Love Enemies, Seriously

 

“But I say to you that listen, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.” (Luke 6:27) 

Loving our enemies.  Seriously.  Who or what comes to mind when you think of that word – “enemies?” 

My wife had tears in her eyes, I wanted to scream, and my senior neighbor response was helplessness. Susan was contacted by a lady upset because she had to moved out of her apartment. Social services referred her to an emergency hotel. However, the hotel would not allow her to bring along her emotional support companion kitty. In tears, this lady surrendered her kitty to the officers at the animal shelter.

My vison is to make our farm into an educational resource center for students and faculty. However, the legal litigation attorneys could not find a way to make this land available without fear of a potential lawsuit if someone got hurt on our land.

The neighbor’s mailbox was demolished by a state snow plow. I contacted the state highway supervisor and he apologized but reported: “it is a privilege for any home owner to put a mailbox along the side of the road and if a plow destroys your mailbox the state has no obligation to replace it.” Seriously.

Jesus I believe is our spiritual mentor, but this teaching might be his toughest to swallow. After all, people need to pay for their crimes or the state when it wrecks our mailbox, don’t they? Are we supposed to let the bad guys just get away with being bad? If we can’t strike back, are we to choose to let ourselves be abused?

I think one of the hardest things for us to do as Christians is balance justice with God’s mercy. The truth is, it’s never going to be about who “deserves” mercy. We can’t let people or the system go around denying our right to have an emotional companion animal without trying to do something about it. But why does Jesus ask us to love enemies or a system that denies my dream to use our land as an educational center. He tells us to ignore insults and abuse, pray for persecutors, give to beggars, and forgive the misdeeds of others? 

If we take the first steps to love our enemies and those who hate us, Jesus tells us, “Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” God’s mercy knows no bounds, no boundaries, no conditions. The sun shines on the just and the unjust. The rain pours down on the good and the bad. God is an equal opportunity provider of mercy. We are to be merciful as God is merciful – in just the same measure as we want God to be merciful to us.

Jesus is really asking, “Do you want to spend all your energy hating your enemies? Or do you really want to follow me and become children of the Most High?” Can we begin today to take one small step toward the kind of reconciliation Jesus knows is the only way forward for us all? Can we begin to love our enemies and pray for those who hate us? And if not now, when?

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends for it’s easy for this Gospel passage to be dismissed as impossible.  To hear Jesus’ words as an ideal that is unrealistic to achieve. Instead, Jesus invites us to humble ourselves and to admit how hard this is.  To let go of our impulse to hold onto the hurts and the pains that justify our hatred for someone else.  Instead, to sincerely and genuinely let Him, and His love enter in.  Letting Him guide and direct, challenge, and heal us not just into loving an enemy – but more importantly forming us into being His faithful disciples.

 

Invitation to be a Beatitude Person

 

 

What is Jesus saying in Luke’s version of the Beatitudes. He’s expressing God’s love for the poor. But I also hear what this current moment in our nation’s history is saying, and it’s very different. When I read the news coming out of Washington, I’m hearing the opposite of what Jesus’ teaching:

Woe to you who are poor, for your poverty is none of our concern.

Woe to you who are hungry, for we won’t be sending you any more food.

Woe to you who weep now, for you will go on weeping. You will catch preventable diseases, and your children will die of malnutrition because the wealthiest man in the world has decided your lives aren’t important.

And woe to you who are criticized and reviled for preaching the word of God. There will be a resolution presented in our government to condemn your sermon as a “distorted message.” The grant money appropriated to you by our government for non-religious humanitarian work will be called “illegal.”

But blessed are you who are rich. You will get even richer.

Blessed are you who are full now, for there’s a big, fat permanent tax break coming your way.

Blessed are you who are laughing now, for you are now in charge.

Blessed are you when all speak well of you, for you have really put one over on the people.

I struggle with this message. I have a definite conflict between honoring my ordination vow to preach the truth and stand up for the poor and the marginalized, and my responsibility as a retired pastor to provide a calm online worship experience which allows my Sonshine Friends to come quietly into the presence of God—blessedly free of controversy or anything upsetting.

