“Amen, I say to you,—¨today you will be with me in Paradise.”

Behold the power of the impossible.

There was a criminal hanging on a cross. He was naked, with nails driven through His hands and feet. He was alone, abandoned by those who were His friends.

This criminal was charged with undermining governmental authority.

—Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.”

A criminal, crucified along side other criminals, seditionists, thieves, murderers.

This criminal to whom another criminal, a thief turned and said:

“Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”—¨

Jesus the criminal who told Pilate:

“My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants (would) be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not here.”

Pilate questioned Jesus, looking for an answer in his questions. The answer was given, Pilate ignored it.

The Chief Priests and elders, the soldiers, and the other thief reviled Jesus. They verbally abused Him while he was dying, all looking for a sign, for proof that He was the Messiah, the Christ. Only the cross was given, they looked right at the sign and missed it.

St. Dismas, the —good thief— wasn’t looking for a sign. He didn’t have any questions. He simply asked:

“Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

The cross is the sign of the impossible.

That God would join His immortality to humanity and offer Himself as a sacrifice, a sacrifice offered in the most horrific way, is impossible. That God who has and is all would deign to love us that much is impossible. That this criminal dying on a cross is our immortal, eternal King and God is impossible.

Yet, we are here.

Yet we kneel and pray in the manner He taught.

Yet we build churches and spread His Gospel.

My friends, brothers and sisters,

We are impossible. Our mere existence as a people of faith and our acceptance of all this is impossible.

But St. Paul tells us:

Let us give thanks to the Father,—¨who has made you fit to share—¨in the inheritance of the holy ones in light. —¨He delivered us from the power of darkness—¨and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,—¨in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Today we celebrate this Solemnity. We look into the eyes of our public servants, our government, our employers, our families and say, this criminal, on the cross, is our King.

We say that what is impossible has been made possible. The Father has done this.

We say that Jesus is the Everlasting of Ages, the One through Whom and by Whom everything came into being. He is the one in Whose image we are fashioned. He is our beginning and our destiny.

Brothers and sisters,

If you wear a cross, if you have one on the lapel of your jacket, look at it in the mirror tonight. Look at the cross on the wall of your kitchen, or living room, or bedroom and say out loud, You are my King and my God.

It will be hard at first, saying it out loud. But persist. Saying it out loud is the first step to proclaiming it out loud.

Doing good works and acts of charity is perfectly in keeping with our character as Christians. More than this however, we must engage in active proclamation, the preaching and teaching of Jesus Christ through our words.

Tell all that you meet: He is our King. His Kingdom is not of this world. Rather it is eternal and perfect. Beautiful and magnificent. God came to us, died for us; all so we could live with Him forever. Come join us.

Jesus answered Pilate:

“You say I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”

We proclaim Him our King.

If we believe what we say then listen to His voice, proclaim His truth, tell of Him, teach others about Him, and follow Him.

Amen.

“What must we do, to be doing the works of God?”

My brothers and sisters from Sacred Heart and St. Mary Our Lady of Czestochowa and Sacred Heart of Jesus – Holy Cross:

What is your concept of doing the works of God?

I imagine that our being here, in church, quickly jumps to mind. Being in church is certainly a work of God. Praying to Him, worshiping Him, thanking Him, receiving Him, are our duty and most certainly a work of God.

I also imagine that our reason for being here tonight is right in the forefront of our minds.

After all, tomorrow we will gather around tables big and small, some holding twenty-six pound turkeys and some holding only a small turkey breast.

Somewhere near the beginning of our feast we will calm the children, get grandma out of the kitchen, bow our heads, and in some special way say thank you to God.

Our thanks may be focused on some recent event, a promotion, recovery from an illness, reconciliation with a loved one, or it may be more long term, a thanksgiving for love, family, friends, success. Some might even go so far as to give thanks for a lesson learned from suffering.

Whatever the reason, we can say yes, being thankful, that’s doing the work of God.

When we come to church, especially around this time of year, we may contribute a few extra dollars to help the needy, or for disaster relief. We may bring a bag of canned goods for the food pantry, or for those lovingly prepared Thanksgiving baskets that will suddenly appear on the doorstep of those who may be loosing hope.

