Some Thoughts from Pope Francis: "I would like to give you some homework: look one day at the faces of the people you see on the street: they are worried, some are wrapped up in themselves, without a smile, without tenderness; in other words, without social friendship ... and where there is no social friendship, there is always hatred and war. We are living a piecemeal third world war, everywhere. Look at the map of the world and you will see this. Instead, social friendship must often be forged with forgiveness. ... Very often it consists of being close to people, approaching this problem, this conflict, this difficulty." (Pope Francis)
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Today’s Thoughts: “I do believe, help my unbelief!” In many ways, all of us look at ourselves as people of faith, people who have values and in most cases, can say we are believers. Yet, perhaps like the man in today’s Gospel (Mark 9:14-29) we need help with our unbelief, we need help in those moment, those situations, those circumstances when it is hard to believe.
Belief at times can get away from us, our emotions, our feelings overrun us and cause us to doubt God’s presence in our life. Situations don’t go our way, the burden of all that life throws at us seems to overwhelm us and we let go of what is most important. We become part of a faithless generation. Perhaps we might take our lead today from our first reading from the Book of Sirach (Sirach 1:1-10). We need to go in search of Wisdom, God’s gift that was created before anything else. It is a gift to possess because if we do we become friends of God. Wisdom is the gift that can guide us through the struggles of unbelief. Wisdom can be the very presence of God that helps our unbelief. Wisdom is the experience of life, the doing, seeing and listening of life that enables us to encounter the presence of God when we most need it. Wisdom can be found in every living thing and thus so can God. It is a gift of the Holy Spirit that we often recognize when we take the time to pray. Let us be believers today and trust that God’s wisdom will always help us in our moments of unbelief! Have a great Presidents’ Day and Monday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: “Always remember this: life is a journey. It is a path, a journey to meet Jesus…. A journey in which we do not encounter Jesus is not a Christian journey. It is for the Christian to continually encounter Jesus, to watch him, to let himself be watched over by Jesus, because Jesus watches us with love; he loves us so much, he loves us so much and he is always watching over us. To encounter Jesus also means allowing oneself to be gazed upon by him. “But, Father, you know,” one of you might say to me, “you know that this journey is horrible for me, I am such a sinner, I have committed many sins... how can I encounter Jesus?” And you know that the people whom Jesus most sought out were the greatest sinners; and they reproached him for this, and the people — those who believed themselves righteous — would say: this is no true prophet, look what lovely company he keeps! He was with sinners... And he said: I came for those in need of salvation, in need of healing. Jesus heals our sins. And along the way Jesus comes and forgives us — all of us sinners, we are all sinners — even when we make a mistake, when we commit a sin, when we sin. And this forgiveness that we receive in Confession is an encounter with Jesus. We always encounter Jesus.” (Pope Francis)
Perhaps, Pope Francis’ words today echo the words of Jesus in the Gospel. In today’s Gospel Jesus talks about the demands of discipleship. He talks about the journey ahead for all who will call themselves Christian. It will be demanding. It will not be easy. But it will always be an encounter with Jesus. At no point in the journey will we ever be alone. The challenge is to place our trust in Jesus. To let go and let God. To be willing to lose our life in order to save it. In our time, many think in order to be successful, in order to profit we must gather as many things as possible. We must try to gain the whole world but as Jesus says in doing so we will lose everything. Let us take up our crosses today and follow the journey of Jesus. Have a great Friday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: In today’s Gospel, Jesus asks his disciples, "Who do people say that I am?" Their response is to mention various prophets that represent important aspect of his mission. Then he asks, “But who do you say that I am?” Ok, you have heard what people are says, but you have been with me, seen the things that I do. Heard the things that I have said. What do you think? Peter immediately responds, "You are the Christ." Well done Peter! You are catching on, you are listening. You seem to understand.
