Wednesday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
Fr. Robert Hater, a former professor from the University of Dayton, in our classes on morality and ethics taught me something I have never forgotten. He said, “The homilies I get the most complements on are the ones that I preach about sin.” To this day I have been confounded by this, perhaps it is because people truly want to be challenged. While this still may be true, it is also true that readings like today’s may make us in the very least, uncomfortable.
Tuesday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
“The essential is the interior.” This phrase was the foundation for William Joseph Chaminade’s spirituality and has become a key dynamic within the Marianist Charism. Today’s Gospel reading from Luke and the first reading from Paul’s letter to the Galatians remind us that our faith is not judged based on our ability to follow rules. Instead it is our own ability to nurture the interior so that we may put our faith into action by loving others that is important.
Monday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
I recently spent a long weekend with my 10 month old granddaughter. Every blessed second she is awake she is exploring, interacting, hugging, and expressing joy. It is impossible not to be focused on the present moment with a baby this age. Outside of feeding her, keeping her clean and warm, and settling her to sleep this little girl is completely content and wants for nothing. Such sweet simplicity!! I think the answers to some of life’s most baffling questions can be realized just by observing babies.
Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
There are two very powerful stories in today’s scripture readings. The first story is the healing of Naaman the Syrian and the other is the healing of the ten lepers. As powerful as these stories are in themselves, I would like to reflect on them from the perspective of a sentence from today’s second reading. Paul writes to Timothy, “But the word of God is not chained.”
Let me provide the context for these words from Paul before I draw three practical implications for today.
Saturday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
As far back as I can remember I had a love-hate relationship with buying brand name stuff. I knew it was important to some people whether your shirt had a little bird on it or if you really liked these Abercrombie and Fitch people. Now that I am older, I only wear name brands if they come from the thrift store (I’m doing what I can to rock my dad-style). However, I find myself torn about brand names when I get sent on food retrieval missions or grocery store runs when I’m not feeling imaginative. I also struggle with what brand is better when buying power tools and the like. And I am persnickety about my paint brushes. I want Purdy or I don’t want it. I’m sure I’m not the only who struggles with the question “In what should clothe myself?” Our first reading gives us the answer.
Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary
Sometimes it feels like we American Catholics are more scattered than gathered, to use the words from today’s Gospel (Luke 11:15-26). US Catholics are scattered on a variety of things, especially relating to American politics: economy, immigration laws, abortion. These are all also key aspects of our faith and therefore important topics for discussion: ultimately the point of such discussion is to try to understand our faith better and to help each other live better lives. Yet we Catholics seem sometimes to be more governed by how other non-Catholics discuss and describe the debates, rather than being influenced by our own Christian convictions. It feels like we, as Catholics, can’t have discussions, in person or online, without someone accusing someone else of “not being a REAL Catholic” because they’re not focused enough on just wages or immigration issues on the one hand, and abortion or embryonic stem cell research on the other.
Thursday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Today's Gospel speaks to me in two main ways. First this Gospel reveals to me the need for community. I see in this first story the need for us to first build up communities around us and to then rely on these communities for support. In the story of creation God did not only make Adam and walk away - he made Eve as well - God created humans to be together, in communion with one another and with the Lord. So in this moment, when this disciple had given all he had and had nothing left to give, he had somewhere to turn, someone to whom he could go for support and strength. When we feel we have nothing left to give may we too have communities we can turn to for strength and support.
Wednesday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Chaplaincy in a hospital can be very challenging when it comes to prayer. Catholics of a certain age see prayer as something private or if spoken the prayer should be grounded by praying the Our Father. For most other Christians, prayer is extemporaneous. This extemporaneous prayer and the ministry that surrounds it, often reflects back to the minister spiritual depth in which it is offered. Many times it is affirming, but sometimes the image that one conveys it not the one reflected back. This reflection illuminates both strengths and weaknesses. The toughest times arise when the mirror image highlights hypocrisy.
Memorial of Saint Francis of Assisi
Since Today is Feast of St. Francis, I would like to reflect on why I am vegan. What does it mean to be a vegan? Well, it means that I do not consume any animal product such as food, clothing, makeup, and furniture to name a few. How did little me come to choose this life path? The story begins with my Dad’s health scare.
Monday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
In today’s reading St. Paul says that he is a “slave of Christ”. One of the definitions for the word “slave” is “a person that is completely subservient to a dominating influence.” St. Paul realizes that being completely devoted to Christ and His influence may make him a “slave”, but it allows him the freedom to share the Good News of God. When we allow Christ to completely influence our thoughts, words and deeds, we can live our lives like the Good Samaritan, where we have the freedom to act in mercy towards others- even strangers or enemies.
Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
My parents are people of great faith and devotion. So the other day, when my mother said to me that she “had it out with God,” it was not funny. There are intentions close to her heart that my parents have been praying for, for decades. But things seem to be getting worse. So mom said to me, “I asked God if he was deaf?” Later, in my prayer, I said to God, “You can answer her! I am not defending you!” Or, here is another message someone sent me on Facebook. “… There have been many people that God has put into my life just to suck them right back out. I read my bible and try to go to church but I just feel empty, like, He is not listening. I know He has given me many blessings in my life and I am thankful. But the heartache seem so much stronger.” It reminds me of the very opening sentences of today’s first reading: “How long, O LORD? I cry for help but you do not listen! I cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not intervene. Why do you let me see ruin; why must I look at misery?” Who is this person crying for help? This person is every one in this church at one point or another.
