tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33414926444036589582024-03-18T08:16:16.878-04:00The Grace of PreachingA blog to communicate the fruits of my own contemplation of Scripture for most of the Sundays and Holy Days of the Liturgical Year. By this blog I hope that you can draw closer to the Triune God and see how the Word of God continues to be living and effective in your own lives.Fr. Anthonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16097986252589061620noreply@blogger.comBlogger669125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3341492644403658958.post-43996195660060643132024-03-18T08:15:00.008-04:002024-03-18T08:15:37.444-04:00Made for More<p><b>Passion Sunday</b><br /> In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. This is the time of year that new assignments start coming out. Just last Monday we received the notice of the movement of a number of pastors and parochial vicars to new assignments. I was subsequently speaking with a brother priest and telling him how I received an email a couple of months ago from a parishioner at Immaculate Conception parish in Milan, Michigan (not to be confused with Milan, Italy) who asked me to apply for that parish because I am a young priest with lots of energy. I joked with my classmate that I am not as young as I used to be. And, besides that, I really feel that St. Matthew is the perfect fit for me (and I hope you feel that way, too, at least most of the time). That’s not to say that we don’t have any challenges here and ways that we can continue to grow, not only in population but in our relationship with Christ. But I really feel like I belong here, that we compliment each other well, and that we challenge each other to grow as a parish family. As many of you live outside of the territorial boundaries of this parish, I know that you, too, feel like St. Matthew is a perfect place, and you witness to that by driving past other parishes that are geographically closer to you.<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijPfYimGLm_OCTdwhdP0TBHIrreXo44T-lezwuZ-zqxU5-celHTpeTt5hE5c0Qmb7FMPevDQ-0esS4QLEbmQhzdsN03KKnsfSV_l7EDRhLIA2jZ-IQW4befYRN0XazeG14suLYOUzYaZuSLNcff9e_1qLm5yMyGIZe2Fow_L6MvpoZtpMScLEIG3fuCYo/s4032/38E8F948-25EA-465C-A040-92AF96150EAE.heic" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijPfYimGLm_OCTdwhdP0TBHIrreXo44T-lezwuZ-zqxU5-celHTpeTt5hE5c0Qmb7FMPevDQ-0esS4QLEbmQhzdsN03KKnsfSV_l7EDRhLIA2jZ-IQW4befYRN0XazeG14suLYOUzYaZuSLNcff9e_1qLm5yMyGIZe2Fow_L6MvpoZtpMScLEIG3fuCYo/s320/38E8F948-25EA-465C-A040-92AF96150EAE.heic" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">My installation as pastor of St. Matthew</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table> But while St. Matthew seems like the most perfect assignment I’ve had so far as a priest, and hopefully the most perfect parish for you, our epistle today is a good reminder that this is not all there is. Christ is the High Priest, the Supreme Pontiff, of a greater and more perfect temple, not made with hands, in heaven. As St. Paul says, we have here no lasting city. We are made for heaven, and that is the temple into which we should all strive to enter.<br /> It is so easy to focus on what is here below. Our church building can rightly be called beautiful as it reflects the truth of what this place proposes to be: a house of God, who is utterly transcendent and awesome. The precious materials like marble and gold leaf offer to God the best of what we have for His glory. The images of the saints throughout this church, like in our stained-glass windows, the medallions near the ceiling, and the statues (which are now covered) remind us that what we participate in is not just an earthly affair, but is the meeting point between heaven and earth, where saints and angels worship God together with us. In this place we not only remember but participate in the offering of Christ in the Holy of Holies, no longer with the blood of a dumb animal, but with the precious blood of the Son of God, the blood which speaks more eloquently than that of Abel. We join ourselves to the one Mediator between God and men, the God-Man Jesus Christ, who invites us into a covenant not carved on stone by the hand of God, but carved into our hearts; a covenant not marked by the cutting away of flesh in circumcision, but the cutting away of that which separates us from God, original sin; a covenant which brought not temporary purification, but opened up for us the possibility of eternal life in heaven if we keep our wedding garments clean in the Blood of the true Unblemished Lamb in which they were washed.<br /> But God reminds us today through the readings that His covenant surpasses anything that came before, and, in fact, fulfills them all. Even that great covenant with Abraham, wherein God made Abraham and his descendants the People of God, looked forward to the covenant with Christ, as Christ Himself noted in the Gospel that Abraham looked forward to the day when God would take union with man and redeem man once and for all. The Jews picked up stones to kill our Lord because they recognized that Christ was not claiming to be another prophet or religious leader like so many that had come before Him. The Savior claimed that Abraham rejoiced in Him, which made Himself equal to God. He also used in some way, that sacred name of God that God Himself revealed to Moses: I AM. Christ is a prophet, but also greater than the prophets, and the God who inspired the prophets.<br /> For us, then, the Lord invites us not only to keep in mind His Divinity, but that, while we exercise good stewardship of this earth and all that lives in it, we also keep our minds fixed on what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. As good as this earth is, our time on it will end, either by death or by Christ’s return in glory at the <i>parousia</i>. At the end of time, what is good will be perfected and what is bad will be cast away. Even the sacraments will end in heaven, because we will no longer need material reality to mediate God’s presence. We will be able to behold God face to face, no longer dimly, as in a mirror. The indelible marks of the sacraments will still remain–baptism and confirmation, and for those in holy order, the mark of ordination–but no longer will we baptize, confirm, or ordain, because Christ will be all in all.<br /> So while we remain on this earth, we also do what so many advise against: keep our heads in the clouds. Not in the sense that we are absent minded or distracted, but that our attention is ever-split between earth and heaven, keeping before us always the destination for which God created us. As good as life can be here, something even greater awaits those who remain faithful to the covenant sealed in the Precious Blood of Christ our God.<br /> So yes, let’s continue to build up St. Matthew parish. Let’s draw others to this beautiful House of God. It truly feels like where I belong, and I hope you feel like it’s where you belong as well. But, even so, may we also remember the tabernacle not built with hands, greater and more perfect than our tabernacle here, where Christ, our High Priest, eternally intercedes for us, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit is God, for ever and ever. Amen. <br /></p>Fr. Anthonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16097986252589061620noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3341492644403658958.post-4388315246102290802024-03-11T08:07:00.003-04:002024-03-11T08:07:29.485-04:00Two Approaches<p><b>Fourth Sunday of Lent</b><br /> In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Sometimes we have Scripture passages that we really like, that “hit us in the feels” or that motivate us to follow Christ more deeply. Other times there are Scripture passages with which we struggle, which seem harder to digest. And perhaps St. Paul’s epistle today is one of the latter. <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw3AzWcDZZ2qFDygG35U-jent-BlKlfVrdWRmWg1Cp6k85PiADCAdO2SWv4oJGx_UM-8ep3geZylO5KkfyCGgoylTxj-P33yx8z_LU7BgJd3DsRJwwiS_WXpN1Ce5C95WPKHxrnvMbexfq5sdwDlbsc9F4u2ZRdt91khOLQvtn2S_6Vk-MXB8T2-fkM6U/s2592/100_0345.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2592" data-original-width="1944" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw3AzWcDZZ2qFDygG35U-jent-BlKlfVrdWRmWg1Cp6k85PiADCAdO2SWv4oJGx_UM-8ep3geZylO5KkfyCGgoylTxj-P33yx8z_LU7BgJd3DsRJwwiS_WXpN1Ce5C95WPKHxrnvMbexfq5sdwDlbsc9F4u2ZRdt91khOLQvtn2S_6Vk-MXB8T2-fkM6U/s320/100_0345.JPG" width="240" /></a></div> St. Paul tells us today about the two covenants: that of Sinai (the law) and that of Christ (freedom in Him). And St. Paul seems to suggest that we should get rid of the law because it connects us to slavery, where as the covenant in the Blood of Christ gives us the true freedom of the heavenly Jerusalem. But how can we square this with the fact that we are still supposed to follow the Ten Commandments? Certainly, we don’t have to follow all of the dietary and ritual laws of Judaism, and every time we eat bacon we can thank God for that. But what does St. Paul mean? Especially when we consider that Christ Himself said, “Do not think I have come to abolish the law and the prophets. I have come, not to abolish, but to fulfill.” <br /> What the Apostle speaks of today is how God saves us. And this was and is a rather big point in how we view salvation, which still challenges us today. Both in the Epistle to the Galatians and in the Epistle to the Romans, St. Paul outlines how the law doesn’t save, but existed as a tutor to help us grow in holiness. It didn’t gain for us salvation. And the Apostle to the Gentiles shares how no one, once God gave the law, ever lived up to all its 613 precepts perfectly. <br /> Christ came and gave us a new law, one that built upon the old law, but surpassed it, as much as light surpasses shadow and reality surpasses sign. Christ fulfilled the law perfectly, and even took upon Himself the punishment or curse due to those who did not follow the law, as the law says, “Cursed be he who hangs on a tree,” and Christ allowed Himself to be hung on the tree of the cross so that He could take away the curse from us and grant us everlasting life. This new law is seen especially in Matthew, chapter five, as Christ, the New Moses, gives us the Beatitudes and reinterprets the law to go beyond simply “Thou shalt not,” and move into the positive area of blessings and fulness of life. These are the teachings, “You have heard it said…but I say to you…”. The fulfillment of the law that Christ talks about is, from the point of action, much more difficult, as it’s easier to not murder someone than it is not to hold anger in the heart, or not to have sex with someone other than your spouse than it is to avoid even lustful glances at others. <br /> But, going deeper, the dichotomy that St. Paul points out between the covenant of Sinai and the covenant of Calvary points to a more profound difference: do we save ourselves or is salvation a gift? If the law saves, then salvation is something that I achieve for myself. I may ask God for help; I may lean on others to support me in following each commandment, but I am the main actor in my salvation. On the other hand, if Christ saves me, then I have a part to play in my salvation, but it is a supporting role, not the lead in the movie. And if Christ saves me, then if I mess up, it doesn’t mean salvation is lost to me necessarily. It simply means that I have temporarily interrupted salvation. But if I save myself and I do not fulfill the requirements of the law, then there is no hope for me; I have spent my chance for redemption and have nothing but despair for my eternal future.<br /> This is the good news of salvation: salvation doesn’t depend on me! And, at least as far as I, personally, am concerned, that’s great news! Because I don’t always do the good I intend, and I sometimes do the bad I do not intend to do. The freedom comes from knowing that I am not my own savior, so I don’t have to act as if everything depends on me. Because it doesn’t. If everything depends on me, then I am in slavery, striving with all of who I am to follow a law that I am bound to break at one time or another. <br /> So, the Law does not save. Christ saves. And thanks be to God for that. But does that mean that I can forget the Ten Commandments? Does that mean that my choices don’t matter? Of course not. Again, the new law of freedom means we act in a certain way that goes even beyond the old law. Christ has won for us salvation, so that we don’t have to earn it (because we can’t earn it). But in order to receive that gift of salvation, we still have to follow Christ and conform ourselves to Him. Because really, being in heaven is a matter of being united to Christ. If we are united to Christ, then heaven is the logical destination for us because Christ is already there and we are joined to Christ. But, if we sever ourselves from Christ by doing things that are contradictory to who Christ is, then we cannot hope to be in heaven because Christ is in heaven and we have separated ourselves from Him.<br /> So we still do our best to avoid: having other false gods; taking God’s name in vain; working on the sabbath (the Lord’s Day, now, rather than Saturday); disobeying our parents; murdering others; committing adultery; stealing; lying; and coveting our neighbor’s spouse or goods. And we even go beyond that. We ask God to help us avoid: even other swear words, wrath, lustful thoughts; to be content with what we have, mean what we say, and not give in to envy. But we do so as our response to what God has done for us, not trying to earn His love or eternal salvation. While we can still reject salvation, our salvation is not up to us, in the end; Christ has already accomplished it for us. We merely need to show that we want it (which sometimes is a bit of challenge because of our fallen nature). But God also gives us the Eucharist, the true Flesh and Blood of our Risen Lord, to help conform us to Christ and to strengthen us so that we can choose salvation and reject damnation. May our worthy reception of the Body and Blood of Christ today and each time we go to Mass help us to choose the freedom that is ours in Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen. <br /><p></p>Fr. Anthonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16097986252589061620noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3341492644403658958.post-5437770288578513092024-03-04T08:18:00.000-05:002024-03-04T08:18:04.822-05:00The Strong Man and the Stronger Man<p><b>Third Sunday of Lent</b><br /> In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. For many men, especially as they’re in adolescence or a young adulthood, one of the worst things you can say is, “You look like your mother.” I can’t be sure if this applies to daughters being told they look like their dad, but I can’t imagine a young girl wanting to hear she looks like a guy. The physical comparisons, whether between mother and son or father and daughter might be somewhat true, but, at least for guys, it’s not the sort of thing you want to hear. <br /> In a different vein entirely, but still something that shouldn’t be compared is our Lord and the powers of evil. Christ was not afraid to use physical force with objects (as in the cleansing of the Temple) or sharp words with people (as in his rebuke of the scribes and Pharisees) to get his point across. So the fact that He used neither of these in today’s Gospel demonstrates just how patient Christ could be. There He is, working to free people from the dominion of the evil one, and people start surmising that He must be doing the work of the evil one. I can’t say that I’d be as patient as our Lord in such a situation.<br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuxdyG2QJSgcKn2sBHWGnwqMyEMoB2Aqc7g3Y-uVYtj67s_E8sLgTblwQaINKwMNljTfBYZ8y9SNHNQS4cov2Q4LImjrWNDmlG-LXfj-Kn6UUZc7yGJ-XZQVMR7vS50LfxfO5fjw3xpCDyHi9YWV7MivVW046AqOpgVwGeGhtBhaf76VOcvXAJUkPyH6s/s740/Ireneaus3p.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="740" data-original-width="740" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuxdyG2QJSgcKn2sBHWGnwqMyEMoB2Aqc7g3Y-uVYtj67s_E8sLgTblwQaINKwMNljTfBYZ8y9SNHNQS4cov2Q4LImjrWNDmlG-LXfj-Kn6UUZc7yGJ-XZQVMR7vS50LfxfO5fjw3xpCDyHi9YWV7MivVW046AqOpgVwGeGhtBhaf76VOcvXAJUkPyH6s/s320/Ireneaus3p.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">St. Irenaeus</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table> Instead, the Savior asks them how Satan is supposed to survive if he’s undermining his own work? He says the words that Abraham Lincoln would paraphrase some eighteen hundred years later: “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” And then Christ speaks about His own work. The strong man in this explanation is Satan, but the stronger man is Christ. St. Irenaeus the early second century bishop of Lyons and martyr, writes in his <i>magnum opus Adversus Haereses</i>: <br /> </p><p>For as in the beginning [Satan] enticed man to transgress his Maker’s law, and thereby got him into his power; yet his power consists in transgression and apostasy, and with these he bound man [to himself]; so again, on the other hand, it was necessary that through man himself he should, when conquered, be bound with the same chains with which he had bound man, in order that man, being set free, might return to his Lord, leaving to [Satan] those bonds by which he himself had been fettered, that is, sin. For when Satan is bound, man is set free; since none can enter a strong man’s house and spoil his goods, unless he first bind the strong man himself.<br /><br />We are the spoils, the ones that Satan first duped, but that Christ freed from slavery to Satan, while Christ bound up Satan and put an end to his dominion over us.<br /> But, Christ also notes in this Gospel that even with His work of freeing us from Satan, it’s not as if Satan just gives up. Christ does His work of freeing us, but we have to continue to cooperate in that work by standing guard against falling into that slavery again. Because, as Christ noted, demons may be cast out, but he may return, and may bring his friends to try to wrest us back to the power of the enemy, so that we are more under Satan’s control the second time than the first. As St. Peter warns us in his first epistle, the devil is prowling like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. If we knew a lion was outside, we would be very careful about watching where it was, and making sure we were protected from an attack. <br /> How do protect ourselves? The works of Lent are a good starting point. Prayer is a great way to guard against the enemy. A daily habit of prayer is not only good to strengthen our relationship with our Beloved, a strong relationship with our Beloved keeps us from looking for other lovers. Some people find that in the moment of strong temptations, prayer can help greatly. Others find that, in the midst of strong temptations, it is very hard to pray. But daily prayer, especially the Rosary, can assist in keeping watch against attacks of the enemy.<br /> Fasting also helps us to fight off temptation. It may not always seem obvious how fasting helps, but we are a union of body and soul, and so when we discipline one, we discipline the other. Fasting is intended to raise our mind to heavenly things, since we are not focusing as much on satisfying the body. It reminds the body, which is so often the way that Satan tries to get us to follow him instead of God, that just because the body wants something does not mean that it gets it. Bodily desires have to be subordinated to the soul, which has to be subordinated to the will of God. And fasting helps to put that divinely established order back into line.<br /> Lastly, confession is an important part of regaining freedom and remaining free from the grasp of the enemy. Of course, if we have fallen into mortal sin, confession restores us to sanctifying grace, the grace that allows us to be received into heaven. It removes the obstacles to God’s grace that we have put up, and unshackles us from attachment to the enemy. But even if we only have venial sins, confession strengthens us to work on avoiding those sins, and helps us to avoid falling into other sins, which can be more grave. Confession not only treats the disease, but also helps prevent us from getting the disease in the first place. Many exorcists have said that the best way to make sure that we are not susceptible to demonic oppression or possession is to make frequent confessions, since confession means that we want Jesus to be Lord in our life and we wish to serve Him, not the enemy. <br /> In the end, resisting the devil means doing the will of God. God does not want us to be slaves of Satan, but wants us to be God’s children, united with Christ. Christ always works to free all those created in the image and likeness of God from enslavement to sin so that they can live in the freedom and joy of the children of God: the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. <br /></p>Fr. Anthonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16097986252589061620noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3341492644403658958.post-73597151424090022772024-02-26T08:03:00.005-05:002024-02-26T08:03:40.149-05:00More Than Rules<p><b>Second Sunday of Lent</b><br /> In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. The Church Fathers have consistently taught that the Gospel we heard today, that of the Transfiguration, allowed Christ to assuage the distress of the announcement of His Passion, so that the Apostles could know that, after the Passion, the glory of the Resurrection would follow. <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe5IJ4LycQIiKD7bLTOqBDqSVL8mO1NL6bkOtOb77YeKK6h2e63O2d1wepfsMN_9EqE7MFM0xGGrn0FVHoEAbdb7rcSr2OqOcSNMZQlyPGNbYJKUDXfeclM9j51-Oq5SryP7A6ewhjtR649uqhp8J50vb4pN94qzxmu_13TWUnduvkrqYDncSuUMHZUvY/s1536/004_4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1536" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe5IJ4LycQIiKD7bLTOqBDqSVL8mO1NL6bkOtOb77YeKK6h2e63O2d1wepfsMN_9EqE7MFM0xGGrn0FVHoEAbdb7rcSr2OqOcSNMZQlyPGNbYJKUDXfeclM9j51-Oq5SryP7A6ewhjtR649uqhp8J50vb4pN94qzxmu_13TWUnduvkrqYDncSuUMHZUvY/s320/004_4.JPG" width="320" /></a></div> The Transfiguration also demonstrates what Christ desires to happen to us if He joins us to Himself through Holy Baptism. The glorification of the head also means the glorification of the body. God does not keep His glory to Himself, but shares it with those whom Holy Baptism joins to Himself and those who, through a holy life, keep that union strong. <br /> And during our Lenten observances, as we discipline ourselves and “waste away” from fasting and abstaining, it is good to keep our eyes on the prize and realize for what God made us. Because God did not solely destine us for this earth and all of its fallenness. God made us so that we could live with Him eternally in heaven, and the glory that He has by nature He would share with us by grace. We, too, are meant to be transfigured.