Bulletin Article: November 21

Next Sunday we will begin the Advent season and a new liturgical year. It is hard to believe that another Christmas is just about upon us. I encourage you to use this Advent season to prepare for the Lord’s coming as Word made Flesh.

To assist parishioners in this preparation there will be a parish mission on the evenings or December 9-11 presented by Father Noel Mueller, OSB who is a monk of Saint Meinrad Archabbey. I also invite you to make use of our many opportunities for confession (Wednesday at 6pm, Saturday at 9am and 5pm, and Sunday at 7:30am, 9:30am, 11:30am, and 1:30pm). We will also have a penance service on December 22nd at 6pm where we will be joined by 6 priests for confession.

In Christ,

Fr. Dustin Collins

Last Sunday After Pentecost Homily

Next Sunday we will celebrate the first Sunday of Advent and the start of a new liturgical year. With it we will set our sight upon His first coming at Christmas. Today we celebrate the Last Sunday after Pentecost which concludes our liturgical year. Today we set our sight upon the fact of His second coming at the end of time. Therefore, what we celebrate today as well as what we will soon prepare for meet. We now anticipate the coming of Christ for the first and the second time.

When it pertains to the Second Coming everyone would like to know when it will occur. There are many who spend their time chasing after the signs of the times to affix a date to the Second Coming. Even at the time of Saint Paul there were those who were convinced that Christ’s Second Coming would be during their lifetime. The best answer to when it will occur comes to us from Jesus Himself who said, “No one knows the day or hour.”

In modern times there are those of other faith traditions who place their emphasis upon the Rapture. It is at the Rapture that those who believe will be taken up and those who do not will be left. Traditional Catholic thought instead places emphasis upon the coming of the Parousia which is a time of fulfillment through Christ. Saint Paul makes use of the dead rising in “a blink of an eye.” Then is his Epistle to the 1st Thessalonians we are told that they will be snatched up in order to meet Christ in the clouds. 

Saint Paul is not making reference to the rapture, but to the fact that the dead will go out to meet the Lord and they will return with Him in glory. For the Greco-Roman world a parousia is a celebration of arrival. Thus when a person of status arrived they would be ready to greet them and to accompany them. This is what we now prepare for as we contemplate the Second Coming of Christ.

As we profess in the Creed that Christ “will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and of his kingdom there will be no end.” As we come to this final Sunday in the liturgical year we further profess this reality. We now prepare for His Second Coming by how we come to order our life on this earth. So too, even though, this is the final Sunday of the liturgical year will a new year spring forth. In all things we realize that we should be prepared to encounter Christ.

Advent assists us in encountering Him at His first coming and we then must daily prepare for His second coming. Let us do all that we can in order to prepare for this life giving reality. If we were to realize that our life on this earth should be ordered towards Christ and the Kingdom which is to come then we would order life in a way which is worthy to encounter Him.

Bulletin Article: November 14

Our Parish Stewardship Weekend was held on the weekend of September 25/26. This year we had 188 out of our 1,385 households participate which is 13.6% of the parish. This is up from last year where 75 households, 5%, of the parish participated. The financial commitment from those who responded was $559,512. Parishioners also graciously recommitted themselves to many ministries already involved with a few even offered their time and talent to new areas of parish life. Very soon ministry heads should be reaching out to those who have committed themself to an area of parish life through this stewardship appeal.

This year we also asked the children of our CFF program, youth group, and school to participate. 56 students in CFF, 17 in youth group, and 116 students of school participated. 213 minutes of prayer for the parish where pledged by CFF and youth group and 985 minutes were pledged by the students of our parish school. Students in all three programs pledged many ways in which they would assist the parish with their time and talents including activities such as being an altar server, being in choir, being an usher, etc.

I thank all who participated in this year’s Parish Stewardship Weekend and for all stewards of our parish who continue to give of their time, talent, and treasure. Please continue to pray for the good of our parish community.

