First reading: Ezekiel 34:11-12,15-17
Psalm: Ps 23:1-3,5,6
Epistle: 1 Corinthians 15:20-26,28
Gospel: Matthew 25:31-46

For I was hungry and you gave me food

I have a question. Where does bread come from?

Our answers are certainly correct. Bread comes from Freihoffers, another bakery, Mr. Meyers around the corner, from mom or dad, from the gifts of the earth, from farmers who plant, grow, and harvest the wheat, and rye, and oats, and flax. Perhaps we should consider the miller, the store clerks, the delivery people, an entire litany of people and places that have a hand in the making of bread —“ from seed to our tables.

It is a natural instinct to see things as they are, to digest the evidence that’s in front of us and report on it.

Today we are confronted with truth —“ a truth we discern through the eyes of faith. Our bread comes from God. Our bread comes from the King.

Let’s consider that. We get our bread from the King. More than bread we receive all we need from God. This is best summed up in the words of Psalm 23:

The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.

The King provides bread for us.

God is different than human government, and more so, He is a King that loves, cares for, and looks after His flock. God provides for us, giving us bread beyond the bread that feeds our mortal bodies. Ezekiel saw that in telling us that God will look after and tend us, He will feed us, He will give us rest, He will bring back the lost and the strayed, He will bind up the injured and heal the sick.

What an amazing concept. What an awesome King is our Lord, caring for us, looking after all that we need.

Brothers and sisters,

When we say that God gives us bread that goes beyond our bodily needs we understand that His food is more than what we put on our plates each day, more than the stuff needed for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. He gives us three essential things: His Kingship, His Word, and our daily bread.

Of course God is responsible for our daily bread. We pray that every time we say the Our Father. His gifts, the skills we have been endowed with, the balance and perfection in nature, all come from the hand of God. He sees to our needs. Jesus showed this in the way He cared for the everyday needs of those around Him. This was exemplified when He fed the multitudes, when He showed compassion for the sorrowful and the sick. Jesus also spoke of the Father’s watchful eye, comparing the creatures and fields under God’s care to the greater love He shows toward us:

Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin;
yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you?

God gives us more than the bread we need for daily life, He gives us the Word – which is necessary for eternal life. By endowing us with His Gospel God provides us with the measuring stick by which we are judge the rightness of our relationship with Him and our neighbor. By giving us His word He gives us the very thing we need to carry out His mandate. We take up that word as bread for our daily lives and as food for our relationships.

In the end God gives us His kingship, but in a most remarkable way. He comes to us as the servant King, the King who is Priest and Sacrifice. God gives us His Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

We can have our daily bread – the basics we need to live. We can have God’s word, and live by it, yet even with all that our King had to crush our bondage to sin, to eternal death.

God’s overwhelming love moved Him to intervention in the history of man. He wanted us to know that life was more than the evidence that is in front of us. He wanted us to see and know the eternal, to know Him, so He chose to break down the enmity we create through sin. He sent His Son to show the Father’s love, to overcome sin and to destroy death. In the end we gained a new beginning – Jesus opened the doors to the heavenly kingdom. St. Paul reminds us of this when he says:

Christ has been raised from the dead,
the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
For since death came through man,
the resurrection of the dead came also through man.
For just as in Adam all die,
so too in Christ shall all be brought to life

Our King provides for all that we need, and best of all He gives us His very presence, His life, and the gift of eternal glory. In turn we honor and praise Him with due worship and adoration.

My friends,

Worship and adoration for the King translates into action. It is key that we see to the needs of our brothers and sisters, who, along with us, are provided for by God. God provides for them through us, and He makes no separation between their dignity and value and our dignity and value. In the simplest terms we are to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the ill, and visit those in prison. When we do that we recognize the King who gives bread to each of us, who gives His word to all mankind, and Who saves us.

Jesus tells us :

‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did
for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.’

The King is with us and in us. He is the giver and the recipient. May we give Him praise and thanksgiving, may we serve Him in serving the least among us. Amen.

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.

