Tuesday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
The future is not known to us human beings. And we don’t like that very much. To make it more rather than less predictable, we build structures in our lives—like jobs, schedules, habits, savings accounts, and so forth. These structures give us a sense of security and peace about what the future will be like.
Monday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
There are few things in this life that I think we can take for granted. True sports fans will always flirt with superstition. We'll always find something in the last place we look. And the commentary that the older generations offer on the younger generations has a kind of cyclical character. in my own conversations with people of various generations, I've often heard one consistent criticism - entitlement. In today's Gospel, Jesus praises an anti-entitlement heroine.
Saturday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
I suspect that many of us spend much time looking back on our past and wishing that we had done things differently. There are times when I know that the past overwhelms the present and impedes by ability to live fully in the present. Jesus reminds us that God is a God of the living- in the here and now. Our past is part of who we are, but we are by the grace of God called forward to live our lives recognizing that God forgives our past mistakes and calls us forward to focus on living lives of love in the here and now.
Memorial of Saint Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr
I must admit that my spiritual life has not been all that awesome lately. Of course, my spiritual life connects to all the rest of life – so that my spiritual dryness expands to other parts of my life. But I also think that that the multiple tragedies in Dayton this year have also worn on my spiritual life and perhaps brought about some of that dryness.
Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
On May 25, 2019, during a visit to the Basilica of Our Lady of Loreto in central Italy, Pope Francis said: “There’s a need for simple and wise people, humble and courageous, poor and generous, people who at the school of Mary, accept the Gospel without reserve in their own lives. God, through Mary, entrusts a mission in our time: to bring the Gospel of peace and life to our contemporaries, often distracted, taken by earthly interests or immersed in a climate of spiritual dryness.”
Wednesday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
The readings from 2 Maccabees the past couple days have slain me! Yesterday, I also read the story of St Barlaam of Antioch, whose feast day it was, and I was cut to the quick. Barlaam was jailed for his faith under the persecution of Diocletian. He came to trial in the year 304, was tortured hideously, and ordered to deny his faith in Christ. When he refused, the judge ordered that Barlaam’s hand be filled with incense and held over the coals of a brazier. The judge wanted to set Barlaam free by making an example of him as one who denied his faith under threat and abuse. The judge thought that Barlaam would immediately flinch from the heat and spill some incense into the fire, thus appearing to make a sacrifice to a pagan idol and implicitly denying his faith. Barlaam never flinched. The story goes that when his entire hand burned off, the judge gave up and had him executed. One never knows for sure the literal veracity of these saints’ stories, but we can be confident that St Barlaam was indeed martyred for his faith. In today’s reading we see another absolutely incredible testimony of an entire family’s courage in the face of terrible persecution. I’m confronted with the question, what would I say and do if I were put in such a position?
Tuesday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s first reading is, for me, one of the most challenging. I think of all the ways I knowingly break the commandments for reasons of mere convenience or cultural acceptance. More Sundays than not, myself and most of us do some form of work, rather than resting and enjoying the goodness of God. It’s so easy to tell white lies, or even big lies rationalized to avoid an unpleasant consequence. We often avoid people because they are poor, or because they challenge us in other ways. I could go on, but it’s enough to write these examples.
Tuesday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
This past Saturday I went to the funeral of the wife of a doctor I work with at the hospital. I had only met his wife once in our short conversation I learned she is an incredibly faithful disciple. Her first cousin the Patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox could not be there because he was at a Coptic Orthodox Synod of Bishops. In his message to the faithful gathered to celebrate her life he said, my cousin who I love gave her all to live a ‘faith filled in the way she talks, in the way she speaks and in the way she lives her life.’ His sentiments consoled the family that she was alive with Christ.
Wednesday of the Third Week of Advent
"What are you going to do with it?" is a question I find myself asking fairly often. My 5-year-old and 4-year-old will come and ask for some of the craziest things. I often want to know their intent before I give them a thing. I'm afraid of them using a gift poorly. The blind man in today's Gospel shows us a gift used well.
