“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her” (Lk 10:41-42).

My wife, JoAnn, and I have had more than a few spirited discussions on this Gospel passage each time that it arose because at first reading it appears that Jesus does not show any empathy or regard for Martha’s gift of hospitality nor for all the work she has done. All the men are sitting around listening to Jesus with Mary doing the same, and who is left to do all the work? Martha.

It is not only deacon’s wives who carry extra weight and burdens in support on the home front to allow their husbands the time to serve, (The time it took me to write these daily posts was less time I could spend with JoAnn or less time to devote to the needs of our home) but many wives who are full-time homemakers, run in-home businesses or carry a job outside the home, as well as caring for the children, overseeing the bills, the day to day grind, find themselves at times, rightly so, underappreciated, undervalued, and not respected for all they do.

To all husbands reading this, WE definitely can do a better job of being present, more patient, respectful, and attentive to our wives and be more of an equal partner in our journey. All of us, female or male, could also be better served if we follow this pattern of attention and priority: God is to be first, then our vocation to marriage and family must come second, then work, then our vocation.

With that said, I do not believe that Jesus was disregarding Martha. Especially in the Gospel of Luke, there are many instances in which Jesus empowers women so far beyond the cultural reality of the time period. We read this account from our twenty-first-century mindset. Contextually, the men sitting at the teacher’s feet in a different room, the women cooking, and most times eating separately were commonplace for those in the first century AD. The only person out of step was Mary.

Jesus said that Martha was worried about many things, Mary could have been one of those worries, and not so much that Mary wasn’t helping in the kitchen, but because she was breaking the social norm of sitting with the men. When Martha calls Jesus to redirect Mary, she probably expects him to support her plea. Yet, Jesus acknowledges that “Mary has chosen the better part” of sitting and having her primary focus be on him. I can visualize Martha being taken aback at first, but then slowly seeing the muscles in her face relax, as she chooses to let go of her anxiety, take her apron off, throws it off to the side, and sits down next to Mary.

There is consistent evidence that beyond the Twelve, Martha, Mary, and Lazarus,  were Jesus’ closest friends. When Jesus came four days after the death of Lazarus, it was Martha who initially came out to Jesus, not Mary, and in that exchange, it was Martha who made the claim that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God (cf Jn 11:27). She would not have had this insight, the same as Peter, who Jesus said only knew this through the revelation of the Holy Spirit if she was still holding a grudge over the dinner.

Today’s reaction and push back from this scene is not so much a reflection on Jesus but how poorly men have emulated Jesus in their interactions with women. No matter their ages, young and old and everywhere in between, women are human beings created in the image and likeness of God. No one has the right to abuse, demean, disparage, devalue, or exploit any woman. They are to be appreciated, heard, respected, understood, and valued.

All of us need to make a choice. We can either feed our anxiety or choose Jesus.  We can recognize and admit that we are anxious about many things, we can resist choosing to take our anxiety out on one another, and instead come and sit at the feet of Jesus, breathe slowly, let the anxiety dissipate, seek his guidance, and begin again.

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Photo: Painting by Nathan Greene

Mass Readings for Tuesday, October 6, 2020

“And who is my neighbor” Luke 10:29.

This question of the scholar of the law lines up with Peter’s question: “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him. As many as seven times” (Mt 18:21)? Both the scholar and Peter knew the letter of the law but sought justification in following a minimalist approach to putting the law into practice. Jesus invites us to a deeper appreciation of the purpose of the law of God and that is to uphold the dignity of each person. Laws can be certainly unjust, and a mere following of the law for the law’s sake can wreak havoc.

Jesus made this point when he was challenged for even thinking that he would heal someone on the Sabbath when he said: “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mk 2:27). Time and again Jesus is calling us to have the courage to resist keeping others at arm’s length. He is calling us to risk assuming a stance of understanding, taking time to listen, and be present to, as well as accompany those we encounter. 

