My dear sisters and brothers,

All the readings for today’s Sunday are about trusting our Heavenly Father. Trust in the Lord! That is the strong message of the readings that we have heard today.

In God’s few words from the Book of Isaiah we learn of His Fatherhood. “I will not forget you” says the Lord God.

We have a heavenly Father. Not only is He our Creator, but He also wants to be our Father. While we struggle here on earth, awaiting the day when we will be united with the Heavenly Father, we are told in different words that God is watching over us. He has not forgotten us. If we think that He has forgotten us, it is all in our minds.

The second Reading from the First Letter to the Corinthians concerns the ministry of the Apostles. We heard the author say, “Brothers and sisters: ‘Think of us in this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy.’”

In today’s Gospel Jesus said, to His disciples “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” Disciples, followers of Christ, cannot have a divided loyalty.

Changing the subject, Jesus said in today’s Gospel, “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”

Today, Jesus reminds us who follow Him that we are more important than flowers, than the grass, than swallows. His promise to us is that He will take care of us even more than He does of the plants and birds. This teaching of Jesus reminds us that we are called to a distinct way of life, not a worldly way but a spiritual way. We are called to trust in God who knows what we need and to believe that God will give it to us. Blessed is he who places his trust in the Lord Jesus!

We are called can pray for a deeper commitment to God for ourselves and for others. This week my brothers and sisters in Christ let us pray for each other, that we may receive the gift of faith that is necessary to trust in our Heavenly Father so we may not worry about tomorrow.

My sisters and brothers in Christ,

Today we celebrate 7th Sunday of Ordinary time.

If we remember last passages from the gospels, they concern Jesus` evocation to be a good person, a good disciple. He never said to us it will be easy but He said it is possible. He invites us to make a choice.

To be His disciple required follow Him and realize in our life His teaching.

Jesus invites us to follow Him in a very radical kind of way. Today’s first reading from the Book of Leviticus invites us to be holy as God is holy. The LORD said to Moses, “Speak to the whole Israelite community and tell them: Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am holy.

An invitation from the Lord needs to be taken seriously. We humans often take our time responding to God, even when we have the best of will. For example St Francis of Assisi and many Saints respond to God in right way made their lives holy and has taken it seriously. Most of us say yes to God and then take our time giving our whole self. We give in bit by bit. Perhaps that is why Jesus in today’s Gospel presents His teaching so simply. He does not want us to misunderstand what it means to follow Him.

We must be willing to give up everything.
We are called to be holy and called to be perfect.
When we pray to God every day –- we follow Him.
When we help our neighbors –- we are His disciples.
And when we work honestly –- we also are heavenly Father’s children. Because, because Jesus says to us:” Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust”.

Holiness is simply living for God in every aspect of our lives.

My dear brothers and sisters

The First Letter to the Corinthians, from which we get today’s second reading, is really clear that all that is good in us comes from the Lord. It is really clear if we are to be wise, it can only be as God is wise.

Let us give thanks to God today that we have been given the gift of faith. Let us ask that our faith may be lively and draw us deeper and deeper into the mysteries of God. Let us become radical in our living and gentle in our loving.

Today we celebrate the last Sunday of the year 2010. The first Sunday after Christmas in Polish National Catholic Church we celebrate the Solemnity of Humble Shepherds. In our liturgy for this Sunday we remember those who visited first newborn child in Bethlehem.

My Dear brothers and sisters

Many generations had been waiting for the coming of the Messiah, but only a few humble shepherds were worthy to be told of the great event that was taking place.

The angel of the Lord appeared to a few humble shepherds and the glory of God shone above them. They were terrified, but the angel said to them, ”do not be afraid; for see – I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people; to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.

When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.

This was the beginning of the good news of Jesus’ coming into the world; the shepherds went to the manger and presented their respect worshipping the newborn savior of the world.

They left praising God for the great fortune of humanity and they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child.

Brothers and sisters, we have to do the same! We have to be like shepherds the first witnesses of Incarnation. No matter what you do in life — whether you are a student, a worker, a housewife, a parent, or retire — your job is to speak about Jesus and to spread the word concerning him. And it is your job to do that all the time. Not just when you are in church, but also outside, on the job, at home, everywhere you are. Parents and grandparents you are the first spiritual teachers for your children and grandchildren about Jesus — and not just by bringing kids to baptism and to Sunday school, but also by reading them, Bible stories and teaching about Jesus at home. It’s our job to spread word of Jesus — and not just to those who are already Christians, but also to those who live without Jesus.

