Fathers, PNCC

September 24 – St. Gregory of Nyssa from the Great Catechism

The scheme of the Incarnation is still further drawn out, to show that this way for man’s salvation was preferable to a single fiat of God’s will. Christ took human weakness upon Him; but it was physical, not moral, weakness. In other words the Divine goodness did not change to its opposite, which is only vice. In Him soul and body were united, and then separated, according to the course of nature; but after He had thus purged human life, He reunited them upon a more general scale, for all, and for ever, in the Resurrection. — Chapters XIV through XVII.

Fathers, PNCC

September 23 – St. Gregory of Nyssa from the Great Catechism

The Incarnation was not unworthy of Him; for only evil brings degradation.

The objection that the finite cannot contain the infinite, and that therefore the human nature could not receive into itself the Divine, is founded on the false supposition that the Incarnation of the Word means that the infinity of God was contained in the limits of the flesh, as in a vessel. —” Comparison of the flame and wick.

For the rest, the manner in which the Divine nature was united to the human surpasses our power of comprehension; although we are not permitted to doubt the fact of that union in Jesus, on account of the miracles which He wrought. The supernatural character of those miracles bears witness to their Divine origin. — Chapters IX through XIII.

Fathers, PNCC

September 22 – St. Gregory of Nyssa from the Great Catechism

God created the world by His reason and wisdom; for He cannot have proceeded irrationally in that work; but His reason and wisdom are, as above shown, not to be conceived as a spoken word, or as the mere possession of knowledge, but as a personal and willing potency. If the entire world was created by this second Divine hypostasis, then certainly was man also thus created; yet not in view of any necessity, but from superabounding love, that there might exist a being who should participate in the Divine perfections. If man was to be receptive of these, it was necessary that his nature should contain an element akin to God; and, in particular, that he should be immortal. Thus, then, man was created in the image of God. He could not therefore be without the gifts of freedom, independence, self-determination; and his participation in the Divine gifts was consequently made dependent on his virtue. Owing to this freedom he could decide in favour of evil, which cannot have its origin in the Divine will, but only in our inner selves, where it arises in the form of a deviation from good, and so a privation of it. Vice is opposed to virtue only as the absence of the better. Since, then, all that is created is subject to change, it was possible that, in the first instance, one of the created spirits should turn his eye away from the good, and become envious, and that from this envy should arise a leaning towards badness, which should, in natural sequence, prepare the way for all other evil. He seduced the first men into the folly of turning away from goodness, by disturbing the Divinely ordered harmony between their sensuous and intellectual natures; and guilefully tainting their wills with evil.

God did not, on account of His foreknowledge of the evil that would result from man’s creation, leave man uncreated; for it was better to bring back sinners to original grace by the way of repentance and physical suffering than not to create man at all. The raising up of the fallen was a work befitting the Giver of life, Who is the wisdom and power of God; and for this purpose He became man. — Chapters V through VIII.

Fathers, PNCC

September 21 – St. Augustine from Homilies on the Gopspel of Matthew

But, Brethren, hearken ye and understand, lest any put off to come into the vineyard, because he is sure, that, come when he will, he shall receive this denarius. And sure indeed he is that the denarius is promised him; but this is no injunction to put off. For did they who were hired into the vineyard, when the householder came out to them to hire whom he might find, at the third hour for instance, and did hire them, did they say to him, —Wait, we are not going thither till the sixth hour—? or they whom he found at the sixth hour, did they say, —We are not going till the ninth hour—? or they whom he found at the ninth hour, did they say, —We are not going till the eleventh? For he will give to all alike; why should we fatigue ourselves more than we need?— What He was to give, and what He was to do, was in the secret of His own counsel: do thou come when thou art called. For an equal reward is promised to all; but as to this appointed hour of working, there is an important question. For if, for instance, they who are called at the sixth hour, at that age of life that is, in which as in the full heat of noon, is felt the glow of manhood’s years; if they, called thus in manhood, were to say, —Wait, for we have heard in the Gospel that all are to receive the same reward, we will come at the eleventh hour, when we shall have grown old, and shall still receive the same. Why should we add to our labor?— it would be answered them thus, —Art not thou willing to labor now, who dost not know whether thou shalt live to old age? Thou art called at the sixth hour; come. The Householder hath it is true promised thee a denarius, if thou come at the eleventh hour, but whether thou shalt live even to the seventh, no one hath promised thee. I say not to the eleventh, but even to the seventh hour. Why then dost thou put off him that calleth thee, certain as thou art of the reward, but uncertain of the day? Take heed then lest peradventure what he is to give thee by promise, thou take from thyself by delay.— Now if this may rightly be said of infants as belonging to the first hour, if it may be rightly said of boys as belonging to the third, if it may be rightly said of men in the vigor of life, as in the full-day heat of the sixth hour; how much more rightly may it be said of the decrepit? Lo, already is it the eleventh hour, and dost thou yet stand still, and art thou yet slow to come? — Homily XXXVII.