Upon encountering Jesus and asking for his sight, the blind man finds himself healed. As immediately as his healing took place he fixed his eyes on Jesus. The passage tells us that, "He immediately received his sight and followed him, giving glory to God. When they saw this, all the people gave praise to God." This passage invites us to ponder two principles of receiving gifts from God well.
One, all gifts should turn our eyes back to the giver. The often-used analogy is that of a newly engaged couple. If the engagement ring is the true object of love and not the giver of the engagement ring, we would likely think that something is amiss in that relationship. Likewise, we should seek to ensure that God's gifts do not become stumbling blocks in our relationship, but instead, they should be objects that draw our affection toward God and lead us to glorify God, follow Jesus, and rely on the Spirit.
Two, How we respond to our gifts bears witness. The blind man could have simply taken the gift of his sight and gone back to begging. Worse yet, he began to use his new sight for irreputable affairs, such as stealing. In that case, then those who witnessed the healing would not have been brought to faith, but to doubt. They would have found Jesus' understanding of people wholly insufficient to this day. We bear the burden of making wise use of our gifts so that we may show the Lord's wisdom in providing for the others.
Today ponder Jesus' words to the blind man, "what would you have me do for you"? Explore your answers honestly and paying enough to ensure you have all that I need.
- Spencer Hargadon
Saturday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s Gospel ends with a rattling question - “When the Son of Man comes - will he find faith on earth?” This question makes me stop and pause. When the son of man comes, what will he find? If he were to come today, I think he would be saddened and disappointed by what he would find - divisiveness, name-calling, fighting, death, fear, anxiety, apathy and so much more. But would he find faith?
Friday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time
“Be like the sunflower that follows every movement of the sun, and keep your eyes always turned towards our good God.” As I sit here reflecting on the readings this evening, the sun is setting out my window and this quote from St. Julie Billiart keeps reverberating in my thoughts. This summer, following the Memorial Day tornadoes, being surrounded by constant reminders of the devastation, we did everything we could to instill new life and energy in our environment. One of the things we did was to plant several sunflower seeds in the landscaping bed by our driveway where we had a large pine tree uprooted and leaning against the house from the might and energy of the storm. Over the course of the following month, we watched as a series of sprouts emerged and grew to eight beautiful sunflowers towering over the struggling bed of shrubs and mulch. I was struck by the beauty of the sunflowers, while the sunflowers reveled at the beauty of the sun. Each morning, as I departed for work, the sunflowers faced the East toward the sunrise; every evening, as I returned home, they had shifted their sight to the West as the sun was approaching the horizon. Our first reading today reminds us of the source of this goodness and beauty:
Thursday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time
Today's first reading from the book of Wisdom (7: 22b-8:1) is a beautiful, poetic writing about the nature of Wisdom, which is usually identified as the Spirit of God, that provides insight into what might be called the feminine dimensions of God. Here is just a taste of it: “For she is an aura (also translated as breath) of the might of God and a pure effusion of the glory of the Almighty...For she is fairer than the sun and surpasses every constellation of the stars.”
Memorial of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, Virgin
About a month ago, I suffered a traumatic injury to my mouth. I was trimming tree branches in the yard when suddenly a long, sturdy, elastic branch swung up with great force and caught me on the chin. I’ll spare you the gory details, but the blow caused significant damage to my chin, upper front teeth, and lips. Thankfully my dentist was able to see me quickly, and he restored a dislodged tooth to its proper spot, bonded loose teeth, and stitched a gash in my lower lip. God worked through his hands to begin the work of restoration. Thanks to God’s mercy, my lips and chin healed much more quickly than I would have imagined. I’ve been gushing gratitude ever since for God’s protection, healing, and loving care.
