Happy Twenty-Third Sunday! And a happy Labor Day as well.  For those interested in history, the federal holiday we enjoy this time of year was signed into law in 1894 by President Grover Cleveland. At that time, the late 1800s were exploding with the economic and cultural changes of the American Industrial Revolution. Our country was rapidly moving away from an agriculture and commodities export economy toward a manufacturing-based market economy, and families were moving into cities where work could be found.

A new generation of opportunities created a new generation of both blessings and challenges! Among the challenges were the ever-growing moral and legal failures surrounding worker safety, child labor, and gross disparity of wealth between capital and labor. In fact, the pope of that time, Leo XIII, wrote a groundbreaking encyclical in 1891 called “Rerum Novarum,” which applied Catholic moral doctrine to the social conditions of this newly industrializing world.

Leo insisted, among other things, that the demands of work and the economy must serve human dignity and the common good, rather than mere economic output at the cost of human dignity. Another way of stating this: work is made for the good of man, man is not made for the sake of work. The moral argument here wasn’t just a thought experiment among churchmen in Europe, it was on full political display across our country. Grover Cleveland’s passage of this annual Labor Holiday on the first Monday of September codified a growing national reckoning of conscience about the true good of work and the dignity of workers.

As for me, I know my own life can bear the marks of the same struggle of conscience. Setting the work of my temporal life into its eternal context is often humbling and eye-opening. Do I spend my time storing up treasures for this world, or storing up treasures for heaven? Heaven never makes me a slave to my daily work. But money, prestige, power, pleasure, and comfort, these things always drive a hard, merciless, servile bargain for our souls. Even as a priest, work can become an idol. “Ministry” can become a slave-master. We forget that our lives are vocations whenever we reduce our lives to functions.

So, keep it in mind today, my dear brothers and sisters. Labor Day is a worldly example of a much deeper God-given truth.  You’re a human person, not a human function. Jesus made the tree in your backyard. Go marvel at it for a while, or hey, maybe climb it. Kiss your children on the forehead. Breathe some air on purpose and think that God created those molecules for your health. Make a delicious grilled cheese with fancy cheese. Open up the Good Book and pray a psalm (try Psalm 145). Spend a day soaking in the vivid things that only people can enjoy and set aside the grayscale of worldly functions. Love your soul as God your heavenly Father loves your soul.

From Fr. Brian

Men of the parish are invited to come and enjoy growing in their spiritual walk with others. We will meet in the Knights of Columbus Hall from 6:30—7:30 on Wednesday, September 9 for our next Cor Meeting. We always have snacks and refreshments! Invite a friend or family member. We look forward to seeing you!

See what men are saying about it in the film below:

The mission of the Cor is to refocus Catholic men on Jesus Christ and to form and strengthen them in faith and virtue through a brotherhood committed to prayer, formation and fraternity.  The goal of each Cor gathering is to provide the opportunity for men to encounter Christ, to pray together, to be formed in their faith, and to strengthen their bonds of brotherhood, preparing them for courageous leadership and the mission of Evangelization for their families and communities.

One of the beautiful things about Sacred Scripture is noticing the patterns and words the authors use to draw parallels and highlight themes. For three Sundays, the 15th–17th, we heard Jesus’ parable discourse about the Kingdom of Heaven. God desires us to pay attention to His words because they directly pertain to us and ignoring them carries eternal consequences.  Jesus was clear that even though God sows the seeds of grace and faith, that does not guarantee they will grow and bear fruit:  some seeds are swept away, weeds are burned at the end of the age, and fish are thrown out rather than kept. Jesus asks us if we understand this.

St. Matthew, throughout his gospel, lays out Jesus’ five sermons and follows each one with a narrative of what Jesus did. Over these same three Sundays, we’ve heard the follow-up narratives: Jesus feeding the 5,000 men (not counting women and children), Jesus calming a storm, and Jesus curing the daughter of a Gentile (Canaanite) woman. In each case, Jesus does something so subtle that the drama of the action itself pulls our attention away from the dialogue underneath.

Let’s begin with the feeding of the 5,000. After the disciples ask Jesus to send the crowds away, He tells them, “Give them some food yourselves.” Jesus is not delusional; He understands the situation perfectly well, and yet his response is jarring. It should make us wonder: “Why respond this way? Could He not just snap His fingers and have the greatest dinner appear out of thin air?”

What about the calming of the storm? Before disciples boarded, St. Matthew says, “Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and precede him to the other side” (Mt 14:22). Why would Jesus put His disciples’ lives in peril? This was no accident; Jesus was the instigator, in complete control, searching for something.

Finally, let’s consider the interaction with the Canaanite woman. Jesus compares her to a dog – rude. Yet if we understand the covenants the Lord set up with His people in the Old Testament, we see that God has always remained faithful to His covenantal people and shown them His merciful love, which is why Jesus establishes this new and eternal covenant with His chosen people and extends it to all of us as well. This episode offers a foretaste of what is to come, when God extends His covenantal mercy to everyone made in His image and likeness.

In each of these three narratives, Jesus is searching for a response from the people He encounters. He desires more from us than mere attention — He wants us to walk with Him: to be a part of His life, His mission, His kingdom. It might seem we have little to offer the world on our own, but with Jesus, we have everything to offer. Five loaves and two fish are enough. When we don’t want to enter storms, He calms them and gives us the power to get out of the boat. When we cry out to the Lord for help, He desires that we cry out even more. The Lord does not want children with little faith but with great faith — children who understand to whom they’re speaking:  the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings, the one who can do whatever He wills. Our merciful Lord rebukes Peter, who had little faith, and exhorts the Canaanite woman — the one compared to a dog — who had great faith! May we all have great faith so that God can work through us.

The next meeting and breakfast will be held on Saturday, September 12 at the Real Life Church from 6:30—8:00 a.m. Breakfast at 7:00 p.m. All men are welcome to attend.

There will be a Euchre Tournament on Wednesday, September 16 in the Good Shepherd Knights of Columbus Hall at 6:30 pm. Cost is $5.00 per person. All levels of experience. Bring your own snacks and beverages. Pizza is available for purchase. Friends and Family welcome! 

Hope to see you there!!

*They will be held the first and third Wednesday of the month.