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Day: November 2, 2008

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Christian Witness, Poland - Polish - Polonia

All Souls Day in Poland – Candles at the tomb of Kornel Makuszyński

From Wikipedia: Kornel Makuszyński

Kornel Makuszyński (8 January 1884 in Stryj, currently Ukraine —” 31 July 1953 in Zakopane) was a Polish writer of children’s and youth literature.

He went to school in Lviv (Polish: Lwów), and wrote his first poems at the age of 14. These were published two years later in the newspaper Słowo Polskie, in which he soon became a theatre critic. He studied language and literature at both the University of Lviv (then Jan Kazimierz University in Lwów, Poland) and in Paris. He was evacuated to Kiev in 1915, where he ran the Polish Theatre and was the chairman of the Polish writers and journalist community.

He moved to Warsaw in 1918, and became a writer.

He was buried at the Peksowe Brzysko cemetery in Zakopane, where he lived from 1945. There is a museum dedicated to him there.

His children’s books have an enduring popularity in Poland, whatever the sharp changes in the country’s fortunes and its political system. They have been translated to many other languages. Among others, they are very popular in Israel, where Polish Jewish immigrants since the 1920s and 1930’s took care to have many of them translated to Hebrew and introduced them to their own children.

Christian Witness, Perspective, Political

A Bishop speaks

From the Albany Times-Union an editorial by Bishop Paul Peter Jesep of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church Kyiv-Patriarchate:Please do not beleaguer me with all sorts of comments about Ukrainian politics and Canonical vs. non-Canonical Churches. I know the history here. What I am pointing to is this Bishop’s Christian witness. Real Christians accept differences

Efforts by Christian conservatives to discredit the Democratic presidential nominee highlight how they secularize the country. They attempt to influence an election with fear.

It is the misuse of something sacred that drives the spiritually hungry from God while making them jaded, critical and suspicious of faith. Ironically, those seeking God will be called anti-faith for challenging the improper behavior of not-so-loving Christians.

This letter is not an endorsement of Barack Obama. But it is an endorsement for Christian love and intellectual honesty. There are ways to respectfully disagree with Sen. Obama’s policies without trying to unleash the darker angels within voters. America is home to Christian denominations that dramatically differ from one another. Getting into a debate about who is the “real” Christian is divisive and smacks of hubris.

There is one fundamental bond that should keep God’s Christian children together as a family, though a dysfunctional one. Love God and one another as Jesus unconditionally loves us. No Christian conservatives must like Sen. Obama but they must love him as a brother equally cherished by the same creator.

The politicking of some Christian conservatives proves why a strong metaphorical wall to separate church and state must exist. It keeps politics from compromising the holy. At a time when faith is misused and criticized, the Christian Right shows why the wall must be higher.

Fathers, PNCC

November 2 – St. John Chrysostom from Homilies on Matthew

Having warned them therefore against this grievous pest, and amended them, He instructs also how they may escape it; by humility. Wherefore He adds also, “He that is greatest among you shall be your servant. For whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased, and whosoever shall abase himself shall be exalted.”

For nothing is equal to the practice of modesty, wherefore He is continually reminding them of this virtue, both when He brought the children into the midst, and now. And, when on the mount, beginning the beatitudes, He began from hence. And in this place, He plucks it up by the roots hereby, saying, “He that abases himself shall be exalted.”

Do you see how He draws off the hearer right over to the contrary thing. For not only does He forbid him to set his heart upon the first place, but requires him to follow after the last. For so shall you obtain your desire, He says. Wherefore he that pursues his desire for the first, must follow after the last place. “For he that abases himself shall be exalted.”

And where shall we find this humility? Will ye that we go again to the city of virtue, the tents of the holy men, the mountains, I mean, and the groves? For there too shall we see this height of humility.

For men, some illustrious from their rank in the world, some from their wealth, in every way put themselves down, by their vesture, by their dwelling, by those to whom they minister; and, as in written characters, they throughout all things inscribe humility.

And the things that are incentives of arrogance, as to dress well, and to build houses splendidly, and to have many servants, things which often drive men even against their will to arrogance; these are all taken away. For they themselves light their fire, they themselves cleave the logs, themselves cook, themselves minister to those that come there.

No one can be heard insulting there, nor seen insulted, nor commanded, nor giving commands; but all are devoted to those that are waited on, and every one washes the strangers’ feet, and there is much contention about this. And he does it, not inquiring who it is, neither if he be a slave, nor if he be free; but in the case of every one fulfills this service. No man there is great nor mean. What then? Is there confusion? Far from it, but the highest order. For if any one be mean, he that is great sees not this, but has accounted himself again to be inferior even to him, and so becomes great.

