Memorial of Saint Ambrose, bishop and doctor of the Church
Advent is a season of preparation for the Lord’s arrival at Christmas. Christmas celebrates Christ’s original coming in Bethlehem and his second coming at the end of time. Thus our preparation takes place on more than one level. Yet the activities in which we find ourselves involved at this time of year are often less than spiritual. While these happenings are important in the material world, the busyness which accompanies them can preclude us from finding rest in Christ. The real trick would be if we can bring our spiritual nature into all these activities.
Tuesday of the Second Week of Advent
Sometimes it seems like human beings really need a leader. I’ve heard it said a lot recently that there is a need for leadership in the world. There is a need for insightful leaders, since so many of the problems that we are facing today are much bigger than any one person can address. In my life, too, I find myself needing a shepherd. I want more guidance on how to live my life. It’s not always clear where life is going. In modern times there are few certainties, and it often seems that people are looking for someone or something to give them assurance that they are doing things the right way. The scripture readings for today present us with the idea that ideal leader is Jesus, because he is willing to do all that he can for the sake of those who are in his care.
Monday of the Second Week of Advent
Have you ever had the experience where you were looking forward to a particular event so much so that you were happy and excited just thinking about the future happening? Maybe this event was a vacation that you had planned for some time, or maybe a family reunion that you were looking forward to gathering with loved ones. Perhaps it was the upcoming birth of a child that brought this great sense of excitement and joy. Today’s readings speak of this same joyful anticipation.
Second Sunday of Advent
Last week I began with the story Corey Cooper and Christina Jackson who died in a car accident. Ever since the accident, not only have I offered my comfort to the families but I have also wanted to reach out to Robert Finkley, the man who caused the accident. On Thursday, I made a visit to the jail and spoke with him for about half an hour. He did not know that I was coming, who I was or what to expect. He came to the window holding a Bible in his hands. The man I met was unspeakably regretful and filled with inexpressible sorrow. He wanted me to convey to the families how incredibly sorry he was for his actions. As Robert said, “What I did was more than a mistake.” I have rarely seen such hopelessness or sense of despair. I asked him not to give up on God, on faith, and not to lose hope. May be, he could become the greatest campaigner against driving under the influence.
Memorial of Saint Francis Xavier, priest
We usually think of Christmas, not Advent, as the time of giving—but, really, all times are times of giving. Although we may not always realize it, we receive everything that we have as a gift from God. As the Creed insists, we believe in the God who is “creator of heaven and earth, of all that is- seen and unseen.” If we allow ourselves to seriously contemplate our own Faith, we find that we believe that everything stems from God’s giving. If this is true, then all of our experiences find their origin in God, who continuously sustains all things. Everything that we are and everything that we have- all of our lives have their source in the LORD God Almighty, who is the beginning and the end of everything that was, and is, and will be.
Friday of the First Week of Advent
Words do things - significant things. There are very few times that "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me" holds true; words can drip with violence and incrimination, making a person feel terrible for that day and many other days to come. Donald Trump only has to utter two words - "You're fired" - to dash the hopes of his future employees.
Thursday of the First Week of Advent
Which house would you want to live in? The one built on rock or the one built on sand?
In today’s gospel (Matthew 7:21, 24-27) we have the closing of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus has been preaching to his disciples and is calling them to greater conversion. Some of his followers were performing works of healing and exorcism in Jesus’ name while living evil lives, not doing God’s will. In today’s gospel reading, Jesus uses the lesson of the two different foundations for building a house to make his point.
Feast of Saint Andrew, apostle
The story of the calling of the apostles in the gospel reading today is remarkable for at least two reasons. First, it is the story of Jesus calling fishermen to be disciples. It is surprising that Jesus initially chose humble, relatively uneducated people to be his disciples, rather than those who were highly educated in religion. Yet, these disciples, including Peter and his brother Andrew, went on to do great things in spreading the good news and building up the church. This is in fact an inspiring point.
Tuesday of the First Week of Advent
When I look at the world today, it can seem that peace and justice are ideals that will never be achieved. Yet, remarkably, the first reading for today, from Isaiah, announces the coming of a new kingdom in which God’s rein brings peace and justice. Isaiah looks forward to the coming of Jesus, the shoot that will emerge from the stump of Jesse. When I read through Isaiah’s remarkable words, what emerges above all is the emphasis on justice in the Kingdom of God. But this raises the question, what does Isaiah mean by justice? First, justice is the idea of living righteously by personally following God’s law. Second, justice is concerned with doing right towards others. This includes being concerned for the poor and doing what you can to improve and alleviate their material existence. For instance, Proverbs states that “the generous will be blessed, for they share their food with the poor” (22: 9); and Sirach teaches that those who help the poor and oppressed find favor with the Lord (4: 8-12).
Monday of the First Week of Advent
Believe it or not, Advent of 2011 has begun! For some of us it may feel as if this preparatory season with the hope of Christmas on the horizon couldn’t come soon enough. For others, we may feel that time has simply flew by as if we were taking down the lights from last Christmas just a few weeks ago. Nevertheless, Advent has arrived and we begin to ask ourselves one very important question, “Am I ready?” But before we can answer this question, I find myself asking another, which is, “What does it mean to be ready?” Because if being “ready for Christmas” is simply sending cards in the mail or getting gifts bought in time, I think we’d all agree that we’d be missing the point. Rather, are we ready for Jesus Christ to once again be born in our lives? This is by far a much more challenging question. Am I prepared to accept Jesus? Am I ready to receive Him? Am I ready?
