-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinCLetter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend on Saturday at 4:00pm, and 8:00am (12:15 at Cathedral) and 6:00pm on Sunday
Those Pharisees!
So often the widow's mite gospel text that we have this weekend is the opportunity to talk about the sacrificial nature of our lives. We church people especially like to reflect on tithing or financial support of the church. I don't know if I would do that though.
Back in the 1980s a scripture scholar put this story of the widow's mite into the context of the previous episodes in Marks Gospel when Jesus was being critical of the Pharisees. From that perspective the widow's mite is not recommended practice for Christians but rather a critique of the Pharisees who are willing to put heavy burdens on other people's backs without lifting a finger to help them.
You recall Jesus is criticism of the "marketplace mentality" of the temple life. He was upset with the "quid pro quo" of buying and selling in the relationship with God. Why would we have a situation in which everyone "must" make an offering at the temple into the treasury if they don't have anything to live on? I'm wondering how are we carrying out this "marketplace mentality" in our practice of catholicism.
I'm thinking particularly of the difficult responsibility of Christian parenting where in some cases parents put the obligation and expectation, for example, upon their children of receiving first holy Communion and Confirmation while not living a life in communion with the church or under the influence of the Holy Spirit in their very homes. Children often feel the burden of having to be a better catholic then their parents are willing to be.
In what ways do we fall under this criticism by Jesus of pharisaicalism? It is the "hyper legalistic self-centered marketplace"approach to life with God in religion?
Saturday, November 7, 2015
Friday, October 16, 2015
October 18 Homily Prep
Last Sunday's homily is available by email request
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinCLetter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00pm, 9:30am and 12:30pm on Sunday
There is something I want God to do for me!
The approach of the disciples to Jesus in this Sunday's Gospel does, oddly, sound like a lot of my prayers and maybe yours. In fact, I'm afraid for many people this petition or request or intercession is the only way that God is addressed.
I know that this doesn't sound that strange to a lot of parents. In fact I often hear folks say, "the only time that kid calls me is when he needs something." This "need-fulfillment" basis for a relationship is one that raises some serious questions about our prayer life.
I recently was asked by someone, "how do I know that God is talking to me?" After making sure the person wasn't hearing voices, I clarified the question and realized that what was really being asked is "how do I listen to God?" That is a refreshing approach to prayer - listening to God.
In last week's homily I was speaking about our attachment to the survival mode of living that makes it difficult to choose real life. Someone asked me during the week "how do I get out of the rat race and start living life?" My answer is this homily today. Being free from the survival mode of existence begins with our re-imagining who God is. And our prayer habits are the quickest way to understand who God is for us.
Like the disciples, the way we address God reveals what we think of God. I'm wondering if you would be able to create a "profile" of your God based upon your habit of praying. You say, "I don't pray at all outside of Mass"? That is certainly an understanding of God that says you don't need God in your life.
So, what is your habit of praying? What does that tell you about who God is in your world? Let's look at the prayer that Jesus taught us. What does that prayer tell us about who God was for Jesus? Could our God start to look more like Jesus' God? I bet we're all going to have to change the way we pray.
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinCLetter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00pm, 9:30am and 12:30pm on Sunday
There is something I want God to do for me!
The approach of the disciples to Jesus in this Sunday's Gospel does, oddly, sound like a lot of my prayers and maybe yours. In fact, I'm afraid for many people this petition or request or intercession is the only way that God is addressed.
I know that this doesn't sound that strange to a lot of parents. In fact I often hear folks say, "the only time that kid calls me is when he needs something." This "need-fulfillment" basis for a relationship is one that raises some serious questions about our prayer life.
I recently was asked by someone, "how do I know that God is talking to me?" After making sure the person wasn't hearing voices, I clarified the question and realized that what was really being asked is "how do I listen to God?" That is a refreshing approach to prayer - listening to God.
In last week's homily I was speaking about our attachment to the survival mode of living that makes it difficult to choose real life. Someone asked me during the week "how do I get out of the rat race and start living life?" My answer is this homily today. Being free from the survival mode of existence begins with our re-imagining who God is. And our prayer habits are the quickest way to understand who God is for us.
Like the disciples, the way we address God reveals what we think of God. I'm wondering if you would be able to create a "profile" of your God based upon your habit of praying. You say, "I don't pray at all outside of Mass"? That is certainly an understanding of God that says you don't need God in your life.
So, what is your habit of praying? What does that tell you about who God is in your world? Let's look at the prayer that Jesus taught us. What does that prayer tell us about who God was for Jesus? Could our God start to look more like Jesus' God? I bet we're all going to have to change the way we pray.
Saturday, October 10, 2015
October 11 Homily Prep
Last Sunday's homily is available by email request
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 11:00am and 6:00pm on Sunday
Freedom for Life
The young man in the gospel is not free to accept the gift of eternal life. To what is your heart attached so much so that you would choose it over the offer of real life?
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 11:00am and 6:00pm on Sunday
Freedom for Life
The young man in the gospel is not free to accept the gift of eternal life. To what is your heart attached so much so that you would choose it over the offer of real life?
Saturday, October 3, 2015
October 4 Homily Prep
Last Sunday's homily is available by email request
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30pm, 8:00am and 11:00am
A vocation to life
Pope Francis addressed the bishops of the world gathered in Philadelphia for the World Meeting on Families and he spoke to them about their vocations as pastors (www.http://abc7.com/religion/pope-francis-remarks-to-bishops-in-philadelphia/1004471/). He said, "You must first pray. Secondly, you must preach." The pope continued by instructing the bishops as to what their prayerful preaching ought to be to the young: become holy through family love and life - marriage!
The understanding of marriage/family as God's call and path to holiness was then explained as the vocation of the young, a vocation to life and love. From the beginning God has revealed this human vocation, "cling to your spouse and build a family home with your children". This vocation to life and love is the only path to true happiness in this world and unto eternity.
The pope explained to the bishops that young people today are afraid of marriage and the self-sacrifice of family life. Many young people are convinced (and intimidated) by the spirit of the world that tells them that "happiness" (not marriage and family) is the human vocation.
