom of heaven is at hand for you” whether those people wanted it or not.

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AuthorCathy Remick

That is an interesting question, isn’t it?  I ask it because the topic of plowing comes up in both the First Reading and the Gospel today, which is certainly very unusual. I, while I never considered myself to be a prolific plowman, have plowed a few fields in my day, so I feel like I can say a little something on the topic.  It is an activity which requires focus, yet which can be very relaxing as well. It takes a lot of time and patience. Plowing is not an end in itself, but it must be done before the planting can take place. No field can ever plow itself, nor can plowing ever be undone. A field cannot be “unplowed.” Once one field is plowed there are only two choices. One can either stop plowing altogether, or move on to another field. And by the way, plowing is real work.  Jesus shows us in today’s Gospel that He knows something about plowing as well.  He actually compares plowing to discipleship. Jesus says that if we are going to follow Him, our lives will change and we can never look back, we can only look forward. As Jesus says, and I know from experience, one never plows in a straight line if he/she keeps looking back over where the plow has just been, and it is so very tempting to do just that.  The only way to plow in a straight line is to keep one’s eyes focused in a forward direction. Likewise, the only way to be a disciple is to keep our eyes focused on Him. Jesus is not static, He keeps moving.  If we keep looking back to former ways of life we will lose sight of Him.  Becoming a true follower of Jesus is not a whimsical proposition. It is a serious choice which can only be made after much practical thought and much prayer.  And a little background in plowing just might help us in our discernment process.

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AuthorCathy Remick

Stress, the Saints, and the Eucharist:

 Forty Hours Devotions, St. Aloysius Parish

June 19-21, 2016

 

I first arrived as pastor of Saint Aloysius Parish on June 21, 2010, the feast day of Saint Aloysius.  I immediately noticed that the parish did nothing to celebrate its own feast day and also immediately decided that the week of the parish feast would be a week of celebration including Forty Hours Devotions and a Parish festival. I am very happy to say that this year will mark the sixth consecutive that the dream of the Pastor who arrived 6 years ago on the day of the parish feast has been made real.  This week’s Pastor’s Corner will serve as a bit of a “sneak preview” and promotion of our annual Forty Hours Devotions which begins this Sunday, June 19 and concludes on the evening of June 21, which is our parish feast day. The Blessed Sacrament will be exposed at the close of the noon Mass on Sunday until the Evening Prayer Service at 7PM, and then all day Monday and Tuesday as well. All of you are very much encouraged to try to spend some time in prayer in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament during this most special time. There is no better way for you to feel God’s love in your life. If you can commit to a half hour there are sign up sheets available in the Gathering Center. We would like to make sure that Jesus is not by Himself at any time. There will be Evening Prayer services each evening at 7PM. This year I will be preaching during these services. I have entitled my talks “Stress, the Saints and the Eucharist”.  Do you experience stress? Would you like to experience some relief from it? Do you think that maybe the Saints experienced stress and perhaps may have some insights as to how to overcome it?  Do you believe in the wonderful gift of the Eucharist? Do you think that it might hold a key for us to managing stress in our lives? Would you like to learn how we might benefit from the Eucharist in the same way that the saints did? If some of these questions piqued your curiosity even a little bit, then maybe these talks will be helpful to you. Please give yourselves a break and come out. At the close of the Tuesday evening prayer service, will process down Hanover Street to King Street and back with our statue of Saint Aloysius, a relic of Saint Aloysius and the Blessed Sacrament as wonderful witness of faith to our larger community. When we return to Church, the Blessed Sacrament will be reposed and we will enjoy light refreshment in our Gathering Center.  If you have been part of this wonderful celebration before, you know how uplifting it is. If you have not, this is the time to treat yourself and celebrate with us.

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AuthorCathy Remick

When I was teaching high school students, we would spend the first 5-10 minutes of class reading and discussing the Gospel that was proclaimed at the previous Sunday’s Masses. After our discussion, I would pose a question for my students’ reflection and ask them to write an answer in their copybooks. For today’s Gospel I asked them to talk about whether or not they would invite Jesus to come to their home for dinner?  Many of the students did in fact indicate that they either did not want Jesus to come to dinner or that they would at least have to think about it after hearing this Gospel. Why would that be, you might ask?  Well, Jesus did take Simon the Pharisee to task while He was at dinner with him, even though Simon had graciously invited Him for that purpose.  Jesus’ behavior was reminiscent of that of Nathan, who was David’s personal prophet. Nathan called out David for committing adultery with Bathsheba and for murdering her husband Uriah.  I wonder if David ever had any second thoughts about keeping a prophet of his very own after that happened?  In any event, I do think that perhaps even if we would still not think twice about having Jesus over for dinner, it would be wise if we did a little, or a lot, of spiritual house cleaning before we did so.  Jesus, like Nathan, will feel compelled to point out the ways in which our relationship with Him is not where it should be.  He will not waste whatever precious time we give Him on anything else. Of course it is true that whatever He tells us is for our own good and for our salvation; it will probably be a bit uncomfortable when He makes us aware of our shortcomings.  So what are we going to do?  Are we still going to invite Him into our homes and our hearts?  Be aware that it will probably be a little bit messy while we are with Him. And then do it any way.

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AuthorCathy Remick

The feast of Corpus Christi, which we celebrate today, reminds of a lesson I learned from a First Communion about 18 years ago.  It was a Sunday morning right after Mass; the day after he had received his First Communion.  During the Mass that day I had encouraged all First Communicants to come back to Church on Sunday in their First Communion attire to receive their “second” Communion and to allow the entire parish to celebrate with them.  I was very happy that many of them did indeed come back in all their finery.  Right after one of the Masses, as I was going to the sacristy, I saw one of the First Communicants, dressed in his white suit kneeling so reverently with hands prayerfully folded in front of the tabernacle.  It was such a wonderful sight to see that I stood and watched from a distance for a few minutes.  But, after a while, I went up to him, tapped him on the shoulder, and said, “Daniel it is so wonderful for me to see you, just after receiving your “second” communion praying to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament! You have made my day.”  He then looked up at me from the kneeler and with the simple, blunt honesty of a child said, “Yea, well, my Mom’s still back there talking, so I really don’t have anything better to do.”  Perhaps it might sound like a typical response that a child would give-but he was absolutely correct.  He taught me a lesson that I try not to ever forget.  He didn’t have anything better to do.  I don’t have anything better to do.  You don’t have anything better to do.  It is a lesson that we all need to learn, to believe and to put into practice: When we have the opportunity to pray before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament there simply is nothing better to do. 

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AuthorCathy Remick

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 a man (A) is in love with a woman (B) they seal the loving by producing a 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.

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AuthorCathy Remick

Well folks, I might as well come right out with 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 everything. 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.  Than 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 theUpper 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.

 

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AuthorCathy Remick

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.

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AuthorCathy Remick

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.

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AuthorCathy Remick

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.

Posted
AuthorCathy Remick

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.

 

Posted
AuthorCathy Remick

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.

Posted
AuthorCathy Remick

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.

Posted
AuthorCathy Remick

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!

Posted
AuthorCathy Remick