THIRTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

27 JUNE 2021

 

          Today’s Gospel follows the Gospel from last Sunday.  Jesus and his disciples had been caught in one of those violent storms on the Sea of Galilee coming from the Golan Heights.  The disciples woke Jesus from his deep sleep in the stern of the boat.  They asked why he did not care that they were perishing.  He immediately rebuked the storm, as he had rebuked demons.  He calmed the sea, as he had calmed those who had been possessed by demons.  In this action, he revealed to them that he is the Son of God.  But he also rebuked them for their fear.  It was their fear that caused them to lose faith.

            Jesus and his disciples now reach the other shore of the Sea.  Jairus, an important and well-known synagogue official, expresses his faith that Jesus can cure his twelve-year-old daughter, who is at the point of death.  As Jesus goes with him, a large crowd presses upon him.  They are obviously curious about what he will do.  In that crowd is an unnamed woman from the lower class.  She has been suffering from a painful flow of blood for twelve years.  Even worse, that flow of blood has made her ritually unclean and unable to conceive a child.  Isolated from everyone who avoids her ritual uncleanliness, she is literally a walking dead person.  Showing incredible faith in Jesus, she reaches out to touch his clothes.  She is healed immediately, but is startled when Jesus asks who touched him.  Instead of scolding her for performing an unclean ritual act of touching him, he praises her for her faith and tells her to go in peace.

            When Jesus reaches the house of Jairus, he finds that his daughter has died.  The crowd laughs at him for saying that she is sleeping.  But he ignores them and enters the house with Peter, James, and John.  Just as his true nature will be revealed to them in the Transfiguration, he reveals that he is the Son of God by ignoring the purity laws and touches the dead girl and brings her back to life.  Even though they are astounded by these miracles, they will not fully grasp God’s love until the Father will raise Jesus from the dead.

            We often think that hate is the opposite of love.  However, the Gospels remind us that fear keeps us from responding to the love of God in faith.  Fear of drowning kept the disciples from trusting that Jesus was present to them in the midst of the raging storm.  Fear sets in when this unnamed woman is asked to reveal that she had dared to touch Jesus.  Fear causes those mourning the death of Jairus’ daughter to lose faith that Jesus could save her.

            Jesus says these same words to us.  We often waver in our faith when we are overtaken by fear.  Saint Paul addresses a fear that many of us have about embracing stewardship as a way of life.  He writes to the Church of Corinth, whose members are blessed with many material blessings.  He argues that their surplus of treasure can compensate for the needs of others.  He asks them to be generous to the gracious act he is undertaking.  His gracious act involves taking up a collection for the Church of Jerusalem, both impoverished and persecuted.  He reminds them that the Macedonians had been extremely generous, despite their limited amount of wealth.  He tells them that the reason for giving is rooted in the incredible gift of Jesus Christ, whose gracious act caused him to empty himself of being rich to be poor, taking on our human nature.

We can be hesitant to give ourselves as stewards of time, talent, and treasure, because we fear that giving away those realities will deplete all we have.  Like the woman afflicted with the hemorrhage, we can approach Jesus with the confidence that he will provide for our needs.  Like Jairus, we can trust that the one who raised his daughter can raise us from death through his resurrection.  Like the disciples in the boat, we can learn that the Lord is with us in the roughest of times, inviting us to imitate his calm confidence in the love of his Father. 

 

TWELFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

20 JUNE 2021

 

          The Book of Job is an extended parable that addresses the mystery of human suffering.  At the beginning of the Book, God brags to Satan about Job’s faithfulness.  Satan responds, “Of course he is a faithful servant.  He has everything – good health, a large family, and great wealth.  Take those away, and let’s see how faithful he is.”  God allows Satan to take away everything.  Job loses his family, his wealth, and his health.  His wife leaves him, advising him to curse God and die.  Then his three friends arrive to “comfort” him.  Convinced that human suffering is a punishment for sin, they urge him to admit his sinfulness and accept this punishment.  Even though Job is a sinner, he senses that this solution is too simple.  Job is hardly patient and complains bitterly throughout the entire book.  But he never abandons his faith in God.  Finally, God addresses him and asks a series of rhetorical questions.  Our first reading gives one of those questions.  God asks Job if he understands the mystery of creation.  Like a loving parent, God delivers creation from the womb and wraps the created world in swaddling bands as a gift.

            The Book of Job does not give a definitive answer to the mystery of human suffering.  But just as Job does not understand why God allows people to suffer, neither can he understand God’s creative and beautiful love.  God addresses Job out of the storm.  God dwells in the whirlwinds and tempests of life.  God had been present to Job in the midst of his terrible storm.

            In today’s Gospel, Jesus is asleep in the stern of the boat.  Violent squalls happen on the Sea of Galilee, as strong winds from the Golan Heights cause dangerous waves.  Jesus remains asleep in the midst of this storm.  The disciples wake him and ask, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”  When he awakens, he rebukes the wind just as he has been rebuking demons.  He demands that the sea be quiet and still, as he has demanded the demons to be quiet.  At his command, the wind ceases, and there is a great calm.  He reveals himself as the Son of God.

            Jesus is present to his disciples in the midst of their dangerous storm, as God has been present to Job in his storms.  He remains peaceful and assured in the face of terror, death, and destruction.  He will maintain that same attitude when he is betrayed and crucified as a common criminal.  He will trust in his Father’s power to raise him from the dead.  He is warning his disciples that they too will be tossed about in the boat that will become the Church.  They will need to be steadfast in their faith.  They will need to trust him in all times and circumstances.

            As his disciples today, we are crossing the sea of life in the “Barque of Peter,” as the Church is sometimes called.  This Barque has been threatened by storms for centuries.  We are just emerging from two of those storms – the clergy sexual abuse scandal and the pandemic.  As individuals, each of us crosses our own bodies of water as we transition from one situation in life to another.  We who are fathers can speak of the transitions we have made to let go of our own needs to be more attentive to the needs of those who depend on us.  We also know the violent storms that have threatened us in these transitions.  Today’s Gospel answers the question of whether the Lord is present in those difficult times.  The answer is “yes.”

            Saint Paul assures the Corinthians that he can face violent opposition because the love of Christ impels him.  That same love of Christ impels us, holds us together, helps us to hold fast to our faith in the most violent of times, and allows us to press forward.  Saint Teresa of Avila expresses her trust that the Lord is present in the midst of the many storms in her life in the sixteenth century.  She replaces turbulence and unknowing with stillness.  “Let nothing disturb you.  Let nothing upset you.  Everything changes.  God alone is unchanging.  With patience all things are possible.  Whoever has God lacks nothing.  God alone is enough.”

 

THE MOST HOLY BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST

6 JUNE 2021

 

On the final night of their captivity in Egypt, Moses had instructed his people to slaughter a lamb and eat its roasted flesh, along with cups of wine, bitter herbs, and other symbolic foods.  The ritual eating of this lamb prepared them for their Passover from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Land promised by God to their ancestors.  Then he told them to smear its blood on the lintels of their homes.  The angel of death passed over their homes.  The blood signified that these inhabitants belonged to the family of God.  In today’s first reading from the Book of Exodus, Moses seals the Covenant between God and his Chosen People at Mount Sinai.  He splashes the blood of the sacrificed bulls on the Altar.  They are now his blood family.  Then he sprinkles the blood on the people, signifying their blood relationship with one another.  (For those of you who cringed at Deacon Lou’s enthusiastic sprinkling of Holy Water during the Easter Season, you should be glad that you were not at Mount Sinai!)

            On the final night of his earthly life, Jesus instructs his disciples to prepare the Passover meal in an upper room reserved for them.  As the meal progresses, Jesus deepens the meaning of the ancient Passover ritual.  He will become the Passover Lamb, sacrificed out of love.  He will give his body, his entire self, as an active remembrance of freeing his people from slavery to sin and death to freedom in the kingdom of God.  He will seal the New Covenant with his blood, forming a family bonded by the blood that speaks of his life.

            We are his blood family in our world today.  Whenever the Lord invites us to eat his Body and drink his Blood at Mass, he is renewing his commitment to us.  He freely gives himself to us in the Eucharist, even though none of us deserves it.

            As his blood family, we renew our commitment to the Lord Jesus.  In sending the two disciples into Jerusalem to arrange for the Passover Meal, he tells them to meet a man carrying a water jar.  Men never carried water jars in the ancient world.  That was the task of women.  This detail is important.  In the Incarnation, Jesus had entered the ordinary water of our humanity to draw us into his divinity.  When we receive the ordinary bread and wine that has been transformed into his Body and Blood, we embrace our commitment to him who has committed himself to us.  We open ourselves to be transformed into his divinity.