First reading: Wisdom 6:12-16
Psalm: Ps 63:2-8
Epistle: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Gospel: Matthew 25:1-13

Wisdom is radiant and unfading,
and she is easily discerned by those who love her,
and is found by those who seek her.
She hastens to make herself known to those who desire her.
He who rises early to seek her will have no difficulty,
for he will find her sitting at his gates.

We are people who seek. Like explorers of old in search of land and routes beyond the horizon we set out in search of life that is beyond the things we see. And here is the glory and love of our God – He stands before us, in plain sight, not out of reach or cold like stone, but in reach of all who seek. Our God is not a mysterious distant deity beyond the horizon. Our God lives with us.

Solomon wrote what he experienced. Remember that after David’s death Solomon was left among many heirs in competition for the throne. He was young, inexperienced, fearful. God came to him and asked Solomon to declare his desire. Solomon asked for wisdom. Wisdom to rule, to make proper judgments, to be a good king for Israel.

Solomon experienced God as the source and summit of wisdom. He also knew that the source of wisdom was not far away and uncaring, but was God who came to him when he sought. God made Himself apparent – clear to Solomon who sought after God’s help.

Brothers and sisters,

What is wisdom? For us wisdom is this: finding God present among us, and having the faith to build a relationship with Him. Like Solomon we find God apparent and clear because we seek after Him. In our seeking we connect with God in very real ways, ways that touch every aspect of our lives. In recognizing God we prepare an oil stock that will keep our lamps lit forever.

That oil stock is the supply of grace that we carry with us. It is the energy that supplies the light that is in us. That light is our Christian faith. That light is the way we live in testimony to Christ, to His Gospel, and to a relationship that lasts through eternity.

Jesus knew that His love, His presence, His sacrifice, and all His teachings were out of reach for those who refused to listen to Him, to those who failed to seek the wisdom that was right in front of them. Jesus was present to them in the here and now and they missed it. Like the five foolish maidens they met Him unprepared. Their supply of oil — of grace — was empty because they treated people like subjects of the law rather than as God’s people. They hardened their hearts and cast burdens on men’s shoulders, with God as an excuse. They had the law, but came to Christ empty because they only knew the words and the excuses. Knowing the words, they failed to recognize the meaning and power of those words — the Christ that stood in their midst.

Like the five wide maidens we prepare ourselves, not just for the someday, for the end of time, but for the bridegroom who is already here with us. He has asked us to bring our supply of grace and turn it into lives lived in witness to His reality and presence.

With our light before us we are to live lives of faith, lives touched by God, and endowed with a wisdom that surpasses human wisdom. We have cause to be thankful because we have the wisdom to recognize God and to meet Him as a people willing to be energized and on fire with His love, a people working to share His light with those who do not have it.

We know that God comes to us, not because our words and gestures are perfect, but because those words and gestures are an expression of hearts on fire with His grace, hearts set on serving Him in accord with His Gospel.

My friends,

Our hearts yearn for Jesus. We want Him to come to us. We want Him to fill our oil stocks with an everlasting supply of grace. God answers that desire. He is here, ready, apparent, in plain view. God is not far off and He is ready to fill us with His grace. With that grace we take up our lamps, the light of Christ in us, and teach others about Him. We represent Him in all we do, from the way we pray, to the way we live each day. We value His Gospel and we share it, unashamed in bowing our heads, setting our shoulders, and working consistently in hope of life everlasting.

Our work and worship recognize Jesus’ presence. He is here, today. From the doors of this parish we carry the light, energized by grace, into our homes, to the people we meet at work, in our clubs, and in our families. We lives lives built on prayer, scripture, the Holy Sacraments, all of which re-energizing and re-connect us to God. In turn He recognizes our faith and our work, granting us the wisdom and grace necessary to carry the message of His Christ to the whole world.

Let us give testimony to the relationship that lasts through eternity. Let us hold forth our lamps which are at the ready. Let us go forth in joy, with our oil stocks filled, sharing our light. Tell the world: the bridegroom is here, among us — He is the love of God that has forged the new and eternal Jerusalem where we will live in joy and peace in the presence of the Eternal Wisdom. That is His promise to us and His promise is real. Amen.

First reading: Malachi 1:14-2:2,8-10
Psalm: Ps 131:1-3
Epistle: 1 Thessalonians 2:7-9,13
Gospel: Matthew 23:1-12

They bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with their finger.

