Thursday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time

Thursday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time

Despite all the problems in the world and all the persecutions that take place today, we still have God and the love of Christ.  That is what St. Paul is talking about in the first reading today.  He was talking about life in his time, but it still applies to our time today.  Why should we give up or give in to fear of persecution or death when we know that Christ loves us and that God is giving us all the blessings and the grace that we need?   Trust in the love of Christ.

Tuesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time

Tuesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time

St. Paul is talking about hope in the first reading today.  I notice that sometimes we use the word "hope" in a context almost as if we doubt rather than have hope or faith.  We say, "I hope it doesn't get too cold this winter" or "I hope the Vikings can win another game this season", but what we really mean is that we would like these things to happen but the likelihood of it happening seems rather slim.  The virtue of hope, which is what St. Paul is talking about, is not about sitting around, wishing that good things would happen.  It goes along with the other virtues of faith and love. Through those Theological Virtues (as they are called) we know God has promised eternal life and freedom from sin to those who believe.  We don't know necessarily when or how it happen.  We can't even say for sure who it will happen to, but we know that the promise is real and so we await that fulfillment with hope.  Then when we are in the eternal banquet we will experience God's abundant love.

Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Throughout the many different cultures that we find around the world, we hear many stories and fairytales that include characters who are different than they originally appear. I’m not just talking about those stories that center around a mistaken identity or dressing up as someone different. Sometimes a character will start out appearing as a good guy or a bad guy, but by the end, they prove to be the exact opposite.

I’m reminded of the classic fairytale of Beauty and the Beast. Whether you are a fan of the Disney version or another version, you probably remember that the Beast is hardly in contention for being a good guy at the beginning of the story. He is a big scary beast who lives in a dark castle and captures travelers who lose their way in his woods. When each of us first heard that story, we were convinced that the Beast was an evil villain who needed to be vanquished. By the end, however, we realize that he is a very kind and loving character.

If you remember the story of Rumpelstiltskin, the title character goes the other way, going from good to evil. At first he seems to be kind and helpful, offering to spin straw into gold to save the life of a young woman. By the end he becomes evil, however, trying to take the woman’s child as payment for his help. Only by guessing his name is she able to spare her child, and that takes a little trickery of her own.

The Gospel tells a tale about two people: a tax collector and a Pharisee. We have gotten so used to hearing this parable and knowing what the outcome is, I think it is easy to forget just how incredible this story really is. Just like the characters in the children's tales I was just talking about, these two men were not what people in Jesus' time expected them to be.

Let's take a closer look at the Pharisee. When we present day Christians hear the word “Pharisee”, my guess is that most of us think of those evil men who plotted to have Jesus arrested and crucified. But back in his day, this man would have been considered a very holy person. Listen to how he describes himself: “O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity – greedy, dishonest, adulterous”. Since there is no mention that he was lying, I believe we can take this description as accurate; he really did avoid those sins of greed and adultery and dishonest actions. He says he fasts twice a week. From what I have learned, that was well beyond what most Jewish people did for fasting. He also tithes, that is, pays ten percent of his income for the Temple. This is a holy person.

Now consider the tax collector. The tax collectors were despised by the Jewish people for two big reasons. One was that they represented the Roman government who had taken over and were oppressing the people. The taxes went to the governor and the Emperor. Second, these collectors didn't just take the money what was owed to the government, they would also take extra for themselves. See, tax collectors weren't given a wage for their work. Whatever they could get beyond what was owed to the government, they got to keep. In addition, there was no regulation as to how much they were allowed charge extra for their own keep. So you can imagine that the only limit to all this was how greedy the tax collectors was.

