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Blog: January 23, 2022

Fr. Jeff and others share reflections on the Sunday readings.

January 23, 2022

“He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah.

He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written:

            The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

                        because he has anointed me 

                        to bring glad tidings to the poor.

            He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives

                        and recovery of sight to the blind,

                        to let the oppressed go free,

                        and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.

Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down,

and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him.

He said to them, ‘Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.’”


Because of my dad being in the army, my parent’s divorce, and mom and I moving from an apartment to a house, by the time I was nine years old and had begun fourth grade, I had moved eight different times and attended six different schools. Change was a part of my life. Fourth through eighth grade and high school brought a level of stability, but then it was off to college, four duty assignments in three years in the Air Force, three semesters in seminary, three years with three jobs while away from seminary, three and a half years back in seminary, six months as a deacon in a parish, six months as a priest in the same parish, a year as an associate pastor, and, then, my first assignment as pastor with the addition of my role as the associate vocation director. After four years of relative stability in roles and living arrangements, the next four years brought four changes in roles and two changes in living arrangements. As pastor of St. Patrick and Vicar for Priests, I have had three different living arrangements and the addition of becoming pastor of St. Boniface in the seven and a half years in this role (not to mention four different associate pastors). Change is a part of my life. 


At the same time, I have gravitated toward institutions that provide custom and tradition, bulwarks of stability. In my faith life, that has been the Roman Catholic Church (although I did dabble with independent charismatic evangelicalism). I never left the Church. In my first career, that was the United States Air Force. I will always be a veteran. In saying yes to the call to priesthood, at my ordination I made lifelong promises of obedience, celibacy, and simplicity of life. I am a priest forever. Some models would call this a balance between change and stability. Others would use the less harmonious idea of tension. I also sometimes think of it as a biological model: roots and growth. The roots provide an anchor, nourishment, strength, and steadiness. The growth provides aspiration, maturity, extension, and fruit. Change is inevitable and stability necessary. Together, they provide life. Each of us have a different need for stability and a different capacity for change. Both of them, however, are parts of our spiritual journey. Our next best step, becoming the best version of ourselves, repentance, and growth in virtue are forms of change. Practicing our faith, receiving the sacraments, the community we call home, and our obligations and commitments are forms of stability. 


Jesus said, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” Fulfilled is a word that contains both the old and the new, stability and change. In Jesus, it is true that a new era has begun, but it is in continuity with God’s past action and promises. It is not a restoration nor a revolution, but it is a rebirth. It is not a resuscitation nor an inception, but it is a resurrection. It is both the old and the new.