Sunday of St. Thomas

Posted on by Fr. Peter

Acts: 5:12-20
John 20:19-31

A missionary was tortured for preaching Christ in pagan Burma. His fingernails were torn from the roots and he was hung by his fingers until his hands were twisted and scarred. Later when he asked to preach in a certain town, the pagan Prince of that town refused saying: “I would allow a dozen ordinary men to speak, but not you with those scarred hands. My people would never listen to what you say, for they could not help seeing your hands.” The inference was that the missionary’s scarred hands would speak more convincingly of his love for Christ than any words he could say.

Today we are introduced to the scares of Jesus. Thomas says that unless he sees the nail prints and can touch the wounds he will not believe in the Resurrection. When Jesus reveals himself to Thomas, all Thomas needed was to see the scares he did not need to touch them. For Thomas the scares were the greatest proof that Jesus, who had suffered and died, was now risen from the tomb. Jesus is appearing to us today and he is showing us his scares. What do they mean? I would like to suggest three ways.

1. Love – The scares of Jesus show that although we are sinners, Jesus died for us.

A little girl sat on her mother’s knee, and as she looked into her mother’s face she said” “Mummie, you’ve got the prettiest hair and the sweetest eyes I have ever seen. And Mummie, why are your arms so ugly?” The mother then explained to her daughter that when she was a tiny baby the house caught fire. She ran into the house and rescued her our of her crib. In the process her arms and hands were badly burned. When the little girl heard this, tears began streaming down her face. Looking once more into her mother’s face she said, “Mummie, you’ve got the prettiest hair I have ever seen, and yours is the sweetest face, and your eyes are wonderful. But, Mummie, your hands and your arms are the most beautiful of all. I have loved you always, but I love you more than ever now.”

This love of Jesus for us should make us all respond as Thomas did with “my Lord and my God.” This is the true Christian response to the scars of Jesus.

2. Struggle – The scares of Jesus show that life is a struggle. The life of a Christian is not easy. Even God’s own Son had to suffer. But God promises us victory over this suffering
3. Our Scars – The dark hour when we feel that God is not with us in our suffering. The first thing that Jesus does is show us His scars and His sufferings. Jesus came to save us all but also to suffer with us. Look at His hands and his side. He is holding his hands out to you. His scars did not go away with resurrection He carries them with you, and they are your scars.
4. Scars caused by sin – The nail is the preferred symbol for sin. Each sin is a nail that contains to be driven into the body of Jesus. In sin we not only break the commandments but we break God’s heart.
The world is full of footprints of God. Every thing we see is footprint of the maker. But we need not follow Him by His footprints. He has revealed Himself to us through the Gospel. This book tells us who God is and what he has done through His Son. The footprints of the setting sun may tell us that God is. But only the nail prints in the hands of Jesus tell us that God is love. Jesus appears and showed Hos scars. They were proof of His love. They won the final victory over death they speak compassion to our wounds. Scars that we re-open with our sin but can close again with repentance. We have been very hard on Thomas through the years but today he speaks for all of us. The words he spoke should be our words. “My Lord and My God.”

Kirking of the Tartans

Posted on by Fr. Peter
As I mentioned in a previous post, I had the honor of leading the Kirking of the Tartans service yesterday. Below is the sermon I gave for the event. It is recreated from notes so I might have left some of the things out but the main points are there.
Why are we here? We are here to celebrate our heritage. We do this because the more we know about our roots the better equipped we are for the future. A cherished history inspires us to greatness while illuminating certain sinkholes of though and behavior.
How do we do this? I am by training what’s known as a historical theologian. I look at theology not just from the scriptural or dogmatic sense but in the context of history and what was going on at the time. Most of our theology was adopted because of some historical event or schism. So with this in mind let us look at the kirking of the tartans and why we do this. The main reason is faithfulness.

In 1745 our ancestors fought what would latter be called the battle of Culloden. The battle was fought after several unsuccessful Jacobite rebellions and culminated with the brutal repression of the Scottish people. Part of this repression was the prohibition against the wearing of the traditional highland dress, the pipes, and other related legislation from 1746 leading to the destruction of the clan system. This was not the first time our ancestors were treated this way. All we have to do is think of the movie Braveheart for a trip down memory lane of another severe brutal repression.

So with this repression came the Highland Clearance. 1792 became known as the year of the sheep and people were forced off of their land to make room for the much more profitable sheep. Many of these people left Scotland as my ancestors did and began a new life in Nova Scotia leaving behind everything that they knew and loved. There were also religious considerations. Many if not all of the Highlanders were Roman Catholic and also Presbyterians and were forced out on religious grounds.

So as time went on and as the repression grew a service would be held on certain Sundays of the year. On these days people would bring small pieces of their tartan, at great risk to their own lives, to the Kirk, or Church, to be blessed by the clergy. Was this an act of rebellion? Some would answer yes. I believe I would be one of the ones who would answer yes, but I also believe that this was done out of faithfulness. This simple act was an act of great faith. Faith brought them where they were and faith would see them through. Faith is a big word. Faith can move mountains and faith will see US through. We sang the great hymn Faith of our Fathers at the beginning of this service. Although a song about Christian faith I believe that it is applicable to our topic today.

