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Lighthouse June 3, 2025
PENTACOST
This coming Sunday will mark 50 days since we celebrated Jesus overcoming death by His Resurrection. Why 50 days. One gospel, Jn. 20:19, says that on Easter Sunday he appeared to the apostles and said: “receive the Holy Spirit.” Did they receive the Holy Spirit at that time? Of course. The book of Acts in 2:1 tells us that the Holy Spirit came down upon them 50 days later in the form of tongues of fire. That is also true. Why does Luke make a big point of that? Pentecost is 50 days after the Passover. It is time for the spring harvest. In describing the apostles as speaking in all languages he is demonstrating that it is time for the Christian harvest. They have been commissioned to go into the whole world and make disciples of all. The spirit can come into one's life many times. When one is baptized they are baptized into the name of the father, into the name of the son; into the name of the holy spirit. As one grows in the christian life they will notice that they might be particularly open to the Spirit at special times. One might be making a retreat or some other revival calling for a greater openness to the spirit. One might be bringing Jesus to others and be aware of an outpouring of the spirit within. The scriptures tell us not to be worried about what one is to say for the spirit will speak. To be open to the spirit is to just be open to the manifestation of the love of God within just as a husband and wife grow in their own love for one another and respond to that love in a greater way. As we celebrate Pentecost I pray you are more especially open to the Spirit. Trust in the Spirit to work in your life. As a side note I want to acknowledge Ijames church on hwy49 closing its doors. While we always hate to see that happen; just like the closing of a number of our own churches in St. Louis we have to recognize it not as a sign of failure but as a sign of the reality that populations are changing. We pray that the few who feel the pain of moving on from a beloved place of worship do find a real spiritual home where they can thrive in their relationship with the Lord. I also want to acknowledge their generous gesture of giving a sizable donation from the sale of the property to the Ministerial Alliance Food Pantry. It is a reminder to us all that even in death we can find ways to serve others in Jesus' name. It is truly a sign of the Spirit when we seek to make all that we are and have work to proclaim the gospel. How might their generosity challenge you?
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Lighthouse May 20, 2025
Yea! School’s out. Time to ramp up recreation and diminish education and adoration. That
seems to be too often the natural turn of events. If it is for you then the period of education has
truly failed. If we learned anything we should have learned how important reading is and how
great it is to now have more free time to pursue areas of reading we would like. If our time of
worship seems to coincide with our school year and doesn’t continue through summer then
we have failed to grow in our knowledge and appreciation of what God has done. As with
reading, summer often offers the opportunity of worshipping with brothers and sisters in
different parts of the country. It offers the opportunity of discovering different styles various
areas might have. It offers the opportunity of growing in our appreciation of the fact we are part
of something much larger than our experience at home. When the book of Hebrews says ‘do
not forsake the gathering of the assembly’ the author is not saying one should only worship
God in their own local home community. After all he, and the other evangelists would gather
with local believers wherever they were. They did that as Jews and once they were Christian
continued to be present to different Christian congregations. One should never take a vacation
from God. He expects us to worship as a congregation at least on the day of the resurrection,
which is Sunday. Whatever town Jesus was in he would go to the local synagogue, especially
‘at the hour of prayer. Today, many are involved in traveling sports teams. What a great.
opportunity to give witness to others and take this time for God. I know some will say: ‘Well,
not everyone in our family, our group, goes to church.’ How much better, in a non threatening,
non judging way to give the example ‘As for me and my house we will worship the Lord.’ With
the internet nowadays it is so easy to check out the times and opportunities one can take
advantage of. But you know, it’s not always a problem of our travels. Sometimes it is a matter
of others having traveled to visit us. So many times people will say: ‘I couldn’t go to church
because I had company.’ How much more important it is to give the example. If they love you
and are worth giving hospitality to they should all the more understand and appreciate you’re
taking time to do what is necessary in your life. There are a number of things we are willing to
excuse ourselves for, like 'I need to go and get some groceries.’ , ‘We got these special tickets
that cost ? And we will be back in ? hrs.’ , or ‘There is an old lady down the street and I do
such and such for every week.’ So why not ‘God is such an important part of our lives that
we have made a commitment to take this time for Him, we’ll have a good dinner when we get
back; or, hey, your church has a service at such and such a time; we can meet for lunch
afterwards.’ And maybe one of the worst scenarios is ‘We wanted to be good hosts and they
were going to leave right at the time we would normally leave for church’ when you could have
communicated that ahead of time and make that clear that they could make themselves at
home and leave when they like. If you can’t trust them for a few minutes in your house, why are
they there? ‘Do not forsake the gathering of the assembly.’
