Over 300 people said they were interested in sports and recreational activities in our parish -- from flag football to walking, from cards to biking and kayaking. On Saturday night we're having the kickoff event! Come to the Parish Center

at 6:30 (right after the 530 evening Mass) to greet others who are interested, sign up for groups or teams, and enjoy some free food and fellowship. Bring a friend or neighbor or co-worker -- even someone who is not Catholic -- and let's have fun as a parish.

 

November 6, 2012

Msgr. William J. King

Mark 10:46-52 — There is something troubling in this incident from the ministry of Jesus. On their way to Jerusalem, Jesus and His disciples stopped at Jericho, a beautiful oasis in the desert. When leaving, and we’re clearly told that many people accompanied Him, a blind beggar calls out to Jesus. Many of these disciples, including the Twelve Apostles, had spent three years with Jesus. They

had seen Him heal, console, forgive, and teach. They had witnessed miracles one after another. They knew what He could do. Yet, they told the blind beggar to be quiet, instead of eagerly bringing him to Jesus. When Jesus did heal blindness that day, it was more than the physical blindness of the beggar. Many persons were guilty of discipleship failure that day, and He opened the eyes of His disciples once again, to help them see their role.

What is truly troubling is that many of Jesus’ disciples today are guilty of the same discipleship failure. Many of us gripe and complain about the spiritual blindness of our society, but fail to do anything about it. We know, as the disciples in Jericho did, what Jesus can do: we know how He can heal, teach, forgive, reconcile, and we know the joy and peace of being in right relationship with God, the wonder of seeing God in all things. Yet, we pass by the spiritually blind every day and fail to lead them to Christ.

We all know someone – a family member, a child, a parent, a colleague, a classmate at school, a neighbor – who could benefit from being part of the family of Christ. Why not lead that person to Christ? Why not ask that person to come to church with you next Sunday? Why not bring that person to something in the parish, whether Bible Study or faith-sharing, adult education, a youth group meeting, a support group, a meal or social event, or an athletic or recreational event?

We all know someone to whom we’ll say, “I’ll pray for you,” and then we walk away. Why not say, “Let’s pray right now," and then spend a few moments right then and there praying together? Why not find one of the CD’s or books on the bookcases in the church, and hand it to someone: “I saw this at my church and I thought you might like it.” Don’t be guilty of discipleship failure – take them by the hand and lead them to Christ!

When Pope Benedict XVI called the Catholic Church to a “Year of Faith,” begin just a few weeks ago, he did so in the context of a rapidly growing number of people who claim not to believe in God or be part of a church. In the United States, a very recent study by the Pew Research group brought responses showing 25% of Americans – more than at any time in our history – are unchurched or claim not to believe in God. Our Church began and grew to every part of the planet as the most powerful evangelical force ever unleashed on Earth, but after a few centuries we turned from mission to maintenance. We have for too long spent our energies on simply maintaining our faith, while around us the culture sank lower and lower.

We all know this. We see the moral and spiritual blindness all around us, just as the many disciples in Jericho saw the blind beggar in the dirt. Our Church changed culture and civilization before, and we can do it again, but only if you and I don’t suffer from discipleship failure. Go to Bartimaeus, take him by the hand, and lead him to Christ.

 

October 28, 2012

Msgr. William J. King

“Point your browser to www.anything.com” — a generation ago that would have sounded like gibberish to those who heard it. Today it conjures up a sense of direction for us, even if we don’t know what content awaits us if we type in the address in our browser and visit the site.

Technology has certainly helped our globe shrink, and today the pace of the global marketplace and information exchange has shrunk our awareness of time itself.  We don’t wait for news and business transactions: ours is truly the 24/7/365 reality we all talk about, marked by www.I-want-it-right-now.com and by endless information in the cloud, on demand, anytime, anywhere.

7 days a week, 24 hours a day stores are open, networks stream, YouTube plays, Facebook reveals, and gossip is tweeted in 140 characters or less.

But no matter how we spend it, everyone has the same amount of time to deal with, at least in a day or a week or a month.  There are always the same number of hours in a day, a week, a year (add 24 in leap year).

Nature knows this, and she lumbers along at her own pace.  Summer leisurely turns into Fall, and we obey by gathering the falling leaves and bundling up a little more in the crisper air.  Nature knows her own rhythm, and lives by her own pace.  This is, of course, part of God’s plan in creation, part of God’s gift. It’s part of God’s design.

A few generations ago, human actions were dependent on the rhythm and cycles of nature. We understood and embraced God’s design more easily than we do today.  When the sun set, work stopped.  When the sun rose, work resumed.  Crops were planted and harvested according to the seasons dictated by nature.  Strawberries and peaches and lettuce were simply not available in January, and milk didn’t last more than a day or two.

Human lives and human activity is today increasingly removed, increasingly detached, from nature.  We are increasingly separated from a story and a design that extends beyond our memories and will govern the planets for eons to come.  Today we struggle to fashion our own times and seasons.

In our design of time, the scale and proportion is all wrong.  God got it right the first time.  Our perception of time today has lost its connection to the human person as well as to nature.  There are consequences to this.

Human time is increasingly valuable only to the extent that it is productive.  Human time is seen as having no intrinsic value, but merely an instrumental value: what can I accomplish, what can I do, what can I get done?  Human time is now given a monetized value, whether the billable hour or the hourly wage, or measured by the production cycle of our industry.

The human person is also increasingly valued only for what that person can do, can contribute to society, to what extent he or she is a value-added commodity.

We fight against time, but here’s the rub: time itself will always win! There are, in fact, only so many hours in a day, a week, a year, and no more.  And time will ultimately win, when our moments on this earth run out.

