Church of St. Mary at Clinton Heights

The Scriptures today give us a measuring stick of how to live as a Church and Christians. The first thing is that is not about me.  Jesus teaches us is that it cannot be about me.  Like St Paul, our main goal is to know Jesus and him crucified. His death shows us that our lives need to be sacrificed for the good of others.  This is such an opposite message we hear today even in the churches.  We seem to want to live the words of the old Frank Sinatra song:

I planned each charted course, each careful step, along the byway, and more, much more than this, I did it my way.*

So, if I am so completely in charge, I don’t need anyone else, care about anyone else.  I definitely don’t need God. I can do whatever I want, no matter who I step on, the poor and needy are not my concern, power is all I need.

The God that Jesus reveals to us is not selfish.  God’s very nature is to focus on the other.  Since the reason we exist to be live as Jesus did, then we need to focus on the other.  The person who sits around us on Sunday but also the person who goes to Concerns U, Circles of Mercy, Joseph House, the City mission in Albany, the starving family in Africa, children who wake up every morning surrounded by violence, the Chinese man or woman who is sick with the virus, etc.  the lamp of faith within is to be a beacon shining for everyone else in the world that only God is in charge of this world.

Isaiah tells us the profound truth that whatever:

Share your bread with the hungry, shelter the oppressed and the homeless; clothe the naked when you see them, and do not turn your back on your own. Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,

This is the mandate that Jesus gave us: “whatsoever ever you do to the least of my brothers and sisters, you do unto me.”

My brothers and my sisters, Pope Francis told us that we need to smell like the sheep we serve.  Although these words are directed at priests and bishops, they apply to us all.  As important as our charitable giving is; we must also give of the very bread of our lives/

We will begin the sacred season of Lent two weeks from this coming Wednesday.  We need to being to prepare ourselves now.  Based on today’s readings, we need to begin to ask Jesus to show us what we is getting in our way of committing ourselves to him.

How much food are we wasting? Do we over eat? How much clothing do we have? Do we need everything we have or can some be shared with the poor? What opportunities do we have to “rub elbows” with the poor and homeless?

I am sure the Family Promise could use some volunteers.  Family Promise is a program our community participates in that provides a place for homeless families using the McManus center.  Our volunteers provide a meal and a place for people to stay.  We share in this with many other faith communities in the area.  Call the parish office for more info.

Do we fall into the trap of gossip and malicious speech? What can you and I do to help free those whose lives are oppressed by racism, prejudice, sexism, homophobia, war and violence, those oppressed by addictions and the stigma that society puts on those with mental illness?

So, my brothers and sisters, let the upcoming season of Lent be a time to shift our perspective from self centeredness to Christ centeredness.  When it is all said and done, God will not ask us:

How well did you do it your way?

Instead, He will ask us:

Did you share your bread with the hungry?

Did you share your clothes with the poor?

How well did you do it my way?

The most familiar method of fishing is very simple.  Get a pole, some line, a hook and some bait and you are good to go.  Granted, there are some variations on this, but, in all reality, it is a simple. I am not sure Jesus’s analogy in the Gospel works with our type of fishing.   This is not what Jesus had in mind because he wasn’t familiar with our style of fishing.

He would have been familiar with throwing out a net and dragging it back with the catch.  The apostles were given the mandate to throw out the net of God’s love and grace.  We are given the same mandate.  By throwing out the net of the Kingdom, you and I fulfill the fundamental responsibility of the Christian life:  to bring others to Christ. 

So, how?  By first getting caught ourselves.  There is no way for us to bring people to Christ, unless we first are caught up in His love and grace.  As important as it is to go through the ritual of Baptism, it is not enough.  To be caught in Christ’s web:  is to know peace in our life, the grace to endure anything that life throws at us, the fortitude to stand firm in our faith even when it means standing against the tide of a society that puts selfishness first and God last.  Then and only then,  are we able to go fishing for Christ. 

We are called to do this in our own ways depending on where we are in our lives.  Student, spouse, single, teacher, lawyer, contractor, stay at home mom, nurse, doctor, priest, deacon, etc.  No matter our state in life, we have to be caught up in the net of God’s love and grace and then throw the net ourselves and catch others.

