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Reflection for the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2020

Stand up.

“Fear no one. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not be afraid”

Welcome as we once again enter the Ordinary season of the year. This is a time of growth, a time to engage in the work of standing up as God’s faithful people. As we re-enter this season, we see a very pointed story. It is the story of those who stand up, struggle, persevere, and have victory.

We start with Jeremiah. Jeremiah, sometimes called the weeping prophet for very good reason. He did not want the job, the ministry of prophet. He resisted and argued with God, providing every excuse for not doing that work. God won. Jeremiah did the right thing. He submitted himself.

Jeremiah had no happy message. Sometimes it is said that Jonah was the joyous prophet, only reinforcing the good news of God while in Israel. Jeremiah spoke only of doom – of condemnation. He spoke against greed and in opposition to false prophets. For those strong words he was beaten and imprisoned, he was laughed at and mocked. The people shut their ears to God’s truth and their accountability before God. In the end he tried peaching from exile, again to no affect.

For Jeremiah, it was not the words nor even the suffering. His mission was to stand up to wrong, to speak truth to un-listening ears, so that God’s truth would be known. God does not count success as the mark of our faith, but rather our willingness to stand up, even in the midst of the failure and to still offer the message of hope – the intervention of God in the world. That message resounds with all who are abandoned, oppressed, and outcast, who know no justice. Sin will not win.

In Psalm 69 we hear David exclaim: Because zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who blaspheme you fall upon me. In other words, he takes it standing up for God above all. David relies on God rather than the world and personally feels every sin committed against God.

Paul reminds us that sin and death are not our destiny, the intervention of God in His Son Jesus has stood us back up.

Being lifted up, relying on God, speaking the truth, having zeal for God’s way are all markers of one who stands up. We will not be able to hide any shrinking back. So, stand today, stand always, stay strong and be acknowledged before the Father.

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Reflection for the 12th Week in Ordinary Time 2016

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All children of one
God and model.

Brothers and sisters: Through faith you are all children of God in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s children, heirs according to the promise.

This beautiful text from Paul’s letter to the Church at Galatia calls to the forefront the new model we live in Jesus. It reminds us that we are changed and have become children of One God and Father when we have clothed ourselves in Christ.

In putting on Jesus in baptism we take on the new man, the new person. We take up a privileged position with and in Christ. In fact this new union is Paul’s main emphasis in each verse By faith in Christ Jesus, and being baptized into Christ… we are clothed… with Christ, one in Christ Jesus, and belong to Christ. Since Jesus is the Son of God, all who by faith are in Christ are now also sons of God; co-heirs in Him to heaven’s promise and all being children of One Father.

The positive privileges of union with Christ far outweigh and greatly surpass the old set of relationships under the old Law, Jews were the children of God and Gentiles were sinners. But now we are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

This must have been a shocking declaration for a Jew to hear. In Jewish literature, “sons of God” was a title of highest honor, used only for the members of righteous Israel, destined to inherit the blessings promised at the end of time. But now all are called “sons of God.” All are equal. All have the same privilege and rank under One Father.

The wonderful day we gained heaven was the day we came to Him, as Paul tells us: through faith and baptism in Christ Jesus. Let us think kindly on that day for in it we were blessed to grab hold of our Heavenly Father, we clung to Him and felt His loving embrace as our Father.

As baptism pictures the initial union with Christ by faith, being clothed with Christ portrays our participation in the moral perfection of Christ. The title sons of God and the two ceremonies of baptism and being clothed with Christ point to the reality of our new relationship with God. We are literally changed and our way of living is opened to perfection. Our new relationship with our Father results in a new relationship with one another.

As we reflect on this Father’s Day, let us think of that man, or those men, in our lives brought us to our Heavenly Father, who gave us the privilege of not just being sons and daughters of men, but true children of God.

Christian Witness, Homilies, , , ,

Reflection for the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time and Father’s Day

Jesus Asleep in the Storm

I am here
protecting you.

Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion. They woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” He woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Quiet! Be still!” The wind ceased and there was great calm. Then he asked them, “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?”

What a perfect reading for Father’s Day! In a way we can even draw a funny analogy – picture dad asleep on the couch in the middle of something scary going on. We wake him up, feeling panicked, and ask for help. Of course he gets up to help. Then he says: ‘You know, you could have handled it yourself.’

We know from Jesus’ words that He came to reveal the Father to us. In Matthew 11:27 Jesus says: “All things have been delivered to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.”

The event on the sea tells us two things Jesus wished to reveal to us, His faithful people, about our Heavenly Father.

Jesus shows us that the Father is eternal, transcendent, all-powerful, and Almighty. He has complete command over all that exists. He commands the winds and the waves and they still. As Job learned, only God has all knowledge and understands all things. Jesus shows that when we call upon the Father He is quick to protect and comfort His people. His Almighty Power is a power for love and good, never evil.

Jesus also shows us that the Father expects something from us. This the part where our dad would ask, ‘You know, you could have handled it yourself.’ This is not to imply that we have all power and control, but rather that we live by having faith and trust in God. Jesus wants us to do as He did – to trust and be safe by having faith in our Heavenly Father and trusting all He asks us to do.

When we have faith and trust in God we have strength, a confidence that no matter what may come we have no reason to be terrified. We will always be safe in Him.

Some of us have been blessed to have fathers with faith in God and who patterned their lives after our Heavenly Father. They led us to faith and trust in our Heavenly Father. They knew that if we could grasp this essential aspect of life – faith and trust in God – then we would have true life, eternal life, and perfect safety. No harm or ill, even when they come, will drown us.

The disciples in the boat wanted something to hold onto something, someone because they felt they were going to drown. They looked to Jesus and of course He protected them. Then like our dad would do, He reminded them that they could have handled it themselves, by faith.

Christian Witness, Homilies, ,

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.

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Dr. John Guzlowski – out, about, and reflecting

It is great to see John well on the road to recovery and writing. Two recent posts for your reading pleasure:

Charles Simic and Me: DP Poets

I got an email yesterday from a friend. He asked me what I thought about Charles Simic. He’s a poet that some of you might have heard of. He was the poet laureate of the US a couple of years ago. I think my friend was asking me about him because he figured that Charles Simic and I shared some history. We both came to the US after the war as Displaced Persons, refugees…

A really interesting reflection, and followed by a selection from Charles Simic and a new poem by Dr. Guzlowski, “A Dog Will.”

And for Father’s Day: Father’s Day

My father didn’t teach me to fish or play ball or paint a fence or drive a car. He couldn’t do any of those things. He was an orphan who worked on his aunt’s farm in Poland until the Nazis came and took him to a concentration camp. When he got to America after the war, he was too busy working to do much of anything else…

Also, compare and contrast to: My Father’s Gift to Me by Nicholas Kristof from the NY Times.

When I was 12, my father came and spoke to my seventh-grade class. I remember feeling proud, for my rural school was impressed by a visit from a university professor. But I also recall being embarrassed —” at my dad’s strong Slavic accent, at his refugee origins, at his —differentness.—

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