christianity

We are one with the Holy Family when we “hear the word of God and act on it”!

He said to them in reply, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it” (Luke 8:21).

There are many popular genetic testing kits that are advertised on TV and through the internet. People have asked me is it possible to be a blood relation to Jesus. Jesus’ reply today can help you to save some money. Asking if we are a blood relation with Jesus is missing the point of Jesus’ life and ministry. What is important are “those who hear the word of God and act upon it.” God is to be first, even before family. We may experience a subtle shudder from this statement but to those of Jesus’ time, it would have been apoplectic. Family meant everything in the Ancient Near East.

Jesus is not making the point that we disregard family, he is instead teaching us that if we are to be authentically present to our family this will come about best by following the will of his Father. As we deepen our relationship with Jesus and put his teachings into action, we begin to bear the relational fruits of the Spirit. Would not our familial relationships be much better if we were more loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, generous, faithful, gentle and practiced self-control? Jesus taught and showed from his own life that the path to fulfilling and intimate relationships flourish best when we put God first because as we grow closer in relationship with him, we also do so with those around us.

Another point we can glean from Jesus’ response in today’s Gospel is that our “family” is to transcend bloodline, tribe, and nation. Any one of “those who hear the word of God and act upon it” is spiritually akin to Jesus the Christ. The point is not that we have a genetic, lineal relation with Jesus, but that when we live and act according to his Father’s will, we are part of the universal family of God’s grace and mercy and our relationship with him and one another grows as we continue to bear the fruit of the Spirit.

As brothers and sisters in Christ, we will act with more caring and kindness, seek common ground through dialogue, be more willing to walk and accompany one another and seek to understand instead of judge. The bottom line is that we are to love one another as Jesus loves us! When we do so our lives are transformed.

To hear the word of God, we must have our hearts, minds, and souls open to hearing it proclaimed during Mass. We are also invited to read his word in our own daily time of prayer. In both situations, God’s word comes alive as he shares something of himself with us, to nourish, and give us his life. As we then receive, at times struggle with, seek to understand, and put into practice God’s word, we come to know the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the saints, and our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are one family in the Body of Christ when we “hear the word of God and act on it.” Just imagine what our parishes and communities would look like if we all did this.

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Photo: Praying with the Holy Family in the sacristy of St. Philips Catholic Church, East Windsor, CT. The church where I received my first communion and concelebrated Mass as a priest there for the first time this past Sunday.

The Mass readings for Tuesday, September 24, 2024

We have been made for more.

James, from our second reading today, asks a question that unfortunately needs to be asked in every generation.

Where do the wars and where do the conflicts among you come from?

James gives us a place to start:

Beloved: Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every foul practice.

Conflict and division come from the disordering of our thoughts, desires, passions, words, and actions. There is something a bit off kilter with us. This disorder or dis-orientation is caused when we choose our self over God. Turning in upon ourselves, saying we are the center of the universe and all is to revolve around us comes from the condition of Original Sin which weakens and wounds our human nature. This condition is made worse by the belief that we can save ourselves.

We seek the truth, to be happy, and to be fulfilled but we follow false promises, substitutes, and apparent goods that appeal to our egotism, our pride, and our fear. St Thomas Aquinas, the thirteenth century Dominican doctor of the Church, categorizes four substitutes or temptations that lead us astray from our proper orientation to God:

Pleasure, Wealth, Power and Honor

In and of themselves there is nothing wrong with any of these, but when we make any or all of them into an idol, our primary focus, when we pursue them to provide our stability, satisfaction and fulfillment, we will be led astray.

Pleasure feels good and it brings us instant gratification. The problem is that once the external agent or stimulus of the pleasure ends, so does the experience, and it leaves us empty and wanting more.

Wealth promises us that if we just have enough money, we can get whatever we want, do whatever we want, we believe that we can also be safe and secure. But again, we will still experience that deep hunger within us that cannot be fed by that which is finite or material.

