First reading: Genesis 1:26-28,31
Psalm: Ps 128:1-5
Epistle: Ephesians 6:1-9
Gospel: Luke 2:42-52

they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintances;
and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking him.

Jesus was precious to the Holy Family, to Mary and Joseph. I suppose one of our first reactions on listening to this gospel is a sense of connection. We can understand their fear, their worry. Their young son was lost after a trip to one of the largest cities in the known world. They were frantic and went off in search of Him.

Now we might think — well that makes sense in light of the fact that Jesus is precious. After-all, Mary and Joseph might have well thought that they misplaced God.

I don’t think that Mary and Joseph saw it that way. They were frantically looking because they were — frantic. Mary said as much to Him:

Behold, your father and I have been looking for you anxiously.

Their son, their child, their boy was lost. They wanted to find Him and protect Him. Mary and Joseph didn’t walk around the house all day, muttering to themselves, this is God, be careful with Him. Rather they walked around the house with the same instincts, the same care, the same concerns every parent has. Jesus was precious to the Holy Family because His life, His presence in their house, was a gift from God.

Brothers and sisters,

On this Solemnity of the Christian Family let us pause to recognize the fact the the Holy Family’s relationship with Jesus is the very same relationship we have with our families. Mary and Joseph saw Jesus as a remarkable gift from God. We must look to each other, to all the members of our Christian family, as a tremendous gift from God.

The family, husband, wife, brother, sister, and all the grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins are a gift. The larger Christian family is a gift as well.

In our first reading we heard:

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…—

There are ten words in God’s statement. Throughout the statement God refers to His creative act as an act arising out of a union. Let us… Our image… Our likeness…

God created us and God, in and of Himself, is not singular. God revealed Himself as the Holy Trinity, first in the shadows of the Old Testament, and then fully in the New.

God’s unity is part of us. God, expressed in the union of Three Divine Persons, has modeled us after Himself. As the Three Person in the Holy Trinity are One, so are we born and designed to be in union with each other. The imprint of relationship and family is part and parcel of who we are.

My friends,

We have been created in the image of God. Our connection to each other, expressed in a particular way in the Christian family, is the underlying definition of gift. We are to, and for, each other. We complete each other. As we draw closer to each other we draw closer to God. Those next to us at home, those in church with us today, are a gift to us and are in union with us. We are a gift to them, and are in union with them.

The Psalmist declared:

Blessed is every one who fears the LORD,
who walks in his ways!

We walk in His ways when we come into contact with each other. We walk in His ways when we realize that we, as members of a family, are a gift that has been designed by God.

Brothers and sisters,

Our Holy Polish National Catholic Church celebrates and commemorates the beauty of the Christian Family because we see beyond mere sentimentality to the beauty of God’s design. We raise up the Christian Family: father, mother, children, grandparents, the extended family, all those who acknowledge Christ, because by the revelation of the Holy Spirit we see God’s intent. We are to come together as families and are to nurture, support, care for, look after, provide for, pray for, encourage, build up, long for, worry over, and hold up each member of the family. Each member of our family is part of God’s design.

Mary and Joseph went in search of Jesus because He was gift to them. Let us renew our commitment to recognize and love the gifts we have been given, all the members of our families. God has provided them as gift to us, and has given us as gift to them. Amen.

First reading: Isaiah 5:1-7
Psalm: Ps 80:9,12-16,19-20
Epistle: Philippians 4:6-9
Gospel: Matthew 21:33-43

Keep on doing what you have learned and received
and heard and seen in me.
Then the God of peace will be with you.

St. Paul knew what he was talking about. He was intimately familiar with the history of the Jewish people. He knew what Jesus was talking about when Jesus described the wretched tenants. These were his people.

The history of the Jewish people was something that was now behind. The lessons from their journey were written into the pages of history, and could be looked upon through the lens of faith in Jesus Christ. The Messiah had come.

Paul could have hung on, going on about his people’s rejection of the prophets, their rejection of the Messiah, and the fact that the Messiah is now the cornerstone for a new group of tenants – the Gentiles to whom he was ministering. Paul didn’t do that. He knew. We can loose it too.

We possess throughout our lives. As children it is our toys, our house, our neighborhood and friends. We are connected to them. As we mature our view of those things changes. Our perspective changes. Some of those possessions are lost into history. They are replaced with new possessions, a new affinity for people, places, and things.

Paul is telling us, and Jesus is reminding us, that it cannot be like that with faith. Faith is not a passing possession. If it is serious faith it is a permanent part of us. We are changed. We have built a new life, in faith, upon a permanent cornerstone.

The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
by the Lord has this been done,
and it is wonderful in our eyes

In our life of faith we hear prophets and teachers. We are blessed because our Holy Polish National Catholic Church teaches that we receive grace, God’s strengthening gift of love, by listening to the scripture, and being taught its meaning from the pulpit. We must hear, cling to, possess, and live out our faith, true faith centered on Jesus Christ.

