Solemnity of Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
I grew up a Protestant, and was always a little bit freaked about by the pictures I saw in some Catholic material that showed Jesus holding his large heart, with what seemed like bolts of lightning emanating from the heart. And, when I first became Catholic, this was not a feast day toward which I immediately gravitated. Like the rosary, the Sacred Heart was one of those Catholic oddities that overwhelmed my Protestant sensibilities, because it didn’t seem quite scriptural – and well, maybe a little bit because the idea of Jesus holding his heart seemed a bit too Indiana Jones (the second movie). As I have grown in my Catholic faith, though, I have come more and more to appreciate the Sacred Heart, even reading about the lives of Saint Margaret Mary and Sr. Josefa Menendez. This is a feast day that focuses so much on Jesus’ love and mercy for the world – important things for our world that has so many hurting people who want something more for their lives.
Thursday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s readings are among my personal favorites, because they encourage a simple understanding of the gospel. We hear Jesus’s famous Rule #1 and Rule #2: Love God, Love your neighbor. The Jews have understood the Shema (Love God) as Rule #1 for a very long time, and Jesus is quoting it because he is a Jew himself. But he adds what ought to naturally flow through the first rule; if we love God, we must love all that God created. How can we love God and reject the many gifts he gives to us? But it needs to be said, and that’s why Jesus said it. To remind us to loving God isn’t detachment from the world, but engagement with it. We the baptized are co-creators in the redemptive work of Jesus’s salvation. It’s so much better for us to love in the first place, rather than trying to make up for our mistakes later with good deeds, “…offerings and sacrifices.”
Wednesday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Recently I was confronted by someone who said the demands of Christianity are unrealistic. In reflecting on this line I realize that they are correct. It is unrealistic to live as a Christian, especially if one wants to remain in and conform to the world. All this said, “Can we live the holy life to which we are called?”
Memorial of Saint Boniface, Bishop and Martyr
The closing line of the text from Mark today raises very challenging questions for us. Namely, what belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God. As to the first question, I am not altogether sure. If we take Caesar to mean the state, then I know we owe the state our taxes so that it can do the things it’s supposed to do like pave our roads, pay firefighters, and provide a safety net. But as Christians do we owe the state more than that? In the US, we might say that as Christians we owe the state loyalty to its founding principles of freedom for all and Today, I want to focus on the second question because I think that is the one that Jesus was probably most interested in.
Monday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Each of us have our own way of reading the daily Scriptures. I use the Magnificat, a subscription I've held for many years. This little book is my favorite. The prayers speak to me and the reflections invite me to really think and pray. This day, one of the words that turns up repeatedly is 'deaf'. This, I can identify with! There are so many ways I find myself deaf to what Jesus is telling me that my reflection on today's readings had to deal with this.
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ
Every so often, I am in total awe at things that connects us to ancient history. The Feast of Corpus Christi is one of those celebrations. The history of this goes as far back as 498 AD. In the early church, Holy Thursday came to be known as Natalis Calicis, or the Birth of the Chalice. However, since the focus of Holy week was on the passion and death of Jesus, the main event of Holy Thursday, the Last Supper at which Jesus gave us his body and blood, did not get the importance it deserved. Into the picture comes St. Juliana of Mount Cornillion, in the late 12thCentury. Her devotion to Blessed Sacrament, a vision she had, and her personal efforts led to a special day being set aside celebrate Corpus Christi. By mid 13thCentury, the Feast of Corpus Christi was an established celebration in the church. On Sept 8, 1264, Pope Urban and IV declared the annual celebration of the Feast of Corpus to be celebrated on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday.
Saturday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time
Mercy comes in unexpected ways. For instance, shortly after my mother-in-law had twins (giving her four kids three and under, not to mention the three older ones!) my mother-in-law requested of the Lord, “God, give me Mercy!” Not long after she found out she was pregnant again. They named my sister-in-law Mercy. Mercy certainly comes in unexpected ways and Jude captures that in today’s first reading.
Memorial of Saint Justin, Martyr
We are all given gifts and talents. While they have been given to us as individuals, they truly are gifted to us for the sake of the Gospel and the Body of Christ. In order to best utilize these gifts it is helpful to discern them and then work to utilize the gifts in our ministries. Gifts of listening can help all of us. Perhaps this is a gift that I have and utilize well in my profession that is great. However if I do not use this ability to listen well at home then I am not being the best version of myself.
Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Today, we have a great feast that reminds us of the beauty and joy of bringing God to others. This is the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, when we remember Mary visiting her cousin Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist.
Wednesday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time
Worldly wisdom suggests we should ‘win at all costs.’ We see it in our media, in our politics and in our society. Yet does this philosophy reflect a Christian perspective? Christianity considers the process of arriving at one’s goal just as important as the goal itself. So if achieving one’s goal means that people will be undermined, hurt or belittled, then the process or goal is likely not Christian at all.
Tuesday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time
In the text from Mark before us today, we receive a bold challenge. Peter announces that the disciples have given up everything to follow Jesus. Jesus talks about giving up the kinds of possessions that people value most. He names houses and land, which were surely among the most prized possessions for people of his time.
Monday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time
There is nothing like the death of a loved one to make you stop and pause to reflect upon life, death and how faith gives meaning to both. My Dad recently passed away, and as I pondered his life and death, I was reminded that our faith not only shows us how to live this life, but our faith can give us hope and courage at the time when we face our death.
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
I am a foodie. I often use food to understand spiritual mysteries. I am not the first to do this. For example, Isaiah 25:6 says, “On this mountainthe LORD of hosts will provide for all peoples, a feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines.” The Bible often uses the imagery of a banquet to describe heaven. After all, the most important event of Jesus life was the Last Supper. Being a foodie, I get it! Jesus also said, “You are the salt of the earth.” I get that too! Today, I would like to use food to understand the Trinity. St. Patrick used the Shamrock the Trinity and Fr. Satish is using food… more specifically Indian cuisine.
Memorial of Saint Philip Neri, Priest
Two words you rarely hear in the same sentence are “Jesus” and “indignant.” Yet there they are, right next to each other in today's gospel (Mk 10:14). Now, I can be indignant sometimes and that usually means I need a nap or I know that I'm wrong; but Jesus getting indignant is a different story. I have a sneaking suspicion that he has a little more justification than general grumpiness or pride. In today's gospel, this indignation stems from the direct actions of his disciples as they rebuked people, presumably parents, for bringing children to Christ. Beyond that though, I think he expected them to know better because of what they were just taught in the previous passage.
Friday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time
There's a lot we could discuss from today's readings, since they bring up so many issues---oath-swearing, Jesus' teaching against divorce, etc. I want to focus, however, on the allusion to the Book of Job from today's first reading from the Letter of St. James.
Thursday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Sometimes the Word of God is spiritual and sublime, and other times it is plain, practical, and curt. Today, it seems to be the latter. St. James is warning the rich that their time for weeping and wailing is coming. This is especially tough for us, because compared to most of the world, we are rich. Having running water, a stable source of income, and a dry roof makes a person more wealthy than 2/3 of the world. For instance, many of us don’t directly hire people to work for us, but we all purchase plenty of things at low prices that don’t include a just wage for the international workers who made them. We may not feel wealthy, but most people who read this have far more monetary wealth than Jesus ever did. The big question is, what are we doing with our wealth? How is our wealth changing us?
Wednesday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time
I used to think I understood what it meant when someone told me they loved me. It meant they cared for me and would take care of me. It is a good thing to have people care about us. Yet for me this did not translate as unconditional love. This love is best captured in scripture as agape.
Tuesday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time
With his question to the disciples, Jesus catches them red-handed. He wants to know what they were arguing about. They respond with silence because they know that what they were arguing about is just about the last thing they should even have been talking about—who among them is the greatest. If ever there was a debate that a disciple of Jesus should not have, it’s that one.
Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church
Today the Church celebrates the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church. On New Year's Day 2018, Pope Francis announced this new memorial will occur every year on the Monday after Pentecost. Thus, we find ourselves the beneficiaries of a brand new feast to celebrate another of the many dimensions of our Blessed Mother.
