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Reflection for the 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time

fatherson

My children must be
…righteous before the Lord.

We acknowledge that what makes a man righteous is not obedience to the Law, but faith in Jesus Christ.

What is righteousness? It is an attribute implying that a person’s actions are justified, that the person has been “judged” or “reckoned” as leading a life that is pleasing to God. Some of the attributes of righteousness are being upright, just, straight, innocent, true, and sincere.

The Jewish teachers instructed that righteousness was equivalent to following the Law very strictly. The Jewish people have to work at righteousness by carrying out tasks.

St. Paul shows us that righteousness is more than mere acts, even if they are right acts. It comes from faith. Faith in Jesus leads us to performing right and proper acts, but those actions do not come first. Rather those acts derive from faith.

Jesus offers us the salvation He has won for us. Belief and faith in His coming, life, suffering, death, resurrection, ascension, and second coming provides the benefits of that salvation. In our act of faith in Him, in the waters of regeneration, in accepting the gift of the Holy Spirit, and our membership in the community of faith we are changed to a people who do for the right reason, Jesus.

As changed people we walk in faith and have – already own – what has been won for us through God’s righteousness.

The good and righteous fathers among us have instilled this lesson in us. We are most aware of this when we consider WHY we do what we do.

Our dads showed us the way to go – teaching that we must do things for the right reason. That reason should never be simple adherence to a law or rule. Simple obedience out of fear, or just because, is never a good enough reason. We have to look and consider more deeply the “why” behind what we do.

As those with faith in Jesus Christ we do right, not because society says so or imposes penalties for doing wrong, but because doing right flows from faith. By faith we understand, by faith we live, by faith we walk in His footsteps. We are a people whose first instinct is to love, to do right, to live with integrity, to forgive – all coming from faith.

Simon the leper didn’t get the kind of righteousness faith demands. He wondered why Jesus showed love toward the sinful woman who was anointing His feet. Simon relied on the law in determining what should be done (while forgetting the laws of hospitality). Jesus showed him that her faith was the way to righteousness.
Let our lives and our reasons for doing be based on faith; pleasing to God, pleasing as precious ointment.

Homilies, PNCC

Reflection for the Solemnity of the Christian Family

Hey, you look just like…
God.

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it”

We’ve all heard the old adage – everyone has a twin somewhere.

Followers of the television show Lost discuss an imaginary French Mathematician named Marseille Roussau putting forward a theory – referred to as Roussau’s genetic mirror theory. Roussau’s theory says that everyone in the world has an exact twin somewhere, however according to the theory you never encounter this person by laws of probability and other natural occurring phenomena. In these discussions, Roussau uses a series of numbers to explain his theory. Of course that’s television.

Now look at the biblical passage from Genesis above. There it is, right there at the very start of the bible, the reality. Everyone looks like – God. Our twin is God, and by His creation each and every person is our twin.

It is wonderful to consider isn’t it. We all bear the image of God. As we celebrate our Church’s unique and special celebration in honor of the Christian Family – we should consider this hallmark of our faith. We are not just natural families, by birth and genetics, with perhaps a twin out there somewhere, but something much greater. We are linked together as images of the Heavenly Father – bearing the image of Jesus in us.

As images of Jesus we have one Father. We share in one heritage. We are born into one family. We are promised one inheritance, not divided up, but given to each in full.

The Hartford Institute for Religious Research’s National Congregations Study tells us median church in the U.S. has 75 regular participants worshiping on Sunday mornings. For statisticians the median is important because it factors out the influence very large churches.

Visit almost any of the parishes in our Holy Church and you will find exactly that – a small congregation – but a congregation that is family. We look after each other, care for each other, work together, pray for each other (look at our prayer list), worry when someone isn’t in church on Sunday, and of course welcome newcomers into our family (hey, they’re our twins).

As we reflect today and in the week ahead let’s pray for our twins, our Christian family. Let’s thank our Heavenly Father for giving us such a loving family. Let us also seek His help in growing the family. Then, take a few minutes to reach out to a family member we haven’t seen in a while to show your personal care for your twin.

Homilies,

Reflection for Passion Sunday

Mom, Dad, tell him to stop bugging me!
Can’t you get along?

“He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.”

