Friday of the First Week of Advent
As we move closer to the Winter Solstice, when the length of time with the sun in our sky is at its shortest and the night at its longest, today’s readings speak to me on numerous levels. I’ve tended to dread the time change and earlier sunset with less natural light in the late afternoon and early evening, making it seem much later in the day than it actually is. And I struggle to resist the temptation to turn on all the lights to make the house as bright a possible. But I hear today’s readings as a call to enter into the darkness of Advent.
Thursday of the First Week of Advent
“Have you been saved? Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and savior?” Has anyone ever come to your door or stopped you in a public place and asked these questions? Usually the best thing is to not engage or argue with a “counter scripture.” Such an approach takes verses out of context. Nonetheless, what we hear from Matthew today puts “being saved” in a different light: “Not everyone who cries out LORD! LORD! will enter the Kingdom but only the one who does the will of my Father” (Mt 7:21).
Memorial of St. Francis Xavier, Priest
Whenever there’s a mountain in scripture, we know that God is especially near and palpable and that something transformative is happening. We find ourselves today envisioning the holy mountain of the Lord with Isaiah. God’s holy mountain, where all people not only have enough, but we feast together. Where the veil that separates people into “us” and “them” is lifted. Where death is no more. I read this and want to reprise the words we heard from Isaiah on Sunday, “Come, let us climb the mountain of the Lord!” (Is 2:3). Yes, let’s run and climb!
Tuesday of the First Week of Advent
Today’s Advent readings present us with an idyllic contrast to the world in which we live. A world where there natural enemies rest peacefully together and children are safe from any poisonous thing that might harm them. How much we long for a world like that when we listen (as we must!) to the news.
Monday of the First Week of Advent
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, their spears into pruning hooks; One nation will not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. —Isaiah 2:4
The above verse of the prophet Isaiah (2:4) is surely familiar. It was referenced by early Church Fathers Justin Martyr and Irenaeus. We hear it “rapped” in the musical Hamilton and recited in Amanda Gorman’s poem composed for President Biden’s inauguration of 2017. Quoted in President Washington's farewell address, other presidents swore their oath to the constitution on family Bibles turned to this verse. Cited in the Egypt-Israel peace agreement of Jimmy Carter, Anwar Sadat, and Menachem Begin, the sculpture “Let us beat swords into plowshares" graces the front of the United Nations building. To be sure, this text is familiar to us.
Saturday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
In response to the Gospel reading for today, I want to say to Jesus: “Who doesn’t have a drowsy heart?” Especially these days!
Yes, some may owe their drowsy or weary or worn-out hearts to carousing and drunkenness, and that is a shame, to be sure. But, for most of us, I’d wager that our trouble is that third cause of a drowsy heart: the “anxieties of daily life.” They are relentless, aren’t they?
Friday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Although humanity has experienced violence, wars, and natural disasters (not counting global climate change) for more than the two thousand years since the gospels were written, it seems we still hear (or say) the end times must be near. And as a people, don’t we like to know, to predict, to plan for and have control over our lives and future? It seems to be part of our human nature. The disciples of Jesus similarly wanted to know what to expect and when.
Thanksgiving Day
On this Thanksgiving Day, the scripture readings highlight God’s generous giving. Although gratitude is on our minds today, our gratefulness can often be overwhelmed with the fears, frustrations, and bad news that surrounds us in our daily lives. The leper in today’s gospel reminds us that we need to pay attention, since God is working many miracles in our midst.
Wednesday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Jesus is keeping it real today, really real. Jesus is nearing the end of his ministry as his disciples have experienced it, and he sees his trial, death, and resurrection ahead. He will be put on trial for his witness to and enactment of God’s kingdom of love, in which all are welcomed and all are equal. Many love Jesus and share his vision for God’s reign in which “the lowly are lifted up and the mighty are cast down;” in which “the hungry are filled with good things” and the “rich are sent away empty,” to quote his mother Mary in her Magnificat.
