Parish Social Ministry

  Fourth Sunday of Lent          March 31, 2019
 
Catholic Social Teaching Principle:  Call to Family, Community and Participation
Human beings are social by nature.  We, like the early disciples, are called to come together as a community whether that community is our classroom, workplace or family.
 
The second reading reminds us that we have been called to a “ministry of reconciliation”.
The gospel makes the “forgiveness experience” concrete in a wonderful story.

The process of reconciliation is sometimes a long journey.  Consider the years it took for the people of Israel to get to where they are in the first reading – eating the yield of their own land.

The father in the gospel story wants his son back. The father waits a long time.  The son eventually comes back.  All is forgiven.  There is a celebration.  But, the story does not end there.  There is still need for healing in the family.  The father desires to bring in the elder son as well.  His plans is “all inclusive” – to bring the whole family together.  It is not easy.

Forgiveness is possible because the father does not get stuck on blame and judgment.  This is not to say he has not been pained by the actions of his younger son.  He is pained by the attitude of the older son, but still he goes out to invite him in to the family celebration.  The word of God invites us to apply this story not only to our interpersonal relationships, but to relationships between communities of people – people who are different than ourselves.  It is not easy.  However, it is possible with the grace of God.  God passionately desires it.  God passionately calls us to keep working to heal relationships.
 
Fifth Sunday of Lent      –      April 7,  2019
 
Catholic Social Teaching: Global Solidarity
Jesus tells us to love our neighbors, even though they may be different from us.  That means those neighbors who live next door and those who live on the other side of the planet.  Jesus reminds us that we are all part of God’s great family.
 
Sometimes we are like the men in the gospel today who want to throw stones at others, especially those we don’t like or don’t approve of or find to be different.  Maybe we don’t actually throw stones, but we feel like it.  Sometimes it seems like we have lost our way as a people or maybe that God’s healing and reconciling spirit is asleep.  Sometimes we hear people say: “It is hopeless and difficult and it cannot be done.  It will always be that way.  

Things cannot change.

Today Isaiah says that change and growth can happen. Sometime new can take place.  In the same spirit of great optimism, Paul is “forgetting what lies behind” and “straining forward to what lies ahead,” continuing his “pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God’s upward calling, in Christ Jesus.”
Using the image of the gospel, will men in authority always want to throw stones at people they call sinners?  Can a sinner ever be allowed to get a fresh start? Can we allow a new way of living with each other?

Palm Sunday                                    April 14, 2019
 
Catholic Social Teaching:  Sacredness and Dignity of the Human Person
When God created us, he made us in his image and likeness.  That means that every human being has a special value and purpose.  We need to care for each other so that we can be the people God calls us to be.
 
Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem is about “getting excited” about what God wants to do in the world, right now, today in our midst. Our entrance into Holy Week is an exciting renewal of our commitment to be involved in the challenges and struggles of our world.  God is involved with the pain and suffering of our world.  God is involved in our quest for justice and peace.  God calls us to a new vision of life.

The story of the Passion is a story which continues today in our lives and the lives of the people all over the planet – in the lives of the poor, the refugees and immigrants, the people in prison, the single parents, the elderly, in those who are victims of racism.

Isaiah refers to both speaking and listening. The servant of God is both a person who can speak boldly with a well-trained tongue and a person whose ear and heart is opened for listening.  If we are to heal the brokenness of our world, we all need the grace both to listen and to speak.  
The whole passion story reminds us that the type of authority that Jesus has is different than that of a worldly power. Christ “emptied himself and became the servant of all.”  

We are called to connect Jesus’ experience of suffering and struggling to our own experience today – an experience that includes life and death, injustice and courage, community and isolation, violence and peace.  Our world suffers in the lives of those who are poor and victimized by injustice, violence and natural disaster.  In the light of all this, we need the spirit of Christ who “humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross”.
 
Easter Sunday                                  April 21, 2019
            
Catholic Social Teaching: Global Solidarity
Jesus tells us to love our neighbors, even though they may be different from us.  That means those neighbors who live next door and those who live on the other side of the planet.  Jesus reminds us that we are all part of God’s great family.
 
