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Will we allow the Word of God, Jesus, to transform our hearts and minds?

The king was deeply distressed, but because of his oaths and the guests he did not wish to break his word to her (Mk 6:26).

The king referenced in today’s Gospel is the tetrarch, Herod Antipas, one of the sons of Herod the Great. He reveals the weakness of his character when he calls for the beheading of John the Baptist, much as a foreshadowing of Pilate before the crowd asking for Jesus’ death. Both condemned innocent men to die. They  each decided to take John and Jesus’ life. Herod chose to protect his foolish oath to Salome, instead of standing up and defending the dignity of the life of John the Baptist. Pilate caved into the pressure of the crowds who claimed he was no spokesman for Caesar. In both cases, innocent men were brutally murdered without any regard for their lives.

For the first part of his gospel, Mark has shown the opposite. He has shown what true leadership is as he has presented Jesus who instead of disregarding and degrading human beings has empowered them through his teaching a better way to be whole and in union with the God who has created his listeners. He has freed the possessed, healed those who had been on the outside bound by illness and/or sin. Instead of the evil disposition of Herodias, we recently saw the courage of the woman with the hemorrhage.

And while Mark provides us with this interlude and flashback of the death of John the Baptist, the apostles are on the march proclaiming the gospel, healing, and exorcising demons in Jesus’ name. They are putting into practice what they had learned. They are allowing their hearts and minds to be changed by the Word of God. Herod did not allow the same seeds of God’s word to find any root in his heart. Instead of hearing the words of John, repenting from his sin, and allowing his heart and mind to be transformed, the little inspiration that he received withered and died in the heat of his ego and passions.

Time and again, Jesus showed the moral courage to stand up for and empower those who were considered other, lesser, unclean, and social outcasts. He, like John, showed true courage by speaking the truth that God gave him to reveal. As John was willing to lose his head for being God’s spokesman and preparing the way for his Son, Jesus was willing to suffer, to be nailed to the Cross, to die and conquer death, that each one of us might have life, and have it to the full.

We have a choice to make each day and each moment. We can choose to follow the enemy or to follow Jesus. Herod and Pilate made their choices and the apostles made theirs. May we choose to follow Jesus and allow his words to find rich soil, that we may allow our hearts and mind to be transformed as apostles, and so also grow in virtue so that we too will have the moral courage to stand against the pressures of a culture of death and stand up for the dignity of each person at every stage of development from the womb to the tomb, and implore that our leaders do the same.

Photo: Nothing helps us to allow our hearts and minds to be transformed by God’s love than by making the time to be still, pray, and meditate on his word and listen.

Link for the Mass readings for Friday, February 7, 2025

Called, loved, and sent.

The rejection of Jesus by those in his hometown did not slow down his mission. We can imagine that Jesus knew what he was going to do already, but en route wanted to stop by to see if any from his “native land” would like to participate in his public outreach. Apparently, no one, or only a very few, those who were healed by him, did. Jesus, as he does throughout the Gospel of Mark moves on without missing a beat, much like Mary going in haste to bring the good news to Elizabeth. Jesus went ahead and, “summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits” (Mk 6:7).

Could the rejection of the people of Nazareth then also have been a preparation for the sending of the Twelve? They had experienced his exorcisms, teaching with authority and healing with miracles, and also saw the reaction of the crowds. Before he gives them some final instructions, maybe the most important of all was to be faithful to the message of repentance that they were sent to preach. They were to bring the light of Christ to those for him they were sent to reveal those sins they needed to turn away from those sins, attachments, and idols and instead turn to God and invite them to give their whole hearts and minds to them.

Jesus summons us and sends us out as well. We too have been accompanying Jesus and his disciples through each chapter. The word of God is living and alive and Jesus still reaches out and calls us as he called the Twelve.

At the end of each Mass, we are sent, just as the Apostles, to proclaim the Good News! All of us as the Body of Christ, believers in Jesus the Christ, those of us baptized into his death, are to live as his disciples and bear witness to how Jesus has transformed our lives. This is best done by repenting ourselves and placing God at the center of our lives. Jesus gives us each a unique call of evangelization with a particular charism and gift that the Holy Spirit imparts within us at our Confirmation.

