Septuagesima Sunday “C” – February 17, 2019

Frackville, From the Pastor /

The prophet Jeremiah helps us to see precisely this. The ones who think that human beings have all the answers to life’s questions will find in the end that what they believe will turn to dust. Everything they trusted to give them life will dry up like a desert stream. On the other hand, those who trust in God, and build their lives on God’s word, will find what looks like a dry and empty space, by human standards, will, in fact, be transformed. The same sort of contrast is made by Jesus in the Gospel. Those who have nothing are the heirs to the Kingdom of God; the hungry shall be satisfied; the sad will be filled with joy and laughter; the persecuted, those unwanted by the society of today, will enjoy the fullness of life in heaven.

In the desert that is our modern world, we need a lighthouse to help us to distinguish just what is true, what is the way God wants us to live. The truth is that all of us are invited to be part of the project of Jesus to bring light into the world. Jesus teaches us how to live by loving God with everything we have and by loving our neighbor as ourselves. The true success of our lives will lie in our becoming the person that God created us to be, and that person is an image of Jesus. At first sight, the desert seems to be dead. There are no signs of life. But when the rain does fall, when wells are dug, when gardens are planted and irrigated, suddenly the desert springs to life. Jesus calls us to be people of faith, people with a vision, people who are prepared to build lighthouses in the desert, from where His light can give a new vision of what humanity is meant to be.

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III Sunday in Ordinary Time “C” – January 27, 2019

Frackville, From the Pastor /

In today’s Gospel we hear the great Jubilee text. Jesus goes to the sabbath service in the synagogue at Nazareth. His reputation has spread throughout the countryside, and many have come to see Him, curious about what He might say. After all miracles He has been performing in other places, they look to Him to explain himself. Jesus concludes with: “This text is being fulfilled today even as you listen.” The Old Testament principle of Jubilee is restored in the teaching of Jesus. Jubilee behavior involves showing compassion and care for those crushed by social and economic injustice.

As a congregation, a school group, a family or even as individuals, we are called to live in step with the spirit of Jubilee renewal. This means showing compassion to people in need, but also working to break the chains of structural injustice that prevent millions throughout the world from realizing full and dignified lives. The biblical vision of Jubilee provides a perspective to guide the Christian community’s behavior in the larger economic system. It invites us to listen to the voice of people who are poor, oppressed and powerless, to deepen understanding of the structural causes of global poverty and injustice, to pray for long-term solutions to the global poverty crisis, and to share wealth with those who are poor. In recent decades, there have been strong Jubilee movements, involving churches, to cancel the debt of low-income countries, bring about trade justice, and challenge the huge amounts of global spending on arms trading and nuclear weapons. Through prayer and action, our congregation can be part of the worldwide Jubilee movement to tackle greed and inequity, and build a just and fair global economy within a sustainable environment, for the sake of the world’s poorest communities.

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II Sunday in Ordinary Time “C” – January 20, 2019

Frackville, From the Pastor /

Today’s Gospel reading is about a wedding, one that Jesus and His disciples attended in Cana. The bridal couple were probably comparative strangers, as was the custom in those days. They, too, may have been “surprise by joy” as they entered the lifelong process of deepening love and mutual discovery. The wedding celebration at Cana conveys an important truth about God’s desire to be one with God’s people in a new covenantal relationship. This was not a new message. The prophet Isaiah in our first reading today describes how the Lord will “wed” His faithful people, “like a young man marrying a virgin”. People did not expect such an event until the end of time, so it came as a surprise when Jesus announced that the reign of God was already arriving. Those who were poor in Jesus’ day didn’t expect to be so blessed. When Mary observed that the wine had run out, it is as though she were lamenting a faith whose joy had run dry. She knew that faith is not about rules but relationship.

The wedding at Cana is a kind of parable, showing how God longs to relate to us, not in harsh or exacting judgment, but in tender, faithful love. In the presence of Jesus those huge stone ceremonial vessels containing water for purifying began instead to overflow with wine for rejoicing. The same change takes place within the believer’s heart: we may feel glad and uplifted instead of sad and sinful. The “best wine” has been saved until now, as the steward of the last feast said; it has been saved for us. St. John tells us that there were six of jars. Since the number 7 is the Jewish idea of perfection, 6 stands a symbol of incompleteness. However hard we may try, we can never achieve holiness by our own efforts. In our relationships and in our work, it may sometimes feel as though the joy run out and that we have nothing left to give anyone else. The let us turn to Jesus in our incompleteness. “Do whatever He tells you,” says Mary to us, as she said at Cana. This is our chance to begin again, to accept His forgiveness and healing, and allow God’s Spirit to fill our hearts. Jesus didn’t say to the servants at Cana, “Store that good wine until the end of time.” He said, “Draw it now.”

