Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Can you imagine life as it was for Adam and Eve? They desired only good things, and they apparently couldn’t even imagine the possibility of wrong-doing. That is why they were so easily swayed by the serpent. It never occurred to them that someone could lie. It never occurred to them that they should protect their bodies from the eyes of others. They were innocent; not only in the sense of ‘not guilty of doing wrong,’ but in the sense that ‘they didn’t know anyone could do wrong.’
Memorial of Saint Ambrose, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
Through the course of my day I often encounter people who are going through various struggles. For some it may be an illness, for others a death of a family or friend, and for others a strained relationship or divorce. My response to these friends is often “I will pray for you.” So what exactly does that mean? I think that today’s gospel gives a beautiful illustration of what it means to pray for another person. Similar to the men in today’s gospel, I think that when we pray for someone, we bring that person and place them at the feet of Christ. It is in His presence that the person who is suffering can be blessed with Christ’s grace, mercy and healing.
Second Sunday of Advent
In today’s gospel Luke provides us with very descriptive historical details. This kind of detail is rare in the gospels. Luke tells us who the Roman Emperor was (Tiberius Caesar), who the governor of Judea was (Pontus Pilate), who the regional leaders were (Herod, Phillip, and Lysanias), and who the high priest were (Annas and Caiaphas), when John the Baptist began his ministry. Surely, Luke was being intentional in giving these details. What do these details teach us?
Saturday of the First Week of Advent
Disciples are sent to go and make new disciples. We cannot remain merely recipients. This is a tough part of the process. We are constantly struggling to make sure that we are not imposing the Gospel and that we aren’t arrogantly failing to learn from those we go out to reach. The struggle I find addressed in the Gospel today is the balance between words and actions.
Friday of the First Week of Advent
Memorial of Saint Francis Xavier, Priest
In both our first reading and our Gospel we hear of the importance of the rock, which creates a strong foundation. Isaiah very clearly tells us that this rock is Jesus. We must build our lives on the strong foundation of Jesus.
Playing legos and blocks with my two little boys, they often get frustrated when they build a top-heavy tower that immediately falls over when they let go of it. We talk a lot about the importance of a strong foundation. We discuss and model to them that they need to make the bottom the strong part, so it can hold all the blocks that they put on top.
Wednesday of the First Week of Advent
Even as the new liturgical year has begun, the readings still echo last weeks sense of the end times. In fact, the word Advent in Greek is Parousia. This word has apocalyptic overtone that reminds us of the second coming. Yet, it also connects us to both the coming of Jesus at Christmas and Christ’s presence in the world now. It is with this understanding that we approach today’s readings. They proclaim that God who was, who is, and who is to come, will provide for us all!
Tuesday of the First Week of Advent
Scripture Readings
We’ve begun the season of Advent, meaning that we have also begun the series of readings from the prophet Isaiah which foretell the coming of the Messiah. Today’s reading from Isaiah describes the Messiah as one who epitomizes justice. What’s more, this is the reading from which the Church gets the list of gifts of the Holy Spirit that we receive at Confirmation: “The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him: a Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, A Spirit of counsel and of strength, a Spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD, and his delight shall be the fear of the LORD.” What this means for us, then, is not that we are just to admire these gifts in Jesus, but that we are actually called to cultivate them in ourselves.
Feast of Saint Andrew, Apostle
One of the most contentious issues between Roman Catholics and Protestants is contained in today’s Scripture reading from Romans chapter 10: “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” One of my friends repeatedly uses this isolated piece of Scripture to assure me that she was saved many years ago, even while admitting that nothing in her life changed until long afterwards. In other words, no matter how you live your life from that moment on, if you have confessed with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, you are saved. Wow, how easy is that? It sounds more like cheap magic than true conversion.
First Sunday of Advent
Thursday was Thanksgiving. On Friday I was the celebrant at the very tragic funeral of 41 year old Vic Brinkman who died unexpectedly. He leaves behind his parents and his young children. In less than twenty-four hours I had moved from joy to sadness. And now here I am celebrating this mass with you. There is something amazing about us humans. Hope never fades for us. Even Vic’s funeral, as tragic and saddening as it was, not without a silver lining. Faith gave the family hope. For that matter, think of all the tragedies his world has experienced - the Black Plague, the World Wars, the terrorist attacks, the horrendous natural disasters and countless other tragedies. Somehow, we human manage to emerge from the shadows of these dark moments with grit and resilience. We call it ‘hope.”
