Tuesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Yesterday, our first reading from the book of the prophet Hosea conveyed God’s love for his people. Despite their infidelity, God loved the people of Israel, and he desired that they would return his love wholeheartedly and unselfishly. When they did not, God became justly angry, and the words of Hosea in today’s passage now express the disappointment of God in his people. It is not simply that God is a selfish lover who thinks only of Himself. Rather, God sees that the people are destroying themselves by turning to other gods and worshiping hand-made idols.
Monday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s powerful first reading comes to us from the book of the prophet Hosea. The prominent feature of this book is a description of God and his people Israel in the terms of marriage – husband and wife. God is the faithful lover, who wants to the best for his spouse but also wants to be loved in return. Today’s passage reflects this desire of God; God wants his people to love him passionately and to be faithful to him because of this love. Hosea is addressed to a people who have gone astray from this love for God. The people Israel have worshipped other gods, which Hosea will compare to adultery. In sum, what we see in this passage is that God loves us passionately and the proper return for this is our own whole-hearted love for God.
Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today our country celebrates American Independence Day. It is a day of joyful remembrance of that time when our country became its own independent nation, standing for its own beliefs and the freedom from other powers. And indeed we do rejoice in the many benefits and amenities of our country: the continual struggle for equality of all peoples, the excellent infrastructure of roads, water, and electricity, and the beautiful geography of the place where we live.
Feast of Saint Thomas, Apostle
Since today is the Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle, it is only to be expected that the Gospel reading would be the most famous story about him. As a result of this single passage, St. Thomas is most often remembered in popular culture as “Doubting Thomas,” the disciple who refused to believe that Christ had risen until he had touched His wounds himself. Yet St. Thomas is honored today as a missionary, as one who would proclaim the truth of the Resurrection to many others for the rest of his life.If we look first at the doubt for which he famous, some interesting thoughts present themselves. St. Thomas’ emphasis on proof can seem to make him a precursor of modern skepticism, because of the mutual insistence on “empirical evidence.” Yet, as most of us know in our own personal lives, empirical proof is not something we usually have in our relationships. Many of the things that we are told (and about which we hold the strongest convictions), such as “I forgive you” or “I am sorry” or “I love you,” can never be proven with “mathematical certainty.” Instead, we believe these things because we trust the people who say them. And their credibility is continually tested (and demonstrated) through the lives that those who profess these things lead. When seen this way, St. Thomas’ failure is not that he was unwilling to believe something seemingly impossible without sufficient proof. Instead, it was that he was unwilling to believe the testimony of those whom he should have trusted. He was unwilling to have faith in them and to allow them to demonstrate the credibility of their convictions to him.
Friday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Many of the people in my family are, or have been, farmers. Consequently I’ve heard many farming stories in my life. At this point, I have no idea at all what happened to which of my family members, or indeed whether the stories are true at all. But one of them is the story of a family who went to church one morning, and while they were at church, they heard rain, then hail. The hail, of course, would ruin their crop. Some people left the service to go attend to their crops, but this family did not. In fact, this family observed Sabbath-keeping, and so did no work at all on Sundays.
Thursday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
It seems to be a part of our fallen human condition that we do not bear criticism well. No one wants to be told that he is failing to live a good life. Perhaps even less so do we want to hear criticism of our nation. We don’t like people accusing the United States of injustice, selfishness, materialism, or neglect of the poor and the needy. We’d like to think that we are doing alright, and serve as a model to other nations because of all the good for which we stand.
Wednesday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Living well for the Lord is a complex task even on days that it should be easy. The situations we encounter every day cause us to make choices. At the grocery this afternoon, I found some money on the floor near the exit. I quickly picked up the money and handed it to the nearest cashier say it had been dropped. Afterwards, I wondered what would happen to the money. What I really wondered was should I have returned the money or kept it? I wished that question had not entered my mind. Thankfully my initial reaction was the correct response and honest one.
Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles
Today we celebrate the feast of Saints Peter and Paul. These two men are so important to our tradition that their feast is ranked a “solemnity,” the highest designation that the Church has. While both men were instrumental in passing on the Christian faith and leaders of the early Church, they are an unlikely pair, different in many ways and known to have disagreed at one time. Peter is regarded as the first pope, the rock on whom the Church was founded. Paul is known as the Apostle to the Gentiles and the author of most of our New Testament.
Memorial of Saint Irenaeus, bishop and martyr
The prophet Amos is among the most rhetorical in his indictment of the sins of Israel. In the chapter before today’s passage, Amos notes the offenses of numerous other peoples and nations. The people of Israel must have listened to this with delight, believing themselves to be superior to all these other places. After Amos has thus hooked the reader by criticizing other nations, however, he turns to his critique of Israel: “they sell the just man for silver and the poor man for a pair of sandals. They trample the heads of the weak into the dust of the earth and force the lowly out of the way” (Am 2:6-7).
Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
“For freedom Christ set us free, so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. For you were called for freedom, brothers and sisters” (Gal. 5:1, 13). These words of St. Paul are found in our second reading today, and in some sense they capture the struggle found in the other two readings, from 1 Kings and the gospel of Luke. Freedom – what is freedom? In just one week we will celebrate American Independence Day, the 4th of July. It is a day that celebrates freedom. But this is a freedom associated with rights: the right to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, etc. Is this what Paul means when he talks about freedom?
