Monthly Archives: November 2025

Waiting for God’s Peace

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Dear Folks,

Today we begin Advent, a season of expectant waiting. Waiting is not just stillness, but directed toward a future hope, and doing Advent well includes a keen focus on what we are hoping for, and how we are shaped by that hope. Our readings, of course, help us.

First, in Isaiah 2:1-5, we see a future in which God gathers people from everywhere. God is the great Gatherer. Jesus prayed in His great priestly prayer “I pray not only on behalf of these, but also for those who through their word will come to believe in me. May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, may they also be in us so that the word may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely on, and thus the world may know that you have sent me and that you have loved them even as you have loved me (John 17:20-23).” Do you want people to believe that Jesus is truly at work in the Church and that the Church is worth coming to? Jesus connects that to our being one. 

We see as people gather, their great desire is that God “may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” We call ourselves disciples, and “disciple” means “student.” To be a disciple is to be learning, that we may “walk in His ways,” that is, live according to His truth.  As they live this truth they will “beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks,” because fighting has become obsolete. The great promise is peace: everyone will get along all the time. Ahhhh.

Romans 13:11-14 reminds us that to get to that peace, we must “throw off” all the things we do that are not in keeping with God’s truth. This time of expectation and hope is a time of repentance. By the power of God’s grace, we seek to live like people who want that peace, and that means not only avoiding doing harm, but actively and intentionally building peace (Matthew 5:9).

Because we are sinful, flawed people, we are going to offend each other. We are naturally more aware of how others offend us than how we offend other people (That great big splinter in your eye looks so much bigger than that little plank in my eye). When we have a gripe against someone, we are called to be healers, even if we are sure we are not at fault (though more often than not, we have contributed somehow and need to be open to that possibility). 

We go to the person first and talk, not to attack, but to bring mutual understanding and healing. If we can’t make progress, bringing one or two more into the conversation to help (Matthew 18:15-16). Talking about people behind their backs, saying things about them that we don’t say to them, spreading complains to create a climate of hostility against that person, is a terrible poison that does immeasurable harm in communities. We must all remind each other because gossip is a terrible plague in the church. We are always to encourage healing. Talking to each other is so much harder than talking about them, but that is exactly the sort of sacrifice to which Jesus calls us.

Matthew 24:37-44 reminds us that God will call us to account for how we answer this call, and we are always to be ready.

Blessings,

Fr. Jim

Strength in Weakness: Christ the King

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Dear Folks,

This is the feast of Christ the King, the celebration of Jesus’ great victory over evil, over sin and death, and now He reigns supreme forever. Alleluia! And yet, our Gospel is of Jesus on the cross. He is being ridiculed, and He makes no reply. He cannot move His hands or His feet. He has to fight to breathe. This is not what humans think when we think about a great king in his triumphant moment. This cuts to the heart of the Christian paradox that the world cannot understand. Jesus’ mighty power is expressed most powerfully not in His amazing miracles or brilliant teaching, but His faithful suffering and death.

St. Paul understood this, saying “If I must boast, I will boast of the things that exhibit my weakness (2 Corinthians 11:30; see 11:16-30)” and “Hence, I will boast most gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell within me. For this reason, I rejoice when I endure weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and distress for the sake of Christ. For it is when I am weak that I am strong (2 Corinthians 12:9b-10; see 7-10).”

Some resist admitting a mistake or failing for fear it will make them look weak, but whom do we trust more: someone who admits when they fail or someone who always, always finds a reason why it is not their fault and not their failing?

Not only have I had to deal with the fact at my age that my biceps aren’t what they used to be, but I have had some particularly powerful lessons in weakness lately, with more on the way. I

have found that times of weakness can be great times of love, and God values love more than biceps.

We look at all the evil in the world, and it is overwhelming. We feel helpless. I find that is often when God does His best work.

Christians are never helpless. Even if we can only do a teeny, tiny bit, if we do that bit with everything we have, that is huge in God’s eyes (see the story of the widow’s mite (Mark 12:41-44 and Luke 21:1-4). Even if we are completely immobile, we can pray, though this will put our faith in the power of prayer to the test. I find that God is quite willing to let our faith be stretched. If our minds go so that we cannot form a coherent prayer, God can still touch us on a deep level, as Psalm 8 tells us, “From the mouths of children and babes you fashioned praise to foil your enemy, to silence the foe and the rebel.”

The basic message of the book of Revelation, as well as Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21, is that the world may fall apart and go horribly wrong, but Jesus is victorious, and if we remain faithful to Him, we will share in the victory (for example Matthew 24:13).

Bottom line: The more the world goes wrong, the more tightly we need to cling to Jesus. If we stay faithful to Him and do not give up, we can contribute to making things better, but He has the victory. He reigns supreme.

Blessings,

Fr Jim

Endings

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Dear Folks,

As we get close to the end of the liturgical year, we start thinking about endings in general. Life is full of endings and new beginnings, but we still tend to think of things we are used to always being there. The real truth is that nothing that is of the earth is guaranteed for tomorrow (or even later today).

Matthew, Mark, and Luke all have an apocalyptic chapter (“apocalypse” is Greek for “removing the veil” which in Latin is “revelatio.”) This chapter starts with predicting the destruction of the temple. The temple was a huge, sturdy building, and a critical part of the Israelites relationship to God. It had been destroyed in 587 B.C. which was devastating, but you know how bad we humans can be about learning the lessons of history. Jesus’ words would have been a shock, and then he segues to the end of the world. The book of revelation will develop this more.

I would encourage you not to pay attention to anyone who claims to have figured out when the end of the world will be. Jesus said we would not know and instead encouraged us to focus on being ready whenever it comes, whether in five billion years, or in 5….4….3…2 you get the idea.

