St. Philip the Apostle Byzantine Catholic Church

09/07/2026

A friend at prayer.

09/06/2026

https://stphilipofsacramento.wordpress.com/2026/09/06/bulletin-for-6-september-2026-15th-sunday-after-pentecost/

O Holy Apostle Philip, Intercede with the merciful God That He may grant our souls forgiveness of sins. Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory to Him forever! + Slava Isusu Christu! Slava i vo viki!  Fr…

09/05/2026

THANKSGIVING IS THE HEART OF CHRISTIAN LIFE
Homily for the 15th Sunday after Pentecost
By Fr James Graham
2 Corinthians 4:6-15 / Matthew 22:35-46

In today’s reading from St Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle talks about his ministry—and he makes clear that it is not his ministry in any kind of selfish or egotistical way.

Yes, he is the minister, the one who proclaims the Gospel, the one who teaches, but he does all this with other followers of Jesus, so he always says “we,” not “me.”

And the message he teaches, the Gospel he preaches, are not his message or his words. They are the truth of God, the power of Jesus the Messiah, Light and Life given to the world.

St Paul also makes it clear that the message is what’s important. He says, “We carry this treasure in earthen vessels.” That is, he thinks of himself and his helpers as storage jars made of clay. The jar doesn’t have intrinsic value, but its contents do. Think of it this way: You can go to the supermarket and buy the most delicious ribeye steaks or to a jewelry store and buy a diamond ring or to a wine shop and buy a wonderful bottle of Champagne. Whatever you buy, you will probably carry it home in a brown paper bag.

And the bag will probably get crunched up and thrown in the trash, or put in the recycling bin, or folded to use again. In the same way, Paul and his co-workers got used again and again; they were attacked and persecuted; they went hungry; they got sick; they were thrown in jail—but they were never conquered and they never gave up. They always went on carrying the Message of Salvation in Jesus Christ, preaching it by their words and showing it in their lives.

Finally, St Paul emphasizes that he and his fellow apostles don’t labor for their own sake or for their own glory. He says, “Everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.”

He does everything and suffers everything so that more and more people will learn that Jesus is the Lord and recognize the grace that God pours into their lives. When this happens, those people will also spread the word and more and more people will come to the Lord—thus the grace spreads wider and wider and wider. All of them will thank God—and their teachers—for the grace that comes to them. And thanksgiving is the heart of Christian life. When we recognize that everything comes to us from God’s love, we give thanks and we become more and more aware of God’s glory in the world.

Our work as Christians is like the work of St Paul and his fellow apostles:

We have to let God’s light shine into the world by our words and our actions.

We have to realize that all the power and glory belong to God, not to us.

We have to have confidence that God will be with us through all of our sufferings and troubles and will raise us to new life like Jesus and with Jesus.

And we have to do everything for the sake of all our brothers and sisters in the human family, so that God’s grace will reach more and more people, and that thanksgiving may increase, to the glory of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and to ages of ages. Amen.

09/05/2026

09/02/2026

Happy New Year!

08/30/2026

https://stphilipofsacramento.wordpress.com/2026/08/30/bulletin-for-30-august-2026/

O Holy Apostle Philip, Intercede with the merciful God That He may grant our souls forgiveness of sins. Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory to Him forever! + Slava Isusu Christu! Slava i vo viki!  Fr…

08/29/2026

WE HAVE TO ACCEPT GOD'S TERMS FOR SALVATION
Homily for the 14th Sunday after Pentecost
By Fr James Graham
2 Corinthians 1:21-2:4 / Matthew 22:2-14

At first reading, the parable of the great wedding banquet seems very unfair. The king seems to over-react to everything. When the original guests refuse his invitation, he sends his soldiers to kill them and destroy their city. Then he sends his servants to fill up the wedding feast with people off the streets. Finally, the king spots one of these new guests not wearing the right clothing and orders his servants to tie him up and throw him back onto the street, tossing him in the gutter like a discarded fast-food wrapper.

Such extreme behavior seems totally irrational. It cannot be explained or understood until we figure out the parable—the hidden meaning of the story. This story is one of several that Jesus tells when He is asked the questions, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” The elders and priests of the Temple are worried that Jesus is undermining their control of the religion by healing people and teaching them to think about the Kingdom of God.

As usual, Jesus doesn’t give direct answers. He uses parables to explain and teach a lesson about some subject by telling stories in which the characters and actions parallel or stand for the people and situations being indirectly talked about. Jesus tells the stories, and usually the listeners have to figure out for themselves what the stories mean. In a few instances, He unfolds the parables, but mostly, as in this case, He just states the lesson more or less clearly.

Here, the parable shows that the source of Jesus’ authority is God, the Giver of Life and the Giver of the Law. Since God makes the rules and sets the terms for our existence, we cannot call His actions unfair, even if we don’t like them or don’t understand them.

We can see that the king in the parable represents God the Father, and the wedding banquet stands for the eternal celebration of God’s love in heaven—what we call Salvation. The original guests are the Israelites—the chosen people with whom God made a covenant—who often ignored God’s call for them to be holy and even killed God’s messengers, the prophets. Jesus knows that they will have Him killed, too. So God punishes them by inviting a new set of guests—God opens salvation to all people, not just the chosen people.

Now everyone has a chance to enjoy the wedding banquet of the King. Everyone has an invitation to be saved.

But salvation is not automatic. Salvation is not forced on anyone. Even those who accept God’s invitation must respond in the right way. This story isn’t about wearing the right clothes to the party. It’s about accepting salvation according to God’s terms. An invitation to a wedding comes with certain obligations. If we fail or refuse to fulfill those obligations, it’s fair for our host to have us removed, even while still calling us “Friend.” To participate in God’s eternal wedding feast, that is, to be saved, we must believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son and Word of God who became a man to save humanity from sin and restore our right relationship with God.

The wedding robe the ejected guest is not wearing can be identified with our baptismal robe. In accepting Jesus as Lord, God, and Savior, we take off our old sinful self and put on Christ—the new garment of light and love and salvation. If we refuse to wear the robe of salvation, we disqualify ourselves—we disinvite ourselves from the banquet and reject the hospitality, the love, and the salvation of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, whom we thank and praise and glorify now and ever and to ages of ages. Amen.