Gospel: This week you are encouraged to uncover your lights (please see homily below). This picture was taken Saturday evening, January 29, 2011, St. Theresa Parish Naknek.
Prayers: Please keep Pat Durbin in your prayers as he will be in Anchorage a couple weeks after recovering from a doctor’s appointment.
Around the Mission: For the first time in six years we had a missed approach into Dillingham due to strong winds. Since the wind was blowing over 30 knots to begin with, I decided not to fly our Cherokee Warrior II to King Salmon and Back. Instead I flew in a single engine Penair Saratoga (a bit larger than our Warrior II). On the way from King Salmon to Dillingham the wind was reported at 23 knots (a direct crosswind over runway 01). It would be a treacherous but doable landing for the skilled Penair pilot Jason. When we arrived at Dillingham the wind had cranked up to 38-40 knots. We were literally sideways on final approach. The severe wind made it impossible to straighten out the small Saratoga and Jason had to abort the landing. We flew all the way back to King Salmon with a 60 Knott headwind and lots of bumps (I even started to feel sick). I also had to cancel going to Clarks Point due to the wind. The weather did improve enough to do a quick practice flight to Igiugig on Wednesday.
Canon Law: I am continuing to do Canon Law Marriage Tribunal work for all three Alaskan Dioceses, Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Juneau.
Sunset Picture: Here is another picture I took from the basement of Saint Theresa in Naknek, Alaska, after our aborted landing in Dillingham.
Have a fantastic week…Fr. Scott
Homily and Readings:
5th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A Bushel Basket, Isaiah 58:7-10; 1 Corinthians 2:1-5; Matthew 5:13-16
Have you ever tried to hide your light under a bushel basket?
Here is a candle and here is a glass jar. The candle represents the light of Christ in each one of us. The jar represents a bushel basket.
When a lit candle is covered up by this pint Mason jar the fire eats up the air. The candle’s light slowly starts to dim and go out.
This candle covered up and going out is an analogy for our spiritual lives. If the light of Christ within us is covered up, the light slowly dims. Eventually spiritual death occurs.
The gospel says that if our lights are hidden, then that light must be uncovered.
There are several ways to uncover a hidden light. My Spiritual Director at Mt. Angel told me that if we don’t bring our secret sins to light, then it is really tough to get rid of them.
“Talking about our secret sins,” he says, “breaks the power that satin has over them.” In this case, the jar represents sins we do in secret. Removing the jar is the sacrament of reconciliation.
Here is a great way to give your light some oxygen: Get involved with this Church. Be a lector, be a Eucharistic minister, learn to play the piano, clean, help with our accounting, count the Sunday collection, fix things, and give money.
Partaking in the body of Christ uncovers our light. Not going to Mass every Sunday is the cover (the Jar). Taking off the cover is receiving Holy Communion.
I urge you this week to remember this demonstration. If our lights are covered they you will slowly suffocate. Figure out new ways to brighten that light that is within you. This week make an attempt to uncover your light in a big way (300 Words).
Isaiah 58:7-10
Sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; Clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own. Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your wound shall quickly be healed; Your vindication shall go before you, and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer, you shall cry for help, and he will say: Here I am! If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech; If you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; Then light shall rise for you in the darkness, and the gloom shall become for you like midday;
1 Corinthians 2:1-5
When I came to you, brothers, proclaiming the mystery of God, I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling, and my message and my proclamation were not with persuasive (words of) wisdom, but with a demonstration of spirit and power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.
Matthew 5:13-16
"You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.
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