May 2009

The Holy Spirit! Finally we come to celebrate this great solemnity honoring the Holy Spirit of God. We complete the great 50 days of Easter. We have celebrated 7 weeks to show that the Spirit is the perfect completion of all that happened to Jesus in His death and resurrection.

My Dear Brothers and sisters to understand the role of the Spirit in our life we have to start with Jesus himself. The Spirit had a big role to play in his life. The Spirit descended on him at his baptism, revealing him as the Father’s beloved Son. At his baptism he also received power from on high for the mission he was about to begin. The Spirit was not just given for a moment; the Spirit remained with him throughout his public ministry.

Jesus said: ‘The spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for he has anointed me. He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight, to proclaim the Lord’s year of favor

What a beautiful mission. Jesus was filled with the Spirit, and power went out from him through his gracious words and compassionate deeds.

It was the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead. It was the Spirit who opened the minds of his disciples and helped them to understand the meaning of his death. When he was raised up to glory at the right hand of the Father, Jesus poured out the Spirit on those who were to carry on his mission.

The Holy Spirit descended on the apostles. Filled with the Holy Spirit, they began their mission. And we see the great courage and confidence with which they did so.

My Dear Sisters and Brothers

And the same Spirit descends on us at our Baptism and Confirmation. The Spirit is not given for a moment but accompanies us on our journey in the footsteps of Jesus. The Spirit gives us power to participate in the work of Jesus. The Holy Spirit is our strength in times of weakness, our guide in times of doubt, our consoler in times of sadness, our advocate who always pleads our cause. We can’t take even one step without the Spirit.

In The sacrament of confirmation we received gifts of the Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. Wisdom, understanding, and counsel guide our mind and assist our conscience in knowing right from wrong. Fortitude enables us to do the right thing even when it is difficult or unpopular. Fear of the Lord is really awe and reverence for God.

My Dear Brothers and sisters, if we live in the Spirit, that Spirit brings us love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. These are beautiful things, and make our life joyful.

One of our marks as Catholics is our devotion to the saints. Some of us honor the saint of our baptismal name, and many of us have some other favorite saints like St. Francis, St. Joseph, and St. Patrick. The first reading for today’s Sunday tells the brief story of St. Matthias.

After the Ascension of Jesus into heaven, Peter stood up in the midst of the brothers—there was a group of about one hundred and twenty persons in the one place–He said, “My brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand through the mouth of David, concerning Judas, who was the guide for those who arrested Jesus. He was numbered among us and was allotted a share in this ministry. “For it is written in the Book of Psalms: May another take his office.

The disciples prayed, and chose Matthias. Matthias, unlike the twelve apostles, was not chosen directly by Jesus but by the Church. We are like Matthias in that we did not hear the voice of Christ calling us or feel his hand upon our shoulder in a gesture of welcome. Rather in the sacrament of baptism we were chosen by the Church.

St. Peter declared that the choice for a new apostle should fall upon someone who was a witness to the resurrection of Jesus. Apparently Matthias fit that reason. We have no record of what St. Matthias did after his choice. It is left to us to carry on the mission he was given as a witness of the resurrection. We express what we believe in the profession of faith during every Sunday Mass. We say, “He suffered, died, and was buried. On the third day he rose again.” These words of faith influence our actions in such a way that our lives would not make sense if we did not believe in the resurrection. We believe that Christ’s resurrection is the example which will lead to our resurrection, that he will come again to raise us from the dead.

If there is no future for us through our resurrection from the dead, then surely we should “eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die.” And yet we know that death is not the end, that a life lived faithfully with Christ will lead to the fullness of life in our resurrection from the dead on the last day.

During our time on this earth we give a further witness to the resurrection.

The reason Jesus was raised from the dead is that the Father loved him in his humanity. The reason there will be a resurrection for us is that God sees the person of his Son within us. He values every human being as precious, body as well as soul, created as we are in the image and likeness of his Son. That is why the Church is pro-life, that is why we are called to honor and respect every human person. Our Catholic respect for every human person is a powerful witness to our faith in the resurrection, both that of Christ and our own.

In our Blessed Sacrament, the Holy Eucharist, Christ is present as he has been raised from the dead in his glorified body. When we profess our faith in the real presence, we acknowledge that, to put it bluntly, we do not receive a dead body. The Mass is not a wake service or a funeral. It is a celebration of the great truth of which we are to be witnesses: “Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.”

Jesus gives us one of the strongest commandments of His in today’s Gospel. Not an idea but commandment: “love one another as I have loved you.” It sounds pretty easy. Doesn’t it? Everybody wants to be loved, and in our nature is that we seek to love others. So it should be easy to fallow that commandment.

Jesus tells us that: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends”.

Our Church, here in the United States, does not ask us to lay down our life for Christ. But, there are spots in the world that Christians are still persecuted. Here we are free, and with this freedom many times we do not follow God’s commandments, the commandments of Jesus. We break these commandments frequently and we say that think little of it because it is common.