First Sunday of Advent
Just today, I buried two young people who were killed in a car accident. Corey Cooper was only 18 years old and Christina Jackson was 20. When they left home the night of November eighteenth, no one thought that this would the last time they saw their family; when they got into the car that night, no one thought this would be their last car ride; when they sent their text sitting at the red light early morning of November nineteenth, they did not think that would be their last text ever sent. Like a flash of lightning, their brief lives were over. “Watch therefore,” Jesus says in today’s gospel reading, “you do not know when the lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning.”
Saturday of the Thirty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Appropriately, on this final day of the liturgical year, we have reflections about the apocalypse, or the second coming of Jesus. “Apocalypse” in Greek literally means “revelation” or “pulling back the veil” (Hence the title of the last book of the Bible). We generally talk about “revelation” as the way that God makes Himself known to us—in Scripture and preeminently in Jesus Himself.
Friday of the Thirty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time
This week's scripture readings have been apocalyptic - focused on the end of times. The readings are deeply symbolic of what the author thinks will happen in the future, but the symbolism is often unclear. Take, for example, today's first reading (Daniel 7:2-14). Get fifty scripture scholars in a room and you would not have the same interpretation. Indeed, get fifty people from our single parish and I doubt we'd have the same interpretation of all the symbols. Who are the beasts and what do they represent? What does it mean that one of the beasts is told to get up and devour much flesh? And whose flesh is it? Depending on the way one reads, these scriptures can seem personally terrifying (perhaps the beast means to devour us!) or personally comforting (perhaps the beast will devour all that is evil in the world).
Thanksgiving Day
I think it’s safe to say that most of us have heard or read today’s gospel story (Luke 17: 11-19) many, many times in our lives. The Healing of the Ten Lepers is a very familiar story, which, as a result, can cause us to skim over it quickly and not reflect deeply, being tempted just to say, “Oh, I know that one,” and move on. I encourage you to read it again and take a closer look at it with me today on this day of giving thanks.
Wednesday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
The title of today's reflection, a play on the line from Shakespeare's Hamlet, illustrates the dichotomous light we may need to illuminate our own actions. Although the readings speak to the end times, a more overwhelming message rises to the top as we quickly approach Advent. Simply put, the times of trial and persecution will lead us to testify to our faith, in other words, to glorify God.
Memorial of Saint Cecilia, virgin and martyr
This year has been a crazy one when it comes to political alliances (and dis-alliances). The European Economic Union seems poised to break apart, and heads of state that I never thought would be gone (at least not this year) have been dethroned because of the economy. The Arabian Spring brought in several other new leaders, and civil war elsewhere will may bring some new heads of state before year's end. Political alliances are being re-forged, and whatever new relationships come will surely have an affect on the economy and our lives in some small way - but in what way, exactly? This we do not know, and so anxiety sets in.
Memorial of The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Presentation of Mary in the Temple. Though not mentioned in Scripture, some apocryphal writings, the Protoevangelium of James in particular, tell of Mary’s parents, Joachim and Ann bringing her to the Temple to live at the age of three. This was in fulfillment of a promise made by St Anne before Mary’s conception. The theological importance of the feast stems from its emphasis on Mary’s total dedication to God from before her birth through her childhood.
Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ The King
I have heard this story many times, but it never ceases to touch me. So I would like to repeat it for you. On a cold day in December in New York, a little boy was standing before a shoe store on the roadway, barefooted, peering through the window, and shivering with cold. A lady who noticed him, approached him and asked him what he was looking at. “I was asking God to give me a pair of shoes.” The lady took him by the hand, went into the store, and asked the clerk to get half a dozen pairs of socks for the boy. She then asked if he could give her a basin of water and a towel. She took the little boy and removing her gloves, knelt down, washed his little feet, and dried them with the towel. By this time, the clerk had returned with the socks. Placing a pair upon the boy's feet, she purchased him a pair of shoes. She tied up the remaining pairs of socks and gave them to him. She patted him on the head and said asked him to go along on his way. As she turned to go, the astonished kid caught her by the hand, and looking up into her face, with tears in his eyes, asked “Are you God's wife?”
Saturday of the Thirty-Third Week in Ordinary Time
Throughout the gospels, we see Jesus interacting with representatives from some of the various schools of Judaism of His day (of course, we must remember that Jesus was a Jew who observed the requirements of the Jewish Law). Since Jesus was known as a rabbi (or teacher), it would have been customary for him to debate the interpretation of the law with other Jewish leaders. Not surprisingly, these debates often included attempts to undercut and outsmart the other, especially if the authority of opposing party was suspect.
Friday of the Thirty-Third Week in Ordinary Time
My Jewish friends would groan if they ever saw the title for this scripture reflection, because they tell me Christians make way more of Hanukkah than even Jews do. It has come to be called the "Jewish Christmas" so that their kids don't feel left out of all the commercial hoopla - but, as my friends tell me, Hanukkah has traditionally been a rather minor holiday, especially by comparison to Passover or Rosh Hoshanna.