Today’s Thoughts: “To be evangelizers of souls, we need to develop a spiritual taste for being close to people’s lives and to discover that this is itself a source of greater joy. Mission is at once a passion for Jesus and a passion for his people. When we stand before Jesus crucified, we see the depth of his love which exalts and sustains us, but at the same time, unless we are blind, we begin to realize that Jesus’ gaze, burning with love, expands to embrace all his people. We realize once more that he wants to make use of us to draw closer to his beloved people. He takes us from the midst of his people and he sends us to his people; without this sense of belonging we cannot understand our deepest identity.” (Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium: The Joy of the Gospel)
Pope Francis’ words remind us today of what the Cross is all about. He asks us to stand before the Cross of Christ today. He asks us to see and feel the depth of God’s love, of Jesus’ love for us. We are reminded that Christ’s love cannot remain just within us but that it is to be shared! As I reflected on John’s Passion (John 18: 1-19:42) and the other readings (Isaiah 52: 13- 53:12; Hebrews 4:14-16; 5: 7-9;) that we encounter in today’s liturgy I began to think about the image of gesture that Pope Francis used in his Holy Thursday homily a few years ago. He said the Last Supper reading provide us with two gestures. Jesus’ gesture of love and service and Judas’ gesture hate. What gestures do we find being played out as we listen to St. John’s Passion today? The gesture of love or the gesture of hate. The gesture of mercy or the gesture of violence. The gesture of compassion or the gesture of indifference. What gesture do we see and live when we gaze into the eyes of Jesus on Good Friday? The words of Pope Francis that I began with remind me of why I am a Passionist. Each day as I arise I try to stand before the Cross of Christ and I look through the lens of his Passion to see his burning love. Each time I put on my habit and attach the simple sign that only Passionists wear I am reminded that Christ’s great love must be in my heart. Each time I wander into a new day I am reminded because of that sign over my heart that I am to bring Christ unrelenting love to every person that I meet. Because I am a Passionist and a man of faith I am connected to Christ’s Passion story. I think we all need to find our own way of connecting to the Passion story. We have to find our own way to understand, to feel, the mystery of Jesus' Passion. We have to make the connection with the characters of the story and with Jesus. We might not understand but we need to make the connection, we need to feel the story. We need to find our own liturgy sometimes. At this point in life as I pause to keep Good Friday holy I am truly blessed and honored to be a Passionist and a priest. Often in the past, I have been privileged to lead a community in the liturgy of the Lord's Passion. I have had the honor of preaching, of sharing the Good News on this day. I have been given the opportunity to help others look through the lens of the Passion of Jesus Christ. This year I can only do this with these words on my web site. My friends in faith, however you remember the Lord's Passion of this Good Friday my prayer for you is that the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ will always be in your heart! Good Friday peace and blessings to all! I hope you will at least take a little time to sit before the Cross of Christ today, and remember God’s great love for you!
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Today’s Thoughts: In his Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis writes, “If we are to share our lives with others and generously give of ourselves, we also have to realize that every person is worthy of our giving. Not for their physical appearance, their abilities, their language, their way of thinking, or for any satisfaction that we might receive, but rather because they are God’s handiwork, his creation. God created that person in his image, and he or she reflects something of God’s glory. Every human being is the object of God’s infinite tenderness, and he himself is present in their lives. Jesus offered his precious blood on the cross for that person. Appearances notwithstanding, every person is immensely holy and deserves our love. Consequently, if I can help at least one person to have a better life, that already justifies the offering of my life. It is a wonderful thing to be God’s faithful people. We achieve fulfilment when we break down walls and our heart is filled with faces and names!”
These words of Pope Francis reflect the spirit of this most holy day that we celebrate. Yes, Holy Thursday is about the institution of the Eucharist. Yes, Holy Thursday is a special day for priests as we look to this day as a starting point for our life and ministry as priests. Yes, Holy Thursday is a day when we remember the beginning of Christ Passion which will lead to his Death and Resurrection. Yes, Holy Thursday is about a meal, Christ’s last meal and a meal that calls us to remember the history of our faith as God’s people released from slavery and beginning a journey to freedom. Today, from my perspective is also about service, about looking beyond ourselves to the gift of God within us and sharing that gift. Pope Francis reminds us that all of us are God’s handiwork. All of us reflect the glory of God. It was on this day that Jesus showed his infinite tenderness by washing the feet of his friends and by sharing himself in the Eucharist. It was intimacy, tenderness and a gift that defined Jesus life and ministry. As Pope Francis reminds us, it is this very way of life that Jesus calls us to as people of the Gospel. While this is no ordinary Holy Thursday and the great liturgy will only be available to most of us on TV or the internet I pray that this Holy Thursday nay truly help us to break down the walls and open our hearts that they may be filled with face and names! Have a blessed, holy, safe and healthy Holy Thursday everyone and please give a little time to God before the day is over! Today’s Thoughts: Spy Wednesday, (Isaiah 50: 4-9a and Matthew 26: 14-25), the day when we pause to remember Judas’ actions many years ago. A companion, a friend of Jesus yet he allows the forces of darkness, the forces of evil to become more a friend than Jesus.
