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January 30, 2000 |
In our church's calendar, we are now in a short space of Ordinary Time between the Christmas season and Lent.
This coming week, on February 2, the Church celebrates Candlemas Day or the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord. This day we commemorate the Lord's presentation in the Temple, as was the Jewish custom.
The following day, February 3, following a custom of centuries, throats are blessed with those blessed candles, as a reminder of the healing power of Christ the light of the world.
The Gospel of St. Mark is a strong reminder of the power of Christ over evil and trial, and in the words of Richard Murphy, O.P., in his book Reflections of the Sunday Readings, he says that When God's Word enters into human history, evil takes flight; and love, justice, and peace prevail. His commandments are clear; and they are the words of eternal life.
St. Paul, in his epistles, speaks of both Christian marriage and consecrated celibacy as ways of giving witness to the Kingdom of God. His words this weekend in Corinthians are his rationale and belief in celibacy as a valuable witness to the presence of the Lord.
Extraordinary crowds attended our Church on 22nd January to pay reverence to the presence of holiness in St. Theresa. Indeed, at 5:30pm with news that over 1,000 people were at the park and rides along the I-5, we had to rent a further 8 buses in addition to the 12 we had made provision for.
The presence of the relics here was a unique occasion, unlikely to be repeated in the life-time of any of us. It was unusual.
I found it strange that personally more energy went into the visit of the relics than into Christmas. Something immediate struck me that that was not right. But on reflection, I began to realize that God reveals the unusual now and again in order to get us in touch with His presence in the usual; once we get the message that there is more to life than ourselves, that there is Ômystery', then we are more likely to search out that mystery in the ordinary things in life, first of all in the good and the joyful, and then eventually, even in the bad and in suffering.
It is my hope that we as a parish will, as a result of the visit, embrace at a deeper level the way of Jesus Christ, which has to do with the giving of ourselves to make the world a more just society.
A spirituality that is not seeking actively to bring about justice becomes nothing more than a selfish, Ôfeel-good' excuse from embracing the way of Jesus Christ.
A seeking after narrow justice without spirituality can easily develop into violence. Or as someone once put it: ÔJustice without love is abusive; love without justice is enabling'.
Eternal God, open wide the doors of our hearts to your Son, Jesus Christ. Help us, and all that desire to serve you, to know how to respond to your call. Through the gift of baptism you invite us to witness to the grace of your love. Bless all women and men whom you call to serve the church as priest, deacons, sisters, or brothers. May they be bold and joyful witnesses to the presence of your Incarnate Son, and to the breath of the Spirit in our world.
Amen.
Many Catholics remember St. Blaise's feast day because of the blessing of throats that takes place on this day. St. Blaise's protecion of those with throat troubles apparently comes from a legend that a boy was brought to him who had a fishbone stuck in his throat. The boy was about to die when Saint Blaise healed him. Very few facts are known about Saint Blaise. We believe he was the bishop of Sebastea in Armenia and that he was martyred under the reign of Licinius in the early part of the fourth century. St. Blaise is the patron saint of wild animals because of his care for them and of those with throat maladies.
Did You Know...We celebrate the Feast of St. Blaise on February 3. Blaise, born in Armenia, was a physician and Bishop of Sebaste. He lived in a cave on Mount Argeus where he was a healer of men and animals. According to legend, sick animals would come to Blaise on their own but would never disturb him at prayer.
Agricola, governor of Cappadocia, came to Sebaste to persecute Christians. His huntsmen went into the forests of Argeus to find wild animals for the arena games and found many waiting outside Blaise's cave. Discovered in prayer, Blaise was arrested. Agricola tried to get him to recant his faith. While in prison, Blaise ministered to and healed fellow prisoners, including saving a child who was choking on a fish bone; this led to the blessing of throats on Blaise's feast day. Thrown into a lake to drown, Blaise stood on the surface and invited his persecutors to walk out and prove the power of their gods. They drowned. When he returned to land, he was martyred by being beaten, his flesh torn with wool combs and then beheaded.
St. Blaise is the patron saint of animals, builders, carvers, coughs, healthy throats, veterinarians, whooping cough, construction workers, wool-combers and wool weavers.
We hear on the Gospel of Mark today that Jesus taught with a new kind of authority. He was not quoting the Law or reinforcing what others had taught but the power and conviction of the One who sent him, namely the heavenly Father.
When I think about authority today, it is different. In our society authority has less to do with conviction but more to do with persuasion. What I mean is that we hear and read about opinion polls. What does one feel about one issue whether it has to do with lifestyle, economics, ecology, relationships, family, school, etc. In our society much emphasis is given to how one feels within oneself. If I am convinced something is right for me, then, I am entitled to it.
