Recent Posts

Most Used Categories

Christian Witness

Reflection for the 18th Ordinary Sunday 2025

Christian Witness

Reflection for the 18th Ordinary Sunday 2025

Christian Witness

Reflection for the 18th Ordinary Sunday 2025

Art, Media, Poland - Polish - Polonia, Xpost to PGF, ,

Feel – American Tour Review

“Feel” Connects on American Tour
By Raymond Rolak

HAMTRAMCK– After a standing room only concert here at the PNA Concert Hall on Conant Avenue, the rock-pop band FEEL from Katowice, Poland had to rush off to play a gig in Chicago. The entourage took the train from Detroit to Chicago the next day to play The Club in Burbank, Illinois.

Post concert, FEEL was gracious after their Detroit performance and signed CD’s and posters and mingled with their supporters. With a few piwa’s to re-hydrate, after concert talk was primarily in Polish and the band members all knew that Techno-Music had its roots and history founded in Detroit.

The PNA Concert Hall in Hamtramck rocked as lead vocalist Piotr Kupicha wowed with an over two hour set and energized his audience while interfacing with the crowd. It was obvious that his on-stage presence connected with an all-age audience as “Feel” went through their repertoire of Polish hit songs.

The evening was a Polish musical showcase as local Polish-American rapper Dzejo started with a warm-up set and then Magda Kaminski got things really moving along. Kaminski did a few numbers from her CD, “This is Me.” The venue lent a good platform as Marcin Kindla showed off his warm but powerful vocals with some softer stylings. He also really connected with the primarily Polish crowd that rushed in to be front and center of the stage.

The presentations started late so the audience was ready. Emcee Rafal Nowakowski kept everyone informed so the attendance was anxious and anticipating the main attraction. “Feel” worked without a break and Kupicha had the audience wanting more as he did a couple of interaction numbers. The group sang all their popular Polish radio hits with two encores.

Before the concert Kupicha told me music was in his in his heritage as his grandfather, also Piotr, was a professional musician in Silesia. “Dzia-Dzia was a violinist,” he said in broken English. “So strings are in my bloodline,” he added smiling. He laughed even more with my broken Polish and the band members giggled with halting sign language augmentations. There was no barrier with communication though and we talked a bit about the international language of music. “Music is the global ambassador, I agree,” added the talented songwriter. Polish native Anya Nowakowski helped with the tougher translations and in depth questions. She was laughing with enthusiasm also. Idioms don’t get translated well sometimes.

While relaxing in the ready room Kupicha had questions about the Detroit Red Wings as most of the group knew about the local long time NHL ice-hockey success of this area. Group spokesman, Wojtek Grzesiok, told of the time a few years ago that former Polish hockey star Mariusz Czerkawski got Kupicha to play in a celebrity ice-hockey game in Poland. “No one expected Piotr to be so fast,” added Grzesiok. “Just like on the guitar, Piotr skated fast.”

In one of Kupicha’s songs he reached the audience with a soft staccato feel, “Listen-Listen,” he sang in Polish. It was colorful and touching to the audience. Offerings from their new CD “Feel-3” were front and center throughout the sets. An old favorite, “And When the Dusk Comes” got the crowd really moving (A gdy jest już ciemno).

Grzesiok said they had been looking forward to the Detroit date as it was the first time for “Feel” to play in this area. After this performance it won’t be the last. The only wrinkle in the evening was that the very popular Sebastian Riedel popped a disk in his back and was trying to recuperate at the band’s hotel. He wasn’t able to perform in Chicago either.

Local music promoters from Telewizja-Detroit and Kozi Vodka had the small concert ballroom set just right. Co-producer Tomasz Czuprynski said, “This is a great location and with this response we will do it again here.”

Hamtramck sausage provider Srodek’s was popular with the band and their post concert smoked sausage and pierogi offerings were well received. On this tour, “Feel” had previously played in New Britain, Connecticut, Brooklyn, New York and Passaic, New Jersey.