Certainly our charity is the work of God.

The young among us will be anxiously awaiting Santa in tomorrow’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Seeing him their minds will turn toward their Christmas list.

Drawing an analogy, perhaps we should turn our minds to our Christian list. How have I done the works of God?

Giving thanks, check; In church, check; Beatitudes, check; Ten Commandments, check; Charitable, check. It goes on.

When they asked:

“What must we do, to be doing the works of God?”

—¨Jesus told them:

“This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

When we ask, Jesus says the same:

“This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

In response both they and we are left to ask this question:

“Then what sign do you do, that we may see, and believe you? What work do you perform? —¨

My brothers and sisters,

Those asking in that day, and we, have received only one sign.

The cross.

Hmmm, not something for Thanksgiving eve. A little tough before the turkey. Something a little more Good Friday-ish. But that’s it. The cross.

We are here to give thanks on the eve of a national holiday. We gather ecumenically, brothers and sisters, similar in certain ways yet distinct in others; gathered to attest to this: we share in the cross.

We are changed, transformed, because of that cross. We are changed, transformed, because we believe in Him whom He has sent.

All the dross of the world, the things big and small that we will mark with thanks are quite secondary to the fact that the thankfulness of Christians is completely centered on Jesus Christ. Him whom He has sent.

The very fact that God came down among us to give us this sign is enough for us. Because of this cross we believe in Him.

Believing in Him we are transformed, and one day we will be transfigured.

Jesus told us:

Every one who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like:—¨he is like a man building a house, who dug deep, and laid the foundation upon rock; and when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house, and could not shake it, because it had been well built.

What must we do? Today we must pause to give thanks. I am thankful for Jesus Christ in whom I believe. I am thankful for the sign of the cross which I received in baptism. I am thankful that I have been transformed and regenerated in the cross. I am thankful for the foundation that has been set for me in the Holy Church. I am thankful that the sign given to me holds the promise of eternal life with God in heaven.

My friends,

—[T]he bread of God is that which comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world.—

Doing the work of God is simple, believe in Jesus Christ. Carrying out that belief, living it is much harder.

So first, let us say: Thank you God for this bread, the bread that is Jesus Christ. The bread that is His Holy Church, The bread that gives us eternal life.

Then let us say: Lord, give us the strength to live in complete unity with You and Your cross.

“Lord, give us this bread always.” —¨

Amen.

Rather, we wanted to present ourselves as a model for you,—¨
so that you might imitate us.

Let’s focus today on imitating Christ and his Apostles. Let’s focus on doing what St. Paul asks, that we follow his model.

St. Paul, writing to the Thessalonians holds himself out as a model for their lives.

Paul took Jesus’ words seriously and wanted his readers to do so as well.

By the time Paul had written these letters he had already faced some stiff opposition.

The Jewish communities were out to get him. The secular authorities were watchful.

Paul wrote to the Thessalonians during his second missionary journey, sometime around the year 50. He would have one more missionary journey before his final return to Jerusalem in 58. From that point onward he would be subjected to trial and remanded to Rome for a final trial, being martyred in 67.

Facing all that, Paul didn’t prepare his defense. Rather he listened to Jesus:

I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking—¨
that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute.

Even on his journey to Rome as a prisoner, Paul brought people to the faith. Paul stayed focused on his mission.

Brothers and sisters,

In the span of thirty-four years Jesus’ work and words, the Christian faith, had spread from Jerusalem, throughout Asia Minor and to Europe. Rome and Athens had heard the name of Jesus.

Stephen and James had been martyred.

While all this was occurring, everything Jesus said would occur happened as well: wars and insurrections, earthquakes, famines, plagues, and awesome sights and mighty signs from the sky.

So thinking of Paul’s behavior, his model, and his instruction to the Churches we should ask ourselves: Was Paul and the Church concerned about the things that were going on in the world? The things Jesus said would happen around and to His followers?

The simple answer is no.

Of course there were those in the Churches who looked to the skies, at governments, at the signs and thought – as well as preached – that the end was at hand. They tried to lead people astray by focusing on the signs rather than on their job. Their job – bringing all to heaven through Jesus Christ.

