Fr. David Sellery

Brief Audio Reflection "In Our Midst" Luke 24:13-35; The Third Sunday of Easter, Year A. They weren’t looking for Jesus. They were sure he was lost forever. And then he was there with them… walking and talking, explaining scripture, opening doors to spirituality. He moved with them so easily, so unobtrusively that they did not recognize the risen Savior until he revealed himself in the breaking of the bread. What are we doing today to look for him, to see him, to recognize him… to welcome him? For many, these are the questions that define our lives. They are built reflexively into our day. For others they are unfamiliar, awkward, uncomfortable. But for all of us, there is one simple constant: Jesus is in our midst. What are we going to do about it? True to the Father and true to the promises he has made, we need only to look for him. We need only engage. He is in our midst… in love, in peace, in power… only a prayer away.

Brief Audio Reflection "Beyond Belief" on John 20:19-31; The Second Sunday after Easter, Year A. Thomas wants proof. And who can blame him. Things had been going so well. Just a short while ago Jesus had triumphantly entered Jerusalem. Thomas found himself in the entourage of a super-star. Then suddenly his whole world collapsed. Jesus was arrested and stuck up on a cross. Scared out of their minds, the disciples were on the run. Thomas was certain that he and his friends would be next on the hit list. So he’s hardly in the mood for all this happy talk about Jesus returning from the dead. Unless he gets rock solid evidence that he can see and feel, he’s not going to get swept up in some fantasy. And then the risen Jesus delivers proof beyond all doubt. For us the Resurrection cannot be some abstraction, only peripheral to our real lives. As Christians, the Resurrection gives us meaning and direction. It necessarily shapes our thoughts and actions. Thomas Merton captured this centrality when he wrote tha

Brief Audio Reflection "The Passion Play" (Matthew 26:14-27:66), Liturgy of the Passion; Palm Sunday: Year A This week’s gospel is a drama played out in multiple acts of betrayal against one grand, overarching act of love. It is a tragedy transformed into triumph by the greatest curtain call that ever was or ever will be. It is Matthew’s epic account of the Passion of Jesus in which we are not just spectators, but participants and beneficiaries of the greatest story ever told. Thank you, Jesus. By your life, death and Resurrection, you have set us free.

Brief Audio Reflection "Big Deal" on John 11: 1-45; The Fifth Sunday in Lent; Year A. From the perspective of two millennia, the fact that some guy named Lazarus gets to walk around Bethany an extra twenty or thirty years is no big deal. But the fact that Jesus has conquered death for all eternity is a very big deal… the biggest deal that ever was or ever will be. Jesus is telling us: You want signs that I’m the Messiah? How about the blind see; the deaf hear; lepers are cleansed and devils are cast out? But I’m saving the best for last. Jesus doesn’t rush to Lazarus’ bedside to cure him. He waits until Lazarus is four days in the tomb to call him forth. He could have saved Martha and Mary a lot of grief with a quick, pop-in cure. But, as always, Jesus has a bigger point to make. And it doesn’t get bigger than: "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die."

Brief Audio Reflection "Blindness and Vision" on John 9: 1-41; The Fourth Sunday in Lent, Year A How is your vision? When was the last time you had a checkup? Sure the input hitting your optic nerve may be 20/20… but what do you see? Do you see people in need as a nuisance? Or do you even see them at all? Is your day filled with opportunities to praise God and serve your neighbor? Or is it a blur… full of fuzzy intentions you’ll get to later? Jesus has a cure for all our vision problems. He doesn’t want to give us glasses. He knows we’re careless. He knows we’ll take them off and forget where we left them. Jesus wants to give us a transplant. He wants us to see the world through his eyes… and what a vision it is. Through the eyes of Jesus there are no strangers. We are all beloved brothers and sisters. Through the eyes of Jesus we have a whole new perspective on routine frustrations and rude surprises. They become opportunities to give glory to God. Through the eyes of Jesus we see the big picture. We a

Brief Audio Reflection “The Game Changer” (John 3: 1-17; The Second Sunday in Lent: Year A). Nicodemos was a man of the law. That’s what it meant to be a Pharisee. Not that you were a lawyer, but that your sole purpose was to serve God by ever more scrupulous observation of intricate regulations governing every aspect of behavior, of thought, speech, diet, hygiene, relationships, work, leisure and worship. The Chosen People lived by Mosaic Law, but that wasn’t good enough for the Pharisees. They sought God in ritual perfection. Then Jesus comes along and changes the game. He preaches that love… not law… is how God keeps score. Forgiveness… not retribution… is his passion. And for God’s people, from now on, things are going to be different... Jesus lays it out straight for Nicodemos, his wannabe disciple, and for us, his easily distracted people: Keep doing what you’re doing and you’re going nowhere. Come follow me. Be born again of water and the Holy Spirit and it’s all yours… the forgiveness of the pe