Homilies,

Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

First reading: Isaiah 55:6-9
Psalm: Ps 145:2-3,8-9,17-18
Epistle: Philippians 1:20-24,27
Gospel: Matthew 20:1-16

Seek the LORD while he may be found,
call him while he is near.

Today’s reading and Gospel present a description of a relationship. I have to ask, what kind of relationship do you envision, based on these readings?

St. Paul describes a relationship with Jesus Christ and a relationship with those he is teaching. Paul transitions between a hope for death, a death in which he sees himself as living in Christ, and the Churches’ need for him:

Yet that I remain in the flesh
is more necessary for your benefit.

Do we imagine that Paul is conflicted, that he would rather be dead than here? Of course that was not so. Paul saw that the relationship between the Churches, God, and himself were a continuum. It wasn’t Paul and the Churches versus Paul and Christ, but Paul, working for Christ, and making Him known to the Churches.

That sort of relationship bore a lot of fruit. It was sacrificial, in keeping with Jesus’ example, and it was fulfilling because it carried out God’s mandate – that all come to know Him through the work of His disciples.

Paul understood that cooperation is necessary. That working with and for God was not just necessary, but that it resulted in a reward greater than any treasure. The treasure, the reward that comes from our work, is eternal life in heaven. God’s eternal reward for those who cooperate is the culmination, the pinnacle, of the relationships Paul was building: Paul to God, God to the Churches, Paul to the Churches.

Brothers and sisters,

Jesus likens the Kingdom of Heaven to a landowner seeking workers. He says:

After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage,
he sent them into his vineyard.

Isn’t that remarkable? God actually bargains with us and pays us for our work. Now from earliest childhood we were told that we must not be selfish, that we have to be humble. We are to be polite, let others choose first, we shouldn’t take too much, we shouldn’t consider ourselves as entitled. Yet here we are working out an employment contract with God. Today we hear that God comes, asks us what we want for our work, agrees to a wage, and pays us for our work.

We all know that God has no needs or wants. We know that we can offer nothing to assure our salvation, no work, to task, no effort will earn our keep, yet He has told us that He will pay, that He will remunerate us, for work He does not need, but wants.

Consider that. God enters into relationship with us. We are not slaves to a master; slaves that would have an expectation of what? We are not robots, automatons put here to carry out orders without thinking. Rather, God has set out to enter into a relationship with us because He want us. He offers us the big payoff for the work we do in reaching others, in building relationships with God. We cannot earn that recompense, God doesn’t need it, but God offers it for the work He asks us to perform.

My friends,

That is the key to today’s message. Jesus likens the Kingdom to a landowner, but not any landowner. This landowner needs nothing, yet He hires us anyway. In complete and absolute generosity this landowner agrees to pay us for work He doesn’t need and that we don’t do all that well. He does it because He loves us, because He is generous, and most of all because He wants this relationship with us and with those He asks us to evangelize.

Today isn’t about a conflict between the workers, those working a few hours versus those working all day. It is not about the difference between born members of the Church and last minute converts. It isn’t about the discrepancy between those who cook, working their fingers to the bone day and night, and those that come at the last minute, who put out a few place settings and sit down to eat. It is the fact that all the workers, the long-timers and the last minute folks — all of whom God has no need of — are unworthy of any payment, yet are paid beyond measure.

That is the relationship. God to Church, God to man, the Church to man. Because God has chosen to enter into relationship with us, because He desires our cooperation, He has chosen to pay us for every meager, and vastly unworthy, word we utter and action we take, in furtherance of the Kingdom.

God tells us through the Prophet Isaiah:

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.
As high as the heavens are above the earth,
so high are my ways above your ways
and my thoughts above your thoughts.

We cannot reckon why God has chosen us for a relationship, why He seeks our work, and why He pays us generously, unworthy though we are. He just does it because it is His will. So let us rejoice in His mercy, His generosity, His decision to be in relationship with us. We should sing with the psalmist:

Every day will I bless you,
and I will praise your name forever and ever.
Great is the LORD and highly to be praised;
his greatness is unsearchable.

