A - Third Sunday

Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.   This is the message Jesus was preaching as he traveled throughout Galilee.  But what does the word repent mean?  A casual interpretation would define repentance as being sorry.  We are sorry for our thoughts, words, and deeds from our distant or near past.  We have a sense of regret – and a wish that we had behaved differently.   And that is true, but our Jewish friends can help deepen our understanding of repentance to bring out the full color and meaning. The ten days of repentance or ‘Teshuva’ occur between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.  This is not just a time to be sorry but a time to ‘return’ to God.  For repentance is not only regret, or a sense of guilt, but an occasion, a decision, to turn back, to turn around, to transform. That transformation is central to our Christian life and is well-practiced, particularly during Lent.  Repentance and transformation are the heralds of our awakening into a new life made possible by means of our baptism – a new life that God deeply desires for each individual soul.   Since by this each of us are made uniquely beautiful, good, and true. 

We are each uniquely and wonderfully made, each with our own spiritual gifts and charisms.  Unique and yet part of the one body who is Jesus Christ.  The church, our Church, His church is a single body – it is the bride of Christ.  Joined permanently, in love and for eternity.  As his bride, we are, as Paul writes in his letter, not to suffer division, because division runs counter to the unity that Jesus desires for us.  Yet in history, as now, disunity, division and rupture so often lie at the heart of our lived experience.   Perhaps the most significant was with the Reformation that birthed the protestant church that even today continues to splinter into yet more groups and denominations.  But within the Catholic church too we have our own divisions.  For example, our Pope Francis has his followers and detractors as all popes seem to have.    But some of our divisions undoubtedly arise by way of an affair with the secular world.  Last Wednesday we held our Holy Hour for Life at St. Camillus, yesterday was the 50th Annual March for Life, and tomorrow is the Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children.  Perhaps no single topic today is more divisive, outside the church or even inside, then a woman’s right to choose, and the right to life.  I am not here today to engage in the abortion debate for our church’s position on this is extremely clear and unambiguous.  However, division in the one body is also clear.  Even accounting for perceived or real biases, surveys by Pew and the Associated Press Center for Public Affairs Research, indicates that well over 50% of us gathered here today – that is catholic church goers, disagree with the churches position on the sanctity of life of the unborn.  Currently these surveys indicate that more protestants are pro-life than Catholics.  But the cross that unites us to Him demands of us to be united and to walk in light.  To be undivided and of one voice in matters of faith, truth, and morals.  But what do we do if we honestly and adamantly disagree with the church position?   There is no ready or simple answer but there is a journey.  

Our obligation as Catholics and members of the Catholic Church it not to be immediately of the same opinion – in which family does that ever occur?  We are, however, obligated to remain faithful.  Where we honestly and truly disagree with clear church teaching, we are morally bound to wrestle with, and to pray long and hard about those differences.  We are to educate ourselves and we are to be open to a change of mind and heart – to have a transformation.   We are to use God’s gift of reason to learn and understand why the church teaches what it does – why all life is precious.  Why we protect the unborn, the poor, the widow?  Why we always choose life over death?  Why we do not play roulette with another person’s life, gambling or guessing when the body is ensouled, or when is the right time to die.  We are to engage our faith with reason, prayer, self-education, and an honest, open, humble pursuit of truth.  We are not to take a position casually and we are not to hold onto it for purposes of public acceptance, pier acceptance, political correctness, or for self-serving purposes.    

Each of us have areas of our lives that require transformation.  That transformation is a Teshuva – a returning to God, to his plan for us and for our world.   You and I do not belong to Paul, or Apollos, or to this world.  We do not belong to the culture of death instituted by weak men and devious devils.  The cross of Christ is not to be emptied of meaning for we are to be one in him.  We belong to Jesus Christ as a bride belongs to the bridegroom.  Jesus calls Peter, Andrew, James, and John and they left their old lives.  His call to us is no different.   You and I are to repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.  We are to repent and be transformed so the yoke of slavery is broken forever.  

Today is the memorial of Saint Agnes, Virgin and Martyr – this churches patron saint.  At the age of 12 she refused to be bullied into a marriage.  She would tell her rejected suitor that she was promised to the Lord of the Universe.  For this she would be lose her young life.   Her strength is our example today as we go out into a world that needs men and woman, young and old, who know what it is to love life and love God – men and woman who are not ashamed or fearful - for The LORD is our life’s refuge; of whom and of what should we be afraid?  After all, just as with St. Agnes, we too are promised to the Lord of the Universe.    St. Agnes pray for us. 

Deacon Peter Bujwid, St., Agnes Church, Arlington, Massachusetts
January 22nd. 2023

Holy Hour for Life 2023

Holy Hour for Life, Forgiveness, and Healing.