<br /> So often Catholicism is simply presented as rules to follow. St. Paul today tells us not to give in to fornication and not to give in to lust, as do the pagans. And in this way, St. Paul tells us, God will make us holy. Certainly, many people think about the Church’s teaching on sex as “don’t do [fill in the blank].” <br /> But the Gospel reminds us that Catholicism is not, at its heart, about rules. Catholicism is about letting God transfigure us to be more like Himself, which is how He made us. Rules can often seem very external, but God desires that His grace not only affect our actions, the externals, but also affect our entire being, both externals and internals. The chief complaint from the Lord about the Pharisees was that they only cared about the externals, so He calls them cups where only the outside is washed, while the inside remains dirty, or white-washed sepulchers, finely decorated on the outside, but full of death on the inside. The catch-word for Lent, repent, comes from the Greek 𝜇𝜀𝜏𝛼𝜈𝜊𝜀𝜄𝜏𝜀, meaning a change of mind or a change of being. <br /> And as we hear St. Peter say that it is good that they are at Mt. Tabor, and should stay there in three tents, even he, in a sense, thinks only about the externals. Christ allows His divinity to shine through, and Peter is awe-filled. But it doesn’t require any change of his own life. He can simply watch the Lord and bask in His brilliance. But a disciple is not just about “me and Jesus,” to use a common Christian phrase. Following the Lord means that we allow God to transform our life, which pushes us out to share that new life with others. When we conform our lives to God, we conform them to love, which is diffusive; it wants to be shared with others, not kept to ourselves. <br /> This transformation cannot only be on the outside. St. Paul, elsewhere, talks about the glory of the law, which pales in comparison to the glory of righteousness. Moses, the Apostle writes, had this glory, but the glory faded, which is why Moses covered his face: so the Israelites didn’t see the slow fade of the glory. The Law had some transfiguring effect, but not a total transfiguration. Moses could give the law, but grace and truth came through Christ, as we hear in St. John’s prologue at each Mass. <br /> It is all too easy to “do the right things.” It is easier to simply do the external things that we are told that we need to do than to allow those things that we are supposed to do change us, both outside and inside. But the point of the externals is to change the internals. God does not only want us to look good, He wants us to be good. And so those things that we do should change our interior dispositions to be more like Christ.<br /> So as we engage in our Lenten disciplines, ask yourselves: is this discipline opening me up to the grace of God so that I can be transformed? Or is it only an outward action that does nothing to my interior spiritual life? And if we’re not being transformed, it’s not that we stop our penances. We can’t simply eat meat on Fridays because we don’t experience how abstaining from meat on Fridays transforms us to be more like Christ. What it does mean is that we have to examine how that practice, or any others that we undertake, can make us more receptive to God’s grace. Maybe by not eating meat by choice, I ponder those who cannot choose what they want to eat because they have no money. My heart grows in love for the poor, and I am led to consider how I can help them according to my own state in life. I no longer see them as “others” who annoy me, but as beloved of Christ, and even Christ Himself, as He says in Matthew 25, for whom I have a responsibility to care. <br /> I know I preached about externals and internals on Ash Wednesday, but the Gospel of the Transfiguration reminds us that Christ did not come only to change religious practices. Christ came to make us more like God, not on our own terms, like what Adam and Eve tried to do when they disobeyed God, but on God’s terms, with a transformation that shines more brightly. May our Lenten practices not only discipline our bodies, but also help us to be more like Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit is God, for ever and ever. Amen. <br /><p></p>Fr. Anthonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16097986252589061620noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3341492644403658958.post-11139168282751188462024-02-19T07:44:00.000-05:002024-02-19T07:44:04.724-05:00Are You Saved?<p><b>First Sunday of Lent</b><br /> [In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen]. Are you saved? This is a question that we can get from some of our Protestant brothers and sisters when we encounter them. Or we might hear them talking about how they were saved on a particular date or at a particular age. A week ago yesterday I attended the funeral of the mother of the Flint Post Administrator for the Michigan State Police. She was baptist, and the preacher asked that very question to us, and talked about how Nadine was saved at a particular age when she accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior.<br /> We as Catholics don’t use that language. And so when we’re asked, perhaps we don’t know how to answer. But as we begin Lent, it’s a good thing to explore. St. Peter in his first letter [today] talks about being saved by baptism, which was prefigured by Noah being saved in the ark from the great Flood. In terms of baptism, we can point to a day in which we were saved from original sin and became a child of God in the Son of God and, therefore, a member of the Church. Baptism is a one-time event because it forever claims us for God and washes away, not only original sin, but any other sins that we have committed up to that point (if we’re not baptized as an infant, who wouldn’t have any personal sins that would need to be wiped away). When it comes to baptism, we can rightly say that we were saved on that day.<br /> However, baptism isn’t only about a day. Baptism begins a life of following Christ. It’s not as if that one day means that we never have to worry about salvation after that. Even though original sin is washed away, we still retain concupiscence, a desire for lesser goods. While many Christians reject the idea of concupiscence after baptism, it seems quite obvious from human existence. We probably can’t count the number of times even in just one day that we are tempted to do things that we know we shouldn’t do. It doesn’t mean we have to give in to those temptations. Through baptism, we have all the graces we need to avoid all mortal sins throughout our life. But we still want what we shouldn’t want, as St. Paul himself describes. Adam and Eve, who had no sin at first, were still tempted to reject God, and their choice to reject God affected all of us. And Satan even tempted our Lord in the desert, as the Gospel for the First Sunday of Lent describes. Our Lord had no sin whatsoever, and yet, due to His human nature, Satan thought he could get Christ to give in to lesser goods, just as Satan had tempted our first parents. <br /> So, in this sense, we can say that we are being saved, in as much as we are choosing each day, more or less, to follow Christ. To the extent that we follow Him, we are participating more in the salvation that God first offered to us in Holy Baptism. To the extent that we choose lesser goods, things that we shouldn’t do, we are participating less in the salvation that God first offered us in Holy Baptism.<br /> And that leads to the last aspect of salvation for us as Catholics: we hope to be saved. Life is our time of accepting or rejecting God and the promises of Holy Baptism to live as a disciple. Each day we move closer to or farther away from eternal life in heaven. There is no staying put or coasting. But at some point, we will have cemented our decision because we won’t have any more decisions to make because we’re dead. At that point, our life will witness to whether or not we accepted the salvation that God offered us in Holy Baptism and we will receive our eternal reward in Heaven (or the time preparing for Heaven in Purgatory) or our enteral punishment in Hell. Once we die, there are no more second chances. And so we hope that the decisions we make throughout our life show that we have accepted the salvation that Christ won for us by His Passion, Death, and Resurrection. Only then will we know for sure if we are saved, though we have hope, because of baptism and because of being in a state of grace, that is, without mortal sin, at the time of our death. <br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiu4oGGlrB5X5yoC22CUzxwBqllBRVDk0eaPxrD6-oo0mIOVMal154n_bc25q2FpoWSqZf1mk6tO7d6T_nJyjq0WJVSvw8hlc24jLolEQ9nmH8Ffj9XrPSwgSGHKg7oAe5YjiQfkWlDonAocUi5m7rSDgTW_wHnTFN0zp08Ny_pR5x-Qso1rDgkRprzDEE" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2286" data-original-width="3616" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiu4oGGlrB5X5yoC22CUzxwBqllBRVDk0eaPxrD6-oo0mIOVMal154n_bc25q2FpoWSqZf1mk6tO7d6T_nJyjq0WJVSvw8hlc24jLolEQ9nmH8Ffj9XrPSwgSGHKg7oAe5YjiQfkWlDonAocUi5m7rSDgTW_wHnTFN0zp08Ny_pR5x-Qso1rDgkRprzDEE" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Powers Catholic Varsity Hockey Team</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table> While all analogies limp, think of it like being a hockey player. When you first were able to skate on your own and hold a stick, you were, in a very beginning sense, a hockey player. Sure, you didn’t have the ability to skate all that well, or the power from your muscles to push the puck far, but you were at the beginning. Later, you developed more skills, and grew in your ability as a hockey player. You also had times where you could decide to follow your desire to be a hockey player, or you could have chosen something else to do and abandon hockey. Even for those of you who won the State Championship last year, you would each probably acknowledge ways that you can still grow as a hockey player. Maybe we could, using this analogy, say that making to the NHL means that you are truly a hockey player, something some of you may hope to achieve someday. So you were a hockey player when you just started out; you are still working on being a hockey player now; and you hope to truly be a hockey player in the NHL someday. <br /> But for all of us, hockey players and non-hockey players alike, our goal is to continue to accept the gift of salvation that God offers us each day. And our Lenten practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are meant to train us in a special way during this time of year to be able to choose the higher goods of following God’s will, and say no to the lesser goods of following only our will. May those things that we have given up and the extra things we’re doing during Lent; may the extra prayers we say as we talk more and listen more to God; and may the generosity that we show to those in need during our Lenten season continue us on the path of salvation that God has set out for us [the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen]. <br /></p>Fr. Anthonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16097986252589061620noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3341492644403658958.post-43709182142686235902024-02-12T08:54:00.001-05:002024-02-12T08:54:22.072-05:00How We Build<p><b>Anniversary of the Dedication of St. Matthew Church</b><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGVwiIy980Q4lfTZT-3mYYohnCqicE2brhp4yOe7CRlxGx3FzGZd8sV1rXievQ_WEM5Q5ehqX0t4B1BeHvFSqlvpynScJEdxKB5Ayz5WYPt3kc9ggBBn_gr1CiGYYltKlPMA6ec4unqyKwoxYez5viCLCRBC8kZHOZlOKkxznnpCh0zAz2pSEmMMxDUH4/s259/St_Matthew.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="192" data-original-width="259" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGVwiIy980Q4lfTZT-3mYYohnCqicE2brhp4yOe7CRlxGx3FzGZd8sV1rXievQ_WEM5Q5ehqX0t4B1BeHvFSqlvpynScJEdxKB5Ayz5WYPt3kc9ggBBn_gr1CiGYYltKlPMA6ec4unqyKwoxYez5viCLCRBC8kZHOZlOKkxznnpCh0zAz2pSEmMMxDUH4/s1600/St_Matthew.jpg" width="259" /></a></div> [In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen]. When we think about this building, we think of the many parts that came together to make this such a beautiful church. We have the brickwork, the plaster, the doorframes, the marble, the paint, and everything that fits together in just a particular way so as to make up this church building. Those different materials and items had to be shaped and placed together particularly so that we could have a temple in which we worship God. They didn’t simply exist and magically come together. It took work. But with the work accomplished, we can rightfully say that we are the most beautiful church in Genesee County, and one of the most beautiful in the Diocese of Lansing.<br /> St. Peter tells us in his first epistle that we are living stones, being built up into a spiritual house to offer acceptable sacrifice to God through Jesus Christ. This building is important because it reminds us of what we are called to be. We each have our different gifts and talents. But when we are shaped and placed together, united in a single purpose, we form something beautiful that aids in the worship of God. <br /> As we celebrate the Anniversary of the Dedication of this church, I wanted to share with you what the leadership team (me, Amanda Williams, Mike Wilson, and Jason Tower) discerned for how we will continue into the future as a parish; how we exist as the invisible temple that this visible temple makes present. We, with the help of the Catholic Leadership Institute, worked hard over three one-day sessions in the fall, to make sure that we clearly understood and could articulate what makes St. Matthew Parish St. Matthew Parish, as well as how God calls us, not only statically, but dynamically, to continue His work of spreading the Gospel. And I want to communicate with you our parish purpose, vision, values, and priorities, with the hope that we can each find ways to work together to be purposeful, guided by our vision and values, and working towards the priorities that we believe God has given to St. Matthew.<br /> The parish purpose and vision give us the “why” of St. Matthew. Why do we exist as a parish? What motivates us and moves us? Our purpose, as discerned by my leadership team, “is to use beauty and truth to inspire and develop disciples to transform the secular order by the grace of God, for His glorification and the edification of man.” That’s a mouthful, I know. But basically, we focused on two of the transcendentals, beauty and truth, as a way that we form disciples. And why are we trying to form disciples? Because the world is not as it should be. The world is not as God created it. But we can work together, by His grace, to make it more like it should be, more according to the plan of God. And this not only glorifies God, but also builds us up into the people God wants us to be. You can see this purpose each week on the front page of our bulletin. It’s meant to be a reminder to each of us of why we exist.<br /> As to our vision, the big view of what we want to be and accomplish, “We are a Roman Catholic parish in the heart of Flint that worships God with reverence, forms disciples, and serves the physical and spiritual needs of our neighbors in communion with the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.” Our purpose could be applied to any parish. Our vision puts our purpose in our particular context of where we are (“in the heart of Flint”) and what we do (“worships God…forms disciples…serves the…needs of our neighbors”). But what we do is not by our own imagining, as if we create the Church. Our vision happens within the context of the one Church that Christ established, which, as Lumen gentium states, “subsists in the Catholic Church.” <br /> That vision is made manifest in our values as a parish. The leadership team discerned three values of St. Matthew Parish that are important to everything we do: reverence; faithfulness; and family/community. By reverence, we mean that we “strive to promote the awe and respect that is owed to God.” How do we do this? By following the rubrics the Church sets out for the celebration of the sacred liturgy; by allowing time for sacred silence so that God can speak in our hearts; and by appropriate posture and dress, so that the way we carry ourselves and present ourselves in parish life manifests how we live in wonder and awe in God’s presence.<br /> By faithfulness, we mean that we “support fidelity to the Magisterium and the 2,000 year history of the Church.” So many love to be only what is happening now. We stay faithful to what the Church officially teaches, and how that has been revealed to us by God over the entire history of the Church, not just before or after the Second Vatican Council. How do we do this? By incorporating legitimate liturgical traditions; by promoting orthodoxy and refuting heresy; and by striving to imitate Christ in all that we do. In this way we show that we are truly Catholic: welcoming all that is good, while preserving the world as salt from all that is bad.<br /> Lastly, by family/community, we mean the value we place on every human life from natural conception to natural death. How do we do this? By supporting families of all ages; by welcoming families into our parish by what we say, but also by what we do; and by helping families create a strong domestic church, a strong place in their homes where God is present. <br /> Based on these values, then, we are currently prioritizing the support of the Domestic Church, the family; evangelization and apologetics so that we can share the faith with others; and community outreach, so that we may serve Christ in the least of his brothers, as He says in Matthew 25. <br /> So what? A lot of ink was spilled, but does it make a difference? Again, if we are going to continue to be built into the spiritual temple of God, then we have to have an organizing plan. We cannot simply exist and hope that we’ll all come together, anymore than the bricks, plaster, paint, marble, etc. just existed and then came together without any effort. All that we do as a parish should fit within these paradigms, paradigms that we did not create so much as discern that God wants us to use. When you’re donating your money; when you’re volunteering; when you’re asking for this or that activity or program; all of it should fit into one of these categories that I have outlined for you today. And if we do that, we will continue to grow as a parish, and form a new generation of disciples who will carry out the Great Commission which was given to us by Jesus Christ [who with the Father and the Holy Spirit is God, for ever and ever. Amen]. <br /><p></p>Fr. Anthonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16097986252589061620noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3341492644403658958.post-23394101547720646902024-02-05T09:24:00.000-05:002024-02-05T09:24:22.102-05:00The Generosity of the Sower<p><b>Sexagesima</b><br /> In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Conservation of energy: in the world of physics and chemistry, this law states that the total energy of an isolated system remains constant and is conserved over time. In my world it means that I want the least amount of work for the greatest amount of results. I don’t want to work any harder than I have to work. Whatever effort I put in should yield some positive result. <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzclhObu3rBDs1vCHesyboXLAhQ1DNv1xru2d0IqfdhZeV3j5XDxG5rKZu89jUJASdG6trt7ukgSUl_t0lNIs960Jbd3pBlA6WHAy95v8DV1H6P5GJe9NN3lo2v-rzADFu9xA4KF5FzmU1wbGCUMTM6uXANkYkNFXMx1EKlMLe8AsUL0FjXFZ6btCsAPo/s690/the-sower-large-large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="504" data-original-width="690" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzclhObu3rBDs1vCHesyboXLAhQ1DNv1xru2d0IqfdhZeV3j5XDxG5rKZu89jUJASdG6trt7ukgSUl_t0lNIs960Jbd3pBlA6WHAy95v8DV1H6P5GJe9NN3lo2v-rzADFu9xA4KF5FzmU1wbGCUMTM6uXANkYkNFXMx1EKlMLe8AsUL0FjXFZ6btCsAPo/s320/the-sower-large-large.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> God does not seem to operate that way, as Christ tells us in the parable. We have a farmer who has seeds, from which he expects some sort of yield of crops. But he’s sowing seed on the road, and on rocky soil, and among thorns, and finally, among good soil. What a waste! Any simple person trying to plant grass would know that if you throw seed on the road, it will get trampled upon or eaten by birds; if you throw seed on rocks it won’t have enough place to expand its roots and gain nutrients; if you throw seed among thorns it won’t grow above the thorns. Here is the farmer putting all this work in when it, most likely, will not yield any results. And remember that, in our Lord’s day, you couldn’t simply go to Home Depot and pick up a pack of seeds. The seeds you had were likely from the harvest the year before. You were working with a limited quantity.