Paul had to do a lot of letter writing to correct those false prophets; to take the focus off the signs and put it back on Jesus.

The Church, and all those in union with Her ignored the signs, the blowing of the winds which change each day. Instead, the Church kept its sole focus on getting its eternal work done.

This is key for us as Christians.

Jesus told us to render onto Caesar. He did not instruct us to care about which Caesar was in charge.

We know that taxes will come and go. Wars will come and go. Terrorists will come and go. Presidents and town councils will come and go. We could live in an Islamic state, a secular state, a communist state, or under a dictator. Regardless of the government, of the policy, or of the —threat level—, it is incumbent upon us to witness one message. Salvation is through Jesus Christ.

Jesus’ message is not one of travail or of pain. In mentioning the things that would occur Jesus was not acting as a soothsayer. His key message is this:

—You will be hated by all because of my name,—¨
but not a hair on your head will be destroyed.—¨
By your perseverance you will secure your lives.”

The facts and circumstance of the world are quite secondary to the state of our eternal soul, and the accomplishment of our mission. Our lives are secured in the promise of heaven.

By imitating Jesus and His apostles, by following the lesson Paul teaches we clearly recognize that fact.

My friends,

In his letter to the Ephesians Paul clearly states:

There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call,
one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all.

We worship, adore and proclaim God, and by our baptism we are joined to proclaiming our hope. Paul further tells us:

And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists,
some pastors and teachers,
to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ

Therefore, I tell you, do not look to the skies in wonder, with worry or trepidation. Do not look to politicians, the government, or soothsayers for salvation. Do not worry. God is with us. Instead get to work. We have been equipped. Build up the Body of Christ.

Amen.

They can no longer die,—¨
for they are like angels;—¨
and they are the children of God—¨
because they are the ones who will rise.

If we had a choice, a choice between denying something and affirming it, which would we take? Which choice is easier?

Now I suppose it comes down to what we are asked to affirm.

If someone asks me about my car or house, my computer or what I had for dinner I can affirm those things. I can categorize and describe them. I can name the color of my car or house. I can describe the make and model of my car, or the architectural style of my house.

As we get further away from the objective reality of things we get a little more uncertain. Were those pierogis I had last night made with sweet or savory cheese? Were they salty? Was the spice in that roast tarragon?

What today’s readings and Gospel describe is the necessity of making an affirmation, an affirmation in something the world deems subjective and quite unreal.

The Maccabees describes the torture and martyrdom of seven brothers and their mother. Each took courage, not because they were all that courageous, but because of their faith in God and their faithfulness to His Laws.

The death of three is described in todays reading, but if you read Chapter 7 you will read of each of their deaths, and their mother’s as well.

The mother was especially admirable and worthy of honorable memory. Though she saw her seven sons perish within a single day, she bore it with good courage because of her hope in the Lord.

The book tells us of the mother:

She encouraged each of them in the language of their fathers. Filled with a noble spirit, she fired her woman’s reasoning with a man’s courage

Later, when Antiochus urged her to persuade her youngest son to accept riches and power in exchange for breaking God’s Laws she told her son:

—I beseech you, my child, to look at the heaven and the earth and see everything that is in them, and recognize that God did not make them out of things that existed. Thus also mankind comes into being.
Do not fear this butcher, but prove worthy of your brothers. Accept death, so that in God’s mercy I may get you back again with your brothers.”

The long line of Christian martyrs attests to the fact that affirmation of something the world considers subjective and foolish, silly magic and totems, is something much more. It is an objective reality. It is more than faith or belief, it is real. God is real.

St. Paul encourages the people of Thessalonica in these words:

May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father,—¨
who has loved us and given us everlasting encouragement
and good hope through his grace,
encourage your hearts and strengthen them in every good deed
and word.

Important words, and said with absolute objective assurance. He has loved us, given us everlasting encouragement, and good hope through His grace.—¨—¨St. Paul, in the midst of his tormentors says:

But the Lord is faithful;—¨
he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one.

Brothers and sisters,

God strengthens and guards us against the evil that is doubt in His reality.