Pentecost Sunday
The room from which I workout, I can see much of the parish campus. Just the other day I was saying to myself, soon there will be leaves on these trees. I could not wait for spring. This morning as I worked out, I looked out of the window again. The trees are now covered in green. Not just trees but the grass is green, there are flowers in the fields, and I heard the birds chirping. As the sun tried to peek through the clouds, the entire campus lit up. I said to myself, this is what Pentecost was like. There was the pre-Pentecost world. The trees were bare, the grass was dry, the flowers had faded and the birds had lost their sound. The post-Pentecost world – it has colors, and sound, and beauty, and song. What shall I say? I am a hope-filled romantic.
Here are my three points:
a) “Just as the Father Sent Me!" In today’s gospel reading, Jesus says to his disciples, “Just as the Father sent me, so I sent you” (Jn 20:21). What did the Father send Jesus for? As I see it, Jesus was sent to make our world as beautiful as it was at creation. Jesus did his best. Not everybody brought his vision, but by the time he left the earth, he had filled the world with love, and goodness, and mercy, and peace. For this, at the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry, he was anointed by the Holy Spirit. Now, as Jesus was entrusting his work to the disciples, he says to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit!” (Jn 20:22). They would need the Holy Spirit in the same say he did, so that they could continue his work. There was only one difference. While at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry the Holy Spirit came only upon him, at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon all creation. Hence, at our baptism, we too got a share of that first Pentecost Now, God has given us the Holy Spirit, so that we might accomplish the work that Christ began. Today, then, as we realize that Jesus is sending us just as the Father sent him, let us open our hearts wide for a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit in and upon us. We must continue Jesus mission to make our world a beautiful place. We must live heaven on earth. For this, let us pray for a renewed outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
b) A De-Babelized World! Pentecost did not only transform the church but also our world. At Pentecost, a world divided by the many languages, cultures, nations, and races understood each other. Our world needs a new Pentecost more urgently that even. Our nation and indeed the entire world is divided into two main camps. There are those who believe that the old days of a few powerful countries being superpowers, and the rest of the world being divided by which superpower they follow, is achievable. In this view, while America screams, “Make America Great Again,” so does Russia, and China, and India, and Iran, and the European Union. Each nation wants the same thing - to become great again. And people believe that there will be a single, clear winner. For this reason, each nation is dedicating more and more time, money, resources and human-power to an unprecedented arms race. And then there are those who believe that the days of the old ideologically divided world are over. I am one of those people. I believe that there is a new world order. In this new world order, either all of us win together or we lose together. My belief is not merely based on politics. My belief is based on my Catholic view of the world. Let me explain. In the Bible, the various races and languages that exist in the world today is attributed to the building of the Tower of Babel. Since then, the world was divided into languages, races, cultures, peoples and nations. However, at Pentecost, a new world order is unleashed. The post-Pentecost world is a de-Babelized world. It is world in which, even if people speak different languages, even if people are from different countries, even if people belong to different races, and cultures – they understand each other. Pentecost takes us to God’s original vision of creation, of the world, and of people in it. Pentecost is feast of world unity, of world peace, of the progress of the entire world and of all peoples. It is a beautiful world. It’s a world of colors, and music and the language of love. Whether we buy into this vision or not, is a choice we make.
c) Life in the Spirit. What does Pentecost mean for us? Pentecost means that we live life in the Holy Spirit. Pentecost means that we allow Jesus to send us just as the Father sent Jesus. Pentecost means that we work with God to take our world back to God original intent. We must work with Jesus to make our world as beautiful as God’s original world. How do we accomplish all this? Here is the practical implication of this feast – that we in fact and in deed, live in the Spirit and not in the flesh. Here is the difference between the flesh and the Spirit. Paul says, in today second reading, “Now the works of the flesh are obvious: immorality, impurity, lust, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions, occasions of envy, drinking bouts, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. In contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” Pentecost is God attempt to recreate a world that is built around love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness gentleness, and self-control. For this, Christ empowers us with the Holy Spirit and sends us forth.
Eucharist is a proto-type of heaven. All peoples, all nations, all races, all cultures, worship the same God today singing songs of unity, love, and peace. This altar today unites people from all nations. What beauty of what happens here must now beautify the world. For this, Christ has given us the Holy Spirit and sent us to the world.
- Fr. Satish Joseph
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