Power offers the promise of access, of controlling the unpredictability of life’s challenges, yet, as the Catholic historian and moralist, Lord Acton, wrote: “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Honor, closely linked with power, we see played out in our present day through the cult of celebrity that is sown into the very fabric of our society. So many seek their fifteen minutes of fame, too many not caring how they can get it.

We witness the Apostles in today’s Gospel, the closest to Jesus and his teaching, falling for the temptations of power and honor as they argue among themselves who is to be the greatest among them. The deeper sadness of their debate is that they are engaged in it just after Jesus has explained to them that he will be handed over and killed. The Apostles are so ensnared in the hierarchical structure of the society of their time that they fail to have the empathy and compassion to be present to Jesus as he shares with them his horrific fate.

We witness time and again, from the ancient times to today, the effects of Original Sin. The English convert to Catholicism, GK Chesterton, wrote that, “original sin… is the only part of Christian theology which can really be proved” (Orthodoxy). We can see it in the streets, we in the news, as well as looking back at us in the mirror, for we too fall into indifference, lack of empathy, and resist slowing down enough to be present and accompany others.

We perpetuate the condition of Original Sin when we choose to put ourselves in the center where God belongs. We must resist its lure and acknowledge that we cannot save ourselves, we cannot find happiness, security, joy and/or fulfillment in any finite or material pursuit. While at the same time, we can also acknowledge that even though Original Sin is real, even though we have been wounded and battered by its effects, we have not been overcome, we are not totally corrupt or destroyed by it.

We have been created good by God, and the embers of that goodness remain in each and every one of us. Even if the embers are only a smolder, they are just awaiting to be stoked and set ablaze. God has created us as a living, craving, hunger and desire to be one with God and each other and this is true for the atheist and the mystic alike.

The antidote to the poison of Original Sin is Jesus the Christ. He, the Son of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, became one with us in our humanity so that we can become one with him in his divinity. In our Baptism, we are cleansed from this condition of Original Sin and are indelibly marked, we are conformed to the very being of Jesus. We become part of his Body.

Yet, while freed from the bondage of Original Sin by our Baptism, we are still tempted to return to the place of our slavery, like the Hebrew slaves yearning for Egypt, like Lot’s wife looking back to Sodom and Gomorrah. We need to keep our eyes focused on looking ahead, to that which is above. Jesus shares with his Apostles in today’s Gospel that we are to turn the pursuit of pleasure, wealth, power, and honor on its head when he states that: “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” Only a relationship with God will bring us happiness and fulfillment.

We begin our path of walking as disciples by becoming like the small child that Jesus brought into their midst. The child in ancient Palestine was nothing. He had no status, no significance, no wealth, power, or honor. Each child was completely dependent on their parents. This is to be our starting point in being a disciple. We need to reject the notion outright that we can heal ourselves and admit that we need Jesus to restore us to our relationship with our Father and place our sole dependence in him for everything. God, not self, is to be our end goal.

As James wrote, “the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for those who cultivate peace.”

May we receive and live by this wisdom from God and accompany one another as we seek to deepen our journey with Jesus. May we be willing to serve, to give of our time, talent and treasure to build up God’s Kingdom here on earth. May we be willing to seek out and invite others to share in our journey, so that we can feel support and encouragement and realize that we do not have to walk alone. May we be open to pray to the one who created us, read the Bible and ponder on the living word of God, and experience the lives of those who have walked before us in their encounters with God, and read the lives of the saints, those who are now where we seek to one day be! May we participate regularly in the sacraments, our deepest encounters with Jesus this side of heaven.

We are one Body in Christ. All of us seek happiness, fulfillment, and meaning in our lives, to belong and to be a part of something greater than ourselves. This is who God has created us to be. St Augustine realized this when he wrote: “You have made us for yourself, O God, and we are restless until we rest in you.” It is never too late to come to realize that God loves us more than we can ever mess up and more than we can ever imagine. God is our hope, our ultimate goal, and the answer to our deepest desire.