For weeks now, as I reflect on the scriptures, I kept bumping up against the notion of gift. The idea of gift has been the primary focus, the primary call, out of the gospels we have proclaimed.

I suppose it is fitting. After all, as I have mentioned, these are Jesus’ discourses in the temple precincts, made shortly before the Last Supper, His agony in the garden, and His trial and death. These messages are Jesus’ gift to us. They are core to the way we are to behave as Christians.

Brothers and sisters,

Faith has been given to us as a gift. That gift came at baptism. It marked our inclusion in the people of God. That faith was nurtured by our parents, godparents, SOCL teachers, and the fine priests that pointed the way to God. It was simple faith to be sure — an indelible mark and a simple faith. Jesus’ challenge to us is to move beyond simple faith to a life lived in conformity to the gospel. We are to grow in faith, grow in love, grow in witness.

This is illustrative of the fact that faith alone, no matter how strong, remains simple unless it has an environment that fosters its growth. Faith alone cannot assist us in maturing. Think of the parable of the sower. He casts seed here and there, and unless that seed falls on good soil, it will not grow to maturity. In order to mature our faith needs that good soil – and it must be a rich soil.

The rich soil, the firm foundation upon which our faith is built is the Church. The Church is God’s living gift. It is a living gift intended to be a gift.

Certainly our Holy Polish National Catholic Church is the constant that assists us in becoming spiritually mature, that connects us to the lived history of faith, and that acts each day as the place where the decisions of men are directed by the gifts of the Holy Spirit. But beyond those of us sitting here today, is our Holy Church what God intended, a gift to all mankind?

Friends,

Faith is a gift. Our Holy Church is a gift. Both convey Jesus’ on-going action in the world.

Our personal faith, when we choose to give ourselves over to Christ, will grow into something that surpasses us as individuals. The Church as the community of believers, and guided by the Holy Spirit, is the authentic teacher working to guide us on the way to full union with God. Our faith, and the teaching of the Church, work to form us into mature followers of Christ, true witnesses to God among us. Together we work diligently to represent what God wants — that we become the gift God intends us to be.

Jesus shows us that the Jewish leaders fell in their hypocrisy. We see that in certain Churches even to this day. Jesus noted:

“The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat”

Likewise, some Church leaders sit on thrones making heavy pronouncements, forgetting who established their seat. They talk of politics, property ownership, rights and wrongs to the exclusion of love, and in doing so they forget their role, their part as God’s on-going gift.

Those leaders write tomes of laws and they make very detailed analyses of sin. They can diagnose a sin to its minutest detail and prescribe the proper antidote, and that from six thousand miles away. They forget the presence of the Holy Spirit, or demand gifts from the Spirit, or see the Spirit as a vehicle for self aggrandizement.

It must not be so with us. Let it never be said of us that:

you have turned aside from the way; you have caused many to stumble by your instruction

Rather we must be like Paul speaking to the Thessalonians:

But we were gentle among you, like a nurse taking care of her children.
So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.

Our Holy Polish National Catholic Church is a gift to those hurt by the religion of worldly princes and kings. It is a gem of a Church, a gem that is not out of reach, or only for the rich, only for the suburbs, only for the perfect, only for the sinless and obedient. Our Holy Church is a gem that is available to all. It is a gift. As with Paul’s teaching among the Thessalonians people will receive and hear what we teach, accepting it in proportion to the way they see God working through us.

Brothers and sisters,

The gift we proclaim is this: God loves each and every person, without regard to yesterday’s problem. Jesus calls all, and came to show us the Father’s love. He established a community to be His gift of love in the world. He loves us so much that He gives all we need to reach our fullest potential as part of a home, a community of love and support, and most importantly as a place where we can learn to be faithful Christ followers.

Jesus sat in the temple precincts and told us how we are to live. We aren’t transformed into those perfect Christ followers overnight, but there is a way to get there. We hold a beautiful gem in our hands and everyone can have it. We offer this gem to those who are hurting, to those who feel alone, who see the Church as an impediment to God. Bishop Hodur broke down those barriers. The path is here.

