Today’s Thoughts: Today’s Gospel passage just might leave one stumped. What does Jesus mean by the unforgivable sin, the sin against the Holy Spirit? What specifically would it be?
Here the Scriptures and Church teaching seem to be on a collision course. The Catechism assures us God’s mercy overcomes even the gravest evil, when there is sincere contrition. The power of God is a mighty force, that can go many places and accomplish amazing things. However, the one thing that can stop God’s power dead in its tracks, time and time again, is the hardness of the human heart. Because God will not force himself on us. But we have a wily God who knows how to find a way. Just look at our first reading from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans. St. Paul speaks about how God has found a way into Abraham’s heart through faith and love. Yes, we can cut ourselves off from God. We can harden our hearts. We can speak against the Holy Spirit. But we also have the hope that God will find a way to turn that hard heart into a human heart and turn our blasphemes into faith! Have a holy and blessed Saturday everyone!
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Today’s Thoughts: “Do not be afraid.” Jesus’ words toward the end of today’s Gospel. At first glance, this passage from Luke’s Gospel (Luke 12: 1-7) today it is a bit confusing. Jesus first talks about who to fear. We are to fear the one who can take eternal life from us. But then Jesus tells us not to fear because God is with us, God cares, God has our back!
I could not help but think about St. Paul’s words from the eighth chapter of Roman when he says, “If God is for us who can be against us!” I have often said we should write this down and keep it next to our bed and read it when we wake up each morning and before we close our eyes each night. “If God is for us who can be against us!” What a wonderful thought. Perhaps Jesus is saying the same thing when he tells us we are worth far more than many sparrows. God knows us intimately; he knows every hair on our head. God has our back so even though life presents us with many reasons to be afraid Jesus reminds us not to be because, to paraphrase the words of Thomas Merton, God will never leave us to face our perils and fears alone! Have a blessed and holy Friday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: “Woe to you, scholars of the law! You have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves did not enter and you stopped those trying to enter.” Strong and challenging words of Jesus in today’s Gospel. I wonder how many religious leaders, scholars of the law or leaders in general will pause when they hear these words proclaimed or when they proclaim them themselves during mass today? At the very least these words from Jesus should be food for thought.
The readings today urge us to consider our faith, our relationship with God as the lens through which we view life and make decisions. We certainly need to respect the law, but our readings today challenge the laws that do not promote love, acceptance of and advancement of people even people we disagree with. We are asked as people of faith to promote love, forgiveness and respect of all God’s people. Perhaps a few questions we might ask are – Over the course of history what has God done for us? And today what does God want me to do, what does God want us to do when opting for a direction or making a decision in life? Have a holy and blessed Thursday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: We celebrate the feast of St. Luke, the Evangelist and companion of St. Paul as we learn in today’s first reading. It is also a tradition that St. Luke was not only the writer of the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles but that he was also a physician. There is, however, uncertainty among biblical scholars about St. Luke’s place in the early Church and how he is identified. He is mentioned in St. Paul’s Letters to the Colossians, to Philemon and as we hear today to Timothy.
In our first reading from St. Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy, (2 Timothy 4:10-17b), we are reminded that St. Paul was not always successful in his relationships. Two of his companions leave him but one, Luke, remains. When St. Paul was challenged in his ministry and he was challenged often, I am sure that he wished that there were more friends there to help him. But the Lord always stood by St. Paul and provided him with the strength necessary to push on. From this story in St. Paul’s Letter to Timothy and others like it we can be graced with the hope that in our journey of faith our support, like St. Paul’s, comes from God in many different ways. God is always with us and will never leave us to face our perils alone. And like Luke for Paul, friends and family who stand by us, even when others forget us, are special gifts. Perhaps today on this Feast of St. Luke, Evangelist a faithful friend we might give thanks for the faithful friends in our own lives. Thanking God for them and the gifts that they are to us! Have a blessed and holy Wednesday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: As we have often heard, “You cannot judge a book by its cover!” We might say that this saying reflects what Jesus is talking about in the Gospel (Luke 11: 37-41) today. Jesus speaks about the outside of the Pharisees verses the inside. What they appear to be, what people see verses what they really do and think.
