Reflection for the Solemnity of the Baptism of our Lord 2025

I formed you, and set you as a covenant of the people, a light for the nations… to bring out prisoners from darkness.

Welcome as we continue in the forty-day celebration of Christmas.

Today, we are called to reflect upon Jesus born into the human family through a human family and with the purpose of making us His Father’s family by adoption.

Throughout this past week and until tomorrow which is the Octave of the Epiphany, we have read from the First Letter of St. John wherein he speaks of the totality of God’s love. Our first reading today from Isaiah speaks of God’s purpose, set forth in His Son Jesus, to make Him the covenant of love.

That love’s purpose is to free us from a cheapness of life, any thought or feeling, any impression that our lives are unworthy of intimacy with God. Jesus came to connect us to the reality that His Father is our loving Father.

In His baptism Jesus confirms and gives sacramental affect to our adoption into the family of God. His Father confirms this adoption, sets forth His love for us, through the decent of the Holy Spirit and His verbal acclimation of His Son’s work for our salvation.

There is no doubt, brothers and sisters, that we easily fall into the trap of downplaying our place and role in the God’s family. We often fall into fear – wondering what will happen to us for the ways we fall short. Unfortunately, we concentrate more on that than on the power of God’s love and our adoption that is intended to drive out all fear.

St. Peter reminds those in the house of Cornelius, and us, that Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit and power to do good – good for us.

That good is not just some kind deed or a healing here and there. It is a good meant to overcome fear, imprisonment, darkness, and deafness and to replace it by making us strong. He assures us of our acceptance and adoption, our beauty and inclusion as His brothers and sisters.

At a practical level we must be very careful to remind ourselves of our position and stature in the family of God. We can accomplish this in the simplest of ways – put a note on your bathroom mirror saying ‘God adopted me in love. I am His. He is mine.’ 

We can do this by reading the story of Jesus’ baptism through which He entered His public ministry solely focused on bringing us in. We are the ultimate insiders in God’s family.

So let us take the word of our opening prayer to heart: May the brightness of His presence shine in me, and may His glory be set forth in me.

Reflection for the Solemnity of the Holy Family 2025

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

Welcome! We continue in the forty-day celebration of Christmas.

Today, we are called to reflect upon Jesus Who was born into the human family through a human family – the family of Joseph and Mary.

It might be easy to think of God being with us always, but it is much more important for us to realize the very real connection God has with us in all things.

In taking on our humanity, Jesus, the Son of God, agreed to take on ALL of our humanity with its joys and pains, celebrations and sorrows. He chose to be with us always and through the knowing experience of our struggles is, as St. Paul writes, interceding for us at the right hand of God (cf. Romans 8:34).

Consider even what Jesus faced as we observe these few short weeks between Christmas and the Presentation.

Jesus’ mother Mary is found with child, not by the man she is engaged to. She risked not only ridicule, but also being stoned to death, with her baby, for adultery. Joseph saved her from that but also chose to divorce her. Jesus, except for God’s intervention with Joseph, risked being killed or at least being born into a broken family.

The family had to take on unexpected journeys. While pregnant, Mary traveled 100 miles to take care of her cousin Elizabeth. Similarly, the pregnant Mary with Joseph traveled 90 miles over a week to Bethlehem. Those are walks of eight hours a day.

They arrived and had to stay in a barn with the animals and in those conditions, Mary gave birth. God enters through the meagerest of accommodations. The poorest of the poor come to adore Him that night.

The next threat came from Herod, and they had to flee into Egypt. They traversed the places we are familiar with today, Rafah, Gaza, the Sinai, across the Nile, to a village near Cairo. This over 600-mile journey was alone – not as typical in a caravan – and without protection or provision on a weak beast. 

Today’s gospel relates Jesus staying behind in the Temple. Imagine His parents panic when they found He was lost.

We know at some point they faced the death of Joseph and its natural sadness. The Child and His now widowed mother had to rely on family and strangers for provision.

As we face the numerous challenges in our lives let us breathe in the God Who is with us. He, Who is part of our families, feels our pain, knows our struggles, and intercedes for us constantly.

Reflection for the Solemnity of the Humble Shepherds 2024

So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger.

Welcome! We are already a few days into the forty-day celebration of Christmas. As Charles Dickens wrote, and I paraphrase, I hope we are all keeping it well. Better than any man ever has.

Today we celebrate another of those special Solemnities established by the people of the Church. 

It was at the First Special Synod of the Church in 1906 that the people set aside two special days, the Solemnity of Brotherly Love, and this day, the Solemnity of the Humble Shepherds.

In 1914, at the Third General Synod, the people would set aside the other special days we honor, the Solemnity of the Institution of the Church and the Solemnity of the Christian Family.

Let’s place ourselves in the environment of those days. 