On the other hand, what Jesus teaches is based on objective truth as He has revealed the divine plan. We discovered this on the Commandments, the New Law which Jesus proclaimed: love God above all things and neighbor as yourself.
This authority has been entrusted to the church which has the responsibility to proclaim the truth with the changing circumstances and development on our own time.
The Bible did not have to face a global economy, nuclear destructive power, bioethical advances, mass communication, just to name a few. Nevertheless, the church needs to apply the truth of the Gospel and she has the authority of the Lord Jesus.
Father Ron
Like all the sacraments, the Anointing of the Sick is a liturgical and communal celebration, whether it takes place in the home, a hospital, or in church. It is very fitting to celebrate it within the Eucharist. Unfortunately, the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick suffers from an image problem. It is still thought of by many as only the "sacrament of the dying" (extreme unction), popularly referred to as "last rites." This image seems to be perpetuated by the practice of individuals or family members requesting the sacrament only when someone is in imminent danger of death. While the sacrament is indeed meant for those who are seriously ill, it is also meant to foster support for the sick person and their relatives through the sacramental life of the Church and the action of the Christian community on their behalf. So the practice of Anointing during a special prayer service or during the Mass is appropriate. The Anointing of the Sick is not only for those who are at the point of death. Those who are dangerously ill due to sickness, those who are about to undergo a serious operation, or those whose frailty becomes more pronounced due to old age many all be anointed. Through regularly scheduled communal celebrations of the sacrament, perhaps our perception of it will broaden and more of us will take the opportunity to experience the many facets of healing - spiritual, mental, emotional, physical and social -brought about by the Anointing of the Sick.
I went to three Catholic grade schools. Both of my sisters teach in Catholic grade schools. All seven of my nephews and nieces are in Catholic schools. I've seen first hand the importance of Catholic education.
In my year and a half working in conjunction with Our Lady of Peace school, I have been very impressed with the dedication and hard work of the staff. They have many challenges; chief among those is financial. Both schools (and parishes) increasingly need to find new and creative ways to finance themselves. I urge you to remember Our Lady of Peace (as well as our parish) in your wills and to contact them regarding their endowment fund. I invite your support, personal and financial. They are making a difference in the children who will lead our church in the new Millennium.
Father Murphy
The 2nd reading today from 1 Corinthians begins with words that grab our attention: I want you to be free from anxieties. Is this not appealing? Stress is one of our most common and uncomfortable experiences. It drains our energy, keeps our nerves on edge, make us irritable, prevents us from getting a good night's sleep, and takes all the fun out of life. When Paul offers a suggestion to free us from our anxieties, we do well to sit up and listen.
Paul's formula for stress relief is revealed in his denunciation of spiritual schizophrenia. For Paul, the cause of stress is a certain division within ourselves. The half-heartedness and the half-way measures we take in handling our lives make for anxiety. Divisiveness always takes a toll. Living by double standards, compromising our principles, walking both sides of the fence, burning the candle at both ends, we literally tear ourselves apart. Stress means we are at odds with ourselves; we are pulling on both sides of the seam regarding a major or minor life issue. And what Paul is prescription for this anxiety? Single-heartedness, undivided devotion to the Lord.
To secure a sense of stability we need something to tie our lives together with direction and focus. When Paul speaks of undivided devotion to the Lord, he is not advocating that we give up our everyday responsibilities and dedicate all our time and attention to religious works. What he is promoting is that we have one principle to govern the way we live, one moral imperative by which we handle our affairs. That principle is Jesus and his teachings. In other words, consider the phrase that is popular among our children and youth What would Jesus do? and what we hear in the gospels as we make these life decisions.
Consider how Jesus would handle any person, situation, problem, or project you might face in everyday life. Put yourself in the shoes of Christ, as you know him. How would he think? What would he say? How would he react? What would he do? How would he handle it? Stress and anxiety come about when you are confused and don't know what to do. Single-hearted devotion to the Lord will end your confusion, provide a lasting focus, and tell you exactly what to do.
In this Great Jubilee Year, dioceses throughout the United States will celebrate the Jubilee Day for Consecrated Life on Sunday, February 6. This is a day designated by Pope John Paul II on which the church can give thanks to God for the unique and invaluable witness offered by religious sisters, brothers and order priests, as well as members of secular institutes. May we come to better understand and appreciate the consecrated life and also pray that many more young men and women will heed the call to this way of life.
A reminder to pay attention to what God is doing! only begins to open the mystery of surprises that God provides for his chosen. How often do I pause to note the message of God's presence which I celebrate in each sacrament ritual. To recall that sacraments are outward signs instituted by Christ to give grace tells us something of the theology behind this facet of our faith. Our active attention to how God touches life extends insight.
