Feast of Saint Lawrence, deacon and martyr
I enjoy being out in nature, and during the summer in particular, I enjoy working in my garden. Jesus often uses nature to help his disciples understand difficult concepts about life and faith. In today’s reading, Jesus uses the concept of planting seeds and growing to help us understand the concept of death and dying. Death and dying are such difficult topics for us to grasp because there is so much fear related to these ideas. Jesus helps us to recognize that dying is a necessary process that allows all things to be transformed into new creations. Just like the seeds, we must be able to allow ourselves to die to who we are and what we want if we want to become the person God calls us to be. It is only with His grace that we can have the faith to trust and let go. By surrendering ourselves to God and His will, we allow Him to change us so we can grow and bear much fruit for the world.
Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
This is the real story of a 16 year old teenager in Dublin named Jamie Harrington. Recently, Jamie Harrington was on his way to an American sweetshop, when he saw a man in his 30’s sitting on the ledge of a bridge. “Wow...” Jamie said to himself. And then he walked up to man and simply said three words, “Are you okay?” Even though the man said that he was, Jamie knew from the tears in his eyes that he was not. So he sat and talked to the man for 45 minutes and then finally convinced him to call an ambulance. That day, Jaime saved the life of a man who was ready to jump into the river. Three months later, Jaime got a phone call. It was the man whose life he had saved. His wife was pregnant and they have decided to name their child Jaime. “Are you okay?” It took only three words to give hope to somebody.
Memorial of Saint Dominic, Priest
Today’s gospel passage caught me off guard. I found myself wondering, “Who is this grumpy and snippy Jesus?” This poor guy wanted his son healed and Jesus seemed like someone spit in His wine. However, after I spent some more time with it, I realized this passage might be deeper than I first suspected. It might be easier to reconcile the “I’ll be with you always” side of Jesus with this “How long will I endure you?” side of Jesus then I first anticipated. There are two phrases from Jesus that I want to consider as we look this passage. Matthew records Jesus telling the disciples that they have little faith and he spoke these words, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long will I be with you? How long will I endure you?”
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.
Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord
Last week my family took a few days of vacation in the Hocking Hills area where we rented a cabin and explored the beautiful state park, hiking and enjoying Old Man’s Cave, Ash Cave and Cedar Falls. You may already know what a beautiful place it is with amazing rock formations and recesses that have created cave-like areas and waterfalls with moss-covered rocks and cool streams. It was one of those experiences that fills me with a sense of awe and takes me out of my ordinary daily life and rejuvenates my spirit. Maybe you have had such an experience in nature or otherwise in which you are aware of God’s presence in a significant way and would like to remain in it. As in today’s gospel reading on the Feast of the Transfiguration, Peter is so excited and overwhelmed with the goodness of the experience on that mountain that he wants them to set up three tents and stay awhile!
Wednesday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Have you ever wanted something so bad, that you did all you could to make your wish come true? You did everything in your power to make the reality you desired to be true. Everything from petitioning God, to overemphasizing one reality so that another would become what was real. Wishes can create false dilemmas in us or they can help us find a hope that will lead us to faith and truth.
Memorial of Saint John Vianney, Priest
What draws you away from being the person God made you to be?
In our first reading, we see Aaron and Miriam drawn away by jealousy. ‘Does God only speak to our brother Moses?’ they say! So they make up a reason to talk badly about him- that terribly wife of his! They go around talking badly about him until God decides to defend Moses, because the meek man won’t defend himself.
Monday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
I have been blessed in my life. I have never worried about where my next meal was coming from nor worried about how my children would be fed or clothed or educated. This is not the case for too many people—even in my own community and parish. Ask any person who volunteers in our food pantry every week and they will tell you how desperate the need in our community. And despite access to daily news informing us of the most intimate details about individuals and families suffering close to us, not to mention those in far flung places around the globe, human beings just like us continue to suffer from a poverty that causes them to live with this struggle each and every day of their lives; their children suffer and even die as a result of a lack of food or basic health care. We are inundated with pleas for money and other resources to pitch in and help eliminate the hunger and the poverty and the suffering. Even while we make an effort to fight against it, we can feel helpless; the fact is the challenge is overwhelming and even if we when we do our part there is so much more to be done. Sometimes it is tempting to wonder where God is and how God is working in all of this.
Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
For the next three weeks our gospel reading will be taken from chapter six of John’s gospel. Most of this chapter is the “bread of life” discourse. It began last week with the miracle of the multiplication of loaves and will end with many disciples ceasing to follow Jesus because his teachings were too hard. Gospel readings stretched out over three weekends give us the opportunity to explore its meaning in depth. So pardon me if I delve right into my three practical implications. Let me also caution you that my three practical implications raise more questions that answer them.
Memorial of Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
Today's gospel from Matthew’s starts with these words, “Herod the tetrarch…” This title given to Herod might sound odd to our ears. We are familiar with king, senator, president, duke, etc, but not tetrarch. While it is unfamiliar to us, it would have conveyed specific meaning to Matthew’s original audience. Here is what the Encyclopedia Britannica says about the title: “… In Greco-Roman antiquity, … ‘tetrarch’ became familiar as the title of certain Hellenized rulers of petty dynasties in Syria and Palestine, whom the Romans allowed a measure of independent sovereignty. In this usage it … meant only the ruler of a divided kingdom or of a district too minor to justify a higher title.” By adding Herod’s title, tetrarch, Matthew foreshadows the rest of the passage and sets Herod in contrast to Jesus and John.