This self-centered spirit of the world says that one must first be satisfied as an individual, be fulfilled first as an individual, be competent as a grown up, get your life in order SO THAT you can be happy. Is it any wonder that sociologists tell us the adolescence now extends into the 40's - everyone is being encouraged to put off adulthood (our human vocation to "leave your mother and father and cling to your wife), to focus on self-fulfillment and thus prevents one from our only real path to happiness = our vocation to life and love - family
Only such happy people according to the vocation of the world should look for a spouse. The number one "job" of that spouse is to keep this very self-centered human creature "happy" according to the vocation of the world . And those of you who are married know better than I that marriage cannot keep a self-seeking adult creature happy.
The whirly vocation to happiness then tells young people that after being happily married for awhile, getting to know each other, maybe travel, advance in your career, get a suitable house THEN possibly think about "having kids".
This approach to our human vocation is a strategy for emptiness. The biblical vocation of marriage and family life is the only authentic road to happiness in this world and the next. The world is working hard to separate happiness from family life. All of our social problems begin in this delusion. Can we resurrect the God centered vocation to life and love, the natural law, the image of God in the human family and culture?
Let's see
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30pm, 8:00am and 11:00am
A vocation to life
Pope Francis addressed the bishops of the world gathered in Philadelphia for the World Meeting on Families and he spoke to them about their vocations as pastors (www.http://abc7.com/religion/pope-francis-remarks-to-bishops-in-philadelphia/1004471/). He said, "You must first pray. Secondly, you must preach." The pope continued by instructing the bishops as to what their prayerful preaching ought to be to the young: become holy through family love and life - marriage!
The understanding of marriage/family as God's call and path to holiness was then explained as the vocation of the young, a vocation to life and love. From the beginning God has revealed this human vocation, "cling to your spouse and build a family home with your children". This vocation to life and love is the only path to true happiness in this world and unto eternity.
The pope explained to the bishops that young people today are afraid of marriage and the self-sacrifice of family life. Many young people are convinced (and intimidated) by the spirit of the world that tells them that "happiness" (not marriage and family) is the human vocation.
This self-centered spirit of the world says that one must first be satisfied as an individual, be fulfilled first as an individual, be competent as a grown up, get your life in order SO THAT you can be happy. Is it any wonder that sociologists tell us the adolescence now extends into the 40's - everyone is being encouraged to put off adulthood (our human vocation to "leave your mother and father and cling to your wife), to focus on self-fulfillment and thus prevents one from our only real path to happiness = our vocation to life and love - family
Only such happy people according to the vocation of the world should look for a spouse. The number one "job" of that spouse is to keep this very self-centered human creature "happy" according to the vocation of the world . And those of you who are married know better than I that marriage cannot keep a self-seeking adult creature happy.
The whirly vocation to happiness then tells young people that after being happily married for awhile, getting to know each other, maybe travel, advance in your career, get a suitable house THEN possibly think about "having kids".
This approach to our human vocation is a strategy for emptiness. The biblical vocation of marriage and family life is the only authentic road to happiness in this world and the next. The world is working hard to separate happiness from family life. All of our social problems begin in this delusion. Can we resurrect the God centered vocation to life and love, the natural law, the image of God in the human family and culture?
Let's see
Saturday, September 26, 2015
September 27 Homily Prep
Last Sunday's homily is available by email request
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00pm, 8:00am and 12:30pm
With Us!
Jesus' teaching in the Gospel today declaring that "those who are not against us are with us" seem to touch upon the gift of the presence of Pope Francis in the United States and the world family gathering in Philadelphia this weekend. The connection seems to be "with us". It all centers upon God's invitation for us to be one, together, communion.
The most startling example of this call to communion was the celebration on Friday at the 9/11 memorial with Pope Francis and the representatives of the world religions. In addition to it being an absolutely beautiful prayer service it was an even more beautiful image of God's children gathered around the call to love and compassion in the face of the world's aberration of religious violence and division.
The disciples of Jesus like Joshua in the first reading are approaching life in the church as a privileged position to which not everyone is invited. John's assessment of those who were casting out demons in the name of Jesus but "they do not follow us" exposes the role that judgment, competition, and self-promoting desires and perceptions play in our understanding of communion.
This judgment of John in the Gospel text today is something that we experience often in our families, in our church, and in our society. In fact, the differences or the lack of conformity is for some of us the first thing that we notice when relating to others. The difference in the way they dress, they pray, they live.
When this type of "looking for the difference" strikes our marriages and our families it is particularly destructive. When members of the family begin to judge others as "unlike" ourselves the destruction of the relationships is not far behind.
We see this "looking for the difference" most vividly and regularly in our political lives. This notion of "polarization" is the philosophical and political expression of this "looking for the difference" affliction.
What Jesus and, like him, Pope Francis seem to be calling us to is the other end of the telescope, to stop noticing the difference or the imperfection and to capitalize upon the unity, the same in us, the common good. This will require for most of us a change in approach since this "looking for the difference" is a habit of the mind and heart that comes from our broken human condition. The grace of communion is the ability to find and capitalize upon what makes us one, One creation, one human family, one married couple, one family, one community. This common calling is nothing other than the imprint of God our Creator and father of all.
May we crucify our "fear of the difference" and be raised up and transformed into this community of God. It would be noticed in our simple and regular affirmation of the goodness of others before we notice the imperfections in them and the differences among us. As Jesus prayed in John's Gospel that "all may be one".
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00pm, 8:00am and 12:30pm
With Us!
Jesus' teaching in the Gospel today declaring that "those who are not against us are with us" seem to touch upon the gift of the presence of Pope Francis in the United States and the world family gathering in Philadelphia this weekend. The connection seems to be "with us". It all centers upon God's invitation for us to be one, together, communion.
The most startling example of this call to communion was the celebration on Friday at the 9/11 memorial with Pope Francis and the representatives of the world religions. In addition to it being an absolutely beautiful prayer service it was an even more beautiful image of God's children gathered around the call to love and compassion in the face of the world's aberration of religious violence and division.
The disciples of Jesus like Joshua in the first reading are approaching life in the church as a privileged position to which not everyone is invited. John's assessment of those who were casting out demons in the name of Jesus but "they do not follow us" exposes the role that judgment, competition, and self-promoting desires and perceptions play in our understanding of communion.
This judgment of John in the Gospel text today is something that we experience often in our families, in our church, and in our society. In fact, the differences or the lack of conformity is for some of us the first thing that we notice when relating to others. The difference in the way they dress, they pray, they live.
