Church of The Holy Spirit

Parish Bulletin for Sunday, March 1, 2009

First Sunday of Lent

Temptation - a Place to Encounter Our God
Mar 1-09

Today, as we recall the temptation of Jesus, told ever so briefly and succinctly by Mark, the narrative invites our reflection upon the manner with which each of us contends with this struggle called temptation in our own lives. For some, temptation represents a sort of bartering or deal-making whereby circumstances are manipulated until the desired result is achieved.

William Bausch (A World of Stories for Preachers and Teachers, Twenty-Third Publications, Mystic, Conn.: 1998) offers the following story by way of illustration: A very overweight man decided to lose several pounds and went on a diet. He even changed the route he usually drove to work so as to avoid passing his favourite bakery. One morning not long into his diet, he arrived at his office with a large, sugary, calorie-loaded cake. Surprised by his lack of resolve, his fellow workers chided him, but he only smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

"What could I do?" he said. This is a very special cake. What happened is that, by force of habit, I drove by the bakery today. There in the window were trays loaded with goodies and the aroma was tantalizing. "Well, I decided that this was no accident that I happened to pass by this way, so I prayed, ‘Lord, if you really want me to have one of those delicious cakes, let me find a parking space right in front of the bakery. And sure enough, on the ninth time around the block, there it was!' "

Peter Gomes suggests that as amusing as such a story is, it represents the sort of bargaining that may begin with something as simple as a diet and carry over into much more significant issues such as fidelity in marriage, honesty in finance, truth-telling in conversation and responsibility in conduct (The Good Book, HarperCollins, San Francisco: 1996).

Temptation, therefore, is not a game of manipulation, but a serious encounter. In order to emerge from this encounter without incurring sin, Gomes, basing his counsel on the example of Jesus, offers four helpful suggestions:

(1) Name the temptation. Be morally explicit and identify evil in particular rather than in general. Naming the evil we face makes it utterly real and sharpens our attempt to focus and to fix the situation.

(2) Name the tempter. This unmasks any delusion we may try to hide behind and helps to deflate our attempts to rationalize the sin, as in, "I had to embezzle money from work to pay for my mother's hospital bills."

(3) Practice resistance. Moral training, like any other form of training (e.g. music, sports), says Gomes, takes discipline to acquire. Etymologically, "discipline," like "disciple," comes from the root of the word "to learn"; we can learn resistance to evil by looking at Jesus and others, such as the mythic Noah and his family and the community of 1 Peter, who have gone before us in strength and faith.

(4) Call for help.

Relying on one's own resources alone is a recipe for disaster. Lay claim to the grace that God so willingly gives. Share with friends. Consult a mentor. Entrust yourself entirely to God while summoning forth your own greatest strengths. Be courageous! Finally, rather than looking upon temptation as a sort of "jousting with Satan," the sacred authors encourage us to follow Jesus' lead and to regard the experience of temptation as a time and a place in which to meet and lean on God.

In that encounter and in our reliance on grace, our struggle for truth and authenticity will be blessed. While the existence of evil cannot be denied and the human penchant for self-gratification and self-aggrandizement cannot be ignored, neither can the phenomenon we call temptation be regarded as entirely negative.

On the contrary, this continuing struggle to choose between good and evil, between God and self, between self and others, can be a graced and positive experience. Jesus emerged from his struggle with temptation stronger and more given to God and to the mission for which he was sent. We too are challenged to accept and endure and emerge from the experience of temptation as changed people, humbler but stronger and more deeply aware of the presence and the power of God in our every thought, word and action.

That all our beloved dead, especially

TUESDAY, March 3
Weekday
8:30 a.m. - † Bill Vooght

WEDNESDAY, March 4
Weekday
8:30 a.m. - † Yvette Langevin

. . . may live again in the presence of the God of limitless love . . . for all who have gone before us and for those who are living in the shadow of grief. . . . Lord, in your mercy . . . .

For the sick, especially for all those who have asked for our prayers . . . for healing for the sick . . . for courage for those in pain . . . for those in hospitals, nursing homes or confined to their homes by illness or infirmity . . . for those who feel forgotten . . . for all care-givers . . . Lord, in your mercy . . . .

