“At times like these, more than ever do we need the reasons of the heart, which alone can help us understand the mystery which embraces our loneliness. How much sadness we see in so many faces all around us! How many tears are shed every second in our world; each is different but together they form, as it were, an ocean of desolation that cries out for mercy, compassion and consolation. The bitterest tears are those caused by human evil: the tears of those who have seen a loved one violently torn from them; the tears of grandparents, mothers and fathers, children; eyes that keep staring at the sunset and find it hard to see the dawn of a new day. We need the mercy, the consolation that comes from the Lord. All of us need it. This is our poverty but also our grandeur: to plead for the consolation of God, who in his tenderness comes to wipe the tears from our eyes.” (Pope Francis)
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Today’s Thoughts: As I prayed with the Gospel on this Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, I found myself focusing on God proclaiming Jesus as beloved. Now in growing up I was a middle child, not a true middle child because I only had an older sister and younger brother and supposedly you need two older and two younger siblings to be a true middle child. However, I have proclaimed myself a middle child. I never got any attention! I was neglected! Mom and Dad always like them best. – Not really!
For most of my childhood I sought the attention of my parents and I guess I was not really good in sharing it with my sister and brother. I was also a "pleaser." I wanted everything to be affirmed by my parents, I didn't want to do anything that displeased them, believe me it was an impossible task. Now my parents were not the most demonstrative people in the world. They had grown up through the Great Depression, World War II and where serious people. Sure, they could have fun and enjoy themselves but they certainly did not gush over anyone or anything. My father worked long hours at times and my mother was a stay at home mom. It was not until I went to high school that we got a second car. My parents were busy about many things, work, their faith, their family and could not always be present at the things we, the children, were involved in. They rarely came to my baseball games, my swimming meets, my basketball games. I was in one play during high school and they didn't make any of the performances. I ran cross-country and track my junior and senior year but they never saw me run. At the time, it seemed like a big deal to me, I wondered if I was really a good son? If they really loved me? My parents were great people, the best parents and they loved me very much but as we all know parents seems so "dumb" when we are in our teens but they get very smart by the time we get to our 20's. As I look back now my parents were always present at the most significant moments of my life. They were always there at times when it really mattered. I have two images that will always stay with me. One of my father at my profession of vows. He sat with my mother in one of the first two pews and a friend took a picture of him as I was professing my vows, the look on his face was priceless and you can even see a few tears running down his face. If I could have heard his heart at that moment I am sure I would have heard, "This is my beloved son, in whom I am pleased!" My father died four months after I took my vows. The second image is of my mother at my ordination. The day before my ordination as my mother was traveling to New York, she fell and broke her arm. My brother took her to the hospital and the doctor suggested that she have surgery. As my brother tells it, my mother said, "No way, just set it, my son is being ordained tomorrow and I have to be there!" The doctor set her arm and by the afternoon she continued her journey to New York. She was in a lot of pain for the next week or so but she was there. In her presence that day I heard the words, "This is my beloved son, in whom I am pleased!" We all have these moments when our parent’s presence speaks volumes to us, when their presence proclaims us as beloved daughters and sons. That is what we celebrate on today on this Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. We remember that important moment when the Father and the Spirit needed to be there for Jesus. This moment sends Jesus on his way. This moment sends Jesus into his ministry. This moment sends Jesus to the Cross and the Resurrection. It is a moment that gets played our over and over in our important moments of faith through our parents, families, friends and faith community, God proclaims us as beloved daughters and sons. Moments like Baptism, First Communion, Confirmation, Marriage, Ordination and any sacramental moment in our life. God claims us as a daughter or son who is beloved and sends us on our way. Let us pray for our mothers, our fathers, our families, our friends and to our God today so that when we next receive communion we might hear those words in our hearts, "You are my beloved daughter, you are my beloved son, I am so profoundly pleased!" Have a great Monday everyone! And Happy Birthday to my classmate and Passionist brother, Fr. Chris! Evening Thoughts: Sorry for being late with my thoughts today but I was covering a parish yesterday and today. We had the snow storm yesterday which made travel to and from the church in the afternoon and evening most interesting and my morning began at 5:00 am and I only got home around 3:30 pm so this is the first chance I have had to gather my thoughts for the day…
