Archive for October 16th, 2022

The Lord is With Us

October 16, 2022

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Fr. Chinnappan Pelavendran

Prayer is our means of communication with God and it is the means to experience our closeness to him. At the same time, prayer is personal because it comes from our heart. It is a means to express our feelings and emotions, placing them before God. It is also a way to show our faith in God in whom we believe. We place ourselves humbly before our Lord and totally submit ourselves to him.

Today’s first reading from the book of Exodus tells us that Amalek fought with Israel at Rephidim; why? The previous verse leaves the open question, ‘Is the Lord with us or not?’ (Exodus 17: 7) I think the war answers that question. God will be with Israel and give them victory. Israel will see the hand of God at work during the prayer of Moses. Moses sent Joshua to fight with Amalek while he, accompanied by Aaron and Hur, stood on the top of the hill with the staff in his hand. As long as Moses kept his hands up, Israel was victorious. When he lowered his hands, Amalek was victorious. When Moses became tired of keeping his hands up in the air, Aaron and Hur put a stone under Moses so he could sit on it. Then they went on each of his sides, each one holding Moses’ hands up until the sunset. Finally, Joshua defeated Amalek because Moses was able to keep his hands up raised in prayer.

Today’s second reading from St. Paul reminds us of the importance of the scriptures in our Christian journey of faith. As an inspired word of God, the scriptures must be the guiding principle of our daily lives. If we remain faithful to God in continuous prayer, God will come to our assistance.

In the Gospel account, Jesus explains the importance of continuous prayer. He told his disciples a parable about the need to pray continually without becoming weary. The Gospel tells us not to be discouraged if we do not receive an immediate response to our prayers.

This particular judge, Jesus says, was a “dishonest” person who cared for no one, neither God nor man. The widow, on the other hand, was a helpless person looking for justice with regard to her own property. God is her only protector. She has one powerful weapon which is prayer. Her persistence takes away the judge’s peace. Finally, the unjust judge is forced to give judgment.

The judge in the parable does not represent God. The judge is unjust and doesn’t care about what this widow needs. Jesus tells this parable to his disciples to help them to understand that if this judge who is unjust finally listens to the woman’s request and grants her justice, how much more will a loving and just God answer the petitions of his own children who cry out for help.

Life has its ups and downs. When we are down, especially as we prepare for cold, wintry weather, it doesn’t mean we should become weary. It means it is time to come closer to our Father in heaven and to trust Him even more. We often hear the words that there is a reason for everything. Even in our darkest moments, God will come to redeem us and to let us see His glory. How true it is that those who leave everything in God’s hand will eventually see God’s hand in everything.

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Death is not the End — Funeral Homily for Robert “Bob” Sarauer, 84

October 16, 2022

By Fr. Chinnappan Pelavendran

Robert “Bob” P. Sarauer’s death is not the end. We can still be united with him. We are gathered here around the table of Eucharist, around Jesus, and Bob too is gathered around the Lord. He is now closer to the Lord, enjoying a closer union with the Lord which we also hope to share in the future.

We have heard in the first reading the souls of the just are in the hands of God. What better place could we go after death than into the hands of God? What a beautiful way to describe God’s care for us. Do you remember when you were small and your parents took you up in their arms? You were in the arms of your parents. When we die, God takes us up in his hands. We are in the hands of God. We believe that God has taken Bob up into his hands.

The readings end beautifully, expressing the faith of someone who believes in God’s goodness and who therefore is not afraid to die.

They who trust in him will understand the truth,
those who are faithful will live with him in love.
For grace and mercy await those he has chosen.
(Wisdom 3:9)

Those who trust in him will understand the truth. Those who are faithful will live with him in love. When we die, we go to God’s love.

Robert “Bob” P. Sarauer, 84, passed away on Monday, October 10th, 2022, at his home surrounded by his loving wife Marlene, and family members. He was born September 2nd, 1938, in the Town of Cooks Valley and graduated from Bloomer High School in 1956. On September 8th, 1959, he married Marlene Bowe at St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Tilden.

Bob was a kind and gentle man who was loved by all, he loved spending time with family and friends. He always thanked everyone and had a big smile that everyone will remember. Bob enjoyed playing cards and getting together with his former classmates. He loved to travel whenever he could, especially the Alaska trip and all his hunting trips, and was a lover of the Packers football team.