Evil is exactly the loss of faith, the loss of hope and courage, in what we know objectively.

God is not a construct built out of myth and happy feelings. He is not some mysterious ghost rising out of ancient mist.

The fact is, and I can affirm, that the reality of God met us face to face. He meets us face to face today.

Jesus Christ who is true God and true man lived among us, taught us, shed His blood for us, died, was buried, and rose again.

He was seen by the guards who had to be bribed to keep quiet, by the women, by the apostles, by five hundred others.

They preached and proclaimed Him. They suffered and died because of Him, they traveled to the four corners of the world with His word, and thanks be to God that the Holy Church, imbued with the Holy Spirit, lives on in this mission.

To this day we baptize all who come, all willing to join in proclaiming the reality of God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

We exist here and now to proclaim this objective reality, this objective good.

We fight and struggle against that which does not pass muster as being in keeping with God’s word, and most especially against the evils of death and hopelessness.

Ours is a message of real joy for all the world. Christ has come, alleluia.

The psalmist said it best when he sang:

Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be full.

My friends,

That is the promise. Death is not the end. When God’s glory appears our joy will be full. We will live forever in heaven with Jesus. We will worship and praise God forever in the company of the angels and the saints.

When the Sadducees came to Jesus they came with certainty. They were certain in their false knowledge.

The Sadducees held that only the first five books of the Old Testament were authoritative. They couldn’t find mention of life after death in these books, therefore they rejected its existence. They couldn’t read it, they couldn’t believe it, they couldn’t affirm it.

They sought to trap Jesus. Jesus simply responds that those first five books include Moses encounter with God in the burning bush.

In the story of the burning bush God tells Moses: —I am the God of Abraham …—. Because God says I am the God of Abraham, rather that I was the God of Abraham, Abraham lives. God is truly —God … of the living.—

After refuting the argument of the Sadducees Jesus gives us this assurance:

those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age
and to the resurrection of the dead
can no longer die,—¨
for they are like angels;
and they are the children of God
because they are the ones who will rise.

This we know, this we believe, this we proclaim, this we affirm.

Amen.

“Today salvation has come to this house
because this man too is a descendant of Abraham.—

Depending upon who got to us first, we carry differing perceptions of God. These range from visions of God as a punishing strict arbitrar of justice, to God as the laissez-faire overseer who doesn’t get much involved in the day-to-day affairs of men, to God as an all loving pappy who doesn’t much care what we do, as long as we don’t really hurt anyone.

We live with preconceived notions, the beliefs and feelings that come out of our experiences, out of our earliest memories, the picture painted by those who taught and trained us.

Those notions, beliefs, and feelings require the occasional adult reality check.

Brothers and sisters,

Let’s take that reality check.

Our first reading, from the appropriately named Book of Wisdom tells us that God has mercy on all, because He can do all things. Wisdom also tells us that God overlook[s] people’s sins that they may repent.

The reality is that God is merciful to us. He is merciful, not so we can do as we please, but so we can become what is our destiny, the perfection of humanity.

Humanity perfected is what Christ came to call us to be. It is humanity that takes up His name, humanity that repents of its sin.

Wisdom further tells us that God love[s] all things that are, and loathe[s] nothing that [He has] made.

In other words, God made us, fashioned us, and we remain simply for this reason, because God wills it so. Wisdom asks:

how could a thing remain, unless you willed it;—¨
or be preserved, had it not been called forth by you?

Listening to that we know that we have the assurance, by our very being, that we are willed to being by God. God has called us forth and He preserves us. He spares us because we are His. And, He loves us.

The most beautiful thought is this:

O LORD and lover of souls,
…your imperishable spirit is in all things!

God is in us.

The reality is that we bear likeness to Him. Our likeness to Him is in our ability to be more and more like Him, in every decision we make for Him, and in our doing every good and holy thing He taught.

My friends,

In our likeness to God is the promise that we will be reunited to Him one day.

We draw closer and closer to Him each day, when we pray, when His grace enters us in the sacraments, when we meet our brothers and sisters and see in them the likeness of Christ.

When we stumble on the way to God we are not doomed. Rather we are called to repent, to come back and reclaim our place in His family. In that we draw ever closer to Him.