Do we distance ourselves from the faith? Do we forget where our lives should be centered? Certainly we do from time-to-time. We loose focus in our human weakness. That is why we must discipline ourselves. We must work to remind ourselves, here in Church, through prayer and the reading of scripture, that Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of our lives.

Brothers and sisters,

Jesus is our cornerstone. We must build our lives upon Him. We must hear Him and see Him through lens of faith. We must cling to Him and possess Him as a treasure that will not fade, that does not change.

St Peter writes (1 Peter 1:3-4):

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
and to an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you

Both Peter and Paul speak to the fact that the mistakes of the past can be avoided if we keep our eye on Christ, if we are born to new life, and if we possess faith in Him, hear Him, and build our lives upon Him.

Building our lives on Him is not a one time event, a simple conversion. It is putting our converted hearts, our profession of faith, into action. When Paul says: —Keep on doing what you have learned and received— he really means that we must do. We must have an active living faith. A faith that is at the center of our lives in real and measurable ways.

Friends,

The doing can be reduced to pious platitudes. Be nice, be kind, speak kindly, be charitable, sacrifice for others, love. In today’s world people are looking for those things. The problem is is that they are looking in the wrong place. They want government to intervene. They want charity enforced in law. That want kindness under penalty of prison. They want sacrifice, but according to their terms and for their ends.

If Christ is the cornerstone of our lives we not only practice what we have leaned and received – from Jesus Christ, through His apostles and disciples, through our Holy Church and its ministers, but we do it for the right reason – because we live with Christ at the center of our lives. We do not need government and law, like the Jews needed the Law, nor do we need earthly power to impose good upon us. We do because we possess an imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, inheritance.

We can loose it too. We can be replaced by other tenants if we forget to build upon Christ. If we rely elsewhere, if other saviors are more important, if fleeting possessions take hold of us, if faith gets pushed into a corner and is not active and alive at the center of our lives.

Let us take time to reflect on active, living faith. Is Christ the cornerstone of our lives? He is if we act and we do. Let us set aside fifteen minutes a day for prayer, another fifteen for scripture reading. Let us put Jesus at the center of our families by praying before meals, making the sign of the cross before driving. Let us make sure that the children and grandchildren see us doing it — and join us in doing it. Let the neighbors and our co-workers see us. Let us live rightly and do good because Christ is our cornerstone.

By keeping our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ at the center of our lives, in real and discernible ways, we will possess that treasure which awaits us. Amen.

First reading: Ezekiel 18:25-28
Psalm: Ps 25:4-9
Epistle: Philippians 2:1-11
Gospel: Matthew 21:28-32

If there is any encouragement in Christ,
any solace in love,
any participation in the Spirit,
any compassion and mercy,
complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love,
united in heart, thinking one thing.

The righteous do not see the dirty. That is the Lord’s warning to us. It is His call to us. We are to open our eyes to life as a Christian, as a follower of Christ.

Think of the key words from Paul’s letter to the Philippians: encouragement, solace, participation, compassion, mercy, joy, love, unity. These are the attributes of the Christian community and of His followers. These attributes are the markers by which we are to define ourselves. They are the signs the world is to see when they look to us.

Paul goes on in one of the most beautiful hymns in all the scriptures – the great Christological hymn, wherein he tells us that Christ:

emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and found human in appearance,
He humbled himself,
becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.

The Christian way of life is the open way. It is the way that welcomes and accepts all those who come. It is the way that sees Christ when our neighbor approaches. It is life in a community that lays out all its gifts to those who approach.

This lesson is not the result of moral stories, Jesus coming as a beggar, and our call to open the door, but rather because Christ did come as man. In doing so He raised up humanity. He intrinsically joined humanity to God in His incarnation. As such we are to honor, serve, and open our gifts to all men.

In coming Jesus came as the poor, as the itinerant. Jesus was the focus of condemnation from the powers that be. Jesus was the one who came and who had no place to lay His head.

Brothers and sisters,

Jesus knows the hearts of men. He knows that we can easily fall into a comfortable state. That state is the place where we feel assured – of salvation, of God’s favor, of our regeneration. He warned the chief priests and elders:

“Amen, I say to you,
tax collectors and prostitutes
are entering the kingdom of God before you.—

He warned them and warns us, because like them we often fail to see the dirty, the broken, those who come to us in search of the gift. We fail to see those who reach out to us in so many ways every day – just looking for Christ to be made present to them, in our words and actions. The chief priests and elders didn’t see God in their poorest of brothers, in the outcasts and untouchables. They only saw themselves.

Jesus goes on to say:

—When John came to you in the way of righteousness,
you did not believe him—

John was derided as well. An outcast, living a dirty and miserable existence in the wilderness. A crazy man who proclaimed an indictment against the unrepentant rich and powerful. Yet those who felt trapped in unrighteousness, who came seeking the gift, were the ones who saw John for what he truly was. Jesus says:

“but tax collectors and prostitutes [believed him].”