Parish Bulletin for Sunday, March 8, 2009

Second Sunday of Lent

Called to be Transformed
Mar 8-09

Transformation and transfiguration are two words that describe a phenomenon with which all of us are quite familiar. This process of evolving, growing and changing is clearly and beautifully in evidence as the seasons change from one to the other.

Even now, as winter turns to spring, barren trees and brown expanses of dried grass are taking on a new personality. New green growth, budding flowers and the singing of birds returning from their winter's migration transform the landscape. Some of nature's transfigurations are not quite so beautiful or welcome, as when floods or fires, storms or earthquakes sweep through an area and leave it unrecognizable. Recall the devastation of recent tornadoes, earthquakes and hurricanes that have totally transformed the demographics of several nations, leaving their inhabitants lives forever changed.

On a human and personal level, transfiguration can take many forms. Anyone who has ever been to their 20th or 30th class reunion has witnessed firsthand the fact that time can bring a paunch or a droop to even the most bold and strong physique. Hair goes grey or recedes or disappears completely as youth gives way to maturity. Even the idealism of youth seems to have been transformed as the pressures of making a living and supporting a family urge the visionary and the dreamer to take on a more realistic and practical approach to life.

Other physical transfigurations are effected by programs of diet and exercise. Countless print and televised advertisements offer their brand of supplement or their recipes or their weight-loss machine as the key to success. "Before" and "after" pictures, combined with the testimonials of those who have achieved some degree of transformation in their own lives, encourage others to hope for similar results.

There are other types of transformation that are less than desirable. Who has not seen a friend or a loved one ravaged by sickness? Who among us is not aware of the wide range of hardships that transfigure some of our beloved brothers and sisters into unrecognizable shells of their former selves, as famine, drought and disease go unattended and unchecked? Still other less important but no less obvious transformations involve new wardrobes or new hairdos that offer a better self-image and, with it, a better approach to life in general. Some transformation efforts are aimed at one's home; those who are willing submit their personal space to a team of experts who work together to create an entirely different domestic environment.

While all of these transformations vary in significance, they do share a common characteristic: the changes they portray are external in nature. Each transfiguration primarily affects the physical aspect of the person and may or may not enter into that spiritual place where each of us is truly who we are before God. That place is addressed by the event we celebrate in today's liturgy. In his transfiguration in glory before his disciples, Jesus invites each of us to enter into that experience whereby we are transformed not from without, but from within the depths of our being.

That experience and that transfiguration will not be achieved by diet, exercise or complete makeover, or even aging or sickness. On the contrary, the transformation which we are blessed to experience arises from being in the presence of God. Abram's transformation by the divine presence was outwardly signified by the change of his name to Abraham. Inwardly, Abraham was transfigured from a sincere and humble man searching for a way to believe, to a strong and unshakeable person whose faith enabled him to trust God even when he had to abandon logical reasoning and common sense to do so (first reading, Genesis).

Paul, too, was so transfigured by his experience of the risen Jesus that he was able to defend his faith despite all obstacles and to defy even those who had the authority to take his life. As expressed in his letter to the Romans (second reading), Paul's transformative courage challenges similar holy defiance against all who are opposed to justice, righteousness and truth. Ultimately, it is the transfiguration of Jesus that calls out to us most poignantly. So receptive was Jesus to the presence and power of God that his disciples became aware of God with and within him. They wanted to stay and prolong the joy of that moment, and when they went forth from that experience, it was with a new resolve to listen to what Jesus had to say.

Is our own experience of God similarly transforming? Do others experience God in our presence? Do they want to listen to what we have to say? Do the changes in me make another want to change?

That all our beloved dead, especially

TUESDAY, March 10
Weekday
8:30 a.m. - † Giuseppe Pierri

WEDNESDAY, March 11
Weekday
8:30 a.m. - † Mary Catherine James

THURSDAY, March 12
Weekday
8:30 a.m. - † Mary Waychison

FRIDAY, March 13
Weekday
8:30 a.m. - † Samuel Metu

. . . may live again in the presence of the God of limitless love . . . for all who have gone before us and for those who are living in the shadow of grief. . . . Lord, in your mercy . . . .

