Memorial of Saint Charles Borromeo, bishop
In today’s gospel passage from Luke, Jesus uses two parables to convey his dedication to the “lost.” In the first of these, he compares the repentant sinner to a lost sheep who is found by his shepherd. In the second parable, Jesus compares the repentant sinner to a lost coin. In both cases, the one who finds, rejoices. So we are led to understand that Jesus rejoices in the sinners that he is accused of welcoming. This is an important lesson for the Pharisees and scribes to understand because of their emphasis on righteousness. While righteousness in and of itself is praiseworthy, the Pharisees and scribes used it for exclusionary purposes; they preferred the lost to stay lost rather than be found. The law provided a convenient way to disregard those who had fallen away.
Wednesday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
Have you ever been asked the question, “Are you saved?” At first, this question can catch Catholic’s off guard as it is not part of our usual vocabulary. Part of a Catholic response comes from today’s first reading. A proper answer to “have we been saved” is three-fold. We have been saved when Jesus died as a final sacrifice for us. We are being saved. Salvation is a process worked out with fear and trembling. We will be saved in the resurrection on the last day. Yet Paul’s letter to the Philippians’ suggests another important distinction that is often unaccounted for the question of one’s salvation.
The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed
I sometimes forget how much of an influence my parents, grandparents, and friends have played in my development as a Christian. For me it’s often easy to overlook this because it’s so fundamental to who I am. It’s difficult for me to imagine not having had people in my life who serve as a role models and encouragers in Christian faith. That may be one reason I find myself resonating so much with the feast of All Souls.
Solemnity of All Saints
Today is a solemnity, the highest ranking feast in the Church. All Saints’ Day is also usually a holy day of obligation, when we are required to go Mass to celebrate this great feast, which commemorates all the saints, both those known and those unknown. In other words, this solemnity celebrates those who have achieved the beatific vision of God in heaven. This is in contrast with the feast we celebrate tomorrow – All Souls’ Day – of all those who have died but have not yet reached heaven.
Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
I want to begin today’s reflection with the reading from the book of wisdom. In these few verses the pronoun ‘you’ is used fourteen times in addressing God. ‘You’ in this passage is an endearing term. It is very evident that the author composed his words with a deep awareness of God and a very intimate knowledge of God. The passage suggests to me that the author is enamored by God; that the author is deeply and crazy in love with God. This passage almost seems to be a love-poem in which a lover admires the qualities of the partner.
Saturday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time
In St. Luke’s Gospel, our Lord asks us to consider humility and it’s opposite—pride, the deadliest of the seven deadly sins. Why is it that we are called to humility? Isn’t pride a good thing? It seems that in all places we see pride held up as the ideal: pride in one’s country, pride in one’s achievements, pride in one’s work, pride in one’s children, pride in one’s status. What’s so deadly about pride? Pride, deadliest of sins, is such a problem because it’s an extreme focus on the self. To be proud is to be satisfied with oneself, to put oneself first. When one is completely satisfied with oneself, one does not need salvation, one does not see sin. Indeed, St. Augustine described sin as to be “caved in on oneself.”
Friday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time
Life is bounded by a lot of rules, and for the most part, we’re glad people follow those rules. I appreciate, for example, that pretty much everyone respects driving on the right hand side of the road. It makes life a lot easier.
Feast of Saints Simon and Jude, Apostles
In our Christian faith, the twelve apostles hold a special place of distinction. They were Jesus’ closest associates, and the ones he entrusted with mission. Today we celebrate the feast of two of these apostles, St. Simon (known as the Zealot) and St. Jude. Very little is known about either of these apostles, though there are various traditions associated with them. St. Jude, for example, is known as the cousin of the Lord and is regarded as the patron of hopeless causes.
Wednesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time
This morning I awoke to a news show describing how the salaries of the wealthiest Americans have increased in the last few years. In 2008, the top seventy four United States wage earners averaged a salary of 81 million dollars for that year. This same group in 2009 had an average salary of 519 million dollars for that year, quite an increase in a short amount of time. This show, whose data was pulled from a Bloomberg News report out today, stated that these seventy four combined salaries were equivalent of nineteen million people’s wages from the lowest paid people in the U.S. If our culture defines these seventy-four rich people as the people at the top, today’s gospel suggests that they “may” be the “first who will be last.”
Tuesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time
Several years ago I started getting into making my own bread from scratch. I quickly learned the difference between leavened and unleavened bread. I learned to activate the yeast – adding a little sugar or flour to yeast and water before adding to the flour and water to make dough. I also learned the importance of covering the dough and allowing it to rise in a warm place, long enough so that it at least doubles in size. The time that this takes varies depending on the temperature and how active the yeast already is. Finally, I learned how to knead the dough so that the bread achieves the right texture and consistency. In addition to leavened bread I also enjoyed making unleavened, pita bread in a very hot oven. Both leavened and unleavened bread are delicious if prepared well. However, there is something special about leavened bread because of the lighter texture that results from the action of the yeast.