My friends,

We are blessed. We have the solace and comfort of the Holy Church. We have every advantage a believer can have. Our call is to take that advantage and solace — all the gifts we have — and bring them to those caught in unrighteousness, those trapped without hope, those without the Word, those seeking the gift, those who ask in big and small ways — please show me Jesus.

We must reawaken ourselves from our slumber. We must see anew with the eyes of Christ — in each and every interaction. We are called to see beyond appearance, beyond politics, beyond the false walls built upon the stereotypes and dangers the world sees. We are to see those who need, those who search, those who ask.

We have great gifts in encouragement, solace, participation, compassion, mercy, joy, love, and unity. We have the example of Christ whom the world did not recognize (John 1:10-11):

He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not.
He came to his own home, and his own people received him not.

…and we know that God is the God of salvation.

So we must be careful to recognize, to see, to share the gifts; to share each and every day with each and every person That is what we must do to be like the son who recanted and did the will of his father. We cannot simply say yes, yes, nod, and slumber away our days in righteousness. We must see with eyes wide open. We must offer all we have. We must do! Otherwise we will have missed the sign and Jesus may well say of us:

—Yet even when you saw that,
you did not later change your minds”

Amen.

First reading: Isaiah 55:6-9
Psalm: Ps 145:2-3,8-9,17-18
Epistle: Philippians 1:20-24,27
Gospel: Matthew 20:1-16

Seek the LORD while he may be found,
call him while he is near.

Today’s reading and Gospel present a description of a relationship. I have to ask, what kind of relationship do you envision, based on these readings?

St. Paul describes a relationship with Jesus Christ and a relationship with those he is teaching. Paul transitions between a hope for death, a death in which he sees himself as living in Christ, and the Churches’ need for him:

Yet that I remain in the flesh
is more necessary for your benefit.

Do we imagine that Paul is conflicted, that he would rather be dead than here? Of course that was not so. Paul saw that the relationship between the Churches, God, and himself were a continuum. It wasn’t Paul and the Churches versus Paul and Christ, but Paul, working for Christ, and making Him known to the Churches.

That sort of relationship bore a lot of fruit. It was sacrificial, in keeping with Jesus’ example, and it was fulfilling because it carried out God’s mandate – that all come to know Him through the work of His disciples.

Paul understood that cooperation is necessary. That working with and for God was not just necessary, but that it resulted in a reward greater than any treasure. The treasure, the reward that comes from our work, is eternal life in heaven. God’s eternal reward for those who cooperate is the culmination, the pinnacle, of the relationships Paul was building: Paul to God, God to the Churches, Paul to the Churches.

Brothers and sisters,

Jesus likens the Kingdom of Heaven to a landowner seeking workers. He says:

After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage,
he sent them into his vineyard.

Isn’t that remarkable? God actually bargains with us and pays us for our work. Now from earliest childhood we were told that we must not be selfish, that we have to be humble. We are to be polite, let others choose first, we shouldn’t take too much, we shouldn’t consider ourselves as entitled. Yet here we are working out an employment contract with God. Today we hear that God comes, asks us what we want for our work, agrees to a wage, and pays us for our work.

We all know that God has no needs or wants. We know that we can offer nothing to assure our salvation, no work, to task, no effort will earn our keep, yet He has told us that He will pay, that He will remunerate us, for work He does not need, but wants.

Consider that. God enters into relationship with us. We are not slaves to a master; slaves that would have an expectation of what? We are not robots, automatons put here to carry out orders without thinking. Rather, God has set out to enter into a relationship with us because He want us. He offers us the big payoff for the work we do in reaching others, in building relationships with God. We cannot earn that recompense, God doesn’t need it, but God offers it for the work He asks us to perform.

My friends,

That is the key to today’s message. Jesus likens the Kingdom to a landowner, but not any landowner. This landowner needs nothing, yet He hires us anyway. In complete and absolute generosity this landowner agrees to pay us for work He doesn’t need and that we don’t do all that well. He does it because He loves us, because He is generous, and most of all because He wants this relationship with us and with those He asks us to evangelize.

Today isn’t about a conflict between the workers, those working a few hours versus those working all day. It is not about the difference between born members of the Church and last minute converts. It isn’t about the discrepancy between those who cook, working their fingers to the bone day and night, and those that come at the last minute, who put out a few place settings and sit down to eat. It is the fact that all the workers, the long-timers and the last minute folks — all of whom God has no need of — are unworthy of any payment, yet are paid beyond measure.

That is the relationship. God to Church, God to man, the Church to man. Because God has chosen to enter into relationship with us, because He desires our cooperation, He has chosen to pay us for every meager, and vastly unworthy, word we utter and action we take, in furtherance of the Kingdom.

God tells us through the Prophet Isaiah:

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.
As high as the heavens are above the earth,
so high are my ways above your ways
and my thoughts above your thoughts.

We cannot reckon why God has chosen us for a relationship, why He seeks our work, and why He pays us generously, unworthy though we are. He just does it because it is His will. So let us rejoice in His mercy, His generosity, His decision to be in relationship with us. We should sing with the psalmist:

Every day will I bless you,
and I will praise your name forever and ever.
Great is the LORD and highly to be praised;
his greatness is unsearchable.

