Reflection for the 2nd Ordinary Sunday 2024

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?

Today we see Jesus beginning His public ministry with a call to those who might follow Him. They look: “Rabbi, where are you staying?” Jesus responds: “Come, and you will see.”

We know these men were following Jesus. He knew it too and He cuts right to the point: “What are you looking for?”

This was more than a simple question as the English rendering posits it. In Greek these phrases about looking and coming to see are happening in the present and the action is being carried out.

It is important to know this because Jesus’ call to us is happening in the present and our response is to carry out all His call entails. More simply, Jesus’ call is now, and our response is to act now.

Further, “What are you looking for?” does not just mean what are you browsing around for. It means: what do you search for with desire?

While some might consider Jesus’ call to Andrew, John, and Peter to represent a call to formal ministry, and indeed that is there, that is not all it was nor the end of the story. We recognize Jesus’ constant call to all who follow Him. Over and over, we hear Jesus calling all of us to follow Him, to be His learners (i.e., disciples), and to do His Kingdom proclaiming work. 

We are to follow Him and do His gospel work actively, i.e., now and with a complete desire within us.

First Corinthians has Paul putting a very fine point on all of this. Our bodies are not our own, are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and are for the Lord.

If you’ve ever done the Hokey-Pokey this is the part where Paul echoing Jesus says, ‘put your whole-self in’ and what is not in the song ‘and don’t jump out.’ We are called to put our whole selves in and to not just leave them there, but to get to work. Be in and present, active for the Lord.

Last week we focused on a word which bridges all seasons of the Church year. It is the word ‘announce,’ in Biblical Greek ἀπαγγέλλω (apangellō). That word, found more in scripture after the resurrection, is what we are called to do. To tell, declare, report, and bring word of all Jesus taught and did. Let us do it actively engaged and with our hearts aligned with Jesus’ desire for the salvation of all. 

Reflection for the Solemnity of the Baptism of our Lord 2024

And a voice came from the heavens, “You are My beloved Son; with You I am well pleased.”

Today we begin a transition into two short Ordinary Time weeks. After that we will notice a stark change as we enter the Pre-Lenten season. 

In this transition the moments of Jesus’ Nativity get closed out (excepting February 2nd – the Solemnity of the Presentation, forty days after Jesus’ birth) and His public ministry is begun.

If there is a word to bridge these times, and one that is self-contained in each season of the Church year, it is the word ‘announcement.’

Consider the times we have encountered and will encounter ‘announcement.’

The angels announce the Messiah’s birth. The humble shepherds announce what they have seen and heard. The Maji announce the coming of the Messiah to King Herod and all of Jerusalem hears of it. John the Baptist had been announcing the coming of “One mightier than I.” The decent of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove and the voice of the Father from heaven announce Jesus as the Son of God.

Setting forth after His baptism Jesus will call His disciples, turn water into wine, and most importantly announce the immanence of the Kingdom – a charge equally given to every disciple: The Kingdom of heaven is at hand (note in Mark’s gospel account only four verses after His baptism).

Jesus emphasizes the work of announcement. It is the work we each must take up. It is a work that can be carried out in various ways, we don’t all need to be broadcasters using words – it may also be done in acts. It is anything we do that opens the kingdom to others.

Our work as announcers must also be evident in the attitudes we carry. That was the lesson Peter experienced before going to the house of Cornelius. Before going there – to the house of a Gentile Roman Centurion – considered unclean, God showed Peter that his attitudes had to change, that announcing the Kingdom was for those God intended, not only those Peter considered worthy by his own judgment.

With open hearts let us then be those announcers, broadcasters, proclaimers, trumpeters God asks us to be. The more we announce the Kingdom the more people will accept Jesus. 

Reflection for the Solemnity of the Humble Shepherds 2023

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy…

My homily on Christmas was centered on Paul’s letter to Titus, someone we do not encounter very much in the Church year (4 times at most). As I mentioned, Titus was the first Bishop of Crete, that small Mediterranean island that lies between Athens and Rhodes.