Jesus is the one who calls, sends, and empowers us for mission. We are sanctified, made holy, and set apart when we say yes to his invitation, participate in his sacramental life, and follow the will of his Father. Jesus not only teaches with authority, but he also calls and sends us with that same authority. We are to rely on the divine providence of our Father. He prepares us and provides that which we need to accomplish the task he has given, and he will also send the Holy Spirit and others to provide help, aid, guidance, and support. We see this over and over again in the lives of the Apostles and each generation of saints thereafter.

At first sight, we may not agree with God’s choosing. Me, really? Those he sends to walk with us, are you sure! Yet, we only need to recall what he accomplished with the Apostles, remembering the imperfections of each apostle and their simple beginnings. Just as mustard seeds, that grew to mighty bushes, what wonders they accomplished in Jesus’ name. God does not see as we do, for we are often misled by appearances “or lofty stature” but God sees into the depths of the heart (cf 1 Samuel 16:7).

Ultimately it is not about us after all. It is about our willingness to be open to and led by God and to work arm in arm with those he has invited to walk with us. That makes all the difference. We are not to go forward alone. We are called to be in community as the Body of Christ. Jesus sent his disciples out two by two in the beginning, so that they could provide mutual support, guidance, encouragement, prayer, and accountability. We each begin best each day by making time to be still, to breathe, receive, rest, abide in God’s love, and listen to his word and guidance. Then we begin, step by faithful step, walking with our brothers and sisters to follow the light that Jesus shines before us.

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Photo: Blessed to have begun my seminary journey with these my brothers in Christ!

Link for the Mass for Thursday, February 6, 2025

Seeing Jesus as he is will help us to experience the love of his Father!

Today’s Gospel reading is a sad account. For the first time since beginning his public ministry, Jesus has returned to his hometown of Nazareth. He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and preached and taught in his “native place”. Unfortunately, this was not a roaring success of the hometown boy returning home to make good. Initially, it seems that the immediate reaction was the same where he had been preaching before. People were “astonished”.  This astonishment though was not received in the same way as his other audiences. The outsiders he preached to were amazed at the authority and power of his teaching. The hometown crowd looked at Jesus more with contempt.

This is a window into this small town of not more than 500 at the highest estimates. It is also a window into what really happened when Jesus returned home after being lost when he was twelve. What happened in those missing years from twelve until the beginning of his public ministry around thirty was most likely insignificant at best. As Mark mentioned, Jesus was merely a carpenter and the son of Mary. This identification is only used by Mark. Was this because of the roots of Jesus’ conception happening while still during Mary’s betrothal period to Joseph? Or, speaking of Jospeh, could this reference be to the fact that Joseph had already died, although, Jews more often than not during this time, referred to sons by addressing the name of their fathers, such as Jesus the son of Joseph, not by their mothers.

Most of the people here did not accept that he spoke with authority, healed, exorcised demons, or tamed violent winds and waves at seas as the lead stories coming into town had said. Jesus’ words were not received, and so he was not able to bring those who knew him for the greater majority of his life into deeper communion with his Father. The whole reason that he came was to bring light to a world suffering in darkness, and those closest to him refused the invitation such that: “he was not able to perform any mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith” (Mk 6:6).

For the first five chapters that we have been going through each day with Mark as our guide, many were amazed at the power of Jesus’ preaching, presence, and miraculous works. Jesus was amazed that those who probably he was closest to more than anyone else, refused to believe. They had heard about and now witnessed themselves, the power of his preaching, but they could not see past the simple carpenter.

Is our world today becoming more and more like Jesus’ “native place”? Do we take Jesus for granted, if we pay him any attention to him at all? Where miracles are dismissed as hoaxes or coincidences at best? At one point, CS Lewis, I believe, wrote that Jesus is either a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord. He cannot be anything else upon a close reading of the Scriptures. Today, some circles would add that he is just made up.

We seek to know in the depths of our hearts, all of us, atheists and believers alike, as well as everyone in between. We seek to know the truth. Authentic faith seeks understanding. A questioning and searching mind are the ingredients for a living, relevant, and vibrant faith and life.

Yet, we can limit ourselves for many reasons and experiences that we have gone through in life. We can, like the Nazoreans, limit the truth of Jesus by accepting a caricature of him. As St. Thomas Aquinas taught: “To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary; to one without faith, no explanation is possible.” There are reasonable ascents we can make to the reality and truth that Jesus is the Son of God, but our reason can only go so far. God’s grace builds on nature. God has given us an intellect and will to seek and to know, but we also are not only limited to our ability to reason. God also reaches the deepest core of our being when we are willing to trust him a little and open our hearts and minds to his revelation.

May we resist setting limits, settling for a minimalist or cynical approach, and the hardening of our hearts, and instead open ourselves up to the limitless possibilities God opens up before us! There is so much to experience when we just slow down and are still to experience the wonder of everyday, miraculous moments happening all around us. The Holy Spirit touches our hearts in our encounters with one another when we resist keeping each other at a distance, in a box neatly defined, and/or lead with our fears instead of love. God wants to share with us the gift of his Son and the Holy Spirit. Are we willing to open our hearts and minds to him, even a little, and allow the love of God to happen today?

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Photo: The wonder of looking up! Stopping for a moment a few nights ago on my Rosary walk!

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, February 5, 2025

“Do not be afraid, just have faith.”

“Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, ‘Who has touched my clothes'” (Mk 5:30)? The woman could have slipped away, she could have stood still and said nothing, no one knew. His disciples were bewildered that Jesus asked such a question with so many pressing about him. But the woman approached with “fear and trembling” and told him the truth. Jesus did not admonish her for breaking a social taboo but publicly acknowledged her faith and so empowered her with a deeper healing than the merely physical that she sought.

All the while as this scene transpired, Jairus must have been in agony. He knew how close his daughter was to death, and every second counted. Jesus took that limited, precious time and engaged with this woman. Just as they were about to resume their journey, and he began to breathe again, the terrible news came that his daughter had passed away.

What might have flashed through his mind at that moment? The time Jesus took to talk with the woman, could that have made the difference? He was a synagogue official and would have known the taboos she crossed to reach out and touch Jesus in public, he knew that in doing so she would make Jesus unclean, she was a woman considered the lowest of low. She was frail and pallid from her condition, at death’s door herself, yet she had mustered such courage and faith to touch him. She took such a risk. While these or any other thoughts were passing through his mind, Jesus assured him, “Do not be afraid, just have faith” (Mk 5:36).

Jairus had just witnessed such faith with the woman healed from the hemorrhage, probably someone until this very moment for whom he might have shown disdain for. Maybe just maybe, if he could muster the same faith as her. Jesus could bring his daughter back to life just as Jesus had brought this woman, who was death’s door back to life and wholeness. A light shone in the darkness of his despair and the darkness did not overcome it. He would not be let down. Jesus indeed healed his daughter. He took her hand as he had done with Peter’s mother-in-law, and commanding her to rise and walk, she came back to life.

How many of us have ourselves or have ever known someone who has experienced such great needs as did Jairus, whose twelve-year old daughter died, or the woman who had been suffering for twelve years with hemorrhages, with no healing from doctors all this time? In both of these cases Jesus brought about miraculous healings. How many of us have experienced the opposite? No healing that we prayed for. We wondered where Jesus was or why he didn’t bother to help? The truth is Jesus is present, though he may or may not have brought about the outcome we may have sought.

February 2 marked five years and five months since JoAnn died. She was not healed from the pancreatic cancer that ate away at her body, as was the woman with the hemorrhage. Nor did Jesus come to raise JoAnn from the dead, as he did for Jaurus’ daughter, while I laid by her side and held her hand awaiting the funeral home to pick up her body. Does that mean Jesus does not heal anymore or that there is no relevance in the readings of the Gospel of Mark for us today?

