Parish Bulletin for Sunday, January 8, 2006
Feast of The Epiphany
Through the coming of Jesus, more than 2,000 years ago, humankind has been delivered from death and evil. Today's feast of the Epiphany of the Lord reminds us that this redemption was made possible through the saving words and works and sacrificial death and victorious resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Because of Jesus, each of us is bound to one another and all together to God. Our union is such that if one of us is hurt, all should know and bear the pain. If one of us experiences joy, all of us should break into smiles. This is the meaning of Epiphany, that one Lord has saved us, one light has illuminated our way, one star has summoned us all to one place, to one Person, to one experience of love, forgiveness, salvation, and peace.
What we hear in today's gospel is so much more than a lovely narrative about a young family receiving some rather odd visitors with rather extravagant gifts for their newborn. What we have here is a profound and richly developed proclamation of who Jesus is: son of David, Son of God, promised ruler and redeemer of Israel and the glorious shining Saviour whose presence brings together all of humankind in peace and in light.
What a captivating mystery story we have in the Epiphany! Intriguing visitors from afar, a corrupt ruler, heavenly events, scheming characters, deep secrets and a sense of impending doom. The setting bursts with possibilities and Matthew uses this Gospel to announce God's revelation to humanity in the newborn Messiah. This Messiah will manifest God's glory to the world and will be met with either resistance or homage, often in the most surprising ways. And yet this Messiah is born in lowly and insignificant Bethlehem to a poor, itinerant family. Who comes to pay homage but three wise sages following a star and guided by a promise.
All of us are offered that same opportunity as the magi. God invites each and every one of us to live in the light. We are invited on a journey of conversion, a conversion that leads to life in the Lord and calls for radical change of heart. Are we willing to find the Messiah among the lowly, the poor, the outsider, or the enemy? Will we want the Messiah that reveals himself in the unexpected? Are we prepared to find God in those we would normally ignore? Is God among those we make invisible or even discriminate against? Is God among those we cannot possibly imagine as our neighbour, our friend, beside us in church, or even welcomed into our country?
God is rejected whenever people are dehumanized and killed in wars and religious persecutions. God's epiphanies are rejected whenever our fellow human beings are sent to internment camps, confined to poor countries and inner city ghettos, enslaved, exploited, separated from their families. God's coming is resisted when we close our doors to the unexpected, the different, the surprising, the unfamiliar, the uncomfortable. We are called by God to accept and welcome all, including those who are different. We are asked to make room for all in the name of the God who came among us to dwell. When we are truly wide awake to the news of the Epiphany, we may find our lives unexpectedly captivated beyond our wildest imagination.
— Rev. Thomas G. Moore
- TUESDAY, Jan. 10
- Weekday
- 8:30 a.m. - † Wilfred and Alfred Machado
- Requested by mother, Carmen Machado
- WEDNESDAY, Jan. 11
- Weekday
- 8:30 a.m. - † Doug Lancefield
- Requested by Betty Dunsmore and family
- THURSDAY, Jan. 12
- St. Marguerite Bourgeoys
- 8:30 a.m. - † Marie Levesque
- Requested by husband Paul
- FRIDAY, Jan. 13
- Weekday
- 8:30 a.m. - † Amelia Couvinha
- Requested by Helena Sousa
Parish Bulletin for Sunday, January 15, 2006
BLESSINGS
There is a beautiful prayer of blessing that is part of the lectionary prayers for New Year's Day. "The Lord bless you and keep you! The Lord let his face shine upon you and be gracious to you! The Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace!"
This prayer is recorded in the book of Numbers and falls from the mouth of Moses. It is a prayer that surrounds us with the sure shelter of God's word, precisely because they are God's living word, welcoming and embracing all who let this blessing enter their hearts and their lives.
Think about the word blessing for a minute. It has been defined as meaning: to bestow something on another.
When we bless, we offer the other our good wishes as a gift, as something that will offer strength or consolation. When we ask God to bless us or to bless another, we hope to receive or to bestow God's gifts. In our liturgies, we quite often bless God – Blessed be God forever – Blessed are you Lord God.
We know that God has no need of our offerings and yet we bless God to acknowledge the wholeness and the holiness of God. It is, in reality, a thank you to God for all the wonderful things he has done for us, for the endless blessings he has showered on his people, for the joy and well being that can and does fill our days and nights. To bless God is to actively participate in the balance of blessedness upon which our universe stands and turns and grows.