The Samaritan did just that. The Jericho road was known for attacks just as the one suffered by the man who was left for dead. The priest and Levite may not have stopped to help because they might have thought the man was faking, or in the time they took to care for the man those that harmed him could have returned to abuse them. We don’t know the reason they continued on, because it was Jesus’ parable and he did not tell us. What we do know is that they did not stop to help, but the Samaritan did.

When Jesus asked who was the neighbor to the man robbed and beaten, the scholar said, “The one who treated him with mercy.” The scholar could not bring himself to say the Samaritan, as the Jews and Samaritans had a long-standing agreement of mutual loathing. Jesus himself sought hospitality from a Samaritan home, did not receive the invitation, and James and John were quick to implore God to send fire to destroy them and Jesus refused to entertain their condemnation.

Before we discuss or implore our lawmakers to enact policies to address such life issues as the unborn, people on death row, immigrants and refugees fleeing violence from Mexico and Central America, Syria and other violent-torn regions, those seeking hope and a better life, children who have made a life here and this is the only home they know, oil corporations laying pipelines that threaten clean water resources and disregarding indigenous people’s rights, opening up dialogue with the LGBT community who have felt like they have been treated like dirt, people of color who have been humiliated, profiled, and lost their lives, and too many forgotten in rural and urban America, we may want to read today’s Gospel account of the parable of the Good Samaritan again, slowly and prayerfully (Lk 10:25-37).

Pope Francis said in a homily last September, “Loving our neighbor means feeling compassion for the sufferings of our brothers and sisters, drawing close to them, touching their sores and sharing their stories, and thus manifesting concretely God’s tender love for them.” Many human beings who feel demeaned, dehumanized, lost, and afraid are our neighbors. They are wounded and in need. 

Will we, like the priest or the Levite just walk on the other side of the road, indifferent or afraid; will we dig in our heels and embrace our fears and prejudices; or will we have the courage to show forgiveness, mercy, compassion, understanding and accompany those in need that God has brought before us? The scholar said the neighbor was the one who showed mercy. Jesus’ response to him is the same to us: “Go and do likewise.”

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Photo: “Angels Unawares” by Timothy P. Schmalz unveiled at the Vatican. Picture credit: Vincenzo Pinto/Pool Photo via AP

Link for Mass readings for Monday, October 5, 2020

“Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you
and given to a people that will produce its fruit” (Mt 21:43).

With these words, Jesus is speaking to the leadership of Israel, those entrusted to shepherd God’s chosen. Jesus is not, as some have suggested, advocating supersessionism: the claim that the Church has replaced Israel in God’s plan. The Vatican II document, Nostra Aetate, Declaration on the Relation of the Church and Non-Christian Religions, states clearly: “It is true that the Church is the new people of God, yet the Jews should not be spoken of as rejected or accursed as if this followed from holy Scripture” (741). There is clear evidence that there have been anti-semitic movements and supersessionist views in the Church and it has created division instead of interfaith communion, and there are traces that still support a view contrary to Nostra Aetate, and there is still much to do to heal and promote better mutual understanding. We must remember that Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and the Apostles were Jewish, not Christians. Pope Paul VI stated that spiritually we are all Semites.

What we need to glean from Jesus’ words is that we who say we believe in God are given a sacred trust and duty to care for one another and all of creation. We cannot go through each day with blinders on to the needs of those around us. Though we cannot meet all the needs everywhere and for everyone, we can begin to approach each day with an intent of being good stewards to those we engage with.

We can begin by looking at our own home. First, on the material level, do we have more than we need? Are there material goods that could be used better elsewhere rather than just taking up space? Then, going forward, we can purchase what we need and resist what we think we want. I know I need to apply this to books as well! “Wealth, explains Saint Basil, is like water that issues forth from the fountain: the greater the frequency with which it is drawn, the purer it is, while it becomes foul if the fountain remains unused” (Compendium, 329). We need to seek God’s discernment so to bettwe be able to manage the gifts and resources that God has entrusted. Being free of attachment to our material goods, we may be people of generosity giving freely with joy, not choking on our own stagnation of excessive acquisitions.