However, as Jesus continues to talk about his mission he brings up the fact that he “must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days.” Jesus’ self-image reflects the notions of suffering, death, and resurrection. This reflection of who Jesus is does not go well with Peter. Peter’s image of Christ didn’t include a suffering and death. I can see Jesus hanging his head in disappointment. Peter doesn’t understand. More work needs to be done! Sometimes I think our images of Jesus as Christ would trigger the same reaction from Jesus. Perhaps, like Peter, we think “not as God does, but as human beings do.” After all that is what we are. Maybe we read something into Jesus instead of listening to what Jesus says about himself. Perhaps, it is always good to pause every so often and see whether we are on the same page with Jesus. Who do we say that Jesus is? Is he the Christ? Are we willing to listen to him talk about his suffering and death and understand that this is who Christ’s is? The first reading of today from the book of Genesis provides us with a powerful image of a faithful God who established an eternal covenant with his people and with every living being! He will not revoke the covenant, even when we ignore this covenant, when we create images of God that have nothing to do with him, when we think as humans do and not as God does. Our question for this day might be – Who do we say God is? Have a great Thursday everyone! Thoughts From Pope Francis: "Jesus wished to introduce His companions into the mystery of Life, into the mystery of His life. He showed them by eating, sleeping, healing, preaching and praying, what it means to be Son of God. He invited them to share His life, His interiority, and in His presence among them He allowed them to touch, in His flesh, the life of the Father. He helped them to experience, in His gaze, in His going out in power, the newness of saying 'Our Father'. In Jesus this expression 'Our Father' has no trace of routine or mere repetition. On the contrary, it contains a sense of life, of experience, of authenticity. With these two words, 'Our Father', He knew how to live praying and to pray living. Jesus invites us to do the same.” (Pope Francis)
Today Thoughts: In our Gospel today, we have the story of Jesus’ healing of the blind man of Bethsaida. It is a unique story because it only appears in Mark’s Gospel and because it takes Jesus two tries to accomplish the healing.
In all the Gospels, we have stories of Jesus physically healing people. However, with every healing there is a deeper meaning. It is not just about the person’s physical struggles it is also about the spiritual struggles of those who are present and us who are listening. This is easy to grasp when the healing is of blindness. In our story today, just before Jesus heals the blind man he chastises the disciples for failing to understand his reference to “the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod." A number of times in yesterday’s Gospel Jesus asks the disciples, “Do you still not understand or comprehend? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes and not see?” Jesus is not talking about physical blindness. He is using sight as a metaphor. For Jesus the reference to seeing is understanding. With this focus in mind we get a sense why Mark placed the story of the healing of the blind man right after the disciples struggle to understand and right before he asks them about who people think he is which we will encounter tomorrow. Today’s healing story corresponds to Peter’s situation when Jesus asks, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter gets it half right. That is, he correctly identifies Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah, but he fails to understand what Messiah means in Jesus’ case. When Jesus mentions rejection and death, Peter rebukes him. In other words, Peter shows that he “sees” half way. Seeing, understanding is a process, a journey. Like the blind man today it takes a while until he sees clearly. It is going to take a while for the disciples to see clearly. Throughout Mark’s Gospel the disciples struggle to understand, to see clearly the mission and ministry of Jesus. Each time Jesus talks about his Passion and Death the disciples seem to miss the point. Faith is a journey. It is not something we come to in a single moment or because of one event in our life. It is a journey that must be taken every day. The disciples did not understand, they did not see yesterday. The blind man today at first did not see clearly but then did. We are all like the disciples and the blind man in our story today. Seeing clearly in not always easy. But if we take the time to listen, to understand and to have faith things will become clear. Have a great Wednesday everyone! Valentine’s Day Thoughts: A few thoughts about love…
“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” (Mother Teresa) “The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.” (Elie Wiesel) “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.” (C.S. Lewis) “The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves, the resolution not to twist them to fit our own image.” (Thomas Merton) “Let us not forget: we are a pilgrim church, subject to misunderstanding, to persecution, but a church that walks serene, because it bears the force of love.” (Archbishop Oscar A. Romero) The measure of love is to love without measure.” (St. Francis de Sales) “Always tell of God's love. If necessary, use words. ” (St. Francis of Assisi) “Agape, the love of each one of us for the other, from the closest to the furthest, is in fact the only way that Jesus has given us to find the way of salvation and of the Beatitudes.” (Pope Francis) “Love casts out fear.” (1 John 4:18) “Time is Too Slow for those who Wait, Too Swift for those who Fear, Too Long for those who Grieve, Too Short for those who Rejoice; But for those who Love, Time is not.” (Henry van Dyke) “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13) Valentine Day blessings upon all your loves today! Today’s Thoughts: “Do you still not understand?” The closing words by Jesus in today’s Gospel are directed at the disciples with him in the boat but they could easily be directed at us today. We just don’t seem to get it at times do we?