No. Quite the opposite. Entering into the daily rhythm of reading, praying with, and meditating upon these accounts helps us to know him not as a historical figure but to encounter him as our Lord and Savior, brother and friend, who is present with us in this and each moment. As we enter into each passage, slowly and prayerfully, we are invited to enter into his memory, receive his direction and guidance. Over these five and a half years, I have healed, become aware of further areas in need of healing, attachments to let go of, and Jesus has helped me each step of the way. No step has been easy, but Jesus has given me the guidance and strength to make each one possible.

Read again prayerfully today’s account. May we pray for the courage and faith to approach Jesus and place all our trust in him for each situation as this woman did. When we struggle, when the ground feels a bit shaky underneath, let us take to heart and believe in the words that Jesus spoke to Jairus, “Do not be afraid, just have faith (Mk 5:36). When we place our trust and faith in Jesus, who is truly with us through it all, the good, the bad, and the ugly, we will experience his love, direction, and strength with each step we take along the way.

Photo: JoAnn received an even greater healing and I believe now that Jesus did come that day. He took JoAnn by the hand, and she like Jairus’ daughter arose to be with him for all eternity. 

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, February 4, 2025

Jesus is stronger than any evil and will free us from anything that binds us.

Jesus and his disciples have entered the Gentile territory of the Gerasenes. As soon as they get out of the boat a man possessed by an unclean spirit rushes up to him. He himself was in a worse state than the storm that Jesus had stilled. He called himself Legion as he was possessed by many demons. He had been living in the tombs, away from society, family, and friends, some of whom had made multiple attempts to restrain him, cure him, bring him back to his right mind, but to no avail. The encounter with Jesus ultimately brought about the result of this man “sitting there clothed and in his right mind” (Mk 5:15). Jesus was able to liberate this man from his desperate state. If you have not done so, I recommend reading the full account (Mk 5:1-20).

Many scoff at the healing power and miracles of Jesus, and they certainly would also discount demonic possession. Though rare, there are still cases today. A strict approach of scientism that only accepts the empirical, only that which can be measured by the five senses, discounts not only the divinity of Jesus and the reality of God but any talk of a spiritual realm. This is unfortunate because this is a limited approach to understanding the fullness of creation. We ourselves are both physical and spiritual. A healthy embrace and experience of both will help us to better appreciate and understand the world around us.

Too many today are in the same need of experiencing the liberating power of Jesus as the Gerasene. Just as chaotic and tumultuous, especially among too many of our youth, are those who are consumed and imprisoned by the vice grip of addiction. Family members and friends reach out desperately to help, to provide aid, and find themselves in the same situation as those who sought to care for this man who had been living in the tombs. Somehow this man caught “sight of Jesus from a distance, he ran up and prostrated himself before him” (Mk 5:6). There must have been some ember at the core of who he was that could still move and bring himself to Jesus.

Far too many are suffering, bound, and shackled by a wide range of addictions, obsessions, disordered affections, and oppressions that plague far too many today, as well as the rare cases of possessions. Evil seeks to distort, disfigure, divide, dehumanize, and separate all of us from the goodness and wholeness that God intends. This growing epidemic damages individuals, families, and friends and could benefit from a unified approach of the best that science, psychology, counseling, prayer, the sacraments, spiritual direction, and when needed, exorcisms can offer.

Jesus can reach into even the deepest darkness of our internal entanglements and help to reveal any disordered affections. Yet we must choose, as did the Gerasene demoniac, to surrender to Jesus. May we resist the temptation to flee from him, and instead run into his open arms. Resting in the grip of his loving embrace, we will come to know that we are not alone in our suffering, that our deepest anguish, sin, and wounds can be healed.