I’m not trying to make people angry, but I am trying to say that what is happening in Washington—the arbitrary withholding of humanitarian funds and the shutdown of the United States Agency for International Development—is a direct contradiction of the Holy Scriptures.

Luke’s Gospel is full of references to economic justice. The Virgin Mary sings of God’s regard for the poor. Jesus tells the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, in which a man wastes food but lets a beggar starve. Even dogs show the poor man more compassion than does the wealthy man. But when they both die, the poor man is carried away to the bosom of Father Abraham. The rich man is in torment in hades and is reminded by Abraham that he had Moses and the prophets to teach him about compassion. Jesus tells the parable of the rich fool as a warning against greed. Perhaps the most obvious example of all is the parable of the Good Samaritan in which we are reminded to love our neighbor as ourselves by showing mercy. Jesus tells us, “Go and do likewise.”

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that as we enter the holy season of Lent, we might give up more than candy, that we will not withhold generosity or compassion. We take up our special offerings and support the work of our parish community to help the poor, the migrants, And we will continue to pray “Thy kingdom come; thy will be done.” Keep praying. Keep your hearts open. Keep seeking God’s will. It’s more important now than ever. If someone asks you what side of the aisle you are on, instead of getting upset or defensive might I suggest this humble response: “I am a Beatitude person!”

 

 

 

Life After Death

 

In the First Reading this Sunday,, Isaiah dates a religious vision not by a day but by a death: “ … in the year that King Uzziah died.”  

 

There are some things so painful for a person that events in his life can be dated by them: “in the year my wife died”; “in the year we lost our mom”; “in the year the hurricane devastated the town.” An affliction of this sort divides a whole life into before and after: there is the life you had before your wife died, and then there is the life you have afterwards, after the death of your wife and the death of everything that made up your life together. 

 

Isaiah produced the great prophecies of the Messiah that even now give the whole world hope.

Sometimes in unbearable grief such as that stemming from the death of someone so loved, a person doesn’t know how to stand under thier sorrow. A heartbroken person has lost something central to them; and a person can fall apart when the center doesn’t hold.  

 

In those circumstances, a grieved and suffering person can want to die then too; they can want to come to the Lord too. When King Uzziah died, Isaiah came before the Lord too, but only in a vision, where the doorposts shook and the house filled up with smoke. 

 

The problem is that you can’t really come to the Lord before your time on earth is over, and falling apart under grief gets you only an increase of sorrow. Isaiah responded to that vision of the Lord by saying “Woe is me! I am doomed!” 

 

This is not the end of the story for Isaiah, though. An angel seared Isaiah’s mouth with a burning coal. 

 

And then Isaiah opened his mouth and offered to serve the Lord. When God asked, “whom shall I send?” Isaiah said, “Here I am. Send me.” All his most important service for the Lord came after the death that dates his vision and that changed his life. 

 

When Isaiah himself finally died and came to the Lord, three kings later, he had become the foremost prophet of Israel. Because in the end he didn’t fall apart but lived after King Uzziah’s death, he produced the great prophecies of the Messiah that even now give the whole world hope. 

 

If you can stand under your sorrow, rather than falling apart, then through the searing grief can come a new life, a good life that was unimaginable to you before. If you can stand and live into the period of your life after the destruction of your heart’s desire, then God’s grace can bring life out of death for you. 

 

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends who are living after the death of their spouse, parent or worse child. Give them hope and the assurance that their loved ones walk in the loving eternal arms of our Lord and Saviour.

 

Blessing Prayer for First Responders

 

My brother priest, Fr Erick serves as chaplain for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. This past week he offered a blessing prayer for all police officers. The above photo shows Fr. Erick with his comrades. I shared that I received an invitation to offer blessing prayers for first responders in my community in Bethany, New York at their annual appreciation gathering on February 6^th. This will be my blessing:

Firefighters and EMTs embody courage, sacrifice, and selflessness as they place their lives on the line to save others. Their work is physically demanding, emotionally taxing, and often dangerous. As believers, we are called to lift up these heroes in prayer, asking God for protection, strength, and guidance as they serve our community. In praying for them, we entrust their safety to God and ask for His grace to sustain them as they carry out their critical work.

