Reflections on the Gospel Reading for the Day
May God’s word enkindle a flame in our hearts and transform us.
Jesus said to his disciples: “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing” (Lk 12:49)!
What has been burned does not remain the same. What fire touches, it transforms. Jesus wants us to be consumed so as to be transformed by the fire of the Holy Spirit. Encountering Jesus affects a change in us. When we are open to allow the Holy Spirit to breathe on the embers in the depths of our souls they are fanned like tinder and ignite. We continue to fuel the fire by getting in touch with what God has called us to do in our place and in our time.
We are not to be a Christian in name alone but in thought, word, and deed. Pope Francis, in his exhortation The Joy of the Gospel, wrote: “THE JOY OF THE GOSPEL fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who accept this offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness, and loneliness” (Francis 2013, 9). Joy is a gift, a holy flame, that is given to us by the Holy Spirit, it wells up within, and rises up and out to be shared with others. It is different than pleasure which has its source in the stimulation of the senses being aroused but fades once the external stimulus has ended.
Happiness is also external and fleeting. It lasts longer than pleasure in that the memory of the experience will linger on but it too will also fade away. Joy wells up from within, as it is imparted to us by God and can be present even when the external experiences are stressful or chaotic. I experienced this when I was still teaching 5th and 6th Grade Religion and acting as the dean of students at Rosarian Academy. At the same time, I was also immersed in family and parish life, as well as my studies and formation activities for the permanent diaconate.
One particular morning I woke up exhausted. When the alarm went off my first response was to skip my morning prayer and hit the snooze button to get an extra twenty minutes before rising. Instead, I literally crawled to my small chapel area, lit the candles, and opened my breviary. When I read the words in Psalm 42: “Hope in God; I will praise him still, my savior and my God”, something ignited within. I felt an energy well up within me that I cannot to this day describe. I felt an inexpressible joy. Not only did the experience carry me into the day but lasted throughout the whole week.
God is the foundation of our lives and seeks to transform us with the fire of his love, and even when we are at our lowest, such that in our soul there are only smoldering embers, we need to resist the temptations of indifference and complacency and remember to turn to Jesus. Instead of brooding over what we don’t have, we will encounter him when we are thankful for that which he has given to us and for those he has placed in our lives. We will experience him in his Word, in prayer and worship, and in serving one another. We need to keep showing up, even if sometimes we have to crawl to get there, and allow God to fan the embers within our soul to set us ablaze.
This flame St. Paul experienced and shared in today’s first reading from his letter to the Church in Ephesus and he invites us to experience this gift of grace as well. May we, “know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that [we] may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:19). To know the love of Jesus is more than knowing about him. We don’t read and study the Bible as we study a history text, but to experience the love of the Holy Spirit bringing alive the word into our hearts. In meditating, pondering, and praying with Sacred Scripture, we experience, breathe, rest, and receive his love and so become filled with the fullness of God.
Nothing else in this world can satisfy us as much as experiencing and being transformed by the love of God! When we seek God first, we resist the temptation of being attached to finite things. When we trust Jesus and align our will with his, we know him and experience his love for us and then our relationships and possessions are properly ordered. Knowing his love we can then experience fullness of his Father, we will no longer seek substitutes to place before God. We will experience fulfillment and better enjoy our relationships and those goods in our lives that God has blessed us with.
Photo: Rosary walk at sunset on Veteran’s Memorial Island, Vero Beach. Great way to ponder and mediate upon the mysteries of Jesus and his life.
Pope Francis. Evangelii Gaudium: The Joy of the Gospel. Frederick, MD: The Word Among Us Press, 2013.
Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, October 24, 2024
Jesus conquered sin on the cross that we may be free from sin in our lives.
“That servant who knew his master’s will but did not make preparations nor act in accord with his will shall be beaten severely” (Lk 12:47).
