Fr. Mike's Gospel Reflection - December 1, 2024

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

I pray that you had a relaxing and enjoyable Thanksgiving! I did not get to celebrate mass Thanksgiving morning because I ran the Dana Point Turkey Trot and could not get back to St. Ed’s in time. “Slow and steady” may “win the race,” but really slow puts runners like me at the back of the pack. I guess I will have to try again next year.

I came across a beautiful definition of Thanksgiving:

The true meaning of Thanksgiving focuses upon relationship. Thanksgiving is a relationship between God and man…Thanksgiving begins with acknowledging God as faithful, earnestly giving Him thanks, in advance, for His abundant blessings. Allabouthistory.org

Presidents Washington and Lincoln each recognized the fundamental need to give thanks to God. Washington proclaimed, “It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor.” During the Civil War President Lincoln invited the country to be thankful for the “gracious gifts of the Most High God,” and prayed that God might: “heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it…to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and union.”

Each year Thanksgiving Day and the beginning of Advent occur at roughly the same time. Thanksgiving reminds us that God has blessed Americans with a wide range of freedoms and extraordinary abundance, both as a nation and as individuals. Advent reminds us that the greatest gift of all – the gift for which we should be most thankful – is present in our lives in a special way as we partake of the flesh-and-blood reality of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. Eucharistic Prayer III captures this idea of both anticipation and gratitude: “we celebrate…and as we look forward to his second coming, we offer you in thanksgiving this holy and living sacrifice.”

He came to us in Bethlehem, He comes to us today in the Eucharist, and He will come again at the end of time. As we enter the Advent Season, let us remember that the best way that we can show an “attitude of gratitude” is to “be Jesus” to those around us. May Advent be a season of grateful anticipation!

Fr. Mike's Gospel Reflection - November 24, 2024

This Sunday, we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King. In the Gospel, Jesus tells Pilate that the sole purpose of His coming into the world was “to testify to the Truth.” The Psalm proclaims the foundational Truth of our faith: “The Lord is King.” In this celebration we are reminded that God is our only King.

We are invited to follow our King, but the choice is ours to make. God will not force us to choose to follow Him and He will not prevent us from choosing to have things our way. If we choose to follow God, we are choosing to faithfully obey His will, which, according to St. Paul, leads to righteousness and salvation. We are choosing to follow His most important commandment: “Love one another as I have loved you.” We are choosing to follow His example: “The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Thus, love and service are the hallmarks of true followers of Jesus and members of His eternal and glorious kingdom.

The challenge of the Solemnity of Christ the King is to choose to follow our King. The invitation today is to give of ourselves to completely belong to Jesus and to His Kingdom. We are asked to make this our most important priority and to view all else only in terms of how love and service help us to belong fully to Jesus.

While we must strive to make wise choices, the good news is that, even if we do not always choose correctly, the Lord knows our hearts. Jesus deeply appreciates those who strive to follow Him and who acknowledge that they are not kings of their own lives and who choose to surrender to Jesus. He knows whether we truly seek Him in our own small and broken fashion or whether we have made other choices.

How do we acknowledge Jesus as King and choose to strive to into His Kingdom? By choosing: to believe in Jesus and what He said and did; to give over to Him absolute power in our lives; to make peace, justice and love our primary values; and, to work at spreading the Kingdom by loving and forgiving.

Fr. Mike's Gospel Reflection - November 17, 2024

As we approach the end of our liturgical year, Mark’s Gospel forces us to think about not only the end of times (the Apocalypse), but also the end of our own lives. Next week will be the feast of Christ the King which marks the end of this liturgical year. Mark is writing his gospel to the Roman Christian community that felt they were in the Apocalypse because they were undergoing great persecution and even execution. Mark wrote this passage to give them hope by reminding them that death is a doorway to the afterlife because Jesus had conquered death. At first, we might think that the Gospel passage is a bit depressing, but there is actually some comfort and joy to be gained from thinking about the “end.”

Over the past four years, I have given the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick to many people. Some were closer to death than others, but they all had one thing in common – they (or their loved ones who called me) took the possibility of death very seriously. In Catholic spirituality there is a Latin phrase, “Memento Mori,” or “remember death.” The saints constantly speak of the importance of meditating on death. In the Rule for the Benedictine Order, St. Benedict reminds the monks to “Keep death daily before your eyes.” Yet, most of us prefer to avoid that topic. This tradition has a rich and long history. God says to Adam and Eve as they leave the Garden of Eden: “You are dust, and to dust you shall return.” The Book of Sirach reminds us, “In whatever you do, remember your last days, and you will never sin.”

The concept of memento mori can be quite motivating, and that motivation can be put to good use. When we meditate on death, we should consider the “Four Last Things:” death, judgment, hell, and heaven. These are the things that each of us will face individually at the end of our lives and collectively at the end of times. By recognizing that our time on earth is limited, we are reminded to focus on what truly matters and to live our lives with holy purpose and meaning. Life is short. Eternity is long. In the end, holiness is the only thing worth living (and dying) for.