Funeral HOMILY for Kathy Shimkaveg on January 20, 2020

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Funeral Mass for Kathy Shimkaveg

10:00am Church of the Nativity

January 20, 2020

Resilience: A Godly Virtue

By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato 

Condolences

We gather to honor Kathy Shimkaveg’s passing from this life to one of fullness and joy, and we begin by offering our heartfelt condolences to:

ØAl, Kathy’s dear husband of almost 50 years

ØTo her three sons: Brian, Mike, and Scott

ØTo her sisters: Eileen, Mary Kay, and Maureen

ØHer very dear grandchildren: Grant (14), Lilly (12), Isabell (8), Wyatt (6), Alison (5), and Olivia (2) 

We stand with you in your loss and gather to honor a loving friend and fellow parishioner here at Nativity

Give Me an Adjective!

It’s been a long haul for Kathy. Some would say she was a fighter, but those who knew her well would not agree. 

So what would be an appropriate adjective to describe her? When we gathered with her family the resounding response was “Resilient.” Kathy over the long haul was resilient.

The dictionary gives us two definitions that get us to the heart of the description. Quote: (1)  A person or animal able to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions. As in “Babies are generally far more resilient than new parents realize” or “fish are resilient to most infections.” (2) A substance or object able to recoil or spring back into shape after bending, stretching, or being compressed as in: “A shoe with resilient cushioning.”

Yet, Kathy was neither an animal, a baby, a fish, or a shoe, but boy, she was resilient!

ØAble to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions

ØResilient to most infections.

ØAble to recoil or spring back into shape after bending, stretching, or being compressed

… and we who have gathered this morning can testify to that. Amen? Amen, indeed!

I find it interesting that a dictionary definition could pinpoint what is for us a profound experience of someone close to our hearts. 

And now I’d ask, “How did Kathy acquire that resilience?”Well, for starters, her center, her ground, was her deep trust and faith in God. It was (1) the bedrock on which she stood or you could say it was (2) the compass that kept her pointed in the right direction, or even it was (3) her gyroscope that kept her balanced no matter what the twists or turns. 

Enough with images that speak of how her trust and faith got played out in real time and let us look instead to the Gospel for what gave rise to that profound sense of trust and faith. 

John’s Gospel

In John’s Gospel, Jesus is speaking to folks who are troubled for whatever reason: serious illness, sadness, loss, disillusionment, failure, or sinfulness.

His word to them is, “Believe in God and believe in me.” He’s saying that there’s an answer beneath your struggles and yes, it’s within your grasp. Beneath your struggles there is relationship.

Through daily reception of the Eucharist Kathy came to have a close relationship with Jesus himself and in the midst of an assembled community of faith and it was thus that she could take him at his word: “Believe in God and believe in me.”

Her faith and fidelity flowed from such assembling and such sacred eating. 

Jesus quickly adds, “In my Father’s house there are many rooms.”  

By “Many rooms” he seems to mean,“Trust me that there are many levels — or rooms — and no one may be at the same level, but that there are rooms for everyone — churchgoers, non-churchgoers, faith-filled and faithless — where you can find comfort, solace, fulfillment. 

Kathy had found her room where she could abide with Jesus himself one-on-one. 

She did that with daily prayer. In the silence of her heart she was one with the Lord, Jesus regularly.

Conclusion

At first blush her life seems to be an example for us, but from Kathy’s side of it, it was relationship and her relating to this faith community that made the difference.

It gave her the resources to grow, to ground her, to point her in a direction, and ultimately to keeping her balanced.

And it’s her life that tells us today, that if we continue assembling for Eucharist, if we remain faithful to prayer and silence, we too can reap the same fruits she did.

What a gift she has been to us. It’s time for us to live out her legacy in our own lives!

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HOMILY for January 19, 2020: 2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A

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2^nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Mercy Ridge Hermitage

January 19, 2020

Lamb of God, Lamb of God, Lamb of God

By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato 

 

 

The Beloved Lamb

There is a old story about two men who were living in the same small town.

The one man was rich and powerful; the other was poor and powerless. The rich man owned so many sheep that he lost count of them, but the poor man had only one, tiny lamb.  

The poor man’s children loved this little lamb so much that they treated it like a member of the family. They played with it all day long and even brought it to the dinner table to share the little food they had to eat. 

Then one day an important visitor came to the rich man’s house for dinner.  The rich man wanted to serve a special meal but he didn’t want to kill any of his own lambs to feed the guest.  

So, he had his servants go over to the poor man’s house, take that family’s only lamb, and slaughter it for dinner. Now, the prophet Nathan tells this story in the Old Testament.  

And, this story of the beloved lamb is one of the images that John the Baptist must have had in mind in today’s gospel. John points to Jesus and says, “There is the lamb of God.”

John means, “There is God’s beloved lamb.”Like the one beloved lamb of that poor family, Jesus is God’s beloved Son and he is unjustly put to death.  

 

The Sacrificial Lamb 

Now besides this image of the beloved lamb, there is a second image that John must have had in mind.

This is the image of the lambs that were sacrificed everyday in the Temple in Jerusalem. These lambs were seen as sacrifices to atone for sin. 

So, John points to Jesus and says, “There is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”Jesus is like those sacrificial lambs because he sacrifices himself for our sins.

But, he is also unlike those lambs because, as John says today, he is “the sacrificial lamb of God.”Jesus is the sacrifice above all others that brings us reconciliation with God.

The Victorious Lamb 

Finally, John must have also had a third image in mind.

