Today’s Thoughts: “I am the way and the truth and the life…. If you know me, then you also know my Father.” These are familiar words of Jesus spoken to Thomas and found in today’s Gospel (John 14: 6-14) on this the feast of Sts. Philip and James. They are words that remind us that our Christian faith is a very profound experience; only those who have faith come to know that God, the creator of the universe, chose to enter our life, to be part of the human history and in doing so revealed a profound love to all creation.
Jesus seems to be responding to the age-old question, is there a God, and if so, what is this God like? Jesus’ answer is – look at me, know me, because if you see and know me then you see and know my Father. As we find earlier in John’ Gospel, “God so loved the world that he gave us his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” (John 3:16) So if we take a good look at Jesus, if we get to know Jesus then we will know God, we will know the Father, the God who so loves the world! In coming to know God it always comes down to a relationship, a relationship with Jesus, a relationship with the Father, a relationship with the Spirit. Relationships take work, relationships can be difficult and demanding, relationships demand time and investment. Yet in the end a relationship is the only way we can come to know the love, mercy, joy and faithfulness of God! Have a blessed and holy Friday everyone!
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Today’s Thoughts: “So that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete,” the closing words of the Gospel today. Have you ever noticed that Jesus always seems to be thinking about others? He always seems to want the best for the people around him. All he asks is that we believe in the value of love; the love of God for us, the love of Jesus for us and our ability to love others in the same way.
The communities of faith that we hear about in the Acts of the Apostles are challenged over and over by Jesus’ commandment to love. They value God’s love, they value Jesus’ love thus how they live, grow and change as a community of faith demands that they extend this love to others. The laws, the rules, the regulations change because the community tries to be inclusive and loving. The community tries to look beyond its small world to a larger world. It is not easy. It takes openness, dialog, discussion and sometimes change. I read an article many years ago in which a member of our Church leadership used an example from his childhood about having to wash his dirty hands before eating. It was a rule in his family and even if there were guests, they had to wash their dirty hands before eating. A simple story and one that many of us can relate to, I certainly can, hand washing before meals was a rule in my house too. However, to use the washing of dirty hands to address the complex issues and struggles of inclusion in the church today seems a bit simplistic and invalid. Imaging people dealing with weighty issues like sexuality, sexual orientation, birth control, marriage, divorce, just to name a few, as people with dirty hands seems a bit one-dimensional. Equating the washing of dirty hands with profound struggles in life seems disrespectful to people created in the image and likeness of God. Yes, we have many challenges to the community of faith today. Yes, there are no easy answers which makes the job of leadership and faith difficult but to say all people must do is wash their hands make no sense to me! God’s love, Jesus’ love is a gift and yes there is a condition, the condition is our love for God, for others and for ourselves. This condition is not easy within our human nature, and it is certainly not as simple as washing our hands. The early church knew this, and I think so do we! Have a holy and blessed Thursday! Today’s Thoughts: It is May 1st the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker. Before I reflect a little on today readings let me take a few moments to consider our feast today. As I have reflected in years past, this feast in honor of St. Joseph always takes me back to my childhood. Our parish in Port Vue, PA, was named St. Joseph. It honored St. Joseph as the Worker. Out in front of the school building (our church was in the basement of the school) was a statue of St. Joseph with the tools of the trade in his hands, carpenter’s tools, the tools of a man who worked with his hands.