An understanding of resurrection which does not address issues of justice is shallow and not consistent with the spirit of Jesus who lived, died, and rose to bring an end to all oppression and injustice.  To use the recent words of Pope Francis, Christ calls us “…to build bridges connecting all people, in such a way that everyone can see in the other not an enemy, not a rival, but a brother or sister to be welcomed and embraced!”

Today’s letter to the Corinthians reminds us that something new is possible: “Let us celebrate the feast, not with the old yeast, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”  We affirm life.  We believe that resurrection is possible.

Change is possible.  Growth is possible.  Peace and reconciliation are possible.  Something new is possible.  Healing of relationships is possible.  Nations can work together for justice and peace.  
More than ever we need a spirit that will help and heal the death, violence, and injustice of the world.  Peter in Acts reminds us that Jesus”…went about doing good and healing all those oppressed…”  

We are called to do the same.
 
Second Sunday of Easter                        April 28, 2019
 
Catholic Social Teaching:  Call to Family, Community and Participation
Human beings are social by nature.  We, like the early disciples, are called to come together as a community whether that community is our workplace or family.
 
The experience of Resurrection results not simply in a good feeling but in the transformation or renewal of our life and action. Resurrection is not about some future day after we die.  It is also about the world today – the world of things, people, creation, and beauty – the world that experiences sin and evil as well as justice and peace.  If we believe in resurrection, then we should expect to see some signs of it.
 

•  Community is formed.  Fear is dispelled.
• Society is transformed. There is a new heaven and a new earth.

Today’s scriptures give us some of these signs:

+ In Revelation, John receives a call to write down the message and share it.
+ In Acts, a growing community gathers in Solomon’s portico.
+ Signs and wonders occur in the early church.
+ In the gospel, Thomas and later a great number of people come to faith.
+ Many are healed.
+ Bad spirits are driven out.
+ The message is “Do not be afraid.” And “Peace be with you.”
+ The Spirit is given for the forgiveness of sin.

As peoples experience injustice they can feel excluded. Our faith might in some way move into doubt as we find ourselves isolated and divided by injustice. We might find that it is hard to believe in a God of resurrection and new life, unless we are committed to a faith that works for justice in our society.  Jesus says, “Do not be unbelieving, but believe.”
 
Third Sunday of Easter                              May 5, 2019
 
Catholic Social Teaching:  Rights and Responsibilities
As human beings, we have the right to live and grow in peace.  Because we have that right, we have the responsibility to make sure others enjoy the same opportunity too.
 
The first reading tells the story of the members of the early church who are persecuted for their belief.  They count the disgrace as a blessing.  They are filled with courage.  On fire with the presence of Christ, they “must obey God rather than human beings.”

In the second reading, John has an amazing vision. In the vision everything comes into perspective.  John has a vision of the presence of Christ, the one who was slain, worshiped by all creatures of the universe.

The gospel story is also a story about experiencing the presence of Christ.  The seven disciples fish all night and catch nothing.  Someone on the shore tells them to try again.  They catch an abundance of fish.  They share a meal on the shore.  They realize that it is “the Lord.”

As Christians we believe that the presence of Christ is still with us today, especially in the lives of those who are in need or feel left out, especially in the struggle for peace and justice in our world.
All of the scriptures today seem to depict the presence of Christ in a vision of abundance – an abundance of food, of fish, of rejoicing, of courage, of creation, of courage and belief in the midst of opposition, of the spirit of God, of amazing things.  The risen life which we share in Christ helps us to see the abundance of God’s Spirit that is present in the whole world and to share that abundance.
 
Fourth Sunday of Easter                            May 12, 2019
                                                            
Catholic Social Teaching:  Global Solidarity
We are one human family whatever our national, racial, ethnic, economic, and ideological differences. Our love for all our sisters and brothers demands that we promote peace in a world surrounded by violence and conflict.
 
In the gospel, Jesus says: “I give them eternal life.”  What does this mean?