Blessings are the framework or canvas that can awaken us to the potential for holiness in each one of us and, when we choose to work on those canvasses, we also bless what God has done.
As this new year stretches before us with all its expected and unexpected twists and turns, let us celebrate together the fact that we enter each day under God's blessing. Let us live so that all our words and works shall be a blessing for one another.
DISCIPLESHIP
2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today's readings from both Old and New Testaments are bound together with a common weave. Proclamation focuses on change – change of mind and heart as well as change of attitude and lifestyle. These changes are a necessary consequence of that call from God that we call vocation.
Samuel is already in the Lord's service by virtue of his mother, Hannah. She placed him in the temple where his life was predicable and safe. God calls him into the Israelite political arena as a prophet calling the leaders to justice.
Paul calls the members in Corinth to a new understanding of what it means to be a disciple. Belonging to the Lord of all demands a new way of looking at things. By accepting Christ into their lives, they had become members of Christ; they had become holy places where God's Spirit had come to dwell. Bodies were meant to be reverenced and cherished and consecrated solely for all that is good, pure, holy and true.
The gospel proclaims the call of the first disciples – Come and See! Andrew and Peter were independent and self-supporting business owners who obviously eked out a living for themselves and their families as fishermen. One invitation to come and see changes their lives forever. They were no longer independent; they were no longer masters of their own lives or their own will. Their days and nights were no longer their own. They became disciples!
Listen closely my friends. This same invitation is extended to each and every one of us. We too are called to transformation in the risen Lord. The echoes of the first discipleship resound in our ears. Come and see where I live. Come and stay with me and me within you. Make my mind your mind, my will your will, my thoughts your thoughts, my eyes and ears your eyes and ears.
The challenge of conversion means change – change of heart and nearly always a change of the way we do and think and act and speak. That is the message that Samuel, Paul, Andrew and Peter struggled to meet. That is the invitation open to us today and for the rest of our lives. AMEN.
— Rev. Thomas G. Moore
- TUESDAY, Jan. 17
- ST. ANTHONY
- 8:30 a.m. - † Gioaniuu Van Thuye`n
- Requested by Kim Oanh Luu
- WEDNESDAY, Jan. 18
- Weekday
- 8:30 a.m. - † Maria Do` Thi Ta`n
- Requested by Kim Oanh Luu
- THURSDAY, Jan. 19
- Weekday
- 8:30 a.m. - † Grazia Copozzi
- Requested by Frances Pierri
- FRIDAY, Jan. 20
- Weekday
- 8:30 a.m. - † Simon Aaron
- Requested by Anne Palmer
Parish Bulletin for Sunday, January 22, 2006
"THE CALL TO REPENTANCE"
The theme that weaves together our readings this Sunday is repentance. A reluctant Jonah is tasked with calling the people of Nineveh to a change of heart and we are left in no doubt that these particular people are not high on Jonah's hit parade.
We find him with little love and probably even less compassion for a people who have consistently followed a path that Jonah cannot reconcile to himself. Imagine his great surprise when his message from God was to turn away from their life of sin and self-indulgence.
It is no mistake that we understand God to be very pleased with the conversion of his people and he rewards them with deliverance. Their repentance leads them to a new way of life and to knowledge of a God who they did not previously acknowledge. Lo and behold, they find themselves part of a family and learn that they have become God's beloved.
Mark reminds us that we are to repent before we welcome the blessing of the Gospel into our lives; we are to reform our lives and create that atmosphere so necessary for a growth in faith. We are to radically transform our lives – all of our lives.
Think of the first disciples. Their response was more than enthusiastic, it was radical. How easily they set down their nets and became his followers. How quickly they left family, friends, neighbours and fellow fishermen to go off on a mission that will change their lives forever. This gospel calls us to ask some earth-shaking questions of ourselves right here and right now. What or who am I willing to leave behind to follow Jesus? How absolute is my repentance?
Paul, too, urges his readers to a sense of urgency. The time is short and we should be living in this world not as permanent fixtures, but as pilgrims passing through. Paul is calling us to appreciate the blessings of this life and urges us to work for improvement and redemption, all the while realizing that the world as we know it is passing away. He is calling for a repentance that leads us to value God's reign in our lives and over our world. This is worth the long-term investment of our total selves and all our yearnings. All else will fade.
