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Reflection for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time and Heritage Sunday 2020

Gifts from heritage.

“Whose image is this and whose inscription?” They replied, “Caesar’s.” At that He said to them, “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”

Today, our Church celebrates Heritage Sunday. Scripture provides reasons to celebrate this particular aspect of God’s creation.

When our Church was organized, it took care to stress the fact that God makes Himself and His teaching manifest through the use of nations and peoples.  Each nation is given gifts, unique perspectives and charisms that, when shared, enrich our faith in Jesus and teach us more about Him. We are called to respect, cherish, and celebrate what God has created and to learn from it.

Jesus came to God’s own people, the Jewish nation, to reveal all that God is and to call them to walk in the Way of the Gospel. They were called to see kingdom already but not yet fully present. Then, they were to cooperate in bringing the Kingdom of God to completion.

Paul, in writing to the Church at Galatia, reminds the gentiles that the Gospel preached to the Children of Abraham contained within it the promise that through them, all nations would be blessed (Galatians 3:8). The scriptural promise is fulfilled in that Abraham becomes the father of many nations.

While each nation has: allotted periods and boundaries, as well as the call to seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward Him and find Him (Acts 17:26-27), scripture also calls us to use great care in recognizing that we are citizens of heaven. Thus, we are never to place nation over God, or over the Holy Church, or over our call to first a foremost find our way toward God.

So, our Church set out to do exactly that. We honor heritage and all nations as a gift and as a means by which we find our way to God and build His kingdom.

Instructive in the way God works through nations is our first reading. Cyrus was called by God to free the people of Israel. Cyrus did not know God. As ruler over many nations he saw many gods and forms of worship. Cyrus himself likely worshiped Marduk. Yet, God used him and his nation to free and restore Israel.

Jesus understood that we will be established in nations as a means by which the Gospel is known and experienced. No one nation is good, and in all cases, we are to maintain perspective. Practical societal requirements (like taxes), are not what is important. Our growth in knowing God, appreciating His gits, and in building His kingdom, which has no coins, is what matters.

Christian Witness, Homilies, PNCC, , , ,

Reflection for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Heritage Sunday) 2018

Coming from…
Going to…

“But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all. For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Today, we celebrate Heritage Sunday in our Holy Church. It is not a Liturgical Solemnity or Feast, but rather something added on to our typical Liturgical celebration of the Lord’s resurrection. It helps us to remember what the Lord’s Passion, death, and resurrection hand down to us. It also helps us remember what has been handed down to us by our ancestors.

The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews has a lot of focus on what has been handed down. After all, the Jewish people were all about what had been handed down by their ancestors – the Law with all its resulting customs and traditions. So, the writer riffs on the meaningfulness of what is handed down. Namely, in today’s passage, that Jesus went through all we face. That through faith and obedience to the Father’s will, Jesus became the premier servant of all – and gave up His life to serve all. The Father’s reward was resurrection and the opening of the gates of heaven to all who follow in Jesus’ footsteps.

Jesus came to serve and to set the example for us. The Apostles, the generations of saints and other holy men and women that followed in Jesus’ footsteps, lived out the writer’s advice to the Hebrews – it shall not be so among you. They made things different. They brought the change Jesus instituted forward.

This change applied down to the day of our grandparents and parents. They passed the gift of Jesus to us. It is now our gift to pass along.

This is what heritage is. It is all those wonderful things we own – the food, songs, pictures, stories, histories, legends, and heroism of our ancestors. More so, it is their greatest gift – the way they acted as Jesus acted, as servants. They served the people of our community and each of us by holding fast to Jesus’ way, His teachings.

We know where we come from, our heritage. It is a direct line back to Jesus – a testimony of our ancestors who faithfully served and passed that gift to us. Understanding that, we know where we come from and set our hearts on what we pass along and where we are going.

Christian Witness, Homilies, PNCC, , ,

Reflection for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2016

faith

What will the Lord
find?

The Lord said, “Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them? I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

The Lord asks His followers a very tough question today. It is the essential question we are faced with every moment – how strong, how reliable is our faith?

Moses is literally held up as an example. He placed his faith in the Lord’s protection. It is not Joshua and the men who would do battle with Amalek, but the Lord. As long as Moses kept his hands raised up, Israel had the better of the fight, but when he let his hands rest, Amalek had the better of the fight. In a very real way, as long as Moses held up his faith the battle and the war were won. When his faith weakened, the battle was being lost.

We can use the analogy of war and battle to the challenges we are faced with and we have one in front of us right now.

Over the past two months there have been two petty thefts in our parish. The money in the cash box in the parish kitchen was stolen twice.

