Parish Bulletin for Sunday, May 6, 2007

Fifth Sunday in Easter Season

"Love One Another"

Throughout our lectionary years, we have heard from Matthew, Mark and Luke when each of these synoptic writers has reported on Jesus' teaching on the greatest commandment. We think we know it! Essentially similar, each one of these writers bases their teachings on two of the Hebrew Scriptures – (Deut 6:5), which translates to "You shall love the Lord your God will all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength" and (Lev 19:18b), "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Jesus did indeed issue these two mandates to his disciples and at the same time insisted that they were of equal importance for his followers. This challenge continues to call forth the very best from his followers right into the 21st century – not only occasionally, but on a daily basis. It is important for us to see that the Johannine Jesus as proclaimed in today's gospel has made an even greater demand upon believers by requiring that our love for one another should be "such as my love has been for you." (John 13:34). What is this saying to us that we have not heard before? What has it been saying to believers since it was stated so many centuries ago? It is nothing short of a command to love as Jesus loves, without question, without condition, without limit; it demands that we share and bear the burdens of another even unto death so that they might live.

This challenge, this demand, is unequivocal; Jesus calls those who would be disciples to an almost impossible way of living and loving. Nevertheless, it is not an invitation. It is a command! This love is not doled out based on merit. It is not a quid pro quo. It is self-giving, over and above the demands of pure human ethics. This kind of love impelled Jesus to take on our flesh, to be born as we are born, to thirst, to hunger, and to grow weary as we do. This loved moved Jesus to respond with compassion to a hungry crowd and to take action to feed their hunger in mind and in body. Because of his love, Jesus wept with two sisters over a dead brother as well as over a city that refused his love. This love caused Jesus to spend himself for the bedeviled and the bewildered as well as for the belligerent, the poor, the outcast and the marginalized. What does the command of Jesus call us to do? How do we love as he has loved and continues to love?

And yet we have seen this love in action. Throughout the centuries, some have had the courage and conviction to love as Jesus loved. These examples stand out for us as they have done what most of us find to be impractical and, I venture to say, impossible to accomplish. Look at Paul and Barnabas from today's reading from Acts. Their love led them to reach out to others who had not yet learned or experienced that love. The second reading from Revelation finds us with John, the Seer, who reassured his readers that such a love will eventually lead to union with God - forever.

What about Albert Schweitzer, Mother Teresa, Maximillian Kolbe, Dorothy Day, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Oscar Romero? These are women and men from our most recent history and this list is certainly not complete. We tell their stories again and again and, while we admire their fortitude and courage and love, most of us find their example beyond our ken and certainly beyond our own accomplishments. Such a love eludes us and could prove to cost too much! It almost seems unreal and, when we believe that, then we can fail to even try. We must, then, turn to those who find no barrier in attempting the impossible and practising the impractical. Oscar Romero was convinced of the profound involvement of God in the human condition. . He insisted that ours is not a ‘sky God' – who watches from a distance or a ‘pocket God' who can be manipulated to sanction the greed and savagery of those in power.

Ours is a God who lives deeply within the blood and guts of everyday life, a divinity within whose reign of love, compassion and peace will ultimately prevail if only . . . And this is where we must come in. We can, indeed, love others as Jesus has and continues to love us – not because we have achieved a level of virtue that makes it so, but because we have deliberately surrendered ourselves to the living, loving, blood and guts God who chooses to dwell within us. This God loved us through Jesus: now it is our turn to let God live and love in and through us. Only with God, only because of the divinity within, can we keep Jesus' mandate and its astounding demand: "Love one another as I have loved you."

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TUESDAY, May 8

Easter Weekday

8:30 a.m. - † Betty Davidson

WEDNESDAY, May 9

Easter Weekday

8:30 a.m. – Thanksgiving: Paola Cichella

THURSDAY, May 10

Easter Weekday

8:30 a.m. - † Antonia Fung

FRIDAY, May 11

Easter Weekday

8:30 a.m. - † Margaret LeBlanc

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Parish Bulletin for Sunday, May 13, 2007

Sixth Sunday in Easter Season

The Easter Season - the Roots of Our Faith

During this season of Easter, we are surrounded by the sights and sounds and smells and liturgies echoing the Easter Vigil. Our Christian community hears once again the rich stories of the early days of our church following the Resurrection – the challenges, the struggles, and the cost of working to follow the person and to continue the mission of Jesus Christ in the world. These stories form and inform us and continue to challenge us to continue the work begun so long ago.