Rejoicing let’s get to work, offering our hearts, hands, and voices like Paul did in building up the Church, in building God’s Kingdom, in bringing all those who have failed to recognize Him to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let us do so without judgment as to the quality of our work or the time we have invested. Let us focus on the assured reward awaiting all who have a relationship with God. Amen.

Fathers, PNCC

September 20 – St. Basil from the Homilies on the Hexaemeron

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” I stop struck with admiration at this thought. What shall I first say? Where shall I begin my story? Shall I show forth the vanity of the Gentiles? Shall I exalt the truth of our faith? The philosophers of Greece have made much ado to explain nature, and not one of their systems has remained firm and unshaken, each being overturned by its successor. It is vain to refute them; they are sufficient in themselves to destroy one another. Those who were too ignorant to rise to a knowledge of a God, could not allow that an intelligent cause presided at the birth of the Universe; a primary error that involved them in sad consequences. Some had recourse to material principles and attributed the origin of the Universe to the elements of the world. Others imagined that atoms, and indivisible bodies, molecules and ducts, form, by their union, the nature of the visible world. Atoms reuniting or separating, produce births and deaths and the most durable bodies only owe their consistency to the strength of their mutual adhesion: a true spider’s web woven by these writers who give to heaven, to earth, and to sea so weak an origin and so little consistency! It is because they knew not how to say “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Deceived by their inherent atheism it appeared to them that nothing governed or ruled the universe, and that was all was given up to chance. To guard us against this error the writer on the creation, from the very first words, enlightens our understanding with the name of God; “In the beginning God created.” What a glorious order! He first establishes a beginning, so that it might not be supposed that the world never had a beginning. Then he adds “Created” to show that which was made was a very small part of the power of the Creator. In the same way that the potter, after having made with equal pains a great number of vessels, has not exhausted either his art or his talent; thus the Maker of the Universe, whose creative power, far from being bounded by one world, could extend to the infinite, needed only the impulse of His will to bring the immensities of the visible world into being. If then the world has a beginning, and if it has been created, enquire who gave it this beginning, and who was the Creator: or rather, in the fear that human reasonings may make you wander from the truth, Moses has anticipated enquiry by engraving in our hearts, as a seal and a safeguard, the awful name of God: “In the beginning God created“—” It is He, beneficent Nature, Goodness without measure, a worthy object of love for all beings endowed with reason, the beauty the most to be desired, the origin of all that exists, the source of life, intellectual light, impenetrable wisdom, it is He who “in the beginning created heaven and earth.” — Homily I.

Current Events, PNCC, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , , ,

Polkas at the Pavilion Festival today in Rothschild, WI

From the Waussau Daily Herald: Polka, pierogies take center stage at Pavilion

During last year’s Polkas at the Pavilion, the floor of the Pavilion was hopping almost as much as the dancers. This year, organizers hope to have an even bigger crowd for the daylong event Saturday, Sept. 20.

“Last year, we had around 900 people in attendance and raised almost $9,000 for the pavilion,” said organizer Ron Raczkowski. “We’re trying to build on that for this year.”

Raczkowski, along with his wife, Kathy, and brother, Dan, started the event after attending a rock music event at the pavilion and thought it would be fun to fill the 6,725 square foot building with polkas. They got eight polka bands together, organized refreshments and donated all the proceeds to pavilion restoration efforts.

“We had a blast,” Raczkowski said. “It was really fun seeing all the different musicians mingling with the crowd.”

The success of last year’s event allowed the Raczkowskis to increase the number of bands this year.

“All the bands said yes to donating their time last year, not knowing how the crowd would be,” Raczkowski said. “But when they saw how big the crowd was, they all said yes again for this year. We even got two more to come.”

The event also will feature a polka dancing competition.

Our Saviors National Catholic Church in Mosinee will be selling authentic Polish food including four types of pierogies, golobki and kielbasa, said the Rev. Marion Talaga.

“Last year was wonderful. People loved the golobki and the pierogi and the Polish sausage with the real Polish sauerkraut,” he said.

Details:

What: Polkas at the Pavilion
When: Noon to midnight Saturday, Sept. 20
Where: Rothschild Pavilion, 1104 Park St., Rothschild
Cost: $10 for ages 18 and older; $8 ages 12 to 17; children younger than 12 get in free.
Contact: 715-571-8236 or 715-359-3660

Fathers, PNCC

September 19 – St. Basil from the Homilies on the Hexaemeron

What language can attain to the marvels of the Creator? What ear could understand them? And what time would be sufficient to relate them? Let us say, then, with the prophet, “O Lord, how manifold are your works! in wisdom have you made them all.” We shall not be able to say in self-justification, that we have learned useful knowledge in books, since the untaught law of nature makes us choose that which is advantageous to us. Do you know what good you ought to do your neighbor? The good that you expect from him yourself. Do you know what is evil? That which you would not wish another to do to you. Neither botanical researches nor the experience of simples have made animals discover those which are useful to them; but each knows naturally what is salutary and marvelously appropriates what suits its nature.

