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.
Wednesday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time
What is the one thing that you would give anything to have? As that question stirs your imagination, picture yourself the heroine or hero of an epic treasure hunt. Searching for buried treasure has long been the pursuit of pirates, Old West outlaws, Vikings, and Indiana Jones. Jesus invites us into such an epic quest in today’s Gospel. Let us approach him as our Treasure today and seek to love him above all else with a pure love.
Memorial of Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
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.
Memorial of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Priest
As we hear in today’s Gospel, Jesus favored parables—short allegories featuring people, places, and things familiar to ordinary listeners—to get his point across. These parables are centered on the Kingdom of God, in stark contrast to the Kingdom of this world.
Thursday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
These days, the term “fear of God” has become lost to us. You may have heard the commonplace assertion that the “God” of the Old Testament is angry and scary, in contrast with the “God” of the New Testament who is loving and kind. Today we have two readings, one from the Old Testament’s book of Exodus, and one from the New Testament’s gospel of Matthew. Our Catholic tradition believes that these are not competing images of God, but complementary pictures of the same Trinitarian God. The first reading resonates well with the phrase “fear of God.” God descends with trumpet blasts, peals of thunder and lightning, in the midst of a cloud of smoke and fire. It’s no wonder that the people trembled. What we see here is that God is powerful; the dramatic effects indicate the importance of the event. This God, who is powerful and strong and all-knowing: this is our God. And we ought to fear God, not in a hide-under-the-table sort of way, but in a manner that acknowledges that God is distinct from us and worthy of all glory and honor and praise. God is worthy of respect in a way that no person and no thing in this created world can be. Too often we think of God in some sort of casual way, as just there when we need Him, to be a nonjudgmental support who answers all our prayers, despite their infrequency and our overall spiritual laziness.
Friday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
I’ve been doing a lot of serious weeding this summer. I don’t mean just pulling up dandelions and other little plants, I’m talking about uprooting heavy-duty invasive ground-covering plants, vines, and ivy that have practically taken over our backyard. Yes, we’ve neglected it for too long as life has taken us this way and that over the past several years. And now I’m seeing how little-by-little these weeds have “choked out” the other plants. Just like the “worldly anxiety” and “lure of riches” choke out “the word of the Kingdom” in today’s gospel passage from Matthew (13:18-23).
Memorial of Saints Joachim and Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Today was an unhappy day. I woke up, started on emails for work. Then the lawnmower would not start, so had to wrestle with that. When I got back inside, I realized that all the emails I had sent had bounced back. I tried to send them again and again but they all bounced back. Later I tried to run an errand for work, only to have a tire blowout. I skipped the errand and went home defeated thinking this is a Murphy’s Law kind of day. Murphy’s Law being that anything that can go wrong will. With this litany of complaints on the front of my brain, I sat down to work on the reflection for today.
Feast of Saint James, Apostle
There’s something about the story in today’s gospel from Matthew that is endearing in a way that the similar story in the Gospel of Mark is not. In Mark, James and John approach Jesus themselves and ask Him to do whatever they ask. They proceed to ask to sit at His right and left when He comes into His glory. Jesus, as in today’s gospel, tells them that they will indeed drink the cup He will drink, but places are not His to assign (Mark 10:35-45). A request for honor is much more palatable made by a mother on behalf of her children. We understand that mothers want what’s best for their children. And when she asks on behalf of James and John, we don’t find the men themselves as brazen as in Mark’s version. At first glance, we may think that their mother is naïve, as mothers can sometimes be when speaking about how worthy their children are. That she doesn’t know that she asking for her sons to suffer and die as Jesus will.
Monday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Our first reading today anticipates the well known parting of the sea in Exodus. Our Responsorial Psalm celebrates the event.
Friday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
I have worked in the world of private school admissions for over 10 years now, first at the college level and now in high school. The work is a combination of sales, marketing, communication, recruitment, event planning, and, in my current position, is driven by faith and mission. When I worked in college admissions, I managed a territory of high schools in the Chicago area, recruiting high school students to consider attending Monmouth College, a small, liberal arts school in rural, western Illinois. I was consistently challenged by the fact that I was working for a school that most high schoolers had likely never heard of and competing against thousands of other colleges and universities from all over the country. We were compelled to be creative and think outside the box. I had a colleague at Monmouth that worked in the Chicago area with me who had been working in college admissions for over 30 years. I still have this very vivid memory of the first time I met Peter. He looked at me and said, “Brandon, here’s how we make an impact and get results in our territory.” He put his hands together as if he were holding a giant ladle and sitting over a large cauldron over a fire and began to move his arms in a clockwise direction. “We stir the pot, get creative. Stir the pot and keep stirring.”