Heavenly Father,
I come before You to lift up the firefighters and EMTs in our Bethany Volunteer Fire Department who risk their lives to protect and serve. Lord, I thank You for their courage, dedication, and willingness to face danger for the sake of others.

“The Lord will keep you from all harm—He will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore” (Psalm 121:7-8).

Father, I ask for Your divine protection over each firefighter. Guard their hearts and minds as they face dangerous situations. Keep them safe from harm, and guide their steps as they work to save lives and property. Lord, bless their families, who also make sacrifices so that these brave men and women can serve their communities.

Grant them physical strength, mental resilience, and emotional peace. Lord, let Your presence surround them in every emergency, and may Your wisdom guide their decisions. I pray for unity and support among their teams, and may they always know that their work is valued and appreciated by their community.

Thank You, Lord, for these heroes and for Your faithfulness in protecting and sustaining them. May they find strength and peace in Your presence every day. Amen.

Bethany Fire Department “first responders” include firefighters, emergency medical technicians, volunteers, critical incident and chaplain. Kind pray for the safety of these volunteers:

 

GLENN ADAMS

LYLE BOUNDY

STEVE BRECKENRIDGE

BRIAN BRITTON

DEBBIE DONNELLY

TIME EMBT

JASON EVERETT

JEFF FLUKER

SANDY FLUKER

JAKE HOWLAND SR

JACOB HOWLAND

CARL HYDE JR

GREG JOHNSON

PEGGY JOHNSON

BRITTANY JOHNSON

KAITLYN JOHNSON

GEORGE LARISH

TIM { TJ } LEWIS

TODD MOGENHAN

CHRISTOPHER PAGE

JIM PHILLIPS

TERRY SMART

GAIL SMITH

JOHN SZYMKOWIAK

WILL THURLEY

SCOTT THURLEY

WAYNE WALKER

WALTER WHENHOL

JEFF WOLAK

VICKI WOLAK

LILLIAN SZYMKOWIAK

HUNTER SZYMKOWIAK

JENN HOWLAND

MAELYNN HYDE

DIANE FOWLER

FR MATTHEW KAWIAK 🙂

 

 

 

How Do You Talk About Religion?

 

Question: How do you talk about religion that doesn’t cause conflict?

 

The answer is not to bury our heads and never talk about religion. Or use social media to express your opinion by degrading people, hitting them over the head, chastising them by demanding an apology or judging them that they are not a “good bishop.”

 

Catholics are not accustomed to talking about our faith. History tells the story of people who came from another country and were Catholic and lived in a Catholic bubble “ghetto.” No one was going to ask you about your faith because we all assumed we knew about the holydays and fasting. We didn’t have to talk about our faith because nobody was asking.

 

The Catholic bubble has burst, we live in much more secular world, We tend to stand out and I think that’s a good thing. We wear ashes on our heads, and people snicker and ask what is it with you Catholics with ashes on your forehead.

 

Are you ready to talk about your faith, are you ready to explain what you believe and why? Sadly, the temptation is to ‘blend in” and that’s not what we want to do. We treasure our faith. We have no need to be embarrassed or afraid about talking about our faith because it is about our relationship with God.

 

Unfortunately many Catholics feel ill equipped to respond when people ask us about our faith. We’re not sure how to explain ourselves, we fear we might get it wrong.

 

The trick is to talk about your faith like ou are talking about your best friend. Remember, the disciples were fishermen and no great theologians. Keep it simple and talk about your faith in everyday language in a simple way that is not simplistic, but it makes sense to people. Talking about our faith is not about winning a debate. People debate online forget to be civil.

 

First simple suggestion when speaking to others about your faith is speak from the heart. Catholics can be very sterile and stern when talking about our faith, we quote Scripture or the catechism. Might I suggest you simply share what God has done for you. How God has changed you. What God brings to your life.

