Waiting

Dear Parishioners,

Why are we perpetually waiting… for God to do something in “the future”? Our two weeks of Advent readings from Isaiah have all been about “the future” when life will be joyous—why not today? In today’s 2nd reading (Jas 5:7-10), James says that “the coming of the Lord is at hand”—well, we’re still waiting. Even in today’s Gospel (Mt 11:2-11), John the Baptist appears impatient: “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?”

Said differently: When God the Son finally comes to earth for 3 years of public ministry [4000 years (of
biblical timeline) after initially promised], what does Jesus do? He tells us that his kingdom is not of this world, says that He will come again, and returns to heaven! Why does God seem to perpetually keep His people waiting for His coming (his “advent”) for thousands of years? Within this “perpetual Advent” of now His Second Coming, each year the Church repeats the 4-week Advent preparation of Jesus’ First Coming. Why does God seem to always keep us waiting for Him to do something in the future? It seems like Jesus never comes.

…But He does! Jesus comes at EVERY Catholic mass! During the liturgy, we proclaim one of the
central messages of the Bible, the mystery of faith: “We proclaim your Death, O Lord, and profess your
Resurrection, until you come again.” This refers of course to Christ’s Second Coming at the end of time, but also to the reality that Jesus has just sacramentally come—Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity—and is really (“substantially”) present among us in the Eucharist. At Mass, we participate in Jesus’ perpetual heavenly offering of his crucified, resurrected, and ascended body before His Father in heaven (Hebrews chapters 8-10, and Revelation chapters 4-8 and 19).

The Book of Revelation is about the Catholic Mass! It begins with a priestly greeting (Rev 1:4), proceeds with the “liturgy of the Word” (the word of the angels to the churches in chapters 2–3), and continues in chapters 4 and 5 with the “liturgy of the Eucharist” depicting the worship of God and the Lamb, culminating in the Wedding Supper of the Lamb in chapter 19, and the New Jerusalem built upon the foundation of the apostles (chapter 21), i.e., the Catholic Church. At the very end of the book—the last words of the Bible—Jesus says “Surely, I am coming soon!” to which John replies “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev 22:20) …referring not only to Jesus’ Second Coming but also the to reality that Jesus comes to us in the worship of the Eucharist at Mass—a participation in the heavenly worship revealed to John on Sunday (the Lord’s Day, Rev 1:10).

So let us prepare again this Advent for Jesus to come again in a new and profound way into our hearts at Christmas. But let us not forget that the “coming of the Lord is at hand” (today’s 2nd reading) already, at every Mass. He does not delay. “‘Surely, I am coming soon!’ Amen. Come Lord Jesus!”

Peace in Christ,
Father Jim

Prepare The Way

Dear SJF/OLC Pastorate Friends,

This weekend, we celebrate the Second Sunday of Advent. Our Gospel reading from Matthew’s Gospel recalls the proclamation of John the Baptist, who came to prepare the way for the coming of Jesus Christ (Mt 3:1-12). The people of God had been waiting in hopeful expectation for the Messiah, as foretold in the first reading from the Prophet Isaiah. The coming of the Messiah would usher in a new era in human history. We are the benefactors of this promise, we who have been baptized by the Holy Spirit and fire. Even though we know of God’s love for us and our call to love one another as Jesus has shown us, we also are painfully away of places where the Church’s leaders, her bishops and priests, have failed in our call to serve God’s People.

By now, most of us have heard about the upcoming release of the Maryland Attorney General’s report on the Clergy sexual abuse crisis in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. The report will document the horrors of abuse that have occurred within the Archdiocese for the past 80 years. The report states 158 priests have been accused of abusing over 600 people, mostly the younger and most vulnerable members of our community. Information about this is posted at www.olchesapeake.org. This report will once again remind us of the sins of our past, and how damaging these atrocities have been to so many lives. Please join me in praying for all victims who suffered at the hands of people they trusted to protect them. No words can express the profound sorrow I feel for those who have been hurt by the Church. May the Lord grant them healing, and help us to dedicate our lives to ensure it never happens again.

