Immaculate Conception

Father Mike’s Homiletter – February 14, 2021

Scripture:  Genesis 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18; Psalm 116:10, 15-19;  Romans 8:31b-34;  Mark 9:2-10

We’re now a year into Covid-time, and most of us could not have imagined it lasting this long when it started last March.  Slowly, vaccines (a miracle of scientific speed themselves) are starting to be distributed more widely, with plans to inoculate everyone who is willing over the next few months.  Most of us don’t understand the science behind the vaccination, but we trust that it will protect us.  Last year, we would have said we couldn’t tolerate the Covid restrictions for more than three or four months, and we have now survived an entire year, finding safe ways to do things.  Many exercises in creativity, adaptation, and kindness.  Just the other day, I saw an article about a computer-savvy teen who has helped over 100 electronically-challenged senior citizens schedule vaccinations, undoubtedly trusting him with some critical personal information.  Perhaps the real Covid lesson has been how much we need each other.   

Our readings this week had me focused on trust.  God tells Abraham to take his son to a mountain place God will point out and offer him as a holocaust.  Abraham never expected to have a son:  at a time when he and his wife Sarah were well past child-bearing, three angels visited Abraham, were received with generous hospitality in the best traditions of the desert, and upon leaving, promised to return in a year, when Sarah would have a son.  Sarah actually laughed at the idea, but lo and behold, comes Isaac!  God promises Abraham his descendents will be as numerous as the sands of the beach.  The command to sacrifice Isaac would seem to negate that promise, not to mention break Abraham’s heart.  Yet, he gathers the needed materials and goes with Isaac to the appointed place.  In verses we do not hear, Isaac asks his father where is the sacrifice itself, since they brought no goat or lamb.  Abraham replies that God will provide, and keeps putting one foot in front of the other.  He builds the altar of sacrifice, piles up the wood, takes his knife, and at the last moment, an angel tells him to stop.  Abraham trusted that God would find a way through what had to be devastating to Abraham, and he did not feel he had to find a solution himself.  He trusted God would be God, and didn’t feel any need to be God himself. 

In our Gospel, Mark describes Jesus’ transfiguration on Mount Tabor, in front of Peter, James and John.  Jesus is transformed into a figure of shining white light, brighter than anything imaginable, seemingly changed into another state of being.  The Father repeats the statement He made after Jesus’ Baptism by John the Baptist: “This is my beloved Son, listen to Him.”  (Remember, Peter, James and this John would not have been at the Baptism, so this is a first hearing for them.)  Peter understands – to a point: “Lord, it is good for us to be here.”  Then, probably feeling awkward and not knowing what else to say (like many of us when we are overwhelmed), he fills in the gap by offering to do something – when he should just be still and absorb, even wallow, in the vision.  But Peter is, after all, human.  Then, suddenly, all was back to “normal”, and they were coming down the mountain.  As He has in several of our recent readings, Jesus instructs the Apostles not to tell anyone what they saw until after He has risen from the dead.  For the first time in our recent readings, Jesus is obeyed:  they kept the matter to themselves, but they did talk among themselves, trying to figure out what “rising from the dead” meant.  The three Apostles had trusted when they followed Jesus, but now they really had to trust, because they now knew Jesus was no ordinary itinerant preacher.  If the wonders they had already seen were not enough, they now had confirmation that something really big was on the horizon, and they just had to go along and trust.  They understood that they did not understand, but they could trust.  They let Jesus be Jesus, and they trusted. 

St. Paul’s reading gives us the key:  if God did not spare His own Son, His own Self, but handed Him over for our salvation, how could we think He would hold back anything else?  Why would He not give us anything and everything else we needed to participate in His plan of salvation?  The God who would offer up His own Son would hardly be playing a game of ‘gotcha’ with the very targets of His plan of salvation.  Just trust.  Even our Psalm repeats the message:  I believed, even when I was “greatly afflicted.”  In what parts of our lives do we need to let God be God, and learn how to trust? 

Peace,

Father Mike

 PREP Parish Religious Education Program 2020-2021

Classes take place on Sunday mornings for Grades K-5

Wednesday evenings for Grades 6-8 

Please click on the link below for our calendar and class times.

Please send registration requests or questions to me at [email protected]

or you can contact me by phone at  (847) 433-0130 ext. 110 

Thank you!

Blessings,

Barb

PREP Registration 2020-2021

Sacramental Requirements

PREP CALENDAR 2020-2021

SACRAMENTAL DATES TO KNOW

Retreat and Reconciliation Saturday 2/7/2021 9 a.m.

First Holy Communion Saturday 5/8/2021 10 a.m.

Confirmation  Wednesday, May 5, 2021 7 PM

Sources which will enable you to hear Mass on-line or watch on television:

ABC7 – 12:00 Sunday – Cardinal Cupich – Mass at Holy Name Cathedral

Univision - 10:00 AM – Sunday – Mass in Spanish                 https://radiotv.archchicago.org/television/broadcast-masses - includes Mass in Polish

EWTN:                    Direct TV - Channel 370

                                Dish Network - Channel 261

                                Verizon Fios – Channel 285

                                Xfinity – Channel 33, 291, 1668

Online:  St. James Chapel [Archdiocesan Center] – anytime

                                Holy Name Cathedral – anytime       www.catholictv.org/masses/catholictv-mass     Daily at 9:30am

Relevant Radio:  The Relevant Radio app is available at www.relevantradio.com  Mass – 12 noon, rebroadcast at 7:30 pm - Also on the Father Rocky’s Facebook page

Word On Fire Ministry:  www.wordonfire.org                             

Resources for Scripture and Prayer:

Daily Mass readings are available on the US Conference of Catholic Bishops web site:    www.usccb.org  – choose the date on the calendar on the right or

• Go to http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings

Give Us This Day – a daily Mass and prayer book is making its content available for free during this time.  Go to Give Us This Day. Org

Living With Christ – another daily Mass and prayer book is also making its content available for free. Go to Living with Christ.us

Liturgy Training Publications, the publishing arm of the Archdiocese, also has on-line prayer resources, including daily reflections and a virtual retreat for the Triduum.  Go to www.ltp.org , look for the window offering resources during times of crisis, or the media events – current virtual workshops.  

For material needs or other assistance, we understand that you can find resources by going to http://211.org, a web site sponsored by the national United Way organization

Immaculate Conception Parish offers a very fine Religious Education Program (P.R.E.P.) to provide the very best in formation and education for our grade school parishioners.

Immaculate Conception Parish does not have a parochial school. For those who would like to consider the time honored option of a catholic school we are happy to provide the following links to the Catholic School options in association with the parish.