Reflection for the 14th Ordinary Sunday 2024

They said, “Where did this man get all this? What kind of wisdom has been given him? What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands!” And they took offense at Him.

Today we encounter Jesus getting a lot of push back. His hometown people hated Him. Jesus was so offensive to them that they revolted. The text of our Opening Hymn came to life:  Ah! sinful nation, people laden with wickedness, evil race, corrupt children! They have forsaken the Lord, spurned the Holy One of Israel, apostatized. If you abandon Him, He will abandon you.

And, that is what Jesus did, He left them because of their lack of faith and trust. It was beyond His power to move their hearts because they refused His grace, they rejected the love of God and God’s gifts placed before them.

This experience of Jesus is much like our own, isn’t it? His experience tells us something about ourselves and what we can do in the face of push back. It is Jesus’ revelation of our likeness to Him and a call to His service even when we are faced with challenges.

We have many gifts. We are not really different from Jesus because we share in His gifts and in our ability to use them for the Kingdom. He calls us to grow our gifts through faith, trust, and confidence in Him and He lets us know that if we are part of His life, if we are with and in Him, He has us, is with us, and in us.

Jesus knows all the gifts we have. God, through the Holy Spirit, fills each of us with the gifts He wants us to have, those that will best build His Kingdom. God’s gifts are never pointless. Some gifts we hold in common; some are unique to each of us. Some of the gifts we have are fully present in us right now and others will emerge in the future, in God’s time and according to His plan.

For our part we must be open to using the gifts God has given us for His glory and praise. We must do that in practical ways that build His Kingdom.

Some of those practical ways are giving God the credit for the gifts people see in us, our talents and intellect, our smile and joy, our seriousness and concern, our charity and compassion. We are to call people into the Kingdom and bring them into the Church. We are to show them the way to life by our witness to our friends, parents, and relatives. We are to accept Jesus and all the gifts He offers. We are to let people know we said yes to Jesus, yes to His grace.

Like Jesus, we will get ignored, people will push back. It is not that they do not see our gifts, but their sin corrupts their view of the gifts we offer and Who and what we work for. That push back doesn’t really matter because in the end, like Jesus, we will have victory! In the end the Kingdom will be built through our gifts.

Reflection for the 13th Ordinary Sunday 2024

People from the synagogue official’s house arrived and said, “Your daughter has died; why trouble the teacher any longer?” Disregarding the message that was reported, Jesus said to the synagogue official, “Do not be afraid; just have faith.”

Today we encounter Jesus doing some tough problem solving that is completely consistent with the statement in the Book of Wisdom: God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living.

In the Old Testament, Wisdom is personified as a woman, or the female face of God. The female imagery of Wisdom personifies God’s creative counsel and purpose, as well as God’s presence and active involvement in the world as its builder and the lover of our souls. She personifies the gift given to us by God for guidance in obeying His commands and responding to His calling. Lady-Wisdom, then, represents wisdom itself, in all its forms and manifestations. However, wisdom was never understood to be a goddess or a divine being independent of the one and only God. Neither is “Wisdom” ever used in Scripture as a substitute or alternative name for God.

Wisdom can be alluded to as Israel’s homemaker – the one who cares for the people and sees to their need, the builder of family life. 

She is the counselor. With patience and care she teaches the values of justice, well-being, and life. She offers the opportunity of salvation to those who listen to her counsel.

Finally, she is lover, a personification of the intimacy God desires to have with us. God’s love is an intimacy marked by faithfulness, fidelity, and truth. God stand before us constantly offering love, but never forcing us to accept it. Indeed, only the wise accept His love.

See how Jesus fulfills these aspects of His Godhead. He lets us know that He has come to draw us into intimacy. We see in today’s encounters that sickness, doubt, a lack of understanding and trust, and even death will not get in the way of Jesus’ reaching us. He removes those evils.

Throughout this passage Jesus counsels those He encountered, as well as us, in God’s way of doing things. Jesus protects the family and the home, that is the community of believers. He loves abundantly and draws us into an intimacy that gives life.