This week on December 8th, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Masses will be offered at OLC on Dec. 7 (vigil) at 7:00pm and Dec. 8 at 8:30am, and at St. Jane Frances on Dec. 8 at 8:30am and Dec. 8 at 7:00pm. Please plan to join us!

Here is the Pastorate’s Christmas Mass Schedule:

• St. Jane Frances: Dec. 24 at 4:00pm (one Mass), 6:00pm, 8:00pm, and 10:00pm (Choir)
• St. Jane Frances: Dec. 25 at 9:00am and 10:30am
• Our Lady of the Chesapeake: Dec. 24 at 3:30pm (one Mass), 5:30pm, 7:30pm (High School Youth Mass), and 10:00pm (Choir)
• Our Lady of the Chesapeake: Dec. 25 at 10:00am

Thank you for keeping St. Jane Frances and Our Lady of the Chesapeake in your daily prayers!

God Bless,
Father Steve

It’s Advent! Get Ready

Dear SJF/OLC Pastorate Friends,

This weekend, the Church begins a new liturgical year as well as a new liturgical season with the
celebration of the First Sunday of Advent. The season of Advent is one of my favorite seasons in the Church’s year, because it is a season of expectation and hopefulness, preparing us for the great Solemnity of Christmas and the commemoration of the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. But we also await and look forward to the return of Christ again. That is why our Gospel reading on the First Sunday of Advent reminds us to prepare for the time when Christ returns in glory. As we anticipate the celebration of Christmas in four weeks, may we always be ready to welcome Christ every time he comes among us.

Another event we are preparing for in the coming weeks is celebrating the Sacrament of First Reconciliation with our second grades at both St. Jane Frances and Our Lady of the Chesapeake. First Reconciliation will be offered at two different times: Tuesday, Dec. 6 at 6:30pm at St. Jane Frances and Saturday, Dec. 10 at 10:00am at Our Lady of the Chesapeake. If your parish date and time are not good for your family, please feel free to attend at the other parish. Just let Melissa or Michaela know if you are planning to do that so that they can plan accordingly.

The Church also celebrates the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception during the Season of Advent on December 8th. The Immaculate Conception is the dogma of faith that states that the Blessed Mother was kept free from the stain of original sin from the moment of her conception in the womb of her mother, St. Ann. This is one of the four Marian Dogmas of the Church (with the others being Mary’s Divine Motherhood, Perpetual Virginity, and Assumption.) Masses will be offered on Dec. 7 (vigil) at 7:00pm at OLC, on Dec. 8 at 8:30am (both parishes), and Dec. 8 at 7:00pm at SJF.

For your planning purposes, here is the Pastorate’s Christmas Mass Schedule:

St. Jane Frances: 

• 12/24 – 4:00pm (one Mass), 6:00pm, 8:00pm, and 10:00pm (Choir)
• 12/25 – 9:00am and 10:30am
  

Our Lady of the Chesapeake: 

• 12/24 – 3:30pm (one Mass), 5:30pm, 7:30pm (High School Youth Mass), and 10:00pm (Choir)
• 12/25 - 10:00am

Thank you for keeping St. Jane Frances and Our Lady of the Chesapeake in your daily prayers!

God Bless,
Father Steve

King of the Universe

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

This week, we celebrate the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. The readings this week speak of kingship (2 Sm 5:1-3/Ps 122:1-2, 3-4, 4-5/Col 1:12-20/Lk 23:35-43). We think of kings taking power from others through coercion or by force.

Jesus ushered in his kingdom not through force but through love, by appealing to the hearts of people—a kingdom that will not be brought through revolution, but through the conversion of hearts. By His death on the cross, Jesus reveals His Kingship not by saving His life, but by offering it as a ransom for ours. He transfers us to “the Kingdom of His beloved Son,” as this week’s second reading tells us.

Do you belong to his kingdom? Does Christ reign in your heart? Let us today re-commit our heart to Christ the King. If he truly reigns in our hearts, then our actions will be Christ-like. The good thief in the Gospel reading, shows us how we are to accept the salvation and membership in the Kingdom that Jesus offers us. He confesses his sins, acknowledges he deserves to die for them. And He calls on the name of Jesus, seeking His mercy and forgiveness. As we do this, let us give Jesus more control over our lives. Let Him truly reign in our heart. When we do this, He will truly be our King and His peace and love will be ours. In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus says, “come to me all you who labor and are burdened and I will give you rest…” It is only in Him that we can truly have rest for our hearts. Let us obey the law of love and mercy because that is what governs in the kingdom of Christ.

