Sunday, March 27th, Lent III

-The homily from March 20/Lent II is in the Library ->
-The Scriptures for Lent III are at USCCB.org ->
-I am preaching at the 4:00pm Saturday Mass and the 11:00am Sunday Mass

"We are not in Kansas anymore!"

This week's scriptures and the scrutiny we celebrate with the Elect for Baptism remind us that being saved is a new "place" out of which we live. The grace of salvation is a new orientation for our lives and a new arena or operation that IS our lives "in Christ Jesus."

Do we sense and interact with the grace in whch we now stand? Do we realize that our old self was crucified with Christ and that the life we now live is a life of faith hidden with Christ in God?

I hope so because if not we could be missing, not having access, to that all-important "grace", which is, partcipation in the life of God. The life of the Trinity is a new reality, new stuff, a new place out of which we can live with power and light.

By faith, let's open our eyes and see, or renew our sight, that where we are standing isn't in "kansas anymore"

Lent II Homily

The homily from the Second Sunday of Lent, March 20th, is in the library ->

March 20 - Lent II, the Transfiguration

Pain at the heart of glory!
-The homily from last Sunday is in the Library->
-The scriptures for this week are at USCCB.org->
-I am preaching at the Saturday 5:30 Mass and the Sunday 11:00am Mass

I am most encouraged and captured by Paul's words to Timothy from this week's second reading: "Beloved: Bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God." Enduring suffering for the sake of the gospel opens or gives the apostle access to the power of salvation, grace.

We see this similar truth taught in the Gospel of St. Matthew this Sunday. The transfiguration of Ch 17 is  a remedy to the scandal of the cross that has been revealed to the disciples at the end of Ch 16. Together with Paul's admonition to Timothy this says that bearing the suffering for the gospel (the cross) is necessary portion of bearing the glory of the Kingdom. in fact there is no glory of salvation and eternal life but through the "access code" of the cross/suffering.

My continuing reflection upon the Mass Lent leads me to see that the gift of the Eucharist similarly preceded, anticipated, and interpreted for the apostles the agony of the cross. The scandal of the cross is made meaningful and useful for all the disciples of Jesus unto today. The grace of the Eucharist is precisely the power to bear with or see through life's hardships from the position or reality of the joy and glory of Jesus' triumph over death and the gift of eternal life. 

Jesus Last Supper (eucharisitic) advice to his apostles and all of us: Don't be scandalize (torn away from God), do not misunderstand the agony of human hatred, sin, and death(the crucifixion). See through it as a door to real life, joy, and peace of the Kingdom.

Does this make sense to your faith journey in life?

Bible Studay Lecture

The third lecture in this LRSS bible study has been recorded and posted in the Estok Library. It is entitled "March 17, 2011 - Bible Study 3" ->
It is 42 minutes long.

Lent I Homily

The homily from Sunday, March 13th (Lent I) is in the library ->

March 13 - Lent I

-The Homily for March 6th is in the Library ->
-The scriptures for Sunday March 13th are at USCCB.org ->
-I am preaching at the 4:00pm Mass on Saturday and the 8:00am Mass on Sunday

Ally Ally in Free!

The scriptures on this first week of Lent 2011 hold up two "characters" for us to examine. One is "autonomous" and the Other is "free". In the first case I am speaking, of course, of the woman in the garden who uses her freedom to detach herself from God = autonomy. In the second case I am speaking of Jesus who execises his freedom to reject the self and embrace the hand of God.

This comparison between license and true freedom is something that affects every Christian life everyday. The temptation is to mis-read one's identity, one's purpose, and one's circumstance AND then to exercize the great gift of freedom by choosing God or self.

The witness of Eve reminds all of us of the innate tendency of our broken human condition (to defend and build up the false self at every moment in every circumstance). The witness and ministry of Jesus shows us and helps us to enter into the "Pattern of salvation". What I mean by the pattern of salvation is that we have to see that there is a system at work and then we must work the system.

The false self always reads every situation from the perspective of how threatened it is. It always presents us with a very reasonable motivation for "taking care of ourselves (even religious, but always emotional reasons)." That's the system that is built into us from sin. It's called death. In fact, even though it is death we think it's really "living". Our sharing in the liberation that Jesus has instituted into our human condition by His resurrection and the Holy Spirit is to buck the system.