FEEL- Piotr Kupicha– Lead Vocals and Guitar, Łukasz Kożuch– Keyboard, Michał Nowak– Bass, Michał Opaliński– Percussion, Paweł Pawłowski- Guitar

"Feel" the pop-rockers from Katowice, Poland did a two hour plus performance at the PNA Concert Hall in Hamtramck and lead singer Piotr Kupicha wowed at the standing-room-only event. The concert was promoted by Telewizja-Detroit. Photo courtesy of the ROLCO SPORTS NETWORK

Homilies, ,

Second Sunday of Lent 2012

First reading: Genesis 22:1-2,9-13,15-18
Psalm: Ps 116:10,15-19
Epistle: Romans 8:31-34
Gospel: Mark 9:2-10

“This is my beloved Son.”

Relatedness:

Today we continue our Lenten study of family focusing on the topic of relatedness, how we relate to the Father, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and each other as well as the things that mark, or indicate that relationship.

The dictionary tells us that relatedness means a particular manner of connectedness or relationship. The opposite, unrelatedness means to be disconnected.

In educational psychology human relatedness is defined as the ability to bond emotionally with others.

Allison:

Allison grew up in a loving and supportive family. She was an honor student whose life stalled, then careened dangerously downhill because of alcoholism. Throughout her life she felt disconnected, unrelated, and was unable to develop friendships. It was only after “hitting bottom,” and a chance encounter with a struggling member of Alcoholics Anonymous, Mike, that her own life was put back on track. At her second AA meeting Allison was invited to speak. There, she found her Higher Power. She recognized God in the faces of the people in the room. She said: “I saw it…the understanding, the empathy, the love…This is what I had been looking for all my life.”

Allison found relatedness. First in Mike who “got her,” understood where she was and her need. Then in that AA meeting she broke through and saw the love of God in her connection to others. What she experienced was a sense of belonging, relatedness.

Allison’s life bloomed. She is gainfully employed, supporting herself financially, with plans to buy a house. She has friends because, as she described it, she had learned how to be a friend, to be related. She went on to find a special man for her life with whom she has been involved for almost five years.

God created:

In our study of family, we realize that God’s creation is centered on our relatedness, our connection to others starting with our parents, siblings, and our extended families. We reach out from there to friendships and larger social relationships.

As we discussed last week, God works through families and the larger social family. In His creation, these relationship, this relatedness is at the heart of His design for His family.

References:

In today’s readings and Gospel we hear about relatedness. Abraham was put to the test, and the test required him to do the hardest thing possible. It is why its description is so stark, so shocking. Abraham was asked to sacrifice the son that he loved.

In our Gospel, the Father overshadows Jesus and the Apostles at the Transfiguration, clearing stating for all: “This is my beloved Son.”

Saving through relatedness:

In case we might miss it, God lives in a state of relatedness. He is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three persons in one God. The center of that relationship is tremendous and perfect love. That is why God understood how hard of a test He was imposing on Abraham, and why He rewarded Abraham for his willingness to offer his beloved son as sacrifice.

Consider how we are saved by that exact relatedness. The Father’s Son, Jesus, was offered on the cross for us. While God stayed Abraham’s hand from sacrificing his son, God sacrificed His own Son, Who He loves with tremendous and perfect love, for all of us.

We are both saved, and assured of our relatedness to God, through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus.

To God:

God loves us so much, so tremendously, that He gave His Son for us. We are not just bystanders, or people unworthy of love, unrelated. God loves us with the very same love He holds for His Son Jesus. In Jesus, we have become members of God’s family. We are children of the our Father. Jesus is our brother. Our relatedness to God, our connection to Him is not something we invented, but something God desired. God took action to create our relatedness to Him and to each other.

To each other:

By being made children of God we have become related, connected to each other. We are siblings.

Our relatedness exists in what we share: We have one birth into the family of God through water and the Holy Spirit. We have one faith. We have one Father in heaven and one Lord and Savior, our brother Jesus Christ. We share in the one Spirit. We speak the same language in worship and prayer. We do the things that family does – in spending time together, communicating, trusting, fulfilling each others needs during times of struggle, and celebrating together in times of joy. We share the same ancestors in faith and are joined with them, with our Blessed Mother and all the saints. They pray and intercede for us because we are all family.