As his blood family, we celebrate our commitment to one another.  At Mount Sinai, the people responded to Moses by answering, “All that the Lord has said, we will heed and do.”  Reflecting on those words, Saint Augustine explained that Holy Communion is both a gift and a task.  “’The Body of Christ,’ you are told, and you answer ‘Amen.’  Be members then of the Body of Christ so that your Amen may be true!  Why is this mystery accomplished with bread? … Consider that the bread is not made of one grain, but of many.  During the time of exorcism (before Baptism), you were, so to say, in the mill.  When you were baptized, you were wetted with water.  Then the Holy Spirit came into you like the fire that bakes the dough.  Be then what you see and receive what you are.”

On this Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, we reflect on the mystery of the Eucharist, which is the source and summit of our lives of faith.  Through our baptisms, the Lord has formed us from many different grains into one Body.  Nourished by his real presence in the Eucharist, we are given the task of renewing the blood bonds with the Lord and with each other.  Nourished by the Eucharist, we can bring new life to our parish, damaged by the pandemic in this last year and a half.

 

THE MOST HOLY TRINITY

30 MAY 2021

 

            For ninety days, the liturgy has focused our attention on the Mystery of how God loves us.  The forty days of Lent prepared us to celebrate the Sacred Paschal Triduum – the Lord Jesus showing how to love by washing the feet of his disciples and dying on the cross.  For fifty days, we deepened our faith in the resurrection.  Having received a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, we now focus our attention on the identity of God in today’s readings.

            In Deuteronomy, Moses addresses his people about to enter the Promised Land.  He tells them that there is only one God – the God who created the world and breathed life into human beings.  The one God led them from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land.  The New Testament Scriptures reveal that Jesus Christ in the only begotten Son of God who has accomplished the work of redemption.  In his letter to the Romans, Saint Paul reminds us that the Holy Spirit has adopted us as sons and daughters of God in Baptism, making us heirs of Christ.  At the highest level of being, there is one God and three distinct Persons.

            We have been taught from our religious education classes that the Trinity is a mystery.  We often understand “mystery” in terms of complicated situations that need to be solved.  I have become interested in a series of murder mysteries produced by the BBC.  As each episode unfolds, I have to sort out the clues and put the pieces together to figure out which of those characters is guilty of the murder.  At the end of each episode, the mystery is solved.

            A better definition of “mystery” involves examining relationships with other people.  Couples who fall in love begin the process of revealing themselves and getting to know the mystery of the other person.  Couples who have celebrated their fiftieth anniversary of marriage speak of their continued efforts to know better the one they love.  

            If we understand “mystery” in this sense, the Trinity is not a complicated puzzle that professional theologians ponder in their ivory towers.  The Trinity is not a reality that we cannot know.  Rather, we can continue to know the relationship at the highest level of being between Father and Son and Holy Spirit into eternity.  We are drawn us into a deeper relationship with the Father and through the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Just as God invited Moses to know him more intimately and lead his people to the Promised Land, God invites us to enter more deeply in a love relationship with the Trinity and leads us to the Promised Land of eternity.

            Saint Matthew tells us that the risen Christ gathers the eleven on a mountain in Galilee.  They worship him, signaling the power of the resurrection.  But they have doubts.  Despite their doubts, he commissions them to make disciples of all nations by baptizing and teaching them all he has commanded them.  He does the same with us.  Convinced of the power of the Paschal Mystery, we may harbor our own doubts and hesitations about washing feet and dying to ourselves.  As sons and daughters adopted through Baptism, we share such an intimacy of love that we can address God as Abba, or in English, “Daddy.” 

The risen Christ sent the first disciples into a hostile and dangerous world.  This last year has revealed the hostility and dangers of our world:  a world of arguments, violence, and loss of objectivity.  We live in a world that substitutes subjective opinions for objective truth.  We may be distinct individuals with diverse and different gifts.  But we are created in the image of the one God who is manifested in absolute love.  For ninety days, the Lord has been teaching us what authentic love looks like.  Now the risen Lord promises to be with us until the end of time.  We are not alone in our efforts to love as he loved us.  Gifted by his presence through the Holy Spirit, we can rebuild the life of our parish and community as we emerge from this pandemic.