We do not truly know what motivated Judas. Was it his desire for money? Was it that he truly thought he would scare Jesus into changing his approach to life? Was it that he saw Jesus as a threat? Was it that he was angry with Jesus? Had he been caught stealing money? Was he upset that Jesus challenged him at Lazarus’ house? We just don’t know the motive. What we do know is the Judas sold Jesus out to the religious leadership of his time. What we do know is that Judas could not admit to Jesus what he was about to do. He could not tell the truth and that until the end he continued to see himself as Jesus’ friend. The Prophet Isaiah today reminds himself of who his friend truly is, God. That no matter what happens God is there to protect Isaiah in his ministry as prophet. It is not easy, but Isaiah is faithful to his ministry and God is faithful to Isaiah, helping him through the struggles. We encounter Isaiah’s words and in them we see Jesus. We listen to Isaiah’s words and hear Jesus speaking. Jesus is the servant who suffers, the servant who trusts in God, the servant who is abandoned by everyone except by God. The questions for today – Are we with God or against God? Can we remain friends of Jesus or will the trappings of the world, will anger and hate, will the uncertainly of the times, will the fear of the unknown, cause us to betray him once again? Can we trust in God even in the midst of our struggles, the world’s struggles? It is often said that every person has her or his price, what is our price? Blessings and peace to all on this Wednesday of Holy Week! Today’s Thoughts: Troublemakers and troubleshooters are two very different types of people. Troublemakers are those people who create anxiety, frustration, agitation and cause calamity, i.e. there are a host of people we can call troublemakers these days in culture and society, outside religion and inside religion, outside the Church and inside the Church. Troubleshooters are those people who have the ability to identify, locate and eliminate the source of the disturbance. Unfortunately, not many of these today! In today’s Gospel (John 13: 21-33, 36-38) Judas is a troublemaker and Jesus is a troubleshooter.
In the Gospel we are told that Jesus is deeply troubled and as we read on and picturing the scene we quickly understand why. The scene today is the Last Supper and Jesus is aware of the events ahead of him. He knows that Judas will betray him and in the midst of the supper Jesus sends him on his way. We all know what it feels like to lose a friend. We invest time, effort, our emotions and feelings only to have the person move on, decide that we are not worth the time, effort and trouble. Jesus has given three years to Judas, but Judas needs to move on. Jesus has given three years to all of his disciples, yet he knows they will all run away before the night is over. One of his closest friends, Peter, will deny that he knows Jesus even though we listen to his bold statement of loyalty in the Gospel. Yes, it is a troubling time for Jesus. However, unlike the troublemaker Judas, Jesus does not run away. He identifies the problem, the struggle, the difficulty. Jesus realizes that humankind has “fallen from love.” That is our original sin; we have fallen from God’s love. Jesus the troubleshooter is going to restore the gift of that love by his journey to the cross the empty tomb. Jesus set us free to embrace the mystery of God’s love. It is up to us to turn away from sin but through the action of Jesus, the troubleshooter, we are given the chance to once again “fall in love with God!” As we journey through this day let us remember what Jesus has done for us. Let us look at the cross and “fall in love once again!” Have a blessed, holy, safe and healthy Holy Tuesday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: As we begin this most Holy of Weeks our readings (Isaiah 42:1-7 and John 12: 1-11) remind us of the good of this week and the bad. We are reminded of the compassion and love of Jesus. We are reminded of the caring and friendship of Martha, Mary and Lazarus. We are reminded of the impact that Jesus had on peoples' lives. We are reminded how Judas lost his focus and turned away from Jesus.