On Monday morning, October 2, 2006, a gunman entered a one-room Amish school in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania. In front of twenty-five horrified pupils, thirty-two-year-old Charles Roberts ordered the boys and the teacher to leave. After tying the legs of the ten remaining girls, Roberts opened fire on all of them, killing five and leaving the others critically wounded. He then shot himself as police stormed the building. His motivation? “I’m angry at God for taking my little daughter,” he told the children before the massacre.

The story captured the attention of broadcast and print media in the United States and around the world. By Tuesday morning some fifty-television crews had clogged the small village of Nickel Mines, staying for five days until the killer and the killed were buried.

The blood was barely dry on the schoolhouse floor when Amish parents brought words of forgiveness to the family of the one who had slain their children. The outside world was incredulous that such forgiveness could be offered so quickly for such a heinous crime.

Three weeks after the shooting, “Amish forgiveness” had appeared in 2,900 news stories worldwide and on 534,000 web sites.

Fresh from the funerals where they had buried their own children, grieving Amish families accounted for half of the seventy-five people who attended the killer’s burial. Roberts’ widow was deeply moved by their presence as Amish families greeted her and her three children. The forgiveness went beyond talk and graveside presence: the Amish also supported a fund for the shooter’s family.

Today we are presented with the gift of forgiveness. As the family of God we are offered this wonderful gift, this chance, and not just once, but over and over. Jesus did become the source of salvation to all who obey Him, and the words we must obey, as the family of God, are to forgive. We are to forgive as the Amish did.

Next week the crowds will greet Jesus with adulation, and we will strike the cross with our sins. We will then hear Jesus say clearly: “Father forgive them…” for no sin is so great that it cannot be overcome by His love. Let us stand in awe – and always remember that regardless the burden, God’s heart is open to us.

Homilies,

Reflection for the Fourth Sunday of Lent

Are we there yet?
its only 5,615 miles…

Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth the LORD, the God of heaven, has given to me, and he has also charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever, therefore, among you belongs to any part of his people, let him go up, and may his God be with him!”

We’ve all heard or seen those instances on a trip where someone in the car or airplane asks: “Are we there yet?” It is usually a small child who is impatient with the trip.
Our Lenten journey can be like that. By the time we close in on Easter we might ask ourselves (or others), “Are we there yet?”

If we were saying that now, it wouldn’t be uncommon because from a time perspective we are more than half way there. Yet we may still be at the bottom of the hill.
The Jewish people had been exiled from Jerusalem for 70 years.

They longed to return. They lost their music, their joy, and in their penance found reconciliation with God.

We must continue on our journey to find reconciliation with God. We may need to refresh and renew our Lenten sacrifice. We may need to reconnect to where we should be, and get back on the road.

The days ahead will be an uphill struggle. Penance will increase. We will find it harder to comply with the Church’s requirements and with our best intentions.

This is where family becomes essential to our journey. We do not need to travel 5,615 miles to get to Jerusalem the city or to family. The city is of no matter because it is only a place. Where we’re headed is the new and heavenly Jerusalem. This is our family dwelling, the house that belongs to us because we are His children.

We can be assured that our acceptance of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, in faith, has put us on the road. Our membership in the family of faith, the Church, gives us the love and support we need to get there.

“Are we there yet?” Yes. “Are we still on the road?” Yes, that too. We have both a home and a family to support us as we journey there.

Homilies, PNCC,

Reflection for the Solemnity of the Institution of the PNCC

If I’m part of the vine…
can I drink more wine?

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”

We have been studying family as our Lenten theme. Today, we lighten our Lenten practice a bit and engage in a celebration of – no wait – yes family. Amazing isn’t it?
Today we celebrate the organization of our Holy Polish National Catholic Church.

Church can be a lot of things to a lot of people, but one thing it certainly isn’t is a stagnant shell of a corporation based on dusty old books.

Church is the reality of our relationship as family in Christ. There are so many quotes about that, but a key one is taken from St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, Chapter 4:4-6:

There is one body and one Spirit… one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all.

We have been grafted onto Jesus. He is the vine and we are the braches. That makes us one being, one entity, and sharers in His nourishment and love.

If Church were dusty old books, it would not be a living entity. If it were a stagnant shell, we would have no reason to be part of it, or feel alive in it.

Being part of the vine does give us reason to celebrate, to become intoxicated with the happiness that comes from being part of the living body of Christ.

