Tuesday, December 12, 2023

2nd Sunday of Advent, Cycle B - December 10, 2023

 2nd Sunday of Advent – B 

December 10, 2023 – 8:30 and 11am  

Our Lady of Grace Parish, Parkton

 

Penance/Reconciliation/Confession 

 

I remember that when I was a child, my parents would take my brother and me to Confession every two weeks or so.

 

Okay! I know that some of you are probably thinking that I needed it! Well, maybe I did, but that kind of frequent Confession was standard practice back then. 

 

I remember also that I had to come up with a kind of grocery list of sins and numbers – like disobeying my parents ten times and things like that. I felt anxious that I would forget something.

 

Well, today, the understanding and practice of this sacrament is a bit different. And that’s what I want to talk about this morning. 

 

The Name

 

The first thing I want to comment on is the name of the sacrament.

 

It is officially called the Sacrament of Penance. Penance means that we bring some area of sinfulness to God for forgiveness and that we resolve to try to do better. 

 

That’s what John the Baptist is talking about in today’s gospel. He was offering a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

 

Part of our Sacrament of Penance is a penance. This is some prayer or action that the priest asks us to do as a way to begin living out our renewed relationship with God. 

 

Now, this sacrament is also called Reconciliation. That is really its purpose anyway – our reconciliation with God, with ourselves, and even with others. 

 

I know we often refer to this as confession. That’s okay, but in truth, the word confession names the entire sacrament by just one part of it. 

 

Why?

 

That’s a good segue to this question: why do we as Catholics have this individual confession of sin to a priest?

 

This is a distinctive feature of Catholicism. Well, for one thing, Jesus gave us this sacrament when he said to the apostles: “Whose sins you forgive shall be forgiven.” 

 

Through our 2,000-year history, this sacrament has taken different forms, but it has always been there. Still, the question is: can’t we just confess our sins directly to God without going to a priest? 

 

And the answer is yes and no, and that will be clear in just a minute. Right now, I want to say that this sacrament with individual confession is an opportunity for a personal experience with God. 

 

God relates to us supremely in the humanity of Jesus. The core of our faith is incarnational, the divine being expressed in the human. 

 

So, in this sacrament, the intention is for us to experience God’s forgiveness in a very human way, through the absolution of the priest. This brings a fullness to the experience of forgiveness.      

 

How Often? 

 

Okay, with that said, the next question is: when or how often are we to receive this sacrament?

 

The Church teaches that we only have to go to confession when we need to be forgiven for some serious sin. Now, most of us have a sense of what serious sin is; I plan to focus on that some other time.

 

The Church, and this is important, also encourages us to come to confession more often, for ordinary or less serious sins. And some of you, like myself, do that. 

 

This is for things like losing our temper or being untruthful and a host of other things. The idea here is that this sacrament is a means to receive God’s grace and keep growing in our relationship with God. 

 

This sacrament can also be especially good in the penitential seasons of Advent and Lent. It is a way of preparing for the sacred celebrations of Christmas and Easter.  

 

And, of course, Penance or Reconciliation can be wonderful at significant moments of our lives – like before getting married, or when a loved one has died, or when we are about to retire from our job or go off to college for the first time. It is a way to mark a new beginning or new chapter in our lives. 

 

Concluding Recommendations 

 

Okay, I have packed a lot into this, and now I want to conclude with two recommendations.

 

First, each day, maybe in the morning or at night, pray what we call an Act of Contrition. A sample Act of Contrition is printed in today’s bulletin.

 

Do this every day. It is a good practice to bring ourselves humbly to God and express our sorrow for any sin.

 

And my other recommendation is just to think about the place of Penance, Reconciliation, confession in your own life. Just think about this and see if it has a place for you. 

 

The important thing is a penitential spirit. That spirit will keep us alive and growing in God. 

 

 

Sunday, December 3, 2023

1st Sunday of Advent, Cycle B - December 3, 2023

 1st Sunday of Advent – B

December 3, 2023

Our Lady of Grace Parish, Bel Air

 

The Evergreens 

 

Today, the Cherokee Nation is the largest tribe of Native Americans in the United States.