In 1906 the Church had been organized for only nine years and was facing significant resistance and persecution. In the face of those struggles what did the people of the Church focus on? What did they do? The placed their focus and emphasis on, and called each other to work at and live, love and humility.

Those people saw the story of the Good Samaritan and the action of the shepherds who were called upon to visit the infant Jesus as their model.

This was no mistake, rather it was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit which brought about this conviction to love and humility.

The 1906 Synod speaks of us as being drawn to the Church and to the Lord’s table as the true source of life. We are called to draw close just as those shepherds were called to draw close to the long-awaited Messiah in a stable. We are called to partake of the Bread of Life, and we need those who will bring it to us. They are called to act as those first shepherds – hearing, going in haste, believing and declaring. 

Throughout subsequent Synods the needs of the Church for humble shepherds, priests who take after the Lord’s love and humility was regularly discussed. How do we train and support them? There is desperate need for that. Thus, we take up a special collection today and pray for that very purpose, to train priests who are humble and loving – not lords and rulers – not princes – but servant shepherds.

If there is cause for hope it is this – many are stepping up to serve, to enter those three years of training needed. They are sacrificing much and will be called upon to sacrifice still more. They willingly are laying their lives on the line in absolute self-sacrifice and effacement to stand in the breech ushering us to meet the newborn King. Let us love and support them.

Reflection for the Solemnity of the Nativity 2024

 The people who walked in darkness
        have seen a great light;
 upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom
        a light has shone.
 You have brought them abundant joy
        and great rejoicing

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

I have been out-of-sorts. This hasn’t been a temporary thing, but has been ongoing, that feeling of unease, not knowing where one is or where one is going. I’ve missed things, feel as if I’ve been wandering without direction.

I suppose it is a lot of things. Like all of us, we have those things that press on us. They can be health worries, worries about loved ones, concerns over the everlasting bureaucracy that seems to place roadblocks in the way of getting anything accomplished.

I am usually self-assured, and even when I do not reduce my plans to writing, I am on top of it. I haven’t been. By now I should have watched every classic Christmas movie (Miracle on 34th Street, The Bishop’s Wife, White Christmas, Scrooge (with Alistair Sim), It’s A Wonderful Life, and so on). I have only seen a couple. Take for example this past Sunday – how could Father forget to light the Advent wreath candles? There was other stuff I missed too.

Feeling out of sorts brings about its own fears, trepidation, wonder about what else one may be forgetting.

Then this experience.

On Monday I did all my last-minute running around. I kind of like that hustle and bustle of the last day or two before Christmas. I felt finally a bit of peace, I had a plan, and it was getting done.

First, I had to stop back at Pathways. One resident’s family presented me with a lovely gift, which I left behind in another room (talk about being out-of-sorts) where I had given communion. The staff were kind in retrieving it for me and that was settled. Then off to Euro Deli for all the wonderful Polish goodies needed for our Vigil / Wigilia Supper and things for our parish Repast tonight and tomorrow. I had two bags filled up and other stuff.

I also forgot – Fr. Out-of-Sorts – to order white roses for the baby Jesus, so I stopped at Randolph’s and thankfully they accommodated me.

Armed with the rose arrangement and the goodies, I stopped at church. I put the bags in the foyer, checked the mail, a set the roses in place. Having done that, I reset the carillon to play Christmas hymns throughout the season. And then…

I heard the door and rustling downstairs.

Hmmm….

Guess who I encountered?

It was one of our food pantry customers. He was filling his bags with the things from my bags. The stuff for my family Vigil Dinner, the goodies for our Repast.

This man was all the things that would put us off. He is disheveled, has all sorts of health issues, due to strokes he cannot speak very clearly. He is the perfect representation of pain and want. He is what most avoid. He is what many would react negatively toward if they found him going through their stuff.

My disheveled, out-of-sorts self was facing this disheveled man, and my eyes were finally opened. There was Christ. I was encountering Jesus. I was encountering the Jesus of poverty born in a stable among the livestock, laid in a manger on a cold night. No pillow for His head. Poorer still shepherds as His attendants. Are white roses and decorations enough for Him?

My heart broke for this image of Christ before me and my eyes were opened to setting things in order – not to worry so much about putting things in order, but to allow Jesus to order and sort my life.

This is what we are all called to do, at whatever age we are, to allow this Infant in the manger to order and sort our lives. We are called to see Him in rich and poor eyes, amid plenty and want, always keeping before us the One who asks only love, and in response to give all our love.

 The people who walked in darkness
        have seen a great light

Reflection for the 4th Sunday of Advent 2024

When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”

We have arrived at the last of the four Sundays of Advent, and we continue to contemplate Advent and all its implications in these last few days.

