July 19th, 2020
I think a general feeling among all of us is impatience. We’re all ancy with all these restrictions about social distancing. We’re getting tired with mask wearing. There are so many restrictions on where we can travel and going to bars and restaurants and beaches. It hasn’t been a fun or relaxing summer.
Those in authority whether in government of the medical field keep asking us to wait, wait til things are safe, think of others wellbeing. If we want any proof of the need to be patient, our need to think about the whole picture we have only to look south of the border and see the growing number of those with the virus, the growing number of deaths all because of the mentality that ‘no one can tell me what to do.’ The resistance to be patient.
The basic message of today’s gospel is a call for patience. Sure the farmer is angry that an enemy has spread weeds in his new sown field. Who wouldn’t be? The solution is not to start tearing out the weeds, the solution is the farmer’s wise decision to let weeds and wheat grow together and then, when the time comes he’ll reap two harvests – one of fuel, the weeds and one of food, the wheat.
Let both grow together until the harvest. There was a picture of a scruffy little guy with what looked like a black eye and a band aid on his knee and a caption that read; God’s not finished with me yet.’
God’s not finished with any of us yet. When we try to root out the weeds we see in other people we’re like those anxious workers who want to get to work on the weeds, dig them out and throw them away. God tells us wait. Our righteous judgemental way of doing things could do more harm than good. As Jesus warned us; with the same severity with which we judge others, we will be judged. When have the honesty to admit our own weeds of impatience, resentments, pride, self-indulgence, bigotry and racism, our indifference to the needs of others, we know these are the weeds we need to uproot. If you have any experience of gardening you know that weeds can be persistent.
We have to remember this; our many weeds don’t really agree with your inner self. None of the weeds growing in us are wonderful, but they are only a part of who we are. Our urge to impress others falsely, to get what we want no matter what, to be lazy, petulant, or whatever, these are not the full description of who we are. There is strong and healthy wheat growing in us.
We all live with the reality that the good we would do we do not and that the evil we would not do that we do. It’s our human condition. Our consolation is that God is not finished with anyone of us. As our first reading reminds us;
With great forbearance you govern us – that our righteous must be kind “Your sovereignty over all causes you to spare all” We must never tire of the difficult task of weeding.
| Posted in Homily |
July 11th, 2020
Jesus was a great teller of parables, stories. His listeners knew his stories had a message, a teaching beyond the story.
We can just imagine this farmer walking in his field. He has a sack of seed hung around his neck. He takes a handful of seed and flings it into the air and a breeze scatters the seed. It falls where it may. The farmer takes a chance; some seed may fall on hard rocky ground with no chance of taking root. Some will fall among weeds and as they take root will lose the battle for survival with the weeds. Other seeds will end up in the belly of a bird. Other seeds, hopefully the majority, will fall on good ground and bear a rich harvest. But the reality of the way the seed was sown is that if 20% of the seed flourished that would be a good harvest.
Modern planting leaves nothing to chance, everything is mechanical. The seeds are planted just so far apart and all in straight rows. But there is a fly in the ointment, Mother Nature. Farmers today are desperate for rain, the fields are bone dry, these hot, hot days don’t help. Then as now there are no guarantees in sowing or planting..
Jesus travelled from town to town in Galilee and Judea teaching the people, thru stories such as the one we’ve heard today, about the love of God for each of them. A love flung out on the world with total abandon, a love and a forgiveness meant for everyone. Jesus embodied that love as he gave sight to the blind, as he made lepers clean, gave sight to the blind, mobility to the lame and paralyzed. Jesus embodied God’s love as he lifted the burden of sin from the shoulders of those oppressed with the guilt of their past lives. St. Paul claims that the crucified Christ was the love of God made visible.
Day after day, town after town Jesus flung the seed of God’s love and care and healing out to the hearers of the stories he told, his teachings and his deeds of wonder.
So often the seeds of his teachings he tried to sow fell of the hard ground of the hostility of the religious authorities of the day. How dare this nobody speak of God, how dare he intrude on their domain? Or they fell among the brambles of people threatened by his teachings of justice and acceptance of men and women different from themselves, like the Samaritans.
