Hi friends,
Do you remember your writing classes in school? Our teachers always taught us that every story needed to answer the questions of “who, what, when, where, why, and how.” Sometimes we humans get so caught up in the “what, when, where, and how” that we forget about or just assume the “who and why.” The “who and why” are usually harder to figure out. But just like a good novel or movie (or NCIS episode) the story is only complete when we discover the “who and why” questions.
In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke and in the Acts of the Apostles Jesus’ Ascension is mentioned or inferred. Probably the clearest depiction of the Ascension of Jesus Christ happens in the Acts of the Apostles 1:1-11. We get the “what, where, when and how” questions answered very well there. But the more important thing about the Ascension of Jesus is WHY He ascended. And that is all about WHO He is.
We learn the WHY and the WHO from our Responsorial Psalm today. Our refrain is, “God Mounts His throne to shouts of joy….” One of the later verses says, “For King of all the Earth is God…” That is a synopsis of why we celebrate this Feast of the Ascension. Jesus is now the King of the Cosmos and the King of us. He ascended into Heaven in order to take His place on His heavenly throne. As King of the Universe and of us He is the focus of all of creation including us.
Often in the Gospels Jesus talks about the Kingdom of God. Whether it is in the parables or in the ways that He reached out to the rejected folks of the world and to sinners, while Jesus was on the Earth as a flesh and bone human being like us, He showed us why it was important to be part of His Kingdom. By His example of self sacrificing love and acceptance of the sinners and outcasts of His culture, Jesus witnesses to us how to live and serve in His Kingdom. Because of His Ascension God has a human face.
We are called to further and promote Jesus’ Kingdom of God here and now so that we can enjoy Him and His Kingdom fully when we’re done with this life. May we always serve Him in the ones who need us on the Earth, so that we may enjoy living with Him in His Kingdom for eternity.
Peace,
Fr. Chuck
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Saturday, April 13, 2013
God made me do it !
Dear friends,
The comedian, Flip Wilson, used to play a character by the name of “Ernestine” I believe. Whenever she/he would try to rationalize why she was misbehaving she would cry out, “The Devil made me do it!” In the first two reading today from the Acts of the Apostles and the book of Revelation the Apostle Peter and then the all of the creatures of the world cry out, “The Lord made me do it!”
The religious leaders are trying to put a stop to Peter and the other disciples healing and preaching in the name of Jesus Christ. In response Peter tells them that he can’t disobey God and therefore must disobey their human laws. In the Apocalypse John has a vision of the Throne of the Lamb of God. Around the Throne are all of the creatures of the earth. Even the creatures cannot contain their excitement about being in Christ’s presence so they praise and worship Him. Even the creatures cry out praise.
I think this is a good week to pray and meditate upon what compels us to act and speak as we do. The early disciples were so on fire with the love of Christ that He is what compelled ever action and every word that came from them. Besides the readings and the books that we hear from today, all of the letters from Paul, James, Peter, John, et al, are words driven by the authors passionate love of Jesus Christ. If you have ever had a hard time reading one of St. Paul’s letters it is probably because he wrote with his emotions for Jesus on his sleeve. His enthusiasm for the Christ he is trying to describe sometimes makes St. Paul’s writings hard to understand. He writes like a kid who has some exciting story to tell.
We are called to live and speak likewise. Let us spend some time this week figuring out if the love of Christ is the driving force of our words and actions. Or are we driven by concerns and pleasures that are not Christ’s?
paz,
Fr. Chuck
The comedian, Flip Wilson, used to play a character by the name of “Ernestine” I believe. Whenever she/he would try to rationalize why she was misbehaving she would cry out, “The Devil made me do it!” In the first two reading today from the Acts of the Apostles and the book of Revelation the Apostle Peter and then the all of the creatures of the world cry out, “The Lord made me do it!”
The religious leaders are trying to put a stop to Peter and the other disciples healing and preaching in the name of Jesus Christ. In response Peter tells them that he can’t disobey God and therefore must disobey their human laws. In the Apocalypse John has a vision of the Throne of the Lamb of God. Around the Throne are all of the creatures of the earth. Even the creatures cannot contain their excitement about being in Christ’s presence so they praise and worship Him. Even the creatures cry out praise.
I think this is a good week to pray and meditate upon what compels us to act and speak as we do. The early disciples were so on fire with the love of Christ that He is what compelled ever action and every word that came from them. Besides the readings and the books that we hear from today, all of the letters from Paul, James, Peter, John, et al, are words driven by the authors passionate love of Jesus Christ. If you have ever had a hard time reading one of St. Paul’s letters it is probably because he wrote with his emotions for Jesus on his sleeve. His enthusiasm for the Christ he is trying to describe sometimes makes St. Paul’s writings hard to understand. He writes like a kid who has some exciting story to tell.
