Holy Ghost PNCC

VI Sunday of Easter – May 6, 2012 – Mother’s Day

admin — Mon, 14 May 2012 03:55:05 +0000

As we grow up from childhood to adult years, we become aware of the many labels that we carry, labels that not only distinguish us from one another, but that so often divide us from one another – labels of nationality, race, religion, color and creed. The story of Jesus teaches us that the commandment to love one another is stronger than our tendency to destroy one another. Even the most hardened soldier admits that after war, you have to sit down and talk to your enemy. Jesus offers us another way. His story says, “Love your enemies and do good to those who treat you badly.”

For Mother’s Day

admin — Sun, 13 May 2012 23:36:18 +0000

When the good Lord created mothers He was in His sixth day of overtime, when an angel appeared and said,… “You’re doing a lot of fiddling around on this one.”

The Lord said,… “Have you read the specs on this order?” She has to be:

Completely washable,…but not plastic;
Have 180 movable parts,..all replaceable;
Run on black coffee and leftovers;
Have a lap that dissapears when she stands up;
Have a kiss that can cure anything from a broken leg to a broken heart; and…
She must have six pairs of hands.

The angel shook her head slowly and said,…”Six pairs of hands?…No way”.

“It’s not the hands that are causing me problems,” said the Lord… “It’s the three pairs of eyes that mothers have to have.”

“That’s on the standard model?”…asked the angel.

The Lord nodded…”yes”. “One pair that sees through closed doors when she asks, ‘What are you kids doing in there?’…and she already knows. Another pair in the back of her head that sees what she shouldn’t,…but what she has to know. And of course the ones here in the front that look at a child when he goofs up and says, ‘I understand and I love you,’… without so much as uttering a single word.”

“Lord”, said the angel, touching his sleeve gently, “go to bed, get some rest. Tomorrow you can….”

“I can’t,” said the Lord, “I’m so close to creating something close to myself. Already I have one who heals herself whe she is sick…can feed a family of six on one pound of hamburger…and can get a nine year old to stand under a shower.”

The angel circled the model of the mother very slowly. “It’s too soft”, she sighed.

“But tough!” said the Lord, excitedly. “You cannot imagine what this mother can do and endure.”

“Can it think?”…asked the angel.

“Not only can it think, but it can reason and compromise.”…said the Creator.

Finally, the angel bent over and ran her finger across the cheek of the model of the mother. “There’s a leak,” she pronounced. “I told you that you were trying to put much into this model.”

“It’s not a leak,” said the Lord. “It’s a tear.”

“What’s it for?”…asked the angel.

“The specs say it’s for joy, sadness, dissappointment, pain, loneliness and pride.”

“You are a genius,” said the angel.

The Lord, looking somber and confused, replied, “I didn’t put it there.”

V Sunday of Easter – May 6, 2012

admin — Mon, 07 May 2012 01:55:59 +0000

Jesus uses this imaginery of vines and bearing fruit to show how we relate to Him. There can be no fruit if we do not remain with Him, the true vine, and allow ourselves to be pruned by God, to help us bear more fruit. The key line from todays Gospel is “cut off from Me you can do nothing.” Jesus is teaching that it is only God’s initiative of grace that can save us. God is the source of all life and salvation, and, as the secong reading says, we are called to respond to that grace, to “believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and… love one another as He told us to.” Jesus calls us to allow ourselves to be “pruned” by God. So how do we let ourselves be pruned? Jesus has given the sacraments precisely to help us flourish and bear fruit. He “irrigates” us and helps us begin to grow with the sacrament of baptism. He nourishes us with His own Body and Blood in the Eucharist. He builds up the Church through the sacraments of confirmation, marriage, and holy orders. We are “pruned” by the sacraments of penance and anointing.

Good Shepherd Sunday – April 29, 2012

admin — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 02:34:30 +0000

Jesus tells us that He is the Good Shepherd who is prepared to die for His sheep. It is quite easy to distinguish between a good and bad shepherd: the latter has no commitment and runs away as soon as danger threatens. In Jesus’ day, shepherds were commonly regarded as disreputable, isolated groups of men who stayed on the hills for long periods and who often had little regard for the flocks entrusted to their care. Jesus had watched responsible shepherds build up a trusting relationship with their sheep. They would walk ahead of the flock, calling it to follow. The sheep learned that if they followed the shepherd’s voice, they would find good pastures. God the Father had entrusted His people to Jesus, the Good Shepherd, knowing that Jesus would establish a uniquely protective relationship with them, even at the cost of His own life.