<br /> Most often when I’m preaching about this Gospel, I focus on the type of soil that our souls are. And it can yield real spiritual fruit to meditate on how open we are to receiving the word of God and letting it take root in our lives. But today I want to focus on the farmer, and how it reveals to us how God operates and, therefore, how God wants us to operate.<br /> God is wasteful when it comes to His Word. He does not scrimp and save. He shares His Word in ways that otherwise would make no sense. And why? Because, as St. Paul tells us in his epistle to St. Timothy, God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. God shares His Word with those who probably will not receive it, but just in case they can, He sows those seeds anyway. And, unlike soil, people can change. Roads and rocks and thorns can become good soil. So God thinks nothing of scarcity of resources, but shares His life with everyone, in the hopes that something will bear fruit.<br /> And we see this in other parables, too. In the parable of the lost sheep, the shepherd leaves behind the 99 sheep who are doing just fine in order to find the 1 who is lost. No shepherd in his right mind would do this. The math doesn’t make sense, unless, of course, you are the lost sheep whom the Good Shepherd finds. In the parable about the lost coin, the woman tears her house apart looking for that one coin, and on finding it throws a party, which probably would cost more than that coin. In the parable about the lost son, more commonly known as the Prodigal, or Wasteful, Son, no father with any sense would have welcomed back a son who told him to drop dead and give him his share of the inheritance now, then wasted it on loose living, and then returns to live as a servant. But the father runs out to meet his son, and throws a party at his return. In all these parables, God does what in earthly calculations seems inconceivable. He is generous to the point of absurdity. <br /> This would be too good to be true, if not for the fact that the description of the Father, the First Person of the Blessed Trinity, comes to us from the Son, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. When Truth Incarnate tells you something, you can take it to the bank.<br /> But the parables are not meant only to give us the warm fuzzies about how God acts. If we are truly disciples of the Lord, and the Lord reveals to us the Father, then we are called to act as Christ depicts the Father in each of these parables. We are called to be <i>pazzo d’amore</i>, as St. Catherine of Siena says, crazy in love. When a person is in love, a new logic takes over, and the love of the beloved becomes the most important. <br /> So with our faith and work at evangelization: how do we spread God’s word and God’s grace? Are we penny-pinchers, very careful with whom we share the Word? Or are we generous, even to the point of wastefulness, with trying to gain others for Christ?<br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNBUmbvO30FePjwQD1O5JHsu12yWtds1OfSTdKFXY4zjAR8TLnX1Y0Yz0CaRdMG2TE9PJRr60N2IVyPF7vU3Clbh4p2Ru75Gm4yTJDV2aUyWWufivEAI37rYvnyUKbs63pdaz2g0XqsXrl43J2WnM440Ti11r3hRlYG8BiZh1I3fFlSCpPTqD49yreHsI/s600/gerard-timoner-copia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="535" data-original-width="600" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNBUmbvO30FePjwQD1O5JHsu12yWtds1OfSTdKFXY4zjAR8TLnX1Y0Yz0CaRdMG2TE9PJRr60N2IVyPF7vU3Clbh4p2Ru75Gm4yTJDV2aUyWWufivEAI37rYvnyUKbs63pdaz2g0XqsXrl43J2WnM440Ti11r3hRlYG8BiZh1I3fFlSCpPTqD49yreHsI/s320/gerard-timoner-copia.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Fr. Gerard Timoner, OP</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table> I saw a talk from the Master of the Order of Preachers, Fr. Gerard Timoner, and I can’t even give you the exact context or date, but it fits well here. He is addressing Dominicans, and especially their charism to preach. But he uses two examples of those who have care for others in the Gospel: shepherds and fishermen. To paraphrase and summarize, he talks about how shepherds are those who care for what is already there. Their responsibility is to make sure that the sheep are safe from the wolves, and even to go after lost sheep when they wander away. A shepherd has to make sure the sheep are led to good pastures. It is, in some sense, more static. A fisherman, instead, has nothing to guard. He has to go fishing. His role is going out to catch the fish and bring them into the nets; he cannot stand along the shoreline and wait for the fish to come to him. In reality, the Dominican Master says, the vocation of a Dominican is both shepherd and fisherman: both to guard what is already there, as well as to go out and catch what is not there yet. I would argue that our vocation as disciples mimics that of the Dominicans: we have a duty to guard the truth in our lives–family, friends, etc. But we cannot simply hope that other people will simply come to us because we guard the truth so well. We also have to go out and catch others and bring them into our nets. In a sense, we are called to catch fish, and then turn them into sheep. We invite people to follow Christ, and then help them stay in His one Church. <br /> When it comes to our secular life, I’m all about doing the least to get the most results. But when it comes to our life of faith, when it comes to sharing the Gospel, Christ invites us to mimic our extravagant Father, who shares His grace and His Word even when it doesn’t seem to make sense, and who lives and reigns with the Son and the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen. <br /><p></p>Fr. Anthonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16097986252589061620noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3341492644403658958.post-60113107271324038772024-02-05T09:16:00.004-05:002024-02-05T09:16:38.148-05:00All Things to All People<p><b>Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time</b><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9d1oMRzNoDbdlytzUNqFbi4OGF7Nkcxt91TldyN9co3IKc4WV8FHco789uqMcbHBUDLpdVOdNP_hF_34DhgFv5A75_2Qki0X3XnM95CyQhQMy8JmsI5J8VZJ6V7Asm_1jAicSUMMDmbC8txMmgob8UTzzc_5dikPfuSedeKEVJy7TuPRjQ9LLmTu2IVg/s2048/289362743_10228886225446085_8073979463874499159_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9d1oMRzNoDbdlytzUNqFbi4OGF7Nkcxt91TldyN9co3IKc4WV8FHco789uqMcbHBUDLpdVOdNP_hF_34DhgFv5A75_2Qki0X3XnM95CyQhQMy8JmsI5J8VZJ6V7Asm_1jAicSUMMDmbC8txMmgob8UTzzc_5dikPfuSedeKEVJy7TuPRjQ9LLmTu2IVg/s320/289362743_10228886225446085_8073979463874499159_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Fr. Anthony and his sisters, (l-r) Amanda and Allison</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table> As any good parent knows, you can’t treat each child the same and expect the same results. Each child is unique and has different personalities and means of motivation, even if there are similarities. In my own family, all three of us children generally wanted to excel in what we did. We generally all behaved, but we also all got into trouble in different ways. For me, the oldest (the one whose perfection the parents kept trying to duplicate by having other children), usually simply setting out the expectation was good enough to keep me in line. If not, a little punishment went a long way. For the middle child, all my dad had to do was look at her the wrong way and she would start crying in penitence. For the youngest child, telling her what to do usually led to some defiance, and then harsher punishments (she was the only one who had her mouth washed out with soap after mom told her not to say the word “punk” and she argued that it wasn't a bad word). <br /> So as St. Paul says today, “I have become all things to all, to save at least some,” he is exercising good spiritual fatherhood. He knows that each person responds to the Gospel differently, and so he had to tailor the tone and delivery of the Gospel, as well as his witness to it, to each person as best he could, so that some might convert to living as Christ has shown us. Elsewhere in his letters he talks about using the power of the Gospel, and one can think of the miracles that God did through St. Paul (like raising a man from the dead who fell out of a window after falling asleep because St. Paul was preaching so long). Or in another place we hear how he earned a living while preaching the Gospel (St. Paul was a tent-maker), so that they wouldn’t think he was trying to mooch off of them and get rich by preaching the Gospel. <br /> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7oyebPrYOnLK9ly6dTrnwTEvjdtB1Trqf9BI2hqyBTCAJ7JWbDp1A3r7OggoMyZPZWIkydcvFk0Q1u-iQrhstNwd6-0Rkd7a8RtuJn4u2FbadOUkJkHqbgJ56rEJGh-hazrJTjZNtOHNPmyDOHrYxOKU-aZsOS2WVxclDmwYCylalUUAkgUhqddfHS1U/s310/3f277c_4a38a76044f849a29ca88be4d31b8554~mv2.webp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="310" data-original-width="250" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7oyebPrYOnLK9ly6dTrnwTEvjdtB1Trqf9BI2hqyBTCAJ7JWbDp1A3r7OggoMyZPZWIkydcvFk0Q1u-iQrhstNwd6-0Rkd7a8RtuJn4u2FbadOUkJkHqbgJ56rEJGh-hazrJTjZNtOHNPmyDOHrYxOKU-aZsOS2WVxclDmwYCylalUUAkgUhqddfHS1U/s1600/3f277c_4a38a76044f849a29ca88be4d31b8554~mv2.webp" width="250" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">St. John Vianney</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table> This is still true today with my own spiritual fatherhood. Some in this parish need strong words and the threat of divine retribution in order to change their lives. Others are scrupulous, and don’t think that they can do anything right, that everything is a sin. Some fall in between those two extremes. St. John Vianney said that priests should be “a lion at the pulpit and a lamb in the confessional,” that is, strong words of preaching to bring about conversion, but gentle when a person comes to admit his or her faults to God in the Sacrament of Penance. I may not always hit that goal, but I admit that, in my own estimation, that is the standard to which I apply myself.<br /> But being all things to all people in evangelization concerns not only priests. It also applies to the lay faithful, you, in your work of sharing the Gospel in everyday life and transforming the secular world, the city of man, to be more like the heavenly world, the City of God. Probably we all get this in principle, but do we apply it?<br /> When I was a seminarian I sure didn’t understand this principle. It always perplexed me why people didn’t immediately convert after giving them a logical argument for the Catholic Church being the Church started by Jesus. Or how self-styled Catholics could do things or promote things which were so antithetical to the Catholic faith. To me, all a person needs is a good, rational argument, and they should convert. And that works for some people.<br /> But for others, the truths of the faith are important, but only convince when they are lived out in practice. You can give them every good argument from the <i>Summa Theologiae</i>, and still they would not be convinced. But if they see a Catholic caring for the poor, feeding the hungry, comforting the sorrowful and afflicted, they are convinced that the faith must be real, because people actually do what they say Christ calls us to do.<br /> This can even go for the devotional life. Some people love the warm, touchy-feely stuff. They love the emotive nature of praise and worship music and need those emotional highs and lows to really move them in their relationship with God. Others find the steady, metered pace of Gregorian chant more helpful to their prayer life. Some just want to be still in silence and put the world outside. Others need to use their imaginations and put themselves in the Gospel passages to envision how they would have responded and how they are responding to Jesus. While the liturgical life has set standards that may come more easily or more difficult to us, based on our temperaments, the devotional life admits of a variety of expressions, based upon the individual desires and needs of each person or each type of person. To pretend that Catholicism is monolithic in personal and devotional prayer, or that everyone should simply convert based upon intellectual arguments does not reflect the reality of the diversity of individuals. <br /> So, our goal is the same as St. Paul’s: to be all things to all so that we can save at least some. Again, this doesn’t mean that the Church changes her teachings to fit the times, or even that our common prayer, the Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours, should have wide variations. But it does mean that the way we present the Gospel, and the way that we help people to personally connect to Jesus through personal and devotional prayer will vary based upon the person. May our diverse approaches, unified in the one faith given to us from God the Father through Jesus the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit transform our world to be more configured to Christ, and therefore a better place to be.<br /> <br /></p>Fr. Anthonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16097986252589061620noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3341492644403658958.post-41896446006710272522024-01-29T08:44:00.003-05:002024-01-29T08:44:33.069-05:00Race Prepping<p>Septuagesima<br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2S4hYv1f0UF4XbFdv2c8d-XG3G54b3WoEk9HklIWWqJ8dBSozQked_qncPOxLdLcx3n5Zpbhh_YUdItWr4aZgJM4f5y48smQi5LWBiBE2sbNS2PHB3WrL2jU-RWPYdKTA1juQpVyXwU1FdFAScJGbh8Am2v8obBWPSwUtJfA8mSZdBwo2UPa8muWIMQE/s720/73529_1557631992880_7171026_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="720" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2S4hYv1f0UF4XbFdv2c8d-XG3G54b3WoEk9HklIWWqJ8dBSozQked_qncPOxLdLcx3n5Zpbhh_YUdItWr4aZgJM4f5y48smQi5LWBiBE2sbNS2PHB3WrL2jU-RWPYdKTA1juQpVyXwU1FdFAScJGbh8Am2v8obBWPSwUtJfA8mSZdBwo2UPa8muWIMQE/s320/73529_1557631992880_7171026_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">2010 Lansing Catholic Soccer Team</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table> In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. In my first assignment as a priest in East Lansing, I also worked closely with Lansing Catholic High School. And, having formerly played soccer, I was fairly active with the boys’ soccer team. Jokingly, one of the athletes, Joey, challenged me to a race, and I eventually accepted at the end of a later school day. Students came out to the soccer field to watch me race Joey. I think we even had the athletic director tell us when to start. <br /> When we started, I was surprised at Joey’s speed, a speed he didn’t show that often on the soccer field. But I tried to keep it close, hoping that I could pull ahead. At about three-quarters of the field, Joey still had a small lead, but I felt funny, and my legs were feeling like jello. Before I knew it I had fallen flat on my face, and Joey had won the race. I was taken aback a bit, and it occurred to me just how out of shape I was, even at the young age of 27 or so. It turns out 27 is different than 18, and when you don’t really do physical exercise, and you have a few adult beverages the night before, and don’t eat so well or hydrate the next morning, you can’t just race a seventeen-year-old and expect to win. <br /> St. Paul in the epistle today talks about training, something I did not do in my race with Joey. He talks about training bodies to win a race, but more importantly, training our souls to win an incorruptible crown, the ancient sign of victory. And as we enter the -gesima Sundays–Septuagesima today, Sexagesima next Sunday, and Quinquagesima the Sunday after that–we are training ourselves for Lent, the time of great asceticism and self-denial. Because sometimes, if we wait until the last minute and then decide to do these difficult penances, we may fall flat on our faces, hopefully not literally like I did, but spiritually. <br /> Today, then, is a good day to start thinking about what you want to give up for Lent, and perhaps what extra prayers or works of charity you could add to your routine. Do you have time in your schedule for daily Mass? Or how about joining us for Stations of the Cross on Fridays after the 12:10 p.m. Mass? Or maybe simply making the first Saturday Masses more regularly. <br /> How about restraining the body from what it desires? Do you give up meat every Friday? Is fasting a regular part of your life? Or maybe start pulling back on how often you’re on your phone for social media or games, and use that extra time for prayer, or for more time with your family. No matter what we are going to do, we should probably start training for it or at least thinking about it now, so that it doesn’t hit us all at once, and we then fail because we were not prepared.<br /> We should also not feel bad or despair if we haven’t had the strongest Lent before. I know that sometimes we can defeat ourselves before we even get started by bemoaning the fact either that we have tried something hard and have not yet succeeded, or perhaps that we have not really tried anything difficult at all. We may be like those who were standing around, even towards the end of the day. But if we give our all, even for a small amount of time, the Lord promises in the Gospel today that we will receive a full wage; not because we deserve it, but due to His generosity. <br /> And the payment that we receive has much more value than money. What we receive by disciplining our bodies and restraining our desires is a fuller correspondence to the life of Christ. Each time we say no when our will wants us to say yes, we are utilizing God’s grace for the proper ordering of ourselves, as happened in the Garden of Eden before the Fall: our bodies and minds were subject to our soul, which was subject to God. And that was how Christ lived perfectly. So the more that we allow God’s grace to configure us to Christ, the more we will be prepared for heaven. And the more that we are prepared for heaven, the more likely it will be that we will inherit that great bequest of beatitude, or inherit it more quickly and have less time in Purgatory.<br /> But it’s also important to remember that our discipline does not earn us heaven. It is easy to become like the servants hired at the beginning of the day, and feel like we have “earned” heaven because we have been working hard to follow Christ, and Christ owes us eternal happiness. Christ owes us nothing. Everything is a gift. The ability to respond to God’s grace is itself a grace, and we cannot claim it as our own. However, when we seek to respond to God’s grace, when we seek to conform our wills to Christ, He deigns to give us rewards as if we had earned it, but always doing so out of His Divine beneficence. <br /> So, over these next few weeks before Lent begins on 14 February, start thinking about what you think God would encourage you do to for a Lenten discipline. Prepare yourselves to enter the desert of Lent. Don’t just show up and expect to succeed. Seek God’s grace to mortify the flesh, so that you maybe be transformed by God’s grace to be more like Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns for ever and ever. <br /></p>Fr. Anthonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16097986252589061620noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3341492644403658958.post-19107257419103277712024-01-29T08:36:00.001-05:002024-01-29T08:36:14.141-05:00An Evangelical Counsel<p><b>Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time</b><br /> Probably one of the most common questions I get, especially after people gain more ease and confidence in asking a priest questions, is some why I chose the priesthood when it meant that I wouldn’t have a family of my own. It’s a great question, and given our second reading today, I want to look at virginity, celibacy, and chastity.<br /> Chastity is the virtue the governs our sexual desires. A lot of people think chastity means that you don’t have sex. They confuse it with celibacy. But chastity is a virtue for every Catholic, and simply means that we’re using our sexuality appropriately: if we’re single, no sexual activity at all or even misusing our sexuality by ourselves; if we’re married (and marriage is only between a man and a woman), only having sexual activity with one’s spouse, and only that which is loving, unitive, and open to life. So a husband and a wife can be chaste (c-h-a-s-t-e) when they are trying to conceive a child together and engaging in the activity by which children are conceived. <br /> Chastity is one of the evangelical counsels (chastity, poverty, and obedience) which can be vowed for one’s personal sanctification. Vows are for the sanctification of the individual, though they also benefit the Church. A vow of chastity is usually made when one becomes a member of a religious institution, like the Dominicans, Franciscans, or Benedictines, and means that a person will live as a single person for the rest of his or her life. <br /> Chastity is one of the virtues that many people struggle with today, as the misuse of sexual activity, which includes using another person simply for one’s gratification, whether in person or online, runs rampant and society often praises unchastity. But chastity is for everyone who follows Christ, not just those who make a vow of chastity.<br /> Celibacy is a promise made to God through the Church to abstain from anything proper to the married state, or even dating, and to practice the virtue of chastity as a single person. Single people who are not dating, or who are dating but not engaging in sexual activity, are not celibate; they are chaste. Celibacy, as a promise, is for the benefit of the Church, just like other promises made are for the benefit of the Church (marriage vows are technically marriage promises, since they are for the good of the Church). During my ordination Mass to the diaconate, I made a promise to God, through Bishop Boyea, to live celibacy as a witness to the kingdom. That promise can only be dispensed by the pope or his representatives in Rome.