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Lighthouse May 13, 2025
HABEMUS PAPAM
I'm sure you are tired of hearing that by now and are probably asking “What's the big deal?” Bear with me this one time as I share a little about the importance of this occasion. It's part of your history as well. The papacy is the key to the church being the oldest institution on earth. Notice, I don't say oldest faith. There is an ongoing recognized hierarchy and order ever since the apostles recognized how Judas' position needed to be filled and so they chose Matthias for that role. Leo XIV is to be the 267th successor of Peter who was told by Jesus to 'Feed my lambs, feed my sheep.' As such, other leaders of the church have consistently turned to Peter, or, the bishop of Rome if you will, and say 'Peter has spoken' whenever there were disagreements. As such there are now 1.3-1.4 billion Catholics on earth who look to him for guidance. Some think it is the Eucharist, the Communion which establishes the unity. It should be but it is not; as when the Orthodox separated from the Catholic in 1054 AD they still maintained the same Eucharist; as did the Episcopalians, Church of England when they separated in 1574. While still professing the same creed, the others cannot help but pay attention to what the pope has to share on various moral issues. Some may not realize, but for many centuries, based on Jesus telling Peter 'What you bind on earth will be bound in heaven.' meant the pope had authority on every level of life. It was only at the end of the 1800s at Vatican Council 1 that the pope with the bishops clarified that this statement of Christ's only applied to moral proclamations, and then under a very restricted sense. The pope, the bishop of Rome, continues to have immediate pastoral guidance over all the faithful with the ability of appointing the bishops throughout the world. Until the modern age with faster transportation and communication, it was only natural that the bishop of Rome was called forth by other bishops in Rome. Eventually that role became restricted to cardinals who had been appointed by the pope and now cardinals are able to gather rather quickly from around the world. So today the voters are restricted to those cardinals who are under the age of 80. Theoretically they could still chose any Catholic male in the world but restrict themselves to fellow cardinals. Yes, 'habemus papam' is a big deal as the pope continues to challenge the 1.3 billion followers to a fellowship of charity in Christ. While Pope Leo will most likely have a greater understanding of the Catholic Church in America and its level of generosity he will also have a great understanding of poverty from his many years of intentionally serving in the missions. We can't help but be influenced by our backgrounds but we can choose to be open to the influence of many disparate voices. Today we simply pray for him to show us the great mercy and love of God by example and teaching.
Lighthouse April 29, 2025
Aliens or not?
Whatever you believe, I hope you had a wonderful time this past weekend with our alien festival. The reality of aliens is something we will probably be discussing even 100yrs. from now. Personally I believe in aliens. They may not be what many people envision. We seem to have come up with only one concept of what they look like; unless you are a Star Wars fan. But, who says they even have looks? Other beings could have characteristics we can't even begin to envision yet. And that is part of our problem: vision. We think everything has to be physically verifiable. Over the years I have known a number of people who take the reality of haints for granted, as if there are good, bad, mischievous spiritual beings in our midst. What does Scripture have to say about it? Certainly all Christians accept the reality of good and bad angels. When Jesus himself testifies that he saw Satan fall from the sky, we know there had to be a judgment on these beings called 'angels' whom God created. They must have been super-intelligent and given some sort of definitive choice in serving God or not. With them we know that the very word angel means messenger and that they were given different purposes, many of which had to do with God's relationship with man. They were given different names depending on what that purpose was (I.e.Michael, Gabriel, Raphael). And then Jesus himself tells us that we all have guardian angels. I thank God for that as I probably have more than one. You know angel is mentioned more than 400 times in the scriptures? If you are a believer then you know there is at least one other kind of alien. What about those who have gone before us and died? While we know we will be body, soul, and spirit for all eternity after Jesus comes again, what about before that? Just this past Sunday we heard from the Gospel of Luke where Jesus said 'do you not know that ghosts do not have flesh and bones as you see I do?' Jesus seems to be attesting that He does have a resurrected body able to even eat fish but that there is also a state of disembodied existence as when Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus on the mountain. Ultimately, this doesn't solve the question of whether there might be other forms of intelligible life. We know God is infinite and if He wants to create a billion billion galaxies He can also create an unbelievable number of different life forms. What we do know is that God chose to become a human, not an angel. He decided to give humans a longer test while they live as corporeal spirits; after which there will be judgment. We know He died uniquely as a human being for our sins. How He will judge other beings to see whether they love Him or not, we cannot even imagine. Meanwhile let us love all beings as unique manifestations of His love for us.
