Parish Bulletin for Sunday, May 2, 2010
FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
Acts 14:21-27 Rev. 21:1-5 John 13:1, 31-33, 34-35
Love is in the Details
Anyone who has been privileged to watch, wait and pray as a loved one approaches the final passage through death to life will probably never forget the experience. The dying one's last words are especially unforgettable. Often these words convey a final expression of love, a wish for the well-being of the people left behind, even a sigh of fear or sadness. The survivors will visit and revisit these words as a way to feel connected to the person they miss.
In what has been called the Last Supper Discourse, the Johannine evangelist has presented the words that the soon-to-die Jesus wished to leave with his disciples. Four of the five Sunday Gospels for May put those last words of Jesus before us once again.
The other Gospel, the one for Pentecost, reminds us that we have been empowered to make those words speak again in us. For today, the word is a commandment: "Love one another as I have loved you." Jesus, as we know, loved big and bold. To be in his presence, to hear his voice, to feel his healing touch was to know you were dearly loved and cherished. His love was so profound and authentic that he gave his life for the salvation of sinners.
Although he is the redeemer of us all and we are indebted to him for our very breath, he calls us his beloved, his friends. When they chose to respond to the great love they had come to know in Jesus, Paul and Barnabas (Acts) also loved large. They set aside their own plans for their lives and devoted themselves to a ministry that would extend the love of Jesus to all peoples.
Their mission is summed up in today's first reading, a pattern that they would repeat in city after city for the rest of their lives. While all of us are called to love, we may not to be called to love as dangerously as Jesus, Paul, Barnabas and the other pioneers of our faith. Each of us has to discover the best way to express our love.
In her own quest to discover the best way to love, Oprah Winfrey has used her fame and success in order to be extremely generous to others. With Nelson Mandela as her mentor, Winfrey chose to build a school for girls in South Africa. She wanted to give students the tools they would need to become a transforming presence in their country. She could have simply written a check and left it to others to complete the work, but Winfrey remained personally involved in even the most minor decisions. "Love is in the details," she explained.
There are many more examples in contemporary times as well as in our history as human beings that can inspire each one of us to discover how to love in our own small ways: by choosing a kind word rather than a critical one, offering a smile or a helping hand, sending a letter to a friend, remembering someone's birthday, listening to the lonely, being patient with the impatient, showing interest in someone else's plans.
As the Gospels reflect, Jesus understood the importance of loving God and others in little ways: giving food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, welcome to strangers, and clothing to the needy and visiting the sick and imprisoned. These little ways, in fact, became the criteria for gaining a welcome into eternity. Love is in the details.
Our love is a sign that communicates the visible presence of Christ. "This how all will know that you are my disciples." (v35)
For the Church . . . that we may be known as disciples of Jesus by the love and care that we show one another . . . We pray to the Lord.
For all those who have died, that they may know the refreshment, rest, and peace of God's heavenly kingdom, especially . . .
- Tuesday, May 4
- Weekday 8:30 a.m. - Antonia Fung
- Wednesday, May 5
- Weekday 8:30 a.m. - Monica Yuen and Joseph Yong
- Thursday, May 6
- Weekday 8:30 a.m. - Frank Baretta
- Friday, May 7
- Weekday 8:30 a.m. - Mamie Domenica Liotta
Lord, hear our prayer
For all who are ill, that the wounds of the Risen Lord may radiate healing and health to all who are suffering . . . Lord, hear our prayer.
For Peace: that the Spirit will guide all hearts to recognition of the dignity and value of each person so that we may learn to love one another . . . Lord, hear our prayer.
Parish Bulletin for Sunday, May 9, 2010
SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
Acts 15:1-2, 22-29 Rev. 21:10-14, 22-23 John 14:23-29
Thinking Outside The Box
Edwina Gateley, British laywoman and founder of the Volunteer Missionary Movement, tells this story: Once upon a time we captured God and we put God in a box and we put a beautiful velvet curtain around the box. We placed candles and flowers around the box and we said to the poor and the dispossessed, 'Come! Come and see what we have! Come and see God!' And they knelt before the God in the box.
One day, very long ago, the Spirit in the box turned the key from the inside and she pushed it open. She looked around the church and saw that there was nobody there! They had all gone. Not a soul was in the place. She said to herself, 'I'm getting out!' The Spirit shot out of the box. She escaped and she has been sighted a few times since then. She was last seen with a bag lady in McDonald's. (Prophetic Mission: Sniffing out the Kingdom, Mystics, Visionaries and Prophets, edited by Shawn Madigan, Augsburg Press, Minneapolis: 1998).