As mentioned over the past three weeks, Advent has several shades of meaning. It can mean beginning, revelation, expectation, dawning, and a start. Throughout this season we are led through the various ways we will prepare for and encounter Jesus in this new Church year.

In the first week of Advent, we focused on our preparation for Jesus’ return. In the second week we focused on our personal preparation for needed changes in our lives. Last week we focused on proactive preparation for the Kingdom through our efforts at evangelizing the gospel message of freedom, forgiveness, and new life both verbally and by the signals we send through the way we live out our daily lives. We are to invite others by the way we live differently and are different.

Today, we hear of Mary’s journey to see her cousin Elizabeth and Elizabeth and her unborn baby’s reaction to the visit. Both are filled with the Holy Spirit and in action and by words they leap for joy.

Mary, Elizabeth, and Elizabeth’s husband Zachariah were well aware of the long-awaited promise of the Messiah and now – here He is.

This awareness and its meaning are expressed by both Mary and Zachariah in the Canticles they proclaim, the Magnificat and Benedictus.

If you are unfamiliar with these, take a chance in these last few days of Advent to look them up. We clergy know them quite well since they are prayed daily in the Liturgy of the Hours.

This daily recitation keeps the immanence of Jesus’ return before us. This is our last of the four ways to prepare for Jesus’ return, keeping His immanence ever before us.

Take the prayer “Patient Trust” by the great philosopher and theologian Teilhard de Chardin to heart: Above all, trust in the slow work of God. We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay. We should like to skip the intermediate stages. We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new… Give our Lord the benefit of believing that His hand is leading you, and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete while we await Him.

Reflection for the 3rd Sunday of Advent 2024

The crowds asked John the Baptist, “What should we do?”

We have arrived at the third of the four Sundays of Advent, and we continue to contemplate Advent and all its implications.

As mentioned over the past two weeks, Advent has several shades of meaning. It can mean beginning, revelation, expectation, dawning, and a start. Throughout this season we are led through the various ways we will prepare for and encounter Jesus in this new Church year.

In the first week of Advent, we focused on our preparation for Jesus’ return. Last week we focused on our personal preparation for needed changes in our lives through repentance, penance, and reform.

Today, the people who have been hearing John call for change and preparation ask him what they are to do.

John lists some key areas pf personal reform, but it is not for the sake of reform itself, but in preparation for the Kingdom of God. John preached good news to the people. It was the good news of the gospel message that would come from Jesus.

Preparation is about being proactive. We are to take the steps necessary for the revelation of the Kingdom life to people who do not know it. 

Think about what John was asking of his inquirers: share in your clothing and food, stop stealing, stop extorting and accusing. People never saw such a thing. Everyone had their expectations of how people would be, how selfish they would be, but now something had changed, and people were changed.

We are not to get distracted in our proactive preparation for the Kingdom. The people around John, having heard his message, and charged with what they were to do, got quickly lost. They sat around, engaging in speculation – kind of like wondering what the drones are – and John quickly calls them back by pointing to the reality of the Messiah.

What we are to do is take account of these three calls for preparation: to be ready for Jesus’ return in glory, to have undertaken personal reform in our lives, and to be those who are being proactive in showing forth the Kingdom.

What are we to do? Let people know by evangelizing the gospel message of freedom, forgiveness, and new life. Make efforts both verbally and by the signals we send through the way we live out our daily lives of what it means to be in the Kingdom. Let others encounter the unexpected from us because we live differently and are different from those in the kingdom of the world. And, finally, remain focused on what is truly important 

Reflection for the 1st Sunday of Advent 2024

“And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.”

Welcome and Happy Church New Year.

For months we have talked about our seven summer Sundays and Jesus’ instruction on how we, who receive Him, are to live out our lives.

Advent brings a change in direction and focus. We have four Sundays to contemplate the word Advent and all its implications.

Advent has several shades of meaning. It can mean beginning, revelation, expectation, dawning, and a start. Throughout this season we will be led through the various ways we will prepare for and encounter Jesus in this new year.

This week we focus on our Advent preparation for Jesus’ return. Jesus instructs us on how we are to act and react on that day.

Jesus tells us that our reaction to His return in glory is to be assured, and confident. We are not to fear His return or the judgment He will impose. He tells us to stand erect and raise our heads because our redemption is at hand. That confidence comes from our preparation and active waiting.

Active waiting is something we engage in. We are not sitting idle nor are we being passive. Our faith tells us that preparation and active waiting require a constant state of action and movement – working and pushing the expected fulfillment of the Kingdom forward.

Jesus reminds us that engaging in preparation and active waiting will keep us from both drowsiness (i.e., sitting idle or just giving up) and anxiety (i.e., fear from dwelling on the wrong things and expecting the worst things).

So, He says: “Be vigilant at all times and pray for strength.”