As far Jesus' audience was concerned, that tax collector was just as sinful and despised as that Pharisee was holy and revered. They could not have been more polar opposite. A modern equivalent might be if you saw a devout Catholic who goes to Mass every Sunday and most of the rest of the week as well and prays the Rosary regularly and goes to Reconciliation regularly and a street gang member, complete with tattoos and the typical clothing, walk into a Catholic Church to pray. We would expect that church attending Catholic to have the stronger faith life and deeper relationship with God than the gang member. But what if after their prayers, God actually blessed the gang member rather than the church goer? What if the gang member walked out of there with a deeper relationship with God than the church goer? That is basically what happens with the Pharisee and the tax collector.

Both of these men offer up prayers while at the Temple. The real difference between the two prayers, however, is that the Pharisee is so busy trying to pat himself on the back, he is barely even speaking to God. The tax collector is actually showing humility and admitting that he is truly as sinful as any other human being and is asking for God's mercy and help. Yes, the Pharisee does start out by thanking God that he is not all those sinful things, but then he goes on to talk about how it is he who fasts and tithes and how he is nothing like that tax collector. So not only is he giving himself all the credit, he is even throwing in a disparaging judgment of his fellow Jew. He is exalting himself when he should have been exalting God. To put it plainly: his prayer is flawed.

Where the Pharisees' prayer was an example of arrogance and pride, the tax collector's prayer is one of humility. As I said before, this Pharisee really was a holy man and lived a virtuous life, but just like the rest of us, he was still a sinful person. He still needed God's mercy and help to avoid sin, it was all the grace of God that got him that far. The tax collector realizes the need for God's grace, and even though others may have considered him to be too far down the road of sin to think he had any hope of salvation left, he asks for God's help. “O God, be merciful to me a sinner”. Such a short and simple prayer, but it speaks more eloquently of his faith that God will hear him and grant his request than anything else he could have said.

We too need to have the humility to realize that we are sinners and we need God's help in order to avoid sin and enter into heaven. We also need confidence that He will hear us and answer us. Remember what the first reading and psalm tell us, “God hears the cry of the poor”. He will hear us in our cry for salvation as well.

Friday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

Friday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

God created each one of us.  He created our bodies and He made them good.  But as St. Paul points out, we have an inclination towards sin.  That is what he is talking about when he mentions that sin dwells in him.  We need God's help to get us past those inclinations and focus more on God law of love.  May God give us the grace to do it.

Thursday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

Thursday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

Jesus wants to set the world ablaze, he says in the Gospel.  He wants us to love and serve God all the more.  But He warns that this is not going to bring about peace in the world, but division: even to the point of dividing families.

I have been thinking a lot lately about the words of our Holy Father, Pope Francis.  He isn't saying anything new; everything he has said in interviews and his own writings has all been said before in the Catechism and other documents and in the Scriptures.  He is, however, challenging us to live these teachings out more in our day to day lives.  We all know that Jesus calls us to love our neighbors as well as our enemies, but to have the Holy Father calling us to really live that out is quite a challenge.  We have to go outside of our comfort zone to do these things.  It is tempting to brush it off as we say we are already doing enough.  But before we despair of having to do all this "new stuff", remember that God is going to help us and give us the grace and courage to do what we need to do.  There is a challenge, but we have help.

Wednesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

Wednesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

We have been saved from slavery to sin, and have become slaves of righteousness.  When we read St. Paul mention that we are slaves in both cases, we might wonder what the difference is.  We're slaves either way, and with the strong sense of independence we have here in America, the idea of slavery doesn't sit very well.  However, slavery to righteousness is not a bad thing.  It means we are devoting our lives to righteousness, devoting our lives to Jesus Christ, as opposed to devoting our lives to living in sin and selfishness.  We are called to righteousness and we will be judged accordingly by God at the end of our days.  God is just and merciful, so it's not like He is going to be mean, but we still have to work at doing the right thing.  Christ will give us the grace. 

Tuesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

Tuesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

We are sinful.  We have all inherited this inclination towards sin.  St. Paul talks about this.  Through one man we are all condemned.  Okay, now that I have you thoroughly depressed, pick yourself up off the floor put a smile on your face, because there is good news.  St. Paul continues that just as one man's transgressions brought about death for many people, so too the gracious gift of Jesus Christ brought about salvation for many.  Christ loves us and so He died for us.  That is why we go to church and pray and do what we can to follow the Commandments.  We want to be close to Christ, because He is our reason for hope for eternal life.

Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

After reading through the Gospel passage for today about the persistent widow, I started thinking about other examples of persistence that we can find in everyday life. Kids, for instance, can have a lot of persistence. Not long after I arrived here, I told a story about my niece loving to ask the question “Why?” multiple times in a row. Kids can be very persistent in asking that question. Some ask it out of a keen desire for knowledge and understanding. I am certain that niece is also doing it to be cute and funny. Either way, there is persistence in asking the question. The same can be said of that age old question of kids sitting in the back seat of a car: “Are we there yet?” Maybe it's boredom or maybe excitement at coming to the destination. Perhaps he or she has a desire to know where they are precisely. The child will not rest until he or she has the desired information.

How about the persistence of a dog wanting to be petted or its ears scratched? In my humble opinion you have not lived until a golden retriever has persisted in doing everything in its power to get you to throw that darn ball just one more time! Not only is there persistence there but also a staring contest to be reckoned with.

There are other examples of persistence in adult life too. Applying for a job or a promotion whenever there's a chance. Trying out for a team or a group. Trying to get that person on the phone who is just very hard to get a hold of. Practicing something again and again until you get it right. There are many ways in which we can all relate to the idea of persistence. Even if we do not consider ourselves quite as persistent as the widow in the parable, I'm certain we call all relate to this because I'm sure we have all met at least one person who is as persistent and feisty she is. We probably aren't afraid of physical harm as that judge is, but we have undoubtedly met people who will not take “No” for an answer and will not stop until they have achieved their goal. They can be wonderful and kind human beings, but you do not want to mess with them.

Jesus' point in bringing up the subject of persistence is quite clear: if a judge who does not even fear God or respect other human beings can finally give in to the persistence of one widow and give her what she wants, how much more will God listen to our persistent prayers? If we can finally give in to the persistence of other we meet, won't God listen to us? Jesus is also pointing out that we need to have faith in God that He will listen to our prayers. So it is also important for us to remember that if we can be persistent in asking for the things we want and in doing the things we want here on Earth, shouldn't we then be persistent in asking God for things and have faith that He will grant it?

God wants us to have faith in Him. He wants us to never stop turning to Him in prayer and asking for what we truly need. When you think about what you pray for, sometimes God gives it to us right away. But many times what we ask for is delayed for awhile or sometimes what we get is different than what we originally expected. Either way, God is listening, and that is what we need to have faith in.

The first and second readings also speak to how we are to be persistent in prayer and faithful to God. The first reading tells the story of a battle between Amalek and Israel. Amalek was a leader of a group of people who lived in southern Palestine and the Sinai Peninsula. As the Israelites and Amalek and his people battle, Moses stands on a hill and raises his hands. The scriptures don't say that he prays, but the raising of his hands is clearly an act of prayer. He is praying to God for Israel's success in this battle. As his arms are up, Israel is winning. But because of the limits of human strength, Moses can only keep his arms up for so long. As he drops his arms, the other army begins to win. Aaron and Hur are able to help, however, supporting Moses arms and giving him a rock to sit on. This is not unlike how any of us can support another person, or how we might be supported by others. I'm talking about encouraging a person to keep praying, even when prayer feels dry; to keep faithful, even when a person is going through great trials or adversity. The point of all this is, Moses stays persistent in his prayers, even with a little help from others.

The second reading comes from St. Paul's second letter to Timothy. We hear again about having faith and being persistent. This time St. Paul is talking about Sacred Scripture: we need to have faith that the Scriptures are from God and inspired by God. We must be persistent in teaching others about the scriptures and that God is speaking to us. That might sound different from what we have already been talking about, but it is still very much connected. We are called to have faith that God will hear our prayers and we are called to have faith that He speaking to us in the Scriptures (think of it as the response to what we say in our prayers). We are called to be persistent in our prayers and we are called to be persistent in tell others about our special relationship with God; that we can talk to Him and that He speaks to us in many different ways.