PENTECOST SUNDAY

23 MAY 2021

 

          Saint Luke’s account of the coming of the Holy Spirit in the Acts of the Apostles is filled with wonderful special effects.  The Spirit is manifested not in a gentle breeze, but in a strong driving wind, much like the violent and rushing storm experienced by Moses and the Israelites at Mount Sinai.  He says that tongues as of fire part and come to rest on each one of them.  They are not small flickers, but incoming bursts of flame.  These special effects are seen in a painting in the Louvre in Paris.  The French artist Jean Restout captures the power, awe, and raw emotion of the event.  The apostles and Mary are depicted in a large, Roman-style courtyard.  The Holy Spirit descends dramatically in tongues of fire that bolt from the cloudy sky to reach them below.  The emotions on their faces reveal the special effects.  Mary is in the center, completely calm, full of grace.  The others, on the other hand, are shocked.  They are clearly bewildered by what they are experiencing.  They are taken aback by the awe of it. 

            As dramatic as that event may have been, Pentecost is not about the creation of special effects.  It is about the creation of a special people.  The Holy Spirit has created a new people are given the task of proclaiming the Paschal Mystery.  Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God has called his special people out of darkness to become the new reality of being the Body of Christ in our world.

When Peter and the other apostles speak in a language understood by everyone who had gathered for the Feast of Pentecost in Jerusalem, they do not talk about the special effects they have just experienced.  They talk about Jesus Christ.  They tell the story of his life and of his death and resurrection.  They invite the massive congregation to put their trust and faith in the One who died and rose again.

            Pentecost is the birthday of the Church.  Just as the Holy Spirit blew the Apostles out of their comfort zone to proclaim the Lord’s death and resurrection, the Spirit blows us out of our comfort zones to proclaim the same Mystery.  We do that best by giving ourselves in humble service to the needs of our community, the poor, and our parish.  In her witness talk last Sunday, Carrie Brackett told how the Holy Spirit blew her out of her comfort zone.  Jon Housand, a fellow worker, urged her to let go of her fear of being lost in a large parish make a commitment to serve.  Her first step involved preparing a casserole for the homeless shelter.  Now, in addition to other ways in which she is serving, she is the head of that ministry.  We can give ourselves to the needs of others, fulfilling Christ’s command to love others as he loved us.  If you have not done so, please fill out the form we sent home to renew or begin your stewardship of service.  

            Just as the Holy Spirit brought to birth the Church some 2,000 years ago, the Holy Spirit is present to us as we begin the process of bringing rebirth to the life of our parish as we emerge from this pandemic.  That same Holy Spirit pushes us to discern the gifts that each of us has received.  The Holy Spirit impels us to put our many different gifts at the service of this parish community.  Just as the Apostles trusted that the Holy Spirit would guide them, the Holy Spirit will guide us.  The Holy Spirit will not spare us from differences of opinion.  The Holy Spirit will not protect us from criticism and rejection and disappointment.  But the Holy Spirit will provide the same presence to us as the Spirit did for the earliest Church. We heard about the work of the Spirit in the Acts of the Apostles every Sunday during the Easter Season.  As we move out of the Easter Season and away from this pandemic, we can see that action in our lives.

  

 

THE ASCENSION OF THE LORD

16 MAY 2021

 

          Saint Luke describes the Ascension of the risen Lord in his second volume, the Acts of the Apostles.  As he is lifted up into heaven, a cloud takes him from their sight.  Then two men dressed in white garments stand beside him and address them.  “Men of Galilee,” they say, “why are you standing there looking at the sky?  This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.”

            In his first volume, the Gospel of Saint Luke, he describes the resurrection on Easter Sunday.  The women come to the tomb at dawn to anoint the dead body of Jesus with spices.  They meet two men dressed in dazzling garments.  These two men say:  “Why do you search for the Living One among the dead?  He is not here; he has been raised up.  Remember what he said to you while he was still in Galilee – that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.”   

            The two men dressed in white garments signal that both of these events are central Mysteries of our faith.  At the tomb on Easter Sunday, the two men remind the women of the many times Jesus had spoken of his passion and death during his public ministry.  His execution had shattered their hopes.  They now need the words of the two men dressed in white garments to recall his promise that he would be raised from the dead.

            Saint Luke tells us that Jesus was taken up to heaven forty days after the resurrection.  The number forty is symbolic.  Those forty days indicate the length of time it took the disciples to encounter the risen Lord and deepen their belief in this central Mystery of our faith.  Today, they encounter another Mystery in the Ascension.  Saint Paul reminds the Ephesians that the Lord had descended from heaven into our midst in the Mystery of the Incarnation.  Now, he returns to the right hand of the Father.  The two men dressed in white garments tell his disciples to begin the mission of proclaiming the Gospel to the entire world.  The disciples follow their instructions and wait in Jerusalem for the promised sending of the Holy Spirit.

