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Christian Witness, Homilies, ,

Reflection for the 2nd Sunday in Lent 2021

Working to change.

As they were coming down from the mountain, He charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

Lent calls us to change, to reform. Lenten discipline presupposes that we need reform. We may need reform because we lack an understanding of God’s call, or our religious practice has become just habit, or we are just going through the motions without knowing why, or just maybe, we are comfortable and do not want to change or reform.

Throughout our shared Lenten journey, we are studying the means and methods by which we achieve conversion, change and reform. This study will help us to reset our lives, right set our expectations, and get to the change and reform necessary to be ardent and faithful livers of Jesus’s gospel way.

Last week we studied the discipline of fasting. We learned that as we fast from what pulls us away from the gospel, we feel Jesus filling that space with new longing to live the gospel as well as His grace power to do so. 

In the coming weeks we will continue with the subjects of prayer, study, and proclamation. Today we focus on giving, also known as sacrifice.

There is no more poignant call and answer to giving than Abraham’s. As the Passover sacrifice of a lamb prefigures Jesus, so Abraham’s offering of his son prefigures God’s giving of His Son Jesus.

Sacrifice is a call and a response. Abraham could have easily said: No, I’m too busy, I don’t feel like it, Your request goes too far, Moriah is too far. Yet, no matter how impossibly difficult it was for Abraham he answered yes, “Here I am!” In Lent we are called to answer yes to sacrifice and giving more than we normally would, to doing the harder things, and to permanently change the way we answer.

In our sacrifice and giving, God recognizes our devotion. As He said to Abraham: I see how devoted you are. God recognized that Abraham did not quit or hold back. Even more, God recognizes the fact that Abraham did not grumble afterward, but rather saw the gifts around him and he gave them to God. Because of that, God promised His abundant blessing in terms of descendants, victory, and that others will find blessing because of Abraham’s giving.

In Jesus dying and rising those gifts are carried forward for us. Because of Jesus’ devotion to His Father’s call and His giving response, we can call ourselves His descendants. We have the only victory that matters, and others find blessing in us. 

Lent calls us to give and sacrifice. Let us respond recognizing that we are doing so from the storehouse of abundant blessings He gives us and as the legacy Jesus left.

Christian Witness, Homilies, ,

Reflection for the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time 2020

Trapped.

I urge you, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship. Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.

It is said that a Sunday’s first reading and gospel deliver the same message. They closely follow the same theme. The Epistle however always seems to stand out as something different and apart.

The key to understanding the Epistle, the letters, is that they effectuate the Old Testament readings and gospels. Epistles are the game plan for how we are to carry out what God has given us. It is what we allow ourselves to be trapped into doing in accepting the great love of God.

Jeremiah laments the fact that God has given him a very hard message to proclaim. He has to preach the disaster that will come upon Israel if they will not turn away from their evils, their worship of false gods. 

In lamenting what he must preach, Jeremiah realizes that no matter how much he would wish it, he cannot hold it in. He has to do as God has asked. I will not mention Him, I will speak in His name no more. But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart. Jeremiah is trapped because the powerful love and truth of God are irrefutable.

Now, Peter thought he knew what he must say. After proclaiming Jesus to be God, Peter decides he is going to teach God. Jesus gives him a quick lesson which is also meant for us. If we wish God’s love, we must surrender. We must stop thinking our way and start thinking God’s way. We must be willing to hand it all over to God and be trapped up by and in Him.

Our instinct is to escape being trapped, to free ourselves and do as we please. Humans hate being trapped, we feel like we’re in the Poseidon, an overturned ship, trying to find a way out. Paul knew that, he realized it on the road when Jesus confronted him. His choice, allow himself to be trapped up into Jesus’ way, or get back on his donkey and live a valueless life.

Today, Paul tells us how we put those lessons from the first reading and gospel into action. We offer ourselves, our wills and ways sacrificially allowing ourselves to be trapped into the life of God. True love is to give oneself over. Once trapped in the life of God, we do His will, because like Jeremiah, we can do no other. We let our old ways dissolve as our minds are renewed. Getting rid of our ‘conformity to the as-is,’ allows us to be good and pleasing and perfect. In being trapped we are freed.

Current Events, , , , ,

A generation defined

From the Buffalo News (an older story): France honors WWII hero: Veteran took part in Normandy battle which is an ode to the sons and daughters of immigrants. Men like Mr. Pawlik were part of a great generation, not in the marketing sense of the term, but in the way that service, honor, and sacrifice were part of their very being. It came from family, neighborhood, and Church.

Blood shed during World War II never is far from Joseph E. Pawlik’s mind.

In addition to scrapbook photos, medals and recordings of the war stories he once told, a piece of shrapnel still lodged near his spine serves as a reminder.

Pawlik, now 89, was struck by artillery fire in 1944, during the invasion of Normandy at the Battle of Merderet River.

—He carries with him an all-too-difficult memory of his service that day,— said Assemblyman Robin Schimminger, D-Kenmore.

Monday afternoon, with small American flags on the laps of many in a room at Buffalo’s Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Pawlik was named chevalier —” the equivalent of —knight— in English —” of the Legion of Honor by the French government for his contribution to France’s liberation during World War II.

The honor, dating back to 1802 under Napoleon, was conferred April 16 in a decree by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

—Today, you are our hero,— said Pascal Soares, honorary consul of France in Buffalo, as he presented Pawlik the honor.

As a young man in Buffalo’s Black Rock neighborhood, Pawlik was eager to assist his country at war. He enlisted as a paratrooper and served as a technical sergeant.

Pawlik’s selfless nature would carry him through the war.

Three months after receiving a Purple Heart as a result of fighting at Merderet River, Pawlik was back in the front lines.

He didn’t want to leave the troops,— his daughter Terry Hans explained. —They needed him.—

In 1945, on a bitter winter day at Dead Man’s Ridge in Belgium, no one needed Pawlik more than his sergeant, who was wounded. As others took safety in their foxhole, Pawlik left his comfort zone to help his comrade to safety.

…

James Benz, a Vietnam veteran, was on hand as his friend was honored. —I’m very proud,— Benz, 61, said of Pawlik. —He’s like another father to me.—

Sto Lat! Mr. Pawlik, Sto Lat!

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