This week’s memory verse: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.â€
John 14:15
Pray the week: Lord Jesus, Grant that I perceive the dangers in my life, the ways that block my path to You and grant me the grace to overcome them. Amen.
The way of life.
If you choose you can keep the commandments, they will save you; if you trust in God, you too shall live; he has set before you fire and water to whichever you choose, stretch forth your hand.
Thank you for joining as we testify, proclaim, and evangelize the great and Holy Name of Jesus.
Today we enter the Pre-Lenten season. I say that every year, and perhaps this year I have come to understand it even better because I better understand the nature of choices. We do that as we get older because, as some would say, we have wisdom. Others would say that we now see the long-term consequences of our decisions. Did that decision lead to good, or did it create a disaster.
Ben Sira of Jerusalem, or in short Sirach, shares various versus of wisdom with us, things learned from the Spirit of God for right living. Today, he presents us with some real age-old wisdom we totally connect with: There is a hot stove, don’t touch it. As I just mentioned, wisdom comes from experience with choices made. I wonder how many times Ben Sira touched the hot stove after his mom told him not to. Ben Sira knew, as wisdom, the fact that touching a hot stove leads to disaster while listening leads to good.
That is the way of God. We have a way of life before us. Will we reach out to His life or chose death?
St. Paul tells the Corinthians the practical truth: What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him, this God has revealed to us through the Spirit.
Paul is speaking from experience, i.e., the wisdom he had acquired from Jesus on the road to Damascus. Meeting Jesus caused him to pull his hand away from the stove and to choose life. He said to himself, Wow, I was about to be burned bad, I could not see it, I could not hear it, my heart was closed to it, but now I know what God has in store for me if I chose His way of life.
It is of note that the Corinthians were new Christians, for not more than three years. They were falling back into their former way of life in so many ways. They were running headlong to each and every hot stove they could find. Paul is reminding them of that choice, the fact that they will be burned, and in being burned will reject all God has in store for them.
Jesus’ commandments to us, His way of life built upon His Father’s Commandments, may seem anachronistic to us. Divorce is common. Treating people as sexualized objects, without humanity, is not just a way to sell music and products, but a commonplace way of life. Disrespect for others, calling them empty (raqa) or impious (foolish), basically non-human, most especially online, is easy. The stoves seem to be so much fun. Jesus’ way of life so difficult. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Let us then take this Pre-Lenten opportunity to identify the stoves in our lives, those areas of disaster we reach out to. Let us recall what will happen if we do not stop, and focus our Lent on eliminating them, choosing life with God.
This week’s memory verse: Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.
Ephesians 5:1
Pray the week: Lord Jesus, Grant that I perceive and fulfill my obligations toward You, considering not what I do great, but unworthy of Your great goodness and love toward me. Amen.
Did, Doing, Done.
- But I will leave as a remnant in your midst a people humble and lowly.
Thank you for joining as we testify, proclaim, and evangelize the great and Holy Name of Jesus.
Over the last two weeks we spoke of our baptismal obligation to testify, give witness, and proclaim the truth of Jesus, His gospel message, and the promise of salvation that is in Him. We are to live in His light
We may think our baptismal obligation is a one-way debt owed to God, that we are taking upon ourselves duties aimed at God. At that point we may wonder what God’s obligation is toward us, how does He live in relationship to us? Is this a one-sided thing or is it mutual?
Let us liken our baptismal relationship to what we may better comprehend, we get married or take on a job and there is a set of obligations both on ourselves and on the other party, a spouse, an employer. So, how does that work out between us and God. How does it work in both directions?
God’s obligation toward us is real, not because we can make Him do anything for us, but because He chose to pursue us. God pursues us, always with great love, even when we are far off. He seeks us out and calls us into relationship with Him. This is most evident in His constant call to the people of Israel, even when they strayed, and it came to completion when He Himself, in the Person of His Son, Jesus, came to us.
God in Jesus said – here, let Me teach you. Let Me show you the way you are to live as part of an everlasting relationship with Me and with each of your brothers and sisters. Here is My gospel which is life – live this way. Here is My body and blood, offered for your salvation and here is my resurrection so you too may rise and enter the everlasting Kingdom. I love you.
