Reflection for the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2021

Strength of Faith

A violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat, so that it was already filling up. Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion. They woke him

As mentioned last week, over the months of Ordinary Time ahead, a time dedicated to growth, we will focus on how we live out the Christian faith, how we walk in Strength of Faith. Remember, we are focusing on our Strength of Faith.

The disciples are in the boat, we all know the story, they are afraid in the storm and Jesus wakes up, calms the storm, and asks them about the strength of their faith.

Obviously, Jesus, perfect God and man had faith, He was sleeping through the storm. He was confident that amid the storm, faith, and His Father, would see Him through. He had the same faith confronting torture, the cross, death, and the grave.

It does not really surprise us does it? Jesus lived in strength of faith, the disciples questioned and feared, they were at least, at that time, weak in their faith. 

But, what about us now? How does this storm experience relate to us, here in the 21st Century, not crossing many lakes or rivers in a boat? How about us in secure homes with GFI plugs and grounded electrical systems, and other safety and security measures?

Perhaps we do not fear storms, but the analogy of storms works because is speaks about all the other stresses we face. We can go to Jesus about those. We can say, Lord, don’t You care that I am perishing? But, that is not really the point Jesus is making in His gospel. It is not the lesson the Lord is impressing on us. Rather, bottom line, it is about strength of faith. It is Jesus asking us: Where’s your faith. â€œWhy are you terrified?”

The question before us is whether we have the strength of faith to stand in the storm, to be the leader when others are running and hiding, to live the gospel in the face of evil and persecution. To hope when all is hopeless.

We have examples around us. Those men in the boat went on profess Jesus with strength and power across the world. We have the examples of our own fathers, godfathers, grandfathers, uncles, and the other special men in our lives who not only protected us but longed for us to learn the lessons necessary to be strong.

We have the example of all those who with strong faith fought the evil of slavery, who prayed in watch parties for freedom and who with us continue to this very day to stand up to inequality, the endemic sin of prejudice, and the inherent inequality still plaguing us.

We are called upon this very day to come forward, to walk through those doors, to appear here in this church, to say no to fear and raise up the holy and awesome name of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. We are called to grow in faith, hope, and love so that fear may be removed from us and so we may stand in strength of faith! With strong faith, the power of our Father will see us through.

Bible Study for the 11th Week in Ordinary Time 2021

This week’s memory verse: But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

Isaiah 4:31
  • 6/13 – Philippians 4:13
  • 6/14 – Psalm 18:32-34
  • 6/15 – Habakkuk 3:19
  • 6/16 – Daniel 11:32
  • 6/17 - 1 Peter 4:11
  • 6/18 – Psalm 27:1
  • 6/19 – 2 Corinthians 12:5-6

Pray the week: Lord Jesus, You call me to strength. Forgive my failings, the times where I set my faith aside to please my desires and restless spirit. Grant me the strength of grace to praise and proclaim You and to set aside all distraction.

Reflection for the 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2021

Strength of Faith

Yet we are courageous, and we would rather leave the body and go home to the Lord. Therefore, we aspire to please him, whether we are at home or away.

Over the next twenty-six weeks we are going to focus on how we live out the Christian faith, how we can walk in Strength of Faith.

In the text of today’s Epistle, we hear Paul say that we aspire to please him [i.e., God], whether we are at home or away. Hearing that immediately took me back to the days of family vacations. At home or away.

The first family vacation I remember was to Florida, Coral Gables, and my Uncle Frank’s house. Both of our families had been touched by tragedy, the loss of my dad and Frank’s loss of his wife, his children’s mom. This was still a pretty fresh memory for all of us.

This time gave us some freedom from those thoughts. I recall each thing we did, the visit to the breach, the salt water of the ocean, shells, going to the Venetian Gardens and its beautiful pools, running away after taking a wedge out of the green on a very nice golf course (I think they’re still looking for me). Being with my cousins. Visiting Ma Easter, an in-law to Uncle Frank, a great, very funny, and vivacious southern woman. Going to the planetarium and seeing moon rocks.

Some of this was culture shock, most just plan fun, and parts even scary. Life is like that, and the overriding question is: How do we approach life? Paul was writing about how we are to live. He boils it down to living in the strength of faith.

The love of God encompasses everything. Grounded in God’s love through Christ’s grace and the Holy Spirit’s communion, we can be what we have been called to be; commending ourselves with confidence to everyone regardless of circumstances, regardless of where we are.

In fact, all that we do while we are in our bodies will be manifest before “the judgment seat of Christ” – the moment when Christ, coming in power, will judge all. This reference to Christ’s “judgment seat” and how we are to live is not a threat or something we should fear, but rather a promise and an expectation of the fullness of the kingdom for those who live in strength of faith.