Today's sacred texts set forth the same truths about the Spirit that Gateley conveys with her provocative tale: The Spirit is God's gift and not the consequence of human effort, however noble or powerful that effort may be. The Spirit cannot be contained. It cannot be claimed as the possession of any one person or group. The Spirit blows where it will, and for that reason we may discover the presence of the Spirit in the least likely people and in the most unexpected places. Before departing from his disciples, the Johannine Jesus promised that the Father would send them the Spirit to teach them and remind them of all that Jesus had told them (Gospel).
After Jesus' resurrection, he breathed this Spirit upon them, and soon it became clear that discerning the truth that the Spirit taught would be a challenging process for the budding Jesus movement. Thanks to Luke, contemporary readers are able to follow the struggles of those early believers. Acts gives us glimpses into their process of discernment and invites us to appreciate the value of diverse voices - even dissenting voices - in the ongoing conversation that keeps a community viable.
As today's first reading shows, some in the growing community of believers thought the Spirit of God could be captured, put into the box of Judaism with its rich faith heritage and centuries-old traditions regarding holiness and purity. These Jewish Christians were happy to tell others, "Come and see what we have! Come and see God!" But the Spirit had other plans. On the contrary, it is of the very essence of the Spirit to think, to breathe, to live outside the box. Just as the Spirit could speak and act in Peter and James, so could the Spirit enliven Paul, Barnabas and even Phoebe, Lydia and Cornelius.
The Spirit, always teaching, always reminding, always enlightening, led the community to see that decisions about membership, missionary activity, table fellowship and so on were no longer solely theirs to make. "It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and of us . . . . " declared those disciples of Jesus who had gathered in Jerusalem. The earliest leaders of the community had learned that their continued surrender to the workings of the Spirit would be the source of their strength and survival. They were wise enough to give the Spirit top billing.
That same Spirit continues to be available to everyone - to the churched and to the unchurched; to Christians and to all who believe in God; to men and women; to clergy and laypeople; and not only to the hierarchy but to all the people of God. Even a bag lady at McDonald's who is open to the Spirit is as worthy as the most finely dressed prelate. We might do well to preface all our words and works with the same words spoken by our ancestors so long ago: "It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and of us . . . . "
For all those who have died, that they may know the refreshment, rest, and peace of God's heavenly kingdom, especially . . .
- Tuesday, May 11
- Weekday 8:30 a.m. - Antony Francis
- Wednesday, May 12
- Weekday 8:30 a.m. - Philip Chin
- Thursday, May 13
- Weekday 8:30 a.m. - Charles O'Sullivan
- Friday, May 14
- Weekday 8:30 a.m. - Domingo Perez Manuel Sr
Lord, hear our prayer
For all who are ill, that the wounds of the Risen Lord may radiate healing and health to all who are suffering . . .for all who await the fulfilment of God's promises, especially those with terminal illnesses, that God's presence will be real for them and fill them with peace as they await the day of His coming . . Lord, hear our prayer.
O God, let all the nations praise you!, for you have rescued them from death and offered them the gift of peace through your resurrection.
Parish Bulletin for Sunday, May 16, 2010
Feast of the Ascension
Acts 1:1-11 Ephesians 1:17-23 Luke 24:46-53
Living The End-Times
With the Ascension of Jesus, the Christ-event has come full circle. Jesus, who is God, who became flesh and lived within the parameters of human existence, has "gone home" to God and to glory. Not for his own sake did he undertake the journey into the depths of human need, frailty and sin - but for ours.
Because of Jesus' willingness to become like us in all things except sin, human beings have been granted a glimpse "beyond the veil," a glimpse of glory also revealed to us over the past weeks from the writer of Revelation. But Jesus' willing presence in flesh and blood, in time and space, has also revealed a love the authenticity and intensity of which human beings could never have realized on their own. Indeed, someone had to surrender, to become one of us, in order to speak to us in our own language of the incomprehensible, illogical and irrepressible love of God for humankind.
In Jesus, we learned that God loves us as Brother, as Father, as Mother, as Sister and even as a Bridegroom who loves his bride. In Jesus, God's love became real, with hands to touch, ears to listen, a heart to ache and a body to suffer - in love, for love, because of love.
As recorded by the Luke, the ascension of Jesus is both an ending and a beginning. At an end were the two to three years of companionship with the earthly Jesus as well as his resurrection appearances among his disciples and the opportunity for instruction that these afforded. Ending, too, was the second stage in the story of salvation as perceived by Luke.
The first of those stages was the period of Israel, from Moses to the appearance of John the Baptizer; the second was the period of Jesus' ministry, from the inauguration of his public service to his ascension. That period was now ending, and the stage was set for the beginning of the final era of salvation history, in which we still live: the period of the church.
Luke described the mission of the church as an intended part of God's preordained plan of salvation and, as such, a mission that would be powered by the Spirit. The first disciples did not immediately understand the nature of their mission (to preach repentance and forgiveness of sins) or its dimensions (to all nations). Indeed, it took repeated revelations and prodding by the Spirit before those early believers became aware that God accepts all without partiality.