God’s relationship with us, His people, and the salvation brought to reality in Jesus is the hope and loving promise we attach ourselves to in baptism. What God already did is the starting point of relational obligations. As St. John would say: We love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19)
The mutual obligation between us and God continues in everyday life. It is centered on what God is continually doing for us. He gives His grace to strengthen and sustain us. He does as Zephaniah prophesized – He has left us as a humble and lowly remnant, living the beatitudes He taught, to give light to the unsaved so they too may enter this mutual obligation.
The best part of our relationship with God is that He made us His remnant, His people. We are the chosen insiders in the Kingdom, not insiders for worldly wealth and power, but insiders for the sharing of His love and for everlasting glory.
Finally, God’s promises to us are guaranteed. He has made us co-heirs with Jesus to the Kingdom. He will deliver everlasting life in eternal joy where there is no more tears, death, mourning, crying, or pain (Revelation 21:4). What He will do for us is the promised side of those Beatitudes – comfort, inheritance, satisfaction, mercy, and great reward.
So let us live fully our relationship with God, doing as He requires and receiving His love. That’s the deal we all want.
This week’s memory verse: Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.â€
John 8:12
Pray the week: Lord Jesus, Grant that I may be renewed in the recognition of Your light and seeing it, proclaim it to all I encounter. Help me in fulfilling my baptismal commitment. Amen.
What do I do…?
The people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death light has arisen.
Thank you for joining as we testify, proclaim, and evangelize the great and Holy Name of Jesus.
Last week we spoke of our baptismal obligation to testify, give witness, and proclaim the truth of Jesus, His gospel message, and the promise of salvation that is in Him. This week we reflect on the light we have received and that light in relation to our obligation.
I don’t know how many of you took economics in college. I remember it well. I enjoyed macroeconomics, looking at the big picture of the economy and how things work.
Walter Heller, speaking of economists commented: “You know it’s said that an economist is a man who, when he finds something that works in practice, wonders if it works in theory.â€
That makes sense for us doesn’t it. We who go shopping for food every week, who need a paycheck, and who put gas in the car know what works in practice, i.e., in reality.
One thing I remember quite well from economics was the idea of perfect competition. Perfect competition occurs when companies sell an identical product, market share does not influence price, companies are able to enter or exit without barriers, buyers have perfect or full information, and best of all – companies cannot determine prices. Everyone pays about the same price.
A loose example is old fashioned regular milk. Sealtest, Hood, Stewarts, Price Chopper, Hannaford, Crowley – well milk is milk. But… and we all know, companies have learned to change things up, differentiate, and offer unique milk products like goats’ milk, almond milk, oat milk, 2%, 1%, skim, chocolate, extra pasteurized, non-GMO. We are willing to pay more or less to substitute regular milk for what we want or prefer.
There is however one unique thing, one that cannot be substituted, one we cannot replace with something that might be similar or just as good and that is Jesus.
Jesus came as the promised light, and we who recognize His coming should be like the people of Capernaum by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. We have a great, perfect light Who shows us the way we are to go.
The excerpt from Psalm 126 used for the alleluia verse tells of the reaction of those who recognize the Lord as their Light. The Lord had done great things for us; Oh, how happy we were! They perceive what the Lord has done for them, and they show forth their happiness because its light stands in dynamic contrast to the darkness they lived in.
If for us the Lord is indeed our light and salvation, without substitute or equivalent, the question comes down to what we do with Him.
The right choice and the only choice for us is to follow Him and declare Him. Like the called disciples we must get up and go with Jesus, learn from Jesus, and testify, give witness, and proclaim the truth of Jesus His gospel message, and the promise of salvation that is in Him alone.
This week’s memory verse: For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
2 Peter 1:16
Pray the week: Lord Jesus, Grant me not reminders, but a spirit of action, a state of being that attests to the fact that You have sanctified me and have called me to holiness. Amen.
Testify
“I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from heaven and remain upon him… Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God.”
Thank you for joining as we testify to our Lord Jesus Christ.
To testify, to give witness, to proclaim the truth – this is the charge we received in baptism.
In the Baptismal Rite the one to be baptized receives salt, the savor of wisdom and truth that the name of Jesus should be in our mouths, their lips are blessed that their mouths may be opened to proclaim Christ. These serious charges are an obligation of duty on us from baptism to our grave. An adjunct to this is that the ears are also blessed that they may be opened to hear Jesus, the proclaimed gospel that is way, truth, and life.
John and later St. Paul testify to Jesus, one as His precursor paving the way and pointing toward Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God and the other His apostle, going throughout the world to preach the gospel of salvation that is in Christ Jesus.
