November 14, 1999 |
Dear Friends,
The month of November is dedicated to the remembrance of our beloved departed. Here at Our Lady of Lourdes we celebrated the Loved and Not Forgotten Mass on November 2. It was a beautiful and inspiring ceremony. When we lose a loved one in death, there is grief, sorrow, pain. However, I believe we must also reflect on the other side of death, not just what is lost, but what is gained. In the earlier days of the history of our Church, this aspect was given more attention than we do today. SAINT BERNARD, reflecting upon the feast of All Saints, wrote, Calling the saints to mind inspires, or rather arouses in us, above all else, a longing to enjoy their company, so desirable in itself...We long to be united in happiness with all the saints. The Church of all the FIRST followers of Christ awaits us, but we do nothing about it. The saints want us to be with them, and we are indifferent. The souls of the just await us, and we ignore them..We should not only want to be with the saints; we should also hope to possess their happiness. ST. AMBROSE, a bishop of the early Church, gives some profound thoughts for reflection, Death is not something to be avoided, for the Son of God did not think it beneath His dignity, nor did He seek to escape it. Death was not part of nature; it became part of nature. God did not decree death from the beginning. Later He prescribed it as a remedy (after the fall of Adam and Eve). Because of sin, human life was condemned to unremitting labor and unbearable sorrow, and so began to experience the burden of wretchedness. There had to be a limit to its evil. DEATH HAD TO RESTORE what life had forfeited. One of the greatest theologians and scholars of the Church, ST. THOMAS AQUINAS, has written, Everlasting life (heaven) also consists in the complete satisfaction of desire, for there the blessed will be given more than they wanted or hoped for! The reason is that in this life, no one can fulfill his longing, nor can any creature satisfy man's desire. Only God satisfies. ST. CYPRIAN was one of the martyrs of the early Church. He writes, We live in this world as aliens and only for a time. When the day of our homecoming puts an end to our exile, frees us from the bonds of the world, and restores us to paradise and to a kingdom, we should welcome it. What man, stationed in a foreign land, would not want to return to his own country as soon as possible? Well, we look upon paradise as our country, and a great crowd of our loved ones await us there, a countless throng of parents, brothers, sisters longs for us to join them. O the supreme and endless bliss of everlasting life! While we keep living in this world, let us continue to love God and each other. When the time comes for us to enter eternal life, what great joy! Something to reflect upon.
God Bless You.
Father Sylvano
Our Holy Father has asked us to dedicate ourselves to praying for peace in preparation for the new Millennium. Part of this prayer includes our personal involvement in actions for justice (right relationships) that is within our circle of friends and relatives. Our entire Catholic Community is being called to make efforts to restore human relations to their original harmony that God intended. In scripture Jubilee was a time to repay debts and restore property so that oppressed peoples could be free to have a new beginning. Our prayers and efforts together can make a great difference.
1)Proverbs 31, 10-13.19-20.30-31
2)1 Thessalonians 5, 1-6
3)Matthew 25, 14-30
All good things must come to an end. As our liturgical year winds down it is a good time to balance our accounts. God has given each of us, in differing mixtures, time, talent and treasure. (3) The question is not Where did you start? but, how did you do with what you were given? It is not an accident that scripture speaks often in percentages and tithes. Is your spiritual life in a recession? As you hold God's gifts on account what kind of a return can you make to the Lord? In the past, many financial institutions have collapsed and needed bailing out. How is your spiritual life?
Next Sunday the readings will be: 1)Ezekiel 34, 11-12.15-17; 2)1 Corinthians 15, 20-26.28; 3)Matthew 25, 31-46.
My dear family in Christ,
The Gospel for this Sunday gives us reason to pause. What strikes me about the parable is that the master entrusted to his servants the care of his property. Each one was given something.
I should like to focus on the third servant who received a thousand. That may not seem as much today with the way prices are but it still offers us an important lesson. This individual was distracted and resentful that he was given less. He focused not on what he had but on what he didn't have.
An important lesson from this is that each of us is only responsible for that which has been entrusted to us. No excuses.
Why does it happen, so often, that people complain what they don't have rather than what they have? So much time and energy is wasted. The one who had the least was not expected to return something unreasonable.
He chose to bury it. What do I do with what has been given to me? As followers of Jesus we are to use our talents for the building of the kingdom. It's not whether it's convenient but one of SERVICE for the community.
Fr. Ron
Where is God?