We also need to assess how we treat one another. A good practice here is to follow St. Mother Teresa’s five finger Gospel: “You did it to me.” This was an embodiment of Matthew 25:31-46, where Jesus emphasized what you do to the least, you did it to me. If we can approach each person we meet, in person and now online, not as if they were like Jesus, but in fact Jesus, we might treat others with more dignity or respect. The act of respecting the dignity of one person makes a big difference, certainly to that person, as well as rippling out to counter the negativity that permeates our culture of growing cynicism and polarization. A waterfall begins with one drop. Helping people to feel they matter, that they have worth and dignity begins with one smile or a listening ear.

Moving out to issues beyond our immediate reach, we can seek to write our congressional representatives asking them that they choose as their starting point the dignity of the person instead of corporate or special lobby interests when they are considering shaping policies regarding the unborn, indigenous people’s rights, civil rights, guns, immigration reform, access to health care, war, capital punishment, and human trafficking. Then there might be more of a chance that those without a voice, those on the peripheries may not then be considered as other or just a drain on the system.

We need to appeal to their conscience so they can come to see that people without lobby access, without a voice, those who are vulnerable, do matter.  We are called to work toward the common good of all, within our country and throughout the world. “Collaboration in development of the whole person and of every human being is in fact a duty of all towards all, and must be shared by the four parts of the world, East and West, North and South” (Compendium, John Paul II, 446).

We are not the owners of the vineyard, we are the tenants placed in charge by God to be good stewards. How we use our time, talent, and treasure matter. This is a good point of daily meditation and focus when examining our conscience each evening before we retire to the land of dreams. How have we done in the matter of caring for one another and our environment? For those places we have fallen short, may we seek God’s forgiveness, and vow to begin anew. Where we have done well, may we ask for God’s guidance to continue to strive to reach out even more, such that the water of generosity we draw continues to be pure so we may bear good fruit.

Link for the readings for Sunday, October 4, 2020

Photo credit: Photo by Kai-Chieh Chan from Pexels

Flannery, Austin. Vatican Council II. Fifth ed. Vol. 1. 2 vols. New York: Costello, 1998.

Compendium of the social doctrine of the church. Cittá del Vaticano: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2005.

Turning to the disciples in private he said, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I say to you, many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it” (Lk 10:23-24).

What did the disciples see, what did they hear that the prophets and kings desired to see? The kingdom of God in their midst was no longer a saying or teaching of Jesus, but a reality uniquely experienced by the disciples who were sent by him. Those who were sent by Jesus took the risk, trusted, and believed in him and went out and preached, exorcised, and healed in Jesus’ name doing what they had seen him doing!

Deeper still the disciples experienced the gift of the Mystery of God. The Mystery of God is not a problem to be solved because God is not one being among many, not even the greatest or supreme being. God is, “I am who am” (Ex 3:14), as he described himself to Moses. He cannot be solved or proven, but he can be experienced, and that was the joy and exhilaration that the disciples felt coming back after having experienced God working through them. Jesus himself rejoiced in the Holy Spirit, not because they had healed in his name but that they had entered into communion with the Father, “do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” (Lk 10:20).

In following Jesus, learning directly from him, and then going off to minister in his name, they experienced the kingdom of Heaven. They had participated in the loving communion of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. How did they do so? They became childlike in that they lost themselves in their mission of following the will of God. Jesus had prepared them to be free from all sense of the ego-self, how others would look at them, or how others would react to their preaching or healing. The disciples were in the zone of being directed by God and doing his will, like Jesus, without hesitation.

When I was younger I used to live, eat, and breathe baseball and hockey. I would make up different versions of playing for the NHL or MLB with those players of that time in our backyard which became the Montreal Forum or Yankee Stadium. 