A few weeks ago I preached on the third commandment of God and I showed you that by breaking that commandment we commit not only one serious sin but at least five, and the same is with the other nine. The key then is to focus on loving — not on what we shouldn’t do, but on loving because love excludes sin, love gives us what we need to do.

Love one another can mean that we do not gossip. But better it means to say a word of love and support to others.
Love one another means to worship on very regular basis but also to bring others into our community to worship God side-by-side.
Love one another means to support others in their sorrows and their problems.
Love one another means to lift others up in our goodness.
Love one another as God has loved us means that we do know the ten commandments of God in our heart and that we put the command of Jesus, to love, into action.

It is God who chose us, like he chose the Apostles, like He chose Cornelius. We accept God’s choice when we live Christian life full of love and prayers, and free of sin.

May is a special Month dedicated to Mary. Mary is the Mother of God. Mary is the queen of heaven, the Gate of paradise, the health of the sick. Mary is the one who showed us how to obey God and how to love each other. Mary is our mother. We can see the statue of Mary, and we pray to Mary as we celebrate this special day – MOTHERS’ DAY.

We can see that Mary who is the Mother of God, who is also our Mother, lived her life according to the commands that Jesus gave us. Mary showed us how to obey the command which Jesus gave to all of us; to love one another as He loves us. She loved her family, her friends. As our mother she loves all of us. In turn we have to Love Mary as our mother. We have to obey and love our own mothers.

In the world there is no other person as dear as a Mother. No one loved so much and by whom we are loved, no person so willing to grant us benefits and have pity on us. Mother’s love is so patient that it shows us how much our heavenly Mother is patient with us. How God is patient with us.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, we start to appreciate our mothers when we are far away. When we cannot jump into a car and see her whenever we would like to. We appreciate our mothers when they are not with us anymore. When we have our mothers next to us we really do not appreciate what they are doing for us. We do not appreciate the dinner, laundry, grocery, cleaning and the list can go on and on. We take all of that for granted.

Today I would like to invite everybody to think what Mary; our heavenly mother does for us… and gives her thanks. I would like you to think what your Mother has done for you… and give thanks to Her.

Flowers and cards are very nice ways to express appreciation, however, as a Church community we can give them even more. We can give them prayer. We know that our heavenly Mother will listen to our prayers. So let us pray through intercession of Mary for our Mothers.

I wish a Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms in our congregation. At the same time I want to assure you that as I offer this Mass I am remembering not only my own mom who lives in Poland but all our mothers, whether living or deceased. We remember our moms because we love them, we’re grateful for the life we received through them

I ask you to kneel down and pray with me for all our Mothers.

Let us pray. God our Father, Bless all mothers. Reward them for their sacrifice and their faithfulness to your image. Give them the strength to endure the pain that often accompanies the task of mothering. We thank you for our mothers and for that part of you we have received through them. Finally, we pray that you will never let us forget the stories which remind us how much our mothers and wives have given us. We ask this, by your Holy Spirit, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory be to the Father

And for all the mom’s who have died:

Eternal rest grant into them O Lord…

I am the good shepherd, says the Lord;
I know my sheep, and mine know me.

Today’s gospel gives us a very special picture of ministry. The gospel talks of shepherds. The Latin word for shepherd is “pastor,” who is what we call an ordained minister who is responsible for ministering to a Christian community or parish.

To understand the work and life entailed by the priestly vocation we need to go back to Jesus’ teaching on the good shepherd.

The life of the good shepherd in biblical times was one of personal self-giving and sacrifices. His work was that of watchful care and closeness to the flock.

There were two kinds of shepherds.

There was the hired hand for whom keeping the sheep was just the available job. He moved from flock to flock depending on the conditions of service and he would not risk his life for them. Seeing wolves or thieves coming he would flee for dear life and leave the flock at the mercy of the invaders.

Jesus said that he is not that kind of shepherd.

Then there is the shepherd-owner of the flock who grows up with the flock and stays with the same flock all his life. He knows each and every sheep in the flock individually. He calls each one by name and could tell you the personal story of each one of the sheep, when and where it was born, the problems it has had in life, and its personal characteristics. He attends to the individual needs of each and every one of them. He knows which ones were likely to stray from the flock and he would keep an eye on them when they came to dangerous places. He knows which ones are pregnant and need special food. When attacked by wolves or thieves he would risk his life and fight to defend his sheep.

He is the good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep.

Jesus is the good shepherd. He laid down his life for the flock, i.e., the church.

In a general way he invites everyone in the church to share in the work of caring for the flock in our own little ways.

But he also calls some people from among us to a life-long commitment to the work of shepherding the flock of God.

If today some young men hear God’s voice calling them to this way of life, they should not harden their hearts.

We are called to do everything to encourage those who are called to follow the footsteps of Jesus the good shepherd. Amen.