christianity
May we be thankful for God, and those who have been and are still in our lives.
They stood at a distance from him and raised their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!” (Lk 17:12-13). They raised their voices and asked Jesus to have pity on them. Did the ten seeking a healing all call in unison. Did one shout out first and then each not wanting to be left out all joined in calling out? Then did their calling reach a fever pitch? Luke is not specific as to how they called out but that all of them did. Jesus then healed the their leprosy with his word, they began to praise God and may have walked away in even a more joyful raucous than their calling for their healing. Yet one, a Samaritan, after realizing he was healed, returned to thank Jesus.
It is a good practice to spend some time each day to reflect on what we are thankful for. To see where God has entered our lives and provided assistance. At times when we feel a bit down and out, or in a bit of a funk, often the reason may be that we are focusing, on what we do not have instead of on what we do have. There is a quote, I am not sure of the source, that goes: “I cried because I had no shoes, and then I came upon a man with no feet.” We can be so bombarded by the mass appeal to the material, that we forget the truly important realities of this life and the many blessings that we have been given.
Today is Thanksgiving Day, unless you are reading this the night before. Thanksgiving is a time of family coming together, which hopefully as joy filled as those lepers walking away realizing that they are healed. But with the promise of such gatherings, there is all the cleaning, setting up and the prep for the big dinner, the travel, the unresolved issues of life, and there are the wonderful gifts of diverse personalities and points of view. Making time to periodically stop and take a few breaths can make a big difference in how the day is played out. A moment of quiet may help us to be like the Samaritan leper who when realizing that he was healed, was thankful. Slowing down a bit, might just help us to appreciate each other a bit more and grumble a little less.
As Jesus reminds us, we do not know the time or the hour. Life is finite and fragile in the best case scenarios. We will not be here forever nor will those we love. November is a time in the Church when we remember those who have joined the communion of saints as well as those on the way. I know too many who have lost those close to them. And since becoming a priest, I have walked with eleven more who have journeyed from this life to the next. My prayer is that they and JoAnn are now home with God. May each of us remember those who have gone before us and be thankful for the time that we have had together, while at the same time, may we appreciate those still in our lives.
My thoughts and prayers are with you who are reading these words this day. May we allow the warm embracing arms of our loving God and Father to embrace us in a moment or two of silence. In these quiet moments, may we remember that we are never alone and that God cares for each and every one of us and our loved ones here with us, and now preparing for us in the next life to come.
Jesus, please help us to remember that life is a precious gift that you have given us, and may we appreciate every moment. Help us to be thankful for our lives and the lives of those near and far that we are blessed to call family and friends. May we also remember and pray that the Holy Spirit may provide comfort and aid for those who may be alone, struggling, or without family, food and/or a home this day.
———————————————————————————————-
Photo: Was not aware that this would be our last Thanksgiving together. A reminder to not take the time we have together for granted. Happy Thanksgiving!!!
Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, November 28, 2024
When we know God and rest in his love, we can experience his peace even in times of conflict.
Jesus said to the crowd: “They will seize and persecute you, they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons, and they will have you led before kings and governors because of my name” (Lk 21:12).
Each of the predictions above; being seized, persecuted, handed over, and led before the rulers happened to Jesus’ disciples as was recorded by Luke in his second volume, the Acts of the Apostles. Jesus did not nor does he hide or paint a rosy picture of discipleship. He consistently shared and modeled in his own life how demanding it will be to follow his lead, the will of his Father, the demands of discipleship, as well as the reality of having to endure persecutions. This continues to be true today. In fact, the number of Christian martyrs in the twentieth century rose to a higher level than at any other time in history combined.
Since the first days of Jesus’ public ministry, there have been those who have said yes to the invitation to be his disciple and this has continued generation after generation up to an including today. Each of us has to make our own commitment to Christ. It is a personal invitation and a personal response. Though the demands, the sacrifices, and the expectations are high, Jesus is present with us through the journey. St. Paul equated discipleship with running a race: “Every athlete exercises discipline in every way. They do it to win a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one” (I Cor 9:25).
Any athlete, musician, artist, or person engaged in any serious endeavor, must discipline themselves to accomplish their goal of freedom for mastery, for excellence. A lack of concerted discipline will not lead to the fluency and the freedom for the sought after goal. The same is true with discipleship.
The discipline required that Jesus presents in today’s Gospel of Luke is to remain firm in authentically living out our faith even in the face of pushback, persecution, and hostility. This pressure may not just come from those who would seek us harm, but from family, friends, and/or peers. This is where the issue of putting God first comes to bear. We are not to be belligerent, get in someone’s face, or shut down dialogue about what we believe but meet others with love, mercy, and respect. Nor ought we back down from what we believe.
It is important to share, listen, respect and allow another the opportunity to do the same. From a place of mutual respect and honoring each other within and without of our own faith traditions, as well as those having none, we grow. People are free to decide as they wish. Sometimes people will react emotionally, rudely, crudely, or even violently. Yet that is not an excuse nor does it provide the green light for us to respond in kind. If we do, then we will often feed into and justify another person’s preconceived notions.
Archbishop Fulton Sheen said: “There are not one hundred people in the United States who hate the Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be.” As disciples of Jesus Christ, it is important that we know our faith, can explain what we believe, live it out authentically, clarify as needed through respectful dialogue, and above all to be icons of hope and love. We need not be afraid. The Holy Spirit will give us the words to speak as well as the ears to hear. The gift of respectful dialogue will result in the deepening of our relationship with the one who has made us for himself and one another. For where there is the truth, there is God who is Truth.
Photo: Making friends with silence, helps us to listen better to God and one another. We will also then know better when and what God wants us to speak.
Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, November 27, 2024
The end? Better to trust in Jesus and live well the days we have been given.
While some people were speaking about how the temple was adorned with costly stones and votive offerings, Jesus said, “All that you see here– the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down” (Lk 21:5-6).
As we read yesterday, Jesus observed the widow donating her two coins. Today Jesus observes those who are commenting about the wonders of Herod’s temple. Jesus responds by sharing, as did Jeremiah, that the temple will fall, and not a stone upon another stone will be left. The reality of this statement would come to pass in 70 AD when the Romans destroyed the temple and crushed the Jewish rebellion during the Jewish War from 66-70 AD. The only significant remnant of the temple still to this day is the western retaining wall, also known as the Wailing Wall.
The people of the ancient Near East certainly witnessed and passed on tales of the rise and fall of mighty kingdoms beginning with Egypt’s impressive reign from about 3,000 to 721 BC, followed by Assyria who then gave way to Babylon. The Babylonian army would destroy Solomon’s temple as predicted by the prophet Jeremiah. The Persians would then overtake the Babylonians and push west only to be repelled by the unification of the Greek city-states under the Macedonian Philip and then his son Alexander the Great who would continue south and east all the way to India. The massive Greek empire would then give way to Rome. Rome would then fall in 476 AD.
As each empire fell, and especially during the fall of Rome, there was a great concern that the end of the world drew nigh. Throughout the ages up until the present day, nation has continued to “rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom…” and the world has experienced “powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues from place to place” (Lk 21:10-11). Each made their historical impressions on those who lived through them. There has also been a plethora of end of the world predictions from the ancients up to the more well known modern prognosticators such as Jeane Dixon, Pat Robertson, a handful of predictors around 2000, and most recently Harold Camping who caught a lot of attention with his prediction of the end of the world that was to have happened on October 21, 2011.
As of this typing, we are still here. The Gospels of Mark and Matthew record Jesus addressing the same concern of those questioning him: “But of that day or that hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (see Mark 13:32 and Matthew 24:36, RSV translation). In Luke’s presentation from today’s Gospel, he moves further away from Mark and Matthew’s eschatological or end of times talk and spoke more toward the destruction of the temple.
