Reflection for the 20th Ordinary Sunday 2024

“For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent Me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on Me will have life because of Me.”

Remember last week, “The Jews murmured about Jesus.” Jesus had been describing Himself as the Bread that came down from heaven. He said that He will give Himself as a bread that lets us live forever. He also assumed God’s name, I AM. He told His listeners that they must eat His flesh to live forever. Today He goes even deeper.

We said last week that the reaction of the people who followed Jesus to Capernaum made sense. Afterall, Jesus words, claims, and instruction were outstandingly unbelievable, impossible to grasp.

To even better set the situation, the Jewish people then and to this day follow the prescriptions of the Law, the Law overcome by the sacrifice of Christ Jesus. 

Observant Jewish people cannot say nor write the word God nor His name YHWH. They cannot consume blood of any type: ‘Moreover you shall eat no blood whatever, whether of fowl or of animal, in any of your dwellings. Whoever eats any blood, that person shall be cut off from his people.’ Leviticus 7: 26-27. Kosher meat is prepared by proper slaughter and the washing, salting, and rinsing of the meat three times to remove all traces of blood.

We can clearly see why Jesus calling Himself I AM and telling the people they are to eat His flesh and drink His blood would cause not only confusion, but anger and disgust.

Yet eat and drink is what we are to do if we want eternal life. That is what we must do if we desire everlasting freedom.

Our freedom comes from the fact that we need not be afraid of God. In Jesus we can approach God, speak His name, take Him within ourselves, and live in His love as one in His body; the fulness of Christ Jesus.

Our freedom comes from the fact that the prescriptions of the Law no longer hold us hostage. Again, we are free in Jesus because He gave Himself completely for us and allows us to partake of Him. The sacrifices of the Law are not needed to atone for sin because Jesus freed us from sin once and for all in His body and blood.

Jesus sets the Eucharistic feast before us. Eucharist means thanksgiving. As we meet Him today in the consecration and eat His body and drink His blood in communion, let us be truly thankful for and celebrate the freedom, fellowship, and life we have in Jesus.

Reflection for the 19th Ordinary Sunday 2024

“I Am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is My flesh for the life of the world.”

Last week, after reflecting on the movement between proclamation, healing, service, care, and feeding the rubber met the road. Indeed, people began to react to the truth of the Kingdom and following the heavenly King Who would give them Himself as food for eternal life. 

We anticipated the reaction, and unfortunately the reaction was not positive or accepting. We heard it right at the start of today’s Gospel: “The Jews murmured about Jesus.”

Their reaction might seem natural to us. Here is this Man saying that He will give us a bread that lets us live forever. He is saying He came down from heaven and that His Father is God. He is assuming God’s name, I Am. In the end He says that He is the Living Bread and that we must eat His flesh to live forever. He will go deeper into that next Sunday. The reaction against Him will get more negative.

It is sad that this sort of thinking and reaction makes sense even in the current age. To many people, even to many Catholics, the reaction of the people who followed Jesus to Capernaum makes sense. They cannot believe His outstanding claims. It is indeed hard to grasp the power and mystery of God, because at its core we consider ourselves unworthy of God’s abundant goodness How could we possibly be worthy?

If we look at today’s reading from First Kings, we see the depth of God’s care for His servants. Elijah, afraid, exhausted, and unwilling to go forward is met by God’s provision. God provides not once, but twice. God not only provides food and water, but He also works to strengthen Elijah for all he is called to do.

This trope is repeated over and over throughout salvation history. The foreshadowing of the Old Testament points to God’s care for His people, and not just care, but more so a desire for deep and everlasting relationship. God shows His desire to commune with His people.

When God came to earth it wasn’t just for a visit. It wasn’t to say a few wise words and let us have at it. It was to bring us everlasting life, continual relationship, and perpetual communion.

Jesus calls us into a faith and belief that transcends the ordinary, overcomes our doubts, and in the end calls us to understand that we are worth it to God. He says we are worthy of this mystery so great, His very self.

Overcoming doubt and unbelief by the grace God grants us in His Eucharistic feast, let us truly accept His flesh and blood as we faithfully rejoice in what we celebrate today – salvation.