  

When Moses came down from the mountain, accompanied by swirling clouds, flashes of lightning, and peals of thunder that struck terror in the people, the chronicle is not written that he reported, “On these stone tablets I have several suggestions from God for a more meaningful life.”  He stated unambiguously, “These are the commandments of God.”  Not a set of good ideas, but commandments.

Among these commandments is that we keep the Sabbath day holy.  The whole day, not just an hour.

In fact, the commandments are given twice in the Old Testament:

In the book of Exodus, we are commanded to “remember” the sabbath day.  This is tied to an acute awareness of creation and the creator.  God worked for 6 days, then saw that all was very good, and rested on the 7^th day.  Remember this, we are commanded: God created you, and not vice-versa, and you are very good, and you must take every 7^th off from needless work.

We do not create our reality; we are the creature.  We obey the rhythms and cycles of nature, we do not command them.  We are part of a larger cycle of life, not thought up by us but created by God.  By forcing ourselves to keep a day apart from unnecessary labor we are forced to remember our place in the universe: creature, not Creator.

In the book of Deuteronomy, we are commanded to “observe” the sabbath day.  In context, this commandment recalls that we are a people released from bondage and freed in God’s grace.  By an act of powerful mercy, God released an entire people from cruel bondage in Egypt: “observe” your new reality as freed slaves, we are urged.  Slaves cannot take a day off; free people can.  By observing the Sabbath day we accept God’s grace and revel in the freedom that allows us to become refreshed and renewed.

Consider this as well: every one of the commandments exists because people get hurt when they are violated.  No less than theft or adultery, we are hurt – physically, spiritually, and emotionally – by never recognizing a place for sabbath rest.

WHO IS THE MOST COURAGEOUS PERSON TODAY?  IT MAY BE THE ONE WHO DARES TO KEEP THE SABBATH.  THE ONE WHO REFUSES TO SURRENDER TO THE PRESS OF TIME THAT DEVALUES THE PERSON, DEVALUES NATURE, DEVALUES GOD.  THE ONE WHO SAYS “NO,” BECAUSE THE SABBATH IS NOT JUST ANOTHER DAY LIKE ALL THE REST: IT IS THE LORD’S DAY.

• The Sabbath reveals whether we depend on God or ourselves.

• The Sabbath allows us to experience what it means to be free and not enslaved.

• The Sabbath refreshes the body and soul and psyche, like a field lying fallow for a season lest all its nutrients be sucked out of it and it become lifeless and barren.

• The Sabbath renews a sense of wonder within us, a childlike playfulness and joy in discovering more of God’s gifts.

• The Sabbath returns us to an awareness that time is valuable in itself, not just for what we can accomplish. 

• The Sabbath renews in us an awareness that there's more to us and more to life than what we can produce or accomplish.

• The Sabbath, above all, is God’s plan.  It’s not just a good idea, and it’s not just a suggestion: it’s a commandment.

Oct 21, 2012

Msgr. William J. King

A fourth grade religion class in a Catholic school was asked to write a very brief letter to God. Here are some of the students’ letters:

Dear God, I bet it's very hard for you to love all of everybody in the whole world. There are only 4 people in our family and I can never do it.

Dear God, did you mean for giraffes to look like that or was it an accident?

God, I read the Bible every day.

What does beget mean? Daddy told me to ask Mom, and she won’t say.

Dear God, is it true my father won't get in Heaven if he uses his golf words in the house?

Dear God, please send Dennis to a different summer camp next year.

Dear God, maybe Cain and Abel would not kill each other so much if they each had their own rooms. It works out OK with me and my brother.

Dear God, I didn't think orange went with purple until I saw the sunset you made on Tuesday night. That was really cool.

Dear God, Thank you for my new baby brother but what I asked for was a puppy. I was surprised when I got a baby brother instead. Mommy and Daddy said they were surprised too.

Dear God, if you’re at Church on Sunday I will show you my new shoes.

Dear God, it’s just great the way you always get the stars in the right place every night. Why can't you do that with the moon? It’s always moving around.

Dear God, I am doing the best I can. I’m trying. Really. Don’t ask my parents, though, or my teacher.

Dear God, please make my grandma feel better. She’s sick. I never asked for anything before in my whole life. You can look it up.

Dear God, I always wonder at Mass how you can fit yourself into that little piece of bread. It must hurt. Anyway, I think it’s really neat.

Dear God, I heard that you should love someone, but I’m not rushing into it, because I’m finding fourth grade hard enough right now.

(and my favorite…)

Dear God, I just hid the statue of Mary that was on my dresser, because I want a new bike. If you ever want to see your mother again, get me the bike.

========================

• Holiness starts with the little things.
• Holiness starts with looking at the little things and being able to say “Wow, that’s really neat.”
• Holiness starts with recognizing that God cares about the little things.
• Holiness starts with letting God into the little things of our lives, and not waiting for the big things to invite God in.
• Holiness starts with recognizing that the little things in life aren’t distractions or obstacles to prayer and holiness; they are the reason for prayer and holiness.
• Holiness starts with finding awe in puppies and little brothers and giraffes and sunsets and stars, and how grass grows and how clouds make shapes, and saying, “Thank you. That was really cool.”
• Holiness starts with looking at how God works and admitting, “I don’t understand it; but anyway I think it’s really neat.”
• Holiness starts with realizing I don’t have to prove anything to God, and I don’t have to earn His love; it’s enough to say, “I’m trying. Honest.”
• Holiness starts with looking at your problems and saying, “God, I guess I’m not perfect, but I really need you.”
• Holiness starts by accepting that there are miracles. Every day.
• Holiness starts by falling on your knees before something as wondrous as the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, and not trying to figure it out, but just saying, “Wow. Thanks.”

— We make things like holiness and religion complicated, but they’re really not. They’re as simple as the thoughts of a little child.

 

September 23, 2012

Msgr. William J. King