Author: St. Charles Borromeo

Homilies, Messages from the Pastor

1st Sunday of Lent – Enter to Give Thanks

| St. Charles Borromeo

Upcoming events this week

  • Living Lent Prayer Groups: 2 groups meeting at 8 am and 6 pm at the Rectory starting this Sunday
  • Book Club: in the Sacristy after the 11:15 AM Mass this Sunday. Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Latham 
  • Eucharistic Adoration: Weekdays from 9 am – noon. Spend an hour with Jesus.
  • Media & Communications Committee Meeting: Monday at 7 PM at the Rectory

Think Out of the Box:
See what you can do to Celebrate, Reflect, Worship, Connect and Act! Download our flyer with all of our opportunities this Lent:
Lent Flyer 2019 – St. Charles Borromeo

The Crucifixion: prayer and discussion series

Thursdays at 7 PM from 3/14 – 4/4

Every week at Mass we make our Profession of Faith and say: “For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, suffered death and was buried.”.

Would your relationship with Jesus be any different if we proclaimed instead that he died by hanging or decapitation?

Together with our neighbors at Grace Church we will examine why the Crucifixion is so important in knowing and loving Jesus and in our own attempts to follow him. We will use Fleming Rutledge’s stunning book “The Crucifixion” as our text, but compliment this with prayer and discussion. We are most happy to have Fr. Allen Robinson, the Rector of Grace Church, joining us here at St. Charles and inviting us to continue our exploration at Grace Church next week. The first lecture/discussion will be at St. Charles this Thursday. A light collation will be served at 7:00 PM.

150th Anniversary of the Church Building

As many of you may be aware, St. Charles Borromeo Parish was founded in 1849 and the original church building was on the site of what is now Mary McDowell Friends High School. The original church edifice was badly damaged by fire in 1868 and the parish moved into our current home on May 23, 1869.

So this Memorial Day weekend will be the 150th Anniversary of our beloved St. Charles church building. To celebrate and commemorate this important hallmark in our parish and community history, we will be holding an anniversary celebration on the following weekend, June 2. There will be food and beverages, live performances, icebreakers, games, and so much more! Our goal is to host an event that will be enjoyable for every member of our parish family. In order to make this possible, we are looking to recruit some volunteers (meaning it is a short term commitment) to help us plan and execute our celebration. If you are interested in participating and helping plan the celebration, please speak to me after mass or email [email protected].

 

First Reading
First Sunday of Lent
Deuteronomy 26:4–10

 

The book of Deuteronomy is the last book of the Pentateuch or Torah – the first five books of the Bible. It is written as discourses by Moses to the Israelites as they are about to enter the promised land. This would have been about 1250 BC. But as we have seen when we have discussed the Pentateuch, its final edition was around 500 BC after a substantial number of the Jewish leadership returned to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon. We will need to keep both these experiences in mind as we read today’s passage.

1 “When you have come into the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you as a heritage, and have occupied it and settled in it, 2 you shall take some first fruits of the various products of the soil which you harvest from the land which the LORD, your God, gives you, and putting them in a basket, you shall go to the place which the LORD, your God, chooses for the dwelling place of his name. (D 26:1-2)

It is assumed here that Joshua has successfully invaded the land and that the Israelites have become farmers. This would mean that they are settlers and are able to have a permanent sanctuary – place of worship and a permanent priesthood. As herders they would not have had a place of worship but would have offered sacrifice whenever and wherever they could. They would also not have had a permanent and hereditary priesthood, but the sacrifices would have been offered by the chief or clan leader. This is a fundamentally different world.

3 There you shall go to the priest in office at that time and say to him, ‘Today I acknowledge to the LORD, my God, that I have indeed come into the land which he swore to our fathers he would give 4 The priest shall then receive the basket from you and shall set it in front of the altar of the LORD, your God. Deuteronomy 26:4 (NAB)

Having been given the land the Jew is to live in a state of permanent thanksgiving and their rituals as we read today were designed to celebrate this.

The first part is telling the story.

5 Then you shall declare before the LORD, your God, ‘My father was a wandering Aramean who went down to Egypt with a small household and lived there as an alien. But there he became a nation great, strong and numerous. .’ Deuteronomy 26:5 (NAB)

They entered Egypt as a clan, not really a nation. In Egypt they prospered and because of their common worship became a people. They were then oppressed, but saved by the power of God. Now they offer thanks to God for their deliverance, prosperity, and community.

