Reflection for the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time 2015

Getting to
work.

And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him off by himself away from the crowd. He put his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, “Ephphatha!”— that is, “Be opened!” — And immediately the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly.

Tomorrow we celebrate Labor Day. Our Holy Church has a long history of support for the Labor movement. Our founders were in tune with the struggles faced by working men and women. They experienced the reality of exploitation by the powerful moneyed interests of our nation. Bishop Hodur spoke out for the respect that was due workers, for fair treatment, payment of proper wages, and a fair share of the profits they produced. He advocated for the same kind of democracy in industry that was part of our Church. All worked against selfish interest and for the collective good of the community.

It would be one thing to advocate for workers from self-interest as an ends, but we well know that advocacy for the rights of workers and for the community comes from and is centered in our love for Jesus’ way of life.

As we see in today’s gospel, Jesus’ healing takes physical form. He works to make the deaf hear and the mute speak. In John 9:5-7 we see Jesus again healing physically: “While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.” When He had said this, He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and applied the clay to his eyes, and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam ” (which is translated, Sent). So he went away and washed, and came back seeing.

St. Paul reminds us that we cannot forego justice toward the weak, the downtrodden, the worker. We are not to make distinction, but look to the collective good of all – because Jesus showed no partiality: show no partiality as you adhere to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. For if a man with gold rings and fine clothes comes into your assembly, and a poor person in shabby clothes also comes in, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Sit here, please,” while you say to the poor one, “Stand there,” or “Sit at my feet,” have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil designs?

Our faith in Jesus requires that we work faithfully for the collective good. We must be unafraid of working to renew the world – to help those deaf to faith to hear; to help those who fear proclamation to cry out; to open streams of the life giving waters to the entire world; and to show no partiality, treating all as equal before God.

September 2015 Newsletter – Let Brotherly Love Continue

An on-time newsletter once again. The record continues…

Summer is coming to an end and Fall is around the corner. We look to one of the greatest Feasts established by our Holy Church – the Solemnity of Brotherly Love. September brings the first ever national webinar on Brotherly Love (register here), a continuation of our Holy Masses for Healing, Back to Church Sunday, a new Bible study, and prayerful recollection of the 14th Anniversary of the Tragedy of 9/11, and many other events.

Also in our newsletter – congratulations to our young people who won music scholarships, the start of Sunday School classes, and a report on our summer activities. Get updates on Church-wide events for this year of regeneration and much more.

You may view and download a copy of our September 2015 Newsletter right here.

Reflection for the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time 2015

We are almost
there.

He said to them, “Does this shock you? What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray him. And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father.” As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.

Two hands reaching for each other. A couple in love. Children in the back seat of the car, wondering ‘are we there yet.’ An action movie where the hero rescues others at the very last second. These are all examples of reaching for achievement.

As we have seen over these weeks, Jesus has been approaching this dramatic last moment. He is completing His teaching on the great gift He gives us, His very body and blood, His soul to live within us forever. Jesus is the mountain climber approaching the summit. He is about to cross the goal line. What happened?

It is often said that life is full of disappointments. It is hard to find fulfillment, acceptance, and victory, to reach our goals and end up a winner. We bet on the horse that doesn’t win. We put our eggs in the wrong basket. We weren’t at the dock when our ship came in.

All of the people hearing Jesus were at the dock (literally since they were in the seaside town of Capernaum). They were in the right place at the right time. The summit was in reach. Their team was about to win. Their hands were about to touch hand of God. And they walked away from Him.

They… were… almost… there… and they walked away both in body and soul. While a few stayed, even among those one had lost faith, Judas. This giver of God’s body and blood, of God’s soul, wasn’t what he wanted. He continued to live in his disappointments and that disappointment would later turn to anger and betrayal. Judas… was… almost… there… and lost his faith.

We are faced with the same challenge the crowd in Capernaum faced. Jesus offers us words that are Spirit and life. We continually have Him within our reach and can come to Him to receive His body and blood, His soul to live within us forever. We are almost there. Like Joshua before the people of Israel, we must declare whom we will serve – the gods of the times or the Lord.

