Today’s Thoughts: I have always been struck by John the Baptist’s words in the last line in today's Gospel, "He must increase; I must decrease." What a meditation on faith! When you think about it, are not John’s words our challenge each day and perhaps our hardest challenge?
The world around us tells us every day to increase. Increase what we have, what we want, what we desire, what we need, who we are! Our economy is built on increasing, increase spending so we can increase building, producing, creating and thus increase profits. When we finally leave home all we want to do is increase because the world tells us we are defined by what we have, what we have achieved, what we own, what we have accumulated. As is often quoted, "The one with the most toys wins!" Yet, what John is telling us in the Gospel today is that for us to be people of faith, we must decrease so that Jesus, so that God, can increase in our lives. It is not about being the greatest, the best, the biggest, the most powerful, or the most important. It is about God. John had it all. He was liked, he was loved, he was important, he was powerful, and he had all the attention. However, for him, all of this was not as important as his relationship with God. He knew what he was about. He knew his mission and it was time for God to be the most important focus and all John could do was rejoice! Sometimes we think God is not present, God is always present, at home, at school, at work, in the government, everywhere. The problem is not where is God – but that we have made ourselves too big, so we and others cannot see God! Can we let go of the world, let go of what the world says is important and let God? Can we recognize our mission, our ministry, our relationship and let God be the focus? Can we decrease and let God increase in our life and in the world? Tough questions for tough times, but if we are willing the end result is great joy! Have a great Saturday everyone.
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Today’s Thoughts: "Lord if you wish, you can make me clean. Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him and said, I do will it. Be made clean. And the leprosy left him immediately." I think the key elements of this story are the person's faith in Jesus, the willingness of Jesus to heal and Jesus' touch. Maybe the most important element is Jesus' touch, his willingness to be connected with someone who is unclean by the standards of culture, society and religion.
Today whether we are talking about our culture, society or even our church the usual response is to disconnect ourselves from someone defined as unclean. Yet, Jesus sought to be connected. He did not want to push them away from the community but to bring them into the community. The Feast of the Epiphany which we celebrated last Sunday was about the universal nature of Christ's presence in the world. Jesus confirms that nature today by reaching out to one who has been pushed out of the community. It is a profound moment, it is a challenge to all of us who proclaim we believe. Do we wish, do we will that all belong to the community no matter what? Jesus does, and was willing to step across a boundary to make sure that it happens. Are we? Perhaps like Jesus it is a commitment to prayer that will help us to, wish it and will it. It is through prayer, our conversation with God, that we will find the strength to walk with Jesus across the boundaries imposed and bring others to the community, to friendship with God! Have a great Friday everyone. Today’s Thoughts: Today’s Gospel (Luke 4:14-22a) presents us with a moment in Jesus' early ministry when he returns home perhaps for a weekend visit. This story whenever I read it always seems to paint two pictures for me, one of a moment in the life of Jesus and the other a moment in our own lives.
The moment in Jesus' life is straight forward he returns home and like a good young man honors his faith by going to the synagogue on the Sabbath. He is now a wise young man with a reputation as a preacher, so he is honored by being asked to do the reading. So, he stands up and is handed the scroll of the Prophet Isaiah and proceeds to read the passage where Isaiah says, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me..." This a very familiar passage to us and the community gathered for prayer that day. After the reading Jesus just sits down but everyone there is in awe of him and all eyes are focused on Jesus. After what probably was just a few moments of awkward silence, Jesus simple says, "Today this Scripture passage if fulfilled in your hearing." Perhaps in other words, "Folks, this is what my life is going to be about, today my ministry starts!" With those words all present are even more amazed! A pretty straightforward picture wouldn't you say? Now as for the second picture of us – every one of us have had a moment like Jesus. We have been in our own parish church perhaps for a sacrament, baptism, confirmation, first communion, marriage and a community has gathered. At some point during that sacrament all eyes are on us, watching us receive baptism, receive communion, take our vows, be anointed with oil. After the mass or the service people have come up to us and congratulated us and have spoken highly of us because of this special moment in our lives. The difference between Jesus' picture and ours is that we know the end of Jesus' story. We know he did fulfill the words of Isaiah by the way he lived, died and rose from the dead. However, we don't know the end of our story! Will we fulfill the words of our baptism, our confirmation, our marriage, our priesthood, our religious life, our Eucharist? Today we are asked once again to love in our first reading from St. John and in doing so to live that love as best we can by bringing the gift and presence of God to the world. We are asked to stand up and proclaim the Good News with our life and let that proclamation be fulfilled in the way we live our faith! So, my friends, stand tall, love richly and live fully today and always! Have a great Thursday everyone. Today’s Thoughts: After praying with today’s readings the question that I asked myself is, "What do I most fear?" In answering this question, I came up with many examples of things that at time cause me to be afraid. Sometimes I fear the future because of the state of the world, all the anger, hate, discontent, violence and the everyday possibility of war that seems to make up our everyday life. I sometimes fear the future of our Church because of all the things that have happened over the last 15 or 20 years. As a priest and a religious I am afraid of the future of religious life and priesthood. These are just some of the things that I fear there are many others that I will not mention in this short reflection.