One experience I remember was setting up cinder blocks in the formation of steps, three on the bottom, two next, and then one on the top. I then strode some paces back with my left hand fit snugly into my worn baseball glove and tennis ball in the right. Each step led me to the pitching mound of Yankee Stadium. When I wound up and threw a tennis ball at the makeshift concrete pitchback the game had begun and within minutes, I was on the field with Willie Randolph, Thurman Munson, Mickey Rivers, looking to retire the batters Jim Rice, Pudge Fisk, and Carl Yastrzemski.

Each time the ball soared into the air or skirted across the ground, I leaped into the air, or dove sideways to come up and throw to first base, then zipped over to first to make the stretching grab. Of course, during some of the better plays I reenacted them as an instant replay. I completely lost myself in the game, I was in the zone.

On one particular occasion while immersed in a Saturday double-header, I happened to look up and saw looking out of the screen door my mother, stepfather, and some family friends who had all come over to visit, all of them with big smiles on their faces. I sheepishly put my head down and stood for a few moments. Within a minute or so, they went back to their business and I returned to Yankee Stadium to finish the game.

I share this experience to show an example of how we as children can lose ourselves, “free of reactions, expectations, and approval of those around” us. The disciples did the same, the only difference is that they lost themselves in hearing the word of God and just doing what he wanted them to do. Bishop Robert Barron shared it this way in a homily: “The best moments in life occur when we lose the ego, lose ourselves in the world and just are as God wants us to be.”

Lose yourself today in something you love to do, whether that be drawing, painting, singing, playing an instrument or sport, running, praying, reading, writing, or serving in ministry, even as Brother Lawrence did, who lost himself in doing the dishes. Find moments to be free of expectations and approval, release the weight of what others might be thinking or expecting. Instead, be present and mindful at the moment and immerse yourself in what you are doing.

These are very real acts of spiritual discipline that prepare us to be in the present, where we experience and find the God who is reaching out to us, and so then like the disciples, we will be better able to experience him and follow his will, serve him, without hesitation or concern for what others think. We will then also experience Jesus rejoicing with us that we have our names “written in Heaven”.

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Photo: Me about six or seven?

Quote from Bishop Robert Barron’s homily from 10/7/2017. Bishop Robert Barron’s daily Gospel messages can be accessed from:

https://www.wordonfire.org/resources/blog/free-daily-gospel-reflections-from-bishop-barron/5315/

Link for Mass readings for Saturday, October 3, 2020

“Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me” (Mt 18:4-5).

Children during the time of Jesus were seen if at all, to have little worth. They were vulnerable, had little if any, status in society. They were under the radar, nothings, nobodies, and thus completely dependent on their parents for survival. Jesus invites a child to come to him, identifying himself with the child, as a response to the disciples’ question as to who would be considered the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.

Jesus taught his disciples and he teaches us today that we need to be completely dependent on God our Father, as a small child is totally dependent on his or her parents. What leads us to greatness in the Kingdom of heaven is our turning away from the temptation to curve in within ourselves, resisting the urge to feed our ego, and as St Thomas Aquinas taught, resisting the cultural lures and substitutes for God: power, pleasure, honor, and wealth. We are to reject the image that we are supermen and women that need no one as we strive for complete autonomy and self-sufficiency. We are to place our complete dependency and trust in God and rely on him for everything.

Participating in the reign of God is not one of lordship over another, but instead of assuming the humility to accompany and walk along with each other along our journey in this life. We see this in the reality of Jesus, who as the Son of God entered into our human condition. While remaining fully divine, he became human when through the power of the Holy Spirit was conceived in the womb of Mary, developed through his period of gestation, and was born into our world. As an infant and child, he was completely dependent on Mary and Joseph and God his Father.

As Jesus continued to grow as a young child, he experienced the fullness of the human condition. He laughed, he cried, he got sick, he was tempted, he felt pain, he experienced heartache and joy. Throughout his life, and especially during his public ministry, he met people where they were and as they were. He understood their suffering and weakness from his own experience of being human and so accompanied them and loved them by willing their good and pointing the way for them to rely wholeheartedly on his Father.