God Bless,
Deacon Howard

The End?

Dear Friends,

THE END. Reaching “the end” can be devastating or exhilarating, depending on what is ending, why it’s ending, our preparedness for its ending, and what “new beginning” it leads to.

In today’s gospel (Luke 21:5-19), Jesus foretells a devastating picture of “the end” accompanied by wars, earthquakes, famines, plagues, and persecution, yet it leads to a new and exhilarating beginning. What is “the end” Jesus is talking about? The destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by the Romans in 70 AD. And what is the “new beginning” it definitively ushered in? The New Jerusalem, built upon the foundation of the 12 apostles (Revelation 21:9-14), i.e., the Catholic Church.

God always builds better, because He always moves forward, always toward a new beginning for
humankind. The biblical story of salvation history is one of God continually resurrecting new life from the devastating ends of man’s pride and sinfulness: a new Adam (Christ; 1 Cor 15:45); a new Eve (Mary; Galatians 4:4-5); a new covenant (Luke 22:20); a new creation of man (2 Cor 5:17; Eph 2:15); a new nature of man (Eph 4:24); a new commandment (John 13:34); and a new heavens and a new earth (2 Pet 2:13; Rev 21:1).

Just as Yahweh established a cyclical (seasonal) pattern of liturgical celebrations to remind the Israelites
of the continual “newness” of God’s loving-kindness (covenantal love), so the Church, as the New Jerusalem, follows God’s pattern of new beginnings by establishing a cyclical liturgical calendar of “ends” and “new beginnings.” As we approach the end of our liturgical year, today’s gospel about the “end times” of ancient Jerusalem and the Temple (after the 1st Coming of Christ) also points to the climactic “end times” of our day—the impending 2nd Coming of Christ—and leads us to a new liturgical beginning: preparing (Advent) for the coming of Christ into the world and into our hearts at Christmas. And so the cycle of God’s never-ending love is continually refreshed for us, our children, and our grandchildren.

Jesus in the gospels reminds us (and the Church liturgically reminds us at every Mass) that He will come again, and that we need to be prepared to go out and meet Him. Some say Jesus is coming soon (and they’ve been saying that for 2000 years). When do you think He will come again? Personally, I believe Christ will come again in your lifetime and mine: each of us will meet Him the day that our soul leaves our body. Until then, He comes every day (“Come, Lord Jesus!” - Revelation 22:20) at every Holy Mass, which leads us back to… THE BEGINNING.

Peace in Christ,
Father Jim

The Word of God, Tradition, and the Catholic Church

Dear Friends,

In today’s 2nd Reading (2 Thessalonians 2:16–3:5), St. Paul tries to comfort the Thessalonians’ hearts and direct them to the love of God, because they had become alarmed by some people who were saying that “the day of the Lord is at hand” (2 Thes 1:11–2:2). Apparently they had disregarded or forgotten his previous oral (2 Thes 2:5, 15; 3:6–10) and written (his 1st letter to the Thessalonians) teaching on the subject.

Although the particular topic of Paul’s clarification is the Second Coming of Christ, we find in his letters (and throughout the New Testament) that Paul basically uses interchangeably the notions of his “teaching,” “doctrine,” and the “word of God/the Lord.” In other words, Paul is saying that his teaching, ie, what he preaches orally, IS the Word of God, because its source comes from the Revelation of God Himself, as Paul explicitly states in 1 Thes 2:13: “And we also thank God constantly…that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God.” There are other New Testament verses that also clarify that the “word of God” is the oral message of the apostles, their teaching, and their doctrine, such as Acts 4:31; Hebrews 13:7; 1 Cor 11:2; 15:1-2; 2 Thes 2:15, 3:6; 1 Pet 1:25; 2 Tim 1:13, 2:2; Mark 16:15; and others. The Greek word didaskalia, used 21 times in the New Testament, is translated as both “teaching” and “doctrine” (for example: 1 Tim 4:6, 13, 16; Titus 2:1)

This fundamental biblical truth is a source of great comfort to us Catholics: that the “word of God” in the New Testament is commonly understood as the oral word of God that Jesus gave His apostles and instructed them to orally preach and pass on to others (Matt 28:18–20; Mark 16:15), and to which the early Church devoted itself (Acts 2:42; 18:9–11). It was three centuries later when the Church discerned the companion written portion of the oral Word of God (its teachings and doctrines), i.e. the New Testament, which had been faithfully handed down from the apostles to their successors (2 Tim 2:2; Acts 1:20-26) and safeguarded from error by the Holy Spirit (John 14:25-26).