Jesus is stronger than any evil that seeks to bind and separate any of us. He shared this in his parable of “tying up the strong man” (Mark 3:27) which is on vivid display as he casts out Legion from the Gerasene man. Let us continue to place our trust in the name of and the power of Jesus and intercede for all those who are suffering from any form of disordered affections, addictions, and/or afflictions emotionally, psychologically, or spiritually. May Jesus lead all of us to experience deliverance and freedom from any affliction no matter how small or large, so that we may experience the right ordering of our minds, hearts, and souls to God’s will, and like the Gerasene man, not only experience the fullness of his healing but also go to share the good news of our experiences to help to bring the invitation of healing to others.

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Photo: Not even the strongest of chains can bind us when we seek the healing power of Jesus to free us.

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, February 3, 2025

“Quiet! Be still.”

On display in Mark’s recounting of the calming of the storm at sea is the humanity of Jesus. He had finally succumbed to the exhaustion from being pulled and touched, challenged and accused, the constant interaction through his service of teaching, healing, forgiving, and exorcising, such that he not only fell asleep on the boat but was in such a deep state that he was as if dead, even during the height of the storm.

What is also on display is his deep and abiding faith in his Father. For those aboard with Jesus were seasoned fishermen and had experienced sudden storms arise before. This must have been some storm to raise such panic. And yet, Jesus is sound asleep. He only arises because of his disciples insistence: “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing” (Mark 4:38)? They unconsciously echo their ancestors in the desert with Moses when they moaned that it would have been better if the Lord had killed them in Egypt instead of their perceived starvation in the wilderness (see Exodus 16:1-3). Even though God had freed them from their slavery, they did not trust he would provide for them in the desert.

Despite the grumbling of the disciples and the fatigue of Jesus, he also reveals a glimpse of his divinity. Jesus arises. He does not invoke God’s aid but commands: “Quiet! Be Still” (Mk 4:39)! Just as Mark recorded that Jesus exorcised demons earlier in his Gospel, Jesus hear rebukes the wind and the waves and all is calm and peaceful.  This does not escape the disciples who are filled with awe.

The disciples have grasped his uniqueness, have accepted him as their rabbi, their teacher, but they are still grappling with the reality that Jesus is at the same time the Son of God. They will continue to experience his miracles, exorcisms, and teachings, but their faith is still small like a mustard seed. Though germinating, the stalks will not break through to maturity until after his resurrection and ascension. It is then that their faith will begin to bear fruit as they participate in the fullness of the ministry that Jesus is about to begin to train them for.

Similar to the disciples, storms arise in our lives, sometimes just as unannounced and as quickly as the squall from today’s Gospel. A health issue, an injury, an economic shift, a conflict, the effects of a mistake in judgment, or a sinful choice, all can arise at a moment’s notice. The most recent and devastating plane crash in DC shows how fragile our lives are and how quick life can change.

We, like the disciples, can sometimes only hold on so as not to be tossed into the sea, or bail out water so we don’t sink. Sooner or later, we need to turn to Jesus to seek his aid. A helpful point to keep in mind that I have learned from one of our past retreat directors, Fr. RB, was: “Sometimes the Lord calms the storm, and sometimes the Lord lets the storm rage on and calms his child.”

No matter the severity of the storm, let us place our trust in Jesus. Let us hold firm to the truth that Jesus remains present, accompanies, and cares for us and what we are going through. In every challenge he remains our anchor. We are never alone. Whether we brought the storms upon ourselves or they arose from another source, Jesus does not leave us to fend for ourselves.

When we remember to call on his name, he will either calm the storm or bring us a sense of peace as he guides us through, and empowers us to ride it out to the other side. With each storm that has arisen over the years, I have felt less fear and insecurity and more peace as I trust in Jesus. My faith has grown because time and again when I have turned to Jesus he has been there. The outcome has not always been the one I sought, but that he has been with me through each storm, I have no doubt.

As we experience Jesus and his love, we come to understand Jesus’ teachings as well as our lives better. The maturity of our faith begins to bear fruit when we are willing to allow Jesus to work through us so to be there for others in their storms. We can be a conduit of calm assurance for those who need Jesus even and especially when they do not know him or are focusing on the anxiety and fear of the storm instead of him. May God grant us the presence of heart and mind to be his peace and stillness for those who invite us into their boats as we ride out their storms with them.