 

More then 141,000 Cherokee Nation citizens reside in the tribe’s reservation in northeastern Oklahoma. The Cherokee tradition has a story about creation.

 

The story says that when the plants and trees were first made, the Great Mystery (and that is their name for God) the Great Mystery said this to them. “I want you to keep watch over the earth for seven nights.”

 

The young trees and plants were so excited that the first night they did not find it difficult at all to keep watch. However, the second night was not so easy, and a few of them fell asleep.

 

On the third and fourth nights, more of them fell asleep. By the time the seventh night came, the only trees and plants keeping watch were the cedar, the fir, the holly, the laurel, the pine, and the spruce.

 

The Great Mystery said, “What wonderful endurance you have! You shall be given the gift of remaining green forever.

 

“You will be the guardians of the forest. Even in the dead of winter, your brother and sister creatures will find life protected in your branches.”

 

Ever since then, all the other trees and plants lose their leaves and sleep all winter. But the evergreens keep their leaves and keep watch. 

 

Be Watchful 

 

This story from some of our indigenous peoples has a good Advent message.

 

The evergreens are an image of being watchful. In today’s gospel, Jesus uses the expression “Watch” or “Be watchful” four times.

 

Some of Catholic and other Christian writers say that spirituality is the discipline of watching or being watchful. Being able to see God acting and hear God speaking depends on this.    

 

Two questions pop up for me. How do we become watchful? And what does this do for us?

 

How? 

 

First, how can we be spiritually watchful?

 

For me, this can be answered with one word: stillness. We need some stillness in our lives.

 

This is not easy. Most of us are busy people, most of us are doers, and we usually do not value just being still.

 

But from my own experience, I am convinced that we need this. So, I recommend that we try to carve out at least five minutes of stillness each day.

 

Ideally, to have this, we need to be alone and to be doing nothing. Maybe we can find a time and place in our home or somewhere else for this. 

 

Practically speaking, for many of us, this stillness may have to happen when we are alone but driving the car or walking for some exercise. But it is important to do this without any music or news coming from our radio or through our ear buds.

 

This stillness may be a new idea and five minutes may at first feel like five hours. But it is essential if we are going to be watchful as Jesus calls us to be. 

 

What?

 

That takes me to the other question: What does this do for us?

 

Well, when we are still, we can first be in touch with ourselves – with what is going on in our lives, with our commitments to family or friends, with the stress of our jobs, with the upset in a relationship. Stillness first makes us watchful in these ways.

 

And then, in this stillness, we watch for God. How is God speaking to me or nudging me right now?

 

What is it that God wants me to do? What does God want me to say?

 

Our stillness and our being watchful in this way will allow God to mold us, to make us who we really are to be. In our first reading today, there is the wonderful image of the potter and the clay.

 

Isaiah images God as a potter fashioning us like a lump of clay. So, in our stillness and watchfulness, God molds us as persons.  

 

This won’t happen for you and me quickly. But over time, little by little, God the potter will shape us more and more into his image and likeness and more and more in the way of Jesus.

 

Conclusion

 

I hope that the evergreens of our Advent Wreath remind us of the story from the Cherokees.

 

And I hope that this story reminds us to watch – to have some stillness and to stay watchful. 

Sunday, November 5, 2023

31st Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A - November 5, 2023

 31st Sunday of Ordinary Time – A 

November 5, 2023

Our Lady of Grace Parish, Parkton 

 

Who Will Know?

 

I imagine that many of us are familiar with the movie A Man for All Seasons.

 

A Man for All Seasons is about Thomas More, the famous Chancellor of King Henry VIII of England. In the story, a very ambitious young man named Richard Rich petitions More for a prominent position.

 

Thomas More offers Richard Rich a position as a teacher. Rich is very disappointed, because he wants a notable post at the king’s court.

 

Thomas More says, “You’re a fine teacher – even a great one!” But Rich fires back, “And if I was, who would know it?”

 

The wise Thomas More responds, “You, your pupils, your friends, and God would know it. Not a bad group at all!”