On Christmas we focused on the confidence Titus needed because he was charged with developing the Church in Crete, a place Paul had never visited. 

As I also mentioned, there is a lot in Paul’s letter to Titus about Church organization, differing groups of people and their roles and responsibilities and how they are to grow in faith, but key to all of that was how the grace and love of God that appeared in Jesus Christ should cause us all to live and act, eager to do what is good. 

Indeed, we are to live with the confidence of a people who have been redeemed, saved, delivered, and cleansed; a people belonging to God.

About 86 years before Paul wrote his letter to Titus, Jesus was born, and the first to encounter Him besides Mary and Joseph were the Humble Shepherds of the area.

Like all of us, those Humble Shepherds had not done anything to merit the announcement they heard. They hadn’t even bought a lottery ticket. They weren’t thinking – I’m in it to win it. Yet the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared to them.

God’s coming among us brought about real change and it is change that will last forever. It will last despite the world’s denial, despite any negative thing we could think of, and it will overcome for as Jeremiah proclaimed: I will turn their mourning into gladness; I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow. That is God’s promise and Jesus’ coming did that!

What can we take away from this encounter with those Humble Shepherds who were so highly blessed? 

We can take an attitude of confidence because Jesus saved us despite ourselves. We can develop an active disposition – to get up, go, learn, then witness, and proclaim based on faith alone without any prompting, without fear. We can live as Jesus intends – in gladness and comfort knowing we are His. Come, let us go to the stable.

Reflection for the Shepherd’s Holy Mass / Pasterka at Midnight on the Solemnity of the Nativity 2023

We await the blessed hope, 
the appearance of the glory of our great God 
and savior Jesus Christ,
who gave Himself for us to deliver us from all lawlessness 
and to cleanse for Himself a people as His own, 
eager to do what is good.

If we happen to catch a few of those Christmas shows and movies, and if our hearts are moved when George Bailey comes home having realized the value of life and see the redemption of Mr. Gower (It’s A Wonderful Life), when Kris Kringle speaks to the Dutch girl and delivers the X-ray machine to the hospital, and renews the faith of Doris and Susan Walker (Miracle on 34th Street), when the Grinch’s heart grows, when the soldiers return in honor and respect for General Waverly and to give him themselves as a Christmas gift (White Christmas) we realize the coldness of the world and worldly has not entered in or taken hold of our lives. 

Watching these movies each year reassures my heart because I allow it to be moved. It shows me a people who through some unfortunate occurrence lost confidence in the salvation brought to the fore this very night. Blessedly, they regained it through the witness of people of faith. It gives me confidence that Jesus still holds unto me and to us. It reminds me of my blessed hope in spite of all things.

In tonight’s Epistle Paul is writing to Titus, not someone we hear a lot about. Titus was the first Bishop of Crete, that small Mediterranean island that lies between Athens and Rhodes.

At the time of this writing Titus needed confidence because he was charged with developing the Church in Crete, a place Paul had never visited. There is a lot in the letter about the organization of the Church, differing groups of people and their roles and responsibilities and how they are to grow in faith, and as we hear this evening reminders for how the grace and love of God that appeared in Jesus Christ should cause us all to live and act, eager to do what is good. His grace and love are meant for the constant renewal of our confidence in God’s love and goodness.

What is key for us to understand is Titus, the people of Crete, and Paul himself were living confidently in the fresh experience of Jesus’ coming. The Messiah, Emmanuel, had come to save those who would believe and that was already past tense. They, having experienced the redemptive sacrifice of Christ awaited His return. We likewise await His rebirth in our hearts. For those people of Crete, and us, it all comes down to how we live in confidence as redeemed, saved, delivered, cleansed people who belong to Jesus.

