From the Pastor

Today our society holds little value for prayer, and no value in attending church. Many times it looks like there is no need for God.

Jesus speaks to his disciples and to all of us in a parable. On first hearing this parable we might think that the punishment of the virgins who were excluded from the wedding feast was too big, too severe. However the gospel story is not about forgetting to bring along extra oil for a lamp, but about how we view the invitation, given to all of us, to take our place in the kingdom of God.

If we want to have an eternity of joy, we must to prepare for it with our whole our heart and mind. Jesus teaches this parable as a warning because the day the Lord will return is unknown and could be any minute.

As the year 2000 was coming, there was a lot of speculation about the end of the world. But we truly do not know when the second coming of Jesus will happen.

But let’s say that it will happen today. Are we ready for this event?

There are few things that are certain in our lives. One of them is that each one of us eventually will have to die. To dismiss the thought of death, pushing it to the back of our minds as something to be faced at a later date, is the type of foolishness Jesus condemns in this gospel.

If we live without thought as to where the journey of our spiritual life is taking us, we are not to making the preparations necessary for the coming of the kingdom. Death will catch us unaware, and we will face God. If we are found empty inside, with no oil in our spiritual lamps, the result will be very disappointing.

An essential part of the Christian life is to plant a personal relationship with God which one must posses, work and live, because it cannot be borrowed at the last minute.

The Church gives us directions on how to be prepared for the second Coming of Christ. Christ is always prepared to meet us, so we, for our part, must be prepared to meet him

The Gospel brings home the importance of being ready and prepared while we wait, by loving God – when we come to the Church to praise and worship him, when we study the sacred Scripture, and live God’s teachings with our neighbors and strangers.

By doing so we will be full, our lives and souls will be full like the lamps of the wise virgins. We will be ready for Jesus’ Second coming.

So, let’s take the teachings of God very seriously and put into practice in our daily life, that way we will not be left in the dark as those foolish virgins were. Amen.

On this day we remember all of those who have died and have not been saints. That is the great majority of those who have died. We pray for them because we know that prayer for the dead is important. We do not know how those who have died are purified to be in the presence of the living God, but we recognize that such purification is truly necessary. It could happen in the very act of dying or it could happen in some other way.

How long ago someone died makes no difference, we can still pray for them. This is because prayer goes beyond space and time. Today we can pray in a special way for those who have touched our lives and have died.

We pray for all of our family members who have died and all of our ancestors.

We pray for those who seem to have died with their hearts set against God.

Let us rejoice in our faith which shows us the importance of praying for those who have died. Let us trust in the compassion and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Blessed are the poor in spirit,
Blessed are they who mourn,
Blessed are the meek,
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
Blessed are the merciful,
Blessed are the clean of heart,
Blessed are the peacemakers,
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you…

All Saints. Who were those people?

Many times we would say that I am not a saint. I cannot live a life like those saints, meaning spend all day on prayer. But is this the way, to become a saint? To pray all day on our knees?

Centrally not!

We have so many saints who during at least small part of their life were against God. Take for example St. Paul. He persecuted the first Christians. But when he met Jesus he changed his life. Then he and others realized the mistake. Many of us make the same mistake these days.

What is that mistake? Well, it is that I have to live according to our society’s rules, not by God’s rules. But that’s not true.

We do have saints living among us. Yes, although they are overshadowed by those who are against God and His commandments. Everyone who live according to God’s commandments, who is a good mother, good father for their family, a good child, all who try to live according the Christian way, is a good Christian.

Today we honor those Saints, who are no longer with us. But today also, let us pray for one another, that God will give us strength to become like those Saints, strong in faith, and not worried about what others will say about us if we stick to God, God’s commandments, to our Christian Traditions and teachings. Let us remember the teaching of Jesus in today’s Gospel: Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.

How many of us hate ourselves? I never met a person who truly hated himself. More, we can find many people who are selfish, who love only themselves, and they do dislike, or even hate others.

How many of us have ever asked God to help us to love Him? To love God is a gift – a gift from God Himself.

What do we mean when we say: “Love God?” – To love God means to desire to please God. Christ’s command might have read: “Thou shall desire to please God”.

Love of neighbor means the desire to do good to our neighbor. We cannot do good to God, but we can desire to please God. We can and must do well to our neighbor. By the way, one of the best ways to please God is to do good to our neighbor, to love our neighbors and others whom God put on our path of life.