Getting ready centers around faithfully doing the work that God gave us to do and holding the things of the earth in a loose grip.

Of course, there are other kinds of endings. We each experience the end of the world when we die. We also can lose our health, our material possessions, our position in the world, etc. They can vanish without warning.

Civilizations can fall. The Roman Empire lasted for a thousand years, and I believe people expected it to just continue. When it crumbled and was literally overrun with barbarians it was devastating. The structures of education, law and order, the building of roads and aqueducts and things that kept civilization going crumbled. The Church kept a lot of things going when the government could not, maintaining knowledge and education, building universities and hospitals, and other good things. (That was a time when you could not depend upon government. What about our time?) I recommend the books “How the Irish Saved Civilization” by Thomas Cahill and “How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization” by Thomas E Woods.

When the industrial revolution came, many ways of life abruptly vanished, and people caught in the middle were thrown into desperate poverty (Charles Dickens did a lot to raise awareness of this). I know some heroic Christians moved in to help, but perhaps we can learn to do better.

We seem to be on the cusp of the Artificial Intelligence revolution, and that could do the same thing. It looks like it will be at least as radical as the industrial revolution. How will Christians be called to respond to people who are caught in the middle of this? Matthew 25 describes a little chit chat that Jesus is going to have with each one of us about how we respond to His call. Being aware of that, what should be our focus now?

Blessings,

Fr. Jim

St. John Lateran and the Body of Christ

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Dear Folks,

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. John Lateran. You may be asking why the Catholic Church is making such whoop-de-do about the dedication of some old church building? I’m glad you asked.

First, we remember that the church building is a symbol of the real Church, who is us.

St. John Lateran is the cathedral of the Catholic Church. The word “cathedral” is from the Greek for “Cathedra” meaning “chair” Jesus said in Matthew 23:2-3 that the scribes and Pharisees sat in the chair of Moses, so their authority should be respected, even though their conduct was abominable. (If you know your history, you know that Catholics have had a good deal of opportunity to apply this teaching through the years).

Some people have said that they believe in Jesus but not the Church. This leads me to wonder where they get their Jesus, because it can’t be from the Bible. In the Gospels Jesus begins by calling people together, and He says that He will build His Church (Matthew 16:18) and expected that the Church would be there to help keep us working together.

The Scriptures compare the Church to a body (1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, and Ephesians 1:22-23 and Ephesians 4:11-16), and to a temple (Ephesians 2:19-22 and 1 Peter 2:4-5).

I find the image of the body especially interesting. The various parts are very different, but have compatible genetic structure, and if my rudimentary biology is correct, they agree on certain antigen proteins so they recognize each other as belonging. This can break down when there is an autoimmune disease that causes the body to attack itself. 1 Corinthians 1:10-16 talks about factions in the early Church, and how dangerous that was. Some say diversity is our strength, and others say that unity is our strength. I say they are both half right. Having diverse points of view, styles of thinking, and backgrounds but being united in purpose and agreeing on essential teachings while cooperat-

ing with each other under the guidance of leadership makes us strong. I have put a lot of energy into teaching and encouraging people to deal with their differences in a charitable

and productive way, and I think it is one of the most important tasks for this generation of the Church.

I believe God calls us to be Church so that we are forced to deal with each other. We have to deal with other people’s ideas, concerns, needs, and perspectives. This draws us beyond ourselves and demands giving of ourselves in a deep way. It also means a lot of times things won’t be done the way we want or the way we think they should be. That is part of the cost of discipleship.

Let us pray that we may work together so that we can be strong against our common enemy (Ephesians 6:10-17).

Blessings,

Fr. Jim

Helping Those in Need Part II

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Dear Folks,

There is serious concern that many things that are meant to help the poor are actually keeping them trapped in poverty. I’ve been told that these are hard to change because many people make money helping the poor to stay poor.

The books “Toxic Charity” by Robert D. Lupton and “When Helping Hurts” by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert and the documentaries at Povertycure.org and Povertyinc.org can shed some light on the disparity between good intentions and good results.

In the Greenville and Belding area we have programs that are worth looking at. IM Kids Third Meal makes portable meals for children in food insecure situations to have something

to eat in the evening. I’m not an educator, but even I know that children go through different stages of development, including their brains, at certain ages, and if they don’t have adequate nutrition during those times that development does not happen and can’t be made up for later.

Children must never go unfed. Some will say that the parents should be doing this and I agree, but I don’t know all their situations, and I’m not sure how to make it happen. One thing I’m not willing to do is let children go unfed to incentivize the parents to solve the problem.

Have Mercy helps the homeless to look for work and to find a stable home. They celebrate every time someone “graduates.”

Alpha Family Center and the Walking with Moms in Need ministry help families during pregnancy and when their children are little. This is a pivotal and especially vulnerable time for them, and so what they do is valuable beyond imagining.

Habitat for Humanity engages people and gives an assist as they work to better their own situation. It is known to make a lasting and profound difference in people’s lives, so they can move from squalor to flourishing.

Many churches have food pantries and make meals for people in the community, and these can help people through difficult times (eating has become an expensive hobby).

All these and other programs could use support, including financial and volunteers. Might God be calling us to reexamine how we could participate?

For us to answer this challenge, we the Church must grow stronger and sharpen our focus on caring for those in need. The more we do that, the more people may believe the Gospel that we preach with our words. We cannot do it by our own power, of course. Without God’s grace we are helpless; with God’s grace nothing is impossible. If we want a better world, thefirst step is falling more deeply in love with Jesus.

Blessings,

Fr. Jim