Think about it a minute! Last week, we followed the journeys of Paul and Barnabas, whose efforts at preaching the gospel meant that they leave the security of family and the support of friends to journey to places previously unknown to them. When their message was received with open and glad hearts, they established the first beginnings of communities of faith. Founded in faith and characterized by mutual love, these communities became centres from which an ongoing outreach extended to gather all peoples unto God through Jesus. These communities of faith offered the world a policy of loving, giving and serving based on a truth and founded in a justice that took great daring to implement. These early followers of Jesus offered their world and ours revelation as well as revolution in the form of radical conversion, transformation and continuing reconciliation with God and with all others.

Like any other evolving community, the early church coped with many challenges from within and from without. One of the first difficulties arose because some of the community members felt that gentiles who came to Jesus should also accept the traditions of Judaism. Can we even imagine the struggle Paul, Barnabas, Judas and Silas must have had to hold out against what they considered to be back-peddling? To continue to insist on the all-inclusive character of the gospel as well as the sufficiency of the Cross of Jesus for the salvation of mankind? These early communities were still attempting to identify themselves as Jesus' own, rooted in Judaism but with a universal vision and a mission still to be realized and defined.

And next week we find Stephen, who stood for the gospel despite all who opposed him and was stoned to death for his efforts. I wonder how many in those communities questioned whether their faith in Jesus was worth the struggle. What would be the ultimate price of discipleship? Of following? . . . of witnessing to this faith? Would they, like Stephen and like Jesus, need to offer even their very lives? If so, would they be able to do it? Would they be able to forgive – even what they had formerly regarded as good reason to retaliate? Remember an eye for an eye, tooth for tooth, life for life?

What witness! What stories! What faith! And in case we need to be reminded, we are reminded once more of the Source of their strength and their ability to continue on, even in the face of suffering and death. Ever present and available, especially when controversy arose and threatened division and extinction, the Holy Spirit guided and inspired the early believers to compromise without conceding their principles and to respect and honour the differences of others without demanding a homogenized praxis or a dilution of the faith. Through the power of the Spirit, Jews were able to accept Gentiles and Gentiles were able to respect their Jewish sisters and brothers in the faith. Through the power of the Spirit, the good news began to spread beyond Judea and among many people of different races, origins and cultures. Through the gift of the Spirit, the fearful became bold and spoke freely of their faith regardless of consequences.

When those consequences were dire, the Spirit supplied the struggling and challenged believers with strength and courage. By virtue of the Spirit with and within them, those first Christians were able to extend the peace and forgiveness of God to all who were open to these transformative gifts.

We look to these stories so that we may be renewed in our purpose and in the knowledge of who we are and what we have to say to the world. We look back to be rooted more firmly in Jesus, in the gospel and in the mission that was his and is now ours as well. We look back so that we can go forward in renewed commitment to the living legacy of the Holy Spirit. That same Spirit alive in the earliest church continues to be present and moving among us to inspire, to embolden, to prompt and to purify, to support and to sanctify. This is our faith. How shall this faith move us forward into today and into all our tomorrows?

TUESDAY, May 15

Easter Weekday

8:30 a.m. - † Diniz Raposo

WEDNESDAY, May 16

Easter Weekday

8:30 a.m. - † June Drutz

THURSDAY, May 17

Easter Weekday

8:30 a.m. - † Tony Battaglia

FRIDAY, May 18

Easter Weekday

8:30 a.m. - † James O'Brien

Parish Bulletin for Sunday, May 20, 2007

Feast of the Ascension

Acts of the Apostles - Model of Our Church

Boldly they proclaimed the mighty acts of God. They urged repentance and the forgiveness of sins. They promised the gifts of the Spirit. They preached despite persecutions. They prayed and broke bread. They lived together and owned everything in common. They shared according to what each one needed. They healed the sick and the lame. They shared their food generously and gladly. They called a full meeting of disciples and asked the assembly for approval. The believers were united in heart and soul. None of their members was ever in want. The numbers of men and women who came to believe in the Lord increased steadily.