Where did our minds just go? Some certainly wondered who might have done this. Some may wonder how much was taken. After we swim around in those questions we begin to think of what we should do. Call the police? Set up a camera? Be suspicious of strangers? It goes on and gets worse from there.

Jesus said: “But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” So there we are.

How many times did Jesus discuss the need for forgiveness? Jesus answered,”I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. The need to forego judgment: For with the same judgment you pronounce, you will be judged. How often has God asked us for complete trust and faith? Can we sing with David: When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?

When we are confronted by the challenge, when those who would hurt us act, when all seems lost will we place our trust and faith in the ways of the world or the ways of God? Jesus even laid out a formula for how we are to confront someone who would do wrong to the family as recorded in Matthew 18. Beginning at verse 15 we read: “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you…” Jesus is looking for real faith in us. It is His ultimate test.

Our heritage, our way of life is to live faith driven, to trust in God’s promise and follow His way. We are to pray first, set aside questions, and know – really know – that God will defend us, will break all chains when He finds faith in us.

Christian Witness, Homilies, PNCC, , , , ,

Reflection for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time and Heritage Sunday

rendertocaesar

What is it we
worship?

Knowing their malice, Jesus said, “Why are you testing me, you hypocrites? Show me the coin that pays the census tax.” Then they handed him the Roman coin. He said to them, “Whose image is this and whose inscription?” They replied, “Caesar’s.” At that he said to them, “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”

Today our Holy Church calls us to recall and honor the heritage of our members and of all people. It is a celebration of who we are as people — the gifts God has given us. More importantly, the Church calls us to properly order what is most important in our lives.

Whether our ancestors came to this country as immigrants, as indentured servants or involuntarily as slaves – we are called to honor their heritage and innate human dignity. We are to remember the struggles they faced and the battles they fought to grasp the freedom, honor, and dignity they and we are all entitled to. Where we come from is important because it is a part of who we are. Each culture and heritage enriches our common life and we share in each other’s heritage as members of God’s family.

The early Church recognized the gifts the faithful brought to the Church. Most importantly, it recognized that in Jesus Christ we all have equal membership in the one family of faith regardless of background. Heritage is a gift to be shared in the one family of faith. Thus, St. Paul reminded the Church at Galatia: There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.

While we honor each person’s heritage, we must remember that in Jesus we are equal members in His family and that we are called to properly order what we worship.

What does that mean? It means that while we honor heritage and the gifts of each nation we must not make heritage or nation an object of worship.

Jesus is reminding the Pharisees of this proper ordering. Our first and foremost obligation is to give to God what is God’s. When we let anything interfere with the proper ordering of our relationship with Him – politics, national affinity, or heritage – when we quibble over this or that being most important, we lose touch with that which must come first in our lives.

Jesus’ response to His questioners offers us a guide to properly ordering our worship. The Roman coin – Caesar’s – referred to him as a god. Jesus reminded them (and us) that we cannot give worship to both God and Caesar. We have to choose our focus of worship and properly order our priorities. We should chose only God as the sole focus of our devotion and worship. By placing Him first we clearly proclaim that He alone is our God.

Homilies, PNCC, , , , , , ,

Reflection for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time/Heritage Sunday

guest2

Celebrating heritage
Making God known to all

Remain faithful to what you have learned and believed, because you know from whom you learned it, and that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are capable of giving you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

St. Paul calls us to remain faithful. Faith is imparted to us by our hearing, by someone who proclaims and models faith for us. This is not any faith – but faith in the one true source of salvation who is Jesus Christ.

Jesus told His apostles and disciples: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.”

Someone had to inform us of this fact. Indeed they did – the apostles and disciples set out to every corner of the world and proclaimed what they had seen and heard. They spoke it, they held the liturgy – bringing the sacraments to all, and they witnessed to the truth of Christ by offering their lives without fear. These witnesses, mostly uneducated and formerly fearful, brought the faith to every nation.

Armenia was the first nation to adopt Christianity in 301. Tiridates III was the first ruler to officially Christianize his people predating the date of Constantine the Great’s personal acceptance of Christianity on behalf of the Roman Empire. Subsequently many nations adopted Christianity and assumed the role of imparting the faith to their people. A mosaic of peoples and cultures went on to make salvation known through faith in Jesus known.

Bishop Hodur saw nations as a tool in God’s hands. Each people is endowed with specific gifts and insights that add to the totality of Christian evangelism.

Religion cannot espouse the dissolution of national and cultural boundaries as its goal — an argument made by those who define everything in terms of separation. Our faith, and the expression of our faith – our religion – is focused on making Jesus known through the gift of nations and cultures. Nations and cultures speak of God who works through them to fulfill Jesus’ command to: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”

God speaks to and values every nation and culture. He works through them to make His will known, to offer salvation to every person.

