PENTECOST SUNDAY

28 MAY 2023

 

          On this fiftieth of the Easter Season, we hear the same account of the risen Christ revealing himself to the disciples which we heard on Easter Sunday.  That first Easter Sunday had been a busy day.  Early in the morning, Mary Magdalene approached the tomb with a darkness of grief that matched the morning darkness.  To her surprise, the heavy stone had been moved away from the tomb.  When she saw that the tomb was empty, she ran to Peter and the beloved disciple to report that the body of Jesus had been stolen.  Then they ran to the tomb.  While Peter could not connect the dots between the raising of Lazarus and the resurrection of Jesus, the beloved disciple did.  Then Mary  Magdalene returned to the tomb to continue her grieving.  She failed to recognize the risen Christ.  Mistaking him for the gardener, she wanted to know where they had taken her Lord’s body.  When he addressed her by name, she recognized him and worshipped him.  He told her to announce the good news to the other disciples.

            Apparently, the disciples could not believe what she had told them.  They were afraid.  Just as the stone had blocked any entrance into the tomb, they locked the doors and blocked entrance into the upper room.  Those locked doors do not keep the risen Christ out, just as the stone did not prevent him from emerging from the tomb.  He gives the gift of peace twice to his frightened disciples, just as he had promised them at the Last Supper.  He had told them that their hearts need not be troubled.  They recognize him in the wounds which are forever fixed in the act of love in which he had died.  He gives the gift of the Holy Spirit and removes their fear.  That gift will give them the courage to forgive others, just as he had forgiven them.    

The original Easter Sunday is often called the “eighth day,” because the resurrection of Jesus Christ recreates the world.  In the Acts of the Apostles, Luke reports that the Holy Spirit is given on the fiftieth day.  Just as the wind hovered over the chaos before the first day of creation in the first chapter of Genesis, the presence of the Holy Spirit is given to the Apostles gathered in the upper room.  Just as God breathed life into the clay and formed the first human being in the second chapter of Genesis, so the mighty wind of the Holy Spirit is given to the Body of Christ to carry on the work of the new creation.  Just as fire shook Mount Sinai as the people of Israel traveled to freedom in the desert, so the Holy Spirit is given as tongues of fire to enable the disciples to speak a language of love that everyone could understand.  The confusion of tongues at the tower of Babel is reversed through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

            That same gift of the Holy Spirit is given to us, the Body of Christ, on the Solemnity of Pentecost.  As Saint Paul reminds us, this gift of the Holy Spirit is given for the common good, for the building up of the Body of Christ.  As members of his Body, we all have different gifts.  We all engage in different forms of service.  The Lord works in different ways in each of us.  In the Corinthian Church, people were bragging about the individual gifts they had received.  They saw those gifts as ways of building themselves up and making them holier than others in the community.  As we emerge from the Easter Season filled with a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we cannot imitate their mistake.

            The first and best gift given on the eighth day was the gift of forgiveness.  In our broken, fractured, and divided world and Church, we need to allow the Lord to remove the heavy stone of fear that blocks us from listening to one another and extending forgiveness and mercy.  We too bear the wounds of the risen Christ.  Though the power of the Holy Spirit, we can allow the Lord to heal our wounds by giving the gift of forgiveness.

 

THE ASCENSION OF THE LORD

18 MAY 2023

 

          Today’s Solemnity is scheduled for the fortieth day of Easter, which is last Thursday.  In both his Gospel and in the Acts of the Apostles, Saint Luke says that the Lord Jesus ascended forty days after he had been raised from the dead.  Saint Luke uses this symbolic number to say that the risen Christ had sufficient time to teach his disciples about the Reign of God.  The risen Christ prepares those who witnessed the Easter event for the mission of the Church.