<br /> Virginity is the state where one has not engaged in sexual activity at all. It can be simply the reality of a person’s life (as in a young person who has never committed the sin of fornication or adultery). Or it can be made as a vow by someone through consecration. While one may be able to regain virginity in a spiritual way, physical virginity cannot be regained once lost, whether for males or females. One does not have to be a virgin to promise celibacy, as some priests have lived an unchaste life before they were ordained, then had a conversion, and then promised celibacy at ordination. <br /> So what does all of this mean? And why did St. Paul say what he did in the second reading, about the unmarried man or woman being anxious about the things of the Lord and so on? Some see celibacy or virginity simply in a practical light, and our reading might seem to suggest that at first. St. Paul talks about how a person who is unmarried, whether a celibate or a virgin, concerns him or herself with the things of the Lord. And I will certainly say that, while there is a part of me that would like to be married and enjoy physical relations with a wife, and conceive children, I can’t imagine having to care for a family and a parish. There are Catholic priests who are legitimately married and then become priests, mostly Eastern Rite Catholics, and I don’t know how they do it. I don’t even have enough time for a dog, let alone a wife and kids! <br /> But celibacy and virginity is not simply about practicalities. Celibacy and virginity witness to the heavenly life, where, as Christ says, there is no marrying and giving in marriage. Why not? Because in heaven, we are focused most intently on God and worshiping Him. This is not to say that we’ll have amnesia in heaven about a spouse if a person was married on earth. But that special relationship of marriage, which is meant to witness the life of the Trinity on earth, is no longer necessary, because in heaven we behold the Trinity face to face in the beatific vision. There are no sacraments in heaven, because we don’t need physical realities to communicate the spiritual realities of God; we receive the spiritual realities or mysteries of God directly, unmediated. <br /> Those who promise or vow themselves to focus directly on God are reminding us that, even though marriage is very good, and not just because it creates children who increase the size of the Church, even family comes second to God, and in heaven we will rely totally on God for our happiness, whether it be in our sexuality (the vow of chastity), our possessions (the vow of poverty), or even our will (the vow of obedience). This is why consecrated life, those who vow the three evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty, and obedience, is, in one sense, the highest form of life on earth, because it most perfectly (in an objective sense) imitates the life of heaven while still on earth. That is why the Church so often praises virgins, especially the Blessed Virgin Mary, because they dedicated themselves entirely to God, which is something we all hope to do in heaven.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp2z8eQMOz53KB0yyUq5cyE4BAfqlqIHG_hFO23gZb5PxMbIwL91En0xgN3RssiuNOxFrEBgQH_w3775WySDE1WFODzVKl8WFlfbDF4YblqBe_U8IXexIwuAGs8_Et8O2AGNwy1JrDEBoblvpp53BLOgRT92GHsoLhOoCMe2O0XkFgAokVhfjiMUrYmK8/s360/MariaMaggiore6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="227" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp2z8eQMOz53KB0yyUq5cyE4BAfqlqIHG_hFO23gZb5PxMbIwL91En0xgN3RssiuNOxFrEBgQH_w3775WySDE1WFODzVKl8WFlfbDF4YblqBe_U8IXexIwuAGs8_Et8O2AGNwy1JrDEBoblvpp53BLOgRT92GHsoLhOoCMe2O0XkFgAokVhfjiMUrYmK8/s320/MariaMaggiore6.jpg" width="202" /></a></div> Having said that, a happy married couple can be holier than a grumpy monk, nun, priest, or bishop in a subjective sense. God calls each of us to different vocations, and we shouldn’t strive for one vocation just because it’s objectively higher. We should strive for the vocation that is subjectively suited for us, because that is how God wants us to be saints.<br /> And, for all people, the virtue of chastity still applies, because it properly orders our precious gift of sexuality according to the plan of God, whether that plan for us is marriage, celibacy, or virginity. All people can be saints, and part of being a saint is integrating our sexual drive into the vocation to which God has called us. May we all be chaste–whether priest, married couple, or single individual–and seek to follow God through the vocation to which He has called us so that we might enter heaven and enjoy eternal happiness and fulfillment by worshipping God for eternity. <br /><p></p>Fr. Anthonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16097986252589061620noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3341492644403658958.post-1010370718553704492024-01-22T07:46:00.000-05:002024-01-22T07:46:10.580-05:00We Can't Fix It Ourselves<p><b>Third Sunday after Epiphany</b><br /> In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Perhaps it’s just a guy thing, but I guess that at least the men here, and possible the women here, have had a time in their lives when someone said that they had a problem that needed to be fixed. It could be a big problem or a small problem, but somehow something is not working. And while the person may have worked on the issue for a while, the new person says, “Lemme take a look at it,” and goes to whatever is malfunctioning. Maybe the person looks at it, maybe taps a few buttons, or maybe even tries some real troubleshooting. Not always, but at least sometimes, the second person looking at it is just as lost as the first, and says something like, “Yeah, I can’t really figure out why it’s not working.” <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid2rJOL-PaWCnpqBsYVfSrLgmBSq6dZmgmOGhypSYWTkun9_lF_6FTZ7OJTB-0i2GnvvdzEuXbl69nQYzmm6i1dQR-jXGVX4o5bhM1I-hFKfmwswqP9vZcyyPZUTJInNXjt1bYLhF9kPQhksuoY01jVNO2MG9VITblMGV7rLYuru4jUNR7mSqogsX-kos/s253/Unknown.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="199" data-original-width="253" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid2rJOL-PaWCnpqBsYVfSrLgmBSq6dZmgmOGhypSYWTkun9_lF_6FTZ7OJTB-0i2GnvvdzEuXbl69nQYzmm6i1dQR-jXGVX4o5bhM1I-hFKfmwswqP9vZcyyPZUTJInNXjt1bYLhF9kPQhksuoY01jVNO2MG9VITblMGV7rLYuru4jUNR7mSqogsX-kos/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" width="253" /></a></div> Our Lord in the Gospel today first heals a leper by touching Him. This would have shocked people, since leprosy was so contagious, and lepers had to stay away from the public. But Christ “fixes” him by healing the disease. And then the centurion comes with another person to heal, and the Lord is about to go over to help that one. But then a funny thing happens: the centurion says that physical presence is not necessary; a simple word will suffice. The Lord, unlike us with our limitations, “fixes” the servant from afar; no tapping, kicking, or troubleshooting involved. He wills it and it is done.<br /> Our world is, in many cases, broken. But we can’t fix it. No matter how many times we take a look at it, or how many times we tap here, kick there, re-read the manual, and press buttons, the healing of the world cannot be accomplished by human effort alone. It needs Christ. But how many times are we like the proverbial man, wanting our chance to take a look at it and fix the broken appliance? <br /> Instead, the Lord invites us to have the faith of the centurion, and to trust that He can fix it, even without taking a second look, because He is the manufacturer, and knows exactly what is needed. We are often closet-Pelagians: we figure if we simply do the right things, teach the right things, fast on the right days, then we will be saints. We leave no room for God to fix us, and then wonder why we keep ending up broken. We lack faith in God’s ability to heal and save. And when we lack that faith, then like in Capernaum where people didn’t have faith in their local friend, Jesus, He’s not able to do many miracles. <br /> How many times do we think that if we just did something ourselves, or if something within human control changed, then the world would be better? We can go from the macro to the micro scale: if we had a different president; if we had different politicians; if we had a different pope; if we had a different bishop; if we had a different pastor; if we had a different spouse; if we had better-behaved kids. All these different scenarios are where we are the agents of change and healing. The Church survived and survives persecutions and bad governments; the Church survived bad popes, bishops, and priests; family holiness comes with the family we have, not the mythical family where everything seems perfect. And all that is possible, not because the people were so great, but because God is, and the people relied on God for fixing the world.<br /> This is not to say, of course, that we shouldn’t do our best to elect politicians who promote what we know are universal goods; that we shouldn’t expect our pontiff to speak clearly and charitably about the unchanging truths of the faith; that bishops and priests shouldn’t be models of holiness and sound preaching; that families shouldn’t do all they can to respond to God’s grace and live in harmony and charity with each other. Of course all those things are good. But there has never been a time when everything was perfect in the Church, not even when our Lord walked the earth. And the biggest changes came simply from individuals deciding to open themselves up to God’s grace and respond by doing their best to follow God’s will rather than their own.<br /> This also impacts what happens when others harm us. St. Paul reminds us not to take revenge into our own hands, but to do good to those who wrong us. Revenge belongs to God, because God is the only one who can effectively change the world for the better at its root. When we decide to be agents of vengeance, we do not mete out perfect justice, but add at least a little bit of injustice to the equation, to try to convince the other not to wrong us again. But that only leads to a vicious cycle where the other person, not truly aggrieved, takes revenge on us, giving us a little more than what justice demands, etc., etc. Again, revenge is the Pelagian tendency in us that says that I have to be the one to fix the world, and hopefully God will bless my efforts. Instead, St. Paul tells us to overcome evil with God, which will be its own revenge upon a person who does us wrong. <br /> On this last Sunday before the -gesima Sundays, God invites us to have faith in Him and how He works, to trust in His timing and His ways over our own. Yes, we should still cooperate with God’s grace, and achieve whatever good we can, but not as if we’re going to fix the world. The good we do will be a response to God’s grace, which is the only thing that can fix the world. Whenever we try to take God’s place, we do a very poor job of it. Let God be God, who with the Son and the Holy Spirit live and reign for ever and ever. Amen. <br /><p></p>Fr. Anthonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16097986252589061620noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3341492644403658958.post-79224634743513473232024-01-15T09:49:00.005-05:002024-01-15T09:49:46.891-05:00An Ordinary Epiphany<p><b>Second Sunday after Epiphany</b><br /> In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. If you were to ponder or ask which Gospels are the most radical, would this passage come to our mind? I’m guessing not. We might think of the cleansing of the temple; or maybe the denunciation of the Pharisees and scribes as a brood of vipers; or maybe even the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand, or the raising of Lazarus from the dead; certainly the crucifixion. But the miracle at the wedding at Cana? <br /> There is something radical, or rooted, in this Gospel passage that we probably most often fail to see. And it’s connected to Christmas and the Epiphany (the Epiphany, remember, historically celebrates the visit of the Magi, the Baptism of the Lord, and the wedding at Cana: the three manifestations of Christ). At Christmas, the God of all creation, whom the heavens and the earth cannot contain, we saw in a tiny baby. The God who created time allowed Himself to be subject to time. God manifested Himself in a very ordinary way.<br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWWjvzRVlSTl_Dep6KHgUzxmbuZbLBttoh4pEEs3fSMTBBFoiL75Q18a0axdEX76nTNXrrlF9_I7_Z5IjzLF9MoTwOyksNGxARASmMq2n3b9PErE7WIxeuscKMDAfxEkJwBj3witWscg1nwRrJarCKFDF4Z_xliOLwBk8-BX7-8AgBSChNDGD1dB9L6TE/s360/005_5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="360" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWWjvzRVlSTl_Dep6KHgUzxmbuZbLBttoh4pEEs3fSMTBBFoiL75Q18a0axdEX76nTNXrrlF9_I7_Z5IjzLF9MoTwOyksNGxARASmMq2n3b9PErE7WIxeuscKMDAfxEkJwBj3witWscg1nwRrJarCKFDF4Z_xliOLwBk8-BX7-8AgBSChNDGD1dB9L6TE/s320/005_5.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Church at Cana in Galilee</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table> And at the wedding at Cana, our Lord manifested Himself in a very ordinary way. He helped out a couple who had run out of wine by changing water into wine. You can imagine someone who didn’t know Christ sitting down to talk to Him, listening to the Gospel, and the circling back to say something like, “So you have the power to make blind people see?” “Yes.” “And you can heal leprosy?” “Yes.” “And you can multiple five loaves of bread and two fish so that it’s enough to feed five thousand people and have leftovers?” “Yes.” “And you can raise people from the dead?” “Yes.” “And you chose, as your first miracle, as the first thing you would do to show your divinity, that you would change water into wine?” “Yes.” <br /> That is pretty incredible. With all that Christ could do, His first revealing action was to take care of a basic party foul. He created light from nothing; He separated day from night; He separated land from the seas; He created vegetation, fish, and animals; He created man from the earth and woman from the side of man; He created the universe out of nothing. And He changes water into wine. That is incredible! <br /> But our God so often works in the ordinary, in the mundane, in the unexceptional. Look at Abraham. Yes, he was fairly wealthy with all his flocks, but he and Sarah had no children (at least at first). Yet God chose Abraham to become the father of many nations. The Israelites were literal slaves, and yet God chose them as His People, peculiarly His own, as Deuteronomy says. David was a shepherd, yet he was chosen to be king of God’s People. The Blessed Virgin Mary, a young, unknown girl, but became the Mother of God. Bethlehem, least of the cities of Judah, became the birth place of the Messiah. The twelve apostles were generally uneducated or unappreciated men, yet became the foundation of the Church. So if we really understood God, the miracle at Cana wouldn’t actually be that shocking.<br /> And it also shouldn’t shock us that God continues to operate this way. God so often operates in the everyday realities. He still so often chooses the least powerful to demonstrate His glory. Yes, there are times, like Mount Tabor and the Resurrection, where His glory and His power shine forth. But those were two times in His three-year public ministry. The rest were among the poor, the outcast, and the simple.<br /> Do we have eyes to see how God is working in our life? Or are we looking for the wrong thing? Are we looking for a Mount Tabor when we should be looking for a blind man on whose eyes our Lord puts mud made from his saliva? Are we looking for glory on a mountain when our Lord is walking next to us through a field? If we only seek God in the grandiose moments, then we’re missing the ways that He manifests Himself in everyday life. In the embrace of a loved one; in the smile of a baby; in the unexpected good news; in the delight of a good glass of wine. <br /> When we notice God in the ordinary, we tend to live more grateful lives, conscious of how God is working, rather than wondering why God never does anything for us. Even something as simple as living becomes a moment to give thanks, because without God willing each of us, individually, to be alive, we would cease to exist. He who keeps our solar system aligned just so, also feels that it’s important that you exist. So often we can think of God setting things in motion and then letting them go their way. But perhaps a more accurate view is that, at each nanosecond, God is willing each and every thing, animate and inanimate, into existence out of the joy of having something that He created continue in being. That certainly would help us live that gift of the spirit of wonder and awe in the presence of God. I can barely chew gum and walk at the same time. God at each moment wills every thing in existence and ensures the functioning of its properties according to His divine will. And He does so out of love and with joy, not begrudgingly, as we so often do when we have a task at work to which we don’t look forward. <br /> The miracle at the wedding of Cana manifests God. We have an epiphany of the divinity of Christ. And yet, we also have an epiphany of how God so often works: not only in the big moments of power and grandeur, but even the daily humdrum needs and desires of life. Perhaps recognizing all that God does for us at each fraction of a moment can help us be obedient to the command of Mary, “Do whatever he tells you”: the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. <br /></p>Fr. Anthonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16097986252589061620noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3341492644403658958.post-14821363363207570352024-01-15T09:46:00.007-05:002024-01-15T09:46:51.245-05:00Incremental Growth<p><b>Second Sunday in Ordinary Time</b><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCtV0fEqMfPyDiS9f_beofTwfiMLbFIKvFOu_k0Ieha2nvotouA1WBClWpqd_9FNHH1kaUMTC9O5Mt-PzZmP-g-xKQrFsAbJ_S3WASPjA1Y6FXyDVxiGcVYrPHBXiSOeKLNqa0PDDuTDQjPznzBZu6OhWFs-yNRVvCYF7d1VbtkBhyqlhv62nZ0-o8ONc/s3088/IMG_6971.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3088" data-original-width="2320" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCtV0fEqMfPyDiS9f_beofTwfiMLbFIKvFOu_k0Ieha2nvotouA1WBClWpqd_9FNHH1kaUMTC9O5Mt-PzZmP-g-xKQrFsAbJ_S3WASPjA1Y6FXyDVxiGcVYrPHBXiSOeKLNqa0PDDuTDQjPznzBZu6OhWFs-yNRVvCYF7d1VbtkBhyqlhv62nZ0-o8ONc/s320/IMG_6971.jpeg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(l-r) Anthony and Fr. Anthony</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table> When you have a goal, sometimes it’s easy to want to be at the end result, rather than being satisfied that you have done today what you need to in order to achieve that goal. My best friend Anthony is very strong and very much in shape. And when I started lifting weights over a year ago, I wanted my body to look like his. I wanted the big biceps and pecs. Now, if Anthony were to stand up next to me today, you would see that I have not yet achieved that goal. But, I am bigger than I used to be, with better defined muscles.<br /> When it comes to our spiritual life, it is easy to fall prey to the same mentality, that we should achieve the goal immediately. We read the lives of the saints, which helps us because we see in them the goal of living our baptismal promises. But then we realize that we’re not at their level yet. This can push us onwards, or it can also lead to a bit of despair, because we can worry that we will never achieve our goal because we haven’t achieved it yet.<br /> As we hear the call of the first Apostles–Andrew and John, and then Andrew invites Peter–we can see them searching for a more meaningful life, searching for the Messiah and desiring to associate themselves with Him. To use the weight-lifting example, it’s as if St. John the Baptist says about Jesus, “Look at that guy flex!” and Andrew and John are amazed enough to follow a new leader, and Andrew even invites his own brother to join in.