Jesus’ disciples didn’t seem at times to be very good at connecting the dots between Jesus’ words and actions. Jesus was always asking them if they understood and at times like the Gospel today we hear the frustration from their lack of understanding in his voice. Even though we have the opportunity to reflection and the insight of many before us we often find ourselves just like the disciples in the Gospel today. We think Jesus means one thing when it is really about something altogether different. Like the disciples, we need to be reminded over and over again just who we are as people of faith and that we are called to live lives for the glory of God. One place where we can revive our calling as people of faith is the Eucharist. Here we listen once again to the Word of God, we retell the story of Jesus and we are nourished by the gift of Eucharist and we are forgiven for those times when we fail to understand, when we fail to live out the Gospel. The Eucharist is the table that always invited us to understand, to come back, be connect even when like the disciple, we just cannot grasp the message! Have a great Tuesday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: In the Gospel (Mark 8:11-13) today Jesus gives us an example of patient perseverance. He is once again tested and challenged by the religious leaders. They want a sign. Now Jesus could have engaged the Pharisees in a heated argument. He could have performed a miracle for them, but he didn’t. Jesus just asked them a question. Why do you need a sign? Why can’t you just believe? Why can’t you recognize God in your midst?
Throughout Jesus’ ministry he was challenged, frustrated and questioned. Each time he confronted the situation differently drawing upon a wide range of human emotions. In today’s story, it is the emotion of patience. He feels sorrow for the Pharisees. He is frustrated, but he takes a deep breath and simply asked them to think for a moment. Perhaps today’s challenge in the Gospel is that being patient and persevering is good food for thought for us. Can we be patient with those around us, with ourselves and with God? Can we persevere in this journey of life? Have a great Monday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. Lourdes has always been regarded as a place of peace, a place connected with the sick and struggling. I, myself, found Lourdes to be a truly remarkable place when I spent two days there last August.
Pausing to honor Mary is always a good thing to do. Today we honor her visit to Lourdes back in the middle of the 19th century to a simple little girl named Bernadette. We also honor the ongoing gift of healing through Mary that has taken place in Lourdes since her appearance. As I have shared with you many times I am always very much aware of the role Mary has played in my own family’s life. My father visited Lourdes during World War II and asked Mary for a special favor. He asked Mary to keep him safe so that he could return home to my mother and begin a family. He dedicated his first female child to Mary and said he would name her Bernadette. My father made it home, my sister’s name is Bernadette and thanks to my mother and father my sister, my brother and I were given the gift of life. Mary is truly a special person. In the gospel reading today from Mark (8:1-10), we find a familiar story of Jesus feeding a large crowd with only a few loaves bread and a few fish. The crowd was hungry for the words Jesus preached that is what brought them there. But they were also hungry for food so that they could return to their everyday life. The disciple ask the question, “How are we going to feed the crowd? We have so little and the crowd is so big?” But like the first time this happen Jesus once again asks the disciple, “What do they have to offer the people?” The point of both our readings today is very simple. God responds to human need with compassion and empowerment. In today’s first reading from the Book of Genesis Adam and Eve have misguided thirst for knowledge. Once they recognize their mistake it is God who out of compassion weaves their clothing when they notice their nakedness. Shame is a powerful and horrible form of knowledge but God does not mention their vulnerability. Instead, God reaches out to protect even while angry. Jesus shows compassion to the crowd that has gather to hear him by feeding them. The empowerment is more easily seen in the Gospel story. Jesus, invites the disciples to feed the listeners. To share what they have both in word and bread. Yes, I miracle took place that day. Jesus did feed a large crowd with a few loaves and fishes. But he also taught the disciple that if their ministry was going to work they would have to learn to share. They were going to have to learn to share the word and what they had. They were going to have to live by their hearts. In the celebration of our feast today, Mary certainly lived from her heart by showing compassion and empowerment. She touched the heart St. Bernadette 18 times back in 1858. St. Bernadette took Mary’s gift to her own heart and brought it to the hearts of the world. How each of the women lived is the gift we celebrate today. What they believed, what they held in their hearts is how they lived and what they shared with the world. Have a great Saturday everyone! |
Fr. Paul R. Fagan, C.P. "Preacher on the Run"Just a few thoughts to help you on your journey through life...let me know from time to time what you think... Archives
April 2024
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