The Order of Preachers, OPoc wishes Fr. Glenn Glorioso a blessed and joyous day today as he marks the completion of his first year of priesthood. We love you, our brother!

It is with the utmost joy that we announce the Novitiate of Br. Michael Scott Brown.  Br. Scott has completed his Postulancy and expressed his desire to enter the Order as a Novice.  Please continue to keep Br. Scott in your prayers as he continues his studies for profession, as well as his studies for Ordination to the Diaconate.

Stephen Bandelli was born into a noble family. Little is known of his early years except that he applied for admission to the Dominicans in his hometown and received the habit while still very young.

Stephen earned a degree in canon law and a master’s degree in theology, and lectured at the University of Pavia. He was a man of superior intellect and a careful student. Tradition holds that he was “another Saint Paul,” and that his sermons were effective in bringing many Christians to a more fervent life and many sinners back into the fold. Aside from this, one reads only the traditional assurances–that he was prayerful, penitential, had a spirit of poverty, was charitable, and was a model religious.

When Stephen died, he was buried in the Dominican church of Saluzzo. Many miracles were worked at his tomb, and the citizens of Saluzzo invoked him, in 1487, when the town was attacked by one of their neighbors. Their preservation was attributed to Stephen’s intercession, as it was claimed that he had appeared in the sky above them while they were fighting. An annual feast was kept there in his honor for many years.

+In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Today is the first Sunday after Pentecost. Commonly known in the Catholic liturgical calendar as The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, or simply Trinity Sunday.  It is on this day that we wonder and reflect on the greatest mystery of our Christian faith- the three distinct divine personages of God, the Son and Holy Spirit.

In fact each time we begin prayer, we offer up worship and respect- in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Perhaps done so often, we unconsciously solidify the foundation of Christian faith and tradition that separates us apart.  Yet there are many of us, and rightly so, who do not understand this concept.  Before anything however, we must understand that God chooses to remain an incomprehensible mystery to us and reveal himself to us in prayer, meditation and contemplation.  After all, all human knowing and acting takes place within the encompassing mystery that is God. We cannot hope to understand and explain these things, as our faith is exactly that- our faith.  “For we live by faith, not by sight.”  (2 Corinthians 5:7)  And scripture reminds us that “faith is a confidence of things hoped for and the assurance about things we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1)

On this day we recall the ancient Athanasian Creed- that “we worship one God in the Trinity, neither confounding the Persons nor dividing the Essence… all three uncreated and all three eternal with no beginning.”   Perhaps more rooted in doctrinal concept than biblical per se, we believe and confess that God is three in the Blessed Trinity.

We can find support for this in The Bible.  Jesus tells us to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19)  Saint Paul throughout scripture blesses us with the three personages- “May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” (2 Corinthians 13:14)  In fact, surprisingly in the very beginning- “..God said, let us make man in our image, our likeness…” (Genesis 1:26)  God reflecting on the knowledge and awareness of the Trinity.

The Gospel of John gives us more insight into the Trinity.  “In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, and was God. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” (John 1:1-3)  “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)  “For no one  has seen God, but the one and only Son, who himself is God” (John 1:18).

In these ways we can come to understand that God and the Son and the Holy Spirit, though one- are three.  Some come to interpret this as God is the Father of all creation– living being omnipotent and omnipresent, being with us here and now, and not somewhere out there.  That the Son, Jesus Christ is the Word made flesh- to have been among us to experience His creation, suffer with us and for us and to be our Redeemer.  “Jesus said to them, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6).  That the Holy Spirit is God in action- sustaining us, surrounding us and uniting us (Psalm 104:30) and breathed out upon us by Jesus Christ- “receive the Holy Spirit.” (John 20:22)

So then, we celebrate the wisdom and glory that is God- that is one, yet three in the mystery and majesty of the Holy Trinity!