“Troubles always come in threes.” Does it not sound familiar? Sometimes difficulties come from different angels, threatening to be overwhelming, just like a pack of wolves threatening their chosen victim. It is easy to feel alone and defenceless, with nowhere to turn. It is not easy, when life is hard, to put our lives in Jesus’ hands and to go wherever He leads. If only we could see where we are going, following might be simpler. We want to make plans and can’t. Anxiety and insecurity are very frightening. Yet these are precisely the times when Jesus is saying, “Trust Me. I am the Good Shepherd. I will keep you safe.” We have good shepherds in our own lifetime. Jesus gave them the courage to lay down their lives for others. He might not ask martyrdom of me, but He is calling me to follow Him. Am I willing to follow His voice? Are there occasions when I could imitate Jesus and be a good shepherd to someone who needs more help that I do?

III Sunday of Easter – April 22, 2012

admin — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 03:55:21 +0000

This Sunday the Gospel helps us to deepen our faith in the meaning of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead and is intended to strengthen our response. We hear the ending of the Emmaus story in which the two disciples walk with downcast hearts from Jerusalem to Emmaus. A stranger, in fact Jesus whom they do not recognize, walks by their side. He helps them understand and make sense of recent events, and they come to understand what has happened at the Last Supper and crucifixion. Before He leaves them He shares a meal, breaks bread – and the two disciples recognize Him as the risen Christ. They come to believe in Him. They run back to Jerusalem where today’s Gospel begins. Jesus invites us in God’s mercy and teaches His disciples that He has reconciled the world to the Father. The sacrifice on Calvary means that our sins are forgiven and we can be restored to right relationship with God. In the face of sin and wrongdoing, there is no need to despair, but the hope of new life and transformation can be offered. We see this symbolically in the mystery play when Jesus desires to forgive Judas, but tragically Judas has made his own final choice away from God.

While many people find it difficult, our belief can offer a witness to the hope of being forgiven. As we walk the path with people struggling with weakness and failure, the hope of the Gospel is that this is not a final state. Rather than condemnation and judgement, the Christian can offer the gentle word of mercy and the warmth of compassion. By the wounds of Jesus we are healed. God’s love can embrace any transgressions or failures if we are ready to confess our need in the power of the Lord’s mercy and have faith that He will give us His peace.

Low Sunday – April 15, 2012

admin — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 04:11:51 +0000

Today’s Gospel, told by St. John, is a powerful telling of the appearing of the risen Jesus after the cruelty of His death on the cross. The person who appears is real. The disciples see the wounds that were made on His body; then they listen to the command that He gives to them sending them out to the whole world, to reconcile all to God. The absence of Thomas works happily for all generations to come. His doubts about a risen Lord are sensible and sane. He wants some proof. Thomas, as it were, stands for all of us, in our absence from that scene. In appearing again, to Thomas, Jesus is appearing to us. And, Jesus calls down a blessing upon us, the blessing of faith, the gift of believing. The Holy Spirit will work in us, bestowing on us the grace and power of faith. As Thomas falls to his knees, he prays the prayer of all who believe: “My Lord and my God!” St. John writes this for two reasons – so that we may believe in the Lord, as he does, and so that we may have life. That life is the Easter life of the risen Jesus.

Resurrection of the Lord – April 8, 2012

admin — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 03:55:22 +0000

Were we to stand on Main Street and ask passers-by, “What do you think is the greatest festival in the Christian calendar?,” the majority would probably say, “Christmas.” Few, if any, would answer, “Easter.” It is like living in two worlds: the world of Main Street and the world of our Christian faith. Coming into the beautifully decorated church this morning, we’ve left behind that other world of Easter eggs, fluffy chicks and Easter bunnies, for a time at least to be with the source of it all. What are we celebrating, what does it mean?

Easter is an invitation to come out of the darkness and the shadows into the light: a proclamation of Christian faith that Jesus is truly risen.

In St. Matthews’s account of the Passion we hear how the chief priests asks Pilate to place guards at the tomb of Jesus, for they remembered His promise that He would rise, and they feared that His disciples would come and steal the body away and, as the chief priests put it, “This last piece of fraud would be worse than what went before.” Which brings us to the crux of the matter: what did happen on that first Easter morning? There are no witnesses to the rising of Christ – only the empty tomb and the shroud clothes left behind.

The Gospels do not explain the resurrection. The resurrection explains the Gospels. Belief in the Lord rising from the dead is not a footnote in Christian faith. It is the Christian faith. It is God who has the last word, reminding us that the best is still to come. Jesus is raised to new life by the sheer compelling energy of the Father’s love: the tomb could never be His permanent home. Despite the determined efforts of many down the ages, and now, to relegate Christianity and this fundamental belief to the dust of history, the empty tomb still poses a vibrant and challenging question, which refuses to go away and cries out to be answered. Ultimately it is not about faith which, faltering and hesitant though it may be, enables us to say: “I know my Redeemer lives.” The good news for us who believe is that the Father’s affirmation is not restricted to His beloved Son, but is given to all who are able to accept Jesus as Savior and Lord. The Easter Gospel, the message of Christ’s resurrection, keeps hope alive: death has been vanquished; death is not the end. The beautiful Sequence of the Mass today says it all: “Death with life contended: combat strangely ended! Life’s own Champion, slain, yet lives to reign…That Christ is truly risen from the dead we know. Victorious King, thy mercy show!” Alleluia!