In God we are connected. We are related. We are in a relationship with Him and each other. We are bonded as family, spiritually and emotionally with each other.

We have one goal, and it is not just getting to heaven because who wants to be in heaven alone. It is reaching heaven as a family where we will dwell as one. We will reach heaven through our relatedness, through the hands that help, support, and guide us, who pray for us in our mutual journey to God. This is our family of faith here on earth and in heaven. Amen.

Christian Witness, Homilies, ,

Reflection for the Second Sunday of Lent

Can I trade in this kid?
Ummm, NO!

“God put Abraham to the test… ‘Abraham, Abraham!’ ‘Here I am!’ he answered. ‘Do not lay your hand on the boy. Do not do the least thing to him. I know now how devoted you are to God, since you did not withhold from me your own beloved son.’”

Relatedness – The dictionary tells us that relatedness means a particular manner of connectedness or relationship. Unrelatedness means the lack of any particular manner of connectedness.

We might wonder if Abraham had any troubles with his son Isaac. Maybe, at one time or another, he regretted his relatedness to Isaac, and thought, maybe I could trade this kid in for something better.

God puts Abraham to the test, he asks him to sacrifice his son. Scripture tells us that Abraham loved his son, but maybe, somewhere in his mind he thought, maybe God is going to give me an even better son on trade. It is one of the unfortunate consequences of our humanity, our ability to set aside our relatedness. We all have someone with whom we have a strained, distant, or disconnected relationship.

Being part of God’s family, being the brothers and sisters of Jesus and of each other can put us to the test. How do we exercise our relatedness – how do we keep connected?

God Himself has told us that we are connected, we are related, and we are part of one body. He never abandons His relationship with us because we share the DNA of Jesus; it is imprinted in our hearts and souls.

Our Lenten journey is about correcting those instances where we feel we have grown unrelated. We have to recapture those markers of a healthy relationship with God. We have to rebuild what is strained between sister and brother.

We bear the signs of family, our shared birth in water and the Holy Spirit, our shared language of prayer and praise, the way we work together and support each other. We know, as members of God’s family, there are no trades allowed. The Father gave His Son for this family. What Jesus did to bring us together as one family is worth rebuilding; wherever it might be strained. Let’s set to that task.

Art, Events, , ,

Celebrate 10 Years of One Story at the Literary Debutante Ball

Tickets are now on sale for the One Story Literary Debutante Ball. The One Story Literary Debutante Ball is a benefit celebrating One Story’s 10th anniversary and seven writers who have published their first books in the past year. The ball will feature cocktails, music, dancing, and a silent art auction.

One Story will also be honoring best-selling author Ann Patchett at the ball for her exceptional support of other writers.

All proceeds will benefit One Story, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and aid it in its mission to support the art form of the short story and the authors who write them. Tickets for the ball start at $75 each.

The One Story Literary Debutante Ball will be held on Friday, April 20th from 7-11 pm at the The Invisible Dog Art Center, 51 Bergen St. (between Court St. & Smith St.), Brooklyn, NY. You may purchase your tickets on-line at One Story.

Poland - Polish - Polonia, Xpost to PGF, , , , ,

Polish American Historical Association Call for Nominations

The Polish American Historical Association (PAHA) has issued a call for nominations for various awards and a young scholar grant. All nominations should be sent to the Chair of the Awards Committee, Dr. Stephen Leahy (Shantou University, China).

Young scholar award nominations must be received by May 1, 2012.

Graduate Student Research Paper Award recognizes a substantial original research paper on Polish-American history and culture produced by a young scholar in the humanities or social sciences. This award includes a $500 travel grant to present the paper at PAHA’s 2013 Annual Meeting. The candidate for the award must be a graduate student at the time of the application or nomination.

The following award nominations must be received by July 15, 2012.

Mieczyslaw Haiman Award is offered annually to an American scholar for sustained contribution to the study of Polish Americans.

Oskar Halecki Prize recognizes an important book or monograph on the Polish experience in the United States. Eligibility is limited to works of historical and/or cultural interest, including those in the social sciences or humanities, published in the two years prior to the year of the award.