Jesus is speaking to the challenge of finding balance in life. Our life is not just about appearance it is about what we believe and how we live that belief each day. Living a life of faith begins in our hearts and our actions need to reflect what is in our hearts. The Pharisees were not bad people however at times they let their power, their position, their influence and their authority get the best of them. They forgot who and what was at the center of their life. They forgot the purpose and meaning of their life. They put themselves first. They got out of balance. It can happen to anyone; it can happen to us. Being in balance is important. We need to always remember that everything, outside and inside comes from God. As Pope Benedict put it, “Every form of gift is, in a word, a sign of the presence of God, because it leads to the fundamental discovery that, at the origin, everything is given.” Have a blessed and holy Tuesday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: Sometime the signs God gives us come from people and experiences we least expect. This little sentence might best sum up the Gospel (Luke 11: 29-32) today. Often, we are looking for the great or the grand or the unusual when it comes to God. We want unbelievable miracles. Yet all around us God is speaking and often God can be found in unexpected places and heard through unexpected people.
Jonah himself did not think the people of Nineveh would get it but they did. The queen of Ethiopia, the Queen of Africa did not believe in Solomon’s God, but she came and could see and hear God’s wisdom in Solomon. It often has been said that God works in mysterious ways and throughout scripture we are reminded of God’s mysterious ways! The challenge for us is to not box God in, to not predict God’s intentions. We need to listen, to look around us and be ready to see, hear and experiences the presence of God in our lives. We cannot write-off people or experience because we never know when we will find God through them. The signs of Jonah and the queen of the south are all around us. We need to be ready, willing and open to see and hear them! Have a blessed and holy Monday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: In the Gospel today, Jesus again directs “an in your face” parable to the religious leaders. Last week we had another parable of indictment against the same leadership as well. The image in our parable today is that of a king who has prepared a wedding banquet for his son. The servants, (who are the prophets within the history of God’s relationship with Israel) are sent by the king to bring in the invited guests. However, the servants are met with disinterest invited guests who refuse to come and continue their everyday lives. A second time the servants are sent and this time they are mistreat and kill. Prophets in Israel did not have an easy time of it.
The king, in anger, destroys those who had refused the invitations and instead, sent his servants out into the kingdom, into the common areas, streets and alleys to invite the “bad and the good alike.” There were plenty of them around because the hall was full. There is a strange end to this parable, at least for me. The king finds one person attending the banquet who is not dressed properly. The king has this person bound and thrown out “into the darkness outside where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.” As I always say if someone in Jesus’ parable is outside at the end you do not want to be that person. A question is why such selective brutality? The “wedding garment” is the issue. I often think of Sunday Mass when I read this parable. Today, unlike when I grew up, there seems to be no unwritten desk code. Wear whatever you want, shorts, T-shirts, flip-flops, anything goes. Come late, leave early, no problem. We cannot say anything because we just must be glad, they are there. When I was a kid, living in a steel town people came dressed up to Sunday Mass. What is the “wedding garment” in Matthew’s Gospel. Well, some experts in scripture write that it is the image of Baptism, proper incorporation into the “hall” or community. Others write that the “wedding garment” is how the invitation has changed the called person. Perhaps all the other invitees were honored to be invited, they saw the honor and importance of being there and this lone invitee just sat there eating and drinking, not seeing the significance and importance of the event. Maybe he was not acting as an invited guest, but he was acting entitled. Perhaps he had forgotten that there was more than food and drink provided. Maybe he was wearing a t-shirt, shorts and flip-flops! The religious leaders knew that Jesus was telling them that they had been invited and refused to come. That Jesus was an invitation to change, because of the relationship to which they had always been invited and they didn’t want in. Jesus was telling them that they were getting tossed out, not because they were not baptized, but that they refused to let Jesus into their life, because He was different from what they expected or demanded. When this parable comes around I always think about the movie The American President. In the climax of the movie President Shepherd gives an impassioned speech to the press during which he says, “America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You got to want it bad.” I believe that Jesus in his parables and at other times is saying, “Discipleship, citizenship in the Kingdom isn’t easy. The Kingdom of God is advanced discipleship, advanced citizenship and you have got to want it bad! There is no halfway in faith! Have a blessed and holy Sunday everyone and don’t forget to give a little time to God! Today’s Thoughts: Today we have a very brief, two-line Gospel. One in which we hear a woman call to Jesus, “Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed.” But Jesus’ responds, “Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.”
