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Transcript:

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the rectory of St. Charles Borromeo, especially to our brothers and sisters at St. Augustine and St. Francis Xavier. As many you may know by now, I was appointed the administrator to these two great parishes in Park Slope, and so until we actually are able to meet in person, perhaps it’s a great opportunity for all of us to get to know each other virtually by logging on to the Zoom here that we have at St. Charles Borromeo where I live. It’s interesting too, for those who may be unfamiliar with Zoom, you’ll quickly find out that your favorite button on there being Mute, so when there’s things going on where you are – they’re making a lot of noise, make sure you Mute yourself. And if you’re the type of person who maybe just rolled out of bed,  then the Video button also is another great button to turn that off. So the Mute and the Video buttons are important buttons to get comfortable with as we go through this age of having Zoom masses. Continue reading “Corpus Christi – Homily (Fr. Gribowich)” →

How strong is love? Let us make it personal “How much do any one of us make decisions because of love”. Do we think that love is nice but real-world decisions are based on how much we will make or how we can appease or use the prevailing social and political powers? Today we celebrate the feast of the Holy Trinity. This is God’s answer to this question, and it comes none too soon. Continue reading “Most Holy Trinity – Homily (Fr. Smith)” →

Transcript:

Brothers and sisters, we come together on this the feast of Pentecost, and come in a rather unique way, as we have been doing now for approximately 11 weeks as we have been living through the COVID-19 crisis. And as we come to the scripture today, it’s very interesting, because you have two presentations of the gift of the Spirit: you have from Luke his recording of the event of Pentecost, and then you have from John his recording of the sending of the Spirit – the giving of the Spirit – to the disciples on the night of the Resurrection.

And you might ask yourself, why two different versions? Well, I think what it points to is that at the heart of the Church is diversity. And diversity is probably the most challenging aspect of all.

It struck me that that diversity is captured in the responsorial Psalm, “Lord, send out your spirit and renew the face of the earth.” When you think about it, it’s a strange prayer because in a sense you want to say, but what’s being renewed?

We look at the earth and its history. I don’t think any one of us would want to renew any part of it, huh, because it’s often so filled with bloodletting, with struggle. There have been isolated moments, but for the most part the history is not something that you would want to renew. Who would want to renew World War 2, or who would want to renew the Depression, or who would want to renew the Civil War, or the religious wars of the mid-centuries?

So you say, well what is he saying? Lord send your spirit and renew the face of the earth. And yet, what is very evident from the two accounts of the giving of the Spirit is that both accounts talk about that which is new. They talked about in the first, you talk about the newness of going forth with the Gospel – not you have to do it my way, but going forth in a way that reaches out to all, where they are, in their own customs and in their own traditions, in their own languages.

Something new, because up to that point – and perhaps even to today – one of the great flaws of human life is tribalism. You have to be my way; if you’re not my way, you don’t have any place, you don’t belong. And we see that even in the Church, certainly that’s one of the struggles that Pope Francis is continually addressing, recognizing that there is more than one way.

And then if you come to the second version – the version from John – what you have is fear, there hiding in the Upper Room and the Spirit frees them. And it frees them to go out and to do the work of the Spirit, to do the work of the Lord. Reconcile. Reconcile. Reconcile. And in a sense, reconciling is about renewing the face of the earth. For what is it that God wants us to renew? God wants us to renew that which God created: harmony of the Garden, the oneness between the human and God, and between the human and nature.

It’s interesting, but that Laudato Si’ was issued on Pentecost Sunday five years ago, because again it’s that recognition that renewing the earth is not by our design, but it’s by God’s design, in which we are putting ourselves at service, in the service of God.

So as we come to the gift of the Spirit, we come to ask the Spirit, the Spirit of God who so takes over our hearts and minds, that the work of God becomes our work, and that we may go forward, bringing to fulfillment this great phrase: send your Spirit, Lord, and renew the face of the earth.

As we come to this fifth Sunday of Easter, we again find ourselves with the Lord and the disciples in the evening of the Last Supper, as recorded for us by John.  And there is a dynamic that’s going on here: Jesus is speaking to the disciples and knows what will occur as the evening transgresses, and knows that they will all be very disturbed in the sense of frightened and anxious.  And so He opens with the words, “Do not let your hearts be troubled,” and invites them to faith.

And it’s interesting as you progress in the presentation – literally the discourse of Jesus – you find that there are different elements. In one case, Jesus is telling them that he’s going, and they want to know where are you going. They’re not familiar with that. In Jesus comes with that very beautiful line:”I am the way, and the truth, and the life,” then He goes on and talks about His identity.  This is a critical part of the presentation, for Jesus basically is announcing to them the intimacy that is there between Himself and the Father. Continue reading “5th Sunday of Easter – Homily (Msgr. LoPinto) “ →