Rejoicing let’s get to work, offering our hearts, hands, and voices like Paul did in building up the Church, in building God’s Kingdom, in bringing all those who have failed to recognize Him to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let us do so without judgment as to the quality of our work or the time we have invested. Let us focus on the assured reward awaiting all who have a relationship with God. Amen.

First reading: Jeremiah 31:31-34
Psalm: Ps 85:9-14
Epistle: 1 John 4:17-21
Gospel: Luke 10:25-37

But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, —And who is my neighbor?—

And there lies a problem we all face. We having nagging doubts about love, especially in our interaction with others. At first it might seem like the lawyer was being haughty, but I think he really wanted to know. He wanted Jesus to verify whether he was right or wrong. Like the young lawyer we want to know the things that we must do. How do we love properly? Is our love living up to God’s love?

Brothers and sisters,

The young lawyer, might have been like many of today’s young lawyers, working all kinds of cases, and usually the worst kinds of cases. He may have seen too much. He probably saw too much strife, too many problems, the depths of human conflict, and people’s inability to even remotely approach righteousness. While he was probably thought of as being a very good young man, fulfilling the precepts of the Law as understood and taught in his day, his experiences likely increased his nagging doubts – the same sorts of doubts that we have.

Then comes Jesus. Talk about upsetting the apple cart. Jesus was speaking in ways that defied the teachers of the time. He told people that it takes more than the Law to find one’s way to God and to His heavenly kingdom. So the lawyer wants to find out if his nagging doubts, the questions stirring in his conscience, the question Jesus has pushed out into the open, can be answered. He wants to get the reassurance he longs for. Am I loving as God would have me love?

My friends,

Our young lawyer likely studied scripture, and knowing what he knew, he had to wonder why, with such a loving God, he saw far more of those Jesus described at the beginning of the parable of the Good Samaritan:

—A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

Why didn’t he see the people described in today’s passage from Jeremiah:

But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Where were the people with God’s love written into their hearts? Where were the people who love as God would have them love? Why was he only seeing the characters Jesus described. He was seeing the worst of the worst; the brigands, the uncaring rubberneckers, those that were unwilling to stop and love, stop and care.

So our young lawyer might have left Jesus still wondering. We still wonder. How do we love properly? Is our love living up to God’s love?

Brothers and sisters,

The answer Jesus gives us is that our love must be like God’s love — unconditional.

St. John speaks of that when he says:

We love because he first loved us. Those who say, —I love God,— and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

Our neighbors, all we know or may come to know, even the brigands and rubberneckers are not constrained by geography, culture, race, religion, or looks. They exist. They live and by that very life they are our neighbor, people worthy of our Christian love. There is nothing that makes another person a former neighbor. We mustn’t allow anything to separate us from our neighbor, to stop us from loving them.

The aspect of being Neighbor is unconditional, and there is the key to salvation, to justification. Being neighbor and seeing neighbor in others is built right into us. It is part of God’s way — much different from the world’s way. We are called to choose love according to God’s way. God’s love, His salvation, His work, His shedding of blood is unconditional. God’s love is limitless and we as His children are to receive and give unconditional love.

That is the kind of lawyers, doctors, co-workers, family members, community members, citizens, priests, deacons, and bishops we are to be — the unconditional kind. Like the Good Samaritan we are stop, to act, to look past the cost of time and treasure, to look past fear and apartness, and to be limitless and unconditional in our loving. St. John tells us that perfect love, God’s love, casts out all fear.

Our trust must be focused on this alone; to live out God’s love through the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. His way of love is unconditional. The seed of that love is within us and we are to nurture that seed, right here in the safe confines of the Holy Church, and throughout the world.

In abiding in God’s love, in bearing God’s love, our ability to be limitless, to be unconditional, will increase. We will no longer be apart. We will be joined, one-to-another, in a bond of love. When the love of God joins us we will truly be members of the kingdom. May Your kingdom come Lord Jesus! Amen.

First reading: Ezekiel 33:7-9
Psalm: Ps 95:1-2, 6-9
Epistle: Romans 13:8-10
Gospel: Matthew 18:15-20

Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another;
for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

Responsibility toward God and each other go hand-in-hand. That responsibility is fulfilled in the loving witness we bear, and is the focus of today’s readings and Gospel.

In our first reading from Ezekiel God reminds his prophet – and that is what we are in this day and age – that he must bear witness to God’s truth. If the prophet bears witness he has done his duty, regardless of the reaction of his hearers.

Now we often face frustration when we attempt to bear witness. To put that in perspective, let’s look at what Ezekiel was doing.

Ezekiel was in Babylon, in exile with the balance of Judah. While in exile he told the people that they had sinned in forgetting God, in following their own way. He told them that the exile was punishment for their sins and he foretold the fall of Jerusalem. Later in Chapter 33 the actual fall will be confirmed (Ezekiel 33:21):

In the twelfth year of our exile, in the tenth month, on the fifth day of the month, a man who had escaped from Jerusalem came to me and said, “The city has fallen.”