Brief Reflection "Deliver us from Evil" on Matthew 4:1-11; First Sunday in Lent, Year A Knowing the divine nature of Jesus, I’ve always felt that Christ was just toying with Satan before he told him to get lost. Up against Jesus, Satan never had a chance. He gave it his best shot… bribery, flattery, trickery … and he came up empty. In reading this week’s gospel, we may be tempted to see Satan as a pushover. And that would suit him just fine. So what to do? Like Jesus, fill your life with goodness. Leave no room for evil. Give the earliest sign of temptation to God. He knows how to handle it. He will bless you for it. Like Jesus, be humble but resolute in the face of evil. Run and hide in the Lord. Make your life an active, ongoing conversation with God. Be assured that evil will come, many times in many guises. And when it does, make sure you’re not fumbling to find God’s number in some forgotten address book. Stay close to him. And he’ll be right there with you, ready to deliver us from evil!

#AshWednesday #Pride #LoveofGod #Grace #JesusChrist

Brief Audio Reflection "As Good as it Gets" on Matthew 5:38-48. The Seventh Sunday after Epiphany, Year A Pavarotti soaring in Nessun Dorma… magnificent; Astaire and Rogers floating through Cole Porter’s Night and Day… breathe taking; Olivier’s menacing Richard III… brilliant; but for pure soul stirring impact, Jesus of Nazareth’s Sermon on the Mount is as good as it gets. But in a media age, if the images don’t move and the mood isn’t captured by music, if the thought takes more than 140 characters to convey, that means we need to think, we need to dig into the text, we need to work to take in the full impact of the words on the page. And sadly, that is an endangered activity. This is our fourth consecutive Sunday of working our way, word by word, through all 48 verses of the fifth chapter of Matthew. And every minute of it pays-off in inspiration. The depth, the breadth, the language, the passion are all unparalleled. But it is the content, not the presentation, that is the most remarkable aspect of Chri

Reflection for Tuesday, February 11: “Raising the Bar” (Matthew 5:21-37; Epiphany 6; Year A Even simple common sense laws seem to have a way of exploding into a morass of regulations. The Federal Register of Regulations is quickly closing in on a million pages. But it’s not a new phenomenon. In Exodus God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. But that was followed by 27 chapters of do’s and don’ts in Leviticus and 34 chapters more in Deuteronomy, which then morphed into 6,200 pages of Talmudic law covering every aspect of beliefs, behaviors, diet, customs, ethics and attitudes. In this week’s gospel, Jesus tells us there is another way… a better, simpler way… to be in harmony with the will of God. In this gospel, Christ has raised the bar for moral behavior. But in his love, he raises us up so very much higher… well over the bar and safely all the way home.

Brief Audio reflection on Matthew 5:13-20. "The Bucket List." The Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany, Year A. A few years back Hollywood discovered a sure-fire formula for a big box-office payoff: Caste a couple of aging mega-stars as seniors who put together a “do-before-you-die” list of outrageous escapades. Then have them carry-on like out-of-control adolescents… while they drain the bottomless well of old-age jokes. The premise is valid if you view this life as all there is. In that light, I suppose, it makes perfect sense to put together your own “bucket-list” and live it up while you can. Get it all in. Get it all done… next stop, oblivion. But God doesn’t see it that way. He’s got his own list for us. We are here for a purpose – his purpose. We are God’s beloved… here to return his love in this world and be happy with him in the next. We are only visitors here, just briefly passing through, following Jesus on our way home to the Father. The reason Christians don’t have a bucket-list is because w

Brief Audio reflection on Matthew 5:1-12. The Fourth Sunday after The Epiphany: Year A. For about twenty years now Wiley Publishing has been producing the tremendously successful “… for Dummies” series of titles. My first experience was “Windows for Dummies.” My latest is “iPhone 5 for Dummies.” The secret of their success is to make intimidating subjects approachable… cutting through the technical jargon and “dumbing down” the core concepts to their absolute essentials in a non-threatening, “how to” format. That’s exactly what Jesus does for us in this week’s gospel. In this week’s Epistle, Paul tells us: Has God not made foolish the wisdom of the world? The Beatitudes turn worldly wisdom on its head and make it a pretty smart to be a dummy for Christ.

Brief Audio Reflection The People Who Walk in Darkness - Matthew 4:12-23; The Third Sunday after the Epiphany, Year A . John is in jail and Jesus is on the run. This week’s gospel opens up like a western movie. Back then, preaching peace and living love could be a very dangerous business. In fact, it still can be. Jesus knows his ministry will take him to the cross. But he’s not ready for that yet. He’s just begun and there is so much work to do. Herod has John locked up, but that doesn’t shut him up. From the depths of the dungeon, John cries out: “Repent,” echoing Christ’s call to: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The message is two-thousand years old; but it’s as if Jesus had composed it this morning just for us. The kingdom certainly is at hand. But you won’t find it on MapQuest. The kingdom of heaven exists where the bondage of sin has been broken; where God is praised; where neighbor is loved. For the faithful, the kingdom of heaven exists wherever God’s will reigns: in a single soul