Memorial of Saint Josaphat, Bishop and Martyr
In the six verses that precede the reading from Luke for today, Jesus gives instructions to his disciples about how to follow him. The first takes the form of a warning: do not become an obstacle or stumbling block to someone else’s faith. In other words, don’t do anything that might encourage someone else to turn away from God. If I give someone else reason to doubt God or I encourage them in some way to sin and, thus, be in wrong relationship to God, I am a stumbling block to their faith. The second is a call to hold accountable the brother or sister who sins and, even more, to forgive them no matter how many times they sin so long as they repent each time. That could mean enduring a whole lot of someone else’s sinning and offering up a whole lot of forgiveness to boot!
Memorial of Saint Martin of Tours, Bishop
So this all started very differently. I thought I knew everything I wanted to say and had all my transitions plotted out. Then I reached Jesus' words on forgiveness and it all got derailed. Instead of talking about trust, and discipline, and knowledge I want to share the most helpful visual I've ever received on why we struggle to forgive. Jesus sets a high standard for forgiveness and we are usually on board with it but let's talk about when we are not.
Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome
Water is an amazing part of creation- a substance which we cannot live without, although we often take water for granted. Today’s readings describe water as it flows and gives life to all things. Just like water, God’s Spirit flows out and gives life, allowing God to have a dwelling place within all of creation. Just as we need water to survive physically, the Spirit provides the life that we require to be disciples of Christ. It is through the presence of the Spirit within us that we become temples of God-His holy dwelling. We are called to be like water- flowing out into the world to bring new life and abundant blessings through the work of the Spirit within us.
Friday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
I was tempted to avoid today’s gospel passage from Luke, The Parable of the Dishonest Steward, and reflect instead on the first reading, but it called out to me as too important to ignore. Both confusing and challenging, it seems to demand that we take account of how we are using or “spending” our time, talent, and treasure. Maybe even questioning what it is that we truly treasure.
Thursday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
As I read today’s gospel about the parable of the lost sheep and coin, I couldn’t help but relate to the feelings the shepherd and the woman must have felt when each found the lost sheep or lost coin. I remember vividly the paralyzing feeling I had years ago when I lost my three-year old daughter for several minutes at the 2nd Street Market. I had asked her to throw something away in the garbage can which was directly behind her while I turned to feed a snack to her baby sister. When I turned around she was gone. As each second passed, the panic set in. Hundreds of horrible thoughts ran through my mind. As I wandered around the market for what seemed like an eternity (probably a total of 3 minutes), I finally spotted her carefully throwing away her trash in the only garbage can she remembered, which was about 20 to 30 yards away. Pure joy and relief came over me when I saw her. I ran and hugged her!
Wednesday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
Love is the fulfillment of the law. Period. End of discussion. Enough said. That’s really all we need to reflect upon today. LOVE is the fulfillment of the law. This statement from St Paul in our first reading summarizes our life in Christ. I encourage you to return to the first reading from Romans and read it slowly, prayerfully, meditatively. If you practice Lectio Divina, I invite you to engage the text in that way. Spend some time in whatever way feels right to you, reading the passage several times. Read it out loud at least once. I sense the Holy Spirit wanting to spend time with each of you, each in your own way, with this scripture. I’ll offer just a couple thoughts, praying that they become jumping off points for your own reflection and prayer.
Tuesday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
One thing that some Christians like to think about is how we get to heaven. Who gets in? What do they have to say, do, or believe to be allowed in? Is it all about who we know (Jesus), or what Sacraments we’ve had? A disciple of Jesus says in today’s Gospel as he enjoys a meal with Him says, “Blessed is the one who will dine in the Kingdom of God.” Maybe this person was complimenting the meal they just had, or maybe he was looking forward to the fulfillment of the Kingdom. We don’t know, but what is clear is Jesus’s answer: The Kingdom of God is going to be like a great dinner party. The thing that we can sometimes forget about God is that the Divine Will shall be accomplished whether we help or not. When the Lord says there will be a party, you can bet that it will happen. For you and I, our parties will not happen unless the people we invite show up. God is not okay with that arrangement. The Kingdom is something to celebrate; if those who are invited first don’t show up, God will find someone else with whom to celebrate. The party can’t be stopped!