By His grace we can, ever so slightly, begin to cause and see some light between our circumstances and our false self demanding autonomy. By His grace, we can 'starve' the false self through the logic of the cross(I have to die) and we can cling to God, abandoning the falsehood. We have to start small (like curbing the hunger for bread) and thereby allowing the distance between our hardened selfish hearts and everyday choices to widen. More and more kingdom can get in.

Only a heart, a true self, that is pacticed in true freedom, self-denial, can ultimately embrace God and His Kingdom." Before we judge 'ol Eve, we need to ask "are we free enough to conquer our own bellies? If not, how will we ever resist the cunning devil himself? That will be the test.

March 6th Homily

The homily from Sunday March 6th is in the Library->

March 6, 2011- 9th Sunday of The Year

Last week's homily is in the library ->
-The scriptures for this Sunday are at USCCB.org->
-I am preaching at the 12:30pm Mass on Sunday only

Shaky Ground

I don't know where you were in 1986 when the earthquake hit Cleveland, but I had the unhappy experience of being at my buddy's apartment near Lake Erie.  It was terrifying.  I know it was nothing like the Haiti or the New Zealand quakes of late -but it was my only experience.

Having the earth under you become unstable is frightening. We could say the same about our life of faith in the church.  Maybe some of you have had an earth-shaking experience within the church as well. That is terrifying too. When the church, the rock of our salvation, the barque of Peter, becomes for us unstable it is terrifying.

This Sundays scriptures encourage us to push through our perceptions of the world and our experience of the church and to rest our faith on the rock who is Jesus.  I didn't say separate from our life in the world or our practice in the church - push through it with faith in Jesus - who never waivers.

As the Lenten season begins, I would like to call us to be rooted in the love of God and centered in the Eucharist....our rock.  Let's make this the Year of the Mass.  As we prepare to implement the new Roman Missal, how could we renew our life resting upon the rock of the Eucharist?  It is our Catholic foundation.

February 27th Homily

The homily from Mass on February 27th is now in the Library ->

February 27th - Don't Forget!

-the Scriptures for this coming Sunday are at USCCB.org->
-I will be preaching at the Sat. 4pm and the Sun. 12:30pm Masses

Don't forget!

When I was in college I remember my Grandmother( who lived out of town) saying to me that she really would just like a phone call once in awhile to let me know that I remembered her. How could I forget her? How did I demonstrate that remembrance?

Today, God reminds us that He never forgets us....even if we forget Him and one another. What does it mean to be forgotten by someone that you love?

Today's Catholic Charities Appeal has the theme "I will never forget you" from our first reading and it is a reminder to all of us that we ought not forget the least among us - the needy.

The poor are just one of the people we need to work at remembering. Do we forget God? Even though the heart of the Eucharist is "remembering", we can even weekly celebrate Mass and still forget God. Too often our lives and even our worship can become about us, our problems, our needs, our hurts and resentments. That is to forget God.

The gospel says it another way..."seek first the kingdom of God" . We could say today, "remember God's Kingdom and call FIRST and everything else will fit together."

How do you know that someone is remembering you? How do we indicate to God, others, the poor that we have not forgotten them?

February 6 Homily

The homily from last Sunday's Mass is in the Library->

Special Note: I will not be preaching on the weekends of 2/13 or 2/20. Stay in the ring!

2/13

On this World Marriage Day we celebrate the gift of marriage in our community.  Our parish priests have prayerfully decided to use this occasion to speak about the gift of Holy Matrimony and to focus upon one of the greatest opponents of marriage in our culture: co-habitation.  Co-habitation is a prevalent "social arrangement or choice" that brings together all of the major vices that our world promotes: instability rather than fidelity, relativism rather than truth, radical independence rather than community, practical materialism rather than virtuous spirituality, absolute freedom of choice rather than obedience to the will of God, lack of discipline, and right to privacy rather than the sacredness of life every life. That's what encourages co-habitation.

Co-habitation is "sold" to our young people as "trial marriage".  As a matter of fact, we are often told that only a fool would get stuck in "a relationship" that they haven't tested.  This sounds so reasonable that often innocent couples can falsely believe that if they "like" living together or if it "works" they will be good at being married. An even more corrupt message is at the root of this and that is that our "sexual compatibility" is something that smart people test prior to marriage.  These fundamental tenents of co-habitation are bits of wisdom from the world and they are all mistaken,half-truths, and intentional deceptions (lies), The fact is that co-habitating couples who go on to legally marry get divorced at a rate of 87%!