Skainy Civic Achievement Award honors individuals or groups who advance PAHA’s goals of promoting research and awareness of the Polish-American experience and/or have made significant contributions to Polish or Polish-American community and culture.

Amicus Poloniae Award recognizes significant contributions enhancing knowledge of Polish and Polish-American heritage by individuals not belonging to the Polish-American community.

Distinguished Service Award is given occasionally to a member of PAHA who has rendered valuable and sustained service to the organization.

Kulczycki Prize recognizes outstanding scholarship in a dissertation about the Polish experience in America. The Award includes a subvention to help the winner publish their work.

Creative Arts Award recognizes the contributions in the field of creative arts by individuals or groups who have promoted an awareness of the Polish experience in the Americas.

Kulczycki Prize recognizes an important dissertation on the Polish experience in the United States offered to a graduate student or younger scholar within the first five years after awarding of the doctorate degree to assist in the publication of a book or monograph.

Homilies

Reflection for the First Sunday of Lent

Hey, this is my boat!
You cannot go alone…

“God said to Noah and to his sons with him: “See, I am now establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you.”

Consider Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Mary, John the Baptist, Jesus, and Peter – what do all these, and the rest of the heroes of the Bible have in common? They were all members of a family.

Our Lenten theme is all about family. We see that God makes His promises not just to one person, but to the human family.

God always deals with family, with people’s relationships with each other. God isn’t building His kingdom on hermits and loners. Rather, He is looking to us as His children, and a single body (the body of Christ), as a community that is defined as a family.

Remember that Jesus always referred to His Father as our Father. This wasn’t some sort of light saying, just to make us feel good. Jesus meant what He said. His Father is our Father.

Jesus came to rebuild His Father’s family and He did so on Calvary – reconnecting us to God.

God is our Father, and we are Jesus’ brothers and sisters. This makes us His family and family to each other. We have even taken the steps necessary to be born into that family, through the waters of Baptism, by our regeneration.

There’s a lot to study this Lent, so let us begin our focus on the fact that we are members of one body – the Church, the body of Christ, and that makes us one family. With that comes a knowledge of how we were born into this family, how are related, how we relate to the Father, Jesus, and each other, our responsibilities as family members, our importance to the family, and the inheritance that is in store for members of God’s family.

Brother, or brethren, is found 319 times in the New Testament. Child, or children, is used 168 times in the New Testament. God didn’t send Noah onto the boat alone, and doesn’t make His promises to only a select few. His promises are for all of us as a family. He doesn’t want us to go it alone. He is our loving Father.

Homilies, ,

First Sunday of Lent 2012

First reading: Genesis 9:8-15
Psalm: Ps 25:4-9
Epistle: 1 Peter 3:18-22
Gospel: Mark 1:12-15

“God said to Noah and to his sons with him: “See, I am now establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you.”

Families:

Consider Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham. Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Mary, John the Baptist, Jesus, and Peter – what do all these, and the rest of the heroes of the Bible all have in common? They were all members of families.

Noah had his wife, his sons and their families. Abraham had Sarah and their son Isaac. Isaac had Rebekah, Esau, and Jacob. Jacob had Rachel and Leah, and his seven sons including Joseph. From the Old Testament to the New, we see family.

Think too of all the words used in the Bible to denote family. The New Testament mentions brother, or brethren, 319 times and child, or children, is used 168 times. Everything we see of God’s revelation comes to us through the lens of family.

Theme:

Our Lenten theme is all about family. We will work though this Lent learning about God’s promises – promises made to the body of Christ, the family of faith. Our first reading, where God makes promises to Noah and his family, his descendants, is a foreshadowing of the way God relates to us as family.

God wants us as family:

God always deals with family, with people’s relationships to Him and each other. God isn’t building His kingdom on hermits and loners. Rather, He is looking to us as His children, and a single body — the body of Christ. God’s family is more than just the individual believer, a local community or church — it is all the faithful, past, present, and future joined together as family.

