Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
2 Timothy 2:15
Pray the week:Lord Jesus, You call me to be something different. Grant that by Your call I be encounter You and live a changed life.Â
you shall be called by a new name pronounced by the mouth of the LORD.
Jesus again enters the public scene. What better place to do that than at a wedding?
From Christmas forward we see the revelation of Jesus increasing. First, His obvious revelation to Mary and Joseph, the first to behold Him. Soon the crowd starts finding their way to Jesus. Helped by angels, the shepherds see Him, believe, and go forth to proclaim Him. Simeon, the priest and Anna, the prophetess, behold Him in the Temple. The wise men, guided by a star, find Him and the nations of the world pay Him homage. The people of Egypt come to know Him as a refugee and exile. Next, it is the inhabitants of Nazareth, the crowd on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, the teachers in the Temple, John and his disciples at the Jordan and the heavenly proclamation: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
What’s amazing about the Christmas season is the repeated opportunities the world had and has to encounter Jesus. We don’t just jump from shepherds to Magi to John the Baptist to Cana. Rather, it is thousands of smaller, more intimate encounters with Jesus. It is chances (focus on the plural) to encounter Him, be changed by Him and be something different.
The wedding at Cana is a reminder of the encountering and the changing, as well as the work of those who point to Jesus (at Cana, it was Mary). Cana reminds us that things have changed. We are called to reconnect, to re-recognize the ways in which we are different and the ways we fall short of how different we must be. Things have changed – we are changed by our meeting with Jesus. We have more capacity and room for encounter and change.
At Cana, the usual was changed. The good wine came our later. The disciples came to believe. The usual became wonderfully unusual.
Isaiah reminded us that things would be and must be different. We get a new name – we are called differently. What was usual in us becomes wonderfully unusual. Encounter to change, change to further encounter, more change.
Encounter be changed. Call to mind and bring to action the discipleship of being something different in Jesus.
This week’s memory verse: Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. — 2 Timothy 2:15
Pray the week: Lord Jesus, sign me up, place me under Your guidance. Grant that all I learn as Your disciple build my trust and willingness. Set me to work for You.
Getting to
work.
“In truth, I see that God shows no partiality. Rather, in every nation whoever fears him and acts uprightly is acceptable to him.â€
One more week has gone by, and how many years have passed in Jesus’ life? Twenty-eight more!
Jesus, having been baptized by John, is praying alongside the Jordan, and the Father and the Holy Spirit reveal him. In other gospel accounts, we find John pointing to Jesus and telling His disciples: “Look, the Lamb of God!†This is similarly a form of revealing, of pointing out and pointing to Jesus. The next sentence after that pointing out tells us what happened: When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.
This year, we are asked to dedicate ourselves to discipleship, to set to work in better following Jesus: To trust, to be willing, and to get to work following Jesus.
If you read our Bishop’s Pastoral Letter, you will see, simply explained, the ways we can do that. If you have looked at our parish newsletter, you read about the parallels between discipleship and apprenticeship. Are we ready to sign our Jesus Union Card and get to learning and working?
Whoa Pastor, what do you mean? I have to do what?
That shock might come from some sort of self-assessment – I am not strong enough, willing enough, I don’t have the skill for, or I am simply unwilling to set to that kind of work. Others could then turn around and comment, judging from afar – oh, look at them – they do so little. What we do not do is scrape away the top layer; we don’t look deeper. Underneath that attitude we may very well find poor self-opinion, a belief in one’s unworthiness or fear of disappointing God; guilt, past error, or fear weighing people down. If that is the case in your life, and it certainly has been in mine, then look at what Peter said in the house of Cornelius - “In truth, I see that God shows no partiality.â€Â Serious words – God chose us, allowed us to be baptized into His family, His Union, His discipleship. God does not choose stupidly. Trust that.
When John’s disciples (learners) ran up to Jesus to be His learners, Jesus didn’t ask for an application or a resume. There was no test – only willingness. Be willing.
Jesus has been revealed. With trust and willingness, we must take the first step – and the next – learning from Him, modeling His life, getting to work. Not stopping. Following Him.
A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.
