Friday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time
I'd hate to be the fig tree in today's gospel (Mark 11:11-26). Through no fault of its own, entirely because it is the wrong season, it has no figs to offer when a hungry Jesus walks by. And for that crime, it is cursed and withers away in one day. You could say it went through a pretty extraordinary dry spell, in fact.
Thursday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s gospel passage from Mark is a healing story, and, as such, it might be easy to pass over it as unremarkable. A man suffering from an ailment (in this case blindness) petitions Jesus for healing, and Jesus responds by healing him. It’s a common plot, but that does not make the story uninteresting or unimportant. What stands out from this story is the closing line: “Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way” (Mk. 10:52).
Wednesday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time
With Easter now behind us, we are into Ordinary Time. The challenge before us is to appreciate that there is nothing ordinary about being a disciple. Discipleship by definition means living as a “radical follower of Christ,” that is one who is “rooted” in the Lord.
Tuesday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time
In today’s first reading from the First Letter of St. Peter, we read about the glories which followed Jesus’ sufferings (1:11). We focused on these sufferings of Christ during Lent, and especially during Triduum, and then we celebrated the glories in the long Easter Season. Now we have begun the long march toward the end of the liturgical year, some six months, more or less, from now. But we must keep in mind during this time that we continually celebrate the glories of Christ. The Holy Spirit, whose descent we celebrated two days ago at Pentecost, brings us the manifold glories of Christ, and the Spirit does so at all times, and in all seasons.
Monday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time
The liturgical season of Easter has finally ended, and yesterday we celebrated the great feast of Pentecost. Pentecost serves as a reminder to us that we were not left alone when Jesus ascended into heaven. Instead, we continue to have God with us, in the form of the Holy Spirit. So as we return to the season known as “Ordinary Time,” we must not be tempted to think of this season as ordinary or boring. Instead, we are back to counting the weeks of our walk with the Lord; “Ordinary” refers to the “ordinal” numbers with which we count. This is a Spirit-guided walk with the Lord. The Holy Spirit is among us, helping us to grow in love of God and imitation of Christ.
Solemnity of Pentecost
Today we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, the birth of the Church and the descent of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost is a very important feast in the liturgical life of the Church, because it celebrates the gift of the Holy Spirit, Who comes to dwell within each one of us at our baptism. Confirmation is of course the Sacrament which helps us unlock the full potential of the gifts of the Spirit in our lives as Christians. But the importance of the gift of the Spirit in our lives, and thus in the life of the Church, is what makes Pentecost such an important celebration.
Saturday of the Seventh Week of Easter
We have come to the last day of the Easter Season, and with it to the end of both the Acts of the Apostles and the Gospel of John, both of which we have been following throughout the Easter Season. Both of these endings gesture toward the martyrdom of Peter and Paul in Rome.
Friday of the Seventh Week of Easter
I think sometimes people treat church like it is mainly a social outlet - a place to see friends and "be seen." Church is seen as just that thing most people do for an hour on Sunday rather than as a whole way of life meant to affect everything we do. Today's scriptures remind us of the reason for church and for this Christian way of life.
One of the story lines that is consistent throughout the Book of Acts, as well as evident in Paul's letters, is the ongoing question of whether Christians are Jewish, or their own separate group. At the beginning of Acts, they most clearly look like a small group of Jews. The twelve apostles are Jewish and their customs are very Jewish. In parts of Acts we read about how the earliest Christians went to worship in the synagogue, and that they read the Old Testament as scripture.
Thursday of the Seventh Week of Easter
Pentecost is quickly approaching, and the liturgical season of Easter finally coming to an end. What does the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost signify? Unity, for one thing. We see this foreshadowed dramatically in Jesus’ words of prayer in the gospel of John in today’s passage: “I pray not only for these, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me” (Jn. 17:20-21). The unity of his followers is something for which Jesus prays, and the cause of unity is one reason for the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
Wednesday of the Seventh Week of Easter
As the Easter season draws to a close, the readings show us parallel images of Paul and Jesus drawing their ministries to a close. They are admonishing the believers to be protective of their faith. Both are mindful of the near future when their physical presence will be absent from the communities they have nurtured and guided to this point.
Tuesday of the Seventh Week of Easter
Today is the last Tuesday that falls within the Easter Season. Next week we will again return to the marvelous liturgical riches that we have awaiting us in Ordinary time, with all of its many feasts. As we approach Pentecost Sunday, we find a growing emphasis on the ministry of the apostles. Indeed, in today’s Gospel reading from the Gospel of St. John, we find a passage from before Jesus’ Easter resurrection. In fact, the reading occurs in Jesus’ prayer to the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane, before His death on the cross. This prayer is an important one, but we’re only getting a brief excerpt for today’s reading.