Jesus invites us to relate to God as Father, as Abba, in the best sense of that intimacy of dependence. As St Therese of Lisieux wrote, “Jesus has chosen to show me the only way which leads to the Divine Furnace of love; it is the way of childlike self-surrender, the way of a child who sleeps, afraid of nothing, in its father’s arms.” We need to acknowledge our dependence on God and others and that we are not self-sufficient. We need to recognize not only our interconnectedness but our interdependence so to be humble enough to offer and ask for help when needed.

Our guardian angels, whose memorial we celebrate today, are at the ready awaiting our call. When we realize that we are not alone, and experience some supernatural support, we may be more willing to be aware of, be present, and accompany others in their need. We can be a shoulder to lean on, provide an ear to hear, we can offer a smile, a hug, a voice that speaks for the voiceless, a soul open to praying with others, and the courage to stand up for the dignity of others.

St Mother Teresa embodied the discipleship Jesus calls us to when she picked up that first dying man in the street. She did not ask his religion, was not concerned if he was of a different race or nationality, was not afraid to risk illness or injury by attending to him. She knelt down and was present to him in his time of dire need. May we follow Jesus and St Mother Teresa by placing our dependency in God’s hands and accompany others in doing little things with great love. When we do so, we say to another, you exist, you matter to me.

Photo: accessed from pexels.com

Link for Mass readings for Friday, October 2, 2020

Jesus appointed seventy-two other disciples and said to them, “Go on your way; behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals” (Lk 10:3-4).

The opening of today’s Gospel continues the same theme of the past few days and that is the call of a radical dependence on God. Jesus sent his disciples out with no money, no credit cards, no sack, no luggage, no sandals, no Crocs. They were to rely solely on divine providence. They were taught by Jesus to believe and trust in the Father, and now they would put both to the test. 

How well could we fare today? Do we even leave the house without our cell phones? 

Jesus meets us and accepts as we are and where we are but calls us to go deeper, to expand beyond our present understanding and practices. We may say to ourselves that we are not capable of being a great saint but that would miss the point of who a saint is. A saint is not one who was great but one who chose to release that which kept him or her from receiving more of God in their life. 

There are so many distractions, diversions, demands, and many material enticements, that we are lured by. A good practice is to assess how much of what we have, what we think, and how we spend our time, is getting in the way of trusting in God more and allowing him to expand us so to receive more of him in our lives.

A periodic extended time of letting go is a wonderful practice. About two to three weeks before JoAnn died, we stopped watching TV because it was too uncomfortable for her. She needed quiet and stillness as much as possible. Over a year later now, the only TV I watch is an NCIS episode on DVD while I eat supper. This was JoAnn and my favorite show, so it is like having supper with her each night.

During the school year, I do not have that much free time anyway. The anchor points of my personal time are devoted to praying, meditating, and writing. I had enjoyed walking again in the early evenings when I first returned to Florida but since school has started, I have not been able to. That I need to change. It is not only good but important to carve out some time in our day to be still and to spend time in the wondrous, beauty of God’s creation. When we do so, we can experience him who we depend on for everything and allow him to become more present in our daily lives. 

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Photo: JoAnn and I spending some time together in the open air of the NW corner of CT before our move to Florida in the summer of 1997.

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, October 1, 2020

And another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family at home.” Jesus answered him, “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the Kingdom of God” (9:61-62).

Jesus again invites us to the radical call of the Gospel to put God before all else, even before family and again even more radical than the Old Testament. When Elijah called Elisha to follow him, Elijah allowed Elisha to say goodbye to his family and settle his estate, so to speak, before they left together (cf 1 Kings 19:19-21).

This invitation is given to all of us. We are invited to be part of the Church. The important foundational point is that we understand what Jesus means by the Church. The original Greek term that we have in the earliest manuscripts was ekklēsia. This is more than just a gathering or an assembly of like minds. Ekklēsia means to be called out from.