Let us renounce all jealousy, fear, pride, and selfish ambition, and instead surrender our hearts, minds and souls to Jesus in our time of meditation, prayer, service, in his very real presence in the Eucharist celebrated today at Mass, so to be forgiven, healed, renewed, reconnected, and in so doing, find the fulfillment we have been created for.

Once we receive and experience God’s unconditional love, may the embers of our soul ignite with the flame of his love such that we can recognize and distinguish between the voice and enticement of the enemy who seeks to destroy us and the voice of the Good Shepherd who seeks to give us life and life to the full. For in experiencing the life of Jesus, we experience the infinite we have been created for.

Photo: Sometimes taking the time to get outside and look up and beyond helps us to get in touch with the reality that we are physical as well as spiritual beings, not either/or but both/and.

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, September 22, 2024

God has made us for communion and relationship.

Accompanying him were the Twelve and some women (Lk 8:1-2).

A simple statement but significant regarding how Jesus again is showing us how to live our lives as his followers, his disciples. Jesus is fully human and fully divine. What he has done and continues to do as the Son of God incarnate is to draw close to us in our humanity, as human beings, so that we can enter into a relationship with him and his Father through the love of the Holy Spirit, thus becoming one with him in his divinity.

From the beginning of his public ministry, throughout his time walking this earth, and continuing on after his resurrection and ascension into heaven, he invites people to participate in his life and the kingdom of Heaven which is at hand in his very presence. Jesus does so by building relationships. This is how Luke can write the verses that Jesus was accompanied by the Twelve and Mary Magdelene, Joanna, and Susanna. These were real people with whom Jesus developed real and intimate bonds.

Christianity is not a Lone Ranger religion, it is not the survival of the fittest, and Jesus did not teach us to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. We are created by God to be in communion, to be in a relationship with him and each other, to experience his love and love one another. That means we need to ask for help from God and each other when in need and to come to the aid of, accompany, empower, and support one other.

We are invited to welcome, engage with, and make time for each other by exchanging in the stories of our tragedies and our triumphs. We need to resist the temptation of withdrawing into our own bubbles. Instead, let us take the risk to be vulnerable and trust. Relationships are not perfect, they will be messy, and conflicts will arise. By making a commitment to God and each other, being willing to be honest even when we are tempted by our fears to be otherwise, keeping an open heart and mind, and being willing to be understanding, kind, and forgiving, we can grow closer together.

Jesus chooses each one of us to accompany him and to forge relationships grounded in mutual respect, where no one is last and where no person is left behind. Our prejudices only survive when we keep people at a distance. When we are willing, like Jesus, to come close and spend time with one another, our biases can fade and friendships can grow. Even when it appears sometimes that our country and our world is about to tear apart at the seams, reconciliation and communion is what our faith is all about. This is why we are a joyful people and an alleluia people!

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Photo: After concelebrating Mass at St. Catherine’s Catholic Church in Broad Brook, CT. Enjoyed spending time with and getting to know some of the parishioners afterwards.

Link for the Mass readings for Friday, September 20, 2024

When it is time to mourn, we weep, and when time to celebrate, we dance!

“To what shall I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? They are like children who sit in the marketplace and call to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance. We sang a dirge, but you did not weep'” (Lk 7:31-32).

Jesus convicted those who held a narrow view of who was a true follower of God by sharing the image of a flute being played and no one was dancing, thus in times of joy, there was no celebration, and when the funeral dirge was sung, they did not weep, they did not mourn. Jesus then tied the analogy to his present condition where there were those who did not accept the ascetical practices of fasting and the call to repentance from John the Baptist, nor did they accept the inclusive table fellowship of Jesus.

