The Crucifixion:

Our series continued this week with a review of the many ways of interpreting the effects of the Cross.  We asked the following questions:

How do you experience the Love of Jesus?

Do you think that Jesus atoned for your sins?

Have you seen the victory of Jesus in this world?

The talk, hymns and prayers may be found on our podcast, but the discussions are key and we urge you to attend the final session at Grace Church this Thursday.

 

First Reading

Fourth Sunday in Lent

March 31, 2019

Jos 5:9A 10-12

 

Today’s reading marks an important transition in the history of Israel. We must see it, however, as part of a larger story in which Joshua plays a key part. He is clearly Moses’ successor but is both more and less than that.

The Israelites have been wandering in the desert for 40 years. They were not abandoned by God, indeed he has taken a great and personal interest in them. He has cared for them spiritually, giving them the law, and physically providing manna. They have resisted both: worshiping a golden calf and grumbling about the food. Indeed, after forty years only Moses, Joshua and Celeb remained of those who left Egypt. Moses was permitted to see the promised land but only Joshua and Caleb were allowed to enter it.

This was at Gilgal:

²⁰ At Gilgal Joshua set up the twelve stones which had been taken from the Jordan,

This reflects Moses action at the beginning of their time in the desert:

⁴ Moses then wrote down all the words of the LORD and, rising early the next day, he erected at the foot of the mountain an altar and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. Exodus 24:4 (NAB)

The comparison continues:

“In the future, when the children among you ask their fathers what these stones mean, ² you shall inform them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan here on dry ground.’ ²³ For the LORD, your God, dried up the waters of the Jordan in front of you until you crossed over, just as the LORD, your God, had done at the Red Sea, which he dried up in front of us until we crossed over; Joshua 4:21-23

This brackets off the Exodus, although it took 40 years of penance and conversion God has fulfilled his promise:

⁸ Therefore I have come down to rescue them from the hands of the Egyptians and lead them out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, the country of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. Exodus 3:8 (NAB)

This had a predictable effect on the peoples of the Canaan:

¹ When all the kings of the Amorites to the west of the Jordan and all the kings of the Canaanites by the sea heard that the LORD had dried up the waters of the Jordan before the Israelites until they crossed over, they were disheartened and lost courage at their approach Joshua 5:1 (NAB)

Yet one thing remained. They needed to be seen clearly as the People of the Lord

² On this occasion the LORD said to Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelite nation for the second time.” ⁵ Though all the men who came out were circumcised, none of those born in the desert during the journey after the departure from Egypt were circumcised. Joshua 52. 5

Circumcision was the distinctive physical reminder that the Jews were a distinctive people. That the males were not circumstanced was a sign of the disobedience of the “founding generation” in the wilderness years.

⁶ Now the Israelites had wandered forty years in the desert, until all the warriors among the people that came forth from Egypt died off because they had not obeyed the command of the LORD. For the LORD swore that he would not let them see the land flowing with milk and honey which he had promised their fathers he would give us. Joshua 5:6 (NAB)

The people who were purified in the wilderness are now able to be truly marked as people of God. This will allow them to be ritually able to celebrate the Passover.

¹⁰ While the Israelites were encamped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, they celebrated the Passover on the evening of the fourteenth of the month. Joshua 5:10

Thus, the first act of the exodus was celebrating the Passover and now it is the first act in the promised land;

¹¹ On the day after the Passover they ate of the produce of the land in the form of unleavened cakes and parched grain. On that same day ¹² after the Passover on which they ate of the produce of the land, the manna ceased. No longer was there manna for the Israelites, who that year ate of the yield of the land of Canaan. Joshua 5:11–12 (NAB)

The manna had fed them in the desert while they were wanderers but now they have their own land and can live by its produce but they will have to earn it.

³ While Joshua was near Jericho, he raised his eyes and saw one who stood facing him, drawn sword in hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you one of us or of our enemies?”

