ST. STEPHEN


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Words of Fr. Neil



Parish Staff

History Part I

PARISH MISSION STATEMENT

We, the parishioners of St. Stephen Catholic Church, strive to be a living example of Christ’s continuing work in the world. We support this spiritual growth by becoming a multi-cultural, faith-filled community. To promote the goal of spiritual well-being and social justice, we embrace the Hazelwood community and beyond by reaching out to all who seek Christian fellowship.

HOMILIES
 

WHAT ABOUT THE HUDDLED MASSES?

There were several movies some time ago called "Alien", A-II, etc. Sigourney Weaver starred. Alien is a rather harsh word. You can tell where a commentator on TV is coming from by what words he uses: undocumented immigrant or illegal alien.

Our country has over 12 million undocumented immigrants. They don't pay taxes. They use public facilities like hospitals. They drive without licenses or insurance. They are easily victimized because they fear going to police for protection.

The American Bishops wrote a pastoral letter on this problem. They support finding ways to help these people to become legal. Then they could ask for protection from abuse; pay taxes, get a drivers license and insurance.

These immigrants do work that is crucial to our farming industry. Work that no one else will do. They also help keep our population growing and younger. They often have large families. Many of these people are Catholic. They remind us of the immigrants of the past: the Italians, the Hungarians, the Polish, the Germans, the Irish. Like immigrants of past generatons, they will strengthen our country. The scripture today talks about accepting the foreigners in our midst if they are a virtuous person and especially if they embrace the Jewish faith. We too are called to embrace the immigrant in our midst and help them to regularize their status as legal. This would help to eliminate the terrible treatment of these workers who are taken advantage of in various ways. This scripture often challenges us to embrace the widow, the orphan and the stranger in our midst. They represent the defenseless and are especially beloved by God. How do we treat the stranger in our midst?

TREASURE

The treasure in the field reminds me of a movie based on a novel by John Grisham. A woman plots to have her father committed to a mental institution so she can have a piece of land he owns. It's a seemingly worthless farm without even a building on it. However, as it turns out, it has a stand of dark cherry wood trees worth 10 million dollars. A treasure in a field.

Like all Jesus' parables, this has one point: The absolute importance of obtaining that field.

The pearl of great price has become a well known expresson in our language. Like the treasure, it tells us that the reign of God or the Kingdom of Heaven of which Jesus preached is something of the utmost value that we should seek above all.

How do you do that? Pray, read scripture, offer the Eucharist, spiritual reading, service to others, spiritual direction, alms giving.

Every once in a while, we hear of a painting that sells for 20, 30 or 40 million dollars. It is valued that much by the buyer. How much do we value the Kingdom of God in our lives and in the world?

Solomon answered God that he wanted wisdom to rule his people well. He could have asked for other things like riches, victory, etc.. Yahweh commended him for his prayer set of values.

The dragnet cast in the sea reminds us that not everyone in the kingdom will stay. These will be a sorting out at the last judgment.

We pray that our pursuit of the reign of God is sincere. If so God will multiply it like the mustard seed.

Antique Road Show

Old things can be valuable, like religion for instance. When someone finds something really valuable, they guard it and hold onto it. The reign of God is like that. It is the treasure hidden in the field. I must buy that field and claim the treasure. It is the pearl of great price. I must have that pearl even if I must sell my other less valuable pearls. The reign of God is like a dragnet thrown into the lake. It brings in all sorts of things and you keep what is valuable.

The point of all this is the great value of the reign of God that Jesus proclaimed. It is a treasure, a precious pearl, a valuable catch. How do I value it in my life? Are my family concerns, work, boat, cabin, golf, fishing, hunting, food, and friends more important? What is the kingdom of God like again? A pearl of great price, a treasure hiding in a field, a catch of some valuable things, a mustard seed, yeast in flour.

In all these ways Jesus tries to help us understand the consummate importance of the reign of God to our salvation.

Peace in Christ,
Fr. Neil

Homily

I was eating a large breakfast burrito Saturday morning and thinking of this Gospel story about the large crowd of hungry people

There are many hungers in the human person. We could talk of the spiritual hunger fed miraculously by the Eucharist. But today, I am asking you to think of the 6.5 billion in our world who hunger first of all for real physical bread. Eli Weisel tells of his starvaton in the Holocaust camps of Europe. He was so hungry that all he could think of was food. Countless millions of our brothers and sisters in today's world go to bed hungry. 16,000 children die of hunger each day. There are 10's of millions living in squalor, many in garbage dumps all their lives. We need to think about this. Join food organizations; support Church collections. Let these stark facts change the way you live. Make our political leaders think about this. It is everyones duty to feed the starving. Our world needs to change its priorities radically. Jesus said to the disciples "You give them something yourselves"! He will help us.

Homily

Years ago, a priest was having a conflict in his parish that was very divisive and emotional. He addressed it in the
bulletin under the title: "The Weeds and the Wheat", with the implication that those who were opposed to him were
the weeds. A short time later, his opponents published a circular entitled "The Weeds Speak" giving their side of the conflict.

Jesus is saying today "Don't call anyone a weed or even Think it". God and his angels will decide. People are often quick to designate someone as a weed and then pull them out by the roots. That causes much violence in our world.

Connected with that idea, is what Jesus proclaimed: The reign of God. He uses many metaphors to explain it. The mustard seed - the smallest of seeds grows into the largest of bushes - The reign of God will have exponential growth. (2-4-8-16-128-256-512). The yeast reminds us of the same thing but with the picture of how it will take over everything - a hidden development.

These images are very encouraging even if the reign of God is hidden and small: just wait!

The first reading reminds us of God's power and compassion. He gives us time to repent.

The second reading is a reminder that the Holy Spirit will help us pray since we don't know how.

A final note: The Kingdom of God is much wider than the Church-And by the Church I mean all the baptized. Every truly Christian denomination along with the Orthodox and the Catholic. Vatican II pointed us in the directon of these insights: a truly loving, non-judgmental, inclusive People of God.