Reflection for the 6th Sunday of Easter and Mother’s Day 2023

Lived Victory!

Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence, keeping your conscience clear

Thank you for joining today as we continue in our Easter joy. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Scripture tells us of Peter’s mother-in-law, how Jesus healed her, and how she took care of Jesus and His disciples. Certainly, one of the many amazing, devoted women in Holy Scripture. I must imagine that Peter also had an amazing mom considering the letter that he wrote which we are reflecting on: Be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence, keeping your conscience clear.

That is a mom statement if I ever heard one. I can hear my mom saying similar things. You know, those occasions when we are upset, feel misunderstood, or are angry and want to run off and do something not quite smart. Maybe the words were slightly different, yet they were the same: ‘Explain yourself clearly. Use your words. Do things with gentleness and reverence. Honor those you encounter. Do not sin. Act with integrity. Just because someone wronged you does not mean you should do wrong. Have a clear conscience.’

Consider some of the other moms of the Bible. Like our moms they were wonderful examples of devotion to God, His people, and their families.

Jochebed was the mother of Moses and would not let the commands of government overcome her love for her son. She refused to allow him to be killed, hid him, and saved him. Not only did she protect Moses, but she reverently placed his fate in the hands of God when she placed him in the basket in the Nile. Our moms have confidently placed us in the hands of God. They taught us to trust in God over all things.

Hannah was in despair because she was unable to have a child. She was deeply loved by her husband Elkanah, but still longed for a child of her own. Every time Hannah went to the Temple, she poured her heart out to God. God heard her, and she bore a son. Out of gratitude to the Lord, she surrendered her son back to God. Hannah gave her child to God because she knew it was the best she could do for him. Releasing control opened the door for God to do amazing things for Samuel, one of the greatest prophets. Our moms have prayed for us and have given us to God in baptism so that He bless us as well.

The Widow of Zarephath gave what little she had to feed the prophet Elijah. Amid famine and desperation, her reverent faith and trust in God was essential to her and her son’s survival. Later when her son died, she went to Elijah for help, and her son was saved. Our moms have had “famine” seasons where things seemed bleak and hopeless. During those times, they taught us that reverent trust and faith in God overcome even when things don’t make sense.

Elizabeth and Mary reverently surrendered themselves to God’s will even though His way seemed impossible from a human perspective. They act as the premier example of moms who allowed God’s will to be done.

If we have learned from our moms and the moms of the Bible, our ears are opened to what Jesus asks and promises: “Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.” Let us honor the special women of our lives by our reverence to God and by living His gospel way of life.

Reflection for the 5th Sunday of Easter 2023

Lived Victory!

“Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these because I am going to the Father.”

Thank you for joining today as we continue in our Easter joy. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Do you celebrate your baptism day? Do you even know when it was?

Because I do genealogy as a hobby I happen to know when mine was without digging through all the papers in that locked metal box in the closet (we all have those don’t we?). Mine was December 14th.

Sometime this week, open that box and look at the date. I know Carin (May 15th) and Vince (April 1st) had to do that to be godparents. Then put it on your calendar as an annual thing, and when it rolls around celebrate. Go out to dinner, have cake, take a trip, and share the time.

We celebrate lots of stuff: team wins, national whatever-it-is-day, a promotion or retirement. We celebrate love on Valentine’s Day. It is only right and fitting that we should celebrate that day when we met the greatest love of all time, the greatest love in all eternity – Jesus in our baptism.

You see, in baptism we are made one in Jesus. We enter the water dying with Him and are thus buried with Him to then rise-up out of the water to new life.

Our Holy Church does not look at this event, baptism, as some kind of ritual cleaning because babies are born all dirty and sinny. No! Indeed, we see baptism as that moment a person is regenerated, brought to new life in Christ Jesus. It is also why the Church must never be a place of criticism and condemnation, but rather a place of welcome, healing, and continual entry into God’s new life.

With this new life come the promises we hear in Scripture and in the Holy Mass today: You will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones. We have true power. You are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own.” We are set apart by God, made different by our baptism. I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself. We have an eternal home that Jesus built for us. If you know me, then you will also know my Father. We have intimate knowledge of God the Father because we know Jesus.

Yes, friends, celebrate the day you received the greatest gift of all. We can buy stuff, acquire, earn, give our children clothes, schooling, hobbies and sports – all good things, but the best gift for Olivia happens today because it is a forever gift, and it is free. 