The truth that we proclaim and believe is that matrimony is a sacred calling that is BEGUN by the GIVING OF SELF completely in the sacrament and the SEALING OF LOVE in the marriage bed.  One cannot practice or prepare for such a graced state in life by living the "lie of co-habitation."  Co-habitation is essentially a falsehood lived everyday in the body. It is a conscious choice NOT to make a permanent commitment, it is an open refusal to live the virtue of chastity, it is a sinful decision NOT to live in communion with Christ and the Church. THAT is what co-habition is. It is not a help to the engaged but a toxic choice for the married. The effect of this practice on marital success is obvious.

 As Catholics we ought not be persuaded by the salesmanship of our co-habitating culture.  "Living together"  or "co-habiting" is not a substitute for marriage, a help to or practice for marriage.  It is marriage's enemy. And we are not seeing it. Let's celebrate God's gift to humankind: commitment, communion, self-sacrifice, life,and love. Matrimony!

 



2/20
This week our local Catholic community is beginning in earnest the 2011 Catholic Charities appeal.  As the bulletin has noted over the past few weeks, the "in pew" portion of this annual appeal will take place on the weekend of February 27th (next week).  I don't think anyone really likes the "in pew" process that we have been using now for four years but it is a proven method for gaining the needed support for the important work of Catholic Charities. I am especially uncomfortable taking time out of the Mass to perform the rudimentary tasks of filling out pledge envelopes.  But we have to do it in obedience to our bishop trusting that it is worth it.  But why do the appeal at all?
 
This year's appeal is focusing upon the individual lives that are changed, not just helped, by the good works of Catholic Charities in our Diocese.  The Cleveland Catholic Charities operation is the largest such diocesan catholic charity in the world.  We assist over 600,000 individuals throughout our eight counties each year with head start, end-of-life and nursing care, youth and mentally disabled residential care and services, ministry to families, youth, job training, hunger centers and so much more.  Those are not just great numbers, they are individual lives being changed for the better.  This is God's work and we are sharing in it by our support of Catholic Charities. 
 
Thank you for what you did in last year's appeal.  We surpassed our goal and broke our record.  Thank you again for what you are able to do this year.  We at St. Albert do many good things for the poor; we serve meals downtown, offer medical care in Latin America, provide food and assistance to North Royalton families in need, visit the sick, bury the dead, console the bereaved, etc.  We also contribute to national and international collections throughout the year, especially the annual missionary appeal (remember Fr. Don's African Orphans?).  But there is even greater work to be done in our own local community that we cannot do on our own. The Bishop of Cleveland and the good services of Catholic Charities can do it on our behalf - if they have our support.

Ooops! Mass Time Mistake

I am having the 5:30 Mass this evening. sorry for the inconvenience.

February 6, 2011 - Fifth Sunday of Year

-The homily from January 30 is in the library->
-The Scriptures for this Sunday are at USCCB.org ->
-I am preaching this week at 4:00(Sat), 9:30, and 11:00am(Sun)

Light is seen, not heard!

I am reading Matt Kelly's "Rediscovering Catholicism" and at one place he tells the story of Abraham Lincoln in which a man tells the President that he "is willing to die for our cause". The President said in reply, " I have 25,000 troops willing to die for the cause, I need one who will live for the cause."

To live one's life for "the cause". That is what I hear in Jesus' invitation to let our light shine before others. Too often faith is seen as something personal or private between God and the believer. Even an overly religious life, if you will, can be seen as one lived within religion ( kind of inner circle type of faith).

What we need to hear in this call to be light is that light of Christmas...the Word made his dwelling among us, a light in the darkness, that the darkness could not overcome.". The light of faith is not intended to light up our hearts only. The light of faith is not like a fire at the center of the church to keep us all warm and together. The light is intended for the darkness - out there! Faith LOOKS like something.

Where are the dark spots in your world? Personally, in work, in family, in church? Can your faith and communion with Jesus Christ shine out through your love, in the way you live for the kingdom, in those places so that others will know that there is an alternative to the
darkness...it is light ithe Lord.

Two Homilies

I guess the Januar 23rd homily never made it to the library. Now IT and the January 30th homily are available. Thanks for listening.