Jesus told us several times that we who love God will keep God’s commandments. Several Sundays ago we saw that God’s commandments are a proof of God’s love for us. Keeping them is a proof of our love for Him. You come to Mass because God is pleased when you worship Him. You receive Holy Communion because God wants to be with you. You pray because God is pleased when you talk to Him. You respect your health and life and the health and life of others because that pleases God. To do these things is to love God. To do them we need God’s help. We know when we receive that help and push it away chances are that we are going against God’s commandments and that is sin.

So let’s love each other as we would love ourselves, than we will live in harmony as children of God, and that way we will be able to please God. Amen.

In today’s Gospel we see the Pharisees wanted to trap Jesus in very simple way. Should we pay the tax to the Romans or not?

If Jesus would say; pay the tax, then the Pharisees would accuse Him of collaborating with Romans, the enemy. If Jesus would say do not pay the tax, then He would be seen as a rebel, who wants to start some kind of revolution. As a result of this the Pharisees could get Jesus into prison and get rid of Him, from their spiritual and political life.

Jesus answers them: Let them who deal with Caesar, pay Caesar his due. What is of God should be given to God. They are stunned by his wisdom, and they leave because they were worried that they can be exposed even more. And I am sure that we like what Jesus just did to the Pharisees, aren’t we? However let’s not condemn the Pharisees too quickly. Let’s look into our own lives.

Are we always with Jesus? Do we really give to God what we owe Him? Do we give Him our thanks for life, family, for every grace we are given? Do we praise Him with our prayers? Do we show our children how to pray? Do we teach them God’s values in our daily life?, Do we read the Scripture on regular basis so we can more understand our faith? As Citizens of the kingdom of God do we obey God’s commandments, or take them randomly, practicing them in a way which is comfortable to us but not to God?

If your answer is no, then there is another question: Are we really better than those Pharisees?

My brothers and sisters, let’s get serious about our faith. It is not a game of pick and choose. We must show to the whole world that being a true disciple of Jesus Christ is the right choice. In choosing God and God’s values we show our love and concern – our life which is built on true, loving relationships. It really does not matter what the world or Caesar promises us because those promises will not lead to fulfillment, to peace or love. In making choices we must guard against the values and choices we cannot cooperate with, always showing our choice for God as the right choice. Not doing so would put our salvation in jeopardy. Let us choose God above all, giving to God what is God’s.

Joe approached his pastor after Mass: – Father, you talked about inviting people to our services.

I had an experience in the army. Bill and I were buddies, both Catholics. But we never went to Mass. We were having a five-day mission on the base. I asked Bill to come along, but he had some kind of excuse. The second and third night more excuses. Finally, on the fourth night he came with me to the chapel. Something hit him, because from then on he went with me to Mass and Communion regularly. That was twenty years ago. I haven not seen him since, but he writes to me every year and thanks me for asking him to go to that mission.

Jesus just told us the kingdom of heaven is like a king who gave a marriage feast for his son. The kingdom of heaven means the family of God here on this earth. The marriage feast is the table loaded with spiritual food.

My thought for today is that every one of us is a servant of the great King. Christ is His Son. The heavenly Father sends us out to invite everyone to share the spiritual feast offered by His Church.

Who are the people we can invite? Almost everyone practically.

Many people have never attended a mission, a retreat, or joined rosary, altar society or any organization in a parish. Fallen-away Christian often need a little encourage to start their way back to the family of God.

We are thinking especially of the many who attend no church and of our friends of other faiths who are looking for the spiritual nourishment we have.

Where do we meet these possible guests? They could be neighbors, schoolmates, fellow workers, even relatives. They could be chance acquaintances at a game, at the store, on the bus, in the doctor’s waiting room.

Don’t limit your invitation to so-called respectable people. Invite the underprivileged, the outcast, the sinner. As the king commanded in today’s Gospel: “Go out and invite all whom you can find, both bad and good.” Invite them to a regular Sunday Mass, or preferably to some special service.

Suppose they turn down your invitation.

Well, you have done your duty, a duty of faith, a duty of charity. You are showing that your faith means something to you. You are concerned, considerate and kind enough to want others to share the spiritual banquet we are enjoying this very hour.