In our own time, we have encountered those that are not pleased beyond their own narrow focus and who suffer from tunnel vision. Anything that hints at even a slight variation of change sends tremors of discontent. If we are honest, we all have some resistance to change, but if we are to authentically live the Gospel, St. John Henry Cardinal Newman’s quote is an apt barometer: “To live is to change and to be perfect is to have changed often.”

JoAnn embraced change much more easily than I. She consistently helped me, even when I didn’t feel it was helpful, to resist getting too comfortable. She did so again in “changing her address” five years ago to a heavenly zip code. Working through the reality of her death and the new adventure of two years of seminary were two big changes that I embraced with a lot of help, which has prepared me well for my first few months of priesthood.

It would have been easier to seek an early retirement and live a quieter life, but that was not a part of God’s plan. When most my age are thinking of or beginning an early retirement, I decided to embrace the invitation to change again and embark on a new adventure. I am very happy that I did.

The Church, at her best, is a balance between the rock foundation of our core beliefs, such as is outlined in the Nicene Creed, which provides stability, assuredness, and identity, while at the same time we need to be open to the life-giving inspiration of change from the Holy Spirit. Each of us in each generation must make the Gospel relevant. We must enter into the tension of remaining true to what we believe while being flexible to allow the Holy Spirit to lead us. In this way, we can avoid molding the Church into our image, and instead be conformed into the image and likeness of Jesus, who is the embodiment of Love, the Trinitarian communion of which we profess in the Creed.

We can live a life of joy when we resist the temptation to hold on too tightly. Nothing and no one in this world lasts because all is finite. When it is time to mourn, let us weep, and if we do so well, when it is time to embrace life we can do so with joy and we can dance again. What lasts as St. Paul says is love. God is love and God created us out of an abundance of his love. When we are willing to surrender our will to the Father, our heart and mind to the Son, and allow our soul to be led by the Holy Spirit, we can better embrace change and better live our life to the full!

Photo: On my first day in the sanctuary of Holy Cross Catholic Church, Vero Beach, beginning my new journey with some quiet time with Jesus, Mary, and JoAnn.

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, September 18, 2024

Let us listen carefully to, pray and meditate upon the word from the Word of God.

Since diving deeper into John Chapter 6 about a month ago, the refrain, “This saying is hard, who can accept it?” (John 6:60) continues to rise up with almost every reading from the weekday and Sunday Masses since then. To read, listen, meditate upon and pray with, the teachings of Jesus is not easy, especially if we want to also put them into practice into our lives. Which means deciding as to whether or not we want to be his disciple.

We may have been tempted to not listen closely while at Mass so not to recall anything that we have heard, we may let it go in one ear and out the other, or we may actually hear God’s word, and then when it is challenging, rationalize why we don’t have to follow it in today’s day and age.

My invitation is to go back and read each of the readings from today’s Mass carefully, slowly, prayerfully, and meditate upon them. This we are invited to do with each of God’s word proclaimed to us or in our own time of prayerful reading. The words we hear or read are not just a dead letter, they are not just an account of history, they are not just lessons to be shared, they are God’s living word in which we are invited to take in, chew upon, struggle with, and allow ourselves to be changed, to be transformed.

The appropriate response to hearing God’s word that we have received comes from the first line of Isaiah: “The Lord GOD opens my ear that I may hear; and I have not rebelled, I have not turned back” (Isaiah 50:5). As with the deaf man who Jesus healed last week, God seeks for all of us to hear his word and when we are willing to allow him to open our ears to hear, he will do so, and when we hear his word may we, like Isaiah, not rebel but receive his word.

Because Isaiah did so, he received the help of the Lord GOD.

Jesus not only healed the man of his deafness, but he also continually strove to heal the spiritual ears of his disciples. But we all have the freedom to choose. We can rebel and walk away as did so many after hearing Jesus’ Bread of Life discourse, and even when we don’t understand, we can answer with Peter, “Where else are we to go? You have the words of eternal life” (Jn 6:68).