Jesus, as did the prophets, spoke in ways that can be jarring. The purpose was to shake his listeners out of a dull stupor and to make clear his point. In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus addressed Peter’s question: “Lord, is this parable meant for us or for everyone” (Lk 12:41)? Jesus was most likely speaking to Peter and the Twelve. They are the ones he entrusted with continuing his mission. And just as he had been clear to point out those Pharisees who had abused their positions, he was being just as clear with Peter and the apostles. Jesus wanted to make sure that his successors were not to continue on with business as usual. What Jesus required of them was not just for themselves, but those whose care they had been entrusted with and beyond them to all the nations. His parable was for both the Twelve first and foremost, and then to everyone.
Unfortunately, we have witnessed those in Church leadership who have in effect, “beat the menservants and the maidservants, to eat and drink and get drunk” (Lk 12:45) on their own power. Those who have: abused children, covered abuse, skimmed off the top of the donations from the blood, sweat, and tears of their parishioners’ donations, limited access to positions within the leadership of the Church to only male or clergy, been unmerciful confessors, held up the sin of one group or groups while turning a blind eye to others. These and other forms of hypocrisy do irreparable damage.
The world has been darkened by sin and it has crept into the Church. Even though all of us have been wounded we have not been destroyed by sin. The Son of God entered into the condition of our fallen nature, became one of us, one with us, in all things except sin and yet was willing to take the sin of the world upon himself on the Cross, conquering sin and death. Even when those in his name have participated in and perpetuated in that which Jesus warned his Apostles against, we are not to lose heart nor hope. I agree with Bishop Robert Barron that we are called out of “the realm of hatred, racism, sexism, violence, oppression, imperialism, what Augustine termed the libido dominandi (the lust to dominate).”
We are called to be children of the light. We do so by doing whatever Jesus tells us to do. There have been many throughout the ages as well as up to and including our own present time who have done just that. The saints have embraced the light of Christ allowing it to reveal to them their sins. With humility and contrition, they confessed their weaknesses, failures, sins, and from this place of surrender, they have been forgiven, healed, and transformed. They have become an empty cup able to be filled to overflowing with the love of Jesus. May we too be willing to be emptied of that which is not of God, so that we may receive the healing salve of the Father’s Love and be filled to overflowing also. May the love that we have received then spill over into the lives of those within our reach.
Photo: Stained glass behind the altar of Holy Cross Catholic Church.
Barron, Robert. Catholicism: A Journey to the Heart of the Faith. NY: Image, 2014
Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, October 23, 2024
When we prepare, we will be ready.
Jesus said to his disciples: “Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks” (Lk 12: 35-36).
As disciples, we need to be ready for the coming of Jesus. Yes, for when he comes again at the end of time, but just as importantly, to be prepared for his coming each day in the midst of our lives. If we do not prepare to encounter him daily, the likelihood of us being prepared for his coming again will be slimmer, and only the Father knows the time or the hour.
To plan something means that we outline all that needs to be done down to the last detail. This can be an advantage especially when we are dealing with blueprints for a home or building. By having detailed plans we can be sure we have the proper materials and tools, an estimated budget, and hire the help needed to accomplish the goal. There are many areas in our life where planning has its advantages. Planning our spiritual life is important, deciding when and how we are to pray, meditate, study, engage in Bible and spiritual reading and/or which service we are going to attend, establishing a routine of spiritual direction, time for fellowship and small groups, and how, when and where we can serve others. These are all plusses for planning.
The challenge with planning pops up when we become too attached to the plan and we leave no room for the Holy Spirit, no awareness for the knock at the door because we are so focused on sticking to the plan. Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners are on the horizon. How many times have we experienced planning a dinner with guests, gotten stressed when things did not go exactly as planned and spent more time adhering to the plan and its execution such that we missed engaging with those we were working so hard to provide hospitality for?
Preparing is akin to planning, in that we get ready but are more flexible to other options not governed by our fixed mind and our sense of being in control. Jesus calls us to be prepared to receive him at any moment. Are we prepared to encounter and be present to a classmate, colleague, family member, or neighbor who asks for help at an inopportune time, the homeless person in need, the undocumented immigrant, migrant, or refugee looking for safety and security, the unborn striving to actualize his or her potential, the coworker that has not been the most pleasant, the person that we perceive as somehow different from us – who we keep at arm’s length?
