September 9th, 2007
Just a few words on our first reading. Solomon had just been chosen by God to be the king of Israel. He was terrified. He hadn’t a clue what to do. How could he cope with such a task? When God asked Solomon what he wanted by way of assistance Solomon had the brains to ask for wisdom and knowledge to act as a good leader of the people. He knows his frailty and absolute dependence on God and admits he needs help to “govern a people so great as yours.” Solomon ponders God’s way and the problems we humans have in figuring out the mysteries of our lives. He wonders if he’ll ever know what is right in God’s plan for Israel. Eventually Solomon rests from his worries by accepting the gift of wisdom which will help him know what the right thing to do is.
Wisdom is the first gift of the Holy Spirit; it’s a gift that helps us judge all things as God sees them. It’s a gift that helps us keep things in perspective, it’s a gift that helps us realize we are not alone, that the Holy Spirit will help us, strengthen us to live as God would have us live and love as God would have us love. It’s a gift that grows when we take the time to reflect on the experiences of our lives and learn from these experiences. It is a gift that enables mere mortals to search out the things of heaven and comprehend the counsel of God and teaches us what is pleasing to God. It is a gift that grows through life. Father Connell had this saying, “the years have their wisdom the days know nothing of.” We are wise when we seek the advice of elders, those who have been through it.
We need wisdom in choosing our life’s partner, we need wisdom in the raising of children, we need wisdom in deciding our choice of career, and we need wisdom to face the trials of life that can totally confuse us. We need wisdom to understand today’s harsh gospel.
The one who spoke so much about love now tells us we must hate those closest to us, mother, father, brother, sister, even our own lives. What Jesus is telling us is that if we really want to be one of His disciples, His friends, we will have to make choices. He must be number one and no matter how much other people may mean to us they cannot replace His place in our lives. And this is where we need the gift of wisdom, to judge all things in our lives as Christ judges them. To keep all things in perspective Christ must be first. As St. Paul tells of his own relationship with Christ he says, “For me to live, is Christ.” There may be times in our lives when choices have to be made, when a cross must be carried and God’s gift of wisdom assures us that with the help and presence of God, with the gift of God’s wisdom we know what to do and how to do it.
I love those words of Paul that tell of his identification with Christ, an identification that came to him through God’s gift of wisdom, “I live now, not I, but Christ lives in me and the life I live I live trusting in the Son of God Who loved me and gave His life for me.” No matter what crisis Paul faced, persecution, rejection, betrayal, he never wavered because he was wise enough to know Christ loved him and died for him, just as Christ loved and died for each of us. This is a wisdom that helps us see that no matter how desperate things may be in our lives we are loved and sustained by a love that knows no bounds. This is a love far greater than the love of mother, father, brother, sister, a love that demands it be the first love of our lives.
As we continue to celebrate this Mass maybe we can make our own the prayer that has had such a great impact on the lives of so many people, “Lord grant me the patience to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.”
| Posted in Homily |
Our parish party for Father Paul’s 75th birthday will be held on Sunday, September 23rd at 2:00 PM in the Gathering Space. Please join us for the celebration! All are welcome.
Total: $8,220.00
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Meetings will begin on Monday, SEPTEMBER 17, 2007 at 7:30 PM. THESE EVENINGS ARE FOR PERSONS INTERESTED IN LEARNING ABOUT THE CATHOLIC FAITH. Because the Parish Community itself is considered the official teacher and guide for potential new members, it is important that some parishioners participate by being present and by sharing their Faith in various ways. Adult Catholics who wish to celebrate the Sacraments of Eucharist and Confirmation are welcome. For more information call Mary Landry at 416-221-8866 ext 224.
If you are in Grade 5 or higher and are interested in becoming an altar server you may contact Thomas Li at 416-756-4995. The orientation and training for the new members will be held on Saturday, October 13th from 2:30 PM to 4:15 PM.
Thank you to all those who participated in the mini-survey in June. A total of 101 parishioners responded. From the results, it seems that the three types of activities most respondents would like to see more of are:
For talks and seminars, the topic most favoured is
“Environmental issues” is another topic that is popular (36%).