In Christ,

Fr. Dustin Collins

Resumed 6th Sunday After Epiphany Homily

On two occasions our Gospel told us of people who took something and put it to use. Therefore, a man took a mustard seed and sowed his field and a woman took leaven and hid in three measures of meal.

The mustard seed and the leaven gives us two different perspectives, but they have the same meaning. Ultimately the seed and the leaven will grow into something greater with the passing of time. As Saint John Chrysostom commented, “The leaven, though it is buried, is not destroyed. Little by little it transmutes the whole lump into its own condition. This happens with the gospel.”

If the man and the woman did not take something and put it to use they would have nothing at the end of time. Therefore, the man took the seed, planted it, time passed, and it began to grow. Therefore, the woman took the leaven, hid in three measures of meal, time passed, and it was leavened.

Concerning these two individuals they had to be patient and allow the Gospel and God’s grace to be at work in them. This must also be so of us. We must be patient and allow the Gospel and God’s grace to be at work within us. So many are not patient, fail at taking something and putting it to use, and thus they fail at allowing God to be at work within their life.

As a Church we are journeying towards the end of the liturgical season. During this period of time our readings reflect upon the certainty of the end and thus the four last things: death, judgement, Heaven, and Hell. This Gospel ties into this theme for we cannot be complacent, but must be active in all allowing God to be at work within our life.

Matthew Henry stated that yeast “works silently and insensibly, yet strongly and irresistibly.” From this statement we can see that the same is true when it pertains to God’s grace. This grace is always at work within our life, but we see often recluse inwardly upon self instead of placing our trust in God and His coming Kingdom.

Whenever we have the opportunity to assist at the Holy Mass, study Sacred Scripture, receive the sacraments, enter into prayer, and study the faith we allow God to be at work within us in a most intimate way. When we fail to live out the faith to the fullest degree we fail to turn our heart onto God and allow Him to active in our life at all times.

We must be like the individuals in our Gospel who took something and put it to use. Let us take hold of the faith, never compromising it, and live it always. The Kingdom of Heaven is coming and is worth more than all the treasures of this world. Let us strive for this Kingdom and do so with God’s help.

33rd Sunday of OT Year B Homily

Today the Rite of Welcoming was celebrated with the catechumens of our parish who will be received into the life of the Church through the waters of baptism at the Easter Vigil. May we continue to pray for them as they continue their journey towards these life giving waters.

As they come to set their sight upon eternal life we must also do so. Our readings reminded us of the certainty of death and how it is something which will catch up with each of us. As was stated to us in our Gospel: “But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

Therefore, we must come to live for eternal life. This path was set before us at our baptism, but so often we forget to rely on God’s grace as we get caught up in the many twists and turns which come with life. As was revealed to us in the Book of Daniel: “some shall live forever, others shall be an everlasting horror and disgrace.”

This verse places our attention upon the four last things: death, judgement, Heaven, and hell. Death and judgement is something which lies in wait for each of us. Despite this reality, with God’s grace we can order our life towards Heaven and thus be able to live forever in Paradise.

As is stated concerning this in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “Death puts an end to human life as the time open to either accepting or rejecting the divine grace manifested in Christ” and “each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death, in particular judgment that refers to his life to Christ: either entrance into the blessedness of heaven- through a purification or immediately, - - or immediate and everlasting damnation.”

As Catholics the Kingdom of Heaven must be our ultimate goal. In striving for this we must desire to remain in the state of grace in order that we may always be prepared to meet the Lord at an unknown hour. Our encounter with Christ present with us in the Eucharist, the forgiveness that exists in the sacrament of confession, our daily prayers, and our service to our neighbor are all ways that we are prepared for our encounter with this unknown hour. Concerning this unknown hour eternal life much be our goal.

If we desire such a reality for ourself we must ask what we must strip away if this is to be found true. To be baptized is to be conformed unto the Lord. Therefore, let us continue to order our life on this earth towards what was begun there for we know neither the time nor the hour. Therefore, our time on earth is fleeting, so let us live for the Lord always.