¹⁴ He replied, “Neither. I am the captain of the host of the LORD and I have just arrived.” Then Joshua fell prostrate to the ground in worship, and said to him, “What has my lord to say to his servant?” ¹⁵ The captain of the host of the LORD replied to Joshua, “Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy.” And Joshua obeyed. Joshua 5:13–15(NAB)

This is clearly a reference to God’s appearance to Moses at the beginning of his mission in Exodus 3

³ So Moses decided, “I must go over to look at this remarkable sight, and see why the bush is not burned.”

⁴ When the LORD saw him coming over to look at it more closely, God called out to him from the bush, “Moses! Moses!” He answered, “Here I am.”

⁵ God said, “Come no nearer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. Exodus 3:3–5 (NAB)

This prepares Joshua for his role as a chieftain. He will fulfill it with bloody efficiency. This is distasteful to our modern sensibilities. We need always remember that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob clearly works in and through history and that means with the people as they are. This can be as we have seen disconcerting. It should not distract us from the basic reality of this passage; the form of leadership may change, but the source is always from God.

A Note on Our Financial Report

I would like to thank the members of the parish who read the Financial Report. It is important that we understand where our donations are going. As I noted last year, and some people have commented this year, the budget does not have a line for the poor or indeed any outside agency or activity. This does not reflect a lack of interest, but rather our difficulty in breaking even with regular expenses. This can be addressed more directly when the renovation of the Church is completed but that, alas, is years away.

Until then, I have a suggestion, a policy change and a request.

Please give to the Annual Diocesan Appeal. The money collected does not go to the general fund of the Diocese but to the programs and agencies specifically listed. These include the obvious, e.g. Catholic Charities and Migration Services, and the important things that can remain hidden; e.g., Hospital Chaplains and the care of elderly Diocesan Priests. These are all areas which we as a Parish might wish to donate, and may one day do so, but now we must depend on the generosity and compassion of our members as individuals. We have always met our goal, and in this time of confusion and need, I pray that we will do so again.

The money in our poor boxes and from the candles is put aside for charitable purposes. There has been no set policy on how it is dispensed. Originally, they were both to be given to the St Vincent de Paul Society. As we do not have a SVD chapter, the monies will be collected and given each month to Catholic Charities of Brooklyn & Queens, directed by Msgr. Al. They are the professionals and will be able to put it to better use than my guessing what might be a good use.

Before we distributed the financial report, the Parish Council shared the “Pastoral Plan for St Charles Borromeo”. It is very well thought out and will add much to our parish and community. Some of the items, however, are not in our budget and although we had savings in a few areas, the repairs on the rectory are continuing. In order to finance these ideas, the PPC will be writing to you to ask for an Easter Donation for pastoral activities. They will be specific, and we ask you to be generous.

-Fr. Bill

 

Building Matters

Nick Strachovsky, KOW Building Consultants
Parish Construction Representative/Manager

I am very pleased to welcome spring back to Brooklyn Heights.  The warmer weather will bring about a much-anticipated increase in speed of work.  The new gutters are in the process of being replaced.  Some roof deck repair work was discovered and is being completed.  At the tower, the statue area and the louvers are being re-supported and repaired and the exterior sand stone and brownstone is being repaired and painted.  This work will increase pace over the next few weeks with portions of scaffold coming down as it is done from top to bottom.  We are hoping to begin to see some of the highest levels come down in the next few months.  Masonry pointing and repair is slated to begin again April 1.  Window repair and stained glass repair will also begin.  Roof replacement is mostly complete at the sloped slate roof.  The flat roof areas are scheduled to be completed once the brick in those areas is completely restored.  The restoration team is running smoothly with very good communication between the architect and contractor. We are looking forward to a productive spring.

 

First Reading

Third Sunday of Lent

March 24, 2019

Exodus 3:1-8a, 13-15

The Pentateuch – or first five books of the Bible – form the great Jewish national epic. As we have seen, it was composed of laws and proclamations but mostly stories handed down for a millennium before being committed to a written edition around 500 BC. It showed the people who had themselves endured captivity in Babylon that their God was alive, caring, and powerful beyond human expectation and measure. Today’s selection from the Book of Exodus expresses a key moment in this epic. It does so, however, in a way that for us is very disconnected.

