Category: Feasts

Something vs. SomeONE

On By Fr. David NeuschwanderIn Easter Season, Feasts

Easter Sunday

Our faith is not primarily a set of rules and obligations, nor is it a moral code.  Our faith is not a collection of beliefs for a good life or that help us merit heaven.  Our faith is in a person – Jesus Christ! – and the relationship He offers to us!  Without that relationship, all we’re left with is a bunch of rules and obligations that don’t seem to connect or make sense.  In light of that relationship, everything begins to fall into place and make perfect sense because it’s all in light of growing in a relationship with Him!  God is relationship (Father, Son and Holy Spirit), and God in Jesus Christ invites us into this relationship.  So how do you see our faith?  How do you experience the expectations of our faith?  Do you see it as about something or some things…or do you see it as about SomeONE?!

Our Baptism

On By Fr. David NeuschwanderIn Christmas Season, Feasts

The Baptism of the Lord

Today Jesus is baptized, not to be washed by the water but to wash the water; not to be cleansed by the waters but to cleanse the waters.  Today Jesus isn’t baptized by water – water is baptized by Jesus.  So when we go down into the water in baptism, we no longer just get wet, we get Jesus Christ!  At our baptism we were set free from the hold of sin, worry and anxiety in our life, brought into God’s family, and given the power of the Holy Spirit to live this new life in God.  The challenge this week: how are we doing?  How are we living out the graces of our baptism?  Have we in some ways forgotten the power and strength God gave us on our baptism day and settled for a less than full and vibrant life of faith?  This week, let’s ask for a renewal of that strength of our baptism!

Love & Family

On By Fr. David NeuschwanderIn Christmas Season, Feasts

Feast of the Holy Family

Jesus not only came as a baby at Christmas, He also entered into a human family – with all the joys and frustrations that go with it.  We are challenged in all relationships, but especially in the family, to put the wants and needs of others before our own, to stretch our hearts, to learn how to love more, to sacrifice for each other.  Our readings today all challenge us to put others first, “Children, obey your parents in everything…Wives, be subordinate to your husbands…Husbands, love your wives.”  Jesus loved us, and so He subordinated Himself to our needs, even to the point of death.  We can practice this kind of love every day, especially in the family!

Our Lady of Guadalupe

On By Fr. David NeuschwanderIn Advent, Feasts

3rd Sunday of Advent

People started following and listening to Jesus in large part because of the signs that accompanied his message – the miracles he was performing. December 12th was the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  In 1531 Mary appeared to an Aztec peasant named Juan Diego asking that a Church be built on the spot.  Accompanying these apparitions were three miracles – the miracle of the roses, the miracle of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe appearing on Juan Diego’s cloak/tilma (which can still be seen today in Mexico and which defies all modern explanation), and the miracle of over 9 million people converting to Christianity in a matter of years and following Christ because of this apparition and image.  In our Gospel today John the Baptist is preparing the way for our Lord.  Mary has prepared the way for our Lord Jesus in so many ways, both through her life on this earth and her continued apparitions to God’s children. Inspired by the miracles that God has done, let’s ask God to continue to work miracles in our lives and in this world, that we may follow Him with more conviction and that others may be opened to hearing the message of Jesus Christ!

Kingdom Citizens

On By Fr. David NeuschwanderIn Feasts, Ordinary Time

Feast of Christ the King

We’ve been so concerned recently with who’s going to be our president, have we stopped to ask ourselves how concerned we’ve been with Who’s going to be our King?  This weekend, as we near the end of our liturgical year, we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King as we we look ahead to the end of time – when Jesus Christ will come in glory to rule all of creation forever.  If politics can get us passionate and worked up about a man who will run our country for a handful of years and then go into the history books, then our faith and relationship with Jesus Christ should inspire us to incredible passion for sharing Who is going to be our King for all eternity!  As citizens of God’s kingdom, we’re not called only to live personally as disciples of Jesus Christ, but we’re also expected to reach out call others to join this incredible kingdom.  How do we do that?  Start listening to find out!

The Day It Hit Me

On By Fr. David NeuschwanderIn Feasts

Corpus Christi

As a freshman in high school I remember the day it hit me: that Jesus is physically present in the Eucharist!  How many times had I heard that in religion class or at Church?  And yet it seemed to always go in one ear and out the other.  But this particular day it finally hit me – what looks like bread and what looks like wine is actually changed entirely into Jesus!  If the Eucharist is a nice symbol of Jesus…so what?  There are lots of nice symbols of Jesus in our world.  But if the Eucharist IS Jesus Christ…then that changes everything!  That was the start of my reconversion to the faith, and that was the start of my call to the priesthood.  So what does it mean for you that Jesus is physically present in the Eucharist (vs. symbolically present)?  What difference does that make in your life?  For me it’s made all the difference!

The Ascension is Still Happening!

On By Fr. David NeuschwanderIn Easter Season, Feasts

Ascension Sunday

This weekend we celebrate Jesus’ Ascension into heaven – that after rising from the dead and appearing to His disciples for a number of days, Jesus ascends to heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father.  The ascension is not just a one-and-done event of history, though: creation is called to follow where its Master has gone before.  The ascension is still happening – heaven is waiting for it to be complete in three distinct ways!  Can you name them?

Purified to Maturity

On By Fr. David NeuschwanderIn Feasts, Ordinary Time

The Feast of the Presentation of the Lord

Our first reading today foretells the coming of the Lord to the Temple, fulfilled in our Gospel when Mary and Joseph bring the baby Jesus to the Temple, according to Jewish custom, to present him to the Lord.  But this Lord, says our first reading, comes to purify, like a refiner’s insanely hot fire or a fuller’s chemically harsh lye…and in both examples we are the thing that is being purified.  God, like a good parent, wants to raise His children to be strong, mature, able, loving adults.  The process is not magic, nor is it easy, nor can our Parent do it for us – it involves our own growth and maturation through the process of accepting the challenges and purification our Father offers.  This week, instead of running from that purification or making excuses like, “It’s just the way I am,” how will we lean into God’s purification and mature into the adult He knows we can be?

Subordination & Love

On By Fr. David NeuschwanderIn Feasts

Feast of the Holy Family

Jesus not only came as a baby at Christmas, He also entered into a human family – with all the joys and frustrations that go with it.  We are challenged in all relationships, but especially in the family, to put the wants and needs of others before our own, to stretch our hearts, to learn how to love more, to sacrifice for each other.  Our readings today all challenge us to put others first, “Children, obey your parents in everything…Wives, be subordinate to your husbands…Husbands, love your wives.”  Jesus loved us, and so He subordinated Himself to our needs, even to the point of death.  We can practice this kind of love every day, especially in the family!

Thy Kingdom Come

On By Fr. David NeuschwanderIn Feasts, Ordinary Time

Solemnity of Christ the King

As Americans we are naturally weary of anything having to do with a “king”, we also don’t like the word “authority” all that much – it was the abuse of power by some oppressive authority, even some kings, that brought many of our ancestors to America in the first place.  Scripture, however, has no problem with the idea of a king or authority; in fact, Scripture makes it very clear that all authority has been given to Jesus Christ, that Jesus came to this earth to bring a kingdom, and that He is the King of that kingdom!  As Christians we proclaim that we are followers first and foremost of Christ, our true King, and that we are committed to bringing His kingdom more fully onto this earth.  His kingdom started in us at our baptism and is meant to grow in us throughout our lives.  Can you invite Jesus to reign in your heart for a little bit longer each day this week?  Think, if we each did that for a few more minutes every day, how much more of a reality the words we pray in the Our Father would become – thy kingdom come!