It happened for you perhaps years or decades ago – don’t forget it, or just tuck it away in a little metal fireproof box. As you take out that paper and look at it recall that you were given the greatest gift ever. Pray in that intimate moment. Picture mom, dad, your godparents and their joy as they gave you this gift. And, thank God each day by living out the new life you entered with thanksgiving.

Reflection for the 3rd Sunday of Easter 2023

Lived Victory!

If you invoke as Father Him Who judges impartially according to each one’s works, conduct yourselves with reverence during the time of your sojourning, realizing that you were ransomed from your futile conduct with the precious blood of Christ.

Thank you for joining today as we continue in our Easter joy. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Let’s talk about faith. It seems recently I have received a lot of questions about faith, or encountered situations in which the answer to the struggle a person is undergoing is faith.

One would think that faith is an easy endeavor. Afterall, Jesus promised that those who believe in Him would have the best gift ever – victory and eternal life, but for some reason it isn’t all that easy.

A person may have all the good things in life – I mean look at HGTV. My wife and I like to watch “Love It or List It.” In the show a family gets the flaws in their current home fixed while they tour new homes. In the end they must decide whether they will love their remodeled home or list it and buy a new one with all the bells and whistles. Simple enough premise, except the people in these situations miss what they have and don’t really appreciate how lucky they are to have it, to be blessed in the ways they are even with the few flaws they may have around them. In their arrogance they miss the fact others have little to nothing – and are yet more grateful than they are.

That’s how faith works. Some see it, understand it, perceive it, and are grateful for it despite the flaws they may have in their lives. Others completely miss it.

This was the story for the disciples on the road to Emmaus. They were so caught up in their own perceptions and drama they forgot to see with eyes of faith. They did not perceive their hearts burning within them. They did not hear the women’s testimony with faith. Jesus was so astounded He would say, “Oh, how foolish you are!” Exclamation mark on purpose.

Now, not to make this too distant from us, think of the tragedy, destruction, horror, pain, and sadness these disciples had gone through. Can we blame them for not seeing with eyes of faith?

We go through those things as well at different times and in different measure. Perhaps it is a situation where everything does not turn out as we planned, when we receive an impossible diagnosis, or when we see that flaw in the place we live and just wish it would get taken care of. It is indeed about how we conduct ourselves during the time of our sojourning. The lesson of Emmaus is to see with eyes of faith, that go beyond the now and focus on our life in Jesus’ victory no matter how things are going or what our worries are.

Our blessings are abundant even in times that challenge because we have victory in Jesus, and we are continually called to live that victory by faith ransomed from our futile conduct with the precious blood of Christ.

Reflection for the 4th Sunday in Lent 2023

How to Overcome.

Then Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind.”

Thank you for joining as we continue our journey through Lent.

Over the past seven weeks we focused on the hot stoves of sin in our lives, those dangers we so often run toward. We have set to work at getting rid of them. Those old, hot, rusty, greasy, ugly things in our lives must go. 

We discussed the tools available to us that help us get rid of those sin problems. They are the tools Jesus used and exemplified for us so like He did, we might live in continuous relationship with our Heavenly Father.

We studied the fact that the Tempter tries to dissuade us, to distract us, to call us to a laziness where we give in to our hot stoves and live complacently with them. He wants us to say: ‘Yes, it is ugly and old, and awful, but I like it there.’  If we do begin to achieve, the Accuser comes forward with blame. He doesn’t want us to understand the goodness and mercy our God – a goodness and mercy that overcomes every sin, every failure. In God’s eyes the past is gone, it is absolutely forgotten in the blood of His Son, Jesus. We don’t have to worry about it, but the Accuser wants us to worry and so remain complacent with our ugly stoves.

We have been called to spend this Lenten time, and indeed our entire lives focusing our efforts, our strengths and even our weaknesses on overcoming sins blindness and in turn to praise God Who gave His all to forgive. 

There is a lot today in our scripture about blind spots and blindness.

Samuel and Jesse were into appearance, who they thought met God’s requirements for a king, but God remined Samuel: “Not as man sees does God see, because man sees the appearance but the LORD looks into the heart.”

Paul reminds the Ephesians to live in the light, for “You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light.” 

