January 16, 2022 – 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

What was your New Year’s resolution(s)?  Deepen your spiritual life and relationship with God? Don’t get upset so easily?  Be more patient?  Stop smoking?  Eat more healthily?  Exercise and lose weight?  In case you haven’t made one yet, here is a resolution that could have a profound effect on the quality of your life… How about making a resolution to live from your strengths?

One of the splendors of creation is the extraordinary variety of life.  Every form of life has its unique role to play in God’s plan.  The great oaks, daffodils, elephants, canaries, dolphins and sharks each have their own design and purpose.  They achieve their destinies by being just what they are, and functioning according to the nature of their species.  However, human beings go one step better!  We differ from plants and animals, not only because we are of a different species, but because each one of us is unique – almost an individual species in ourself.  There is nobody else in the world exactly like us, nor has there ever been, nor will there ever be.  It follows, therefore, that we will achieve our destiny by being just what we are, and functioning according to our uniqueness.

One of the most important steps we make in living effectively is to understand and respect our uniqueness.  Each of us has our own life to unfold and our own destiny to accomplish.  God has a plan, specific for each of us as individuals, to manifest God’s glory.  But accepting our uniqueness, with all that it implies, is not easy.  Many people don’t like themselves.  Millions are not happy with who they are or what they have.  It is unfortunate that many people spend their lives wallowing in envy of others.  Rather than accomplishing our own purposes, we waste time and energy complaining about our supposed deficiencies, and wishing we had someone else’s looks, personalities, talents, social advantages, and financial means.

All that we need to be happy and fulfilled in life we already have.  In his powerful letter to the Corinthians, Paul makes it clear that each of us possesses unique talents and gifts.  No one has exactly the same endowments and we have no right to expect it to be otherwise.  We must stop looking outside ourselves for reasons to be happy and successful.  All that we need is already within.  Each of us must discover what we have to offer to leave our mark on this world.  We need to keep in mind that God doesn’t make comparisons and neither should we.  In God’s eyes, no one is more appealing, more talented, more beautiful, or more perfect.  When we are unique, we are already perfect!  Because there really is no one else like us, there is no need for comparisons.  We need to see as God sees!

Have a blessed week!

Father Don

January 9, 2022 – Baptism of the Lord

Is your Christmas tree still up?  After all, Christmas is not simply a day, it is a season.  Almost four weeks after Christmas Day, this glorious season concludes. At the beginning we celebrate the birth of Jesus and walk in faith, the hand of the infant Jesus holding our hand.  Today, as we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus, our Christmas season ends and the hands of the adult Jesus with his arms around our shoulders guides us.  It is a day to reflect on our own baptism however long ago that was.

Our baptism is our gateway into the sacrament life of the Church.  Through baptism we carry on the mission of Jesus in our day-to-day lives.  Just as Jesus’ ministry began with his baptism by John, so our ministry to others begins as we grow in the life of the Church.  BAPTISM is the beginning.  Through the sacraments we are called to be Church to those around us.  We are the Church.  We are the Body of Christ.

After his baptism by John, and before his public ministry begins, Jesus retires alone to a private place for sincere prayer.  He prepares himself for what is to come.  How many of us pray before we begin something new and life-changing? Such as a new job, getting married, beginning a new family?  Our baptismal promises urge us to nurture our prayer life.  Prayer has the power to transform our lives.  How much time we spend and where we choose to be when we pray is always up to us.  For some, sitting in a quiet church or chapel is ideal.  For others, the kitchen table, the garden, or a quiet place in the woods, or even your car on the way to or from work.  Every place and time can be a good place to pray.

As we have begun a new year, make a resolution to embrace the meaning of your baptism – you were commissioned to continue the work of Jesus, and get the power to do that by deepening your life of prayer!

With the close of the Christmas Season, on behalf of Fr. James, Deacon Tom, our permanent deacons, seminarian Andrew and our staff, I thank everyone who gifted us with home-made goodies, candy, personal Christmas presents, your best wishes and prayers.  We would also like to extend a profound “thank you” to our Art & Environment Committee, Liturgy Team, all our Musicians, liturgical ministers and anyone who helped make our 2021 celebration of Christmas at OLM a wonderful and beautiful experience!

Have a blessed week!

Father Don

January 2, 2022 – Epiphany of the Lord

Today we celebrate Epiphany and the most foundational truth of the Christian life can be found in today’s gospel.  But it is a lesson that we often miss.  We miss it because we are not looking in the right place.  In today’s gospel, it is difficult to keep your eyes off of the wise men.  They are foreign and mysterious.  They come from the East in their exotic robes, riding their peculiar camels, following the star.  But when we focus on the wise men, the theme of the gospel is about searching, finding, and the giving of gifts.  These themes, however, are not the deepest truth of today’s feast.  To find that truth we must not look at what the wise men do, but at what Jesus does.  And what does Jesus do?  He receives the gifts that the wise men offer.  This action is arguably the first action of Jesus ever recorded in the gospels: to accept the gifts that are given.  It is an action of profound significance because it is an illustration of what is most fundamental about the Christian life – that being a Christian is not about what we do, but what we accept – it is not about giving but about receiving.

This is a difficult lesson for us to learn because we persist in the misconception that our faith is primarily about us, about what we do or what we fail to do.  But our faith is not primarily about what we do, but rather about what God does.  God has made us and saved us.  God’s actions are the actions that are at the heart of the gospel.  Therefore, the stance of a Christian is primarily a stance of openness, a stance of receptivity.  It is only when we can receive the gift that God offers that we know what salvation is truly about.