<br /> But Jesus doesn’t lay out for them everything that will happen, either to Himself or to them. He doesn’t unfold how life will fully be like following the Messiah and being part of His inner circle. He doesn’t explain that He’s going to wander around Judea and Galilee preaching and performing miracles. He doesn’t tell them that He will forgive sins, which is reserved for God, or heal the blind, sick, and lame, and even raise a dead girl to life. He doesn’t tell them that the Pharisees are not going to be fans, and are going to dog Him and His followers everywhere they go. He doesn’t tell them that He will walk on water, multiple bread and fish for five thousand, or ride triumphantly into Jerusalem. He certainly doesn’t tell them that the same crowd that joyously welcomes Him to Jerusalem for the upcoming feast of Passover will call for His crucifixion, which He will undergo, abandoned by most of His disciples. <br /> He doesn’t tell them that they will be called Apostles, and will be the new patriarchs of the new Israel. He doesn’t tell them that they will heal people and exorcise demons in His Name. He doesn’t tell them that they will, more often than not, lack understanding of His teachings. He doesn’t tell them that they will be sent out, rather early in the game, to preach His arrival. He doesn’t tell them that one of the most trusted friends will betray Him for money, while the leader of His trusted friends will even deny knowing Him. <br /> What does He say? “‘Come, and you will see.’” And Andrew, John, and Peter will stay with Jesus that day. All that would happen, both to Christ and to the Apostles, is contained in that simple phrase, “Come, and you will see.” He knew they weren’t ready for everything yet, that they had to slowly prepare for everything, so He didn’t share everything yet. Just like, when I started lifting weights, I didn’t try to bench 205 lbs. (my current best). When I started, I think I was lifting 75 lbs. and feeling the burn. If I would have tried 205 lbs. when I started, I would have failed, and maybe given up. But I persevered, and now am trying to get up to 225 lbs. <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv_rWAmwel8p8FMzYkBQ4mGcGLg3q_6tkGIGDqsb59QlTD6jZtfmwmgvJ2MRvCiIqwULDlTC1cQG9c685Ap4K3HaEdAYyRpDLHC0iUJ1aTDQqUd_rrUt-h9egY32Kb2LQDs0CDwL88dSq8nw5rUtatxpDze2VIZGQQKoJuan21xy6qaEAIgJRLcbdGM3k/s279/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="180" data-original-width="279" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv_rWAmwel8p8FMzYkBQ4mGcGLg3q_6tkGIGDqsb59QlTD6jZtfmwmgvJ2MRvCiIqwULDlTC1cQG9c685Ap4K3HaEdAYyRpDLHC0iUJ1aTDQqUd_rrUt-h9egY32Kb2LQDs0CDwL88dSq8nw5rUtatxpDze2VIZGQQKoJuan21xy6qaEAIgJRLcbdGM3k/s1600/images.jpeg" width="279" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">NOT Fr. Anthony or Anthony</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table> God doesn’t give us everything all at once, even when we might desire to know it. Like so many things in nature, the growth happens slowly, organically, methodically. Yes, sometimes there are spurts of growth, but if the weight of the final goal was placed upon the embryonic beginning, it would crush the start so that the finish would never happen. I think about it in terms of my own parents’ marriage. In 1979, when my parents said, “I do,” they had no idea that my dad would convert to Catholicism and be baptized; that he would eventually become a deacon; that they would have three kids; that one kid (me) would fall eight feet, head first, onto a concrete floor (I know some of you are thinking, ‘That explains it!’); that one would be in a horrific car accident that would require weeks of hospitalization and rehab, and leave scars over her arm; that one would have difficulty with her hips at a young age, and then require lots of trips to the ER and breathing treatments for asthma; the time and effort they would put in to caring for their moms in their last days of life; that they wouldn’t both be able to be close to their fathers at the end of life due to COVID. I’m not sure any couple could handle that at the age of 21 and 19, or any age. But they have gone through all that and more, taking things one day at a time with Jesus, and seeing where He leads them. <br /> Striving for holiness is a day-by-day affair. We are not saints all at once, but each day choose to say yes to God and no to anything opposed to Him. If you want to be a saint, then commit yourself, just for each today that you have, to stay with Jesus that today. After the numerous todays that you spend with Him and cooperate with His grace, you’ll see the difference. Your end will be determined by the daily decision you make to remain with Jesus. Where does God want to lead you? “Come, and you will see.” <br /></p>Fr. Anthonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16097986252589061620noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3341492644403658958.post-882334830236370062024-01-15T09:41:00.001-05:002024-01-15T09:41:17.850-05:00Come, and You Will See<p><b>Second Sunday in Ordinary Time-St. Pius X</b><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMX0F8K1m8WF3vvKp5wGivVW4LUxabwwMXBHuFpQgIuphj5y9gLZnz32Ht3m1-9DNe3E0W6826nDUmcTJ1hS5RkduLflyMzcjCquGlyN4jiJboWT1G5HDKfC1SqnLny9hnoI4JuWBAKcHqkcFXO0WcyKuFFX4hHaasUgZdsRTytvulU38wUWe4yr-tDfo/s389/Unknown.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="129" data-original-width="389" height="106" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMX0F8K1m8WF3vvKp5wGivVW4LUxabwwMXBHuFpQgIuphj5y9gLZnz32Ht3m1-9DNe3E0W6826nDUmcTJ1hS5RkduLflyMzcjCquGlyN4jiJboWT1G5HDKfC1SqnLny9hnoI4JuWBAKcHqkcFXO0WcyKuFFX4hHaasUgZdsRTytvulU38wUWe4yr-tDfo/s320/Unknown.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div> Once the Bishop Boyea decreed that St. Pius X parish would be closed and which date the closing Mass would be, I was curious about what the reading would be for the week before (today), the last time I would preach as pastor of St. Pius X parish. The last homily of a pastor at a parish is always a big homily, but especially when the parish is closing.<br /> So as I looked for the Gospel today, I was grateful that this Gospel passage would close out my preaching at St. Pius X. This Gospel of the call of St. Andrew, St. John, and St. Peter (formerly named Simon) may not seem perfect, but it truly is.<br /> Today, and even more so next week, you may have this sense of, “What am I going to do? Where am I going to go?” In this way, you are like St. Andrew and St. John, whom St. John the Baptist directs to Jesus. Today, as then, Jesus asks you, “‘What are you looking for?’” Your answers certainly have a common thread, but also are as diverse as each person is. Each of you seeks something the same and something different from the Lord. Perhaps your question is like St. Andrew and St. John’s: “‘Where are you staying?’” Or maybe better for today and next week, “Where are you?” There is nothing wrong with that question. All honest questions are welcome to the Messiah.<br /> Today, Jesus says to you, as He did to Andrew and John, “‘Come, and you will see.’” Jesus didn’t tell them all that would happen to them over the next three years. He didn’t immediately give them the term “Apostle.” He simply invited them to stay with Him, and they did, starting with that day. <br /> On 29 June 1955, Bishop Joseph H. Albers, first bishop of Lansing, erected St. Pius X parish. And on 7 August of the same year, Fr. John A Blasko, the founding pastor, celebrated the first Mass in the Flint CIO Labor Temple at the corner of Corunna and Downey. On those days, and all the days that followed, the invitation was the same: Come, and you will see. Jesus didn’t show us then the ups and downs of the parish; the different locations where Mass would be said; the different priests who would serve as pastor or parochial vicar; or even how long the parish would last. He simply said, “‘Come, and you will see.’” And we have seen God working. For 68 years and 7 months God has revealed Himself. He has done so through the Mass, through the sisters and lay people who taught in the school, through the CCD classes, through the faith-sharing groups, through the food pantry, through the priests, through the buildings, and through the parishioners who became more like family. <br /> And next week, as Bishop Boyea closes the doors to this church and declares it de-consecrated, the message will not change. Jesus will still invite you: Come, and you will see. And whether you stay with Jesus by joining St. Matthew or by joining another parish, Jesus wants you to stay with Him. Today: stay with Him. Tomorrow: stay with Him. The rest will work itself out. As long as you stay with Him.<br /> It wouldn’t always be easy. Simon, after meeting the Lord, got a new name. This group of three would grow to a group of twelve, which would shrink by one when Judas betrayed the Lord, and then would add Matthias and later on Paul. Christ would demonstrate great miracles like the feeding of 5,000 with fives loaves and two fish. Pharisees and scribes would seemingly constantly harass this wandering Rabbi and His disciples. Most would abandon the Lord after He said that they had to eat His flesh and drink His blood to have life within them. All of Jerusalem would welcome Him right before Passover, and then they would all yell out, “Crucify him!” five days later. All but John and Peter would abandon the Lord after He was arrested, and even then Peter would deny he even knew Jesus. Talk about your ups and downs. But, even after abandoning Him, they would gather to stay in the place He celebrated the First Mass with them, and see Him risen from the dead and receive both His peace and His commission to spread the Gospel. <br /> It has been and always will be the same: someone points out Jesus to us, and Jesus invites us to stay with Him. It’s that simple and that complicated. Stay with Jesus; stay with the Church. I don’t know what that will entail for you, but the Lord of History, Jesus Christ, does. What will happen if you stay with Jesus? “‘Come, and you will see.’”<p></p>Fr. Anthonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16097986252589061620noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3341492644403658958.post-26660973232535835432024-01-08T10:28:00.001-05:002024-01-08T10:28:03.634-05:00Becoming a Holy Family<p><b>Feast of the Holy Family</b><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlZP-QsX02EhVi91P16Q81U8gWHuim3hMp_KvJLbaJ-1YEWVdrY10MrKOMSYOQUwCNm6JzMmpip4yChY6LVXcQT3TNBF2U71fuwbpD8XzQuVvTqoArBbGkAY4jpG1shrFL5UxyvhqfJmVsdI4RghpODNM3ciL8GDFFDGKG7AyyaJqXj9xhdnFDCF2M4Ps/s1536/024_26.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1536" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlZP-QsX02EhVi91P16Q81U8gWHuim3hMp_KvJLbaJ-1YEWVdrY10MrKOMSYOQUwCNm6JzMmpip4yChY6LVXcQT3TNBF2U71fuwbpD8XzQuVvTqoArBbGkAY4jpG1shrFL5UxyvhqfJmVsdI4RghpODNM3ciL8GDFFDGKG7AyyaJqXj9xhdnFDCF2M4Ps/s320/024_26.JPG" width="320" /></a></div> In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. As we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family, perhaps some of us think that holiness as a family is always just beyond our reach. What can be difficult is that God is the ultimate judge of holiness. He knows the inner working of our hearts, our motivations, how praiseworthy or culpable we truly are for our actions, etc. While there are objective norms for being holy, our participation in those norms, and how close we come to them, is always an act of faith. But today I wanted to outline a few important points, first in general and then directed at fathers, mothers, and children.<br /> First of all, from our Gospel today, we learn that holiness does not mean that we never make mistakes. We know the story well, that our Blessed Mother and St. Joseph accidentally leave behind our adolescent Lord in Jerusalem, figuring that He’s with other family members. It’s not until after a day of traveling that they realize they left Him behind in Jerusalem. We know that Mary never sinned, and the Gospel doesn’t really put blame on St. Joseph either. So holiness includes doing our best but sometimes not quite getting everything right. I’m sure that both the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph felt awful about leaving Christ behind in Jerusalem, and they likely experienced the panic that any parent has when he or she can’t find a child. But they were not at fault.<br /> Secondly, holiness can, of itself, seem beyond our grasp, like a goal that we can never reach on this side of heaven. But holiness is, more often than not, continuing to do our best, even if there are falls from time to time. An Orthodox monk by the name of Elder Thaddeus put it this way: <br /> <p></p><p>The Holy Fathers and the Saints always tell us, “It is important to get up immediately after a fall and to keep on walking toward God.” Even if we fall a hundred times a day, it does not matter; we must get up and go on walking toward God without looking back. What has happened has happened–it is in the past. Just keep on going, all the while asking for help from God.<br /><br />Repentance is a sign that you are seeking holiness. It is only when we give up, when we stop trying to be as God created us to be, that we fail. Even if you don’t think you’re holy yet, and I know I’m still working on it, keep striving for holiness. God is the only true judge of whether or not we are being the saints that He called us to be in Holy Baptism.<br /> For each member of the family, there are particular attributes that help us know that we are truly trying to be a holy family. And I want to mention just a few today. Certainly these admonitions are not exhaustive; there are many more that help us to be saints. But hopefully these will help you to be a holy family, like the model Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.<br /> Fathers: your witness of living the faith is of the utmost importance. Recent studies have shown that when the father of the family takes the faith seriously, his children are much more likely to continue practicing their faith after they leave the home. Your love for your wife (first) and your children, a love which you often demonstrate by sacrifice, pays dividends. By the way you treat your wife, you show your sons how a man should treat a woman, and you show your daughters what level of respect they can demand from young men when they start to date and seek a husband. <br /> The words you use (and don’t use) are important; even more so the actions that prove which words you truly value. We are in need of masculine witnesses of faith in our times when masculinity in general is under attack. Do not be a chauvinist, but do not be afraid of being a man, willing to sacrifice for a greater good. Make sure your family makes it to Mass each Sunday and Holyday, and that confession is a regular part of your family life, too, with your wife and kids able to see you enter the confessional, proving that you, too, have your faults that require God’s forgiveness, even as your seek to imitate the love of God the Father in your family home. Bless your wife and children. Entrust them to the care of their guardian angels daily. In this way, you will be holy fathers of a holy family.<br /> Mothers: faith and trust so often come easier for you, which is why so many women are active in the life of faith and of the parish. You help your husbands to continue the process of changing from a boy to a man. A boy thinks only of himself; a man thinks of the other; a husband has been trained to value you and your children more than himself. Your husband wants to do what is best, and you can help him see things, not only from his perspective, but also from yours. You help him to value and support what is tender in him, especially when it comes for caring for you and your children.<br /> Your connection with your children is always different than your husbands, since you bore each child for nine months before their father even got a chance to connect with them. They often look to you first for guidance, and especially for that maternal love which is gentle when comforting a husband who has the “man flu” or a child who is sick or hurt, but which love is ferocious when defending a child under attack from the outside. Like Mary, your heart is often pierced with many sorrows, but you demonstrate how to suffer them patiently, with trust that God will make all things right in the end. <br /> Your witness to the faith is also so important, and imitates the witness of the Blessed Mother who was attentive to God’s will, and pondered the working of God in her heart. You help your husband and your children learn quiet meditation and how to listen for the voice of God in the silence. We need holy women in today’s society, which do not seek to be the same as men, but which seek to compliment authentic masculinity with the feminine genius. Pray for your husband and children daily. Entrust them to the care of their guardian angels daily. In this way, you will be holy mothers of a holy family.<br /> Children: you, more than your father and mother, are constantly in a state of becoming. Your life as a child always develops, from a small life in the womb, to a baby, to a toddler, to a child, to an adolescent, to a teenager, to an adult. You are constantly bumping into rules and limits as you discover who God made you to be. There are so many influences in your life: first family, then friends, then a boyfriend or girlfriend. Amid all these changes in your lives, seek God first. Seek His guidance first. Your parents will be good, but not perfect, examples of what God wills for you. Learn to emulate what they do well; learn to avoid what you observe of their struggles. Both are helpful for your growth in holiness.<br /> Be patient with your parents. Just as you don’t know how to become the person God wants you to be perfectly, so they don’t know perfectly how to raise you to be that person. You didn’t come with an instruction manual. You will make mistakes, and so will they. But be respectful of them and, until you’re an adult, obedient to them. Look to them to understand when love needs to be tough, and when love needs to be gentle. Pray for them each day of your lives, as you are not always easy to raise. Commend your parents to St. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin Mary each day. In this way, you will be holy children of a holy family.<br /> You can each be a holy family. I can be a holy family. It does take discipline and sacrifice. Holy families always seek God’s will, and do their best to follow it when known. Persevere in trying each day to be holy, as all you have is each day. If you do your best to cooperate with God’s will, He will complete the good work He has begun in you, through Christ Jesus the Lord, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit live and reign for ever and ever. Amen. <br /></p>Fr. Anthonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16097986252589061620noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3341492644403658958.post-24363374425501164162024-01-08T10:04:00.001-05:002024-01-08T10:04:45.556-05:00Prayer over the Offerings<p><b>Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord</b><br /> When people talk about preparing for Mass, they often speak of getting dressed with better clothes than usual, brushing teeth, combing or brushing hair, maybe the ladies putting on make-up, maybe guys using that button-up shirt and maybe even a tie. Or sometimes they mean looking at the readings ahead of time, which can be found at the Daily Readings tab of the <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/">usccb.org</a> website. Rarely do people look over the prayers that are said at Mass before they attend the Mass, but this is also a good way to prepare, as the prayers are usually based on saying from the Church Fathers, and often are poetic and filled with rich imagery.<br /> I want to focus today on the Prayer over the Offerings for the Solemnity of the Epiphany, which we celebrate tonight/today. For this ancient feast, there are different prayers for the day before than for the day itself, and I want to focus on the Prayer over the Offerings for the actual day of Epiphany. The prayer reads: “Look with favor, Lord, we pray, / on these gifts of your Church, / in which are offered now not gold or frankincense or myrrh, / but he who by them is proclaimed, / sacrificed and received, Jesus Christ. / Who lives and reigns for ever and ever.” You will hear me chant that prayer after the altar is prepared for the celebration of the Eucharist. It is the same prayer from the pre-Conciliar Mass, and I would guess the prayer likely is quite old, much older than even the 1570 Missal that Pope St. Pius V promulgated as a result of the Council of Trent.<br /> But what does the prayer say? It is poetic, but what about the meaning? It starts by talking about the gifts of God’s church, and asks God to receive them favorably. Those gifts are the same gifts the Church has used since the Lord instituted the Eucharist on Holy Thursday at the Last Supper: bread and wine. And it compares those gifts to the gifts we heard about in the Gospel: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. But it talks about how these gifts are not the same gifts of the Magi, but rather, Jesus Christ Himself, who “is proclaimed, sacrificed and received.” It looks forward to the purpose of the presentation of these gifts of bread and wine, their transformation or transubstantiation into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. It reminds us that what we offer here is not only our gifts, like the gifts of the Magi, but the gift of Christ Himself to the Father, the very offering of His life on the Cross, which is made present for us in an unbloody manner through the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist. It’s as if we being catapulted through different scenes from the Gospel: first the adoration of the Magi when Jesus was little, to the Last Supper, to the Crucifixion. <br /> But it goes even deeper than that. Because our gifts of bread and wine are meant to represent something much more precious: the gift of our very selves. Christ is our model, and He offered His entire self to the Father, even to the shedding of His Precious Blood. He did not hold anything back. So we, who claim to follow Him, are meant to offer all of who we are, not so much right now in the shedding of our blood, but if the pouring out of all that has happened in our life since the last time we went to Mass like a libation, a liquid offering. We put on that bread the credit card bill that’s due with all the charges for a Christmas dinner with the family and Christmas presents; we place the joy of conceiving a new child; the concern for an infirm family member; the sorrow of a death at what is usually such a joyous time of year; the excitement of a new job or new opportunities; the extended time spent while on vacation with the kids; the relief of sending the kids back to school. All of that and more, really our very selves, are supposed to be united to the bread and the wine spiritually.