Parish Bulletin for Sunday, March 15, 2009

Third Sunday of Lent Cycle A

The Thirst for Living Water
Mar 8-09

Each year at this time, "thirsty" seekers present themselves to our communities for baptism, for belonging to God and for membership in the church. The gospels hold forth teachers to guide and inspire our shared journey. This Sunday's mentor is an unnamed woman of Samaria who epitomizes the transition to wholeness and holiness that is prompted by the thirst God places in each of us.

Because the thirsty woman had come to the well to satisfy her physical thirst, she initially misunderstood Jesus' offer of living water (v. 10). As was his habit, the Johannine evangelist used her misunderstanding to make a further, deeper point: Even without a bucket, Jesus and his gift of living water was greater than Jacob. An ancient Palestinian translation of Genesis 28:10 reads: "After our ancestor Jacob lifted the stone from the mouth of the well, the water bubbled to the top and overflowed for 20 years." Jacob's well had satisfied the physical life of his descendants for centuries, but Jesus supplanted Jacob in offering living water that would give eternal life.

Although theologians of the Middle Ages associated Jesus' living water with baptism's gift of sanctifying grace, there are other more ancient suggestions as to the significance of Jesus' gift. In the sixth century B.C.E., Jeremiah represented God as "the source of living waters" (2:13). Two centuries earlier, Isaiah had invited his contemporaries to "draw water at the fountain of salvation" (12:3). Similarly, Deutero-Isaiah, speaking for God, called all who thirst to "come to the water" (55:1) and find the satisfaction of all their needs in God. Among the Essenes at Qumran, living water was a symbol for the Torah or Law, as it was in the literature of second-century B.C.E. Judah: "The law which Moses commanded us … it overflows with wisdom; it runs over like the Euphrates" (Sir 24:22-24). Given this background, Raymond E. Brown concluded that Jesus' gift of living water was the truth of his teaching, which replaced the Law and invited the thirsty to be satisfied with the very wisdom of God incarnate in Jesus (The Gospel of John, Doubleday, New York: 1966).

Jesus' invitation and her encounter with him set in motion a process of transformation whereby the Samaritan woman evolved from sinner to humble witness. "He told me everything I have done," she testified. First drawn to him through the woman's testimony, the villagers also "drank" of Jesus' teaching and were proud to announce that they had come to believe that Jesus was "truly the saviour of the world" (v. 52). In his telling of this special encounter in Samaria, the Johannine evangelist holds out to sinners the hope of a similar experience of transformation. But, as with the woman, first must come thirst. Have you ever been truly thirsty? I'm not referring to the "I could go for a Coke" type of thirst, but to the cracked lips, parched tongue, weak-in-the-knees, dizzy-in-the-head type of thirst that comes from going without water for an extended period of time. Those who have had such a thirst can easily summon up gratitude for water, especially abundant, spring-fresh water. For those who have not, it is important to realize that such thirst is a regular occurrence for many in our world, and it becomes the responsibility of the satisfied to slake the thirsts of the needy. Today, Moses, the Israelites and the woman at the well call on us to consider the experience of thirst and to use that experience to deepen our longing for the God who alone can satisfy every human thirst. In his thoughtful book God Moments: Why Faith Really Matters to a New Generation (Orbis Books, Maryknoll, N.Y.: 2001), author and publisher Jeremy Langford has identified four essential human thirsts: the thirst for healthy personal identity, the thirst for intimacy in relationships, the thirst for meaningful work, the thirst for a life-giving spirituality. Each of these thirsts shapes our growth and prompts our continued, creative search for what satisfies. These thirsts enable us to discover who we are in relationship to God, to ourselves and to one another.

Israel's thirsts for identity, for security and for satisfaction of all its needs led the people to complain to Moses and to God. In the process of having their thirsts satisfied, they learned that they were a people loved by God despite their faults and failings. They also learned that they were a people chosen by God and called to share in a special relationship; they learned that their life's work would consist of witnessing truthfully and authentically to the God whose constant presence with them inspired them to faith and hopeful trust.

A distant descendant of the refugees from Egypt, the unnamed woman who met Jesus at Jacob's well near Sychar had come there because of physical thirst. But she would leave that well with all her thirsts satisfied. Like Moses and the Israelites, she would learn that God knew and loved her and that her life could be different if she would let herself be transformed by her encounter with Jesus. With her physical and spiritual thirsts satisfied, she witnessed to others of God's power to change lives. All she was needed to do was thirst, and allow her thirst to lead her to the light of God's life-changing truth.