When planning for this year’s activities, the parish team will take into consideration what you have indicated. Please come out and support the activities! Thank you also for the additional comments that you made on the questionnaire. They will be carefully considered, and whenever possible, implemented. Fatima Lee
Fair trade organic coffees will be on sale after all the Masses next weekend. Regular ground coffee: $5 Decaffeinated: $6 Whole Beans: $5 Chocolate Bars: $4 incl. taxes Hot Chocolate and Cocoa: $4.50 Teas: $3.25 to $4 by variety
KAYLA NEDIVA DE GUZMAN ASHLEY AMY TAI NATASHA NOIBE DAVIS MARIA CHRISTINE FRENCH ELIO BOANERGES MENJIVAR-CAMPOS GISELLE VERONICA MENJIVAR-CAMPOS LIAM DOUGLAS BAHEN JUSTIN ALEX DUCASSE-JACKSON STACEY-ANN DUCASSE MADELINE MARY ROSE MAHEUX LILITH YUNA RHEE DIANA VICTORIA GRANT JOSE CORADINHO ANTONIO ETHAN ALEXANDER CAIRNS SARA LI FOROUZANFAR
The choirs, made up of 120 students from Cardinal Carter Academy for the Arts present: “FOR THE BEAUTY OF THE EARTH”, which is a contemporary celebration of God’s creation, with the sounds of wolf, whale and loon. Music is by Paul Winter, Paul Halley, and John Rutter. This is a great opportunity to support the young people at Cardinal Carter School. Admission is $10.00
| Posted in Bulletin |
September 2nd, 2007
One of the words that stand out in our first reading from the book of Sirach is the word ‘humility’. “Perform your tasks with humility…. the greater you are the more you must humble yourself … to the humble the Lord reveals his secrets.” In the gospel we have the words of Jesus, “all who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
We are taught that humility is a virtue, an important virtue. Often our understanding of humility is twisted. In my experience in religious life I’ve often seen good people humiliated in the name of humility. I had one director who kept trying to make me ‘humble’ saying to me, “I was testing you and you failed miserably.” I really couldn’t buy into his version of humility.
In a way we’ve been conditioned into thinking being humble is putting ourselves down, belittling ourselves, lest we appear to be proud. I read a beautiful definition of humility. “Humility is gratitude which allows us to stay at home in our own shoes.” Humility is gratitude, we recognize and are grateful for the gifts with which we’ve been blessed – and we are happy with these gifts and don’t try to be someone or something we are not – we are happy to stay at home in our own shoes, we have no need to wander. As the song sang, “I am who I am so don’t try to change me, I am who I am, so don’t rearrange me, let me be me.” The Blessed Mother was totally humble when she said, “He Who is mighty has done great things to me, hence forth all generations will call me blessed.”
Let’s imagine the scene in the gospel. We hear that the Pharisees and the lawyers were watching closely to see if they could catch him in violation of Sabbath laws. Jesus was watching them too. He watched as they jockeyed for the best seats, those closest to the host. They were not the kind of people who could stay at home in their own shoes. So Jesus tells them this parable about those who seek the best of seats and then are told to give place to someone more important than themselves and disgraced, they go to a lower place. The opposite is the case for those who are not pushy, not convinced of their own importance and just sit where ever a place is available – they are invited to a place of honor.
Would it be true to say that we, the human species, the human family could take a lesson from today’s gospel? God’s great creation has been evolving for some 15 billion years. Primitive life forms began billions of years ago. We still are not sure as to when the human species began to develop on earth, maybe 400,000 years ago. The truth of the matter is we humans are late comers to the community of life on planet earth. Over the countless centuries we’ve moved from hunters and gatherers, from cave to tents, from nomads to settlers, from villages to towns to cities, we’ve developed our skills in farming and husbandry, in learning and science. In the last 100 years we’ve gone from stage coach to space rockets. As a species we really are on a roll.
In this whole process we have insisted on places of honor at the banquet of life to which God has invited all creation. We imagine ourselves to be over and above all other life forms, they are for our use and for our abuse. We’ve lost any sense of connectedness with them, any sense of dependency on them. We’ve exploited and depleted other life forms so much so that some of them are now extinct and as someone has said, “extinct means gone forever.”
