Live With Readiness

Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
November 17, 2024 — Year B
Readings: Dn 12:1-3 / Ps 16 / Heb 10:11-14, 18 / Mk 13:24-32
by Rev. Nixon Negparanon, Pastor

Today’s readings are filled with powerful imagery and words about the End.  We hear a familiar message running deep in today’s readings: the reality of the End Times and the call to live in hope while awaiting God’s promise fulfillment.

We are approaching the culmination of the liturgical year, and the Church calls us to reflect on the End of Time and history.  On the 24th of November, which is next Sunday, we will be celebrating the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.  This is a reminder that Christ is to reign over all creation.  Soon after this is Advent, which is a time of expectation of Christ’s coming.

In our readings today, the prophet Daniel talks of “a time unsurpassed in distress,” but at the same time, the hope for deliverance of those “written in the book.”  The Letter to the Hebrews reminds us of the uniqueness and completeness of the sacrifice of Christ for salvation and forgiveness, once for all.  In St. Mark’s gospel, Jesus speaks about the sun and the moon being upset and a new world order, ultimately God’s plan.  Let us consider, as we face today’s challenging readings, three messages they offer us:  hope, readiness, and trust in God’s sovereignty.

In the book of Daniel, we hear about a time of suffering; however, it also promises that “the wise shall shine brightly,” and that those who lead others to righteousness are “like the stars forever.”  The merit of hope carries deep conviction in the words that no matter how much chaos exists, the justice and mercy of God will always prevail. As Pope John Paul II said, “Do not abandon yourselves to despair.  We are the Easter people, and Hallelujah is our song.”  This is an invitation for us to have hope, even in the face of adversity or suffering.  This is essential to our faith.  The promise is that, for those who remain faithful, the darkness of distress will give way to the light of God’s presence.  As Easter people, we are called to carry this hope, not only for ourselves but to light the way for others.

The Letter to the Hebrews brings us back to the reminder that through Christ’s one perfect sacrifice, we are forgiven and set free from sin.  Jesus’ sacrifice has already secured our salvation.  This is something in which we should have immense confidence and peace, as we await the culmination of God’s Kingdom.  Although we may not know the day or the hour, we do know God’s plan is one of love, mercy, and salvation.

The world we live in today is usually distinguished by political, environmental, and social confusion.  Many are uncertain about, or anxious for, their future.  Yet today, we are called upon to put our trust in God’s sovereignty.  As Pope John Paul II said, “Have no fear of moving into the unknown.  Simply step out fearlessly, knowing that I am with you.  Therefore, no harm can befall you.  All is very, very well.  Do this in complete faith and confidence.”

In the gospel reading from Mark, we hear Jesus speak of signs in the heavens, and He assures His disciples that His words will not pass away.  This can seem unsettling, yet Jesus intends to wake us up from complacency, reminding us to be vigilant and ready for His return.

In the next few weeks, we will start Advent.  Advent is a season of preparation, not only for the celebration of Christ’s birth, but also for His Second Coming. The season reminds us to live in readiness with hearts open to God’s grace.

C.S. Lewis, in his book, The World’s Last Night and Other Essays, says, “Precisely because we can’t predict the moment, we must be ready at all moments.” No one actually knows the day or the hour except God. The quote from C. S. Lewis captures the essence of Christ’s call to readiness, urging us to live faithfully every day knowing that Christ’s return will come unexpectedly.  This thought encourages us to view each day as an opportunity to prepare our hearts for the fullness of God’s kingdom.

It is so easy to focus on the temporary: our daily routines, our immediate goals, the here and now.  But these readings challenge us to live our days, every day, asking ourselves if we are spiritually prepared for Christ’s coming.  Are we aligning our lives with His teachings, living every day as if it may be our last?  God invites us to re-center our lives on Him, to live each day with purpose, and to nurture a readiness that is grounded in trust and faith.

Sometimes we ask ourselves:  Will I see the end of this world?  It would be rather interesting if that happens.  Yet, our readings today do not give us the answer to that question.  They do tell us, however, what the end will be like, even though we may not live to see it.  They tell us that many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awaken.  Some shall live forever, and others will be condemned and cast into everlasting horror and eternal disgrace.

We should not fear the End of Times.  The important thing for us to remember is that God is our Father, and that Jesus, His Son, came to save us.  This is a reality that no one should be able to hide from us.  Each human being, while he or she is here on earth, should try to be more perfect every day.  This earthly life is a preparation for the kingdom that God has prepared for us.  We should ask to see God, to see His face, and for Him to show us His glory.  This is the destiny that God wants for you and that He wants for me.  That is why He has given us the Holy Spirit, so that we can actually one day see Him.  I hope that day comes for all of us.