            Jesus calls some of us to lead the community in this fishing expedition.  As a priest, my role is to lead you in being a fisher of men and women.  I am not always sure the shortage of priests is a bad thing.  II challenges the community of faith to own your call to be caught by Christ and to be fishers of men and women.  It your call and your right by baptism.  It is from the baptized that the priest is called.  Just like anyone else, the priest must be caught into the net of Christ’s love and grace and be committed to him and to him alone.  The priest must model his life on the example of the crucified Christ who gave everything and washed the feet of others.  Then, and only then, can he be a fisher of men and women.  A priest is a worker in the Kingdom, not the boss.  Only God is the Boss.  The priest is the steward of the Mysteries, the Sacraments, not for his own gain, but for the good of the community of faith.  He presides at the Eucharist to bring Christ to the community so that they bring Christ to others.  He empowers people to be fishers of men and women by the grace that they receive in the Sacraments.

My brothers and sisters, let yourself be caught by Christ right now and every day.  Then, be a fisher of men and women for Christ.  Invite someone to give their live to Christ as you have.  Invite someone to minister in His name.  Go, be caught by Christ and throw out the net for him.

 

 

In all the world’s religions, water is used to cleanse a person from sin or as a rite of purification. People wash before some great transition in their lives.  John the Baptist and Jesus knew about the ritual washings that were required by the Law.  Some of the ritual washings were required when a person sinned which is probably the origin of what John was doing.  He called the people of his day to a concrete sign of a change of heart; a new beginning.

So, why would Jesus need to repent?  After all, he was without sin.  It is here that Jesus changes the meaning of what this ritual bath was about; it was about a cleansing, but for a definite purpose.  As he walked out of that water, the Father reveals who Jesus is:  He is the eternal son of God filled with the divine Spirit.  Our baptism frees us from the power of sin and death to reveal who we are:  the beloved sons and daughters of the Father, we are brothers and sisters of Jesus and we are the living temples of the Holy Spirit.

This is the beginning of Jesus’s public ministry.    Isaiah proclaimed what the mission of the savior would be:

To establish justice:  a right relationship with God and others To be a light to the nations:  to enlighten others about Jesus to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from confinement, and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness.

This is the mission of all the baptized.  We have to move away from the belief that baptism is just a ritual or a naming ceremony.  It is the beginning of the world seeing us for who we are “spirit-filled disciples that have a mission.”  In baptism, we own the same mission as Jesus did.  When he walked out of the Jordan, he began his ministry.  We need to walk out of the same old/same old; and allow the Spirit that we were immersed in to light a fire with us and individuals and as a community to the Kingdom of God.

We need to establish justice in the world: working for the right to life from conception to natural death. to work for a world in which no one is hungry or cold to be Jesus in a world that is thirsty for His love and care work for a world where no one is harmed because of their religion, their ethnic origin, who they love, if they                   are mentally ill or dealing with an addiction, and the list continues.

We need to be a light in our schools, places of work, our neighborhoods, in our society.  Like Jesus, whose light shone and guided shepherds and magi, we need to the light of Jesus.  In a world when many identify themselves a “none” when asked their religion, our work is cut out for us.

People are blind because of consumerism and materialism, imprisoned by behaviors and substances by hate, racism, homophobia, many are engulfed by the darkness of unbelief or disillusionment in the church or faith, trapped in the darkness of fear and apathy.

We can only be a light for others when we know the light ourselves; we can only make disciples when we are disciples. As Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount:  Do not hide your light under a bushel basket!

We are a Catholic community that can change the world because the power of the grace of the Spirit that was poured into us on the day of our baptism and rages in us like a mighty flood; we just need to be willing to go with it and not fight against it.

My brothers and sisters, in the beginning of this new year of 2020, may the surging flood of baptism enable us to change our world.  Jesus gave us a clear mission, clear direction, clear example; we just need to do it. May God make it so through us, his beloved sons and daughters.