 

The Pharisees and the Church 

 

That story is helpful for appreciating today’s gospel.

 

Jesus is chiding the religious leaders of his day and advising his followers to live differently. Now, we see this and all passages of Scripture as the living Word of God.

 

That means that in some way it speaks to us today – to our Church in general, to the leaders and all of us in ministry, and really to all of us. I hear Jesus giving us three pieces of guidance. 

 

1. Practice What You Preach

 

First, Jesus says: Do what the scribes and Pharisees say, but don’t follow their example, because they don’t practice what they preach.

 

The point is that there must be a consistency between our words and our actions. This is crucial especially for the ministers and leaders of our Church.

 

When there is a failure in this – as there has been – we undermine the Word of God. In our vocation, the message is bound up with the messenger.

 

Ralph Waldo Emerson, a famous American author in the nineteenth century, once said, “Who you are speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you are saying.” We, as ministers of the Church, need to be working as much as anyone else to practice what we preach by who we are as persons.

 

2. Lead and Do Not Burden

 

Second, Jesus puts down the religious leaders of his day for placing burdens on people and not positively leading them to God.

 

When we only present God as a judge and punisher, we do a disservice to God or Jesus. When we only make others feel bad, guilty, or ashamed, then we are simply placing burdens on them. 

 

Instead of that, we need to present God as Jesus reveals him to us – as love and as loving each of us. And we need to see each other and ourselves as beloved, as the beloved daughters and sons of God.

 

And then, with that as the foundation, we need to present faith in a way that doesn’t put people down or weigh them down, but instead lifts us up and leads us on in a positive direction. I think this is what Jesus means when he says in another place, “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

 

3. Recognize God and Not Self

 

Finally, Jesus puts down the religious leaders of his day for seeking recognition.

 

One of the ways they are doing this is in their use of titles – “Rabbi, Father and Teacher.”Jesus does not seem upset just by the titles.

 

He is upset because people are using titles to draw attention to themselves and not to God who is the real “Rabbi and Father and Teacher.” And so, we must be clear about how we use titles – like “Bishop, Father, and Deacon.”  

 

If the titles designate a role and they help with relationships, fine. But when we allow them to put some of us above or beyond others, then they are not leading us to God, and the way we use them is not okay. 

 

Conclusion

 

Maybe it all boils down to the last statement that Jesus speaks today.

 

 “Those who humble themselves will be exalted.” Those who know that they are human and that they remain persons on a journey along with everyone else – they will be close to God and lead others to God.  

Sunday, October 15, 2023

28th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A - October 15, 2023

 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Cycle A

October 15, 2023 – 8:30 and 11am

Our Lady of Grace Parish, Parkton 

 

The Word Opportunity

 

Today’s gospel has led me to learn something about the word opportunity.

 

What I learned is that before the days of modern, deep-water harbors, like the Baltimore or the New York harbor, before the days of these deep-water harbors, a ship had to wait for high tide before it could sail into port. It would wait outside the harbor.

 

The captain would judge when it was just the right time to ride the tide into port. Then he would signal the crew, and they would get started.  

 

In Latin, there was a term for this: ob portu. These two Latin words, ob portu – spelled O-B and P-O-R-T-U – they literally mean outside the port.

 

Our English word opportunity is derived from these words. The idea is that the captain of a ship outside the port had to be ready for the opportunity to move.

 

If he missed this window, he would have to wait for the next tide. So, our word opportunitymeans a chance to do something that might not happen again or at least not soon again.    

 

Our Opportunities 

 

Jesus is concerned today about opportunities and especially missed opportunities.

 

He tells the Parable of the Wedding Banquet. The invited guests decline the invitation. 

 

It seems as if some are just too absorbed in their own lives to pay any attention to this. Others think that their work must take priority. 

 

And some are angry that they are even bothered with this invitation, and they become violent. Now, the passage says that Jesus is speaking this parable to some of the religious leaders of his day. 

 

His point is that some of those to whom God first offered the gift of salvation missed this opportunity to be close to God and part of God’s kingdom. Today, the parable cautions us to be alert to opportunities where we can find God or make God’s kingdom more alive.    