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtEQpV_sNRfXKa7qVQ6aDfHHEFPc9zdqiUlgWDDdFREHHrav7-MXaX0y4u1FWr1ZwoPi9aGTynMJLf__jfK7j6OrwUwJBBmuwNrYYua2YGTSswA97DFdet2T02zkxP7aq30wafncLytCA5VZvlNrVlzPmsYjta6J9Y-9jiTzX1sWmtllceHpz6anUSsXM/s249/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="202" data-original-width="249" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtEQpV_sNRfXKa7qVQ6aDfHHEFPc9zdqiUlgWDDdFREHHrav7-MXaX0y4u1FWr1ZwoPi9aGTynMJLf__jfK7j6OrwUwJBBmuwNrYYua2YGTSswA97DFdet2T02zkxP7aq30wafncLytCA5VZvlNrVlzPmsYjta6J9Y-9jiTzX1sWmtllceHpz6anUSsXM/s1600/images.jpeg" width="249" /></a></div> And this is the gift that Jesus wants. Sure, the gold represents Christ’s kingly identity; the frankincense His divinity; the myrrh His Death. But Christ still wants to receive gifts from us even if we don’t have those items to offer up. He wants us to offer ourselves, united with Him, to the Father, and to receive, like Him, new life back from the Father who never lets us remain empty-handed. The Father transforms whatever we give Him, and returns it back to us as a vehicle of grace, a chance to grow closer to Him, which is our ultimate happiness.<br /> All of that, and more, from a prayer that is six lines and forty-three words long. How often do we miss those words, not just on the Epiphany, but each Sunday, because we haven’t truly prepared ourselves for Mass? We miss the poetry, the connections, the deeper meaning of these very deep prayers that the Church has perfected over two millennia of encounters with God. <br /> Perhaps this week you can give God a little more of your time and attention. Perhaps this week, maybe on Saturday morning or even before that, you can look ahead and try to see what the prayers for the Mass are. Or even if you can’t do it ahead of time, to accustom yourself to paying close attention to the prayers that are said during the Mass. Offer to God that aspect of yourself, that time of preparation, and be prepared for God to enrich your life even more than you thought, because God will not be outdone in generosity. <br /><p></p>Fr. Anthonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16097986252589061620noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3341492644403658958.post-86113259411758939192024-01-08T10:01:00.000-05:002024-01-08T10:01:07.449-05:00Taking Adoption for Granted<p><b>Sunday within the Octave of Christmas</b><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2-3MtLHk5jERk1jT5HxL2iFpQVr4nDSywOwyDGwcWu7x_29DoE5In3A3j6yIRtxxZaa2IqOfjKmGrAlGEyuxRMBRyYFGy9KJbWYoNXhfkRBjKxtmVQFTspccf-JB4maVMKEIZKmA8tuBoGYEIqZQLv1zHyEi9_jUTHBma2aZOpqbOFtdLF8cOKVBOfIk/s700/GettyImages-1140602972-e1651249657746.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="467" data-original-width="700" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2-3MtLHk5jERk1jT5HxL2iFpQVr4nDSywOwyDGwcWu7x_29DoE5In3A3j6yIRtxxZaa2IqOfjKmGrAlGEyuxRMBRyYFGy9KJbWYoNXhfkRBjKxtmVQFTspccf-JB4maVMKEIZKmA8tuBoGYEIqZQLv1zHyEi9_jUTHBma2aZOpqbOFtdLF8cOKVBOfIk/s320/GettyImages-1140602972-e1651249657746.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Sometimes we get so used to something, that we forget how amazing it really is. I personally take for granted that, if I need to travel across the country in a short period of time, I can get on a plane and travel in a few hours what would take days to drive (and even that it only takes 2-3 days to drive at speeds of 70 mph would have been unheard of in the earliest days of automobiles). <br /> When we hear St. Paul describe in the epistle today that we are sons and daughters of God and heirs of his inheritance, we probably take it for granted. We have heard the phrase “children of God” so often that it doesn’t seem so spectacular for us. But to be an adopted son or daughter in the Son of God is anything but humdrum. This revelation makes up part of the good news of the Gospel that God revealed to us.<br /> This news of our adoption in Christ connects to our celebration of the Nativity, which we are still celebrating today. As a side note, I took some clothes to the dry-cleaners last Tuesday, and I wished the woman at the counter Merry Christmas. She said, “Belated Merry Christmas to you, too.” I responded that as Catholics there’s nothing belated about it. We celebrate Christmas Day for eight days, and the Christmas season even longer than that, because it’s too big of a celebration to be fit into just one day. She mentioned that she thought it was only Chanukah that was eight days long, but I told her that Catholics love celebrating, and we celebrate for eight days as well. When I went back on Friday morning to pick up the dry cleaning, she asked if I was still celebrating Christmas, and explained how long we celebrate Christmas. It’s simple opportunities like that where we can share our faith.<br /> But back to the point about our adoption in Christ. In Christ, God took our human nature to Himself. And because of that, humanity was joined to God in a way that never happened before. But that didn’t mean we immediately became co-heirs with Christ. The Incarnation set the stage for this great news, but wasn’t the accomplishment of it. <br /> God allows us to become His adopted children through baptism, when we die and rise with Christ in the waters of redemption. Through holy baptism, God joins us individually to Himself, just as He joined us corporately to Himself through the Incarnation. The redemption that Christ won made possible our status, no longer as servants, but as sons and daughters in the Son of God. The Father remade us, as it were, by the power of the Holy Spirit which the Father gave us in holy baptism. <br /> And St. Paul outlines that, while we serve God, we are not servants. No, God exalted us to a status far beyond any servant. Think about it: a servant has no rights in the family, but exists only to take care of the family’s needs. He can be let go for any reason, or no reason at all. He lives in the same house, but only because that is his occupation; it is not, properly speaking, his house. He has no expectation to anything that belongs to the family, other than just compensation for the work actually accomplished.<br /> As a child in the family of God, we have rights. And these rights are not based upon anything we have done, but only upon our status as a child. Think about your own children: especially when they are babies, but even when they are older but acting like babies, they don’t really do anything for you as parents. A baby sleeps, eats, dirties diapers, and cries (usually because he or she wants to do or has done one of the first three activities). Yes, there’s a certain amount of love that a baby brings, but the baby isn’t really trying to be cute and lovable. They just are. And yet, simply because the baby is the child of the parents, the parents commit themselves to feeding the child, to clothing the child, to providing shelter for the child, to helping the child develop physically and intellectually (and spiritually, for believers). Parents can’t simply say, “I’m tired of waking up the middle of the night. Let’s send the baby away so that we don’t have to deal with him anymore.” <br /> In a similar way, we don’t do anything for God, not by ourselves anyway. We cry out a lot to Him; we ask to be nourished by His grace and the Eucharist; we dirty the diapers of our souls. We add nothing to God in Himself, and we’re not all that cute or lovable all the time. But, because we are joined to Christ in holy baptism, God makes a commitment to us to provide for us all that we need to be saints and to be with Him forever in heaven. We don’t deserve it, but God gives it anyway. We did not earn any good thing from God, but as a loving Father, He showers His blessings upon us. <br /> Again, we are used to this exalted status. But it did not have to be that way. God did not have to offer us a place in His household. But out of His great love for us, He invited us to a greater status than we could have ever imagined. May Christmas help us remember not to take this great gift for granted, but to treasure it and operate out of our identity as sons and daughters in the Son of God, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit live and reign for ever and ever. Amen. <br /><p></p>Fr. Anthonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16097986252589061620noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3341492644403658958.post-2376168056521818882024-01-08T09:56:00.001-05:002024-01-08T09:56:37.917-05:00The Blessing of Children<p><b>Feast of the Holy Family</b><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3nzeDmeu49xnf943b_37eVCt_-1Yis2EDR-f9YYb8m9eqB8CqxNsBOwvNKvxqQpmpNrf4YaLdzNHr2fwDNvVMN7uW6YDtAQ-op1RhbB3V7XLYClpoweyZH_D9WJXAIp2hFvaK3gmERdC9G1tnFHugkkHpEHPCLaHxrA08D_YaSgrxEkXcz4x_Oe1FY44/s3072/IMG_0768.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2304" data-original-width="3072" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3nzeDmeu49xnf943b_37eVCt_-1Yis2EDR-f9YYb8m9eqB8CqxNsBOwvNKvxqQpmpNrf4YaLdzNHr2fwDNvVMN7uW6YDtAQ-op1RhbB3V7XLYClpoweyZH_D9WJXAIp2hFvaK3gmERdC9G1tnFHugkkHpEHPCLaHxrA08D_YaSgrxEkXcz4x_Oe1FY44/s320/IMG_0768.JPG" width="320" /></a></div> During Christmas we so often focus on children. One of the greatest blessings in a family is a child. A child signifies the fruit of the love between a husband and wife. A child means that the human race has one more person to continue it. The child shares certain traits with its parents. A child means an increase in love, not only from the mother and father, but also, in a mysterious way, from the child itself, who can do very little on its own. For this reason we celebrate with baby showers or diaper parties; we prepare food for the new parents; we offer to help in any way we can, especially during those first few very difficult months.<br /> And while all of this rings true for the earthly birth of a child, it is also true for the spiritual rebirth of a person, of whatever age. A baptized person is the fruit of the love of God. A baptized person means there is one more disciple, one more follower of Christ. A baptized person is called to develop the traits of God the Father. A baptized person means an increase of love from the Most Holy Trinity, but also becomes a vessel of love to return to the Trinity the love he or she first received, but also to share that same love of God with others.<br /> Right now our society and even our members of the Church at times struggle with welcoming earthly children and with passing on the faith to the next generation. While it is no longer a constitutionally protected activity in the US Constitution, the citizens of Michigan voted to make abortion a protected activity within our State Constitution. Our governor has touted how much easier it is now to get an abortion, and has tried to convince others to move here so that they can have abortions whenever they want to. Apparently the math is lost on her that, when we encourage the killing of the next generation, it doesn’t help the population grow; you can’t add people by subtracting people. <br /> While I will also never fully appreciate the challenges in raising a child, and a couple’s discernment through prayer and reflection of how many children to conceive using Natural Family Planning, as well as with compassion for those who want children but who cannot receive them, those who prayerfully choose to have more than two children are often, whether jokingly or not, ridiculed or their intelligence questioned. “Don’t you know what causes that?” they are sometimes asked. I once heard a person say, in response, “Yeah, and I like doing it!”<br /> Spiritually, too, some families struggle to pass on the faith. In some extreme cases, they advocate delaying baptism until the child can choose for him or herself. If we were to extend this analogically to the other important aspects of life, the foolishness of this position becomes quite apparent: I’m not going to feed my child until she can decide what she wants to eat; I’m going to let my child choose what clothes to wear, or whether to wear any at all; I’m not going to love my child until he asks for it. Loving parents force all sorts of things of their kids that they need: food, clothing; and love, to name a few. <br /> Kids are smart, too. They can tell what parents prioritize. So when sports always or often comes before Mass; when families don’t pray together in the home; when the name of Jesus is more often used as a curse word than to invoke God’s blessings; kids figure out if faith is something that happens when convenient, or if it is a regular part of family life. People wonder why there are fewer attendees at Mass. Frankly, it’s because attending Mass, learning about the faith, and prayer are not prioritized in many families. Kids don’t learn how to follow Christ, or that it makes any real difference, so they stop going to church and growing in their relationship with God as soon as they can. <br /> God promised Abraham descendants as numerous as the stars. And while Abraham struggled with seeing how this could happen, God fulfilled His word when Abraham and Sarah conceived Isaac, whose descendants quickly multiplied in Egypt, and who became a nation, a group of people in their own right. But it went beyond Abraham’s physical descendants. The Gentiles, the non-Jews, who were joined to Christ through baptism, also becomes descendants of Abraham, because Christ is a son of Abraham. God fulfilled His promise through physical and spiritual means.<br /> But for this to happen, Abraham had to have faith in God, and offer to God the sacrifice of his family. This happened in a very dramatic way through the almost-sacrifice of Isaac on Mount Moriah, as the Letter to the Hebrews reminded us. For us, this means offering our family to God, not through death, but through their lives. Is Mass a priority for you as a family, or is it something you get to if it’s not too inconvenient? Do you pray at home each day as a family? Do you pray before meals? Do you share the stories about Jesus, and, as the children grow, the teachings of the Church? Another great tradition that has been lost is for a parent to sign their children with the sign of the cross on their foreheads before they leave for school or just to hang out with friends. This simply gesture, which is proper to parents, reminds the children that they belong to Christ through baptism, and asks Christ, along with their guardian angels, to watch over them wherever they go. The faith becomes as natural a part of life as eating, getting dressed, and going to school or work.<br /> Children are a great blessing. They are, not only the future, but the present. If we wish our society and our church to grow, we should support life, including helping mothers who have little to bring their children to birth. We should make sure that, in our families, the faith life is not optional, but is part of how we live every day. And if you can’t have children for whatever reason, find ways to help other parents and other families. Because families who center themselves on God and not on the lesser goods of the world help make our society and our church better places to be, filled with more of the grace of God. <br /><p></p>Fr. Anthonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16097986252589061620noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3341492644403658958.post-33416653797231157152023-12-26T09:55:00.000-05:002023-12-26T09:55:01.441-05:00The Last Gospel<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-4GnFgcX4Gi04Ee3FpQEfaoOlurD89UVM3KkXwFnZZXFhibzRmhxsVGz80_pPLcJAq8Il4ZBzJiwZOiv0y8pt_Ve3lIkx884U7-AC_rzAf_kAqlFKgJmVQExzhO3fasvSEsznDIZtKZ5wFVFVLbd2Y-7-zdxHmnz5_ATzik5oQ6HcTcTCceoEBZw_BrA/s193/Unknown.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="193" data-original-width="193" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-4GnFgcX4Gi04Ee3FpQEfaoOlurD89UVM3KkXwFnZZXFhibzRmhxsVGz80_pPLcJAq8Il4ZBzJiwZOiv0y8pt_Ve3lIkx884U7-AC_rzAf_kAqlFKgJmVQExzhO3fasvSEsznDIZtKZ5wFVFVLbd2Y-7-zdxHmnz5_ATzik5oQ6HcTcTCceoEBZw_BrA/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" width="193" /></a></div><b>Nativity of the Lord: Mass during the Day/Third Mass</b><br /> [In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen]. There are so many beautiful images that the Scriptures bring to our imaginations about the Nativity of the Lord. Maybe we think of Joseph leading Mary on a donkey as she travels to Bethlehem while being nine months pregnant. Or maybe we think of them going up to inns, trying to see if there’s room, but not finding anything. Because of St. Francis of Assisi, we may think of them in a barn-like structure, though the older tradition is that our Lord was born in a cave. We may think of the shepherds seeing the angels, hearing them sing the Gloria, and then going to find the Christ Child. Based upon the Christmas carol, we might even think about a little boy with his snare drum playing for the Holy Family (which is probably not what a woman who has just given birth wants to hear). So which of these accounts do we hear as we come to Mass today on Christmas morning/afternoon? “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was God….And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.” And yet, according to one scholar, John’s prologue was the traditional Gospel for Christmas Day from the time of the earliest lectionaries, or collections of readings for the Mass. <br /> So why this Gospel? Why this elevated reflection Christ as the Logos, the Word? This prologue is really the Gospel writ small. It precedes, in a sense, Genesis, and concludes, in a sense the Book of Revelation. It starts at the beginning, but even before “In the beginning” from Genesis, because it speaks of the time when there was simply God, and nothing else. It talks about the perennial back and forth between light and darkness, an unequal battle that entered humanity’s realm by the disobedience of Adam and Eve. But it also talks about those who belong to God, are enabled to become His children, through this same Logos, this same Word, Jesus Christ.<br /> All of the stories with which we are familiar–Mary and Joseph, the inns, the stable or cave, the shepherds–John encapsulates in the pithy phrase, “And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” John, who wrote this Gospel around the year AD 90, already had the witness of Matthew and Luke giving their own infancy narratives. But there is more to Christmas than just a baby. There is also the aspect that this baby brought us the grace to be freed from the slavery to the law. Christ gave us more than just a new law. He gave us Himself: “From his fullness…grace in place of grace.” And John, even in just this first part of the first chapter, is able to start to tease out the invisible realities which this visible baby brought forth.<br /> Other than today and on Holy Thursday, in the Extraordinary Form, this Gospel passage is read at the end of each Mass and is called the Last Gospel. This practice began in England in what is called the Sarum Rite from the twelfth century. Between the eleven hundreds and the fifteen hundreds, it was a private prayer for the priest to say after Mass. Pope St. Pius V added it to every Mass (with few exceptions) in 1570. It was eliminated in the post-Conciliar changes to the Missal in 1965.<br /> But the value is that, at the end of each Mass in the Extraordinary Form, priest and people are reminded of this overarching theme of salvation: God in Himself; God in the Incarnation; God’s grace and truth given to us to become children of God, a revelation only made possible by the Incarnation of the Eternal Word. And the Eucharist, just received at the time of the Last Gospel, is precisely the same Word, who strengthens the individual Catholic in the Theo-drama of God’s victory of light over darkness and holiness over sin. <br /> This focus on the divinity of Christ also reminds us of the power of Christmas over all the other ways that God communicated. The Letter to the Hebrews adeptly reminds us that God has spoken to us in partial and various ways. He walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the evening. He spoke to Noah and commanded him to build an ark to save the righteous. He called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees. He called Moses to free His people from bondage in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land. He anointed David to be the king and shepherd of His people, Israel. He gave Solomon the plan for the Temple and dwelt there. He sent prophets to remind the people of their commitment to follow God and the consequences if they did not. And all of those were good.<br /> But at that first Christmas, God chose to speak for Himself. An ambassador is a good communication of the wishes and expectations of a ruler. But the ruler himself communicates in a way that far surpasses a spokesman. A picture or a painting can capture some of the beauty of a landscape. But to be in the presence of the reality far surpasses any representation of that beauty. Our Lord is the ruler. Our Lord is the beautiful landscape. And in encountering Him, in the Incarnation, we have the chance to appreciate the reality beyond the shadows the prefigured it. <br /> This may not be the Christmas Gospel we anticipate. But it’s the Christmas Gospel that explains not just that day, but all of salvation history. This Prologue reminds us that Christmas is not just about the baby that we see with our eyes, but the God that we see with our faith. May our appreciation of the Word made Flesh, spur us on to live in the grace and truth that come from Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit are one God, for ever and ever. Amen. <br /><p></p>Fr. Anthonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16097986252589061620noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3341492644403658958.post-20228830847691510682023-12-26T09:49:00.002-05:002023-12-26T09:49:20.102-05:00The Shepherds<p><b>Nativity of the Lord: Mass at Night</b><br /> Merry Christmas! As we assemble tonight to celebrate the birth of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ, we do so at the same, or at least a similar time, as the shepherds just outside of Bethlehem. Luke records that the shepherds were “keeping the night watch over their flock.” And yet, in the midst of the darkness, “the glory of the Lord shone around them” as they witnessed angels and heard one of the first proclamations of the beginning of the Gospel, that, “‘today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord.’”