Today’s readings remind us of the certainty of Christ’s victory over darkness, sin, and death.  The End Times Jesus speaks of should not fill us with fear, but rather a sense of anticipation and purpose.  We are called to live in the light of the Resurrection, and to share this hope with a world often overshadowed by despair.  As we move closer to the Solemnity of Christ the King, let us see Jesus as our king, not only in words, but in the way we live our lives.  His kingdom is one of truth, mercy, and justice, and by following His ways, we prepare our hearts for Advent and His eventual return.  Let us hold onto hope, live with readiness, and trust deeply in God’s sovereignty.  In doing so, we will stand ready, as people of the promise, confident in God’s enduring love and mercy.

As we await the great day of the Lord, let us remember Pope John Paul II’s words, “We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures; we are the sum of our Father’s love for us.”  With that truth, we can face any future, whether in this world or the next.  May we live this hope, confident in Christ’s promise, as we journey together toward the coming of the Advent season, and prepare our hearts for the coming of our Savior.

Radiate the Light

Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
November 12, 2023 — Year A
Readings: Wis 6:12-16 / Ps 63 / 1 Thes 4:13-18 / Mt 25:1-13
by Rev. Nixon Negparanon, Pastor

Today’s holy gospel is taken from a discourse about the end of the world and the final judgement.  The point of today’s gospel story is that we should always be prepared for the end of our lives.  None of us knows the day or the hour when we will appear in judgement before the Lord.

There was a story about a sparrow who overheard from a squirrel up a tree that the sky was falling.  Greatly disturbed by that news, the sparrow flew from its comfortable nest to spread the news.  The cow, the dogs, the cats, and all the members of the animal kingdom were simply doubtful.  They dismissed the sparrow’s tale as purely hearsay and therefore untrue.  Finally, dejected and frustrated, and convinced that the animals would not cooperate, the sparrow lay on its back and started to raise its legs up toward the sky.

A wise man happened to be passing by and, seeing the creature in an unusual stance, inquired, “My little friend, what’s wrong with you?”

The sparrow replied, “Oh, dear sir, haven’t you heard that the sky is falling?  I am here to support the weight of the sky, should it fall.”

The wise man could not help but smile and say, “But with your frail body, how could you possibly support the sky?”

“We do what we can.  We do what we can,” said the sparrow.

Most of the time, we are like the dog, the cow, the cat, and the rest of the animals in the story, who are doubtful and do not want to respond to the needs and the signs of the times.  When somebody tells us, “Let us go to Mass,” we would respond, “I don’t have any sin.  Just go there and pray for me.”  We don’t want to be disturbed.  We want to be on our own.  We are unconcerned and unresponsive when somebody needs our help.  Today’s first reading and the gospel both teach that we must have wisdom and prudence to be prepared for the Lord’s coming at the end of our lives.

As we get close to the end of the Church’s liturgical year, we concentrate on the end of things.  That is why we consider if we are ready for the end of our lives, the end of the world, and the final judgement.  Nature itself reminds us of the end of things.  During the fall season, we see leaves fall from the trees, and it teaches us that someday we, too, will have an end to our life.  The grass dies off and the flowers no longer bloom as nature teaches us a great lesson each fall.  Someday we too shall die.

Our Blessed Savior wants us to get to heaven, so He’s instructing us today to be vigilant, to be ready, to be wise, and be prudent.  In today’s gospel story, the task of the bridesmaids was to lead the way with light through the narrow and dark streets of the city.  There were no street lamps in those days, and it was pitch dark at night.  We may presume that the bridesmaids prepared for the wedding over a significant period of time.  They probably made new dresses, new shoes, had their hair done, and so forth.  The foolish bridesmaids failed in the one task for which they were required.  The foolish virgins were not prepared to light the way for the groom.

We do not know too much about ancient marriages, but according to Joachim Jeremiah, in his book entitled The Parables of Jesus, published in 1972, one thing seems to be sure:  The highlight of the marriage is the nocturnal entry of the bridegroom into the paternal house where the marriage takes place, followed by the festival banquet.  The task of the bridegroom was to fetch the bride in her home, and then the procession would go to the house of the father of the groom.  The task of the bridesmaids is to carry torches and light the way, and to give everything and everybody a very festive mood.

So now the question is:  What is our task in this life?  Did not God create us to know Him, to love Him, and to be happy with Him in this life and the next?  Are we attending to the purpose for which we were created?  Are we prepared for the task at hand?  Or are we like the foolish virgins?  Now is the time for us to make necessary changes to our lives.  Now is our one chance, perhaps, to obtain sufficient oil for the lamps of our souls, so that we will be able to complete the task that God has given us in our life.

When we were baptized, we received a baptismal candle.  The celebrant, priest, or deacon, said to us, “Receive the light of Christ, parents and godparents.  This light is entrusted to you to be kept burning brightly.  These children of yours have been enlightened by Christ.  They are to walk always as children of the light.  May they keep the flame of faith alive in their hearts.  When the Lord comes, may they go out to meet Him with all the saints in the heavenly kingdom.”

Are we ready to go out to meet Jesus at the end of our lives?