 

Opportunities Lost and Found 

 

For example, parents may regret that they did not go to more of their children’s games or concerts or dance performances. If that is the case, today they might find other opportunities to be with their children and even their grandchildren.

 

Right now, we are all aware of the horrific violence in the Middle East. We might be seeing this at a distance as only the age-old hostility between the Palestinians and the Jews.

 

If so, I suggest we might see this as an opportunity to look more deeply. It is an opportunity for us to look at anti-Semitic, anti-Islamic, or anti-black, anti-Asian, or anti-Hispanic sentiments right here and maybe within ourselves. 

 

We can use this as an opportunity to see the senselessness of prejudice and hatred and the violence that comes from that. We might see that the large-scale violence we are now witnessing on TV starts with individuals and our relationships.

 

And with this awareness, we can use this today as an opportunity to pray. We ask for God’s grace to bring healing and reconciliation to us and everyone.   

 

A final example about opportunities. We may become aware that we have just been slipping in our relationship with God or even neglecting it. 

 

We may have gotten use to watching Mass at home – and get me right, I am glad we have livestreaming for those who cannot be here especially for health reasons. But maybe we’ve been consistently missing the opportunity to be here for the full celebration of the Eucharist and for receiving Communion.

 

And with this awareness, we can now resolve to accept this wonderful opportunity, unlike some of the folks in today’s gospel. We can resolve to be part of this spiritual banquet where we sacramentally receive Jesus. 

 

Conclusion

 

The point is that there can be ob portu or kingdom of God opportunities in our lives. 

 

We don’t want to miss them. Instead, we want to be like the captain of ships of long ago and be ready to sail into port with the high tide.  

 

Sunday, October 8, 2023

27th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A - October 8, 2023

 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Cycle A

October 8, 2023 – 5pm and 11am

Our Lady of Grace Parish, Parkton 

 

God’s Welcome to the Vineyard

 

Imagine that just before a soul begins his or her life on earth, God takes the soul by the hand and points out a certain place on earth. 

 

God then speaks to this soul or soon-to-be-conceived-and-born person. God explains. 

 

“This is going to be your piece of the vineyard. It will be yours to make of it whatever you can.

 

“All I ask is that you work at it the best you can and get the most out of the soil I give you. 

 

“If you produce grapes that make the choice wine of reconciliation and justice, great; if you only have enough water and nutrients to produce a few grapes that make a small amount of the sherry of humility and kindness, good; if you only have enough time to plant a few seeds or start a few vines that others can bring to a full harvest, you’ll have done well.”  

 

God’s Caution 

 

But God then cautions:

 

“Just don’t make the mistake that too many of my tenants make. They get too caught up in the number of grapes they can coax from the vines. 

 

“My vineyard is about harvesting good grapes, not amassing profits. Remember too, that you are responsible for the part of the vineyard I give you.

 

“Don’t exhaust the grapes you harvest for yourself alone. Don’t leave behind just a dried tangle of dead vines for the next grower.” 

 

God the vineyard owner continues. “And keep in mind that everyone has his or her own piece of the vineyard. 

 

“But there are no dividing lines, no fences, no property markers. Your part of the vineyard is joined to your neighbor’s – so you can do neither good nor evil in the vineyard without affecting the folks next to you and the vines around you.”

 

God’s Reminder 

 

Finally, God says this.

 

“One more thing. And I don’t mean to harp on this, but it is my vineyard.

 

“Not yours. I’m giving you a piece of it because that’s what being God is all about.

 

“An occasional thank you would be nice. But the moment you think the vineyard is yours or that you deserve more and better, your vineyard will become a very unhappy and unproductive place.  

 

“So, go to it.” And with that said, God breathes this soul into a human embryo and another human, or human and divine journey begins. 

 

Conclusion

 

So, the lesson is that we are to be good, responsible tenants of God’s vineyard.

 

That vineyard is the life we have been given. It is the home, the school, the job, the family, the friends, the opportunities, the community, the church, the city, the state, the country, the world we live in.