Let us close with the prayer for Trinity Sunday. “It is fitting, right, our obligation and duty, that we should always and everywhere gives thanks and praise to you, the Lord, Holy Father, almighty, everlasting God. For with your co-eternal Son and Holy Spirit. you are one God, one Lord, in Trinity of Persons and in Unity of Being; and we celebrate the one and equal glory of you, O Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Therefore with angels and archangels, and with all the redeemed in heaven, we proclaim and magnify your glorious name, forever praising you.  Amen” (The Old Catholic Apostolic Church of North America Sacramentary. (c) 2012.  p.149)

Today the Order of Preachers, OC celebrates with joy and thanksgiving the first anniversary of the Consecration of the Most Reverend Aaron Edmund Newton Cass to the Episcopacy.  Thank you, Your Eminence, for your love, your guidance, your wisdom, and your service to us, and for your dedication to Our Lord.

Colossians 1: 3-4  We always give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you.  For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all God’s people.

Philippians 1:3  I thank my God for you every time I think of you.

You are loved and respected more than you can imagine.

Almighty God, Heavenly Father, we thank you, for our beloved, Presiding Bishop Edmund and for our life together. You have led him by the Holy Spirit to serve your people in this Church, to build up your Church, and to glorify your name. We have worked in common for the sake of the Gospel. Together we have learned from your Word. Together we have broken bread and given thanks. In thanksgiving, we praise you for raising up faithful servants among us for the ministry and oversight of your Church. And we pray that Edmund may continue to exemplify, in word and deed, the Gospel of your Son. Grant that we, with him, may continue to serve you in the Church on earth, and be brought to rejoice in your kingdom forever; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

I have written many sermons over the 14 years I have been a cleric and a Bishop. I have spoken about every aspect of every single feast day that I can imagine. And yet, for me, Holy Thursday and Good Friday are always special.

Today I want you to close your eyes and imagine the Upper Room. See the Disciples reclining around a table, enjoying each other’s company. Mary Magdalene is somewhere in the room and maybe even Jesus’ mother is there as well.  These men and women have just come in from walking all around Jerusalem. They have followed Jesus through the streets, knowing that he could be arrested at any moment. Yet, they are at peace now. No one would be arrested at night, much less tried at night. So they could let down their guard and enjoy the Passover meal.

The disciples all washed their hands and prepared to feast. Then it happened. That one moment that confuses our intellect. Jesus gets up and begins to wash the feet of the disciples! Their feet were not pleasant to be sure. Yet, Jesus wrapped a towel around him and began to show them what a servant really was. Some protested. Peter refused to have his feet washed until Jesus told him he would not enter eternal life unless he let him wash his feet. Then Peter went to the other extreme and asked for Jesus to wash his whole body! This likely sent giggles through the disciples as they thought about the dramatic shift in Peter’s demeanor.

While this act is recreated every Holy Thursday, I seriously doubt any of us will sit for a foot washing with feet as dirty as the Disciples. Yet there is something very humbling about the washing of feet. It is a moment when we are truly united to the humanity of Christ. It is when we finally have the opportunity to understand just what it means for Christ to have humbled himself to become man for our salvation.

I have used, and I know others who have as well, the analogy of one of us becoming a cockroach in order to save all the cockroaches of the world. While it is still an abstract, it is the best we can do to understand how Jesus must have felt when he humbled himself to become man. But Jesus did not just humble himself and become man, he also took on the humblest of positions as a man, he became the servant who washed the feet of his followers. This was more like a human being becoming an ameba to save all amebas!

This is what it means to be truly Christian. We must be willing to humble ourselves to the lowest point one can in order to be truly a follower of Christ. As a Franciscan, I vowed to follow that humble call in my daily life. Have I succeeded? No. There is still a lot of pride in me. There is still a lot of growing I need to do. I pray that someday I will be a servant that will make St. Francis and Christ proud. I want to be the foot washer, the friend of the outcast and the one who hugs those sick and dying without fear for my own insignificant life.

As we go to our respective places of worship on this Holy Thursday, let us remember that the call of Christ, the mark of Christianity, is not one of honor, but of humility. Let us begin to practice that humility in our daily lives. Rather than sit in the front of the church, instead sit in the back pew. Volunteer to wash feet on Holy Thursday rather than to have your feet washed. Ask to visit those who are ill and alone rather than expecting people to visit you.

In doing so, we live the Gospel and obtain true salvation.

God Bless!

Every year at Christmas time, we hear the same clichés:  “Keep Christ In Christmas!”  “It’s Merry Christmas, NOT Happy Holidays!”  “Jesus Is the Reason for the Season!”  And of course, there is the never ending rant about Christmas being too commercialized and the loss of focus of what Christmas is supposed to be about.