What amazing stories we find in the Acts of the Apostles! Here are accounts of disciples living out the incredible and disturbing experience of Pentecost. Acts provides the earliest description of a community of believers, a prototype of today's parish community. The first Apostles, accustomed to meeting underground or in homes, might not recognize the steeples and doors of today's structures at first. It would take entrance into a full, vibrant, and worshipping community of faith for them to recognize the life within the structure, the life within the community of faith, gathered together in praise and glory.

The Lectionary readings tell the dramatic story of our church – how the early disciples locked themselves in an upper room out of fear of arrest and persecution. We can almost hear the bolts and double locks sliding into place. We can imagine peering out a peephole to see who is knocking at the door, or we hear the whispers demanding the password allowing us to enter.

Even Jesus himself, newly risen from the dead, is apparently not admitted through the door. He appears inside the locked room, stands before his astonished disciples, and calms their terror with the offer of peace. After a series of appearances to instruct and encourage them, Jesus promises that his own Spirit will enter their hearts and empower them to go out to the whole world to make other disciples.

Their encounter with the risen Christ and his instructions to them inspired remarkable stories, and each successive generation has extended the life of the church. This is our own spiritual history. We are reminded every year during the fifty days of Easter just who we are. We are many members, but one Body, animated by one Spirit.

It is no accident that the fifty days end in the triumphant feast of Pentecost, the feast we will celebrate next week. It is fitting and right that we take this joyous time of Easter to celebrate our beginnings precisely because they continue to impact and spread among us today. It is in the communities of faith around the world that the celebration of Pentecost bursts forth – it is our ability to overcome the divisions created by selfishness, suspicion and sin through the power of the Spirit poured out so generously from the love of our God. Where Pentecost happens, community flourishes, because many gifts make possible things that no one person could imagine or do alone.

We are preparing to celebrate the feast of Pentecost next week and have been preparing to do so throughout our fifty days of Easter. We have listened to the stories once again.

Today, we hear the story of Stephen, a man who spoke truth and was willing to risk all to follow the Lord. For daring to point out the obsolescence of the temple and the unique and saving significance of Jesus, Stephen was stoned. Yet his death did not put an end to the work of salvation. Indeed, just as Jesus' death before him, death proved an impetus for the spread of the good news beyond Jerusalem and Judah to the ends of the earth. Today's story shows us a hero who died for the faith by which he lived.

Our whole Christian history is filled with the stories of heroes and heroines, sung and unsung, who teach us by word and example to live by our convictions in whatever circumstance these may be tested. So, as we prepare for the great feast of Pentecost, let us reflect once more on the great stories of salvation – and remember, this book from the bible is called Acts of the Apostles. What are we called to do right here and right now? Let us pray for the wisdom to know.

TUESDAY, May 22

Easter Weekday

8:30 a.m. - † Lourdes Malabanan

WEDNESDAY, May 23

Easter Weekday

8:30 a.m. - † Elizabeth Middlebrook

THURSDAY, May 24

Easter Weekday

8:30 a.m. - † Catherine Clydesdale

FRIDAY, May 25

Easter Weekday

8:30 a.m. - † Fidel Austriaco

Parish Bulletin for Sunday, May 27, 2007

The Feast of Pentecost

Come, Holy Spirit

This day, Pentecost, is the last of the 50-day season that began on Easter Sunday. The story of the mighty wind and the flame-like tongues is presented over and over as the core image of this Pentecost Day. But that image of wind and flame, whether presented as calm or chaos, is only one in an amazing chain of images and stories that converge today. Even our modest book of readings here gives some taste of the broader stories of Pentecost. It provides them as options that can be read at Vigil Masses, if they are celebrated, but are well worth the investigation. If we wish to imagine what this Pentecost day is all about for the church, these stories offer their own windows to surround that window with Mary and the apostles being surprised by a strong wind and hovering flames.