The new year. Time to learn something new? There are lots of areas we could concentrate on. Learn to live a healthier life. Learn to cook like Julia Child. Learn plumbing, blacksmithing… Get another degree? One area long neglected and re-emerging in learning circles is apprenticeships. Apprenticeships offer many advantages. Millions leave college each year with long term debt, little practical training, and difficult job prospects while apprenticeships cost nothing and provide learners with health care and pension benefits, paid practical training, highly marketable and in-demand skills, no debt, and earning prospects of $145,000 to $175,000 per year. We might feel it is difficult to go back and start over, but there is one apprenticeship that is always open and available to everyone: Being a Disciple of Jesus. Factually, that is what being a disciple means – a learner, a student, an apprentice. In 2019 we are called to renewed discipleship, to apprenticing with the Master and Teacher of all. This year we are to dedicate ourselves to learning and doing with Jesus as His disciples! This apprenticeship is to focus on aligning our lives with that of the Teacher, learning His ways, first imitating and then integrating His behaviors, approaching people as He does, and inviting them into this school of discipleship. The key to this year of learning is our doing. A plumber’s apprentice has to get in there and carry the pipes, sweat them together. An electrician’s apprentice has to splice wire with his teacher. In the same way, as Jesus sent out the seventy-two learners/apprentices/disciples, we must apply our efforts in practical ways alongside our Master. Ready to learn something new, and put that learning into practice? Ready to do the one thing that guarantees success and great benefits? Sign the Jesus Union card and Disciple now!
January, the New Year, and we wish all of our followers, Jesus’ disciples in training, a very happy and blessed new year.
There is much going on – and we want to make sure you are well informed and ready to put your resolutions into high gear. It is about doing what is healthful and positive and we cannot get any greater health and positive force than from Jesus.
Read about our upcoming annual meeting, put yourself in running and do something to keep YOUR parish going. For the 18th year we are participating in the SouperBowl of Caring – feeding the hungry in our local community. Get your Valentine’s Raffle tickets sold and in. It is really important. Offer Holy Mass for a loved one. Set up a house blessing. Get in on Music Scholarships. Read and integrate “The Most Important Thing We Can Do To Be Successful In The New Year.”
Check out all this and more in our January 2019 Newsletter.
 This week’s memory verse: Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is Yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and You are exalted as head above all.
1 Chronicles 29:11
Pray the week: Lord Jesus, grant that I may always pay unto You my obeisance and in turn fully accept and honor Your love for me.
I adore
You.
on entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage.
It has been a quick two years. Mary and Joseph have established a home in Bethlehem and are now taking care of a toddler. Suddenly, the door bursts open and three men, with their entourage, burst through the door, dressed in the regalia of the wealthy and honored. They look, they see, and they “fell down†and “did obeisance.â€
Obeisance – a very old and very cool word. It means they gave deference to Jesus. They showed respect, homage, worship, adoration, reverence, veneration, honor, and submission. They paid what was owed in obedience to the King of kings. Their gesture was elaborate, even extreme.
These wise men are called that for a reason, they wisely paid obeisance to a Baby. They wisely saw, in the midst of a poor house, with its few meager sticks of furniture, the truth. The Eternal King had come into the world.
The path, first tread by the expectant family, followed on by poor shepherds, and now tread by foreigners, outsiders is come to completion. In a few short days the gifts fit for a king: gold, frankincense, and myrrh, would fund the escape of the refugee Holy Family as they fled into Egypt.
Have we ever done true obeisance? I was listening to the Sinatra channel as I ran errands the other day. I enjoy those mellow songs so replete with love, longing, and adoration. A guy meets a girl: Flash! Bang! Alakazam! Wonderful you came by… at least according to Nat King Cole.
They adore each other. That is until they get deeper into their relationship and suddenly the object of the adoration begins to feel self-conscious – It’s too much! I don’t deserve it. Somehow, for some reason, we humans struggle with adoring love like that.
We should get over it! Why? Because Jesus says we are worthy of that kind of love.
There is the hidden mystery. He, who is to be adored and paid obeisance in turn loves and adores us.