We are called to live and speak likewise. Let us spend some time this week figuring out if the love of Christ is the driving force of our words and actions. Or are we driven by concerns and pleasures that are not Christ’s?
paz,
Fr. Chuck
Sunday, April 7, 2013
No Doubt!!!
Hello folks!
Did you know that there is very little known about most of the Apostles? We know about St. Peter because of the many times he is mentioned in the Gospels, in the Acts of the Apostles, his letters, from the stories passed down about his leadership of the early Church and his martyrdom and burial on the site that is now St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. We know about St. John and St. James also because of their closeness to Jesus in the Gospels and of their writings after the Resurrection. Most of what we know about the rest of the apostles is a word or two about them in scripture and the legends that grew about them as they tried to follow Jesus’ command to spread the Good News to the world.
St. Thomas is kind of in between the Apostles that we know a lot about and the ones we know little about. Thanks to Deacon Joe Chathaparampil, I know that according to tradition St. Thomas went to the lower west coast of India to begin Christianity there sometime after the Resurrection and Pentecost. What we know most about him however, is this story that we hear from the end of St. John’s Gospel. In this story he told his fellow Apostles that he would not believe in Jesus’ appearance to them unless he got to see it himself. Since he was not in the upper room on the first night after the Resurrection, he needed more proof than just his companion’s words. Because of that St. Thomas has since been known as Doubting Thomas. Jesus had to show up a second time to Thomas and the rest. He had to offer Thomas the wounds of His hands and side as proof of just how alive Jesus really is.
Yet St. Thomas is the only person in all of the Gospels to confess so boldly who Jesus really is. When he sees Jesus Thomas calls Him, “My Lord and My God!” No where else does anyone describe Jesus as truly who He is. Other references to Jesus are qualities or qualifications of Him. Jesus is called Messiah, Lord, Teacher, Rabbi, Master, Christ, and even Son of God. But only Thomas proclaims Him as boldly as “my GOD”. No qualifications just the truth.
While I enjoy the humanity and weakness of St. Thomas in being called the “Doubter” because it gives me hope that my imperfections will not keep me from intimacy with Jesus in this life and Communion with Him forever; I believe that his confession of who Jesus really is to Thomas is more inspiring. I believe that is where I’d like to have my faith grow. I want to always confess that Jesus Christ is my God. And I want that confession to be evident in how my life is lived. How about you?
peace,
Fr. Chuck
Did you know that there is very little known about most of the Apostles? We know about St. Peter because of the many times he is mentioned in the Gospels, in the Acts of the Apostles, his letters, from the stories passed down about his leadership of the early Church and his martyrdom and burial on the site that is now St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. We know about St. John and St. James also because of their closeness to Jesus in the Gospels and of their writings after the Resurrection. Most of what we know about the rest of the apostles is a word or two about them in scripture and the legends that grew about them as they tried to follow Jesus’ command to spread the Good News to the world.
St. Thomas is kind of in between the Apostles that we know a lot about and the ones we know little about. Thanks to Deacon Joe Chathaparampil, I know that according to tradition St. Thomas went to the lower west coast of India to begin Christianity there sometime after the Resurrection and Pentecost. What we know most about him however, is this story that we hear from the end of St. John’s Gospel. In this story he told his fellow Apostles that he would not believe in Jesus’ appearance to them unless he got to see it himself. Since he was not in the upper room on the first night after the Resurrection, he needed more proof than just his companion’s words. Because of that St. Thomas has since been known as Doubting Thomas. Jesus had to show up a second time to Thomas and the rest. He had to offer Thomas the wounds of His hands and side as proof of just how alive Jesus really is.
Yet St. Thomas is the only person in all of the Gospels to confess so boldly who Jesus really is. When he sees Jesus Thomas calls Him, “My Lord and My God!” No where else does anyone describe Jesus as truly who He is. Other references to Jesus are qualities or qualifications of Him. Jesus is called Messiah, Lord, Teacher, Rabbi, Master, Christ, and even Son of God. But only Thomas proclaims Him as boldly as “my GOD”. No qualifications just the truth.
While I enjoy the humanity and weakness of St. Thomas in being called the “Doubter” because it gives me hope that my imperfections will not keep me from intimacy with Jesus in this life and Communion with Him forever; I believe that his confession of who Jesus really is to Thomas is more inspiring. I believe that is where I’d like to have my faith grow. I want to always confess that Jesus Christ is my God. And I want that confession to be evident in how my life is lived. How about you?
peace,
Fr. Chuck
Friday, March 29, 2013
Easter
Happy Easter!
