January 2014

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time – “A” – January 26, 2014

From the Pastor /

Today’s Gospel story teaches us how simple the whole notion of a vocation is. Jesus approaches the people He wants to be His followers, asks them a question, and their response is immediately to leave everything and follow Him. He meets them where they are, in their everyday lives, in the workplace, and puts the question to them. He only asks them to follow Him. There are no questions asked by the four men, no conditions laid down by them, nor is there any form of procrastination: “Let me sort a few things out first.” They just follow. It is only when they follow Jesus that they get the chance to see what He and His ministry are all about. If Jesus were to come into your workplace and give you this simple invitation, what would your response be? What answer would you give to the Lord? We feel unworthy or unprepared for the things God asks us to do. If we are feeling like this, we can remember the response of the first four disciples, their immediate decision to get up and go, to follow the Lord.

The question is really not “What answer would I give to the Lord?” but “What answer have I given to the Lord?” If today were “Everybody’s Vocation Sunday,” what vocation would you be thanking God for at this moment? What vocation has God blessed you with in your life? What opportunities and circumstances have you in your life that have made you a better person, a more enriched person? Let us all take time today to consider our own vocation, our own calling by the Lord. We may be amazed as we realize the many paths that the Lord has opened up before us. Perhaps we often think of our life as one where things just happen for no particular reason, but when we stop to think and pray we realize that the Lord has been there in the background directing all things. When Jesus invites us to follow Him, He does not leave us to get on with things on our own. No, He remains close to us, gently guiding and directing our footsteps. The Lord never abandons us. Today each one of us can hear the Lord calling out to us, “Follow me.” What will our response be?

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Second Sunday in Ordinary Time – “A” – January 19, 2014

From the Pastor /

Just as Jesus begins His public life in the presence of the Holy Spirit, so He will end it in an outpouring of that same Holy Spirit on His disciples. The challenge for us is how we too receive that gift with open hearts and what we do with it in our lives. We have first of all to be aware of what the gift of the Holy Spirit entails. When we are confirmed we receive the gifts of wisdom, understanding, counsel, knowledge, fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord (wonder and awe). When we make mistakes, when we misunderstand, when we make wild accusations or unfounded criticism, we can begin again by using the gifts of the Spirit to expose our errors, heal the wrongs we may cause and set us off again on a truer path.

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Baptism of our Lord – “A” – January 12, 2014

From the Pastor /

Today’s Gospel takes place years later, when Jesus arrived at the River Jordan where His cousin John practised a baptism of repentance and foretold the coming of the Messiah. How well did Jesus and John know each other? They probably knew the stories surrounding each other’s birth, but just as every human life is an unfolding of a mystery known only to God in its totality, so also with the two cousins. Jesus’ baptism is an awakening for John and also for Jesus, for whom this is the start of His public ministry. Jesus’ awareness of His vocation has grown from the time when, as a boy, He was found with the teachers in the Temple. Now God acknowledges Jesus, the man, as the beloved Son.

Discerning one’s vocation in life does not normally happen in one blinding flash of enlightenment. It is something that unfolds gradually, during the many events and encounters of ordinary daily life. This special calling often needs years of careful thought before it becomes clear. What a young person may believe is his or her path may, at the end of life, have turned out to be very different as that vocation matured. Jesus, as a boy, knew that He had a special relationship with God, a relationship confirmed and directed at His baptism. Yet, in the Temple in Jerusalem and on tha banks of the Jordan, it was not automatically clear that His proclamation of the kingdom of God would lead to Calvary.

Our own vocation mirrors that of Jesus: moments of revelation and understanding mixed with confusion, uncertainty and, occasionally, opposition as we live out God’s unique call. The Holy Spirit fills Jesus. The same Spirit, deep within our heart, leads and guides us, helping us also to be faithful witnesses and messengers of God’s kingdom of love. We do not know where obedience to God’s call will take us. Our understanding of our own vocation will change and develop in living it out on our unique path. Where Jesus leads us, we are called to follow.

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Solemnity – Holy Family – “A” – January 5, 2014

From the Pastor /

In writing to the people of Colossae, St. Paul gives a very impressive list of virtues, and he talks about them as if they were the clothes that we wear in everyday life. Every day we have to put these clothes on – compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience. Do you wear these clothes every day? He goes on telling us to teach and advise one another in daily life. We have a lot of learning to do. And finally he points out that parents must be as good to their children as they expect their children to be themselves. Virtues are not simply “nice things” to have in your life. They are vital to your well-being and to your happiness. They are vital to the peace of the world. Jesus said, “If your virtue goes no deeper than that of the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” You will never know what the joy of God is. And the point is that every day your virtue will be tested by members of your own family, as well as by people in the street. But the first battle will be fought not in your home but in your heart, because it is there that virtue and vice battle for supremacy.

Some people have nothing but happiness to relate when they think of their family. Others have nothing but sorrow and sadness to speak of. The family in our experience, can be a place of joy, or a nightmare. If our experience of family is good, then give thanks to God for it. Where people’s experience of family is bad, then let us save people from the ruins.

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