Bob was a farmer all his life and liked milking cows, raising pigs, and cutting wood. In the year 2000, he sold the farm to his son and continued helping with farm work until his health slowed him down. He was survived by his loving wife Marlene for sixty-three years, had three children, four grandchildren, six step-grandchildren, one great-grandchild, and ten step-great-grandchildren.

So we ask God to take Bob up in his arms, to pour his love, grace, and mercy upon him.

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Hands Lifted up to Heaven

October 16, 2022

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Fr. Victor Feltes

After God’s people, the descendants of Israel, crossed the Red Sea in the Exodus, an army of Amalekites came to battle them in the Sinai desert. So Moses instructed his servant Joshua: “Pick out certain men, and tomorrow go out and engage Amalek in battle. I will be standing on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.” The next day, while Joshua led Israel’s soldiers in fighting the foe on the battlefield, Moses stood upon an adjacent hill along with Aaron and Hur.

“As long as Moses kept his hands raised up, Israel had the better of the fight, but when he let his hands rest, Amalek had the better of the fight.” Moses wielding this staff at God’s command triggered the plagues in Egypt, parted the Red Sea, and now brought Israel’s victory on the battlefield. But this raises a reasonable question: why would God condition his people’s success in combat upon an old man holding a piece of wood above his head? Moses lifting up this staff of God was a sign for God’s people which preserved them from a spiritual disaster.

God knew that if Israel had won apart from this sign they would have ascribed the victory to themselves. “We won this battle because we’re so smart, and strong, and brave! Maybe we don’t need God’s help after all.” Such pride in their success could be their downfall, in this life and the next. So instead, through the sign of an up-lifted staff, the Lord showed Israel, “I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains [with] me and I [with] him will bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.”

Similarly today, our Lord desires us to pray without ceasing for the good things we want or need. Otherwise, if and when his blessings come, we shall attribute these things to mere luck, coincidence, or to our own personal abilities, with no growth in our relationship with God. He is the source from whom all good things come. By asking and then receiving, we come to see and know the Lord is near and cares for us. And in the end, that is the most valuable gift of all.

God not only wants us to know and to love him, he desires us to glorify us as well. God is all-powerful, omnipotent, he could do everything without us. But by God accomplishing his will through us, as he did with Moses, the Lord makes us more like himself and causes us to share in his glory.

Holding the staff of God in his hands throughout the day made Moses’ hands and arms grow tired. (If you cannot understand why, try holding an object above your head for just ten minutes sometime.) When Moses’ body grew tired, his friends came to his aide. “They put a rock in place for him to sit on. … Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side and one on the other, [one on his right and the other on his left,] so that his hands remained steady till sunset.” With this help from his friends, Moses kept his arms raised-up and God’s people prevailed against their foe. All of this was a foreshadowing of greater things to come.

On Good Friday, when Jesus was condemned to death, he took the cross into his hands and carried it to the top of a hill. There his hands were nailed to the wood above his head. And Jesus was not there alone. All four Gospels note he was crucified between two others, “one on his right and the other on his left.”

Our Lord was mocked as he hung for hours upon the Cross: “Are you not the Messiah? … If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” But in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus had said, “Do you think that I cannot call upon my Father and he will not provide me at this moment with more than twelve legions of angels? But then how would the Scriptures be fulfilled…?” Christ had the power to come down from the Cross, but if he had done that—if Jesus had released his hands from the wood—if he had refused to die for us, how would we have been saved from our enemies, sin and death?

Love kept Jesus on his Cross: love for his friends gathered nearby. love for the criminals on his right and left, and love for you and me. Consider what a precious consolation it was for Jesus in his suffering to have his Mother Mary, John the Beloved, and Mary Magdalene there supporting him. “But,” Jesus asks, “when the Son of Man comes [again], will he find faith on earth?” Will Jesus return to a world where everyone imagines they can get along just fine without him?

Let us continue being God’s humble people, recognizing our dependence on him. Let us ask of him our wants and needs so that we can know and experience his blessings. Then we shall share his deeper friendship and share in his great works, increasing in his likeness and increasing in his glory. By relying on God and the holy friends and loved ones his providence places near to help us, we shall share in our Lord’s great victory.

Posted in Exodus, Homily, Jesus Christ, Moses, Passion, Prayer, Second Coming, Sunday Homilies, Typology | 2 Comments »