Saturday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time
In today’s first reading from the book of Lamentations, we hear about the shear desolation of the Jewish people. This book comes from the period of the destruction of the temple in the sixth century BC, a deeply trying time for God’s chosen ones. We see that part of their desolation is in feeling complete abandonment, even those who rose up as prophets were false ones (Lam 2:14). Yet many are undertaking practices of repentance: covering themselves in sackcloth and ashes (the common practice of penance), prostrating themselves (Lam 2:10), weeping (Lam 2:11), and Jerusalem itself is imaged as praying (Lam 2:18-19).
Friday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time
I remember going to Washington, D.C. for the first time. The city is full of memorials and tributes, each of them proclaiming in some way that we should never forget: the soldiers who died, the holocaust victims, the contemporary heroes who have done good deeds. And yet, despite our best intentions, we do (as a culture) forget. The memory becomes little more than a story and we try to impress the importance of remembering the story but often, we fail. The intensity with which I remember September 11th, for example, is not usually matched by my youngest students, who were, after all, 6 and 7 years old when it happened. Very quickly, it will move from being a watershed moment when people remember the country pulling together, to becoming an event mentioned in history books, not really remembered in quite the way that the memorials seem to suggest.
Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist
In our tradition, there are only a few people whose births we celebrate. John the Baptist is one of those, and this feast is placed six months from the Nativity of Jesus on Christmas. In our cyclical calendar, these two nativities are equidistant, standing opposite from each other in the circular liturgical calendar. And indeed, the Feast of the Nativity of John the Baptist and the Nativity of Christ are purposely placed in the months of June and December. In the month of June, we begin to have less daylight and more darkness as our days grow shorter again. It is symbolic of John’s words that “I must decrease that he may increase” (John 3:30). Meanwhile, with Christmas, Jesus, the light of the world, enters, and the light in our days begins to increase until we are back to June, and this Nativity of John the Baptist, again.
Wednesday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time
Are there times in your own personal history that seem lost even to yourself? As I was reflecting on the readings for today, I remembered a scene from my senior year of college. I was sitting in my apartment working in the living room on a wooden sculpture I was making. What I recall as being so profound about that moment is that one of my friends had stopped over to talk. While we were talking I kept working on sculpture. My friend remarked that they noticed I seemed more at peace while I was working on the art. And while I had that class and for a short-time after I continued to create art projects; though as my life circumstances changed, I grew apart from my art. In many ways writing has become a new way to exercise my need to do art.
Tuesday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s gospel passage from Matthew is one that rightly gives us pause. Wait a second – did Jesus just say that most people head toward destruction and that only a few find the road that leads to life? Does this mean that most of the people I know are going toward destruction? And what does it mean about me? How do I know if I’m on the right path, heading toward the narrow gate?
Memorial of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, religious
Our culture today prizes independence like never before. Of course, there is the independence of our country, the freedoms we celebrate and the pride in our democratic governance and capitalist system. But there is also independence as a value for individual people. We raise our children so that they can go off and live by themselves, making a life for themselves, making the most of their education by finding a suitable career and spouse. My mom used always to say that she wanted to give us wings. I always say that she succeeded, and so we all flew away.
Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time
The readings for today’s Mass are some of the most important of our tradition; they are passages that encapsulate much of what we believe and strive to live out as Christians. And one theme throughout these readings is that we are heirs. In this day and age, the image of inheritance is not as poignant as it was in years past. We are so used to our individualism and financial independence that we might find it difficult to imagine how much people’s lives in the past were driven by their inheritance or lack thereof. Those who came from wealthy, landed families, were assured of a continued standard of living, including prominence and stability. Those without inheritance were lost, left to fend for themselves in a world that gave them no regard. Theirs was a life of endless toil with little reward.
Saturday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
In today’s first reading from the book of Lamentations, we hear about the shear desolation of the Jewish people. This book comes from the period of the destruction of the temple in the sixth century BC, a deeply trying time for God’s chosen ones. We see that part of their desolation is in feeling complete abandonment, even those who rose up as prophets were false ones (Lam 2:14). Yet many are undertaking practices of repentance: covering themselves in sackcloth and ashes (the common practice of penance), prostrating themselves (Lam 2:10), weeping (Lam 2:11), and Jerusalem itself is imaged as praying (Lam 2:18-19).
Friday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
If you ever want proof that the scriptures are about real-life situations, real people, real emotions, you need look no further than 1 and 2 Kings. Contained in these books are more intrigue, greed, treason, and backstabbing than any princess fairy tale or real life account of monarchs in the UK. What makes today’s Old Testament reading (2 Kings 11:1-4, 9-18, 20) such great reading for us is the way that we see God standing in the very midst of all those real-life situations and emotions.
Thursday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
In today’s selection from the Sermon on the Mount from the gospel of Matthew, we find Jesus instructing his followers on prayer. The passage, not to mention the prayer, is so familiar to us that we might easily pass it over. This would be a mistake, however. As we often hear at Mass, this is the prayer “that Jesus taught us.” This is “the Lord’s Prayer.” This is the prayer of the whole Church.