Our Holy Church is a beacon and the joy of life. It is a place of happiness, reconciliation, mutual labor and support, the one place where we can endeavor together to reach God.

In the Holy Church we find ourselves already connected to God, part of Him, members of His family – and as St. Paul focuses on, one in every aspect of who we are.

We are not strangers who bump into each other on occasion. We are Polish National Catholics who live and abide in Jesus Christ, who bring His life filled Church, His life-giving message, to the world. There we will gather and join others to the life-giving vine, the place where we will all drink the wine of joy!

Homilies, ,

Second Sunday of Lent 2012

First reading: Genesis 22:1-2,9-13,15-18
Psalm: Ps 116:10,15-19
Epistle: Romans 8:31-34
Gospel: Mark 9:2-10

“This is my beloved Son.”

Relatedness:

Today we continue our Lenten study of family focusing on the topic of relatedness, how we relate to the Father, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and each other as well as the things that mark, or indicate that relationship.

The dictionary tells us that relatedness means a particular manner of connectedness or relationship. The opposite, unrelatedness means to be disconnected.

In educational psychology human relatedness is defined as the ability to bond emotionally with others.

Allison:

Allison grew up in a loving and supportive family. She was an honor student whose life stalled, then careened dangerously downhill because of alcoholism. Throughout her life she felt disconnected, unrelated, and was unable to develop friendships. It was only after “hitting bottom,” and a chance encounter with a struggling member of Alcoholics Anonymous, Mike, that her own life was put back on track. At her second AA meeting Allison was invited to speak. There, she found her Higher Power. She recognized God in the faces of the people in the room. She said: “I saw it…the understanding, the empathy, the love…This is what I had been looking for all my life.”

Allison found relatedness. First in Mike who “got her,” understood where she was and her need. Then in that AA meeting she broke through and saw the love of God in her connection to others. What she experienced was a sense of belonging, relatedness.

Allison’s life bloomed. She is gainfully employed, supporting herself financially, with plans to buy a house. She has friends because, as she described it, she had learned how to be a friend, to be related. She went on to find a special man for her life with whom she has been involved for almost five years.

God created:

In our study of family, we realize that God’s creation is centered on our relatedness, our connection to others starting with our parents, siblings, and our extended families. We reach out from there to friendships and larger social relationships.

As we discussed last week, God works through families and the larger social family. In His creation, these relationship, this relatedness is at the heart of His design for His family.

References:

In today’s readings and Gospel we hear about relatedness. Abraham was put to the test, and the test required him to do the hardest thing possible. It is why its description is so stark, so shocking. Abraham was asked to sacrifice the son that he loved.

In our Gospel, the Father overshadows Jesus and the Apostles at the Transfiguration, clearing stating for all: “This is my beloved Son.”

Saving through relatedness:

In case we might miss it, God lives in a state of relatedness. He is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three persons in one God. The center of that relationship is tremendous and perfect love. That is why God understood how hard of a test He was imposing on Abraham, and why He rewarded Abraham for his willingness to offer his beloved son as sacrifice.

Consider how we are saved by that exact relatedness. The Father’s Son, Jesus, was offered on the cross for us. While God stayed Abraham’s hand from sacrificing his son, God sacrificed His own Son, Who He loves with tremendous and perfect love, for all of us.

We are both saved, and assured of our relatedness to God, through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus.

To God:

God loves us so much, so tremendously, that He gave His Son for us. We are not just bystanders, or people unworthy of love, unrelated. God loves us with the very same love He holds for His Son Jesus. In Jesus, we have become members of God’s family. We are children of the our Father. Jesus is our brother. Our relatedness to God, our connection to Him is not something we invented, but something God desired. God took action to create our relatedness to Him and to each other.

To each other:

By being made children of God we have become related, connected to each other. We are siblings.

Our relatedness exists in what we share: We have one birth into the family of God through water and the Holy Spirit. We have one faith. We have one Father in heaven and one Lord and Savior, our brother Jesus Christ. We share in the one Spirit. We speak the same language in worship and prayer. We do the things that family does – in spending time together, communicating, trusting, fulfilling each others needs during times of struggle, and celebrating together in times of joy. We share the same ancestors in faith and are joined with them, with our Blessed Mother and all the saints. They pray and intercede for us because we are all family.