Why ought we listen to this man who died almost two thousand years ago? In a sense, Jesus asked his disciples the same question when he asked them, “Who do people say that I am?” and then directly to his disciples: “Who do you say that I am?” Peter answer for them, “You are the Messiah” (cf. Mk 8:27-29).

In Matthew’s account he shares more of Peter’s response. “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Mt 16:16). Peter got it right, almost. Once Jesus saw that Peter received this insight from the Holy Spirit and was able to articulate it, Jesus shared with them all what kind of Messiah his Father sent him to be. He was not to be in line with any image the disciples thought of. He was more aligned to the suffering servant that Isaiah prophesied about.

As soon as Jesus began to speak about his suffering and being killed, Peter moved him away and rebuked him and Jesus without hesitation called Peter out: “Get behind me Satan.” Satan is the father of lies, the one who opposes. In one breath, Peter was listening to the guidance of the Holy Spirit and in the next he was listening to the words of the enemy. Jesus was making a clear distinction for Peter, the disciples and us. Whose voice we are to listen to?

Why are we to listen to Jesus’ words, even when they are hard, even when they are challenging? We listen to him because he is the Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God incarnate. He came not to condemn us but to save and free us from the sin of the world. Jesus came to open our spiritual ears so that we can hear the Holy Spirit, so that we may discern clearly between the voice of the enemy which leads us to death and the words of God that leads us to eternal life.

And if we want to be his disciples, we are invited to hear anew: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it” (Mk 8:34-35).

“This saying is hard, who can accept it” (Jn 6:60)? Resist the temptation to water this invitation down. Instead, let us be like Isaiah and Peter, let us implore our loving God and Father to open our ears that we may hear his word, receive his word, breathe, pray and meditate upon his word and put what we have received, like James guided in our second reading, into action.

How we take up our cross, how we lose our life for Christ, how we surrender is unique to each of us. God meets us where we are and leads us. He shines his light just enough so that we can see two steps ahead. When we take those steps, he will shine a little more of his light ahead of us.

How do we take up our cross and lose our life for Christ? We begin with our willingness to listen and hear the living word of God daily and allow it to transform every aspect of our lives. Such that God’s word becomes our own in our lived experiences. We start with a posture of humility that recognizes that we need and depend upon God for everything, and he desires nothing less than all our mind, heart, and soul.

We begin to deny ourselves and take up our cross when we make the words of Mary our own: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me according to thy will”(cf. Lk 1:38). And the words of Jesus, “Not my will but yours be done” (cf. Lk 22:42). The words of St. Thomas, “My Lord and my God.” (Jn 20:28) and St. Peter, “You are the Messiah. The Son of the living God” (Mt 16:16).

As we say these words to ourselves, as we meditate and pray with them, as we bring them into our daily experiences, as we say them before entertaining any thought, speaking any word, and following through on any action, we invite God’s word into our being so that we may be healed of our blindness and our deafness; so that we will hear the Holy Spirit speak and guide us to understand how to receive and put Jesus’ teachings into practice and so reflect his light into the dark places of our hearts and into the dark corners of our world in the unique ways that God invites us.

Photo: Icon of Christ from the 6th century in St. Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai Peninsula in Egypt.

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, September 15, 2024

Loving our enemy is possible if we are willing to love each other as God loves us.

Jesus said to his disciples: “To you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 6:27-28).

Certainly, this is as hard of a teaching as any of us have ever heard, yet this is the path to peace. Peace that is not just an absence of violence but a peace that is grounded in mutual respect, unity, and dignity of the human person. There are not enough examples or models in our present day and age for us to see this Gospel being put into practice. There is a consistent engagement in rhetoric, language, and outright hostility that promotes dehumanization, division, contempt, hatred, and vileness. These voices are not only on the rise in our secular and political discourse but also have become a growing din within the Church as well.

