Reflection for the 3rd Sunday of Advent 2022

Ready to Rejoice?

“Go and tell John what you hear and see”

Thank you for joining as we continue in this time of expectation awaiting the Lord’s return.

Over the last two Sundays we considered the cognates of hope and peace. We learned that we are to live expectantly, as if the party is about to begin, like children on the night before Christmas.

We faithful have hope, confidence and surety in Christ Jesus Who delivers on all God’s promises. He gives us His grace, most especially here at Holy Mass, so we may live out His gospel way. 

Since we know what is to come, and are guaranteed delivery 100%, we are at peace regardless of what surrounds us. Jesus has baptized us in the Spirit, with a fire that burns away fear and anxiety, a fire that frees and releases us to everlasting peace.

Today we are called to rejoice; rejoice, the third Advent theme. We start in carefully distinguishing rejoicing and joy.

For us, joy is our state of existence, wherein we remain unaffected regardless of what is happening around us or even to us. We have joy because our eyes are fixed on Jesus, the deliverer of all God’s promises. Joy is not happiness or celebration. Instead, joy is the starting point for a life in which we rejoice.

Rejoicing – that is the expression, the emoting and exuberance flowing from our life of hope, peace, and joy. We rejoice in exultation. We have the best news ever and are shouting, cheering, dancing around, putting our joy out there for all to see. Rejoicing! Our celebration in Jesus gathered as His body and family. Rejoice today!

It may seem odd that joy and rejoicing are expressed in today’s gospel from prison – and a lousy prison where John was held. Consider several things about the tediousness of his existence. He is under that same roof as Herod and Herodias carrying on their immoral relationship. Herod enjoyed questioning and listening to John – so likely had him dragged up day after day as a sort of interesting entertainment – without any effectual change in Herod. Then, well back to the pit he lived in as a prisoner for a year and a half.

We can surmise that among others, John spoke of Jesus, thus Herod after Jesus’ arrest: â€¦for a long time he had been wanting to see Him. …he hoped to see Him perform a sign. Herod still unchanged and unprepared.

John’s heart burned to bring people to repentance. Here he is in seeming frustration, all the mendacity John faced, yet even in prison he looked to His joy, the expected One. He had joy in the promise. He then sent his disciples and got the facts: Jesus is the Messiah. With that news, even in prison, John rejoiced.

In Advent we are called back to a focus on our joy, to fix our hearts on Him and find in Him the exultant rejoicing. Celebrate with exultancy for our joy.

Bible Study for the 2nd Week of Advent 2022

This week’s memory verse: “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

John 16:33
  • 12/4 – Isaiah 26:3
  • 12/5 – Philippians 4:6
  • 12/6 – Colossians 3:15
  • 12/7 – 1 Peter 5:7
  • 12/8 – Psalm 4:8
  • 12/9 – 2 Thessalonians 3:16
  • 12/10 – Romans 8:6

Pray the week: Lord Jesus, place Your peace within me. Trusting in the hope that is mine, help me to brush aside anything that tries to draw me away from You.  Cleanse me of worry and anxiety. Amen.

Reflection for the 2nd Sunday of Advent 2022

Ready for peace?

“He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand. He will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn”

Thank you for joining as we continue in this time of expectation awaiting the Lord’s return.

Last Sunday we considered hope, the first Advent theme, acknowledging that our confidence and surety are in Christ Jesus Who delivers on all God’s promises, most particularly on the help that is ours so we may live out the gospel. We also reminded ourselves to ‘pencil in’ Jesus’ return every day so that we might be ready for that day when all of our hope is fulfilled.

The second standardized theme for this Sunday of Advent is that of peace.

If we have hope, we tend to also have its cognate which is peace. Think of it this way – if we are sure of what is to come, what is being delivered to us, how could we possibly be uneasy or not at peace?

In Isaiah we are painted a picture of perfect peace. Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid… The baby shall play by the cobra’s den, and the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair. There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain. 

