Our Pastor, Fr. Doug Robertson

Homily, 5 October 2008: 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time

All contracts or covenants carry both privileges and responsibilities. Yet today's first reading and gospel both tell of a landowner who prepares what should be a fruitful, productive vineyard, yet receives no harvest. The contract or covenant between the landowner and the tenants has been breached, or broken. The stories are parables for our relationship with God. Let's look at four things we can learn about the Father from these parables:

One, God is provident. This means that he provides all that we need to succeed in doing his will, including gifts such as grace, life (today is Respect Life Sunday), family, and home.
Two, God is trusting. He entrusts us with his gifts (as the landowner entrusts his tenants with the vineyard) and reasonably expects us to make good use of those gifts, to shoulder our responsibilities.
Three, God is patient. In the gospel, the landowner, at first rebuffed, sends more servants, then his own son. Similarly, our Father reaches out to us over and over again, sending even his own son, to give us every opportunity to make the right choice.
Fourth, God is just. There can be no justice without accountability. Just as the landowner will hold his tenants accountable for the unpaid harvest, if we ultimately rebel against our responsibility to employ God's gifts for good, we will inherit just consequences.

God will never breach the covenant that Jesus presents today. Only we can break this covenant when we fail to appreciate God's providing, spurn his trust, test his patience, or ignore his justice. Yet even if we sin, God keeps sending his son to us in the sacraments, particularly the Eucharist, to renew the covenant and assure us of his forgiveness. The sacraments are our opportunity to be fully restored to our covenant with God, who is loving, forgiving, and merciful.
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The Robertson File

Douglas C. Robertson is a sprout of the local soil. He was born in 1965 and raised in La Crosse, the youngest of five children of Charles, a firefighter, and Jean, a nurse, both now retired and living in Onalaska. He attended St. Patrick's and Cathedral schools and graduated in 1983 from Aquinas High School.

He graduated in 1988 from Winona State University with bachelor's degree in English Education and is a licensed 7-12 teacher. His Master of Science in Curriculum and Instruction is from Minnesota State University at Mankato.

He graduated in 1996 from the University of St. Mary of the Lake / Mundelein Seminary. He was ordained a priest of the Diocese of La Crosse at the Cathedral on 13 July 1996. He has served pastoral and chaplaincy assignments in Marshfield, Mondovi, Wisconsin Rapids, Fountain City, and more. Most recently he was pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Independence, Wisconsin and St. John the Apostle Parish in Whitehall. He became pastor at MMOC on 12 June 2008.

Fr. Doug is a warm, generous soul, quick to get deep in conversation, fun to talk with, kindly and hospitable. If you have not sat to talk with him, do. You do not every day find someone so pleasant and learned to talk with. Truly. Contact Fr. Doug.

Homily, 21 September 2008: 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

In today's gospel, a landowner hires day laborers throughout the day, yet pays them all the same daily wage. Those who have worked all day long grumble that they should receive more, and it is easy for us to identify with them. Instead, Jesus wants us to identify with those hired in late afternoon, who received a generous gift. Father spoke of a gentleman in a nursing home who, after 25 years away from the church, asked to receive the sacraments of Reconciliation, Anointing, and Eucharist. Three days later, he passed away. Like the laborers hired late in the day, truly this man received a generous gift of God's love, mercy, and forgiveness.

If we are truly sorry for our sins, there is no sin that is beyond God's forgiveness. Today's first reading tells us why: God's ways are not our ways. For us, forgiving can be a chore; God strenuously seeks to instill his loving mercy and forgiveness in our lives, to have the children he loves reconciled to himself.

We are faithful Catholics, yet also sinners. Let us seek to trust in God's love, mercy, and forgiveness, and come to appreciate them as a generous gift.
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Homily, 14 September 2008: Exaltation of the Holy Cross

We think of the cross as a sign of victory over death, but it was not always so. In Jesus' time, the cross was a fearful emblem of death and of Roman oppression. Today we esteem the cross because Jesus has transformed its meaning into one of victory over sin and death. Everyone has a cross—a fear, a burden of sin—but none that cannot conquered. Nothing can overpower the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In today's first reading, Israelites bitten by poisonous snakes are saved from death by looking up at a bronze figurine of a snake held high on a staff by Moses. Similarly for us, Christ is lifted high on the cross, and we who gaze up at him are healed.
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Homily, 7 September 2008

From the moment our children are born, we are their teachers. A lot of that teaching is in the form of loving correction. Today's readings say clearly that we are responsible for fraternal correction—that is, when someone sins and does not see it for themselves, we as brother or sister in Christ are required to lovingly bring the sin to their attention. [Ed. Note: This harks back to what Fr. said last week about how we are spiritual mirrors for each other.]

