Today’s Thoughts: There is a quote from St. Bede the Venerable that goes like this, “Let us speak the truth in our hearts and not practice treachery with our tongues, so that by pouring forth charity more and more in our hearts, the Spirit of truth may teach us recognition of all truth.” In this day and age, I might add a little something to what St. Bede said, “…and not practice treachery with our tongues and our fingers!” It is not only the treachery of the spoken word today; it is also the treachery of the written word today. You find it on Twitter, Facebook and in all social media today.
It amazes me how negative, hurtful, bigoted and sinful we can be with the words we write about others. We call ourselves Christian yet the pictures we post, the cartoons and videos we send around, the ideas we put forth sometimes are anything but Christian. I guess it is easy to sit in our homes or offices or be walking down the street and attack a person, an organization, a political party, a public servant, someone in leadership. It is even easy for a president to do these things! The people attacked get no chance to defend themselves and our words don’t have to be true. From the comfort of our own electronic device we can post whatever we want and often there are no consequences to our actions whether we are right or wrong. Remember it is a free country and certainly free social media! In the readings from mass today we are reminded about the importance of truth. Jesus (John 15:26 – 16:4a) reminds us that he is sending us the truth through the Holy Spirit from the Father, not Fox News or MSNBC or any other news organization that we agree with. Truth is most often not found in the media sources of today’s world it is found in the hearts of people who journey through life as friends of God. Lydia, whom we meet in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 16:11-15) today, went to the river to pray and her life was changed through the preaching and the presence of Paul. Paul spoke the truth and Lydia allowed it to enter her heart. She came to believe. She invited the truth into her home and into her heart. We need to trust the Spirit in our life not 24-hour news. We need to speak truth about ourselves and others. We need to be friends of God who build up not tear down. There are always going to be those who bring deceitfulness to the living of life may we always be people who bring truth! A few years ago I was wondering through the social media, Twitter to be exact and I came upon two tweets from Fr. James Martin, S.J. that I wrote down and I think they speaks to our scriptures today. Fr. Martin was talking about Pope Francis’ visit to the Holy Land. “To those who doubted that Pope Francis could do anything valuable in the Holy Land, or could find grace among warring factions, I say...that you've forgotten about the Holy Spirit again. Nothing is impossible with God.” Have a blessed, holy, and healthy Monday everyone!
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Today’s Thoughts: In the Gospel Jesus tells us to love one another and in doing so he uses the example of his own love for us. He tells us that there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends and we are his friends. Yes, Jesus is talking to his disciples some 2,000 plus years ago but if we believe the scriptures are alive then Jesus is also talking to us.
There is a famous quote from Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ that I have always liked – “Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.” I believe that is what Jesus in getting at in our Gospel today. As we are told in John’s Gospel – God so loved the world that he gave us his only Son and all we have to do is believe. Well Jesus with his words today puts an exclamation point on God’s love for us. Our job, our task, our command is simply to follow the example of Christ as we grow and discover the fire and the energies of love in each other! Love is only realized, only understood in terms of action. Jesus so loved us that he gave his life for us. How we love determines the power and presence of God in our life. If we love God then we are called to live that love, we are called share it with one another. Jesus remind us todays to discover the fire of love in our lives and in the world and to turn over everything to God because God’s love for us is always enough. Sunday blessings to everyone! Today’s Thoughts: In some ways the image created by John in his Gospel today can be a bit confusing. In today’s Gospel Jesus talks about “the world.” He says. “If the world hates you, realize that it hates me first.” We might be led to believe by this statement that “the world” is bad, that there is nothing good about “the world.”
If we look at Jesus’ statements about “the world” in this section of John’s Gospel in this way then how do we reconcile this image of “the world” with Genesis 1:31, which tells us that God created our world good or John 3:16, which tells us that God so loved the world. “The world” that Jesus speaks about in the Gospel today are those people who have rejected Jesus. In Jesus’ time and in our time, there is good and bad in “the world,” there is life and death, there is blessing and curse, there is good and evil. There are some in “the world” who will and do hate us. Rejection of Jesus and his message is alive and well today. There are people who reject the Gospel, who reject Jesus, who reject faith. They are “the world” that Jesus warned us about. Just because it has been over 2,000 years since Jesus it does not mean that rejection and hate have gone away. It does not mean that we are immune from the hate and persecution that Jesus encountered. We might not have to carry a wooden cross through city streets and die on it, but we will be hated and persecuted because we believe. The question might be how do we deal with this? I think Pope Francis has given us a clue, he says that our “weapons” of self-defense are the Gospel, humility and meekness. In other words, we are not to be like those in “the world” who hate, persecute, those who sling mud, criticize and judge. We are to be people of the Gospel, people of compassion, forgiveness and love. We are to be Gospel people in humility and meekness. You might say these “weapons” go against every human instinct. When challenged, when persecuted our instinct is to strike back but that is not Jesus’ way and as people of faith it is not our way. If we truly know Jesus, if we truly believe then hate and persecution does not matter what does is bringing life to the presence of God through forgiveness, compassion and love! Have a blessed, holy, and healthy Saturday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: As I was reflecting on today’s Gospel these two thoughts came to mind.
The first was a quote that I have always liked from Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ. – “Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, [humankind] will have discovered fire.” And the second is a prayer written by St. Ignatius of Loyola, SJ. – “Take Lord, receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, all that I have and possess. You have given all to me. To you, O Lord, I return it. All is yours, dispose of it wholly according to your will. Give me only your love and your grace, for this is enough for me.” In the Gospel Jesus tells us to love one another and in doing so he uses the example of his own love for us. He tells us that there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends and we are his friends. Yes, Jesus is talking to his disciples some 2,000 plus years ago but if we believe the scriptures are alive then Jesus is also talking to us. As we are told in John’s Gospel – God so loved the world that he gave us his only Son and all we have to do is believe. Well Jesus with his words today puts an exclamation point on God’s love for us. Our job, our task, our command is simply to follow the example of Christ and to discover fire, to discover the energies of love in each other! Love is only realized, only understood in terms of action. Jesus so loved us that he gave his life for us. How we love determines the power and presence of God in our life. If we love God then we are called to live that love, we are called share it with one another. Jesus reminds us today to discover the fire of love in our lives and in the world and to turn over everything to God because God’s love for us is always enough. Have a blessed, holy, and healthy Friday everyone! 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 a number of 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 as hand washing before meals was a rule in my house too. However, to use the washing of dirty hands to address the complex struggles 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 simplistic. Equating the washing of dirty hands with some 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 have to 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 blessed, holy, and healthy Thursday! Today’s Thoughts: 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 the last six years!
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, a repeat of Sunday, 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, holy, and healthy 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 and pandemics. 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 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 I read three years ago about this time. It was 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, holy, and healthy Tuesday everyone. 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 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 human history and in doing so reveal 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, relationship can be difficult and demanding, relationship 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 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 so as 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: 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. 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 we 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! 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. As for our readings today, “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! Our journey through the Easter Season reminds us that the Risen Lord is always looking for us, always waiting to encounter us in our daily lives. We can be “minding our own business” but Jesus will often walk into our life and send us forth to proclaim the Good News! Have a blessed, holy, and healthy feast of St. Joseph the Worker Saturday 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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