Brothers and sisters,

Our reality check continues with St. Paul as he tells the people of Thessalonica, and us:

We always pray for you,—¨
that our God may make you worthy of his calling—¨
and powerfully bring to fulfillment every good purpose
and every effort of faith,—¨
that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you,—¨
and you in him.

The apostles, the saints, the entire Church prays each day. They and we pray that God bring us to fulfillment.

Fulfillment is this, that the imperishable spirit of God that is in us continues to perfect us, continues to draw us closer and closer, transforming us to perfection in Him.

That is the joy of the Church. That in Jesus Christ we become perfect.

In Jesus Christ we are fulfilled and perfected, not by magic or hocus-pocus, but by the reality of God among us. God as he came to Zacchaeus saying:

“Today salvation has come to this house—¨
because this man too is a descendant of Abraham.—

It is no less for us. We too are descendants of Abraham, grafted onto the chosen people, adopted and born of the Spirit of God. Salvation has come to us.

That is the adult reality of faith. That is the truth of the sacraments.

By baptism we are grated onto the Church, onto the new Israel. By penance we are strengthened to avoidance of sin and to a spirit of true repentance. By the Eucharist we are transformed into the very likeness of Jesus.

These graces, and the others available to us, transform us as Zacchaeus’ encounter with Jesus transformed him.

Zacchaeus was once again able to sing along with the psalmist this song of praise and thanksgiving:

The LORD is gracious and merciful,—¨
slow to anger and of great kindness.—¨
The LORD is good to all—¨
and compassionate toward all his works.

Zacchaeus, and all of us have this reality check stated in Jesus’ own words.

—For the Son of Man has come
to seek—¨and to save what was lost.”

That is God, that is who He is.

Amen.

For this is the will of my Father,
that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him
may have eternal life,
and I shall raise him on the last day.—

The poet John Guzlowski wrote the following:

What My Father Believed

He didn’t know about the Rock of Ages
or bringing in the sheaves or Jacob’s ladder
or gathering at the beautiful river
that flows beneath the throne of God.
He’d never heard of the Baltimore Catechism
either, and didn’t know the purpose of life
was to love and honor and serve God.

He’d been to the village church as a boy
in Poland, and knew he was Catholic
because his mother and father were buried
in a cemetery under wooden crosses.
His sister Catherine was buried there too.

The day their mother died Catherine took
to the kitchen corner where the stove sat,
and cried. She wouldn’t eat or drink, just cried
until she died there, died of a broken heart.
She was three or four years old, he was five.

What he knew about the nature of God
and religion came from the sermons
the priests told at mass, and this got mixed up
with his own life. He knew living was hard,
and that even children are meant to suffer.
Sometimes, when he was drinking he’d ask,
—Didn’t God send his own son here to suffer?—

My father believed we are here to lift logs
that can’t be lifted, to hammer steel nails
so bent they crack when we hit them.
In the slave labor camps in Germany,
He’d seen men try the impossible and fail.

He believed life is hard, and we should
help each other. If you see someone
on a cross, his weight pulling him down
and breaking his muscles, you should try
to lift him, even if only for a minute,
even though you know lifting won’t save him.

Reflect on those words.

Death is as certain as life, and suffering is equally as certain.

God Himself took on our suffering and our death so to save us, to bring us home to heaven.

How we respond, how we react, to the extent we lift others in their suffering, if even for a moment, is the testimony we give to our faith in Jesus Christ, our faith in His promise of heaven. His promise that He will raise us on the last day.

Amen.

The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds;
it does not rest till it reaches its goal,
nor will it withdraw till the Most High responds,
judges justly and affirms the right,
and the Lord will not delay.

As we glance over the word of today’s readings and Gospel, we would be quick to think that God steps right up to help the poor, the widow, orphans, outcasts, the downtrodden, those in need.

We like to think of God as the loving Father, Who, as in the story of the Prodigal Son, pours out every mercy to those in need.

We even get a little upset, sometimes perturbed, sometimes downright angry with God, especially when those cries go unanswered.

We ask: How could a just and loving God, who promised to hear our prayers, be so downright cold?