St. Paul reminds us that our Christian family life centered on love will be the very thing that strengthens us. Think about that. When we actively love through words and deeds, through outreach, evangelism, and charity we have no time for drowsiness, no room for anxiety. It is key, as St. Paul says to conduct ourselves to please God.

Jesus is returning in glory. The preparation and active waiting of Advent urges us to participate purposefully in Jesus’ call to transformation, so we are ready for the day of His return. We must not be passive or drowsy or unfocused, but engaged, reflective, and growing in the waiting each and every moment.

Let us then prepare for Jesus’ return, the needed changes in our lives, growth in our evangelism and Jesus’ immediate immanence.

Refection for the Solemnity of Christ the King 2024

“…have others told you about Me?”

For seven Sundays this summer we journeyed with Jesus and His apostles coming to understand that we receive Him.

Jesus’ journey continued as He moved from Galilee into Judea and on to Jerusalem. He is now at the end of His journey, standing before Pilate, awaiting torture and death. Along the way of this journey Jesus has discussed the many ways we are to apply His presence within us.

Pilate begins his interrogation of Jesus by questioning Jesus’ kingship. We have an opportunity here to explore a bit about Pilate. 

He was a member of the Equestrian Order which were Roman Cavalrymen who came from the landed gentry. That means he was educated and already had wealth, and political and social connections as a young man that further grew through his service to Caesar. He was appointed governor and prefect of Judea which gave him immense power over the military (who were really police), taxes, judicial power including the power to condemn people to death. He could mint coins and grant certain measures of control to local authorities.

Like many politicians, Pilate was skillful, competent, and manipulative. He reigned as governor for ten years, which is quite long, this thought owing to his skill. Historians from Pilate’s time also note that he was a cruel and obstinate man. 

One interesting note is that he liked to poke the bear in that he would purposefully provoke the Jewish leaders and people.

This little vignette of Pilate is intended to show that he had absolutely no interest in the Jewish religion, nor did he have any regard for it. This is why Pilate clearly says: “I am not a Jew, am I? 

Pilate knew nothing about Jesus, His claims, teaching, miracles, or of the Kingdom He said, “is at hand.” All he knew is that an accused man was presented before him for execution.

Jesus’ question to Pilate was somewhat rhetorical. He knew that Pilate knew little to nothing of Him. That question however confronts us with how we live out our obligation of witness to Jesus and His Kingdom. Hear Jesus saying this to us: “Have you told others about Me?”

The presence of Jesus within us calls us to a life of witness, of talking about Jesus and inviting those we encounter to join us in meeting Him and entering His Kingdom. 

Indeed, if Jesus is our King, Leader, Ruler, and ultimate Judge we need to be telling everyone about Him. Come to church with me. Meet Jesus, the King.

Reflection for the 33rd Ordinary Sunday 2024

“They will see ‘the Son of Man coming in the clouds’ with great power and glory, and then He will send out the angels and gather His elect from the four winds.”

For seven Sundays this summer we journeyed with Jesus and His apostles coming to understand that we receive Him.

Jesus’ journey continued as He moved from Galilee into Judea and on to Jerusalem. He is now very near the end of His journey. His arrest and crucifixion are  now hours away. Along the way of this journey Jesus has discussed the many ways we are to apply His presence within us.

In certain ways we can understand the darkness of Jesus’ discussion with his disciples. His life was quickly coming to an end, and He knew it. Just prior to today’s gospel passage, the disciples were pointing out all the magnificent stuff around them in the Temple area.

We would be wrong to just say, well Jesus is in a dark time and write it off with that. Instead, we are called understand what Jesus is talking about and is asking of His disciples and us. He wants us to take our focus off stuff and place it on what is most important.

Those important things are the traits He says the elect will have: Knowing that He is near; We will all awaken from death; The wise will shine brightly; and Those who lead the many to justice shall be like the stars forever. It is also important to know and acknowledge the alternative.

So, what about us? We can certainly know He is near. That is no problem, but am I wise, and do I lead many to justice?

I think back to those days when I helped my children with their school projects. I thought I could lead and that I was wise. What I quickly learned was that I was not wise or a great leader when the grades they received with my help were – well let’s say – not great.

Most of us can connect to those thoughts. If I am not wise and leading people to justice, if I’m not all that great, how will I ever make it?

What needs to happen, is like the disciples, we need to change our focus. We place emphasis on greatness, accomplishment, stuff, and success. Jesus never asked us to be great – rather servants. He did not ask us to be accomplished or successful, but rather to be disciples and witnesses. He did not ask us to acquire stuff, but to sacrifice all we have for the Kingdom.

We are the elect because we do as Jesus asks. We are those wise leaders when we give example, live in Christian witness, and stay focused on our real home.