This past Friday, I was at St. Paul’s Church in Brooklyn officiating at the wedding of my 2nd cousin Connor Oberst and Flor de Jesus. In the words of the marriage vows, Connor and Flor committed themselves to love and honor each other in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health all the days of their lives. The 39 words of the marriage vows are a life-defining commitment.What are the significant commitments of your life -- to your family, to your spouse, to your children, to your parents? What are the commitments of your life?
I love the church and I am both angry and saddened! It is tragic when innocents, children and those most vulnerable are hurt. I am sure this week most of us have heard of the Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report. This report outlines patterns of abuse in six Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania. I find this news personally devastating, and it causes me both great anger and grief. And what makes me especially angry is that this report indicates that there were on-going efforts by church officials to cover up this abuse and not nearly enough was done to report and prevent this tragic abuse .I implore you to voice your concern and anger, to start a dialog with clergy, staff, with your friends and family. This is your church! This is the faith we share as community! God calls us together as community to support one another. We are the people of God let us use these tragic events to help move the church forward, forward toward the light, forward in the direction that God is pulling us. The direction that God speaks in our heart.
This Sunday’s Gospel is the fourth consecutive Sunday that the Gospel is taken from the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel. The Bread of Life Discourse from the 6th chapter of John’s Gospel reaches a crescendo with startling hopes and startling claims. “The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.” The second claim is: “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.”
As a priest for 50 years and being in seminary formation for 12 years prior to ordination in 1968, I am deeply ashamed of this criminal violation of the sacred trust given to priests to proclaim the love and care of Jesus to our young parishioners. We need to move heaven and earth to uncover whatever horrors of sexual abuse remain secret and do everything in our power to prevent this from ever happening again.
This summer I had opportunity to reflect on St. Joe's RCIA history as I facilitated a guided study on the RCIA with several graduate students at St. Bernard’s, including our own Director of Faith Formation, Jeanne Mooney. Throughout the time we spent with the other students, what was abundantly clear was how blessed our parish is by the diverse individuals who seek Christ and choose to prepare for the sacraments with our RCIA team. Because of the amazing people who have become Catholic with us, I found that I was teaching the St. Bernard’s course, for all intents and purposes, from the wealth of stories we have accumulated over the past decade.
In today’s Scripture readings, people are tired, exhausted, depressed, and full of complaints. Does this sound like God’s chosen people? Perhaps these folks need to read and enjoy Pope Francis’s letter on THE JOY OF THE GOSPEL. Perhaps they need to sing the beautiful hymn to the God of all hopefulness, the God of all joy.
A fundamental question for the disciples of Jesus was: Do you seek the bread the Father gives, or do you seek the Father who gives you bread? More than satisfying our physical hunger, Jesus wishes us to have a relationship with the God who breathes life into our spirit. The bread is a sign of God’s love for us. Jesus tells us to look for a different kind of food. Jesus said to them: I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE.