Church of The Holy Spirit

Parish Bulletin for Sunday, October 5, 2008

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Taking God's Word to Heart

Every one of us who gathers weekly to celebrate our lives in Christ probably has heard the scripture selections for this month. Some of us have heard these texts proclaimed dozens of times. Because of their familiarity, we may hear without actually listening and fail to welcome the texts with deliberate co-operation and responsiveness. As a result, these texts, which are to be embraced and integrated into our very selves, may remain impotent in our lives and in our world.

But rather than allow the power of God's word to lie fallow, we must pray to that same God to awaken in us a new hunger and a renewed receptivity. In this way, the Word we hear becomes a part of who we are and is translated into actions that are transformative and sanctifying in a world that is so much in need of God's goodness, justice, peace and love. Like a well to which we return again and again to wash and to drink and to be refreshed, the word of God will provide the sustenance we need to be different and to make a difference.

On Oct. 5, Isaiah and the Matthean Jesus will describe the work of salvation in terms of vines and vineyards. God remains the planter of the vine and the owner of the harvest; we are tenant farmers entrusted with the care and protection of the vine. Grafting and pruning are God's sole prerogative. Therefore, our outreach to others is to be all-inclusive and to reflect the universal care of God for all peoples. This means we cannot allow one branch of the worldwide vine of humankind to wither or to die. This requires our proactive attentiveness to the hungry, the oppressed and those suffering from natural disasters all over the planet. Taking God's word to heart compels us.

A banquet theme reprised by Isaiah and the Matthean evangelist on Oct.12 reminds us that we are all beggars at God's table. Nevertheless, God welcomes each of us with a love that bestows dignity upon us. That love has the power to awaken in us a new appreciation for the banquet of both spiritual and physical blessings that are ours. We who are the well-fed of this world are responsible for those whose hungers rob them of peace, joy and even their very lives. Taking God's word to heart compels us.

On the third Sunday of this month (Oct. 19), the word of God invites the gathered assembly to discover God's gentle touch at work in human history. The workings of divine providence are not indifferent or extraneous to our lives, but we can perceive them as fully invested in the human condition. Jesus himself was so invested. We call his involvement the Incarnation. He expects similar involvement of his followers with all peoples in all places. On October's third Sunday, Jesus will challenge his followers to give Caesar or the world its due, while giving to God what is God's. This latter gift will include all we are, all we have been, and all we hope to become. Taking God's word to heart compels us.

With the last Sunday of October, the Word affirms that our loving care for others is the surest measure of our professed love for God. Faith in this God turns us not inward but outward, particularly toward those in need. Love God with your whole self, invites the Matthean Jesus, and your neighbour as yourself. This double loving is amplified by the Exodus author, who calls us beyond words and warm fuzzy feelings to a practical way of providing for the poor. Aliens are named here very clearly as deserving of our care.

Even in the days of our ancestors, those who had been uprooted and left to fend for themselves in a foreign land were recognized as deserving of special care. "You were once aliens," says the author of Exodus. Those words speak the truth that none of us is indigenous to this earth or even to any country. All of us are a people en route to an eternal homeland. Therefore, those of us who have been around a little longer than others and who have "set up shop" and pitched our tents (at least for a time) owe special care to those who have been able to do neither.

Our indebtedness to the foreigners among us requires that we make of them beloved friends whose rights, dignity and welfare are as precious to us as our own. If we dare to take God's word to heart today, that Word will compel us. That same Word will witness against our betrayal of its trust to do what is just and right for all God's people.

That all our beloved dead, especially

TUESDAY, Oct. 7
Weekday
8:30 a.m. - † Carl Douglas Cook

THURSDAY, Oct. 9
Weekday
8:30 a.m. - † Fred and Louise Luttrell

FRIDAY, Oct. 10
Weekday
8:30 a.m. - † Antonio Deberardinis

. . . 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 . . . We pray. . .

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 caregivers. . .We pray . . .

Parish Bulletin for Sunday, October 12, 2008

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Who is Called?

This Sunday, Matthew tells us another parable. It is short and to the point, but we can sometimes miss even that if we are not listening with open hearts. Today we hear about the king who has prepared a wedding feast for his son. It is interesting to note that Luke also records this story and his telling of the tale contains a few embellishments that certainly make the story rather more interesting. Matthew's invited guests simply refuse to come. Luke's invited guests give excuses. One of those invited says: " I just bought some land and I have to go see it. Please excuse me." Another: "I just bought some oxen and I must try them out. Please excuse me from the wedding." A third person has the best excuse: "I just got married myself, so I can't come."