In fact, right within this brief ascension narrative are couched two of the major issues with which the early church had to struggle - coming to terms with a suffering and dying messiah and accepting non-Jews into their faith fellowship without distinction. Jesus knew that neither the message nor the universal scope of their mission would be a natural fit for his followers.
They were not ready to carry forth a message shot through with pain and suffering and they were not ready to spend themselves on a worldwide mission. Therefore, they were told to wait for a power greater than themselves to open their minds, prepare their hearts and warm them to service.
Luke was not the only New Testament author to accent the necessary gift of the Spirit for the mission of the church. John also represented the Holy Spirit as the continuation of Christ's presence, leading, reminding, teaching, prompting, enlightening, comforting and strengthening believers. Paul, too, stressed the importance of the Spirit as one who creates in believers the life of Christ and equips them for service.
However, it is Luke's emphasis on the Spirit that may have been and continues to be the most unsettling, for, according to Luke, it is the intention of the Holy Spirit to propel the church into places where it might not otherwise have gone, among peoples whom it might not otherwise have welcomed, into activities that it might not otherwise have attempted.
Such a power is disturbing. Nevertheless, it is the "disturbance" of the Spirit that keeps the church alive, active and attuned to Jesus. Empower us, Lord; send your Spirit to perturb and disturb, lest we lose sight of your purpose, lest we overlook or ignore your people.
For all those who have died, that they may know the refreshment, rest, and peace of God's heavenly kingdom, especially . . .
- Tuesday, May 18
- Weekday 8:30 a.m. - Rosario and Maria Romalgnuolo
- Wednesday, May 19
- Weekday 8:30 a.m. - Lilian Deveau
- Thursday, May 20
- Weekday 8:30 a.m. - George Terpenning
- Friday, May 21
- Weekday 8:30 a.m. - Samuel Johns
Lord, hear our prayer
For the sick and for all who ask for our prayers . . . for all who await the fulfilment of God's promises, especially those with terminal illnesses, that God's presence will be real for them and fill them with peace as they await the day of His coming. . . Lord, hear our prayer.
Parish Bulletin for Sunday, May 23, 2010
Feast of Pentecost
Acts 2:1-111 Cor. 12:3-7,12-13 John 20:19-23
The Garden of Life
For many Christians, today's feast of Pentecost - the arrival of the Holy Spirit - marks the beginning of the church. Yet such a commemoration has different meanings for different people.
Those of us who grew up with the idea that the church is an institution grew up having no need of a Holy Spirit, except at exam time. Institutions run themselves, even institutions that deal in God's business. Besides, good institutions, unlike the church of the Christian scriptures, seem to operate best with minimum diversity and maximum conformity.
Thankfully, the early Christian community never thought of itself as an institution. We know from their writings that Jesus' first followers regarded themselves as parts of his body, a community of believers carrying on his work and ministry, daily participating in his death and resurrection. As Jesus' body the community required a special force and power, not only to make certain its members were continuing to maintain the mentality of the person it represented and imitated, but also to keep its members from splitting apart.
Unlike later followers of Jesus, the first Christians didn't conceive of the Holy Spirit as someone who helped them create dogmas; they regarded the Holy Spirit as an amazing, essential power helping them form community, as the force responsible for all the contradictions that good communities embody.
Today's three readings only make sense when we hear them proclaimed against such a background. Luke, in our Acts reading, perfectly depicts the ongoing tension between the Spirit's disruptiveness and its power to unite. Though the Spirit arrives in the midst of noise, wind and fire - each an unsettling element - the Spirit is still the force that empowers the disciples to speak to the crowd in such a unifying way that everyone hears them speaking in their "own tongue about the marvels God has accomplished."
Paul carries on the same theme in our 1st Corinthians passage. Some in the Corinthian church are using their individual gifts of the Spirit for their own personal benefit and not for the community's benefit. "There are different gifts," the apostle writes, "but the same Spirit . . .. different ministries but the same Lord . . . different works, but the same God . . . . To each person the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good."
The Corinthian church is leaning so much toward the diversity that sets Jesus' body apart from earthly institutions that it's destroying the unity that same body demands. Paul reminds his readers that the Spirit enlivens both elements. Only when we permit the Spirit to keep these two forces in proper tension do we actually become Jesus' body.
On the other hand, in today's Gospel passage, John tells his community how the Holy Spirit specifically brings about unity. Jesus, after greeting his Easter-night disciples with the commission, "As the Father has sent me, so I send you!" immediately breathes on them, saying, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."