Photo: Thankful all is calm and peaceful this night.

Fr RB Williams home page and link to his homily – http://www.rbwords.com/wttw/date/2018-01-27

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, February 1, 2025

Just as seeds sown grow into wonderful trees, so does God’s kingdom grow through us.

Two parables are presented by Jesus today in the Gospel of Mark. Both are presenting what the kingdom of God is like. The first presents a man who sows seeds, and the second is a mustard seed that is planted. In both cases, the seeds germinate, sprout, and go through the process of growth, and becoming mature plants. The kingdom of God is like these plants in that God works through the smallest of and many times, unnoticed beginnings. Also, God’s timing is not our timing. In our rapid-paced world of instant access, we would do well to slow down.

God not only begins small, and on his own timetable, but he is often working beyond the realm of our awareness. This is evident in the first parable offered by Jesus: “This is how it is with the Kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how” (Mk 4:26-27). This is not to say that God has set everything in motion and is indifferent or despondent to his creation. Quite the opposite. God has a plan and has been and continues to be intimately engaged in guiding his creation and in each of our lives as well. He revealed this truth to Jeremiah: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you” (Jeremiah 1:5). God is present to us, invites us to be in relationship, and seeks our relationship to grow, whether we know it or not. As we get to know him, he quietly invites us to participate in his plan.

The beauty is that even though God has no need for us, he invites us to know him and to participate in the spreading of his kingdom. Just think of someone who you have, for the longest time, wanted to meet. If the opportunity arose to spend time with that person, how excited would you be? How much more then if they also did not want to just meet you but to grow in a relationship with you! We have the opportunity to do so with the Creator of all that exists, and not just today, or tomorrow, but for all of eternity.

God has created us to know, love, and to serve him. He invites us to be in communion with him, and to participate in his work of salvation history in simple and subtle ways. Are we aware of his invitation, are we willing to watch and pray? Are we willing to place ourselves in a posture so better to receive his word as well as his silence? Just as an acorn that is sown matures and grows over time into the mightiest of oak trees, so may our relationship with our Loving God and Father also grow and mature that we become one with him in this life and into the next for eternity.

Photo: Some of the oaks here on our campus of Holy Cross Catholic Church before the storm.

Link for the Mass readings for Friday, January 31, 2025

As we grow in our relationship with Jesus, his light will shine more brightly through us.

Jesus said to the crowd: “No one who lights a lamp conceals it with a vessel or sets it under a bed; rather, he places it on a lampstand so that those who enter may see the light” (Luke 8:16).

God blesses us by giving his Son to us. He has done great things for us and he is the source of our joy! We do not earn nor is there anything that we can do to gain God’s grace. Our God and Father loves us unconditionally and always without hesitation and calls us to deeper and more intimate communion. But we can lose the gift this invitation to relationship that we have been given. This happens either by refusing what has been offered, or once accepting and receiving, not doing anything with our gift. If we are people of faith in name only, but not followed by action, we are concealing the light we have been given.

Prayer is our lifting our hearts and minds to God, to spend time with him and in truly doing so, our lives as with any relationship is changed. If we are not moving forward in the spiritual life, we are moving backwards. If we do not exercise our faith and allow that to happen over longer periods, we will receive signs of spiritual atrophy. To not even acknowledge the presence of God in our life, the free gift of his invitation to be in a relationship with him, we will experience limitations in our lives.

For whether we believe in God or not, we hunger to be in communion with him and one another, so we will be looking for other apparent avenues of happiness that will fall short of fulfilling us. If we do accept that there is a God, yet don’t participate in worship, fellowship, service, meditation and prayer, we are little but not much better off. I can believe that my car will get me to where I want to go, but if I do not put the key in the ignition, turn on the engine, and put the car in drive, press the gas peddle, I will remain stationary.

