Be Generous

 

 

A young man was searching for a vocation in life and thought about the priesthood. He went to talk to an old parish priest who was loved by his community for his spiritual life. Our young person asked father: “How does a person know if they want to serve God?”  The old friar looked into his eyes and with a loving, tender gaze said: “Are you generous?”

 

This shepherd when given a gift by a parishioner would give it away. If someone dropped off some food at the rectory, he would take it to the shelter. Someone donates some money to be used for a good cause, he would immediately give it to a family struggling to pay their bills.

 

Sometimes generosity not only comes with a check, but with how we spend time with one another. During this pandemic, people are under more stress than ever, from working extra hours to make up for shortages, to making the decision to be vaccinated to keep their neighbor and themselves safe. However, when we have a moment for ourselves, what would be helpful is an empathic ear, someone who knows “how to listen.”

 

This mentor, our best friend, a sister or brother, a buddy is where to whom we pour out our soul, our worries, our fears, the past bumps and bruises that we keep inside until we are ready to explode, or back down on our knees sobbing in tears with all the pain.

 

At that moment, I want you to listen to what God is saying to you. “The Father Loves You. The Father Loves You. The Father Loves You. Be Safe. All Will Be Well.” Then imagine God Our Father holding you in His Arms and saying: “Daddy Loves You.”

 

I listen everyday to the pain of others whose best friend committed suicide and they couldn’t convince their buddy not to go through this. The pain of parents whose young adult child overdosed from drugs. The pain of trying to juggle crazy work schedules, parenting kids and keeping our homes and spouses in check.

 

Exhausted from all the tension of the past two years, no time for church or prayer, let me suggest a simple prayer that takes a few second and listen to His Words: “The Father Loves You… The Father Loves You… The Father Loves You... Be Safe. All Will Be Well.” Then imagine God Our Father holding you in His Arms and saying: “Daddy Loves You.”

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that they know this “shepherd” loves them all very much. God is listening and knows all your creaks and rattles and at this very moment close your eyes and imagine this. Our Heavenly Father is holding you in His arms and saying very tenderly: “Daddy Loves You…Daddy Loves You…Daddy Loves You…Be safe…All will be well.”

 

 

 

 

 

What Would You Ask For?

 

Jesus is walking down the road and the blind man, Bartimaeus, starts calling out to him. He says, "Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me." And the people say, "Oh, be quiet." But, he doesn’t pay attention to these naysayers and he just cries out more, "Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me." The people keep telling him to be quiet. Finally, Jesus stops, and He walks over to the blind man, and He says to him, "What do you want me to do for you?” And Bartimaeus says, "Lord open my eyes so that I may see." 

 

 

Think about his answer. When is the last time you came to God and begged God to do something for you that you desperately needed? Most likely during the pandemic, you asked for God’s help more than once. However, sometimes we don't do it? Why, because we're proud. We're arrogant. We're not like Bartimaeus. He is humble. He's not confused about the fact that Jesus can fix his problem. There's no doubt about that whatsoever.

 

 

We talk about faith. We talk about trust. This guy, he had it. He had absolute faith that if he could get to Jesus, Jesus could get the job done. If Jesus showed up in your life today and just got in your face and said, "What do you want me to do for you?" What would you ask him for? 

 

One of the mistakes we make when we read the Bible is that we think of these people as other. We think, "Oh, it must be hard to be blind," when the reality is that we know what it's like to be blind because we all have a spiritual blindness. What is your blindness? What are your blind spots in relationships? What are your blind spots when you're judging other people? What is your spiritual blindness? 

 

 

At a recent funeral luncheon, a family member complimented the service for his brother. He said that he had not been in church for awhile. I simply asked, why not? He answered; “father, honestly, I don’t know.”

 

 

What is your blind spot about not coming to church anymore? Is it fear of getting Covid, or scandals in the church, or neighbors you judge as hypocrites., or hanging onto a few unhealthy habits. In what way are you like Bartimaeus?

 

 

So Bartimaeus is this blind man and everyone tells him to shut up. Be quiet. Leave Jesus alone. But he persists. Do you have that persistence? Sure, we come to God, and we say, "Hey, God, we need this," or cry out to God for this or that, but do we have the persistence to keep coming back and saying, "Help me. Help me figure out why I am so depressed or burnt out. 

 

 

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that You open our eyes so that we may see the goodness of all people. Help us to let go and drop our prejudice that comes from pride. Give us the grace to open our hearts and welcome all into our community with your love and kindness.