There were times when many found his teaching hard to take and walked with him no more, carried off in the wind of resistance to change. But Jesus continued to fling the seed until that day when they nailed his hands to the cross.
Today the sower is our Church, for all its failings, as it puts before us the demanding teachings of Jesus the sower of justice, love and peace. We, the soil, are no different from the people of the time of Jesus. We’re caught up in the concerns of our lives. We enjoy the good life. We don’t like our lifestyles challenged, we can resist a change for the better, we don’t want to be the keeper of our brothers and sisters, We don’t want to face the truth of which today’s events remind us; in one way or another we are all racist in that, unconsciously, we see men and women different than ourselves as less than ourselves.
May we pray for ourselves and for each other that the Bread of Life that nourishes each of us at this Mass will strengthen us to be fertile soil to receive and nourish the seed of Christ’s teachings into our lives and that we bear a bountiful harvest.
July 5th, 2020
Welcome back again to St. Gabriel’s Parish! We missed seeing you at church and are so happy that the church is now open for Sunday masses, albeit on a very limited capacity basis.
We recognize that things are not back to normal yet. We want to assure you that measures are in place to make sure you stay safe and healthy. We also want to assure you that we have done everything we can do to protect your health while you are at church.
The church is thoroughly sanitized before every Mass thanks to a team of volunteers. We look forward to the return of our volunteers who have dedicated their time and skills for this task on prior occasions. At the same time, we would welcome more volunteers to make this process as quick and effective as possible. If you are willing to help at any Mass, please contact the parish office.
A few notes about Mass attendance for this period of time:
For the safety and health of the community, please remain home if you show or have any signs or symptoms of Covid-19.
Under a City of Toronto by-law, all attendees are required to wear non-medical grade masks or face coverings throughout their entire time of attendance at church. Please click on this for a guide from the City of Toronto
Please maintain six feet (two metres) of physical distance from other parishioners who are not members of your household.
Although we have a cantor and accompanist, we will not have communal singing during Mass – so no singing!
All children’s ministries during Mass are cancelled.
The offertory basket will not be passed around. If you are able, please leave a donation in the marked baskets as you enter or leave the church. Also, please consider signing-up for Pre-Authorized Giving which is a convenient way to support the church whether you are present or not. Signup forms are available from the parish office or on this website. Thank you for your generosity!
At the Sign of Peace, please nod or bow to your neighbours rather than shaking hands.
If you suddenly feel sick during the Mass, please leave the church for the safety of all parishioners. If you were to learn that you or a member of your household has tested positive for COVID-19 within 14 days of attending Mass here at St. Gabriel’s, please contact our local public health agency and also the parish office. We will protect your identity, except in conversation with public health officers to stop the spread of the virus.
At Holy Communion, we ask that you use the lines on the floor to maintain physical distancing. Please stop at the mark that is six feet (two metres) from the priest or Eucharistic Minister.
If you are receiving the Eucharist, when you have stopped at the six-foot (two-metre) spot, the priest or Minister will say “The Body of Christ” and you will reply “Amen”. With your mask on, approach the priest or Minister and receive the Eucharist in your hand only. Move to the spot marked on the floor to your left or right, remove your mask and consume the Eucharist. Then put the mask back on your face and return to your pew.
If you are receiving a blessing only, please cross your arms and receive the blessing from the original six foot (2 metre) spot and then return to your seat.
After extensive consultation with medical professionals specializing in pandemic management, Cardinal Thomas Collins, Archbishop of Toronto, has decided that Holy Communion on the tongue remains temporarily suspended to stop the spread of the virus. We will return to this practice, for those who wish to receive in this way as soon as we are safely able to do so.
We will not distribute the Precious Blood at weekday masses.
At the end of Mass, we ask you to promptly leave the church, while maintaining six feet or two metres of physical distancing where possible. Please follow the instructions of the ushers. When everyone has left, cleaning volunteers will close the church doors so they can ensure this sacred space is thoroughly sanitized before the next Mass. They need as much time as possible to do this job properly.