It was a wonderful image for the parish as most of the people in the parish worked for the steel industry. They worked in the many steel mills that ran along the rivers of Western Pennsylvania. It was a blue-collar town, a town of families, a town of workers. The ethic of family life and working hard was a daily part of my world growing up. This is not to say that I lived in “Camelot,” that everything was perfect and life for everyone was wonderful. There were struggle, problems, heartaches and sadness along with the joys, hopes and the good times of life. But St. Joseph the Worker as the patron of the parish spoke to a simple vision of life that the people of Port Vue and many other towns tried to live out. I returned to my hometown many years later. The church building was still there and so was the statue of St. Joseph. However, like in many places it was no longer St. Joseph’s Parish; it had been merged with another parish in the area and was now called St. Mark’s. The statue was in disrepair do to years of neglect, much like my hometown which was now struggling because the steel industry was long gone. It was still a blue-collar town; it was still a town of families but also a town struggling to find hope and a vision for the future. Perhaps more than ever my hometown needed St. Joseph’s spirit. Unfortunately, as a side note to this reflection the building that was once called St. Joseph’s Church and School was closed for good in March of 2020 just as the pandemic was starting. There was to be a closing mass on Thursday March 19, 2020 but because of the Covid-19 Virus the mass was canceled. Another sad moment in the memory of my life. Since that time the Church and School building has been torn down and all that remains is the land and memories! Today we celebrate a feast that honors the spirit of St. Joseph, a simple man who in a quiet, yet strong way, responded to God’s invitation. His skills as a worker and a father are not always honored or valued. Yet he lived on, he said “yes” to God’s invitation. He lived his life with honor, hard work and love for those around him. He was a blue-collar worker, a family man, an ordinary person who let God do extraordinary things with his life. As a Church, we sometimes let his image fall into disrepair. He becomes an afterthought in a world of glitz and glamor saints. Yet, St. Joseph will always remind us that everyone is created in the image and likeness of God which makes each of us special and important to the work of God in the world! One of my grandfathers and my uncle were gifted with the name Joseph and they were simple hard-working men too and on this feast of St. Joseph I remember them and honor them in a special way. I know I have posted this reflection of St. Joseph in years past but it is important to me and so I share it with you again. Now to our scripture readings for today… There are two things that strike me in today’s readings. First in the Acts of the Apostles we encounter a moment of struggle within the early Church. Some want to keep things as they are. They don’t want to break with tradition, while others see no need for past tradition. The struggle focuses on past Jewish traditions and the emerging new Church into which gentles are entering. Paul and Barnabas decide to go to Jerusalem and talk about the problem. What a novel idea, sitting down and talking about issues, problems, struggles and differing views of Church. Perhaps Pope Francis has taken a page from the Acts of the Apostles over his years as Pope! My second thought comes from the Gospel. Not too long-ago Jesus offered us the image of the Good Shepherd – God as the shepherd always watching out for us, always taking care of us, always walking with us. It is a comforting image of God’s presence in our life. Today the image is of God as the life-giving vine extending out into the world through us the branches. God becomes the vine running through our life offering us grace by which we grow into the person we have been created be so that we can produce the fruit of God’s presence and love in the world. As a branch of God’s presence and love in the world we don’t have to know everything. We are a branch running from the Vine. It is the Vine that offers us everything that we need as long as we stay attached. We cannot do it on our own we must depend on the Vine – God’s presence, grace, love, mercy, forgiveness and joy to produce good fruit. Jesus through the image of the vine and the branches reminds us today that the more we are connected to God, the more we lean on God, and the more we learn from God and experience God’s presence in the world around us, the better we will be at living life – the more fruit we will produce! Have a blessed and holy feast of St. Joseph the Worker and Wednesday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: Peace is one of the most elusive gifts whether we are searching for it personally or as a family or a culture and society. There are so many things that can get in the way of peace in life. It can be the minor irritations of life like traffic, construction, a person on a cell phone sitting next to us or spring allergies. It can also be the major realities of life, civil war, civil unrest, injustice, warring nations, terrorism, natural disasters, viruses, pandemics and gun violence. There are many things that can get in the way of a peaceful moment and a peaceful life.
Jesus in the Gospel today offers us peace. Yet he reminds us that the peace he offers is not of this world. In fact, the peace that Jesus offers cannot be found in this world. We cannot create the peace that Jesus speaks about. It is God’s peace, God’s creation. The peace that Jesus speaks about and offers us lies beyond this life and flows from his relationship with the Father, the Creator of peace. Jesus reminds us that we need not be troubled or afraid that even though we cannot create, make, control or encounter his peace in this world, he will not forget us. In other words, to encounter the peace that Jesus offers we need to somehow let go and let Jesus and let God! Peace is what we all want in our personal lives and in our world. We encounter it occasionally, for a moment, however it doesn’t last. Something always comes along to disturb the peace. Thus, we need to be people of faith; we need to be people of hope. Amid life’s struggles the early Church continued to move forward. They did not get down they did not give up. It was through God’s grace that the Good News was preached. It was because the early Church had faith and hope in God that their hearts were not always afraid or troubled. They were on the journey towards the peace that Jesus offers. Let us be people of faith and hope today. May we not be troubled or afraid because we are willing to let go and let God! To end my reflection today I offer you a reflection on peace by Sr. Bridget Haase, OSU that I found in Living With Christ – “We may discover that PEACE is a collection of special graces permeating our lives: Practicing non-violence through encouraging words and compassionate actions. Evoking calm while others around us are agitated and irritable. Accepting difficult situations with grace and serenity as we work toward conflict solutions. Challenging ourselves and others to seek local and global justice and Entrusting our lives to God in faith-filled surrender and exuberant hope. Have a blessed and holy Tuesday and last day of April everyone. Today’s Thoughts: “Not to us, O Lord, but to your name give the glory.” The refrain from today responsorial psalm seems to be the focus of our readings today. This journey of faith is not about us, it is about the glory of God.