Nor do I believe in the temptation of the pendulum swing that would threaten to counter and go the other way, where what we think and say has the substance of milk toast, meaning, that we are so careful not to offend that we don’t share our ideas or what we truly believe to avoid conflict. Staying away from hot button issues and the taboos of talking religion and politics is not a way to bring about peaceful coexistence nor solve important issues either.

Neither an overly aggressive nor a bland tolerance of engagement is what Jesus is presenting in today’s Gospel. Jesus is inviting us to proclaim what we think and believe but in our interactions with one another, the primary starting point is respecting the dignity of the other person. We can dialogue and disagree without it devolving into disparaging, demeaning, belittling attacks, and shouting at and over people. We can agree to disagree, while still stating clearly what we believe, even boldly and passionately, while at the same time being willing to listen and allow others do the same. In this way, we each can be heard, we can exchange ideas, and quite possibly learn and grow from our encounter with one another, and work together for the common good.

We need to learn again that it is truly possible to engage in a constructive argument. We begin to do so when we are willing to recognize our interconnectedness and our common dignity. We can love our “enemy” by choosing no longer to make another person into a monster.

Jesus offers a different way in today’s Gospel, a hard teaching and difficult one to follow. In inviting us to love our enemy, Jesus is calling us to love one another as he loves each and every one of us, without condition. Love is no mere emotion or sentiment but an intent to will the good of each other, even and especially when there is some attribute(s) that we do not like about a person.

If we want to see a change in our divisive and polarized time, we need to be willing to resist dismissing the other person as our starting point, we need to resist labeling them as other. We are asked to encounter one another, one person at a time, to sit down, talk, and listen, and love one another. We can each share what we believe openly and honestly, without watering down what we believe while allowing another to do the same.

Easy, no; possible, yes; more so when we are willing to allow God to open our hearts and minds to see each other as he sees us: as his beloved children.

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Photo: Peace can bloom if we are willing to be transformed by God’s love. Saw this flower with leaves shaped as hearts a last week on my Rosary walk.

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, September 12, 2024

Praying today

Praying today for those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001. Praying for those first responders who gave their lives seeking to save others as well as those who lived and are suffering from the physical, emotional, and psychological effects of that day. Praying today for those still grieving and mourning the loss of those they love.

Praying for the people of our country and our leaders at the local, state, and federal levels. Praying that we see each other as human, as fellow citizens that can embrace our differences and diversity, praying that we can work together to welcome the stranger, provide for the various needs of each other in every area of our nation, urban and rural, and seek for ways to empower and lift each other up. Praying that each person is willing to play their part no matter how small so that we can be one nation under God united in a common purpose that respects the dignity of everyone from the moment of conception throughout every step of life until natural death. Praying that each of us may learn to be better, learn to forgive, learn to heal, and learn to breathe, rest, receive, and abide in God’s love and from that space think, speak, and act.

Praying.

Photo: Veteran’s Memorial Island Sanctuary where I will often walk and pray.

Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity

Last week we ended the gospel account with these words from Jesus: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst” (Jn 6:35).

Jesus is offering these words from the context of how his Father has constantly provided for his people as seen in the examples of the Hebrews being freed from their slavery from Egypt, and then God providing bread from heaven in the form of manna. Jesus multiplied the five loaves and fish to provide for the thousands. In our first reading today, God sends an angel to feed Elijah a hearth cake and water to give him nourishment and strength for his forty-day journey.

As a good Father, God provides for his children. He also loves us so much that he is willing to risk that we will reject his offer, which unfortunately, many people have done for generations. Yet, God remains faithful, awaiting the time to help and provide need when there is an opening.

This week we heard the reaction of the people to Jesus’ statement that he himself is the bread of life, he will be the one to satisfy the people’s hunger and his thirst, their deepest hunger, their soul hunger. He is inviting the people to receive him so that they will never have to hunger again. Jesus is not met with open arms of wonder, but “grumbling.”