Remember that Jesus always referred to His Father as our Father. This wasn’t some sort of light saying, just to make us feel good. Jesus meant what He said. His Father is our Father. Jesus even taught us to pray, invoking the Father.

But its tough:

The way God set everything up can be tough at times. Family relationships aren’t always easy. You remember the old saying: “You can pick your friends, but you can’t pick your family.” Sometimes that’s said after a family member has disappointed us or let us down. Still, they are family, and we offer forgiveness and reconciliation to our family. That is the model for the entire Christian family. We are all related together in that way, and we share in one body and one blood – the blood of Jesus Christ.

The key is that family is central to our lives as Christians. This unity, in family, makes us stronger, heals our wounds, brings us joy, and allows us to support each other in tough times.

Reconnecting:

Jesus’ entire ministry was centered on revealing the Father to us. He came to rebuild His Father’s family and He accomplished that on Calvary. There He broke down the enmity between God and man. He healed our separation, our distance from God. There He reconnected us to God, and joined us together.

God is our Father, and we are Jesus’ brothers and sisters. This makes us His family and family to each other. No one is excluded or outside the family, and our arms are open to all who wish to enter our family. They can come, just as we did, to be born into God’s family through the waters of Baptism, by regeneration.

Road ahead:

There’s a lot to study this Lent. Today we have focused on the fact that God’s model, God’s way, is that we live as family. He is our Father, Jesus is our brother. We are members of one body – the Church which is the body of Christ. We have been born into this family and that same birth is available to all. Anyone can join God’s family by accepting Him.

From here we will learn about our relatedness, how we relate to the Father, Jesus, and each other and the things that mark, or indicate that relationship. We will learn about our responsibilities as family members. We will consider our importance to the family. We will learn about the gifts that come from being members of God’s family. Finally, we will rejoice in the victory we have been given by the inheritance that is in store for members of God’s family.

We are family:

God didn’t send Noah onto the boat alone, and He hasn’t given His promises to a few individuals who exist apart and alone. His promises and His love are for all of us as members of a family. God is our loving Father, and we are His children, brothers and sisters of Christ and each other. Amen.

Homilies,

Ash Wednesday

First reading: Joel 2:12-18
Psalm: Ps 51:3-6,12-14,17
Epistle: 2 Corinthians 5:20-21 and 2 Corinthians 6:1-2
Gospel: Matthew 6:1-6,16-18

Even now, says the LORD,
return to me with your whole heart

Focus (this morning):

Today, the first day of Lent. After three weeks of preparation you would think I would wake up ready to go. Well, this morning was not that kind of morning. Instead of waking prepared with Lent in my heart and mind, I woke in a haze. I focused on what I normally am, rather than what I should be becoming. I was self-focused. In the midst of preparing chicken and baloney sandwiches it finally hit me — it is Ash Wednesday.

It wasn’t just the no meat Lenten sacrifice, it was the sudden realization that I had a long way to go this Lent. It would be a journey from inward self-sufficiency, self-focus, to becoming emptied.

Emptiness:

Think of an iron bar. It is strong, complete, self-sufficient. You cannot add anything to it or change its nature. It is what it is.

Think now of a musical instrument: woodwinds, brass, guitars, or violins. These instruments are hollow. Their emptiness is intentional. These instruments are empty so that they may reflect what their master does – produce and echo music that is beautiful.

For my part, and for many of us, we exist like iron bars. We are who we are. We feel rather complete and total, solid, self-sufficient. Our task this Lent is to change from iron bars to musical instruments.

Process of emptying:

Lent is a process of emptying, of moving from the iron bar to a state of emptiness, away from self to becoming a reflection of God’s music, God’s light, God’s way.

Full of God:

In Lent we work to empty ourselves so that we become full of God. We work to reflect His light and His music. We recognize once again that He is the Master of our lives. We wipe the sleep from our eyes and clear the fog from our heads so that we can see our lives as part of God’s life; God who exists within us and within our brothers and sisters.

We are not separated, God here, us there. We are unified, together.

Lent gives us the opportunity to have God once again permeate, fill, encompass and saturate our thoughts and actions, our words, our deeds.