We certainly see this in the drama of our first reading (Acts 14:5-18). Paul and Barnabas go from nearly being stoned to being honored as gods. Yet as they both point out it is not their work it is the work of God. The man who hasn’t walked from birth is healed not because of Paul and Barnabas but because he has faith. His faith in God enables Paul and Barnabas to lead him to healing. They bring God to the moment so that healing can take place. It is not about Paul, Barnabas or the man who is healed it is about the glory of God. The same focus can be found in our Gospel today, (John 14: 21-26), Jesus speaks about his relationship with the Father and how it can be life-giving in our lives, for this to happen our focus has to be on God. We are asked to buy into the relationship with the Father that Jesus is offering us. We asked to have faith in God and faith also in Jesus. If our life is about the glory of God and not stuck in selfishness then the grace, blessing and presence of God will abound in us. In a world were so much focus can be placed upon self, our scriptures today ask us to place our trust, our faith and our hope in God. We are challenged to not make life about us, but about the glory of God! Have a blessed and holy Monday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: There is a lot going on in our readings today. Certainly, first and for most, we encounter in our Gospel the image of the vine and branches. One of the wonderful images of John’s Gospel. An image plucked right out of everyday life during Jesus’ time and that of the early Church. Jesus becoming the vine from which we the branches can grow in a faith filled life.
In our second reading we are called “Children.” I can remember a time during my life as a Passionist student when one of my brother Passionist students seemed offended but John referring to us as children. He said, “I am not a child any more I am an adult and I want to be seen and treated as one!” I have to admit sometimes I feel that way too, but I also know that if I open myself up like a child, I have a better chance of encountering the vine grower and receiving life from the vine. Also, in the second reading we are given some advice. We are asked to not to love just in word or speech but to love in deeds and in truth. In other words, actions speak louder than words. Perhaps, that is why St. Francis says, “Preach always and when necessary, use words.” It is often easy to talk about doing the right thing but doing it can be a challenge. Because John sees us as children open to learning he goes on to share how we can accomplish living out our faith – by loving one another and by keeping God’s commandments and by doing what pleases God. This all sound rather simple, but there are many moments, people and experience that make it downright hard! I can easily think of people, experience and moments in life that presented and still present challenges to me when I try to practice the command to “love one another.” No matter what I do, or how hard I pray for patience in dealing with people or situations, loving is difficult! However, I am asked to persevere and love. Perhaps the challenge is to stop and think of how difficult it might be to deal with me, and how it may be difficult to love me. Not easy thoughts to think. It is a heck of a lot easier to spend time thinking of the faults and failings of others than my own, but perspective is gained when I consider my own faults. Back to our Gospel, the story starts with a description of our Father, the vine grower. The vine grower very carefully works in the vineyard caring for the individual branches daily. Those branches that are not bearing fruit are removed; the fruit bearing branches are pruned to produce more fruit. The vine grower wants nothing more than to have a fruitful crop. Thus, a great deal of time is spent on caring for the branches so that fruitfulness can be achieved. God will do whatever is needed and we see that down through our faith story. Our heavenly Father spends a great deal of time and care in watching over each of us. If we remain in Jesus and his words remain in us, we are told to ask for whatever is wanted and it will be done. Three or four years ago there was a great deal of attention paid to the death of Alfie James Evans, the little toddler from Liverpool, England who had a lot of medical issues and there was a dispute between his parents and medical people as to whether his life support should be turned off. Even Pope Francis expressed his heart felt sorrow at the time of Alfie’s death! So many prays for healing, and it may seem that those prayers were not answered. Everyone wanted a miracle. Although it seemed that everyone’s prayers weren’t answered, actually they were — leaving the struggles of this life and moving on to Eternal life, while difficult for the family and all who prayed, was perhaps the better answer for Alfie. At difficult times in our life, we are asked not to despair, because prayers are answered. God, our vine grower does prune so that we might learn, so that good fruit is born, in the midst of our faith filled journey through life. I sense the Alfie now is resting in the joy and love of heaven. Have a blessed and holy Sunday everyone and don’t forget to give God a little of your time today! Today’s Thoughts: “If you know me, then you also know my Father.” These are familiar words of Jesus spoken to Thomas and Philip and found in today Gospel (John 14: 7-14). They are words that remind us that our Christian faith is a very profound experience; only those who have faith come to know that God, the creator of the universe, chose to enter our life, to be part of human history and in doing so reveals a profound love to all creation.