This word was not chosen at random. This is the same word that was used to describe the Hebrews who were freed from their slavery and provided for by God but instead of being grateful for their freedom and God’s care, they sought for what they left behind. They complained that with Moses and God they were in a worse state than when they were enslaved in Egypt.

The people witnessed Jesus multiplying of the five loaves and two fish and they were amazed with the physical manifestation of that miracle, but now as Jesus is going deeper into the spiritual reality, they, as did his own hometown crowd, balk. And even respond in a similar fashion. Who does this Jesus think he is saying that he came down from heaven? “Do we not know his mother and father” (Jn 6:42). Apparently not!

Mary is his mother, but Joseph is not his father. His Father is God. Jesus is the Son of God who became man in the womb of Mary. While remaining fully divine as Son, he takes on human flesh and becomes fully human. His appearance is that of any other man, on the surface he appears to be the son of Joseph and Mary. Jesus is the incarnation of the Son of God the Father. He is the bread of life that has come down from heaven to nourish us physically and spiritually.

Jesus does not soften his language as he continues. He affirms that he knows God the Father because he has come from the Father and he invites those who are listening to believe in this truth and for those who do, they will have “eternal life.” Jesus does not stop there but continues to share how as “living bread”he will give life forever and then he goes over the top: “the bread I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

If Jesus was concerned about their grumbling when he said he was the bread come down from heaven, he didn’t show it here by stating that he will give his own flesh. This is not symbolic language to recall the quail God sent in the desert either. Jesus was offering his own flesh.

This he did in giving his life to the full on the Cross and will be represented again on the altar at each Mass. People were having trouble understanding how Jesus could have come down from heaven, how he could be the bread from heaven, and now what were they going to do with his statement that he was going to give his flesh to eat? They were having trouble understanding what Jesus was saying because they did not understand who he is.

Understanding who Jesus is helps us to understand the Bread of Life discourse we have been exploring these past two weeks. At the surface, the physical level, even with the miracles that Jesus performs, even those who are eyewitnesses, do not see Jesus being anyone other than a human being, extraordinary to some, ordinary to many others, just the son of Joseph and Mary. And yet, Jesus is so much more.

Jesus is the Son of God come down from heaven, he took on flesh in the womb of Mary, lived, died, and conquered death so that he could ascend, return to the Father, not as he came as fully divine but now fully divine and fully human. This is how he can give us his Body and Blood in the appearance of bread and wine, because he has transcended time and space. He truly is the Bread of Life. We like the crowd are given a choice.

God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit do not impose, they invite, they draw us in with tender chords of love. They give us the free will to either reject their invitation or to ascent with our faith and accept their invitation to participate in their communion of love.

In the Mass, Jesus will come among us again through the power of the Holy Spirit and the words of institution: the words of Jesus said in the first person by the priest. Jesus is the bread of life who will again come down from heaven, not as the same human body that walked among the apostles and the crowd, but in his glorified body that has ascended into heaven. Although the appearance of the bread and wine will remain, the substance will be transfigured to be the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, the source and summit of our faith!!! Today we will receive our daily bread, the superabundant bread of life that will satisfy the deepest yearning of our souls and sustain us as we journey through this life to the next!

Photo: First Mass of Thanksgiving at St Peter Catholic Church; I am blessed at each Mass to hold in my hands, the Body and Blood of Christ.

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, August 11, 2024

Let us die to selfishness, and rise in love for one another.

Jesus said to his disciples: “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.(Jn:12:24).

In reading this verse, I was transported back to Middle School. Our sixth-grade class was dismissed to head to the cafeteria for the Science Fair. As I drew closer, I could hear some unintelligible chanting going on. Of course, I was curious and craned my neck to see over the other students filing in as we entered our destination. As I drew closer and saw a circle of kids taunting and circling someone, I stopped. I heard muffled groans and then saw one of my friends standing in the center of the circle, his forearms pulled up to cover his face. No one was laying a hand on him, but the heckling was inflicting enough damage. I froze not knowing what to do or how to act.