We received Holy Communion for the first time when we could understand the distinction between bread in a sandwich and the Bread of Angels, the Real Presence of Jesus. Frequent celebrations invite deepening appreciation for sacrament blessings even (and especially?) because we are adults.
For all whose life experience leads to acceptance that we are sinners, the Sacrament of Reconciliation (when we go to confession) focuses on God's forgiveness when we seek repentance. To hear our voice saying our sins gives God the opportunity as well to say his blessing of forgiveness and to say his promise of grace for growth. Conversion is a continuing process. We allow God's healing power to weaken the hold of sin. We allow God's healing grace to stimulate the attraction of virtue. We seek forgiveness and we allow renewal by the power and gift of God's grace.
In a different situation and setting, the Sacrament of the Anointing offers a special resilience in God's grace. When experiencing the distress of ill health, when confronted with the reality of immortality, when exhausted by our continuing need for salvation grace, God offers
this Sacrament to heal. God offers this Sacrament to support and strengthen our body, our mind, our spirit. Perhaps, the infrequency of its celebration underscores all the more the powerful mystery that it is.
We need deep awareness of the significance of every sacrament in our faith life. We celebrate each source of power for faithful service to God and to others. Focus clearly on the words of each prayer celebration. Focus on your word Amen. It voices your response to each ritual which shows God present.
Parish Baptism preparation classes are for BOTH PARENTS Catholic and non-Catholic. The preparation allows them to understand what the Church expects in the training of their child(ren). SPONSORS FOR BAPTISM: One to be baptized is to be given a sponsor who is to assist an adult in Christian initiation, or together with the parents, to present an infant at the baptism, and who will help the baptized to lead a Christian life in harmony with baptism, and to fulfill faithfully the obligations connected with it. Canon 872. A sponsor must be a Catholic who has been confirmed and already received the Sacrament of Holy Eucharist and leads a life in harmony with the faith and have completed the sixteenth year. Canon 874. A baptized person who belongs to a non-Catholic ecclesial community may be a witness together with a Catholic sponsor. Canon 874.2.
For a long time, Catholics became used to an uneven quality of Sunday preaching by their priests. Some did well with sermons and homilies; others not so well. As long as we could receive the Lord in Holy Communion, we could endure uninspired preaching. Vatican II changed all this with a challenge to balance the Liturgy of the Word (readings & homily) with the Liturgy of the Eucharist, the entire liturgy from offertory to dismissal. - And so we delineate the two, we draw a line, between these two liturgies, Word & Eucharist, by ÔDRESSING THE ALTAR. Deacon Ron and the servers place coverings on the altar before the offertory. It's a reminder that we have Christ in the Word of God, plus Christ in the Eucharistic Sacrifice.
....Fr. Frank
We read in Mark's Gospel this weekend, "The people were astonished at [Jesus'] teaching, for he taught them as one having authority." This power of Jesus is prefigured in the words of the Lord recounted by Moses in the first reading: "I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kin, and will put my words into his mouth; he shall tell them all that I command him." Our refrain from the Responsorial Psalm is "If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts."
Jesus speaks with authority because he communicates what the Father has commanded him. Jesus speaks with authority because he speaks the truth. Jesus speaks with authority because he comes to us with credibility and with caring interest.
We listen. We pick up the message. We respond. But what is the quality of that response?
In my personal musings I am always amazed at the disparity between what Jesus teaches and what we actually do. If he speaks with such authority, why don't we follow his word with unswerving obedience? It's that human condition again!
I look around the parish and the neighborhood, and I see so much that is not getting done for the sake of the Kingdom not because of unawareness nor preoccupation but more because of apathy and inertia and selfishness.
I'm not shaking a finger at any of you as much as I am looking deep into my own conscience. I hear what Jesus says. I know what he is trying to communicate to me. Why am I so slow to follow?
St. Augustine said that the heart is restless until it rests in God. This being so, why does it sometimes take so long to settle contently in God?
Last week's Gospel called us to an ongoing change of heart because the Kingdom of God is at hand. This week's continues that theme from a different perspective: Jesus Christ -- the one who is the Way and the Truth and the Life -- is here with the message of salvation. We must choose to move with him and to accept his message if we are to be saved. What are we waiting for?