Jesus calls us out from anything in our life that we put or place before God, and he calls us to a new way of living. He calls us to be part of his very being, his Body. Jesus invites us to turn away from the false substitutes in which we may be seeking happiness and fulfillment. Pleasure, power, honor, and wealth will not fulfill us, will not provide stability for us, nor will they give us control over our lives, instead in making them idols, we will be enslaved to them.

We have been created to be fulfilled, to be happy, to belong. To experience meaning and fulfillment means to surrender to who God has created us to be, which is a living, craving hunger, and desire to be one with God and each another. Nothing else will satisfy, nothing. Once we say yes to the invitation of Jesus to reorient our life such that we put God before all else, the other matters and material realities will fall into place.

Jesus calls us each by name, out from the apparent goods and false truths that we have been distracted by and he calls us into the experience of being incorporated, being part of his Mystical Body, which is the Body of Christ, the Church, the communion of believers unified in his name, renewed, born from above in water and blood.

Photo accessed from pexels.com

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, September 30, 2020

And he said to him, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (Jn 1:51).

Jesus, in making this comment to Nathaniel, was referring to the incident where the patriarch Jacob had a dream in which he saw angels ascending and descending on a ladder from heaven to earth. Jacob was in awe from the experience and believed that he was at “the gate of heaven” (cf. Genesis 28:12-17). Looking carefully at Jesus’ comment, we see again the image of the angels ascending and descending, as with Jacob, but the difference here is that that ladder coming down from heaven is not seated upon the earth, but “on the Son of Man”. This is a title Jesus used for himself often.

Jesus is the gate between heaven and earth. Jesus will state later in John 14:6 that he is “the way and the truth and the life” and that no one comes to the Father except through him. The glorious moment when the Son of God took on flesh and became a man, the Son of God became one with us. This was not just so that thirty years later he could lead, model, teach, and perform exorcisms and miracles for their own sake. It was as St Irenaeus taught, that Jesus became one with us so that we could become one with him and in so doing opened up heaven for us in the humanity he assumed.

Heaven and earth are joined in the presence of Jesus. This is a mystery of the glory and wonder that we can partake in at each celebration of the Mass. We do not attend just to take up space and fulfill an obligation but to experience again in the sacrificial offering of Jesus “on earth as it is in heaven.” We share in the heavenly banquet. We participate in the divine communal dance of Love between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We pray for our needs and for others, we intercede for the salvation of the whole world. We are empowered by his own Body and Blood in the Eucharist to minister to his broken and wounded Body in the midst of a fallen world. Filled from this glorious feast we are then sent forth to be Jesus’ hands and feet to the world.

I invite you to attend Mass this weekend or daily at 8:00 am or 5:30 pm. If you don’t have a parish home or have been away for a while there’s no time like the present to begin again. If you are not Catholic, are curious, and seeking a place to worship, join us as well. Just introduce yourself when you come into the sanctuary at the front entrance and seek out our welcoming kiosk and our greeters will help to get someone to sit with you to accompany and guide you. For times, directions, and if you are unable to attend in person you may click on the picture link that says Livestream for our live online streaming of the Mass. Here is the address to our homepage: https://www.stpeterjupiter.com .

Come and experience angels ascending and descending on the Son of God!

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Photo: My first Mass about seven years ago with Fr. Jean and Deacon Stephen

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, September 29, 2020

The Apostle John attempted to prevent someone from casting out demons in Jesus’ name because he was not one in their “company”, he was not one of those handpicked by Jesus as one of the Twelve. This person casting out demons in Jesus’ name was not like Simon the Magician (see Acts 8:9-25) who sought to buy the power of God from the Apostles to perform feats to boost his own fame and ego, this person was doing what the apostles were doing and in the proper way, by invoking the name of Jesus.

Jesus said to him, “Do not prevent him, for whoever is not against you is for you” (Lk 9:50). The important part about being a disciple is surrendering ourselves into and following the will of God. This was a consistent point Jesus pointed out to his followers time and time again. Being a disciple of Jesus had nothing to do with whether or not someone was in or out of their company, or whether or not they were related to Jesus, as is recorded just in the last chapter of Luke 8:21, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.”