Brothers and sisters,

We fail see our expectations in light of the fact that God requires something of us. His mercy is boundless, His generosity unfailing. Still, that generosity, that mercy, requires a response from us.

Listen carefully:

From Sirach:

The one who serves God willingly is heard;
his petition reaches the heavens.

From Psalm 34:

When the just cry out, the Lord hears them,
and from all their distress he rescues them.

…and:

The LORD redeems the lives of his servants;
no one incurs guilt who takes refuge in him.

The one who serves God willingly is heard, the Lord hears the cries of the just, and He redeems the lives of His servants.

The Father sent His only begotten Son to us to teach us.

He never taught: Do nothing and you shall inherit the earth. Rather He taught that those who live in accord with His teachings —“ which are from the Father, will be saved. He taught that those who pray and command in faith will have their prayers answered and their commands fulfilled.

Our expectation must be this: That God will hear and answer those who live by His teachings. He will answer us in accord with our faith.

Certainly, His arms are wide open, as with the Prodigal Son. But there is always the expectation, God’s expectation. What will your response be my child?

The Prodigal Son and the tax collector from today’s Gospel got it right.

[He] stood off at a distance
and would not even raise his eyes to heaven
but beat his breast and prayed,
‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’

Both the Prodigal Son and the tax collector were in need. As you might recall, the Prodigal Son looked at his situation, hungry, homeless, feeding the pigs, and said:

—I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you;
I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired servants.”

Both stood off at a distance, certainly with expectation, but with something much greater than expectation, with faith.

My friends,

St. Paul, writing from prison after his trial said:

I have competed well; I have finished the race;
I have kept the faith.
From now on the crown of righteousness awaits me,
which the Lord, the just judge,
will award to me on that day, and not only to me,
but to all who have longed for his appearance.

The crown of righteousness is ours for the asking. The crown of righteousness awaits us. But, we must long for it. We must live up to it. We must seek it with faith, and with a life lived with that crown as our only goal.

All we do, all we ask, and all we seek will be judged in light of our desire to repent and to live rightly, justly, faithfully, as servants, in accord with the teachings of Jesus Christ and His Holy Church.

Seek…

and the Lord will not delay.

Nations shall walk by your light, and kings by your shining radiance.

When God created the heavens and the earth He created the United States, Poland, Italy, Japan, Russia…

Well, we know that’s not true. Yet, by His Holy Will we were created nations, peoples and cultures. God created man in such a way so that the gifts of humanity would be shared between us. He created man in such a way as to:

—…fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”

God created the world in such a way as to apportion its gifts, its flavors, its beauty, and from that apportionment came the peoples we know today.

Brothers and sisters,

Raise your eyes and look about; they all gather and come to you

While God apportioned His gifts, everything He has taught us about Himself, from His commandments on Mount Sinai to the incarnation of His Son, Jesus Christ, tells us that God is One and we are to be one like Him.

So how do we take the places, the cultures, the families, and the history we each represent and become one?

The only way, the only perfected method is in Jesus Christ, at the Holy Altar, in His Holy Church.

In a Sermon on the Church on March 22, 1914 Bishop Hodur said:

We built a house of God. We desired God to come down and live among us. And He fulfilled our desires.

As diverse peoples we need to bond into a common purpose. We need to bond together in a common desire. Our purpose and our desire is that God live among us. This is why God has given us our Holy Church.

The Holy Church is the unifying force, the Body of Christ on earth. We are all part of that unified body, regardless of class, color, national origin, or culture. We are different, yet we are united.

This unity is not a false unity. It is not the unity given by governments, by the sword, by the promise of politicians. It is not a unity that requires dilution of our gifts. It is not a unity which says be different for no particular reason. Rather use your gifts for our common purpose and goal – that we all be joined in the heavenly Kingdom.

We teach that the natural gifts given to mankind are of Divine origin. That the cultures and heritage we each own is provided for a purpose. That purpose it the raising of our voices to God. To bring the gifts that are from and of our heritage into God’s Holy Church.

Of course we must use care.

In achieving the goal we must not toss heritage aside like so much refuse. In doing that we sin against the gifts we have been given. We call into question God’s wisdom.

