From the Pastor

Resurrection Sunday – April 5, 2015

From the Pastor /

Mary Magdalene believed that she had lost everything when Jesus died. John’s Gospel tells us that, when Jesus died on Calvary, Mary Magdalene stood at the foot of the cross with Mary, the mother of Jesus and John, the beloved disciple, as the dying Jesus entrusted His mother and John to each other. She witnessed at first hand the brutal death on the cross of one that she loved so much. We don’t know why it was that Mary Magdalene went to the tomb alone on Easter Sunday morning. Was it that she and the other women had agreed to meet there? Did she, perhaps, want to spare Jesus’ mother the agony of seeing her son’s body before it was completely prepared for burial? On the day of His death, those preparations had been interrupted by the onset of the sabbath. Mary’s journey was solitary also risky. Guards protected the tomb lest any of Jesus’ disciples tried to remove His body. They were rough men; and she was a solitary woman. In those days, as now, in so many places, a woman had little status. Mary Magdalene was the first witness of the resurrection. Yet her unexpected news, so beyond the imagining of any of the apostles, had less credibility in the society of her day precisely because it was reported by a woman. Peter and John wanted to verify her story for themselves. It was only when they entered the tomb of Jesus that they realized the truth of the resurrection.

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Holy Saturday – April 4, 2015

From the Pastor /

From an ancient homily of Holy Saturday:

Something strange is happening – there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. He whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and He has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear. He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sleep. Greatly desired to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, He has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, He who is both God and the son of Eve. (…)

For your sake I, your God, became your son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I, whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth. (…) See on My face the spittle I received in order to restore to you the life I once breathed into you. On My back see the marks of scourging I endured the burden of sin that weighs upon your back. See My hands, nailed firmly to a tree, for you who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree. I slept on the cross and a sword pierced My side for you who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. (…)

Rise, let us leave this place. I will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven. The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity.

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Good Friday – April 3, 2015

From the Pastor /

St. John’s account of the final events leading to Jesus’ death begins in the garden where Jesus is arrested. It is a place where Jesus often gathered with His disciples. From a setting of peace and tranquility it becomes a place of betrayal, confusion and violence. The narrative ends in another garden, now one of sadness, where the dead body of Jesus is laid in a new tomb.

At the beginning of his Gospel, St. John repeats the opening words of Genesis, “in the beginning.” It is as if, in painting these gardens into the canvas of his picture of Jesus’ betrayal, suffering and death, he takes us back to the origins of sin. Whereas the first man and woman in the garden of Eden chose to do what they knew was wrong and thereby lost control of their God-given gift of free will, Jesus gave himself totally to the will of His Father and remained steadfast to the end.

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Holy Thursday – April 2, 2015

From the Pastor /

Jesus Christ takes all elements of our human nature and raises them up to communicate His divine life to us. At the foot-washing, the apostles immediately see that Jesus is taking on the role of a servant. There is also something very intimate about washing the feet of someone else. But as well as that meaning, is there a deeper meaning that Peter doesn’t see? It seems so, as Jesus says, “At the moment you do not know what I am doing, but later you will understand.” Jesus as the great, eternal high priest, is about to enter into the liturgy of His own passion and death. This is the ultimate and eternal sacrifice. He wishes to initiate His apostles into this great high-priestly action.

Of course, all of us are washed by Christ in the sacrament of baptism. By that washing we receive the Holy Spirit and the gifts of faith, hope and charity. We also receive a share, a part, in the offices of Christ as priest, prophet and king. Other Gospels concentrate on the gift of the Eucharist at the Last Supper, and John’s Gospel complements their accounts with this emphasis on the ritual preparation of the apostles, by Jesus using a gesture from the religious ritual of the time. So these two great sacraments, the Eucharist and Holy Orders, are celebrated tonight. As we meditate upon these two great gifts to the Church on this holy night, we can be full of gratitude to God. We can see how close God is to us, and how, in the holy sacrifice of the Mass, Jesus again hands himself over to sinful humanity.