I think in our Gospel today Jesus is suggesting that we change our focus. That we look at life through a different lens. Jesus is not discounting his own mother and their close relationship, for Jesus family is more than biology, more than DNA, family is hearing the Word of God and living it. Jesus is telling us that our own relationship with God can be blessed if we use God’s word as a lens through which we look at and live life. In today’s Gospel we are invited to be family with others beyond our immediate family relationships. We are to include others because we have been included by Jesus. As we have encounters over the last six plus years with Pope Francis, he is a person who has heard the word of God and who lives it. He finds Jesus in the faces and lives of the poor and struggling in our world. And by his words and actions Pope Francis asks us to open our hearts to the hungry, the poor and the marginalized. He asks us to open our hearts to those struggling in the world because they are family. We are called to be the Word of God; we are called to reach out to others who are in need as a way of being united to Jesus and his mission. What does Jesus want from us? Jesus wants a family. Jesus wants a friendship. Jesus isn’t looking for us to read more about him or discuss the theology of his ministry. Jesus longs for a close and personal friendship with us as we speak to him about our lives and lean on him for support in times of need. Blessed by his love, we hear the call to keep his word by loving as he has loved us, by being family to all. Jesus invites us today to reach out to those who need us. Pope Francis calls us repeatedly to be a society, a church, a family of inclusion, dialog and service for all. Have a holy and blessed Saturday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: I have always struggled with this passage in Luke’s Gospel (Luke 11:15-26). If Jesus is taking the time to case out demons, why are people upset? Why are they casting a negative light on Jesus and his ministry? You would think that they would be pleased. You would think that they would be open to all the help they can get!
Perhaps the reason for their negativity is that they have become accustom, even comfortable with these demons. How does the old saying go, “The devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know!” Sometimes we become comfortable with the devils that make a home in us. We look at them and begin to rationalize our encounters with the devils of our life. “They are just small problems, personal things, they really don’t hurt anyone. – Everybody does it. Everybody is doing it.” Looking at it another way we might say that Beelzebul is the strong man who guards his palace. His possessions are hatred, anger, prejudice, greed, and injustice. Through them he tries to control the world. By ourselves, we are helpless against his power. But this parable is one of hope. It proclaims the gospel message. There is one stronger than Beelzebul who can overpower him and cast him out of our lives if we let him. Christ is our strength, who by his resurrection has defeated the power of evil. We are called to live each day in the faith that Christ can help us overcome our demons. If we do our heart becomes a place where no demons dwell only Christ. O Lord create in us a clean heart and a faithful spirit! Have a blessed and holy Friday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: Today’s Gospel (Luke 11:5-13) encourages us to be persistent, to persevere, to pray, to stay connect with God because God is so eager to help us. As Jesus says if a reluctant friend can be persuaded to help, how much more will God be willing to help!
As Kathleen Norris puts it, “Prayer is not asking for what you think you want but asking to be changed in ways you can't imagine.” Or as St. Teresa of Calcutta puts it, “Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition, and listening to His voice in the depth of our hearts.” Today we are asked to put ourselves in God’s hands and let God change us in ways that we cannot imagine. As Jesus tells us, God always hears our prayer and God will always give us whatever we ask. However, not always in the ways we want! Are we willing to trust God? Have a holy and blessed Thursday 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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