Friday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
Memorial of Saint Anthony of Padua
Today’s gospel passage (Matthew 5: 20-26) is pretty challenging as we read Jesus’ teachings to his disciples about anger. They know the command/law “you shall not kill” and now Jesus adds to that, “But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment….” He goes deeper into the heart where anger lies. Jesus wants more from his disciples than simply obeying laws and commands. He is challenging us to transform our hearts, our very lives.
Wednesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
Consider the saying carved in stone. “A close friend of mine described that expression as meaning something you can count on, something or something permanent.” He continued, “that it was something you could trust and know that it would be true and everlasting.”
Memorial of Saint Barnabas, Apostle
In the gospel reading for today, Jesus compares his disciples to the salt of the earth. He warns them not to lose their saltiness. He also compares them to the light of the world, admonishing them not to hide their light under a bushel basket but instead to allow their light to shine before others. This is so that their good deeds will point others to God. Often this passage is taken to mean that Christians must guard against losing their faith or indeed becoming too much like the world. There are of course many places where the scriptures warn Christians against worldliness, but if we interpret Jesus here as simply warning us negatively, we risk not emphasizing the positive aspects of Jesus’ message. As Christians, to let our lights shine is to allow God to be such a part of our lives that our lives become transformed from the inside out. If we have experienced the light of God’s word, Jesus, in our own lives, then we cannot help but to reveal this to others as well.
Monday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
I remember first learning about the Beatitudes in grade school. Although somewhat puzzled at what it meant to be "poor in spirit" or what the word "meek" meant, I remember reviewing the list of promises, asking myself which was my favorite Beatitude. By "favorite", my childish mind simply meant the one that was the easiest for me to carry out. Hungering and thirsting for righteousness or maybe being a peacemaker seemed like good candidates. Mourning or persecution for the sake righteousness did not! In thinking this way, I gave myself the impression that as long as one of the Beatitudes was faithfully carried out, the Kingdom of Heaven and all that that meant would be my inevitable reward. Certainly, all of us, in light of our uniqueness and individuality, are endowed with special graces and spiritual gifts and, therefore, some of the Beatitudes will probably come a little more natural to us than others. However, there was still a mistake in my childish thinking- an error that we can fall victim to no matter how old we are. We are not called to just one of the Beatitudes or even a select few. As Catholics and as disciples, we are called to respond to every, any, and all of them.
Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today’s readings tell some rather unbelievable stories – unbelievable not because God cannot accomplish great things but because stories such as the ones we have today is not a part of our normal experience. Both in the first reading and the gospel reading are two stunningly similar stories of young men being raised to life. How often have we seen that? This is hard to believe.
Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Today we celebrate the memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. We commonly associate the heart of a person with love, as in “I love you with all of my heart.” We also associate the heart with the very essence of a person, the deeper place where the most real aspect of a person resides as in, “in my heart of hearts I know…” Both of these aspects come together in this memorial, which directs our attention to Mary’s joys and sorrows, her virtues, and, above all, her love—for God, for her Son, Jesus, and for all people.
Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
Thursday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
As Catholics, the Eucharist at which we celebrate is at the center of our Catholic identity. Th Eucharist is a remembrance of Christ's sacrifice of himself for our sins. For this reason nothing is more important than the Eucharist. That is why the Eucharist also called a sacrifice. If someone told us that when it comes to our faith there is something more important than the Eucharist we would probably think that they have gone nuts. And rightly so. Except that we do have contend with Jesus words in today's gospel, "He is One and there is no other than he. And to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” What shall we do with this statement since it seems to say to say that there is something that is worth more than sacrifices?
Memorial of Saint Boniface, Bishop and Marty
Many know the phrase, when “life gives you lemons, make lemonade”. This is a great phrase, and one friend I know described it as meaning take the opportunities given to you and live them to the fullest. By opportunities, he meant both the good things and the bad things and that we need to make the best of the cards we have been dealt.
Tuesday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
I am sure at one time or another you have heard about the terms "false piety." There are many ways to explain what it means but one way to understand it is to say that false piety is when one's religious practices and life to not blend. It is when faith and life do not form a harmonious whole. Another words for "false piety" is hypocrisy. False piety or hypocrisy can be counter-productive. It can put off people around us. It can even drive people away from God and faith.