St. Paul reminds us that we cannot be self-sufficient iron bars because:

He died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died and was raised for them (2 Corinthians 5:15).

We have to live with a focus on being filled by God.

Full of family:

If you read the sign outside the church, you will note that our theme for Lent is God’s cell therapy. In Jesus we have been changed from a random group of individuals to adopted children of God, and brothers and sisters in faith. Our old mortal cells are being replaced and we are a new being, a new people, and members of one family of faith in Jesus Christ.

We must empty ourselves so that we become better family members. This is not just to our immediate or biological family, but to all the members of the family of God.

Throughout Lent we will focus on what makes us family, as well as the joys and responsibilities as members of the family of God.

Reconciling family:

Today we begin the process of reconciling, of emptying ourselves. Things like our Lenten self denial and sacrifice are makers along the road toward our becoming the people we ought to be. We are changing from iron bars – but we will not become empty, music-less instruments either. We will become, by the time we reach Easter, and for the days ahead in our lives, members of God’s family, each others brothers and sisters, and gloriously, the reflection of God’s light and music in the world.

Inheritance:

Our work, the road ahead is not without a promised reward. That promise is from God – that we will enter life everlasting as one family, as one people, as God’s children and as brothers and sisters. We have our inheritance before us. It won’t be paid out to iron bars, but to family filled with the light and music of God. Amen.

Christian Witness, Homilies,

Quinquagesima Sunday

First reading: Isaiah 43:18-19,21-22,24-25
Psalm: Ps 41:2-5,13
Epistle: 2 Corinthians 1:18-22
Gospel: Mark 2:1-12

“Child, your sins are forgiven.”

On the river:

Bill lives about thirty minutes from a river that’s a major salmon run in the summer. He loves fishing, casting long lines into quick currents, and when a beautiful, ready to eat fish hooks on, the fight can be fun and furious.

Bill has learned a lot in fishing, particularly about his relationship with the fish. Bill knows that going to the river to just watch fish go by is low risk, and there is little tension. The fish do their thing, he does his, and life is good.

Now, if Bill tosses a line out the whole game changes. Suddenly he’s a hunter, a seeker. He wants a relationship with a passing fish, or two, or three. Creating this relationship requires effort on his part. He has to rig rod and reel, cast a hundred times, and endure the elements of sun or rain. It also means pain for the fish, as hook enters its mouth, digs deep, and sends trauma through its body. And tension too! The line strains to constrain the fish from swimming downstream with the river’s strong current.

Who’s in charge:

Consider what happens when Bill hooks into a fish. Who is in control, Bill or the fish? At first it may seem Bill is. With his rod and reel in good working order, and the fish tugging at the end of the line, all he has to do is pull steadily, and account for any run, and in three minutes, the salmon is flopping at his feet, beached.

But for every fish landed, more get away. Some fish dash down river, snapping line like thread, but trailing that hook and line from their gums. Others jump and twist and thrash and tear flesh, but if lucky, dislodge the hook. Wounded, yet free, they win.

Still other fish figure out a simpler, braver path. Rather than pull, dash, or thrash, they swim toward shore, and approach the fisherman. When fish do so, you’re bound to see a frantic person reeling like crazy shouting “No, no, no—not towards me!” But if the fish persists, the line goes slack, and the hook comes out with a flick of its head. In cases where fish swim toward their enemy, they often gain freedom from pain and leave dragging nothing behind them.

Lent is nearly here:

As we complete our Pre-Lenten journey, God asks us to consider His forgiveness and the way we forgive each other. God asks us to consider the way He forgives, and that we forgive in the same way. We need to choose the kind of fish we are going to be.

Our choices:

Like the fish and fisherman, we are in relationships with each other. At times those relationships can be marked by struggle, tension, and pain.

Like the fish, we make choices abut our reactions to hurt. Those reactions may be to dash and thrash against those hooks, the hurts that stab at us.

We may complain or criticize; choose to focus on and elaborate on just how wrong the other person is. We might take the route of defensiveness. We may shut down or withdraw, employ the silent treatment. We may go so far as to treat the person who hurt us with contempt and disgust.