Now that we are responsible adults, is Jesus the light of the world through us?  The light of Christ that we receive in Baptism is to shine before others by the way we live our daily lives.  To accomplish all the things that God wants of us, it is necessary for us to worship at Mass every week.  The Mass is the most perfect and most powerful prayer that there is.  In every Mass, Jesus offers Himself through us to the Father.  By attending Mass regularly, we will grow and be holy.  Each time we have the privilege of receiving Holy Communion, something awesome takes place in our soul.  We become what we eat.  We become more like Christ.  Jesus living in us will continue to shed His gentle light to those among whom we live.  We will come to know and love Him more deeply.

Sometimes we ask, is Matthew’s message to his fellow Christians still relevant to the Christians of our time?  Very much so.  As we draw close to the end of the Liturgical Year, the Church, through the Gospel, invites us to contemplate the end:  the end of our lives, and the end of the world.  The way to prepare for the end is not to live in fear and anxiety, or to go after prophets and visionaries that claim to have access to God’s secret calendar of how and when the world will end.  Jesus told us that the Son of Man would come back on the last day to judge the living and the dead.  How and when will that be?  We do not know for sure.

How then is the wise Christian to prepare for the end times?  Today’s parable gives us the answer.  The best way to prepare for the end is to follow the example of those wise virgins; the wise virgins who took oil to keep their lamps burning.  In the same way, we should engage and persevere in good works to keep our faith alive.  That is the best way to make ourselves ready and prepared for the Lord, no matter when the Lord chooses to come.

So, in this holy Mass, let us beg Jesus to help us change our lives, so that we, too, will radiate the light of Christ in our world and be prepared for His coming.

The Invitation

Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
October 15, 2023 — Year A
Readings: Is 25:6-10a / Ps 23 / Phil 4:12-14, 19-20 / Mt 22:1-14
by Rev. Nixon Negparanon, Pastor

The world is full of opportunities knocking on our doors, just waiting for us to open them.  It is full of opportunities for us to live life to the fullest.  However, they are not always present.  We must seize the opportunity while we still have the time and the opportunity, or else we will end up blaming ourselves, not others.

An invitation is an example of an opportunity knocking on our door, waiting to be opened.  But rather than getting up to open the door, we sometimes whine about the noise.

There was a story of a young man who went away to other places in search of fortune.  A few years later, he returned to his home with trucks loaded with riches. “Now I’m going to play a trick on my relatives and friends,” he said to himself.  He donned some ragged clothes and went to see his cousin Mike first.  “I’m your long lost cousin,” he said.  “I’m back home after several years in other places.  Just look at me, how miserable I am.  May I stay with you for a while?” he said.  Mike said, “I’m sorry, but there’s no room here for you.”

The man visited some more of his relatives and friends, but he was not accepted by any of them.  So he decided to return to where he had left his riches, dressed himself in luxurious clothes, rode through this place with a large entourage of servants, purchased all the businesses about to close down, and began to build a majestic mansion.  After only a few days, the news of his riches had spread all over the place.

“Who could have imagined it?” asked one of the relatives and friends who had rejected him.  “If we had only known, we would have acted differently.  But it is too late now; we’ve missed the riches.”

The readings today show us what joy there is in accepting God’s invitation and what sorrow there is in refusing.  The word of God challenges us to examine our own response to His call.  God extends to us the greatest invitation we will ever receive:  Come to the feast.  Come to the banquet of eternal life.  Sooner or later, each of us has to give Him an answer.  Our RSVP can either be “Yes, I’m coming,” or “No, I will not come.”  The choice is ours and it has eternal consequences.

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus tells a parable directed to the chief priest and the elders.  A king arranges a wedding banquet for his son, and sends out his servants to call the guests.  Strangely, the invited guests flatly refuse to come.  When the king tries again, those being invited treat the servants shamefully, even violently.

When we first read this, it may sound absurd.  People simply don’t act that way when they are invited to a royal feast.  Why would anyone respond so negatively when being invited to something so wonderful?  But the parable is not about an earthly wedding feast.  It is about the Kingdom of God.  Jesus is exposing the disgraceful ways in which we respond to Him.  Like the invited guests, sometimes we simply refuse for no logical reason.  We do not want to be bothered.  When we hear God’s call, His words, His commandments, His prompting in the heart, we reject it, without even considering it.  Other times, we consider other things more important right now:  our farm or business, or any number of high priority matters.  God’s will is simply not that important to us.

Then there are times when we have an outrageous reaction to God’s invitation.  We do not literally kill the messenger, but the word of truth can make us hostile and defensive.  When we are called to repentance, we get angry.  We act as if we have been imposed upon, or insulted, or threatened.  Interiorly, we fight, complain, ridicule, resist.  What at first seems to be a rather absurd reaction by some strange people in a parable becomes, upon closer inspection, a disconcerting reflection of our own hearts.