As Christians we are called to pray, to keep our conversations going with God. We must not stop just because we are afraid of rejection or afraid it just takes too long. We are called to be persistent and to be faithful. It is through this that we have hope for entrance into the kingdom of heaven; to be with God for eternity.

Feast of Saint Luke, Evangelist

Feast of Saint Luke, Evangelist

Just a quick thought today:  St. Luke was one of the four Evangelists.  The Evangelists worked hard to spread the Good News despite all the hardships that are allude to in the readings today.  May we have the courage and faith to help spread that joyful message to all we meet.

Memorial of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr

Memorial of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr

Faith is the important thing.  St. Paul is writing about this because at the time there was much debate among Christians about whether a person needed to become Jewish and do everything a Jewish believer did before being baptized a becoming Christian.  St. Paul was obviously in the camp that said that it was not necessary for a Christian to follow the various pious practices (St. Paul called them "works") of the Jewish religion.  That is why he sums up this section of his letter as saying that Jews and Christians will both be justified by faith; that it is by faith that we make it into Heaven.

St. Ignatius of Antioch was a bishop in the early Church.  As he was taken off in chains from Antioch in Syria to Rome, he wrote seven letters to various Christian communities and a brother bishop.  He wrote about many different topics, but it was truly all based on his great faith that God would give him the grace he needed to get him through his trials.  We have wonderful examples for us in St. Paul and St. Ignatius.

Wednesday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time

Wednesday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time

We will be judged by the way we judge others.  It is very easy for a person to start going down that slippery slope of judging others.  Our readings today should encourage us, therefore, not to give in to judging, but to ask for the grace of God to be helpful and kind to others who are in need of assistance (in my experience, usually the people we are most judgmental of).  It is through that grace that we can hope to do the right thing and make a difference in the world.

Memorial of Saint Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church

Memorial of Saint Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church

St. Teresa of Avila was a mystic from the 16th Century.  She was a member of the Carmelite order, but at the time the order was beginning to live a life of ease.  People would donate money and food to them, and the order's focus seemed to be more on enjoying the pleasures of life rather than on spirituality.  St. Teresa received a vision, however, where she was shown a place in Hell that would be hers if she did not change her ways.  After that she began work developing a deeper relationship with Jesus, not just on the outside (like praying and going to Mass and doing nice things for people) but truly believing it and living it out.  While working with St. John of the Cross she reformed the Carmelite order, starting what are today called the Discalced Carmelites. 

That inward conversion of the heart that St. Teresa went through is what St. Paul and Jesus talk about in the readings today.  St. Paul talks about those who knew God but did not accord Him glory as God.  They were probably showing what they were supposed to, but did not actually allow their whole heart and self to enter in.  The same was with the Pharisees.  Don't just say that you care about faith or do a few outward signs.  Actually live out the faith.  Let us live out the example of St. Teresa. 

Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

I was on a clergy conference last week, that is why there was a lack of daily posts during that time.  But here it is again:  my Sunday Homily!

Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Saying, “Thank you”, whether in person or by way of a written note or a card is a small and simple action, but it is also much appreciated by the one who receives the “thank you”. Saying, “Thank you” is simply the polite thing to do.

I remember a Calvin and Hobbes comic strip from several years ago. The boy, Calvin, was writing a letter a few days after Christmas day. The letter says, “Dear Grandma, Thank you for the box of crayons you sent me for Christmas”. As he continued to write, his friend, a stuffed tiger named Hobbes, looks at what he is writing. “Writing a thank you letter huh?” he comments. “Yup”, says Calvin. “I always make sure to write grandma a thank you, ever since that one Christmas when she sent me a box with only a note inside that read, “Just making sure the postal service still works!” The message is pretty clear, make sure to thank others when we receive something.