When this type of "looking for the difference" strikes our marriages and our families it is particularly destructive. When members of the family begin to judge others as "unlike" ourselves the destruction of the relationships is not far behind.
We see this "looking for the difference" most vividly and regularly in our political lives. This notion of "polarization" is the philosophical and political expression of this "looking for the difference" affliction.
What Jesus and, like him, Pope Francis seem to be calling us to is the other end of the telescope, to stop noticing the difference or the imperfection and to capitalize upon the unity, the same in us, the common good. This will require for most of us a change in approach since this "looking for the difference" is a habit of the mind and heart that comes from our broken human condition. The grace of communion is the ability to find and capitalize upon what makes us one, One creation, one human family, one married couple, one family, one community. This common calling is nothing other than the imprint of God our Creator and father of all.
May we crucify our "fear of the difference" and be raised up and transformed into this community of God. It would be noticed in our simple and regular affirmation of the goodness of others before we notice the imperfections in them and the differences among us. As Jesus prayed in John's Gospel that "all may be one".
Saturday, September 19, 2015
September 20 Homily Prep
-Last Sunday's homily is available by email request
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 9:30am and 6:00pm on Sunday
Receive
In the gospel this Sunday Jesus teaches us about faith. He says, "become like a little child". In child-like faith we are called to receive everything from our Father - including most importantly, our Father. For too many it seems, believing or faith has failed to receive our Father, the communion of the Blessed Trinity. So that many very adult-like Christians do not have God dwelling within them.
Such adult-like faith would therefore be experienced as intellectual assent to the truth about Jesus and eternal life but not welcoming the presence of God in adult life. So a Catholic could spent their entire adult life believing in God and not receiving God's kingdom into one's heart and life. This adult-like faith that does not receive God into the heart of life would be noticeable when daily life is perceived as painful and failing. In moments of suffering the intellect is often blinded - we can't think things through - and thus God is absent from our experience. We most often described this "I feel like God has abandoned me, he's forgotten me, he fails to hear my prayers".
Child-like faith has received God into life and in fact has received life from God. Believing that God will never let go of my hand, I experience God's secure presence in all of life's moments. Like a child, as long as mom or dad is with me I am not afraid.
Of course this is why Jesus continually challenged the adult faith of his disciples by asking, why were you so fearful? Why do you have such little faith? Did I not tell you that I am with you always?
Receive him and believe. Emmanuel.
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 9:30am and 6:00pm on Sunday
Receive
In the gospel this Sunday Jesus teaches us about faith. He says, "become like a little child". In child-like faith we are called to receive everything from our Father - including most importantly, our Father. For too many it seems, believing or faith has failed to receive our Father, the communion of the Blessed Trinity. So that many very adult-like Christians do not have God dwelling within them.
Such adult-like faith would therefore be experienced as intellectual assent to the truth about Jesus and eternal life but not welcoming the presence of God in adult life. So a Catholic could spent their entire adult life believing in God and not receiving God's kingdom into one's heart and life. This adult-like faith that does not receive God into the heart of life would be noticeable when daily life is perceived as painful and failing. In moments of suffering the intellect is often blinded - we can't think things through - and thus God is absent from our experience. We most often described this "I feel like God has abandoned me, he's forgotten me, he fails to hear my prayers".
Child-like faith has received God into life and in fact has received life from God. Believing that God will never let go of my hand, I experience God's secure presence in all of life's moments. Like a child, as long as mom or dad is with me I am not afraid.
Of course this is why Jesus continually challenged the adult faith of his disciples by asking, why were you so fearful? Why do you have such little faith? Did I not tell you that I am with you always?
Receive him and believe. Emmanuel.
Thursday, September 3, 2015
September 6 Homily Prep
-Last Sunday's homily is available by email request
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 8:00am on Sunday
Are we interested in the powerful and real God that Jesus offers us? Or, only in the miraculous and powerful works Jesus does for us?
I will confess, even as a very young child, to being very interested in and attacted to the TV evangelist Ernest Angely, or for that matter Benny Hine, and even Oral Roberts. What attracted me most were the miraculous healing services. I loved it. I'm not sure I believed any of it - but I loved watching these miracle services. I was certainly interested in their typical by-line "Gaaaawd has a miracooool for YOUUUUU!"
Ernest Angely was the best, though, as he withdrew his hand from the afflicted spot on each person's body he'd say "in the name of JEEEEEzus"...I loved it.
People flock in the thousands to such miraculous healers - as to Jesus in the gospel text today. What we have discovered however and we will hear explicitly from Jesus in next Sunday's gospel - Jesus did not come to miraculously heal the sick and raise the dead. Jesus came, rather, to reveal and extend the perpetually present and life-saving love of God. Jesus came to heal and cure the affliction called "death" so that earthly dying would no longer command us - but instead eternal life might begin in us today.
Wow. Jesuit Father John Foley writes
"Jesus moves toward the events that will show God’s solidarity with us in our suffering, our rejections, and in that famous event which each and every one of us will face sooner or later: dying. Beyond cures, which are wonderful yet partial, God gives us companionship within each instant of our life.
This Sunday at Mass, let us ask ourselves whether the intimate presence of God is part of what we desire in our own lives. Do we know that Christ is deeply involved with us? Do we let his love flow into us and through us to others, or must it fight its way around us?"
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 8:00am on Sunday
Are we interested in the powerful and real God that Jesus offers us? Or, only in the miraculous and powerful works Jesus does for us?
I will confess, even as a very young child, to being very interested in and attacted to the TV evangelist Ernest Angely, or for that matter Benny Hine, and even Oral Roberts. What attracted me most were the miraculous healing services. I loved it. I'm not sure I believed any of it - but I loved watching these miracle services. I was certainly interested in their typical by-line "Gaaaawd has a miracooool for YOUUUUU!"
Ernest Angely was the best, though, as he withdrew his hand from the afflicted spot on each person's body he'd say "in the name of JEEEEEzus"...I loved it.
People flock in the thousands to such miraculous healers - as to Jesus in the gospel text today. What we have discovered however and we will hear explicitly from Jesus in next Sunday's gospel - Jesus did not come to miraculously heal the sick and raise the dead. Jesus came, rather, to reveal and extend the perpetually present and life-saving love of God. Jesus came to heal and cure the affliction called "death" so that earthly dying would no longer command us - but instead eternal life might begin in us today.