God has placed such a thirst deep within each of us. If we allow it, that thirst can drive us to seek God, to do good and to be transformed into more accurate reflections of our good and gracious Maker. "Our hearts are restless, O God, till they find rest in Thee."

That all our beloved dead, especially

TUESDAY, March 17
Weekday
8:30 a.m. - † Salvatore Beltrano

WEDNESDAY, March 18
Weekday
8:30 a.m. - † Norma Dalisay

THURSDAY, March 19
Weekday
8:30 a.m. - † Mary Waychison

FRIDAY, March 20
Weekday
8:30 a.m. - † John Walter

. . . may live again in the presence of the God of limitless love . . . for all who have gone before us and for those who are living in the shadow of grief. . . . Lord, in your mercy . . . .

Parish Bulletin for Sunday, March 22, 2009

Fourth Sunday of Lent Cycle A

A 1991 New York Times Magazine article featured a group of more than 100 women who had relocated from their native Cambodia to Long Beach, California. All the women, refugees who witnessed the "killing fields" that resulted from the Pol Pot regime, were certifiably blind even though there was nothing physically wrong with their eyes. Theirs was a psychosomatic blindness induced by the horrors they had seen. The injuries they suffered had not been to their bodies but to their minds, and to compensate for having been so traumatized, their eyes simply refused to see anything at all.

Although the cause of his blindness is not represented as being psychosomatic, the blind man featured in today's Gospel was also unable to see until his encounter with the Johannine Jesus. Then, and because of his emerging faith in Jesus, he began to see not only physically, but also spiritually; he began to see with the eyes of faith.

In reflecting upon the experience of the man born blind, and the fact that the Pharisees chose not to see Jesus for who he truly was, we might be prompted to consider our own visual acuity. Most of us are probably blind to someone or something at one time or another. Whether deliberate or not, certain biases, preferences and even prejudices cause a form of blindness whereby we do not see clearly. By way of a remedy, William J. Bausch (A World of Stories for Preachers and Teachers – Twenty-Third Pub., Mystic – Conn: 1998) has suggested that each of us stand with the man born blind and allow Jesus to heal our blindness.

That healing, says Bausch, should lead us to be able to see three things. First, we would be able to see what our hearts have always told us is true: all that truly matters in life are our relationships. If we can see the bonds that are shared with family, with friends and with members of our faith community as paramount, that is an essential first step in making those relationships better, stronger, truer. Too frequently, we allow our jobs and other interests to stand in the way of our time together. The experience of the blind man who began to see can be ours if we, by God's grace and Jesus' healing power, begin to see one another anew and to recognize and value one another as gifts.

To illustrate the importance of this way of seeing, Bausch offered a graphic example. During the Bolshevik revolution, thousands of Russians were randomly arrested, stripped naked and shot, one by one, in the back of the head. One eyewitness account captured the depth of our human need to feel connected to one another. "Most of the victims," he wrote, "usually requested a chance to say goodbye. But since there was no one else there, they embraced and kissed their executioners."

Who could not be moved at the poignancy of this account? If such a need for connection can lead people to recognize the humanity even of their executioners – then how much more can we be moved to recognize the humanity of those we love, to see their preciousness in a new light? Let us reach out and embrace them and hold them close.

A second thing we might begin to see if we allow Jesus to heal our blindness is the population of the overlooked. These are the ones who are there but are often unseen because they do not count in anyone's eyes. These are the poor, the homeless, the hungry, the out-of-work, the immigrants, the underemployed, the marginalized and the handicapped. At times, the overlooked force us to see them because their burden has caused them to become obnoxious and demanding. But like Jesus, we are to look beyond the bluster with which they protect themselves and see them with eyes of love and patient caring.

And third, healing from Jesus can enable us to see with fresh eyes the love God has for us and to recognize the many hints of that love punctuating our days and nights. To see the beauties of nature as sacraments of God's love will lead to a newfound gratitude. To see the burdens of life as opportunities for leaning more deliberately on God will bring new strength. To see the image of God reflected in the faces of those we love, and in those whom we have yet to learn to love, can lead to deeper insight into the very mind and heart of God.