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Lighthouse April 22, 2025
HE IS RISEN
We just celebrated Easter, Our Lord's Resurrection, that Sunday from which all Sundays come. I pray yours was more than just taking part in some sort of egg hunt. I mean, we just celebrated the greatest event that has ever occurred, Jesus rose from the dead. While many Jews, our ancestors in faith, like the Sadducees did not believe in eternal life, we now know it is real. One Jewish woman once told me when we were talking about death said 'it's just worms'. In other words there is nothing after death. You and I now look forward to the reality of eternal life where we will be fully human, body, soul, and spirit. What will it be like? We don't know the details, nor could we handle it as scripture tells us 'eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered the heart of man, what God has in store.' It is so far beyond our imagination. What do we know? I often get asked: 'Will I know my loved ones there?' What do you think? I believe we will. Even though 'There will be neither male or female' we will have bodies. Even though there is no time or space we will have our individuality as witnessed by Jesus appearing with Moses and Elijah to the apostles Peter, James, and John. I believe that many of the near death experiences we hear about where people are shown known loved ones are gifts from God. God seems to be opening a portal to heaven to certain individuals for our good. While I believe this to be the case, will it really matter? We know God is calling us to be perfectly happy. Someone once said: 'if it takes having your pet dog there with you, you will have it.' The thing is, it won't matter. That is why we are able to look at the other side of the equation when we wonder about our relatives and friends who do not get to share in eternal life, those of whom Jesus said “I was hungry and you did not give me to eat; I was thirsty and you did not give me to drink'. If one is in heaven they will still be able to rejoice because these people have literally gotten what they asked for. God created free will as the one thing He will never change or take back. So, when we see someone getting what they asked for we can't help but rejoice in the love God has shown. After all, to take away free will would no longer be an act of love. The reality is, God will forever love such people who have made those choices. That, of course, will be their eternal torment, never being able to get away from such love. Let us look forward to our own resurrection, body, soul, and spirit, as we seek to do all God asks of us as a sign of our love for Him.
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Lighthouse April 15, 2025
Hosanna in the Highest/ Crucify Him
What a special, strangely complex week we are in. This past Sunday we celebrated the people of Jerusalem proclaiming Jesus as king by singing 'hosanna to the son of David'. They gave him all the welcome of a returning king. How many really thought about what they were doing. Were they just caught up in the moment where a few began this chant? Then this Friday we remember Jesus being hauled before a nighttime mock trial. Since the Pharisees wanted nothing less than a crucifixion they incited the mob to chant 'crucify him, crucify him'. Did it involve the same people or were they able to limit the crowd to only people who thought like them? We don't know. But that was unlikely. It was most likely the general population. So what does that say? Would we ever be caught up in such hysteria? That's the question. The apostles said they would not deny Jesus, yet they themselves did. St. Paul himself has to warn us to never say 'never'. Human history is replete with examples of mob action, most often to the evil side of our human spectrum. You would have a hard time finding any country where there has not been disastrous mob action whether we think of the French Revolution and the many who were guillotined or the most memorable action of the Nazis who sent millions to death chambers. The simple fact is, we want to be on the winning side and when there is an en-mass movement towards death we buy into it to save our own skin. So, during this time of pondering the death of the most innocent of all human beings we do well to recognize our own weakness, our own dark side. There but for the grace of God go we all. Let us really turn to the grace Jesus obtained for us on the cross and pray we are always faithful to the good he calls us to and not the evil we are capable of. If you have been a little slack in living your Christian calling and perhaps not worshipping as regularly as you should, maybe this would be a good time to renew that effort of remaining in God's grace and never falling into the trap of following mob hysteria. By the way, have you noticed, or is it just me, there seems to be a growing awareness and promotion of the faith culture that built this country. There have been a number of movies at the theatre and on tv which we do well to support. I think of the recent movies 'The Last Supper' and 'Chosen' or the series 'the Saints' on Fox Nation and 'The House of David' on Primetime. At the same time people seem to be avoiding some of the Disney productions with their false narratives. Or, have you noticed the laws being enacted to protect religious freedom? We do well to make a conscious effort in supporting that which is good. By the way, the 'Shroud of Turin- is this the burial cloth of Jesus' display is still available any time of day at St. Catherine Hall in Piedmont. It's free and no one will approach you. May you have a blessed Easter, Fr. Dan
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