When we respond these ways, we’re like hooked fish fighting frantically to solve our dilemma. We may succeed in breaking off our relationships, getting away from them, but it will always be with wounds, with something dragging behind us. We will never be truly free. We remain wounded and burdened.

Isn’t it hard:

As we dwell on the hurts, the barbs that stick into us, we may consider other options.

Maybe they will come to me and apologize? Then I will forgive. That may happen, but in the waiting we are stuck where we are, we can’t free ourselves and move forward.

We might think that to forgive means we have to trust again. Those two things are quite different. Forgiving means that we let go of the hurt, the hooks that cause us pain. Entering back into a trusting relationship requires more. That’s a fuller reconciliation and a rebuilding process. Sometimes relationships aren’t ready for that.

Finally, we just might enjoy our pain and the bitterness the barbs cause us. If that’s the choice, then no, we will not forgive. But we will remain hooked and hurt, we will suffer the results — anger, anxiety, fear, migraines, and worse. We will be “hooked” into our pain, and drag it with us for years to come — maybe for eternity.

Be smart:

God asks us to be the smart fish, to swim towards those who have hurt us and forgive. As we do, we free ourselves from the barbs that hurt us.

Pain doesn’t go away easily, and true reconciliation and the rebuilding of relationships is a much longer process, but it has to start with our going toward those who hurt us. There we offer our forgiveness.

In forgiving we stop the dashing and thrashing that tears at our souls.

God’s way:

This is God’s way. When we hurt God through sin, we will always find Him swimming toward us, with complete forgiveness.

God doesn’t sometimes swim toward us — He always does, and His forgiveness is complete. There is no book of sins at the pearly gates. There is no record of our wrongs. God reassures us:

It is I, I, who wipe out,
for my own sake, your offenses;
your sins I remember no more.

He forgives us completely. One day Jesus’ disciple, Peter, asked him “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy times seven.” (Matthew 18:21-22)

We are not to take Jesus’ instruction literally, forgiving 490 times. We are rather to have His attitude of generous forgiveness. We should be ever-willing to forgive others, just as He forgave the paralytic, just as He forgives us.

As we enter Lent, let us resolve to do the same with each other. To forgive generously, and to swim toward those who hurt us. Doing so, we will be truly free. Amen.

Christian Witness, Homilies, , ,

Reflection for Quinquagesima Sunday

Swim away!
Maybe it would be better if…

“Child, your sins are forgiven.”

Fishing is a two-way relationship. It involves work, struggle, and tension. It also involves pain and trauma for the fish.

When a fisherman hooks a fish, which of them is really in charge? Most think the fisherman. He has the brains, the tools, and the power to overcome and land his catch.

Every fisherman knows that for every fish caught, many more get away. Some snap lines that trail behind them as they swim away. Others tear the hook out in the struggle, and swim away wounded.

Yet some fish figure out a simpler, braver path. Rather than pull, dash, or thrash, they swim toward shore, and approach the fisherman. When fish do so, you’re bound to see a frantic person reeling like crazy shouting “No, no, no—not towards me!” But if the fish persists, the line goes slack, and the hook comes out with a flick of its head.

In cases where fish swim toward their enemy, they often gain freedom from pain, and leave dragging nothing behind them.

Today, God asks us to consider His forgiveness and the way we forgive each other.

Like the fish and fisherman, we are in relationships with each other. At times those relationships can be marked by struggle, tension, and pain.

When we choose, as a result of hurt (those hooks that stab at us) to fight and flee, we end up either dragging the memories of those hurts behind us, or we end up deeply wounded.

God asks us to be the smart fish, to swim towards those who have hurt us. As we do, we free ourselves from the barbs that hurt us and we are free.

The pain doesn’t go away easily, and true reconciliation and the rebuilding of relationships is a much longer process, but it has to start with our going toward those who hurt us. There we offer our forgiveness.

When we hurt God through sin, we will always find Him swimming toward us, with complete forgiveness. As we enter Lent, let us resolve to do the same with each other.

All Right Reserved © 2005 - 2023