Now Ezekiel was charged with more than explaining the basis for Israel’s exile. He was there to bring Israel back, to begin the process of reclaiming the faith that so many had lost. He had to call the people to repentance.

So Ezekiel bore witness. What did the people do? The reality of Ezekiel was that the people came to hear him, they even invited their friends and neighbors to do so, and they sat quietly, listening to what he said. Ezekiel was a popular prophet, but the people still went home and ignored what God said through him. In Ezekiel 33:31-32 we read:

And they come to you as people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear what you say but they will not do it; for with their lips they show much love, but their heart is set on their gain.
And, lo, you are to them like one who sings love songs with a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument, for they hear what you say, but they will not do it.

Sure, they liked Ezekiel well enough, for his entertainment value.

Like Ezekiel we must bear witness, even if people ignore us. Like other prophets we must proclaim the truth of the Gospel even if our delivery is bad, even if we are fearful, or if we think someone else could do a better job; even if we think the message is too tough.

Brothers and sisters,

Bearing witness begins when we realize that doing so is our cooperation in the love of God.

That love exists in every relationship joined to God – whether it be in families, among friends and neighbors, between spouses, or in the wider community – and so we must go into each of these relationships and speak His words. We must go there speaking and acting as messengers of God’s love, God’s community, God’s kingdom. We must speak His truth privately, in front of witnesses, and in front of the entire community if need be. We must speak the loving word, the truthful word, the correcting word, and the prophetic word.

Our history is filled with loving witness, from the martyrs of the first centuries, to the founding witnesses of the PNCC in Scranton, to our parents and grandparents. It is a tradition of faithful witness focused on the truth of God, His Word, His direction for life.

That is what we must do. Jesus asks us to bear witness. He knew Ezekiel. He knew the other prophets. He knew that many met derision, stoning, and death for their message, while others, like Ezekiel, were treated like a side show. He really doesn’t care regarding the manner of delivery, the treatment of the witness, or our skills and abilities in delivering the message. What He does care about is that the message be delivered. That we be faithful to our call to witness.

My friends,

Eventually we must own up to our responsibility to love, to deliver the message, and to bring the light of Christ to our brothers and sisters who live in error, who do not know God, or who have gone astray. We are to lovingly call them, brother-to-brother, sister-to-sister, husbands and wives, parents and children. It is living out the responsibility we owe to to God, and to each other. Lived out, we will be the community of God. The community of faith where what is bound is bound, where what is loosed is loosed, and where God dwells with us. Amen.

First reading: Jeremiah 20:7-9
Psalm: Ps 63:2,3-6,8-9
Epistle: Romans 12:1-2
Gospel: Matthew 16:21-27

—Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,
take up his cross, and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world
and forfeit his life?
Or what can one give in exchange for his life?—

The words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ from the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew.

Jeremiah really understood this. He understood the consequences for being on the Lord’s team:

All the day I am an object of laughter;
everyone mocks me.

the word of the LORD has brought me
derision and reproach all the day.

St. Paul says as much in his letter to the Church at Rome:

offer your bodies as a living sacrifice,

Do not conform yourselves to this age

We often think that doing the right thing, in the eyes of God and His Church, is choosing the harder road. We talk about sacrifice, giving up our desires, changing – even though our bodies and minds don’t want to change.

Think about Jeremiah. He didn’t want to be God’s prophet. But because he could not refuse God’s call, because God was so irresistible, Jeremiah proclaims his suffering. St. Paul seems to ask for suffering as well. He advises us to offer up our bodies as living sacrifice.

Think of the age Paul was living in. A few centuries before the Jewish people had to run out the Canaanites, a people who offered the bodies of their living children on the altars of their gods. Human sacrifice was not unknown – and that to no purpose.

Within the Church ultimate sacrifice had already touched Christian communities. James and Stephen met martyrdom. They offered themselves up in imitation of Christ, for the sake of the Gospel and the promised reward of eternal life.

Thinking about all this, and what Jesus asks of us, isn’t it right to step back and ask ourselves – why Christianity? All the following of Jesus, blood of the cross, martyrdom, self denial, sacrifice. Does it make any sense? Isn’t there an easier, less painful way to find God, to be spiritual? Does God really demand our blood in payment for our coming home?

Brothers and sisters,

St. Paul goes on to say:

but be transformed by the renewal of your mind

When we think of sacrifice, of change, we immediately see obstacles and pain, even blood. We see a fight to overcome. We see a struggle. Paul tells us to change our perspective.

Look at it in the way Jesus asks: What price for life?

The problem is that we see having as the key, not having as painful. We don’t even set the parameters of what having and not having mean because the world, rather than the Gospel, seems to call the tune. We have our life, our friends, our job, car, clothes, cruises, vacations, a veritable wealth of toys and gadgets. We have — but without having. For all the alleged satisfaction those things bring we have without having what we really want. We work hard for the having, from the basics of food, clothing, and shelter to the luxuries unknown before our generation. But what price for life? What price do we pay for the not having the one thing we really want, for missing the most important and essential goal?

