Do you want to be happy? The world is full of people trying to sell us something that promises to make us happy, but it never lasts. In contrast, St. Matthew has a 5-page recipe for happiness and joy that lasts forever called the Sermon on the Mount.
Zebulun and Naphtali, though meaningless names to us today, are two of the lost tribes whom God used to save his people from the powerful Midianites in the book of Judges chapter 7. There the Lord instructed that in the middle of the night, they surround the enemy, smash clay pots, light the torches and thus rout the overwhelming foe.
The Church doesn’t have a mission; the Church is a mission. Isaiah the prophet writes: It is too little, the LORD says, for you to be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and restore the survivors of Israel; I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.
Most of us received baptism before we can remember, and so take it for granted. St. Proclus from the 5th century writes, Come, consider this new and wonderful deluge, greater and more important than the flood of Noah’s day.
The Epiphany or manifestation of Christ to the world is celebrated on the 12th day of Christmas, when we exchange gifts following the example of the Magi in Matthew’s gospel. Traveling from the East, they followed a star and placed their gifts at the feet of the child king only to return to their lands with truth to enlighten their paths.
Our psalmist writes, “Blessed are those who fear the Lord”. The word fear might be better replaced by the word awe: Blessed are those who stand in awe of the Lord. It is a sense of awe that strikes us as we consider God becoming one of us in Christ and submitting himself to his human parents, Mary and Joseph.
200 Years of Christmas at St. Mary’s
As our Advent time of waiting for Christ draws to a close, the church gives us Matthew’s account this year of how the incarnation came about through the line of David. Though not a king, Joseph, unlike Ahaz in the first reading, hears the word of God and trusts in Him.
We find it difficult to wait, like a farmer awaits the precious yield of the soil. We like immediate results. John the Baptist who called us to conversion last week, now wonders aloud from a prison cell whether Jesus is the long-awaited Christ.
Repent and believe, cries the Baptist! Though we naturally shy away from change, even the cells in our physical bodies that die change completely every seven years. How much more ought we engage life-giving change in our eternal spiritual lives?
We have just celebrated Thanksgiving with family and friends as we kick off the holiday season. These four weeks of Advent are a time of waiting for the Lord who came 2000 years ago, who will come for each of us, and yet, challenges us by coming each moment of every day.
100 years ago today, Pope Pius XI proposed Jesus Christ King of the Universe as the last Sunday of the liturgical year. After the experience of the Great War, now known as World War I, he noted that Christian nations had thrust Jesus Christ out of their personal and political lives.
The ominous tones of the readings point to the end of the liturgical year, for indeed next week is the Feast of Christ the King, the One of whom Malachi writes will arrive with healing in his rays.
Today we celebrate the dedication of the first legally built church, commissioned in Rome after the edict of Milan decriminalized Christianity, called the basilica of the Most Holy Savior also known as St John Lateran.
Remembering our loved ones on this celebration of All Souls Day, reminds us of the greatness of our God who would use you and me, to remember and pray for those who have gone on ahead of us and await the kingdom.
Last week in Luke’s travel narrative, we learned that we ought to pray and not lose heart. This week Jesus uses the beloved and faith-filled Pharisee and the despised tax collector to warn us to neither think of ourselves as righteous, nor despise others as inferior to us.
Do you ever find that irritating interruption returns you to what the Lord intends? We have our plans for each day of the week, and then the Lord sends us someone needing attention, who stops us from completing our task to help them.
As the harvest is gathered and the weather turns colder, we give thanks to God for the fruits of the earth and the many benefits of life that we often take for granted. But how about giving thanks to God that we even exist?
“If today you hear his voice, harden not your heart.” When bad things happen, we might think that we are forgotten, or somehow outside of God’s will for us. But suffering comes to all. We can choose to go through suffering and learn, or we can stomp our feet and become resentful, indignant, and mean spirited towards others.
“Time keeps on slipping into the future,” says an old song. The God of Abraham calls you and me to a covenant that not only puts God first but also calls us to notice and care for the poor and needy. Like the rich man, we can be too preoccupied to take the time to notice who is at our doorstep.
The parable of the dishonest steward reminds us that we must put first things first. Knowing that his service was coming to an end, he started to plan for the future, stretching the boundaries of what was acceptable, to accomplish his goal. Jesus gives him credit for doing just that.
Many Christians are worried about worshiping graven images and idols, but the scriptures today show something different. Perhaps in a desire to hide our worship of idols we rail against images like the cross and statues of saints. What or who do you really worship?
Are you “all in” as a Catholic Chrier Him to your mother, father, brothers, sisters. He says my yoke is easy and my burden light; but that only happens when you put the Lord first in your life.
Our identity and dignity as human beings is based on our creation in the image and likeness of God. In humility we acknowledge that we are dust of the earth filled with the breath of God that gives us intrinsic value, based not on what others think of us or the number of “likes” we receive from others.