God truly is like a king who wants to fill His banquet hall with guests.  The blessings He has in mind for us are symbolized by the glorious feast so beautifully described in the first reading.  The prophet Isaiah foretells a feast of rich foods and choice wines, which the Lord of Hosts will provide for all peoples.

There is more to this feast than good food.  This is a prophecy of eternal life.  God promises that He will destroy death forever.  The veil of mourning that enshrouds all peoples and nations, the tears that are shed by every generation, the wave of death that ensnares every person will be destroyed.

What God is inviting us to is a victory celebration: a feast of everlasting rejoicing, a life without tears, or mourning, or death; everything we mean by the word Heaven.

In our Lord’s time, wedding invitations went out well in advance, and were accepted definitively.  The final call just before the event occurred was a mere formality.  It would be an unspeakable insult to decline when the final call arrived.  They had already accepted and had made their firm commitment.  And so the master in the parable sends out messengers to the highways and byways, that is, to everyone, respectable or not.  All are invited.  From now on the invitation is being made, not to a select and exclusive minority of privileged people, but to the wider public forum, to all people.  All who respond are welcome.  There is no special preference anymore.  Sinners, outcasts, gentiles—and you—are all invited.

Those accepting the invitation are not any better than those who declined.  It’s just that the poor and the outcasts, not having any other options and seeing what a rare gift this was, accepted and attended.  Again, it reminds us not to be complacent or superior, as all of us are truly blessed to be invited.

This parable reminds us that this invitation is for all of us.  But the invitation can be refused.  The kingdom is open to all, but guaranteed to none.  We don’t earn the kingdom, but we sadly can decline it, which would be madness.

One final thought:  The waifs and strays enter the banquet, but then one gets kicked out for not wearing a wedding garment.  It seems unfair at first glance.  Consider, however, that although the invitation is for all, acceptance means a change of standards and values.  These are symbolized by being clothed in the garment that resembles and represents the baptismal garment of goodness and Christ-like living.  We must wear this robe with devotion and humility, keeping the Gospel values of Christ in our hearts, very central and very safe.

Moments of Transfiguration

Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord
August 6, 2023 — Year A
Readings: Dn 7:9-10, 13-14 / Ps 97 / 2 Pt 1:16-19 / Mt 17:1-9
by Rev. Nixon Negparanon, Pastor

There is a story of a young man who thought he was a worm.  He would hide under the bed whenever he saw a chicken, because chickens eat worms.  One day he was hiding under the bed, because he saw a chicken roaming around.  His best friend decided to help him overcome his problem.  He went under the bed with him and told him to repeat after him, “I am a man, not a worm.”  After a few repetitions, his best friend urged him to come out and prove himself a man.  He came out and walked around confidently until he saw a chicken and then immediately hid under the bed again.  His best friend went under the bed and asked him, “Why don’t you believe you are a man, not a worm?” The young man replied, “I do believe I am a man, not a worm, but does the chicken believe that?”

Jesus believed that He was the beloved Son of the Father.  Even in His most painful and despairing moments, He believed that.  The disciples also believed that Jesus was the Son of God, but the moment the trials and persecutions came along, they ran and hid under the bed.  Later on, however, they truly believed and laid down their lives for Jesus.

The Feast of the Transfiguration reminds us of who Jesus is and also reminds us of who we are.  Today we are celebrating this feast.  The word, transfiguration, is derived from the Latin word, transfigurare, or the Greek word, metamorphosis, which means change in form or appearance.  Jesus takes Peter, James, and John, a special trio in the twelve, up the high mountain of Tabor where the glory of His destiny is revealed to them.  This glory belongs to Him as God’s beloved Son.  Transfiguration is the foretaste of heaven.  This is signified by His dazzling white clothes.

Peter wants to preserve this moment by erecting tents.  He’s overwhelmed and terrified by the experience, and yet he doesn’t want it to end.  Moses and Elijah are seen talking to Jesus about His death which He is to suffer in Jerusalem.  This is seen by the three apostles.  The three are wondrously delighted with this vision and Peter calls out to Christ, “Lord it is good for us to be here.  Let us make three tents, one for Thee, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”  Then they hear the voice of the Father saying, “This is My Beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.  Listen to Him.”

This moment, not a permanent state of bliss, is given to them to help them realize the true identity of Jesus, that Jesus is the true Messiah, the Son of the living God.  This conversation of Jesus with Elijah and Moses shows us that Jesus is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets.  (Moses represents the law, and Elijah represents the prophets.)  His mission is not to destroy the ways in which the Father has already revealed Himself, but to bring this revelation to completion.

The vision that we are given today on this great Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord shows us that we are called to something far beyond anything we could have imagined.

Our first reading from the book of Daniel gives us a tiny glimpse into the awesome glory of Heaven, where the Father reigns with His Son.  We get the sense that Daniel can barely find the words to describe the wonder of what he has seen.  Everything is bright white, glowing as if on fire, seemingly blinding in its brilliance.  Myriads of people from every nation are worshipping God.  This vision already fills us with great hope.  We want to be invited into this place where we can experience the glory of God and be counted among those who are privileged to stand before Him and worship Him.