But what about Easter?  Why do we not hear “Keep Christ in Easter”???  Because it doesn’t sound as poetic?  Is it because many of us would rather focus on the miracle of a tiny baby boy coming into the world, instead of the drama and trauma of what LED to Easter?  Is it because babies lying in a manger make a much prettier picture than that of a bloodied man being executed as a common criminal?  Or is it because we can all identify with Christ’s birth much more easily than with his death?  We have all experienced the joy of holding, loving, and caring for babies, up close and personal, while none of us have even come close to witnessing a crucifixion?

Jesus chose to take our sins upon himself.  Jesus paid the price for us.  By His stripes we are healed, made whole, SAVED.

Let’s face it folks, without the crucifixion, without the RESURRECTION, without EASTER, we wouldn’t celebrate Christmas at all.  As we enter the most dramatic, and important 4 days of the Christian Year, let us not forget, amidst the Easter Bunnies, colorful eggs, and baskets loaded with candy, that Jesus is the reason for not only the Christmas Season, but THIS, the most holy and important season of the year.

 

Let us remember that Jesus is not only the reason for the Easter Season, but He should be the reason for our very lives.  Because of His death and resurrection, because of Easter, we have life in this world, and in the world to come.

 

Can you imagine what was going through Jesus’ mind a mere 4 days before His execution? Scripture clearly tells us of His agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was praying so fervently and with such fullness of spirit for “this cup be removed from” Him, but not His Will, but the Father’s Will be done.

Christ knew what was to come. He was well aware of what He was about to endure for you, for me, for the world. It is during this time, between Palm Sunday – when the crowds were proclaiming and shouting at Jesus, “Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord! Hosanna in the Highest!!” – and Good Friday, when the some of the SAME crowd would then be shouting “CRUCIFY HIM!! CRUCIFY HIM!!” – that we must exercise our HOLY WAITING, though we may be afraid of what lies ahead for us, though it may seem bleak, dark and without escape.

We must wait. We must know that GOD is GOD and let HIM take on our worries and fears and anxieties and ANYTHING that hinders the working of His Will in our lives.

I expect that is what Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, was doing – relying on Our Father to help him, Jesus in the flesh, to have the strength to face what lie ahead, and to be totally dependent on The Father’s plans.

But what about us?  What about today?  Though at times we cannot understand  what God’s plan for us is, we must remember that God’s plans ARE THE BEST THING THAT WE CAN HAVE PREVAIL IN OUR LIVES.

My hope is that we will look towards Christ, who, though facing arrest, beatings, mockery, crucifixion, and death – still prayed FERVENTLY for OUR FATHER’s WILL to be done.  Like Him, we must pray for OUR FATHER’s WILL, NOT our will.

It is our responsibility to do our own HOLY WAITING, no matter how trying the tasks or how frightening the possibilities, KNOWING that our Lord is ever with us and will NEVER forsake us. Our Father’s promises DO NOT return void. And if we are truly willing to turn every aspect of our lives over to Him, and wait with holiness and eager anticipation, knowing that Our Father’s plans for our lives surpass anything and everything we can imagine happening for ourselves.   THEN, we shall see the Divine Master’s Plan producing its fruit in our lives.   But we must wait. Wait with faith, a reverent fear, and a joyous and holy attitude.

Luke 13:1-9
13:1 At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.  13:2 He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans?  13:3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did.  13:4 Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them–do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem?  13:5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.”  13:6 Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none.  13:7 So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’  13:8 He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it.  13:9 If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'”

“Guilty as sin”. An old American colloquialism. It is an expression I heard often when I worked in law enforcement for almost thirty years. Bantered about by cops, attorneys, witnesses and I think, on even an occasion or two- from the bench itself. The defendant is no doubt, “guilty as sin”.

What image does such a condemnation conjure up? An egregious act worthy of the strongest penalty. No doubt a person so referred, has commited an act which violates the moral sensibility and fiber of the community. Beyond any chance of rehabilitation, this defendant is for certain- going a way for a long time.