We here, in this parish church, dedicated to the Holy Name of Jesus, are who Paul is describing: ‘those everywhere who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus.’
Paul further states that we have been sanctified in Christ Jesus and are called to be holy.
This is more than a reminder at the beginning of this new calendar year of who we are to be and Who we are to proclaim; further how we are to live. Reminders, while nice, do not precipitate action. Any wife or husband can tell you how many times they have reminded their spouse to do so and so without result. How many teachers can testify to the fact that they remind certain students all the time, send home notes, write it in their ‘agenda book,’ or send Emails with little to no effect.
Jesus did not come to remind us. Not at all. That was the job of the prophets who came before Him to remind Israel of their obligations to God and of His promise to them. Even John the Forerunner came to remind the people of the promised Messiah and to call them to conversion in advance – Prepare the way, reminding them of what they must do. Jesus instead came to call us to action, to open ears to hear, to open mouths to speak, to free what was locked up for all to see and hear.
No, no reminders. We have been sanctified in Christ Jesus and are called to be holy. That is an ongoing state of being. Older, retired, worked for God all your life? You cannot retire or stop for you are called to be holy. Parents who had their children baptized? You cannot stay away, write it off, cheat their ears and leave their mouths empty of the gospel for you are called to be holy as are your children. Teens, college graduates, mid-life everyday job folks – you are called to be holy.
Tomorrow, we honor someone who lived their call to be holy with ears that heard the cry of the oppressed and opened his mouth to speak the Lord’s truth concerning each person’s humanity and dignity. Today, we recognize where we have failed in our call to be holy.
We have been charged to testify, witness, and proclaim. Starting now we live our baptism and set to action for He is the Son of God.
This week’s memory verse: And all the people shall hear and fear and not act presumptuously again.
Deuteronomy 17:13
Pray the week: Lord Jesus, Grant that I might be like the Humble Shepherds, without pretense and bold in proclaiming the Good News of Your gospel. Amen.
My heart changed.
And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
Thank you for joining as we continue in the celebration of the Christmas Season and in our expectation of the Lord’s return in glory.
This unique Solemnity in our Holy Church dedicates a Sunday in the early Christmas season to the remembrance of those shepherds who first heard of the Lord’s birth from the angels. This Solemnity is so important that it displaces all other Solemnities of the Christmas season excepting the Circumcision, Holy Name of Jesus, and Epiphany should they occur on a Sunday. In most years, this Solemnity occurs on the Sunday after the Nativity. In years like this one with Christmas on a Sunday, this Solemnity is celebrated on the 8th of January.
This Solemnity is wonderful on so many levels for it shows how God interacts with humanity. God sent His angels to the poor workers of the region to announce His salvation, the fulfillment of the entire Old Testament. In fact, He chose the lowest of the low to receive this news.
We can assess their humility from the fact they were not people of pretense. They could not fool anyone about who they were – they even smelled like their work – the sheep, the pastures and woodland.
A lack of pretense is one sign of humility. Oxford notes that humility is: ‘Having or showing a modest or low estimate of one’s own importance. Of low social, administrative, or political rank.’
Another sign of humility / humbleness is what the Shepherd’s did with the news. They trusted and went, then having seen told people about it directly and honestly. The Shepherds experienced God and didn’t have to think about it, philosophize, theologize, or seek the local descendent of Aaron, a Levite, or religious leader to interpret for them.
In the Letter of St. James (James 4:10) we hear: Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up. Good advice! The more like these Shepherds we are the better off we will be because God will be holding us up.
If we are hanging on to any pretense, let’s wash ourselves of it in confession. If we are grasping after the straws the world offers, know they will snap and break, and we will be alone. So, if we are grasping, let us stop and grasp onto Jesus. If we are holding off in talking about Jesus or waiting for the advice of philosophers, theologians, priests, or best sellers, let us stop waiting and get to work. Speak of Him.
Last week we spoke of being changed, having changed hearts and lives. Here we see the practical model of people who are transparent, honest, and humble about what God has done. God sent His Son Jesus to save us. Let us live as saved and humble as those Shepherds who declared the Lord.
Pray too for all present and these future humble shepherds of our Church: Alfonsito, Nick, Sean, David, Jason, Todd, Adam, Zach, Kevin, Zach, James, Nick, Rodryg, and all Deacon candidates.