Virtues exist in us also by nature, and the soul has affinity with them not by education, but by nature herself. We do not need lessons to hate illness, but by ourselves we repel what afflicts us, the soul has no need of a master to teach us to avoid vice. Now all vice is a sickness of the soul as virtue is its health. Thus those have defined health well who have called it a regularity in the discharge of natural functions; a definition that can be applied without fear to the good condition of the soul. Thus, without having need of lessons, the soul can attain by herself to what is fit and conformable to nature. Hence it comes that temperance everywhere is praised, justice is in honor, courage admired, and prudence the object of all aims; virtues which concern the soul more than health concerns the body. — Homily IX.

Christian Witness, Current Events, Perspective, PNCC, , , ,

Economic doom, economic safety

The collapse of major financial houses, the loss of retirement savings, and the ripple effects to come (increased unemployment, higher taxes, fewer “programs” to calm the surley, personal bankruptcy, unpaid bills, alcoholism, divorce, suicides, crime…) causes me to wonder; who played the market right?

I had cause to call my bank the other day. I forgot the password on an account and I needed a reset. The woman on the phone was extremely friendly. As she was doing the reset we had a little chit-chat. She noted that she had been busy. The topics came around to the current “crisis.” She quickly reassured me of the bank’s capitalization and soundness. I agreed with her.

Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t done an analysis of the bank’s financial statements, or an assessment of the credit risks they have taken, but I know this much – they are local.

These are the sorts of banks who still say no to people. They make folks jump through hoops to prove themselves before they hand out money. Tony and Anna couldn’t get the interest only mortgage, or any mortgage, if they didn’t have money down and a sufficient income to make the payments. Most of the little, hometown, homegrown banks and credit unions do it that way. They reduce unwarranted risk by sticking to models that work. They act in a principled and disciplined manner even if they could have eked out a 20% profit boost.

I also had pause to consider the fraternals, like the Polish National Union (Spójnia). These fraternals are so much more than insurance companies. Fraternals like the PNU provide insurance of course, but that provision is made based on sound business principals — principals that protect members in life and their families in times of grief. Beyond insurance, organizations like the PNUA have branched out into other lines like credit unions – again, focused on serving the members. Our PNUA serves its members in many ways, beyond the business model, that is, at a human level. They step in whenever necessary. For instance, the PNUA will grant charity to members when they are faced with a catastrophic event. They encourage education through college stipends, and underwrite youth focused programs through their charitable arm. Did AIG or Merrill do that? HSBC, Bear Stearns, BOA, or Chase…?

The local banks, the fraternals, the mom and pop companies that many felt were too small, too backward, too unsophisticated, are the ones who built upon solid principals (Matthew 7:24-29). They put the interest of their members (the insureds, the account holders) first. They will be the ones who are left standing.

Perhaps we need to recognize the fact that glamor, bright lights, and derivatives are just a faí§ade (2 Timothy 4:3). Perhaps we need to walk down to the corner, deposit slip in hand, PNU policy in hand, and reconnect with those who say yes when they mean yes and say no when they mean no (Matthew 5:37).

It really isn’t too late. Those who live by sound principals will be the ones who prosper.

Fathers, PNCC

September 18 – St. Augustine from On the Sermon on the Mount, Book II

Therefore be not anxious,” says He, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your Father knows that you have need of all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Here He shows most manifestly that these things are not to be sought as if they were our blessings in such sort, that on account of them we ought to do well in all our actings, but yet that they are necessary. For what the difference is between a blessing which is to be sought, and a necessary which is to be taken for use, He has made plain by this sentence, when He says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” The kingdom and the righteousness of God therefore are our good; and this is to be sought, and there the end is to be set up, on account of which we are to do everything which we do. But because we serve as soldiers in this life, in order that we may be able to reach that kingdom, and because our life cannot be spent without these necessaries, “These things shall be added unto you,” says He; “but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” For in using that word “first,” He has indicated that this is to be sought later, not in point of time, but in point of importance: the one as being our good, the other as being something necessary for us; but the necessary on account of that good. — Chapter 16.