The act of thanking a person is not just about being polite or doing what is nice, however. To thank a person means that we have taken the time to consider what he or she has done for us and realized how much it means to us. Having realized this, we then take the time to thank the person: perhaps is person, by phone, through a note or a card, or maybe even by e-mail, text, or some other electronic message. The fact that we have taken the time to thank that person and shown that we are grateful for what was done: that, I think, is why people like being thanked.

Today’s readings give us two examples of thanking God. Now if there is anybody who does not have an ego that needs to be stroked with countless thank-yous and who would understand that we appreciate what He did without specifically saying “thank you”, it would be God. What I am trying to say is, God does not need our thanks. He will still continue to love and care for us and offer His graces to help us in this life, whether or not we take the time to thank Him. Yet we can clearly see in today's readings that God wants to hear us say, “Thank you”.

In the first reading, we come in to the end of a story about a great general named Naaman who travels from his home in what is now modern day Syria to Israel to ask the prophet Elisha to heal his leprosy. After a long trip and a discussion with his servants about what he truly believes, he submerges himself in the Jordan River seven times, following the directions of Elisha. The number seven, just like the seven days of creation in the Book of Genesis, is meant to symbolize completion and perfection. More specifically, Naaman's healing will be made perfect and complete through the power of God. That perfection is shown by how he emerges from the water with skin like that of a little child.

The general then goes to Elisha with a gift gold and silver and fine garments to offer as thanks. It is important to point out that he has the right idea, but he's kind of doing it in the wrong way. It was typical in the Ancient Near East to give something to a priest or prophet for offering a sacrifice or giving a prophesy from a particular god or goddess. This was seen as thanking the deity and the priest or prophet got to benefit from this gift as well. But Elisha is quite adamant that he will not take this gift. God is not looking for a gift of money or rich goods. What He wants is Naaman himself; He wants Naaman to start worshiping him; He wants Naaman to love Him. The general seems to finally understand that when he asks for the two mule-loads of dirt. This may sound like a very strange request, but it is actually an acknowledgment that God is the God of Israel. God is present in a special way with land of Israel and so Naaman wishes to have a little bit of Israel's land (the Holy Land) with him so that he may worship God more closely. Perhaps he plans to use the dirt as part of the construction of an altar to God. The point is, he is thanking the one true God by devoting his worship to Him.

The Gospel gives us another story of thanks with the story of the ten lepers. Again we see the healing from the terrible disease of leprosy. Notice as well that again we have a focus on a foreigner: the lone leper who comes back is a Samaritan. God seems to be pointing out to us that His blessings are for all people and all nations. He is also pointing out that all people need to give thanks as well.

The Samaritan leper returns and gives thanks, though he did not need to. Jesus doesn't mention that He is revoking the healing He gave to the other nine who didn't return, so it seems unlikely that He would have done anything different if none had returned. The Samaritan knew, however, that it was important to come back and give thanks. No doubt, it was through God's grace that he knew to do that. His “thanks” is not a passing, “Hey thanks for the healing thing from the leprosy and all that”. This man is actually worshiping Jesus at His feet! Jesus actually has to tell him to get up and go live his new life now. This man is intent of giving Jesus the proper thanks.

We too need to give God the proper thanks as well. I believe that, deep down, we all know that we must give thanks to God. I think we all try to do it the best we can. It is so much harder to remember to do that, however, when hardship is surrounding us; when things are not going all that well. There are so many hardships in the world that are affecting people right now: So much violence throughout the world; the poor economy affecting jobs for people; the current government shutdown that leaves many people without work and needed funds. You may have heard earlier this week about a priest of our diocese who has been credibly accused in the abuse of a minor about thirty years. These things hurt us. They sadden us, especially that last one I mentioned. It's hard to imagine how to give thanks for what God has given us when so many difficult hurts and sorrows and challenges are going on around us. But I believe that is the very challenge that God is offering us today. Let us thank God for what we do have. Thank Him for the courage and faith He gives; thank Him for the resources that we have to help those in need; thank Him for our family and friends that we have to support each other. We are called to continue giving thanks.