All this vision and all its implications are about the coming of the Lord Jesus, for all in the Old Testament points to Him, the Gospels reveal Him fully, Acts preaches Him, the Epistles teach Him, and Revelation points to His return. Reaching Isaiah’s vision does not depend on us, we cannot achieve it, only the King of Peace, the Root of Jesse can, and we can share in His perfect peace, but only if we believe. 

God sent Jesus into the world to bring us a peace that is beyond all understanding. The Roman Caesars and governors, the Russian, Chinese, and North Korean communists, the Nazis, the Jihadists – not a one can understand why the earthly holds no fear for us. We know it is because those who have given their whole selves to Christ find peace that overcomes every kind of evil.

John comes, crying out in the desert, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” Often, it seems to us, that such a statement is accusatory. Who are you to tell me to repent? Our offense at the cry of the Prophet, of whom Jesus said there was no greater man born of woman, is an internal failure on our part. We must own up to what is wrong, those places we refuse to surrender to Jesus. 

That little reserve of ‘I am a rock, I am an island’ in us needs to be dashed on our Rock, the Prince of Peace. We need to let Him baptize us in the Spirit, with a fire that burns away fear and anxiety, a fire that frees and releases us to everlasting peace. In peace we rest in hope. In peace we see clearly what must be done and shared, and we acknowledge that no one and nothing can take it from us.

December 2022 Newsletter – Poor, Now Rich, Me

For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade

Through much of Advent we read from the Prophet Isaiah. In those readings we often hear a reference to the poor and how God will save the poor. Later in the Christmas season we will hear Jesus quote Isaiah 61:1 when He gets up to proclaim the Word and teach in the Synagogue: The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. We might think to ourselves, well isn’t Jesus just great with the poor! Think of how He helps them and causes us to exert our charity in helping the poor. He lays out all this stuff about us doing for the least of these, thus doing it for Him. That work for the poor helps us get to heaven. The Church, in the model of Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, established the Corporal Works of Mercy focused on the poor.

What we tend to miss in all this discussion of the poor is the fact that Jesus did not specifically come to address the economically poor. Remember, He told us: For you always have the poor with you. (Matthew 26:11). If He did not come to address the economically poor, then who did He come to help? The answer is simple enough, Me. Jesus came and gave His all for me. I started in a place that was very poor – my humanity – and Jesus took on my poorness, entered into my poverty – to raise me and many on high, up to the very heaven He came from. He sacrificed His life to make me rich, a co-heir with Him to all His Heavenly Father has.

As we walk through Advent and finally gaze on the representation of Jesus in the poverty of the stable, let us remember where we were before we came to faith in Jesus and how very rich we are now. Then let us act! Certainly, to act means to care for the economically poor as required of us by the gospel of Jesus, but also beyond that to lift up those who are what we were, poor without Christ Jesus. Let us use this new Church Year to invite them into the Kingdom, to share in the treasure we have, to be rich with us.

Welcome to our December 2022 Newsletter and the journey through Advent to the start of the Christmas season (all forty days of Christmas starting Christmas Day). As you can imagine, there is tons going on.

The OpÅ‚atki / Christmas Wafers and Advent Wreath are blessed. The Church’s youth are gathering the evening of December 2nd. We have our Seniorate Advent gathering and youth meeting on December 3rd. There is daily Holy Mass at Noon and Rorate Holy Masses every Wednesday of Advent at 7:30am. Join us for our Wigilia / Vigil Dinner on December 11th. Help us decorate (green the Church) on December 18th. We have a full schedule of Holy Masses for Christmas (the traditional three) including the Shepherd’s Holy Mass at Midnight – yes, a real Midnight Mass right here in Schenectady. Join in our giving efforts, enjoy a concert by the Thursday Musical Club, offer a Memory Cross in honor of someone you wish to remember this Christmas season, and join us in giving thanks for all who do so much on behalf of the parish. Above all, remember to keep centered on the Holy Eucharist.

All that and more in our December 2022 Newsletter.