Do you remember in the movie, “The Wizard of Oz”, when the coroner of Munchkin Land inspects the body of the Wicked Witch the East? He pronounces her “very much dead”, as if there was another sort of “dead”. On the morning of the Resurrection of Christ, Jesus was “very much dead” in the minds and the lives of His disciples. Some of His women friends and disciples were headed to His tomb to finish the ritual embalming preparations that were prescribed by Jewish law and that were cut short on Good Friday because of the approaching Passover Feast. They still had the need of giving Him a proper burial. His Apostles and other disciples were holed away grieving the loss of their Messiah and worried that they might be next to be crucified by the evil Pontius Pilate and their angry and suspicious Jewish leaders. They also had to be very doubtful that those hopes and promises that he had always talked about were gone forever via the Cross of Calvary. They had seen His limp and bloodied body wrapped in a burial shroud and placed in a rock hewn tomb. That was it, the end of the story! Jesus was “very much dead”.
Yet Mary and the other women came to the disciples’ hiding place frantic that Jesus was not in the tomb. Peter went to the grave and saw it was empty as well. Then Mary experienced him near the grave. And disciples came back from their trip to Emaus telling the others they had met Jesus as well. He then appeared to them in their hideaway to prove to them that He was in fact very much ALIVE. There He forgives them, offers them peace, and commissions them to spread the Holy Spirit of compassion, peace, and forgiveness to the world.
HE IS STILL ALIVE!!!
It is a temptation to give up when we experience defeat. It is natural to abandon hope when our dreams are dashed. We are inclined to bury our faith when the only thing we hear from the “world” is that it is useless to believe.
What we celebrate on this Feast of the Resurrection of Our Lord is that God is never dead. And we, the people of God, can never be defeated. Christ rose from the tomb to both prove that sin, death and Satan never will have the last say in this world, no matter what the coroner says. We are called to day to look our dashed hopes, unfulfilled dreams, addictions and sinful habits, disease and the deaths of family and friends, and all of our terminal prognoses in the face and say, “My God says NO to death and YES to LIFE!”
paz,
Fr. Chuck
Do you remember in the movie, “The Wizard of Oz”, when the coroner of Munchkin Land inspects the body of the Wicked Witch the East? He pronounces her “very much dead”, as if there was another sort of “dead”. On the morning of the Resurrection of Christ, Jesus was “very much dead” in the minds and the lives of His disciples. Some of His women friends and disciples were headed to His tomb to finish the ritual embalming preparations that were prescribed by Jewish law and that were cut short on Good Friday because of the approaching Passover Feast. They still had the need of giving Him a proper burial. His Apostles and other disciples were holed away grieving the loss of their Messiah and worried that they might be next to be crucified by the evil Pontius Pilate and their angry and suspicious Jewish leaders. They also had to be very doubtful that those hopes and promises that he had always talked about were gone forever via the Cross of Calvary. They had seen His limp and bloodied body wrapped in a burial shroud and placed in a rock hewn tomb. That was it, the end of the story! Jesus was “very much dead”.
Yet Mary and the other women came to the disciples’ hiding place frantic that Jesus was not in the tomb. Peter went to the grave and saw it was empty as well. Then Mary experienced him near the grave. And disciples came back from their trip to Emaus telling the others they had met Jesus as well. He then appeared to them in their hideaway to prove to them that He was in fact very much ALIVE. There He forgives them, offers them peace, and commissions them to spread the Holy Spirit of compassion, peace, and forgiveness to the world.
HE IS STILL ALIVE!!!
It is a temptation to give up when we experience defeat. It is natural to abandon hope when our dreams are dashed. We are inclined to bury our faith when the only thing we hear from the “world” is that it is useless to believe.
What we celebrate on this Feast of the Resurrection of Our Lord is that God is never dead. And we, the people of God, can never be defeated. Christ rose from the tomb to both prove that sin, death and Satan never will have the last say in this world, no matter what the coroner says. We are called to day to look our dashed hopes, unfulfilled dreams, addictions and sinful habits, disease and the deaths of family and friends, and all of our terminal prognoses in the face and say, “My God says NO to death and YES to LIFE!”
paz,
Fr. Chuck
Thursday, March 7, 2013
"Lord, I want to see!"
Dear Friends,
This weekend we hear the story of the healing of the man born blind from the Gospel of John. The interesting thing to me in the story is that after Jesus gave the man his sight, it was his parents and the religious leaders who then became blind. They couldn’t see that God could work such a miracle through Jesus for the man that they were used to knowing as a blind man. In fact they refused to see Jesus as God’s healer and teacher.