It is a work of mercy to face another and speak of sin in a spirit of humility. Some times we shy away from this responsibility because it is difficult (perhaps difficult to reach the proper humility, perhaps difficult to confront). Yet if we shy away from our responsibility for fraternal correction we will be held accountable. Our challenge is to not belittle the person, not speak as a superior, but to come to them in humility, as a servant. We also must be ready to receive, in that same spirit of humility, fraternal correction from those around us. Today's gospel is challenging because it asks us to do what is difficult but necessary. Let us pray for the grace to both offer and receive fraternal correction in a spirit of humility.
(Summary by webmaster.)

Pastoral Sharing, 31 August 2008

Each and every Sunday when we gather to celebrate the Mass, we commemorate the meal Jesus shared with his disciples on the night before he died. This Last Supper, as it has come to be known, was a one-time event that Jesus shared with his disciples. Before they gathered together in that upper room, however, Jesus and his disciples were together many, many times: at the wedding in Cana, in boats on the Sea of Galilee, walking through fields, visiting places like the regions of Tyre and Sidon and the Decapolis, visiting the homes of people like Mathew the tax collector and Zacchaeus, and other celebrations—too many to mention here—and countless other gatherings not recorded in the Gospels. Although these events were not as powerful and significant as the Last Supper, they did create a familiarity and intimacy among Jesus and his friends that made the Last Supper possible.

Last Saturday, I was invited to dinner at the home of Deacon Richard and Mary Sage along with some other parishioners. On Tuesday, I shared a beautiful lunch with the widows and widowers group and had a great time playing Bingo afterward. On Thursday, I was with the Committed group of engaged and newly married couples at the home Mike and Julie Marthaler. I have been invited to the homes of parishioners; I have enjoyed the treats and coffee with parishioners each week. All of these events are certainly not as powerful and significant as Sunday Mass, but they have created for me a familiarity and intimacy among parishioners of Mary, Mother of the Church that make the celebration of Sunday Mass more meaningful to me.

Our parish has many opportunities for all of us to gather, to socialize, and to come to know each other better. These opportunities build up our community, create a more intimate family atmosphere, and thus transform our experience of Sunday Mass. I encourage everyone to stay for treats and coffee after Mass, to participate in the gatherings and outings sponsored by our parish, and to be drawn into a deeper and more profound experience when we gather with Jesus for our Sunday Meal.
Fr. Doug

Reception in Gym

Homily this week: What if we had no mirrors, no reflections? How would we get an image of ourselves? We'd have to ask others what we look like. In the spiritual life, as in our church building, there are no mirrors. It is in the hardship of living our vocation, serving others and taking on their hardships, that we are reflected in other people that we serve. As Paul says in Romans today, we are to become a living sacrifice. As Jesus says in today's Gospel, he who seeks his own life (like the Greek legend of Narcissus) will lose it. As Christians we find our lives not by who we are, but through Christ and the people around us to whom we offer our lives.
(Summary by webmaster.)

Pastoral Sharing, 24 August 2008

In the classic baseball movie Field of Dreams, James Earl Jones plays a sports writer who, near the end of the movie, offers one of the more poignant messages of the film. He says:

The one constant through all the years has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It's been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past and reminds us of all that once was good, and can be again.

While this statement reflects the almost mysterious and transcendent role that baseball plays in rooting a nation in the past, engaging it in the present, and offering hope for the future—one cannot help but make an analogous comparison to the Church by paraphrasing these words:

The one constant through all the ages has been the Church. The world has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It's been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But the Church has marked the time. This church building, this liturgy, is a part of our past and reminds us of all that once was good, and can be again.

This weekend, the Men’s Club is hosting its annual Softball Tournament, a game slightly different from baseball, but essentially the same. Let us wish them luck in their fundraising endeavors, but let us also allow the game—by analogy—to remind us of the mysterious and transcendent role that the Church plays in rooting us in the past, engaging us in the present, and offering hope for our future.
Fr. Doug

Homily this week by Dn. Richard Sage: In today's Gospel, our Lord asks Simon, "Who do you say that I am?" Simon quickly replies, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God." After recent gospels about Simon being slow to grasp parables and shaky about walking on water, Simon finally gets it right today. Our Lord, seeing his clear faith, responds "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church." What would our Lord think about the state of his church today? He placed his church in human hands, so the church has had both bright and darker moments. Like parents love and take pride in their children despite mistakes, God loves us and loves the church. Truly we are God's people, and he will love us and be with us for all time.
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Pastoral Sharing, 27 July 2008

A common question that any priest gets is, "When did you receive the call?" If I had to rely on our old parish office phone system, the answer would have to be, "Never." Because of the limitations of the phone system and some of its quirks and how it was set up, it has been quite frustrating for both me and the parish staff not only to answer calls, but also to route them to one another, as well as to retrieve messages from the system. In addition to this, the doorbell, which is part of the system, only rang to the front office. If anyone came to the rectory outside of parish hours, it could not be heard in the house so the door went unanswered.

