News - Home RSS Feed

St. Faustina of Poland is the well-known apostle of Divine Mercy. On the 30th of April 2000, at 10:00 AM, on the Second Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday, the Feast requested by Jesus in His communications with St. Faustina), His Holiness Pope St. John Paul II celebrated the Eucharist in Saint Peter’s Square and proceeded to the canonization of Blessed Sister Faustina. Pope John Paul himself would be canonized on this same Feast Day – April 27 in 2014 – by Pope Francis. At the canonization of St. Faustina, Saint John Paul II said, “Believing in the love of God means believing in His mercy.” Saint Faustina invites us by the witness of her life to keep our Faith and Hope fixed on God the Father, rich in mercy, who saved us by the precious Blood of His Son.  During her short life, the Lord Jesus assigned to St. Faustina three basic tasks: 1. to pray for souls, entrusting them to God’s incomprehensible Mercy; 2. to tell the world about God’s generous Mercy; 3. to start a new movement in the Church focusing on God’s Mercy.

In his 1st Letter to the Corinthians, one of the earliest parts of the New Testament, St. Paul makes clear that Christianity rises or falls on truth of the Resurrection. It is not a hyperbole or idyllic thought of inspiration, but it is the HEART of our religion. He tells us that if Christ is not raised from the dead, we who believe are most of all to be pitied (cf. 1 Cor. 15:19). All of which lead us back to the Person of Jesus, to Jesus who spoke often of his sacrificial death… and at every mention of his death, he affirmed that Resurrection would follow, an immediate, historical resurrection in our humanity, body and soul. So what are we to make of this?

Today we begin the Holy Week, a day of fleeting triumph when Jesus enters the great city of Jerusalem. Next Sunday is another day of triumph, of lasting triumph, the resurrection. In between is a strange mixture of joy and pain, of sorrow and fear known to all of us human beings. We sometimes wish life was a bowl of cherries, but we know only too well that reality is often, for many, the exact opposite. We may talk as much as we like about joy and adventure, contentment and peace, but only a fool believes that Christians have the recipe for a trouble-free life. We don't. Common sense tells us that human life - yours and mine - is complex, confusing and challenging.

During these final days of Lent a number of Gospel references will speak about the ‘hour’. Jesus concluded the Last Supper discourse with these words, “the hour has come, glorify your Son so that your Son may glorify you.” Obviously, when Jesus uses the phrase, hour, he is not merely referring to the time of day it might be.  No, he is speaking about a central moment of human history.  The hour is the moment that the world will be transformed.  The hour is the point of human history when spiritual life will be restored.  The hour is the moment when death and evil will be defeated by Love.  The hour is the moment when the mortal will receive immortality.  And Jesus said in today’s Gospel, “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.” This is the central moment of human history. The hour.

The Fourth Sunday of Lent is called Lætare (Rejoice) Sunday, from the first words of the opening antiphon of today’s liturgy. Since this Sunday occurs in the middle of Lent, as Gaudete Sunday is celebrated midway through Advent, Lætare Sunday reminds us of the Event we look forward to at the end of the Lenten season. As on Gaudete Sunday, rose-colored vestments replace violet. In Lent, these outward signs symbolize the Church’s joy in anticipation of the Resurrection, a joy which cannot be contained even in this penitential Season, though we still refrain from Alleluias and the singing of the Gloria until the magnificence of the Easter Vigil.

The first reading this Third Sunday of Lent is from the Book of Exodus teaching us the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments call us to a way of life that is out of tune with the society the media presents, and, to some degree, out of tune with our own society. Honesty, respect for parents, fidelity, respect for property, putting God before all else, giving him a day a week, are all ways that we are distinct from others. To be distinct, to be separate for the Lord, is what we mean when we say, “We are called to be holy.” We live these commandments so that ultimately, we might not be wrapped up in ourselves. We live these commandments in response to God's preference of us as his chosen people.

The primary purpose of Lent is spiritual preparation for the celebration of the Paschal Mystery recalling Jesus’ death on Good Friday and his Resurrection on Easter Sunday. Hence, the Church leads her children to “repentance,” metanoia the process in which one reorders one’s priorities, and changes one’s values, ideals, and ambitions, through fasting, prayer and mortification. Lent, then, is a period of self-examination, prompting us to repent of our sins, and so to bring about a real conversion: to turn to God and to His teaching, and to do good for others. Lent also challenges us to reform our lives by turning away from self, from evil, and from sin, to turn toward God and toward others with renewed Faith and fervor. Lenten observances are also intended to lead us to our annual solemn renewal of Baptismal vows on Holy Saturday. Through Baptism, we are called to live justly, to love God with all our being, to love our neighbor as ourselves, and to build the kingdom of God by our acts of charity. That is why the three readings chosen as today’s Scripture refer to Baptism directly or indirectly.

The goal of spiritual life is to let oneself be increasingly open to the God our creator and the Lord of all creation. The Liturgy beautifully planned unfold to us the life of Jesus, God made man, by reliving the events of his life and connecting it to the natural change of seasons. The gospel stories this year are being told by Mark, just as they were told last year by Matthew. The most vivid of the gospels is Mark’s. He is direct and uses fewer words, but he has more concrete details. He makes us to be present when the event is taking place and we can have a visual image of the happening. During my priestly ministry in the frontier missions in North East India and Africa, I have noticed that those who enter the Church as new Christians accept the teaching of Jesus primarily because of the Gospel of Mark. Last week Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law. He “grasped her hand and helped her up.” When Jesus stills the storm at sea, he is not just “in the boat,” he is “at the stern” of it according to Mark, and he is not just asleep, but asleep “on a cushion.”