How about planning and preparing for those unexpected events in life that appear all of a sudden? When we heard of JoAnn’s diagnosis we went into planning mode, and as anyone who has spent any time with JoAnn knows, she was in her element when there was some planning to be done. There were many things in those final months we planned for and for the most part, they came together. There were interruptions to the plan where we needed to adjust, sometimes without notice. Preparing helped us to be flexible in those unexpected moments, to be open to the guidance and leading of the Holy Spirit helped us to feel blessed during a tremendously challenging time.
Most recently here at Holy Cross, we were well prepared here in Vero Beach for Hurricane Milton, but needed to be flexible with the surprising onslaught of the tornadoes that touched down. With the quick response from the leadership of our diocese, we have been able to clear much of the damage to the trees, and even though still not able to celebrate Mass in church, our great staff was able to pull together and create a beautiful space this weekend to celebrate in our hall. Ideal? No, but that we were and will continue to be able to come together and make adjustments as needed, we can again worship and pray together. A blessing and gift to be thankful for.
Even before JoAnn’s diagnosis, she often said that life was hard. She saw many people suffering and couldn’t understand why people couldn’t be kinder to one another. St. Oscar Romero wrote, “It would be beautiful if people saw that their flourishing and the attainment of their highest ideals are based on their ability to give themselves to others.” We can better to do so when we are willing to prepare each day to spend time with Jesus, to grow in our relationship with him, so in times of change and challenge, we will know his voice, follow his will, so to heal, grow, be flexible, and adjust as needed so to be ready and helpful to one other when needed.
Photo: We’re still standing! Our cross remained atop Holy Cross Catholic Church!
Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, October 22, 2024
Resist greed and embrace almsgiving and charity.
Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions” (LK 12:15).
Jesus wisely warns us to be careful to resist the temptation of greed, which can be defined as an intense, selfish desire for something. Here Jesus addresses the greed of material wealth, but we can also have unhealthy selfish desires for anything. Jesus also stated that “one’s life does not consist of possessions.” Material goods are finite and will not ultimately fulfill us but they can be good when used for the purpose they were intended for and in moderation.
God provides for our needs. Fostering an attitude of thanksgiving for that which we have received and then being good stewards helps us to resist the temptation of greed. St Clement of Alexandria (150-215 AD) wrote: “How could we do good to our neighbor if none of us possessed anything.” God does bless us, and from what we have been given we are to assist those in need. The problem comes when we interfere with the flow of receiving by hoarding what we have received and rationalizing our unwillingness to share. Also, when we look to our wealth as our safety net, instead of God’s providence, we begin to cling to what we have and develop an unhealthy attachment. We buy into a false security in placing our trust in material wealth. We need to remember that the material and finite of below will not satisfy nor will it last, we need to set our heart and mind to God first and foremost.
Acts of almsgiving, willing the good of and support for one another in need, will help us to resist the temptation of greed and help us to be open conduits of God’s mercy. Pope Leo XIII (1810-1903 AD) wrote that “Once the demands of necessity and propriety have been met, the rest of your money belongs to the poor.” How many of us are willing to put that quote on our bathroom mirror? More so, put it into practice? How about posting this quote from John Chrysostom (349-407 AD) over our closet and reading it before we enter: “The man who has two shirts in his closet, one belongs to him; the other belongs to the man who has no shirt.”
God has given us the gift of his Son, Jesus. In so doing he has given us the free gift of our salvation which is a reason to rejoice! He loved us and creation into being and is loving us into eternity. We are invited to participate in the love experienced by the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We do this best when we resist clinging to the material and finite and instead being thankful for the gift of life and invitation to be in relationship with his Son. May we resist clinging to and instead be willing to share that which we have received from God, our infinite source and spring of eternal Love. We will be fulfilled and joyful, not by how much we have saved up in our bank accounts, but by how much love we invest in serving one other.