That is the faith we celebrate. That is the faith of our ancestors. The faith that has brought us here and the faith that will lead us home. In a moment we will bless the simple pieces of cloth that are token of our heritage. We honor our ancestors when we wear them with honest pride and genuine humility.

God bless us all.

Sunday

Posted on by Fr. Peter
I am blogging today from and undisclosed location. Yesterday was a busy day. Busier than usual but a good day. Regular Liturgy in the morning with the usual crowd. The Easter people have all returned to their usual no church attendance. I guess we will see them at Christmas.
St. Thomas Sunday, and I will post my homily when I get back to the office.
Yesterday afternoon I was privilege to be the celebrant at the Annual Kirking of the Tartans. A very traditional Scottish service with the blessing of the Plaid. This service daters back to when wearing of the Tartan was prohibited by law. The faithful would bring a small piece of their cloth to the Kirk, or Church, and the clergy would bless it. I spoke about faithfulness and why we do what we do when we re-enact this service. Faithful to our ancestors and faithful to the past and the ability to learn lessons from the past to avoid the pit falls of the future. I will try and post my homily latter on.
Here is the blessing: Bless, O Lord, these simple woven cloths, whose colors, warp and woof, bear the burden and honor, the history of the land of our ancestors, a people of your calling, a nation of your creation. may we sustain the glory of our ancestors by wearing the kilt with honest pride and genuine humility honoring a people known as Scots. In Christ’s name. Amen.

New Direction

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Several months ago I posted about changing the name of this blog. Well I don’t think I will change the name but maybe the direction.
One of the first spiritual works that I read was the Way of the Pilgrim. If you have not read this book I would suggested that you pick up a copy and give it a read. Nice little book about a pilgrim in Russia and how he is trying to find his way spiritually. The opening line of the book tells the whole story I think.
By the grace of God I am a Christian man, by my actions a great sinner, and by calling a homeless wanderer of the humblest birth who roams from place to place. My worldly goods are a knapsack with some dried bread in it on my back, and in my breast pocket a Bible. And that is all.

Prayer is big and I think I will focus on prayer and spirituality with this blog. I will continue to post about the happenings in my life, if that is of any interest to people, but I think that this is a direction I need to go in. We become very spiritual people during Lent but now that is over we tend to go back to where we were before. Let’s take this journey together.

Silence

Posted on by Fr. Peter
It is kind of funny to me that most of the blogs I read went silent during Holy Week. I on the other hand, go silent after Holy Week. I wanted to post some reflections of Holy Week and Easter but I was pooped after all was said and done. I took Monday off and went home to see my family. Spent Sunday afternoon at my brother’s house then home to rest. Back out here on Monday afternoon for more rest.
Tuesday was a bad day. It began as any other day and I had a meeting at the local hospital. Each local community in Massachusetts has formed an Emergency Planning Committee and I serve on the one in Dudley. Harrington Hospital in Southbridge is forming a regional committee and the fire chief asked me to attend the meeting. Okay so the meeting ended and off I went to the former Fort Devens to pick up some stuff for the Fire Department. On our return a call came in for a car accident. Nothing big, we get a lot of those in our town. But then the call came back that someone was trapped in the car. Not a good situation. I got my stuff together and headed out the door. Upon arrival the place was going crazy. Fire Fighters all over the place and four people were hurt. One was still trapped in the car and not doing well. The EMT’s were performing CPR on him while the rest of the guys cut the roof off. We called for the helicopter to come to transport him to the Trauma Center in Worcester. He did not make it. The doctor pronounced him dead in the ambulance.
Next I got a call to go to the location of the ambulance and I anointed an 18 yo who had died in the accident. I have not done this much, and it is always a blessing to be with someone who has passed on. Each time I anoint someone I get a flash back to the Airport in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina when I anointed 64 people who were dying.
So now I have some messed up fire fighters. Although we get a lot of accidents few few turn into fatals, and most of our guys are young. One of the fire fighters had just been talking to the deceased just a few hours before the accident.
We practice something called Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM). Not a new science but one that came into it’s own after 9/11. The basic set up is the guys are allowed to talk about what they saw, felt, heard, smelled, etc. The idea is that if they talk about it now, it wont haunt them latter. Well it does work but the nightmares continue. But it is a good thing and I called in some help as I was part of the scene and needed this myself.
All is well now, and the community is dealing with this as best they can. Moral of the story is this. Kids need to learn to slow down. I think I am supporting not giving them permission to drive until they graduate from high school or maybe until 21. This was a stupid senseless accident that did not need to happen. If they had just slowed down, who knows…

Blogger’s Choice Awards

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Well the nominations are out and your humble host has been nominated. So if you think this blog is worthy of being awarded something go here and select best religion blog and look around for little old me and vote. Thanks.
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