The gospel, however, encourages us to hope for still more.  Peter, James, and John are shown the same glory of God shining out through the very humanity of Jesus.  They begin to understand that God is not content merely to have us join Him in heaven so that we can witness His glory.  He wants to transform us so that we shine with that very same glory.  The Transfiguration shows us more deeply who Jesus is.  It also shows us who we are called to be in God’s plan.

St. Peter assures us, in the second reading, that this is not just some cleverly devised story.  He himself was an eyewitness to the Transfiguration.  He speaks of what he saw and heard.  He declares that this promise of God is altogether reliable and exhorts us to be attentive to it.

Another possible reason for this display was that Jesus wanted to strengthen these three apostles for the trials of faith that they would have to face and endure at Mount Calvary when Jesus would not be on Mount Tabor, the mountain of the Transfiguration, but on Mount Calvary, the mountain of the cross.

God sometimes gives us moments of consolation and joy.  We want such moments to never end, but that is not our lot here on earth.  Before enjoying glory, we must first undergo suffering.  These moments of consolation will help us to go on, to persevere in spite of difficulties.  God invites us to see the many little transfiguration experiences that we have in our daily lives, such as changes of nature, the gradual opening of a flower, the blooming of trees, transformation of people, the growing of children, the cycle of birth and death, the realization that God is there.

Through the eyes of faith, we realize that it is a continuous process of seeing, not the flower, but the blooming, not the people but their talents, not the sun but its rising, not the miracle but God.

Every time that we gather for the celebration of the Eucharist, we also experience a moment of transfiguration where our Lord Jesus Christ is transfigured before our very own eyes.  The bread and wine are transfigured and become His body and blood, thus our spiritual food for life in our journey toward eternal life.  May we slowly come out of our fears, weaknesses, and sinfulness, and show others what we really believe in and who we are called to be—the people of God.

The Two Orders

The Resurrection of the Lord
April 9, 2023 – Year A
Readings: Acts 10:34a, 37-43 / Ps 118 / Col 3:1-4 / Jn 20:1-9
by Rev. Jay Biber, Guest Celebrant

Today’s gospel has a great theme, in this season that introduces death to life, light to darkness, good and evil.  It goes back to the two great dimensions of what God gives us, and I think I’d like to leave you with the same homework assignment that I left with the folks at the Easter Vigil last night.

These two dimensions of God that we focus on, that come front and center when we celebrate the sacrament of Baptism, are the dimension of God as creator and God as redeemer.  We call these the Two Orders – the order of creation and the order of redemption.

At the Vigil Mass, we begin a long series of readings beginning with the creation account from the very first pages of the Book of Genesis.   God creates the world, the sky on Day One, the seas and the waters on Day Two, the earth on Day Three, and on Days Four, Five, and Six what fills the sky, the birds and the flying things, what fills the waters, the fish and the sea monsters, and what fills the earth – all that creeps and crawls and all the animals, and at the crown of creation, the human person.  That is the six days of creation.

And of course, the seventh day is what we do today. That’s why the commitment is so important to us, because it keeps a rhythm of time that we have a foreshadowing of the eternal Sabbath, remembering that in a sense every Sunday is Easter.  We have a foreshadowing of the eternal Sabbath with God – the day without work, they day you pray and play, the day to renew relationships, the day for a foretaste of Heaven.

So God has ordered that for us when we speak of the order of creation.  Everyone does not realize that there is an order, a nature of things.  We can explore and learn; it’s not like we are cast adrift and have to find our own meaning for everything.  There’s a meaning already there.

I learned it as a kid growing up in post-war America.  Like many kids, we were not that far removed from the immigrant experience, as all my grandparents were immigrants.  You get roughed up a little bit as an immigrant.  I remember those stories, especially when you add Catholic into that.  But I also remember very early on being given that sense of where I fit in, because the first question in the Catechism class every year was, “Who made you?”  And the answer that you had memorized and had drilled into your head was “God made me.”  Well, that’s not a bad start.

Think of how many people today haven’t been baptized, haven’t been given that greatest gift, “God made me,” that I’m not a meaningless cipher.  I’m not just happening to be there and not knowing if there’s any reason for this. We say that you can tell your friends, “I don’t always act like it and I don’t always think right and part of me rebels against God, and part of me wants God, but He created me in His image and likeness.”

That’s true of all my brothers and sisters, and that’s true of the people I like and the people I don’t like.  He created us in His image and likeness, so that the closest you’ll come to God today is the next human being you’ll look at.

And so, there’s an order of creation.  That’s what allowed the Church to be the first ones in the West to explore science, because of the belief that God has created an ordered universe and invites us to study that.  Therefore, all that does is reveal more of Him.  Many of the great Church leaders going back into history have been great scientists – the founder of genetics, the founder of the Big Bang Theory (a priest from Belgium.)  There’s an order to things, and the human person has a place.  Now, how marvelous is that?

