Today’s Thoughts: In the Responsorial Psalm (Ps. 85: 8, 10, 11-12, 13-14) for today’s mass we are presented with the image of kindness and truth meeting and justice and peace kissing. We are presented with the kind of world, the kind of life that speaks only on god’s presence to us. We long for the world that the psalm presents to us, but we know that we are far from it because we often forget about God and go our own way, thinking that we know better. We often neglect the truth and aside kindness because if selfishness. However, if we work at putting God at the center of life the world the psalmist describes is possible.
Jesus names his twelve closest friends in the Gospel today (Mark 3:13-19). He goes us on top of the mountain and as Luke describes this theme, he prays first that then calls his friends together to embody his mission to the world. The image of a mountain throughout the Scripture is one of a sacred place of prayer and of God’s presence, where profound things happen. It is a place where covenants are handed on to the people through their leaders. The mountain is a place God acknowledges his beloved and where the Spirit empowers. In the Letter to the Hebrews, we hear of a new covenant that will replace the old covenant making it obsolete. These words that Hebrew’s quotes are from the Prophet Jeremiah, and this is the longest quotation of an Old Testament passage in the New Testament. Jeremiah is not saying that the Mosaic Covenant is obsolete, no longer. If he was the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah would not be part of the Hebrew Scriptures. Jeremiah is saying that something new is afoot. The covenant is not about an obsession with externals and legalistic conformity, it is about a new spirit. The spirit of loving God with our whole heart, soul and being, and making this love a part of the way we interact with others and live life. So, what is our challenge today? Perhaps it is to trust in the ongoing care and concern of God for us but also to know that through that love and care we are sent forth into the world to proclaim the Good News, Good News grounded in the mercy, love, presence, and spirit God. Today we are also asked pray for the dignity and gift of life especially for the unborn. If we want a new spirit of life especially for the unborn then we must also see all of life, every moment of life as important not just the life before birth. If we want to change the attitude of people about abortion, then we must create a world worth bringing life into. We must be committed to living a life where kindness and truth stand front and center with justice and peace! Have a blessed and holy Friday everyone!
0 Comments
Today’s Thoughts: Often over the years as I have had the opportunity to reflect on today’s readings I have thought of the Beatles song "A Day in the Life." This song was written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. While the Gospel and the song have nothing in common, I have always thought of the title in terms of what picture the Gospel and the selection from of the Letter to the Hebrews paint for us today, A Day in the Life of Jesus.
It is interesting, I have done a little research about the song, Lennon and McCartney wrote their sections of the song at different times, Lennon using accounts from the newspaper and McCartney using memories from his youth. The two sets of lyrics were then put together with orchestral glissandos. What does this have to do with the Gospel, well think about how the Gospels were put together? The days of Jesus' life, not a daily rendering but events tied together by the overarching story of his life. Today, we have a day in the life of Jesus, crowds coming from every corner of the world it seems, healing with every touch, demons proclaiming he is "the Son of God," people everywhere! No room, no time for himself, no space to breathe. When you think about it Jesus had a very difficult life long before he got to Calvary. He was always in demand. How did he do it? How did he balance his ministry and his need to just be, to pray, to connect with friends? How did he stay focused? Stay refreshed? Stay motivated? In the Letter to the Hebrews, we encounter the other half of what it means for Jesus to be the High Priest. As the week began, we were introduced to Jesus the human High Priest and today we are introduced to Jesus the Divine High Priest. It seems at every turn Jesus carries the burden of us. Our challenge today is in our humanness to work toward the promise of eternal life. Sometimes seeing a picture of a day in the life of Jesus can be inspiring, sometimes it can be troubling, sometimes it can be tiring, sometimes it can be overwhelming. What does today's picture of a day in the life of Jesus say to you? To me it says he loved us very much and my task is to reflect that love, to be that love as I live this day! Have a holy and blessed Thursday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: My thoughts today center around a single phrase in the Gospel, "Jesus looked around at them with anger and grieved at their hardness of heart..." (Mark 3:5) It is comforting to know that Jesus was angry and grieved from time to time. That he got frustrated with others, particularly others who should have known better. Today it is the religious leaders they don't seem to get it. They don’t apply common sense to their theology or religious traditions. Life, the quality of life, is much more important than rules and regulations.
