September 2014

Twenty Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time – “A” – September 28, 2014

From the Pastor /

Tax collectors are civil servants now, prostitutes are often victims more than wrongdoers; so maybe we could imagine Christ saying that the drug dealers, greedy bankers, or whatever group we feel morally superior to in our world today, make their way into the kingdom before us. The tax collectors and prostitutes listened to John the Baptist because they were aware that their professions were despised. They knew what they were. For the chief priests and elders, their position in society made them blind to themselves. They saw other people, like tax collectors and prostitutes, not as real persons, but as representatives of types of people – sinners. What attracted the social outcasts to St. John the Baptist was not so much what he said as the fact that someone was speaking to them at all. So they had at least the possibility to repent. The people who will not repent are those who do not even consider the possibility of repentance. Perhaps the shock of the crucifixion may have woken some priests up to their real need for repentance.

Prayer is preparation and prayer is repentance. Sooner or later we will be challenged by life. We can never say that we have fought our final battle, so we pray before and after each trial. The first son is not described as praying but he is very like the prodigal son in St. Luke who is said to have “entered into himself,” the phrase translated as “he came to his senses.” In prayer we enter into ourselves and discover that we are not what we think we are. We are told to pray constantly not to be put to the test, but we are also to pray after we have failed the test. The prayer of the apostles was the prayer of those who have failed their test. Yet they still had many trials, even after the resurrection.

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Twenty Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time – “A” – September 21, 2014

From the Pastor /

The parable of the laborers in the vineyard is one of the most difficult ones for a modern audience to appreciate. How can it be just that those who have worked for only an hour are paid the same as those who have labored through the heat of the day? It is the same sort of complaint we hear from people who have led exemplary lives only to be hit with ill health, economic woes and personal tragedies. “Why is God doing this to me? They ask. “It isn’t fair.” However, what Jesus wants to reveal, through His use of parables, is not what is fair and what isn’t but rather what enhances the presence of the kingdom of God and what blocks it. In today’s parable He uses the miserliness and envy of the workers. The kingdom of God is a place of forgiveness and generosity, not a place of greed and envy. The parables face us with a tough challenge. Can we understand and can we live in the way God lives?

For the Christian, envy and greed are not just addictions or illness. They create an obstacle in our way of understanding God and in our freedom to follow God’s guidance. Each of us is tested in different ways. We are asked to free ourselves, and to think that what another has is something I should have. It is true that such world view often emerges from our own sense of emptiness. Not having any sense of our fulfillment, we look elsewhere to fill the gap, but the gap is never filled. Instead we can look to the Lord and His teachings, for His grace and His guidance reveal a way forward in this labyrinth. We can do that, we can break the vicious circle of envy and greed and become fully alive in the kingdom of God.

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Solemnity – Brotherly Love – “A” – September 14, 2014

From the Pastor, PNCC /

Today’s Gospel story is the parable of the Good Samaritan, a story we’ve heard over and over. It’s a very familiar story about showing compassion even for people we may not want to treat well: a nice little story with a nice little moral, especially for those of us who like to do good deeds for the needy. The story certainly doesn’t offend our sensibilities; in fact, we tend to hear it with a satisfied ear, as if we believe we would surely do what the “Good” Samaritan did when he was moved by compassion to help the victim of highway robbery. At least, we’d like to think we would. In other words, we put ourselves in the place of the Samaritan, and it’s comfortable there. But let’s remember that there are two other audiences for it, besides us here today: there’s the group of people, including the lawyer, gathered around Jesus that day, presumably all or mostly Jewish people. Then there are the early Christians of Luke’s community who are trying to live their lives as followers of this Jesus, and they’re just as interested in being faithful and in knowing what that means for how they live their lives.

It’s not one of our own kind who saves the day – it’s the hated Samaritan, a guy who’s definitely on the outside of our community of care. They don’t worship like us, they don’t hate the same people we hate or love the same people we love, they don’t live where we live, and there’s no way they should provide the hero of the piece. The stomachs are churning by this time, and the sensibilities are definitely offended. A lot of hatred, of course, is religiously based and rooted in historical things like wars and other arguments. The Samaritan had probably been taught, from his side, to hate the Jews, too. And remember that he’s in their territory, and the robbers could still be hanging around, waiting for their next victim. In our aspirations for holiness, we may miss the heart of both the Good News and the Law. After all, the quest for holiness cannot violate God’s commands to Love.

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Twenty Third Sunday in Ordinary Time – “A” – September 7, 2014

From the Pastor /

Today’s readings center on how best to address the problems that arise within the local church, in particular on the issue of brotherly or sisterly correction. Ezekiel, whom we heard in our first reading, insists that just as a sentry is duty-bound to warn of approaching danger, so he, the prophet, must warn those who persist in wickedness of the consequence of their actions. If his language sometimes seems harsh, it’s because the issue is so serious.

Indeed, in some ways Ezekiel’s words foreshadow Jesus’ own teaching, as presented to us in today’s Gospel. There He reminds us that we have a familial duty to do what we can when a brother’s or sister’s behavior causes offense, especially when it is a threat to the well-being of the community. The first step is to deal with the matter privately and informally, in the hope that it will result in a peaceful settlement. It is far better to have the courage to speak with wrongdoers face to face than to gossip about them behind their back. If that fails, stage two is to get the assistance of a couple of others; it will be more difficult to reject the advice of two or three people than that of one. Finally, as a last resort, the matter may have to be brought to the community. This may have to be officially acknowledged. However, excommunication should be rare, and should be used not as a punishment but rather as encouragement to the wrongdoer to return to the fold. If, as the Gospel puts is, such a person is to be treated “like pagan or a tax-collector”, that does not mean that the community are to wash their hands of him or her. On the contrary, just as pagans and tax-collectors were a special focus of Jesus’ ministry, so Jesus teaches us to include them in the community’s mission also.

The second reading puts things into perspective: St. Paul teaches us that “Love is the one thing that cannot hurt your neighbor.” Christian correction makes sense only when it is done in the spirit of love: there may be times when we are called to practice the love that cares enough to confront, to challenge and even to oppose. Whenever we have courage to oppose what is evil we are involved in the Church’s task of binding the evil forces that oppress people, loosing the bonds that prevent them from living the fullness of life in God’s kingdom. The Christian is called to love enough to speak uncomfortable truths at times – but always in humility and love. The final words of today’s Gospel apply not only to communal prayer but also to every honest attempt to restore peace and harmony within the community: “where two or three meet in My name,” Jesus promises, “I shall be there with them.”

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