Holy Saturday – April 7, 2012

admin — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 04:15:51 +0000

“It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” This, people say, is an ancient Chinese proverb. Wherever there is oppression, we will light a candle and scatter the works of darkness. In the darkness of this night, we light a fire, and from that fire, a candle; and we proclaim the light of Christ. The darkness that enveloped the cross on Calvary, the darkness that came over the land and clouded the minds of the disciples, is lifted. The early-morning sun that greeted the women who went to the tomb could not lift their sorrows, but the message they would hear there was like a candle in the darkness. The light had come back into the world. At first, they could not believe it and were shaken with fear. But it was true. Jesus is not among the dead. He is alive.

The young man at the tomb gave a message to those women: “Tell the disciples and Peter, ‘He is going before you to Galilee.’” Galilee is the place where it all began. It is the home place, where the disciples first met the Lord. So for us, disciples of the Lord today, this is our Galilee, here where we live. Like the first disciples, we, too, have our own struggles and our own darkness to contend with, in the confusion of our lives, in our losses and breakdown, in the sorrows that come our way. The cure to all those things is the light of Christ.

Good Friday – April 6, 2012

admin — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 03:55:32 +0000

In St. John’s Gospel, the meeting of Jesus with Pilate takes centre stage. We hear their conversation at some length, as well as Pilate’s negotiations with the crowd outside. To our minds, the trial of Jesus seems quite clearly unfair and unjust, but life is not so simple. To the Jewish elders this man was an upstart, who was, in His naivety, going to be the cause of trouble in society. Pilate too, eventually came to the same conclusion. It looked as if a riot was brewing, and it would be much simpler to sacrifice one man than to have the whole city in flames. But before Pilate reaches that point, he struggles with himself, trying to set Jesus free. Power politics and pragmatism are the name of the game. Standing on his balcony, Pilate might think he is the figure of authority here, but in fact it is the crowd below who carry the day. Pilate, in the end, does not make an honest decision. He yields to public pressure. In a moment of pure helplessness, he washes his hands of the business, and hands Jesus over to the crowd, to deal with as they please.

The man at the centre of this drama, Jesus of Nazareth, tells us, in court, exactly who He is: “Yes, I am a king. I was born for this, I came into the world for this: to bear witness to the truth; and all who are on the side of truth listen to My voice.” Pilate’s refusal to enter a discussion about truth is not because he found it foolish. Something inside him told him that truth was being sacrificed today, in favor of political necessity. In fact the truth, the living truth, in the person of Jesus, was about to be crucified. Pilate’s own attempt to be truthful would come in a notice that was fixed to the cross – “Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews.” Under pressure to change it, Pilate would not be moved. He had been pushed around enough. “What I have written, I have written.” In Antonio Ciseri’s painting, the light from heaven, reflecting of the walls of Jerusalem, shines down on God’s own Son. And Pontius Pilate has his own moment in the sun, when he says to the world, and to every generation, “Ecce Homo – Behold the Man!”

Holy Thursday – April 5, 2012

admin — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 03:55:06 +0000

The drama of the Last Supper is full of unforgettable action, none more so than when Jesus washes His disciples’ feet. Many artists through the years, have painted scenes from the Last Supper, and many have taken the episode of the washing of feet as their subject. This action of Jesus is a complete role reversal, to their minds. Lords and masters do not such things. Servants and slaves, yes, but not the Messiah, surely? This action speaks loudly. It shouts out. They won’t be able to forget that He did this. And that it was the last thing He taught them before He died. The whole of Jesus’ life and ministry, from the first days in Galilee to thin final night in Jerusalem. He acts with justice and does not seek to offend anyone. He is patient with His enemies. Teaching us to love our enemies is the same as asking us to wash the feet of others.

We are not being asked to do the impossible. Christianity is not about being superhuman, or making extreme moral efforts. The faith is not calling us to be something that is beyond us. It is not about moral high ground, or being better than others. Jesus calls us to be more human, not less: to be our truest selves. St. John says that Jesus loved His own right to the end. It is this persevering love to which Jesus calls us. Love calls us out of the narrow confines of our individual selves, in which we are separated from one another by our fallen humanity. In our fallen state we find ourselves unable to reach one another. This is the tragedy of the world. Pride and self-interest dominate our relationships. It is love, in the form of self-giving and humble service, which bridges the distance between us – like hands joined together.