Author: Fr. Leo

Better than hand sanitizer. This from the Diocese of Dallas…in two versions, no less!

But wait! There’s more!

      In my 55 years of being a Christian and 25 years of ministry I have learned a few truths about the human condition. For example, I have learned that life is messy…and God is faithful.

     By now you have heard the news that in an effort to do our part to head off the spread of the COVID—19, all public liturgies, classes and other gatherings are suspended throughout the Archdiocese at least until March 28. As drastic as it is, it makes a lot of sense.  In those places, such as Hong Kong, where they took decisive action before the virus gained a foothold, the situation remained manageable.  In those places where they did not, such as Italy, they quickly found themselves way behind the power curve.  There is no need to wait for the flood waters to get to your door before you start filling sand bags!

While this poses some interesting challenges for us as a parish family, it also presents some unique opportunities. I’ve always been amazed at how the Good Lord can take what seems to be a dire situation and turn it into vehicle for grace.

The two primary examples of this are the Incarnation and the Passion of Our Lord. Jesus could have waited for Mary to enter Joseph’s house before he took flesh by the Holy Spirit. Instead the angel Gabriel shows up while she is merely betrothed. That was messy. Again, the suffering and death of Our Lord in his passion was a horrific experience for the disciples. Imagine what it must have been like to have seen all your hopes and dreams hanging on the Cross. That was messy.  At the time they happened, the Incarnation and the Passion were devasting, but they were not the end of the story.  In the fullness of time, we have come to realize that it was in these two moments of salvation history that God’s faithfulness was most manifest. 

I’m not sure what special grace God has in store for us as a parish family as a result of this latest messiness. It will certainly make the remainder of Lent a bit more interesting. Much of our parish life will be online. Please see the bulletin insert and log onto the parish website: https://st.patsak.org, our parish Facebook page and Leo’s Benevolent Blog: https://frleowalsh.com for details.

Well, there may be no public liturgies in the Archdiocese of Anchorage due to the COVID-19 virus, but that doesn’t mean we stop being Church! We have gone virtual! Check out the St. Pat’s livestreamed Cyber Mass at: https://www.facebook.com/stpatsak/videos/206950027285782/?comment_id=207502080563910&notif_id=1584229735882168&notif_t=video_comment

Deacon Mick gave a great homily. Click on the audio below to hear it or read his text below that…or you can do both!

During this Coronavirus “Inter-MISSION”, let us all keep one another in prayer, those who are actually suffering from the virus, and especially all who care for them. – Fr. Leo

In today’s Gospel reading,

Jesus and the Samaritan woman seem to be

talking about drinking water but

it’s about more than that. 

The conversation we overhear

is not just about her but

very much about you and me as well.

In the gospel, we never learn the woman’s name,

maybe because

she really stands for all of us in some way.

She had several strikes against her. 

First, she was a Samaritan

and there was deep-seated resentment

between the Jewish people and the Samaritans that

was already centuries old in Jesus’ time. 

Secondly, she was a woman

and women were to be silent

in the presence of a rabbi. 

Finally, she was considered in her community as a sinner. 

Because of her multiple marriages,

she was probably shunned by the neighborhood which

may explain her solitary trip to the well

alone at noon time,

the hottest time of the day,

when nobody else was around.

The Samaritan woman was a person

on the margins of the society in which she lived, 

butJesus reaches out to her

as he does to each of us. 

Jesus knows our past as he knew hers. 

What interests him now is our future.

The well was the place where people gathered. 

In a sense, this building

This Church is our well. 

Here we gather with other Catholic Christians

and here we too can meet the Lord. 

Through the Liturgy,

the Lord speaks the truth of who we are,

what we have done with our lives

and what we can become

if we follow him.

Finally, there is the water. 

We all need water. 

Water is necessary for human survival. 

But, Jesus knew the woman

needed something more

than drinking water in her life. 

He gradually leads her

from her need of drinking water

to show her the need that she has for

a living, flowing, spiritual refreshment

which we know as grace or the Holy Spirit. 