            A few decades ago, our Bishops moved this Solemnity to today, the closest Sunday to the symbolic forty days.  They wanted to make sure that this Solemnity is observed by Catholics who take seriously their Sunday Mass obligation.  The Ascension of the Lord is an integral part of the Paschal Mystery.  At the heart of the Paschal Mystery is our faith that Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead.  Surrounded by forty days of Lent and these fifty days of Easter, we entered into this mystery when we celebrated the Sacred Paschal Triduum.  The Mystery of the Ascension reminds us that we cannot encounter the transformed body of the risen Christ, as the original disciples encountered him after his resurrection.

            This crucial aspect of the Paschal Mystery is also shrouded in mystery.  Just as the Gospel writers give differing accounts of his encounters with his disciples after the mystery of his resurrection, so they give differing accounts of the Ascension.  Saint Luke uses the symbolic number.  Saint John describes the Mystery as one upward event.  Jesus is lifted up on the cross.  Then he is lifted up from the dead.  Then he is lifted up to return to the fullness of reality from which he descended when he took on human flesh in the Mystery of the Incarnation.  Saint Mark speaks of the Ascension occurring on a mountain in Galilee.

            Saint Matthew does not mention the word “ascension.”  He says that the risen Christ gathers his disciples on a mountain in Galilee.  On a mountain, Jesus had delivered his famous sermon.  On a mountain, he was transfigured in the presence of Peter, James, and John.  On this mountain, the disciples worship him, just as the Magi had worshipped him at the beginning of the Gospel.  On this mountain, he commissions them to continue the work he had been doing in his three years with them.  They are to take the Paschal Mystery beyond their Jewish roots to make disciples of all nations.  They are to join them into the Church, the Body of Christ, through baptism.  He who was called Emmanuel (God is with us) at the beginning of the Gospel will continue to be Emmanuel (God is with us) as they proclaim the Good News to all.

            Even though they worship him, they also doubt.  We too worship the risen Christ and renew our faith at every Sunday Mass.  Like them, we have our share of doubts.  Mysteries are beyond our comprehension, and we cannot understand the fullness of that reality.  But Saint Paul reminds us that Jesus Christ is part of that Mystery, far above every principality, authority, power, and dominion.  We may never fully understand the Mystery of who God is and how God operates.  But God is our hope above all the divisions and arguments and confusions of our troubled world and its troubled institutions.

            The Ascension reminds us that in the absence of the glorified body of Jesus Christ, we are his Body.  He is with us as we continue to evangelize in our troubled world.  We evangelize best when we renew our efforts to be disciples.  Disciples listen to Jesus Christ.  They learn from him how to live and pray.  They know what is pleasing to the Father.  When we ask for a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit next Sunday, on the fiftieth day of Easter, we can spread the good news by being better disciples.  The Lord is with us as we become more faithful disciples.

 

SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

14 MAY 2023

 

          We continue to hear the words of Jesus in his farewell discourse to his disciples at the Last Supper in Saint John’s Gospel.  Because this is the living Word of God, Jesus is speaking to us at this Memorial of the Last Supper.  He commands us to keep his commandments to love God and neighbor.  We must love as he has loved us.  He has just shown what this love looks like.  Like a humble servant, he has gotten on his knees and washed the feet of his disciples.  On the next day, he will give himself completely on the cross out of love for us.  This is the type of love he commanded his first disciples and which he commands us:  to humble ourselves and wash the feet of others, no matter how difficult or demanding that action may be.

            We see an example of this type of love in the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles.  Phillip goes down to Samaria, to the heart of the divisions and hatred between Samaritans and Jews.  He proclaims the Gospel of Jesus Christ to his former enemies.  The Samaritans are so moved by the signs worked by Phillip that they accept baptism into Jesus Christ with great joy.  Then the apostles in Jerusalem send Peter and John to impart the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Despite the former differences, their mission demonstrates both the continuity and the unity between this missionary community and the mother Church in Jerusalem.

            The Lord commands us to love in this same way.  You who are mothers know this style of loving.  I join the mothers of our parish and invite all of you to consider taking a step forward in faith to give a generous portion of your time in service to this community.  Our parish is alive, because so many people are involved.  And people can see the signs of the Lord’s love in our efforts to be humble servants.  Jesus has sent another Advocate, the Holy Spirit, to strengthen us in our efforts to serve, just as he had sent the Holy Spirit with Phillip to Samaria.  Please read the information in your stewardship of service packet.  Be sure to study the needs of the parish.  Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you as you consider what gifts God has given you.  After praying over your decision, be prepared to make a one-year commitment to be a humble servant in this parish. 

