Dear Beloved Parishioners,
Turkey # 1 is in the history books and off to be a part of the SAJE thanksgiving meals… Turkey #2 (for my family’s celebration on Wednesday) goes into the oven asap after the 6:30 Mass tomorrow morning. It makes my stomach happy to think about the upcoming feast. And as good as the food might be, I am more looking forward to the connecting in person with my siblings. Thanksgiving will mark the 4th time in person since the pandemic began. (a LOT of Zoom meetings, though…) Prayers that all your celebrations will be blessed and that your travels will be easy and safe.
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So, there are a lot of ‘commercials’, for lack of a better word – as groups are asking to get the word out. In no particular order – here ya go:
Enjoy a Big Cinn for Christmas
Once again this year, our Cub Scouts are selling Big Cinns from Chris’ Cakes. Please support Pack 116 since we cannot hold our annual pancake breakfast due to the pandemic.
Prices start at $12.99. Flavors include regular, chocolate chip, apple pie, and bacon. If you don’t want a Big Cinn, you can also donate “dough”!
Orders must be placed by Sunday December 12. Big Cinns will be available for drive through pick up at St. Justin on the morning of Sunday December 19.
Visit SJMScouts.org for more information and to place your order or make your donation. Our Cub Scouts thank you for your support of our program.
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From our Celebration of Blessing Committee:
So, as much as I had hoped to insert a flyer with the raffle information on winning a Peloton at our upcoming celebration of Blessings here, the software is being wonky tonight, and refuses to cooperate. So, suffice it to say -you have a chance of winning a Peloton and helping a great cause all in one. MORE INFORMATION TO FOLLOW…
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Poinsettias for Polet…is back again this year – to help the family with their medical bills. Go to
https://membership.faithdirect.net/events/org/884/7799 for more information.
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A Reminder – Mass on Thanksgiving Day will be at 9:00am.
Here is the Worship Aid..
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Just a head’s up for the upcoming Holiday and Holy Day Masses.
Dec. 8th, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception IS a Holy Day of OBLIGATION. We will have Masses at 6:30 and 8:00 am, and 7pm. that Wednesday…
Christmas Falls on a Saturday this year, which shortens the Feasts of the Holy Family and Epiphany to a Sunday only affair. (unless somebody wants to find a priest and musicians to conduct Masses on Christmas day and New Year’s day in the evening…) You will see this schedule numerous times, but here ya go…
Christmas Eve, Friday, December 24 5 pm & Midnight
Christmas Day, Saturday, December 25 9 am and 11 am
Feast of the Holy Family, Sunday, December 26 7:30, 9:00 and 11:00am.
The Feast of Mary, the Mother of God:
Saturday, January 1 -9:00am (a Holy Day, but not of Obligation)
The Feast of the Epiphany;
Sunday, January 2 7:30, 9:00 and 11:00am.
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THE DEEPER DIVE into Sunday’s Scripture, (a few days late – I was hoping to get this out on Sunday night, but obviously, that did NOT happen. It comes to us from the Estate of Fr. Roger Karban.
Did the historical Jesus conceive of Himself as a king? Though the Roman authorities nailed that insurrectionist title on His cross, there’s no reason to believe He ever accepted it.
Each of us has an image of who we are, a way of seeing ourselves in the world in which we live. Yet, at the same time, every person who encounters us during our lifetime also has an image of us — an image often at right angles to our own.
I presume the itinerant preacher from Capernaum was no different. Like last week’s quest about the historical Jesus’ concept of God’s kingdom, though we know little about the image He had of Himself during his earthly ministry, we can be fairly certain of the various images His first-century followers had of Him. They’re well portrayed in this Sunday’s Scriptures.
The author of Revelation (1:5-8), for instance, provides us with a bunch of them in our second reading. For him, the risen Jesus is “the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and ruler of the kings of the earth.” He’s also “the Alpha and the Omega…the one who is and who was and who is to come, the almighty.”
All for all
In other words, He’s everything for everybody, the very beginning and end of the universe.
The early Church would frequently go through the Hebrew Scriptures, searching for images they could attach to the risen Jesus. Sunday’s Daniel (7:13-14) passage provides the classic “Son of Man” depiction.
Though the Gospel Jesus often uses that title about Himself, no one can be certain how He means it. Is He implying that He’s the mysterious, semi-divine person whom Daniel saw “coming on the clouds of heaven;” a person who would receive “dominion, glory and kingship?” Or could he be referring to Yahweh’s use of the term in addressing the prophet Ezekiel – a title which implied, “I’m God, and you’re not?” In other words, “I, Jesus, am just a human being like you are.” The same term can conjure up opposite images.
Yet, Sunday’s image of Jesus as king would certainly have created problems for both the historical Jesus and His first followers. Living in the Roman Empire, they were expected, under threats of “treason,” to have just one king: Caesar.
Not a king
That seems to be why, whenever the “king thing” comes up in the Gospels, Jesus either rejects the title, or, as in Sunday’s Johannine passage (John 18:33b-37), stresses that He’s not a king in the way the word is normally defined: “My kingdom does not belong to this world.”
No matter what, Jesus never seems to have imagined Himself as belonging to royalty. On the contrary, our evangelists, especially Mark, seem to have given titles to Jesus which their readers could make their own. Go back several weekends to the Mark 10 narrative in which Jesus refers to Himself as the “servant” and “slave” of all – a person who “did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” He certainly never had an image of Himself as someone who would ever “lord it over” anyone.
Though, through the centuries, many Christian leaders thought of themselves as representatives of royalty, the majority of the faithful thankfully regarded themselves as mirroring the servant image Jesus had of Himself. If they hadn’t, the faith this Galilean carpenter professed and shared would never have had any effect in changing the world.
The best image we can form of ourselves always revolves around how we want to carry on Jesus’ ministry.
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And finally, a little ‘kingly music’ from the St. Louis Jesuits: Jesus, the Lord. (and if you were at the 7:30 Mass this weekend, you would have heard Pete Laucis do an amazing riff on this song…)
Blessings,
Fr Bill