Jesus came to destroy death, break the chains that bound us, and reveal the fulness of the Father. In accord with God’s plan death and destruction has no place with Him. Let us be wise then in following His wisdom way.

Reflection for the 12th Ordinary Sunday 2024

The wind ceased and there was great calm. Then he asked them, “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?”

Last week we heard Jesus’ parable of the seed and the grower. We spoke about God’s imperative, that is the thing He has made vitally important and crucial and that He authoritatively commands, i.e., that we grow. We have work to do in this green season. Growth in our likeness to God and in His Kingdom is dependent on us. The seed planted in us must yield fruit.

Today we encounter one of those moments in the disciples’ journey with Jesus that has a lot packed into it. There is of course the display of Jesus’ power and authority over all creation – a teaching moment for the disciples. We see Jesus demonstrating His care for those He loves. There are themes of trust and faith. There is a recalling of the Ark tossed about in the storm, but now with God fully present and buoying the ship. It is no longer the Ark of Noah, but that of God in which we are all contained.

St. Paul goes further to remind us that we are a new creation in Christ Jesus and the way we regard, i.e., how we view and treat each other must be changed. Our way of life together is no longer about what one can do for the other, what one has, or how one looks, but completely about our likenesses to Jesus. We are all in the Ark of God, thus the way we view and treat each other reflects the way we view and treat Jesus.

This event in the boat, or the new Ark, is not a one-off isolated thing. It literally follows what we heard last week, where we ended on Mark 4:34. He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything. Mark 4:35 began, as we just heard, On that day. 

Jesus went right from a long discourse about discipleship, being light to the world, and growth to this nighttime journey.

We all have nighttime journeys, maybe in the past, now, or in the future. Let us ask God today for clarity when we encounter those journeys. Let us not just stop at ‘help me Jesus,’ but search deeper.

In my nighttime journeys do I perceive Jesus calmly at rest in the midst of it and from that gain confidence? We should. We should also recognize His power to overcome for us, not just ‘get us out of it,’ but to conquer. 

The storm is a call to growth in more than our own faith and trust, but also in our perception of the Ark we are in and who we are with. Growth requires our vision change. 

Reflection for the 11th Ordinary Sunday 2024

“This is how it is with the kingdom of God”

Today we re-enter Ordinary Time and the wearing of the Green. We had six weeks of Rose and Purple, ten weeks of White, and a brief week of Red.

Driving out to the Seminary and the Men’s Retreat was so refreshing. The land alive with growth, and on beautiful green display.

Holy Church uses green to convey a call to growth in our Kingdom citizenship. Not only that, it dedicates the majority of the weeks of the year, twenty-five in all in our Church, to growing.

In a beautiful way the call to growth is made imperative in today’s readings and gospel. Let’s look at that call.

In our first reading Ezekiel proclaims God’s promises of hope. He will restore Israel and plant it securely to grow and prosper. What had been broken and withered, reduced to nothing, will live again.

God likens Israel to the tender shoot from the top of the Cedar. We may not necessarily find cedars around us, but almost all types of evergreens put out tender shoots. Even the prickliest ones produce bright green, soft, fragrant shoots.

In Ezekiel, God does as He promises. The imperative things, that is the vitally important and crucial things authoritatively commanded, God Himself carries out. Israel had no power to restore itself, no army or political power. Israel is ‘new.’ So, out of His tremendous love and forgiveness, He will re-establish them. The imperative is from God and done by God.

Jesus Who came to usher in the Kingdom changes things up for us. Using nature and growth we see a different imperative. The focus is now on us.

God has scattered the seed – what we covered in the past few weeks – His sacraments and the depth of His Word given us, He has implanted in us by Jesus and has given us a place to dwell, His Holy Church, symbolized by the mustard bush the largest of plants with large branches, where the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.

As Jesus states: Of its own accord the land yields fruit. The imperative remains from God but now it must be done by us. Growth in ourselves and in the Kingdom is dependent on us. We must yield fruit.