Reflection for the 18th Ordinary Sunday 2024

So they said to Him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

The Apostles had gone out and ministered to the people of Galilee. They proclaimed the Gospel message, declared the Kingdom, and healed. They came back tired and alongside Jesus were soon confronted with more work, teaching a large crowd of people who were like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus seeing deeply into the totality of their need miraculously fed them.

Now the rubber meets the road. What would be the reaction of these people? Would they embrace the Kingdom and its truth? Would they follow a heavenly King Who would give them Himself as food for eternal life?

We sit in a moment of anticipation. Factually, that is what the true followers of Jesus have been doing for two thousand some years. We anticipate our receiving the Bread from Heaven in sacramental word, bread and wine. We anticipate the full revelation of the Kingdom we are working for. We anticipate Jesus’ return and the exaltation of all believers.

The Gospel of St. Mark led us into a continuation of events as recorded in the sixth chapter of the Gospel of St. John. As we look at today’s passage, we sense an upcoming realization, the rubber beginning to meet the road. This will play out over the next several weeks. The truth of people’s hearts will be revealed.

The Old Testament offers a foretaste, a shadowy revelation of the coming Messiah, Jesus. In our First Reading from Exodus, we find the same events: people grumbling, unsatisfied even though they had clearly seen God’s power in saving them from the Egyptians. They focused solely on temporal, everyday needs and remained blind to God’s promise of rest, a land of plenty, and continuing provision. Today’s Introit from Psalm 78 recounts it so well: They spoke against God, and said, “Can God spread a table in the desert? Can He also provide bread, give meat to His people?”

That says it all and is an indictment down through the ages. It indicts us if we do not put our full faith in God’s saving power which we see here regularly.

God came among us to give us Bread from Heaven, the full and eternal presence of Jesus among us. We are called to believe and receive Him – and that includes receiving His great promise – life now, life eternal, a full satisfaction of all things people long for, the healing of their souls and peace. Let us truly enjoy and rejoice in His feeding, provision, and true life. Let us believe.

December 2022 Newsletter – Poor, Now Rich, Me

For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade

Through much of Advent we read from the Prophet Isaiah. In those readings we often hear a reference to the poor and how God will save the poor. Later in the Christmas season we will hear Jesus quote Isaiah 61:1 when He gets up to proclaim the Word and teach in the Synagogue: The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. We might think to ourselves, well isn’t Jesus just great with the poor! Think of how He helps them and causes us to exert our charity in helping the poor. He lays out all this stuff about us doing for the least of these, thus doing it for Him. That work for the poor helps us get to heaven. The Church, in the model of Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, established the Corporal Works of Mercy focused on the poor.

What we tend to miss in all this discussion of the poor is the fact that Jesus did not specifically come to address the economically poor. Remember, He told us: For you always have the poor with you. (Matthew 26:11). If He did not come to address the economically poor, then who did He come to help? The answer is simple enough, Me. Jesus came and gave His all for me. I started in a place that was very poor – my humanity – and Jesus took on my poorness, entered into my poverty – to raise me and many on high, up to the very heaven He came from. He sacrificed His life to make me rich, a co-heir with Him to all His Heavenly Father has.

As we walk through Advent and finally gaze on the representation of Jesus in the poverty of the stable, let us remember where we were before we came to faith in Jesus and how very rich we are now. Then let us act! Certainly, to act means to care for the economically poor as required of us by the gospel of Jesus, but also beyond that to lift up those who are what we were, poor without Christ Jesus. Let us use this new Church Year to invite them into the Kingdom, to share in the treasure we have, to be rich with us.

Welcome to our December 2022 Newsletter and the journey through Advent to the start of the Christmas season (all forty days of Christmas starting Christmas Day). As you can imagine, there is tons going on.

The OpÅ‚atki / Christmas Wafers and Advent Wreath are blessed. The Church’s youth are gathering the evening of December 2nd. We have our Seniorate Advent gathering and youth meeting on December 3rd. There is daily Holy Mass at Noon and Rorate Holy Masses every Wednesday of Advent at 7:30am. Join us for our Wigilia / Vigil Dinner on December 11th. Help us decorate (green the Church) on December 18th. We have a full schedule of Holy Masses for Christmas (the traditional three) including the Shepherd’s Holy Mass at Midnight – yes, a real Midnight Mass right here in Schenectady. Join in our giving efforts, enjoy a concert by the Thursday Musical Club, offer a Memory Cross in honor of someone you wish to remember this Christmas season, and join us in giving thanks for all who do so much on behalf of the parish. Above all, remember to keep centered on the Holy Eucharist.