 

Leadership with Jesus

 

It seems obvious, but Jesus knew how to build a team, didn't he? He knew it was going to take a movement to birth the Church and change the world. And that's just what Jesus did. He built a team and he gives us some great leadership lessons here. Let me just point out three. First, great leaders inspire action when they provide a clear common goal. It takes a team. You see it all the time. When I think about my former parish at Holy Family, I had Mary, Marie, and Mary who are the sanctuary floral designers, Cheryl an organist, Chris on bass guitar, Jasmine, Liz, Carol, Sue and Jerry in the choir, Ron bell ringer, Fr. Corey the parish administrator, Fr. Don the webmaster, Rene the caterer, Steve the jack of all trades, Harry the vendor procurer, Rory the council chairperson, Sandy and Tina in finance, Tom and Julie video, our faithful seniors, couples and mom and dads with their kids. 70 people all together with one goal, a marvelous Lord’s Supper experience. For Jesus, the first team he built, he chose just these 12 men, common, uneducated, and ordinary men, according to the Book of Acts. And he invested and he poured into them. They prayed together. They ate together. They traveled together. They learned from him and from each other. 

 

In the gospel, Jesus is sending them out, two by two, for on-the-job training, and he gives them a clear common goal. Here it is. Preach the gospel. He gives them authority. "You're not on your own here, guys. You have my blessing and power." If you're building a team and you want them to work together, a clear common goal. Second, Jesus teaches us that great leaders embrace servant leadership. Jesus emptied himself of his place in heaven to pursue God's plan for you and me. He gives us a critical insight into leadership. It's all about service. 

 

Lesson number three from Jesus. Great leadership is saturated in humility. In other words, it's not about me. When Jesus comes into the world, he tells us all things are possible with God. This movement is about God and it begins with these 12 ordinary guys, members of the team. It's not about them. It's all about God.

 

The key for leadership, the number one key, humility. It's not about the leader. It's about the team. It's all about we. It's not about me. Something even greater here. With Jesus, it's the team plus God. How much gets done when no one cares who gets the credit? They're just trying to reach a goal here. 

 

This weekend is very exciting because it’s about bringing people together to celebrate an important service to the community. 

 

On Friday night, Charlotte Comfort Home will host 300 people at a meat raffle to support the ministry of caring for the dying in Wyoming County. Harry and Donna will lead the volunteers in selling tickets, but more important inviting people to think about coming back to donate two hours a week to serve as volunteers at the Comfort Home. 

 

On Saturday, Holy Mother of the Rosary Cathedral in Lancaster will celebrate their 125^th anniversary as a Polish National Church. The Prime Bishop will dedicate the church and incarnate Fr. Nadeem to serve as rector of this faith community to preach the gospel and invite young families and their children to join this beautiful faith community.

 

On Sunday, Holy Family Parish in North Java will celebrate their Annual Spaghetti Dinner and basket raffle. Karen will coordinate basket and raffles,  Sandy and her kitchen crew of 12 will serve over 300 spaghetti dinners and folks from areas farms will come for their supper to share stories about the past two years in this pandemic.

 

I like to think that when someone might say, 'Where were you during this pandemic?' The voices of a 100,000 will ring out. 'We were deep in the earth tilling the soil with our hands on the tractor raising our crops.” 

 

With tears in their eyes and their resolves stiffened, the people in these parishes and ministry will return to their inglorious task because they know they are playing a role in a noble goal of preserving the love and comfort of God’s love. 

 

The goal is more important than the role. Those are the three things Jesus taught us, a clear common goal, servant leadership, saturated in humility. So, the disciples went out two by two, and they delivered the goods. They preached. They cast out demons. They anointed with oil and they healed the sick. And the results were a mighty and wonderful work. The mission succeeded, and then it grew into a movement that became the Church, the Church that's still here today. There's no other way to explain it. Jesus knew how to build a team. You want to do something great, you're going to need a team.

 

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends and leaders that they embrace the humility and spirit  of Our Lord to bring their team together that reflects the mighty works of our God.

 

The Basement is Flooded

 

 

“The basement is flooded.” Here are four words that bring terror to one’s mind. We just had a record rainfall of three inches of rain in less than an hour. I could see the water gushing out of the drain pipes earlier in the morning during the storm. The sump pump couldn’t handle it all at once.

 

Down I go for damage control. Lucky, we have our “stuff” resting on five-foot plastic shelving. The bottom shelf is about two inches off the concrete floor. While there is water on the floor we have nothing soaking in boxes except for a box that contains furnace filters. So, thank God for wet vacuums as I spend the next three hours soaking up the puddles after the sump pump does its job.

 

Most interesting is what’s placed on those basement shelves. We have my plastic floral collection, you see I enjoy decorating the house each season. Right now, all the pumpkins are scattered throughout the house, then comes the tool section with pliers and screwdrivers. Next, the kitty carriers, for you never know when you spot a stray and that needs to be taken to the shelter to find a new home. Moving on down the line, horse supplies equipment, heirloom china, science school supplies, picnic, garden, paints and in the middle shelving with assorted jams and jellies gifts from parishioners and friends and finally the Breyer Horse collection. Question, why do we hang onto all this stuff?