To reduce the amount of cleaning required we ask you to please refrain from venerating or touching the tabernacle, any statues and the baptism font.
All other Mass events and programs are cancelled at this time. We hope that these chances to meet with one another can resume when it is safe to do so.
And again thank you for returning to our parish! We hope this celebration of the Eucharist is a comforting and uplifting sacred experience. As Catholics, the Mass is the source and summit of our life in Christ. We thank God that we can celebrate this Mass here – with you – again – safely. We thank you for your understanding and cooperation.
| Posted in Notice |
All his life Jesus wanted to be identified with the little people of the world. He came from a backwater village of Nazareth. Remember Nathaniel’s crack, ’can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ His father was a carpenter and Jesus probably learned the trade.
During his ministry Jesus rubbed shoulders with people of privilege, he accepted their hospitality. He challenged their lifestyles and their attitudes; their taking the first place at banquets and first seats in the synagogues and making a big show of their donations to the temple. But basically he walked with and shared his wisdom with merchants and fishermen and shepherds, with husbands and wives, the sick and the frightened, the lost and confused.
Close your eyes and image Jesus with those people, the simple folk of the land. He stands among them and opens wide his arms in welcome and says these words; come to me, come to me all you who are weary and find life burdensome and I will give you rest.
Come with your anxieties about your health and the health of those you love. Come, stressed out as you are with this isolation and social distancing.
Jesus invites us to yoke ourselves to himself promising that his yoke is easy, his burden light. He compares his yoke to that of the Pharisees, the keepers of the Law. Jesus accused these strict keepers of the law they lay heavy burdens on people and will not lift a finger to lighten the load. His yoke is easy, his burden light. Our only shared burden is to love one another as we’ve been loved.
To be yoked with Jesus is to allow him to our companion on our own personal journey. To be yoked to Jesus is to be willing to be willing to let his will make a difference in what we choose and do.To be yoked to Jesus is to make a difference in the way we treat other people. To be yoked to Jesus is to make a difference in the way we handle conflict in our lives. To be yoked with Jesus is to make a difference in the way we are there for friends and strangers who need our support. To be yoked with Jesus is to make a difference in the way we face our own struggles and weaknesses. To be yoked to Jesus is to make a difference in the way we approach God in prayer.
At this Mass, as we receive the Body of Christ may we be graced to accept Christ’s gracious invitation- take my yoke upon you – then we’ll never walk alone.
June 28th, 2020
This Sunday’s readings invite us to reflect on another dimension of our lives, that of hospitality. In our first reading a wealthy woman convinced her husband that they show hospitality to Elisha so that he could have a place to stay and a meal to eat and a bed to rest. Elisa responds to their goodness by promising them a future son.
How good are we as a society at welcoming people into our company? We Canadians have a pretty good track record, beginning with accepting refugees from the Hungarian revolution in 1956. Then we welcomed people fleeing the collapse of Vietnam. As a parish family we’ve welcomed refugees from Syria and Iraq.
Jesus told the men he was sending as sheep among wolves that they would face hostility from many people but then added ‘he who welcomes you welcomes me and he who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. There is a ripple effect there.
Every day we can be challenged by the demands of hospitality, this demand of welcoming others into our lives.
The present social turmoil in the States about the prevalence and the impact of racism on the lives of millions of Black and people of colour can be the occasion for us to face the reality of this sin in our own lives. We shouldn’t be too smug about this.
To quote an American Black person, most white people go cradle to grave in racial segregation. Most white people do not have authentic sustained relationships across race, particularly with black people. I’m not talking about acquaintances. Show me your wedding album. That is a truer measure of who is in your friendship circle and sitting at your table.
Racism is an attitude of mind; it’s something we pick up by osmosis from family members and people with whom we grow up. Racism diminishes us as persons because it blinds us to the dignity and worth of our equals. We are all children of God.
In our opening prayer we prayed we not be wrapped in the darkness of error but that we always stand in the bright light of truth. He who welcomes you welcomes me and he who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.
A question; how valid is the welcoming mat at our door?
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