The human family needs humility. The very facts of life are showing us that in time, Earth itself could ask us to leave the head table where we intruded ourselves and in shame and disgrace take a lower place. Earth itself will say, “enough is enough, I have no more to give.”
As a human family, one member of the family of life that inhabits Earth we have to rediscover our place within the family. We need the humility, that gratitude which allows us to “stay at home in our own shoes.” We need that humility that helps us realize “we did not weave the web of life; we are a strand in the web and what we do to the web we do to ourselves.” I have no idea how we’ll do this but it can begin with humility, it can begin with an attitude of gratitude for what we are to God and Who God is for us and an awareness of our place within the web of life that vitalizes Earth.
There is a beautiful Celtic prayer that prays; there is no plant in the ground but is full of His virtue – there is no form on the strand but is full of His blessing – there is no life in the sea – there is no creature in the river – there is not in the firmament but proclaims His goodness – there is no bird on the wing, there is no star in the sky – there is nothing beneath the sun but proclaims God’s goodness. In other words all life forms but the human have the gratitude to “stay at home in its own shoes.”
We can continue to celebrate this Mass praying for ourselves and for each other that, as individuals and as the human family, we be blessed with the gift of humility – that gratitude which allows us to “stay at home in our own shoes,” and come to live in peace with all those life forms that make up the web of life that vitalizes planet Earth.
August 26th, 2007
I got this idea from an article I read a while back. Have you ever been bumped from a flight for which you had a confirmed reservation? You arrived at the airport presuming you had a seat on the plane. After all you made the reservation weeks ago. But what a lot of us don’t appreciate is the fact that many carriers overbook flights just to make sure the flight is full. Getting bumped happens more often than we think. What happens to the person who gets bumped? He or she is disappointed, frustrated, and angry and there’s not too much they can do about it. A connection can’t be made. A vacation is ruined, a meeting is missed. There are all kinds of consequences.
What has this got to do with today’s Scripture? Maybe the connection can be found in the word,’presumed’. Because I made a reservation, I presumed I had a seat, I presumed I’d be on that flight.
In our first reading from Isaiah, Jews were of the conviction that because they were the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, because they were members of God’s chosen people, they presumed they were guaranteed a welcome in the kingdom of God. Others, non Jews, would be bumped.
Luke’s reading today is warning those early followers of Jesus not to presume that because they saw and heard and followed Jesus they were guaranteed a welcome in the kingdom of God, they would never have to worry about being ‘bumped’. Others might be, but not them.
Jesus made it quite clear that it would not be those who said, ‘Lord, Lord, who would enter the kingdom, but those who did the will of His Father.’ That’s why we pray that we live this Mass outside these walls in the lives we live. Nominal membership and outward belonging are not enough.
When young couples come to get married in the church and tell me they are Catholic, or Anglican or Baptists or whatever, I always ask, ‘is that a capital c or a small c, a capital a or a small a. Are you a cultural Catholic or a committed Catholic?’
Before the world began, God chose us in Christ to be God’s adopted sons and daughters. But we have to respond to being chosen in a positive way. We can’t presume on it or take it for granted. If we let tardiness or indifference wean us away from what that being ‘chosen’ demands of us, we can be bumped.
Using the same idea of the plane reservation – Isaiah and Luke are letting the people of their separate times know that they don’t have reservations on a private jet. They will be seated next to people they never expected. What do you mean non Jews are on this plane, what do you mean non Christians are on this plane, and what do you mean non Muslims are on this plane?
Isaiah’s words must have shocked his Jewish listeners, “I am coming to gather all nations and tongues, they shall come and shall see my glory, and I will set a sign on them and some of them I will make priests and Levites.” Luke’s listeners must have shared the same shock, “they shall come from the east and the west, from north and south and will eat in the kingdom of God.”
We have to remember the great awakening Peter had after his encounter with the family of the pagan Cornelius, “what I have come to realize is this, that any person of any nationality who does what is right is acceptable to God.”
We are all chosen, we all have reservations, Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus – every person of every nationality are loved by God, redeemed by Jesus, Who they may never know.