January 30, 2011 - Fourth of the Year

-Last Sunday's homily is in the library->
-This Sunday's scriptures are at USCCB.org->
-I am preaching at the 9:30am Mass on Sunday

State of the (comm)Union

St. Paul reminds us that we are "in Christ". In fact, throughout the corpus of Pauline scriptures he uses that expression 166 times. How is that working out for you? That's my question.

In a talk on the Eucharist (available in the library 'January 18, 2011') I was discussing the Communion procession as one of the four processions of the Mass(entrance, Gospel, Offertory, Communion). I asked the folks if they knew they were in a procession at Communion time and if so how did it feel, how was it made a procession for them. I suggested that for most they are thinking that they are "just in the communion line". Just waiting in line to get Communion rather than "a procession of the faithful in Communion moving together as one body, in song, in unison, in love, in one direction, with one purpose within the Communion Rite". In Christ.

Is Christ in You through your sharing in the Sacrament, Holy Communion? Are you in Christ as a sharer in the Sacrament of the Church, the Body of Christ? This is what makes us Catholic - not simply that we RECEIVE Communion but that we ARE Communion in Christ. I am afraid this lack of understanding and appreciation of it is why so many of us don't feel our salvation. Could our experience of God be transformed by the conversion of our minds and hearts to the fuller understanding of what is Real? I think so.

Third Sunday of the Year - January 23, 2011

-The homily for last Sunday is in the library
-The scriptures for this Sunday are at USCCB.org
-I am preaching at the 4pm on Saturday and the 11:00 and 12:30 on Sunday

Why are you so sad?
This past week I had my annual physical, actually I skipped last year so it wasn't exactly annual. Physicals are funny things because you go see a doctor when you are not feeling sick. You have no symptoms (that you're aware of) and the doctor looks for them. And you know, in this day and at my age, they can usually find something to give you a pill for. Thank goodness

Symptomology is a great thing: by careful observation and study we have become familiar with the signs that one is sick. Depending upon the symptoms of one's discomfort, we can diagnose the illness within. The external manifestations or symptoms, reveal the hidden innner reality.

The symptom of our salvation is joy and peace. Too many ostensibly religious people manifest neither symptom. There is so much sadness in the Body of Christ. Why are you sad, down, flat, depressed, disappointed, given up? The absence of the symptoms of peace and joy seem to call into question whether or not one is truly saved.

Have you had a check up lately. Ask your best friend, your spouse, your kids, or co-workers...am I redeemed by Jesus Christ and enjoying everlasting salvation? I'll bet they will tell you how sad or how joyful you are.

Third Thursday Theololgy

This month's offering of the Third Thursday Theology is in the Estok Homily Library (->). The topic was Divine Revelation and the US Catechism Chps 1-3. It is a 66min recording. It is titled "January202011-ThirdThursTheology-Catechism1-3"

"Understanding the Mass" Lecture January 18, 2011

The Theology and Spirituality of the Catholic Mass is presented in a 90-minute lecture by Fr. Estok of St. Albert the Great parish. This talk is in the library ->

Homily Uploaded

The homily from Sunday, January 16th, is in the library->

January 16 - Second Sunday of the Year

-the homily from the baptism of the Lord is in the library ->
-the Scriptures for this Sunday are at USCCB.org ->
-I am presiding at the 5:30 Mass on Sat and the 8am Mass on Sunday.

The Apostle

There was a movie out a few years ago about an evangelical preacher who struggled with many personal and family demons called The Apostle. If that movie is an indication of what our society thinks an apostle is then its no wonder faith and participation in the church are dwindling.

This last week I had the privilege to offer a retreat for six young men about to be ordained priests. We spent a great deal of time reflecting upon things "apostolic". While the first definition of the word is "one sent", the deeper meaning is "the one who bears the presence of another" - maybe ambassador. The apostle or ambassador must be emptied of his own "baggage", his own credentials, if you will, and transparently make present or bear that of the one who sends him.

That is St. Paul. That is Israel in our first reading. That is the priesthood of the Church. That is your life baptized in Christ Jesus: to set aside yourself and make room for the one you bear to the world.

Does your Christian character bear the image of Christ crucified and risen? Do they see no longer you but him whom you bear? The world needs to see him in us. God's purpose for our lives is to bear His light and life to a darkened world dying from sinful self-aggrandizement.
Apostolic!