Today we celebrate the individual heritage of every nation and culture. We celebrate the gifts God has given us – those gifts intended to make salvation known, to bring all to know and worship Him who created us for His purpose.

Art, Events, , , , , ,

Friends Union String Band at the Shaker Heritage Site in Albany

Please consider joining the Friends Union String Band for an epic Music At The Meeting House Concert with some Shaker Wit and Wisdom at the Historic 1848 Shaker Meeting House, 25 Meeting House Road (next to Albany International Airport), Albany on Saturday, June 22nd, 7:30 P.M. The suggested donation is $15. Please call (518) 456-7890 for more information.

The Friends Union String Band features renowned Adirondack hammer dulcimer, 6 and 12 string guitar and vocalist, Rod Driscoll, along with Melbourne, Florida based master guitarist and bhodran player, Norma Rodham and fiddle master Steve Iachetta. Friends Union String Band will perform innovative and traditional dance music in a coffee-house setting at the Shaker first settlement special performance place.

The Shaker Heritage Society is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization.

PNCC, , , , , ,

Waymart, PA

From the Wayne Independent: Plan stars Waymart as heritage destination

US Route 6 is steeped in heritage as it winds its way 427 miles across Pennsylvania’s northern tier, and the unique legacy of Waymart as a cross roads community has not been missed.

‘The culmination of numerous meetings with interested citizens and other stake holders in the Waymart area is the presentation of a work plan of how to make Waymart an even more desirable and well known destination community for travelers. As was said Wednesday at a discussion of the plan at the D&H Gravity Depot Museum, the idea is how to get people to not just stop for gas but to stay a while and explore.

Waymart was one of several communities along Route 6 that applied and were picked as a Route 6 Heritage Community in the first round of the state tourism program. The goal is to have at least one town in each of the 11 counties selected; the next nearest is Wyalusing. Carbondale and Milford have been selected as Route 6 Heritage communities in the next round.

In 2005, Governor Rendell named Route 6 in Pennsylvania as a State Heritage Corridor under the Pa. Heritage Areas Program of the Pa. Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR).

Although the interest is high and the Waymart area is seen as having a lot to offer, the plan’s implementation will require funding. State grants may be hard to find with the austere budget just passed. Suggestions were made to apply to private foundations. The Route 6 Heritage Corp. also has a certain amount of funds already allocated. Dan Perry of the Lackawanna Valley Heritage Authority said that their organization may be able to assist.

Rick Truscello, Manager of Planning Services, EADS Group, represented the consulting firm hired by the state to help Route 6 Heritage communities develop a plan and implement it.

A main focus ahead for the heritage effort in Waymart is development of a visitors center in what is referred to as the Brick House, on top Farview Mountain and once a part of the Farview State Mental Hospital operations. The State Legislature recently approved transfer of the three acre property along Route 6, to the Waymart Area Historical Society.

Jane Varcoe president of the Waymart Area Historical Society, states that several organizations, from the area historical societies to the Pocono Mountain Visitors Bureau, are behind the project. The Brick House is seen as a —northern gateway— to the Poconos, as well as a visitors’ stop to the cultural and natural resources westward, in adjoining Lackawanna County. The two sides of the Moosic Mountain range have a shared heritage, between the mining and moving of anthracite coal.

The Brick House is a principal structural asset identified in the work plan. Most of the focus, however, will be on community activities, said Truscello. The plan also recommends enhancements at the Route 6/296 intersection.
No major street scape improvements were advised. A historic district also may not apply here, Truscello said. There are fleeting remnants of the D&H Gravity Railroad, although a few good examples exist.

Other wonderful assets Truscello pointed out included St. Tikhon’s Monastery, Salvation Army Ladore Lodge & Conference Center, and Spojnia Manor, founded by the Polish National Catholic Church. Views of the Waymart Wind Farm are also an important attraction.

An information kiosk, interpretive panels and other signs are recommended.

Varcoe said that a principal goal is to establish a recreational trail on the former gravity Railroad bed. The first phase of this effort would be to establish a trail connection between the rail bed section behind the Brick House, to the D&H rail bed at Simpson, which is the trail head for Northeast Pa. Rails to Trails. The second phase would be to establish the trail on the rail bed down the mountain to the D&H Gravity Depot on South Street.

Waymart is notable as the location of Bishop Hodur’s “Ustronie,” literally “retreat” or secluded place, the small home he went to on retreat and to write. It was from there that he wrote his “Apocalypse, or, The revelation of the XXth century.” Also in Waymart, the Bishop Hodur Retreat and Recreation Center where the PNCC holds its annual KURS encampment for youth, the Central Diocese’s annual acolyte retreat and other events.

For more information visit the Pa. Route 6 Heritage Corp and the Waymart Borough.

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