In closing let us remember the words spoken in the 2nd century’s Epistle to Diognetus in which a disciple – a Christ follower – describes the Christian life in this way:

They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men… They are poor, yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things, and yet abound in all

Amen.

First reading: Exodus 22:20-26
Psalm: Ps 18:2-4,47,51
Epistle: 1 Thessalonians 1:5-10
Gospel: Matthew 22:34-40

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees,
they gathered together, and one of them,
a scholar of the law tested him…

Over the past five weeks our Gospel readings have been taken from St. Matthew’s Gospel, chapters 21 and 22. Jesus entered Jerusalem in triumph in Chapter 21 and had cleared the moneychangers from the Temple. Just before this grand entrance Jesus had reminded His disciples, for the third time:

“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death,
and deliver him to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”

Now the battle was on. Jesus was seated in the Temple precincts. The people were listening to Him. The Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes, lawyers, and Herodians – none of whom really liked each other, put their focus on discrediting Jesus in front of His listeners, having Him arrested, and killing Him if at all possible.

They devised word traps aimed at proving that Jesus was a bad Jew and/or an enemy of Rome.

The disciples stood by and watched as every word trap turned into a trap for the hunters. Jesus used every occasion to enlighten His disciples and all who listened. St. John Chysostom in commenting about these chapters from Matthew states that Jesus not only turned their words against them, but used their words to show who He was.

For all the scheming and plotting the hunters never stopped to ask themselves whether their target, Jesus, might be the Messiah. They never stopped to consider, even for a moment, that Jesus might be Emmanuel, God among them. Jesus’ replies show clearly that He is God in their midst.

Brothers and sisters,

When the lawyer asked:

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”

He didn’t realize that he was asking the Teacher. He was asking God, who gave the law.

In reply Jesus boils down the 613 Mitzvos into two commandments: Love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Further, He tells them that all law, all scripture, all of the prophets, in other words, God’s entire communication with humanity, hinges on these two commandments.

Love God, love each other. It as simple as that.

Some of the greatest philosophers and theologians have tried to capture and document the complexity of God. Who is He? Why does He interact with us? Why does He need us? How does He define Himself? What is the meaning of His self-revelation, suffering, death, burial, and resurrection? In contemplating God one could ask a million questions and find a million answers. I believe that those who come closest are those that define God as a simple being. God is One. He is all-in-all. He is simply love. Not wishy-washy romance or pining after a beloved, but pure, directed love.

Jesus directs and communicates the Father’s love. When Jesus tells us that we should come onto Him, take up His yoke; when He tells us that His yoke is easy, His burden light, He is telling us that perfection is found in our struggle to be like God; to be people of simple love.

My friends,

We are heavily burdened. If we were to enumerate the different costs associated with our lives they would amount to little except burden. The things occurring in the world this very days amount to unfathomable burdens. The credit crunch, failed banks and businesses, retirement savings accounts at half their value, terrorism, wars, our daily labors, getting up, going to work, struggling through the challenges that lie before us. Life would be a disaster if not for those moments that touch us, the moments that communicate simple love.

When we gather here in church to praise God, to communicate our love for Him, He communicates His love for us. When we see a new life, arising out of an act of love, we are filled with hope and promise. Celebrations that connect us to God and to our families, at Christmas and Easter, a wedding, and anniversary, a birthday, even a funeral are moments where burdens melt away and we are left staring at simple love.

These moments of love are moments in which we get to peer through a keyhole. We see the light and the promise on the other side of the door. The light on other side of the door is the love that we really long for, the love we need. That light is the perfection of love in God. Through the gift of faith we see that light and are left with a choice.

The choice God asks us to make, in all its simplicity, is this: Will we love God and love each other. When we decide to walk in God’s way, when we decide to live as children of God, children of the light, children of love, we become caught up in God’s life. We learn that love of God and love of each other is more than duty, but real joy – a gladsome burden. In making choices that reflect love of God and love for each other we grow to be more like Him. Each day we get better and better at living a life of love, at showing forth the light of God’s love.

During the Sermon on the Mount Jesus told us:

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid.
Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.—

Our light is the light of our Father in Heaven. It is the light of our brother, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is the light of simple and direct love.