<br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCdxANRHf4YqWaSt73_pdMkyv45sepM_AXnPln3UDMevmbct9AOA4DOpO3RcCny91T4GEiK3AtithmjuEdwcbxydsnykvAXRsh2uhlL2hYNZAiQCl9m3lSk5I0AaAD0jhHzgviibmHq5w5r-JION6cA2fwrx5e2pKiTMaqBZsrQg3XD7OrPaY1XeheIEk/s3072/IMG_2854.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2304" data-original-width="3072" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCdxANRHf4YqWaSt73_pdMkyv45sepM_AXnPln3UDMevmbct9AOA4DOpO3RcCny91T4GEiK3AtithmjuEdwcbxydsnykvAXRsh2uhlL2hYNZAiQCl9m3lSk5I0AaAD0jhHzgviibmHq5w5r-JION6cA2fwrx5e2pKiTMaqBZsrQg3XD7OrPaY1XeheIEk/s320/IMG_2854.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Painting of the shepherds from Shepherds' Field in Bethlehem</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table> I started a tradition when I became a priest to add, each year of my priesthood, to a Fontanini nativity set. In the first year I had to buy the basics, and besides Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, and the angel, the only other figure who was included was a shepherd and two sheep. There’s something about the shepherds that belongs at the heart of the nativity, just slightly behind the necessary figures of the Holy Family themselves. <br /> Perhaps part of their importance connects to how many times in the Old Testament God refers to shepherds. Psalm 80 states, “O Shepherd of Israel, lend an ear, you who guide Joseph like a flock! Seated upon the cherubim, shine forth.” Probably one of the currently most popular psalms, 23, states, “The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I lack.” God appoints Joshua, son of Nun, “that the Lord’s community may not be like sheep without a shepherd.” God likewise calls David as the king to shepherd God’s people by ruling over them. <br /> God also condemns bad shepherds. In Jeremiah he states, “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the flock of my pasture…I myself will gather the remnant from my flock…and bring them back to their folds.” Through Ezekiel God says: <br /> </p><p>Woe to the shepherds of Israel who have been pasturing themselves! […] I myself will search for my sheep and…I will bring them back to their own country and pasture them….In good pastures I will pasture them….I myself will pasture my sheep; I myself will give them rest…The lost I will search out, the strays I will bring back, the injured I will bind up, and the sick I will heal.<br /><br />Shepherds hold an important place in the Old Testament, both as an image of God who cares for His people, and as a warning for those who have authority but do not exercise it well.<br /> Many have also noted that shepherds were poor. They did not, beyond their flock, have much to their names. They recognized their dependance on God, and relied on Him to provide for their livelihood. And so it is the poor, those who not only lack material goods, but also who recognize their need for God, who first hear the message of the Gospel, and are drawn to worship the newborn king, “‘wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.’”<br /> Tonight the Lord invites us to come before Him like the shepherds, no matter what our adjusted gross income. We come in our poverty of spirit, our recognition that we need God, and bow before the Shepherd of Israel, the one who leads us to good pastures, who rules over us, who seeks us out when we are lost, and places us upon His shoulders when we are injured. As Psalm 100 states, “we are his people, the flock he shepherds.” <br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwd6_zCIpeXSaZqnsakg_B3TADZFYQlXhJ7Ded8UT7G4TJlkWY9BPyR7O0EuD0d07aEgqZ6Pn6LrhlgK8dZhatlaPOpkB6KxX1cFIK3cGor6Tz5-cVRTvgmzbOtPv7AxbNJO8yFhgOGuTvKBKwvo2mp0VGD_azRFkVPt-MwbLe5UAyOOT7i2Y1WsBLyNQ/s2048/E8BD0014-A42D-4BB9-9728-8AE6610978F9_1_201_a.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwd6_zCIpeXSaZqnsakg_B3TADZFYQlXhJ7Ded8UT7G4TJlkWY9BPyR7O0EuD0d07aEgqZ6Pn6LrhlgK8dZhatlaPOpkB6KxX1cFIK3cGor6Tz5-cVRTvgmzbOtPv7AxbNJO8yFhgOGuTvKBKwvo2mp0VGD_azRFkVPt-MwbLe5UAyOOT7i2Y1WsBLyNQ/s320/E8BD0014-A42D-4BB9-9728-8AE6610978F9_1_201_a.jpeg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Door of Humility</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table> Poverty in spirit is an exercise in humility. At the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem, there is a door, which was added in the sixteenth century, that was built purposefully with small dimensions. Practically, it kept people from bringing horses and cattle in the church. But that was quickly theologized and the door was called the “Door of Humility,” because each person, no matter how rich or how poor, how powerful or how insignificant, had to bow down to be able to enter. As we come before the Lord, we bow down in the presence of our God and King. While not required, kneeling when we receive Holy Communion, is a beautiful expression of our humility and poverty in spirit as we receive the same Jesus who was born in Bethlehem in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist. And during the Creed, we usually make a profound bow from the waist when we mention the Incarnation, but tonight, the day we came to know it happened, we genuflect, lowering our very bodies in each case which is meant to remind us to humble our souls as well. <br /> Lastly, while not part of tonight’s Gospel passage or pericope, verse seventeen of this same chapter states, “When [the shepherds] saw [the infant lying in the manger], they made known the message that had been told them about this child. All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds.” This great celebration is not something that the shepherds could keep to themselves, nor should we be able to keep this great celebration to ourselves. When we appreciate God as our shepherd; when we recognize the great humility that God first showed us by taking on our human flesh, with all its limitations and weakness, we should share that news with others. So many celebrate Christmas, but they have forgotten what it means, beyond presents and big meals with family and friends. Christmas, at its heart, is about the Lord, our Shepherd, seeking us out, and taking us upon His shoulders so that He can carry us to the verdant pastures of repose in heaven. God did not have to do this. God would not have lost anything in Himself if He had let us pay the price for our disobedience in Adam. But so much did He love us, that He got rid of the bad shepherds who only cared for themselves, and shepherded us rightly, taking us to Himself in love and truth. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitEN0Z7BBd-REwTGHMKDcoQtuqAWyxCYFCOAsP9uaCIclfDeFPq_Nr4tpAH85KVDTZub6e8ch49hHrsyun-UmmaymnOnnWV9mkQ7Sy-qJDzc2fCDF9hYzyAzMiBCweEOHcr6w2d0V5-KbFkFKY-6aMJ-u5uycclyMcxKi2Ctqf9Hyg8FLiJKDgoB8xlCw/s284/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="284" data-original-width="177" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitEN0Z7BBd-REwTGHMKDcoQtuqAWyxCYFCOAsP9uaCIclfDeFPq_Nr4tpAH85KVDTZub6e8ch49hHrsyun-UmmaymnOnnWV9mkQ7Sy-qJDzc2fCDF9hYzyAzMiBCweEOHcr6w2d0V5-KbFkFKY-6aMJ-u5uycclyMcxKi2Ctqf9Hyg8FLiJKDgoB8xlCw/s1600/images.jpeg" width="177" /></a></div> Tonight, may the lights of this great temple shine like the angels in the heavens. May our celestial hymn of “Glory to God in the highest,” not only ring out in the ceilings of this church, but re-echo outside and in the witness of our lives, so that others may also come to adore our newborn King, and find the life that God desires for all His sheep. <br /><p></p>Fr. Anthonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16097986252589061620noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3341492644403658958.post-36564745972162625482023-12-26T09:40:00.004-05:002023-12-26T09:40:36.780-05:00Joy and Sorrow<p><b>Nativity of the Lord: At the Vigil Mass</b><br /> This is certainly a unique Christmas Mass. On the one hand tonight is a time of great rejoicing as we celebrate the birth of our God and Redeemer in the flesh. On the other hand, this will be the last Christmas this church building will experience as a Catholic church. For decades, families have gathered on the evening of 24 December to begin their celebration of Christmas by worshiping God. Bittersweet does not begin to describe what so many of you, and I, are feeling tonight. I’m not sure there is a word that can quite communicate all the emotions of this final St. Pius X Christmas Mass.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigizaipv6NIR6DBVSjDigU_TBB8zWShHHzCwvt_6lMaKwiN_ghR65VbwbyQXrxb4-tDhYli1rgzGc1FKQW6jj7GYwcg0bMUnJgikC650LkS7VpGHvwOp673fQxn3_N1dTgn5xmxAmMq8nLdBGDkYS9EDmRxegl8X4mc5nE8IjbEXA90pFF8RJCMz1yCB0/s389/Unknown.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="129" data-original-width="389" height="106" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigizaipv6NIR6DBVSjDigU_TBB8zWShHHzCwvt_6lMaKwiN_ghR65VbwbyQXrxb4-tDhYli1rgzGc1FKQW6jj7GYwcg0bMUnJgikC650LkS7VpGHvwOp673fQxn3_N1dTgn5xmxAmMq8nLdBGDkYS9EDmRxegl8X4mc5nE8IjbEXA90pFF8RJCMz1yCB0/s320/Unknown.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div> But while we may vividly understand the prophet Isaiah talking about Israel seeming forsaken, or the land desolate, notice that those terms do not define Israel. Instead, Isaiah prophecies that Israel shall be called “‘My Delight’” and the land “‘Espoused.’ For the Lord delights in you and makes your land his spouse.” And, as the Psalmist says, forever God will maintain his kindness toward David and his descendants, and his covenant stands firm. God has not abandoned us, nor can His covenant with us ever fade away.<br /> Indeed, even the Nativity itself had a tinge of struggle and sorrow. What mother would want to give birth to her child, especially a child she knew to be the Son of God, in a cave? Mary and Joseph were forced to go to Bethlehem to register for the Roman census. A census was against what God had commanded, and it was being done by a foreign, occupying army. Forty days after Christmas, when Mary and Joseph presented the Christ child in the temple, Simeon would tell Mary that her heart would be pierced. And by the time Jesus was two, King Herod would try to kill Him, and kill many other baby boys, as a way to try to get rid of this newborn king. <br /> And we also know that God’s ultimate plan, a plan that Jesus fully accepted in His human will, was to die on the cross so that sin and death would be defeated. So while the Incarnation brought such great joy, it also made possible the worst offense to God that we could have ever committed: killing Him. <br /> Still, even with being born in a cave; even with the sorrow that Mary would experience; even with the slaughter of the Holy Innocents; even with the rejection of His own people; even with the crucifixion; God did not abandon us, and brought joy to take the place of all that sorrow because He rose from the dead and defeated sin and death so that we could go to heaven and be perfectly happy with Him for eternity. No matter how bad things got, God always brought joy and new life. <br /> And He does that today. God gives us the joy as celebrating, one last time, as a parish family, along with the yearly visitors we get for this solemn evening. He is today, as much as He was some two thousand years ago, Emmanuel, God with us, who will not abandon us. God will help us to continue to practice our faith in the coming months, just as He helped us practice our faith in this parish for almost seventy years. God will bring joy and new life out of sorrow and death every time, as long as we remain close to Him and stay faithful to Him. <br /> That joy and new life most often come in unexpected times and places. Remember that no one cared about Mary when she conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. She wasn’t a powerful earthly queen; she wasn’t a well-known personality or religious figure. She was a humble young woman, dedicated to doing God’s will. Bethlehem, as the prophet Micah says, was the “least among the clans of Judah.” The Roman province of Judea was not a metropolitan center of activity, but a backwater part of the Empire. And while Mary and Joseph were both of the house of David, their kingly family had long since lost any political power or prestige. But from these small, unnoticed, unspectacular circumstances, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah would be born and would begin to do what no one else could do: save the human race. <br /> And so God will do with us, if we cooperate with His will. He will raise up the humble, strengthen the weak, and continue His salvation through those who continue to cooperate with Jesus. He doesn’t need prosperity or clout; all He needs is our willingness to follow His plan. <br /> I will end tonight with the words that Pope St. Leo the Great. Pope St. Leo the Great was supreme pontiff from 440 until 461, a time of great decline in the Roman Empire. Barbarians were sacking and taking control of lands that had one been ruled by Rome. False teachings persisted. Disease and death were everywhere. His time, like our own, was not easy. And yet, for the celebration of Christmas, he writes:<br /> <p></p><p>Dearly beloved, today our Savior is born; let us rejoice. Sadness should have no place on the birthday of life. The fear of death has been swallowed up; life brings us joy with the promise of eternal happiness. No one is shut out from this joy; all share the same reason for rejoicing. Our Lord, victor over sin and death, finding no man free from sin, came to free us all. […] When the angels on high are so exultant at this marvelous work of God’s goodness, what joy should it not bring to the lowly hearts of men?<br /><br />Despite any darkness that comes our way, Jesus, the Light of the World, dispels it all and enlightens us so that we can live in the joy of His radiance. We are the delight of the Lord, and His spouse. As long as we stay with Him, no sadness can ruin the joy that belongs to us as sons and daughters in the Son of God, who tomorrow was born for us, Christ the Lord. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3DB9N5qu-tasuN8s45wsSXjwaPl77HzIIfoa2999tiroiJhyphenhyphenrrNB5Flw04qP1ZFF5JTuV9IvdLZ5PMKxPZIpToixd1Hi1Bp77TGA7FQKmKGkbydq-wLfkOFZHRIaPO5rZpAYxOm3j3go1Wm6ArpaJCVAysW0__qQ0jEWGQXjxGqaE6wQktK2W3liSvZ0/s3072/IMG_0768.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2304" data-original-width="3072" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3DB9N5qu-tasuN8s45wsSXjwaPl77HzIIfoa2999tiroiJhyphenhyphenrrNB5Flw04qP1ZFF5JTuV9IvdLZ5PMKxPZIpToixd1Hi1Bp77TGA7FQKmKGkbydq-wLfkOFZHRIaPO5rZpAYxOm3j3go1Wm6ArpaJCVAysW0__qQ0jEWGQXjxGqaE6wQktK2W3liSvZ0/s320/IMG_0768.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p>Fr. Anthonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16097986252589061620noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3341492644403658958.post-90393150945117477602023-12-26T09:35:00.000-05:002023-12-26T09:35:12.762-05:00Vigils<p><b>Vigil of the Nativity</b><br /> In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. When I was in college, it was just starting to become academically “enlightened” to stop labeling time with the abbreviations BC (for before Christ) and AD (for <i>Anno Domini</i>, meaning Year of the Lord), to BCE (for Before the Common Era) and CE (the Common Era). I’m sure some person thought it quite “diverse” to remove religious terms like “Christ” and “the Lord” from the way that time was measured. However, a few minutes of critical thinking would have helped them to realize that the reference point for the change in marking time was still religious. What was common about the Common Era is that time was measured from the birth of Christ. No matter what you call it (and as Catholics we should continue to use BC and AD), time is measured as happening before the Incarnation or after the Incarnation. Our measurement of time points to that one, unique, universe-altering experience of God-made-man.<br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLWgQI4IQIYwUp4SNdDoMxUyXxPN14EGf4QPahqUNwh9AcQ8qT4GzSLLcUArrdtxM-G70oBdwmFdkMP5JG8YavJLY6xMHwZqsc9qNkFKh-D_3P21vs-GIzcYbKLiw_UmD5k-lANom_m0lzvXTYnrggCK9CJPaRsuojgTMP-lsUj9DhOSe1KTm68yh3ICo/s1536/Photo%2022%20of%2026.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLWgQI4IQIYwUp4SNdDoMxUyXxPN14EGf4QPahqUNwh9AcQ8qT4GzSLLcUArrdtxM-G70oBdwmFdkMP5JG8YavJLY6xMHwZqsc9qNkFKh-D_3P21vs-GIzcYbKLiw_UmD5k-lANom_m0lzvXTYnrggCK9CJPaRsuojgTMP-lsUj9DhOSe1KTm68yh3ICo/s320/Photo%2022%20of%2026.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Statue of David from Jerusalem</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table> As St. Paul opens his epistle to the Romans, he references that the Good News, the Gospel that God became man and took our sins away was promised beforehand by the prophets. All the Old Testament, in some way, shape, or form, pointed to the moment when God took flesh and was born of the Virgin Mary. Even from the very beginning of humanity, after our first parents had rebelled against God, God promised to send a descendant of Eve who would strike at the head of the ancient serpent who led Adam and Eve astray. Melchizedek, the King of Salem or Jerusalem; to whom Abraham gave a tenth of his spoils; who as priest of God Most High offered bread and wine, pointed to the true King of Jerusalem, the only true Priest who offers Himself to us under the appearance of bread and wine. Moses prophesied a prophet to whom the Chosen People must listen, and which pointed to the Incarnation. David, the King of Israel after God’s own heart, to whom God promised an heir that would reign for ever, pointed to the Incarnation.<br /> The prophets, too, also spoke God’s word that He would come among us. Isaiah especially prophesied the virgin who would be with child, whose name would be Immanuel, God with us; and the flower from the root of Jesse (David’s father); and the gifts of gold and frankincense brought from the nations to worship the new king. Micah prophesied that a ruler would come forth from Bethlehem. <br /> Even the secular history was preparing for this moment. After the disruptive civil war between Julius Caesar and Pompey in 49 BC, and then Caesar’s assassination by Brutus in 44 BC, Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus, also known as Octavian Augustus, would establish a certain peace throughout the Roman Empire which would help the spread of the Gospel. It was Augustus who called for a census, which led Mary and Joseph to go to Bethlehem (though it also led to no vacancy at any of the places they wanted to stay).<br /> Today we celebrate the Vigil of the Nativity of the Lord. Many Catholics use the word vigil to mean the night before. But in the traditional calendar, it was the entire day before (the Saturday evening Mass is not technically a vigil, it’s an anticipatory Mass). And the vigil day was a day of preparation. Often, though not on Sundays, it was a day of fasting or abstinence. But the idea was to get ready for the joyful celebration on the following day. The prayers were different, the readings were different, and often extended. We still retain these extended readings and prayers, for example, in the Vigil of Easter and the Vigil of Pentecost, though both are celebrated at Mass during the evening or night. <br /> But it also recalls the waiting and anticipation that occurred before that actual day arrived. As I said earlier, humanity had been waiting for the promised redeemer since it had broken away from God at the Fall of Adam and Eve. And God had, though it wasn’t always understood until after the Incarnation, prepared for a redeemer and prophesied a redeemer throughout the preparation of the Chosen People for the millennia before Christ was born in Bethlehem. <br /> I know that this sense of anticipation and waiting is hard today, as many (myself included) put up Christmas decorations much earlier than today. Many stores started celebrating Christmas the day after Thanksgiving (or even after Halloween!). I have enjoyed listening to Christmas music since Thanksgiving. And in less than 4 hours, I’ll be celebrating the first of four Christmas Masses. Some of my fondest Christmas memories are going to my maternal grandparents on Christmas Eve and celebrating with them, before going to the evening Mass. <br /> But it helps us to remember that every generation had hoped that theirs would be the one where the Messiah came and revealed himself. Their eyes were attentive, their ears open to the possibility that God had come to save them, even if they weren’t always looking for salvation from sin, but from their foreign oppressors. That’s why, when St. John the Baptist appears, the Pharisees ask if he is the Christ, or at least Elijah, who would come before the Christ, or the Prophet that Moses prophesied in Exodus. They were waiting and watching. And today, to the best of our ability, so should we.