There is the story from Genesis about the building of a tower. It starts this way: "Now the whole world spoke the same language, using the same words." And in this once upon a time, this time out of time, the people propose to build a tower: a human dream that has never died. They wanted their tower to have its top in the sky and they wanted it to be something that future generations would see with great wonder. But after they have been building for awhile, there is an intervention from on high. God doesn't knock down the tower, but, instead, he makes vast confusion.

The people wake up one morning to discover they can't understand each other's words anymore. God has given them the gift of an abundance of languages. The tower project has to be called off because people can't work together. Yet, the tower they began lives on in their memories and is even given a name: Babel. This word is still one that we use to describe human sounds we cannot make out, a baby playing with sound or the way our ears cannot take in a foreign tongue.

So, you might ask, what is this story all about? Is it an explanation of why there are different languages? Is it about our arrogance, forever thinking we are in control and can make anything we like of the world or society? Is it about what happens when people leave the land and start cities? Yes, to all, and it is a really good story to boot! And it works at Pentecost.

Think for a minute. From Genesis to the day of Pentecost, when we find the people have come together from many lands and cities to Jerusalem. These visitors speak dozens of languages but when they crowd together to see what the sound of the wind and flames is all about, and when they hear what the disciples are saying, they realize that each person hears in their own language. It is Babel turned upside-down.

Another Pentecost story comes again from the Old Testament, this time from the book of Exodus. It reminds us that Pentecost did not begin with Christians. In the time of Jesus and long before, this festival of the Jewish people came 50 days after their festival of Passover. It celebrated the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai. We can't really understand our own Pentecost without knowing what the Jewish people have been celebrating and continue to celebrate when they have counted 50 days from Passover.

Listen to Exodus: "Mount Sinai was all wrapped in smoke, for the Lord came down upon it in fire. The smoke rose from it as though from a furnace and the whole mountain trembled violently." And from the story of Pentecost, "There came from the sky a noise like a strong, driving wind…Then there appeared tongues as of fire." Smoke and fire and the earth trembling, then God gives the Law in the book of Exodus and God gives the Spirit in the book of Acts of the Apostles. It is important to understand that the Law of God is Spirit-filled. The Law is a way to walk, a way to be with others, a way to breathe in and out the very Spirit of God.

And once more from the Old Testament, we hear from Ezekiel and it is a story we know well: the valley of the dry bones. "In the spirit of the Lord I was taken to the centre of a great open space and this space was filled with bones. I had to walk through them to know how many, how terrible and how many were these bones. Then the Lord asked me: Can these bones live? So I called out to the bones, and there was a sound, bone joining bone, a rattling of the bones, and then skin covered them. But they were not alive. And the Lord told me to call on the spirit, to call the four winds to come and to blow and breathe into these bones and so it happened, and the bones came alive."

God tells the prophet: "You say that our hope is lost, our bones dried up, we are done for. But I will bring you back, O my people! And I will put my own breath, my own spirit into you."

And here we are in Jerusalem, on the other side of the Apostles' big day and following that day there are centuries and centuries of the church, where we are called to know that Pentecost is not just history, but a vision of reality. The imagery of our stories, Babel, Sinai, the dry bones, and the Feast of Pentecost all call to our imaginations.

We are children of this Spirit and we know very well that we are claimed by Christ and anointed by the Spirit. We need to see what might be, what should be, even what truly is! We are called to hunger and thirst for justice and change, we are called to breathe in and out the Spirit of our God. That is what our stories tell us. That is what Pentecost can be – right here and right now. Alleluia, Alleluia.

TUESDAY, May 29

Weekday

8:30 a.m. - † Paula Stark-Hanley

WEDNESDAY, May 30

Weekday

8:30 a.m. - † Gerard Tubridy

THURSDAY, May 31

Visitation of Mary

8:30 a.m. - † Alberto Deni

FRIDAY, June 1

St. Justin

8:30 a.m. - † Cleotilde Tabasa