Photo: For the past few years, I have been blessed with God’s gifts of these wonderful evening views. In our time with God, we receive is love and generosity. May it inspire us to freely give as we have received!
Link for the Mass readings for Monday, October 21, 2024
Not God, “What will you to do for us?” but instead, “What are we to do for you?”
For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mk 10:45).
As fully God and fully man, Jesus taught and modeled for his disciples a contrarian view of how to live in our world. He rejected the pursuit of worldly honor, power, pleasure, and wealth during his earthly ministry. Jesus redirected any attention drawn to himself to his Father. He epitomized the exact opposite of the cult of personality by emphasizing that what is most important is developing a relationship with God and following his will by serving the needs of others, even to the point of suffering and dying to open up access to heaven for us.
On our own, we cannot achieve this freedom of service. James and John showed that they did not understand Jesus’ call to service. Instead, they were looking for seats of honor and power. Though they had experienced, studied, and were mentored by Jesus, it was not until experiencing his crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, and in remaining true and faithful despite their own failures, that they came to a place of transformation through their openness to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. They came to understand that Jesus called them to serve and not be served. They then fulfilled what Jesus first saw when he called them to leave their boats and follow him.
This is true for us as well. Jesus sees not just our impulsiveness, pride, and selfishness, our wounds, and our sins, but who God has called us to be from the beginning and still is yet to be actualized. Jesus calls us to a way of life that embraces loving and serving as he loved and served, yet in the unique way and charism that our loving God and Father has planted in us. He has sent the Holy Spirit to guide, empower, and to transform us by his love, so to draw us deeper into the Mystery of God.
May we be willing to be led, as James and John were, away from our attitude of: “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”, which is never a good question to ask the Son of God because in so doing we are feeding our E.G.O. We are Edging God Out of the picture and placing ourselves front and center. Instead let us open our heart and mind as Jesus did and embrace the inner disposition of a servant that asks, “God, what do you want me to do for you? How do you want me to serve? Not my will, but your will be done.”
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Photo: A time of quiet and thanksgiving looking at our new but temporary sanctuary in our parish hall. I was blessed to be able to greet and celebrate Masses this weekend together again with my Holy Cross family. We are beginning again and seeking God’s will on how to best move forward.
Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, October 20, 2024
The Holy Spirit is ready, willing, and able to help us, unless we say no.
“Everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven” (Luke 12:10).
This verse is often referred to as the “unforgivable sin” and it can be difficult to understand. Also, if you have been reading this blog regularly you may have read more than once my writing that God forgives us more than we can ever mess up, so, how is it that we can’t we be forgiven for blaspheming the Holy Spirit?
When I was a junior or senior in high school, one of my teachers commented that if we thought Stephen King wrote amazing tales, then we might find reading the book of Revelation from the Bible interesting. This was not a Catholic but a public school. As a reader of Stephen King and at that time I think he had only written seven to eight novels, that phrase stayed with me, and a few weeks later, I purchased a King James Bible from our local bookstore, Waldens, which I am not sure exists anymore (Waldens not King James). I don’t remember if I read it at all, I must have thumbed through it a time or two, but then placed in on my shelf, next to my a copy of The Stand.
A month or two passed and I remember being at a party and not having much fun, so I left. When I arrived home I had the urge to open my newly purchased Bible and when I did my eyes found not the words from the author of Revelation but Luke. He shared: “Do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows” (Lk 12:7). After reading the section leading up to this verse, I felt God saying to me that I would not ever win the lottery, but like the sparrows, he would take care of me. He would provide me with the opportunity and the ability to work. He has continued to be true to his word through all the ups and downs of my fifty-nine years so far. God not only provided work, but has continued to provide something even more, an awareness of his presence in my life. These beginning stepping stones have led to others that would ultimately pave the way to me typing these words to you today. Because of each successive yes to the invitation and guidance of the Holy Spirit, and confessing those times that I did not, I placed myself in a better position each time to recognize and hear the word of God.