We are called daily to spend time meditating and praying, reading the Bible, learning about our faith, putting into practice what we believe, and serve God through each other as he leads. These spiritual non-negotiables happen more consistently when we schedule them first before any other activities, while being true to our station in life. A parent with an infant will have different demands than a monk or nun. What we do does not earn God’s love. God loves us no matter what we don’t do or what we do. The difference is that when we are consistently engaged in spending time with God, following his will, and putting into practice what he is guiding us to do, we experience his love more because we experience him more.

We will then be more like Mary and the saints who reflected the light of Jesus. Privatizing our faith as well as getting into another’s face stifles the light of Jesus. Instead, we are to be open to the lead of the Holy Spirit, to be present, caring, understanding, supportive, convicting, and empowering, as we accompany one another in our realm of influence. The relationships we build are those that God brings into our lives.

Jesus has given his life for us, he continues to be present to and through us to others. May we be open to being conformed today and each day by his love. We are better able to do so by resisting and renouncing the temptations, diversions, and distractions that seek to lead us away from God. God sent Jesus to enter the chaos of our lives. May we allow him in to shine his light in our lives so we can identify and purge anything not of him, so that then we may begin to radiate the presence of Christ’s light in simple and concrete ways that allow God to happen through us in each encounter.

Photo: Sanctuary lamp in our temporary sanctuary at Holy Cross reveals the presence of Jesus in the tabernacle. May our actions radiate the light of Jesus to others.

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, January 30, 2025

May we grow where we are planted as we hear, accept, and put into practice God’s word.

Each of the elements of the Parable of the Sower is worthy of meditation and reflection. A very good practice would be to take some time to reflect on each aspect and ask what limits the germination and growth of the seeds God has sown in our lives, and also what helps us to bring about successful growth and a successful yield. When did we experience God’s word but have it almost immediately snatched away; when did we gain an insight, experience joy from his word and guidance, but did not in any way put the learning into practice; how many times have trials, hardship, lack of courage, or outright persecution, tempted us from stretching out of our comfort zone, and we instead withdrew, not wanting to risk growth?

Many of us can relate to: “Those sown among thorns are another sort. They are the people who hear the word, but worldly anxiety, the lure of riches, and the craving for other things intrude and choke the word, and it bears no fruit” (Mk 4:18-19). Distractions and diversions pull at us from within and without, from one second to the next. So much seeks to undo us, tear us down, and drive us into states of anxiety, despondency, cynicism, and depression. So many apparent goods and false truths entice us and feed our desires for power, wealth, fame, and pleasure. Material temptations offer promises of fulfillment but shortly after the purchase leave us feeling empty. All the while, there is so much good that needs to be done and so much work to do. Even if we are willing to look beyond ourselves to be of help, we may not even be sure how to serve or where to begin.

Jesus offers us, with the Parable of the Sower, his promise, that when we prepare our hearts and minds to receive his word it is like tilling rich soil. The seeds that he sows within will then sprout, mature into a plant, and continue grow to bear much fruit. To have this rich soil means we need to break into those areas of hard ground:  the hardness of our hearts, prejudgments, and pride. We also need to be willing to cut away the vines as we face our fears and insecurities.

We often react from a defensive posture or give in to our immediate impulses. These weeds can choke our new growth. When we take a moment to inhale deeply, discern each thought, situation, purchase, and action, pray and seek God’s guidance, rely on trusted family, friends, colleagues, and classmates for guidance, these counter actions are like weeding out our immediate reactions and impulsive thoughts. Pruning happens when we learn from past experiences and resist giving into past habitual choices.

With consistency and discipline over time, as we surrender more to our Father’s will, continue to be nourished by his word, accept and put his guidance into practice, trust in him and not the temptations that entice, distract, divert, and disrupt our growth, we will see sprouts begin to grow, soon mature plants will flourish, and we will “bear fruit thirty and sixty and a hundredfold” (Mk 4:20).

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Photo: Saw this first bloom of the season this past Sunday morning on the way to Mass.