Wow. Jesuit Father John Foley writes
"Jesus moves toward the events that will show God’s solidarity with us in our suffering, our rejections, and in that famous event which each and every one of us will face sooner or later: dying. Beyond cures, which are wonderful yet partial, God gives us companionship within each instant of our life.
This Sunday at Mass, let us ask ourselves whether the intimate presence of God is part of what we desire in our own lives. Do we know that Christ is deeply involved with us? Do we let his love flow into us and through us to others, or must it fight its way around us?"
Friday, August 28, 2015
August 30 Homily Prep
Last Sunday's homily is available
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00pm on Saturday, 9:30 AM and 6:00PM on Sunday
Etiquette
A fraternity brother of mine (who's wedding I celebrated 28 years ago) has a daughter who is about to be married this fall. She of course is insisting upon a beach wedding, in Florida, where none of her family or friends reside and all the guests have been informed that the proper dress for this event is "resort evening attire". In a conversation with her father, I discovered that he is breaking the dress code and is going to wear a suit. He said to me "Eddie, I am not walking my daughter down the aisle( which of course made us both laugh at the mention of "an aisle") in a pair of khaki pants and a Tommy Bahama shirt". What a curmudgeon, eh?
Etiquette - the collection of external behaviors that we believe to be socially appropriate and polite. Etiquette-a thing of the past. As my beach wedding story reminds us, there is not much etiquette required of us in our self-referential society. The code of conduct is really just whatever "I am comfortable with". The notion that you would hold the door for a woman, take your hat off inside the house, stand when you are introduced to an elder, don't put your elbows on the table, don't talk with your mouth full, or wear a proper suit of clothes for your daughter's wedding - are all things of "social dinosaurs".
We get the word "etiquette" from the French and it literally means ticket or label. We get its connection to our social behavior from the application of a label on the outside of the box or package that reveals the contents. By definition then the proper etiquette is the external indicators that one is a properly trained member of society.
The loss of etiquette and its demands upon our social behavior is a sign of our relativism and self esteem society which has forgotten about our membership in a group or our accountability to the standards of anyone other than our liberated, self-satisfied, individual, quirky egos.
The reason we have lost this sense of social etiquette is at the heart of the sayings of Jesus today in Marks Gospel. Pharisees (a class of Rabbi in Judaism at the time of Jesus) are accused by Jesus as observing the externals of the law but having no internal devotion to the law which is of course love God with your whole heart and your neighbor as yourself.
The term Pharisee has become synonymous with what we would call Phonies - those people who know how to behave in social settings and present themselves in appropriate ways in public but have no quality of character on the inside.
This concern about etiquette, phonies and Pharisaism is recognized in our current day in the separation of the notions of religion and spirituality. The pharisaical practice of religion by many people (observing many things of church etiquette) without proper personal faith in their hearts has caused people to distrust the etiquette religion if you will and search exclusively for spirituality.
So we end up with the nondenominational church that gathers in a downtown Cleveland comedy club on Sunday mornings and advertises themselves as the place where you can wear your sweats, bring your coffee, and be able to tell your mother that you "went to church". No ritual, no ordained ministry, no celebration of the Eucharist, no rules, no laws, no sacred space, - but you went to church and nurtured your spirituality.
We have to avoid the pitfall of the pharisees in the sense that we externally manifest religious appropriateness while having no real love of God or neighbor in our hearts. The challenge, however, is to avoid the other extreme: having no external or social expressions of the sincere love of God and neighbor in our hearts. What they call today, spiritual but not religious.
What the Lord is calling us to is an authentic and deep faith in our hearts that clings to the hand of God and is intimate with God in the depths of one's person ( what we might call around here a deepening communion with God who is love) and a beautiful, kind, self-sacrificing human and social expression of that faith within and among the life of the church. What we call a widening of the communion of the faithful in the church.
For example knowing ourselves to be a communion of the faithful related to one another in faith, hope and love in the Church would be properly manifest in the liturgical etiquette of standing and singing until all the members have received holy Communion. So the external, religious, behavior matches the internal and intimate reality of our relationship to God in the church.
Have we lost something? Maybe we are dinosaurs!
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00pm on Saturday, 9:30 AM and 6:00PM on Sunday
Etiquette
A fraternity brother of mine (who's wedding I celebrated 28 years ago) has a daughter who is about to be married this fall. She of course is insisting upon a beach wedding, in Florida, where none of her family or friends reside and all the guests have been informed that the proper dress for this event is "resort evening attire". In a conversation with her father, I discovered that he is breaking the dress code and is going to wear a suit. He said to me "Eddie, I am not walking my daughter down the aisle( which of course made us both laugh at the mention of "an aisle") in a pair of khaki pants and a Tommy Bahama shirt". What a curmudgeon, eh?
Etiquette - the collection of external behaviors that we believe to be socially appropriate and polite. Etiquette-a thing of the past. As my beach wedding story reminds us, there is not much etiquette required of us in our self-referential society. The code of conduct is really just whatever "I am comfortable with". The notion that you would hold the door for a woman, take your hat off inside the house, stand when you are introduced to an elder, don't put your elbows on the table, don't talk with your mouth full, or wear a proper suit of clothes for your daughter's wedding - are all things of "social dinosaurs".
We get the word "etiquette" from the French and it literally means ticket or label. We get its connection to our social behavior from the application of a label on the outside of the box or package that reveals the contents. By definition then the proper etiquette is the external indicators that one is a properly trained member of society.
The loss of etiquette and its demands upon our social behavior is a sign of our relativism and self esteem society which has forgotten about our membership in a group or our accountability to the standards of anyone other than our liberated, self-satisfied, individual, quirky egos.
The reason we have lost this sense of social etiquette is at the heart of the sayings of Jesus today in Marks Gospel. Pharisees (a class of Rabbi in Judaism at the time of Jesus) are accused by Jesus as observing the externals of the law but having no internal devotion to the law which is of course love God with your whole heart and your neighbor as yourself.
The term Pharisee has become synonymous with what we would call Phonies - those people who know how to behave in social settings and present themselves in appropriate ways in public but have no quality of character on the inside.