As we continue to celebrate this Mass we can thank God for God’s graciousness toward each of us for choosing us in Christ before the world began. May we be blessed with the grace to respond to our choseness and not only hear the word of God but live the word of God and may none of us ever be bumped.
August 19th, 2007
A number of years ago there was a popular book titled, “I never promised you a rose garden.” It was about a psychiatrist and a young woman with whom she was working. The struggle was to bring this woman out of her dream worlds into the world of reality. She finally managed to do so but the young woman was stunned by the harshness she found in her new real world. She shared her disappointment in her new world with her psychiatrist. The psychiatrist’s response was, ‘I never promised you a rose garden.’ In other words, I never told you life would be easy because I know it is not.
In a way this is the message of our first reading from Jeremiah and our gospel from Luke. When God called Jeremiah to be a prophet to the people God never promised him a rose garden. “Stand up and brace yourself for action, stand up and tell them all I command you…they will fight against you but you shall not overcome, for I am with you to deliver you.”
Jeremiah paid the cost of his discipleship when he preached an unpopular message, advising the king to surrender to the Babylonian army besieging the city. Why waste innocent lives to defend a hopeless cause, forget your pride and think of the people. The military, industrial complex of that ancient time was determined, Jeremiah got to go. But Jeremiah would not go away; he stood his ground and would not be silent. It cost him.
In the gospel Luke is reflecting on the reality of the Christian community of his time, a reality that has repeated itself up to the present day when people make life choices that conflict with the wishes of others. In Luke’s time those who believed in and followed Jesus were seen as traitors – deserters of the faith of their fathers and mothers. They were seen as people who rejected the God of Israel or the gods of Rome and Athens. Their choice to follow Christ split families; they were rejected by kith and kin. Luke is telling them, this is the cost of discipleship. Jesus did not promise those who would follow him a rose garden, He warned us, ‘If anyone would be My disciple he must take up the cross and follow Me.’
In our day we have been blessed with so many examples of men and women who have made our world a better place because they ‘spoke the truth in justice’ and paid the price. St. Paul refers to such people as ‘a cloud of witnesses.’ Archbishop Romero, murdered because he demanded justice for the peasants of El Salvador – Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Tutu exposing the evil of apartheid – Martin Luther King and all those who marched with him for civil rights – Ita Ford, Maura Clark, Dorothy Donovan, religious women murdered for standing with the poor and disposed – Sister Helen Prejean who continues to speak out against the unjust justice of capital punishment. All these men and women who knew Christ never promised us a rose garden and were willing to pay the cost of true discipleship.
And then we have the whistle blowers in our own country, brave men and women who exposed wrong doings and injustices in the church, the government, the justice system. Good men and women who were willing to pay the price by speaking the truth.
How does today’s scripture apply to us? We won’t be asked to face hostile police men; we won’t have to worry about being taken away in the night. But are we willing to make decisions that may separate us from family and friends, maybe even our livelihood?
It costs to name injustice, especially in the work place. It costs to confront a bully of a boss who browbeats and cows good people who depend upon his favor to hold on to their jobs. It costs to confront people who abuse their power over others whether in the family household or a work place. We tend to look out for our own security and safety and keep silent when we know good people are being abused. It costs to ‘bell the cat.’
Are we willing to jeopardize our own popularity in our workplace when we let it be known we don’t appreciate sexist or racist remarks. Are we willing to pay the price for challenging remarks that belittle someone else’s faith or culture or life style? It may cost us if we speak up for what we believe, but Jesus never promised us a rose garden.
As we continue to celebrate this Mass we can pray for ourselves and for each other that we be given the strength we need to be faithful to Christ’s will and way as we try to live our lives as Christian men and women. We know Christ never promised us a rose garden but He did promise to be with us in every circumstance of our lives, especially in those circumstances that will make us pay the cost of discipleship. May we always trust that promise.
Founded by St. Paul of the Cross, every Passionist takes a special vow to spend his or her energies in promoting remembrance of the sufferings of Jesus, the memory of the Cross, and reflection of the meaning of the Cross for the world.
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