All that and more in our December 2022 Newsletter.

Reflection for Sunday in the Octave of Corpus Christi 2022

Eat, Drink, Be Mine.

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.

I am so thankful you have chosen to worship with us this Sunday as we reflect, in this Octave of Corpus Christi, on Jesus’ command to eat His body and drink His blood. We rejoice in the very reality of His self-giving that makes us His.

The Rabbi of Jerusalem once visited the pope in Rome…

My dear brothers and sisters, the funny tale about the Rabbi and the Bishop of Rome is related to place and nearness. 

God had once set His singular dwelling in the midst of Israel. In fact, He was so close to His people that we dwelt in a tent alongside them. It was not until the time of King David that it was determined Israel would build a Temple for God, a more permanent dwelling. It took around 400 years to get to that point. That work was completed by King Solomon.

What did not happen though was the thing God really wanted, which was not a physical building in which to dwell. He did not need that. David’s predecessor Saul learned that lesson by his own disobedience and that of his soldiers. In 1 Samuel 15:22 we hear: Obedience is better than sacrifice, to listen, better than the fat of rams. The prophet is telling Saul that the attitude of the heart (the whole self) in relation to God is more important than external things like sacrifices and buildings.

King David himself writes in Psalm 40 and 51 respectively: Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, and You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; You take no pleasure in burnt offerings.

Israel knew that God desired to live completely within them, but they kept it external.

Jesus came among them, the God-man, to reveal the presence of God completely, to make His Father known, and to call people into the Kingdom. He repeats His Father’s earlier call to Israel in full reality of presence – I want to be among you, within you, and I want you to be part of me.

As St. Paul tells us, I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over… He repeats the key words of Jesus repeated by the Church all through history – This is My body, This is My blood. 

Jesus not only left us His words, His gospel way of living, but in His example, instruction, and command His very presence – the totality of His being body, blood, soul, and divinity – so that His singular dwelling would be in the Church – that is – in us.

We fulfill what Israel did not, having Jesus – God Himself – dwelling within us. He is no longer in a tent in the camp, or in one special building. We are His place, we are His. Let us celebrate that now and always rejoicing in Jesus’ precious gift of self, bearing and sharing Him with joy before all.

Reflection for Sunday in the Octave of Corpus Christi 2021

The Banquet.

“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.”

Who remembers their first communion? Mine remains a very vivid memory for several reasons. The first was the suit (dark blue), shirt (white), bow tie (white), silk buttionier, new prayerbook, rosary, lapel pin. In Buffalo you went to the old Polish neighborhood to Spolka Clothing on Broadway to get your first communion clothes. Since first communion was in May, it was still pretty cold the day we went shopping. The changing rooms at the back of Spolka were freezing. Do I have to? Yes. Ok mom. A few days later, having been chilled to the bone, I was sick.

There was class of course, learning what happens in Holy Mass, what we were going to receive. It was amazing, here we are, a group of seven- and eight-year-olds, and Jesus was coming into our hearts. We were going to receive Jesus, not some token, not some plain old bread, but Jesus in all His reality, body, blood, soul, divinity.

The preparation went on. Next on the list, my hair. We had to train the part and hold that cowlick down. Brylcream was your friend. It took weeks of combing and gluing to make it cooperate.

The day arrived. My sister in white with a blue and gold cape. Those of us with younger sisters had them there as our ‘angels.’

The angels processed into church first, followed by all of us. Hair in place and walking and standing straight as a board with hands perfectly folded on that bright sunny morning. We genuflected and knelt in perfect unison. Holy Mass proceeded and the precious moment came, we were going up row-by-row to kneel at the altar rail and receive Jesus. I was so happy.

As we left church the heavens opened up and it poured. Rushed to the car, we were off to the banquet, in the Knights Hall, that my family held just for me, the guest of honor. A feast after the great eternal feast I could now participate in anytime I was spiritually prepared.

 I share all this not just for the sake of reminiscence, but rather as reminder of the importance of what happens at Holy Mass, how the lessons learned though all the care in preparation we took inform us today. Each occasion to receive is equally important, equally precious. It is an equal participation in the great eternal feast, the heavenly banquet. We are equally privileged and also obligated to come forth prepared.