This concern about etiquette, phonies and Pharisaism is recognized in our current day in the separation of the notions of religion and spirituality. The pharisaical practice of religion by many people (observing many things of church etiquette) without proper personal faith in their hearts has caused people to distrust the etiquette religion if you will and search exclusively for spirituality.
So we end up with the nondenominational church that gathers in a downtown Cleveland comedy club on Sunday mornings and advertises themselves as the place where you can wear your sweats, bring your coffee, and be able to tell your mother that you "went to church". No ritual, no ordained ministry, no celebration of the Eucharist, no rules, no laws, no sacred space, - but you went to church and nurtured your spirituality.
We have to avoid the pitfall of the pharisees in the sense that we externally manifest religious appropriateness while having no real love of God or neighbor in our hearts. The challenge, however, is to avoid the other extreme: having no external or social expressions of the sincere love of God and neighbor in our hearts. What they call today, spiritual but not religious.
What the Lord is calling us to is an authentic and deep faith in our hearts that clings to the hand of God and is intimate with God in the depths of one's person ( what we might call around here a deepening communion with God who is love) and a beautiful, kind, self-sacrificing human and social expression of that faith within and among the life of the church. What we call a widening of the communion of the faithful in the church.
For example knowing ourselves to be a communion of the faithful related to one another in faith, hope and love in the Church would be properly manifest in the liturgical etiquette of standing and singing until all the members have received holy Communion. So the external, religious, behavior matches the internal and intimate reality of our relationship to God in the church.
Have we lost something? Maybe we are dinosaurs!
Saturday, August 22, 2015
August 22 Homily Prep
Last Sunday's homily is available
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 8:00 AM and 11:00AM on Sunday
Do you want to leave me too?
I am often reminded that only 30% of the registered baptized Catholics in our parish attend Sunday Eucharist-consuming and being consumed by the bread of life. I am also aware that upwards of 80% of the mega-church Christians are "former Catholics". I wonder how is it that so many Catholics have walked away from the Eucharist?
These weeks of the bread of life discourse have reminded me again and caused me to conclude that the only way one can walk away from the bread of life is if one has never truly consumed and really been consumed by that bread from heaven, the Lord Jesus.
Why have so few Catholics made the choice to surrender their lives to the life and living bread which is Jesus Christ? Is it possible that we have exposed them to this choice at too young an age? Is it that they have never understood and been exposed to the living bread that consumes us as it is consumed? Is it, possibly, that this reality of Jesus' resurrected and consuming presence and the offer of eternal life is just "words that are too hard" and that the hardened hearts of broken humanity just cannot accept this teaching, this Truth, this way?
I believe all the above are true. It is our calling in this age in this day to present or better, re-present the concrete experience of communion that is the Truth of Jesus Christ the living bread, Resurrected life, that desires to be consumed and to consume us so that we no longer live but Christ lives in us.
Those are hard words. What do you think?
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 8:00 AM and 11:00AM on Sunday
Do you want to leave me too?
I am often reminded that only 30% of the registered baptized Catholics in our parish attend Sunday Eucharist-consuming and being consumed by the bread of life. I am also aware that upwards of 80% of the mega-church Christians are "former Catholics". I wonder how is it that so many Catholics have walked away from the Eucharist?
These weeks of the bread of life discourse have reminded me again and caused me to conclude that the only way one can walk away from the bread of life is if one has never truly consumed and really been consumed by that bread from heaven, the Lord Jesus.
Why have so few Catholics made the choice to surrender their lives to the life and living bread which is Jesus Christ? Is it possible that we have exposed them to this choice at too young an age? Is it that they have never understood and been exposed to the living bread that consumes us as it is consumed? Is it, possibly, that this reality of Jesus' resurrected and consuming presence and the offer of eternal life is just "words that are too hard" and that the hardened hearts of broken humanity just cannot accept this teaching, this Truth, this way?
I believe all the above are true. It is our calling in this age in this day to present or better, re-present the concrete experience of communion that is the Truth of Jesus Christ the living bread, Resurrected life, that desires to be consumed and to consume us so that we no longer live but Christ lives in us.
Those are hard words. What do you think?
Friday, August 14, 2015
August 16 Homily Prep
Last Sunday's homily is available
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30 PM mass on Saturday and 9:30 AM and 12:30 PM on Sunday
Living Bread is Bread alive!
Are you consuming simply them miraculous bread or are you being consumed by the life that is that bread?
"To approach Jesus in the Bread of Life is to be ready to consume the whole of Jesus’ teaching, life, passion, and death. It is to begin to enter a whole new way of living. Living no longer our own lives, but living the very life of Christ in us, changing us, transforming us into his very self. Jesus’ language in this gospel passage is meant to confront us with the dramatic absoluteness of Jesus’ claim."
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30 PM mass on Saturday and 9:30 AM and 12:30 PM on Sunday
Living Bread is Bread alive!
Are you consuming simply them miraculous bread or are you being consumed by the life that is that bread?
"To approach Jesus in the Bread of Life is to be ready to consume the whole of Jesus’ teaching, life, passion, and death. It is to begin to enter a whole new way of living. Living no longer our own lives, but living the very life of Christ in us, changing us, transforming us into his very self. Jesus’ language in this gospel passage is meant to confront us with the dramatic absoluteness of Jesus’ claim."
Friday, August 7, 2015
August 9 homily prep
-Last Sunday's homily is available
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00 and 6:00pm on Sunday
Can you stomach this?
We use many idioms regarding consumption and digestion when speaking about learning, listening, and living knowledge and truth. "I'm going to have to chew on that for a while", "I can't stomach one more word from him", "She drank the Kool-Aid on that", "just hold your nose and swallow", "I devoured the novel", that's a subject I could really sink my teeth into", "I've had it up to here", etc.
Our God, apparently in the biblical revelation, has put these two features of faith in human life together from the beginning. If you recall the knowledge of good and evil was a fruit on the tree that Eve just could not resist. The Passover sacrifice, The manna in the desert, and the Word that came forth from the father and took flash among us was laid in a "mangerr" (a feeding trough for animals). And of course in the Gospel today the truth about who Jesus is as the one sent from the father is bread that you must eat in order to truly live.