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, January 29, 2025

“Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

Even a surface reading of the Gospels will offer a glimmer of Jesus making things new. We can read and imagine the scene today. Many are gathered around him. The crowd is large but focused intently on Jesus as he taught. His family, presumably the relatives that only a few verses earlier came to seize him because he was out of his mind (cf. Mk 3:21), had arrived, were standing outside, and sent word. The message passed among the people was: “Your mother and your brothers [and your sisters] are outside asking for you” (Mk 3:32).

Jesus seized on the opportunity for a teachable moment. Most would have expected him to immediately get up and welcome his family. Instead he looked not beyond and past the crowd that encircled him to his family who had sent word, but to those who were nearest to him and said: “Here are my mother and my brothers. [For] whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother” (Mk 3:35).

The true measure of the family in the kingdom of God is not a bloodline but faith in and following the will of God. Those who have experienced or still experience the gift of a close, tight-knit, extended family can come close to the dramatic moment of silence that must have followed after this statement. For anyone living in the ancient Near East, familial, clan, and tribal relations were paramount to survival. To say that family bonds were strong is an understatement. Yet, Jesus challenged this societal norm by raising the bar even higher and expanded the bond of family beyond blood or marriage ties.

The relatives of Jesus were not present in this inner circle, they were on the outside. Imagine who might have been sitting in that circle; sinners, the unclean, tax collectors, and possibly even Gentiles – non-Jews, and Jesus said that they were his brother and sister and mother! If his relatives thought he had lost his mind before, I cannot imagine what kind of mental conniption they entered into after these words.

Jesus was not devaluing or delegitimizing family, he was restoring the family to its proper place and extending it out beyond what anyone of his time could have conceived of. As Bishop Robert Barron writes, “when we give the family a disproportionate importance, in short, it becomes dysfunctional” (Barron 2011, 17). We as the baptized are united in a deeper way into the Mystical Body of Christ, which is an even more powerful call to unity here than the blood-line of family, clan, or tribe.

The end goal is that as each person draws closer in their encounter and relationship with God, they also draw closer together. As we are conformed more and more to the life of Christ we begin to bear his fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control (cf. Galatians 5:22).

In sharing the fruit of the spirit, in giving this gift away to one another, our relationships will grow and our bonds will become stronger. Our love grows as we give it away, person to person, out beyond our comfort zones, to the peripheries, where there are those who feel set apart, and/or are on the outside looking in. We are even to share with our enemies. Not possible? True, if we enclose ourselves within our own bubble and focus on protecting our ego. Possible, when we deepen our relationship with Jesus and allow him to love through us.

Too many today are choosing to encase themselves in their own protective bubble wrap. Instead of embracing diversity, we are going backward, we are regressing. By choosing to close ourselves off from other viewpoints, talking over each other and at each other, if we are talking at all, and embracing fear instead of love, we are distancing ourselves from God and each other. Our strength as a people, as a nation, and as a world increases when we embrace the human dignity of each person, and the rich diversity bestowed upon us through the unconditional love of God. May we embrace the teaching of Jesus who in his emphasis on following God’s will “was insisting that the in-gathering of the tribes into God’s family is of paramount importance” (Barron 2011, 17).

In today’s Gospel account from Mark 3:31-35, Jesus did not define those gathered around him by race, ethnicity, gender, or any other label. He defined them then, as he still defines his family today, as those who are willing to follow the will of God his Father. Mary his mother being the primary model.

Jesus, please help us to open our hearts and minds to receive the Love of the Holy Spirit so as to will the good of our family and friends, our colleagues, classmates, and neighbors, as well as those we may consider as other, and even our enemies. Help us to resist asking who does or does not belong in your inner circle, but instead be willing to surrender to God, follow his will, and sit at your feet, not only to learn from you but also to be empowered and transformed by you, so to care for one another as brothers and sisters and mothers, sharing the love of our one God and Father.

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Photo: Who better than Mary follows the will of Jesus and our Father?

Barron, Robert. Catholicism: A Journey to the Heart of Faith. NY: Image, 2011.

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, January 28, 2025