First reading: Proverbs 31:10-13,19-20,30-31
Psalm: Ps 128:1-5
Epistle: 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6
Gospel: Matthew 25:14-30

When one finds a worthy wife,
her value is far beyond pearls.

Who is this worthy wife? It is none other than our Holy Polish National Catholic Church. In instituting the Holy Church our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ joined Himself to a spouse whose value is beyond pearls.

Her husband, entrusting his heart to her,
has an unfailing prize.

Jesus entrusted us with His heart and receives in return our unfailing acts of adoration and praise. Far more than that, you and I, as members of His Holy Church, set to work in proclaiming His kingdom, in bringing souls to salvation, in ministering to the strong and the weak, because all are in need.

She reaches out her hands to the poor,
and extends her arms to the needy.

Jesus Christ provides us with a vivid description of faithful servants in His parable of the talents. In our imaginations we picture those servants as men. After-all, in that day and age a master would have entrusted his male servants with talents and would have expected a return on his investment. Yet today, the Holy Church asks us to look beyond the story, men working for another man, to the bride of Christ, our Holy Church, working in unison with her spouse, her Master, Jesus Christ.

Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
in the recesses of your home;
Your children like olive plants
around your table.

What a beautiful picture, what a wonderfully blessed relationship. Our Holy Church sits in the recesses of the Lord’s house. Her children, you and I, surround the Lord’s table. As olive plants grow and produce abundant fruit, so we grow and produce abundant fruit. The fruit we produce is the blessings that come from our relationship with our Lord. It is this very relationship that is open and encompassing to all who enter these doors.

The fruit we produce is based on the gifts, the talents, we have been given. Each of us has been given a share of gifts: oration, handicraft, healing, song, contemplation, a listening ear, a gentle hand. Those gifts become all-in-all in unison with each other and with our Lord. Unison comes from the Holy Church, the storehouse of graces, where the Holy Spirit dwells. The Spirit gives its gifts individually and draws them back together in community — in life lived together. Not a life where people live side-by-side, but a life where all are one body.

Brothers and sisters,

Our unity, our community perfected in the Holy Polish National Catholic Church, is a community in longing. We long for those who are lost and distant, who do not know the love of the Lord. We long for the weak and the hurting, those in need of the Spirit’s touch and healing.

the day of the Lord will come
like a thief at night.
like labor pains upon a pregnant woman

We are pregnant, awaiting, and ready to bring forth new life. This new life is the Gospel. This new life is life in Jesus Christ, by our regeneration we are re-created, new men, new women, people of skill and determination, people prepared and standing with open arms — arms open to all, with love and concern.

My friends,

Our Holy Polish National Catholic Church is the bride of Christ. It is the good, faithful, and devoted wife. It is the good wife who prepares a home, a lodging place, for all men and women.

We are not the spouse of grand public pronouncements on matters of politics. We are not fasters who do not wash their faces, or charity givers ringing a bell before them as they give (Matthew 6:2,16). We do not legislate the Lord and His gifts. We do not tell one man that he may receive the Lord while another may not. We are not a stumbling block on the road to heaven, throwing up man made doctrines, laws, offices, and absolutes, because we know our Spouse. His grace is overflowing, His offering of talents is for all.

The Spouse and the bride call to all. Come through these doors, for there is love. Our hearts have been changed, and yours will be as well. For the Lord has promised (Ezekiel 11:19-20):

I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them; I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh,
that they may walk in my statutes and keep my ordinances and obey them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

Go forth today, with the store of talents you have been given, and make the call. Tell of the place where the gift of talents flows without measure, where community, energized by the Spirit, builds its members up, not with pronouncements, but through faithfulness and loving care. Tell of the place where men and women grow like olive plants around the table of the Spouse — the Spouse Who loves without end. Amen.