It appears we are very much alone, as the Catholic Church, when speaking plainly and in unambiguous terms that life, all life, is profoundly precious. This beautiful blue planet spinning in what is an eternal expanse of the universe, is home to millions of life forms, plants, and animals, each of which have a part to play, a role to fulfill, in time and in place. From the graceful beauty of a herd of elephants crossing the African plain, to fields of golden grain that swing in musical harmony as the wind blows across individual stalks of wheat, to the tiny ants and microbes that ensure nothing goes to waste, not even a dead body. All nature sings with a unified voice and if we but take a moment to listen we hear a song that glorifies live and praises a creator. Not a machine, not a random, accidental impossible lottery that somehow brought life from dead inert matter, as something brought about from nothing by nothing. Rather we have a creator God with life and love as the foundational principles of His design for His creation.

But of all the living things that abound on our world it is the man, woman, child, baby, and of course the unborn, that are most precious. For here is to be found life made in the image of God himself. We are brought to life by the living spark of the soul that we understand is imbued into the body at the very moment of conception. We are uniquely distinct from all other creatures. Our capacity to think, to reason, and to will, elevates us over all others. Presented with conflicting aims, tendencies, and desires, our reason helps us select that which is good – at times among various goods and at times between what is good and what is evil. No other creature possesses those capacities, to reason, to will, and to select that which is good - sometimes even at our own sacrificial expense. “You are holy, for you are God’s temple and God dwells in you.” 1 Corinthians 3:16.

You may recall the famous English theoretical physicist, Stephen William Hawking. His specialty was general relativity and the specific physics of black holes. He authored a famous and popular book called, ‘A Brief History of Time.’ If you do not recognize his name, I am sure you would recognize his voice. At the age of 21 he was diagnosed with ALS and was given but a short time to live. But he would survive to the age of 76 spending most of those years in a wheelchair, and unable to speak, would use a synthesized computer voice. He was well known and had cameo appearances on TV shows including the Big Bang Theory show. Stephen Hawking was also an atheist believing the mind was just a computer that upon death shuts down, and then, well then there is nothing. I have mentioned before that to Steve Hawking my mother-in-law would send a letter containing a single mustard seed. The letter would present a simple case for a universe not ruled just by the law of physics, since such a world is unable to explain its most active participant - life itself. For all that physics can explain, and for all that it claims to explain, not even the life of a single mustard seed can be fully known.

A single mustard seed, unique, precious, full of life. A single human life, only more unique, more precious, and so full of life and potential. From the very moment of your conception, you were given all the DNA that would determine your sex, your hair color, your eyes. By 8 weeks all your organs were present. By 18 weeks you would cover your ears in the womb when hearing loud music. By 23 weeks you would most likely survive if born. The battle to recognize that each life is precious, whether in the womb or out, rages on. Now after the Supreme Court Dobbs vs. Jackson decision you and I are needing more than ever to be informed, ready and willing to share why human life is precious and worthy of protection. The church teaches that all human life is sacred and that dignity of each is at the very foundation of a moral society. This dignity extends beyond just the right to life of the unborn, but to all aspects of a civilized society, including the care of the poor, the old, from wars targeting civilians, from human trafficking and exploitation, from using others as mere tools for profit. But the unborn deserve our compassionate and focused attention since who else can help them, protect them? They cannot protect themselves, so we must. In his APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION, “Rejoice and Be Glad”, Pope Francis writes,

“Our defense of the innocent unborn, for example, needs to be clear, firm and passionate, for at stake is the dignity of a human life, which is always sacred and demands love for each person, regardless of his or her stage of development.”

As we step into the fray, we should recognize that our arguments for the sanctity of life will need to be made as non-religious ones, since so many are now irreligious and even anti-religion.

We must recognize that abortion not only kills an innocent life but causes severe emotional, psychological, and spiritual damage in varying degrees and to all involved. As we move away from the noise of the larger secular setting and into the personal spaces where we meet those impacted by abortion, we adjust how we speak and communicate the truth. Here in these spaces, you and I are to be a healing balm to any that need to know of Jesus’s deep concern and love; to those that now suffer because of a decision previously made. In John 4:7 we read; we are to love one another because love is from God. We love because Jesus has shown us this is the only way. Consider Jesus’s death on the cross. His calvary so undeniably horrible, painful, his sacrifice total. Jesus’s death helps us understand the immense price of sin that at times we treat too casually. It also shows us his immense love, that while we were yet sinners, He was willing to die for us. For each one us and most of all for those that cry out to be made whole again. And nothing is shielded from his light as it penetrates every corner of every heart and soul if we but let it. There is healing and there is a peace to be found, a healing and a peace that can be found nowhere else.

As we now look upon our Lord in His holy presence here on the altar, we bring each and every moment of our life and present it to him. We come just as we are knowing he never rejects, but embraces us, he heals us, he always loves us. God is eternal, without beginning or end. God is love, a love which also has no beginning and no end. And our God is merciful. He is, in his very essence an ocean of mercy. These are the principles of God’s creation – life, love, and mercy without end. God has formed each of us and knows us intimately.

And so now we invite Jesus to be with us and to heal us, we leave behind that which burdens us, and we dive into the ocean of His mercy. An embrace that Jesus profoundly desires. Let nothing, no one, no memory, no past decision or action, no opinion or notion, stop you from Jesus’s greatest desire for you. For behold, he is making all things new.

Deacon Peter Bujwid, St., Camillus Church, Arlington, MA.
January 18th 2023