"If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it." -- 1 Cor. 12:26. January is a very dreary month and we can all use a break. Twenty-five years have passed and "Martin Luther King, Jr. Day" has slipped into the rotation of routine events that shape our lives -- smack in the middle of the NFL playoffs and right before Groundhog's Day. But Martin's greatest gift to us is not just a day off or another three-day holiday weekend of promotional sales to kick-start the economy. Neither is his greatest gift a seat on a bus or at a lunch counter for a minority of us. It's not even his wake-up call to a majority that was comfortable living in atrophied isolation, actively oblivious to the catastrophic rot around us. Behind it all, his greatest gift was to vividly lay bare the Body of Christ and challenge us to live in it...

Brief Audio Reflection on John 1:29-42; The Second Sunday after the Epiphany, Year A. "Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi… Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." In Latin or in English, even the words are exquisite. And the concept they capture is far, far beyond that. It is the very kernel of Christianity. Let’s take a moment to let that sink in. As human beings, we are wired from head to toe with self-preservation instincts. Yet here is a man willing to throw all that away. He is without sin, without guilt, yet he is willing to lay down his life for our sins, for our guilt... #LambofGod #Grace #JesusChrist #LoveofGod

Brief Audio Reflection on Matthew 3:13-17: Baptism of the Lord; Year A. In this week’s gospel, John tells Jesus: I need to be baptized by you. Jesus tells John: No, I need to be baptized by you. From a cynical 21st Century perch this could be seen as just so much polite posturing between preachers… after you… no, after you. Today we could be tempted to say why not just skip the whole baptism business and register on-line at the church of your choice. Just leave your credit card number for those annoying collections and I’ll see you next Christmas? An absurd suggestion; of course it is. But hopefully it illustrates a point. We must come to the water. We need to be baptized in water and the Spirit . There is no virtual reality, computer generated substitute. We must be physically and spiritually cleansed in the waters that flow over and unite the entire community of believers. Whether as consenting adults or as consecrated children we must come to the waters to be claimed for Christ.

Brief Audio Reflection on Matthew 2:1-12 Brief Audio Reflection on Matthew 2:1-12 - The Feast of the Epiphany These first verses from the second chapter of Matthew are among the most action packed accounts found in the whole sixty-six books of the Bible. A Hollywood script writer would be hard pressed to match the inspiration and the intrigue, the triumph and the treachery. As a preacher, I'm swamped with the symbolic richness of this gospel. A single sermon doesn't do it justice. But let's try. One brief definition of an epiphany is: a sudden intuitive insight into the essential meaning of something. This morning's gospel for the Feast of the Epiphany is literally a feast of epiphanies. It is chock full of insights into the meaning of the coming of Christ and the transformation it promises for you and me and for all the people of the world. Start with the vision of the Magi. They had devoted their lives to studying the heavens. And then suddenly there was a brilliant light they'd never seen befor

Brief Audio Reflection on Matthew 2:13-15; 19-23 - The Feast of The Holy Family And so we have the example of two entirely different families in this week’s gospel. The family of Herod wants all of life’s goodies and they will do anything to get them and keep them. Which family do we follow? For most of us I suspect the answer is a hybrid. We profess the Holy Family as our ideal. But as a matter of expediency, at times there is more than a little Herod in our homes than we care to admit. That doesn’t mean patricide and all the rest, but it does come down to a question of priorities. Do we live to serve or be served? Are we givers or takers? Do we live to glorify God or satisfy the almighty me? These are questions for which God will hold each one of us individually responsible. But the answers do not spring up spontaneously from the void. They are shaped in the context of loving, Christian (and that means actively Christ-centered) families. They are a sacred legacy of family values held in trust to be pa

Brief Audio Reflection for Christmas Day: John 1:1-14 You’ve got to be kidding. Do you really mean to tell me that the author of the Big Bang, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Messiah, the Promised One is that helpless new born crying out there in the stable? Give me a break. Well, as it turns out, that’s exactly why he’s here… to give us the biggest break of all time. It’s Yaweh, Almighty God, in a pint-sized package come to change the whole trajectory of human experience. That little bundle, a few minutes old, is here to teach and to preach, to sanctify and ultimately to save us all. He is our ticket to eternal life. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have life everlasting.(John 3:16) That’s the miracle of Christmas. That’s what all the carols and the crèches are about. It’s a stunning concept, but one that we have heard so often that we are in danger of becoming oblivious to the awesome reality that is Christmas. Let’s

Brief Audio Reflection for Advent 4: Year A (Matthew 1:18-25). For someone who never says a recorded word, he made a powerful statement. Joseph, the betrothed of Mary… Joseph, the protector of Jesus… Joseph, the bread-winner of the Holy Family comes to us in scripture as Joseph the silent. But while he never says a single word, there is a single word said of him that speaks volumes. Matthew’s gospel tells us Joseph is “righteous.”