As we walk through the day, as we encounter those enumerable burdens, we meet them as changed people. When we encounter darkness we are to challenge it with the light of love. Unlike the challenge the lawyer in today’s Gospel presented, a challenge without love, we are to meet our challenges with love. It is as simple as that. The unruly child, the angry boss, the demanding customer, the rude driver, the terrorist, the disease we never expected, the person in our family who refuses to return our love, the untimely death. There is no room in any of these for fear, only love.

All of God’s revelation hinges on love. It is simple. Love God, love each other. Amen.

First reading: Isaiah 45:1,4-6
Psalm: Ps 96:1,3-5,7-10
Epistle: 1 Thessalonians 1:1-5
Gospel: Matthew 22:15-21

It is I who arm you, though you know me not,
so that toward the rising and the setting of the sun
people may know that there is none besides me.

These words, taken from the forty-fifth chapter of Isaiah were addressed to Cyrus the Great.

A little bit about Cyrus. He was the first Achaemenid Emperor, having founded Persia by uniting the two original Iranian Tribes —“ the Medes and the Persians. Although he was known to be a great conqueror, who controlled one of the greatest Empires ever seen, he is best remembered for his unprecedented tolerance and magnanimous attitude towards those he defeated.

After conquering Babylon, Cyrus freed the Jewish people from captivity. God had a purpose for Cyrus. Cyrus didn’t know God at all, yet God took him by the hand and made him victorious, all so God’s plan would be achieved.

So it is with us. We are all at different stages in knowing God. Some come here and do not know Him, yet here they are, as part of God’s plan. Some come somewhere along the continuum in their knowledge of God. They come seeking fuller, more intimate knowledge of Him. The point really is that people come here —“ for a reason —“ for a purpose, and as part of God’s plan.

Brothers and sisters,

I want to offer you an image from your parish life. I want you to reflect on your flooded parking lot. Think of your parish parking lot, when it gets filled with water, typically in the spring, but really after any prolonged rain. Bingo canceled, no place to park, so much water that it’s difficult to get to the door. Your flood has graced the pages of the Times-Union. That flood is symbolic.

That flood represents the way people must go, the way they must travel to come to Christ. The vast majority of people coming here, to this parish, come broken and lost. They have to slog their way through that flood, the dirty water, the smell, and the wet cold feet. Very few come in, having already reached a state of perfection. Most people who come here come with bad histories, broken relationships, trauma, sadness, pain, loss, fear, sins by the hundredfold. They come with sexual sins, greed, addictions, anger, prejudice, and laziness. They come, having made the decision to walk through that messy flooded parking lot, with a load of pain on their shoulders, seeking the comfort of God. They seek the comfort only God can give. That comfort comes when He lifts the sins from their shoulders; that comfort comes when, over time, He heals them of their brokenness.

Recall the words of Psalm 127, verse 1:

Unless the Lord builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.

This parish is not here because you have built it. It is not here because you hold bingo and PolishFest, or because folks drop money in the basket, or because you work, and work, and work. It is not here because of donations or bequests.

If you believe in your heart-of-hearts that this parish is the work of your hands you have made a mistake. If you believe that the flooded parking lot is simply an opportunity for hard working folks to stop by and walk-on-water, you are mistaken.

This parish is here because God has chosen you and because He has chosen this place. This parish is here to accept and to welcome the broken. It is here because God wants you to throw open the doors and welcome all those who come seeking Him. God wants this place, right here in Latham, New York, for the hurting and the sinful, the people with the wet stinky feet.

You are here to give onto God what belongs to God.

My friends,

Those who come seeking, who come to this place, will change ever so slightly over time. The sins that were a hundredfold will lessen. Some sins will persist, they will be harder to let go of. Some of their pain, sadness, and fear will last for years; the healing will be slow. Nothing will happen overnight, and you cannot erase history. People will need to have their feet washed over and over and over and over again.