How has Jesus touched your life, transformed your life. Simply speak about yourself and your relationship with God. How and why does God make you a better man and better woman.

 

When you talk to other people about your relationship with Jesus tell them how He has made you a better person. This is what our relationship with God does. We don’t follow the commandments out of fear of God, better do the right thing or we get in trouble. Rather, we do it because this is how God treats us with such great love that we want to treat others in the same way.

 

Simply put, Catholic, Christians, or persons of all faiths want to conform to the way God thinks, speaks and acts. Jesus came into our world to show you how God thinks, speaks and acts. Respect for all people wherever they were born, compassion for the poor and a heart that accepts and welcomes people of all genders, nations and cultures.

 

We live a moral life because God is a Gpd of justice, mercy, compassion, fairness, charity. We strive to treat other as God treats us. Moral life is practicing the spirit of the commandments and the beatitudes. Not just memorizing the chapter and verses. Beatitudes compel us to go out and do things, to be peacemakers, hunger and thirst for righteous, to except being persecuted for righteousness.

 

What would Jesus have us do?

 

This past week, at the National Ecumenical Prayer Service at the Washington National Cathedral, the Episcopal Bishop of Washington DC, the Rt. Reverend Mariann Budde, asked the President of the United States for mercy for those who are afraid—the LGBTQ+ community and undocumented workers. I would consider these people to be under the heading of the poor and the oppressed, the folks for whom Isaiah and Jesus seemed to be concerned. I listened to the bishop’s gentle and sweetly phrased homily, and I did not hear her scold or condemn the president. I only heard a plea that our government should have some feelings for those on the margins.

 

But some folks got upset.

 

And that’s okay. Sometimes our faith should challenge us. Sometimes we should wrestle with the practical and the ideal. Sometimes we should reject simple, safe answers—especially when we are followers of Jesus.

 

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that we find the grace of love in our hearts and share our faith with people. It’s time to take a stand and stand out. These things may stretch us beyond our comfort zones and compel us to love the way God loves us. Human dignity is our starting point, not pointing fingers or dividing our people. We need to stand out and talk in the way Jesus thinks, speaks and acts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prayer of Thanks

 

Karen, the widow of my good friend Ken, who died unexpectedly in November wrote me a very kind thank you note on behalf of her family.  Her words were very humbling. In response, I wrote the following prayer of gratitude to Karen that expresses my sadness and desire to bring comfort to her, his son joe and all their family. May I suggest if you have a family or friend who has suffered a recent lost, to email or write a note to express that they are still in your thoughts and prayers.

 

My dear Karen:

“Not a day goes by that I don’t think about your beloved Ken and offer my prayers that he is safe in the arms of Our Lord in heaven.

 

Your thoughtful card and prayers from yourself and family are much appreciated. Ken was not only my mentor but my best friend who understood my ministry as a priest. He stood behind me when I made a decision to help reopen the closed RC parish in North Java into a PNCC Catholic church. He knew the RC bureaucracy would expunge me from their church. However, it did not deter my vocation to serve and reopen a Catholic faith community and serves the people of Wyoming County with a hospice services open to people of all faiths and traditions.

 

He helped me cut down thousands of grapevines that were killing the trees on our farm. He also supported my vision to make our land into an educational center. At the current moment, I am negotiating with Brockport College inviting their students and faculty to use our land as a resource to study the environment. To date, we have no signed agreement but I pray Ken’s spirit is helping from heaven to make this dream a reality.

 

As I shared at the funeral service, he was my uber for all those adventures to the National Parks where I enjoyed taking landscape photos while he would explore the seashore or climb a mountain. I knew that after each adventure he planned to bring his grandkids along for future adventures.

 

Since the funeral, I have met with his wonderful son Joe several times. We have discussed several topics about his studies at school, his career decision to work at the office, religion, and to his relationship to God.