Paul asks us to think of sacrifice differently, to see it as opportunity, an opportunity to reorient our understanding of wanting. To set our understanding in light of the Gospel.

Paul knew that all people want to find their home and to walk in that direction. That direction is heaven. It is our walk back to God. It is the walk we must take if we are to be true to the call that God built into each of us. It is the true call, the clear, convincing, and overpowering call to be part of the eternal, to be in union with God.

Understanding that we think anew. Now we see sacrifice as a sloughing off of all that holds us back and away from God. Sacrifice is suddenly transformed into a gift and joy because it clears the brush that lies blocking our path back to God.

My friends,

Once we clear the cobwebs, the disorientation of the world and its siren song, the brush and obstacles in our way, we will find life. Once we focus on true and eternal life we will see the road back; the road Jesus Christ has already marked out for us in His Gospel. We will not want anything more than to travel that road – walking on its way in clear convincing steps. We will persevere on that road as did Mary, the Apostles, the Fathers, the martyrs and confessors, and the faithful of the past. In the Holy Church we walk that road in the company of our brothers and sisters. We are never alone on the road home, but in the company of the Church in heaven and the Church on earth.

Jesus told us, as recorded in John 10:10

I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

Jesus brought us life, reconnecting us to the proper understanding of life. It is not adherence to rules for the sake of the Law, or to the sacrificial shedding of blood for the sake of sacrifice, but an understanding of life and all that true life means, its value, its opportunity.

Understanding that, listen to Jesus’ question:

What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world
and forfeit his life?

And, let the believers answer in one accord:

None!

So we go forward, joyful in sacrifice, in our cross, in our struggle. We go forward walking the road in accord with Christ, in the company of the Church — back to the Father. We live a new life, where the cost is counted as nothing compared to the reward that awaits us. In this new life we echo the words of St. Paul (Acts 20:24):

But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may accomplish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

Amen.

First reading: Isaiah 22:19-23
Psalm: Ps 138:1-3,6,8
Epistle: Romans 11:33-36
Gospel: Matthew 16:13-20

For who has known the mind of the Lord
or who has been his counselor?
Or who has given the Lord anything
that he may be repaid?

Today we are given the challenge. Today we are asked to consider the Church as the sole means to knowing the mind of the Lord.

We come to our parishes each week and we sit in the pew. We participate in the action of the Church by doing so, but we never seem to delve too deeply into the character, the reality, or the presence of the Church. How is it that the Church is the teacher of God’s truth?

As members of God’s Holy Church we are faced with the same question Jesus put to His disciples: —But who do you say that I am?—

Let’s consider the alternatives.

The first alternative is found in Jesus’ first question: —Who do people say that the Son of Man is?—

This is the world’s opinion of the Church. Who does the world say that we are?

Some say we are an evil, the harbinger of everything bad, the restraint on unlimited freedom, the key component in every evil that has ever existed. Others see the Church as a pleasant gathering place, where nothing much is required, where people can come to reflect and ponder in a peaceful atmosphere – you can even get wine and bread, and a pretty good cup of coffee afterward. Some see Church as an undefined path, a means by which we get to pick and choose what we believe. Some see the Church as a rigid structure of rules, leaders and followers, immeasurable and indiscernible doctrines. In the end, whether positive or negatively viewed, the world sees the Church as a menu of choices, choices and decisions that the world gets to make, a merely human institution.

Another alternative is found among those who mistake power for the Church. It is an alternative espoused by those who claim unique authority, an authority unknown to us, and to the Church of the first millennium. It is the error made by those who see Peter, and Peter alone, as the Church. In doing so they miss the Church. At worst they completely confuse Church and earthly power.

The proper choice is found in Jesus statement to Peter:

—Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah.
For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.—

This is more than a choice. It is a blessed revelation and realization that the Church is something God provided for us. It is God’s creation, the Bride of Christ, the earthly presence of Christ, guided by the Holy Spirit, and with us as our mother.

Brothers and sisters,

If we realize that the Church is God’s creation, God’s spouse, and that it is guided by God we will clearly see something new. It is this: The Holy Church is the infallible guide and pathway to heaven. In adhering to the Church’s teaching, what Jesus allowed by giving the Church the keys to the kingdom and the power to loose and bind, we hold the truth. In adhering to the teaching of the Church as our obligation we draw ever closer to the reality of God’s Kingdom among men.

The Holy Church in its proclamation of the Gospel, in its teaching and preaching in accord with the Gospel and Tradition, in its witness to Christ, in its work among all men, in its gifts given from, through, and with the Holy Spirit, and in its continued action in opening up the graces given by our Lord into our care, opens to us the revelation of, and path back to, God. In our adhering to the Church’s teaching, in our believing and in our making the Church’s teaching our own teaching, even when we feel we cannot agree, we climb the narrow path to perfection. Through the Church we see as a goal, and move toward, a changed reality — our regeneration in faith. It is our walk home to heaven with our mother, our guide, at our side. This is the only reality that matters.