Every day, we as people of faith are focused on life. It is profoundly important to us. It is a gift from God that we do not want to see abused, neglected, devalued, taken, lost or discarded. We pray for it; we walk in support of it. We cherish it in our own lives and families. Life is primary to what we believe. Yet, at times we get so focused on one aspect of life we miss many others. We miss many opportunities to honor it, acknowledge it, celebrate it and heal it because of rules and regulations! Jesus was always about life, honoring it, acknowledging it, celebrating it and certainly healing it. May we find a way like Jesus to turn anger into healing, to turn anger into life! Think life today and every day! Have a blessed, holy, and lifegiving Wednesday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: In reflecting on our readings today a few themes struck me about our faith. The first is continuity, the consistency of God. In the Letter to the Hebrews, we are reminded that God has made an oath with us, that he will be with us forever. This is a consistent theme throughout scripture. It is a ray of hope, God will not forget us, and God will not leave us. God will be with us always. We can count on it. We can take it to the bank. We might not understand why God continues to hang around with everything we seem to do to chase God away, but God will always be with us!
Another thought from the Letter to the Hebrews is that God is not only with us always but that “God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love you have demonstrated for his name by having served and continuing to serve the holy ones.” (Hebrew 6:10) In other words God does recognize all that we do day in and day out. All the things we think are ordinary, little, insignificant are profoundly important to God and our journey of faith! Another aspect of our readings today is that of change. If something is alive that means change. Jesus in the Gospel to the horror of the Pharisees indicates that things are not always going to remain the same. Change is in the air. The Sabbath was made for humankind, not humankind for the Sabbath. Jesus is asking people to look at their faith differently. The Sabbath came into being to help humankind take time to focus on God. But the Sabbath is not greater than the needs of people. In other words, the actions, the rituals, the customs, the reality of the Sabbath is not what is most important, it is people and their relationship with God. Sometimes I wish we would understand this about our own rituals and practices! Life means changes and as we go through life the things that connect us with God are going to change, take on different forms and different importance but God's commitment to us, God covenant with us will never change! Two of God's great gifts to us Life and Hope are always guiding us, always nourishing us. Have a blessed and holy Tuesday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: I read a short quote from Pope Francis a while back, “Sing to the Lord a new song. (Psalm 95:1) What is this new song? It does not consist of words, it is not a melody, it is the song of your life, it is allowing our life to be identified with that of Jesus, it is sharing his sentiments, his thoughts, his actions. And the life of Jesus is a life for others. It is a life of service.”
I thought of this quote from Pope Francis after sitting with the Gospel in prayer (Mark 2:18-22) in which Jesus says, “no one pours new wine into old wine skins…. Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.” So, if we are singing a new song it cannot be the same old life that sings. It has got to be a new life, a new way of looking at the world. It has got to be a new way of looking at ourselves and others. Often, we are afraid of new, afraid of change, afraid of difference yet Jesus, Pope Francis and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. tell us not to be afraid, but to pour, to sing and to dream new. Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day – Happy Monday – and Happy New Wine, New Song and New Dream – Everyone! Today’s Thoughts: Our readings today present us with two snapshots in our long story of faith. One is the emergence of the prophet Samuel and the other is the emergence of Jesus into his public ministry.