By pursuing the needs of the body,

we can forget the very real needs of our soul. 

Like the Samaritan woman,

we too must face the truth about ourselves

in an encounter with Jesus Christ,

confess our sins and come to know Jesus as Savior in our life.

The season of Lent

calls us to by like Moses in the first reading

and strike open the rock that 

blocks the flow of God’s grace into our lives.

Strike the rock of anger

——-to let in the peace of Christ.

Strike the rock of lust

——-to let in an appreciation of our human dignity.

Strike the rock of envy

——to let in the grace of gratitude.

Strike the rock of gluttony or addiction

——to release the grace of temperance.

Strike the rock of laziness or apathy

——to reclaim spiritual energy and enthusiasm.

Strike the rock of pride

——to unleash the grace of honesty.

Strike the rock of greed

——to uncover spiritual wealth in Christ.

My friends,

We Strike that rock through penance and confession,

And by changing the way we live.

If we don’t take the call of Lent to heart,

then we can be like someone who Is thirsty

and reads about water,

listens to talks about water,

sees beautiful posters about water,

hangs pictures at home that show water,

collects books about water,

sings songs about water,

gathers with others to hear homilies about water,

joins discussion groups about water,

hears stories about those who have found water

until finally one day,

he or she dies of thirst. 

What happened? 

My friends ——— he or she never drank the water.

Jesus has living water that will bring life to your life. 

Please, today—— take a drink.

       I don’t go to the movies much anymore, primarily because I don’t qualify for the financing. We are a far cry from the days when my our parents would give us a dollar and we would ride our bikes to the Fireweed Theater to catch a double feature and have money left over for a Big Buddy and a Coke. Ofcourse, some things never change. For example, the posted start time of the movie is never when the film actually starts. One is first indulged with at least a half dozen Previews of Coming Attractions! I like previews because 90% of the time, they contain all the good bits of the movie. This saves me from having to go see it. But sometimes, a good trailer will make me take a greater interest in a film I might not otherwise go see.

       That’s essentially what’s going on in today’s gospel when Jesus takes Peter, James and John up Mt. Tabor and is transfigured before them. For some time now, Jesus has been teaching them that he most go to Jerusalem to suffer and die and be raised. They are going to need something to sustain them in their resolve once it actually happens. Fittingly, by showing them a glimpse of his  glory, they get a preview of what is to come to strengthen them in the days to come. 

       The presence of Moses and Elijah is very important. Moses is the great giver of the Law.  Elijah is the greatest of the prophets.  It was he who was taken up to heaven in the fiery chariot. As the Incarnate Word of God, Jesus is the fulfillment of both the Law and the Prophets. We don’t know what they were conversing about, but some of the Church Fathers have speculated that perhaps they were comforting Jesus before he heads to Jerusalem. 

       I like Peter’s reaction. He wants to set up camp and stay there for awhile. Of course, they can’t, but it’s a nice gesture nonetheless. 

       Finally, the voice of the Father from the cloud who says three things: 1) Jesus is the Son of God, 2) He is well pleased with him, 3) we are to listen to Jesus.

       Peter, James and John saw a glimpse of the glory of Jesus as the fulfillment of the law and the prophets.  This was a special grace to them as they continued on their journey of faith.

       In our own day, in the age of grace, we too receive what we need to strengthen and give us comfort on our pilgrim journey of faith. 

       In baptism we are made a new creation, clothed in white and shine with the grace of a thousand suns. We receive the light of Christ, a light which no darkness can extinguish.

       In confirmation, we receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit so that we may live out our call to be missionary disciples.

       In Eucharist, we receive a foretaste and promise of the heavenly banquet.  Food for the journey and strength for the challenges of the week ahead.

       In the Sacrament of Reconciliation we kneel at the foot of the Cross, receive forgiveness for our sins and are reconciled to Christ and the Body of Christ, the Church.

       In the anointing of the sick, when our bodies are weak or threatened, we are strengthened by the prayers of the Church and the forgiveness of our sins, especially as we approach the end of life and cross the threshold of hope in to the life to come.