So, we are to grow ourselves: our sanctification growth into the image of God filled with complete self-giving love. We are to evangelize, to draw people into the Kingdom. It is imperative!

Reflection for the Solemnity of the Word of God 2024

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and without Him not one thing came into being. 

Two weeks ago, we began considering the word mystery and the fact that we are now in a short transitional season between the fifty days of Easter and the start of ‘Ordinary Time’ next week.

We have already considered the mysteries of the Holy Trinity and the Body and Blood of Jesus. Today we consider the mystery of the Word whose Solemnity our Holy Church has instituted.

All these mysteries flow out of Pentecost which is their lynchpin. The power of the Holy Spirit and His gifts are given to us so we may better appreciate and draw grace from our contemplation and celebration of the mysteries of God’s Being, Feeding, and Word.

We are so privileged, for our Holy Church is the only one that believes and teaches that the Word of God proclaimed and taught has sacramental effect in our lives.

Many of us likely have a vague recollection of what sacramental effect is. It has been a while since catechism class. So, a little refresher.

A sacrament is an outward and visible sign of God’s inward and spiritual grace, instituted by Christ for our sanctification and salvation. Sacraments give sanctifying grace, and each gives a special sacramental grace through the merits of Jesus Christ Who instituted them.

Catechism of the PNCC 280, 283, 284.

That is a beautiful definition, and it covers a lot, but to make it more accessible let’s consider sacraments this way: God has great love for us and His love is so powerful that it changes us in the most remarkable and essential of ways. It causes us to grow into the image of His beloved Son Jesus and to become those who, when they appear before Him, are embraced just as the Father embraces His Son Jesus.

So, God has this love, but it must be transmitted, we need an infusion of His love, and it must occur in real, recognizable ways. Think of the sacraments as food for eternal life. We need to receive this food so to be filled and satisfied.

God’s Word Who is Jesus filled the world with all goodness at creation. His Word filled the people of Israel on their journeys, and His Word fills us today for through the Word people learn and grow, we are fed, filled and are enabled to confidently approach the throne of grace.

Reflection for Sunday in the Octave of Corpus Christi 2024

“Take it; this is My body.” “This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many.”

Moses anointed the people with the blood of bulls as a sign of the covenant between them and God. As the Letter to the Hebrews tells us, we have something so much better now, not cleansing or agreement through the blood of goats and bulls, but through the Body and Blood of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

We began last week considering the word mystery and the fact that we are now in a short transitional season between the fifty days of Easter and the start of ‘Ordinary Time’ two weeks from now.

In this time, we contemplate the mysteries God has revealed to us in His word, by the revelation, work and teaching of Jesus, and by the teaching of the Apostles and Fathers.

Last week we focused on the mysteries of the Holy Trinity. Today we continue in consideration of the mystery of the Body and Blood of Jesus which began Thursday and is so important it is celebrated and contemplated for an Octave, eight days. Next Sunday we consider the mystery of the Word whose Solemnity our Holy Church has instituted and requires to be celebrated on the third Sunday after Pentecost. No, next Sunday is not an Ordinary Sunday.

All these mysteries flow out of Pentecost which is their lynchpin. The power of the Holy Spirit and His gifts are given to us so we may better appreciate and draw grace from our contemplation and celebration of God’s mysteries of God’s Being, feeding, and Word.

It is so important that we be very careful in our consideration of the mystery of Jesus’ Body and Blood. We are not called to philosophically explain it, only to believe.

We are very privileged within our Holy Church because we have continually taught and lived the reality of what we receive. The dignity of the sacrament and how it is handled indicate that this is not some ordinary thing. Unfortunately, in some Churches they have thrown that all out. It is why more than a third of their churchgoers no longer believe that they receive Jesus’ true Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. What a sad life bowing to bread and wine and thinking there is nothing there. 

If we do not believe, then there is no encounter with Jesus’ eternity during the Canon, we are not pulled into heaven with Him. We kneel to nothing. We receive nothing. We leave with nothing in us.  