There is one table for all, both for them that are served, and for them that serve; the same food, the same clothes, the same dwellings, the same manner of life. He is great there, who eagerly seizes the mean task. There is not mine and yours, but this expression is exterminated, that is a cause of countless wars. — Homily on Matthew XXIII

Homilies,

Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

First reading: Malachi 1:14-2:2,8-10
Psalm: Ps 131:1-3
Epistle: 1 Thessalonians 2:7-9,13
Gospel: Matthew 23:1-12

They bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with their finger.

For weeks now, as I reflect on the scriptures, I kept bumping up against the notion of gift. The idea of gift has been the primary focus, the primary call, out of the gospels we have proclaimed.

I suppose it is fitting. After all, as I have mentioned, these are Jesus’ discourses in the temple precincts, made shortly before the Last Supper, His agony in the garden, and His trial and death. These messages are Jesus’ gift to us. They are core to the way we are to behave as Christians.

Brothers and sisters,

Faith has been given to us as a gift. That gift came at baptism. It marked our inclusion in the people of God. That faith was nurtured by our parents, godparents, SOCL teachers, and the fine priests that pointed the way to God. It was simple faith to be sure — an indelible mark and a simple faith. Jesus’ challenge to us is to move beyond simple faith to a life lived in conformity to the gospel. We are to grow in faith, grow in love, grow in witness.

This is illustrative of the fact that faith alone, no matter how strong, remains simple unless it has an environment that fosters its growth. Faith alone cannot assist us in maturing. Think of the parable of the sower. He casts seed here and there, and unless that seed falls on good soil, it will not grow to maturity. In order to mature our faith needs that good soil – and it must be a rich soil.

The rich soil, the firm foundation upon which our faith is built is the Church. The Church is God’s living gift. It is a living gift intended to be a gift.

Certainly our Holy Polish National Catholic Church is the constant that assists us in becoming spiritually mature, that connects us to the lived history of faith, and that acts each day as the place where the decisions of men are directed by the gifts of the Holy Spirit. But beyond those of us sitting here today, is our Holy Church what God intended, a gift to all mankind?

Friends,

Faith is a gift. Our Holy Church is a gift. Both convey Jesus’ on-going action in the world.

Our personal faith, when we choose to give ourselves over to Christ, will grow into something that surpasses us as individuals. The Church as the community of believers, and guided by the Holy Spirit, is the authentic teacher working to guide us on the way to full union with God. Our faith, and the teaching of the Church, work to form us into mature followers of Christ, true witnesses to God among us. Together we work diligently to represent what God wants — that we become the gift God intends us to be.

Jesus shows us that the Jewish leaders fell in their hypocrisy. We see that in certain Churches even to this day. Jesus noted:

“The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat”

Likewise, some Church leaders sit on thrones making heavy pronouncements, forgetting who established their seat. They talk of politics, property ownership, rights and wrongs to the exclusion of love, and in doing so they forget their role, their part as God’s on-going gift.

Those leaders write tomes of laws and they make very detailed analyses of sin. They can diagnose a sin to its minutest detail and prescribe the proper antidote, and that from six thousand miles away. They forget the presence of the Holy Spirit, or demand gifts from the Spirit, or see the Spirit as a vehicle for self aggrandizement.

It must not be so with us. Let it never be said of us that:

you have turned aside from the way; you have caused many to stumble by your instruction

Rather we must be like Paul speaking to the Thessalonians:

But we were gentle among you, like a nurse taking care of her children.
So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.

Our Holy Polish National Catholic Church is a gift to those hurt by the religion of worldly princes and kings. It is a gem of a Church, a gem that is not out of reach, or only for the rich, only for the suburbs, only for the perfect, only for the sinless and obedient. Our Holy Church is a gem that is available to all. It is a gift. As with Paul’s teaching among the Thessalonians people will receive and hear what we teach, accepting it in proportion to the way they see God working through us.

Brothers and sisters,

The gift we proclaim is this: God loves each and every person, without regard to yesterday’s problem. Jesus calls all, and came to show us the Father’s love. He established a community to be His gift of love in the world. He loves us so much that He gives all we need to reach our fullest potential as part of a home, a community of love and support, and most importantly as a place where we can learn to be faithful Christ followers.

Jesus sat in the temple precincts and told us how we are to live. We aren’t transformed into those perfect Christ followers overnight, but there is a way to get there. We hold a beautiful gem in our hands and everyone can have it. We offer this gem to those who are hurting, to those who feel alone, who see the Church as an impediment to God. Bishop Hodur broke down those barriers. The path is here.

In closing let us remember the words spoken in the 2nd century’s Epistle to Diognetus in which a disciple – a Christ follower – describes the Christian life in this way:

They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men… They are poor, yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things, and yet abound in all

Amen.

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