       In Holy Matrimony, in the chaste love of husband and wife, we see a living example of the faithfulness of God.  As the couple gives themselves to each other body and soul, we get just a glimpse of how Christ lays down his life for us in a new covenant of grace.

       In Holy Orders, in the person of the ordained minister, we see that authority in the Church is exercised first as diaconal service, and at the hands of the priest and bishop we receive the means of grace through the sacraments of the Church.

       Each of the sacraments of the Church, especially our Eucharist today, is a little glimpse, a foretaste and promise, a preview of coming attractions of the glory that is to be ours at the end of the age when we shall become like Christ himself.

       What a marvelous thing it will be when at the end of this life we stand before God the Father and all the heavenly host and we hear a voice proclaim, not from a cloud but from the very mouth of God:

       “This is my beloved son

              This is my beloved daughter

                      With whom I am well pleased.”

Ash Wednesday is tomorrow! The preparations we make now will make all the difference on whether it will be a good one or a mediocre one. As you can hear from the recording, The text below is prefaced by a short discourse on being holy and being perfect, then I pick it up from there.

   

  One of the reasons so many of us continue to live here in Alaska is that the wilderness is right outside our back door. Summer or winter, we pride ourselves on being intrepid adventurers who can hunt, hike, fish, ski, snow machine, and mountain bike just about anywhere in any conditions. As the saying goes, “There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad gear!” We also know that the Alaskan wilderness can be a pretty unforgiving place. Thus, the need to prepare well before we head off into the wilderness. Good preparation makes the difference in keeping a minor mishap from becoming a survival situation. Bottom line, if you want the wilderness to be a good experience, be prepared. 

       The same holds true in preparing for Lent. Just as none of us would dream of going into the Alaskan wilderness unprepared, so we need to start preparing now to enter the spiritual journey wilderness of Lent.

I suggest you organize your spiritual gear list in three categories:

     1) MIND—God gave you a brain and an intellect. Lent is a marvelous time to learn more about the faith. Is there a particular theological or spiritual book you’ve been meaning to get to? What about viewing a mini-course on www.FORMED.org?  Simply sign up and sign in as a St. Pat’s parishioner and 2000 years of the Church’s intellectual tradition is available to you in half-hour videos…absolutely FREE.  In short, what are you filling your mind with? Lent is a great excuse to make positive changes.   

       2) BODY—decide now how you will discipline your body. The fasting and abstinence laws of the Church are a pretty low bar.  Will you exercise more? Change your diet? Abstain from foods that are not healthy? Will you be more disciplined in your sleep habits? As Paul says, the body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. Embracing days of prayer and fasting can really give your prayers teeth.  The two are inextricable. Take the money you would have spent on whatever you give up and give that to the poor. Remember, fasting without almsgiving is simply called a “diet.”  

[Or you could be like that one fellow who walked into a pub in Dublin…Oh, that’s me!  I gave up Guiness for Lent.

       3) SPIRIT—how you will develop your spiritual gifts this Lent? What adjustments will you make in your prayer life as an individual and as a household? Lent is a great time to re-instate family prayer time. (I suggest something simple at the end of dinner while you are all still gathered.) Lent is the perfect time to start a new habit of prayer. Don’t forget what I say about getting in your ten minutes! Maybe you just want to start working your way through the Gospel of Matthew, a little at a time each day. How will your prayer be different this Lent?

       How we prepare for this Lent will make all the difference in our ability to enter into the sacred mysteries of Christ’s passion, death and resurrection at Easter. There is no such thing as a bad weather, just bad gear.  There is no such thing as a bad Lent, just poor preparation.                                                 

I jokingly say that once I month I get to listen to a good homily…because hat’s when Deacon Mick Fornelli preaches!

Deacon Mick gave a pretty good homily last week on how we are to be salt and light for the world. It’s about being pro-active, not reactive. It’s about doing the right thing, not just avoiding the wrong. Definitely worth a listen.