            You might expect me to say all these things.  It’s my “day job”.  So, listen to another Bill and allow him to share how he has come to embrace the stewardship of service at Saint Pius. 

Stewardship of Service Witness Talk

May 13 – 14, 2023

Bill McDonough

 

Thanks Fr. Bill

 

My wife Vicki and I have been part of this Parish since 1992 when we moved here from Pittsburgh with our three children – Kelly, Bill and Katie.  It is amazing how fast time goes by!!  Our youngest Katie is now 30 and is about to have a baby, our first grandchild.  This Parish has become a big part of our lives.

 

What is Stewardship?  Stewardship, quite simply, is recognizing that everything we have and everything we are is a gift from God and being grateful and generous with those gifts. God calls us all to steward everything about our lives focusing on the good of others.

 

In Colossians 3:23-24 Paul writes:

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”

There is humility in stewardship, it evokes images of service. Service is central to the idea of stewardship.” Service and stewardship, and through them the commitment to something greater than ourselves, are the antidote to self-interest and selfishness.

I believe we all have gifts that God has given us, and He wants us to use these gifts to serve others – in this Parish, in our Community and also in the bigger world we all live in.  If you are like me, you may be thinking right now “I have heard that many times, but I don’t have any special gifts or I don’t know what they are!  For me it took a long time to get it.  Of course, I had my faith, and I came to Mass every week and I contributed financially but I was busy with my job, family, friends etc, etc.  It wasn’t until I attended a men’s retreat right here at St Pius that my eyes and heart were really opened to the idea of serving others.  This clarity has helped me in my job, family and in becoming more involved here at St Pius.  I have been encouraged and motivated to do more by the many in our Parish that give of their time and share their gifts.  It has been amazing to see what happens when you open yourself to the idea of serving others at a whole new level – opportunities come to you!  For me that has been serving as a Hospitality Minister at Mass, helping with other men’s retreats, Saturday mornings with my brothers at TMIY and I am a part of our new Prison Ministry – helping others strengthen their faith.

I encourage you all to spend some time reflecting on what gifts God has given you – it could be Faith, Evangelism, Helping, Giving, Hospitality, Mercy, Leadership or many others that you may be touched with.  You just have to be open to the idea that we are all here to help others.  There are so many ways to get more involved here at St Pius, Fr. Bill said, “keep it short” so I don’t have time to list them all! There are ways for all of us to get more involved.  Don’t worry about not having enough time to get more involved – God challenges us to get out of our “Comfort Zone”, when you accept the challenge, he takes care of the rest.

The benefits are many – there is a real joy in serving others, it brings our community together and as you get more involved in our parish it helps make it feel not so big and it becomes a bigger part of your life.  I am so thankful for the relationships I have made here through getting more involved in serving!

I will leave you with this from the First Letter of Peter – “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace.”

 

 

 

 

FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

7 MAY 2023

 

          The words that Jesus speaks today are part of his farewell discourse at the Last Supper in the Gospel of Saint John.  He is trying to prepare them for what will happen after this meal by telling them that their hearts need not be troubled.  For the past three years, he has repeatedly told his disciples that he would have to suffer, die, and rise again.  But they could not imagine a crucified Messiah.  That is why Thomas speaks for the rest of them when he asks Jesus where he is going.  He tries to reassure them that his betrayal and death will not be the end for him or for them.  In his resurrection and ascension, he will prepare for them a place in his Father’s House.