Given the forgiving context of John's Gospel, Jesus' gift of the Spirit empowers his followers to forgive one another. His mention of holding someone's sins retained or bound, seems to be a recognition and reminder of what happens when we don't fall back on the Spirit. We can accomplish such an unchristian action on our own. We don't need the Spirit's help to bind people in their sins. Only those who forgive are able to form and maintain the body of Christ as a living, growing entity.
We're not reading the Christian scriptures very carefully if we think the Holy Spirit came just once upon Jesus' followers, structuring them into a hierarchical institution that would continue unchanged until the end of time. Pope John XXIII once said, "We are not on earth to guard a museum, but to cultivate a flourishing garden of life." His words are never more meaningful than when we bring them to mind on the feast of Pentecost.
For all those who have died, that they may know the refreshment, rest, and peace of God's heavenly kingdom, especially . . .
- Tuesday, May 25
- Weekday 8:30 a.m. Robert and Dorothea Fynn
- Wednesday, May 26
- Weekday 8:30 a.m. - Saverio Giusti
- Thursday, May 27
- Weekday 8:30 a.m. - Antonio Austriaco
- Friday, May 28
- Weekday 8:30 a.m. - Mary Waychison
Lord, hear our prayer. . .
For the sick and for all who ask for our prayers . . . for a renewal of the Gifts of the Spirit in our lives, that we may recognize and put into practice all the gifts which we have been given so that the Body of Christ may be strong in serving the reign of God . . . Lord, hear our prayer. . .
Parish Bulletin for Sunday, May 30, 2010
Trinity Sunday
Proverbs 8:22-31 Romans 5:1-5 John 16:12-15
Coming Full Circle
Speaking to the annual assembly of the Catholic Health Association on Trinity Sunday, 1992, Walter Burghardt said: "Today, good friends, is not God's feast; it is ours. Today, we celebrate God with us. However humbly you think of yourself, however much you may regret what you do not have, never forget the supreme gift that is yours, more precious and more lasting than diamonds.
You are a living tabernacle: God is alive in you - Father/Mother, God's unique Son and Their Holy Spirit" (from Speak the Word with Boldness, Paulist Press, New York: 1994).
The Triune God is not some kind of brainy speculation by scholars. It is simply the way we experience God in this world. Christian living is the Trinity in action. First, long ago human beings learned that there is only one God, and that he "takes delight in the human race."
Think of the many, many stories in the Old Testament about God's pursuit of us, his labouring to make a loving and holy covenant with us: "I will be your God and you will be my people." Like a marriage agreement. God became, by turns, angry, hurt, delighted, spurned, glorified, ignored, praised and rejected. Yet he kept coming back and back to renew the covenant. God's love is steadfast.
Then we found out that God's nature has another component. God had not been alone or lonely, like a rock in the desert. His very nature has always been to relate to others, to "pour himself forth," as the First Reading puts it, and to receive back. The Second Person is at one with the First Person for all eternity.
The Word was made flesh. Jesus laughed and cried and preached and turned over tables and cured people, and was loyal to his friends even to the end. "All that the Father has is mine," he said (Gospel). That's how we knew he was The Word and the Word was God.
Then came a final revelation about the Trinity. Jesus hints about it in the Gospel: "I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now." In other words, our small souls would burst with the greatness of God-unless part of God gentled himself down and began to dwell within us, to guide our understanding.
So Jesus promised to pour out the Holy Spirit into us. Jesus tells us that the Spirit is God (and himself too). "All that the Father has is mine; for this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you." Do you get the logic? Everything the Father has belongs to the Word. Everything that Jesus the Word has belongs to the Spirit. Thus, the Spirit is the third part of God, and it bestows the whole earth back upon the Father, closing the circle.
What aliveness, what movement there is in God: speaking, reaching out, flowing forth, receiving back. God is like liquid motion, like a dynamism in which everything is changing always, yet remains always secure because it is rooted in love-it is love. We are invited into that circle of love.
Too theoretical? Allow me to put it more simply. Do you suffer? God invites you meld that pain into the Trinity's unending love. Do you lack hope? The Christ who rose from death is within you. Are you abandoned? Remember that the one God in three persons embraces you with tender affection and asks you to melt into his arms.
For all those who have died, that they may know the refreshment, rest, and peace of God's heavenly kingdom, especially . . .
- Tuesday, June 1
- Weekday 8:30 a.m. - Marie Russell
- Wednesday, June 2
- Weekday 8:30 a.m. - Cecilia & Eduardo Pierri
- Thursday, June 3
- Weekday 8:30 a.m. - Bernard and Emilia Cardozo
- Friday, June 4
- Weekday 8:30 a.m. - Marie Russell
Lord, hear our prayer. . .
For the sick and for all who ask for our prayers . . . for all who are suffering from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico: that God will ease their pain, guide all who are working to protect the environment, and show leaders ways to prevent future spills . . . Lord, hear our prayer. . .