The gifts offered by the wise men – gold, frankincense, myrrh – symbolize what we are to receive.  The gift of gold is a gift of great value and worth.  It points to the value and worth of our own lives.  We are persons of great worth.  God has made us so.  God has instilled in us a dignity that is a part of who we are.  The gift of frankincense is a mysterious perfume, and it points to the mysterious action of God in our lives.  God has a plan.  God has a plan for us and for the world. God is working to unfold that plan through all the relationship and opportunities of our lives.  It is a mystery we cannot control.  We can only accept it and cooperate with it.  Myrrh is the ointment of death, and it points to the unavoidable pain which is a part of all of our lives.  None of us can avoid evil or pain, whether that come from hurt, rejection, failures, sickness, or grief.  But in faith we believe that such pain, as real and as deep as it is, cannot negate our worth and dignity as people.  Nor can it frustrate or derail the mysterious plan of God that somehow moves forward despite all that opposes it.

Being a faithful Christian is not about doing.  It is about receiving.  This is why the first action of Jesus in the gospels is to receive the gifts of the wise men.  Jesus receives gold, frankincense, and myrrh to remind us that we need to receive the value of our own person, the mystery of God’s action in our life, and the reality that pain and evil cannot stop the plan of God.  Those are three gifts we need to receive, for it is only by accepting them that we can follow Christ and fulfill the promise of Christmas.

Father Don

October 17 – Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Being a doctor and a deacon, Fr. Don has asked me to write to update you on the latest information concerning the prevention of COVID-19.

The only ways to help decrease the spread of COVID-19 is with distancing yourself by six feet from other people, wearing a face mask, adhering to hand washing hygiene, and receiving one of the approved COVID-19 vaccines.  Vaccination seems to be the part that is causing the most controversy, understandably, given the rapid rate at which it was introduced to the public.  The pandemic nature of the disease and how quickly it spread across the globe necessitated the need for an accelerated release timetable. Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson are the only three vaccines approved/allowed to be used within the United States.  This is since they are the only ones that have not been manufactured using fetal stem cells.  This is extremely important to understand, especially as Christians and Catholics.  When the claim is made that no genetic material is used in the production that means just that.  The vaccine is completely free of any genetic material from, or fetal stem cell tissue of, a previously aborted fetus.  It is important to understand that in the United States, it is completely illegal to use aborted fetal stem cells in the development of any vaccine.

Another ethical and scientific point to clarify is that the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines do not interact with a person’s DNA.  When the vaccine is introduced into the human body, our white blood cells see the foreign material and will attack and engulf the mRNA particles.  Once inside the cell, it transforms only that individual cell to mimic the COVID-19 virus.  Once all the vaccine particles are engulfed, another set of white blood cells sees these transformed white blood cells as foreign and attacks them.  This how we form antibodies and develop immunity to the COVID-19 virus.  At no time does the mRNA interact with our core DNA. Additionally, while the mRNA technology is new to vaccine production, the science has been present for approximately the last ten years in the development of cancer medications.

I have spoken to the scientific aspects concerning vaccine to help bring clarity.  For the religious and ethics, I will leave that to our Holy Father, Pope Frances.   In short, he also recognizes the enormity of the decision to be vaccinated and calls upon all Catholics to consider the ethics and impact your decision to be, or not to be, vaccinated will have on society.  He asks all Catholics to consider our fellow brothers and sisters health when making our decisions.  He even goes as far as to call it a Corporal Work of Mercy to be vaccinated.  Meaning we are performing this act not for ourselves, but for the potential health and wellbeing of our neighbor.  When we perform corporal works of mercy, we are placing our desires aside for the sake of others.  To read for yourself, you can visit the Vatican website, or simply search ‘Pope Francis COVID-19 video’ on YouTube.

Peace,

Deacon Tony

October 10 – Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

The theme of today’s gospel is obviously detachment.  We are told that a man ran up to Jesus and asked him, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus tells him to obey the commandments.  The man responds that he has done that since his youth.  Jesus, looking at him, loved him, as he does us, and said to him….”You are lacking in one thing.  Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come follow me.”  At that statement the man’s face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions. It is hard to give up those things we treasure.  Our possessions sometimes possess us!  And it’s not only material things…..we sometimes can’t let go of grudges, attitudes, silly traditions, our pettiness, etc.  Jesus goes on to say how hard it is for those with wealth to enter the kingdom of God.  It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich.  Amazed, the disciples ask, who can be saved?  Jesus tells them, and us who can’t let go of our possessions, that for human beings it is impossible, but not for God.  This means that if we cooperate with God’s grace, we will be so overwhelmed with God’s love, that it will be possible to let go of our possessions.  Try it!

Today is my 40^th anniversary of ordination to the priesthood….October 10, 1981.  Continuing with the gospel of today, Peter says to Jesus that “We have given up everything and followed you.” Jesus responds saying “Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age….”

In 40 years of priesthood, I have seen this scripture passage fulfilled in my life!  I give praise to God for how my life has been blessed with many parishioners in my past seven parish assignments, and now all of you at Our Lady of Mercy, who have opened your homes to me.  Been there as a mother or father, brother or sister to me in times of struggles and joys!  Have given me the opportunity to be a part of your family celebrations, neighborhood parties, and console you in times of sorrow. Through your laughter, tears, ups and downs, shared memories you have brought me closer to God.  I only hope and pray that, despite my unworthiness, you have been brought closer to God through the power given to me in my ordination to absolve you from your sins, and to feed you with the very Body and Blood of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

Thank you, and God Bless You!

Father Don