In God we are connected. We are related. We are in a relationship with Him and each other. We are bonded as family, spiritually and emotionally with each other.

We have one goal, and it is not just getting to heaven because who wants to be in heaven alone. It is reaching heaven as a family where we will dwell as one. We will reach heaven through our relatedness, through the hands that help, support, and guide us, who pray for us in our mutual journey to God. This is our family of faith here on earth and in heaven. Amen.

Christian Witness, Homilies, ,

Reflection for the Second Sunday of Lent

Can I trade in this kid?
Ummm, NO!

“God put Abraham to the test… ‘Abraham, Abraham!’ ‘Here I am!’ he answered. ‘Do not lay your hand on the boy. Do not do the least thing to him. I know now how devoted you are to God, since you did not withhold from me your own beloved son.’”

Relatedness – The dictionary tells us that relatedness means a particular manner of connectedness or relationship. Unrelatedness means the lack of any particular manner of connectedness.

We might wonder if Abraham had any troubles with his son Isaac. Maybe, at one time or another, he regretted his relatedness to Isaac, and thought, maybe I could trade this kid in for something better.

God puts Abraham to the test, he asks him to sacrifice his son. Scripture tells us that Abraham loved his son, but maybe, somewhere in his mind he thought, maybe God is going to give me an even better son on trade. It is one of the unfortunate consequences of our humanity, our ability to set aside our relatedness. We all have someone with whom we have a strained, distant, or disconnected relationship.

Being part of God’s family, being the brothers and sisters of Jesus and of each other can put us to the test. How do we exercise our relatedness – how do we keep connected?

God Himself has told us that we are connected, we are related, and we are part of one body. He never abandons His relationship with us because we share the DNA of Jesus; it is imprinted in our hearts and souls.

Our Lenten journey is about correcting those instances where we feel we have grown unrelated. We have to recapture those markers of a healthy relationship with God. We have to rebuild what is strained between sister and brother.

We bear the signs of family, our shared birth in water and the Holy Spirit, our shared language of prayer and praise, the way we work together and support each other. We know, as members of God’s family, there are no trades allowed. The Father gave His Son for this family. What Jesus did to bring us together as one family is worth rebuilding; wherever it might be strained. Let’s set to that task.

Homilies, ,

First Sunday of Lent 2012

First reading: Genesis 9:8-15
Psalm: Ps 25:4-9
Epistle: 1 Peter 3:18-22
Gospel: Mark 1:12-15

“God said to Noah and to his sons with him: “See, I am now establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you.”

Families:

Consider Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham. Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Mary, John the Baptist, Jesus, and Peter – what do all these, and the rest of the heroes of the Bible all have in common? They were all members of families.

Noah had his wife, his sons and their families. Abraham had Sarah and their son Isaac. Isaac had Rebekah, Esau, and Jacob. Jacob had Rachel and Leah, and his seven sons including Joseph. From the Old Testament to the New, we see family.

Think too of all the words used in the Bible to denote family. The New Testament mentions brother, or brethren, 319 times and child, or children, is used 168 times. Everything we see of God’s revelation comes to us through the lens of family.

Theme:

Our Lenten theme is all about family. We will work though this Lent learning about God’s promises – promises made to the body of Christ, the family of faith. Our first reading, where God makes promises to Noah and his family, his descendants, is a foreshadowing of the way God relates to us as family.

God wants us as family:

God always deals with family, with people’s relationships to Him and each other. God isn’t building His kingdom on hermits and loners. Rather, He is looking to us as His children, and a single body — the body of Christ. God’s family is more than just the individual believer, a local community or church — it is all the faithful, past, present, and future joined together as family.

Remember that Jesus always referred to His Father as our Father. This wasn’t some sort of light saying, just to make us feel good. Jesus meant what He said. His Father is our Father. Jesus even taught us to pray, invoking the Father.

But its tough:

The way God set everything up can be tough at times. Family relationships aren’t always easy. You remember the old saying: “You can pick your friends, but you can’t pick your family.” Sometimes that’s said after a family member has disappointed us or let us down. Still, they are family, and we offer forgiveness and reconciliation to our family. That is the model for the entire Christian family. We are all related together in that way, and we share in one body and one blood – the blood of Jesus Christ.

The key is that family is central to our lives as Christians. This unity, in family, makes us stronger, heals our wounds, brings us joy, and allows us to support each other in tough times.