            The two men dressed in white give us the same message.  We have spent this Easter Season deepening our faith in the resurrection and recognizing his real presence in the Breaking of Bread.  With the Ascension, he promises to return again at the end of time.  But, for now, he commissions us to continue our mission as his Body to proclaim the Gospel to every creature.

            In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives his disciples authority to perform signs to accompany their proclamation of the Gospel.  If we look back in this past year, we can see those same signs.  We have used the name of the Lord Jesus to drive out the demons of fear in the midst of the worst pandemic in 100 years.  We have countered the language of hatred and revenge with love and forgiveness.  We have picked up the serpents of division with our hands.  We have even drunk the poison of subjectivity, insisting that there is objective truth in the midst of the many claims that whatever opinion we embrace is factual.  We have reached out to minister to the sick, even when we have been in danger of catching the virus ourselves.

            Like those original disciples, we await a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit when we celebrate Pentecost next Sunday.  We trust the power of the Holy Spirit to strengthen us to continue our mission.  That is why renewing our stewardship of service is so crucial.  Please consider giving a portion of your time in humble service.  Strengthened by the Holy Spirit, we can proclaim the Gospel by being active participants in reopening our parish as we emerge from this pandemic.  In this humble service, we clearly proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

9 MAY 2021

 

          We continue to hear from the farewell discourse of Jesus to his disciples at the Last Supper.  To understand what he is saying in today’s Gospel, we need to recall his image of the vine and the branches.  He has drawn this image of the Prophet Isaiah.  Isaiah spoke of Israel as God’s vineyard.  God transplanted the vine from Egypt, cultivated and watered the soil, built a fence around it, and provided nourishment for the vineyard.  When God looked to the vineyard for a fruitful harvest, he found sour grapes.  Isaiah argued that these sour grapes were a result of Israel being unfaithful to their Covenant.  As a result of that infidelity, the enemies of Israel broke down their walls and took them into exile.

            Jesus reveals himself as the true vine.  His disciples are the branches.  He will remain with his disciples if they stay connected to the vine.  They will produce much fruit if they love one another as he has loved them.  They are not slaves, who can make no personal choices.  They are friends, who can choose to accept his invitation or ignore it.  He is not inviting them to have warm feelings or be nice to other people.  He is inviting them to be attached.  Authentic love involves becoming attached to a group and keeping that attachment alive.  Jesus himself became attached to us when he emptied himself of the privileges of divinity and took on our human condition in the Incarnation.  He has already taught his disciples how to love when he became a humble servant and washed their feet.  He will demonstrate that attachment by willingly giving his entire life for them on the cross.

            We became his disciples when we were grafted onto the true vine as branches at Baptism.  Now he challenges us to produce good fruit by loving as he has loved us.  As the first Letter of Saint John reminds us, this self-giving love comes from God, who is love.  We can know firsthand what God’s love truly means.  That is why we celebrate the Season of Easter for fifty days.  We continue to experience the love of God in his real presence in this Eucharist, which strengthens our bonds of unity to Christ and to each other as his body.  Knowing that love here, we are sent out to share that love with others, producing much fruit.

            That is what Saint Peter does in the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles.  Inspired by a vision, Peter courageously goes beyond the restrictions of his Jewish heritage and dares to enter the house of Cornelius, a pagan.  He grafts Cornelius and his family as branches to the true vine when he baptizes them.  By attaching them to Christ, he opens the way for all Gentiles to be grafted onto the true vine.  His act of love allows the Gospel to go well beyond its Jewish roots to produce much needed fruit throughout the Roman Empire.

            On this Mother’s Day, we recognize those women in our lives that have shown us in so many ways what the love of God looks like.  We need a special day to recognize those women who have attached themselves to us and born much fruit in living their vocation.  We also pray for those women who find a day like this very difficult – women who have lost children, or are unable to conceive, or who are alone for any reason. 

On this first weekend of May, we also honor Mary, the mother of Jesus and the Mother of the Church.  She gives an example of total attachment and helps us to understand that imitating the love of God goes well beyond warm feelings and best wishes.  We ask for her intercession, so that we can produce much fruit by loving others as God has loved us.  The world desperately needs the fruits of being attached to God’s love:  love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.