Dear friends,
                                                                  Faith Seeks Understanding
 
By the time you pick up this hard copy of the bulletin to read this Saturday/Sunday, fifteen of our parish youths must have received the Sacrament of Confirmation. They must have heard a version of my homily for the seventeenth Sunday of the ordinary time. The topic of my homily at confirmation this Saturday morning is the gifts of the Holy Spirit with emphasis on understanding, knowledge and wisdom. I made a case for the necessity of these gifts to the confirmandi. They will need them as they embark on lifelong efforts to make sense of the mystery of the Kingdom of God, the mystery of faith.
I told them they would have a lot of questions regarding the faith they have embraced totally in freedom. They would sometimes have doubts about God and the Church along the way, and they would ask pertinent and intelligent questions about the experience of evil and struggle with sin. But I made it clear to them that the Bible, Catholic Tradition and the Magisterium of the Church are a sure guarantee that our Catholic faith is a gift and a reasonable way to navigate the questions regarding mysteries of life. There will be questions, but the Holy Spirit will strengthen them in the moments of weakness and enlighten them when they are in the dark. The spiritual gifts of understanding, knowledge and wisdom are vital to responding meaningfully to questions related to Christian faith; ours is a faith seeking understanding.
The 11th-century Christian philosopher and theologian, St. Anselm of Canterbury taught us the principle of strengthening our faith by continually seeking a more profound knowledge of God who loves us. He penned the famous quote, "fides quaerens intellectum/faith seeking understanding". The gifts of the Holy Spirit would help us respond to questions about the kingdom of heaven, questions about Christian faith; it will help us make sense of the vicissitudes of life and answer the question of what is morally right or wrong. Just like Solomon, let us ask God for the gift of wisdom and understanding so that we "may know what is right" and what his commandments mean (1 Kg 3:10; Ps.119:130). Gifts of wisdom, knowledge and understanding help us to see and accept the gift of faith as a path to eternal happiness and the willingness to give up all other life-pursuits to have this "pearl of great price" ( Mathew 13:46).
Join me in congratulating and praying for our parish's newly confirmed boys and girls who received these gifts of the Holy Spirit to strengthen them to bear witness boldly to the kingdom of heaven, the greatest treasure they would ever possess. May the Holy Spirit always lead and guide you: Bailey Elizabeth, Maximilian Patrick, Trevor Adjutor, Gillia Cosmos, Emma Cecilia, Annabelle Cecilia, Reagan Elizabeth, Liana Cecilia, Mason Michael, Morgan Dymphna, Samuel Bernard, Rose Agnes, Joseph Sebastian, Mary Therese, Gabriel Blaise and Kendall Mary.
 In Christ,                          
Fr. Bernard Oniwe, OP
 

Dear friends in Christ,
                                                          The Church of Weed and Wheat
 
Using a series of parables, Jesus speaks about the kingdom of heaven in this Sunday's Gospel according to Matthew. What is the kingdom of heaven? It is called the kingdom of God in Mark and Luke; it is the same thing as the kingdom of heaven. In simple terms, it means the reign of God. We can get an understanding of the kingdom of heaven by referring to the parallelism that Jesus used in describing it in the prayer he taught his disciples: "…thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."  The kingdom of heaven is where God's will is done, where God rules or reigns. That is what the Church, the assembly of Christians should be, people among whom God's will reigns supreme. But this is not always the case. As the first of the parables illustrates, the Church, as we know it, is made up of the wheat and the weed, the good and evil ones. The two are intertwined to the extent that we don't usually recognize the presence of the good, the reign of God in the Church and the world.
Is it possible then to see a visible presence of God in the Church despite the mixing of evil with good?  Yes, if we look deeply. Like the mustard seed and the yeast mentioned in the other two short parables, there is a hidden and quiet presence and growth of good seed in the Church and human world often exposed for its scandals, hypocrisy, greed, lies, falsehood, racism, hate and other sins. Think of the presence and growth of the good seed in terms of the excellence and budding faith in the children of our parish. This week, I concelebrated the 8th-grade graduation Mass at Seven Sorrows, Middletown, and had the honor of presenting awards to deserving children from our church: Mary Bolesky, Joseph  Barb, Benjamin Heckman and Brynne McDevitt. Thanks to the Men's Club for sponsoring a scholarship given to our children at Seven Sorrows who continue on to Catholic High Schools. On Tuesday and Wednesday, I concelebrated baccalaureate Mass and attended graduation at Lancaster Catholic High School, respectively. Our children again distinguished themselves by their excellent performance. I congratulate Hope, Nicholas, Jillian, Gabrielle, Kathryn, Aaron, Zygmunt, Tyla and Ian.  God is generous in spreading the good seeds in our parish by giving the body of his Son, Jesus Christ, the Holy Eucharist, to Celia, Gabriella, Helen, Kate, Sophia, Alyssa, Ella, Kara, Gage, Aubrey, Malina, Juliana, Nora and Arria. It was a privilege to give them their first Holy Communion. These are some of the good seeds growing in our imperfect Church and world.
Indeed, the kingdom of God, the Church that exists in the human world, is a mixed collection of saints and sinners, and it will remain that way until judgment time. God is the ultimate judge. We are called to respond to all the evil present within the Church with patience, tolerance, forbearance, and Spirit-led prayers of intercession (Romans 8:26 ).  That is not to say we should resign ourselves to passive indifference to the presence of evil, to assume nothing can be done. We must still strive to keep evil at bay even if we cannot completely exterminate it at this age. If we don't work to tame the growth of evil, it will end up choking the good. Yes, we have to resist the growth of evil, but we are not to sit in judgment over others, that is to be left to God, the ultimate judgment at the end of time, we surrender that role to God who will "judge with clemency" and govern with "much leniency" (Wisdom 12: 18).
 