Bible Study for the 1st Week of Advent 2022

This week’s memory verse: “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”

Isaiah 55:6-7
  • 11/27 – Romans 1:16
  • 11/28 – Ephesians 2:8-9
  • 11/29 – Revelation 14:6-7
  • 11/30 – John 14:6
  • 12/1 – John 8:24
  • 12/2 – 1 Corinthians 15:1-4
  • 12/3 – John 5:39-40

Pray the week: Lord Jesus, at the start of this new year of faith, place Your spirit of diligence and perseverance into me. Guide me in making gospel choices and living Your way for Your day is indeed at hand.  Amen.

Reflection for the 1st Sunday of Advent 2022

Ready for hope?

The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime.

Thank you for joining as we begin this new liturgical year, a time of expectation as we await the Lord’s return.

The sort of standardized theme for the First Sunday of Advent is that of hope. Of course, that causes us to pause and perhaps think about what hope means, where we might find it, and when we might add hope’s arrival to our calendars.

Put simply, hope is having confidence in God’s faithfulness, that He will complete what He has begun. It is also the surety that all God’s promises will be fulfilled – 100% delivered.

Well, that defines hope, and where we might find it – in Christ Jesus of course – but when will its fulfillment arrive, where should I pencil it in? That is the tough part, isn’t it?

St. Paul is reminding us that time is growing short, our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed; the night is advanced, the day is at hand. We can certainly agree, based on our life experience, that time does grow shorter by the day. Life is not stagnant nor is the time till Jesus’ return getting longer. But where to pencil it in?

Paul wasn’t making this all up. He is merely repeating the words of Jesus, the gospel of Jesus wherein Jesus says over and over: the Kingdom is at hand. We hear Jesus speak on this very subject in today’s gospel: “Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. So, you must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.” But where to pencil it in?

Brothers and sisters, Isaiah’s message is so very hopeful, the source of our theme. We love to hear those words about swords and spears being turned into tools of life. We enjoy getting to those few lines about peace and no more war. We like it so much that we miss our obligation, what it takes to get there: “Come, let us climb the LORD’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.”

So, we are called, at the start of the liturgical year, to refocus, re-commit, renew, and set to work in living out our faith. We must live up to our baptismal pledge. We must live as citizens of the Kingdom. The gospel path must be our daily walk. We must not sit on our hands, for our connection to hope is in how we live right now.

Our duty right now is the making of hard choices between the world’s way, society’s way, our own way, and God’s way. Only one of those ways leads to life, the rest to death.

God’s promise of help is ours so we may live out the gospel. Let us do it, and pencil in Christ’s return everyday living ready for Him.

Bible Study for the Last Week in Ordinary Time 2022

This week’s memory verse: And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever.

Isaiah 32:17
  • 11/20 – John 14:27
  • 11/21 – Romans 5:1
  • 11/22 – Colossians 3:15
  • 11/23 – Psalm 29:11
  • 11/24 – 1 Timothy 2:5
  • 11/25 – Isaiah 9:6
  • 11/26 – 1 Peter 3:18

Pray the week: Lord Jesus, grant that I may bow before You always for Your Kingship over me is one of salvation and peace.  Amen.

Reflection for the Solemnity of Christ the King 2022

The King of peace

Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He replied to him, “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

Thank you for joining as we testify to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, our King.

Some may remember, several Lents ago, we spent the entire season reflecting on the life and witness of Dismas – otherwise known as the “good thief” crucified alongside Jesus. His opposite number was Gesmas, the “impenitent thief.”

On this great Solemnity of Jesus Christ our King it would seem odd to read from the crucifixion narrative, this sad moment, a moment of disgrace, pain, suffering, and death. So, let’s explore the reason for that.

Throughout this year’s Liturgies we have read from the Gospel of St. Luke. This gospel is best thought of as Jesus’ travelogue. It begins with Zechari’ah and Elizabeth, her pregnancy with John, then to Mary, Joseph, the journey to Bethlehem, the infancy narrative and all else associated with Jesus’ birth – much focused on travel. Travel to Jerusalem for His Presentation. Travel to Jerusalem where Jesus stayed behind. Travel to the dessert for His fasting and temptation, to Galilee and His hometown of Nazareth where He was rejected. He traveled on to Caper’na-um where He was welcomed and urged to stay. Scripture recounts: And the people sought Him and came to Him, and would have kept Him from leaving them; but He said to them, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other cities also; for I was sent for this purpose.”