            When he speaks of his Father’s House, he is not talking about a huge physical Mansion located somewhere in the sky.  He is talking about the divine communion of life and love in which they will share with his glorified humanity.  In that divine communion of life and love, there are many dwelling places.  We can understand better what he says if we understand “places” as “rooms.”  Teenagers can tell us how important rooms are in their homes.  They are safe and secure in a room that belongs to them alone.  When we are invited to a banquet, we want to make sure that there is room for us at the table.  We are horrified when we get stuck in a middle seat on a long airplane trip.  Without room, we feel left out.  We feel exposed to the wild and unpredictable world.  Without a room, we feel unwanted.  Jesus knew this feeling, because there was no room for him and Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem.

            Jesus promises that there will be a room for us in eternity.  However, like those first disciples, we too must share in the Lord’s suffering and death.  We must learn to live our baptismal promises better and be more willing to die to ourselves in a daily basis to share in his rising, and to share eventually in our eternal room.  That is what Saint Peter tells us in the second reading.  The Lord is forming us as living stones into a spiritual temple.  Rejected by the builders, Jesus Christ has become the cornerstone.  As he forms us into this temple, we become more connected with one another when we live our Baptismal promises.  In living our baptismal promises, we are connected with one another by giving ourselves to a bigger cause.

            When Pope Francis addressed the United States Congress in 2015, he gave examples of four Americans who gave themselves for a bigger cause.  He pointed to “Three sons and a daughter of this land, four individuals and four dreams: “Lincoln, liberty; Martin Luther King, liberty in plurality and non-exclusion; Dorothy Day, social justice and the rights of persons; and Thomas Merton, the capacity for dialogue and openness to God.”  These Americans, the Pope said, surrendered themselves to the Lord and allowed him to form them into something greater.

            The Apostles at the Last Supper soon discovered the horror of one of their own betraying Jesus, of his arrest and unjust trial, and of his horrific execution on the cross.  We face our own suffering and dying when we choose to follow him, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  In choosing to follow him, we face our own divisions today.  Saint Luke tells us in the Acts of the Apostles that the Greek disciples complained that the Hebrew disciples were being favored.  So the Apostles solved the problem by laying hands on the first deacons, all Greek speaking people.  Through their ministry, they helped them connect themselves better through sacrificial love.  Like them, we are not alone in facing challenges and divisions in our Church today.  Like them, we need to trust that today’s successors of the Apostles, our Bishops in union with Pope Francis, can guide us in connecting ourselves with each other better.  Formed into a spiritual temple, we can count on that “room” reserved for us in the Father’s house.

 

FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

30 APRIL 2023

 

            In our culture, we tend to hold up individuals as models of good leadership.  Abraham Lincoln was a great president who gave himself to the cause of uniting a divided nation during the Civil War.  Pope Pius X reluctantly accepted the call to be Bishop of Rome.  He liked to contrast the pomp and ceremony of Rome with his humble beginnings in northern Italy.  Zelie and Louis Martin endured many hardships to provide a safe home for their daughters in France.  These people provide models to imitate.

            However, the model for good leadership in the Bible came from the bottom of society.  Shepherds were looked down upon and shunned by local people, because they wandered around and brought suspicion upon themselves, much like  carnival workers today.  However, shepherds taught people in authority how to act.  Unlike royalty who saw their subjects as pawns to be used, shepherds knew each sheep of the flock by name.  Shepherds did not drive their sheep like cowboys drove cattle in the wild west.  They walked ahead of the sheep.  They followed them to green pastures and pools of water.  At night, shepherds led their flocks into sheepfolds carved out of the hillside.  Without gates in the sheepfold, shepherds took turns lying across the entrance as a gate.  Some shepherds gave their lives when thieves or wild animals tried to enter.  At dawn, the shepherds called their own sheep, who followed them, because they knew their voice.

            This is the image which our Scripture readings present to us today.  Jesus is the Good Shepherd.  He has just spoken to us today in the Word of God.  He knows each of us by name and calls us to himself.  We see this image in our Triumphal Arch.  The Good Shepherd is seated in the Heavenly Jerusalem.  Each of us can identify ourselves with one of those sheep.  Our Good Shepherd has laid down his life for us on the cross, which we see above the Altar.  He has been raised from the dead and has become the Lamb of God, who feeds us with his Body and Blood.  We see this Victorious Lamb in the mosaic on the front of the Altar.