In Christ, the Merciful Judge,
 
Fr. Bernard Oniwe, OP
 

                                                                         When Words Work

          As a preacher of the word of God, I sometimes wonder if the Sacred Word I proclaim every day from the pulpit fall on good ground, that is, if they are received and responded to by those I address them to. I am always confident in the authority of the words of the Sacred Scripture. I hold it to be true that as Prophet Isaiah says, God's word shall not return to Him void but shall achieve the end for which it was sent (55:11). I have an absolute belief that the words of The kingdom that Jesus commands us to proclaim will fall on different grounds but surely will fall on good soil, on receptive ears and hearts, and ultimately yield abundant fruits. God has always been faithful to his promises. Yet, sometimes I wonder if the word of redemption I proclaim is appropriately channeled and received with clear understanding and responded to by those who hear them. Do the Words proclaimed every day from our church pulpit work? Yes, they do.
 Many factors must be in place for the generously given Word of God to work and to produce fruits. The word must be heard, understood, and appropriately acted upon. Our disposition and response must match the intent of the word, as William Shakespeare Hamlet's monologue suggests to actors' interpretation of their roles in stage plays, "Suit the action to the word, the word to the action" (Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 2). God intends that the word yield fruit. We hear the word proclaimed, we listen with understanding as much as the Holy Spirit opens our minds and hearts, and we act in response to the word, through the movement of God's grace in us. The response must match the proclamation.
 Last Sunday, I proclaimed the word of Christ concerning the burden of sin that we all carry and the need to unburden ourselves of them and so find rest for our soul by frequent reception of the Sacrament of Confession. It made my day as a preacher and pastor that some responded to God's word by making an appointment for confession. The Boleskys family is an example of a good disposition and fruitful response to the Word of Jesus that I proclaimed last Sunday. The Word indeed works! Praise God!! The Word proclaimed from the pulpit and in the Sacraments work. The word will bear fruits in "a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold," Jesus promised in the Gospel according to Matthew.
                           What is our response to the Word of God spoken to us this Sunday?
Responding to the demands of the Word will set us free, but are we willing to make the appropriate response? May the Boleskys' exemplar response to the spoken Word of Christ inspire all of us to let proper action flow from God's Word spoken to us today. 
In Christ's Healing Words,
 

Dear friends in Christ,
                                                          Jesus' Yoke Will Liberate US

We are living through a period of unrest and anxiety, not only in America but worldwide. The ongoing social upheavals and the pandemic restrictions are taking their tolls on our psyche and perspectives to life. We are all feeling the crushing weight of the crisis, some more than others. Amidst all these Hard Times, to borrow the title of Charles Dickens 19th century novel, I find comfort and solace in Jesus' words of invitation in the Gospel of this Sunday's Mass: "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest" (Mt.11:28).
Jesus, however, promises to replace the yoke and burden that oppress us with his own when we respond to his call. He offers us freedom from our overwhelming burdens by replacing them with easy yoke and light burden of his Gospel. He makes for us fitting crosses to carry and follow him. "This burden," St. Augustines says in his sermon, "is not a weight at all, it is wings to fly with." His yoke is a sweet one, and his light burden liberates us to live a truly happy life. He reveals this mystery to the little ones who see things with the humble heart of Jesus, but are hidden from the proud who are obsessed with themselves. We need the meek and gentle perspective of Jesus to find freedom from our stress and anxiety. The priest offers this prayer after the Lord's Prayer at Mass: "protect us from all anxiety (distress) as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ."
When we embrace the yoke of the New Covenant, the Gospel of Jesus, we become truly free of destructive stress and anxiety. Jesus invites us to take on his yoke and bear his burden to free us from the burden of sin and stress. St. Peter tells us to cast all our anxiety on Jesus because He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7). What are the burdens we carry? Whatever they are, "let us cast them upon the Lord," and he will sustain us (Ps. 55:22). He will give us rest.
On this Fourth of July weekend, I recall the liberating words from the preamble to the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness." These are reassuring words to hear in this time of turmoil. Our founding fathers declared independence from King Goerge III because of the burden of inequality, misrule, and exploitation; they had a list of 27 grievances to highlight the fact of their oppression and the need for freedom. We are still struggling to realize the divine ideals of equality in human dignity and rights, of God-given right to Life, Liberty and Pursuit of happiness. Could it be that we are yet to honor the invitation of the Lord of Life and Liberty, who says, "come to me, …and I will give you rest"?  St. Augustine is right when he says in his famous words, "Thou hast formed us for thyself, and our hearts are restless till they rest in thee." To find true freedom from the burden of personal and social sin, we have to accept the yoke and burden of Christ's commandments of sacrificial love; it's the only way we can find lasting rest and true freedom.                       
                                                                 Happy Independence Day!
In the Meek and Humble Jesus,
Fr. Bernard Oniwe, OP