There are so many who have no idea where they fit in, thinking they are on this big map, but there’s no X saying, “You are here.”  If you come across folks in those moments, you can begin to say, “You know, I may have something for you.”  We believe that we are created for a purpose.  It takes a lifetime to find it out and not everything goes right, but there’s a deep joy.  That’s the order of creation.

Then of course, we have the order of redemption.  Because what you know about yourself, and what you know about every other person who was ever conceived, is that somehow there’s a flaw in there.  There’s something that’s begging to be redressed or redeemed, to be purchased back by God.  There’s a distance that’s crept in between us and God; we are not living in the human nature for which we were originally designed.  We are living in the human condition, after that separation from God came in which we all inherit.  We know that about ourselves.

One thing I like about that is that when I know I’m not perfect, I don’t have to kill myself.  It’s true of all of us; we all suffer.  But we finally discover a beautiful thing, that God did not wait for me to be perfect to love me.

That’s something you may be able to pass onto someone who may be suffering.  Put it in your own words; illustrate it with your own story.  Get familiar with using these words because this is exactly what happened after the Resurrection.  They were pretty clueless; they didn’t understand, but they began to put those words together and gradually took those words to the ends of the earth.

Now, as we are often surrounded by folks who haven’t been baptized, we have an opportunity to speak of the order of redemption.  The older folks will remember saving your Green Stamps, putting them in the book, and then redeeming them for a spoon or a Corning Ware dish.  This is more sophisticated, but redeem still means “bought back.”

If you’re wondering about your self-esteem, or if you’re wondering if you have any worth or not, or if you’re worth working on, you can say, “I have been redeemed by the precious blood of the Savior.”  We are not designed in the blueprint to be able to make it on our own.  I like to think He’s designed us with limits so we will need others, and that we will need Him, because that’s the way we’re meant to be.

So this season, I think we have a good story to tell, with all our imperfections and all the ways we miss a mark here and there, to say you know, that order of creation, to meet my maker, to thank Him for the order with which He made things, to thank Him for making me and the order of redemption, to thank Him for putting me back on the right track and offering through the Church the whole toolbox of what it takes to bring me to His feet, to bring me before His face.

I’d like to think that once we begin again as they did in that early century, once we begin to speak those words confidently and humbly again, the first century happens again and then people will say, “You know, I want some of what you have.  I like the way you live. Let me explore this life of which you speak.”

Persevere in Faith

Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
November 13, 2022 — Year C
Readings: Mal 3:19-20a / Ps 98 / 2 Thes 3:7-12 / Lk 21:5-19
by Rev. Nixon Negparanon, Pastor

Thomas Alva Edison, the great inventor, used to say, “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” He conducted about eighteen thousand experiments before he perfected what we now call “the ordinary light bulb.” He became great through untiring work and utmost endurance.

For some of us nowadays, we are inclined to reverse Edison’s slogan by our longing for instant things. Thus, instead of ninety-nine percent perspiration and one percent inspiration, we would rather reverse that and have one percent perspiration and ninety-nine percent inspiration.

Yet Jesus, in today’s gospel, exhorts us, “By your perseverance you will gain your lives.” This statement highlights two important things. First, the need to endure. Secondly, the salvation of the soul.  The first, to endure, is absolutely necessary in order to have the second, salvation of the soul.

Why is it absolutely necessary to persevere in order to be saved? Perseverance is an active rather than a passive virtue for us Christians. Perseverance is built up against temptation to sin and apathy through a life of regular prayer, such as the rosary, our devotions to saints, meditation upon scripture, Sunday liturgy and recitation of the Liturgy of the Hours, and the graces given in Baptism and strengthened by the gifts of the Holy Spirit in Confirmation.

Today’s readings teach us the importance of perseverance. In the first reading we heard of the necessity to persevere in righteousness, because evildoers will be wiped off the face of the earth. But those who receive the Most High, the Lord shall raise them, sanctify them, and carry them to a safe place where no harm shall ever come to them. The safe place is heaven, where the Lord rules forever.

In the second reading, we heard of the necessity to persevere in our imitation of the saints. We heard St. Paul’s harsh words for those who fall short of imitating the saints. He told them that, if they were unwilling to work, they should not eat.

Why were some unwilling to work? Some of the faithful believed that Jesus was about to return at any time to establish His kingdom. As such, why work? This is wrong because, according to St. Paul, living in idleness, they occupied their time with small talk, rumors, hearsay, slander, with all of these things leading to disharmony and division. So every Christian, when he’s able to, must support himself and his brothers and sisters and not live off the income or wealth of others.

St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians gives us three characteristics of saints. First, they are human beings like us; they are made in the image and likeness of God. They have body and soul; they are made of flesh and blood. They need things all other human beings need.  Second, like you and me, they are also tempted. They can be tempted to do evil and be indifferent in their commitment to God. Third, which makes them different from us, the saints cling to God at all times. The saints rely on the power of God and not their own power.