We… are… almost… there… If we chose the Lord we have real life, true regeneration, purpose, fulfillment, acceptance, and victory. Let us grasp His hand and find in Him real life.

Reflection for the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time

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The challenge.
The reaction.

So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place. People saw them leaving and many came to know about it. They hastened there on foot from all the towns and arrived at the place before them. When He disembarked and saw the vast crowd, His heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things.

The Apostles had gone out as directed by Jesus. In faithfulness to Him they preached the gospel and healed the sick. They had returned to Jesus to report all that they had done. They filled Jesus in. Certainly they were both excited and exhausted. As a good spiritual leader would do to this very day, Jesus invites them to come away to a quiet place where they can pray and rest. Here’s where Jesus experiences the full brunt of His humanity. He could not get away. People kept coming in need of His teaching and healing. They were hungry for God’s word, something the leaders of the day could not provide. Jesus and His Apostles were so engaged that they couldn’t even eat.

Finally, there was opportunity – they could get to their boat and could head off to a quiet, deserted, peaceful place. Those moments of prayer and rest were at hand. The best laid plans… they arrive and waiting for them is an even larger throng of people.

We know Jesus’ reaction: His heart was moved with pity for them… and He began to teach them many things. We might wonder if the Apostles reacted in the same way? We know what it is like; can place ourselves in the situation. They were expecting alone time with Jesus – rest and prayer. We can easily understand their frustration, they might even have been angry.

Jesus’ actions are our first challenge. How do we react when confronted by the unexpected, when our personal wants, desires, and expectations are frustrated, when God’s way counters against what we want? Do we follow Him?

This is a very pertinent question in today’s world. We are called to act as Jesus would act. His actions and words, God’s way of life naturally fits with proper human desires. Seeing a mass of people in need we naturally want to help – at least deep inside. Yet selfishness gets in the way. Our battle is to overcome personal selfishness, having things our way, and in the process conforming ourselves to His way.

It comes down to how we react to challenge. Our Facebook friends tell us – this is the way the world should be. Our colleagues at work say – don’t bother. Politicians demonize anyone who disagrees. Our gut check is Jesus’ way as given us by Scripture, Church teaching, and Tradition. Acting in accord with Him we meet the challenge.

Reflection for the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2015

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You have reached me.
Leave a message.

Amos answered Amaziah, “I was no prophet, nor have I belonged to a company of prophets; I was a shepherd and a dresser of sycamores. The LORD took me from following the flock, and said to me, Go, prophesy to my people Israel.”

Are we answering machines or messengers as Christians?

As loyal followers of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we start our week off the right way. We spend time in church to give God the praise and worship He desires and so deserves from us. We hear the word proclaimed and preached. We receive the Lord’s forgiveness through His Church, our community. We are fed, nourished with the Bread of Life and drink from the Cup of Salvation.

If we are answering machines we take in all that is given. We can even repeat much of it back, if someone pushes the play button. We do the same thing over and over and loyally sit through and retain these messages.

Messengers are different. They deliver. They not only deliver, but also are personally changed by the process. Think of a messenger or courier.

  • The delivering of the message places demands on them. There is urgency to their work. The message cannot wait, cannot be late. The message must be securely delivered – true to its source.
  • The messenger’s task is physical. They have to get where they are going. They are strengthened by the process.
  • Messengers may be specialists in delivering certain types of content.
  • The messenger’s delivery of the message is distinctive. The messenger’s experience of the message adds to the delivery, in certain ways becomes part of the message.

Social corruption and the oppression of the poor and helpless and worship of pagan deities were prevalent in Israel and Amos was called to be a messenger. The head priest Amaziah, who should have been the messenger became less than even an answering machine.

Our task is to determine whether we will act mechanically as God’s answering machines – faithful of course – or whether we will be His messengers.

As Jesus sent His apostles, so He sends us. He sends us with power and authority. Let us take up the urgency of the mission and deliver Jesus’ message – in opposition to the changing wants and desires of the world. Let us grow in strength by the delivery of His message. As we are given gifts, let us use our specialized talents to deliver His message. Let us convey God’s message witnessing to the joy, hope, and comfort it has given us.

Reflection for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2015

walking-the-walk

And You are
Who?

When the Sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished. 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! Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.