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Palm Sunday – “B” – March 29, 2015

From the Pastor /

As we read the account of the passion of Jesus from St. Mark’s Gospel today, we move with Jesus through the events of that first Holy Week. Against the background of plotting betrayal, Jesus accepts the loving tenderness of one who prophetically anoints Him in preparation for His burial. He shares His last Passover meal with the disciples, again prophetically acting out His approaching death in the sacrament of His body and blood, and, in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus goes through an agony of anticipation, freely accepting the will of His Father, which lead to His arrest and condemnation.

How can we effectively take part in the commemoration of the passion and death of the Lord this week? If we truly to experience the transforming power of the resurrection when we celebrate Easter next Sunday, we’re called to take part as fully as we can in the liturgical actions of this week, reminding ourselves that we are all called to be disciples, to take up our cross and follow Jesus.

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Passion Sunday – “B” – March 22, 2015

From the Pastor /

Today’s passage from Jeremiah begins, “See, the days are coming…” The second reading, from the letter to the Hebrews, speaks of Christ looking beyond His life on earth. In the Gospel, Jesus says that “the hour has come.” We still live in that “hour;” it is still unfolding in our lives.

Our lives are full of small deaths, and small resurrections. When we confess our sins, when we join with Christ in His Eucharist, when we make sacrifices and take risks for His sake, then something in us dies and something new is born again. We can live many years without allowing this death and resurrection to take place in our lives. We may not choose to change, but sometimes it is outside circumstances that force a change on us. This can be the grace of God for us, but only if we have faith and hope. If we lived our lives in a perpetual winter, and all living memory had forgotten the spring, how shocked we would be when a new spring finally came. We would call it the death of winter, unable to imagine that this was not death but a newness of life. St. Paul tells us that we are to walk in that newness of life. Christ walked into the greatest darkness possible, the rejection of salvation itself, yet He entered into that darkness and faced up to it with His human emotions, showing that fear is to be overcome by hope and love.

The art of travel is knowing what to pack, but the experienced traveler will also know what to pack. We will gain more from Lent if we see it as not just a temporary giving up of things but rather training in letting go of everything that holds us up on the journey to the kingdom. Jesus teaches us to travel lightly. In Lent we can learn something about how demanding the journey to eternal happiness can be. It may not be material things that we’re called to let go of. We may need to let go of attitudes, emotional blinds, compulsions, automatic responses to situations; in short, the false sense of self that hides the true self which is being created in Christ. Now in these last two weeks of Lent, we can consider the magnitude of the journey Christ has asked us to pursue. Yet it is not a journey we make on our own; if we look ahead, He is there, and we follow.

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IV Sunday of Lent – “B” – March 15, 2015

From the Pastor /

Becoming God’s works of art means handing ourselves over to be recreated in Christ, shaped by the Father’s love and given a new life in the Holy Spirit. This happens most profoundly when we give up on our own efforts. When we find ourselves finally exiled, lost, at the dead end of our own plans and weaknesses we then realize that what we have driven out is Christ, then we can look on Him and His love and be healed.

Thinking about this in Lent is especially important. We are encouraged by the Church to observe Lent through deepened prayer, more frequent fasting and a greater sharing of what we have. At this stage in Lent many of us will be feeling pleased at what a “successful” Lent we’re having; we’ve stuck to our disciplines and are beginning to feel pretty pleased with our spiritual progress! So let’s be happy in our Lenten journey, and share that smile of God’s love for us a bit more this week. Next time we know we are getting in a mess, instead of simply making bigger efforts of our own, let’s call on Jesus first, and allow ourselves to know the joy of His help in all attempts to love better.

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Institution of the PNCC – March 8, 2015

From the Pastor, PNCC /

The PNCC in ONE, because like Christ, the head of the Church, is one, thus there is also one body in which Christ is head and the faithful as members are united. Although there are many members in the Church, the body of Christ, yet they all are one body and they are united in an inseparable unity.

The PNCC is HOLY, because Christ, her head, is holy. The fact that PNCC members do sin doesn’t destroy the holiness of the Church.

The PNCC is CATHOLIC, because Christ is the Lord of the universe. The PNCC is Catholic as she remains in the original tradition of the Apostles and continues “That which has been believed everywhere, always, by all”. Our holy orders are recognized by both the RC and Orthodox Churches. We are rooted in Scripture, grounded in Sacred Tradition and accept the Ecumenical Councils of the undivided Church.