This special day in the Church year calls us to re-recognize the majesty of what we receive, to remember our first reception of Jesus, coming into our hearts and lives, and to ensure each encounter with Jesus’ body and blood is met with the same importance. Recognizing all this, let us rejoice for Jesus’ banquet is ever prepared for us and we share in the eternal feast.

Reflection for Maundy Thursday 2020

How shall I make a return to the LORD
for all the good he has done for me?
The cup of salvation I will take up,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.

Psalm 116:12-13

King David sat down to write a psalm, a hymn of thanksgiving. How appropriate that it be proclaimed this evening. 

On this very night, Jesus gifted us with means by which we remain in union with Him whether in good times or bad, whether celebrating or in danger. By this union with Jesus, we have the means and grace necessary to transcend all things. On this night Jesus took the bread and cup and left us His body and blood. On this night, Jesus left us the power to wipe away sin, to lose and to bind. On this night, Jesus gave to His Church a share in His ministerial priesthood so that His great grace, our source of strength and transcendence, might live on in a real and effective manner.

We receive His grace in a real and effective manner as we gather, in person or even remotely, before the altar. What is the altar? It is Jesus Himself. On this night Jesus gave us Himself as the altar, the sacrifice, and the priesthood that offers the sacrifice so that we might always remain part of, really full participants in His eternal transcendent reality.

It is interesting that on this night we read from John’s gospel. John focused completely on the nature of Jesus as transcendent. Transcendence is a rich word meaning “that which is divinely other and loftier, wholly independent of the material universe, beyond all known physical laws and rules.” John most aptly expresses the great truth that our Lord Jesus Christ is God. On this night Jesus provides us with Himself so that we might receive His grace and be pulled up into Him, to transcend with Him as sharers and partakers in His nature. To move beyond.

In repeating David’s hymn of thanksgiving, we acknowledge our deliverance in a lively, i.e., joy filled, expression of devotion, love, and gratitude. We must now, in this moment, lift our souls up to God. We are called to be a thankful people, thankful in the midst of every situation because we are not just in the here and now. In the midst of struggle, fear, and anxiety. In the here and now we are more than the here and now. We are transcendent beings whose eternity surpasses all.

David was once in great distress and danger, so much so that it almost drove him to despair. He seeks God and cries out to Him in that distress. David experiences God’s goodness and his prayers are answered. God heard him, pitied him, and delivered him. Note that David took care to acknowledge the goodness of God, even asking, ‘how could I possibly make a return to God for His goodness?’ He does it by taking up, as we are privileged to do at every Holy Mass, the cup of salvation. He vows to continue calling on the name of the LORD. God helped David to transcend his situational problems as a symbol of what God’s Son, a descendent of David, would do for us. Jesus’ gift to us is complete and eternal transcendence over problems, situations, sin, and death itself.

David certainly gave thanks, only understanding in shadows what we know fully. We know that God graciously delivers us from every trouble. His deliverance is beyond the here and now – and why the Eucharist is so important, for in our time before the altar we are pulled into God’s eternity. This is important! Our troubles are but for a time, but our assurance transcends. Jesus delivers us from the now to the forever. Draw strength from that brothers and sisters, all who partake at the Lord’s table and who share in Jesus’s transcendence. Amen!

Reflection for Sunday in the Octave of Corpus Christi 2018

Bread for the
journey.

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.

Some of us may have heard of, or may have even read Henri Nouwen’s “Bread for the Journey.” You can often find quotes from this book on church websites or in bulletins.

Henri Nouwen was a professor at Harvard University and Yale University before becoming the senior pastor at the L’Arche community in Toronto, Canada. L’Arche is a community of people with disabilities living together. Nouwen was a prolific writer and wrote numerous books on spirituality and daily living. Bread for the Journey is one of his most well known. It is a book centered on Jesus Christ as savior, teacher, creator, and peace giver.

Why is it such a popular book? Why does its title ring true for so many Christians?

One term we hear from time to time is way-bread, the Way-bread of the Altar. What a beautiful term. On the night that Jesus was to be arrested, before He was to be killed, He gave us Himself as way-bread.
As prefigured in the journey of Israel, across the dessert, to the Promised Land, where God gave them Manna, bread for the journey, so now Jesus has given us bread for the journey.