We have a few more days of Luke and Ordinary Time to go before the end of the liturgical year. Kingdoms have and will continue to rise and fall (hopefully not in these next few days). Abuse of power continues worldwide. Storms and fires rampage. So many are displaced from war, terrorism, violence and too little are reaching out to provide compassion and support. Too many are enamored by our technological ingenuity and advancements, as were those who were admiring the adornment of Herod’s temple. Are we in the final days? Only the Father knows.
Yet, we are not to be anxious about tomorrow as Pope Francis encouraged those in his homily when he spoke at Tokyo Stadium in Japan a few years ago. We are to seek first the kingdom of God and “to re-evaluate our daily decisions and not to become trapped or isolated in the pursuit of success at any cost… [that] leave us profoundly unhappy and enslaved, and hinder the authentic development of a truly harmonious and humane society”.
We need to place our hope and trust in Jesus, the Son who knows the Father. He will help us to embrace the wonder and the marvelous gift of all life; human as well as all of God’s creation. Our investments ought to be in relationships not in anxiety and worry. We are called to encounter, accompany, and support each person in the realm of our influence, while at the same time strive to be better stewards of God’s creation. In this way, we can make decisions, not just for what we can get now, but ones that will positively impact the next seven generations.
Photo: Sun setting on Holy Cross and Ordinary Time.
Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, November 26, 2024
Lord of lords and King of Kings!
Today is the last Sunday in Ordinary Time. Next Sunday we will begin the new liturgical year in the Church calendar as we begin Advent. In today’s Gospel from John, Jesus faces the Roman procurator, Pontius Pilate:
“So Pilate said to him, “Then you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice” (Jn 18:37).
Jesus was brought before Pilate because the Jewish leadership believed that he was a blasphemer. He spoke and acted as if he were God. They knew that Pilate would not care about their religious concerns, so they sought to present a case of treason, stating that Jesus said that he was a king and setting him up to be a competitor to Caesar. The charge they brought before Pilate was the accusation of treason.
For his time and ours, this means that Jesus was either a liar in that he was knowingly misleading those who followed him. He was a lunatic in that he believed he was who said was while not being so. Or he is the Lord of lords, because he is who he says he is and who now Pilate says he is, a king.
Yes, Jesus is king, and not just any king in the way of other kings who have gone before him or followed after. As Jesus said, “My kingdom does not belong to this world” (Jn 18:36). The Son of God came among us to re-orient and to re-align the worldly order. Leadership is to not to be about the aggrandizement of self nor to be sovereign at the expense of others. God was very aware of the suffering of his people. He sent Moses to free his people from slavery from Egypt and he sent his Son to free all humanity from our slavery to sin.
As we end the liturgical year it is fitting that we remember Jesus is the “King of kings and the Lord of lords.” He is our hope, the One in whom we are to place all our trust, the One who is Lord over all kingdoms, all nations, all of the cosmos, and all of creation! We would do well to ponder this truth and reality because, if this is true, we have a choice to make.
Who do we choose to serve, who is our lord? Will it be Pharaoh or Moses, Pilate or Jesus, our self or God, life or death. It may appear that death has the final answer, is the ultimate power, for all dies, and nothing will remain. Jesus entered into and conquered death and in so doing became the first born of the new creation and invites us to be a part of his eternal kingdom.
If we seek to be free from the shackles of our slavery to sin, the choice is clear that we are to listen to the voice of the Way, the Truth, and the Life, Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God, the King of the Universe. We are to serve, Christ the King, and be his subjects. We may bristle at the idea, but we do so as a reaction to the oppressive regimes of the world. Jesus as Lord of lords himself submits to and serves the Father and he leads not for his own self aggrandizement. He fights for the salvation of all of our souls. He fights to win our freedom from anything that would bind us, turn us away from our relationship with him, and to lead us back to the truth of who we are and who we have been created to be.