In our parish we have been called to deepen and widen the communion of the church. This word communion is used in two fundamental ways, the Eucharistic communion (consecrated bread and wine as the body of Christ) and the church communion (the unity of life and love that we share in the body of Christ, the church). These two realities come together in the communion procession of the holy mass, when we process forward as an ecclesial communion/church communion, one body, to receive and consume the Eucharistic communion. We manifest and express this to-layered consume communion by standing and singing as one body until all members have received. So I guess what we eat and how we eat it are two very important aspects of our faith and understanding.
So the truth about our ecclesial communion is received, consumed, and celebrated in the Eucharistic communion. Right? Rite?
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00 and 6:00pm on Sunday
Can you stomach this?
We use many idioms regarding consumption and digestion when speaking about learning, listening, and living knowledge and truth. "I'm going to have to chew on that for a while", "I can't stomach one more word from him", "She drank the Kool-Aid on that", "just hold your nose and swallow", "I devoured the novel", that's a subject I could really sink my teeth into", "I've had it up to here", etc.
Our God, apparently in the biblical revelation, has put these two features of faith in human life together from the beginning. If you recall the knowledge of good and evil was a fruit on the tree that Eve just could not resist. The Passover sacrifice, The manna in the desert, and the Word that came forth from the father and took flash among us was laid in a "mangerr" (a feeding trough for animals). And of course in the Gospel today the truth about who Jesus is as the one sent from the father is bread that you must eat in order to truly live.
In our parish we have been called to deepen and widen the communion of the church. This word communion is used in two fundamental ways, the Eucharistic communion (consecrated bread and wine as the body of Christ) and the church communion (the unity of life and love that we share in the body of Christ, the church). These two realities come together in the communion procession of the holy mass, when we process forward as an ecclesial communion/church communion, one body, to receive and consume the Eucharistic communion. We manifest and express this to-layered consume communion by standing and singing as one body until all members have received. So I guess what we eat and how we eat it are two very important aspects of our faith and understanding.
So the truth about our ecclesial communion is received, consumed, and celebrated in the Eucharistic communion. Right? Rite?
Saturday, August 1, 2015
Homily Prep August 2
-Last Sunday's homily is available
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 8:00 and 11:00am on Sunday
The Hunt!
A scavenger hunt may be an apt image of the frenetic pursuit of material gain for the wrong reason that Jesus condemns in this Sunday's portion of the bread of life discourse. In our daily lives can we be guilty of this empty hunt? In our religious lives can we see the "scavenger hunt" mentality at work as well?
What might need to change in either case to reclaim our lives with meaning, purpose, and satisfaction?
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 8:00 and 11:00am on Sunday
The Hunt!
A scavenger hunt may be an apt image of the frenetic pursuit of material gain for the wrong reason that Jesus condemns in this Sunday's portion of the bread of life discourse. In our daily lives can we be guilty of this empty hunt? In our religious lives can we see the "scavenger hunt" mentality at work as well?
What might need to change in either case to reclaim our lives with meaning, purpose, and satisfaction?
Saturday, July 25, 2015
July 26 Homily Prep
-Last Sunday's homily is available
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 9:30am and 12:30 on Sunday
Are you in the Eucharist? Is the Eucharist in you?
As we begin the "bread of life discourse" we welcome a missionary preacher at all the masses this weekend. This missionary is a sign and a reminder to all of us of the communion of the faithful that we share in throughout the whole world.
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 9:30am and 12:30 on Sunday
Are you in the Eucharist? Is the Eucharist in you?
As we begin the "bread of life discourse" we welcome a missionary preacher at all the masses this weekend. This missionary is a sign and a reminder to all of us of the communion of the faithful that we share in throughout the whole world.
Saturday, July 18, 2015
Homily Prep July 19
-Last Sunday's homily is available
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 9:30am on Sunday
What's the difference between personal prayer and private prayer?
Are we ever "in private"? I know we hear a lot of talking in our society about a "right to privacy" but in our Catholic spirituality there is no understanding of private. Having been joined to the body of Christ, incorporated. through baptism we are "never alone".
In fact, it has often been said that the hymn Amazing Grace is not really a good Catholic hymn. It is a song sung in the first person, I, it's all about "me" and what God has done for me. Catholic hymns are sung as a "we". We are never a catholic alone. That's communion theology, right.
We are celebrating our adoration chapel's 10th anniversary of dedication this weekend and the call of Jesus to "come apart by yourselves" may cause us to be rededicated to personal prayer before the Blessed Sacrament as participants in the prayer of Christ, as his body in which we exist.
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 9:30am on Sunday
What's the difference between personal prayer and private prayer?
Are we ever "in private"? I know we hear a lot of talking in our society about a "right to privacy" but in our Catholic spirituality there is no understanding of private. Having been joined to the body of Christ, incorporated. through baptism we are "never alone".
In fact, it has often been said that the hymn Amazing Grace is not really a good Catholic hymn. It is a song sung in the first person, I, it's all about "me" and what God has done for me. Catholic hymns are sung as a "we". We are never a catholic alone. That's communion theology, right.
We are celebrating our adoration chapel's 10th anniversary of dedication this weekend and the call of Jesus to "come apart by yourselves" may cause us to be rededicated to personal prayer before the Blessed Sacrament as participants in the prayer of Christ, as his body in which we exist.
Saturday, July 11, 2015
July12 Homly Prep
-Last Sunday's homily is available
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 8:00 am and 6:00pm on Sunday
Here We Go Again!
We often think of the greatest witness(witness = martyr) that one can give is to die for the love of God. Martyrdom is the word we use to describe those who have died in defense of the faith in pure imitation of Jesus. The gospel for this Sunday reports the sending of the disciples (apostoloi = those who are SENT) to save the lost of the House of Israel. It is possibly a more fundamental witness and a more "difficult" one. Jesus describes himself as the One whom the Father SENT. He also says, "as the Father sent Me, so I SEND you". So, to be sent by God to witness to Jesus' saving love may be the best way to imitate Jesus = witness.
My experience of the faith and my life in the priesthood seems to be an unbroken chain of days on which I have BEEN SENT. There is an important quality to being sent. One who is sent does not "come in his own name" rather the one sent represents the other. In this case God. Or is that true?