A couple had two little boys, ages 8 and 10, who were excessively mischievous. The two were always getting into trouble and their parents could be assured that if any mischief occurred in their town their two young sons were in some way involved. The parents were at their wits' end as to what to do about their sons' behavior. The mother had heard that a clergyman in town had been successful in disciplining children in the past, so she asked her husband if he thought they should send the boys to speak with the clergyman. The husband said, "We might as well. We need to do something before I really lose my temper!"
The clergyman agreed to speak with the boys, but asked to see them individually. The 8 year old went to meet with him first. The clergyman sat the boy down and asked him sternly, "Where is God?" The boy made no response, so the clergyman repeated the question in an even sterner tone, "Where is God?" Again the boy made no attempt to answer. So the clergyman raised his voice even more and shook his finger in the boy's face, "WHERE IS GOD?" At that, the boy bolted from the room and ran directly home, slamming himself in the closet. His older brother followed him into the closet and asked what had happened. The younger brother replied, "We are in BIG trouble this time. God is missing and they think we did it."
Hmmm! Dare I ask the question, "Where is God in your life?"
Question: Is the entire Bible inspired by God and free from error?
Answer: The Church holds that the entire Bible, the Old Testament and New Testament, is the inspired Word of God. The Word of God is also inerrant as the Constitution on Divine Revelation (Vatican II, Dei Verbum) states: "The books of Scripture, firmly, faithfully and without error, teach that truth that God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to be confided to the sacred Scriptures."
Typo from last week's column: Article on evolution should have read: "Although the Church does not explicitly endorse evolution, it does not deny the possibility that God created the world through an evolutionary process (except for the human soul.)
This Sunday we continue our focus on the biblical notion of stewardship as a way of life that flows from the awareness of our identity as disciples of Christ. At Masses this Sunday, members will be encouraged to join the procession to the Sanctuary bringing forth their Intention Card (Time, Talent and Treasure) for the coming year. The readings for this Sunday teach very directly the practice of stewardship. The valiant woman in the first reading was a doer who developed her talents in caring for others. The Gospel story has been dubbed the parable of the entrusted money. It's placement in Matthew's Gospel between the parable of the closed door and the judgement of the nations derives meaning from both stories. As we examine the behaviors of today's featured biblical characters, we are also reminded that, like them, have been entrusted by God with the responsibilities of stewardship, and so we are also confronted with the option of digging a hole and hiding in it, as of daring to do whatever is necessary to be faithful stewards. In the Gospel we see the consequences of crippling fear that may be caused by distorted perspective of the master. The third servant remained a person of his distorted perspective while the first two servants set themselves free from the false image of the master. Thus acting on the generosity of their master, they took a risk. Not acting on his masters generosity became the third servant's downfall. In Christianity we call this process conversion. The following commentary on this Gospel elaborates on this call to conversion in today's Gospel and the call to learn stewardship as a way of life.
Use it or lose it! That is Jesus' word to us this morning. Though most congregations this Sunday find themselves in the midst of what is called stewardship season, Jesus is talking about something far more vast and encompassing than a pledge to the church. This parable is about how you and I are or are not investing ourselves in the gospel. It is about more than money. It is about time, talent, money, and other resources. It is about the total stewardship of our lives. And in the proverbial words of the stand-up comic, it comes with good news and bad news. The good news - for most North American Christians - is that Jesus is a capitalist, at least as far as this parable is concerned. The bad news, given what happens to money stuffed in a mattress during an inflammatory cycle of the economy, is this: if you don't use it, you lose it.
The parable is really not that complex. But read carefully - it contains some wonderful surprises. First, the man going away on a journey places extraordinary trust in his servants. A talent in Jesus' day was equal to fifteen years' wages. One was given five, another two, another one, each according to the servant's ability. Nothing unfair - the property belongs to the owner to do with as he chooses. That some are more gifted than others is a fact of life. The good news here is that each is given an opportunity, but no more than each can handle.