Today, tomorrow, and always let us allow the experience of Jesus’ coming live anew in us. Let His redemptive sacrifice fill our hearts with thankfulness and true joy – the confidence of redeemed, saved, delivered, and cleansed people who belong to Him.

Reflection for the 4th Sunday of Advent 2023

The LORD also reveals to you that he will establish a house for you. And when your time comes and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins, and I will make his kingdom firm. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me.”

Welcome as we enter the fourth week of this Advent. In actuality, this fourth week of Advent lasts only seventeen hours, from midnight until 5pm when the Vigil of the Nativity begins.

For some of us who have Polish ancestry, the Vigil or Wigilia starts when the youngest child sees the first star in the sky – a fitting reminder of the star appearing this night over Bethlehem. 

As we recognize, this year’s Advent was short and the Church accounts for the varying length of Advents by calling this time Late Advent.

Lateness carries various meanings – but the key meaning for us is that time is running short in our preparation for Jesus’ re-advent in our lives. Are we prepared to welcome Him anew into our lives? Are we expecting Him with the eagerness of a child? And… once reborn in our lives what do we plan to do with this great grace He will impart to us?

Throughout this week we have heard from the Prophet Samuel. We saw the parallels between Hannah, the barren woman who by the grace of God becomes the mother of Samuel the prophet and how she offered her son back to God for His service and Mary the virgin who would bear the Son of God Who would be offered for us. Both sang a canticle of joy to God.

Today in Samuel we reach toward the other end of things begun with Hannah. David is at rest in Jerusalem, having overcome his enemies and resolves to build a Temple for God.

God speaks to David through Nathan. “Go, tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD: Should you build me a house to dwell in?’ The question may seem odd to us – wouldn’t God want a Temple? Well, yes, He does – but not as David envisioned.

Indeed, God longs for a Temple and the one He desires exists within us.

As we approach Him in the manger tonight at Midnight or tomorrow or throughout the forty-day season ahead, let the feelings in us, the tear we may shed, be for the joy of welcoming Him anew into the Temple of our hearts.

Reflection for the 3rd Sunday of Advent 2023

May the God of peace make you perfectly holy and may you entirely, spirit, soul, and body, be preserved blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Welcome as we enter the third week of our new Church year and this Advent.

We have been focusing on our call to active engagement and preparation, both for Jesus’ return at the end of time and on our need for renewal for Jesus’ re-advent within us.

As Peter did last week, St. Paul writes in his letter to the Church at Thessalonica in relation to the kind of people Jesus’ followers – Christians – are to be, a people: holy and blameless in their entirety. Preserved blameless.

Well, thanks Father, great advice, Now, how are we to do that? I know that I try and fail much more than I would like. When confronted by stress and life’s everyday goings on I seem to slip back into old habits and sinfulness. When I know I should say something or do something, especially if I am unsure of a relationship, I get afraid and draw into myself. I can hear the priests and Levites asking me: “What do you have to say for yourself?”

Now we must be careful. We could let the facts of our current life, and the times we fail and sin, cause us to give up, to say I just cannot do it. We must not do that because as Isaiah proclaimed and Jesus admitted: the LORD has anointed Me; He has sent Me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners. We had recourse to that renewal in today’s Advent Penitential service

You see, we can check ourselves, we can say I can and will, I will not give up but rather rejoice in the very fact that Jesus came to set me free from my old ways and most particularly from being down on myself. 

The practicalities, taking it one item or step at a time. I get mad driving – admit that and then practice exchanging curses for blessings and prayers. Overly critical of others, offer to help instead. Afraid to speak, take the risk. It won’t be easy, but it is possible especially when we keep an attitude of rejoicing in our freedom in Christ. He will not blame us, but rather grant us the grace to overcome.

The Baptist and Forerunner said: “I am the voice of one crying out in the desert, ‘make straight the way of the Lord.’” So let us remind ourselves to rejoice as we make our ways ever straighter, holy, and blameless in our entirety.