Do we mimic Jesus’ encounter with the people from His native region by failing to recollect His reality and how very important and essential He is to us?

Of course, very few people would say they hate Jesus. Where they fail is in seeing the reality of Jesus. Like the people of His native village, the world wants Jesus to be who they want Him to be. They neither expect nor want God to walk among them, to enter into their lives, or to challenge them to go His way.

The gospel shows us that the people of Jesus’ native place expected a carpenter. They pigeonholed Jesus. When He upset their apple cart and challenged them to see differently, they were offended rather than changed.

What do we expect to find when we meet Jesus? Was He only a man, a philosopher who said nice and helpful things that we can choose to accept or ignore? Is He the god of our own making who exists merely to confirm and accept whatever we wish confirmed and accepted? Is He the god of magic blessings and cures? Is He a ‘plumber,’ on call in case of emergency? Do we keep Him safely on a refrigerator magnet, the bookshelf, or the Rolodex just in case? Is He the god of unchallenging love?

Jesus upset the expectations of those in His native place and He should upset our expectations.

The most challenging aspect of being a Christian is whether we will pigeonhole Jesus or if we will accept Him in the fullness of His godhead. If He is a mere shadow of what He truly is then He is not God. He had worked as a carpenter – and that is all His community members saw – that one side. As a result of their expectations they took offense and limited Him.

Jesus proclaimed marvelous words and a life affirming philosophy – but He is not just a philosopher. He healed and is there in a pinch, but He is more than an on-call fixer. He is never a god of our making. His message of love and way of love is always a challenge. It is a challenge to complacency and to our expectations.

Will we limit Him in our lives? Will we fail to recognize Him and how important He is? Will He be more important than anything to us? Will he offend us or will we be set free by His reality? Accepting Him and taking up His challenges sets us free. It makes us amazing in Jesus’ eyes.

Reflection for the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time and Father’s Day

Jesus Asleep in the Storm

I am here
protecting you.

Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion. They woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” He woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Quiet! Be still!” The wind ceased and there was great calm. Then he asked them, “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?”

What a perfect reading for Father’s Day! In a way we can even draw a funny analogy – picture dad asleep on the couch in the middle of something scary going on. We wake him up, feeling panicked, and ask for help. Of course he gets up to help. Then he says: ‘You know, you could have handled it yourself.’

We know from Jesus’ words that He came to reveal the Father to us. In Matthew 11:27 Jesus says: “All things have been delivered to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.”

The event on the sea tells us two things Jesus wished to reveal to us, His faithful people, about our Heavenly Father.

Jesus shows us that the Father is eternal, transcendent, all-powerful, and Almighty. He has complete command over all that exists. He commands the winds and the waves and they still. As Job learned, only God has all knowledge and understands all things. Jesus shows that when we call upon the Father He is quick to protect and comfort His people. His Almighty Power is a power for love and good, never evil.

Jesus also shows us that the Father expects something from us. This the part where our dad would ask, ‘You know, you could have handled it yourself.’ This is not to imply that we have all power and control, but rather that we live by having faith and trust in God. Jesus wants us to do as He did – to trust and be safe by having faith in our Heavenly Father and trusting all He asks us to do.

When we have faith and trust in God we have strength, a confidence that no matter what may come we have no reason to be terrified. We will always be safe in Him.

Some of us have been blessed to have fathers with faith in God and who patterned their lives after our Heavenly Father. They led us to faith and trust in our Heavenly Father. They knew that if we could grasp this essential aspect of life – faith and trust in God – then we would have true life, eternal life, and perfect safety. No harm or ill, even when they come, will drown us.

The disciples in the boat wanted something to hold onto something, someone because they felt they were going to drown. They looked to Jesus and of course He protected them. Then like our dad would do, He reminded them that they could have handled it themselves, by faith.

Reflection for the 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2015

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All things green
and new.

And all the trees of the field shall know that I, the LORD, bring low the high tree, lift high the lowly tree, wither up the green tree, and make the withered tree bloom. As I, the LORD, have spoken, so will I do.