Friends,

You may ask, ‘Deacon, wasn’t Jesus asking about Himself in the Gospel, not the Church?—

I ask you to consider the words in John 1:14: And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth

The Church is Jesus among us, full of grace and truth, dwelling here and now. The Church is Christ’s means of proclamation to the world and the way He has chosen to leave His presence in the world. The Church is the means by which He chose to bring about the Kingdom.

So to us. Our duty and obligation is to act in unity with the Church and her teaching authority. We don’t get to discount teachings because they are inconvenient, because ——we—— don’t agree, or because Her teaching doesn’t suit our particular tastes or informed opinion. Instead we must focus on our revealed mission, the light God has given us in proclaiming who Jesus really is:

—You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.—

This is a heavy burden on us, yet a beautiful burden with an ultimate reward. In our unity with the Church we have Jesus’ promise that what we are taught is true. We have His guarantee that what we do and what we teach, when doing and teaching what the Church teaches, is truth. Jesus has laid out a pathway and He has given the Church the tools and resources necessary to navigate that pathway. We have those tools and resources at our disposal as members of the Church.

Brothers and sisters,

The road to God is not easy. It has been referred to as the ancient path and the narrow road. The Prophet Jeremiah (Jer. 6:16) proclaimed:

Thus says the LORD:
“Stand by the roads, and look,
and ask for the ancient paths,
where the good way is; and walk in it,
and find rest for your souls.

In Matthew 7:13-14 Jesus tells us that the narrow path, the harder choice, is the correct choice, the choice that leads to life:

“Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.
For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

We are all plagued by doubt and uncertainty as to what we are doing. Some say that the doubts are less as you get older, but I’m not sure. We know that following the path to God, humbling ourselves to the will of God is difficult. We know that discipline is exceptionally hard. When confronted by those doubts, uncertainties, and the need for humility let us be reassured — God is with us along this narrow path, this ancient way. So let us set to conforming ourselves to what the Holy Church asks of us, even if… In doing so we will know the mind of the Lord and we will do His work. Amen.

First reading: Isaiah 56:1,6-7
Psalm: Ps 67:2-3,5,6-8
Epistle: Romans 11:13-15,29-32
Gospel: Matthew 15:21-28

for my house shall be called
a house of prayer for all peoples.

Today we face lessons that are both off-putting and welcoming. We come to meet Jesus and find that He is full of conflict like that.

We try to understand Jesus in various ways. At certain points in our life we reach a comfortable place. I get Jesus. I see what He was trying to say, how He was trying to teach. Then we reach a conclusion. We place Jesus into a category that works for us.

Jesus is my brother.
Jesus is my teacher.
Jesus is my savior.
Jesus is my friend.
Jesus is my confidant.
Jesus is my healer.
Jesus is my judge.

We could spend a day walking through the Litany of the Holy Name. We could spend a lifetime studying Christology – the names and roles of Jesus. Whatever the approach, we place Jesus into a category that works for us.

Then, certain readings and especially a certain number of the Gospels come along and turn that notion, that category, on its head. Today is like that.

the woman came and did Jesus homage, saying, —Lord, help me.—
He said in reply,
—It is not right to take the food of the children
and throw it to the dogs.—

Wait — did Jesus just call this woman a dog? Did He imply that she was somehow sub-human? Did He refuse to help at her plea, as she probably lay prostrate before Him, sobbing and weeping, worried for her daughter, and at the end of her rope?

Wow!

There goes the notions of Jesus as brother, teacher, savior, healer, friend, and confidant. There goes our tidy Jesus corner. That category that worked so well for us — it’s down the tube, or at least has been upset quite a bit.

Now there are a few of us for whom this Jesus fits very nicely. Yeah, we like this Jesus – judgmental, angry, mean, put ’em in their place Jesus. No soup for you Canaanite. A few would say: —Thankfully, a reading that finally puts my notion of Jesus front and center. Angry Jesus works for me.—

Brothers and sisters,

Not one of these is correct because Jesus cannot be a tidy corner in our lives. Jesus doesn’t fit into our lives nicely and cleanly. Jesus upsets every notion we have and every category we have created. Recall in Matthew 10:34 Jesus says:

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.—

This is a sword of destruction. It destroys everything we think, believe, and hold dear. It destroys our notions, our thoughts, the ways we categorize, because none of this is based on the salvation of Jesus, but rather on our tendency to sin, to make ourselves comfortable at the expense of Jesus and His Gospel.

Jesus brought the sword so that He could tear us down, so that He could make us uncomfortable in complacency. In doing that He offers the one thing we truly desire, but are afraid to ask for – over-reaching mercy.

Friends,

Something happened to this Canaanite woman in the region of Tyre and Sidon.

What we know is that she came and called out. It is likely that she had been pestering the disciples for some time else they would not have said: —Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us.— She kept at it and finally threw herself down in front of Jesus.