But this phrase more then likely can bring to mind someone who, is due for confession. For admittedly there are those certain churches that seem to make this guilt, a prerequiste for membership- if not for their every existence.

In his book, Why Christianity Must Change or Die, Bishop John Shelby Spong; Bishop Emeritus of The Episcopal Church, tells us: “When we examine the history of the church, it appears that guilt- not forgiveness, has been at the center of ecclesiastical control. Guilt has alsoo been the source of the churches power. Faith in life after death has been predicated on that guilt being alleviated, purged or punished eternally.” In earlier times, and staking a strong foothold until now, the church makes herself indispensable. Bishop Spong continues: “Religious leaders throughout the ages learned that controlling peoples behavior rested upon exacerbating these human feelings of guilt and weakness.”

In fact the Roman Catholic Church today finds herself at a wall she cannot get over or around. Originally termed “Reconciliation”- to express the forgiveness of the church, this sacrament was branded early on by church fathers as “Confession”. Defined by Webster’s dictionary, confession “is an admission of guilt or sin”. Complicated by the Papal practice of “special dispensations”, where wealthy people could by their absolution and freedom from condeming guilt, the Church mired in a situation it had created. Though the Second Vatican Council tried to heal this scar by shifting away from the “confession itself” to focus on penance and forgiveness, most Catholics today consider the act a true confession equal to criminal guilt.

I know personally many Catholics who refuse to enter a church or have expressed sadness at not having participated in the beautiful mystery of the Holy Eucharist for so long- because they have not been to “Confession”. There are many of those out there, thirsting for God- longing for that spiritual connection to God, only to believe they are not deserving because an imposed requirement, roadblock if you will, has not been overcome.

What then is the ultimate message being sent by the Church? Does Christ offer unconditional forgiveness, or is it something the Church can only approve once there is an acknowledgement or an embarrassment of guilt? Some churches move so far as to temper their own frustration that this constraint of Confession causes, as misguided faithful evaporate from the pews, by proclaiming- condemn the sin, but not the sinner!

Clerics and religious people are tasked today to reexamine, and perhaps even redefine if necessary, what is “sin”. Our interpretations of such must be made with contemporary understanding and sensitivty, and not first century ignorance. Saint Paul himself rationalized that “all have sinned and all fall short of the glory of God” [Romans 3:23] How then could anyone, hope to be above the grasp and grave of sin at all? Bishop Spong throws out a life preserver: “To be human, we are by definition fallen from grace and in need of rescue. But Jesus forgives anyone- everyone. There is no limit to the forgiveness of God.”

In her book Rites of Justice, Dr. Megan McKenna a Professor of Philosophy at the Graduate Theological Union at Berkeley, challenges churches today to “revisit reconciliation not so much as something that was done or needs to be undone, but to call us to a change of heart, mind- to move from apathy and ignorance to political and social justice.”

We must be ready and willing to accept and embrace everyone. The church must be prepared to forgive and receive everyone- as Jesus did. Without the predispositions and ambiguities that all can be forgiven as long as you read the “fine print” first. A church trap set to ensnare and rebuke the searching soul.
No one is to be denied the forgiveness and acceptance of God’s love.

Even the Holy Eucharist is to be offered freely to anyone who approaches God’s table. For the love of God is so great and God’s mercy limitless, that even those who would participate in the Holy Eucharist to seek God’s grace without such requirements of “Confession”, do so at the inspiration of the Holy Spirit within them. There is no deception, deceit or ulterior motive- for the Holy Spirit will replace that in the beautiful connection of the soul to God. Christ tells us, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness.” [2 Corinthians 12:9]

Bishop Spong warns us that: “the very future of the Christian faith rests not on reasserting traditions of antiquity, but in our abilities to reeaxmine and refashion how Christianity will be understood in our time.”

Almighty and most merciful God. You know what is truly in my heart. Help me to clarify and purify my intentions, as there are so many contradictory desires within me and I get preoccupied with things that don’t really matter or last. I know that if I give to you my heart- I will follow my heart.

In all that I am today and all that I try to do- in all my encounters and reflections- even in all my frustrations and failings- and most especially at this time of prayer- I place my heart and soul into your hands and at the foot of your Cross. I am your child, my Lord. Forgive me and raise me up for your glory. Amen, and Amen.