To toss heritage aside is false unity, and it is no better than tossing food aside as part of a false diet. Heritage is a gift from God, and rightly understood, a gift to be used for God’s work.

At the same time, our heritage is not a fortress wall, a rampart intended to keep others out.

My friends,

From our immigrant experience we know the trials and tribulations faced by that —other— face in the crowd. We know the pain or rejection, of being thought of as less of a human being.

It cannot be that way in God’s house.

We welcome all so that by sharing our gifts in unified purpose, we might show the world Jesus Christ.

As St. Paul writes

For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

The gifts we have been given are brought to perfection when they are clothed in Christ.

Brothers and sisters,

We are blessed by our heritage. It is diverse, but focused to one end.

“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.—

The Great Commission is the task we must take up.

We must speak to all, drawing them and their gifts into the Church. We must build up the Church so that God may come and live among us. We must proclaim the name of Jesus to all, teaching all to live within the Body of Christ, rejecting sinfulness and joyfully sharing their gifts for the fulfillment of the Kingdom.

Amen.

God looked at everything He had made, and He found it very good.

As we walk through our readings and Gospel for the Solemnity of the Christian Family we should continually focus on the fact that God created everything good.

It is easy to loose that point. We can look at our lives, our jobs, relationships, politics, our fellow Christians, and wonder —“ if He made everything good, including His Church, why do things look so bad?

Starting at the first chapter of Genesis it is easy to see the good. The earth was clean, new, and beautiful. Man had not transgressed. Things were humming along.

It didn’t take long for that scene to break down. Man focused on what he wanted over and above what God wanted, and there you have it, sin.

As we read through Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians we even begin to wonder about the Church. It starts off simple enough:

Children, obey your parents in the Lord.

and

Fathers, do not anger your children.

But then we get into this whole slave and master wording.

We get nervous —“ there’s a lot of history there, especially for us as citizens of the United States. We look at those words and we are struck with images that are painful, and fully loaded with repercussions that reverberate to this day.

We stop listening to what Paul writes and we replace his meaning and intent with our preconceived notions.

These difficult words have but one meaning.

As Christians we must do God’s will. God’s will and Jesus’ teaching are the only thing that matters.

Children are to obey their parents, not out of subjugation, but because they desire to live life the way God intends it to be lived.

Fathers are not to anger their children, not because they take a weak, comme ci comme í§a attitude towards their children’s behavior, but because they are to be fathers as the Lord God is our Father. Fathers are to train their children and instruct them as the Lord trains and instructs.

Being a master or slave is meaningless, and the institution of slavery is nothingness in light of the Kingdom of God.

Regardless of our state in life, our position, our relative degree of freedom as classified by the government, we are to live only as Christians.

Status, that is being a child, father, slave, or master, is all worthless classification. That classification only matters if we take our focus off our roles in the Christian family.

Brothers and sisters,

Now think for a moment.

Isn’t compromise our national motto? We all learned that the United States Constitution was developed in a spirit of compromise. Federalists, states rights, House and Senate, three part government, checks and balances. It all works out because people compromised.

The same thing happens in other life situations. Whether a project at work or school, what we’re serving for dinner, the running of the Parish Committee, or our domestic lives; regardless of the things that happen in life, we tend to focus on making peace and on compromising. We even misquote Jesus —“ the whole thing about being a peacemaker.

That, my friends, is peace at the cost of living the way God intends.

We loose by compromise. We break faith. We focus on what we want over and above what God wants. We sin.

What God created is God’s way. God’s way, the way He wants us to act, behave, worship, live, and believe is the perfect way. He looked at it and said it was good.

What God seeks, and the whole reason for His coming as man, was that God wants us to know and follow His way. He gave us the word, and showed us how to live it. He seeks the only reality that counts: man and God living together in complete harmony.

My brothers and sisters,

Jesus never saw compromise as an option.

Paul said that we must live life in accord with our baptism, as the Christian family.

Jesus didn’t tell the Pharisees that He saw their point. He didn’t tell adulterers that he understood their plight. He simply said, repent and follow Me. If you do that, you have a place in the Kingdom of Heaven.

