Memorial of Saint Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
Today’s Gospel can appear quite harsh at first glance and indeed our Lord desires to get our attention. Jesus issues a summons to take off our religious masks and to live authentically the Gospel of love. Christ’s words are not words of condemnation, but rather a plea to change our ways and follow him passionately and completely. He invites us to repentance and to walk with him free of hypocrisy as sons and daughters of the living God.
Memorial of Saint Monica
When was the last time an authority figure said something like “explain yourself” to you? It can well up anxiety, quick thinking, and perhaps even the temptation to spin a lie. Or it can be an opportunity for teaching or reviewing the truth. We all want the truth, but we don’t want to get in trouble for it; rather we want to be believed and understood. I wonder if Jesus and Moses felt this way when the taught the people the Law, parables, and new commandments. They were each laying out a radical new way of life for their followers. They each really want the people to ‘get it.’ But even those immediate followers often seem to fail at understanding; is it any wonder we get confused as well?
Monday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time
My friends and I recently lost an important member of our group to a heart attack. In reminiscing with one of the guys we came to a conclusion, our friend derived so much of his happiness in seeing others happy. His joy flourished in the presence of others’ joy. It is this character strength that I’m reminded of today.
Feast of Saint Bartholomew, Apostle
Do you remember the first time you experienced Jesus? Do you recall the circumstances or persons associated with your experience of coming to know him and seek him? The experience is impossible to keep to ourselves. We seek the company of others who've also experienced Jesus and share our same desire to know Jesus more intimately. And we seem to know, instinctively, that the seeking of Jesus and being sought by him is a process that happens in the context of community.
Friday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time
My students like to think that church and all that “religion stuff” doesn’t have much of an effect on their “real lives”. Sure, they go to Mass on Sunday for an hour but the rest of the week, they don’t need it. They are in the midst of a culture war – video games and hanging out with friends are far more enticing than going to Mass. Indeed, lots of Catholics like to think that all this church stuff doesn’t really affect me and my life as a Christian (not really). Today’s scriptures are about culture wars, too. In the first reading (Ruth 1:1, 3-6, 14b-16, 22), we are introduced to the characters of Ruth, Naomi, and their husbands. There are three significant points to lift up in this passage. First, Naomi and her husband and sons have had to leave behind the land God gave them, to enter Moab. If you have been following along with the scripture passages this summer, you know that getting to the promised land of Canaan was difficult in the first place. How much more wrenching, then, to have to leave it behind. But second, Naomi’s sons marry Moabite women, not Jews. That means her sons have married foreigners, people who are not always looked upon with favor in the Bible. In addition, Naomi becomes a widow, a position of hardship in Biblical times, especially since she is now without her sons as well. Naomi has no one to look after her and care about her welfare.
Memorial of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary
We’re given some difficult readings today. There’s talk of war, human sacrifice, and a king throwing a guest out with bound hands and feet for not coming to the feast dressed properly. At first take it’s rather disturbing, even confusing. Today’s first reading taken from the Old Testament book of Judges (11:29-39a) involves a chieftain by the name of Jephthah trying to save the Israelites from the Ammonites. In asking God for help, he vows to sacrifice whoever first comes out of the doors of his house when he returns victorious. He is very saddened when this ends up being his daughter, his only child. He wants to keep his vow to the Lord and does so although it grieves both him and his daughter who will die without ever bearing children.
Memorial of Saint Pius X, Pope
The parable Jesus tells us today has long been my favorite of all his parables! I love it because it’s kind of like watching an episode of the tv show The Office. You laugh at the situations and interactions, while at the same time squirming a bit because you recognize yourself and your own tendencies in the characters. This parable is one that also makes us squirm. At some level we certainly find ourselves identifying with the laborers hired at dawn who essentially cry, “that’s not fair!” In this story, our Lord paints a clear and compelling picture of his Kingdom – a Kingdom characterized by paradox and striking reversal of our earthly norms and human tendencies. Jesus came to turn the order of things upside down, and that upending of the pyramid is evident in today’s account.
Memorial of Saint Bernard, Abbot and Doctor of the Church
I am a tenured professor at the University of Dayton, and so is my husband. Together, we bring in a healthy income. We live in a lovely house in Oakwood, a beautiful suburb of Dayton. I have the privilege of shopping at Dorothy Lane Market, where I buy delicious food to cook for our family. And when I’m not cooking, we dine out at wonderful local restaurants like Lily’s and Roost and Meadowlark. By any standard that takes into account most of the people on this planet, we are rich. Very rich.
Monday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time
Both scripture readings today describe how people choose idols (objects of extreme devotion) instead of their relationship with God. Whether worshipping Baal, wealth, power, or honor, our human instinct seems to pull us towards being in control and away from placing our trust in God. Despite our stubbornness and indifference, God continually calls us back as His mercy endures forever.