Understanding that, let's look at what this talent is all about. For the talent in question is not fifteen years' wages, not even an ability to manage, sing, teach, lead, preach or care for others. Indeed, that is how the word in English came to be understood in the Middle Ages, principally through the influence of this parable. The talent here is the gift of the gospel to each of us. God has come to us in his son, inviting us into this incredibly privileged relationship in life. The word is clear: invest the talent, invest yourself in the gift of the gospel. Take risks with it, trade with it, enter into deals with it so that is grows in our lives. This is the truth behind the lesson: as you and I invest ourselves in the good news, as we give ourselves to it, take risks with it, the kingdom grows, and our faith with it. We learn that God is both holy and worthy of reverence. We learn how life is an extraordinary gift and how wondrous a journey it can be with God at the center. As we risk, as we pour ourselves more deeply into God's reign in life, we give ourselves to it, we find it enlarging within our lives as well. (Homily Service, pgs. 40-42)
A JUBILEE CALL FOR DEBT FORGIVENESS In A Jubilee Call for Debt Forgiveness (1999) the U.S. bishops urge American Catholics to help create the political will to find solutions to the debt crisis. The holy father also urges us to raise our voices on behalf of the poor of the world.
As we approach the Great Jubilee we are asked to reflect on these contemporary initiatives to forgive the unpayable debts of the world's 45 poorest nations. As the Church is about to celebrate the 2000th anniversary of Jesus' birth with a Jubilee Year, it continues Jesus' mission on earth. The Spirit of God is upon me and has anointed me and sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind, and release to prisoners, to announce a year of favor from God (Luke 14:16- 19).
Jesus' jubilee mission is our inheritance 2000 years later. It continues as a catalyst for justice. In the beatitudes Jesus insists that God blesses the poor, the lowly, the sorrowing, the powerless. A jubilee celebrates God's will for humankind, communion and community in God.
Nuggets of truth which nourish reflection and action appear in surprising ways and places. What comes in unanticipated fashion can be prized as a special blessing. This is true of a recent National Catholic Reporter column. Written by Patricia Carol, a church organization and conflict consultant, the piece offers a unique perspective on what we might casually take for granted.
In her message entitled, "Why do I want to join this church?", she says "I am 45 years old, have worked as a religious professional for 22 years in the Unitarian Universalist Association, and now I am about to join the Roman Catholic church. (Even though) I am told no thinking woman would do that. But here I am - an educated, powerful woman, who can do no other.
"...My heart got stuck in the daily Mass, and I cannot leave. Some 15 months ago, I came through the doors of the Catholic church in spiritual crisis. My marriage had ended. My complicated life of being married to another minister had led to a train wreck of my personal, professional and faith life...I couldn't find God.
"I felt the need to be with people praying but didn't want to have to explain myself or my inevitable tears, so I went to a daily Mass. I didn't know the first thing about a Mass. But that first day I knew I needed to learn the words, the prayers, the saints. I knew I had to see Advent and Lent, Christmas and Easter..I feel that I am hearing the stories of Jesus as if for the first time, though I've heard them my whole life..
"Why do I want to join this church? Because I have felt more prayed for than at any time in my life. The prayers are for the injured, the depressed, those with back pain, those addicted - not me, and yet definitely me. Me as connected to everyone.
"Why do I want to join this church? Because the saints and the examples of faithfulness are so real and compelling that they remind me to be faithful...
"Why do I want to join this church? Because the people come every day. Young and old, with babies and walkers, with business suits and rumpled T-shirts. They sing and say together, 'Lord, hear our prayer,' and move with focus to the Eucharist. I stay in my pew and feel the currents of air around me, created by the movement of their bodies, perhaps by the movement of the spirit.
"...I have come to realize that waiting for a church without contradictions, a church of perfect justice and consistency, might keep me from the most important thing...to follow the call of Jesus, the call of God. I want to join this church that has brought me so close to that love, to the vision of justice and to a deep personal peace and joy."
'Nuf said? How do we who are Catholic value such blessings? An occasional reminder helps?
ONE OF THE GREAT CHALLENGES FOR CHRISTIANS is as old as our faith, but it takes on special urgency today as we approach the Third Christian Millennium. How do we connect worship on Sunday to work on Monday? How is the gospel proclaimed not only in th pulpits of our parishes, but also in the everyday lives of Christian people? How can we best carry the values of our faith into family life, the marketplace and the public square?