Saturday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
My daughter Hosanna gets baptized today! My wife and I are so privileged to have this opportunity to entrust Hosanna to the Lord. It is easy to be intimidated by the prospect of raising our child in the faith. The journey would be especially wrought with anxiety if we had to do it by our own strength or on our own. With Baptism those anxieties a manageable. They are tamed by our faith in the grace poured out upon Hosanna at her Baptism; by the Church claiming her for the Lord and coming around us to support us; by the Father’s adoption of her as a daughter and her sharing in the royal ministry of Jesus. There are so many other things at work, but it is through our readings that I’d like to lead our reflection to Jesus’ royal ministry and why we will always raise our kids in the faith.
Friday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Thanksgiving Day
Throughout today’s scripture readings, particularly those selected for the Thanksgiving holiday, there is a clear theme of blessing and thanks. Jesus commends the Samaritan who was healed of leprosy and returned to Christ to give thanks for his healing, saying that the Samaritan has been saved by his faith. This seems to imply that those who were healed with the Samaritan but did not return to offer thanks were somewhat lacking in faith. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians offers a word of thanks for God who has blessed us with the revelation of Christ which will help us remain faithful. And the selection from the Book of Sirach calls us to offer thanks to God for the numerous blessings that are bestowed upon us in our lifetime.
Wednesday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference will begin early next week. The task they are undertaking is to achieve a binding and universal agreement on climate, from all the nations of the world. In June of this year, Pope Francis issued an encyclical called Laudato si'. The encyclical is the subtitled “On Care For Our Common Home.” Part of the intention of this papal document is to influence the conference. The document, which seems to be in part built on similar theology and logic as Humane Vitae, suggests that the writing is on the wall. The Pope, through the document, pushes for a broader understanding of pro-life that is pro-creation. In it he laments environmental degradation and global warming, and calls all people of the world to take "swift and unified global action.”
Memorial of Saint Andrew Dũng-Lac, Priest, and Companions, Martyrs
Readings like this can be a struggle to understand. Bronze and iron, statues and dust, dreams and predictions of the future… What are the characters in today’s prophetic reading and gospel looking for?
We all worry about what happens next. For many of us, the older we get the more we worry about the future. I think this reality is funny, because as we age there is less of life to worry about, and more has safely past. Why do we worry? Why are we so afraid of the unknown? It seems like a persistent part of human nature sometimes.
Monday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
The gospel story today tells about the widow giving her livelihood into the treasury at the temple. Jesus singles out her generosity above all the other donations made- even those made from the rich whose gift was much larger. The woman gave to the treasury in her poverty trusting that the money given would be used for the service of God and His people. In the same way I think that God calls each of us to give from our poverty. God calls us to realize how much we need Him, and trusting that when we give Him our livelihood He will use us- our gifts, talents, treasures, and time- to bring His blessings and love to not only us but the world we live in.
The Solemnity Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe
We are celebrating the Feast of Christ the King under the shadows a very violent two weeks in Paris and violence in Mali. Even though we are going about our normal lives here in Dayton, perhaps, it would not be wrong to say that we are not unconcerned about our own safety. 9/11 introduced us to a new kind of violence – the kind that we do not know how to define. It is not a war in the classical sense of the word, but it is a war. It is and is not a religious conflict at the same time. Some call this terrorism others call it martyrdom. No one word describes this new phenomenon. Whereas this kind of conflict is new for us, perhaps it is surprising to know that it was not new for Jesus. Today’s conflict between the West and religious radicalism bears similarities to the conflict between the Romans and Zealots in Jesus time. In other words, Jesus was not immune from the kind of conflict we experience today. As a child he had to flee into Egypt to escape the wrath of Herod. Jesus was a refugee and an immigrant. In his time there were insurrections and the brutal suppression of freedom as well. Rebels were publicly crucified.
Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The Sadducees play an important role in today’s passage from Luke. Scholars tell us that the Sadducees rejected all books of the Bible except for the Torah, or the first five. Nothing outside of these five books was authoritative or doctrinally binding to them. Thus, believing they couldn’t find the promise of eternal life and resurrection explicitly in the Torah, they rejected those beliefs. Rejecting eternal life is why they were ‘Sad-you-see’ (I can’t take credit for that pun). Luke also tells us about their denial of resurrection, which brings us to their confrontation with Jesus. After their attempt to trap Jesus by making the resurrection sound absurd, He responds in a very important way. He provides evidence from the Torah.
Friday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
Thursday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
Driving into work this morning, I had the radio on. I was listening to reports from Paris, now five days after their attacks, reports from Syria and updates on ISIS. I wanted to turn it off and deny that any of it was happening, but it is the reality of our world today. We are living in uncertain, tumultuous, scary times. And then I went to read the gospel for this reflection - it tells a story of Jesus looking over his beloved Jerusalem and weeping. I imagine that Jesus has a similar reaction when he sees our world today.