Jesus, in today’s Gospel, is pointing out the danger of groupthink for its own sake. This is something we desperately need to get in our present-day and age. What is important is not putting our self, our family, our tribe, our party, our nation first. What is important is putting God first. 

The man in today’s Gospel did not rely on his own strength or will power but called on the name of Jesus to cast out demons. John was getting hung up that this man wasn’t one of them, wasn’t in their company, and he was doing what they were called to do. John may have also been a bit miffed that this man was doing a better job of it as well.

I say the more the merrier! There is much that needs to be done, there is too much pain and suffering in the world, and we are losing precious resources and hours by fighting amongst ourselves, instead of actualizing the unique and diverse gifts each of us has. We have much more in common with one another than we have differences. 

There are ways to diminish the growing polarization and division within and without of the Church and the best way to begin is we need to be willing to cast aside our protective and defensive postures, make a commitment to respect the dignity of each person we encounter and strive ourselves to be people of virtue, integrity and holiness. Whoever is not against us is for us.

Photo by burak kostak from Pexels

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, September 28, 2020

“Which of the two did his father’s will?” They answered, “The first” (Mt 21-31).

The first son followed his father’s request to go out into the vineyard and work after having first said no. Jesus does not elaborate on why the son denied the request but certainly emphasizes that what was important was that the son, in the end, did follow through on his father’s will. Another point that is clear in the parable is that both sons heard clearly the command of the Father. Would that we could hear the direction of God so clearly! God is family, our Father in heaven, and he has also invited us to work in his vineyard.

The challenge is discernment. How are we able to know what God is calling us to do? I can look back through my life and see those spiritual stepping stones, the foundational experiences along the path on my journey thus far. Sometimes with hindsight, God’s leadings are clearer now than they were at the time. Each of us have moments of encounter in our life with God that we may or may not have recognized.

We each have different ways that help us to discern God’s will. God speaks to us through our dreams and desires. It is good to ponder them when they do arise. We also need to take time to meditate in silence, step out of our busyness to be still. As St Mother Teresa has said, “God speaks in the silence of the heart.” He also speaks through his word proclaimed at Mass, our reading the Bible, spiritual writing, on our own through personal study, and prayer.

Author, speaker, and founder of Dynamic Catholic, Matthew Kelly, suggests that reading a minimum of five to ten minutes a day will make a huge difference in our coming to know God’s will. “Our lives change when our habits change.” God speaks to us in so many ways, through music, creation, our relationships, as well as all aspects of our lives. The key is placing ourselves in a posture of a heart and mind open to the movement of the Holy Spirit in our lives. God reveals himself and his will to us through our intellect, through our senses, experiences, and through the depths of our soul.

Karl Rahner, in his Hearer of the Word, wrote: “As spirit, we stand before the living, free God, the God who speaks or the God who keeps silent” (72,73). Once we do hear his word or his silence, we need to then be willing to take the risk to act upon his will. You may be thinking right now about something that has been coming to you and wondering if it is God’s will for you. Follow through on the leading and see what happens.

Another key step is to speak to someone about your insights. Speak to those you know and trust, those with experience in the area where you may be feeling led, get information and continue your research. This is where spiritual direction can be very helpful. Continue to pray about the desire, then step out in faith. If you find you have made a mistake, you can change course, reassess, and learn from the process.

What is not helpful is indifference. We need to take the time to actively engage in discernment and once we believe God is leading, act. There is much work to be done in the vineyard of the Lord, and we have a key part to play in the kingdom. God will inspire, lead, and provide the means for us to accomplish what he has called us to. Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord, in your own unique way and expression!

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, September 27, 2020

Photo: Fr Ed O’Brien from CT and me during my first weekend of Masses after my ordination. Fr Ed played a key part in my journey. He led me through the RCIA program and to confirmation in my mid-twenties.