Friday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time
I found myself laughing in the middle of today's gospel story (Matthew 13:54-48) at the people who "were astonished" at Jesus. They've known him forever, watched him grow up, maybe know some embarrassing childhood stories, saw him working with Joseph in the workshop - and now here he is, doing "mighty deeds." They're incredulous, to say the least. Perhaps more than one of them is thinking, "So now this guy is coming in and pretending to be all high and mighty? Whatever."
Thursday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s first reading continues the story of the exodus, under the leadership of Moses. Having received the Ten Commandments, Moses is instructed to build a “Dwelling” for the commandments, which he had placed in an ark. But of course, we notice that it is not merely stone tablets in this Dwelling; rather, the LORD actually dwells in the ark. The LORD accompanies the Israelites on their journey, and the people know that God is with them as they travel.
Memorial of Saint Martha
If there was a trial to convict you of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence? Our parish paradigm calls us to a discipleship in which we think, talk and act like Jesus. This means everything we do and all that we are, reflects Jesus the Christ. We must be grounded in Christ so that other may encounter Christ’s presence in us.
Tuesday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s readings can result in a bit of spiritual whiplash. In the first reading, we come upon the scene of Moses and the Hebrews in the desert. Moses pitches a tent outside of the camp as the place to meet God. But there is a startling detail: Anyone who wished to consult the LORD would go to this meeting tent outside the camp. Anyone! Not only has God been faithful in leading the Hebrews out of their slavery in Egypt, God is now generously available to them. But here comes some whiplash. The LORD reminds Moses and his people that God is abundant in mercy and kindness but he is also just, meaning that punishment will not only come upon the guilty but upon their “children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.” In the end, Moses prays that the LORD will stay with them in spite of their faults (and faults they have!). The whiplash comes from being pulled to the directions of both mercy and justice. Jewish interpreters have said about other places in Scripture that God’s character is often portrayed with both attributes so as not to be confined to either.
Monday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time
One of my favorite things that I like to do with my grandson is read books. One of his favorite (and mine as well) is the story of “The Little Blue Truck.” The story is fun because of all of the “sounds” that are used to describe the details of the truck’s adventure, but at the heart of the story is the truth about helping others in need. Many of the story books that we read for children remind me of Jesus and his use of parables to share His truths and teachings. By using common everyday experiences Jesus allows all people to be able to reflect on the meaning of these stories and find truth. Although Jesus could simple state as a fact-the messages He hopes to convey, by placing them in story form as parables He reveals divine truths hidden in the midst of human experiences.
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
The Russian Billionaire Yuri Milner and the British Physicist Stephen Hawkins are putting their money and brains together. They have joined forces for one of the most tantalizing yet most elusive project –finding intelligent alien life. The price tag for this project? $100 million! Recently, NASA’s space probe “New Horizons” flew by just 12,500 km (7,800 miles) away from Pluto. The probe took 9 years and travelled almost 3 billion miles to get to Pluto. This mission cost about $900 million. Just this week NASA’s $600 million Kepler mission has revealed an earth-like planet whose distance from its sun is the same as the earth’s distance from our sun. I get very excited about news like this. I am no scientist but I understand the significance of such missions. It is in our nature to probe the mysteries that surround us and it advances science However, here are a few other pieces of information that could leave us wondering. Feeding America, a network of food banks in the Unites States, tells us that just in the United States, 16 million children face hunger on a daily basis. It also tells us that 84% of its clients with children purchased the cheapest food available even if they knew it wasn’t the healthiest option. The world hunger scene is even more critical. As I said earlier, I am not against us trying to find alien life in the universe. But it is puzzling that we cannot solve the hunger problem here on earth.
Feast of Saint James, Apostle
I recently went on a Mission Trip/Retreat centered on poverty. It was an eye opening experience that challenged my presumptions and forced me to encounter people, not stereotypes. It was one of the most formative experiences I’ve had in a long time. While on this trip, I found one thing perplexing and striking. So many of the people I spoke to who were experiencing material poverty had rich faith lives and, in many cases, a genuine sense of joy. This same confusion I felt encountering these people, their faith, and their joy is the same confusion that Paul is describing in Corinthians. Here is what He writes,
We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body.
Paul is calling us, as Christians, to be signs of contradiction. Our lives should make others scratch their heads.
Friday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Jesus' parable in today's gospel reading (Matthew 13:18-23) really strikes me this week. All the ways he describes seeds and soil make me wonder - what kind of soil am I planted in? In particular, his admonition to seeds sown among thorns, which are distracted by worldly ambitions and the lure of riches, makes me think about the soil of me and my community here in the middle-class US. As a person with a good job, and a job that encourages me to be very ambitious, I find it helpful to use these verses to reflect on my situation today.
Thursday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
We have certainly seen (and heard!) a lot of thunderstorms in this part of the country this summer. One last week left us without power for almost 24 hours. Large tree limbs fell and some whole trees were uprooted. I usually feel safe in the house during a storm, but not too far away a tree went through someone’s roof landing right where a man had been lying down just seconds earlier. I know I would be frightened if I was outside without shelter during a violent storm, which brings us to today’s first reading from Exodus, chapter 19.
Memorial of Saint Mary Magdalene
I forgot to take my dinner to work last night. The cafeteria was closed so I just kept working. I was able to put aside the hunger for most of the evening. By the time I got in the car for the way home it was midnight. I was ravenous. As I rushed home all I could think about was my hunger, it consumed my thoughts. It was in praying with today’s readings the Lord once again taught me about real hunger. My grumbling was silly. How far must I look? I pray with patients every day who are fasting for a test or who haven’t eaten in days and long for a scrap of food, but have to wait until they are able to safely swallow.