 

 

The beginning of a New Year has a lot of promise. We don’t know what will happen: the joys and sorrows, the opportunities before us and plans that will get scrapped, the changes that God will ask of us, the opportunities for ministry that will cross our paths, and the list continues. God does not have it all mapped out, but the promise of Christmas is that he will walk through it all with us. His Birth is the promise that by taking on Flesh, God will always be with humanity. Mary teaches us today how to live this year in a way to grow in faith. The Gospel writer tells us that “And Mary kept all these reflecting on them in her heart.” Mary kept praying over all the events in the life of Jesus and opened her heart to God to give her the insight she needed to make sense out of it all. What a great example to follow. No matter what is to happen this year we need to bring it to Jesus. I am sure she didn’t always understand what he was doing or why, but she opened her heart to him. So must we. By opening our hearts to Jesus.

he will walk with us and give us the insight to make any decisions, he will be our rock when we feel that life is out of control, he will be the source of our forgiveness and the wellspring of grace.

Mary teaches us that when God asks anything of us ad we accept it, He will give us the grace we need. God will give us the strength to endure the Crosses we will be asked to carry and the fullness of joy to celebrate the Resurrection that also occur. When Joseph and Mary fulfilled the precepts of the Law on this eighth day after the birth, they teach us the importance of living out the precepts of our faith. We are called to pray every day, to celebrate the Sacraments, to study the Sacred Scripture, to live out the spiritual and corporal works of mercy, to not be afraid to be faithful Catholics. I would encourage you to take one thing and devote the year to it

Grow in your life of prayer. Read one spiritual book Read through the the Bible this year Learn about one saint and try to imitate him or her Get involved in one ministry in the parish Commit yourself to one act of charity every day

May this New Year be a year of grace for each of you. May the prayers of the Mother of God help you to be faithful to the Christian life. Let 2020 be a time when you encounter Jesus so deeply that you, like Mary, bear him into the world.

This Sunday is one of the easiest and hardest Sundays to preach on. It is the easiest because we all have an experience of family whether it is good or bad and the hardest because we all have an experience of family whether it is good or bad. We all know that there are many different definitions of family in our world today:  mom and dad and kids, dad and dad, mom and mom, grandparents raising grandchildren, single moms and single dads,  blended families, children being raised in the foster care system, and the list continues.  Looking at all the definitions of family that we have, these are the things that seem consistent

Basic unit of society no matter how the family is structured A group of people with some common purpose A group of people from a common stock and united by certain convictions or a common affiliation

It is in this basic unit of society that we learn about how to be a man or woman of faith and part of the community of faith. The first two readings challenge us how to be a good family no matter the make up: respect one another, take care of each other, be kind to each other, admit when we are wrong, forgive each other, put on Christ, pray together and do everything in the name of Jesus Christ. If we could practice this in our basic units of society, in the family of the church, in the family of the world, then, what a different world we will live in. The make up of what a family is not important: it is how the family lives together.

One pain that I hear a lot from parents is that their children have walked away from the practice of the faith and the Church. What I want to say to you is that you have not failed. All you can do is to lay the groundwork of faith by showing your children what it means to follow Jesus. You can only plant the seeds. It is all I can, too. I am a firm believer that every single person at some point has to make the choice to follow Jesus or not. We cannot do that for anyone; we can just witness about how faith is important to us. I am not above a word of challenge once in awhile, but I leave that up to you. Together we can only entrust them to the Blessed Mother and St Joseph that their prayers will lead them on a journey back to Jesus even if they go on a detour.

We have a common purpose: to continue the mission of Jesus. We are all brothers and sister in Baptism (our fundamental connection) and it is Jesus who binds us together. It is essential that people see us a Holy Family, not perfect, but people who strive together to be followers of Jesus. No one can exist alone and stay healthy: healthy, emotional or spiritually. The same thing is true as people of faith. Small faith sharing groups, common worship and mission are part of the family of faith. Jesus will use us to draw people to him, to increase this parish family, by our faithful witness to him. Again, it doesn’t need to be perfect, but it does need to be authentic. They will know we are Christians by our love for the rest of human kind.

So, even though this maybe the hardest and easiest Sunday to preach on, it is the opportunity to celebrate what Jesus’s birth transformed us into: men and women loved by God and given a common purpose to spread the Hope he brought into the world by His humble birth in Bethlehem and into a family that showed us that Love can conquer all the difficulties that life will throw at us.