The area for growth among those who see themselves as SENT is the purification of this awareness and the faithfulness to the ONE sending. I can look back on my chain of days as one sent and I can see seasons during which I was not really representing the One Who sent but I was asserting the one sent: the self-separate. Jesus has described these variously as the wiley manager, hired hand, whitewashed sepulcher, unfaithful steward, foolish virgin...all of these have forgotten the SENDER and imposed rather the SENT.
All the baptized must reclaim their identity as missionaries.....disciples who are SENT to the lost of the household of God. "Every One Adds One by 2016" is calling us to see ourselves as SENT, apostles, with a mission to grow the church-communion through participation in the Eucharistic-communion that we celebrate here.
So, here we GO again!
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 8:00 am and 6:00pm on Sunday
Here We Go Again!
We often think of the greatest witness(witness = martyr) that one can give is to die for the love of God. Martyrdom is the word we use to describe those who have died in defense of the faith in pure imitation of Jesus. The gospel for this Sunday reports the sending of the disciples (apostoloi = those who are SENT) to save the lost of the House of Israel. It is possibly a more fundamental witness and a more "difficult" one. Jesus describes himself as the One whom the Father SENT. He also says, "as the Father sent Me, so I SEND you". So, to be sent by God to witness to Jesus' saving love may be the best way to imitate Jesus = witness.
My experience of the faith and my life in the priesthood seems to be an unbroken chain of days on which I have BEEN SENT. There is an important quality to being sent. One who is sent does not "come in his own name" rather the one sent represents the other. In this case God. Or is that true?
The area for growth among those who see themselves as SENT is the purification of this awareness and the faithfulness to the ONE sending. I can look back on my chain of days as one sent and I can see seasons during which I was not really representing the One Who sent but I was asserting the one sent: the self-separate. Jesus has described these variously as the wiley manager, hired hand, whitewashed sepulcher, unfaithful steward, foolish virgin...all of these have forgotten the SENDER and imposed rather the SENT.
All the baptized must reclaim their identity as missionaries.....disciples who are SENT to the lost of the household of God. "Every One Adds One by 2016" is calling us to see ourselves as SENT, apostles, with a mission to grow the church-communion through participation in the Eucharistic-communion that we celebrate here.
So, here we GO again!
Saturday, July 4, 2015
July 5 Homily Prep
Last Sunday's homily is available
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30 on Saturday and 11:00 and 12:30 on Sunday
What, what?
I was in the barbershop this week and the barber said "Father, a lot of my Catholic customers are unhappy with the churches response to the Supreme Court decision last week." Since I was reclined in the chair and the barber was holding sharp objects I couldn't escape and I did not try avoid the conversation.
I thought the barber's description of the problem was interesting. He didn't say that the Catholic customers were upset with the Supreme Court decision, he said the customers were upset with the church in their response.
This Fourth of July weekend and the scripture text of this 14th Sunday of the year do seem to be a graceful coincidence and opportunity to reflect upon the mission of the church in a democratic free society.
The mission of the church is perfectly laid out for us as that of the role of "prophet". Ezekiel before him and Jesus in his home town are being witnesses to what God is doing through the church in the world. To be prophetic is to speak on behalf of the other, in this case God. As the first half of the word pro-phet is the root of our English word "proclaim". To proclaim God's marvelous deeds is the role of Jesus and thus the church in the world.
The world to which the church is called to proclaim God's love and mercy is described in the scriptures today as one that is hostile, at least suspicious of the prophet among them. This attitude of hostility or suspicion is one that fits our contemporary situation as Americans who breathe free. Today's culture in America is often reminding us of the freedom OF religion in our constitution but more aggressively today a freedom FROM religion which is tragic for society.
This hostility or suspicion of religion and prophets in America today has the same effect upon God as it did in Jesus' hometown. He could not work many miracles there because of their lack of faith. If we poll Catholics in the pew about these very difficult subjects the polling numbers tell us that the majority of Catholics have rejected the church's prophetic stance on many issues over the years.
The church has been clear and truthful in its teaching on human sexuality and marriage. The church has been brilliant and prophetic in its reflection upon he dignity of human life and persons. I am afraid, however, that our society's desire to be free from religion has pretty much rejected this message from God. Even among our greatest Catholics.
So, Catholics today are upset with the pastors' response in the Supreme Court decision. So what would faithful Catholics like to hear?
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30 on Saturday and 11:00 and 12:30 on Sunday
What, what?
I was in the barbershop this week and the barber said "Father, a lot of my Catholic customers are unhappy with the churches response to the Supreme Court decision last week." Since I was reclined in the chair and the barber was holding sharp objects I couldn't escape and I did not try avoid the conversation.
I thought the barber's description of the problem was interesting. He didn't say that the Catholic customers were upset with the Supreme Court decision, he said the customers were upset with the church in their response.
This Fourth of July weekend and the scripture text of this 14th Sunday of the year do seem to be a graceful coincidence and opportunity to reflect upon the mission of the church in a democratic free society.
The mission of the church is perfectly laid out for us as that of the role of "prophet". Ezekiel before him and Jesus in his home town are being witnesses to what God is doing through the church in the world. To be prophetic is to speak on behalf of the other, in this case God. As the first half of the word pro-phet is the root of our English word "proclaim". To proclaim God's marvelous deeds is the role of Jesus and thus the church in the world.
The world to which the church is called to proclaim God's love and mercy is described in the scriptures today as one that is hostile, at least suspicious of the prophet among them. This attitude of hostility or suspicion is one that fits our contemporary situation as Americans who breathe free. Today's culture in America is often reminding us of the freedom OF religion in our constitution but more aggressively today a freedom FROM religion which is tragic for society.
This hostility or suspicion of religion and prophets in America today has the same effect upon God as it did in Jesus' hometown. He could not work many miracles there because of their lack of faith. If we poll Catholics in the pew about these very difficult subjects the polling numbers tell us that the majority of Catholics have rejected the church's prophetic stance on many issues over the years.
The church has been clear and truthful in its teaching on human sexuality and marriage. The church has been brilliant and prophetic in its reflection upon he dignity of human life and persons. I am afraid, however, that our society's desire to be free from religion has pretty much rejected this message from God. Even among our greatest Catholics.
So, Catholics today are upset with the pastors' response in the Supreme Court decision. So what would faithful Catholics like to hear?
