Reflection for the Solemnity of Brotherly Love 2016

No
fear!

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and he who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because he first loved us.

One hundred ten years ago our Church gathered in Holy Synod. As a fledgling organization its members had faced persecution. Real persecution based on faith right here in the United States. Our members were cast out of social clubs. Jobs were lost. Families were split. There was hurt and sadness. The reaction of those Synod attendees was to focus on the words of Jesus – what one does speaks far louder than abiding by rules, then holy words and prayers. They instituted this Solemnity with its special focus on brotherly love; the only Church that has such a day. They cast out fear with love.

St. John, the disciple Jesus loved could have stood on those credentials – hey look at me, I’m the one He loved. He could have offered words, gave speeches. Instead he focused on putting Jesus’ love for us into action in his life and in our lives. He tells us: The commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should love his brother also. What one does speaks far louder than abiding by rules, then holy words and prayers. St. John and his church communities cast out the fear of persecution and stood above it in Jesus’ love.

As we gather today for worship we are reminded that coming here once a week is not enough. This place, this worship, the words we hear, and the prayers we offer are a capstone for what we have done right in our loving others over the past week. We should rightly be thankful for the graces we received that helped us do that. We should be proud of the ways we cast out fear and responded in love.

So too our gathering today is a recollection of where we have fallen short with a plea for forgiveness. While falling short is painful, we can find joy in knowing that our consciences are well formed enough to know we failed. In acknowledging our sin we find the pain it has imprinted lifted by God’s healing touch. We see our fears and pain relieved in God’s love.

Our gathering today is moreover a new start. A new week ahead and we hear: there is no fear in love. Next week we will gather again to be thankful, to recollect, and to start anew. Through all of it what is reinforced is fear removed, love triumphant.

In writing to the Romans, Paul asks: what will separate us from the love of Christ? He lists many things – but no fear will do it. On this Solemnity of Love, on this anniversary of a tragedy meant to instill fear, remember that nothing is more powerful than love. Destroy fear. Our members did it 110 years ago. St. John did it. We get to do it every week – no fear because in Him there is no fear.

Reflection for the 6th Sunday of Easter 2015

callherblessed

Love as
God loved us.

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love. In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him. In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.

We are a busy Church today. As we observe the Sixth Sunday of Easter we also observe the 64th Anniversary of the Martyrdom of Joseph Padewski and Mother’s Day.

It may seem to be a difficult challenge. We have to, as a Church, concentrate on Easter. That is our first duty, to proclaim Jesus’ salvation and the promise of His resurrection to the whole world. How do you mix that with the fact that members of the Church are sometimes called to suffer and even die to proclaim this message – something happening right now in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. Then couple all that with honoring our Blessed Mother and our moms in a special way.

Certainly, each of these events can stand alone and with deep significance for the Christian faithful. Thankfully, our Lord has already showed us how all this is bound together: This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

Jesus told us what we should do, but as opposed to false prophets and made up gods – He walked the walk. He laid down His life for all of us voluntarily. As St. John recounts Jesus saying: “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again; this charge I have received from my Father.”

Bishop Padewski lived his vocation and followed in Jesus’ footsteps. He returned to Poland from Albany to serve God’s people in the devastation following World War II. He did not consider his own safety or comfort, but rather followed the commandment of love and walked into the horrors of the communist takeover of Poland. He was arrested, tortured, and killed for his love of God’s people and his faithfulness to Jesus.

The Blessed Virgin is the exemplar of love for Jesus. We not only honor her as our heavenly mother, but also as our example of love and dedication to her Son, Jesus. She sacrificed her heart and life for Him. So too our mothers, the first example of love in our lives. They laid down their lives in a great act of sacrificial love.

All of these themes, all of Christianity, is joined together by love – love of God and for each other – giving all we are for the truth of love.

Reflection for the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

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I can’t help myself.
Isn’t it ok?

“Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.”

The theme of our readings and gospel all center on doing things for the right reason, having the right priorities. They obviously focus on avoiding greed as the antithesis of proper living, “…the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?”

As Christians we are to guard against placing our priorities wrongly. As we reflect on Carson’s baptism, we should recall our baptism. We descended into the waters of baptism, dying to the world and buried. Emerging we came into new life in the resurrected Christ. As people living in the resurrected Christ we have new priorities.

St. Paul says this plainly: For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. He reminds us that our focus must be changed – and we need to be reminded because we forget: If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.

The problem we face in setting priorities as Christians is how far and how fast we need to go in re-ordering our reasons, focus and priorities.

Can we find a word that simply expresses the overwhelming love and dedication we are supposed to have for Jesus Christ? It has to be a word that describes a love and dedication that is more than something that just bubbles under the surface, but rather radiates out of us, making our lives evidently different to all those we meet. Perhaps the right word is “crazy?” Crazy can mean mentally deranged; demented; insane; senseless; impractical; totally unsound. It can also mean intensely enthusiastic; passionately excited.

