St. John the Baptist Catholic Church

Friends,

We do not give out new calendars, but today we begin our new church year. I am amazed at how time flies and we are forever starting over. The church gives us these four Sundays of Advent to prepare for the birth of our Lord and Savior on Christmas Day. We Christians are in competition with the hustle and bustle of buying gifts, decorating our homes, putting up a Christmas tree and hopefully a crib with the figures of the Holy Family, the shepherds, the angels, the animals and, of course, the star.

The important thing for us a Catholic Christians is to keep Christ in Christmas. Music is an important way to set a scene and mood. There are hundreds of sacred songs that lift our minds and hearts to Jesus, the reason for the season. We will be inundated with songs like “Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer” and all sorts of secular songs. These are good, but we really need to balance our music with sacred hymns. Decorating our home in a festive manner helps lift our spirits to the loving and gracious God who makes Christmas possible.

At this time of plenty, we remember those who do not have plenty. I was very proud of the wonderful and generous response to the Stewardship Committee’s appeal for warm blankets and coats for our GRIP shelter. I am very proud of your sharing and caring. These are little things, but they mean a lot.

We will decorate our church with lots of flowers and plants. Our choirs are already practicing their Christmas hymns to set the tone for our worship of the Christ Child.
We want to make this Advent and Christmas season a deeply religious celebration of our Faith. We do not need Santa Claus. The Baby Jesus is sufficient for us.

Peace on earth,
Fr. John Maxwell

Friends,

How time flies. … This weekend is the end of our liturgical year. Next Sunday, we will celebrate Advent and prepare for the birth of Jesus and a new beginning of life and a new cycle of the church year. . . .

However, on this last Sunday, the church wants us to remember our personal judgment. We really do not like to think about our judgment, but it is a reality that we cannot escape. It is similar to a student taking a college course and at the end of the semester, the student must take an examination to test what the student has learned in that semester. When we die, we will have our personal judgment, or exam, and the Lord will ask us how we lived our life. The Gospel today gives us a hint abut the questions that will be asked of us. Did you feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and those in prison. … In other words, how did we care for the poor? There will be no excuses because God will have everything written in our Book of Life. This is a salutary reflection for us at the end of this church year.  We are still alive and we still have time to make a better show of our love for the poor. Think about it!!!

This Thursday, Nov. 27, is Thanksgiving Day. Even though this is not a “holy day,” I encourage you to put God first and make this day sacred and a day of thanks to God for all of the blessings that God has given to us and to our family. We will have a Mass at 8 a.m. and a second Mass at 10 a.m. God has truly blessed us. Let us use Nov. 27 as a real day of thanks to God.

Peace,

Fr. John Maxwell

Friends,

The Gospel today recounts the parable of Jesus about being good stewards.  It is a marvelous story of how God blesses us with time, talents and treasure.  God generously gives us everything that we need and much, much more besides.  The challenge is this: how do we use the lavish gifts that God gives us?  I believe the Gospel gives us the answer.  God blesses us with plenty, and God expects us to use this plenty for others.  In the Gospel, the two good stewards doubled the money that the master gave them.  The lazy steward simply returned the talent unused.

I believe that we should examine ourselves very carefully about how we return our blessings to the Lord.  One very simple way is to evaluate how much we give to our church each week.  There are several aids to assist us.  A goodly number of us use envelopes, and we give back to God a tithe of our money in a weekly offering envelope.  This envelope is a weekly reminder of giving a portion of our blessings back to God and his church.  Some of us use the EFT – Electronic Fund Transfer.  This is my favorite.  I determine how much I want to give back to God and to my church, I fill out a form, and that amount is deducted each week from my bank account.  It is simple and relatively painless.  The important point is that we should sit down and review our budget and then make a conscious effort to give back to God what God has given to us.  Just dropping a one-dollar bill in the collection is really not hearing this Gospel about being a good steward.  We are just cheating God and cheating ourselves.

Peace,

Fr. John Maxwell

Friends,

This weekend, Fr. Hugo will lead us in a reflection about the poor in Haiti. He has recently returned from his first visit to this poorest nation of the Western Hemisphere. Haiti was devastated by four hurricanes this year. This complicated the lives of average Haitians with damage to homes and roads due to flooding.Many crops were destroyed. There are severe food shortages in a country that was very poor to start with.Our Sister Parish in Fond Tortue is in the mountains and is virtually inaccessible. However, the Haitian people are still hopeful in these dire straits. The Little Sisters of St. Therese are still working among the poorest of the poor. Sr. Denise is back at work; Sr. Bernadette is the Superior General and Sr. Jeanne is the Community Secretary.

Our Sister Parish Committee is chaired by Pat Tilley, and we still support 40 teachers, a clinic and the church. We deeply appreciate whatever you can do to help us help our Haitian sisters and brothers. I personally commend you for your on-going love for these very poor folks in Haiti.

Peace,

Fr. John Maxwell

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Friends,

We have a double-hitter this weekend.  On Saturday, we celebrate All Saints Day as we remember those thousands of men and women and children who have been declared official “Saints” by the Catholic Church.  At the same time, we remember all those holy women and men who are not official Saints but who lived holy lives and are surely in heaven with Jesus. Read the rest of this entry →