Messages from the Pastor

Preparations for Lent

| Fr. William Smith

Bishop Robert Barron has retooled his weekly homily “Word on Fire” to examine the first readings for at least Lent. These are homilies so they emphasize other aspects than we do here but are very interesting. https://www.wordonfire.org/resources/homily/choosing-to-keep-the-commandments/26592/

The Parish is gearing up for Lent as well. There will be faith sharing sessions and morning weekday adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Please check the bulletin, emails and website for further information.

Homilies

6th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Being Formed in Our Tradition

| St. Charles Borromeo

Diogenes Searching for an Honest Man, attr. to J.H.W. Tischbein, c. 1780, Nagel Auktionen

FIRST READING
Sirach 15:15–20
February 18, 2020

Sirach is not considered a major figure in the Old Testament. His book is in neither the official Jewish Canon nor most Protestant Bibles, yet we often read him at Mass. We heard him most recently on Dec. 29, 2019. (The most detailed look at his thought and background may be found with the commentary on March 3, 2019.

Very briefly Sirach was a teacher of the Jewish elite in Jerusalem around 200 BC. The Jews were a small and relatively unimportant group in the wider Seleucid Kingdom. The elites were immersed in Greek culture, usually called Hellenism, and were tempted to dilute or even eliminate their Judaism to conform. Sirach confronted this not by putting Jewish clothes on Greek ideas or by simply dismissing everything the Greeks taught but by learning their ideas, adapting what seemed worthy, but contrasting the wisdom of Judaism with Greek thought and showing the superiority of the latter. He has much to teach us. Continue reading “6th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Being Formed in Our Tradition” →

Homilies

5th Sunday Ordinary Time – Fr. Smith Homily

| St. Charles Borromeo

Several years ago, I was invited to participate in a panel discussion on merging churches. The moderator asked each of us to tell the assembly the most important thing we had learned in a brief statement. When my turn came, I recited the Beatitudes from St. Matthew. I understand why this was met with some bewilderment, but I will stand by it – and add that if we wish St. Charles to develop, it will be because we have accepted the Beatitudes as our parish handbook. Let us look at why. 

Beatitude means “blessing”, or to be even more precise, that which gives us bliss. Matthew tells us that true blessings are to be poor in spirit, to mourn, to be meek, to hunger and thirst for righteousness, to be merciful, clean of heart, peacemakers, persecuted for the same righteousness we were thirsting for and insulted for the name of Jesus. (Matthew 5:5:1-12)  In what world do any of these things make good sense, much less bring bliss? Quite simply: in God’s.  Continue reading “5th Sunday Ordinary Time – Fr. Smith Homily” →

Homilies

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Fasting To Love

| St. Charles Borromeo

Lady Julian Of Norwich, Stephen Reid, 1912

FIRST READING
Isaiah 58:7–10
Sunday, February 9, 2020

We last read from the third person to be given the name Isaiah on the Epiphany (Jan. 5, 2020). This Isaiah wrote after many of the Jewish leaders accepted the invitation of Cyrus the Assyrian king to leave Babylon and rebuild Jerusalem and its temple. He and the other settlers discovered that they were pioneers and that this was going to be long and hard. The reading used for the Epiphany, Isaiah 60:1–6) told the Jewish settlers what they could expect if they remained faithful to the LORD. Today’s reading shows them and us what faithfulness means.

The section begins with a complaint from the settlers:

Why do we fast, and you do not see it?
afflict ourselves, and you take no note of it?
(Is. 58:3)

In early Judaism, fasting was not directly an ascetic practice, but was associated with morning. Third Isaiah’s near contemporary the prophet Zechariah told the people: Continue reading “5th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Fasting To Love” →