Jesus gave us this mystery and gift so that we might be continually connected to His wholeness and He to us. This is what we believe. What an amazing and wonderful gift.

Reflection for Trinity Sunday 2024

This is why you must now know, and fix in your heart, that the LORD is God in the heavens above and on earth below, and that there is no other.

St. Paul told the Church of Rome; we are all children of God and because of our adoption also joint heirs with Christ. So, I welcome you my dear brothers and sisters.

That welcome is not just a trite saying, something pastors ‘start off with.’ Rather it is a statement of fact and part of the great mystery into which we entered at baptism.

The word mystery is key for this short transitional season between the fifty days of Easter and the start of ‘Ordinary Time’ four weeks from now.

In this time, we will contemplate the mysteries God has revealed to us in His word, by the revelation, work, and teaching of Jesus, and by the teaching of the Apostles and Fathers.

In these weeks we will focus on the mysteries of the Holy Trinity, celebrated today, the Body and Blood of Jesus celebrated this Thursday and throughout its Octave, and the mystery of the Word whose Solemnity our Holy Church has instituted for the third Sunday after Pentecost.

Pentecost is the lynchpin for these mysteries. The power of the Holy Spirit and His gifts are given to us so we may better appreciate and draw grace from our contemplation and celebration of God’s mysteries.

Over these three weeks we have an opportunity to revel in God’s mysteries. The word revel calls to mind a celebration, a loud, noisy party with great merry making, enjoying our life together. And so, we should celebrate God’s great mysteries.

What we celebrate is this – that we do not have to figure it out. I like that, no homework. 

We are not called to explain God’s mysteries but celebrate what has been revealed to us of God’s very nature.

The revelation of God’s identity as Father, Son, and Spirit – three persons in One God – is shown throughout the gospels from the Baptism at the Jordan to the Ascension. Jesus’ identity of God is self-revealed for He is “I Am.” The Holy Spirit has inspired the Church to fight back against numerous heresies with Creeds that state plainly what we believe of God’s identity.

What we celebrate is the fact that God loves us so much, so very much, that He allows us to know Him. My God is intimately my God because I know Him as He is and I know His desire to be with me.

Reflection for the Solemnity of Pentecost 2024

When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.

A blessed Pentecost to all of you!

Fifty days ago, we celebrated Jesus’ Resurrection from the dead. Ten days ago, we celebrated the Lord’s Ascension. Today we are gathered into that singular moment where alongside the Apostles, disciples, and the Blessed Mother we enter prayer and receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

But Father, what do you mean? Isn’t the Spirit something we ‘got’ when we were baptized and later confirmed? Well… yes and no.

If we think about the Holy Spirit’s presence and affect in our lives as merely a transactional thing, something that happens once and we are done with it, we would be mistaken. We must remember that the Spirit’s key gift is an ongoing and energizing life together. 

Let’s dissect this a bit. 

Where are we? Indeed, yes, in church. But think about this, the way our parish church is configured we are upstairs, in the upper room. Like the Apostles, disciples, and the Blessed Mother we are engaged in prayer. Like them we have received Jesus’ promise of the Advocate: “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.” And… here He is among us and in us.

Let’s take a moment and breathe that in. Let us close our eyes, breathe in deeply, just like when the doctor is checking your heart and lungs, and breathe out doing a self-check on our hearts and lungs.

Our hearts and minds should be perceiving the Holy Spirit flowing through us, planting His unique gifts in us. Our breath should be filled with praise for His wonderful presence and the power He gives us.

Back to the idea of transactional things, was that check-in with the Holy Spirit just a transaction. We paid a few seconds of our time and now we’re done? Not at all!

Life with a transactional god is life with a mere idol, it is idolatry. Life in the Spirit gets us forever strength and power. Doing that close your eyes, breathe in and out exercise focused on the Holy Spirit’s being with us should leave us trembling with energy and enthusiasm for doing as those others gathered in the upper room did this day: “speaking of the mighty acts of God.“

Reflection for the 7th Sunday of Easter 2024

“I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world.”