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Bishop Bernard’s Pastoral Letter on Discipleship

PNCC /

January, 2019

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of you in our Central Diocesan family, and welcome to the Year of Discipleship in our holy Church!

In the words of our national PNCC Future Direction Sub-Committee recently given to us..…..As our Lord said to His disciples “Follow Me” for His public ministry, He continues to call us to follow Him and wants our relationship with Him to grow and strengthen as the days, months and years goes by.  Our PNCC is calling us to renew our Discipleship in our Lord this year and as we begin 2019…. 

Soooo – let’s get a handle on this idea of discipleship, shall we?

Not too long ago I was watching a Netflix presentation about the Masons, with a focus on their place of origin, Freemasons’ Hall in Great Queen Street, London.  As I became drawn into the narrative of this society’s founding and growth, I was struck by how clearly they laid out the expectations of a mason.  By contrast, I was struck by how often our Church is hesitant to name the expectations of discipleship for its members. 

Our Future Directions Sub-Committee has begun laying out these expectations and will continue that effort throughout the year.  I’d say, it all boils down to five basic opportunities to “grow and strengthen our relationship with Jesus.” 

Worship – We worship God together, through his Son Jesus.  Worshipping regularly is a part of who we are as Catholic Christians. The people of God join together in the house of God to worship and honor God (Psalm 150). Worship is about community: the Christian community gathers to worship, to pray together, and to continue its growth in the faith.

Grow – We become affiliated with a parish society, Bible study, the School of Christian Living to grow in faith and our walk with Jesus.  Jesus went to the synagogue “as was His custom” (Luke 4:16).  Synagogue for Jesus was a place of discernment, learning scripture, and growing in the knowledge and love of God and neighbor.  We join with other PNCC-ers here in order to grow together.

Mission – We are called to love our neighbors.  We are encouraged to be involved in some mission emphasis.  Jesus had a special place in His heart for the poor, marginalized, outcast, and lost. We are called to be the hands, feet, and voice of Jesus Christ in our world.  We seek to love and serve others and believe this is vital in our Christian walk.

Talents and Abilities – All of us have talents and abilities that can be used for the glory of God.  Some have the gift of teaching or leading.  Others have the gift of administration, or may be gifted in finance and can help the church to be faithful stewards of the gifts offered for ministry and mission.  Some have the gift of compassion, or love to send cards to those who are sick. Some feel called to reach out to the unchurched, while others have the gift of hospitality.  Yes, all of us have some God-given gift, talent, or ability that we can use for the glory of God.

Proportional Giving – Stewardship is a spiritual discipline and an act of worship.  Our offering is a recognition that everything we have and are is a gift to us from God.  We are all blessed.  We are all called by God to offer our first-fruits and our [portion] to God for the work of His kingdom (Leviticus 27:30-33; Deuteronomy 14:22-29).  Our offering at a regular percentage of giving is an act of gratitude, an act of obedience, and an act of our covenantal agreement with God.  Our offering is used, then, in ministry and mission on behalf of our Lord Jesus Christ.     

So let’s take time to reflect on these five expectations as we undertake a life of Catholic Christian discipleship.  After all, God proved he loves us so much by giving His only begotten Son to live among us, to teach us of God’s love and kingdom, to die that we might be forgiven, and to rise that we may have eternal life.  God has promised to be with us always.  Discipleship, then, is our faithful response to this God who “so loves the world”  (John 3:16)      

Peace and grace to all.

Bishop Bernard 

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Epiphany of the Lord “C” – January 6, 2019

Frackville, From the Pastor /

Today’s story from St. Matthew’s Gospel provides us with an insight into how men and women 2000 years ago would stargaze and learnt to plot the course of a journey in doing so. It is worth pondering just how challenging journeys in those days must have been. There were none of the modern means of transport and travel, and yet we know that men and women had by then migrated from one continent to another and trade routes were already well established. Beasts of burden, like camels and donkeys, carrying not only the travelers but their belongings, made long journeys possible.

St. Matthew was writing for his own Jewish people and one of his concerns was that they grasped the fact that Jesus, while He had come to liberate them, had also come to liberate all men and women of all time. Having helped his own people make the necessary connection with the prophecy about Bethlehem being the place towards which they were heading, he also links their journey with Isaiah’s prophetic vision of the nations seeing the light and traveling to pay homage with their gifts. The gold points us to the fact that Christ child has come to establish the kingdom of God. The incense reveals that He is no ordinary child but God’s Son, while myrrh warns us of the disturbing prospect of His passion and death: His body will need to be anointed after His death.