God places great emphasis on seeing rightly, but we must be careful to draw a clear distinction between seeing by God’s light, by His vision for us, and our perceptions.

Perceptions are interesting. Look at our Gospel. The formerly blind man perceives the Pharisees as erudite men, studied, knowledgeable, honest and informed. Yet he encountered men who were looking out for themselves and who refused to see by God’s light. They missed the Messiah and lived in hatred of Him. The man’s parents perceived the ulterior motives of the Pharisees was more important than honesty; so rather than own up, they threw their son under the bus (or chariot at that time).

The only person who saw by the light of God was the formerly blind man. He was amazed, saying: “This is what is so amazing, that you do not know where he is from, yet he opened my eyes.” Of course, he was thrown out, but instead of experiencing loss he followed Jesus. 

If we perceive our hot stoves as other than what they are; if we perceive the work of the Tempter and Accuser as friendship, if we perceive darkness as light we must turn, repent, and start anew. Our opportunity to live as children of light, to see clearly, is here.

Reflection for the Solemnity of the Institution 2023

How to Overcome.

For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected when received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the invocation of God in prayer.

Thank you for joining as we celebrate this special day in the life of our Church while simultaneously continuing our journey through Lent.

Over the past six weeks (can you believe it has been that long?) we have identified the hot stoves of sin in our lives, those dangers we love to run toward. We have set to work at getting rid of them. Those old, hot, rusty, greasy, ugly things in our lives must go. 

With that in mind, we discussed the tools available to us that help us get rid of those sin problems. They are the same tools Jesus used and exemplified for us: prayer, studying scripture, speaking about the kingdom, fasting, and communing in relationship centered on the Father. 

Seems easy enough until we set to doing them. Once we move toward that way of life, a deeper relationship with God, the Tempter enters., He comes with distractions, easy outs, and an appeal to our baser selves.

If we do stay on track, guess what? We will have the same success Jesus had. But the work toward success will be marked by further challenges, namely the Accuser comes forward with blame, he doesn’t want us to succeed or to understand the goodness and mercy our God provides. It is almost a last-ditch effort to have us abandon hope.

Jesus overcame all things for us, from the dessert to the cross. We were chosen by Him. Because of that, we are on the road to heaven. We can indeed overcome all hardship and opposition from both the Tempter and the Accuser, but we must change our attitudes and perspectives. We must solely focus on Jesus’ grant of hope. It is our guarantee!

One-hundred and twenty-six years ago a group of people facing poverty, prejudice, and every form of human accusation and earthly temptation took a stand and instituted this Holy Church, consistent with the pristine Catholic Church of the first centuries. Their work and effort was not for the purpose of being different in a simply outward manner, but intended to represent a complete change in attitude, and change of view toward the same path the earliest of Christians saw in Jesus’ redemption. They knew to trust, and so we must trust.

St. Paul tells the young bishop Timothy to differentiate rightly. We must, as St. Paul warned, avoid those who would teach falsely, who would urge us to reject God’s good gifts, so that we might clearly perceive and live in them.

Things that are evil, the hot stoves of sin that harm, destroy, hurt, and lessen human dignity cause one to fail in loving God and neighbor (the greatest commandment). Sometimes it can seem obvious, sometimes we just live with sins we have become blind to. 

Let us then focus on what God has created, foremost the salvation given to us in Christ Jesus. Let us focus on being part of Him, grafted onto Him. Let us then focus our efforts, our strengths and even our weaknesses into overcoming sin, our blind spots, and bearing fruit abundantly for God, bringing Him all glory.

Reflection for the 2nd Sunday in Lent 2023

How to Overcome.

And He was transfigured before them; His face shone like the sun and His clothes became white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with Him.

Thank you for joining as we together journey through Lent.

We spent the weeks of Pre-Lent identifying the hot stoves of sin in our lives, those dangers we love to run toward. We planned our strategies for getting rid of them.

Those old, hot, rusty, greasy, ugly things in our lives must go. With that in mind, we discussed the tools available to us that will help us get rid of that sin problem. They are the same tools Jesus used and exemplified for us. It is why the Church recommends them.

The tools He used: prayer, studying scripture, speaking about the kingdom, fasting, communing in relationship centered on the Father. 

Seems easy enough until we set to doing them. Once we move toward that way of life, a deeper relationship with God, the Tempter enters., He comes with distractions, easy outs, and an appeal to our baser selves.