Saturday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
I don’t need my kids help to make pancakes. In fact the whole thing is far more efficient without their help. But it is better when I let them help. I have trouble remembering that, which is why a sign hangs in our kitchen that reads, “Fat Souls are Better than Clean Floors.” My kids don’t need that sign, they don’t understand why we don’t always want batter flinging little wrecking balls trying to help. Despite our trepidation, we invite them to help. God does the same thing for us and I don’t always understand why.
Friday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Scripture Readings
A lot of things happened this week that were beyond my control. Today's scriptures reminded me that of course my life isn't really ever in my control. Our lives aren't wholly down to us and our decisions.
Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary - Mass During the Day
We see the glory and power of God’s work expressed in apocalyptic themes, in a dragon and stars and angels and birth. The scene is set, as Paul proclaims that Jesus will finish the work he started by putting every other evil authority under his feet. Reading that makes me want to jump up and cheer for the good guys! Mary the virgin-mother-hero has brought God and humanity together in Jesus! It’s the end of the old, sinful order that wounds us all and tricks us into wounding one another.
Memorial of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Priest and Martyr
One of the most difficult things we deal with in life is inter-personal conflict. Many, if not most of us fear conflict and feel ill-equipped to deal with it in healthy ways and so we wind up avoiding it or even running from it. In our emotional reactivity we often try to pull other people into our difficult situations, attempting to diffuse our own anxiety by spreading it out to them. It’s easier to “triangle in” a third person who is not involved, telling them about our issue in an attempt to relieve our stress, than it is to face the person with whom we’re at odds. It’s the “herding instinct” in action – you may have seen it in cattle. One steer gets spooked and takes off running in alarm and that one’s anxiety is transmitted instantaneously to the rest of the herd. In moments, the entire group stampedes away, in reaction to the one individual’s anxiety. Forming relationship triangles are a common way that we exhibit this herding instinct. If I’m angry at someone and I tell a third party(s) about it, now I feel better, but my anxiousness is projected onto those others. Our Lord understands these tendencies in us. In today’s Gospel, Jesus offers us the way to handle conflict as people of reconciliation.
Tuesday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
With aging parents and the second of our three no-longer-little-ones about to head off to college, I am currently very aware of the passing of time. Not only the aging of our “kids” and parents, but that of me and my husband as well, as we recently celebrated 30 years of marriage and are just a few years away from being empty-nesters. Perhaps that’s why I was particularly attuned to how today’s readings take us from old age to “little ones.” From 120-year-old Moses in the first reading to the children Jesus calls us to become like in the gospel passage.
Monday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
There are many dreadful things going on in our society right now. Prejudice, hate, disrespect. And just as prevalent is the blaming. It almost seems that assigning blame to others can fix the problem when it only shifts responsibility. Today's readings invite us to do something else. Rather than cast blame, they invite us to take look at ourselves and ask: What is my part in this?
Feast of Saint Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr
As of the writing of this reflection, my wife (Bess) and I have no idea where we are living in a couple weeks. We are in the midst of selling our home and our next step has yet to be finalized. As I read today's readings I was encouraged by a common theme, trust generosity.
Friday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
I love today's first reading (Deuteronomy 4:32-40) because it comes just before the passage where God gives the Ten Commandments,and it is a description of why God hopes the people will follow the Ten Commandments and take them to heart. Usually we see the Ten Commandments listed on a wall or on the back of a prayer card, without their context, as though God simply gave them with no explanation or rationale.
Memorial of Saint Dominic, Priest
Often those who convert to Catholicism from another Christian denomination find opposition from family and friends who challenge Catholic beliefs. One of these beliefs is the papacy, and the Scripture passage that supports this Church doctrine is today’s gospel reading. This passage is sometimes known as Peter’s confession because he professes his belief that Jesus is the Christ (the Messiah), Son of the Living God. Jesus responds by calling Peter blessed and saying that he will build his Church on Peter, a name that means rock. Nor is this the only passage that highlights Peter’s leadership and place of primacy among the apostles. Whenever the apostles are listed, Peter is always at the head of the list, and Judas is always listed last. So it is with good reason that Catholics acknowledge Peter’s leadership and the authority of the pope in leading the Church.
Wednesday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Jesus had a great sense of humor. I see it shining forth in our Gospel text today. It would be easy to mis-read Jesus’ words to the Canaanite woman as harsh and demeaning. Our Lord is never like that! Instead, I see him approaching her playfully, egging her on to be the proclaimer of the Gospel that she was, and taking the opportunity to demonstrate that his mission was to the entire world – to all peoples everywhere and in every age, and to invite us to recognize and welcome each and every person as brother or sister.
Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord
We find ourselves in a dark place whether we are here in Dayton or El Paso or any of the other locations throughout the US that have been touched by one of the more than 250 mass shootings that have occurred just since the first of this year. And with each one of them comes more loss, more fear, more anxiety, more anger. More darkness.