Wednesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time
“The word of God is living and effective, able to discern the reflections and thoughts of the heart.” This Gospel acclamation reminds us that as we pray God’s word, we do so eagerly – hungry for transformation. No other written text is living and effective! As we read God’s word today, let us allow it to read us. Let us ask this living word to lead us into greater self-awareness so that we might then seek the change that God desires to bring about in our hearts and minds. As we approach the Gospel today, let us allow it to convict us of our sin and self-absorption and bring us to a deeper humility, gratitude, and generosity.
Tuesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time
Well, the readings this week are certainly…. cheery! First, we see God threaten and ultimately punish the prince of Tyre for believing himself to have become a god. Then in the Gospel, Jesus tells us that it’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God. Personally, I can barely get a thread through the eye of a needle, so that’s more than a little concerning. Seeking some solace, I turned to the responsorial psalm. The psalm response? “It is I who deal death and give life” – lovely!
Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
“It’s not in the Bible.”
Some of our sisters and brothers in other denominations counter Catholic dogma and practice with the above argument. The role of Mary is usually the hottest of hot button issues.
Saturday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
I have the privilege of living close to my children and being involved in helping care for my grandchildren. In today’s gospel, people are bringing children to Jesus. As parents, grandparents, teachers, aunts, uncles, pastors, and friends, we are called to bring our children to God and to nurture their faith. The more challenging part of our mission is placing these precious gifts in God’s loving embrace and allowing them to develop a journey of faith meant for them.
Friday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
In my role as a counselor and spiritual director, it is not uncommon for the issue of shame to arise. It’s a normal human emotion, but it’s also one of the more challenging ones. One that I know from both personal and professional experience can be not only challenging, but complicated. Healthy shame serves a purpose and is useful; whereas, unhealthy shame can be harmful and debilitating.
Memorial of Saint Clare, Virgin
Desperate times call for desperate measures!
When I was sixteen, my parents were worried that I was not observant about my surroundings (and in retrospect, yes, they were correct!). Concerned for my safety, they had spoken to me several times about “keeping my head on a swivel,” especially after dark. Despite their efforts, I remained oblivious.
Feast of Saint Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr
I feel excited and empowered by today’s scripture readings! They are full of promise and hope. I can respond confidently to God’s summons to follow Christ, trusting that I will receive every grace that I need to become a faithful and fruitful disciple. We are invited to sow the seed of the Gospel, to be generous with the poor, and to die to ourselves in service to Christ. Let us press into each of these opportunities today, confident that God will equip us for every good work.
Tuesday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Our first reading today is Ezekial’s call by God to become a prophet. If you have felt God calling you to do something in your life you know it is not always easy. God calls us to serve in the uncomfortable places of this earth. God is asking Ezekial to share the writings of the scroll to the Israelites that entail “Lamentations, dirges and cries of grief”. I don’t know about you but that does not sound appetizing to swallow.
Memorial of Saint Dominic, Priest
The disciples are grieved today as Jesus reminds them of his dreadful death. Jesus knew grief. The shortest verse in the Bible, “Jesus wept” (John 11:35), was his response to the passing of his friend Lazarus.
Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord
There have been many books released in the past couple years that proclaim "the God delusion," that "God is not great," and that Jesus must be some kind of strange myth dreamed up by those who want power. Under the guise of reason these books put forth arguments that are very tempting for our day, and that are not all that new. People have been discussing modern atheism and questioning God's existence for the past two centuries, but as today's letter from Peter (2 Peter 1:16-19) attests, people have been directly questioning who Jesus is ("cleverly devised myths") ever since he died and rose again. On this feast of the Transfiguration, which is a feast celebrating that Jesus is revealed as divine and human to us mere creatures, the scriptures have much to say to us about modern-day and historic atheism.
Friday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Denied! To contradict; repudiate; declare untrue; refute; contest; oppose; reject; decline; turn down; veto. There are many ways to interpret and use the concept of denial. By definition, to deny is to state that one refuses to admit the truth or existence of. We have entered the month of August and I know a lot of students and teachers who are in denial about going back to school soon. How many of us have been in denial about some impending appointment, situation, or the result of an event? Some of us are in denial about the fact that we are getting older. Heck, I confess that, earlier this week, I was in denial about the fact that I needed to write a reflection for today. But in today’s gospel, Jesus is talking about a different kind of denial.