Oh, what you've hidden from the learned and clever, you've revealed to the merest children! I remember Jesus saying that to His Father. I most often am reminded of Jesus' words on Tuesday morning when I have the eight o'clock Mass with our first and second graders. God truly blesses them with energy and excitement. Today, I asked, What's the difference between Monday and Tuesday? I could see how busy their minds were when all of a sudden a hand shot up and was waving furiously to proclaim the answer It's the day we go to Church. (I hope Sunday is too.) And it is. It was a perfect answer because the readings were all about the temple in Jerusalem. They like coming to Church. I enjoy asking questions of the small children. Their answers are so spontaneous. They are not self-conscious like seventh and eighth graders who might embarass themselves with a right answer or worse, a wrong answer. Their images are very simple but they can be led to new discoveries. What does flowing water mean?, draws the answer, life. That's a profound insightÑto see water as life-giving. Is there flowing water in our Church? Yes. Where? Over there, as eyes turn to the Baptismal font. I was amazed at how many could remember their Baptism and even one who remembers his grandfather holding him. Probably what they really remember is seeing pictures or videos of their Baptism, but they have a sense of something special happening to them through Baptism. The flowing waters of Baptism gave them the life of God. I asked where do you take that life of God? And I was given a one-word answer everywhere. So then we are Catholics all the time, not just when we are in Church and we take life of God from the Church to wherever we go. I enjoy these Tuesday conversations, not with the learned and clever, but the merest of children because they're good for my faith. Noting the smiles on adult faces as they leave Church, I'm convinced that these merest children are good for all of us. So, thank you, oh gracious God, for what sometimes I can't see because I am too learned and clever. You reveal to me through these merest children.
Father Michael Doyle, OSM
Pope John Paul II
Encyclical: For a New Culture of Human Life (Par. 86)
March 25, 1995
"Over and above such outstanding moments, there is an everyday heroism, made up of gestures of sharing, big and small, which build up an authentic culture of life. A particularly praiseworthy example of such gestures is the donation of organs, performed in an ethically acceptable manner, with a view to offering a chance of health and even life itself to the sick who sometimes have no hope."
More than 65,500 people nationwide currently wait for a life-saving organ transplant and thousands are in need of a life-enhancing tissue transplant. For many, the chance to live a full life won't come unless all of us consider organ and tissue donation. Discuss organ and tissue donation after worship with your family and friends.
This weekend's second reading from St. Paul's First Letter to the Thessalonians gives an eye-opening warming: "You yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief at night. ... Therefore, let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay alert and sober."
The selection from Matthew's Gospel gives us a hint regarding how we stay alert and sober: "Master you gave me five talents. See, I have made five more."
Put both of these quotes into context. At this time of the year the scripture readings for the Sunday Masses focus on the "last things": life and death, heaven and hell, sin and repentance.
The timely question is: Are you ready to meet your God? Not just face to face in death, but sacramentally in the Sacraments, in the Word, in the community, in the events of our lives, in our conscience.
Is your mind and soul prepared for the surprise "comings" of our God in your life when you least expect? If not, you'll miss a chance to interact with God now which will diminish your opportunity to unite more closely with him in the kingdom.
This week we evaluate our readiness or preparedness by looking at how we use and multiply the gifts God has given us: the gift for holiness, the gift for community-building, the gift for building a more Christ-like world.
We don't get to heaven on our good looks nor on our promises nor even on just our prayers. We get to heaven by fulfilling here on earth the mission the Lord has given us to accomplish, which is much more than "pray, pay, and obey."
As loudly as I proclaim and commend the contribution of so many parishioners in their efforts at conversion, unity, and evangelization, at the same time I get very concerned by the inertia, apathy, and stonewalling of many others.
For many people who associate themselves with St. Anthony's, I'm afraid that eternal life in God's kingdom is put at risk not by the sin of "commission" (doing evil) by rather by "omission": failing to take the initiative to develop their spiritual life, their membership in the Body of Christ, and their commitment to spread the Good News by justice and charity.
The approach to religion so often seems to be "minimalist": do the absolute least in fulfilling one's obligations in prayer and worship, in making ourselves "one body, one spirit in Christ," and in reaching out to others.
As we bring another church year to a close, as we prepare for a new year and a new century and a new millennium, I urge you to take stock of your life of faith and your practice of the faith.
-- Father Benet OFM
A similar commemorative logic guided the arrangement of the entire liturgical year. As the Second Vatican Council recalls, the Church wished to extend throughout the year "the entire mystery of Christ, from the Incarnation and Nativity to the Ascension, to the day of Pentecost and to the waiting in blessed hope for the return of the Lord. Remembering in this way the mysteries of redemption, the Church opens to the faithful the treasury of the Lord's power and merits, making them present in some sense to all times, so that the faithful may approach them and be filled by them with the grace of salvation."
After Easter and Pentecost, the most solemn celebration is undoubtedly the Nativity of the Lord, when Christians ponder the mystery of the Incarnation and contemplate the Word of God who deigns to assume our humanity in order to give us a share in his divinity.
-- Pope John Paul II