Reflection for the 2nd Sunday of Advent 2023

John the Baptist appeared in the desert proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

Welcome as we enter the second week of our new Church year and this Advent.

Last week, Prime Bishop elaborated on Advent as a transitional time between a focus on the last things, being ready for Jesus’ return at the end of time and our need for personal preparation right now so we may best welcome Jesus anew into our lives.

As St. Paul noted in our Epistle last week, we are prepared for this task of readiness by the enriching grace we have in our knowledge of Jesus. Paul reminded us that we have this time to focus on what we have learned about Jesus and the opportunity to put that knowledge into action.

This week calls us deeper into the active engagement we are to have as the people of Christ – Christians. Today, Peter sets the stage regarding the kind of people we are to be, a people: conducting ourselves in holiness and devotion, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God.

Now it may occur to us – how do we hasten God along? Besides what we might think, it is the actual work we are to do in building the Kingdom of God so the saying Maranatha, Come Lord Jesus will come to fruition.

We build the Kingdom by this: taking action that contributes to the purposes of God here and now, in our community, among friends, family, and coworkers. Among the many Kingdom building actions we need to engage in are: Evangelism: bringing people into the kingdom; Benevolence: showing the love of God to others through our charity and kindness; Having godly relationships that show the reality of the kingdom by example.; Encouraging love and good deeds; Building up knowledge of God by study, reading of scripture, and practice; Regular worship; Carrying out the corporal and spiritual works of mercy; and… Doing all in the Name of the Lord, being dedicated to Him.

The Oxford Dictionary tells us that fruition is the point at which a plan or project is realized and the action of producing fruit occurs. Indeed, Advent is about that. The Blessed Virgin carries within her the fruitfulness that will save us all. So too, like John we must go out and proclaim a fruitful message: Prepare yourselves, Christ is in our midst, and He waits for you. Join me in knowing Him.

Reflection for the 1st Sunday of Advent 2023

Jesus said to his disciples: “Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come.”

Welcome as we begin a new Church year and enter the shortest Advent season in a while.

Advent, a season of expectation and anticipation can last from 22- and 28-days and this is a 22-day one.

I suppose that for a people who are to live in expectation and anticipation a much shorter time to wait is kind of nice. We only have to hear ‘are we there yet’ for 22-days.

A compressed schedule may be experienced in a few different ways. Some might spend the time valuing each day of expectation more deeply. Some might choose to rush through it, not paying too much attention. Some might choose to live frustrated, focused solely on getting ‘there.’

Of course, the Church is solidly recommending that we value each day of expectation more deeply for there are not too many of them.

That recommendation comes from thousands upon thousands of years of experience from the Old Testament period through today. The Holy Spirit guides us in doing what is right and in the end, what is best for us. 

The other approaches each diminish our experience of God and thus our lives. Not paying attention, rushing, being frustrated, let’s just get there approaches take our eyes off God and fill us with such unease that we draw into ourselves becoming blind to the very gifts being offered to us.

Jesus enjoins us to be alert, to stay awake and to watch. To be busy about our work for Him.

That command is not about arriving at the goal. Jesus will take care of that, but about our growth as a people confident and trusting in God. That type of attitude leads us to grow into the image of God, to act (it is not about sitting around) by living Jesus’ way most fully, and to deal with those things in us that must change – our very inability to be patient with God’s timeline.

Much of the history of the Old Testament is about waiting and becoming; lessons learned, repentance undertaken, and to be prepared for the Messiah. Speaking of waiting, the time between the last prophet and Jesus was about 500 years of silent waiting, yet each moment had value for growth.

As St. Paul tells us, we have been enriched in the knowledge of Christ so that this time may be grace filled, focused on what we have learned, and engaged in the work that helps us be ready for welcoming Him again. 

December 2023 Newsletter – Anticipation

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.