These early days of Holy Week set the scene, the characters and the focus for the Triduum. They give us the background of the story that will lead us to Calvary and the empty tomb. They remind us of how easy it is to get lost in the trappings of the world. They remind us how easy it is to be distracted by the things of the world and to not recognize the presence of God. They remind us of how hard it is to be faithful people. The scene today also reminds of the fact the Jesus is willing to accept extravagance when it is done in love. Jesus appreciates the extravagance of Mary's true love because Jesus and the Father are always about offering true love, the true love of the Cross which we will celebrate later this week. What extravagant gesture of love can we offer someone this week? How can we make God's presence known and felt in our world this week? Remember God never turns away from a humble and contrite heart. Let us not be like Judas, someone who cannot grasp the love and support of God, rather let us be like Martha, Mary and Lazarus people who are friends of God! Have a blessed, holy, safe and healthy Monday of Holy Week everyone! Today’s Thoughts - Palm Sunday
In my homily today on television and the internet I reflected on a line in Matthew’s Passion that I never remember hearing or reading before. As I was preparing my homily many, many weeks ago I was reading Matthew’s Passion once again and when I came to this line, “But Mary Magdalene and the other Mary remained sitting there, facing the tomb,” (Mathew 27:61) I stopped reading and went back and read the line again. I could never remember reading or hearing that line in Matthew’s Passion or any of the Passions for that matter. I could not get that line out of my mind. If you watched the Passionist TV mass today you know that I went on to preach a little about that line. But certainly, many weeks later it has a little different meaning to me today given the events of our world and these unusual and difficult times. Perhaps in a way this one line in Matthew’s Passion, “But Mary Magdalene and the other Mary remained sitting there, facing the tomb,” has more meaning for us today then it did many weeks ago. In a way we are all Mary Magdalene and the other Mary today. We might not be sitting looking at the tomb, but we are sitting in front of our TV sets, computers, smartphone and wondering, waiting, hoping that life will change. That things will begin to get better. That life will return to normal. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary probably had many unanswered questions about the time they were in. Life has just changed drastically for them. They had lost a very important, special person in their lives. What was going to happen without Jesus? What would tomorrow bring? How were they going to continue to live on? Or maybe, they both had great faith. Perhaps they trusted in the words of Jesus that he would rise on the third day and they were just going to sit there and wait. My guess their feelings and thoughts were somewhere in between. They believe but they were still a little unsure, concerned, hopeful but cautious, faithful but full of questions and a few doubts. Perhaps just the way we feel these days. Yes, I believe we are just like the Mary Magdalene and the other Mary these unusual and difficult days. Faithful, hopeful but uncertain and with a few doubts about the future. Perhaps given the unusual circumstances of our times we have the opportunity like Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to sit and look at the tomb that life presents to us these days. We have to opportunity to question, to wonder, to doubt, to hope and to have faith in what lies ahead. Today, ss we begin this most holy of weeks, yes, we are reminded of Jesus’ triumphant entrance into Jerusalem of a wonderful, “Hosanna” filled day, which becomes the starting point for the central story of all the Gospels, Jesus’ Passion, Death and Resurrection. Today, we reconnect ourselves to all those first gatherings of the Church as we listen to Matthew’s accounts of Palm Sunday and the Passion of our Lord. We remember the triumphant ride over the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem and the lonely walk to Calvary. We once again tell the story of triumphant, glory, hosanna, struggle, pain, sorrow, blessing, truth, giftedness, prayer and most importantly love. Like the early Church and all the centuries of Church that have gone before us, we are asked to remember, to believe, to have faith and to hope in the love of God as lived out by our Lord Jesus Christ. As we journey through this Holy Week, as hopefully we take the time to sit and look at the tomb that we will let “The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ Truly Be Always in Our Hearts!” Have a blessed, holy, safe and healthy Palm Sunday today! Today’s Thoughts: The stage is set today for Holy Week. All the characters are taking their places for the drama that will unfold throughout the coming week. The religious leadership has made its choice. They are afraid of Jesus; their comfortable life has been disturbed. Caiaphas has given the justification for the rest of their actions. He has put their social problems squarely on the shoulders of Jesus. He has put their leadership problems squarely on the shoulders of Jesus. He has put their fear and faithlessness squarely on the shoulders of Jesus.
With today’s Gospel (John 11: 45-56) we have a clear understanding of why all that we are about to reflect upon as we go through Holy Week has taken place. In many ways the ideal kingdom that Ezekiel (Ezekiel 37: 21-28) images in the first reading for today has not come about. There still is not just one God, one land, one people and one everlasting covenant of peace. We humans get in the way. We often fail to recognize God in our midst. We struggle to trust God’s presence in our life. We find it difficult to believe, to stake our lives on the promises of God. We are always looking for someone to blame, someone to sacrifice in the hope that things will get better. As we prepare to begin this most holy of weeks let us take the time, not to plot against God, but to hear God’s word. Let us take the time to have faith in our relationship with God, to be people of faith on the journey, to be hopeful in the promises of God and to allow the love of God to embrace us and live within us as we journey through life! Saturday blessings to everyone, be safe, well and healthy today! Today’s Thoughts: Both Jesus and Jeremiah find themselves in difficult situations today. For Jeremiah it is the reality of being a prophet, the people do not like what God is calling them to and so they are going to take it out on the messenger, the prophet. For Jesus it is the reality that people just will not accept him. He has done many good things, but people focus in on what they see as a problem, they look passed all the good, they only see the negative.
