Saturday of the Twenty-third week in Ordinary Time
Today’s readings challenge us to reflect on the nature of our lives as disciples that by their very nature must pair devotion to God in the sacraments with Christian loving action. In today’s gospel, Jesus emphasizes what could easily be called one of the themes of the gospels: true faith in God gives rise to loving action. Jesus repeatedly chastises the Pharisees for being overly concerned with how they appear to the detriment of true piety. He challenges numerous people who want to follow Him to understand the implications of such following. He heals numerous people based their profound faith and some turn away from Him because of their lack of faith.
Friday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time
Today's Mass Readings
Paul (First Timothy 1:1-2, 12-14) reminds me of one of my own teachers in faith. Alex often talked about the way he “used to be.” He used to fight with everyone tooth and nail, always wanting to be the winner in a fight, always belittling opponents, making people purposefully mad, going exactly for the spots he knew were the weakest. He had admirers, but many more people who were afraid of him. He himself admired a few people, but most didn’t quite make the cut. In his pre-apostle days, I imagine Paul was much like that: out to get any Christians he could lay hands on, angry at these Christians for messing up “his” faith, persecuting people as much as he possibly could.
Thursday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time
Today's Mass Readings
Today’s first reading and gospel passage point to the all-important theme of love. Ah, love. Just the word evokes tender feelings and thoughts of peace. Or does it?
Wednesday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time
Today's Mass Readings
Change is difficult. Just ask anyone who has been in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) for a while. In talking to a friend this week about AA, today’s readings came to mind. My friends’ 5th Anniversary of sobriety is in a few days. He recalled to me a time when his own decisions to use and abuse alcohol and drugs made his life extremely difficult. Tough times often led to more abusive behavior. The cycle was hard to break. What struck me the most about our conversation was how my friend now reacts serenely when tough things occur. His faith remains steadfast. He explained “God doesn’t wish bad upon us. Often it is our own choices that bring us tough times.” For my friend, being in recovery has shown him that God can use our suffering to make good things happen out of the bad. While AA demands a radical change altogether, when one reads their “Big Book” one can understand that change is a process we make step by step. Today’s readings suggest a process as well, even though at first glance changing may seem cursory. Paul is writing to the community in Colossae about being a new person in Christ. His language is both encouraging and challenging, yet through his frank tone one can see that Paul understands that becoming one with Christ is a process. St. Paul’s suggestions (rules) for being alive with Christ include putting away anger, malice, slander and not allowing obscenities from ones mouth. Paul tells us, “Put to death, then the parts of you that are earthly.” (Col. 3:5a) Summarizing this whole section Paul gives a big picture glimpse of how to live. “Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.” (Col 3:3)
Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Today's Mass Readings
As we try to improve by aligning ourselves with God’s plan, we are drawn to Mary and Joseph as ideal role models. Today’s Feast is an occasion to reflect on the reaction of Mary and Joseph to the conception of Jesus, which was the defining moment of their lives. At this critical moment, what did they do? In our Gospel readings, Saint Matthew provides us with a description of these events.
Today's Mass Readings
Today’s two readings seem to provide a contrast for us. In the first sentence from this letter of St. Paul to the Colossians, Paul tells the people that he rejoices in his sufferings for their sake (Col 1:24). It is clear that Paul sees something valuable in his own suffering, perhaps even meritorious and beneficial for those that he cares about.
Today's Mass Readings
“Be strong, fear not!” These are opening words of with which God spoke to us today in the readings. And the people of Israel, to whom these words were originally addressed, knew the meaning of fear. They had lived as slaves for four hundred years. Purely on the strength of his presence God had brought them out of slavery and fear into freedom and security. Yet five hundred years later, the same people abandoned God out of fear of their more powerful enemy nations. God did not abandon them, but they abandoned God by making pacts with foreign nations instead of trusting in the presence and in the power of the same God who had rescued them from the Egyptians. Through the prophet Isaiah, God tells them, “Fear not! Be strong!” I guess God was telling them, “You have nothing to fear but fear itself.” The story of their destruction at the hand of the Babylonians in 587 BC is the story of the people of Israel giving into fear.
Today's Mass Readings
In today’s reading from first Corinthians, Paul points out two connected ways that the Corinthian church is not upholding what it has been taught by Paul himself. 1) They have not understood that everything they have is a gift from God. 2) They act as if the Kingdom of God has come in its entirety already. These two aspects of Paul’s critique of the Corinthians are important points of reflection for us today.
Today's Mass Readings
Jesus suggests in today’s gospel (Luke 5:33-39) that people don’t want to drink new wine if they’ve drunk the old, because they’ll consider the old to be good. It is curious that he says this, for we know ourselves that aged wines are often better (or at least more prized) than new wines. Companies with longevity carry more respect, aged cheeses taste more distinctive, aged leather can (if treated correctly) become softer with age, and old wood demonstrates its durability.