All these many ways of seeing are ours from God as gift, and all have the capacity to move us beyond mere physical sight to the seeing that we call faith.

That all our beloved dead, especially

TUESDAY, March 24
Weekday
8:30 a.m. - † Imdad Christopher

WEDNESDAY, March 25
Weekday
8:30 a.m. - † John Drake

THURSDAY, March 26
Weekday
8:30 a.m. - † Bill Vooght

FRIDAY, March 27
Weekday
8:30 a.m. - † Kevin Murphy

. . . may live again in the presence of the God of limitless love . . . for all who are grieving the loss of their health, their youth, their lost hopes, their loved ones . . . . Lord, in your mercy . . .hear our prayer.

For the sick, especially for all those who have asked for our prayers . . . for healing for the sick . . . for courage for those in pain . . . for those who struggle with the challenges of everyday life . . . Lord, in your mercy . . . hear our prayer.

Parish Bulletin for Sunday, March 29, 2009

Fifth Sunday of Lent Cycle A

Lazarus, Come Forth!

Does anyone remember the 1990 movie "Awakenings," based on the life of Dr. Oliver Sacks? The movie is based on a book by the same title and recounts the medical treatment offered to certain mental patients in a New York City hospital during the summer of 1969. Research conducted by Sacks revealed that many of the patients had suffered from encephalitis in the 1920s, and as a result several were left in a catatonic state.

With permission from a patient's mother, the doctor (played in the movie by Robin Williams) administered the drug Levodopa – or L-dopa – to him. Astoundingly, Leonard Lowe (played by Robert de Niro) woke up. Several other patients had the same reaction to the drug and began to live again with great enthusiasm. Their emergence from years of silence and inactivity was not unlike the vision of Ezekiel that is preserved in today's first reading. Those who had appeared banished from the land of the living would be called forth from their graves, and each would begin to live again the life that had seemed lost forever. It was that way for the patients of Dr. Sacks; new life had been breathed into them through the wonder drug.

As in Ezekiel's vision, old bones began to live with new life. Sadly for Dr. Sacks' patients, though, the L-dopa offered only a temporary awakening that could not be sustained. Eventually, Leonard and all the other patients relapsed into the seeming death of catatonia.

Unique to the Johannine Gospel, the account of the raising of Lazarus is the last and greatest of the seven signs, each of which has served to reveal something of the person and purpose of Jesus. Through the restoration of Lazarus, Jesus is revealed as the resurrection and the life; through his suffering and death, the gift of everlasting life will be made available to all who believe. While the communication of this truth is the reason for the Lazarus story, it is couched in a beautifully and poignantly dramatized narrative that challenges our growth in faith.

Looked at through the lens of faith, the Gospels for the Third, Fourth and Fifth Sundays of Lent in Cycle A open us to three stages on our journey of faith. First, the Samaritan woman at the well illustrated an initial coming to faith. Then the man born blind illustrated a neophyte faith that acquired depth after he was tested. Finally, the Lazarus story today illustrates the deepening of faith that comes from facing death. In his telling of the story, the Johannine evangelist leads his readers to a more profound understanding of death, just as Jesus led Martha to a more complete faith in everlasting life.

In her dialogue with Jesus, Martha expressed her faith in a resurrection on the last day. She wished that her brother had not died before Jesus' arrival; her reluctance to open the tomb indicated that she was resigned to Lazarus' death and that she looked forward to that future, unknown time when he would live again. But Martha's faith needed deepening. True faith includes a belief in Jesus as the source of unending life. Such immortality awaits Jesus' resurrection, and the sign of Lazarus points ahead to the eternal life that God will give through Jesus. Just as he asked Martha "Do you believe this?" — so Jesus asks us. Martha answered, "Yes, Lord." What is your response?

That all our beloved dead, especially

TUESDAY, March 31
Weekday
8:30 a.m. - † Nancy Fung

THURSDAY, April 2
Weekday
8:30 a.m. - † Celina Pothier

FRIDAY, April 3
Weekday
8:30 a.m. - † Pablo La Morena

In thanksgiving for all that our God has given to us, especially

WEDNESDAY, April 1 Vivien Johns

8:30 a.m. - Vivien Johns

. . . Lord, in your mercy . . . hear our prayer.