Reconnecting:

Jesus’ entire ministry was centered on revealing the Father to us. He came to rebuild His Father’s family and He accomplished that on Calvary. There He broke down the enmity between God and man. He healed our separation, our distance from God. There He reconnected us to God, and joined us together.

God is our Father, and we are Jesus’ brothers and sisters. This makes us His family and family to each other. No one is excluded or outside the family, and our arms are open to all who wish to enter our family. They can come, just as we did, to be born into God’s family through the waters of Baptism, by regeneration.

Road ahead:

There’s a lot to study this Lent. Today we have focused on the fact that God’s model, God’s way, is that we live as family. He is our Father, Jesus is our brother. We are members of one body – the Church which is the body of Christ. We have been born into this family and that same birth is available to all. Anyone can join God’s family by accepting Him.

From here we will learn about our relatedness, how we relate to the Father, Jesus, and each other and the things that mark, or indicate that relationship. We will learn about our responsibilities as family members. We will consider our importance to the family. We will learn about the gifts that come from being members of God’s family. Finally, we will rejoice in the victory we have been given by the inheritance that is in store for members of God’s family.

We are family:

God didn’t send Noah onto the boat alone, and He hasn’t given His promises to a few individuals who exist apart and alone. His promises and His love are for all of us as members of a family. God is our loving Father, and we are His children, brothers and sisters of Christ and each other. Amen.

Christian Witness, , , , ,

Church is for lovers

His banner over me is love. – Song of Songs 2:4

May our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, bless your marriages and relationships. May He be the source and example of love and fidelity in your lives. May He grant you the gifts of love that are patience, kindness, selflessness, forgiveness, truthfulness, trust, and perseverance. May He be the center of your love, for He is love.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

PNCC, , ,

Prayers for the Solemnity of the Christian Family

In Gratitude for Parents:

I thank you, God in Heaven, for my parents. When morning wakes, when daytime ends, I have the consciousness of loving hands that touch my own, of tender voice and gentleness, of thoughts that cheer and bless!

If sorrow comes to me I know that my parents will talk about the way I go. And, as the shadows fall, I know that I will raise my eyes and know with a Hope that never dies! — to You, the Dearest Parent of All.

A Parent’s Prayer — From A Book of Devotions and Prayers According to the Use of the Polish National Catholic Church:

Merciful Father, who gave me my children, and committed them to my charge to bring them up in the first place for Thee, for Thy Church and this our country, as also to prepare them for everlasting life; assist and help me with Thy heavenly grace, I most humbly beseech and implore Thee, that I may be able to fulfill this sacred duty. Make me gentle, patient, and considerate, yet firm and watchful; teach me both what to give and what to withhold; when to reprove and when to forbear; deliver me from the weakness of indulgence, as also from the excess of severity. Grant, O Gracious Father, that both by word and example I may lead them in the ways of Thy faith, love and wisdom, that as they advance in years, they may grow in grace and true piety, so that in the end, I may with them be admitted to Thy eternal glory. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

A Child’s Prayer — From A Book of Devotions and Prayers According to the Use of the Polish National Catholic Church:

Heavenly Father, who gave me my father and mother, and commanded me to love, honor, and obey them in all things; give me Thy grace, I implore Thee, that I may cheerfully and with my whole heart fulfill this Thy law; that I may love them fervently, honor them truly and comply with their wishes. Deliver me, O God, from pride, rebellion, stubborness, and carelessness. Make me diligent in all my duties and studies, patient in all my trials, and humble in Thy presence. Create in me a clean heart and make me strong in Thy faith, that I may grow in grace and wisdom, from day to day, to Thy glory and to the pride and benefit of my dear parents. Through Christ, my Lord and Saviour. Amen.

For Families — From A Book of Devotions and Prayers According to the Use of the Polish National Catholic Church:

Our Father, in Whose family all men are children: we remember before Thee all homes broken by separation. We pray for mothers and children separated from each other; for husbands and wives compelled to live apart; and especially for homes from which the husband, son or brother has gone forth to the service. Soften, we pray Thee, these hard blows by the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Be with the lonely. Help them to maintain the links that bind them to those they love. May fellowship in spirit be kept though bodily presence be denied. Teach us all that neither death nor life can separate us from Thy love which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.

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