Christmas is a time for tradition. Many of these traditions, both for family and church, were interrupted during the COVID pandemic, and although we are not yet fully recovered some will be brought back this year with proper care and diligence. For the Parish, the most wonderful return has been our Christmas Pageant with the children in the religious education program. If you did not see it, please check this link. I hope that many of us will have been able to visit family and enjoy other Christmas activities from trimming the tree to decorating the cake.

The liturgy, however, never takes a vacation and always allows us a special participation in the celebration of the Nativity. The music, the creche and the stories allow us every year to reflect on what it means that God became man. It has been said that tradition is the living faith of the dead and it certainly a pattern that is handed down to us. (See Footnote 1 below.) These customs should not be changed too radically. That would prevent us from making our Christian history our personal one as well. Every year we should approach these symbols and stories and sing these songs with a deeper understanding of the mysteries they proclaim. Year after year this allows us to see if we have grown in our faith and understanding.

Continue reading “Homily – Christmas (Fr. Smith)” →

Good morning, once again and Merry Christmas!

Like I said, so great to be with you today. And, you know, I’m sure I’m not the only person here, but when it comes to Christmas time, it’s pretty much impossible not to think about our childhood, to think about growing up with our childhood traditions.

I think Christmas and just the magic-ness of the whole time seems to be so reminiscent of our magical-ness of growing up, you know, where we were just caught up in wonder and mystery, caught up in just waiting to see what type of gifts we were going to receive on Christmas Day.

And of course, for me, I was kind of very much into setting things up.

Continue reading “Homily – Christmas (Fr. Gribowich)” →

Today’s reading contains a most curious verse: “Joseph her husband; since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly” It clearly says that as he was righteous, which at its core meant law- abiding” he would not take Mary as his wife. Yet he did, does this mean that he forfeited being considered Righteous? For many of his contemporaries, it would. To understand this why we need to step back a bit.

Continue reading “Homily – 4th Sunday of Advent (Fr. Smith)” →

The New Testament, in general, and the gospels, in particular, can be very frustrating reading. They provide just enough information about Jesus and his companions to fascinate us but not enough to reveal who they were and what they felt. This is not an accident, none of New Testament writings are biographies in the modern sense. Yet sometimes we do get a glimpse of the person behind the text. Today we see a bit of the real John the Baptist.
Continue reading “Homily – 3rd Sunday of Advent (Fr. Smith)” →

It has often been said that “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it,” but a wise community organizer added to this “If it is really broken, don’t fix it, break it completely and start over.” To phrase it more politely there are times we must “disorganize to reorganize.” St. Matthew understands this very well and shows us why and how in today’s reading.

We meet John the Baptist in the desert of Judea. This is a difficult 20 miles from Jerusalem and a trip no one would make on a whim. Why would people go? It was not to receive a soothing message. He told people to “repent” Repentance is not reform, it requires acknowledging our brokenness and turning our lives around. Matthew adds “for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matthew’s audience understands Judaism. The kingdom means the fullness of God’s power here on earth to be inaugurated by the Messiah. The change that he will preach cannot be understood through the philosophers of Greece but only through the prophets of Israel. Continue reading “Homily – 2nd Sunday of Advent (Fr. Smith)” →

After Roe v. Wade was overturned this year pro-life groups had to determine their next moves. As we saw, some decided to push for very restrictive statewide laws, which failed everywhere they were presented. The Catholic Church, as most clearly seen in the statements by statewide Bishop’s conferences hailed the end of Roe, but proposed a path for the future which included pre- and post-natal care for the child and basic protections for the mother. This reflected basic Catholic Social Teaching which is often called the Church’s best-kept secret. Catholic Social Teaching is not difficult to understand, but very hard to live out and so is rarely applied. The Dobbs decision, however, demanded that our leaders either state these teachings and their consequences or by their silence deny them. As St. John Paul 2 said we must stand for “the incomparable and inviolable worth of every human life” or fall ignominiously. (Evangelium Vitae: paragraph 2) Simply put, concern for all from womb to tomb. This means that Catholics must be prepared to expand and deepen our commitment to others. We need to be truly pro-life and not just pro-birth.

Continue reading “Homily – 1st Sunday of Advent (Fr. Smith)” →

Let’s take a quiz, who said:

It is obvious that in our days not only is wealth accumulated, but immense power and despotic economic domination are concentrated in the hands of a few, and that those few are frequently not the owners, but only the trustees and directors of invested funds, who administer them at their good pleasure

(Quadragesimo anno 105)

Obviously, no one who wished to be elected to any office in America would allow this to be published under his or her own name. It seems written by Karl Marx, another Communist, or some species of socialist. It was in fact Pope Pius XI in 1931. It was not an isolated statement. He wrote in the same letter (encyclical): Continue reading “Homily – Christ the King (Fr. Smith)” →