God bless you.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters

God gave us free will. We are responsible for our life, our behavior, words, deeds and decisions. And because of that free will, one day each one of us will have stand in front of God and be judged for our good deeds or bad. The good news is that with the help of God’s grace we can change the direction of our lives for the better.

The Liturgy, the Eucharist points out that there must be a connection between what we say and what we do.

Jesus criticized some of the people in leadership of his days because they did not live up to what they promised. Their promises were empty, they said yes to God and did nothing to fulfill that yes; and because of that they were not pleasing God. Jesus tells them that their observance of the law was an outward show and that there has to be more honesty and a greater readiness to accept the call for repentance.

Jesus told us a beautiful story. And this story is for all ages. Each of us has points of inconsistency between what we promised and what we did or do. The lesson the gospel offers us is that we may be saying “yes” to God on Sunday and turning our back on what we profess during the rest of the week. Many of us who say “yes” to the Body of Christ during Holy Mass completely forget what we promise to Jesus during the week. Very often we behave like the second son from today’s Gospel.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters

I know who we would like to be in today’s Gospel. Of course we would like be the one who would say NO but actually go and fulfill God’s request.

The choice is ours. We can do even better than the son who eventually did the work. We can say YES and do the work of God. So as God’s children, let put all differences behind us and let’s start to say yes our God every day of our life.

After the homily we are going to profess our faith. I would encourage everybody to think what we profess, and live that profession this week, and all the weeks of our life.

We just heard great teaching of Jesus. The principle lesson of this parable is that God is generous, that the kingdom of heaven is not run like the kingdom of earth, that God’s ways are not people’s way.

Yes, God is generous. The question is: are we generous?

Many times we hear statements: “I grew up with the Church, I went to a Catholic school, I go to Church every Sunday, I pray every day, I go systematically to the sacrament of Reconciliation to reconcile myself with God, I go to communion all the time. So I work in ‘God’s field’ all my life, therefore I have to get better rewards than others.

And who are the others? Some of them are the people who converted and joined the faith later; some of them join our faith on their death bed. And maybe they did not work as hard in God’s field, as hard as we did. Maybe they worked as hard as or even harder than we did, but for short period of time.

Are we generous to recognize their work, without pointing that we did more, or the same — but for a longer period of time? Didn’t we agree to our reward?

If we look closer into our behavior, we really think and behave as that first group from Jesus’ parable.

Yes, as Christians, we who are working in God’s field by spreading the good news throughout our families, our neighborhoods, we can expect a reward, and we should expect a reward. But we cannot expect more than we agreed to.

Through baptism, first communion, confirmation, didn’t we agree to do what God requires from us for our reward. So, we really cannot expect more than we deserve, more than we agreed to. And at the same time we cannot put anybody down.

We have to accept God’s generosity. And that generosity is not only toward those who joined us later. The love of God and His generosity is toward all of us. Without His mercy none of us probably could reach the final reward, which is Heaven.

Why?

Because none of us is perfect. Therefore, let’s work toward perfection in our own lives as hard as we can, so at the end we will receive the the agreed to reward. Amen.

On the second Sunday of September each year we celebrate a special feast day, the Solemnity of Brotherly Love.

This Solemnity was set aside by the Synod of our Church in Chicago in 1914. The General Synod established this day for the faithful of the Church in order to remember the great commandment of God that is to love your neighbor as you love yourself.

During the Holy Sacrifice of Mass on This solemnity, we read the Gospel except from Luke 10:25-37, the parable of the Good Samaritan. That parable begins when a lawyer stood up and began to test Jesus by asking Him – what must I do to inherit eternal life?

Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?”

He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”

And Jesus said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”

And the lawyer then wanted to justify himself by asking,” Who is my neighbor?”

And we all know the rest of the story about the Samaritan man who had pity and assisted the man who was robbed and beaten and left by the roadside. The Samaritan was truly the neighbor of the victim who was robbed.

It is not everyday that we have the opportunity to help someone who encountered such a situation as the man who was robbed. But, each and every one of us has numerous opportunities every day to show compassion and love toward others.

My Brothers and d Sisters, what are we to do?

We can help people who are in need by praying for them and also by giving some material help.

Lots of people around us, members of our families, friends, and people who lost everything need our material and spiritual help. We have to remember them. We can not leave them alone.

The Solemnity of Brotherly Love gives as hints and direction what we have to do and what is our Christian responsibility for each other.

We must remember what Jesus said in today’s Gospel – “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”