In the gospel reading, we heard of the necessity to persevere in our living faith. We heard Jesus’ discourse around 30 A.D. on the fall of Jerusalem. While Jesus was speaking of the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple, which occurred in 70 A.D., those who were present were associating this event with the arrival of the kingdom of God on earth, since the temple was associated with God’s presence. So if the temple were to be destroyed, it would mean the end of the world. Forty years later, those who were still living around 70 A.D. saw the completion of Jesus’ prophecy.

Our gospel today reminds us that, while waiting for the great moment to come, which is the end of times where God will reign as Lord, we must adjust to a long period of waiting. We must persevere in our living faith by taking our crosses and carrying them as Jesus did, so that we too may arrive into our eternal glory. As St. Paul said, we must not be idle, waiting for things that will not come to pass in the present time. We must move on with our lives and be fruitful in the work of the Holy Spirit, while awaiting the final return of Christ that will precede Judgment Day and the resurrection of the bodies.

The question is, are we ready to suffer and to shed our blood, if necessary, for our faith? Christianity is a religion of martyrdom. Jesus willingly shed His blood for our sake, and He calls us to be martyrs. The word martyr in Greek means “witness.” The Book of Revelation says that Jesus was the faithful witness who freed us from our sins by His blood.

Tertullian, the second century lawyer who converted when he saw Christians singing as they went out to die, exclaimed, “The blood of the martyrs is seed. Their blood is the seed of new Christians, the seed of the Church.” Why is this the case? The martyrs witness the joy and truth and freedom of the Gospel by their life, their testimony, and by their blood.

Brothers and sisters, some of us may not have very heavy crosses to bear. Our lives have been pretty good, filled with blessings from the Lord. But we have some brothers and sisters who do have very heavy crosses to bear. We must pray for them, so they will persevere until the end, that they not be counted among those who have renounced their faith and their salvation in Jesus Christ.

We will be well prepared, too, if we try every day to live our Christian life well and full; if we do our best to build that part of the kingdom which God expects from us in the here and now, a kingdom of peace and justice; if we daily water the seed of love that Jesus has already planted; if we pass onto others the light of faith that He has already lit; if we act as yeast that Jesus has already put in the dough, in order to ferment the world with the Gospel values; and if we serve the world as its salt, which He called us to be, to preserve the world from every corruption.  All this means that we cannot sit down, doing nothing, just waiting for the end time. It means that we need to keep ourselves always busy in order to hasten the coming of God’s kingdom.

So, brothers and sisters, as we go home today, let us persevere in our living faith until the end of times, through righteousness and the imitation of the saints. Let us also pray for one another, that we all endure until the end, so we will gain our lives.

May Jesus Christ be praised.

To My Immortal Home

Second Sunday of Lent
March 13, 2022 — Year C
Readings: Gn 15:5-12, 17-18 / Ps 27 / Phil 3:17 – 4:1 / Lk 9:28b-36
by Rev. Mr. Barry Welch, Guest Homilist

I happened upon a YouTube video of an old bluegrass gospel song called Angel Band.  It reminded me of my dad, Buddy.  Buddy died a couple of years ago.  It’s a great song, but I think it’s the memory and really the presence of my dad that sparked my emotions while I was listening to it.

Oh come, angel band,
Come and around me stand.
Oh, bear me away on your snow-white wings
To my immortal home.
Oh, bear me away on your snow-white wings
To my immortal home.

I just wanted to make sure you know the song and what it meant.  We’re from Southwest Virginia.

Later that morning, on my drive to the church at Resurrection where I work, I called my mom, which I do pretty regularly on my drive, just to catch up and see how she’s doing and how she’s feeling.  I told her about the song, and she knew it really well and remembered that my dad liked it.

It’s been over two years, and yet that morning she was cleaning out the drawer to the nightstand. She experienced a flood of memories sparked by the items that he had stored there – lapel pins, watches, belt buckles, and his pocketknives – things that he had thought enough of to keep.  I told her that I would love to have a pocketknife, but I don’t want one of the ones that’s still in the cellophane like a showcase pocketknife: I want one that he carried in his pocket and used and loved.

Later on, I arrived at the church, grabbed a glass of water and a protein bar, plugged in my laptop, and headed for the comfy chair in the corner of my office.  I noticed that behind that chair was Buddy’s guitar.  It’s a guitar that I gave him at my wedding in 1994, and now it has been returned to me.  A guitar, a simple song, a pocketknife – there’s nothing particularly special about any of them, in and of themselves.  And yet, they contain so much power, so much meaning for me.  I ask myself, why is that?  Why do these objects have so much meaning?