The PNCC is APOSTOLIC, because her divine founder was the first “apostle”. The apostolic teaching guarded by the Church constitutes the essence of her apostolicity. The uninterrupted sequence and succession of the shepherds and teachers of the Church which begins by the Apostles, guarantees the truth of the Church.

The PNCC is a CONSTITUTIONAL Church. The source of sovereignty rests in each democratically organized parish, which owns, controls and administers all parish property. Ultimate and virtually complete authority is given to the Church’s legislative body, the General Synod. Between synods, the executive body known as the Supreme Council of the Church is the highest governing body.

The PNCC is a BIBLE-BELIEVING Church. A Catholic Church that believes the Holy Bible to be the divinely inspired Word of God.

The PNCC is a DEMOCRATIC Church. The poorest lay person has a voice in the parish. The laity and clergy work together, with separate spheres of responsibility in parochial affairs, and they work together, often after long heated debate, in the seniorate and in the diocesan and general synods.
Our laity is kept well informed of all that is going on in the Church. We are not perfect. We are human. But we know that our Church will, through the sacraments, make possible our growth in grace and our entrance into heaven!

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II Sunday of Lent – “B” – March 1, 2015

From the Pastor /

This encounter of Peter, James and John upon the mountain with the glorious Christ seems out of place in the Gospel of St. Mark. Why are the disciples not able to see the glory of Christ at every moment? Why can they not see this? It is because they have not accepted that Jesus must die on the cross. We, readers of St. Mark’s Gospel, are now seeing all this in the light of the cross and resurrection. We know that without the cross there can be no resurrection. It is only after Jesus has risen that the disciples will understand the significance of what happened upon the mountain. The mountain of the glorious appearance of Jesus only makes sense in the light of that other mountain, Golgotha, the place of the crucifixion. When we think of earthly glory we think of those who have risen above our ordinary human weakness and vulnerability. Those who are rich and famous do not share in our daily struggles to make a living. Sometimes we think that sharing in the glory of Christ will make us invulnerable to human weakness and suffering. With Peter we say it is wonderful to be with the glorified Christ, and we wish to build a dwelling place so that Christ can stay forever with us. Yet remaining with Christ means following Him to that other mountain, the place of the cross.

In order to enter into His glory, Christ calls us to follow Him on the path to the cross. It is very tempting to remain on the mountain, but we are called to return to our lives. Each of us is confronted by suffering: the pain and disappointments of our own lives, the sufferings of those around us. As Christians we are not called to rise above the pain and suffering of the world, but to follow Christ and enter into those places where people suffer. We can only do this as Christ’s disciples, allowing Him to enter into our own suffering and pain, so that we can show to others this healing love. This is what it means to show the glory of Christ.

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I Sunday of Lent – “B” – February 22, 2015

From the Pastor /

In the old legends, the hero was recognized as such from an early age. Mark’s Gospel gives no information on Jesus’ early years, but all Gospel references to what follows Jesus’ baptism draw attention to His unique status. First, however, He is put to the test. We are told that Jesus was driven by the Spirit into the wilderness, where He was tempted by Satan. We are also told that He was with the wild beasts. It was commonly believed in the ancient world that the wilderness was where evil spirits and demons lived. Jesus was also looked after by angels. In today’s Gospel story, the issue is whether Jesus, the beloved Son of God will trust His Father where the nation Israel, the children of God, did not. Mark doesn’t explicitly tell us the outcome, but we are told that Jesus emerged triumphant from this test and, after John’s arrest, proclaimed: “The kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent, and believe the Good News.”

Perhaps our own test, especially during Lent, is to ask ourselves if we really believe that the kingdom of God is at hand and that it really is good news for us. The goal of Lenten repentance is to change our mindset to accepting God’s good news, and letting it make a difference in lives. After all, the English word “repentance” comes from a Greek word that literally means “a change of mind”. We are called first to change the way we think about God’s kingdom and Jesus’ good news before we try to change our behavior. This change of mind is what Lent is really about.

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