However, the question that I asked is what do I fear most at this moment of my life? As I said this question is based on the readings today, they both deal with fear. In the first reading, (1 John 4:11-18), John talks about perfect love casting out fear, in the Gospel, (Mark 6:45-52), Jesus tells the disciples to have courage and not fear. Yet fear always seems to be a part of life. I know for myself, fear has always raised its ugly head. I remember my mother talking about her life just before I was born. She said that it was a time when she struggled with fear. My mother, father and sister had just move back to the Pittsburgh area into a new home. It was in a new subdivision about 15 miles outside of Pittsburgh, only a few homes were built and there were very few people in the neighborhood. Mom had no phone for a while, no car and spent a good portion of the day lone with my sister who was about 5 years old. Mom always said it was a fearful time in her life. I have often wondered if, as a baby in her womb that I was affected by her struggle with fear, because once I came into the world it seemed I was afraid of everything including my own shadow. "What am I most afraid of?" In my life I could still say many things as an answer to this question. But I have come to believe that I am most afraid of love, not being loved, not finding love. I think it is because I realize that with love fear would not be a problem, yet fear is a problem for me. I think it is because I struggle with love. Both Jesus and John tell us that today, if we love, if we allow ourselves to be loved, especially by God then fear will never hurt us, because love casts out fear. With love there is no room for fear without love fear takes up all the room. No matter what life throws at us, no matter what changes take place in religious life, the church, culture, society, no matter what we lose or struggle with in life, if we let love in, if we value the presence of love, if we let ourselves love and be loved fear has no chance, no room! Have a great Wednesday everyone. Today’s Thoughts: Our readings today offer us a challenge. In the first reading (1 John 4:7-10) John continues his emphasis on love as the key element for knowing God. Without love we are lost. The way we find love, experience love is through God, because God so loved us that he gave us his only son, God teaches us about love.
The Gospel (Mark 6:34-44) echoes John's reflections but in a different way. Jesus becomes the picture of love that John is talking about in the first reading. Jesus lives out the love that John in speaking about. In the Gospel, Jesus challenges us to focus beyond ourselves, to have love for others. He is moved with pity at the vast crowd, he wants to help them spiritually but also physically. They need to eat; they need to be nourished. The disciples want Jesus to send them home, to get rid of them. Let them take care of themselves! Not Jesus, he cares not just about himself, his disciples, but about everyone. God so loves all of us. Now for me the interesting part of the Gospel is how Jesus goes about teaching here. Now before I go any further, I need to say that I truly believe a miracle took place here. Jesus did take the five loaves and the two fish and feed the five thousand. It was a miracle, but he also taught his disciples and us a valuable lesson, he taught us to share. If we look around at what we have, we can make it work for ourselves and others. Yes, a miracle fed the five thousand but a teaching about sharing what we have out of love for the other was also an objective. Jesus did not feed the five thousand from nothing, he asked what was available and from what people had he fed the crowd. It was not magic it was a miracle! Sometimes we get caught up in what we need, and we forget the person beside us. All of us have more than we need and sometimes what we have can help others. What we have put together with what others have brings about a miracle. Love needs to be share for its true value to be experienced! Have a great Tuesday everyone. Today’s Thoughts: St. John in the first reading today makes it sound so simple. If we believe we will know what is of God and what is not. Sure when someone speaks against Jesus it is a sure sign that we should not follow in that direction, however there are many voices, many spirits out there that claim to be followers of Jesus yet I am not always sure their way is the way to go.