I’d like to talk a little about salt and light. 

       Let’s start with salt.

Our Lord says you are salt of the earth.  Great!  What does that mean?

       Salt was very important in the ancient world.  So much so that it was often used as currency. Roman soldiers were partly paid in salt. It is said to be from this that we get the word soldier – ‘sal dare’, meaning to give salt. From the same source we get the word salary, ‘salarium’.

       Salt was a scarce and expensive commodity and extremely valuable. To sit above or below the salt identified precedence in the seating arrangements at a feast, according to one’s rank. Not to be worth one’s salt was a great insult.

       Here we see that Jesus says to his disciples, “You are the salt of the earth.”

       Why was salt so valuable. 

       First, it was necessary for survival.  Ancient diets were mostly starchy and did not have a lot of sodium in them.  Thus the need for other sources of dietary salt needed to be found simply for good health. 

       Salt was used as a preservative, especially for meat and fish.  There were no refrigerators in the ancient world.  

       It had medicinal uses, especially in healing of battle wounds.

       Finally, as then as now, it tends to bring out the best flavors in most food.  Even caramel.  Yum!

So when Jesus is telling his disciples they are the salt of the earth, it is no small thing. 

       He is telling them that they are of untold value. 

       Also perhaps that they preserve the best of humanity, that they are agents of healing, bringing out the best in those around them. 

       To be the salt of the earth is to be something special, something essential. That’s how much our God thinks of us. 

What about light? 

    I don’t use props very often when I preach these days.  But back when I was Fr. Young Priest, I once preached on this very gospel passage using a Colman Lantern and a wicker bushel basket, just to see if the image that Jesus used held true. In prepping the homily, I learned that if I left the gas on for just a couple seconds longer than the instructions called for, the lamp made a nice loud “POOF!” sound when I hit the electronic ignition. Needless to say, it really got the peoples’ attention.

[Hey do you know anything about skydiving?

       No, do you know anything about Colman stoves?]

       Then I put the basket over the lantern.  Sure enough, that wicker basket effectively blocked out all the light from the lantern, rendering it useless as a source of illumination. I left the basket on there for some time. 

       As I continued with the homily, I could see people getting more and more nervous. Even though they couldn’t see it, they knew that that Coleman lantern was burning away inside that basket. They also knew that Coleman lanterns are a prodigious source of heat as well as light; and they knew the longer I left that basket on there, the more likely that basket was to burst into flames at any moment. 

       I removed the basket before that could happen, of course, but the point was well made. We are the light of the world because we are loved by God. When we open ourselves to that love, we can’t help but radiate the light of God’s love to others. It is a fire burning within us.  If we try to hide that light (or even if others try to do so), it will find a way out to burst out anyway.  It cannot be contained.  So powerful is the white-hot flame of God’s love. 

My dear friends in Christ in St. Patrick’s Parish, YOU are the salt of Muldoon.  You are the light of Nunaka Valley. You are the heart and the arms and the hands of Christ in your neighborhood. 

As salt and light, our job as a parish family is to become so much a part of our neighborhoods, our schools, our community councils (which meets on the third Thursday of every month in the at 9131 Centennial Cir, that’s February 20^th for those of you who are interested); in short, anywhere where that God has put you in 99504; our job is to become so much a part of the local community in 99504 that they cannot imagine life without us. 

A thousand pardons, Blogosphere. One thing led to another and posts have been few and far between. So here are some quick posts to get you caught up to speed. For expediency’s sake, the texts are unedited. I’m sure you will get the idea nevertheless.

The Presentation of the Lord

Story: [I didn’t recognize you!]

    It is now forty days since Christmas. Often called “Candlemas”, it commemorates the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple at the end of the 40-day period of purification after the birth of a child. In bringing the infant Jesus to the Temple, Mary and Joseph were fulfilling the dictates of the Law of Moses regarding a firstborn male.

