Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran
Basilica
9 November
2014 – 11:30 am Mass
Our Lady of
Lourdes Church, West Orange, NJ
100th Anniversary / Jubilee.
100th Anniversary / Jubilee.
[__01]
To Monsignor Emery, our Vicar for the archdiocese in Essex County, my
brother priests, our religious Sisters of Charity from Convent Station and from
our convent, our team leaders of this Jubilee Celebration, we have reached this
milestone and faith, to celebrate in our own church, and in our own hearts, to
join our prayers with each other here, and also with many friends who support
Our Lady of Lourdes and join us spiritually in prayer, including both those
living and deceased.
They are also
inside with us here.
In this
Gospel reading, the people of Jerusalem are moving from the outside to the
inside of the Temple area, to worship, to offer their sacrifices.
Our Savior
interrupts – to say the least – this journey to ask …to what inner room, to
what destination were they going? To what destination are you and headed?
[__02]
The French spiritual writer Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange writes this about
the spiritual life …that as soon as a person seeks truth and goodness, this
intimate conversation [is also a] conversation with God. Little by little….,
instead of tending more or less consciously to make oneself the center, [a
person] tends to seek God in everything, and to substitute for egoism love of
God and of souls in Him. This constitutes the interior life... The one thing
necessary which Jesus spoke of to Martha and Mary consists in hearing the word
of God and living by it."[1]
“Mary hath
chosen the better part and it will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:42) She
is, at that moment, closer to the inside.
[__03]
We are the insiders to this Centennial, this Jubilee.
We have
information to protect, to guard, to share.
Everyone of
us here is part of this endeavor to tell it on the mountain – and at the base
of the mountain – both the Gospel Good News and our own traditions as a parish
family.
[__04]
Our own intelligence – our inside information – reminds us that Lourdes
was – and remains – a community called to welcome new people in our country and
our community.
We ourselves
are located geographically at a crossroads – the crossroads of [a]
- PLACE
– at Eagle Rock, Main, and Harrison where three roads converge and many
people arrive at once.
- TIME
– in which the movements – traffic
– are simultaneously slowing down and accelerating. Sometimes, in our
lives, things are both slowing down and accelerating.
- FAITH / CONFIDENCE IN GOD –
Every day, we are at a crossroads of faith and trust in God’s
strength and love.
[__05]
Even the insiders – our Savior’s inner circle of apostles and disciples
– knew this crossing, this intersection, sometimes, with their own pain and
anxiety.
[__05.02]
CONSIDER THE EXAMPLE OF …JOSEPH AND MARY, THE HOLY FAMILY OF NAZARETH –
Early in the
life of Jesus – when he was about 12 years old – Joseph and Mary discover him
missing from the family caravan departing Jerusalem. They return to search. But
they lack the awareness to go to the Temple first. Jesus himself says, in
effect,
“You are the
insiders, you have inside information, dreams with angels, inspirations from
the Holy Spirit …. And he said to them:
How is it that you sought me? did you not know, that I must be about my
father's business? “
It can be
difficult to follow and act on inside information.
[*** pause
***]
[__06.01]
In 2013 and 2014, we suffered the passing – the very sudden passing – of
two of our beloved insiders and leaders and collaborators in the vineyard of
Our Lady of Lourdes.
Deacon Ernest
Abad served our parish faithfully in many ministries of prayer, Eucharistic
Adoration, Bereavement, the liturgy and more. And, to Father Edson, to me, and
also to Monsignor Joe Petrillo, Deacon Ernest was not only an insider to the
operation of the parish, but also an insider to the needs of our community, to
the needs of his co-workers at Essex County College.
Deacon Ernie
was a faithful friend and trusted confidante to his family, to his wife Margo,
to his sisters, Marilou and Marissa, to many.
He would
speak often of listening to the Holy Spirit within each of us.
[__06.02]
Here at Lourdes, I have been blessed to serve with both Deacon Ernest
and with our late pastor, Monsignor Joe Petrillo.
Joe had a lot
of INSIDE INFORMATION, sometimes more than you wanted to know or were afraid to
ask.
But, truly,
as a priest, a brother, a friend to you, to our Sisters of Charity, to our
Lourdes staff, Father Joe was a person with whom one could share inside
information.
I also
learned from him the value of talking things out even if there was no clear
resolution or immediate solution.
And, isn’t
this disclosure of inside information what we are called to do in our families?
We do it in moments of JOY and TROUBLE…
One JOY, in a family, is to re-tell the exact
same story, with the exact same details, over again, just because there is 1
more person to be informed and 99 righteous people fully versed in all the
details. We share inside information in
the family, joyously, humorously.
Also, in
times of TROUBLE, we disclose our pain and anxiety in the family, sometimes to
ask for more inside information, more connections and guidance … but we also
ask others to keep confidences (inside) that we can build each other up first
for our missions and callings (outside).
[*** pause
***]
[__08] In the Gospel of this Sunday, our
Savior is also at a busy intersection and crossroads in the Temple area.
Some of the
folks on this sidewalk fear that he would destroy the building, destroy the
edifice of the Temple.
But Jesus is
not going to destroy the Temple building. He does not suggest that people
should stop worshipping in the Temple. He was only asking – as he asks you and
me – what are we doing with our inside spiritual knowledge – with our inside
information about the Holy Spirit.
The money
changers and merchants are criticized for their price structure and menu
options. These would seem to suggest that salvation – or faith – is for sale on
the street or online.
Jesus
accepted that a faithful Jewish person would bring a sacrifice to the Temple.
Yet, he was asking them to consider that their more important sacrifice is the
sacrifice of their own lives, their own comfort for the other.
Remove your
talent from the ground, your light from under the bushel basket.
This
completes our offering to God from whom we have also received inside
information about strength and love.
This Jubilee,
we also give thanks to our Blessed Mother, for her intercession before God, for
her yes to God’s call to allow the Son, the Word of God to dwell among us.
It is Good
News to have this inside information. Our Lady of
Lourdes Pray for Us.
[__fin]
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