We so need this bread, and Jesus gave it to us. We need strength for the journey. We need Him to be part of us; strengthening us, reinforcing and building up what the world tries to tear down.

We hunger for that, both spiritually and physically. In receiving, we recognize that He really fills us for the journey.

Every week we pray, shortly after the Our Father, in the words of St. Paul: “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” Our answer, for the journey, is Yes, yes it is. We have Him fully with us, Body, Blood, Soul, Divinity – fully on-board for the journey.

Nouwen’s title tings true because when we receive, we are receiving everything we could possibly need. The greatest gift! Bread for the journey.

Reflection for the Solemnity of Brotherly Love

CommunionInRemembranceofMe-Image1

Where does it all
start?

We love, because he first loved us. If any one says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should love his brother also.

Today we celebrate two very wonderful and amazing occasions.

The first is Christina and Nick’s reception of communion. The second is our Church’s Solemnity of Brotherly Love.

These two events could not be more perfectly aligned.

Our love for each other in Jesus’ community – the Holy Church – begins in the perfect unity we find in the Holy Eucharist. Christina and Nick are now part of that communion. Together with us, Christina and Nick are intimately joined with Jesus. We are all made one in His body. Along with us, Christina and Nick will play roles that strengthen the community of faith through mutual love. As St. Peter tells us: As each has received a gift, employ it for one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.

God’s grace is received in a most unique and special way in our communion. His body is more than mere food. In receiving Jesus’ body and blood we are pulled into union with Him at each and every moment of His life. We are there at the last supper, receiving His body and blood. We stand at the foot of His cross. We are at the empty tomb. We see Him ascend into heaven – and we are at His second coming. We have total and complete unity with Jesus AND with each other.

Our roles are not to be thought of as something for our own glorification or advancement, but rather for the glorification and advancement of all the people Jesus has called to be His own.

If we are one in His body and blood, if we share in His grace, if we have Jesus with us, then we must exhibit the fruit of this unity. That fruit is brotherly love.

We cannot participate in communion thinking that it is just Jesus and me. We cannot receive thinking that we are just remembering in the sense of recollection.

When we receive Jesus we must do so with the realization that we our bound to God and each other. We have unity with every Christian who receives Jesus anywhere or at any time. We are not alone. We are not just remembering, but are living in the reality of Christ throughout all of eternity.

God loved us first. Living in union with Him, in communion, means we must love each other. His love is the start and our love for each other is full participation in His life.

Reflection for Sunday in the Octave of Corpus Christi

TheCovenant-Image1

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.

Imagine if we were to walk into our very last class, just before graduation, and the professor says: ‘Forget everything you have ever learned, forget everything you know, and be filled with grace.’

Today, and every Sunday (and in reality every day), we are asked to do that, to surrender our intellectualism, our self-assured knowledge, and enter into the mystery of faith. We are asked to turn ourselves over to the Holy Spirit and to allow ourselves to be filled with the grace God offers us so that we can do much good in His name.

Our friends and close compatriots in the Orthodox Church have beautiful liturgies that call to mind both the majesty and mystery of God presence among us. Their tradition, unlike western tradition, does not rely on over thinking the mystery of God, with attempts to analyze and explain every nuance of God’s presence in our lives, but rather to worship and live trusting in the gift of faith handed down through God’s Word and Church Tradition.

We are in the midst of the Octave of Corpus Christi, eight days set aside to reflect on the mystery of the Body and Blood of Jesus in our lives, this wondrous gift that provides the grace through which we become more and more into the image of Christ.

As we have studied over the past few months, the Holy Mass is the occasion in which we encounter the full reality of Jesus among us. That reality is fully present in the Eucharistic action of the priest and the Christian people. In the Eucharistic action of ‘remembrance’ we live fully present at the Last Supper, at the foot of the Cross, the resurrection and ascension, and finally in Christ’s coming again. We are there with Him, present to Him, He is with us, and we are filled with His grace and tremendous love.

Our reception of the Eucharist in Holy Communion continues the mystery of Jesus in our life as Christians. In Communion we are joined as one. I could be receiving Communion on the moon, you here in Schenectady, each receiving the fullness of Jesus, each joined together as one body in Him. We are not separate and apart, alone in our communion, but together as one.

In these special eight days, and every day, let us forget what we think we know and actively be filled with grace, the glorious mystery of what we become in His Body and Blood.