Thursday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s psalm response, “The Lord remembers his covenant forever” (Ps. 105:8a) guides us in thinking about today’s first reading from the Book of Exodus. Here we have the continuation of one of the most well-known passages in all of our beloved Old Testament: God speaking to Moses from the burning bush. If you have been following the daily Mass readings for the last few weeks, then you know that we have been hearing the narratives of the great figures – Abraham and Sarah, Isaac, Joseph, Jacob and now Moses, who has lately taken the lead role in these passages. From the 12th Week of Ordinary Time, we have heard mention of covenant with reference to Abraham, who was promised descendants, land, and blessing on all nations through him. The covenantal theme continues throughout the Old Testament, and in today’s first reading we see God’s concern that the Hebrew people do not have land of their own, but rather are being treated badly by Pharaoh in Egypt. God’s words to Moses can be seen as a reassurance of God’s commitment to his people. God has not forgotten the suffering Hebrew people; he has not forgotten the promises he made to Abraham.
Wednesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
As we approach today’s Gospel, I invite you to call to mind children whom you know. Think about what characterizes these and other typical children. You might recognize their innocence, playfulness, inquisitiveness, joy. Jesus tells us that if we are to understand the things of God, we must be childlike. Let’s explore what it means to approach our faith in a childlike manner and ask our heavenly Father to gift us with a childlike heart and mind.
Tuesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
A lot is going wrong as we enter the Exodus text for today. To start, Pharaoh has issued a decree demanding that all male babies born of the Hebrews be drowned in the Nile. To live amidst the darkness of such a decree, especially if you are of that ethnicity or religious identity, must be hell on earth. Not only that, Pharaoh chose to use the Nile—perhaps the most powerful source and sign of life for all the people of that region—as the instrument of death. Hell, indeed.
Monday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace on the earth. I have not to bring peace but the sword” (Matthew 10:34). What are we to make of such a statement from Jesus?
Memorial of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, Virgin
Maybe the fact that one of my sons is in Chile for eight weeks this summer and my other son will be studying abroad in China this Fall, and the fact that my elderly parents live more than 400 miles away, have something to do with my heartfelt reaction to the very emotional reunion of Joseph and his father, Jacob (Israel), in today’s reading from Genesis. The lectionary readings over the past several days have been taking us through the dramatic story of Joseph’s reconciliation with his brothers, who had sold him into slavery years prior, and reunion with his father who thought he was dead. Today I didn’t need the famous Broadway musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (or a high school adaptation), to visualize this emotional reunion in the final verses of today’s reading: “As soon as Joseph saw him, he flung himself on his neck and wept a long time in his arms.” And his father’s response, “At last I can die, now that I have seen for myself that Joseph is still alive.” Years of grief turned to relief and joy.
Thursday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
I know an older woman who was estranged from her only sibling, her brother, for many years. I’m not sure exactly the cause of the rift between them, but they stopped speaking at some point in their adult years and allowed the distance to remain for 10 years or more until the brother was diagnosed with a form of cancer that would take his life. With the knowledge of his poor prognosis, he reached out to his sister for the first time in a very long time and she responded with compassion and love. They both let go of their stubborn pride and bitter hurts to be reconciled to one another in the last couple of years of his life. He suffered a lot with the cancer, but it seems to me that God was able to use the “bad” of cancer to open the hearts of both he and his sister to reconciliation and their deeper ties of love. They, in turn, cooperated with God’s plan in their willingness to forgive each other and be reconciled.
Wednesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Today Jesus sends us out, after the example of the Twelve Apostles, with this instruction, “As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” The Twelve set the stage for us as we follow Christ on this journey of life as his disciples. What does it mean for us to proclaim, “the Kingdom of heaven is at hand?”
Memorial of Saint Benedict, Abbot
Some time back, I jumped off a cliff. Literally. I was visiting family in Colorado; my sister thought it would be fun to try out a zip line - zooming through a mountain valley about 100 feet off the ground in places, attached to a wire with some climbing gear. I've tried something like this before, but it was a long time ago, and I remember being petrified and not being able to do it. The thing is, first you have to climb the several feet up to the spot where the zip line begins; then you have to find the courage to jump off the cliff - all while the wind is roaring around you and you're thinking, golly, this is crazy.
Monday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
The authors of Genesis pieced together legends from Israelite folklore, in particular in the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. These tales spread orally for 900 years before being written down and another 400 years before taking the form that we can recognize. They are engaging narratives of the dysfunctional family of Abraham.
Friday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
When I was in college, I lived in an intentional faith community house with 5 other guys. The life of the community was intended to be centered around prayer, fellowship, and outreach. The six of us built a household community of faith, friendship, and fun. In the midst of our individual lives, we established a rhythm of praying together, sharing in daily tasks, gathering around the table for meals, and supporting one another in the many other areas in which we were involved, both on and off campus. Looking back, we were fortunate to bond over many spaghetti dinners, liturgy of the hours, games of euchre, sleeves of Oreos, and evenings on the porch. However, as I reflected on the gospel today, I was drawn back to the third pillar of living in this intentional community–outreach.