They seem like simple ordinary moments in life, perhaps Samuel’s encounter with God a bit more unusual but then all of us have had those moments when we are awakened during the night or from a nap and we are not sure if we have been dreaming, or someone in the house has called us or what that sound was that awakened us. However, Samuel’s encounter with God and Jesus’ encounter with Andrew and Philip are anything but simple and ordinary. They are extraordinary and profound! If I might stray from my thoughts for a moment and address an issue that has come up in our country recently. We might notice that in our reading from First Samuel by the end of the story it says that – “Samuel grew up and the Lord was with him, not permitting any word of his to be without effect.” Now, all words have an effect. Sometimes that effect is a good, lifegiving, hopeful, positive effect, other times the effect is not so good and every once in a while the effect of our words is profoundly negative. We have witnessed this last effect that I have mentioned often over the last five years but no more so than recently. When someone with great power, authority, leadership and influence used words as a match to light a fire that was very destructive to our country. We need to remember that words carry great power and as we learn today in our reading from First Samuel power for good because they flow, they have their origin in a relationship with God. As we learned recently words carry a very destructive power when God is left out of the equation. Our faith story calls us to a relationship with God that is based on respect for God, others and ourselves and one way we show, we live that respect is through the words we use. Perhaps, one challenge of our readings today is to ask ourselves the question from what power, what authority do we speak our words! Getting back to my original thoughts about our readings today in our Gospel we find a very simple encounter between, John the Baptist, two disciples, Andrew and Philip, and Jesus. I am told when people begin the study of biblical Greek, the first text from the Bible they read is usually the Gospel of John. The reason is that John’s Gospel is written in very simple Greek. And the sentences are simple and straightforward in structure. “What are you looking for?” “Where are you staying?” “Come and see.” What could be simpler, right? The exchange between Jesus and the two disciples is ordinary. So why did John included it — especially when these words are the first ones we hear Jesus speak in this his gospel. If we read this exchange again slowly we will hear not a simple conversation profound exchange. Because once we read the whole Gospel, we will come to realize that John’s simple language is much deeper than it sounds at first. “What are you looking for?” Is actually one of the deepest questions a person can ask another. To paraphrase, “What—really, down deep—are you seeking as you live your life? Power? Pleasure? Wealth? Relief from loneliness? Relief from pain, hunger? Knowledge? Truth? Love?” How do you answer this question right now? “Where are you staying?” This question is not the disciples asking Jesus his street address or his house number? The question that is really being asked, “Where do you come from, Master? What is the source of your life? Who — really, down deep — are you?” For the word translated “stay,” menein, means something deeper than what is your address. In the Gospel of John this word refers to a person’s source of being and ultimate purpose. Jesus’ response, “Come and see,” really means when you know the whole story, “Follow me as a committed disciple and you will come to really see (understand and believe) in a whole new way.” As we begin this ordinary time at the beginning of a new calendar year it is a great time, to pick up the Gospel of John and come and see who Jesus is and from where he derives his existence. It really will be an awakening, a way of seeing that leads to a whole new way to journey through this life in faith. Why not try it? Have a blessed and holy Sunday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: Today, we finish our journey through the first week in Ordinary Time. In the Gospel, Jesus walks along and sees another person who might make a difference at one of his disciples - a tax collector – perhaps the least likely candidate to be a disciple according to attitudes of the time. Jesus sees in Levi the very follower he needs and asks him to drop what he is doing and come follow. Can you imagine Levi looking into Jesus’ face with astonishment and saying, “Who me?” Why is this Jewish man speaking to me in such a nice, invitational way? Levi must have seen something in Jesus’ look that caused him to change his entire life. Did his heart skip a beat for a moment? Did Levi realize that all his hopes and dreams were somehow met in this encounter with Jesus? Well, in all honesty, we just don’t know, but we can imagine. Most of us have come to moments in our lives when we experienced a crossroads. The proverbial fork in the road – did the path we took make all the difference like it did for Levi?