Now, that experience could have taken a different turn. I could have resisted the initial curiosity that welled up within me from my teacher’s discussion and instead of going out to purchase a Bible, I could have stayed home that day and opened up my copy of The Stand and given it a second read. Thus denying that invitation of the Holy Spirit, I would not have had a Bible when I went to that party. I could have followed through on the first urging to purchase a Bible but then resisted the second urge to leave the party. Choosing to ignore either or both promptings would have led to a higher probability of my not hearing God’s voice that night. Say each step did happen up to and including hearing God’s voice but then I denied that I heard God, instead attributing the experience to some bad pepperoni pizza from the party. Each one is an example of how I could have closed myself off to God’s invitations.
God invites us to share in his life in a myriad of ways. With each invitation, no matter how small, we can say yes, or we can dismiss these “encounters” as mere “coincidences.” With each denial, we further limit ourselves to the possibility of acknowledging an encounter with God. We can even begin to doubt and/or come to a place of denying that he even exists. We could then develop “a mentality which obstinately sets the mind against the Spirit of God, and as long as that obstinate mindset perdures, God’s forgiveness cannot be accorded to such a person” (Fitzmeyer 1985, 964).
God loves us more than we can ever mess up, so much so, that he gives us the freedom to reject him. He does not impose his will upon us. John the Baptist and Jesus got this, and this is why their emphasis on repentance was so preeminent in their preaching. If we turn to God with humility and contrition, true sorrow for our sins, God will forgive us and we will receive his healing touch.
The danger of a consistent and obstinate disposition against God is that like a muscle that is not used, it will atrophy, and so will our ability to see God working in our lives. We will become less and less able to notice his gentle stirrings and invitations. We will become spiritually blind and our hearts will become hardened. Now that does not mean God stops communicating. He continues to reach out to us in an infinite number of ways, but we are less and less able to receive the forgiveness he so thirsts to give us when we close off ourselves to even the mere possibility of him doing so.
Jesus, in becoming one with us in our humanity so that we can become one with him in his divinity, opened up the opportunity for us to experience the Holy Spirit, who is the Love that is shared between himself and God. Opening up the Bible, as I did so many years ago, opens us up to the living Word of God. The more we say yes to his guidance and leading, the more we will experience him, the more we will begin to recognize his voice, the more we will participate in his forgiveness and love, and the more we will be nourished and strengthened. I do not believe in coincidences, but God-incidences!
Photo: Blessed to be back at St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary for the Friends of Seminary Gala. Some quiet time of prayer after the Mass in the chapel, where I have been blessed to have been touched and guided by the Holy Spirit many times, and again this night!
Fitzmeyer, Joseph A. The Gospel According to Luke X-XXIV in the Anchor Bible. NY: Double Day, 1985
Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, October 19, 2024
May we be willing to receive the love of Jesus, be transformed by him, and then sent out to reflect his love.
The Lord Jesus appointed seventy-two disciples whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit (Lk 10:1).
Jesus sent out disciples ahead of him. He sends us out as well. Just as Mary conceived Jesus through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, she went in haste to assist Elizabeth who also was to give birth. What happened when Mary came upon Elizabeth? No sooner had Mary’s greeting reached Elizabeth John leaped in her womb with gladness. This is the model of evangelization, sharing the joy of Christ that we experience in coming together. Jesus does not tell us to define and judge people but instead to encounter and build relationships with them.
Yes, we are a people of the book like our Jewish and Muslim brothers and sisters, but we are primarily a faith tradition grounded in the encounter of a person, Jesus the Christ. My pastor from my time at St Peter Catholic Church, Fr. Don, shared a simple image that has stuck with me that represents the path of discipleship. The image of the cross. The vertical part of the cross represents how we develop our personal relationship with Jesus that grows through our regular practice and discipline of prayer, meditation, contemplation, and study. The horizontal represents our encountering Jesus in each other through fellowship, small group study, worship, and service. If we only have the vertical, the one on one relationship with Jesus, we just have a stick. If we just serve others without encountering Jesus, we just have a stick. Put them together and we have the cross which embodies the greatest commandment to love our God with all our heart, mind, and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
Christianity is the way of the cross, not the way of the stick. We are to be contemplatives in action by experiencing the joy of encountering Jesus, personally, and in our interactions with one another. We do not need to go to some faraway land. All we need to do is open our minds and hearts to allow God to happen in our everyday experiences with those around us. We are to love others as Jesus loves us and unconditionally share the inexpressible joy of that love.