Monday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s responsorial psalm describes those who delight in the law of the Lord as thus: “They are like trees planted near running water that yields its fruit in due season and whose leaves never fade. Whatever they do, prospers” (Ps. 1:3). At first this seems an odd companion for the gospel reading, wherein Jesus cures a woman in the synagogue on the Sabbath. The leader of the synagogue is obviously committed to the precept of not doing work on the Sabbath; he appears convinced of this law of the Lord. But does he “delight” in the law of the Lord?
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today’s readings continue the theme of prayer. The best way for me to further clarify the theme would be to say that, if last Sunday’s theme was about how to pray, this week’s theme is “How NOT to pray.” For example, the gospel reading contrasts the prayer of the Pharisee with that of the tax-collector. The tables are turned in this parable. The (self) righteous person’s prayer finds no place in God’s eyes, whereas, the sinner goes home justified. Jesus gives us the reason for this reversal of fortunes in the words, “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted." If we try to understand the first reading in this context, the message is even clearer. Sirach says, God “hears the prayer of the poor.” (Sir 35:13) “The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds…” (Sir 35:17).
Saturday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
We learn from the parable in Luke’s gospel that we have been given new life by Christ’s life, death, and resurrection; he has made it possible for us to bear fruit by “cultivating the ground” and “fertilizing” (Lk 13:8). Yet, we must respond, as Paul exhorts the Ephesians, by living according to the gift that Christ has given us (Eph 4:8).
Friday of the Twenty-Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
We seem to be a nation of advice-seekers. Advice columnists in the newspapers thrive on dispensing advice to letter writers. Teenagers and young adults text each other asking for up-to-the-minute advice. Self help books remain a top selling genre at bookstores.
Thursday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s readings make an interesting pair. Whereas the passage from Ephesians seems uplifting, the gospel reading from Luke might be one we’d rather forget. And yet both of these texts are a part of our tradition, and they are not contradictory but rather complementary.
Wednesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
At work recently, I was struggling to get everything I supposed to do accomplished. While my workload kept growing, as many of ours have, my ability to juggle the amount of tasks was being diminished because I was not looking at the big picture. Ministry is often an unpredictable vocation. Yet there was one thing that kept to coming to me in prayer and that message was to be prepared. As an Eagle Scout I understand well that the motto of the Boy Scouts is to “Be Prepared”, yet my inability to handle unexpected realities suggested otherwise.
Memorial of Saint John de Brébeuf and Saint Isaac Jogues, priests and martyrs, and their companions
“Peace be with you.” We say these words to each other in the mass every time it is celebrated. What do we mean by this? First and foremost we are expressing the spiritual fact that in Christ there is no division between believers, but second, we are expressing our personal commitment not to engage in strife and to work to resolve and eradicate any divisions that we encounter in the body of Christ.
Feast of Saint Luke, evangelist
Today we celebrate the feast of St. Luke, the Evangelist. Author of the gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, Luke has been known as a physician and companion of St. Paul the Apostle. To him we owe much of our knowledge concerning the beginnings of Jesus on earth, such as Gabriel’s annunciation to Mary, Mary’s visit to Elizabeth, the Nativity at Bethlehem, the visit of the shepherds, Jesus’ presentation in the Temple, and the loss and finding of the boy Jesus in the Temple. To Luke we also owe much of our knowledge about the beginnings of the Church. His adventure story of the Acts of the Apostles has been described as a history written in the tradition of Greek historians at the time. Luke was an eyewitness to these early Church events and saw fit to record them for the benefit of the Church.
Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
As Jesus says in today’s gospel the theme of today’s readings is about the necessity to pray always without becoming weary (Lk 18:1). There are common strands between the first reading and the Gospel reading. Each of the readings show us the connection between three things: God, the human person and the situation confronting the human persons. Thus, in the first reading there is God, there is Moses and there is the battle against the Amalekites. In the Gospel reading, there is the judge who cared about nothing and nobody, there is the widow, and there is situation where the widow faced an adversary. In each of these situations, the human person is looking for help from God for facing the adversity. What are the readings really saying to us today?
Saturday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
The puzzle that life is, is not always obvious to us, is it? A simple complexity in life can make us sit back and question the meaning of life. Just yesterday, for example, I was called to the Riverside Nursing home in the West side of the city to pray the prayers for the dying. Here lay a man on his deathbed absolutely alone. He had no family or loved one beside him. The very thought of dying alone sends chills down my spine. I took time to pray for him. I just prayed that God might show him the light so that deep in his heart this man would know that he was not alone; that God was with him.