As I have said in years past, I have always liked the short story by Henry van Dyke call The Other Wise Man. It was made into a movie starring Martin Sheen called The Fourth Wise Man. The premise of the story is that there were not three wise men, magi, from the east but four. The fourth one, Artaban, is late to the meeting place from which the magi were to start their journey of following the star. So, he is always playing catch-up to the other three magi. He never catches up to them and so he does not meet the baby Jesus in Bethlehem. By the time, he gets there the others are gone and so is the Holy Family. Artaban is determined to meet the Christ so from Bethlehem he sets out on a journey to meet the Christ. He wants to give him some rare stones, jewels, that he has brought along however Artaban misses every opportunity to meet Jesus because he is always stopping to help someone in need. He finally ends his journey after many, many years in Jerusalem. He is old, tired and disappointed to say the least. He has given all his precious stones away in helping others along the way. Thus, if he were to meet Jesus he would have nothing to give him. Artaban finally does meet Jesus as he is carrying his Cross to Calvary. Jesus tells Artaban that he is thankful for his many gifts. Artaban doesn't understand because this is his first meeting with Jesus. He hasn’t given him any gifts! However, Jesus tells Artaban that his gift been his life. Every time he stopped to help someone it was a gift and Jesus is very pleased with the gift, in fact it is the best gift! I firmly believe that Artaban represents all of us. At birth, we all begin a journey to meet the Lord, it is called life. We have many opportunities to encounter Jesus. Sometimes we miss him and sometimes we don't. Our gift is our life and how we live it. Each time we help others we add to our gift, each time we help others encounter Jesus we add to our gift, each time we live life to the best of our ability we add to our gift! We find ourselves in a world that often does not recognize Christ. A world full of hate and violence. A world where leadership values social media more than truth. A world where charity, mercy and forgiveness has little value. A world that often disrespects the gift of life. A world that often fails to see people in need because we have our backs turn and we think only of ourselves! The Feast of the Epiphany of the Lord reminds us that Christ's presence and message is universal, Jesus came for all. Again, let me repeat that – Christ’s came for all of us! Not the most powerful, the most successful a chosen few. Jesus came for all. Our challenge is to bring that message to the world for Jesus by not turning our backs, by not holding on to our gifts but by sharing our gifts with whomever we meet! Let's us be seekers and continue our journey to find Christ today, in our time. In our lives, and then let us give him our gifts! Happy Evening of the Epiphany everyone! “Religion declined not because it was refuted, but because it became irrelevant, dull, oppressive, insipid. When faith is completely replaced by creed, worship by discipline, love by habit; when the crisis of today is ignored because of the splendor of the past; when faith becomes an heirloom rather than a living fountain; when religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion—its message becomes meaningless.” (Abraham Joshua Heschel)
Today’s Thoughts: I have a few thoughts related to the story in our Gospel today…
First, there is the interaction between Jesus and his mother. Mary to was a guest at the wedding. The fact that she learned that the wine had run out before the other guests, and that she really wanted to help the wedding party seems to indicate that Mary was a favored guest. She may have been a good friend of the bride and groom or the families. Jesus may have been invited because he was Mary's son. The issue at hand was that the wine had run out. Wine was a very common drink for all the people. Wine was also a very important part of a wedding celebration. At most weddings, great quantities of wine were consumed and the guests expected the wine to last until the celebration ended. It would have been a real humiliation to have the wine run out before the celebration ended. When Mary found out about the lack of wine she went right to Jesus to seek his help. If Jesus could help, it would spare the humiliation of telling the guests that the wine was gone. Mary does not ask Jesus for help. She tells him only that the wine is gone. Jesus replies that it is no concern of his and that the time for his miracles has not yet come. Yet Jesus does help. He changes water into wine and saves the situation. It seems that there was non-verbal communication between Mary and Jesus. Regardless of what they say, there seems to be an agreement that Jesus will help. Mary clearly wants Jesus to help. And even though Jesus says it is not his time he does help. What we have in our story today is a glimpse of the relationship between mother and son. It would be great if we had more examples of the relationship between Mary and Jesus but we do not. We only have a precious few about Mary and Jesus. Another thing that is striking in this gospel is the miracle itself. The miracles of Jesus were meant to reveal his glory and lead people to believe in and follow him and that is true in today's miracle as John reminds us in the last sentence. The miracles of Jesus also revealed his compassion. The recipients of most of Jesus’ miracles were the poor, the sick, the disabled, and those on the margins of life. The miracles of healing, raising from the dead, and expulsion of demons demonstrate the power and the compassion of Jesus. However, today's miracle is different. The subject of this miracle is not someone who is suffering from a physical or emotional condition. Rather it is intended to prevent the suffering of humiliation. And this miracle is not done out of compassion, although Jesus probably had compassion for the predicament of the bride and groom. Today’s miracle comes at the request of his mother. Like the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, Jesus works a miracle to remedy a temporary problem. In John’s Gospel, today’s story is listed as the first miracle of Jesus. His public life here on earth is just beginning, as far as we know, Jesus is not yet attracting great crowds. It seems fitting then, that this miracle takes place in a setting where Jesus is with those who know and love him best. He is with his family and other friends probably from the years of his growing up. It is among those he is closest to that Jesus begins the work of preaching and teaching that he came to do. It is among a familiar community that Jesus begins his public life. Have a great Saturday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: Our readings today from the First Letter of John and Mark’s Gospel are as full of symbolism. Water, blood and the Spirit are symbols of the sacraments of initiation; Baptism, the Eucharist and Confirmation. We see all these sacraments in our readings today.