When Mary and Joseph found Jesus sitting in the temple before the teachers, and questioned Him, He simply said:

—Why did you search for Me? Did you not know I had to be in My Father’s house?—

Jesus told them —“ don’t you see, this is how things are supposed to be.

God created everything good, and asks us to live in unity with the way of life He personally taught us.

How we live, what we profess, what we do with our husbands, wives, children, co-workers, fellow parishioners, friends and enemies all has to be in accord with God’s way, without compromise or abandonment.

When He looks to us, the Christian people, the Christian family who maintain and follow His way, He will say:

‘Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world’

Those will be the sweetest words we will ever hear, words so sweet they are worth any cost.

Amen.

“If you have faith the size of a mustard seed,
you would say to this mulberry tree,
‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.

I’ve been thinking about swimming lately. The subject has appeared in a few books I’ve read.

I’ve been reflecting on my inability to swim. I can certainly ‘swim’ across a pool, and I can float, but these are at a very basic level. I cannot seriously swim, nor could I tread water for any significant period of time.

I was at Mystic this summer, and a certain theme keeps coming up —“ something I learned there. Most sailors refused to learn how to swim. If their ship were to sink, they preferred a quick death.

Now, I would think that all of us have enough desire for life so as to struggle should we fall in, even if we couldn’t swim. Having said that, I would wonder how many of us carry enough faith so as to pick ourselves up and walk across the water.

You recall the passage from the Gospel according to St. Matthew:

But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear.
But immediately he spoke to them, saying, “Take heart, it is I; have no fear.”
And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, bid me come to you on the water.”
He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus;
but when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.”
Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “O man of little faith, why did you doubt?”

Do we have the faith to move mountains, uproot trees, and walk on water?

The interesting thing about faith is that for a few it is intuitive. Most of us struggle with faith because in light of our experience it is counter-intuitive.

We might react to God in much the same way Habakkuk did:

Why do you let me see ruin;
why must I look at misery?
Destruction and violence are before me;
there is strife, and clamorous discord.

We know God’s promises —“ He Himself told us how things would be. Yet…

Yet He threw up a huge roadblock to easy faith. The cross.

Today our Bishop is visiting in order to bless our newly installed cross, the cross that is front and center, on the peak of the church’s roof.

He blesses the cross which is the stumbling block for so many; the cross, which is a contradiction to those who claim wisdom.

Brothers and sisters,

In today’s Gospel Jesus tells us that the servant’s life is not easy.

“Who among you would say to your servant
who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field,
‘Come here immediately and take your place at table’?
Would he not rather say to him,
‘Prepare something for me to eat.
Put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink.
You may eat and drink when I am finished’?

It is easy to look at the master and say, ‘What a jerk.’ The servant worked all day —“ in the hot sun, out in the fields. The servant no sooner returns than he is told to wash up, put on his apron, and get right back to work. We feel sorry for the servant. We pity him.

We are wrong.

My friends,

That is the mystery of the cross.

Jesus stood His ground before the cross. He accepted it and took it up.

We are to do the same.

Our sinful inclination is to say ‘non serviam.’ I will not serve. I will not bow down.

It happens in big and small ways. Everything from abortion —“ I will not bear this child, to marriage —“ I will marry who I want regardless of Church teaching, to service in the Holy Church —“ Well Holy Orders should be open to me too, to eating those extra carbs you and I do not need.

In the face of the cross faith asks us to say yes, I accept suffering, loss, sadness, pain, loneliness, difficulties, and discomfort for the sake of my salvation and the Kingdom. I accept my place on the cross.

St. Paul reminds us, as he sits in his prison cell:

For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice
but rather of power and love and self-control.
So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord

Our testimony is the cross, and our courageous acceptance of it.

Faith in the Holy Cross and its meaning in our lives is the prerequisite to moving mountains, transplanting trees, and walking on water.

Faith in the Holy Cross gives us what the world cannot give, true power, true love, true self-control.

That faith in the cross may be the size of a mustard seed, but as Jesus told us:

—…a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth;
yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches—

With that seed of faith and our acceptance of the cross we will be victorious.

Amen.