We have to take example from the shepherds. St. Luke in the Gospel said about them: They hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. Brothers and sisters like the shepherds we have to find Jesus in our lives and tell everybody about Him. Tell that He is our salvation and He came to this world to save and sanctify all the people.

Our mission is testifying about good news that in the Bethlehem a Savior, our Messiah and Lord was born.

While working on his famous painting “The Last Supper,” Leonardo DaVinci had an argument with a certain man. He lashed out against the fellow with bitter words and threatening gestures. When the argument was over DaVinci went back to his studio, where he was working on the face of Jesus. He could not make one stroke. At last he realized what the trouble was. He put down his brush, found the man he had offended, and asked his forgiveness. He returned to his studio and calmly continued painting the face of Jesus.

Like DaVinci we are trying to put Christ into the masterpiece called Christmas. We want Jesus to be in the center of our Christmas celebration.

In today’s Gospel we heard John: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

John challenged people to reform their lives, to repent of their sins and undergo a baptism of purification in the Jordan. He warns the Pharisees and Sadducees that being descendants of Abraham would count for nothing, if good deeds were not evident in their lives.

The call of John to repent is an urgent invitation for us to prepare a way for the Lord to come into our hearts. Preparing to celebrate Christmas means renewing our lives by acknowledging our need for Christ.

Just as DaVinci could not work on the face of Jesus while he was guilty of having offended another man, so you and I cannot work at putting Christ into the Christmas picture, as long as we are not sorry for having disobeyed God. John warns all of us, that being Christian would count for nothing if good deeds were not evident in our lives.

Each Advent is an opportunity for us to come closer to Christ and deepen our relationship with him through prayer and repentance. His power is at work in our lives when we make peace with the family member we have rejected, the relations we do not speak to, and the poor we have no time for. Breaking down these barriers will open the way for Christ to come to our studios — that is our hearts. In this way we will be able like DaVinci, to paint Jesus in our hearts, and in the hearts of those who are around us.

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, from now on a merited crown awaits me.

All the time most of us are amazed by good athletes like: Michael Jordan, the Williams Sisters, Aggasi, Nadal, and many others. We are amazed by what they achieved, and some of us wish to be as good as they are. But I do not think that many times we realize how many hours they have to spend in practice in order to have those good results.

A couple years ago there was interview with Andre Agasi, who at that time was number one in the world. The year before he was number 120 in the world. One of the question was: What happened that you fell so much in the ranking. Agasi said that he thought that the talent which he has will be enough, that he does not have to put too much effort toward his training. When he started go lower and lower with his ranking he blamed everybody around but not himself. He blamed his coach. But one day he realized what his coach said long time ago: “TALENT ISTSELF IS NOT ENOUGH AND IF HE WANTS TO BE A BETTER PLAYER, HAS TO PRACTICE MORE OFTEN.”

We can change this sentence and put it into our life: “IF I WANT TO BE A GOOD CHRISTIAN I HAVE TO LISTEN TO MY COACH, I HAVE TO PRACTICE MORE OFTEN.”

But who is my coach?

Jesus Christ is our coach, good religious books can be our coach, the Bible is our coach, and Holy Sprit is our coach. Many times our coach is very tough on us because he wants us to exercise every day, and we would claim that we do not have time for this, or we do not want to have time for the SPIRITUAL EXERCISE. We would rather spend our time with our friends, next to TV, or other ways.

Parents are supposed to be the good example of good Christian life to their children, youth to their friends, and we as Christians to the world. In order to be a good Christian we have to have knowledge about our faith, about Jesus Christ. To have up-to-date knowledge we have to read the Bible, and good religious books. To be good Christians we have to exercise our faith. Even the best athlete without exercise will very soon become one of the worst, will be the outsider. The same can happen to us.

Ghandi, the great leader of India said that: Christianity is the most beautiful religion that he ever saw. But when he was asked why he did not convert to Christianity, if Christianity is such a good religion, Ghandi Answered: “I have never met a Christian who spends life according to Christian’s rules.”

It is sad, but maybe Ghandi met only those Christians who never practiced or stopped to practice their religion, maybe he met only outsiders.

So let us start to exercise more seriously our religion, our faith, than we will be able to repeat after St. Paul: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, from now on a merited crown awaits me.” Amen.