So how do we get to the kind of crazy that shows an enthusiastic and passionate life with Christ? It starts with commitment and practice. Baptism is the first step in commitment and dedication. From there, with the help of our parents, we practice – in Church, by reading scripture, and in regular prayer – learning Jesus’ way, focusing on educating ourselves about Jesus’ direction for our life, and working in community to do His will. With that education and practice we learn to live the right way and with the right priorities.

When we get to the kind of crazy that radiates passions in line with Jesus’ priorities we become restorers of hope in the midst of our families, workplaces, neighborhoods, and in the wider world. We find that we cannot help ourselves in a way that is absolutely ok – more that ok – it is wonderful. It is crazy right.

Conception of the B.V.M. and the Feast of Divine Love

When our church was young, Bp. Hodur and the Church’s Holy Synod transformed the so called Feast of the “Immaculate Conception” of Blessed Virgin Mary to the Feast of Divine Love.

The entire construct of the so called immaculate conception was based on a legalistic understanding of “original sin.” If everyone is born in a sinful state, in original sin, inherited from their parents through the sexual act of procreation, then there has to be a specially created individual – Mary – who was preserved from original sin. Some have even extended Mary’s uniqueness and separateness from the rest of humanity by arguing that Jesus’ birth was a bloodless, painless event where the infant simply floated out of the Blessed Virgin’s womb.

St. Thomas Aquinas wrote against the innovation that Mary’s birth was unlike that of others. He argued that this contradicted the very purpose of Jesus’ Incarnation, which was that He received our human nature through Mary. If her nature is unique, then Jesus’ connection with the rest of humanity is severed. (ST 27 2r).

We have not dogmatized this belief, nor do we recognize it. This is not an article of Divine revelation. As Polish National Catholics we believe that Mary was preserved from sin, and remained sinless and pure from the time of her birth. But, we do not need to construct a special status for Mary because her birth and our birth are all without sin. We do not countenance the idea of original sin in such a legalistic way. We do not accept accept that humans are sinful in their birth.

Instead, we teach that we are all created in the image and likeness of God. We profess that creation is not evil, but that it is an expression of Divine Love. Evil is certainly real, and present in the world, the result of humanity’s fall. We all fall into sin, but it is our responsibility for failing to act according to goodness of our creation.

Creation is good says Genesis, and human creation is very good. Rather than speak of the unique status of Mary, the Feast of Divine Love speaks about the goodness of creation in general as an expression of a good Creator.

The Feast of Divine Love encapsulates so much of what is positive about our Church, its focus on love and human potential. To the 1928 Synod our organizer declared: “Everything else [besides God] is transitory, but this divine element [of love] is immortal.” God never abandons His love toward us even though we do fall into the sinfulness that exists in the world.

Our Church sees Divine Love in God’s sharing of wisdom and free will. The Divine Love of creation is that we are made “very good” (Genesis 1:31) in the image and likeness of God. When we fall into sin, we know that we can always turn to God. God loves us so much that He sent His only Son to us to redeem us from our fall into sinfulness; from our unfortunate propensity to reject God’s Divine Love.

Reflection for the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time

First and 10
2 to go…

“One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him, ‘Which is the first of all the commandments?’”

It is Sunday – God first, but of course football.

Let’s think about football math. We all know that when our favorite team gets the ball they start their march down the field with a first and ten – first down and ten yards to go to get another first down. Going from first down to first down, the successful team works its way down the field until (if all goes well) thy score.

It can seem daunting, especially if you are starting at the far end of the field, with almost 100 yards to go against very strong opposition.

Now imagine if your team could get to that touchdown in two yards, in just two steps? It is first and ten, two to go.

Before the scribe came to Jesus the Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, chief priests, and elders had been hammering Jesus with questions. Jesus’ answers didn’t matter to them at all. All that mattered was their ends – trapping Jesus and shutting Him down.

Scribes were a class of experts in the Mosaic Law, all 613 laws. This scribe seems sincere in coming to Jesus. He wants to hear how Jesus interprets the 613 laws, and which one He finds to be the greatest one.

Jesus shows the scribe that love of God and love of our brothers and sisters are the two most important commandments. He tells him that these two key commandments are the two yards He needs to go.

These two commandments depend on each other. We are to give our whole hearts to God who is love, and love Him completely. By loving God, and experiencing His love, we learn to love better, stronger, more completely. Eventually we learn to love like God loves. We must take our learning and apply it. Our love for God and His love for us cannot exist in a vacuum. It has to grow, toward others, drawing them into this relationship of love.

Sometimes people separate these two commandments, saying one or the other is what we really need to do. Jesus responded to the question: Which is the first, with two commandments. Jesus indicates an order – one comes first. But He also teaches us that the two are inseparable. Our lives and our faith must be based on love: on a relationship of love to God, and on the sharing of God’s love with others. Having only one misses the touchdown.

Love breaks down all opposition. Our touchdown is heaven – and it only takes two steps to get there, two steps and one theme – love.

Church is for lovers

His banner over me is love. – Song of Songs 2:4

May our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, bless your marriages and relationships. May He be the source and example of love and fidelity in your lives. May He grant you the gifts of love that are patience, kindness, selflessness, forgiveness, truthfulness, trust, and perseverance. May He be the center of your love, for He is love.

Happy Valentine’s Day!