The two tellings of the same story then conclude with slightly different surprises: In Matthew's Gospel, the king sends the servants out to the streets and roads to invite any and all to the wedding, "bad and good alike." Luke has the king ordering the servants to "bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame." You have to wonder: What kind of a wedding was this going to be? We are told that Jesus was judged by those who scoffed: "This man eats and drinks with sinners."

We are told that Jesus, while accepting the hospitality of any who offered, was not afraid to say to his host, a person with authority: "The tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you." A teacher like this was bound to make enemies among those who needed to divide human beings into the good and the bad and keep them quite separate. We all have something of this in us. And we all find this parable troubling, if we hear it fresh and take it seriously. From the beginning those who held office in this church of ours found stories like this one as troublesome as those who heard it from Jesus. Not only that, all of us who show up on Sunday get at least a little agitated when Jesus takes all the barriers to the banquet down. The only barrier left, then, is the one we put up ourselves.

We can't hide from this parable. It stares us in the face when the church comes forward to share in Holy Communion .How much do we look like that wedding feast – "bad and good alike," "the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame?" But we have to follow this challenge of Jesus even further. We have to look outside; have to see where the lines have been drawn between the healthy and the sick, strong and weak, good and bad, correct and in error, evil and good. What are we to do? Leave the wedding story safe inside the book where it can't get in the way when we want to vote for a world of walls and fences where only the proper guests are allowed at the table? Or let the story loose so it helps us look and listen for some vision of the world where all are welcome? Maybe in such a world as that there will be a place for us!

Today, we are invited to the feast. Some of us have better things to do. Like those in today's Gospel who place d their means of livelihood above the call of the king, we too quickly find excuses for ignoring or refusing the invitations of our God. Our concerns for wealth, our cares and worries, our careers, the baggage we lug around . . . all of these often distract us and, as a result, we are not as aware as we should be to the overtures of God.

The church keeps us mindful of what is important. The liturgy calls us aside each week, calls us to pause a while and extricate ourselves from the burdens of daily life so as to be simply in God's presence. These are gifts we refuse at our own peril. Let us be resolved to listen, to hear and to come to the feasts that are willingly lavished on any who will respond to God's invitation.

That all our beloved dead, especially

THURSDAY, Oct. 16
Weekday
8:30 a.m. - † Antonia Fung

FRIDAY, Oct. 17
St. Ignatius of Antioch
8:30 a.m. - † Daniel Jude Florentino

. . . 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 . . . We pray. . .

For the sick, especially for

Parish Bulletin for Sunday, October 19, 2008

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

World Mission Sunday

"No Other Lord"

In the time of Jesus, Israel or Palestine, as it was then known, was part of the Roman Empire and as such was subject to foreign rule and taxation. Not surprisingly, Jewish reactions to this state of affairs were varied. Self-interest led some to collaborate with the Romans while others accepted their rule because there was simply no other choice to survive. A minority, albeit a vocal one, plotted revolt and refused to accept this state of affairs.

As Jesus' public ministry progressed and it appeared that he would continue with his preaching style, calling the people into right relationship with God and with each other, a growing number of the leaders of Israel reacted negatively to his message. He was seen as a definite threat to their own position with the Romans as well as a disruption to society as a whole.

So began the campaign to undermine his influence and either embarrass him into silence or into open conflict with the authorities. The question that was put to Jesus about whether or not it is lawful to pay taxes to the emperor was a rather obvious trap. The questioners assume that no matter what his answer he will alienate at least some of the people and quite possibly even provoke the Romans. The tax referred to in this reading is a poll tax imposed on every subject of the empire and which must be paid in Roman coin.

Jesus understands the motivation behind the question and instead of giving it an exhaustive answer; he deflects and frustrates his questioners in their purpose. The most widely circulated Roman coin at the time bore the image of the emperor Tiberius and the inscription, "Tiberius Caesar, august son of the divine Augustus, high priest." Paying the tax, Jesus says, is simply giving back to Caesar what already belongs to him. Jesus refuses to be drawn into the trap. He is not a revolutionary calling for rebellion against the Romans. Nor is he a collaborator seeking their support.

His answer transforms the question by reminding his listeners that the real issue is not Caesar, but God. We are to give to God what belongs to God. Over the centuries, Jesus' response has sometimes been used to justify a purely private and personal understanding of religion, unrelated to political and social life. Followers of the Christ know that this was not his original meaning. For Jesus, God is the creator, the Lord of history, the origin and goal of all that is. Everything and everyone belong to God. No power or institution can claim exemption from God's will and purpose for human life.