Isn’t that often the case, wonderful things can be happening, yet people only focus on the negative. Whether we are talking about faith, church, religion, culture or society there can be many signs of hope, many actions that are good yet for some reason what is wrong, the negative, becomes the focus. We tend to look for what is wrong with a person, an experience or situation rather than what is right and good. At times it seems like we can make every positive story, situation, experience or person into a negative just give us time. How can we overcome this? How can we be a positive life-giving person today? How can we find the good and the hope in life? Well I think Jeremiah and Jesus give us the answer. Jeremiah in the midst of his struggle says, “But the Lord is with me….” Yes, life isn’t exactly the best at this moment, things are not going so well, but God is with me! Jeremiah turns a negative into a positive. Jeremiah finds hope in a struggling moment. Jesus reminds the crowd to look for and believe in good works. In other words, find the goodness in the actions and works of yourself and others. Find what is right with the world, not what is wrong! This is certainly a different way to live life and living this way will be challenged every day. The media and I realize that it is not just the media or all the media’s fault, but with its twenty-four hour a day focus, its need to create news, it has helped us to constantly look for the negative. Let’s face it we like negative, we like seeing people’s faults and failings, negative stories sell. The stories that most often seem to capture the attention of the viewers are those that focus of the negatives of life. We search and hunt for all that is wrong. We seem to take delight in pointing the finger, in bringing a person down rather than finding the good and building up. Perhaps our challenge today and during these difficult times is to look for the good work in ourselves and others and to believe that God is always with us! Have a blessed, holy, safe and healthy Friday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: In, Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis writes, “I never tire of repeating those words of Benedict XVI which take us to the very heart of the Gospel: “Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.
Thanks solely to this encounter – or renewed encounter – with God’s love, which blossoms into an enriching friendship, we are liberated from our narrowness and self-absorption. We become fully human when we become more than human, when we let God bring us beyond ourselves in order to attain the fullest truth of our being.” These words from Pope Francis and Pope Benedict today touch on the theme of our scriptures. Who are we? What are we about? Seems to be the question asked in our readings (Genesis 17: 3-9 and John 8: 51-59). Abram is to become the father of a host of nations; his name is even changed from Abram to Abraham. He is redefined as a person because of his personal encounter with God. Abraham is now a friend of God. Jesus does not make himself out to be just anybody; Jesus is “I AM” and if we believe we have the gift of eternal life. It is a hard pill for the religious leadership to swallow. Jesus is not able to break through their stony hearts with this personal encounter, in fact they pick up stones to do away with him. They cannot be liberated from their narrowness or self-absorption. Perhaps our challenge today is to renew ourselves in light of our personal encounter with Christ, to have faith in the covenant, to believe in Jesus as “I AM,” to trust in our friendship with God. We are challenged today to let God bring us beyond ourselves to attain the fullest truth of who we are so that we can live this day as God’s joy filled friends who share our joy with everyone we meet! Have a blessed, holy and healthy Thursday everyone. Today’s Thoughts: “If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” Simple words of Jesus in today Gospel (John 8: 31-42) if only we could follow them. Sometimes the truth is the last thing we choose to speak. We think it complicates life. We think it causes more problems. We think it often hurts more than it helps. We think it should only be used as a last resort only when there are no other options. The truth seems anything but free at times to us!
Yet throughout his life and ministry Jesus only spoke the truth and every time we walk into a church or a Catholic home and see a crucifix on the wall we are reminded of where the truth got Jesus. We are reminded of the price he paid for coming into this world to speak the truth. We are reminded just how much God loves us. Perhaps a different way of thinking about Jesus’ words in the Gospel today is that the truth has set us free. If only we would embrace it. If only we would follow the example of the three young men in Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace (Daniel 3:14-20, 91-92, 95). If only we would realize the freedom that living by the truth means for our lives, the gift that it can be to ourselves and the world and the hope that it brings to life. May we have the courage to speak and live the truth like the three young men and may the truth truly set us free to be the people God has created us to be! Have a blessed. holy, safe and healthy Wednesday. |
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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