Like Job in the first reading, we all come upon times of chaos, times of stress. There are so many aspects to life for which there are no solutions. People have lost a loved one. Who has a solution to make the pain go away? Some members of our parish have chronically ill children. Parents are exhausted as their hearts are being torn to pieces. In some families, alcohol, drugs, psychological problems, or infidelity have broken up a marriage and a home. How can the family return to its state before it was devastated? It cannot. There is no quick fix solution. Like Job we all experience what he called months of misery and nights of terror. Perhaps, we do not suffer to the extent that Job suffered, but life brings with it many challenges, including challenges to our faith that God will get us through the crisis.

Today’s Gospel continues our reading from Mark and describes what some believe was likely to have been a typical day in Jesus’ ministry. Jesus and the disciples that chose to follow him in last week’s Gospel arrive at Capernaum, a small town on the Sea of Galilee. Mark is direct and concise in his report of the work of Jesus. He is quick to point out that Jesus carried a special ‘authority’ in his words and actions. Mark also lays before his readers two conflicts that Jesus will confront, one against the forces of evil and another with the religious leadership.

The Scripture readings of this week-end present to us the theme of calling by God and human reaction to the call. God says to Jonah, “Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and preach against it; their wickedness has come up before me” (First Reading). Jonah, like a house cat, does exactly the opposite of what he is asked. He drops everything and runs in the opposite direction. He goes to the town of Joppa, finds a ship to farthest place he can think of which is Tarshish and gets on board, trying get as far from the task as possible. You know the rest of the story of how the ship is caught up in a storm and Jonah is thrown overboard to placate the ‘angry God’ and a fish swallows him and brings him back to the place which he was asked to go in the first place.

The ancient Greek city of Corinth acquired something of a proverbial reputation for sexual promiscuity, and modern biblical scholarship has frequently reiterated a view of the city as a particular hotbed of immorality and vice. In addition to their wealth, Corinthians worshiped Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure and procreation. Corinth was the ancient equivalent of Sin City. Most of the people of the pagan world engaged in blatant immorality, but some of the worst were those in Corinth. They even had their own saying to justify their behavior. “Food is for the stomach and the stomach for food.” It was like saying, “You have no choice: you have no choice but eat, so too you ought to behave immorally.” Paul tells them and us that we are so much better than that. Our bodies belong to the Lord. We are members of the Body of Christ. We are far more than animals with nothing but animal instincts. We share in the Body of Christ. He goes on to use a very important phrase: our bodies are Temples of the Holy Spirit. If we are immoral, we are sinning against our own bodies, sinning against our union with Christ.

The Christmas season ends today with the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. The beginning and end of the season have much in common. On Christmas, we celebrate God becoming one of us, taking upon himself a human nature. On the Feast of the Baptism, we celebrate the public proclamation that Jesus is more than just one of us. He has more than a human nature. He has a Divine Nature.

We have just begun a New Year. All of us have our own wishes and dreams for this year. Some of us will have taken new resolutions. I am also conscious of the fact that the merged Parish of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Tappan and St. John the Baptist, Piermont will function as one body of Christ. The feast that we celebrate today of the Epiphany or the Manifestation of the Lord to the Nations, can throw light on all of the above.

As we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family, I invite you to reflect on your own family. The family is the temple where the flame of life is transmitted. It is a temple dedicated to the Lord of Life. The family is naturally ordered to serve what John Paul II has called the Gospel of life, the ‘Evangelium vitae’. Every birth ought to declare: Life is good news! The family is therefore an intensely spiritual society, and the conjugal act that is at the heart of the marriage and which is its fire has a spiritual dimension which is too often forgotten in our day. Fatherhood and motherhood represent a responsibility which is not simply physical but spiritual in nature.

 The first chapter of St. Luke’s Gospel contains two annunciation accounts, each about the birth of children in impossible circumstances. Elizabeth was barren, so she could not have a child and she was advanced in years.  Mary had no husband and she had never had conjugal relations. But after the Annunciation to him, Zechariah is struck deaf and mute, while Mary, initially fearful, accepts peacefully. Let us compare the two: Zechariah: “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” Mary: “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?”...

This Sunday is Gaudete Sunday, Rejoice Sunday. “Brothers and sisters,” St. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, “Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus....May the God of peace make you perfectly holy and may you entirely, spirit, soul, and body, be preserved blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will also accomplish it.”

Dear Parish Family, In the First Reading, the prophet reports a command given by God: ‘Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God!” In the sorrows of life, who does not long for comfort? ...

Dear Parish Family, We begin Advent with the simple word: Watch.   Next week we will be told: Stay Awake. The third week we have: Rejoice, and for the fourth week we have: Behold!  Watch! 

Dear Parish Family, Today’s Scripture Readings revolve around the Last Judgment scene of Jesus Christ coming in glory and power. ...