<br /> Because tomorrow, December 25, we remember the day that changed everything. Not only the transition from BC to AD, but we came to be able to see our Savior, and know that God loved us so much that He took flesh to be able to be with us, walk with us, touch us, in a way He hadn’t before, not even in the Garden of Eden. Waiting is hard, but may we be attentive these last eleven or so hours so that we may fully celebrate the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit live and reign for ever and ever. Amen. <br /></p>Fr. Anthonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16097986252589061620noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3341492644403658958.post-88317933469437730482023-12-26T09:30:00.001-05:002023-12-26T09:30:58.758-05:00A Father Who Keeps His Promises<p><b>Fourth Sunday of Advent</b><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyHeIXHsikP-hdh7IgPnwDEeyDq5gJAV6j6IQjvBzU1hNEZm-2fI_bFlST6Zph-JF70xEiBj0s-TIHNowj6hr-VJkkkuTygXC9kYDOlnxTnD5Vmkjbz773YfFMizyWt7U0N-3dCofaW8KhFXIiJxDfJt-8jCjAVtBeBLLfK2ricuR6ATfRxEnnP6PSRrc/s176/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="176" data-original-width="160" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyHeIXHsikP-hdh7IgPnwDEeyDq5gJAV6j6IQjvBzU1hNEZm-2fI_bFlST6Zph-JF70xEiBj0s-TIHNowj6hr-VJkkkuTygXC9kYDOlnxTnD5Vmkjbz773YfFMizyWt7U0N-3dCofaW8KhFXIiJxDfJt-8jCjAVtBeBLLfK2ricuR6ATfRxEnnP6PSRrc/s1600/images.jpeg" width="160" /></a></div> I try to be a man of my word. If I say something, I consider myself, except for extreme circumstances, bound to do what I said I would. This has led me to become very particular with my word choice, and to say, when asked if I can do someone a favor, “Depends on what it is.” If I make a promise, I intend to keep it, as far as I am able.<br /> But we have probably all had an experience (hopefully not from me!) when a promise has been broken. I remember a local story from not too long ago about a contractor who took people’s money, but didn’t complete the work. Or the sad broken promise of a marriage that ends in divorce, a promise not only made to each other, but also made to the children for their best upbringing. <br /> How beautiful it is then, that we have a Father who keeps His promises. God always is true to His word. As St. Paul reminds us, when God says yes He means yes, and His no means no. We hear God promise to David today that He will establish a house for David, and raise up an heir whose kingdom will be firm and endure forever. David himself saw kingdoms fall and rise during his reign, and so this promise must have been quite encouraging! <br /> But that promise seemed like it was broken. David’s son, Solomon, was the only one who could claim a united kingdom. The kingdom of Israel and Judah split into two due to the harshness of Solomon’s son, and they never rejoined. Israel was eventually exiled because they worshipped false gods, so that only the southern kingdom of Judah was left. But even then, eventually the king was captured by the Babylonians who exiled all the royal family. After the Babylonian exile, the sons of David never ruled over a kingdom again, at least not an earthly kingdom. Even after the Jews returned to Judah and rebuilt the temple, there was never a king to rule over them, and they soon found themselves a vassal territory of Rome. King Herod, who ruled at the time of the Gospel we heard today, was not of David’s line, and he wasn’t even really a king in his own right. He ruled only because Rome let him, and to try to appease the Jews. For how many years must the people have thought that God had broken His promise to David!<br /> Enter the Archangel Gabriel. The Blessed Virgin Mary, like her betrothed, Joseph, was of David’s house. They were descendants of King David, though they had no political power. But Gabriel assures Mary that her son, conceived by the Holy Spirit, will receive “the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” God had not broken His promise. He simply fulfilled it in a way that others did not expect. And this unexpected way improved the apparent promise, as Christ’s kingdom would truly never end, because time could not limit the one who rules outside time, and the rule would not limit itself to only a particular piece of land, but upon all of humanity. It would be like asking a parent for money for ice cream, but then not getting it when you wanted it immediately, only to find out that the parent was the heir to the Dairy Queen, and you had been named as the new owner and CEO. It wasn’t what you expected, but it was better!<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVWTFajHLoVt7KjOK3bO0aTu5Vw5GrIba7qffbQyBXs3a8sqajRN2cGBa7oAL1NuLnoz453aPvlwQPEWmqxU1d6hryq6aL4t16o4N8ciF5LfmDjYcP5mkkGROI5SEwCmN_d-2223JnUUcRGMPxhm3Ma4noxnRMBAtHMgYD-ZQNFPXmY6amU3Srtxos1YI/s303/220px-Mother_Teresa_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="303" data-original-width="220" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVWTFajHLoVt7KjOK3bO0aTu5Vw5GrIba7qffbQyBXs3a8sqajRN2cGBa7oAL1NuLnoz453aPvlwQPEWmqxU1d6hryq6aL4t16o4N8ciF5LfmDjYcP5mkkGROI5SEwCmN_d-2223JnUUcRGMPxhm3Ma4noxnRMBAtHMgYD-ZQNFPXmY6amU3Srtxos1YI/s1600/220px-Mother_Teresa_1.jpg" width="220" /></a></div> We should keep that in mind when we think of God’s other promises: for example, God’s promise that He would never abandon us. God is always there for us. If He stopped being there for us, we would cease to exist; not just die, but disappear from existence, like George Bailey from “It’s A Wonderful Life” when Clarence the angel shows him what life would be like if he had never been born. That’s not to say that we will always feel that God is with us. St. Theresa of Calcutta rarely felt God’s presence. St. John of the Cross felt abandoned by God, but knew that God would never forsake him, even in the midst of his dark night. And what joy Sts. Theresa and John must have experienced when they, having remained faithful to God even in the face of difficulties and seeming abandonment, saw God face to face in heaven! <br /> When we are going through difficult times, it is not that God has abandoned us. God is simply allowing us to prove our love, not just for the good feelings that He so often sends, but for Him directly. Sometimes God is so close to us that we cannot even sense Him. Sometimes a struggle is meant to help us grow in a virtue or in general holiness, which will draw us even closer to God in the end. But God never walks away from us. He will never divorce us. We are the only ones who can walk away, and even then, God always remains for us, watching for our return like the father in the parable of the Prodigal Son, ready to run to us if we come to our senses. <br /> God is a Father who always keeps His Promises. Jesus Christ says yes when He means yes, but sometimes also says no when He means no. We may not always live to see how the promise is fulfilled. And the promise may be so beyond our expectations that we can’t imagine how the promise will be fulfilled. But God will fulfill it. Have faith; our Father only knows how to give us what is good, even better than we can dream. <br /><p></p>Fr. Anthonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16097986252589061620noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3341492644403658958.post-115690780113161192023-12-18T09:32:00.006-05:002023-12-18T09:32:42.569-05:00Being the Best Man<p><b>Third Sunday of Advent</b><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU5NxzihnwrdpVNpU_fhAmTipO-i852c9E2loR406R7TFB4WHNK0mgnsg6pO6guiP68B9XKJ9ndmOSVrhBhrYM8aA0FivpEvCSQKNtMU9rDdJVoyECdREN4Obk6R_TT5tOF3foAwJzfmY8DcpCisFAGnVA225ZAuQKXwW7BlLR5-SdNhXchDbVz4IU97Y/s1536/Photo%2020%20of%2024.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU5NxzihnwrdpVNpU_fhAmTipO-i852c9E2loR406R7TFB4WHNK0mgnsg6pO6guiP68B9XKJ9ndmOSVrhBhrYM8aA0FivpEvCSQKNtMU9rDdJVoyECdREN4Obk6R_TT5tOF3foAwJzfmY8DcpCisFAGnVA225ZAuQKXwW7BlLR5-SdNhXchDbVz4IU97Y/s320/Photo%2020%20of%2024.jpg" width="213" /></a></div> In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Today we are reintroduced to the person of St. John the Baptist. We often do with the Precursor what we tend to do with other saintly personalities that startle us: we try to domesticate them. We quickly skim over the more radical parts of their personalities and messages, and we go to the parts with which we are more comfortable and familiar. With John, we may soften his facial features, and have him gently pointing out the Lamb of God along the Jordan River. <br /> But a person who ate locusts and wild honey probably didn’t have the best complexion. And I can’t imagine camel-hair clothing being all that fashionable, even back them. John says that he fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah, to make straight the way for the Lord. But as he does so, he calls out the Pharisees and scribes, and calls them a brood of vipers. He prophesies to the religious leaders that any tree that does not bear fruit will be chopped down at its roots, and that God will burn the chaff, the useless bits of the harvest, “with unquenchable fire.” John was not a wilting lily, but, in his own way, an extremist, who wasn’t afraid to call out those who needed to repent.<br /> But a later passage from the Gospel according to John, from whose Gospel we heard today, has St. John the Baptist also saying, “‘The one who has the bride is the bridegroom; the best man, who stands and listens to him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made complete. He must increase; I must decrease.’” And since the liturgy wants us to rejoice on this Gaudete Sunday, this Sunday that our introit and epistle both center on rejoicing, it’s also important to meditate on the joy of hearing the voice of the bridegroom.<br /> When it comes to the image the Forerunner uses, that of a wedding party, we should make sure we have each character rightly understood. The Bridegroom is Christ. The bride is the Church. This image can be difficult for guys, as we don’t think of ourselves as brides. A bride is an altogether feminine image, and we men don’t readily attribute to ourselves femininity, which is proper to women. But, it’s the flip side of the coin that we are all united and participate in the Son of God through baptism, which is a more difficult image for women, who probably don’t think of themselves in the masculine reality of being a son. Still, as members of the Church, we are Christ’s bride, the one for whom He gives His life, His top priority and greatest love. <br /> Because of the Incarnation, the Divine Bridegroom has connected us to Himself. By His Passion He paid the price to free us from the dominion of sin and death, and liberate us into the free and elevating spousal union. And this is certainly a reason to rejoice. Of course, this Sunday we rejoice because we are more than halfway to the celebration to Christmas (in fact, this year, we only have 8 more days until Christmas). But we rejoice because we will soon rejoice even more in the celebration of the fulfillment of all the Old Testament prophecies where God promised to send us a redeemer. And living in this post-Incarnation time, we rejoice that we are the bride of Christ, united to Him through Holy Baptism so that we can reign with Him forever if we stay united to Him throughout our life.<br /> But, in another image that may be more difficult for women, we are also the best man. Yes, that term specifically refers to St. John the Baptist, but it can also refer to us, because we also are supposed to stand at attention for His return, and listen for His voice. And when we hear that voice, it causes joy because our role as best man is to help the groom prepare for his wedding feast where he takes a bride for himself. God calls us, as He called St. John the Baptist, to be ready and listen for how God reveals Himself, so that we can point Him out when we notice Him. <br /> This is part of how we live as those who evangelize. We should constantly keep our ears and eyes attuned to the working of God, not only in our own life and in the life of our family, but also in the lives of those whom we daily encounter. We should be ready to point out to people how we see God working in their lives. Do we have the courage to help others see how God works in their lives? Can we recognize how God works? <br /> In that way, we are all supposed to be like Precursor of the Lord. Whether it is helping others through turmoil and difficulty because of their lack of the Lord, or when we experience what many call a “God-moment” where we sense that God has just done something, part of our mission as disciples is to point out God working in other lives so that it leads to deeper faith. So often we can go through life just presuming that everything is a result of our actions and choices. It can be so easy to live like a deist, who believes that God exists but that He doesn’t really interact with our world, He just lets us do our own thing while He watches from afar. But we are not deists. We are Incarnationalists. We believe that God took flesh because He wanted to, ever more closely, interact with us and draw us to Himself. And while Christ our Incarnate Lord did ascend into the heavens, He promised not to leave us orphans, but to send the Holy Spirit to continue His work and to lead us into all truth. And that Holy Spirit is alive and powerful and can work great things through us, if we let Him. And when we see that work of the Holy Spirit, we can be like Buddy the Elf, who, upon learning that Santa is coming to the mall says, “I know him!” <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3hN55vKoF-kHcgcgqe06jT_J9HVd8VTgxt4vRwFaTo6twN1OTxVMWxEFdnVg_H4Eb3NzqziUBhkwD6mdOBhfzGIWTFCGlHDl99-oE6mqafI3hg7PXyQnzq9o_0KA50YeilwuFZX0APaDt8rIy0fXI4LRGYZ-fpxUWc24G8UNexgjjGA5pf11S0tYzyAI/s400/643bbb3971f21b6e90f354bdf1e77af3.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="266" data-original-width="400" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3hN55vKoF-kHcgcgqe06jT_J9HVd8VTgxt4vRwFaTo6twN1OTxVMWxEFdnVg_H4Eb3NzqziUBhkwD6mdOBhfzGIWTFCGlHDl99-oE6mqafI3hg7PXyQnzq9o_0KA50YeilwuFZX0APaDt8rIy0fXI4LRGYZ-fpxUWc24G8UNexgjjGA5pf11S0tYzyAI/s320/643bbb3971f21b6e90f354bdf1e77af3.png" width="320" /></a></div> We should not domesticate St. John the Baptist because it domesticates our vocation to point out the Lamb of God in our daily lives. And the domestication of that vocation means that we don’t bother to point out the Lamb because we are afraid, or we don’t think others want to know Him, or maybe even that we want to keep the Lamb to ourselves. But if we wish to rejoice, and if we wish others to rejoice, then we must stand attentive to the voice of the Bridegroom, prepare the way of the Lord, and point Him out when He comes: Jesus, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit is God for ever and ever. Amen. <br /><p></p>Fr. Anthonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16097986252589061620noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3341492644403658958.post-90672697710487830772023-12-04T09:18:00.007-05:002023-12-04T09:18:45.611-05:00Slowing Time Down<p><b>First Sunday of Advent</b><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhudwDVhtsmuhpQsNhfElDtvDvv4j2KE7B_GpkfaM-nEIUz7dTeIr1_j_7Q-eBGkebMSEHe_7fIDXbjBkEzawcARGll97tUmPR4AFxs92s6VXH9MLnwDlBXTvD1FHk5SCuMP-od_164mLbv1o2CynHLPszRgUn9i8JYkuiGubFYZ8q__qJtFOXtB7HyzCM/s220/image.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="220" data-original-width="200" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhudwDVhtsmuhpQsNhfElDtvDvv4j2KE7B_GpkfaM-nEIUz7dTeIr1_j_7Q-eBGkebMSEHe_7fIDXbjBkEzawcARGll97tUmPR4AFxs92s6VXH9MLnwDlBXTvD1FHk5SCuMP-od_164mLbv1o2CynHLPszRgUn9i8JYkuiGubFYZ8q__qJtFOXtB7HyzCM/s1600/image.png" width="200" /></a></div> [In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.] We tend to think of time as a constant. There are sixty seconds in a minute, sixty minutes in an hour, twenty-four hours in a day, seven days in a week, fifty-two weeks in a year. And to each of those measurements we have assigned a certain value that goes steadily on.<br /> But the speed of time seems to vary for each person depending on the circumstances. Sixty seconds is not a long time, and when you’re doing other things, it passes quickly. But if you’re doing a plank, sixty seconds can seem like an eternity. I did a physical test with the Michigan State Police a month or so ago, and I told the administrator that I struggled to plank beyond a minute. He told me to start the plank, but instead of looking at the clock, start talking to him and carrying on a conversation. Before I knew it, I had planked for two minutes.<br /> This time of year, as we prepare for Christmas, time seems to pass differently for children than for adults. For adults, there are presents to buy, the house to decorate, cookies to bake, parties to attend, in addition to the usual work schedule. Time flies by. But for children, as Christmas gets nearer and nearer, the days seem to slow down, rather painfully, and it seems like Christmas and the joy of unwrapping presents will never come. Even the hours of Christmas Eve, waiting for the time when parents allow the children to come downstairs and open up their gifts, seem interminably long.<br /> Perhaps the same could be said as we await the return of our Lord in glory. For some this time of waiting for our end or the end of time flies by. I have noted in my own life that the older I get, the faster time goes. And if we’re not living in such a way that we are ready for Christ’s return, then when it does come, either at the hour of our death or when Christ returns to judge all the living and the dead, it will probably seem like it snuck up on us. <br /> On the other hand, for those who are living in such a way as to welcome Christ back; for those who are doing all they can to live according to the commandment of Christ, it might seem like the second coming, the <i>parousia</i>, will never arrive. In our own times, each day it can often seem to get harder and harder to live as a devoted Catholic, as the secular order moves farther and farther away from holding up a way of life that Christ instructed us to live.<br /> During this time of Advent, we have a yearly reminder to prepare ourselves for the three comings, the three advents, of Christ: the celebration of the Nativity of the Lord, when we first learned that God had become man; the daily coming of Christ into our hearts and souls; and the coming in glory of Christ at the end of time. And how we choose to prepare will guide the way that we experience each passage of time. <br /> Christ encourages us to be like children, and during Advent this is especially true, as I mentioned that children often experience the preparation for Christmas to be excruciatingly long. Of course, we adults have to work, whether in or outside of the home. And that gives time a certain velocity. But when it comes for our preparations for the celebration of Christmas, do we long for that day with the same longing of children? Not for the presents, but for the joy of celebrating the Incarnation. Each time we say the Creed, the Church asks us to make a profound bow (in the Ordinary Form) or genuflect (in the Extraordinary Form and for everyone one on Christmas at at the Solemnity of the Annunciation) because of the great wonder of that day. During this Advent, we should daily remind ourselves of just how wonderful Christmas is and long for it because we long for the celebration of when we learned just how close God wanted to be to us. Perhaps every day we can genuflect or bow and say that short phrase from the Creed, “and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.” If we keep that great day of celebration at the front of our minds, we will long for it more, and the more we long for it, the more we will have time to prepare for it.<br /> When it comes to waiting for the second coming, our anticipation is guided by the daily coming of Christ into our life. Advent is similar to Lent. It is a time of repentance so that we can be prepared for the joy of Christmas, just as our Lenten repentance prepares us for Easter. Our Lord encourages us to watch and be ready in the Gospel today. We watch when we pay attention to what we think, what we say, and what we do. Do we seek to align our thoughts on Christ and His reign, or are they busied with other things of less importance? Do our words convey the grace that comes from Christ, or do we spread hate and division which come from the evil one? Can people tell, from my actions, that I follow Christ? Or do I practically live as an atheist, not acknowledging God and His reign in my heart, but living as if God is, at best, far off and unconcerned with my actions, or, at worst, dead? <br /> The more we long for the day of the Lord’s return, the slower it will seem to come. But the slower it seems to come, the more joy we will find when it finally does arrive. I think back to the week before my ordination to the priesthood. I had studied and been formed for eight years in seminary. I had discerned a call to the priesthood, and the Church had confirmed that call. But that least week in particular seemed like it was never going to end, that I would never come to the day of my ordination to the priesthood. But when it did come, there was a joy that words cannot adequately express. For those of you who are married, you probably experienced something similar the week leading up to your wedding (though I bet you’re glad you didn’t have to be engaged for eight years!). I know that, from the groom’s perspective, seeing his bride walk up the aisle as the wedding begins can be so overwhelming it brings even the gruffest men to tears. <br /> During this Advent, I hope time goes very slowly for you. No, I’m not hoping that your life is painful. But I hope that, because of our great longing for Christmas and the second coming of Christ, each day will seem long, because the goal of our waiting, whether for Christmas or the <i>parousia</i>, is not here yet. And when that happens, our joy at Christmas and at the <i>parousia</i> will almost certainly be a joy beyond all telling, because He has come to us to save us from sin and death, Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit is God, for ever and ever. Amen. <br /><p></p>Fr. Anthonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16097986252589061620noreply@blogger.com