Today's first reading underlines the universality of God's reach and interest. The prophet writes in the time of the exile and promises the people that God will soon intervene on their behalf. Our passage announces that this intervention will come through the hands of a non-Jew, Cyrus, king of the Persians. Because of the role he is to play in God's plan, he is called God's anointed one. Even though Cyrus does not know the God of Israel, he has been chosen to bring about the return of the exiles to their homeland. God's will is worked through the larger political upheavals of the time. God is the Lord not only of human hearts and of his particular people but of all peoples and all history. This resounds for us today!

A true commitment to God and to the things of God can bring us into conflict with political and other structures of the world. Jesus proclaimed God's kingdom and called us to serve it by working for justice and peace and by reaching out to those most in need. Let us pray today for the courage and strength to answer this call to discipleship!

‘We believe that God chose us in him before the world began, to be holy and blameless in his sight.'

That all our beloved dead, especially

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 22
Weekday
8:30 a.m. - † Don McMillan

. . . 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 . . . We pray. . .

For the sick, especially for

Parish Bulletin for Sunday, October 26, 2008

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

For many, today's Gospel is a heady one. Lawyers and priests, scribes and orthodox observers of the Torah (Pharisees and Sadducees) had gathered around Jesus for a legal discussion. Their question about the greatest law was a favourite one in legal circles; parsing the prescriptions of the law was a pastime that enabled legal minds to parry and thrust, and if they were successful in the argument, to win the adulation of their peers.

Discerning that one law from which all the others logically could be derived was a challenge they readily put to Jesus. His answer is familiar to all of us. Love God totally and love your neighbour as yourself. He was not content to allow their discussion to remain on the heady level of intellect or spiritual speculation. Jesus, through many other words and works, would translate his dual law into an active caring for all others. This sort of caring and love, Jesus would insist, is truly what love for God is all about.

In anticipation of today's Matthean Gospel, the reading from Exodus spells out very clearly the quality of love demanded of God's own. Because our ancestors in the faith had been bound to a loving God in a relationship called covenant, they were also bound to become more accurate reflections of their loving God in the world. Their status as a loved and chosen people, created in God's image, made demands upon them that could not be fulfilled by an occasional charitable act, regardless of how generous it was.

On the contrary, being God's own meant living according to the demands of biblical justice. Fidelity to the covenant must be expressed in love for God, for all God's people and for God's gift of the universe. The Exodus author and Jesus, throughout his ministry, both affirm that this love is very practical. It addresses the needs of others. Their needs offer opportunities for saying: "I love you" to God and also give us a chance to live that love with a genuineness that makes a difference in other people's lives.

Love is, as theologian Emil Brunner once said, "Justice passed around" (Justice and the Social Order, Harper and Brothers, New York: 1945). No one may be overlooked in the passing around of this love that is justice. Besides citing the needs of widows, orphans and the poor as people to whom love and justice are owed, the Exodus author makes specific mention of aliens, or foreigners. Near the end of his Gospel, the Matthean Jesus will make it clear that he proudly wears the disguise of the strangers and the poor in our midst. We, for our part, are called to recognize and to do as Jesus has done.

Where are justice and love learned? Besides the home, where all good growth should begin, justice and love are probably best learned at liturgy. There, in the context of Word and Bread, sinners learn God's justice and God's love. Each week, the praying assembly gathers to celebrate these gifts, to be nurtured by them and to make them their own. Then, as the assembly goes forth from liturgy into the life that is lived outside the sanctuary, all are charged to go forth to love and serve God and one another.

In other words, all are challenged to pass around the love that is justice. From the manner in which he exercised his ministry, we see that Jesus understood the love due to God and to neighbour in terms of justice. Biblical justice, or fidelity to the demands of a relationship, was the principle that governed all his words and works. His relationship with God as a Son to a Father motivated Jesus to look upon and love all others as his brothers and sisters.

Our relationship with Jesus challenges us to follow his lead in loving and caring for one another. Let us pray for the grace to carry out this mission.

We believe that those whom he foreknew he predestined to share the image of his Son.

We believe that God who has set us apart before we were born and called us by his favour chose to reveal his Son to us, that we might spread among all people the good tidings concerning him.

That all our beloved dead, especially

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 29
Weekday
8:30 a.m. - † Michel and Marta Virgilio

Thursday, Oct. 30
Weekday
8:30 a.m. - † Florence Austriaco

. . . 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 . . . We pray. . .

For the sick, especially for