John reminds us we need to believe in the name of Jesus and love one another, yet often the very people who ask us to believe in the name of Jesus do not seem to love others. What should we think? What should we believe? It doesn't always seem clear cut. Certainly, John did not live in this age of mass communication, of social media. The challenge of today is how to believe; how do we test the spirits to see whether they belong to God? To be honest with you I do not have an answer, for me it is a work in progress. I listen, I digest, I compare, pray and hope that I make the right choice, the right decision. I pray and hope that I am walking with God. One of my criteria for testing the spirits of today comes from the Gospel today, from the life of Jesus. The criteria that I place on today's spirits is how compassionate are they. Jesus' life was about compassion for others. I test the spirits of today with a sense of how compassionate are they? How caring for others are they? How willing are they to provide hope in a troubled world? How willing are they to unite not divide people? It is not always easy to make the call, to know for sure, but the spirits of today must past the Jesus test, they must be spirits that proclaim the "Good News!" Have a great Monday everyone. Today’s Thoughts: Once again as we celebrate the Feast if the Epiphany of Our Lord my thoughts take me to the short story by Henry van Dyke call The Other Wise Man. The premise of the story is that there were not three magi, from the east but four, the fourth one's name was Artaban. Artaban was late to the meeting place from which the magi were to start their journey of following the star, so he was 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 catch up, to meet the Christ. He wants to give him some rare stones, jewels, that he has brought along however Artaban is late for 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 and tired, and he has given all his precious stones away to help others. He is dejected because he now has nothing to give Jesus if he meets him. Artaban finally does meet Jesus as Jesus is carrying his Cross to Calvary. Jesus tells Artaban that he is thankful for his many gifts. Artaban doesn't understand because he thinks he has no gift to give. Jesus tells him that his life has been his gift. 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 always think of this story on the Epiphany, because I think 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 and does not give the gifts we have been entrusted with. We live in a world that often does not see the needs of others around us. We live in a world that often disrespects the gift of life. We live in 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 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! 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 continue our journey to find the Christ today, let's live our lives, let’s give our gifts! Happy Epiphany everyone and have a great Sunday! 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 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 Saturday everyone. Today’s Thoughts: Today we celebrate the Most Holy Name of Jesus and our scriptures, especially our Gospel, once again focus us on our relationship with Jesus. What might we take always from the celebration of this feast and our scriptures today?
For me the focus today is on the Name of Jesus. I have always found a name to be important. I am very proud to be named after my father and I think one of my sadness's of life is that I never had the chance to continue the tradition and name a son, Paul Raymond. I also struggle with names, especially remembering the names of people that I have met. I am in awe of people who can and do remember names. Names identify people, names honor people, names define people and place people in the context of history and life. I have always wondered why over the centuries Jesus' name became such a focal point of disrespect. Often when I lead young people in an examination of conscience before the Sacrament of Reconciliation, I will talk about how our words often hurt. I ask those present this, "How would we like it if every time something went wrong, every time someone got angry, every time someone expressed anger, they would use our name?" The answer is always a universal, "I would not like it at all!" Yet, isn't that what we do with Jesus, with God? Why is that? What causes us to say, "God dammit!" or "Jesus Christ!" with anger and disrespect? As I said yesterday if we know ourselves, we have a better chance of knowing God. If we respect ourselves, we have a much better chance of respecting God and others! I am sure all of us value our name. It is important to us to be respected for who we are. It is important for us to be known by our name. It is important for our name not to be disrespected. Likewise, it is important for God, for Jesus to be respected too! As we live this day let's make a conscious effort to honor, respect and cherish The Name of Jesus! When we use it let us use it to grace life with hope and love – not fill it with anger! Every morning and evening I begin prayer in the Passionist tradition by praying, "At the name of Jesus every knee must bend in heaven, on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father." It keeps me focused; perhaps it can for you too! Have a great Friday everyone. Today’s Thoughts: Our readings today focus on Christology; who Christ is for us. The saints we celebrate today St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory Nazianzen have a smile on their faces as they spent a lot of time talking, writing and defining Christology – the humanness of Christ and the divinity of Christ, or perhaps said differently the mystery of Christ. Who exactly is Christ in our life? How have we come to know him?
For me one of the interesting aspects of our readings is not so much the presentation of Christology, who Christ is but it is the reality of coming to know Christ for ourselves. John the Baptist shows us the way; to know Christ we need to know ourselves, know who we are and who we are not. John knows himself and in knowing who he is, he knows Christ. John the Evangelist in the first reading tells his community to remember who they are and in doing so they will remember and know Christ. It is an age-old process; it is the foundation of our journey of faith – to know ourselves is to know God! Perhaps in these early days of the New Year it might be good to pause and do a little self-reflection, not in a narcissistic way, but in an honest way. Who are we? What do we value? What do we believe? What are our struggles? What are our faults and failings? What are our joys and hopes? As we once again come to recognize and know ourselves, we will once again come to recognize and know our God! Have a great 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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