Saturday, June 27, 2015
June 28th Homily Prep
Last Sunday's homily is available
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00pm on Saturday and 9:30 and 12:30 on Sunday
Raised for Life
Faith in Jesus Christ and life in the communion of the Church is presented by the gospel this week as a "raised to life". In fact the gospel uses the same word for the raising of the dead girl as it does for the raising of Jesus from the dead. We see in the healing of the woman with the hemorrhage that Jesus is "power of God for life".
Is your faith experienced as resurrection, power, freedom for life? Do you need to be raised to life?
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00pm on Saturday and 9:30 and 12:30 on Sunday
Raised for Life
Faith in Jesus Christ and life in the communion of the Church is presented by the gospel this week as a "raised to life". In fact the gospel uses the same word for the raising of the dead girl as it does for the raising of Jesus from the dead. We see in the healing of the woman with the hemorrhage that Jesus is "power of God for life".
Is your faith experienced as resurrection, power, freedom for life? Do you need to be raised to life?
Saturday, June 20, 2015
Homily Prep June 21
Last Sunday's homily is available
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 8:00am, 11:00am and 6pm on Sunday
Why are You so Terrified?
The apostles in the boat crossing over to the other side is an image of the spiritual journey that all of us are called to make in faith. Jesus has taught us and is with us - but the journey to new and eternal life is not instantaneous, nor trouble free, nor easy, nor ever complete in this life.
How do we know that we are off the path that Jesus is walking with us? Fear! How often are we fearful in daily life? In daily prayer? In daily relationships? How dominant is the fear factor in our journey? That's the thermometer of faith in the Gospel!
Do you not yet have faith?. That's why you were so terrified.
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 8:00am, 11:00am and 6pm on Sunday
Why are You so Terrified?
The apostles in the boat crossing over to the other side is an image of the spiritual journey that all of us are called to make in faith. Jesus has taught us and is with us - but the journey to new and eternal life is not instantaneous, nor trouble free, nor easy, nor ever complete in this life.
How do we know that we are off the path that Jesus is walking with us? Fear! How often are we fearful in daily life? In daily prayer? In daily relationships? How dominant is the fear factor in our journey? That's the thermometer of faith in the Gospel!
Do you not yet have faith?. That's why you were so terrified.
Saturday, June 13, 2015
Homily Prep June 14
-Last Sunday's homily is available
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00pm on Saturday, 9:30 & 11:00 on Sunday
What's My Line?
This game show back in the 60s and 70s was fun and interesting. People who had "weird" or "unexpected" careers and occupations came on the show and the panelists tried to figure out what they did for a living. "What's my line" has to be considered a colloquialism to say "what is my line of work".
I'm thinking of "lines" today after Jesus' use of and the instruction about parables in the Gospel. I'm thinking "what is your line" as meaning what is your story. You know in a book or movie the central message is the "storyline".
In our parish vision "Every One Adds One by 2016" the byline is Renew, Reflect, and Reach Out. It was thought that every worshiper would become an inviter of another. That kind of reaching out can only happen if our faith is renewed and alive and that we reflect upon the meaning of our faith in our life. That's my line.
So what's your line? If you had to tell a loved one what your faith means to you and why it is essential for your happiness in life, what would you say? That's your line. What is the parable of your faith, your storyline, as Jesus has shown us? If you don't have a parable or a story, or a line it might be because you have not reflected upon your faith.
Let's use this important time in our parish life to renew our faith in the holy Communion of the church, reflect on its meaning and importance in our life, and then let's prepare to reach out by sharing our story with a loved one whose away from church.
What's your line?
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00pm on Saturday, 9:30 & 11:00 on Sunday
What's My Line?
This game show back in the 60s and 70s was fun and interesting. People who had "weird" or "unexpected" careers and occupations came on the show and the panelists tried to figure out what they did for a living. "What's my line" has to be considered a colloquialism to say "what is my line of work".
I'm thinking of "lines" today after Jesus' use of and the instruction about parables in the Gospel. I'm thinking "what is your line" as meaning what is your story. You know in a book or movie the central message is the "storyline".
In our parish vision "Every One Adds One by 2016" the byline is Renew, Reflect, and Reach Out. It was thought that every worshiper would become an inviter of another. That kind of reaching out can only happen if our faith is renewed and alive and that we reflect upon the meaning of our faith in our life. That's my line.
So what's your line? If you had to tell a loved one what your faith means to you and why it is essential for your happiness in life, what would you say? That's your line. What is the parable of your faith, your storyline, as Jesus has shown us? If you don't have a parable or a story, or a line it might be because you have not reflected upon your faith.
Let's use this important time in our parish life to renew our faith in the holy Communion of the church, reflect on its meaning and importance in our life, and then let's prepare to reach out by sharing our story with a loved one whose away from church.
What's your line?
Saturday, June 6, 2015
June 7 homily Prep: Body and Blood of Christ
-Last Sunday's homily is available
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30pm on Saturday, 8am, 12:30pm and 6pm on Sunday
Church, priesthood, Eucharist = real presence!
Unique among the Christian churches, the Catholic and Orthodox belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist is the consoling Truth that Jesus is with us always, until the end of the ages. Really WITH us. Not just spiritually, personally, mysteriously, symbolically, but REALLY. We have fought some long hard battles over this belief. It has been challenged over the millenia so much so that the Real Presence of Jesus int he consecrated "species" of the Eucharist has become the "tip of the spear" for Catholic apologists and, in some cases, to the exclusion of the other REAL presences of Christ in the life of the faithful.
Do you know where Christ is really present in addition to the consecrated Bread and Wine?
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30pm on Saturday, 8am, 12:30pm and 6pm on Sunday
Church, priesthood, Eucharist = real presence!
Unique among the Christian churches, the Catholic and Orthodox belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist is the consoling Truth that Jesus is with us always, until the end of the ages. Really WITH us. Not just spiritually, personally, mysteriously, symbolically, but REALLY. We have fought some long hard battles over this belief. It has been challenged over the millenia so much so that the Real Presence of Jesus int he consecrated "species" of the Eucharist has become the "tip of the spear" for Catholic apologists and, in some cases, to the exclusion of the other REAL presences of Christ in the life of the faithful.
Do you know where Christ is really present in addition to the consecrated Bread and Wine?
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