As Christians it is our job to wash feet, to bandage them when needed, and to persist in our love —“ even when it is difficult. We are to do that for each other and for all who come. We cannot heal today and expect perfection tomorrow. It is a good bet that we will need to heal tomorrow and for months, years, and decades after that. Our success can only be measured after we leave behind our earthly bodies. When we reach paradise and Jesus embraces us, then the healing will be complete.

Until then, recall the words that St. Paul wrote to the Church at Thessalonica:

We give thanks to God always for all of you,
remembering you in our prayers,
unceasingly calling to mind your work of faith and labor of love
and endurance in hope of our Lord Jesus Christ

The work of faith and the labor of love is before you. The wet, stinky feet await you. Embrace them and kiss them, wash them and bandage them, do it seventy times seven. God has chosen you and has chosen this place for that work.

As it was with Cyrus so it is with you. All of salvation history is about God’s selection of people and places. He has chosen you and this place for His work. He has taken you by the hand.

My prayers are with you and for you as you carry out the work of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I encourage you in love to endure in expectation of the healing that is everlasting. Amen.

First reading: Genesis 1:26-28,31
Psalm: Ps 128:1-5
Epistle: Ephesians 6:1-9
Gospel: Luke 2:42-52

they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintances;
and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking him.

Jesus was precious to the Holy Family, to Mary and Joseph. I suppose one of our first reactions on listening to this gospel is a sense of connection. We can understand their fear, their worry. Their young son was lost after a trip to one of the largest cities in the known world. They were frantic and went off in search of Him.

Now we might think — well that makes sense in light of the fact that Jesus is precious. After-all, Mary and Joseph might have well thought that they misplaced God.

I don’t think that Mary and Joseph saw it that way. They were frantically looking because they were — frantic. Mary said as much to Him:

Behold, your father and I have been looking for you anxiously.

Their son, their child, their boy was lost. They wanted to find Him and protect Him. Mary and Joseph didn’t walk around the house all day, muttering to themselves, this is God, be careful with Him. Rather they walked around the house with the same instincts, the same care, the same concerns every parent has. Jesus was precious to the Holy Family because His life, His presence in their house, was a gift from God.

Brothers and sisters,

On this Solemnity of the Christian Family let us pause to recognize the fact the the Holy Family’s relationship with Jesus is the very same relationship we have with our families. Mary and Joseph saw Jesus as a remarkable gift from God. We must look to each other, to all the members of our Christian family, as a tremendous gift from God.

The family, husband, wife, brother, sister, and all the grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins are a gift. The larger Christian family is a gift as well.

In our first reading we heard:

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…—

There are ten words in God’s statement. Throughout the statement God refers to His creative act as an act arising out of a union. Let us… Our image… Our likeness…

God created us and God, in and of Himself, is not singular. God revealed Himself as the Holy Trinity, first in the shadows of the Old Testament, and then fully in the New.

God’s unity is part of us. God, expressed in the union of Three Divine Persons, has modeled us after Himself. As the Three Person in the Holy Trinity are One, so are we born and designed to be in union with each other. The imprint of relationship and family is part and parcel of who we are.

My friends,

We have been created in the image of God. Our connection to each other, expressed in a particular way in the Christian family, is the underlying definition of gift. We are to, and for, each other. We complete each other. As we draw closer to each other we draw closer to God. Those next to us at home, those in church with us today, are a gift to us and are in union with us. We are a gift to them, and are in union with them.

The Psalmist declared:

Blessed is every one who fears the LORD,
who walks in his ways!

We walk in His ways when we come into contact with each other. We walk in His ways when we realize that we, as members of a family, are a gift that has been designed by God.

Brothers and sisters,

Our Holy Polish National Catholic Church celebrates and commemorates the beauty of the Christian Family because we see beyond mere sentimentality to the beauty of God’s design. We raise up the Christian Family: father, mother, children, grandparents, the extended family, all those who acknowledge Christ, because by the revelation of the Holy Spirit we see God’s intent. We are to come together as families and are to nurture, support, care for, look after, provide for, pray for, encourage, build up, long for, worry over, and hold up each member of the family. Each member of our family is part of God’s design.

Mary and Joseph went in search of Jesus because He was gift to them. Let us renew our commitment to recognize and love the gifts we have been given, all the members of our families. God has provided them as gift to us, and has given us as gift to them. Amen.