I think she had a tidy explanation for Jesus too. Jesus is my healer. She came with her cries, her long pleading, and her tidy explanation, and laying there she might well have thought – this prophet just called me a dog. Yet, even after all the calling, the sobbing, the pleas, and the groveling, topped off by Jesus’ refusal to help, something amazing happened.

The Canaanite woman changed. She asked for over-reaching mercy. Her notion of Jesus was suddenly and irrevocably changed and the light of faith dawned.

Then Jesus said to her in reply,
—O woman, great is your faith!—

We need to change our notion of Jesus. We need to change into the people Isaiah saw.

The foreigners who join themselves to the LORD,
ministering to him,
loving the name of the LORD,
and becoming his servants—”
all who keep the sabbath free from profanation
and hold to my covenant,
them I will bring to my holy mountain
and make joyful in my house of prayer

We are all foreigners in the Kingdom. Like the Canaanite woman we keep crying and pleading. We come to church and we humble ourselves, and still, all seems silent. Life is difficult. The little compartment we created for Jesus is broken and we can’t find the answer.

Like the Gentiles of old we are foreigners on the outside. We are being put-off. Grace keeps working at us until we see, and in that moment we will recognize God’s absolute, all powerful, over-reaching mercy. We will be pulled inside. When the light of faith dawns in our lives, when we call for over-reaching mercy, it will be given to us. We will hear Jesus say: —great is your faith!—

Then everything will change. Jesus will be all-in-all in our lives. His word will take precedence. His name will be our only hope. Sin will die, hopelessness will end, and healing will occur. There will be no compartments. Grace will be in our lives in all its fullness. We will live and act as children of God, in the house of the Lord. Amen.

First reading: 1 Kings 19:9,11-13
Psalm: Ps 85:9-10,11-12,13-14
Epistle: Romans 9:1-5
Gospel: Matthew 14:22-33

Meanwhile the boat, already a few miles offshore,
was being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it.

Today’s lessons are about leaving Jesus, fear, finding Jesus, fear, and finding Jesus again.

The disciples set out in the boat leaving Jesus behind. We do that, almost weekly. We set off for our lives and leave this moment with Jesus behind. We get farther and farther away from the perfect reality of Christ and the sanctuary of His Church, setting out on the sea of life in our little boats.

Now our boats my be a Ford or a Chevy, they may be a Harley or a bicycle, they may be our houses, well insulated from everything on the outside. As the memory of our time with Christ fades we find ourselves out in those boats being buffeted by the sea.

The sea is terribly stormy. The world is awash in misery. Our well insulated houses are loosing value by the day, our credit cards are overextended, our country, once an indomitable financial powerhouse is loosing its place to China. Our military power, for all its technology and might, can do little against entrenched enemies and fourth generation warfare. Our jobs and retirements grow less and less secure. As we drive along in our cars we don’t even know if the next bridge we cross will fall into the chasm below. We are terribly afraid. We are so afraid that Jesus gets pushed right out. The waves are crashing over the bow and Jesus is nowhere in our lives.

Suddenly we see Jesus. Hey look! its Jesus! We experience a faint recollection. Someone mentions Him. The Spirit keeps working at us until we faintly pick up on the message. Like Elijah, the voice is like a whisper, look here comes Jesus. We stop and whisper a silent prayer in return, Jesus help me. We return here, to church, and for a brief moment we feel like we’ve found Jesus again. We may even hear Him saying:

—Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.—

When we recognize the voice we react like Peter calling out:

—Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you—

He says, —Come.—

Brothers and sisters,

We begin again on our journey to Christ. In fits and starts we find ourselves momentarily empowered. God is more than this. The Christ is more than mortgages, credit cards, wars, insurrections, and rickety bridges. We almost find ourselves on the verge of putting our trust in Him.

when he saw how strong the wind was he became frightened

…and began to sink. So do we. That final act of trust, of saying no to everything we think is solid, and putting our faith, hope, and trust in what is eternally solid, seems to be the step we just will not take, a step that eludes us.

To take that step on a surface that seems to melt under our human feet, like the water melted under Peter’s feet, takes something extraordinary. For now we just call out:

—Lord, save me!—

Be assured, our Lord and Savior is here. He stretches out His hand and He catches us. He puts us back on solid footing and asks us to trust, to trust even when we think there is no ground beneath us at all.

My friends,

The Lord is continuously reaching out to us. He is continuously calling us back to reality. It is not the reality we perceive with fearful eyes and minds, but the reality that is eternal, the reality we see with the eyes of the soul.

Now for that extraordinary final step. Nothing extraordinary at all really. It is simply this. We must live. We must lives our lives and, with the help of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Church, we must continually remind ourselves that the Lord’s hand is reaching for us. That He is helping us. That He is drawing us to safety – the only safe assurance worth having, life that is lived at one with God.

So we say: Do not be afraid of the storm and do not be afraid of the mistakes, of the times where we forget of Jesus. He is here, to be found again and again. He us here for us. We are secure in Him Who is our salvation. Amen.