To the question, “Will many people be saved?” Jesus responds, “strive to enter through the narrow gate.” To strive means to make great efforts to obtain something. Do you make great efforts to hear the word of God and act on it?
The author of Hebrews describes us as running a race and if you are lagging: #1 Remember that you are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses; we call it the Communion of Saints.
What is faith? Beyond intellectual assent, faith means putting your trust in God into action that changes everything. Abraham, in a foreshadowing of Jesus’ sacrifice on Mount Calvary, has Isaac carry the wood up the mountain, who then lays down his life on that firewood, as a sacrifice.
Once every three years we hear the parable of the rich fool, who is selfishly concerned only with himself, and focuses on what does not last. Our sinful tendencies need instruction and discipline that come through spiritual practices. If you were to die today, what would matter most to you and your loved ones?
What’s in a person’s heart? You and I can never know another’s motivations, but the Lord God, who outside of space and time, does. God knows what we need and even our destiny.
Henry Nouwen writes that hospitality means primarily the creation of a free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy.
Doing the right thing seems difficult; Moses in Deuteronomy says that it is already written in our hearts. It’s not a matter of greater knowledge nor of our will power, but only desire. What do you desire more than life itself? If the Lord God is your desire, you will love him, and that love will change your behavior.
As we celebrate the freedom of Independence Day, we acknowledge that there is no greater freedom than that of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. We become a new creation as we share the peace and mercy of the gospel with those around us.
The two pillars of the Church: Peter, one of the twelve and a simple fisherman, immediately dropped his nets on hearing Jesus say, follow me. Peter didn’t calculate and think before he acted or spoke and didn’t allow excuses to delay him.
Give them some food yourselves, says the Lord in St. Luke’s gospel. You and I are called to give others ‘something’ that is, a someone, to eat.
“…then was I beside him as his craftsman,” the author of the Book of Wisdom writes to describe Jesus at the time of creation, or perhaps it is the Love that, St. Paul writes, has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
Happy 199th anniversary St. Mary Church and Happy Pentecost! Holy Spirit, show us what is right and give us the strength and courage to do it!
Congratulations to our First Communicants and to our Confirmandi in receiving their sacraments this month! A big thank you to all our catechists in our religious education program.
The controversial question that had to be put to rest in the first reading, is an example of the action of the Holy Spirit that Jesus promised in the Gospel.
Jesus is glorified by suffering and dying on the cross for us. We need to learn to go beyond fear and love one another as Christ loves us. The new commandment is so simple yet so difficult. Love one another as I have loved you. Be humble enough to reconsider, and to try again. You and I, like Pope Leo, are a living advertisement for the love of God.
“My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” That inner voice through which the Holy Spirit speaks to each of us and to the whole body, as in the conclave in Rome, reminds us that we are not left to fend for ourselves.
The conclave will meet to elect the one to follow our beloved Pope Francis, who as the 266th leader in the shoes of St. Peter died last week at the age of 88. After denying the Lord, Peter, as the servant of the servants of God, was called to feed his lambs and sheep.
How are you doing? Fine, we always say. Shame and fear might keep the doors of our hearts tightly closed, keeping us isolated. But Jesus, the Lord of life, enters through locked doors.
St. Paul proclaims 20 years after the death and resurrection of the Lord: “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” What has the Lord God given you in your hidden life with Him? Today all Catholic Christians renew their commitment to the Lord through baptism when we die with Christ, and each “I do,” is a renewed commitment to living resurrected life in the Lord Jesus.
St. Paul writes that Jesus, in obedience to the will of his Father, doesn’t seek what is comfortable but conforms himself to his imminent suffering and death on the cross. He trusts that his heavenly Father will bring about good from what appears evil.
Jesus bends over and writes into the dust of the earth, dissipating the chaos and screams swirling around the woman caught in adultery. People will always use others to make their point and win the argument, often out of jealousy, hurt feelings, or pride. Jesus the Word wants to write something completely new in your life.
We read today of the prodigal son, but the parable might better be named the indulgent Father from whom nothing can separate us. His holiness, Pope Francis has invited us to ponder this indulgent love during this Jubilee year of hope.
There is a sense of urgency in today’s readings, both in the fig tree being given one more season, and in St. Paul’s reminding us of the insecurity of our personal standing in this world. Repent and convert or face the likelihood of perishing, but also keep in mind that the owner of the garden is also the One who cultivates and prunes that we might come to fruition.
The smoking fire pot and burning torch seal the deal in the first covenant with Abraham. The blinding light that knocks Saul down and lovingly sets him on a new path as missionary to the Gentiles, like the Transfiguration of the Lord, reveals the one who from before and within, calls us his sons and daughters.
St Mary’s Church
440 Grand Street
New York, NY 10002
St. Mary’s Rectory
28 Attorney Street
New York, NY 10002
(212) 674-3266
saintmarygrand1826@gmail.com