John in his First Letter tells us that water, blood, and the Spirit, who is truth, witness to the humanity, mission, and divinity of Jesus. In the Gospel, we encounter the scene of Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist. We hear about the descent of the Holy Spirit that then sends Jesus into the desert and ultimately into his ministry, and his confirmation as the Beloved Son of the Father. In the Christmas season song, the Twelve Days of Christmas we hear the refrain - My true love gave to me…. Perhaps, from our reading we might say that God, is our true love and life the song God has given his love to us abundantly. God has given us his Son, his love, his Mercy, his Truth, his Spirit. God has given us faith, hope, freedom, life, contentment, security, and peace. What does God’s true love ask of us? To continue Jesus’ mission, to set the captives free, give sight to the blind, forgive debts, to bring glad tidings to the poor, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord. We are to ‘be Christ’ to others through our gifts. We are to be people of faith, hope and love. We are to take what we believe put it into action, daily, for life. We are called to bring forth God’s love abundantly. Have a great Friday everyone! Today's Blessing: My blessing prayer is that I pray for God’s blessing upon all of us today that we will have a blessed and holy day and that we will encounter only the Spirit of God in our work, our travels and our living of life! Have a great day everyone. Peace in Christ's Passion...Fr. Paul
Today's Thoughts: In today's scriptures I find two interesting thoughts. The first centers around Jesus' conversation with Nathanael. Jesus see Nathanael as a truthful, genuine person, he had no duplicity, in other words "what you see is what you get." What Nathanael says is what he does. For Jesus that is refreshing, if we could encounter it today it would be refreshing for us also.
In our world it seems that saying the right thing at the right time is the norm it is very hard to find a person with duplicity. Very few people say what they really mean. We say what we think people want to here because it gets us power, influence, authority and status. I believe we really want to be truthful but at times if we are there is so much to loose. Yet over and over again in the scriptures we are reminded that truth is what sets us free. It might not get us power, authority, influence, wealth and status in this life but this life is not the only thing we are living for, we are living for a life of eternal love. Truth, authenticity, genuineness are the hallmarks of Jesus' mission and ministry, yes they took him to the Cross but they also took him to the Resurrection. In the first reading today, John tells us that our journey of faith will not be easy, that we will be hated. However, we shouldn't fear, we shouldn't worry if we make the journey as people with love in our hearts. It is another way of saying that love as we see it and encounter it in Christ casts out fear! Thus, we are challenged today to live as people without duplicity, to live as people whose actions match our words, to live as genuine people of truth with love in our hearts. The journey will not be easy in fact sometimes it will be down right difficult but the love of God, others and self that we carry in our heart will cast out all our fear! Have a great Thursday everyone! Today's Thoughts: There is a very important question asked in today's Gospel, "What are you looking for?" Jesus asks this question of the two disciples of John who are following him, one of whom we learn later is Andrew, Peter's brother. However, back to the question, "What are you looking for?" It is a question that perhaps each of us should ask ourselves each and every morning before our day begins.
What are we looking for today? Some might answer this question very quickly and confidently, peace, security, love, relationships, family, wealth, power, forgiveness, etc. while for others the answer might be difficult; I don't know; I am not sure; I will never find it!. There are many things we want, some are simple and obtainable while other things are more complex and they often seem out of reach. For the two disciples in the Gospel the answer was simple they want to see where Jesus was staying. perhaps the question and answer for us is equally as simple, deep down all of us want to see God in our life. We want to be in the presence of God as we live our life each day. With John's recommendation the two disciples sensed something special about Jesus. As people of faith directed by Mary, John, Peter, Paul and many others we sense something special about Jesus, we want to know where he stays. We want to be in his presence. We might say that is what this New Evangelization, this Year of Faith is all about. It is about putting ourselves in the presence of God as we live each day of our life! So let's answer the question as we begin this day, "What are we looking for?" Hopefully the answer is Christ, finding the presence of Christ in our lives! Have a great Wednesday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: In our first reading, John reminds us that we are beloved children of God. We at times forget this and often are reminded by others in our life who are testaments to the love we experience from God. When we falter and struggle, especially with sinfulness, we can learn from our sinfulness by pausing to recognize not only how it impacts us but also how it impacts others.
John reminds us that those who have hope can gain a deeper understanding of God’s love that will make us pure as God is pure. We need to be reminded that all of us are “works in progress” and that our sinfulness is not all or nothing. Many times, our sinfulness comes from indifference and selfishness. We think only of ourselves and not about the people around us. We are meeting our own needs and failing to see the bigger picture. Often if we pause and look around we can see a path, a way to do better in the future. With the Christmas and New Year’s celebrations and gatherings behind us, we now return to our daily routines. Let us pause and pray for the grace to remember that we are beloved children of God. Perhaps being reminded of this can help us in this new year to be more present to others and more open to the wisdom of those we encounter. Let us pray for the awareness of how we can use our gifts to proclaim the good news and serve God’s kingdom. Have a great Tuesday 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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