Today's Mass Readings
Today’s reading from the Gospel of Luke is an especially powerful one. Simon Peter is a skilled fisherman. He knows that the best time for catching fish in the deep was at night. And yet, his boat had caught nothing. After such a hard night’s work, Simon must have felt defeated as Jesus approached. Jesus, who was not a skilled fisherman, but rather a carpenter, tells Simon to go back out to the deep water, now at daytime, when it is even less likely that they will catch any fish, and lower the nets. Simon obeys Jesus, despite his own knowledge of fishing. Simon steps out and follows Jesus. This is a great act of trust, regardless of what Simon was thinking or believing inside.
Today's Mass Readings
In the coming days, the first reading will be taken from the letter to the Colossians. Attributed to Paul and written around 61 AD, the Colossians seem to have accepted the faith rather quickly and even received Paul’s praise for their steadfastness. In spite of their strong faith, however, a heretical teaching seems to have crept into the community – that somehow faith in Christ’s death and resurrection was not enough for salvation. In this letter Paul emphasizes the true faith – that God is Father; that Jesus is the perfect image of the Father, and that God has raised him from the dead for our salvation. (This letter is only three chapters. If you get the chance, try to read it together).
Today's Mass Readings
In our reading from First Thessalonians, St. Paul tells us that the day of the Lord may arrive when we least expect it, and he provides us with direction on how to prepare for that day. St. Paul identifies those that are not prepared for this day as being “in darkness” (1 Thes 5:4) and participating in life as though they were asleep.
Today's Mass Readings
In today’s first reading from St. Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians, we again find this recurrent theme of being prepared to meet Jesus. At one level they are a discussion of the end of the world. In every generation there have been people who thought the end would come during their own lifetime, and at some point in history, that will be the case. At another level, this encounter of Jesus occurs at every Eucharist. Of course, this encounter does not occur at some hidden time in the future, and therefore it is much easier to prepare for.
Today's Mass Readings
Does religion make sense even though there are so many wars fought and so many division caused in the name of God? What do you think?
Today's Mass Readings
It’s interesting how the far the account of John the Baptist’s death in today’s gospel reading parallels the Jesus’ passion narrative. Both Herod, in this passage, and Pilate in the passion narrative hold the power of life or death over persons they acknowledge to be holy and both operate out of fear. Herodias and the crowds stand in the place of the accusers: they hold such hatred for these men because of John’s and Jesus’ teaching, which challenged the way that they lived their lives. Both John and Jesus were given a proper burial by respected people who requested their bodies from the authorities.
Today's Mass Readings
There is an old hymn called “Wake, Awake, for Night is Flying!” It is a rendition of today’s gospel lesson (Matthew 25:1-13), and J.S. Bach has written a rather glorious version of it. “Wake, awake, the night is flying!/ The watchmen from the heights are crying / Awake Jerusalem at last./ Midnight hears the welcome voices / And at the thrilling cry rejoices./ Come forth ye virgins, night is past. / The Bridegroom comes, awake! / Your lamps with gladness take, alleluia! / And for his wedding feast prepare, / for ye must go and meet him there.”
Today's Mass Readings
In his Confessions, St. Augustine gives an account of a conversations he had with his mother Monica as her last days drew near. He writes: “… she said, “For my part, my son, I no longer find pleasure in anything that this life holds. What I am doing here still, or why I am still here, I do not know, for worldly hope has withered away for me. One thing only there was for which I desired to linger in this life: to see you a Catholic Christian before I died. And my God has granted this to me more lavishly than I could have hoped, letting me see even you spurning earthly happiness to be his servant. What am I still doing here?””
Today's Mass Readings
Most people know the cliché “actions speak louder than words.” The phrase is commonly understood to suggest that “how we live” (our actions) says more about each of us, than “how we say we live”( our words). St. Francis of Assisi who lived almost 800 years ago taught his brothers, “Preach the gospel always if necessary use words.” Francis reinvigorated the idea of simple living because he knew that from a life of poverty he could preach more genuinely about the itinerate preacher he loved named Jesus. Today’s readings proclaim most clearly these thoughts and remind us how deeply rooted the idea of hypocrisy is in what it means to be human.
Today's Mass readings
Today’s readings provide an opportunity to consider whether we have each developed our faith in a manner that is pleasing to God. When we attempt to gain a deeper understanding of God, we are always processing that understanding through our own perception. When we attempt to understand God through our own perception, it is possible that our understanding might be more about us and less about God. When the finite mind attempts to understand the infinite, there are opportunities for problems. Our readings highlight some of these potential problems and warn us to be vigilant in discerning when our actions are really intended to please other people instead of God.
Today's Mass Readings
Today is the Feast of the Apostle Bartholomew, known in the gospels as Nathaniel. In today’s first reading from the Book of Revelation, we find the Church described as the bride of the Lamb, the heavenly Jerusalem, founded upon the twelve apostles and the twelve tribes of Israel. Throughout its pages, the Book of Revelation displays, in the words of today’s responsorial Psalm, the glorious splendor of God’s kingdom. This is in part what today’s reading of the Gospel is about.