The Book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, pictures a victorious lamb. The author describes his vision of a lamb on a heavenly throne with   people from all over the earth giving him honor.

So, John speaks of Jesus as “the Lamb of God …the one who ranks ahead of me because he is before me.”John’s idea is that Jesus ranks first, above him and above everyone else in the human family.

Jesus is the Lamb of God who rose from the dead. This is why he now receives honor and praise as the victorious lamb.   

The Lamb of God for Us

So, John the Baptist has these three images in mind about Jesus – the beloved lamb, the sacrificial lamb, and the victoriuous lamb.

Before we receive communion here at Mass, we sing three times: “Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.”It is helpful to remember these three images as we sing these acclamations.

First, we remember the image of the one beloved lamb of the poor family. And we express our love for Jesus as the beloved Son and Lamb of God.

Here we can also recall that we are also beloved. Each of is is a beloved daughter or son of God.  

Then we remember the image of the sacrificial lamb of the Temple. Here in the sacrifice of the Mass we offer Jesus himself under the forms of bread and wine.

Here we can also recall that we are to be sacrificial. Our sacrifice is to give consciously and intentionally our daily lives to Christ by acceptijg him as our way. 

  

And finally, we remember the image of the victorious lamb in heaven. We do this when we say at the end of the Eucharistic Prayer: “Through him, with him, and in him, O God, almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, forever and ever.  Amen”

And as we do that, here we can also recall that we too have the promise and hope of heaven. That victory over death will also be ours through the victorious lamb.

HOMILY for January 12, 2020: Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, Cycle A

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Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, Cycle A

St. Mark, Fallston

January 12, 2020   

Baptism: Empowering Us to Live 

By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato 

Adam and Eve 

One day a religion teacher asked her class of second graders to take out their crayons and draw a picture of their favorite Old Testament story.

One little guy drew a picture of a man dressed up in a tuxedo, with a top hat, driving an old car. In the back seat were two passengers, a man and a woman, both dressed in bathing suits.

The teacher said,“Brian, that’s a nice picture, but what story does it tell?” Little Brian was surprised at the question.

He responded, “Well, doesn’t it say in the Bible that God drove Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden?” That little boy’s picture helps to introduce what I want to talk about today.

As we celebrate Jesus’ baptism, I want to reflect with you on the meaning of our own baptism. And that starts out with something called Original Sin.

Human Condition

Little Brian was trying to depict what happened after Adam and Eve sinned – God drove them out of the garden. We call Adam and Eve’s wrongdoing Original Sin. 

In our Catholic teaching, we have also said that we all inherit Original Sin and that baptism cleanses us from this. Well, we have to understand this carefully.

We do not inherit Original Sin in the way that we inherit blond hair or brown eyes. Innocent little babies whom we bring here for baptism cannot be personally made sinful by something they didn’t do.

Instead we can say that Original Sin is the human condition into which we are all born. The truth is that our world is fractured and imperfect and that fracturing and imperfection came about through Adam and Eve.

Just think about our unconscious, knee-jerk reaction when someone offends us. We usually react by wanting to do something to get back at them.

That is the human condition, the imperfect, broken world we live in and into which we are all born. It is helpful to know this — and I might add — is Catholic teaching on Original Sin.

Symbols of Water, Garment, Candle and Community 

That brings us to an important question: “What does baptism offer us in relation to this sinful or broken human condition” we find ourselves in?

I would say that baptism is the resource we have, the grace given to us, to live in the world and not be of the world.

The sacrament does this by giving us a community of faith that’ll (1) model and (2) sustain us as we grow in love of God.

So picture it: you’ve brought your first child or grandchild to the font, gathered with your family and friends. Water is poured, while the words, “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” are spoken, the child is clothed in a white garment and given a lit candle.

And a new life begins for an infant that is secured within a loving family and a community of faith. 

Living Out Our Baptism

Amidst these symbols and safeguarded within a faith family that will model and support us, our personal struggle within the broken world of Original Sin begins.

I would like to share some concrete examples of this struggle we all face today.

(1) We grow amidst the community as we come to know that ll comes from God – the One who transcends the heavens and the earth.      

And so, we now live with a clear reverence for all that lives – especially for human lifefrom conception through natural death and a respect for the earth and are clear that we have to use our resources thoughtfully.

The opportunity to live in this way comes from our baptism in the name of the Father and so I ask, “Have we grown in that dimension?” It’s an important question, but I won’t ask for a show of hands! 

(2) We grow amidst the community to know who God is and who we are called to be like.

We have the Word of God made flesh in Jesus Christ. And so, through Jesus, we now see God as loving, forgiving, and universal in his plan of salvation.

Through Jesus, we see ourselves as called to become merciful, peacemaking, and compassionate – the attributes that Jesus highlights in the Beatitudes. The opportunity to live this way comes from our baptism in the name of the Son and so I ask, “Have we grown in that dimension?”

(3) And finally, we grow amidst the community to live with God close to us. 

Jesus, who is Emmanuel – a name that means God-with-us – has promised to be with us always through the Spirit. And so, we can now live an inner, interior life, where we know for sure that God is present at our deepest core, our soul.

Even in our darkest moments and loneliest times, we are assured of God’s presence. The opportunity to live this way comes from our baptism in the name of the Holy Spirit and so I ask, “Have we grown in that dimension?”

  

Conclusion

So, we find ourselves in a human condition that is imperfect and sinful, but with the tremendous gifts that Baptism offers us, the life of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and a community that makes living that way possible.

On this Feast of the Baptism of the Lord we give thanks and celebrate that the baptism of a new quality of life is a reality we can experience. 

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