10 Therefore, I have now brought you the first fruits of the products of the soil which you, O LORD, have given me.’ And having set them before the LORD, your God, you shall bow down in his presence. Deuteronomy 26:10

Our selection for Mass ends here but the celebration of thanksgiving continues with a meal:

11 Then you and your family, together with the Levite and the aliens who live among you, shall make merry over all these good things which the LORD, your God, has given you. Deuteronomy 26:11

As with the more formal temple worship that will develop after Solomon, the offering – sacrifice – ends with a meal. The situation assumes a very prosperous farmer. Note that he has a family and a Levite – house priest. Note especially that as the Jews were once aliens, they are commanded to bring those aliens among them to their thanksgiving table.

Thanksgiving must be shared and the passage which follows this speaks of a special tithe every three years:

12 “When you have finished setting aside all the tithes of your produce in the third year, the year of the tithes, and you have given them to the Levite, the alien, the orphan and the widow, that they may eat their fill in your own community, 13 you shall declare before the LORD, your God, ‘I have purged my house of the sacred portion and I have given it to the Levite, the alien, the orphan and the widow, just as you have commanded me. In this I have not broken or forgotten any of your commandments.

Notice that the care of those who have been ignored or dispossessed is not “charity” or a matter of discretion, but a commandment and thus a matter of Justice. It is part of the covenant that has and is as important and essential as sacrifice itself.

Therefore, it should come as no surprise that the next section recommits the people to that covenant:

This day the LORD, your God, commands you to observe these statutes and decrees. Be careful, then, to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul.

17 Today you are making this agreement with the LORD: he is to be your God and you are to walk in his ways and observe his statutes, commandments and decrees, and to hearken to his voice.

18 And today the LORD is making this agreement with you: you are to be a people peculiarly his own, as he promised you; and provided you keep all his commandments,

19 he will then raise you high in praise and renown and glory above all other nations he has made, and you will be a people sacred to the LORD, your God, as he promised.” Deuteronomy 26:16–19

This would have been especially important to the Jews struggling to restore the temple but also their way of life in Jerusalem. They needed to be reminded that they must maintain proper worship and that meant one centered on gratitude to God and inclusion of all. It also meant that worship could be conducted with great solemnity and precision, but if it was not matched by care of the poor and obedience to the commandments, it would be not only ineffective but blasphemous. They would not be peculiarly the people of God.

So indeed, it is with us. The world Eucharist means “to give thanks”, and we do so for greater reason than the Jews and to celebrate a deeper freedom. Our Exodus is not to a promised land but to a new existence.

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Homilies, Messages from the Pastor

8th Sunday Ordinary Time – Wisdom and Worship

| St. Charles Borromeo

Reminder: Marti Gras Meet & Greets after each Mass tomorrow – serving King Cake, beads and fellowship.

Ash Wednesday – March 6
Day of Fast and Abstinence

Mass with Ashes
At the Church: 7 AM, 12:10 PM, 7 PM
At Pierrepont House (55 Pierrepont St): 1:30 PM

Families & Children Service with Ashes: 4 PM

Confessions available:
after the 7:00 AM Mass
before and after the 12:10 Mass.
before and after the 4:00 PM service
from 7:00 PM until the last person leaves

Think Out of the Box: see what you can do to Celebrate, Reflect, Worship, Connect and Act this Lent. Share our flyer attached here: Lent Flyer 2019 – St. Charles Borromeo

Special Mass for Victims of Clergy Abuse

There will be a Mass for victims of abuse this

Saturday March 9, 2019 at Noon at the Church 

First reading

Eight Sunday in Ordinary Time

March 3, 2019

Sirach 27:4-7

 

It is a general if not quite universal characteristic of elites that they wish not only local acclaim, but to be recognized as a member of cosmopolitan or even international leadership. This is revealed by common taste and shared ideas. A good hotel in Seville will provide the same services and amenities and look much the same as another in New York. There might be some nods to local customs and taste, but the toiletries are all the same.  There may be some changes in emphasis on major ideas, but cultural elites strive to attain commonality if not unanimity on the basics. The “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” of the United Nations was signed in 1948 by 46 of the then 58 members with none voting against it. There were different interpretations as subsequent history has shown, but there was nonetheless a common language

We see this as well in the Bible. The cultural elite of the ancient near east – which encompassed Egypt, Assyria and Babylon as well as the Israelites – prided themselves by living by wisdom.  This usually consisted of the sayings of sages and wise men commenting on how to live a good and virtuous life. We find this wisdom in Proverbs, Job, The Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes and some of the Psalms. There are some references to the Jews’ particular understanding of God, but very little that an Egyptian or Persian follower of wisdom could not agree. The Torah or Prophets were not quoted in any explicit way. This was true for so long that dating the origin of these sayings is almost impossible.