In life it seems that if we believe in God at all, it is hard for us to believe that God is profoundly interested in our ordinary activities; profoundly interested in a young man making his living by extorting money from his neighbors who pay taxes. Is it possible that God is profoundly interested in what we are doing today? In what we are doing at our computer? In what we could be doing for the Kingdom today? Is it possible that God is inviting, calling, cajoling us to come join the journey? It is not only possible - it is the promise and fulfillment of all that is important about being human. Levi can help us see that as ordinary as we might be, God has great things in mind for us. Things far more important than any petty pursuit of our own. Let’s go – it is a new year and a new opportunity to become what we have been created and called to be. Have a holy and blessed Saturday everyone. Today’s Thoughts: I have always liked the story in today's Gospel and the reason is because it is not just one person's faith at work. The story says, "When Jesus saw their faith...." It was the faith of the group of friends, of the community, that makes all the difference. It was the hard work and faith of the friends of the paralytic. It was the faith of the man, himself, that probably motivated his friends. All of them worked together so that this healing moment was possible.
I often refer to the parishes I go to or the people who make one of my retreats as a community of faith and I truly believe that they are. I am always happy to be in their presence because I believe there is a great power in a community gathered together for a Sunday mass, a daily mass, a prayer service, a parish mission or a retreat. I believe that it takes a community of faith to get us through life. Sure, we need our personal faith. Sure, we need a personal relationship with God, but we also need a community because as good as we might be there are times when we cannot do it alone. We need people to pick us up, to carry us. We need people to help us find a way in, to find a way to God. We need people who believe in us and in the journey, we are on. We need people who know God just as we do. Jesus affirms the small community of faithful friends in the Gospel today. They make it possible for their friend to be healed and to be forgiven. What great friends the paralytic man had, do we have friends like him? Are we faith filled friends willing to pick a friend up and make sure they can get to God? Have a joyful and faith filled Friday everyone. Today’s Thoughts: My thoughts today are similar to those I shared with you last Friday when we had the same Gospel story about Jesus’ encounter with a person with leprosy. Last week we had Luke’s version of the story and today we have Mark’s (Mark 1: 40-45). In each version Jesus encounters a person with leprosy and the following exchange takes place. "If you wish, you can make me clean. Jesus was moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched the leper and said to him, I do will it. Be made clean. And the leprosy left him immediately."
I think the key elements of this story are Jesus’ intense feelings, the person's faith in Jesus and the willingness of Jesus to heal and to touch. Maybe the most important elements are Jesus’ feelings and his touch, his willingness to be connected with someone who is unclean by the standards of culture, society and religion. As the story unfolds Jesus is moved with pity. Now sometimes we think of pity in a negative way but in our story today this translation “moved with pity” does not really do Jesus’ feelings justice. Jesus feels compassion for this person down deep in his gut and it moves him to action. It moves him to do something beyond what most people would do. It moves Jesus to touch the person even though his is unclean in order to share God’s mercy. 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. Jesus reaches 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 he was willing to step across a boundary to make sure that it happens. Are we? Perhaps 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! Give a little time to God today – say a prayer – talk with God. Have a holy and blessed Thursday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: My thought for today is drawn from today’s readings, (Gospel Mark 1: 29-39), our constant need for healing. Healing and casting out demons seem to be the work of the day for Jesus. I was thinking of another line in the Gospel as I read today’s passage during my prayer time this morning. The line I thought of was, "The poor you will always have with you" (Matthew 26:11 and Mark 14:7). I thought Jesus could have easily said, "The sick and demons you will always have with you!"
There is always healing that needs to be done, people struggling physically, emotionally and spiritually. Sometimes when I am daydreaming, I wish Jesus would walk into our midst and begin to heal or that he would give me the temporary power to heal because there are so many people who could use it! And demons, they seem to be everywhere these days, if only Jesus were here to cast them out what a different place the world could be. It amazes me that the demons always seem to know Jesus and yet often the people in his presence don't. Yet, there is another Gospel passage that also comes to mind, "Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his [or her] heart, but believes that what he [or she] says is going to happen, it will be granted him [or her]." (Mark 11:23) In other words the power to heal and cast out demons is within our grasp we just need to believe and not doubt. Perhaps, all we need to do is have faith and remember as we go through this day, “the force," the power, the presence of Jesus is with us to heal and to cast out demons, our job is to believe! 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
May 2023
Categories |