    Liturgically, we commemorate the Light of Christ entering the Temple with the blessing of the candles which will be used in the liturgies for the coming year.  Sometimes families will also bring candles used for prayer at home. If you missed the blessing, feel free to bring your prayer candles by during the week or even next weekend to have them blessed. 

    It may seem like a small gesture to bring Jesus to the Temple, but just think about what is going on at that moment. For the Jews, the Temple was the dwelling place of God, the sign that God was with them (“Emmanuel”). With this first entrance of the infant Christ into the Temple, the meaning of this belief is no longer just symbolic. God is truly and substantially present. The words of the prophet Malachi (and many others) are fulfilled.

    As happened so often in the life of Christ, the enormity of this event goes largely unnoticed, except by Simeon and Anna the Prophetess.  These two are worth contemplating. Like all of Israel, Simeon was awaiting emergence of the Anointed One of God. Personally, this was his vocation. Perhaps his were the only eyes that could see the full impact of how God’s plan was unfolding before him. Truly, he was “awaiting the blessed hope, and the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ.” 

    Anna is a most intriguing figure. While it was Simeon’s vocation to wait, her’s was to be in the Temple. Yet because of her relationship with God, she is able to recognize Christ as the savior. She even takes it a step further. While it was Simeon’s role to give the private revelation to Mary and Joseph, Anna goes and speaks about the child to “all who were awaiting the redemption of Israel.” She spreads the Good News. 

    I think we need a little of both Simeon and Anna in our spiritual lives. We need to contemplate the mysteries of salvation and then make them known to a the world around us. Having come to know Christ, let us make him known.

     Have you ever walked by something that you see all the time and one day you pass by and say, “Wait a minute! That’s doesn’t make sense at all!” There’s a bit of that in the Baptism of the Lord that we celebrate today. We’ve heard the story since childhood and sort of take it at face value. But really, if you think about it, why did Jesus get baptized?  Even John the Baptist thought it was a little out of sorts. At first glance, it doesn’t make sense for a couple of reasons.

       First, John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. But Jesus was without sin. So why did he need to repent? It doesn’t make sense on that level.  Second, baptism as we understand it today involves the washing away of Original Sin and initiation into the Church. Again, Jesus was conceived without Original Sin and at that time, the Church had yet to be founded. It doesn’t make sense on that level either. 

       So how does the Baptism of the Lord make sense? Well, one of the amazing things about Jesus is that whatever he encounters, he transforms. For example, when he entered fully into human existence at the Incarnation, he not only restored all humanity to our original dignity, but raised us to a state even higher than the angels.  Imagine that. At the wedding at Cana, he took the jugs of water and transformed them into the best wine the head steward had ever tasted. At the Last Supper, he took the Passover and transformed it into the Eucharist. The list goes on and on. 

       In the same way, at the Jordan River, Jesus entered into the waters in the baptism and transformed them into the means of sanctifying grace. In baptism Christ encounters us, and we encounter Christ. Thus, when we enter the waters of baptism, we are forever changed. Our sins are washed away in the Blood of the Lamb and we become members of the Mystical Body of Christ. As John the Evangelist says later, “See what favor the Father has bestowed on us by letting us be called children of God.” 

The baptism of the Lord inaugurates the public ministry of Jesus.

From here he will go into the desert for forty days to prepare himself and to be tested.

Then he will give the Sermon on the Mount. Then he will teach and preach and heal and exhort and suffer and die and be raised and ascend to the Father and send the Holy Spirit to found the Church.

The public life of Jesus began with his baptism.

So too the public life of every Christian begins with our baptism. 

What have you done, what will you do with the grace that has been given to you?  (For those of you who live in the marvel universe…will you use this power for good or for evil?)

May the grace given to each of us in baptism continue to grow and mature.  

       Because at the at the end of this life, we must all stand before the judgment seat of Almighty God, in the presence of all the saints and all the angels and all the heavenly host. 

       And what a marvelous thing it will be, should gaze upon you and say to the celestial multitude in that same voice that came from the heavens on the banks of the Jordan so very long ago:

“This is my beloved son

       This is my beloved

              With whom I am well pleased.”