 

There’s this story about the rich young man from yesterday’s Gospel that is often misunderstood.  Some deliberately will use this as a launching-off point to blast wealth and conclude that money is the root of all evil and that if you want to go to heaven you’ll empty your accounts, give to the poor.  But that’s a gross misunderstanding of this and another way where we, who aren’t wealthy, can sort of exempt ourselves from doing some uncomfortable reflection.  Because wealth, money in itself is not evil.  And the rich young man isn’t evil either. 

 

He recognizes that something is missing.  He’s been following God’s law and the commandments – which anyone of us knows isn’t easy.  He hasn’t done that perfectly. But he knows what is right and what is wrong and when he has failed he repented and asked for God’s mercy. 

 

At some point this young man has seen and heard Jesus speak and act, he’s experienced something in his heart and soul that desires more. Jesus wants him to have it. But he can’t do it.  His wealth was the obstacle. He thought about how much he had wanted the things he had purchased, the wealth he had acquired.  He was remembering what it took to accumulate, the sacrifices that he made for it.  He couldn’t imagine life without it.  He saw the wealth he possessed as a sure thing and tragically – at least at this moment – put more faith and trust in that wealth than in the Lord, who was offering him a peace, a freedom, a joy greater than he had ever experienced.

 

He’s not asking this Rich Young Man to give up his wealth, rather that his wealth has become his god that he will not forsake or make compromises with regards to.

 

What is it for us?  What are the things that have taken up a more exalted position in our life than we ever realized?  What is the show or football game that you cannot even think of missing – but when it comes to Sunday Mass we’re way to casual about things “if something suddenly comes up?”  How many hours overtime are we willing to put into that job without even a second thought but we somehow dismiss waking up 15 minutes early to pray, or to say a Rosary?  How quickly do we blow $20 purchasing something on Amazon but when it comes to offering something for someone in need we become very budget-conscious? 

 

What is the thing (or things) we’re holding onto – that’s become a bit more important than it should be? Why do we have all this stuff in our basements, or attics or garages.

 

Hopefully something is clicking inside of you that says maybe it’s time to just let go. Not because it is something evil in itself – but it reminds us of some attitudes, behaviors, and feelings that we are embarrassed about.  Because Jesus knows us intimately.  He knows us inside and out.   He knows our strengths, our successes, our best moments.  He knows our sins, our failures, our weaknesses, our insecurities, our fears.  He not only knows us, He loves us – that He suffered and died on the cross for me.

 

Lord, I pray for all my Sunshine Friends, you know them. You know them inside and out the best and worst things about us and still You loves us – enough to suffer and die on the cross for you.  May that truth penetrate each of our hearts so that we can truly see who or what may be distracting, obscuring our making You the center of our lives.  May we respond to Your grace that will help loosen whatever it is that we’re gripping onto right now and just let go – so that we cling to

I Am Praying for You

 I’m sitting at my breakfast table, having my morning coffee and cereal and praying for you:

 

Rosalie Fafinski, Henry Fafinski ( our little boy having another heart surgery in Ohio), Steve Biklen  Val Richter, Veronica Faulkner, Mike Casale, Catherine Casale, Cheryl (our faithful hospicenurse in Florida who has to retire due to her poor heart),  Patti, Yvonne, Brad, Anne Marie, Bishop Mack, Fr. Adam, Fr. Nadeem, Rebecca Yaqoob, Joyce, Debby Ruszala, Nathalie & Louis Aillaud, Louis, Denny Meyer family, Dick Reisdorf (Dick went to heaven last week),  Kelli Cavanaugh, Sue Neary, all the children at Mary Cariola, and let’s add Timothy and anyone you forgot to forward prayers.

 

I’m preparing to drive to Rochester this Sunday morning to respond to a critical incident request at an urgent care facility where nurses experienced a traumatic death of a patient.

 

While briefly away with friends in the Adirondacks, I was asked it seemed that I am not retired. My humble response is that God has me launched on a new adventure. My purpose continues to minister to the needs of the poor and suffering. Know that as our paths have crossed in the past whether in a parish, hospital, school or workplace, your life and health are most important to me. I am only a text or cell phone call away, so never hesitate to call or text with an update about yourself, family or friends.

 

This morning’s Sunday Mass prayers will be at my breakfast table, but let me share one photo I took on Tuesday morning that reflects God’s love for you. May I suggest that you take one moment and imagine you are with God who is at your side to hold and embrace your tears and fears and allow him to bathe you in his love and comfort your weary soul.

 

 

 

Lord, I continue to pray for all my Sonshine Friends that you let them know not to be afraid. You come to each of us in our hour of need and to take away our tears and sorrows and pain. Fr. Matt (shepherd)