Christ is Risen! He is truly Risen! Alleluia! 

On this last Sunday in the Easter Season, we hear again from the extended Last Supper dialog between Jesus and His Apostles. Jesus is pouring out His heart to them as their servant, teacher, and Lord. He is begging them to take these lessons to heart.

In this dialog Jesus draws the distinction between the world and worldly and those who follow Him. He plainly states that those who follow Him are different.

On this Mother’s Day we might recall those dialogs with our moms: ‘Aww, mom, do I have to be so different. I want to be just like everybody else.’ Maybe it was the clothes or shoes we had. Maybe it was our weird lunch. Yet mom always reinforced the value of being unique. You know how that goes, in one ear, out the other. 

Perhaps I was weirdest and differentest kid of all, my dad having died, my diabetes touching everything I wished I could do. I was the textbook case of a child wanting to be just like everybody else.

I am thankful for the time I had in church. I recognized in God’s word the value of giving my all for His kingdom. In my mind it was no longer a question of wanting to be the same as everybody else but of embracing a different way of living; life different in Jesus.

Let us reinforce this – Jesus made us separate from the world. What we pursue matters. What we want matters. How we live matters.

Jesus asks us to consider those things we are chasing after. Our moms asked a similar question didn’t they: ‘What are you chasing after? What’s important to you?’

If we are not pursuing the kingdom we end up just like Judas. As Acts tells us, Judas went his own way. He pursued what was important to him and that was not God. He was after a worldly prize – power and wealth. That is why he is referred to as the ‘son of destruction.’

In a week we will move from the Easter season into Pentecost and living out the mission given us by Jesus with the power given us by the Holy Spirit. Our Easter joy becomes practical. Let’s then embrace our differentness, not pursuing the world and becoming sons and daughters of destruction, but indeed being sons and daughters of our heavenly King.

Reflection for the 6th Sunday of Easter 2024

This is My commandment: love one another as I love you. 

Christ is Risen! He is truly Risen! Alleluia! 

On this Sunday in the Easter season, we are blessed to welcome a new member of God’s Kingdom through the waters of regeneration – rebirth into a completely new way of life. It is indeed a life of love.

Now, this causes us to raise a question as to Kingdom love, our Christian way of life. What’s all so different about it?

Indeed, people of every background provide love and charity for others. Most people regardless of religious affiliation, or no affiliation whatsoever love in ways aimed at the physical, emotional, psychological, relational, and economic well-being of others.

For Tallulah and us this is the difference. It is not the how, where, or work of love, but rather, its source, sustaining power, and goal.

For those in the Kingdom the source of love is the cross of Christ, the total self-giving of God for a people who neither deserved nor merited His concern. St. John tells us: “We love because He first loved us.” In the Cross our sins are forgiven, we are justified, accepted, and loved by God. By the cross fear and greed, the great barriers to love, are taken away as we trust in what God has done in Christ. So, the first difference between secular love and Christian love is that our love is rooted in the work of Christ and its impact in us.

Second, Kingdom love is sustained and shaped by the Holy Spirit, where secular love isn’t. St. Paul calls it the “fruit of the Spirit.” It is the Spirit that takes the death of Christ, causes it to be real for us, and gives us new hearts so that the death of Christ has a love-producing effect on us. The work of the Spirit sustains and shapes Christian love, but not the love of the world.

Finally, Christian love has a radically different goal, All the good we do in our loving has a Godward goal. Our love has more than a here and now goal and effect. Our love is not just for the present, rather it is forever because its emphasis is what is truly good for all, bringing all to God in Christ.

All that was about how our loving is different, what our baptismal faith changes about our outward loving. But there is more. Our commitment to Kingdom love must bring about deep change in us. We cannot remain just as we are. Within ourselves we must be fully convicted of our love’s shortcomings and work to grow our love so to meet Christ’s commandment.