Censings

GOOD FRIDAY March 30, 2018 – 7:00 PM Saint Cecilia Catholic Community Rev. David Justin Lynch Isaiah   52:13-53:12 Psalm 31:2;6;12-13;15-16;17;25 Hebrews 4:14-16;5:7-9 John 18:1-19:42 + In the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, AMEN. Today, we commemorate the day when evil people did a bad thing to Jesus. They killed him, pure and simple.  Jesus was a victim of capital punishment. Today, I will explain to you why the death penalty is wrong, always and everywhere, no matter what the circumstances. That may sound rigid and judgmental in and of itself, and indeed, it is, intentionally so. As many of you are aware, I have a law degree, and I used to be an attorney. One of the concepts we learned in criminal law was, “malum in se.” That’s Latin for, “bad in and of itself.” What that means is that there are some acts that are bad, period, with no room for debate. For Catholic Christians, that means any killing of another person, self-def...

Palm Sunday - Saint Cecilia Catholic Community March 25, 2018 – 10:30 AM Rev. David Justin Lynch Mark 11:1-10 Isaiah 50:4-7 Psalm 22:8-9,17-20, 23-24 Philippians 2:6-11 Mark 15:1-47        + In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, AMEN.        Everyone loves a parade. It’s a time to march around to be seen by others for a purpose. Yesterday, my wife, Sharon, and others from our parish and I participated in a parade in Palm Springs demonstrating against guns. In church, we call a parade a procession.   The significance of any procession, is that it involves an action rather than just words.   Today we engage in an action to commemorate the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. People parade in the streets, or process in or around a church, to demonstrate something, to send a message. Today is   no exception. The journey of Jesus that we recognize today would ultim...

By Rev. David Justin Lynch Philippians, Galatians and Romans have Paul concerned about the Judaizers, those who believed that Gentiles, that is, non-Jews, who wanted to follow Jesus should be required to observe the Jewish law. The Judaism of Paul’s time looked to the Old Testament with its 613 very detailed commandments that controlled many aspects of daily life as defining how one appears in God’s sight. The message was that to make things right with God, one has to obey all those laws. Paul opposed this approach, known as legalism. It is the act of putting the Law of Moses above the gospel by establishing requirements for salvation beyond faith (trust) in Jesus Christ and reducing the broad, inclusive, and general precepts of the Bible to narrow and rigid moral codes. Paul sees this as making salvation dependent on “works”, that is, what one does or does not do, rather than God’s grace, that is, God’s love and mercy. Despite Paul’s message to the contrary, many Christian c...

FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT (Laetare) March 11, 2018 10:30 AM Saint Cecilia Catholic Community Rev. David Justin Lynch 2 Chronicles 36:14-16;19-23   Psalm 137:1-6 Ephesians 2:4-10 John 3:14-21        +In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, AMEN.        The news this year has featured many rescue stories.   First responders, and even ordinary citizens, have heroically saved many lives -- human, canine and feline -- from fires and floods. My wife, Sharon, and I are no strangers to rescue.   Our relationship began when we rescued one another from loneliness when our lives as separate individuals were not going very well in 1993, Sharon in Texas, and I in California. On March the twentieth, Sharon and I will celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of our mutual rescue. That’s the day when Sharon arrived in California with her two dog-daughters, Buffy and Dolly, two sweet l...

THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT March 04 2018 10:30 AM Saint Cecilia Catholic Community Rev. David Justin Lynch Exodus 20:2-3;7-8;12-17 Psalm 19:8-11 I Corinthians 1:22-25; John 2:13-25 + In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, AMEN.   Imagine a major “boiler room” operation in Palm Springs, where telephone solicitors are sitting in cubicles dialing for dollars, victimizing people out of their life savings selling vacant land. Imagine further that our police received enough complaints, went to Superior Court in Indio, and obtained arrest warrants for the people running it, and search warrants to gather evidence. But imagine also that this company was a major employer, generating taxes and revenue for both the City and local merchants. At 9:00 AM on a Tuesday morning, about thirty of Palm Springs finest women and men in blue show up, guns drawn, raid the place, arrest the culprits, gather evidence, and shut it down.   Such a scenario could we...