First reading: Isaiah 5:1-7
Psalm: Ps 80:9,12-16,19-20
Epistle: Philippians 4:6-9
Gospel: Matthew 21:33-43

Keep on doing what you have learned and received
and heard and seen in me.
Then the God of peace will be with you.

St. Paul knew what he was talking about. He was intimately familiar with the history of the Jewish people. He knew what Jesus was talking about when Jesus described the wretched tenants. These were his people.

The history of the Jewish people was something that was now behind. The lessons from their journey were written into the pages of history, and could be looked upon through the lens of faith in Jesus Christ. The Messiah had come.

Paul could have hung on, going on about his people’s rejection of the prophets, their rejection of the Messiah, and the fact that the Messiah is now the cornerstone for a new group of tenants – the Gentiles to whom he was ministering. Paul didn’t do that. He knew. We can loose it too.

We possess throughout our lives. As children it is our toys, our house, our neighborhood and friends. We are connected to them. As we mature our view of those things changes. Our perspective changes. Some of those possessions are lost into history. They are replaced with new possessions, a new affinity for people, places, and things.

Paul is telling us, and Jesus is reminding us, that it cannot be like that with faith. Faith is not a passing possession. If it is serious faith it is a permanent part of us. We are changed. We have built a new life, in faith, upon a permanent cornerstone.

The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
by the Lord has this been done,
and it is wonderful in our eyes

In our life of faith we hear prophets and teachers. We are blessed because our Holy Polish National Catholic Church teaches that we receive grace, God’s strengthening gift of love, by listening to the scripture, and being taught its meaning from the pulpit. We must hear, cling to, possess, and live out our faith, true faith centered on Jesus Christ.

Do we distance ourselves from the faith? Do we forget where our lives should be centered? Certainly we do from time-to-time. We loose focus in our human weakness. That is why we must discipline ourselves. We must work to remind ourselves, here in Church, through prayer and the reading of scripture, that Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of our lives.

Brothers and sisters,

Jesus is our cornerstone. We must build our lives upon Him. We must hear Him and see Him through lens of faith. We must cling to Him and possess Him as a treasure that will not fade, that does not change.

St Peter writes (1 Peter 1:3-4):

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
and to an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you

Both Peter and Paul speak to the fact that the mistakes of the past can be avoided if we keep our eye on Christ, if we are born to new life, and if we possess faith in Him, hear Him, and build our lives upon Him.

Building our lives on Him is not a one time event, a simple conversion. It is putting our converted hearts, our profession of faith, into action. When Paul says: —Keep on doing what you have learned and received— he really means that we must do. We must have an active living faith. A faith that is at the center of our lives in real and measurable ways.

Friends,

The doing can be reduced to pious platitudes. Be nice, be kind, speak kindly, be charitable, sacrifice for others, love. In today’s world people are looking for those things. The problem is is that they are looking in the wrong place. They want government to intervene. They want charity enforced in law. That want kindness under penalty of prison. They want sacrifice, but according to their terms and for their ends.

If Christ is the cornerstone of our lives we not only practice what we have leaned and received – from Jesus Christ, through His apostles and disciples, through our Holy Church and its ministers, but we do it for the right reason – because we live with Christ at the center of our lives. We do not need government and law, like the Jews needed the Law, nor do we need earthly power to impose good upon us. We do because we possess an imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, inheritance.

We can loose it too. We can be replaced by other tenants if we forget to build upon Christ. If we rely elsewhere, if other saviors are more important, if fleeting possessions take hold of us, if faith gets pushed into a corner and is not active and alive at the center of our lives.

Let us take time to reflect on active, living faith. Is Christ the cornerstone of our lives? He is if we act and we do. Let us set aside fifteen minutes a day for prayer, another fifteen for scripture reading. Let us put Jesus at the center of our families by praying before meals, making the sign of the cross before driving. Let us make sure that the children and grandchildren see us doing it — and join us in doing it. Let the neighbors and our co-workers see us. Let us live rightly and do good because Christ is our cornerstone.

By keeping our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ at the center of our lives, in real and discernible ways, we will possess that treasure which awaits us. Amen.