On this solemnity of Christ the King, let us allow Jesus to re-orient and re-align the order of our lives so that we may help him to promote his kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus gives us not only the blueprint on how to be his collaborators with him, he empowers us to accomplish that which he guides us to do. Following Jesus is not about our worthiness, for we all fall short of the glory of God. Following Jesus is about our willingness to answer his call. Jesus came into the world to testify to the truth. Let us listen to his voice and follow him!
——————————————————————-
Photo: Miss this view of Christ the King while celebrating Mass here at Holy Cross.
Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, November 24, 2024
We will fear less when we pray more.
In today’s Gospel, we have available to us the parallel to The Parable of the Talents from Matthew 25:14-30, which is The Parable of the Ten Gold Coins from Luke 19:11-28. There are a few differences. A key opening point is that in Matthew’s account, we do not know why or where the master goes after he entrusted three of his servants with talents; five, two, and one respectively. In Luke’s account the man is a noble and he “went off to a distant country to obtain the kingship for himself and then to return” (Lk 19:12). He called ten servants to invest a gold coin he gave to each of them. The theme that is similar in both accounts is that when the man returns, two of the servants invested well and brought about a greater return on their investment, and one hid what he was given out of fear of his lord.
Another added feature in Luke’s account was the fellow citizens of the nobleman that did not want him to be king and openly opposed him. The nobleman after attaining his kingship and returning successfully, dealt harshly, to say the least, with those who opposed him, having them slain. Those listening to Jesus tell the parable would understand this predicted outcome, as it was not uncommon in the ancient Near East for a ruler to slay those who opposed his rise to power.
The readings over this week continue in this vein of eschatological talk, references to the second coming of Jesus, and final judgment because we are in the final two weeks of the liturgical year. The readings present us with the reality that there will be a judgment by God, and what Jesus makes clear is that we are not the judge and jury, though many appropriate this role for themselves. We are only accountable for the talent or gold coin we have been entrusted with.
God has called us each uniquely by name and given us a gift that he wants us to put into action to help build up his kingdom. We need to resist burying this gift or hiding it away. Doubts, fears, and anxieties will arise in our hearts and minds. We may say to ourselves, “I don’t even know where to begin.” We can begin with prayer, we can pray with the one who calls us to participate in his work.
We are invited each day to begin with prayer. In the beginning, the length of time is not as important as consistently spending time with God intentionally. We show up, breathe, allow ourselves to be still, allow the restlessness of our mind to quiet, and we listen. This may take some time or days, but when we continue to return and trust that God has a purpose for us, we will hear his guidance, and then we are to follow his lead.
“Remember that you are never alone. Christ is with you on your journey every day of your lives!” – St. John Paul II
We are called by Jesus to be contemplatives in action. Mediocrity and fear are no longer to be our guides. With humility and patience, let us trust in the guidance of the Holy Spirit who will light our path to maturing and actualizing our unique call to serve God and one another.
Photo: Pope St. John Paul II Rosary walk – L’Osservatore Romano
Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, November 20, 2024
Are we in the end times? Only the Father knows, so let’s get to know the Father!
Our readings this week are more focused on the eschatological or end times as we move into the final two weeks of Ordinary Time and the end of the liturgical year. These writings are also called apocalyptic because they unveil or reveal hope to a people in dark times of oppression. In much of today’s gospel from Mark, Jesus is referring to the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple and then he pivots to the end of all time.
Jesus did share how the temple would be destroyed, but that he, the living Temple, would rise up in three days (see John 2:19). The temple was destroyed in 70 AD by the Roman army. The acts of violence in those four years of siege were horrific and Jesus was helping those of his time to prepare for it. This destruction of the Temple was also symbolic of the end of the world at the end of time. That is what Jesus leaves off with at the end of today’s reading. Continuing on with the following parable that we did not read today helps to give the context that he has made this shift from the prediction of the destruction of the temple to the final judgment when “heaven and earth with pass away” (Mark 13:31).