Memorial of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church
People who know me would agree that I am easy to sidetrack. Students and friends know that I am one derailedtrain of thought away from twenty minutes of tangential, and likely trivial, conversation. This tendency sheds light on my affinity for blazes. I don’t mean fires, I mean trail markers. I love that purple square painted on a tree or the cairn (small pile of rocks) that guides your hike through a barren region. It is these trail markers that keep you on track. They are a sign reminding us how we got here, where we are going, and why we are on this journey in the first place.
Memorial of Saint Jerome, Priest and Doctor of the Church
Today’s scriptures ask us to reflect on how small and insignificant we are in comparison to God, but also show that though we are small and insignificant, we also can do great things.
In the first lesson (Job 38:1, 12-21; 40:3-5), God is responding to Job’s complaints. Job has been inflicted with all kinds of tragedy: he’s lost his family, his job, his friends, and he is very ill, in addition. As many of us might do, Job asks God, “Why me?” Today’s scripture provides God’s answer to Job’s question, namely pointing out to Job the vast differences between them. Job finally recognizes this fact and says, “Behold, I am of little account.” Recognizing that we are not God is an important part of learning to live as holy people.
Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, archangels
How much time does the average person spend thinking of Angels or Demons? I often find myself shying away from such thoughts especially when it comes to talk about Satan. I would rather focus on the angels among us, using angels as a metaphor. Also, I would rather translate Satan the same way as the Jewish community; Satan from the Hebrew means adversary. Yet, here is a feast of the lead angels. Perhaps it could help to see angels both metaphorically and literally.
Wednesday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time
Feeling that God is on your side is easy when things are going well. When life seems to be one difficulty after another God’s loving support seems not so clear. Still we are reminded in the readings that we are to follow the Lord completely, even when the going gets tough. The dialogue in Job goes back and forth between understanding God’s power and then asking the question is it wise to challenge God’s wisdom. This discourse is a response to Job’s friend Bildad who says that God is a God of knowledge whose justice is fair. For Job who has lost much, and yet has a clear conscience, God’s justice feels more like divine anger. Job’s suffering feels not as a “just” reward for sin, but more as a recipient of an arbitrary allocation of God’s power. Job realizes that the person (God) to whom he wishes to complain may in fact be responsible for his pain. Job’s catch twenty-two leaves him feeling powerless.
Memorial of Saint Vincet de Paul, Priest
Readings like today’s first reading and Psalm remind us of a plain, simply truth - Life is hard. Have you ever had to shoulder the misery of Job? There are deep valleys that we must pass through. How do we approach our Lord at times like these? Job gives us a good idea. As we read these passages from Job yesterday, today, and tomorrow, we have a model for how to pray when we are experiencing darkness. What does Job do? He tells God how upset he is. He questions the Lord. He wishes he had never been born. What does Job avoid? He knows he is innocent, and won’t accept his lousy friends’ telling him that he probably deserves it. He also won’t curse or blame God. This is so very common in today’s world. Everyone wants to blame God when things don’t go right; but as we see in this story, Satan is the one causing all the problems. We need to remember this when our lives are a mess: our loving God didn’t cause the mess; Satan and sinfulness cause the evil in this world. Call out to the Lord with all boldness, like Job and today’s Psalmist.
Monday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time
When I look back each day on how closely I have lived out my faith I always find a mixed bag. Some things nearly always go well and others, well, not so much. The same failures and shortcomings replay again and again and the journey is more circuitous than straight. I know this is the case with most of us human beings. However, I do know that when I strive in earnest I am always looking for my life to reflect “more of God and less of me”.
Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Last week, my homily reflected on a disciple’s relationship with wealth. I said three things: that God has a special care for the poor and that God lifts up the poor; that the New Testament model for a disciple’s relationship with material things is “stewardship” as opposed to “ownership”; and, that a good steward tries to develop a “spirituality of stewardship,” i.e., a disciple relates to the material things and people in his or her life not according this his or her own whims and fancies, but in a way that God intends.
Saturday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time
My two-year-old has already decided that anything that can be said in two words should be said in four (he takes after me in that regard). For instance, instead of settling for either ‘soon’ or ‘almost,’ Ignatius says “almost soon”. “Almost soon we drive the car. Almost soon I sit on the potty. Almost soon I get off Hosanna (his little sister)”. Despite his bizarre redundancy, it is good that he understands some things are now and some are not yet. Unlike Iggy’s now or almost soon, we, as Christians live under a now and almost soon mindset. A disciple, you could say, wears spiritual bifocals, both nearsighted and farsighted; now but not yet.
Memorial of Saint Pius of Pietrelcina
It’s a little difficult for me to read the first lesson (Ecclesiastes 3:1-11) without also hearing Pete Seeger’s song “Turn, Turn, Turn” in my head, because his song is a very faithful rendition of verses 1 through 8, in pretty much exact translation. Seeger added only six words to those verses, including the “Turn! Turn! Turn!” refrain. The emphasis in this song is on cultivating world peace, and so the lines focus on those aspects of the first eight verses that relate to peace. (The Byrds' Rendition of Turn!Turn!Turn!)