I believe that each one of us possesses a spiritual power, an essence, a soul, and when someone occupies space in this realm, in this world, on this Earth in our lives, they leave little bits of that on things that they touch, things that they love.  That’s one reason that we find it so hard to go through their stuff when they’re gone.  The room, the car, the bed, and the clothes – it’s almost like they’re still there.  We can smell them, we can feel them; we can feel their essence, and we desire so strongly that they return and occupy this space again.  But if that happened, wouldn’t it be great if they weren’t in heart failure, if they didn’t have cancer, or diabetes, or pain in their knees and hips, and their memory was intact?

Well, brothers and sisters, that is the promise.  That is our hope.  That is the result of the new and eternal covenant – not ratified by offerings of bulls and goats, and rams and birds, but by the blood of our Savior, Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  That is the pathway generated by His suffering, death, and resurrection.

But the apostles didn’t know that yet.  They had rallied around this amazing man; they had followed Him and witnessed His power to heal and drive out demons, even to raise one from the dead.  And the Jews had been in this covenantal relationship with God for centuries, thousands of years, but they never could quite hold up their end of the agreement.  So, they ended up at various times in slavery, and in exile, and occupied by foreign powers.

The apostles were pretty sure that Jesus is the Messiah and that He was going to end all that, but what they were not so sure about was His methods.  He had just told them that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed, and on the third day raised.  He also told them, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

Yeah, that’s great, Jesus, but how are you going to defeat the Romans?  They were still arguing about who was to sit at His right hand when the Kingdom came.  Jesus very patiently was teaching and demonstrating, trying to prepare them for the strife and the difficulty that lay ahead, but they just didn’t comprehend His meaning.  So, before turning south for that final journey to Jerusalem, Jesus decided to give them some encouragement, give them some hope, something that they could draw on when the times turned darkest.  He wanted to give them a real glimpse of the glory that awaits on the other side.

He took His closest friends, and He went up a mountain.   Remember that in scriptures, whenever we go up a mountain, we are getting closer to God.  He went up a mountain and when He got up there, the first thing He did was pray.  He prayed.  Jesus always prayed before something big was about to happen.  That is a good example for us.  While He was praying, His body was transfigured, became glowing and brilliant white, and in order to accentuate the supernatural impact of this event, He was in conversation with the two great heroes of the Jews, Moses and Elijah, also in their glory – Moses representing the law, Elijah representing the prophets, and Jesus the realization and fulfillment of them both.

Peter, James, and John did not have our hindsight on the Resurrection.  They didn’t understand, and they wanted to put up tents.  They wanted to remain on the mountaintop; they wanted to remain in that glorious moment.  Don’t we all?  But Jesus knew there was still a lot of hard work to be done to accomplish His exodus in Jerusalem.  He will lead an exodus that takes us away from our slavery and to sin and death and to the new promised land – an eternal Heaven with Him.

A couple of days before Buddy died, he and I had a phone conversation about his ailments.  He liked to talk about his ailments.  And then somehow, we got to talking about Heaven.  He was not Catholic and didn’t really understand our faith too deeply, but I told him about our Catholic faith regarding our bodies, and that our Apostles Creed ends with the belief in the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.   And he said (this was the last time I got to talk to him), “I believe that too, Barry.”  Well, I’ll hold onto your pocketknife, Buddy.

What You Do Today

Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
November 14, 2021 — Year B
Readings: Dn 12:1-3 / Ps 16 / Heb 10:11-14, 18 / Mk 13:24-32
by Rev. Nixon Negparanon, Pastor

There is a beautiful Cherokee proverb that says: “When you were born, you cried, and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that, when you die, the world cries, and you rejoice.”

Our gospel today talks about the end of time. For many years, people have speculated about the end of time, because people love to speculate, especially about when the world might come to an end. That is why writers and filmmakers make money by imagining how it might end. (more…)

The New Eve

Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
August 15, 2021 — Year B
Readings: Rv 11:19a, 12:1-6a, 10ab / Ps 45 / 1 Cor 15:20-27 / Lk 1:39-56
by Rev. Nixon Negparanon, Pastor

There is an old story about a workman on scaffolding high above the nave of a cathedral.  He looked down and saw a woman praying before a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  As a joke, the workman whispered, “Woman, this is Jesus.”  But the woman ignored him.

So the workman whispered again more loudly, “Woman, this is Jesus.”  But the woman still ignored him.

Finally, he said aloud, “Woman, don’t you hear me?  This is Jesus.”

At this point the woman looked at the crucifix and said, “Be still now, Jesus; I’m talking to your mother.” (more…)

Follow in Hope

Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord
May 16, 2021 — Year B
Readings: Acts 1:1-11 / Ps 47 / Eph 1:17-23 / Mk 16:15-20
by Rev. Salvador Añonuevo, Pastor

About five hundred years before our Lord Jesus was born in Bethlehem, there was a philosopher in ancient Greece by the name of Heraclitus, who said that the only permanence in life is change. Heraclitus was stating the obvious. Every single moment there is a change in the world within us and around us, whether we are aware of this or not. We are no longer the same persons compared to yesterday. We change physically, mentally, and even spiritually. (more…)