The Protestant notion that the “Bible alone” (the written portion of the oral Word of God) is one’s only authority (Martin Luther) is simply not found anywhere in the Bible. Such a non-biblical assumption, disconnected from the Sacred Tradition of the Catholic Church, has been the source of great confusion and innumerable division amongst denominations (including each “non-denominational” church) for over 500 years—each claiming to have the correct interpretation of Scripture. Fortunately, we Catholics don’t have to be caught up in confusion and division (as the Thessalonians had become on the Second Coming of Christ), wondering what the truth of God’s Revelation is.

Just as Paul faithfully clarified to the Thessalonians authentic Divine Revelation about “the day
of the Lord” through his oral and written teaching, so we Catholics today can take confidence that the
Catholic Church faithfully teaches the fullness of Divine Revelation with respect to faith and morals,
resting on the solid biblical foundation that the Word of God is both oral (Tradition) and written, and
authentically interpreted and taught by the Church’s Magisterium, the servant of the Word of God. Let
us pray, as Paul did in today’s 2nd Reading, that this “word of the Lord may speed forward and be
glorified” in ourselves, the Church, and the world. (For more on “The Transmission of Divine
Revelation,” see the Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraphs 74-141.)

Fr. Jim

Our Path Forward

Dear SJF/OLC Pastorate Friends,

As many of you heard, my dad, Walter Hook, passed away on Saturday, Oct. 22, 2022 after a brief illness. He was 91 years old and had been with my sister on vacation in Florida when he took ill. We were able to hire a medical transport to return him to Baltimore so his family was able to see him before he passed. I would like to thank everyone for your prayers and your words of condolence to me and my family during this difficult time. I would also like to thank Fr. Mike Triplett and Fr. Chris Dudek for covering my Masses for me at St Jane’s last week. I am very sorry that I was not with you but know both parishes are in my daily thoughts and prayers.

This weekend is Commitment Weekend for Our Path Forward, our annual Stewardship program. As
always, I am extremely grateful for your generous support of our pastorate parishes. I wanted to give you a brief update on our actual Offertory Income contributions for the first quarter of this current fiscal year (July 1–Sept. 30, 2022). Total Offertory Income at St Jane Frances is DOWN 10.8% (or $19,851) over the same period last year (from $183,698 in 2021 to $163,847 in 2022). Total Offertory Income for Our Lady of the Chesapeake is UP 4.0% (or $6,759) over the same period last year (from $167,314 in 2021 to $174,073 in 2022). We would be unable to offer the programs and services we do without your support – both volunteering of your time as well as your financial contributions, so thank you!

This weekend, you will find in the pews the 2022 Our Path Forward information and commitment card.
Hopefully you have taken some time this past week to prayerfully consider how your commitment to our parish’s offertory income can empower a positive transformation in our pastorate community of faith and fulfill our call to extend Christ’s light into the world. You are asked to complete the commitment card, detach it, and return it to the parish through the offertory collection basket. You may also take the commitment card home and return it next weekend.

Both OLC and St Jane Frances offer online giving options that help make your offertory commitment
more regular while still offering you the flexibility to made changes as needed. (I am signed up to give my donations online at both parishes, and I love the ease and flexibility.) To set up online giving for either parish or to update your current level of online giving, go to www.opfaob.com and select your parish. Offertory gifts to St. Jane Frances are called “Parish Care Pledge” and offertory gifts to OLC are called “Stewardship Commitment.” Thank you for your gifts to our pastorate parishes!

Thank you for keeping us in your daily prayers as we certainly do for each of you!

God Bless,
Father Steve