Tuesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s readings have been a source of astonishment for many generations of Christians. In today's first reading from Ezekiel, the wise and prudent ruler of the great city of Tyre is proud. When he reflects on his many successes, he can only conclude that he has divine power. How else could he be so good at everything? But Ezekiel’s message to him is simple: ‘Prince, you are a mortal man, you and will die soon at the hands of murderers.’
Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
On this Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we can sing with our Holy Mother “…He has remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children forever.”
(Lk 1:54-55) Mary sings in gratitude and praise for the long awaited Messiah and, on this day, we sing in gratitude and praise for the gift of Mary as well. Though we can never fully comprehend the depth of God’s mercy for us, God’s gift to us in the Blessed Mother is a most splendid expression of the vastness of this mercy.
Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
“Do you think I have come to bring peace? No, I tell you, bur rather division.” Division, violence, and wars remain the uppermost concern in the minds of many of us. Terrorism is sweeping the globe. There is not one country that can rest secure. In our own country, political discourse is bordering the extreme. Racial violence has claimed many lives. Fear is crippling our normal lives. As if this were not enough, we come to church and we hear Jesus saying, “Do you think I have come to bring peace? No, I tell you, bur rather division.” I have read this passage many times. I even know how to interpret it correctly. Yet, when I read it at face value, my heart sank a little. And then we have the words, “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing.” What shall we do with Jesus’ words?
Saturday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
My wife and I have the great pleasure of watching our daughter, Hosanna, become more and more interactive every day. She is no longer just smiling and giggling, but waving and pointing. One of her cutest interactions is when you tell her “no”. She looks at you smiles and shakes her head. She may have no idea what no means but she is so busy showing you that you shake your head when you say no that she stops what she was doing. Just as my wife and I sometimes tell Hosanna no, like when she is breaking Olympic records trying to touch Iggy’s potty before we pick it up off the floor, God tells us no too.
Friday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
When I teach my undergraduate Christian Marriage course, I always have students asking why the Catholic Church prohibits divorce - and what's up with annulment anyway? Isn't it just a Catholic form of divorce? Today's scriptures point toward some of the whys and the complexities of Catholic teaching about marriage and divorce.
Memorial of Saint Clare, Virgin
Each time we pray the Lord’s Prayer (“Our Father…”), which is at least each Sunday at mass, perhaps more often if we pray it on our own or with our children during the week, we are asking God to “forgive us our trespasses (or debts) as we forgive those who trespass against us (our debtors).” (taken from Matthew 6:12) Today’s gospel reading (Matthew 18: 21-19:1) is about just that. The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant is a somewhat jarring parable intended to bring home Jesus’ important message of forgiveness.
Feast of Saint Lawrence, deacon and martyr
Recently, we called to a situation in the hospital to which our police department also responded. As I stood there with the officer I realized that we were both there for the same reason, to care for the patient. Yet each our badges, his as police and mine as chaplain connoted a different type of help we might provide. While waiting outside the patients room we remarked about this reality. Realizing that for each of us that our badge and our service with the patient would likely reap different responses. For all of us our badge of disciple connotes that we will be joyful servants, but this is not all always the reality we sow. Why is there a disconnect in our understanding the correlation between our actions and attitudes and the fruit they bare?
Tuesday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Our first reading today is Ezekial’s call by God to become a prophet. If you have felt God calling you to do something in your life you know it is not always easy. God calls us to serve in the uncomfortable places of this earth. God is asking Ezekial to share the writings of the scroll to the Israelites that entail “Lamentations, dirges and cries of grief”. I don’t know about you but that does not sound appetizing to swallow.
Memorial of Saint Dominic, Priest
In this day and age, it is not difficult to become overwhelmed with the depressing events of our world. When you watch or read the news, the stories tell of violence, hatred, poverty, and greed. Although there are many evils of this world, we lose sight of the glory of God which is alive and vibrant in our world if we remain open to God’s revelation. As disciples of Christ, we are called to seek and recognize the many ways that Christ’s grace and glory is present in the world around us. When we name this glory and share it with others, we become lights in the darkness as we follow the Son.
Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
When I travelled to India in June, I took the book, “The Loneliness and Longing of St. Francis,” to read along the way. This is no ordinary book. On the one hand, this book tells the story of St. Francis’ incredible journey from being a rich notorious youth to a radical follower of Christ; on the other hand, the story is the journey of Gerard Thomas Straub, a Hollywood film maker and a professing atheist. Straub once used to have Alec Baldwin and Demi Moore star in front of his camera. He also was the producer of the famous television serial General Hospital. In March 1985 he went to Rome on a visit and chose the quiet of a church to rest a while. He did not enter the church to pray but to take a break. The rest is history. In his book, “The Thoughts of a Blind Beggar,” he says, “Within the space of a fleeting moment, I knew … that God was real, that God loved me, and that the hunger and thirst I had felt for so long could be satisfied only by God.” That was only the beginning. Inspired by Christ and St. Francis, Straub’s new found faith, like, Abraham, led him to places and to make changes he never imagined. His conversion took him from riches to self-imposed poverty, from future fame to embracing the poor, from the comfort of his Hollywood home to the slums of Central America, India, and Africa.
Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord
My son, Ignatius, just got a pile of kid’s science books. They are awesome! I immediately tried to convince him that he wanted to read all of them. I didn’t win him over, but he did find his interest piqued by the ‘sun and moon’ book which was one about eclipses. After reading it (during which Bess continually sang “total eclipse of the heart”) I felt like an accomplished father doing my part to assure my son that the sun won't disappear forever during an eclipse. Imagine my surprise when that book came rushing back to me as I sat and read today’s Gospel.
Friday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
I had a professor in seminary who liked to look for good examples and ideas for homilies in nearly everything: films, poetry, walks in the woods, and especially the difficult material we would read for his classes. Whenever he discerned something that would make a good homily, he'd excitedly tear off his glasses, peer at us with wonder, and exclaim, "That'll preach!" If it would inspire people to follow Jesus - "that'll preach!" If it was true, and beautiful, and difficult to live out, that would be the moment when he would make his cry: "That'll preach!"
Memorial of Saint John Vianney, Priest
Every time I complete a Myers Briggs Type Indicator I come back pretty close to the middle on the introvert vs. extrovert scale, however when I’m in a room with people I don’t know the introvert in me comes out. I have to work to think of questions to ask people and ways to find common ground so that we can build a conversation and possibly a friendship. I’m an awkward person, I can’t hide it – but I can do my best to embrace it and still help others feel comfortable enough to engage with me. I imagine for extroverts these situations can take work as well (I’m theorizing a bit here). Yes, the words come out naturally but typically extroverts have to work to listen, to pause, to breathe even. No matter who we are, getting to know someone else from scratch takes work.
Wednesday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
For many of us, ask for something from another human being is difficult. We often pride ourselves in not needing help from anyone. We live in a culture where we should be able to pull ourselves by our own boot straps. Our success within our culture seems in many ways dependent on our ability to be independent. This independence has weaknesses of course in that there are often times when we need to help of others just to function.
Tuesday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Consider a deeply faithful, spiritual person you may know. Are they attractive to you? Do you want to be more like them? Have you ever wondered how to ‘get that?’ Jesus’s response to Saint Peter and the crowds in today’s readings show us the way: Keep your eyes on Jesus!
Memorial of Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
Let's talk about everyday life. We eat, we sleep, we care for those we live with (cleaning, cooking, etc.), and take care of the pressing issues of that particular day. The next day we begin all over again. The commonplace, maybe even trivial, things we must do each and every day—the quotidian—has a tendency to be subconsciously or intellectually reduced to those things which must be done but carry limited importance in the ‘big picture’ of our lives. But in today’s Gospel, Jesus demonstrates how the most quotidian of matters can and do express the fullness of love.
Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
There is a new movie released called, “Equity.” It brings two seemingly unconnected themes together: Wall Street and women. Early in the movie, Naomi, an investment banker, who is overseeing a tricky IPO, is asked by the career panel what makes her get up in the morning. “I love money,” she responds. “I grew up in a house where there was never enough,” she continues. “I was raised by a single mom with four kids. I took my first job on Wall Street so I could put my brothers through college. But I am not going to sit here and tell you that I do what do for other people because it is OK to do it for ourselves… for how it makes us feel.” Later in the movie she says, “Money is not a dirty word!” Let’s admit it - money is not an issue for those who have enough; but for those who cannot make ends meet or have to work hard at it, not having it is the hardest thing. Money may not make us happier, but it sure does make life easier. Financial stress is a killer. It breaks marriages, it can make people unhealthy, give us heart attacks, and change our behavior.
Saturday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time
I used to get together with a good friend of mine frequently. We would have a good time shooting the breeze, and one of us would suggest a farfetched idea of some kind. To which the other would reply, “You are crazy.” And the only acceptable response to that was, “I might be crazy, but I’m not wrong.” Those are the words I hear from Jeremiah today and that is the reality that got John the Baptist in trouble. They were prophets and that is their life. But we too are Baptized prophet. We have a prophetic role to fill and these readings help us glean an insight into what that means for our lives.
Memorial of Saint Martha
I keep telling my husband that the world feels like it’s on fire. Two weeks ago, I wrote about Israel, and it seems things have only gotten worse. Today’s reading from Jeremiah is another lament that seems all too appropriate for the strife of the today's world. In fact, Jeremiah who preaches the word of God is himself being threatened with death (Jer 26:8). But today’s gospel reading brings the pain and strife expressed by Jeremiah’s fate down to the level of one family. Martha and Mary have lost their brother, Lazarus. Martha, the woman whose memorial we celebrate today, greets Jesus with both brutal honesty and earnest faith. She tells Jesus that if he has been there, Lazarus would not have died. On the one hand, she is scolding him through her tears of grief. On the other, she is expressing her deep faith in the God she finds incarnate in Jesus himself. Martha also expresses her faith in the resurrection of the dead, saying to Jesus, ““I know [Lazarus] will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.” The story cuts off before the climax, which is when Jesus rises his friend from the grave.
Thursday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time
Sometimes, I think, it’s easy to forget how awesome, almighty and mysterious God is. At least I know that I don’t reflect on that on a day-to-day basis as I’m living my life taking care of the kids, keeping the household running, following up on doctors’ appointments and other responsibilities, trying to fit in exercise and maintaining contact with friends and extended family. I try to pray on a daily basis beyond our daily dinner and bedtime prayers with the kids; I certainly take my worries and troubles to God. And I think of my relationship with Jesus as a pretty good one that has, thankfully, been formed in a church and family that emphasized the forgiveness of God, the gentleness, the loving kindness. And I do believe that is a good thing.