1) Deuteronomy 18, 15-20
2) 1 Corinthians 7, 32-35
3) Mark 1, 21-28
When we ask God for guidance we receive it. The challenge is to discern the answer - to learn how to listen. One of the strengths of the Catholic faith is the realization that, while everyone's opinion has value, the individual's opinion must be informed by the community's wisdom. The wisdom of the community comes to us through scripture and tradition. That is why we work collectively. That is why we support the church. We gain our strength through numbers, but also by following the teaching of Jesus, a completely new teaching in a spirit of authority (3). By conforming our individual wills to the teaching of the church we make the personal sacrifice that demonstrates our trust in God's promise. The promise contains its own failsafe If any man will not listen to my words which he -the prophet- speaks in my name, I myself will make him answer for it. But if a prophet presumes to speak in my name an oracle that I have not commanded him to speak, or speaks in the name of other gods, he shall die (1). Be responsible for your personal stewardship to the best of your ability, and trust in God's watchfulness over those he has given authority.
Next Sunday the readings will be: 1) Job 7, 1-4. 6-7; 2) 1 Corinthians 9, 16-19. 23-23; 3) Mark 1, 29-39.
A year ago around this time at the end of January millions of people around the US and elsewhere were looking at St. Louis via television from the time Pope John Paul's plane touched down here until he left two days later. Contemplative Religious Congregations like the Pink Sisters received nationwide recognition as instruments of intercessory prayer that many believe not just a coincidence that the weather was unseasonably mild from the moment the Pope's plane landed till it departed. This weekend St. Louis will again be in the lime light as our football team-the Rams- play in the Super Bowl. Again many will ponder whether it be coincidence or divine providence that wherever the Pope has celebrated liturgy in this country that city's professional football team won the Super Bowl that year. Many St. Louis fans echo the hope that this will happen again Sunday, January 30. As Catholics celebrating this weekend the anniversary of the Pope's visit here, we should be encouraged to pray and hope also for deeper and more lasting blessings than a Rams victory, namely that the Pope's messages spoken here, such as his often repeated words about trusting God's providential care and overcoming fears and doubts about God's presence in our daily life, that these prophetic words become more incarnate in our life and world.
The readings for this Sunday are most appropriate for the anniversary of Pope John Paul's visit. The First Reading from Deuteronomy begins with Moses saying "A prophet like me will the Lord, your God, raise up for you from among your own kin; to him you shall listen."
Many Catholics and others see Pope John Paul as fulfilling the role of a prophet for our times-one who speaks God's word faithfully-"I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kin, and will put my words into his mouth; he shall tell them all that I command him."
The Gospel this Sunday portrays Jesus as healing in the synagogue a man with an "unclean spirit." This ministry of healing and deliverance is as needed today as ever. Even though it is unfashionable to speak about the influence of demonic powers or the ministry within the Church of exorcism and deliverance of alien (unclean spirits) powers, we should be encouraged to be counter-cultural and exercise authority over "unclean spirits" as did Jesus in his day. In Marks Gospel Jesus says "Signs like these will accompany those who have professed their faith: they will use my name to expel demons..." (Mk 16:17). I have been involved in an Archdiocesan sponsored Healing and Deliverance Ministry that has an office in the Kenrick Pastoral Center and I can attest to the value and need for this ministry and authority to be used responsibly. We have in our Church the authority and responsibility to deliver people from alien spirits and that is part of the good news we proclaim and pray for in the Our Father-which ends with "...and deliver us from evil."
"Doubt, lack of trust. Was this the demon that Jesus cast out in today's Gospel? The pericope's theme focuses in Jesus' "authority," which would suggest a kind of surrender in trust that must take place for those who would risk an encounter with him. In a way, all our doubts do not simply disappear but must be confronted even as Jesus meets the demon. Interestingly enough the demon is easily, full of talk-and multiple. Here, of course, we are reminded of our own anxious world. And the first thing that Jesus does is to say sharply, "Be quiet!" The meeting between the demon and Jesus forces "a cry to come out of him." The unclean is made clean by silence; anxiety becomes peace.
Allowing our Lord to make a space in our hearts may indeed mean permitting Jesus to cast out our demons. That becomes even more possible when we remember that the man possessed in the Gospel comes before a God who is both powerful and vulnerable. It is, after all, Jesus our Brother who comes to save us as God's saving Word wrapped in silence.
We are no less confronted with the reality and power of the demonic today than people were in Jesus' day, but we use the words of the social and natural sciences rather than "unclean spirit" to describe it. Yet evil still needs to be confronted, however we name it, and it must be challenged and exorcised. And evil, however we understand it, still resists being brought out into light, squirms away from the touch of the healer, cowers in the presence of the power of love. We know this, not simply in daily headlines or in our own environment but in our own selves. There are things in each of us that we do not want to bring into the light, wounds that we resist healing or letting others heal, love that we refuse to trust." (Homily Service, Jan 30, 2000)