For the disciples in today's Gospel, it all began with a personal response to the invitation to "Come after me." A tug at the heart that grew into unshakeable loyalty. People do not normally think themselves into discipleship. The relationship develops somewhat like a person falling in love. The invitation is a beckoning, a desire to share relationship, a love relationship. It is an invitation to love and to be loved by Him, and in that loving to reform our lives to conform to Jesus and to truly be the servants of the Good News.
— Rev. Thomas G. Moore
- TUESDAY, Jan. 24
- St. Francis de Sales
- 8:30 a.m. – † Nancy Dolan
- Requested by Mary Gert McCollam
- WEDNESDAY, Jan. 25
- Conversion of St. Paul
- 8:30 a.m. – † Edward Gallagner
- Requested by Mary Gert McCollam
- THURSDAY, Jan. 26
- St.Timothy and St. Titus
- 8:30 a.m. – † Carmine Spadafora
- Requested by wife
- FRIDAY, Jan. 27
- Weekday
- 8:30 a.m. – † Cecile Dupuis Barbeau
- Requested by IS-Business Analysts, CIBC Mellon Trust Co.
Parish Bulletin for Sunday, January 29, 2006
4th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
WHO IS THIS MAN JESUS?
Who is this man Jesus? This question dominates the first half of Mark's gospel. Mark shows us a teacher with a new kind of authority, a wonder-worker, a healer, someone who bears the seal of God's approval, the fulfilment of ancient promises of a Messiah – though different from what his contemporaries expected.
Jesus announces the "fulfilment" of all expectations and hopes. All that the prophets had to say about the coming of the Messiah and the restoration of God's sovereignty has come true in the person of Jesus. The "reign of God" is now established in the person of Jesus. The conversion and faith urged upon us is centred in the person of Jesus.
Jesus is saying, in other words, "I am the fulfilled promises of God, I am the reign of God, I am the one to turn to in repentance, I am the good news to believe in." Because we tend to separate the person of Jesus from his message, we need to hear the gospel writer clearly. Jesus himself is his own message.
The call of the first disciples makes this very clear. Jesus does not say "Hear my words." He says, "Come follow me." John the Baptist fulfilled his mission perfectly when he pointed out Jesus (not his message) as "the way." Only Jesus can say "I am the way, the truth, and the life." And that distinguishes him from all prophets – past, present, and future. Others preach the good news, but Jesus is the good news.
Jesus taught from an authority that arose from who he was. His right to do so is rooted in who he is: Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is Mark, the gospel writer for today's reading, who continues to identify Jesus for all of us. Through his remarkable life, death and resurrection, we see the truth of who Jesus is. First among the signs and miracles worked by Jesus, according to Mark, the exorcism of the demons is more than an act of kindness to a tortured soul. It is presented, rather, as the proverbial flinging down of the gauntlet between good and evil. The battle begins, a battle that will be waged fiercely and will culminate with a victory for Jesus that appears to be defeat: his death on a cross.
Jesus ultimately will conquer evil, sin and death and be declared openly as the Son of God. Strangely, it is the demons themselves who recognize Jesus and their own nemesis. For the disciples and the crowds, it is a more difficult coming to faith.
Yes, there will be moments of insight, understanding and acceptance; there will also be moments of confusion, misunderstanding and doubt. As later listeners and proclaimers, we may be sorely tempted to judgment of our early disciples. When will they get it? How much more proof do they need? What else does he have to say, do, or be? Before they believe, before they see what is right in front of their eyes. Maybe that is the message we need to see. Maybe we are the ones who need to struggle to see Jesus as they did, to learn who he is slowly and sometimes with difficulty in accepting the challenge discipleship demands of us.
Perhaps we need to hear, truly hear, the psalm response for today's readings. "If today you hear God's voice, harden not your hearts." Let us pray today for the courage to open our minds and our hearts to God speaking to us. Let us allow the wisdom and the love of our God enter our lives and change us forever. Amen.
— Rev. Thomas G. Moore
- TUESDAY, Jan. 31
- St. John Bosco
- 8:30 a.m. - † Joan Comfort
- Requested by the LeBlanc family
- WEDNESDAY, Feb. 1
- Weekday
- 8:30 a.m. - † Madeleine Baries
- Requested by Lynda Annett
- THURSDAY, Feb. 2
- Presentation of the Lord
- 8:30 a.m. - † Nancy Leneny
- Requested by Mary Gert McCollam
- FRIDAY, Feb. 3
- St. Blase
- 8:30 a.m. - † Amelia Couvinha
- Requested by Helena Sousa