Although we live in a world where tech savvy, wealth, power, and the call to constant conflict with neighbors seem to override and even wipe out thoughts of God’s steadfast love, justice, and righteousness, we can be confident that God, and we who live His way, will prevail in the end. 

Our “transformation” into Christ’s image takes place not in some otherworldly place, only at the end, but here and now in how we live. Here is where we need to live and act in strength of faith, to go the way of Christ when we feel the pull to conflict, greed, the need to repost criticisms, to finger-point, to REACT. God’s grace is sufficient power to overcome, to live in strength of faith and to be truly Christian.

June 2021 Newsletter – Strength of Faith

“So ask the Lord who gives this harvest to send workers to harvest his crops.”

In our Holy Church, we dedicate the month of June to prayer for Sacred Vocations. This prayer, commanded by Jesus in Matthew 9:38, is a necessary part of every Christian’s routine of prayer and I call on you to act, to take up this cause in your personal prayer life. In this cause of prayer, there are two requests. This first request is for the general gift of vocations, that many will be called. The second request is for responsiveness on the part of those called. The Church has always been in need of men to step up and into the role of Deacon and Ministerial Priest. It is no secret that the Holy Spirit has inspired many to accept these roles, yet few respond. As the Church’s National Vocations Director, I see the depth of our need for men to be called and for those called to listen, step forward, and take up the role God wants them in. We could engage in a ton of calculating as to why the called do not respond. I have heard all the alleged causes: economic and sociological. It is odd that the two greatest reasons are never really discussed: a lack of prayer and lack of faith. Being a Christian requires faith in Jesus in the Eucharist and the Holy Trinity. We believe those things by faith. So this is a test, will those called live fully faithfully? Will we proceed in faith-filled prayer as Jesus asked? Will those called respond in faith as the Holy Spirit asks? Will we trust God? The Letter to the Hebrews, Chapter 11 puts it very well in its first verse: “If people believe God, then they know they have the things they hope to get. It is the proof of things we do not see.” God does answer. Let us then buoy up our faith. Believe in God and pray each day this month and the rest of the year for vocations. See what happens.

We enter the month of June with concerted effort at prayer for vocations, and renew our call for those called to step forward in faith. We look forward to the many great events occurring during these warmer months, the Men’s Spiritual Retreat (sign-up now), the annual Kurs Youth Encampment (sign-up now). Both events are fully paid for by the parish, so do not pay when you sign up. The National United Choirs Convention and Music Workshop, the annual Golf Outing, and our wonderful community picnic on the parish grounds (stay tuned). Great Centennial Raffle tickets are available, get yours quickly. We celebrate, pray for, and encourage those who received the Sacraments of Baptism as well as two Marriages that occurred in May. We honor dads, reflect on the discipleship example of Ruth and Naomi, and learn about the the work of the parish in the post-World War II period.

All that and more in our June 2021 Newsletter.

Bible Study for the Octave of Corpus Christi 2021

This week’s memory verse: For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

1 Corinthians 11:26
  • 6/6 – Matthew 26:26-28
  • 6/7 – 1 Corinthians 10:16
  • 6/8 – 1 Corinthians 10:17
  • 6/9 – Acts 2:42
  • 6/10 - 1 Corinthians 11:28
  • 6/11 – John 6:51
  • 6/12 – 1 Corinthians 11:27

Pray the week: Lord Jesus, You place Your entire self on our altar each time we gather as Church for Holy Mass. Help us to perceive the truth of what we see and receive and so rejoice as You draw us into Your eternal reality.

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.

Bible Study for the 9th Week of Ordinary Time 2021

This week’s memory verse: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

2 Corinthians 13:14
  • 5/30 – Matthew 3:16-17
  • 5/31 – Hebrews 1:3
  • 6/1 – John 3:16
  • 6/2 – Mark 12:29
  • 6/3 - John 3:34
  • 6/4 – Titus 3:4-6
  • 6/5 – John 12:45

Pray the week: Father, Son, and Spirit, You have revealed love to us throughout history and in this very day. Help us to understand the mystery of full love and grant us the grace needed to accept the challenge to love as You do. Amen.

Reflection for Trinity Sunday 2021

Mystery & Challenge

“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”

Trinity Sunday, and every pastor is suddenly digging into the Church Fathers, the great theological treatises, and some good old-fashioned bad analogies so they can explain the mystery of God to their congregations. I even witnessed a brother in the clergy ask an entire group: ‘How are you going to approach this Sunday?’