Jesus sent seventy-two off to encounter one person at a time and build one relationship at a time. I agree with Gerhard Lohfink in his piece, “What Does the Love Commandment Mean?”, that love is not a pious universal that we love all humanity in some vague removed or remote way. The love that Jesus expressed in the Gospels and imparts upon us today is something tangible, corporal. It is hands-on: “This love constantly breaks out of the individual communities to embrace non-Christians, guests, strangers, the suffering (obviously including those in other countries) but it is always tied to the concrete experience of common life in the individual community” (Lohfink 2014, 72).
Jesus, please move us to be more open to experience you in others. Lead us to experience, “the surrender of life for the sake of others” (Lohfink 2014, 73), and not just those in our closest circle. Help us with each encounter to be more hospitable, respectful, and joyful. When we catch the eyes of another, shine your love through our smile. So in that simple, genuine expression, someone may feel today that they matter, that they have worth, dignity, and value.
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Photo: There are many ways to surrender ourselves to one another through kind and loving acts. We just need to be willing to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit and like Mary, reflect the light we receive from Jesus to others!
Lohfink, Gerhard. “What Does the Love Commandment Mean?” In No Irrelevant Jesus: On Jesus and the Church Today, translated by Linda M. Maloney, 64-74. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2014.
Link for the Mass readings for Monday, October 18, 2021
We receive God’s key of knowledge to open the door to his love for ourselves and each other.
Woe to you, scholars of the law! You have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves did not enter and you stopped those trying to enter” (Lk 11:52).
We all yearn to be loved, to belong, to be accepted, and fulfilled. God knows the depth of our yearning better than we know ourselves. For he sees past the apparent goods that we cling to and he invites to take steps into his light that we might see the truth of his love and our fulfillment that can only happen in our relationship with him. From that core communion all else in our lives can be properly ordered.
To willingly prevent access, to those who seek, as did those for whom Jesus points to in today’s Gospel, is an egregious offense. Especially in the way that Jesus describes. They themselves have the key to enter, do not avail themselves of the gift they have received, and worse, prevent others from going in! I remember a time in eighth grade where I had wanted to ask a girl out to the school dance. I confided this hope with someone but of course, the word got out. A few days later in math class, the teacher announced to the whole class that I was the first one he had ever heard of being rejected before I could even ask them out. I wanted to melt into the floor.
Teachers, like religious leaders, are to open up greater access and care for those who have been placed in their trust. When they do the opposite by denying access, betraying that trust, belittle, or worse abuse those they are charged to empower, they slam doors in the faces of those who seek to be loved and belong. We are to resist any temptation to demean, dehumanize, or crush the spirit of anyone and instead seek to be understanding, kind, and present. The “key of knowledge” Jesus wants to share, is to open, not lock others out of their access to Jesus and his truth.
Each of us is hungry for God. Not only are we to seek him but also to help others along the journey to experience him. We are to love and support one another, even when they express their hunger in not the most pleasant of ways. Here it is even more important that we resist reacting in kind and slipping into a defensive posture. Instead, let us be patient, understanding, and willing to listen with our spirit instead of our ego for what their need truly may be. May we not be a closed door but one that is open to share the healing love that we have received from Jesus.
As Pope Francis said: “Each one of us is called to be an artisan of peace, by uniting and not dividing, by extinguishing hatred and not holding on to it, by opening paths to dialogue and not by constructing new walls! Let us dialogue and meet one another in order to establish a culture of dialogue in the world, a culture of encounter.”
Photo: Making time to be still and quiet can help us to feel God’s peace and help us to be more patient with one another.
Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, October 17, 2024
Spiritual Stepping Stones 