Jesus is echoing the imagery of Daniel from the first reading as well as Old Testament prophets such as Jeremiah, which all refer to the fall of cities. These readings address the issue that God is present in the midst of our suffering and for those who persist and remain faithful, he will bring about a greater good. As he himself would live out so vividly. There would be no resurrection without the crucifixion. As to the final judgment: “But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Mk 13:32).
There have been those who have attempted to glean the time or the hour over the generations, and in every instance been proven to be false. We are still alive and the earth is still revolving around the sun. Seeking that day or hour is not for us to know nor to seek. As Jesus said, even he does not know the time or the hour.
What is important is relationship with God. This truth is what we have been created for. Relationship with God is what we are to seek before all else. We are not written in the book of life by some predestined oracle such that we are merely pawns on God’s chessboard. We are written in the book of life when we say yes to the invitation of building our relationship with Jesus so that we may come to experience and know his Father through the love of the Holy Spirt.
I have been asked multiple times if and told just as often that we are living in the end times. If the person appeared to be open, I would share with them Jesus’ words that only the Father knows the time or the hour. And this statement by Jesus is not a proof that he is indeed not divine because he does not know. It is just as the Catechism states: (see 473-474), he was not sent to reveal this information, he said just as much in Acts 1:7.
What is important to remember in times of trial and tribulation, no matter how challenging, is to anchor ourselves in the love of God. God will not abandon us or leave us orphans, God is our foundation and our refuge, he is our hope and fulfillment. God sent his Son to be one with us in our humanity so that he could experience the fullness of our humanity, experiencing our sinful condition, while not committing sin himself. As he grew and matured as a human being, he was limited in what he knew about his Father. He trusted, as we are to trust him with our lives. Jesus who was willing to follow his Father’s will all the way into the horrific suffering on the Cross did this, so he could not only experience death but through the love of the Holy Spirit conquer death, and we who follow him, will follow him into death and into new life. To be one with him in his divinity.
Viktor Frankl in his book Man’s Search for Meaning wrote:
“We who lived in the concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in numbers but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: The last of his freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
When we face our challenges, let us resist the temptation to curve in upon oneself, to hide in our shell, and/or to put our head in the sand. Instead, let us daily spend time with Jesus in: quiet, his word, spiritual reading, the sacraments, in being willing to see him in one another. Improving our relationship with Jesus is much more important than knowing the time or the hour of the end. The end of the world or the end of our lives on this side of heaven will come, and if we know Jesus, his Father, and the love between them, the Holy Spirit, we will be ready whenever either moment comes.
Jesus built the Church one person, one relationship at a time. He is inviting us to trust in him and to know his love, so that we may be filled with the fullness of his Father. This love we receive, this relationship that we develop, we are to offer and invite others to partake in. Let us choose to breathe, to rest, to receive, and to abide in the love of God no matter the circumstance we find our selves in, so to reflect the light and share the love of Jesus with others.
Photo: One of my first evening Rosary walks here in Vero Beach, back in mid July.
Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, November 17, 2024
We can’t prove God is, but we can experience God, who is.
Asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come, Jesus said in reply, “The coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be observed, and no one will announce, ‘Look, here it is,’ or, ‘There it is.’ For behold, the Kingdom of God is among you” (Lk 17:20-21).
Many of the Pharisees were scrutinizing Jesus’ every word and action, unfortunately, with a hard heart. They were closed to the reality present before them because they were looking for ways to accuse him, to catch him, to have cause to show him to be a fraud. They were closed to the actual events happening around Jesus that the blind could see, the deaf could hear, the lame walked, lepers were healed, the dead had arisen, and the poor had the good news proclaimed to them (cf. Matthew 11:5).
They missed the very reality that the Kingdom of God was in their midst. We see this very much today through the mental posturing of “scientism”, the belief that the only reality is that which can be measured empirically, through the five senses. Scientists have brought about many advances and innovations that we enjoy today, yet there is a reality beyond the physical. This is the spiritual, which transcends the three-dimensional reality that we experience through our senses. We understand the world around us better when we embrace both science and theology, the physical and the spiritual, as well as embrace the gifts our reason and our faith.