Monday of the Seventh Week of Easter
Our celebration has now passed, and we are nearing the end of the season of Easter. In this final week, we turn our attention to the Holy Spirit, and the coming of the Holy Spirit on the disciples at Pentecost. By this time in Easter, it’s easy to feel that the Easter spirit has fizzled out. Those Easter egg hunts and the newness of the “Alleluia” seem to have been so long ago. But we should not be led to complacency in these last days of Easter. We are called to march on in the joy of the risen Lord, looking forward to that great gift given to us after the risen Lord Jesus ceased to walk the earth and ascended into heaven. In our first reading, therefore, we have another story from the Acts of the Apostles.
The Ascension of the Lord
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord. We see two accounts of the Ascension in today’s first reading from St. Luke’s Book of the Acts of the Apostles, as well as in today’s Gospel reading from St. Luke’s Gospel. The Ascension leads to the praise of God, to worship, as we see for example in today’s Gospel reading where the disciples are continually praising God in the Temple.
Saturday of the Sixth Week of Easter
In a little more than a week we will celebrate the great feast of Pentecost, when the disciples receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit, who makes the Church into the Mystical Body of Christ. This feast is the conclusion of the fifty days of the Easter season. For now, we continue to celebrate the great mystery of Easter.
Feast of Saint Matthias, Apostle
There are a lot, and I mean a LOT, of contradictory stories floating around about St. Matthias. Some say that after he became one of the Twelve (to take Judas' place; see today's lesson from Acts 1:15-17, 20-26), he preached in Judea and then went to Ethiopia, where he was crucified. Others say he was, in fact, in Ethiopia, but was not crucified. Some say he preached among the cannibals, was thrown in prison, but then was freed by the Apostle Andrew. Still others say he was stoned in Jerusalem and then beheaded, so apparently never made it as far as Ethiopia. Adding to this confusion is the fact that some people confuse Saint Matthias with Saint Matthew (from whom we have the gospel of Matthew). Matthias, too, is said to have written a gospel, but it has been mostly lost to us and has often been associated with unorthodox teachings. If all this confusion were not enough, throw in the fact that there is some dispute about Matthias' relics: are they in Rome or Trier or both? Worthy Christians dispute even his feast day: Latin Christians observe his feast today but in the Eastern Orthodox Church the feast is celebrated on August 9th.
Thursday of the Sixth Week of Easter
The psalm response for today is “The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power” (Ps. 98:2b). This theme emerges in the two readings for the day.
Wednesday of the Sixth Week of Easter
The Easter season continues but the thrill of the Resurrection seems to less and less obvious in the readings. One reason for this is because we are preparing for another big event in the history of the Church – Pentecost. A second reason is because, at some point the Resurrection has cease to be an isolated event that happens once a year. On the contrary it needs to be integrated with the rest of life, and indeed, in all of creation. There are so many ways that the life of God reflected in world around us – but only to those who are willing to see.
Tuesday of the Sixth Week of Easter
Today’s first reading from the Book of Acts is one of the most moving in that book. After having been humiliatingly stripped in public, St. Paul and his companion are beaten with wooden rods. Public canings in Asia might be brought to mind when we think of this passage. Being beaten with rods during the Roman period was a brutal affair. After this punishment, they are locked up in prison, not only behind bars, as it were, but also with their ankles tied to a stake.
Monday of the Sixth Week of Easter
In today's first reading from the Acts of the Apostles we encounter Paul and his companions filled with the Spirit of God and spreading the Good News of Jesus. Paul and his companions find welcome listeners among some women, and Lydia, who is one of these kind women receives baptism and invites them to stay at her home. Just yesterday, in the Sunday gospel reading, Jesus had promised that he would send an "advocate" to help his disciples. We see that promise being fulfilled in the life of the Church.
Sixth Sunday of Easter
In the responsorial psalm for today, Psalm 67, we find the express desire that the nations (the Gentiles) praise the Lord, that they be glad and exult in the Lord. We see a vision of this beginning to happen in today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles. The strife in Acts, which leads to the Council of Jerusalem in this very same chapter (15), is whether or not, and if so then how, Gentiles from the nations can become Christians following Jesus. Must they first become Jews, leaving the nations, through circumcision?