The original audience would have understood the underlying unity and the reason for it. The deepest scar on the Jewish psyche was the loss of the Northern Kingdom, Israel, to the Assyrians in 721 BC. Their deepest hope was that God would anoint someone to reunite all the people. Messiah and Christ both mean “Anointed One” and this was one of his prime responsibilities. Therefore, the authors of the Pentateuch took great pains to bring in materials from not only north and south, but different theological positions as well. We have already seen that there are several stories of creation; we find the same here with the call of Moses. This extends from Exodus 2:23 to 4:17. Every element of this call is repeated twice.

This need not directly concern us. The most important element is that God remembered his covenant:

²³ A long time passed, during which the king of Egypt died. Still the Israelites groaned and cried out because of their slavery. As their cry for release went up to God, ²⁴ he heard their groaning and was mindful of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. ²⁵ He saw the Israelites and knew… Exodus 2:23–25

 

The situation of the Israelites was not the result of one bad pharaoh, but would be continual.  “Remembered” does not indicate that God forgot, but that now he would give it his full attention. This is active, not passive – something would be done. The covenant with Abraham, which we discussed last week, is permanent, and God is always connected to his people.

Again, as we saw last week, the Jews could not understand themselves without prophecy and convent. Despite the repetition and – for us – other extraneous diversions, the authors bring this together very clearly today.

Note that Moses is called in the manner of a prophet. We have seen before the calls of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. The parallels with Isaiah are particularly striking: angels, fire, fear and a sense of the Holy. We should see the Burning Bush in this light as well: God’s call to Moses as prophet and leader.

God shows himself as the God who revealed himself to Abraham and made the covenant with him:

⁶ I am the God of your father,” he continued, “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.”. Exodus 3:6

The prophet’s words and actions always refer to the Covenant. They do not proclaim philosophical and theological principles, but the experience of the God who had entered their lives and history.

He will not permit them to be slaves to anyone; they will be freed from the Egyptians and given a new land of their own. Moses asked:

¹³ “But,” said Moses to God, “when I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ if they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what am I to tell them?” ¹⁴ God replied, “I am who am.” Then he added, “This is what you shall tell the Israelites: I AM sent me to you.” Exodus 3:13–14

There is an understanding of this passage that believes that two traditions are represented. One finds the revelation of God in history, and another which is more philosophical and speaks of the being of God. This is appealing as the key word here is “I AM”. Nevertheless, it is inexact, and comes from the translation of the Pentateuch into Greek around 200 BC. Some of the sense of the Hebrew word for “Being” as a dynamic reality was lost. In Hebrew, “Being” means a concrete, active, and powerfully effective existence.

Cardinal Walter Kasper in his book “Mercy” draws out the consequences of this.

The revelation of God’s name constitutes his promise: I am “the one who I am there” . I am with you in your distress and I will accompany you on your way, … The revelation of God’s name is immediately connected with the ratification of God’s Covenant with the Patriarchs.

It was thought that to know someone’s name was to have power over them. All that God will tell us is that all that we need to know is that he is with us and will be so for all time.

¹⁵ God spoke further to Moses, “Thus shall you say to the Israelites: The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. “This is my name forever; this is my title for all generations. Exodus 3:15

Cardinal Kasper asks us to look at one other time that God appears to Moses. Moses had left the Israelites and gone up the mountain to receive the 10 Commandments. In his absence, the people formed and worshipped the Golden Calf. On his return, Moses broke the original tablets with the commandments and went up Mt. Sinai to obtain new ones.

⁵ Having come down in a cloud, the LORD stood with him there and proclaimed his name, “LORD.” ⁶ Thus the LORD passed before him and cried out, “The LORD, the LORD, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity, ⁷ continuing his kindness for a thousand generations, Exodus 34:5–6 (NAB)

Whatever we come to believe about God and our relationship to Him, the key must always be that he is faithful to His Covenant, and in that faithfulness, we will experience mercy for a thousand generations.