If we do stay on track, guess what? We will have the same success Jesus had. 

We know we are being successful, that our relationship with God is growing and deepening when we start feeling good, wonderful, and fulfilled. At the same time the Tempter comes again and this time as the Accuser. He will tell us just how bad we should feel, how God cannot possibly be in relationship with us, and most particularly how we have no right to feel good.

That is the true mark of success and know that the stove of sin is being removed the better we feel and the more we are accused.

St. Paul, writing to Timothy, reminds us: Bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God.

Paul knew that those on the road to glory in God would face hardship, especially those brought on by the Tempter and Accuser. He also knew that if we ask, God will strengthen us in ignoring both the Tempter and Accuser.

Paul knew that each of us who has come to Jesus by faith has been saved and called to a holy life because God made it so for us. He chose us. He picked us out for His team.

We need to remind ourselves of that and take strength from it. When the Accuser says: God doesn’t want you! we can respond: Yes, He does, He chose me.

It may seem odd that we read the account of glorious Transfiguration of Jesus today. This grand event that fills us with joy and confidence doesn’t seem very Lent like. But there is reason. 

The glorious Jesus, our Lord and God to Whom the Law and Prophets pointed, Who the Old Testament predicts is here among us in glory. 

Jesus overcoming all things for us, from the dessert to the cross, and is how we were chosen. Paul told us we are on the road to heaven (we just got a glimpse of it) and that in using the tools available to us can overcome all hardship and opposition by a holy life wrapped in God’s glorious strength.

Reflection for the 1st Sunday in Lent 2023

How to Overcome.

At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.

Thank you for joining as we together journey through Lent, walking humbly before God and working out our salvation.

As I mentioned Ash Wednesday, we spent the weeks of Pre-Lent identifying the hot stoves of sin in our lives, those dangers we love to run toward, and planned our strategies for getting rid of them.

Those old, hot, rusty, greasy, ugly things in our lives must go, but unfortunately, for many Christians, we spend Lent praying more, sacrificing small things, perhaps giving more, fasting, abstaining, engaging in increased prayer and scripture reading as mere curtains. We close the inner curtain on that hot stove, never really getting rid of it, never allowing Jesus and His team to take it away, so that on Easter Monday we can tear open the curtain and get right back to that hot stove of sin.

Fine Pastor, you’re right. I gave up M&Ms and one hour of TV, but that hot stove of sin remains, and even though I would prefer not to, I’ll probably go right back at it after Lent. You see Pastor, I do not know how to really get rid of that sin. Can the Church help me, give me some strategies to get rid of that sin?

Yes, and as with all the answers it begins with Jesus, looking to Him and what He faced.

We might see the temptations as something that happened at the end of Jesus’ fasting and prayer in the desert, but it was far more than that.

Jesus, as is often said, was tempted in every way we are. As soon as He began to get hungry, thirsty, tired, motivated to give it all up and go home, the Tempter came. The Tempter accused Him of being weak, unable to finish His mission, a disappointment to His Heavenly Father. We can hear that can’t we – because we face that Tempter all the time. He accuses and blames us – all directed at our giving up hope, giving up God.

The Tempter wanted Jesus to denounce His own Father. At the end of the forty days the Tempter hit Jesus with all he had.

It was not just bread for hunger, but the temptation to satisfy every craving of the body – food, drink, pleasure, quitting and being slothful. It was not just to throw oneself down from the parapet of the Temple, but to destroy oneself – quit and kill Your own body Jesus. It was not just rule over all the kingdoms of the world, but to surrender oneself and one’s true power to the ruler of the world – the Tempter.

Jesus, having faced all we face, and far more, would be tempted throughout His ministry and on the cross, yet He was loyal to His Father’s will and did not sin.

These are the tools He used: prayer, studying scripture, speaking about the kingdom, fasting, communing in relationship centered on the Father. Guess what – we can do all those things and have the same success. 

Our success in getting rid of sin is that we will actually feel good, wonderful, fulfilled – and if we find we hate that feeling, know the stove is being removed.

Reflection for Quinquagesima Sunday 2023

The way of life.

Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you.

Thank you for joining as we testify, proclaim, and evangelize the great and Holy Name of Jesus. 

Today we come near to the conclusion of this Pre-Lenten season. 