Jesus traveled throughout Judea preaching repentance and proclaiming the immanence of the Kingdom as He made His way to Jerusalem where He could carry out His Father’s will by His suffering, death, burial, and resurrection.

So here we are at the cross, with Dismas and Gesmas, the seeming end of the journey.

Now consider this too. Dismas and Gesmas walked the way of the cross with Jesus. The journey continued and along the way they saw people weep over Jesus, His mother’s presence, so many others to whom Jesus mattered. No one came out for them. They were abjectly alone and abandoned.

Finally, on the cross, all they had was each other. No one was even jeering them. In their experience of Jesus which was less than a day, they each reached a different conclusion. Gesmas resented everything and everyone, even himself, thus his attitude toward Jesus. Dismas rather saw peace in Jesus.

For Dismas, and for us, we see in this moment the true Kingship of Jesus, as St. Paul tells us: For in Him all the fullness was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile all things for Him, making peace by the blood of His cross. He is our King of reconciliation, justification, salvation, and thus peace. In this key moment on the journey the King offers Himself, His blood on the cross for us so we may journey with Him in peace forever. Praise our King forevermore!

Bible Study for the 33rd Week in Ordinary Time 2022

This week’s memory verse: “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.”

Matthew 24:36
  • 11/13 – Matthew 24:44
  • 11/14 – 2 Timothy 3:1-5
  • 11/15 – Matthew 24:42
  • 11/16 – 2 Peter 3:3-4
  • 11/17 – Revelation 22:20
  • 11/18 – Revelation 22:7
  • 11/19 – Revelation 21:4

Pray the week: Lord Jesus, grant that I may, be found proclaiming Your Holy Name and Kingdom the very minute Your return in glory.  Amen.

Reflection for the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time 2022

Our testimony

“Before all this happens, however, they will seize and persecute you, they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons, and they will have you led before kings and governors because of my name. It will lead to your giving testimony.”

Thank you for joining us this Sunday as we testify to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

After a long, nearly three-year journey across Israel and Samaria, preaching the gospel, proclaiming the kingdom, teaching the apostles and disciples, Jesus arrives in Jerusalem. He preaches in the temple precincts with the same message, these times tinged with the exigency of His coming arrest, suffering, death, and resurrection.

As Jesus teaches, people are commenting on the magnificence of the Temple. Indeed, it was the place to be, the place to meet God. We might speed by this comment about the way the Temple was adorned, but we should not set aside its overwhelming presence. Even from afar you could see it towering over Jerusalem. Its walls magnificent white with large gold plates. Sparking jewels and offerings on its walls. This – and it was still under construction. Indeed, it would not be completed until 63 A.D., seven years before it is destroyed completely by the Roman army.

Jesus tells of the Temple’s coming destruction. Now, when someone predicts something like this, especially involving something so magnificent and meaningful in the lives of the people who fill and journey to this holy city, we all want to know more, and the disciples take up our curiosity and ask: “Teacher, when will this happen?”

Certainly, our minds cannot help to think of what is to come. But, in the Gospels Jesus stresses something different no matter how much people persist in their inquiries about the end and His return.

In our own day there are those prophets of doom who say they represent Jesus (really only a shadow of Who Jesus is) and tell us the end is neigh. Our own flights of fancy go from Jesus’ return out of the rising sun in the East with trumpet blast and astride a white steed followed by all who had previously fallen asleep and the heavenly host of angels. Then we start thinking of ourselves, will I be a sheep or a goat?

Yes, there were those time I fed and clothed, visited, but then again, there were times I hoarded, fought, over-ate, and ignored. And we get a little worried – we should because it keeps us honest in our weekly confession. 

Jesus warns us today – do not get caught up in all that end-times stuff. If we truly are to be His disciples and Kingdom dwellers, then we have far more important work to do. There will be bad times; people will disappoint and betray us; storms, earthquakes, and other awful stuff will happen – and through it all, no matter what, we are to testify, to proclaim Jesus and His Kingdom because only His overwhelming presence matters, frees, and makes those who believe ever secure.