There are, of course, many levels of meaning. However, in light of the incarnation, we cannot focus simply on eternal life in some other future world.  Jesus is concerned with what promotes eternal life in the present.

In the context of Easter, we are called to feel the joy that is part of this divine concern.  We hear today of the citizens of Antioch and the multitude in Revelation who are filled with life and filled with joy.  It is the joy of an eternal life that is beginning now and is shared with others.  Despite opposition, Paul and Barnabas are not discouraged.  They shake off the dust and continue to share what they have been given.

Eternal life involves a joy and life that comes in solidarity with others and from a relationship with the loving shepherd. It is a life which comes together in Christ.  Joy and life flow from relationship – relationship in community – relationship fostered and nourished by a Good Shepherd whose desire is to bring all the sheep together into the fullness of life – a relationship of justice and righteousness with people of “from every nation, race, people, and tongue.”

Pope Francis has captured the attention of many in the word by his gift of being able to symbolize the gospel message in so many actions of simplicity and solidarity with people in need.
 
Fifth Sunday of Easter                                May 19, 2019
 
Catholic Social Teaching:  Global Solidarity
Jesus tells us to love our neighbors, even though they may be different from us.  That means those neighbors who live next door and those who live on the other side of the planet.  Jesus reminds us that we are all part of God’s great family.
 
The Book of Revelation proclaims: “God’s dwelling is with the human race.”  God is involved with the diverse things of the world.  The Christian life is not simply about the next world.  God is concerned with our daily life and our relationships.  God is concerned with the works of justice and peace – with the work of social transformation and liberation for all men and women.
 
In the gospel, we are reminded that the glory of God appears even as Jesus is about to be betrayed.  In Acts, we see the glory of God appearing again and again as Paul and Barnabas travel around and commend many communities to the power of God’s Spirit.  God is involved in the complexity and struggle of life.  There is something wonderfully maternal about the spirit of God. God is involved as a mother is involved with her children – and is with them in their success and failure – in their hopes and dreams and disappointments and struggles.
 
The opening paragraph of Vatican II’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World,  Gaudium et Spes, puts it very well:

The joys and hopes, the grief and anguish of the people of our time, especially of those who are poor or afflicted, are the joys and hopes, the grief and anguish of the followers of Christ as well.  Nothing that is genuinely human fails to find an echo in their hearts.  For theirs is a community of people united in Christ and guided by the Holy Spirit in their pilgrimage towards the Father’s kingdom, bearers of a message of salvation for all humanity.  That is why they cherish a feeling of deep solidarity with the human race and its history.
 
Sixth Sunday of Easter                   May 26, 2019
 
Catholic Social Teaching:  Global Solidarity
We are one human family whatever our national, racial, ethnic, economic, and ideological differences. Our love for all our sisters and brothers demands that we promote peace in a world surrounded by violence and conflict.
 
The theme of peace flows through our scriptures today.  Jesus talks about giving us peace, a peace that might be different than that of the world. The early disciples go to Jerusalem to discern a common vision and to promote peace within the church.  The Jerusalem envisioned in Revelation seems to be a magnificent city of tranquility and peace.  Reflections on peace must certainly be part of our prayer today.
 
In the first reading, the men and women in Antioch have heard religious messages or opinions that have upset them and disturbed their peace of mind.  There is tension and conflict.  The issue is brought to the community in Jerusalem.  The community consensus is not to impose anything that gets in the way of the spirit – that gets in the way of the freedom and joy of the people of God in Antioch or anywhere else – that gets in the way of liberation.
 
In the heavenly Jerusalem envisioned in the second reading, things are so simple and direct.  There is no need for a temple.  The presence and glory of God is everywhere.  As Jesus makes clear in the gospel, the spirit comes and the gift is peace.
Religion can cause much harm and confusion or it can become a source of life and hope to all people.  
The invitation of the scriptures is to keep it simple and focused on what is really important – what will give life and freedom to peace.  The social teachings of the church aims to help us keep focused on what is really important and what is important to people.
 
---Education for Justice  Lectionary Reflections  By: Fr. John Bucki, S.J.

Thanks to Margie Duplantis for researching these reflections.

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