 

This is what we have been given. This is the vision that Jesus, the Christ gives us. 

 

So, will we produce the choice wine of reconciliation and justice? Or the sherry of humility and kindness? 

 

Will we at least start something good in the limited time and space that we have? Will we leave something good for the next generation? 

 

Will we stay aware that whatever we do affects everyone else? Will we remember to be thankful to God from time to time?   

 

God has welcomed us to his vineyard and given each of us a piece of it. It’s up to us to be good tenants.   

 

And, by the way, this way of seeing today’s and other gospels on the vineyard comes right from Saint Catherine of Siena who lived in the 1300s. I have to give her credit for this homily!   

 

 

 

Sunday, September 24, 2023

25th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A - September 24, 2023

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Cycle A

September 24, 2023 – 5pm 

Our Lady of Grace Parish, Parkton 

 

Two Lessons 

 

One thing that probably all of us dislike is a lack of fairness.

 

We want everyone to be treated fairly. We want fair pay, fair games, fair trials, and on it goes.

 

So, we may agree with the guys in the gospel story who have worked all day long. They are upset when the landowner pays a full-day’s pay to those who have worked just one hour or a few hours.  

 

In truth, the landowner is being fair because he gives the full-day workers exactly what they agreed upon and that was the going rate-of-pay. He simply chooses to be generous with those who have worked fewer hours.

 

Now, we have to say that Jesus is not giving a lesson here on good management or compensation practices – that’s definitely not the point!  Instead, he is teaching us lessons first about God and then about ourselves.

 

Lesson 1: About God 

 

We can summarize Jesus’ lesson about God with the word: “generous.”

 

To those who have worked all day and are complaining about what he has paid the others, the landowner says: “Are you envious because I am generous?” Jesus is presenting the landowner as an image of God. 

 

The idea is that God is absolutely generous in his love for us. In another passage of Scripture, Saint John says this so beautifully: “Love consists in this: not that we have loved God, but that God has loved us.”

 

So, God first loves us, each of us, personally. God takes the initiative in loving.

 

God’s love is purely and simply a gift. We don’t merit it or earn it.

 

To us, this is counter cultural. Our experience is that we have to merit or earn practically everything.

 

But this isn’t true when it comes to the love of God. One of our Catholic writers puts it this way.

 

“We don’t change [or try to grow] to earn God’s love; instead, we change because of God’s love.” The idea is that it is God’s love or grace within us that moves us to grow and change.  

 

So maybe we come to God or come back to God later in life. But amazingly, God treats us as the landowner treats the late workers. 

 

It’s hard for me and maybe all of us to understand this. So, we just have to accept this as part of the mystery of God because God is ultimately mystery to us.

 

We just have to remember that God is “generous” – that’s the key word. God gives his love as a gift, and we don’t earn it or merit it.  

 

Lesson 2: About Us 

 

The second lesson really flows from the first.

 

It is also summed up in one word, the word: “envious.” The landowner says to the all-day workers: “Are you envious because I am generous?”

 

I and probably each of you, we human beings can be envious. Envy is the sin of being upset at someone else’s good fortune.

 

Maybe a fellow employee gets a promotion; maybe a family member gets named in an inheritance; maybe someone gets publicly recognized for doing some charitable work – these are the kinds of things that can make us feel envious – resentful, begrudging, even hateful. 

 

Notice in the gospel what leads to envy. The day-long workers compare themselves with the part-day workers and their pay.  

 

It’s the comparing that leads to the envy. So, Jesus wants us to stop comparing ourselves to others in this way.

 

Instead, he wants us to focus on God’s generous love for us. He wants us to be aware of the gifts God has given us – like our school, our job, our family, our friends, our home, our health, our health care, and on it goes.

 

Jesus doesn’t want us to compare ourselves to others who seem to have something we don’t have and then become envious. Instead, he wants us to look at ourselves and what we do have and be thankful to God for that.

 

And that’s the key point. Being thankful is the opposite of being envious.  

 

Conclusion

 

So, two words: “generous” and “envious.”

 

God is amazingly generous to each one of us. If we remember this and are thankful, we will not become envious.