Memorial of Saint Charles Lwanga and Companions, Martyrs
What does being a Christian really mean? Over my lifetime, being a Christian has been an ongoing process of discovering who I truly am in Christ. It has been a series of advances and failures, victories and defeats, struggles and successes. Mostly it has been the result of making many little daily choices—not just a few big ones. But it has been a process—not an event. I found myself feeling compassion for the Pharisees and other religious leaders when I reflected on today’s readings. I really do not think they planned to be the bad guys all the time. Like most human beings, I think they became who they were little by little and eventually found themselves in positions they felt forced to protect at any cost. At some point they lost sight of the fact that all they were and all they possessed were gifts from God intended to serve God and their communities. Now that may be an oversimplification, but I think we can all look at ourselves and our lives and see that we have become the people we are today largely by a series of many little daily choices along the way. The way we look at life, make use of our possessions or position in society is not determined in an instant, but rather over a long period of time.
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ
As we celebrate the Feast of Corpus Christi the meaning of this feast most probably is a no-brainer for us. As believers we have the Eucharist at the very core of our Catholic life. We strongly believe that Christ intended that we have his real presence in bread and wine; that for this reason at the Last Supper Jess took the bread and wine and gave it to his disciples and said that it was his body and blood; and that by doing this in memory of Jesus, he becomes present to us in a real and concrete way. But what we consider undoubtedly to be integral part of our faith has also always been the topic of intense controversy. As early as Paul’s times (today’s second reading), there were misconceptions about the Eucharist. A few decades later John in his gospel would dedicate an entire chapter (Chapter 6: bread of life discourse) to remove doubts about the real presence of Christ in bread and wine.
Memorial of Saint Justin, Martyr
The scriptural readings for today focus on the notion of authority. This is an interesting subject to reflect upon precisely because our society is becoming increasingly distrustful of many traditional forms of authority. In many instances, “authority” seems to mean the domination of the will, as the power of one person (or small group of people) coerces the wills of other people for arbitrary reasons. In our world, we often encounter the misuse of authority and so we may view all authority through this lens. Today’s scriptural readings can perhaps help us to better appreciate the enduring importance of authority and the great responsibility that authority brings with it.
Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Thursday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time
Have you ever been “shushed”? Ever been told to be quiet when you had something to say? Maybe you were shushed as a child when you felt the need to express yourself, or maybe as an adult you were quieted or made to feel that what you had to say wasn’t worthwhile; that you weren’t important enough or smart enough. In today’s Gospel reading (Mark 10: 46-52), we hear of the blind man, Bartimaeus, crying out to Jesus as he passed by with his disciples. Mark’s gospel tells us that many people rebuked him and told him to be silent. That sounds more polite than they probably were. I imagine people yelling for him to “shut up” or “shush” himself as this important man, Jesus, was passing by the beggar on the side of the road.
Wednesday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time
Greatness is standing at the rim of the Grand Canyon at sunset and realizing the scene comes from God’s paintbrush. Greatness comes when looking up at the thousands of stars seen on a clear night from the middle of country field. Many of us could think of times when we have experienced God’s greatness. These moments of wonder and awe can help us feel connected to God in a way that reminds us that we are all in God’s service.
Tuesday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time
I have been reading a terrific book lately by James Martin, S.J. called My Life with the Saints. It's a spiritual memoir and also an opportunity to take a stroll through several centuries of Catholic life and meet our saints, courtesy of the author. One of the themes throughout has been all the very ordinary and seemingly small ways that each of the saints carries out the call to follow Christ, which I also find to be a consistent theme in today's readings.
Monday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time
I recently returned from Honduras where I went on a mission trip with a group of University of Dayton students. One day we had the opportunity to visit with a Honduran family at their home. Their house consisted of a very small one room building made of clay. The home had no windows, no water, no electricity, dirt floors, a stove without a chimney, no indoor bathrooms, and very few pieces of furniture. As we talked with this family, they displayed a genuine pride in their home and contentment with their life even in the midst of their meager existence. Today’s readings remind us that material things can sometimes be distractions taking us away from what is truly valuable in our lives. We are reminded that we should find our wealth in God, His mercy, and the salvation that He brings to us.
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
When one sees devastation like we have seen in Moore, Oklahoma, it can be very difficult to sit before God without feeling frustrated and terribly sad. It is often very hard to reconcile the greatness of God with the utter misery and pain caused by natural disasters. “Why could God not have stopped such destruction?” that is often our question. Sometimes it is not uncommon for people to get angry with God. In our minds, only God is more powerful than the power of nature. It does not make sense that a compassionate, loving and good God does not positively intervene to stop utter devastation.