            Boys and girls, your parents brought you to the Good Shepherd when they brought you to the waters of Baptism.  You became one with the risen Christ and were clothed with a white garment.  In just a couple of minutes (depending on how long I go on and on), you will walk to the Baptismal Font and renew the Baptismal Promises made for you by your parents and godparents.  Then, you will be fed with his Body and Blood for the first time. 

            The Good Shepherd speaks to those of us who are leaders today.  When the crowds hear Peter proclaim the Paschal Mystery in the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, they want to know how to respond.  He tells them to repent and be baptized.  We adults have been baptized, and the Lord calls us to repent and live our baptismal promises.  The Lord calls me, as shepherd of this flock, to reflect on my role.  He challenges me to put the needs of this flock ahead of my own comfort and ego.  He calls me to repent of those times when I put my own needs fist.  He also challenges you parents, who are the shepherds of your children, to repentance.  You parents lay down your lives constantly for the sake of your children.  As they receive their First Holy Communion, he challenges you to embrace your baptismal promises and grow into a deeper relationship with him in the Eucharist.  For some of you, that means developing a greater encounter with the Lord in your Sunday participation at Mass.  For others, that means making a commitment to be more regular participants at this Feast of the Lamb.  We need to listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd speaking to us every Sunday, drawing us closer to himself and feeding us with his Body and Blood to form us as good shepherds.  The Good Shepherd has been raised from the dead and invites us to share in his dying, so that we can share in his rising.

 

THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER

23 APRIL 2023

 

          Today we meet two of the disciples of Jesus leaving Jerusalem and heading to the village of Emmaus.  In their walk, a stranger joins them and wants to know what they are talking about.  They tell the stranger about their hopes.  They had been become followers of Jesus of Nazareth, because they had recognized him as a great prophet, mighty in deed and word.  They had hoped that he would be the one to redeem Israel.  That hope had been reinforced when he had entered Jerusalem a week before.  People had spread palm branches and their garments on his path and hailed him as the Messiah, singing “Hosanna to the Son of David.”

            Then those hopes have been completely crushed.  They tell him that the chief priests and religious authorities handed him over to the Romans, who executed him in the cruelest and most humiliating way possible by crucifying him.  They had to spend the next day, the Sabbath, in utter despair and had to wait until the first day of the week to get out of Jerusalem.  They have so completely lost their hope that they cannot believe the women who found the tomb empty and reported that a vision of angels had reported that he is alive.

            The stranger begins to speak to them.  In reviewing the Scriptures, the stranger points out that all the authentic prophets of Israel had been rejected.  He gently points out that Jesus of Nazareth is more than a prophet.  In opening their eyes to the Scriptures, he expands their limited concept of the mission of the Messiah.  He had come not to expel the Romans, but to endure suffering and death to allow him to enter into his true glory.  As they listen with their ears, their hearts begin to burn within them, and they invite him to stay with them when they reach Emmaus.  At table, the stranger does exactly what he had done at the multiplication of the loaves and the fishes and at the Last Supper they had shared with him.  When he takes bread, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to them, their eyes are opened, and they recognize the stranger as the risen Lord.  Their hope is expanded in an unexpected way, and they rush back to Jerusalem .

            Hope is a gift from God.  When their limited hopes are destroyed, the risen Lord gives them the gift of hope that will sustain them in their new role as members of the Body of Christ.  In addition, hope is a gift that must be shared.  The two disciples return immediately to Jerusalem.  With this new hope, they ignore the dangers of traveling at night.  They pass through the fear that the authorities will arrest them as followers of Jesus of Nazareth.  They share their encounter with the risen Lord with the others in Jerusalem who had lost their hope.

            That is why we celebrate these fifty days of Easter every year.  Life has a way of upending our expectations and robbing us of hope.  Like those two disciples, we hear the Lord speaking to us in his Word now as we gather to celebrate the Eucharist.  Our eyes are opened when the priest takes bread, blesses the Father for the sacrificial love of Jesus made present as we remember it, breaks it, and gives it to us.  After encountering the risen Lord’s real presence in this Eucharist, we too are sent out to celebrate the Lord’s gift of hope and share it with others.