Until the Greeks. After the conquests of Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) and the kingdoms which followed, a radically different world view emerged. Often called Hellenism, it was the official way of life of the cultural elite of the Greek Kingdoms. This included the Seleucid Empire which ruled Judea, and the elite of Jerusalem would be enticed to embrace it.

This is where we are today with Sirach. He lived most likely in Jerusalem around 200 BC; he is one of the great intellectual and cultural heroes of Judaism. He understood the threat to the integrity of his faith and became a teacher of the young Jewish elite. Think of him as the earliest Jesuit: give me a boy and I will make the man.

Although he was a man who could quote Homer and the sages of Egypt, he did not seek merely to show that Jewish wisdom was compatible with that of the Greeks. If he played by those rules, the young men would soon give up Judaism. He taught that what the Greeks called wisdom or philosophy needed the revealed word of God and the worship of the God of Israel to be complete.

At the very beginning of the Book Sirach says:

1 All wisdom comes from the LORD

and with him it remains forever.

5 To whom has wisdom’s root been revealed?

Who knows her subtleties?

6 There is but one, wise and truly awe-inspiring,

seated upon his throne:

7 It is the LORD; he created her,

has seen her and taken note of her.

 

This is a forthright statement about the connection between wisdom and the God of Israel. It would have been considered a development over previous understandings but not a radical shift. Note however the following:

1 How different the man who devotes himself

to the study of the law of the Most High!

He explores the wisdom of the men of old

and occupies himself with the prophecies;

 

Sirach 39:1

 

The study of the law would previously have been considered too provincial to be “Wisdom”. A young cosmopolitan would never have quoted it even among Jewish friends.

 

5 He travels among the peoples of foreign lands

to learn what is good and evil among men.

6 His care is to seek the LORD, his Maker,

to petition the Most High,

To open his lips in prayer,

to ask pardon for his sins.

Then, if it pleases the LORD Almighty,

he will be filled with the spirit of understanding;

He will pour forth his words of wisdom

and in prayer give thanks to the LORD

Sirach 39:5–6 (NAB)

Sirach goes further. If the young aristocrat were to travel, he should seek to learn from all. Remember, Sirach did not distain what we would call secular learning but must always judge it by the traditions of his people. When he does so he realizes that the LORD offers him a covenant and a relationship.  Therefore, he must pray – converse with Him –  and realize that he can be forgiven. Thus, wisdom can enter his life.

Recognizing this relationship with the Lord he emphases, as no other Jewish wisdom teacher did, the importance of temple worship. Nowhere else do we see a call to revere the Temple worship and the priesthood:

29 With all your soul, fear God,

revere his priests.

30 With all your strength, love your Creator,

forsake not his ministers.

31 Honor God and respect the priest;

give him his portion as you have been commanded:

First fruits and contributions,

due sacrifices and holy offerings. Sirach 7:29–31 (NAB)

But as the prophets he does not believe that the mere saying of words of offering and the right sacrifice is enough. Justice and charity are needed to complete worship. This is the essence of wisdom.

1 To keep the law is a great oblation,

and he who observes the commandments sacrifices a peace offering.

2 In works of charity one offers fine flour,

and when he gives alms he presents his sacrifice of praise
Sirach 35:1–2

The Law, worship, and charity is the background and context for everything in Sirach even in the most secular parts. Today’s reading is in a section on business dealings. Sirach is not pro-business: he thinks that it leads to injustice and greed. He often heavy-handedly suggests that his young students enter public service. Nonetheless, he offers shrewd advice.

The chapter begins with:

1 For the sake of profit many sin,

and the struggle for wealth blinds the eyes.

2 Like a peg driven between fitted stones,

between buying and selling sin is wedged in.

3 Unless you earnestly hold fast to the fear of the LORD,

suddenly your house will be thrown down.
Sirach 27:1–3

It is by following the law of God and maintaining worship that we can engage in business but one we should always be on guard: assume dishonesty and let people reveal themselves in their speech.

5 As the test of what the potter molds is in the furnace,

so in his conversation is the test of a man.

6 The fruit of a tree shows the care it has had;

so too does a man’s speech disclose the bent of his mind.

Sirach 27:5–6

It has been my good fortune to know many people with different religious beliefs than mine or indeed no explicitly religious belief at all. They are good people whose moral behavior would not have significantly differed from my own and in some cases demonstrated superior virtue. What is the difference? I think, indeed hope and pray, that my acts reveal more than anything about me, but about the LORD whom I worship. As Sirach has shown us, Wisdom and Worship are inseparable, and in the acts of the believer reveal not the presence of personal virtue as much as the presence of the source of virtue.