As Jesus’ disciples, His students, we are to learn from Him. As He accepted obeisance, we are to accept His extravagant and extreme love. As He accepted gifts, so we must accept the gifts He provides – using them to make Him known. As He accepted the poor, the outsider, so must we, loving like Him always.
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called —Ephesians 4:1
Pray the week: Lord Jesus, Your Holy Church cries out for worthy shepherds. Call men as You called those humble shepherds and grant them the grace to say YES!
God’s
got it.
For the Lord has redeemed Israel from those too strong for them. They will come home and sing songs of joy on the heights of Jerusalem. They will be radiant because of the Lord’s good gifts
The average temperature, that night, outside Bethlehem is forty-two degrees. Not exactly summer picnic weather. Shepherds never had an easy life. The average salary of a shepherd – while in that day there wasn’t any – and I’ll get to that – is today only $26,200. That is less than half of the median household income. It is barely enough to cover housing and a little food. It is the definition of poverty.
I mentioned that shepherds in Jesus’ day did not really make a salary. They were typically elderly or younger family members who couldn’t be trusted in any other role. So they got to watch the sheep.
Cold, in poverty, unwanted and thought useless. They are who we celebrate today. We celebrate them because they were the first to see and get the message. They were the first to tell of it, to spread the Good News. God has entered the world to bring to fulfillment what He spoke through Jeremiah: I will turn their mourning into joy. I will comfort them and exchange their sorrow for rejoicing.
This has been a strange Advent and Christmas season for me. A movie, a song – I’d find myself getting emotional. This holds a deeper meaning and lesson. God was teaching me a lesson.
We must never let the cold of the world, the constant just above freezing forty-two degree spiritual environment around us shut down the warmth of our hearts. If the cold of the world has gotten to us – today we must recognize and acknowledge that God’s got it. He will not let the cold win.
Are we impoverished and weakened, poor for want of physical, spiritual, or intellectual gifts? Today we must recognize and acknowledge that God’s got it. He will not let poverty win.
Are we unwanted, estranged, facing deep loneliness, rarely thought of, shuffled into the elderly corner or to the kid’s table? Today we must recognize and acknowledge that God’s got it. He will not let separation win.
We long for so many gifts, as did the shepherds on that hill. We long as individuals, a community and neighborhood, and as Church. Suddenly, life was different and it IS different now because God’s promise is fulfilled- He has us.
A name which means “God-is-with-us.â€
Indeed, God is with us. He is here, in the person of Jesus. The perfect gift.
Did you catch all the names in the genealogy of Jesus? These were the great men and women of faith history through whose line Jesus inherited the earthly kingship of Israel. He, who was King from the very beginning and before time, would now take His throne on earth. From that throne He would deliver us.
Those men and women of faith history were indeed great. Some were great from birth, some had greatness cast upon them when they received God’s call. Yet each was flawed, imperfect. They fell, lost faith, did wrong, messed up, didn’t follow through. None of them could save us, they could not even deliver themselves from sin. They were like beautifully wrapped presents but broken inside. Their greatness was found in the God ordained messages they delivered. How, despite brokenness and flaws, they pointed ever forward and called their fellow Israelites to right relationship with God.
Did people listen? Not always. But the message was clear, be faithful, live right with God, and prepare for the coming Christ, the Messiah, Immanuel. For He is coming to live with us. He is immanent. In Him we will be saved.
As we gather at this vigil time, we are called to recollect history and to plainly see the difference Jesus’ coming made. For out of this genealogy, this long line of great, yet flawed people, would come the One who is, was, and always will be great – and flawless, the perfect present. His flawlessness accomplished deliverance, salvation, and freedom. His flawlessness allows us the opportunity to accept His perfect gift, what He has done for us. His flawlessness, His perfect gift, is available to each of us for the price of YES.
In the history of a flawed and broken world, from a line of flawed and imperfect people, God broke into the world. While the ancients could do nothing but point to the future, Jesus came to deliver the future. That is why we rejoice today. It is why we, like Joseph, are called to wake up and see Jesus, our gift, free of flaws and offering us the chance. Say yes – take the present, unwrap it, and live with and in Jesus – God-with-us.