If our mind is closed to an idea, a reality, and/or a belief we will not only resist believing, we will also seek rationalizations to explain it away as did some of the Pharisees. From a hypersensitivity to accept only the physical, we can brush off acts of synchronicity as mere coincidence. Yet, if we are open to the spiritual reality of our interconnectedness beyond that which we can measure finitely, these incidences can be termed, God-incidences.
We cannot prove God as we would approach a problem to be solved. God is not in the genus of being. There are no words to adequately describe God. We can say more about what he is not than what or who he is! Some of the better attempts we have are that God is an Infinite Act of Existence or to use the phrasing of St Thomas Aquinas and echoed by Bishop Robert Barron, Ipsum Esse Subsistens – The sheer act of ‘to be’ itself, or as God said to Moses, “I am, who am” (Exodus 3:14). God is transcendent, beyond categories, beyond the grasp of our finite minds, and yet we can experience him because God is closer to us than we are to ourselves.
We will not encounter God by forcing him to come to us on our own terms, by attempting to force-fit him into our finite conceptions. God meets us where we are and as we are, on his terms. As we open ourselves to his presence, accept his invitation, he then helps us to expand, to experience more broadly, who we, others, and our world are. We experience this best when we truly love, when we go out from our own self-centered stance to will the good of another. We encounter God through embracing the wonders of his creation!
As Jesus said to Philip, “Whoever has seen me, has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9). The Kingdom of God is among us because Jesus is fully God and fully man. By his very presence, he shows us that there is no opposition or competition but a union between heaven and earth. We will never fully comprehend God, but we can better know him, ourselves, and the world around us when we breathe with both lungs of faith and reason, and embrace our intellect as well as our spirit. As St. John Paul II stated, “Faith without reason is superstition” and as attributed to Albert Einstein, “Reason without faith is boring.”
———————————————————-
Photo: Morning holy hour on the grounds of St. Joseph and Mary Retreat House during my 30 day silent retreat July of 2023.
Stop, breathe, and call to mind what and who you are grateful for.
Jesus said in reply, “Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine? Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?” Then he said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you” (Lk 17:17-19).
Bloodline doesn’t matter, gender doesn’t matter, nation doesn’t matter, ethnicity or race doesn’t matter. Ask Mary the mother of Jesus, ask Mary Magdalene, ask the woman who suffered from hemorrhages for twelve years, ask the Roman centurion whose slave was dying, ask the Samaritan leper what matters. Each of them will share with us that what matters is our faith in Jesus the Christ.
The lifeblood of Christianity is our belief in and developing of our relationship with Jesus, the Son of God, who made his dwelling among us. St Irenaeus of Lyons (born in Smyrna about 135-140 AD and died about 202-203 AD) in his work Against the Heresies wrote: “The Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who did through His transcendent love, become what we are, that he might bring us to be even what He is himself.”
That Jesus became one with us in our humanity so that we can become one with him in his divinity is something to be thankful for! Many times when we are feeling down, maybe it is because we are focusing on what we do not have or who is not in our life instead of being thankful for who or what we do have. A way to adjust our perspective is to stop for a few moments and think about three things we are grateful for.
The leper from today’s Gospel helps us to take the next step. Once we allow ourselves to be aware of what we are thankful for, let us thank the One who made what we have possible. Our time on earth is too short to allow the temptations of indifference and complacency to take hold. May we be more aware and choose to reach out to those who are important in our lives and tell them how thankful we are that they are in it, how much they mean to us, and how much we love them. Including God the Father for his constant and abiding presence, the wonderful gift of the invitation of his Son, Jesus, to share in his divinity, and the Holy Spirit who loves us so that we may love one another.
Photo: Thankful for my days at St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary!
Link for the Mass readings from Wednesday, November 13, 2024
Spiritual Stepping Stones 