It would seem that my new role in life is to mentor Joe to become the

best person that he can be. I welcome this opportunity to help this young man to follow in the footsteps of his dad. To help him learn that happiness in life is not found in fame, wealth or power but in relationships where our purpose in life is to be of service to people by being generous and compassionate in all our relationships with them.

 

I have you in my daily prayers that Our Lady who understood sorrow at the foot of the cross of her son will be by your side to give you strength and comfort in the coming days. Thank you again for the humble privilege to lead the service and allow me to share stories about Ken and our adventures. Keep me posted on any family gatherings in the future, I would love to join your family. May Our Lady protect you always and keep you in good health.”

 

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends who are grieving the death of family members and friends. Remind them that our God is a God of life and not death. As my friend Ken would often say: “You got to be lucky.” Yes, we are lucky that as children of God we are destined to be reunited with all our family and friends in Paradise.

 

 

 

We Are Children of God

 

In the Baptism of Our Lord, the voice from heaven declares the newly baptized Jesus to be his Beloved Son, with whom God is “well pleased.” The phrase “well pleased” sounds a little tame to me, like something you’d say if the restaurant that cooked your steak the way you wanted it. If I had to translate this sentence from Luke’s gospel, I’d say, “You are my Son, the Beloved; I see something really, really special in you!”

 

It is the same for us in each of our own individual baptisms. It is the Spirit which comes upon each of us at baptism which enables us to live Christian lives. And with the Spirit of Love within us, we too can do wonderful things, selfless things, things which enable the unconditional love of God to shine forth through us to others.

 

For example, a young husband has a crippling, terminal neurological disease. His wife is carrying a baby which this young man may never live to see. So he writes a letter to this unborn child to say something very important that is in his heart. "Your mother is very special," he writes. "Few men know what it is like to receive appreciation for taking their wives out to dinner when it entails what it does for us. It means that she has to dress me, shave me, brush my teeth, comb my hair, wheel me out of the house and down the steps, open the garage and put me in the car, take the pedals off the chair, stand me up, sit me in the seat of the car, twist me around so that I am comfortable, fold the wheelchair, put it in the car, go around to the other side of the car, start it up, back it out, get out of the car, pull the garage door down, get back into the car, drive off to the restaurant. And then, it starts all over again. She gets out of the car, unfolds the wheelchair, opens the door, spins me around, stands me up, seats me in the wheelchair, pushes the pedals out, closes and locks the car, wheels me into the restaurant, then takes the pedals off the wheelchair so I won't be uncomfortable. We sit down to have dinner, and she feeds me throughout the entire meal. And when it's over she pays the bill, pushes the wheelchair out to the car again, and repeats the same routine. And when it's over, finished, with real warmth, she'll say, 'Honey, thank you for taking me out to dinner.' I never quite know what to answer...

 

If you have ever been the recipient of unconditional love, you know what this young man felt. If you ever get a grasp on all that Christ has done on your behalf, you will understand what it means not to know what to say. You and I are the recipients of an amazing self-giving love. The Lord of all life came into our world and gave his life for us. That is who Christ is and what he has done. He is not simply a good teacher who gave us some insightful lessons about life. He is the Cornerstone that was rejected. He is the Lily of the Valley crushed under the heel of humanity's sins. And because he left his throne and entered our valley, the valley of suffering and pain, he knows our hurt, our disappointment, our fears, our frustrations, our anger.

 

And how do we know that God knows? Because Christ has walked where we walk. He has experienced what we experience. At Jesus' baptism, we are introduced to Jesus as the Father's Son, with whom the Father is well pleased. Jesus was baptized to show us who he is and to show us how much God loves us. Because we have been baptized, we know who we are. We are children of God.

 

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that just as Jesus received his commission at his own baptism, we received the Spirit of Love into our lives at our baptism and with that Spirit, we too can do wonderful things, like the wife in the story. When we were baptized, the heavens did not open nor a voice come forth as when our Lord was baptized. However, the Spirit of Love, which we have all received, should lead us to live lives as children of God, so that one day our Father will look at us face to face and say: "You are my beloved child in whom I am well pleased. Enter into the joy of your Master."