Jesus seems to be responding to the age-old question, is there a God, and if so, what is this God like? Jesus’ answer is, look at me, know me, because if you see and know me then you see and know my Father. As we find earlier in John’ Gospel, “God so loved the world that he gave us his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might bot perish but might have eternal life.” (John 3:16) So if we take a good look at Jesus, if we get to know Jesus then we will know God, we will know the Father, the God who so loves the world! In coming to know God it always comes down to a relationship, a relationship with Jesus, a relationship with the Father, a relationship with the Spirit. Relationships take work, relationships can be difficult and demanding, relationships demand time and investment. Yet in the end a relationship is the only way we can come to know the love, mercy, joy and faithfulness of God! Have a holy and blessed Saturday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: It must have been difficult being one of the 12 apostles. Today Gospel reminds us of two realities in the life of Jesus’ friends. First that to be a friend of Jesus you had to make a leap of faith repeatedly and second how Jesus is almost always patient with them. I say almost because at times you can hear little frustration in Jesus’ voice in dealing with his friends.
Imagine how new this all was to his disciples, his friends, even after the years of teaching and following. Jesus says there’s a place for you; you know the way. And yet Thomas says: “We don’t know where you are going; how can we know the way?” Jesus is the way. This is the message his friends hear repeatedly. It’s a message we are to hear and live by. We, like Jesus’ disciples, are challenged to make a leap of faith as we live each day of our lives. We, know the way, but we sometimes struggle to follow it. We make easy choices and we let ourselves be led astray. But like Jesus’ disciples, we learn the way. We learn to go in the right direction. When we make a mistake and make the wrong turn, we are graced with God’s patience and we hear the words that open our Gospel today, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith in me.” Have a blessed, and holy Friday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: We celebrate the feast day of St. Mark, the evangelist, writer of the earliest and shortest Gospel. We meet Mark also known as John Mark, in the Acts of the Apostles and in the First Letter of Peter which is the first reading for today’s mass. Mark was a companion of St. Paul for a time and Peter refers to him as his son, most probably meaning his spiritual son.
Mark took the account of Jesus’ Passion and Death and formed his Gospel around this main event in the life of the faith community. Mark gives us nothing of Jesus’ birth or early life. He gives us the years of Jesus’ ministry and public life. As stated, the center of Mark’s Gospel account is Jesus Passion and Death. The interesting aspect of our readings today is that in the first reading from the First Letter of St. Peter, Peter refers to the Devil as a lion. This not an image of the devil that is often used. Lions while powerful, strong and dangerous are often seen as the king of the jungle, they are often seen as noble creatures. In fact, the symbol for St. Mark is a Lion with wings. In the first reading Peter reminds us to be careful and on the lookout for the devil and the Gospel reminds us that anything is possible with Jesus. Perhaps our readings and our feast today are reminding us to be on the lookout for the loin who can help us to soar above the struggles, and evils of this world to the presence of God. The tradition of Mark’s Gospel has helped to spread the Good News. His Gospel has helped to sustain our faith throughout the centuries. It has helped the Church keep alive the story, the life, the ministry, the love of Jesus for the world. As we celebrate Mark today let us be reminded of the Good News. Let us take a moment out of our day to read a few words, a story, a passage from his Gospel. Let us remember the story of Jesus and let us proclaim that story in the way we live our life! Have a blessed and holy Thursday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: Once again we are privy to the life of the early Church. In today’s first reading Barnabas and Saul set apart from the others and the Holy Spirit comes upon them, sending them on their ministry to the Gentles. We meet Mark and other characters in the story of the early Church. We begin to see how the faith communities identified people alive in God’s Spirit and called them forth to proclaim the Good News.
We might say that this little section from the Acts of the Apostles is a practical example of what Jesus speaks about in John’s Gospel today. Jesus continues to remind us of how important his relationship is with the Father. He reminds us that we need to listen for the words of God as they come from Jesus and as they come from those who the Spirit sends. The Good News comes from God, it is alive with God’s Spirit, and it is the light that will guide us on our journey of faith. Along with listening Jesus also reminds us that he is the Light sent by the Father. A light that illuminates the presence of God in our life. We might say that the story we hear in Acts is also about light. Those called by God, set apart in the community of faith are lights of God’s presence also. Perhaps, the focus of the readings today is to remind us that we are the light of God’s presence in the world today! The challenge is always our willingness to hear, to see and to be the gift of God in the world as we live our life. The challenge is to be open each day to the many ways in which God becomes present to us. The challenge is to take the Word we hear and the Light we see and make it known to the world. The challenge is to be the voice and light of God in our world today! Have a blessed and holy Wednesday 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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