Blindness affects all of us in this way. I saw a story on 60 Minutes about a Marine who killed himself. He became despondent when he returned from Afghanistan and saw that Americans had no appreciation of the lives that were being sacrificed to keep our nation free. Elected officials from Washington to Frankfort to locally seem blind to the needs of the citizens that they represent, and only concerned with staying in office. Church officials worry about protecting the image of the institution and not about living the mission of Christ to heal and love those in most need around us. We sometimes only want to see justice, compassion and mercy when our own toes have been stepped upon.
Jesus comes to heal blindness in all its forms. Do we have the courage to pray, “Lord, I want to see!”
paz,
Fr. Chuck
This weekend we hear the story of the healing of the man born blind from the Gospel of John. The interesting thing to me in the story is that after Jesus gave the man his sight, it was his parents and the religious leaders who then became blind. They couldn’t see that God could work such a miracle through Jesus for the man that they were used to knowing as a blind man. In fact they refused to see Jesus as God’s healer and teacher.
Blindness affects all of us in this way. I saw a story on 60 Minutes about a Marine who killed himself. He became despondent when he returned from Afghanistan and saw that Americans had no appreciation of the lives that were being sacrificed to keep our nation free. Elected officials from Washington to Frankfort to locally seem blind to the needs of the citizens that they represent, and only concerned with staying in office. Church officials worry about protecting the image of the institution and not about living the mission of Christ to heal and love those in most need around us. We sometimes only want to see justice, compassion and mercy when our own toes have been stepped upon.
Jesus comes to heal blindness in all its forms. Do we have the courage to pray, “Lord, I want to see!”
paz,
Fr. Chuck
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Warning! Long readings at Mass this weekend!!!
Dear Folks,
Every year I hear folks comment that they wished they had been warned about the long Gospel readings that they were going to “have to” hear. Well, here is your warning. This weekend most of us will hear the story from St. John’s gospel about the adulterous woman at the well whom Jesus accepts and forgives. Next week the Gospel is about the blind man, Bartimaeus, whom Jesus heals. On the fifth weekend of Lent we will hear of Jesus Raising Lazarus from the dead. And on Palm Sunday we will walk through St. Luke’s account of Jesus’ Passion. So, put your seat belts and your ears of faith on and prepare for a possibly life altering ride.
The question for me each year is how I listen better to the now familiar stories. The answer is preparation. With these stories especially it is always important to read and pray over them a few times before we encounter them at Mass on the weekend. It would be easy to take a look at what we are about to hear and then discount it by saying, “Oh! It’s the woman at the well again. I know what that one is about.” When we do that we do the scriptures and ourselves a huge disservice.
Some of the good news about any scripture passage is that it is always alive. Sometimes by praying over these holy words they do remind us of things God wants us to recall and live more fervently. But most of the time, if we give the Holy Spirit a little time and space, God makes us hear something brand new in the Word.
So, I invite you do practice praying the Word of God that you are going to hear over the next few weeks. In fact I invite you to stretch that practice out through Holy Week and Easter. I promise you that, if you give the Holy Spirit some time and space to pray the scriptures before you hear them at Mass, you will have a newer and more profound appreciation for this season of Lent.
Paz,
Fr. Chuck
Every year I hear folks comment that they wished they had been warned about the long Gospel readings that they were going to “have to” hear. Well, here is your warning. This weekend most of us will hear the story from St. John’s gospel about the adulterous woman at the well whom Jesus accepts and forgives. Next week the Gospel is about the blind man, Bartimaeus, whom Jesus heals. On the fifth weekend of Lent we will hear of Jesus Raising Lazarus from the dead. And on Palm Sunday we will walk through St. Luke’s account of Jesus’ Passion. So, put your seat belts and your ears of faith on and prepare for a possibly life altering ride.
The question for me each year is how I listen better to the now familiar stories. The answer is preparation. With these stories especially it is always important to read and pray over them a few times before we encounter them at Mass on the weekend. It would be easy to take a look at what we are about to hear and then discount it by saying, “Oh! It’s the woman at the well again. I know what that one is about.” When we do that we do the scriptures and ourselves a huge disservice.
Some of the good news about any scripture passage is that it is always alive. Sometimes by praying over these holy words they do remind us of things God wants us to recall and live more fervently. But most of the time, if we give the Holy Spirit a little time and space, God makes us hear something brand new in the Word.
So, I invite you do practice praying the Word of God that you are going to hear over the next few weeks. In fact I invite you to stretch that practice out through Holy Week and Easter. I promise you that, if you give the Holy Spirit some time and space to pray the scriptures before you hear them at Mass, you will have a newer and more profound appreciation for this season of Lent.
Paz,
Fr. Chuck
Monday, February 25, 2013
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