Last week a new phone system was installed, and so far it has been working well. There are a few glitches to figure out, but these are only minor and temporary. The doorbell now rings throughout the rectory after office hours and now all of my calls will even be forwarded to my cell phone if I am away from the rectory. I will try to answer my cell phone wherever I am; however, if I am visiting a person in the hospital or driving in heavy traffic and so forth, you will be able to leave a message (after the tone of course) and I will call you back.

Now, when somebody asks me when I received the call, I will be able to answer, "Always."
Fr. Doug

Homily this week: When we receive a wrapped gift, there are a lot of ways that we can guess what is inside. Gifts we receive from God are wrapped inside of each of us.

In the first reading today, Solomon is about to succeed his father David as king of Israel. God offers him any gift he chooses. Wisely, he chooses a gift (wisdom) that will benefit not so much himself, but benefit many other people. This type of gift is called a charism (from the Greek, charis - grace; a power, generally of a spiritual nature, believed to be a freely given gift by the grace of God.) An example of this type of gift is patience.

Let us ask God for an increase of gifts that we can use for the benefit of others. Let us also seek to discern the gifts we have been given—what is wrapped inside—and challenge ourselves to actually put those gifts into use for the benefit of others.
(Summary by webmaster.)

Pastoral Sharing, 20 July 2008

As you may know, last week I attended my 25th year class reunion from Aquinas High School. Although the turn-out was lower than expected, it was a wonderful experience reconnecting with my classmates. We remembered the years we spent together; we talked about what has happened to us since our graduation.

We brought each other up-to-date on the joys of our lives: Ordinations, marriages, children, job promotions… the successes in our lives.

We also shared the troubles of our lives: Divorces, sickness, deaths, personal setbacks... the failures in our lives.

In all of this—the joys and the troubles, the successes and the failures—I couldn’t help but think of the one constant that remained for all of us: the presence of God in our lives. Whether felt or not, whether acknowledged or not, the truth of the matter is that God is present to everyone, everywhere, at every time. Let us all try to acknowledge this, especially in those difficult times when it is the least felt.
Fr. Doug

Homily this week: Our lives resemble Jesus' parable of fruitful wheat laced with weeds. We strive to be good people and yet we all struggle with sin all our lives. If we focus too much on sins and shortcomings, a sense of unworthiness can distance or separate us from the joy of the Gospel and of our sacramental life. We should concentrate on living a life of grace, finding joy in God's love, mercy, and forgiveness.
(Summary by webmaster.)

Pastoral Sharing, 6 July 2008

Bishop Listecki has granted permanent deacons the option to wear clerical attire when exercising their ministry. Most people identify the Roman collar with the priest. While this is certainly true, there are dioceses that allow seminarians and deacons to wear the Roman collar. In his June 9 letter to the priests and deacons of the Diocese of La Crosse, Bishop Listecki wrote, “The Roman collar is a sign of the Church’s presence, visible through the ordained clergy. Many faithful can easily recognize members of the clergy by this sign. The deacon, ordained for service, becomes a visible sign of the Church when he exercises his diaconal ministry. He is a cleric by ordination. The option to wear the Roman collar will allow the deacon to be more easily identified, especially by those seeking assistance from an ordained servant of the Church.” With this permission from the Bishop you may now see Deacon Sage and other deacons of the Diocese wearing the Roman collar with either a gray or black shirt when they are serving as deacons engaged in ministerial service.
Fr. Doug

Homily this week: Everyone carries a heavy burden; sometimes we get tired and need the help of others. When we gather for liturgy (from Greek, "the work of the people"), we can share our burdens, pray for each other, and support each other. Let us pray to have the grace to give help to one another, and the humility to accept help from each other. Fr. Doug asked us to pray for the people with whom we worship.
(Summary by webmaster.)

Pastoral Sharing, 29 June 2008

Today, as part of our observance of the Pauline Jubilee Year proclaimed by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, we are enshrining an icon of the image of St. Paul that will remain in the church throughout the Pauline Year. Paul was a tireless preacher of the Good News of Jesus Christ. Known as the Apostle to the Gentiles, he is among the most influential teachers of our faith, presenting in his many letters to early believers the foundation of Christian theology. The icon shows Paul with a sword and flame, symbolizing his passion for the sharp and true word of God. In his hands he holds a scroll with the phrase, “The just shall live by faith.” These words of Paul remain the bedrock of Christian faith and thought to this day. May this image of St. Paul remind us throughout the coming year always to be people of faith seeking justice for all.

Fr. Doug

Homily this week: We all sin, but we are also called to heralds of the gospel. Peter denied Christ three times, but in today's gospel Christ heals that sin and founds His church on Peter. Paul sinned—he persecuted the early church and abetted the stoning of St. Stephen—yet received forgiveness and was called to teach the faith to the gentiles. Like Peter and Paul, we sin, yet we may obtain forgiveness, and we are called to bring the gospel to our world.
(Summary by webmaster.)

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Updated 24 June 2008

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