Homily: Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Imagine if we had the opportunity to go to a master or expert of whatever activity we were interested in and simply learn as much as we could so that we ourselves could become masters or experts in that activity. That could be a really neat opportunity. Maybe we wanted to learn how to cook gourmet meals and so we could meet with a chef who trained at the top culinary schools in the world. Maybe we want to train to be a great athlete and so we get to train with a professional athlete. We could learn about music, science, writing, how to build things, how to fix things or even how to do a new hobby or pastime that we've always wanted to learn, from the greatest minds in the world today. This could be awesome; but what if when we meet these great minds all we did was ignore their advice and just continued to do what we like to do, or even told them how we think it should be done? What if the gourmet chef is trying to teach us the finer points of various spices and herbs in a recipe, but we just continue throwing in whatever ingredients we like? What if the professional athlete is trying to teach us about having a healthy diet, but we continue to eat the same old food we've always ate? Not only would it be incredibly rude for us to just completely ignore the advice of these experts, but we would also be missing out on a wonderful chance to grow in knowledge.

We must be careful not to allow our own pride to get in the way of growing intellectually. We must also be careful not to let our pride get in the way of our spiritual growth; in allowing our faith to grow. We may very well have a great deal of faith, thanks to the grace provided by God. If we allow pride to rule in our lives, however, if we think we have it all figured out that we don’t need God’s help to do anything, then whatever faith we do have will never grow and will never flourish.

A lot of people, I think, don’t realize that the root of all sin really goes back to pride and that pride was the original sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve. When the Serpent talked with Eve about what God had said about not eating the fruit, he started planting the seeds of doubt in her mind that God really had her best interests in mind. He suggested that God only gave the rule forbidding eating the fruit in order to stop the two of them from becoming like God. So Adam and Eve began questioning God’s motives. Pride entered in and they convinced themselves that only they knew what was best for them. They ate the fruit, knowing that God had forbidden it, because they thought they deserved it. When you think about it, that is what all sins are. We do what we want because we think we know what is best, because we think we deserve it. If we would simply allow humility to enter in and be one of the virtues that helps guide our life, however, our faith would blossom and our relationship with God would grow all the more.

The Gospel for today talks about this idea of how those who are humble grow in faith. Today’s passage starts out with the Apostles asking Jesus to increase their faith. When you think about it though, it seems like right from the beginning they are going about this in the wrong way. It’s good that they want to increase their faith, but the way they worded their request suggests that they are looking for some sort of “quick fix”. Come on Jesus! Just snap your fingers or bless us or give us something to do so that we can have more faith. I don’t know if all people thought this way, but many of the Pharisees certainly had this idea that the more pious action that person is doing, the holier and more faithful that person must be. Perhaps the Apostles were thinking along those lines when they made their request. “Increase our faith”. Even that simple phrase suggests that they were not being all that humble right then. They think they deserve it and they want it now.

Jesus answers by trying to change how they look at faith. First He explains that faith is not something you need a large quantity of. Nor is it something we are meant to show off about, like bragging that I have more faith than some other person. He uses the analogy of the mustard seed to show that they we really don’t need that much faith. A mustard seed is a very small black, sphere shaped seed; just a little bigger than a period you’d find in book. Yet if we had faith of a comparable size, we could actually cause trees to be uprooted and moved and even cause entire mountains to be moved as we hear in another version of the story. Even a little bit goes a long way.

Jesus then goes on to another analogy, explaining that faith is not something that we earn by doing a bunch of actions or things to impress God. Instead, by humbling ourselves and making ourselves to be servants of God, we receive grace as a gift and we can therefore grow in faith. A master, Jesus explains, does not reward his servant for simply doing what was expected of him. Rather, the servant is expected to continue to do what was asked of him and not expect anything in return. Just so, we shouldn’t act all pious and holy and expect God to shower us with blessings. We must simply continue doing what God wants of us, praying, following the Commandments, loving our neighbor as well as our enemy, being a humble servant of God. Those gifts of grace that we receive to help increase our faith are not earned because we happened to do what we are told to do. In reality, it is a free gift that we receive from God even when we aren’t being that ideal servant. But by being humble, by not assuming that we just deserve these things, by not allowing pride to rule our lives and make us think we know what is best, we finally open ourselves to what that gift of grace can do in our lives. It is truly a wonderful gift!