Tuesday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Our readings today share the common theme of the temporary nature of our world. In the first reading, we hear of kingdoms that come and go. In the Gospel, Jesus told the people that the Temple will not last forever. The readings challenge us to reflect on where—and in what—we place our hope and faith.
Memorial of Andrew Dung-Lac, Priest, and Companions, Martyrs
Today our response to the first reading from Daniel is a canticle also from Daniel:
Blessed are you who look into the depths
from your throne upon the cherubim,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever!
Blessed are you in the firmament of heaven,
praiseworthy and glorious forever!
This beautiful canticle is of service to the People of God throughout the liturgical year. We sing it as a responsorial on Trinity Sunday, the Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, the Feast of the Guardian Angels, and the Feast of the Archangels. And very fittingly we praise our God with this canticle throughout the Liturgy of the Hours.
Memorial of St. Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr
In our Gospel today, Jesus rebuts an argument put forward by the Sadducees denying the resurrection of the dead. The Sadducees’ clever test case revolves around the law of levirate marriage and its application in the afterlife. Jesus explains that our primary relationship for eternity is with God, and that we should be vigilant and diligent in seeking to remain faithful.
Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Yesterday we read of Jesus weeping and now today we read about him acting out of anger. Jesus experienced a full range of human emotion. Fully human and fully God; I know sometimes I fail to remember the “fully human” part. Next to yesterday’s gospel reading, today’s gospel passage, The Cleansing of the Temple, is for me a helpful reminder of this.
Thursday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
Before our arrival to Dayton four years ago, I had heard of the strong military presence here, centered on something called “the Base.” In college, I had a friend “Rob” from Belmont who was a so-called “army brat.” His dad was a “career air force” and Rob was actually born in the Canal Zone. His father wasn’t a general except on the home front. He would call periodical inspections of his son’s “quarters,” bouncing a quarter off of their perfectly made beds. Jesus is presented as an inspecting general of sorts in today’s gospel.
Wednesday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
We meet Jesus today on his way to Jerusalem, about to be crucified and mocked as “King of the Jews,” a king who didn’t appear to be able to save himself. We know Christ as the King unlike any other we know - a King who does not seek glory, but a King is was not afraid of vulnerability, whose compassion led him to lay down his life for others.
What are we to do with the parable today? What are we to do with the nobleman in Jesus’ parable who goes to grab a kingship, presumably for his own glory? What are we to do with this nobleman who becomes king, and it is said of him that he is “harsh and demanding” (v. 21)?
Tuesday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
The stories of Eleazar and Zacchaeus give us models for holding to our integrity in living out our faith convictions whether we are new or seasoned in our faith journey. Both men are courageous when faced with the opinions of others and hold to their own truth and sense of calling and focus on what is essential in responding to God. Both experience great joy, while the crowds are left grumbling.
Memorial of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, Religious
Mark was the first to tell the story of the blind man who called out to Jesus at the gates of Jericho. He even names him, “Bartimaeus,” or Son of Timaeus. “Timaeus” means defiled, profane, unclean.
Saturday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time
To my mind, the parable from Luke today is all about power. It’s a very familiar sort of power. And it’s the sort of power that’s easily missed until we’re right up against it. It’s the sort of power that the woman in the parable experiences over and over and over again.
She approaches a man in a position to give her what she desperately needs—justice. And he simply looks the other way. So far as we know, he doesn’t even acknowledge her presence, never mind her plea.
Have you experienced power like that?
Friday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time
“Now if out of joy in their beauty they thought them gods, let them know how far more excellent is the Lord than these; for the original source of beauty fashioned them.” (Wisdom 13:3) A couple of years ago, I wrote a reflection on this same reading from Wisdom in relation to our new puppy (with whom I was smitten!). As time would have it, that puppy is now a two-year-old adult (who I still refer to as “puppy” along with his actual name, “Bear”). And I will say that I’m still enamored with Bear and appreciate his beauty as a full-grown, black and white, part border collie, mixed breed dog.
Memorial of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, Virgin
Wisdom and its many attributes is the topic for our first reading today. What does it mean for us to be wise, and how can this Wisdom help us be faithful disciples of Christ?