I was listening to religious radio the other Sunday, just after Thanksgiving, and the commentator mentioned that we are now in the Christmas Season. Now, I am not a Negative Nelly, correcting everyone for such mistakes. I am happy that they recognize the need to celebrate the season. The better question, Why the rush?

If you are old enough you might remember the days when the decorations were put up on Christmas Eve or in the week before Christmas. Folks prepared for Christmas by living with a sense of anticipation. Anticipation – the old ketchup commercials where they sang Anticipation while the ketchup slowly trickled out of the bottle. Anticipation like in the heart of a child awaiting Christmas morning, a bride her wedding, parents the birth of a child. Those and many other occasions we each know very well.

We Catholics know something of anticipation. In every Holy Mass we await the living presence of the Lord Jesus and our receiving Him in Holy Communion. We live seasonally anticipating the celebration of the key moments in our Lord’s life which encompass our salvation history. It does not all happen right away. Advent calls us to a spirit of anticipation. The Holy Church guides us through this season focusing on our Lord’s coming and echoing Psalm 130: I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope.

Let us imagine our keeping of this time of anticipation. What awaits us? A grand celebration of forty days beginning Christmas Day and lasting until February 2nd. We will together celebrate those moments of salvation history that focus on family, the impoverished that first met Jesus, and His revelation to the nations. On the other hand we can meet Christmas exhausted, throw out the tree the next day, and miss all Jesus revealed to us. So, let us celebrate by keeping this time of anticipation for if we do the peace of Christ will indeed reign in our hearts.

Think December is busy? You’ll be right. Our schedule is jam packed with activities that help us anticipate Christmas and the Christmas Season. Advent begins a new Church year. We have our Charity Organ Concert on December 3rd at 4pm to support Blessed virgin Mary’s fire recovery fund. Come share in our annual Vigil / Wigilia Dinner on December 10th. Rorate Masses (Holy Mass by candlelight only celebrated Wednesdays at 7:30am) throughout Advent help us prepare. Come help us decorate the church in our Greening of the Church. Read a portion of St. Ephraim the Syrian’s Stanzas on the Nativity and engage in charitable giving of food and clothing for those in need. Too much to mention here, so check it all out in our December 2023 Newsletter.

Reflection for the Solemnity of Christ the King 2023

“Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was…’” 

Welcome as we conclude this year’s Ordinary Sundays with this great Solemnity dedicated – as all things are – to Jesus Christ our King.

In some churches this Solemnity is dedicated to Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. Kind of funny when one thinks about it, how we as His people add on levels of detail to Jesus’ Kingship, trying to make Him as big as He really is by adding more and more adjectives.

The real point is that we can never define Jesus’ Kingship well enough, nor should we try, but rather spend our time as we have throughout this Ordinary Time focused on listening to, obeying, and witnessing to Jesus the King by our very lives.

Jesus, our King, and only true ruler taught us to live His Father’s way of generosity. He has told us that we will be held accountable for living up to doing things His Father’s way. He calls us again and again to turn, repent, and get back on track.

We hear Ezekiel telling us about God’s help in getting us back to where we need to be: As a shepherd tends his flock when he finds himself among his scattered sheep, so will I tend my sheep. I will rescue them from every place where they were scattered. I will seek the lost, bring back the strays, bind the injured, and heal the sick. 

Picture that, God among His scattered and wandering people. Immediately He sets to work in saving us. Well, that is what Jesus did.

Having been saved and reminded to stay awake, prepared for our Master’s return, with access to the many graces the Holy Spirit provides as He seeks, brings back, binds, and heals us, Jesus tells us what His return in judgment will be like.

In each instance He will judge how great our generosity has been. Welcoming, feeding, providing drink, clothing, visiting – all that stuff we do right here is our parish, but more important than that is the reason we do all those things. If it is just for points or to earn credits for heaven, we would be wrong. Rather, in each instance Jesus’ words must ring true – we are doing it for Him. We must see Him in each act of goodness and be Him to those we help. This must ring true – whatever you did you did for Me.