Over two weeks we considered choices and consequences, the fact that hot stoves of sin are everywhere and so often seem like fun. If we chose that seeming fun, we get burned and must come to the realization that in doing so we abandon the promises of God.

We know that how we live now, how close the world grows toward the kingdom we are supposed to be building, and how we live in eternity depend on choices made here and now. 

If we have lived up to our resolution by taking this Pre-Lenten season as an opportunity to identify the stoves in our lives and have planned our strategies for eliminating them this Lent, we have done well.

Um, but Father, I’ve been kind of busy, got distracted, and lost the last two weeks. 

I can empathize. I used to get all kinds of awards in grade school for “deportment.” It means I carried myself well and was a ‘good boy.’ The part I did not do well in was use of time. I can still hear my mother saying – Your report card says that you did not make good use of your time. Too much daydreaming I suppose.

Jesus takes a two-pronged approach for those of us who have not made good use of our time, who have not focused. 

Jesus’ first approach is to remind us of the necessity to focus – to pay attention to God’s way and to ensure He is indeed the Master of our life.

Whatever worldly/everyday stuff gets in our way should not be counted as consequential. Whatever seems important to us must pale against the glory of God and how our lives proclaim Him. Each moment needs to be dedicated to God – loving Him, devoted to Him, and serving Him. In short- pay attention to what is truly important and serve that choice.

Next, Jesus veers into reminders of God’s care. He knows our weakness, He saw his disciples get easily distracted, so He speaks of the fact that our focus must not be given in vain, but rather is to be toward the One Who will see to our every need.

Jesus left no gaps. Faith in God and dedication to God, making choices for God and toward God leads to blessed consequences: But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides. 

As we have been reminded, making choices for hot stoves and away from God leads to loss and eventually total destruction.

In these last two-and-a-half days, let us use our time wisely. See the distraction trying to pull you away, push the distraction away for tomorrow will take care of itself.. Nothing is more important than the right now in our focus on what God wants this Lent and saying yes to where the Holy Spirit leads.

Reflection for Sexagesima Sunday 2023

The way of life.

“For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Thank you for joining as we testify, proclaim, and evangelize the great and Holy Name of Jesus. 

Today we continue in this Pre-Lenten season. 

Last week we considered choices, the fact that the hot stoves of sin are everywhere and so often seem like fun. Jesus’ way seems so different, so odd, and so hard. No one does that, do they? 

We resolved to take this Pre-Lenten opportunity to identify the stoves in our lives, those areas of disaster we reach out to, the ways we fail to represent Jesus’ gospel way. We reminded ourselves of what will happen if we do not stop reaching for those hot stoves of sin and destruction and determined to prepare ourselves for eliminating them this Lent, to live the way Jesus asks us to live.

Today we continue in our study of Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus continues to ask us to live His Father’s commandments in their fullness. Thou shalt not kill is not just about physical murder, but about any hardship or rejection we would bring upon another, even if only in our thoughts. If we hold ourselves back and away when another in in need, we kill. It may not seem at all bloody to us, but it is – emotionally, spiritually, psychologically. 

But, what if someone is mean to me, what if they are hurting me? Jesus’ instruction seems clear – turn the other cheek. Seems hard, but simple. What we miss is the way we act is a sort of dam against sin. We, my brothers and sisters, have power to thwart sin, to turn the tide of sin. If we respond to harm, meanness, rejection, anger, and so many other evils in kind we are just perpetuating evil, fostering more sin. But if we act as Jesus asks, we stop that sin right there. We break the chain of sin.

So often in the Christian life it seems we are making no headway, we aren’t changing anything. What we tend to miss is the downstream effect of our faithfulness. Our impact is huge if we turn the other cheek, if we hand over more than demanded of us, if we go the extra mile, if we give to those who ask – perfect examples our work with CarePortal and Operation SouperBowl.

Jesus demands a lot of us. He asks us for perfection in our gospel walk, to be real kingdom dwellers who live so very differently from the way of the world.

There are consequences to our choices, to choosing the hot stove or the gospel, to reflecting the world and its ruler or to reflecting our Heavenly Father. Those consequences have impact not only here in the present world but also throughout eternity.

As we continue in this Pre-Lenten time of reflection and preparation let us not just consider choices but also consequences. How we live now, how close the world grows toward the kingdom we are supposed to be building, and how we live in eternity depends on the here and now.

Reflection for Septuagesima Sunday 2023

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.