By living out our Christian vocation as humble servants of God, we really help ourselves to persevere in what God wants for us. St. Paul tells us, “Bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God.” God will give us the strength, and we will be able to do what He wants for us. Let us continue to serve with love for all.

Memorial of Saint Francis of Assisi

Memorial of Saint Francis of Assisi

Today is the memorial of St. Francis of Assisi, who is quite famous for his work for the poor in his day.  The many different Franciscan orders continue that work in the various charitable works that they do today.  St. Francis was not concerned about his own comfort or doing only what he wanted to do.  He strove to follow in the direction that Christ was leading him.  He famously gave up his inheritance of his father's wealth and business so that he could care for the poor. 

Christ warns in the Gospel today not to follow only our own selfish desires, but to strive for what is good and holy.  May we follow the example of Christ and of St. Francis in all that we do.

Thursday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time

Thursday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time

In the first reading today, the people are hearing the Scriptures proclaimed from the Temple for the first time in around 70 years.  They are so overcome with emotion at hearing those words that they are weeping out loud.  The priests are telling them, however, to not be sad.  They are hearing the word of God spoken!  They should be filled with joy, not weeping!  We should rejoice as well.

Of course, there are those who do not receive the word of God with joy.  We read about how Jesus (the Word of God) sends out the 72 to go spread the Good News of the coming of the Kingdom of God.  He tells them that there will be those who are not peaceful and that they will not welcome the disciples.  Will we be one of those who rejects the joyful message of the coming of the Kingdom, or one of those who rejoices?  Let us strive to rejoice in the Word of God at all times.

Memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels

Memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels

"Their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father".  The Gospel today reminds us that we are not on our own when it comes to making our way to heaven.  We have our guardian angels to help us.  They protect us from arm, and they pray for us.  I feel like they help us make the right decisions as well: I don't know if this is through their prayers for us or if they help our conscience make right choices.  However they do it, they do help us, and we need to keep this in mind.   We are all children of God and we are all considered "little ones" to God, so He will help us so that we can be with Him.

Memorial of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church

Memorial of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church

Busy day today, but I didn't want to miss a chance to talk about one my favorite saints: St. Therese of Lisieux.  Therese was a contemplative Carmelite nun in the 19th century.  She died at the age of 24 of tuberculosis, but before dying, she taught much about welcoming Jesus into our lives and loving as He taught us to love.

One of my favorite images that she talks about in her autobiography is that she would want to welcome Jesus to sleep in her little boat.  She is referring to the Gospel story (Mt 8:23-27) about the calming of the sea.  The disciples got scared and woke Jesus up from His sleep because they didn't understand who He was and that there really was nothing to worry about.  St. Therese wanted to welcome Jesus to come and rest in her own little boat.  She would not wake Him from His needed rest because she would be content knowing that her Lord and Savior was with her.

She also taught about the importance of loving as Christ did.  She called this her "Little Way" and also referred to it as her vocation: love.  She strove to love all those that she met, even when they might annoy her or get on her nerves or criticize something she did.  She would love.  That is what we are called to do as well. 

The Prophet Zechariah in both the first reading and in the psalm response talk about knowing that God is with us.  He talks about how people will so desire to have that presence of God with themselves that they will cling to the garments of God's people so that they can get in on the action as well.  The point of this Scripture is to help us realize that God is with us and that we can rejoice in that.  God is with us because He loves us and that is something to rejoice about.  We are called to help share that love.  May St. Therese pray for us so that we can help share that Good News to all we meet.