“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,
take up his cross, and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Mt 16:24-25)
An alternative definition for deny is to give or grant something to someone or, similarly, to refrain from satisfying oneself. We had movie night earlier this week with our kids and watched a newer animated film called The Bad Guys, a movie about some stereotypically villainous characters–a wolf, a snake, a shark, a tarantula, and a piranha–attempting to become good guys. In the movie, there is a beautiful scene (to me at least) where one of the characters defines goodness as “putting the needs of someone else before yourself”. It was a striking reflection of Christ’s message today.
Our Lord invites us to let go of our ego and enter into God’s story. Our lives, our actions, our decisions, and our freedom are best understood in relation to others. We are invited into something greater than ourselves. I often need a reminder that I was created in the image and likeness of God, not the other way around. How often do we trap ourselves in the chains of judgment, pride, and selfishness? At times, I catch myself wallowing in pity and self-loathing about some minor problem or stressor. Life often presents us with a variety of burdens (crosses), some more difficult than others. It’s not easy to accept the weight of the cross bearing down–illness, finances, family challenges, depression, addiction, joblessness, loss. Jesus invites us to bring those crosses to him. Are we willing to pick it up and bring it along?
A reality of life is that it will involve some sort of suffering as much as it will produce joy, love, peace, and comfort. What we tend to forget though is that through the burden, Jesus is with us and will help us carry our cross. Through God’s grace, we find comfort, healing, peace, and strength as we carry our cross.
Let us continue to strive toward a life of discipleship; put the needs of others before our own, take up our cross(es), and follow our good and gracious God to the glory of the kingdom of the son of man.
Peace,
Brandon Meyer
Memorial of Saint John Vianney, Priest
So, Jesus puts this huge question to Peter: Who do you say that I am?
Wednesday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
“With age-old love I have loved you; so I have kept my mercy toward you,” God says, through the prophet Jeremiah, to ancient Israel and to each of us. With an age-old love . . . I’m captivated by these poetic and profound words from the heart of Divine Love to us. God’s eternal, unconditional, boundless love flows from the circle dance of love that is the Holy Trinity to every human soul. This age-old love and mercy are what drew the Canaanite woman to Jesus in our Gospel account. Let it draw you and your loved ones today to the very heart of God.
Tuesday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
I must admit today’s gospel reading always makes me think of “Looney Tunes,” when Wile E. Coyote chases the Road Runner off a cliff only to realize after a few feet that he can’t walk on air. While St. Peter is the rock upon which the Church is built, the gospels are also peppered with his many failings. What always impresses me about St. Peter are both the honest intentions that precipitate his mistakes and the fact that they never dissuaded him from failing again. Near the beginning of his apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium (a long document but worth the read) Pope Francis states, “God never tires of forgiving us, we are the ones who tire of seeking his mercy.” Failure is a human inevitability. Today’s readings help us to see God’s eternal patience in the face of our many foibles.
Saturday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s readings are both about prophets- Jeremiah and John the Baptist. These people speak out and proclaim God’s message even when the news is difficult to receive. Are there prophets in today’s world, and how are we listening and responding to their calls for change and renewal?
Memorial of Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
THE WORD JEREMIAD MEANS a doleful denunciation. There was nothing in need of denunciation that Jeremiah didn't denounce. He denounced the king and the clergy. He denounced the rich for exploiting the poor, and he denounced the poor for deserving no better.
Memorial of Saints Martha, Mary, and Lazarus
Today we celebrate the feast of Saint Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. Interestingly, this is only the second time we are celebrating memorial of all three! Pope Francis included them in the General Roman Calendar “considering the important evangelical witness they offered in welcoming the Lord Jesus into their home, in listening to him attentively, in believing that he is the resurrection and the life.”
Thursday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time
Wildman Jeremiah alerts Judah that they are on the brink of disaster unless they return to the promises they made with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The God of Sarah, Rebecca, and Rachel.
Wednesday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time
We’re all searching for something. The human spirit is prone, perhaps even programmed to search. We all search – we search for happiness, we search for purpose, we search to find meaning, some search for wealth, prestige, success. Epic Heroes have been part of literature throughout the millennia, capturing our hearts and imaginations with their undaunted searching. We love these stories because they reflect us. Ultimately, the soul’s sole search is for God. In today’s Gospel, Jesus likens the Kingdom of Heaven to searching for something priceless and sacrificing everything to obtain it. Today, let us pray that Jesus and his Kingdom might become the one thing, the one necessary thing that we seek and value above all else.
Memorial of Saints Joachim and Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The good news is, today’s Gospel reading is a reflection on an earlier Gospel reading. That makes today’s reflection both a reflection on the Gospel, and a reflection on a reflection on the Gospel!