I don’t remember how the situation was resolved, but I do remember how badly I felt that day, and still do for not doing anything. I also withdrew from my friend when I saw him later because I felt so bad for not speaking up or stepping in. I wasn’t there for him as he was harassed nor did I provide comfort later because I was still only thinking of myself, my shame, and not his feelings or his need. That day, I remained just a grain of wheat that did not fall to the ground and die. I was unwilling to die to myself, unwilling to stand up for my friend, and unwilling to provide any comfort.

When we find ourselves in situations when another human being’s dignity is being diminished, Jesus implores us to resist loving our life, assessing first our own self-interest, or we will lose it. Instead, we are to “hate our life” in this world (cf. Jn 12:25) by thinking of others first, instead of ourselves. Challenging.

We start where we are instead of seeking some abstract ideal of changing the world in some utopian way. Jesus worked person to person, encounter by encounter, and invites us to do the same. We start with family and friends. Resist taking any moment we have with them for granted. We reach out then to our workplaces, schools, and/or community in our everyday interactions. No matter who we meet or interact with may we be respectful, engage with courtesy, patience, kindness, and understanding. As we take these concrete steps, we might be more willing to help the next time we witness the opposite.

Jesus, please grant us the courage to love, to will the good of the other. Give us the eyes to see and the ears to hear the cry of the poor; those who are demeaned, belittled, or dehumanized. Holy Spirit, inspire us to be that grain of wheat that dies to our own self-centered and fallen self, such that we are not just silent bystanders. Loving God and Father, empower us to stand, speak up, and act on behalf of the dignity of those who are vulnerable, those who do not have access, and/or the avenue to speak up for themselves.

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Painting by Bernardo Strozzi of St Lawrence, the third-century deacon and martyr. Lawrence was asked by the Roman prefect to bring the wealth of the church to help maintain the Roman army. Three days later, Lawrence returned with the blind and lame, lepers, orphans, and widows and said to the prefect, “These are the treasure of the Church.” St Lawrence on this your feast day, pray for us!

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, August, 10, 2024

“Drawn to the Path”, will we go our own way or follow?

Jesus said to the disciples: “The Kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind.” (Mt 13:47).

The invitation of God is universal, and we are all lured by his invitation of love and intimacy. We long to belong, our very substance and essence as human beings is the reality that our ultimate fulfillment can only be reached in communion with the God who created us. Yet, though drawn, we resist being caught.

St Augustine (354-430), bishop of Hippo, came to a point in his life when he realized that the flame of his desire for wealth, fame, and pleasure was dimming. He felt moved toward “one reality that cannot decay, from which all other realities are derived.” Though he was caught in God’s net and being pulled in, Augustine still sought to wriggle free, for: “Though drawn to the Path, who is my savior, I shied from its hard traveling” (Augustine 2008, 161).

How many of us could echo Augustine’s dilemma? We have experienced God in our lives and feel the invitation to go deeper, and yet, we still seek to wriggle free. We are attracted to God while at the same time there are other things that have a stronger pull. We may also buy into the thought that God’s path is too hard. It is. Anything that has been worthwhile in our lives, haven’t we found that we have needed to be disciplined to obtain or even maintain it? Also, when we allow ourselves to be yoked to Christ, our load is lighter.

Mixed metaphors aside, it is harder and takes more effort to work against God’s will, just read the Book of Jonah! May we instead surrender to the current of the Father’s Love and allow ourselves to be caught in the net of his Grace. At first, anxiety and fear may arise, because the pull may appear too strong, his love too pure. Yet, when we align our discipline and effort with his will, the anxiety will wane, we will begin to feel safe, and we will indeed be free to swim again. This time with more exhilaration and joy than we had ever experienced before.