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Reflection for Trinity Sunday 2025

Christian Witness

Reflection for Trinity Sunday 2025

Christian Witness

Reflection for Trinity Sunday 2025

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.

Christian Witness, Perspective, PNCC

Punish the lunch lady

Marian High School in Mishawaka, Indiana has apparently fired Mrs. Nan Gilbert, their lunch lady, for being a member of the PNCC. Mrs. Gilbert apparently failed to acquiesce to a demand that she become a Roman Catholic. And here I thought forced conversion was a thing of the past… ‘You vill convert madam or ve vill fire you.’

This report comes from a post on It’s Good to Know That Lifeteen is Dangerous. As this is the sole source of this information I am attempting to confirm it.

For those wishing to inquire (with all Christian charity please) you might contact:

  • The Ordinary of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Bishop John M. D’Arcy at (260) 422-4611.
  • The Superintendent of Schools by sending an E-mail to: Rev. Stephen Kempinger, CSC or call at (260) 422-4611 or (574) 255-1387.
  • The Associate Superintendent of Personnel by sending an E-mail to: Mrs. Rebecca Elswerky or call at (260) 422-4611 or (574) 255-1387.
  • The Principal of Marian High School by E-mail to: Mr. Carl Loesch or call at (574) 259-5257.
  • The Assistant Principal by E-mail to: Mr. James Kryder or call at (574) 259-5257.
  • The Director of the Diocesan Ecumenical Office by E-mail to: Rev. Robert Schulte or call at (574) 291-6404.

You can show your prayerful support for Mrs. Gilbert and for a speedy resolution of the matter at St. Mary’s National Catholic Church (PNCC), 1601 W. Sample Street, South Bend, Indiana on Sunday’s at 9am. For more information you can telephone the parish at (574) 287-9381 or just stop by and talk with Fr. Charles, his wife, and children.

Yesterday I cited an article that now seems ironic. It was about bringing people into the Church. In a poll (unscientific) most respondents said that free food would do the trick. If this report is true, Marian High School has neither the food (they fired the lunch lady) nor the witness to bring people to the faith.

Fathers, PNCC

September 17 – St. Augustine from Homilies on the First Epistle of John

“In this is His love perfected in us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment.” Why shall we have boldness? “Because as He is are we also in this world.” You have heard the ground of your boldness: “Because as He is,” says the apostle, “are we also in this world.” Does he not seem to have said something impossible? For is it possible for man to be as God? I have already expounded to you that “as” is not always said of equality, but is said of a certain resemblance. For how do you say, As I have ears, so has my image? Is it quite so? And yet you say “so, as.” If then we were made after God’s image, why are we not so as God? Not unto equality, but relatively to our measure. Whence then are we given boldness in the day of judgment? “Because as He is, are we also in this world.” We must refer this to the same charity, and understand what is meant. The Lord in the Gospel says, “If you love them that love you, what reward shall you have? do not the publicans this?” Then what would He have us do? “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, and pray for them that persecute you.” If then He bids us love our enemies, whence brings He an example to set before us? From God Himself: for He says, “That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven.” How does God this? He loves His enemies, “Who makes His sun to rise upon the good and the bad, and rains upon the just and the unjust.” If this then be the perfection unto which God invites us, that we love our enemies as He loved His; this is our boldness in the day of judgment, that “as He is, so are we also in this world:” because, as He loves His enemies in making His sun to rise upon good and bad, and in sending rain upon the just and unjust, so we, since we cannot bestow upon them sun and rain, bestow upon them our tears when we pray for them. — Homily 9 on 1 John 4:17-21.

PNCC,

If this is the secret to Church success…

the PNCC will be huge!

Freebies Poll Results

Like it or not, we’ve all been to church at least once before for the free stuff. For me, it was free Chick-fil-a that started my journey of faith. So what freebie would be most likely to get you going to a church?

Holding the number one spot, ever since free fish and bread (and later, blood and body) in the first century, it’s free food. Everyone loves free food, so your church ought to be dishing it out…

Christian Witness, Perspective, Poland - Polish - Polonia, Political,

You can enjoy Poland, but…

An very nice article from a R.C. Seminarian who spent some time in Poland this past summer. Check out Summer Part I: Tertio Millenio Seminar in Krakow in Poland from his blog, The Law of the Gift.

An amazing history:

Poland certainly has an amazing history. It has played a great role on the world’s stage, a role that goes beyond the two or three sentences commonly taught in U. S. schools. It is unfortunate that students in the U.S. are so unfamiliar with Poland’s history, and that they have a rather narrow understanding of European history. Europe doesn’t stop at the norder of England, France, and Spain. That said, in reading the seminarian’s post I recalled something Dr. Ryszard Sokołowski told me before my first trip to Poland in 1991, “Do not overly romanticize Poland.”

Getting to the truth:

It is a half funny, half true statement. Can you imagine your typical American tourist going to Poland, expecting to be greeted by girls in Cracovian costumes, dancing the Polka, and feasting on pierogi every night; gallant men riding into battle every day with sabers at their sides…

Of course the seminarian is both an idealist and a questioner of the future. It is the advantage and disadvantage of youth. He sees churches filled, he sees a history of faith, he sees the great martyr nation, w jedności siła, and a hero in John Paul II. He also sees uncertainty ahead. I offer him the same caution Dr. Sokołowski gave me. Don’t over idealize it.

Polish history is filled with sins equal to the heroism, fragmentation equal to strength in unity, abandonment of religion equal to conversion. As a member of the clergy you have to look to and understand the culture — long term, but only as the backdrop for the struggles people face every day.

Seeing the Sheep:

Individual struggles have not changed very much. The opportunities for sin may be a bit different today, but at the core it is the same temptation. If we spend too much time looking at the big picture, the movements on the world stage, we miss the souls we are supposed to care for. How can we help people see the way today? Pointing to history is part of the equation, but the greater measure is found in pointing to the future, to our hope in Jesus Christ.

Applying the Gospel:

I appreciate the fact that he states:

[Krakow] provides an interesting context to study the social doctrine of the Church

This is true because the city offers a micro level lesson in the application of the Church’s teachings. We can learn from the witness of people who have lived through the application of the Church’s teaching, both in their heroism and their sin. We can learn from culture because God endows each nation with unique gifts and skills that benefit man’s journey back to Him. At the same time we must avoid the trap of assuming that Church teaching, including social teaching, is solely based on the experiences of a people. Rather, the Church’s teachings are a unified whole formed from the Gospel. The Gospel message applies universally; past, present and future, in Poland, this nation, and in every nation. Bishop Hodur understood that. The Church is here to lift men up to their true potential: intellectually, morally, and spiritually. The Church is key to the fulfillment of God’s plan for mankind. So we have to continually ask: Lord help me to lift your people up to You. Help me to see their gifts and their challenges.

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