Ezekiel the Prophet was called at a difficult time in Israel’s history. Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian ruler, had besieged Jerusalem, carried off its king as well as the members of the upper class, including Ezekiel the priest. He appointed a puppet king, Zedekiah, for Israel. Jerusalem ends up destroyed. In reflecting back on all this, and all the bad news he had to deliver, Ezekiel writes about hope and restoration.

There were many strong nations and powers, likened to high, strong, green trees. Israel was withered, barely living. Yet the Lord had (and has) the power to lift up the lowly tree, to make it green and alive again, to make it the most powerful and beautiful tree and to make those formerly powerful wither away.

Jesus is the fulfillment of Ezekiel’s prophecy. He is the restoration that came to be by God’s grace – to make all things green and new. Jesus’ coming is the culminating moment of reassurance for us. Our God is the God of new life, of the green time – the keeper of promises. He is our hope and the bringer of renewal.

How appropriate then to read of God’s strengthening, renewing, and greening of the withered tree as we enter into a new Church season this Sunday. This season of green will last through the end of November. It has been variously referred to as the ‘Time After Pentecost,’ the ‘Green Time,’ or ‘Ordinary Time.’

These green days are so important for us. Like Ezekiel, we have been born into a time of difficulty and challenge. Sometimes it is hard for us to see any possibility for renewal. Let us take this season – June through November – to recommit to our God Who is the God of renewal and new life. Let us recognize that we, like Ezekiel, are called to offer God’s way to the world.

By uniting ourselves to Jesus, first through baptism, then in each moment of our lives, we partake and share in God’s life. God, who can bring greenness out of the withered tree will take whatever is broken and hurtful, whatever is withered in us, will make it new, green, and alive. Hear God’s promise recounted in the 92nd Psalm: The just man shall flourish like the palm tree, like a cedar of Lebanon shall he grow. They that are planted in the house of the Lord, shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall bear fruit even in old age; vigorous and sturdy shall they be. We who follow the Lord will flourish and be green once again.

Needed: Strong, Determined, Brave, and Faithful Men

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Our Holy Church sets the month of June aside and encourages the faithful to pray for the clergy of our Holy Church and for an increase of vocations. We also remember those who spent their lives serving God and His people, being now retired and in need of our financial support.

The life of service within the Church is not without its occasional difficulties, but instead of focusing on temporary and occasional drawbacks, men who respond to Jesus’ call are strong, determined, brave, and faithful.

Are you ready to respond to God’s call, do you feel the support of family, friends, and a community praying for you? Now is the time to explore the possibilities of a life in the ministry of the Church. Whether you are married or single, a recent graduate, or on your second or third career, the Church encourages you to “Come and See”.

To find out more about vocations to the diaconate and the priesthood, please contact the Savonarola Theological Seminary of the Polish National Catholic Church, 1031 Cedar Ave, Scranton, PA 18505. School, (570) 961-9288, Office, (570) 343-0100.

Reflection for Sunday in the Octave of Corpus Christi 2015

SacramentHoly-Communion

I believe in
—— ——

While they were eating, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, gave it to them, and said, “Take it; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, and they all drank from it. He said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many. Amen, I say to you, I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”

The words at the very top of this reflection “I believe in —— ——” are the same as last Sunday.

These two weeks are about core-required beliefs for the Christian man, woman, and child. Last week it was about the identity of God, We believe in One God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This week it is about the bread and wine we offer as a community. What is that bread and wine when we consume it while kneeling at the altar rail?

Jesus assured us on many occasions that we would eat His flesh and drink His blood. This wasn’t something He came up with on the night of the Last Supper. This is His purposeful gift.

In His discourse with His disciples He said: This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

Jesus knew very well that many would not accept this. For Jews consuming blood is not Kosher at all nor is eating human flesh. We have confirmation of this because shortly thereafter many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him.

This dialog happened shortly after Jesus fed the multitude. They wanted to make Him their king because of His miracles. A day or so later He was almost alone.

So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

This is our test. Do we stay or go? Jesus’ way, His teachings, everything about Him including the faith we must have to proclaim these core beliefs about His identity and the gift He has given us are not easy. When we kneel, what are we kneeling to? What is this bread and wine? If we believe in Him and the reality of His gift, let us kneel and proclaim I believe! I receive You!