            On this weekend, our second graders are given the gift of the Eucharist for the first time.  They have been looking forward to this day for months.  In their excitement, they can teach us a valuable lesson about hope.  Like those two disciples, we can easily become discouraged and lose hope.  In our very busy lives, we rush around and fail to recognize the risen Lord in those we encounter on a daily basis.  The Lord works through our children to remind us of how important it is to take time every Sunday to listen to him and recognize him in the breaking of bread.  With them, we renew our hope in the Paschal Mystery of the Lord, whose death and resurrection (the Paschal Mystery) remain at the heart of everything we believe as disciples.

 

SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER

16 APRIL 2023

 

          The Gospel of Saint John equates seeing with believing.  John the Baptists invites the crowds to see him as the Christ when he declares after baptizing him: “Behold the Lamb of God.”  Those who see him as the Lamb of God will understand his role as the Messiah giving his life out of love for everyone.  Jesus invites people to see him as the Christ in each of his seven miracles or signs, beginning with changing water into wine at the Wedding Feast of Cana.  When the man born blind finally sees the one who restored his sight, he believes and worships him.  On the third day after his death on a cross, his earliest followers see the empty tomb.  However, they do not believe until they see the risen Lord.  Mary Magdalene recognizes him when he calls him by name outside the empty tomb.  She sees, believes, and becomes the Apostle to the Apostles when she runs and reports to them that she has seen the risen Lord.  However, they do not believe her until the risen Lord breaks through the locked doors of the room where they are cowering in fear and guilt.  Once they see him, they believe.

            However, Thomas is not with them.  The Gospel does not tell us why he skipped that first Easter Sunday gathering.  Perhaps guilt at abandoning the Lord in his hour of need separates him from the other ten.  Maybe grief isolates him.  When they tell him that they have seen the risen Lord, he refuses to believe until he can see for himself.  On the following Sunday, he rejoins the community and sees the risen Lord.  He sees the wounds, still present on the Lord’s Risen body, to show us that even in our most wounded hours, the Risen Christ feels our pain as his own, is present with us, and has conquered the world.  He sees, believes, and makes the most profound statement of faith in the New Testament: “My Lord and my God.”

            Jesus calls Thomas “blessed,” because he sees and believes.  But then he names us blessed, who believe without seeing as the earliest disciples had seen.  Beginning on Holy Saturday when we celebrated the bright light of the risen Lord emerging from the darkness of his tomb, we have celebrated his resurrection throughout this Octave of Easter.  Even though we have not seen as they had seen, we believe their testimony and renew our faith that Good Friday was not the end of the journey for Jesus of Nazareth.  On this last day of the Octave of Easter, we hear the same words addressed to the first disciples and accept his mercy and his forgiveness for the times we may have abandoned him through our actions.

            Saint John Paul II is the Pope who designated this last day of the Octave of Easter Divine as Mercy Sunday.  He said this about Easter: “We do not pretend that life is all beauty.  We are aware of darkness and sin, of poverty and pain.  But we know Jesus has conquered sin and passed through his own pain to the glory of the Resurrection.  And we live in the light of his Paschal Mystery – the mystery of his death and resurrection. ‘We are an Easter People and alleluia is our song!’ We are not looking for a shallow joy but rather a joy that comes from faith, that grows through unselfish love, that respects the ‘fundamental duty of love of neighbor, without which it would be unbecoming to speak of Joy.’”

            As a parish, we can accept the Pope’s challenge to remain as Easter People, with alleluia as our song.  We can commit ourselves to making our parish look like Saint Luke’s description of the earliest community of believers in the Acts of the Apostles.  Like them, we must devote ourselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers.  As Easter people, we can be in solidarity with the poor and those who need our help.  Perhaps more people might come to believe if they see the presence of the risen Lord in our community of Easter People.