I am thankful, not because I have the answers, but exactly because I do not, nor do I have to try. There is no theology, no treatise I can share that adequately captures the mystery of God: Father, Son, and Spirit. What I can share is the word I will now repeat for the third time: Mystery.

People love to solve mysteries and expend a whole lot of energy trying to do exactly that. They engage in an effort to unlock the secret of God’s self-revelation as Father, Son, and Spirit, and in doing so focus on the wrong mystery. We must ask then, what mystery does God wants us to focus on?

Indeed, God has called us to do something far different. He challenges us to focus on a different mystery, one easily solvable. His challenge is far different than a scientific study of an unfathomable mystery. God calls us to spend our time on the mystery and challenge of love.

I told the brother who asked: Skip the bad analogies and focus on the attributes of God.

You see, people get to know one another through the attributes they see in the other. He or she is good, caring, spends time, is cautious, is deep, likes to share. We get to know people that way. So, it is with God. How do we know His mystery? It is through His attributes and the attribute of the Trinity that has been and is ever before us is the attribute of love.

The mystery of love is God’s challenge to us. When He said: Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you He was not speaking of any other rule, any other thing than love. Teach, show, and welcome in love.

See how God has revealed His love: In creation – particularly that of humanity, saving His people, rescuing them, and finally sending His Son and punishing Him for our sakes, sending the Holy Spirit to be with us. Even though we may ignore His call, He remains with us. He tells us, we have the Son’s inheritance even though we would otherwise be unworthy. All because of God’s attribute of conquering love.

Love’s mystery is the call to give fully for the other. How can we do that? The answer is that we, as God’s children, can do it exactly because God loved us first in Jesus. God showed us all His love. Now we understand the mystery and set out to live the challenge of love.

Bible Study for the Octave of Pentecost 2021

This week’s memory verse: John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”

Luke 3:16
  • 5/23 – Hebrews 12:29
  • 5/24 – Psalm 104:4
  • 5/25 – Jeremiah 23:29
  • 5/26 – Jeremiah 20:9
  • 5/27 – 1 Corinthians 3:11-13
  • 5/28 – Psalm 66:10
  • 5/29 – Luke 24:32

Pray the week: Holy Spirit, grant me the power of Your fire so that I may boldly proclaim salvation; that I may say with the entire Choir of Angels and all the Saints, Jesus is Lord!!!

Reflection for the Solemnity of Pentecost 2021

Say it!

Brothers and sisters: No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

Happy birthday Church.

The Solemnity of Pentecost, after Easter, is the Church’s greatest celebration. In fact, in the early Church, people could only enter the fullness of the Church through baptism on either Easter or Pentecost. Pentecost is that important. Pentecost is that vital, for without this day all of Jesus’ work and teaching would have died off with the Apostles and disciples. Pentecost was that moment in which we were all commissioned to proclaim Jesus’ saving message. We, the people of the Church received the strength, the grace of the Sevenfold Gifts of the Spirit, necessary to carry Jesus’ message to the whole world.

What the Apostles and all those in the upper room did this day is exactly what we are called to do. It is the methodology by which we are to proclaim salvation in Jesus the Lord. It is by our standing out there, on the balconies of the world, it is by our voices raised in praise and proclamation, that salvation in Jesus the Lord is proclaimed.

Today is about our status as full members of the Holy Church and what our work is to be. For today, Jesus’ promised sending of the Holy Spirit was fulfilled and with the Spirit’s decent into our lives (and note I am not saying into the world) we were born to be Jesus’ hands, feet, and voice; to proclaim Jesus is Lord!

We are set apart from the world, we do not belong to it any longer. The Holy Spirit is ours exclusively so we might do God’s work. Our cause is to go out and say Jesus is Lord. Our home is the Kingdom.

When was the last time any one of us met someone and in the course of our conversation said to them, Jesus is my Lord and Savior? 

Without the power of this day all of Jesus’ work and teaching would have died off. So today, we recall that unless we say it from the balconies and at every opportunity, it will die off with us.

We often take pride in the fact that we can speak out on whatever, whenever, and to whomever we want. Yet, how often do we say Jesus is Lord except in the secret of our minds, or in our homes, or within the walls of this building? How often are we quicker to speak on some other trivial matter than to speak of Jesus. If we spend our time as Church saying Jesus is Lord and eschew worldly matters, which should be dead to us, the lost will be converted.

Pastors tell their people, ‘Wear red today.’ A nice sentiment, but nothing unless the Holy Spirit’s fire is burning within us, unless the statement Jesus is Lord is on our lips. Let us look in the mirror tonight and say Jesus is Lord out loud. Say it over several times, and if we can, we know we have the Holy Spirit in us. Knowing that, let nothing stop us for Jesus said, “I send you.”