Dear Family of God,

Most of you would agree me with that the world we live in today is becoming very polarized. And, we are witnessing the same concern here in our beloved country. In a deeply polarized society, people constantly attack each other. I guess some of you deal with this every day, especially if you are very active in social media. But as Christians, we can’t get caught up in this and live like the people of the world. In Romans 12:1, St. Paul admonishes us, “Not to be conformed to the standards of the world.…” There is the need then to constantly examine our conscience. How do we respond to attacks or opposition? Or how have we been responding to opposition?

We start telling lies around the age of three, the experts tell us. It’s understandable. Lying is a god-like power. Whatever I want, I need only say it, and the world rearranges itself accordingly. It’s amazing at first. But soon reality snaps back and I’m faced with a dilemma. If I remain committed to my lie I start to fracture into pieces. My words and reality drift apart, and I find myself lost in a lonely world of further falsehoods and fear of being found out.

The readings for this weekend speak to us about God’s call. Those of us doing our best to practice the faith heard God’s call at one point in our life and said yes to Him. The goal of God’s call for each one of us is to grow in holiness. Our celebration this weekend gives us an opportunity to reexamine our expectations about the call to holiness. It is important we have the right understanding of what holiness is, else we risk burdening ourselves with unrealistic expectations.

Dear Family of God,

This weekend we will celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany of the Lord. What is Epiphany?

The word Epiphany (επιφάνεια) comes from two Greek words; epi, “on, upon”; and phaino, “to appear, to shine.” Therefore, the “Epiphany” refers to the divinity of Jesus “Shining upon” the earth. In other words, it is the manifestation of His Divine Nature. The Feast of Epiphany commemorates the coming of the Magi as the occasion for the first manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles in the Western Church.

Dear Family of God,

Happy Feast Day of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!

Two things we can imitate of the virtues of Mary and Joseph, one is their humility that made them always available for God and allow themselves to become instruments for the fulfillment of God’s plan of salvation. Second is the virtue of obedience because they are humble. Obedience to the law made them receive the blessings and revelations of God through Prophet Simeon when they presented Jesus to the Temple. As Pope Saint John Paul II fondly say: “The salvation of the world passes by way of the family.”

In the past, I’ve used the Christmas bulletin to address the amazing folks who often only join us for Christmas, Easter and special occasions. I do this because our family isn’t complete without them. But this Christmas, I’d like to do something a bit different. I want to dedicate this column to those of you who have attended Mass faithfully over the past year.

Over the past seven years, I’ve occasionally either been asked why I think being Catholic matters—or told outright that it doesn’t. I’d like to think the sum total of my writing over that span has been my response, but I’ll boil it down as best I can.

I love our protestant and non-dom friends. I truly do. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to say, “It doesn’t matter, as long as you love Jesus.” Why? Here are a few reasons:

This coming Friday (12/15) - the day of our parish Christmas Concert (don’t miss it!) - will be my last day as a member of the OLOJ parish staff. And it has been an adventure.

I notified Fr. Jess back in November that I’d be leaving as a result of my doctor suggesting I eliminate driving sixty seven miles for work each day in an effort to help with some ongoing health issues and coinciding with a job opportunity opening up much closer to home.

This Sunday’s Gospel is all about being alert for Christ’s second coming. But we rarely think about what that means.

We should spend our days doing our best to hear and follow his will for our lives. In big decisions and small choices. We must be attuned to his will and listening for his promptings.

Years ago, I was wandering around the airport in Houston - waiting for my connecting flight - when I looked at a man in a chair looking back at me. It was Contemporary Christian Musician Matt Maher (who has been nominated for nine Grammy Awards and GMA Songwriter of the Year in 2015).

So many people who claim to have read the Bible, but have only read excerpts claim that the “God of the Old Testament” is angry, vengeful, and only cares about judgement.

They turn around and think his Son showed up two thousand years ago and flipped the script. Jesus was entirely focused on forgiveness, mercy, and love.

As if the two aren’t the same God…

We are “Blessing Blind.”

Virtually all of us. We have so much—and could do so much for others.

If we weren’t so “blessing blind.”

My mother grew up at the lowest end of rural Wisconsin’s financial spectrum. My maternal grandparents used an outhouse into the eighties! When you ask mom about it, she’ll just shrug her shoulders and say, “We didn’t no any different.”

Why?

In today’s gospel, we hear the parable of the talents.

During Jesus’ life – a talent meant a very large sum of money – about 20 years’ worth of wages - so let’s say each talent would be worth about $1 million today. 

The English meaning of talent which we are now accustomed to is derived from this parable and first meant a gift from God.

I remember being a wee bit afraid of Santa Claus as a child. Not the breaking and entering, mind you. That was more than okay. (As a kid, anyone is welcome if they bring me Baba Fett’s ship and some GI Joes.) It was that I’d heard he had a list of all the good kids—and all the bad ones—and no one ever told me precisely where he drew the line.

I think we, as Catholics, sometimes struggle with the same ambiguity. Will we find ourselves on the eternal good list or the eternal bad list?

Last weekend, Amanda Vernon visited our parish to do a few songs at each Mass before leading a concert with adoration Sunday night. It was a blessed event and I’d like to thank everyone who came out.

During the night, Amanda spoke quite a bit about giving our chaos to the Lord. And it got me thinking…

Chaos almost always comes with blessing.