The Church has incorporated the wonderful symbols of the wise men’s gifts into its liturgy. Just think of how we use incense to remind us not only of the preciousness of Christ’s presence in the sacraments, but also of the preciousness of each and every one of us. In the funeral rite the body, which has been anointed in the sacraments, is incensed: a reminder that our mortal bodies are destined for resurrection. In today’s world the invitation to you and me is to be ever conscious of the need to reach out to everyone and embrace all people as God’s precious children. This feast of Epiphany provides a wonderful opportunity for us to think about the expansive and all-embracing nature of God’s revelation to the world, embodied in Jesus, and above all of what it means for us to respond to the needs of our brothers and sisters.

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Fourth Sunday of Advent “C” – December 23, 2018

Frackville, From the Pastor /

St. Luke the Evangelist does not dwell on the journey. He merely states that around the time that the angel left Mary, she set out to the hill country of Judah to visit Elizabeth, who had kept the conception of her child to herself, living in seclusion in the house occupied by her and Zechariah. This story is more than visitation, in the sense that the issues are far greater than a young woman setting aside her own concerns with an unexpected pregnancy to visit her relative, also dealing with an unexpected pregnancy. Both of these women have things in common: they are under a cloud because of their circumstances. Mary is a young, unmarried mother-to-be; Elizabeth is elderly to be considered beyond any possibility of having children. Both of women have been informed by unusual sources of the divine origin of their children.

Mary will sing the song we call the Magnificat, where she proclaims that her soul gives glory to God and her spirit rejoices in the God who saves her. St. Paul says that God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise that God chose what is weak to shame the strong. In Mary and Elizabeth we see the best expressions of this.

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Third Sunday of Advent “C” – December 16, 2018

Frackville, From the Pastor /

Today we hear the prophetic words of St. John the Baptist. They are words of judgment and yet we are told he announced “the Good News”. John has been sent to prepare the people for the coming of the Lord who will bring salvation. In St. Luke’s Gospel, Jesus  links salvation to what we do with our possessions. John’s words of judgment arouse the people from their complacency but prepare them to receive the good news of salvation which Christ will bring.

We may sometimes wish that God would leave us alone – get off our backs. But St. John the Baptist and the prophets tell us that this is the worst thing God could do. Left to ourselves we get lost following whatever desire we have for possessions, money or just a comfortable, quiet life. St. John the Baptist still points to a deeper freedom beyond the enticement of comfort or possessions. It is a word of judgment that leads to the good news of salvation. And this is why we rejoice today because we know that beyond the pain and inconvenience of change we can rejoice in Christ’s presence as He comes to us this Christmas.

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Second Sunday of Advent “C” – December 9, 2018

Frackville, From the Pastor /

To live in the desert is to depend utterly on God and to live without protection. The books of Exodus and Deuteronomy tells of the testing of Israel as they made their escape from Egypt; they could not live in the desert without the direct protection of God, a fire by night and a cloud by day. To live in the desert is to be open to what is coming, yet not even John fully realized what the coming of Christ would mean. The world becomes completely open when Jesus the Messiah arrives. He is to be the Savior not just of one people, one nation, but of the whole of humanity, and humanity must have no more barriers.

How today we make ourselves able to accept Christ into the world? Jesus is the great arrival, the messenger of the Father and the message. The message is more than words; it is God coming into the world in God’s own fullness. Anyone who welcomes any human being in the name of Christ, welcomes Christ himself. Advent can be for us the season of welcome, when we consider how we will allow new people into our lives, as we prepare to celebrate the coming of Christ into our world.

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First Sunday of Advent “C” – December 2, 2018

Frackville, From the Pastor /

We believe in a Savior who is risen, ascended, glorified; but first He had to be crucified. There can be no resurrection without the crucifixion, no Easter without Lent; and likewise no Christmas without Advent. Jesus teaches us that we cannot journey with Him to the joys of heaven unless we first take up our cross and follow Him to Calvary.

Those of us who have not lived through the cruelty of war in person have suffered disasters on the more ordinary level of our everyday lives. We suffer sickness and pain, bereavement and grief, guilt and shame. Many of us have felt that our own world was coming to an end.

Christ predicted disasters, but His message is still one of the hope. “Stand erect, hold your heads high, because your liberation is near at hand,” He tells His listeners, and the message is for us too. The crucifixion must come, but it is followed by resurrection and glory, for us as for Christ. By this hope we may well stay awake, and stand with confidence before the Son of Man.

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